Christmas and stitching

So here is a few Christmas pictures. I made this cherry pie from scratch and everybody loved it. I also made German cookies for the first time and DH's grandparents loved them so much they took some home! Huge compliment for me. :) Everybody had a great time and the kids were drowning in gifts as they had pressies sent from Wyoming and Texas from family. By the evening we were all ready for an early bedtime. How was everyone's Christmas?
And here is My lady of snow. The dark blue part on the left extends all to the width of her dress at this part so as soon as this area is complete I plan to stitch upwards and work towards her head and the owl. I also ordered a scroll frame so i can hopefully put her on it and be able to attach the beads as I go so there won't be a bunch of emtpy spaces.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New year everyone! Don't forget to track Santa, Heres a free tracker: Here

I'll have stitching to show later along with some Christmas photos. I just am in the middle of baking and so I don't want to touch my fabric or camera.

My Lady of Snow and Cheerleading

Wow 2 weeks since my last post. I'm so sorry everyone. I just have not felt like blogging at all lately. I feel tired continously since DH has been home. He has managed to throw our entire sleep schedule off track and well you all know how that is. Anyway hopefully aftrer this week I will be fine again as he returns to work on the 22nd.

So I have pulled out My lady of Snow. With winter and all the snow here I feel like that was what I should be working on too. I have worked on her for nearly a week now and so I have made some progress. I finished page 1 and I believe theres about 5 or 6 pages. Well it comes as one giant page but its about 5 or 6 pages once I was done making my working copy. Anyway this is her middle area and its almost done across and then I am going to work my way up. The empty areas are where the beads go but I am using a hoop and so I can't put the beads on yet. I am trying to convince DH to buy me a scroll frame cause I want to put her on this so I could bead as I go too.Destiny has started cheerleading and absolutely loves it! She has 2 games a week and 2 practices a week. So she is fairly tired when she comes home each night. They cheer at the Elementary school for each game which is the peewee league for basketball. The top picture I had told her to pose so I can snap a photo of her in her new outfit and this is how she decided to strike her pose. I think she will be a cheerleader for life, lol.

And this final picture, lol. Well I know you are wondering if we were high or something doing this. But truly it was done for Brownie girl scouts. She did this to help earn her science try its patch. We put vinegar in the bottom of a soda bottle and 2 TBSP of baking soda in the balloon, attach the balloon, tilt balloon upward to make baking soda fall into bottle and presto! the balloon expands! Destiny was thrilled as was I! Do you see the snowman? Well I bought us mother daughter aprons as Destiny now being 7 is learning to cook and she has so much fun. I have some pics of her making pancakes and helping cook Thanksgiving too but will post those later.

Okay so Kiley starts Basketball on Tuesday and so I will blog on Wednesday along with another stitch pic too and perhaps a pic of my xmas tree. I actually found sugar free candy canes for Destiny. Actually I found a whole site dedicated to sugar free candies which yay! Now Destiny can have some variety.

How was everyones Thanksgiving? Are you all ready for Christmas? I just have to buy groceries for the meal but otherwise I am ready. I still have a few presents to wrap and am waiting on a package from my family in Wyoming. But we have decorated the house and the balcony is plain because our power went out there and we need an electrition to come fix it. Anyway I will end this long post now.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Wow almost 2 weeks since my last post. Sorry everyone. I finished book 3 and 4 of the twilight series. loved it all. I have to say this is a must read. Anyway my desktop crashed. Its dead and headed for desktop heaven, lol. So I am using my husbands laptop till we buy our new desktop which could be today or tomorrow unless we order one online.

we finished our xmas shopping for the kids too and I have most of them wrapped and under the tree. I would share pics but I am not entirely sure how to do it on this laptop.

I have stitched a little bit on my lady of snow but not too much and i picked up my crocheting again. I did about another 15 more rows on the blanket I have been working on.

I have been sick for 2 weeks now. I have this chronic cough and chest congestion thing going on, a friend of mine who is a nurse said I sounded like I have a bronchial infection. Oh yay! I am doing a bit better but still run down and I have a chronic cough so I haven't felt like blogging or even crafting too terribly much. Just trying to get xmas presents done and my family's into the mail.

Can you believe its already December? Has everyone put up their xmas decorations yet? we put up a lot of ours but we need to go buy new lights for outside.

