Sunday, March 30, 2008

Recommendation:

I read "Murder on the Orient Express" today. It's an Agatha Christie Hercule Poirot mystery. Very good. I started it around 2 and finished it around 7 something. I totally didn't expect the ending. I usually don't get into mysteries, but I like Agatha Christie. Although I wonder what kind of person she was to think up all these murder stories. You kinda start to wonder about people like that. :)

I dug out my yarn yesterday. With this upcoming move I'm trying not to drag out all my fabric and sewing machine and books and have a huge mess to put away just in case someone calls (no one does, but that's beside the point). So I am knitting a scarf probably for my friend Courteney in her school colors. It probably won't be ready until it's cold again so I figure I have plenty of time to work on it (I'll have to post a picture of it when it's finished). I forgot how much I enjoyed it. Maybe I'll use up some of my yarn stash this summer. Around Christmas I gave away a large trash bag full of yarn that I felt I probably would never use and still had quite a bit of yarn left over. I need to really use up the stuff I have and stop buying fabric and yarn. :P Does anyone else have this problem?

That's all. :)

Better!

My Grandma is doing MUCH better! She isn't hallucinating anymore (apparently she wasn't reacting to the meds at all. Hallucinations can be a side effect of bacterial die-off in older people when they are fighting off a bad infection which is what she was doing), she is able now to distinguish what was a dream and what was real...for the most part anyway. She isn't in pain right now and when she stood up (which she wasn't supposed to do) she was a little wobbly, but not in pain and didn't fall or anything like that. So we are very thankful that she is doing so much better!

Oh, I went to Borders last night and got 2 Agatha Christie books! One is a Hercule Poirot mystery and the other is a Miss Marple mystery. I haven't seen the Poirot one yet and I've never read or seen anything about Miss Marple. So I'm excited because it has been ages since I've really read a book. It's sad too because I love reading.

I am getting ready to go to Bible study so until later.

Saturday, March 29, 2008

April Showers bring May flowers, but it's still only March...so never mind...

I got some photos of the pretty hyacinth my sister gave my mom for Easter and the tiger lilies I got just because. :)

In the nutrition course I got the professor on the CDs that came with the course was saying that growing plants brings a sense of calmness and peace and is therapeutic so that's why I got them. I know I mentioned that in my last post, but they do make the house look cheerier. I've always liked lilies, but I like pretty much every flower. We went to California Tortilla last night to get dinner. It's new around here so we checked it out. The atmosphere was very nice, the employees were all really nice, but the food wasn't the greatest. My dad loved it, Holly and I didn't really care for it. And it was really loud in there. But it was fun going out with my dad and sister.


My grandma is still hallucinating. She is off the medications, but they think she is having a reaction to a die-off of bacteria from an infection. She apparently had a UTI but didn't realize it because the sciatica was hurting her so badly. My grandma doesn't have dementia or alzheimers, but she keeps saying weird stuff like she sees bugs that aren't there, she thinks there are about 50 puppies running around her room, she has been crocheting up a storm but without yarn and a crochet hook. She's also come up with all kinds of stories that make no sense and can't seem to distinguish between dreams and reality.

My grandma is very crafty. She baked all kinds of stuff, she sewed, knitted, crocheted, embroidered, did cross-stitch...she helped me learn to crochet and showed me how to knit one time, but I didn't figure it out at that time. She's always lived far away but has come to visit us pretty much everywhere we have lived while she was able to travel. She made us dress-up clothes, doll clothes...one visit she made everyone quilts using fabric crayons. She drew pictures onto white blocks and pieced them with printed blocks. She drew Raggedy Ann pictures for my quilt and Precious Moments characters for my sister and Adam got Sesame Street characters on his. And she's made afgans for us too. I think I inherited my love of crafting from her. She is good with textiles and such. My dad's mom is into painting, but I can't paint or draw worth anything so I credit my mom's mom with passing down her crafty genes to me. She had 11 kids, 10 of them reached adulthood and she has about 25 grandkids and one great-grandchild. Her husband, my grandpa, died the spring before I was born, so I really only know her. She is a strong woman! And spunky.
She has a funny sense of humor too. And while she has been sick, she apparently seems to be in good spirits. So we are praying for her that she will soon fight off this infection and that the infection is what is causing this "loopyness" and that it will go away soon. It's cold outside today. Hopefully it will warm up soon.

