Check this out!

Here are two of my guys in the household. My dh and 3rd oldest son who are sitting back and getting ready to enjoy the Hannah Montana concert in 3-D!! Don't they look funny!! I laughed so much at them that night!! They both said, don't post them to your groups and of course, I said I wouldn't do that, but hey, you got your kicks where you can, especially now!

DH had a job interview yesterday. Actually he went in to take the test, but since he scored 97 out of 100, they went ahead and interviewed him. He is really hoping he gets this job. He really liked what he found out about the company and the site here. I like the fact he would get a discount, stock options, and 3 companies to choose health insurance from!

My neck and back pretty much stay knotted up at all times anymore. I really don't think I can take any more stress. This is really killing me!! Plus the heat and I am about nuts! The van has been repossessed (of course they sent me a letter saying I can get it back, but I don't have the money for that!), so now I have to drive dh's car, which was my dad's, and it's low to the ground (can barely get in/out) and it's a standard tranny, which with my weak left leg, does not make it easy to drive! If I drive it very long, my leg starts screaming!!

So, my summer has pretty much sucked since the beginning of July and I still have to deal with my other son moving back in and his gf (who definitely is not looking real hard for a job)!! At least my son starts his job today, but who knows how long he will keep it? As for her, she needs to quit being here all day long!!!!

Well, enough of a rant for now!

Good News and Bad News!

Here is another update on my progress on my OTR!! This is after 23 hrs 10 min of stitching!! Photo is dated 7/22/08!! So yes, have gotten some more stitching in!

Didn't get too much done on Tues or Wed tho. Went out of town with family to see an outdoor theatre production of "Hatfields and McCoys" at Beckley's Grandview Theatre!! Too bad, that 10 minutes before it started a massive thunderstorm came in along with a really strong cold front!! The lightning was unbelievable! Have never seen so much nor so bright! Then of course, there was the pain associated with the cold front coming thru. Not good at all!

Then the next day (Wed) as we were driving home, my dh called to tell me our van was, at that very moment, getting repossessed!! I had called them last week to explain our situation (ie, dh laid off, my disability, etc) and then a week later they came and took it? Sounds like they didn't want to give any kind of help to us at all! Oh well, at least I don't have the payment anymore and my insurance will go down some!!

We got his first unemployment check today (whoopee!) Was enough to pay one tiny bill and to get some groceries!! Yeehaw!!

Did get a little good news today! Dexter, my most favorite serial killer/TV show on the planet, is starting it's 3rd season on Sept 28 at 9 pm on Showtime. I even have a countdown now on this blog!! If you have never seen this show, I really pity you!! It's the most awesome show ever!!

Well, think that's all the news for now, will update later again!

Another Update on OTR and my life!

Here is my latest update on OTR!! This is after 19.5 hours of stitching! After I posted it to Laura at PR, she added a note on there that said "perfect crosses"!! So excited she thinks my stitching is "perfect"!
Have gotten lots more done on her now, just in a couple of hours! I need to take a new pic and email it for the contest. Hopefully will do that today.

DH still has not found anything! No severance check either right now. Don't know where that is. He is beginning to think they are going to shaft him on it. I certainly hope not, we desperately need it!

Did the online test for DHHR help and it looks like we are not going to be able to get anything there either! How they can say we make too much money is beyond me! He doesn't have a job, his unemployment amount is a joke and my disability is so small! Plus, we have 6 in the household now! So how can they say we have too much money is unbelievable!

DS (29 yo) is now staying with us also. He has managed to piss off his friends over the years by leeching off them and now he has no one to live with, so he came home. His girlfriend is not staying here, but she may as well be!! She is here everyday from sunup to sundown! All she does is sit and play Guitar Hero!! The other time I timed her and she played it for 81/2 hours straight!

I keep pushing DS to get a job and some responsibiility about his family, and he replied "responsibility is not my strong point"!! My jaw dropped! I told him he was plenty old enough to stop farting around and since he now has a child, its time for him to assume some! He had a job interview on Friday and is supposed to go back tonite at 6:30 for another interview. It's telemarketing, which he doesn't really want, but that is just too bad!! When you have a family to support, you need to take what ever comes!

He wants to work in a restaurant, but since he has no car and I'm not wasting my gas on taking him everywhere, he needs one in town. However, I think he has worked (and messed up) at every restaurant in this town!

Well, just wanted to do a quickie update on OTR and my life (which currently sucks!). I wish I had someone to talk to about my worries and fears about all this, but no one is around. I can't discuss with DH, since he is already worried. If he knew how much I was worried, he would worry 5x as much!! He really has no idea how bad things cost and what our bills amount to!

Tomorrow, I am getting a break though. My mother is taking me, my aunt, and niece to Beckley to see "Hatfields and McCoys" at the outdoor theatre down there and we are staying over night. Just one night away and that should help me some! Will be taking OTR of course! So I can stitch on her in the hotel room! Of course, I have to go outside to smoke, but at least I'll have a break from all the moping being done here at home!

Have a great day, everyone who reads my blog!!

Update on OTR!!!

Here is my first WIP of my OTR for the contest. This is after 6 days and roughly 18 hours of stitching!! I should be further along, but have had so many family "issues" I haven't really had a chance to do a whole lot of serious stitching! Hoping to change that soon!

I think she is coming along nicely. I certainly do wish I could do the beading along with her as I usually do on a PR design, but can't do it on this one, because she is on Q-snap frame! Fabric is too long to fit scroll rods!!

