Day 2 of New Year...Round 2 of Deployment

My DS/24 just informed me he was deploying to Afghanistan this summer. This will make his second deployment (first one was Iraq). He was supposed to finish his 4+ years in the army in a couple of months, but he re-enlisted. I've been looking forward to him returning home. Now, there will be much praying, mailing of care packages, and keeping the news on 24-7.

Crossing stitches and counting blessings

Finally picked up "Gathering Honey" again. I need to knock it out but just haven't felt very creative lately. I'll share an update pic soon.

I've been job hunting so that has been the priority. I recently had a great interview with a senior executive for exec. administrative assistant. Didn't get the job though...they went with the interim candidate instead. Still, it was a neat blessing just to get the interview.
  

"Promise me you'll always remember: You're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think." ~Christopher Robin to Pooh

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."  ~Jeremiah 29:11 NIV

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."  ~Romans 8:28 NIV

"I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed...nothing will be impossible for you." ~Matthew 17:20 NIV

 And this just puts a smile on my face...my granddaughter....Miss P

Organized Chaos?

I've been slowly getting my office/sewing studio in order. I have quite a bit left to do, but at least I've begun. Baby steps. Here is one corner of my room that has 2 black bookshelves. The bookshelf on the left has some of my sewing patterns. I wouldn't have chosen purple and pink containers, but they were on sale (under $1.50/each) several years ago at Target. They are actually trash cans made out of thick plastic with metal trim. I would prefer to have all the same color (maybe the wall color), but I haven't run across a reasonably (ok, cheap) priced solution yet. What would be totally awesome is those 5 across, 5 down cubbie shelves from Ikea, but now I'm totally dreaming! My cross stitch thread is stored on the bottom shelf in those handy, dandy plastic divided boxes. The black shelf on the right holds reference books, quilting mags, sewing mags, and scrapbooking mags. The bottom shelf is a few card-making supplies. Those will probably be moved as this organized chaos is tamed. The small purple crates were bought at Walmart a couple of weeks ago ($1.50/each). They are a good size for the small bits of fabric. Don't be fooled. Most of that is not fat quarters, but smaller pieces. Our Boston Terrier, Lucy, seems to think I folded all that and placed it there for her to pull out again and again and again! Grrr!

Next to the shelves and crates is my pegboard (a leftover piece that DH put in frame I had from a recycled piece we salvaged and painted some time ago. Since taking this photo a few days ago, it has been tweaked again! However, the main change is the 2 baskets of tulle have been moved, and in their place will be 2 more small crates to hold the patterns that Lucy keeps pulling off the lower shelves!

She's a plastic freak, and of course, just about all my storage is plastic. By moving the patterns to the pegboard, they are beyond her reach, thank goodness! All the fabric in the wire bins (purchased at Gordman's last fall) is from yard sales, estate sales, leftovers from projects, and inherited stash.


I haven't bought hardly any new fabric in years. I need to use up some of this so I can justify buying some new stash. The white shelves formerly were in DS/12's nursery. On the left is the white plastic basket that the dog kept pulling off and running away with. That spot will be for something else (not sure what yet.) Next to that are some larger pieces of fabric (from an estate sale). On the bottom left, the brown basket thing is a 3-drawer unit I bought a year ago at a yard sale for $2. It holds scrapbooking supplies. Next to that is a couple of photo boxes and my big bite, crop-a-dile II. On the right side is more scrapbooking supplies and photo boxes. Once everything is in a more organized state, I'll give a better tour, but you really don't want to see the rest of the room yet. Trust me.... it looks like this....

The rest of the room is one hot mess, I know. Photo sorting is years behind in my house. Hope to have this under control soon. I have made progress, but there so much more to sift through.

Changing gears....DS/12 had 2 teeth pulled and was quite the trooper. He had a good nurse too!
See?

Tutu-too Delicious

Now you must admit, the tutu from the last post is way cuter with my granddaughter modeling it instead of just hanging on a silly ole hanger! I also made the headband and my daughter attached the flower. I think Miss P is having a photo shoot this weekend and I'm sure she'll love every minute of it.

Memorial Day

This day takes on a whole new meaning since my son is deployed in Iraq. It's more than just a day for a picnic for some of us.

Thank you to my son and all the men and women who serve in the military.

Freedom = sacrifice of many - present and past.

Quickie Recycle/Reuse Project

Well, here is what DS/12 and I came up with for a t-shirt that he never wore. He wanted a book cover for his library book. He already had the patch, too. I just laid out the shirt, put the book on top and cut out a generous amount to allow for error. It was so quick, maybe 30 minutes. He was excited and I was glad to recycle something he had never worn.












It snowed like crazy yesterday! We got between 7 1/2 to 8 inches of glistening snow. You can see my "wedding cake" table to get an idea of just how much snowfall.











