DC Digressions

Short but sweet and updates galore

2011-09-15T16:37:00.003-04:00

Firstly......15 years ago yesterday I started my life with the one guy who totally completes my life and makes it fun and fresh everyday. My soulmate and best friend (C). I love you with all my heart hon and I hope we have many more steps on this road together.

2 years of abandoning this blog and I guess I needed to get back to many things and refresh my life including this. I kind of have pulled out my stitching. I have been working on L*K Christmas. Hopefully my bug is coming back for enjoyment and that spirit of accomplishment.

The same situation of work has come full circle of 3 years ago and I want out tho there might be a few things that might stop me. I did make a move and have started back to school this summer. I've been taking 8 week online classes and am working toward a management certificate. My goal is enough hours and the known missing classes to sit for my CPA soon. Work has shown me one thing though. I have had some pretty good bosses in the past and all up til now have been average or better. My top dawg has shown me what a very poor manager is. I like my immediate boss, he and I get each other well. He would be one reason I don't want to leave.

M is now a high school freshmen ( where did the time go??) Coming into the end of the 1st quarter she has 4A's and 3 B's (lowest B is an 85, other 2 are 88's). Classes are semesters here tho. Hopefully it will continue. She is part of the drama club, culinary club and one other. She is a part of the stage crew for the fall production. We will see about the spring musical, she's not 100% thrilled with it. We will see what happens.

More later

Week 4 basketball and other crud

2009-02-03T10:58:00.003-05:00

Week 4 was not a bad week for the girl basketballwise. We won like 20-4. DD played decent 3 boards and a few missed shots but overall not bad.

The week for me wasn't good. Between trying to get work stuff done that is manditory year end and a few other things.....it was just ugly. Friday afternoon (1/30) my grandmother died from a post op infection that she wasn't strong enough to fight off. Her kidneys failed and shortly it was mild support before she just stopped breathing and we had a DNR on her anyway. Funeral was yesterday and the Brit relatives are going home tomorrow (safe travel vibes would be welcome please!!!!).

DD got a part in the chorus of the play, only thing was the number of 7-8 graders who tried out and they tried to place in the main spots first probably kept her from getting a main part but she'll gain experience and that is the key thing this year.

She also passed her make-up test after part way through minor injuring herself. She twisted around her hip a little too hard and quick in one move and it was bad enough that she was in tears. She really debated about finishing it and the instructor was impressed that she did go ahead to finish it and was pretty lienient on her stances because of it. She is now solid BROWN!!!! Almost there for black belt probably about another year (cause it will be 2 3mo tests to move 2 ranks up and then 6 mo til they test for the black) I'm excited for her.

Well that's it for now!!

til later!

Short week 3 update

2009-01-28T12:25:00.003-05:00

DD's game ended ina tie 10-10. Both sides had shots that just wouldn't fall for them including DD who went either 0 for 2 or 3. She however had a tremendious game rebounding with 6 boards ( tied for 3rd in that category this week) and showed some nice hustle going to the floor to get balls etc. We were very pleased with that game!

I have pretty much made up my mind. I'm going to go ahead and start taking some online courses probably starting this summer.... tho if I can get my stuff together I might be able to make the 2nd online session for this spring....whew I thought I was crazy before. My house is a disaster area, work and dd seem to have issues, I have other minor obligations and I am telling myself want to do this.....but I think I have put it off for long enough if I'm going to do it.

Anyway any and ALL encouragement will be welcomed as I venture onward in this journey!

til later!!

well I'm back..

2009-01-21T14:36:00.002-05:00

Made myself a minor promise to try to be over here more frequently for updates and such and hopefully I'll live up to it. However we are seeing those nasty traits of 3rd or 4th grade peek up again so I may lose out on time because I have to jump back behind dd and make sure she's getting everything done again.

Also, for those who don't frequent my favorite bbs, my grandmother is in the hospital. The origanl reason was internal bleeding that they eventually got under control but not until they had a major bout that placed her in ICU for a while; in the meantime she developed pnemonia/empsema(I know not spelled correctly) symptoms which kept her in there for a bit until Monday. She's now in a private room and has her brother & wife and sister from England arriving today for 2 weeks to help us deal with all of the issues.

I have put needle to thread here and there but nothing really noticable to post that I can get a good camera phone picture of yet and I keep forgetting to charge digital camera's batteries so y'all have to wait on that front.

Week 2 of basketball went well for DD, we clobbered the opposing team to the point we had to reign in the D ( had to do it once last year too). DD scored another basket and brought down 3 rebounds but wasn't into the game until late...she thought we had afternoon games all the time but we only had the 1 first week. Need to make sure she gets that for this week!

Til Later!!!

Happy New Year etc

2009-01-11T16:12:00.005-05:00

Well, it is a brand new year 11 days in and I'm chillin' watching football and typing from my living room. It is going to start out kind of busy...dd is still doing karate, and basketball for the next 2 months and who knows how quick for the play (gotta love middle school) and what the practice schedule looks like. She tries out this coming week and I hope she does well enough to get what she wants. School is going decent for her....minor struggle with one teacher and just not thrilled with another class. As long as she keeps good grades....I'm not too bad about it.

I'm not thrilled where I'm working...some of the people I like but there are few too many people there who only care about themselves or getting into others private lives like it is their right. If the economy wasn't so bad and I knew I had stuff lined up...my resignation would have been in a bit ago.

Stitching has been OK but I really need to step up especially if I want to meet one goal. Hopefully in the next few days to a week..I can get pics up of several projects going that I'd like to finish this year.

Oh yeah, we just got off week 1 of games...the team won..DD got a bunch of shots and she wasn't afraid to put it up...she scored 2 points but had several others that just bounced around and missed....more work this summer etc and she is gonna be a very NICE player for any school level. I just need to find more spots for her to play and do well with!

That's it for now.....catch y'all later!

Picture Updates

2008-11-23T13:09:00.002-05:00

Here is the stitching side of stuff....

LK Love ornie

Love with Capital L....sorry done with Camera phone and a far distance just to show how far along I am.

Updates

2008-11-13T10:01:00.003-05:00

Let me preface this by saying...I'll add pics when I get the chance soon.

For the bathroom stuff, I'll add a photo account page link for y'all to see as I plan on family etc to see it too and it will be easier with all the various computer speeds to let people choose what they want to look at.

That being said here's the latest:

2 weeks later and we have 2 completely redone bathrooms that look totally amazing. We went out last night to get a new shower curtain (hall bathroom) and new towels (both) just to start it out. I love the greens that we chose for our bathroom and the pinks that is in the hall/Melissa's room is amazing too. We had the floor and around the bathtub/shower(depending on which one) ceramic tiled in a stoney like color with lots of yellowy browns in it. We had a border toward the center with accent tiles that look like suns and flowers. We had brand new fans put in with lights and bright 3 sconce lights over the new vanities and recessed medicine cabinets. We also put in new toilets and toppers. The walls not tiled were painted in an antique white that has quite a bit of light yellow in it. I just LOVE the wall color. All in all it looks great.

I have somewhat gotten my groove back and jumped on the 10 challenge again after I bought a new pattern that will work in the new bathroom. I almost have my first completion as my L*K love ornie just needs a face and it will be ready for ornamentation.

Love with a Capital L is cruising along too.The double blues are very pretty with the contrasts. Again once I get the chance I'll try to post it....it is a gift for my parents and they don't know about my blog yet.

Til later!!!

Well here's what's up.....

2008-10-30T15:00:00.002-04:00

The Sky ( just kidding).

DD passed her latest belt test and is now a red belt 2 stripes. So close to black that she can almost taste it (just 3 levels of brown yet to go before black). 1st marking period is just about done and she looks like she will make honor roll even after the bumps throughout the marking period. Needless to say that we are pleased with it. Basketball starts in roughly more than a month...YIKES!!!

I still haven't quite made up my mind about school but I am leaning hard and heavy toward it. I do know that having a license or more than just a BS is going to be needed soon to move upto management level and make more than decent $$.

My big news of the day is that we are in the midst of re-doing our bathrooms. We are 3 days in and we basically have 2 gutted out rooms because we are waiting on a reorder on the tub...it had the drain on the wrong side. By Thanksgiving we will have 2 redone bathrooms and I can't wait.

Better run here as things to do. It is close to November 4th in the US so remember to go vote!!!

A Multitude of issues

2008-09-02T15:01:00.004-04:00

Sorry it has taken me another month to get back here....but as stated before August tends to be very busy for me for various reasons and this one was no exception!!!

The first weekend of the month was dd's birthday and we did the family thing in which she got lots of $$ and gift cards to use. ( she has since used one of the gift cards in Kohls for a pair of black shoes).

Around this time we heard some "foot steps" in our attic right above our bedroom. Come to find out a mama raccoon had bitten her way in the side of the attic (above dd's room), climbed the gutter outside there which was coming off and prompted a lot of this stuff that happened late into weekend number 2 and start of week 3. DH took off a Thurs,Friday and then Mon-Wed of the next week. We ended up getting guys out to repair wood faschia, put the gutter back up and a trapper in our attic for like 2-3 hours to wrangle out the momma raccoon and baby. The baby was REALLY young too..barely eyes open if they were....Mamma was NOT happy getting removed. DH and DD went on vacation part of that time he was off....going down to NC and Southern VA. Add in also the cable boxes going out on 2 levels and no refresh was fixing it.

The final weekend of the month came to the point of 4 of the birthday's being celebrated at once and then dd went out with my mom to do some school clothes shopping ( we had gotten quite a bit of the supplies the previous weekend once the list came out). They had a blast and I got stuck waiting for the cable guy cause he couldn't keep the Saturday appointment. DH had gotten going with 3 football drafts of his in 4 days and then helped me with my last 1 2 days later.

