Counting Our Blessings

Just when I think I have something to complain about...someone has to show off and have a worse situation than mine. Man! This week has been full of hard things. My daughter was diagnosed with pneumonia yesterday. It all started with strep...but when you are asthmatic everything seems to go right into the chest. So we are battling that but thankfully we have been able to stay at home. Losing my grandmother was another big deal this week but I know she is much better off now so that is good. In addition, several people we know have been at a funeral today for a young, healthy mom who just happened to get pneumonia and everything went wrong. Now today to top it all off, I found out that one of my friends has thyroid cancer...an aggressive kind. However, they did find it early so the doctors say that is a good thing.

Here is what I have taken from this week so far. Number one, things can turn on a dime. Number two, don't ever take anything for granted. Number three, life is precious so let's enjoy it while we're here. Oh yeah, and the last thing is that I don't have anything to complain about. I want to count my blessings and focus on being thankful. Especially for the little things like... being able to hug my daughter, or watching my puppy be a stinker, or hearing my husband's infectious laugh. These are all good things that I get every day. The hard part is to be thankful even when times are hard and things aren't going my way. That is where the real growth comes in unfortunately. And I have been there more times than I personally thought necessary! But the Bible says "in this life you WILL have trouble", not "in this life you MIGHT have trouble". So we all have to just hold on tight and make every day count.

Grandma Hazel

My grandma Hazel passed away yesterday. She was 95 years old. I've seen pictures of her when she was young and she and I could have been twins. I look more like her than my mom or my dad. My grandmother was a hard worker and she loved to work. She didn't sit still for very long unless it was time for her afternoon nap. Her house was always immaculate and that is how she lived her life. What I appreciate about her was the fact that she would play with me even if it meant getting in the dirt. Also when I was learning to sew as a freshman in college at Lubbock, I would drive up to see her a few times and she would help me with whatever I was working on at the time. I kept the first outfit she helped me make because I am very sentimental, and it brings back a good memory. Another thing that we all appreciated about Grandmother Hazel was her amazing baking abilities. She is famous for the best Italian cream cake in the world. Also her pies...oh her pies!!! Perfection every time. She was a gardener and she would can her green beans. It was a treat if you got to have a jar of her green beans at the table. She and Papaw had the gift of hospitality. There were always people eating at their house on any given Sunday. In addition, my grandparents both had a love for the Word of God. Every day they spent time studying their Bible. That is a great legacy to leave. Mamaw, I know you are with Jesus right now having the time of your life. Please know that we all love you and that we will see you when we get there.

Wendell McWeiner

Wendell McWeiner was my sweet little Christmas present. The only problem now is that he is TROUBLE!!! This little guy has become quite a toot in our home. He is always in the middle of a shenanigan of some sort! He provokes people and our other dog, Jake, and tries to get things stirred up any chance he gets. Wendell is always looking for action and if there isn't any he will make it happen. I love dachshunds and we always had them growing up. But I do believe that this little guy takes the cake on being the stinker of them all. Good thing he's cute!

Changes

I started blogging last year and as you can see from my previous post...which are only two total...I really stuck with it. Well here I am again. Hopefully more blogs than just 2 a year this time.

Ok so today we got up thinking we were going to church...then, bam! Fever alert! Allie had a fever. We have missed services at our new church for the last 2 Sundays and I was all geared up to go. Sadly we took her to the doctor and she's got strep. This is after I told the lab tech, "She's never had strep...she just doesn't seem to get that" A few minutes later came the announcement. So much for me having that all figured out.

Sometimes I am not very good at changing gears when things like that come up. I was excited to go to church this morning and to see friends and new "family", but that would not happen. Instead I spent my day in the doctor's office, the pharmacy, the grocery store, etc. Now it's time to gear up for 140 teenagers tomorrow morning. Thankfully I have my sweet husband who is also a great dad, staying home with her tomorrow so that I don't have to get another sub. This has been a weird year for sickness in our family and at our school. I'm praying for God's grace and healing on our sweet girl tomorrow...she'll be in good hands with her daddy.

Crocheting, Gimp, and Other Stuff

It really bugs me that I can't figure out how to layer an image in Gimp. I need to get with the times and learn about this stuff. I found out how to do it in Photo Shop but the problem is...I don't have that program. I have the free one:) Also I got frustrated with my last post because I wanted to move the pictures around and I couldn't. Hmmmmph! I have a lot to learn! But I want to learn to use Gimp because I may transition into digital scrapbooking. It seems a lot easier...and cheaper than the traditional way I have been doing it...even though I still love it.

Also I wanted to share my crochet project. I got this out of Vanna White's crochet book that I bought. You use two strands of yarn together the whole time. This is my very first big crocheting project. Before I have made dishclothes that look like triangles (not on purpose!). As my friends grandma said, "I can tell you how to make a chain from here to North Carolina but I couldn't tell ya how to get back!"...that has been the extent of my skills. But I decided that I wanted to learn so I bought a book and watched some You Tube videos and away I went. I don't do this consistantly...I have to be on a kick and then I will get this project out and work on it. Then I will get bored with it and move on to something else. One of these days I will finish it. I don't think my stitches are right but for my first time I don't think it is that bad. I am planning on giving this to my parents for Christmas this year. Hopefully I will be done by then! With my short attention span, who knows:)

It's Sunday which means it's mean planning time for this coming week. I have been following "The Grocery Cart Challenge" blog that is a really cute stay at home mom who is sharing her menu and money saving ideas. She has a big family and they only spend like $65 a week on groceries. I could really cut down on this area of our budget so if you are in the same boat this is a great place to stop by for tips and inspirations. She also posts links to her recipes. So I am off to plan my cheap but good menu for this week and hopefully I will get my grocery bill down by taking her advise. I am excited:)

I'm On a Sewing Kick

Here are a few of the projects I have been doing. Don't you just love my photography skills? These are all baby gifts. The ones with the initials on them are fonts I copied and made patterns from. I used a tight zigzag stitch and sewed them onto the fabric. The two bottom pictures are of what I call "lovies"...just smaller squares of fabric that the little ones can carry around. I sewed little loops of ribbon onto the lovies for the babies to play with. All of my friends loved these and I just got an order for two of them. Not that I was taking orders but a sweet friend of mine asked if I would make her 2 for her friends. I had a lot of fun with these and with the blanket for baby Henry at the top. All of this was very easy and it got my creative juices flowing again. So I got really brave and decided to make my six year old daughter's Easter dress. It turned out really cute too. Now I am on the search to find what I want to sew next. I found this really neat link on another blog I am following for cloth napkins. They are so cute and vintage that I thought I might make a set for my mom to go in her Mother's Day basket. I'm not sure what else will go with them but Mom is easy to please.

My First Blog

Well how exciting! I am writing my very first blog ever. I really don't know why I haven't done this before because this is "write" up my alley! I hope you like occasional corny humor...I come by it naturally. Thanks, Dad! I am not sure what I am going to focus on yet. I'll just fly by the seat of my pants and see what happens. A little about me: I am a wife to a wonderful man and a mom to two awesome little girls. I work part time from my home office as an interactive recruiter. My faith is the center of my life. It is the hope that I have so deep in my being that I could not ever go back to living without it. I like to laugh a lot and I try to find humor in every day. I am good at a lot of things but I am not great at any of them. I like to learn something new all the time but I might get bored and move on before I get really skilled at it. But some things that have stuck that I really enjoy doing are: cooking, photography, song writing, sewing, scrapbooking, quilting, and crocheting. In addition I love things like going camping, curling up with a good book, and just being with my friends and family. I look forward to sharing my stories and experiences with you.