The stitches of life

Mom, Part 1

2009-11-13T10:14:00.000-05:00

I promised a dear friend of mine a couple of weeks ago that I would write a post about my mom. It's taken me a bit longer to get to it than I thought it would--I hope that's okay ;).

There's so much to write that I'm not sure where to start actually. This is going to ramble and go off track at several points I'm sure, so please bear with me ;). When I look at my feelings about mom, it's like they're a giant knot of embroidery floss--no apparent beginning or end and all intertwined together, even though they're sometimes seemingly separate issues...

I guess I'll start at the beginning (so to speak). Mom admitted she was an alcoholic when I was 15 or 16--I don't remember exactly. I do remember it was during the summer, because Mike was at scout camp. She came downstairs and sat in my dad's lap, which she *never* did, and said "I'm an alcoholic." Dad said "no you're not." She said she was, and then started to cry. I went to the basement, they talked for a while and then called me up. We discussed it a little bit, decided to not tell Mike, and I went to bed. No one including my dad knew she'd been drinking--it did not impact our daily lives as far as we could tell. But she'd obviously been drinking a lot--the next day the DT's started, the worst of which were the dry heaves. I *hated* that sound. I'd go to my room, turn up the stereo, put my pillow over my ears and I could still hear it. They lasted for a few days and then things were fine. She stoped drinking for a few months, but by Christmas she'd started up again, and dad didn't do anything to stop it as far as I could tell.

In February of 1988 the accident happened. Dad was unconcious when they pulled him from the car, and he never woke up again--5 1/2 weeks later he died. During that time mom accelerated her drinking I'm sure, but I was too shell-shocked to really pay attention. He died March 23, 1988, I came home from school the first week or so of May, and 6 weeks after I came home mom ended up in the hospital. During those 6 weeks I watched her literally try to drink herself to death. The last 3 days before she went to the hospital the only things she put in her body were alcohol and a little bit of water--it really is a miracle she didn't die. When the ambulance took her to the hospital I did one of the (if not the) stupidest things I've ever done--I followed it. When I say I followed it, I mean I *followed* it--if it went 50 mph down neighborhood streets so did I. If it went through red lights so did I. I made a left turn on red through one of the busiest intersections around--it's a miracle *I* didn't die that day as well. I stared at the back of that ambulance and tried to will mom to live, because I was sure she was going to die. The only thoughts going through my head were "I just lost my dad, and now I'm going to lose mom too. We'll be orphans--what will happen to us? Will we lose the house? Mike's only 17--will they take him away from me? Oh my god--I just lost dad and now I'm going to lose mom too..." Over and over and over again...

When she got out she stopped drinking again for a bit, but had started up again by the time we went to Minnesota to visit her family that summer.

The next 4 years were hell. I did my best to protect Mike from what was going on--I'm not sure how well I did, but I tried. She was not a physically abusive drunk, but she was verbally abusive--she got really nasty. Some would say she was emotionally abusive as well. She wasn't there for Mike and I when our father died. She never came to us to see how we were doing, or supported us in any way whatsoever. Instead I became the adult (or tried to). Mom used me as her support. I was the one she went to when she was upset about dad, or when she was upset about losing her mom (who died just a year before dad), or when she was just upset in general. Instead of going to her friends she used her 19 year old daughter as support. She'd collapse in my arms, sobbing, and would spill out all her worries and fears. She never once came to me and asked how I was doing. She never once acknowledged that this might be hard for Mike and I. Instead I was left to spend more nights than I care to remember crying myself to sleep, sure that when I woke up she'd be dead. I'd worry about what we'd do--would we lose the house, where would we live, *how* would we live? Mike didn't turn 18 until 7 months after dad died, so during that time I worried about "them" (whoever "them" was) taking him away from me. Would 19 be old enough to be considered his guardian? The thought of losing my brother on top of everything killed me--I think, had that happened, that I would have just curled up in a ball and given up.

On those nights I'd go through a vicious guilt cycle as well. I'd think to myself "she's going to die, I just know it. Maybe it would be better for us if she did though." As soon as that last thought would pop in my head I'd cry harder and apologize to God... "I'm sorry--I didn't mean it! I don't want her to die I promise!" The guilt just about killed me because honestly, in those moments, I really did wish she'd die...oh man...it's hard to say that out loud...

Someone recently told me that these events were dramatic. That is not accurate--they were traumatic events and I was traumatized by them. At 19 my mother put me in a situation that I had neither the emotional nor practical tools to handle. My reactions to them could have been dramatic, but in reality they were the opposite. I could have done any number of things and blamed them on the situation, but I didn't. Instead I did what I had to do and made it through. I made good decisions--decisions that got me to where I am today and gave me the life I've always wanted. It feels weird to say that, because I'm not one to toot my own horn, so to speak. But as I'm beginning to try to work through all this stuff I've realized that I should take pride in what I did, and how I handled it. In my case it wasn't luck but a lot of hard work--I made a lot of decisions to do (or not do) certain things, and those decisions are what saved me.

It certainly wasn't my mother. It certainly wasn't the adults in our life, because they were no where to be found. Mom, Mike and I were abandoned by family and friends (adult friends of my parents) alike, or at least it seemed that way. When I called people to tell them mom was in the hospital I got a lot of "how awful," "we knew she'd been drinking," "what are you going to do now," none of which helped. The lawyers handling the accident case called Mike and I into their offices, where they proceeded to tell us they knew she'd been drinking (which mortified me), and to basically tell us that we should get her into treatment. Um...HELLO? What makes you think she's going to listen to her children?! I just wanted to scream--didn't it occur to them that an adult might have better luck with that? Not to mention that *no one* can make an addict go into rehab unless they're ready, and mom definitely wasn't ready at that point. Even I knew that, so why they didn't is beyond me. When I look back as an adult, what amazes me is that people spoke to us as though we were adults, and as if we had the ability to handle and/or process what was going on. It amazes me that no one looked at the big picture--these kids just lost their father in a tragic accident, they haven't had time to grieve or to process what happened, and now their mother is in the hospital after trying to drink herself to death. Why didn't someone step in and help? No one gave me any practical advice on how to handle the situation. No one offered to come and help. No one reassured me that they would be there if I needed them. No one checked in to see how we were doing. I dealt with everything alone.

There's a lot more, but that's about all I'm up to writing today ;). I thought I'd tie this up with a nice bow, but I don't think that's possible. It does feel good to get this out in the open--thank you for listening :).

Memories

2009-10-17T12:31:00.004-05:00

"Those who are dead are not dead, they're just living in my head"--Coldplay

Every time I hear that line I either want to laugh or scream, depending on my mood. I do not find that to be the case at all. It's been 21 years since dad died, and every year his memory gets more and more vague, until I assume at some point it will be a mere ghost. I can barely remember what he sounded like--thank god for pictures or I'd barely remember what he looked like either. It's not that I don't want to remember--I do very much. But I was only 19 when he died, which means I spent my childhood with him but none of my adulthood. As a child you don't pay attention to the details of someone's appearance, or the way they sound, or the way they laugh. I spent 19 years with him, but I've now spent 21 1/2 years without him and that makes a difference. Sometimes it seems as if he didn't exist at all, as if it's always only been Mom, Mike and me...

Dad is not just living in my head, and it's absurd to think that he does. Memories don't help in a lot of situations. They didn't help when Mike graduated from high school 2 months after dad died, with only his sister and his aunt to cheer him on (our mother had just gotten home from the hospital that day after trying to drink herself to death). Memories didn't help when Mike and I graduated from college (a dream of dad's), or when Mike got married. They didn't help when my brother walked me down the aisle at my wedding instead of my father. They didn't help when I gave birth to his first grandchild, who looks so much like his side of the family it makes me teary sometimes. And they certainly don't help when I look at Mike holding his son and think how much dad would have loved to see that.

Those who are dead *are* dead. The finality of that is impossible to explain to anyone who hasn't experienced it, and especially so when the person is taken from you far too soon. As much as I don't want mom to die, I will not be haunted by "I wish" where she is concerned. She has lived a full life and gotten to see all her grandchildren. Had dad lived he would have been 80 this year, and it's possible he might not have lived that long anyway. I learned long ago not to torture myself with what if's because it doesn't change anything. When I hear a thought like the one I quoted though it does make me angry. Dad missed far too much of our lives--the memories of his life, while wonderful, do not make up for that.

Menu plan Monday

2009-03-09T19:11:00.004-05:00

Monday--breaded cod, mashed potatoes, sauteed veggies
Tuesday--pork tenderloin stew or leftovers
Wednesday--going out :)
Thursday--crock pot Trader Joe's pot roast, roasted potatoes, salad, rolls
Friday--Turkey Burgers, cut veggies
Saturday--Globetrotters
Sunday--Marinated chick. thighs, rice, broccoli

Monday--Mexican black beans & rice
Tuesday--
Wednesday--leftovers
Thursday--Crab Cakes, asparagus, rolls
Friday--Zesty Garlic Chicken, noodles, salad, rolls

I'd like to do next week too, but that never seems to work out ;). So for now I'll see if I can do 1 week--I'll be happy with that :). Edited to add partial 2nd week list ;)

Quick thoughts

2009-02-17T08:54:00.002-05:00

An ex-boyfriend found me on Facebook recently and so we've been getting caught up on the past 13 years. We dated in college while I was going through a really bad period in my life--dad had just died and mom was not handling it well. He was one of the only people I talked to about it, so he's one of the few who had an inkling of how I felt during that time.

In the email he sent me yesterday he said "it sounds like you are doing well and enjoying your life." I responded with the following:

I am enjoying life. What doesn't kill us makes us stronger right? Sometimes I have to pinch myself when I stop and realize where I am and where I came from.

I've felt like that for many years now, and freely admitted it to whomever asked, but for some reason it really hit me when I saw it written down. Maybe 21 years after dad's death I'm finally ready to admit to some peace and happiness within myself. Maybe it's the beginning of dealing with his death and allowing him out of the box where he's been safely hidden all these years...

Anyway, that's been sitting in my head since yesterday, so I had to write it down. Growing older is a very interesting experience ;).

Menu plan Monday (on Sunday ;)

2009-02-15T10:57:00.003-05:00

I haven't done this in forever but I really need to get back on track, so I'm hoping this helps ;). Of course this week I have a lot of leftovers to use up, but hopefully after that I'll be cooking at least a few days a week (as opposed to now which is only 1 or 2 days a week if I'm lucky ;). So here it goes:

Sunday--leftover steak and mashed potatoes from V-day dinner :)
Monday--Green Chili quiche, salad (meatless Monday)
Tuesday--leftover quesadilla
Wednesday--Pork tenderloin, mashed potatoes, sauteed broccoli & carrots
Thursday--Mahi Picatta (dinner done), broccoli, rolls
Friday--leftover meatballs, salad, garlic bread

And while I'm at it, I'm going to do the following week as well!

Monday--Mexican black beans and rice (meatless Monday)
Tuesday--leftovers
Wednesday--tacos, leftover black beans and rice from Monday
Thursday--crab cakes, asparagus, rolls
Friday--something using the other pork tenderloin from last week ;)

Hello again

2008-06-19T07:45:00.002-05:00

Hmm, I didn't mean to start off sounding like a Neil Diamond song--sorry about that ;). I've decided I need to make an effort to come here and write more often, that and going more often to my cross stitch board are 2 of my goals for the summer. My attentions have shifted the last few months from 2 of my favorite hobbies--gardening and stitching--to another one: travel. And not just travel anywhere but travel to Disneyworld! As with any of my obsessions I read (another obsession, fortunately one I can use for the others lol ;) everything I can get my hands on about it. That includes discussion boards, and as the Disney ones are rather large and quite busy it takes a lot of time to even skim them on a regular basis. So to my stitching friends I apologize--when I've had the free time to be on the computer (which hasn't been much recently) I've been spending it either reading the Disney boards or playing mindless computer games ;).

In my defense I've always been passionate about travel, and I've been very fortunate that I've been able to travel to many different places, both here and abroad. When the boys came we were limited in our travel options and didn't take any "big" trips for many years. I didn't realize how much I missed the planning/reading part of travel until I started planning for our first family trip to Disney last October. Because it had been so long and so much had changed (both at Disney and with travel in general) there was a lot to catch up on and learn new. As with other cases I threw myself into it and lost myself in it. I did the same when I first joined the cross stitch board--it had been so long since I had stitched on a regular basis and so much had changed that I just lost myself in catching up. Now that I feel more caught up with Disney I am emerging a bit from that "cocoon" and trying to get my other passions back online ;).

While I get a lot of information from the Disney boards they aren't communities to me. They are to others of course, just not to me. My community and my family are at Cross Stitch Crazy and I've missed them terribly! Not stitching, and not talking or reading about it, have left a hole in my life that I need to fix. Not gardening has done the same thing. So my main goal for the summer is to start stitching again on a regular basis and to get out in the garden again, at least to maintain it if nothing else ;). Visiting the board and updating here will hopefully help with that, so to those who are reading I say Hello Again!

When it rains it pours...and pours...and pours...

2008-06-11T19:02:00.003-05:00

Wow, it's been a while since I've updated! The winter and spring were just packed and my attention was on other things. This post is actually taken from an email I sent a friend to update them, so please forgive me for being lazy and cutting and pasting instead of writing a whole new entry ;).

We just got back from Disney this afternoon and we're all a bit beat ;). This trip piggybacked on Dave's Microsoft conference, so we all stayed in his hotel room which was interesting (we usually get 2 rooms). I flew down with the boys while he came separately and I took them to the parks during the day by myself. It doesn't sound like much but this is the first time I've done anything this big with them without having Dave to help. He did meet up with us for the evenings which was nice. I'm so proud of my boys--2 years ago this trip wouldn't have been possible (well, not without me losing my sanity!) but they are so grown up and responsible now that it was really pretty easy :).

The past couple of weeks have been rather hectic to say the least. Ian got a monster ear infection 2 weeks ago. He missed most of school that week which also happened to be the week for their state testing. At the same time we found out our air conditioning has finally passed the point of no return and will soon die. This requires not only a new AC unit but a new furnace as well, as our old furnace doesn't support the newer AC's. Now all we have to do is find $11,800 somewhere--maybe change in the sofa cushions? The Friday before our trip Ian woke up in the middle of the night complaining about his ear again. Took him back Saturday morning to find out the infection hadn't totally gone away after all. He was given a new round of medication and clearance to fly (fortunately!). He did fine and the trip went well up until last night. We're at the Magic Kingdom watching the parade and he's freezing (keep in mind it's 75 degrees even at night) and fading before our eyes. Turns out he had a fever! Today when we get home there's a message on the machine from the doctor's office--his results finally came back and he also has strep! Yes, we hauled our son around Disney World with an ear infection and strep throat--you may now nominate us as parents of the year!

Oh yeah, the Saturday before the trip Dave was coming home with the boys while I was out and got into an accident a block from the house--someone ran a stop sign and plowed into the front corner of the van. She had more damage than we did, but she hit the wheel just right so that it bent and the van couldn't be driven. So the whole week before the trip the van was in the shop, and we found out she doesn't have insurance after all so we now have to pay the deductible! They left a message today saying it was finally ready, but we can't pick it up until Dave gets home on Friday.

There were a couple of other things (bad storms, Brendan in hysterics and we lost power (twice) because of said storms, etc.) but those are the highlights ;). I'll try to get here more often to update!

Songs of my life

2007-12-09T23:25:00.000-05:00

Sounds like a bad rock song doesn't it? And yet I identify certain songs/albums/artists with certain periods of my life so strongly that listening to them brings back incredibly vivid feelings and memories. Such is the case right now--I'm listening to an album, and one song in particular, that is making me feel exactly how I did when I first listened to it. I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad thing to be honest. I haven't listened to this particular album in a while and I think now I know why--too many mixed feelings, too many things I didn't know then that I know now. It's interesting on an intellectual level, and disconcerting on an emotional one, to listen to it with the perspective I have now. It sounds weird I know--it sounds weird to say it--but it's hard to handle listening to it having the original feelings, and trying to reconcile them with my current knowledge. At the same time I find myself craving this album, so maybe I'm ready to deal with those issues.

This is definitely one of those entries that's me trying to make sense of what's in my head--not that many people will be reading this anyway ;).

Day 4--More Magic Kingdom Halloween pictures ;)

2007-11-01T10:08:00.000-05:00

More firework pictures:

In this one you can see a pumpkin on the castle in the lower right corner:

Skeleton and pumpkin in this next one (it was hard to catch everything between the fireworks and the special effects on the castle!)

And what I like to call haunted castle pics ;)

The fireworks pictures really show up better when they're bigger, if you go to my webshots album you can view them in a bigger size :).

Rather than getting stampeded in the rush to exit the park after the fireworks we made our way over to Tomorrowland for one more candy stop and the Indy Speedway

A quick stop in the Emporium for some MNSSHP merchandise and we were on our way back to POR, very tired but very happy :). The fireworks were the best I think I've ever seen and were the highlight of the trip for us! Up next, Breakfastasaurus and home :).

Day 4--Magic Kingdom Halloween pictures!

2007-11-01T09:50:00.001-05:00

A few minutes before the parade started these guys seranaded us. They were really good and afterwards the one on the left came up to Brendan and shook his hand :). He said "what are you supposed to be? A tourist?" which both boys thought was pretty funny lol ;). Brendan kept saying afterwards "I can't believe that dead cowboy shook my hand!"
Our spot was right after the parade turned the corner, so because of the angle and the movement factor some of the pics didn't come out as well as they might have otherwise. But these are pretty good (yes, the headless horseman is going the opposite direction--Dave took it as we were leaving the park and the 2nd parade started ;)

After the parade we hung out a bit to let the area clear a little, then made our way over to watch the Villian show and the fireworks. The Crystal Palace looked so pretty at night that I had to have a picture of it ;)
At the beginning of the fireworks Dave was messing with the settings again, so we have several pictures with that "special effects" look if ykwim . But then he got it right and these turned out great! Stay tuned for more firework pics!

