Memorial Day Weekend

My husband has a four-day weekend for Memorial Day. We went Friday night to buy groceries and stocked up on all the things we were out of, which was everything.

Today, I bought some soft fleece in pastels to make a baby quilt with the embroidered disney characters for the grandbaby. She should be arriving July 1st, but my daughter keeps trying to go into labor. She pops one of the pills the doctor gave her and they stop, temporarily. They plan to wean her off the pills soon, so I don't much think she'll be able to hold off until July 1st.

No I haven't quite figured out everything on the sewing machine yet. But I did get a bobbin wound, the bobbin inserted, and the thread cartridge wound. Yes, I know on a regular sewing machine, that's like a piece of cake, but with all the new "easier" methods on these new machines, it takes hours. ha. I guess the idea is when I get the hang of everything, it will be faster? Who knows...

Today, we were watching tv when we noticed the hot air balloons out the window. Our town has hot air balloon races every Memorial Day weekend. We got some good close-up pics and I got to practice the zoom on our camera. My kids always were so excited to see the hot air balloons when they were children. I still am.

Tomorrow we plan to do a little Memorial Day sale shopping, and I'm going to work on some sewing while he works on his army models.

I had to have a biopsy done this week, because my family doctor over-reacts to everything. He sent me to a specialist who also said he thought my doctor over-reacted, but if I went ahead and had the biopsy, then my doctor would be happy and we wouldn't have to worry about it anymore. So I had it. It should be back this week, but I don't expect anything from it.

I hope all my readers (aka my buddies!) have a good Memorial Day weekend.

Sewing Machine- You Won't Get the Best of Me

Well, the sewing machine arrived yesterday on my birthday as planned. I was so excited to get it. Then I started reading some of the manual....I unpacked everything, set it on my sewing table and didn't even turn it on. I was scared of it. Yes, I said scared. I started thinking what do I know about a computerized sewing machine? I have to get my daughter to tell me how to do things in MS Word, which everyone else in the universe has figured out forward and backward.
Today, I went down to a sewing shop that carries these things, and the lady told me a lot of things I didn't know about bobbin thread being different than embroidery thread and all the different brands and weights and stabilizers and when to use which one and I really freaked.
So I came home and all day I thought I need to at least try it out. It took me until after dinner to get up the courage. I sat down, opened up the manual, and started trying to wind a bobbin with the automatic hoopty doopty auto bobbin winder. After an hour and half, three bobbins that looked like birds nests on crack, I finally got one wound right. I had a few choice words to say to the machine, which I can't repeat because I might get thrown off blogspot.
Anyway, the challenge was on. It's either me or the sewing machine and it's not going to be the sewing machine that wins. Tomorrow I'm going to lasso that sucker and at least load some thread.. I hope. But that could take awhile. It has an automatic threader too.....Maybe one like the picture would be more my speed....

Happy Birthday To Me

Today is my birthday, and after checking online a billion times this weekend to see when my sewing machine would ship, today it said shipping info was available, so I tracked it and guess what! My sewing machine is out on the UPS truck due to deliver today, on my birthday. I'm so excited to get it.
My husband was not only NOT mad about me getting it, that he even went and ordered me the software so I can download free designs off the internet to embroider and the cassettes for the machine to load them on. And thread! So now I'm just going to be spending my days embroidering everything in our house. :-)
I finished a duvet cover I was making, and it looks like this:



I also made a nightgown for me for summer. I think it turned out pretty. Here it is.



