Finished Products Are So Satisfying

You know how it feels when you finish a project you pour hours of work into? A scrapbook, painting, quilt, knitting, etc...well for me it's cross stitching. I love to cross stitch, not only does it distract me from some of the harder days I face and give me the stress relief I need it also gives me some gratification that I can take something so simple as a blank cloth and turn it into something beautiful. Sometimes it is hard to say good bye to the things I stitch as I put so much of my time and myself into these projects. I pick designs that I find beautiful because of what they are or what they represent.

This last week I finished a wolf cross stitch for my friend Mike Wilde. Last year while I was living with my Grandma and Grandpa Condie out it Tooele I was working on a wolf cross stitch to give to my Mom for Mother's Day. When I finished it I gave it to her early. She told me she couldn't take it to work with her because if Mike Wilde saw it he'd be jealous. He loves wolves. As a fellow wolf lover I immediately bought the colors and cloth I'd need and I began working on a new wolf cross stitch for him. But between the time I started it and the time I finished it I would get married, add two new puppies to our lives, and move twice, therefore delaying my finished project. But I finally got it finished, and with a month to spare before his birthday.

All my cross stitched projects take up a lot of time, and most of them I've spilled blood while working on them as I've jabbed myself with my needle. But for me it is all worth it in the end to see the finished product. As frustrated as I can get at times, as hard as it is to have to go back and undo stitches when I've miscounted, as frustrating as it can be when my progress feels so slow it is all worth it in the end when I see the final picture. I love cross stitching and I love the feeling of accomplishment when I'm done.

This Buck was the first big cross stitch I ever made. I gave it to my Dad for his birthday in 2006.

My friend Becky asked me if I would make two horse cross stitches for her nieces for Christmas in the year 2006. She said she'd pay me for them. The first horse I made for her was the Arabian. It took me four months and countless hours to get it done - I'd get up and work on it, I'd go to work for four hours as I was only working part time at the time and then I'd come home and work on it until I could no longer stay away. It was beautiful in the end but not one I'd like to do again.

This paint horse was the second horse cross stitch I did for Becky for her neices' Christmas presents. This one was much smaller so it only took me a week to get it finished. It might look simple but a lot of details were put into this for the shading and especially the grass and shadow of the horse. I wasn't sorry to see both of these projects finished as I was very stressed out at the time to get them finished before Christmas. I think I had them finished with five days to spare.

When I was dating my old boyfriend he loved Superman - and had a lot of Superman stuff. So I went online and found a DC Comic Cross Stitch Pattern book and I made this Superman cross stitch for his birthday only three months before we broke up. He might have thrown it away I don't know what happened to it now.

My sister Melinda and her husband Brent got married in December of 2008. I had no idea what to give them for a wedding gift and so I started to think. When I saw this pattern book of wedding cross stitch designs I bought it and immediately began to search through it seeing which pattern I should make for them. That way it was something personal and something that will hopefully last a lifetime. I spent three months and again countless hours making this for them, but they were both so surprised and they loved it. I know Melinda especially appreciated it because she knows how many hours I dedicate to these projects so I knew I picked the right gift for them.
This wolf cross stitch took me nearly two years to complete because I had stopped not long after beginning it because it was much more complicated than I had expected when I had bought it. But I loved the pattern so I started it up again when I moved out to Tooele to live with my Grandparents. It took me six months to finish when I got started up again and not two weeks after I finished it I gave it to my Mom for an early Mother's Day gift. She keeps it in her room and she loves it - not because she loves wolves but because she knows I made it for her.

And this is my gift for Mike Wilde. As simple as it might look it still took me over a year to get it finished and endless hours. When I saw the pattern in the book I didn't really care for it all that much but the more I worked on it the more I loved it and I realized just how beautiful the pattern really was. So I hope he likes it when he opens it next month when my Mom and I take him out to lunch for his birthday. Mom says he will for three reasons. 1. Because I made it just for him. 2. Because he knows how much time and effort goes into projects like these. 3. Because it has a wolf on it.

