Something to celebrate, a day trip & and a finish!

Well, I forgot to add my finish for the week.
It's called Be Still and Know by My Big Toe.
A favorite verse of mine and got me
through some rough patches this year.
This blog post has been started,
deleted, restarted, drafted, and it's gonna'
go right now just like it is. Phew!





Grampa and Luke returning from their trip to Russell Cave. I'm taking the picture cause I

couldn't make the walk, but that' s ok...they're buddies :)

Tuesday the 5th was a good good day. No more chemo! No more blood tests! Well, not until

Dec. 13 for a pet scan, the 15th for colonoscopy and the 21st for consult. But that seems a life time away.

He shooked the doctor's hand and hugged all his nurses before he left the cancer center, but his favorite person, Hezekiah, wasn't there for him to say good bye. They sat in those recliners and got to know each other so well. I wonder, do people stay in touch? Herman will be off to Pennsylvania the day after his birthday which is Oct. 17th.

I hope he doesn't check in on my blog cause on the 16th my youngest daughter who is a photographer is trying to get this whole family together for a family picture out in the back yard. He thinks it's just for the picture, but they will have cake and all the fixings for his birthday. One will be absent for sure, our granddaughter in the navy, but Karen will phtoshop her in I'm thinking.

Our day trip to Chattanooga Choo Choo model trains and to Bridgeport, AL's Russell Cave with our grandson Luke was a fun fun day! There was one condition to him going with us....we had to be home by 7PM for the Alabama/Florida game...we walked in the door at his house at 6:55. He is a die-hard Crimson Tide fan and he just turned 9 last Wednesday the 6th...the Tide won so made for him a perfect day.

I call this pic on the left "watching the wheels turn". Luke loved working all the levers on this engine at Chattanooga Choo Choo. He told me if I looked close I could see the wheels turn.

On the right he's standing in front of one of the "coolest" displays at Russel Cave museum.

This is Luke and me showing off the fountain behind us...they just wanted me to be in at least one of the pictures :) I really am there.
And this last picture is my personal favorite....do you see Luke in the upper corner? It's just a reflection of him as I took the blurred picture of one of the model train sets. My heart skipped a beat when I caught sight of his image.

Happy Stitching!
Babs

Friday finishes and other things

It's been a while, and looking back I'm not sure why I haven't checked in sooner.

Maybe it's because chemo was winding down and my heart and mind was on getting through it without any surprises.

God willing, he's had his last treatment; will go for bloodwork and consult with Dr. Becdash on the 5th and then make plans for returning to work. He came home from Philly, ya'll, on February 17th and he's been here since. He's feeling ok, but he's so run down...his appetite seems to have come back, though. He's proud to show me he cleaned his plate for the last few evening meals...it's been a struggle getting him to eat.

Not much stitching since my last post except for the halloween exchange piece I work on a little bit every chance I get. Can't show that cause it's a surprise and I know she will check my blog when I post :)

But I can show some of the recent finishing on some not so recent pieces.

This is my oldest piece; it's Northanger Abbey by The Sampler Girl I stitched back in 2004, but just made it into pillow this week.

Next comes Say Grace also by The Sampler Girl; it's not quite as old but done in 2009 . I loved this piece the minute I saw it.

Then there is Land That I Love I already shared with you, but now a part of my patriotic scene. Wow! one stitched and finished in the same year :)

Last and least, but not my least favorite for sure is Blackbird Designs which I finished right after I showed you the WIP of it, but too lazy to post.
Oh yes, the little sheepie piece was stitched by dd Tami and was supposed to be pin cushion but decided to frame it. I love all things sheep!

I've read a few books, (listed on the right) but the biggest surprise of September was my Kindle! Baby brother Ed and his wife Twila bought me a kindle just because...the best kind of gift, huh? Everyone is always calling and asking about Herman, but then one day Ed called and said he wanted to know how his sis was doing. Before we'd hung up the phone (he lives in Kansas), he had ordered the kindle and the cover. He called this week and asked if I'd figured out how to use it yet. I told him Sure! you just order a book and read, right? I LOVE it!

Tomorrow, Herman and I are going to try something we haven't done in awhile. We are going to drive to Chattanooga, TN to see the model train display at the Hilton. In case I haven't mentioned before, Herman is a model train (HO & N scale) enthusiast and Luke has come a lot to "play" with him during all this chemo stuff. He will be nine years old this week. Last picture, of course, is Luke, the only grandson that carries his grampa's last name. He tells people that's why his grampa loves him so much.

That's about it for this afternoon. Maybe I'll have some pics of the day trip tomorrow.

BIG thanks and hugs to all of you who have prayed us through these months. It means a lot to me. Just in case ya'll don't know....DJ's (you know, Tickled Pink) birthday is the 18th of this month a day after my hubby's. She'll be one of those "landmark" ages, but she thanks God for everyone of those days and years and gives Him the glory for walking alongside her and even carrying her through this year of surgeries and chemo, setbacks, struggles, tears and laughter...always laughter with DJ. She has been an inspiration for me dropping in via snail mail or email just when I need it the most.