That's all for now.

Friday, March 28, 2008

Stuck

That is the term the chiropractor used to describe three of the vertebrae in my neck today. Hmm...so that's why it's been hurting. It was weird. He put my neck in different positions and I couldn't move it. My sister and her husband paid a visit to the chiropractor and got a coupon for a free visit to give out to someone and since no one else in my family wanted it and I've had some back and muscle pain lately I got it and went today. It was interesting especially since chiropractors have a more natural approach to wellness than most regular doctors. He took some x-rays and I have an appointment to go back on Tuesday to discuss what to do about my neck and the muscles in my fore arms. I've been having a lot of discomfort at work with my back, neck and forearms, especially in my right arm (I'm right-handed). This week was particularly long. I put in 39 hours in 4 days where I usually put it about 35-36. So not that much more, but enough to make me very tired. It was a good week though. By Thursday my dummy syndrome went away (it took a whole week but hopefully it's gone, lol) and even before that I had enough energy to get through my days. We had early patients scheduled every day and I stayed late a couple of nights when the doctors ran late. On Thursday I got to work around 8:20, broke for lunch around 1:30, clocked back in at 2 and didn't clock out till about 7:45-7:50. And I think I was wound up and it made it hard for me to fall asleep. <> It's just been a long, rather taxing week. My grandma is in rehab for sciatica and fluid buildup in her knees. She went to the hospital and has been transferred to rehab and is on a lot of different medications and is acting really loopy. She says she sees bugs everywhere and tries to smack them and has fallen out of her chair onto the floor so she requires constant supervision. She lives up in Massachusetts so it's not really practical for all of us to take time off work and go up there. My mom and dad are thinking of making a trip up there though to help take care of her. We'll see. We're worried about her and it's really stressing my mom out. My grandma is 86 and has high blood pressure, so we know she's not in the best health, but she's got a strong personality. It would be very sad of course if anything happened to her.

I started listening to my CDs from my Nutrition course. I like them. It talks about more than just nutrition and goes into mind-body wellness, chelation, fitness, candida albicans, and more. They said on the CD's that fresh flowers and stuff like that cause peace and relaxation and
calming effects so I went to Walmart and while I was there I picked up some flowers. I'm waiting for calmness to set in...I'm still waiting, lol. I just like flowers anyway and I think we could all use a little cheer around here with Grammy being sick and all.

I've been looking for yoga classes around town to get into. There aren't any nearby. I really miss it. I loved dancing so much and yoga was a close second to that. I liked being with other people and stretching and just the atmosphere. The place we had class was pretty cool because it was ceramic tiled with windows stretching across three of the walls so you could see the sky and trees and stone from other people. And since class was at night during the late fall when you got there it would be light outside and by the time you finished it would be dusky or dark out. It was just such the coolest place to do yoga, or at least I think it was. It was actually in a cafeteria that was no longer used but it was open and cool inside. I am really hoping to get into a class when we move if not sooner.

So that's the update. I was going to get my hair cut but I don't think it will be today. Maybe tomorrow or later this weekend. I think I need a change, but I want to look at some different hairstyles first. I'm into easy and fast hairstyles which is hard with my hair. It likes to be difficult.

I have to go. We're getting mexican food tonight! Even though I liked my job this week (some weeks I don't really like my job) I love weekends.

Better scoot!

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Welcome Springtime!

Now what says love more than a chocolate heart nest full of chocolate eggs? Ha ha. Now, in all seriousness, it was fun getting together with friends over break and putting together these chocolate nests with eggs (I got the idea from some of these wonderful blogs I read all the time) but the way people celebrate Easter is even worse than the way we celebrate Christmas. It's not about the resurrection of Jesus Christ after he had been crucified and died three days earlier. It's about bunnies and eggs and baskets...and I bought into it too. I got my family members chocolate bunnies.


