So, my little ma Jeannie decided to take a drive over today. I was right in the middle of trying to use a mat cutter, but I told her ‘ok’ when she announced she was on her way around 1 pm. Three tries later, I figured out the cutter. I had to use posterboard for the mat, but it looks fine for the time being. I will try to locate an uncut mat down in my hometown. Sean’s grad gift is framed up in this lovely rosewood rectangular frame. I am pretty happy with it-except for the posterboard. Underneath the cross stitched piece is the’official’ grad announcement. It all ties together nicely.
Back to mom. She came with a bag of chicken McNuggets and no beverage. She asked for coffee with her ‘kid’s meal’ and they questioned her about that. Just give the lady her coffee and of course they forgot. She didn’t like her food. It looks like she doesn’t like anything she eats as she is so skinny, but not as bad as she was last year, thank goodness.
Mom explored our gardens to get an idea of what she would like in her own yard. She said she had 9 poles and nothing on them. I suggested petunias. We went down to a local greenhouse and she picked out a bunch of pink and purple ‘wave’ petunias (I am sure you have seen the tv commercials). Then I suggested we go to Wally World. Damn if they didn’t have their hanging baskets on sale for $5! Mom grabbed 5 of them plus some dianthus (I have lots of it and it comes up every year for me). She said she wished we had gone there first. Oh well. She bought petunias, impatiens, dahlias, and begonias. I got a burgundy-hot pinkish impatien.
We got back home and ordered Chinese food. Mom left about 7 and an hour later she called from ‘Big Lots’ saying she was on her way home. She’s bad. I want her home before dark. Her car was really bursting at the seams, but I know she will enjoy what she bought today.

Ok, I have a few to answer.
The first is what do I do when I am in a stitching slump? Like the other stitchers, I usually just try to do something else creative for a change of pace. This time of year I am outside more than I am in, so I am gardening to express my creativity. To help me stitchingwise, I go through my tons of cross stitch stuff and either weed out what doesn’t appeal to me anymore or find something to stitch and add it to the ‘must do’ pile. What has helped me a lot in the past is having a deadline (like for my charity stitching) or I work on and try to finish UFOs.

What do you like *least* about cross stitching?
I would say ‘frogging’ or ripping out stitches after I put an hour or more into the design. This happens more often than not and probably is the most discouraging thing for me.

Well really the only good thing about it was my nephew turned 9 yrs old, but I didn’t get to see him on his birthday.
It was a terribly rainy day. Not a good day to do last minute Easter shopping like my mom did. She came out here yesterday and we went up to Lancaster as planned. Sean did the driving and it was a nice sunny day. We hit a few stores we never usually go in plus some of our favorites. We had a nice dinner in a restaurant we hadn’t eaten in (Texas Roadhouse). We were really tired, so mom stayed all night. It may have been better if she had gone home last night. On her way out of town today, she swerved and hit a ‘security pole’ (like they have outside of fast food places) and her right back tire took it hard and she practically had a blow out. She said her neck hurt a bit, but she is okay, thank God. Luckily there was a gas station a mile or so away and they put on her spare-the ‘donut tire’. I am really worried about her driving now. She had someone hit her in a drugstore parking lot a few months ago and that destroyed her back bumper. Today she was blaming the weather which was of course a big factor, but where she had the problem isn’t that curvy of a road, the road goes in a half curve. She should have come back here and stayed over again.
I am really tired. I slept about 3 hours last night. I was having tennis elbow like pain in my right arm everytime I tried to lay on it. Brian snored all night. It was a nightmare. I had so much to do today. I needed to wrap Kenny and Brian’s gifts and do wash, which I did. Thank goodness Brian volunteered to get hoagies for dinner.
Sean is making a big deal out of where I want to have brunch on Easter. It’s a place we’ve never tried and it’s been around for years. I don’t get him.

