When Life Gets In The Way

"Life is like a book;

Don't jump to the end to see if it's worth it.

Just enjoy life and fill the pages with

beautiful and amazing memories."

Arthur Unknown

All I can say is "Life" has taken over and kept me from blogging. It has been on my mind and I have been thinking of you all. I tried yesterday for the first time in over 2 months to read some blogs. I guess I am really just going to have to start over it was just too overwhelming. So what have I been doing in the last 2 months, I guess you can say I was making memories.

After my last blog my wonderful husband and I took a trip. It is one that was booked before my BIL passed and the family insisted we still take it and spend some time alone. You see every year in May we take a trip up north to Bellingham WA with some friends. Usually we drive but once we flew. This year they had a great idea, we cruised up. We left Long Beach and cruised up the coast stopping in San Franciso, Victoria and ending in Vancouver Canada. We then took the train to Bellingham where we stayed for a week and then flew home. I did manage to stitch one thing but have not decided on a finish.

We really had a wonderful and relaxing time. We came home and jumped right back into life. Two days later we had Anna's Open House.

And soon after it was her 5 th grade promotion.

With the promotion and her finishing up school in Pasadena that means we started having her full time. That is when my stitching came to a complete stop. I still had to get all my stuff out of the closet and find a place for it. Yes all my wonderful stash had to find a new home. So this is what it looked like for a few days.

I talked my husband into selling our old wicker furniture in the sun room and buying me some comfortable stuff. The piece with the four big baskets was bought to help store some of my stash. Well I discovered I would need about 10 of those to hold it all. So some down sizing was in order. I have looked thru about 65 stitching magazines and torn out only items I knew I would stitch someday. I also did that with some cooking magazines I had in the room. That helped a bit. I think I now have everything in a new home, not sure I can remember where but it is out of sight.

In the meantime we have been to court twice, once for a half day interview to see if we are acceptable parents for Anna. You can give birth to a child and no one cares, take one in and they check everything about you. On June 28, a day before Anna's 11th birthday we received full guardianship of her and now she is all ours.

To celebrate we took Anna on her first road trip. She loves Jelly Belly candy and so we drove up north to the factory to show her how they are made. Our first stop was Sacramento to show her our state capitol.

Then it was off to see the candy being made.

We took the scenic ride back home along the coast and stopped in Monterey, Morro Bay and Solvang a cute Danish town. She really like exploring the tide pools at Morro Bay.

We all had a wonderful time getting to know each other better.

To top off our new parenting, my hubbie and I had an eye exam and took her with us. The doctor did a small test on her and said she needed a full exam. So we took her and discovered she really needs glasses. This should really help her with her school work and reading. She is very pleased with her new glasses and says everything even looks brighter now.

Now that life is slipping back into a normal mode I am trying to get back into stitching and blogging. The only thing I have managed to stitch is the beginning of some ornaments for a church project. There are 40 ornaments that are called the school nativity. Two of us are each stitching half and they will be put on a tree to auction off in November. I have 2 and a half done so far of my 20.

I look forward to spending some quiet time reading blogs in the mornings and can't wait to catch up on your lives.

Always keep love in your stitches,
Teresa