I'm now working on my newest project, it's called In Harmony and it is another wolf cross stitch. I haven't finished it yet because I just started it last week but below is what the project will look like when it's finished. When I have it done I'll post a picture of the actual cross stitch for you to see.

25 Years And Counting

Well I guess it's official. I'm 25 years old today, no more teasing Rose and Chantel that they're old because I'm just as old as they are now. That's just sad. :) It was fun while it lasted though.

Mom took me out for lunch yesterday - I told her I was in the mood for a hamburger so we went to Hires and I ordered chicken strips - mom found this very funny. When we were heading back to her office Mike called he told me he wasn't going to go into school on my birthday so he could spend the evening with me instead. I was surprised, but pleased as well knowing I wouldn't be by myself on my birthday.

We had a hard night last night, Priestly was up and down all night and woke me constantly, we had a thunderstorm around midnight that terrified Jack and he jumped onto the bed and was shaking so hard he made the whole bed shake with him. I tried to calm him down while trying to get back to sleep because I had to go to work in a few hours.

By the time my alarm went of I was tired because I hadn't gotten much sleep. I went to work and by the time I got home I was feeling my sleepless night. Mike called and said he'd be home in a little while. So I changed out my DVD's in my CD case so I have something new to listen to at work and was just barely starting to put new DVD's in after putting the others away when Mike got home and told me to hang out in the bathroom. So I went in the bathroom, taking Jack and Priestly with me. After a minute Mike called me back out to the living room and he brought me my gifts. He gave me gift cards for Best Buy, and Barnes and Noble. I also got an iTunes gift card and a new new playstation game - he also bought me a dirty outfit that made me blush. He said there are a couple of other things coming but he wouldn't tell me what so I'll have to wait and see what they are when they come.

After presents Mike took me out to dinner and we came home afterward to just relax. We are both tired after getting up so early and having so little sleep. My phone has been going all day from people wishing me happy birthday and I've had several messages from friends on face book as well. It's been a long day, but a good birthday this year. And now it's my turn to plan for Mike's birthday as that is coming up in about ten days now.

Our New Place

Well as you all know from my previous posts Mike and I moved out of the big house and into our own tiny little apartment. Grandma and Grandma Condie, Melinda, and Mike's twin Matt came to help us move. I was a little terrified because I wasn't sure what our apartment was really going to look like because the one bedroom we saw before didn't have the washer and dryer hooks ups in it and ours does. That apartment looked very cramped, the living room was small and so was the dining room. The bedroom was ok. But we loved it anyway - I was just worried with all that we were bringing that we wouldn't have room for a lot of our things so I only packed the essentials when we moved. I told Mike to do the same - but of course he didn't listen.


Moving was rough, we had had to change to a top floor apartment because the couple in the apartment we were going to have decided to stay for another month. And walking up and down those stairs over and over, lugging in boxes was very wearing. We started at about quarter to 3:00pm but around quarter after 4:00pm we decided to call it quits for the day. We thanked everyone for their help and Mike and I decided we'd finish unloading the truck the next morning.

By the time I got up at 6:30 the next morning Mike had already been awake for an hour and there were only four boxes left to bring in. Then he left for a job interview and I got to work setting up our new place. I couldn't stand having boxes all over because we couldn't move around at all. I worked non-stop for 9 hours setting up our apartment and by the time I called it quits our kitchen, living room, bathroom, and most of the bedroom was done. All that was left were a couple of boxes of Mike's things he'd need to sort out, our wall hangings that I wanted Mike's help with, and Mike's clothes. So in less than 24 hours I made the place look like home. We love it here and our neighbors are very friendly. The kids seem fascinated with our small dogs - and one of them was brave enough to come up and pet Jack the other day. Priestly even let one of the kids touch him. Pattie of course loves everyone.