Day 4--Magic Kingdom pt. 2

2007-10-30T08:14:00.000-05:00

There will be a few parts for MK because of the Halloween pictures lol ;). Back at the room we had yet another fun surprise waiting for us. Ian kept saying all moring he wondered what she'd do today, and maybe it had something to do with the food chain (smart kid ;). Turns out she didn't continue the food chain theme (I don't think rabbits eat snakes anyway ;) but it was still very cute:
The boys really wanted to go to the feature pool on Ol' Man Island, so we took them over and Dave swam with them. They tried the slide and loved it! That's all they did the rest of the time ;).

After baths and a little rest (not much ;) we headed back over for our 5:00 ADR's at Crystal Palace. When we got in we found we had hit the last part of a family fun parade:
After we got to the Crystal Palace and checked in, Brendan realized he could see the stage at the Castle and the Dream show they were doing. He would have stayed to watch the whole thing, but they called our name and the table was more important ;). They had a ball with the characters, who also had really good interaction. Eeyore was a good sport and posed for me again when I told him I'd cut off the top of his head in the first shot lol ;). He also started to walk away with Brendan's pen, and when he went to get it Eeyore pretended to eat it--too cute! Piglet was a bit brief, but who can argue when the whole experience was so good :). The food was great also, especially the adobo pulled pork--yum yum!
Now that we were stuffed we decided to hit the last 2 rides from our top list that we'd missed that morning--BTMR and the Haunted Mansion. We went to the Haunted Mansion first and on the way had to take these ;)

It was a fun ride, not sure how the refurb changed things since I don't think I'd ridden it before. After that we went to BTMR and we all LOVED it--it's always been my favorite ride and now it's one of the boys' too--yay! Made me wish I'd gotten another set of fastpasses before we left the park earlier ;). It was starting to sprinkle a bit and Dave didn't have a rain jacket, so we waited by Splash Mtn. while he ran in and got a poncho (which came in very handy later). By that time the party had started, so we made our way to Adventureland, hit our first candy stop and Brendan and Dave rode PoC again. We hit the Haunted Mansion candy stop and made our way to the Hall of Presidents to stake out a seat for the parade. Got a space right on the rope line, spread out the poncho and sat down :).

Stay tuned for Boo to You parade and Hallowishes fireworks pictures!

Day 4--Magic Kingdom!

2007-10-30T07:17:00.000-05:00

After a peaceful day at AK and an early bedtime we were woken up by Stitch again ;). Up, changed and down to the food court by about 7 and on the bus around 7:20. Which was a good thing because apparently the MK magic hours are more popular than the Epcot ones--our bus went to a lot more stops (on Epcot day we were the last stop) and there was standing room only. It wasn't packed by any means, but it was more crowded than we'd had yet in the mornings. Anyway as we got close you could see the castle. Ian put his hand over his eyes and said "I don't want to ruin my first sight of it when we get in the park"--awww! That made Brendan do it too, problem was he wanted to get off the bus that way ;). We explained to him he couldn't see the castle anymore and wouldn't be able to see it until he was in the park, so in that way we were able to get him off the bus safely lol ;). When we got in I forgot to look at the kids faces as I was too busy taking everything in, but I know they were very impressed--videos and books just don't do it justice :). All the fall/halloween decorations were up and looked really pretty:

We headed for tomorrowland and had basically no lines. We did have to wait a few minutes for the Laugh Floor, but nothing bad. That show is so cool by the way and Ian got picked (because of his Pluto hat)!:Oh, did I mention I had the family high score in Buzz? 53,800! Dave was incredulous--he couldn't understand how a videogame novice like me beat him ;). Next was fantasyland:

Dave took like a thousand pictures in Small World--no kidding! He took more pictures in that ride than anywhere else in the resort, including the safari and halloween fireworks :). I guess he felt the Disney magic too ;). He rode it as a kid and remembers it well, and it's one of his mom's favorite rides, so he took pictures for her as much as for him ;). We did Mickey's Philharmagic next and all I can say is WOW! Another highlight for us for this trip--absolutely fantastic!

After that we made our way over to Frontierland, roundabout behind the castle. The Magic Kingdom was the hardest for me to figure out in terms of where things were. In Epcot it's a lot more straightforward, in AK they have signs everywhere, but in MK everything is so compact and there are so many twists, turns and hidden ways it's hard to find your way around. We eventually got there to find that Big Thunder Mtn. Railroad was open--yay! (it had been closed for refurbishment) But the wait was almost an hour long so we got fastpasses and went over to Splash Mtn. It was a cloudy and kind of cool day so the wait was pretty short, so Dave and Ian went on while Brendan and I waited. After they got off we headed over to Pirates of the Caribbean which had another short wait. Rode it, loved it ('natch) and went back over to frontierland for lunch at Pecos Bill--yummy! We made our way out via the back of the castle and got some neat pictures:

I decided I wanted to stop in a couple of stores on Main st., so we went to Main St. Bakery--omg how scrumptious! I picked up some goodies there for back at the room and made my way over to the Emporium. Talk about overwhelming! Dave kept the boys outside and when I came out showed me what they did while I shopped:Before we left the park Dave took pictures of the decorations at the entrance to Main St.:

Up next--more fun with towel animals, swimming and the Halloween party!

Day 3--Animal Kingdom pt. 2

2007-10-29T13:48:00.000-05:00

Okay, round two of Animal Kingdom and safari pictures ;). I just couldn't believe how many animals we saw!
After the safari we went to see Baloo and King Louie. The Jungle Book is Dave's favorite Disney movie so I really wanted to get a picture of him with them (and the boys too of course ;). They were some of the best Character interactions we had--they were very playful and really took time with each family. Baloo took Ian's fan and was looking at it, Brendan hugged King Louie and wouldn't let go, King Louie kissed my hand, and at the end Baloo took Dave's hat off and started pulling at Louie's fur to show that they were the same color! They were so much fun!
You know, for me the character interactions really made the trip. Those of you who know my boys will know what I'm talking about, for those who don't just know that I was worried. They said they wanted to see the characters, and I believed them, but they're both shy and Ian has some sensory issues. I was worried they'd clam up when the characters started interacting with them, that they wouldn't hug them, etc. But they *loved* all the characters, even the Winnie the Pooh ones! To see their faces in these pictures makes my cry (sappy as that sounds ;) and really makes me feel like this trip was something special. I know they'll enjoy the characters the next time we go, but there won't be the same magic that there was this first time. For me the magic of Disney was most apparent in these moments :).

Okay, enough sounding like a Disney commercial ;). When we got back to the room we found this:

She was awesome! The boys actually started looking forward to going back to the room each day to see what she had done :). When we got back we hung out for a while, then did the sea raycers which were really fun! (these are for you Mike ;)

After that it was time for dinner and then for a lovely carriage ride through the resort:

An early bed to get ready for the Magic Kingdom and MNSSHP!

Day 3--Animal Kingdom, pt. 1

2007-10-29T13:01:00.000-05:00

I had planned for today to be a more easy-going day, so we started off with breakfast at Boatwrights (hotel restaurant). Very yummy eggs benedict and Ian loved his Mickey Mouse pancake (which was huge!). After that it was off to the bus and we made it to AK right around 9. I had been bugging Dave about getting a hat to shade his face and neck (red hair+fair skin+Florida Sun=no fun ;), so when we saw a good selection at the gift shop outside the gates we stopped to take a look. Not only did he find the perfect hat, but Ian and Brendan found a couple too ;). I had been looking for "princess" type ears and Dave saw these (which I did end up getting but chickened out wearing in the parks ;)

Ian spent the rest of the morning saying "I love my beautiful ears" and flipping his head around to make them move ;). When we went in we had to take the iconic picture of course ;)

I sent Ian and Dave off to ride Expedition Everest while Brendan and I went to get fastpasses for the Safari. On our way from the safari to EE we saw Baloo and King Louie--the line was pretty short so we stopped. Brendan was thrilled because they were his first Characters ;). Unfortunately I didn't have the camera but Brendan still got to hug them and get Baloo's autograph so he was happy :). We came back later in the day with Ian and Dave and got pictures then ;). The line was so short at EE that Dave and Ian were able to ride it twice. It was Ian's first rollercoaster and he really liked it, although he did say "I lost my stomach" a couple of times ;). It didn't dampen his enthusiasm though so it couldn't have been too bad lol ;). Here he is getting ready to ride the first time, and a couple of good pics Dave got while they were on the ride:
After EE we all rode Dinosaur which was very cool! Surprisingly enough DH wasn't thrilled with it, and the audioanimatronics scared Ian (another surprise), but Brendan and I loved it! Ian didn't mind it, but wasn't really keen about riding it again ;). We started to head back towards the Safari, with an intended detour through the Majarajah Jungle Trek. It was disgustingly hot and humid and Brendan was cranky so we stopped to have an early snack--2 frozen lemonades and a giant pretzel :). Had I known the lemonades were so big I would have gotten one for all of us, but oh well. Brendan was coaxed a little bit out of his mood by being allowed to take pictures--the whole trip he bugged us about taking pictures, had we known we would have brought our old digital camera and let him use that ;).

We went through the jungle trek (very cool but didn't see the tigers very well) and when we got out it was time to head to Rainforest Cafe for lunch. Brendan went back into a mood because he wanted to go to Camp Minnie Mickey. I told him we'd go after lunch but that wasn't good enough (you know how 7 yr. olds can be ;). On the way I got them pressed penny books to hold the pressed pennies they'd gotten so far. That and the pressed penny machines in RFC helped with his mood, as did a good lunch and some drinks (we'd had a hard time getting him to eat and drink so far because of the excitement ;). While we were waiting to be seated we got to see a diver cleaning the tanks:

I'm a RFC member and I'd gotten an email coupon before we left for a free volcano. We'd never gotten one at the restaurant here so I thought that would be a fun thing at Disney ;). I love Brendan's face in this one! As promised we went to see Mickey after lunch. They wanted to see the others, but the lines were pretty long and I told them about another surprise I had for them--Breakfastasaurus on our last day :). It's a really fun character breakfast buffet with Donald, Mickey, Pluto and Goofy :). Because I had that ace up my sleeve I was able to get away without having to stop for the fab 5 if the lines were too long lol ;). We then headed over to the safari with our fastpasses. We were in luck because while we were in lunch the clouds came in and really lowered the temperature--it was actually nice out! I think that really worked in our favor because we had a *fantastic* safari! These are the first 2, the rest have to go in a separate post because we took so many (and these aren't even all of them!). This was definitely one of the highlights of our trip :)Up next, more safari pictures!

Day 2--Epcot part 2

2007-10-29T06:46:00.000-05:00

After a bit of rest and baths/showers we met our friend Jill in the lobby and headed over to Epcot for dinner at San Angel Inn. There's a great photopass picture of all of us in front of the dome, but I can't figure out how to upload it here ;). Dinner was eh, which I was a bit bummed about because I *really* wanted to love this place. The nachos were great though, and I'd be willing to give it another try if they had a better selection for kids--the boys were not impressed with 1 chicken tender and didn't like the pasta it came with. After dinner we all rode the ride which was really cute. Brendan loved it and wanted to ride again, so he and I went again while the others looked around in the marketplace, and Ian hammed it up for the camera:
Before we went in it was hot and awful, but when we came out the sun was setting and we got to gaze at this:
As we passed Norway the boys said they wanted to ride Maelstrom so we went over, but they were having a technical glitch and the line was too long to wait for a ride that wasn't on our top list ;). So we made our way over to China to get a good seat for the acrobats. Dave was messing with the settings on the camera, so the pics didn't come out like he wanted, but these are okay ;)

As we worked our way around the showcase looking for ice cream for the boys, it became apparent that I wasn't going to get to England with them in tow ;). By the time we got to Morocco Ian was done, so they all sat on the benches by Mo'Rockin's stage and I went off to England . I didn't see as much as I would have liked because it was getting time to stake out a place for Illuminations, but at least I got to have an iced tea from the Twinnings iced tea bar (the only F&W kiosk I did) and to shop in their store a bit . When I came back Mo'Rockin played a set--boy were they good!

These little girls were so cute! The belly dancer was really good with them :)

As it turned out we weren't in the best position for Illuminations, which is what I had feared. But there was no way the boys were going to move any more than they had to, and forcing the issue would have gotten me nothing but tears, so we decided to stay put. We were still able to see the fireworks pretty well, and that's really all they cared about since they didn't know all that was involved ;). Next time we'll pick a different spot though! The firework pictures didn't come out well so I'm not going to post them here, but the shot of the dome at night did:

A long walk to the bus stop and what seemed like a long ride back and soon we were back at the hotel. It was a fantastic day, no major problems and we saw almost eveyone's top favorite attractions (I was the only one who didn't get to see everything I wanted, and that was okay ). Next up, day 3 and Animal Kingdom!

Day 2--Epcot part 1

2007-10-28T12:56:00.000-05:00

We got a wake up call from Stitch (boy is he loud!) at 6:30. Got up, dressed and were out the door to the food court for breakfast around 7. Made it to the bus stop by about 7:30 and got to Epcot a couple of minutes after they opened. We had to take this picture of course ;)

Headed right for Soarin' (along with everyone else ;), got our fastpasses and waited in a pretty short line (about 10 min.). We all loved this ride--so cool! Here are my cool dudes waiting (sort of) patiently ;)

After that we went across the park to Test Track, with Dave stopping to take a picture of my favorite pavillion (which unfortunately we didn't hit this trip):

The standby line said a wait of 10 min. so we went on in and got right up to the doors--so far so good! Then they had a technical problem so we actually ended up waiting about 20 min.--not bad but it threw off my tour timing ;). We all liked it and the boys loved it--they couldn't decide if that or Soarin' was their favorite ride . Then it was on to Mission Space where they all rode and I waited. Even in the shade it was hot! We hadn't noticed it too much the day before because most of the walking we did was after sunset, but walking around Epcot it was really noticable. Now I'm from DC, so I'm no stranger to heat and humidity, but the sun is much stronger in Florida which of course really makes a difference. I wasn't too thrilled with the thought that it was going to be like this our whole trip but it got much better (more on that later). Anyway, after they got done with Mission Space we headed over to the Seas pavillion--we had ADRs at the Coral Reef at 11:30 so we had time to hit the Seas with Nemo and Turtle Talk before then. Brendan was so cute--when he saw the seagulls he ran up to them yelling "my very first Disney audioanimatronics!"

Both were very cool--I love how they got the Nemo characters in the actual tank! And Turtle Talk was awesome--it was even one of Dave's favorites :). We got to the restaurant a little early and were one of the first families there--fortunately because since we were one of the first ones seated we got a table next to the tank--so cool! A ray came and rested right "next" to us and then a huge sea turtle took a nap there too! The boys had fun watching the fish and identifying them and so did we :). After lunch we used our fastpasses and rode Soarin' one more time and then headed back to the hotel for a rest. Before we left we got a family picture at the fountain in front of the dome:

On the bus ride back Brendan was a bit tired:
After Dave took that picture Brendan wanted to take one, so Dave gave him the camera and he took this:

Back at the hotel we took pictures of some of the Halloween decorations on the way to our rooms:

And when we got back to the rooms we found these (they were originally on the floors of our bathrooms):

Up next--our Epcot evening!

Disney trip report day 1

2007-10-28T10:06:00.000-05:00

Okay, here we go. I haven't done one of these before so please bear with me ;)

Cast of characters:

Holly (me)--planner extraordinaire and tour guide, collector of all things Sleeping Beauty

Dave (dh)--liked the idea but not obsessed like me ;)

Ian (9)--favorite character is Pluto and has become a Pluto collector

Brendan (7)--favorite character is Mickey but sometimes I think it should be Grumpy ;)

Day 1:Our flight left National Airport at 10:00 a.m., so we got up at 6 to finish last minute packing so we could get on the road by 7 to account for traffic. Got to the airport around 8, had a smooth check-in and pretty easy security line. Once we found our gate we got something to eat:

The plane arrived on time so we got on board and found our seats--as you can see they are very excited about their first plane trip ;)

We arrived in Orlando on time (about 12:20 p.m.) and found our way to the Magical Express counter. Got all checked in and got right on a bus--yay! Here's Dad and boys on the bus, very excited to finally be almost there!

I have a picture of the WDW sign somewhere but I can find it at the moment, so I'll try to post it later. We got to the resort (Port Orleans Riverside) about 1:15 (sorry, didn't keep track of time very well ;). After a bit of a wait we were all checked in and on our way to the rooms (another yay--the rooms were ready early!). When we got there we found we had a very cool mousekeeper. For those of you unitiated into Disney-speak I'm referring to housekeeping ;). If you're lucky they leave you cool towel animals--check out the ghosts on the bedposts :)

Because we'd forgotten to bring the lunches we'd packed the night before for the plane we were all starving at this point, so we headed down to the food court for some lunch. After that it was back to the room for some unpacking and settling in before heading to Downtown Disney for dinner at the Rainforest Cafe and shopping:

It was good to be at RFC again--we used to have one here and went there a lot (although it was less expensive than the one at DTD--yikes!). We've taken the boys there since they were small and they were especially happy to be back. After dinner we went to Once Upon a Toy so I could give them their surprise--lightsabers for all 3 of my boys ;). They were a bit tricky to put together at first, but after some help it was all good. They love them and are playing with them as I type . On the boat ride back to POR Dave got a couple of good nighttime shots:

When we got back and got the boys in bed I headed down to bell services to clear up a mix-up with our grocery delivery and to pick up the flowers Dave had sent me. The flowers were supposed to be sent to our room but for some reason weren't--he was not happy because he'd wanted to surprise me ;). I didn't care because they were beautiful and I got to ride one of the trams back to the room--it was impossible to carry a bag of groceries, the flowers and the refillable mugs ;)

Next up our first full day at Epcot!

