Nov 28th Monday Update

 Hello Readers! Hope my US readers had a lovely Thanksgiving. We sure did. It was different but okay. My dad's parents, my 2 sets of Aunts and Uncles, my dad and step mom, and us. It was nice.

Let's look back over my week last week. Monday was busy with groceries and catching up on computer stuff. Tuesday I started Autumn Time by New York Dreamer...

I'm using 32ct Vintage Country Mocha Evenweave for it and suggested specialty threads. Here it is now after Day 2... 

Wednesday I had my surgeon follow up. I am all clear. The scar is looking great. Still supposed to be careful with lifting and crunches but I am able to exercise again. Which is am really excited about actually. Ready to get back on the weight loss bus haha. We also stopped by mom's house. First time since she passed. Boy that was hard. Everything was just right where she left it. Like we should be able to see her sitting in her chair. Jeremiah sure cried hard. I think I was more prepared. We walked around and took some things that was important to us. We will be working on it more later. The lady who owns the house isn't planning on selling till after Spring thankfully. So we have time. 

Friday we decided to decorate for Christmas here...

A collage of our decorations. Love it!!! We haven't got our tree yet. We have an idea about it. Now to get to town to do it haha. 

Saturday we went out with friends. It was a very nice relaxing time. Jeremiah had a blast. So funny that he is old enough to go bar hopping with us now haha. We ended up going to 3 different breweries and just laughing the day away. 

Sunday I demanded a lazy stitching day. I pulled out Beer Dragon again. Looks like last time he was out was in November 2021!

I think he needs to stay out for a bit. He was lonely. 

Well have a great week. Love yourself. Smile.

Nov 21 Monday Update

 Last week seemed really long. No idea why. We didn't have anything going on. It was cold. Nothing to do. But.....stitch haha.

Sunday I started on the last Lili of the Valley Fairy (November) I finished it last night...

(14) November 20th

November from Lili of the Valley Calendar

From 2016 Cross Stitcher Magazine

Stitched on 32ct Lambswool Evenweave

Threads are Suggested DMC

Started Nov 11th. Took 8 Days.

Whole Set Took 80 Days.

Another full set completed. I am so happy. I love her. She was definitely bundled up for the cold weather. We had a few days of negative wind chills. Our little electric heaters worked perfect. We never got cold and we kept them low setting. So we are happy for the test. Fred and Dad got our winter shower house all finished too. It's amazing to be negative outside and 60 degrees in our shower house. Perfect. We are happy and ready for the long winter.

Fred had his Amateur Radio Ham Fest all weekend. So again long stitching hours. But this week he has the week off and we have a lot of plans. Today we headed out to the grocery store to gather some Turkey day yummies. It was a fun day. Wednesday I have two doctor appointments. Then we are hoping to get our licenses all changed over to our new address. Thursday my Grandma (Dad's Parents) invited us over. So that will be really nice. I am making Deviled Eggs and Veggie Dip which is always my favorite part of preparing for a holiday meal.

There have been a few emotional days. No reason. Just emotional. I really really miss my mom. I think it's the quiet and probably the holiday coming up. Jeremiah helps me a lot. He misses her so much too. We are going to be okay just can't believe she is gone. 65 is just too young. 

Well I am off to get my computer work done. I don't know what project is calling me next. I hear quite a few yelling for attention. Plus I have some new pieces begging but I told them to wait......for right now haha. Have a great week. Happy Thanksgiving to my US Readers. Don't eat too much.....Oh okay we all know we will. Love yourself. Smile.

Monday 14th Update

Hello Readers. Another week. Boy life just continues to fly by doesn't it? So let's see what this week has brought...

Monday and Tuesday I worked on the October Year of Celebrations. Wednesday and Thursday time flew by and no stitching happened. Friday I finished the October piece!!!!

Here is the whole set now...

Wohoo it's finished. Now to ask Santa for HOD's next set of seasons haha. I picked up the last Lili of the Valley fairy (November) and started her but only a tiny bit of stitching was done so I will wait and post a picture later.

