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Sunday, October 18, 2015

Long overdue

For an update blog. *photos at the end of blog and I don't put photos of my youngest due to the public nature of this blog. I was curious and looked and realized my last was in April I guess? Or somewhere thereabouts. As always my life stays in motion and it never seems to slow down though there are times of progress and times of feeling like things are speeding by with nothing actually getting done but really more progress than not even if the progress itself is slow.  We've gone through a lot of changes the last few months. First a family member went through some health issues and we had to do some things in dealing with that as far as helping them move their belongings etc and adjusting to just the new situation as a whole. They are ok now just in a different living situation for them and I guess in a way for the better as they are receiving 24/7 care but I know the changes are not easy for them. We normally did our holidays with them so we have to refigure things though we still plan to spend holidays with them it will just be in a different setting etc. My 40th birthday came up in September and on my birthday I received a call from my dad with the biggest surprise of all. Not a bad one by any means but quite a shocker that took me some time to absorb. I found out I had a long lost sister. We haven't gotten to talk much yet (and honestly that part is hard for me anyway as I am super shy and awkward when meeting new people. She is in contact with my dad though and things seem to be going great there which is good. :) I am impressed that on some notes we seem a lot a like but yet we have our differences. (I've been told we look alike and I can see that in the pics) I also have 2 brothers and another sister all of which I <3 :="" a="" about="" acrylic="" acrylics="" actually="" adjustment="" again.="" again="" ago="" all="" also="" always="" am="" an="" and="" anything="" are="" around="" artwork.="" as="" at="" back="" be="" been="" before="" big="" bit="" break.="" brothers="" but="" by.="" can="" care="" catches="" christmas="" closer.="" coming="" connection="" costumes="" cousin="" crafts="" crochet="" d="" dad="" days="" dearly="" do="" doesn="" doing="" don="" done.="" done="" down="" each="" ending="" enjoyed="" etc="" event="" everything.="" expand="" falling="" family.="" family="" far="" few="" figure="" financially="" font="" for="" found="" front="" frontier="" full="" future="" get="" getting="" girls="" gone="" good="" got="" gotten="" great.="" guess="" had="" halloween="" handle="" happy="" has="" have="" her="" here="" hers="" homes="" hoped="" hoping="" house.="" house="" hristmas="" i="" if="" in="" into="" is="" isn="" it.="" it="" just="" knew="" last="" life="" like.="" lived="" local="" long="" longer="" look="" love="" lucky.="" may="" me="" means="" members.="" months.="" months="" more="" most="" move="" much="" my="" nbsp="" near="" needed="" never="" new="" nothing="" now.="" of="" off="" on="" one="" only="" other="" our="" out="" own="" paid="" painting="" part.="" part="" planned.="" pretty="" projects="" put="" really="" recently.="" recently="" redoing="" refigure="" remodel="" repair="" repairs="" run="" see="" seems="" several="" sewing="" share="" she="" sit="" so="" some="" something="" south="" speeding="" still="" such="" sucks="" surprise="" surprises="" t="" take="" taken="" takes="" that.="" that="" the="" their="" theme="" there="" they="" things="" think.="" think="" this="" though.="" though="" thought="" time="" to="" trying="" up.="" up="" urrently="" ve="" very="" was="" way="" we="" weddings="" well="" while="" wish="" with="" wondering="" work="" working="" worry="" would="">
 Maple leaves I made (not a great pic but meh) 

 snow flake (I'd love to make ornaments out of these)

 spider web

 spider to go on spider web I want to add a poinsettia leaf or something and make him a Christmas spider for my MIL who collects them

 my 6 yr old made this. We had given her some paint to mess around with when I was working a painting I did for the county fair because she wanted to paint too and this is that technique where you fold the paper in half creating a duplicate print on the other side. I think it looks like the roscharch (sp?) test. To me I see a lion

 she did this one too

 2nd place on my mermaid I did for the fair
 better shot of the mermaid

 Buffalo Bill at Frontier days (I talked my son into going back and getting a pic he was pretty cool) Then he decided to go pay a dollar and team up with my grandbaby's daddy and put his older sister in the jail thing LOL :) One of these days I'm pretty sure she is going to get revenge on him for that. :) 

another maple leaf but a better shot of it
flower I thought was pretty cool

my gaming buddy (my son) we've been playing a lot of Minecraft and even got my husband into it. My youngest plays as well. :)

 a lil toad that took up residence in a hole under where the truck sits that my youngest found and lured out so she could pet it.

 fishing trip a lil fish is a big deal to a lil girl.

 thistle growing at Tecumseh lake 
 My son in his natural habitat LOL Shawnee airshow my youngest still is not overly interested in the planes so kept dragging my husband off to the bouncy  house they had at the other side. 

