Back In The Game?

Hi everyone, sorry it's been so long since I've posted, honestly I really haven't had an urge to blog since I posted about my mom's passing in December.

Then to add insult to injury a whole lot of "issues" I guess I could say rained down on us to the point that I've had enough rain to start another Great Lake! Do you really want to hear about my woes? Probably not, but it makes me feel better to get them out of the way.

Let's see, I believe we left off with my mom passing away four days before Christmas...
Since then we've dealt with:
1) Finding out that my dad as prostate issues that is must likely cancerous, but at 80 years old and just losing my mom, he doesn't care to follow up on it.
2) Finding out my husband has Barrett's Disease and learning that we'll have to deal with yearly cancer screenings.
3) I found a lump on my right upper hip, what we thought was a simple fatty tumor turned into a calcification of body tissue that was roughly the size of a quarter, but the shape of an arrowhead that was pressing onto my sciatic nerve.
4) Jeff underwent surgery for a hiatal hernia and a re-construction of the muscle that joins the esophagus and stomach.
5) Six day post-op, Jeff had heart attack. Luckily we acted fast enough that there's minimul damage to the heart, but it's one more thing to follow up on every year.


So I haven't felt like doing a lot of stamping in the past three months, however I did do a banner class early this month, we made this:

I think my ladies liked it, four of them bought the Pennants Die :)

To welcome Jeff home after what amounted to almost 2 weeks in and out of the hospital, I made this banner using MDS and the new Summer Schmooches Sneak Peeks, for our front door. I was going for the look of needles, but what really tickled me was when I turned it over and found a sweet way to do pencils for a back to school project!



So there in a nutshell is my limited stamping/crafting attempts and my sad tale of the past three months.

Am I doing any better? Yes, I mean I still miss mom every day and I still cry easily, but I'm thankful that my husband and kids are going to be okay overall. Plus I'm feeling the urge to stamp again! I leave tomorrow for a weekend "retreat" with some of my best stamping pals and God willing, just maybe I'll be back in the game!

20 Wishes

2011 didn't end on a good note for my family and myself. On December 7th my mom was admitted to the hospital with pnumonia(sp?) beginning the longest and hardest three weeks of my life. Beginning with the pnumonia and then adding complications of several TIA's, several heart attacks, and a septic gallbladder, my mom passed away on December 20th, 2011.

During the time that I spent in the hospital, hoping, praying, holding her hand, holding my dad and my brothers, I also read A LOT. One of the books I read was "Twenty Wishes" by Debbie Macomber, if you haven't read it, it is a very sweet story about a group of widows (probably not the best thing to read while watching someone die.) While the story has it's round about plots, the main premise is about doing things that you never made time for because the business of life in general takes charge. Over the past few days I've really been thinking about what "wishes" I may have that I've put away on a shelf somewhere waiting for "someday." The story stresses that you need to think of "wishes" not things you "should/need" to do. Things like eating better, losing weight, balancing the budget, etc, etc. We have to or should do those things, but what about the little things that get put off?

I decided to put my 20 wishes out in the open, and I challenge you to do the same thing. If you do post your 20 wishes please link you post so that I can share it with you. Now I've had time to think about my wishes and my list still isn't complete, but here's my beginning of 20 wishes.

1. Stand beside the ocean with someone I love and watch the sunset.
2. Make a quilt.
3. Knit a pair of socks.
4. Get back into scrapbooking my favorite memories.
5. Go on a Whale watching cruise and get close to these majestic creatures.
6. Have dinner with my brothers at least 4 times a year.
7. Go fishing with my dad.
8. Spend a romantic weekend with my husband at a unique bed and breakfast.
9. Take a yoga class.
10. Go dancing with Kait.
11. Play a video game with Jacob.
12. Walk in the woods with Ben.
13. Get back on a horse and ride.
14. Design an Angel garden in memory of family and friends I've lost.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.

I'm still not sure what else I'll put on my list, but I'll edit it when it comes to me.

What's your 20 wishes?

A little something

Geez can you believe August is half over? I'm preparing to send all three of my babies off to college or "CL5" for Kait. While on one hand I'm looking forward to getting back into a routine, on the other I'm not sure I'm ready for an almost completely empty nest, sigh....

My young neice DD went back to Texas and my neice Em has landed a job in Oregon. Our family is blowing to the four corners it seems, sigh....

Last week we found out that four of my co-workers will be off on medical leaves, 2 of them with cancer, 1 with a spinal cord surgery, and the other with an inflammatory disease that has left her unable to work, sigh....

And to add to it, in my infinite wisdom I decided to tear apart my entire craft corner to clean and re-organize. In looking back this wasn't such a good week for that, sigh....

However, on a bright note I did enjoy playing along with the dirty dozen in the annual Dare to get Dirty challenges over on SCS. Thankfully I had the foresight to make some "thinking of you" and generally cheerful cards because it's looking like I'll be needing them!

Here's a Center step card made with our Paisley Print DSP, I'm pretty pleased with this one!

Bragging Up My Baby!

My little girl grew up all to fast for me! She and I may not agree on "crafts" but she is artistic in her own right! Look at these:

A study in Charcoal:


Watercolor Study:


PrismaPencil Art:


Abstract Design in Pottery:


Isn't that pretty AWESOME!?!

Patty Loves Jeff

Spent last weekend with DH and the kids in Frankenmuth for the Snowfest, Ben snapped this photo. I will be doing a "Week of Love" campaign for Jeff starting on the 8th and ending on Valentines day... I promise to show you pictures of everything I made him, but I want him to be the first to see them!

Lynn Update

Hi all - Emily started a special CaringBridge blog for her mom here > http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/lynnkoppel/journal

Now you can read the updates as Em posts them and leave Lynn a message.

