Shocking News

This isn't the shocking news that will come after this. But this is a piece I finished last fall and my sister framed it brought it back with her Monday. It's hanging in my parents room now.

I haven't had much time to stitch this past week and probably won't until stitch a lot until the weekend. The next few days are going to be rough and hectic.

I've mentioned my parents health problems before and that my mom had a second ankle surgery taking out the screws putting in earlier as they broke loose. The surgery was a month ago. It was healing good but then last week in Physical Therapy the therapist noticed a blister on back of her foot. So the therapist called the Dr. Her regular Dr. wasn't there and she saw one of his partners. That partner was not nice and just says..."That is just a popped blister." and put a small bandaid on it and left. Yea right with all that drainage! My dad rewrapped it. Thursday morning she found a second popped blister that was draining very bad so dad called the office emergency. That Dr. was really nice told dad how to wrap it and prescribed a strong antibiotic. That seemed to be working so we thought. Although mom and dad could feel the screw at bottom of her foot. She went back to the Dr. and received really bad news and her and dad have 24 hours to make their decision. One is they can redo the surgery clean everything out and put a rod in. No guarantees that will work. Or two lose her her leg up to the shin bone. Needless to say mom is very upset and dad is concearned. My sister left yesterday but she's coming back today to be with mom. Kay is a RN and she wants to talk to someone in the Dr. office etc.

Also tomorrow I have a scope scheduled to find out if my Acid Reflux Disease has progressed or if something else is going on in my stomach. I've had problems with my chest and upper stomach for months now and the past couple weeks have been worse. I was going to cancel it by my family will be very upset if I do. Don't know how I'll get to the hospital as I don't drive. Maybe if my sister is still here she will take me. I just hope it isn't bad news. If it is I'm not telling my parents at this point.

I usually don't ask this and I usually try to be up beat but we are really concearned about our parents they are up in age and both have CHF. So please pray for them as they make this decision. Thank you.

At last a Finish

This is finish no. 4 towards the 25-50 challenge. (Twenty five books I haven't stitched from or 50 pieces altogether. So far this counts as 4 both ways. It was a quick easy finish. Now to go start the Christmas piece I kitted up.

I'm keeping this one short as I've said plenty the last few days. Until next time. Happy Stitching!

Thanksgiving

How was everyone's Thanksgiving? Ours was good. This picture is funny. My niece's husband held up this big Turkey Leg asked who wanted it and 12-year-old Andrew spoke up for it. So here he is holding up the Turkey Leg before we all get ready to eat. He didn't eat quite all of it, but he gave it a good try. We had so much food and it was fun.

My nephew Bryan and his fiancee Krissy made it in from Chicago. They just announced their engagement and Krissy has a beautiful ring. It had been a couple of years since I had seen Bryan and he has sure matured a lot. He was a 21 year old kid and Krissy had just came into his life when I last saw him at Heather's Wedding 23 months ago. He was a man now not a kid. Michelle made it in from OR. Michelle the vegetarian, and Heather who had never made a turkey before made the turkey and did a good job. The meal was so good. Bryan did take some teasing from us because he was asked to bring the ingrediants for Greaen Bean Casserole and Krissy would make it up at Heather's house. Well, he brought a can of Peas along with the other stuff. He felt peas belonged in the casserole.

My sister and brother-in-law made it in with their dog from other side of state. Because of a skin problem healing up they didn't want to kennel Maveric. He got along well with Heather and Brian's dog, Trisket. The dogs were in the basement most of the time, but some of us went and saw them and the dogs were brought up a couple of times to greet everyone. Michelle and I took the dogs for a walk and Trisket for being so big was so good to walk with. She didn't pull, she just walked beside me. Maverick is on a mission when he walks, he just wants to walk, Trisket wanted to "stop and smell the flowers" and observe everything.

It was a fun day that ended too soon. Fortunately the weather was decent for us I don't know about those going to other side of the state. Today it is snowing out so let the Christmas Holidays begin I guess.

Well until next time Happy Stitching! I hope to have Autumn's Harvest finished tomorrow morning so I'll post then.