Oh, we just discovered our dog, Lucy, thinks she can sing...

New Year's Eve Baby

After 12 hours of labor and an emergency c-section, DD gave birth to our beautiful granddaughter, Presley. Mom and baby are doing fine.



Weight: 7 pounds, 11 ounces - Height: 20 inches

She is absolutely breathtaking! I am so proud!

Bun In The Oven

My response to my expectant daughter's concern over going past her due date....
"The longer they cook, the better they look!" She seemed to like that. Tomorrow is the inducement day!! We will finally see our granddaughter!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! We are still waiting on our new granddaughter to arrive. Christmas Eve was fun (but just not the same without my DS/22 who is in Iraq). We are a Wii family now. Yay!!

Baby Shower for My Daughter

Today I hosted a baby shower (my first ever) for my daughter. I used some of the items I had kept of my daughter's when she was born. I had saved some of her dresses and a couple of crocheted items my mother had made, so I used those for decorating. Here are some of the photos.


I used pink fabric (from my fabric stash) underneath a Battenberg lace tablecloth I already owned. I found the doll and teddy bear for the centerpiece at T. J. Maxx. The Petit Fours were made by Brown Baguette. They were delicious!

Menu:

Petit Fours
Brownie Bites
Fruit & Dip
Spinach Dip & Hawaiian Bread
Chicken Salad on Croissants
Beef Ball with Crackers
Broccoli Bacon Salad
Punch
Tea/Coffee/Diet Coke
The baby will be named Presley Ruth and I just happened to have the letters to spell her name. The punch table was covered in a white floor-length tablecoth with a "bed canopy" draped over it. The canopy was $10 at Tuesday Morning. I bunched the top half under the punch bowl. It worked great!

I used some of my daughter's own baby dresses for decorating. I displayed some of my son-in-law's and my daughter's baby pics around, also.

My mother had made me the crocheted bag and vest for my daughter when she was born 27 years ago. The bag has a heart pocket and a patch that says "Angel". I used it on her crib for small toys, etc., but it can be used several ways. The afghans were also treasures I had kept of my daughter's. I am sooo glad I held onto them.




We had so much fun! She got lots of precious gifts, too. Here's the whole bunch and my daughter with my sister-in-law (who loaned me the glass plates, etc.) It was great just to see the ladies in our family since we don't get many opportunities to get together.

Halloween Baby Shower

DD's bible study group gave her a Halloween Baby Shower.
Everything was wonderful! Check out the cake!













I am giving her a shower for our side of the family. I have no clue what I'm doing. Wish me luck.
The theme will be "pink".

Future Mom!

Here's my beautiful daughter! She is simply glowing! She has a fairly new blog, Mom's the Word.



She's expecting our first grandchild, a baby girl!!
We are so excited! I'll be giving her a shower in November.

Praying like never before

My son has deployed to Iraq. He is on the right. I can't imagine what the next 12 months will be like. Lots of praying, that I do know for sure....

Where Did I Go?

Well....I didn't really go anywhere, but my DS/22, who is in the army, was in town for his leave before deploying to Iraq. It was so wonderful to see his face again!! I've missed him terribly!

While he was home, he wrecked his bike and broke his foot in several places. He had burns to his side, shoulder and back. After his accident, he spent most of the remaining time at home, trying to heal. I tried to be a good nurse, but anyone who knows me knows I am not a good one. I did the best I could and we had a few laughs at my ineptness.

Here's his bike (his pride and joy). He rebuilt and painted it himself. This was before the accident.

He received a promotion to "Specialist" before he returned home, and may be a corporal very soon. I am so proud of him! I am also terrified for him, but I know he has been trained well. I know God will look over him no matter where he is (because I keep reminding God about it : } ).

Other Breaking News.......

We found out last week that our first grandchild is a G-I-R-L!!!!! We are overjoyed! It wouldn't have mattered either way, boy or girl, they are both awesome!

I have a couple of other things that have kept me from blogging, but hopefully I'll be able to get back on track soon.

We've been busy with guerilla shopping for school supplies and clothes. There was also a tax-free weekend last weekend, so people who never shop were out shopping. There was craziness on the roads (who turns left from the far right-hand lane??) and even more craziness in the stores. Waiting in line for over 15 minutes to get into a dressing room stall, then another 15 minutes in a checkout line, is not my idea of a fun day.

The Rockstar and I even made a few midnight runs to Walmart to get 5 cent spiral notebooks (aka themebooks, composition books). My DS/11 always corrects me if I don't refer to them as "spirals". I am giving away my age here, but I'm just happy to be alive...at any age!

