Almost There

I'll be having one of those decade birthdays in a couple of days. The ones we were taught to dread or maybe it is some kind of ingrained thing that we're born with. I don't know, but I do know that I'm not dreading this birthday at all. I'll be 50 on Thursday and I tell you what, it sure as hell beats the alternative. Maybe it was the high school reunion I went to a while back where I learned of the early deaths of so many of my classmates that did it, but I'm just glad to be here!

I'm still married to the man I fell in love with when I was 16. We've been through hell and back and sometimes we're right back in it again. The last year and a half have been very difficult for us. There have been times when I wasn't sure we'd make it and even now, I'm not sure every single day that we will. We've made a life and we keep plugging along in it. Not because it's easier than splitting up, because it's not, but because we feel that it's worth fighting for.

We have one son. I can't begin to tell you how very proud of that boy I am. He also got married very young, even though I tried to talk him out of it. Their life has not been easy. His wife has a lot of medical problems. They have three children and live far away from all of their family. He's in the Air Force and has been for more than 10 years. He plans to make a career out of it. This makes me proud and scares the hell out of me. There is just no telling what our military will be put through in the coming years.

Those three grandchildren are such a beautiful blessing. I'm so very thankful each day that I'm here to see them grow. I have a very close relationship with my granddaughters and I hope it continues as they age. My grandson is becoming fond of me too, I do believe. He's been labeled autistic, but never given any idea of how "severe" it is. I think that if the label is correct, it has to be some lesser form such as Asperger's or something like that. He's made amazing progress this year! He entered kindergarten, was put on ADHD medication and is now learning to write and so many other things. He's always been a happy, loving child and now he's thrilled to be in school and learning like his sisters. I don't see any limits in what he can achieve.

All of this is to say that I am very blessed and happy to be alive. Happy Birthday coming to Me!

It's beginning to look a little like Christmas!

This is "date" day for my hubby and I. Today, we're planning to go to Braum's and get something to eat (after we've worked up an appetite decorating) and I'll get a peppermint ice cream cone. I love peppermint ice cream during the holidays. I never eat it any other time. I don't know why. I'm just a little weird that way.

To work up that appetite, we've cleaned off the bar and hubby has set up the Christmas tree. I am vacuuming the floor and walls. Yes, you read that correctly. I'm vacuuming my walls. You see, I live in a log house with rounded cedar walls. Pain - in - the - butt! They catch dust like you would not believe! I should do this at least twice a year and I should have done it a month or so ago so that I would not have to do it today, but I didn't. So, I have to do it now. Otherwise, our Christmas decorations would just look crappy against a dusty room. I'll be sure to post photos at some point.

Time

There are moments of time that seem to stand still. Some seem to drag. Some seem to flutter by and most seem to fly. Moment to moment, the way time passes seems to change for me lately. I think some of it has to do with the Texas weather constantly changing. It was cloudy and fluttering snow this morning. My hubby called up to me to tell me it was snowing. I actually saw one snowflake before it stopped! It took me about 30 seconds to wrestle the shade up the window. Now, the sun is bright, but it's still so very cold feeling to me. I can't seem to warm up.

I sit looking out the window as I type this and see the few remaining yellow Elm leaves, on the otherwise bare limbs, shivering in the wind and I shiver with them. I feel the chill bumps rise up on my legs. The tree branches are swaying and dancing. I just want to crawl back under my cozy quilts and take a nap. I'm still having very sleepy days thanks to the withdrawal effects of cutting back on effexor.

But that isn't what I wanted to talk about. I wanted to tell you about driving home last night. The moon was so big and bright in the sky. It was just beautiful. I wanted so badly to photograph it. I even tried with my little digital camera driving at 70 miles an hour, but I know without even looking that the photos didn't turn out. How could they? As I got closer to home, the temperature got lower and the clouds moved in to cover the moon. The sky was still bright, so the sky was more of a charcoal grey than black. The clouds looked like the stripes on kitten fur to me. I kept thinking of a dark tabby kitten and wishing I could hear the purr. Occasionally I would see a house lite up by Christmas lights. It was a nice drive.

Art Every Day Month -- Day 24

First I want to thank the people who left lovely comments for me on yesterday's post! I love comments and they were all so nice. Thank you. You all gave me the courage to try to draw again today.





Looking back at my little wren from yesterday, I decided that I really like it. Hopefully, tomorrow I'll like my cardinal just as much. I probably should try to paint him and see if that helps any. I didn't show my husband either drawings until tonight. He could at least identify the cardinal. He thought the wren was a chickadee. Oh well, he doesn't know most birds from chickens, but he can at least tell that a bird is a bird.





Earlier today, I went to Happiness is Quilting in McKinney TX. I had to go up to Dallas to get an allergy shot so I figured I might as well have a little fun too. So, I went to the quilt shop to get more size 8 perle cotton embroidery thread. That's what I prefer to use on my quote quilts. I had some DMC thread, but I wanted a particular color of Presencia. It's the lighter blue in the photo of threads. Kind of a turquoise blue or maybe a Robin's egg blue. Whatever color it is, I love it! I had several skeins of the 6 strand embroidery floss, but none of the perle cotton. It was hard to choose which quilt shop to go to. I've been wanting to go to my favorite quilt shop, Quilt Country in Lewisville, but I couldn't remember if they carried Presencia thread. I headed to McKinney because I knew they did. I also got some iron on transfers for dish towels and some plain dish towels to embroider. I've really enjoyed the embroidery lately. Although I'm not letting myself start on these yet.



