Too Many Starts

I don't know what's wrong with me. I'm not weighed down with any obligation stitching right now and I'm just drifting around with no discipline. Over the weekend I started Drawn Threads An Open Heart. Last night I started another kit. And even though I started both of those, I still want to start another one. I hate when I get like this. Then I end up with all these WIPS and no finishes. I need a slave driver or something like that to keep me in line.

I got a gift certificate from 123stitch from my Secret Stitcher yesterday. I was so excited. I sent Joanne my list of GAST threads and told her to send me whichever ones were in stock that my GC covered. Most of those were needed for all those freebies that I have that I'm vowing to stitch.

The Weekend

It wasn't the greatest. Friday night I started feeling kind of sick. Then I discovered the DVD player wasn't working so I couldn't watch any of my Netflix movies. So I watched Citizen Kane on TCM. It was ok. It was sort of like Casablanca to me, I just didn't get all the hype.

Saturday, I was definately sick. I didn't do much, we just sort of hung out. I watched Mutiny on the Bounty off and on (TCM is doing 30 days of Oscar, btw) Then that night I had a complete emotional breakdown. I was so sick and so tired and the kids were making me crazy and I kept cleaning and cleaning and the house was getting messier and messier. So, I retreated to a hot bath and promptly fell asleep. When I woke up, in a freezing cold bath, the house was clean and the kids were all in bed. So it was worth it. I switched out the DVD players and I watched The Cave and Lord of War. I thought both were ok.

Sunday, I woke up and couldn't talk, but I did feel a little better. James took the kids to his parents house for the day. So I went grocery shoppping and then slept for the rest of the afternoon. We watched the Superbowl and then Grey's Anatomy. I thought Grey's Anatomy was really good. I can't wait for next week!

As far as stitching goes, I started and finished this Elizabeth Design Freebie. It only took about 2 hours.


And my latest progress on Americana Sampling

Laura

I was very saddened to hear of the passing of one of my online friends. I always enjoyed reading her blog and was totally jealous of the gorgeous house she was building. My thoughts and prayers go out to her husband and family

Reading

I had this whole post about FEMA trailer parks in mind, but I don't really feel like talking about that anymore.

So, I'll talk about reading instead. I need to update my side bar. I was going to read Son of a Witch, but once I started I realized I was going to need to catch up with Wicked. I have a little irritation about that book. I swear I was one of the first people to ever read that book and I kept telling everyone about it and people thought I was weird and the book was weird. They make one little Broadway show about it and now everyone is all on the Wicked bandwagon. Ok, rant off. So I tried to read Wicked again and I just couldn't get into it.

So, I went back to Sue Grafton. Kari suggested it and I kept looking for the beginning of the series at the used book store, but they never had it. I have a little admission to make here. I'm extrememly picky about starting a book series at the beginning. I have to start reading at the first book. Anyway, I couldn't never find "A", then I found the A,B,C collaboration along with the D,E,F collaboration and the G,H,I collaboration. So, I got the first 9 books in 3 hardcovers.

I'll make another admission. I have a paperback book problem. I used to have boxes and boxes and boxes of them. I can read 3 or 4 a week if I'm in the mood. Because of finances I started going to the used bookstore rather than buying them new. Well, the storage issue got to be a real problem. So, I've been dumping my books at the used bookstore. Why didn't I do this sooner? How great is it to walk in with a sack of books and walk out with a whole new sack of books and it only cost a few cents? Yes, I'm aware that's pretty similar to a library, but I hate having to return it on their time and not mine.

So, I recently, got more of the Grafton series. I also started the JD Robb series. Another recommendation from Kari. They're pretty good. It's kind of amusing because it's set in the future and some of the stuff we have now is already on par with what we'll supposedly have in the future, but I can suspend disbelief. Anyway, I started that series too.

The only thing that will make my reading better is to find the perfect book light. I haven't been able to find one that I like. The kind that hook on to the book are always too heavy for paperbacks.

Quiz

I soooo had one of these



You're a Speak & Spell!! You nerd, you. Just
because you were disguised as a toy doesn't
mean you weren't educational, you sneaky
bastard.

What childhood toy from the 80s are you?
brought to you by

Stitchy Pictures Galore

Well, not really LOL

Here's my completed TWRR beginning. My theme is bands and borders. The border is from Camelot Sampler and the band is from Renaissance Bookmark.

My Just Nan Round Robin made it's way back home. I need to fill in the last two squares and figure out a border or something.




And since last night was the State of the Union Address I thought I'd start something patriotic. Here's my start of Little House Needlework's Americana Sampling.




February Goals are:
Finish Americana Sampling
Finish my package for my Secret Stitcher
Get and finish any RRs coming this way
FIND and finish that dumb Dimensions kit

Weekend Recap

Friday nights are usually my night to be at home with the kids, while James does his thing. It's been that way for years and I look forward to being able to catch up with what I want to watch and I usually stay up late stitching. I was sorely disappointed to find that my NF movies hadn't shown up. Then I had nothing on the DVR. How does that happen?? I had to actually watch television with commercials.

Saturday Eva and I did the grocery shopping. Fun! We had a party to go to in the afternoon so I picked up new outfits for the girls. At the party everyone kept talking about how tall Kate was and I'm sitting there thinking hello? Eva's only two weeks older than her and she's a head taller. In fact, this one lady overheard me saying she was four and she told me that she thought she was like a second grader. There was this other little girl there and she and Eva were the same size so I asked her how old she was and she was seven. I have a giant 4 year old LOL That's ok, she's healthy, cute, smart and well behaved. Lauren and Maria couldn't have been any better at the party. They had no qualms with all the people there and they played well. Everyone just gushed over them, so that made me happy. I was the one that did something stupid. I backed in to a buffet (like a china cabinet thingy) and it had a REALLY sharp corner. I was standing there in the food line trying not to cry it hurt SOOOOO bad. I have this really nice huge bruise on my butt. I still can't get over how much that hurt. I got a nap when we came home and then stayed up after everyone went to sleep and watch The Fog (it was ok) and Mind Hunters (pretty good) and stitched.

Sunday, not much, I got another nap (yay! It had been a long week). We just hung out. Did laundry and some stitching. I'm nearly done with my TWRR beginning, just some more backstitching and a few more evil Lazy Daisies. Here's a pic.

Chocolate City

January Goals Revisited

From December :

My official January Goals are:
Complete and mail out my Mirabilia RR (this will be done by Jan. 3)
Complete and mail out Jen's OT RR (I have pattern picked out, I just need to pull threads)
Complete and mail out Kathy's OT RR (I need to look over the available patterns)
Complete and mail out Sandy's SL RR (I think I'm changing my mind on the pattern I picked out)
Start next Mirabilia RR
Work on any other RR pieces that come up
Finish Dimensions Kit

So the Dimensions kit is going to be pushed to next month's goals. I started and finished the next Mira RR. I started and finished and mailed out the Band Sampler RR for this month. I sort of forgot about that one. I've started the TWRR and I suspect I may finish it before the end of the month.

Is that me actually losing weight?

Since Lauren and Maria were born I could not lose weight. I would try and try and try and I'd only gain more. I was getting beyond frustrated. My primary care doctor diagnosed an underactive thyroid and we finally got that going in the right direction. In December we upped my dosage again and I finally managed to stop gaining weight and lost about 2-3 lbs. However, I was still feeling like that just wasn't the problem and my dad had suggested that I see an endocrinologist. I finally had that appointment a few weeks ago. I had to wait 6 months for that appointment! Anyway, he said I was right and he suspects something else is going on, maybe Cushing's Syndrome. I'm waiting for some lab work to rule that in or out (after reading about it, it's kind of scary!). But he said that he wasn't even going to wait for my lab work to come back to start treating me for some aspects of the the problem. I started on some medicine for insulin resistance, which I thought was odd because I've been tested for diabetes repeatedly and it always comes back negative. Anyway, this morning I got on the scale and that reading was lower than it's been in a really long time. Hopefully the downward trend will continue!

Gift of Stitching

A Long Lazy Weekend

We didn't do much of anything this weekend. It was overcast and drizzly all day Saturday and Sunday it rained nearly all day. Lauren, Maria and I stayed home all weekend. James and Eva only went out for a little while to go to church and grocery shopping. I did a fair amount of stitching. I'd guess I'm about 2/3 done with my Mira RR section. Other than that we just cleaned...and cleaned...and cleaned. It frustrates me to no end how much I have to clean just to keep up. And I do make the kids pitch in!

Just a Few Pictures

I finished the Stitcher's Lane RR piece



And Kathy's RR (I stitched the paintbrushes)



This is the funny Hurricane thing they had at the zoo. Note the rescue worker's markings, the blue roof, and the taped up refrigerator...let me clarify that this is a picture of a houseboat in the Louisiana Swamp exhibit.



This really isn't funny, but I thought it was interesting. This was on all the plywood that covered up various exhibits. I guess they mark it for each hurricane they have to board up for. This one was in the Albino Alligator exhibit.

I went to the Audubon Zoo

And they all asked for you! (that's a song btw). So yeah, we went down to the zoo Saturday. Gorgeous day, but it was pretty cold and windy.