My machine does Disney designs so this new grandbaby is going to be decked out in Mickey and Donald. It's only six more weeks until she'll be here. My daughter keeps dreading the labor part, and wondering what it will be like. I can't help her because I had c-sections and never had labor. But they didn't have epidurals back then, so maybe it would have been worse on me than it will be on her. However, I'd do it for her in a heartbeat if I could. She's my baby, even though she's having a baby of her own. I guess it is always that way, isn't it.
We're not doing anything for my birthday. My husband said to just do something simple for dinner and we'll go out this weekend to a restaurant of my choosing. He has a four day weekend this weekend, since he gets off every other Friday and Monday is Memorial Day.
I was suppose to go to court today with my friend who is getting divorced. They were suppose to go before the judge, and I was going for moral support. Then last night her attorney called and said since they are so close to a meeting of the minds, the judge wants them to see a mediator and not come before her unless that fails. Yes, she's a woman judge and a woman mediator, and my friend's husband doesn't like women who are positions of authority. Is that justice or what. He's already moved in his new girlfriend, and she's 35 and he's 53. He has a daughter just a few years younger, the old coot. Oh well, his grown children are all mad at him, so I guess there will be justice in the end.

Doomsday

Goodbye my friends....I'm writing my farewell, because my husband is going to kill me. Today I bought a sewing machine, a very fancy sewing machine, on credit, without asking him about it first. I tried to think of a way to hide it when it gets here, and hide the bills every month for the next year, but figured I'll get busted sooner or later. So I'm going to tell him. Tonight. AFTER dinner. Which I will cook special for him, to butter him up.
Oh lord. I'm as good as dead. I'll let you know how it goes.

Garage Sale Furniture

Here's how it all turned out.

Garage Sales and Itchy Dogs

It was a three day weekend for us since my husband had Friday off, too. We went to a garage sale two doors down and bought a Broyhill sofa, a side table, and two side chairs for $35. They were in excellent condition but looked dusty, so we came home and vacuumed them and them shampooed them with the carpet steamer. Then we rearranged the living room (again!) and I love it. The couch is full size and light colored and looks sort of 80's retro, which is suppose to be funky right now, right? ha. The chairs are wing back with the lattice work on the sides. I think it really looks good in here with the color carpet and walls we have. Anyway, the price was right.

My middle son came over on Saturday. He had a project he needed to do with a power saw and didn't think he could get away with it at his apt complex, so he came over here. He brought me the whole first season of the old tv show, Beauty and the Beast (the Kathryn and Vincent one). I used to love to watch that show when my kids were little. Guess he remembered. Then my baby son called me today and my daughter sent the cutest e-card. They all got together and gave me some shopping money for the fabric store. I'm in the process of making a duvet cover for a comforter I hate. Then, if it comes out ok, I plan to make a bed skirt, pillows, and curtains. We'll see. It's black and cream oriental toile with a black stripe coordinating fabric.

I feel much better this week than I did last week, so hopefully I can get some cleaning done in the house this week. It looks like it sure could use a good dusting.

My poor little dog, Rags, has been itching himself to death. We took him to the vet for a steriod shot and that relieved it for about three weeks and then it started back. We can't afford those shots on a regular basis, and I don't much like the idea of him getting regular steriods anyway. I went online and researched non-allergenic dog foods, and found one called Nature's Balance Allergy Formula. It's a dry, which is what they are used to, and they actually like this stuff, so I hope that helps. I also bought him a medicated shampoo guaranteed to stop itching, bathed them both, dried them, and it worked magic. He seemed so much happier without the itching. Poor pooch.

I tried going to bed, but my husband has restless leg syndrome, and either he didn't take his med before we went to bed, or it didn't work but that leg jiggling was driving me freaking. I decided to get up until I get so sleepy I can drop off and not notice it as much.
My dear friend, Dawn, who is going through a divorce, had her ex come get the kids on Saturday for his visit. She called me hysterical on Sunday because the ass had his girlfriend over there, too, with the kids all weekend, and the kids all came home saying, "Daddy has a girlfriend and she is so nice." I told her it's normal to feel hurt when she thinks of him with someone else even though she may not want him herself, because after all, they were married for like thirty years.
My daughter's contractions seemed to have stopped and they are still calling it false labor but giving her the pills to stop it just in case.