I just wanted to put in my two cents about Terri Schiavo-I look at the way she was 15 yrs ago and look at her now with her hands all curled up, laying in bed and the only thing she can do for herself is to breath. What is the quality of this poor soul’s life? In her old photos, she looks like the kind of person to say, don’t let me be a burden on you, let me go. I think her parents just can’t realize that she will never be her former self. This is so sad all the way around. I think about them all and prayers go out to each family member and Terri.

Spring has sprung! It’s been chilly here. I was surveying my flowerbeds and they need tidying up badly. I see lots of daffodils under the evergreen in my front yard.
I will probably get out there in the next week or so. Sean is home for spring break and we want to take a drive up to Lancaster. My mom may come too. They have some nice outlet stores there. We don’t go to the actual city of Lancaster. There’s a hugh mall nearby which I’ve been to one or two times. With the two malls in Delaware we go to (tax free shopping) we stick closer to home. I haven’t seen any robins yet, but we’ve seen 11 deer the other evening in my neighbor’s yard. Ahh, you may think, but I think Lyme Disease too and I’ve had it already.
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So the city of Philly is being a royal pain in the tuckus. Last month they sent Brian a 6 yr old ticket for a vehicle that we once owned that was left at a meter. He sent the PPA a copy of the transaction that showed we traded in the LTD the month before the violaton occurred. He didn’t send it by registered mail and it went in the bin with 100s of other incoming envelopes. They opened it, saw it didn’t have a check and tossed it in the non-payers bin. We got another notice on Saturday to pay $53 or legal action will be taken. Tonight Brian called a state rep and his assistant said to come down with the papers. He made copies and said he’ll see what they can do and who they can contact. I loved the assistant’s name-Sterling. : ) Crossing fingers.
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Sean rented ‘The Incredibles’ and ‘Grudge’ and another movie. We watched the first two. The animation was cool in ‘The Incredibles’. I can’t say it was a really fun movie. I liked ‘Toy Story’ and even ‘The Brave Little Toaster’ much more. ‘Grudge’ was just stupid. Nothing flowed well and the two dead people (and dead cat) with the black around their eyes was just weird. Sarah Michelle Gellar said how much ‘she loved the movie’ as it wasn’t predictable. Sean was stopping the film asking me questions like I knew what was going on. If I want to see Tokyo, I’ll rent Bill Murray’s movie again.
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My little pal Kassandra (see below) was on the ‘Ellen’ show today. Here she’s only a few days older than my nephew Kenny. She didn’t seem up to par today and Ellen even wrapped her jacket around Kass as she was cold. Ellen presented Kass with a kitten as that’s what she really wanted for her birthday. The kitty was really scared but Kass said ‘I can calm her down’. Ellen was afraid the cat was going to claw Kass, but she seemed blissful holding the kitty.

Philly made the national news because of all the recent murders here. There’s been about 84 since the beginning of the new year. One of the latest was a little boy named Wander. He was sitting in a van waiting for his dad and a bullet hit him in the back. It was the day before his birthday.
From NBC10.com:DeJesus was shot Saturday night…According to authorities, Maurice Stevens, 18, shot a gun from the top floor of an apartment building. The bullet ended up in the back of DeJesus, killing him.

