Shut up and stitch!

It's that time!

2012-01-24T13:25:00.000-05:00

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!

2012-01-13T12:22:00.000-05:00

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!)

Happy New Year....almost!

2011-12-31T11:16:00.000-05:00

I can't believe how the time has flown by this year! It seems the end of the year flies by and yet drags at times too. lol I think when the stores start bringing out the Christmas decorations out before Halloween or at the same time, it makes Christmas seem like it lasts forever!

The kids all got sick during the last two weeks of school before Christmas break and of course shared with me. It finally just settled in my sinuses and I had a nice sinus infection going on but I think I've finally kicked that bugger out. Not very enjoyable and no time spent with the extended family because of the fevers but we will get together within the week and have a "late Christmas celebration". Kids should love that as they'll get to open more presents. lol

I've been doing lots of stitching but have no pictures at this time. Hopefully later I can edit this post with a pic or two for you. Sadly, I have done no Christmas ornaments. I guess I wasn't that taken with the JCS Ornament issue this year and that has got to be a first! I usually see about 20 or more that I JUST HAVE TO STITCH! lol Maybe in July I'll pick it up again and see something I like.....then again...

I did purchase my first HAED recently and have been puttering around getting all the supplies. I happen to have a piece of fabric the right size in my stash so will be able to start gridding that soon. I'm still not exactly sure what to use for the gridding. Seems like everyone loves either using a floss not used in your stitching or nylon thread. I'll figure that out soon I'm sure. I have all but two colors of floss. Our Michael's has been letting their floss slowly empty out and so has the one 30 miles away. DH tried to go to Joann's while down that way but the check out line was wrapped around the back of the store so I told him to just forget it. I'm sure he would have stood in the line for 30 or 40 minutes but I couldn't put him through that torture. lol I will grid out the pattern according to their directions and start this new year. I can't wait to start this one, especially with the grid to help. If all goes well, then I will start my Thomas Kinkade piece over after gridding it as well. lol Still have to finish my JCS sampler, which I've loved doing. I made a slight error in judgment and need to rearrange things so no pic until it is complete. Ok, maybe a picture of the first part or two but then nothing until it's completed. lol

I hope everyone has a lovely and safe New Year's Eve. We will be staying home and enjoying watching the ball drop on the televison. I'm sure the kids will all still be awake for it as we didn't roll out of bed until 10:00 this morning! MIRACLE! lol

October

2011-10-21T11:16:00.000-04:00

Two of the finished Halloween pillows for the kids. Logan's "Wally Pumpkin" and Marie's candy are MIA.

Haven't worked on my Monopoly in a while but here is what I have at this point.

Here is the finished LHN Snowflakes. I used all DMC colors and I don't remember what kind/color of linen this is as I started this around this time last year. I got irritated with it when I frogged it for the tenth time last year so I put it down. I picked it up again about a week ago and finished stitching the border and really got my MOJO on and didn't do anything else until I finally finished it! Love how it turned out!

The weather is finally cooler now, or is at this point in time. The week started out hot and muggy and today it's only 63 at 11:00 a.m. and a nice northerly breeze is keeping it fall weather. I love this time of year!

I was able to start volunteering in Logan's class this week and I have to say I LOVE IT! We weren't sure how he would handle me being there with him but after a tiny hiccup he, for the most part, acted like I wasn't there. Every time I would get up to do something or when it was time to leave he'd say "Mommy sit!" The rest of the time he'd ignore me or so I thought. lol I volunteered on Wednesday and Thursday for a couple of hours each day and I'm going back on Friday of next week. They have Monday and Tuesday off and DH is home on Thursday so it's the next available day. I love doing this! I feel useful again. lol

Kaitlyn made "A" Honor Roll and is getting the Terrific Kid Award during their awards assembly on Wednesday. I'm so excited for her!! I know, she's only in the first grade but still!!! I was unable to get out of work the one time Marie got A/B Honor Roll way back and I've felt terrible ever since. I told her we'd do our own awards show at home as soon as we get her grades. I have the Hallmark Card Studio software on my computer and can make all sorts of awards, cards and other great projects. It's going to be fun!

Today is catch up day with all the cleaning, laundry and errand running. I also plan to sit down and get a little stitching done on my B is for Boy from the JCS magazine. I finished the G is for Girl a while back and had to wait to get some blue fabric and then I ran out of floss. lol I think my MOJO is back for a while this time. It's funny, when I lose my stitching MOJO I also lose my interest in reading at the same time. Weird!

Off to do the vacuuming and laundry. I hope everyone has a wonderful week and is enjoying the nice autumn weather!

Pictures!

2011-09-28T11:00:00.001-04:00

Witchy Kitty by Brittercup Designs

Happy Halloween by Fresh Threads Studio

Pirate Sock Monkey by Raise the Roof Designs

All of these patterns are from the 2011 Halloween issue of Just Cross Stitch magazine. This is the issue that helped me get my mojo back! I've got to pull threads and then decide if I want to do Halloween Jack on regular fabric or order the perforated paper. Logan is my destroyer, thinking perhaps I should just stitch on cloth so that it survives for more than 5 minutes. lol

I love the fall; just wish the weather would actually mimic the season it's supposed to right now. Today the forecast is for a high of 90 and no rain chance until after dinner. The only good thing is that I will not have to sit in car rider line today as we have a meeting about Ryan at school. Yeah! As soon as the meeting is over, I'm grabbing the kids and heading home to relax in the a/c. lol

A Quickie...

2011-09-26T10:36:00.000-04:00

to let you know I'm still alive and kicking. lol

Today is my eldest daughter's 13th birthday so in between laundry and cleaning I'm baking a cake and making her favorite snack....Rice Krispie Treats. I am currently waiting on the coffee to cool so I can make the cake so thought I'd drop a line or two for a post. lol

I've been stitching every chance I had for the past week which feels good. I've completed two Halloween ornaments and am almost done with the third. I decided to make one for each of the kids this year and of course, Logan chose a difficult one which will be done next........ or next year.lol He chose the Halloween Jack by SamSarah Designs. I've never stitched on perforated paper before so not sure when it will get done. No, no pictures to show of them yet as I thought I'd actually finish them before I did the pictures.....hmmmmmm maybe I'll just take pictures sometime tomorrow and upload them as I'll have Marie's BD pics too. lol

Well, washer is done so now it's time to change over...again. lol Have I ever mentioned that I LOATHE doing laundry??? lol yeah, that and cleaning. ROFLMBO! At least I have a couple of fun things to look forward to today. Baking and wrapping of the presents!

Have a great week and hope to post some pics in the very near future. :)

September

2011-09-14T10:16:00.001-04:00

I was somewhat on a roll there for about 2 seconds with my blog posts. I'm still doing better than I had been but I will try to improve a little more. lol

I actually have done a little bit of stitching but have no pictures to show as it's been VERY LITTLE stitching. The fact that I got over that mojo slump at all makes me feel good even if I don't do a lot. I am currently stitching Witchy Kitty by Brittercup Designs out of the Halloween JCS edition. I also finally received the Christmas Ornament issue and have been drooling over it for the past few days. I'd say that is a good thing and must mean the mojo is back!

Kids are all doing great at school or so they tell me. I will know for sure as soon as I sign up for the online grade review that the district has or get their interim reports whichever happens first. ;) I need to actually go into the school to sign up and by the time I get there in the afternoon it's too late and the morning drop off is crazy. So why don't I just do it while I'm volunteering you ask??? Well, that's easy.....because they haven't let me volunteer yet. They started out trying to get to know Logan and then see how he does each day, then the teacher took time off to go to her daughter's wedding. After that the kids got sick and shared with me and then I had my allergies freak out. Hopefully by next week we can start with the one day a week to see how it goes.

Yesterday I had a little scare. Now I can laugh at myself but at the time I was a bit terrified. lol I dropped the kids off, ran by Marie's school to drop off some glass baby food jars for science class then went to do some grocery and other shopping. I got home with my coffee and sat down to relax at the computer. I got on facebook and was trying to type something to a friend and realized my eyes were acting strange. Rather, one eye was at least. I had a blind spot that slowly transformed into a pulsing shape. While slightly blind in one eye I freaked out a little, called my mom and tried to answer my husband's instant messages. By the time the pulsing started I finally realized what the problem was and jumped up to grab some tylenol. It's been so long since I had a migrane give me a warning that I didn't realize what it was at all. lol Seems like for the last couple of years, those buggers just come out of left field and knock me on my butt with no warning and tons of pain. Yesterday, it decided it felt sorry for me and gave me a warning. Brainiac that I am, it took for the pulsing and pain to start before my brain would turn itself on. lol I'm VERY lucky that the tylenol did the trick. Usually I have to take a prescription pain med that makes me loopy and I HATE to take that and won't unless I'm home for the day and DH is close to or at home. NOTE TO SELF: spotty blindness in one eye means grab the tylenol and drink a bottle of water. Don't think about it.....JUST DO IT!

I need to get the house picked up and the laundry started....why can't they design a house that will pick up after its own self???? Make the laundry do itself too while I'm dreaming big. lol I hope to have some time to sit down and put a few more stitches in Witchy Kitty today. It's nice to relax and stitch even if it's only for 30 minutes. Every minute counts!

Have a great Wednesday!

Don't faint!

2011-08-23T10:30:00.000-04:00

I am posting again within the same month, heck, almost a week later. lol

Kids all started school yesterday and it went pretty smoothly. As expected Marie was too nervous to eat much. She did great though as I knew she would. She didn't get to meet any girls her age that live near us but she did get to know a boy in her grade and his sister who is a junior in high school. Yes you got that right. They decided to save some money (ROFLMBO) and combine some middle and high school buses. The problems that I thought would come about from that were not as I thought, but they did find on the stop right after hers that they had underestimated how many kids would be riding. According to the schedule there are two more stops after Marie's but they couldn't get those kids because the bus was overflowing. (I really thought there would be bullying from the high school kids but turns out they were the nice ones it was the eighth graders who did all the bullying) So to solve this in the afternoon, they picked up the middle schoolers and delivered them home then went back to pick up the high school kids. Hmmmm, something tells me that this idea didn't save any money at all. The poor HS kids were standing out in the hot sun for over an hour waiting on the bus to get to their school. I believe today they'll wait inside an a/c building. lol

Afternoon pickup at the elementary school was jammed up big time and parents were all sorts of upset. Here's the thing, if you expect your kids to do what they're told then perhaps you, as parents should do the same thing. It is told and printed on anything to do with car riders that parents are to stay in their cars at all times. DO NOT GET OUT TO GET YOUR KIDS!! It seems that the massive hold up involved parents getting in the pick up line and then just ~~abandoning~~ getting out of their cars and going to get their kids. It took us over a half hour to finally get to the pick up area and we weren't even that far back. I believe I sweated over 10 pounds off yesterday afternoon and might possibly have suffered a little heat stroke. Today, the cooler with water, gatorade and juice will be coming with us and if I see another parent abandon their car to go get their kids I'm going to have to ~~do a smack down on their butts~~ give them a piece of my mind!! After all that we had to wait for another minute or two while they located Ryan as he was so quiet (I suspect he fell asleep lol) that when they grabbed Logan and Katie he never budged. 'Course it did have something to do with them not sitting near each other. I believe I've rectified that now though. lol

My father-in-law decided that he ~~wasn't crazy~~ wanted to try to work things out with his wife so he went back home. We spent five days last week on the phone with him and the hospital in a city about eight hours away from where he lives because they got into a fight and he left rather than let it get really bad. I guess he figured it was better there than in our house where he'd have no room of his own and four kids around him most of the time. There is so much more to this story that I just don't even want to go into but I did finally tell my husband that when this happens again that we aren't going to just jump right in with the offer of help without some ground rules. He doesn't even want to speak to either of them but thankfully he's remembering that his dad is 72 years old and his only father so he's still speaking to him at least. Personally, I'm over it all and am thankful he didn't come out. lol

Still no stitching and not sure when that mojo will find it's way back to me. Maybe after the school routine gets settled. I did get my volunteer ID yesterday so I'm set to start next week. I'm actually excited about going in and staying for most of the day. Hopefully if I am able to help them out like this in a year or two when the economy gets back on track and they can hire again I'll have my foot in the door.

Have a great week!

WOW!!!

2011-08-15T10:29:00.000-04:00

I can't believe I haven't posted in four months! Oy! lol

I did stitch for a little while but then lost my mojo again. Not sure where it went this time but hopefully I can find it again as I just got the JCS Halloween magazine and would like to stitch some of those cute patterns.

I haven't worked since two weeks before school let out so I guess that's been since the very end of May. We decided the difference in money with me not driving all over town every day is more than what I would have made working so it was best to just not work. Not to mention, I started really working on Logan with the potty training. It's only taken almost ten weeks but the boy can finally wear big boy underwear during the day now. Still have to work on the bm's but hey, at least he goes "pee pee in the potty" now. lol Let me tell you, that has been a very LONG time coming. I've been working with him off/on on this for four years now. I don't know what finally gave but whatever it was I'm very thankful!!

Since school is starting back up next Monday we've also decided that I should volunteer in his classroom too. It has taken so long to get him to this point in the potty training that I really didn't want any back sliding. The thought of having to reteach this again for the millionth time makes me want to vomit. lol I will have to see who his teacher is to see if she'll allow me in the classroom and then see about going in the second week of school. Ryan is in kindergarten this year so he'll go the first day (Monday) and then not again until Thursday. They like to stagger the start for the first years. Sounds like a good plan but since the majority of the kids attended VPK the previous year I think it's kind of silly. I sure won't mind having him to myself for two whole days but for those other parents who work for a living.......lol

Marie will be starting middle school and is terrified. Not only will she be going to a new school but now she has to go to the school she's zoned for which is like we moved to a different state. She may be lucky to know one or two kids but that will be it. Katie and Ryan will now be attending the same school as Logan so they're basically in the same boat. lol To add to the chaos we will also be adding to the number in our house. No we aren't adopting or having another child. lol My father-in-law is coming to stay with us. He thinks we're crazy for wanting him to come stay with us but I explained to him that I would rather he be here than us worrying about him on his own with no where to go on the other side of the country. I'm looking on the bright side of all this. Maybe I will keep my house cleaner, the children won't fight as much and I'll be more apt to not yell when the kids do fight. lol

Hey, who knows, maybe with all the extra stress/chaos I'll even find my stitching mojo again!!!!! Either that or I'll be charging my Kindle every other day so it can read to me.... I wonder if it has a headphone jack??? lol Headphones means no or little outside noise and being read to while I fold clothes would work, right??!!

April

2011-04-08T10:45:00.000-04:00

Here is the finish for March; G is for Girl from the Just Cross Stitch March/April issue.

Here is my current project; Berries, Birds, and Blooms by BRD from the March/April Just Cross Stitch issue.

Please excuse the wrinkles as I haven't ironed them yet. I'm chomping at the bit to get the current project done so I can start the B is for Boys when it comes out in the May/June issue.

I haven't been stitching much in the past couple of days because we have had a little more excitement than usual lately. On Wednesday while at the one school picking up little bit, my cell phone rang. I thought, okay Marie, you had better be on the bus and not saying Oops! I missed it so I have to stay after school anyways. She had called me at home about 20 mins before asking to stay after to have help with her homework. I don't know why, but I said no. I just had a feeling that I would be really busy at the time that she would need to be picked up. I wasn't working and only had housework and children to take care of but I didn't feel that she should stay after. Good thing as I would have had to pick her up early anyway.

It turned out that it was Logan's teacher on the phone. Logan had thrown a little fit, no more than usual when he's upset or irritated when he can't communicate what he wants. She was concerned because he had started sobbing and saying "Hurt, Hurt!" and was now holding his one arm against his body and walking funny. I figured he'd dislocated his shoulder and that we could just take him to the doctor and have him pop it back in. Of course, it wasn't that easy and it wasn't dislocated either. The doctor's nurse said to take him to the ER and have an x-ray done. I was a little irritated with her because I thought why can't he just look at him and know?? Stupid Mommy! DH had to work late and couldn't get away, so me and all four kids headed to the hospital for what I thought would be a quick visit. Thankfully two and a half hours later DH was able to come get the other three who were bored out of their minds! All things considered, they acted great but I was about to pull my hair out until he got there. Another three hours and we had the results of his x-ray, a broken right collar bone! They can't do anything for this other than put him in a sling and have me give him tylenol or motrin for pain. Maybe for another child that would be fine but Logan's autistic and refuses to take any meds orally anymore!!

Needless to say we had a pretty horrible night with him up most of it whimpering and refusing any meds. I was able to locate some Tylenol suppositories the next day after calling every major pharmacy in the area. His doctor recommended trying the local grocery store's pharmacy and would you believe that is where I found some with the right dosage for him??? I couldn't believe that Target, Walmart, Walgreens and CVS didn't carry his dosage. I know that he's 8 but still, he can't be the only child that has issues with taking meds orally...... can he????!!! The really great thing about this find is that, they have quite a bit of it in stock and it's cheaper than the infant dosage that I was buying at Walgreens!!

Today is much better, he slept through the night and is irritated because he wants to be able to do more but can't. Now, if I can just get the house clean, the laundy done, the dishes done, the kids picked up from school and still have enough energy to stitch tonight after dinner it will be a great day!!!

Hope everyone is having a great Friday and it continues into an even better weekend!

