I am a cartoon....

I had been doing so well: A few weeks ago, I exercised every day, saw some weight go down. I felt great.

On a Tuesday morning I was leaving for work, the kids wanted to wave goodbye so I opened the blinds on the front window. Their cute little faces peering out, I took a step and thought, "life is pretty good." Unfortunately, I put my foot down on a patch of ice and slipped so that both feet flew out in front of me and I slammed against the concrete steps, then bounced to the sidewalk. I must have looked like a cartoon.

Everyone asked me later if time slowed down for me--nope, it was lightning fast until the moment I landed and could not stand up for several minutes while I waited for my body to stop feeling jarred from the direct hit my spine took. I am certain that parts of me went "SPROINNNNNNG" and those parts are not meant to sproing, under any circumstances.

As I sat there, in the cold, trying to breathe, I could only think, "Gosh, I hope the kids aren't scared or freaking out.'

And inside the house this is what happened.

My eight year old daughter calmly walked to the kitchen (which overlooks the backyard only) and said, "Daddy. Mommy fell down." Then she walked away.

My husband called after her, "Did she get up?"

Angie strolls back, "Huh?"

"Did she get up?"

Angie replied thoughtfully, "I'll go check." And wanders back to the living room.

She returns and casually says, "No. She's still on the ground."

At which point my husband races past her, flings the front door open, and starts to slip on the same patch of ice that brought me down. Fortunately, he catches himself or we would have had a pile of parents outside, in the cold, at the foot of the steps, and two kids alone inside.

At least Angie maintains her composure in the face of actual adversity.

For a few days afterwards, various parts of my body were in excruciating pain, from which I gather my nervous system was sending mayday signals randomly. And I learned that when you hit your spine, acetaminophen is too wimpy to handle the pain. I am okay. I had a mildly scary 24 hours in which my doctor thought I had fractured my spine and would need cement injected into the vertebrae. Fortunately, it's just a bad bruise.

The down side is that the gains I had been making stopped completely because I did not feel up to exercising. My doctor said that I could expect to be in a lot of pain for at least six weeks. Two weeks later, I'm managing a few sit ups, but I'm hesitant to yoga at the moment. If I'm really lucky, and Kian wakes from his nap soon, maybe we'll go to the gym. Maybe not.

I like cartoons, but I would really prefer not to be one!

Hopeful house plans

We had a frenzy of cleaning in our home today as we expected our realtor, Sandy--who helped us purchase this home a year + ago, to arrive at 11:00 a.m.-ish to see what we have "done with the place." Well Sandy never appeared, no problem because now we are enjoying our clean uncluttered house. I had mentioned at Hooked on Houses that I felt we had done not nearly enough since we moved in September 2010. Our to do list is much bigger than our done and to get myself back in the groove of posting, I thought I'd share our done and to-do dreams.

Done:

1. Electrical work in the kitchen and bathroom. The previous home owner had put too many things on one [insert electrician terminology here]. Can't remember what it was called, but on one of the first mornings we were here, I started some toast in the toaster, stepped away for a moment, then returned to find flames shooting out of my toaster.
2. Corian countertops in the kitchen with built-in sink and nice shiny new sink fixtures complete.
3. Fixed the garbage disposal as it was apparently originally hung with a few wires and some hope.
4. Plumbing in the kitchen, the main line for the house and major plumbing in the upstairs bathroom.
5. Painted the master bedroom and ripped out the horrible carpeting to reveal very nice wood floor beneath.
6. Ripped down the wallpaper in the bathroom, installed new drywall, bath surround, fixtures and bead board, which we then painted along with the walls.
7. Installed a new vanity and fixtures for the sink in the bathroom.
8. Installed a new handrail and painted the stairs leading to the garage.
9. Removed above ground pool from backyard.

Not bad for a year plus, including six months of me being sick.

Our to do list is, of course, much longer. I'm sure that we will finish some things only to add more to the list.