Today we went over to my sister's house for church. My family is part of a home church. We meet with my sister and her husband and another family. Occasionally another family from the church we all used to go to will come too, but only so often. I really like it. I'm part of the other Bible study on Tuesdays too, but this one is more like family. Anyway, today we listened to a message by John MacArthur on the resurrection and it was really good. He covered a verse that I hadn't remembered:
John 20:21
Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.

What a commission! We are ambassadors! Do we live like we are representing the risen Lord? The only begotten Son of God? I don't. Not as much as I should. Honestly, it isn't always the first thing on my mind. But I want it to be.

Reading from the four gospels, it is amazing to see the different reactions from people in the Bible towards the resurrection. No one understood (even though Jesus explained several times that he must be sacrificed and raised again on the third day) that Jesus had to die. Even those who lived with him for 3.5 years and were taught by him all that time didn't understand what would take place.

Luke 24:45-47
Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He (Jesus) told them, "This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem."

I think the most beautiful "Easter" celebration I ever saw and participated in was a Sedar (sp?) meal that was put on at my old church. A group of people from a Messianic Jewish church came and explained the Jewish way of celebrating the Passover and how it illustrates the way Jesus came a died for us. They even did Jewish dances and got a bunch of people to get up and do it with them, which was really fun. I love dancing. :) It was just a very interactive and focused way to celebrate the holiday. I'm not Jewish, but I would love to participate in another Sedar meal celebration if I had the opportunity. Especially with people who acknowledge Jesus as the only begotten, risen Son of God. It really was neat.


(My sister, me my friend Courteney)

So in answer to my question, what says love more than a chocolate heart nest filled with eggs? How about a God that loved us so much that he sent his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 15:13 says, "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends."

Some food for thought. But to finish up my day, it was nice. Quiet, but nice. Especially since my week was rather crazy. I'm not sure what was wrong with me this week, but I was being really...dumb? Yeah, that's it. On Thursday we had a surprise baby shower for a lady at work and I was sent out to pick up some balloons at a local florists. I got them and brought them safely back to the office, but locked them and my gift for the shower in the car with my keys and my dad had to come with the extra key so I could get in. I was so flustered that when I went out to meet him at the car he had already unlocked it and had my keys in his hand. He handed me the keys and I unlocked the car door and began to look for my keys before I realized he had actually already handed them to me.
And after that I kept confusing my words and forgetting what I was doing and messing up on things I haven't messed up on for a long time. I told my parents on Friday that my sister and her husband were planning to go to the Palm Friday service at church (I meant Good Friday, but confused it with Palm Sunday).
The funniest thing though is that on Friday night I stayed up late with my younger sister, Holly and we were watching a movie and around 12 pm a police officer rang the doorbell (scared me to death...I thought maybe some weirdo was creeping around outside or something). He said he was looking for a 223. Keep in mind that my mind was not working well and I thought he meant some sort of police code. I was like, "I'm sorry sir, but I don't know of a 223." He was actually looking for an address. We live out in the country and not everyone has road signs and numbers on their houses. They get knocked down and no one replaces them. Not a good system. I guess he saw our light on and figured we were awake so he stopped to ask us. After he left Holly explained to me that he was looking for an address and not speaking in code. She's so smart. And funny. She told me, "A man in blue is a friend to you!" What would I do without her? I should have let her handle it, but she's 6 years younger than me and my parents were asleep, so I figured I should get the door. I'm usually not this out of it. I really hope I do better this week. My mom told me to take more fish oil.

I better go to bed. Back to work tomorrow.

Happy Easter!

I have pictures and a post to put up here soon, but it will have to wait till later since I'm on my way out to church. In the meantime, Happy Easter everyone!

Monday, March 17, 2008

Oh and by the way...