School started the last week of August and was going pretty good though most of the 6th and 7th graders have been passing a bug amongst themselves (the 8th graders ignore the group of them) and dd has had it for 2 days this week. She's back in school today(Friday 9/5).

Ok....now for me. I have decided that while I am OK with this job.....it is ultimately not where I really want to be. Too many people with too many quirks and an admin that doesn't want to seem to do his job most days.

So....I've ultimately have been looking at going back to school. For those that don't know and haven't looked at my profile ...I'm an accountant who doesn't have her CPA. Long story short is that Maryland cares about classwork and graduating froma PA school...I was missing 2 classes prior to them going to the 150 hour rule. Anyway I'm just not sure if I should or really do want to do it. Time is a big thing and with dd getting even more busy...... but I REALLY can't advance higher up and make good $$ if I don't get my CPA which going back to school will do (get me the additional hours and those missing classes to sit for it). I guess I'm looking for advice and the like from y'all.

Anyway let me close this now...I've let this run for a couple of days and I just need to get it posted.

2 posts on back to back days.....

2008-07-24T14:14:00.002-04:00

Wow...I'm amazing myself here... ( no comments entirely from the peanut gallery please ;) )

Can someone tell me where the summer has gone please???? 5 weeks from Tuesday my sweet dd will be starting middle school. Wasn't it just the middle of June like 2 days ago???

What got me looking at this was the date and such. In my family we have a LOT of summer birthdays and a week from tomorrow dd turns to double 1s (11). Her birthday is a slight signal to me that the summer is on its way out as it is usually 3 1/2 weeks until summer is over.

When I mean a lot of family birthdays...I mean a lot!! We have 2 ( would have been 3 had my uncle not passed away from cancer at a relatively young age) in June, 3 in July and 5 in August and my parent's anniversary also. You kind of understand why summer runs quickly when we get together so much as family for all of these.

DD has been enjoying probably her last year of camp with the after school place she goes ( she won't be there this fall). They have gone to a Mystics game, hersheypark, medievel times, the aquarium, bowling and a few other things. All in all a good time.

Well my break from work is about done and I need to get back at it.

Seen this on a bunch of Blogs and had to add mine too

2008-07-23T13:29:00.002-04:00

I also can claim Canada several times over with 2 seperate trips to Niagra Falls, Toronto for a high school band trip, Montreal for a former job and twice to England

Make yours @ BigHugeLabs.com

What's been going on here....

2008-06-19T16:27:00.004-04:00

Ok… So where have I been???

Let me preface this by saying, I had placed up a blog meme a month or 2 ago and shortly there after got a rather surprising comment from someone I hadn’t seen in a while or heard from in a very long time. Someone who figured out who I was based on the signature and other things and must have made a little bit of an effort to track me down and it kind of shook me up a bit. It made me wonder if I really wanted to keep blogging about things in general…both with my work life, my hobbies and my family. I kind of have decided to sneak back on and experiment and see what happens. I might just pull this down or go to password/ permissions only eventually.

Anyway that being said here's the latest......
February came and went after a rather hectic schedule which including karate, basketball practices and games, and honors chorus practices; along with Valentine’s Day and couple of birthdays. March and April had a minor breather as we lost the basketball stuff but everything else was running along. May got busy yet again with the end of the year stuff and it was even more as important as it was the last of the Elementary school stuff.

Early May was her karate tournament and she walked in very confident that she’d get a trophy since she did the prior year. She performed exceeding well; but didn’t quite have enough to make the top 4 in any of the three disciplines. She received a medal and our appreciation including my folks who got to watch her perform. It took us over probably an hour and maybe two of a crying fit to convince her that she wasn’t bad but maybe need to work a bit more to perfect her skills and others happen to have a bit better day than her.

Mid May was the Honors Chorus concert which was totally and utterly fantastic. 200+ kids from elementary schools all over the northern half of the county singing in multi-part harmonies, signing one song in parts and just having a good time considering they learned 11 songs in only 10 practice sessions (2 were snowed out). I am supposed to have a CD and DVD on order for it; but have yet to see it though it has only been a month since the concert basically.

End of the month was the school choral and instrumental concert (DD had double duty for that as she played flute in the advanced group). Beginning of June she played for the after school place she goes (graduation for the younger kids). She was asked back in March or so to do it and EVERYONE complimented her on doing such a great job. During the last week of school, she received 8 awards during the ceremonies and her promotion ceremony came along. Neatest thing was the ceremony was in the gym but the refreshment social was in the opposite corner of the building and all of the rest of the kids and teachers set-up aligning the halls to applaud not only the kids moving on but their parents as well. It got to me a bit.

Well, that being said I have been stitching on stuff for other people and not myself lately and I really need to get back to it. I crashed my laptop a few weeks ago (7 years old and not upgraded and bought from a former employer that went bankrupt for like $150.00) by redoing the registry without the disks and such. I didn’t feel too bad about loosing it like that but it did bother me some because I really want to learn how to fix stuff like that. I also play online at various game spots and one I’m very near 1000 badges….my original goal was end of the year but they have piled on quickly so now it is by the end of the summer I want to hit that goal….so if I’m not stitching or hanging on the boards….you’ll probably find me there or watching summer basketball games that the kiddo is in or her karate (red 1 stripe- going for red 2 this summer) and belt test or summer birthdays and activities

Anyway, that’s it here for now…..I’m going to try to be more accessible and visible here and on my boards!! If you made it thus far…..you deserve a medal.

Saw this meme and thought I'd give it a try....

2008-01-23T10:22:00.000-05:00

This is so me that it is spooky!!! I think those of you who have met me in real life will agree!

What Jill Means

You are fair, honest, and logical. You are a natural leader, and people respect you.You never give up, and you will succeed... even if it takes you a hundred tries.You are rational enough to see every part of a problem. You are great at giving other people advice.
You tend to be pretty tightly wound. It's easy to get you excited... which can be a good or bad thing.You have a lot of enthusiasm, but it fades rather quickly. You don't stick with any one thing for very long.You have the drive to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. Your biggest problem is making sure you finish the projects you start.
You are relaxed, chill, and very likely to go with the flow.You are light hearted and accepting. You don't get worked up easily.Well adjusted and incredibly happy, many people wonder what your secret to life is.

What's" Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

New stuff

2008-01-22T21:03:00.000-05:00

This is last week at my old job and while I'm a little sad to leave several good people...the place is still a mess and headed for more trouble and I just don't want to be there. I'm off to a new job next week.

DD took her makeup test tonight and passed pretty well I think. She's now a Red belt and a new class so the schedule get rearranged yet again but it is in decent shape. Karate is now going to have options for Mon-7pm, Wed-7pm, Fri-6pm and Sat- 11am. Basketball practice is Thursday nights and games Sat mornings and startin next month (less than 2 weeks is honor's chorus).......Let the road trips begin!!!!!!

Also took the gal to a college women's basketball game and we picked a good one as the game went into double overtime before the home team won. We had a good time and she got to see some of the best of the women's college game play and perhaps see some of the things they do to incorporate into her game.

We enjoyed a nice long weekend also.

2008 Stitching Goals

2008-01-06T13:05:00.000-05:00

I don't want to make too many simply because I don't want to be disappointed if I have a year like last year.

1. I want to stitch as much as possible on my WIPS

2.Would like to finish Simply Welcome (started late December 2007)

3. Work on to potentially finish Enchanted Fairy

4. Do all 12 of the L*K Christmas virtue ornaments and get them in ornament fashion

5. See significant results in Love with Capital L, Gift of Peace, Apache Wedding, and Enchanted Cottage

6. Finish DD's birth sampler and at least 1 olympic stamp.

7. Work on whatever else call my name.

That being said...I had mentioned the 10 project challenge last year. I'm renewing my challenge.

I'm on for the 10 projects with 2 exceptions: JCS ornament issue(assuming I'm not done by then) and any supplies I might not have or need to refresh for the projects on the challenge. I also reserve the right to change projects in the 10 group. This will be my start list and I'll add more as needed.

1. At least 6 of the L*K Christmas Virtues Ornaments (can be changed to all 12 but if that is only hold-up at end then I'll consider it done)

2. Enchanted Fairy

3. Apache Wedding

4. Enchanted Cottage

5. Simply Welcome

Short but Sweet post

2008-01-02T12:18:00.000-05:00

This is to wish y'all a Happy New Year and in my account anyway, may 2008 be much better than 2007 was!

I'll add more posts and the like as soon as possible.

How Appropriate for my year

2007-12-10T23:33:00.000-05:00

This is part 2 of my updates....

Those of you who come fromCSC may have noticed my signature line has a quote from Mother Teresa..."I know that the Lord will only give me what I can handle, I wish he didn't trust that I could handle so much."

That has been my feeling for the year 2007, especially at work. It started in January and February as our now former CFO and Controller were stuck on what was believed to be a special project and left the month end close in my lap as our senior G/L accountant was out on leave along with another member of our team.We did the best we could but with them having to approve journal entries and such, closes went really slow. Plus they had to check everything over and it usually ended up in at least 1 late night for that and fixing the things we missed.

March had the introduction of an Assistant Controller who in hindsight did all of things to get hired for the job and said the stuff our former controller wanted to hear. Once she was in position, she only did things beneficial for her image( it was an effort to get her to do other stuff that needed to be done), gave us (the rest of the team) a hard time but especially me, and when things went wrong not only didn't she take any of the blame, but she'd throw anyone "under the bus" . I got thrown there a couple of times and she even had the audacity to do it once right in front of my face.

