Happy Fall!

Good Saturday morning everyone!  I hope everyone has had a nice relaxing week of work and are ready to have a great weekend.

The kids have had Thursday and Friday off of school so it's thrown Logan's schedule off just a wee bit.  Truly it doesn't matter all that much in the grand scheme of things.  He lets me know when he's ready to get work done so it's all good.  It didn't help that we left his DVD player plugged in Thursday night and first thing yesterday he was watching a movie.  You can't get him to do much when he has the chance to control the DVD/TV. lol   I remembered to unplug it last night so we should be starting some school work momentarily, which is why I'm taking these few minutes to write something.

I've spent the past week doing the normal cleaning, laundry, schooling and added getting his school work ready for October.  I'm still working on the laminating and cutting and hopefully will be done by this afternoon.  I've also been making myself spend about 45 minutes each morning stitching whatever I happen to pick up.  Currently, I'm busy stitching the kids a halloween ornament.  Since I let them each pick out one that they wanted me to make for them last year I thought we'd make it a yearly tradition.  By the time they move out they will have enough ornaments for  a small halloween tree for their own appartment/house. 

I finished my LHN Little House Neighborhood and I had to laugh at myself.  I don't know what I was doing or thinking when I started it over a year ago but it's clear I wasn't thinking straight.  I had to skip doing the border and the bottom part as I had a brain fart and didn't calculate the amount of fabric needed.  I realized what I had done by the time I was finished with the first house but since I had spent so much time stitching it I went ahead and finished.  It still looks good but I may end up stitching it again in a couple of years but this time, I will be sure to calculate the fabric better. LOL

I have about a half hour, if I'm lucky, before Logan will want to start working so I think I will put some more stitches in his ornament.  I will try to get some pictures of the ornaments I have finished so far and one of the LHN piece for the next post.  Until then, have a wonderful fall weekend no matter where you are located.  Our fall weather won't hit for another month or two.  We had temps in the upper 80's, low 90's yesterday so if you are feeling nice, please send some crisp air our way. lol

Have a great weekend!

Long time, no see!

Hello there everyone!

Lots has been going on in our house in the last couple of months and I can't believe that I haven't updated this blog in forever and a day!

First, and the biggest distraction is that I'm now homeschooling my oldest son Logan.  A little background for you.  Last year in the middle of the year, they changed his teacher and classroom.  Major behavior issues came about and six months later we were still trying to get him calm.  Summer school helped get his behaviors down to a dull roar but that's only because he didn't learn anything other than how to calm down.  Skip to this school year, they started him in his original classroom from last year with the teacher we absolutely love and he does too.  She's the only one, along with her paraprofessional who can handle him.  Almost two weeks into the year, the new principal sends a letter home stating that Logan would be moved to a new classroom to accomodate the inceasing class sizes.

I tried to explain to the new principal about the behavior issues from last year but it fell on deaf ears.  It's kind of funny but the first week of school I had told my hubby that if they even thought about moving Logan this year that I wasn't going to even mess with it, I was just going to homeschool him.  I never in my wildest imagination thought it would happen and happen so quickly.  Since the new principal didn't even want to hear why the move would be very bad for Logan and anyone else in his class, I told him that evening that I would be homeschooling him from that point forward.

I had to uproot my two youngest since that school is not our zoned school.  This year they have a school uniform.  Thankfully, it's not as cut and dried as a private school.  The school disctrict has three colors and each individual school has two additional colors for students/parents to choose what they want for the shirts.  Of course, I had gone the easy route, or so I thought at the time by just getting the school approved color.  Once the change took place, I had to scramble to find the county wide colors since the new school colors couldn't be found anywhere two weeks into the school year.  I actually had to order from Walmart online as no one in our area had any of the colors left!  Oy!

The really good thing to come out of all this upheaval is that Logan ABSOLUTELY loves being home with me!!!  For the most part, he loves doing his work and it takes us less than half the time it does in a regular classroom to get it all done.  Obviously it's because there are no outside distractions for him and he's learning one-on-one with me.  The other kids love riding the bus and getting to know everyone that lives on the other end of our street that we never got to meet before because of the different schools.

I, on the other hand, have no free time anymore but I do steal ten minutes here and there and put a few stitches in my projects when I can.  Once our schedule gets on a more even keel, I'm sure I'll get back to more stitching and maybe even blogging again!