We haven't had too many problems, except we need to call Sears because our dryer isn't working. And our garbage disposal stopped working this week - but that's the apartment building's job to take care of. So hopefully they'll send someone soon. Jack got sick this week so I took him down to Dad's for a few days so he can have access to go potty when he needs to go rather than waiting for us - he wasn't very happy when I left him there though. I'll pick him up and bring him home this weekend. Dad said that Jack's having a great time swimming in the swimming pool he bought for him. When I dropped him off I even let Priestly have a go at the pool, holding him under the chest while he doggy paddled and splashed Jack in the face. They miss their big brother and it is very empty without him. But he'll be home soon and we'll be a complete family once again. Anyway here are some pictures of our new place.


This is part of our kitchen and bar if you stood at our couch. I let Mike set up his computer here and used the space above our cupboards to place some of our wedding pictures. Since our apartment is small it has forced me to be creative in decorating.




This is our entertainment center - we don't have a dining room because our apartment is so small, but we hope to get a folding table and chairs for when we have guests visit. We improvised with the TV area, using the coffee table Arla gave us to put the TV, DVD player, Playstation and eventually Mike's game system when he gets that set up.






This is our bedroom.




As you can see the dogs have taken to our new place well. They all feel right at home making themselves comfortable on our bed.





This is our kitchen - and I was very surprised and pleased to discover that everything we had at the big house fit easily into our small kitchen here. Even our food storage. Our pantry is skinny but deep so we weren't even short on space for our soups!!!!






This is a corner of our living room. It took me quite a while to get all the DVD's put back in order but in the end it was worth it.



This is our couch and dog pillows there on the floor. Plus a box of Mike's that has been moved since I've taken this picture. I'm hoping to get some of our picture frames filled with our pictures soon because right now they are just the custom pictures the frames came with. Now that Mike has a job though we might be able to afford it.

Jump Rope

Does anyone remember those songs we used to sing when we jumped rope at school or at home when we were kids?

Cinderella dressed in yellow,
went upstairs to kiss a fellow.
Mad a mistake and kissed a snake
How many doctors did it take?

Or...

Hot fudge, call the judge,
(Kid's name) is gonna have a baby
Wrap it up in tissue paper
send it down the elevator what's it gonna be
Boy, girl, twins triplets...boy, girl, twins, triplets...

Or...the hardest one for me anyway

Blue bells, cockel shells,
Easy Ivy, overhead...
Then they'd swing the rope as fast as possible, probably trying to trip you up so they could have a turn. :)

Ahh, the good old days when life was much much simpler. Where the hardest thing was getting good grades in school, staying out of trouble and coming up with three names when you had triplets in your jump rope game. :)

Changes

A couple of weeks ago I came home from work to find Mike very upset. He was staring at his computer screen applying for as many jobs as he could. He turned around when he saw me and said I'd better start packing we were being kicked out. That sent me into a panic with me the only one working we were barely making ends meet as it was, let alone trying to find a new place to go and have to pay rent on top of it.

Needless to say I had a total breakdown that day, and I scared one of my best friend's half to death when she called me and I was crying so hard I could barely breathe let alone talk to her. I managed to choke out that I'd call her back, but she only gave me two minutes before she called me back in a panic, thinking something was seriously wrong and I couldn't breathe. She was on the verge of calling an ambulance for me. I managed to calm down enough to calm her down, then after talking to my sister Melinda I followed her advice and started looking up nearby apartments. The trouble was our three dogs, most of the apartments I looked at would only accept two and I knew if I had to I could give Jack back to Dad, but I didn't want to do that. I owe Jack my life the least I can do is give Jack a good one in return.

I heard back from the manager at Mountain Shadows Apartments about half an hour after I sent out e-mails to apartments that didn't give a lot of info on their pet policies. I asked how many pets were allowed and if they had a weight limit because a lot of places do. Jennifer, the manager there, told me that they had no weight limit. I told her we had three dogs and what breeds they were and she said even though they normally only allow two pets she'd make an exception for us because two of them were small. Plus it would only be $40 extra a month for all three of them instead of paying for them individually. I couldn't believe our luck. So we went down the following Monday to actually see the apartment, and despite that it's small, we love it. We could afford it if we were careful with our money so we went ahead and put down a deposit on it.

