Sweetheart Tree RR finish

I finished up my section on Ruth's RR last night. Really quick stitch! One day!

Pictures

Ok...here's a pic of Eva at her Christmas Pageant (she's not standing on anything, she really is that much taller than everyone else!)


Maria and Lauren on Christmas after opening presents



My mom's Biscornu. Pattern is Christmas Jewels from Just Nan



Dani's Sweetheart Tree RR. I finish up my section, at the bottom, last night. Pattern is from Treasured Trio

Christmas

I don't even know where to start. Friday Eva had a little pageant at school. It was cute. They sang songs and rang bells. Saturday we didn't do much, but it was my dad's birthday. We just had a little party with cake and ice cream. Sunday afternoon we went to church and Lauren and Maria were so BAD!! I was so frustrated with them that we left early. We were seated right in front of this water pool/fountain thing and they kept putting their hands in it and then they started throwing stuff in it. We went from there straight to my grandmother's house. We opened presents there. Eva finally got her electric Barbie karaoke guitar. That's been pretty amusing. She's been rocking out with Hannah Montana since then. Monday morning we didn't do much of anything except hang out and play with all the stuff Santa brought. Monday night we went to my parents' house to open more presents. Yesterday I didn't have to work, yay! So, we just bummed around and cleaned house and tried to teach Lauren and Maria how to ride their new bikes. It was exceedingly cold and very windy so that didn't last long!

All in all it was a good Christmas and the kids seemed to really enjoy it and got tons of presents. I got two $50 gift certificates to cross stitch places so I was happy about that!

Foggy Bottom

What a difference! Two weeks ago it was like 40 degrees and super dry. My hands were getting all rough. For the last week, it's been unbelievably foggy and warm. Yesterday the kids were playing outside in shorts and Tshirts. And the damn mosquitos were back. Do those things EVER die??? This morning I had to actually drive with the windshield wipers on and it wasn't even raining! Everything is just so wet. And we get to look forward to heavy thunderstorms this week, a nice weekend, and a rainy Christmas.

I'm sooooo close to finishing my mom's Christmas present. I finished all the stitching on it last night and started the beading. Hopefully I'll be able to finish the beading today and start on the finishing tonight. I think it's going to be so pretty. I'm doing Just Nan's Christmas Jewel with some of the colors changed a little bit.

So I was happy Yul won Survivor, although, Ozzie really deserved to win. And I have to say I think Ozzie looked way better on the island than he did on the finale show.

Saturday we went to a Christmas party and it was really a good time. I was reluctant to go because it was all people my husband knew. We brought the kids and Eva was like the belle of the ball. She'd just walk up to the other kids and say "Hi friend, want to play?" LOL Lauren and Maria were so good. Lauren had a diaper incident and had to go around pantsless for half the evening, but no one seemed to mind, least of all Lauren! There was a lot of eating and dancing.

Annmarie and Kristen, they played Strokin'. That song always makes me think of Mardi Gras. But I have to say, I don't think I ever realized how racy those lyrics are! I mean, I knew they were, but I guess I never listened that closely before LOL

New Jib Jab

I love the JibJab people. Nucking Futs - A Year in Review

Who Dat?!?

How bout them Saints?? Ok, right now, the Saints are the only thing about Louisiana I'm feeling good about. Reelecting William Jefferson?? Blanco putting on an eye patch at the Special Session...oh I was so embarrassed.

Not much else going on. Saturday we hit two birthday parties. Sunday we all went to church...fun! Not! LOL

I was really proud of Eva yesterday. My parents took her to a Christmas parade and they got there late so they were at the end of the route and a lot of the floats were out of stuff by time they got to them. My mom said that it didn't bother Eva and she kept telling everyone Merry Christmas. There was one lady that told Eva she didn't have anything left to give her. She said that was ok, Merry Christmas anyway. So the lady took this huge stuffed Santa off the float and gave it to her. My mom said that Eva had so much fun and shared her stuff with all the other kids around them and she was talking to all the people passing in the parade. I'm glad she behaved so well.

Other than that, I'm just stitching away on my mom's Christmas present! I should have it finished by the end of the week I should think. Maybe not the finishing, but all the rest.

Where to start??

Ok...well the 3rd serial killer in South Louisiana was finally caught last week. I had to laugh on Criminal Minds recently when they said something to the effect that it was really rare to have more than one serial killer operating in any one area. That's 3 caught here in the last 4 years. And there's at least two more operating...one officially the I-10 killer and another that hasn't been officially acknowledged but when Derrick Todd Lee was operating all the profilers identified it as another serial killer, but local officials seem reluctant to declare it as such. Do you see why we have so many?

Thursday was taken up with Eva and an ear infection. I felt so bad for her Wednesday night. She was practically hysterical from pain, but I had given her everything I could think of. Since Katrina, you can't get in an emergency room for hours and it was already 2 am and her doctor's office opened at 7, so I really wanted her to hang on until then. Plus, our ER copay is $300 and the doctor copay is $20, so that was another big thing. So, I had driven her around earlier to help her go to sleep and that worked in the car, but when I brought her inside she woke up again. So at around 2:30 I couldn't take it anymore, I was going to take her to a small hospital that hopefully wasn't quite so busy, but she feel asleep pretty hard on the drive there, so I turned around and parked in the driveway and slept in the car with her. We got her to her regular doctor and got her all medicated and she's doing much better. That was the first ear infection in like 2 years. I'm really pleased she went that long!

Saturday we went to a little party my mom had. It was a ladies social type thing. There were a lot of people there! And so many kids! I saw people I hadn't seen in quite awhile. Ms. Laurel was there with Amanda and her new baby which she named Darren in honor of his uncle that died a year ago this week. His death still really upsets me in way that I would have never thought. Ms. Lauren was there with a herd of daughter in laws and their kids. Amy was there with her new baby. She was brand new, like 2 weeks old. Her name is Jewel. We (as in our family) didn't even know she was pregnant much less just had a baby! Anyway, it was a good time and the girls behaved wonderfully. Lauren just attached herself to "Titi DeeDee", it was cute. Eva couldn't say Auntie when she was little so now all the aunts are Titis and all the uncles are Kikis.

Then I got to watch USC's shameful loss to UCLA. Yay!! Man...I loved it! And those Saints were looking pretty fantastic again today!!

The girls are playing outside as I'm typing this, every now and then one runs past the window and it's so funny bacause they're all bundled up, but they have their fairy wings on over their coats. Oh and are my kids morbid or what?? Last night they were playing Dead Fairies. One would be dead and the others would fuss over her and ask her not to be dead. At least they weren't fighting I guess!

Thanksgiving

#5 That’s where LSU ranks in the BCS standings!! Yay!! That game Friday was fantastic!

So, to catch up…Wednesday we went to Eva’s Thanksgiving Feast at school. It was very cute. They sang songs and said a poem. I was surprised, because normally Eva doesn’t participate too well in front of a crowd, but she was singing loud and proud. I was pretty impressed that most of the kids knew all the words to the songs and the poem. After that they served us a Thanksgiving dinner. That was really amusing. I actually did take some pictures, but of course I haven't taken them off the camera.

Thursday we started off going to my mother in law’s house. That was nice. It was fairly quiet for a change. She has a rather smallish house and when all the men would get together it’d get super loud…even when they were all outside. The weather was very nice so we ate outside. The kids ran around and raked leaves and had a good ole time. Then we went to my grandmother’s house. That was nice too but we were getting tired by then. I have pictures of this too...LOL

Friday my mom and I left at 4:30 am to go shopping. We started with the intention of going to Kohl’s, but when we got there the line to get in the store was across the front of the store and down the side of the building. We decided to go to Wal-Mart next door. It was pretty wild in there, but we were able to get the stuff we wanted without much incident. My grandmother bought Eva a used computer for her Santa and I got her a Lexmark printer/scanner/copier at Wal-Mart for $29. I was pretty excited. We got a few more little things. My mom got like 5 Cabbage Patch dolls for $8 each. Then we went to the mall. It was pretty subdued there. I guess because there was more room for people to stretch out. We went to the Disney Store and there was a line just to get in the store. And the reason for that was you got 20% off your entire purchase if you got in the store before 10 am. Since it was 7 am we decided to go for it. I did so good there. I got a ton of stuff for Lauren and Maria. I waited in line for an hour and a half, but it really wasn’t too bad. I immediately got in the check out line before I even put anything in my basket. Since the line went around the whole store, I figured I’d eventually pass everything I wanted to look at. I found a lot of fun stuff on sale and on the clearance rack and all that was an additional 20% off too!

Saturday we did what seems like our yearly tradition. We went to LSU to see Mike the Tiger, play on the Indian Mounds, and walk around campus. Then we went to lunch at a little pizza place just off campus. Then to Target to get Christmas lights and get the Cars DVD for the girls. We had tried to go to the movies, but nothing was playing when we got there. So that was a consolation prize.

Yesterday I had to work the church nursery. There were 3 adults, 2 teenagers, and 7 children, three of which were mine. It was a pretty easy morning! Then we just hung out at home the rest of the day.

