A late Merry Christmas

Well another Christmas has come and gone without much fanfare I do report. The kids stayed healthy, the husband did too. But me? you ask Well I lost my voice to a killer sore throat and now I'm hacking away all the time and feel generally yucky. I wish it was a normal week where I could sneak into the doctors and find out what is really wrong, but I guess a walk in clinic will do.

Chris and I celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary on the 23rd the gift I gave him was me with no voice. Boy did he love that one (if you don't know me... I tend to talk alot) The 24th we spend cleaning and making cookies and on Christmas Day (which was basically nice here in Wisconsin) had my mother over and had dinner and basically lost my voice once again. Oh the joys of whatever the hell I've got. Today is the 27th and we are all supposed to go to my in-laws house for the "Otto" Christmas. I think I'm going to bug out of this as I don't want others to get sick from me. But that isn't until 4 and who knows, I might be feeling a bit better.

And right now, Milwaukee is undergoing a major thaw. About half our snow is gone, raining and our roof is just about clear (thank god) It's nice outside but the snow looks yucky and dirty but I'll take the thaw anyday after the major cold we had. The rain is supposed to turn to a little bit of snow sometime this weekend but I'm not expecting anything major, or at least that's what the weatherguy says (he could be wrong ya know)

Not stitching much lately, too much going on right now. Hopefully I will start stitching again next week, when the kids go up north for a week and play in the Door County snow. If I don't write again for a while, I do hope you have a blessed New Year and I'll see you then.

Hugs
Kelly

Things for Sale or Trade

these are a few of my patterns that I would like to either sell or trade. The top one is a Zippie by Bent Creek. The next one is a Mother's Day patter by the Triology (no charm included)

the first one that emails me with what they want, gets it and we will work out details then. Since these are all gently used I'm asking for $2.00 a piece with $1.50 shipping.

Thanks
Kelly

Mom update

For those who are following. My mom had a total knee replacement back on October 29th and all went well. Then I got sick with a skin infection (which, thankfully, is gone now) and been at my mom's beckoned call ever since. I take her to therapy 2x a week when I can and doesn't conflict with kid's activities. Go grocery shopping and even run to the drug store. Boy I will be glad when she is released to drive again (and I'm sure she will too). She's got at least 3 more weeks of therapy and then she is done. But she needs to learn to walk without a walker and switch to a cane for a while. Her pain is finally under control and I think that is helping with her outlook on things.

We are not having the big turkey dinner this year as we just don't feel like having company and doing the big dinner. So take out it is or frozen pizzas (we haven't decided yet). On the stitching front, I've been slowly working on "Joy" by Lizzie Kate. I know it's a simple design but I've either not been home enough, or cold and tired (what else is new). I hope to start something winterish soon to get me in the proper frame of mind for this time of year. Did I mention I need to finally dig my warmer winter coat out of storage. Guess what Kelly is doing this weekend besides cleaning the basement!!

Hugs
Kelly

Sick AGAIN!

Well for those of you who don't know. I was born with an incurable skin disorder called EHK (technical term I know but I REALLY don't feel like typing it all out, so it's EHK for short) and I'm prone to skin infections. These are similar to any another infection except it's my entire body and not just my throat or ears etc. So now I made the wonderful trip to my doctor's office and got a prescription for an antibiotic. Hopefully this will kick it out of my system. I haven't had one since April and I guess I should be thankful but this is just kicking my butt, I feel so awful. And to top it all off, instead of me being sick and laying around the house tomorrow, I have to take my mom to her physical therapy appointment (which is fine, I guess) and listen to her complain about how much pain she's in.

Thought I would update on my life (such that it is)
Hugs
Kelly

Life in general...............

Well, it's that time of year again when the sun goes down earlier and earlier everyday and I seem to get more and more depressed. I suppose I could invest in one of those "sunshine/natural daylight" lamps but those are SO expensive it's not funny. I could pay down a credit card with the money I would spend on one of those, so that's out.

I'm also bummed out because my middle child, Nathan is getting teased/bullied again. We had conferences last night with his teacher and academically he's great, getting A's and B's. But then I brought up the teasing/bulling to his teacher and his teacher was surprised that it was going on, especially in his classroom. But we reassured Nathan that this will stop and if it continues we can move his classes around but that is a last resort. First, Nathan is going to have a good long talk with the school counselor and hopefully this will get resolved. It hurts knowing that there is NOTHING I can do to help him and having his sister telling him to "suck it up" isn't helping either.