Upon entering New Orleans the first thing I noticed was that general maintenance seems to have gone by the wayside. There was just a ton of trash along the interstate and the grass hadn't been cut. At first glance it doesn't really seem like there's too terribly much damage, but there are a lot of blue roofs and a lot of buildings that have damage when you look closer. This far out and there are still a lot of businesses that seem like they haven't made any effort to repair anything.

We got, not lost, but not going the right direction when we got off the interstate. Again, it didn't appear as though there was much damage, but we kept traveling in a direction towards the Superdome. As we got in that area you could tell that the buildings in that area had probably chest deep water in them. They were all abandoned and it looked like they were tearing a lot of them down. We kept having to stop because big machines were filling up dump trucks with debris. Also, in this area there was no electricity. No stop lights, no street signs (which isn't good when you can't get where you're going!). Anyway, we eventually got on Clairborne and things seemed better. There was sporadic electricity and it looked like the houses didn't suffer much flood damage, but they did seem to have a lot of storm damage. There were lots of people out in that area doing community clean up. The one thing that I thought was interesting is that no one looked like they had painted over those markings that the search crews put on the doors. I guess it's one of the reminder things that will probably stay around for awhile.

Finally, we managed to make it to the zoo area. Tulane starts Tuesday so that area was pretty crazy. The zoo didn't seem to have any lingering damage. Nearly all the exhibits were open. They had some hurricane humor going on there. I'll have to post pictures later.

We got lost going home too. We passed through Kenner and Metarie and things looked ok. Traffic was horrible. The main thing is that there isn't much open. Not too many restaraunts and the ones that are open have strange hours. McDonalds was open from 9-3 and Burger King was 9-5. I didn't notice any gas stations that were open. I guess that's why neighborhoods that seems to be not affected don't have too many people living in them. Although, there were a lot of street vendor type things going on.

Anyway, that's my report.

Stitching I had a good weekend. I'm almost done with my house for the Stitcher's Lane RR. Just have the back stitching to do!

Autumn needs a Cow Quilt

A few weeks ago my friend Misty contacted me about a quilt project she was doing with her online friends. Everyone would stitch a square for her and she'd make it into a quilt. I love the idea and I must confess I was a little jealous :)

Then I saw a post with one of these French Cows. I just thought they were so hilarious. I started thinking that since they're all the same size they would be great for a quilt. Then the light went on and I realized I could ask all my online stitchy friends if they would be so kind as to stitch a square for me. Everyone could pick a cow that reflected their personality and I could wrap myself up in a quilt made of love from my friends.

So, dear stitchers, if you'd like to make a cow for me, I'd be so appreciative.

The particulars are:
-It has to be stitched on 14/28 ct. white fabric, you can use your own or I can send some to you.
-The fabric has to be at least 7" square (I'm making 6" blocks)
-You can sign your name (and location) anyway you like just as long as it stays within the 6" block)
-Let me know which one you'd like to stitch so I can make sure there aren't too many duplicates. Several are ok, because I was thinking depending how many I get I might make a coordinating pillow. Or I can just make sure they aren't close together on the quilt.
-You can also design your own cow if you can't find one that you like.
-My deadline is September 1, 2006 (that's so my mom can get the quilt done by my birthday, hopefully lol)

For informational purposes, the ones that are already being stitched are: Geisha, Strawberry, Giraffe, Pumpkin, and the Plain Ole Cow

My email address is autumn.crochet at gmail dot com

Autumn Needs

Summer posted a fun google exercise. Search for "(your name) needs" and pick your best 10

1. Autumn needs a home where people will be with her - she has severe separation anxiety.
2. Autumn needs a 4 hour blood transfusion daily just to save her life
3. Autumn needs no muse
4. Autumn needs a warm conservatory
5. Autumn needs a bass player badly (male or female)
6. Autumn needs your help
7. Autumn needs some slow conditioning work since she's been in the pasture for a while.
8. Autumn needs to come defend herself and whoop some butt
9. Autumn needs a new slogan, any suggestions?
10. Autumn, needs to focus and dowhat he does best, run past people with ball in hand

Ah, that was fun. I particularly like 7 and 8. Apparently, someone else named Autumn did the same exercise, I saw the link to the post in my search.

Think I need a new slogan? I don't have an old one....

Video Games

When I was young, I used to really like to play video games. We're talking some of the original games like Frogger on Commodore 64 and the original Super Mario Brothers on plain ole Nintendo. Then there was a period of time when I didn't play them. When I tried to start again, everything had gone super graphics and 3-D and beyond having trouble figuring out how to actually play the games, they made me really sick just to look at the screen. So that was pretty much then end of my video game experience.

For Christmas we got Eva one of those joysticks things with the games in it so you didn't need some sort of game console. We played with it for the first time last night and it was fun! Easy to use, easy games (sort of, some I thought were hard for little kid level), and graphics that didn't make me want to hurl. There's a slot in the joystick for other game cartridges so I'll have to check that out, or maybe buy another one for the living room TV with other type games.

Hmmm....thinking about it, I don't need anymore distractions! LOL

Vindication

Tracy sent me some terrible news this morning. However, I can't say I was really surprised to read it. This man was our advisor for the student radio/tv station. At the time he was all into the boys. Took them on little special trips, bought them all kinds of crap, etc. So eventually Kristen and I wrote him a letter and said that we thought his behaviour was inappropriate. Now, everyone thought we did it because we were jealous and wanted to join in. For my part, that definately wasn't the case. I felt like he shouldn't be doing that sort of stuff, outside of school, with students. Anyway, he got all defensive, showed it to the prinicipal, then resigned. We got in trouble with the principal and of course, Kristen and I were like pariahs because we made the wonderful Mr. Magno quit. Well, of course he came back, obviously he couldn't stay away. Now it makes me really sad because all of that didn't make him stop treating the certain groups of kids that he picked any differently and it bothers me that even with all that happened then the administration of the school didn't make him stop. Not only didn't make him stop, but let him come back for what? The third time? I just wonder how many other kids might come forward. In my heart of hearts I really feel like it was going on when I was there, with people that I know.

Dancing with the Stars

Well, I watched it last night. I missed the first two couples, but that's alright. I thought the wrestler chick was pretty good, very graceful. I also like that journalist, I can't remember her either. The sports announcer was a fool, but he might get better. Ok, now, I have to say that Master P doesn't dance for me. LOL I realize he only had a week to prepare so I can cut him a lot of slack. But hello? Can the man not afford a tailor? The pants were way too long. The clothes he wears makes him look bigger than he is. And those shoes looked like Scuba flippers. He didn't look like he was even trying, like he was too cool or something. Jerry Rice cracked me up, he did a fairly good job and I think once he gets more comfortable he'll be better. He's got really long arms. When he'd do his arm extensions it was like they wouldn't even fit in the camera shot. Speaking of camera shots, was the shooting terrible or was that just me? It was like they didn't know where they were going or what camera they were supposed to be on. I realize it's a live show, but so are things like the Superbowl and they pull off that without a problem.

I also watched 4 Kings, and I thought it was fairly cute. And I managed to get in CSI. They seem to be really reaching lately. I realize there are only so many crime drama plots to go around, but it's all been the same. I think for that show they need to get a little more into the character's personal lives. Like why did Nick grow a mustache and then shave it off? Is Warrick still happy with his marriage? Is Sarah still screwed up?

Well I finished Jen's butterfly (mine is the bottom left). I'm working on Sandi's house for the Stitcher's Lane RR. I didn't feel like pulling the threads for Kathy's piece last night. The house is a big ole house that was originally blue, but I felt like I needed to convert it to another color since her fabric is blue. I decided to make it purple. I think it's going to end up looking like Anne Rice's house.

Sucker!!

I have no willpower. Seriously, none. There was this round robin that was full and I said to put me on the alternates list in case someone dropped out. Lately I had been hoping that no one would drop out, because I don't need to be in anymore round robins. So Ruth emails me to see if I would fill in because a couple of people dropped out. Do I say no? Of course not!! I'm such a loser. Oh well, the Open Theme RR will be done for me in a couple of days. I'll finish Jen's today and then I'll work on Kathy's that I received early. The Stitcher's Lane RR should be done in the next couple of months. Then I'll just be down to the Mirabilia RR and the Band Sampler RR. The new one will be a Teresa Wentzler theme. I was initially thinking corner motifs, but in looking at some other round robins using her border sections, I decided to do that. They're just gorgeous. I already have fabric picked out and a pattern in mind. So, currently I'm way ahead of the game LOL

This morning was so bad. I needed to be to work early today. So I woke up really early, did the dishes, started the laundry, got Eva up and dressed and we were almost out the door and I brilliantly decided to start the car and get it warmed up. I locked my keys in my running car. It took about and hour and fifteen minutes for the locksmith to show up. GRrrrrr! Fortunately, it turned out to be no big deal.

I have to tell this little story about Eva. I keep laughing about this. They keep playing commercials for Chocolate Lucky Charms (Tracy!) and she keeps wanting them. I've given her every reason in the book as to why she can't have them. Finally, I just told her they were only for bad little kids. That finally kind of cured her of wanting them. So the other day she was being really bad. I sent her to her room and after a few minutes I went in there and explained to her that she was being bad and the first thing she asked was if she could have Chocolate Lucky Charms now. LOL Talk about backfiring!!