Happy St. Patty's day! I have green bands on my braces so I was able to avoid being pinched! Had I worked today I would have probably bought that Irish mullet wig I saw at Walmart that was bright green to wear to work to see what kind of reaction I could get. Hee hee! I should go celebrate by listening to my Riverdance CD (which is like my #1 favorite cd almost all the time!). But it's late and I'll likely end my day with a shower and head off to bed because I have to go back to work tomorrow. :( Goodbye 4 day weekend...I enjoyed you. We should do this more often.

Four Day Weekend Part 2

I got my Global College of Natural Medicine course in today! I'm so happy. Here are some of the materials that came in my box today. I think I'm really going to enjoy this. And if I do, I might order their Master Herbal program sometime down the road. I just hope I like it and do well! I can't wait to get started. I have to send in some papers to them first though. Hopefully I will get that done soon.
Today was also part 2 in our sewing get-together from last time. Becca came over and my sister and the little girl she babysits came too and we did a lot of sewing. My sister made Easter dresses for her 2 nieces and Hope (using that fabric that is pre-shirred at the top which came out adorable!) Hope said she wanted to keep hers for life. :) Here is a photo of our machines just waiting to go. We all have different kinds. I like my sister's. It's a Kenmore and the entire thing is metal. It's very sturdy. I have a brother which is falling apart but I love it, and Becca uses a Singer. I have no idea what kind of machines are really good and which aren't. One of these days I'd like to get a better machine because even though I like mine, it's falling apart. I've been using it since I was about 9 or 10 and I'm 19 now. I was kind of rough on it.

And this is the bag that I made. The outside is linen while the inside is a cotten paisley print. I realized after making it and going back to the tutorial I followed that when I drafted the pattern I think I was supposed to make the sides of the bag kind of narrow in a little bit, which I did not do. I like the basic shape of the bag, but I have some adjustments I would like to make to it. It was fun and easy to do though so I would recommend it. I think I would still like to add an applique to this one and/or maybe some embroidery. And I have ideas for the next one I make too! I really like the linen. I can see why people enjoy using it so much. It just wrinkles a lot.
And last, but not least, a picture of all of us. I enjoyed our time together. It was fun. :)

I am thankful for:

  1. 4 day weekend!
  2. Friends and family to hang out with and sew with.
  3. sunshine and warmer weather.
  4. my course came in!
  5. Spring break (although I don't really get one, but my college friends will be coming home and I get a chance to see them!).
I still have a pretty busy week ahead of me. Tomorrow I go back to work and when I get off there is Bible study. And on Thursday we are having a baby shower for one of our girls at work. It is a surprise. We are doing it over lunch. I will hopefully get pictures of those events to post!

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Bag Tutorial

I really want to make this bag. I had one similar to it a couple of years ago and I really loved it and was actually trying to make up a pattern for one today but I found this one tonight and am planning to try it out tomorrow on a practice run before I use my linen.

The link is here.

I hope I can figure it out!

Four Day Weekend Part 1

I have a four day weekend this week! My doctor is out of town until Wednesday and I took Monday off. Becca and Jacqueline are coming over to my house to sew on Monday. It's the spring break for our local colleges next week and I'm so happy that I can get a visit in since it seems so hard to coordinate schedules with everyone. So since my camera is working I'm hoping to post pictures of this sew-fest!

I went to Jo-Ann's last night and got these fabrics. I bought linen for the first time ever! I hear so many people talk about how wonderful linen is and I'm excited to try to make something out of it. I got 2 yards so I'm thinking of trying to make a couple of bags. Plus I got some fun fabrics to use for linings. And that blue eyelet fabric may be a bag or a skirt. Or both. I got quite a bit. Oh, I'm so excited for a chance to hang out with the girls! I think I'm becoming better friends with the ladies at work, but we are so different and have such different ideals and goals and values in life and that's why I'm happy that Jacqueline and Becca are coming over. Cause we have a more common world-view.

