Time Flies...even when you're not having fun.

Has it really been 2 years since I posted? Wow. Sometimes life takes us for a wild roller coaster ride. Just this last year has had many ups and unexpected downs. It's shown me again how unexpected life can be.

Last February, Tom and I flew down to Florida for a new and somewhat experimental surgery. Little did either of us know when he joked about 2015 going to be the "year of pain" how true he would be. His surgery was a success and it took away a majority of the pain he had been living with. We had the normal ups and downs related to living with his PTSD and my anxiety.

In July we converted my craft room into a school room since we decided to homeschool this year. School was going okay and we dealt with the normal "kid not wanting to do work" that we would have even if they were in regular school. August seemed to go by and school was starting to smooth out.

Then in the early hours of September 14th that my world tilted. My parents, who I hadn't talked to for over a year showed up at my door. They told me that my cousin had been killed. He was only 31 yrs old. He was a Kentucky State Trooper. He had pulled a man over for going 103 mph on the highway. The man had a suspended license and neither of the other two had a drivers license either (I assume one of the minors was 16/17). Cameron noticed there were 3 other occupants in the car (an 18 yr old and 2 minors). Instead of issuing the man a ticket, he was in the process of arranging lodging for them (out of his own money) until they could get a licensed driver to come pick them up in the morning. The driver took off and it became a chase. Then the man stopped, causing Cameron to nudge him. Then proceeded to shoot Cameron in his cruiser. the man was later found after a manhunt and killed. I'm comforted in the knowledge that there were a couple of good Samaritans who decided to stop when they came across the scene and were there with Cameron in his last moments. ...  Cameron he was a good man. He was a Navy veteran and worked along side the Navy Seals on their missions. He got out in 2013 and had been with the KSP for only 8 months. He was one of those magnetic people that drew you to them and you couldn't help but be happy around him. The magnitude of people who showed up for his viewing and funeral is amazing. He touched so many people. The church his funeral was in held 1100 people and there were still law enforcement people standing in the aisles because every seat was filled. The procession took 3 hrs to go what would normally take 20 mins. It was all so very overwhelming.

 The rest of September and the beginning of October went by in a haze. Then October 24th came around. We got the news that my father-in-law was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer in his lungs, liver and brain. He was given a couple months. We tried to spend as much time with my in laws as we could. Every day that we had with him was a blessing. Then on the morning of December 2nd, my father in law passed away at home. A day we should have been celebrating Tom's birthday, we were mourning his father's death.

So here I sit in my dining room. Packing boxes in various stages of fill surrounding me. Contemplating the past and wondering what the future will bring.  We had traded my Charger in on an RV with the plans of taking my inlaws on trips to help check items off my father in law's bucket list. We are going to continue knowing that he will still be there with us in spirit. So, my blog will be changing with us. I hope to fill this with whatever the road ahead of us brings. 

Fave 5 Friday

My fellow Misfit, Sharon over at A Prairie Sunrise, started a Fave 5 Friday linky party. Woohoo. So I have decided to join in my first linky party. As long as I can remember because anyone who knows me knows I'm a bit scatter brained.

So without further ado, here are my Fave 5's from last week:

1. Sewing with my girlies. It was their first sewing experience on their new Hello Kitty sewing machine.

2. After kids go to bed movies with hubby. One this week that we watched was The Man from La Mancha. Blog post here.

3. Laundry hanging out on the line. (This isn't my yard, but I would LOVE to have a farm with a wide open view.)

3. Mt Dew...what can I say... :-)

5. Learning new embroidery stitches thanks to We Love French Knots blog!

Meet Ariel and Ears

My girls have been anxiously waiting for me to make them items from Jennifer Paganelli's book Girl's World. If you haven't already, check out her book!

Today, out of the LONG list of to make from my girls, we made George the Puppy on our brand new Hello Kitty sewing machine. Talk about two happy campers!!!

Jennifer is so awesome! She sent us three lovely fabrics. Out of them I let the girls choose which one they wanted their puppies to be made from. What fabric I have left over will be used to make other things from the book for them.

I cut the dogs and their ears out. Sewed the ears together and pressed. As well as, pinned the dogs together. Everything was ready for the girls to start their sewing.

My oldest daughter sat in my lap while we sewed her dog, Ariel (after the little mermaid), together. Once her dog was done, I moved on to my youngest daughter and we sewed Ears (which he flies with) together.

We then turned the dogs inside out and began stuffing...and stuffing...and stuffing...

I performed surgery and sewed their bellies shut making sure to push their guts back in. Now I have 2 super excited princesses and one grumpy lil man because I didn't make him a puppy.

Ears is the yellow puppy who belongs to my youngest daughter. She named him Ears because he can fly with his ears.

Ariel is my oldest daughter's white puppy. She is everything princess and a redhead. So she named her puppy with the pink ears Ariel after the red-headed mermaid.

Happy sewing!

Poor, Neglected Sewing Room

Life that crazy, unpredictable aspect of our existance. Because Life Happens, it's going on two and a half weeks of no sewing. I think I'm going into major withdraws. I need to get out of this funk! After months of not looking or going to Pinterest, I got sucked into it's wormhole a couple days ago and went on a pinning spree. So go check out my boards, there are lots of recipes, Halloween/Thanksgiving/Christmas ideas, and some cute tutorials.

I don't have any sewing pictures to share with you, but here are some pics of a few things that were going on.

DD#2 and Hubby are building a wall in the front. It's been slow going since the weather has been in the 100s. It's looking really good now at 4 stones high.

Lil Man was out with us that day too.

We got our new kitchen/dining room table in. It's a German eckbank (or Corner Bench). Our first table in 10 yrs. The one we had been using was a hand-me-down from his parents. The long and short benchs lift up to have a small storage area under them.

The girls had to have pink cowgirl boots when we went to the farm store. DD#2 has worn her everyday since we bought them. She loves them, as you can tell from her expression.

My Misfit's Doll Quilt Swap quilt came in the mail with some AWESOME goodes from Amy at The Needled Fig. I already have it hanging up in my sewing room (one of the few times I've been in there). DD#2 had claimed it as hers. She had wrapped it around herself like a skirt saying it matched her shirt. I took it away when she went to sleep.

My fabric finally came for my next dress. I am going to be using this with the Meghan Peasant Dress from Jennifer at SisBoom. I can't wait to get started! I am going to use the cap sleeves with this one.

I have a pretty purple-ish rose on my rosebush!

Well, that's all for now. I can't wait to sew something up and show it off to you all!

Happy Sewing!

3 Generations

Today was a beautiful day! Bright sun and warm temps. The day didn't start out too well. I lost count of the times Reagan woke up last night after 6 times. I was a walking zombie until I bought a Mt Dew from the waiting room 2 hrs after I woke up. After all of our early morning errands, we met my father-in-law for lunch and then walked around Peddlers Mall for a while. When we were walking out to the truck, I snapped this picture. This picture made the day better. Both our girl's holding their Opa's hands. Three generations are in this picture.