Dreams

2007-10-21T10:49:00.000-05:00

Not the kind of dreams where you "dream of doing this" or "dream of becoming that", but rather the kind you have when you're asleep. I had a lovely dream about a friend of mine last night--I don't remember the details, I just know that I have a lovely warm feeling inside of me as a result :). Have you ever had that? I know a lot of times if you have "bad" dreams they can make you feel down all day, but sometimes I'll have a dream that is so nice it leaves a beautiful feeling with me for the rest of the day, and it's wonderful :). I'm actually surprised I dreamt about this person because my mind is so full of Disney I didn't think I was capable of thinking about anything else. Maybe it was my mind's way of escaping the worry of all the last minute details ;).

At any rate it's made me feel really good so I felt the need to share :). I wish I had more time to hold on to it, but there are some last minute things to be done. Even in the midst of getting ready I can pause and feel it, and for that I'm very grateful :)

Currently working on: Blackwork RR, RR 9, Perpetual Calendar RR

Time flies!

2007-10-19T07:57:00.001-05:00

I honestly thought that once fall started I'd have more time to blog--as you can see that hasn't been the case ;). Things just went crazy (at least for us) once they got into school and we haven't really had time to catch our breath since. This is Ian's year to blossom--I feel like I'm watching a prize flower unfurl it's petals :). He came home the first day of school and announced "I want to be a patrol, and I want to be in strings, and I want to join cub scouts!" So he's in all three activities, and Brendan is in Cub Scouts as well. There's a meeting every week and an activity at least 2 weekends a month so that's kept us hopping (Dave more than me though as he's in charge of that particular activity ;). Then I went to Hershey for the Stitching festival the last weekend in September, Dave went to Vegas the weekend after that, and my friend Laura came to visit this week :). We leave for Disney on Monday and I'm beginning to have a panic attack--there are so many things left to do! At least that's how it feels, but when I look at my lists I see it's not as bad as I thought. I'm also panicking because I've planned the whole trip, have all the documents, am in charge of all the arrangements etc. I'm terrified I'll forget something important! If the trip goes well I can take all the credit, but if something happens I'll blame myself and I can't stand the thought of ruining their first Disney trip ;).

So having typed this in the hopes of it calming me down, I now have to be off to finish last minute errands ;). When I come back I'll post a trip report and pictures!

Check it out!

Currently working on: Blackwork RR, RR 9, Perpetual Calendar RR

Conversations with a (almost) 7 year old

2007-09-21T08:53:00.000-05:00

It's bedtime and Brendan and I are lying down together after reading stories. He turns to me and asks:

"Mom, how come your body never has any more babies?"

Me: "Well, Daddy and I decided our family is just the right size for us."

B: "Did your body decide that too?"

Me: "Noooo...my body would keep having babies if I let it." (beginning to wonder how far we're going to go with this ;)

B: "So how do you keep your body from having more babies?"

Me: "Well I use a thing called birth control." (frantically wondering how to simply explain the type of bc we've chosen)

Brendan ponders this for a moment, gets a lovely smile on his face and says "Oh."

I relax thinking the conversation is over--wrong! After a short pause Brendan says:

"When you were little you didn't know you would be having babies."

Me: "No, not really."

B: "Were you excited when you got to be a grown up and knew you were going to be having babies?"

Me: "Yes, I was excited. And I'm very happy with the babies I had."

B: "Yeah, that was good."

Too funny! His syntax was more disjointed than I typed here, but I honestly can't remember the exact way he phrased it--my mind has to translate into "grownup" speech lol.

It's a cliche but it's true--moments like this make you glad you're a parent :).

This conversation originally took place in June which is why the title says "almost" 7 year old--he's since had his seventh birthday :)

Fall stitching musings

2007-09-20T11:45:00.000-05:00

This fall I don't think I'm going to get much done other than RR's, seeing as how I'm in 3 right now ;). So I've decided the next 2 months will be devoted to getting them done, then after November I'm down to 1 and it will be much easier :). I'm typing out the mailing dates here to help keep everything straight, especially since the mailing dates changed on 2 of them:

Oct. 1--Blackwork RR
Oct. 10--RR 9
Oct. 20--Perpetual Calendar

Nov. 12--Blackwork RR
Nov. 24--Perpetual Calendar
Nov. 26--RR 9

October is easier to remember because I have to mail one every 10 days lol ;). November is a bit harder because they go "out of order" from what they have been--the mailing date for the Perpetual Calendar is every 5 weeks which throws everything off ;). Because I'm so slow I don't think I'll be able to fit much else in there, but I am going to get Brendan's mini RR done so I can get it framed and give it to him at Christmas (Ian's is framed and waiting for me to pick it up as we speak). His is almost done and is very easy which is a good thing! If I find myself with any free stitching time I may work on one of my other WIPs, but I've been reading again a great deal and may just continue with that and wait to work on other projects until the New Year :).

Well enough rambling from me today--I hope everyone has a great day!

Currently working on: Blackwork RR, RR 9, Perpetual Calendar RR

5 Project Challenge

2007-09-19T16:05:00.000-05:00

Yes, yes--I know it's supposed to be at least a 10 project challenge, but as slow as I am I'd never make it lol ;). So I decided to be practical and shoot for five, which should be doable since I've actually finished 4 so far this year (with hopefully 1 more to add this fall). Until November I'm in 3 round robins which will take up all my time, so aside from finishing Brendan's mini RR I'm not going to have time to finish anything else. So this project is for next year but I figure I may as well get organized now eh? ;) And who knows--maybe I'll surprise myself and finish something else this year so the list can change :).

So without further ado here are the 5 projects:

1) Windemere Angel (between 2/3 to 3/4 done)
2) Just Nan Beach Square
3) Shepherd's Bush 'Home'
4) Shepherd's Bush 'Sophie's Garden'
5) Mirabilia 'Rosebud Lullaby' (about 1/2 done)

The first one and the last one are kind of large, so they may not get done next year, we just have to see. The Just Nan is almost finished, so when it's done I'll add another one in its place (it's not like I'm lacking in WIP's rofl!). The 2 SB's shouldn't be hard to finish either--the only thing keeping Sophie from getting done is that I ran out of the main color of her dress and they don't make that color anymore! So I have to find another one that works--once I get past that roadblock it will be smooth sailing :). Wish me luck!

Currently working on: Blackwork RR, RR 9, Perpetual Calendar RR

Dinner in under an hour

2007-09-11T12:58:00.000-05:00

For a few weeks! I just got back from Dinner Done and in one hour I made:

Bourbon Chicken (comes w/ rice)
Classic Crusted Beef w/ Horseradish Sauce
Double Stack Beef Quesadillas
Mushroom Cheese Chicken (2 orders, it's our favorite)
Pork Tenderloin w/ Carmelized Apples *and*
Shrimp Scampi w/ Capellini Pasta

Along with those main dishes I got the side dish sampler, so I got 2 orders of Twice Baked Loaded Mashed Potatoes and 2 orders of Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes :). Each of the entrees serves 4-6, which means they make 8 meals at least for Dave and me--they are my "adult" meals for when we don't feel like eating typical kid fare ;). The side dishes also last us for at least 4 meals each, so I've got at least a month's worth of meals (and sides) made now and all in one hour! You can't beat that with a stick lol ;).

The best thing about Dinner Done (aside from the fabulous taste ;)? I have more time for stitching, gardening and reading when I don't have to worry about making dinner every night!

Currently working on: Blackwork RR, RR 9, Perpetual Calendar RR

You know you're from DC when...

2007-08-12T13:55:00.000-05:00

I first saw this meme a couple of years ago and bookmarked it, only to return to find the site where it was didn't have it any more. So after a bit of searching I think I've found the original (or close enough to it ;) so I'm posting it here so I don't lose it again lol ;).

You know you're from Washington DC when...

You say you're from DC, but you actually live in VA or MD but are too tired to explain where.

You don't consider exploding man hole covers to be an unusual occurrence.

You know where the Pentagon really is but never bother to correct anyone about its location.

When it takes you 45 minutes to drive 3 miles on I-66, 95, 395, 495, 50, 123, 29, or 270, it's a pretty good day.

There are at least fifteen ways to get everywhere and you know which way to go based on the weather, time of day, current political climate, terrorism road closures, and whether you are coming or going.

You pay more money in parking tickets in a year than you do in medical bills, college costs and rent combined.

You know that driving through Georgetown, you will hear the music of the car next to you louder than you can hear your own.

"I got stuck behind a motorcade" is a common and real excuse for being late.

"Finding a parking space" actually becomes an appointment on your calendar. (E.g.. 7:00-8:00 Gym, 8:30-9:00PM - find a parking space, 9:00-10:30PM - Dinner reservations.)

You've never once been to Wal-Mart and don't even know if there is one.

When you say you're going to the mall and you don't mean shopping.

You never refer to the 'Metro' as the 'subway'.

You elbow tourists out of the way on the Metro escalators to "gently" remind them to WALK LEFT, STAND RIGHT.

Going to work early means being there by 9:00AM.

You don't bat an eye at 500 politicians and businessmen in suits running like their lives depended on it just to catch a Metro that will be followed by another in 90 seconds.

You call it Targét, not Target, and are well aware that the one in Alexandria is just a "tad different".

When Washington National Airport is and will always be "WASHINGTON NATIONAL", not "Reagan National".

You can tell by people's cars where they live and maybe even what neighborhood.

You've claimed that there's nothing to do on a weekend night even when you have the entire nation's capitol to explore.

You have the Metro map memorized, yet act like you don't know when someone asks you how to get to Metro Center.

You meet someone else who says they're from the DC area and you realize they live two hours away from you.

You notice that there's been construction on the same stretch of highway for the past 5 years and you've never see anyone working on it.

You know you've crossed into Northern Virginia, without ever seeing a sign, only because your speedometer goes from 60 to 0.

You know that Vietnam is no longer in the South Pacific, it's now been re-located to Seven Corners.

The few times you have gotten lost in DC you have somehow ALWAYS ended up in Anacostia and every road out somehow leads back to Anacostia.

You realize that I-395 is Northern Virginia's version of NASCAR.

There is no such thing as North, South, East, or West on the beltway, it's just go "that" way!(Inner circle/outer circle)

You go anywhere on the Eastern Shore, Rehoboth, Dewey, Ocean City, Skyline Drive, or the Outer Banks for vacation and everyone you meet is from DC.

You don't find it unusual for the city (and the government) to shut down when 1 inch of snow falls.

When you refer to "the government" you mean the federal government.

You can see the national cathedral from almost anywhere.

You know at least 2 rowers.

You know that Georgetown is NOT only a school.

You consider Northern VA to be in no way similar to southern VA.

You know which bridges to cross to get to Maryland or VA.

You actually know what goes on in Dupont circle.

You can't go to Tysons Mall without seeing someone you know!!

You have a few friends who don't know what their parents do...It's Top Secret government work.

People don't ask you if Chevy Chase is named after the actor.

You can harmonize perfectly with the alert for "Doors Closing" on the Metro.

50% of your senior class went to Mason, JMU, Tech, VCU or UVA.

You actually get these jokes and pass them on to other friends from DC.

Currently working on: Blackwork RR, RR 9

Menu plan Monday

2007-07-30T09:32:00.000-05:00

A pretty easy week as the boys are at Sports day camp and I don't want to spend my free time cooking lol ;).

Monday--Italian Chicken and sausages (crockpot), salad
Tuesday--breakfast for dinner (pancakes and sausage)
Wednesday--General Tso's Chicken and broccoli (DD), rice
Thursday--Flounder, rice, salad
Friday--Pizza
Weekend--lake :)

Currently working on: Blackwork RR, RR9

Disney Countdown!

2007-07-25T09:58:00.000-05:00

Normally I try to avoid having my blog look like Vegas (not that there's anything wrong with that ;), but today I'm making an exception :). There are only 89 days left and I can't wait!

A few other random Disney graphics ;)

(clipart courtesy of Disneyclips)

Can you tell what my favorite Disney movie is? Hmm? ;)

That's all for today--next Disney countdown update will have Halloween themed graphics ;).

Currently working on: Blackwork RR, RR 9

Watch out for that hare!

2007-07-24T07:40:00.000-05:00

I love my friend Christine :). She talks sometimes about how she'll get "a wild hare" (hair? ;) and do something no one expects. She tells me I sometimes do that to and I laughed when she said it--I'm so goody-two shoes that I don't think I've ever done anything which could be classified as wild in any way lol ;). Then I got to thinking and realized that maybe, just maybe she's right--one episode that springs immediately to mind involves a ship and a certain officer...

Anyway I mention this because last night I think I must have had a "wild hare"--how else to explain what I did? Nothing earth-shattering, dangerous, illegal etc., just an email sent to a friend. Even then it wasn't anything bad, at least I don't think it was, but it was one of those things that after you send it you smack your head and go "why did I think that was a good idea?" I've generally found that, hard as it is, if something's bothering you you should speak up. Most of the time (if it's done nicely and in an adult manner) you will eventually get a satisfactory outcome. Even if you don't, nothing is served if you don't try at all right? And yet those who know me know that I usually keep quiet for a long time--usually longer than I should have. Why? Because I hate to rock the boat ;). Because I don't want to upset those I love. Because I don't want to risk losing them. All of which are valid reasons. But experience (and Dave ;) have taught me that I'm worth more than what I'm getting in these situations, so I try to take a deep breath and say something. I don't always manage to do it, but I did last night. And now true to form I'm second-guessing myself ;). I think it will turn out okay, I hope it does, but you never know...

Wow, this is certainly a cryptic entry isn't it? ;) Definitely falls into one of those "only makes sense to me" ones lol. That's okay, I'm in a mood to ramble today :).

Currently working on: Blackwork RR, RR 9

Menu Plan Monday

2007-07-23T10:28:00.000-05:00

A good place to start getting back on track would be menus :). So here it goes:

Monday--Chicken Piccata (DD), rice, asparagus
Tuesday--Honey Mustard Chicken Salad
Wednesday--leftovers
Thursday--Mahi Mahi (TJ's), rice, steamed veggies
Friday--Tacos, Corn
Saturday--Turkey burgers, chips, etc.
Sunday--Grilled beef Filets with Sherry Mushroom sauce (DD), Corn on the cob, Monkey Bread, Triple Chocolate Trifle (as promised to Dave ;)

Currently working on: Blackwork RR, RR 9

No, I'm not dead ;)

2007-07-23T09:09:00.000-05:00

Wow, I didn't realize it had been a month since I updated--where has the time gone?! Having the boys home really messes with my schedule ;). Between that and the garden I pretty much abandon all semblances of a regular schedule in the summer, including stitching. I think next year I need to remember to not schedule any RR's in the summer--keep that in mind would you V? ;)

I've also been busy planning our first family trip to Disney World in the fall and I'm so excited! As much as, if not more so, than the kids sad to say ;). We're taking them out of school in October, flying down and spending a week there (although we'll only be in the park 3 days). It will be their first airplane trip which they're both excited about as am I--I love flying and hope they do too :). There was always something about flying that made a vacation that much more exciting when I was a kid, and still does. When the plane takes off and you feel that sensation, well there's nothing like it and you just know there's an adventure ahead :). I'm sure I'll post more details about it as it gets closer, but for now only 92 days to go!

Stitching--well not much going on there. I finally got the blackwork RR off a week late, and now I'm late on RR 9 *sigh*. I'm going to get that out this week, then do the next blackwork RR, and then my first RR9. If I just sit down and buckle down I have no problems, the problem is sitting down lol ;). I'm not sure if I'll stitch on anything else or not, at least until the end of August when things start winding down and it's too hot to garden.

The garden--Dave and I did a lot of projects before he went off for training 2 weeks ago which was nice. He cleaned up the end of our driveway by the house and we both weeded/pruned/straightened the front beds. I weeded and put down tons of newspaper and mulch around the hydrangea bed and the daylilies by the wall, which I've wanted to do since last year but never found the time ;). We pulled off the horrible viney weed which was literally choking the shrubs around the storm drain and we'll have to do it again in the fall I'm sure. We didn't do this at all last year so the shrubs are in rough shape but look like they'll survive. We still need to put down newspaper and mulch there, but at least they can breathe ;). He cleared out the foundation from the old shed and I cleaned up the patio by the house--so all in all we got a lot done and I'm very happy :). I need to take pictures, not only to share but also to put in my album to help with planning next year ;).

So things are going along well here, just not enough time to do everything as many of you know ;). The summer has gone well so far--the boys are actually fighting less than they did during the school year which really surprises me, but I'll take it ;). I hope the good feelings last into the next school year--it's so nice to see them getting along :).

I will try to post more often I promise! I've got a couple of drafts saved so I guess I could start there ;). Until next time then! :)

Currently working on: Blackwork RR, RR 9

What I did this weekend

2007-06-18T08:08:00.001-05:00

Pictures mostly--I'm to tired for text today lol ;). First Brendan's kindergarten graduation (isn't he handsome? ;)

The table at mom's 75th birthday party:

My lovely SIL who I planned the party with :)

And finally, shock of shocks, me!

Menu plan Monday

2007-06-18T08:03:00.000-05:00

Last week was a heck of a week, so I'm glad I wrote this out in advance lol ;). Let's jump right in shall we?

