Will you marry me?

My dad decided it would be really

nice to renew their wedding vows.

I didn't realize he thought in 

romantic terms....Anyway, he told

me he asked her yesterday if she

would marry him again and she

said....NO!  LOL.  Not until August

11 which will be their 61st anniversary.

I don't know, did I say all this yesterday?

If so, I apologize.  I was an hour early

for my lunch date with a friend 

yesterday.  My mind isn't working the

best these days.

I kind of messed this up but since

I didn't have another card, this had

to do.  I  need to make two more

birthday cards for my grandkids whose

birthdays are both at the beginning

of next month.  I really need to get

busy on that.  There's just so much

going on these days.  I can sit

and watch TV while I stitch and I

have to be in another room to make

a regular card, so guess which one 

is easier?!

Tomorrow was supposed to be our

deaf coffee chat for the month but the

coffee house we go to is closed due to

not enough staff.  It is summer after

all!  So she sent out a blanket invite

for the hog roast that the church is

having.  I wouldn't have gone but

since we will probably practice signing

a little bit (probably very little) I will.

I don't expect to have any other signers

attend, because our chats haven't

had too many people lately, but you

never know.  Since Robin is in town

she said she will go with me so

that will be fun. 

Happy Thursday!

Very awesome surprise!

We had the interview with the nurse

and social worker yesterday.  Nice

women.  Very young.  Why is it

that everyone looks young to me

anymore?  They were probably in

their 30's.  I  have two kids older than

that!  I am obviously getting old.

Anyway, it went well except that my

mom got tired out.  She'll be even

more tired out soon because my sister 

is on her way today.  They will both

be very happy to see her.  Here is an 

even more awesome surprise.  My dad

told me yesterday that he has a friend

who is a minister and asked him if

he would do a service with him and

mom to renew their vows!  He hasn't 

discussed it with her yet, but I'm sure

she would love it.  He wants to do it

while Robin is here.  He's already talked

to the administrator, Tena, and she loves

the idea and said she would have everything

set up for whenever he planned it and 

said she wanted to call the paper, too.

She was very excited as nothing like that

has ever been done at the home.  That

 would be cool if the paper came.  It's

Hillsdale, Michigan.  What else do they

have to report on?  Sorry, is my bitterness

showing?  I hate the place.

These are the last two cards of the

set.  I think they turned out beautifully, 

but I   like the roses the best.

  It was pretty easy to change the sentiments.

When I tape the card down on the back of

the pattern I draw a line around it so if

I want to make another I don't have to 

line the entire thing up again.  So 

putting the card in exact place gets the

sentiments lined up as well.

Speaking of such things...I contacted one

of the companies I get my patterns from

and asked if they would consider designing

a pattern of the sign "Jesus".  We emailed

back and forth a  couple of times, him

asking  me questions about the sign.

It is a double sign, but I told him half of

it would work because deaf people will

know what the other part of the sign

is.  Wouldn't that be so AWESOME?!

Coleen's birthday was Monday and we

surprised her with some balloons, 

cupcakes, etc.  Pam was at a workshop,

so didn't get to be there, but we said it

was from her as well.  I'm surprised

she didn't make us retake the picture

since she had her tongue out.  She

commented on it, lol.  She was just so

surprised and excited!  I love it when

you can surprised someone with fun

things.  That's why I send cards....

Happy Wednesday!

Weather report

What happened to the warmth???

It's chilly again today and was

all day yesterday as well.  Isn't

this supposed to be summer?

Enough of my rant.

I've had a headache since yesterday

which surely has to do with this

weather change.  I hope it 

goes away soon  !

 

 Here are two cards and forgive me

if I am repeating them.  There are six 

patterns and I'm changing the

sentiments on some of them, because

as I said, some just aren't really

very usable.  So if I repeat a 

pattern I appologise, but the 

sentiments are mixing me up!

I love the roses.  I have one more that

I'm working on right now.  They are

a little confusing, but I finally got

the  hang of it.  I think they are

really pretty.  I thought after I started

the second one that I should have

made the roses a different colour, 

maybe yellow for friendship, but I 

 didn't want to start all over again.

The stitching isn't so bad, but pricking

the holes sometimes makes my arm and

shoulder hurt.

 

Tomorrow a nurse and social worker

are coming to evaluate my mom and

I have to be there.  It's at 9 am in Hillsdale

which is about 40 minutes from me...