Start No. 4-Swirly Snow

I decied to lay down The Caretaker for a few days to do a couple of easy projects. This piece is called Swirly Snow. It's a SAL with some members at 123 stitch. One of the members designed it and we really liked it. I will have to lay it down for the day since it is on black and the sun just isn't out today and it's getting drearier out so lighting is poor. I'm going to start Autumn Harvest by Brittercup Designs. That one I will work on in the car tomorrow on our way to my niece's house. We call it my "shut up" piece that way I'm not all over the driver who in this case will be my dad. We are taking the back way as it is much quicker and easier than getting on to the expressway. As long as we don't get behind a slowpoke.
Hopefully the roads are clear for my nephew and his girlfriend coming in from Chicago and my niece is flying in from OR. Hopefully she will miss the messy weather.

Michelle will be in MI for a week although most of it at her parents on other side of state. Tues. we are having a mini get together as some won't be there tomorrow. We are hoping Tabitha can take her noon hour and join us and meet Michelle. She looks so much like Michelle. (Tabitha is my niece but we only recently learned about her long story I don't care to go into at this point). Michelle has a job interview at a college near here on Monday. In the spring her Internship ends so her and Scott have applied to be Professors at several different colleges. Needless to say they are applying all over but going to live where they can either be at the same college or a college near by. (Both have their Phd.'s in Chemistry)

Our weather is iffy the next couple of days although they said today would be bad and so bad it's not. Tomorrow is suppose to be okay, snow or rain at times but not bad.

Well Hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving. Until next time Happy Stitching!

The Caretaker 200 Hours

I've done a lot of stitching this past week and got quit a bit further. Three in a half pages are now completed. Page 4 is going quite fast and so far it's been my favorite page. You can see the elk just barely coming in. I have now stitched on it 200 hours and will still keep at it.

My mom felt like she was Queen for the Day at church. This lady gave her a lot of jewlery she had made. It was beautiful stuff. This lady is very talented in crafts she can do almost everything including cross stitching, quilting, fabric painting, sewing, jewlery making. Well you got the idea. Than another lady made some Pecan Pie and gave her a piece to make sure she took home with her. Mom loved it.

We had our annual Harvest Dinner after church today. As usual the food was really good. And there was lots left over. We had a large turnout. On the way home we had a little excitement. One of the ladies on the bus lives in a bad part of town and we saw a fight. The bus driver gets off the bus yells at the boys to stop and after 3 attempts at calling 911 he just got through when a police car came behind and he stopped the car to tell them what happened. The lady that lives in the neighborhood also got off the bus to talk to the boys. Man Jim was lucky one of the boys didn't pull a knife on him or have a gun. But they really were beating that boy bad and we were nervous they'd kill him. But all is well that ends well....well hopefully the boy will be okay. Hopefully they won't get the boy later.

Does everyone have Thanksgiving plans? We are going to my niece's house. They just bought a new house so we'll get to see it.

Well, I'm going to try to get a little more stitching in. Just wanted to show the progress after 200 hours stitching even.

The Caretaker

Almost 3 complete pages are done. I'm going to start the 4th page in a few minutes as the blue is getting monotonous. I'm really anxious to get to the next section as I think the Elk will start to come in and the pattern will really look like something then. I am really enjoying this piece. So far I've put in a little over 160 hours and I have worked on it 5 weeks now. I started it 5 weeks ago today infact, so you can see I do have spent probably more time than I should have on it. Oh well.....I'll keep at it for awhile anyway.

We had a Pizza Party for the 3rd-5th graders from Adventure Club last night. They played a lot of games and had pizza. The kids seemed to enjoy themselves. They played a couple of games that usually aren't played at Adventure Club.

I had the Ultra Sound yesterday to see if it's my Gall Bladder causing my problems. We really don't think it is, we sort of think it's the Acid Reflux Disease in large part. And I think it is but man the discomfort and nausea I feel at times. A part of me wonders if I'm just drinking too much Pepsi.
Afterwards I went to my parents to unpack some of their photo albums etc. But the ones mom really want are still in storage so we'll need to get them out. Also spoiled the dog some more. I missed that dog. She's quite a character and when I left I told her I'd try not to stay away so long and she just looked at me and listened intently. Of course she got a couple good walks out of me. She leads me where she wants to go!

