All Quiet on the Western Front

Not much to report this week....

Sam went to the vet this week for a follow-up visit. Poor guy still hasn't completely recovered! It was a big visit - x-rays of his leg, teeth cleaned, toe-nails trimmed, ears deep cleaned and packed withe meds (he's had a nasty ear infection). I don't think he's forgiven us for doing all of that in one visit, but it sure was easier on the old bank account to do it one whack! He's not recovering from his surgery like he should be. Turns out that his tibia is fractured in that leg. We have no idea how that happened, unless he hit it on the tailgate of the truck the one time he tried to jump up into the Ranger. We have to start taking him for short walks at the end of next week and see if he'll start using that leg. He has been hopping around on three legs for two months now. We just call him "Tripod". Short walks will be good for me, too, and help the muscles in my foot stretch and work correctly again.

If you don't live in the area, you may not know that we've had rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, rain, and more rain this week. No flooding in our neighborhood thank goodness, but lots and lots of it in the vicinity. The sun actually peeked out yesterday and decided to stick around. Only trouble with that is stepping outside feels like stepping into a sauna. WAY too hot and humid!

I have been stamping a lot, and you can see all my latest creations here: Splitcoast Gallery.

And that's it! Seven days of "not a whole lot going on".

More cards

Here's two I made this morning and one from earlier in the week...


Cardstock and Ink: Pretty in Pink and Chocolate Chip from Stampin' Up. Chocolate ribbon from Stampin Up. Main image from my friend Tracy. Background image is from Petite Patterns by Stampin' Up!



This card evolved from a challenge on Splitcoast - make a card with no layers. I love layers, so this really is a challenge for me! I'm not sure that I really like it, but it's not too bad! :)
All items used from Stampin' Up! Ink: Regal Rose, Rose Red, Certainly Celery, Old Olive. Light green organdy ribbon, Cardstock: Shimmery White. I sponged a bit of Certainly Celery ink over the entire image to fill in some of the "white" space.



Another challenge card - use a ribbon that you bought but haven't use as inspiration. I bought this rick-rack last month at Archiver's and hadn't used it yet. All Cardstock, images and inks from Stampin' Up: Pumpkin Pie, Apricot Appeal, and Whispering White. The flowers are from Polka Dots & Petals, and the "happy" is from So Very. I used Stardust Stickles on the center of the flowers for a bit of sparkle.

Father's Day cards - finally!

Sorry I didn't post these sooner, but with the storms and all....

Here's the cards that I made for Ed and my dad. I used a Whipper Snapper stamp that my friend Tammi sent to me in our last round of Secret Sisters. I love this little pup! I colored him with prismacolor pencils and odorless mineral spirits. All cardstock is from Stampin' Up, as is the ink.

Here's the one for Ed (from the dogs!):



I used the Weathered background stamp with Close to Cocoa cardstock and ink. I have no clue who made the red designer paper, but I love it! I used my Cuttlebug and the Olivia alphabet to cut out the word "Dad", and then ran them through my Xyron sticker maker. I tied a knot in the twill and then wrapped it around the cardstock so it layed a little flatter. I like the effect!

And then for my dad:


This one is 4x4. I used Night of Navy, Handsome Hunter, and Sage Shadow CS. The Night of Navy is stamped with the dot stamp from Beyond the Basics and the Sage Shadow is stamped with the paw print stamp from Bow Wow. I also used my wonderful Marvy scalloped circle and cirle punches, as well as a corner punch from EK success.

Happy Father's Day! Here's a tornado for you.....

We went to Mom & Dad's last night for supper to celebrate Father's Day. About the time we sat down to eat the power went out. It had started raining shortly before we left home, but we didn't think much about it. Turned out to be a lot worse than we originally thought! Thankfully we took the boys with us, especially since Hank is terrified of thunder. He cowered under the table while we ate.

It rained and rained and rained and rained. We had well over four inches of rain in the two hours we were there. The electricity didn't come back on until after we left, so we had no idea if there were any severe weather alerts or anything like that. At one point my sister ran out on the deck and emptied the rain gauge (it was overflowing). Fifteen minutes later there was 1 1/4 inches of rain in it!

