Not a week I want to repeat!!!

Wow!  We had record snowfall here in Amarillo.  19 inches in 1 day!! 

Gambit insisted on going out and exploring.  He would be on the porch sniffing and just a shivering.  But he still wanted to be out there.  He didn’t believe me when I told him if he kept it up he wasn’t going to have to put a coat on!

I even got very brave and got a little silly.  There is just something about huge snow drifts that can not be resisted!

Of course trying to get up and out of a snow drift is easier said than done and the doggies were absolutely no help!

I did get some stitching done.  Just about halfway done with the Lord’s Prayer when I realized an egregious error…

yep, not enough room to finish it out on that side.  I totally centered the material wrong on my snaps.  So I am starting it over and this time marked my margins before putting it back on the snaps.  I haven’t been able to stitch for a couple of days now due to such severe hand pain.  I did have my dr appt yesterday.  My first time back in a year, which is really sad considering all the pain I’ve been facing and most of it new.  I really expected to hear “osteoarthritis”.  I can not tell you how much I expected to hear this.  But after talking and an exam, he really does not feel it is arthritis.  When I can afford to he wants to do some test to definitively rule out RA, but he very much feels it is fibromyalgia.   I just quickly looked at a fact sheet of it last night and was shocked to realize what I thought fibro was is quiet a bit different than what it is.  We’re making some med adjustments.  He talked to me about making myself a priority, and although he understands finances are tough, that I really need to see him more often.  That me just living in this sort of pain is unnecessary.  Life is not about seeing how tough I am.  That I need to take care of myself.  He really is a wonderful dr that takes the time to talk to you.  My goal is to go back in 3 months, see how I’m doing on new meds and get that RA test done.  So that is about it in my corner of the world!!

Paybacks and more snow

Finally a quiet weekend!!  James has no gigs,no practice and no on-call.  Finally a quiet full weekend at home.  Maybe we can get caught up on a good house cleaning   He is so good about helping out and doing what I can no longer do when it comes to the housework.  Yesterday was errand day and I found and sale and had a coupon for a different cat litter than I normally buy.  Something Scoop in a purple box.  So we transferred it into the Tidy Cats container.  The lid wouldn’t close all the way and I really didn’t think it would be a problem.  It was only for a day or two as it is time to clean the kitty box on Sunday and filling it back up would solve this problem.  See where this is going?  Yeah, I think the kitties are miffed that I spoiled their kitty litter “cover the floor'” antics by getting them a covered littered box.  They solved that problem last night.

Wasn’t that just terribly sweet of them??  Needless to say the lid now closes.  Little twerps!!

I got my order from Silkweavers in!!  Yay!!

<Sigh>  I love my new fabbys   I also ordered two new patterns from Kooler Designs. 

I did try to stitch on Halloween House this past week, but have lost all desire to stitch on it.  After putting in about 20 stitches I decided to just pack it up for now.  I worked on Ty’s wolves, “The Pack” for a bit, until he came in and totally upset me.  Then I switched to “The Lord’s Prayer”.  This one seems to have my undivided attention right now.  It is gorgeous and it just calms me so much as I stitch on it.  I guess I’m just not a good “rotation” person.  I feel like a bad “stitch mommy”, neglecting all my other stitch children in favor of just one.  Here is where I got to day before yesterday:

I didn’t get to stitch yesterday due to a nasty headache.  Nothing was getting rid of it, then my mom told me to try some meclizine.  That did the trick, which shocked me.  It is trying to come back this morning, so I’ve taken some ibuprofen and a trusty meclizine.  Hopefully that will keep it away so I can stitch.  I woke up to a slight dusting of snow on the ground.  I was NOT happy to see this.  It has luckily already melted, BUT there is a front moving in and we are expecting 1-3 inches sometime tomorrow.  I know it is much needed moisture, and hopefully the cold is helping get rid of nasty summer critters hibernating in the ground, but I am sick of the cold.  I am ready for the moisture to appear in rain.  I’m off to stitch now!  I hope everyone has a wonderfully crafty weekend!

Woo Hoo!

My lamp made it in yesterday!!  These were my thoughts on it last night that I posted on facebook:

Ode to my new lamp....
Oh how I love how the lamp part has an adjustable height..
I love that you are on wheels..
Especially with your concrete base!!
I love that you don't fall over on me now!
The clip holding my pattern..how awesome you are...just the right height and closeness
But my most favoritest part is this little handy dandy gadget that will (hopefully) keep the kitties out of my thread!! No more having to put away threads if I'm just going to work on the same pattern the next day!!
The only downfall I have seen so far, is unlike my last lamp, this tray "clips" on and I don't like the choices of where to clip it on, nor is it as secure. I wish they would of kept it where it went in between the two lamp posts!

