True story

I don't often open emails from my cousin, she's a recent born-again Christian and is always sending the worst schlocky chain emails, but this one had no FW in the subject, so I gave it a chance. I opened one like this previously and it was really important news about my aunt (her mom).

True story.

Good morning all,

I just wanted to share a letter that I am submitting to the American Kennel Club for an award for mom's dog Brutus. They award 5 different types of awards for outstanding dogs. Its called an ACE award.....Award for Canine Excellence. Because of the Yorkie lover I am and the love I have for my mom, I think he deserves it. Keep your fingers crossed!!!!

Love,

DeeDee

PS. Mom seems to be doing pretty well, we go to the DR. on Wednesday.

Dear AKC,

This letter is being submitted for my mother's Yorkshire terrier, Brutus, as a candidate for the AKC-ACE Award. Brutus is two years old and a puppy from my very first litter of 5 pups.

The moment my mom laid eyes on him, she fell in love. My mother is currently a lung cancer patient. She had a portion of her lung removed in Feb. 2007 and has endured radiation therapy and chemo therapy. In March of this year, she awoke during the night with symptoms of the wintertime flu. At 6 am she called me and told me of her sickness and we decided that she had picked up the flu the prior day while attending a funeral. I would call throughout the day to check on her.

At 2 pm that afternoon, she called me and was complaining about Brutus. She said that he was driving her crazy because every time she would almost fall asleep, he would bark and jump at her continuously. I told her to just put him in his crate so she could rest. She reiterated to me again, that he would not leave her alone. After hanging up, I decided that I should go get Brutus so she could rest easier. I tried to call my mom and tell her I was coming, but she did not answer the phone.

Being 25 minutes away, I decided to call her neighbor and have her check on my mom but before I could call, the phone rang and it was the neighbor. She informed me that my mom had called her to come get Brutus but when she got there my mom was extremely sick. She was vomiting and extremely ill and laying on the bathroom floor. I told her to call 911 and I would meet my mom at the hospital, which was only 2 miles away from my mom's house.

Upon arriving at the hospital, my mom was being checked out and before I knew it, they were telling us that she did not have the flu, she was bleeding internally somewhere and she was extremely critical. You see, her blood pressure was at 52/37, heart rate was 125 and she was very low on her blood counts. They were assuming that she was having a heart attack because her vitals were so bad. This hospital was going to stabilize her and they would be airlifting her to a hospital 40 miles away in Ann Arbor, Michigan. That is what they did and my mom spent 5 days there but I have no doubt that if it wasn't for Brutus keeping my mom awake, she would have gone to sleep and who knows what would have happened.

Cancer keeps us wondering daily but I feel somewhat safe to know that we have a 7 pound Yorkie looking out for her. Please consider Brutus as a recipient of this award, he deserves it in my eyes and in my mom's.

Tess in 2006 with Brutus's mom, at my cousin's house.
We were there visiting her new puppies, Brutus among them.

Dude, where's my paint chip?

I am so happy with this green I could marry it.
(family room...winner: hmm...nobody guessed this one.)

I always heard you use warm tones where you eat, and cool tones where you "live"...saw this green on a home show, and they mentioned how it "brings the outdoors in" ...our willow tree seems to be in front of our fireplace now!


The orange (Benjamin Moore's Aura in Buttered Yam) was pretty intense going on, but dried to a warm finish. (dining/scrap (ha!) room, winner: Shannon guessed I'd do 2 colors in here, so is she half-right?)


Our painting supervisor called in the color code for a *quart* (what I picked up to sample on Friday) when he ordered another *gallon* (oops), so this went on too light at first, BUT the guy doing the painting knew I wasn't happy with that, and he took his lunch hour to go to the paint store and get me the right shade. (bathroom, winner: Shannon!)

Since I was going with a Sherwin Williams shade, I had to give up my paint chip (I want it back! It's called "Drizzle") , but I was delighted that the painter went the extra mile for me and STILL got it all done today.

I'm pretty easygoing in life, except when it comes to color matching. Then I get a little persnickety.