It was a crazy busy weekend. We were hoping to finish our winter shower house Saturday. Then go shopping Sunday. Deer season started so Hubby, Bev, and Dad went out early Saturday morning. I woke up to a text Bev had got one she thought. I looked out the window to see heavy snow as well. So I head out to take Spike to potty and see dad. I asked about Bev catching one and he said let's go see. So we all walk over to Bev. Bev comes out of her deer blind and is talking to us and we look up and a deer is standing there looking at us. So dad pulls his gun up and shoots. He got a 2nd deer. Dad does all his own processing and he has told everyone only 1 deer a day. LOL so now we switch to time to take care of the deer. They have to be prepared to hang overnight. So several hours later and probably 2 inches of surprise snow they were working on the metal for our shower house haha. My Godmother stopped over with a delicious meal pork loin, potatoes, and carrots. Plus a delicious batch of brownies. We told her any time she wants to come over she is welcome haha. She really misses mom too so we try to talk a few times a week now. It means a lot to both of us. 

Sunday we gathered to do up the meat. We got 120 pounds of meat to split between 3 families. How wonderful. Especially with the price of meat right now. I love animals but when we can benefit from their lives it makes hunting okay with me. My dad isn't just in it for the sport of it. After finishing up that Fred, Jeremiah and me ran to the store. We had a delicious meal out at Red Lobster one of mom's favorite restaurants. What we were needing...We had a small 7.4 cubic feet fridge in our cabin. It worked great for not living here but with living here it was just way too tight for our weekly groceries and extras it's nice to have on hand like fresh fruits and veggies. So we found one double the size!

So that's off our need list. So thankful. Now to go grocery shopping to fill it up better. It was a busy weekend but we are doing great really. We are slowly figuring out all the needs and things for our new little tiny home. We put some plastic window covering up to help with these single pane windows. I can already tell that's helped a lot. It's really testing it lately. Finally cold here in Northern Indiana after record breaking heat a few days. I love the cold as you can tell. Plus bring on the SNOW!

I am a few days over a week out of my surgery. I'm doing great. No pain medicine any more except Tylenol if I need it. Only needed it a few times now really. Trying to be careful and not push too hard. That's the hard part though. Jeremiah keeps yelling at me if I do too much haha. The muscle in my rib cage area is still sore but not near as bad as it was. So time is sure helping. Follow up with surgeon the 23rd. Okay I'm off to get busy with my computer stuff so I can stitch. Have a wonderful week. Smile. Love Yourself!!!

Monday Update

What a week it's been. I got a call from Surgeon and they moved my surgery to Friday. They had an emergency surgery come up. Fred decided to go ahead with taking Thursday off work so we could get some other things taken care of. We went to pick up mom's ashes...

She has line of sight of the TV which was her favorite thing in the world well other than the ocean. A family friend got me a stuffed Snoopy which she also loved so it is sitting right beside her. I also got a new comfy chair to sit in...

So much more comfortable than the wooden rocker we had in the spot. Which fit perfect in between our two beds to replace a much more uncomfortable chair that we had there. This chair is perfect for long stitching hours ladies. Love it!! Also perfect for my surgery recover as well. 

I was worried about the early morning surgery. They called the day before and we needed to arrive at 12:30pm. Perfect. So we slept in and took our time. I went in for surgery about 4pm. I was waking up about 6pm. The doctor told Fred that when they cut the muscle in my chest the Xyphoid popped even more out so it was definitely ready to come out. Hope this photo doesn't bother anyone I find it fascinating...

The top square is the incision and then they also put in a pain pump. The two tubes you see. It seeps numbing medicine directly into the muscle area slowly. Purpose is to have people on less opioids. I still have one for pain management. But this helped a lot I'm sure. I had a little purse that held the ball of medicine...

The thing was annoying. I was so worried about pulling the tube out. But it probably helped me stay still. Last night I noticed a wet spot on my shirt and after we got to looking the medicine was leaking around the bandage. After a quick call the surgery team said I had probably healed and the medicine wasn't going into my skin any more. Luckily we could remove the tubes by ourselves. Quick YouTube look and I seen several videos of how to remove it. So Fred was able to painlessly remove it. Ahhh I was free of the tubes. Today I notice no real pain difference. I guess a little more tightness but very manageable. Follow up appointment Nov 23rd which is great since Fred has the day off that day. 

