Gosh has it really been 5 months since I updated my blog???? I don't know where to start, do I start at the beginning or work my way back through the year???? I normally don't share a lot of personal stuff on my blog but I don't know how to talk about this year without revealing something of my life.
The year started happily, our son got married in March and we welcomed a sweet daughter-in-law to our family. They decided to to do a weekend wedding in Las Vegas since JD was deploying in May. They are settling into married life, JD is a Load Master in the Air Force Reserves and Krystal is a Pharmacist so they are busy with work and fun :-). This is one of my favorite pictures of the two of them.
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| JD and Krystal |
In May I finished Anniversaries of the Heart!!!! I still love to look at it :-). I sent it to Jill Rensel for framing and as always she did a beautiful job.
In June we got the call everyone dreads. After a long battle with ovarian cancer, my FIL's wife had died at only 52 years old. Cathy and my FIL would have been married 28 years today, they were such a devoted couple. I loved her dearly, she was such a smart, wonderful, happy woman. I miss her so much and honestly I still can't believe she is gone.
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| Meggie, my DD, crushing grapes with Cathy, Cathy loved Halloween, my favorite picture of her and my FIL and a pretty picture of Cathy!!!! |
Through the rest of the summer, I did manage to work a bit on some projects, Jane Tindall, Melicent Turner and the new Loose Feathers piece.
In between everything else my DH, Jeff, had been having steadily worsening issues with his gallbladder so in September we started going through all the testing and appointments to get it removed. Unfortunately two days after the referral for the surgery was approved, several stones blocked his bile and pancreatic ducts causing pancreatitis necrosis. He was admitted to the hospital in the beginning of October and 4 weeks later he was finally released to come home. I won't go into the nitty, gritty details except to say he had numerous complications, lost over 40 lbs, and ended up with a very badly damaged pancreas. It was very scary month for us. The beginning of December he was readmitted to the hospital because of a high fever. After a bunch of test we got a good news, bad news diagnosis, thankfully the pancreas hadn't gotten worse but his gallbladder was more inflamed. Fortunately, we saw all the same doctors who had been with us through the entire ordeal after the original hospitalization and after another week in the hospital and a three hour surgery to remove a ruptured gallbladder he is on the mend and feeling much better. We can see God's hand through all of this, we were blessed with wonderful doctors, a miraculous recovery, and the help of family and friends, things could have been so much worse! Because Jeff was very ill and I was so worried and at the hospital almost all my waking hours I didn't get much done stitching wise. When I could concentrate enough to pick up my needle I tended towards small projects. I have lots of new scissor fobs ;-).
Thankfully things have calmed down a bit and I found time to start a new project on Christmas weekend! I fell in love with Examplars of the Heart Dames Boarding School after seeing it on Paulette's blog. Her mom, Marsha, stitched it for her. I only made a tiny start on it, we had my DH's parents here for Christmas along with my parents, our kids and friends so it was a busy weekend.
I am hoping and praying for a much quieter 2012!!!! I have sorted through my projects and prioritized things for the new year :-). My friend Laurie has convinced me to start a new project every weekend in January. This weekend I am going to start Elizabeth Sheffield. I love how bright the colors are and the sweet colonial couples and birds. It's just gorgeous. I am using the Attic conversion on a gorgeous cut of R&R Straw.
Next weekend I will share my progress on Elizabeth and my new start. I also have several gifts I've received through the year and one I made for my friend Karin :-).
Praying a wonderful, happy, stitchy 2012 for everyone!!!!! I hope this finds you all well and enjoying your holidays.
Happy Stitches,
Katrina