I hope everyone has had a wonderful summer and are enjoying the beginning of the beautiful fall weather.  I will be back when I can and I hope to be able to at least read a blog or two when I have my morning coffee. :)

I hope you are all enjoying your stitching and I look forward to seeing lots of progress pics of it all.

 I'd better get to it, the boy is chomping at the bit to start his work.  I'm loving this!!!

Tag!

Thursday, 28 June 2012

Tag I'm IT

I have been Tagged by Colin : Hope you're feeling better and home from the hospital!!

The rules are:

1. Post the rules

2. Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post

3. Come up with 11 new questions

4. Tag 11 people and link to them in your post

5. Let them know you tagged them so they can answer the new questions

Here are the questions he wants me to answer:

1. What is Your Favorite Board Game?  Clue
2. If had a choice what Animal would you like to be? Cat
3. Title and author of book your Reading Right now? Band of Brothers by Stephen E Ambrose
4. What was the last movie you watched?  Captain America 
5. Who was the last person you talked to in person? Marie
6. Which shoe do you put on first? Right
7. When is the last time you played the air guitar? Never, but air drums was just yesterday
8. List three of your bad habits? spotty exercise routine and drink lots of coffee
9. What last Song you listened to and who was it by? I Gotta Feeling by the Black Eyed Peas
10. What did you have for breakfast yesterday? Bagel
11. Have you ever had to use a fire extinguisher for its intended use? Nope but came close a couple of times thanks to the kids! ;)

People I've tagged:

I've only found three (so far that haven't already been tagged)

Lana

Mel

Mylene

Here are my 11 questions:

1.  What is your favorite television show?
2.  What was your favorite band when you were a teenager?
3.  Have you ever been in a hurricane?
4.  Have you ever played in the pouring rain?
5.  What is your favorite pro team?  (hockey, baseball, football, soccer etc)
6.  Have you ever traveled to France to watch the Tour de France?
7.  Have you ever taken dance lessons?
8.  Have you ever totally gotten into a song (singing and dancing in your seat) while sitting at a traffic light?
9.  What is your favorite alcoholic drink?
10.  What was your favorite thing to do on summer vacation when you were a kid?
11.  Do you have a book that you read over and over and will do so again?  If so, what book?

Liebster Award

The origins of the Liebster Blog award are somewhat unclear but the general consensus is that it originated in Germany, "Liebster" meaning favorite or dearest, to showcase bloggers with fewer than 200 followers. Upon accepting the award the recipient must then pass it on to five more blogs of note.

Here are the guidelines:

Thank the person who gave me the award and link back to her blog.

I actually received this award twice.  Thank you to Shelleen and Malinda for thinking of me!!

Post the award on my blog.

Pass the blog award to five other bloggers.

List the bloggers to whom I have passed the Liebster award and let them know by commenting on their blogs.

1. Milly

2. Annette

3. Bekca

4. Cheryl - please send out good thoughts/prayers for her little boy.  He had a rough week or so in the hospital.

5.  Lei

Share five random facts about myself that people do not know about me:

 I love to bake...and not from a box.

I hate clutter!

I have a two brothers that I haven't met yet.

I love to read.

I can't swim for crap but I love going to the beach!

Sorry it has taken so long to publically thank you for the award ladies!!

TUSAL - April ORT Report

Here is the April ORT Report.  I really did do some stitching....several smalls were completed but you sure can't tell by my ORT vase can you??!!  Somehow my pencil ended up in there and I didn't catch it until I had already taken the picture twice.  I think I'll leave it there so we can see if I add anything to the vase for the May report. lol

Here are three of my little angels playing something in the playroom.  It's very rare that Logan will join in so I just had to grab a shot of them.  I'm not sure what Marie was up to during this photo op but I'm sure it was not good. ;)

Need to throw laundry in and then I will be back to do the posting for the awards I received.  I promise to be right back....give me ten mins to get all the laundry in the washer though. lol



April showers bring May flowers....

or so they say.  I don't believe we've had any rain since March.  It's going to be another lovely spring/summer with the fire index up in the danger zone again.  What makes it even worse is all the pollen that just won't go away.  Every time I think I've kicked the cold, my allergies come back and irritate the crap out of my lungs and it seems like I'm never going to get well.  It would be tollerable if I could stand having my glasses on my face. lol  At least then I could sit down to stitch for longer periods of time.

I've been doing some stitching but nothing on my big projects.  I decided to do some spring smalls and want to make them into ornaments for my season tree.  I've got a few more to stitch, then finish them all and put them on my tree.  My tree is actually a coffee cup tree that I no longer use since I got my single cup maker.  I will post a picture when all is done.  Hopefully by the May Ort Report.