Isn’t that just the coolest?  I posted over there on the 2nd page.  I had a lot to ponder yesterday.  I’ve been angry lately.  And I talked to my counselor about it yesterday.  The results, I have a lot to think about.  So I followed what was calling to me and put The Lord’s Prayer on the snaps yesterday.  I really do think I’m going to just love this piece.  I love the colors so far.  And, I’m not kidding, I felt so at peace while working on this.  So calm.  That rarely happens for me.  See, one of the downfalls of being bi-polar is that your brain never SHUTS UP!  Meditation is next to impossible, blanking your mind…yeah right.  It constantly goes, worse than the energizer bunny.  And it’s favorite thing to focus on is negative stuff.  Yeah, makes for a grumpy person.  So it is a constant battle to fight it and tell yourself not to stress, there isn’t anything you can do about it today, so let it go, etc.  But I’m telling you, when I was stitching on this, my mind calmed, I calmed.  Well, maybe not so much when James would walk into the room, but otherwise I sure did.  Yeah, I’m going to really enjoy working on this piece!

It’s not really over is it?

After all it’s a 3 day weekend right?  Even though I didn’t officially sign up for IHSW, I still participated.  I spent most of the weekend on Halloween House.  I got a page finish in!!

When I started I was maybe halfway through the third roof.  Everything to the left of the roof had been done.  So I feel pretty good about my progress.  I still had an hour or so to go this evening before I wanted to stop, so I gridded the wolf pattern a little.  And took it out.  And gridded it again.  It still doesn’t look right, but it will do.  I tried to get some stitches in, but dang it, misread the key and used the wrong color so had to frog it.  So no real progress there.  Now I will be confused as to where I’m at and have to find my way as I had highlighted it as done.  I so hate it when that happens!!  So instead I got some snuggle time in with Mr. Logan.

He’s kneading as he drifts off.  He usually does this suckle thing too.  Left over from when he was a bottle fed baby I guess.  He’s such a cutie patootie. 

Issabella was jealous.

And not to leave my baby girl out, here is Cashew.  If the weather is decent she goes with me to pick Seb up from school.  The weather has to be decent because she insist on the window being down and I refuse to freeze my rear off for her.  I had forgotten that Seb was staying after for tutorials, so we went to Sonic.  I got a corn dog and Cashew got tater tots all to herself.  Then we went back to the school and had to wait.  Cashew didn’t like the waiting.  It was different than normal and she wasn’t sure what was up, but she was happy to be with her momma.

She’s a happy girl!!  And yes, that’s the leg of my Valentine jammies!!  LOL.  It was a jammy day!!

Okay, so I couldn’t resist….

I was really going to try and wait until the last order of fabby came in and then do an all in one pic of my awesome fabby’s…..  Yeah, I couldn’t wait.  I had to pull out what I got to do and look, and touch.  I also partnered them up with the patterns they are going with.  So here is what I got in the mail today….

Aren’t these some pretty colors??

The 2 green’s are silkweaver’s if you couldn’t guess.  Nothing in particular for them yet, just liked the colors   Lots of beigeish colors in this one.  I have a particular pattern I wasn’t sure what color I wanted. 

This is the pattern and I ended up going with the parchment aida, which is the very top fabric in the 2nd picture.

I know you can’t see these very well.  Sorry about that.  Camera phone and you know how that goes.  The one in the background is the Lord’s Prayer and it is calling to me pretty loudly and will probably be put on the snaps this weekend.  The other is the Glendon Place “Come Sit a Spell”.  It is too cute, but man 95 colors?  Whew.  Yeah, considering there are 13 projects in the project bag, 3 on snaps and 3 to be bagged…1 is a HAED, 3 are Witch Stitch ‘n Bitch patterns?  Yeah, Sit a Spell may go in the file box for a little while.

Finally, an update!

I’ve only been meaning to do it for a week or two!!  I have to hide my jump drive from the kitties because it has a lanyard on it.  They love to attack it.  Well, I had stuck it in the drawer, to tired to do the blog post the night of my finish, and I’ve just now drug it back out.  So, with that rather long winded explanation….here is the finish of Spongebob!!

