update on afghan.....

This is the bottom row of the afghan. it is what I have so far, it is getting heavy with just this much so far. All of it is done in sngle crochet.

The picture above is of block 30. It is a bowl of sorts with roses and daffadils. I di d not like the pattern for the daffadils ,so I used another pattern I had for the flowers from a music box doll that had all sorts of flowers on her dress. I have made these in the past, music box dolls and have sold these as well. it is hard to find the dolls now.

This is block 29 ,just a stem with finger flowers

This is block 28. A block full of grapes. The pattern stated to have blue grapes and I put a bunch of purple and blue. I did not like the pattern of the grapes, so I made my own pattern, based on a grape doily pattern.

Last but not least this is block 27. This block is suppose to be a couple of branches of cherries. To me they look like some pretty red flowers.

trip to st louis...

Yesterday was a long day. We left at 4 in the morning, got in St Louis about 10 am and started with her appointments for the day( youngest daughter). First to do the OT and to my surpirize PT eval as well. The therapists made it so fun for her. She is weak in the legs and ankles ,so she need to do some exercises every day about 30 minutes at a time. They gave her some therapy dough ( like silly putty) .This is to stop the neuropathy in her hands, so she gets to play with some dough at least 30 minutes a day. They suggested to have her make cookies or dough of some kind ,mixing it with hands, playing board games with her feet.
Then on to the next appointment of the day...school liason, doctor, and social worker. She is starting to have some trouble with her comprehension at times after reading a book. The local school has what they call AR goal the every student has to do, they read a book and take a test on it, The test scores have to be at a certain level, or rather they want it at a certain level and then each quarter they get to do fun things if they meet the certain percentage on the tests.

The doctor says ,that alot of parents complain about their child being so tired , so they suggested to increase her activity, so the being tired won`t be such a big deal. In which some ways that makes since, but in other ways don`t. Some days school wears her out completely.

Then on to the other doctor and then labs . Her ANC was very good. Then on to home yay.

We got home late yesterday so we let both of them sleep in for awhile and took them to school, the youngest was still tired, and I know both will have alot of homework tonight.

We also were told after the next appoitment, we will only have to come once a year, yay . This will be in the summertime, another plus, no dealing with well is it gonna snow I am trying to get back rested up and things geared up for Christmas. I have the tree up ,but not decorated yet.

insights to living with cancer....

I decide I would make this blog entry about life with a child that has been diagnosed with Leukemia. When you first get the news, you feel like the floor has just drop up underneath you. No ,it can`t be my child, why,why!
It was hard for her going thru the treatments, taking the yucky medicine, besides losing her hair twice, yes ,I had a bald little girl at one time, wearing a mask everytime we went somewhere and having people stare at her, those that don`t know. Wondering if her counts were good ,so she can go to school or go someplace fun or even take the mask off. Wearing the mask is to prevent her from catching something, in which she still caught a few bugs during that time. I had one person came up to me during one of those times of wearing the mask and he asked if she was gonna to hold up the station, I just said her counts may be low and you could give her something, he didn`t say anything after that. Her treatments have been over with for alomst 3 years, yay!
The people around here that know her, each time we say well we are getting ready for another trip to St Louis, is she sick? No, we just have check-ups every 6 months, to make sure everything is ok. Just like her teacher, who I asked how she was doing with her school work, oh she is doing ok and she is done with her treatments so their shouldn`t be a problem now.She may be done with the treatments, but their is still the late-effects from those treatments. My biggest complaint is her being soooo tired at times. Sometimes ,a full day of school wears her out soo much. She falls asleep on the way home. She would like to play Basketball, but I am soo worried about her....I could just see her laying on the bench during a game and sleeping, lol.
I think she is starting to have trouble in her school work, its not really showing yet, except for her reading ,in which she can`t remember what she just read and does bad on the test for the story she just read.In which this is a late-effect from the chemo that she had.

I remember thinking one day while at the drug store, while waiting on them to make her meds, while she was taking chemo, I seen the lady come up with a mask on and she had just made her medicine am I putting in my daughter, then it occured to me, these meds are making her better and keeping the cancer away for now, so she needs them.

So ,please remember that after the chemo is over, their are still late effects that the families have to deal with.

pic of village...fun x-mas tree facts..

This is a few pictures from my christmas village I put up every year. This first picture is of the skating pond along with a business selling trees, looks like they are all sold out ,except for one.