I've gotten a couple of awards that I will get posted, hopefully by the weekend.  Right now I'm just trying to get through the week's laundry and cleaning.  lol  Hope everyone has a great week!

TUSAL time again

Here is my March ORT report.  I'll be honest, most of these are my daughter's bracelet castoffs.  It seems that my orts don't always make it to the jar.  I included the lovely picture of my oldest boy so you could see who steals most of my orts. lol  He either throws them on the floor or will use them for dental floss. lol 

I did do a lot of stitching these past couple of weeks on both my Toy Box from HAED and on the Winter part of the Four Season Sampler from JCS.  I'm really enjoying the HAED project and can't wait to get some stitching time in today.  Think I will do that rather than do any cleaning.  I can stitch and do laundry so that is my objective for the day.  Get caught up on the laundry and get some much needed stitching time. 

Last day on a great giveaway!!!

Check out Jennifer's blog for a chance for a beautiful pair of Gingher design 4 inch scissors.  It's the post right after A day for Yummies.  (Me being me, did a double take on that title, thinking this is the post for me....I thought it said "A day for Dummies"  No I had not ingested my first cup of coffee and yes I did indeed have my glasses on.  I think I need my eyes checked again.ROFLMBO)

Progress!

Winter part of the Four Season Band Sampler from JCS.

I actually had some free time to stitch this weekend!!  Of course, my ORTS keep disappearing and they never seem to  make it into my vase. lol  I started throwing them into my stitching bag and will dig them out before the next report is due.  I did take some thread remnants from my daughter's room.  She likes to make bracelets for her friends and she leaves the excess thread all over the house.  lol

It's been a crazy CRAZY couple of weeks but I see light at the end of the tunnel.  Logan has been having lots of behavior issues as of late.  He had limited his rage outbursts to home and me but that has changed and he's now displaying this rage at school.  It has gotten so bad that I've had to call the Agency for Person's with Disabilities for help.  Thankfully they are really good and I am working with a behavior specialist to try to find out exactly what is setting him off.  I've starting documenting every outburst and what is happening right before, the outburst itself and the consequence for his behavior.  It's amazing to see how much and the times of day that the behavior happens.  Hopefully by this time next week, we can narrow down the occurances to get a behavior plan in place.  I have to say it's been a very exhausting couple of months but I finally feel like I'm getting some help and don't feel so totally helpless. 

I know that I can't deal with it by myself all the time and need to take a break when I can.  Thankfully, my hubby has been great about dealing with him when I've reached my limit.  The two of us work really great together on everything.  He even volunteered to go get the kids on Thursday so that I could have that hour of total relaxation and silence.  I read for a little bit and then just sat enjoying the silence.  I thought about doing some cleaning but then decided I needed some me time which is what he had in mind when he volunteered. lol

It's Monday, their was a sub in Logan's class today so I ran for the hills so I could do the shopping and come home to clean and do the mopping.  One day a week my house looks and smells great.....until they get home to destroy it. lol  I'd better get to the rest of the laundry and everything else that didn't get done this weekend.  Have you ever noticed that it doesn't matter how much laundry you do it never seems to be done???  I did a ton of laundry on Saturday and again yesterday but I still have a lot more to go. Oy!

Bike week starts here at the end of this week so hopefully the weather will stay nice for them.  Hope everyone has a great week!  

Life is so much fun!

Here is the Winter part of the Four Seasons Band Sampler from JCS Magazine.



Here are the Spring, Summer and Fall parts of the FSBS from JCS.

Here is the little bit that I've stitched on my HAED.  I found that I had made an error in one of the squares and need to go back when I'm more awake to see exactly what I need to frog. 

Here are some goodies I purchased for myself.  I have the patterns, the border and the fabric but now I need to pull the thread.  I will be sure to post a progress pic when I start on this one.

Still not much stitching here but I did get another five to 10 in last night while waiting for them to postpone the race. lol  Maybe, just maybe since the race isn't on until 7:00 p.m. tonight I might be able to get some stitching done then.   Then again.....



February ORT Report

Here is the February TUSAL ORT report photo.   Not much stitching to report, in fact, I think I put maybe five stitches in this past month so no new orts in here.  I did move my vase so you could see that it is a new picture. lol  Those five stitches were put in the Winter part of the Four Seasons Band Sampler from JCS.  Maybe I'll get some time to stitch this weekend during the Daytona 500. lol

Fun times with the Cole's

In case you were wondering, the title of this post is very sarcastic!