Okay, so I can’t get him turned the right way….sorry.   But he is done!!  Still need to wash, dry, iron and frame him.  I still need to iron and frame the minecraft for the other nephew.  My mom is flying me up to the big D for few days next month, so I will just take them with me to give to them.  It is such a relief to have that dratted yellow done!!

I bought 2 14x14 snaps, Halloween House is on 1, and I put the fabby for Coyote on the other.  I am snails pace gridding it.  I have a hec of a time gridding 28 count and I have to pull and re-count more than I actually grid, so only 1 row is actually gridded.  But I’ll get it there.  I needed a larger count, easier to do project this past week with it being Kenzie’s heaven birthday, so I put one of Ty’s easier wolf projects on one of the smaller snaps and put a few stitches in it. 

I finally got to order my late Christmas and my new lamp is on its way.  I also ordered lots of new fabby, some new clamps for some of my snaps and some crafters gloves.  Don’t worry, James got spoiled with gig bags for his music equipment, a gig outfit, etc.  I want to get one more 14x14 frame for my HAED.  So that is on the list.  I’m trying to wait till the last of my stash comes in and then take pics.  We’ll see how long I hold out!!

I hope everyone had a great Valentine’s Day!  James “bought”  (poor guy, he never gets to actually buy me anything, I always buy it and tell him “look what you got me”) a new purse and new pj’s.  He also took me out to eat last night, which was the first time I’ve ever been out to eat on Valentine’s day.  We found a nice little Chinese food place by our house, which was totally not crowded.  So it was really nice to get out of the house just us

Finally conquered that arm!!

I got a really good nights sleep last night and boy what a difference it makes!  I woke up feeling perky and good this morning!!  After the morning of typical check lists and house stuff, I settled in to stitch and I conquered that Sponge Bob arm that was giving me so much trouble!!  I made quite a bit of progress on him today!!  Yay!!!

Progress Pic??

Progress pic, why yes, I will post one...if I HAD one!!  But noooo, the idiotic, possessed, devil-incarnate, blasted Sponge Bob just IS NOT co-operating with me!  I have stitched AND frogged the same freaking arm 5 times now!!  5 TIMES!!  It is really not that hard, and I guess I must be that stupid!!  I don't think the fabric can survive another frogging.  So I must get it right this next time.  I swear that one arm is driving me nuts.  So my stitching progress this week, well, it just has not been progress.

On the home front, Ty and the rest of us seem to be in some sort of holding pattern.  He's sleeping until 3,4, 5 and up till wee hours of the morning.  So very little interaction with him.  He's had a few smarmy comments that I reply rather bland and "whatever" to, and James comes back with some rather witty ones that make me want to give him a high 5.  I went to visit one of my friends my one real life friend, Della, 2 nights in a row and stayed out rather late.  Ty seemed rather worried about this and did not understand why I was not home.  He wasn't ugly about it, he just, I don't know, almost seemed pitiful.  But I didn't let it phase me and I really enjoyed spending time with someone other than my family and getting out of my house!!

It's been a rough week with Seb, but hopefully the re-direction will take hold.  He has done better this week-end so I have hope.  I was making lists yesterday and looking around the house at some things that needed to be done but yet would be almost impossible to get my guys to do. So I started wondering how much it would cost me to have someone come out and do them.  Then I though, hmmm.  I made a "For Hire" list and gave it to each of my 3 guys and posted 1 on the fridge.  It listed all the chores and how much I will pay for them to be done.  I will hold a family meeting the night tax returns come in and it will be a first come, first serve that night, for all 3, including James, to do some "for hire" chores and get some extra money.  And I get stuff done that I'm wanting done :)  Everyone will be happy.  Well, maybe not Ty, he threw his list away saying he will be working full time by then.  Hmm, we'll see.  Seb is excited over this prospect.  James thinks he shouldn't be included, but I do.  He deserves a chance also instead of just being left with what is left over as "honey do chores", after all, he works all day at work and he does so much around the house since I can't do as much. 

All the furs are doing good.  Crazy and silly as ever.  They don't like it when I'm gone from the house and tend to pout and act really obnoxious when I get back, but hopefully they will get used to it.  I don't want to keep isolating myself, getting out was good :)

winner winner chicken dinner

Winner of the Grow your Blog drawing is Silke over at http://silkepowers.blogspot.com/  !  Congratulations!!