Life is chugging along...

Life is short.

Each year passes more quickly than the previous one. It's easy to deny yourself many of life's simple pleasures because you want to be practical. Forget about practical and decide instead to be a joy collector. Always be on the look out for gifts without ribbons. God is strewing them across your path right now. His gifts come tagged with a note:

"Life can be wonderful. Do your best not to miss it!"

Enjoy what IS before it ISN'T any more.

~Barbara Johnson

Here we are - December 14th...hard to believe that the "big man", the man in the red suit, will be making his appearance in 11 days and I just don't feel very ready for that moment. It seems to be sneaking up on me this year and the panic seems to be rising. The tree is up, the ornaments in place and the lights are twinkling. However, the boys' wish list needs to be looked over and the famous chocolate crinkle cookies need to be made. Just need to find the time to make those things happen. I am sure that I will get it all done to the best of my ability, in between all of the activies :)

Hockey News...
We got some great news on Sunday...Robert, who tried out for the Pre-Select NorCal Camp (hockey) was selected. On Saturday, 35-40 Bantam aged (birthyear 96) boys  from all over the Northern California area tried out to be selected to represent NorCal - only 6 forwards, 4 defensemen and 2 goalies were selected to move on to the next selection process. What is this all about? Well through a process of several tryouts (NorCal Dec. 11, California/CAHA Jan 28-31, and Pacific Districts in early spring), a U14 National hockey team is created to play in a high level tournament over the summer, where there will be scouts from different junior leagues as well as schools will be watching. Last year Robert tried out, but due to having bronchitis, just didn't perform up to his potential, thus didn't make it through the first cut. This year he was healthy and had a wonderful tryout and, thus, was selected. We were very excited for him. So, now we fill out all the paperwork and pay for the next set of tryouts and see how things go the end of January. In the meantime, we have a few tournaments and hockey clinics to get through first :)

Stitching News...
As mentioned before, I have been working on a few Christmas Ornaments as surprises (so I can't show them yet)...just about finished stitching them and should be able to finish them in order to have them in the mail shortly. Then it will be back to stitching Family Sampler.

Well, that is about it right now. Hopefully DH will be able to get my little laptop cured of it's virus so that I can be back in business...multi-tasking on the stationary bike. I miss reading everyone's blogs while biking. Keep your fingers crossed that the computer will work again.

Take care my friends and remember...
Live, Love, Laugh and Stitch often!

Lisa

Weekend update: "It is the end of our summer as we know it..."

Well several of our laptops are still experiencing some issues left behind by the Malware virus and some have that "google-analytics" bug as I mentioned in my last post, which is a pain to get rid off...which we have not been successful yet. It is like your computer is possessed on some occasions...jumping from one website address to another or just not allowing you to sign in to specific places. Like on one of our laptops, I can pull up my blog, read and comment on your blogs, but I cannot sign into my own blog in order to post or change anything. But at least we have my little cutie laptop to use :)

Well, the weekend is here...and "It is the end of our summer as we know it" is playing in my head. The first of the early morning hockey practices kicks off the new hockey season for the boys this morning; so now our life is back in hockey mode for the next 9 months (at least). Robert's (older son) team gets going this weekend with on-ice practices, off-ice fitness training, parent/player meetings...and then since I have volunteered as team manager again there are the manager's Q&A session and club council meeting to attend. At least all of our hockey committments are in the mornings today and tomorrow...leaving the afternoons open for any summer like activities, if we still have energy (maybe we all will just go home and nap). Matthew's (younger son) team starts their practices on & off the ice next week. It is nice to get the hockey-stuff going before school kicks in...that starts Aug. 24 for both boys.

I have continued to put time and stitches into Mary Wigham this week, but haven't made enough progress to post a new photo. I am hoping to find some quiet time this weekend to put needle to thread...maybe during nap time :)

Well...just wanted to check in. Hope everyone has a good weekend and remember:

Live, Love, Laugh and Stitch often!

Lisa

A little show and tell time

It is hard to believe that it is Wednesday already. I feel like the week has just started - hope it slows down just a little for we are not ready for the summer vacation to end quite yet. Well, anyway...today I have some stitching things I want to show you.

