Okay ~ I'm starting 2009 in February!!!

Finally life is getting back to normal ~ Woooooohooooooooooooo! As most of you know, Mom had quintuple bypass surgery on December 16th and came home on January 16th after spending 2 weeks in Washington Hospital Center and then 2 weeks in a local rehabilitation center. She is doing well and I finally got to come back home to my little place on February 2nd. None the less to say, the whole experience had been very hard on all of us, especially Becky and Ray. We are very glad to be back home and while we are still having to do a lot for Mom every day since she is on very limited activity, we enjoy going home at the end of it all and curling up in bed or chilling out in the family room.

Let's see..... what interesting news do I have to share with you all???? Well, Becky was given the Rising Eagle award at her school in January and was mentioned in her newsletter. She really enjoys all the activites at the school and participates in both chorus and string ensemble. She wants to see if we can play a duet at the spring concert since both mom and her play fiddle and while I would enjoy it; I would like to see her perform on her own. We always try to come up with something for the family reunion in July and I think if I can talk her into it, we might try a duet there. We'll see. Becky also has been very busy with girl scouts between holiday events, roller skating, and badge work. She has decided she is going to work on her bronze award by volunteering at the rehabilitation center that Grandma was in a day or two a week. She will visit with residents, help with bingo and other activities, and try and help the nursing staff with filling water/ice cups, delivering snacks, etc. I'm very proud that she is ready to due her part in volunteer work.

Ray had pinewood derby in Cubscouts and while we didn't have the fastest car; we did win a few heats and at the end of the day; he still walked away with a prize! Ray's car, named "Treeco's Racer" was blue with lightening streaks down the side and one of his favorite Pokemon characters was painted on the front courtesy of me. Over the past year he has became a NASCAR fanatic and somehow he thinks his Mom can paint details on a pinewood derby car like the Kasey Kahne's and Dale Earnhardt's car has all the sponsors on them. Ray ran one of the 5 fastest runs during the day but at the end of the day he did get recognized for the funniest car and received a ribbon of recognition. I don't think any NASCAR driver could have been any more excited winning the Daytona 500 than he was over his ribbon. Too cute!

Stitching hasn't been going as well as I would have liked; there has been so much going on with my Mom's recovery and keeping both houses going but every once in a while I managed a few stitches here and there. I did manage to meet up with Beth tonight at the Borders in Annapolis for a stitching group and to hang out with the true blond diva; Kasey K; her golden retriever. Beth did honor me with a blog award (Thanks Beth!) which was my first award I have received in the blogging world. Of course it wasn't for my frequent posting but for my stash enabling in cross stitch but everyone has to have a talent right? The write up for this award was as follows:

"These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."

So I'm going to think for a day or two about who to nominate for my blog award and will post in the next few days. Hopefully I can keep some stitching time in the schedule and I'll post some updates on that front soon too. Since life is starting to settle down from the last 2 months, I decided that my Happy New Year was starting in 2009. See ya!