To do:

First floor: Refinish the floors running through the living room, dining room, hallway, master bedroom and linen closet. Purchase new doors and door knobs for every room and the main closet. Replace all the trim around the floor and the doors.
Living room: Paint.
Dining room: Paint. Remove the counter cabinet between the kitchen and the dining room. Remove ceiling fan (which is too fast for over the dining room table unless we want to simulate eating in a windstorm) and find a replacement light fixture.
Bathroom: Cut, paint and install the last bits of trim for the bead board. Install and paint new drywall on the ceiling. Replace commode (which seems to be original)
Linen closet: Paint. Find a light fixture with a switch on it or rewire for a wall switch.
Angie's room: Paint (Most likely a pink and/or robin's egg blue). Rearrange to fit a double bed (formerly the crib) and give her toddler to twin (thank you so much Ikea) to Kian. Would love to figure out if her closet can be expanded.
Kian's room: Paint (currently green has been requested). Rearrange to fit the toddler to twin bed. Install a rack for his bathrobe etc.
Master bedroom: Finish ripping out the built-in desk. Refinish that area with board and batten and move my dresser into that alcove.

Basement: Install banister leading from garage to basement.
Long room: Install new ceiling and flooring. Figure out the heating situation. Finish putting things away and otherwise tidying.
t.v. room: Install new flooring. Maybe paint. Add actual door between workshop and t.v. room
Laundry room: Paint. I would love a stackable washer and dryer so that we could add a small cabinet with a countertop for folding and a place to put the soaps and so forth. Install new flooring.
Basement bathroom: Paint. Install new flooring. Install new sink and fixtures--perhaps a wall mount with built-in towel bar. Improve the shower (which is currently cement block with exposed pipes).

Outside:

Front yard: Get rid of the wheelbarrow with flowers in the front yard and replace with a stone or brick circular flower bed. Replace the wood retaining wall in the front flower bed with a stone or brick one. Obtain bench for front porch.

Back yard: Install square foot garden where pool used to stand. Lay stones between the garden sections. Remove the gigantic tree stump.

I count roughly 42 items on the to do list to get this house back into shape. For this next year, I would really love to finish the bathroom, the floors on the first floor and the trim. I'm hopeful that we will have a couple square foot garden beds set up this year. We were very lucky with the tomato plants we had at the side of the house and the back shed. The pepper plants were less than productive. I think the change for Angie and Kian will happen no matter even if nothing else does. They just keep getting bigger.

As lengthy as this list is, Chas and I have some major hopes for a big remodel in about five to seven years, so these are just the "simple" projects. Someday perhaps I will share our big, pie-in-the-sky renovation dreams.

Everything is new....

Well not really. The house was built in 1951 I believe.

Anyway, I have not been able to do anything crafty due to all the packing and moving and cleaning and painting and carpet removal and electrical work and whatnot. We are almost entirely in the new house--we have a few things to get out of the garage at the old place. We are also awaiting the arrival of some of Grandma Phyllis's furniture so that we can properly put things away.

But it almost feels like home--sometimes I can't believe this beautiful house is ours. I can't wait to get the kids play area set up and my play--err--craft area established. Chas's play area will take longer to establish, but we have plans for that as well.

I love that new house sensation.

Other new things:

One of my favorite cross stitch designers (Martina Weber of Chatelaine of course) has a few new designs in the works: a classical mandala and a peacock mandala. I have two thoughts:

1. I can't wait until I'm done with boxes because my hands are so dry that I do not want to stitch and snag all the silks.
2. I will need more walls to display all the mandalas. Or maybe I just need to rotate them. Of course it would help if I would actually finish one.

Also, one of my favorite fabric designers (Lila Tueller) has a new line and is having a giveaway on her blog. I love her Santorini line--lavenders, greens, pinks and olives (not the color--actual olives), and the new Eden line looks pretty as well.

I can't wait until I can start being crafty again.

Gone Moving

We are eyeball deep in moving stuff to the new house.

Two floods + one house fire and we still have a lot of things (mostly books--how can we get rid of books? They aren't luxuries; they're bare essentials).

Here is my little tidbit to you: Pack things you don't like as much on the bottom of every box you store in your home. Then, when the flood hits, the things you least like are destroyed first.

What's that? Most homes don't flood regularly?

Oh. (so that is why the air quality is better at our new home.)

Anyway....

Thanks to our friends Cathy and Steve for putting in monumental work to help us.

My Dad has been up to help. My Mom and StepDad are here now too.

Thanks goodness for that. We have lots more to do, but it is ours at last.