Rose Bowl

HOOK 'EM HORNS!!!!

I'm not a Texas fan in particular, but I just sooooo wanted USC to lose. Ever since their denial that LSU won the 2003 BCS Championship and did everything they could to take it away from them, I wanted them to go DOWN!! Ahhh, I feel better now LOL

Mirabilia Round Robin

Today is the first mailing for the Mirabilia Round Robin. I'm really excited about this one. Unfortunately, we spent Monday cleaning the garage. Between that and my allergies, I didn't finish my section. I used the pattern Forest Goddess for my section. The picture on the cover of the pattern is probably the worst I've ever seen. The colors are unbelievably washed out. In real life she's very vibrant. Here's what I did get done. Oh, and it's stitched on 25 ct. stitchband with 3 threads. Click on the thumbnail for a larger picture.

A Stitching Year in Review

One of my New Year's Resolutions is to be more organized with my stitching. Last night I actually started cleaning my closet. Halleluiah!! First task was to refile all my DMC. I now have 8 Sterlite Shoeboxes filled with DMC. I could probably actually even extend that as some of the boxes are pretty stuffed. James looked over it all and pronounced it "excessive". I told him he didn't understand that all these colors were different and you "need" to have extra skeins of each color in case you run out. I also explained to him that my mom gave me all her DMC when she decided she couldn't see anymore and the lady at Eva's daycare gave me 3 huge boxes of her grandmother's stuff, so it wasn't like I actually purchased much of it. I did find a bag full of DMC and a receipt for like $3 and showed him that too. That was from one of those good JoAnn sales and the cashier and the manager were having problems and couldn't get the thread to ring up and after much beating of the register they just charged me $3 for all of it so they could get to the next person in line. That was so worth the trip to New Orleans. Anyway, I think he felt a little better about it once he realized I wasn't spending thousands of dollars on thread.

Next, here's what I completed over the last year:
You Have Stolen My Heart
Victorian Valentine
Petal Fairy
Cherry Blossom Fob
Bunny Buns
I Love Strawberries
Happy 4th
Bug Collector
Teacher’s Row
Pretty Posies
Wintery Mix
True Friends
Coeur Romantique
Welcome Freebie
J Monogram
Nature Alphabet
Tis the Season
Princess Pine Mountain Pillow
Hinzeit Princess
Christmas Elf
Subversive Ornament
Psychedelic Ornament
Stitcher’s Lane RR: 4 houses
Open Theme RR: 3 pieces
Band Sampler RR: 3 Band Sections
Alphabet RR: 4 pieces

My Works in Progress are:
My Mirabilia RR Square (this will be finished by 1/3)
A Dimensions Daydreams kit
A freebie Bird Sampler
Lizzie Kate's Needle Nick
Mother's Tree
Peacock Tapestry
Brown House Studio's Black Cat
Mirabilia: Angel of the New Dawn, Under the Friendship Tree, Titiana, Enchanted Mermaid, Queen of Peace and Maidens of the Season
Doro Theos

I need to look at the Dimensions kit, there was some reason that I stopped working on it. I think it was a thread issue. Otherwise it shouldn't take very long to finish. The bird sampler is one of those French freebies. It's barely started. It's monochrome so it really shouldn't take too long. Needle Nick, sigh, I have about 1/3 done if I'm being generous. It's dull and boring and I'd like to get rid of it, but it's too expensive just to put up for adoption, so if anyone wants to buy it let me know. Mother's Tree, that'll get done. Peacock Tapestry, I think I have one side of one border done, I may need to reconsider my fabric for that one. Black Cat, I think I'm definately going to restart that one on a different fabric. It's just not working for me. Angel of the New Dawn, no excuse on that one, I just got bored working on it. She's probably about 1/2 to 2/3 done so I really need to just get back working on that one. Under the Friendship Tree, I need to remeasure my fabric, I think I stopped working on it because I started worrying about having enough fabric, because it wasn't cut straight. Titiana, no excuse really, just got bored with it. Enchanted Mermaid, I got side tracked on that one, I need to pull it out again. Queen of Peace, the fabric got damaged. It was packed in box in the garage and it got wet and there was some mildew on part of the fabric. I think I got most of it out, I need to give that one another good look before I decide what to do with it. Maidens of the Seasons, it's barely started, but I don't think I'm going to continue with it. I may just cut off the little bit I have done on it and salvage the rest of the fabric. It doesn't really appeal to me anymore. Doro Theos, I have the first medallion done, but then I started having color issues with the second one. I think I have that resolved now, so that shouldn't take too long to finish either.

Last night I also put all my printed freebie patterns in page protectors in a binder. Part of my stitching resolutions is also to do more freebie patterns. I have a ton of them. Actually, I'd bet I'm pretty close to SABLE on freebies.

I went through all the freebies that I like and intend to stitch, and the patterns that I hope to get to this year, and made a list of all the threads that I will need to acquire to finish them. I posted that list on my Shopping/Wish List.

My official January Goals are:
Complete and mail out my Mirabilia RR (this will be done by Jan. 3)
Complete and mail out Jen's OT RR (I have pattern picked out, I just need to pull threads)
Complete and mail out Kathy's OT RR (I need to look over the available patterns)
Complete and mail out Sandy's SL RR (I think I'm changing my mind on the pattern I picked out)
Start next Mirabilia RR
Work on any other RR pieces that come up
Finish Dimensions Kit

Sometime over the weekend I hope to finish up cleaning my closet. I need to get the two boxes of books out of there and put them somewhere else. I cleaned the office yesterday too in order to have bookshelf space for one of the boxes of book. Then I called the used book store to see what their policy was. They'll take books for store credit only and only a "bag or two at a time". That was fine with me. I filled up a Wal-Mart bag with books and I'm going to take them over there. There's another used book store near my house, so I might need to fill up another bag and get an account going there too. I have about a gazillion paperbacks. I used to read books more than once so that's why I kept them around, now I'm lucky if I read them once. Actually, I'm reading more so that's good. In fact, I think I'm going to put a thing on my Sidebar about what I'm reading.

So, once the books are out, I need to decide the fate of my WIPs. Then I need to sort through my fabric. After that, I'll work on kitting up some of my future projects.

I will be organized!

Mother's Tree

Here's where I am. I think Jen asked before, it's 40 ct. linen worked one thread over two. The fabric is Cinnamon Roll and the thread is Dark Chocolate (GAST I think). The picture really isn't that great. I was having a really hard time getting a photograph that show the true colors. It kept coming out sort of green looking and there really isn't any green in it. I think this is where I'm going to stop for now. I need to get back to my round robins!

Christmas Check In

We had a pretty good weekend. Saturday night I stayed up to get all the Christmas presents ready. I was pretty pleased how it all turned out. It looked very nice. Eva woke up at about 7 am and looked at everything and then got in bed with me. Once James woke up, she said "Let's wake up the babies!" Then it was like an explosion at the toy factory. They all seemed to be pretty happy with what they got.

We went to church with my parents who are Baptist, although we're Catholic. We decided to do that since I knew my parents would like it and we knew it would be easier to get a seat as their congregation only has about 30 members and our parish has several thousand. It wasn't a real service, it was mostly singing and the preacher did a short sermon. It was nice, but I told James I'd rather not do that because it didn't feel right. I think that repetitiveness of the Catholic mass is comforting. Plus, I much prefer traditional Christmas music and at my parents church there's a husband and wife who do the music there and they're sort of countrified.

Then it was on to my grandparents for lunch. I won't even begin to vent about my frustration at people who do not show up at the designated time even though they have much of the food.

We went home and cleaned the house, then went to my parents house. More present opening there! The girls got so much stuff. Although, their house got really messy and there were a lot of people there. That really stresses me out. So we left and I was so thankful that we had cleaned the house before going there. I think if I had to come home to a messy house after that I probably would have had a meltdown or something.

Anyway, it was a good Christmas overall. I bought myself some good presents. Eva got a ton of stuff and everything she wanted. Lauren and Maria made it through the day in good spirits and between the two of them got more toys than they could probably ever play with. They got a table and chairs for their room that is just wonderful. They played tea party with their new tea set. It was so cute.

_____________________________

On the stitching front, I did finish names 1-4 on Mother's Tree. My goal is to have #5 done today. My plan is to work on that until Dec. 30 to enter it in the Silkweaver showcase, then switch back to my Mira RR. After that's mailed out I'm going to work on my other RRs. I'll catch up! I will!

_____________________________

Other little tidbits from the weekend:

The LSU Tigers were trying to leave for Atlanta for the Peach Bowl and their plane got stuck in the mud. They had to wait for another plane to show up and they were 5 hours late. That's not a good omen. That and the fact that the starting Quarterback got hurt at the last game and isn't playing.

There's some weird phenomenon going on in St. Bernard Parish. There are watermelons growing all over the Parish. They don't normally grow this time of year. Something happened during Katrina and the seeds got spread all over the parish and there's something that's making them grow even though this isn't when they normally grow. Although, they are asking people not to eat the Katrina Melons.
_____________________________

And Congratulations to Tracy!!

Psychedelic Ornament

I told Eva to pick out a thread and I'd make her an ornament. Of course, she chose Gloriana's Ada's Rainbow. So I was a little stumped as to what to do with it. Here's the fruit of my labor. The pattern is from Crystal Creations by Vintage Bliss Designs.

