Life's little notsogood surprises.

Ok, so unbelieveably, still, I report that the last couple of weeks have been a little rough. I managed to somehow come down with mastitis. Never had it in five pregnancies, but for some reason manage to get the awful illness. It is the sickest I've been in a very long time. Not to mention the pain. In the course of this illness, a mass comes up in my breast. To ease my worriesome mind, I co back to the doctor for him to just tell me I'm still needing to finish my antibiotics and perhaps be subject to a needle aspiration of what I think is an abscess. Imagine my shock when the first words from his mouth are something to the affect of "inflammatory mastitis can be a mascarade for breast cancer". Well let me tell you, I almost fell off the darn table. I think it was then, that my body just started following orders while my mind stepped outside of me saying, "this is not you". Honestly you could have slapped me and I don't think I would have known it. I go immediately from the office to the hospital for my first ever mammogram, followed by an exam by another doctor and then on to an ultrasound. There are words like, asymmetrical breasts, very different breast tissue, fluid pocket, inflammation, and puzzled expressions. The outcome, "well, there is fluid, but if there is something under the fluid I can't see it because of the fluid"..."you are not out of the woods, but at the edge of the forest"
So, I finished antibiotic and I wait to see the doctor again. It'll all work out.

Yesterday, on the intersate, driving home, a semi had a tire blow out in front of my car. The explosion scared me to death. I was less than a car length behind him and it was his back inside tire. Big cloud of black smoke, then debris hitting my windshield.

I need a few less surprises in my life these days.

I need a vacation....oh, and a money tree.

4th of July and other stuff....

Ok, so I won't complain, why is blogger posting my pics like this? I guess I'm just happy they uploaded. Just a few of my favorite pics of our 4th of July picnic. I made a lasagna, strawberry pie, and texas sheet cake. My sister brought chicken caeser salad, and garlic bread. Grandma threw in some KFC and we sat around and enjoyed some family time. My Mom came later, as well as my brother in law after he got off work, and he shot off some fireworks. My BIL was shooting off fireworks, and I had the warm sense of nostalgia, as it was something we did as kids. I remembered having sparklers, but didn't remember actual fireworks until they started shooting off in the sky. The end of the night was the best part of the day. For me. My kids also delcared it was the best 4th ever. Although, my niece let me know that "normal" folk have hamburgers on holidays, I didn't come home with ANY lasagna leftover. LOL. We've never been accused of being normal, that's all I can say. My girls are growing so fast.

RAN-DOOOOMMMMM

1. Would it not crack you up if you found these images of your husband on the camera. Pictures that he takes just to crack me up? I get kissy lips on my cell phone a lot too. The other day, he did a post it note on my phone that said I love you baby. He routinely sets my alarm and it goes off saying I love you. Just a few of the reasons I've loved this man more than half my life!

2. A quilt I've been working on for YEARS, yes I mean years. Course, I think I started it pre-Lillian, so you can understand why it's not done. One thing that bothers me, as a novice quilter, I didn't draw any lines before i started quilting it, so it looks like i was drunk while I quilted. I really love the pattern and the colors, oh the colors I LOVE, it took me a good long while in the store to pick my colors and patterns, but I'm so disgusted with the crooked lines. So the question is, do I rip out all the quilting ( which is mostly done) or do I continue stitching like a drunkard, or do I draw lines on the rest and just giterdone? *sighs*

3. I made this for Lillian when I was pregnant, but didn't get it quite finished til much later after her birth. It just needs binding. Part of me would like to finish it and give it to someone precious that would love and cherish it to death, but the other part of me can't seem to let go of the sentimentality it holds because it was for Lil' Bil. Not to toot my own horn, but I'm very pleased with my quilting on this particular one. I quilt by hand, it's so soothing. I made my very first quilt entirely by hand, but now I pretty much machine piece and hand quilt.

4. This is my new ride. I thought it only fair to share the new since I shared the broken one. LOL.

5. I just finished reading another Robert Whitlow book and I whipped through it in a day. The sequel to it is not at my local library, so I have to wait for it to be transferred here. Not to worry, though. I've three in my stack callling my name. I recently started reading some books by Jennifer Chiaverini. Easy, good reads. I think that is what has sparked my quilting bug again. She weaves the story around a group of women joined together through a quilting bee.

