I finished the sampler this morning!! It took 39 days start to finish. Now I just need to get it framed and shipped.

I have also been playing with some beading since my trip to the imfamous Union Bead boutique so here are some things I have finished. I bought MORE stuff yesterday and don't have a clue what I am going to do with all the finished things but I am having fun making them! Guess they will make good stocking stuffers!












And last but not least, my Thanksgiving tart. It tasted as good as it looked. The guys want another one for Christmas! (stop it Pam, I know the counter was dirty, I was baking!!)

Everything has been cooked, eaten and cleaned up. Now other than walking the dog for the night, I can relax for a bit. I have to be at work at 4:30 tomorrow morning so I need to put my feet up.

It was a strange sort of day since we are less than 2 months gone from losing my FIL. I haven't cooked a Thanksgiving meal in 20 years since he wouldn't eat any one's cooking but his own. Sitting at that table today was really weird without him.

Tomorrow the BIL and wife will be here. They are sooo concerned about mom that they will drive out and get here about 3 tomorrow and leave on Saturday morning. How much good do they figure that will do her? Oh well, I will be a good girl once again. I have some yummy pork chops ready to grill and potatoes to bake so it will be an easy dinner. I can get a nap when I get home and still be at my MIL's before they get there. Works for me.

OK, back to stitching and watching a taped Oprah show of Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts.

The eyelets in the boarder are a bear trying to keep them nice and neat when there are 20 stitches in each one. I love the ribbon stitched behind each of the hearts in the border. I still haven't figured out if I am going to put the baby's breath in the wreath though, I really don't like it but it could use some filler. I will probably find a way to add in some beads.

Now I have to get dressed and head to work. How cruel is that?

into the Thanksgiving Crush. *sigh*

I have had two days off and while I guess I accomplished quite a bit of stuff, I didn't really get much of what I wanted to done. Frankly I just wanted to sit and sew... Unfortunately, not much of that happened.

I don't have to be a work until 11:30 today so I still have some time to sew but I am doing laundry and such so I will be up and down, distracted. I close at work and then have to go get Mark from a birthday party while Tom goes and gets Tommy from Maineville. Tom has been at his mom's for 2 nights since Mark has a bit of a cold and I didn't want him around her.

I have been playing with a myspace spot that I am primarily using to interact with friends from work. I am old and they are young and this is a midway point. I found some folks from HS there so I may not be too far off my course! LOL

OK, back to my needle and thread!

I was feeling off yesterday...kind of like I was getting a cold but I didn't have any sore throat or anything. I got to work and cashiered for a while and realized I was aching like I was getting a fever but I didn't have one. At dinner time I took two Tylenol and got through the night but I was restless like something wasn't right and work was really pretty easy last night.

I had a hard time getting settled and getting to sleep but that isn't unusual since I worked until 9 but at midnight I woke bolt upright in bed because I thought I heard the dog having a seizure (she wasn't) after that I could NOT get settled. I was in the throes of trying to get an anxiety attack all night long. Bad dreams, racing heart, dry mouth the whole 9 yards. Today I feel like I have taken a beating. I need to crawl back into bed but I need to be at work at 11 and I want to stitch since that usually gets me back on an even keel but I can't even get into that this morning since I just feel like I want to pace (or hit something)... Man, I haven't had one like this in probably 2 years; not even when Tom's dad was dying. It's nuts.

I guess I will go fix some breakfast and see if I can get myself under control. *sigh*

Here is today's picture. I didn't make as much progress as I had hoped and now there is no way that I can have this finished and framed by Thanksgiving. Oh well, I should still make the December wedding deadline, I just have to figure out how to ship it safely.

It was a busy week and becoming enamored with the bead place and jewelery making hasn't helped. I have made 4 pairs of earrings now and have stuff to play with bracelets and earrings too. *sigh*

News on the home front is my Uncle's leukemia is officially in remission! He is very weak and worn out but he is doing ok and now the treatments are behind him should be able to gain some strength. PTL!