A Compliment and a Huge Rant

First, my compliment goes to Mary at M Designs. I ordered some of the name trees and not only did I get them very quickly, but she also sent me another chart of her's and a nice Christmas card. I thought it was very sweet.

Now for my rant. Remember M, the lady that I complained about before? Well, last night she really took the cake. First, she declared to the room that she thought that women who dress provocatively are asking to be raped. The room went silent and someone had to check to make sure she was kidding. She said no, and repeated herself. I think the Mississippi River may have shifted it's bed a little closer the collective intake of breath was so strong. How can one say something like that to a group of women? Anyway, she said that's what kept her off a jury. I think the attorneys probably agreed she was too ignorant to serve. Then I mentioned how I had never been called for jury duty. She said that was terrible I wasn't serving my country. Hello? It's not my fault I haven't been called. I registered to vote and I vote in nearly every election. What else am I supposed to do? I'm the only person there that WANTED to be on a jury. In both instances you could tell everyone was really peeved, but nobody wanted to start a fight, but several of us tried to explain to her that rape was a crime of domination and power and not of sexuality. I don't think she got it.

Oh and I have another gripe. Well, it's not even really that. Twice in the last week on my way to work I had a car behind me pass me. On a two lane road kind of passing. Now, I'm not usually really fussy about that. However, the reason I'm going slow is because I'm in a LONG LINE OF TRAFFIC. Do they think I'm going slow because I have nothing better to do at 6:30 am than drive 25 mph pissing off other motorists?? I love when traffic stops and I'm right behind them. Hello dumbass! Those are the times when I wish I had a bullhorn so I can tell them how idiotic I think they are. The first one, traffic had stopped because a car in front of me was turning left. The guy who whipped around me, nearly plowed into him. I wish I could have asked him if it was really worth all that just to get one car ahead in the huge long line of traffic.

Morons.

More things you see driving around

There's a crossing guard, actually a traffic cop near my house. He always amuses me because he looks like a stereotypical southern sheriff. He's not the sheriff, but anyway, he's got this big ole pot belly and he wears cowboy boots and since it got cold he started wearing a cowboy hat too. He normally stands between two traffic cones and directs traffic in and out of the school in the afternoon. I noticed yesterday he had decorated his cones so that they looked like Christmas trees. I thought it was pretty cute.

___________________

Not much stitching yesterday. I finished the second line of Mother's Tree and worked more on my Mirabilia RR. I also got Kathy's RR yesterday from Kari. So, after the holidays I'm going to start/finish Jen's and Kathy's RRs and then mail it on to Kathy and that RR will be all done for me.

____________________

I'm so ready for Christmas to be here. At least Thursday, Eva has a party at school Thursday and she just can't wait to bring her little presents to school and she's kind of driving me crazy about it! Last night I let the girls decorate gingerbread men. My MIL gave them a cookie decorating kit, it came with cookies, icing, little candies and sprinkles. They were all doing really good until the sprinkles, what a mess that was! Anyway, they had fun and their cookies looked pretty interesting.

Mother's Tree

First, my chocolate balls came out great and they were a big hit. I'm going to get more creative with them next time I make them. Maybe put a cherry or a mint in the middle.

I started working on my Mother's Tree again. I finished the first name on the second line Friday. Then I switched back to working on my Mira RR. Then the girls got orange stuff on it so I washed it and while it was drying, I went back to my Mother's Tree. I finished the last name on the second line and then I started looking at my charts. I charted this all out several years ago and then had problems with the program I charted it in, so all I had were some screen shot pictures of the pattern. I realized a name got cut off and I couldn't find my notes or anything to fill in the gap. So I was freakin' out all weekend trying to figure out what name got cut off. I couldn't find any family trees online that had the full list of children for the mother that I had. This was back in the 1600's when people had like 16 kids, so it's not uncommon for some of the trees to not list all the kids. I was getting all upset thinking that I was to get another subscription to Ancestry.com, which I really didn't want to do because it's like $80. Finally, I got a link to Rootsweb.com which is the free version of Ancestry.com. I was able to get all the information that I needed. Elizabeth Hebert (b. 1698) was the name that I was missing.

So here's my list:
1580 Renee Courtin mother of
1603 Catherine Vigneau mother of
1641 Andree Martin mother of
1674 Isabelle Pellerin mother of
1698 Elizabeth Hebert mother of
1715 Brigette Apart mother of
1735 Susanne Boudreaux mother of
1760 Marie Rose Benoit mother of
1782 Marie Solange Prejean mother of
1813 Marcellite Marie Derouen mother of
1835 Genevieve Louviere mother of
1859 Octavie Bonin mother of
1887 Eunice Hebert mother of
1925 Sylvia Margaret Hebert mother of
1956 Karen Ann Guedry mother of
1977 Me!

Someone in my cross stitch group was complaining that you couldn't do this if there was a generation that didn't have any girls. I kept thinking that was wrong, but couldn't figure out why. But, everyone has a mother, if there were no girls in a generation, the mother line would have ended. You only can't continue it if you yourself are a man and you have no sisters, or you're a woman that only has sons.

Anyway, whenever I do this research I always wonder what kind of people these women were. Renee Courtin moved from France to Canada and I always wonder why. Around the Isabelle Pellerin/Elizabeth Hebert generation they moved from Acadia Canada to St. Martinville Louisiana. I know why, but I always wonder what that must have been like. Everybody else down that line was born and died in either St. Martinville or Opelousas. Until Eunice Hebert, then they moved to Donaldsonville, Louisiana. Then my mom, my girls and I were all born in Baton Rouge. That's pretty amazing that so many generations were born and died in such a small geographic area.

Big Trouble

Terri is in big trouble for pointing out Industrious Ladies! I'm so in trouble because I really really want it. James is ok with me using part of our Christmas money for it though. Otherwise, he'd be in big trouble LOL

I finally got Eva's Christmas picture in. I think it looks pretty good. She's barefoot because we couldn't find her shoes that morning. LOL I can be such a loser mom sometimes. The daycare manager assured me that most of the kids were barefoot though, so I felt better.

Annmarie has a pretty funny post about Chuck Norris. I liked these:

"Chuck Norris sold his soul to the devil for his rugged good looks and unparalleled martial arts ability. Shortly after the transaction was finalized, Chuck roundhouse kicked the devil in the face and took his soul back. The devil, who appreciates irony, couldn't stay mad and admitted he should have seen it coming. They now play poker every second Wednesday of the month."

"Chuck Norris uses ribbed condoms inside out, so he gets the pleasure."

This one is kind of stupid, but it makes me laugh
"Chuck Norris's girlfriend once asked him how much wood a woodchuck could chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood. He then shouted, "HOW DARE YOU RHYME IN THE PRESENCE OF CHUCK NORRIS!" and ripped out her throat. Holding his girlfriend's bloody throat in his hand he bellowed, "Don't f*** with Chuck!" Two years and five months later he realized the irony of this statement and laughed so hard that anyone within a hundred mile radius of the blast went deaf."


I'm hoping to get a lot of stitching done this weekend. It's going to be cold and rainy. The weather people are forecasting "Wintery Mix" for Wednesday LOL

Miscellaneous

Once again I have forgotten the Christmas pictures that I'm supposed to be sending out to friends and family. Oh well.

I picked up my framing yesterday. I'm pretty happy with it.

Mirabilia's Christmas Elf Fairy
Elizabeth Designs Nature Alphabet
Just Nan's Wintery Mix
Hinzeit's Princess

Yesterday with work we went to a Christmas Party at a different company. I look forward to it every year for the meatballs. I guess they're really easy to make (I think it's teriyaki sauce and grape jelly or something like that), but I'd rather just eat someone else's. They also had these chocolate balls there (not chocolate salty balls) that were so good. All you do for that is throw a bag of oreos and a block of cream cheese in the food processor until it's all mixed up. Then shape them into balls, dip them in melted chocolate and put them in the fridge to harden.

Sunday we're going to the inlaws to do Christmas early. James volunteered me for dessert. So, I think I'm going to make the Chocolate Ball thingys. I need to make something else too though. I guess I'm going to have to go pick up some Hog Head Cheese. Yes, supposedly it's exactly what you might expect. I refuse to eat it or even try it. The only other thing that I've heard of that's worse in my opinion is Blood Boudin. However, these are the people that served frog legs a couple of years ago and when I asked where you buy frog legs from they laughed and told me they caught them down by the bayou near their house. I didn't eat those either.

There was this guy at the Christmas party that I felt really bad for. His house had been burglarized. They stole EVERYTHING, including the Christmas presents. He was more irritated because he couldn't file an insurance claim because he had just filed one because a tree went through his roof during the hurricanes. And he said they totally ransacked the entire house. That'd really suck to have to clean up after something like that.

Kristen mentioned how it was hard to get in the Christmas spirit when it's 80 degrees and you look out on the beach all day. Earlier this week it was like 75 here and the kids are running around in shorts and T-shirts. We got a huge storm last night and it's much cooler now. I just heard some mention of the possibility of some freezing rain. We'll have to see....