We decided to head home about 7:00 since the rain had finally started to let up and we could see some sun to the west. We headed down Pecan Cove Road to the highway and it was a mess! Loose rocks in the road, torrents of water running in the ditch alongside the road, and much to our surprise the road was flooded at the bottom of the hill! In the ten years we've been driving on that road I've never seen it even close to being under water!

Well we headed into town (had to stop at DQ for a Father's Day Blizzard!) and then headed home. We hadn't gone more than a quarter mile down the Farm-to-Market road that leads to our neighborhood when we came across a long line of traffic. Turns out that road was flooded, too! Never seen that in my 18 years in the area, either! AND the small mobile home park just to the east of the road was a mess - siding torn off of homes, fences torn up, curled sheets of metal strewn along the road and in the field across the street. Ed decided to turn around and take another route to the house, so we headed back to the highway. The back road we took must have been underwater at some point, too, because there was a sheriff's deputy along side the road at one place and the road was covered with loose rocks and gravel that had washed across the road. We continued on our way, finally making it back to the Farm-to-Market road we started out on. We hadn't seen any other damage like we had seen in the mobile home park, but I was wondering if a tornado had hit. We were both quite anxious to get home! About a quarter mile from our neighborhood the road was closed again because of flooding. We were in Ed's huge truck (Ford F350 4x4 crew cab with the 8 ft bed!), so the firemen that were manning the location let us go through it. It was really shallow and running clear, so we could see the road underneath.

We finally made it home and were very relieved to see that there was no damage at all in our neighborhood, thank goodness! But a tornado did hit that mobile home park! Lots of damage, but thankfully there was only one minor injury reported. I can't tell you how scary it is to have a tornado hit so close to your house! It had hit less than fifteen minutes from the time we left my parents' house! If we hadn't gone to Dairy Queen, we might have been hit by it. We certainly would have seen it, and that's one thing that I can go the rest of my life without seeing!

New cards

I made three cards yesterday, but I can only post one. The other two are for Father's Day, so I'll post them Sunday or Monday. I did the color challenge on Splitcoast for this week (CC118) and loved the layout that I came up with. I like it so much that I made another card with the same layout yesterday! I think these are the first two cards I've made using more than just a touch of paper piercing. Here they are:


Cameo Coral, Chocolate Chip, Certainly Celery and Very Vanilla Cardstock and Certainly Celery ribbon, images are from "Petal Prints". All supplies by Stampin' Up.


Image from "Friendship Blessing" by Close to My Heart. Cranberry Crisp, Marigold Morning, True Thyme, and Very Vanilla cardstock and inks (and ribbon) from Stampin' Up.

Mama, I'm skeert!

I took this picture of Hank yesterday during a thunderstorm. He's such a big, bad dog until the thunder booms - then he's a big baby that has to be close to Mama. He's pitiful during storms or when the neighbors shoot off fireworks. Fourth of July is very traumatic for him every year. He'll hide in a corner and just quiver for hours. I feel so sorry for him during these times.


How could anyone say no to these big freaky brown eyes? When he lays his ears back and looks up at me like this, I just melt! Ed does, too. That's how Hank ended up coming home from the animal shelter with us!

Howdy!

Hi! Not much going on around here today. I've been waiting for the Time-Warner guy to come by and check our connection out at the pole. Our modem has been resetting itself about 30 times a day, making for a sketchy Internet connection! Not a fun thing when you spend so much time online...

I drove a little more yesterday. I drove from Mom's to a meeting downtown, back to Mom's, and then home. Between driving and the meeting, I was completely wiped out mentally. I may have the physical strength to do these things, but my mental energy is still WAY lower than I like. I spent yesterday afternoon and evening laying around watching mindless movies. Even reading was too much of a mental effort. I HATE being like that.

I'm better today, but still not feeling 100%. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be even better, because I need to go to a friend's house for awhile. I'm unloading some of the stamping stuff at her annual stamp sale on Saturday. I decided it was time to clean house to make room for new toys! :)

Speaking of new toys, I have some that I need to go play with. I'll be back later to post what I made.....

Tagged Again!

My friend Stacy tagged me this afternoon...