I also recieved my round 10 fair and square squares too. :)

Birthday, doll, and Christmas

Happy 7th Birthday sweetie!
November 14, 2008

Here is my Fair and Square Christmas Round from Jennifer B. above and my Fair and Square Round 10 to Joan S below
And here is the doll I crocheted for Kiley. remember me telling you I was making this one and ran out of yarn for her arms. Well it came in and so I finished her up today.
I also made 3 loaves of banana Nut bread today. This is my all time fav recipe. It comes from my Grandma on my mothers side. I make this every Thanksgiving and Christmas though anytime your in the mood for it you could make it. Here is the recipe for it too in case anyone wants to try it out. Please let me know if you do and what you think.

Fair and Square Christmas Round

Here they are. They were sent to Jennifer B. who also has a love of snowmen like myself. I am thrilled you like them! Sorry they are not ironed in this pic but they are on Jennifer's blog. I had to snap off a quick pic as I was on my way to the post office that day.

Just wondering where the Round 10 squares are now as I mailed them the same day and they both went to the USA......

Collecting Shells and an apple crumble

Here is she again. What you see done outside her is what i have done over the last 2 days. There is so much to do above her I truly wonder if this will be finished in 2008 or if it will be a 2009 finish. I am guessing more like 2009 unless I ONLY work on this for the remainder of the year.

Here is the Southern Apple crumble I made last night for dessert. This is a huge hit with everyone so I felt I had to finally share it with you all. :) Mine also has chocolate chips because it calls for an oatmeal cookie mix and the only one we have at the PX comes with chocolate chips and I never feel like picking them out, besides a little chocolate never hurt anyone right? The recipe is here. I always add extra nuts too as I love that crunch they give mixed with the warm gooey apples.

So huge history was made obama won! Happy days right? No I am so upset. He wants to take away military raises. Excuse me but our soldiers risk there lives everyday out there and deserve every penny earned and its not like they were that much in the first place but still. Everyone deserves a yearly raise. Not to mention he wants to remove the US flag from the uniform and get rid of our national anthem! Where the hell is your American pride Obama???

Okay rant about politics is so over!

Anyway, I did pick up an old WIP. My collecting shells one. You see at the beginning of the year on one of the groups I belonged to we were all challenged to finish some WIP that was at least 1 year old. Well this one I have had since Destiny was a baby and she is going to be 7 on the 14th so yes its over 6 years old! Thats insane for a medium project. Anyway I have most of the girl finished and decided to get some of the background in. I just picked it up last night so not too much to show yet. Maybe I can post a pic up tomorrow but I really am going to just abandoned all other WIP's right now and work on collecting shells so I can just be done with it. The crafting bug just isn't there too much lately as I am stressing over everything! DH leaves for Haz 11 training on the 16th thru the 20th and that we have to pay for up front and its appr $600.00 USD We don't have the money for it so DH is looking to get an advance for it. Granted we will get paid back for it so not a huge deal but right in the middle with holidays and all the extra money that gets spent during this time of year. Lets just say that I think book 3 and 4 of the Twilight series was my last purchase for me for the year.

Destiny has the next 6 days off of school for whatever their stupid reasoning for it was and she has already started by fighting with her sister non stop today! I am at the point where my head is going to explode! We have also had moving trucks and people non stop in and out of our building as 2 families are PCSing. And since we live on the first floor the movers can't help but bump our doorbell a million times a day. Its too bad I cannot disconnect it. I am so tired lately too perhaps from all the stress is all I can figure. I will be better after xmas is over. Things can return to normal.

Has anyone started their fall decorating? I realised this year that I have next to no autumn decorations....I wonder why that is. Anyway I may have to try and remedy that this year.

Vote for Me Please

Please click on the link below and vote for me. Thank you everyone!

Halloween Pictures!

Well here are my cuties in there costumes this year. Destiny definitely got into character with her Cinderella princess. I was definitely ready to de thrown the little princess by the time we arrived home from trick or treating. We started our day by running some errands which meant walking all over post so I grabbed the girls some BK on the way home for lunch. Then we had to clean the house which Destiny wined that we wouldn't have enough time! But we still had 3 hours before trick or treating began which meant 2 hours for cleaning, dinner and making sure sugar levels were good enough for Destiny to go out walking for trick or treating. DH had staff duty which is a 24 hour shift so he couldn't go with us again this year. Our evening was interesting enough. In fact we had a fun conversation on the way to our friends house before trick or treating.
On the way out the door:

Me: Destiny take your coat its going to get cold

Destiny: But I am hot, I don't want it

Me: take it anyway I don't want you getting sick

Destiny: rolls her eyes and grabs her coat

We cross the street

Destiny: mom can you carry my coat?