Pictures

The weekend was ok, nothing exciting. I was going to post some pictures, but apparently Picturetrail is having issues this morning. I got some pictures of Lauren and Maria in their Christmas dresses. They would never sit for professional pictures. Eva got her school Christmas pictures in and I think they look really good even if she isn't wearing any shoes. Also, I sent Kristen an ornament that I made from a pattern from Subversive Cross Stitch and I'm assuming that she's gotten it. However, the post office seems to be having issues as well because the tracking number keeps coming back as invalid. So, I'll post that picture if I ever can.

Ok, finally

Lauren and Maria (1)
Lauren and Maria (2) I like this one better, but it's a little out of focus.
Ornament (warning adult language)

Yaton Rouge

That's quickly becoming Baton Rouge's new name. New Orleanians are knowns as Yats. It has something to do with the way they say "Where y'at?". I guess there's been a more accurate census and Baton Rouge has approximately 80,000 new residents. A lot of New Orleans businesses are packing up and moving up here. They had an interview with one business owner that restarted his business here. He said that some of his old regulars are still his regulars because they've all moved here.

Today a judge is hearing arguments from evacuees that are being evicted from hotels. They feel that the January 7th deadline is "premature". Puh-lease. I guess the hotel owners are also starting to get very angry because these people won't leave. Reports are that the hotels are getting torn up. Supposedly the Governor of Texas is offering all evacuees a one way bus ticket out of the state because the hotels in Texas are having the same problems. To say the situation is getting frustrating is putting it mildly.

Traffic is still really bad. They've been talking about how since Katrina traffic accidents have doubled or tripled or whatever. Crime has gotten pretty bad too. There seems to be a lot more murder. I don't know if it actually has increased, but it seems like it has, common sense would indicate that it would. I think New Orleans was somewhere in the top three for most dangerous cities in the country and Baton Rouge was like 11th, so in just those numbers it seems like we'd shoot straight to the top of the list. Add to that a overcrowding problem and a uncertain future, and you can only imagine. I know that was another thing that prompted the Texas Governor to offer the bus tickets.

I'm starting to think that New Orleans isn't going to get back on it's feet. At least not anywhere near what it used to be. Too many businesses are failing there. They can't get employees to work, because there's nowhere for them to live. They don't have enough customers. Supplies and merchadise shipments are irregular. I saw an interview with some hot shot lawyer and he said that some parts of the city are back to normal on the surface, but instead of having his power lunches in a crowded restaurant, he and his guests might be the only ones there, and it takes 3 weeks to get his suits dry cleaned.

Attempts at tourism have been met with disdain. Greyhound bus line has started running Katrina tours. For $35/person you get a bus tour of the damage in New Orleans. They're trying to organized Mardi Gras, but Nagin is shopping for a corporate sponsor for the entire event. So it could be something like The American Express Mardi Gras. Gag me. I'd rather it be some small event with local people than some big corporate sponsored event.

So that's my Katrina update

The Wake

The girls and I went to the wake this evening. Heartwrenching doesn't even come close to describing it. There were hundreds of people there. Fortunately, we didn't have to wait in line. We were able to go to the family area. I've never been such a mess over a death before. I guess because everyone I've known that died were either old or sick so it wasn't so unexpected. I got more details about what happened. He was in a head on collision with another car. He was killed instantly. It was an open casket wake and you could tell it was bad. If I didn't know that was him, I would have never recognized him. It didn't look like him at all. His family seemed to be holding up well though. Everyone seemed to be in good spirits. His mom seemed a little out of it though, she did recently break her foot so that didn't really help matters.

We discussed how none of should have been too surprised about him dying so young. When he was little, like 3 or 4 years old, he would tie down the gas pedal on the 4 wheeler to drive it around. Since he couldn't brake he would just jump off or run it into a tree to stop. Then when he was a little older, like 5 or 6 he stole the car keys and wrecked the family car in their yard. I also remember a time when he was probably around 10 or so and they took the bouncing part of the trampoline out and rigged up a barrel with bungee cords on the springs so they could pretend like they were bull riding. I think he broke his arm doing that. New Year's day 2003 he was riding in the back of a pick up truck going 80 miles an hour down the interstate and he fell out. The only thing that saved him then was that he had been drinking and he didn't tense his body when it happened. I saw him a couple months after that happened and you would have never even known it had happened.

Anyway, he'll be truly missed by our family.

Darren Bennett

He's a boy I grew up with, I've known him since he was born. He died Tuesday. He was killed driving a motorcycle he had only bought the week before.

He was a wild guy, he partied too hard, drank too much, but he was a very good person. He was nice to everyone. At Mardi Gras, he would hold Eva on his shoulders and take her up to the floats so she would get the good stuff.

It's going to be so hard on his family. They've endured so much heartache already and this is just going to be devastating to them.

His Obituary

Odd Things You See Driving Around

Yesterday on my way home I was driving down the street and was coming up on the back of a house. I saw something on the roof that I assumed was some sort of Christmas decoration. As I got closer, it was a Golden Retriever all curled up on peak of the roof. As I was wondering how that dog got up there, I realized there was a poodle sleeping on top of the garage. Isn't that funny?

A Female Welder Walks in to a Bar

Not really, she walked into our office looking for a job. Normally, they don't even let females even try out for the job, but I guess they need some welders. She was sent out to the shop to see how skilled she is. Now my grandmother is over there fretting about how this could be a bad situation. Hello? She might be better than everyone else out there. Give our guys a little credit that they could handle working with a woman. I didn't get a look at her, but maybe she's better looking than my grandmother and that's the bad situation LOL That she won't be the cutest girl around anymore LOL Anyway, this has been amusing. Oh she just came in again. She's fairly decent looking.

Amongst all this my grandmother is freaking out about all these bills that are supposedly not in the computer. Well, they are. I can see them. She's just not looking hard enough, but I can tell she's trying to act like it's my fault or something.

I'm ready to quit my job

Yes, it's a plum job, but I'm so sick of the attitude around here. I have no idea how to even go about it. I need to look for another job first. I don't want to quit and have no options. I'm just so frustrated and concerned about the reprecussions. Any advice? Keep in mind that I work for family...

A Ho Hum Weekend

Well, LSU lost so that sort of put a damper on things. It was a bad game. It was like the team didn't even show up. I think they're just tired. They've played for 11 straight weeks with no open dates. There were too many injuries. Anyway, they did very well in the season overall. Especially considering how the season started.

We didn't do much. James and I went shopping Saturday morning for the rest of the big Christmas stuff for the girls. My grandmother wanted to get Eva something big for Christmas since she got Lauren and Maria a really nice table and chair set for their room. I proposed a portable DVD player, but James said no way, that only spoiled rich kids had those. So my next idea was a new TV for her room. Her current TV is a monstrosity with a broken VCR. Since we rearranged her room she wants to move the TV, but we can't because it doesn't fit anywhere else. So we decided to get her a smaller TV. When we get to the store though, James starts looking at even bigger TVs. I'm like hello?? Those are what spoiled rich kids have! Anyway, we settled on a very basic 14". We got her some new movies with the leftover money and one of those joystick things with the games built in.

I need to start shopping for some stocking stuffer type things. I had a $50 office depot gift card (signing up for that Advantage card thing has really been profitable, that was my second $50 card). So I got each of the girls some crayons and markers, all washable of course LOL, and I picked up some new Leap Pad books. All three girls love that thing.

Hmmm, I had a pretty good stitching weekend. I received and finished Lisa's Band Sampler Round Robin, and then I got it mailed out this morning. I worked more on my Stitcher's Lane Round Robin that I'm starting over. I guess I'm about half done with my house. I need to start working up my letter for that one. Then I put that aside and started working on a couple of Christmas presents. One was a very basic pattern. Only 3 DMC colors on white fabric. Can I stick with that? No! I switched out the fabric and changed the thread to a rayon, a metallic and a over dyed Silk. I should finish that later tonight. Right now I'm working on a different ornament...the TW Celtic Inspiration Ornament. So far so good. If it stitches up quick, I might make a few for different people.

I guess that's about it for now!

Fun Friday

LSU is playing for the SEC Championship this weekend so Georgia is being roundly abused today. I heard a couple of amusing jokes.

How do you know if a Georgia Bulldog has a girlfriend? There's tobacco stains on both sides of the pick up truck.

Why doesn't Florida break off? Because Georgia sucks.

How do you get a University of Georgia alumni off your porch? Pay for the pizza.

And another one that has nothing to do with Georgia...

Why does Mike Tyson cry during sex? Because mace has a tendacy to do that to you.


And one of those things that make you go hmmmm...

There are approximately 6,600 people from Louisiana missing in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. There are approximately 6,000 Louisiana state workers that have not checked back into work since Hurricane Katrina. However, many people are speculating that those 6,000 state workers never actually existed or died many years ago. It makes you wonder who was collecting their pay.

Nip/Tuck

I've been watching Nip/Tuck and sometimes I wonder just what in the world are the writers thinking. Could Matt get ANYmore screwed up? I can see how his experiences could have driven him to where he is, but seriously a Neo-Nazi? In real life that kid would need some serious help. And why aren't his parents getting him any on the show? And what's up with Julia knowingly letting him have sex in their home? Isn't he still only like 16 or something? He's still in highschool but the botched lesbian threesome, Ava, the transexualtransgender phase, and let's not forget the hit and run incident, can sort of make him seem a lot older. I mean really, how many kids go through that much stuff before they're even out of high school.

