1. Get my sewing room set up
2. Pick out fabric and at least start sewing a new dress
3. Smile more. Smile more. Smile more.
I'm so bad at this. You would not believe how my husband and sons respond if I make the effort to grin at them.
4. Watch "I Love Lucy" daily, as inspiration for beautiful, feminine, vintage dressing! :)
5. Remember to wear my new aprons when doing housework.
(my mom bought me 2 pretty new aprons this weekend. I just LOVE them. I put one on and I magically feel like cleaning! LOL!)

mama drama

My mom could have choked to death last night in the hotel room.

It was about 11pm, we had brought some snacks up to the hotel room and were eating and talking and getting ready to go down the stairs and get some ice from the ice machine for our drinks and then we would settle in, watch the late news and go to bed.

My mom was eating Triscuts as we were just about to open our room door and walk out into the hall. All of a sudden she stopped and turned around, her face was white and her eyes were HUGE. She just looked at me, and was waving her hands around. She wasn't making a sound. It took me a second or two to figure out what was going on.

"Mom, are you all right?"
No answer.
"MOM, whats wrong?"
Still no answer.
"OH MY GOD! ARE YOU CHOKING???"
She finally nodded, still silent.
"OH MY GOD YOU'RE CHOKING!!!"

Somehow, I turned her around, got behind her and started trying to do the Hemlich maneuver on her. I've never done that in my life, ever. I had NO idea what I was doing or how I was doing it. I squeezed and squeezed and squeezed.
Nothing. Not a squeak from my mom, not a cough or a wheeze, nothing. She was in my arms and I started to feel her legs give out from under her.
I looked at the door. We were up on the 3rd floor, the halls were silent, nobody would hear me if I went out and started to yell for help.
I looked at the phone. Did I even try to 911? I didn't have time. I knew she would never last until help arrived. I thought "Oh my God, my mom is going to die in front of me in this hotel room."

I squeezed her HARD one more time and prayed out loud, "Oh Jesus, please Jesus HELP ME!!"
She started to make a horrible,horrible,horrible sound. But at least it was a noise, if she could make some sort of sound, hopefully there was some sort of airflow.
One last big HARD squeeze, OMG, I thought I was going to break her ribs and she finally, finally, finally, started to gag and retch and FINALLY cough. THANK GOD!! I knew if she was coughing she would be ok.

At that point, I collapsed in a heap in the doorway between the bathroom and hall. Somehow, we got ourselves put back together, although it took about half an hour for me to finally stop shaking.

That was the most terrifying moment of my entire life so far.

The evening had started out alittle tense between her and I, but not after that.
I swore later during my bedtime prayers that I would never, EVER, EVER, complain about my mom again.
Even when she woke me up at 3am with her snoring, I just thanked God that she was breathing.

Even when she was back to her ol' self again, bright and early this morning!! :)

Life is precious, Life is short. In an instant, things can change, you could lose a beloved one. In an instant. One breath, we're laughing and teasing and worrying about tomorrow and the next breath, we're fighting for our lives, or worse.

New Vintage

Bought 2 more vintage patterns off of Ebay. This is getting addictive! Fortunately, they are not expensive. I think I paid $5 a piece, that's including shipping.


How cute is this? I don't know which version I like better, the slim or the full. I'll just have to make both!


Love the long robe! Love, love,love it. I am a robe-addict! Do you know how hard it is to find a nice, loooooong robe in the stores that is attractive, feminine and doesn't cost a small fortune? All I can find around here are short robes either in terry-cloth or in the slinky, sexy, boudoir version. Neither of which I like. I want something to put on over my jammys and be able to wear in front of my teenage sons w/o embarrassing me and sending them straight to therapy!

I'll make the long robe up in something light and pretty for summer and something cozy and flannel for this winter.

I've not posted since Monday because we've been dealing with an event here that has knocked the wind out of me for the past couple of days.

My husband was in the running for a different job within the company that he works for. He had his interview Monday afternoon and came home so positive and upbeat and feeling really,really good that he would get it.

This was the break that we all were praying for. It would be a move up for him, a better, more challenging position and, yes, more $. Quite a bit more $ actually. We were praying, the kids were praying, our friends were all praying for us.

He didn't get it.

Bad enough that he didn't get it, the person that they did choose over my husband is a not-so-nice man.

It was bad enough to see my husbands hopes and dreams defeated, it is a very,very bitter pill to swallow that he was beat out by the likes of this other man.

Honestly, this has rocked my faith, which has been rather shaky here lately to begin with, more than I want to admit.

Tuesday, I cried. All. Day.
Yesterday, I was angry most of the day. I really am tired of being angry. I wasn't an angry child, but I certainly was an angry teen/young adult. I don't know if its because I'm nearer to 40 than to 30 these days or what, but I am tired of being angry. It just wears me out, and tends to hurt my beloved ones.

Everyone keeps telling us that when God closes a door, he opens a window.
Yes, I know that. I hope so anyway. I hope this happened for a reason and a purpose. I hope the Lord has something better in store for my husband, my family.
I hope, I hope, I hope.
That's all I've got to cling to these days, hope.
And some days my grip on it isn't all that strong.

Monday Night Chicken

Cost analysis-
Chicken thighs and legs 3 packages @ $1.30/pkg=$3.90
Apricot Glaze (jar of apricot preserves $1.69+bottle of Western Dressing $1.97+1 envelope dry onion soup mix .40= $4.06. I should have only used 1/2 of preserves and dressing, live and learn!)
1 bag of frozen stir-fry veggies .79
Rice- I'm going to just say the rice cost .25. because that will give me a nice even grand total amount. We buy it in bulk and I'd have to go figure it all out and I don't want to but I know its just probably pennies per serving.
Grand total= $9.00
Cost per person= $1.80

It would have been much less if I would have halved the glaze ingredients. I poured alot of it down the drain afterwards. I wouldn't have thought that the glaze would cost more than the meat.

And just for fun, I was playing around with the photoshop.

Sunday Night Supper (posted on Monday morning)

I'm running behind, as usual. Here is what we had for supper Sunday night (last night)-





Pizzas- on sale $4/$10
(1 cheese, 1 supreme, 2 4-meat)
Salad- .79 (aldis)
Total $10.79
Cost per person $2.16

I know I could go ahead and make pizzas from scratch for less money and they'd probably be healthier too. I could, but I don't. Frozen pizzas and salad is one of my super-quick-and-easy meals that I like to do when I just don't feel like cooking up a storm. Frozen pizza's bought on sale are still a much cheaper option than picking up the phone and having pizza delivered.

I didn't count beverages, the kids had Kool-aid, grown-ups drank water. I also didn't count the salad dressing, croutons or bac-o's that we sprinkled on our salads. I'm sure that would add a few more pennies to the price.

Typing all this up just made me realize I forgot to take the chicken out of the freezer to thaw for tonight's supper. See, I told you I'm always running behind.......

Vintage Goodness!

I won my very first auction on Ebay tonight. I bought this little number.



This is my first venture in to vintage pattern sewing. We shall see how it goes. I'm a little worried that I'm in over my head. I can sew, I've sewn several simple dresses, a couple of baby quilts and when my boys were babies and toddlers I used to sew some of their clothes. This is certainly the most complex patterns I've ever attempted.

I'm now very hooked on looking at vintage patterns on ebay. I'm watching about 6 others and I found a sweet robe/housedress pattern for $5 on buy it now. I'll probably buy it before the weekend is over.