That flew by

My family came to visit for Christmas and before I knew it they were gone again. I can't believe how fast that went by! My mom & dad got here last Friday. My brother was already here, he came before they did. I had a really good time showing him around before they came. Just like me, he loves the historical part of downtown Fredericksburg. I was really excited when I woke up Friday morning because I knew it would only be a matter of hours before I'd get to hug my mama. I was thrilled when I called them that morning to find out that they had left nearly 2 hours earlier than they had planned. I waited for her on the front porch and I know on the inside I was jumping up and down like a 5 year old. I didn't realize just how much I did miss her until I saw her. Funny how that is really. I don't think you really know how much you love someone until there not around as much or at all. When she got here she had furbabies in tow. One of which loved to be in this position most of the time. Before they got here I knew my mom had a lot of shopping to do. It hadn't even been 2 weeks since she had moved and she had a list of things she wanted to buy for her new house. She was here a whole hour before we headed out. I didn't think I was ever gonna get her out of Burlington Coat Factory. Geez! That woman can spend with the best of them! LOL! After we finally left there, we headed for the mall where we spent the next 2-3 hours. The mall we had back in Texas was rather small and seriously lacking so she was really fascinated with this one. It's REALLY large and for whatever reason, they're expanding. They'd better print up maps when they do. If it gets any bigger I might need one. We got back home pretty late and made our plan for the next day. Saturday morning we got up and headed over to Super Target. She loves Target and had never been in a Super Target. Once I got her in, I realized I might need some horses to pull her back out. After 2 hours I pointed out that if we spent too much more time in Target then we might not be able to go downtown. That got her attention quick so off we went. I should have been spending more time watching the road while I was driving but couldn't help paying more attention to her face when she saw all the things I've tried to describe to her on the phone. When we got downtown and she saw all of those shops and I saw how thrilled she was I knew we'd be there a while. We went to several shops but her 2 favorites were the Fudge Factory and Everything Cross Stitch (Me too!!). When we went to the stitching shop we noticed a sign that said all of the clearance merchandise was now 75% off. We were there a reeeeally long time. Neither one of us tried to hurry the other along there...lol. We both left with some really great goodies and I'm thinking maybe I should go back..lol. After we left we headed over to the Confederate Cemetery. She'd never been to anything like it and was really wanting to go. After we left there she wanted to stop back by Burlington's to pick up something she saw the day before. After that we stopped by the market to pick everything up for Christmas dinner. We had our dinner on Christmas Eve since they had to leave on Christmas day. We brought everything home and unloaded it. Stayed for about and hour and a half and left again. This time I took her to Central Park since we hadn't been yet. I knew she was gonna love it there! You can find just about anything you want in Central Park. We got home late again but when we did we found some time to make some sugar cookies. On Sunday we had a lot of presents to wrap so we did that. My mom wanted to go out again when we were done. I felt bad that Mike and the kids hadn't gone with us before so they came this time. My dad had to go back to WV for a day because he had to work. My brother went with him to keep him company. We went to eat lunch, then she wanted to go back downtown. We did that and then she wanted to go back to Central Park. After that we came back home and she made me some yummy chicken and dumplins for dinner. YUMMY! My dad and brother got back late that night. On Monday morning we got up and starting preparing things for dinner. After my Thanksgiving adventure, I was SO happy that she was there to help. Everything was really yummy and now I've decided if she can't come to me for the holidays, then I'm going to her :). That night we opened our gifts. As hard as I tried, I just couldn't seem to get that angel finished that I started to stitch for her. I really felt bad because I always have an angel for her for Christmas. I told her I had it, it would just be a little late. I did have a framed piece I stitched for her though. It's a piece from Blackbird's Peppermint & Holly book called Dear Mother. Cassie had a stitched gift for her too. She stitched a little Lizzie Kate piece. She did the stitching and I did the finishing for her. I hated for the night to be over because I knew they were leaving in the morning. Santa came and they watched them play with their goodies for a while, then off they went. I hated for her to go but at least she's only a 4.5 hour drive now. I can't wait until we get to go see them. There's a ski resort nearby and I'm looking forward to taking the kids sledding and tubing. They got a couple of Target gift cards for Christmas so yesterday I took them to buy snow suits and other snow gear. The first 3 day weekend they have from school after Winter break, I'm taking them up there. I think there's one coming up in a few weeks. We'll probably spend a lot of school holidays up there. I'd better go. This turned out a lot longer than I planned. Mike's mom is coming on Saturday so I've got a lot to do. She's flying in to Reagan so we'll probably spend a nice portion of the day in D.C. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday :)

I love my mail man

He left a fantastic box on my front porch today. I got really excited when I saw the return address. It was from my good stitching buddy, Rachel. I knew when I saw that the package was from her that there would probably be some yummy goodies inside. I was right!

