Well, guys, 2007 is about to come to an end. Who knows what will be in store for all of us in this new year? I hope all my neighbors (friends on Vox) have their health (or improve it) and get whatever else they're striving for.
I have a short list of things I hope to accomplish. Number one on my list is to save more money. Mike and I have not done this well at all within the last two years so I really want to focus on saving money in 2008. Two, I want to lose weight. At this point, I would be satisfied with losing 20 pounds. Three, I want to read my Bible more and continue to apply what I read to my life. I could do a lot better on the part called Forgiving, so that will be a specific thing I'll work on in 2008.
For those of you who commented on my last post about visiting my my oldest son, Steve and then my brother and sister-in-law, the visits were great.
First, we went to see Steve. We went to a city called Monroe, it's about 30 minutes north of Toledo, Ohio, and an hour south of us. Monroe is the home of Monroe automotive parts (shocks and struts) and also LazyBoy furniture. It's also the boyhood home of General George Armstrong Custer (Battle of Little Bighorn).
When I was in my 20s I spent a lot of time in Monroe--every Saturday and Sunday for four years--taking care of my elderly paternal grandma. Back then, Monroe was nowhere as large as it is now. Today there is every store imaginable--from Sears, to Kohl's, Panera Bread, Coffee Beanery (no Starbucks, which I think is unusual), all the fast food restaurants, Wal-Mart, Target, Applebee's, and on and on. It was quite a shock to me to see all of the malls, stores and restaurants after all these years. I guess I was naive to not expect progress there when everywhere else has changed.
We took some food with us for Steve since he is going through the 'down time' at the tattoo shop. There aren't many customers during the week in the winter and so money is tight for him. We visited for a while at Steve's apartment and then we took him to lunch at Panera Bread. After that, Steve had to get ready to leave for band practice, so we said goodbye. I didn't want to leave, as I only see him about two or three times a year. During our visit I could tell that Steve is lonely. When you're a parent you want to take care of your kids and you hate to see them feeling bad. I can't fix the things in his life that are causing him problems. But, I was glad to hear that this week he's adopting a cat, so he'll have a little companionship at his apartment.
Right after we left Monroe we went to my brother's house. They had a small meal "out of boxes and bags" my brother said. LOL. We had pre-made lasagne, with salad and bread; and later, blueberry pie ala mode. We sat and talked around the kitchen table and played a card game called Golf (Six card). Mike and I had never played this card game before. We had a lot of fun and laughed a lot. Mary showed us the artwork she's finished in preparation for crafts shows coming up in the spring. I was surprised when she let me have any two pieces of her art work. This is the second time she's given me some of her work, which she puts many hours of time and effort into. I was very touched that she would give me more of her work, as she charges well over $30 for many of her pieces. I will take a photo and post after this one so you can see what my gifts were. And, by the way---I felt fine all day yesterday. I don't know why I felt like I was coming down with the flu Saturday, but yesterday I was fine. Since my brother often doesn't feel well I'm not sure when we will be able to visit again.
Tonight we're expecting another snow storm. Five to 10 inches of snow with ice too. (Sigh). Steve and Brian will be at the same New Year's Eve party tonight, at a friend's home. Thankfully, neither Steve nor Brian drink. Steve is staying the night there. We're staying in. No booze for us, just a quiet night.
Happy New Year!
I feel like I am coming down with a cold--achy, with chills right now. I took a nap hoping I'd feel better, but no change. Have eaten a little bit, nothing appeals.
Nothing noteworthy is going on with us, just wanted to post so my neighborhood knows I'm still here. I've spent the last few days just doing a little housework and lazing around. Meant to work on my cross stitch, but haven't. Maybe tonight I will. Tomorrow will be another quiet day and Sunday we'll be out most of the day visiting family.
Well, Christmas is over for another year. Steve and his girlfriend, Shannon came over and had dinner with us and we sat and had a nice time talking. Mike made the dinner and as usual, would not let me help him in the kitchen. I baked a pumpkin pie around 6 a.m. so I was out of the kitchen long before Mike needed to cook.
This weekend's been pretty quiet. Even yesterday (Saturday) we didn't do our usual rushing around for groceries. Mike's on vacation until Jan. 2nd, so we can pick up groceries anytime. When he works I don't like to take the car and pick him up at work--if I drive in traffic I get nervous--so we do shopping on the weekends.
