Category Archives: Life

Hellooooo? Is anyone still out there?

Posted on December 28, 2009 by Terri | Comments Off

So, what have I been up to that’s kept me so busy I couldn’t post? Ummmm, I can’t remember further back than last week.

Doctor appointments galore! I had my last appointment on Christmas eve, believe it or not. The vampires were well fed when I left the hospital. So much so that I felt faint, had to have juice, and Kahuna had to feed me before we drove off. Now I need to e-mail the surgical nurse and get a surgery date.

I’m now the only admin support in my office. Other paralegal was ‘let go’ last week. It has been rather fun at work since I had ‘use it or lose it’ vacation time. Did I mention I’m the only admin support in my office. I was ready for this week to get here so I could collapse.

I’m fighting a cold right now. I.refuse.to.get.sick!

I’ve been stitching on Summer Queen. I need to take a photo to prove it though, don’t I.

Went to see Sherlock Holmes and Avatar this past weekend. Love them both. I was ready to sit through Avatar a second time, I enjoyed it so much.

Last but not least, we’re adding to our family. Meet Jasper.

He’s *visiting* with us right now to see if he’s a good fit for our family. He’s already turning into a ‘momma’s boy.’ He has been eating ‘raw’ at his foster home and we’re going to try to keep feeding him that way on a periodic basis. Harley will benefit from it as well. So, I had to go grocery shopping when Kahuna came home today and Kahuna said he stood at the door and whined while I was gone. He’s a sweet 3 year old boy. AKC color is ‘seal.’ That’s black to non IG peeps. He’s a rescued boy who’s old mom and dad kept him outside during the day and when they went to bed at night he slept in a plastic crate in the living room while they were snuggled in their comfy bed down the hall. They traveled a bit much to keep him so they gave him over to rescue. He’s been at his foster home for a little more than 3 months.

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Posted in Puppies, Stitching, surgery

Barium…it's what's for breakfast!

Posted on November 21, 2009 by Terri | 5 comments

and lunch and supper. Yum! Not. I have a CT scan on Monday so have started ‘prepping’ for it. Not being one for ‘flavored’ items, drinking berry flavored barium for breakfast immediately kicks in my gag reflex. Actually, just smelling the stuff got me started.

I had a psych appointment on Tuesday. Nothing like drudging through all 50 years of your life — starting at the moment you were born — with a stranger. Needless to say with some of the skeletons in my closet this has been a rough week for me. Not sleeping, or if I do immediately go to sleep waking up at 3 a.m. and not being able to get back to sleep.

I have several more appointments to make between now and December 14th. On that day one of my doctors will decide if I’m ready to be referred for surgery during January.

Today Kahuna and I are going to see ‘New Moon.’ Housing shut our water off at 6 a.m. this morning and we’ve already been showered and shaved, filled our tubs with water for the toilets), had our breakfast, entertained Harley (an all day affair, anyway), and are nursing a cup of coffee while we play on our respective computers. I intend on spending the majority of today (while not at the movies) watching college football, DVRd stuff, and stitching (working exclusively on Summer Queen). I’d like to start up a “goodreads’ on my facebook, too, but that might wait until tomorrow since I won’t be able to leave the house.

Although I haven’t posted it here (I don’t think?) Harley smacked Kahuna in his left eye a couple of weeks ago and tore his cornea. At his last appointment this week he was told it’s as healed as it’s going to be, and there’s a wrinkle in the cornea. He’s having vision problems because of it and they’re talking LASIK surgery….again. This will be the 3d time for that eye…his good eye. Sigh. He’s undecided about having it, but has set an appointment with the doctor who did the first two (he’s the eye doctor for the San Diego Chargers) and I think he’ll decide based upon that opinion.

