Ornament #3

Ornament #3 This is the 3rd of the L*K Christmas Blessings ornaments. Hubby and I decided the dove wasn't standing out enough based on the pattern and the fabric and so I outlined it and this is what came out.

Wow ..Two Finishes in Four Days

I know I won't be able to keep this streak up but I'll enjoy the ride. Here is the second of the 12 L*K Christmas Blessings from a few years ago....

Minor finish from 12/31/2012

This was nearly done before I picked it up on 12/31..just needed red on dress and black eyes and backstitch. Anyway here it is: L*K Love Ornament

Happy New Year to All

2012 may not have been the best, but there is always hope that 2013 will be better for us all on a lot of levels! Here's wishing you a lot health, wealth and happiness for the coming year!

Hopefully A New Start

I realize that it has been forever since I've been on here but life just typically gets out of balance and I can't seem to find that contentment that I am looking for. I guess it is an overwhelmed feeling on many levels and not having that something really special that will drag me out of it. Anyway....I will try to resolve to be around here and other places more often. I need to spend less time on FB and into better meaning things. Anyway, before the year ends...let me wish you all a happy new year and hopefully 2013 will be better for all of us.

Short but sweet and updates galore

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

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

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..

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

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

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

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.....

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

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.....

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

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....

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....

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

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

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