Me: no you can put it on

Destiny: No, Cinderella doesn't wear a coat

Me: No but Cinderella doesn't go trick or treating either

Destiny: Well Cinderella has servants to carry all her stuff

Me: Destiny, we are not your servants so carry your own coat

Destiny: Well if I were rich I would have my own servants

Me: That gives you something to shoot for then doesn't it?

The rest of the evening went on like this with her telling us what Cinderella does and doesn't do and with a snobbish attitude. I was on my last nerve by the time we arrived home. Poor Kiley was exhausted too. She was complaining her legs hurt so she fell asleep quickly when we got home. They loved carving there pumpkins too. Kiley picked out the window with the kitty, spider and pumpkin which I traced out onto the pumpkin and daddy carved out. The girls both cleaned out the inside guts too. Destiny wanted to do a twilight them so we made up a vampire about to bite a girls neck. she loved it! We made cinnamon and sugar seeds too which turned out pretty good. :) I am so glad Halloween is over, this one was the most tiring yet.

I did start crocheting a baby doll for Kiley but ran out of yarn for her arms so i ordered some on payday and will finish it up when it arrives. I didn't take any pics though. I also pulled out some yarn to crochet me a top but am not sure I like it too much and may scrap the project all together. DH bought me some drawers and shelves for my stitching and crocheting supplies and made sure I had plenty of extra room for when I buy more! I am so happy! Though I am not sure what to work on next as I need to finish up some gifts to get sent out next payday so they arrive by xmas at their destinations which means I won't have too much to show you all.

I'm sorry I am not commenting on all your blogs. I am reading them but as my life is a bit busy right now I don't have too much time on the computer each day. Thank you for all your comments though, I really do appreciate them so very much!

As for everyone who loves my Mr and Mrs snowman. I bought the kit here

Replacement Halloween sqaures have arrived!

Vonna stitched these as a replacement for my Halloween squares. Aren't they cute? I love them! Its a freebie from Barbara Anna and on linen called sugared coffee Sassy's fabbys. The color just makes me want a cup of coffee, lol.

we carved pumpkins last night too! Blogger doesn't want to load the pics so i will try again laterz. Happy Halloween everyone!

Twilight has become a movie!

I am so STOKED! You can see the previews here. Its only the story of Book 1 out of the series but I can't wait! Tomorrow I am ordering book 3 and 4 too. :)


Chiloe - to answer your questions. Time said as 1400 is military time. From 0100 to 1200 is normal and anything after that 1300 to 2400 if you subtract 12 hours you will know the time then too. :) W are due to go back to the states in Dec 2009 if all goes as planned too. :)

Pumpkin Patch Trip

Well, on Monday we were off to a pumpkin patch trip with Destiny's brownie troop. It was about a 15 minute drive but I cannot recall the small city we went to for it. Anyway each of the girls got their own pumpkins and all for about 3.50 Euro which was much cheaper than what our local commissary wanted. We were going to be taken out to the actual field but it was too muddy since we had gotten so much rain this past week. So here are some pics of their trip. I also got DH to stop by the mail room before we went and book 1 had arrived! I read on the way there and back and finished only 1 chapter that night but by Wednesday I had finished the book. I am definitely an Edward fan! Anyway so I also have finished book 2 last night and that's why I have NO stitching to show for this week. These books were so good I could not put them down. This week I will be ordering book 3 and 4 of the series. I did stitch the main square for Round 10 of Fair and square exchange and a little on EMS Rose Sampler but its not enough for a picture. But this week I am going to finish up the last of my exchanges for the year and will probably pick up my EMS Rose Sampler afterward to make up for this week being lost to The Twilight Series. :)

Today we have Juliette Low's Birthday party. She was the founder of the scouts and so every year her birthday is celebrated. I am not sure I will have any pictures since we are just planning on dropping our scout off and running to the PX for some things we need since DH has to work today. He is driving to Ramstein for a soldier pickup and won't be back till late again. He left at 1330 yesterday and wasn't back until 2400. But at least he has Monday off so I guess that makes up for it. :)

F&S Exchange

Autumn Round
to Wendy Jo

I'm so glad you like them! :)

I have finished a small black work I started yesterday but i want to do the finishing before I show it.

