May 27

Contrary to what my vacation ticker says, I have 4 days until I leave! My flight leaves at 00:45 (that's 12:45AM local time), get into Paris, wait there a couple hours then land at 3PM Local time in Boston on Friday June 1! As of this writing I have 23 more wailing hours left to listen to, even less if you don't count the 5AM prayer call that I don't usually hear.

Woo Hoo, the Yankees actually BEAT Boston 2 out of the 3 games they played last week. But they have lost to the Angels this weekend.

I guess I'm slowly getting things packed, just need to clean up around the house a bit and get my stitching mess put away.

I finished a couple projects this week, a bookmark for an exchange at the Needle Nook. They are just some local design motifs that I put into one design. I have to take out the top border and re stitch it, personalize it, iron it and it will be ready. I stitched the side & top borders on my sewing machine.

I also finished an ornament in case I join any Ornament in July exchanges on any boards. It's just called Peace. I know some people prefer to wait to see who they have for a partner before they stitch projects like this but I think the pattern is nice no matter who I have for a partner.

I started another one the other day, stitched for about an hour and realized it didn't quite look like the same thing I had stitched for myself last year. The fabric was the same or so it looked like it was but it is so much larger. Come to find out I have the same excact fabric that is labled exactly the same but it IS different fabric. It says it's 20 count Valerie fabric with silver threads running through it but apparently 1 package is an evenweave and one is an aida. The aida is the smaller of the 2 and is the same size as the one I have already stitched but the evenweave piece makes the pattern larger. So I started over stitching it over 1 on the aida type fabric. I hope to finish it up today.

May 23

My daughter's mother in law had her lumpectomy for breast cancer yesterday and of last night when I talked to my daughter she said her mil was in recovery and the dr.'s had gotten all of the cancer. I think now her mil has to go through chemo treatments. I am sure that is a great relief off her mind.

The Yankees BEAT Boston on Monday night but lost Tuesday night's game.

Tossed more things in my suitcases today, one is almost full.

Tuesday night I started a bookmark for the exchange on Needle Nook, I just hope my partner likes it.

May 20

I was miserably sick last week with SOMETHING, I don't know if it was food poisoning, bad food, an allergic reaction to something I ate but it was horrible. Started at 6 am Monday morning and I was in the bathroom every hour of not more often, diareah, vomiting, sweating, chills, my skin felt like sandpaper. I tried to sleep but I kept waking up every 15 minutes or so thinking I had slept for hours. I was in bed all day Monday and most of Tuesday. Everything I ate or drank came out one end or the other Finally by Wednesday I was feeling better and got the house cleaned up.

The Yankees are doing so shitty this year, it's horrible. This weekend is the Subway series with the Mets and they have lost both games so far. The weekend I get home is another go round with Boston in Boston. Too bad I can't just skip over to Fenway for the Friday game but my son and his family are anxious to see me. My son told me last night that we will probably be staying at his house the night I get home so we don't miss the game Friday night since I won't get in to Concord until 6:30 in the evening. As long as he can keep me awake to watch the game, but watch out for Mom's snoring, moaning and farting when I fall askeep on the sofa. I don't think I would be awake enough to drive the rest of the 2 hours home with my car anyway.

I've been trying to get organized for my vacation. Getting things put away and packed. I sorted my cross stitch fabrics that will work for my board exchanges this summer, put patterns and projects aside that I will stitch this summer or give away and stitched projects for exchanges. I am so not organized yet!

My DH got me another sweet surprise the other day. He got me a new laptop to take on my road trips this summer! It's an HP with wifi access. I'm so excited but he's still getting it set up for me so I haven't had a chance to play with it yet.

I've finished only a couple of projects for exchanges so far.

This is one for a Summer stitchery exchange on Cross Stitch Crazy and if the exchange falls through I can keep the project and won't have to stitch it for myself again. It's called Sensationally Summer by A Whismical Element stitched on hand dyed fabric with assorted flosses. I just need to add a pair of flip flops next to the blanket.