The summer was full of high tension as we knew the deal closing was impending and of course our now former assistant controller was basically worthless. Morale dropped around the company and it basically has kept on plummeting until maybe year end. With the new ownership having quite a bit of say, it meant recording new stuff related to the deal and the interim CFO ( our old one had to leave when the deal was finalized) gave us spreadsheets with detail on how to record stuff and it became a major mess that only finally got resolved in late November. Not only that we were putting lots of extra hours. Under the old ownership, it didn't mean as much because they'd make sure we'd leave a bit early once things were done and they were also always making sure morale was good and people were getting respect.

Our Controller quit of her own devices in September with her last day in early October. Our former assistant controller, after hearing some of our reports that we were heavily relying on weren't perfect, left 2 weeks afterward. Her leaving was more to preserve her image that all of us knew wasn't that great though I think she was saving face in her mind.

The new CEO and CFO came in in September and October and basically took over wanting to find their pet projects of gaining understanding of our financials and causing issues while we were dealing with new reporting requirements. They also decided to close the accounting operations in Vancouver in Septmeber and bring it down to us, plus do 2 systems changes in 6 months with no back up. The first one went down in July and put us back 2 weeks during close. The second one is still in process...it is a new accounting system and AP is moving over now, the G/L functions aren't moving over until probably late January. All of this has meant putting in long hours and while it didn't matter as much under the old team, this one it does because they are rewarding us in any shape or form seemingly. We don't get to leave early before a holiday weekend, we aren't getting comp time or whatever. It has REALLY brought me down, which is why I didn't post as much on the board and didn't get a chance to really stitch much this past year.

Adding to that the usual family stuff and dd issues with school etc and you canunderstand why I find my "tagline" is so appropriate.

A few more minor updates on DD since last post

2007-11-27T16:42:00.000-05:00

I'm one proud mama but I'm looking at a VERY crazy schedule coming up this Winter into Spring......

DD made honor roll for the first quarter...mostly B's..a couple A's....a mix of O's and S's and all I's in Learning skills(I is best there...equals independent)....surprised the heck out of me on that last one.

She also passed her belt test in the middle of October and is a proud purple belt!!! She will either be a red or red 1 stripe when the next tournament hits, which I think judging from last time should be sometime in April.

Basketball starts with a vengenance this weekend( the clinic day) and then the next 2 Saturdays as practice before the new year. I'm guessing a Tuesday practice night after the new year (same coach for the last 3 years and it has always been then). That will be January through the end of February, with games on Saturdays.

Late 2 weeks ago, DD states" Guess what ....I made honors chorus"...... WHAT?!?! She hadn't said anything to us but tried out and was one of 3 from her school's 5th grade class to make it in ( we are talking 40-55 kids total potentially from both classes). Impressive as she said she was the only one to identify notes on a scale(flute for over a year certainly helped). Honor's chorus starts mid February and runs thorugh mid May with a final concert.....local gals if you want the details, email me and I'll give them to you.

This is on top of flute practice and Homework every week night and karate 2x a week ( looks like it will be friday-saturday during this stretch). You don't see me around much on the boards and like(unless I'm snuck in at work...SHHH), you'll know why.

Updates part 1 of many

2007-10-03T11:51:00.000-04:00

I titled this post as updates part one of many because i'm not sure how many parts this will run.

I'll start with DD

In the April post, she was in 4th grade. She was about to test for her green belt in karate. She had been playing flute, and major involved in school activities( peer mediation, helping with the disabled kids(LFI) in her school during lunch). She finished the year strong after bumps in the middle. She received 6 awards for chorus, band, honor roll and a few other activities. We were very pleased. This year she has started 5 grade and shown some great maturity that seems to have slid the past week or so a bit, but has been working with some tough stuff including above and way above level math. She is playing flute again this year( we are still having practice issues a touch) and is doing 2nd time peer mediator. I'm just hoping after last year's experiences that we can deal with the coming year better.

Karatewise not only has she since tested for her green belt and passed, she tested for blue during July ( my parents came down to watch her) and passed it also! She has improved so much in the past year. I have heard compliments from a couple of the parents and one of her classmates recently asked for help on a move and dd did a great job showing her it. She tests next weekend for her purple belt.

Just for those not familiar and since there are so many different forms of Martial arts and belt structures, here's her listing in order: white,gold,yellow,orange,green,blue,purple, red, red 1 stripe, red 2 stripes, brown, brown 1 stripe, brown 2 stripes, black.

The week before dd's birthday was basketball camp and both DH and I took it off, we did day things and had fun with DD right after camp. I took her 1 evening down to a Mystics game and we had a blast. She got a basketball with everyone of the ALL Stars from this past year signed and a "floorboard" signed by Nikki Teasley for her birthday amongst her presents. I figured you only turn double digits once so a little spoiling was a good thing. Summer camp for her was fun too. Going to the pool twice a week, a field trip once a week to various places including 6 flags, medieval times, the aquarium and such. She seemed to enjoy herself.

We also had a visit from the troops from England( think it might amongst the last time they'll fly over here) for 3 weeks. We didn't get to spend as much time with them as I'd have liked, but we did get to see them. We also suffered through basically the month of August with no A/C( another long story for the next update).

All in all not a bad time for DD.

DC highlights (and lowlights ;) )... A fun meme

2007-09-05T12:07:00.000-04:00

A freind of mine had this in her Blog and they are so true and funny that I had to copy it from her. (thanks Holly and her blog http://stitchesoflife.blogspot.com)

You know you're from Washington DC when...

You say you're from DC, but you actually live in VA or MD but are too tired to explain where.

You don't consider exploding man hole covers to be an unusual occurrence.

You know where the Pentagon really is but never bother to correct anyone about its location.

When it takes you 45 minutes to drive 3 miles on I-66, 95, 395, 495, 50, 123, 29, or 270, it's a pretty good day.

There are at least fifteen ways to get everywhere and you know which way to go based on the weather, time of day, current political climate, terrorism road closures, and whether you are coming or going.

You pay more money in parking tickets in a year than you do in medical bills, college costs and rent combined.

You know that driving through Georgetown, you will hear the music of the car next to you louder than you can hear your own.

"I got stuck behind a motorcade" is a common and real excuse for being late.

"Finding a parking space" actually becomes an appointment on your calendar. (E.g.. 7:00-8:00 Gym, 8:30-9:00PM - find a parking space, 9:00-10:30PM - Dinner reservations.)

You've never once been to Wal-Mart and don't even know if there is one.

When you say you're going to the mall and you don't mean shopping.

You never refer to the 'Metro' as the 'subway'.

You elbow tourists out of the way on the Metro escalators to "gently" remind them to WALK LEFT, STAND RIGHT.

Going to work early means being there by 9:00AM.

You don't bat an eye at 500 politicians and businessmen in suits running like their lives depended on it just to catch a Metro that will be followed by another in 90 seconds.

You call it Targét, not Target, and are well aware that the one in Alexandria is just a "tad different".

When Washington National Airport is and will always be "WASHINGTON NATIONAL" or just NATIONAL, not "Reagan National".

You can tell by people's cars where they live and maybe even what neighborhood.

You've claimed that there's nothing to do on a weekend night even when you have the entire nation's capitol to explore.

You have the Metro map memorized, yet act like you don't know when someone asks you how to get to Metro Center.

You meet someone else who says they're from the DC area and you realize they live two hours away from you.

You notice that there's been construction on the same stretch of highway for the past 5 years and you've never see anyone working on it.

You know you've crossed into Northern Virginia, without ever seeing a sign, only because your speedometer goes from 60 to 0.

You know that Vietnam is no longer in the South Pacific, it's now been re-located to Seven Corners.

The few times you have gotten lost in DC you have somehow ALWAYS ended up in Anacostia and every road out somehow leads back to Anacostia.

You realize that I-395 is Northern Virginia's version of NASCAR.

There is no such thing as North, South, East, or West on the beltway, it's just go "that" way!(Inner circle/outer circle)

You go anywhere on the Eastern Shore, Rehoboth, Dewey, Ocean City, Skyline Drive, or the Outer Banks for vacation and everyone you meet is from DC.

You don't find it unusual for the city (and the government) to shut down when 1 inch of snow falls.

When you refer to "the government" you mean the federal government.

You can see the national cathedral from almost anywhere.

You know at least 2 rowers.

You know that Georgetown is NOT only a school.

You consider Northern VA to be in no way similar to southern VA.

You know which bridges to cross to get to Maryland or VA.

You actually know what goes on in Dupont circle.

You can't go to Tysons Mall without seeing someone you know!!

You have a few friends who don't know what their parents do...It's Top Secret government work.

People don't ask you if Chevy Chase is named after the actor.

You can harmonize perfectly with the alert for "Doors Closing" on the Metro.

50% of your senior class went to Mason, JMU, Tech, VCU or UVA.

You actually get these jokes and pass them on to other friends from DC.

A ramble or two

2007-09-03T00:59:00.000-04:00

Firstly, let me say I will be making a mass or 2 update posts soon. There just hasn't been time or inclination yet, but I think I will see it coming down the pike shortly.

I just finished watching a movie that I was highly impressed with seeing. In fact, because it was cable, I caught it all the way on the East Coast feed and watched the tail end of it again on the West Coast feed. Those of you with kids, it is certainly worth it to see, but there was a quote in it that struck me that even us as adults could carry away from it. The movie is Akeelah and the Bee. The scene is relatively early in the movie where Akeelah is over with Dr. Larabee at his house, the second time and he has started to work with her for the Scripps spelling bee levels. The Dr. (played by Laurence Fishburne) asks Akeelah(played by Keke Palmer) to go over to a wall to read a quote that he has framed on the wall.....
I'm taking the quote level from IMDB.com ( a great reference site for TV and movie stuff)

Akeelah: [quoting Marianne Williamson] Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
Dr. Larabee: Does that mean anything to you?
Akeelah: I don't know.
Dr. Larabee: It's written in plain English. What does it mean?
Akeelah: That I'm not supposed to be afraid?
Dr. Larabee: Afraid of what?
Akeelah: Afraid of... me?