I want my son to be happy again. I don't like seeing him bummed out when it's time to go to school. School should be a safe place and I know (from personal experience) that teasing isn't a pleasant thing to go through and I can sympathize with Nathan. I just want it to stop. There is nothing physically wrong with him (except he wears glasses, BIG DEAL), he's just this bright, intelligent boy who happens to get the short end of the stick sometimes. He has no real friends to speak of. He's shy and once you get to know him, he's very outgoing. But it's getting to that point that is difficult. If you're a parent, you don't like to see your child hurting and he's hurting and I can't fix it. I should be able to, but I can't. Hopefully the school can fix this. Life is just not fair.

I know this is a downer post but this is bugging the hell out of me and need to "talk" to someone. I do have good news to share but I'll wait until I calm down a bit before I share it with you.

Hugs,
Kelly

It's finished!!

Now I know why I HATE doing work on 32 count fabric. It makes me crossed-eyed. This is my finished piece by Bent Creek, it's called "Halloween" from their Coins series. I did leave a motif out (just didn't like it) I think it looks just fine the way it is. I'm almost finished with a quick stitch thing by Pine Mountain. I'll post a picture when I'm finished with that.

Tomorrow is my daughter's 15th birthday. Where in the world did the time go?? Hopefully she will let me take some pictures of her (not holding my breath here) and maybe I'll post one with her and her cake (ice cream to be exact). Nothing else going on here, My husband is working a bunch of overtime, normally this would be a good thing but he's salaried so it's expected out of him from time to time. I also have a sick kid here home today and hopefully he will feel better soon. I'm expecting him to go to school tomorrow, in fact. Otherwise, just wishing this economy would get better so my husband has job security again. I know we all do.

Hugs
Kelly

September is here!

Well since Labor Day has come and gone without much fanfare. It's time for my regular schedule of kids back in school and husband on a 40 mile commute (one way) to work.

The first couple of days of school were good for my kids. Nichole loves being a Freshman and figured out how the school is laid out (which was a concern of hers over the last week of summer vacation.) and made a couple of new friends. Nathan (my middle one) said that he was making a bigger deal out of the start of school than it needed to be. And Sam likes his 3rd grade teacher and likes taking his bike to school (except the first day when he wanted me to walk with him to school.) And I even got homework from the teachers (thought my days of homework were LONG gone!!!! LOL) and like a good student, I did the homework and had the kids return the papers to school.

Today is a blah day. Grey, cold and raining. We are getting what's left of the hurricane and it's much needed here. Otherwise the house is mine for the next hour and 1/2 and I can do what I please. (mostly laundry, don't I live the glamorous life??)

Hugs,
Kelly

TODAY IS...........................................

MY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Happy birthday to me!!!

Well like I said today is my birthday and I'm not sure how I feel about it. It's not a MAJOR birthday(unless you consider 37 a MAJOR birthday) or anything but it makes that much closer to 40. There I said it. Anyways, Husband likes his new job so far (first week, we'll see about next week) and the kids go back to school on Tuesday. YIPEEE!!!!!!!!! My middle child isn't looking forward to school starting (mostly the getting up early business) but as I told him time and time again, he has to go!! Then the computer will be mine for the most part.

Slowly stitching something for my middle child as he requested, but again, it's going slow.........

Hugs

Kelly

Husband got a job!!!

Well, let's say my life is calming down some. Kids are registered for school, school supplies and clothes are bought, next to getting haircuts- they could go tomorrow is that was an option (sadly, no.)

My husband went on a total of 3 in person interviews and had 2 phone interviews and accepted a job in Sturtevant. Pay is good, health insurance will be the downfall here, it's a small company, and the commute is a long one for him (like 45 minutes one way) but they liked him during his interview and he won't have as much free time as he would like but it's a job in my book.

Other than that, everyone is good. Middle child went to a Brewer's game today and must have brought them good luck as they won!!!. He will be pleased when he gets home.

Thought I would update.

Hugs,
Kelly

LIFE SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Normally I would like to talk to my husband when he calls from work, but today he calls (just before noon) to tell me that he got laid off. Just about a year after he gets this job, he gets laid off. SUCKS BIG TIME!!!!!!!! Anywhoo, now we are getting 2 more paychecks then we have no more money coming in. AGAIN, THIS SUCKS!! So hopefully, since my husband is still getting messages from recruiters, this maybe short-lived anxiety I'm going through (let's hope so!!!!!!!!!!!). I'm so glad I got clothes, school supplies, and some other much needed stuff when we had the money. Here's the sad thing, we have NO SAVINGS to back up on. AGAIN THIS SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So any good thoughts would be appreciated. I'll keep you updated as I know more.

