I'm Sick

Shoot me please.

Busy busy

I am sewing like a mad woman, trying to keep up with my goal. So far so good, one top behind but I can make that up. Still can't believe I'm a Grandma. With her being in Alaska, it doesn't seem real. It will come with time...

Happy Birthday

Megan in a trashcan. Tree girl being tree like.

OK, big ole breaking news!!! My daughter Megan gave birth to Peyton yesterday at 7:30 am. Baby is 6 pounds 3 oz. She was born 11 days early, almost throwing off her Dad's attempt to make it home from Iraq on time. He called my daughter from Salt Lake City and found out she was in the hospital in labor. He made it to Alaska 6 hours before she was born. Whew! That was close. He will have 2 weeks R&R and he will head back to Iraq for the rest of his tour. On a side note, all three pregnant people I know had their babies yesterday. Very odd. I have not seen pictures yet nor have I talked to Megan. Can't wait.

Still going strong on the quilting. These are the blocks are what I'm working on today. Very fall-ish which is cool because today is rainy. When it's rainy I need comfort food like meatball soup. Souper (lame I know) easy to make and very easy to eat! Also, use turkey meatballs, you heart will thank you.

Roses and Raspberries

My newspaper does this cool thing called the Roses and Raspberry Awards. It's simple if you are very cool you get a rose, if you are lame you get a raspberry. Not those yummy mouth watering raspberries, the one that babies do to you showering you in copious amounts of spit. Today I feel the need to do my own set of awards.

I always like to hear the good news first. My 2 winners of the rose awards go to the following:

• Blue and Ashley Markham- In July Byrd and Melanie Billings were murdered in their Florida home during a well planned home invasion robbery. Byrd and Melanie had put their wealth to good use adopting and caring for nine special needs children with every challenge from Autism, to fetal alcohol syndrome to Down's Syndrome. After their tragic murder, their adult daughter Ashley and her husband Blue put their life on hold and fulfilled a promise made to her parents to always make sure the kids are taken care of and not put into foster care or group homes. Bravo Blue and Ashley, for having the courage to step up to the plate and take on this huge responsibility. You deserve more than a rose...

• The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty- You guys rock!!! I love these people. They have created a program aimed at showing the world beauty comes in all shapes and sizes. They have workshops for young girls working on body image and a line of commercials showing real women with real bodies. This all came to my attention again this week when a commercial came on with women singing a tune about how some woman's noses wrinkle, some women have freckles and some women even have wide set eyes. It was all sung to the childrens tune I remember all to well from my Barney days-- Do Your Ears Hang Low. So, thank you Dove for showing real women of all shapes and sizes on your commercials, our poor children (women too!) have enough body image issues.

• Honorable Mention: I would like to give Kate from the used to be John and Kate plus 8 a rose too. I know people often say she is mean and controlling. I'm not getting into that. I just want to say you are awesome for not abandoning your children. You are right there taking care of them everyday. You could be out there partying, spending the family finances on lavish dinners but you girlfriend are there being the Mom those kids need. You are rad.

Tomorrow I will do the raspberry (loooooser) awards. I have them all picked out and am ready to go off on those lacking brain cells. Anyone else who needs to be added to the list? Of course there is... I'm open to suggestions.


On the whole Project Peyton thing, I did it. I made a quilt top with the left over fabric from the quilt I made this week. BTW this morning on my way to work I was thinking to myself "Hmmm, WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING!!!". I'm a total impulse chick. I blogged about it to force myself to follow through. I lost my card reader so I will post pics as soon as I find it. Errrr.

Project Peyton

The last couple of days have been a bit trying, resulting in a crabby Debbie. As I was following to tow truck to the mechanic I couldn't help but think to myself, "Get a grip Debbie!". You are so blessed. So what if you stepped in dog crap and tracked it all over your beige carpet. So what if you left your broken cell phone to charge in the car that has to be left on in order to charge, all night and more than killed the battery. I'm not kidding when I said more than killed the battery. Could not be jumped or charged. Oooops. Silly me.

This morning I was reading this post on Susan's blog and she talked about supporting our troops. The up coming birth of my Granddaughter Peyton has inspired me to really push myself, to do something special for all the Megans (my daughter) and Peytons in the world. I was thinking about training for a 5K and decided I was going to do this instead. I am not a fast quilter. I have only finished less than 8 quilts in my life but between wanting to really support our military and my need for self reflection I am going to challenge myself to make 30 quilt tops in 30 days. When I quilt it's almost therapeutic. I find myself reflecting on my life, my family, the kind of person I want to be. I have not been spending the time I need to stay centered. When I quilt I often sing to myself because I feel at peace. It's almost like lent, Debbie style.

I hate to admit this too-- I often loose interest in things and quit. I WILL not do this on this project, I promise all 2 of my readers. I will stick with this job, just like our military does everyday.