They even told us they could have it ready for us July 6th so that is when we are moving, within our three week time period that Arla gave us. Then on Wednesday Mike was offered a job, not only that a job he liked and he gets paid almost twice what I get paid. So he rubbed that in my face. I was very grateful and at the same time I felt very guilty. On Friday when I was having my breakdown and I had thought that maybe God had forgotten about us, that he'd stopped listening, or simply didn't care. I'd been so angry.

Of course as soon as Jennifer agreed to let us take our three dogs I instantly felt regret and I was on my knees instantly begging for forgivness as well as thanking him. I've always turned to my favorite poem when I've been most troubled because it makes me think that maybe, just maybe, while I'm focusing on just the one set of footprints in the sand I'm not focusing on whose prints they are and that this may be one of those times that the Lord is carrying me. I'm going to add it here because I just love the way this poem makes me feel.

Footprints In The Sand

One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord.
Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky,
In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand.
Sometimes there were two sets of footprints,
other times there was only one set of footprints.

This bothered me because I noticed
that during the low periods of my life,
when I was suffering from anguish, sorrow, or defeat,
I could only see one set of footprints.

So I said to the Lord,
"You promised me Lord, that if I followed you,
You would walk with me always.
But I have noticed that during the most trying periods of my life
there have only been one set of footprints in the sand.
Why, when I needed you the most, have you not been there for me?"

The Lord replied,
"My blessed child, I love you and would never leave you.
During your times of trials and sufferings,
When you saw only one set of footprints,
It was then that I carried you."

After Mike got his job this past week, and we found a place to live where we can take all three dogs, and knowing we won't starve I know that it wasn't that God wasn't listening, that he wasn't paying attention or that he'd stopped caring. He hadn't done any of those things. He was just looking at the whole picture while we can only see one tiny piece of the puzzle. Everything happens for a reason, I realize that now, and I'm so grateful for the blessings we've been given this week. Perhaps this was a test of faith for me, and I was tried to my limits, but then God made me see that in times of my hardest sufferings and trials I can always turn to him for help.

Mike and I have had trouble dealing with strangers coming in to look at the house for a while now. People can't seem to keep their hands to themselves when then come to look. They pet and play with our puppies, play our piano, eat our candy and throw wrappers on the floor. We've even had some things go missing right after they've left. So now Mike and I will have a place of our own where no one will come in and pet our dogs unless we tell them it's ok, no one will touch our things, take our things, or eat our food without our permission.

I've decided to give the piano to my sister-in-law Becky. We won't have room for it and it is an old old piano that weighs a ton, it'd be a pain moving it time and time again. We can always get another piano later when we buy a house in the future.

Arla also called this week. She is trying to get a job and saw that the Post Office is still hiring people where I work. I wasn't surprised they are always hiring. So Arla asked me how to apply for that position. I had to go online and look myself because they've changed it a lot since I got the job over two years ago. And before anyone sends me any hate messages complaining about the Post Office - I don't actually deal with mail pieces. I key images as they come onto a computer screen, that's it. What happens to them after they leave my screen is beyond my control. If it's return to sender, or postage needed, we are just keying what we are instructed to key. That's beyond us to do anything about it. I helped Arla get to the right place she needed to be so she could fill out an application. I'm a little worried about it though, I don't know if she understands just how stressful my job is. They expect you to be fast and accurate and if you get over a certain error % rate they fire you. Also if you are late even once you don't stand a chance for a career position, and they might fire you. If you are one of those lazy people who like to have a job but like to call in sick they fire you. When I was first hired on they put you on a trail period and when I came to the end of that my manager told me she was surprised to find someone my age with so much responisbility. I'm always on time, usually forty-fifty minutes early and I just read until my shift starts. I'm never absent, never call in sick, and I'm over 100% in every platform I key. I've had three different managers there now. My newest manager after I traded shifts told me I was a model employee and she said if all the other employees were like me we'd have a perfect REC. But I work hard at my job to be the best I can be. It isn't easy and yes I get stressed out a lot sometimes. But I still give it 110% all the time. It might seem like a laid back job, sit in a cubicle, listening to movies, music, audio books or anything else you want to listen to all day, but they also monitor your speed, your accuracy, and your breaks. Any mistakes and they catch you on it. It's a hard job - but I love it. I've never had a better one.