Even my hometown of Media had a strange murder, a few streets away from where my brother and his family live. A 20 yr old guy killed his mom (by stabbing her) and burned her remains and left them in a garbage can outside the house.
What’s this world coming too? Killing your mom for what? I worry about the future. I always wanted to be a mom, but having a child grow up in this mad society was scary. I guess we can’t live in a glass bubble.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day. The corned beef and cabbage head for the stove in a few hours. : )
So we went down to Penn State Delaware County ‘offer reception’ last night. We were presented with a nice power point presentation by a young woman from admissions who went to the college. There are 400,000 graduates from PSU, the most in the world! 1-in-10 graduates in the world graduated from PSU. We went on a tour and it’s a nice compact campus. I think it backs up to Ridley Creek State Park, so it’s a nice setting. A bonus is that it’s not too far from my mom or brother in case Sean had car problems or came out of class in a blizzard. Sean was most impressed by the huge gym and workout room. He said he will probably go here for two years and head up to the main campus at University Park. He’ll be older and wiser then. : )
It’s a good thing that we are going to Orlando in May as Sean’s senior trip was cancelled yesterday due to lack of interest. Too bad we paid for the entire trip and we’ll be losing some of the deposit money. That doesn’t seem fair to me. We made the effort to get the money in when other people didn’t. Maybe Sean can suggest to a few pals about renting a place in Ocean City or something. That would make up for their lost time in Williamsburg. It’s an idea.
So August 30th is coming up fast and off to college my baby goes. Time really does fly!

Blind Justice is a new show on ABC with ‘ER’ alumni Ron Eldard who use to or is still dating or living with Julianna Margulies. So this is an interesting concept and Ron handles it really well as being a blind detective in NYC. Now Ron’s best features are his baby blues and he has to squint and look dazed as he is sightless. He still looks cute. He has a funky new spikey highlighted do and I love his gray suits with the dark blue shirts. I kinda stopped watching ‘CSI’ and all the annex shows because I wasn’t getting anything out of seeing corpses except for being grossed out. They’ve had a few stiffs on these first two shows (he is a homicide detective) but not too graphic. Not sure if I like the way that they have to have the supporting players be in shock that he is a blind guy. It probably would happen in real life. Last week ‘Jim’ was being taunted by a guy behind bars because of his blindness. The guy wanted to know if he peed on his shoes all the time. Nice. I can’t forget ‘Hank’ the seeing eye dog who’s a big German Shepherd. Cool doggie dude.
The twist in the plot last night had Jim’s wife Christy (I think) leaving him after an incidence at a dinner party where her boss was sweet on Christy. (I’d love to go to Spain with you Christy, says the boss). Well Jim knocked his wine on Christy’s lap and the boss tried to dab it for her and Jim said to ‘get your hand out of my wife’s crotch’ or something like that.
The closing scene had Jim sitting in the middle of the night-he doesn’t really know or care (still dressed immaculately) with the rain pouring down on his face with his faithful Hank beside him. Who comes and joins him on the bench, the scorned wife! Now I like character development and the unexpected. Christy had been through so much with him already (he was blinded in a shooting) and had stuck with him so far. He had the courage to fight for his job.
This looks like a show worth tuning in to. And by the way, Happy 40th Birthday Ron (this year). Ron facts:It’s rare that you find an actor as independent and stubborn as Eldard. But, then, he grew up tough. One of seven kids, his mother died when he was 3. The siblings were scattered among relatives.
He lived both in Utah and on the mean streets of New York City. He worked from the time he was 12.
Can’t wait for ‘Eyes’ with Timmy D. : )

Kassandra

Thank you Extreme Makeover: Home Edition for gracing your show with eight yr old Kassandra who has the soul of a wise, old lady. I guess living through two bone marrows transplants will make you older and wiser and appreciate little things, even butterflies.
I do the charity quilt squares in cross stitch for the sick kids quilts. It’s my little contribution to make a sick child smile and feel good when they wrap themselves in the quilt. I don’t assembly the quilts or get to meet the kids who receive them (not yet anyway). The volunteers who do the above are so humbled and share such special stories with us.
Everything that little girl received from this show she deserved. She wrote the show to ask for a makeover for the kids cancer ward where she spent 7 months of her young life. The walls were white and boring. The play room was small and not organized. Now because of Kassandra, the Disney people came and painted murals with Cinderella and It’s a Small World. Now Kassandra has a beautiful home to share with her parents and 5 brothers and sister. Ride your carousel and remember always that ‘love comes first’, sweet K. (You can preorder a bracelet or necklace to help Kassandra raise money for cancer charity).