What a Week & Other Mindless Wanderings

So, I missed posting last week, especially Wordless Wednesday, but it's been a crazy week. I'm so glad it's over! Let's hope this week and the next few weeks are better than this past week.

I woke up early Tuesday morning from a disturbing dream. I dreamed that I was beating my husband! I'm not a violent person by nature, so this really alarmed and upset me. (Not to mention, I DON'T hit my husband!!) After discussing things with him, I realized that I was mad at him for something really stupid, and it came out in my dream. This brought on lots of tears and crying which brought on a headache and dry eyes for the remainder of the day. Then, I realized that the reason I was so emotional was because I was PMS-ing Several years ago, my doctor diagnosed me with PMDD mainly because I cry easily, I get very angry and have really drastic & quick mood changes, insomnia, food cravings, and extreme tiredness. In addition to some diet changes & lifestyle changes, my doctor put me on a very low dose of Zoloft (25 mg) the week before my period. I generally don't need the meds the entire week, but most months I take them for at least part of the week. It makes all the difference in the world!! I can function and am pleasant to be around. The med doesn't totally take away all the symptoms; it just reduces the severity of them and takes "the edge" off. All of this to say, I've been "hormonal" and non-communicative this week. Also, if you think you suffer from PMDD, talk to you doctor. You don't have to live with "the monthly crazies".

On top of this, things at work picked up. That's a very good thing! I work in a Christian book store and the busiest time of the year is just ahead. The days go by quicker and it's just more fun. However, you do get some weird requests. This one was on Thursday. A customer came in and wanted to purchase a Bible. She found one that was about $70. She gets to the registers and was frustrated because she picked up the ONE color that wasn't on sale. She griped that the signs didn't mention colors or any kind of product number or anything. The associate went and pulled off the signs and showed the customer where the colors were listed and it was obvious that the one she chose was not on sale. (Oops! Guess it's too much to expect a customer to actually READ the sale signs.) They got that cleared up, then she tells the associate, "Well, my friend who's coming here to shop later this afternoon has a 30% off coupon. Can I get her discount on this purchase?" Ummmm...let's think about this for a minute....NO! The audacity of the woman! She was not happy that we wouldn't let her use her friend's discount. Seriously! Then, yesterday, a gentleman comes up with a flier that has the pictures of 4 or 5 DVDs that are on sale for $5. He has a huge stack of various DVDs, none of which are the ones shown, and wants them all for $5. Again, let's read the flier, folks!!

As you head out to do your Black Friday shopping and future Christmas shopping, please remember that the person behind the counter is a human being who is just trying to make a living. Please treat him or her with the respect and dignity any human deserves. Remember to treat him/her the way you would like to be treated. You wouldn't want to be called names, yelled at, cussed out, demoralized, or otherwise treated inappropriately, so please don't treat the associate that way. In most stores, store personnel are not in charge of product acquisition and stock levels. Most of that is handled through a corporate or regional buyer. Many times, manufacturers can't meet the stock orders of the customers due to delays in production or shortages of materials needed to make the item. Please remember these things before you take out your frustration on a store associate, store management, or even corporate management. Patience, humility, a smile, and a kind word will go much farther than a harsh word. I'm much more willing to bend over backwards to help a pleasant customer than to do anything for a grumpy, demanding customer.

I did bake a cake this week. This is my all-time favorite chocolate cake. It's sinfully delicious. I could eat the whole thing by myself and not feel guilty at all!! I grew up calling this simply, "Fudge Cake". It wasn't until I was in my 30s that I learned the real name of it is Texas Sheet Cake. I'm telling you, it's to die for!


We harvested more tomatoes this week, including our first Green Zebras! Pretty green tomatoes that are hard to tell when they're ripe. I had to keep squeezing them for ripeness! LOL We also decided to harvest Mr. Lumpy Pumpkin since his vine was pretty much dead from the recent cool nights. He's still a tad green, but he's enjoying the sunshine on my kitchen window sill. I don't think he'll be ripe enough to eat for Thanksgiving, but soon enough, he'll be ready.


Here's a close up of the Green Zebra tomatoes. There's also another large tomato there, but I don't know what variety it is. It's either a Ponderosa or Homestead.


We've probably got a dozen or so more Green Zebras on the vine and probably 6 or 8 regular large tomatoes. What ever will I do with them all?!? LOL

I have been stitching on my Brrrrr It's Cold exchange piece. I had it finished, then decided I didn't like one of the colors, so I ripped it out. Now I've just got to go back and re-stitch it in the new color, iron it, get it packed up and ready to be mailed off tomorrow!!

"Give" is Coming Along

I have been working on Plum Street Samplers' "Give" this week. This is my piece for the incentive round on the Only One Ewe message board group. I know that some of you have requested a conversion. I'm working on a complete conversion and will post it soon, so stay tuned! I played around with the settings on this scan and the colors are much truer to the colors in real life, at least on my monitor!

In the garden, things are enjoying the cooler temps we've been having. We have 3 baby pumpkins. These aren't big carving pumpkins, but smaller baking pumpkins. My hope was to get enough to make canned pumpkin to use in baking and for our kitties. Callie, my older cat, has kidney problems. As a result, she also gets constipated and the pumpkin keeps her regular. We give it to Hannah just because she likes it.



DH transplanted the lettuce and spinach seedlings into his new garden plot. They took a beating a couple of days ago in a rain storm, but they're looking good. We're expecting more rain this weekend, so we'll have to wait and see how they fare. He also transplanted some of his cantaloupe seedlings. Don't think they'll do anything, but he's so proud the seeds sprouted at all, so into the ground they went!



Until next time...!

