Yep, I’m still here.

{source}

Hey peeps, how have you all been?  I hope the holidays are finding you well and if not I hope that you get well soon and I send big hugs out to all of you.

So I know it’s been pretty quiet here in “the house”, but I have truly been busy with working on Christmas presents for my mom and sister, shopping for a desk, and stressing over my mom’s health and my health at the same time.  So much is going on with my mom as of late, and each new appointment makes me tense up more and more.  I mean it’s good she’s going to try to sort out what’s going on, but really they aren’t any closer to figuring it out.  They think it’s related to her diabetes, but not sure on it yet.  Surgery keeps getting tossed around and I don’t like that idea.  She’s not the healthiest gal out there and I worry I’d lose her if she did have to go under the knife.  Also she’s been having other issues that they aren’t sure if she will have to have surgery for that as well.  Add on top of that that my dad continues to smoke like a chimney and refuses to stick to some quitting aid, my sister’s health is slowly going bad, and then the stress from worrying about all that causes stomach acid which causes my issues to flare up and it quickly turns into a FML situation.

BUT, in light of all that, I just keep telling myself that in this moment right now I am truly lucky, blessed, what have you to be alive and mostly healthy.  I have my sister, mom, and dad still with me.  My boyfriend is getting better after finding out he had right lung pneumonia.  The pets are doing fairly well, Brody still needs to lose some weight but he’s doing well.  And well I’m doing better than a lot of people out there so I am trying to think positive and just focus on the positives I do have in my life.  Not trying to get preachy on you guys here, so not that kind of gal, just wanting to say that yeah I’m having some issues in my end of the world, but it could be worse so I am happy that it’s not.

Haven’t done much dollwise besides work on Christmas gifts.  A few days to go and I still have a ton to make.  I got stuck hand sewing several things because it was made with thick stretchy fabric that my machine promptly told me it wasn’t have any of.  Evil witch of a thing.  So until I start working with my cotton fabric my machine sits on my old desk mocking me as I suffer through hand sewing clothing that easily takes me a few hours to work on.  I have a few more stretchy things that I MAY be able to do on my machine and then I move on to cotton stuff, thank everything.  I am still determined to finish everything, but it would go so much faster if I did have a new desk.

On the desk front, I decided against the Walmart one.  My sister and I were in Staples the other day looking for a lap desk for her and we were by the full size desks waiting for an associate to look in the back to see if he had any in stock, and I asked her if any of the desks in the area were the size of the one at Walmart.  My mom had told me the desk was small.  My sister walked around and pointed out some that were about the size of the desk and I decided then and there that the desk was not what I wanted.  It’s weird, I keep putting off buying the desks I am interested in only to find out they wouldn’t have worked for me in the end, and I am saved from disappointment.  I found a table at Roses that was nice and big but it seemed short.  To my peeps who sew out there, you understand my being hesitant in wanting to buy it because it seemed to0 short.  I don’t want to hunch over to use it.  I want my machine a comfortable height and that table seemed low.  It was only 40 bucks though and I still think about it.  I figure I’ll check back in after the new year and if I still like it and can maybe get a chair to try out the height I might get it.

Now after Roses we ended up at Big Lots and the funniest thing happened.  My mom said I should look at the desks there.  I looked at some and didn’t like them or their prices.  I walked around to a back wall and found the desk I wanted from Walmart only it was the model from last year.  That sucker is small.  I was really glad I decided against it.  But alas, that leaves me to suffer with my desk now that as you have seen is crowded with stuff I have no place to put right now.  I need to go through that stuff and chuck some of it, but for now that is where it stays.  I really still want that table from Roses.  So much room to play with.  I didn’t see any boxes there of the table and the display one has a messed up corner, but maybe they have some in back.  I have time to think about it.

But I guess that’s it for now.  I wish I had more to share with you. I hope to share my doll clothing with you guys eventually.  One thing I learned, if you don’t use it you lose it, so umm yeah, I’m rusty right now with the sewing and I feel that it shows.  But the hand sewing is making me stronger in that department, so yayyyy!

Ohhhh, before I go, weird thing happened.  (Warning, what I’m about to say is sad so if you aren’t into that please skip to the next paragraph.  Thanks.)  So while I hand sew I watch tv.  One show I am hooked on as of late is The Next Great Baker.  On the recent show the baker who got kicked off had an in memorandum at the end of the show.  I was shocked to see he had died and like many other people I went searching on the web to see what happened.  Get this, his body was found on a street that is literally a 5-10 minute drive from my house that I travel on all the time.  Seems he shot himself.  He was stationed here in town and was a cook for the Army.  People think he was suffering from post traumatic stress syndrome and committed suicide.  He died on Oct. 24th of this year.  It’s just so weird to see someone you were rooting for on a show had died and then to find out he died around the corner from your house at his own hand.  I feel so bad for his family.  Just another thing that makes me think that while life may be a little hectic for me at the moment it can pale in comparison to others.  But yeah, just so weird and sad.

But to try to cheer things up here, I still have a photostory to share with you guys that I took pictures for a longggg time ago.  I’ll share it on Christmas Eve.  Consider it my silly gift to you. 

And on that last note I am off peeps.  I am getting tired and need to consider hopping on my exercise bike, that gave me hell yesterday by constantly popping off a pedal, and doing 10 more miles today.  Ugh!  So close to bedtime too.  Hummm, bad choice?  Perhaps.  But I need to do it.  Meh, it’s up for debate since I need to get up early.  Wish I would have done it sooner, but I was working on Christmas gifts.  Ugh!  Kind of can’t wait until I have them all done so I can get back to regular uninterrupted exercise.  Ok, enough blabbering, talk to you lovely folks on Saturday.  Be good until then.  Bye for now.

Sleepy and so ready for bed,
Michelle