Monday--Gnocchi, salad, rolls
Tuesday--Steak Diane (DD), mashed potatoes, steamed veggies
Wednesday--Orange Chicken, rice, broccoli
Thursday--Honey Glazed Salmon with black bean salsa (DD), salad, rolls
Friday--Pizza
Saturday--leftovers
Sunday--Grilled Beef Filet with summer salsa (DD), grilled veggies

Currently working on: Blackwork RR, RR9, Brendan's Superhero mini RR

What a bitch

2007-06-12T07:55:00.000-05:00

I think this is pretty accurate, but then maybe I'm wrong ;). We sometimes tend to think we're better than we are lol!

You Are 15% Bitchy

You are practically an angel - both on the inside and outside.
You try to give everyone the benefit of the doubt, and you're even tolerant of bitchiness in others!

How Bitchy Are You?

Menu plan Monday

2007-06-11T17:34:00.000-05:00

During the summer we spend so much time outside that I rarely stitch, so I'm dropping the stitching portion of these entries until the fall I think ;). The only thing I have to stitch on are the RR's I'm in, and that's probably all I'll stitch until school starts again :).

However I do still have to feed my family, so with that in mind here are this week's menus:

Monday--Green Chile Quiche, salad (carried over from another week)
Tuesday--not sure, Dave may sail but if he doesn't then Cheesy Mushroom Chicken, mashed potatoes, steamed veggies
Wednesday--Honey mustard Chicken Salad, rolls
Thursday--leftovers
Friday/weekend--lake :)

Currently working on: Blackwork RR, Brendan's Superhero mini RR, RR9

Ouch, creak, groan

2007-06-06T16:06:00.000-05:00

Those are the sounds made by a middle-aged mother of 2 after spending the day outside digging holes, digging up and moving rose bushes, planting more rose bushes and ripping out jungles ;). Tomorrow will bring more of the same, but I'm very pleased with the progress I made today. I dug up the pale pink rose which was under the Knockout rose by the pool steps and moved it over by the solarium. Years ago when I first planted the Knockout I had no idea it would get so big and so thought the pale pink one (I can't remember it's name and I lost the tag) would be okay next to it. Over the years the Knockout has taken over and almost smothered the pink one so it was past time to see if it could be saved. Because of the location (on top of a retaining wall) the digging was tricky and I didn't get as many roots as I would have liked. I very gently put it in it's new spot (lots more room and more sun), filled it with the very nice dirt from its old hole and watered well. Hopefully it will survive, but even if it doesn't it was doomed anyway, so at least I'm giving it a chance.

On the other side of the solarium door from where I planted the pink rose I planted a 'Ballerina' rose. It's an old-fashioned shrub rose which does well with part shade (which is this area exactly) so I'm hoping it will do well there. If these two survive next year I'll look into planning a couple of mini beds in that area. It's been ignored for several years but I'd really like to have something pretty there to look at from the family room :).

Then I moved on to the pool garden and the wild rose which had come off the roots of an English rose many years ago. I cut it down to the bone and dug out the rootball which wasn't easy--hardy roses are hard to remove! I had planned on planting another rose I bought there, but changed my mind when I saw the open area created by its removal and the digging out of a lot of the lirope which had overgrown there. It's not a good place for a rose--not enough sunlight, so I'd probably just end up with another rose going off its roots in a year or two and have to repeat the process again ;). So I bought a foxglove and a couple of Marguerite daisies to plant there instead, and I'm going to transplant the big clump of Phlox from the wall to there also. I think it will look nice and next year I may get some Delphiniums to add some tall blue color to that spot :).

The lirope was the worst of the bunch, the hardest and the cause of most of my soreness. But I'm very happy with how much I got out today--it cleared up a lot of garden "square footage". Tomorrow I'll go out again, chop down the honeysuckle that's threatening to kill the dogwood, and clean out some more of the lirope. Once that's done I'll put an edge around it to keep it where I want it--I just have to remember to make the edge again in the fall and next spring, and twice a year after that. It is some work, but it's better than going through this every couple of years!

I'll take pictures soon, once I get the new plants in the ground and everything cleaned up :).

Garden pictures part 2

2007-05-30T09:40:00.001-05:00

I'm sure you all will be quite sick of my pictures by summers end ;). Although I probably won't take many pictures in August because the gardens around here really poop out because of the heat and humidity lol. Anyway, here they are without further ado:

This is Campanula 'Lil Punky'. I love these blooms and the silver leaves!

Here we have hardy Geranium 'Johnson's Blue' along with the snapdragons I planted about a month ago. I showed a picture of them last week too, but there are more blooms there now and I really liked the contrast of colors and bloom shapes :)

The snapdragons that came back from last year bigger and better than ever! Love, love, love these! Again as you can see they have changed a lot since the picture I took last week :).

And last (yes, only 4 pictures this time ;) Hardy Geranium 'Biokovo'. They were actually at their peak last week, but I wanted to get a closer picture of the blooms :). The leaves of this have a fantastic scent :).

It's so neat to see the differences in just one week! I'm also thrilled because I have enough flowers to cut and bring inside, which I never did before ;). I'd read in magazines and catalog descriptions about how this plant or that plant makes for great cutting and I'd think "I'd never cut those and bring them inside--my garden would be bare!" Now that's not a problem and I'm so happy :)

Menu and stitching plan Monday (on Tuesday ;)

2007-05-29T10:32:00.000-05:00

Because of the holiday I'm a day late in posting this ;).

Menus:

Monday--leftovers, out, something ;)
Tuesday--Flounder, salad, mashed potatoes
Wednesday--Chicken Marsala (DD), pasta, steamed veggies
Thursday--Green Chile Quiche, salad
Friday--Steak Diane (DD), mashed potatoes, steamed veggies
Saturday--leftovers
Sunday--out

Stitching:

Monday--RR
Tuesday--The Rose in Morning
Wednesday--Windy
Thursday--Windy
Friday--Brendan's mini RR
Weekend--Christmas slot (either over 1 Christmas tree or Christmas Topiary)

Currently working on: Blackwork RR, Brendan's mini RR, Windemere Angel, RR 9

Garden pictures

2007-05-22T09:08:00.000-05:00

I was inspired (once again ;) by my friend Velda to take pictures of my garden. I've been meaning to anyway because it's useful to me when planning for next year, but I hadn't gotten around to it yet. It seems to me my garden looks best this time of year, which is a bummer because the pool's not open yet so we aren't down there as much. But I'm going to take a chair down there, clean it off and create a little gazing/reading/tea nook ;). I apologize for the pictures not being as clear as they should be--I'm still getting used to our new camera and Dave still hasn't installed photo editing software ;). So without further ado here we go: No you're not seeing things--this is one rose! It's going back to its roots which really upsets me. I'm going to try cutting the dark red part out, but I don't have much hope it will make a difference. In the meantime it makes for a pretty cool-looking picture ;). The next pictures are from the pansies around this rose and it's companion, as well as some other plants in our foundation garden :)

Next are pictures from the back, mostly the pool garden :)

In this next picture, the blue flowers are hardy geranium "Johnson's Blue", the other flowers are snapdragons and you can see lily, hosta and (in the foreground) the leaves of hardy geranium "orion".

The pink flowers below are 2 kinds of Dianthus (they smell divine!) These beautiful heart-shaped leaves belong to my Campanula :). Sandwiched in between it and the Dianthus are the silver sword-shaped leaves of Campanula "Lil Punky"

This is probably my favorite out of all the pictures! This is my siberian iris which is now in its third year. Last year I had the beautiful blue-green leaves, but no flowers. Imagine my surprise and delight to go out today and see it flowering!!
Here next to the black plastic pot is the hardy geranium "Orion" I transplanted from another spot. He was pretty droopy but I think he's going to make it after some TLC ;)
This is my pink Knockout rose and the groundcover is lamium "Purple Dragon"

I was so excited to see these snapdragons! They're from last year and not only did they reseed but they spread too!

My "Bowbells" rose :)

There are a few more pictures from today in my webshots album, the link is in my sidebar :). I guess I should get out there and get to work!

Monday musings

2007-05-21T07:01:00.001-05:00

Well I didn't stick to last week's Monday plans very well at all--indeed the only thing I did for the menus was Tuesday's and the only thing I stitched on was the Blackwork RR and Windy *blush*. It was a little different schedule-wise last week--we started swimming lessons again for the boys, Dave was off Tuesday and Wednesday and we had a couple of other things going as well. I think this week may be the same--lots of cleaning still, have to get ready to go to the lake for Memorial Day etc. I also am PMSing really badly this month--nausea, migraines, the whole works. If I didn't know better I'd swear I was pregnant lol ;).

So with that in mind I don't think I'll set down in writing any specific things for menus or stitching this week other than some general ideas--when I have specific things planned and don't get to them I get depressed ;). We'll have leftovers the first couple of days and then I think a Dinner Done entree and hotdogs will round out things nicely (and easily). For stitching I will definitely work on the Blackwork RR since it has to go out soon, but other than that I'm not sure. Maybe Windy--this is the first time in over a year I've worked on her and I'm really enjoying it :).

I also have some pictures to post soon--garden and stitching. I finished Bloom almost 2 weeks ago, but I'm having trouble getting a clear picture of it since it's over 1 and tiny ;). A lot of my flowers are blooming in my garden already so I need to start documenting it so I have a record for next year (even though I can't find my pictures from last year--big help they were rofl!).

So I guess that's all for now--sorry it's such a boring read!

Currently working on: Blackwork RR, Brendan's Mini RR, Windemere Angel

Menu and Stitching plan Monday

2007-05-14T17:17:00.000-05:00

First the menus:

Monday--leftovers
Tuesday--Basil Stuffed Chicken (DD), asparagus, rice
Wednesday--Pot Roast (leftover DD), salad
Thursday--Flounder with onion, capers and lemon (DD), rice, salad
Friday--Crockpot Chicken, mashed potatoes, salad, rolls
Weekend--leftovers/out

Then stitching ;)

Monday--Blackwork RR
Tuesday--Rose in Morning
Wednesday--SAL slot (enchanted cottage?)
Thursday--Angel/fairy slot (Windy)
Friday--Brendan's mini RR
Weekend--not sure, one of the week's projects probably ;)

Currently working on: Blackwork RR, Brendan's mini RR, Windy, Petite ABC's

The week ahead

2007-05-11T07:56:00.000-05:00

Due to a number of factors, my last few weeks (including this one) have been rather rudderless. While I'm not a perfectionist by any means, nor am I a slave to lists/day planners etc., I don't like the feeling of being adrift for so long. For one thing it means things are piling up which will take me longer to do because I haven't kept up with them. For another important dates are in danger of being lost in the abyss ;). So to help keep myself on track here is a tentative list of things I need to do next week:

Clean family room (everything--dusting, straightening, etc., maybe tomorrow?)
Dust and vacuum upstairs (Monday)
Plan menus (Monday)
Clean kitchen/dining room (everything as above, Tuesday)
Laundry--towels/sheets on Monday, regular on Friday

As an aside, for today I need to:

Make cake for Dave (Happy birthday honey!)
Water plants (very important--they're in bad shape lol)
Shop for birthday presents ;)
Grocery Store

When the boys get home from school we're going to get birthday cards and decorate the cake :).

Okay, not much, but I feel better for putting it in writing so it's not all floating around aimlessly in my head lol. I will do better next week, I will do better next week...

Currently working on: Brendan's mini RR, Blackwork RR, Bloom

Tag!

2007-05-09T07:55:00.000-05:00

Margaret tagged me in her blog, so now I need to do this meme ;). Here are the rules: Each player starts with 7 random facts/habits about themselves. People who are tagged need to write on their own blog about their seven things, as well as these rules. You need to choose 7 people to get tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they have been tagged and to read your blog!

1) I majored in international relations in college. When I got back home (outside D.C.) I sent out hundreds of resumes--no one wanted me. No one told me in D.C. you have to know someone to get that kind of job lol ;).

2) I read over 200 words a minute--not speed reading speed but faster than most. I also have almost 100% comprehension.

3) I don't like the butter to run out of the "volcano" I make for it in my mashed potatoes--my own little SID thing ;). My friends and DH love to tease me about this ;)

4) This is really hard--I'm a very boring person!

5) I've done a lot of traveling considering it's never been part of a job for me. I've been to most of the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Australia, Italy, Spain, England, Japan and Barbados :)

6) I love Sesame Street and still watch it occasionally, even though my kids don't watch it any more ;).

7) Some of my happiest moments are listening to classical music, looking at my garden and drinking a cup of really good tea :)

As an aside to Margaret--who the heck am I going to tag?!

I think I'll tag Emma, Jill W., Robin NH, Jaime, Tina, Christina and Vicki. Hopefully none of them have been tagged already lol ;)

It turns out only Vicki and Christina haven't been tagged out of that list ;). I don't want to tag people who's blogs I don't read regularly, so that will have to do!

Garden musings

2007-05-09T07:05:00.000-05:00

I hear the gasps of shock now--she's writing about something other than stitching? What's wrong with her? I spent about half the day outside yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed it, even though I'm suffering for it now ;). I plan to go back out today to clean up from yesterday and to work on some bigger projects I've been neglecting lately. We'll see how far I get since it looks like it's going to rain, but then again every time this spring I've thought that it hasn't panned out, which is part of the reason my container roses almost died ;).

Yesterday I started working on my container plantings. I planted my strawberry jar for the first time in years so I hope it works out okay (they're a pain to keep watered). I planted 2 different colors of lobelia and a really pretty yellow annual whose name I can't remember right now. Another pot has a lovely dark pink begonia and the "leftover" lobelia, and I got a lovely pot of pink petunias which I need to put in a larger pot. I still need to get some calibrocha (sp?) mini petunias for my hanging basket and then I'll be done with the front (maybe ;). On the patio I trimmed and hopefully revitalized the soil in my roses which are in containers. I thought for sure one of them was dead, but as I started cutting it back to take it out I noticed some green wood which means it's still alive. I gave it and the other one a very thorough watering and moved them to a sunnier spot, so we'll see what happens.

In the pool garden I did a little weeding and used the string trimmer on the liriope by the birdbath. Did I mention I hate liriope? I like it when it's kept in check, but this has been allowed to roam free for a few years and has taken over this portion of the garden. So after trimming it back so I could see better I started pulling it out by hand. Yes, you read that correctly--pulling! I will need the shovel for more stubborn parts, but the only way to make sure I have as many roots/runners as possible is to do it by hand--not fun. When I'm done clearing that section out I'm going to plant foxglove and some of my phlox from nearby that has seeded itself on the wall. I also need to go under the dogwood dad planted and cut down and dig out the obnoxious honeysuckle bush that seeded itself there. I tell you it's amazing what birds can do to a planned garden rofl! I bought a few perennials yesterday that I need to plant as well. Can I just say how nice it is to have the garden in such a shape that I only have to do maintenance weeding instead of spending several days clearing just so I can plant?! That is one of my favorite accomplishments out of everything--that I took a weed patch and made it a garden again :).

I guess I should get out there as it really looks like rain. I need to at least clean up from yesterday and plant the perennials--wish me luck!

Currently working on: Brendan's Mini RR, Blackwork RR, Bloom

Another finish!

2007-05-08T08:00:00.000-05:00

I'm so excited to have another finish, and this one's just for me ;). It's Secret Flower Bed by The Trilogy which I started as a SAL with a couple of other ladies from my board a few years ago. I finally decided to put my mind to it and finish it and I'm so glad I did--I love how it looks! Now to finish Brendan's mini RR and then I'll work on the Blackwork RR I'm in right now. After that who knows? ;)

Currently working on: Brendan's Mini RR, Blackwork RR, The Rose in Morning

April recap

2007-05-01T07:51:00.000-05:00

April went pretty well overall--not as well as I might have liked in some areas, but better than I expected in others. The weather was horrible most of the month so unlike last year I wasn't able to get out in the garden much until the last week or so. But I did get a lot done in that limited amount of time, so I'm happy. Once again the foundation bed has an edge (lets see how long that lasts ;) and the roses are trimmed, sprayed, fertilized and weeded, with new Geranium 'Orion' planted in their little beds. I planted some impatiens and a new Asian lily and discovered the Echinacea and Lobilia I planted last year survived, much to my surprise! I can't wait to see how they do this year :). Now that the pool garden is in decent shape I can focus more on the front and a couple of other areas in the back which really need some work. Yesterday I planted some annuals (ageratum, alyssum, snapdragons, african daisy) in the pool garden and moved a geranium 'orion' from one spot to another. The geranium looked rather wilted so I'm hoping it survives okay. His "cousins" that I've had in the garden for 10 years are extremely hardy and I'm hoping he is too ;).

Stitching did not go as well as I'd hoped--I haven't stitched much at all the last 2 weeks. I did manage to work on everything I wanted to at least once though which is an accomplishment for me in itself ;). I can tell now that garden season is coming up that I should probably give up any idea of a rotation, and just work on RR's and finishing a couple of things. If I cut myself some slack and am not too hard on myself I'll be much more likely to stitch--otherwise I'll just drop it altogether until about August when it gets too hot to work outside lol. I need to finish Brendan's RR (which is almost done), and I think I'll just work on whatever takes my fancy for the next couple of months--especially garden pieces :). I was just thinking I'd like to do some over 1 stitching, and I have a WIP of "Bloom" by the Trilogy which is over 1 and a garden piece, so that fits all my criteria nicely (over 1, already started, garden ;). I will probably start something else new too, but I'm going to try to wait at least until I've finished Brendan's RR so I don't feel too guilty lol.

Otherwise things are going as well as can be expected. Considering I have had children home sick and my brother here working on our basement (which I helped him with), I've done pretty good with the cleaning and laundry. The major basement work should be done this week (fingers crossed), so hopefully I'll be able to figure out a schedule which allows me to balance the house, garden and stitching--wish me luck!

