Thank God they are gone!

Thanksgiving is over! I'm so happy to say that. When I got home from work on Wednesday, I baked an apple and a pumpkin pie.

I got up early on Thursday and took the 40 minute train ride to the airport and ended up waiting there for over an hour because the in-laws couldn't find their way from the concourse to the baggage claim. We took them to our house and talked for a while and then we went to Boston Market for lunch and then to my parents house for a visit, then back to my house for a slice of pie. After they had their pie (around 6:30pm) they said they were tired and wanted to go back to the hotel.

We got up early on Friday and met them at the hotel at 8:30am only to find that they hadn't gone to bed like they told us but wandered around the hotel area on foot and bought scratch off tickets. We went to breakfast at IHOP which they actually paid for after complaining that it cost more than dinner at boston market. They then wanted to go to underground Atlanta so off to the train station we went. We walked around there for what seemed like hours as we watched them go into all the stores and spend money on what was mostly junk. After getting back from underground, we headed to a michaels and then to petco and then to lunch at pizza hut and then they decided that they wanted to go to stone mountain. We were at stone mountain forever walking around which didn't help my poor feet or my DH's cold but at least it kept the in-laws happy. I did however have to experience quite a bit of embarrassment when MIL asked how my period was across the store in one of the shops and having FIL swear at what seemed like the top of his voice in the shops full of children. DH asked FIL to stop swearing after that and I made sure I stayed closer to MIL so that if she asked any more embarrassing questions, the whole park wouldn't hear. We finally got home around 11pm and fell into exhausted sleep.

We were up and at the hotel again at 8:30am on Saturday and then onto the train to take the in-laws back to the airport. We got home around 11am and got to sit and relax for a while and I was actually able to put a few stitches in on Titania. I then went to Nease's with Valerie and had fun watching her shop and even found a spool of Kreinik for myself. I then went back home and put my feet up and continued stitching until I was ready to sleep.

Sunday was spent stitching and soaking my feet while in painkiller bliss. I overdid too much while the in-laws were here and my tummy and feet were killing me.

Monday was insane at work which surprised me a little. It is usually a little busy after a long weekend but we've been sitting at work with nothing to do for weeks now so I didn't expect the overwhelming rush of people that we got. The funny thing about this is that today (Tuesday) is completely dead at work. It's so slow that I'm having trouble staying awake so here I am blogging and haunting the bboards.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Moody Mondays

I had a very good weekend.
Saturday at the GTG was wonderful. I did get a lot of comments about having too much time on my hands if I was getting that much stitching done and that is pretty accurate right now. I'm still on lifting restrictions from the surgery and will be until Sept. of next year so a lot of the house stuff is still a no go for me. I don't have kids so they don't take up my time. I do have my 3 cats but they only want attention for 5 minutes a day, once or twice a day so they aren't very time consuming. Dh will talk to me while I stitch so he doesn't detract from my stitching time either.

I was about midway through the first pink color on titania on Saturday and I've managed to finish that color and I'm about halfway through the next color now since I spent Sunday being lazy and stitching all day instead of scrubbing the floors. *SIGH* I guess I'll get around to that tonight though.

I'm not gonna get much stitching time this week. I have to clean tonight. I have to bake two pies on Tuesday. My little brother is coming in on Wednesday so I'll spend Wednesday evening visiting with him and his friend Rock. Then Thursday is off to the airport to get the in-laws and they will be pretty much occupying my time until Saturday afternoon.

I'm not sure what's going on Saturday yet. There was talk of a trip to Nease's Needlework but if that doesn't happen then I'll spend the afternoon with my brother since he'll be heading back to Camp Legune on Sunday morning.

Sunday will be spent cleaning the house and recovering from the in-law invasion. I may go crazy if I have to wait that long to stitch so hopefully I'll find an hour or two here or there to throw a few stitches in. :)

I'm gonna take a progress pic of titania tomorrow night so i'll try to remember to put up a short blog on Wednesday with a link to the pic.

Finally Friday

woohooo!!!!!

I'm really looking forward to this weekend even though it's going to be a busy one.