Same thing with Christian, all these awful things keep happening to him. How much worse can it get for him? The whole Carver and the detective things, what happened with that? All we saw was her in the doctor's office and I think that's the last we ever saw of that. Of course, now he's back and he's got Kimber. I glanced at the message boards and looked over all the theories on that one. I'd have to say that it's possible that Christian could be the Carver, he could have found Kimber after the "wedding" and made her send that letter as an alibi. Do I think Christian is the Carver? No, he's too heterosexual and the rape thing, he would have never made up.

Whatever happened with Julia and Sean's daughter? I don't think she's even been in Season three. I really thought when she became "Princess Menses" that some type of sexual abuse would have come in to play there. I'm sorry, in a 9 year old girl, abuse would have been the first thing that came to mind, not that processed foods are making her develop too fast.

Anyway, it's one of those shows that I always watch, but it drives me crazy at he same time. These characters are so screwed up, you just can't help but watch and see how much farther they'll go.

Katrina's Exposure

Ok this is a huge rant that has been festering and today's radio discussion is just driving me over the edge. There are thousands of evacuees that are still living in hotel rooms, but FEMA is getting to the end of that programs so they're letting these people know that they need to start clearing out. Well, that's started this whole huge uproar about where am I going to go and what am I going to do? Ummmm GET A JOB.

Now, I know some people may be thinking that's easier said than done. Seriously, they are so desperate for workers around here, that you don't have to have any skills. You don't even need transportation. That's being provided.

They've been having interviews with people living in the hotels. It's enough to make you tear your hair out. These are young, healthy, able people who are complaining that they have nothing to do all day but either SLEEP or tell stories all day (or play with all their electronics and listen to the CDs that they bought with their FEMA and Red Cross money). It's been 3 months and that's all they've been able to find to do??? Can you imagine living in a hotel for 3 months for free? Beds made, linens washed, every day? Access to pools and work out rooms and room service??

There was this guy that called in this morning about the shuttle that's running FREE from Baton Rouge to New Orleans. They'll pick you up in the morning, take you to New Orleans to work and bring you back. This man said there are only 25 people on that bus every morning and they're ALL WOMEN. What is wrong with these men?? And what's wrong with these women for letting them get away with it. If my husband told me that he was going to sit around drinking all day and chumming around with his friends while I go to work, I'd have to kick his ass.

In my opinion they need to just cut all these people loose. Nothing else in going to spur them into action to actually take care of themselves.

Holiday Weekend

There's Eva after her Thanksgiving Play. Tomorrow I'll try to get the Santa pictures up.

We had a fairly good weekend. Pretty uneventful. Thursday we did Thanksgiving. All I ended up bringing was the cheesecake brownies that no one ate. The pumpkin fudge didn't set and this other thing I tried just didn't work either. So as a last resort I made the cheesecake brownies because our family cheesecake maker insisted he wasn't going to bring anything. Well, he did, so everyone ate that. My mom ended up taking the brownies home...and then they ate them all. All I got was one little tiny corner. Oh well.

Friday, my mom and I woke up early and took the girls shopping. We hit Michaels for 6 am and got a bunch of ornaments. Then we went to the mall. It wasn't too bad. We went to the "old mall", so there weren't as many people there. I wanted to go there because they have a Children's Place there and we did really good at that store. Lauren and Maria got a fancy sweater and skirt set each, a Fair Isle sweater each, a sweatsuit each, a shirt each, and a body suit each and then a free teddy bear and all that came to just over $100. Eva got a pair of shoes at Stride Rite. That was it. We went to go take pictures with Santa and they got all high tech. You had to sign up and get a buzzer. So we went eat while we were waiting for the buzzer. We ate at Chik-fil-a and then got a cookie at the Great American Cookie Company. We got coupons for both of those places with the pictures so we should have waited LOL The pictures didn't go over so well. Eva got all shy, Lauren was crying hysterically, Maria was totally oblivious because Santa gave her a sucker. So, it didn't make for the best picture.

We went home, napped, then took out the Christmas tree. There must have been some great ornament migration or something because it didn't seem like we had very many. So I got my mom again and we went to Hobby Lobby and got more ornaments. By then we were pretty tired.

Saturday and Sunday we didn't do much of anything. We just bummed around the house and watched movies. We've all had this cold that's just been lingering.

Last night I fell asleep at 8:00 so I didn't watch any of my shows and I didn't do any stitching. I'm nearly done with my Christmas Elf Fairy. I just have some beading to do. I got a 25% off coupon for my framer so I'm bringing some stuff there today to see what I can afford to get framed. I just don't get why framing is soooo expensive. Anyway, that's about it.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

We're not doing anything exciting. We're just going to my grandparent's house. I'm making Pumpkin Fudge. I'm considering making Cheesecake Brownies and Cinnamon Toast Blinis.

Eva has a Thanksgiving pageant this afternoon. The younger 4 class are dressing up as Indians and the older 4 class are going to be the pilgrims. So that should be fun.

Yesterday we got our new fiber optic cable put in. Somehow or another they managed to cut the electrical lines for the dishwasher. Don't even ask, I don't know. Anyway, I had to wash two sinkfuls of dishes by hand. I know I know, life is so hard. LOL

Tuesday Eva told her teacher that her parents died. That made for an interesting afternoon since the manager remembered me dropping her off. She does that a lot when she's playing, she'll tell me her baby is sad because her parents died,etc. I think she must get it from Disney movies. Parents are always dead in those. I know at some point it made a big impact with her, because she stopped believing me that Simba's dad was just sleeping. Anyway, the teacher was saying how serious she was when she said it. If that child doesn't grow up to be an actress I'll be really surprised. When she's playing she gets totally into whatever character she's making up.

Lauren and Maria are sick. I feel so terribly for them. They would never get sick, now they've been sick with several different things in the last couple of months. I actually got a pharmacist to give me a dosage for them for an over the counter medicine. Normally they won't do that until they're at least two, but once I posed a dosage to him, he said that would be a good dosage for them. So, hopefully I won't have to call the doctor, since it's just a cold, but they have a nasty cough.

Oh well, we have a good long weekend!

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A Successful Birthday Party

Saturday was Eva's 4th birthday. She had a really good party. Some of the pictures are located here. The spacewalk was a big hit. Definately worth the money. If you decide to get one and wonder how easy they are to set up, extremely easy, save yourself the delivery expense and do it yourself. She had a good turnout and got lots of presents. Her favorite is Good Morning Sunshine My Little Pony. She says it's the greatest present she's ever gotten. All the parents that came kept telling me how nice and sweet Eva was. Obviously, she's a completely different kid when we aren't around. Dorian, there's a picture of Eva and Dorian in the photo album, loves Eva, he thinks she's just the sweetest girl. I find that really funny because Eva hated Dorian so much when she first met him. So anyway, a good time was had by all. I didn't have a complete meltdown having all those people at my house. So that was good.

I pretty much slept the rest of the weekend. I'm getting a cold or something, and all the girls are under the weather. We're all looking forward to a nice quiet LONG weekend.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

******possible spoilers**********







I went to see it this morning! 12:01 AM. A 2 1/2 hour movie with 16 minutes of previews. I didn't get to sleep until 3:30 am and I'm kind of dragging this morning. The movie was excellent. The best by far. I'd say it deserved it's PG-13 rating. There were parts that were pretty scary and gory. I found the Hungarian Horntail part to be really tense and I think it might upset little kids. However, the special effects in that part were just amazing. That dragon looked very real. In the first couple movies I didn't like the Quidditch scenes because the computer animation was really obvious, but in this movie they really stepped it up a lot and it looked fantastic. Some parts of the story line were changed, some parts left out (like SPEW and the Sphinx), and some parts just not explained at all. I guess they just assume that the people who are watching to movie have read the book and understand how certain events came about, like how Barty Crouch Jr. got out of jail. I found that this director had a sense of Rowlings excellent foreshadowing techniques. The Voldemort coming to life thing was pretty well done. Very much like the book. I thought that Ralph Fiennes did a good job as Voldemort. I didn't like the way he looked though. It's exactly as described in the book, but I just didn't like it. It creeped me out. Although, I guess you aren't supposed to like it. Mad Eye Moody grossed me out. That eye was nasty.

Bottom Line: Two enthusiastic thumbs up!!

So much to do

I'm still working on the menu for the party. I think it's finally coming together though, so I just need to make a shopping list and figure out how I'm going to cook all this stuff and only cause minimal mess in the kitchen. I am so tired of cleaning the kitchen.

I have a ton of stitching stuff to do, so I can't wait for this 4 day weekend coming up next week.

I had my stitching night last night and the Bama lover was there. However, Rudy Niswanger's mom was also there. Plus two LSU Football season ticket holders, and a former Tiger Band member. So, she was pretty subdued. I sat way far away from her so she wasn't much of an issue.

I took a picture of Eva's new bed. As a point of reference as to how huge this bed is, the dresser next to it is about chest high.





And if anyone is curious...here's my progress on my Christmas Elf.