This one is for an exchange gift on one of my boards. I'm not saying which exchange on which board. The pattern is by my friend Velda http://stitchingangel.blogspot.com/search/label/Angelic%20Stitches I stitched it on 20 count Valerie fabric that has silver threads through it and it's stitched with assorted flosses.

Hopefully I'll have an ornament done sometime today but I'll still need to make 2 more. I need to start on a bookmark for the exchange on the Needle Nook board.

It's up over 100 here almost every day now so I pretty much stay inside.

May 12

I talked to my daughter and her mother in law is having a lumpectomy on the 22 then she will have radation after that. My daughter says she is coping well with everything so that is a weight off my mind. I sent her flowers for Mother's Day so I hope that cheers her up a bit.

I sent my mother flowers for Mother's day too and she called this morning to let me know they arrived and she loves them.

I'm still in this funk where I just don't want to do much, I stitch a little bit every day but not much at all. At this rate I won't get the exchanges done that I want to participate in.

May 10

Please join me in lots of prayers for my daughter and her family. They found out yesterday that her Mother in law has breast cancer. She is not in that great of health to start with and now cancer. I know the responsibility for taking care of her will now fall on my daughter even though her MIL doesn't like her much. She works different hours every week and has a 7 year old to take care of as well. I just hope that her MIL has the strength to get through all she will have to go through to be cured.

YAY YAY, Cross Stitch Crazy is back up! That was a long day yesterday with out talking to my friends.

It's the weekend here so not much is happening, It's 102F at 3:15 PM.
I have stitched today on my Summer Stitchery project.

May 9

I haven't posted much in awhile because nothing ever changes here.
Hmmmm, Yuku is at it again, I can't get to my Cross Stitch Crazy board no matter how I try. Log out, log in, delete temp internet files, reboot, log out, log in, hit control F5 and still nothing. This sucks! Just when I get everything with that stupid Yuku working right after 3 weeks I can't get there.
Yesterday it was 104F at noon time and it's only May. So glad I'll be gone from June until the middle of October.
Mmmmm, limited edition Chocolate flavored Close-Up toothpaste, just what every kid needs. It does have cholcolate flavor but it does work.

I added my May stitching goals to the side bar but I doubt I'll get them done. I'm just in a funk lately, don't feel like stitching or doing much of anything, stitching or otherwise.
I'm not overly excited about the trip home, getting to the airport here is a traumatic experience in itself with the maniacs driving, the airport is undersized and over crowded and there is absoultely no control over lines or organazation, so much pushing and shoving then you have to get there at least 4-5 hours before the flight to make sure you even get inside the airport, through security, get checked in and get successfully through passport control. Sometimes it's so very quick and easy and other times you hope you make your flight even though you've arrived 5 hours before flight departure. Then there is the hastle of going through Paris CDG this year, I HATED it the first time I went through and just wanted to cry. I just want to get home and hug my babies!
I've had a couple of finished projects recently
May blackwork project done as a SAL on the Needle Nook board, I also joined the bookmark exchange for June.



This is a finished project for an exchange called Stitch It Forward on CSC board. I have joined the Rainbow Exchange and the June Color My World exchange so far.













This project is for a Red White & blue tuck ornament Exchange on the Tranquil Stitchers board. It will go into a little tuck ornament waiting for me when I get HOME. Hope I can join more exchanges this summer.

I tried getting things organized and make up my list of exchanges I am thinking about joining this Summer. I got my list made up and tried selecting patterns, fabric and flosses to get them kitted and ready to stitch but while I was doing that I kept getting "help" so I just had to give up. This is our spoiled daddy's boy kitty Spot. He knows he is NOT allowed on tables and such but he thought he was trying to help.

April 30

I DID get my anniversary project done, just after midnight, a few minutes late but it's done! After looking at it, I don't know if I want to make a bell pull or have it framed. I'll have to look some more. The picture isn't that great so I'll have to take another one later.

We didn't go out for supper last night, DH had things to do for work so we're going out tonight. He bought me a 2gb flash drive for my anniversary! WOO HOO! Now I don't have to keep dragging CD's back and forth with me and forgetting files when I go on vacation.