I have a mini to make for a Christmas exchange in a couple of weeks. I want to make another quote quilt for that, but I can't decide on a funny quote. Have you got any ideas? After the party and mini exchange, I'll be working on a gift that I'm extremely behind on. It's a memory quilt for my daughter-in-law's sister and her husband. They're second child passed away after only a couple of days of life. I've been working on a quilt for them from his clothing for some time. It's been an off and on project because it's been difficult for me to work on. The time has come to finish it though. His parents really need it.

Then I can get back to and finish any of the quilts I've started and not finished during this month. It's all going to be fun and I'm looking forward to almost all of it. Thanks for coming along with me.

Art Every Day Month -- Day 20

I did a little something different today for my art. I took a break from it. I went to a movie, at the theater. Haven't been in ages. This does not mean that I won't work on something later, but for now, I just let my mind go and experienced something through someone else. Kind of an artist's date, with my husband.

I went to see The Blind Side. I can't begin to tell you how much I loved this movie! It was funny. It was heartwarming. It made me want to meet the people it was based on because it was indeed based on real people and a true story. It made me want to be a better person. I can't remember the last movie that made me feel that! I puddled up a time or two, but I don't think everyone would. Even though my hubby classified it as a "chick flick" he liked it too. I found great pleasure in that fact and since he laughed many times out loud, he could not deny that he liked it.

After the movie, we went to the grocery store together. I hate to grocery shop, but it's much more enjoyable with a companion. I tried to get the things we would need through Thanksgiving. I truly hate to shop with huge crowds. I got my fill of that during our military days when the commissary was always packed. Anyway, one of the things I got was low fat crunchy peanut butter. I prefer the lower fat to the regular and we were out of crunchy. I splurged on croissants too. When I got home, I decided to make a peanut butter sandwich on a croissant. I thought it was great and a bit artful. My hubby thought I was slightly insane.

Tomorrow, I'll be going to Dallas to Quilter's Connection for a miniature class. It's more of a sit and sew that costs us $10 a month. We've been together forever and basically work on our own projects now. I'll take both of my quilts that I've shown you all recently. If I'm lucky enough to finish "Happy", I'll start quilting on the pecan quilt. I'll show photos when I return.

Later: I've been looking through bags of fabric and projects for things to take with me tomorrow. I found 5 completed miniature pineapple blocks. I remember that I did not have enough of the fabric to use the primary fabric in the other 4 blocks I wanted to make. I have fabric that I could use for whole cloth blocks or maybe I could do something else. Regardless, I'm excited about that project again. It's going with me and you'll be seeing it soon.

Raining on a Sunny Day

Well, I'm having an extremely difficult time getting my art groove thing going today. I got up and ran to the grocery store so that we could have some food in the house. As I finished loading up the things I'd just bought, my hubby called to let me know that he had just been laid off. Needless to say, our beautiful sun filled day turned to instant stormy skies, not literally of course, but it might was well have as far as my hubby and I were concerned.

We've been down this road before, more than once. It's not fun. Many other people are on this same road with us now, which makes getting off of it even more difficult. Our nation has a lousy economy at this point. Things will turn around. I know they will, but it doesn't help much right this minute, today. Right now, I want to curl up and nap. When I get up I want to curl up with a good book and escape for a bit. It will all still be waiting for me when I stop. Who knows, I may even be refreshed and inspired to do something artistic when I'm done.

Now and This Week

I'm going to be out of town at the end of the week so I'll be posting my photo of the week early. I'm going to the Houston Quilt Festival!



I've got a lot of things to do before I leave early Wednesday morning to meet my momma and sister for my dear momma's 70th birthday celebration. We're going to lunch at a restaurant that has a reputation for being haunted! Mom and I love stuff like that.



It's also my hubby's birthday. He totally understands me not being home to celebrate with him so that I can be there to celebrate with momma. He and I will celebrate his birthday when I return. We were going to celebrate his birthday before I left, but our water is funky tasting and smelling right now and I think it would ruin the chicken for frying, so the celebration has been put on hold. That is one of the occasional drawbacks to living in a rural area. Our water gets nasty at times.



It would have also been my dad's birthday. He would have been 71 this year. Yes, you read that right, all of them -- my husband and both parents share the same birthday.



As for other updates on my life, I'm doing really good now. After a lot of work, with a counselor and alone, I've been able to forgive both friends who had hurt me so badly at the end of August. I've told the friend in person who lives locally and mailed a letter to the friend who lives out of state. I have decided that even though I've forgiven the person that is out of state, I no longer want that person in my life, so they are actually a former friend. I'm happy again! So happy in fact that I'm having trouble figuring out how to finish the miniature quilt that I had started to work out some of my Rage on. I had started to embroider the word rage, but now I think I'll take that out and just do the quilting I had planned to. I'll still title it Rage though.

Computer Problems

I've been without my computer for several days now. I can use my hubby's to check my e-mail and a few of the blogs I love, but everything I want and need is on my computer. I feel so lost without it. Quite a change for a woman who used to refer to her hubby's computer as "his mistress". I didn't know a thing about them back then and didn't care to. All I knew was that the hunk of metal in the other room took all of my hubby's free time. I've surprised my hubby, more than myself, with my computer use.

My poor computer has "a really nasty virus". I have no idea how I got it and I'm grateful that my hubby will eventually fix it. No telling what all I'll end up losing in the process. The whole thing makes me sad and somewhat angry because someone initially set up the virus for their own amusement just to wreck havoc on the lives of others. What kind of person does that?

All of this is to explain why there will be no picture of the week today. I'll post it when I get my computer back. Hopefully the photos that I've taken will be still there.