Found out several friends were actually sitting nearby and didn't realize it til later LOL We were all focused on watching the planes.






 chair I made (crochet dreamcatcher) Though it turned out to be too stretchy so needs to be redone or re-enforced. 




Wednesday, April 15, 2015

April showers bring...

Super soggy yards. Oh yeah and flowers. I am convinced someone is sprinkling miracle grow on my yard. :P I mowed just like all my neighbors did (except the empty house next door) before the rain and theirs look relatively ok while mine is beginning to reach jungle status again. What is up with that? My youngest tells me I can't mow all those wishes down! (the dandilion fluffs) Sadly I don't think the city would buy that logic LOL I have my garden started. Some cherry tomato plants (I need a couple more I seriously could almost live off those and green onions) and a strawberry (my youngest has picked the first two off of it) and now some corn, heirloom tomato, lots of cucumbers though I want some zuchinni, soybean, and a purple pepper. Here is hoping. I am also working on regrowing some veggies like onion, romaine lettuce, and a pineapple that were bought at the grocery store. The onion and romaine are doing great and the pineapple I've not started yet. Will see how it goes once I do. I want to eventually get a grape vine and have it grow across this branch we have out front. I would like to get some things that come back every year really. 
I've started my allergy shots. We'll see how this goes. So far so good. My son goes in for his testing soon. I've been able to get more fresh fruits and veggies going at home  and I'm going on walks and such again. Doing my dancing again. Have to get my foot looked at though because it is taking it's toll. In general staying more active which I do anyway as the weather warms up. We're thinking of starting walks around the airport on the days I get my shots done. I have to stay there to make sure I don't have a bad reaction and all anyway and then we are right by there. 
The finished version of my blanket. Bigger than it appears to be here. It now belongs to my youngest. I had fun and it is so soft. Warmer than it looks too. 

I have an art project I need to start on really soon. Will start out as a pencil drawing and may evolve into something with color. Then it will be getting about time to start on projects for the fair and such. 

The other day we had a bit of a surprise. As most people who know me are aware of I really love animals. I do catch snakes and such (and release them of course) and this time the snake came to me. I was in my kitchen and had turned to walk back out when something on my table caught my eye. I stared for a minute (light was off and wasn't expecting to see anything really) and the something flicked it's tongue at me. Took me a couple of seconds to realize there was a snake laying on my kitchen table. I will say he picked the right house because most people I believe would have freaked and it wouldn't have ended well for the snake. I just had my son get the camera..looked at the snake to make sure it wasn't venomous...and took it outside. Which while it wasn't venomous it did have a nasty attitude. Very bitey. It is a kind I've had before (someone caught one and took it to a pet store and they couldn't keep it so they gave it to us a long time ago...that one was bitey too.) It is a rat snake but not a black rat it is a juvenile great plains. Very colorful. They are beneficial in that they eat pests such as mice. He can stick around. He isn't going to be getting into the pantry and such.  (picture taken before I released him) 

Anyway there was a quick update. The month of April has been super busy. We pretty much have something going on every single day this month. My calendar is full. Next month I have two birthdays coming up (my oldest turns 21 and my grandbaby 1) and a wedding. Also school ends and I am hoping appt. wise things slow down. I've started sorting and spring cleaning so am going to be busy with that for awhile. 