My grandmother is going to buy me a vacuum cleaner for Christmas and I’ve decided which one I want. I’m going with the Dyson DC15 Animal. I can’t wait to order it!

Birthday Party

I'd have to say that the party was a success. There were so many people there, that we couldn't have fit anyone else in the house. It was wild! We rented an inflatable bouncy castle (Spacewalk for us old people) and a Spin Art machine. Both were a big hit. She did very well in the gift department and got her very first prepaid credit card LOL She's so spoiled. I told James we ought to hold on to all the gift cards and use them for Christmas shopping because anything else she got right now would get lost in the midst of all the other stuff.

Oh and I made cherry cordial brownies from the recipe on the back of the box. They were excellent! Kristen, they made me think of Thelma Bars!

Saturday

I was going to post about something yesterday, but I kept getting sidetracked and now I can't even remember what it was.

Nothing much going on. Today I experimented with just taking one of the twins out running errands. It was getting way too overwhelming to take all three kids anywhere. Lauren wasn't feeling well this morning so she stayed home. It made the shopping experience so much nicer. We made it through three stores with no major meltdowns...amazing! We went to Kohl's first and fortunately we were there really early and caught some early bird specials. Then to Sam's for diapers and wipes. Then grocery shopping.

Earlier this week I was really pleased to learn that Bobby Jindal will indeed be running for governor. So it'll be a Jindal Blanco showdown again. I suspect that this time she probably won't come out on top since most of her base is living out of state and just can't bus people to the polls quite so effectively from Houston. She's also been accused of "ethnic cleansing" in New Orleans, which I found to be a riot. I'd say her base in New Orleans has completely turned on her. And her "Road Home" program isn't handing out checks like everyone thought it would. They've had that $6 Billion dollars for how long? And they've only handed out like 24 checks. I sure hope that 6 billion is in some really good interest bearing account. But she announced last night that since there's a 300 million dollar surplus in the budget she's going to hold a special session to give out raises and spend it on a bunch of crap that probably won't affect the regular people.

Tomorrow is Eva's birthday party! I think we'll actually have a decent turnout, I was starting to get a little worried. It's supposed to be cold and clear, no sign of rain!

My Round Robin is Home!

My Teresa Wentzler Round Robin has made it back home! My theme was TW borders. And I have plenty enough fabric for a second round...although that would be contrary to my promise to myself to cut back on RRs for awhile.



I still have 3 slots open for my Pay It Forward challenge

Weekend Update

My parents decided to get Eva her birthday present early. So Saturday morning we set out on the premise that we were taking Eva to pick out her cake. We went to a little bakery that's supposed to be the best in our area. She decided on a Bratz cake. It's a pretty cute design even though I wouldn't have rathered her pick something else.

Then we went to the bike store. Eva was so funny. She ended up picking out a periwinkle colored bike. It's so huge compared to her other bike. Then we went to Hobby Lobby and bought paper mache ornaments to decorate and I was struck with inspiration to get some christmas tree shaped paper mache boxes. We painted them when we got home and the girls can decorate them later and we'll put treats for their teachers in them. After that we hit the do it yourself pest control store and got stuff for ants. I'll just say that stuff worked really good! Then we had lunch and went home.

Sunday, I dragged everyone out to the Rennaissance Fair. That wasn't such a great idea. James hated it, he didn't like all the "weirdos" and I'll admit, there were quite a few. There were too many overly large women wearing way too few clothes. Eva didn't like all the people "looking at her". Maria had to hold on to me even though she was riding in the stroller. And the stroller was a bad idea because all the walkways were gravel and hilly and it was hard to push it. Lauren was pretty cool the whole time so maybe next year I'll just bring her without the stroller.

That's all folks!

Pay it Forward

Ok, I'm going to make the commitment...and do the challenge that everyone else is participating in. The first five people who comment to this blog with receive a handmade gift from me. I don't know what that will be yet, and please give me a few months to get them out. Make sure you leave your email so I can contact you for your mailing address.

H is for

"Comment to this message and I will assign you a letter of the alphabet. Then go to your journal and post a list of 10 words that begin with this letter and what they mean to you."

I volunteered for this on over at the Wonderous World of Whiz and got assigned the letter H

Horcrux-I've been listening to HP and the Half Blood Prince over the last few days
Hey-My most common greeting
Hornbook-What the heck are they for? I've always wondered
Hurt-My stomach is now
Hellacious-The way my kids act when they need a nap
Hoot Owl-I saw one on the way to work this morning sitting on my street sign, think that's a coincidence that it happens when I'm listening to Harry Potter?
Happy-My feelings about my life over all
Hate-Apparently my kids hate everything even if they like it, I don't think they really understand the meaning of the word.
Heaven-Getting to sleep late, in bed, by myself, in absolute silence
House Elf-I desperately need/want one and I promise I'd be really nice to it.

Voting Post Mortem

I'm so severely disappointed in the people of the 2nd District of Louisiana. You gave William "I've got $90,000 stashed in my freezer" Jefferson 30% of the vote?? I'm praying that "Dollar Bill" loses in the run off. However, since the people of this state have a really annoying habit of reelecting incumbants no matter what they do, I'm sure that he'll win.

Once again I voted Libertarian for my state candidates and once again they lost decisively, but I think they're doing a lot better than anyone ever expected.

I've got my eye open for the Governor's election even though it's a long way away. If Bobby Jindal doesn't run, in one way I hope he does, in another, I hope he stays in Washington; then I've got my eye on Walter Boasso (that's BWA-so). He has a new website up, Get It Done Louisiana. He hasn't announced that he's going to run for Governor, but he's definately been doing the dance.

Neato RAK idea

RAK= Random Act of Kindness

Check out Ann's (and Annette's) blogs, they're doing something kinda cool. I'd like to do it, but right now I'm pretty tapped out as far as stitching goes for awhile. Maybe after the first of the year I'll be able to do something like that.

I'm Getting Nervous

I don't do so well having people at my house. It really stresses me out. All the cleaning and cooking and then the hostessing. Eva's birthday party is coming up (the 19th). I scheduled it for 2:00 pm, I figured at that time I wouldn't be required to serve an actual meal. We've done that in the past either gumbo or BBQ. But, everybody and their brother is being invited. So, now I'm stressing over what food to serve. I'm sure I can ask my MIL to make finger sandwiches. She likes to do that. And chips, veggies and dips. That's the easy stuff. But what else?? I'd rather fingery type food so that I don't have to worry about tons of forks floating around. Oh I just thought of something...cherry and jalepeno jelly poured over cream cheese and served with crackers. That would be something good and maybe a little different.

Ok, painters are coming over Wednesday....need to buy paint!

I'm just really praying it doesn't rain on the 19th. If half the people invited show up they really won't fit in the house.

Peace and Quiet

James took the girls to his parents house today and I got some blessed quiet time. Which I spent cleaning the carpet, washing and folding laundry, cleaning the kitchen, and taking everything off the walls in anticipation of the living room and kitchen being painted. I'm hoping the guy will be able to do it next week. Oh man, Eva just brought me a bag of cookies that my MIL made and they ware soo good. Chocolate chip and Pecan and really buttery tasting. The pecans were most likely out of her own yard. That's what the kids always do this time of year when they go over there. Pick pecans. They always come back so dirty. Oh well, it's worth it for the pecans and it's easier for them to pick them up since they're so much closer to the ground.

And a little funny story about me. I was watching the shows I had DVRed during the week. One was The Unit. I was watching it with all the windows open and our next door neighbor's lawn mower backfired. I about had a heart attack. My heart was beating so fast. '

Biscournu Exchange

I'm moderating the Biscournu Exchange over on the Rotation BB if anyone is interested in signing up!

An Interesting Bonus

I noticed something quite nice from my little oil concotion. This morning Eva had no knots in her hair. Normally brushing hair is a screaming fit, but it was done in like 20 seconds this morning and her hair is nice and shiny, but not greasy looking. I think it's definately something I'm going to stick with for the long term. Buying those oils is rather expensive, but a little goes a long way I'm hoping.

I've Been So Busy!

This weekend, I discovered lice on the girls, actually I never saw any of the gross creepy crawlies, just the nits. After all my efforts to NOT get it! So Sunday I had to treat everybody on the assumption that we all had it. And I vigorously cleaned the entire house, and washed all the linens. They've been egg and nit free for 3 days now, so maybe I conquered it for now. I did a little poking around on lice deterrents, and found that rosemary, lavender, and tea tree oil are natural deterrents. So I stopped by the health food store and picked those up and made up my little concotion. It smells pretty strong. I put a few drops in our hair last night, the girls didn't like it at all. This morning I put it on the brush as I brushed hair, and while they still didn't like it, it wasn't quite as strong.

I've been super busy at work lately, lots of new work bidding finally!

Then we had a Halloween party at Sunday School, a Halloween Party at School and then finally Trick or Treating last night. I couldn't believe how many people were out last night. Tons of kids were out. At most of the houses people were just hanging out in their driveway. There might be 3-4 different families at each house giving out candy, so the kids really racked up. It reminded me of a big block party, but it covered the whole neighborhood.

