This is my oldest son, d-i-l, and granddaughter.

I'm waiting for the winter storm to hit and hope we don't get hit too hard. I'm supposed to scrap with the gang tomorrow but it will depend on how much snow we get and when it stops. I got rid of almost half my scrap stash and it has been liberating. I'm able to find and know what I have now. I'm actually using all those monthly kits I've received over the years. I still have some stuff to get put away but my scraproom is greatly improved. Except for one monthly kit that I still receive from My Creative Scrapbook, I haven't been scrapbook shopping since right after Thanksgiving when I bought a Christmas paper pack and the Basic Gray calendar kit at M's.

I finally finished my granddaughter's birth sampler. It is Longdog's Bienvenue. I stitched it with silk fibers from Vicki Clayton on 28 ct. fabric called porcelin from Silkweaver. Now I need to get it laced and to the framers. I'm also having Keith's birth sampler re-framed to match Taylor's.

My next project is one I've had the chart for since 2004. It is the French Alphabet Sampler which has the names and initials of all the members of my family incorporated into the design. It is a custom chart that I ordered through Elegant Stitch. They still take orders for it from time to time. I had to buy a yard of fabric so it is a really BAP (Big Ass Project).

Happy 4th of July. I'm going to Olney, IL, tomorrow to my mother's house where my brother and sister-in-law will be. They will go back home to Carmel, IN tomorrow afternoon and then Mother and I will attend the band concert at the park. I haven't seen my brother since Keith's funeral last October and I'll be glad to see them.

I worked on getting the scrapbooking room cleared out and then organizing my supplies into my Original Scrapbox which is a 4' square that opens to 9' wide. It has over 100 drawers and cubbies to store supplies. I'm purging as I go and I'll have a huge garage sale of scrapbooking supplies only later this year.

Last Saturday I scrapped with the gang and I finished up two of the albums I started at CKU in Nashville in May. One was the Who's Who in My Life and the other was the small 6x6 album that had pages from each of the instructors. It was so much fun at CKU and I'm very disappointed they are not going to have them anymore. I know of no other event that has the caliber of teachers that CKU has always had.

In the cross stitching dept., I'm happy to report that Taylor's birth sampler is almost done. I really need to scan and post a picture of it. I'm hoping to have it finished in time for Taylor to go with me to pick out the frame for it. She is spending another week with me in a couple of weeks. I already have tickets for us to see Godspell at The Muny in St. Louis and to the Lincoln Museum in Springfield, IL. She is so lonely and lost without Keith. My heart just aches for her when I see that sadness in her face.

Hard to believe it has been over a year since I last posted here. So much has happened. First, I retired the end of June. I'm really enjoying my time at home although I'm not getting much done. I find myself finding other things to do that are much more fun than cleaning and de-cluttering. Mike, Amy, Keith, and Taylor moved into their new home in September. It is such a beautiful place. Then came October 14, when I received the phone call no grandmother ever wants. My wonderful beautiful grandson collapsed at basketball practice and died of sudden cardiac arrest. He was only 13. There is such an empty hole in my life and I don't seem to find much joy in anything. I went Christmas shopping with my mother yesterday, and I kept seeing things that I would think, "Keith would like that." One of the reasons I retired when I did was to be able to get to KY more often to see Keith play basketball this year. A month ago I visited the gym where he died and where he would have played. It all still seems so unreal. I'm seeing a counselor and that is helping me to deal with my grief. It hurts so much to see my son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter hurting. They are so angry at the school for not buying AED's which would probably have saved his life because the autopsy report showed there was absolutely nothing wrong with his heart. Instead the district bought life insurance policies on the athletes. Dollars to pay for a life but not a single dollar to save a life. We took the matters into our own hands and raised over $25,000 to put AED's in every school in Grayson County, KY. We never want another parent or grandparent or other family member to go through what we went through.

