Happy February 2012

February is an awesome month. When I was a girl it was one of my favorites because there were so many holidays.
You had Ground Hog’s Day and Valentine’s Day, Lincoln’s birthday on the 12th and Washington’s on the 22nd.
There was Mardi Gras and Lent for those who celebrated and my grandmother tried to get peas planted around the same time.


Not only that but every once in a while the silly month had an extra day - like this year. I remember a girl in our school whose birthday was on the 29th of February. We thought it was a real rip off that she only got to officially celebrate every four years and actually thought about starting a petition that demanded February have 29 days every year.


But there are some February Holidays that you might not know about and I know you won’t want to miss out on. For example:


February 1st was Spunky Old Broad’s Day (but I missed celebrating it)
February 3rd is Bubble Gum Day – so chew up all you can today!
February 5th is Dump Your Significant Jerk Day, but also World Nutella Day.

February 7th is Wave All Your Fingers At Your Neighbor Day
February 8th is Laugh and Get Rich Day
February 11th is White Shirt Day
February 18th is Cow Milked While Flying in an Airplane Day



February 22nd is not only George Washington’s birthday, but it’s also Inconvenience Yourself Day.




February 23rd is Introduce A Girl to Engineering Day as well as National Chili Day

February 25th is International Sword Swallowers Day

February 26th is For Pete’s Sake Day and Levi Strauss Day
And February 29th is Inspirational Underlings Day.
And that’s not even all of the special days February hosts.


I hope you’ll celebrate all month long and enjoy the fun of Nutella, waving, getting rich and maybe even milking a cow while flying in an airplane (that sounds like something Judy Miller would do while researching a book).
God Bless You and Happy February 2012 (Remember – this is the only one we get so live it up!)

Learning to Tat

I've decided that I didn't have enough to do so I've been learning to tat. Tatting is an ancient art and one that many fear will disappear. So I thought as a person who loves history, it was up to me to help save this wonderful artform.

Tatting has a varied history. Many people think it relates back to fishing nets. In the Victorian age it was considered unlady-like to sit idle. Ladies often occupied themselves with tatting or some other form of needlework. Tatting was easy to carry with them to visits and resulted in beautiful pieces of lace.

There are all sorts of styles and every country seems to call it by a different name. The German word for tatting is Schiffchenarbeit meaning 'the work of the little boat'. Since the shuttles used in tatting are boat shaped this makes sense to me. The Italians call it occhi meaning 'eyes',
referring to the rings which make up the lace; the Turkish say
makouk which is their word for shuttle; the French call it frivolite
and the Swedish word is similar - frivolitet.

But no matter what you call it - tatting is a wonderful craft to learn. I have an incredible teacher I meet with from time to time. Her name is Pru and she is one super smart lady. She has a passion for keeping tatting alive and I have great admiration for her.

Tatting requires a shuttle,
thread and a lot of patience. There are special ways to hold your hands and position your shuttle and thread, and of course there are specific patterns to follow and stitches to learn.






The result can be all sorts of projects from bookmarks to lace trim to clothing and










handbag decoration.

and today antique tatting is highly sought by collectors. Who knows maybe 100 years from now - collectors will be fighting to buy my tatting--but at this early stage of learning - I kind of doubt it.
God Bless You

How are you doing?

I've been getting asked that a lot in the last few days so I thought I would give everyone an update. It's been 3 wks since my lapband surgery and I'm doing awesome. The incisions are healed and my body is adjusting to a new way of doing business where food is related.

Some folks have asked for a before pitture and then a progress report picture so I thought I would throw a couple out there.

This photo was taken in September
and then in October I started to check out the lapband process and started the protein rich, low carb/fat diet on the 18th. Since then I've lost about 35 lbs.


35 lbs. doesn't show a whole lot when you are this overweight, but I feel great and have more energy. I think it really is helping where the MS is concerned as the energy level that was sapped due to the MS is improved by the loss of the weight.

So keep the prayers coming and I'll try to update you from time to time.

Speaking of prayers - thanks so much for the many you've said on my behave. I feel so blessed and cared for. The Lord has given such amazing peace to me despite the complications of life.

God Bless You!