Tonight I have to go shopping for Christmas outfits so the girls can get their portraits done. My mom wants new pictures done. Plus, I have to buy paint. My parents are getting my living room/kitchen/halls repainted as my Christmas present. We really really need it. We have matte paint now on the walls and you can't scrub that, so we have crayon marks all over the place and Magic Eraser just doesn't work on matte paint. I think I'm just going to keep the color pretty much the same.

Oh and we managed the Greater Baton Rouge State Fair in there too. Lauren completely surprised me. She's normally quite shy. They had a big petting zoo type thing and she just marched right on in there and started petting all the animals.

Here's the link to the Picturetrail Album for the last few days.

Random Thoughts

I'm working on a huge job right now that's taking me foreve, so I'm taking a break.

The other day this guy came to the office, he likes me because I do free work for him, but little does he know that come Christmas he's going to be paying up. He was looking at pictures of Lauren and Maria and asked if they were twins. I said yes, and he asked whose they were. I said they were mine! And that the 4 year old is mine too. He said I didn't look old enough to have kids that old. I told him I was 29 and he started freaking out. He said that I looked about 20. Then I told him the story about me getting carded at the movies by a girl that was like 14. He laughed and said he actually thought I was like 16 or so, but didn't want to hurt my feelings. I'm like hello? I work here all day, did you think I dropped out of high school? Anyway, that made me feel good. I guess my lack of tanning over the last several years has paid off.

I was also thinking about the proliferation of the term "broke back" into people's everyday speech as an alternative to gay. Like "he was looking at me in a broke back sort of way" or "don't go getting all broke back on me". Isn't that weird? Supposedly practically no one saw that movie. I did. Eh, nothing special.

And thinking about that...not too long ago I was at lunch with a Baptist minister. Somehow we got to talking about homosexuality. He made the comment "I know not all homosexuals are pedophiles, but enough of them are." Enough of them are what? To all be painted with the same brush? I wanted to ask him what percentage of pedophiles are homosexual vs. heterosexual. I'd think that if you're going to paint homosexuals with the pedophile brush, you'd have to do the same thing with heterosexuals. Anyway, I just kept my mouth shut. I knew it wasn't even worth trying.

Monday I went to the doctor to go over lab work and get refills. I was hoping to get generics on two of my medications so I could save some money. On one, I'd have to take it twice a day instead of once a day, so that wasn't really a fantastic idea to me. Then the other one, he said that the side effects are much stronger, I told him that was ok. But then he said that he wanted to take me off that one and put me on another one. One that's injectible. So, that's an even higher copay, plus a needle copay. And then he wanted me to start yet another prescription. So instead of coming out of there paying $50 less per month, now I'm paying $65 more per month. I hate that. But I really need it. I've got to lose this weight and get my body back to some semblance of normalcy. And I can't really complain. That injectible medicine without insurance is like $200 per month supply just on it's own.

Ok, I guess I need to go back to work now.

No Clever Title

Lauren and Maria did great Tuesday and they had a lot of fun. They were happy to go back today. Even though I'm having to make personal financial sacrifices (that I'm not happy about!) I think they're going to really get a lot out of it.

I did talk to Eva's teacher yesterday. She's going to start their class on reading after Christmas. I finally remembered to ask her if she knew what Ascension Parish School's approach to reading was. She didn't know for sure, but she teaches phonics based reading. I was really happy about that. My cousin started reading in some whacked out way where they just memorized long lists of words, no phonics at all, and that just made no sense to me. What do you do if you come to a word that you haven't memorized? Anyway, I'm really excited about her teaching them to read.

I finished my section on Kari's RR. I did Peacock Tapestry Ornament.

I also got my act together and finished Eva's Name Tree (look at it from the side, it spells out her name). It's stitched on 28 ct. white opalescent lugana. I'm going to do Lauren and Maria's next. I got a piece of Silkweaver's Opalescent Rainbow Lugana from Marjean to do theirs. I just need to pick threads and beads.


And I can't remember if I posted this before or not. This is Sweetheart Tree's 2006 Ornament. It was a really quick stitch. It's on 28ct. Natural Linen.

First Day

Today was Lauren and Maria's first day at pre-school. They've been all excited about it for the past few days. When we were getting out of the car, they both got a little nervous, but Eva held their hands and walked them in. I was really surprised. Once we got inside they were totally fine. When I got everything all put away, I told them it was time for me to go. Maria just said "You'll be back?" and I told her I would, and that was that. They were just like "Ok, Goodbye".

We had to finagle a little deal to get them in. They don't have any openings in the two year old room. They've been on the waiting list for like 4 months. They kept telling me they had room in their Mother's Day out program for them, but that's only from 9-12am and that's not good for my mom, because she'd have to drop them off and pick them up. And you can't make it to Baton Rouge to run errands and be back that quickly. So, finally the manager asked me if it would work to drop them off in the morning when I drop off Eva and let them stay in the 2 year old room until Mother's Day Out starts and then move them over to that room and have someone pick them up at Noon. My parents said that was perfect for them, so that's what we're doing. I think it'll be good for them. They really need the stimulation. They're so smart and just so desperate to learn new things. I think they're going to really like it.

Yesterday, I took James to do his colonoscopy. There's a family history of colon cancer, that's why he started them so young. He was fine. He was pretty hilarious when he first woke up and he doesn't even remember most of it.

I got him home and got him all fed and relaxed, then I took all the girls to their doctor for all their check ups and immunizations. Turned out Lauren and Maria were all caught up, but Eva had to get three shots. She did pretty good. She stopped crying pretty quickly. They tried to do an eye test on her, but she was being too silly. Lauren and Maria were both above average in height and average for weight. Eva was completely off the chart in terms of height and in the 98% percentile for weight. She's exactly 4' tall. He said that was good though, because she's more "symmetrical" now, she used to be in the 99% for height and in the 70% for weight. Eva and Maria did perfectly fine. I discussed my concerns about Lauren and her stomach issues with him, but he seem to think it was anything very serious. She's also had a problem with a rash on the back of her knees. He said it was excema. And just use OTC stuff on it. After that, we dropped my mom off at her doctor's appointment.

Stitchingwise, I'm really annoying myself. I have two little projects that I'm almost done with. It's just a matter of a just finishing them!

Wow! It's been awhile!

Today is my sister's birthday. We're just going to dinner I think. I need to get her a present.

Our cat is no longer pink. I don't know what to do with this cat. He's a nutjob. I don't know if he's really crazy or he just seems that way in comparison to our old laid back cats. He'll just bound out of nowhere and attack me, not in a bad way, but a playful way. Or he'll do the licking thing which drives me crazy. It's like he has some sort of compulsion. I'll push him away or push him off the chair and he'll jump right back up and start again. The other night I covered myself from neck to toes with a blanket and he still got in there. There must be something on my arms that he really likes the taste of.

I received my fabric for the Stab and Stash Ugliest Fabric thing. I picked JBW's Blessings to stitch on it.

Do Not Adjust Your Monitor

Our cat is really pink. At first just his head was pink because Lauren colored him with sidewalk chalk, but then he must have gone outside and rolled around where they had colored because now he's ALL pink. And it's not coming off very well. I think his fur is dyed. Eva told me not to worry about it because Jesus would take care of it. She pulls out Jesus at the oddest moments.


I got this cute little picture of Lauren and Maria. They were hugging each other and telling each other that they were Best Friends. They're all about Best Friends and whether or not they are are are not someone's Best Friend. I thought this would be a good picture to save and show them when they're teenagers and hate each other.

I finished my punchneedle project finally. And I got my first mail art. Thanks Marjean! And my Stitcher's Lane RR made it back. I need to stitch my house and then I'm going to do a border.

When the Saints Come Marching In

So, if you didn't know, there was a little football game last night down the river. Could you NOT know? LOL I was pretty shocked. The Saints actually looked like a real live professional football team. However, conspiracy theories are abounding that the game was rigged so the Saints would win. And I admit, before the game started, I asked James if he though the Falcons would throw the game. He said no way. Then at that first blocked punt, I asked him if he still thought that. I really kind of thought it was going on. I mean really, can you imagine what a crushing blow it would have been for the Saints to lose that game? On the other hand, I have a deep, deep respect and adoration for Warrick Dunn and I can't imagine him being compliant with any sort of cheating or game throwing, but you know I'm biased there. I do agree though that Atlanta was probably just completely unprepared for the level of emotion in the stadium. I don't know. I guess I could go either way on it. I really do want to the Saints to do well, I'd love for them to actually be in the playoffs. How great would that be? And as much as I hate hate hate USC (ha ha!) I thank them for Reggie Bush.

(Ha ha, this guy just called in and said that Bill Clinton put in the call for the Saints to win, so that people would talk about the Saints and not his meltdown on Fox)

Oh, and the other thing I couldn't stop thinking about during the game was Jim Mora's unnaturally smooth skin. He almost didn't look real.

Weekend Update

Nothing too exciting happened. Just the same ole same ole. Eva did throw me a birthday party though. My mom took her shopping and Eva picked out all the decorations and party supplies. She also picked out the cake, The Little Mermaid. My mom said that Eva told her that I said I really wanted an Ariel cake. It was cute.