March Madness

2011-03-25T10:22:00.000-04:00

I can't believe that another month is almost gone and I've not posted at all! I have a crazy schedule with the kids and working and trying to keep up with the cleaning, washing and cooking. I didn't realize just how crazy until it slowed down this morning. I didn't want to get up out of the bed at all!!! Of course, that wasn't possible as three of the four were up before me. Thank goodness for DH!!!! I'm up, had coffee and now here I sit not wanting to do anything!!!! I have spring cleaning to do which I would normally put off until after the kids Spring Break but DH and I have a date "night" on Sunday afternoon so the house must be clean!!! lol

I have been stitching and have actually finished something. No pictures of it yet but, hey, at least I finished something. Alas, Snowflakes has been set aside. Not sure if it's because I frogged more than I stitched or because I'm over the whole winter/christmas season. lol I know I will get back to it but in the meantime I've started yet another project from the March/April Just Cross Stitch magazine. I finished the G is for Girls and now am working on the Berries, Birds and Blooms sampler. So far, I'm loving this one and have worked on it a little each night and a lot on Sunday after the cleaning is done. I do believe this one will be framed (by me, of course) and hung up on my wall. I recently realized I haven't "finished" anything and hung it on the wall to show off in years. When I say years, I mean it. I do believe that last finished piece proudly shown off was when I was married the first time and he still has it, by the way, as it was a gift for him. We've been divorced over 15 years now so that tells you how long it's been. lol

Well the animals are getting restless so I'd better just bite the bullet and get to that spring cleaning. I'm giving myself a little credit for having already starting it as yesterday we tore down the slide (of what was left of the old swingset) and hauled it out to the road. A word to the wise, for those of you that are thinking of purchasing the really nice and somewhat expensive wooden swing/play sets for your children; be sure to constantly check for water damage. Once it gets in to any portion you need to basically cut it out, repair and probably even get some type of water protection (like what you can do to your wooden fence or porch). One of the steps of the ladder broke off and before we knew what had happened the whole part that had the swings just started to rot right before our eyes. It didn't take long for the bees/wasps to then make a nest inside of the other wood and that only helped to make it rot that much faster. We had that for a total of five years and the rotting started on the one side within two years. We just noticed the slide side had started the last time we let Logan climb it and now it's just been hauled to the dump. They are a great investment for your children but like everything else, a work in progress from the time you build it until you have to tear it down.

Okay, they are now getting so loud in here I can't hear myself think so that is my clue to get the hell out of dodge, I mean to get in there to make sure they don't kill each other. lol Hope everyone is having a great end of the week and it continues into a great weekend.

WOW! What a great giveaway!

2011-02-18T10:17:00.000-05:00

Check out Peg's awesome giveaway for her birthday. So glad I was perusing the blogs today and found it on Terri's blog. Another great giveaway can be found on Jennifer's blog.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Friday and it continues into an awesome and relaxing three day weekend for those that have President's Day off on Monday.

Groundhog Day

2011-02-02T10:36:00.000-05:00

I got up this morning and saw that Punxsutawney Phil had not seen his shadow and that Spring will come early this year. ROFLMBO!!! Oh, if were only true!!! I can't imagine winter giving up it's nasty hold on the northern (and not so northern states) anytime soon, can you??? We're supposed to get our share of that nasty huge storm but it won't be anything compared to what the rest of the US has seen. You see, it's 68 degrees and it's supposed to make it to 78 today. So, we'll get some rain, maybe a lot and some wind, again, maybe a lot but we wont' have to deal with the frigid temps or the nasty white stuff. We won't even go there about the ice that you all are dealing with right now. I wish that I owned a huge resort and could have all my friends from up north come down to Florida for the winter. It does sometimes get cold here, 30's during the day but it never lasts for more than a few days and we never have snow. Sigh*

No stitching going on here. I wish I could blame it on the new morning/afternoon routine and the work routine but that's not it. No, I'm not in another stitching slump either. I'd like nothing more than to sit this afternoon and stitch until my butt goes numb. lol I have to wait on my new glasses. They probably won't be in until sometime next week. Argh! I did try to stitch using my reading glasses but even with the light directly on my material, I still had issues. The frogs that came to visit were because I couldn't see well enough to count. Well duh!!! You'd think I would have picked up on that wouldn't you?? Nope! I just thought I was tired and would make my eyes work themselves out of that but.....when does that ever work?? lol Maybe I can find a small project and my stronger reading glasses and attempt a little stitching today. I'm having withdrawals!

Have you ever had a conversation with a four year old that leaves you wondering if you've lost brain cells?? Ryan is my little angel and he is more advanced than some of the kids his age. They adore him in his VPK class and ask him to be the leader when doing the ABC's and reading and anything else. He's that good! He's also the one that asks you twenty million questions and no I'm not kidding. I love it when I finally figure out that he's already asked the question before but then comes back ten minutes later and asks me again. Are you trying to trick me Ryan? lol He starts with something cute and ends up asking me some of tough ones. I find myself totally speechless most days with the way his mind works (not to mention with the staggering amount of questions lol)

Mommy, is the sky blue? Why is it blue? When you die, do you go to heaven? Does your body go to heaven? What's your spirit? Why does it go to heaven without your body? Where is heaven? Is it above the clouds? Is it above the stars? How far is it? Why is it so far away? Can we go there to visit? Why not?? When you die, can you come back to life? Why not? That's just a small sample of his questions, and yes I'm answering him as we go along and he just keeps on going and going and going. When I'm too slow in answering him (because this tired old brain is still trying to figure out the question before last) he gets mad! ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME? WHY WON'T YOU ANSWER ME? He also gets mad if someone isn't paying attention to him and someone else answers the question. I usually try to answer questions for Daddy if he's distracted and boy, does that tick Ryan off! lol I WASN'T TALKING TO YOU MOMMY! I WAS TALKING TO MY DADDY!!!! I love that little boy! lol

New Year!

2011-01-25T10:36:00.000-05:00

So a new year is now upon us and it's not making me slow down at all unless you count the slow down on the stitching. lol Life got crazier with Ryan's testing out of ESE but it's worth it! Today is the fifth day of the new morning routine and only the second time I've had to get a late pass for Kaitlyn. I'd say we're well on our way to getting used to the new routine but don't quote me on that. lol

We did have a slight hiccup on the first afternoon but that wasn't anything you could plan for.....thank GOD! Marie had a problem at school and ended up taking a walk instead of getting on the bus. Tell me, why are kids so mean to each other???? It turned out fine but I have to say I hope I never have to go through that ever again. It was the scariest hour of my life. lol She's got herself one heck of a guardian angel that watched over her until we could find her. I know she's twelve but still, when your child disappears and you have no idea what happened or where she could have gone it scares the *#@ out of you! She only received a half day in school suspension and she's not allowed on the computer unless it's homework and it has to be supervised. Doesn't seem like enough punishment for her but I believe she scared the you-know-what out of herself so that makes up for a little. (That and the kids that caused the problems also got in school suspension)

Not much stitching for me but I have put a few in the LHN Snowflakes piece. I've also frogged quite a bit too. I found myself getting pretty frustrated and almost gave up but then I thought perhaps Rene' was visiting and decided to rip it out one more time. It worked so I do believe that those frogs were sent from Heaven! ;) Hopefully with my new work schedule and morning routine I can sit on my off days and stitch before Ryan gets home or after I pick him up. Depends on how much I get done before that. lol

Tomorrow is Kaitlyn's 6th birthday and I can't believe how time has flown! Seems like just yesterday my little munchkin was two weeks late and I insisted that I had to be induced because I couldn't carry her any longer. lol She was too snug and warm and didn't want to make an appearance whether mommy was exhausted or not. She finally did and what a joy she has been ever since! Okay, she's been a joy 99.9% of the time but what kid isn't right?? ;) We have a cupcake cake ordered and ready to go to school to celebrate with her. She was so funny this morning. "Mommy, will we celebrate at home too????" She was scared that we wouldn't have a cake at home for her. Since Marie got to go to Universal with Daddy for her birthday I had to attempt to make it even by getting cake/cupcakes for class and maybe doing goody bags for her. Will have to do the same for Ryan as well but that's not for another two weeks. lol

Hopefully I will have some pictures to show how much I've stitched when I post again. I hope everyone has a wonderful day and that you find lots of time to sit down and stitch. (I took Logan's frog and have set him right next to my stitching chair to ward off any other frogs that come visiting. Figure they'll want to play with him rather than mess with my stuff. lol)

Hello again!

2010-12-28T10:26:00.000-05:00

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas with their families/friends. We had a wonderful weekend. We started off by going to my oldest brother's house on Christmas eve for a few hours. Logan and DH had to stay home as Logan started running a temp that morning. We missed them but still had a good time. I have to say, not traveling on Christmas or Christmas Eve is a good idea. I couldn't believe how many people were still shopping at 5:00 p.m. when we finished up and headed home. There were so many cars out in the lots and on the road that it took a little longer than usual to get to the highway. lol

Christmas Day we had my other brother and his son over for dinner and presents. It was a great day with fun visiting, playing games on the new Wii and good food. We made a roast which we finished up last night by having BBQ beef sandwiches. Yummo!

No stitching for me for the past week or so but that's okay. Soon I will have more time to do that again.... I hope. lol Today it's back to work again (if I have any to do lol) and finish up cleaning up from the presents. Wish me luck with the cleaning! lol

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

2010-12-25T09:42:00.001-05:00

Behind the presents is one of my favorite Christmas displays. My Santa and Reindeer but alas, it's hidden. lol

The other side of the tree and somewhere in there is my snowglobe collection. lol

One of Ryan's favorite new toys. Imaginext Gorilla Mountain or something like that.

Kaitlyn and her Ni Hao playset.

Marie and her new PS2.

My poor big boy was so sick on Christmas. He didn't play with much that day but he's feeling better now and making up for lost time. lol

Tried to get Logan, my brother and nephew in a picture but as you can see, both boys decided they didn't like the idea. lol

One of my absolutely favorite memories from this holiday. The boys sitting watching a movie together and then giving hugs.

Another great giveaway but hurry!!!

2010-12-20T13:13:00.000-05:00

Check out New England Stitcher's Retreat's great giveaway but hurry, she's going to pull a name on the 22nd I believe!

Another great giveaway!

2010-12-14T20:54:00.002-05:00

Check out Mel's blog to see what she is giving away for her 200th follower milestone!

So much fun!

2010-12-10T11:58:00.000-05:00

Oh Joy from 2010 JCS Christmas magazine

Another 2010 JCS ornament

Prairie Schooler Freebie

Snowflakes by LHN

Here are the promised progress pics of the ornaments and my Snowflakes by LHN. I have more stitched on the LHN but as I took the picture that morning and then stitched that night I don't have a more updated picture. I haven't been able to sit down to stitch at all this week but, today I am going to get a serious case of stitchers butt. lol

The three kids are now well and going to school and Ms. Katie who was able to avoid getting sick these past three weeks has finally succumbed to it and is home with me again today. What a month with the germs this has been! I'm just thankful that everyone else (KNOCK ON WOOD!!!) is better and back to school. I've been working and taking care of the sick little ones and I have to say that is no fun and way beyond stressful. lol I've been working so late each night because you can't get much done in between getting meds, food, blankies and just snuggling with them when they are feeling poorly. I decided to skip work today and just take some time to get the house in order, throw some soup in the crock pot, hit the store for some yogurt and ice cream for Katie's sore throat and then get the serious case of stitchers butt this afternoon. lol

The weather has been cold for us here in sunny Florida. It hasn't got above 55 degrees since Monday I think. Today it's 59 but it's cloudy and rainy. Yuck! I'm enjoying the cooler weather but I could do without the rain while it's slightly cooler. I don't mind rain when it's warm out but when the wind is out of the north and cold, you can keep the rain, please and thank you. lol

We did manage to get the Christmas decorations out of the attic but alas, they are now sitting stacked against my sliding glass doors in the living room. Tomorrow come Hell or high water (as my Mom used to say) the tree will get decorated and all the inside decorations will be put up. I will post a picture or two if I'm not too exhausted after I get them all up. Now, it's time to fold some clothes and get to work on the serious stitchers butt. ;)

Have a great weekend everyone!

A pretty wonderful giveaway!

2010-12-04T10:41:00.000-05:00

Check out Jennifer's giveaway over at Feathers in the Nest. What a wonderful giveaway! Go over there and put your name in the hat!!!

I'm here!

2010-11-29T10:39:00.000-05:00

I'm still here....really....I am!!!

I've been busy with work, taking care of the kids, getting ready and then having a yard sale, taking care of the kids, cleaning the house etc. etc. etc. It's been crazier than normal around here lately but for the most part it's been fun. Well, most of it has anyways. The kids have all been sick except for one (KNOCK ON WOOD!!!) at least twice in the last three weeks. What the heck is up with that?? Every time I get them well and back in school, I turn around within two days have someone else home with me. Jeepers!

I got tired of the ornaments or at least I found something else to stitch that grabbed my eye. I don't have an pictures yet but I will get to them soon I hope. lol I started on LHN Snowflakes and I'm loving it! I have been doing a lot of frogging though but even with that, I'm still loving the stitching and can't wait to finish it. I should have started from the middle and worked my way out so that the outer band would have been easier to stitch. lol I'm stitching it on 32 count linen that I purchased along with the pattern for it from 123stitch. I've done some stitching over two in the past and didn't like it. Now, however, I'm loving it!!! Weird, I know! I seem to relax more when stitching over two which might be the cause of all the frogging (that and trying to watch a movie at the same time lol) I actually started this while watching The Christmas Carol for the first time this year. The new one with Jim Carrey. Love it!

I've also been busy trying to clean up the playroom and move things around so I can start putting up the Christmas decorations up. That's always a fun time.....hmmmm.....wellllll, they sure look pretty when I'm done. lol We finally broke down and purchased a new DVD player on Black Friday. They were cheap so we bought two. I know, you're thinking why in the world would you buy two??? One word......LOGAN! He destroys them so we had to figure out how to get it in the playroom high enough where he couldn't climb to get to it. (and still I didn't trust that he won't find a way to get to it so I urged DH to pick up the 2nd one just in case) Heck, at $19.99 each they were a heck of a deal, right?? All day Saturday I cleaned and moved things around so DH could do his magic and move the shelf over and up so the kids could sit in the playroom and watch their movies. Crack me up, but the whole time they had to watch movies in the living room Logan wanted to watch Christmas Carol or Toy Story 2. I have had my fill of both......maybe.....ok, I've had my fill of TS2 at least lol.

I gave up on the notion of getting the tree and decorations up yesterday as I was too tired from all the cleaning, cooking and playing nursemaid to the kids all week. I'm going to do all that decorating next Saturday. It will take all day so maybe I will have DH get all the boxes down on Thursday and I will do everything except for decorat the tree on Friday. Hmmmm, we shall see. lol

Well, I've bent your ear long enough. I can't put off doing the dishes any longer...that and the stupid washer is already done with the load of laundry. lol Hope everyone has a wonderful week and next post I hope to have some pics to show you of the other ornaments I finished and a progress pic of Snowflakes!

Another great giveaway!

2010-11-05T12:14:00.000-04:00

Go check out Terri's giveaway and check out her blog while you're at it. I especially like the picture she posted showing what a friend did with their pumpkins this year. Sooo funny!!!

Progress pics

2010-10-20T09:50:00.000-04:00

My second ornament from the 2010 Just Cross Stitch Christmas Magazine

My first ornament that took forever to complete. lol

Here is the third one. I think I'm on a roll now!!

Here is the one I'm currently working on. I do believe that my stitching MOJO is now back!

More awesome giveaways!

2010-10-20T09:14:00.002-04:00

Go here for Teresa's awesome giveaway. While there, check out here beautiful stitching too!

Check out Terri's Spooktacular Halloween giveaway! Check out her beautiful Halloween (and other) stitching while you're dropping by her blog.

I stitched!!!!!

2010-10-11T09:46:00.000-04:00

ROFLMBO! I finally sat down last night and stitched while watching the Phillies beat the Reds. Sorry to see the Reds get swept but I have soft spot in my heart for the Phillies. Love Roy Oswald and Brad Lidge as they are both former Houston Astros players.

I stitched for about a 45 minutes but then little man decided he wanted to snuggle and who am I to deny such a cute little guy?? I have to say it felt good to stitch and I believe (fingers and toes crossed this time) that maybe my MOJO is really REALLY back this time. I can't take a picture of it yet as I need to get other pictures off the camera first. I hope to do that by Wednesday and then I can get a picture post on here.

Hope everyone is having a great start to the new week. I know, I can't believe it either!! I'm posting again and it's more than once a month or once every 6 weeks. lol

And another great giveaway!

2010-10-09T09:19:00.000-04:00

Checky out Alyssa's great giveaway! Wait! On second thought, don't do that because I want to win. lol ;)

Thanks to all the lovely ladies with these awesome giveaways!

Another great giveaway!

2010-10-08T09:51:00.002-04:00

Check this out!!! Name will be drawn on Halloween for these great gifts from Sarah. Woo Hoo!!

An evening at the Cole house

2010-10-07T19:43:00.001-04:00

Some conversation from the Cole children when they think Mommy is distracted

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, LOGAN PUT IT DOWN!!!!!

C'mon Kaitlyn, you can get out of timeout now, Mommy said so. - REALLY??? I don't recall speaking but maybe I was thinking it and he read my mind. ;)

GO! Get OUT of my room I'm trying TO DO MY HOMEWORK!!!

C'mon, COME ON KAITLYN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Shut up Ryan! Get out of my room!

Vroom! Vroom!

NO! His name is Ferdinand! You said Ferdinana!

SHUSH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

COME ON KAITLYN!

I don't want to play anymore Ryan!

Get BACK here!

Yes you do! PLEASE, come play with me!

COME ON!

STOP!

KAITLAWWWWWNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is what Ryan resorts to when he's mad and he wants her to pay attention to him.

I really wanted to do some stitching tonight while watching the game but I don't think I should chance it while they are fighting so much. Believe it or not, this has been about three minutes of VERY loud conversation. Imagine what would happen if I sat here longer. lol

I'm off to supervise the homework Queen and the fighting trio. Hope to get some stitching done and if I do, I will post a progress picture but I have to warn you....... don't hold your breath. ;)

EDITED: In case you were wondering, the children finally calmed down. Marie did, in fact, finish her project but it was very late. lol I never did get to sit and stitch as the final child went to bed at 10:20 (yes, that is when Marie a/k/a "THE PROCRASTINATOR" finished her school project.) Maybe today/tonight but by the time I actually have time to sit I may not feel like doing it. Anyone ever have that problem???? ;)

An awesome giveaway for Breast Cancer Awareness Month!

