I got presents!!

Here lately I've been dreading checking the mail. I've not gotten anything interesting in a while. Mostly just bills and things associated with moving...most of them bills...LOL. I have however been anxiously checking the mail every day because I'm participating in a designer exchange in one of my yahoo groups and have been expecting my package. In this exchange each person was to select a designer and the person stitching for them was to stitch something for them from the designer of their choosing. We had this exchange before and it was a lot of fun! This time the designer I chose was The Drawn Thread. I'm happy to report it came today and it's fantastic!! My package came from Marilynne in Canada and she stitched a fantastic piece for me called For the Birds. She made it in to a wonderful let's see...I'm gonna call it a stitching case. She did a fantastic job with the finishing! It has 2 pockets in it for holding stitching goodies and also has a page to hold needles.When I opened it, it was filled with several little gifts. Some were wrapped and some were not. I had a really great time opening the ones that were. It felt like Christmas..lol! First I opened up a cute little scissor fob she stitched for me using the peacock from the front of the stitching case. I'm so glad she sent me one of these, I just recently mentioned my lack of (and need for!) stitched scissor fobs and am thrilled to add this one to my collection. The next package I opened was a package of John James Gold Plated Petite needles. I LOVE gold plated needles and really appreciate these! Next was a little round blue tape measure. This will definately come in handy. There were also 2 other gifts that were in the case unwrapped and heldby little ribbons. First was a clover cutter, I'm thrilled to have this and it will definately come in handy the next time I have to fly. I really got tired of listening to people gripe about them allowing me to have scissors on the plane but them not being allowed to bring in umbrellas, hat boxes, and other things. Last but certainly not least is one of my favorite things! Marilynne sent me a Star De-Tailor! YAY!! I have wanted one of these for the longest time!! Thanks so much for wonderful stitched gifts Marilynne, and for all of the thoughtful little gifts you sent along too. They are appreciated more than you know! Especially during this somewhat (VERY!) eventful time in my life.

I did spend a while packing today. I think I've gotten a lot done and there really isn't a ton more to do. At least I don't think there is. I've pretty well packed most of the things in the closets and everything's been taken off the walls. A lot of what's left are things that we'll be using. I've packed some things in the kids rooms but not everything. I didn't want them to freak out on me. Mike still has to get all of our Christmas stuff out of the attic. I think there are some other things up there too but I'm not sure. It's been a while since I had a look. I'm spending part of the day tomorrow out with my best friend so the packing will have to wait until I get back :). Cassie's best friend is coming over tomorrow night for one last sleepover. There's no school on Friday this week so after tomorrow they'll only have 5 days left of school.

Oh for Pete's sake...I did my homework

So after dinner I told Cassie she needed to get started on her homework. Shortly after that she walks in with a piece of notebook paper and a pencil and hands it to me along with a note from her spelling teacher saying that part of her homework was to give a parent a spelling test using this weeks words. Pffffft! Excuse me but my turn is over. If I wanted homework I'd be taking college classes. LOL! It wasn't a quick list of 10 either. There were 40 of those suckers on there! Like I don't have enough to do right now. Thanks, teach! LOL! If she sends home another note like that before we move, I might have to send one right back..lol. Sheesh...

I had a really nice lunch today with my mother in law and Mike's Grandma. We went to Samari of Tokyo. It's a Hibachi style Japanese restaurant and it's SO good! I'm gonna go back with my best freind either the end of this week or next. I love watching those guys cook the food. It's such fun to watch. I'll see his Mom and Grandma again on Sunday. They're having a going away picnic for us so that should be lots of fun.

I did get a few more boxes packed this morning. It seems like I have boxes everywhere. I've been able to pack everything ok up until today. I can't seem to find a good box to put Mike's Paw Paw's flag from his funeral in. It's in one of those flag cases and every time I think I have a box for it it ends up not working. I'll just have to keep looking I guess. There's gotta be one somewhere around here that will work. It's been a long day and I still have lots to do so until we meet again..........

Me and my buddy

My best friend and her family game over tonight. We ate pizza and a whole bunch of cookies and then busted out with a couple of games of Sorry. I love that game! We had a really great time! I talk about her a lot but most of you have never seen her so here are some pictures of me and my buddy:

They weren't posing for this one were they? ROFLOL!!!