I also had ordered book 1 and 2 of the Twilight series a few weeks ago and so when a packaged arrived I got all excited. I opened it up and there was book 2! So onto the book shelf it goes till book 1 comes in. I didn't realize how thick these books were either! It's marked for ages 12 and up but its a whopping 563 pages with normal sized print. I can't wait to for book 1 to finally show up!!!

Mr and Mrs Snowman

Mr and Mrs Snowman
Red Heart Super saver yarn
Completed: October 12, 2008

I finished these cuties up this evening.

EMS Rose Sampler Part 7 COMPLETED

I completed Part 7 right now. Sorry for the bad picture, its evening so I couldn't take a nicer one. But its completed and now I am off to try and wash that red spot out so in another week I can pick this back up and stitch part 8. :)

Thank you everyone for your sweet comments and concerns, as always it helps when I read those comments. I'll let you all know how I'm doing with this. :) Thank you again.

EMS Rose Sampler

Alright so here is what I have been working on the last few days. See the rose on the left with the stem and leaves, well that's part of part 7. If i do 2 parts each month then I can finish on time and with each part taking me a week to finish depending on time and schedule and my moods then I could finish it sooner. Anyway I have decided this, every other week or so I am going to do a part until its completed. The last 2 parts I'll do in December. I'm sorry if this pic looks blurry It was hard to locate a flat surface big enough to take an entire picture. And you see the little red spot in the bottom middle? Well dear Kiley thought she would touch my fabric and had Crystal Light on her hands! So I am going to finish up Part 7 and then off to wash this off.

NON STITCHY NEWS:
I went to the Dr's this morning to check on my blood pressure because I have hypertensiona nd though I am on Atenonol for it the last Dr said my BP was high twice now and I needed to come in another time and have it checked. Well, Dr Bentley was new and so I wanted to go to my Dr who knows my history and all. So I saw Dr win and also had the nurses use the manual method to check my blood pressure because the machines always read me as high. Well it was normal so no med change there. Thn he started asking me how my home life was going and the kids and the school, blah, blah, blah and anyway turns out I have depression. Well, after that diagnoses that explained a whole lot. I am not so depressed i want to run off and kill myself. But I am enough that he has started me on a low dose of Zoloft to see how I feel in a month, if not then we will up the dosage and wait another month. He also suggested I go to the counseling Dr's there but I can't open up to complete strangers, especially doctors, I always feel like they are judging me and wondering if I am lying or just being a drama queen. Yes, I worry continously about everything and anything and so I am so stressed and depressed it has resulted in chronic pain. I will explain this all to DH tonight and see how he takes the news. Fingers crossed everyone.

Fair and Square - Halloween, Autumn and Round 9

Well, I wasn't sure if my partner Shelley P. has received my squares. She was having some health problems and so I RAK'd her with the squares for this round in hopes to brighten her day. Vonna said she would stitch me some squares which is totally sweet of her. I hope you like my squares Shelley and are feeling better soon. I saw on the list she is marked as received so I am able to show you all what I had stitched for her. :)

EDITED TO ADD: I went to the post office and received a couple of goodies. :) I received my Autumn Round from Wendy Jo and my Round 9 squares from Marion. They are both just perfect! Thank you both!

Happy Dance!

SanMan Originals Day 4 SAL
DMC used
32 ct Linen
Completed: Oct 03, 2008

And here are my 2 munchkins. Destiny came home today and had her snack and as we were trying to get the second word pronounced she fell asleep. I guess reading is tiring work, LOL. She looked so cute I had to snap a pic and of course then Kiley had to have her pic taken too. :) OH! Did I share with you my wonderful news? destiny is reading at a 0.6 as of the first week of school which means her reading level is 6 months into 1st grade so she's several months ahead in her reading! I'm so proud of her!

Day 4 SMO SAL, an exchange and Puppy News!

