Wandering Cross Stitcher

2008-07-26T18:21:00.002-04:00

The doctor called back and said that he wanted to look at another option called chemoembolism. This is basically a chemotherapy treatment that is injected directly into the tumors in order to kill them. It's supposed to make you much less sick than regular chemotherapy and it's much less invasive than surgery to removed the tumors. He's still going to present my case to the other specialists at the conference because he said there my be some issued since I have a heart murmer and high blood pressure that developed during my pregnancy and haven't gone away. I'm still on hold for everything till the doc gets back from the conference in mid august sometime. I'm in a much better place emotion wise than I was during the last post. I'm okay with having to do something about this.

Valerie came over today and watched Riley while we went to the movies. We went and saw Hellboy 2 and The Dark Knight. I won't ruin anything for anyone. I really enjoyed Hellboy 2. I like it much better than the first one and truly enjoyed the entire movie which was full of action and comedy. I'll definately see that one again.

The Dark Knight was a little different. I did enjoy the movie but it is not a movie for children. It did portray the darknest of the batman comics to the extreme. It showed the joker as the psychotic killer that he is but left out his outward charm. I won't be seeing this one again.

I'm currently reading The Chase Brother series by Lauren Dane. I love this series. This writer has found a perfect way to mix in a more erotic slant to wonderful love stories with strong women and men that find ways to be together in partnerships. I just finished the 4th book in the series, Making Chase. This was a wonderful story that showed strong families are made from many different things. It melded the heroine's strong family that emerged from an alcoholic father with the hero's family that was strong due to the love and support of a strong parental unit. Both the man and the woman were strong members of their family and I love the way she brouht the couple together. This is considered erotic romance. I have found that there are several writers of erotic romance that I absolutely love. Yes, they have the very steamy sex scenes with words that I wouldn't want my child saying. They also have some incredibly talented writers that can weave an engaging tale that keeps you turning the page just to see what's going to happen next.

I love to read. I've taken some flack about some of the books that I read but it's not going to stop me from reading them. I read all books. I have favorite authors in scifi, fantasy, romance, comedy, suspense, horror, childrens, young adult and even non-fiction. There are incredible authors and stories in all genres of books. I read because I enjoy diving into a book that can transport me to a world created by my imagination using the authors guidance. I love movies too but for me movies are a way of mindless entertainment. I don't have to image what a movie is trying to show me cause it's there on the screen. I find myself reading more and more and escaping into my own mind instead of staring at the TV. I do go through periods where I don't pick up a book for months though and during that time I find myself watching TV while I stitch. I can't remember the last time that I sat down to just watch TV. I'm always doing something else like stitching or playing a video game or computer game or playing with baby while the TV is on. When I sit down to read though, I read. Reading is my time. Justin takes care of the baby and I let my mind go to a world of the author's making while my body relaxes from the day.

2008-07-18T16:12:00.002-04:00

The doctor's office just called. I'm not happy about the news.

Most of you will remember my horrible liver surgery back in '04 when they took out a quarter of my liver due to tumors that were caused by the estrogen in my birth control pills. When we decided to have a child, I consulted my liver specialist. He warned me that being pregnant elevates the estrogen in my system and the tumors had a possibilty of coming back even in the short time of the pregnancy. We decided to risk it anyway and were blessed with Riley.

During the last month of the pregnancy, 4 small tumors appeared. When I had an MRI in January after Riley was born and it showed the tumors had grown to about quarter size. The doctor advised me at that time to do nothing. He wanted to do another MRI in July after my body had a chance to recover and see if they tumors had gotten any smaller. He told me that there was a good chance that my liver would regenerate itself and make the tumors smaller.

I had my follow up MRI on 7/12. They called me today to let me know that the tumors had not gotten smaller. They haven't gotten larger. The doctor is recommending I have a laser surgery procedure to burn the tumors off my liver. My options at this point are either this surgery that he's recommending or waiting another 6 months to see if my body can heal the tumors. He tells me that the chance of them healing are now very small since there hadn't been any progress in the last 6 months. He also tells me that there is a chance that they will get larger if I wait and if they get larger then I'll be forced to go through the same surgery I went through in '04.

My gut says "keep the surgery away!!!". My brain says "it's smarter to have the laser surgery than to risk the worse surgery".

The doctor told me to think about it and he'll contact me in 3-4 weeks when he gets back from a conference. The conference he's going to is going to discuss some new procdures for these kind of tumors so the doc wants to take my films with him and discuss my case with the guys presenting the new options and see if there is a better way to approach this.

I hope there is a better way.

2008-07-18T14:34:00.002-04:00

Okay. I'm going to try to follow Valerie's example and start blogging again.

I'll have to find stuff to talk about though.

Riley Is 6 months old now. He had his 6 month check up yesterday. He's 27" tall and weights 19lbs 2oz. The doc says he's in the 75th percentile. He's able to sit up assisted, transfer objects from hand do hand, follow people with his eyes, recognize mommy in a photo, babble at will and imitate ooh sounds. Doc says he's doing great and found it hysterical when Riley kept winking at the female nurses (taught to him by daddy of course).

I'm currenty reading From Dead to Worse by Charlaine Harris. I just recently started reading this series. It was recommended to me after one of my friends saw that I read Laurell Hamilton's Anita Blake series. The name of the series is the Southern Vampire series. It's about Sookie Stackhouse. Sookie is a waitress at a bar that can read people's thoughts. This book is about her life and her desire to find a special someone while she wades through the muddy waters of the supernatural community of vampires, shapeshifters and fairies. This series surprised me with the quick depth of the characters. Not many writers can make you care about new characters as quickly as Ms Harris has managed to do in this series for me. I find myself waiting for the new release to see what happened to the minor characters as much as to see what Sookie gets into next. For those of you that like a little bit of romance with your fantasy this series rocks.

I've been stitching on Santa's Dragon from Dragon Dreams but I haven't gotten very far on it. I find that reading is just more appealing right now. It's just so much easier to pick up a book and read a few pages in between taking care of Riley than it is to get out all of the stitching supplies.

June Already

2008-06-03T16:27:00.002-04:00

Sorry that I haven't posted in so long. There just isn't anything fun going on in life right now. I work, I take care of the kid and I sleep. Nothing too fun in all of that. I am gonna try to sneak out this weekend and see the new Narnia movie.
I finally finished Fish City but scatterbrain that I am, I forgot to take a picture before dropping it off at the framers. DUH! It is now at Nease's needlework being framed and I have no idea when I'm getting it back since I told her not to panic over it.

Nothing going on in this neck of the woods.

sleeping through the night

2008-03-26T15:14:00.002-04:00

The little guy may actually be getting ready to sleep through the night finally. He didn't wake me up until 5:30 this morning which is 2 hours later than usual but only 1 hour before I normally have to get up so by the time I finished feeding him, it was time for me to get up and get ready for work so I got up early this morning.

Work is finally starting to settle down a bit. Would you expect an insurance company to give you $3000 to replace a tv that only costs $1200? I realize that the person paid $3000 for the tv 4 years ago but plasma tv's just don't cost that much anymore.

Valerie dear... you have forgotten about your blog!

webshots update

2008-03-20T23:37:00.001-04:00

I've updated my webshots album here:

by vjinton

I've added a album for the beading that I've been doing which include those banners out of the Far Away Places Book that Medieval Needle gave me. They turned out great and I'm really happy with them. You can clearly see that The Dragon was the first one that I tried since I didn't get the top of it as tight as I should have but I fixed that problem since then.

I put a few new pictures of Riley in there too.

tornados suck

2008-03-20T09:59:00.002-04:00

I used to think that tornados were an awesome act of mother nature and were pretty cool. After dealing with claims for the last 3 days, I'm sick of the word tornado. They are still awesome acts of mother nature but I'm not sure that I consider them all that cool anymore. I've lived through several tornados being from Texas. I've even been in a car that was picked up by a tornado when I was a child but this is the first time that I've been on the insurance side of one and I don't like it at all.

Growing

2008-03-18T09:29:00.003-04:00

I had to put away all the 0-3 months cloths last weekend. He's not wearing 3-6 month cloths a little early. I guess I should have figured that he would grow faster than average since I did too. I wonder if he'll hit 5 feet tall by 5th grade like I did.

Do you any of you guys know where I can go to look up if adding a little bit of baby cereal to his nighttime bottle would hurt him at this point? the 6oz bottles aren't completely satisfying him. I remember my mom starting to feed my brother whole milk and mashed potatoes when he was 3 months old but I don't want to do that to my little one. I rather transition from formula to cereal to baby food and then to people food.

I need to update my weshots album again. I've finished My own happy ending from dragon dreams, the anniversary sampler from victoria sampler, and happy new year from calico crossroads. I've also finished some beaded banners that came out of a book that Medieval Needle gave me. I've managed to finish 3 of them and I need to start a folder for beading I guess since I've been doing more of it.

Say What?

2008-03-11T16:24:00.002-04:00

At Riley's last check up, the doctor commented to DH that Riley should be eating every 4-5hrs now instead of every 3-4hrs. He then proceeded to tell Justin that we should make him wait for his bottle at least 4 hours so that he would start to go longer between feedings. This baffled me. I've never heard of making a baby wait for food. I refuse to listen to my child cry cause he's hungry or dirty. I can easily fix both of these issues and I'm going to. I started giving the little guy 5oz per bottle instead of 4oz and sure enough he now goes 4 hours between feedings. Problem solved.

The doc was happy with his grown and the strength in his arms and legs though so he looks great even if he wants to eat all the time.

Have you guys ever heard of making a baby wait for food? This is nuts right?

Routines

2008-03-06T09:53:00.002-05:00

It's a little scary how fast I fall into routines. My days have become very very routine. Monday through Friday:
3am - get up to feed and change kid
3:45am - go back to sleep
6:30am - wake up, shower & dress
7:00am - make up bottles for day care
7:10am - feed and change kid
7:30am - wake up DH, leave the house to take kid to day care and go to work
9:00am - 5pm Work
5:45pm - pick kid up from day care
6:00pm - get home, wash bottles from day care, feed and change kid
7pm - cook supper and eat
8pm - 9pm - take an hour to myself while DH feeds and changes kid (this is usually spent stitching or beading)
9pm - do dishes and go to bed
DH feeds and changes the kid again around midnight and then he comes to bed

Saturday and Sundays are a little more varied but they revolved around Riley's eating schedule. I can almost tell you exactly what I'm doing during the week though if you give me a time. The girls at daycare say that I should be very happy that Riley has fallen into such a predictable pattern but it seems like such a boring pattern right now.

Riley got his first shots on 3/4. He did really well and only cried while they were holding him down and sticking him. He's now 21inches long and weighs 10lbs 4oz. The little guy tagged on the weight once he decided he liked formula. He even managed to not lose any weight while he had the flu.

Two Months Old Already

2008-02-29T12:07:00.003-05:00

It's hard to believe Riley's two months old already. His first day of daycare was last week on 2/19 which was also my B'day. It was hard to leave him that day but easier the next day. I kept him home on Friday 2/22 cause he had a fever and DH took him to the doctor. Early Saturday morning he started throwing up and we had to take him to the ER where I watched them put in an IV to give him fluid and then they did a spinal tap to check for meningitis. That's something I hope never to see again. They ended up admiting him to the hospital and diagnosing him with the flu. We spent Saturday, Sunday and Monday in the hospital with the kid. I ended up in the ER on Sunday thanks to the flu and not being able to keep down my medications. We are all doing better now and he's back in daycare and I'm back at work. Daycare keeps telling me what a well behaved kid he is and how he doesn't cry. Then I get him home and he screams at me.

It's friday though and now we get a couple of days off to actually relax this weekend... I hope. I keep trying to stitch but the kid starts to fuss after about half an hour of stitching which drives me nuts. DH will switch off with me so I am getting an hour in here and there. I have managed to finish a Dragon Dreams since the kid was born but that's been it. I'm working on a Victoria Sampler that I'm gonna finish this weekend too. I have to get back to fish city after that though.

Hope everyone is doing well.

I'm still alive.... I think

2008-02-10T10:44:00.000-05:00

Sorry to not have posted in so long. The child has been occupying every spare moment of my day that doesn't involve sleep. I think I'm finally finding a routine which helps. Of course now that I've found a routine, it's back to work on 2/18 and I'll have to adjust that routine.

I have finally updated my webshots album which I have been promising to do for some time now. I even added a folder for pictures of the kid and it can be seen here:
http://community.webshots.com/album/562366017dGxNXh?vhost=community

I've been through over 20 doctor visits and a case of the 3 day measles since my last post. I told them I didn't want a booster shot at the hospital but they insisted that I had to have one or they couldn't release me from the hospital so I end up with the measles and of course Riley got them too just to make life fun.

Not much else going on in my neck of the woods. I have a boring life of sleep, change the kid, feed the kid, sleep.... and so forth. I get some laundry done and cook occasionally just to spice things up :)

Hope everyone is doing well.

Riley Grayson Zimmerman is HERE!

2008-01-07T16:49:00.001-05:00

I finally had my little one and we came home from the hospital today.

There are a few pictures that can be seen here:
http://www.our365.com/webnursery/WebNursery/Baby/BabyPage.aspx?birthid=0&babyid=0
that were taken by the hospital. I will have more to share later once I'm a little more able to get up and around.

He arrived via emergency c-section on 1/3/2008 at 5:20pm. He weighed 6lbs 8ozs and was 18 inches long.

