Lately I have...

This week I will attempt to bring you up to date on my life. In late September I received a call from a lady I used to sew for. She had decided to just sew as their family needed extra income. I was sad but glad for the experience. She called to tell me a client of hers called asking her to sew a wedding dress. She does not like making clothes and prefers interior sewing. She remembered me and gave her my number. I received a call from her and I had no idea what to charge so I called around and gave her a number. She told me she would get back to me. I did not hear from her for a few weeks, I assumed she decided to get one at the store. Then she called back about 3 weeks later and wondered if I could still make it. So we met and I got started with this black satin junior bridesmaid dress. There is a shawl draped over the middle of the hanger too.

When I came to have her try it on, I learned her twin daughters were also in the wedding. They had dresses but they were in the babysitters car and that was stolen over the weekend. She wondered if I would have time to make 2 more dresses. I was elated. This is one of my dreams to sew and be a photographer. God was truly blessing me. So I measured the girls and went to buy some cloth.
I felt stressed when she first asked me. I mean I have never sewn clothes for money before. But a great friend of mine assured me I could do it and they would look great. This friend also assured me, when I was sure she would not call back and ask me to make the first dress, that she would.

Here is the top of the dress it has a one inch fold over the neckline. It is so hard to see in the other pictures.
For the twins dresses I made the straps about double the size since they are only like 6 years old.
I had so much fun making these dresses. And seeing the appreciation of the girls and their mother.
I finished them exactly on the deadline. And I am not sure what exactly to do with myself now. That took up so much of my free time. But I loved every minute of it. Now I hope and pray she gives me some referrals, or has other projects later for me to work on. She said she would definitely keep my phone number.

Christmas Time

December has come. There is a permanent temperature drop, that makes me want to stay in bed all morning under my down comforter, that makes me want to cuddle with those close to me and drink some coffee or cocoa, that makes my slippers the first thing my feet see out of bed. Breath becomes visible on the air, the frost forms perfect snowflakes on my car windows, and the least amount of precipitation will freeze my car door shut. Ahh it is official count down to Christmas is here. To be honest a countdown started when we bought our tickets to Maine. But that was a countdown until we go home. I am saddened as I look back at my sad attempts to keep Christ the reason for the season. How I have let materialism and the fun of parties and people keep my thoughts away from the birth of the One who had mercy on my sinful state and sent the perfect God-man to bear all my sins, past and present and die one of the most gruesome deaths and bear the Father's wrath and for the first time have the Father turn His back on the Son. I have been challenged by a dear saint, who now spends her Christmas in the presence of Jesus, to make sure that along with my Christmas tree I have a nativity scene up. Ours sits in front of the TV. While there is nothing wrong with a Christmas tree, it really does not help us focus on the reason we celebrate, where as the nativity portrays the gift given to us that we did and do not deserve.
I want this Christmas to be a time for me to really grasp what Christmas is about...Christ. For Christmas I want more devotion to my Lord, a better relationship with Christ, to realize my sin, to not quench the Holy Spirit, to show all Christ in my words and deeds, to speak more of Christ and His work in my life, to pray more and glorify God with my whole body. That is really what I want for Christmas. Those things satisfy and bring us contentment in our lives. The rest turns to ash.

Atticus Neaves

Yesterday was a sad day. My darling friend Cala, called me to tell me her baby brother Atticus had died that morning. He was only 2 months old. This came as a great surprise. He was born with Down syndrome and therefore had some heart defects. He had undergone heart surgery about 3 weeks ago and recovered fine and went home. But when they went to wake him yesterday he was colorless and they could not wake him. They were going to MedEvac him to Children's but he did not survive. His little body is perfected and glorified now. He has now seen Jesus. Please say a prayer for her and her family. I am really hurting for her.

Thanksgiving

My mom has trained me well in all things Thanksgiving. The day before I took the day off and made pies. I made a cherry and two pumpkin. I guess I did not read the pumpkin recipe well enough, not to mention I had other things on my mind, because I realized when I tasted them there was no sugar in them. EWWW! Anyways I was home alone while baking and let me tell you I was a mess. I just had to get some shots of the flour mess I became. This pictures does not even do it justice either. It was down my pants, on my face, but my arms were spared.

We broke our normal tradition and went to the Sombke's house this year. They had invited us and the Allison's to come but the kids wanted to be at home, so we stuck with the original plan. Melanie's dog, Aya pretty much was the entertainment for the day. She is only like 2, so she still has tons of energy, more than most puppies actually.
Here is Melanie looking frightened as Aya looks fanged and fierce. She did not actually hurt her here.
Oh now we look all sweet and innocent, don't we?
What a cheeky little beggar. I was trying to eat cheese and the moment I pulled it out, there she was resting her little innocent head on my shoulder. I think she really thought she had a chance at getting some cheese.
Silly puppy cheese is for me.
When I was done she moved on to ice cream excitement, she acted like she was neglected and starved.
Puppy will stand, sit, dance, roll over, play dead for some cheese.
I think there is some cat in her. She perches on this couch back like she were a little cat.
We had a great time, with lots of great food. I got a small nap in as the triptophan worked through my system. Then Melanie came home with us and was brave enough to get up with me at 4:30 and go shopping. We had a great time. Although I hate Circuit City now, they were completely inefficient, I waited over an hour in a line of no more than like 7 people to check out. At Best Buy I waited behind at least 50 people for like 10 minutes. But I found some great buys. Such as a Canon photo printer, scanner, copier for $19.99, it does not get any better than that.

