Can I Get the World to Stop for One Day?

Seriously. I’m not asking for a lot. Just 24 hours. I just need to catch up on everything and it seems the best way is to just get everyone else to pause for 24 hours. Wouldn’t y’all like to just sit and chill for a bit?

It seems like every time I try to catch up, something comes along and I’m put behind again. Yesterday, it was that pain in my upper left leg. So I go to my chiropractor and said, “Dr. G, I can’t lift my leg.” You should have seen his face as he tries to restrain himself - but doesn’t - from saying “Then, stop peeing on fire hydrants.” Very funny, dude. Seems though that I did something to my back and hip. It could have been that I twisted wrong and pulled something, or it could have been (more likely) from lifting the helium tank for the balloons or the projector and 6 foot screen for my mom’s party. Either way, it nearly brings me to tears to get in the car (lifting my leg over the threshold) or going up the stairs.

But today, it’s marginally better and I’m doing some stretches he gave me. But this means another visit to him today in addition to work and trying to fit in time to make Elise’s birthday dress. I think I’ll be sewing Friday night. It’s a small dress, but still. I promised her a new dress for her birthday and I’m going to keep my promise.

I also want the world to stop so I can sit and enjoy our summer. The pictures are of a bouquet I made of flowers from my garden. I have neglected my garden the last couple years, but the roses from a couple days ago got cut, stuck in with some pretty white daisies, and filler from from my mom’s party bouquets. It smells so pretty on my office desk. I just wish I could enjoy this beauty all year long. I suppose, though, if I did have it all year long, I’d not appreciate it as much. I doubt it, but it’s possible. I’ve always loved roses since I can remember.

Oh, and tomorrow, finally, I get a dining table and four chairs. It’s a black pedestal round set, with a glass top, and four chairs with fabric seats (so I can eventually recover them to suit my decor.) I haven’t had a dinette set in a year or more and eating on my lap is getting hazardous to my few tops left that I have. More on that tomorrow, along with pictures.

A Mixed Bag of a Day

Yesterday my plans went all to hell. I got up early and had planned on getting all my work out of the way by 2:00 p.m. so I could enjoy the afternoon sunshine, and then in the evening sew on Elise’s dress. Instead, I woke up to learning that one company I did some work for - and have a little bit left to do - shorted me by 31 hours of pay. Nice. Not. I was not a happy camper and before I let them know their error I checked all my facts, and yes, I was right. Then I spent the next several hours stressing about it and talking to them on the phone, telling the payroll clerk how much I was owed - long, long, story - and finally getting them to cut me a manual check. Then, of course, I had to drive 25 minutes in rush hour traffic to go pick it up and deposit it. At least my daughter was home and we carpooled.

Before heading out, however, I checked my mail and my day was completely changed. I got a lovely package from Wendy at Life with Buck. Recently she made a Lily Diary for my ‘huahua Lily and me and she sent me the original, along with a book, a magazine, and some real estate ads from El Paso. Wow, I could get a mansion there for what my house would sell for here today.

You must know, Lily’s Diary isn’t just a photoshopped image. It’s a collage of sorts. She put so much thought, love, and attention to detail in this, as she does all her doggie diaries. Lily’s ears are pierced in the diary, and she really has a string of pearls on her. It’s priceless to me and I’m going to get it framed. Meanwhile, I have to find just the right place of honor for it. I have it on the fridge for now, but that won’t stay there long. I’m too worried about it getting ruined.

Later, I went grocery shopping. I was almost completely out of my food and so my Weight Watchers plan was going out the window. We can’t have that, now, can we? Just so you know, here’s what nearly $200 in groceries looks like.

Five reusable Safeway bags. I got mostly all fruits and vegetables, a couple small steaks and other sundry foods. I was so hungry and so looking forward to my grilled vegetables and steak perfected on the barbeque. I got everything ready, started the barbeque and within three minutes was out of propane. Figures.