We’re headed to Disneyland on Thursday for our almost annual Thanksgiving tradition. There are rarely any lines for any of the rides on that day and they serve turkey and dressing at the major eateries. We try to eat at the Blue Bayou for lunch (but this year we waited too late to get reservations) and in downtown Disney at Brennan’s for supper to get our Louisiana fix every year. We did manage reservations at Brennan’s and may even head over there for lunch and get a poboy. I love Disneyland, especially this time of year. The carols and fireworks in the evening even make me cry and miss home. Kahuna and I are both still kids enough that we have a good time, just the two of us.

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Posted in Life, LSU, Stitching, surgery

I excel at procratination!

Posted on October 24, 2009 by Terri | Comments Off

I swear I’ve been meaning to post forever. I even sit in front of my computer, then my ADD kicks in and I’m off on a tangent of reading blogs, checking my email/bank account/book sites, or even better heels.com and the next thing I know I’ve been sitting here for 2 hours and haven’t posted. I have pictures to share, stories to tell, etc., but not today 😉 I promised I’ll be back…sooner.

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Posted in Life

The proof is in the pictures!

Posted on August 11, 2009 by Terri | 5 comments

See! I have been stitching!

Hannah Beeby

Today marks six months since I lost my sweetie baby. The last photo I have of him on my camera is on Christmas Eve when we gave him and HarleyQuinn their new toys. He loved squeakie balls and is nibbling on his new one (while trying to hide Harley’s pink bunny).

Christmas Bandit

Here is Harley a couple of months later curled up on one of Bandit’s blankets. Doesn’t she look so lonely!

Harley Sunshine

I miss him very, very much, and I know Harley does too.

Booty Buddies

She’s learning to keep my spot in the stitching chair warmed up though 🙂

Harley Chair

This week (when I’m not stitching 😉 ) I’m reading Angela Knight’s Warlord/Warfem books.

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Posted in Hannah Beeby, Puppies, Reading, Stitching

Lost, found, and wanted

Posted on August 4, 2009 by Terri | Comments Off

I found my lost camera thingy not 5 minutes after I posted last night. I also found a stack of designs (I quit counting at 16) — most of them were Little House Needleworks, Sheepish Designs, and Blackbird Designs. They’re happily filed away where they belong. The funny thing is that I found all of this in a spot that Bandit like to put things when he was snooping around in my office. I suspect he was climbing around on my desk and knocked the camera thingy off during one of his nosey sessions.

Wanted: I’ve been out of the loop for so long that I don’t even know who sells hand died fabrics anymore. I’m looking for a possible piece to do Mirabilia’s Summer Queen on (Kahuna picked her out for next year’s fair entry). I have a few bluish pieces in my stash (that I haven’t compared yet) but I’m looking for a 32ct evenweave that will match, as close as possible, DMC 747.

Work is crazy right now. The paralegal is on vacation, an attorney is leaving Thursday for her vacation, I’m returning after being gone for 2 days vacati0n, and there’s tons of stuff that needs to be sent out to 2 new expert witnesses on a H.U.G.E. traumatic brain injury case. My feet were killing me when I got off work today from all the trotting back and forth I did between my desk and the copier. I knew I shouldn’t have worn those 3 1/2″ heels today!

HarleyQuinn had a vet appointment today. She has some type of bacterial infection that’s making her feet miserable. It took them 1 1/2 hours to get her seen and tested today and I was beyond stressed when I finally got out of there. I thought when they took her from me that she’d be gone for about 5 minutes. At 30 minutes I felt myself going into a full blown panic attack and they brought her to me. Kahuna freaked out when he got home and couldn’t find her and called me on the phone. He forgot she had her appointment today and thought she had somehow gotten out of the house and yard. We’re just a teensy bit overprotective, I guess.

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Posted in Puppies, Work

Oops, where did it go?

Posted on August 3, 2009 by Terri | Comments Off

I swear I wrote up a post a week ago! I even agonized over what author to share. Of course other than that I can’t remember a single thing I wrote about since my life has been so boring lately. However, that has changed a teensy bit.

