Monday, May 31, 2010

WHAT THE ?????

Okay, I need to vent for a second. So, if you happen to be a HUGE fan of Dexter and have yet to see the Season 4 finale, then DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER! There are some HUGELY major spoilers ahead!





















Okay, you who have seen it: you still with me??

Was anyone else MAJORLY disturbed by how the season ended? I mean, seriously?!


Why in the crap did they decide that they needed to kill Rita?! I liked Rita! Yes, sometimes she was a little needy, but then, she had every right to be because Dex wasn't always there when she needed him, and he was lying quite frequently to her, so do you blame her for being needy? No!

And what's going to happen to the kids? Yes, Dexter will most likely keep Harrison, because he's the dad, but what about the other 2?? He doesn't have legal ties to them now that Rita's dead, does he? I don't recall them ever mentioning him adopting them. So what now? Where do they go?

I am seriously disturbed. I wonder if I'll be able to go to sleep now (it's 1 AM here) because I'm so wound up by this season finale!

Couldn't they have just let Dex kill Trinity and go meet Rita in the Keys like he was supposed to? Why did they have to screw everything up, just when Dexter realized he could be good and push the darkness away? OOOHHH we are so angry with them right now at our house!




Okay, I'm done, for now. Feel free to leave your feelings on the matter in the comments. I really would love to hear what the rest of you who saw the finale thought of it. :D

Sunday, May 30, 2010

Another May OPAM Finish!

I'm so proud of myself! I've gotten a lot done this month...well, not a lot, but at least more than I have in previous months. haha

My Twitter friend Melissa Averinos (@yummygoods) has a book out: "Small Stash Sewing." On her website she had a link to a free project from the book. It's called Unicorn *hearts* Moon. I finished it tonight, much to Marshy's joy. He picked the colors: grey for the moon and red for the unicorn. He wouldn't go to sleep tonight until they were finished! He was so happy when I took them upstairs to him.

I also finished this cute Christmas ornament. I don't know why, but for some reason I'm getting a lot of last year's Christmas done this month. haha

I'm hoping to get another Christmas ornament done tonight, too, but we'll see.

Saturday, May 29, 2010

OPAM 2010 - May Finish

Here are my May finishes for OPAM 2010:
First, we have the left-overs from last year's Christmas. I made 9 of these cute little table toppers for Christmas presents, and only finished 6 of them. I finally finished the last 3, so they are ready to use as gifts this year.
Then, I have this original Christmas wall hanging. I designed it last year after getting the Christmas song "I saw three ships" stuck in my head. It was my first attempt at using thread to create the center design, instead of applique or piecing. The patchwork around the outside has holly leaves, and in the border is quilted the words to the first verse of the song. I had a blast making it, and just needed to bind it, but have been putting it off. Today I decided to finish the binding so that it's ready for Christmas. I'm so excited that I'll be able to hang it up this holiday season now!

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Slacker

I realize that I have been seriously slacking in terms of my blog. For this I would like to apologize, and I promise that I will be providing real updates shortly, once things settle down a bit here. It's been a little crazy between work and home, but it's slowly calming down a bit.

So, that being said, I promise to have a real update soon, and update more frequently, so please keep checking back. :)

Friday, May 14, 2010

Just a Little Scare

I had quite the scare Thursday. Apparently I have been having some health issues that I didn't know I had. When the first tangible symptom presented I quickly went to the local Express Med (my doctor's office, 30 mins away, had already closed for the day). I was the only patient there. I got checked in, gave the standard samples they needed, filled out all the info, and sat waiting in the smaller waiting exam room.

I waited.

And waited.

And waited.

When the nurse, or whatever she was (she was not a doctor) came in, she was stumped. She began asking questions. I told her I was on the hcg diet, and she immediately blamed that, even though I was exhibiting several symptoms for an infection. She didn't know what to make of it, and left to do research....get this.... on the internet.

My confidence in her abilities was quickly crumbling.

After waiting an hour and a half, and listening to her tell me that my body was eating muscle (pretty sure hcg doesn't cause that....Dr. Simeon would have noted it in his book), she decided to send me to the hospital for some further testing.

OH JOY!

Fast forward to the hospital. After hours, the ER has to check you in. So not fun. I get checked in, return to the lab dept. and have MORE blood drawn. I requested they do it in the left arm, so I would have matching battle scars. They didn't think I was funny.

Now, I know it is weird to be able to give yourself an injection every day but not be able to watch blood being drawn, but have you seen the needle they use for that? It's HUGE compared to my little, teeny tiny injection needle. Plus, with an HCG injection, nothing is coming out of your body. Unlike when they draw blood and you can't feel your arm because the tourniquet is so tight, and then you can feel the blood leaving through the incredibly HUGE, painful needle that has just been jabbed, hopefully, into a vein in your inner elbow. Yeah, not my favorite part.

Then they let me leave. I went home, stressed. I was hoping they would rerun the tests that Express Med had supposedly run, and that it would in fact come back as some weird, common infection, and nothing more serious.

At one point the lady at Express Med had suggested that either a) my body was eating my muscle tissue or b) my kidneys were failing/not working as well as they should. Now, when you can see that a patient is visibly FREAKED OUT about suddenly being sick, when there had been no sign at all that they were, you should NEVER, ever, NEVER tell them that their organs might not be working, until you are absolutely 100% positive that the said organs are in fact not working.

I kind of felt like I was in my own episode of House, only without Dr. House or his staff (mainly Dr. Chase....mmmm.....) to take care of me and figure out what was wrong.