Rachel makes the bestest candy in the whole world! Inside the box was a pretty tin filled with "oh I so want to eat the entire box of you" yummy candy! She made a nice bag of brittle AND my favorites...her yummy yummy caramels! I was thinking while I was eating (LOL!) that Rachel could very well be one of the most talented people I know. She has 2 jobs, she's a fantastic candy maker, baker, cook, cross stitcher, jewelry maker, knitter, card maker, I know there's more...lol. In fact, I'd be surprised if there was something Rachel couldn't do...lol. She's a really great pal and I'm glad she's one of mine. Merry Christmas, Rachel!!

Everything's good here, we're getting ready for my parents to arrive on Friday. My brother's visiting and will be here until Christmas Day when he'll go back with my parents. I'm planning to take him in to downtown Fredericksburg tomorrow. He still has some Christmas shopping to do so we'll be doing that as well. I'm SO glad that my family is on my side of the country now! Hopefully I'll have time to pop in every now and then while they're here. If not, we hope you all have a very Merry Christmas! I know I will cause I'll be with my Mama!

My two are anxiously awaiting Santa's arrival. Me too, I wrote him a note the other day and left it on the kitchen table telling him I want new floors for Christmas. I asked Cassie to give it to Mike to mail for me. LOL!

Counting down....

The days until I get to see my mom! Only 6! YAY! I can't believe it's been over 2 months since I've seen her. I never would've thought I'd be happy that she now lives 4 hours from me. It's funny how when you've had the same routine for most of your life that when something big changes you wonder how you'll get through it. If you would've asked me 2 years ago if I thought I'd ever live away from my family I would've told you no. If you would've told me my parents would live 4 hours away from me some day, I would've told you it was too far. My mother would've said the same thing. After 2 months of being 23 hours apart, those 4 hours seem like nothing. I can get to her within hours now if I need to. I feel a lot better now that they've moved. I've never had to separate myself from anyone really so that move was extremely hard. For a while I've felt pretty alone up here but I'm happy to say that I'm starting to not feel like that so much any more. My brother's on his way to see me and then my parents will get here on Friday. They'll stay until Christmas Day and then they'll have to head back in the afternoon. I can't wait till they get here. I have so many things that I want to show my mom. Mike's mom will be flying in to visit for a bit on Dec.29th.

I've had a really busy week. I had planned on doing a lot of Christmas shopping while Cassie and I were in New York. Since we didn't I had to do it all this week. I'm telling you, I spent a good 3 hours wrapping gifts yesterday. I'm SO glad that it's done. It seemed to be never ending this year. I'm sure it's just me. I'm having a hard time getting in the Christmassy mood. I'm used to doing a lot of baking and shopping with my mom around the holidays. I thought about her a lot while I was out by myself this week. I'm looking forward to doing some shopping with her next weekend. I don't really have anything left to buy but I know she she does. Hopefully the weather will be good. It seems like every time my dad comes to visit he brings the rain with him. I don't mind the rain but I hope he leaves the ice and snow in West Virginia. They live up in the mountains so they seem to get a lot of it. I can't wait to take the kids up there. We'll definately be doing a lot of sledding, tubing, ect....

I'm off....I'm stitching something for my mom for Christmas and I really must get it done :).

