Stitching

You sure haven't heard that word much around here lately. I can't even remember the last time I stitched on something but I decided to pull out Mother's Bliss and work on it while I was waiting for Kenzie at her softball practice. 2 hours worth of stitching resulted in the top ribbon being finished.

Christmas Ornament

I stitched this cute little ornament...little being the optimum word here...for an ornie exchange on the CrossStitchCrazy board. This is the over 1 ornament I talked about in one of my earlier posts. If I'd known it was going to end up this small I would have stitched it over two and saved myself alot of heartache. I'm not sure what's up with it but I followed the instructions and it clearly stated to stitch it over 1 on 32ct fabric which is what I did. This design, called Fa La La by Twisted Thread, is from the 2000 JCS Ornament Magazine and is stitched on 32ct Vintage Navy Bean by Lakeside Linens & Designs.

Too Good to be True

I knew it was too good to be true. Kearsyn was back to her normal nonsleeping pattern last night. At least I know she can sleep when she wants to. ;)

What beautiful weather we have been having here the past couple of days. You sure wouldn't know that it's the last week in November by being outside. Now if we could just get our yard to dry out after all that rain we had last week. It's still extremely soggy out there.

I did some Christmas shopping yesterday and actually went to a store to do it. That's a rarity for me. LOL I usually do most shopping online cause I hate having to hunt for things in the store and they rarely have want I want anyway. I was pleasantly surprised because I actually found most of what I wanted to get for my sister and her DH so they are pretty much done at this point. Yay! The kids presents have all been ordered and are starting to arrive. The only ones left to buy for now are our parents. I also still need to get a birthday present for my dad whose b'day is 12/20. We're going to try and get the family together on the 17th to celebrate. It's always hard with Dad's b'day being so close to Christmas especially now that my sister alternates the holidays with her inlaws.

Thusday is going to be a busy day. We're going to look at a private school that is having an open house in the morning. Not sure that we can actually avoid it, even though they do offer some financial aid to go there, but it can't hurt to check it out. In the afternoon, there is a Homeschoolers Open House at the college. Alex is going to be taking a Composition class there which will be good for him plus it will help lighted the load a little for Andy in the spring since he won't have to cover that subject. Also Thursday afternoon, Bekah has her speech evaluation appointment so we'll see how that goes. She's been in a terrible two's mood here lately. Hope she gets out of it soon cause she's driving me crazy. She thinks she can make up for it by flashing me her cute grin and giving me a kiss...which of course works. LOL

Haven't done any stitching lately although I really need to get a move on finishing up my Christmas ornament. I've had it stitched up for weeks...just can't figure out how to finish it. I wanted to do something different but I can't figure out what so I haven't done anything. :(

It's Halloween

The kids have been looking forward to today for days. They've been looking forward to dressing up as soccer zombies...I'll see if I can snag a pic that Andy took of them (I stole this pic from Andy's blog as it seems to be the only one we have)...and going to a friends house for a Halloween party. There's always lots of good food to eat and tons of kids. They do a hayride through the neighborhood making periodic stops to hop off and swarm the houses for treats. I wasn't going to go because of Kearsyn but Andy talked me into going which I'm glad he did as I had a good time. Once the kids left to go trick or treating, it was me, Andy and Mary (whose house the party was at). We sat outside chatting while waiting for trick or treaters to come by. It was a beautiful evening although it did start to get a little bit chilly although Mary had built a nice fire in their fire pit. I was a little nervous about Bekah going trick or treating...one of the other moms kept an eye on her while on the hayride as their wasn't room for Andy to go since the trailer was so packed with kids...as Andy scared her half to death when he put on his scary mask at home. He came walking out of the hallway with it on and she about fell over herself trying to climb behind me to get away him all the while screaming her head off...poor thing. There was no need to worry, though, as she was apparantly really into trick or treating and didn't mind going up to the houses to get the candy.

I made another attempt at making the peanut butter chocolate chip cake today...at the request of Andy to take to the Halloween party. I guess the last one wasn't too bad but I did remember to add the butter this time. LOL It was definitely better than the first time although it was still a little dry. I think I add too much flour...will have to try less next time.

Stitchingwise, I've been working on the mini rr I have. I only have one more color to stitch and then it will be done. Hopefully I'll get it finished up by the weekend although I'm not pushing myself. Then I'm going to stitch on the next release of the Halloween Gameboard Mystery Sampler.