Currently working on: Blackwork RR, Brendan's mini RR, Secret Flower Bed

Menu and Stitching plan Monday

2007-04-23T07:15:00.000-05:00

It's going to be crazy here this week, so I'm not sure how much of this will be followed, but let's try anyway lol ;)

Menus:

Monday--leftovers
Tuesday--Chicken Cacciatore with pasta, salad, rolls
Wednesday--leftovers
Thursday--Dijon-Tarragon Salmon, salad, rice
Friday/weekend--off with Dave for our anniversary :)

Stitching:

Monday--Blackwork RR
Tuesday--Golden Pavillion
Wednesday--SAL slot (Secret Flower Bed)
Thursday--Brendan's Mini RR
Friday/weekend--out for our anniversary ;)

Currently working on: Blackwork RR, Brendan's mini RR, Golden Pavillion, Home

It will be all right

2007-04-15T14:33:00.000-05:00

Why is it that I feel compelled to try to make everyone feel better? This holds true in every area of my life, whether something as small as a disagreement between my DH and son (going on right now, nothing big though), my friends' problems, disagreements between people at work, school, friends, whatever. As one of those personality quizzes (from a previous blog entry) said, I am a peacemaker--sometimes it's a good thing but other times it's not.

Why can't I let these things go? I'm sitting here in the den listening to my husband get irritated, which upsets my son, which gets Dave more upset, and on and on and on. My first instinct is to go in there and make things right, but is that the best thing to do? This is just one of those little things that parenthood is made up of--it's not a big issue at all. Isn't it better to let them figure it out?

But that's what I do. I can't stand to see the people I love upset, in pain or angry with each other. If possible I will try to negotiate between the parties, if not then I will listen and talk to whichever party I'm with (sometimes until I'm blue in the face) to try to make them feel better. But they probably just wish I'd shut up most of the time ;). There are times when I mostly listen and just voice a few thoughts, but I know there have been lots of times when I've said way more than I should have. I can be (and try very hard to be) diplomatic, but sometimes I speak before I think and that isn't always the most helpful tack.

No matter whether I talk or listen or what have you, I worry about the situation until it gets resolved. Sometimes it doesn't get resolved which causes me to worry more. One of my friends has told me not to worry--the only person responsible for him is himself. But what kind of friend would I be if I didn't worry? Isn't that what you do when you love someone?

This entry asks a lot of rhetorical questions with few if any answers. I've been struggling with this for a while now and I guess I just needed to put it down in writing. Maybe someday I'll find the answers to help myself and my friends/family, in the meantime I'll just have to hope that they know whatever I do is out of love.

Currently working on: Blackwork RR, Brendan's Superhero Mini RR, Home, Golden Pavillion, Secret Flower Bed

Movies: 35 out of 239

2007-04-12T08:54:00.000-05:00

“It’s been said that allegedly if you’ve seen over 85 movies you have no life. Mark the ones you’ve seen. There are 239 films on this list. Copy this list, go to your own blog, paste it in and put x’s by the ones that you have seen. Add them up, change the header adding your number, and post it.”

I found this in my friend's blog and it looked like fun, so I'm going to try it :). I'm more of a musical/classic movie fan, so I'll be interested to see what my final total is. I need to send this to Dave as he's a movie-a-holic and has probably seen almost everything here lol ;)

( ) Rocky Horror Picture Show
( ) Grease
(X) Pirates of the Caribbean
( ) Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man’s Chest
( ) Boondock Saints
( ) Fight Club
( ) Starsky and Hutch
( ) Neverending Story
( ) Blazing Saddles
( ) Airplane
(X) The Princess Bride
( ) AnchorMan
( ) Napoleon Dynamite
( ) Labyrinth
( ) Saw
( ) Saw II
( ) White Noise
( ) White Oleander
( ) Anger Management
( ) 50 First Dates
( ) The Princess Diaries
( ) The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement

Total so far: 2 out of 22. That's either very sad or very good lol ;)

( ) Scream
( ) Scream 2
( ) Scream 3
( ) Scary Movie
( ) Scary Movie 2
( ) Scary Movie 3
( ) Scary Movie 4
( ) American Pie
( ) American Pie 2
( ) American Wedding
( ) American Pie Band Camp
( ) Harry Potter 1
( ) Harry Potter 2
( ) Harry Potter 3
( ) Harry Potter 4
( ) Resident Evil 1
( ) Resident Evil 2
( ) The Wedding Singer
( ) Little Black Book
( ) The Village
( ) Lilo & Stitch

Total so far: still 2 out of 43.

(X) Finding Nemo
(X) Finding Neverland
( ) Signs
( ) The Grinch
( ) Texas Chainsaw Massacre
( ) Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning
( ) White Chicks
( ) Butterfly Effect
(X) 13 Going on 30
( ) I, Robot
( ) Robots
( )Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
( ) Universal Soldier
( ) Lemony Snicket: A Series Of Unfortunate Events
( ) Along Came Polly
( ) Deep Impact
( ) KingPin
( ) Never Been Kissed
(X) Meet The Parents
( ) Meet the Fockers
( ) Eight Crazy Nights
( ) Joe Dirt
( ) King Kong

Total so far: 6 out of 66.

( ) A Cinderella Story
( ) The Terminal
( ) The Lizzie McGuire Movie
( ) Passport to Paris
( ) Dumb & Dumber
( ) Dumber & Dumberer
( ) Final Destination
( ) Final Destination 2
( ) Final Destination 3
( ) Halloween
( ) The Ring
( ) The Ring 2
( ) Surviving Christmas
( ) Flubber*
( ) Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle
( ) Practical Magic
( ) Chicago
( ) Ghost Ship
( ) From Hell
( ) Hellboy
( ) Secret Window
( ) I Am Sam
( ) The Whole Nine Yards
( ) The Whole Ten Yards

Total so far: still 6 out of 90.

( ) The Day After Tomorrow
( ) Child’s Play
( ) Seed of Chucky
( ) Bride of Chucky
( ) Ten Things I Hate About You
( ) Just Married
( ) Gothika
( ) Nightmare on Elm Street
( ) Sixteen Candles
( ) Remember the Titans
( ) Coach Carter
( ) The Grudge
( ) The Grudge 2
(X) The Mask
( ) Son Of The Mask
( ) Bad Boys
( ) Bad Boys 2
( ) Joy Ride
( ) Lucky Number Sleven
(X) Ocean’s Eleven
( ) Ocean’s Twelve
( ) Bourne Identity
( ) Bourne Supremecy
( ) Lone Star
( ) Bedazzled
( ) Predator I
( ) Predator II
( ) The Fog
(X) Ice Age
(X) Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
( ) Curious George

Total so far: Up to 10 out of 121. Who knows, maybe I really do have a life lol ;)

( ) Independence Day
( ) Cujo
( ) A Bronx Tale
( ) Darkness Falls
( ) Christine
( ) E.T.
( ) Children of the Corn
( ) My Bosses Daughter
( ) Maid in Manhattan
( ) War of the Worlds
( ) Rush Hour
( ) Rush Hour 2
( ) Best Bet
(X) How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
( ) She’s All That
( ) Calendar Girls
( ) Sideways
( ) Mars Attacks
( ) Event Horizon
( ) Ever After
(X) Wizard of Oz
( ) Forrest Gump
( ) Big Trouble in Little China
(X) The Terminator
(X) The Terminator 2
( ) The Terminator 3

Total so far: 14 out of 147

( ) X-Men
( ) X-2
( ) X3
(X) Spider-Man
(X) Spider-Man 2
( ) Sky High
( ) Jeepers Creepers
( ) Jeepers Creepers 2
( ) Catch Me If You Can
(X) The Little Mermaid
( ) Freaky Friday*
( ) Reign of Fire
( ) The Skulls
( ) Cruel Intentions
( ) Cruel Intentions 2
( ) The Hot Chick
(X) Shrek
(X) Shrek 2

Total so far: 19 out of 165.

( ) Swimfan
(X) Miracle on 34th street*
( ) Old School
( ) The Notebook
( ) K-Pax
( ) Krippendorf’s Tribe
( ) A Walk to Remember
( ) Ice Castles
( ) Boogeyman
( ) The 40-year-old Virgin
(X) Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
( ) Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
( ) Lord of the Rings: Return Of the King
(X) Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
(X) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
(X) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Total so far: 24 out of 181. At least I broke 20 ;)

( ) Base-ketball
( ) Hostel
( ) Waiting for Guffman
( ) House of 1000 Corpses
( ) Devils Rejects
( ) Elf
( ) Highlander
( ) Mothman Prophecies
( ) American History X
( ) Three
( ) The Jacket
( ) Kung Fu Hustle
( ) Shaolin Soccer
( ) Night Watch
(X) Monsters Inc.
(X) Titanic
(X) Monty Python and the Holy Grail
( ) Shaun Of the Dead
( ) Willard

Total so far: 27 out of 200.

( ) High Tension
( ) Club Dread
( ) Hulk
( ) Dawn Of the Dead
(X) Hook
( ) Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
( ) 28 days later
( ) Orgazmo
( ) Phantasm
( ) Waterworld
( ) Kill Bill Vol. 1
( ) Kill Bill Vol. 2
( ) Mortal Kombat
( ) Wolf Creek
( ) Kingdom of Heaven
( ) The Hills Have Eyes
( ) I Spit on Your Grave
( ) The Last House on the Left
( ) Re-Animator
( ) Army of Darkness

Total so far: 28 out of 220.

(X) Star Wars Ep. I The Phantom Menace
(X) Star Wars Ep. II Attack of the Clones
(X) Star Wars Ep. III Revenge of the Sith
(X) Star Wars Ep. IV A New Hope
(X) Star Wars Ep. V The Empire Strikes Back
(X) Star Wars Ep. VI Return of the Jedi
( ) Ewoks: Caravan Of Courage
( ) Ewoks: The Battle For Endor
( ) The Matrix
( ) The Matrix: Reloaded
( ) The Matrix: Revolutions
( ) Animatrix
( ) Evil Dead
( ) Evil Dead 2
( ) Team America: World Police
( ) Red Dragon
(X) Silence of the Lambs
( ) Hannibal

Grand total: 35 out of 239. I guess I do have a life after all! I've seen bits and pieces of lots of these movies because of Dave, but I didn't count them unless I'd seen the whole thing ;). I'm not a horror/suspense/slasher kind of gal which left out a lot of these lol. Now if you had a list of musicals/classic pictures that'd be a whole different story!

WIP Wednesday (on Thursday ;)

2007-04-12T08:26:00.000-05:00

I meant to do this yesterday but got caught up in other things, so here it is a day late and a dollar short lol ;)

First my blackwork RR--I finally finished frogging the top portion, unfortunately you can still see the holes...

Brendan's mini RR--I finished Superman, now I just need to finish Flash and it will be done :)

Last week I started SB's Home on 10 ct. Tula and I LOVE it!

And finally my first Sanman SAL--not much there but he's lots of fun and he'll be really cute when he's finished :)

Menu and Stitching plan Monday

2007-04-09T07:46:00.000-05:00

Menus:

Monday--Tacos, corn
Tuesday--Seafood Rice, Salad, Rolls
Wednesday--Hamburgers, veggies
Thursday--Steak Diane (leftovers), mashed potatoes, salad
Friday--Leftovers
Saturday--out
Sunday--Beef Stuffed Peppers, Salad, Rolls

Stitching:
I started SB's Home last week so I didn't follow my rotation at all ;). I want to get back to it this week, but a lot depends on how much I get done on my Blackwork RR since it has to be mailed out next Monday.

Monday--Blackwork RR
Tuesday--Golden Pavillion
Wednesday--SAL slot (Secret Flower Bed)
Thursday--RoS
Friday--Brendan's RR
Weekend--Home or Blackwork RR

Currently working on: Blackwork RR, Brendan's Superhero Mini RR, Home

Spring Break musings

2007-04-06T08:54:00.000-05:00

Although you wouldn't know it's spring by the weather yesterday and today--cold and cloudy. At least the few spring bulbs that have come up are a little bright spot in all this ;). My mood today matches the weather, which makes me wonder if I should post anything at all lol. I don't want to be gloomy...

Actually it's been a decent spring break--much better than I had anticipated. I haven't felt that great, so it's been a quiet one activity-wise, but all in all it's been good. The boys have been playing video games, amazingly enough without too much fighting or nastiness which was one of my biggest concerns. Since Dave brought the PS2 home during Christmas break they've been obsessed, and it's brought out a level of nastiness in both that I hadn't seen much before. I'm not sure why it's been better this week but I'm eternally grateful :). We haven't done everything I'd planned, but we have done a few little things. The weather was much nicer earlier this week so we went to the park, they played outside a lot, did a scavenger hunt, walked the dog, etc. We met Dave for lunch one day, rented a couple of video games/dvd's, went to La Madeline for lemonade and croissants and to the bookstore (a little ritual for us) and today they have a playdate with their best friends. We still have to dye Easter Eggs and bake Easter cookies, but that will be pretty easy--I'm cheating with the cookies lol (ready-to-bake from the store ;).

I haven't done much with the house, other than a thorough cleaning of the kitchen, but at least that's something right? I spent all yesterday looking for places for Dave and I to go for his birthday weekend, and I spent half of one day stitching, so I think that's pretty good ;). Tonight he and I are going out, and Sunday we're going to the IL's for Easter, so that rounds out the week nicely :).

So all in all not bad, in fact quite nice so far :). A little quiet for some of you I'm sure, but I like it quiet ;). Happy Easter/Spring!

Currently working on: Blackwork RR, Brendan's Superhero Mini RR, Home, Secret Flower Bed, Golden Pavillion

Menu and Stitching plan Monday

2007-04-02T13:28:00.000-05:00

First the menus. We've had 2 of the Dinner Done meals so far and loved them, so those will be the leftovers :)

Monday--leftovers (Cheesy Chicken, mashed potatoes, asparagus)
Tuesday--Marinated Chicken Thighs (crockpot), rice, broccoli
Wednesday--leftovers (potroast)
Thursday--Flounder, rice (from Tuesday), asparagus
Friday--Pork Tacos w/ Cilantro-lime Mojo (DD), corn
Saturday--leftovers
Sunday--inlaws for Easter dinner

Now stitching:

Monday--Blackwork RR
Tuesday--Golden Pavillion
Wednesday--SAL slot (Secret Flower Bed)
Thursday--RoS and/or Spring Topiary
Friday--Brendan's Superhero Mini RR
Weekend--A Love Song

Currently working on: Brendan's Superhero Mini RR, Blackwork RR, Golden Pavillion, Secret Flower Bed

Stitching ramblings

2007-03-31T09:31:00.000-05:00

I have all these thoughts about my stitching for the upcoming month running around in my head, so I'm hoping that by putting them down "on paper" it will help me to organize them ;). I guess I should start with an end of the month report:

I didn't stitch nearly as much as I had planned this month, but in spite of that I'm happy with what I accomplished. I started Spring Topiary which I've wanted to start for years now, and I finally made some noticeable progress on 3 Pale eggs. I didn't work on Brendan's RR at all, but I think I should be able to get it finished this weekend/week, so I'm not too worried. I finally got started on my Blackwork RR after much frustration in finding patterns. It's going to be smaller than the allotted size, but hopefully people won't mind ;). The important thing is I finally found a pattern I like, whose directions aren't several pages long and that is easy for me to customize color-wise.

Now on to my dilemma for the coming month. Here is my rotation as originally planned:

Monday--Blackwork RR
Tuesday--Golden Pavillion
Wednesday--SAL slot (Secret Flower Bed)
Thursday--Mira/L&L/Angel slot (RoS)
Friday/Weekend--SB

I didn't work on Secret Flower Bed at all this month either, so I'd like to get back to it--it's about 3/4 of the way done and I know I could finish it this month if I just put my mind to it. I really would like to get back to Golden Pavillion so it doesn't become one of those "I had to start it now, worked on it a bit and then never touched it again" pieces lol ;). Plus there are several more in that series I'd like to do, but I have to finish this one first. My problem is I got a gorgeous piece called A Love Song by Fouroaks Designs that I really want to start. I got the fabric and floss for it this week--I'm going to do it over 1 on 40 ct. linen so I must be insane lol! But it is stunning and I love over 1, so I really want to do it. BUT it will throw off my rotation--I either have to give up Golden Pavillion, SB or RoS. I also want to continue with my Spring Topiary, so now what do I do?

First off I have to remember my mantra for this year--I'm supposed to be having fun! If I start something new it's okay. Don't become so focused on finishing that you lose sight of what you love about it in the first place--it's the journey and not the destination that's important ;). On the other hand it does feel really good to know I have some finishes very close, and I'm enjoying the feeling of accomplishment from finishing, so I'd like to keep that going too. So obviously I have to compromise ;). I think I'll take out SB and put in A Love Song. I do have SB slated for next month so I think that will work out well. I may put Spring Topiary in RoS' slot--we'll have to see. If not maybe I can work it in next month :).

If you've made it this far you're a trooper! It really did help putting it all down in writing--it's a great way to clear your thoughts :)

Currently working on: Blackwork RR, Brendan's Superhero RR, Spring Topiary

Spring Cleaning ;)

2007-03-28T19:45:00.000-05:00

I decided it was time for a new look so after half a day of stumbling through the darkness of blog templates, html and css here we are ;). I know next to nothing about all this, so considering that I think I did pretty good :). I've learned a lot along the way, although I still know nothing which is pretty scary lol. I like this look a lot--clean and simple yet feminine, but now that I know more I may change it again sooner rather than later so watch out ;).

After several hours of staring at the computer screen my eyes need a rest so no stitching tonight ;). I'm off for some tea and relaxation :).