Monday, April 6, 2015

Eventful Springtime

Well last month raced by as is this one in a way. I pushed myself the most I have in awhile and am still recovering some from that. I know I posted last about the zoo (which was a big deal for me as I suffer from anxiety problems and agoraphobia) I still have to plan ahead sort of (which still would leave us unsure of how I'd be on that day) and I have to spend time recovering after but at least I am able to have more hits than misses at this point in time. The next thing we did was the Norman Medieval fair. This was actually a self test in two parts. My anxiety for traveling and my social anxiety as it was extremely crowded. I found out later my oldest was there with some friends (who knows who else) and completely never saw them. We did run into a couple of sets of friends. One set that we were surprised to see (though it was awesome to see them...actually they saw us first) and another set that we were to meet there. I am amazed we found each other but very very happy. I finally got to meet someone who I absolutely adore and I have to say they are as awesome in person as I thought. :) Just hope to get to spend more time with them in the future because we didn't get to see each other very long there.   The fair was great in itself too. I used to take the kids but it had been a long time since we went and my son was too young to remember. My youngest has all ready said she wants to dress up next year so we'll have to work on that. I kinda want to too.  I found the belly dance troupe right off and stayed there for their show. My hubby was teasing me when they came out into the audience to pull people up to dance that he was going to tell on me. I was like nope. Don't you dare!! Not ready for that yet LOL. I was still walking around in a daze from so many people.  Then he left to take my youngest to the bathroom and my son was there with me still about the time a Captain Jack cosplay came up. This guy was GOOOOD. He had the body language and movements down and the voice was so dead on. The look was awesome too. My son was like take a pic take a pic and I was all embarassed so I gave him the camera and apparently by then we'd caught Capt. Jack's attention LOL so he called us over and did a couple of pics with me. Made my day. I told Hubby see can't leave me alone for 5 min I'm over here picking up pirates. ;) My oldest and my friend both caught pics with Deadpool which I think was awesome too. We did a lot of walking in circles. My son was all not wanting to buy anything til he found the perfect thing. So we kept going. My youngest rode the camels but my son was like nope LOL Couldn't talk him into it. (The youngest is 5 almost 6 and my son is 16)  Surprisingly my youngest even held a tarantula. Wasn't even phased. O.o Not sure I could do that. Finally we get over to a tent with furry stuff. I spot this rainbow hat that comes down and has paws. I said ope I think I see "IT" he looks up and OMGGGGG yes that was it. LOL He found the "one" thing he wanted so then my youngest found one like it in purple and black and I think pink or white. They love them. I found a couple of fans for me and the youngest (it was sooooo hot we sunburned)  and everyone was buying hip scarfs. I found a bright green one. Something I use a lot is my hip scarves though I haven't in a bit since I had been so sick. There were so many people wearing them that everyone was jingling which cracked me up. We ran into the wandering monk. I think he may be there a lot. Listened to the guy playing music on the glasses. It was a good day all in all. We stopped by Thunderbird lake on the way home but were too tired to stay more than a few moments. I am sad to say one thing is with all the walking I did it has aggrivated my  "good" foot. ...meaning the one that hadn't just healed from being broken. I have planar fascitis (sp?) it is reaching the point that from what I was told  I may need surgery but surgery will only help for awhile and may result in recurring surgeries. :/ I am going to talk to them though and see what they want to do. Maybe there are alternatives. Don't want to jump the gun and conclude the worst. 

We did take my youngest in to the allergist and after being told time and time again that her health issues were allergy related....they are not. (on a side note we are looking for a pediatrician her reg dr has missed so much stuff like that...she is the one saying allergies the allergy testing confirmed it was not) We were told she is really just catching a lot of viruses at school. I asked if we should worry about her immune system and were told no basically she is building up an immunity to them..... we'll see. I am hoping next year won't be so bad. My son and I go this week. I am going to start allergy shots. (thankfully my youngest doesn't need them and I don't think my son will either. His aren't too bad he just wanted to know what he was allergic to for sure so he could avoid it if he can)   I 've all ready been told I need the shots but I put them off before because you have to go in weekly and at the time I thought I was going to lose my insurance and you really can't just stop once you start unless you start having bad reactions to the shots. So now I find out if I have to redo the testing or can just start the shots. I am sick of suffering through cedar pollen season so badly. It shuts me down essentially and I've started developing sinus infections and bronchitis a lot with it.   
We had a good easter. Pretty quiet but good. We went to my MIL's house and had dinner. Too cold to do much so I hid the plastic eggs today. Yesterday my youngest wanted to hide and find the real eggs. My son was all comfy where he was so didn't participate til today. I don't care how old my kids are they still get baskets and can participate...I still have a basket for my oldest and grandbaby to give them and my 2nd oldest came by for a visit and got hers before she left for vacation. It was good to see her and her fiance. She is getting married next month. :D  
There has as always been a lot of other things going on but I prefer not to put those on here as they are more personal for other people.  
I finally got to see the new Hobby Lobby store. They have some stuff I'm interested in but I think my yarn I may continue to get at Joanne's or Walmart. I finally finished a blanket for my youngest using baby blanket yarn. It is soooo soft. I've been learning new stitches making wash clothes (which have thus far come out really good) Here soon I have some actual art projects I intend to start.  

Anyway getting tired and tomorrow is a crazy hectic day for us so I will leave with some pics for now. 


 










 

Saturday, March 21, 2015

Yay for Spring!