Work sucks...that sums up that week.

Mark's Veteran's Day ceremony took place in a deluge so he wasn't happy. I don't know if Tommy went to his dinner or not.

OK, off to get dressed and go to work. *sigh* What a way to ruin a day!! LOL

THOUGHTS ON VETERANS DAY
from General Douglas MacArthur

It is the SOLDIER, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press.

It is the SOLDIER, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech.

It is the SOLDIER, not the campus organizers, who has given us the freedom to demonstrate.

It is the SOLDIER, who salutes the flag, who serves the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag,

Who allows the protester to burn the flag. AMEN.

God bless our military; past, present and future.

God and the Soldier, we adore,
In time of danger, not before.
The danger passed and all things righted,
God is forgotten and the Soldier slighted.
— Rudyard Kipling

Somehow, I managed to get two days off. I enjoyed yesterday immensely for the most part.

I went to the hospital to see my friend who while being in a good deal of pain, seems to be in good spirits and is very lucky to be surrounded by a loving family even if they are always there! (sorry E!! :-))

After I left there I went to a place I had never been before and oh my, I think I am in love. When my kids were little and I had to go into a store where I didn't want them handling things (for whatever reason) I would tell them to put their hands in their pockets. I felt like that was what I should be doing as soon as I walked into the store. The store is the Union Bead Boutique. They have a rainbow in there. I am not a jewelery person, I don't plan on making it, I don't wear a lot of it but this place just made my creative juices over flow. Their web site doesn't do anything to promote this store. The people were awesome and helped me design a bracelet that was inspired by a bracelet that I saw in a stitching catalogue. I can't wait to go back and pick it up today. They have a gazillion things for my needlework from beads to charms and special centerpieces for things like biscornus.

After that I hit the grocery and picked up stuff for dinner since it was just Tom and I. I hadn't been in this particular store for a long time and I was surprised to find out they had added some gourmet foods including an antipasti bar. I snagged some lovely ripe green olives stuffed with feta cheese which I had for a snack driving home.

I came home and figured out where the mistake was in that stupid bow, ripped it out, started over, and discovered there was a second mistake that I hadn't found, ripped it out, started over again and once I knew it was right, I put it down to go play on the computer. I quit the computer to watch Ghostwhisperer and was in the middle of Woman's Murder Club when Mark called and told us he had called 911 for his grandmother. Mark is there this weekend so Tommy can go play with his buddies. By the time we got there, the life squad had come and gone. She had decided not to go to the hospital but Mark didn't think to call us. *sigh* I think she is having anxiety attacks. She has been trying to clean out my FIL's stuff and it is overwhelming her. I need to get her to the doctor next week and see what he suggests.

I am going back to the bead place to pick up my bracelet now and I may stop at HL but probably not since I have taken the Stash Buster Pledge with Pam. (but I have a 40% off coupon!!! isn't that a waste???) I need to go and get right back since I have the house all to myself today. Tom and Mark are going to TKD and then back to MIL's. When Tommy get's back T&M are going to a party for a new black belt. Chick flix and chinese food for me. *big grin*

When I heard the start of this story, I have to admit my hackles went up big time. The story starts when a "church" in Topeka, Kansas decides to picket the funeral of a soldier. They were thanking God for his death claiming that was God's way of punishing homosexuals. Albert Snyder, the father of a dead soldier who's funeral was picketed took offense to that...*sigh* I can't imagine why (yes that is intended to be sarcastic)...so as Paul Harvey says, here's the rest of the story. Unfortunately, I doubt if those people will have learned their lesson. I personally think some hard jail time and the revocation of their 501c3 would be a place to start. (any politicians with some guts out there?) Then just for giggles, since they believe God hates, the US, Canada and (do you believe it) Sweden, may I suggest deportation. Perhaps to Iraq. We wouldn't want you to live in a land that the Lord hates!

I can't think of another story I have found so entirely distasteful in a long time. To think that my family and so many others has fought for these people's right to have freedom of speech. Shame on them. To Matthew Snyder's father I say, more power to you. God bless your son. God bless all our military.