After work today, I'll be going to get my hair cut. Then home to shower and bake cookies. I'll be making two big batches of chocolate chip cookies. I'll take one batch with me to the GTG on Saturday and DH will take one batch to his work party on Monday.

Saturday morning will start off with a vet appointment for my baby Spike. He just hasn't been getting better like the other two. Then I'm off to the GTG for a day of fun.

Sunday morning is off to a store to get a hand floor scrubber and some industrial strenth linolium cleaner. Then I'm home to scrub the heck out of the kitchen, bathroom and entryway floors. Then a quick wipe down of the kitchen and bathrooms and vacuum the living room and bedroom and I'll be ready for the in-laws to descend on Thanksgiving.

wednesday already

I ended up staying home on tuesday thanks to my nasty head cold. I most just slept until DH came home from work. He cooked us dinner and I gave in to the temptation to start stitching titania from mirabella.

I'm at work today but it's been a long day with hardly any customers. I'm fighting off sleep since I know I get to leave in 30 minutes to go home to my stitching.

I bought some little empty shampoo bottles to put orvus into so that I can bring them to the gtg on Saturday since several people had been interested in trying it but didn't want to buy that huge bottle. I did buy the huge bottle and won't miss the amount it takes to fill the little bottles and it does get the fabric wonderfully clean after a long time on a scroll rod.

I'm still at a loss for what to make for the gtg or if I will make something for this one. I just haven't felt good and I'm half afraid that I'll put cold germs on whatever I bring and I don't want to make anyone there sick, especially the ones with kids which is most of the group.

Well, I'm off to wait out the rest of my shift. Hope everyone is having a good week.

Plans? Why do I have plans?

My lazy weekend of stitching got shot to heck.

Dad called friday to let me know that he had caught my cousin smoking crack in his home so he threw him out. The cousin left easily enough but he left his 15 year old daughter here. We ended up buying her a plane ticket back to Texas so she could go and live with her grandma.

I spent the rest of friday night finishing Guide the hands and I started Orgainzed/lazy people.

I got up early on Saturday morning to help Dad take J to the airport. We left my house around 10am and took a 40min train ride to the airport (and yes, I did bring stitching). We got her checked in and a boarding pass and we got passes so we could wait with her till she got on the plane. We went through security only to find that we had been selected for the extra security screening since her ticket was one way. We went back through that which took 30 minutes while they looked through all of our belongings, wanded us and then did a security pat down wherever the wand went off. my stomach set the wand off so I guess I've got some kinda metal in there from the surgery. Poor J was wearing an underwire bra and I thought she was going to die of embarassement when the guy felt around in that area and I felt for her whent hey made me lift my shirt to show my scar since my stomach was setting off the stupid thing.

She boarded the flight around 1pm and we headed back to marta for another 40 minute train ride. When I got home, DH said that we had no food in the house and needed to go grocery shopping so off we went.

When we got home from that and had the groceries put away, the phone rang. It was DH's friend M who wanted us to come over and watch Smallville since we missed it Wednesday night. So off to his house we went. We ended up going to dinner with M and his new girlfriend B and then watching Smallville and some strange movie. We finally got home around 1am and fell into bed.

Woke up early on sunday and started to stitching only to have 2 cats crawl into my lap and sit there. After examining the cats because these are the two that will not sit in my lap willingly, I discovered that they both had colds. Dh got up around noon and he was sick as well. I did manage to finish organized/lazy people in between doctoring DH and the kitties. Around 5pm the third cat starting showing signs of being sick as well. Around 8:30pm, I realized that I was exhausted and went to bed.

When I woke up this morning, I discovered that I had caught the cold too.

My relaxing weekend turned into a lot of running. It makes me wonder why I bother to make plans when they are always being changed. I will make it to the GTG this weekend though. I don't care if the house burns down, I will go to the GTG!

Boring Day Blahs

I've had a couple of days here where I'm just bored out of my mind! Work has been so slow that I only have about 30 mintues of work to do each 8 hour day. I get away with stitching when the boss is out but not when he's here so the days can get very long.