Hugs,
Kelly

Well here's an update on my life..........

It's almost been a month since Maddie died and my house is just not the same. Hopefully, in time, it will be back to normal. Husband has been out of town most of July and he comes home tonight (7-25). Kids are at my sister-in-law's house in Door County and my middle child has the case of homesickness. I would have expected it from my little guy, but stranger things have happened. My daughter is planning on going to a concert on the first with a bunch of friends of hers, this will be a test for me. I do have a hard time letting my kids do things like this, so we shall see. I mean, she is almost 15 ya know!

Got school registration packets for all but one child, and we went school supply shopping at Walmart. They were having a sale so we went to see what we could get cheap. Much to my amazement, we got a bunch of things. Now we have to go back for one more trip for my middle child and see what kind of financial damage we can do. Argh, the days when the school supplied a bunch of things (NOW I'm dating myself.LOL)

Our garden is growing wild so my wonderful husband comes home, just in time, to weed the darn thing (Gardening is his thing NOT MINE!!) Haven't been stitching at all, I don't know what my problem is either. I have things to do just no motivation. HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!

Better go and get something accomplished in the last 1/2 before husband gets home. Nothing like waiting until the last minute, I say.

Kelly

She's gone.................:(

Well, instead of Maddie waiting until later this afternoon to pass away, she did it on her own in my living room (in her cat carrier where she was all night last night). She's in a better place with our other cat Kitty. But part of me just hurts. She was MY cat. I picked her out, I named her, she slept with me (or on me depending on her mood) and now I don't have that. I do have 2 other cats but they are nothing like Maddie. She was a Siamese cat, very cute and petite and only 9 years old. I feel bad for my kids, especially my middle child who is taking this hard. I just wish it didn't hurt so much.

Kelly

My little cat Maddie...

As I write this, she is hiding someplace in my house and I cannot find her. I had to take her to the vet a week ago due to her just looking sick and it turns out that there is severe dehydration, liver problems, not eating or drinking. They kept her overnight to give her IV liquid and that seemed to help some but now she isn't eating again, very little drinking and not using the litter box properly. The last 2 days she went "missing", the kids and I found her in typical hiding places, but this morning we cannot find her. We looked in "typical" hiding places (behind furniture, in the computer room, etc) and now fear the worse. I'm hoping she will come out when she wants to but she is SO weak. Please say some good thoughts that we will find her and keep her alive long enough but I realize that this is fading fast. I will give updates as we receive them.

Kelly

Boy do I spoil my children.........

Well it's that time of year again, end of school. Sad for me, good for the kids as they are sick of school and getting up early for it. I look forward to sleeping in at least an extra hour every morning. Anyways, I always get an "end of school year/good report card" gift. This year my daughter wanted some form of Dance Dance Revolution game (which I got her), my middle child wanted "Indiana Jones" Lego game for the PlayStation 2 and I got him that and not to be out-done, my youngest child wanted the same game but for the Nintendo DS and I got that game for him as well (along with the "cheat" book as he gets REALLY frustrated at times when he cannot figure it out and no one is "allowed" to help him.)

Then my daughter will graduate 8th grade and will be a Freshman next school year. When did this happen?? LOL So come fall I will have a Freshman, a 6th grader and a 3rd grader. Where does the time go??

It's sad to see our "routine" go out the window for about 12 weeks but it's a nice change of pace and it's more relaxed at our house. The kids are looking forward to going to an indoor water park thing at a hotel on the 19th and that will be nice for the kids to go to.

On the stitching front, I finished my Lizzie Kate piece that's part of the "Tea Crazy" patterns and will post a picture when I get the darn thing pressed, it looks to terrible the way it is, so I'll "pretty" it up a tad. I'm not sure what I'll start next. Maybe something by BlackBird Designs. I have 3 kitted up but I'm not sure which one I'll start first. Oh decisions, decisions.

Hope everyone is having a blessed day.