Well until next time Happy Stitching!

Our Little Pumpkin

Johnny was a little Pumpkin on Halloween night. I love this picture of him so had to share it.

I have a feeling I'm in for a 3rd night without heat! I called Maitenance yesterday, he came and fixed it and at night it went out again. He came again today and now tonight it's not working again. I am very unhappy. Tomorrow I can call the office. I'll just tell them I need heat at night. Right now it's not so bad as it only gets down to 30's but tomorrow is suppose to turn cold I really need the heat then. As it is I'm fighting a cold from not having heat!

I'm still stitchng on The Caretaker. Not a lot further. Well until next time Happy Stitching!

"Trunk Or Treat"

Unfortunately I didn't think to take my camera to church last night but the Trunk or Treating seemed to be a big success. This is new to us but is common on other side of the state. People from the church put candy in their trunks, decorate them and the Trick or Treaters get candy from them. Since our church is fairly small and this is our first time we only had 7 cars but lots of Trick or Treaters. I was inside with the Adventure Club kids. We had about 20 kids which is more than we thought we would. We took the kids to the 7 cars where they got some candy. Than while the kids and some of us leaders were listening to the chalk artist some other leaders took their bags and filled them up with candy donated from members of our church and from us leaders. The kids were amazed how much candy they got! That should keep them happy for a couple of weeks. I'm sure their parents love us for loading them up with all that sugar! Those bags were filled!
The kids really seemed to enjoy the Chalk Artist it was something different from our noraml program. Fortunately the rain held off. In this area you can only Trick or Treat between the hours of 6 and 8 pm. It's for the child's safety. Most of the trick or treaters are done by 7:30. My parents had a few kids come to their apartment but their favorite two were their Great Grand Sons, 4 year old Ashton brought by his mommy Tabitha and 10 month old Johnny brought by his mommy, Melissa. I can't wait to see the pictures of those two. My nephew Andrew (12) decided at 12 years old he was too old to Trick or Treat so he handed out the candy instead.
I've been working on The Caretaker quite abit. Page 2 is almost done, but I went to page 3 as I knew it would be a boring page so I could go back to page 2 when 3 got too boring. I know I'm wierd!
Well I have a Board Meeting at church tonight. First we have a joint meeting of all boards to discuss something than we'll meet in our own boards. Usually they don't do that but are tonight.
Until next time Happy Stitching!

Another week goes by

I've gotten some progress on the Caretaker this week. Page 2 is about 2/3 done now. I have about 5200 stitches in only about 120,000 more to go! LOL! This is progress after about 96 hours so I am picking up some speed on it. At this rate I figure it will take about 1200 hours to do all 25 pages. I ran into a couple of rough spots and hope it turns out right. I got lost in a couple of areas so sort of had to wing it and hope.

My sister was in town for a couple of days. She just left our parents and was going to go to pick up some things at her daughters then go home. Thursday we worked in the Storage shed, looking for things we were missing and putting more things in, taking some stuff out and putting things into storage bins instead of cardboard boxes!. Then we played Mexican Dominoes later.

Yesterday we did a lot of shopping. I didn't get to Jo Ann's or Hobby Lobby like I wanted to as we didn't start until noon and had other things. However I did basically get ready for winter, got a new winter coat with my birthday gift cards. Than the had 15% off if you used your credit card, so the remainder balance was $6.59 now that is an expensive coat! LOL! I think I can pay it off easily next month. Also got boots and gloves at another store. So I'm all set for winter, rather I want to admit winter is coming or not is irrelevant. My niece Heather came in to town to eat supper with us. We went to where my cousin works and she waited on us.

I see I got the You Make Me Smile Award from Carolyn. I will post Monday the 10 names etc. I need to go looking for people that haven't been selected. But Thank you Carolyn.

Well until next time Happy Stitching.

Lots of Progress

Page 1 is completed now and Page 2 is well underway. It seems to be easier than what page 1 was plus more fun. I can actually see it turning into something! I love the colors so far in this piece. But may feel differently when I get to the Elk and the grass!