WIP Wednesday

2007-03-28T09:14:00.000-05:00

I don't usually post my WIP pics in my blog, but because I have a couple of friends who aren't on the board reading I thought I'd try and start ;). Plus maybe it will motivate me even more--who knows? Anyway here they are: The top one is Just Nan's Tiny Garden Square, then Mill Hill's Spring Topiary and SB's 3 Pale Eggs. I did Tiny Garden Square the weekend after I finished Ian's RR, just to do something for myself and so I could have a quick finish to keep motivated :). I started the SB years ago, but only had done 2 1/2 eggs when I really started working on it this year. The blank spots in the eggs will have beads, I just have to finish the corners on the cream border and do the cross stitch outermost border and it will be done! However since Easter is next week I doubt I'll get it done this year--I prefer to stitch seasonally lol ;). But it's wonderful to think when I pull it out next year I'll be able to finish it :). Spring Topiary is one of those that I've said each year I'd start, so it feels great to have finally followed through. I LOVE beading, so this one may get finished this year since once I start beading I won't be able to put it down ;). Thanks for looking!

Currently working on: Brendan's Superhero mini RR, Blackwork RR, 3 Pale Eggs, Spring Topiary

Menu and Stitching plan Monday

2007-03-26T07:45:00.000-05:00

Not really sure about menus this week as it's Dave's first week of class, but I'll give it a shot ;)

Monday--leftovers (class)
Tuesday--baked flounder, rice, salad
Wednesday--leftovers (class)
Thursday--pasta, rolls, salad
Friday--Marinated chicken thighs (crockpot), rice, broccoli
Saturday--pork tenderloin, mashed potatoes, asparagus
Sunday--leftovers

Now stitching, which I'm on firmer ground with lol ;)

Monday--Spring Topiary
Tuesday--3 Pale Eggs
Wednesday--SAL slot (Secret Flower Bed)
Thursday--Ring Around the Rose Tree
Friday/weekend--RR (blackwork if the pattern gets here, Brendan's if not ;)

Currently working on: Brendan's superhero mini RR, Spring Topiary, 3 Pale Eggs

Contents of childhood

2007-03-21T12:33:00.000-05:00

I was cleaning out the den today and found Brendan's tote bag from preschool. At his preschool they encouraged the kids to bring things in that they found (especially outside) or to bring things home to show their parents, which they thought were special. So at the bottom of the tote bag I found:

1 Pirate bandana from when "Pirate Lee" came to visit
1 stick, wide enough to have his name written on it
1 pumpkin stem (I remember when he decided to bring this to school for science ;)
another stick with his name on it (not as wide as the first)
a very clean stick with all its bark taken off (I remember too when he wanted to bring it in for science, he was amazed at its smoothness and how different it looked)
pirate treasure (gold coins and necklaces)
a beautifully painted seashell
1 small plastic snake
1 dolphin keychain
assorted dried up leaves
assorted bits of paper that once were something ;)

It doesn't signify the end of his childhood obviously (he is after all only 6), but it does represent the end of his preschool days. It's a bit sad to think that phase is done for him, and a little more sad to think I'll never see that phase again with one of my children. I smile to see things so insignificant to us grownups which were so special and magical to him. My wish is that he and his brother will always be able to find that magic in themselves--that even when they're grown-up they'll be able to look at a spiderweb and be awed by it's beauty and amazed at its construction :).

Currently working on: Brendan's Superhero RR, MH Spring Topiary, 3 Pale Eggs

Amazing

2007-03-21T08:59:00.000-05:00

We're in the process of redoing our basement, and while cleaning down there I found some of my old college papers/notebooks. I'm a packrat and saved most of my school papers from elementary school on, and boy am I glad I did. So far I've only read the papers from one folder, but they are very interesting to me. They are from my first college English class--English 120 which took place in the fall of 1987. The one which struck me the most was a short essay on my father's bypass surgery, which had happened almost 4 years earlier. It detailed where I was and how I felt when I found out about the surgery, all of which I'd forgotten. You see, a few months after I wrote that essay my father died.

My father's death is another blog entry for another time when I'm ready. What struck me so forcibly about this essay I found was how completely I'd forgotten about everything having to do with his surgery. At the time of his surgery it was a huge event. My whole family was terrified and it obviously had a big impact for me to be able to write with such detail about the moment I found out about it. But his death was a much greater tragedy which changed my life and who I was completely, so I guess I just forgot about the other event which paled in comparison.

I knew his death had changed me, I just didn't realize how much until I found these papers. Those essays, and the notes I wrote to a friend in that class, speak of happiness, promise, hope and just pure joy. I had forgotten that girl--she died when dad did. Finding her again when my life is so full and so happy is a joy I can't describe :).

Currently working on: Brendan's superhero RR, MH Spring Topiary, 3 Pale Eggs

It's finished!

2007-03-02T09:22:00.000-05:00

After almost 4 years Ian's Dino Mini RR is done :). Obviously it didn't take me that long to stitch on it--even I'm not that slow lol ;). I put it down and didn't touch it for 3 years, then I picked it up last summer for a bit, put it back down and didn't really get serious about it again until December. I worked on it steadily (if slowly) and never put it down again for more than 2 weeks, which is really good for me ;). I finally finished it last night at 11:06 p.m. One of the main reasons it was hard for me to finish (aside from the "obligation" factor) was that the subject matter and colors were not my style. It's hard to work on a piece when you don't like what you're working on. But I love my son and picturing his face kept me going :). He's been in on the finishing process and was a great cheerleader--I never heard "when is it going to be done?" "why is it taking so long" or anything of the kind. Instead I heard "great job mom!" "it looks really good!" and the best one of all--"thanks mom for doing this for me" :)

So I'm thrilled to have it done. It's the first RR out of the of the 7 I have in my posession (another one is making the rounds as we speak) that I've finished, and the first finish I've had (other than swaps/rr's) in a year and a half--how sad is that? I'm going to finish Brendan's mini next--I only have to finish the Superman symbol and then do Flash and it will be done :). That should only take me a week at the most (less if I drop my rotation for a week) and then I think I'll pull out my band sampler RR from last year--that only has to have my band finished (there's maybe a 1/4 of it left) and it will be done too--3 finishes in one year will be a record for me I think lol ;). I just feel so good about my stitching right now and it's so nice :)

Currently working on: Brendan's Superhero Mini RR, Secret Flower Bed, Mystery Garden

Stitching and Menu Plan Monday

2007-02-26T11:57:00.000-05:00

First the menus since I just got back from the grocery store so they're on my mind ;)

Monday--Pork Tenderloin, Asparagus, Mashed Potatoes
Tuesday--Pork Chops Dijon, Salad, Biscuits
Wednesday--Tacos, Corn
Thursday--Cabernet Pot Roast* w/potatoes and carrots (crockpot)
Friday--Grilled Chicken with cheese tortellini and sundried tomatoes*
Weekend--leftovers :)

*already prepared from Trader Joe's :)

Now for stitching--I'm going to take a break from my rotation again this week as I'm trying to get Ian's dinos finished. I worked on them last week during AI and again this weekend, so I'm going to take a break tonight and then work on them again during AI. I'm hoping to get them done this week!

Monday--Mystery Garden
Tuesday--Ian's dinos
Wednesday--Ian's dinos
Thursday--Ian's dinos
Friday--Secret Flower bed or Mystery Garden
Weekend--Ian's dinos unless they're done in which case I'll work on Brendan's Superheros :)

Currently working on: Mystery Garden, Ian's Dino Mini RR, Secret Flower Bed

Happy Anniversary

2007-02-15T10:27:00.000-05:00

I've had this entry bouncing around in my head for a couple of days, but have been hesitant to put it in writing. I'm going to try anyway and see how I like it--who knows, maybe I'll be surprised ;).

A year ago yesterday (sorry to be a day late and a dollar short) I saw a friend whom I hadn't seen in almost 20 years. It was exciting and terrifying all at the same time, with terror probably being the predominant emotion in my mind. The last time we'd seen each other we were teenagers, now I was a middle-aged mother of 2--you do the math ;). There was of course the fear that we wouldn't have anything in common, that one or both of us would have changed beyond recognition (internally, not externally), etc. Having chosen to be a stay at home mom I was afraid my career path would be scoffed at by my friend who is a high-powered executive. Once we met and started talking however all those fears were laid to rest. I found that at their core, my friend was still the same person I'd known all those years ago.

"At the core"--I've thought a lot about that concept since seeing my friend again. Our circumstances, dreams, goals, likes and dislikes change as we grow, but hopefully if we were a good person to begin with that "core" stays with us. The circumstances of our friendship being what they were (my friend will understand what I mean here ;), I found myself impressed that not only had we known each other better than I thought, but that what drew us to each other initially was still there. It was very comforting for me at least to find this out :).

Because of their job I haven't been able to see my friend much since then which makes me sad, but we have kept up the friendship which makes me happy. I want to tell my friend that I value their presence in my life and their friendship more than they know--happy anniversary :).

Currently working on: Ian's Dino Mini RR, Mystery Garden, Secret Flower Bed

Menu and stitching plan Monday ;)

2007-02-05T10:51:00.000-05:00

First the menus:

Monday--leftovers
Tuesday--Fish fillets (frozen); broccoli, bacon and cheddar toss; rolls
Wednesday--Chicken and Linguine for 2, salad
Thursday--Pork Tenderloin (not sure how I'm going to prepare it though ;), mashed potatoes, corn
Friday--Simple Hamburger Hot Dish, salad
Saturday--leftovers
Sunday--they're on their own, I'm out for time off!

Now for stitching (and this may change, I feel the need to tweak a bit ;):

Monday--Ian's Dino Mini RR
Tuesday--Golden Pavillion or The Rose in Morning
Wednesday--SAL day (Secret Flower Bed)
Thursday--not sure, maybe a WIP, maybe start something new ;)
Friday/weekend--Ian's Dino Mini RR

Currently working on: Ian's Dino Mini RR, Golden Pavillion, Secret Flower Bed, The Rose in Morning

End of month stitching report

2007-01-30T14:10:00.000-05:00

As the first month of the new year draws to a close (can I sound any more like an announcer lol), I thought I'd put down how my rotation went. I'm very pleased with my progress--not so much in numbers of stitches (although I did well there because I actually stitched ;) but in how consistent I was following it. I also did well in my primary goal, which was to allow myself to deviate from it if I wanted/needed to. As a result I finished my Valentine's stitchery on time with no stress, made some progress on Golden Pavillion (instead of starting it, stitching for a couple of hours and then putting it down never to touch it again ;) and came closer to finishing Ian's dino mini. Just the fact that I didn't get tired of working on Ian's piece and convince myself to put it down for a while thrills me :). I think the rotation and allowing myself flexibility played a large role in that. I also started a new piece (LHN's Rose in Morning) and made some progress there, and without throwing off my whole rotation ;). So here's what I tentatively have planned for Feb.:

Monday--Rose in Morning
Tuesday--Golden Pavillion
Wednesday--SAL day (Secret Flower Bed or Enchanted Cottage)
Thursday--French Heart
Friday/weekend--Ian's Dino Mini RR

My goal this month is to finish Ian's piece and maybe Secret Flower Bed, depending on how I feel about it ;). It would be nice to have 2 finishes in one month that aren't RR's or exchanges lol. I also want to continue to be flexible--go off course, adjust if needed, start something else, work on something other than what I have listed here. The only thing I will not change is Ian's piece :).

So that's the state of my stitching for January--thanks for reading and we now return you to your regularly scheduled programming ;)

Currently working on: Golden Pavillion, Ian's Dino Mini RR, Rose in Morning

Friday Feast

2007-01-12T20:52:00.000-05:00

Appetizer: What comes to mind when you see the color orange? Marigolds--they're Ian's favorite flower :)

Soup: Did you ever get in trouble while you were in school? If so, what was it for? Only once and it wasn't my fault ;). In high school I got sick and had to go home one day. One of my teachers didn't see my name on the excused list and turned me in for cutting class. I was not happy with him to say the least ;)

Salad: Which topping(s) make up your perfect pizza? Pepperoni, Sausage (preferably Italian) and black olives

Main Course: Do you believe in UFOs/aliens/etc.? Why or why not? No. Not sure why not, I just don't ;)

Dessert: What color is your bedspread/comforter/quilt? It's several colors--sort of a neo-classical blend of gold/tan with burgundy and green highlights (very hard to describe lol ;)

Currently working on: Ian's Dino Mini RR, Golden Pavillion, Valentine Stitchery

Stitching plan Monday

2007-01-08T09:36:00.000-05:00

There won't be a Menu Plan Monday this week for various reasons, but stitching is more important that eating anyway, right? ;) So without further ado here is this week's plan:

Monday--Valentine's Stitchery and/or Ian's Dino Mini RR
Tuesday--Golden Pavillion
Wednesday--SAL slot, probably Secret Flower Bed
Thursday--Valentine's Stitchery
Friday/Weekend--Ian's Dino Mini RR

I'm making good progress with Ian's piece--I think I can finally see the end of the tunnel! If we ever get another camera I promise to take pics lol ;). I also made good progress on Golden Pavillion which I'm really enjoying working on :). I think it's helping me to have a plan for the week--we'll see how it goes the rest of the month!

Currently working on: Ian's Dino Mini RR, Golden Pavillion, Valentine's Stitchery

Stitching plan Thursday

2007-01-04T09:17:00.000-05:00

In the spirit of Menu plan monday I'm going to try and post a weekly stitching plan as well since my rotation is loosely based on a weekly model. Maybe this will give me incentive to keep going with it and maybe I'll even get some progress on various WIPs done lol ;). Normally I think I'll do this on a Monday, but as usual I'm running late this week ;).

Monday--Golden Pavillion (started on New Years)
Tuesday--Golden Pavillion
Wednesday--SAL slot (this week I worked on Secret Flower Bed)
Thursday--either one of the pieces I've been working on already, or I may start LB's Seasonal Teacups or the Valentine's exchange piece
Friday/Weekend--Ian's Dino Mini RR

I'll post more thoughts about my rotation tomorrow :)

Currently working on: Ian's Dino Mini RR, Golden Pavillion, Secret Flower Bed, Valentine's Exchange

What time of day are you?

2006-12-20T08:09:00.000-05:00

You Are Sunrise

You enjoy living a slow, fulfilling life. You enjoy living every moment, no matter how ordinary.
You are a person of reflection and meditation. You start and end every day by looking inward.
Caring and giving, you enjoy making people happy. You're often cooking for friends or buying them gifts.
All in all, you know how to love life for what it is - not for how it should be.

What Time Of Day Are You?

Balance

2006-12-16T09:06:00.000-05:00

I was thinking the other day how nice it is to have some sort of balance return to my life. Now that both the boys are in school I have more time to get things done, and more time for me. Everyone needs me time--I'm one of those people who needs some alone time every day to recharge, otherwise I get very cranky and frazzled. During the past 9 years having a child home most of the time, if it came down to a choice between cleaning or some other house-related issue and me getting some quiet time, I would choose the quiet time. It meant I was a better mother and wife, not to mention a happier person. But I always felt guilty that I wasn't doing as well as I thought I should be with the "house" part of my job. Now I'm able to do better in that role which has given me confidence, pride and satisfaction, and (to my surprise) made me happier also. I haven't been able to integrate everything yet (I don't know if anyone can), but I figure the more things become a habit the more I can add--at least until I reach my limit ;). Sure sometimes things fall apart (sickness, outside factors, etc.), but with more things becoming habit (and learning how to plan) I'm able to get back on track much more quickly than I used to which is very nice :).

Now if I can just get my hobbies to follow suit and become organized I'll be all set!

Currently working on: Ian's dino Mini RR

Friday Feast (on Saturday)

2006-12-16T09:00:00.000-05:00

Good grief--I can't even keep up with my blog posts lol ;). Here a day late is the Friday Feast:

Appetizer: What was your very first job with a paycheck? I was a page at the library

Soup: Did you ever lose something really important to you? My dad

Salad: What is the best Christmas present you ever received? I got a Mac the very first year they came out (boy does that date me or what! ;)

Main Course: Tell about a favorite "hang out" place for you and your friends when you were in high school. Not much to tell--like so many others it was the mall

Dessert: Name something that always brings a smile to your face. My kids, a perfect rose, a beautiful sky :)

Currently working on : Ian's dino Mini RR

Menu Plan Monday

2006-12-11T12:47:00.000-05:00

I do apologize for not doing any entries lately other than Menu Plan Monday and Friday Feast lol. It's just this time of year is so busy--you know how it goes ;). I promise to try and get here sometime before Christmas with a "regular" entry!

Now for this week's menus:

Monday--pork tenderloin, stuffing, asparagus (leftovers)
Tuesday--Marinated Chicken Thighs, rice, salad
Wednesday--French Bread Pizza (frozen, Dave has class ;)
Thursday--Homemade pasta sauce, pasta, rolls, salad (didn't get to this last week)
Friday--Crab Cakes, broccoli, rolls
Saturday--leftovers
Sunday--out to dinner

Currently working on: Story RR, Ian's Dino Mini

Menu plan Monday (on Tuesday)

2006-12-05T09:36:00.000-05:00

I know, I should have done this yesterday, but things are a bit crazy here so I'm doing it today ;). I'm also a bit behind on my menus for last week (long story) so a couple of things are carrying over to this week...

Monday--Honey dijon glazed chicken (Perdue frozen ;), sauteed veggies
Tuesday--leftovers because I'm going out when Dave gets home ;)
Wednesday--Pork Tenderloin, mashed potatoes, asparagus
Thursday--out to dinner and Christmas shopping with Dave
Friday--Quesadillas, corn
Saturday--out to dinner for IL's 25th anniversary
Sunday--Homemade spaghetti sauce, pasta, rolls, salad

Currently working on: Story RR, Ian's Dino Mini RR

Friday Feast

2006-12-01T08:57:00.000-05:00

I haven't done this yet because sometimes I just don't feel like dealing with the questions lol ;). But today's is an easy one, so because I'm lazy I'll do it ;)

Appetizer: Have you ever flown in a helicopter? No, but I'd love to

Soup: What color is your warmest coat or jacket? Maroon

Salad: What is your favorite rainy day activity? Making a hot cup of tea and curling up with a good book :)

Main Course: Describe your hands. Average, although everyone compliments me on my nails--they look like I've had a French Manicure but that's their natural color ;)

Dessert: If you could eat only one nut for the rest of your life, what nut would you pick? Peanuts for sure!