First, I saw on the Ornament Swap blog that Conny received the ornament I stitched for her - so, I get to show you the little snow man:

Snowman from Just CrossStitch Ornament Edition 2003 

 I had to "borrow" the photo Conny took and posted on the Ornament Swap blog because the one I took before I sent it to her is on another computer, which one of the boys is playing on. I am so happy to hear that it reached her ok and that she liked it. I had fun stitching it and finishing it (almost kept it for myself...lol). The next Ornament Swap recipient is me...how cool is that?

The other thing I want to share with you is the Eat, Sleep, Stitch sampler that I have been working on. Here is where it is now:

(Above) - the top 1/2 of the sampler

(above) - the bottom 1/2 of the sampler

I think that I am just about done...but I feel that I need to do "something" on either side of the initial/date band, but haven't figured out what that "something" is yet. I know that I will figure it out - sometimes these things come to me while I sleep :)

In the mail today, I received my Annual Halloween Issue of Just CrossStitch - the Halloween ornaments on the cover are so cute. I haven't had a chance to sit down and look through it yet, but I am planning to later this evening.

Aside from the stitching news, the other interesting thing that has happened in our household is we now have 3 working laptops (one laptop is an old IBM ThinkPad we received 7 years ago from a company DH use to work for, one we purchased and one is on loan to us until November). The reason for the excitement is because DH found a way to get rid of those horrible computer viruses which attacked one computer a year ago (once it was "sick" we put it on a shelf in a closet, thinking that it was gone for good) and the loaner over the weekend. He figured out how to rid the loaner and then decided to see if he could resurrect the old IBM...and he did! Which was really exciting because it was the one that I used while spinning on the stationary bike...now I feel that I am back in business - - - Happy Day are Here Again...ok, it is the little things in life that put a smile on my face :)

That is about all from our house hold...hope you are having a good week! Until next time, remember...

Live, Love, Laugh and Stitch often!

Lisa

Weekend update...

Hello dear friends,
The weekend has been nice and somewhat quiet so far. With DH and Robert (older son) in Texas for a hockey tournament, I have a few less people in the household to manage (LOL). Matthew does have some hockey committments this weekend, the first was a scrimmage with a team in his age division last night. Matthew's team won. It was a good game, followed by a potluck which the other team was also invited - which made for a nice evening. Today, Matthew has another game at 11:15 and then in the afternoon the team is doing Lazar Tag; which I signed up to participate in too (yes, it was open for parents and siblings...thought I would see what this game was all about).

On the stitching front, which I have not written about in a while...well, I have just about finished 2 exchanges which are due mailed by the end of the month - 2010 OSE and the L*K Rnd 3. They are stitched and prepped for the finishing I am going to give them. And since tomorrow is MLK Day (Martin Luther King Day), and there is no school (and I will be home from work), I am planning on sitting in front of the sewing machine and accomplishing those finishing touches so that I can get them in the mail next week. I have also been working on some model stitching for CindyMae - it is a really cute design which coordinates well with the Catnap pillow I did for her, but this one has a napping puppy on it. Oh, yah, if you visit her website, she has just added some wonderful Valentine designs (model stitched by April)...don't you just love how we blogging stitchers support eachother :)

So, bottomline...with most of my stitching right now exchanges or model stitching I do not have anything to show off again...and MW is feeling neglicted. I do miss Mary, but I would like to get my "committments" accomplished first so that I can dedicate my attention when stitching Mary...it is not a good one to loose focus while stitching. Nothing worse than trying to frog 1 over 2...well, 1 over 1 is hard to frog...but frogging is no fun, so no stitching Mary without focus!

Oh, yah...one more thing...watch out for the dreaded software virus that is going around right now. We have one laptop at home that is sick with it. I haven't done a lot of reading about it, but I have read that it has come from some of the yahoo groups and/or downloading software from some of the social communities (aka facebook). So, make sure that your antivirus programs are good...but just be careful!

Well, it is time to stop rambling on...Have a great Sunday and remember:

Live, Love, Laugh and Stitch often! Lisa