I finally finished reading the Visitation which prompted another trip to the library for more books. That's always a frustrating adventure since our library never has what I want to read. I was able to find a couple of books which will hopefully be pretty good and am about halfway through the first one, Stitches in Time.

We met with the lady from the Infants and Toddlers program today. She just does the paperwork and went over general information for Bekah. She said that two other people from their staff should be getting in contact with us in the next week or so to do a more thorough evaluation...one will just focus on Bekah's speak and the other will look at all areas of Bekah's development.

Quilt for Kearsyn

The wonderful ladies at the CrossStitchCrazy Board made this beautiful quilt for Kearsyn. I'm so blessed to have such wonderful friends even though most of them I've never in real life. Thank you ladies for making this special quilt that Kearsyn will be able to treasure always.

So Far, So Good

After an extremely sleepless night thanks to my newest daughter (luv ya sweetie!!), I was actually able to get Alex, the twins, Bekah and Kearsyn all over to the park by 7:45 so Alex made it to his game on time. Yay! After dropping Alex off, I then came home so Bekah could eat breakfast and to feed Kearsyn before having to head back to the field for the twins 11am game. Things were going well until I get a frantic phone call from Alex at 9:30 saying that I needed to bring his stopwatch and whistle over to the field so he could ref his game. Grr! Now you tell me why a child that knows he's going to be ref'ing games all day couldn't remember to stick those two important items in his backpack when we left this morning. So that meant I had to pack everybody back into the van and head back to the park...luckily it's only a 10 minute drive but it's still a pita to have to load everyone in, just to come home again, unload then and then load them back up less than an hour later to head back to the field. Oh well, what are you gonna do? Even after making the unexpected extra trip, I still managed to get the twins to their game on time...then Bekah, Kearsyn and I hung out for the hour that they played. It's a beautiful day but a little chilly so I kept Kearsyn in the van while Bekah ran back and forth between the van and the volleyball courts (located right next to the field that the twins were playing on). We're back home and now I'm waiting for Kearsyn to wake up so I can feed her...hope she gets up soon cause it's starting to get a bit painful...and waiting for Alex to call to say he's done ref'ing for the day. With my luck he'll call when I'm in the middle of feeding Kearsyn. Well, turns out I was close...I was just getting ready to wake Kearsyn up to feed her when Alex called to say he was done.

Kenzie, Connor and Andy are in Salisbury now and Kenzie's second game should be starting right about now. They didn't do so well in their first game but they are a young team so it'll take some time. Final outcome of the games is 2 losses, 1 win. I haven't heard all the details yet but Kenzie did let me know that she stole home in the third game. Yay!

I've done a bit of stitching over the last couple of days. I'm currently working on PS Winter Seasons although it's not holding much appeal for me at the moment. I might switch to something else although after looking over my other wip's nothing is catching my attention right now so I guess I'll just stick with the PS one until Holly's mini rr arrives. That one should be a quick a stitch...the theme is superheros...and then it will be on it's way home. What a quick rr this one was. And for all you enablers reading out there...I'm not starting any new projects at the moment so don't even try to talk me in to one. LOL

Busy weekend

Although we didn't go anywhere, other than to the dr for Kearsyn Saturday morning (I'll get to that later), we had lots of company coming over to see Kearsyn. My SIL and her family came over Saturday and spent the afternoon with us. We don't get to see them all that often...especially my BIL because he works side jobs on the weekends...so it was nice to spend some time with them. The kids are especially happy when they come visit because that means they get to play with their two cousins. On Sunday, my sister came over, as well as, my mom, dad and good friend of the family. My sister is a hoot because you'd think after all the kiddos I've had she'd feel comfortable holding them when they're this little but they still make her nervous. LOL

We took Kearsyn in Saturday morning for a weight check. She weighed in at 7lbs 5oz which totally surprized me since she weighed 7lbs 6oz when she was discharged from the hospital on Thursday and she'd been eating a ton since then. Even the dr was a little surpised and commented that maybe their scale was measuring differently than the one in the hospital. She was also a little concerned about Kearsyn's jaundice so she sent us off the hospital to get a bili test done. Her bili #'s were 10.2 when we left the hospital on Thursday and were 13 when we had it retested on Saturday...both within normal range for her age. And don't even ask hubby how he felt about having the test done...we really won't go there. ;) I took her back to the drs for another weight check today just to make sure she was gaining weight and she is now up to 7lbs 9oz, 1oz shy of her birth weight, so she's doing great! She's still a little jaundiced but with the way she's eating and gaining weight and her alertness level going up, it's nothing to worry about. If she were to become lethargic before her next appt (which is next Monday, 10/23) and she still looks jaundiced, then I'm to call them to have her bili levels rechecked but I'm expecting to have to do that. We'll also have Bekah's 2yr checkup done that day as well. Easier to do them together than making a special trip back for Bekah.

