A Special Gift and more gardening and decorating...

First of all, I owe a GREAT BIG thank you to my blogger friend, Edgar, for the beautiful pynkeep that he sent to me. He said it was a gift, but he was helping me out, and Edgar, you'll never know how much I appreciate it. A RAK will certainly come your way in the future. Here is what he sent to me.



I adore pynkeeps, so this is a welcome addition to my growing collection. Thank you again, Edgar!!

Now for some more yard pictures since I still can't show you my stitching yet. I've been working pretty hard on it this week. (Pictures should be clickable links for larger pictures).

This around our big tree in the backyard. It's pretty shady back there, so we have to be pretty selective about what we plant. I will say I've planted nearly 500 caladium bulbs.....don't lack much to be at the bottom of that box!





A few more views including Miss Sadie's head:







I have been spending quite a bit of time outside trying to finish up what we started before Bob got sick. I'm almost there. I need to add mulch and I'm almost done.
It's been therapy for me digging in the dirt, EXCEPT I hate the heat and humidity. I'm afraid I might sweat and lose a pound, and Lord knows I want to keep packing them on. LOL

And here are a few of my decorating ideas to show off my stitched gifts/items. I have more, but these are the only ones I have pictures of. This first one is a picture of some of my "smalls" on an antique ironing board. I made the small quilt.



And this is another picture of some of the gifts I've received:



Thank you for your visits, your comments, your prayers, and your friendships. I appreciate it more than you can know.

Love,
Carolyn

Happy Thursday!

Just a note to my friends to let everyone know that Bob is recovering...slowly...but he DOES seem to feel a bit better. He's very weak still and has no appetite (I should be so lucky LOL). I spend alot of time outside in the yard trying to get the things taken care of that we were going to work on when we got home that week. Since that didn't happen, and he can't do any of it, I'm having some good dirt digging therapy. I have been doing quite a bit of stitching, and most of it is finished, but has not been either sent or received by the recipient, so can't share yet. I'll post them all soon. Probably take forever for the post to load. LOL

In the meantime, I will share a bit of our work in progress yard. The pansy at the top of the page is out of our yard. Bob took that before he got sick. I just love the way it turned out. He's become quite the photographer since he's been watching all of Kevin's baseball games, he's gotten some awesome action shots that I just love. Anyway, let me try to post a few yard pictures to tide everybody over until I have some stitching to share. I do appreciate all of you that have visited and left comments. They mean so much to me that you take the time to read my blog and jot down a few words.






Now you KNOW I have to share some pictures of my precious little grandbaby buglet, so these are a few that we got that last weekend we were together. I could eat her up!







I hope you've enjoyed my little update, and I promise to add more soon. Thank you again for visiting. I love each and every one of my blogging friends. :)

Love,
Carolyn :)

Thank you!

Happy Memorial Day! Just a note to thank all the men and women who are fighting to keep our country safe. Thank you to those that lost that fight in battle. Thank you to the families that are left behind to worry day and night, wondering if their husband, wife, son or daughter is safe. Thank you to those families that have lost a loved one during this battle.

I have a 22 year old son, and as a mother can not EVEN imagine what you other parents must go through each and every day, wondering if they are hungry, safe, etc.

Whether we are for or against this war, I am thankful for those that have volunteered to protect our country. All I can say is THANK YOU, and God bless you and God bless America. :)

With love and thanks,
Carolyn (proud to be an American)

Blessings....

I'm sorry I haven't updated in so long. I have lots of pictures to share, which I will share on my next post, but I wanted to update what has been going on in my life the last two weeks.

A week ago this past Friday (Mother's Day weekend) my husband and I went to visit Kevin (3 hours away) to watch his last college baseball games, celebrate Mother's Day, and my precious granddaughter was coming. I hadn't seen her in two months, so believe me, I couldn't wait to get my hands on her.

When my Bob woke up Friday morning he said he kind of had a sore back....like he had slept wrong. He was in his normally wonderful mood and drove to Nacogdoches, where we were staying for the weekend. We went to the ballgame, he did his normal walking around taking pictures, but did say his back was still bothering him a bit. Not anything worth going to the doctor for...just a nagging pain. By the time the game was over we left to check into the motel. He was hurting pretty bad then, and I told him to go lay down and rest and I would unload the car, which I did. He immediately fell asleep.

I was so excited! We were getting to keep Kayla overnight for the first time that night!! Kevin brought her over, set up the pack and play crib thingee, and left for the night. I fed her, and she fell asleep so I put her to bed. Bob woke up and said he thought a really hot bath would make his back feel better, so he took one. I have to tell you this, which is pretty important. Bob has a VERY VERY high tolerance for pain. He can cut his finger to the bone, and where you or I would go get stitches, he just puts a bandaid on and goes about his business. This is NOT a good thing to have.

When he came out of the bathtub, he was literally hollering in pain and said he felt like he needed to go to the ER. Real good. I've got the baby...no car seat. Never occurred to call an ambulance, because the hospital was literally 5 minutes down the road. What do I do? So I called Kevin. Naturally their food had just come, but he was there in a New York second and picked up my little buglet and took her with him. In the meantime, we were in the car and I hauled him to the ER.

He was literally writhing in pain and I was scared to death. Words were coming out of his mouth that I've never EVER heard him say....like a man possessed (this is the man with the high tolerance for pain). They rushed him back and did xrays, lab work and a CT scan (Thank GOD). The ER doctor said from where the pain was and how bad it was that they thought it was a kidney stone, but wanted to do the CT scan just in case. I'm so thankful that they did. My Bob had an abdominal aortic aneurysm that had already started to leak. OMG we got him there just in time. They had already called the vascular doctor and a surgical team before they ever came to tell me. They were wonderful!! The vascular doctor came in and told us he needed surgery immediately, and that we had gotten there at just the right time. People don't normally live with this. They bleed out within a minute.???? OMG..scared me to death. But since his had not ruptured, we were good.

WELL......and this is a GOD thing and I know it. They wisked him away to the OR, had him hooked up to everything, blood was there and scalpel in the surgeon's hand when it burst! He bottomed out (no blood pressure) and it took awhile to stabilize him, but after a 5 hour surgery, he was finally on his way to ICU. They also found two other aneurysms in his legs that they did bypasses on. All of this from just a little back pain. They were giving him blood as fast as it was coming out.

We are now home and he will be home for about 6 weeks. I thank God every day that I didn't have to drive that 3 hours back home alone. There are so many different scenarios that could have happened, but they didn't. God wasn't ready for him yet, and I feel extremely blessed.

Since I was only going to be gone for the weekend to see three ballgames and visit with the kids I didn't take much stitching with me, because I knew there wouldn't have been time to stitch. I wish I would have had tons with me, since I lived at the hospital the whole time with nothing to do but wait. I didn't even have internet until I finally found someone there that would hook it up for me. By that time, it was almost time to come home...go figure.

Anywho, that's where I've been and what I've been up to. I do have a little bit of stitching to share, and a few pictures of my precious buglet, but they don't really match with this post, so will do that later. I have other stitching, too, that I can't share, and I'm way behind on my commitments that are due in June. I need to do some power stitching in between taking care of the patient, who is my first priority.

I've missed you all, and hope to hear from you again soon. I love my online and blogging friends and when I'm not around you, I feel a big void. Please add Bob to your prayers for a speedy recovery. I would appreciate it so much. Also, thank you for all of your comments on my last posts. I love reading them, and knowing that you are visiting me. :)

Love to all,
Carolyn