But if she was in Indiana it would

have been even farther.  I just would

have been able to go 70 mph.  OK, closer

to 75.  I love to go fast.  I wish I had

thought to become a race car driver.

I would have been good at it!  Thanks,

Karen, for teaching me to drive

all those years ago.  I still remember:

yellow means "hit the gas"  LOL!

 

Happy Monday!!

 

Butterfly blues

I'm back to making butterflies again.

I really get sick of them.  Why do

I keep using them?!  Can someone

please explain this to me?

This was a quickie but I like how it 

turned out.  I'm not sure if you can

tell, but there is a blue vellum butterfly

under the main blue die cut.  It almost

looks like a shadow.

Some more of that fancy thread.  I have

some different colours on order right now. 

 

Yesterday I visited my mom and as I 

was getting ready to go up the walk I

saw my aunt and uncle (from Toledo)

walking in.  I was going to go today, but

changed my mind and I wish I hadn't.

It was nice to see them, but pretty

overwhelming for mom to have four 

of us there. Since I had driven 40 minutes, 

I stayed, but tried to be in the background 

as much as possible so she could visit

with them.  It was nice that they came

all that way to see her.  Bert is her only

living sibling.  Wednesday my sister

is coming from NC.  My parents will

certainly be happy to see her.  My dad

is not telling my mom right now which

I think is a good idea.

 

I have to get ready soon to go to the first

service-I need the practice since I

didn't go to practice yesterday.  I am signing

"Blessed be your name" and "Everlasting God".

That one is hard because it's very fast and you

have signs all over the place!  I just know

I'm going to mess up something.

 

Happy Sunday!

 

Strange changes

 Before I get to what the title of this

post means, here is the card.  I've been

in the mood for stitching again, can

you tell?

This is from a pattern set of 6 so you'll see

more.  some of he center words were things

that I wouldn't use very often, like

"Happy Anniversary" and "Happy Mother's

Day".  Fortunately, if you line them up

correctly, they can be interchanged.

 

Here's another.  This one doesn't have

the lines above and below the sentiment.  

 

So, for the title, It's very strange how

my mother's personality has been changing.

For one thing, my dad says she is perfectly

happy at Drew's place and doesn't even

ask when/if she can come home.  She must

understand that this is her home now.  She

has been making friends with some of the

ladies there and even told my dad he could go

home yesterday because she wanted to take

a nap and then visit a lady in her room 

because the lady had come to visit in

mom's room!  My  mother doesn't

make friends.     She also told one of

the ladies while my dad was there that she

wanted to come "snoop" in her room to

get ideas on how to decorate her own.

AND...my grandson, Ethan, and granddaughter,

Bri, came to visit yesterday (it is their mom

that works at Drew's place) and my mother 

was thrilled to see them, I am told.  She

has never shown one iota of interest

in any of her great grandchildren.  In fact,

she got mad at me years ago because I took

Andy and his infant son, Tyler, to visit

my grandparents when my grandmother

was very sick with cancer.  She was still

at home at the time.  We put the baby

on a blanket on the floor and they 

watched him with such love.  They

both love babies.  But my mom was

really angry because, well, because

Tyler's mom and dad weren't married...

That's just how she was.  She's a very

judgemental person.  I could tell you

stories but I won't.  But my grandparents

loved seeing their great grandson.  I'm

grateful that I chose to bring him to meet them.

Anyway, the point is that she is changing

so much.  Some may be from the medication,

some from the dementia, I'm not sure how

much is due to what.  I wish she had been

like this years ago.  Perhaps we would  have

been able to have the relationship 

I always wanted.

 

I'd better go get ready.  I have to leave

soon to go to a ladies breakfast at church.

They are having a speaker, but I can't 

remember if I heard what she is going

to talk about.  My mind is a little fried

these days.

 

Happy Saturday!

 

 

Cute boxes

I have a friend with a birthday

on June 30.  I thought it would

be fun to make a bunch of boxes

with things inside for her to open.

One of them will be the blue 3 sided

explosion box I made a while back.

Here's two more:

This one is going to hold the Hershey

nuggets.  I will probably either

decorate the lid or put a ribbon from

top to bottom to hold it closed.  I'm not 

sure which.  Maybe both!

 

Isn't this a neat box?  I just love it.  

I put a sample of body wash and 

hand lotion in this one.  