All in all, a crazy Mother's Day weekend. My sister came in to town on Friday; she wanted to tag along with me to Novi to meet Mom for Mega Meet, but decidedly did NOT want to check out scrapbooking. She insisted on going to Flute World, which bored Mom & I to tears, but we got back at her by getting so absorbed at Mega Meet that we were very, very late picking her up from 12 Oaks, the mall where we dropped her whiny @$$ off earlier. All's well that ends well, even if I didn't get to go to Archivers. I only picked up and dropped off my Mom there :(

Eeny, meeny miney moe...

I have lived in a beige house for the last 6+ years (and before that, beige apartments...you know, apartment "cream"...?!) So I am delighted to take on the task of painting our new place. Not sure why the old house never got painted (except for the purple room we did for Tess...a year before we put the whole place up for sale). And I did have a pink living room in my home in Redford...which ended up painted taupe (Martha Stewart "Mushroom," actually) when the ex-fiance almost moved in (and then I sold the place, two years later...I'm detecting a trend...)

This time around we are here for a while (we hope), so I want colors I love...although I do have to please E with them as well.

So, the colors above are for three rooms: family room (accent wall), dining room (whole kit and kaboodle) and 3 walls in our luxury bathroom upstairs. Your mission? Figure out what color goes in which room. And yes, I've already made up my mind.

Shining sinks

E was admonishing me yesterday because Ben hadn't been outside to play all day. After all, we have a new swing set and the weather was gorgeous, but perhaps he's forgotten just how much a 19 month-old can get into outdoors...especially when you have a pond to make you extra-nervous.

After I did my self-imposed morning chores (I subscribe to FlyLady's emails, but rarely follow them...the task for yesterday --cleaning off your kitchen counters-- suddenly inspired me) where I felt the urge to clean every. single. bathroom. sink. (did I mention we have 5 bathrooms in this house? One of them a handicap bathroom that we hardly use, for a previous owner with ALS, but still...FIVE)...seriously, I went to put a full liquid soap container back in the main floor bathroom and the sink was DISGUSTING...once I start a job, I may as well be consistent...but not perfect, right, FlyLady?

ANYWAY, after that was done (I left one upstairs sink for later...the backyard was calling), we all trouped out to the back forty and had a very pleasant morning swinging, pulling chairs under the overhanging branches of our willow tree (the one advantage to having a pond...willow trees...), checking out the goldfish in the pond (amazing how they survive the winter...they are HUGE and were coming up to the surface to feast on water bugs) and generally enjoying the sun on our backs and the wind in our hair.

Now I'm about to get my recipe LOs done (for a CE swap), and I was just thinking how much I got done in January...during Lain's challenge...and how that has changed my perspective on my "free" time. Ben's home, but napping, so I can grab the hour and a half or so that I have and spend it cleaning (did that this morning!), cooking (peeled potatoes & got them in water as he was settling down) or getting creative.

I'm so glad I got the cleaning bug out of my system first thing this morning!

NSD hoopla, sort of.

Well, National Scrapbooking Day has come and gone AGAIN, and again I did nothing special...on that day, at least.

Ben has been gone all week, so I actually got a lot of scrapping in during the week...including my first altered item...this altered clock. Here's what it looked like when I bought it (for a DOLLAR) at the rummage sale the week before:

I swear we had the exact same clock in our (orange and avocado green) kitchen growing up.

Best of all, I put a battery in (had to bang it around a bit) and it is keeping REAL time. Tess wants it in her room but it's in my scrap room because I MADE IT and it WORKS.

Friday I went out early to the Zone, they were having an anniversary sale and giving away goodie bags to the first 100 people. I got there at 9:30a (they opened at 10a) and was given a card as #67 in line (!) Too bad somebody else got to all the dark black Bazzill card stock before me; it was 5 sheets for $1...also too bad they didn't get their Herma shipment in of removable adhesive refills; I would have stocked up!

I did get out to Chelsea and crop from 12 noon until nearly midnight, with only a break to get home and meet Tess when she got off the bus, give her dinner, and get her to the gym's daycare (where E was playing tennis). I still only managed to get 4 layouts done in all that time, but I did use up a lot of my stash and I'm happy with the results (the fourth LO is for Tess's school album, and not exciting enough, IMHO, for my SIStv portfolio!)...