By this time, I’m completely exhausted. I put everything under the broiler and called it good. However, the last few days and all the running around, driving, party hostessing, and such have finally caught up with me. I was afraid they would, as was our dear friend who visited us from Portland this weekend. I now have a very bad fibro flare going on, so bad in fact that I can hardly go up the stairs, or lift my left leg. The pain is excruciating. Thank goodness all I have to do is sit at a computer to work.

I’m sure today will be better. We’re set to have warm sunshine days for at least the next week and I’m going to take advantage of every minute of it.

Does it set anyone else into a panic attack when the commercials start blaring out “Summer’s almost over” when ours here has just started?

There’s More Than One Way to Trim a Cat

I wonder if you can lose weight by laughing at this video.

Also, since I’ve been catching up on work and sleep after my mom’s party, all I have for you are some lovely rose photos I took this afternoon of my poor neglected roses. As soon as I rest up a bit more - probably by tomorrow night - I’ll start sewing the pieces of my granddaughter’s birthday dress. It has to be ready by Saturday for her party. Then, after that, I think I’m all partied out.

Finally, Weight Watchers update: No gain, but no loss either. I’ll take that considering the crap I ate this weekend.

About Last Night - Party Recap

Ha! I’m exhausted. I have muscles upon muscles that hurt and some unknown, odd pain in my shoulder, but my mom’s party was wonderful. I just got off the phone this morning with her and she told me she didn’t get a chance to say to everyone: “I knew my daughter was bright but I didn’t know she was brilliant!” Mom absolutely loved the party, everyone had a great time, and I had teary eyes almost the entire time - especially during the slide show. But it was all worth it.

I was so busy coordinating everything and answering questions of helpers and catering staff and guests that I didn’t have time to take many pictures. My brother and other people took pictures, so I have to get copies from everyone. There were so many of my mother’s friends there that I’ve known for at least 20 years, and my oldest brother with his two daughters and ex-wife came in from out of town. My middle brother, who lives in the Midwest, unfortunately couldn’t make it. I was going to try to get him set up on Webcam to say hello, but I just couldn’t get it all together. As it was, I had a snafu with the music for the slide show, but our friend who set up the sound was able to hook his iPod into the system and play along. Phew!

Oh, and my mom was honored in a very special way. In AA, there is an organization in New York that manages all the administrative details called the General Service Organization, or GSO for short. One of the local guys here that runs the archives office, which my mom has donated books to, attended and shared with us how every single member of the GSO knew my mom or knew of her, her positive reputation and contributions to AA, and how she had a file of accolades in New York about an inch think. I guess she truly is a pioneer of AA. Anyway, the GSO sent my mother a personal birthday card and it was signed by every member of the GSO. What a tribute for her.

So, without further ado, here are some pictures, and of course, pictures of me in my new party dress. I felt like a princess, and the reaction I got from a couple handsome men made it all worthwhile. <hee hee> Most of the time, though, I walked around in my bare feet because it was hot and my feet hurt like heck.

All the flowers for the centerpieces:

Getting the tables ready

All set and ready for guests

What was funny, too, is that so many people were excited to be a part of this celebration that they started coming in at 5:40 (scheduled to start at 6) and started “reserving” their seats! Cracked me up.

The final centerpiece - and thanks to our dear friend Mary, and my daughter, Stacy for getting these all together.

The “whole fam damily” as my dad would have said:

Left to right, top row: Me, Cody behind my youngest daughter, Stacy, who is holding, my grandson, Evan (8 months), my daughter Cindy (Cody’s wife and Evan’s mom), my nieces Elizabeth (17) and Phyllis (13), and my mom.

Left to right, bottom row: My brother, Curt, his ex-wife and little Phyllis’ mom, Sheri.

My mom cutting her birthday cake. I bought 50 candles for her as she wanted to have about 4 people come help her blow them out, but I couldn’t for the life of me find them. I found them when I got home and sat down. They were on the couch. LOL.

My youngest, Stacy, getting ready to take all the leftover balloons out with my nieces and release them into the air.

And finally, a couple of me in my new dress - a very, tired me - and the last, with Lily, who was so glad to see me come home.

