Yep, almost 12 hours in bed for lil’ old me. I haven’t been sleeping well because of my post nasal drip. My cold has finally settled in my sinuses, lucky me. I could barely keep my eyes open by 9:30 last night. By 10:15 I hit the hay. I normally am up until I get tired until about 1 am or so, so my guys knew I wasn’t up to par. I didn’t get to sleep for a while though. I was up at 5:45 am eating something and letting the cat up. I then went back to bed until 10. Exciting, isn’t it? Brian has a cold too and I am praying Sean won’t get it as final week is coming up.
All my Christmas cards are filled in and stamped. I have to make sure I have enough postage on some of the heavier ones.
Phase Two for Christmas is decorating outside. With my cold, I thought I’d skip that until next week or so unless someone else wants to decorate. We are suppose to get some snow, so that may have to be postponed anyway.
You should have seen me trying to cross stitch last night. I was missing the holes and it took 10 minutes to do 10 stitches. Needless to say, I gave that up.
I feel better today, but I’m not pushing myself to do anything except to maybe clean off the dining room table. That seems tame enough.
I just read on the website ‘Dead or Alive’ (we were wondering if someone they were showing on tv was still with us and he still is-Sherwood Schwartz the creator of the Brady Bunch is 89) and I saw that comedic actress Wendie Jo Sperber had passed away at age 47. She was the cute chubby actress on ‘Bosom Buddies’, Tom Hanks first (and only?) tv show. She had been an 8 year survivor of breast cancer and helped to promote the breast cancer postage stamps. Sorry to read this.

I can’t believe it’s here already. I managed to order three gifts (four if you count something I ordered for myself) from Overstock.com today(they had $1 shipping). I found a site that tells you which online sites have discounts and discount codes. I’ll check more into them. I am not buying alot, so I want to be very selective.
As I type, I am printing off about 10 photo collage newsletters. They are taking forever. I had to buy two new ink cartridges and nicer paper today-$30! I had gone out late to run errands as I am still sluggish, but not terrible. I didn’t go to my mom’s again. I’ll try tomorrow, but that’s also Friday, so I don’t know what I’ll do.
Earlier I was proofreading a paper that Sean is writing with his English group on the recent wars in the former Yugoslavia. Talk about dry material! They read ‘The Bone Woman’, so they had to pick a subject relating to that. I think it needs some more tweaking.
I almost have all my Christmas cards written out. I plan to skip some people who just never send any back. I am also sending to a few online friends who haven’t written lately. I’ve been friends with these couple of people for about 7-8 years. It’s too bad when they stop all communication. One has a rare condition and I was afraid to call her. I did a search and she had made a page about people sending cards to her mom who has lung cancer. It hasn’t been updated since early September. Hopefully my card will answer some questions.

Found this on Mariska Hargitay’s website (saw a link on another blog that said she was expecting!)
SELF-ESTEEM QUIZ RESULTS
Excellent Sense Of Self
You are great at weathering storms and picking yourself up when you are down. You know where to go to get help when you’re not feeling so good about yourself, whether it’s a friend, relative or someone else who you know sees you in the best light. Not only do you feel like you are a worthy person but you also feel strong enough to be there for others and it is through helping others that you also garner some of your sense of self. The fact that you feel you have a lot to be proud of means that you can take even the smallest accomplishments and recognize how they can be just as important as the bigger ones. You are the kind of person who is good at looking at the big picture. You know that what is happening today is not necessarily true for the rest of your life and you are strong enough to get past the bad days—you know that as time moves on, you are only going to get better and better!

I decided to work on the annual newsletter for the Christmas cards. I use to write about what we did during the year, but that isn’t really exciting. Photos tell the story so much better. Of course 2005 was Sean’s year. At least it helped me not think about my drip drip. I am a little better, but something irritated my throat. Brian got us pizza, so I appreciated that.

~Update-I can never leave these projects alone. No way was I sending out a collage of myself wearing a bathing suit so I subbed it with Sean and me in EPCOT. My older brother would tease the heck out of me. Brian said it needed to be more festive so I added Christmas balls, gifts and branches.

My day has been ruined-no eyeglass shopping, etc. I had ‘ants’ crawling down one side of my throat all night. I guess it’s post nasal drip. I did finally fall asleep after using Flonase (as a last resort), but I am miserable again. I am thinking it may be from a variety of things from moving around dusty items (the box spring had all this pulverized rubber or whatever on it from the mattress cover and guess who had to clean that off?) Then to add insult to injury, I was raking leaves at my mom’s house on Sunday. No wonder I am whacked out. I hope that’s it and I can get over it quickly. Wish me luck.

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Conan O’Brien mentioned the guy who dumped his mother’s ashes on the playing field during a football game in Philly this past weekend. That was her final wish. That must have been fun to clean up!
…Christopher Noteboom faces a charge of defiant trespass.
His mother died of emphysema in January and he says she “never cared for any other team except the Eagles.” He tells local TV that now she’ll “always be a part of Lincoln Financial Field and the Eagles.”
Police say they have “zero tolerance” for people who run on the field. The Eagles say they’ve gotten requests to spread ashes in the past but don’t permit it.