Apparently while I was in being induced the first time, my OB doctor went under the knife herself for emergency gall bladder surgery and my case was transfered to an on call doctor and that was why I was sent home. The on call doctor didn't have the last two weeks of my medical history and hadn't seen the sharp decline in my health. When I went to see my regular doctor on on Wednesday 1/2/07, they were appalled that I wasn't in the hospital recovering from having the baby and they propmply sent me back to the hospital to have the baby. I went back into the hospital on 1/2 and they started up the inducement procedure again at around 4pm. After about 24 hours of inducement, I started having sever pain in my upper right abdomen. About 45 minutes after that, my upper abdomen started to swell and distend. This prompted everyone into action. The doctors pushed very hard for me to get the epidural that I had refused in order to do the c-section and they made enough valid medical points in favor of the baby that I finally agreed to it. 4 stabs later, they got the epidural in place and we started in on our way to the main O.R. instead of the c-section O.R. in case my liver had ruptured again so they could perform that surgery as well without moving me. We all piled off the elevator on the second floor and started in on direction only to have someone say that we got off on the wrong floor. We piled back on to the elevator and before the doors closed another person said, no this is the right floor, we just went the wrong way. Everyone came back out of the elevator and started off. Mom and DH were then seperated from me and DH was told they would come get him once I was prepped for the c-section. I was taken to the O.R. where there was an ultrasound waiting. They checked the baby first and he was fine and then they took a look at my liver and upper abdomen and couldn't find any signs of bleeding. My doctor prepped me for c-section and told one of the nurses to go and get DH only to be told by the nurse that he would not be allowed in the main O.R. like he would have been in the c-section O.R. My doctor responded by pinching me to see if I was numb yet only to be told that I hadn't been given anything through the epidural yes. 4 doses through the epidural and 4 pinches later I was not numb at all so they put me under anyway since the epidural wouldn't take. I woke up and was transfered to a room and shown the baby about 9:30pm. I still had the big grin on my face that I had the moment I woke up in recovery and was told the baby was okay. I woke to find my child was healthy and I was alive since I was awake so the best of everything had happened as far as I was concerned. The general concensus is that the repeated contractions from 4 days had stretched and pulled the internal scar tissue around my liver and irritated it causing it to swell and cause severe pain. Once the C-section was done and the contractions stopped the swelling went down and I was okay and only needed the c-section and tubal to prevent further pregnancies.

I'm glad to be home. We have to keep Riley on a Billy light because he became more jaundiced than they wanted to see. He doesn't like laying on the light and I can't say that I blame him. The thing dosen't look all that comfortable. I'll be taking him to the doctor daily until is billirubin levels are down and he can be taken off the light. I have to go my doctor later this week too so that I can get my blood pressure levels checked since they haven't gone back done. I also have to follow up with a gastro speciallist for my liver in 3-4 weeks. I'm on bed rest until they can get my blood pressure stabalized but I'm happy to be home with the litttle guy in tow. You guys are welcome to call my cell and welcome to come by as long as you call first to make sure we are at home and not at the doctor. I welcome visitors since I can't go anywhere for a while.

Talk to everyone soon.

I tried to get the kid out

2008-01-01T11:54:00.000-05:00

The amnio showed that the kid's lungs were fine so I went into the hospital on Thursday and started my inducement at 4pm.

Friday at 4pm I was still 1cm.

Saturday at 4pm I was still 1cm and the doctor that came in was the on call doctor and not my regular doctor. When I started asking about my options and what they were going to do she basically in a round about way that she wouldn't do a c-section cause it was elective and she didn't do elective surgeries and that she didn't understand why I was being induced and risking my premature baby anyway so she couldn't justify a c-section but she would continue the inducement since that's what I wanted.

Sunday at 4pm I was still 1cm and the on call doctor came in and told that they were going to take me off the meds for a while so that I could shower and walk for a bit and then they would start again. I got up and showered and tried walking around but my feet were so swollen that they were starting to pit so walking was more painful than contractions. I got back to the room and waited and waited and waited and finally at 7pm I called the nurse and asked why my medications hadn't been started again. The nurse came in and let me know that they didn't feel I should be put back on medication because the inducement was obviously not working and they felt the best course of action was to admit me overnight for observation and if everything looked fine in the morning I could go home and see my normal doctor on Wednesday.

When they came in to the room yesterday to tell me I could go home, they told me to increase my blood pressure meds to 3 times a day and see me normal doctor on Wednesday and I asked them if MY doctor told me to increase the meds cause I had been told not to previously because it might endanger the baby. They couldn't tell me which doctor had given the order cause they had spoken to them on the phone.

I now sit here at home madder than a wet hen about going through contractions every 3-5 minutes for 3 days and then being sent home without a child and told to increase meds that I was previously told could hurt my child. I'm not increasing the meds. I am going to see my doctor tomorrow at 11am and I am going to vent about what happened and if I don't get answers that make sense I will be trying to find another OBG to finish out this pregnancy. Erin... I may need the name of your doctor.

During all this, my dad had to go to the doctor as well and they sent him to the hospital for testing and have discovered that he's in the early signs of emphazema. He's been put on 2 inhalers and a steroid and he's been told to stop smoking. Maybe he'll actually listen now and stop smoking 3 and 4 packs of cigarettes a day.

That's were I stand. I'm home. Worried about the tumor in my liver splitting my liver before I get back to the doctor. Worried about having to have a c-section when I didn't really want one. Worried about the baby being hurt by my high blood pressure. Worried about all this swelling going down in my hands and feet. Worried about having to find a new doctor in my 8th month of pregnancy. Mad at having gone through all this over the holiday weekend for nothing.

Hope everyone is having a good new year! Hopefully this year will be better for everyone than the last year.

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-25T10:47:00.000-05:00

Hope everyone is having a great day with their families!
Take care and have a blast!

Almost Done

2007-12-23T07:56:00.000-05:00

I really need to get better about this. My health problems have become bad enough they are talking of inducing the baby now. I have another ultrasound on Wed Dec. 26th and they are going to do an amnio at the same time. If baby looks okay, then they are inducing me on Thurs Dec 27th. My blood pressure is too high and the spots on my liver have returned and I had a fun little episode where I lost part of my sight for about an hour so they've decided that my body has had enough and they might need to get the baby out for the safety of the mommma. I'm feeling pretty good for the most part and I'm optimistic about being done.

Junior is impatient

2007-12-06T10:34:00.000-05:00

I had a scheduled OB appointment yesterday. My blood pressure was way up again... the bottom number jumped back into the 90's and even went over 100 for a tiny bit. They put me on the baby monitor to check on Junior and make sure he was okay and to my surprise, I was having regular contraction that were about a minute long and occuring every 6-7 minutes. I thought that was the baby moving.

The doc increased my blood pressure meds and gave me some meds to stop the contractions and I have to go back on Friday morning to get checked again or to the hospital sooner if the contractions come back despite the meds or if my water breaks which it thankfully has not.

This is the second time the little guy has try to get out way early. I'm only at 33 weeks... the doc says that she would really appreciate it if he would at least wait until 36 weeks. I think Junior objects and wants out now but I'm doing all I can to keep him in there.

I'm on bed rest so I'm home. I'm listening to the doctor and staying home with my feet up and taking my meds instead of trying to go to work cause I'm scared that if I go to work and my blood pressure goes too high it will start the labor again which will land me in the hospital to the baby comes and while in hospital they will keep me on IV meds for 3 weeks to make sure he makes it to 36 weeks and I don't want to be in the hospital for 3 weeks so for once I'm listening to doctor's orders. How unlike me. :)

Hope everyone is doing well. I'm okay other than the planned escape by Junior and a chest cold that likes to make me cough a little but that's finally going away now.

Painting and Fishies are all done

2007-11-29T16:50:00.001-05:00

We did manage to get the room decoration done and the crib put together. Junior decided to try and make and early appearance which landed me in the hospital from the 21-27th but the doctors and I won and he is still safely unborn. I put together the changing table last night while DH started with the dresser. DH is gonna finish the dresser tonight while I wash the cloths that we have bought so far which aren't many but at least the kid will have something to wear home from the hospital. I am going to need to buy more 0-3month stuff though. I had held out on buying the tiny stuff cause DH was a big baby and I was scared that junior would be too but the doctors are predicting a 6-7lb baby now since he's still under 4lbs at 32 weeks. This works for me. Less weight to lug around at first and maybe the poor kid will have a shot at not being too overweight as he gets older.

Justin took pictures of the room before we had anything in it and I'm gonna take some more pictures once we have the furniture in and the crib mobile and stuff done up so that you can see what it will actually look like for the baby. I will put pictures in webshots once we have all of that done at some point this weekend and I'll post the link on here so you guys can see.

This saturday, I have lamaze class and sunday I will be cleaning to make sure the house is presentable for the baby shower next saturday. I can't wait to see those of you that are coming and I'll miss those that can't make it but you guys are welcome to give us a call that day if you want or any other day for that matter if you have my cell number... if you don't have the number let me know and I'll email it to you rather than post it here for the world to see.

Hope everyone is doing well. I'm still plugging along and starting to feel a little large but DH swears I'm not really that big and one of my customers made me feel good by telling me that his wife was already this big at 4 months when I'm already at 7 so that was nice but I'm not sure I completely believe him.

Painting Fun

2007-11-12T16:22:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Valerie and Justin, the babies room now has painted walls. I'm stopping at lowe's tonight to pick up some not quite white paint to do the trim work and doors. The wall paper fish are set to arrive on Wednesday according to an email I recieved today so I can put up fish this weekend to have a completely finished babies room.... Then I just need poor Justin to build the crib and dresser so I can put away cloths :)

I had lots of fun on Sunday painting with Val and DH. I think we may have gotten more on us and than drop cloth than on the walls but we had a blast doing it.

Baby Showers

2007-11-08T15:28:00.000-05:00

Every baby shower that I have ever been to has really been more about advice, laughter and visiting with a few small gifts from people. This was my expectation of what mine would be like as well. DH's office threw him a shower today. When he went through the list of what they had bought, I realized that these people had spent over $800 on this. I'm floored. The baby's room is also set for furniture with no problem now.

We went a little nuts on the registry cause we knew we didn't have anything and we did put some really expensive stuff on there like the stroller/car seat combo and the high chair. I didn't expect to get these things as gifts, I put them on there because I knew we would need them and this would help me remember which one we had wanted.

I have to write out a bunch of thank you notes and make some goodies for him to take to work to say thank you. I'm just floored with all the trouble they went through for this when they don't even know me. They do know DH though and they do like him at work so I guess that is where all the trouble came in. We'll also get to reciprocate a little bit since his boss' wife is also pregnant and the girl in HR is also pregnant.

Not much going on with me. I went through the test for gestational diabetes and I'll find out if I have that sometime this week.

I'm still working away on Fish City but the work has slowed down since I'm so tired and not staying up as late as I'm used to. We have decided on just painting the room and putting up fish cut out wallpaper. I have to order the wallpaper stickies and go buy the paint friday night so we can paint the room this weekend and set up the crib and everything.

Pregnancy is not for me

2007-11-06T11:03:00.001-05:00

Another ER trip and hospital stay over the weekend. This time with a mock heart attack. The EKG said heart attack. The blood work said heart attack. The echocariogram said no heart damage so no heart attack. Doctor's don't know what caused it or how to stop it from happening again.

I am definatly not having more kids. One will be enough and if I just have to have another child, I'm adopting it instead of going through this nightmare again.

I'm beginning to wonder if I'm not supposed to decorate the kids room cause every time I make plans to go pick up the wall paper and paint, I end up in the hospital.

Sorry Kirabug... there have not been any pictures of my belly to date and if I have my say, there won't be any at all. I can email you the last ultrasound pictures though since the new ultrasound doctor sent them to me in an email instead of printing them.

Sorry Guys

2007-10-31T16:07:00.000-04:00

The last trimester has arrived and with it returned my energy and will to do something so I've been cleaning the house and getting ready for the arrival of the little one.

I had another ultrasound today where I learned that it is definately a boy no doubt about it. He's between 12-13 inches long so far and a little over 3lbs. He has already turned and his head down and ready to come out. The doc says he may come a little early since he seems to be so eager about getting ready. He said he was in the 45th percentile so I have a completely average baby as far as height and weight. Cool. He wasn't concerned at all about me not gaining a lot of weight. I've actually gained 4lbs now which is about how much the kid and fluid weighs. The new ultrasound doc says weight gain is an individual thing and I have the right body type and hip position to support a pregnacy without gaining extra weight. Cool.

The house is starting to look neat. I had originally planned to wallpaper the bottom of the baby's room with fishy wallpaper but then I found these really cool fish wallies where you would paint the wall and then just stick the fish on the wall like wall stickers. Valerie mentioned wanting to throw me a baby shower and possibly doing it at my house since it's big enough to hold everyone and people could stay as long as they wanted so that they could visit too. I thought maybe I could give everyone a page of the fish wallies and they could just have fun sticking them on the wall randomly. I have to run the idea by DH first though. He'll probably go for it though since it will be less work for us. :)

I have started some beading work as well again. I found some awesome beads to make necklace fobs so I'm probably gonna do a few more of those when the beads come in. I've been doing some beaded banners too which are kind of interesting and fun. It's all Melanie's fault, she brought a bunch of books to the Kansas City trip and let us go through and get what we wanted and now I'm beading with Delicas.

Not much else is going on. My life has become preparing for the little one which is normal I suppose. I'm looking forward to tonight. Halloween is Mischief the cat's favorite night of the year because a whole bunch of people ring the doorbell and give her attention. She has a blast every year and we have a blast watching her run to the door and stand up to try to see who is there every time the bell rings. I swear she meows at and tried to play with every kid that comes to the door.

Life Detoured

2007-10-17T16:05:00.000-04:00

Monday the 1st, I ended up in bed all day with what I thought was a migraine. Tuesday was spent in a similar fashion. Wednesday, I got up to go to work and almost passed out. I believe the only thing that stopped me from passing out was concentrating on the nausea that rolled through me. We called the OBG and she set an appointment for noon but told me to go to the hospital if anything else happened. Lo and Behold, a half hour later a nosebleed started and off to the ER we went. They rushed me right in and I ended up spending the rest of Wednesday and most of Thursday in the hospital with the diagnosis of dehydration. The good part of this was that they kept the baby on a monitor and his reading were all strong and he showed his persistent stubborness by constantly kicking the monitor to dislodge it as much as possible. Spent the rest of that week home in bed and the following Monday and Tuesday as well. Wednesday, I went in to the OBG again for the normal check up and she couldn't find a reason for the dizziness and nausea that were persisting so then I went to see my general practitioner and he found that the bones in my middle ear had gotten stuck together and he gave me some medicine to try and help with that.

I finally made it back to work this monday after two weeks off. Needless to say, work was not happy but I'm surviving. I spend a lot of time being tired though and my appetite is very sketchy. The doc is back to reprimanding me for the fact that I weigh the same now as I did the day she told me I was pregnant. I keep arguing that the kid still weighs less than a pound so me not gaining weight yet can't be that bad of a thing. She disagrees since I'm only a week and a half away from the 3rd trimester. I figure I'll gain weight when the little guy lets me eat and worse case scenerio, I'll end up weighing less that I did to start after I have the baby... That can't be a bad thing since I was a little overweight to start. I really don't feel 215lbs is a bad weight at this point. I had dropped down to 205 so she should be happy that I'm back to the 215!

