Just to Share!

I just thought I'd share a couple of pictures from Sherrie's trip. This was at a lion's perserve next to their hotel. The kids actually got to bottle feed the babies and hold one of them. The lion Sherrie is holding is about 5 months old. She couldn't believe how soft its fur was. I can't believe all the things they got to do.

Yeah Me!

Well, I thought I would have trouble sticking to the WW plan this time around. I am so used to just shoving food in my mouth that I really thought I wouldn't be able to do it. But after adding more lean protein to the mix, I wasn't quite so hungery in between meals. That made it all the more easier to stay on target. Well, I weighed myself this morning and lo and behold, I've lost 2.8 pounds! I'm really motivated to keep at this. I did discover that if I pay more attention to what I'm eating, I do better. I used to just gobble the food without even thinking about what I was eating or how it tasted. Now I eat slower, smaller bites and really savor the food. It makes a small portion seem bigger. If I can just keep this mindset, I should do okay. So YEAH ME!

We're Back!

Well, I finally got my camera back so am able to update the poppies. Sherrie had borrowed it and took it to South Africa and she returned it safe and sound (which considering her track record with cameras is a good thing) on Thursday. I did try to use hers, but she had hundreds of pictures on it and I didn't feel like uploading them all just to get one picture. Anyway I haven't made as much progress on them as I would have liked. It seems like things just keep getting in the way of stitching. There were a couple of series finales that I just had to watch (whatever shall I do without Lost?), books to read and decluttering to be done. I do hope to stitch some tomorrow but we'll see how that goes. I'm planning on having lunch with a new friend and then Dave and I are going to go to a movie later on in the afternoon. Maybe I can stitch some in the morning. So here they are in all their glory.

Trying Again!

Ok, I have to be honest here. For the past several years, I've been telling myself that I don't look too bad for an old broad. I would look in the mirror and think that I could look a whole lot worse. Then I saw the pictures of me at Sherrie's graduation. I couldn't fool myself any longer. Pictures don't lie. Somewhere along the way, I had gotten fat (I'm just calling a spade a spade). It started with stress eating when I became a caretaker for my elderly dad. Working full time, taking care of a household, animals and him just got to be too much and I began to eat. The problem was, when he passed, I didn't stop eating. Prior to his coming to live with us, I had joined Weight Watchers and lost about 28 pounds. I felt good and looked good as well. So I've decided to join WW online this time. My original leader had left and I just couldn't find a connection with any of the other leaders available. I mean watching a grown woman prance across the room in footie pj's riding on a stick horse was just not my cup of tea. So Monday I bit the bullet and signed up. It's actually quite easy to track the points. My only problem is that I feel like I'm hungry all the time. I find myself counting the minutes until I can have my snack. I suppose I'll get used to it. So I hope you'll follow along with me as I once again undertake this journey. Opps, gotta go. I hear my crackers calling my name!

Lamp Update

I think I mentioned a couple of posts ago about how my lamp broke. Well, we never received an email back from the company and I had given up on getting in touch with them (At least at work we are never able to get them to return our calls). But I took the 800 number home anyway and gave it to Dave. He did finally get through and actually got to talk to a real live person. Now the company does have a one-year replacement policy but my lamp was over a year old. So he asked to talk to the repair dept. Here's how the conversation went:

May I speak to the repair department?

Sorry, sir, we have no repair department.

Ok, then can I speak to the parts department?

Sorry, no parts department either.

What do you do when you lamp breaks then?

I don't know, sir. Our lamps actually come from (wait for it) China. All we do when they get here is put them in our boxes and ship them out. We closed our repair department about 6 months ago.

So there we were with a very expensive lamp hanging from it's arm and no way to fix it. Now I'm very fortunate to be married to a very handy guy. He was actually able to fabricate the part using the old broken part as a model. So my lamp is actually better than new with its new part. But what do stitchers do when they don't have a means of fixing it? I would be really reluctant to sell this brand to anyone else under these circumstances. Where are the American craftsmen gone?

She's Finished!

Well, she did it. My beautiful daughter graduated from NAU last Saturday. We are so very proud of her. She graduated Summa Cum Laude, Phi Kappa Phi honor society in a very intense major, Music Education. The first picture is of Sherrie and her 2 older brothers, Brian and Chris. Chris didn't find out he could come down until Wednesday so none of us told Sherrie. She was so surprised and pleased. The next picture is Sherrie with her new boyfriend. She and Albert have been best friends since freshman year and they finally became an official couple just a couple of weeks ago. And the final picture is David and I with her. The ceremony was so efficient, just a little under 2 hours long from the procession to the end. After the ceremony, we took everyone (all of us plus Brian's girlfriend and also Sherrie's best friend from home) to lunch. Then it was back to the dorm to finish packing her room. We ended up with 2 car loads (Brianna helped with that). It was quite a jam packed weekend but so worth every busy minute of it.

We're Back!

We finally got my Dazor lamp moved out of the craft room and into the living room, so I was able to get back to stitching on the poppies. I didn't get as much done as I would have liked. My stitching has been taking a backseat to reading. Years ago I started reading the Left Behind series but never finished it. So about a month or so ago, I started reading it again. Actually Dave and I are both reading it but he is several books behind me on it. Now it's one of those stories that I know how it ends but it still is an exciting read and I'm really finding it hard to put it down. But I resolved today to get back to stitching as there are too many things I want to get finished, the first of which is the poppies. So here they are in all their glory and I'm planning to make some time on them today.