2010-10-06T09:23:00.000-04:00

Check out Nataly's wonderful giveaway for Breast Cancer Awareness month. I hope I'm lucky enough to win, if not, I know whomever does win it will absolutely love it!!!

Progress pic

2010-10-05T10:45:00.000-04:00

Here it is and yes I started over way too close to the left side. I'm hoping that I can figure out a cute way to finish it. Maybe that's why I am having a hard time getting it stitched.; it was a nice thought! lol

Oops, I did it again!

2010-10-05T10:27:00.000-04:00

Time has been getting away from me so much this past year. I can't seem to get on here and post like I want once a week. I'm lucky to do once a month. SIGH* hanging my head in shame.

Nope, stiching mojo didn't last long at all. It has been over a month and I'm still not done with my Christmas ornament. I have no idea what my problem is anymore. I just don't seem to want to pick up any stitching. I pick it up and put a few stitches in and then realize that I'm just not into it and put it right back where I found it. There are such lovely projects that I had wanted to start and finish but nothing is catching my fancy.

I've started back on the flat belly diet again. It was so great to lose the weight last year and not gain ALL of it back. I did gain some but nowhere near as bad. I'm about 7 pounds away from hitting my lowest weight from last year so I think I may be able to stick to it this time. I believe that since we started after the school schedules are now pretty much a done deal that I will have a much better chance of keeping on it then I did last year. I do know that I will not be denying myself the coffee this time around though. I'm a coffee girl, there is no denying it so I just might as well face it. I am only allowing myself a cup a day. It's better to indulge a little then go hog wild and completely blow it, don't you think?? I'm over the initial four day hump where I did deny myself coffee and just knew that I have to figure out a way to add it in or this diet is done. lol

I've also had some "woman" issues as of late which is probably not helping the diet or the stitching mojo. lol I think I'm hitting the pre-menopause stage. Is anyone else going through that in their early forties???? I'm crankier than cranky, tired all the time (that's normal anymore lol) having two visits from Aunt Flo this month which didn't help. Emotions are on a roller coaster which is so much fun when you have little ones. lol I did find some lovely stuff that will hopefully be helping me with most of this but I have to wait until 14 days after the "last" day to begin. Fine, but, can I count from the first one or do I have to start 14 days form the second one???? ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!! How appropriate can it be that I feel this way and it's close to Halloween???!!! ROFLMBO

I will attempt to get a progress shot of my ornament. It is almost done just going to take forever to finish it at the rate I'm going. I usually love this time of year and stitching all of the lovely Halloween goodies that are available. Nope, not this year! GOD, please help me to get back to my stitching as it's what keeps me from going completely looney!! ;)

An update of sorts

2010-09-13T09:57:00.000-04:00

I have finally (I think!) got my stitching mojo back. At least a little bit anyway. lol I received my Just Cross Stitch Christmas Ornaments mag in the mail this past week and was drooling over all the lovelies. I finally sat down last night and closed my eyes and picked one to start. You know what I mean ladies, it's almost impossible to choose which one you like the best so you can stitch it first so I just opened the mag with my eyes closed and slapped my hand down. There you go, purely scientific way of choosing. lol Not much to show as the children weren't ready for bed but were wanting to cuddle so I spent maybe about 30 minutes on it. When I have more progress to show I will take a pic and post it here.

It's been a crazy few weeks getting back into a routine with the kids and school but I have to say I'm loving it! I do miss them but I cherish my time to get the house clean, the laundry done, work done and have a little bit of me time too. lol By the time the bus gets here with the first two, I realize just how much I've missed my little people and I enjoy the afternoon snuggling and getting everyone to get their homework done. I wish I could say it was all enjoyable but for those of you with more than one child, you know what I mean. They still fight but it seems easier to referee now that school takes them away from each other during the day.

Today the older two had to start with a new bus as the other route was too full. Last week wasn't any fun as we had problems with our a/c on Labor Day. We ended up taking the kids out for a ride once we finally got that stupid thing working again so we could all relax and get cool. Logan loved it so much that when it came time to go to school the next day, he threw a major fit about getting on the bus. Thankfully, by Friday, he was a little calmer and today was nothing. Here I was dreading trying to get him on the bus, let alone a new driver and aide and he just walked right up, said Hi and climbed the stairs. That boy amazes me just about everyday with something new or unexpected. lol

I've been reading and playing with the DS to take my mind off the stitching slump. I have a confession to make though;I couldn't finish reading Jodi Picoult's book. I tried and tried but I just couldn't make myself read more than a few chapters. It has nothing to do with the story being boring or bad, I've heard other people say they love it. I just couldnt' get past the first few chapters that go into detail about the daily trials of having a child with Aspergers or Autism. I live it myself daily so to see it in print and to know what I have to look forward to was just too much for me. Maybe someday I will pick it back up and be able to read it but for me, right now, I can't do it. Pathetic I know but I know my limitations with certain things and I'm okay with it. Now, if I could just figure out my limitations with say chocolate or coffee, life would truly be perfect. lol

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Monday. I am off to sit and stitch for a little while before work gets delivered for the day. That is another part of my routine that I've just added, I get to clean and take care of the house as soon as the kids leave and then I give myself an hour or so of stitching time so that if I don't get a chance to stitch at night, at least I've stitched some that day.

Happy Monday!

First Day of School and Other Stuff

2010-08-23T11:56:00.004-04:00

A BEAUTIFUL RAK from Lei. She sent this to me in July and I've finally gotten around to posting a picture of this beautiful handmade pin cushion she made for me. Thank you again Lei!!!!

I finished the first page of the bird but I still need to go back and fix the trees on the left. Since I messed that up, I haven't wanted to look at it because I know I have quite a bit of frogging to do.

Here is the older project that I found in a box in the garage. Yes, we've been here for five years but I still hadn't unpacked all the boxes. lol. I had finished the pink dinosaur and started on the purple. So, when I found these, I promptly finished the purple and started in on the green. I figured I'd go ahead and make one for each of the kids. Of course, I didn't have all the floss needed to finish the fourth so that one is on hold.

I had the pattern for LHN Little Neighborhood for some time. I had pulled all the floss and the fabric and had it sitting in my to do pile. I decided when I didn't have the floss to finish the dinosaurs and didn't have the gumption to frog the Rainforests that I would start this. I'm loving doing this one. Still, I haven't had time or energy to sit and stitch in a couple of weeks. Now that school has started I have a feeling it's going to take another couple of weeks for the routine to settle back down before I can find the energy to stitch still. lol

We had an exciting first day of school. The bus for Marie and Logan was late, about 30 minutes and considering it was the first day of school, that was nothing. They made it to school an hour late but so did quite a few other children. lol Ryan and Katie's bus never made it by our house in the morning. What made it worse was that Mommy called transportation and gave them the WRONG bus number when asking where it was and that bus had broken down. Later on when I called back, the woman had to correct me on the bus number which made us both cackle like a bunch of hyenas. I made her feel so much better since she had such a crazy morning. I'm glad I was able to help her with some comic relief. lol The little ones finally got to school by 11:15 lol. What a morning we had!! The afternoon went much smoother and once everyone was home safe and sound and talking non-stop all at the same time, I was finally able to relax. lol

Today was a much smoother transition. The buses were only 15 minutes late this morning. Ryan wasn't as excited about riding this morning as Katie won't be going back until Thursday. The school systems here do a staggered Kindergarten start. The first three days are done by last name and on the fourth day, they all get to come back to school. Katie had a wonderful day yesterday, even though she missed over two hours. She came home on the bus and didn't stop chattering about what a great day she had until after dinner.

I know she was excited because when she got home, I checked her lunch box and found that she took four bites out of her sandwich and drank her juice. She did find enough room in her excited tummy to eat some cheese its for snack time but that was it. Needless to say she never stopped eating once she got home last night. lol Ryan didn't drink his bottle at all until he got home yesterday afternoon! Woo Hoo!!!! I had sent two applejuice boxes in with his lunch and they were both gone so maybe (PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!!!) he's over the bottle during the day.

Logan's teacher situation got taken care of and he was back in with his awesome teacher from last year. He had a GREAT day and came home in the best mood!!!! Marie also had a wonderful day. The big 6th grader switches classes for every subject this year and she loved it! It's getting her prepared for middle school next year so I can't wait to see how she much she likes it once they start giving out homework. lol I'm still on the hunt for some of the school supplies she needs. I will have to make a run to Staples later today or tomorrow morning for the last thing she needs and send in the last of it all tomorrow. Can you believe it has taken three trips in her backpack to get all her school supplies into her classes??? The girl carries an adult size backpack too. Her poor back!! lol

Another new week and not much to show

2010-07-06T09:08:00.003-04:00

I did fix the boo boo I made on my Rainforest's design but then haven't had the energy or time to stitch since then. I've looked at it longingly a couple of times but the brain and eyes were too tired and I believe I may have finally learned my lesson about stitching while brain dead, errr I mean tired.

A quick non-stitching question for you folks that have the music player on your blog. Is it me, or do you lose songs off your player? I've just noticed that another two songs have totally disappeared off of it again. Where do they go?? Is there a song heaven for those tired and old (not so old in terms of when they were released) worn out songs??

The good reason (is there ever a good reason not to have stitching time??) is that DH and I have been doing some DIY home improvements to help the ol' pocketbook survive the Florida summer heat. Several windows and shades (and window film) later we now have an almost perfectly cool home without running the old A/C lower than 76. Trust me, this is quite an improvement! I believe that we may have finally gotten rid of the disgusting $280 monthly summer electric bill. (Please, oh please let that be true!!!)

Logan is going to be a nudist when he gets older. He strips everything off as soon as he hits the door after school. I even have to fight to keep his diaper on him. Speaking of which, it's been a fun week of taking him to the potty every 30 minutes but it seems to be working. He's not completely potty trained, he does go on the potty during those times but he still goes in the pull-ups even after being taken. It's a start! Ryan however, as of last night, is offically potty trained!! Woo Hoo!!! He's been insisting on wearing a diaper each night but for quite a while it's been dry. Last night, I had him wear his underwear with his plastic pants and nothing!!! I'm sure he'll want to continue doing that but I have no problem with the pastic pants. He can wear them for a little longer and then I think he'll be a big boy and give them up too.

A new week

2010-06-29T09:26:00.002-04:00

I finally got some stitching time in last night on my Rainforests project but I think I may have been too tired when I started it. First, I just have to know, have any of you looked at the pattern, knew which symbol you were stitching but, for some unknown reason, went on to the next symbol but stayed in the same color?????? Yup, you guessed it! I did just that last night. When it was time to go from the c to the z I realized in the middle of my stitching I had gone cross eyed or something and started stitching the z. I needed to frog almost everything I had done up to that point and let me tell you I almost threw it across the room. DH heard my muttering and was giving me the eye so I calmly bit down on my tongue and proceeded to go to another area on the pattern and worked with a totally different color. Not the smartest thing considering what I had just done but all turned out well with that particular color.

Let's see, I did get Katie registered for Kindergarten at her zoned school and filled out the paperwork to request a transfer to Ryan's school. Keeping fingers and toes crossed that we get approved. It will be impossible to go to three different school at the same starting time. Logan ended up being pretty good on the bus toward the end of the year so I didn't have to take him much but I can't see having Ryan get on a bus by himself next year for school. If they don't get to go to the same school it's going to be another hard year of transporting. I'm hoping that they will allow Katie on the bus with Ryan so that I won't have to make two trips to school. Heck, only two will be a breeze but still, I think I'd rather Ryan mature a little and be more independent to a point.

I still need to get my license reniewed. I will be calling for an appointment for next week. There goes my appointment for my mani/pedi. My DH was so very sweet and bought a spa package deal for me to go check out a new place. They were doing a promotion where you can get so much for a small fee. We all know that you can walk in the door with your certificate but it's hard to walk away without a few extras. lol I only have until the end of October to use this certificate so I'm going to have to drag (yeah right!) myself to the shop at least four times between now and then. I'm really looking forward to the haircut! I've been going to Fantastic Sam's lately because it's less expensive and so much more convenient but let me tell you, the quality of the cut is not so great. I'm a bit surprised by that because I've been to another one south of us before and was always satisfied. You just never know I guess.

Still working and attempting to keep caught up with all my chores while entertaining the kids. Still working on our schedule but I think I have one down finally! Going to do a second run on it today to see if it will work as well as yesterday and then "By George I think I've got it!!!" Woo Hoo!!! Only thirteen more days until summer school starts and will have to rework the schedule again but I think I can handle that!

She's alive!!!!!!!!!!!!

2010-06-22T09:37:00.004-04:00

A new book that I'm trying to read. It's about a boy/teen with autism.

Current project that I've been trying to work on for what seems forever. I did get to stitch about 20 mins the other night.

2010 Finish

Still not much stitching going on as my carpel tunnel is making it almost impossible to get any stitching done. I'm working on it. I have a couple of wrist braces that someone told me would work if I sleep in them. I use the wrist compression gloves during the day while working as much as I can as well.

I'm also back into working out. I've finally figured out that coffee isn't cuttin' it for my energy boost anymore. I took the bull by the horns last night and went out into our home gym and worked out for about 30 minutes last night. Sad, but true, that is all I could manage for the first time in months. I have been cutting the lawn every week but my DH is too helpful and we work on that together so not much of a workout. I'm not sure if I like that or not! lol Good that he's so sweet and helps out but there goes my guaranteed workout. lol

The kids have been pretty well behaved all things considered. We have somewhat of a routine going on each day. As soon as my work is delivered we try to get outside and get some fun time in the sun for about an hour (with loads of sunscreen on). After that it's time for lunch and then time for Mommy to get work done. After that I try to get the house picked up, dishes done and laundry started.

Vonna a/k/a The Twisted Stitcher gave me some great advice that I plan on implementing starting tomorrow morning. Going to make myself lists for every half hour of things that need to get done and check off as I get them done. This will be especially helpful with Logan's potty training. I need to review the Potty Training book for Autistic children again today so I can get all that I can from these intense sessions. We were doing so-so on the pt during the year but I let it get away from me for these almost two weeks of no school. Can't let that happen or we'll never get the boy trained.

Still so much to do to get ready for school next year. I still haven't made it to the school to get Katie registered for Kindergarten for next year. I have all the paperwork so there really is no excuse. Ok there is, I finally got the final paperwork together on the last day of school after getting Katie picked up. Now, I either take all four with me to fill out the paperwork or I wait until Thursday when DH is home and go by myself. Hmmmm, I wonder which I will choose?!?!

We have ventured out a few times with all four of us to the store. I have to bribe Logan with McDonald's french fries so he'll keep his clothes on while we are in public. I have to say, it hasn't been as stressful as it could have been. Logan is the best behaved out of the four and that says a lot. lol I'm even considering an attempt at taking them to the beach by myself. I'll let you know if /when I get that suicidal. The thought of how to get Katie/Ryan to the bathroom while dragging Logan kicking and screaming from the ocean has kept me from attempting it so far. lol I'll figure it out, hopefully before school gets back in session.

I also have to get my driver's license reniewed this year. Our state changed their paperwork requirements this year. Now, you need your birth certificate, ss #, two proofs of address, your first born son and a quart of blood. Okay, you don't need the last two but seriously, I've been driving for over 20 years so why in the heck do they need my birth certificate now???? I can see for all new drivers requiring all the extra paperwork not to mention the whopping $48.00 fee but for us old timers?!?!?! Really????!!! Of course, par for the course with me, I coudlnt' find my bc even though Mom insists she game it to me. I spent two weeks attempting to locate it and finally had to order it. A disgusting $45.00 later, I will have a certified copy in about a week. I could have paid less than half this but it would have taken about three months to get a copy, if I was lucky. I'm sure Mom or I will locate the original bc any day now. Especially as the money as come out of my account already and certified copy has been shipped. lol

A little funny to brighten up your day

2010-05-21T13:43:00.004-04:00

I've added a few songs to my player today. The very first song is one I heard for the first time in a long time today. I finally figured out what Ryan has been singing for the past couple of months. He would start shaking his butt and sing "apple bottom jean jean boots with the fur, the fur!" For the life of me I could not figure out what/where he got this from..... until today that is. I'm not sure where he heard it but one place could be from the television. We watch a lot of TampaBay Rays games. They play a part of this song everytime Willie Aybar comes up to bat when they have home games. Ryan picks up things after hearing them one time so....

Things that make you go hmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

UPDATE: Katie informed me that Marie taught Ryan this little ditty which explains the butt shaking a little bit better. I've never seen Aybar shakin' his tush to the music when he's been up to bat so......

The sky is falling! The sky is falling!

2010-04-13T15:05:00.003-04:00

I only have to finish the right book border and the bottom border and this is completed!

Here is my monthly SAL from Oakhaven Designs for February. Now I need to post a pic at the group page and request March so I can try to get caught up!

No, the sky isn't falling but I am posting to my blog for the second time within the same month so something is wrong somewhere! lol

I'm in the process of cleaning, doing laundry and trying to get some much needed and deserved stitching time in this week. I've decided that I need my work schedule to be Monday, Wednesday and Friday (or at least two days but with a break in between) as I need the rest of the week to keep up with the messes the kids always make. Today, Ryan is home again with pink eye. I was able to get some drops in his eyes last night and again this morning. Not too sure how this morning's faired with his major fit but I don't see any nasty goo coming out so maybe tomorrow he can go back to school. Shhhhhhhh! That means all four kids will be back in school at the SAME TIME! Gasp!!!! Quick, someone knock on wood!!! Cross toes and fingers too while you're at it, unless your stitching and then just cross both sets of toes for me!!