I have neglected you terribly and will not go back to rehash all that has happened since June except to say I attended CKU in Nashville, TN and had a blast. I went by myself and roomed with a lady from Louisiana whom I had never met. We were so much alike it was unbelievable. We are both former English teachers, same age, no longer married, diabetic, nightowls, and on and on. We are talking about going to Provo next summer to CKU. I had an album class with Ali Edwards who is such a great person and then took classes editors of various magazines. It was a wonderful experience and I brought home a backseat full of free products. I hated the hotel, Opryland. It is a nightmare to navigate and super expensive by my standards.

This past weekend we celebrated my great-aunt Mabel's 100th birthday. There were over 120 of her nieces and nephews there and it was so much fun. I saw people I hadn't seen in over twenty years and probably never see again. All of her surviving nieces and nephews were there from all over the country. This is probably the last time these cousins will ever all be together. I just wish Aunt Mabel could hear and see better. If it wasn't for those problems, she would be in amazing condition.

Life continues to be good. It has now been 10 months since I had the back surgery and I now wonder why I put it off so long. I am now pain free except when I overdo or do things that would cause anyone's back to hurt. I haven't had a pain pill in months. Dr. Buchowski gave me my life back.

Next weekend is our annual stitch-in at Jeanne's in St. Louis. I haven't stitched in ages except when I have to wait for the car to be serviced. That gets done tomorrow so I'll get some stitching in for a change.

I promise not to wait so long to visit you again.

Well, it was bad news on the refinishing. There are so many pet stains that he said I would not be happy with the results as they are so deep they will remain very dark. So, I swallowed my disappointment and headed to Lowe's to look at new flooring. Since I don't plan on living here that much longer, I decided to go with Pergo laminate.

Next guy comes to measure for the Pergo. This is the installer who says, "You have quite a ridge that runs the full length of the hallway. I think you should call a foundation repair guy to have it checked out. Looks like the house has settled and it will affect the way I lay the laminate." Then he looks at me and asks if I'm going to take up the baseboard and move all the furniture out. Right, me, the dog, and the cat can do that in an instant. Guess it's time to call my sons again to come up and help dear old mom.

What started as a simple project that would cost around $2,000 is now turning into a monster that I have no idea what it will cost. Oh, I did decide to go ahead and have the laminate put into the kitchen as well.

On a good note, the bathroom and my bedroom are completely decluttered and cleaned. I like to just stand in the door and look. I did buy new curtains for the bedroom and changed the blind. I'm Goodwill's best donor right now. I don't go in the front door to buy, only drop off at the backdoor.

June 3, 2007

I had to create a new blog as I couldn't access my old one for some reason. I did have "Judy's Journey" but now have this one which reflects my two hobbies I enjoy the most.

I am in the process in de-cluttering my house and what a job!!! The first thing I had done was tearing up my carpeting. Underneath are hardwood floors and I hope they can be refinished. I'll find out tomorrow when a refiinisher comes to take a look. I won't go into the gory details of all I got rid of in just my bedroom but I'll just say that I made Goodwill very happy.

This is the second week of vacation that I take this time every year. The first week is always Camp Grandma and that just ended. My grandkids are now 10 and 12 and can wear this grandma to a frazzle. They never run out of energy but do love to go to movies which gives me a rest. We saw Spiderman 3 and Shrek 3. Both were pretty good and I like Spiderman the best. I had never seen a Spiderman movie and now I'm anxious to rent the first two and watch them.

Scrappin': I'm working on getting my scraproom organized which is a major undertaking. I'm purging supplies that I know I'll never use. I'm also getting ready to go to CKU in Nashville. I have a ton of homework to do before August gets here.

Stitchin': I'm currently working on two projects. One is a La D Da limited edition Stitcher's Pouch. It is small and one I take with me everywhere so I can get in those few stitches anytime I have a couple of free minutes. The big project (BAP) is my granddaughter's birth sampler. I'd doing Long Dog's Bienvenue and I hope to have it done by the time she gets out of high school She'll be starting 5th grade next year. I'll try to remember to post a weekly progress picture of it.