Another angle:

 

You can see the the dry embossing

on the top. I used faded jeans

and milled lavendar distress inks

to colour it.

 

I have a doctor's appointment this

morning, then I'm doing a bit

of shopping, then planning on

staying home the rest of the day!

I have been running constantly

for days and I'm pretty tired.  Not

to mention my sciatic nerve has

kicked up once again.  It's

been giving me a ton of problems

lately.  Maybe due to stress.  I'm

not sure if that affects it or not,

but I can truthfully say I'm

getting a little tired of it!

 

It's been raining but no storms.

I love the rain and we need it, 

but please, send the storms!!

 

Happy Friday!

 

 

 

Waiting and trusting on the Lord

Nice boring card today.  I've made

cards similar to this and for

some reason I just do not have

the knack to arrange flowers

so they look nice.  Good thing

I don't work in that field...

I do like the ribbon at the bottom and I

love these flourishes.  They make

a really beautiful touch.  So tiny and

delicate.

So, on to yesterday's fun.  We've

started the medicaid process.  It's 

complicated as all state/government

things have to be.  But both of the women

we worked with yesterday were Christians

and freely told us how they loved the

L0rd and what He has done in their

lives.  Unsolicited, I might add, so that

was even more awesome.  They were

not afraid to share that, not necessarily

knowing that we knew the Lord as well.

The first  woman (Kandy) set up the 

appointment next week to have mom evaluated 

by both a nurse and social worker.  After 

that we need to get our ducks in a row and

quickly get all the financial documents

faxed to the second woman, (Becky) who will begin

processing all the paperwork.  I said something

about IF she got approved and she said, "no,

WHEN she gets approved".  Kandy said

that the fiscal year slots were filled and

the year didn't end until October.  Becky said

they would see about that and that she WAS

going to get this put through.  They were

both very compassionate and had positive

attitudes toward all of this.  It makes

it easier to go through it when you have

people who really care helping you.

My mom feels like she is being attacked

and I wonder if Satan uses minds that

are breaking down to spiritually attack.

I told her I read the end of the book and

we win!  She smiled and said, "hey, that's

right!"  I've printed out Eph. 6:10-15 about

putting on the armour of God and will take it

to her next time I go.  I don't know if this

is just in her mind or if it is real.  What I

do know is that she belongs to God and

I'm trusting that He's got this.  It's very

hard to watch her like this.  She's quite

intelligent and knows that much of 

what she says is probably not real

but still is unable to always distinguish

between reality and her mind's betrayal.

I continue to trust the Lord with

 this because I know He loves us

all so much!

Happy Thursday!

New Home for mom

We moved my mom to her new 

home.  It's a place called "Drew's 

Place" in Hillsdale, MI.  Not your

typical nursing home, it's more like 

a home.  Only 20 residents.  She

loves it there already.  She kept saying 

it seemed like a dream and she was

going to wake up.  As we are getting

her out of the car I hear a voice 

behind me saying, "what are you 

doing here?"  I turned around

to see my former daughter in law

(and daughter of my heart) standing

there!  It turns out she works there!  I

hugged her and just cried.  I feel even

better now, knowing that Annette will

be there helping to watch over my mom!

And that, folks, is called a "God thing"!

These are the same cards that I posted

the last few days, just done with the

new thread.  I haven't much been in

the mood to be creative, but maybe

now that things are settling down I 

will be able to concentrate more.

Doesn't that thread really make a

difference?  I am probably going to order

some different colours since no one around

here carries much of it.  I also wrote

the company that makes some of the

patterns and asked them to consider

designing a  "Jesus" ASL hand

sign (it would only be half the sign)

and they said they would put it on their

list of possible future designs!  Wouldn't

that be so cool?  They have an "I love you"

sign, but I have made so many of those

that people are probably getting sick

of them! (smile)

 

We got a little bit of rain last night and

the weeds are growing so well.  I'm

quite proud of them.  Proud enough

that I'm going to mow them over

later today.  They are they only

things that are growing, but at least

there's something green in my yard!

 

Happy Tuesday!

 

Last oval flower

I finished the last flower in the set

and also made all three in the other

thread which I will post tomorrow.

Out of the three I think this is

my favourite.

Yesterday's silent breakfast wasn't

too silent....I thought that might happen,

LOL.

