The Sunday Situation

Sunday and I'm finally back to normal, whatever that means.  

It has been a rough week. 

You may not know that over the past few months, I've been participating in a workout program called Bootcamp or P90X.  

Whatever you may call it, 

I call it torture! 

(but it does get results!).  

It is being offered thru work and it's twice a week of sweaty, painful, torture.   On Tuesday, it was really hot here, 95 degrees with a heat index of 100.  We worked out for about 40 minutes (in the gym) and the instructor says 

"Grab your water, we're headed outside."  

Huh?  It's 100 degrees, I'm more than half that in age and I'm already sweaty and tired and did I mention I have heart disease?  

Yep, headed outside.  

To run.  

WHAT???  

Out we went. Thankfully we didn't run far, maybe a 1/4 mile and back inside for more torture.  After 10 minutes, he says,

 "Grab your water, we're headed outside."

Clearly, I'm delirious.  

We've already been outside.  

He didn't just say that, did he?  

My face and body are literally dripping sweat and I'm a really pretty shade of red, like a ripe tomato kind of red.  Nope, I'm not hearing things.  I'm not delirious.  At least not yet.  So, out we go, same routine.  1/4 mile and back for 10 minutes of continued exercise.  

Finally done, right?  

WRONG!

He says it again.  WTH?  Are you kidding me?  We're running again?  Yep.  "One more round, then we'll call it a day", he says.  

Out we go.  In the heat.  Already hot and sweaty.  

I couldn't do it, but I tried.  I ran 1/2 the distance and headed back inside.  

Forced myself.  

I. AM. NOT. A. QUITTER.  

I was feeling sick.  Oh, God.  Please don't let me loose it out here for all the world to see.  Thankfully, I managed to find my way to the ladies room before I lost all the water I had drank in the last day.  Every bit.  But, I recovered (or so I thought), went back into the workout room to finish the cool down and call it a day.  

Didn't feel good the rest of the day but I was alive.  

That was Tuesday afternoon.

I got home and went to bed (it was about 5:30 PM).

Wednesday, I didn't feel great all day but blamed it on not sleeping well Tuesday night.

Didn't feel much like eating or drinking all day on Wednesday and just kind of laid low but managed to make it thru the day.

Thursday, there was a major event at work so I got dressed up in a pretty, white dress.  Had these killer shoes on and was feeling pretty good.  

Sorry about the pedicure and the heels  -  this is a reenactment and I've been working in the yard all morning.

You know.  One of those days where you feel like your dress is pretty, your hair looks pretty good, you remembered to put on mascara and lipstick.  

One of those kind of days.  

And then it happened.  

I was carrying my laptop, my phone, my work ID and I stepped into the elevator which was about 1/2 full with more people following behind me.  My heel got caught in the grate of the elevator and...

DOWN I WENT.

Like a TON of bricks.

BAM!

   My stuff went flying, I went flying, the lady I fell into went flying and of course, my dress went flying.  

Thank God I remembered to put on panties!

Not that that's something I normally forget but I'm just sayin'.  Anyway.  I scraped the heck out of my knees, hit the bridge of my nose on something, bruised the heck out of my foot that got stuck, my arm has got a bruise the size of Texas on it and I'm in pain.  I gathered myself up as quickly as I could and got off on the next floor.  

I needed to get out of there as fast as I could.  

Do I need to tell you that I was MORTIFIED!?

  I stepped  out of the elevator and could only think to get out of sight as quickly as possible so I scooted out of view of the elevator.  

But, I was not out of hearing range.

  I heard one of the guys on the lift say, "That's Terri, she works for Jerry _____ ('cause everyone knows who Jerry is).  

 Then the next thing I hear is laughter.  

Lots of it.  

I know.  

Falls are funny.  

Especially when someone is obviously okay but I burst into tears and was beyond embarrassed.  The office made me file an accident report; in 25+ years I've NEVER filed an accident report.  That's not to say I shouldn't have (like the time I stepped out of the stair well to the outside and dropped about three feet to the ground due to construction).   That's a different story.  When I fell in the elevator, and had such a bad headache, everyone was worried I might have a concussion.  I'm sure I didn't but I did feel sick that afternoon and the next day, too.  I went home early on Thursday and again, went home and went to bed.  