Yesterday Mike and I went to a mall about 45 minutes away, one I had not been to since I was 14 years old. Of course the mall's changed a lot. The mall is in Ann Arbor, which is the home of University of Michigan and the next city over is Ypsilanti, home of Eastern Michigan University. I mention this because the mall was full of college kids, and Mike kept saying "I feel so old" and "these kids look too young to be in college". LOL.
We shopped at the Apple store and then walked around the mall while eating delicious hot pretzels and sharing a lemonade. Visiting this mall was interesting. It has different stores from what we have here in our area. We plan to go back again when the mall is quieter. Mike said maybe we can buy some clothes next time.
We found out Steve has Leopard OS for his Mac laptop, so Mike decided he wanted me to have Leopard anyway-- even though I felt we should wait and buy it later. The man loves to buy stuff for me...sometimes too much. He is now talking about buying me an iPhone in the spring (I haven't asked for this) and I am trying to talk him out of it.
After we were home we just had a small meal and relaxed. Brian came home from work and wanted me to go out with him for a ride. Turns out he needed some wiper fluid for his car. He told me he's broke and asked me to buy it for him. Brian got a ticket last week ($120) so between having to save his paychecks to pay for that, plus car insurance and his car payment, I understood. I also bought him a meal, since he'd gone without food all day, even at work. I don't know how he works over eight hours on an empty stomach.
Today we went out about 8 a.m. to get groceries. Just enough for our Christmas meal and some extras. We wanted to get back home because high winds (35 mph and up) were forecast for Michigan all day today. Sure enough, when we walked out of the store, I was nearly knocked over by the wind. When we got home, we found our kitchen clocks (stove and micro) blinking, so we had lost power. We've lost power tonight--twice--while I was in the basement folding laundry. Weather's been in the 40s until today--all the snow from the storm we got last week has melted. The gusting wind is supposed to move to the east tomorrow and we might have snow for Christmas.
I drank a milk shake with dinner and now I can't warm up. It's off to bed for me, with a heating pad under the blankets.
The bottom photo is not my work, obviously. This is the completed Persian Iris Garden, completed this spring by my online friend Hans, who lives in the Netherlands. He did beautiful work. This pattern is one of three very complicated and extensive patterns I have, all of them are 'garden mandalas' designed by German cross-stitch designer Martina Weber. Persian Iris Garden is completed in 12 sections and was an online class, which Hans was a part of and I was not (I was late to buy the pattern).
I'm working on Part 3 (blue triangles and flowers) and Part 4 (columns and squares with green 'hedges') concurrently. You can see where I am in relation to the finished item. I have a long way to go but I really want to finish this in 2008 so I can move onto another project.
Please do click on the bottom photo to get an idea of the scope of the work and all the beads. There is quite a lot of 'bling' in this work. The photo does not do this work justice, as I'm finding out. There are over 3,000 beads in this and it has to be specially framed with spacers under the glass to protect the stitching and the beads.
Got up today at 6 a.m. eager to work on my cross stitch. Turns out I probably should have done something else instead, as I've stitched and ripped out the same area three times! Grrrr! I hope I can get all the way through the first part of three that I wanted to stitch today. The other two parts will end up waiting for the weekend.
Which breed of dog is your favorite? Post a picture of it.
Submitted by Melissa.Here is a photo of our late Prince. He was a beautiful dark Golden Retriever. Prince didn't always act like the brightest dog, but he really loved us. He even loved my cats, and would 'herd' them to our bedroom every night to go to sleep. It hurt us deeply when we had to put him down. Even my cats missed him for a long time. Mike and I think he was poisoned by someone in our neighborhood. Not everyone liked Prince because he was possessive of our yard and would go berserk when anyone walked by our fence. I guess he scared a lot of people. After he was gone, some of our neighbors said they liked having Prince around, because he barked a lot to alert people that someone was around. Prince loved to eat fruits and vegetables and especially liked strawberry yogurt and milk. If I put a glass of milk or yogurt on the table and turned away, he'd go after it. Many times I'd share my yogurt with him.
We are expecting anywhere from 6-12" inches of snow from about midnight tonight, a steady snow through Sunday evening. The snow totals change a little every few hours, but every weather web site I've visited (local and national) all agree that we are getting a storm with high winds tomorrow. Yipee! (That's sarcasm, folks).