So my idea is I will have my son-in-law who is in Iraq ask the people in his company if they would like me to send their KIDS or WIFE a quilt from them for Christmas. I would like to have them write a note to the recipient so that I can attach the note to the back, like a label. So hopefully On Christmas these women (even husbands too) and children will have a special quilt from their deployed loved one. That simple. I really hope I can pull this off.

Being the worry-ier I am, my first thought is "crazy lady, you can't afford to do this". But I can. Why you ask? Faith. It never matters what is happening, God always provides for me. My car payment is due in three days and I have no money? I make a sale and bam! I have my car payment and enough for groceries. I promise you every single time I am in a jam and I have no idea how I am going to pull something off, the answer always appears. It has happened no less than 10 times in the last year. Sooooo, I am going on blind faith and it WILL ALL WORK OUT. I have a fabric stash that is just taking up space so I am sitting pretty.

I am so excited to start this. Tomorrow, day one. GO ahead, tell me I'm crazy... it's ok!

Call to the Dr.'s office

Nurse: Good morning, Dr. D's office.

Sarge: Hi, can I please speak with Dr. D's nurse?

Nurse: Yes, How can I help you?

Sarge: My wife if going to stab herself in the ear with a pencil.

Nurse: Ok (confused) Why is that?

Sarge: Because she has had a migraine for 4 days and she is waiting for you guys to refill her prescription and no one is doing it.

Nurse: Can you hold on one second?

Sarge: I don't think you understand, I really like my pencils.... and if she kills her self with a pencil I'm bringing my children down to your office to be raised by your staff.

Nurse: I will call it in right now.

He got my prescription filled in less than 10 minutes. I was getting the run around for 3 days.

Happy Monday!

I don't mind Monday, I think I actually like Monday. When I came home Sunday morning after a 24 hour shift that turned into 28 hour shift I was late because I got slammed all night and got stuck in a different county. Sleep was much needed. When I was driving home trying to keep myself awake the man cub called me and said "Mom, there is flour all over the pantry. The whole big container spilled everywhere and I didn't do it."

About a year and a half ago the man cub called me at work and said "Mom the house is flooded and Dad is mad". One of the kids turned on the bathtub and then left to go into town. To this day no one will admit it, but I know, I'm a Mom. Since then I have a whole different perspective. There maybe a layer of flour all over the pantry and half the kitchen but at least the house didn't flood ruining my crafting supplies and taking 5 months to repair. I'm going to go happily clean up the flour then move on to the rest of the house which has a mess in every room. I keep walking around wondering where I should start. Please tell me I am not the only one who does that.

PS. I want to personally thank the man cub for armor-all-ing the garage floor so that when I walk in (in my socks) I could fall flat on my back. Once I caught my breath I said every bad word I could think of and still couldn't get myself up off the floor. It's karma I tell you-- a few weeks ago I was angry at my boss who made me detail his ambulance so I armor-alled the petals and the vinyl seats he sits on and I heard he slid off at some point. I died laughing of course. Payback's a bitch.

Estate sale finds

Oh my goodness, I scored at the estate sales this morning. I rarely go to estate sales but I always have a blast when I do. I try not to "junk up" my house which tends to happen if I go to these sales too often so I go out about twice a year. If anyone is into canning you know these old green Ball canning jars are a find. I also wanted to make apple sauce this year but didn't have a sieve or a mill.

I also have a thing for all things tractor and wrought iron. We are in the process of redecorating tree girls room. We are painting the room powder pink with stripes and all the furniture is black or black wrought iron. She has a thing for skeleton keys, so these were a great find.

I have been following Glenda's blog and have been admiring her embroidery work. I even bought the supplies needed to begin embroidering at Joann's yesterday. When I saw this I wanted it so I can use it for a reference while I learn, also because its a cute little table cloth.

My last find was a lap desk. I will paint this black and put it in Tree girls room. She sits on her bed and does her homework. I always try to get her to do her homework at the table but she won't listen and it's not worth fighting over.

Remember in High school when your classmates elected each other Best Dresses or most likely to succeed? Well, being the goofy women we are my best friend and I were picking out out out "favs". The very used underwear of sale was voted most disgusting.

The Hank Williams, Jr. bobblehead was my personal favorite. We voted him "most likely to be picked up in a tornado at the trailer park and later found in the Walmart parking lot"

What? It totally could happen.

Feelin' Crafty

It's finally cooling down here on the face of the sun. Did I ever mention I live on the face of the sun? It's true, I do. So at 6 am when I take the man cub to the bus stop it has been down right cold and you can smell fall in the air. Fall is by far my favorite time of the year. So this morning, I read Pamela's blog. She is very crafty, I looove crafty people! I loved her idea so I stole it, shamelessly.

It's like a Halloween advent calendar. The best part it is it was nearly free to make. I used a piece of cardboard from a box I got at Costco this morning and stopped by Joann and picked up a couple of pieces of scrap booking pages and yarn. A bag of candy and I was in business! Peanut butter cup anyone?