Saturday (the Official NSD) I was supposed to go to Grand Rapids and (finally) meet the Michigan SIStv "SIStas" to crop with them at Pages in Time, but Ben had developed an ear infection while up at my folks and, while he was on medication and feeling better, I decided to go get him and give him cuddles. It's hard to be away from your baby, especially when he's sick. Of course he's perfectly fine today but it's nice to have him here to keep an eye on him and he enjoys being home.

Monday moanin'

Well, that wasn't TOO bad...Dr. Roy was done in about a half an hour with Tess, she only cried when she got the "sleepy juice" (novocaine), a concept that originally made her laugh. Our dentist is great with kids...told Tess she had some "cavity bugs" he had to put to sleep (thus the sleepy juice) and take out for her...although I knew the real procedure would not make her laugh...she's at school doped up on Motrin, hopefully she'll get through her day okay.

It was wonderful to be out in the morning, even though it was cold. We went to the Dexter Bakery as a "treat" (yum...get a filling, fill up on a sugary donut...brilliant, mom!) since she wasn't going to make her bus and needed lunch (yes, I know, a donut...) We wandered over to the downtown Dexter Pharmacy, one of those wonderful old teeny tiny family-owned pharmacies, something that actually gives us one up on snooty old downtown Chelsea, our artsy-fartsy neighbor to the west.

The pharmacy had a bunch of tiny 3x3 encouragement cards marked down to 50 cents; I bought a handful to put in Tess's lunch on Fridays. Yes, I know, I should actually MAKE her little cards, I used up all my little card creations (so far, need to make more) on her earlier this year. I can't believe she has only 7 more weeks of school left.

Tonight is my Stampin Up Stamp Club...my last for a couple of months, since I am still saving for Creative Escape. I'm pretty much caught up on my registration fee, but I still have to get airfare and save up to pay my roommate, whoever she may be...I've decided not to get a hotel room, but instead depend upon The Kindness of Strangers. Good thing I'm in the Yahoo Group, lots of roomie connections there.

Here's this month's swap card...I went to my cardstock stash and picked a color (CTMH's Barn Red) I'm not all that fond of, that was masculine, that I had a lot of, and added some copper accents (embossing powder and metallic paper) for an elegant-yet-whimsical Father's Day card. Crown is Anita's, argyle background is SU, letters are my current favorite CTMH alphabet, Tiny Typewriter. Which reminds me...I have a new CTMH shipment coming today, including a new Summer catalog...to be released Into the Wild May 1st...I'll be listening for my Man in Brown for the rest of the afternoon...ready to pounce!

Amoeba knitting

I noticed today, as I put YET ANOTHER new knitting project into a leftover gift bag (this time a Hello Kitty from Tess' birthday), that my knitting bags seem to be splitting and multiplying. I haven't touched what's in my ACTUAL knitting bag for about 3 months (the red tank top from IWK I started last Fourth of July...and it's nearly done, too...) While I swore I wouldn't get stash, I do have an overabundance of actual projects.

I went to Chicago the week before last (spring break...my folks did not go to Florida, and E wasn't budging, so I said I HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE, and I did, to visit my sister), where I stopped in at Loopy Yarns. As I walked in, the gal behind the counter said "everything in the bins on the floor is a dollar a skein, because we're sick of looking at it," so I snagged a very pretty blue ribbon yarn (Berroco's Glace) and some Elsbeth Lavold alpaca...not enough to make a sweater, of course, but I've got a pattern for a decent vest (and I have a vest phobia, so that is something!) that might work.

On another note, Tess has the first (!) of her cavity fillings tomorrow. I am so depressed about this I can't even think. *I'm* the one who brushes her teeth for her (most of the time), and she still got cavities. At our Friday night crop, Kelly and I were praising the flouride in Livonia water (where we grew up), she never had cavities and I have only 3 after all these years.

Tess has FOUR cavities, three filling appointments coming up. It's making me physically ill to think of it. I just hope I can hold it together for her tomorrow.