I've been stitching away on Fish City. I have the buildings and fish done on half of it and I'm almost 1/2 way with the buildings on the second half so I'm making great progress. I've also been doing some peyote stitch beading and I've managed to finish a little dragon banner. If I ever get up the energy one evening to get the camera out, I have a lot of stuff that I need to take pictures of so that I can update my webshots album.

I also need to get off my bum this weekend and get the baby's room cleared out and buy the paint and wallpaper for in it so that I can actually paint and wallpaper one weekend.

*sigh* anyone got some energy they can give me?

nothing to report

2007-09-25T10:51:00.001-04:00

Not much going on here. I went to the gtg on Saturday and had fun talking to everyone.

Still working. Still stitching ... or attempting to stitch. I haven't really been in the mood to do much so I'm mostly vegging on the couch reading and watching TV.

Baby Boy is still kicking strong and often.

shouldn't have complained

2007-09-20T11:09:00.000-04:00

I shouldn't have said anything about Tuesday's being boring because that lead to a very eventful Wednesday. I woke up Wednesday morning feeling like crud so I called work and told them I was feeling really bad and didn't think that I'd be in but I would try to come in later. I was laying in bed and DH was in the shower when my phone rang. It was my mom checking to see why she hadn't heard from me yet. I was in the process of telling that I was sick when pain shot through my upper right side. I quickly explained that I was fine and hung up the phone. I then got DH who had finished his shower and was dressed by then and we took a trip to the ER cause the pain was bad enough to make me cry. At the ER, the got me in pretty quickly for an ER and ordered a bunch of tests. I refused pain killer cause I didn't want to hurt the baby so I endured the blood tests, pelvic, full stomach ultrasound, and chest xray to find that I had a kidney infection. The doc was a little baffled about how I got a kidney infection and showed no signs of a UTI but I just chalk that up to my quirky system.

Today, I'm sitting here at work in pain cause they weren't able to give me a pain killer that was both safe for the baby and that I wasn't allergic to. I do have antibiotics though and will hopefully feel better soon.

Don't let me complain about boring days any more.

Must get sand done

2007-09-18T16:03:00.001-04:00

I'm down to a section of sand that's about 15 rows of 50 stitches. I think that I can finish the sand tonight but I will be delayed a bit by the fact that I'm trying to make chocolate covered peanut butter rattles and pacifiers for the gtg of the GSFL on Saturday as a way to announce the upcoming little one to the Georgia group and those take an hour and a half out of my evenings every night all this week so I'm not getting as much stitching time in as I did before I decided to make these things.

Tuesdays are dull

2007-09-18T15:54:00.000-04:00

Not much going on today. The boss came in with a bad mood following him but he got better before he left.

I went grocery shopping last night and watched in amusement as my stomach grew as I walked around the store. By the time I made it to the cashier, she thought I was about to give birth in the store and when I woke up this morning my tummy was almost flat again. It cracks me up that the kid refuses to stay either forward or back and decides to move back and forth several times throughout the day. The good news is that DH got to feel the little one move for the first time last night. The little guy was kicking so hard that I think it would have been impossible for DH not to feel it.

Erin: We find out the results of the fair on Thursday night. Valerie's gonna call me on Thursday when she gets to the fair since I can't make it out there during the week. I'm gonna head to the stitch in at Nease's instead on Thursday.

Anne: Fish City is huge. It's 15 pages of pattern and the biggest thing that I have ever cross stitched but it looks so cool! I've been working on it for 3 months now and I'm only a little over half way done. I'm also trying to knit a christening gown as well but that's going even slower cause I'm still a beginning knitter. I'm probably gonna drive myself crazy with all the stuff I want to do before the kid gets here.

Shopping Continued

2007-09-17T10:44:00.000-04:00

Well, I've got through round 2 of shopping. I now have plenty of bras to last me. I added 6 more shirts but two of those are ones that I can't wear at work so I'll have to go for at least one more round of shopping before the baby gets here. Have you noticed that everything has bows? Am I supposed to look at my pregnant belly as an unwrapped present? I'm not good with unwrapped presents... I have this uncontrolable need to open presents and I can't unwrap my belly!

I've started a photo album for the little one. It's a really cool album that holds 4x6 photos and has a little section beside each photo where I can write in comments. Since I'm having to have ultrasounds every month right now, I'm getting lots of pictures from that so I've already got 7 pictures in there. I think they have my blood pressure well under control now. It was staying inthe 120's / 70's before the witch quite. When I went to the doctor on the 11th, it was 110/68 so I think I'm doing good now.

Anne: Fish City is a cross stitch that I'm working on. You can see what it will look like finished here: http://www.theangelsnook.com/FISH-CITY--Counted-Cross-Stitch-Pattern_p_91-1487.html

Not much else going on with me. I'm working hard and staying busy. I entered Guardian and Cats in the State Fair. Guadian is going up against Valerie's Sleeping Beauty which covers a larger stitch area so I'm sure that she's gonna beat me in that category but that's okay cause I have fun entering and making sure that there is a dragon or wizard or some other kind of fantasy cross stitch piece in at least 1 category every year. My stubborn streak is probably gonna be the death of me one of these days but I have fun along the way and that's the important part.

For those of you that have had kids... Did you start getting a clear discharge from your breasts like half way through the pregnancy? I'm gonna ask the doc about it at my next appointment on the 20th but I wondered what you guys thought and if it was normal for that to be happening already since the keep telling me that I'm 21 weeks along at this point.

I hate shopping

2007-09-13T15:37:00.000-04:00

In the last week, I have had to break down and buy new shoes and maternity shirts since my shoes fell apart (they were 10 years old) and my baggy cloths are not a little tight on my belly.

The shoe shopping was too horrible and I bought a size bigger in case my feet start to swell.

The maternity shopping was aweful. I can't believe the cloths they make for pregnant women. Being pregnant is not an excuse to blind people with my breast headlights even if I have already gained another cup size after only 4 1/2 months of being pregnant! I do not want cloths that are so tight around the top that people look at me and think "Oh hello breasts, are you attached to a person?" and I also don't want tops that are cut so low that I might as well just go topless. After searching for 2 hours, I finally found 3 tops that are okay and even one of those is low cut enough that I'll be wearing a T-shirt under it. I'm gonna try a couple of other places that I found in the yellow pages this weekend.

I also need to go shopping for fishy wallpaper. I want to put of some wallpaper in the baby's room that has fish all over it. That way fish city will fit right in when I finally get it done.

I've been bad with my stitching. I sat down fish city to start stitching Victoria Sampler's Heirloom Anniversary Sampler for my boss. I'm making incredible progress on it after just a couple of days so I may finish it soon and be back to fish city which will be cool. I think I needed a break from the fishies anyway.

The doctor goofed

2007-09-11T16:28:00.000-04:00

At my third ultrasound, they told me it was a girl so I picked out girl names. I had my 4th ultrasound today and it went a little like this:

Tech: Oh... It's a boy.
Me: Are you sure?
Tech: Yep, see... here are the boy parts.
Me: Are you sure that's not the umbilical cord?
Tech: yep, the cord is up there.
Me: Oh. Are you sure there is only one baby in there since we thought it was a girl last time?
Tech: Yep, only 1 in there and it's definately a boy.
Me: Oh, okay. Back to the drawing board on names.

Then later in the process.
Tech: Will you stop moving. I just want to get a profile. No don't turn that way. Why won't you sit still for 2 seconds so I can take your picture.
Me: Guess he takes after my side... Photo phobic.

I got a great shot of his scull that looks cool. We also got to see him moving and rubbing/scratching his forehead. Reminded me so much of a move I do when I've become frustrated with someone who isn't listening to me. I feel really sorry for my husband is this little boy has my temperment. That's just asking for many visits to the principals office. :)

Response to comments: Lynne, I will be entering Fish City next year in the fair. I was trying to have it done for this year but it's taking much longer than I thought it would and I only made it halfway. I'm finally halfway on it now so all those white spaces where fish go are now filled in on that side and I'm back to working on a mostly white area again.

Having fun

2007-09-10T15:56:00.000-04:00

I spent the whole weekend just vegging out in front of the TV with my cross stitch. I have some fun coming up this week though. I have to drag DH out to a babies r us so we can make a registry cause my mom and dad are insisting that they want to buy stuff. I told them I had some stuff registered on amazon.com but they didn't feel that there was enough stuff on the list.

I also get to go with Val to enter stuff in the State Fair. It's always fun to do that. I'm only entering Guardian in the 14 ct category and Cats in the above 18 ct category. I have a baby blanket done as well for the knitting category but I never place in that category cause I'm just a beginning knitter and the ladies that place have been knitting for a long long time.

I also have to make sure that I'm planted in front of the TV at 9pm on Saturday the 15th for the premier of the new Highlander movie on the Sci-Fi Channel. It's been a while since I've seen Duncan and it will be good to visit an old friend again. I hope this movie is better than the last one though cause I got ticked when Duncan killed Connor. That was so not fair.

I've been watching for upcoming shows for this fall too. I'm trying to find something new to watch cause all the stuff that I used to watch is gone now. So far I've got Reaper, Bionic Woman, and Moonlight on the let's see what these are list. Anyone else have some suggestions?

The doctor wasn't kidding

2007-09-06T15:40:00.000-04:00

At 18 weeks pregnant, I asked my doctor about the fact that I wasn't showing at all and up to that point had actually lost 15 pounds. The doctor said it wasn't unusual for larger built women to not show till the 5th or sixth month but she was upset about the continued weight loss. She also said that the baby was taking it's time in moving up off of my bladder (she didn't have to tell me that one cause the potty trips every 2 hours had already clued me in to that) and when the baby moved up, I would see a noticable difference. She really wasn't kidding. Friday---no belly. Saturday -- hello, where did you come from?

The girls did a great job of stuffing me full of food all weekend in Kansas too because I managed to gain 5lbs over the weekend which should make the doctor happy on the next visit on the 11th.

I'm 20 weeks now so I've made it halfway. WooHoo!! I developed high blood pressure the day I became pregnant apparently so they have me on some medication for that and they are watching me really closely for pre-eclampsia which would be very very bad. I've never had even a hint of high blood pressure before so they aren't extremely concerned but I do get to have ultrasounds every month so I get to see lots of the baby. My next one is on the 11th of this month.

Looking at the book I have, the baby's hearing should develop the week of the next get together so she'll get to hear all the girl talk that day.

Not much else going on in my life... oh wait.... there is good news... the evil foreign witch quit! She is no longer working with me! I'm so happy. Work is fun again! It came in at a good time too since she kept telling me that eating chocolate would kill my baby.

Are you still reading?

2007-08-29T10:34:00.001-04:00

Here's a test. If you are still reading... I have news... I'm pregnant and due in January. Isn't shopping for little ones to come fun? I really need to get fish city done for the baby's room.

sorry for the missing persons routine

2007-08-10T11:06:00.000-04:00

Sorry about being missing for so long. I just haven't had the gumption to sit and type at night after I get home and work has been keeping me busy.

Mom and Dad have moved to North Carolina and they are spending time near my brother and his two boys. I now have two nephews, Alec Michael was born March of 2006 and Connor Lee was born March of 2007. Mom and Dad are excited about spending time with the grandsons and my brother is happy to have them around too. Both boys have decided that grandma and grandpa rule since they get treats and toys from them.

I bought a new sleep number bed and got to sleep on that for the first time last night. I'm in heaven. For the first time in weeks, my hips don't hurt today.

I've been busy cross stitch wise too. Cats from Mystic Stitch is finished on the 25ct fabric. Guardian from TW is finished and framed and ready for entry in the State Fair. I've also finished Wave Dancer and Harvest Time from Dinky Dyes (our Prinn's designs). I'm still working on Fish City as well. I have the background about halfway done and I need to fill in all the fish now. I've been learning to knit as well and I've managed to knit a baby blanket. Baby blankets seemed the easiest project for a beginner. I really need to update my webshots album will all the pictures and I promise I'll get that done this weekend.

There really hasn't been a whole lot going on. I'm looking forward to the gtg in September and seeing everyone again. Hope everyone is well.

Monday again

2007-01-15T20:00:00.000-05:00

I had a boring day at work today. I knew it was going to be boring since most people had the day off though. I even slept in since I knew that I'd have good traffic.
I've decided to put the beading off till this weekend cause by the time that I get all the beading stuff out and arranged... I don't have time to bead through the week.
Smokey is now occupying my stitching chair in true stretched out how on earth did you get into that position cat style so the stitching is probably out for tonight cause he just looks too cute to move him.

Kirabug... Any time you want a stitched piece you just let me know what you want and I'll get right to work on it. You and Steen actually have the only two Paula Vaughn's that I've ever stitched and those were both challenging pieces so you gotta know that I love you both to give you those kind of things... so what do you want... a dragon... a mermaid... a saying... one of your comic strips turned into a cross stitch to combine both of our talents?

Feeling better

2007-01-14T20:10:00.000-05:00

I dropped a frying pan on my foot. That's how I shattered the bone. It was only the small bone at the top of the toe though so no it doesn't flop around but you can squash the tip of my toe easily now. Kirabug, you're comment made me think of big floppy elephant ears and it gave me a good laugh.

My craft mood has rturned with some prompting. I got a new Model stitching job in the mail yesterday and started stitching it since it has a deadline cause it's being released at the Nashville show next month. I managed to finish it tonight and it jump started my need to create so I'm back to stitching and beading. I've had an order come in for necklace fobs from a needlework store that saw the pics on my webshot album so now I need to get busy beading again too.

*hugs* to everyone!

Too Quiet

2007-01-10T18:10:00.000-05:00

I've been very quiet lately. I've not been doing much other than working and job hunting. I've been in a stitching funk although I did manage to finally put in the last of the backstitch on guardian. I just haven't been in the mood to create anything as of late. I know I'll get back into the mood eventually though. I've been reading and watching movies and being a bum instead.

I've managed to shatter one of the bones in my foot. luckily it was a toe bone so no cast was needed but my toe hurts! The doc cut it open and took out the bone fragments. Silly me said "I don't think I need those pain killers. I'm sure advil will take care of any residual pain" NOT!!! Boy was I wrong. Advil does dull it enough to tolerate it though... speaking of which... I think it's time for some more so I'm off to find the advil bottle.

Take care and I hope the rest of you are having a better start to the new year.

Cookies everywhere

2006-12-18T11:46:00.000-05:00

I spent all day yesterday making 8 different kind of cookies which yielded 32 dozen cookies all total.

My house smells like Christmas now. I still want to do some pumkin bread and possibly a apple pie and pumpkin pie.

I have the tree up... I still have to decorate it... Maybe I'll get to that tonight.