This picture is of the barns that are in the village, in which no village is complete without the barns. I have a dairy barn as well as a horse barn. By the dairy barn their is someone milking a cow ...oooh first milk.

This one is of one of my favorite churchs that I have in my collection. It is fiber-optic and is very pretty when it is plugged in. Their is a small navity scene by this church as well as a family of deers.Yes, you do see a cabbage patch figurine in this picture , I have several toy figurines in the village. I even have Santa Claus, which moves around the village at different locations, which I am the one moving him around. The girls always look for him and of course move him.

I did not light the village up this year as it is hard to find enough plug-ins so as to light up the whole village.

Now, on to some fun Christmas tree facts. These facts came from the girl`s school newsletter.

There are approxiamately 25- 30 million real christams trees sold in the U. S. every year.

There are close to 350 million Real Christmas Trees currently growing on Christmas Tree farms in the U. S. Alone, all planted by farmers.

Norht American Real Christmas Trees are grown in all 50 states and Canada. Eighty percent of artificial trees worldwide are manufactured in China, according to the U S commerce Department.

Real trees are a renewable, recyclable resource. Artificial trees contain non-biogradable plastics and possible metal toxins such as lead.

There are more than 4,00 local Christmas Tree recycling programs throughout the United States. For every Real Christmas Tree harvested,1 to 3 seedlings are planted the following spring.

There are about 350,000 acres in production for growing Christmas Trees in the U.S. ; much of it preserving green space.

There are close to 15,000 farms growing Christmas trees in the U. S. and over 100,000 people are employed full or part-time in the industry.

It can take as many as 15 years to grow a tree of typical Height ( 6-7 feet) or as little as 4 years, but the average growing time is 7 years.

Birthday....

Today is my birthday and it is cold outside. I was hoping for warm weather ,so I could take a nice walk, ( I have added a few pounds on). Mother Nature has other plans, north wind blowing, whisteling thru the trees...brrrrrr. No big plans here ,as it is too cold outside and my hubby has to work tonight.
My two daughters have already given me my birthday card that they had made, these are always better then the ones you get from the store.....Homemade with love. I think the gifts that you make yourself are a gift of yourself to that person. Some of their friends also made me a card, in which I am alittle mad at, or rather upset at......she put my age on there..... My youngest daughter wrote the ageof 21... lol. Oh well, birthdays are a celebration of life.....and what life that has been so far......2 marriages, birth of 3 beautiful children, loss of one of those children...a child coming down with cancer, who is in remission, yay and thank God for that. I thank Him everyday for the many blessings he provides. It is almost time to go get the girls, so I will stop for now.....Everyone have a good day and night!

cat riding horse... update on afghan

Yes, this is a picture of Panther,

my oldest daughter`s cat ,born on her birthday. Panther will ride in a bag on her bike down the road, and loves it. It did ride Cocoa for a while earlier. This was the best picture of him setting on the miniature horse, Cocoa. It is small I think for his age, He was born back in the spring of this year. His eyes are a yellowish-green, so pretty. He is not solid black, he does has a few white hairs, but from afar looks all black.

The other picture is ,this is the first block I have done on the Baltimore Quilt Afghan that I am doing. This is block 26. I am working the row of blocks as I am doing it , to make it easier hopefully. I did have to take it apart several times, hince so it would be right.

The rose in the middle I think was the hardest part of this block.
I am now working on block 27 ,which has stems and cherries on it., so far it looks ok.

I made turkey chili today with the leftover turkey. We have leftover dressing and pumpkin and chocolate pie left from the feast on Friday and it has been nice today.

Happy Thanksgiving

First of all Happy Thanksgiving to one and all. Their is alot to be thankful for here on the farm. I am doing my baking today, as we are having Thanksgiving tomorrow, thanks to this Missouri weather. It stormed last night , and actually snowed today, just a light dusting of snow. I called my mom and she stated she had about a 1/4-inch of snow today. It is supoose to be bitter cold tonight , down in the teens ( 18). Brrrr that is cold and it`s not even officiality winter yet.
My hubby and I usually go out and are one of the crazy people that do Black Friday shopping at wally world here in our local town. I can not imagine going to a big city and doing black friday, anywho, this year I am not gonna be going as my hubby works tonight and will be there at wally world working and laughing at the people.
The things I was interested in was to be sold at midnight anyway and I don`t want to leave my two girls alone here at the house and it is gonna be bitterly cold so, I am not gonna go this year to black friday. Of course ,that don`t mean I might stop by there tomorrow.