I stitched the Sweetheart Tree Joy ornament out of the 2006 Ornament Issue. It only took a couple of hours total. I started it Sunday afternoon and finished it Sunday night. There was a nap, supper and laundry thrown in between then too. I'm debating how to finish it. I think I might do that whipstitched backstitch thing, because I'm not even going to attempt to sew something that small. I've got the Christmas stitching bug now. I pulled out all my old ornament issues and a couple of small patterns to think about.

There's a State wide vote Saturday. I'm very decided on the Commissioner of Insurance election. I'm going with the Libertarian candidate. The other two candidates (both Republicans) are both entrenched Louisiana politicians both are accusing each other of being crooks, so I'm going to go on the assumption that they both are. Practically all the Commissioners of Insurance go to prison in this state for being crooks and theives. So, I'm going with the unknown. From his resume, it looks like he's the only one with any insurance experience anyway, and he was an interpreter for the Department of Defense, so I imagine he probably had to go through some serious scrutiny to get that job since he's Syrian born. The other Election is for Secretary of State. I don't know how to vote there. My gut goes with one particular candidate, but he's another entrenched politician. However, I've met him on several occasions and I didn't necessarily get bad vibes from him.

Also on the political front, my husband has committed blasphemy. I got a "Don't Blame Me I Voted for Jindal" bumper sticker in the mail. He was Gov. Blanco's opposition in the last election. Anyway, he scratched out Jindal and wrote Kerry. The horror!

What a difference a day makes

Yesterday morning it was 55 degrees and very low humidity. This morning it was 80 and like a steamroom. You could feel it yesterday when the winds shifted around from the north to the south. It's supposed to be stormy all weekend.

No matter, LSU is going to crush Tulane. My Mirabilia RR finally made it back into trustworthy hands. My Stitcher's Lane RR finally made it back home. My parents are taking me out to dinner tonight. My mom and I ran errands yesterday and we ended up getting dinner out last night too. Two nights of no cooking!! My grandmother took me shopping yesterday and I got three pairs of jeans (a size smaller!), a causal outfit and a dressy outfit. TV finally doesn't suck anymore. Tomorrow is my birthday. Can life just get any better than that?

Yesterday I watched a cute little movie. It was called Southern Belles. It had Alex from Gray's Anatomy playing a police officer in modern day Georgia named Rhett Butler. There was a scene where this little kid walked up to him and asked his name, he said "Rhett Butler, what's your's?" The boy answered, "Atticus" LOL And he was dressed just like Dill. I thought it was so funny.

Double Dose of Slater

He wasn't on just once last night on Dancing With the Stars, he was on Nip/Tuck last night too. Nekkid no less! I think he looks better with clothes on. I wonder if his character is a one time thing or what.

Not much going on. Lauren and Maria had their first dental appointment today. It went well. No problems. I thought he might fuss about them still having their noo noos, but he didn't, he just wants them to use a different kind. It was funny because he looked at Maria first and then when he looked at Lauren he told the nurse to write all the same things because they were exactly alike.

That's about it for today!

2-0??

That can't be the Saints record so far? Winning two games? In a row? I have to say it was a pretty good game too. I don't have anything to say about the LSU game. The officiating seemed a little unfair. The announcers seemed a little biased. Ok, nothing else to say. Zip! The team did play hard and just came up short. Ok, I'll stop. LOL

Didn't do much else. I worked on a punchneedle kit that Stasha RAK'd me with a while back. It's turning out cute. I can't do it for very long because it makes my hand hurt after awhile. I'd say I'm about half done with it. I think if I work on it a little bit every night I could probably finish it this week. I continued on with the never ending vines on my Sweetheart Tree RR. I'm so ready for it to start. And I worked on Wendy's Foldable Book RR. I'll have the front cover finished this week I think. Then I'll pick one of the inside pieces to stitch.

Eva had her first day of Sunday School yesterday. I think she enjoyed it. Then Lauren, Maria and I went to church. They didn't behave as badly as I anticipated, but I kept feeling like the Mass was running really long. When I got out, I ran into one of my co-nursery workers who had a watch it had run nearly an hour and a half and we skipped out after communion. Annmarie...remember Father Reagan who had Mass over in like a half hour? Of course, there weren't nearly as many people to run through the communion line. One time they said that there are approximately 900 people at the 9:30 Mass on average. Anyway, Mass running long, Father Eric started out his homily about addiction which was you know normal, then he got on this tangent about some book he read about a priest in a prison camp in Siberia, and he kept going on and on about the book and never said the name of the book.

There was this dad with a newborn baby at church and the poor baby was screaming it's head off for at least 10-15 minutes and he couldn't do anything to console it really. Then finally the mom comes in the crying room with a bottle and they try to feed the poor thing. It started screaming even more. I wanted to tell them to get that baby some Mylicon and take it for a car ride that God would forgive them for leaving early, but you know, you can't tell other parents what to do with their kids. The baby did eventually fall asleep, I think from sheer exhaustion. Then a new thing started, there were like 3 moms in there with little babies and the moms were bouncing them around, but they were like REALLY bouncing them, I'm sitting there like what the heck, have you people heard of shaken baby syndrome, and the moms are getting frustrated because the babies won't stop crying, well duh, they're probably trying not to throw up. Now Lauren and Maria thought it was highly amusing, they kept going "shake me, shake me" LOL Anyway, I guess it's times like that that I feel a lot more confident in my parenting skills. Well, at least my comforting skills.

A Weight Lifted

I've finally made the decision public that I'm ready to hand over the ownership of the JPC board to someone else. I've been thinking about it and looking for alternatives for like a year, but nothing was really working out. So I offered it up to the participants on the board. I've been really nervous about this, but now I feel pretty content with the decision. Hopefully, it'll all work out nicely.

I've felt myself being drawn away from the stitching boards a lot. Not for any one particular reason, mainly just avoiding temptation of wanting to buy stuff. Truth be told, they've all slowed way down, so there's not much holding my interest. A board owner/administrator who has lost interest in their board and doesn't keep up with it drives me crazy and I don't want to be one of those people. Plus, I've been trying to foster more "real life" relationships (that sounds terrible to my online friends because they're real people and real friends, but you know what I mean). So once I get home, we're pretty much out in the neighborhood until it's time for the kids to go to bed. From that point on, that's my time, and I'd rather spend it stitching than checking the boards.

I'll still be around the online stitching community. I still like to lurk and offer tips here and there. And I'm addicted to Round Robins so I have to stick around for those!

Feeling Better

That prednisone works really well, unfortunately it makes my face really red, so I look a little silly right now. I can breathe clearly now and I'm just a little stuffy. James is sick now or he says he is, he's a wicked hypochodriac sometimes.

I was really proud of Eva yesterday. I asked her teacher if there was anything in particular that she thought we needed to work on at home. She told me that Eva and one other boy are far more advanced than everyone else in the class, and that there were some things that involved certain concepts and she's the only person in the class that understands it. Then after school we went to the library and one of the other teachers was there and she told me that Eva is really well behaved at school and that she was very quiet. Unfortunately, I think she gets all her loudness out at home. Not just typical little kid fooling around, but she talks really loud sometimes. Then, if that wasn't good enough, she cleaned the living room last night without me asking. So she got some quarters for her piggy bank.

Lauren and Maria are doing great. Their conversation skills have picked up a lot over the last couple of weeks. I think it's so funny to listen to them have a conversation together. The other day they were talking about the bo-bos they had and how they'd have to wait and get bandaids from Nana's house. Now mind you, that these were like ant bites from 3 days before so they were practically healed. They're obsessed with bandaids and I'm just not a big bandaid person. Unless it's dripping blood, I don't think you need a bandaid for it, but Nana indulges their bandaid love.

Ok Nip/Tuck fans, am I the only one that's really not liking the gay Christian thing? And I thought the Scientology thing with Matt was pretty amusing. I figured it was going to be some sort of cult that he was getting in to, but Scientology was a cute little twist.

And we watched Dancing with the Stars last night...guilty pleasure. That AC Slater is looking pretty good, I thought that was pretty cute how nervous he was. Jerry Springer, I don't know, that's sort of weird. Joey Lawrence looks weird with no hair.

Ok, gotta run!

Grrr...I'm sick

Against my better judgement I went to the doctor today and it's a virus so there's nothing to do about it. I'm all congested and I can hardly breathe. I had some prednisone at home and debated about taking it, but figured I better not with out some medical advice first. But I did take Mucinex. So, what does the doctor tell me? Take prednisone and Mucinex. Although he did give me a prescription for a rescue inhaler, which I could have really used last night. So all afternoon I've been sweating buckets. It's about 65 degrees in the house and I'm still sitting here soaking wet, it's disgusting. I guess it's a good thing though right? Sweating out all the bad stuff right?

File Under:

Things I never thought I'd say with out screaming and jumping around like a girl: "Watch out, you're about to step on a snake"


Yes, that's a frog in it's mouth and it was still alive. That little guy was in our yard this weekend. A boy from down the street came over and took the frog away from it. Then the lady across the street came over and asked if she could have it to put in her garden. I told her she was more than welcome to it.