So, it's been a while...

But you have to give me a break, I've been busy! So I didn't pack anything today....ok so it's been 2 days since I packed anything but I've had lots of other things to do as well. Mike doesn't seem to think there's too much more to pack. I'm not sure which house he's living in but it can't be this one LOL! I had intended on doing some packing this morning but I was without lights for a while so couldn't see to pack anything. Ok, the blinds were open but still...the boxes were in the garage and it was pitch black out there. I guess I could've used a flashlight but why put all that energy in to doing something I don't like doing in the first place? LOL! I thought I would but nah.....I pulled up a chair by a window and looked at my new Just Cross Stitch Christmas Ornament issue instead lol. That was a heck of a lot more fun than packing! I look forward to this magazine coming out every September. In fact, it's my favorite part of the whole month. Easy to please aren't I? Hey, maybe one of you could tell Mike that..LOL! I loved this issue although there are a few ornaments in there that I'm wondering how the heck made it in...lol. I talked to my good stitching friend Jodi on the phone today and we flipped through our mags together. There's a few that we agreed we're just really really.....gosh...I'd hate to say ugly....lol....different. That's it...they were different..lol. Anyway, about the power being out....I had just gotten back from taking the kids to school. I was sitting at the dining room table chatting with Mike when all of a sudden we heard....bzzzzzzzzddddddd, and then a really loud exploding sound, and then we saw a big poof of smoke drift by the window. Well, isn't that so expected right now. I know I'm not surprised...lol.

Cassie's staying the night with her best friend tonight. I hope she enjoys it because it'll probably be her last :(. My best friend and her family are coming over tomorrow night to play games and eat all sorts of bad stuff. I'm really looking forward to them coming over. We have loads of fun together speaking of her, she and I ate lunch yesterday and did a bit of shopping which brings me to this next little diddy......

So, we're walking through a store when a really obnoxious woman with small children were browsing in the children's dept. Not only was she being completely horrid to her kids but she wasn't making any effort to be quiet, that's for sure. I'm not talking about getting on to kids, I'm talking about calling them names and saying other horrible things to them. I'm having a hard time understanding why someone would want to have kids and then treat them the way that they do. If any of you out there have kids and don't treat them like the precious gift they are, then shame on you! I guarantee you one of these days you'll regret it. You can never get time back, once it's gone it's gone. I'm thankful for every day that I have with mine and I know that the things I say to them and do with them will stay with them forever. When mine are grown they're gonna remember that I played with them, read to them, made them laugh so hard they couldn't catch their breath, (I don't think I'm all that funny but they think I'm hilarious...lol) baked for them, sang with them even though I stink at it, turned the music up and danced with them, and made them feel better when they were sad. If you think back on your life with your kid and you can't come up with what they'll be thanking you for when they're grown then you've got a problem there.

Hopping of my soapbox now.....

Had a really good weekend :)

Friday evening my mother in law and her husband picked the kids up to take them to the Texas-Oklahoma fair. My brother and father had left that morning for West Virginia and my mother was all alone so I decided to pick her up so we could go too! I knew my best friend and her family were gonna be there and Cassie's best friend and her family were going too. Seemed like a perfect night to go to me :). I had planned on riding a few things with my mom but we both changed our minds really quick. It was $5 just to get in which was fine but tickets for rides were $1 a piece. This wasn't a problem until we realized most rides took 4 or 5 tickets! I was really shocked! We decided instead to load up on carnival food and watch everyone else...lol. We just couldn't make ourselves pay $5 to ride a ferris wheel. That's extortion! LOL! We still had a really nice time even though we didn't ride anything. The kids had a really great time! They spent most of their time there with my MIL and her husband. They rode all sorts of things and had a blast. They found me at the end and we took them in to the petting zoo. My mom wouldn't go in there though. Something about a goat kicking her in the butt with his back legs when she was little....lol. She just refused no matter how much I begged..lol. The petting zoo was loaded with animals....goats, a lhama, deer, something big and burly with horns that I couldn't identify...lol....and they even had a baby kangaroo in his own little pen..lol. My MIL bought some food for the animals so the kids could feed them. They had a blast and Joshua loved it. At the end though, a goat took his cup from him and ran off...lol. Everyone had a lot of fun and I made sure the kids thanked their Grandma because if she wouldn't have taken them and I did they wouldn't have rode near as much....lol.