I know she's been an inspiration to many of you and now is a really good time to let her know :)

Love,

Babs

UFO Tuesday

Today's UFO is going to be The Woolgatherer's Cottage Farm by Linda Myers. I wrote down when I started it some years ago, but can't remember where I put that list :(

I thought if I posted a picture, it would shame me into getting some real stitching done on it. It's a fun piece done on the 25 count called for and dmc threads.

I think I tried to do this posting a ufo thing some time back and it had absolutely no effect on getting it done. maybe it will work this time.

Happy Tuesday! and God bless!

Babs

I thought I'd be one of those people

You know, that keeps a record of everything just in case we need to refer to a day or date or test or surgery or chemo or breathing test or bill paid (or not)...and on...and on.... And I'd get so many books read while waiting at the cancer center, or pieces finished. that just isn't gonna' happen.

I have done exactly the opposite and oh, how I wish I had DJ's gift of gab and wit and humor over at Tickled Pink...but I don't and at this stage of the game called life, I don't think that's gonna' happen either:(

My hubby and I are the same age for a few short months each year and this is when we are. 63 is not old, ya'll. It really isn't!

63 is when you look just a little ahead to retirement and a little relaxation and maybe just a dollar or two to spend at lns or hobby train shop. My grandbabies aren't grandbabies anymore and they all love us and love to visit, but they have places to go and people to see and school and all those things that take no time (or all your time) when you're young.

Hubby just finished his 9th of 12 rounds of chemo...he was getting sick before he even left the center Tuesday and he's gotten gradually worse every day. I really have to hover over him and get on his last nerve (that's already shredded) so he doesn't get dehydrated. He sees it as interfering with his "rest".

I had my big check up with pulmonary Tuesday which is a drive some distance away; had already cancelled once and could not miss this one. I went one way and he went the other. Pneumonia shots do a number on me for about 24 hours and this time was no different. With his shredded last nerve and my lack of nerves altogether and the pain and fever of the shot and the all over wish I was dead feeling, the two of us don't have enough room in this house that used to hold six.

They've upped my oxygen to "don't be frugal with the oxygen! Use it!" I've fought it so long I don't know how to just sit around and breath oxygen when I'm not moving.

Today I needed just a few things from "the pig" aka Piggly Wiggly, the place to go when you just need a few things. Ok, for that 10 mile round trip, my 20 year old grandson who is literally my right arm comes and carries my purse, my water, and my tank cause I have to put on the oxygen to do all that. I go NOWHERE by myself.

Hopefully, that's going to change in just a little bit. I'm waiting on oxygen people to come and check out my big unit and bring me some little bitty tanks I can carry and breath all at the same time and make some short runs to the pig or the lns or even to church by myself.

Oh yes! when I turned on my driveway which is a 3 tenths of a mile one lane gravel road, the garbage truck met me head on at the 90 degree curve...he kept coming and kept coming and I had to back all the way out of my road onto the main road cause he wouldn't stop or pull over. I couldn't cause my little car in the ditch would have been catastrophe! The picture is looking from my mailbox towards the 90 degree curve which has virtually no ditch, but around the curve does...that's where I was :(

So, here we are, both 63, both sick, I spent an hour trying to find a check I'd written and didn't register and there it was all the time, registered, subtracted and un-numbered. I dread the day when it's going to be the other way around. The way things are going, I just know that will happen. But, that's probably ok cause I'm real good at paying a medical bill before the insurance has taken care of it and I get these little surprise checks in the mail and it's like Free Money! and I can go buy a book or a chart or some thread!

Here's the "Small Token" by Blackbird designs I hope to have ready to make into a pin cushion by tonight. Wish me luck?

Happy Thursday every buddy!

Babs

So little to show & tell

It is so hot and humid in the south, there's just very few ways to amuse one's self when there's no air to breath and no energy either.
But I managed to mow some on Saturday while it was still in the low 90's, go to church on Sunday while it was in the high 90's, cook chicken stew for hubby yesterday and have done absolutely nothing today and it's almost noon!
On the stitching front, I've delighted in this little piece by Little House Needleworks called Simple Joys. Thing is, this is my second start on it. I actually had to trash the first one cause I cut the fabric too close...I forgot to measure and measure again before I picked up the scissors. I had started it on a bigger piece of fabric and waited to get a bit done before trimming the fabric down. I was so mad at myself that I threw the other one in the trash or I would share with you. Second start is from the middle outward instead of top left corner where I usually start. I love these purple flowers :)

And then, here is my last finish that I forgot to share with you. This
is Land That I Love by Shepherd's Bush. Thought I'd get it finished
into a pillow before showing it, but the sewing machine is in yonder and I'm in here :)

My 45th wedding anniversary will be Friday...45 years! That really is a long long time. My big brother ran into an old friend of mine at highschool reunion last weekend and I've really been walking down memory lane since talking to him (brother).
She and I were friends all through high school when we thought the most important thing in the world was a boy friend. I have not talked to her since the birth of my youngest child in 1977. I moved away from home town a few months after birth of first child and lost contact with just about everyone but a few friends and family.
I've written her via email this morning and hopefully will "talk" to her soon. So much has happened in both our lives, to catch up would be almost impossible. She knew my husband while he was still just my steady boyfriend.
I have enjoyed reading the blogs I follow. Even if I fail to leave a comment, please know that I check in on you every time you post.
Til next time, God bless and keep you safe and well.
hugs,
Babs