So my birthday is coming up

Every year I try not to get too excited about it, because I always get pretty much the same stuff. I guess I still have that childish expectation that I'm going to get something fabulous. I always get money from my grandparents, money from my parents and something from James, usually money too. (Family take note!) However, since I can't spend any money on cross stitch stash, I've tried to make it clear that if they intend for me to spend my money on that then they need to get me gift certificates (SB&B or SW), or buy the stuff I want for me. I've had a wish list on the fridge for a few days now, no one has commented on it, so I don't know if it's been noticed or not.

Other than stitching stuff, there's usually not a whole lot else that I ever want. I found that really changed once I had kids. I used to want bath stuff, well, I hardly ever get to stay in the bath for very long anymore, so it'd just be a waste to use any good stuff. And shoes, I love shoes, but my feet got wide when I was pregnant and cute shoes just don't fit anymore. And clothes, well, lets just not even go there. Then of course there's all that stuff that I want that are really just sort of a waste and there's no point in having now. Like, I want a Nintendo DS so I can play Super Mario Brothers. Or I want a laptop with wireless internet access so I can play on the internet and watch tv at the same time. Or an iPod would be great too. But those are sort of frivilous things that I could never justify.

Anyway, Labor Day weekend was just sort of so-so. We went to a birthday party for some kids that just moved in the neighborhood. We went to my mother in law's house for her birthday. Then after much passive aggressiveness, I left monday afternoon to visit a friend of mine for awhile. Of course, my mom and my aunt show up while I'm gone and James is Dad of the Year again, cooking, cleaning and watching the kids while I'm off screwing around.

The dad of the kids that we went to the birthday for has been really secretive about what he does for a living. He should have just made something up so I wouldn't be so curious. He told us he was a consultant for the government and that he goes overseas often, he made it pretty obvious that he didn't want to tell us, so we didn't press. Then at the party he James he was part of a Special Forces reserve unit. As we were leaving the party he told me he was leaving for Lebanon this week. I asked if he was going as a peacekeeper and he said yes, but he said it in a way that made me think he wasn't really telling the truth about that. So, I just told him that we'd keep an extra eye out on his wife and kids for him and left it at that.

Ah the drama of Henderson Bayou. LOL My life would be so dull without it. Oh and the drama of my stitching group, but I'm still pretty ticked off about it, so I'm not even going to go into it.

Somebody get me a gun

I need to go hunting. They just upped the price per tail for nutria rats. You can get paid $5/tail for killing those nasty things. I know where there's a whole herd of them. FYI, nutria rats are about the size of a small house cat but shorter, sort of like a beaver, but with a skinny tail. They're bad because they eat marsh plants and destroy the marshy areas. There was a big campaign a few years ago to get people to eat them, supposedly they taste ok, but I'm sorry that's just disgusting! Ah, only in South Louisiana

Hmmm...apparently the administration at LSU has changed up some of the songs that the band can play at football games. They can't play Tiger Rag until after half time because the crowd yells explitives at the other team. And they can't play Chinese Bandits because it's derogatory towards Chinese people apparently, and I think the explitive thing comes in on that song too. I can't imagine that it's really going to help. I don't think you can switch up song choice and make a LSU crowd polite company.

I finally watched Mr Smith Goes to Washington yesterday. It was pretty good. I don't know why I put off watching it so long. I'm reading The Rule of Four it's also fairly good, but I keep falling asleep so it's taking awhile. Stitchingwise, I'm working on my Floral RR. I think it's going to come out cute.

Oh lovely, in the wake of Katrina they had a big problem with keeping track of registered sex offenders. So, now they have a plan. If you're a registered sex offender and you have to evacuate, you have to go to a specific place (I think it's that urban warfare training site that I went to a few months ago). That's nice, I feel bad for the people that live around there. Let's just dump a couple hundred sex offenders next door. Surprisingly, no where else would agree to take them. Gee, I wonder why?

I generally don't question other people's parenting skills, but I really have to wonder about my neighbors sometimes. One thing I remember is they were letting their little toddler run around a big bonfire they had started to burn leaves. Then they tear around the neigborhood with their kids on a 3 wheeler, not a 4 wheeler, but a 3 wheeler which has been banned for what like a decade because they're so dangerous? They've gone through 3 dogs at least in the last 2 1/2 years because they keep getting hit by cars. So yesterday we were outside and the mom comes over looking for her daughter who is about 1 1/2. She was playing with the girls, which I didn't even realize because she has blonde curly hair and she just blended in. So they went back home. Then both of their kids came over and like 10 minutes later the dad came over looking for them. They all sort of wandered back home. Then at some point the little girl came back and fell in our ditch. Thank God, I was out there. Now keep in mind her parents are in their front yard, probably closer than I was, but I'm the one that had to go get her out. She's now covered head to toe in MUCK, slimy muck. So, I bring her back home. Her mom doesn't even change her clothes. As I was standing there talking to her, I said half to my girls and half to her (the mom), that it was time to go inside. After a few minutes I get all the girls back inside, and we're starting baths and stuff. Next thing I know, the little girl comes strolling in our house, in her mucky clothes still. So, I bring her back home and tell the mom that we've gone inside for the night. She's just like "ok". She wasn't even looking for the girl! You'd think after all the dogs that have gotten run over that they'd be a little bit more aware of their kids.

Ok, I guess that's about all for today. I'm a little scattered. Can you tell? We have a birthday party to go to tonight. Ugh, these are kids we just met. A three year old girl and a five year old boy, what the heck do you get them?

I feel better today

First, only THREE MORE DAYS !!!! (that's the beginning of LSU football) My dad is ordering the game on Tigervision and they're playing ULL so it better be a blow out.

I got some sleep last night and that helped. Although a storm came through at about 4:30 and woke me up, then Eva woke up at 5:oo asking if it was time to wake up. I wish she could be like that every morning. Most mornings it's like waking the dead.

I stitched a little last night. I was happy that Janelle got taken off the block on Big Brother LOL I so want her to win this time.

And I cleaned the house and while it's a sucky thing to do, it does make me feel better when it's done. And since James wasn't home last night, I didn't have to cook supper, which is also a good thing. The girls and I are perfectly content with cereal or sandwiches.

I also watched a Katrina thing last night done by our local television station that was quite good. They didn't focus on racism, shocker since you'd think that's the only aspect of it. Anyway, they focused on how Baton Rouge and the surrounding area has changed. My parish's population has increased 11% in one year. Can you believe that? No wonder traffic is bad. And they went through the time line of what happened when and they showed their old footage from that day. They interviewed some engineer that's working on understanding what happened with the levee breaches. Apparently they're going through abandoned houses and looking for clocks to see at what time they stopped to get an accurate picture of how fast the water moved etc. I had to wonder how that could really work when most clocks aren't set for the exact time. And they showed their news crew putting down their microphones and instead of reporting they used their news helicopter to rescue people. Only the camera guy kept working, although there were some shots that were obvious that he had just set the camera down to go help. Anyway, it was much better than listening to a bunch of people complaining about what haven't you done for me lately.

All in all, I feel a lot better today.

____________________________________________

Shift gears. When Lauren and Maria were born we made the decision to get them their own beds. We all felt like they should each have their own space. Up until recently they did sleep in their own beds. But now, they pretty much insist on sleeping together. So I've been wondering about what to do when they grow out of their toddler beds. I kind of just always pictured something like bunk beds. But now I'm wondering if this sleeping together thing is going to last, should we get them just a big bed, like a queen size or something. Their room is quite large so there would be plenty of room either way. I've got awhile to think about it obviously, but I wondered if anyone had more experience with this than I have.

I Feel Myself Going Insane

All this Katrina stuff is making me crazy. James was watching some dumbass on TV blabbing about how we're all horrible people because black people died. Hello? White people, Asian people, Hispanic people died too. Does ANYONE remember that? Nooooo, because that just doesn't fit the agenda. I got so angry I left the room and wouldn't come back until it was over. Then he felt the need to taunt me about it when I came back. Why is it that some people have a deathwish?

Anyway, traffic is making me fricking nuts. I hate the beginning of the school year with a passion. We're now in like week 2, you'd think it would start getting a little better because people are getting accustomed to more people on the road. NO, each morning the main road that I turn off gets more and more backed up. This morning it was backed up past the point where I get on. That's at least FIVE miles!! Just a mere 3 weeks ago, you could travel on that road 50 mph all the way to the end. So I turned around and went some back roads and that helped, until I got to the end where you reach a main road. I was like the 10th car in line and it took nearly twenty minutes for me to get there so I could turn right, everybody else had to turn left. I was having a damn coronary I was so frustrated. I can't even leave earlier because I take Eva to preschool and I get her there just as they're opening. Today will be spent writing to my local elected official so they can get a clue that you can't keep allowing thousands of houses to be built and don't do anything about infastructure to support all those people. If you don't want to build bigger roads, then quit granting building permits. They've done it before!