That quote really hit me because of the way things are in my life at times, the self-doubt and such play so heavily and make it hard to see just how powerful I can be. We as individuals can be a formibile fighting force when we have our minds set and focused on our goals. In a respect, it makes me think of another important saying ; that at times the only person who can stop ourselves from being the best people we can be, are ourselves. Hopefully my light shines through more often than not so that your light will grow too!!! Hopefully you can take something from this and apply it to your own life on a constant basis.

Until later and Happy Labor Day!!!!

Just a quick note....

2007-07-09T12:27:00.000-04:00

to let y'all know that I haven't fallen off of the face of the earth. I have kind of lost my blogging "mojo" and several issues have contributed to me not updating this in over 2 months. I'll explain more in detail once I get the chance but needless to say I'm not quite sure how to handle all of the circumstances and need to do some thinking. It will still be a busy summer too so I'll try to jump here when I can!

Til Later!

Can we just cancel this week forever???

2007-04-16T16:57:00.000-04:00

Firstly I promise to go back and add parts 2&3 to my life and why everything else seemed to take a backseat for 2 - 2 1/2 months but something today has made me want to blog about this.

If there ever has ever been a week in history that should be wiped off the face of the earth, I think we have found it.

For those of you who slept through the day, a shooting spree took place roughly 2- 2 1/2 hours from my house at Virginia Tech. From what it sounds like a student got upset with an ex girlfriend, shot and killed her and the RA and then decided to attack a specific classroom deliberately shooting a professor in the head and injuring and killing most everyone in that classroom at the time. For the area where I live it is a big deal because bunches of kids have in the past and are going there presently. I just saw on the news that one of the football guys from the area, had a former high school classmate that is among the victims. April 16th is just the first of many black marks in US history this week.

Further down this week is 2 incidents on the 19th(Thursday in 2007) seperated by 2 years, the destruction at Waco and the Oklahoma City bombings. Many people there lost their lives needlessly from 2 unstable people and their accomplices deciding to make a statement about themselves and our government, either way it was not needed and wanted in life. The Waco incident was compound full of people including women and kids. The Oklahoma City bombing involved a federal building that happened to house a daycare on the second floor in which many of the young little kids were among the dead as the entire front of the building was blown off.

Finally on the 20th (Friday in 2007) and also known as Hitler's birthday (main reason this day was chosen I do believe remembering to hear) was one of the other "big" school shootings as 2 high school students not happy at fitting in decided to take it out on classmates and a teacher at Columbine High School in Littleton CO. They killed 12 people before turning the guns on themselves after making "their" statement.

All I can say is can we say enough of these kinds of statements, we have enough enemies outside of our country's borders why are we turning on ourselves? What has happened to the world that I grew up in where schools were safehavens.....I am tired of holding my breathe waiting for the next statement. While we need to remember so history won't repeat, apparently we haven't learned the lesson for this week and it would be nice to obliterate this week from the calendars forever!

Please keep the families of this latest attack in Blacksburg (VA Tech) in your prayers especially those who will have to bury kids way too soon and before they could ever make a major mark on our society.

Part 1: The Mom's Curse

2007-03-22T14:24:00.000-04:00

Remember when you were younger and your mother would tell you as you gave her trouble, may you be blessed with a child that is just like you or even a touch worse.I’m here to say that the mom’s curse is a sure thing. Too many times on occasion lately have I seen that dd is SOOOO much like me at her age that it wasn’t funny. She is better in a few things than I was but she is every bit her mother in a lot of things.

The beginning of this current year, with all that has been going on, we have had issues with dd in school. She has been in the classroom during recess making up assignments for things that she either forgot to bring home or was too disorganized to keep track of to do. She then decided that if we didn’t ask to see her assignment book, she wouldn’t volunteer it, knowing that the teacher had placed negative comments in there. DH and I wouldn’t see the notes until we finally would force or remember to sign the book several days later. It got so bad that finally we had to go in for a conference with the teacher. The teacher basically said that in the past couple months that both she and the math teacher had noticed that dd wasn’t always as focused as she should be. She’d “laze” through a test like she knew the information or not completely read all the directions or just generally allow herself to get sidetracked in school. Her math teacher said, if there were like 7 problems in a row on a sheet of paper, dd would get the first 6 and just not think on the 7th and get it wrong or not go back and correct it. We explained that it would take her most of the evening to do homework and the teacher said it sounded like we had the same trouble in both places. We have in the past couple weeks tried to treat homework as a challenge…..give her a timer to see if she can get the stuff done well and correctly and it seems to have been working. She has been able to get things done in the timeframe (usually with a bit to spare) and has been able to play outside with the neighborhood kids for a bit most nights since the time switch. I think she just generally needed the wake up call as did we that life needed to try to get back to some semblance of normalcy for us.

After talking to my mother about all that has been going on, she reminded me of how much she used to have to do the same thing….go behind me if my hair wasn’t brushed well, or homework was only ½ done or whatever…… it just truly shows how well the mom’s curse works. I have the sweet loveable kid but does she give me issues and grey hairs. So if you think the mom’s curse doesn’t work, think again and go reflect on your childhood and see if I’m not right.

Preview for longer post

2007-03-21T10:51:00.000-04:00

To go further on from yesterday's post and not make it so cryptic, I have been dealing with general family issues ( those who know me IRL, have known about my grnadmother complaints and it deals a LOT with her), dd's school issues( let's say the mom's curse works for now and I'll go into deal later ;) ) and some MAJOR goings on at work. Needless to say it has caused havoc the past month or so but that light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter and I'm not hearing a train whistle. It hasn't been as drastic as some of my online buddies have been dealing with but it still has been stressful and I'm looking forward to the break from it. More hopefully later tonight!!!!

Quick note

2007-03-20T10:42:00.000-04:00

Just dropping a quick entry in this to let y'all know I'm around and haven't forgotten this or y'all. It has been a big mixed bag of things going on in the past month and I just have had to focus where things needed and nothing else could get in my way. I'll save more of it for a longer entry that I have started at home. I'm knocking wood as I type this that things may have FINALLY calmed down enough to allow me a chance to enjoy all things in my life again, but we will see. Anyway I'll catch you soon with that longer post!!! Thanks for reading and keeping up with me.

Random rambles

2007-02-14T22:00:00.000-05:00

Sorry that it has been almost a month to leave another blog post but as life would have it, it threw things up left and right.

I think we are close if not done with the auditors at work but my boss seems to have been thrown into another project (a potential acquistion is the speculation..she's doing a lot of the due diligence) which left myself and one of the guys in our group as the main ones riding the close but there have been issues. Toss into this homework and fibbing bissues with dd and I just haven't had time to really pay attention to this.

We have most of it cleared up but dd has been down sick past couple of days with Strep.....its bad when she feels tired enough not to want to paly in a basketball game Saturday..(she loves the game too much) but she really wasn't showing signs of anything drastic. It only really showed itself, Monday night. DH and I split my b-day(Tuesday) home with her and today we were here all day shovelling out from the mess that hit our area.

Birthday here wasn't that big of a deal..it will be this weekend though, took Friday off and dd will be back in school as long as the weather and roads are clear which I anticipate will be the case. My folks are taking her for an overnight Saturday so we will have a ggod time.

More on work, bonuses were handed out that Friday right afer my last entry and I got a nice one. Spent some of the money on fabbie for Enchanted Fairy and a bit more retail therapy, which is for a holiday present as long as I find time to do it.

Well now I'll add one more thing to this entry and close it out. A few weeks ago, I saw a blog with a question about 5 movies that you don't mind seeing over and over. Here's my list in no particular order except maybe #1:

1. Independence day...hubby and I quote lines from this regulary and I just can stitch through it and not miss anything. Course it doesn't hurt they focus on my area to start

2. On Golden Pond....have always said this is the story of my life and so I just enjoy it. I also like Katherine Hepburn.

3. Twister.....more lines from here, i love some of the weather terms and the effects are pretty good.

4. Pretty Woman...it is just a simple story but I like it lots

5. Dirty Dancing..... was the movie I went on my first date with my first guy

Honorable mention: Titanic( love the history behind it more than the love story), Same Time Next Year (this is a special mom and I flick connection), Chronicles of Narnia( it was just well done and I remember the animated movie and reading it when I was younger), Crocodile dundee 2 ( for its scenery), Star Wars first trilogy released aka 4-6 episodes and more of Star Wars and Jedi than Empire, Men in Black the original one and probably Back to the Future 1 and 3( never EVER liked #2)

I'm sure there are other but can't think

Hope you all had a great valentine's day today and great rest of the week or so until my next post

More Ramblings and trouble

2007-01-22T12:17:00.000-05:00

Sorry it has been almost 2 weeks since I last added a topic but it has not been a fun 2 weeks. I have been hacking like crazy and still have just the tiny bits left of the "cold from H#$%$" I just want it gone already.... have stitched some but not a lot only cause I have been "vegging out "instead trying to rid myself of this. DH has some of it too and dd was fighting cold stuff last night tho this am was a very chipper self.

DD has gotten herself into trouble yet again. She didn't show us notes from the teacher about her not doing or turning in homework late yet again. The reasoning was that she didn't want to get in trouble and not belt test or play in the game this weekend. We let her do both but I'm still considering making her sit out next weeks game even though they are doing pictures afterward.