Closing in on a Finish & Other News

My latest progress scan on Heart of America. It's creeping ever closer to a finish!! I've run out of English Ivy which is used on that bottom swirly thing that's not finished, but never fear! I have more in my stash closet, I just have to put my hands on it. I so want to get this one finished before starting on my new incentive piece, so I'm torn as to what I'll stitch on today. Do I try to finish this or do I go ahead and start "Give"? Decisions, decisions, decisions!!

In other news, I had a little gardening accident this past Tuesday while out harvesting bell peppers. I tried to lop off the side of my finger using my hand held pruning shears! OUCHIE!! This resulted in a trip to the minor emergency clinic, a DPT shot (diphtheria, pertussis aka whooping cough, and tetanus) in my arm that is STILL bugging me, and 5 pretty stitches on my finger. The stitches only impaired my stitching for a few hours. LOL I go back to see the nurse practitioner (a fellow stitcher btw) on Tuesday for the removal of the stitches. Things are healing nicely. I'm still putting some Neosporin on the wound and also some vitamin E gel on it to reduce scarring. At home, I try to go without a bandage, but if I'm going to be out and about, like at work, I put a bandage on it. I'm down to one band-aid now. Progress!

Here's the finger, all mummified after my visit to the clinic, with Callie investigating and protecting me:


When I first cut myself and was sitting on the couch trying to get the bleeding to stop, Callie immediately jumped up behind me and settled down on the blanket up there. She wouldn't leave me as she knew something was wrong with me. She was watching over me and wouldn't let Mark move her one inch! LOL When we got home, she followed me around constantly and was either on the floor near me or laying next to me at all times. I just love that cat!

Here are my not-so pretty stitches:


Surprisingly, I've not experienced much pain from the actual wound. Most of the pain and some bruising I've experienced were from the nerve block shot the NP injected into my finger to deaden it before beginning her little stitching project. I did experience some throbbing in the finger the day it happened and some tenderness, but mostly it's been pain free. Of course, if I manage to whack it on something, then it hurts, but left alone, there's no pain. I can even type normally now.

We have a few firsts in the garden! We have a pumpkin! After battling the squash vine borers, drenching rain, and heat, we've discovered at least one baby pumpkin on the vine. Woohoo!


We also have our first winter sown Purple Coneflower (echinacea)! I planted the seeds for these way back in February of this year. They've been slowly growing but have really taken off with the cooler temps and rain we've recently had.


Lastly, our first Green Zebra tomatoes! This was one of the heirloom tomato plants we got for $0.50 at a local nursery in May. We've babied these all summer and now they're producing babies! This tomato will not turn red, but will stay green with greenish stripes. If you click on the pic to see it larger, you'll see the green stripes already starting to form. Will be so fun to watch them mature. There's a total of 3 babies on the plant so far.



Fall is definitely here with football season well underway, the temps down to near 90º, and the days getting shorter. This is my favorite time of the year. Enjoy your fall!

Not Much Progress on Saturday Night Stitch

I've been stitching on my ornie for the past week, but alas, no finish. It just seems that gardening and life get in the way on most days, leaving me spent and lacking no motivation to stitch. It doesn't help that God's turned the heat up outside either. Since we don't want my entire paycheck to go to the electric company, that means the AC doesn't go below 76º in our house, and when it doesn, it doesn't usually last long. Normally, we set it at 78º during the day, which I find stifling, so I turn it to 77º and crank up the ceiling fan.

Also, I've been having a horrible time with tightness in my upper back and shoulders leaving me with headaches that last for a couple of days. It's hard to stitch when your head hurts too much to concentrate! I've started to do some exercises to stretch out those muscles, using my little massager (okay, Mark's been using the massager on me), trying to sit up straight and watch my posture, and I've been limiting the repetitive muscle useage. This has cut down on the muscle spasms and helped relax those muscles, but they're still tight. The chiropractor told me I need to stop doing whatever it was that was making them tense!! Yes, I pay him to tell me this kind of stuff, can you believe!?!

Here's where I started:
Here's where I ended:


In the garden, things are heating up and most of the plants are loving it! The cantaloupes (muskmelons) have finally taken off and are blooming like crazy. The little girl cantaloupes have finally shown up, so maybe we'll have some fruit to show soon. The watermelons are taking over the universe in the backyard. We've got 5 more baby watermelons on the vine right now in addition to the one that we've had forever it seems. That one should be ripe in time for 4th of July. It's just the right size for one serving for both me and Mark. LOL The beans have taken off and I've harvested some of those already. The okra is really starting to shine in the heat. We've battled hornworms on the peppers and the tomatoes and aphids on the okra, peas, and beans continuously since planting. I didn't realize that vegetable gardening was such hard work that required such diligence to fight predators!

Hornworm chowing down on one of the pepper plants.

Jalapeno Peppers (Can we say, "Salsa?")
More Cherry Tomatoes
The watermelon patch overtaking the yard
Okra bloom, finally caught one open!
Sunday's harvest

Hope & Anticipation

Everything is established in the veggie garden. All the plants are growing and doing well. Fruit is setting on our tomato plants. The yellow squash has 2 little babies on it. The zucchini is starting to put out flowers. The okra has buds. The bell peppers are flowering and setting fruit. The strawberry plant has new buds and may produce another round of fruit. The cantaloupes have started flowering, but haven't put out any female flowers yet. (The boys have to strut their stuff first! LOL)



But this...THIS has been the most exciting thing going on in the garden.

Wednesday (Discovery day)



Thursday



Today



This is a Sugar Baby watermelon and it's so fun to go out in the garden and check its progress everyday. I love the hope and excitement brought about in the garden. Here's another exciting picture. This should open tomorrow. Will be fun to see what it looks like.