My husband made spaghetti for us for dinner tonight. It was good but he burned the toast. I didn't have the heart to mention that part. I just ate around the black part. It was nice to have someone cook for me for a change.

Heard a joke...A man's mother came to visit and was surprised to find a woman living with him. She decided she should have a talk with the girl about things. She asked if she knew that she was living in sin? The girl replied she didn't believe it was a sin. The mother then took a different tactic and said, "Well, you know he'll never marry you. Why should he buy the cow when he's getting the milk for free?" The girl replied, "I thought about that, and well, I don't think I should buy the whole pig just to get a little sausage."

Well, I'm getting VEEEEDDDDYYYY sleepy.....My eyelids are getting VEDDDDYYY heavy. I feel myself falling into a deeeeeeep sleep........

UPDATE:

Update: Daughter had three shots, a pill, drank some stuff, and they stopped the contractions. She went home on a pill to take regularly. She's doing good now, except having a rash from something. The doctor told her to keep taking her pills with a side of Benedryl. I told her to take it easy this weekend.

Paris Hilton, Contractions, and Ego Strength

I never know what to call these posts. When I write a short story, I never know what to call it either. Titles are not my strong suit. But anyway....

My daughter is in the hospital as I write this and they are trying to stop contractions her doctor discovered she is having regularly during her routine OB appointment this morning. They've given her two shots and are still waiting for them to stop, and then said they will send her home on meds. If you are new to this blog, her baby has diaphragmatic hernia, so we don't want prematurity on top of that. She's not due until July 1, so she's 32 weeks now, 6-8 weeks to go. I wanted to drive down there but it's an hour and half drive and she assures me by the time I get there they will have sent her home on meds to keep them stopped. So I'm sitting by the phone worrying.

My youngest son was on his local evening news about a petition to not let Paris Hilton get off without jail time just because she's rich and famous. You can see the video HERE.

I saw the therapist yesterday. She keeps telling me I have low ego strength. I had no clue what that was and when I asked I never quite understood her answer, until yesterday. She said ego strength is emotional strength. We have physical strength and when it is low we get tired, and we have emotional "ego" strength and when it is low, in my case, I isolate and get depressed, or quiet, or whatever. I said maybe I'm just introverted. She said no, because she's seen me up and down so many times depending on what has been required of me during the week before I see her. If I get to stay home and "piddle" (no, that doesn't mean pee. ha.) around the house, I am much more upbeat and look better and feel more talkative. If I have had to do something that is taxing for me emotionally, which for me means social things, I go into her office looking like something the cat drug in and she has a hard time getting me to talk (or sometimes make it to my appointment.)

So now that I had all this information, I said what do we do about it? She said we are working on getting you in touch with your feelings so you will know what drains you emotionally and also what fills you back up, and you can learn to do positive things to keep yourself in a better position emotionally. She said I'm making progress. I told her it's all I can do sometimes to make myself drive over there and talk to her for an hour. I make myself do it because I know it helps me. I just have to trust the process I guess. I'm suppose to journal this week and also make a list of things that make me happy when I do them, like sitting in the park or photography or writing, and also things which bring me down emotionally, which is a long list.

There is a big part of me that hears this voice in my head that sounds an awful lot like my mom saying, "You don't need that woman. You don't want people to think you're crazy, do you?" Well, I think seeing the therapist helps me. I'm not always sure how, but I know I am in a much better place than I was, say, five years ago. So who knows...but I promised myself I'd keep going. I keep writing about it on here because I've had several people tell me something the therapist told me helped them, too. I hope it does.

