Hello! The summer is finally winding down so hopefully I'll have more time to blog and other things. It has been a crazy whirlwind of a summer, with craziness reigning supreme. Hopefully things will slow down so I can take stock and figure out what I should be doing and what I will actually be doing. I'm sure the world is waiting to hear...not to mention my poor boss, and my job I have let slide while medical appointments and life in general has shoved to the back burner. Me thinks I'm in a bit of trouble there, since the boss has been a bit cautious (shall we say) about assigning me hours. In my opinion he needs me so it's only his own nose he is cutting off considering I did nothing intentionally. At this season of my life I can only do what I'm capable of, and he'll have to learn to hear the word "no" from me in a way he hasn't in the past.
I was thrilled to attend this year's Woman of Faith event in Washington, DC. Quite a switch from last year when a hurricane was bearing down on us! We stayed till the very last song was song and word was spoken, but it was a wild ride home last year, let me tell you! This year the weather was perfect, the speakers were fantastic, and the people they brought in to sing were amazing! We heard from Sandi Patty, Mandisa, and Amy Grant along with the regular worship singers. Ballet Magnificat were there as well to dance and inspire us. Our speakers this year were outstanding, Andy Andrews, Brenda Warner, Christine Caine, Marilyn Meberg, Patsy Clairmont and Sandi Patty.
I learned you can have contentment even if you
have a bob cat in your bird bath! Forgiveness doesn't make the other
person right but it does set you free! Those that are planted in the
Lord shall flourish. Contentment is achieved by what you think,
maintained by what you believe, and sustained by what we do. God
reclaims, reframes, and renames. God speaks through unexpected people
in unexpected places. Nagging is NOT a spiritual gift! Discipline a
child when he is young or you will ruin his life. We matter to God!
It was a great growing experience!! Can't wait to see what I will learn
next year!!
So...here are a couple of "monkeys" I sat with at the conference. We call each other monkeys because of one of the speakers last year telling us this story about an experiement they did on monkeys...by sticking one monkey in a room filled with loud noises and obnoxious lights and then testing his stress hormone levels in his blood. They next put the same monkey in the same room but added another monkey so he was not alone. When they tested his stress levels then, they were cut in half. Having a monkey share your traumatic experiences lowers the stress of those experiences. We have been calling each other monkeys ever since.
We had a scrumptious dinner at a restaurant near the Verizon Center in Washington. I'm trying to remember the name but it escapes me right now. Anyway, here is my main dish and my Monkey's dish as well, doesn't it look too pretty to eat? (Mine is the smaller one with the orange garnish on top)
One
thing I took away from this conference is that our children will
cherish memories and memorabilia after we are gone. I know many people
my age and older who love reading the messages and notes left in the
margins of Bibles and books. I keep a small notebook of notes I have
taken during sermons, conferences, and from my own Bible study. I don't
know if Ben will ever appreciate my thoughts (some of them, as you
know, can be a bit off the wall!), but I keep taking them
none-the-less. I like to revisit memories, and record hard lessons I
hope my experiences will keep my loved ones from making in the future.
One of the speakers kept two Bibles and made the same notes in each
one, one for each of his sons. I thought that was an excellent idea!!
I don't think I showed you what was waiting for us when we got home from vacation last post. Our cat sitter is the best!! It's wonderful having someone you can trust take care of your pets, houseplants and other things while you are away. He always goes above and beyond and has a heart of gold! That's why we usually tip him so well, because he has come through for us so many times on short notice. When we arrived home after our last trip we found this picture waiting for us with a note that he was inspired by Wyland. I have a number of cross stitched pieces with whales in them, so I'm pretty sure he knew we liked whales! LOL Wasn't that thoughtful? And isn't he TALENTED???
While we were back in NY visiting relatives, DH's brother surprised him with a paint by number picture that his Dad had painted many years ago. My father-in-law was a man of many talents and one of the kindest people you would ever meet. DH doesn't have many things of his father's and this is now a prized possession. Looks like I'll be busy framing in the very near future!
I'm sorry to say I haven't got any updated photos of any stitching I've been doing. That's because I haven't been doing any. I have been diagnosed with rapidly advancing carpal tunnel syndrome, brought on by the Tamoxifen I was taking. I stopped taking it about a month ago when my doctor told me I could stop for two weeks and see if another issue I was having cleared up, and I just never bothered to restart. I've found it was damaging my liver and causing glucose levels in my body to rise. It's effecting muscle performance all over my body and a number of other things. I've been told I will have surgery after they give me a nerve conduction test to see how advanced things are and how much they will have to do during the surgery. I can see degeneration daily and even typing hurts as well as many of the things I do at work. I hope they can fix this soon!! Wish me luck! Hopefully I'll be back stitching soon! And the reason I'm hoping that is because....look what Hubby bought me for our 28th wedding anniversary!!
I can't wait to get my hands on that!!