I wanted to post before I headed out to work this morning. I got some stitching done while I was at my MIL's this weekend but truthfully, I stitch better at home in my own chair with my own light and my own "space". I am making good progress but it seems like it is taking forever now because I am doing the wreath and I am constantly switching colors. Fortunately, I own a Pako Needle Organizer So I am able to thread up needles of each color and just work from section to section. The satin stitch hearts are done with 4 strands of floss so I have 2 needles for that color, one loaded with 2 strands and one loaded with 4.

I have a real dilemma though. This pattern calls for little pieces of "baby's breath" to be stitched with perle cotton throughout the wreath. The blossoms are done with french knots. OK, maybe this is two problems. 1) I really hate doing french knots. I can do them but I really hate it and 2) I just don't even like how the baby's breath looks. I don't like it in the wreath. I thought about doing the stems and using beads for the french knots but I don't like how that looks either. I am not sure how I will work this out. *sigh* there is always something.

Ok, off to get ready for work!

Here's where I am on the sampler. I took an ecru break and put the words on the bottom last night and this morning. I still have the 2 upper corners of lacework to do. That lacework is backstitching back and forth on every row to fill an area. It looks really neat but is very tedious. Yesterday at work I couldn't figure out why my one finger was so sore and it is from the amount of stitching I am doing! That is the finger that guides the needle under the fabric. I put a bandaid on it to cushion it but that was more trouble than it was worth so I will just have to "suffer"!

I am so pleased with how quickly this is going. I am doing absolutely nothing else when I sit down but stitching. I still don't think I will make my self imposed deadline. I know I will finish in time to ship it for the wedding but I would so much rather send it home to them when his parents are out over Thanksgiving.

OK, back to stitching!! Time is limited for a bit today as I have to take my MIL to the foot doctor again and I am spending tonight and tomorrow with her while the guys go to a TKD tournament in Louisville. I am taking my stuff though!!

I was driving home today and was listening to my "classic" Rock station when my senior class song came on.(Forever Young by Rod Stewart). I was listening to the song (and remembering all the words in spite of the fact that is has been nearly 30 years) and starting thinking about what an excellent choice that song was for a senior class song. It still fits today.

May the good lord be with you
Down every road you roam
And may sunshine and happiness
Surround you when you're far from home
And may you grow to be proud
Dignified and true
And do unto others
As you'd have done to you
Be courageous and be brave
And in my heart you'll always stay
Forever young, forever young
Forever young, forever young

May good fortune be with you
May your guiding light be strong
Build a stairway to heaven
With a prince or a vagabond

And may you never love in vain
And in my heart you will remain
Forever young, forever young
Forever young, forever young
Forever young
Forever young

And when you finally fly away
I'll be hoping that I served you well
For all the wisdom of a lifetime
No one can ever tell

But whatever road you choose
I'm right behind you, win or lose
Forever young, forever young
Forever young ,forever young
Forever young, forever young
For, forever young, forever young

I can close my eyes and still see my friends, as they were of course, hear their voices, see their smiles. Some of these people I have stayed in touch with and "grown old" with and some I am just in touch my mail or email. Some have passed away so young, too young. In my mind, they are and I am forever young.

Hearing that song coming home today is ironic since today I have been thinking about mortality. One of the cashiers I work with is in the hospital. He has had terrible back pain and severe headaches. He'd been to the doctor and heard ruptured disc in his back, chronic sinus problems, kidney stones... and now they tell him he is full of tumors. As of last night, they didn't know if is was cancer or not. I haven't heard anything more today. He is in his early 20's. My heart is breaking for him and his family. I am so sick of walking through life with cancer hanging over my shoulder, taking my family and friends. He's a good kid you know? We talk about all kinds of things. We tease and share books and views, jokes and fetishes. He makes me laugh and he makes me feel young. I so desperately hope that those things will never change. Please pray for this young man and those who love him.