Five weeks, no post.

Hi everyone, I am still about, just been busy.

We had a real estate inspection last week, we are renting at the moment. I went through Joel's and Caitlyn's clothes and toys, discarded what was broken or damaged and sent what they had grown out of to charities. I always seem to do this post Christmas as they seem to get so much, not just from us but from our relations also. We also managed to rid ourselves of an excess book case and some other things that we haven't used for a long time. The agent ticked everything off as good, from a list that also included fair and poor, PHEW!!, and we were able to make them aware of some minor maintenance issues. The owner came for a visit and was pleased that we were taking such good care of their house, so all is well for the time being.

Work is going well. The people are lovely and helpful. Yesterday was the first day that I was able to log-on to the computers, so I was able to do the first of 37 computer assessments. I also completed one of six modules, which forms the next assessment. I have been mainly counting business express deposits. It is amazing how quickly those cash counting skills came back, it was almost like I have never stopped. I was initially quite hesitant to answer the phone. I have had to get my head around saying not only a different town, but a different bank name also. I am pleased to say that I have been able to answer the phone without making a total fool of myself or confusing anyone on the other end, though passing on messages has been interesting!!

We had a great break at our beach house and a wonderful Christmas and New Year. Christmas day was spent with the in-laws. On the way back to the beach house we were able to go through the town where Mum is buried. I wanted to go to see her plaque, it wasn't in place at our previous visit. Well I decided that I wanted to have a Christmas drink with Mum, we had a partly finished bottle wine left from lunch in the car, but no glasses or cups available. So I went to the grave-site and stood there drinking straight from the bottle of wine :0. I am so glad that no-one saw me, HEHE, but I am glad that I was able to 'share' a drink with Mum for Christmas.

At the moment my bloglines reader sits at 542. I will not mark all as read as I am truly a sticky-nose and do not want to miss anything that all of you have been up to. So there may not be much commenting but please know that I am reading your posts.

On to the interesting stuff; stitching of course. I have been mainly working on Faery Tales and have now managed to complete 5 pages, so here are some update photos.

The first picture is of page 31 completed and the other picture is of pages 41, 42, 51 and 52.

I have also been doing some stitching on CdC and 'only' have two pages to go until it is finished. I have not started anything new as I feel that I have more that enough wips at the moment, but that hasn't stopped my from adding to my ever growing/never shrinking stash. I managed to get the JSC orni issue for '08, and some fabric and threads to start kitting up some projects.

Well must go and do some work and spend some time with the family, oh and watch some tennis, love this time of year for the tennis.

Stay safe everyone, wish you lots of happy stitching.

Great news and some wip pictures.

First of all I would sincerely like to thank all of you who stop by and leave a comment, I always have a smile on my face as I read the comments, you are all wonderful.

The first wip picture is of Faery Tales with the third of sixty pages completed. I am really enjoying this and will continue on with it as of tonight.

Next up is my progress on VOHRH, these are blocks eight and nine, having already completed ten, eleven and twelve. Not much more to go on block nine but Faery Tales is screaming to be worked on LOL.

Now for the great news, I HAVE A JOB!!!

You all know the difficulties that I have had in the past with my previous employer, well on the off chance I decided to lodge my resume with other major financial institutions, not really thinking that anything would come of it. Well to my surprise this particular bank contacted me and asked if would like to come and have a casual chat with them. That then turned into another meeting, this time to meet the area manager, which turned into another meeting today, which resulted in them offering me a position. So on the 5th of January I will be starting with them for two days a week initially as a teller, to learn their computer systems. The manager was very impressed with the experience that I have had previously and said that he can see great things for me in the future. The bank is currently looking at re-structuring their branches and there will be openings for me to move on to other things. I am so excited at the prospect of improving on my career and believe that the opportunities will be wonderful.

On Thursday we are heading to our beach house until the 4th of January, so I would like to wish everyone in blog land a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful and safe New Year in 2009.

Here is the wip picture of Faery Tales that blogger wouldn't let me load earlier. This design has 60 pages. I have completed 41, 51 and nearly finished 52.

A Finish

Well here I am, I have been reading blogs and making a few comments, so I thought that it was about time that I posted to my own blog.

I have a little finish to share with all of you; (Apologies for the crappy photo, I need to work on my non-existant photographic skills)

Here is LHN Patience, from their Scripture series. Stitched on 32 ct Belfast Linen. I finished it last night while we all watched a dvd.

While I am here I also thought that I would post an update on HAED's Faery Tales. I have completed three to four rows of ten row blocks all the way to the top of the design, and going slightly off track, I have completed two, and almost a third, pages. MMMM, blogger won't allow me post a second photo, so I'll do a second post with the photo.

We have been quite busy of late. Not long after my last post, we went north to Queensland for two weeks. Took the kids to the theme parks, Sea World, Movie World and Wet 'n Wild. We had a wonderful time. We also caught up with some relations, and a special man, my Day, who was also a holiday up there.