No pushing or pulling for 6 weeks. Light duty. No lifting. All those make sense type of things. So I'm taking a break and poor me I will have more stitching time haha. Fred and Jeremiah are doing fantastic taking care of me. I'm a lucky girl. Spike is so sweet too. He can sure tell something is wrong...

He loves to sit beside me and hold my hand. So adorable. He is being very gentle. He nudges my shirt and wants to smell my stomach and then lays his head down and pouts. It's just precious. So I will be okay. Just need time to heal.

Life has been working out. Jeremiah and me were talking this morning about how things are just falling into place. We are doing well. Of course we miss my mother dearly but I swear this was all meant to be. We are moving on. We are okay. Yes I still feel up with tears. She was my life for 43 years. But now I have a new purpose myself.

I finished up the Embroidery challenge. I fulfilled the requirements. Here is where the Ice Monster ended...

Then I started working on the last Year of Celebrations piece again. Here is where I am right now...

So we've been busy. But happy. Loving life. I'm going to go get my stuff done that I want to do and STITCH. Love yourself. Smile. See ya next Monday.

Monday Update

Hey Readers. I've been working on the Embroidery.com half hour a day challenge. Today is the last day and boy I'm ready to work on something else haha. Anything else. Here is my Ice Monster now though...

Love how cool he is turning out. 

Well we are okay. Sometimes the emotional wave is crazy. I keep wondering if it was all a dream. Then I see signs and remember it wasn't. The sadness, happiness, guilt, loneliness, relief, etc etc that hits is so confusing. But I've talked to a bunch of people and it's all normal I guess. I've read some little books the hospital gave me. Again it says my range of emotions is normal. So that helps a lot. We talk to her. We have made a spot so when we pick up her ashes she can watch TV because that was her favorite thing in the world. 

Halloween was fun. We had a party here Saturday night. We were supposed to have our family band but everyone within 50 miles got sick at the same time. I know Jeremiah and I had our yearly sinus infection. Fred took 2 sudafed and was fine. Thursday is the surgery to remove that stubborn broken Xiphoid. I admit I am nervous about the pain but ready to get it taken care of and MOVE on. 

Have a great week. Love yourself. Love each other. Smile!

Hard Update

Some of my readers follow me on Facebook and know what I'm about to post about. Last few weeks were a year long that's for sure.

We went up to Fort Wayne for a doctor appointment on the 12th. It was an appointment for a cardio-thoracic surgeon to see if he would remove my broken xiphoid. He asked some questions and then told us when he does bypass on people some people have xiphoid's that just look like they will cause problems and he removes it to be safe. I said Great so will you remove mine. He said definitely. So what a relief! Surgery is scheduled for November 3rd. We ran by the house since we were in town. We had a fantastic visit with mom. She was so excited about my surgery and that it will finally be over. This time of year she panics about Christmas and what to get for us. I had some ideas and she was so excited about them. She was really coming to terms with we needed separation for a little bit. She understood we wanted to live at our cabin and then purchase a house. After a few years if her health declined we would move her in. She was at peace. 

Thursday morning at 6am I get a phone call. My mom was at the ER and they think she had a major heart attack. She talked to me on the phone. She told me stay here with my dog. He needed me. I listened. 6pm that night the doctor called. She had taken a turn for the worst. I needed to get there now. So we hurried up. They took her to emergency cath lab instead of waiting for the next day. 