My flash drive came just in time too, I went to turn on my computer this morning and nothing happened, it just sat there. I do know the fan has been making a lot of noise lately so maybe that was the problem, I hope so anyway! If it is my old hard drive, it's a good thing I transfered my Cross Stitch files to my XP hard drive, LOL. So I guess I'll be stitching for awhile. I'm using my husband's laptop right now. It's a good thing he's a computer geek and has a couple extras around the house.

Well, the Yankees blew another series this weekend. They've only won 1 game against Boston in a 6 game go round. The Yankees are at the bottom of the pile this year.

April 29

30 years ago today at 4:30PM I was married. There was no fancy wedding dress, no bridesmaids, no flowers, just our close friend, my DH, myself & the judge. No one thought it would last. We've had our share of ups and downs but we're still together. We're going out to our favorite Italian resturant for dinner and that is probably about it. It doesn't bother me, as long as he is till here with me.

I never did get my anniversary bell pull done, I've just been in a funk lately and don't feel like doing much of anything.

YAY YAY YAY! The Yankees beat the sox! WOO HOO, it's about time they won a game.

I made my list of exchanges I hope to be able to participate in with my various stitching groups and it looks like I am going to be very busy. I signed up for:
RWB Tuck exchange on Tranquil Stitches
Rainbow exchange, Color My World exchange and Stitch It Forward on Cross Stitch Crazy
I plan to sign up for a few more on the Needle Nook when they come up.
So I guess I better get out of my stitching funk and start stitching these up

April 23

UGH! The Yankees had a miserable weekend series with the Red Sox, they lost all 3 games but not so awful bad. I stayed up all night Friday night to watch the game live on our sports channel and got to see A-Rod's league leading 11th & 12th home runs and he's extended his hitting streak to 21 games as of Sunday's game. They have another go round with Boston next weekend in NY, let's hope it's a better series.

We went to the beach on Thursday. It was a nice break but the wind was blowing constantly and blowing sand everywhere. My face felt like it was sandblasted. I didn't go in the water because it's still on the chilly side and the waves were rough. I did get a little bit of stitching done while I was there but had to keep brushing the sand off my project.

This past week I've been stitching on Scooba Dooba and it's now officially 1/2 done. I am excited about that. As much as I would love to finish it before I go on vacation, I highly doubt it will get done, I have several other projects I need to get done.

I also started and finished my Flip Flop anchor ornament. I stitched that up on Friday and while I was watching the game on TV.

My Yahoo mail has been SO messed up the past few days, I'm not recieving 1/2 of it and more is showing up 2 days after it was sent. I did a test mailing from another e-mail address and it took 8 hours to recieve it. I guess I'll have to start using another e-mail address if I want mail to show up on time.

I need to start making a list of all the stitching exchanges I want to participate in from my varied message boards when I get home so I don't forget any and that will force me to actually sit down and stitch this summer. I don't do much stitching when I'm on vacation but this may give me some motivation. I mostly am addicted to my computer when I'm home because I am in real time with my internet family.

My son & his family were at my house this past weekend and he said it was in the 70's but there was still snow on the ground. Then I get a weather alert e-mail from My Cast weather site http://www.my-cast.com that says the area is under a Fire Weather watch! My house is in the woods, my back yard is nothing but forest. There are a few houses near me but lots of woods.

April 18

Another weekend is here, not much exciting happening.

YAY YAY! A-Rod hit is league leading 8th home run in last nights game. WAY to GO! The Yankees won that game too 10-3! A-Rod now has a 17 game hitting streak dating back to last season. I hope he keeps it up. The Yankees are in 3rd place so far this season.