Every Girl Needs a Pretty Party Dress

Tonight is the big party for my mom. I’ve been working for weeks planning and organizing it. My mom is 88 and is celebrating 50 years in Alcoholics Anonymous. I have never seen her drink, nor did I ever see my father drink. (My father passed on with 32 years of sobriety.) They’ve been sober my whole life, for which I’m extremely grateful. There are few people who make it to fifty years, so this is a very, very big deal for my mom, our family, and all her friends. And boy, does she have a lot of friends. There will be nearly 120 people at this party! I doubt I could come up with 10% of that for any party I might have.

I’ve been working hard to coordinate all the details with the help of a couple of my mom’s closest friends. There’s dealing with the caterer, the facility, creating a slide show, designing and creating centerpieces, balloons, creating memory sheets (where people write down memories of her that impacted their lives, and these will be compiled into a book for her), gifts, and more. And I’ve been doing all this while working full-time. I couldn’t have done it if I had to work in a traditional office, that’s for sure. I still have a lot of little details left to do today so it will sort of be a crazy day.

Finally, last night some people started to arrive from out of town, and our closest friend from Portland, Oregon, my mom’s room mate, my mom, and I all went to dinner. It was fun. The four of us often go places together and we seem to usually have a good time without getting into too much trouble. During dinner, the discussion turned to what we were all going to wear. I realized I really didn’t have anything to wear to the party. I had planned on making myself a new dress - that didn’t happen. No time. All I had were my one pair of black pants that are really getting threadbare and sorry looking, and since I’m losing weight so quickly, I haven’t bought any new ones either. So, after dinner, we all went to Macy’s and mom bought me a smashing new dress to wear tonight. I’m so excited about this dress. First of all, I put it on, and it fit! It was the first dress I tried on, and it fit like a glove. And it wasn’t from the “women’s” department, but a Misses dress. And it was a size smaller than what I’ve bought in the past. In fact, I almost got another dress that would have been two sizes smaller, but they didn’t have one in stock. Sigh.

The one I tried on that was either too big or too small looked just like this green dress, and was in a beautiful, emerald green lightweight cotton. What was really exciting was that I have this pattern, and the style looked really good on me. So, now I know that I can make this dress in a soft jersey, and it will look just fine.

They had a lot of dresses that looked somewhat like this next picture (the white short one), in different lightweight cottons. They were pretty dresses on the hanger, but when you put them on, there was just too much fabric in the bodice, plus I think they were intended to be worn without a bra, so they had bra stuff in the bodices too. Just too much going on there, I felt like a sausage wrapped up tight. But, with my sewing skills, I now know that I could make a rendition of one, and have it look just right, without the poofy backside area too.

So, for the dress I’m wearing tonight? You’ll just have to wait until my next post to see me in it! Ah, is  there anything better than a pretty dress and a party? Well, maybe a good looking date to go with me. Happy Saturday everyone.

Fashion Lessons From "So You Think You Can Dance"

I would think that a great dance show like So You Think You Can Dance (Fox Broadcasting Company, Wednesdays) would have the best people available to dress their darling Cat Deeley. Instead, it appears they think they should dress her in costumes for Disneyland, or for some obscure Broadway show. Maybe it’s all a guise to distract us from her accent, which sounds borderline Cockney to me, but my ears may be fooling me.

Note the Minnie Mouse Hair. The necklace looks like something leftover from the set of Cleopatra. Does she not have a mirror in her dressing room? Does she not know the words, “Oh, hell, no!”?

No, Cat didn’t cut her hair, which was my first thought. They tucked it up under but it’s all lopsided. Someone, somewhere, said she looked like a birthday present. The dress is somewhat cute, however even if there are too many bows and the center panel looks like a bib.

Again, what is it with the bib fettish? Where are her shoulders and neck?

 

We Interrupt This Blog for a Funny

There’s not too much that makes me totally laugh out loud. I laugh, just inside and quietly most of the time. But this cracked me up.

And here’s another one.

 

Weight Watchers Monday

I love Mondays. I really do. I’m glad my daughter is joining me in this journey - not that I am glad she has to, but because I treasure the time with her. Tonight after weigh-in and our meeting we went to Applebee’s for dinner and she treated me to their Weight Watcher’s Steak and Portebello Mushroom dinner. YUMMY.