Calming Influence

2006-12-15T16:49:00.000-05:00

I've been praying for a calming influence in my life lately. I am looking for a job. I've got my resume posted on Monster. I've faxed it to several recruiters and I've been scanning the want adds.

To the person that commented that I needed to grow a backbone. My personality apparently doesn't come across well in my blog. I did stand up for myself. I did tell her why I didn't seem concerned. I did tell her to leave me be. I just needed to vent and make sure that I wasn't being a harpy. In my job, the only person to go to is the boss and the boss is stuck between a rock and a hard place cause he has to have this person because she's the only one in the office that speaks the foreign language that 1/4 of our customers speak. He doesn't want to upset her cause she might leave and the foreign language is not a common one so it's hard to find another person that speaks the same language and can do our job.

I want to just walk out on the job. I can't. Finances dictate that I have to have a steady income and not let my emotions rule here. It is getting harder and harder not to tell them to stuff it. I don't want to put my family or my new house in jeopardy just because of my temper. I am working harder and harder to find the new job. I redouble my efforts every time and incident occurs at work but the hard truth of the matter is that I have to put up with it until I get another job. I do speak back and most of the time it makes the matter worse but I'm not gonna be tramped on.

I've been out sick the last two days and still feel pretty crappy. The job repayed me by giving me most of the phone calls today. At least the day went faster since I was busy though so I don't mind them doing that to me. It's actually funny that they believe this is a punishment.

Close to quitting without a job to go to.

2006-12-07T11:47:00.000-05:00

I can't take this anymore. Money just isn't worth it. I would rather be struggling with my bills again that dealing with this. This morning, I got told that I was a horrible person and that I was being mean for no reason and I was going to hell. You guys know me. I'm not mean by nature. I will tell you if I don't like something but I try not to be mean about it unless it's my family and then all bets are off.
The background for this accusation. P was going to be out of the office to have some minor surgery. Very minor surgery. Her surgery was last Wednesday and she's back at work today. Before she left, I asked her what hospital thinking I'd be nice and send a little flower since I knew she had to stay over night. She told me my doctor's hospital. When I asked which hospital is that, she replied with my doctor's. I don't have her home or cell number. I'm not that close to her. She called the office on Thursday and told the boss that she was okay. Boss told us. Okay. She called the office on Monday and told the boss she was feeling much better and would be back to work on Wednesday instead of taking the full 2 weeks off. Boss told us. This morning I got to work before her. I had my computer up and was working on something when she walked in. I looked up and said Good Morning, she replied with a very sharp and nasty "morning". I went back to what I was doing to finish up. She went to her computer and tried to bring it up but she had forgotten her password so she got on the phone with regional to get them to reset her password. I continued working since she was on the phone. When she gets off the phone, she proceeds to tell us we are horrible people cause we didn't ask how she was or how her surgery was and we didn't come see her or call her or send her flowers. I'm still trying to figure out how I was supposed to call her, see her or send her flowers since I didn't know what hospital, didn't know her phone number and didn't know her address. I was going to ask how she was even though the boss had already told us she was okay but she was very nasty when she walked in and got right on the phone and stayed on the phone for 20 minutes and then started yelling at us as soon as she got off the phone.
ARGH!!
I'm tired of being judged by her standards and found horrible. I'm tired of being told I'm going to hell for being a horrible person. I'm tired of her telling customers that I don't know what I'm doing and that I don't do anything in the office. I do 40% of the applications every month and I'm 1 of the 3 people here. I should only be doing 33% but I'm not, I'm doing more. If I don't have things to do, I ask if I can help anyone. She doesn't do that.
The kicker of it… When I told the boss what happened, he told me to just ignore it and forget about it. HUH?
It's no wonder that I'm stitching so much at night. I get so stressed out at work that it takes me 3 hours of stitching just to unknot the tense muscles and start to relax!

Down to 2 more doctor visits

2006-12-04T16:36:00.000-05:00

The gastro specialist was actually nice. He ran some tests while I waited and took a look where I really prefer not to be looked at. His initial thoughts: Maybe I need one of those enzymes the gall bladder produces and no one thought to tell me that. He gave some pills to try for 2 weeks and if they don't work, I have another set to try. If neither of those help it's back in for another colonoscopy, mri and lots more bloodwork. Some of the tests he ran weren't immediate either so I get to go back for a follow up as well.

I've got the follow up from the sleep study on the 19th of this month to tell me if I need a CPAP or BIPAP or I just need to sleep with a thing that looks like a football mouthguard at night.

The follow up with the gastro is on Janurary 4th to see if they can finally get my stomach under control. This would be nice.

I've seen 5 different doctors in 1 month. I have had good news so far. Most of the fear of Cancer has been eliminated. Now I just have to prey for the enzyme pills to work cause if they don't there may be more surgery in my near future and I really don't want to start 2007 on that note. I've been on the pills for a couple of days now and they do seem to be helping a little so I'm trying to be optomistic.

One person should not have all of these health issues. I actually got told that I eat too much fruit. I didn't know you could eat too much fruit. I like fruit. I'm supposed to eat more veggies and more bran. I already eat a good amount of that stuff too. Sometimes I think the doctors are crazy and I should tell them all to stuff it and eat what makes me happy and to heck with the consequences! Of course I was good and had a sandwich and healthy choice chicken noodle soup for lunch.

Sleep Study

2006-11-30T11:12:00.000-05:00

I got to the office at 8:30pm like I was supposed to. By 10pm they had me all hooked up and left me alone to sleep. They woke me a couple of times to make me change positions so they could get a better monitoring. Finally they woke me up around 4:30am to fill out paperwork and then sent me home. She did verify that I have apnea but she said I would have to talk to my doctor for the severity and treament. I got home around 5am and went directly to the shower to get all the gunk out of my hair. It took 3 shampoos. Gross. I then fell back into bed and then pulled back out of bed at 7:30am to go to work. It was a very tiring experience and I'm glad that it's over. I won't know the actual results till the 18th though when I go in for the follow up appointment. Blech.

On to the next appointment tonight. I'm going to the gastro specialist after work tonight. Joy. (can't you just feel the sarcasm of that statement)

So far so good on the appointments though. Hopefully they'll be done soon.

Good News

2006-11-28T16:25:00.000-05:00

Got a call from the doctor today. The stuff they took out of my sinuses was a calcium cyst. no harm done. I've got the sleep study tonight and then one more appointment. Almost through with all the appointments again. It's the waiting for the results that's worse than anything else though.

Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving

2006-11-27T16:59:00.000-05:00

Ours was nice. We had a relaxing holiday at home with no family. It was wonderful. I spent Saturday at the gtg at Valerie's. I had a wonderful time. I didn't finish Guardian but I did start Fish City. I had lots of fun catching up with everyone and eating all that food. My husband was equally pleased when I came home with chocolate. :)

What a weekend

2006-11-21T09:30:00.000-05:00

I thought I was gonna sit and stitch all weekend but that didn't happen.

Saturday we took Spike to the vet and it turned out that he was okay so there was no problem there. We then took him home and went to get a bite to eat and then I went to hobby lobby to see what Christmas stuff they had on sale. I came home with several kits. Mischief looked so sad that Spike got to outside and she didn't that we gather her up along with Smokey to take them to Petsmart for a walk. They were having dog adoptions right at the door so both cats were afraid so we ended up going to Bethesda Park since they have a 1.5 mile walking trail. The cats had never been before but they took right to it and Mischief had a fit over the squirrels and Smokey had fun too. I know Mischief will be begging for days to go back.

Sunday I stitched in the morning and then in the afternoon, I started to do laundry. The washer died in the middle of the first load. I rang out the cloths and put them in a basket and then went off to the laundromat. Thankfully I found out on Monday that the washer is still under warranty so I made an appointment for them to come and fix it on Wednesday.

The great sleep study

2006-11-16T13:40:00.000-05:00

**Warning** This may be TMI but hopefully not too gross.

I went to the doctor last night to have tubes stuck in my nose and down my throat so the doctor could tell me why I'm getting so many sinus infections and to see if he could tell why I wasn't getting enough sleep. After lots of hmm..'s and that's interesting... the results are:
I have a small septum (whaterever that is) that is apparently to blame for the sinus infections, an elongated uvuala which is apparently to blame for my trouble swallowing pills, a small jaw and a large tongue which may be blocking my airway at night and causing sleep apnea which would make me sleepy all the time and I have a extra strong gag reflex that gaged the doctor when I got sick cause he sprayed stuff in my nose to numb it so he could put the tube in and then again when he put the tube in even though it was supposed to be numb and I wasn't supposed to feel that. The result of all this: I can use a nasal spray but after seeing my response to those he said I may just have to deal with the sinus infections. I also need to go through a sleep study where they monitor all kinds of things while I sleep and this is going to occur on the 28th of this month. Depending on the severity of my sleeping problems, I may end up on a CPAP or BiPAP breathing thing while I sleep. No problem. At least the dreaded C word wasn't mentioned.

Kirabug, when you were having all those sinus problems and had your surgery, I don't think I fully understood why you hated those doctors appointments... you now have my greatest and most sincere sympathy for what you went through and I hope you never have to do it again.

Valerie... you are an evil temptress and I have now pulled the threads to start Fish City. I may end up derailing myself at the S&B at Nease's tonight though cause I'm taking Guardian with me and after the girls ooh and ahh over my progress I'm hoping to once again have the stitching bug for Guardian since the golds are starting to get to me. Since we started our competition, I've only managed to put in 4 needles of thread... I usually do 6-7 a night... this is bad. I thought I was taking advantage cause I know you've got a lot to do on Oyster Bay but now I'm beginning to wonder. Guardian doesn't seem to want to be stitched. Doesn't help that I got Britty Kitty's kitten stocking in the mail along with Dragon Dreams' Charlotte releases and Griffin Bookmark from dracolair. I have too many things I want to stitch!

I have savings... (shh... Don't tell God)

2006-11-14T10:45:00.000-05:00

We went in last night and opened up a savings account. It's the first time that I've had an active savings account in all my 30 years. It feels good to know we have a little cushion when we haven't had in so long.

I am also officially out of credit card debt as of today! Yeah! Dance with me everyone. I still owe on the house and on one of the cars but the car is almost paid off too... 6 months to go. Student loans only have a couple of years to go now too. News like this lifts my spirits and makes me more optomistic about having children sometime in the near future.

My celebration for having done so well with my finances... I went to stitching bits and bobs and went a little nuts.... 5 patterns, 3 waterlilies, 3 crescent colors, 1 yard of fabric, and several finishing forms later.... my spending money went bye-bye. But now I have some things that I've been wanting since August and haven't purchased cause of money issues.

Bring on the challenge Val! I've got the castle backstitched now and I'm down to the dragon to stitch and backstitch and the heather to backstitch.... I'm on a roll.... woohoo!

On another note, I haven't been able to find all the Dinky Dye patterns that I bought at Nashville that our lovely Stacey Designed since the gtg at my house.... I may have accidentally given my patterns to Stacey along with her patterns... I need to check with her on that one.

Work is slow today. The people that can't see me typing in my blog are gone for a few hours so I get to blog today. When they come back, I'll have to look busy again. I sometimes feel like over half my day is looking busy while the rest is actually busy.

Boring Life

2006-11-10T16:59:00.000-05:00

There isn't much going on right now. I've been just going to work and then home. We did take a week off and just goof around Atlanta but we didn't do anything productive. I went in to the doctor to discuss some problems I've been having and I've got appointments with specialsts on the 13th and 30th to investigate a couple of things a little farther.

On the stitching front, I've finished "Cats" from Mystic Stitch and started "Guardian" from Teresa Wentzler. I'm moving pretty quickly on "Guardian". I've already got the border completely done and the background stitched. I still have to backstitch the background and stitch and backstitch the dragon. I've got "Fish City" from Stoney Creek set up to stitch next.

I'm looking forward to the gtg on the 25th. It will be good to see fellow stitchers again. I've ordered an edible bouquet for it. These are really cool and you can check them out at www.fruitflowers.com to see all the different options. I find this an absolutely genious idea... Is this a sign that I'm getting old?

Not much going on. Just trudging through work and relaxing at home with my cats, my needle and lego star wars 1 and 2. I love when Chewie rips off peoples arms... that's just a perfect stress reliever after a bad day at work.

Hope everyone is doing well.

Fair Report

2006-09-26T19:50:00.000-04:00

The fair results are in. You can see all of the things that I entered into the fair here:
http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/album/554373846pTJUsu

I took 1st place in the Christmas Cross Stitch, 1st place in the Other Cross Stitch Category and 2nd place in the 19ct and up Cross Stitch Category. I also entered pieces in the Crochet Baby Afghan Category, the Woodworking category, and the 14ct and below Cross Stitch Category.

For those of you that haven't heard about the Fair Revenge yet.... here we go.
Last year I entered "Merry Christmyth" in the Christmas Cross stitch Category and it took 2nd place. When we went to pick up my piece at the end of the fair, we had a really hard time finding it. When we asked for help, we were told that it was moved to keep it safe. While looking at the winners list, we discovered that my piece name had been circled and "Jesus Loves You" had been written in beside it. It turns out that my piece was moved because someone found it offensive that I entered fantasy subjects in the Christmas Category. When I realized this, I was determined to make sure I would enter a fantasy piece this year. This produced the idea and finished work of Christmas Dreams which to my delight took 1st place this year. I'll have to start plotting and planning for next year now.... Dragon Dreams is working on a Santa's Dragon Design... and TW Designworks does have a gorgeous stocking as well. :)

The piece that I entered in the 19ct and up category was stitched in a round robin with grvlgal and will now go to live with Stacey Tippin (the designer) after it comes home from the fair. Stacey was thrilled that we had not only stitched the piece but that we were going to give it to her. She'll finally have one of her completed designs to put on her wall! Love you Stacey!

I'm really not dead

2006-09-22T20:13:00.000-04:00

We've been banned from internet usage at work so I've not had time to blog. I used to blog from work but that has now ended for a while. Once I get home, I'm just too tired and sick of the computer to sit down and type some more.

I have been busy. I've been organizing my craft room. Bought a dining room table so we have a place to sit and eat now if we want to. I've been cooking up a storm in preperation for all the people coming over to my place tomorrow. I'm excited about seeing everyone and showing the house off a little bit.

I entered 6 pieces into the North Georgia State Fair. I took 2 first place ribbons and 1 second place ribbon and had 3 pieces that didn't place. My fair revenge piece that took on the name "Christmas Dreams" took a 1st place ribbon. The other first place ribbon was from TW's Tropical Dream and the second place ribbon was from a joint effort with Valerie but the name of the piece will have to remain quite until after tomorrow so that we can surprise a mutual friend.