Not much to eat or drink.

Friday, got up, got dressed and made it into work but by the time I got there, I felt horrible.  Rob came and got me and took me home.  I slept most of the day away until he came home that evening when it dawned on him that I wasn't feeling crappy because of the fall.  I was feeling crappy because I was probably near heat stroke on Tuesday and hadn't eaten much and had barely drank anything since then.  He got me a Gatorade, I downed that and within a short time began to feel better.  

Another couple of Gatorades and all's well.   

Moral of the story is - well, I don't really have one.  Except to maybe keep a Gatorade on hand for after workouts instead of only drinking water.  Need to refuel those electrolytes or whatever it is that's in Gatorade.  

Finally felt well enough yesterday to head out for a little bit.  I went to a sweet, little town called Romeo and went to my favorite shoppe: The Urban Merchant.  Kevin and Joe run the place and they have great home accent stuff, all with a touch of Paris.  Ooh, la la!

Can't show you what I got there but I can show you what I got at a second shoppe in town called "Two Girls in Romeo".  It is a teeny, tiny little shoppe but was, oh so cute.  I found this beaded and embroidered bag and although it wasn't the bargain I usually go for, I had to have it to hang in my craft room.  It's missing some of the beads but not enough to be a problem and I just fell in love with it.

Isn't it pretty?

Click to see it a little better.

The top latch has two little rhinestones on it.  Here's the inside:

Again, sorry about the manicure - yard work does it.

I also got this pretty necklace.  I think I'll stack it with a bunch of pearls but for now, it's resting in my lavender plant!

Isn't that where you keep your jewelry when you're not wearing it?

I'll be back on Sunday with a stitching update.  I had hoped to be done with the A&E repro sampler but have not stitched all week, so I don't know if I'll get finished or not. No big deal, either way - I love working on it.  Almost all of it anyway - the over one is not my favorite part but even that isn't as bad as running in the heat or falling in the elevator!  

Have a great week ahead, friends!  Thank you so much for stopping by and for leaving me a note, when you can!  I appreciate them so very much!

Be well,

Peace!

Terri

Father's ~ Friends ~ Finds

Dear friends!

     If you are in the U.S., it is Father's Day, today.  I know I've mentioned my dad on this blog a few times, he even did a guest post.  I have to tell you, he is the best guy!  I don't know that I know, or will ever know, a better man than he.  My dad did not grow up with an easy life;  his family was poor and his own dad passed away when he was young.  He was raised by his mom and she had few of the extra comforts in life, either for herself, or to give her children.  Many of the things I take for granted as necessities would have been pure luxury to her and my dad and his brothers and sister.  From this humble upbringing, without a dad of his own to model himself after, came this extraordinary man.  He is a retired officer from the U.S. Army, he is a fitness instructor, he is a gardner, an avid reader, a man of God, and a kind hearted and loving man who provided advice and guidance when needed (still does) and is still a great father to me, a father to my husband and the best grandfather, ever!  We are all so lucky to have you in our lives, Dad!  

I love you.

Happy Father's Day!!!

My dad and me at the Grand Canyon.  Believe it or not, he may be more fit now than he was back then!  I love you, Dad!

Friends!

I am blessed to have many good friends in my life and one of them just sent me the most wonderful package.  Marilyn and I have corresponded quite a bit and have gotten to know each other through our mutual love of stitching.  We are stitching the Adam and Eve Reproduction Sampler from the May 2009 edition of Cross Stitch and Needlework magazine.  I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to show you what I've gotten done as well as the treasures she sent me.

Have a look:

You can click to enlarge a little bit, if you'd like.

Yes!  Your eyes are not deceiving you!  Look at all the Sajou beauties Marilyn sent me.