I have had no time or energy for stitching for over a week.  I was able to finally relax a little and put a few stitches in my HAED yesterday but not enough for a picture.  Life had gotten in the way which I'm sure happens to all of us.

It's not fun here, or rather, it's not been fun but I think the tide has changed for the better.  (PLEASE!!!)  My murphy's law days did finally end and I only had one more incident on the day I last posted.  Boy am I glad that is over! lol  During those crazy clutzy days, I was also dealing with some major behavior problems from my oldest boy Logan.  Logan is Autistic and doesn't deal well with any change, let alone anything MAJOR.  Back in November, the principal at his school fired the newest ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) teacher and moved her students into different classrooms.  Logan's class received three of them.  It was chaotic but working in there and was actually starting to smooth out if it's possible to do so with 12 ASD kids in one class.  They finally hired a new teacher, had her going around to each class observing and making notes which was a good idea.  The problem occurred when they decided on which students she would receive. 

Logan was one of the kids moved into her room.  He had been doing so well in his regular room and the move was not good to say the least.  His way of letting us know that he wasn't happy was to hit, kick, bite, headbutt, rip or scratch at me.  My arms look like I got into a fight with a very large cat or bear.  I'm finally starting to heal but it wasn't fun at all.  I tried to tell the principal that this move would be a very bad one for Logan but I was ignored.  When I asked him to help me escort Logan to the new classroom (which happens to be on the opposite side of the school) he refused and instead asked that someone who was still dealing with car riders stop what they were doing to help me.  He has since refused to answer any of my e-mails and has been avoiding me at all costs.   This has got to be the most unprofessional behavior I've ever had to deal with when it comes to the school system.  Not only has he ignored me, but in the original face-to-face meeting, he lied to me on all counts on why he would need to think it over on not moving Logan.  I know he's mad because one of my original e-mails I went to the person in charge of ESE for the county.  I did this because I knew he had lied to me and I also knew that this would be the outcome.   Apparently, he doesn't like to have his authority at his school questioned.   If you can't be flexible in your decisions regarding students or you take it personally when someone questions your decisions, then you really shouldn't be dealing with children.   I could care less about the man, the only person I care about in this situation is Logan.  He's frustrated and upset and doesn't know how to communicate this so he acts out. 

On top of all that, my daughter decided she'd had enough of the bullying and disrespect from the kids across the street from us and she told them she couldn't play with them.  I had actually told her months ago that I didn't want the kids at our house but knew the parents would be nasty about it which is why I never said anything to them. (I just wouldn't let them play with them)  Marie took matters into her own hands and that weekend was even worse because of the nastiness from both the parents and the one child.  The mother came over because her daughter was in tears and wanted to know what the problem had been.  I was able to tell her that she is too nasty with my younger kids but she immediately got on the defensive and walked away before I could point out that the older kids were sick of her crap too.  It escalated to where the girl next door became their enemy as well because she still wanted to play with my kids.  The mother refused to let the kids from across play with the girl next door.  This is the same woman who yelled "Get that kid of my grass!  I don't want any of them over here!" to the two year old who got away from the woman who stopped in to speak to me on the same day.  Really???  He's friggen' two, get a grip you nasty piece of work.

The mother next door was pissed off because of what happened.  She had warned me a couple of months ago about how the other mother would react.  She had the same issues but was friends with her so didn't want to say anything to her.  I'm sorry but disrepect and bullying are not tollerated in our house no matter if the kid's mother is a friend or not.  I hate this kind of crap, especially when the adults make it worse.  I feel sorry for them all, okay, maybe not the parents from across the street but the kids.  Perhaps if the parents would teach them to respect other people then none of this would be happening.  Also, let's get real here.  No kid is perfect, nor is any adult so please be open minded when someone tells you that your kid/kids aren't being very nice.  We'd all love to believe that ours are perfect little angels but in real life......   I know how my kids are and I'm the first person to reprimand them if I feel they've disrespected someone.  I'm also the mother who asks how her kids were when they go over to their house just so I can be sure they are behaving.  Some people call me anal but I'm just making sure they treat others as I wish to be treated. 

Okay, I've gone on enough about the craziness and really need to get to cleaning.  Yuck!  I really do hate cleaning especially after a long weekend but as my mother used to say "the house isn't going to clean itself!"  I'm off to do laundry, pick up the playroom, vacuum and mop.  Hope you all have a wonderful week and have time for lots of stitching!