Job Hunting

2006-08-17T09:32:00.000-04:00

I hate job hunting. I hate change at work. I like to go in and do my job that I know well. I like feeling like I've accomplished something at the end of the day.

Yesterday was the final straw that has forced me back into job hunting. After setting up several policies that amounted to over 10000 in premium, I got told that I didn't do anything. Not in those words exactly but that was the meaning behind the statement. I feel I put in quite a bit of work. I even do things on the weekend that I don't get paid for cause I'm salary. I'm often working more than just 9-5 and resented the sentiment that I don't earn what I make.

Time to look for a new job. A job with benefits like retirement plans, maternity leave, health insurance, sick days, and a chance to work my way up in the company. The looking has begun.

Babies

2006-08-14T08:59:00.000-04:00

Dh and I sat down and talked last night and came to the conclusion that we both are ready for kids. I need to get another pap exam and a cat scan first to make sure my liver will handle the stress of pregnancy and those exams probably won't happen till feb or march of next year but we decided to start trying after that.

I went to bed feeling a little giddy. At 5 am, I woke up to a sound of what my sleep fogged brain thought was a baby crying. I dragged out of bed and wandered down the stairs to see what was making the noise. In the middle of the kitchen sat Mischief howling at the top of her lungs and making a cry that seriously sounded like mama. I checked all the cats and could not find a reason for this cry. She was fine. Everyone else was fine. I tried to rub and she ran away so I went back to bed. She proceeded to cry for another 10 minutes or so and then left me to sleep finally.

After going back to sleep, I dreamed that Mischief was sitting on the pillow talking to me. I guess that isn't a surprise since Dh and I were talking about kids and then she wakes me up crying like a baby... its like she knew what we were talking about and decided to give us a taste of the crying baby in the middle of the night. Crazy cat!

Round 2 Results

2006-08-11T08:48:00.000-04:00

Cat - 2
Sleep - 0

I'm gonna kill the cat

2006-08-09T15:31:00.000-04:00

Mischief has decided that I don't need to sleep. DH was very late getting home last night because he went to a Braves game with his co-workers. I tried to go to bed before he got home but Mischief sat and cried as loud as she could at the door so I got back up and stitched some more. After DH got home, I went to bed and the cat was silent.... until 6am when she started mrowling and yowling and scratching and nudging me and pawing at the curtains and making a general nuisance of herself.

This isn't the first time she's done this but she is starting to do it more often. I seriously thought about giving her a dunk in the bathtub this morning since I had less than 5 hours sleep cause of her. I even debated if getting up and dunking her enough to get wet so she'd go off and bath for several hours would wake me up too much to go to sleep.

Model Stitching Addiction

2006-08-07T08:57:00.000-04:00

When I first started model stitching, I wasn't sure I was gonna like it. I knew I would enjoy the paycheck. I thought it would be a good fit for me when I started because I do stitch rather quickly. I would be stitching in the evening anyway cause it relaxes me after work. I'm finishing things faster than I can afford to frame them. My walls are filling up and my list of people that I will give finished cross stitch pieces to is getting smaller.

The first pieces were published designs. I was able to look at the patterns and the finished pieces as I worked. I found that I work even faster when I have a deadline whether the deadline is set by me or the person wanting the finished piece. I had a little bit of trouble with letting the finished pieces go the first couple that I did but after that, everything thing seemed to smooth out. I was sad when my job stopped cause I missed doing the model stitching and I mourned the fact that another local store had closed.

I went a while without doing any model stitching and found that I missed it. I had talked to Stacey since she did some designing and asked if she knew anyone that needed a model stitcher. She told me she would ask Jo about it. I got impatient and emailed Jo when I hadn't heard anything and she was willing to give me a chance. As I was stitching the first model, I got to a part that I wondered about, went to look at the picture and then it dawned at me -- I am stitching the piece that is going to be the picture. WOW! Everyone is gonna look at what I stitched for reference. They are going to use the picture of this stitched piece to decide if they like the pattern. *GULP* I took even more care about my stitches looking even and the back looking good. I was extremely happy with the finished pieces. I looked at them and I felt pride that I had stitched it. This was new for me. Usually I'm just happy that it's done and I'm off to the next one.

I sent both model from Dinky Dyes back to her on Saturday. I didn't feel the loss of letting a stitched piece go but I did feel pride that I was able to do such a good job and get it done so quickly. I hope that Jo likes them. I have also started to wonder if I should contact a few more designers to see if they need a model stitcher since I had so much fun doing this and so much pride in the finished work.

I know there are people out there that don't believe my stitching speed. I even had someone tell me to my face that I couldn't stitch as fast I said at CATS Nashville last year but I don't really mind that. Jo now knows I stitch fast cause I did both models in 5 days. My friends in the GSFL know I stitch fast cause they see all the finished pieces that I get done in between meetings. I know how fast I stitch cause I can see the fruits of my labor on my walls every evening.

currently feeling: proud and happy

Working Away

2006-08-04T09:31:00.000-04:00

I'm working hard at work again. We've picked back up and gotten busy again. This makes the days goes quick and it's evening before I know it.

I finished my first model and I'm half way through the second. The models are keeping me busy in the evenings which makes the evenings go quick and it's bedtime or well past bedtime before I know it.

I'm trying to get a few surprises in the works for friends as well but I'm not having a lot of luck at it.

WooHoo

2006-08-02T11:06:00.000-04:00

I'm 20 queen stitches away from finishing my first model. Jo was so happy at how quickly I finished that she's sending me a second model that should get here Thursday or Friday. If nothing else, I have learned that it's a bit unnerving to be working on a pattern and stop to look at the pattern picture for reference only to remember that there is no picture and it's your piece that everyone is going to look at when they look at the pattern for reference. WOW! It's a little humbling too. It also makes me worry about making a mistake so I'm being extra extra careful which slowed down my stitching a bit so that the first model took 3 days instead of 2 but that's okay cause I know that I've stitched it as perfectly as I could.

Boss is back from Italy and should be coming in to the office either today or tomorrow so my rest time is over with now. :(

My dad called to let me know one of my uncles on his side passed away and they are having the funeral on Thursday. I felt kinda bad cause his death didn't mean anything to me. I hadn't seen or talked to the man since I was 12. I have vague memories of him and that's it. Does this make me a bad person?

I'm very tired today

2006-08-01T09:49:00.000-04:00

And it's all Stacey's fault. I got my first model in the mail yesterday. It was so pretty that I started stitching as soon as I got home. Before I knew it time had slipped away from me and it was after midnight and I was still stitching. I almost completely finished the model last night. I have about 3 hours to go on it and it will be all done. So pretty. Can't wait till Nashville so I can show everyone.

Do I really have to work today?

2006-07-31T08:40:00.000-04:00

I had such a wonderful weekend. I relaxed all day Saturday with the girls and had a lot of fun. I spent Sunday surrounded by cross stitch supplies in full organizing mode.

When the alarm went off this morning, I looked at my husband and said "Is it really Monday?" He grunted a yes and we proceeded to pry ourselves out of bed and get ready for another work week. I just doesn't feel like it should be Monday today. I'm sure I missed a weekend day in there somewhere. :)

temper control

2006-07-28T11:00:00.000-04:00

The control I have over my temper has been sorely strained this week. I try my best not to lose my temper and raise my voice but I found myself right on the verge of it several times this week.

I don't know if I'm developing a more volatile temper again or if I'm just being continually aggravated this week. It may be a combination of both.

When I was in my early teens, my temper would flare and the slightest provacation but as I got older it cooled down and it got to where it took a lot of aggravation to make me lose my temper. My mom told me it was a combination of age maturing me and my own realization that constantly losing my temper was not going to help me in life that probably turned my temper from an instant ignite to a slow burn.

You guys will have to pray with me that I can keep my temper at the slow burn stage cause it really isn't very pretty or nice when I do blow up out of anger.

still feeling quiet

2006-07-25T12:40:00.000-04:00

There just isn't a lot going on right now. I'm stitching. Listening to ebooks from the library. Working. Sleeping.

There is a stitching get together this weekend that I will have a blast at and I'm really looking forward to it. I got hired as a model stitcher for Dinky Dyes and I've got my first model on it's way to me. I really wish it would get here soon. I want to work on it now!

Today is the last day of work for 3 1/2 weeks for one of my coworkers who's going on a trip to Europe. Boss is in Italy until August 3rd. The office will be a lot quieter with the two loudest people gone for the rest of the week. It's been a really slow month here and there isn't much going on.

I lost my temper last week. Normally this is a bad thing. This time it was a good thing though cause it got me a very much needed day off and weekend away from home. Hopefully between this weekend and my weekend away, my batteries will recharge and I can relax again.

Quiet

2006-07-17T09:19:00.000-04:00

Not much going on here. I've been working and stitching on Cats. I'm almost half way done with Cats now which is a good thing. Not much else going on my life right now. Just going day by day.

One of the coworkers is leaving next week for a 3 week trip overseas. This means that there is no way for me to go to CATS Nashville unless I drive up Friday after work and only attend on Saturday and then drive back home. This isn't real appealing since I'd be on my own during the drive so I'll just wait for next year.

Lots of Good News

2006-07-10T15:54:00.000-04:00

I had a good week last week and just no time to blog. In the last week:

I paid off my Nissan. Yeah!

I ended up getting the bon jovi collection and I love it!

I saw Pirates 2 and had a blast even if we were in the theatre for 3 hours and needing a bathroom desperately by the end.

I finished the Fair Revenge Piece. Now I have to find the digital camera and actually hook up the printer so that I can post a picture. I can bring it to the gtg on the 29th though so that you guys can see it in person.

I just had an all around good week. Hopefully I'll have a little more free time this week.

Good Weekend

2006-07-03T09:18:00.000-04:00

I had a really good weekend that has recharged my batteries. I did a lot of running around for work stuff on Saturday morning but relaxed the afternoon away at a friends house stitching and watching movies. Saturday night I took Justin out to Joe's to celebrate the fact that we have paid off our car. Yeah!

Sunday, I spent the day stitching and visiting with a friend that had come over for a day away. I actually managed to finish the border on the fair revenge piece so I'm getting very close to being done on it.

Today I'm at work while DH is home. He's gonna do laundry today since I didn't get much of it done yesterday. I expect today to be very slow. It's probably gonna take forever for the day to be over but I will make it through.

I wish you all well

2006-06-29T08:38:00.000-04:00

I've been very distracted from work this week. I've been thinking of friends instead.

My life has finally settled down. The budget has worked itself back out. I've got some nice bonuses at work to help with that. The house is almost organized (if you leave out my craft room that I haven't touched yet). Work is peacefull and quiet for the most part.

The only bad part here is that now that my life has settled down, several friends are having difficulties instead. I feel for them. There are days when I want to just sit down and cry for them. This is odd for me. I hate crying and avoid it at all costs. I have found myself praying a lot lately for those around me. This is also odd for me. I've always thought of my friends and loved ones and wished them well but I'm not a big prayer. I believe in God. I know he's there. I just tend not to talk to him often and when I do talk to him it tends to be to ask for help for others.

The worst part about all this is that I can't help those around me very much with what they are going through. I have no way to make it better. I can't go to their jobs and tell coworkers to leave them be. I can't wave a magic wand and make illness go away. I can't slap sense into those who seem to have none and are hurting people I care about because of that. I can't make miles disappear so that I can be there to give a hug. I can't slow age from creeping up and taking people away. I can only offer a virtual hug, an ear that is always willing to listen, a house that is open to visits if needed and my friendship and love that I give freely.

There are many of you that I want to help now. Not all of you know each other. Not all of you read my blog. I just hope that you do all know that I care and that I'm here and will do whatever I can to help in any way that I can.

Thank you!

2006-06-26T16:49:00.000-04:00

I don't know who did it but there was a package on my doorstep on Saturday with 3 patterns from calico crossroads in it. I was pretty shocked cause I don't even remember telling anyone that I wanted them. DH says he didn't do it. I didn't do it. So thank you very much to whoever did do it.

I now need to make a trip to hobby lobby to see if they have the silk mori colors I need to stitch them! And who knows what else I'll look for while I'm there!

Not much going on here. I'm almost 1/3 of the way done with Cats from Mystic Stitch. I'm 4/9ths of the way done with the Fair Revenge piece. I really need to stop working on Cats and finish the Revenge piece but I have another month yet and I'm having so much fun on Cats.

Dh is scrambling and cleaning in the hopes of having company at the house for the first time. I wonder if I can con him in to hosting a gtg in July instead of waiting until August? hmmm... something to ponder unless Becky is still wanting to host in July.

what a week so far

2006-06-22T15:29:00.000-04:00

I've had so many odd and unusual requests at work that I've spent the week scratching my head and trying how to remember things I haven't done since I started 7 years ago. Thankfully I remembered how to do them. The boss asked us to write at least 2 car loans this month and we have accomplished that and wrote a couple of more to go with it so he's happy about that. I've had fun being a bank and writing car loans and BIG checks payable to dealers. Glad I don't actually have to write checks that big out of my account! I've even managed to do a CD this month. It's neat to watch people realize that we do those.

Not much else going on with me. I'm gonna spend the weekend in sweats sitting and stitching and relaxing. Maybe listen to harry potter on cd since I got it out of the library. I just like the voice of the man that reads them. I also like to listen to books while I stitch better than I like watching TV somedays cause I get distracted by attractive actors from time to time. :)

Stargate's new season doesn't start till July. I'm hoping that last season was just off and that this season will come back strong but I fear that the show has gone down hill with the exit of Richard Dean Anderson. I'm gonna have to try to watch for the fall preview issue of tv guide so that I can see what's coming and if there are any new shows that interest me for the next season.

shock, silence, relief

2006-06-20T16:25:00.000-04:00

The thing that I thought would never happen has happened. Work is much better now. The person causing the problems is no longer there. I'm now waiting for lawsuit papers but I'll deal with that if and when it comes.

Things have been much better this week. Work is quiet and peaceful. The only bad thing about this is that I've found I'm not stitching at home to relax cause I'm not tense anymore.

I also learned this weekend to really look at the expiration date on pills. I've been taking sleeping pills to help me sleep cause I've been so tense that my brain wouldn't shut down so that I could sleep. When I went in to refill the prescription, my health insurance company refused to cover the pills and I couldn't afford $125 for 1 month of them so I figured that I would try taking tylenol pm for a couple of nights to see if that would work.