I did get the playroom cleaned and everything put away and I set up our other cable box in there for the kids to be able to watch Nick Jr, their new favorite channel. I actually hooked everything up correctly and finally figured out which channel to have it on and programmed that stupid remote they give you. That felt like I had accomplished a major feat today, let me tell you!!!! I don't mind them watching Nick Jr as it's all preschool which means learning all the time. PBS Kids and Nick Jr are our favorite kids channels. I do allow them to watch Disney channel but only the smaller kids shows. By the time Marie gets home she wants to watch the tween stuff but I have to say no because she has a load of homework to do. Does anyone remember fifth grade??? Did we really have ALL that homework to do too????

Well, I need to actually get some laundry folded before I can get some stitching time in so I'd better get to those baskets. It's not like the little buggers are going to fold themselves is it??!!

It's April already

2010-04-10T17:22:00.002-04:00

and I haven't posted since the beginning of March. What have I been doing for all that time you ask??? Welllll, let me see. The kids are still fighting the allergies, we had some great friends in for a two week visit and the kids had spring break. We had a great time during spring break visiting with the Parker's. We hit the beach one day and had a BBQ at the house on another day. Of course, again this year someone got sick on Easter Sunday. Katie was running a fever on Easter and came down with a wonderful case of pink eye in both eyes! She then shared the fever with Ryan and he was out until yesterday and she was out all week. So much for a break after the break for Mom. Anyone with children knows that mothers can't be sick but always end up catching something because the little ones just can't keep from sneezing or coughing in your face at least ten times while they are sick. So yes, I ended up with the lovely gunk again too. I will be so glad when Katie starts Kindergarten in the fall because the getting sick everytime you turn around phase should be over by now. That's the only downside to never having your child in daycare. They don't build up the immunities until they start school. Things will get better!

What am I doing right now you ask..... (DEEP sigh) I'm listening to my four wonderful well behaved children (COUGH, CHOKE, COUGH COUGH!) fight with each other yet again. I just heard someone call someone else a poopy head. I guess I should be happy it wasn't any worse than that right??? LOL All in all, they do get along fairly well and they totally surprised me when they behaved like (almost!) little angels when we had visitors. I really wish I could have kept little Lucy here with us as they never fought when she was here.

Really, the past couple of weeks (month) haven't been as bad as all that. I did finish my February part of the SAL and I am almost done with my LHN The Bookshelf as well. So, see I did find time to stitch with all that going on. Not only those two projects but I actually spent about 45 minutes trying to finishthe Autumn part of a SAL that was supposed to be done two or more years ago. Yeah, I'm slow but what's that old saying??? Something about being slow and steady always wins the race????

I still have no pictures to show any of the progress because my new camera is acting weird (Operatior error no doubt!) and for some reason I can't load or e-mail anything I pull from it. I'm sure I need to go in and tell it to save the pictures smaller but...... I would have to find the directions and then find time to sit and read it without falling asleep. That may take awhile. Perhaps I will just pull out the old camera and use it rather than wait for the year 3000 and me to figure out the newer camera. I need to get a picture of February so I can get March unless I've already missed that deadline. Hope not!

Howdy y'all!

2010-03-05T10:45:00.002-05:00

I haven't fallen off the face of the earth, I swear!! I did however, lose complete track of time. I can't believe that I haven't blogged in almost two months. Whew!

Let's see, hmmm, what's been happening here. Well, I've been ordering as much work as I can and still keeping up with the cleaning etc. (Okay, it's a struggle but I do have the house nice and clean at least once a week lol) My wrists have been hurting so much that I've not even looked at any stitching in about a month. Sad to say that I think I'm now in the worst stitching slump ever. Hopefully, the winter weather will go away as that only makes things worse and I can get back to stitching a little each day. I'm still struggling to finish my February piece for the SAL at OakHaven Designs group. I hope to have that done sometime this weekend so I can get started on March.

The kids have been sick off and on for the past month with all sorts of bugs. Marie's allergies have been so bad that we had to take her to the doctor and she now has a nebulizer for breathing treatments. In sunny Florida, we don't get the normal winter weather (well not the good stuff that kills all the germs). We get cold weather for a couple of days and then some nice warm days. All this does is make the pollen go completely crazy and 90% of the people end up with allergies so bad that they can hardly function. Marie has been suffering from this off and on for years but this year it went from bad to completely off the charts. Now, with the help of the nebulizer, she can finally breathe and cough up all that gunk that settles in her lungs. Poor baby couldn't get it out of her head or lungs and was downright miserable for a while.

Katie is fighting some bug this week that starts off with a low grade fever. It then becomes a nice (NOT!) mid to high grade fever with a headache and nausea to boot. Lovely way to spend the week. The worst part was that the fever would only show up in the evening. The next morning she would feel fine and want to go to school. Apparently, both aides in Ryan's class have this bug and another little guy went home with it the other day. Thankfully,KNOCK ON WOOD, he hasn't come down with it yet and I hope it stays that way.

I'm so far behind in my blogging that I still need to post pictures of Christmas, Katie's birthday, Ryan's birthday and I know there is something I've missed in between all of that too! Hopefully I can get a picture of the one or two finishes I had in December and then a progress picture of the SAL so you can see I did really stitch a little this year. LOL

Hope everyone is having a great week and that the winter weather is finally trying to head back home. We're having a cooler than normal Bike Week but it could wind down with a nice warm weekend. (At least, that is what I'm keeping my fingers and toes crossed for anyway!)

It does get cold in sunny Florida!

2010-01-09T09:54:00.002-05:00

If you get your magnifyer out, you can see what is left of one of Marie's "snow" balls. lol The grass looks white from the snow but it's just dead. Poor grass!

That white stuff that looks like dandruff on the wood here, is what we Floridians call snow.

I was almost too late, there was a lot more white stuff on this slide. In this picture it looks like sand from the sandbox. ROFLMBO

Here is all that is left of their snow after they made four snowballs and threw them at each other. Okay, mostly they were thrown at me but since the only one with good aim is 11, I only got hit once. lol

Ohhhh the weather outside is frightful!

2010-01-09T09:39:00.002-05:00

Gotcha! No, really, it is white stuff coming out of the sky but you can barely see it. It's more sleet than snow but hey, who cares! The kids and I just got back in from playing in it. There's nothing really on the ground that you can see unless you count the stuff that the tent collected. The girls had a mini snowball (ok, ice ball) fight. They grabbed the little bit of white stuff that had collected on the tent I threw outside the day before in a cleaning fit. I watched while they ran around the yard looking up at the sky. They had their mouths open trying to collect some white snow/sleet on their tongues. They are saying that this is supposed to stick around for another two hours but the temp is around 35 so I believe our chances of more snow are gone.

I didn't think to grab my camera to show you the tiny amount of white stuff that had accumulated. Sorry about that, now I guess it will be another 22 years before I get another chance to take a picture. lol By then, I'll hopefully have some grandkids and my kids will be the ones outside freezing their butts off in their jammies and slippers. Oh, I could go out back and take a picture of the slide so you can see I'm not telling a big whopper of a story but you will have to wait until I can get warm again. Sorry, this New England girl's blood has thinned out so much that I can't stand being in the 35 degree weather for very long anymore. Remember when we had a Christmas where the windchill was at -40????? I'd freeze instantly in that kind of weather now. lol I'll go out in a minute and get some pics of our "snow" and post them for you to laugh at with me.

Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!

2010-01-05T13:14:00.003-05:00

Now that I have your attention, this post has nothing to do with the title but I wanted to see if you were paying attention. LOL

Okay, it's been a while since I've posted and I'd like to apologize. Life tends to get in the way more than not around here. I've been busy working, taking care of the kids, getting the house ready for Christmas (and the cleaning up from it) and getting the kids back to school. Not to mention a few of us have got some nasty little cold that just will not let go. To be totally honest, my head congestion has been around since I put the Christmas tree up. All that dust stirred up a nasty allergy attack that continued into a nasty bug. Now little Katie has it and can't go to school. They had two weeks off for their Christmas/winter break and she still can't go back. Poor little girl! She's so sad that she can't go see her friends but she sounds like a bullfrog when ever she coughs or tries to talk.

Our normal winter weather has flown the coop. We've had nasty cold for the past several days. We've also had windchill advisories for the past two days and it looks like they will be here for the next couple of mornings too. It's pretty sad when sunny Florida can't get past 50 during the day. I don't think we even got close to it on Sunday and Monday lol. They are saying we may make it there tomorrow or Thursday but by Friday and Saturday it's back down into the 40's again. Now, if we could just have some snow in the evening, after DH gets home from work so the kids could go out to play for about five minutes. I can't get Ryan to keep on a hat or mittens. Logan will wear the hat and mittens but the shoes and socks keep coming off. Katie and Marie are the only sane children in this house. lol If it snows, they are the only ones going out to play in it from the looks of it. I really have seen snow in Florida, but it's been about 20 plus years since I did. lol

Work was absolutely crazy for the last two weeks of the year and now it's slower than slow. I was hoping to get a nice rhythm going so I could put some money away for January Santa sales but..... Hopefully it will pick up again soon. Now I have the time to sit down and stitch or get the house cleaned, the laundry caught up and the dishes done. Yeah, I'd rather be stitching lol. If I could just get my finger healed completely then I could actually get some done. My one finger keeps splitting near the nail. First one side, then the other, then back to the first side. I can't stitch because it's so sore but it also bleeds and leaks too. Go figure! I've been trying to put neosporin on with a bandaid covering it each night just so I can work the next day. Now there's a thought, if I don't have work then maybe my finger will heal quicker. lol

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a very Happy New Year!

Another great giveaway!

2009-12-09T20:50:00.002-05:00

Check out Karyn's great giveaway on her blog, located here. Good luck everyone!!

It looks like such a great bunch of things, I'm keeping my fingers and toes crossed that I win. lol

Black Friday

2009-11-30T12:36:00.003-05:00

Since I don't have any stitchy pictures to show (not much stitching done this past week due to having the kids home, working and having a pulled muscle or pinched nerve in my back) I thought I'd tell you about our dealings with Black Friday.

I'd love to go out on Black Friday, I know, I know; most people think I'm nuts. The last time I got to go was when I was pregant with Kaitlyn and I had to drag Marie and Logan with me at 5:00 a.m. They weren't happy but then again, they weren't really awake. I don't do the whole day shopping thing. I decide what I want and go get it (or rather I send DH to go get it) so we were home by 8:30 that morning and that was after doing breakfast. The kids were still in their jammies and went back to bed when we got home.

This year we started planning on things we wanted to get a couple of weeks before and waited to get the circulars on Thanksgiving to see where he was going first. We did enough research (Hey, with four kids you really have to know how to shop so you can get the most for your money) to find out that we could order a couple of things at Walmart.com and avoid that area of the store all together. They had $.97 shipping on a couple of items we've been wanting to get so at midnight I tried to go online to purchase. Their circular said it was available on Friday so what the heck right?? I tried again around 1:00 a.m. and gave up and went to bed. At 3:30 a.m. my DH woke me up to find out whether or not I was able to get those items. I immediately jumped up and hit the computer and to my surprise, I was able to order them both with no problems!

By the time I was done ordering, I was wide awake and that was the extent of my sleeping and my Black Friday shopping. LOL The DH, however, had lots to do and still had to head out to WM, Target and Staples. He headed out the door around 4:05 and was back home by 7:10 with a nice hot cup of coffee for me!! I got my wireless keyboard and mouse for more than 50% off from Staples and I couldn't be happier. I had been pricing the wireless keyboards and found a cheap one for $29.95 at Target (and that was just the keyboard) but was hoping that something better would come along with Black Friday sales and I got lucky! Staples had a nice set from Microsoft for the same price. Normally this set costs $79.95, or so they say. lol I was also able to get some nice jammies and a couple of pairs of jeans too. Yeah, I know! Black Friday is supposed to be about shopping for other peoples Christmas presents but I needed these things and I wasn't about to walk away from a really good sale. (Okay, Okay, technically it was DH not walking away from them but still, you get my point right?!?!?! lol)

We were able to get the majority of what we had put on our list and that's a miracle. Most times you miss out on a lot because you can't be in two places at once. I think it was because most places weren't really having really good deals so that made the decision on where to go a whole lot easier. I have to say I was pretty much disappointed in Target this year. That is my favorite place to shop and they really didn't have good deals. WalMart beat them on everything. After Santa delivers all the goods we helped him find, I'll show you all the good deals we found for him. I bet you didn't know we shop for Santa and wrap presents to help him out. Yup, for a couple of years now I've been doing everything I can to help Santa out as he's such a busy guy. ;) After we get the stuff for him, he has breakfast with DH so he can take the bulk of it back to the North Pole with him. On Christmas Eve, if he's behind on his wrapping, I help him out and still leave the cookies and milk for him.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and lots of fun shopping on Black Friday!

A pic and a story or two

2009-11-23T15:40:00.005-05:00

Happy Halloween Sampler from Oakhaven Designs

I finally finished the HH Sampler from Oakhaven Designs and posted a pic for you to see. Please ignore the wrinkles as I didn't iron it or anything just grabbed the camera and shot a pic. I did finish a small Christmas design be OHD but didn't like how it turned out so I am doing it again and will get a picture when it's completed.

So this weekend, my DH and I had a date afternoon on Sunday to go to the movies and head to dinner. I spent Saturday trying to get caught up on laundry, dishes and regular cleaning while keeping the children from killing each other. Logan had a meltdown each day but I think Saturday's was the worst. I'm still not sure what was bothering him but he was so mad he ripped his diaper apart. Now, thankfully, it wasn't a smelly diaper just the "wet" kind. I kept telling myself that I was very lucky. The whole time I'm wiping everything up and vacuuming all the lovely stuff they put in the diapers to pull the liquid away from baby/toddlers. Let me tell you that stuff is messy!! I was about to pull my hair out as I sat there cussing under my breath. Logan was in the bath soaking as he'd rubbed it all over himself. Yeah, that was lovely too but again, it could have been so much worse. I had an old can of carpet cleaner that I was trying to spray all over the carpet so I could scrub it. It wasn't spraying very well so me, being me a/k/a stupid as sh&* I had the sprayer up near my face as I tried to figure it out when I pushed the button. I'm still not sure what I was thinking (okay, I know I wasn't thinking at all) when I did that one but I did manage to close my eyes before I felt the foam hit my eyelids and face. Needless to say my face and hair were really clean and smelled like freshly scrubbed carpet. ROFLMBO! Lord I can do some pretty stupid things!!! Yes, I'm 41 and I still do incredibly stupid stuff.

I did manage to clean up the carpet without hurting myself any further and we made our date on Sunday. We had a great time, and as usual it was too short. We went to see A Christmas Carol in 3D and I have to say it was AWESOME!!! If you're going to go see this movie, play the extra $3.00 and go see it in 3D. I love Christmas movies and really enjoyed this one. It was neck and neck with Polar Express in my book. Today the kids and I are going to grab those 3D glasses I didn't turn in and watch PE in 3D. It's time for some popcorn and a nice sit down with the kids. They were very patient while I worked this morning so now it's time for a treat for everyone.

Hope you have a great week and a Happy Thanksgiving!

Work, work and more work!

2009-11-16T18:43:00.002-05:00

I did finally get some time yesterday to get some stitching done. I have one more ghost to do on my Happy Halloween Sampler from Oakhaven Designs and it will be complete! Yeah!!!! I've been wanting to get this one done for a couple of weeks now but work has gotten in the way. lol

I thought I had posted about my new job but that's what I get for thinking. About six weeks ago now, I received an e-mail from the local Data Entry company saying they had openings in the Homeworker Division and was I still interested in a position. I filled out an application almost two years ago and hadn't heard a thing until recently. I jumped at the chance and am now working from home. I had training for four weeks, Friday and Saturdays and then was able to do some keying while we waited until the next weeks training. We deal with those little inserts in the magazines. Those are fun to read, let me tell you!

Now that the training is over we are allowed to order as much work as we can handle. I've been working from 10:00 every morning until at least 5:00. Granted, I do have to stop and start twice while going to pick up Katie and Ryan at school so I really only work about 5 hours each day. I'd love to work more but until I get a little more used to the work I'm afraid to order any more. On Friday, I worked until almost 10:00 p.m. What a day that was! lol I also have some issues with carpal tunnel that I completely forgot about. It's amazing what your brain will forget when it hasn't dealt with something in a long time. DH went and purchased some special gloves for me and they seem to be helping. Now if I can just do something about my back. I will be getting a wireless keyboard in a couple of weeks to try to alleviate some of the back issues from hunching over the keyboard at the desk. Oy! It's hell to get old. LOL

I hope to get the ghost done tonight and get a picture up here this week. I have two Christmas (or was it three) designs sitting here begging to get stitched. lol I'm not too sure how much stitching I will get done during the week because, after keying all day (even with the gloves on) my wrists get a little sore.

Hope everyone is having a great start to this week!!

Hanging in there

2009-11-09T13:18:00.002-05:00

Just a quick post to let you all know that I'm still alive and kicking. I've not been stitching that much in the last week as I've been fighting a head/chest cold. I do hate the head colds as they make it nearly impossible to sit with glasses on your face so you can see to stitch. I'm about 2/3 done with my second Halloween SAL piece for the Oakhaven Designs group. Hopefully I can get that finished this week. Better late than never as they say!

The new job is going along smoothly for the most part. The training is officially over now and after Wednesday they won't be checking behind us anymore. I'm looking forward to being able to order as much work as I can get done every week day. I've decided, after dealing with it three out of the four Saturdays of training, that I can't order work for the weekends. It's really hard to work with the kids at home. I know, eventually I will need to figure something out as they will have vacations and summer break but I think I'll let that go until I'm more comfortable doing the work. It should be interesting the first week or so getting a routine/schedule as I run out several times a day to pick up or drop off the kids. Once I get the routine down, I should start to actually enjoy the work. You can't ask for a better job, work from home and you set your own hours. Perfect for those people that have really wonky schedules like me. lol

I hope everyone is having a great Monday and that the week is a good one.