School is starting for DS/11 next week. I am picking up more hours with my job, also. I will still be busy-busy, but I'll try to get in some stitching time. I miss it. I miss the way it relaxes me. It gives me time to think.

Hopefully, I'll have a stitching update soon. We shall see...

Memorial Day

Having a son in the military makes this day even more emotional for me. This holiday many wives, moms, sisters, fathers, and brothers are paying respect to their loved one who gave their lives for our freedom. It is the ultimate sacrifice. My son is deploying very soon. I can hardly bear to think about it, however, I know God is watching over him, as well as the other men and women serving in the armed forces.

This weekend, DS/11 and I went with his scout troop to Veterans' Cemetery for a ceremony and placed flags on the graves of soldiers.

Mothers Day

I had a very nice Mothers' Day this year. I received a storage box for my stash of scrapbooking paper from DS/11 and an OTT light from my DH. My DD/26 gave me the beautiful white roses. I took her and my mom to lunch. I didn't hear from DS/22 (he was at Ft. Irwin, CA, for combined training with the other battalions that are deploying in August). He was, however, able to call me this past Sunday and wish me a late Happy M'day! I was so thankful to hear from him. He will be coming home for a brief visit and then deploying to Iraq (at least, as far as we know).

It's hard to wrap my brain around becoming a grandmother for the first time and seeing my son go off to war within the same 4 months. Needless to say, God has a bigger plan than I can see. I just can't quite grasp it all yet.

What happened to me???

Well......I have been stitching again and I'll share an update soon. In the meantime, I got great news from my DD/26 and my SIL. On their second anniversary they found out they are expecting a baby! I am going to be a grandmother!!!! I'm so excited! I can't wait to start sewing for the baby, as soon as we know if it's a girl or boy.

I have been lurking around all the stitching, sewing, scrapbooking, and organizing blogs during my quiet moments. I will, however, try to do better (we've heard that before) and blog more often.

RIP Sawyer

Yesterday was a tough day for our family. Our pound puppy, Sawyer, went to "a happy place" (so DS/11 said) after 15 years of being a part of our family. It's been very sad, we've all been very teary-eyed, but we know he was in pain and had lived a very long life. We miss him and his loyalty, his trusting nature, and even his stubbornness.

What happened to January?

I can't believe how packed the month of January was for our family! Our calendar was full! Hopefully, things will settle down a bit. We had a birthday party for DS/11 at The Incredible Pizza Company. It is new to our area and made for a great party for the 8 boys, a few parents, and family members. The venue is set around the 50s era and there is a huge game room with bumper cars, go-carts, and such. Here's a few pics of the party.











The Pinewood Derby was exciting this year. DS/11's car was silver with a #1 MSU Tigers theme. He won 1st in his scout pack.












This month, DS/11 "crossed over" to become a Boy Scout. A ceremony and banquet marked the occasion. At the ceremony, he received a trophy for 1st place Webelos 2 Pinewood Derby, then another trophy for 1st place Overall in his pack! Now, he will participate in the district-wide derby later this month.












In the meantime, I will be baking for the scout bake sale this Sunday and help with a science project. Two fundraisers have been going for raising money for DS/11's chorus trip that is coming up in April. Oh my goodness, it just never ends.

DH played a gig at Higher Ground recently.
It was a fun "road trip" of sorts. In the first pic, DH is in the middle and in the bottom pic, he's on keys.













DS/21 is still stationed in Colorado. I miss him so much.

January is starting off with a Bang!

As I mentioned earlier, DS/21 came in town for a couple of weeks following Christmas. We got to see him a few times which was great! He had to rely on us and his friends to get around because the military said it was too high risk to drive his motorcycle home. He was disappointed, but managed to see some of his friends and family before flying back to Colorado today. Unfortunately, during his trip, he misplaced his cell phone twice, so he had more "down time" than he had planned, and to top it off, he lost his wallet! Here's a photo of my son-in-law, DS/21, and DS/10 the night we took him out for dinner.
Here's a photo of my son and me. Notice the cut and bump above his right eye. Yep! He got that while he was here, too! I'm just so thankful he got to come home for a visit. I was sad to have to tell him goodbye again. We have no idea when he'll be allowed to return home for a visit.





Today, while he was flying back, I was having minor surgery to remove a cyst on my wrist. I now have a huge wrap on my hand, but I can remove it Saturday. I don't think I will be cross stitching until I remove the wrap. It's bulky and besides, I'm on pain meds, so handling a needle may not be the best idea!!

I also got the results from my MRI on my neck. (2 bulging disc and 1 herniated disc in my neck). No wonder I'm in pain! I got some meds and will have a shot (in my neck) for pain relief in a few weeks. Hopefully, that will buy some time to watch and see if it will get any better (or worse).

That's all for now....it's a little tricky trying to type with this "extra padding" on my hand!