Long story short. The tylenol pm were some that my husband had bought in college and were expired by about 10 years. My stomach killed me for two days but I'm better now and will always look at the expiration date from now on!

night out

2006-06-15T13:05:00.000-04:00

After spending almost 3 months in seclusion. I'm taking another night out. I went to the gtg last saturday and tonight I'm going to a Stitch In at a local needlework store (LNS). The LNS does this every third thursday of the month but I've been forgetting to go. Poor DH is getting abandoned again in favor of the girls but I don't think he minds too much since I came back from Saturday very mellow and relaxed. He likes when I'm that way.

I once again stitched too late last night. This are getting worse again at work. I have to make time to go see the boss and let him know that I can't do this. I can't function at work with someone in front of me sniping at the person behind me and the person behind me sniping at the person in front of me. I guess I should be glad they haven't turned to sniping at me yet but it's just a matter of time. I'm very tempted to go out and buy Bon Jovi's boxed set 100,000,000 bon jovi fans can't be wrong so that I can bring it into work and put on some ear buds that can easily be taken out when the phone rings. This would drown them out in a hurry. *evil grin* Unfortunately this week at work has undone all relaxation from Saturday so I'm hoping that the Stitch-In will help release some of the tension again.

I'm also thinking of asking for the 3rd of july off so that I can have a 4 day weekend to just get away from all of it. I'll never understand why they make you work on a Monday when you have Tuesday off. It seems silly. If you have off on Thursday, they don't make you come in on Friday so why do they torture us on Mondays?

stitching overload

2006-06-14T10:24:00.000-04:00

As those of you that were at the gtg saw, I have started a Mystic Stitch pattern called "Cats". It has 30 colors in it and it's got a little over 49,000 stitches in it. I have been stitching on it every spare moment for a while now. I'm about 25% of the way done with the total cross stitch but this only means that I've now managed to finish 2 colors that are so close in color that I can't tell the difference. That's what I've been doing in my evenings. I was so engrossed last night that when I looked up it was 11:30pm and I should have been in bed instead of stitching so I rushed through the dishes and went to bed. I'm having fun with this even if it is over one on 25ct. I'm excited about how good it should look when I'm done.

If I ever find the digital camera, I will upload pictures of the cross stitch and the house so I can post them. It's amazing how many things disappear when you move!

Sorry

2006-06-12T15:18:00.000-04:00

I didn't realize how long it had been since I came on and blogged. My life kinda exploded for a while.

Work has been really hectic this month so I haven't had time to blog at work which is where I do most of my blogging. Work is still tense. I don't think problem child is going to be fired so I'm dealing with that. The work load has picked up enough that it isn't really a problem cause I'm too busy to pay attention to her.

My brain doesn't know how to shut off so I'm having trouble sleeping. The doc has given me some sleeping pills that have effectively short circuited my memory so that I don't remember as well as I used to. This means that I forget to get on the computer at night and blog since I didn't have time to at work.

I've also been a little withdrawn lately just due to the stress of the new house and reorganizing the budget and getting the new chores that come with the house figured out and split up between DH and I.

I'm alive and still trying to kick. Just tired and busy which is a bad combo.

I went to a stitching gtg on Saturday which helped me reenergize a log more that I thought it would. I guess I need to make time for some more girl time with my friends if it perks me up that much.

I will try to be better and make time for blogging and actually remember to blog. It's a boring blog when all I have to say is went to work, went home, cooked supper, ate supper, went to bed.

busy busy

2006-05-11T14:59:00.000-04:00

Work has picked up a little. We've been having more meetings which drive me crazy cause I'd rather be doing other work than sitting in meetings.

The ren fair helped to pull me out of my slump for a while but I'm beginning to the only way to stay out of the slump is to find a new job where I stay busier so I can ignore coworkers.

My stitching is going well. I've broken down and started stitching on 2 other pieces to break up the Christmas Dream piece. I didn't do it cause I was bored with Christmas Dreams. I did it cause I finally couldn't resist starting them. I started Cats from Mystic Stitch and Two Loves of Arthur from Heavan and Earth Designs. The artwork on Two Loves was done by our own Prinn. I'm sure they are both going to be lovely. I'm curious how much I'll be able to do on them without a break since they are over 1 on 25 count. I've got Christmas Dreams and Guardians from TW going too and they are over 2 on 28ct so they should break up the small stuff. I've been around you guys too long and I've started having more than one project at a time going instead of stitching it till I'm done. Maybe that's why I've only finished one thing this year *big grin*

Hope everyone is doing well and I'm sorry for not communicating with anyone except for an occassional post in blog remarks.

Ren Fair Fun

2006-05-08T15:02:00.000-04:00

The ren fair this weekend definately lifted my mood by leaps and bounds. I had a lot of fun running around with everyone. I loved when DH was called up on stage with Hack and Slash. Erin took some pics and put them on her webshots album. I must remember to download those when I get home so I can put them on my webshots album for people too. I got to see more of Valerie performing and I must say that she stays on her toes and handles clingy admirers well. The shakespeare parady was good but I must say that you need to at least be familiar with shakespear to get some of the jokes. The magician was good too. I hadn't seen him in prior years.

I felt so rejuvinated after Saturday that I pulled out my State Fair Revenge piece that I think I'm gonna rename "Christmas Dreams". I managed to completely finish "Snowfight Blue" on it and get a good way into "Christmas Guardian". The "I Believe" and "Merry Christmas" squares were already done as were 6 of the 9 border boxes. I'm almost halfway done now. YEAH.

I then got snagged by Prinn's wonderful prints at www.staceytippin.com I have no idea how she does such beautiful work. She's so good with faces that it just amazes me. I ended up with 3 prints to take home. Two of the prints, I already have the cross stitch patterns for from Heaven and Earth Designs. I've planned to stitch them on 25ct material anyway so that they would be smaller so I'm now invisioning framing the stitched piece with the print using a dark suade or velvet matt to seperate them in the frame. I think it will look gorgeous! I just have to find the time to stitch those wonderfully detailed pieces on the itty bitty fabric count!

My stitching bug is definately back though cause even as I sit at work, I'm thinking about going home and stitching. This is a good sign. Maybe I can actually get a few things done before I try to host another gtg so that I have something for show and tell other than all the framed pieces hanging all over the house which some of you haven't seen.

Work is still tense and I guess it's gonna stay tense for a while yet but I'm learning to ignore most of it. I talk less at work because of this and everyone keeps asking me what's wrong.

I'm still settling into the house. It's amazing how long this is taking. I actually found myself sitting there wondering if I was gonna pee myself before DH got out of the bathroom. It took me a full 5 minutes to realize we have 3 bathrooms now instead of 1! D'OH! It seems like we have so much more laundry now. We're always doing a load of laundry! I don't know where it's all coming from but I've had enough of it. The cats seem to be doing there part to make me clean more as well as they have stepped up their usage of the litter boxes so that we have to change them every week now instead of every other week. They are also making an effort to spray as much litter out of the box as they can. I sometimes wonder if they enjoy the sound of the vaccuum cleaner even though they run from it.

I'm hoping to have a gtg and/or housewarming in July or August so that all my friends can come see the house and have fun with me and DH. For the housewarming I'm gonna try to have some board games or card games to play too if we want to. The gtg would be more stitching and visiting unless the stitchers want to play games too and that would be cool!

blue

2006-05-03T13:32:00.000-04:00

I wonder what it is about this time of year that makes me feel the way I do. I'm not sad really but that's the closest that I can come to how I feel. I don't want to sit down and cry or anything like that.

Work has been extra tense and that may be part of the problem. I seem to always be tired anymore no matter what I do. The doc even gave me some new sleeping pills and they help me sleep straight through the night but I'm still tired. He gave me some allegra too but my alergies still bother me. I feel like I'm not doing anything or getting anywhere. I'm probably feel that way cause I'm not getting anything done cause all I want to do is sit and veg so that's mostly what I'm doing.

I know I'm quiet here and at work. My coworkers complained today that I was too quiet. I'm even quiet at home. I just don't have the internal motivation I need to stick to a conversation let alone anything else lately.

Hope this goes away soon. Maybe the trip to the ren fair this weekend will jar me out of this.

Sorry to take so long

2006-04-24T12:12:00.000-04:00

I'm sorry that I've kinda dropped off of here. I've felt very quiet lately. DH has even commented that I'm talking as much. I've been feeling a little down and a lot reflective.

I have started stitching again and I'm working away on a Christmas piece for the fair in August. I have to get my stitching stand fixed so that I can speed my stitching time back up. I can't believe it's almost May and I've only finished 1 piece so far this year. That's really behind for me. I usually average at least one piece a month.

I'm still unpacking. This is taking forever cause I'm not doing a lot of it now that the things we need are done. Life keeps getting in the way. We did get all the Christmas stuff up into the attic so that it's out of the way. My cloths are completely unpacked and I've been after DH to finish his. He hasn't finished unloading the computer stuff yet either so I'm without a printer at home. We haven't managed to hook up the TV in the bedroom yet either which may be a blessing.

The cats are spending most of their time away from us in the last two weeks. I think they just figured out that they don't have to be in the same room as we are. They are just now starting to really enjoy the freedom of the new house I think.

I feel so tired and run down lately. No matter how much I sleep or rest, I'm still tired. I feel okay for the most part other than that. I just don't feel like doing anything that requires any real physical movement. I don't want to unpack. I don't want to clean. I don't want to work in the yard. I don't want to cook. I'm in the mood where I would be perfectly happy to just stay at home and read and nap all day for quite some time but life doesn't allow me to do that so I'm here at work hoping that the day will move quickly so I can go home and sit on my couch and not do anything.

slow days

2006-04-11T11:09:00.000-04:00

It's been really slow. We got out in the yard on Sunday and mowed the lawn. This taught me just how out of shape I am. You guys haven't seen my yard yet but it's not that big. I had to take 3 brakes and let DH mow the back cause I was too tired. This is pathetic. It's time to get the excersize tapes out. Bless you guys for not telling me that I'm getting fat and lumpy!

My mom and dad are leaving on the 20th to move to Texas. My dad has taken a job as a rock quarry forman. This baffles me. He's been fixing cars for 40 years and he suddenly decides to make a career change and move halfway across the US as the age of 59. What really baffles me is he went from wanting to buy a house here so he could be close to us when we start having kids and being closer to my brother and his son to moving very far away where I will not be able to come visit for several years at least. This is one of those HUH moments that he is so fond of giving me. The good part of all this is that mom is gonna stop working which she needs to do since she keeps reinjuring her back and hip from lifting things that she has no business lifting as a 55 year old woman that has had major intestinal surgery in the last 5 years.

I sent in my entry to the TWBB trivia contest and I'm curious to know if I got them right or not but I'll find out on Saturday. I'll be heading to the Georgia Ren Fair on Sunday the 16th with DH, Mom, and mom's friend Chester for opening weekend. I know mom loves to go and she'll have a lot of fun since DH and I will be in costume and her friend is going for the first time so she can show him everything. It'll be really nice to spend the day with her too since she'll be moving next week.

The house is slowly getting into shape but we got the bad news on Sunday that our hot water heater is going bad so we need to get that fixed up. It shouldn't be too bad. I'm still waiting on my deposit to be refunded from the apartment complex and that amount will cover the cost of the new water heater.

That's about it here. Problem child is still in the office cause the boss is afraid of a lawsuit which just kills me. I think she'll sue no matter how good of a case he has for firing her but what do I know. If she's still here the end of this month, I've decided that I'm putting my resume out and forget the office loyalty cause I've had enough bull. Wish me luck.

Apparently I'm Childish

2006-04-07T08:36:00.000-04:00

Problem Child in the office ran out of ink in her printer 2 days ago. She never told anyone, she just kept trying to print pages that of course did not print out correctly. I saw what the problem was but I kept my mouth shut. I later was called childish for not saying anything and finding it funny that she didn't realize she was out of ink even though the printer was flashing the orange you are out of ink symbol at her.

I tried to defend myself. Last time I tried to "help" her before she asked for help, I got questioned about why I was watching what she was doing. If I ask her if she needs help, I get snapped at with a why do you want to know or what do mean.

I guess this is kind of a no win situation. If I sit back and laugh, I'm childish. If I but in and help before I'm asked to by her, I'm called nosy and racist. I think I'd rather be childish. How about you?

Slow Days

2006-04-05T11:13:00.000-04:00

The last few days have dragged by for me. I'm feeling much better. The stitches in my mouth are a bit annoying but I'm doing my best to ignore them.

Spent some time with brother, SIL, nephew, mom and dad last night. They came over when we got off of work and talked for a while, then we went out to dinner and then back to the house for a little more visiting. It was a very late night for me and I'm dragging a little today but I did enjoy the visit.

I've almost finished the kitchen. I'll be so glad to get that done. I love having my kitchen organized. I've been slowly washing everything. I didn't think this was going to be necessary since I had packed it but a lot of gunk got into the boxes so everything had to be washed before we used it. I've been doing 3 dishwasher loads a day for a while now and we've just about got the stuff we use all the time washed so we can start eating at home again. The stuff we use very rarely will still be getting washed but there isn't such a rush on it.

Dh was up on the roof fixing the gutter covers last night while I was inside working on my kitchen. It's kinda wierd to go home to a chore every night instead of sitting on the couch stitching. I miss the stitching. I like the activity though so I'm gonna have to find a balance between the two.

Work has been tense. The problem child is out of the office today and that is good. Unfortunately, all of the people that she has messed something up on are calling today and that's putting the boss in a really bad mood. This in turn makes the office tense again anyway. This sucks. I really need to start looking for a new job if my life will settle down long enough for me to do so.

stupid teeth

2006-04-03T11:22:00.000-04:00

My weekend plans were ruined due to my teeth. On Saturday night, I finally admitted to myself that something serious had to be wrong because the pain in my mouth was growing worse instead of better and even the good pain killers weren't killing all the pain anymore.

We took another trip to the emergency dentist on Sunday morning and they found an abseced (I can't spell) tooth. They gave me a choice of a root canal or pulling the tooth. After discussing cost, the likley hood of the root canal working, the space they had to work with since I have a small mouth (feel free to put snarky comment here) and it was a tooth all the way in the back, we decided it would be better to pull it. Five minutes later I was minus a tooth and all that pain. Today my jaw is a little sore where the tooth is missing but it isn't bad. I don't even need advil to deal with it which is an incredible improvement. Who knew that one little tooth could cause so many problems.