I am always excited when spring gets here. The start of warmer weather, things blooming, things starting anew. Full of promise. I just love everything about it. Except maybe the allergies LOL that part sucks of course. My son and youngest are going in for allergy testing soon. My youngest because she needs to hers are so bad. My son because he wants to find out what all he is allergic to. (his are not as bad thankfully) I am going back in to go ahead and start shots which the sucky part means I'll be doing this weekly for 5 years but  mine have reached a point nothing else is helping. I think hers is about that way too. In any case I am hoping this helps us so that we don't have such a hard time with the other things that come with it like sinus infections and bronchitis etc. Tired of going through that and not good to need antibiotics so often. I fought off one severe ear infection and think I have another at this point. The first one the regular dr said oh just fluid and when I went in to ER finally for my bronchitis (worse I ever had I was coughing up blood a lot) the ER dr was freaking over my ear which felt like it was going to burst every time I coughed. We were all sick for around 3 months this year. Very very ill. My husband still has a cough some. He burst all the blood vessels in the lower half of his eyes with it and they are going to take time to heal. Everyone except my son who managed to escape it. I think he lucked out with a good immune system. My mom and MIL are now sick though mom's I think we caught in time. I have hope that my MIL will get over hers quickly too.
I want to get her some flowers and stuff because she enjoys gardening and really kinda between her and my dad got me into it. Some people just have green thumbs. I don't but I still try LOL So long as I don't have to touch the plants much they do great. Which is another thing I'm excited about. Getting my garden going. I try to plant some annuals every year. My MIL gave us some purple flowers that I was happy to see pop up this year. They came up before the snow hit so they are a bit frost bit but otherwise they look great. I have some daffodils coming up and blooming. I want to go get some flowers and then there is a little greenhouse that opens and has some awesome tomato plants. I had some cherry tomatoes that I was getting a bowl full every couple of days off just one plant last year. (I would just go out and eat them sometimes) I want to get most of my veggie and fruit plants from them. This year I may try for a grape vine I have somewhere to put it for it to grow off of. 
This is also the time of year I get out my camera and go crazy with it. We took a trip to the zoo yesterday which for me is a big deal. I've mentioned before I'm agoraphobic with severe PTSD and anxiety problems. I actually did ok though I did have to work through a couple of panic attacks.  My son hadn't been in awhile and my youngest had never been. It has changed some since I went but in good ways. We did find out Spring break was not the best choice of timing. It was so crowded (I have an issue with crowds) and we had to park way out on the other side of the over flow parking lot. We were beginning to think we wouldn't find a spot at all. The crowds crossing the intersection looked like someone let a bus or two of people off at a time but they were just coming from the parking lots. Inside it was long lines to get through buildings. Though we hit the snake house, the aquarium which was sadly missing the big grouper fish and we missed stingray bay...and a couple other indoor ones. We plan on going back again this summer when it isn't so crowded. I managed to nearly give myself a concussion when we first got there. I was laughing about it though. There was a tunnel and my husband (6 foot something) went through ducked some. My son (5'9) goes through and barely  had to duck so me being 5'3 didn't think I had to duck as much as I did and WHACK. I hear cracking noises and everything went black a sec. Yep it was my head. I was like oh yeah. See? This is what happens when I get out LOL It didn't really hurt after though just made me a bit dizzy and I was a bit concerned about the cracking LOL (I will find something humorous in just about anything) anyway. Oh I forgot to mention we found out my youngest (who is 5 she will be 6 in June) is 50 inches tall and weighs 60 lbs. Basically she is physically the size of an 8 year old. O.o She has been measured at 3 different places so I know this wasn't a glitch in the scale/height thing either. She is going to be super tall.  My son of all things was most interested in the ducks. I was like um out of all the exotic wild life you want to see the ducks? LOL We stopped to feed the geese and fish by the aquarium and he was trying to feed the one lone duck that was out there. I did get a video of the fish coming up to eat. Lots of catfish. We did miss out on the other half of the zoo due to it taking so long to find a parking spot and actually get in but as I said we plan on going back. My son does a lot of walking so he was all bouncing while at the end of it the rest of us were all tired LOL My youngest was saying she wished she was a cheetah so she could dash to the car and not have to just walk all that way. :) We are hoping to make it to the mid fair this month. I haven't been in forever. My husband used to go to them all the time and my son hasn't been in a long time either. He doesn't remember it really. Here is hoping I do ok. This one isn't as far of a trip and it is in an area I've been a bit more due to my rheumy appts. I am hoping to get to meet in a friend in person that I haven't got to yet that I absolutely adore. :) That just makes it even better and gives me more reason to try and make it. So hopefully will get to update later that I went. We'll see. I hate planning because if I plan it all goes out the window so I play it by ear instead. I nearly forgot to mention the gulls. Apparently they know when closing time is at the zoo and they swarm the parking lot and check each spot as the cars leave. It was crazy like a scene out of the birds.
I've been progressing with my crocheting though I need to do more art. I have a pencil drawing I may try soon. With the crochet I've been teaching myself stitches by making wash cloths. They are awesome wash cloths by the way. I wasn't sure how well they'd work since they were crochet but I love them. You have to use 100 percent cotton. I hope to get to where I can make and sell stuff later but am not there yet. I've seen things that are way above my head like crochet lace parasols but I'd love to get there. Dresses for little kids, stuffed animals you name it. I made a granny square finally so I can start making an afghan from those and my youngest saw it and wanted it LOL I have two to make. One for her and one for my son. I'm making his out of camo yarn and hers out of very soft fuzzy baby blanket yarn.
I also am ready to start spring cleaning. I am wanting my yard to dry out soon too. In any case that is the update for now. Here are some pics ...