Weekend Round Up

This will probably be long because I have a lot to get down

Friday....I went to my stitching group Friday night. (Sandra, my LNS is Cross Stitch Corner) There are these two women that started showing up recently. Well, let's back up. There was this lady that I used to hate with a passion, we'll call her B. However, I've gotten over that and she doesn't bother me so much now. I actually think she's pretty ok, unless she starts talking politics and then I just want to beat some sense into her, but then I feel bad for her for not knowing that you don't talk politics in mixed company especially when you have radical views. Anyway, this one woman started showing up and I didn't think I would dislike anyone more than B, but this one really takes the cake. She's loud, she talks over everyone, talks about stupid stuff, and repeats it continuously. She's always blabbing on about what a good Christian she is...not only a Christian, but a Baptist Christian....that drinks LOL (baptists aren't supposed to partake in alcohol). She also constantly babbles on about her political appointment. I really didn't know much about the position so I asked around and understood that it's no big deal and most people who are in that position don't brag about it. She's also a huge Bama fan that hates LSU fans (yes, she announces this to a room full of people in Baton Rouge, Louisiana), she went on and on about how much she hates LSU and how awful LSU fans are and how mean they are blah blah blah. Then her and this other woman (who I swear is her spiritual twin or something) started going on and on about how much they both hate LSU and they hope Bama tears them a new one and on and on it went forever. I was so ready to tell the both of them off. However, I'm a lady LOL and I don't do that. I will however, be sure as hell to make sure that I keep bringing up that LSU beat Alabama this weekend. Now, if all that wasn't bad enough, they're both huge racists. I've never heard two people go on and on about the evils of black people, not just Friday night, but on several occasions. I decided I was going to fashion a KKK hood and next time they started up I was going to put it on and say I didn't realize the meeting had started already. Not really, but I thought that would effectively get the point across. I just don't get how two supposedly educated women can get on the rants that they do. Anyway, next time I'm going to sit with B, even though she's not really my favorite person, I know that no one else likes her so I won't have to deal with those other two and their stupid crap.

My parents were buying a full sized bed for her birthday because her crib converted from a crib to a toddler bed to a full sized bed. So they were buying her a mattress and box spring for her birthday. So I bought her a sheet set and comforter etc. So the sheets came Friday and Eva got the box. I told her to just put it away that it wasn't for her. At some point while I was gone, she opened the box. James swears that she opened up the sheets and put them all on her bed by herself. Somehow, I don't really believe that. So anyway, the whole birthday surprise was ruined.

Saturday....I took Eva to a schoolmates birthday party. She had a good time. They had a race car theme. They made race cars out of diaper boxes. Then they raced them around the yard. It was pretty cute, but then Eva fell and scraped up her elbows. It was high drama. I called my mom and told her about the sheet incident so they could go ahead and get the bed whenever. They purchased it that morning and James picked it up later that afternoon. We watched the LSU game late that afternoon. It was a really nice day so we had all the windows open. When LSU won, it was like surround sound. There was all the cheering from the TV, but then you could also hear all the neighbors cheering from their houses. It was really funny. Oh and I confirmed a spacewalk rental, so that's one thing to scratch off the list.

Sunday....The day started really early. I took the girls to Wal-Mart to order Eva's cake (another off the list) and I finally bought a huge bucket for all the toys in the living room. Then we went to lunch at a Chinese restaurant. When we got home, we started a huge cleaning project. We cleaned and rearranged Eva's room. Put together her new bed. Moved her bed where the fouton was, moved the fouton to the living room for her party next weekend, but I don't know what we're going to do with it after that. I also folded and put away about 10 loads of laundry.

The carpet cleaners are coming today, so yay, when I get home I get to finish picking up everything off the floor. I'm sore from yesterday, the thought of going home and working more is not pleasant. Then later tonight after the carpet people are done, I have to go shopping to get the girls Christmas outfits. Eva's school is doing Christmas portraits Tuesday morning and I called the photographer and asked if Lauren and Maria could be in the picture too. She said that was fine with her if it was ok with the school. They said it was ok, so I have to do that tonight. Also on Tuesday the phone people are coming to switch out all our cable and internet from the cable company's coaxial cable to the phone comany's fiber optic lines. It's supposed to be superior and we'll be getting a ton more services for about $10 less per month. The cable has gone down 3 times in the last 2 weeks so when it went out Friday that was the last straw.

Ok, I'll stop rambling! I just have so much going on and I'm kinda freaking out, if you couldn't tell :)

Evil Forwards

I can't stand forwarded emails. I don't care if my leg falls off if I don't forward an email to 10 people. I'm not going to muck up their inboxes with crap. (HINT HINT to people that forward me stuff LOL) This was something I ran across today that I actually liked.

A TRUE FRIEND
Are you sick of all those sissy "friendship" poems that always sound like Hallmark cards, and never come close to reality?Well, here is a series of promises that really speak to true friendship:

1. When you are sad - I will help you get drunk and plot revenge against the sorry bastard who made you sad.
2. When you are blue - I will try to dislodge whatever is choking you.
3. When you smile - I will know you've finally had sex again.
4. When you are scared - I will rag on you about it every chance I get.
5. When you are worried-I will tell you horrible stories about how much worse it could be and tell you to quit whining.
6. When you are confused - I will use little words.
7. When you are sick - stay the hell away from me until you are well again,I don't want whatever you have.
8. When you fall - I will point and laugh at your clumsy ass, but I will help you up.

This is my oath...I pledge it till the end. Why, you ask? Because you are my friend.

Ha ha ha ha

Geaux Tigers!!

I'm so excited for this weekend's game! It should be a really great game. Whenever LSU plays Alabama it's a big deal because it's a huge rivalry, but both teams are ranked in the Top Ten so that makes it even better. My grandmother used to hate Alabama so much. She swore they cheated and she called them Goddamn Alabama like it was all one word. My mom said that she didn't realize until she was 8 or 9 that it wasn't one word.

I saw my doctor this morning and he increased my medicine without me having to kick his ass. I just told him I didn't think I was at the right dosage and he was just like Ok, we'll increase it, no problem. And Lord bless the man he let me start taking birth control again. Last time my blood pressure went through the roof and I had to stop taking it. This morning it was 100/70 so he said that because it was so low that even if my BP does go up, I have a lot more leeway than I did last time. He also prescribed a different kind. AND, if wasn't wonderful enough already LOL He told me to just keep taking it continuously rather than taking the iron pills so I don't have to have my period. (sigh) I'm so happy today.

And to make my day just as good as can be, James took off work today. I talked to him earlier and he was at the grocery store. So that means I'm not going to have to do that this weekend. Plus, I know when I get home he'll have cooked supper and if I'm really lucky, he may have even cleaned the house.

And on top of ALL that, there's a stitch night at my LNS tonight. I may or may not be able to go, we'll have to see about that one.

It's a good day all around!

I've got fear in my heart

NOT!! LOL Since Katrina there have been obvious gang issues, Baton Rouge gangs, New Orleans gangs trying to protect their turf etc. etc. I find it just so ridiculous. The incidents that I find most laughable are those that are occuring at Baker Middle School. Baker is where they've set up a huge FEMA trailer park so there are a large number of New Orleans kids going there. Well I guess the Baker kids are a little resentful that they're there. So the school has apparently broken up into two "gangs". The 504 boys and the 225 boys. 504 is the NO area code and 225 is the BR area code. So all the gang graffitti has 504 and 225 in it. I'm sorry, but if I were part of a gang or some other entity whose intent was to inspire fear in my enemies, I'd have a way scarier name than the 504 boys or something like that. I'd be like The Hilary Clintons or the Ebola Virus. Anyway, all this came out because someone found a loaded gun clip at the school. No gun, just a gun clip. So everyone is freakin' out all worried about an impending gang war amongst MIDDLE SCHOOL kids. I can so see how this happened. This was probably an extra clip that some kid got his hands on and brought it to school to show off, yes, I know that means he could probably get his hands on a gun, but he didn't.

On a related note, there's a big controversy brewing about a trailer park that they're considering setting up on a place called The Island on False River in New Roads. This is causing a big uproar over in New Roads because it's just the stupidest idea ever. New Roads itself is a very small town. They have a little tiny hospital, a Wal-Mart, and a Piggly Wiggly and a Dairy Queen and that's pretty much it. They've got no public transportation and no large employers anywhere near by. Most of the people who live in that area (most of my inlaws) are either farmers or they work in Baton Rouge which is like 45 minutes away. So they're planning on dumping all these people who have no transportation in a place where there's nowhere to go, nothing to do, and pretty much zero job opportunity (not that that's a huge issue apparently). The owner of the land is offering the land to FEMA because he and his wife feel like it's the Christian thing to do. My thought was that he was going to get a pretty hefty chunk of money for doing that, probably some huge tax deduction, and his previously undeveloped piece of property was going to get developed for him for free. So pardon me if I feel like he's probably got other reasons for doing it.