My brother is coming down after

church today and then he and my father are

going to see my mom.  I can't stand to see her

in there one more day so I'm not going.  Also,

she gets overwhelmed easily so it's probably

better that there aren't too many of us

there at one time.  She speaks of Angels all

the time and sees them frequently.  Who

am I to say that God isn't actually allowing

Angels to come and comfort her?  So yesterday

while Coleen and I were out, we went to Hobby

Lobby and I found this sweet Angel figurine

which I will give her tomorrow.

Maybe this will bring her comfort as well.

I probably should take the price tag

off first, though...  Too lazy to take it off

when I was taking the picture!

Happy Father's day to all.  My father has

 been talking about strawberry shortcake for

two weeks now, so that is my gift to him.  When

they come back from the hospital he will have

strawberry shortcake to enjoy.

Happy Sunday!

Wonderful news!

I finally figured out what type

of thread these patterns call for.

Obviously you don't have to use that

but that's what they  use in the examples.

It's called Krenik and it's so thin I

never thought to use it.  But it works

pretty nicely.  It's all pretty and

sparkly.  I might do a set with that

thread and post it.

I still think it looks good with the

regular embroidery floss, though.

This morning I'm going to Bob

Evans with my friend, Coleen, to practice

signing which I need badly.  So-we'll see

how long we stay silent, LOL!

Last night I went to an "empty nesters"

meeting or group or whatever you call

it.  It was nice, we all had a potluck

dinner and the ladies played dominoes

while the guys chatted and told jokes.

They only do it once every couple of

months, I guess.  I made broccoli salad

(with ramen noodles)  and everyone seemed

to love it.  Since it's mostly sprouts, I

love it, too.

Now on to the great news.  We found a

nice home in Hillsdale, Michigan, called

"Drew's Place".  It's not a nursing home, 

per se, more like a home, but they probably 

have 15-20 residents.  It's also a Christian

home.  She is going to be  moved there

on Monday.  The person in charge, Tena,

went and evaluated my mom yesterday

to see what level of care she needed.

She told my dad she showed my mom

pictures of the place and my mom loved

it.  The room she will be in frequently has

deer right outside the window and

that will really make her happy.  So

we are thrilled.  I don't know

what will come down the road; we are

still struggling with medicaid.  But for

now she will have a nice and safe place

to stay, close enough for my father to go

whenever he wants.  He can have meals

with her, just visit, whatever.  There is

a hairdresser that comes and does the

ladies hair for $10.  Mom's hair dresser said

she would ask this lady if she minded if

she did mom's hair.  She's been doing

it for years.  If not, she will just visit. 

Dad popped in for a quick hair cut last

week and she refused to even take his

money.  I had tears in my eyes when she

hugged us.  You really find out who

your friends are when you go through

something like this.  I am grateful for

the wonderful support system I have

through my friends.  I'm very lucky.

Oh, and also I am going to be sending
cards to people in the church who need
a little encouragement.  Very excited about
that.  I got a list the other day.

Happy Saturday!

flowers in oval

I got a new set of stitching cards yesterday.

It's a set of three.  This is the first:

You're supposed to use a floss called

confetti, but I can't find that anywhere.

I looked online a long time ago.  Maybe

I should take a look again.  Meanwhile,

the variegated thread looks fine, I think.

My dad and I are going to another nursing

home this morning.  The one is called

"Drew's place" and they have multiple

sites throughout Michigan.  It's not a

nursing home in the traditional sense.

He has been there and wants me to visit

as well.  He loves it.  The problem is

getting her on medicaid.  That's been

a slight issue and it's really getting me

down.  Instead of revering our elderly

we shove them aside.  The money

is funneled elsewhere and that's all the

rant I'm going to do.  It's not fair and

I guess no one promised it would be.

So right now all we are doing is clinging

to God and hoping He's going to work

things out.  It's been hard to even pray

these days.

Speaking of God, I am a member of

the church now.  This is a picture my

friend Coleen took for them:

Ordinarily I don't like pictures of

myself but this one is OK.

Sunday I went to my first ever baseball

game!  We had so much fun and I

really needed to get out and away from

all the stress.  They lost by one point!

We were right behind the batter's box

under a nice overhang and got our orders

taken and food  brought to us.  It's good

to know people who have connections, LOL.

Thanks, Coleen!!!  It was a fantastic day.

Left to right:  Me, Pam, Johnny tin cap, Coleen and Judy.

Happy Thursday!