And on top of all that, Lauren kept me up until about 3 am this morning. She has a cold, which isn't really a big deal, but she has a sensitive stomach. So, *just* as I was falling asleep last night she threw up all over her bed. I get her up and get her changed. Set her up on the sofa, and of course she's wide awake and feeling better so she's running around chasing the cats. Again, *just* as we're getting settled and sleepy she threw up again. So it started all over. And she was getting mad at me because neither Spongebob or Caillou were on. So, I'm going on about 2 1/2 hours sleep.

I haven't been stitching much either, so that's never good for my general happiness.

I finally got my computer back at work and they put all my old computer innards in a new case because they couldn't make everything fit in the old one. This new case has this blue LED light on the front that I guess is supposed to make it look cool, but I really don't like it.

Since I'm complaining, I might as well keep going. Tuesday is my stitching group night. Last Tuesday I couldn't go because James had a meeting. Well, that was ok, because they were going to have a smaller meeting on Thursday that I could go to instead. No, he had another meeting. So, yesterday he tells me that he has a meeting again tonight. Arrrrggggh!

Hmmmm, I can't think of anything else off the top of my head. On the flipside Ernesto decided he better steer clear of this crazy bitch so that's good. It's almost September, so that means only 2 more months of unbearable heat, and that's something to look forward to. Oh and I guess my birthday is coming up and I still won't be 30, so that's good too LOL

A Day Off

Today I had the day off. My parents went to Las Vegas so I had to stay home and keep the kiddies. We started off the day by going to the health club. This morning I got on the scale and I'm only two lbs. away from my pre-twins pregnancy weight (well, before I got sick for 3 months and lost 30 lbs.) So, I figured if I work out today, tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday I should burn off those two lbs. That'll be one goal down. The good thing about that medicine I'm one now is that once I lose it, it's gone, I haven't gained any weight since I started on all this stuff. I wish I could make it there everyday, but it just doesn't fit so well in my schedule. They're supposed to be opening a satellite club about 5 minutes from our house, but it's had the opening fall 2005 sign out there forever.

Anyway, after the health club, we went to James' work to show off the kids. I always get a kick out of going there because he's such a big wig LOL All the "yes, Mr. so and so" and "No, Mr. so and so" cracks me up. Coming home must be such a humbling experience for him. LOL Then we went to visit a friend of mine's store. She recently moved and so we went see the new store. Then we went to lunch and just as we got there, the bottom dropped out of the sky and it poured rain. So we got soaked. Then it pretty much rained the whole rest of the afternoon, but that was ok, because we all came home and napped. It was a nice afternoon.

But then, I had to watch the weather. TD #5 is out there now. The weather guy, who is also the State Climatologist was really emphasizing that we need to watch this one. Wouldn't that be ironic if the anniversary of Katrina was celebrated by getting hit with another hurricane? So I washed out all the apple juice bottles that I've been hording like a rat and stuck as many as I could in the freezer. Fortunately I don't have much food in there. We could definately eat it if a hurricane did indeed come this way. The refrigerator is another matter. But I'm not going to worry about that now, I'll worry about that tomorrow LOL (Gone with the Wind...get it?)

Baton Rouge in Critical State

Since Katrina, the entire Baton Rouge metro area has been bulging at the seams. I don't know if they've ever gotten any real census numbers since the number is constantly in flux. The current Mayor of BR is Kip Holden and I didn't vote for the guy, I didn't really like him, but since Katrina I've come really respected him because he's been very firm in what BR will take and what it won't. His criticism of Michael Chertoff was pretty amusing.

"I hope Mr. Chertoff doesn't have to go see the Wizard of Oz and get a heart and a brain," quipped Mayor Holden, "because the situation here is very critical."

Check out the stats at the bottom of the page to get an idea of what things are like here. The schools are so packed that in Ascension Parish they had to hire an additional 35 teachers on the spot on the first day of school and that's still not enough. In East Baton Rouge Parish, an extra 1,700 unexpected students showed up on the first day of school. They are so short on bus drivers that they're looking to hire at least 24 before the end of the week. And nearly every day the news leads off with someone getting murdered. I wondered to James why that's even leading news anymore. Supposedly, technically, the only violent crime that's up is armed robbery and that's "only" by 15%, but I seriously have to doubt that.

And Lord please help me make it through the next week and a half of Katrina memorials. I'm ready to throttle Spike Lee, and I'm tired of hearing about his blamefest finger pointing movie, excuse me, Requiem (in four parts no less). Perhaps they should have a regional blackout of Katrina memorials. They can show the rest of the country, but hello, we have to hear it every day, we don't need it plastered wall to wall until the anniversary. Which, unfortunately, is Annmarie's birthday right?

Ewephoria

I finished the Mosey N Me freebie today. For you non-stitchers the designer was Frank from Trading Spaces. Stitched on 32 ct. Hydrangea fabric, SMF I think.


And since I still had no computer at work I started another little freebie. Bloom from Country Cottage Needleworks. It's pretty tiny, I got most of it done at work. I may be able to finish it tonight. I've been in a freebie stitching mood for some reason.

And I got a cute little picture of Lauren and Maria (M on the left)

Maybe today...

I should be getting my computer back today. I'm really hoping they send it back with a tech and not make me try to hook it back up and then see if I have a problem. I like to think I'm somewhat computer knowledgeable, but sometimes the networking stuff is a little over my head.

The weekend was ok. Saturday we went swimming at the health club. Sunday we set up the kiddie pool and the kids swam in the yard. It's been hot. Other than that, not much else.

I watched Benchwarmers, I thought it was fairly cute. I also watched Rize, a documentary about krumping. Lil C was one of the features of the documentary and he's one of the choreographers for So You Think You Can Dance, so I wanted to see what the story was. It was interesting, the interviews and such, but the editing wasn't great. It was disjointed. It was hard to figure out what one thing had to do with another sometimes. If you watch it, watch for the church scenes towards the end. Being Catholic, I thought that was rather on the strange side, but I guess it makes church more interesting.

I finished reading The Program by Gregg Hurwitz. I really enjoyed that book. It's basically about a US Marshall trying to rescue a girl from a cult. Last night I watched a documentary about hazing in sororities and I couldn't help but notice the similarities in indoctrination techniques. I also started Year Zero by Jeff Long. I'm about 3/4 of the way through it. It's also pretty interesting. In a nutshell, a huge earthquake occurs in Jerusalem exposing a huge "landfill" full of bones and wood etc. from all the people that were crucified. Two guys go in and steal some of the debris for a museum and a plague is unleashed in the world. Scientists use the bones to see if they can clone the people from Year Zero who may have antibodies to the virus. And of course, one of the people they clone is Jesus Christ. The synopsis on the back of the book made it sound like the Jesus aspect was the main point of the story, but it really isn't. Now for those who would question how did they find Jesus' bones when he ascended body and soul to heaven, they didn't clone him from bones like they did other people, they obtained his DNA from a blood soaked piece of wood. You have to suspend a lot of disbelief in reading this story...I guess it's supposed to be futuristic to some degree.

In other news, I'm working on a little freebie from Mosey N Me. I should finish it today.

Divorce Part 2

In my last post I was talking about these people I know getting divorced. The first couple are Travis and Sarah. Now, I've known Travis my entire life. We were in diapers together. So, I'd be comfortable in saying that I know him fairly well, obviously not as intimately as his wife, but no one does. Everybody thought Sarah was a little too "churchy" when they got together, but he kind of got his act together and grew up so everything was fine. They've been married for like 8 or 9 years or so. Apparently, out of the blue, Sarah just up and moved out. Travis didn't even know, he was on duty and one of his coworkers came in and said she was moving out and that he better get home. She decided she didn't want to be married anymore. She had a masters degree and he was only a firefighter and he wasn't ever going to be anything else and she needed more. Well apparently in this confrontation Travis put his hands on her and she made this big issue of falling down and hitting her head on something. She had this police officer (who is now her boyfriend, but remember she needed something better than a firefighter) come and take pictures, so now Travis can't get custody of his kids. Now, I know Travis blows up, but he's never hit anyone that I can ever remember, ANYONE much less a girl. Apparently, Travis isn't the only person that she cut out of her life, she also cut her parents and her church out of her life too. So that girl just went off the deep end I think. But to me, I think in a case like that you just need to let her go for awhile and she's probably going to come back in a few months begging for him to take her back.

Then there's Donna and Jason. Another one just totally out of the blue! Unfortunately in this case, not only is there a child involved, but step children too. My mom saw Donna at the store and that's how she found out and told me and I saw Jason at the daycare (our kids go to the same one) and I mentioned it to him and he was just like "Well, what can you do?" I was just dumbfounded, what do you say to that?

One is a neighbor of ours. Actually this one has turned out to be to my benefit. The guy had a son from a previous woman that I couldn't stand. Destin. He was always wanting to come play with Eva, but I couldn't stand the kid. And he was one of those kids you feel bad for because he'd say things like "My parents said I couldn't come home until supper time". So you'd get stuck with him. He was like 6 and he couldn't understand why I wouldn't let Eva who was 3 at the time go ride bikes out in the street by herself. So, anyway, the dad and stepmom are divorcing so he's gone off with his dad wherever. My mom said that the woman was just so casual about the whole thing when she told her. I think if I were gettting divorced for reasons other than like abuse or infidelity I'd be mortified!