TUSAL

TUSAL January 23, 2012

I've finally got the picture for the first TUSAL post of 2012.  Not much to show as I hadn't done much stitching.  I hope to have a lot more added to this by the next post for 2012.  Sorry about the delay; finally uploaded the pictures from the camera today and of course, I had to watch the Christmas videos before I could do anything else. lol

I hope to be back with a post about what I've been up to and dealing with for the past week.  It's been fun.....NOT!

It's that time!

It's time for the first TUSAL report for 2012.  Of course, you can't take a picture if the batteries in your camera ARE TOTALLY DEAD!  I found my beautiful vase hidden behind the Christmas decorations and was so tickled to find it again.  I excitedly grabbed my camera, turned it on, and immediately got the red light and it shut back off.  Crap!  How could I have forgotten that I ran the batteries down on ALL the cameras on Christmas day???

Anyway, back to the TUSAL.  It stands for Totally Useless Stitch-a-long.  It's where you just keep your ORT's in a pretty glass container and post a picture and a little wordy post about it each month on the full moon.  Now this is a SAL I can do.....if I remember to charge the stupid camera batteries!!  Go see Daffycat to sign up!

You're still here???? Okay, here's a little something to make you laugh.  This weekend through this morning I've had the worst of luck.  Saturday I dropped a glass jar of spaghetti sauce on the floor and somehow the sauce went one way and the glass went the other.  Yeah, I have no idea either and at that particular point in time I really didn't care about the why, just the "how in the HELL am I going to clean this up without stepping on any glass???"  Sunday, taking down the Christmas tree and decorations I found two missing DVD's that my son had been pitching a major fit about in the tree.  It's almost like he was trying to help me decorate it.  I also found several ornaments just thrown in the tree.  Me thinks the boy wanted to play with them but then put them back wherever he thought they may look good.  Taking the lights off the tree with help from DH was an amusing time as well.  At one point he asked me if I had been drunk when I put them on.  Uh NO, but you try to put the lights on while your four kids are wanting to help you do everying all at once and see how it turns out!!  Last night, Marie helped me get Logan out of the bath.  I came in to dry him the rest of the way and realized that she just used a towel that REEKED of urine to dry his hair and upper body.  #@*& Apparently, when Katie had her accidents (YES PLURAL) yesterday she used a towel to dry up the floor.  It was just thrown over the clothes hamper to dry.  I had to get in the shower with Logan in order to get him cleaned back up FROM HIS BATH.  Please, tell me you are laughing so hard that you have whatever you drink spraying your computer monitor.  It's okay, I'm laughing now too but yesterday......not so much.  Today I just put everything in the crockpot at 8:00 a.m for tonight's dinner and walked out the door WITHOUT TURNING IT ON.  No biggie, I turned it on high when I got home at noon.  It's still early so who KNOWS what else I can damage do today.

I will leave you now that I've given you at least a little giggle for the day.  I'm hoping to be able to come back to edit with a picture of my TUSAL but at the rate my luck is running......

Blogger hates me today!

I've tried to leave a comment on a blog and it just throws me to a blank page. Drat!  I really want to throw my name in the hat for the giveaway but even more I want to ask Heather at Heather's Stitching Story how she gridded her fabric for her HAED's Fireside Fairytales!!  I'm more than half way done gridding my very first HAED but it has given me fits.  I found a couple of different blogs/sites that show different ways to grid but I didn't see Heather's until AFTER I started gridding mine.  Ain't that the way life goes?? lol 

I still need to get my Christmas tree and decorations put away.  At that point I should be able to find my vase that I'm using for the TUSAL.  I need to get it done this weekend as I believe next week is the first posting for 2012!  I had it picked out before Christmas in hopes that I could join but put it on the shelf behind where I set up the tree every year.  I can't see it which means I hid it from the kids.  I know it's back there but..... lol

I still haven't taken pictures of my stitching but I've also not done any unless you count gridding my HAED. lol  Here is what I purchased and am itching to start!!  I'm not crazy enough to start it without gridding because, although I love counted cross stitch, it seems I can't COUNT! lol  At least not on any of my bigger projects. ;)

I'd better get off here, my homemade lentl soup is almost warmed up on the stove and I'm hungry and cold. lol  Hope everyone has a wonderful three day weekend (and to those who don't get Monday off have a wonderful weekend!)