The only reason stopping me is they started with 10 girls and last week we had 2 girls sitting out ( 1 was her first time(injury) and the other also sat out the week before(not sure reasoning why)). I'm afraid of putting the team in a spot without dd but dd needs to know it is trouble if she continues to do it. It won't be just 1 game either when she hits middle/high school but until next grades come out........ She's doing without TV all week though and we may have more coming( ideas are certainly welcome). She knows that we aren't pleased with that action. I think some of it though also stems from what has been a VERY hectic close for me and I haven't been around and home. She has acted out in the past if the routine gets messed up and I think a bit of this stems from it. We will do a girls night deal, I think, Friday night as DH has to work late and dd has a busy day Saturday with karate and game, and her grandparents coming down to watch too I think.

DD passed her test and is now an Orange belt. She seemed like it was an off day but she said she was nervous. She played real well during the game though...great steals and rebounds etc. She also had a shot or 2 up I think.

Glad the Colt won their game last night otherwise I wouldn't be watching the Super Bowl. I didn't want to see Mr overrated(TB) get another ring and watch the Bears self-destruct like I knew they would if they had played the PATS. Sorry but it was Mr. V their kicker that saved them all the time and got them the 3 rings not the beloved QB as has been seen this year.

Enough ramblings between the storm lulls at work...auditors are here next week...happy happy joy joy.

Later

A Week for the Ages....NOT!

2007-01-10T14:56:00.000-05:00

Firstly, here's the update from Saturday. The gals played really well. All of the 9 of the gals played at least 2 quarters and 4-5 of them played a portion 1/2 a quarter passed that. I feel like we did well with the subbing etc. DD even scored 1 basket and had shots up a couple of more times. That was the highlight of the week as it has tumbled downhill to the incredible low of last night.

First I started with sinus/cold like symptoms Saturday night at dinner and they have only progressed to get worse as the week has gone along. Right now it is sitting on my throat and I just feel a little tired and a little miserable (isn't amazing as you get older the less you like being sick..at least in my case). It was inevitable that I'd come down with something, my boss and hubby were both at least sneezing or worse Friday or before that.

Place on top of that being at work late Friday and Monday until 8-8:30 both nights...which wouldn't be bad except we have a temp who has spent more time running kid errands,on the phone or email, or seeming wandering than actually working. Itwouldn't be as bad if we weren't on a tight deadline close. Also add to the fact that for about a day or so, that our network drive where most of our excel files was either down or malfunctioning.... and then discovering that one account needed a part reclassed for the entire year! Both my boss and I were pretty unhappy.

I got home kind of early last night and was looking forward to "just chillin" and the convertor box on this one TV started acting up again and the person I talked to, I don't feel entirely knew what was going on. thought we fixed it but none of the movie channels came back so I unplugged it and ended with a black screen TV all nigth...stuck a DVD in but still just added to the aggrivation.

Finally when I dropped dd off yesterday, I reminded her that she needed to get the majority of her homework done because she had b-ball practice and we still had the city balls from Saturday. she had only 1/2 her math done and none of her spelling (easy stuff...5 pics and rainbow words). I let her go to practice only cause I thought she could handle the math and wouldn't have a bunch of errors (wrong) but she wasn't focused and ended up until 10pm finishing everything.

I ended up yelling at her cause everything got to me all at once and I feel soooo guilty about it now. She gets it soooooo honestly, it isn't funny. She's a sharp cookie doing 1-2 levels above in math and 1 level above in reading. It's like she just doesn't hear me or want to hear when things get done. I still might have to treat her to something on monday though just as a partial make-up since I SOOOO lost it on her. She does have her paperwork for her belt tes, but after doing things like she did yesterday......I just don't know about letting her test.

Today has been ok thus far and maybe things will finally calm down.

Hopefully my sanity will follow suit and I can get back to stitching this weekend.....just haven't wanted to since it is "obligation" stitching and pass my crud along.

Bummer way to Start a New Year

2007-01-04T11:11:00.000-05:00

Just got word that after being sick for a little bit, one of my co-worker's husband passed away last night. If y'all can keep her and their 3 year old son in your prayers as they deal with this and move on....I'm sure that she'd appreciate it.

On another note, grant DH and I patience on Saturday as we are fill in coaches for dd's basketball team. I think it will be fun and the gals will do a great job.

The State of the Stitching and Other End Stuff

2006-12-27T16:40:00.000-05:00

First off...Happy New Year everyone!!! (this post may show a 2006 start date but it is finished in 2007)

It is amazing what I hear and get from dd's karate class. The instructor was going on with them about how they practice in class and how it can be representative of how they will perform on the test and about challenging yourself to keep trying harder so things won't be boring. It is so amazing how it can/does apply to life too. Life is a challenge and if we keep trying our best and pushing ourselves to be the best..... it can be amazing the things we can accomplish. I guess that will be my big goal(resolution) for the year is to try my best at everything I do.

Speaking of a new year......... another one is upon us and I guess it is time to start to lay out my goals/dreams for the new year as far as stitching goes. My main goal is to end the year with less WIPs than when I started it. Big dreams.....I know. Life has a habit of getting in my way, but if I can find a workable rotation(another topic for blog), then I think I can accomplish just that.

To be more specific though with this goal, I'd like to say that I finished the following:

Gift of Peace, Apache Wedding, High Flight and dd's teddy bear birth sampler. I also want to finish all of the small L*K Christmas virtues from 2006. I also will need to be involved in an exchange somewhere along the year on the CSC board.

I'd like to say I made significant distance on my first titanic piece, giggles,lady of the flag, queen of freedom and finally simply welcome as well as SAL(enchanted cottage).

2006 was a somewhat disappointing year for stitching but I am trying to improve and make my challenges for 2007!!!

Until next time!!!

Holiday Wishes

2006-12-12T11:11:00.000-05:00

I had planned to start this blog entry the other day, but just couldn't find the time or thoughts to kick start it into gear; but now I think they are coming though, this maybe short as I'm at work.

First off I want to send my deepest sympathies and prayers to a friend and her family from the Cross Stitch Crazy board on EZboard. Any time you lose a close loved one is tough; but when it is so young and sudden, it just makes it that much tougher. Love Ya Tina!!!!

Ok...with that said off to make my Christmas wish list as I'm not sure how soon I'll make it over here again and the next time might be after Christmas.

Firstly to all of the gals of the Cross Stitch Crazy board(see link above),

I wish for you smooth stitching days with no frogs, bright and sunny times in life with an occasional problem that isn't too difficult to get through. I only wish for the difficult times, because it helps to make the good times that much better and more noticable and nothing more. You gals are like the sisters I never had. You carry me through the rough times and help me celebrate my successes and I don't think I could be closer to a bunch of people like you. Thanks for always being there!!!

For my family (parents, grandmother,aunts,uncle,cousins& their families)

I wish for nothing but happy, healthy, financially secure times for the coming year. A calm non-eventful year would be nice to make things easier.

For my dd

I wish her nothing but being happy at who she is, what she does, and becoming a responsible young gal. I delight in watching her as she explores her world and finds her true loves out of life. I have loved the journey thus far and can't wait to see what more comes around the bend. I do wish that the lessons that life has to show her aren't as hard as they were on me and that some of the mannerisms don't have a way of having history repeat itself.

For my DH

I wish for him the continued understanding that when I'm in a mood, he has the continued patience to deal with me. He is so much better than I am. He deals with all of the crud(being lazy,moody or whatever) and rarely throws it back at me. I'm so lucky to have found you and have you in my life hon!!!! Thank you for just being you!!!

For the world as a whole

The hope that all people could sit down and agree to disagree over things and perhaps talk them out; deciding that terroristic acts aren't the only way to convince people that one side is right. If the world could understand that, then maybe we wouldn't have to worry about our kid's innocence being lost and what type of a world that we will leave behind for them. We would be able to see what the world has to offer and explore our diversity without causing trouble.

Finally myself

I want for myself, the time and chance to learn the habits of being organized and set to do things because I'm tired of being "last minute Charlie" on everything. I want to find the time for my hobbies without having my house not clean or missing work or whatever. I would love to learn how to do home repairs right and as good as the pros. I would love to be able to build and fix my own computers and design webpages etc well and quickly. I know though that time is the key thing in a lot of these wishes and I don't seem to have it so that would be another wish. More time for myself, friends and family.

With this, I'm closing here except to wish y'all a happy holiday season; no matter which one you celebrate!!!!

Crazy times ahead

2006-12-04T14:57:00.000-05:00

Just when I thought I was finding that bit of balance in my life, the holidays have come in full force. You thought I was scarce before, that was nothing compared to the next few months.

DD will be having basketball practices on Saturday during December 9 and 16th and then games start right after the holidays on Saturday’s looks like afternoon times. Karate will have to probably shift from 1 during the week and Saturday back to 2 during the week unless practice is on 1 of those days and then Saturday, or will have to see about getting off early just during those couple of months. She will also have a belt test in there and I think a sparring competition also. So you see the entire amount of running I’m doing.

I’ll also have a hectic work schedule in January because of year-end and extra time will be spent at work, so my life is about to go crazy.

Keeping that in mind while it is a stitchathon month at Cross Stitch Crazy, I’m staying low on goals:

RR’s from another board (have 1 in possession to date and 2nd on way)
Finish Family Home Love by year - end!
Whatever else hits me and time allows!

Been kind of in a slump and just need to find my groove again

Finding Balance

2006-11-10T11:28:00.000-05:00

Those two words in my title seem to be a big thing in my life right now. I can't seem to find it for everything I do. It's kind of interesting on how I have come to get to thinking about this. I take dd to her karate classes during the week usually unless a work "emergency" comes up. Last night they were going over form stances and sparring stances and talking about making sure you have a "good foundation" cause it is too easy to lose your balance if you get hit and you don't have a good stance. As we were driving home from class I told dd that remember what you talked about in class because it applies to school and life as well.

I realize that I haven't been finding the right balance lately( been focused in one or 2 things and not enough on others) and I need to refocus my efforts. Course when things throw a monkey wrench into the works like the cable TV showing missing(off air) channels and they actually aren't....well balance gets thrown out the window.

