I know I'm supposed to be in a "happy" mood today...

it's Easter.  But the simple fact of the matter is....I'm not! I'm sure my attitude is just all wrong. But I'm owning up to it.
I'm tired. I'm low on sleep and I'm tired of being a "rock" for everyone. I'm tired of being counted on to always be there. What about when I need some support? Where does it come from?
I really hate having such an attitude especially today but I do.
I want a vacation! From everyone! No computer and no phone.....okay maybe the computer with access only to quilt blogs.
This picture just summed up my mood perfectly. I need Grumpy cat to sympathize with!

They say a picture is worth a thousand words.....

 
well this one is! Friday morning I got up to make my coffee and found piles of what I thought was bloody urine all over the house. Not just one or two.....multiple spots. So I started isolating pets to see who was having the problem. That took most of the morning because cats hide really well when they're being sick! I finally though figured out it was Ninja and she was throwing it up........

Ninja came a long way to live with us. She's originally from western Pennsylvania and started life as a barn cat. DD #2 brought her home after a miserable summer job experience up there. Let's just say she's not a barn cat anymore!

She enjoys spending her days getting loved on and finding the highest hiding spot she can curl up into to nap. Whether that's on my sewing machines or the top of a closet.....
At night she's either on my bed (weeks when dh is out of town) or on ds' bed.
 If I'm working on a quilt Ninja is there. She even helps me baste!She LOVES quilting!

So see? No more wild barn cat. Although she wasn't really still wild by the time she came home to us. 

Last month Ninja made a trip to the vet to be spayed. That meant an overnight stay. Ds was so worried about her! Then her incision got infected and back we went to get antibiotics. More tears of worry from ds. Then all the mess yesterday......

Oh boy.......I was worried. Throwing up blood....especially that much blood repeatedly can't be good. The first thing I checked was my sewing machine. The thread was in the same position I left it. Now see, Miss Daisy our other cat has a thing about thread.....did you know you can basically toilet paper a whole house with thread? Well Miss Daisy can and does if I am not vigilant! The only thing I could think of that Ninja might've gotten into was Legos. There are Legos everywhere. You walk on them, they're in the bathroom, the kitchen, I've even found them under my covers on my bed!

So off to the vet we went. With severe worries that I would be coming home alone. That we would be racking up $$$ vet bills for surgery to remove said Legos or even worse. 

Imagine my joy when he said viral! He said he had seen several other cats recently with the same symptoms. Odd since our cats are totally indoor cats and never, ever go outdoors. He gave her two shots and took a chunk of change from me and home we came. 

Ninja does not tolerate meds well. We learned that from her spay surgery. When we got home she refused to come out of her crate. I took the door off and put water near her. She spent the rest of the day sleeping. Then last night when I checked on her more throwing up......ugh! She still wouldn't come out of the crate either. So I figured this morning we'd be back at the vet. She obviously wasn't better.........maybe there was a Lego after all.

I didn't sleep well last night. I dreamed about Ninja all night. Ds didn't sleep well. He ended up sleeping with me because he missed his kitty. I kept her in the laundry room so she didn't make a mess all over again. 

I got up this morning and went to check on her first thing, even before my coffee or the bathroom.......I fully expected to find a dead cat. When she not only meowed at me but came out of the crate to be petted I about cried! I took her to my room and put her beside ds right away and woke him to tell him to look who had missed him. That first pic is them in just a couple minutes. She obviously missed him as much as he missed her!

So Ninja feels better, ds is happy, and I am one relieved mama!

One of my favorite quilt books....

    I love this book! I saw it awhile back and had to order it. 

See that quilt on the cover?

                                    

 I would love to have that as my bedroom. Can't you just imagine waking up with that sunlight streaming in? On a nice chilly morning and you're all toasty warm under that quilt? Or a spring morning and the windows are open and the birds are singing? Needless to say there would be no sounds of traffic or modern life!

I was looking at it last night and oldest son came in. He really like that quilt too. He hinted not very subtly that he would like one like that......now what am I to do? If I make me one he's going to want it!

arghh! oh well I guess for now we'll just have to appease ourselves with looking at the book...since I am plugging along with the wedding quilt for oldest dd and if my "Momma Instinct" is right I think there will be another wedding in the family soon that require a quilt.
I do wonder though how this quilt would look as a scrappy?