Today I went and got more DMC Floss at Hobby Lobby. It seems no matter how much floss I have I keep having to get more. I think I got 70 skeins the last two weeks and already have my list started for next time. I've really been good about not getting patterns lately. I'm starting to make a list of my books, leaflets and kits. I thought maybe I had 300- 400 at the most. I'm not even half way through the stash and already have over 300 listed. So guess I might have 700+ without exagerating!

I saw the Question of Week. I don't remember the exact phrasing but it was asking what percentage of your pieces goes for gifts verses keeping. (If I remember it right). So much of mine goes to gifts and Love Quilts, etc. That I really have to say about 90% of my stitching is given away. This particular piece will be going to my brother.

Our fall colors are starting to come out now. They are so pretty. Next week will probably be peak. They said we wouldn't have much color this year now they are saying we will have a lot of color. A group from church was going to go on a color tour the other day but cancelled because of bad weather forecasts. Actually the day turned out alright as far as when they were going. It was later the bad storms and tornadoes swept through. We didn't get the tornados as we are right on Lake Michigan and that protects us. We did get the wind, and the storms though. Very odd for it being so late in year.

I have enjoyed going through so many blogs. My blog roll keeps growing and growing. I love seeing everyoe's pieces.

Well until next time Happy Stitching!

Update on The Caretaker

I'm still trying to convince myself I'm not certifiable on this piece. It's coming slow but sure. Let's see I've worked on it 44 hours and might have 2200 stitches in. That's 50 stitches an hour, moving right along on this aren't I. I have figured it out that it will take 2 weeks to comlete this page if I get it done Sat. like I hope. At 2 weeks a page and if I don't do any other piece (like that is going to happen), I can have it done end of Sept. 2008. Guess what I will be laying it down and I am hoping to have it completed in early 2010. That's a more realistic goal. I am breaking rules on this one as you get lost if you don't do 10 square blocks plus I am finding colors in one block are not neccessarily repeated in the one next to it. So I can see the 10 block ridges. I do plan on working on this for a while yet, I'd like to have 3 pages done before I lay it down.

Thank you for all the comments you have written to my posts. I really appreciate them. Even though I haven't posted this past week I still read the blogs and make comments when I can. Some blogs for some reason blogger hasn't always let me comment or may not one day but will let me the next. Strange...Oh Well....

Our fall colors really aren't coming out at all this year. Disappointing. A group from church are going on a color tour Thurs. but I'm not going. I've been going to my parents house a lot, and sometimes I just want to be left alone to stitch. Plus my stomach and chest have really been acting up the past few months, and it's getting worse so I'm finally going to give in and go the Dr. and get an Ultra Sound scheduled. I don't know if it's my Acid Reflux Disease acting up or if it's my Gall Bladder. Hopefully it'll be an easy fix!

Well until next time Happy Stitching!

The Caretaker

My brother asked me to do this piece for him. I already know it will be an on and off piece. I am hoping not to lay it down more than 2 months at a time, we'll see. I really do like this piece and can see it taking shape. It is a lot of confetti stitching which is time consuming. Today I made an agressive effort on it. I woke up at 5:30 went to computer, than about 6:15 went back to stitching on it and stitched on it a big part of the day, just laying it down at 4:30. Although I did washing, had to go over to church and put the new sign up, but I got in a good 8 hours on it today which is more than I usually stitch. I also forgot to put my leftovers from lunch in refrigarator and had to throw the speghetti away! Oh well...

Today is suppose to be the last of the "summer stretch" we've been having. We had 80's then today was much nicer in the 70's. Tomorrow is suppose to rain and be in 50's or 60's. Oh well....it is getting to be middle of Oct. That means Whiskers is going to be 15! We don't know his exact date of birth but figure it's around the middle of October, so I always claimed Oct. 12. Wonder what he wants for his birthday! Me to stay home with him? That would be nice, but I think I'm going to be gone most of the day. The 12th is Friday I think...

I also have started a smaller piece, Dear God Kids, which I should have done by Nov. 1 to get in mail. That piece is boring though.

Well....until next time Happy Stitching!

Michigan Map is finished

Here it is with it's changes. This will be one of three maps to go to my oldest niece, Michelle.