The weather has gotten so much nicer lately! It's in the 60's today. Yesterday I went to the park with my dad and siblings and Solomon to walk. It was really nice. I enjoyed it a lot! And although he was tired, I think Solomon had fun too. These newfs tire out so easily. Two or three laps and they are ready to call it quits. They are funny dogs. The weimaraners are so energetic. They will walk or run all day long. I think maybe next weekend I will take Hank for a walk down there. He would really benefit from burning off some energy and learning to walk well on a leash. He's so cute. He doesn't like other dogs much though. He really needs that to be trained out of him. Our other dogs won't take it from him, but he snaps at Django (my sister's dog) when he comes over. He's nice to people though so that is good.

I'm just so pleased that the weather is warming up! I am a little bit worried about allergies and such since I have horrible springtime allergies. I got some Zyrtec today. I've tried several different allergy medicines like allegra, claritin, flonase, and a couple of others and haven't had much success with them. I really hope the Zyrtec has good results. I want to be outside this year. I want to go places and get pictures before we move. We still haven't had anymore people come see the house. I told one of my co-workers who asked if our house had any hits yet that no one will be more surprised than me if/when the house sells! Ha ha. I'm really hoping and we've been praying that God will bring a buyer to us.

One last thing: My Global College course left New Stanton, Pa this morning at 2 am (according to the tracker) and is scheduled to be delivered on Monday. Another reason I'm glad I have that day off. I was going to buy the green mullet wig to wear to work on Monday to see if I could get a reaction from my bosses, but I realized that I have that day off. So maybe next year. :)

Hopefully part two will come Monday evening.
Happy Saturday!

Monday, March 10, 2008

Monday, Monday, so good to me...Monday morning, it was all I hoped it would be...


When I worked at the Daily Grind that Mama's and Papa's song was my "theme song." Allow me to explain. I worked pretty much every single Monday of the year that I worked there. We had these guest books that customers could sign and write stories and sketch in. Some of the stuff in there was hilarious, some of it was gross (which is why the books were eventually thrown out by the owner cause it couldn't be controlled), but a majority of these books were filled with lists. Lists like these:
If you were on a TV show it would be:
Katie: Grey's Anatomy
Joelle: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Neo: The matrix (okay it's not a TV show, but his name was Neo so what else could he be on?)

and stuff like that depending on some characteristic of the person they were describing. These lists were made by the employees of the coffee shop and sometimes they drew stick figure drawings of each of us saying some quote we always said. I think my quote was either something from Napoleon Dynamite (no surprise) or "I was prepared!" from Hoodwinked. Anyway, one of the lists had to do with songs that described us and Monday Monday was mine in honor of the fact that I worked Mondays all the time.

Ahh, the good old days...
well I felt better today. I've decided to cut back on the sugar and work out more but today the girl scout cookies I apparently ordered during the same weak moment I had when I ordered the cookie dough from someone else's child came in. Plus all the cold medicine I've taken were making me feel sick (as in nauseas). So I skipped the gym, but I didn't eat the cookies. I'm taking them to Bible study tomorrow and maybe the guys will eat them up. You can usually count on guys for that, right? So that was my grand start. Pretty bad, huh? Oh well. Tomorrow is a new day. And I really didn't eat badly today.

I'm so glad the sun is out longer...or that we set the clocks ahead. Either way, it's so nice to have the sun still out when you get out of work in the evenings. I think spring is finally on it's way! And I have my doctor's appointment set up to come up with a plan to head my allergies off at the pass before I end up with a big problem this season! I'm so excited for better weather!

Happy Monday!

Sunday, March 9, 2008

Long Time...

No blog post...

So I've been kinda MIA lately. Really busy with work, I caught a cold, worried over my parent's job and stuff like that. I thought my camera was broken, or that the battery was fried because I left it in the charger for 2 days (I forgot to take it out after I charged it up). So after a trip to the mall and looking in several different stores I found a replacement battery for $50. I was debating whether to get it or not and decided not to just in case it wasn't the battery that was dead. I'm glad I didn't because when I got home I plugged the charger into a different outlet and it started charging again and I tested it in the camera and both worked!
So I finally was able to take a picture of the skirt I made with Becca and my sister. I think the ruffle is a little too...ruffly. Hopefully after it is washed it will relax a little. It is fully lined since it was kind of see-through. I drafted the pattern using Sew What! Skirts. They have another book out now called Sew What! Fleece. It's also pretty good only I haven't tried any of the projects since I don't have any fleece because it's spring (almost).