And on that note, I bid you a fond adieu. Thanks for stopping by and as always it's lovely to hear from you! *Hugs*
I'm surprised when I find people have been visiting my blog, since I never seem to get here very often anymore. I am thankful for those who do stop by and love to see the comments you leave. Thanks for not giving up on me!
This summer has just flown by, much to my amazement and chagrin. Time is flying by way too fast and I don't seem to be accomplishing much. DS has kept us hopping this summer, not to mention DH taking off for two weeks on a business trip (hence getting lost in Alabama one night while out for a short evening drive in Florida...LOL) I swear that man can't find his way out of a paper bag!! DS traveled to Florida, Mexico, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and New York this summer. Whew! No grass grows under his feet! But he'll have to settle down now, as his senior year in high school is fast approaching. We've had exciting news the past two weeks as we discovered Ben was accepted into the internship program through his high school AND he passed his driver's test yesterday making him a provisionally licensed driver. I'm so very proud of him, and yet just a tad sad as I think ahead to him leaving next year for college. Now that I won't have those long rides in the car while we talked of all sorts of things, I'm afraid I'll lose touch with my buddy. DH and I were married 11 years before we had our son, yet I can't remember a time when he wasn't living with us. Hopefully he's prepared to meet the world, even if his Mom would love to have him home just a tad longer.
Ok, enough of that...LOL On to the fun stuff! We've been busy! We were able to squeeze in another baseball game before heading off on vacation this year. It was an outstanding game, even if the O's did lose. It was a beautiful night! My favorite part of going to the park is watching the crab shuffle...can you find the ball? Gotta love the way Showalter watches out for his team...reminiscent of the old Earl Weaver arguing with the ump! LOL
This vacation was full of visits with relatives we haven't seen in a while. First stop was to see DH's sister in NY state. We haven't seen them in a long time, not since DS was a little guy. We had a wonderful visit and I hope we can get together again soon.
Next we visited DH's Mom in the Adirondacks. It's a lovely ride through the mountains of New York, with twisty narrow roads and hills upon hills upon hills. I love the Adirondacks because of the green trees and the blue mountain lakes, it truly is heaven on earth! The sunsets are amazing, there are none like them anywhere else on earth!
Traveling south we headed for my old home town where it was once known as the Marble City. When I was young, the sidewalks, buildings and monuments were made of marble. A lot of the buildings have been restructured and the sidewalks remade of cement (the marble sidewalks were truly treacherous in wet weather and in the snow and ice...so maybe that's not such a bad thing). There are many buildings remaining that are made of marble, including the church I was married in 28 years ago. (We celebrated our anniversary while on vacation...we've had our ups and downs, but we are still going strong after 28 years!) I love this quaint town that is nearly 300 years old now. I must admit, I wouldn't want to live there now, as it is a small population and there are a lot more things going on where we live now. Still it's a beautiful little town. I had a wonderful visit with my Mom and Sister and her family.
We took a drive out of my home town to see a natural sight where in 1820 a preacher named Oliver Leavite preached from "Pulpit Rock". Of course the guys had to run up there and pretend to sermonize, and the natural curve of the rock helped project their voices. Word to the wise, never climb rocks in flip flops....they had a difficult time climbing down. LOL
We ran over to the "burg" to visit the Remington Museum. What a wonderful old house full of this man's artwork. I could have stayed for hours and listened to the docent tell about his castings and paintings, the process used to make and cast the molds etc. It's truly fascinating! I loved the little lighthouse visible from the front porch of this old house too.
We stopped in Watertown one night to visit another former college friend and her family. I haven't seen this lady since our kids were tiny, and she still has the same sense of humor. It was like revisiting college, she really hasn't changed a bit! Our families are connecting on facebook now and I was amazed to hear how much we have in common. I hope we get to visit again soon!
We were on our way home through Pennsylvania when we got tired and decided to stop for the night. Looking on the Garmin we discovered we were only 30 minutes from my cousin's house. We called her, she was home, so we decided to run over and see her. I hope we didn't overstay our welcome. What was supposed to be a one hour visit turned into a three and a half hour visit...LOL What a great time we had though. Usually when we head back to NY we only get to visit our Moms. This time we visited a whole bunch of people and we had a blast wherever we went. Life is good!
So...I've given myself a new "job". My Pastor's wife asked me to make bookmarks for Baptisms, Baby Dedications and Weddings. I tried to find easy bookmarks but the one we both liked is very time consuming to stitch. I'll do my best to get them done, but I've found some crocheted crosses that are pretty neat too. I can crochet much faster than I can stitch. I'll have to see what I'm able to get done...so if you don't see any progress on my crazies, you'll know why. Life is out of control at the moment. I haven't worked in 5 weeks, and with the appointments I have to keep, I'm not sure when I'll be able to get back to the shop. I'll let you know!
So...that's all the news that's fit to print. I was up at 4 AM this morning, and my eye lids are getting heavy...I may have to take a nap before too long. Hope you all enjoy your day and thanks for stopping by....please don't leave without saying hello! *Hugs*