Currently working on: Story RR, Ian's dino mini RR

Menu Plan Monday

2006-11-27T14:11:00.000-05:00

I think I'm actually organized for the week for once lol ;). Here's what I think we'll be having this week:

Monday--Thanksgiving leftovers (who would have guessed ;)
Tuesday--Crockpot Italian turkey meatballs, salad, rolls
Wednesday--hotdogs (Dave has class)
Thursday--Flank Steak teriyaki, roasted potatoes, broccoli, rolls
Friday--Pork Tenderloin, potatoes from Thurs., salad
Saturday--Leftovers
Sunday--Quesadillas (with steak from Thurs.), corn

Currently working on: Story RR, Ian's Dino mini RR

Parent limits

2006-11-11T10:30:00.000-05:00

You know, you always hear about limits for kids, or their personal limits, or some version thereof, but you rarely hear about parents' limits. What got me to thinking about this were two events that happened recently. At Ian's birthday party a friend gave him blo-pens, which my SIL immediately announced would not be welcome at her house ;). I admit I was a bit nervous about them, but I figured they could use them in our solarium on the picnic table, which is where they do their art projects. As it turns out they aren't that messy, but it got me to thinking about the difference in our limits--she wouldn't want to deal with whatever mess they might create and that's her right.

A couple of days later I left the boys with a friend for a playdate. When I walked in they were all around the kitchen table making a "potion" as an experiment (her boys and mine are all into science). In a bowl was a mixture of very dark green liquid which was getting all over the table as it was being stirred with great enthusiasm by the boys. I thought to myself that she was a braver woman than I, as I would never allow such a thing to be done in my house! But they were having fun mixing different things together (I think Ian said it had milk, water, food coloring and something else) and I started to feel that old familiar guilt. The one that is caused in large part by all those parenting magazines and books that say kids should be allowed to explore to their heart's content. Do homemade science experiments, go on nature hikes and teach them about science, do homemade crafts and turn a toilet paper tube into a real telescope! Okay, I exaggerated the last one, but you know what I'm talking about ;). I had to stop reading those because they made me feel like a bad mother for not spending all my free time with my kids doing something extraordinary--like my kids would miss out on really important aspects of childhood by not doing all these things.

Now don't get me wrong, we do do some of those things, but what I realized from these two encounters recently is that we all have limits. My SIL doesn't want blo-pens but I don't mind them. My friend lets her kids make messy potions but I don't. If allowing them to do something like that will only result in me getting upset about the mess (which would spill over unfairly into being upset with them), then isn't it better that I set limits? "You know what, you can do that at your friends' house, but we're not going to do it here." It occured to me that they aren't exactly going to suffer if I don't let them do some of these things--Lord knows there were things my parents didn't let me do ;).

It may sound very basic to some of you, but to me it came as an "aha!" moment. I think everyone has some sort of guilt about some role they play--"I'm a bad friend/parent/spouse/boss/employee because of xyz". In my case because I'm a SAHM my primary role is as parent, and so a lot of guilt comes from that. I have to step back and look at the forest instead of focusing on the trees--my kids are happy, healthy, smart and well adjusted, so I must be doing something right ;).

Currently working on: 2006 Mini RR, Story RR, Finisher's Too

Election day

2006-10-30T08:19:00.000-05:00

Election day is fast approaching and like many others I will be very happy when it's over. Of course I'd be thrilled if I get the outcome I want, but either way I'll be happy to be rid of the phone calls, t.v. ads, junk mail, etc. Why they think pestering me will make me more likely to vote for them is beyond me. Especially the party I'm a member of--they have me on their mailing list, I contribute to them monthly, so they should know they have my vote. I stay away from politics and current events in this blog because some of my friends and most of my family do not agree with my views, and I want them to be comfortable reading here. I have thought recently about starting a separate blog for those types of conversations however--that way they could avoid reading it and hopefully everyone would be happy ;). I just feel like I'm missing something here as politics and current events are one of my interests, and something that Dave and I talk about all the time. I'd really like to have an outlet where I can put things in writing--sometimes to clarify for me and sometimes to vent LOL ;).

I will have to think about it--maybe the mood will pass once the election is over, but I doubt it ;)

Currently working on: 2006 Mini RR, Story RR, Finishers Too, Ian's Dino Mini RR

Menu Plan Monday

2006-10-30T08:11:00.000-05:00

I'm going to try for a few menus this week anyway, even though Dave still has class and we're getting ready for Ian's party on Saturday ;).

Monday--Chicken Parmesan, rolls, salad
Tuesday--Crab Cakes, rolls, broccoli
Wednesday--Leftovers (Dave's in class)
Thursday--Italian sausage casserole, salad
Friday--Hamburgers
Saturday--Pizza & birthday cake ;)
Sunday--probably dinner out :)

Currently working on: 2006 Mini RR, Story RR, Finishers Too, Ian's Dino Mini

A gray fall day

2006-10-27T09:33:00.000-05:00

Actually I love days like this--they're great for driving and looking at the colors (they seem to pop more against the gray), reading or stitching. But today for some reason I don't feel like doing any of that. I've been sitting around all morning doing nothing, thinking that I should be doing this or that. Maybe I just need a day off and shouldn't fight it. The last couple of weeks have been very busy getting ready for houseguests, volunteering at school, helping a friend, etc. Next week I have to do it all over again, so maybe I should just allow myself to be a bum today ;).

I do have a couple of errands I have to run though--I guess I should go take a shower and get out there eh? ;) Maybe once I do that I'll be motivated to sit down and stitch again--I've taken the last 2 days off to give myself a chance to catch up on other stuff I'd been neglecting. I guess that's it for now--nothing terribly insightful or interesting today--sorry ;)

Currently working on: 2006 Mini RR, Story RR, Finishers Too, Ian's Dino Mini

Future projects

2006-10-25T08:26:00.000-05:00

As promised (although late, for which I do apologize ;), here is a list of projects I really want to start at some point. They are not listed in any particular order:

*Old World Map (Janlynn ? Kit)
*French Heart (SB)
Hunt (SB)
*Geisha (needlepoint Dimensions Gold kit)
Teacup Bellpull (Lorri Birmingham)
Violet Teacup pincushion (Lorri Birmingham)
*Roses & Violets (Gitta)
Garden (Hinzeit)
Home (SB)
Brotherly Love (Brittercup Designs)
Britty Puppies
*College of Magical Knowledge (HAED)

The ones with asteriks are large projects, the rest are small to medium :). I'd like to get at least one large project done before starting one of these large ones, but we'll see ;). For the small ones I'm not as worried, and indeed may start Hunt in January--it's very small but very cute :).

Ideally I'd like to use the STRIP method (can't remember what the acronym stands for LOL ;). That's where you finish 2 projects before starting a new one, so in theory your WIP pile will eventually diminish instead of growing. It's been so long since I started something just for me though that I may spend January starting new projects and then move on to stripping ;). I probably shouldn't use that word--God knows what kind of people will find my blog when they google it ;). Oh well, they'll be bored to tears once they realize this has nothing to do with that and everything to do with cross stitch ROFLMAO!

Currently working on: 2006 Mini RR, Story RR, Finisher's Too, Ian's Dino Mini

Ramblings of a stressed out stitcher

2006-10-24T14:32:00.000-05:00

Okay, so I should know my limits by now, but every time I think I've got it figured out something pops up to screw it all up ;). In Sept. I thought it wouldn't be a problem to join the story RR--band sampler would have it's last mailing that month, mini would be halfway done, so starting story would be easy. And hey, while we're at it let's throw in a Halloween exchange for fun! I've promised myself ever since I started joining swaps almost 5 years ago that I'd do the Halloween one so I figured why not this year? I did the same with band sampler in the spring and I'm so glad I did, so it seemed a good idea to try for 2 new swaps this year ;).

The problem is I'm a slow stitcher and everyday life won't stop so I can focus on stitching LOL ;). For some reason my family still wants clean clothes to wear, a somewhat clean house to come home to and food to eat ;). Not to mention pesky little things popping up like major housecleaning for guests (3 times in 3 weeks so far), people getting sick, husbands working late and on weekends and friends who need help. *Sigh*--don't they know I have stitching to do?! Stopping to take care of these issues severely cuts into my stitching time--what's a girl to do?

Take a deep breath, calm down, talk to the host/s of the swaps. I got the Halloween piece done and mailed a week or so late, and the mini is almost done. I'm seeing if I can get something worked out with the owner of the piece and if so it will allow me to get started on the story RR for this month. The story piece is a pretty simple (but very cute) design, so my hope is it won't take me long to do. After that I'm hoping to get a couple of days to put in on the finishers too piece I have, and then it will be on to my last mini and last story. With any luck by the time December rolls around I'll have the whole month to focus on Ian's dino mini so I can finish it before the end of the year--then at least I'll have accomplished one of my goals from last year LOL ;). I won't have any RR's going into the new year, so that will allow me to start fresh with a new slate and see what happens :).

Currently working on: 2006 Mini RR, Story RR, Finisher's too, Ian's dino mini RR

Stitching lists

2006-10-16T15:30:00.000-05:00

I'm not sure if this will help or not, but I feel like putting it in here so there you are ;)

Active WIPs (large)
Rose of Sharon
Ring Around the Rose Tree
Heart's Content Christmas Tree
*Windemere Angel
Celtic Spring

Active WIPs (medium & small)
*Bloom
Secret Flower Bed
Winter Boxer
Moonlight Garden
Sophie's Roses
3 Pale Eggs
Cloister Garden
Enchanted Cottage

RRs that need finishing
Ian's Dino Mini
House Mini
Seasonal
Bead
*Band Sampler

Inactive WIPs (large)
*Rosebud Lullaby
Sitting Pretty
Alphabet
Convent Herbal Garden
Blackwork Sampler
Spring Fairy Spirit

Inactive WIPs (medium & small)
*Mill Hill Snowman
JN Beach Square
Bee Garden
5 Little Pumpkins
Garden Topiary

UFOs (large & small)
*Roses all Around
Around Britian
Huck Towel

* pieces that are closest to being finished in that category

Now in theory Ian's dino mini should be finished by the end of the year--that is my goal and the plan anyway ;). I know logic says I should take the pieces with asteriks and work on them until they're done, that way I have a feeling of accomplishment and can reward myself. That is the plan at the moment, but it may change ;). I've found if I think I have to finish a piece it quite often puts me off of it and I won't want to work on it at all. So in keeping with my "journey, destination" quote from yesterday, if I feel pressure and decide I don't want to work on a particular piece I won't. After all, maybe I'll finish another one instead ;). And the goal is to have fun and enjoy what I'm doing, right? So tentatively here's what I'll concentrate on next year:

Band Sampler RR
Bloom
Windemere Angel
Rosebud Lullaby
Mill Hill Snowman

The band sampler RR and bloom are both very close to being done which is why I'll do them first ;). The others I will work on in between working on whatever screams my name the loudest. That way I will hopefully satisfy both needs--to finish and to have fun :)

Tomorrow--a list of projects I really want to start ;)

Currently working on: Halloween exchange, 2006 Mini RR, Story RR, Finishers Too, Ian's Dino Mini

Confessions of a serial starter

2006-10-16T13:55:00.001-05:00

Or how I learned to love myself even without lots of finishes ROFL ;).

You know, I carry lots of guilt over everything in my life. Everything from my jobs as a mother and wife to my hobbies, including stitching. I love starting new projects but because I'm so slow I have trouble getting them finished, and that leads to guilt, especially if I want to start something else. My problem is I'm looking at it like a task I have to complete instead of something I enjoy doing. I have to keep repeating the phrase "the joy is as much in the journey as in the destination", but even then I sometimes forget and beat myself up over how many WIPs I have ;). But you know the thing is, what difference does it make if I never get another piece done again? Aside from obligation stitching (gifts, rr's, etc.) nothing has to be finished, so what's the big deal? Of course it doesn't work that way for most things--if I don't finish the laundry my family will go naked ;). If I don't do the shopping there will be nothing to eat. Even with gardening--if I don't pull the weeds and put in a minimum of effort many of the plants will die. But cross stitch? The worst that will happen will be I have a huge box full of projects that give me joy to stitch on.....when I happen to stitch on them :).

With that said, I've been doing my annual end of the year re-evaluation of my stitching and my WIPs. I do want to try to finish some pieces, but I don't want that to be my sole focus. So I typed out all my current "active" and "inactive" WIPs and thought about which would be easiest to finish, which I liked the most, etc., and came up with some ideas on what I'd like to focus on next year. And for the record--"inactive" WIPs are not UFOs LOL ;). They are pieces I still consider WIPs but haven't stitched on in a long time :). I think I will save the list for another day though--it's kind of long...

Currently working on: Halloween Exchange, 2006 Mini RR, Story RR, Finishers Too, Ian's dino mini RR

Menu Plan Monday

2006-10-16T12:25:00.000-05:00

Okay, I'll bite ;). I'm going to try this, although I'm not sure how well it's going to work, especially with Dave having class twice a week for the next 2 months LOL ;). It sure would be nice to make dinner more though, and if I don't plan it it doesn't get done ;).

Monday--leftovers (Dave has class)
Tuesday--nacho casserole
Wednesday--forage (Dave has class)
Thursday--quesadillas, corn
Friday--beef burgundy (crockpot) over noodles, rolls, salad
Saturday--out to dinner (mom is here)
Sunday--leftovers

I guess that's all for now :). Back soon with another post to get my week organized (at least on paper LOL ;)

Currently working on: Halloween exchange, 2006 Mini RR, Story RR, Finishers Too, Ian's Dino Mini

Why do I blog?

2006-10-06T07:57:00.000-05:00

One of my blogging buddies from the board posed this question in her blog and it got me to thinking. Why do I blog? Honestly it started out as a lemming thing LOL ;). Everyone else was doing it so I thought I'd give it a try. I don't think I do it for the same reasons a lot of other people I know blog though. I try to use it occasionally for organization, but that rarely works LOL ;). I'm not trying to hone my writing skills because I don't have any ;). I like the photography aspect of it, but just as I've become more regular with my blogging my husband has lost the d*** digital camera so that kind of throws a wrench in the works there ;). It does help with my stitching though which makes me happy as that's one of the reasons I started it :).

When I began it was a private thing--no one knew I had it. I know since it was published others could see it, but no one I knew was aware of its existence so I wasn't worried about it ;). Once my board friends started doing it I decided to "publish" it in the sense of putting it in my siggie both on the board and in my email, so both board and IRL friends could visit if they liked. I like to use it to try to keep me on track with my stitching--it helps a lot to put things in writing where I can see them. I know I can do this on the board (and I sometimes do), but here I feel I can go into more depth, plus my plans change so often I'm sure they get bored with seeing yet another "stitching plans" post LOL ;). Sometimes I will have thoughts like my 'chapters' entry, and it's nice to have a place to put it in writing where I can refer back to it. And lets face it, we probably all like the fact that people read our musings and love it when they leave comments so we know they read ;).

Like so many others I don't post very personal stuff, either about me or my family. While I am a speck of dust in the blogosphere and I'm sure no one cares what I write other than people I know, you can never be too careful. I would never post about Dave's work, not because it's secret or anything, but with more and more companies these days scouring the internet for myspace and blogs from or related to their employees you can never be too sure.

I guess ultimately then I blog because I enjoy it :). I hope my friends (especially my IRL ones) are able to keep up a bit with my life this way, even if it isn't always facinating reading LOL ;). For my board buddies hopefully they will occasionally get a fuller picture of who I am and where I'm coming from :).

I guess that's all for now--I hope everyone has a spectacular day and weekend :)

Currently working on: 2006 Mini RR, Story RR, Halloween Exchange, Brendan's keychain, Ian's Dino Mini RR

A gray day

2006-10-05T15:32:00.000-05:00

It's funny when they say a gray day can match your mood, because that's how I feel today. A couple of my friends whom I love dearly are upset and that makes me upset. The county is working on the sewer lines outside the house and they have backed up water into my basement! Needless to say I'm not happy about that at all ;). We have major money issues this month--an orthodontic consultation, car insurance and car taxes are all due this week which means there will be very little left over. I'm behind on my stitching obligations which always stresses me out. It's not too bad, I finished 1 RR yesterday and got most of another one done today, but it's the principle of the thing. I haven't made dinner at all this week which I hate, and lets not even talk about the house and garden and what needs to be done there.

*sigh* I'm off to make dinner and after the boys go to bed I'll have some tea and chocolate which hopefully will help ;). Tomorrow is another day...

Currently working on: 2006 Mini RR, Story RR, Halloween exchange, Brendan's keychain, Ian's dino mini RR

The Peacemaker

2006-09-22T08:00:00.000-05:00

According to this very cool test that's what I am LOL ;). It's scary how accurate my results are...

"I am at peace"

Peacemakers are receptive, good-natured, and supportive. They seek union with others and the world around them.

How to Get Along with Me

If you want me to do something, how you ask is important. I especially don't like expectations or pressure.
I like to listen and to be of service, but don't take advantage of this.
Listen until I finish speaking, even though I meander a bit.
Give me time to finish things and make decisions. It's OK to nudge me gently and nonjudgmentally.
Ask me questions to help me get clear.
Tell me when you like how I look. I'm not averse to flattery.
Hug me, show physical affection. It opens me up to my feelings.
I like a good discussion but not a confrontation.
Let me know you like what I've done or said.
Laugh with me and share in my enjoyment of life.