Four Jobs I’ve Had

1. Computer Lab Manager
2. Computer Science Instructor
3. End User Support Analyst
4. Tutor


Four Movies I Can Watch Over and Over

1. Sweet Home Alabama
2. How to Lose a Guy in 10 Day
3. The Aristocats (most of the Disney animated flicks, actually!)
4. Notting Hill


Four TV Shows I Love to Watch

1. LOST
2. Friends
3. Dancing with the Stars
4. NCIS


Four Places I Have Been On Vacation

1. San Diego
2. New Orleans
3. Corpus Christi
4. Galveston


Four Favorite Dishes

1. Mom's fried chicken
2. my husband's pancakes
3. Lasagna
4. CHOCOLATE


Four Websites I Visit Daily

1. splitcoaststampers (www.splitcoaststampers.com)
2. Fox news (www.foxnews.com)
3. My blog!
4. My friends blogs


Four Places I’d Rather Be

1. at the beach with my hubby
2. at the beach with my LOSTies
3. at the beach alone
4. at the beach with Sawyer :)

Card(s) of the Day

I had planned to make more than one card today, but I dozed off after lunch and snoozed through some of my stamping time. :) So here is the one and only card I made today. Maybe I'll do another one tonight, but don't count on it! The layout is taken from my friend Tracy's bella swap card. I love the pose of this bella, but I'm not a big drinker. I colored her "drink" yellow - it's a frozen lemonade in my book! :)


I used Basic Grey's "Oh Baby Boy!" designer papers in conjunction with Stampin' Up cardstock. I love the bright colors! The image is Cosmobella from Stampingbella and she is colored with SU markers. I sponged just a touch of Summer Sun ink around the edges of the image. Ribbon is from SU, too.

Okay, I made ANOTHER card! WOOHOO!!!


Cardstock, ink, and ribbon from Stampin' Up. Sentiment from "Warmest Regards" by Stampin' UP. Designer paper is Fresh Cut Flowers from The Paper Loft.

Health Update

I had my first post-op appointment today. The doctor said everything looks great, but I think that depends on your definition of "great"! After she removed the bandages I could see (for the first time) the surgical site. It's all kinds of different shades of purple, green, and yellow! The whole top of my foot is multi-colored! LOL!!! Thankfully she covered it all back up again with fresh bandages. One more week of keeping it dry and elevated and then I should be bandage free! Yippee!!!!

On the head injury front...I'm still doing okay. I continue to have horrible problems with planning. I can make a list of things that need to be done today. I can even plan out when I'm going to do different things around the house a few days in advance, but if I need to plan to do something out of the ordinary, like plan a jewelry show, I'm lost. It's completely overwhelming! I don't even know where to begin such tasks.... I'm beginning to doubt if things like planning and short-term memory will ever get better. I sure hope they do, but it sure does get discouraging sometimes.

I have plans to cook a new dish for supper tonight and it's a little involved - chopping onions and peppers, cooking noodles, browning ground beef (venison). I haven't done anything like this since my head injury, so I'm a little nervous about it, but I think I'll be okay. It's hamburger meat - how can I mess it up? That stuff's pretty much foolproof! I'll let you know how it comes out!

Stamping!

I made two cards today! Yay for me! :) No real reason for these, I was just playing with the new palette papers from Stampin' Up.....


Image is Cruisabella by Stampingbella, Paper from Stampin' Up, Colored with Prismacolor pencils and odorless mineral spirits, Prima flowers from Got Flowers?, jeweled brad by Making Memories, and I used Star Dust Stickles for the sparkle


Image by Penny Black, paper from Stampin' Up, colored with Prismacolor pencils and odorless mineral spirits

Quick Pic...

Here's the wall in our bedroom that we painted. It looks lighter in the picture than it really is. I like it, but I think it will have more "pop" when we paint the rest of the room (and who knows when that will be!). We are in the market for new lamps for our bedside tables. These are from our "early marriage" decor days! Time for an upgrade! And we MUST get a new ceiling fan and light fixture! I LOATHE the one that we have in our bedroom and the one in the living room. As soon as I can get out and go shopping again I'm headed for Lowe's! Thankfully Ed is super-handy and can install them himself. Oh, and I must add - the gorgeous quilt over the bed? My mom made it!