{{{Hugs}}}

It Can Get Any Worse

And then it does

I do have some creative stuff to show you, however it was on hold as I dealt with some meanness at work. You know that was stressful and painful enough, then life decided to throw another curve at us.

My sister in law was involved in a four car pile up early Friday morning. At this time we know she has two broken legs, a broken pelvis, several broken ribs, a broken jaw, a collapsed lung, and there was some brain bleeding last night. The brain bleeds have stopped now, they assure us that there is no brain damage, and there is no apparent internal injuries. We don't know what kind of treatment or rehabilitation she will be looking at yet. We do know that she will have to have reconstructive surgery on her pelvis, but we don't know when.

She is of course extremely medicated, she really hasn't woken up to tell us anything, what little she is awake she just says things like "where" "who" she did make us all smile when she said "holy shit" but she's still very confused, dazed and out of it. At this time Lynn continues to be in St. John's hospital in Detroit, she is in ICU and that means no gifts or vistors outside of immediate family for now.

Some of my friends that read this blog just for the crafty stuff may get tired of my family ramblings over the next little while, and for that I will apologize in advance, however this may become, for my family readers, a way to express updates if needed.

If you're the praying kind, keep sending them up to man upstairs we all apprepriate it!

Misty Morning or Just Misty Eyes?

Well the first day of school has come and gone and I'm just getting around to posting this....

As most of you know Ben is off to Central and he's a junior now, Jake started St.Clair County Community College in mid August, and my "baby" is now a sophmore in H.S.

On the first day of school it was a misty/foggy kind of morning and as I watched Katie stand outside waiting for the bus all by herself for the first time in her life I noted that the the sky was a misty purple and coral behind the trees and I remember thinking what a cool background that would be on a card.

Maybe watching her stand there all by herself sparked me to be reflective or sentimental, perhaps I was just in the mood for "comfort," or maybe I just wanted something familiar. I don't know, but when I sat down to create later that day I reached for "tried & true" and nothing new. I ended up doing the "baby wipe swipe" technique with Almost Amethyst, Cameo Coral,Bashful Blue and my beloved "oldie but goodie" Lovely As A Tree set.

Was the sky really that color? Or was it just my misty eyes watching my baby stand there all by herself?

Either way here is my card and an updated photo of Katie beginning her sophmore year on the Equestrian team.

Life is crazy

Just a couple more weeks and hopefully my life will get back to normal!

This past week has been a whirlwind of things at work and trying to get Ben and Jake all settled for college!

This coming week will be just about as bad! This Saturday is Jake's graduation open house so I'll be looking at a house full of people next weekend, then my SIL and niece fly in from Texas for a week, the following weekend is a girls only camp out and trail ride (which I'm actually looking forward to!)

THEN, hopefully I can get back into my stampin' groove cuz I sure haven't seen it lately!

Been a Bad Blogger

Ladies I hope you'll forgive and hang on just a little bit longer then I'll be back on my regular schedule!

My dad fell and broke a hip two weeks ago so I've been running between home, work, the hospital/rehab facility, mom's house, and Jake's school activities for graduation!

Can you say no time to play?!?!

My Cowboy

One of my customers always teases me because my email used to come from "Jeff" we've since fixed that so that it now says "Jeff and Patty" since our family uses the same email as my customers, but have I ever introduced you to Jeff?

He's my cowboy (even though we don't have cows anywhere) he's my Peter Fonda in Easy Rider (we don't have a bike anymore either) he's my Chuck Norris in Lone Wolf McQuade (and yes we do have wolf photos and figurines around the house) and he's my rock when I need one!

This is use in 1987

This is him now, and he's hungry and tired and grumpy, so I'd better go feed him!

Now This Is WICKED!

When we went to get our Christmas Tree there was hardly any snow to be had!

Then we got LOTS of fluffy, white stuff dumped on us!

Sad news

I just wanted to post real quick that I'm sorry I haven't been around - I truly haven't forgetten about you!

My mom had a stroke this week and life has kinda gotten in the way of checking in here.

I missed the Michigan Mini Mingle which really stinks, but I know all those sweet ladies will understand. I have a workshop on the 23rd and a stamp camp on the 25th, so hopefully I will be able on concentrate on them!

I'll check in soon - any thoughts and prayers would be appreciated!

The mess, the frenzy and the nap

This is my craft desk after my creative frenzy making cards for the troops, making craft fair projects, and in general making a mess!

I went to take a nap - all this creating to tiresome - look who else decided to take a nap:

Jacob's cat decided that all that ribbon, paper, and stuff makes a delightful nest!!!!

Good bye Aunt Flo!

Well if you're checking up on me ~ Yes I've had my surgery and I'm actually doing quite well!

All in all I don't think the hysterectomy was quite as painful as my three C-Sections were! Of course I don't have a newborn wanting to eat or be changed every two hours, but that's kind of bittersweet too, YKWIM?

Also and this has been the harder part ~ I haven't had a cigarette in over a week now!!!!!!!!

I've never been one to smoke in my house and my kids wouldn't tolerate me smoking around them, but it was a habit that I was having a hell of a time breaking!

{Of course quitting and surgery isn't for everyone, that coughing with staples in your belly is divine punishment and I don't think I'd recommend it unless you are really determined that you're stopping!}

Anyway, I go back to the doc on Thursday to get my staples out and hopefully I'll be able to get back at my crafting, I've got a lot of ideas running through my head but not a lot of energy to get it done!

Check back soon though and hopefully I'll have some new goodies for you to see :)

Pretty Pirate Girl

Here's some pictures of Katie hamming it up for the camera! She went as a "lady pirate" for Halloween.

She was mocking Captain Jack!!! No one should mock Jack Sparrow!