All that said, a friend of mine and I have found the ideal business. A lot of the evacuees have been complaining that there aren't any convenience stores within walking distance of many of the parks. So we're going to start a beer truck. Like an ice cream truck. We figured we could stock it with beer, cigarettes, maybe some marijuana, and nudie magazines. If that was legal we'd be rolling in some serious dough LOL

Ok, anyway, Maria apparently had roseola. She broke out in a rash yesterday. She's doing fine. She's back to her normal mischievous self. My Christmas Elf is coming along nicely. I was having serious doubts about some of the colors, but now that I'm almost done with the dress, the colors have come together very nicely. I called around to endocrinologists and found out that the earliest appointment I'm going to get is like February. So I have an appointment with my primary care tomorrow morning and I'm going to have to be a little more forceful with my opinions.

Cranky

Blogger sucks! Gosh! (In my best Napoleon Dynamite voice) It took me all morning to finally get to the Create Post section. No, I haven't watched it lately but something got that movie in my mind and now it's stuck there.

Maria's doing fine. The doctor couldn't find anything wrong with her other than the fever. He said if it doesn't get better to call him back, but it has. However, now she's just really cranky. So is Lauren. They've both been really demanding, but they don't have the skills to communicated exactly what they want. It's very frustrating.

Eva has developed this really annoying habit and I'm determined to quash it. Whenever I tell her no she argues with me and then when I say "I told you no" she always answers back with "I told you yes". Oh my god, it sends me through the roof.

I'm not sleeping again which is also really annoying. If there was a hotel room to rent I'd probably take one to sleep for an afternoon. I might need to find one of those hooker hotels and just pay by the hour or something.

Ooops, it's Wednesday, time for Captain D's! Gotta run!

Deep Thoughts

Was it Deep Thoughts that Jack Handy wrote on SNL? I haven't watched that show in forever. Although, I did watch The Longest Yard yesterday (Adam Sandler/SNL). I thought it was pretty good. Predictable, but entertaining. I haven't seen the original yet so I can't make any comparison. I also watched Dog Town and the Z-Boys. This is a documentary about the rise of the skateboarding culture in the 70s. I watched the Lords of Dogtown last week, so now I'm thoroughly educated on the subject.

Today I'm in search of an endocrinologist. Pregnancy was rough on my body and my thyroid pretty much crapped out after Lauren and Maria. I don't feel like my Primary Care doctor is aggressive enough in treating the situation. So begins my search. I've called two of the approved doctors by my insurance and one has his phone line temporarily disconnected, what the heck does that mean? The other is some really complicated phone tree for the entire hospital. I think I'm going to call the Indian doctor that's in a stand alone office. They always talk about how doctors that are educated in India are more creative than American doctors so maybe he'll be better anyway.

Maria is going to the doctor today. She was still running a fever this morning. It's weird, other than looking tired and burning up, she doesn't seem to be having any other symptoms. She's not even acting like she's sick.

I did make good headway on the Christmas Fairy. The use of hand dyed threads on such a project does add a different dimension to the piece. It's sort of weird because you have to pick what part of the thread you want to work with. And one color is a blended thread. So it looks even more different (is that a phrase?) depending how you line them up. Speaking of the blend, I'm not too keen on it. However, that's often the case, and in the end the designer is nearly always right so I should just trust it.

I guess that's all that's on my mind today

So so weak

I've been waiting for the new Mirabilia Fairy kit to hit my LNS ever since I saw the first picture. I had to have her, she was just so cute. They finally got it in late last week and Saturday they were having a sale so I was able to get it for 20% off which help considerably with the $50 price tag. Which I will say is definately within reason considering the contents of the kit. There's 11 or so Crescent Colors which retail for like $2/ea., a card of Whisper, 2 packs of Mill Hills, a pretty generous cut of fabric and then the chart obviously. It doesn't have a full spool of Kreinik, but it's only used in a little tiny spot and they have just a cut of it, but still that's ok with me.

Anyway, so with all this stitching that I have to do, what do I do? I come home and start it immediately. It'll be a quick stitch. Not a whole lot of color changes. I'm being spurred on by the hope that I can resell what's left over while she's still popular. I think in most colors there will still be a ton of thread (there might be about 3-4 that will be mostly used I think). I'm sure I have the beads in my stash, I know I have the Kreinik, and I have a card of Whisper too. I also swapped out the fabric for Silkweaver's Winter Sky. So, nearly everything would still be included so I just need to decide on a fair asking price.

On the family front, James and I actually went out last night. Just a company dinner, but it was fairly fun anyway. I got the giggles really bad at one point and he couldn't stop laughing either. I thought that was even funnier, because he never laughs out loud.

Maria's sick though, she's running a fever. It was 102 this morning, but she has no other symptoms than looking a little run down and she's a little fussy. So I called the doctor's office and they just said to treat the fever and if it doesn't break before tomorrow morning to bring her in. So that's what we're doing and she's sleeping right now.

Well, I need to stop wasting time and go stitch something. Oooh I do have a happy dance to share, but not until next week (it's a secret until then)!

More to add to the list

Yesterday I had another panic attack, not really, but I realized that my dad, grandfather, and cousin Kate all have birthdays in December. How frustrating is that?? My dad and my grandfather are the two hardest people in the world to come up with gift ideas and I have to get each 2 in a month. My dad buys himself whatever he wants and my grandfather I don't think likes anything. Kate should be easy as she's only 3 weeks older than Eva, but she's a lot different than Eva. She doesn't play with dolls or anything, she's sort of a tomboy I guess, I don't know. Despite my aunt's initial desire to have Kate and Eva be best friends, I try to keep Eva's contact with her somewhat limited. She's really bossy and manipulative (and she's only 3!). I can see her talking Eva (or Lauren or Maria for that matter) in to doing something horrible and Kate getting herself out of it.

Let's see...I finished Shepherd's Bush Happy Birthday kit, only one day! I'm working on making it into a needle roll. I finished the top and bottom edges and I pulled the threads for the ribbon. So tonight I just need to do the seam in the back, threading the ribbons and stuffing. This will be my first actual finished needle roll. Today I'm working on my Mira Border. I got Sandi's Stitcher's Lane RR today so I may do that this weekend. I'm thinking about doing the house from Victoria Sampler's Heirloom Homecoming Sampler. I've been wanting to do that one, but it didn't work on any of the ones I've been working on recently. On a related note, Sherrin emailed me to say that it looks like mine is lost. I guess it was mailed several weeks ago and never showed up at Susan's house. I'm disappointed, but I'm not crushed like I felt when Lynn's RR never showed up at my house. I feel bad that other people did all this work on it and it's maybe gone. I'm undecided about starting it over. I guess if the other participants are willing to do it over, I will. I'll hold out a little hope though, there was a RR in another group that showed up something like 2 months later because it got rerouted to Tortuga or something.

Angi sent me a nice package too! She sent some Gloriana Threads. She sent Fall Foliage, Lavender Ice, Pacific Blue and Deep Blue Sea. Gloriana is my absolute favorite thread. It's like silky butter or something. It's wonderful and the colors are just so beautiful. I might use the Fall Foliage for the VS Heirloom Homecoming House!

I'm freakin out!!

First, let me say Thank You Stasha!! She sent me a lovely package :)

Now, Christmas is going to be here way too soon. I don't have time to do everything I want/need to do. Plus, Eva's birthday is going to be here soon. So, I'm working on a To Do list. And I have started planning, and even started some Christmas shopping. I think I'm going to put my To Do list on my side bar but so far I have...

-Confirm Spacewalk rental with Lindsey's (I can't do that until at least the 4th because someone has reserved it for the day I want it, but as of Tuesday she hadn't paid) It's a really cool one, Disney Princess Castle. I'd link it, but they have a really annoying website.

-Get party supplies for the birthday party, think of some games for the kids to play, find and order a cake (E wants chocolate), and get her birthday present (a new sheet set for her bed, as my parents are buying her a new mattress and box spring)

-Stitch Kate's Christmas Present. I'm going to do another Hinzeit Princess for her. I had ordered an extra one by accident. That should only take a couple of days.

-Finish my Mirabilia Round Robin Layout and my section on it.

-Do more work on my Mother's Tree

-Find and work on something for my grandmother for Christmas. I noticed Patternsonline.com had some new Rooster patterns, so that might work.

-Figure out what I'm going to get for my parents, my sister, my grandfather, aunts, James (although we'll probably do a family gift rather than individual gifts) and anyone else I think of between now and then.

-Dig out the Christmas Cards and get them ready for mailing (I stocked up last year at the after Christmas Sales)

I think that's all I can think of so far....It'll be a constantly changing list I think.

I have started my Christmas shopping for the girls. I ordered several things from Amazon which should be in next week. I got Lauren and Maria the Baby Bratz Twinz, I think those are so perfect for them. And I felt lazy doing this last year, but now I feel pretty good about it. We had to get a fake Christmas tree so the kids wouldn't eat the pine needles. So, last year, I took the more fragile ornaments off and put the entire tree in the garage when Christmas was over. So now this year, I just have to dust it off and put it back in the living room. LOL I'll probably let the girls rearrange it, but otherwise it won't be a huge hassle. Ok...everything will be under control...I just need to calm down.

Actually, the thing that got me riled up in the first place, was Tom Benson (NO Saints owner)...again. He sent an email to the NFL stating that he would not attend any Saints games that take place in Baton Rouge. He would not set foot in Tiger Stadium. He felt like he and his family were threatened. Ummmm hello? He's the one that attacked a camera man and got in a shouting match with a fan. Go! Go now! Good riddance to bad garbage.