Here is where I am at for my SAL. I am not sure if you can tell but the baby snowman is stitched too and I did him up in DMC's glow in the dark thread. The girls think its the coolest thing. :)
And here is Round 9 that was sent to Marion. I saw today on the board that she has received my squares. I'm glad you liked them Marion. They were fun to stitch. :)

ALSO: If you look under user profiles on the Fair and Square blog you can see my work profiled on the top. Look here. I'm so excited!

And on Puppy News:

Good News: Oskar will be arriving around Oct 15th instead of November 24th. The people that have him right now decided to drive the extra 15 minutes and go to a certified vet thank god cause its also saving us about $200.

Bad News: Oskar's brothers Willy and George decided to beat up on him and pulled his front leg too hard so he went to the vet who said he had a pulled ligament by his elbow but no worries, a week on inflamatories and some rest and he'll be all better. ALSO we found out he is allergic to plastic! Can you believe that?? Apparently it is common for mini dachsunds but she did say there won't be any harm during his short 15 hour flight here. So we will have to buy a metal kennel for him and he can only have metal food dishes but thats fine as thats what we had bought him.

Day 4 SMO SAL and an award

So here is my start on Day 4 of the SMO SAL. This one quick stitch at least I think. But this is what i got done last night. Its part of the moon. I like stitching this one. :) And these proud pictures are of my DH getting an award he has deserved and had coming for a long time. I'm so proud of him! Now if I can get him to take some classes so he can get enough points to become SGT. :) The picture of the building is where DH works, its shared with a few other units as well.

E is for Edward

E is for Edward
by Plum Street Samplers
14 count tan aida
DMC #4126

Okay so has anyone heard of the Twilight saga books? I hadn't either until recently. I was led to a stitching blog from the freebie gallery and then onto another blog and anyway came across Plum Street Samplers blog and was reading through and it made me laugh, happy laugh that is the way she is with her mom. It hits close to home. Anyway her mom and her are reading these books and really intrigued me so yes Oct 1st the first book will be ordered from Amazon. :) Anyway she designed this design i have stitched and handed it out as a freebie and since I needed a break from the ever dragging F&S Exchange Halloween round I had to stitch this up. It's not finished into something yet cause I really need to finish my exchange this weekend and mail it out Monday so I can stop talking about and you all can stop thinking "Just finish it already!" LOL.

On the stitchy side of today I have mailed out my Fair and Square round 9 squares to marion in The Netherlands. Let's see how long that one takes to get there. :) And last night I finally decided on and started My Fair and Square Halloween round which is a good thing considering they must be mailed out by October 1st.

And something to laugh about:

INDIAN WITH ONE TESTICLE

There once was a Red Indian whose given name was "Onestone". So named
because he had only one testicle. He hated that name and asked everyone
not to call him Onestone.

After years and years of torment, Onestone finally cracked and said, "If
anyone calls me Onestone again I will kill them!" The word got around
and nobody called him that any more.

Then one day a young woman named Blue Bird forgot and said, "Good
morning, Onestone." He jumped up, grabbed her and took her deep into the
forest where he made love to her all day and all night. He made love
to her all the next day, until Blue Bird died from exhaustion.

The word got around that Onestone meant what he promised he would do.
Years went by and no one dared call him by his given name until a woman
named Yellow Bird returned to the village after being away for many
years.

Yellow Bird, who was Blue Bird's cousin, was overjoyed when she saw
Onestone. She hugged him and said, "Good to see you, Onestone."

Onestone grabbed her, took her deep into the forest, then he made love
to her all day, made love to her all night, made love to her all the
next day, made love to her all the next night, but Yellow Bird wouldn't
die!

What is the moral of this story?????...........................OH, come
on...make a guess!


Think about it

(You're going to love this!)

And the moral is...


You can't kill two birds with one stone!!