Kearsyn is much more alert now than she was just a couple of days again. She looks up at you with the biggest blue eyes that you know can't really see you yet. She's constantly blinking as if she's trying to bring things in to focus. Here's a pic of her gorgeous wide open eyes. =)



Bekah just loves her little sister. She is constantly giving her kisses and hugs. Here's a picture of her with Kearsyn. You just can't beat that smile she has.




I haven't done any stitching since Kearsyn was born but I'm hoping to get back to it soon. I did receive my Single Theme RR in the mail today...you gotta love unexpected stitchy mail. I'd forgotten how much I liked the fabric that I chose to stitch this piece on...all the browns and blues in the piece. Thanks to all the laies that stitched on this piece. Everyone did a wonderful job.

I believe that's all the updates I have for now. I think it's going to be a long night. Everytime I go to lay Kearsyn down she wakes up fussing. Wonder if there will be ay good shows on tonight...highly doubtful.

A Relaxing Weekend

or as relaxing as it can be with 6 kiddos running around but at least they were running around at home and not between different soccer fields. My inlaws came over Saturday morning and that's always good for getting the kids wound up. Other than doing a little laundry, I basically didn't do anything this weekend. Andy, Bekah and I did take a walk along the river on Sunday while the rest of the kids were with friends. It was a beautiful day for a walk but man did my legs and hip hurt by the time we got back. Was trying to see if I could entice the little to want to come out...I think she's been in there long enough at this point. ;-) I have another drs appt tomorrow morning so we'll see if anything is going on but I'm not counting on it. She is getting incredibly uncomfortable though...has her feet wedged up under my rib cage at this point. At least I'm hoping it's feet cause if it's anything other than that we're in trouble.

Was a long night last night...started with Taylor waking me up at 1am. Took him coming down to our bedroom twice for me to figure out what was wrong with him...needless to say I wasn't very coherent at that time of the morning. Turns out he had an upset stomach. Finally got him settled down about 2 hrs later and then Bekah decides to wake up screaming. She had one of her nightmares...poor thing. So after all that, I didn't end up getting to bed until after 4am. I was a tired little puppy today...especially when I was trying to get some work done. I was just about to log off from work in the early aftenoon to go take a nap when one of my coworkers IM'd me with a problem so I had to help her figure that out. So that meant no nap, but at least I got most of my work hours in today. Let's hope that the kiddos all sleep tonight otherwise I'm going to be even grumpier than I am right now.

I've been stitching quite a bit lately. Finished up a fish mini rr. I did the two little fish towards the top in the tank on the left and also the fish in the right hand tank. This is going to be such a cute rr when it's finished. I've also been working on the Halloween Mystery GameBoard Sampler. I completed all the boxes last night...now to wait for the next installment to come out. Not sure what I'm going to work on next. I don't feel like working on Mother's Bliss right now so I'll have to dig through my other wip's to see what catches my interest.

And just for the fun of it, here's a picture of Bekah being goofy. =)

A Quiet Day at Home

It was wonderful waking up this morning when I wanted to...not having to worry about being up at the crack of dawn, running around to get a shower, get dressed, get my lunch together and then making the hour drive to work. I was still up at 5 though, my normal waking time, so I got up and bopped around the boards for a little bit then went back to bed. How nice that was! Guess it'll take a little while for my internal clock to readjust to not needing to be up that early. I was able to get a number of things done while logged in to work today although I am at a slight disadvantage since all my notes are at work. If I had planned this better I would have grabbed them before I left work on Tuesday. LOL Not to mention straightening up my desk. What a mess that was! When I work on a report I usually spread all the papers I'm using out on my desk so I can refer easily from one to the other. Sometimes when I leave in the evening, it's not worth putting them all back together in the folder just to pull them all back out in the morning. And that's exactly what I'd done when I left work Tuesday...left them spread out all over my desk. Luckily I have a nice coworker who straightened my desk of for me. =)

I made one short trip out of the house today to get the emissions test done on my car...thought I had another week to get it done but I was mistaken. While I was out, I also stopped by the post office to mail a mini rr and a finishers too piece since I couldn't hand deliver them while at Hershey like I had planned to today. I was able to talk to Jo Anna yesterday and it sounded like they were having a wonderful time up there...and buying lots of stitchy stuff.