6. All these quilt thoughts, remind me of my dear friend, Jan, who passed away a year ago with ALS. I miss her so much. Her husband gave me some of her clothes and her smell is still there, even after washing them in my own stuff I can smell her detergent or perfume, whichever. It's funny what sparks the memory isn't it?

7. I've been trying lots of new recipes lately, and today I hit a homerun. It was called deep dish pizza. I found it on www.southernplate.com I tweeked it a bit to meet my satisfaction. It was wonderful and SUPER easy. I've fallen in love with her peanut butter cookie recipe. I've tried quite a bit off her website, I haven't LOVED everything, but we've like a whole lot. I would love to have her book. I got it from the library, had to wait for it forever, but it was a good read as well as some great recipes. She really touches my heart. I cried reading part of it, seriously, a cookbook? I know. But- if you know me, you are probably not surprised. ha.

8. Summer has been insanely busy. Bethany has been in summer school, Lillian has been in summer school, therapies twice a week, weddings, birthday parties....no rest for the weary.

9. Enjoying our new church and the fellowship it brings very much. It is still difficult to be new somewhere, but given time, it will be more like home. We will soon be starting small home groups called life groups, can't wait to get involved with that.

10. I'm hankering to do some crafting, cards, scrapbooking, sewing..anything, but the the middle girls are sleeping in my craft room and another computer is set up in here as well, so room is diminshing. Thinking of moving them down and moving my room up, but then I'd really never get in there, so I think it will have to be just like it is for the time being.

I think I'm done now. Random complete.

Going "home"

Today we took the girls down to my Dad's. Two of them are staying there for a couple days. As we drove, the closer we got the more I started to have an internal reaction to getting closer to the place I grew up. Similar to how I felt,as a child, when we traveled any time. I always felt a bit more relaxed as we drove into the small town where I went to school. It was sort of like a peace, just knowing I was "home". Since my parent's divorce, in the times that I've been there, I have left feeling sad and aching. Most often in tears as I made it to the next small town. I've never really understood it...and I guess, even though my Dad is there, it bothered me because the sense of my mother was gone from there. I guess these few years later, I'm finally comfortable being there again without her. He seems to be spending more time putting flowers and bushes around the property and cleaning out the large flower garden Mom had grown. Today, I regained that feeling of peace. Ironically, putting it into words is making me quite emotional...but overall, the good memories presided today.

Remember...

all those cards I was making for my sister in law? I got them finished today..

and with the help of Bethany,

Got my craft room cleaned up and organized.

So, Amanda came over and we crafted...woohoo!

Surviving the Crash

The ordeal finally ends. The money should be in the bank by Monday, and with the help of some good friends and attorney, I'll have a rental until Monday. That is all I wanted I still have to pay the additional insurance, but I'll have the van until then. It is so nice. It has been 15 years since I drove a new vehicle and it is lovely. I shall miss her when I turn her in. At least I'll have one smooth ride to KY on Monday. LOL. We have been offered a very good deal on a used van, basically an equivalent to the van we lost and we will picking it up later today. We really hoped to get something with 8 passenger seating, but alas, it is not to be. It got me to thinking though, we should really look at trying to get something newer when tax time rolls around again and try to start setting aside a "car payment" each month. This will also be the first time in years I've driven a vehicle that wasn't white. *shakes head* . I know color is no big deal, or at least I don't think it is a big dea, but I'm a little excited to have a vehicle with color. Again, I pray that this is my first and last car crash. Not something I'd like to experience ever. Really.

Sunday School Funnies

I'm teaching Sunday School for the preschoolers at church this month. I found how much I miss working with kids that age. I really loved working at the daycare I was once employed and this SS class has given me a little taste of that again. One of the little guys in my class has just kinda gripped my heart. He has the biggest brown eyes you've ever seen. I met him in the hallway this past week as his Mom was taking their baby to the nursery. I said to him, "Whaaazzzzuppp my brotha" (he's four) He started laughing so hard, it got me cracked up. We sat down in the classroom and he looked at me with these big sparkling brown eyes and said, "you are funny, I like you". We get on into the story, and there is a fly buzzing around the room and apparently his attention was focused on this fly, he says "there's a fly, they sit on poop" I just kept trying to go on with the story while giggling a bit and he still stalking " this like dung"...I'm telling you I just about lost it. It was totally hilarious. I was just hoping to keep the topic on Stephen and not flies and poop or dung. It make me laugh even today. We use this puppy puppet for a teaching point, and try to hide your surprise that Theo, the puppy came out singing shoefly, don't bother me. HA!!!