We got there and waited. The doctor came out. Grabbed a chair and sat down with us. Not a good sign right? Right. She needed a triple bypass. They couldn't do it. Her heart was too badly damaged. She was on a heart balloon pump to keep her heart pumping. Also a list of other things started coming. Kidney failure. They had to put her on vent because of lung failure. They needed to do dialysis but again... She was too ill for it. I stayed the night Thursday right by her side. Friday more answers that were scary. Nothing they can do. Let's give her a few days to see if she can regain strength but they would shake their head. She was stable condition all weekend. Just Waiting. Monday morning the cardiologist team said there was no hope. She would have died Thursday if it wasn't for the machines. They would send in a palliative care team to ask some questions. Then the nurse said they were busy and they wouldn't get there till Tuesday. I said Wait we are leaving her till tomorrow for no reason? So the nurse said well she could ask me the same questions. They are just hard questions to hear. Did I know my mom's wishes? Yes. She wouldn't want to be kept alive by machines if there was no hope. Everyone there knew it too. 2 of mom's life time friends. So they started the process on unhooking her. It was a horrible process but I know it was what she wanted. That evening at 8:45 she went to be with her mom and dad.

My heart is broken in so many ways and yet at peace. Her health was really deteriorating so much lately. She knew she couldn't travel any more. She knew she was tired. She was in so much pain. So now she can rest and be pain free. I want to call her so bad. That part is the hardest. Jeremiah is having a hard time as well. They were inseparable most of his life. Waves of emotion. The viewing was Thursday the Funeral was Friday. It was beautiful. So much celebration. So many stories. She is being cremated and we will take some of her ashes to Hatteras lighthouse. Her favorite place in the world. We will be okay because our support system is just amazing. So much love. Plus a dear angel looking over us. Life is changing but I know we will be okay.

We have settled into our cabin permanently until we can afford a house. The housing market is insane. So we will get a better vehicle and save up money. We needed one thing to live here that we didn't have...

A mailbox. Now it's installed and we wait patiently or not so much for it to be setup and ready. Need to go do some paperwork tomorrow. A cousin came by last night and left something for us. How fun!!! The pride I have to be back in my home town zip code. Home at last. We love this community. 

I have been stitching when I could....

Finished the Witch Face...

 

Started the next one (2 left!) Ice Monster...

So much white on white. Look close. 

Wow....What an update. So hard to write. Love yourself. Love each other. Smile. Enjoy life. Do it while you can.

Another Monday Update

Hellllllo Readers. Still here. Still happy and loving life. Still stitching. Least a half hour a day. I've been working on the Witch Face from Halloween Minis. Here it was on the last update (the 3rd)...

Here she is yesterday on the 9th...

Loving working on this one. 

The weather has been nice so I've been a little busy but still getting at least 30 minutes. I really need to stick with that. It's doable. No matter what just 30 minutes at least. Of course winter is ahead and normally I get A LOT more time during winter. I do need to pick up more of my Stash so I have more options. Then find a place to store it haha. 

I really hope everyone is doing good. We had a fantastic weekend. Jeremiah went Friday night with my Dad and Step Mom. They kept him overnight and headed to their favorite casino Saturday morning. Jeremiah won a little electric pizza cooker. Have to add that to our fun options for cooking. Then he sat down at a new machine with cows getting abducted by spaceships. I guess he hit the button 3 times and then hit free bonus spins. He kept getting new spins and winning. Dad said the machine was making noise and everyone was looking Jeremiah was all smiles of course. He ended up winning $400!!! How cool. I told him he can go any time haha. Dad didn't do well. Bev did fantastic. She said Jeremiah is her good luck charm. She went twice without him and lost both times. So that's too funny. Then we went to Jeremiah's favorite band in the evening. We had a blast. It was a wonderful weekend indeed. 

Okay I need to get my blog reading done so I can go stitch. Have a wonderful week. Love yourself. Smile.

Monday Update

Hi Readers. Still here. Still stitching. Last week I started the October Year of Celebrations piece. My last one!!! I was able to get progress 4 days...

Then Saturday was October 1st. I joined in the WitchyStitchy2022 challenge again. Just half hour a day. So I pulled back out the Halloween Minis...

I really thought I had worked on them last year for the challenge and evidently I didn't join in last year. So I'm really glad I jumped back in it this time. I am working on the Witch face. Here it was when I pulled it out...

Evidently I started it October 2020 and just never blogged about it. I am back and better than ever though now...New Me Girls! Anyway. I have 2 days so far already have a lot of new progress...

Love how you can see her eyes popping now. I will keep at it. Least a half hour a day. Yesterday I got 3 days worth of time haha so that helped a lot.