Another awesome giveaway!

2009-11-05T13:30:00.002-05:00

Check out Jennifer's giveaway for her 8th wedding anniversary! I LOVE Tanya A/K/A The Sampler Girl's designs!

A beautiful Christmas giveaway!

2009-11-03T08:53:00.003-05:00

Check out Nina's blog and see what she's giving away!

A couple of great giveaways!

2009-10-26T11:03:00.003-04:00

Check out Jolene's blog for a pretty awesome giveaway. I love it!

Check out Kathy's blog. I love her blog and her "little man" is so adorable I just want to take him home with me.

Finally some pics

2009-10-24T16:48:00.004-04:00

Sisters Unite designed by Oakhaven Designs

Almost done with this Little House Needleworks design

Another cute Oakhaven Halloween design

Yet another

I love this one, and yes, it's an Oakhaven Design

I finished this one but can't seem to find the finished picture. This was supposed to be for my Halloween SAL but I finished it so fast I have to start another one. lol

I have to say a big thank you to all the lovely ladies who stopped by and commented on my last post. I have gotten (well almost) over the picture debacle and have fixed the Stitching for a Cure ornament mess. Thankfully, Donna is such a lovely person she said to just send them and if she can get them on the tree she will. If she can't, then she'll just auction them off individually. Whew! that was a big relief!! I have to say once I got the receipt from the postal clerk I felt like a ten ton weight had just lifted from my shoulders. Now, if I could just fix the picture issue that easily!!! I think if I take my computer to someone they could probably find them somewhere still sitting on it or I'd like to think so at least. lol

I am a total flipping Idiot!!!!!

2009-10-16T09:53:00.002-04:00

I can't believe how incredibly STUPID I am!!!!!!!! Here is where I have to tell you how badly I've neglected my stitching corner. I haven't touched it other than to throw more patterns and projects on the pile. Last night, I decided I couldn't stand to look at that mess any more and started going through the massive mess. Horrors!!! What did I discover???!!! My package of finishes for Donna's Stitching for a Cure tree was still sitting there waiting to be mailed to her. I must have moaned or whimpered because DH asked me what on earth was the matter. This week has been a pretty crappy week when it comes to my stupidity. This was the second stupid thing I discovered I did or in this case, didn't do at all. I now get to do the crawl of shame to let Donna know how totally mortified I am for my own stupidity.

What else could I possibly have done to top this you ask? Well, lets see, hmmmm. Our computer has been slower than normal, couple that with the fact that I knew I had to download/upload a computer program from the data entry company that I will be doing subcontract work for soon. I decided to remove all my cross stitch patterns and pictures from the computer and put them on one of my flash drives. I thought I knew what was on the flash drive so I formatted it without checking it first. I then copied all files to the drive and deleted them from the computer. After I did this I checked the amount of room left on the drive and was a little concerned as I had a lot (a ton actually) of extra free space left. This wouldn't have been the case if I had actually used the right flash drive. I spoke to my DH and asked if he had saved anything to a flash. No, thankfully, he hadn't. Yes, you would think I should have asked him this before I formatted the stupid drive.

A couple of months ago, we received some much needed software so I could work with Logan on his speech and other therapies at home. We had an older computer that wasn't being used so I set that up for him. At that time, I removed all our family pictures and put them on a flash drive and deleted everything else from that computer. Do you see where I'm going with this yet??? When the truth hit me, I thought I was going to be physcially sick. Most of those pictures, gone, wiped out, never to be seen again. I do, thankfully, have some that we had printed out but the majority are completely gone. Add this stupidity to what I discovered last night and I think you can get the picture of how totally miserable I feel right now.

I do have some progress pics of all the stitching I have done lately but I think you can understand why I'd rather not touch any picture at this particular time. I will get back on here sometime this weekend and post them. Right now, I have to e-mail Donna and try to explain my stupidity.

A quick update....

2009-10-12T15:56:00.002-04:00

to let you know that I've actually been stitching. I will get some pics this week sometime just not today. Mondays are not the best days in this house and today seems to be worse than the norm for some reason. I've done more running around than normal today and I can feel it. I had to run some errands this morning before making my way back home after dropping off the last child at school. By the time I got back home it was around 10:00 and I had the worst headache. No problem, throw on a small pot of java and that should take care of it. It was then I realized I hadn't eaten breakfast yet. Duh! I did eat and enjoyed a nice hot cup of coffee but it's not doing the trick.

It's now almost 4:00 and this headache will not let go. I'm hoping now that Logan and the two little ones are home I can sit and relax until Marie gets home. I think I'll do up another small pot of coffee and sit with my feet up. Maybe a little rest and some more food will kill this bugger once and for all. lol I will get the camera out of the bag and take some pictures of my stitching from this past week tomorrow. Logan will have to stay home as he came home at 3:00 with a temp and they have a rule that children have to be without a temp for 24 hours before they can come back. He seems fine to me; running around like normal so who knows what it was but I don't mind not fighting him in the morning to get on the bus. It will be fun getting him in and out of the van while taking Katie and Ryan but hey, I'm not even going to think about that right now. lol

Happy Monday and I will be back with pics tomorrow.

Lordy! I did it again, Oy!

2009-09-21T12:20:00.003-04:00

I can't believe it's been almost a month since I posted on here. I thought I was supposed to have more time now that the kids are back in school but it hasn't happened yet. It's now starting on the fifth week of school and things may settle down soon but then again.....maybe not! LOL

Let's see, no pictures to show of all that wonderful stitching I've done. Okay, I haven't done much stitching lately but I could still at least snap a picture to show what little progress I've made. If I did that I might actually get the pictures off the camera from Logan's birthday back in July. Geesh! I've been a very bad girl lately. No stitching, no pictures and I still need to send my mother-in-law and my mom pictures from Logan's birthday. Maybe I can get them off after Marie's birthday this Saturday. DH is planning on taking a vacation day on Friday and taking her to Universal Studios as a surprise. I have to keep telling her to behave herself or she'll ruin her birthday surprise. I can't wait to see her face when we wake her up extra early Friday morning!

My life got a little crazier than normal the second week of school when little miss Katie came down with the flu. She was out the entire week and I had to take her to the pediatric urgent care to get some meds for her. It turns out she is allergic to Tamiflu and it only made her stomach worse. It got a little scary there but thankfully she was able to turn it around on her own and started getting better by Saturday that week. Whew what a week that was!!! Somehow, I was able to prevent the other three from catching the flu but at one point they all had a little fever and mild cold. Thankfully they never got any more than that and we survived the first three weeks of school. Last week, they all made it through the entire week without coming home early. Yeah!!

Now, this week, I'm ready for the bus schedule to get to a more normal pace so that things can get into a rhythm. I can dream, can't I????? LOL

Happy Monday everyone!!!!

WOW! Time flies when you're having fun!

2009-07-22T09:54:00.002-04:00

Marie doing her morning reading

Logan and his favorite birthday gift. It's loud, noisy and of course, he loves it!

Katie and Ryan snuggling before bedtime.

My gift to myself; I'm looking forward to finishing and framing it.

Gift for DH if I can just make myself sit and stitch at the blue. It's the logo for the TampaBay Rays baseball team.

So, what have we been doing with ourselves these past four weeks??? Well, my diet is going great! I've lost almost ten pounds in all and am doing pretty good on the exercising. I've started helping DH by cutting the grass. I actually like getting out there and sweating my butt off while I have some "quiet" time away from the kids. Yeah, I know; running lawnmower and quiet are not usually words one uses in the same sentence. If you're a parent, you know what I mean. LOL

The kids and I have been going to the park at least three times a week and started hitting the beach twice a week lately too. Of course, when we hit the beach, DH has to be with us as taking three or four kids and all their junk is nearly impossible for one person. Although, I have weeded a lot of stuff out as I see that they don't use things. I gave up bringing any of their chairs or extra umbrellas. We take a couple of huge towels to throw down so they can track sand all over them. Of course, we can't forget all their toys now can we?!?! The only ones who play with the toys are Katie and DH. Although, toward the end of our last visit, Marie and Katie did join in the castle making fun. Logan stays in the water when he goes with us and you can't get him to come up at all.

Logan is still enjoying summer school just not the getting up and on the bus by 7:00 a.m. every morning! We took the time this past weekend and finally put the boys beds together as bunk beds instead of having them side-by-side. Logan loves climbing up into his big boy bed. Now, if I can just get him to go to sleep before 11:00 p.m. each night things might get easier for the mornings. LOL Today we had a nasty morning but he ended up in a better mood by the time the bus got here. He has been wearing a harness to keep him from moving around in his seat but he absolutely hates it and I have no more energy to fight him anymore. He's just going to have to be free other than the seatbelt. He only has one more day this week and all of next week and it's over so they will just have to deal with his constant movement and kicking.

Four more weeks until the "real" school year starts and all of them will be going. Okay, so I will only get three hours (if that) each day to myself but since I never have had that since I stopped working over two years ago, I'm happy with that!!!!! I'm looking forward to getting everyone settled back into the school routine and I think they are really excited about it too. They love spending time playing in the backyard and at the beach and park but I think they all want to see their friends. I've had lots of fun with them this summer too. I wonder what I'll do with my few hours of peace and quiet?!?!?!

Stitching but no progress pics yet

2009-06-19T10:15:00.002-04:00

Long time, no post eh?! It's been a busy week with all the kids home from school. We've been playing outside in the kiddy pools at least once a day and trying to take a nice walk in the mornings. As long as we can get outside before 9:00 a.m. the walk is great but anytime after that and it's a sweat suck-the-life-out-of-you walk. Today we're skipping the walk as they all woke up too late for it. It's back to the horsey rides through the house with Mommy being the horsey. At least I get my exercise that way right?!?!

I have been stitching but no progress pics to show. I finished my second Peace, Love and a Cure to send to Donna and I have one more ornament to finish stitching before I can send her package out. I did try my hand at finishing but I made a mess out of two cute smalls so I have to give up (for now only) and send all that I have to Donna to finish for me. She's such a great lady, she agreed to finish all that I have stitched for her Stitching for a Cure tree.

I've been meaning to get on here with a post but with all the kids home and Logan's habit of turning the computer off, my time on the thing has been drastically reduced. I'm hoping to get into a nice schedule of fun, school work (summer we like to keep everyone up-to-date and have them practice what they learned this school year) and down time soon. Logan's summer school will be starting in about two weeks so a different schedule will begin soon. In the meantime, I'm enjoying the later waking up time when I can get it, especially as I'm having to stay up later with Ryan. Oh and I've given up coffee so it does make for a harder wake up time in the morning. On top of everything else, I've finally pulled my head out and started exercising and eating better so I can lose some weight. I hope to be down to a tollerable dress size by the time the kids start school in late August. Wish me luck!

A few awesome giveaways!

2009-06-08T14:09:00.003-04:00

Okay, if you could have seen what I just did you'd be shaking your head and chuckling at me. I put in my title and promptly hit enter instead of tab and posted this with NOTHING in it. I tell ya' if my head wasn't firmly attached......

Kathy

Melissa

Karen

Gaynor

Good luck everyone!

Check out CindyMae's Giveaway

2009-06-01T16:17:00.002-04:00

Go to CindyMae's site here and check out her awesome giveaway! I can't wait to see who wins and what she comes up with for them!!

While you're there; check out her designs and how Jenna finished her latest 4th of July pattern.

Hope everyone has a great week!

Pics

2009-06-01T12:42:00.003-04:00

Brown Ribbon is for Colon Cancer

Completed OHD SAL

New pattern on Stitching for a Cure site.

I did do a lot of stitching this past weekend but I also did a lot of frogging. I figured I just needed to continue stitching on easy patterns while the frogs were visiting or I'd give up and not touch anything for another month. I really like the new pattern that Donna has on her blog. It was a fun stitch and the colors are pretty. I did substitute a few for floss I had in my stash or I would have had to wait until my next visit to Michael's and I have no idea when that will be happening. I didn't feel like waiting forever so I made do with what I had and I like the outcome.

Now, I really, really, REALLY need to work on my finishing. I need to just bite the bullet and try different techniques or I'll be sitting here biting my nails and miss out on all the fun everyone else has been having. I have just about everything I need to do the flatfolds but I've been to scared to attempt it on the Peace, Love and a Cure yet. I do have a few other things I could try first but I think I've been afraid to find out that I'm really not THAT crafty and that will really make me cry. Wah wah wah! Oh, just stop being a namby pamby baby and "just do it!" already. At least do it this week before the kids are home from school for the summer and you'll really have an excuse for not being crafty! Yikes!!! ;)

The frogs came to visit!

2009-05-27T11:11:00.002-04:00

So it's been a crazy couple of weeks, okay, months. I was finding time to stitch before but life got in the way when the kids got sick then hubby and me too. After that, I had no stitching mojo to speak of at all. I did start the OakHaven Designs SAL but only had the first part done when the mojo flew out the window. Last week we had tons of rain and yes I mean tons! Our area alone had over 27 inches of rainfall. You would think that it would have been perfect stitching weather right? WRONG! No mojo and I was sooooo wanting to get back to things but just couldn't pick up the needle and thread.

This past weekend I was determined to get back into the swing of things. I picked up the second half of the SAL and frogged more than I stitched. I gave it up for a little while and went to work on my next ribbon for the Stitching for a Cure tree. OMG! I think I pulled the thread out and started over at least three times. Now, I've been wanting to get back to my LHN Bookshelf or my Monopoly but I was at least smart enough to stay away while the frogs were camping out. I think they stayed around because all the standing water was heaven for them. LOL

This week calls for clear and hot days with highs in the upper 80's to low 90's and it's perfect stitching weather. Will I get to do much????? It depends on how quickly I get caught up on all the laundry and other regular chores. Throw my spring cleaning in the mix and I'd say that the stitching time is drastically reduced. CALGON take me away!!! I need stitching time to relax from the chaos that we call life. LOL

Next post I hope to have pics of the finished SAL and a finish of the ribbon for SFAC. I hope everyone is getting lots more stitching time than I am and am looking forward to summer when there is not a lot of running around to do each day! June 8th, here we come!!! Woo Hoo! No more getting up early and making lunches at what feels like the butt crack of dawn after an almost sleepless night. Yep! You guessed it; the boys are back to keeping me up or getting me up after a few hours of sleep. I think once our summer routine hits things will settle down or at least I can sleep in later! (IF they let me LOL)

Been MIA

2009-05-13T12:36:00.003-04:00

A quick post to let you know that I am alive and kicking just not a lot of kicking. LOL The kids have been sick off and on for about a month now and I finally came down with it. DH came down with it last week and it was only a matter of time before I succumbed to it as well. Hopefully I'm on the mend but I'm still having trouble breathing through all the gunk in my head and chest. At least the sore throat has left the building for parts unknown!!!

Not much done on the stitching front as I didn't want to have to spend more time frogging then actually stitching and because I got a neat gift for MD. I hope to get back on my OHD SAL part two soon and I need to post a picture of part one. I haven't worked on any more of the cancer awareness ribbons either but that will start again once I'm back to 95% which should be soon.

Other than being sick on Mother's Day it was a nice relaxing day. The kids got me a NintendoDS with BrainAge and BrainAge 2. Of course, due to the cold I've not done to well on either of them and DH has actually really enjoyed playing with them. Go figure right! I think I know what he needs for Father's Day so I can get my game back. LOL It's lots of fun and the competition is fierce in this house. Maybe after my cold goes away I can actually get a better brain age. Hmmmmmm don't think I should touch that one. LOL

Cancer Ribbons

2009-04-27T16:20:00.003-04:00

For Aunt June who battled breast cancer over 20 years ago. We miss you!

It states that light blue is for childhood cancer. There is a young girl who has breast cancer. Her name is Hannah and she's ten years old. Go check out her parents blog here. When I started stitching this I just wanted to stitch one ornament for every cancer. I think we can dedicate this ribbon to Hannah. Purple is for pancreatic cancer which I believe is what Aunt Becky was diagnosed with eight years ago. Her cancer was so advanced that they opened her up in surgery, they had to close her right back up. She passed away a couple months later.

The finish for Peace, Love and a Cure; just need to finish it into a flatfold. I found some pretty material at Wal-mart last week. I have everything I need to finish it except for time but I'll find that soon! LOL

For Grandpa Moreland who was diagnosed with leukemia when I was fifteen. He went in to have bypass surgery when I was flying from Conneticut to Arkansas to spend the summer. Due to engine trouble, I got stuck in St. Louis and didn't get to Little Rock until a day later. While I was out of the loop, they got the diagnosis. That was the last summer I spent with him and we had a great time visiting and driving my Grandmother crazy.

For Grandma West. She's gone now but was a breast cancer survivor.

I plan on doing as many of the colors that I can get done between now and the time Donna raffles off the tree. It surprised me how many family members and friends I've lost to cancer. I've never sat down and thought about it until Donna mentioned that she'd like the story behind our ribbons as she's thinking about writing a book about her experience.

A New SAL

2009-04-24T10:17:00.002-04:00

If you're interested in doing a SAL why not join us at Oakhaven Designs? It's called Love Grows, there are only four colors involved and it won't take long to complete.

If you are interested, please go here quickly as Monday is the day to e-mail Tonya. If you don't get it done that day you will miss out on an awesome SAL. If you want to check out the other SAL that we just completed check out my post from March 30th as my completed SAL is pictured first. Hope to see you there!

P.S. I will post more later but I just realized that we don't have a lot of time left to get into the group for this new SAL and I didn't want anyone to miss out!

An Award

2009-04-16T10:05:00.002-04:00

Kelly gave me this award, so a HUGE thank you goes out to her!