Well I think I did my good deed for the year. I'm not sure. There was a stray cat coming to the home my brother lived in. The owners allowed him to feed it and befriend it, but because of their allergies, he really needed to find a home or take it to Animal Control to be put down. I talked him into taking it to the Humane Society so today we did it. She was a beautiful orange cat and so sweet. If Whiskers wasn't 15 I would have kept it but I have to watch out for Whiskers first. She really was so good in the car, not wild not meowing loudly or anything. I just called the Humane Society and they said she passed the physical and is such a pretty, sweet, friendly cat they'll have no problem finding a home for her. Our Humane Society doesn't put the animal down unless it is ill.
I started # 4 towards the challenge. We'll see if it drives me crazy. It's an easy piece but I've had to frog so much. Plus at my parents house I couldn't concentrate on it so that didn't help.

Well until next time Happy Stitching!

Lots of Progress

This is my State Of Michigan Map two days later. I''ve made lots of progress on it. I am wanting to put a pup tent in near Lake Michigan. I found a pattern on the Internet, we'll see if I have enough space, if not I have a couple other motifs I found off the internet. I really am enjoying this piece.

Until next time Happy Stitching!

Need Opinions

This is my progress of Map Of Michigan so far. I am revising it as there were some animals on it and my sister just didn't like that. So at this point I took out the pig and put in the log cabin. I was trying to keep the color sceme basically the same, I also forgot to put a window in the cabin so it's the back side okay. There will be a tree put on each side of the cabin. I chose a log cabin over tent as it was easier, plus it is a big hunting and camping area up in Northern MI. Michelle herself would tent it, I'll try a tent in one of the other states. I also found a small Lighthouse Pattern, and sand dune to put on West side of state. Does the cabin look okay?

We had a Workers Appreciation Dinner at church Friday night it went well.

I haven't talked about the Food Pantry, it's going okay. Just when I get discouraged and think why have it, then someone needs it. Right now the church is having Oct. be Food Pantry Drive Month so I expect a lot of food to come in.

Sat. starts our Monthly Sat. Contemporary Worship Service. I am in charge of the children. So I have the first Missionary Story and Bible Story all picked. The children are going to be acting out the stories. I don't want this to be Adventure Club or Jr. Church. It's a Contemporary Service so Contemporary is what we will get. David and Goliath is going to be first story.

Well, I'm going to go do my dishes then go back to stitching. Please let me know what you think on the cabin, is it a good match with the piece or not? Until next time Happy Stitching!

Start #3

`I started Map of Michigan for my niece and her husband this past week. This is progress after about 16 hours of stitching. It's going quicker than I thought it would. I am doing the maps of Michigan, New York, and Oregon.

I've been staying with my mom quite a bit the last few weeks. She's doing okay but we don't want her to be alone when dad is out and about. Her stitchres will come out next week. Because of drainage they couldn't be taken out earlier. Usually my dad golfs on Fridays but he golfed yesterday so didn't want to today. Plus we have a dinner at church to go to tonight and he really tires easily these days. He's 78 so he's getting up there but thinks he can still do as much as he always did. The dinner at church is Worker's Appreciation. Usually it's a potluck and we have poor turnout. This time it is being catered and it's going to be a large turnout. Plus we have some good music tonight which is bringing in the younger crowd more then usual. Usually they don't come at all.

Thank you for all the comments to my blog. I really appreciate them.

Well, until next time. Happy Stitching!

Johnny in his Jump chair

Here's a picture of Johnny just taken today. We had a birthday dinner for his Uncle Jeremy and he was there. Why is it he was bouncing and smiling, saw the camera and quit smiling! He's growing so fast. He gets on all four's but has quite figured out the crawling yet. But he sure gets into things scooting around!

I started the map of Michigan for my oldest niece, Michelle. My sister asked me to do a map of Michigan, Oregon, and New York for Michelle and Scott. I'm not loving it though, but take it slow it'll be okay. I'll probably get a couple of smaller pieces done while working on this piece. It's by Sue Hillis.

Well...Until next time....Happy Stitching!

Finish # 2 towards 15

I just finished this this morning. It was a quick, fun, easy stitch. I loved doing it. It will go to Native American-SW Quilt we are doing at CSFC. I love these Ted de Grazia graphs. They are so cute. This is no. 2 towards the 15 challenge and that is from 15 books I haven't stitched from yet.