I put my anniversary project aside since I was being nagged on one of my boards to stitch on Scooba Dooba, LOLOLOL. I'll stitch on Scooba Dooba for a couple of days then get back to my anniversary project so I can finish by the end of the month. I have to rip out the top left corner of the border and re stitch it so it will look even. It's also stitchathon time on the CSC board.
Here is my anniversary project so far:
I need to take out the top left border and re stitch it so it looks even on both sides
This is where I am after stitching on Scooba Dooba a little bit on Tuesday:

Flowers

I picked some flowers off the tree in my front yard today. They smell SO good. I put them in a glass of water and placed them on the coffee table next to where I stitch. While I was stitching my sinuses got so stuffed up from the smell but I'm going to leave them out anyway I found out they are Plumeria/Fraganani trees.

April 15

Easter came & went, just another day here. I colored eggs, DH bought me a HUGE Nestles Aero chocolate egg and 2 chocolate bunny "lollypops". The back of the box the huge egg came in had a little tag that said "Happy Easter", that's why he bought it.

Not much going on. The censors finally unblocked my photobucket albums but there are still some albums that I can't see pictures from.

A Rod has been doing well for the Yankees, 7 home runs so far, but the team themselves isn't doing so well. The pitching staff is lousy.

I finished my Stuffed Square Easter Eggs project on Easter day but I don't know how I'm going to finish it yet, maybe a cube block.

I finally got around to finishing my flip flop ornament. I am not at all happy with the sloppy job I did but it's all glued down now so I'll have to leave it. I'll have to make a better cardboard shoe print so it fits smoother around the curves. The next one I am going to stitch is an anchor, Terry & I are going to start it on the 20th.

I just can't get into stitching much this month. There are a lot of projects I want to do but no ambition to stitch.

More news on my father

And it's GOOD news! I got another e-mail from my sister Wednesday:
I just wanted to let you know that dad went to the hematologist today for the results on his bone marrow and the news is good. He does not have leukemia or any other diseases of the blood to worry about. He just needs to continue taking his B-12 pills. All of his bloods values are within normal limits, including his blood sugar. Please thank all of your friends for their prayers for him. He truly appreciates them.

Well, the internet censor idiot morons are at it again. My photobucket account is blocked and I can't access it. I can see some pictures posted by photobucket but not many. I can see the ones I have posted on the message boards but I can't get into my account! I sent them 2 "unblock requests" but I bet they just delete them without reading them. I never get a reply from them either. I also went to MySpace yesterday and EVERYTHING past the home page is blocked. Next thing you know, they'll block Blogger too! This REALLY pisses me off.

The Yankees game for Wednesday was cancelled due to rain, but the METS won their game 10-0 !! I root for the Mets in the National league.

The other day I started stitching a project called Stuffed Square Easter Eggs by San Man originals but I just can't get into the stitchy mood after the month long stitchalong. I am stitching this project on 32 count Witches Brew hand dyed fabric from Enchanted Fabrics (http://www.enchantedfabrics.com/) with DMC floss.

Wow, another snow storm has hit HOME. Snow, rain and cold. Glad I'm not there yet, but I DID get my plane ticket the other day.

Yankees won their home opener!

WOO HOO! The Yankees won their season home opener! They beat Tampa Bay 9-5.

I put aside the April blackwork project I've been working on. The floss I chose to stitch it with is too light in places to show up on the white fabric. I am going to have to take it out and re stitch it with different colors. So last night I started on Stuffed Easter Eggs, a new chart from San Man.

PLAY BALL!

The 2007 Baseball season officially started April 1 but my team doesn't play until today.

GO YANKEES!

Cross stitch projects I finished recently:

My father is back home again

I got 2 e-mails from my sister today.
dad is getting ready to go home either today or tomorrow. They thought he might have to take oxygen with him, but he won't have to do that. The pneumonia has cleared up, they gave him 2 units of blood over the weekend and he is ok from that and his appetite is back. They did do the bone marrow yesterday and he was not a happy camper over that. I don't know what the results were from that. They are going to have a nurse stop in once a week to check his heart and lungs. He does look better and says he feels better. They took out his staples and his incision has healed well. The pacemaker is working well and he wants to go home now.
Will keep you posted on the bone marrow outcome.
Then I got this one:
I just had a call from mom and she brought dad home this morning. He is a very happy camper and so is she. He is doing well. They did not get the report from the bone marrow and one the meds one of the docs wants him on they forgot to write a prescription for. Let's hope this is all his sick time for a long time.