I really do need to get the yardwork at some point. The grass is getting tall and the people probably think we are slobs from the look of our yard right now. I thought about doing it tonight but we were blessed with thunderstorms today so that ruined that thought. Hopefully I'll get to it this week.

My little brother is driving in today to surprise my mom with a visit. SIL and little Alec will be coming with him. I know mom will really enjoy this. Too bad she has to work until 8pm tonight. We'll probably get roped into dinner tonight but that's okay. It'll be nice to see my nephew.

Feeling better now

2006-03-31T09:19:00.000-05:00

I had my yearly check up on Thursday. Everything looked good. I got the last of my Hepatitus vaccinations so now I'm immune to type A & B. Yeah! The doc gave me some really good pain killers too so that's helping my mouth out a lot.

I splurged on an electric toothbrush last night cause the dentist said that if I didn't brush well enough then my gums might continue to get reinfected and I would end up in pain like this often. I don't like this pain so I splurged. I love the toothbrush! My teeth feel so good after I brush with it and it cuts down a lot on the gum bleeding too. My teeth also look much whiter which tells me that I really wasn't brushing well before but I'll be doing better from now on.

Work is still really tense and I think that once I have my teeth healed and my face isn't so broken out, I'm gonna start trying to interview for a new job. I'm tired of being tense and anxious all the time.

On the house front, I'm starting to get the utility bills for the first month in the house and they are about 1/3 of what we were paying in the apartment so that makes me very happy.

LB, the black stray that took in a few months back, is spending his first day out in the general population today. I've been leaving him out at night the last couple of nights cause I've been sleeping on the couch and Dh is upstairs so we've been able to keep a closer eye on them. I actually caught Mischief bathing LB this morning so I think they are going to be okay. I will admit to wanting to keep LB. He's the only one that will sit in my lap and let me rub him for hours if I want to. It's very nice to have that when I'm not feeling well.

Hope everyone is doing okay. Thank you to those of you who have sent sympathy cards. We appreciate it. Thank you Anne and Steen for showing at the funeral. That was a welcome surprise and it made the day much better. Dh is doing well. FIL died of a Heart attack for sure according to the coroner. I'll be sending DH to the doc to get his cholesterol and triglycerides checked again.

Wish me luck this weekend. I'll be buying some yard stuff and actually working in my yard. This will be a first for me and I can hardly wait!

Back home

2006-03-29T10:25:00.000-05:00

We've made it back safe and sound. While going through all the paperwork, I did find a small life policy that was enough to pay for the funeral and pay off the house and car debts so MIL is going to allowed to keep her house. Why she wants to keep the house, I will never know. The house is in ruins. It needs to be completely torn down. I don't know how they are living in it. I spent over an hour in the shower when we got home scrubbing like crazy cause I felt so diry after staying in the house for the time that I did. Those of you that know me, know that I'm not a clean freak but after being in that house, I will be much cleaner from now on. *shudder*

My mouth started hurting on the plane Monday. By the time tuesday morning came around, I was in misery. I went to the Emergency dentist to find out that I had an infection in my gum and they gave me some rinse to help clear it up and some pain killers to deal with the pain. The stuff they gave me didn't even touch the pain so I broke out the left over oxycotton from my surgery. Even that didn't kill all of the pain. I'm at work today but my mouth is still hurting really bad. The pain killers have made me drowsy and nauseous but they haven't killed all the pain which just stinks!

The check engine light also came on in the Nissan Monday so the car took a trip to the shop to find that the temp gauge was going bad. Office manager then called to make sure I was coming in today cause she's had a death in the family and needed to go to the viewing on Wednesday night.

This has definately been one of the worst months in recent history. I'm ready for this week to be over so I can catch up on some sleep and rest.

Today is gonna suck.

2006-03-23T09:23:00.000-05:00

I'm sitting here at work. One of the big office guys just came in. We're having another "meeting" about the work situation. This time it's one on one meetings with him to discuss our feelings and concerns. This "meeting" is why I'm not on Marta right now with DH. I was told I had to be here for this meeting instead of traveling with my husband to console him and keep him company and help with the funeral arrangements. I'm beginning to think I need a new job whether they get rid of the problem child or not. I'm worried about Justin. He had this blank look on his face this morning. I don't think that it's really sunk in that he's lost his dad yet and I hate not being there when he sees the body the first time cause I know that's when it's gonna hit him and I know he won't be comfortable showing it in front of his mom since she's going through a lot too.

Dh says they are going to gather all the insurance and pension and mortgage paperwork together and let me go through it when I get there since I'm not as emotional and I have a little more experience with this stuff since I helped Gram when Pap died and I've helped mom and dad keep their finances together and I even set up a budget plan for my brother. MIL sound like a wreck. She actually thanked me last night for letting Justin come up there so quickly and for coming myself as soon as I could. This hit me odd. She doesn't ever thank me so I know she's having a rough time plus Justin going up there was a necessity as far as I was concerned since it was his dad. Me going up is also necessary as far as I'm concerned cause I'm not gonna make DH face all this alone.

MIL may end up selling her home because they are behind on the mortgage and FIL was the major money earner. From the sounds of it, he didn't have any life insurance either so I have no idea how we are going to pay for a funeral cause I know MIL doesn't have the money and I know we can't come up with it this quickly.

I'm nervous about DH flying on his own. He doesn't like planes. I thought he was gonna have a stroke when we flew up to PA for Kirabug's wedding and the return trip was worse for him. I'm really nervous about flying on my own tomorrow. I'm an even worse flyer than DH since I'm also afraid of heights. *shudder* Maybe I can sleep on the plane. It's only a 2 hour flight but it leaves atlanta at 8pm tomorrow. It's delta flight number 1676. We'll be returning on Monday on delta flight 1249. This way if there is a plane crash this weekend you guys will know if it's us or not *sarcastic grin here*

bad news

2006-03-22T12:07:00.000-05:00

I'm gonna be out of contact for a little while. MIL called us at 6:00am this morning to tell us that FIL had died of a heart attack while he was out walking the dog this morning. DH is flying up to Philly tomorrow to help with the arrangements. I'll be flying up Friday after work to be with him and help. I'll be coming back to Atlanta Monday afternoon but I don't know when DH is coming back. If the funeral is this weekend, then he'll come back with me on Monday but if it isn't, he'll be staying till the funeral occurs.

Things around the house are in a bit of chaos as we try to find the money to make this flight since we just sunk all the money into the house but I think that we'll manage it. I'll have to find time to buy a black dress to wear to the funeral cause I don't own one. Dh is getting his suit dry cleaned. He's off work today too getting everything ready so he can fly out tomorrow. We're trying to get him on the 11:40 flight which puts him getting in to philly around 2pm. He's called his friend Michael to see if he can pick him up at the airport since MIL and BIL don't know how to drive. If Michael can't pick him up, DH is gonna take the train as close to MIL's house as possible and then take a cab or walk to the house.

I wish we were going up there for different reasons. I'm very glad that we went up in August and spent some time with the in-laws even though I complained about it then. I'm kinda in shock. I really thought my dad would be the first of our parents to go. FIL wasn't sick. He didn't have a history of heart problems. He was a little overweight and he did smoke but he wasn't in bad shape so this is very sudden and unexpected. I told DH that he was going to learn to like salads and start excercising more cause there was no way on earth I was gonna have him kill over on me in 25 years like that. I think I'll take my own advise and to the same as well. I need to get away from the fast food and soda anyway.

I'm kinda of rambling and I'm sorry guys. I'm still in shock and a little swamped trying to make arrangements to get from here to there and back again. I'll try to blog when I get back.

I'm an aunt!

2006-03-17T16:36:00.000-05:00

My litter brother called yesterday. His son, Alec Michael, was born yesterday and weighed in at 7lbs2oz. I'm very happy for him and I know he was very excited.

I also found out recently that one of my best friends from college just adopted a baby. She had been on the waiting list for a while and she now has a beautiful daughter.

I have to admit that seeing all these babies has me back in the wanting a baby mood but I can't afford to do that right now and won't be trying until after July at the earliest. I even made a doctor's appointment so I can get my prescription refilled.

The apartment complex called today to tell me that they were returning my entire deposit of $250. I said great and hung up. I then started thinking and looked back through my records to discover I only put down a deposit of $200. The apartment called back just as I discovered this to say that they were charging me $30 buck to transfer the water service back into their name from mine and $20 because they lost the keys. I protested the lost keys and actually told them where the girl had put them so they found them. I protested the water fee and they were being stubborn so I decided not to tell them that they were giving me $50 too much on my deposit to begin with! I'm so glad to be out of there!

apartment is clean

2006-03-15T09:02:00.000-05:00

I'm going to go turn in the keys tonight. I'm so glad that chore is finally done.

I went to the doctor and they don't think my wrist is broken but the tendons are pulled in it and very painful. They told me to keep wearing the brace for a week or two and if it didn't get better, to come back. This was mostly good news for me. I hate the brace but it helps with the pain.

I'm heading to the laundry mat tonight after work so I can get some clean cloths. I have a lot to do and I know it won't wait for the new washer to be delivered so to laundry we go. At least I can get 4 or 5 loads done in about 3 hours instead of it taking all day.

I'm still very tired but I'm finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Most of the hard work is done now and it just a matter of unpacking a few boxes a night till it's all put away.

tired now.

2006-03-13T08:34:00.000-05:00

We're in the house. We are still going over to the apartment and cleaning and packing stuff that we didn't get packed before the movers got there on Saturday. It took them 5 hours to load and unload everything.

Mischief is having a blast exploring and climbing all over boxes. Smokey is still a little leary of all the new noises. Spike is completely terrified and will only come out when Justin is present and will rub him and even then he'll hide if I make a loud noise like opening a box or moving a pan.

Dh and I are exhausted cause we of course couldn't just let the movers do all the work. We pitched in and helped to thinking that it would get done faster and save us $120 bucks which it probably did.

Our washer has died so I need to go replace it. The motor burnt up and I'm not savvy enough to replace the motor so this weekend we have to go buy a new washer.

I haven't picked up a needle since last Thursday and probably won't for the rest of this week cause I'm too busy unpacking and cleaning to actually cross stitch.

I've got a brace on my left wrist and I'm hoping that I haven't broken it again. It's been fractured twice. I don't remember hitting anything this time but it is entirely possible that the weight of the boxes and the constant use have caused a stress fracture. I put the brace on from the last time that I fractured it and I'm using it cause I just don't have time to go to the doctor right now. I will try to get it looked at this weekend if it's still hurting this bad by then.

My days this week pretty much consist of getting up at 6am. Out the door and into traffic by 7:30am. Work from 9am - 5pm. Drive to the apartment, clean, box, load. Drive home, unload, shower, try to eat something drop into bed around 11pm. Then it starts all over again. Even though I'm getting about 7 hours of sleep every night, I still feel like I haven't slept at all every morning. I guess the sounds of the new house are bugging me too. It doesn't help that we've seen evidence of mice so every time I hear a scratch, I expect a mouse to come out and it's usually the cats trying to get into a box.

Blogging will be a little sparse this week as the schedule that I showed above leaves no time for blogging. I have to turn in the keys to the apartment on Thursday though so this weekend should be much easier and I am definately taking the time to go to the shop and lunch and Nease's this weekend. I'll blog again when I can.

packing packing packing

2006-03-06T11:43:00.000-05:00

We spent all day Sunday packing. I was very surprised to find that we had 17 boxes of books and 6 boxes of movies. I didn't realize we had accumulated that much of those items. I'm almost afraid to see how many boxes my craft stash are going to take to pack up. I'll be glad when the move is over. I don't mind packing. It's the manuevering around the boxes that's killing me. We're also being given the evil eye from Mischief and Smokey who have been through this before. Spike is just confused and a little scared.

We are Homeowners!

2006-03-03T12:15:00.000-05:00

Now I'm excited. The closing is done. We officially own the house. I have a key. All the contractors are scheduled for Monday. I'll be making a trip to the house on Sunday for my first official time in the house as the owner so I can take measurements and look at curtains. I also get to seriously start the packing effort for when the movers show up on the 11th.

We took Mischief to the vet yesterday evening too cause she is very testy and attacking with little or no reason. The vet said that she did have a fever and seemed to be very stressed but she couldn't really see any reason that would cause the behavior changed. I mentioned that we had caught her peeing on the floor once so they ran a test for a Urinary infection. There wasn't an infection but they did find crystals and the vet said that would be what was doing it cause that would cause her pain. She's now on antibiotics for the slight cold and special food for the crystals and she can't have any of her favorite treats anymore or any people food either. The vet said with the special food and the reduction of stress after we move, she should improve. We closed her in the bedroom with us last night and she was just as happy as could be about it. I think the boys were just aggravating her too much when she didn't feel well.

We're in the Home Stretch now

2006-02-28T12:13:00.000-05:00

Well. It looks like we might actually close on Thursday as planned. We had some tense moments this week. I actually told the real estate agent to stuff the house at one point because of money issues. The final figures they gave me this week showed me getting back 500 of the money I had put in when I was supposed to get back all of the money I put in because the seller is paying everything. This means I was missing $600 and I hit the roof. It took 2 hours and several explinations before I calmed down. They also had to rework the figures and correct several errors.

I almost had another problem this morning but it was avoided because of the wonderful advice from Valerie. When I asked the mortgage company if they needed a letter from my apartment complex and they told me no. Valerie cautioned me to get it anyway. The mortgage company called today to tell me they needed it by 3pm today or I wouldn't be able to close on Thursday. Thankfully, I had gotten this letter already and had it on me. I bow at the feet of Valerie for saving me that headache.

We have all of the contractors scheduled to come out next week so that all the repairs will be done before we move in on the 11th. I can't wait till Thursday is over and some of these aggravations go away.

I think even the cats are starting to feel the stress. Mischief woke us up this morning. An hour before I was supposed to get up we heard this aweful noise. We sprang out of bed to see what was going on cause it sounded like a cat war was going on. We found Mischief backed into a corner under the desk hissing and growling and curled into a ball but there was no one near her. We have no idea why she was freaking out. Once we got her calmed down, we noticed that there was a piece of foam about 3 inches long stuck in her front paw. I don't know if she was mad cause the foam was stuck or if she had been fighting with one of the others and they had given up by the time we got out there or if she just spazed for no reason. I know it took almost an hour to calm her down though. The boys were of course nervous as all get out too cause they were panicked that Mischief was about to kill them.

Nashville Buying Spree

2006-02-22T09:33:00.000-05:00

I hesitated to post this cause I spent a lot of money cause it was my b'day and I had gotten money from a couple of different people so I splurged big time.