Cruisabella

My sister called me this morning and asked if I'd make a card for a young lady we know that just graduated from high school. So here it is, a rather unconventional graduation card, but my sis is putting a gift card for fuel inside so it does fit the occasion. :)


All paper is from Stampin' Up: bliss blue, brilliant blue, whisper white, and pink passion. Colored with Prismacolor pencils and odorless mineral spirits. I used the swirl embossing folder from Cuddlebug for the background, and the flower is two Daisy die-cuts from Ellison Thin Cuts layered and anchored with a jeweled brad from Making Memories.

Secret Sister Sneak Peak

I received my "sneak peak" from my LOSTie Secret Sister this week. We do Secret Sister projects about three times a year, and our next one is due in July. But Michelle, who is hosting this round, decided it would be fun to have an early "peak"! Here's what I got! Colorful! Fun! Very "islandy"! Love the card!!!! It's hard to see in the picture, but the bottom of the card is cut to resemble a grass skirt, and it matches the bottom edge of the towel! Adorable!


I can't wait until July when we get to find out who our Secret Sis is! So far I've received boxes from Wilma, Tracy, Rachel, and Anna. It seems like we've done more than four rounds, so I'm probably forgetting someone! If so, I'm sorry! It's not intentional!

Bellas!!!!

I promised pics of the Bella swap, and here they are! Aren't they gorgeous? Everyone did a wonderful job! Some of my LOSTie friends are just absolute artists! Each picture is followed by the names of the artists of the cards in that pic. Don't forget to click on the picture to make it larger so that you can see all the awesome work these ladies did!


Clockwise from top left: Stacy Udy, Leslie Marcus, Barb Hahn, Debbie Stein, Emily Giovanni, Tracy Houston

Clockwise from top left: Anna Fiebelkorn, Kim O'Rosky, Chrissy Houchins, Maggie Schoener, me, Michelle Johnson

Clockwise from top left: Jessica Colligan, Tammi Buck, Rachel Baird, Alyson Levin

Surgery and Bellas

Well, I survived my foot surgery this morning. I had a small seizure after the nurse inserted the IV needle, so they gave me some meds for that along with the regular sedation drugs. I was OUT COLD for several hours! They could have cut my foot completely off and I don't think I would have noticed! :)

I'm home and propped up on the sofa with my laptop. We got home around lunch time and I was pretty much asleep until about 4:00. Ed's off until Monday, and I have no doubt that he'll take great care of me. I have to stay off of my foot as much as possible for the foreseeable future, but that just means I have more time to chat with my LOSTie sisters and stamp! :)

Speaking of stamping, I got my BELLA swap cards in the mail today! My LOSTie sister Leslie hosted a Bella cards and image swap. I'm not up to taking pics and uploading them to the laptop tonight, unfortunately. They are all awesome! AND I have some new bella images to color and use for cards! WOOHOO!!!

That's is for now. I'll post pics tomorrow!

driving, surgery, and teenagers, oh my!

I drove yesterday! First time since February! My mom called me about 8:00 and informed me that she'd be here at 10:00 and we were going for a drive. Just so happened that the vet called and said that Sam was ready to come home, so I drove alllllllllll the way through town, spent about 20 minutes at the vet, and then drove alllllllllll the way back home. It's truly amazing how much mental energy it takes to drive! I was exhausted when we got home. I did fine behind the wheel, though. I was quite surprised to find that my handwriting, which has been almost normal for a while now, reverted to third-grader writing after lunch. And I had trouble spelling and I was flipping my letters around when I typed (good became doog, stuff like that). My brain was tired, I guess. I'm back to "normal" today, thank goodness! I'm looking forward to driving again and I hope to keep practicing in the coming weeks.

And then last night I had a seizure. Just one. Lasted about 15 minutes. I guess I have more on my mind than I thought I did. I know I'm nervous about my surgery on my foot tomorrow. I've only had one experience with "local anesthesia" and it was NOT a pleasant one. I had tubes put in my ears when I was 18 and they used local anesthesia. It didn't work. Nothing like a knife in a non-numbed eardrum! I've NEVER felt pain like that before and never want to again!!! I hope I'm thoroughly sedated via IV and don't have a clue what is going on....

