1997

Twenty-one years ago, I married my bestest friend forever! Through life's ups and downs, adventures in moving twelve times in 20 years, schooling, job changes, troubles and triumphs, through it all, I wouldn't change a thing. We are stronger together and I'm glad God chose us for one another. May we continue on in His will.

Matthew 19:4-6 (NASB): And He answered and said, "Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh?' So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate."

May the Lord grant us many more years together.

Saying goodbye to an old friend

Soon after DH and I got married, we bought a new 1988 Chevy step-side pickup truck. We were young and dumb and bought it on credit. It lasted us over 20 years. It had 227,000+ miles on it, burned and used a quart of oil every few days, clunked, rattled, had two black eyes, and it still ran. But not reliably.

So this summer, right in the middle of all our moving/remodeling frenzy, DH decided we REALLY needed to replace it when it started getting REALLY unreliable. Being repeatedly stranded by the side of an asphalt farm road in the middle of nowhere in the 100+ degree summer heat was not appealing to either of us. As we didn't yet have enough money saved up for a new truck, we bought a used one with the money we had at that point. And we paid someone to find it for us.

And before someone gets on the "ya gotta save gas and the planet" bandwagon, let me point out a few things. If you do remodeling, or own property with trees, or hunt a lot, you need a truck. You can't haul logs or brush to the dump in a VW Jetta, and you can't get a full sheet of sheetrock or a 50-gallon ice chest in one either (not to mention all the stuff a hunter seems to need to go on a hunting trip; it will fill the back of a pickup truck!). But I digress...

DH has a friend who used to own a car dealership. He still has access to all the dealer databases, so we hired him to find us a truck. We told him how much we wanted to spend, brand preferences, mileage wanted, etc. He found us one in about 10 days and then went and picked it up for us (it was in Texarkana, Texas). Best money we've spent in a while as DH really didn't have time to do all the legwork involved in looking for a used vehicle. That old time versus money equation again - our time remodeling was worth more to us than the money we paid DH's friend.

So now we have a new-to-us truck that is reliable and I had to say goodbye to Old Faithful, my dear old truck (painted Aggie Maroon, no less!) of 20+ years. By the way, the new truck is MINE. The truck is always MINE. DH gets the car; he likes cars better than trucks. Silly man.

Gack. Snort. Sniff. Achoo! ACK!!

Sunday afternoon, DH and I spent time outdoors working in the yard. Well, DH worked in the yard, I caulked the outside of a door. Later, as we settled in to watch the Dallas Cowboys allow the Washington Redskins to beat them at home in Texas Stadium, we both had allergy/sinus attacks. Allergies and sinuses, ya gotta love 'em! After administering the appropriate OTC medications, we managed to survive the afternoon and evening.

Monday was not good. Sinuses are NOT your friend. Did you know that the only physiological purpose our sinuses serve is to make our skull lighter? Sinuses serve no other purpose except as a source of misery. Oh well.

DH said everyone at work was hacking, sneezing, snorting, blowing, and moaning; the lab sounded like a pulmonary ward. So basically, we got nothing done yesterday except survive. My brain refused to have anything to do with my sinuses, so it refused to connect. I tried to stitch yesterday but fell asleep in my chair. Not good.

But today is a new day. I found a new-to-me cross stitch website - Joyful Expressions. Most of the designs feature Bible verses. The designer has some very nice freebies. There are "Name Blessings" available with a name, name meaning, and a Bible verse that "fits" the name. She also will custom design your favorite verse in any Bible version for you. The designs are available for instant download in .pdf format. I thought the site was really cool and she uses bright and uplifting colors for the designs.

While I prefer to study and read out of the New American Standard version of the Bible, I've always memorized in the King James version, so most biblical things I've stitched are in King James.

Well, the sun is shining, the birds are singing, my primer paint on my door trim is dry, so I shall go slap on a paint coat!

I stitch, therefore I am content

Today, all is mostly right with the world. I've decided to make a list each week of all the things we've accomplished on the house during that week. Then when I get grumpy, I can go back and look at the list and be inspired. Especially if I keep the list near the chocolate. :-)

But yesterday, I was the grump queen and finally took my grumpy self off to stitch. I stitched for about three hours and life is good.

Here is the last update picture of my WIP.

Here it is as of last night.