Kelly

Sick.. not fun.. :(

Well here we are May 2nd and I've come down with the dreaded skin infection. This is a 2 week ordeal for me as I get the pain, redness and general yuckiness. Never fear, I got myself on antibiotics and the pain is , for the most part, gone. But I still feel yucky. I haven't had one of these in about a year and totally forgot how miserable these stupid things make me feel.

So there isn't much to report lately except that my tulips are blooming and I'll (hopefully) take some pictures this weekend and let you all see them. We also planted blueberries, now if I actually get fruit this year that would be great, if not, then there's next year. But I'm thrilled to be doing something in the garden than shoveling snow. (The dreaded "S" word in my house.)

I've Been Tagged!!

My friend Kim tagged me, So I found the thing I'm supposed to do and here are my answers:

I've been tagged by my good friend Kim and here are some of my answers:

Meme #1

Here are the rules...

1) Pick up the nearest book of at least 123 pages.
2) Open the book to page 123.
3) Find the 5th sentence.
4) Post the next 3 sentences.

5) Tag 5 people.

The nearest book to me is Debbie Macomber's "The Christmas Basket". I haven't read it yet but hope to in the near future. The next 3 sentences after the 5th one reads as follows:

" Ah..."
Her father raised his hand. "Say no more. What do you want me to tell your mother if she asks?"
"That I've gone shopping... We're meeting at the mall."


Now for......Meme # 2
The Rules:
1) Link whom you tagged and list these rules on you blog.
2) Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3) Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving a comment on their blog.Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.


7 Facts about me:

1. I'm short, like 5 feet 1.
2. I have 3 beautiful children.
3. I LOVE blueberry eggos with peanut butter on top (don't ask)
4. I love ladybugs and butterflies (reminds me of my father and my grandparents, all are not living with us anylonger.)
5. My best friend is my husband of almost 16 years.
6. Nathan ( my middle child) is taller than me and he's 11.
7. I'm and advid cross stitcher and love to collect fibers and fabrics.
8. I hold my friends near and dear to my heart.

I know I'm supposed to only post 7 things about me but I have 8.

Who to tag next????


1. I've tagged Nicole ( http://nevillen.blogspot.com/) Love to read her blog every day and see what she's stitching next.

2. Tanya, my long distance friend, (http://atthehoneysuckletree.blogspot.com/). Love to read about her boys and her passion for life in general.

3. Kathy, (http://seasonsofwhimzy.blogspot.com/) I love reading about her family and her stitching as well.

If someone knows how to put links in, please drop me an email and let me know. This seems like a pain and I'm sorry. I'm still new to putting links in and such. I only tagged 3 people because those (besides Kim) are the ones I read on a daily basis.

Hugs,
Kelly

Spring is coming.. I told ya.

Here is proof that spring is coming. My tulips are coming up!!!!! We just got done with round one of some rain and we are due to have some major rain come Thursday. I can't wait for the rest of the bulbs to sprout in the coming weeks. Husband did some planting of bulbs back in the fall and we still aren't real sure if they will come up this year. These are tulips that were planted before we moved into this house and were a wonderful surprise when they came up the following year.

I'm still plugging away on Nichole's 8th Grade Graduation project and will post a picture when it's completed and I have given it to her. (Just in case she reads this.) I still can't believe that Nichole will be a Freshman in High School in the fall, it seems like just yesterday I found out that I was pregnant with her. Time flies. Hope you are all having a good day.

Hugs,
Kelly

Not much going on..

Except that my tulips are starting to come out and there is hope that Spring is coming. This past weekend was beautiful and now that the new week is here we are supposed to get cooler weather and rain (This IS Wisconsin mind you.) I also got a new recliner as my old chair wasn't cutting it any longer. I'll post a picture of something soon (hopefully my newly sprouted tulips.)

On a sad note, today is the 5th anniversary of my father's passing. I miss him terribly but realize that he's no longer suffering and is in a better place.

Enough with the sadness.
Hugs,
Kelly

Gotta love Spring like temps.

Well here we are mid-March and we just celebrated my middle child, Nathan's, 11th birthday on the 12th of March. Now here are my boys riding their bikes on the dry pavement amongst the snow banks!!! LOL Sam will turn 8 on the 31st of March and he can't wait for presents and cake, but first there's Easter. Will the non-stop sugar filled holidays and celebrations end?? Yes, on the 1st of April. Kids are off of school until the 31st so they are happy, is MOM happy about that?? Not sure LOL. Have a great Easter.

Cute Kids huh??