Yesterday I went to my friend Tiffanie's baby shower. This is the friend of mine who moved to Tulsa this past May. This is the first time I've seen her since then. Unfortunately, I'm betting It'll be the last time I see her for a really long time :(. We had a good time at her baby shower and she got a lot of really nice gifts. Joshua went with me since his buddy Sebastian was there. He had a lot of fun playing with him and really loved the cake! They stopped by for a while last night so the boys could play one more time before they headed back home.

Today wasn't quite as much fun but was productive. Mike and I spent nearly the entire day packing. He did however take a 3 hour break to watch football. Now that I think of it I should've taken a 3 hour break too...lol. The good news is we got a lot packed. I'm on my own for the rest of the week so at least we put a big dent in it. I'm taking another small break tomorrow to spend some time with my mom. We're going out to lunch and then to pal around for a bit. Speaking of moms..please say a prayer for my stitching friend, Melissa. She lost her mother to cancer yesterday morning. Melissa, you're in my thoughts and I hope you find peace in knowing that your mother isn't in any pain any more.

I have some good news! With some persuasion from my realtor (and a bit from me! LOL!) the guy who owns the house we're buying has decided to fix the roof. I'm REALLY relieved about that. So we're closing on the new house on the 4th via overnight mail...and closing on this one the morning of the 8th and we'll be leaving for Virginia immediately after. I mentioned earlier that my dad and brother are in West Virginia. That's where my dad is from and a lot of his family lives there. It looks like my parents and brother are difinately moving there! I'm really excited about that! They're meeting with a realtor on Tuesday morning. I just hope their house hunting isn't anything like ours was..ugghhhh. I wish I could erase those 4 days from my memory...lol.

So you wanna know...

How many pair of stitching scissors that I have? Someone on one of my yahoo stitching groups asked this question earlier today and I'm proud to say I'm winning LOL!

*Disclaimer* Mike, if you're reading this I'd recommend you stop reading right here for your own good. Some things are better left unknown in a marriage and this is one of those things. If you do decide to read on, no I don't think I have enough and intend on aquiring more. Do you have enough golf balls? Didn't think so. LOL!! :P



I'm in the lead so far with a nice collection of 10 pairs of stitching scissors, and I fully intend on adding to that! Thanks so much to all of my stitching friends who have sent me such lovely scissors over the past few years. Out of the 10 here, I've only purchased 3. Thanks, girls! I do use all of them, some more than others. I think my favorite pair in the bunch are the stained glass stork scissors, although I do like them all. I only have 3 stitched scissor fobs for them but am hoping to aquire more of them. I like beaded fobs but would really like to have a few more stitched fobs. There are several good things about collecting these.

1. They're useful

2. They don't take up much space

3. They're just pretty...lol.

Today was a lot better than yesterday! Of course that may be because I didn't do anything productive. LOL! My Santa Fe needed a new battery so Mike took care of that this morning. Cassie had an orthodontist appt. this morning. It was her last appt. with this Dr. We were both a little sad to say goodbye. He's a really great Dr. and a really sweet man. Hopefully when we move we'll find one that's just as good. He printed out a list for me and pointed out who he'd recommend so that was nice. Cassie got her retainer today. Check this thing out! Can you beleive they make retainers like this these days?! It's a ladybug! She got to pick the design herself and they ordered it for her. She even asked them to add red glitter to it and they did! They even have her name on it! It cracks me up when she puts it in her mouth. It looks like she's eating a ladybug. LOL!!! Isn't it great?! I wonder just how much I paid for that ladybug...LOL!