A very nice friend brought dinner over for us tonight. How sweet was that? She wanted to do something for us after hearing about what's been going on with the munchkin. The dinner was a delicious noodle casserole and much to my DH's surprise, all the kids actually liked it. They usually grumble about sauce being on noodles...some like, some don't...but they all liked the dish tonight. There was also yummy rolls, applesauce, milk, butter and cookies. A complete meal. And there are even leftovers, so we have lunch for tomorrow. =)

Tomorrow is another milestone for our chickie eggs...they get to be taken out of their rockers in preparation of them hopefully starting to hatch on Monday. I recandled all the eggs so that we could try to remove any empty eggs. Wow, what a difference a week makes...most of the eggs are completely black now which should mean that there is a chickie in there. Even most of our questionable eggs are looking good. So the numbers now look like 17 with chickies in them and 5 that are empty. Now to wait and see how many of the 17 actually hatch.

I've also been getting some stitching in. I decided Tuesday night, while having all the contractions, that I needed something mindless to work on so I started Tanya's Halloween Gameboard Mystery Stitch A Long. I figured I could handle stitching a bunch of boxes in one color. LOL I'm almost done with the orange boxes...only two more rows to go then I can switch to the black ones.

Stitching Today

I was a good girl and that's pretty much all I did today except for a few loads of laundry. As a result, I was able to get my Quaker Mystery Sampler all finished up. I decided after looking at the last part that it wouldn't take very long to get it done so I figured I'd just go ahead and finish it instead of switching to Mother's Bliss. Now to decide which of my other wips to replace this one with or if I'm going to start a new piece.

I candled a few eggs today just to see what Andy had seen the other day. Little chickies are definitely growing in some of them and it looks like some of 4 questionable eggs have chicks in them as well. We took a pic of one as it was being candled...go here if you'd like to see it. Only about a week to go before they should start hatching. Andy has made a friend with one of our border roosters...although we are thinking this one might actually be a hen. He sat on a chair in the pen today and one jumped up on his knee wanting his attention. He commented that he doesn't think he'd be able to eat this one, which is a good thing since it's not our chicken to eat. LOL

Can't Move

I did way too much today and now I'm in serious pain. My lower back, hips and legs are really hurting...especially my left side. I decided to stay home today instead of going to watch the kids play soccer as the kitchen needed some cleaning. I was really only going to mop the floor but when I looked closer at the table, I decided it really needed a good cleaning. When I got done with that, I noticed that the chairs could use a good once over. When those were done...which was no small feat since there are 10 of them, I decided that the window sills and wall behind the table could use cleaning. Cleaned those and a few other corners of the walls, wiped down the refrigerator, compactor and dishwasher and then I finally got around to mopping the floor...about 2 hrs after I originally started out to do it. I swept and washed the floor, then swept the hallway and stairs. Unfortunately, I couldn't sweep up the dirt I'd swept up from the hallway and stairs as the dustpan was across the kitchen and the floor was still wet....not good planning on my part. So I left the piles figuring I would get them when the floor dried. I then decided our bathroom needed some cleaning so I got halfway done with that before I realized that I just couldn't do anymore. My back and legs were hurting so much I could barely move. And by this point, my kitchen was dry but I couldn't bend down to sweep up the dirt into the dustpan...I hurt too bad. Thankfully Alex did that when he got back from the field.

So, I decided now was a good time to sit down and take it easy. I pulled out Quaker Mystery Sampler and was able to get Part 5 finished up. The colors are a little messed up in the pic but I didn't feel like fooling with it tonight. Only one more part to go...the alphabet at the top which shouldn't take too long to do. I'm going to switch back to working on Mother's Bliss for awhile, though, and then I'll come back to the sampler although I might through a mini rr in between to work on.

Other than that, it was a quiet day. You might want to check on me tomorrow to see if I'm able to move. I have grand plans of cleaning the boys bathroom and doing laundry but we'll see if I can even get out of bed in the morning. ;)