"This blog invests and believes in the PROXIMITY-nearness in space, time and relationships. These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement! Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. "

The rules call for you to pass this on to eight people. Although I feel that a lot of people deserve this award, I can't list everyone so I will randomly pick a few that I love and here they are:

Donna - who is doing something pretty special for the American Cancer Society. Check that out at Stiching for a Cure

Tanya check out her new site for all her awesome patterns at The Sampler Girl

Kathy

Cindy - check out her new exchange blog here!

OMG! What a way to spend Spring Break!

2009-04-13T14:41:00.002-04:00

A quick update before I call the pharmacy again. It turns out poor Logan isn't just suffering from allergies but has strep throat too. He didn't communicate that he was in pain until late yesterday afternoon. Today, we were able to get him into see the local doctor. DH had to go see if he was going to be picked for jury duty so all the kids came with us. Katie came down with what I thought was just a head cold. Ryan started back up with the cough and runny nose this morning. The doctor took a look at all of them and then proceeded to check them all out. Yep, you guessed it! They ALL have strep throat!

I'm waiting on the pharmacy to fill their prescriptions for antibiotics so I can start them ASAP. He said they'll all no longer be contagious 24 hours after the first dose so we should be able to still head to Ryan's neurologist's appointment tomorrow. My children (the one's that have had to have them) and antibiotics don't get along. They kill all the good stuff along with the bad stuff so I have to fight twice as much junk the entire ten days. I just left a message for hubby to stop by Publix for some diaper doublers and some yogurt for those children that can have dairy. For Logan, I get to start him on some other supplements as soon as the antibiotics are done in ten days. I've never had all four kids sick at the same time before so this should be interesting. LOL Please say a prayer that I survive this week and still have my sanity by the time the three go back to school on Monday.

End of week update

2009-04-11T08:32:00.002-04:00

Stitching for a Cure ornaments

I was able to finish one ornament for Stitching for a Cure and start on another but then life got in the way this week. Ryan was still running a little fever on Monday and his cough sounded like a frog so he stayed home on Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday Logan just didn't want to move at all which is totally unlike him. He stayed home that day but was fine by the time we got back from dropping Ryan off at school. I think he was just tired as he woke up at 2:00 in the morning and didn't get back to sleep for an hour or so.

He has been having issues in school due to the change in teacher. We've been trying different techniques for calming him down and I think we finally found "the ONE". A nice warm bubble bath does wonders for his moods. Yesterday he had a meltdown before the bus came so I decided to just drop him at school when I took Ryan. Well..... it didn't quite work out the way I planned and he ended up just staying home with us. LOL It was the last day of school before Spring Break so I just gave in and let him stay home and be babied.

On top of having both boys home at different times this week, I've been dealing with the school regarding the teacher they want to put either in his class or in another Autism class next year. One of the parents mentioned that this teacher had been disciplined for abuse. There was more than one person who witnessed this episode and another episode that wasn't reported. To make a long story short, we contacted the school board. Keeping fingers and toes crossed that things are settled at the meeting we have to schedule for after spring break.

I'm not sure how much I will be doing this next week with all the kids home. The weather is supposed to be absolutely beautiful; sunny and in the 80's. We have one day of running around but the rest of the time is free to play. Lots of outside time, movies, painting and games are on the schedule at this point. Hopefully I will find some time to sit and stitch as I really want to get some more ornaments done. I looked up the different ribbon colors for the different cancers (site provided on a link on Donna's site) so I'm thinking I can do a couple different colors just not sure which patterns I want to try. Loved the heart with the blackwork so may do a few more of those. I will post pictures when I can but if you don't see a post next week, you'll know why.

Happy Easter everyone!

Something to think about

2009-04-07T09:16:00.005-04:00

I've been following Donna and her stitching for a cure tree for a while now. I'm also following her personal stitching blog too. She's got a great idea for raising money for cancer. She's doing a stitching tree. She has links in her sidebar for all the free patterns that can be used to make ornaments for this tree. In November the tree will be raffled off and the proceeds will be given to the Amercan Cancer Society.

I recently finished LizzieKate's Peace, Love and a Cure and although it isn't what she needs for the tree I've told her I want to donate it to her cause. I'm also going to stop what I'm currently stitching and pick one of those free patterns and stitch up something for her tree. I've lost several family members to various cancers over the years and I need to do something to help. If I can help by doing something I love, like cross stitching then I say GO FOR IT!

How 'bout it? Is anyone else out there up to the challenge? Can you take a couple hours of your time and make a beautiful ornament for her tree so we can help fight the good fight?! I dare you, no, I DOUBLE DOG DARE YOU to pick up the gauntlet and run with this. Who's with me?!?!?

Oh and I forgot to mention the absolutely awesome finishing website that she has in her link on there too. She has everything you need to start the ornament except the floss, needle and cloth.

One more thing; it's a favor that I'm asking of all that read my blog. If you could possibly take a minute or two and just put something on your blog that directs people to Donna's Stitching for a Cure site so they can read what it's all about. The more people who see this, perhaps will mean more people willing to stitch an ornament for her and the American Cancer Society. Thanks!!!

Pictures from this past week

2009-03-30T10:34:00.002-04:00

Oakhaven Design SAL - completed!!

LizzieKate's Drama Queen for Katie and Marie. I was stitching the one for Marie when Katie asked if I'd make one for her. Now to finish them both!

Peace, Love and a Cure (LizzieKate)

I also was able to finally start my Monopoly SAL. I cheated a bit; didn't bother pulling all the thread needed, only what I needed for the first page. I didn't want to have to wait until I made a trip to Michael's to be able to start.

What a busy week I had! I stitched most of this, dealt with a sick little one, and still did all the cleaning and running around, not to mention the mounds of laundry that are a normal fixture in this house. I didn't get to do any walking but Katie and I did work on her ABC's and some numbers so I call the week a success! I'm also wanting to start a chart by Little House Needleworks called The Bookshelf. I went a little overboard (for me, at least) and purchased some LizzieKate and LHN charts this month. I haven't purchased new charts/booklets in over 20 years so the little bit I spent made me feel so guitly. (But not guilty enough to stop myself as you can see LOL) I'm now saving up a little bit more so I can do another purchase but this time from Tonia at OakHaven Designs. She's has some great charts and I've been drooling over them for a while. I can't wait to get those and add them to my start list. Hmmm, perhaps it's time to also look back at my starts that have been sitting forever and pick them back up too.

This past weekend was pretty nice at least on Sunday. We were able to get outside with them yesterday afternoon for some much needed running around and play time. Ryan and Logan enjoyed climbing the ladder and sliding on the slide, while the girls ran around playing with the frisbees and the baseball (plastic thank goodness!). DH and I played frisbee while we chased them all around and at one point I was holding Ryan and throwing the frisbee back and forth. I really need to do this a lot more as my arms are aching today. LOL Now to do this enough where I can actually lose weight. No go with the weight loss but I will make myself walk this week and play outside more so that I can get some exercise. I just want to lose inches so my clothes fit or so I can get new ones when they are too big for me. LOL

Don't forget April is Autism Awareness month. If you don't know much about it, just give me a shout and I'll be happy to give you some information about this issue. Logan is six, almost seven and was diagnosed right before he turned three. He's a great kid and finally communicating enough to where we can understand him. What a great milestone! Now, if we can just get him potty trained! LOL

November finished!

2009-03-16T10:31:00.003-04:00

I loved doing this one. I stopped and started a lot but it was easy to do so. One more to go and I'm done with the entire SAL. I can't believe it! Woo Hoo! I'm going to finish a SAL right along with most of them Yeah!!

I finished the November piece late yesterday afternoon and still found time to start a small project that I'd been admiring and finally ordered. Sharon did the Drama Queen pattern from Lizzie*Kate for her daughter and I loved it! I knew I had to have it and do it for my girls. I've changed some of the colors a bit because Marie loves purple so I went with more of a purple color scheme for hers. I will have to add something for Katie as she's technically still "in training" and hers will be in pinks and lots of it. I guess I could make one for me but it would have to say something like "I put the Queen in Drama Queen!" LOL

Today didn't start off on a good note but I think we're settled down now and it will turn around by the end of the day. Marie woke up not feeling well and thankfully my Mommy radar was on overload. I kept her home with the stipulation that if she started feeling better by the time we took Ryan to school that I would drop her off then. She's home for the day with some kind of stomach bug. Thankfully I believe she's feeling better because she just asked for some soup and said her stomach is growling so loud she can't hear anything else! That is a good sign; thank goodness!

Logan has been sleeping in his big boy bed for two weeks straight now! Woo Hoo!!! If I had known that all it would take is for us to get rid of that stupid sofa, I'd have trashed it myself and threw it out the door months/years ago! Now, if I can just get him to go back to sleeping all the way through the night. The past three nights he's woken up in the middle of the night screaming and punching. The only way to settle him is to snuggle and tickle when he starts the screaming. He eventually falls asleep but boy, that sure does take the sleep out of a good night's sleep. LOL

Katie and Ryan are both doing great this week. Katie had a little stomach bug or something last week but is all better. Ryan's over his nasty stuff too now, so once Marie gets back to normal all will be great in our house. (Keeping fingers and toes crossed that no one else gets sick for a little while!) Spring break is just around the corner so I hope that they are all better and don't get anything else so we can have some fun out in the sun. I will be breaking out the water slides again and I think we'll be able to keep them out after that. I do believe once we're over this teeny tiny cooling spell that supposed to hit this week (low 70's during the day; some cooling spell right?!?!) that it will jump right into the hot summer temps. We'll be looking forward to summer vacation and weekly excursions to the beach.

Happy Spring everyone, I know, I know, it doesn't offically start until Friday but.....

September and October finally done!

2009-03-09T12:13:00.004-04:00

I liked doing this one; had to stop and start too many times to count as the kids weren't allowing me to have any stitching time.

September was fun until I had to do the french knots. I do hate them things!

I didn't think I would ever get these two months finished. I'm so glad that I finally did though. I received November this morning and hope to start sometime today. I did the outlines last week for these two and the remaining two months so all I have to do now is stitch the actual design. Yeah!

Katie and I just got back from a nice walk around the neighborhood. She has soooo much energy. I just wish I could have 1/100th of it! She was a little pink by the time we got back and even though she wanted to keep going I thought it best to take a break for some juice (actually more water than juice but she likes it!) In about ten more minutes we are heading out back to play and sit in the sun. It's going to be a nice week with temps in the high 70's to low 80's the entire time. Don't see much rain in the forecast until this weekend so Katie and I are really going to enjoy our days!

Last Friday I got it into my head to add an insert to the child gate that we have out back to keep the kids from running off. My DH made it look so easy when he put the stupid things up last April so I thought, piece a cake, I can do this no problem. Well, let me tell you! I found out just how out of shape I really am by the time I was 1/4 of the way done with it. LOL We had two extra inserts (two panels each) and I wanted to make more room for the kids so they can run more. Katie was great and never even tried to get out and see what I was doing. She'd check on me and bring me my water but the rest of the time she'd play quietly by herself in the shade. We now have about and extra six feet of space added to our little backyard haven and the kids loved playing in it this weekend. My hands and wrists only ached for about a day but my legs ached for a lot longer. LOL Hence the walk this morning; have to start using those muscles a lot more so when I do some outside projects they don't make me pay for days for it!

Enjoy this lovely Spring day everyone!

Conversations with children

2009-03-04T11:14:00.003-05:00

While reading some other blogs, I happened upon At the Honeysuckle Tree's post today. It got me thinking of all the cute conversations (and not so cute) that the kids have with each other and with me each day. I try to remember the cuter ones and fill DH in at the end of the day but more often than not I don't think about it again until he's gone again. I don't think I will tell him about the first one. ;)

Each day, I have to get all four up and ready to go. I have three that go to school and one that stays home with me. The older two ride the bus but the three year old is too little (Yeah, I know it's all me!) and I take him and pick him up every day.

Katie "Mommy, what did that moron do?" after I commented on another driver and their "wonderful" driving skills. Oooh that could have been SOOOOO much worse. Whew; got lucky there.

Ryan "NO! we're going THAT way!" this conversation/argument happens every SINGLE day on the way to school. Katie will say "NO! we're going THIS way!" The thing that always cracks me up about this conversation is that they are both pointing the EXACT SAME WAY. I know other drivers are wondering why I'm laughing so hard. Ohhh if they only knew.

Standing outside waiting for the bus to come for the older two the other day:
Me "Marie, did you brush your hair today?"
Marie "YES MOM!" hmmmm
Me "Are you sure you did, your hair is sticking up like you put your finger in a light socket?!"
Marie as she is combing her fingers through her hair "Yes, I did, see?!" uhhhhh
Me "You have to use a brush, NOT your fingers!" OY! I then have a brain fart; she sees me do this each and EVERY morning. I have to brush Logan's hair (with my fingers) again after we get outside to wait because he deliberately messes it up as soon as I take a brush to it. Me"uh, well, uh, just use the brush tomorrow okay honey?"

Ryan "DON'T you DARE touch that!" Huh, what the?!?!?! Okaaaay. Well, it would seem he's watched Frosty the Snowman one too many times. Katie proceeded to go right along with him and they acted out the scene where Santa and the magician have it out about the magical hat. Not just once either; they acted out this scene at least five times until Marie joined in and really got them going. I was laughing so hard by the time they got bored with it that I had to go sit down before I passed out from lack of oxygen.

Okay, this one is from way way back when Marie was about two years old. I've always been the Mom that kissed the boo boos to make them feel better. It didn't matter if it was an unwashed (yuck!) foot or finger I did it. If it was bleeding, I would clean it, bandage it and kiss it several times. Well, after this I had to draw the line. She fell and scraped her bottom and came running for me. My little angel says "MOMMEEEEEEE! I hurt my butt, will you kiss it for me?" Me "Uhhhhh, no honey I can't do that. It's fine, you don't need a kiss." Okay, I think she just grew horns, "MOMMY! KISS! MY! BUTT!" Did she do this at home where no one would hear?!?! Nooooooo, she did this (on the playground) at daycare when all the other parents were picking their kids up. It's true, no one can embarrass you the way your kids can.

A little bit of this and that...

2009-03-02T10:22:00.002-05:00

Not much stitching got done this past week. Early in the week when I finally got my stitching mojo back, I cut my index finger while making dinner. I was trying to get that stupid plastic thingy off the potato bag and it must have had a nice sharp edge. Nice deep slice; good thing I wasn't handling the food at that point. That very same night (or should I say early morning) around 3:00 a.m. Logan woke me up needing a diaper change. OMG! I do hate middle of the night stinky diaper blow outs! LOL I was trying to open the wipes and somehow sliced my middle finger (of the same hand) on the stupid container. Oh what fun that diaper change was let me tell you!

The next day when I was awake (after a gallon of coffee as neither of us could fall back to sleep before 5:00 and I had to get up at 6:30) and ready to stitch. Hmmm, a little too sore to do it without a bandaide. You know, you really can't stitch with bandaides on your fingers because they keep snagging on the thread. Not only could I not stitch but typing was just as painful; what a crappy way to start the week! I did get to read a good book though so I guess all was not completely lost. The new novel by Stephenie Meyer called The Host was extremely good. Of course, I loved her other Twilight series so I thought why not give it a try?!?! Totally different from that series but just as entertaining.

DH was sick on top of all that fun so it's not like I would have been able to get much stitching done anyway. Poor baby never gets sick but when he does WOW! He's starting to feel almost human this week but with the weather not making up it's mind he may just end up getting it again or dealing with some really fun allergies. Stay away from the kids PLEASE!! LOL So far (knock on wood!) the kids are all doing fine, a few allergies acting up but nothing major.

Ryan is loving school and actually walking to class now. His best little buddy was out most of last week with strep throat. I have NO IDEA how he managed not to get it. Another poor little guy had the stomach flu and ended up in the hospital from dehydration. We've been there done that so I'm SO THANKFUL that stayed away from him this time. He was so happy to see Tristen this morning. He ran right over to him and sat down and started chatting at him. He'd realize that Katie and I were still there and run back for a minute for a quick hug then right back to his buddy. Too cute!

Logan lost another tooth last night. Little bugger wouldn't let me near his mouth. He'd run giggling away from me until I captured him to check out his mouth. Poor tooth fairy! Not getting the tooth again this time unless she'd like to dig for it when he decides to "release it". UGH! Second one that I was unable to snag. To be totally fair, I didn't realize he was dealing with a loose tooth because he's been fine. No major screaming fits other than the normal stuff so I had absolutely no idea it was loose. It took me a few minutes to figure out that the stupid thing was even missing. I only noticed it when he grinned at me before taking off running away from me. Hmm, that hole in his smile wasn't there a little while ago. LOL

July and August done

2009-02-21T09:18:00.003-05:00

Loved this too; so did Katie!

This was fun; love the colors!

I finished these two a couple of weeks ago but life got in the way of me posting the pictures. I was able to start on September last night and got pretty far with it before bedtime. I can't wait to finish!

On the non stitchy fun I've been having....Spring cleaning of sorts. Logan broke the couch; I ordered a new futon to be shipped to our local WM so I wouldn't have to pay shipping. One should never order something online without getting a complete picture of what one is purchasing. The futon is really nice but so not kid friendly. Or at least not my kid friendly is how I should have put it. He would have torn it to bits in less than a day. It's sturdy but the cover is held on by these dowel looking things with a tiny piece of material to hold it to the actual futon. Yeah, Logan would have gotten to those in less then a minue even with the protective plastic sheet and regular sheet I had used to cover it. LOL

The only reason I ordered it was because I thought that no store had any in stock other than the regular metal ones. WRONG! Target had a nice one for a nice chunk of money less than the one I ordered so we grabbed it. Now I could have tried to send the original one back but Logan got to another piece of furniture too. DH has a recliner just like mine, or it was before Logan played with it. The back is having issues whether you are just sitting in it and rocking or you have the footrest up. We've had to perform maintenance on both these chairs before so we know where the problem might be located if it can be fixed. That is to be done tomorrow while DH is home; if it can't be fixed he will be hauling it out to the curb for someone to take home and figure how to fix or the garbage man comes for it first. I like having a futon in my living room; I can sit down and fold clothes and actually be comfortable. It's a lot easier than sitting on the floor surrounded by clothes.

