cameron and the shiner

I took Cameron to the ENT today thinking that he had an ear infection. We couldn’t get in to see the doctor because he’s booked through May, but they fit us in to see the nurse practitioner instead. Good enough for me. The only good news to come out of this appointment is that he doesn’t have an ear infection. However, he isn’t saying words besides ‘mama’ and ‘dada’ and he should be saying more. They are going to refer us to a speech therapist. I guess that’s good news, but bad too. I hate my child needing more specialty care. But this isn’t the worst of the appointment…

Prior to being seen Cameron tripped, fell to the floor with tremendous force, and cracked his face on the corner of the cabinet. He hit it so hard that he dented the cabinet and even left a scratch on it. Cameron immediately started screaming bloody murder. I picked him up with urgency and when I turned him around he had blood on his face and a massive hematoma around his right eye. The swelling was immediate. He could barely catch his breathe it hurt so much. I took him out of the room and looked for a nurse, which they quickly got us some ice. They even tried to distract him with a lolly pop which actually did help calm him down.

Finally, he stopped crying and I stopped the blood. The doctor left one of his patients and came to exam Cameron himself and make sure he didn’t need x-rays, which he doesn’t. Whew!!!! However, if the white of Cameron’s eye turns to blood at all we have to take him to the ER for a CAT scan. It was all I could do to not cry myself. Once I got into the car I instantly cried. I couldn’t hold it in anymore. I had to call my DH to get a hold of myself.

Cameron is pretty miserable. He keeps touching his eye and crying; blinking a lot too. I’ve been trying to put ice on it, but as most of you with children know it’s extremely difficult to hold it there for very long until they start wrestling to get away. I’m doing the best I can. I can only imagine what this shiner is going to look like tomorrow.

Talk soon.

easter weekend

Me and ALL my boys had an uneventful weekend, weather wise. We had a rather gorgeous Easter weekend. The weather was warm and pleasant and the sun was out the entire time. On Saturday, DH and Jose assembled a rocket to launch in the backyard which worked splendidly. They had lots of fun doing this together. And I cannot believe I actually got a snapshot of the rocket taking off. I must have clicked the button at the perfect time (maybe NASA would be interested!).

Easter Sunday was calm and quiet. We hung around the house in the morning and after noon time we headed over to Nana and Papa’s house for Easter baskets and an early dinner. We had baked ham with all sorts of side dishes and strawberry shortcake for dessert. It was really, really good!

It was nice watching the boys hunt for their baskets, although it didn’t take much hunting to find them, and by the time they did it was all over. Me and DH even had a basket from my parents which was really cool. My mom got me a bag of Spring Time M&M’s and a chart called Bluebird by The Victoria Sampler. I didn’t get to work on my Long Dog Sampler at all on Sunday, but I did get to work on the Traveling Stitcher by LHN ~ the ‘needles’ portion anyway.

I’m trying to learn how to build my own photo light box so photos of my stitching will look more crisp and clean. My camera’s flash is too much and me trying to manipulate that is not enough, so lighting is my flaw. I just need something that gives an overall even appearance. I like consistency and I’m not achieving that on my own. I’ve done a couple searches and have found at least one helpful tutorial. In case you’re interested click HERE.

That’s it for now. I believe we’re having Hamburger Helper for dinner tonight. Yep, sounds easy enough. 24 is on tonight too. Talk soon!

testing something new

I have noticed some really unique ways that people photograph their work and display those photos on their blogs. Whether that be in digital scrapbooking or a manipulated image software program, I am intrigued to implement this on my own blog. I hate stealing ideas and would never want to offend anyone by all means, but I so admire the softness and creativity that a lot of blogs create with their photo displays. For sometime now I've wanted to take a stab at it myself, but never knowing where to begin, I sought out the advise of some very lovely ladies. Since there are so, so many "spots" out there in blogland, wordpressing and typepads, and to name them all would be impossible for me to do, there are two distinct people that have helped steer me in the exact direction I needed to go in. So, thank you, Barbara and Nina, for being so friendly and helping me with this.

This is just a test, but please let me know what you think ~ all comments are welcome. Thanks Girls!

Talk soon!

happy easter

Here was my funny bunny last year, sleeping away in his swing. Awww, how sweet it is!

I want to wish everyone a Happy Easter! We are having dinner at my parents' house on Sunday. Me and the boys haven't been there in a couple weeks which is unusual. We are usually there once a week, but lately we've stayed around the house.

A couple years ago I was sent this cute little Easter joke so I'm passing it along to all of you in hopes it'll bring a chuckle or two. Have a Happy Easter everyone!

tornado update...(video)

In my previous post I mentioned that Nashville and surrounding areas were under a tornado warning and watch. While I typed, the tornado siren sounded and I needed to leave the PC. Thankfully, our part of town was safe and untouched. However, there are other areas not so fortunate. In Middle Tennessee we had at least 6 different tornadoes touch down. Below is a link to a city south of Nashville that was devastated by one of the tornadoes. While we were watching the weather report a Murfreesboro resident called into WKRN, News Channel 2 (ABC) saying that he is looking at funnels in the sky and having large hail. He explained where he was and the meteorologists quickly scanned to the Doppler radar and noticed a hook in that exact area he was calling from and they desperately were advising everyone to take cover immediately. At that point, the station intercepted one of Murfreesboro's traffic cams and we watched live the tornado form, touch down and then race across this town. You'll see it on the video. This is Middle Tennessee's third week in a row to experience such weather and we're only in the beginning of our tornado season.

City of Murfreesboro

wimpy indeed

[was]

[is]

[what it is]

I’ve had no stitching mojo this week. Probably because I’ve had my head slammed into these Twilight saga books. I’m on page 367 of Breaking Dawn and I’ve nearly cried. I even laughed a few times ~ that dog (Jacob) cracks me up sometimes! I have to admit that I haven’t been thrilled with Jacob. I haven’t disliked him, just not my favorite (for obvious reasons, ahem, Edward). But he is funny and so I’m beginning to like him. The author has really made him into a character that we all can identify with. His antics are that of someone we might even know in our own life…aside from the wolfery (I made this word up) of course. So far so good with Breaking Dawn.

I don’t have much to report on the side of stitching, unfortunately. I’ve been so preoccupied with reading that I’ve kind of put stitching aside. Don’t get me wrong, I have stitched a little each day just not a whole lot. It’s wimpy stitching indeed, but I must post a couple of pictures of what I have done.

Winter Love by SamSarah is a pleasant piece to stitch on because of the Belle Soie silks. I just wished I was done with this already. My 2008 JCS Ornamanets are steadily on their way and I still have 5 more left from 2007 to start on. Ugh! Me and my mother are involved in a mother-daughter round robin and we decided on Shores of Hawk Run Hollow by Carriage House Samplings. My mother stitched the first block, which she did a spectacular job at (no surprises there!) and I have the second block to which the progress is anything but. Since this piece isn’t in my current rotation I stitch on this when I can – at least an hour each day if that’s even possible. Plus, I’m not used to 40 ct linen so I’m still adjusting. Good thing though, my mom is currently working on a model for Just Cross Stitch so she wouldn’t have time to stitch on Shores right now even IF I had my block complete. So I guess I’m doing okay for now.

The weather is terrible right now. It is extremely gray and dark outside and in the house. Thunder too. OMG!!! I think I hear the tornado siren right now--------I do! I’m going to have to jet. I just turned the weather on and we’re under a tornado watch. Jeez…not this again! Third week in a row for this type of weather.

Talk soon.