What I Like About Being a Nine

being nonjudgmental and accepting
caring for and being concerned about others
being able to relax and have a good time
knowing that most people enjoy my company; I'm easy to be around
my ability to see many different sides of an issue and to be a good mediator and facilitator
my heightened awareness of sensations, aesthetics, and the here and now
being able to go with the flow and feel one with the universe

What's Hard About Being a Nine

being judged and misunderstood for being placid and/or indecisive
being critical of myself for lacking initiative and discipline
being too sensitive to criticism; taking every raised eyebrow and twitch of the mouth personally
being confused about what I really want
caring too much about what others will think of me
not being listened to or taken seriously

Nines as Children Often

feel ignored and that their wants, opinions, and feelings are unimportant
tune out a lot, especially when others argue
are "good" children: deny anger or keep it to themselves

Nines as Parents

are supportive, kind, and warm
are sometimes overly permissive or nondirective

Chapters

2006-09-19T12:48:00.000-05:00

It occured to me today with great force that I have entered another chapter of my life. I had been thinking about it a couple of weeks ago when they started school, but because of sickness last week the schedule was off so it wasn't as apparent. I realized today that the last time I had "quiet" afternoons was a few years ago when they were both still taking naps--I had forgotten what it was like and how much I loved naptime ;).

You hear a lot about 'chapters' or 'phases' of life but it doesn't really hit you when you're young. While I knew life would change as I grew, it never occured to me that it would be divided into distinct periods which I could look back on and say "wow, that was when this phase started/ended". Sometimes the changes were sudden, sometimes they were gradual and periods would overlap. But they all eventually ended--resulting in new beginnings.

My first chapter ended when Dad died. I was 19 and in my first year of college; Mike hadn't even graduated high school yet. It was a very sudden ending--one minute life was fine and the next it changed forever. After that was a period of 4 years which was not fun for many reasons. The next phase changed over very slowly, starting with mom getting sober and finishing the turnover when I met Dave. That was a very good chapter, as indeed they have all been since then :). Having children started another one as it so often does, and again it was a sudden change, although at least this time I had some warning ;). This most recent period has been changing slowly as well, as the boys have gone to school for longer periods and more days, until finally this fall they're both away all day all week.

I know this new chapter will be a good one, with lots of opportunities for me especially. I finally have the time to explore and do the things I want to. Of course one of my questions as I embark on this path is where do I want to go? That I haven't quite figured out yet ;).

Currently working on: Band Sampler RR, 2006 Mini RR, Story RR, Ian's Dino mini RR, Halloween Exchange, Brendan's keychain

Here's to a better week

2006-09-17T15:52:00.000-05:00

Well, Brendan finally made it to school on Friday and I had the house to myself again which was nice. I didn't get much done, but I figured I'd earned the rest after taking care of everyone all week ;). Today is a gorgeous day and everyone is well, so I am hopeful for the week to come ;). Here's what I'd like to get done for the house and outside this week:

1) Clean up the kitchen (straighten, scrub, etc.)
2) Put up autumn decorations
3) Straighten our room (put away laundry, clean, etc.)
4) Weed front beds and plant flowers

In stitching last week I did manage to get Jacque's band sampler started and about 2/3 done, so here's what I need to do this week:

1) Start Jaime's mini RR
2) Finish Jacque's band sampler RR
3) Finish Brendan's Keychain

I'd like to work on my story RR too, it just depends on how long the 2 finishes take. It is so nice to be back on track with stitching though--I'm just thrilled :)

There are other miscellaneous things to be done both with the house and garden, but if I get any of them done it will be a bonus for me LOL ;).

So here's to a better week!

Currently working on: Band Sampler RR, 2006 Mini RR, Ian's Dino Mini RR, Superman, Story RR

What a week

2006-09-13T07:02:00.000-05:00

I know it's only Wednesday, but it's been a heck of a week so far. We went to mom's over the weekend and shortly before we left to come home on Sunday Dave got sick--made for an interesting trip home. I did all the packing, driving and unpacking when we got home, got everyone settled, got dinner etc. Then he stayed home Monday which was okay. Monday night (Tuesday morning) Brendan woke up at 1:30 throwing up which continued off and on until after 5 a.m. Then Dave made the mistake of telling Ian what was wrong with Brendan, so Ian decided he didn't feel well either. Having only had a little over 2 hours of sleep I didn't feel like fighting with him so I let him stay home also. Dave stayed home too as he was exhausted and to help me, so it was a full house yesterday.

Fortunately Brendan had a much better night with no throwing up. He's still home today because he didn't eat much yesterday and is still very tired so I'm letting him rest. Hopefully he'll be able to go tomorrow, not only for him but for me too ;). Dave has sailing class this weekend so I'll be watching them all weekend and I'd like at least 2 days to get into a schedule again before that happens. *sigh*. Next week will be better right?

In stitching I haven't gotten much done for obvious reasons. I started a keychain for Brendan's backpack which will have the superman symbol. I made one for Ian (with dinosaurs) when he started kindergarten and wanted to do the same for Brendan :). I also need to at least start Jacque's band sampler RR and Jaime's mini RR this week. I may switch between them and something for me so I can keep my motivation going. The lovely wish fairy sent me HAED's "College of Magical Knowledge" Monday which was a huge surprise and really made my day! I put the picture in here--isn't it gorgeous?! I went and got the fabric for it yesterday and I'll start it today--I think I deserve a little treat after the last few days ;)

Currently working on Band Sampler RR, 2006 Mini RR, Ian's dino mini RR, Superman symbol

Here comes the rain again

2006-09-02T09:26:00.000-05:00

Love that song! And so appropriate this weekend as we deal with the remnants from Ernesto. Unfortunately it means the boys won't get any swimming in this holiday weekend, which kind of sucks, but at least we used the pool a lot more this summer. We really needed the rain, as long as it stays light we should be okay with no flooding (I hope!).

I feel like crap today so I think I'll just take it easy. Dave is working this morning but will be home after lunch, and he's taking off Tuesday to help with the boys on their first day so that will be nice. Plus once they're at school we can spend the rest of the day together alone! We be mostly running errands/doing projects, but we'll be together which is what counts :).

With the rain it will be the perfect day for stitching ;). I'm really on a roll these days and it feels so good! It's so nice to be thinking about stitching, looking forward to stitching, and actually stitching again! It will only get stronger with the trip to Hershey this year which I am really looking forward to :). Last night I worked on Ian's dino mini RR again for the first time since July. I'd like to get this last dino done so that the next time I pick it up I can start on the border. I also got about an hour and a half done on the butterfly for a friend--imagine working on 2 projects in one day! That hasn't happened in a while ;).

Here's what I have to finish for September:

1) Band sampler RR--this will be my last one and then this RR is done!
2) Mini RR
3) Halloween Exchange--actually have a couple of days in Oct. to finish it if I have to, but would like to have it done early
4) Story RR--I'd like to get my portion of this done so it will be finished when it comes back, but we'll see ;)

I don't think I'll have time in there to work on Ian's piece, but with all my extra time with them in school I may be surprised LOL ;)

I guess that's all for now!

Currently working on: Band Sampler RR, 2006 Mini RR, Story RR, Ian's dino mini RR

Help!

2006-08-31T09:17:00.000-05:00

Oh my god they are driving me crazy! They've been doing so well lately, largely because of Brendan's birthday so there were lots of new toys to distract them, but still they were fighting less and playing more. But just this morning they've gone back to the same pattern from most of the summer and have done nothing but fight. *Sigh*. Maybe part of it is nervousness about meeting their teachers today and about Brittany coming to sit tonight--I don't know. I know I have to stay calm or else Ian especially will not do well with her (this is her first time putting them to bed). It's only 10:15 am and already I'm ready to leave them out for the next gypsy caravan ;).

In stitching I did very well yesterday--I got in 2 hours in the afternoon and 2 hours in the evening on RoS and she's coming along very nicely :). If I had a camera I'd take a picture, but someone lost it...

I guess that's all for now, I should go upstairs and make sure Ian is okay. While I'm there I'll get another cup of coffee for reinforcement ;)

Currently working on: Band Sampler RR, 2006 Mini RR, Story RR, Ian's Dino mini RR, RoS

I'm back!

2006-08-30T15:39:00.000-05:00

Geez it's been a while since I was here hasn't it? I told you before I'm not much good at this ;). However lots of my friends on my stitching board have started blogs, so I thought maybe that would give me inspiration to try again.

Part of the reason I haven't been here for a while is because I haven't done much stitching in the last year other than RRs and gifts. I did get the baby sampler finished last October which was a big load off my mind and it turned out beautifully! If I can figure out how to post a picture here I will :). I am very happy though because in the last month I've finally started stitching on a regular basis again--not just RRs but also for myself and it's been great! I'm really enjoying the RRs I'm in which helps, but just being able to pick up a piece and feel joy as I stitch it is such a great relief :). I've gone off a rotation for now because it felt like a lot of pressure, but I may start one up again soon--I'll just have to see how it goes.

I guess that's all for now, sorry if it sounds a bit incoherent LOL ;)

Currently working on: Band Sampler RR, 2006 Mini RR, Story RR, Ian's Dino RR, Mira's Rose of Sharon

Plans

2005-06-17T07:22:00.000-05:00

Wow! It's been a while since I've posted here--longer than I thought. Well, last week Dave was in Orlando at a Microsoft conference and I was sick, and I've been sick this week too, so I haven't been doing much lately. And that's what this blog is about--plans to get back to normal (whatever normal is ;). So without further ado here is what I've done so far and what I need to do:

Garden

trim rose, plants and weed on steps to pool (done)
rake leaves on deck and steps to pool (done)
weed hostas by low wall (done)
trim and rake under azalea by steps (done)
weed around canterbury bells, add newspaper & compost
trim varigated bush
plant silver mound and iris

House

fold boys laundry (done)
fold towels (done)
straighten kitchen (done)
go through newspapers (done)
straighten family room
do our laundry

Stitching

finish basting seasonal RR
start and finish Jill's bead RR

Hoo boy that's a lot of stuff! But it is heartening to see how much I've already done :). I'll report back next week with what I accomplish :).

The beginning of the end

2005-05-23T10:18:00.000-05:00

It's the beginning of the end of the school year and I am so not prepared for it! Brendan's last lunch bunch was last week and I didn't even realize it! I am very glad (selfish though it was) that I didn't drive for their field trip that day. At least I was able to have my last weekday lunch by myself, although had I known it was the last time I would have done more shopping etc. His last day of school is in 2 1/2 weeks and then Ian's will be a week or two after that. What will I do with them all summer?? They've been playing together a lot better lately--I just hope that continues through the summer. I can take them into the pool by myself now since Ian can swim by himself so that will help too. We can have playdates with Sammy and Carter and go see Dave for lunch sometimes. We have vacation the first week of July, and then Brendan has summer fun for 3 weeks in July which will be fun for him and a bit of a respite for me.

I'll definitely have to make goals either here or in my calendar, otherwise time will just slip away from me and nothing will get done. If I don't have any plans then I tend to get bogged down with "well I should do this but don't really want to" or "there are so many things to do I am overwhelmed so lets not do anything". Hopefully I'll be able to stay on track with the garden and maybe even with my cross stitching.

With that in mind here are this weeks goals:

Gardening
Spray roses
Weed pool garden

Cross Stitch
Start Seasonal RR

It's Friday

2005-05-06T15:54:00.000-05:00

And it's actually not that bad LOL ;). Mom won't be coming up as planned today because she's not feeling well, but she hopes to make it up tomorrow. I'm actually quite relieved--it means I could relax for most of the day. I spent the morning running around like a crazy person getting stuff ready for her to come, so because it's all done now I don't have to worry. Even though I'll be alone tonight since Dave's going to the movies, at least I'll be able to do what I want to without feeling like I have to entertain her.

I didn't stitch last night since I went out to eat and drive, but this morning I got the floss I needed for Tanya's bead RR so I will start on that after the boys are in bed. Hopefully it won't take more than a couple of days to do even with mom here.

The weather is supposed to be very nice on Sunday so I'll probably spend the day doing gardening stuff. I bought some more plants today for pots including a fuschia and I can't wait to get them in :). I've never grown a fuschia before so it should be interesting to see how it turns out. My tuberous begonias finally arrived and I need to get them in as soon as possible because they take so long to grow. I guess I should be glad they arrived now as it's planting time but I was really hoping to get them started early indoors...

Stay tuned ;)

Mid week ramblings

2005-05-05T11:10:00.000-05:00

Well, I've only accomplished one of my stitching goals and none of my gardening goals. It's been cold and blah outside and I've had a wicked sinus headache all week. For stitching I've been working on the PR gardening freebie the last 3 nights and it's quite lovely :). Tonight I need to start on the bead RR which finally made it here yesterday. I'll work on that until it's finished and then start the other RRs (except on Monday when I'll start Secret Flower Bed).

Mom's coming tomorrow which hopefully will be fun. Although I'm not sure since Dave wants to go see a movie tomorrow night and has to work Saturday morning. He has lunch with his mom on Sunday and wanted to know if I wanted him to take the boys with him or not. Originally I thought he could leave them here so he could have a nice lunch with his mom, but since he's leaving me alone with them AND mom twice I think I'll let him take them LOL ;).

Ian was asking me about bad words today. I'm not sure where it came from, but I handled it well--calmly and without making a big deal out of it. At one point he asked me what the first bad word was. I told him I didn't know and explained to him that what's thought of as "bad words" has changed throughout history. He asked if the first one was the "s word". I said I didn't know and asked him how he knew about the "s word". He said that he heard it once on Caillou. Needless to say I was surprised that they would discuss such a thing on a kid's show, but said "oh, you mean they didn't actually say the word, they just referred to it". He said no, that someone said stupid so Caillou and Rosie started saying it too. So he thinks stupid is the "s word" and I'm safe for a while longer ;)

Goals for the week

2005-05-03T10:08:00.000-05:00

I thought this might be a good place to put down in writing my goals for both stitching and gardening this week.

For stitching:

I'd like to start Tina's Santa RR, V's Garden RR and the seasonal RR
Work on Tina's SSS gift
Finish up the pin that's overdue
Work a bit on the PR gardening freebie

For the garden:

Remove weeds & add compost to Dahlia area (near lily garden)
Plant Dahlias
Plant remaining lilies
Finish weeding over to dogwood tree
Spray roses in front

That's a lot of stuff--I don't know that I'll get it all done, especially in the garden. Tonight I'll go get the compost so I can hopefully (weather permitting) plant the dahlias tomorrow. Depending on how I feel I should be able to do some more weeding this afternoon after Brendan's nap and I can definitely spray the roses then too. As for the cross stitch stuff, I should have all the floss for everything, so starting the RR's should be easy--I never said I'd finish them this week ;). Of course the bead RR is very late in coming to me so when it gets here I have to drop everything to work on that which will probably throw everything else off. *Sigh* oh well, they are all small designs so I'm sure it will all work out :)

I know this is an incredibly boring entry, but it does help so much to put things down in writing ;)

Ramblings

2005-01-12T16:50:00.000-05:00

I hate having to title my entries--I am SO not that creative LOL ;). But since this is just for me I guess I shouldn't worry about it too much. I'm really not sure how much I'll post in here, I've tried off and on my whole life to do some sort of diary/journal routine but it never seems to stick. Maybe this time it will since I type much faster than I write, but then again maybe not.

I titled this blog The Stitches of Life because I'm an avid cross stitcher so obviously I'm going to write about that. I'm also going to write about life though--thus the slightly cheesy title ;). I guess I should state in here my stitching goals for the year: I want to finish the baby sampler I'm working on (3/4 finished) and to enjoy my stitching. I resolve that this year is going to be guilt free stitching--I'm not going to worry if my WIP's spend another year without being finished. As long as I'm stitching and enjoying it I'm going to consider my goal met :). I'm also not going to tell people when I start a present for them--that way I won't stress over getting it done in time. I guess I should have done that with the baby sampler, but on the other hand if I hadn't told her I was making something for her I'd probably never finish it ;).

I'm also trying out a new system of rotation this year--I'm going to try stitching on a different piece each night leaving the weekends free to work on whatever (or nothing ;) that I want. I'm hoping this will motivate me to work on the baby sampler--it's much easier if I know I only have to work on it 1 or 2 days a week as opposed to a longer amount of time. So far I'm doing okay. There have been a couple of days where I haven't stitched at all, but in the spirit of GFY I'm not worrying about it ;).

I guess that's all for now, hopefully I'll be back again!

Am I a bad mom?

2005-01-11T14:53:00.000-05:00

I received a belated Christmas letter today and it made me wonder--am I a bad mom? The reason it made me wonder is that it's one of those letters where the kids are all wonderful, involved in all kinds of sports and voluteer activities all while being outstanding students. The mother coaches a couple of those teams, runs in marathons, writes and has a part time job, all while being a single mom to 4 kids. As a family they do all sorts of cool things, skiing, mountain climbing, hiking, etc. Our family does none of that. Granted, my kids are much younger than hers (her oldest is a senior in high school), but I found myself wondering if they'll ever be like that. And why should they? Their father and I certainly aren't. That's not to say that we're lazy people who lie around and have no hobbies or intellectual pursuits, quite the opposite. But our life is much quieter--we are homebodies at heart.

So I guess I've just answered my own question--I'm not a bad mom, just different than her. Just like everyone else is different from me. I need to stop measuring my parenting skills or my kids achievements according to what others do because we are not them and their way wouldn't work for us. My kids are smart, happy and healthy with an active curiosity about all sorts of things--isn't that the most important thing?

Wips--Baby Sampler, JN's With my Needle, Mira's Rose of Sharon, Dimensions Enchanted Cottage, L&L's Celtic Spring, SB's Sophie's Roses, Mystery Garden