So over all, Mike and I have a new home, he has a new job, Mike, the dogs and I will stay together as a family, I'm doing great at my job, we aren't going to starve, and we will at last have a place to call our own where no one will barge in to look at it whenever they want. I look forward to being able to afford a house some day soon. Now that we can afford to do so we are going to start setting money aside so we can buy a house - a place we can truly call our own.

Ironic much?

So my first day back at work turned out to be a pretty ironic and stressful day, but that's mainly due to Jack. After Jack had his surgery last week I made sure he stayed inside and as clean as possible so he wouldn't get an infection in the surgerical site or pop his stitches.

Yesterday I took Priestly down to get his haircut. He was getting really shaggy and all his fur hung in his eyes. So I left Jack in Mike's care and headed out to get that done. When I got back Jack seemed fine, until I saw something hanging out of his side later that afternoon. It was a piece of hot pink string, or that's what it looked like but it was actually the stitching thread that they'd used on him he'd popped at least four of his stitches. So I called the vet's and made an appointment for him the next morning - Mike was anxious to get him in worried that'd bleed all over the place. Mike practically swoons at the sight of blood, even his own, and yet he pretends that he's a vampire? How can those two things co-exsist?

I was almost hoping that I could be the one to take Jack in just in case they needed to restitch him and I knew how Mike would handle that. But work was busy (which I'm grateful for more money that we need hooray!) and I asked Mike to send me an update on what the vet said about Jack's condition.

I got a text almost as I hit my seventh hour of work. Jack was fine, they'd decided to take out all the stitches for good this time. But on the bad side of things despite how careful I was Jack has an infection. Mike told me I'd have to be the one to give him his pills. Again squimish. How is he going to handle kids? :)

Unfortunately for him I'm going to make him help. Jack can only have his pills every twelve hours and he had his pill so late tonight I won't be able to give him one before I leave for work tomorrow. So I told Mike just coat the pill in peanut butter and that'll disguise it so Jack will take it easily. Bet you dollars to donuts Mike freaks out - but I sure do love him. There's never a dull moment when married to Mike.

Vacation Time

Well, last week I turned in 40 of my hard earned annual hours so I could take Jack in to the vets to get a large lump on his side removed. He's had it ever since we've had him and it hasn't been the first one we've needed to remove. It didn't seem to bother him unless we touched it and then he didn't like it but he wasn't very aware of it either. So I made an appointment to get him in to get it taken off.


I had to wake up early on Monday so that I could get ready and take him in. Of course Priestly threw the biggest fit when he saw Jack was going somewhere and as soon as I put him in his kennel he gave me the saddest eyes I've ever seen. Call me a sucker because I took him with us. We got down to the vet just in time for Jack's appointment. Of course he was nervous and tried to sit on my lap while we were waiting, which ended up with him knocking my purse to the filthy floor. Priestly was too excited to be nervous he knew that he wasn't in there for anything. But when I was asked to put him on the scale so we could weigh him Priestly had other ideas. When we finally got him to hold still long enough we discovered that he's gained almost two pounds since the last time we took him to the vet. I laughed because he doesn't look any different and he's still so light to pick up - I could hold him all day and never get tired. Pattie on the other hand if I pick her up my arms ache after five minutes. So Priestly is now a healthy 5 1/2 pounds of wiggling puppy.