I have started sewing again. My husband set me up a sewing corner in the guest room in front of the window. I am making me some blouses, pants, capris, and nightgowns. My sewing machine started making this clunking sound, so I took it in for routine service, and it won't be back until Friday or Saturday. In the meantime, I'm having fun looking at patterns and stuff. The only fabric place here is Hancock Fabrics. The women in there act so snotty, I just hate to shop there. I really think I'd drive thirty miles to the other location just to not have to deal with the snotty women. Like today, I bought some fabric that was 50% off, and started at 6.99 a yard. She tried to charge me 4.99. I said, "Uh, that's not 50%!" She looked at me like she could kill me, and huffed and puffed but finally went though voiding that out and re-ringing the sale. That's like almost six bucks difference with all the yards I bought, so I thought it was worth speaking up about.

Then they advertised their patterns for 99 cents, and I bought ten. She yelled across the store, "Is there a limit on these 99 cent patterns?" The lady yelled back no. Then the lady at the registar yells again, "But she has bought TEN!" Again, the lady yells back that there is no limit, that I can buy a hundred if I want them. By then everyone in the store is staring at me, the people in the line behind me are piling up and I want to kill the cashier. So you see why I would be willing to drive far, far away to go somewhere else to shop for that stuff....

My husband wants me to go with him tonight to a "going away" party for a guy that works with him who is in the reserves and going to Iraq. I would rather cut off my head than go to that but I told him I would. Now I get to dread it all day. Some times I just want to slap myself! ha.

Rudolph, Witches, and Pet Peeves

I saw the therapist Wednesday. We talked about guilt, and some of the things I had put on my list I felt guilty about. I felt terrible when I left, but usually I leave there feeling drained.

Throughout the afternoon, and Thursday, I felt terrible. Yesterday I went to the doctor, and kept thinking I wished I could lay down in the waiting room, so that tells you how I felt then. Turned out I have a sinus infection on both sides and also an infection in the tip of my nose, making me resemble Rudolph.

I swore I would not leave the house until this improves. So the doctor gave me a shot in the office, a superdose of an antibiotic, prednisone, and a decongestant. My nose is still red, but looks a bit better. We are suppose to go with my son to Nashville to see Spiderman at the IMAX. I told my son I might not go but just have my husband go with him. My son said I don't know anyone in Nashville and will just be in a dark theatre or the car and should go on. I might go, but I really feel yucky.

The therapist also told me this week that the reason I have gotten so nuts about my house cleaning is because other things in my life are out of control. Well now it is, too, since I've been sick, so I guess I gave up control of that. ha.

Ok, now to one of my pet peeves. It's when you give someone you only know casually your email, like someone from a group you go to, or a co-worker of your husband you talked to briefly at a dinner, or your Avon lady. Then every day they send me stuff, forwarded, from jokes to cartoons to everything else they had in their mail that day.The worst are the Forward this to Ten Friends things. All you do for those ten friends is fill their mailboxes with the same junk you got. Not being a very good friend, it seems to me. So for those who don't know....the forward to ten people emails are just chain letters, and you don't get a pop-up for doing it, or a free dinner, or a good luck fairy, or money from Bill Gates. In fact, if Bill Gates got all that junk mail I doubt he'd have time to spend his money much less give it to me.

So...I delete it, usually without reading it if I can tell it's junk from the subject line. But what I want to do is write and say if you have something personal to tell me, write, if not, keep your forwarded email to yourself. Remember now, these are not FRIENDS. I sometimes send a really good joke to a friend I think might need a laugh that day, but I don't do it often and it has to be a really good one. (And it takes a lot to make me laugh, like the witches hats my daughter drew on my MIL in the comment section of the post below. But I probably won't write this people any time soon. For now, I just grumble and growl. And tell you about it. Aren't you lucky. :-)

Baby Shower

Itt was an interesting week would be an understatement. The baby shower went fine. They got a lot of nice things for the baby. My mother came and brought my EX MIL with her (they are friends), so there was my mother, my ex MIL and my current MIL all sitting together on the couch.
Anyway, here's some shower pics. Isn't my daughter cute with her pregnant tummy? We painted onesies in addition to the games. The three women on the couch are my current MIL, my mother, and my ex MIL. My son-in-law models his "Daddy's Toolbelt."