Renee!

Renee,

You have left such nice comments on my Blog, but I cannot find your Blog to read. Please leave your Blog name for me to visit. I would love to read about the history of DMC threads, and yes, I will have a cup of coffee ready to enjoy while I read.

Things have been hectic to say the least!

I can't believe it has been over two weeks since I last posted to this Blog. But Mother Nature got in the way with a severe ice storm here in the Ozarks of Southwest Missouri. We had three inches of ice on everything! Trees broke, power went out and left many people in the dark for over a week. Winter hit us on Friday evening, January 12 and on Saturday morning, many people got up to no electricity and no phone. Our electric did not go out until Sunday afternoon at about 4:30 p.m. and when you live in the country and are on a well, you have no water! BUT, I knew we would probably loose the power, so I had drawn water in the bathtub and in several 5 gallon pails and empty plastic milk cartons I had saved. Fortunately, we do have a wood heating stove in our home and three gas heaters for back-up. We were able to stay warm, but I cook on electic, so could not cook on the stove, but did manage to cook a little on the wood stove. We went until Wednesday evening about 9 p.m. without power and it came back on! Hip Hip Hooray! We had power all day Thursday and Thursday evening, THEN on Friday about 11 a.m. NO power again! Oh no, NO water in reserve! What to do............PRAY! Yeah, at about 4:30 it came back on. We do feel blesssed however, because today as I write this, two week later, there are still a few families without power.

My hubby has been very busy with his work, plumbing, trying to restore busted water lines in homes and businesses. And I have been doing my part, by helping to cook and feed the power companies that have sent their men into our town to help restore the power lines. The Missouri Baptist Convention has sent their chain-saw group to help trim and cut trees, clean-up yards and stack all the brush for pick-up. Our beautiful town looks like a war has hit us, there is so much damage all over town. It is hard to believe what has happened to us here. The photo's you see are just a small fraction of the damage, and they are only of the area here in my own front and back yards.

But, also, as I write this, life as we know it, is returning to normal. We did have church last Sunday and had a very good crowd. Hubby and had I two different families stay with us for a few days and enjoyed their fellowship greatly.

My best friend, Marie, was staying with here neighbors, who live next door, and they had a generator, so she was having a ball with them and their family. She said at one time there were 14 people staying there! She got to return to her home on Sunday, January 21. THEN, on Wednesday of this week, dear Marie had a heart attack. I just could not believe this was happening! Today, Friday, she had open heart surgery with 4 by-passes. The doctor says she is doing very well and came through the surgery well. When I left the hospital today, she was still asleep in ICU, and they said she would sleep for another 8 to 12 hours. They said she would probably move to her own private room sometime tomorrow and start rehab. I love this woman like my own mom. Her daughter, Theresa and I have become like sisters during these last few days, and her son, Carl, has a very special wife, Pam. They are such special people.

A Most Wonderful Surprise Today!

There is a wonderful lady on a stitching group I belong to named, Heidi. Heidi lives with her husband, Jos, in Holland. I've mentioned her before on this Blog. She is a very talented your lady, who not only does cross stitch, but also quilts and a number of other crafts. Back before Christmas, she had sent me a beautiful cross stitch Christmas ornament magazine. Of course I can't read a word of the language, but I can read photo's. There are 34 pages of nothing but Christmas items to cross stitch. I love the banner on the front cover and hope to start stitching on some of these small charts in order to make this banner. Thank you so much Heidi for this treasure.

SO, THE SURPRISE..........................

This morning I was trying to get Skype to work on my computer, and as usual was having problems. I want to be able to actually talk with my wonderful stitching friend, Heidi, who lives in Holland. Jos, Heidi's DH came on line and was trying to walk me through the process and asked for my phone number. I thought that had something to do with getting Skype to work, so gave him my computer number and also our business number. Low and behold, about 5 minutes later, the business phone rang and it was Jos, I could not believe it!! He called to help me with the problem on Skype and finally decided that I needed to pull the computer out from the wall and check the wires for the microphone. I told him to give, "my love" to Heidi, and he said hang on, she is here, and sure enough there she was. This was almost like having her in person. She sounds just like I thought she would, so kind and pleasant. I was so excited that I couldn't hardly think of anything to ask her or talk about! We did visit for a short time and after hanging up I actually had to shed a few tears from excitement and happiness. Heidi, please forgive me for being such a "cluck" on the phone. This has simply made my day, not only for today, but for the week.

A Beautiful Gift ~ from a wonderful friend.

I received these beautiful pinkeeps from a very lovely, caring, generous lady during this past Christmas season. Nancy R. is a member of our online yahoo stitching group, " for the love of stitching". Nancy does such beautiful stitching and these pinkeeps are something that I will cherish and keep forever. Thank you so very much Nancy.

Nancy is decorating her home in South Carolina with her stitching projects. She has several of the first lady samplers, that are designed by Tanya Anderson, The Sampler Girl, finished and already hung in her home. Presently we are stitching on For Mrs. Jefferson: A Colonial Love Song. Nancy is leading us in the SAL. It is a beautiful, colorful Sampler. Tanya's website is: http://thesamplergirl.homestead.com/home.html

January ~ Snowpeople!

My Christmas decorations are down and my snowpeople are out! Meet Herman and Hannah, they sit on the shelf above my kitchen sink. Then we have Willy, Gilly, and Jilly they sit on the snowman quilted table topper on my kitchen table. And at my back door we have Fritz and Freda to greet our guests.

Beginning a New Year

We have begun a new year today. I can't believe that another year has passed. Some bad news today, a cousin, Suzanne, of DH has passed away due to cancer. She was a year or two younger than DH. Her service will be tomorrow. Unfortunately, she lives in Texas and we are unable to make the trip, but our Blessings are with the family at this time.

I've spent the day re-organizing my stitching and making a, very long, list of projects started, some UFO's I want to finish, ornaments I want to stitch during this year, exchanges I'm going to be doing for friends, and SAL's I am involved with and other's that will be starting. The list is a little intimidating at first look, but it does give me some goals for this new year. With many thanks to Heidi, a really lovely, friend from, For the Love of Stitching group, I think this list will help with my goals for the new year. Heidi is a multi-talented young lady who lives in The Netherlands with her DH Jos. This group has come to mean so much to me, as we have developed very close friendships during the past year. I've also joined another very active, chatty group, Stitchers Time Out (STO). I really don't know where they got this name, because there is never any "time out" on this group!

My heart also goes out to Mrs. Betty Ford, on the loss of her beloved husband, Gerald.

My Blessings for each of you, dear friends, is that you might have during this new year, the Blessings that your heart desires.

"You must do the things you think you cannot do." Eleanor Roosevelt