Keys in Hand

We have the keys.

The house is ours!

Excuse me because I have a lot of work to do.

Holy Mortgage Batman!

I hesitated to post this, because we're not quite there yet. But I think we will close on the house tomorrow and have the keys by Monday. We have been up and down several times in this whole process and, typical, we were up and down several times today.

When we woke up, we thought I would need to sign some things today and do the final close tomorrow. By Midday, it seemed more paperwork had failed to arrive where it was needed (we are an emergency rush so usually it takes much longer) so the closing would be shifted to next week.

By 5:30 and after many phone calls, we coordinated it so that we could doe everything tomorrow. We had to see the house for the final walk-through while the current owner was moving out (and I felt bad about that--but I think he really wants out quickly too).

So as long as I can get the cashier's check tomorrow, we should be good. I hope nothing else pops up to delay us. I hope nothing else crazy happens.

I hated to get pushy, but I really needed to just have the house transfer rather than remain on this roller coaster we've been on the last few months.

It has been such a rough few years. I became a little teary on the way over to the house because it is such a big wonderful thing that is happening. It is a little overwhelming.

SO we think we have the house....

Stuff has been approved.

I apparently need to go sign some things tomorrow, but the actual closing won't necessarily be until Friday. Pause.

??????

And we'll squeeze your walk through tomorrow night.

{what am I signing? Haven't a clue, my realtor, has yet to answer that question. Apparently I'm to walk in to an office tomorrow to sign random things.

Our realtor, was great about showing us houses, but she has done a terrible job of explaining the process.

Our former neighbors told us that home buying was much simpler in Scotland (their point of origin).

My State, however, has perfected the art of making the process so random and painful that some of the excitement gets sucked right out.

I will be deliriously happy once we close and start moving in. I'm just more than a little confused. And a little annoyed that my very straightforward questions go without an answer most times.

Being greedy.

If you like me, even just a little bit, could you please go to this nifty blog and post a comment that I sent you ( Holley at anotherwip.blogspot.com ). I promise I'll do the same for you if you like.

I seriously desire this fabric line in the worst way and I am trying to be so very good with our move hopefully happening by the end of this month. My clicky finger has added it to many online baskets only to be unceremoniously dumped when another inspection/insurance/tithe to the realty company has appeared.

I'd ask dear hubby to do it, but he would probably ask me how I would fit in sewing on the new fabric if I won when I still have piles of fabric laying around.

Silly man.

I so rarely do this....

I wanted to say never, but that would be wrong because obviously I'm doing it now or I wouldn't be posting about it. And it happens from time to time. I'm pretty certain I've written about it here.

I had a really rough day. We were told yesterday at work that we were moving today (not Friday or Monday as we had been led to believe). That launched everyone into an insane flurry of packing in two buildings. Then the movers arrived and moaned and complained (that isn't on my list to move. I don't know why, I told them it needed to be moved). My current understanding is that my stuff is in the other building, in the wrong spots (we didn't know where to put it. uhhh. the big freaking note I put on it didn't help?).

Imagine the ensuing drama and chaos typical of a move.

Then imagine: it's being coordinated by the government.

Then imagine that your husband is calling you with a few snafus in the whole home buying process (one of which turned out okay as a government reg was rewritten).

Then imagine that you are also trying to plan a retirement party for your assistant. That party being held tomorrow.

Then imagine you are still trying to do your job, because it must be done, although your office (soon to be your office no more) is in disarray and the monitor is over there, the printer is here and watch out, don't step on the keyboard and then people keep walking into your room to talk to you while you do your job....

Thud.

You can stop imagining--I think that is quite enough.

And now it is a few hours later and I'm home.

So that tall glass of chocolate milk and Bailey's Irish Creme prepared by my loving hubby is empty.

And I'm going to quilt! {insert evil laugh here}

Yes we accept-no we don't-yes we do.

We were on a roller coaster last week--the short sale was finally approved, then the loan company pulled back and put extremely unreasonable conditions on the sale. After many phone calls from the seller's realtor, the sale was and is back on. It looks like we will close in September.