Squishy Baby

Here are some pictures to show why I call Sydney Houk, Squishy Baby

Look at that head of hair
Sweet dreaming
There is that squishy little body

There is the squishy little booty
Too bad Rachel's hands were in this shot.
Love the dangling hand, this girl was exhausted.
Squishy face

Shannon and her sweet little Anna Grace

Melanie Maid of Honor and sister of the bride. So Pretty!

John the ringbearer, and Anna Grace one of the flowergirls
How cute is she?
Jeff and Michelle, she was crying. It was so sweet.
The Kiss. This was their first kiss. He took the chance and kissed her twice.
The happy couple.
Off they go.
This was as far as the car decor went. Billy did not want them to really trash it. I was sort of disappointed.

Hopefully later today I can update with some pictures. I went crazy at my friend Michelle's wedding this weekend. I may have my first paid Photography job too!!

Sad but Good

This weekend I decided to suck up and clean out my desk drawers. I do this like 4 times a year and no matter what I try it becomes the collection spot for just about any piece of paper I have and other items, including chocolate covered espresso beans I have had for months. They are still good don't freak out on me yet.
In all the paper I found a letter my allergist had sent to me but was written to my doctor. This confuses me every time I get one but I decided to read it to see if there may be some logic for it being sent to me also. It gave my history and signs and symptoms and new allergies etc. Near the end there were a few paragraphs that floored me. I did not remember talking with him about it. He mentioned the new allergies so I would have a new shot, I would have to build up on the shot, then he would combine the two...then he will probably make that extract even stronger, because I am just not really responding to it like I should. He wants to see me in 3-6 months and if I have not progressed we will talk about going off the shots. I don't remember that but ok, no shots ok.
I read on, I recalled him asking if I had a CT scan for my sinuses before, I said no and nothing more really was said about it. But in the letter he then wrote he thinks I have a non-allergic rhinitis component that is much stronger than my allergic one. Rhinitis is inflammation of the nose, which probably includes my sinuses. The sad part is I know what is next. If the shots don't work he is going to order a CT scan **wimper**. From the CT scan he can see if my sinuses are clogged or there is a lot of swelling or mucous etc trapped in there. I never really seem to feel totally well. Then if there is any of that stuff, I will be looking at surgery. Antibiotics and rest just don't ever seem to get rid of this stuff. Bad thing surgery, they cut me open and I will look like I have had plastic surgery for a few weeks, it is so expensive. On the flip side I will feel well again I won't have constant headaches or sinus pressure and this may relieve my so called allergy symptoms. Then again we never know what he will find.

So no more jokes about the cat. The one good thing from the shots is I am only a tiny bit allergic to her now. I can actually pet and hold her and not suffer the whole next day or two or three.

No matter what God is sovereign and in control.

See the Pretty Flowers

Life As Me

Can I get a sinusectomy or sinusoplasty, to fix the pain and misery most people call my sinuses? Ok threw a little medical terminology on you there. I am not so sure those procedures even exist but if they did I would be first in line I tell you. So for the past month, well really since I went to the allergist and he brought up the CT scan, I have been trying to keep track of the days my sinuses feel like they are 15 times their size and the pain radiates back causing a major headache. The sad news I can't recall a day that has gone by that I have not had some sort of pain for some amount of time. When it is at it's worst no amount of Naproxen will help and I am generally miserable most of the day. Is a CT scan truly imminent in my future? I am torn about the situation. I want this fixed and want to be healed of this pain, but I am claustrophobic, and I really think they picked the smallest hole to put you in so they could see how many people they can break during a medical procedure. It is all a big conspiracy. No I am not crazy. I know there are great pills out there, they can give me so I can endure the scan. I just hate to be incapacitated for a day or so.
I don't know how much longer I can handle this. It was a lot better when my sinuses just held that gunk up there and caused pain. But last night as I lay in bed peacefully asleep with humidifier humming, that gunk crept down and now has my nose totally plugged up and dripping at the same time. It started yesterday truly. I felt that mucus start to decend out the tiny little holes in the back of your throat that drain your nose. By the middle of the day they were inflamed and very sore. I guess they got so inflamed they shut up and everything accumulated in my nose. I really feel like that old commercial with the sick person with their head blown up and their nose enormous from their cold. I am not so sure I can make it through this day.
Ok enough complaining. And on to the things that make my painful days brighter. Yesterday we had our reception for our new dean. I am on the social affairs committee here at work. This means we plan and put on all the fun events within the College of Nursing. So I was on clean-up crew for the reception. Because it was for our new dean it was catered and we rented tables so really the only thing we were responsible for was the vases and easels. We had no use for the flowers that adorned the tables so we each took a few. I grabbed two one for the office and one for home. Since I am lacking opportunities to use my photography skills much to my dismay, I decided to have some fun taking portraits of the arrangement I took home. So here are some shots. It is so pretty.
Ok so I am going to try to get them on another post this one has an attitude.

FINALS

I took my first FINAL today and missed only 2 questions. Yeah! I am totally excited. The other two will be on Tuesday of next week. So from now until then I only have class on Tuesday and Thursday. This is all too exciting. I can't believe the semester is almost complete. One down 3 more to go.

More Air Show

This makes me think of space shuttles. At least that is what they look like to me.

These two are actually flying towards two others that are flying right side up, they barely miss each other.
After a tight formation they all shoot off in different directions.

Another shot of the fleur de les breaking up

A good close up so you can read it.
As they fly above us.