Anyway hopefully I can that balance quickly again and be around the people and things I love most without one thing overwhelming another. In response to last post comment, I have gotten hooked on DOOL(days of our lives) again. I loved watching the Steve and Kayla stuff back in high school and college mainly and was happy to hear they're back. Their storyline has really started to kick into gear and I've found a board or 2 where the people are as passionate about it as I am. I love the chemistry between Mary Beth and Stephen. I know they are good friends both on and off set and it just shows in their work.

Anyway with more news:

We went to dd's conference last night too (busy night). The teacher was pretty pleased with her. She has a habit of rushing through things and not always answering the question asked. She can be forgetful at times and doesn't always finish assignments when need be in teacher's time limits. She misses the honor this time only cause of the "n" in the instrumental music elective. I haven't been pushing like I should for her to practice and that doesn't help her either. Plus she's having a hard time with getting fingerings. Otherwise I think we had a bunch of "s" and sveral "o"'s and like 2 or 3 B's and the rest A's. I'm pretty pleased and we now have a push to get straight top marks and I told her another day of getting nails done. She is doing above level work in both math and language arts so I'm very happy that she seems to be challenged.

I think that's it for now....really need to be working but we just finished a close so a calm Friday isn't a bad thing.

Later!!

Where have I been hiding and Goals??

2006-11-09T22:11:00.000-05:00

I just haven't been in the mood to stitch and have gotten hooked into a soap yet again. Plus dd's schedule and problems have seemed to drag me away but I promise I'm reading just not posting.

Anyway my goals for the month:

mainly to stitch on more than just family Home Love

RR's that I have and are coming and a WIP that is calling my name.

I really need to put in more than 2 hours a week stitching but my house, work and stuff are just creating disaster areas that are calling my name.

Catch y'all later

2006-10-25T11:22:00.000-04:00

It’s amazing that what’s old is new again in so many things. I’ve been watching TV with my dd in the mornings and at night before she goes to bed, and the toys that we see coming up are things that I used to play with or were the “hot item” just after I outgrew them. She is constantly asking me, did you have this as a kid and if so when did it come out. It is kind of fun to see but also reminds me of just how old I really am. I can see why this stuff is reappearing too, as people from my generation are now parents and want their kids to enjoy the things we used to do and go back to a time, where innocence was bliss and we didn’t have to deal with terrorists, school shootings or the like. It really is amazing that it just takes a kid making up a story to get a school system in a hubbub like it did in the past 2 weeks in my area; and in some respects a shame too. I remember in elementary school having to evacuate our building for a bomb threat. I don’t even remember if they figured out who called it in but people were calm, cool and collected and no over panic. Now it is a terrorist threat, some whacko being dumb, or kids being stupid. It is just a shame that the world has to come to this over a few people who can’t agree to disagree or compromise or whatever.

Anyway let me leave my soapbox…….(there much better)

The past couple of weeks have been crazy on many levels. DD has had issues with a few of the kids in aftercare and also has gotten 2 versions of the stomach bug and I seem to have followed her like a week after each. Also I basically spent the night at work one night to finish up financials. It was nice though as that Friday I got a nice gift card and spent a portion of it on PR’s Enchanted Fairy. The rest will probably go for a nice dinner out. Stitchingwise, I hit a slight slump and speed bump as all of this made things suffer and I really haven’t had time to pick up much of anything except family, home, love during dd’s karate practices. I hope though that the past night or 2 has made things relax and work on it more.
Well that’s what’s been going on….catch y’all soon!!

Stitching stuff and October Goals

2006-09-30T22:35:00.000-04:00

September was a pathetic month stitchingwise except for Family, Home Love and it is missing 2 border words and almost 2 brown middle dialog lines (just 1 letter short of that).

So I decided I needed a kick in the buns to be stitching and figured this was a good push as well.

I'm going to do the 10 project challenge as described below( they have 25 and 50 as well and I reserve the right to push the level up to those as I need to/want to). My main exemptions are the last 2 Lizzie Kates of Christmas flip its( I have the other 10 patterns and want complete set), the new PR enchanted fairy and any materials I might need to do said patterns. As the challenge started 9/1/06, I just have my first finish with this last quilt square.

From the Wagon bb:
Purpose of the challenge: to reduce the amount of patterns you have not stitched. This challenge can also be applied to other areas of you stash if you wish (please post your personal modification).

The Rules:
1. Have fun reducing your stash.
2. There is no time limit- people have different size projects they would like to work on.
3. Thou shall not purchase any new patterns until 10, 25, or 50 projects have been stitched. Pattern size does not matter. WIPs and UFOs finishes count.
4. This challenge can also apply to knitting, beading, sewing and crocheting patterns.
5. You can make some exemptions - I am not placing limitations on this due to commitments that people might already have. Remember, though, the goal of this challenge is to reduce stash so too many exemptions will sabotage these efforts. I have declared three exemptions.
6. Gifts, gift cards, trades, RAKs and patterns bought with gift money are not a violation of this challenge. Patterns bought to make gifts for someone else are also exempt.
7. Freebies count as part of your total and you can aquire them at any point.
8. You do not have to declare the projects you intend to work on. (If listing would make you feel better please do so)
9. The offical start date of this challenge was Sept 1, 2006 since I have been posting about it for awhile and want to make sure the everyone's projects have been included. All projects finished on or after this date count for the challenge. Example: you have been working TW's Peacock Tapestry for the past 36 months and you finally finished it on Sept. 12th... it counts as part of your total for the challenge.

I also will get a list together for patterns I want to finish up for a challenge on the Needle nook board. I do know first is to finish Family,Home, Love for 2006.

Gift of Peace,Apache Wedding and High Flight I think are going to be my biggies for 2007 as well as having all of the Lizzie Kate Christmas ones done for the season on 2007.

Anyway here's my October goals:

RR's as they come(have 1 right now)

Family Home Love

New Start of wintry type thing ( 1 of the 4 done) and

I just need to get back to a rotation on some of these pieces I have going...I have some pretty close and I'd like to get them finished!!!!!

2 posts in a few days...wow I must be getting better!!!!

Random Thoughts and such

2006-09-22T13:46:00.001-04:00

When is the world going to actually slow down and give me a chance to catch up???

I knew coming into August with dd's birthday, friends spending a weekend with us, karate, and back to school stuff that I just wasn't going to have too much time for anything for me. But here it is toward the end of September and I'm still riding the fast moving coaster. I haven't found that comfortable pattern for dd and I in the mornings and the evenings seem to push along just as fast. Of course there has been some minor upheaval and we are only about a month into the school year but it has got to get better than this. I need the time for me to unwind and not be tired like I was this am.

OK rant over......

I started this post a couple of days ago(9/22 and today is 9/27 in actual) and it just takes something in life to make you think about what's important. For those of you reading from the DC area, you'll know what I'm talking about....the rest of you will get a chance to figure it out.
Yesterday on the news was a major story about a Hit and Run incident. (Yeah you are thinking no big deal right now) The incident itself happened on the road right outside of my office though. I make the turn in the morning usually right at the intersection where the body of the lady was found. If I go out to lunch at Wendy's or McDonalds, one of the last turns I make prior to getting back to my office is the intersection where the lady was struck after attempting to follow her husband across the street, just doing nothing but walking to the metro to head down to DC probably. If you drive on the road, the police markings are there and you can distinctly see the one tire print that was probably where the lady was caught and drug. Why does something so senseless has to happen. It makes you look at relationships and treasure each moment you have left.

OK sad moment over...

Here's the updates........

STITCHING:
I have been working on Family,Home Love

I have 2 of the outside words done and almost 4 of the 6 lines, that's the good news

The bad news is that I haven't been doing much more than that(see my rant above)

DD:

Things are going OK here with her. She has been back to old ways in forgetting to bring stuff home or having it mixed up with a seatmates stuff. That drives me bonkers. She has helped out with the LFI kids at school (disabled kids) and enjoyed it and signed up and got peer mediator, and picked out an instrument that she wants to try for band this year(flute...I used to play clarinets and saxophones). We will see what happens with that. To think she also wants to add basketball this winter....YIKES. I have one busy little gal now, but as long as the grades and stuff doesn't suffer, I don't care, it means less time for friends but they can deal too. She also is getting ready to test for next belt level and is enjoying karate. I love seeing her face light up when she does well with a form or whatever.

ME:

I was made the offer and accepted it with the company. It was right where I'd hope and a bit more. I helped quite a bit with close and with another one just around the corner......we will see what happens.

Well I think this is it for now......I'll try to be better about hitting here and doing other things. I just wish it would calm down so I could find some kind of flow if you get it.

Later!!!

CHhhhannges and what's the saying .........

2006-08-09T11:40:00.000-04:00

Most of what I am about to post here goes under one or both portions of the title. Somehow I got the David Bowie song in my mind and with the proverb of when a door closes, a window opens just seem to hit with my life right now. (this portion and the title was posted yesterday)

It just seems amazing to me that I could come up with that after what happened in the UK today. Why can't people at least learn to agree to disagree and get on with their lives? Is it some "manly macho" thing? I can't help but think if women were treated at least somewhat fairly like they are here in the US instead of "property" like they are in the Middle East that maybe some sense would prevail. One could hope at least. I only fear as I have relatives there(in UK) and plans to travel over there sometime in the near future, that maybe things will somewhat finally work themselves out.

Now getting toward the personal side of things......

Job

Monday morning will be my last day at the long term temp spot. I had an interview this morning with a company that was looking temp to perm(only cause of quirky things that happened previously and will probably flip this job over to perm fast...if they like me and I like the job. It is a bit of a longer distance but the long term temp spot was not developing into a spot where I would want to stay,(more like an entry level and I am much more qualified than that) I start the new position Wednesday am....can't wait!!!!!