I know you've been wondering

Several people have emailed me asking how our trip to New York City went. I guess I should've posted before now but here's the thing....I was taught if I didn't have anything nice to say, then don't say anything at all. I know there are a lot of NYC lovers out there, unfortunately I'm not one of them. I'm really disappointed to say that! I really like big cities! At first I thought I'd blame it on the time of year that we went, but I honestly am not sure that I'd like it much any other time either. I know a few people who have been and said they loved it but I have to wonder if they experienced it like we did. I mean, did they actually walk along the streets of NYC?? My first (and BIGGEST!!) mistake was not listening to my friends who told me to take a cab and not the subway. Lesson learned. If you ever go in to NYC DON'T take the subway. Frankly, I'm surprised we made it out alive. We took it once and footed our way the rest of the time. If we would've tried taking a cab back, we would've missed our bus. That traffic was just not moving. I'm not gonna re-live the whole day, we'll just talk about the good stuff. We headed over to Rockafellar Center so Cassie could see the Christmas Tree. We were both really surprised when we got there. They make it look a LOT bigger on TV than it actually is in person. Don't get me wrong, it's big. Just not as big as it looked on TV when they lit it. After that we crossed the way over to the window at Studio 1A where they tape the Today Show. That was REALLY neat! I've been a big fan for a long time and loved gazing in the windows. Too bad it wasn't a week day, then maybe I could've gotten a glimpse of Ann or Matt :). After we left there, we crossed back over to get our tickets for the NBC Studio tour. The tour lasted about an hour and was pretty neat. I've been in studios before and mostly went so Cassie could see. We got to go in to the studio where they tape Saturday Night Live and then the studio where they tape Late Night with Conan Obrien. Boy, is that studio small! The stage is tiny...I was really surprised. They seem to make everything look bigger on TV. Honestly, that pretty much sums up our fun for the day. We didn't do any shopping because we couldn't. Most places we tried to go to had a very long wait to get in. I guess we could have bought some souvenirs at those little souvenir stands. We don't love NYC though so we just kept on walking...lol. We did see the Empire State Building, Radio City Music Hall, went in to the Trump Tower, walked down 5th Ave., and back up Broadway. Although we didn't have as great of a time as we had hoped, I'm still glad we went. We got to spend the entire day alone together. Since I was a little girl I've always wondered what New York City is like. Now I know and neither Cassie or I have any desire to go back...lol. There were SO many people there that everyone was smushed together on the sidewalk scurrying along like a pack of penguins. I've never seen anything like it and hope I never do again. You remember all those times I said that one of these days I'm going to Macy's Thanksgiving parade and to the New Year's Eve bash in Times Square? Scratch that.....that's not ever gonna happen...lol. I can definately mark NYC off of my list of places to go. It's just way too much for me.

Off to New York!

Cassie and I are getting ready for our little outing to New York City tomorrow. She's SO excited!! We've got her backpack all packed up and ready to go. Our tentative plan is to sleep on the bus so we'll be ready to hit the streets when we get there. The bus will drop us off at Macy's in Herald Square and then we're heading for Rockafellar Center where we have tickets for the 1:45 tour of NBC Studios! I'm REALLY excited about that! Afterwards we plan to roam around and find the Christmas Tree. After we've finished up in Rockafellar Center we hope to head up to Times Square and browse around at FAO Schwarz, and I do emphasize browse...lol. We have some other things on our list but we'll see how much time we have before we plan on anything else. I've got my camera batteries charging so we'll be sure to take lots of pics :).

I'm also excited to report that my parents house is packed up in a moving truck and everyone is is relocating as we speak to West Virginia! They should arrive on Sunday. I hope to see her next weekend, if not then definately the weekend after that.

You kids play nice! When I get back I'll have lots of things to tell, I'm sure :)

Fiiiiinally finished

I finished up all of those ornaments that I was finishing for someone today! YAY!! Some of them took a little longer than I thought. I like finishing, I just hope I don't get another batch this big. Of course I like the money but finishing 17 in such a short amount of time wasn't the easiest of things. Aren't they great? I LOVE the 12 Days of Christmas ornies from The Prairie Schooler. Those Charland snowflakes turned out really pretty, HOWEVER whoever painted the berries on the snowflakes (or at least these 3) didn't do a very good job, IMO. She stitched these on the exact fabric the chart called for and I even made the circles smaller than they said to, and it still covered the berries up. It looked to me like someone was in a really big hurry when they painted the berries on the snowflakes. They definately don't look the same finished up as they do in the magazine, even though the directions were followed. Even before I added the cording (which is very small) you still couldn't see them. I added red pins to where the berries were supposed to be and I think they look really pretty. In fact, I like the pins better than the painted on berries. The good thing about finishing this large haul of ornies is that I'll be able to use that money when Cassie and I go to New York City on Saturday :). Speaking of that...