We had a busy weekend. The weather was low 70's so we did a lot of things we wanted to do before the colder weekends move in. We cleaned out our travel trailer we have parked beside our cabin. It makes great storage but was all thrown in there so we needed to empty and restructure. Then Fred made me a shelf to hold all our cooking items...

It was all piled to the doors so now we actually have space! Then he built a shelf for under our table inside. The extra drinks were in boxes and our towels were in a laundry basket and it was just taking up a stupid amount of space. So all organized now...

Perfect. We also got a lot of stuff around the campground done so that was great. Perfect Perfect. We keep talking about how great we are doing. It's so wonderful so be so happy.

Love yourself. Smile. Stitch!

Oh.....I'll leave you with cute Spike pics....

Monday Update

Updates 3 weeks in a row! Slowly getting back to my normal routine. Plus I am still stitching. I had started the Sept Year of Celebrations piece in August. I just have September and October left to do on this set. I got one day in August and then put it away. This week it was time to get it back out and after 3 days I finished it...

(13) September 23rd

September from A Year of Celebrations

From Hands on Design

Stitched on 32ct Lambswool Evenweave

Threads are Suggested DMC

Started Aug 3rd. Took 4 Days.

 

Just realized I missed posting my August Year of Celebrations piece. No idea when I finished it haha (My book keeping took a rest too. I would scribble on scrap papers when I stitched....Yeah lost most of them before writing in my notebook.) Looks like maybe in April...

 (12) April 22nd

August from A Year of Celebrations

From Hands on Design

Stitched on 32ct Lambswool Evenweave

Threads are Suggested DMC

Started Apr 19th. Took 4 Days.

 

Just the October one left and I am looking forward to doing it. I love Halloween.  It's also Witchy Stitchy from Embroidery.com and I will hopefully be participating a half hour a day. I have my Halloween Mini Monsters to work on again. I love working on them every October. 

We've been having fun making our new home perfect for us...

Got a 2nd dresser to hide all our clothes. Perfect. Yes we have a pink flamingo that lives in our hamper haha. My campground daughter got it for me and we love it sitting on the clothes so no one sees our dirty clothes haha. We organized under our beds and got stuff reboxed and sorted. Time to put shorts away finally. It's been low 60's every day this week. Finally shut off the AC and have even turned the heat on a few times in the morning to get the nip out. 

Have a wonderful week. Love yourself. Smile.

Monday Update

Hey look a Monday Update. Plus I've been stitching. What?! Who am I?!? LOL

I have stitched 7 days now on Forever in Peace by Sweet Wing Studio...

32ct Lambswool Evenweave with DMC Threads.

Day 3 on All American by Primrose Cottage Stitches...

25ct Vintage Country Mocha Lugana with DMC threads and one red Weeks Dye Works.

Over the weekend I went to see about my glasses. I had a eye doctor appointment and it was a new doctor. He questioned why I didn't have bifocals. I was never told to get them. He said I was past due. So after looking at the vision chart I sure understand why I haven't seen the TV clearly for a bit. I thought my glasses were just scratched up. So new glasses on order. I sure hope I can get used to them with my stitching. I have 30 days to make changes and I will if I have to.

It is crazy hot again this week. But later this week is finally going to cool down. We can't wait. I am so sick of hearing the AC drone on. I am ready for open windows and cool days. Okay. Off to read my blog buddies posts. I missed you guys.

Smile. Love Yourself.

Major Update

Well since June when I updated last a lot of things happened. Let's see...

I went to a doctor for a normal visit. I mentioned a swollen lump I've had on my sternum area for awhile that was concerning me. Well swollen and lump it was immediately a worry. So after long waits in between of course I ended up with an ultrasound, CT Scan, and finally PET Scan. Great news though....No Cancer.....did find a nodule on my lung which we will watch but supposedly no cancer their either. Just a lot of up and down and my nerves have been shot. At the end with the cancer free answer that's okay but still want my issue fixed. Let me show you...