Well, I got a new camera and decided to try it out on 2 of my kids (daughter will NOT let me take pictures of her, typical teenager if you ask me.) Let me know what you think. Sam is my youngest in the black shirt and Nathan is my middle child in the red shirt. Still cold here in Wisconsin but the upside is that the sun is out, slowly we are making progress. BRING ON SPRING!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lizzie Kate Finish

Well as you can see, I finished a Lizzie Kate project which really should have only taken me DAYS it took me 2 weeks to finish. It was a quick stitch once I got going. I'm not sure what I'll do next but I'll post a picture when I start something.

Still is very frigid here in Wisconsin, there is hope of warmer temps this upcoming weekend. Keep your fingers crossed.

ENOUGH ALREADY!!

Well this IS Wisconsin but I'm really sick of the snow. Here we are in a suburb of Milwaukee and we are getting TONS of snow. I think at last check it was 7.5 inches of snow with more to come. My kids are off of school (again) and they are loving it. This is the 3rd snow day for my kids and I'm not sure what all these days off mean for the end of the school year as far as making the time up, but I'm glad that they didn't go to school today. All the malls are closed so everything is just about shut down. Unfortunately, my husband had to go to work today but hopefully he will be home early. Thought I would share some pretty pictures of what it is like outside my front porch.

Like I need more stuff!!

Well, my mom was stitching on her project and thought she didn't have enough fabric and asked me to go to the LNS with her. No problem, I'll go - I have things on hold anyways that I have to pick up. So we get there and I promptly picked up my stuff on hold and somehow $68 dollars worth of stuff JUMPED into my hands. LOL (well, no, not really but you get the picture.) What did I buy?? WELL, I bought SamSarah's January and February Baubbles (with buttons to go with AND the proper fabric- which is really cute), a Lizzie Kate chart with fabric and some much needed threads for various OTHER projects. I'm currently stitching on "Frappuccino" but I'm getting very bored with it and need a different project (something that will stitch quick!), so I need to go looking in my "NEW" stash and see what I come up with. OH, my mom DID have enough fabric to finish the first part of the pattern but needed a small piece to finish the other design. Hopefully I will post a picture of my progress on "Frappuccino" soon and maybe get motivated again to stitch on it.

A finish for 2007 and beginning 2008!

The first picture is my first official finish of 2008. It called "Snoman Flatbed" by Bent Creek and it's a Zippie. I bought it a couple of years ago and just now completed it. The other picture is of "Gingerbread Cottage" by CCN and I finished that on December 31st 2007. Now on to a Valentine's project.

Just another day .....

Well here I am typing on this blog and missing my husband. Did I mention that he's in China on business?? Well, he is and I didn't think I would miss him as much as I do but I got used to him being home every night for the past 3 months (after years of him being on the road) and now he's 7000 miles away (for those of you who can figure it out, it's 14 hours AHEAD of Central time zone). I'll be glad when he gets home this Friday. I think 2 weeks is enough of him being gone but I know that he could be gone as much as 30 days at a crack, but this is more typical.

We are experiencing a "heat" wave here with temps in the upper 40s and just 50 degrees and rain. Most of the snow is gone but we are supposed to get some "light" snow later in the week, typical for Wisconsin. As far as my stitching goes, haven't started anything new even though I have new Valentine things to do, so maybe in the next couple of days. Kids are back in school and Sam has 3 maybe 4 loose teeth and I want to pull the one that is giving him trouble out so it's done with, but as he says "It will come out on it's own MOM!!" Just started reading "Friday Night Knitting Club" (yes it's a chick lit book, what else is new?) Will write again soon.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Well it's the start of a new year and frankly, I'm glad to see the old one go. I do hope that this year is an even better year for my kids, husband, etc. I've uploaded a picture of my kids and my nephew Ben, my niece Laura (in black shirt) and my other niece Lindsay (in purple shirt). The last time all of the kids got together for one picture was when my father in law took one when my youngest child, Sam was about 18 months old and he's now 7!! (pardon the red eyes, my camera is incredibly stupid and I need a new one!!)

I've had one last completed stitching project for 2007 and that was CCN's "Gingerbread Cottage" and I think it turned out alright. But, if I had to go back and change anything it would be the lettering, I would have opted for a slightly darker color so the words "Gingerbread Cottage" would show up better but otherwise it was fun to stitch. I'll post a picture as soon as clear out the digital camera of current pictures.