After about an hour of anxious waiting (I know it's not that long, but it seemed like forever), I got a call from Express Med. It was a really nasty infection. The nurse was so surprised. She seemed to think that it was something much more serious, and hcg related. I was kind of bugged, because she obviously didn't know anything about hcg, so for her to make such suggestions was just silly. She told me that I would need to eat more than 500 calories (because "it's not healthy...your body can't support itself on that little amount of food") and/or stop taking the injections immediately ("it's not really safe").

Let me ask you this: If it weren't safe, would my entire family have been on the diet and lost as much weight as we had? And, don't you think that I would have exhibited these symptoms during the first round of hcg, and not two weeks into my second round? And, if it wasn't safe and your body couldn't sustain itself on that amount of food, don't you think that doctors wouldn't be prescribing it to people as a weight loss aid? Just some questions to mull over.

So, I am glad to report that I do NOT have to quit the diet. I don't have to stop taking the injections. I don't need to eat more food. And, most importantly, I am NOT losing/eating my muscle tissue, contrary to the belief of the staff at Express Med, and my organs are all fine.

There is a lesson learned from all this. What is it?

If you're sick, just go straight to the ER. You'll probably end up there anyway, especially if you go to Express Med. Save yourself the extra 15 mins of driving through ripped up SR 192 through 3 towns to get to the hospital while you're freaking out because the people who are supposed to know what they're taking about don't. Just go right to the ER. It'll save you a lot of stress in the long run, I'm sure of it.

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Happy Mother's Day!

OMG I had the best Mother's Day ever! My fabulous husband took me shopping this weekend for my Mother's Day present. He got me a great outfit (I bought the shoes).
I got these shoes, only in black, from Forever 21.

I got this fabulous Miss Me Unplugged t-shirt from Dillard's.


And these fabulous Miss Me cropped jeans from Dillards.
We also went to Buckle, and I fell in love with a lot of the Miss Me jeans they had. The best part about the whole trip, besides the new outfit? The jeans are size 29! I have NEVER worn a 29 in my life! WOOHOO
Sunday afternoon we had dinner at the park with the family. It was a really great weekend. What did you do for Mother's Day?

Monday, May 3, 2010

The Shopping Fairy

Look what the awesome Shopping Fairy brought me!!
I got Giada's Kitchen for 1/2 off, and the other 4 books for $1 + shipping. What a steal, eh?
I can't wait to start the Farmer's Wife. It's going to be so much fun!

And the Shopping Fairy couldn't help but purchase these. Persuasion is the best! Rupert Penry-Jones is so swoon-worthy in this version. The collector's Set included Sense and Sensibility (which I haven't seen) and Miss Austen Regrets (which is quite good). I haven't seen Wuthering Heights yet, but based on my Bronte-along friends, it is the best version.

Then the Shopping Fairy stopped at Hollywood Video/Game Crazy, which is going out of business, and purchased these fun things for less than the price posted on the Chronicles of Riddick game. Rec is really good, and the Spanish/original version or Quarantine, the recent US remake.

And of course, why pass up perfectly good, brand new in plastic game guides for only $3 each? The game was the most expensive item, and the movie was only $2, so all in all, the Shopping Fairy did an awesome job.
I'm waiting for the Shopping Fairy to bring our new propane grill (pictures to come) - the Weber Q220. The Shopping Fairy used some Home Depot gift cards to buy some accessories for it already: a 3 piece stainless steel grill set, a grill cover, and a $3 grill pan (on clearance, marked down almost 80%....awesome find!)
The Shopping Fairy is on a roll! Also, I hear that the Shopping Fairy ordered 3 more quilting-related books, and the new Stephenie Meyer novella, so I will post pictures when those arrive as well.
(I secretly hope the Shopping Fairy decides to buy me a Kindle or Nook or something along those lines for Mother's Day, but I'm not going to hold my breath.)

Pirate Island Pizza

We went to Pirate Island Pizza at the beginning of April. I went a little camera happy, but Marshy was just acting so funny I couldn't help it!

This time we got him a high chair and strapped him in good. He was a little bored waiting for his food.


We had to coax a smile out of him.





He was so happy when his drink finally came!



Such a happy boy with his Sprite.
This picture didn't really turn out how I wanted, but you can see him on the slide. We finally gave up making him eat his food and let him go play while we finished our dinner.

He was so afraid of the "big" slide!

He got along pretty well with the other kids in the play area.



He didn't like sharing the wheel with the other kids, though.
He eventually got control of it AND the spyglass.



We had a lot of fun, even though the food wasn't that great. I was disappointed, actually, because the food was so good the first time we ate there. Marshy loves it so much, though, so I'm sure we'll go back again...probably for his birthday this fall.

Saturday, May 1, 2010

It's not a far drive....

I am going crazy.

And let me tell you, it's not a far drive for me right now.

What is driving me crazy, you ask?

Well, my cousin just had a baby. Due to some other circumstances I won't get into right now, I've sworn off giving away baby quilts to newborns for a while.

One day, about two weeks ago, I was flipping through one of my hundreds of quilting magazines, and found the PERFECT gift to give her. It was quilted wall art, with some embroidery on it. It was the perfect thing: handmade, but simple - totally not a big deal (unlike a quilt).

Well, do you think I can remember what magazine it's in?

Do you think that even after going through, page by page, all of my many hundreds of magazines I can find it?

Yeah, that would be a big fat no. I have no idea where this pattern went. I'm sure I could come up with my own, but the pattern they had was seriously perfect for what I wanted to do....and I can't remember now! :(

So, if you perhaps would maybe know where this pattern is, shoot me a comment, won't ya? Thanks so much! And know that it just might save my sanity for a little while longer. haha