Here is another pic of her, this one is a little closer shot of her and her dress! The colors on this design are so gorgeous!!

Plus, one of the reasons I wanted to do this one so quickly is so I could hang her up to remember all my pets who have finally crossed "over the rainbow bridge" to a happier place where they can chase all the rabbits they want!! And for cats, where they can chase squillers they can find!!

Oh, finally got my secret exchange kit from the PR board!! My secret exchange(r?) was Angi and she sent me a beautiful fob and ornament, along with some fabulous fabby for PR's Lady of the Snow! How wonderful!! I loved it all!

My ds (29yo) decided to pay us a visit this weekend. We haven't heard from him for about 6 or 7 months and all of a sudden he his here. He has had a drug problem since the age of 14 and the past 3 years of his life has been wasted on that terrible drug Heroin. He finally is off all that horrible stuff and has been straight for a couple of months. He has no job, no place to live, and the cutest 11 month old baby in the world!

Here is my wonderful grandson, Marlon!! Here he is with his Grandpa Robert (dh) and Uncle Alex(ds)!! He was here with us for about 8 hours and I never heard him cry once!! Not even when he was tired!!

He is so adorable and chubby cheeks galore!! He enjoyed meeting Rascal, my "guard" dog, who does not like strangers. But Rascal went right up to him ad started sniffing. Not a growl, or a hackle rasied anywhere!! It was the strangest thing! Not even a growl, when Marlon grabbed Rascal's ears.!

Well, that's all for today! Going to bed so I can go to pool tomorrow and hopefully get some good stitching time in!!

Happy Stitching to everyone!

She's coming along nicely!

Over the Rainbow is coming along nicely!! I have all of her head done (minus beads) and most of her hair and am now starting on her dress. I hope to take a pic of her today and I will post it here when I do!! I am having so much fun with her!

It's difficult not to do beading as I go along! I am so used to doing that on PR's designs!! But since she is wider than tall, can't fit her on my scroll rods, so I am using Qsnaps on her. Don't reallly like that when there are beads, but oh well! I might be able to put some on her while she is on the Qsnaps, but not many!

I really hope and pray I win the contest, not so much for the prizes, but just to know I have done a good enough job for Laura! I want her to see how much I prize her designs! She has released the full version of her Winter Lady now also!! Her Summer Lady has been out for a while, but ECC is not carrying her yet. Hopefully soon! I would love to have all 4 of those ladies!

DH went down to unemployment office yesterday to get that process started. That means I am going to have to get down to DHHR as soon as he gets his paperwork from them to see what we can get from there. I am also going to try to get the school clothing allowance this year, that would be a big help in getting the boys ready for school! I have already started buying some school supplies, they had one subject notebooks for only .05 the other day!!

Just a quick update on how my life is going at the present!!
Check back soon for more updates!!

Mea Culpa!!

Mea Culpa, mea maxima culpa! I'm sorry for not updating as much as I want to!! I just haven't had the time or thought of it! But here I go, and this is going to be long!! So much has happened.

First the good news, I got everything needed for my floss toss for OTR by PR!! I am ready for the contest! Plus, Laura recently posted a note that states exactly what time it starts and thanks to the time difference I get to start at 7 pm on July 6th!! Yea!!

Here is a pic of my floss toss. I am doing her on opalescent 28 ct Crystal Mercedes by PTP!! I think it will be gorgeous when I get her done. Plus Dawn was nice enough to give me a goal! She got the model done in 5 1/2 weeks, but that was with dr's appts and other things going on (dh being ill, her being ill, etc). She said it would normally take her 4 weeks. So, my goal is now set!!

Another good thing, a fellow stitcher who lives near me (well about 2 hours away) has found out she has the Egyptian Glory issue of the magazine I was looking for and is going to send it to me!! Yea!! Plus she says she has another Egyptian pattern that is in another issue and she is going to find that issue and send it to me also. I have got so many gorgeous Egyptian patterns now! I'm so excited about it!

Everything had been going along just fine until about a week ago, or maybe more, when DH came home from work and said his campaign was being outsourced to Phillipines and he would more than likely be RIF'd. That was a big blow to us! He has been there 9 years! We thought it would be more likely he would be transferred to another campaign, since he has been there so long and everybody agrees he is the most liked and hardest worker there.

Well, yesterday he came back home about 10:30 am, which didn't really surprise me because he was always coming back home to print a picture, burn CD's, print something or do something for work. However, as I quickly found out, that was not the case! His job had already left for the Phillipines and he was not invited! So after 9 years of hard work, lots of 80-90 hour work weeks, he was RIF'd. He gets a small (very small) severance package and that is all.

Of course, he is old enough to be able to get in that program that not only pays for his schooling to be retrained, but also gives him a small stipend while he is doing it! Plus he will get unemployment, and I will apply for SSI that will go along with my disability check.

The only down side is our insurance will be gone after July 31st, so after I was able to make a rational thought, I called my dr and made arrangements to have a 90 day supply of my meds prescribed. That way I can at least use my mail order pharmacy before the end of the month and get 3 months meds.

I get the fun job of sitting all day Monday on the phone with Social Security making arrangements for SSI and then I also have to do major research on the different Medicare insurance plans and find one for myself. So, that is going to be sooo much fun!! (big sigh)

That is all so far! Will keep everyone up to date on the exciting happenings in my life!