And speaking of infidelity, of course I think that's a legitimate reason for getting divorced, but I don't think it's the end of the world either. I know a couple where the police officer husband cheated with an 18 year old high school student that was one of his DARE students. But they got through it, and I know other couples that made it through that. When we found out about the DARE student thing James and I had a discussion about infidelity and I told him that if he cheated on me I could probably get over it. Although, I did make the stipulations that he better tell me about it and I don't want to find out from somebody that saw them out together in public and decided to let me know and that it would have to be a lust thing and not someone he was really in love with.

Arrrr...ok, I gotta run. My computer is still not fixed and someone else needs this one!!

I'm still down

My computer is still broken with no hope of repair in the future. Work people are just being stupid about the whole thing. Anyway...

I had a pretty good weekend. We went swimming and out to lunch on Saturday. I cleaned and cleaned and cleaned and the house still looked kind of messy this morning. That's so frustrating! I did wash and fold a ton of laundry so that's something I can actually see as being done. Eva had a little friend over on Saturday. That was an experience. Lauren and Maria really didn't know what to think about that. I guess James and Eva met another new family last night and either Eva's supposed to go over there next weeekend or they're coming to our house or something. I'm glad she's making neighborhood friends. And James and I actually got in some good quality time with each other this weekend which was nice for a change.

I worked on Jen's band sampler RR. I think it looks very nice. I'm going to mail it out today, but unfortunately I don't have my camera with me and I don't have a scanner hooked up to a computer that actually works, so I don't think I'll be getting any pictures posted.

I've been thinking a lot about divorce lately. Not for me or anything before anyone freaks out. I know a lot of people who are all the sudden getting divorced. My mom and I were talking about how people are just so blase about the whole issue and how they act like it's no big deal despite the fact that all the people we know getting divorced are people with kids. The reasons that they're getting divorced seem so petty too. I know couples that have undergone serious issues and managed to pull themselves together. I have more to say about the issue, but I'm out of time and I can't really pull my thoughts together fast enough. What are your thoughts about it?

What a Storm!

Yesterday afternoon we had one of the worst storms that we've had in a long time. Maybe since Katrina/Rita. The thunder and lightning was constant. They had a little counter thing on the radar channel and there was nearly 1,200 lightning strikes in 15 minutes. It was wild!

I'm having some computer issues. My work computer is dead dead dead. I'm hoping to get it fixed soon, but that's looking doubtful.

I did finish Nicole's RR. I'm on a finishing roll lately. I'm hoping to finish up two more RR things in the next few days.

Pretty Nice Weekend

Well biggest thing that happened was that Eva won a little prize at school for raising the most money for March of Dimes. She got a backpack with a T-Shirt, sunglasses, frisbee, and pen with bubble stuff in it. Her class raised the most money total so they had a pizza party on Friday. She was so thrilled about it.

My husband has been on vacation all week, so the girls have been going all kinds of fun places. Eva went to the waterpark twice last week and he took Lauren and Maria one of those times. They're all three going again today. He took Eva to the movies one day (Monster House in 3D), and Lauren and Maria got to go swimming at the health club 2 or 3 times too. He's in the running for Father of the Year I think. You want to know what makes me sick though? He's been taking off a day or two here and there all summer and now a week and a half, he still has 400 hours of vacation time.

Saturday he packed up all the girls and took them to his parents' house. So I cleaned, then my mom and I went shopping for awhile. Then I came back home and folded about a thousand loads of laundry while I watched a few more episodes of 24. I'm now starting Season 4! I also made good headway on Nicole's TWRR. I decided to do the border from Wedding Sampler.

Sunday, the girls and I hung out most of the day while DH took some time to himself. I worked some more on the TWRR. Then later that afternoon I decided to make Sundays Sweetheart Tree Sunday so I can get some work done on the upcoming Sweetheart Tree Round Robin. I decided to use the border of Sentimental Heart. I did the top and part of the sides last night. I initially thought that it might take forever, but the back stitching was going right along. I think the time consuming part will be that there's about a million rosette stitches.

Sunday night we went to a barbeque at my parents house because in the last 6 months or so a lot of new people have moved in the neighborhood. So we had a "get to know your neighbor" thing. The people that moved in directly next door to my parents have a 5 year old daughter that Eva had a lot of fun with. I'm glad she's going to have someone to play with finally. We finally met the people that moved in across the street from us. They're pretty nice. My dad is in love because the guy is a fisherman and he's got a fancy new boat. And it looks like the Saturday night LSU Football get togethers will continue. It seemed like there was a lot of interest. So that makes me happy.

We learned a lot of stuff about St. Bernard Parish aka "Da Parish". It was one that was very nearly wiped off the map from Katrina. The people who live across from my parents lost absolutely everything and they have their parents living with them and they also lost absolutely everything. And the people who live across from us, were from St. Bernard Parish. I didn't get the whole story of their situation though.

A RR Finish

Thanks everyone, I'm feeling much better now. It's more of an annoying sort of ache now rather than a stabbing pain.

I actually finished this RR on Friday. And let me tell you, I was so happy to have it done. Those pears were killing me. Actually, towards the end, they made me laugh because they started looking less like pears and more like certain male anatomy. I pointed it out to James and he thought it was pretty funny. Anyway, while quite detailed, this piece is stitched one over one so it's only about 2 1/4" x 2 1/4"



Here's the entire RR to date.

Pain!

Somehow, I'm not really sure how, I've torn the muscles between my ribs on my right side. It hurts, a lot! And I have a pretty high threshold for pain. I did finish Stasha's RR over the weekend, but I haven't taken a picture of it.

Just Nan's Frost Flower

Just a quickie post to show off my Just Nan Frost Flower. It's a little crooked in the frame, but I think that's because the fabric is just in there and not laced or anything

Ahoy Matey

Eva and I went see Pirates of the Caribbean this weekend. She insisted it wasn't going to be too scary and that she really wanted to see it. Upon the start of the movie she insisted that it was too scary and didn't want to watch it. After awhile of me covering her eyes she was ok and watched it. She says she really liked it, but I know better!

We didn't do much else. Friday night I stayed up watching 24 episodes. Sam, you were right, I kept doing the "one more" thing. I did finish my two pieces of Annette's RR. I only have a picture of one. I used parts of Elizabeth Designs Garden of My Heart.



I have another RR that I really need to get to, but this weekend I had a dull headache and I just knew that I couldn't deal with all the over one stitching on it. So I finished up Ewe and I and Friend's Sweet Exemplary. The fabric is 32 ct. Bo Peep Pink and the thread is Gloriana's Pomegranate.



Then because I finished that, I started Just Nan's Frost Flower. I should finish that today. I'm almost done, I just have two colors that I need to fill in and that should only take a few minutes. I have a WhimZi frame to go with it, so I'll have to see how well those things work out.

I'm on the Wagon

The Stash buying Wagon that is. What is that thing from AA, admit to yourself and one other person the exact nature of your problem or something like that? Ok, well I did that with my friend Marjean. We're hopping on the Wagon together. We set our end goal as December 31. Until then, we can only use our own stash or shop each other's if need be. However, I'm fairly certain that unless I need something really specific for a RR or something, that I won't have any problems with it. It's just the will power thing. In all actuality, I could probably last several years without buying too much else. I think I'd run out of fabric before I ran out of anything else, but I really have enough of that!

Let me just rant that the air conditioner isn't working at work. It hasn't really been for like a week, but it wasn't really unbearable. However today, when I came in, it was hotter in the building than it was outside. Today's heat index is supposed to be 105F so I hope that it gets fixed soon.

I just started watching 24 on DVD. I only watched the first four episodes, but it has me wondering....where the heck have I been?? This show is so cool!

I have been stitching...

And here are some pictures to prove it. This is the thing I made for my cousin. They bound their hands during the wedding ceremony with it. Which, I missed, because two little girls were being really bad. The Celtic Knotwork design at the ends is a freebie from Papillon Creations. The alphabet came from Lavender and Lace's Mother's Tree pattern. Oops should I say that? I'd sure hate to be in violation of some rule or something.



And this is what I stitched for Misty's Quilt Square. I had a really tough time deciding what to stitch on that fabric. Then I had a worse time trying to pick a thread color. In the end I picked that pattern because I have a thing for alphabets and I really wanted to stitch it. (It's a freebie from Better Homes and Garden, but the Australian version) And I let the ladies in my stitching group pick a thread for it. It's one of the new DMC Color Variation threads. I have to say that I really enjoyed working with it. I really made use of the fabric she sent because there isn't much margin from top to bottom. Hopefully there will be enough for her to sew around though.

We've adopted a new cat

Well, it latched on to Eva and won't leave her. I'm actually kind of happy because it'll play with all the girls whereas our other cats won't. So, I'm content to let it stay. Eva named it Angel

Wedding Pictures

Here are a few pictures from the wedding

This is Lauren in the car on the way over...note Eva sleeping next to her LOL








And here's Maria on the drive over













Here's about the only good picture I got of the bride and groom

And a few random shots of the girls

Here Comes Britney

Word on the street is that Britney is tired of Malibu and is planning on moving back to Kentwood, Louisiana. Her mother's home is apparently under going extensive renovation and expansion. She's also contacted an OB/GYN so she can have her baby in Baton Rouge in September. We'll have to see how long this lasts.