Petite scissors, a barrel tape measure, beautiful pearl top pins and the most wonderful thread winders.  Not only are the products beautiful but look at the pretty boxes the scissors and tape measure came in.  I could not have been more surprised or delighted by such a generous and loving gift!  Thank you so much, Marilyn, you did too much!

xoxoxo

As you can see, my stitching is progressing.  I am absolutely loving working on this piece.  I think the reason is two-fold.  First, I love the colors - beautiful pinks and greens just look so pretty together.  Secondly, the idea that three of us are stitching it together, is so fun!   Check out Marilyn and Faye's blogs for their updates. I am probably a weird stitcher though.  I will stitch for an evening or two and then I have to unroll the whole thing to look at it.  Do you ever do that?  I know some people that work on scroll rods may not peak until the whole thing is done.  I just can't do it ~especially when I'm so enjoying stitching something.  

I did decide to put my own initials in this piece and I dated it in the lower left corner.  What?  You can't see  the date?  

Here, look closer; it's a little hard to make out:

Stitched over one so it would blend with the border.

A few more pics of my goodies and the sampler:

Not sure if I'll finish by the next update or not.  That over one is tedious and the constant color changes are a real pain.  But, I will persevere!  If you're interested, we will post the color conversion when all done.

Finds!

Not sure if I've shown you this little treasure or not and honestly, I'm too lazy to go searching thru my blog.  I'm really bad about labeling my entries so finding something from an old post is sometimes challenging.

I found this lovely little pin cushion at an estate sale.  Isn't it sweet?

Small, delicate and dainty.  The ribbon is a little worse for wear but it's a beautiful piece that I would imagine was made by hand.  Maybe the shells came from Nantucket (one of my favorite places).

That's it for today, friends.  As always, thank you so much for stopping by.  

I hope you've all had a good weekend and that you have a wonderful week, too!  

Happy Father's Day!

Be well,

Peace!

Terri

 

Adam and Eve and others, too

Dear friends!

     It is a beautiful, blustery day here in SE Michigan!  We've had quite the rainy, cool weekend with a short, but turbulent storm last night.  The Detroit Grand Prix is running today on Detroit's beautiful Belle Isle.  I had the day off on Friday, and Rob took the day off as well so we could go down there and check out the practice session.  I myself am not a big race fan, of any type, but Rob loves Formula 1 first and Indy cars so I trekked down there with him.   It was rainy and a little cool but we had a fun day, in spite of the weather.  Heck, I even got interviewed for the Detroit News (got a one line quote in the paper) but thankfully no picture 'cause trust me, I looked like a drowned rat.  Anyway, if you're a race fan, here are a couple of pics.  If not, scroll on down.

Here are a couple of shots of driver James Hinchcliffe - he's a cutie!  You can see the rain coming down and in the second picture, he had just finished giving me a thumbs up; but being the poor photographer that I am, I missed it.

This is Marco Andretti - we saw both him and Mario but my shot of Mario is blurry blurrier.  Marco wasn't as friendly as James....

Finally, this sign at the track says it all:

Now, back to your regularly scheduled blog material.  You may know that I'm working on a SAL with Marilyn and Faye.

It is coming along but I have to tell you - those gals are fast stitchers!  I have accomplished quite a bit, I think, but they are also working on other projects at the same time!  I don't know how they get so much done!  Not me.  One project at a time, for the most part, is all I can handle.  Please go check out their blogs to see not only their progress, but their other beautiful works as well.

Here's my progress as of this morning:

Pics are clickable.

This is from Cross Stitch and Needlework Magazine, May 2009.

Worked on 36 Ct, Magnolia by Lakeside Linens.

I think all the color variations, lack of punctuation, and split words, in the over one verse make it hard to read.

It says this:

And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof and did eat and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat.

Gen III 6

I am really enjoying working on this sampler.

To close out this boring blog post, I thought I'd show you another vintage find.

I found these at a lovely antique store and, because one of them had a spot on it (I was able to get it out), I got the pair for $7.  Aren't they great!?  The little doll belonged to my Mom and I begged her to let me keep her for a little while (wink, wink).

Beautiful redwork embroidery pillow covers.

"I slept and dreamed that life was beauty"

"I woke and learned that life was duty"

I hope your life is more beautiful than dutiful and I thank you for visiting and leaving me such wonderful notes - you certainly help to make my life beautiful!

Have a wonderful week ahead.

Be well,

Peace!

Terri