The circled spot on the right is my weird swollen lump. It hurts. It swells some days. It causes me breathing issues. It could be my Xiphoid process which is part of my sternum. I could have broke it when I was doing my exercising. Leave it to me to hurt myself getting healthy. Anyway last step now trying to find a surgeon who will fix it. Next appointment October 12th. Here's hoping they remove it and I can get back to normal. 

We have moved into our cabin since end of July. My focus became myself and my son and husband. We need to be okay. We are okay. We rock this 12x24 building. We love every day. 

Retail therapy. I bought two new pieces to do....

I started on the Forever in Peace right away. I have 5 days into it now...

Stitching it on 32ct Lambswool Evenweave with DMC threads.

We have internet now here at our cabin. Which we have wanted forever. I have my stitching light so I can finally stitch easier. Life is progressing. We "might" go "home" after October but we don't know. I really miss my blogging friends though. So I wanted to check in. 

Love yourself. Smile. Take care of yourself.....somehow. I am. Finally!

June 23rd!

 My poor poor blog. I miss you guys. I have glanced through quickly to see my favorite blogs. Nice to see a lot have been stitching. Beautiful things. I have seen a few missing. Hope you are all okay. Probably just like me and not blogging. Though I promise I do think of blogging.....then weeks weeks and months go by.

Wait till you see what I got in the mail...

The lovely Rachel sent me this GORGEOUS package with an ADORABLE dragon in it. I literally screamed out loud trust me. LOVE IT!!! Rachel I can't say Thank you enough.

We've been splitting time between home long enough for doctor visits and laundry then back to our cabin. It's been wonderful of course. It's been BUSY since I swear March. But happy. Or at least trying to be every day. I have been stitching.....very little here very little there. I miss it too. So I figured I would finally do a darn update and then stitch today. It's HOT so indoor time at the cabin. Which means perfect time if I make myself put everything down and actually do it. Here are some photos from our band here at the campground. We had over 100 this time. The most attendance ever. Mom had several cousins come for the first time which was really nice. Only time we see each other is funerals. A band is a lot nicer reason to get together.

Jeremiah was beside us dancing away. So he missed being in the photo. Spike is still amazing. We love him so much. He just LOVES our campground time.

Okay I would love to say I'll be back soon. But honestly who knows. I miss you guys. I miss stitching. Now that I've updated.....I'm off to stitch!

April WIPocalypse

I'm not going to say Sorry I'm not going to say Sorry. Life has just been doing everything possible to keep me from stitching. But I'm okay. I'm happy. Yes a lot is going on. Yes I'm stressed but I will do things one at a time till I get through it. I got this! Now let's do a WIPocalypse update. WIPocalypse is a fun blog game/event where we try to finish all our WIPs before the end of the world. Don't worry I will have enough WIPs to last long long past the end of the world haha. I like to use this as a look back at what I've worked on since the last update. So let's see...

Well this will be fast. One WIP has been out since my last update. I'm just happy to have something to show at least...

Year of Celebrations by Hands on Design -- 4 days. Started this one this month. 

Yep the rest of the days are non stitching day. That's okay. I will be back to stitching as soon as possible.

On the 26th Jeremiah turned 24 years old! How is that possible?!? We've been having cabin time on the weekends and as often as possible of course haha. He also had a trip to the game store and stocked up on several new games. So he's a happy kiddo. Fred has to go on a work trip to Vegas which is really sad because we had been wanting to go back since Jeremiah's 21st birthday but with the virus and mask mandates we have put it off. He leaves this Sunday and will be back Wednesday. Maybe I'll get some extra stitching time while he's gone since we'll be home relaxing waiting for him to arrive home safely. 

Here are some fun pictures of Spike since I didn't have a lot of stitching to share...

I hurt a tendon in my knee and was putting ice on my knee. Of course he had to inspect it. He was very worried about what I was doing. Then he decided his whole body was good enough for heat on my knee instead. We are so happy we were rescued by him. He makes every day interesting. The top photo is him sleeping after a fun day at our campground. He LOVES it there as much as we do.

Let's all have a great May. Smile. Love yourself. I hope to share a lot more stitching next time. If not though that's okay.