My DH is still gone, he keeps running into little problems that come up after others are fixed. He's not sure if he will be home Thursday or not.

I haven't stitched much lately but I have been working on my April Easter Sampler.

March 25

It's so quiet in the house, no tv blaring. I very seldom turn it on when DH is gone, not much on that I like to watch anymore.

All of a sudden the temps have gone up here, it's been in the mid 90's and very humid during the day, only the high 70's & still humid at night too.

Saturday night I finished Easter Spots. I started that on the 18th. I used 32 ct. Angel Blush linen in place of the dark natural linen the pattern called for, and I changed the border color from a dull dark green to some floss called Cross My Art in pastel spring colors. It looks a lot better than the chart cover. I didn't use the silver trinket charm because I don't have it, but I don't like it either. Maybe I'll find a cute button or something.

When I finished that, I started my April Easter Sampler by The Monkey Works.

March 24

I called my father at the hospital the other day. He sounded ok but not his usual self, but I guess that can be expected when you are ill. He is doing much better but still has to have breathing treatments 2 or 3 times a day. He wasn't sure just when he would be going home.

There were pretty scary sounds the other night. DH was on the couch watching tv and I was on the computer. I heard a very LOUD BANG, I looked over at DH and he asked if that came through the speakers on the computer and I told him no. He went out on the patio and I followed him out. We could hear "popping" noises, he told me to get back in the house now. I froze. He went around to the front of the house and saw the guy across the street looking around too. He then came inside and went upstairs on the balcony and looked around. He came back and said he didn't hear any sirens so it must have not been much. We heard another loud bang and he went back outside. The guy across the street said he went up to security and asked what the noise was and they said it was "kids playing with fireworks". I kept hearing those loud bangs a couple more times. So far we haven't heard just what it was but kids do play with all kinds of fireworks here. It was pretty scary for a few mintues though.

I didn't do any stitching at all Friday. I just didn't feel like it. Still trying to figure out this XP & IE 7 thing.
DH leaves tonight for a business trip for a few days so maybe I'll get some serious house cleaning done.

Holding Hands

A very close friend sent this to me in an e-mail and it got my eyes damp, I just wanted to share it with you:

Holding Hands
This picture shows a line of little girls holding hands facing the immensity of ocean waves.
Alone they might be washed away, but together they stand strong.
Thank you for holding my hand somewhere along the way when I was facing a wave of my own. I hope you will reach for my hand when your own wave threatens.




All of us girls...
Old and young...
Near and far...
Hold special memories of good times we've shared.
We've had our share of hard times when our friends were there to make us feel better.
We've shared...
our hearts
our time
our secrets
our fears
our hopes
and our dreams.
Let us never break the chain of friends!

March 21

Dad update e-mail from my sister:

Dad did not have as good a day yesterday. He is still coughing up blood.but not as much or as often. They are going to do an endoscopy sometime today to see if it coming from the upper GI tract. A lung specialist saw him yesterday while we were there and they are going to start some respiratory therapy on him. He still has no appetite. The chocolate I left him Mon. night was still there yesterday. It didn't appeal to him. He must be sick. He is still getting 2 different antibiotics intravenously every 6 hours. Hopefully the tests today will give us some answers.


Then my DH says he's gotta go away for a couple of days on business, leaving Saturday evening. So I guess I have to go to the grocery store this weekend. Anyone want to come over and keep me company? 3 days of not having to worry about cooking, WOOOO HOOOO!

My sinuses still hurt, but not as bad as yesterday, that attack just came out of nowhere and hit me like a truck. At least the kids have been quiet today.


I finished another project this morning. It's a flip flop ornament by The Cross-Eyed Cricket, there is a whole series of them. I stitched this with Terry on the Needle Nook board. She sent me the lovely fabric to stitch it on. Now I just need to finish the ornament.