Last night we had dinner with my niece, Tabitha and great nephew, Ashton. Tabitha and Ashton are new to our family and we are enjoying getting to new them. Tabitha and her father just met each other last week. You can tell she is a member of our family, she looks like some of the members. Plus she is highly motivated like some in our family. It was like we knew her all her life. Ashton is all boy. He is a very intelligent, loveable little 4 year old and so cute.

We found out my niece, Heather's, baby is due on same day as her sister's 1st Wedding Anniversary and our Mom's birthday. But we all know babies don't come on their due date at least not usually.

Well until next time Happy Stitching!

World Grand Campion is done

I finished this piece earlier this morning. The picture isn't real clear but hopefully it's clear enough. This will go to Rachel W who chose Horses as theme of her quilt. I just retook the pictures as the earlier ones aren't real good. Since I have to start all over this is start # 1 towards the 10-25-50 challenge. How many times have I started over?

I'm going to be having the children for our Common Grounds Service. That's a Contemporary Worship Service we have on 1st Sat. night of each month. So I'm planning what I'm doing with that. Definite Missionary Stories, and any Bible Story we have will be acted out. Maybe a discussion. Similiar to what the adults are doing but on the child's level.

Well until next time Happy Stitching!

My First Anniversary of Blogging

Today marks my first year of blogging here. I've enjoyed seeing everyone's blogs. You can tell by the length of my Blog Roll it keeps growing. I keep finding more blogs I like. I also have enjoyed reading all your comments through the year.

Since it seems to be fallish outside, the cooler weather is here, I changed my template again. A new year, a new look I guess.

I am hoping to finish off World Grand Champion over the weekend. Monday at the latest. I've been going to my parents house quite abit so haven't stitched on it a whole lot. My mom is doing well but because she is unable to get around easily we prefer to have someone with her as much as possible. That way if she were to fall someone would be there. Of course, their dog, Autumn just knows we are there for her and for her to command! LOL! She loves it when I come as I do take her for good walks. I should say she takes me.

Okay, I give up on the Wagon! I keep falling off. Once again, I bought patterns I could not resist! I have no will power! Even trying 10 was impossible for me should I try again?

The other day my mom and I watched a really good video I highly recommend but is hard to find. It's called The Ultimate Gift put out by Fox Studios. It's about a young man who has to pass several "tests" before he gets his inheritance from his grandfather. At first he is very self centered and arrogant. Than a mother and daughter enter his life and teach him a lot. Warning you will want to have kleenix nearby as it is a tear jerker. I have to find it to buy it, my niece loaned us her copy.

The piece I am showing here I did for my brother and sister-in-law several years ago. It really was a fun piece to do and I really was happy with how it turned out in the frame. It is called Evening Gathering by Sporting Masters if I remember right.

Wednesday night was the first night of Adventure Club for the year. We didn't have very many kids as the Teens don't start until next week so more will come in with the older brothers and sisters. It was a fun night for those who were there though. I'm working with the 5th graders this year. I had this group when they were Preschool & Kindergarten, then 3rd grade, and now again in 5th. We know each other well. I've also been asked to do the Missionary Stories for the kids that come with their parents to our Contemporary Service on Saturday evenings this year. We have the service once a month. The turnout has been very poor for that which is disappointing. Hopefully it'll get more publicized this year and more will come. We just started it out last spring and didn't do it through the summer.

Also Sunday our SS Contest launches off. We also are having a push for the Food Pantry. We did well for the first year but now the donating to it has slacked off. One Sunday morning I went to the pantry and about had a heartattack we were so low on food. I knew a couple of people got food but they must have really taken a lot. So I asked Pastor to announce we needed food, it's coming in and this Food drive will help us. For the Harvest Festival Drive this year people can either give food or donate money to it. Then I get to go shopping and that's fun. Shopping for food for the Pantry that is.

Oh you will notice I added a few links to sites I like. The one is my church one. There are pictures of me. One of the spots is Featured person. I've been featured person since almost the beginning of the site. But my ugly picture is there, and a few other spots. I wanted to give them my cat's picture but they wouldn't let me!

Well, I've chatted plenty this time. Until next time. Happy Stitching!