She had her birthday last week and from us this year, we got her tickets to the Mystics(ladies pro basketball game). She didn't seem happy initially with it but once at the game she loved it and got into the game!!! We also had her name added to the scoreboard which was displayed 3rd quarter. End of game we bought her a game jersey and she bought with money from her granddaddy earrings(slight dangle) with the team logo. The past weekend we did the family party where she got a 2 charms and a bracelet, money and giftcards, and some clothes which I am making her wait til school to wear!!

Stitching:

Did my 1 letter for finishers and maybe bit more on other pieces. I had to entirely frog out family home love cause it is longer than higher and I was stitching it backwards on the fabbie!!! YUCK!!!! Spent 2 hours to pull it all and have recovered pretty well with 1 small word and almost 3 bigger letters of one of the border words done. Hopefully will get a bunch done next week during the stitchathon. Didn't do much more cause I was fighting headaches and an ear thing(clogged ears)

Goals for august...time maybe tight

last quilt square

family home love (home and 1 line done)

finishers piece...want to put a noticeable dent in

Think that's it for now..have friends here and spending a few nights in the house and I need to be up a touch early so I'm off for now!!!! Good night!!!!!

Well here is the latest and greatest

2006-07-24T18:01:00.000-04:00

Job:

Got a long term temporary spot that hasn't been too busy right now. Not sure what to think of it but we will see.

Stitching:

Last week or so haven't been stitching cause of a strained neck and it has been causing headaches and pressure in my ears. I think it has finally died down but I'm giving it a day or 2 more til I start up stitching again.

DD:

Got her new belt in a little over a month...went from white to gold!! She's also going to basketball camp this week and had a blast today. Can't believe her birthday is coming soon!!!!

Another month on the books for 2006

2006-07-02T22:09:00.000-04:00

Well another month has come and gone and while I stitched some and job interviewed etc. I am not entire happy with how the month went.

Job Searching

This has been the most frustrating thing. I have had people interview me first and second time and then take a pass....I have had stuff offered to me that looked in my eyes and I think in potential future employers eyes as a step down and I've turned those down hoping that something else great would come back. I just want something to help bring $$$ back in house. We aren't in bad shape, I had done something that has given us spots for more $$ but I REALLY don't want to push into it too far. The worst thing is I feel like a reject and if it weren't my board friends...things would really look bad to me.

DD

She is loving camp and karate. So much so that we have special offer that lowers monthly price for a bit and we might be taking advantage of it. Her report card was great too...2 s's and 2b's and the rest was A's and O's. She's being challenged with the B classes so I'm not upset. My biggest beef is that there are spots about completing assignments and were times at school where she lost focus to remember to bring things home. She could be so much better and I know the karate will help with that. She is so loving a wide range of things and loving playing with neighborhood friends too. She has basketball camp at end of month and has a special gift coming on top of that for her birthday. I'll reveal that when it gets closer to the day (about a month away)

Stitching:

June wasn't too bad though did have about a 2 week slump. Finished up 1 piece, started and finished 2 others. I am very happy about that!!!

July...

I want to finish 3 remaining quilt squares
I also want to work highly on Family
I want to do that 1 letter for finishers piece this month early on to go ahead and pass it
I also want to put decent time on WIPS and start few others I have kitted up

Well that's it from now...hugs to my board friends who have been holding me up quite a bit this past month!!!! Hopefully I'll have a job soon and can get back into lots of routines

End of the month wrapup

2006-05-31T20:14:00.000-04:00

The month took a big turn right after I wrote my last entry. I was "laid off...aka booted" from my job for "budget streamlining" issues. The company, in my honest opinion, is running scared in some respects only cause they were running low on funds and a deal they made prior to my booting doubled their funds. So I have been on the job market and meeting with different groups. Looks like I might be close to something but we will see.

Ok....my stitching has been really focused on 1 piece..Stitchers Blessing and it is REALLY close to being finished. I have just 1 full block and a portion of the other and it is done. I'll try to figure how to post the pic once I'm finished with it.

As far as family goes, I am afraid that by year end my grandmother will be gone. She doesn't look good after this last chemo/radiation sessions. She hates being a bother to everybody but knows she has to rely on help.

Ok....I want to go do a few other things so here's June's somewhat lofty goals

Finisher's pieces for May and June (may to be exchanged June 3rd)
Quilt blocks
Work on Titanic piece a bit
Center poem portion of Apache Wedding
Work on Gift of Peace
Start High Flight
and if mood and time help....Queen of Freedom and/or Lady of the Flag

Catch y'all later!!!!!

Here it is again....

2006-05-04T16:49:00.000-04:00

I neglected this space for yet another month and feel a slight bit of guilt about it.....only slight because I just now realized how long I'd been gone from here. LOL

Things have been moving along that crazy path of life and while I'm trying to keep up, it seems things just seem to fall apart.

So here is the blended upadte of everything going on....

Stitching:

April Goals listed with accomplishment on the side of it.

Finish bookmark in 1st weekend (has to be mailed by 7th)-finished 4/2 and sent 4/10..just a bit late

Stitcher's blessing the 4 corners done- got 4 blocks done and a bit more
1 side of Apache wedding or the middle verse -nope
More on Gift of Peace -nope
Start on High Flight and whatever else calls my name ;-)nope to high flight but started a titanic piece

So you can see I got some time and stuff in but not what I truly wanted to get done.

Here's the simplified May Goals

Work on Finisher's piece once received
Work on Titanic Piece
2 blocks of Stitcher's Blessing
Get some major time in on Apache Wedding, Gift of Peace (can't seem get to working on these again) and perhaps start Lady of Flag,High Flight, Queen of Freedom

Work life:

Work has driven into high drive as I'm involved in several projects and they all seem to require a bit of attention here and there. It isn't a bad thing but I just want to be sure everything is cool and I'm not soooo overwhelmed. We made it through the 1st quarter close;and are ,as I type, in the middle of April close. Friday(tomorrow) will be a day of catch up and hopefully get a few of the small things off of my plate so we are good to go. If not this month then next will be mid year budget and I expect to be highly pushed into it.

Home life:

Somebody please tell me when I got a preteen kid with an attitude and mouth. Also tell me when this starts to get worse and then when it gets better. I can see us having quite a few battles before she hits high school if it is starting now and she's only in 3rd grade. She has always been the seemingly sweet and nice girl but this year has seen our share of problems. She hit honor roll again and also received a character counts award during assembly at the end of April. She showed us those very proudly. Last night, after forgetting either her spelling book or lunch box for what seems like the 2000th time, she hands us a piece of paper that states she got in trouble for mouthing off to a teacher. She said he was taking too long to get to the computer lab and she said finally in a sarcastic tone. this incident happened that same day and she has forgotten to pass it to us since then (basically 3 days later). Yes, we as the parents need to be watching her backpack and stuff; but she also needs to be a responsible person too. I love the gal but sometimes her actions just drive me crazy. Course my mom says she's just like me...since that is the case I am even more amazed with my mother then.

She is playing softball this spring and we have had 1 game thus far with a "doubleheader"(friday, saturday) this week. She made contact both ties she was up and drove in 1 run and scored twice herself during that first game.

Myself:

I have started looking at my life again and am thinking about going back to school online. I am thinking about 2 masters certificates and perhaps with those total credits, I could sit for the CPA if I REALLY wanted to. I also was just "promoted" as a moderator to one of the boards I frequent so I am enjoying my new found power.

I think that's it and what's on my mind right now...sorry it has been so long and I'll try not to be a stranger here so often.....

April Goals and other stuff

2006-04-02T00:39:00.000-05:00

Well another month is upon us and I'd really like to get a push on to get things done....

Here's my goal list for the month:

Finish bookmark in 1st weekend (has to be mailed by 7th)
Stitcher's blessing the 4 corners done
1 side of Apache wedding or the middle verse
More on Gift of Peace
Start on High Flight.......and whatever else hits me...

In other news dd got her ears pierced yesterday. We had talked about it last August but decided to wait. Well while waiting for DH to get his haircut, we went in the toy store and then over to Claires. I mentioned about her getting them done and she thought about it. I told her she'd need to be the main one responsible for initial care...and she said she really wanted to do it. So now they are done with her birthstones. They look nice and she said she only wanted to do them once and that was it. We will see when she's older.

Well let me run..it will be late with the hour of sleep we lose tonight.

What a month...

2006-03-29T09:58:00.000-05:00

The past week or so has been a whirlwind to say the least. Let me try to break this down.

Firstly familywise. DD has/had a spot around her face which was finally diagnosed as ringworm. We have been prescription topical on it and in the last few days seems to be going away (you have to look really close to find it now so hopefully by spring break it is gone. My grandmother was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer after a Biopsy in the past couple of weeks. I'm not surprised since she has been smoking most of her life though she had cut it back quite significantly many years ago.

Then dealing with those infamous cars.....Wednesday last week we had the buick picked up for charity, figuring we had 2 cars and could go look over the weekend. Well Thursday morning before I left for work, I get a call from DH to get him a rental car place number, something had slipped on the old Saturn (215K + mileage) so we made arrangements over the weekend to get rid of that one which went Tuesday(28th). Friday (24th) we went out to the local Saturn dealership planning on looking for a good used Saturn, either an Ion or another L series. we found a car but not a Saturn...we now co-own a 2002 Honda Accord Sedan that had under 30K on it. Talk about amazed....... We jumped on it and got what we think was a pretty good deal.

So needless to say between all of this going on my stitching hasn't been happening like I would though I have managed to get my bookmark for exchange almost done. I'll post it and other stuff later.

Think that's it for now....will post more if needed

Later!!!