The fun part of this has been all the cleaning I've been doing in order to make room for these items. I've done some much needed cleaning to get rid of a desk that just was a junk collector. I have four children, I don't need something that will collect junk for them. We have enough crap without the extra help, thank you very much! In doing all the cleaning I finally realized that you can't always reach all the areas that need to be dusted when you do your normal cleaning. I spent two and a half days cleaning and getting rid of things. I also spent the following 4 days with severe allergy problems because of all the dust you can't reach until you start moving things around. OMG! I had a cold the week before and that was like a day at the beach compared to what I went through with my allergies. I'm sure that the pollen count outside hasn't been the greatest lately which only added to my pain. Have you ever had allergies so bad that you couldn't put your glasses on your face????

I had to take some days off while I battled my allergies but I hope to be completely done with this move by tomorrow night. I moved things and didn't really like the way it looked so I've been figuring out in my head how I want to arrange them so it looks a little better. Ever have one of those situations???

Update of sorts....

2009-02-10T11:40:00.004-05:00

May completed

June was fun until I saw this picture; I just realized that I went over to far so the left side has three spaces and the right only has one. It was supposed to be two and two.

I'm working on August as I was lucky and received July and August on the same day. I had been on such a roll but that went out the window. I did have to stop and get everything in the backpack and bags to take to school yesterday for Ryan. I would put stuff in then walk away to do something else and remember something I'd forgotten. I did that all day Sunday until I finally thought I was done. As we were in the van I remembered one other thing I forgot and had to run back in for it. He made it to school on his first day with everything he needed and then some.

Katie cried on the way to breakfast after we dropped him at school. She's got such a big heart and it's so easily hurt. I was doing good until I saw those tears then she turned her head and closed her eyes and that was all she wrote for me. We were able to get her to smile through her tears after bribing her with food. We took her to breakfast at our favorite place and what a little angel she was there. She sat so nicely in her seat and ordered her breakfast (toast but still she was so cute!) from the waitress. She sat like a good girl the entire breakfast and for the first time in a very long time I was able to eat a meal while it was still hot.

Laugh, go ahead. You take it for granted until you don't have it. You'd think with all the cold meals I've eaten for so long that I would have lost all the baby weight a while back but no, not me! Maybe now that I have time and one less child to lug around I can go for those walks I've been talking about with such yearning these past years. Yeah, maybe tomorrow because it sure didn't happen today. I had to distract Katie from her heartache with a trip to her favorite store; Target. I think DH has given Katie his shopping bug! We came out with a pad of purple paper from the dollar section and some kids gloves/mittens that were marked down to 75% off. Now that the cold weather is gone (I hope it is anyways!) we won't need them but we will next year and this time I'll have them!

Off to take advantage of the quiet time to clean as fast as I can so I can sit down and relax for a bit before it's time to go pick up the little man. Have a great Tuesday!

Busy, busy, busy!

2009-01-31T09:26:00.003-05:00

April

March

February

Here are the three months I was able to get done in the last week for the Oakhaven Group SAL. Some ladies are already done with November! Their needles are flying so fast they must be invisible! These are such fun; small and easy to stitch and you actually feel like you've accomplished something. I love it!!

It's been a very busy week here in the Cole house. Monday was Katie's 4th birthday, Tuesday we had Ryan's school transition meeting and the rest of the week was spent trying to get everything needed to be ready for Ryan to start school on his 3rd birthday. Monday, February 9th my little man will be going to school!

I went into the transition meeting with the outlook that he would not qualify (per the speech therapist from the previous week's evaluation) only to find out that he did qualify for full time Pre-K ESE with occupational and physical therapy. I went from preparing mentally for what I would need to work on with him at home to figuring out what I needed to get for him to start school! We had to get his shot record, schedule a physical, and making a list of everything he will need to take with him to school. While I got his shot record, I went ahead and got Katie's too since we are going to sign her up for VPK next school year.

She will go for three hours each day for the entire school year so she can be ready to start Kindergarten the following year. Hopefully by that time I will be okay with Ryan riding the school bus with his older brother and sister so I can drive Katie to and from school. Otherwise, I will be driving to school four times each day and that's only for those two. There is no way that I can take Logan off the bus; that's how I get him to get moving each school day. He LOVES the bus and will actually stop fighting me getting him dressed when I say "No bus if you don't get your clothes on!"

I'm hoping that DH can go with us that first day just so I have moral support. I know he'll be fine as he is going into the same class that Logan was in for three years. He has the same teacher and same aides. One of which, just so happens to be our babysitter! He loves Ms. Ann and her husband Charlie so I know he will be fine. He'll probably walk in the door and say bye Mommy and never even look back! I, on the other hand, will be having a very hard time keeping the tears at bay. Not going to be a good morning for me but I keep telling myself it's the best thing for him. He'll get the therapy he needs for his feeding issues and his attention issues. Katie and I will be on our own for the rest of the school year. Once summer comes it will be back to all of us except for when Logan goes to summer school. They may offer that for Ryan too but I'll deal with that when the time comes. LOL

A heartwarming award

2009-01-30T10:29:00.004-05:00

I received this wonderful award from Margie. I can't thank you enough Margie! It is an honor to receive this from you.

The rules of the award are to select 5 people that I think deserve this award. There are so many people who deserve this award that picking out just 5 is going to be extremely hard.

Here are the 5 wonderful ladies that I have chosen for this award:

Nic
Heather
Mylene
Stephanie
Kelly or here

I wanted to add everyone that I have listed in my blog list but there are wayyyyy too many of them. I'd still be typing this post in July LOL.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Goodness....three posts in one week!!!!!!!

2009-01-21T12:38:00.004-05:00

SAL from Oakhaven Designs Group

Have I said lately how much I love this group?!?! Tonia is a wonderful person and her designs are just adorable. I plan on purchasing the mystery SAL that they did back in August as soon as I get some extra $$. Go on over and check it out, if you like purple you will LOVE that SAL.

I finished the January part for the SAL that I was talking about a post or two ago. I'm not too sure I like the silver filament that I paired with the white floss for the snowman but I do like how it turned out on the snowflakes. I just didn't think about the color of the fabric back in October/November when we first heard about it and I grabbed what I had in my stash and cut it to size the same day we heard about it! I had to come up with something to go with the white so it wouldn't get lost in the background. I think perhaps I should have gone with a lighter silver or perhaps a blue. I didn't have a blue so I went with the darkest silver I had in my stash. I think I need to go on a stash buying spree (sale items if possible) as soon as I get some extra cash in and get some more material and different types of floss.

I have received the pattern for the February part so I will be starting on that sometime today or tomorrow. Probably tomorrow as the kids will be home soon as it's only half a day of school today. They had Friday and Monday off, went to school yesterday and only had half day today. I think they should have pushed the half day to another week don't you?!?! Once I finish the February I will jump back on my Autumn (Four Season SAL) and try to get that done so I will have only one more season to do and that will be completed. Then I get to figure out how to finish it. Any suggestions??

Happy Wednesday everyone!

An Award

2009-01-19T12:06:00.002-05:00

Thank you Kelly for the nomination!

I am to list 5 of my addictions and list 5 bloggers who I think are fabby. So here goes:

Addictions:

My family
Cross stitching
Reading
Chocolate
Coffee

Now it's your turn to do the same on your blog. Claim your awards ladies!

Sharon
Robin
Nic
Beatrice
Cindy

Update

2009-01-19T11:37:00.003-05:00

Another Christmas finish; started in December but finished beginning of January.

Autumn of the Four Season SAL

As promised from about a month ago, here are the pictures of the stitching I had been doing. I finished the Christmas one and am still plugging along on the Four Season SAL from last year. I also have another SAL that just started on the Oakhaven Designs group. I'm chomping at the bit to get this one started as I got the fabric ready as soon as I heard about it back in October/November.

The kids are home again today but will be heading back to school tomorrow. Since the weather will be extremely cold again tonight; believe they said upper 20's here, I will be skipping the therapy for tomorrow morning. It seems my van doesn't like the cold. It has been having transmission issues every once in a while where it will go in reverse but when I put it in drive it has to wait a minute or two and then it will work. On Thursday I tried to take it to run errands but it really gave me major fits so I just parked it and had hubby do them. On Friday evening I tried to go get my hair cut but when I tried to start the mustang it was dead. It barely clicked when I tried to turn it on. Hopefully it's just the cold bothering the transmission and the battery cables on these cars because if not, it's going to be fun here for the next month or so while we wait for income tax money! We've been planning on using the money we get back to take care of any issues with both vehicles so I'm hoping they continue to behave until after that time.

Plans for this week are to get caught up with everything that got pushed back because the kids were home and then get caught up on some stitching. I hope to have the January part of the Oakhaven SAL done so I can post a picture. The SAL is closed but she will sell the pattern after it's completed. If anyone is interested in joining go here. I haven't been able to get much stitching done these past couple of weeks and I'd really like to get back to at least an hour a night. Any less than that and I feel like I'm having withdrawals. LOL

What a wonderful day!

2008-12-29T09:00:00.004-05:00

Logan

Marie

Katie

Ryan

Christmas at our house was the best ever this year! Both boys really were aware of what was going on. This is the first time that Logan participated in opening presents on his own. Last year we had them in their respective areas and gave them gifts and allowed them to open at the same time and I just grabbed pics after it was done. This year, something told me we needed to do one present at a time. Of course, the old video recorder wasn't working as the battery was so dead, there was no resuscitating it. I had my handy little digital camera on from the time we started until the last gift was unwrapped and the battery died right after that! I didn't even have enough juice to take pictures when my Mom got here a few hours later. I took pictures as they were unwrapping so I probably ended up with five to six pictures per gift. LOL

Back to Logan, he surprised me by grabbing the very first gift and ripping the paper. He was what I'd call a "neat ripper". He'd pull a piece of paper off, throw it on the floor and move on to the next area until the entire gift was done. (Later he handed each piece to me or Marie so it wouldn't make a mess!) It was such a sight! Last year it was like pulling teeth to get him to unwrap. I had to help him the entire time and after a few presents I had Marie open them for him. What a difference a year makes!

Ryan was into unwrapping this year too and for a three year old, he did pretty good. You could tell he has sensory issues by the way he'd start flicking his fingers if the paper didn't come off quick enough. (Got stuck to his fingers, what a sight it was when the tape got stuck to him!!LOL) He loved all his Thomas the Train toys and all of Logan's too! He was really getting into it by the end and reached over the gate and grabbed a gift and started ripping it open. I was laughing so hard I almost dropped the camera. Logan didn't mind it at all, by that time, he was OVER the whole scene and just wanted to play with his Learn Through Music. Yeah, that toy was from three years ago and he had it in his lap or by his side the ENTIRE TIME. He serenaded us with different music for the entire time. He liked his new toys and had them neatly placed around his area but would always go back to playing with his old toy.

The girls had a blast opening gifts. Katie was loving all the Barbie's she received and Marie loved her new Video Now player with the mini DVD's that she got to play on it. Of course, she also loved Katie's Barbie guitar and had Katie playing with that as soon as it was out of the box. I think Marie was more concerned with Katie getting to open all her stuff then she was about her own things. What a great big sister she is; they may fight like little wildcats but they really love each other! Oh and what a treat we had!!! Logan was singing some Christmas carols; Jingle Bells, Santa Claus is Coming to Town and Feliz Navidad. Of course, you couldn't understand all the words but some came out clear as day and he had the tunes to each song down to a science. I've tried to get him on tape but you know how that goes! Every time I get near him with the camera he stops singing. What a little character he is, hamming it up UNTIL the camera is on him.

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-24T15:41:00.002-05:00

I've been very lax with keeping my blog up-to-date lately but after the holidays I promise to get back to my weekly posts. (if not more!)

I just wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year! I hope that everyone gets to spend the holidays with family and friends and that you get to rest a little too. We are staying home and are going to have a wonderful time. Once the kids open up all the gifts from Santa (or bags of coal which ever they receive) we will relax in our jammies watching movies and playing with the new toys. Dinner will be chili and cornbread with some sandwiches, YUMMO! The hardest part of the meal will be the chopping of the onion then browning it and the meat.

Have a wonderful night tonight and day tomorrow!!

Oops!

2008-12-10T10:31:00.002-05:00

Katie was helping me clean but decided she was too tired to finish!

It looks like Ryan is counting for Hide-and-Seek but he's asleep!

I had to get to get this picture; usually this little guy is almost naked when he hits the door after school. Shoes, socks and shirts come off as soon as the door is shut. I think he hates all clothes except for pants and I'm not too sure sometimes about them. LOL

I have been stitching just not a lot these past couple of weeks so I don't have any pictures to show. I'll take a quick shot later and post it soon. I didn't realize it had been so long since my last post. My how time flies when you're having fun! It also doesn't help that any time I try to sit down to do a post Ryan decides that he wants to snuggle with Mommy.

I still haven't put up the Christmas decorations yet. I know, very bad Mommy!! I was thinking about it yesterday when hubby was home but he decided to put up the light fixtures in the kids rooms. Since I'd been waiting on that for almost four years I wasn't about to say no! I did start today to go through all their current toys and weed out what they don't play with or have outgrown. I have quite a big bundle that will be offered up to a local freecycle group today after I finish going through everything. That's the first step in preparing for Christmas in this house; weed through to make room for new. I also need to clear out a space for the tree and redo the infant gates. Yes, even though my youngest will be three in February I still have infant gates in place and will continue to until they stop tearing up my books and everything else! I have to get back in that area and pull stuff (garage here we come!!) so I can vaccum in preparation for our tree which I'm bound and determined will go up tomorrow. I want to get as much as I can done before the older two get home so that we can start putting the ornaments up on the tree together. I always loved that part of decorating as a child; listening to carols, drinking hot cocoa and just having fun with the family.

I believe we are completely done with the shopping for the family so after the decorating comes the wrapping of presents. I so don't want to do what I did last year and sit on the floor for hours while I wrapped all the gifts. Who am I kidding, I got so tired by the third hour I picked items and just slapped some stickers with their names on them and had DH put them under the tree. The kids had a ball unwrapping gifts but also loved being able to see some so truly it didn't matter. Since hubby's family didn't wrap things from Santa we have compromised and wrap half so I can live with that.

Tagged!

2008-11-18T10:53:00.005-05:00

I was tagged by Meari.

Here are the rules:

*Find the 6th folder in your photos folder and then the 6th photo in it.

* Pray that you remember the details ;)

* Post it on your blog

*Tag 5 others, leave a comment to let them know they’ve been tagged.

Okay, the 6th folder only has two pictures in it (for Logan's PEC book; a picture of a book I made for him for his therapy)

So here is the 6th picture in my 7th folder:

Logan and Katie in the pool July of 2007. Marie was in there too but for some reason I couldn't get my camera to include her. Bad Mommy!! I have since figured out the camera and include all children in the area when taking a pic LOL!

I tag Heather, Carolyn, Henderica, Kelly and Beth.

Some pics and an update of sorts

2008-11-17T10:52:00.005-05:00

See, I told you there are too many great patterns in this magazine!

Here is the free pattern that someone announced in a newsletter. You can find the design here. Look at Victoriana, then under Freebies.

Here is The Prairie Schooler, Inc. Snowy Night pattern from the JCS Christmas Ornament Magazine for 2008

Here is the Scandinavian Stitches Norweigan Reindeer from the same magazine. (Just need to finish both now!!)

It's been rather crazy around this house this last month. I was started awake yesterday by DH asking if Logan had any bread left. Logan is on the GF/CF diet and it's not always easy finding things that he will eat but bread is one thing he absolutely loves. He loves his PB toast and boy you'd better never run out of bread or PB! I jumped out of bed to go searching (very groggily I might add) for his bread. We order it from Amazon once a month and I supplement with homemade between orders. This month he hasn't really been very receptive to the store bought so we decided to skip the next shipment and wouldn't you know it was all gone! I had to think quick (still more than half asleep) and decided to make some homemade waffles for him. The whole time I'm doing this he's standing there giving me the "Logan Look".

He's standing there in his jammie bottoms, no shirt and his blanket wrapped around his neck/head fuming at me. Good thing the recipe is easy to follow or I'd have been in BIG trouble. Once his first waffles were done, he was happy again and I could make some much needed coffee. (if I weren't afraid of needles I'd have set up an I.V. and just went for the vein shot of caffeine) I then had to throw all the ingredients in the bread machine (wonderful WONDERFUL invention!!) so he could have some fresh bread later on. The boy proceeded to eat three or four waffles and snack on other stuff. Once the bread was done, he was eyeing it saying "I want peanut butter toast, please, thank you, OKAY!" He ended up eating two pieces and a piece of cinnamon toast too. He's obviously having a growing spurt. I'm just thankful he's eating as some days he just picks at his food.

I hate days like that. The good thing was I just continued from there and washed all the clothes (towels will be done today) and did dishes, mopped the dining room floor and vaccumed everything. (had to mop the floor because he let me know he wasn't happy being made to wait for his food by playing in his chocolate milk on the chair and floor) Not two hours later the playroom was demolished and the food crumbs from their snacks and lunch were all over the place. Why do I bother, I ask myself this question a lot. LOL

Another awesome giveaway!

2008-11-13T09:32:00.002-05:00

Come check out Chiloe's blog to see what she is giving away. While you're there, drop her a line to wish her a belated birthday. I wish I had found her blog sooner so I could have wished her a Happy Birthday on the actual day!