I'm a saint

I'm a saint. Most women would not put up with living the way I am right now, and today I am feeling VERY grumpy about it. Usually, I take the long view and visualize how great everything will be once we get a lot of the work done, but not today. I am a complete grouch. I'll get over it, but not until I find some chocolate. :-)

I will now proceed to list a few things that I am especially grumpy about. 1) My den is full of construction muck. It needs to be deep cleaned and I can't do that with the muck all about. DH needs to move his muck but that can't happen until a few other things get done. I can't put furniture in the den until it is deep cleaned and the muck is gone. 2) Ninety-five percent of my furniture is out in the P.O.D.S., including my stitching rocking chair (and my fabric and specialty floss). 3) I am sleeping on the floor on an air mattress. We still don't have the proper cover for our waterbed. It is on order. Again. 4) I don't have a "real" place to stitch even if I had time to. (And I can end my sentences with a preposition if I want to.)

Okay. I am done whining. For now.

I will now brag about my new stove. I have always lusted after kitchens with double wall ovens. My mom has one. They're really nice when you have guests or need to cook more than one thing. I also LOATHE cooking on electric burners - gas only for me. Well, when we were shopping for the stove, we came across a Jenn-Air stove that is a duel-fuel and has two ovens. The burners are gas, and the ovens (two!) are electric. And the bottom oven is convection - cooks faster! This configuration is actually the most fuel efficient and saves money. My stove is so cool! I just love it! Of course, I can only use the ovens right now as the propane tank has to be moved and a gas line run. I'm cooking on a borrowed hot plate. *sigh*

JCS 2008 Christmas Ornaments Issue

I received my Just Cross Stitch 2008 Christmas Ornaments Issue in the mail yesterday. I don't subscribe to the magazine, but ordered this particular issue from 1-2-3 Stitch!. I rarely buy or stitch from magazines, but I got caught up in the gottahaveit frenzy for this several years ago, and now I just pre-order and buy it every year.

As usual, I enjoyed looking at all the lovely ornaments. Some of them are pretty, but I'm not interested in stitching them - not my style, whatever that is. There are several on my "might stitch if I have the time" list, two on my "MUST STITCH!" list, and one is on my "would like to stitch if I have the bucks for it" list.

I will for sure be stitching M Designs' Bluebird of Christmas Happiness (picture - page 13, chart - page 73) and The Prairie Schooler's Snowy Night (picture - page 15, chart - page 87).

I'd love to stitch the very adorable sea otter ornament Snowdon by Jemini Designs (picture - page 27, chart - page 62), but it uses three colors of GAST Simply Wool, a Glissen Gloss specialty fiber, and nine - count 'em, NINE - JABC BUTTONS! But it is REALLY cute.

On that note, for those of you that may not be aware of it, Needlecraft Corner sells fabric cuts for most of the ornaments and has button packs available for ornaments needing them, too. I find this wonderful. I don't have to buy a huge hunk of weird fabric for one little ornament, and I don't have to search high and low for the correct buttons. Drema (the owner) doesn't have the listing of cuts/button packs up yet on her website, but should by this weekend or early next week. You can call, fax, or e-mail your order to her. Her prices and shipping costs are very reasonable and her service is superb.

Please fence me in

Everyone that knows us knows that DH and I are tightwads. But sometimes, you just have to spend money to save money in the long run.

Our house came with a 84' x 95' square fence around the house. It is made of old oil well drilling pipe (which will last for centuries) that has been welded together and has 4' x 20' hog panels spot-welded to it. It is an extremely durable and long-lasting fence. There's just one problem. Hog panel comes in two mesh sizes. Ours is 8" x 6" and our little dog can scamper right through it. Not good. We're not the kind of country living pet owners who allow their dogs to run free. Ain't happening. I guess we could get a bigger dog, but we're rather attached to our small one.

So DH and I began investigating and mulling over ways to make the fence Emma-proof. We considered chicken wiring the bottom half. Very cost effective, really ugly, very hard to weed-eat around. We considered replacing all the hog panel with regular chain-link fencing. Fairly expensive and it won't fit the dimensions of the drill pipe fencing frame. We considered an electric fence charger. Not really cost-effective or viable due to the number of gates (4) in the fence. We considered horse panels. Cost effective, but ugly. Then we discovered the smaller mesh (4" x 4") hog panels. Not cheap, but much better looking and it will last forever. DH has a friend who will weld the new panels on once we get the old panels off.

It will make Emma very happy to have access to the yard again. She is used to having a dog door that she can go in and out of at will. Since we've been here, she's pretty much had to stay in the house except for when we let her out and closely supervise her. She does not come when called reliably off leash - typical of terriers.

Here is a picture of the fence. This was taken before we did any work on the house.

Here is Emma napping in her most lady-like pose. Not.