On life itself. I saw the Dr this morning about an infection i am sure I have. Here's the tale. I stupidly decided Germany has not tortered me enough and thought I would go get myself a few piercings for my 27th Birthday. You want to know where I got pierced? Well think pairs. Anyway they give me no after care instructions and my friend who has the same piercings tells me wrong and whats to expect but infections where one swells over said jewelry and I have the joy of pushing it out each morning. Anyway so i see the Dr about it 2 weeks ago and he takes a swab gives me antibiotics and some bottle of 800mg of Ibuprofen (i.e. military candy) tells me to take them for 7 days though its a 10 day prescription and if not better then come back. So of course its not better! I go back today and ask what did are the swab results? Waiting for something brilliant he says " oh yea! Well, I'll have to re-examine you so please change and I will go check to see what they are." so he leaves, I change, he comes back and examines and of course nothing. Anyway in his words the swab results are "It shows staph but we don't know if its normal staph that everyone has in thier bodies or if its staph and your body is trying to fight off an infection." And then just looks at me and I'm looking at him waiting for him to tell what is the plan since its obviously something since said jewelry is being "swallowed" each day. He suggests that perhaps its an allergic reaction to the jewelry and I told him nope its surgical steel and I have never had an allergic reaction with my other piercings. So he agrees to try another round of antibiotics that may kill this staph that the last round doesn't kill and tells me to change out my jewelry to something else in all hopes of possibly killing two birds with one stone. Well, with this piercing its not like they make gold for it so I'm kind of lost on this one so here's hoping that the antibiotics work. Please don't expect a whole lot from me the next several weeks as like always antibiotics make me tired and useless and I have been on them for two weeks now and here goes another 10 days worth of them.

Here's another fun fact about me, my blood pressure is too high even on my meds so in 2 weeks I'll be back in to talk about that one! Oooh fun! I just wanted to go off on this Dr when he mentioned that one to me. I mean really doc walk a mile in my shoes and tell me your blood pressure is too high! I have my stress migraines back to boot. Really someone please fly to Germany and put a bullet in my brain!!!!!

Okay sorry to go off like that but the stress is getting to me. I think tonight I'll grab a book and go curl up in the tub and soak and hopefully the warm water and quiet will relieve some of this stress.

It's a scarf!

Aww yes, that time of year is coming about. No, not Halloween or Thanksgiving but Christmas! I know its only September but did you know there's less than 100 days till Christmas? Plus even less for me as I have to mail my presents no later than Thanksgiving if i want anything to arrive by Christmas. So I have got to work on those gifties though I am seriously contemplating this year buying gifts online and having them sent directly to the recipient. Anyway, I found this cute yarn by Red Heart. It's craft yarn but I fell in love with the colours and they screamed a hat and scarf for my oh too cute and only nephew. So i ordered 2 skeins thinking that even with this being bigger yarn I would have enough. Well here is the end result of the scarf after three tries to make it the way i wanted it. I don't have enough for a hat for him and no more time to order more and get it here, made and mailed out in time for christmas. But oh well, I'll send a toy with too since no kids like getting just clothes. Even my girls love it and wanted to try it on too. :) Of course Destiny was my model to make sure it was long enough. I finished this a few weeks ago but forgot to take a picture for you all who waded through my picture laden post last time. Thank you all who stopped by and commented as I know I have been away way too long. I am feeling a little better but my DH has now given me his cold so I'm popping 1000mg vitamin C tablets again in hopes to be rid of this cold quickly. The only stitching I have gotten done in the last several weeks is my Round 9 squares for Fair and Square and I still need to do up the Halloween round. I missed the deadline for the Thanksgiving round thanks to my computer issues but maybe its a good thing with me feeling so down lately. Anyways, I will try and get some stitching done to show you all soon but since i don't feel good crocheting is quick and thoughtless to do till I feel better.

I'm back! Warning: Lots of pictures!

So here are the puppies they are mini dachshunds. Mine is the black one with red cheeks and the other black one is flying here as well for my friend. There was one girl in the litter that went to the owners of the father. anyway their about 6 weeks old now. Hopefully within the next week I will know exactly when to expect my lil pup. we're naming him Oskar (i.e. Oskar Meyer wieners)
Here is the Fair and Square exchange I received the one I did and sent is farther down in the pictures. The pics didn't want to move after getting loaded and I don't feel like fighting with blogger today. I also completed my Peacock Stitching chair about August 9th I believe. And I worked on my collecting shells WIP too. Plus it was my birthday on August 12th too and I received a few gifts as you see below. Please forgive me if I don't go into detail on everything but I am coming down with something dreadful and I just want to go to bed right now. I am currently trying to get stitched my F&S Exchange round 9 and the Halloween round as they are both due out at the end of the month. I have one down and one to go but the motivation to stitch has seriously been lacking.







I apologize for my extremely long absence. My ISP quit completely and believe me it really took this long to get it fixed completely. But now everything is good. So what have I been up to? Umm, stitching and trying to get my newborn puppy from the states to here which he still isn't.