Caitlyn and I had our birthdays while we were away, and DH turned another year older not long after we arrived home.

Dad came to stay for a week. It was hard saying good-bye, and it was strange having him stay without Mum. He is coping reasonably well. While he was here he had one bad day.

Well, I must go and tidy up a bit so that I can do some more stitching later on.

I hope that you are getting lots of stitching done, take care and have fun!

Thank You.

I just want to sincerely thank everyone for all of their kind thoughts regarding Mum's passing. It has been a month today, and though it is a difficult thing to deal with, there have been some good days.

We gave her a very fitting send off, with some 'lighter' moments, and I am sure that she would have loved it. When we saw Priscilla, Queen of the Desert last year, we all wore a feather boa, so we wore them to the funeral, mine was special, as it was the one that Mum wore. We also had a song from Priscilla, Color My World, during which we let go green and purple balloons. My three sisters, brother, Dad and I were pall bearers, even though it was a difficult thing to do, we were able to draw strength from one another and showed a sense of unity between us all.

At the viewing two of my sisters placed a dollar coin in Mums hands and proclaimed that Mum was right to play the pokies (slot machines) in heaven, it was wonderful to be able to have these lighter moments, there are a few others, but I will savour those.

I wasn't sure about going to the viewing, but I am so so glad that I did, Mum looked absolutely beautiful and so at peace.

My Dad is doing okay, he struggles when he goes to the shops in his small town, as so many people stop him to ask how he is etc, he says that when he can answer them without breaking down, he'll know that he is doing well. He and Mum were planning a trip to Queensland, to visit relations, and Dad is still going to go, he flies out next Wednesday for two weeks. It will be wonderful for him, and we will see him there as we are going to be there for holidays at the same time.

Onto some stitching news.

Suzanne had a blogaversary draw in July, and I was one of the lucky winners. I received a chart by Cherished Stitches called A Sentimental Thimble Case and a lovely note. I am looking forward to stitching this, Thank You so much Suzanne.

I also thought that it was about time that I posted a wip picture so here is my CdC, over half way now,

Some time ago, in a moment of weakness, LOL I made a small start on Miribilia's Lady of the Mist. She is stitched in green and is embellished with purple beads. I have decided to dedicate her to Mum and I have been mostly stitching on her since Mum's passing. Her skirt is HUGE, there are huge amounts of beading to be done but she will be beautiful and she is in Mum's favourite color, GREEN.

My long service leave from my job finished at the end of July, and my employer is now saying that I have failed to report for duty. They have given me until the 6th of October to report for duty, about five hours away, or they will terminated my employment status. It was initially 1st of September, but they have given me an extra month due to what I have recently been through, how nice of them (heavily sarcastic). We have the union helping us with some strategies at the moment, so we will see what happens.

Well must go now, thanks again for all of the wonderful support.

Touched my Heart

Holding Hands

This picture shows a line of little girls holding hands facing the immensity of ocean waves. Alone they might be washed away, but together they stand strong. Thank you for holding my hand somewhere along the way when I was facing a wave of my own. I hope you will reach for my hand when your own wave threatens.
All of us girls...
Old and young... Near and far...
Hold special memories of good times we've shared.
We've had our share of hard times when our friends were there to make us feel better.
We've shared...
our hearts...
our time...
our secrets...
our fears...
our hopes...
and our dreams...
Let us never break the chain of friends!

MUM

Just to let all of you know that Mum passed away peacefully tonight. She had a heart-attack at around 5:30, and by about 6:30 all of her pain was over. It all seems to be unreal at the moment. But she doesn't have to struggle anymore.

I received the call tonight at church during Luke's confirmation, which his Nan was mentioned during his little speech.

I am going to be with my Dad tomorrow, and I am not sure when I will be able to post again.

Thanks for all of your kind thoughts and prayers over the past week.

A Mum update, and an Award

I saw Mum the weekend after her stroke, and I must say that I was a little shocked, but also surprised at how well she seemed to be coping.

Her speech is slurred, but she is able to be understood.

She has regained movement in her left leg, but is not standing as yet. Her left arm is pretty much immobile, but she is able to shrug her shoulder. All in all she is making progress and some progress is definitely better than none at all.

Her spirits are amazingly high, she is giving cheek and complaining about the food she says that the food is 'S#!(' LOL. Her swallowing reflex has been affected and her food has to be the consistency of honey to prevent it going straight to her lungs, this is highly undesirable as she has a lung infection on top of everything else. She is very thirsty and is always asking for a weak black tea with a dash of cold water, or a beer LOL.