Oh and if you want your own copy here's a link (I hope)

http://www.amazon.com/Country-Quilts-Linda-Seward/dp/0802114709

An unexpected day at home!

 Yesterday was supposed to be busy, filled with piano lessons, youth for the girls and a few errands. Instead we spent the day at home. Youngest daughter is sick. I think it's just a head cold but she feels miserable. Then youth was cancelled. So we postponed the errands and stayed home. I love being at home! Really! I am one of those probably few people who could go for weeks without leaving home. I have plenty to keep me busy! The kids though, well the girls at least would be bored. They like going.....and going and going.

 It was rainy and gray all day. The temp I don't think ever got above 45. I got the wood stove going for the first time in over a week. Got some basic school done and then I got my quilting mojo back! YES!

My oldest is getting married in August and I promised a wedding quilt. We picked out fabric, and that is as far as I got! I did manage to make 2 blocks at the camper last month......2 out of 156......
I just have not been able to motivate myself to work on it. Instead I pulled out hexies and have been working on them!
But yesterday I sat down with an episode of Quiltcam on (Thank you Bonnie Hunter!) and I started piecing! I managed to get two whole rows completed and enough of the flying geese units done to make two more rows.
Today I will be out and about and right by Mary Jo's....yes I'm stopping! I love the blocks so far but I really need some more lights. Something sand color since this is supposed to have a beach theme..I'm seeing more jewel tones though.
What do you think?

Quilting, Baptisms, Snow......Hail!

Life has been busy....as usual! It seems it never slows down. But that's ok. I'm getting used to it. We finally had some winter weather.......in March. First we had snow and Reece thought it was great fun and ran around trying to get everyone to play with her......oldest son gladly obliged!





Then later the same day hail! The snowflakes themselves were huge and the hail while not as big as it is in the summer still stung when it hit you. The kids HAD to go out in it to check and see lol.  Youngest daughter even collected some.










Last but not least......daughter number 3 was baptised this month! Such a glorious day! All the family got be here for the event. We have prayed for this for so long now. I am not a crier but even I was choked up seeing her make this decision!

Oh and finally! Some progress on the wedding quilt.....not nearly enough but......progress is progress right? One whole row and another started. So many little pieces.......I need to declare a "quilting" day and work on nothing else.

Took the weekend off!

and it was exactly what I needed!
Saturday was a beautiful day. I spent the afternoon outside...watching my chickens and smelling the earth as dh tilled it up to start preparing for the garden. I just stood there with my eyes closed and smelled. There is something about good fresh dirt that is intoxicating! I got my hands in it......just stuck them in and felt the dirt. The earthworms are active even though the ground is still a little cold. I think I will plant some lettuce this week.
So I guess the old saying is true.....you can take a girl out of the country but you can't take the country out of the girl.

Oh and a funny for you....there's always something funny coming out of the mouth of my 16yo daughter....
She said, "The cats get catnip...aka kitty crack, and Momma gets dirt, so they're both high!"
Kids.....ya gotta love em!



 And a picture of last year's lowly Dandelion. Have you ever really looked at a Dandelion? They've a beauty all their own I think.

Changes, changes....

We lost our old golden almost 2 weeks ago. She was 13 and had gone deaf. She was having accidents in the house and had lost 20lbs. I couldn't see keeping her in misery any longer so we did the most humane thing. It was hard! We all cried over her. This was her in November. She was still doing pretty good then.

The same week both cats were spayed. They had an overnight stay and youngest son was so worried about them. Ninja's incision somehow got infected which meant a trip back to get antibiotics. Son was not happy!




















They're both doing fine now thankfully and back to playing. We built them a new scratching post this week and to entice them to use it I got some catnip.
I created a junkie! Daisy will stop at nothing to get catnip! She will beg, scratch and bite in her quest for more. Ninja likes it but nothing like Daisy.
We finally set the container in the floor to see what Daisy would do......sorry for the lousy picture it was taken with my cell phone.
We spent a long time laughing at her antics!