I have managed to finish Dream Sampler (DD) and I have started Guide the Hands (DD) and almost have it finished too. I only have two colors left so I'll be working away at that tonight and hopefully get it finished up. I'll be starting Organized People from Calico Crossroads next and it should be a very quick stitch so I may manage to get that finished too before the get together on the 20th. Then I'm off to another big project but I haven't decided between Millenium (TW) or Titania (Mirabella).

I'm already getting very excited about the stitching get together next weekend. DH keeps asking me what I'm making for this one and I keep telling him that I don't know yet cause no one has suggested anything yet.

DH has been amazed at the amount of stitching that I have gotten done lately. Since I had surgery on Sept 20th, I have managed to finish almost 4 projects. I have a lazy weekend planned for stitching and reading this weekend so who knows what else I will finish.

My poor little brother

I got a call from my baby brother who is so upset that he's crying. He's in the marine corp and stationed in North Carolina. He called to let me know that 5 of his good friends were seriously injured in the latest attack in Iraq. 2 of the injured guys are staying in Iraq and the other 3 are being sent home. Little bro says that one of them (N) will be discharged from the marines if he survives.

Bro is feeling a lot of guilt over N because N asked bro to get him on a MEU (ship) so he could travel and bro pulled some strings to get him on a MEU that ended up going to Iraq at the last minute. He's also feeling guilty because he is on the non-deployable list due to his knowledge and back problems so he will not be going to Iraq. This is a relief to my mom and me but Bro feels he should be over there doing his duty since that's what he signed up for. He's now in his 6th year as a marine and he's contracted for 2 more yet.
With so much unrest, part of me hopes that he doesn't reup and sign for another 4 year term but another part of me is very proud that he's serving his country the way he is.

Please keep my little brother and all the men serving in the armed services in your prayers. I know that I say a prayer daily for them all.

Unexpected Company

My life has been a constant stream of surprise, look what you can deal with now since 9/10/04 when I first felt the pain that led to my surgery. Keeping this in mind, I guess I shouldn't have been surprised when my dad called yesterday morning to tell me one of my cousins had shown up on his doorstep with his 15 year old daughter. The cousin is going to be staying with mom and dad till he can find a job and save up enough to get his own place so he may be there a month or more. Dad's side of the family is very bad about just dropping in on you like that. It is the reason that none of them know my address.

Dad tried to confiscate my fouton loveseat that folds out to a twin bed but he has no room to put it in their apartment so mom overruled them on that one. To top it all off, this cousin smokes and has gotten dad smoking again after 12 days without a cigarette and mom says that if dad is going to smoke, then so is she so I guess her 12 day streak is going to be ruined too. I was so proud of them for quiting and now I guess they aren't going to make it after all.

The Couch has arrived

I started Saturday morning off with couch shopping. I needed to buy a couch and I wanted to see what was available in my price range and see how big it would be so that I could make room for it in my house. I found a couch that I fell in love with but it $2000 and I couldn't plop down that much cash! We continued looking at other stores and after about 4 hours of looking, I found the exact same couch at an outlet store for half the price! I was very excited but I had only saved 500 for the couch but to my surprise they have a 6 month no interest loan plan that we qualified for it!

The next problem that we ran into was that they only deliver through the week and we are unable to be home through the week. We then called my dad and he agreed to help us pick it up on Sunday since he has a truck.

We then went home to clean and completely rearrange our furniture to make room for the couch since it was a lot bigger than originally planned. We had originally thought to get a little 3 seat couch only. We ended up with a 3 piece section that included a 3seat sleeper sofa, a little wedge seat, and two recliners. It's a beautiful couch though. We finally finished around midnight on saturday and got up early on sunday to finish the clean up and trash take out.

On Sunday, we arrived at the furniture place at 1pm to pick it up and hand to wait in line to pick the stuff up. We finally left the furniture place at 3:30 and got home and got the couch in the house. We finished up around 5:30 that evening. I looked around the house and saw my nice clean living room and bedromm but dirty kitchen and bathroom so I took to scrubbing again in between loads of laundry. I finished up around 10:30 last night.