Chas and I have branched out to looking for paint and counter tops. Our home inspection on Saturday showed that we will need to replace the counter top in the kitchen. I seem to be drawn to the most expensive choices. Sigh. Chas will spend the next few weeks talking me down I guess. We will need to pick something that works for both white cabinets (currently installed) and natural wood (our eventual renovation). I love the darkest blues and Juniper in this line. What do you think?

As for colors, well, I think there will be a lot of blues. I hope our friends Cathy and Steve will still visit us--they have attempted to banish all blue from their home. There are so many beautiful colors and I have to choose. I can't use them all. Can I?

It's exciting and all very hard to visualize. Everything is happening all at once at home and at work. I really need a vacation.

It happened again

We came home late from a star party at a local metropark. We plopped the exhausted kids in bed and began to watch something from the DVR. I was a little dozy so I stretched out on the couch.

I was certain I smelled something not quite right, but Chas brushed aside my concerns.

I went to check on Kian, who was fussing in his sleep.

The smell became stronger and stronger and I was certain I was not imagining that smell which was clinging in the back of my nose and throat, acrid and slightly burnt.

When I came back out of the bedroom Chas said, "You were right."

"What?"

"About the smell."

The dehumidifier burnt itself out. Thankfully, this time, the circuit breaker popped and shut off the power to the unit. No smoke or soot flowing through the house. Just a terrible burnt electronics and metal smell that lasted a good bit of the night. No longer sleepy, my adrenaline was rushing, so I managed to finish this lovely piece after viewing the damage (one dehumidifier, hot to the touch, with a few scorch marks).

It is by the Sampler Girl and is done with none of the suggested threads on a piece of Pussywillow Lugana by the gone and sorely missed Sugar Maple Fabrics. I love this fabric and so very much wish I had much much more of it. It is a perfect neutral fabric and is simply beautiful. My plan is to frame it for our new home. Hope should be a theme for everyone, but it definitely is one for our family.

On Pins and Needles

--We are waiting to hear about the house. We put in an offer three weeks ago, which the seller accepted but unfortunately, it is subject to a short sale (more is owed on the house than the asking price and the creditor must accept the loss). Not one but two creditors. Even more unfortunately, the second creditor sent the offer to the wrong department, which means they could reject the offer thinking that they are not trying to mitigate the loss but recapture everything.

--My hives are back -- gee do we think this is stress related. My doctor gave me a cream this time, which isn't really helping. And it's worse when my skin is in contact with something. Like a bed, or more commonly, my children. Sigh.

--I need to make a quilt for my clerk who is retiring at the end of the month. So far I'm still at the cutting stage. Can I make it in time? I'm still waiting on fabric I ordered too. Yikes.

The Good, The Bad and the Ugly: The July 2009 edition

Cue Ennio Morricone.

The Good: We put an offer on our house. The seller has accepted but we are still waiting his bank needs to approve a short sale. Also, my brother married his fiance Tina Monday morning.

The Bad: Tina's battle against lymphoma ended Monday night.

The Ugly: The resulting sadness and stress has completely cut off any patience I once had and my parenting skills are at their worst in ages. At this point, I'm just hoping the kids have not been permanently emotionally scarred from my current mood.

Things I honestly thought I'd never hear myself say.....

"No! We are not signing up for 'Man Caves.'"

Really.

Fingers crossed

Good vibes needed please!

The house we loved in May after an open house went back on the market (buyers backed out because their dreamhouse became available).

Things aren't quite in place, but they could be. Just need a little bump to move over the edge.

So fingers crossed.......................

I itch, therefore I feel a bit grumbly

Well the shrimp was lovely. Chas and Angie decided to have a treat so shrimp it was. Very tasty, prepared all sorts of ways, each just as yummy as the other.

That was Friday night, following a seminar at which I was a main speaker.

Saturday Morning I woke up, drove to some errands, glanced at my arms and noticed red bumps appearing.

Sigh.

Got worse, took the generic benadryl we have and felt slightly better.

Sunday, still red and itchy. Drove to see lots of homes with a realtor (More about that later). In and out of houses and the car. Hot, red and itchy. Arrived home, desperate for more benadryl, discover that our package expired in September of last year! (And our calamine lotion expired in 2005).

Today, go to work. Heavy docket. Red and itchy. Somewhat grumpy.