I think our first stop on Saturday is going to be the NBC Experience Store. I really want to go on that Studio tour so as long as we are able, we're going! I'm REALLY excited about that so hopefully it'll work out :).

I'm off already. Mike only works untill 11 tomorrow so after I take the kids to school I've got to drive to D.C. to get him. I should get there early but that's fine with me...it gives me time to explore :). Let's just keep our fingers crossed that with my GPS I'll make it there ok. Of course I have to take I-95 to get there....right now that's one of my least favorite places to be. You have to experience it to fully understand...lol. Did I mention there's a snow advisory out for that area tomorrow? LOL.

Hum de dum....

I would have loved to have posted on Monday, however our modem went out and the Comcast people weren't in too big of a hurry to fix it. Boy, rocket scientists they are. I was on the phone for nearly an hour with a woman who said she was nearly positive we needed a new modem. It took a couple of days for them to get here. When they finally did, it took 4 techs and 3 hours for them to figure out it needed a new modem. Something's just not right about that. Especially since I told the brainiacs as soon as the first one arrived that the woman said it was probably the modem. It even said it on his work order. Speaking of geniuses....that brings to my trip to Hell-Mart the other day. I had to run in to get dog food and decided to swing by the fabric dept. to see if they had any cute Christmas prints. I found a really cute one of some little snowman faces and thought I'd get a bit of it to use for ornaments. I take the fabric to the counter and as for a 1/4 yard of it. The woman looked at me perplexed for a bit and after a long pause asked me to show her were 1/4 was on the measuring stick. Are you kidding me?! Maybe I should have cut it. Where do they find these people?!

It's been a while since I posted, not because I didn't want to but because my modem wasn't happy and wouldn't let me get online. I had noticed before it quit that it was moving reeeeeally sllllllllowly. I'll try to recap the week right quick.

My birthday was fairly good. The first half was great but I spent part of the afternoon in urgent care with Joshua. He ended up getting a really bad ear infection, poor thing. I hate it when he gets those. I did make it to both stitching shops to spend my gift certificates before that when he was feeling ok. I know this is long but there are some who are interested so here's the list of goodies I came home with:

Here's what I got from the GC my best friend got me:
Just Nan- Merry Old Elf
Blackbird- Easter Parade (I LOVE that bunny!)
Blackbird- Home of the Brave
JBW- Merry Miniatures I
A pair of stork tweezers...I've wanted a pair of these for a long time
4 skeins of Gast

Cassie was with me so I got her a couple of things too...a little kit of a cat with a bird on it's head and a little chart called Washington D.C. Christmas.

Here's what I got with the GC from Juli, Marilynne, and Ming-
3 skeins of Weeks
4 skeins of Gast
32 ct. Lambswool linen 32 ct. Belfast linen
32 ct. Ivory linen
32 ct. Antique White Belfast
32 ct. Antique Tan linen
JBW- Holiday Ornamentals
JBW- Bless the USA
Samplers & Such Quaker Mini Treats
The Prairie Schooler- Garden Gloves
The Prairie Schooler- D*E*F
Blackbird Designs- Souvenirs of Summer...I've been wanting this book for a while. And another chart for Cassie...a map of Washington D.C.

Pretty great haul, huh?! I would be stitching on something from my new loot now but I've been busy busy doing some finishing this week. When I went in to the shop, Celeste handed me a piece of paper with a woman's name and number on it. She said she wanted me to finish some ornaments for her so I gave her a buzz. She took her goodies to the shop and I picked them up. I knew she had several but I was surprised to find 17. WOW. That's a lot...lol. I've spent a nice portion of the week working on them. I'm not too far from being done. I was hoping to be done tomorrow but it might be Saturday. Cassie and I are going to New York City in just over a week and I'd love to have the $$ from finishing these ornies for some Christmas shopping :). Next time she asks me to finish ornies for her I should probably ask her how many...lol.