Bryan, my youngest stepson, is being a royal stinker these days. He's 15 and thinks he's all knowing and all powerful. He's refused to come visit us this summer. It's been a year since we've seen him. It hurts that he doesn't care enough to take a week or two to visit his father. We could enforce the existing visitation agreement and force him to come down, but that would cause nothing but grief on both sides. As much as we'll miss seeing him, if he's going to be a toot he can just stay where he is!

Ed picked up more paint for our bedroom on the way home today. He's off tomorrow and Friday, and plans to get the wall behind our bed painted first thing Friday morning. Hopefully all the yucky fumes will be gone by bedtime Friday night. I can't stand the smell of paint! I'll post pics as soon as the room is put back together!

Sympathy Cards

I've never been very good at making sympathy cards or even buying them. There is just something extra-difficult about expressing one's true feelings in writing at the loss of a friend's family member. Lately we've had two deaths - a friend and another friend's father. So today I made sympathy cards. I hope they pass muster.
Flower images by CTMH
Cardstock, Background image and sentiment by SU
Brads by Making Memories


Flower Image by CTMH
Inks, Cardstock, Background image, and ribbon from Stampin' Up
Brads from Making Memories

Finally!

A couple of weeks ago I posted some pics of my stamp area. We had been to Archiver's and I'd purchased some pieces from the Lisa & Becky rail system. I decided I liked some items I'd seen at IKEA better, so yesterday we returned the items to Archiver's and then went over to IKEA. Of course being Saturday the place was quite busy, and you can't just run in and run out of that store. It's designed like a maze - one way in and one way out. You must go through the entire store even if you only need one item. Great for sales, bad for the consumer! I'm surprised Ed didn't explode before we got out of there. I behaved myself and didn't stop to look at every little neat doo-hickey that caught my eye!

Anyway, we bought the rails and stuff that I wanted and Ed hung them up for me this afternoon. I'm SO, SO, SO happy to FINALLY have a way to store my large punches (bottom rail)! These guys are heavy and take up a lot of room! I plan to buy a different style ink storage, so I'll be moving the white ink pad storage I have now. I'll eventually get two more rails to go over my desk. I have some tools and things that need to be out where I can see them so I don't continue to forget that I have them!

Here's what it looks like now: (for "before pics" please see post from May 16th)

I've Been Tagged!

A new kind of Tag, well, not that new now, it has been making the rounds. Stacy (Tastey's Creations) tagged me, so here are my ONE WORD answers:

Yourself: loyal
Your Partner: Ed
Your Hair: red
Your Mother: strong
Your Father (Dad): gardener
Your Favorite Item: laptop
Your Dream Last Night: snakes
Your Favorite Drink: water
Your Dream Car: Dodge Charger
Dream Home: Cabin
The Room You Are In: Stamp room
Your Fear: snakes
Where You Want to be in Ten Years: Texas
Who You Hung Out With Last Night: family
You’re Not: loud
One of Your Wish List Items: kids
The Last Thing You Did: chatted
You Are Wearing: shorts
Your Favorite Weather: warm
Your Favorite Book: Too many to pick just one
Last Thing You Ate: grits
Your Life: calm
Your Mood: good
Your Best Friend: Ed
What Are You Thinking About Right Now: blogging
Your Car: Dodge Durango
What Are You Doing At The Moment: Typing
Relationship Status: Married
What Is On Your TV: nothing
What Is The Weather Like: Sunny
When Is The Last Time You Laughed: Today

I'm supposed to tag more people, but all the bloggers I know have been tagged! Oh well, if I think of someone later, I'll tag them! :D

One room down, two to go

Ed finished painting the dining room and kitchen tonight. We painted under the chair rail. It used to be a darker cream color. I could have sworn I had "before" pics on the PC, but I can't find them. Here's some "after" pics. I'm ordering new curtains tonight. They are cream and red, so they should match the new paint nicely!





Now we'll move on to the bedroom. We've decided to just paint the wall behind the bed to start with and decide if we really like the color green we chose. The hall bath will be the last room. It will probably be a few weeks before we get to it.