It’s been in the 60s around these parts. Talk about messing with your sinuses-ugh! Tonight my throat feels funny. Brian says his throat is clogged. It’s been raining buckets all night.I guess it could have been snow if it was colder. If it’s almost December, so I prefer colder weather.
My neighbor just shot an 8 point deer near our side yard and he did it on his 75th birthday yesterday. I was talking to his wife about our lousy trash service and she filled me in on the deer. He had just killed one on a recent trip too. We were saying with all the deer around how it was amazing how neither of us (or our guys) had seen that many ticks. That’s a good thing.
Sean is working on one of his last papers of the semester on the last war in the former Yugoslavia. It was suppose to be a group project and the other guys aren’t doing their share. I tried to proof read the draft, but couldn’t follow this one section with a jumble of facts. I told Sean he really needs to organize those facts to make the professor happy. And to make matters worse, one of his team members called at 10:30 tonight to say his grandmom was in an accident. Geez.
Tomorrow I’m going to mom’s and maybe look for glasses where they won’t rob me. Sean picked up his pair today and the new rectangular shaped, dark pewter framed glasses look nice on him. The sunglass part is detachable, but they can also flip up. Hope he is careful with them.

Brian was reading that Stan Berenstain who co-wrote all the Berenstain books with his wife Jan just passed away at the age of 82 at his home in Bucks County, Pa. Now I never knew they were from up that way, one of my favorite PA spots. Sean said he didn’t remember the name, but he definitely had a few Berenstain books as I probably did as the couple started writing the books in 1962. If he saw the drawings of the bear family, he would remember. A salute to Stan for his bear books concerning family relationships. I think I even have a cross stitch leaflet featuring the Berenstain bears!

A little late as the new one is coming up tomorrow…
Today’s “Stitching Blogger’s Question” was suggested by Kimberly and is:

Do you always sign your projects? If not, why? If so, do you use your first name, initials or what?
I do sign everything. It’s my hard work and a unique piece and that’s true with all pieces because your stitching itself is a signature even though the pattern may be designed by someone else.
For the Love Quilts I usually do my first name and last initials and year. Mostly I do my initials and the year.

I would like to thank the people I know who are overflowing with Christmas spirit and have their homes decorated already. I have been admiring your lovely photos and getting ideas for my house. I do things in a little bit of a different order. I like to get the Christmas cards and photo/photo newsletter done first. A few years ago, it snowed at the beginning of December, so we threw on our red sweaters and took a photo. It turned out really nice. We took another one last year of the three of us sitting on the new red sofa. My idea this year was to have Sean sitting in his ’98 Taurus and us standing next to the car on either side. I don’t know if they like that idea. We may skip it this year. And the photo newsletter isn’t a brag letter (you know the horrible ones you get), it’s a few shots of us through the year. People know I like to take photos and enjoy this kind of update on us.
One thing I would like to do is decorate the tree in something other the multi-color lights and a mismatch of ornaments. Not to get me wrong, I cherish all of them, but I want a Victorian tree with no red on it this year-mostly pink and white and silver. I’ve been saving these gorgeous Martha Stewart ornaments for a while, so it’s my turn to do the tree as I please. Maybe just this once or whatever. I do most of the prep work for all the holidays, so that will be my reward.
My mixed feelings are the way people are handling gift buying. I was sickened last year by the people rushing in the stores before the crack of dawn to purchase the ‘popular’ items at various retail stores. The stores know what happened last year (and other years), but their greed gets in the way. What’s the holiday about anyway? I am hoping that people will learn and celebrate the holiday like it is suppose to be celebrated-surrounded by family and loved ones.

Well it’s been a heck of a ride these last few days. I have been doing more cleaning and moving stuff then I have done in years. We did get the new bed yesterday. When I stand up next to it, it cuts me in half, that’s how high it is. It’s going to take some getting use to. My 4 poster white iron bed frame was removed. The delivery guys said it ‘wouldn’t work’ (they were a bunch of Hispanic kids). I believe the bed is too high for it now. We have no headboard and the bed is in a corner. Brian thinks he can at least salvage the old one and I was thinking of making a fabric cover to put over it since it’s missing it’s top poles now. I really didn’t want a ‘footer’ at the end. The iron bars were getting so creaky anyway. When you lay on the new bed it feels like you are laying on dozens of those oval sponges. I’m not use to anything like that. I am sure I will love it soon.
Brian and I took mom home today. We stopped at my brother Ken’s so she could pick up her car. It was due for inspection and Ken replaced the rear bumper that mom had damaged. He is a master mechanic. He’s the brother (I have three) who is redoing his entire house. He is working on his great room/kitchen and doing most of the work himself. Today we found out that a neighbor’s tree in the back came crashing down on their deck, destroying that, all the furniture and the grill. The garage’s gutter is hanging off, and their new skylight is scratched. The neighbor never said anything (Ken has homeowner’s). It’s a hilly neighborhood where you can look up and see the neighbor’s backyards. I was sick when I saw all the damage. I almost cried, so I was glad to go over to mom’s house. Everything Ken does is self-taught. I am really proud of my handsome little brother.
When we went to mom’s we got busy raking leaves. I turned on the leaf blower and cleaned off the patio. We were out there over an hour and made a big dent in the leaves, but we are far from finished. I told Brian I would take him out to dinner, so we went to Ruby’s Diner. I had the best bacon cheeseburger ever.
When I got home, I wrote my first recommendation letter for a friend. She had sent me one from another mutual friend and mine paled in comparsion. Needless to say, I added to my letter. I hope my friend likes it.
The Extreme Makeover: Home Edition show tonight is one that a young woman from Tribe.net went to witness. She took many photos of all the people associated with the show. I’m anxious to see if I notice her in the crowd.