I'm very tired today but I have a sparkling clean house, room for the in-laws to sit, and enough seating to have a stitching gtg if I want to :)

The Dreaded In-laws

Everyone say a prayer for me. It is now official that the in-laws are coming for Thanksgiving. They have been threatening to come see us since we got married back in Feb 2000 but we have avoided it up to this point. The non-refundable plane tickets have been bought and the hotel reservation made so I know for sure that they are going to make it this time.

I told my husband when they called about coming that thanksgiving was a bad time cause I wouldn't be able to cook a big meal and he didn't know how but they insisted on coming. After everything was settled and we had the flight numbers MIL asks "Is Ginny going to well enough for us to visit". Well gee, don't you think you should have asked that before you invited yourself and bought the plane tickets?

I now have to force myself to clean, rearrange the furniture, and buy a couch so there are enough places for 4 people to sit and I have to do it without lifting more than 15lbs according to the doc. The only good thing about having to do this is that now I will have enough places to sit so that I can have a GTG at my house for the GSFL so I'm trying to think positive.

DH says if we have to do all that to get ready for them to be here then there is no way he is going to cook while I give him instructinos so they can have a boston market thanksgiving dinner. He's a wonderful DH isn't he? FIL has requested one of my crummy apple pies so I guess I will break down and make one of these on the 24th since it isn't too hard. They are arriving on the 25th around 9am and leaving on the 27th around 9am so it's only two days and I'm sure that I can survive that.

Halloween Mischief

I had a very wonderful weekend.

The party Friday night was a lot of fun. We stayed till around 1am when the host disappeared with a female guest and some of the others started to talk about smoking something other than cigarettes but the party was a lot of fun until then.

We spent Saturday sleeping in and resting.

Sunday started with cloths shopping for DH's new job on monday and then home to do the laundry so he could wear the new cloths.

Around 7pm, our doorbell started to ring with trick or treaters and didn't stop till a little after 10pm. This was kinda surprising because last year we only got two rings! We had at least 50 kids this year.

The fun part about sunday night however was not the kids in costume. It was my darling little Mischief. I guess I should have figured that she would enjoy Halloween night more than anyone since she truly believes in living up to her name. When the doorbell rang the first time, she ran to the door in hopes of escaping when we opened it like she usually tried to do but she got a rude surprise when the door was instantly filled with three little girls in fairy costumes that shouted "trick or treat". Mischief drew back in shock and then started to sniff as the little girls started to ooh and ahh and completely forget about the candy that they had come for. Mischief jumped into the box right by the door where we keep the leashes and proceeded to pose for the little girls and when they got close enough she would stick her head out for a rub or a lick depending on the little girl. The girls left, I closed the door and went back to my stitching, while mischief sat by the door with a look of "why did they go that was fun".

The doorbell rang again and Mischief meowed excitedly until I opened the door only to be greated by a pirate boy whom Mischief loved and promptly sat on her hind legs to fence with the young boy. After a few minutes of fencing she sat back down and meowed until he stuck his hand out and rubbed her. He then left giggling and telling his mom how wonderful the brown cat was.

The next 3 hours proceeded like this. The door would ring, Mischief would hold court while I put forgotten candy into bags and then we would close the door and wait for the door to ring again.

My favorite performance of the night was the woman who had the small baby dressed up in a lamb outfit. the little one had to be 6-9 months old cause he wasn't that big. She crouched down so the baby could see Mischief. The baby held out his hand and Mischief promptly gave him a lick on his palm. The baby squealed with laughter and curled his hand back to his body. He waited a few moments and stuck his hand out again and recieved another lick, he laughed again and got a happy meow out of Mischief. His mom thanked us for our patience and I thanked her for the entertainment.

At about 10:30, when the doorbell hadn't rang for about half an hour, Mischief started to cry and then she went to the windows looking for more trick or treaters only to find none. She finally laid down in the box by the door and fell asleep with hopes of more door bells.

Dh and I had a ball watching our little girl. We take her for walks and if she meets someone else while out on a walk, she tries to bite them when they try to pet her. She has even earned the name of devil cat at petsmart and the vet. However, if you dress up in costume and ring our door bell, she apparently falls in love.


All in all it was a wonderful weekend!