And I stopped by Payless and got these. I like earthy looking stuff and I thought these looked earthy. Sort of. :) I went shopping with my sister because a friend of ours who works at Payless gave us each a friends and family discount coupon. It was very sweet of her to give them to us. I also got a pair of shoes for Holly that she liked.





And here are some patterns I found in my sewing stuff. Since helping Becca use a pattern I think I might give one of these a try. I've been very intimidated by patterns because I've never used one before, but I think maybe it would be fun to try one now. Plus these are all easy patterns so it shouldn't be too hard. I'm excited. I've got my fabric spread out all over the kitchen table right now because I'm "organizing" it. But I took a break to blog. I'll have to get back to it soon though because my hungry family members are starting to complain about it. Ha ha!


This stuff is dangerously addictive. I'm not talking about the pretzels, I'm talking about the Nutella. I'd never heard of it before until I started working at the dentist office and one of our hygienists brought some in for us all to share. That was Thursday. Friday I went out and bought some and Holly and I have practically eaten the whole thing. Pretty bad I know, but the darn stuff is SO good!

Speaking about food I enrolled with the Global College of Natural Medicine today. I'm in their Nutritional Consultant program. I am well aware that they are not accredited by regular school boards and that my certificate probably won't be very useful in looking for a job, but I plan to major in Nutrition anyway and this will hopefully give me a head-start and something to do during this next year that I'm waiting to move and become an Ohio resident. I'm excited! I hope I like it.

I got my Poirot DVDs in. It was so rainy and yucky this weekend that I wish I didn't get them cause my family just wanted to watch scary murder movies. But they were interesting. One warning is that these are not rated and there were a couple of inappropriate scenes in 2 so far. One (The Hollow?) has a very inappropriate scene in it. I wish there was a way to edit that out. Maybe there is. But I would take that into consideration before buying them. The first 4 I have seen only had some bad language, but the other 2 have a lot of implications and then the one scene. Too bad. They are very interesting.

So to finish this off I want to say I'm thankful for:
Sunshine! It was sunny all day!
being safe driving.
feeling a little better from my cold.
Daylight savings, stays light longer!
Enrolling in the NC program!
My camera is alive!

It's good to be back!

Sunday, March 2, 2008

March comes in like a lamb...


At least, that's what the weather said on the radio.
I put up this picture because my camera battery is dead and I couldn't take any pictures yesterday of our sewing extravaganza (plus I wish this is what our weather was like right now, but unfortunately it is still pretty cold and...dead-looking out), which was a lot of fun! I really enjoyed it. I worked on a skirt but have to rip out part of it because I didn't do it right. :P I was helping my sister and our friend, Becca, with their projects. We used a pattern for Becca's skirt. It was her first time making a skirt and my first time using a pre-made pattern. She had all kinds of questions about the best way to cut, sew, etc. and I honestly couldn't tell her the best way to do any of it because all the sewing I have done has been trial and error sewing and I decide when it is good enough. But with the effort put out between the two of us, I think her skirt is coming out very pretty! We're going to set up another sewing meet at Bible study this Tuesday.

So now I need to find my battery charger and charge up my camera battery so I can get pictures of what's going on in my life! Cause I'm really missing being able to post pictures up here!

I almost forgot to mention that on February 28th around 10:30 pm my cousin and her husband had their first baby. Welcome little Cheyanne Elizabeth into the world! She was only an hour and a half away from being born on leap day. Both mom and baby seem to be very healthy so that is a blessing. She is the first great-grandchild on my mom's side of the family. Her mother is the oldest of the 25 of us grandkids on my mom's side of the family so we are very excited to have this newest member of the family. Now if only we could find a way/time to get up to New England to visit...

Gotta run~