Today I lost another 1.6 pounds making it a total of 27 pounds. I’m rocking and rolling. I’m so excited. I swear, every time I get on the scale and it’s a loss of over a pound, I tear up and want to cry for joy. I have been working very hard at this - it’s a whole lifestyle change for me and I’m learning more about nutrition, healthy eating habits, cooking that I never learned. Ever.

Our leader asked us all to set a goal for Labor Day. I’m going to announce it here and see how I do.

My goal is by Labor Day to hit a total of 40 pounds lost. I have thirteen pounds to go, and about eight weeks to do it.

When I was eighteen, I had a 24 inch waist. I’ve always been curvy, but that waist is coming back. I’m so excited. What was fun today in our meeting is that our leader had us think if we had a vision of ourselves when we hit our goal. Oh, my, yes, I have a vision. I will have a small waist again, wear a size that, maybe - just maybe, is a single digit number, and be able to cut patterns out and not have to do a million measurements to them so they fit. 

Speaking of sewing, I was talking to my daughter and I decided to save all my really nice fabric for clothes to make when I hit my goal weight. I don’t want to cut up all my fabulous fabric to then have to toss it because it’s all too big. And don’t expect me to alter it to be smaller. I’m lazy in that area and I won’t do it.

Anyhooo… doing the happy dance and still motivated!

Add Your Own Caption

Carry on discussing among yourselves. I have to keep writing to meet my deadline.

This and That on a Wet, Saturday Morning

It *is* Saturday, right? Sometimes, because I work non-stop (meaning every day of the week) I lose track of the days. Sigh. I just know what I’m supposed to get done each day and try to take some time out for me in between working.

Speaking of taking time out for me…I did just that yesterday. I stepped away from the computer and into the sewing room. I plan to do like Mermaids has done before and do just a little bit in there every day. Even if it’s just cutting something out, stitching a couple seams, cleaning the room. Something. I didn’t work so hard for such a lovely room to ignore it.

So, yesterday I finished cutting out my granddaughter’s birthday dress and didn’t have the energy to thread the machines so I started working on cutting the fabric for the reading pillows I’ll also be making for the kids. Those are quick wins. However, I stopped myself when I couldn’t remember what size square to cut for a 24×24 pillow form. Anyone know? Do you cut it a bit bigger to allow for seam allowances or a little bit smaller to make it fluffy? I should have written down what I did two years ago when I made one. I was also going to cut the fabric and stitch up my new bedroom sheers, but that didn’t happen. Maybe I can get to that today.

I also went to Joann’s to look for red-checked oil cloth for the centerpieces for my mom’s party. It wasn’t on sale and was more expensive than Hancock’s, so I came up with an ingenious idea: scrapbook paper! It’s already precut to a 12×12 size, doesn’t take any sewing, looks just like red-checked fabric, and can be thrown away when done. Besides, they had it on sale, six sheets for 96 cents! How cool is that idea? And what would I do with all those oil-cloth squares when I was done? I just couldn’t fathom the idea of adding even more work to my load right now. So the centerpieces will be the checked 12×12 squares with a small 6×6 plain red square on top and then a small vase with flowers from the local farmers market in the center and red and gold curling ribbon around the base of the flowers. (I’ll take pictures when it’s all done.)

Last night I learned something new about my fibromyalgia too. Extreme noise sets it off. The fireworks around here last night were insane and went on for a solid two hours. Even before it started slowing down around midnight, I was in the middle of a serious flare-up with every nerve ending in my body on fire and this odd vibrating sensation throughout. Now, tell me that this disease or whatever it’s called isn’t neurological. I guess that’s why I’m blessed to live in a quiet neighborhood on a quiet street - except for two days out of the year. New Year’s Eve is just as insane.

Today, I have to work. A lot. I have some Web site copy writing to do but trust me, in there somewhere, I’ll hit the sewing room. Even if it’s for an hour.

Have a great day!