I will be back in a little while to post a picture of my small finish from last week and my current small project. I had a great weekend; DH and I were able to go out for date night after all. We had a lovely dinner and then walked around Barnes & Nobles for a while. I found the Just Cross Stitch Christmas Ornaments issue and of course bought it! I had tried to find this at a bookstore closer to us but couldn't find it so I'm glad we decided to stop and walk around before heading back home on Saturday. The current small project I'm working on is an ornament from that magazine and I've got some sticky notes marking the other pages I want to do as well. (Imagine what it looks like with neon pink sticky notes sticking out all over!)

2008-11-05T09:26:00.004-05:00

This award acknowledges the values that every blogger shows in his/her effort to transmit cultural, ethical, literary and personal values every day.

The rules to follow are :

1) Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person that has granted the award and his or her blog link.

2) Pass the award to other 15 blogs that are worthy of this acknowledgment.

Remember to contact each of them to let them know they have been chosen for this award. Thanks goes out to Debbie for considering me as a recipiant of your award!! I love reading her blog and I think you will too, so when you have a free minute go check it out.

Here are a few of the blogs that I choose for this award are:

Kelly - who is always making me smile or laugh with her posts.

At the Honeysuckle Tree

Carolyn

Shari

Cheryl
Kathy

Miss Deborah - a true inspiration

Mylene

Some pics

2008-10-30T13:36:00.005-04:00

Stitched this in one night! Join Tonia's group so you can join in on her January SAL!! You can purchase her awesome charts from this group too so come on and join us all!!!

I worked on this for a week and loved doing it! This is from Brook's group which has a lot of great designs too!

Thank you for this award!!

2008-10-30T13:19:00.002-04:00

The rules for acceptance of the award are as follows:

1. Pick 5 blogs that you consider deserving of this award based on their creativity, design, interesting material and also for contributing to the blogging community, no matter what language.

2. Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.

3. Each winner has to show the award and link to the blog that has given her or him the award itself.

Congratulations to the following: I know it says to please pass the award on to others but I just want these ladies to know how much I enjoy reading their blogs. They don't have to pass the award forward just know someone out in "blog land" loves to read your blogs!
BW
Michelle
Dawn
Sharon
Beth

Awesome giveaway!

2008-10-30T13:05:00.003-04:00

Please take a second to check this out! Leelou is having an awesome giveaway!!! WOW! I know, I know, it's supposed to take you directly to her site from the picture but my brain is fried so I had to do it the "old fashioned" way. Sorry folks, I had a hum dinger of a headache and had to take something and now I'm very tired but still trying to get through all the stuff I wanted to get done today.

A little Mommy time

2008-10-23T23:16:00.002-04:00

I started a quick Halloween pattern that I think my girls will love once it's completed. Hubby took the camera to the game tonight so maybe tomorrow I will be able to get a shot of it. Then again, maybe not. The kids are home from school for a teacher duty day so who knows what will get accomplished as we have two therapies scheduled for the afternoon.

For some reason, I woke up early this morning. It was one of those times where you know you aren't going to be able to fall back to sleep so why bother. I decided to take some much needed me time and just sit and read. About 30 minutes later, little man Ryan started calling me. "Mommy?" "Mommy, where are you?" I, of course, ran to get him before he woke the rest of the house and we snuggled in my recliner for about an hour. He wasn't fully awake so, with his eyes closed, he said, "I love you Mommy!" (I think my heart melted; nothing like hearing your little ones tell you they love you!) He then put his head on my shoulder and just snuggled right up and fell asleep in my arms. I was able to sit there and enjoy just holding my little snuggle bug and thinking about my baby growing into a little boy right before my eyes. I swear it was just yesterday when I brought him home from the hospital and now he's almost three! He's my constant companion; it's almost 11:30 and the other three are fast asleep. Daddy won't be home until much later so we get some more quality time tonight. It's times like these that make me so thankful that I can spend all my time with them. He just dropped something on his little knee and is requesting a kiss for his boo boo so I will sign off for now. Hope everyone is having a nice restful sleep!

Monday update

2008-10-20T12:57:00.005-04:00

4 Season SAL - Spring and Summer done!

ILCS - Halloween SAL

Here is the Halloween SAL finish from this past weekend. I also completed the Summer part of the 4 Season SAL. Now on to the Fall and Winter parts! I also need to start on the newest ILCS SAL after I get the fabric size I need and decide on the color or colors.

I'm surprised I have been able to get much done in the last week or so as all of us came down with a nice head/chest cold again. This time DH also came down with it but the eldest did not. Oh how I wish that she did get the little head cold rather than what she woke up with yesterday! She is now blocked in her room and the bathroom and not allowed out under any circumstances. She has the stomach bug that I hope is just something she ate but I don't think that is it and with everyone run down still because of the head/chest thing I'm just praying we don't get this other nastiness too. OY!

Katie is now 100% potty trained even though Mommy is chicken and puts her in a diaper at night. I was going to stop doing that this past weekend but with everything going on I thought the heck with it! She hasn't had an accident in about a week now so it's a done deal. I didn't think this would ever happen so I should be doing a big happy dance but I'm just too tired to do it. I'm wiggling around in the desk chair so that will have to be the happy dance for now. LOL

The boys are still not sleeping through the night although I can't blame them with this bug. Logan (KNOCK ON WOOD) has slept on the couch and not come to get me for the past two nights. I was going to let out a whoop of joy yesterday until DH told me that he came in to snuggle with him instead. Due to Marie's illness I've had to take Katie in the boys room and have her sleep in Ryan's bed. To alleviate any problems I've just slept in there with them through the night which hasn't made for much REM sleep for me lately. One day in the not so distant future, I will look back at this episode in my life and laugh but right now; not much laughing going on.

I've tried to stay up to watch the ALCS games and last night wasn't easy at all. I did fall asleep twice; Katie and Logan fell asleep with me but not Ryan. I woke up in time to watch the last inning of game 7 between Tampa and Boston. What a game and what an ending! I was able to prop my eyes open long enough to watch them give the MVP award to Tampa's Matt Garza. I'm so glad that he won it. He was so relaxed right before the game. He had me cracking up when they panned over to the dugout and there he was with his IPOD on and just jamming to his Tupoc. For a second there, after he took the mound I thought he still had his IPOD on but then realized he had some cotton in his ears to block out all the noise from their fan's cowbells. We still have the cowbell from when DH went to the regular season game against the Red Sox (which they won!) Thankfully hubby didn't put it back together and ring it throughout the game. I would have had to grab some ear plugs and leave the children with him to deal with. LOL

Here's hoping that this week gets better soon so I can get some much needed sleep. I have a full week with the therapies which were rescheduled, a few teacher conferences and Ryan's school transition to deal with as well. Calgon take me away NOW!!!!!!!!!! LOL Hope everyone has a great week.

Framed!

2008-10-08T11:35:00.003-04:00

Almost finished product

I found a frame while cleaning out the bedroom last night and decided to attempt to frame DH Astros project. I still need to do a little bit to it because as I was taking this picture I noticed that there is a teeny wrinkle in the top of the fabric. I think I need to cut it down just a little then glue/tape it to the cardboard back. I finished this in August and here it is October so I thought I'd put a picture of what it should look like when I'm done. Of course, the picture is crooked because I had to fight to get a picture where the flash wasn't reflecting off the glass back at me so this was as good as I could get.

Another update

2008-10-03T08:28:00.003-04:00

Latest pic of 4 Season SAL

I've had lots of time to sit and stitch this week due to potty training Katie. Since she was terrified of the potty I had to pull the little potty out and have it in the playroom so she could sit and watch a movie. It took an entire week to get her comfortable enough to where she would actually go more than a drop or two. She would get on and off every five minutes all day! She's still doing that but we've moved on to the big girl potty in the bathroom so not sure how much time that will leave to stitch. The bribing her with a toy really worked!

She really loves Logan's speech therapist Cheryl so that is how I'm getting her to go on the big girl potty now. (That and I've promised to take her to Target to buy her something when she accomplishes it! $1.00 bins here we come!!) Yesterday she went both one and two in the big potty so I'm hoping the end is near. Actually, I'm praying it's near because she is still doing the get off the potty and two to three minutes later getting right back on. My hands are so raw and sore from washing them so many times. Every time she gets near it I have to wash my hands and hers so at least this will teach her to wash her hands after every use. It's time to get her crayons and coloring book out (GREAT distraction from the potty every two minutes!) Now if I could just get the boys to sleep through the night!!!!!

Finally...a stitching update!

2008-09-27T12:31:00.002-04:00

Spring is almost complete!

The first of the four season SAL is almost completed. I had a few moments of OH NO! I think I'm going to have to frog the entire border but I found that it's good now. Well, I should just say it's as good as it gets because somehow I ended up with four rows on the left side between the border and the actual stitching and five rows on the right side. Rather than pull ALL of the stitching out and starting again, I will leave as is and just enjoy what I've done. I really like how this one is coming along and can't wait to start the Summer part as it has flip flops (which are my favorite summer foot attire!!)

For news on the home front, Katie is now successfully going pee pee in the potty about 75% of the time which is a major improvement! We finally got her comfortable just sitting on the potty and it finally just happened that she went more than a drop or two. I'd been promising her a special toy if she could go several times in a day without messing and when she did, I gave it to her. She liked it until I pushed the button and it made all sorts of movements and music. She informed me that she didn't like it as it was too loud and to turn it off NOW! LOL

Ryan and Logan are finally almost back to 100% with very little (if any) coughing so now I get to start Ryan back on his eating therapy again. Yeah! I think he does better every day but just in small steps so I'm very happy to be back on the therapy. Logan is now requesting what he wants by actually saying, "I want milk or juice! Of course, his milk sounds like mulk but hey, I know what he's saying.

Marie had a ball for her birthday yesterday as a friend came to spend the night. It was very unexpected as her family had an emergency so we took her in and she ended up staying all night. The girls had a ball; watching movies, playing games and pigging out on popcorn and other snacks. Marie didn't sleep much the night before or last night so tonight she should sleep like a baby, if she doesn't crash for a nap before that! Tonight, we will have the whole cake and unwrapping the rest of her gifts so it's like she's having two birthdays. (Yeah, I don't think she minds having two full days of special Marie fun!)

Update

2008-09-23T15:40:00.003-04:00

Still no time to stitch this week but I'm hoping for some much needed down time tomorrow before the kids get out on half a day. I really want to finish the first of the 4 Season SAL that I started so I can move on and start something that Tonia over at OakHaven Design Group gave us today. I love this time of year even if the weather doesn't exactly feel like Autumn right now. (It's in the high 80's and the humidity is up there too) I love her designs and I really wanted to be able to do the Mystery SAL that she had but I knew there was no way to get it done along with everything else. (Crying) So now I can at least stitch the new chart for Halloween that she has given all members of the group. Thanks Tonia!

My Mom came through her procedure with no problems because they couldn't find a block. Of course, I found out that if the artery isn't over 70% blocked this particular procedure won't see it. She's doing much better and has been really good about not smoking so they are letting her come home this afternoon. She will have to go back again next month for another procedure that will hopefully find the area that is giving her so many problems.

The kids and I went back up today and hung around until after 1:00 hoping to take her home. The nurse came in and said the doctor has to see her and will not be at the hospital until after 4:00 so she's stuck there. I made another trip to her place for some clothes so she can be comfortable while waiting. The kids were so bored that one of the lovely nurses came in and made them balloons from the gloves that they use. Good Lord but the kids had such a ball with those stupid ugly things! They were easier for the kids to play with as they could grab the fingers and throw them at each other. (not to mention running up and down her room.) I think Mom was almost happy to see us leave so she could sit in peace and quiet.

Somehow I managed to get up, shower, get lunches made, diaper and toy bag packed, kids off to school, other kids in the car and head to see Mom with NO COFFEE! I didn't get the first bit of coffee until after 2:00 when we were on our way home. It's almost two hours later and I still feel the need for some more so as soon as the older two get here it's time for more coffee and some baking for Logan. Hopefully tonight while the baseball game is on I can get some stitching done.

Update - sort of

2008-09-22T06:06:00.002-04:00

No new update pictures of my Seasons SAL but I did work on it a little bit these past couple of weeks. Not as much as I'd like to have but at least I put a couple of rows into it. The kids are almost done with the cold. I believe that Katie got it again as she was almost done with it the first time. Everyone else is feeling better so that's a plus.

I spent the day at the hospital with my Mom yesterday and will go back this morning after I get the two older ones off to school. Mom has been keeping a lot from me lately so I was in for a very rude awakening yesterday when I got to the hospital. Seems she has a blockage in her heart and will have something done today to find it and try to fix it. Of course, she's terrified of the procedure and threw a hissy fit yesterday. Even snuck her cigs in the bathroom for a smoke. I warned her about that but she wanted me to go get some things from her place and when I got back they'd been giving her all HELL about it.

She almost signed herself out but the doctor got on the phone with me to explain that if she left that would be it. They might not get to her in time to save her the next episode she had. They wouldn't let me walk her outside to have a smoke as her oxygen level is dangerous, so they gave her a sedative instead. Thank god for I.V. and sedatives! I stayed with her until my oldest brother got home from his Air Force National Guard week. My other brother was driving a truck to Houston this weekend and was supposed to fly back yesterday. When I called him he was in Louisiana and I thought he was driving back. Oh no, that wasn't it. He was still trying to drive there! Poor guy had four flat tires and had a hard time finding someone who had tires for the truck. On top of that, he's sick and had to hear me tell him about Mom so I know I made his day worse.

What a day I had! It got much better the minute I walked in the door to hear my little ones say Mommy you're home! I received lots of hugs and kisses and got to settle everyone into bed for the night. That was a nice homecoming after such a crappy day. Today should be another interesting episode but since I will have Ryan and Katie it will help keep me from worrying too much as I will be chasing them around the waiting room!

SAL update

2008-09-10T09:46:00.004-04:00

Ryan; nap time but too tired to go lay down on the bed

ILCS - Part 1 of the SAL

I'm 99.9% done with the first part of the ILCS Halloween SAL. I only need to add the three (or was it four) french knots. I do hate them little buggers but I did find a instruction blog that makes it very easy to do. I just have to find it again!! I have saved so many different blogs and cross stitch sites to my favorites that now I have to organize them.

I haven't done any stitching in a few days and it doesn't look like I will be getting to do much anytime soon. All the kids are sick with the head/chest cold. Marie started sneezing on Sunday but I thought it was just allergies. Ryan and Logan woke up with it Monday in their chest to where they sounded like a frog every time they coughed. Katie woke up with it today and between all of their sneezing and coughing in my face, I've now caught it too. No one is running a fever thankfully and the two oldest are feeling well enough to go to school today so at least I will only have the two littlest ones. Now if I can just get them to want to play instead of climb up in my lap all day I might get something accomplished.

Labor Day Weekend

2008-09-01T10:36:00.005-04:00

SPRING of the 4 Season SAL

My girls playing dress up

I finally started the 4 Season SAL from one of my groups and I have to say it's a great feeling! I've been a little nervous about starting it as I started at a corner rather than the middle. I've done quite a bit of frogging but I've enjoyed stitching it. I love the set of four seasons that Helga designed. I can't wait to finish it and have it framed. I see a small oops already and will go back to fix it when I'm done. I'm not sure I counted correctly with the border so I don't want to mess with it again until I finish the design. I have a feeling I will have more room on bottom of the design then the top. At least I can pull the border out and re do it (again!) and it will look good. This will also help me when I do the next pattern as I'll have it written down.
I also realized that I love to start new projects! Big surprise, I think most people like to start new projects. I remember way back in the day (over 10 years ago) I would work on several projects and at the very end just put them down and not finish. Around Christmas I would go back to all my unfinished projects and quickly finish them, have them framed and give them all away as gifts. I just wish I had taken pictures of all my finishes! I only gave them to family and I know that they weren't appreciated as much as I had hoped so I'm not sure if they even still have them. Some of the patterns I loved and would love to do again to keep for me this time around. That's another project I can add to my list of to do's.
Step 1: organize my stash and find all patterns from completed projects. (already started organizing so that's a plus!)
Step 2: decide which ones I really want for myself and add them to my stitching to do list.

A stitchy update

2008-08-27T16:24:00.004-04:00

Halloween SAL from ILCS

Under the Sea

I haven't been able to finish Under the Sea because when I pulled the thread originally I didn't think to make sure the back stitch colors were part of the regular stitch colors. Nope, they weren't so I had hubby stop at Michael's and pick me up what I had missed. In the meantime, I went ahead and started the new ILCS SAL which just so happens to be for Halloween. I'm having fun with this one as the colors are so pretty and I've not finished much of anything for Halloween in years. I'm still going to start that other SAL but I've been trying to get my fabric figured out so I don't make a boo boo. I've never started anywhere other than the center before so these two SAL's made me a little nervous. I'm going to be the little stitcher that could..... I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.....

This week has been a little hectic because it's like starting the school year all over again. Last week the kids went on Monday and Tuesday but then were off the rest of the week because of the storm. This week I added another thing to the mix with Logan's therapy session at the hospital on Tuesday morning. I skipped it last week because I figured it would be too crazy with school just starting back up. Who knew what kind of week we would end up having and with him missing last week I really didn't feel we could skip another week. It will probably be another couple of weeks before the school gets their stuff together enough to start their speech therapy so he needs all the help he can get. Thankfully, hubby took Monday and Tuesday off this week so Monday morning's therapy was a little easier and I only took the two older kids to therapy yesterday. A lot less work to do with only two of the four. I think by next week things will have settled down to a nice routine or at least I hope so.

I've been keeping busy getting caught up on the cleaning and laundry that I couldn't get to last week. I'm really glad I waited until Marie was in school before cleaning her room. I found a load of laundry; clean and dirty thrown together in a toy box. In that same toy box I found a little kitchen play toy full of beach sand. I have no idea why and I don't want to know but I immediately threw all the clothes in the hamper and just kept right on cleaning. Three hours later her room was clean and there is more space to play now. (one huge box full of garbage to take out to the road on Friday but at least it's clean and we didn't fight so it was a good day!)