After I took Cassie back to school I met my BF at Taco Bell for lunch. After about 2 hours we figured we'd better leave before they kicked us out LOL! I could just sit and talk to her for hours. I'm really gonna miss that *sigh*.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention that we sold our house last night! I'm really relieved that we did so quickly! Our realtor in Virginia just called a bit ago though and did not have good news for me. The house we're buying has an issue with the roof and the owner doesn't wanna fix it :(. We're not asking him to replace the roof, just fix the areas that need to be fixed. I just had a chat with her and she's gonna insist that he fix it. Ordinarily I'm not too bothered about these things but our inspector said there are 2 holes above the attic. I do have a problem with that. Hopefully he'll give in and get it fixed. The stinky thing here is that he and his soon to be ex have to agree on everything. If one says ok let's fix it and the other doesn't then that's a whole other problem. It would be my fine luck we'd move in and then the roof would cave or something. The house was built in 88 and the inspector said it looks like the original roof...*sigh*

Thanks for stopping in and I do hope that you enjoyed looking at my scissors..lol. Anyone have more than me? I'm almost betting money that my stitching friend Rachel does..lol.

Fast Forward please!!

Right now I really wish there was a fast forward button I could push to get me through the next 6 weeks or so! This has really been one of those days! Which bird is it that buries his head in the sand? Is that a flamingo? I wanna be one of those right now. Ever had a day where nothing would go as planned? This is definately one of them. I'm really not feeling like I could possibly have anything else added to my plate. Just as I'm thinking this Mike informs me that he doesn't have time to do all of what he's been taking care of and needs me to do some of that too. Sorry! No can do! I mean I could if I don't ever eat, bathe, sleep, or spend any time at all with the kids. There's only one of me and while I'm doing all this stuff, I do have prior commitments that I need to fulfill. Things that I commited to far before I knew we were moving. I really feel like I'm losing my patience with a handful of things. They just might have to send the men in white coats after me soon. I won't bore you with today's events. Well, maybe I'll only bore you with two of them.

There's a really pretty fluffy cat that I've noticed has been hanging out in the area. I only see her from a distance so ignore her for the most part. A few days back I noticed Dollie (my little black doggie on the left of my page here) had a really big and quite gross if I might add, boo boo on the back of her neck. It looked like something had really bit her but I had no idea what. I think I know now. She was outside with Sally earlier and the were just barking up a storm! Dollie rarely ever barks so I went outside to see what her problem was. As I was walking toward the corner of the fence where they were I noticed that fluffy cat at the op of the fence. That cat is psycho! She had her head hanging way down and looked like she was seconds away from pouncing on Dollie. She was really hissing and showing teeth all the while! I quickly reached down to snap up Dollie and the psycho cat started hissing at me! Oh, nuh uh. I took Dollie in and came back out with a broom to shoo her away. That cat was mean!! She was showing her teeth at me and I could hear her hissing on my way back over there. I held the broom up and tried to gently nudge her over to the other side and when I did she made this really mean sound at me. When she did that she went over to the other side alright! I wasn't having that psycho cat hanging out over here. I don't mind cats but I sure do when they're vicious! I'm betting that she's the one that bit Dollie. No offense to you cat lovers but this one was scary and she wanted to eat my little dog.

Moving along....

So I'm doing all sorts of things around the house today...cleaning, packing, blah, blah, blah. Same story, different day. I usually leave here at 3:05 to pick the kids up from school. I was trying to get something finished up before I got them so I walked out of here at 3:10. To discover my Santa Fe wouldn't start! UGGGGHHHH! DARNIT!!! Like it couldn't have not started the other 4 times I started it today *sigh*. So that means I had to take off on foot...really really fast! I definately didn't plan on going for a jog today. At least it wasn't 100 out. It was actually quite nice. It would've been a lot nicer though if I wouldn't have been wearing jeans. When I finally do get to the school, Cassie informs me she doesn't want to walk home. Hummph. Guess what sunshine?! Me either! I tell ya...kids these days are spoiled. I walked home from school most days and my walk was a whole lot longer than hers was!

I'm pretty sure that the car just needs a new battery. I hope Mike gets up early and gets it fixed! Cassie has an ortho appt. and I have places to be. If not, he may just have to take advantage of public transportation. He can just practice for his new job. LOL! I sound kind of grouchy don't I? I blame it on my life changes. Personally, I think it's enough to make one grouchy. I think it's enough to make one lose their mind...lol.

Thank goodness I'm home....