Just a few rambles

2006-03-13T14:33:00.000-05:00

I thought I needed to post an update here, while getting my mind focused on the work issues at hand and game planned, so off I go......

Firstly, I wanted to post a shout out to my high school alma mater girl's basketball team on winning the state 1A championship!!!!!! You have made our small towns and community proud by your accomplishment!! For those not in the know(most all of you), my school population was 800 kids (200 a grade 9-12) and not always made up of the most talented kids there. The last time we hoisted a state title girls was back in 1986 for softball and I don't think the guys have had one recent either so something like this is a real big deal!!!!

Secondly, to the gals on http://p104.ezboard.com/bcrossstitchcrazy99277 (Cross Stitch Crazy). I wanted to thank you for your calming vibes last week.

Most of the situation dealt with dd not wanting to go to school or getting worked up at school over Math and a couple of boys teasing her about it. I think it was the boys more than the math, based on the teacher's repsonse to my email about the situation. The teacher told me she got an A on her fraction quiz ( the subject she was having a bit of trouble with) and her teacher also told me that she doesn't worry too much about her and not getting things....dd usually tries to work it out before the teacher can help her. By the end of the week between her talking to the teacher and an email from me, things seemed to be resolved.

Stitching wise I have put the "rotation" if you can call it that on hold while I work on a teacher gift and exchange piece. I should have both done by the end of the week at the latest so I can jump back to sticthers blessing and gift of peace. I am even thinking about starting high flight.....I am getting scary again about starts.

Well back to work and thanks for listening

March Goals and a day makes a difference

2006-03-04T19:28:00.000-05:00

Firstly, I just needed to vent because so much was going on all at once. The day after getting work stuff done and just focusing makes the vision that much better. Grandmother's taxes done, dd's game over and my parents were only in the house for just a few minute before we left to go down there certainly helped.

Now to move forward...here's my March Goals:

1. Border (left/center) on Dragon Dreams Stitchers Blessing
2. Finishers piece ( Mirabilia's Angel Proclamation) work on as much as possible
3. 1 side of Apache Wedding Blessing done
4. Time on gift of Peace to keep it from looking like a blob

O one blog type thing before I go.....What color heart

Your Heart Is Pink

In relationships, you like to play innocent - even though you aren't.Each time you fall in love, it's like falling for the first time.
Your flirting style: Coy
Your lucky first date: Picnic in the park
Your dream lover: Is both caring and dominant
What you bring to relationships: Romance

Well off to stitch and keep working towards those goals!!!

Why is it.....?

2006-03-03T10:35:00.001-05:00

that when you need time to deal with a few things at a time, everything seems to come to a "head" all at once. It's March and month end close, I'm dealing with finishing up ours and my grandmother's taxes, my mom coming down to watch dd's make up basketball game, aunt's birthday, and DH had to decide to talk about the car situation. I just wanted/needed to get through this weekend in peace and then we could deal with the cars. A little background, we have 3 cars ( 1 in his name, 1 in my name and 1 joint) . His has over 110K on it, My solo has over 205K on it and the joint is approaching 100K, (97K but except for roadtrips to folks or friends doesn't get too much mileage on it anymore). We have been waiting for the 2 solos to die but his has been running smoothly lately and mine well except for an exhaust pipe that is rotting away and being very noisy... I think it is running fine. We have a car payment on the joint but it has only 1 year left and we also have payments for new windows but with the tax refund we are getting would kill it, opening a chance to use this money for a new payment. I just wish the timing would be better.

Anyway let me run...I just needed to vent.

Amazing how wonders never cease

2006-02-10T13:58:00.000-05:00

Usually I find only maybe once a month to do this, but to hit it twice in one week is truly amazing. I guess with my birthday coming around the corner and the untimely death of a member of several of the stitching bulletin boards I frequent, has got me in a reflective mood.

Just thinking of the reaction to the death of this young lady...she was only in her late 20's.... has me thinking of how many people's lives have I touched and have I touched them in the "right" way? Have I been caring, fun loving and enjoying of their company and have they been of me. Do they look to me as being need of being the center of attention for the conversations I have dominated or knowledgeable and just wanting to help.

Have I set a decent example for dd? I know I am the worst housekeeper and I let things pile up until they need to be done. I have even on occasion ignored dd when she has specifically wanted something only because I have been so focused on what I have wanted/needed to do first. I have yelled at her to get things done or whatever just to get my point across when nothing else seems to get through. I hope that she knows I love her and don't want her to have to make the mistakes I have simply because she is SOOOOOO much like me, it is scary. While there are plenty of things that I like about myself and I hope dd is like me, there have been things in my life that I have messed up and I hope I can keep her from doing too.

The legacy I hope to leave behind is a good one, one that says I enjoyed life lots and did what I can to make a difference in whomever I met or touched. I hope my dd shows those values as well. I hope my family and friends know how much they mean to me, in lots of instances more than words could ever describe. It is just a shame that life has to throw something as senseless or traumatic as this your way to get your attention, get refocused and really evaluate what life is for you. And it is, as wonders never cease, that life finds the right time when you need it most to do it. :)

Here it is again......

2006-02-07T19:17:00.000-05:00

Just over a month since I have been back here. Things while not totally crazy haven't let up enough to allow me to catch up in anything. I just hate that. I also have never been the type to get into diaries weekly or whatever. It has always been when the mood hits. It is never a good thing. Right now the TV is off and DD is driving me me nuts trying to do her homework. She's doing aliteration sentences with her spelling words but it has been like "pulling teeth" to get her to do it. Furthermore she forgot her math homework at school and it was supposed to be her basketball practice night. This is 2 in a row we missed. It has been a busy couple of days at work with month end close and the auditors looking over our stuff. I just want to get inot project accounting and get all my projects caught up. I have pictures to download to my website too, only taken this weekend but no time to dump them to put them on the page.

Let me run as I'd like to catch up on a few things before the vicious cycle of work starts again tomorrow.

Why does it seem like there's never enough time???

2005-11-29T19:55:00.000-05:00

Well it has taken me forever yet again to post an update.... why I can't seem to find the time here or other places is beyond me. I sometimes wish for the Centaurian time mentioned in Men in Black (you know 37 hour days) but wonder if I would use the time any better with that than I do now.

Anyway moving along...work is going pretty good. I'm involved in the asset tracking team, having to write my self evaluation for Monday and get through the beginnings of November close

Stitchingwise I just helped out a friend with a piece called high flight... just sent it back to her tonight for her to finish the french knots. Otherwise it was completely finished.I am working on aduck stamp until Saturday and then I am picking up another piece from a friend while passing the duck stamp along. I am waiting for a couple of pieces of fabric to come in to kit up more projects.....like I really need to do that...but I want something new before I go back and finish out a few others that I have started and not too far from finished. I also have more obligation stitching for a few baby bibs for them. I have one started and I'm hoping the rest will move quickly.

I just want to get things organized around the house and picked up. I'd love to get some bills paid off too but things will move as they are meant to. My other hobbies are doing well. Just added a pretty neat piece to one of my favorite fan fiction sites. They have a group of writers that add sections one at a time and the next person needs to carry the story forward. Anyway I was pretty impressed with my entry and the major hosts of the group were as well even though they did polish it a bit to carry the overall "feel" of the story forward. I also have a game site where I have a good group of friends, they do weekly challenge badges every week and I'm on pace to finish current year and by next year have the back years done as well.

Anyway I need to get back stitching...so I had better run

Later!!!!!!!!!!

A Hodgepodge of my life now

2005-10-20T14:29:00.000-04:00

Here’s what is going down in my life right now.

Work:

It has gotten busy to points and I’m glad; though there are days like today, I wish I had more in my lap to work on. It has been crazy with project accounting and quarter stuff having to be done almost on top of each other. I will be leaving here on time if I can help it since it is soccer practice night. I’m about to be working on budget, and relocation stuff for payroll for the next week or so until month end. The cycle will then repeat. The people are really nice and I’m starting to fit in I think.

DD:

I think the teenage thing is starting early for that gal. There are times that she can be sooooo stubborn. She wants to do things on her time and her terms. I must say that she gets it honestly. One thing though is that she pushes it a bit further than I used to do. My mom would allow me to pout and express it a bit but then enough was enough and I had better stop. She seems to be doing pretty well in school and loves her teacher. We have gotten used to the homework every night thing and I haven’t seen her balk at it.

She kind of likes soccer too. I am not totally thrilled with her coach and I might express it on the year end reporting. I understand that the 3rd and 4th grade girls can be chatty and she needs to install some discipline but I think she’s taking it a bit far. She had 1 girl sit out most of the last game (she would have been sitting out 1 period anyway) just for talking over her in between periods while she was giving instructions. She was also telling the gals that they will be able to add to the punishment (laps, sit-ups or whatever) during this practice coming up. I think it was punishment enough for the gal to be forced out of playing that game. We pay for the t-shirt and ref fees in order for the gals to play. The league doesn’t stress scores or winning or losing but working on skills and improving them.

Stitching:

Has been kind of off and on as I have been doing a bit on other “hobbies” (helping friends get their Pogo badges last week). I have stitched a bit for the stitchathon; but between the work stress and home things going on, it hasn’t been as much as I’d like. I have been working on Robins finish it piece and now will also have to push to get SIF 05 ready to move on. There are also other pieces to move ahead with too, some my stitching and some “obligation.” Well just need to push and move on ahead.

Well that’s it for now. More as time allows me to update!

New Beginnings

2005-09-19T10:16:00.000-04:00

I decided to scrap my initial few posts and re try to start this up (especially since it is a link on a bb I frequent). That board also has a journal area in which I have spent more time than here....oooops!!!! I need to remember to hit both of them at the same time from now on just to keep both of them moving on.

I'll up date this one with more later!!!