Call doctor. Make an appointment for the end of the day. The Doctor says, "So was that shrimp good? Are you done with Shrimp now?" She decides that the best course of action is a shot. In my posterior. The nurse makes me stay after for a bit to make sure there are no cross reactions. I reassure him and wander home. I also take one of the Claritin samples, but don't take two as recommended by the Dr. because I'm worried about side effects--but really do I want know exactly how much more red, itchy and swollen I could get?

I am now itchy, blotchy, grumpy and red. I don't think the edge has been taken off. The shot takes 24 hours to really kick in. Can't stitch. Want to stitch. Can't focus enough to stitch. I hope the treatment works, because this is excruciating.

Darn, delicious, delectable shrimp.

Hop! Hop! Hop!

We have a bunny hanging out in our backyard.

First she was by the sandbox, near the stepping stones and the garage. We could still see the depression in the grass from where she must have been sitting there a long time.

Then she moved to the far corner when Chas came out to check the bug situation. But she stayed in the yard.


Sometime after the kids were bathed she moved closer to the house again, near the soccer net.

She's just sitting there. She seems a bit big and tired.

Chas thinks she is going to have babies.

We may have little bunnies bouncing around soon.

Now she is just nibbling peacefully on the grass and clover in the dark.

Popping up, err in, err, over?

Hello again.

I can't promise I'll be posting more regularly, but I'll try. I've been very busy trying to find a house, not getting calls back form lenders, trips to the er and an mri, unexpected dental work for Angie, I did some self defense and Tae Kwon Do classes--loved it but had to give it up temporarily for financial reasons, had some very stressful times at work, Chas had some stressful news too and we're gearing up for the end of the school year. That splat you heard was me collapsing in a puddle of exhaustion.

I had a friend and her family over on Saturday (and if you like animal stories you should read about her adventures with Zip--it is amazing and touching). She mentioned that she hadn't seen any wips in a while. So I'm going to try to post wips soon. All my wips--yes all of them. Perhaps I'll shame myself into completing one. No shame isn't the right idea. Perhaps I'll motivate my serial starter self to complete something so that I can start something else. I plan to do it by designer: Chatelaine, HAED, Teresa Wentzler, The Sampler Girl and Everything Else. Doesn't that just give you something to look forward too? And as you and I scan the far outdated wips list on the sidebar, we all realize what a monumental task this will be. But at least it will be fun and pretty.

Since the First Grade Quilt has been finished and my most recent Love Quilt Square sent in, I have happily stitched on all sorts of projects. I've dug out some old favorites for the sheer pleasure of stitching. I've stitched on the Frog Prince and Bedtime Stories, on the Tree of Hope and Hope Perches. It has been fun.

I'm hoping to work on a few quilts this summer. Angie got her first big girl bed--so she'll get a twin size story quilt. I need to obtain some fabric (believe it or not) with mermaids in addition to what I have. I wouldn't mind some wizards and witches too. We are in a bit of a budget crunch, so I don't know if I'll be able to do it soon, but I'll just work with what I have first. I also want to make a napping or wall sized story quilt for Angie's first grade teacher who has been wonderful. I'll try to have it done for the first day of school so Angie can give it to her next year. I also need to do a quilt for my clerk who is retiring. Of course she picked colors I don't usually have so I don't know how I'll manage that by August, but we'll see. It will be Love Beads by FunQuilts and I'll need reds, yellows and blues. I have some blues, but not much of the others. I have some fabric, but I don't think it is enough to to a full size quilt for her bed--she may just have to be satisfied with one for napping.

And to leave you with a random thought:

I was mentioning to Chas that if we won the lottery (and I mean a really big lottery), I would have my own cable channel. And then when my favorite shows are cancelled, I would obtain them and put them on my channel so that I (and everyone else) could continue to watch new episodes of excellent shows (or even my guilty pleasures) instead of hoping for a dvd.

To date, my dream channel would have:

Farscape
Firefly
Journeyman
Pushing Daisies
Life
The Class
The Adventures of Brisco County Junior
Space Above and Beyond
Babylon 5
Earth 2
Deep Space 9

Oh there are others that are escaping me right now, but you get the point. What would you air on your channel?

Nary a February Unscathed

My husband has always hated February. Unpleasant stuff just seems to happen in that month. I'm sure other families have a particularly bad month, ours is February.