For a while there I didn't think I'd make it back alive! What a horrible trip that was! LOL! I just can't make myself re-live the whole experience so I'll put it in a really quick nutshell for ya. Our flights were good, we stayed at a 5 star hotel that was beautiful but when we got to our room it looked like a crime scene ie: blood on the floor, bed, ect....I can't begin to tell you how horrified I was. Especially since Mike and I watched a really creepy hotel movie called vacancy the week before. Yes we did get another room immediately far away from that one. House hunting was horrible and depressing. The areas we could afford to live in weren't very good ones. We made an offer on something but had to withdraw it as it was fixing to go in to foreclosure and after we made the offer the bank said it would be 10-14 days before we'd get an answer. Back to square one we go. We had to have something before we left as it was only gonna be about 30 days until we needed to move. The day before we left our realtor showed us a house that had gone on the market the day we arrived. She didn't show it to us sooner because it was a bit more than what we had told her we wanted to pay. The people who owned it are going through a really nasty divorce and were hoping to get rid of it quick. We were the first people to look at it but there were a couple of more showings scheduled after ours. It was perfect so we bought it! 2 stories, 3 bedrooms, a fully finished basement, 2 full bathrooms, and it's nearly 1,800 square feet! The house we live in now is only 1,100 square feet so that gives us a lot of extra room to move around! It's got a beautiful deck in the back and you have to go down some stairs to get to the backyard. It has a privacy fence all around it that has a gate in the back that takes you in to the forest. Seriously...look on a map. The house is on Plantation Forest Dr. in Spotsylvania, Va. and the forest is called Plantation Forest. I LOVE the entire area!! And I love that we have a forest out back! It's so perfect! I can't wait to take the kids exploring! I got this pic off of my realtor's site. Our inspection is Tuesday morning and she'll be there for it. She's gonna take some better pics for me when she goes. That tree's covering up a nice portion of the house in this pic so hopefully she can get a better pic of it. I think they may have trimmed back that tree a bit after this pic was taken as I don't remember that tree covering up that much of the house. I'm so glad this is done and hope I never have another trip like that one again. It was SO stressful. I can't tell you how thrilled I am that we won't be living in a townhouse. And I tell ya, the D.C. area sure could use some more signs to tell ya where you're going! We spent a great deal of time being lost. We had our atlas but a map doesn't do you much good if there aren't any signs. I think I've about recovered from the trip. I guess I really should get to packing. It looks like we'll be moving on Oct. 8th.

P.S. If you ever go to D.C. don't rent a car..lol.

Just about ready to fly....

Again. I've been so busy lately. I just got the kids packed up and off to my parents house. They're spending 3 nights with my parents and 2 nights with my MIL. They're really excited I think. Mike and I are leaving at 6 in the morning to drive to Dallas. We get in to D.C. just after 4 eastern time. We have a small layover both ways in Cleveland. We've got about 13 houses to pick from. I can't wait until that part of this adventure is over.

Yesterday was my MIL's birthday. My mother & I met her for lunch at a Chinese restaurant and had a really great time. I was going to give her gift to her then but the kids wanted to give it to her so I waited. Her husband took her out to dinner last night so she stopped by afterwards so they could give it to her. We've had a pretty busy day. We went out to lunch with my FIL and his wife and my BIL and get this...that niece I was talking about that we haven't seen in 5 years?? He brought her! I was SO surprised! I had to remind Cassie who she was and Joshua had no clue. We had a really nice lunch together and then went we all went over to my FIL's house for a while. I just wish we could have all done this before now. Better now though than never I guess. Joshua played ball out back for a nice portion of it and the girls had a really great time. They LOVE taking pictures and posed for several. I'm glad I had my camera with me. These are the only pictures I have of them. Even if we don't see her again (but I really hope we do!) I'm glad they got to spend the day together. Cassie really loves her and I do wish she could've seen her more. My FIL and his wife and some gifts for the kids and a really nice gift for Mike & I. They got us one of those Garmin Streetpilots! That was VERY appreciated! Now maybe I won't get AS lost in the D.C. area as I would have without it...lol. Mike tried it out on the way to take the kids to my parents house and it's FANTASTIC!! I'm not near as afraid to drive in the D.C. area now that I'll have this thing to help me...who the heck knows where I would have ended up otherwise..LOL!

I guess I'd better go. It's getting late and sadly our luggage isn't going to pack itself. I really hate that we have to leave the kids behind again. Hopefully the next 4 days will fly by. I'll be back the end of the week. Until then, you kids play nicely while I'm gone :)