After we were taken into the exam room and asked what we were in for I told him and he told me that I'd have to come back Tuesday or Wednesday to get that done because they were already booked up for surgeries that day. That made me very mad. There hadn't been any surgeries booked when I'd called and made the appointment and I'd even gotten the first appointment of the day. I told him that when I called I'd booked to get it removed, not looked at, but removed. He was probably very aware of how angry I was because he went and talked to the vet in charge of the surgeries who said we could get Jack in. Needless to say after I found out the price I will definitely not be going back to that clinc again. As far as I'm concerned they can burn his records.


Tuesday was Stephen's birthday. Jack was still very sore from his surgery the day before and has several stitches keeping the wound closed so he's not allowed to play until after those are removed. So I got up early and made Stephen's birthday cake then later that afternoon I loaded up the puppies and took them with me so Jack could get some sleep without the puppies howling downstairs.

It was fun, I still can't believe my baby brother's turned 22, but then again I can't believe I'm going to be 25 this year either. Mike wasn't able to go as he had school but I let the puppies out in the backyard to play and we did dinner and presents and cake. Brent kept saying that cake should come before presents because when you already had the cake it made you more excited about the presents. It made us all laugh. I went home right after cake so I could get back to Jack.


Wednesday we had a quiet day at home, something I'd hoped for when I asked for vacation time. Thursday I had invited Stephen up for dinner. He wanted lasagna with French bread and wanted to try my rainbow Jell-O. So I'd been working on the Jell-O for the past couple of days to get it ready as it does take quite a bit of time to get it together. I put that together as well as the lasagna in the morning and put them in the fridge for later. I told Stephen I'd go pick him up because he had no way of getting up here, but some friends were going to pick him up later because he was going to a dance. Stephen really enjoyed everything and had seconds of everything, but had a hard time finishing his Jell-O it doesn't look like much but it is actually quite a bit and that took him by surprise. We passed the time after dinner looking at some slideshows I've put together on my new laptop and watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and laughing at the jokes. Some things never change we both still like Ninja Turtles.





Friday I woke up very sick. Mike was alarmed at how warm I was and made me stay on the couch all day. He enjoyed playing doctor a lot. Running around and fetching things for me even though I didn't want them. He particularly enjoyed making me drink icky poo orange juice. Even though it is good for me I still hate it - but I drank it. Mom and Melinda dropped off some things for me that night and Mike had fun giving them to me. I think maybe he had too much fun playing doctor.


Saturday I felt a little better so we went to MAHARG night for dinner. But by the time we were done with that and our early Father's Day I was exhausted and just wanted to go home. So we came home around 8:00.


Sunday passed in pretty much the same fashion I was still pretty sick so we stayed home so I could rest up and try to get better before I have to go back to work tomorrow. I went downstairs and finished my bottle of water then refilled it with tap, sticking it in my usual spot on the second shelf. When I went to get it later I was surprised to find it gone. I asked Mike if he drank it and he smiled and shrugged. I told him that was my icky sicky water and he was going to get my sickies because he drank it. He told me it was only a little bit gone but then I revealed that I had just refilled it. That threw him for a loop and he made such a fuss that it left me rolling on the floor holding my sides to keep from falling apart I couldn't stop laughing.


Overall it was a pretty good vacation. I got to go see Chantel and the new baby again while waiting for Jack's surgery to be over with, I got to bake Stephen some of my favorite things to make, Priestly and Pattie got to run around Dad's big backyard, Jack now has two shaved areas - on the surgical site and on his leg plus he has hot pink stitiches - that way you can't miss them. Mike almost threw up when he saw Jack's stitches and that made me laugh, our small fan pooped out on us so now we have a bigger one and Pattie loves to sit there and let the fan blow the hair from her face, Priestly hasn't been allowed in Jack's kennel in case he pulls at Jack's stitches so he's discovered the joys of sleeping on the bed next to me. And I've discovered something too - no matter how rotten a week is you can always go back and recall things you really liked about parts of it.