She has been dehydrated and has had a nasal-gastric tube put in place to increase her fluid intake, and the silly bugger pulled it out. It has been re-inserted, along with a trip to the hospital, she is now in a place that specialises in re-hab, for an x-ray to ensure that the positioning is correct and her right hand is now sporting a sock which has been taped on to prevent her from pulling it out again.

While I was visiting her she complained that her dentures had not been cleaned since the stroke, five days, so she asked me to clean them for her. Now, I am the only one in my family the youngest of five, that has their own teeth, and of all the people to ask, she asked me LOL. Well I gave it a shot and did the best that I could, she said that they felt better.

I would sincerely like to thank each and everyone of you that have left comments about Mum, it is so comforting to know that so many people are thinking of Mum and my family during this time. While talking to Dad on the phone one night, I told him that I had blogged about Mum and I told him about the messages that I had received, he was so touched he was actually crying and he said that it was wonderful to know that so many were thinking of us. Thanks everyone.

Ann has very kindly bestowed an award on me and my blog. On her blog she said that she was impressed with my cake decorating abilities, see previous posts where I made a Pirate Ship cake for Joel's birthday. Thanks so much Ann.

The 'rules' of the award are as follows:

1 Put the logo on your blog
2 Add a link to the person who awarded you
3 Nominate at least 7 other blogs
4 Add links to those blogs on yours
5 Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs.

I am not going to nominate any blogs, sorry Ann, but everyone who is a regular reader, or those who have left a comment regarding Mum, please accept this award from me.

My next post will include a prize, and some wip pictures.

A Gift and some not so good news.....

This has taken awhile to post about, sorry Ranae.

Here is the prize that I won on Ranae's blog. It is called Offering From the Heart and it is by Ewe and Eye and Friends. The verse says "Please now accept this little gift an offering from the (heart picture)". It is a gorgeous design, and Ranae also included some DMC Pearl thread, Thank You so much Ranae. I love it, and I am looking forward to stitching it.



















Now for the not so good news. Yesterday I was at a cafe having a coffee with some friends and my mobile rang. It was my Dad and highly unusual for him to call me on my mobile and in the middle of the day. He said that when he got back home from walking their little dog, he found Mum had fallen over in the bathroom, he called an ambulance and the driver suspected that Mum had suffered a stroke. Dad was so upset, understandably, and I just broke down crying. A friend called DH and he came and calmed me down, as all I wanted to do was get in the car and travel the five hours to go and see Mum.
Dad rang later that night, after he had been to see Mum in hospital, half an hour away from where they live, and said that her spirits were high and she had regained some of her 'cheek' while he was there. She has paralysis down her left side and her speech is a little slurred.
She will be in hospital for some time, as she has to have physio and speech pathology. But the best news is that there appears to be no permanent brain damage, there was no bleeding on the brain. Apparently Mum was brushing her hair and dropped her brush, and while picking it up, slipped on the mat. It is not known if the fall caused the stroke, or the stroke caused the fall. Either way it seems that she has fared rather well, Thank God. Now just the long road to recovery.
Please keep Mum in your thoughts and prayers as she begins her recovery, she is a strong and determined woman so we are hoping that these traits see her through this difficult time.

I WON, and some WIP pictures.

Ranae had a competition on her blog a little while ago, and I WON!!! WOO HOO!!! Can you tell that I am excited!!!! Thank you so much Ranae for your generosity and kindness. Here is a link to the post with details of the competition and a picture of the chart, http://crazyxstitcher.blogspot.com/2008/06/its-finally-beautiful-day.html. I have e-mailed you my snail mail address Ranae, and hope that the e-mail gets sent as I have been having problems, need to get DH to have a look at it soon.

Now that I have managed to compose myself, here are some long overdue wip pictures.

The first two pictures are of HAED Faery Tales. I am really enjoying stitching on this one at the moment. I am doing the forth row of ten stitches and I can see a pathway on the top of the cliff, the beginnings of a person's coat. The second Faery Tales picture only has three rows completed and I can see the beginning of a wall, of which Cinderella and her Prince are dancing on the top, and the beginning of a ship flying through the night skies. I am assuming that the ship has Peter Pan and co. aboard. Please feel free to correct me if this is not so.

My next wip picture is of a little design that I started recently, and is a LHN design from their collaboration with Crescent Colours and is called Patience. This is a gorgeous design, and the colours in the photo are pretty true to life.

I would like to thank everyone for the lovely comments about Joel's birthday cake. Yes we did eat and destroy the cake. Funnily enough not many of kids finished their pieces, it must have been the black icing putting them off combined with the chocolate cake mix that I decided on, not to worry, the chickens enjoyed it LOL.

I would also like to thank everyone who commented about Georgina and looked at her blog and left a comment there, I can't even begin to understand what her parents and siblings are going through. It just must be heart-breaking for them to see their sister and little girl going through so much and at such a young age too.

That is all from me for the moment, almost time to get the boys from school.

Hope everyone is well and getting lots of stitching done.