Patterns:
Pear Dragon from Generations Cross Stitch
Golden Tomato Dragon from Generations Cross Stitch
The Time I Spend Stitching from Dragon Dreams
Messy but Mine from Dragon Dreams
Child of Mind from Dragon Dreams
Greatest Gift from X's & Oh's
Be Wise from X's & Oh's
Love Yourself from X's and Oh's
Christmas Guardian from Black Swan
Proof from Dragon Dreams
Taste of Winter from Brenda Franklin Designs
Snow Fight Red from Cross Eyed Kat
Snow Fight Blue from Cross Eyed Kat
Holly Jolly Christmas from X's and Oh's
Coffee Dragon from X's and Oh's
Dragonal Seasons from Fanta Cat Designs
Milk Dragon from X's and Oh's
Tea Dragon from X's and Oh's

Fibers:
#4 Kreinik Braid Natural assortment
#4 Kreinik Braid Dance assortment
#4 Kreinik Braid Gemstone assortment
Dinky Dyes Silks - fantasy blues, christmas pines, wild cherry, daydream, rain forest
GAST - freedom, grape leaf, briar rose, dark chocolate

Fabric
Fat 1/4 of 28ct jewel crystal lugana from picture this plus
Fat 1/4 of 28ct phoenix crystal lugana from picture this plus

I also signed up for the keychain club again.
whew!
Both my wallet and my fingers are now smoking! I had fun though and this is the last of the stash I will buy for quite some time so it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

almost there

2006-02-21T11:58:00.000-05:00

I have all the stuff done to get ready for the closing. We came to an agreement on the repairs. We are adjusting the purchase price a little bit to help pay for all the repairs and get everything done. The closing is set for March 2nd at 3pm. The mortgage papers are all signed. The appraisal has been done and looks great. The insurance is set up and faxed where it needs to be. We are meeting with the repair people on 2/24th to see exactly what the repairs are gonna cost. I think the headache part is done. I hope. I pray.

I rang in my b'day with the flu. I stayed home sick on Monday but I dragged myself in today cause I can't miss work when I will be spending all that money at closing next week.
My family didn't call till late on Sunday to wish me happy b'day. I was beginning to think they had all forgotten.

Not much going on here other than being ill and trying to start the packing process. The movers will be at my house on 3/11 at 10am to move everything. I feel like I'm in limbo a little waiting for things to happen now.

Updates

2006-02-14T15:20:00.000-05:00

House: We've submitted the laundry list of things that we would like repaired and are waiting for a response.

Dentist: My mouth is still in a lot of pain. The tooth that I was complaining about hurting actually hurts worse now and the dentist didn't give me any pain killer at all. I've come to the conclusion that it's time to find a new dentist and not go back to the one that hurts me.

Stray Cats: LB has been taken into the house cause we found him limping. He is now fixed and all caught up with his shots but needs to find a new home since he has become so possessive of me that even attacks my hair thinking that it's another cat getting close to me. BB is still outside and being fed and we are pretty sure that she is pregnant. We are trying to find a shelter that will come and take her and find homes for her and her kittens. Gimp has reappeared after quite a while missing which surprised me. He still won't let us anywhere near him though no matter what kind of food we are holding. His reappearance ironically enough happened when we think BB was in heat.

I get to turn 30 on Saturday the 19th which is fast approaching.

I've been at my new job 9 months now so I guess I should quit calling it my new job.

I've started Mermaid of the Pearls and I am already half way done with her after 2 weeks. She's a lot of fun to stitch. I'm not making any progress on Guardian though. For some reason I just can't work up any gumption on it since learning that the book has been postponed.

I'm looking forward to the S&B at Nease's on Thursday since last weekend was Nashville market. I want to see what she got but may not be able to if she doesn't have it priced yet which she probably won't.

SIL is due in March and they are starting to think that it might be twins but aren't sure yet.

I think that catches everything up. There is just too much going on right now.

so much for being a slug

2006-02-13T09:13:00.000-05:00

The inspector found quite a bit wrong with the house including rotted siding all over the place. The roof is going to cost double what we were expecting cause there was damage to it even though it looked fine before he started poking it. There are electric and plumbing issues that are not up to code. I seriously doubt that the woman will want to fix all of this stuff or that it can be fixed before 3/2 when we were supposed to close so that means that we will probably be postponing the closing or letting the deal fall through. It's all a matter of how she responds to the list of repairs that we are requesting.

Saturday started off in good slug fashion. Then I got hungry so I decided to cook which of course led to having to do dishes. The dishwasher spewed water onto the kitchen floor because the door apparently didn't seal properly when I closed it. I cleaned up that mess and treated myself to homemade chocolate lava cake. Yum. LB (the stray cat) flat out attached Mischief with intent to do serious harm. I now have to find something to do with him soon cause I'm not sleeping with him in the bedroom and our 3 yahoos crying outside the bedroom cause they can't get in.

Sunday, we broke down and went out for a little shopping. I got to be completely embarrassed when one of my dad's drinking buddies came up to me and started a conversation while I was looking at lingere. *shudder* We also went out to lunch and got some books. I then spend the rest of the day doing laundry. Then I woke up this morning the LB biting and pulling my hair. *ouch* I really need to find something to do with him. I can't have him biting me for no reason and trying to pull my hair out at night.

Now I'm back at work in a very tense atmosphere.

I give up.

2006-02-09T10:32:00.000-05:00

I don't know what I did, but I apparently did something really bad and I am now being punished for it.

We signed a contract on the house. I thought I would be happy. This has only caused me more problems that it's worth. The inspector we hired canceled on us twice in a row which forced us to find another inspector at the last minute. The woman in the house took offense to the fact that we had roofers coming out during the inspection times even though we had told her we were going to do it. I'm so frustrated with people not telling me everything that I'm about ready to tell them where to stuff the house and the loan.

I went to the dentist this morning to have 2 cavities filled. The dentist cut my lip open. When this happened, I naturally jerked cause it hurt and she got my gum with the stupid drill. My mouth got split open more than cut open I guess cause she tried to open my mouth and lips wider than they would go and my lip split open where the drill cord was resting against it and causing more pressure.

I've had enough. Work is almost intolerable. I'm to the point where I feel physically ill every morning when getting ready for work. If it weren't for the fact that I would lose my loan if I changed jobs right now, I would have already quit. I can't quit yet so I know I have to deal with this until after the closing and the loan is secured. I have started putting out feelers for a new job though cause I just can't do this. I know it's letting her win and I hate that but I can't spend 8 hours of every day miserable and stay healthy.

I'm going to hide all weekend. I'm going to be a slug. I'm going to sit on my couch and stitch and eat junk food that is aweful for me. I'm going to stay in my sweats and be comfortable. I'm not going to cook. I'm not going to clean. I'm not going to do anything that even resembles work. Hopefully after a weekend of doing these things I will feel able to start a new week of misery.

I know this is a negative post and I apoligize. I've been avoiding posting cause I knew it would be negative. Someone please tell me that my life will settle back down after we have closed and moved in!

Life has exploded

2006-01-26T12:28:00.000-05:00

The coworker that is complaining (whom I will now refer to as the witch) did return to work on the 18th acting as if nothing was wrong. I had class from 9-3 on our new auto system so I missed most of that first day and only arrived in the afternoon to deal with her for 2 hours.

The 19th was pretty uneventful. The witch was in training all day and didn't return afterward which didn't hurt my feelings.

The 20th the boss and office manager were in training and the other girl called off so I was left alone all day in the office with the witch. It was a very bad day.

Saturday the 21st was wonderful! I had a great day with all of my stitching friends. We talked, we ate, we played with the animals! So much fun. I didn't get home till around 3am on Sunday morning but it was all worth it!

Sunday I slept in until after noon which is very unusual for me but I had a late night so no problem. We were supposed to go out and look at houses on sunday but we ended up not going cause neither Dh or I felt like it. I think we both had a touch of a cold starting.

Dh woke me up at 2:30am on monday morning to tell me that the hot water heater was gushing water. He turned off the water and the gas going into the hot water heater and we began the futile attempt to call the apartment office to let them know. I called off work and DH went in to work since he could shower in the gym before starting work. We finally got hold of the office at 9am and they said they would send someone right out since it was an emergency situation. I doubted that it would be quick but they surprised me by showing up at 9:30am. They attached the drain hose to the water heater and turned the valve to drain only to have the valve fall off and water again started gushing out of the water heater. I plugged the hole with a plastic back and grabbed my roaster so they could slowly pull the bag out, fill the roaster, put the bag back in and empty the roaster down the sink. It took them about 30 minutes to finish draining the water heater this way. They then detached it and tryed to pull it out of the closet that it was in only to discover that they couldn't get it past the air conditioner and out of the closet. They then cut a big hole in the wall and removed the water heater through that and put the new one in and hooked it up. It's now 1pm by this time. Then the carpet people came in and sucked up all the water and fixed our carpet. Then the dry wall people came in and fixed the whole in the wall. It's now 3:30pm. After he fixed the wall, he told me that they would come in on Tuesday and paint it. Okay.

Tuesday we locked up the cats so they could come in and paint only to come home and find that they hadn't painted. Tuesday we also had the whole office meeting to address the witch's complaints. The meeting started at 1:30 and lasted until a little after 4pm. The witch said a lot of horrible things about me and targeted me the most. She flat out lied about things that I had said and things that she had said. I was in shock because I was told that all of the things she complained about didn't really involve anything that I had done but she came up with a whole lot of crap about me anyway. She started off the meeting saying that she didn't feel our home lives, past experiences, news, or politics should be talked about in the work place. I respondeded with "then what are we supposed to talk about?". After that I got attacked with a slew of verbal garbage! The other girls backed me up. The meeting ended with one girl saying that she would do her best to not yell or lose her temper anymore, the office manager saying that she would try to get in the middle from now on when she saw an issue developing, me saying that I'll keep my mouth shut until I'm sure that what I say is not going to offend someone, and the witch saying that she would continue to be strong and deal with the attitude in the office. I left work so mad that I was pure beet red and felt like there was steam coming off of me. After talking with DH that night, we both decided that after we closed on a house, I would start looking for a new job.

Wednesday morning started with the witch attacking me again. The office manager stepped in and made her back off. Wednesday night as we were sitting here waiting for it to be time for Pilates class, the boss came out to talk to me and the office manager. I had a feeling of dread settle in my stomach thinking that I was going to lose my job due to the episode that morning. Instead I got told that he wanted me to stay and that if it came down to losing me, he would fire the witch. He's gonna make a file of all of her mistakes and start giving her meetings about her mistakes so that he can fire her without being sued over it and he asked me to be patient until he could work up the file. He made me feel a lot better and it was nice to hear that I was a valued member of the office and that he didn't want me to leave.

Today, the office complex called to let us know that they have been unable to paint our wall because they have once again lost the key to our apartment so they haven't been able to get in. So now, DH took his lunch break and went down to the apartment complex so they could make a copy of our key. This is the second time they have lost the keys to our apartment. This is ridiculous. Thank god we are moving out as soon as we can close on a house!

Whew... well that catches everyone up with the chaos that has become my life. Hope everyone is doing well.

sorry to be quite so long

2006-01-16T10:28:00.000-05:00

There really hasn't been much going on here. We've been going to work and coming home. We went out and looked at 5 more houses on Sunday but they just weren't what we wanted. One of them might be okay but I'd really like to find something that is more than okay. I think we irritated the real estate agent a little. He commented more than once that I wasn't my usual chipper self and that I seemed much more restrained than normal. All I could think was what did you expect? He showed us a house that he put on the market too and I think our non-interest irritated him a little but it just wasn't what we were looking for even though I'm sure that it was the wonderful value that he said it was.

This coming week should be busy though. I'm at work today while DH is at home with the day off. Tomorrow I have my first dentist appointment since 1/2000. I'm not looking forward to it. Wednesday, I'm in an all day training class on the new auto system we are switching to at work. Thursday is the Stitch & Bitch at Nease's. Friday the office manager is out at training all day. Saturday is the GTG at Cindy's house. I'm looking forward to Saturday.

We also got the bad news that the coworker that filed the discrimation charges against us may actually be coming back to work this week. She's expected in the office on Wednesday as long as her doctor's appointment goes okay on Tuesday. This could make the end of the week very interesting. The other two girls in the office are threatening to quit if she comes back. I can not handle this office on my own. There is just no way.

we lost the house

2006-01-12T16:20:00.000-05:00

The seller decided to work with the other offer.
I guess we get to go through all of this again.
I feel crushed cause I loved this house.
My coworkers are telling me that I'm being stupid and that there are other houses. They don't understand why it hurts me to lose this house.

not so good news

2006-01-12T11:12:00.000-05:00

My broker called. There has been another offer on the house that came through just after the one we made. The seller is looking over both offers and is supposed to decide today. That horrible sinking lead feeling in my stomach has gotten much worse.

this is going to kill me

2006-01-12T09:06:00.000-05:00

We went in on Tuesday night after work and signed all the offer paperwork. They said they would get back to us on Wednesday but we haven't heard anything. I was on the edge of my seat yesterday with that lead ball of dread slowly forming in my stomach as it got later and later and we still hadn't heard anything. My agent called me at 7:30 last night to let us know that he hadn't heard anything and that he'd left several messages asking the man to call us back.

Last night was torture as I tried to sleep. My husband has taken the stand that as long as they haven't said no then no news is good news. My agent says that he thinks its a matter of the selling agent being a little slack cause it took then a long time to get the disclosure statement to him too.

Now I get to wait through another day waiting for that call. If nothing else, I have learned that I'm not good at waiting once I decide something. I weigh my options, make my decision and then I want things done. I guess this means that I need to learn patience when I have to wait for someone else's decision.

I'm going crazy

2006-01-10T12:20:00.000-05:00

We are going to sign the offer papers tonight at 7pm. It's killing me to sit here at work. We are really busy but time is going so slowly. I'm going to go crazy if time doesn't hurry up. The loan company has said that my loan is secure as long as the house appraises for at least the amount of the loan.

Tomorrow is going to be worse cause I'll be waiting to hear what they think of the offer. At this point I'm just praying that it won't be a no. I want a yes but I can live with a counter offer cause that means that I'm still in the running.

The homeowners insurance was less that I was expecting by almost 300 a year. I may need to get flood insurance though since there is a creek behind the property. Our auto insurance would go down too which is wonderful.

Dh was driving me nuts about making the offer sooner so I put him on the hunt for a refrigerator. That'll keep him busy.