Warning--this post is not for the faint of stomach.

Last week Angie announced that her ear hurt--one trip to the doctor later we have an ear infection and pink antibiotics
Friday night, I look at Kian and see yellow goop in his eyes--one trip to the doctor later, we have pink eye and eye drops that Kian does not enjoy.
Saturday Morning (wee tiny early hours) Kian awakens vomiting, then hourly for the next several hours. One call to the nurse hotline and we are reassured that a trip to urgent care is not necessary. There is a nasty g-i bug rambling around. We're told it will get worse when the intestinal part kicks in. Oh and by the way, it is "highly contagious." Dandy.
I will not describe Sunday to you, except to say that Mommy and Kian had many clothing changes throughout the day. Sigh. The other thing I will tell you is that giving a child small sips of breastmilk directly from the source is very, very tricky. And regularly results in one very perturbed and expressive child.
Monday, Angie appears fine so she goes to school. I am weak from the nearly 24 hour care of Kian and feel the twinges of something g-i-ish so I stay home. Angie comes home from school pale, goes for a nap, and vomits over a large portion of her bed.
Monday night/wee early Tuesday morning, it is now my turn to join in the family fun. By daylight, I am so weak that I need to ask Chas to bring me things as I float in and out of consciousness.
Wednesday, still weak and having consumed no solid food, Angie and I remain home from school and work.

I will attempt to go to work tomorrow; we'll see if I am successful.

I was doing well on the quilt until we were hit with the various illnesses. I thought it wise to stop amidst the raging fluids though. Hopefully, I can get back on track this weekend. I couldn't bear it if I didn't get Angie's Class project finished in time.

In other news, I looked at a house this weekend. It is in our price range, but needs a lot of work. Realistically, everything in our price range will need work or is in not such a great neighborhood. I'll take work over not such a great neighborhood. I think Chas would like to hold out for little to no work and nice neighborhood because, as he reminds me, we just aren't that handy. The house has some quirks (like an attached garage that has no entrance into the home?????) and we would definitely need a home inspection. But it is full of possibility and may be a good chance for us to get a home this year.

Stay tuned and keep your fingers crossed. We need a lot of things to fall into place for this to happen. And February just isn't our month.

Happy New Year

I hope everyone had happy holidays. Ours were wonderful, time spent in the hospital aside and even that had a good result.

I had one late 2008 finish yesterday--my first of two Love Quilt Squares. Please forgive the scan--I'm still working out the kinks on the new computer. I just realized that the scanner and camera wizard I depended on and the Adobe Photoshop I loved are not on the new computer. The charts were taken from parts of patterns at Ludivine's blog. I used DMC 153, 340, 341, 553, 554, 600, 603, 604, 963 and 3689. I hope it makes the recipient happy. Angie thought it was pretty so I'll need to make her something similar someday.

2008 was not as productive as 2007. I didn't finish a single humbug although I started many. I had a few nice finishes, but my volume was down as I tried to juggle work, home and hobbies.

I think 2009 will be the year of the quilt as I focus on Angie's school project for the first three months. I will take some time for SALs at the Chatelaine and HAED message boards, but I have lots of lovely fabric to make quilts. I've seen lots of lovely modern quilts that I am itching to try. My hope for the future is that I finish one quilt per year in addition to my other hobbies.

As for cross stitch, I'm doing the new Challenge at HAED, with the hopes that the finished design will go to a charity project. I'd like to start the new Chatelaine Hanging Gardens of Semiramis (since it was my suggestion) and the new mini mandala non-mystery (it has trees--a favorite motif of mine). I still have one more Love Quilt Square, but that isn't due until May, so it will be a lunch and travel project. I'd like to finish the Wedding Present and the skulls projects. I'm not sure what else 2009 has in store for me cross-stitch-wise. I'd like to get back to the Spanish Sampler, Polar Lights, and start Paradigm Lost.

More than anything, I'd like to find and buy a new, slightly larger, home in 2009. We have truly outgrown our cozy little gray house, but it is incredibly difficult to get loans in the current economy. Hopefully, 2009 will be our year. as long as we can stay together, mostly happy and healthy, I guess it is all good.

I hope 2009 is good to all of you.