I'm around

I've been so busy lately. For the last couple of weeks I was working on my cousin's wedding piece. I finished it on Tuesday. I didn't take any pictures, but the wedding is this weekend and I'll definately take some pictures then. I'm pretty pleased with it.

Work is finally picking up again so I don't have so much time to play at work, but that's ok, it makes the day go by so much faster.

I started some new medication and it's given me this rather bizarre desire to clean. I don't like cleaning too much, but since I started it, that's all I can think about. Well, not really, but I've definately been cleaning a LOT. Now, with little children, you'd never know, but honestly, I have. I vacuumed the air conditioner intake vent the other day LOL Voluntarily!

I started working on Misty's quilt square. It's working up pretty fast. I'm hoping I might finish it before we leave for Houston this weekend. 5 hours in the car with three little kids. I can't even imagine the fun we're going to have!!

Looky at what I got!

Gill was ever so nice as to send me one of her sewing cases. I got the package and I could tell it was from Australia and I couldn't imagine what would be coming from AU. In one of my Round Robin's Lisa from Australia sends to me, but I knew she couldn't have gotten the next round, stitched it, and already sent it to me. So, instead of actually opening it, I stood there pondering what I had ordered from Australia. The customs declaration said it was a sewing case and I knew I hadn't ordered anything like that recently. Finally I got inside and opened it and I was so surprised. It totally made my day. My week! I showed it off to the ladies in my stitching group and they were all really impressed. So good job Gill! I think if you want to sell some of those, they'd buy one.

I've been plugging away on my cousin's wedding thingy. It's a handfasting dohicky. I'll post a WIP pic soon.

I think today I'm going to work on Annette's RR. I'm doing the house and some gardens from Elizabeth Design's Garden of My Heart.



Oh and I have some Dimples Designs Kits for sale if anyone is interested. I have Queen of the Bumblebees, Jeweled Scarab, Cramer's Blue Morpho Butterfly, and Cattelya Orchids which is also known as Paris When it Sizzles. They're $10 each or $35 for all 4

Mirabilia Round Robin Finish

I finished my section on Lisa's RR today. I did Lilly of the Woods at the far right. There's another fairy on there that wouldn't fit on the scanner, but you get the idea.



Next up is Nicki's Teresa Wentzler Round Robin. I'm going to jinx myself by saying this, but I think it'll work up in a day or two.

6 on 6/6/06

Today is my wedding anniversary. Six years today. I asked my husband what it meant that we were having our sixth anniversary on 6/6/06. He said it meant that I was the devil. I just can't seem to shake that reputation. Ha ha ha.

No exciting plans...again...sigh.

A Graduation Party

Last night we went to a graduation party for my nephew. I refer to him as the unibomber because he got expelled from his private high school last year for taking part in a called in bomb threat. You'd never know it from the family though, they all stick up for him like he had nothing to do with it. What a bunch of suckers.

Anyway, so the party was nice. They had a crawfish boil. I had one crawfish tail and a potato and I thought my lips were going to burn off, so I just stuck with the boudin balls after that. They were easily the best I've ever had.

While I was there I started wondering about the state of teenage boys. Why are they so gross? There were some there that were pretty good looking, but they were dressed like homeless people. There was one that looked really good from about the knees up. Below that were shaved legs and florescent green crocs. How is that going to win over any shallow teenage girls? Then there were a lot of them with that slotchy facial hair look. Shave that crap off! It was just bad. There was only one girl there. She didn't really strike me as the type of girl that would be too particular.

They also had a little kitten there. Someone had just dropped it off at their house. It was so cute. They wanted us to take it home, and I so would have if my husband would have caved. In the car home, he said he kept waiting for me to say I'd take it. It was soooo tiny. The girls loved it. Our cats won't go near them, but that little kitten was all over them. We should have gotten it, but we have 3 already and I doubt ours would be too happy with a new baby around.

That's all for today. I should finish my Mirabilia RR soon! Yay!

Two Finish Weekend

I finished that sewing box thingy for my mom. Unfortunately I didn't think to snap a picture of it, but I'll do that one day this week hopefully. It was much easier than I expected, however it was very time consuming. Next time I'll think ahead and make the box part ahead of time.

My second finish was Little House Needlework's Americana Sampling. I felt like an idiot. I've had this mostly finished in my stitching bag for months and never pulled it out. Last night I decided to go ahead and work on it, and I was able to finish it in just a couple of hours. Why was I such a slacker all this time?? Anyway, I'm going to pop it in a distressed white frame and give it to my dad for Father's day. I'm selling the kit leftovers for $10 if anyone is interested. I swapped out the original fabric, so that's still in the kit, plus the chart and the threads. There's plenty of all the colors except maybe one. Even in that one, I think there's enough to squeak by. You can email me at autumn.crochet@gmail.com if you want it.

Spongebob Addiction

In my kids? No! In my husband! We started watching it here and there because the kids liked it and we could both tolerate it. Then, I'd notice he'd put it on before the kids would even ask for it. It didn't bother me too much because I think the show is pretty cute some times. Well, this weekend he put it on every time it was on. We have like 4 Nickelodeon channels so it's pretty much on from 8 am to 10 pm. I was ready to strangle him! Hopefully this is just a phase.

Sick, so sick

I think yesterday was one of the worst sick days ever. I was in really bad shape. Lauren got sick on Tuesday, but she seemed to be ok by Wednesday. And no one else seemed to have gotten sick, so I thought we were in the clear. Thursday morning, really early Maria woke up and crawled up on my chest and then proceeded to throw up all over me. Pretty gross. Then when Eva woke up she threw up all over the place. So, I had to go to work to run a few errands then I went home. Good thing too. I can't recall being so violently ill. Once all the throwing up stopped the aches and chills started. However, I did get in a lot of sleep. I feel about 75% better today.

Here's the link to that Mirabilia RR The pattern is Enchanted Mermaid and that RR belongs to Diane in Australia. It's going to be so pretty when its finished.

I've also been working on my mom's birthday present. I was pleased with myself because I was cruising along on it so fast. Then I realized I made a mistake in it and I can't fudge it. So I need to cut out a lot of stitches. Bummer!

The Mirabilia RR

I'm still working feverishly on all the beading. I should have it done this evening. Watch this space for my final picture!

Potty Training

This is going better than I could have ever expected. Lauren and Maria pretty much got themselves started. We were really sort of hit or miss in the beginning until I hit upon the fact that they didn't want to use the potty chairs. They want to use the big potty. This does cause a lot of fighting over who gets on it first, but it's worth it to save a few diapers a day. They aren't 100% at all but they can tell me when they have to go and they usually go when they get on the potty, but they still have to wear diapers for the time being. It'll be a happy happy day when they're out of diapers!

Mother's Day Weekend

It started off good. I had friday off work because my dad was doing his heart cath. He came out of that fine. No problems whatsoever. I had the morning planned out, the girls and I were going to run errands. Our first stop was Hobby Lobby. Just as I pulled in the parking lot, Lauren got sick. So, we had to go to Exxon and clean her and the carseat up. Then we went to Wal-Mart to get her some new clothes. Then we went back to Hobby Lobby. (I really had to go!) Then we were going to go to Target, but none of us really felt like it anymore. So we swung by McDonald's and got lunch then went and had a picnic in the park. Then we went home and watched Nanny McPhee. I have to say that I really enjoyed that movie. I didn't even stitch while I watched it.

Saturday we all went swimming at the health club. Lauren and Maria really wouldn't get in. The kiddie pool has a ramp entry and they'd be about up to their ankles and that was good enough for them. I eventually just grabbed them and sat in the big pool with them so they'd get used to it. We were all doing good until this plastic tarantula floated by. It bumped up against my arm and I nearly had a heart attack. So, they were pretty much done with being in the water after that. Then I went stitching at my LNS for a little while, and DH took the girls home. It was nice, there weren't too many people there. Then I got to sit back as the house was cleaned. That was my Mother's Day gift.

Sunday we were going to a crawfish boil at my uncle's house. Nobody ever told me what time it was supposed to be. I assumed it was at lunch time. We always do stuff at lunch time. Well, this time it was at 4 pm. So we got there really early. It wasn't too bad though. I watched the kids while my aunt went shopping and my husband and my uncle went off somewhere, I don't really know what they were doing. My grandparents also showed up early. So then the kids wanted to go swimming. So, my grandparents and I were watching them while they were swimming. Thank God I was there, Eva got herself in the deep end and couldn't get herself back. I had to jump in with all my clothes on to get her out. So, I got to sit around in wet clothes for the next few hours. Anyway, eventually every one else got there along with the crawfish. The kids got back in the pool again, but this time some adults were in there. When we all got home, we just crashed. It had been a long day!

I can't wait to watch the Gray's Anatomy finale tonight. Looks like it's going to be good. The President's speech better not interfere with it or I'm going to be pretty cranky.