I have stitched! and played in my stash! and cleaned up my dungeon some! and bought stash!

This past Thursday and Friday were vacation days for me. I had a week of use it or lose it vacation and am taking a day here and there for some long weekends. (I am keeping a week saved for Christmas) I thought I was going to be spending them with Kahuna but he got called into work and while I was fairly lazy those two days I did get all my laundry done and I played in the dungeon for a bit.

Friday night I did some major damage in the dungeon. I had thought to start a new project on Saturday but the one I wanted to stitch, believe it or not, I didn’t have fibers for! 😆 I didn’t feel like fondling my fabric either.

Saturday I drove up to the all day stitch in at Melissa and Darla‘s LNS — Needlepoints, Ltd. Darla had no clue I was coming and it was wonderful to see her bright face when I rounded the corner. I brought FAS, Justine, and Hannah Beeby with me but ended up just stitching on Hannah. I started her in Hawaii and haven’t touched her since. I was stitching on FAS when Bandit died and I haven’t stitched at all since then. I can honestly swear that stitching on Saturday, after playing in the dungeon on Friday, my stitching mojo is back! I had a very good time and stitched until my butt went numb – 3 times 😉 Anyway, I’m planning on attending all the other stitch ins through the rest of the year. I’m also going to be taking my Mary Wigham chart up (and the pillow from my stitching chair) and pull fibers on the 29th.

Sunday, I watched baseball, and I stitched! Didn’t even feel guilty about it either. Nope, no guilt.

As soon as I hit “post” I’m off to sit and stitch some before heading to bed…after I sort out the dungeon some more. Believe me this dungeon sorting is going to take some time….I’m hunting for my thingy that goes to my camera so I can upload some pictures. I don’t want to have to climb the mountain in the dungeon that’s between me and the cord whatsit to connect my camera to the computer since that will take me in the opposite direction I’m already sorting. How’s that for logic?

My author for this post is Leah Brooke.

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Posted in FAS, Friends, Hannah Beeby, Justine, Mary Wigham, Reading, Stitching

The birthday celebration that hasn't quite ended

Posted on July 19, 2009 by Terri | Comments Off

So, here it is almost 3 weeks after my birthday and I still have one more little thing to do as a celebration. But I’ll back up a bit first:

I took vacation from 29 Jun to 4 July.

The day before my birthday I went and got a tattoo. I have a couple of really bad pictures from my phone (I can’t download from my camera for some reason right now) and I’ll share. It’s a leather strap that contains 5 beads that represent my mother, father, myself, Kahuna, and Son (right to left). If Son ever has children, there’s room to add more. On the other side is a feather representing part of my heritage. Yes it was painful, and yes I cried…like a girl! 😆 When he did the strap portion over my achilles I actually felt like he was digging it out with a very blunt knife. I can’t describe what the portion felt like on my actual ankle bone. Let’s just say it’s over with and I never want a tattoo in that exact spot again….ever.

On the day of my birthday, I had a hair appointment. The girls that do my hair and nails are friends (the nail girl held my hand – figuratively – while I got my tattoo). They had balloons, etc., for me and it was a fun morning. My hair has been growing out and it’s down to my shoulders now plus I had it colored a deep reddish brown color…more red than brown. When he left the house that morning Kahuna said he wanted me to come home a blonde. A little easier said that done and now I’m sporting some not quite strawberry blonde hair. More blonde than strawberry though 🙂 I so love being a girl!

Wednesday was a day of shopping just by myself. I didn’t buy but a couple of shirts, but I loved that I could get up, take my time and not have to be back anywhere at any certain time.

Thursday Kahuna was off early and he’d called and made arrangements from some friends who lived down south to meet up with us at this hamburger joint I wanted to eat at for my birthday. They have killer milkshakes and onion rings and the atmosphere is all bohemian. They gave me movie tickets, then we headed to their house for a movie and coconut pie (my fave pie). I was also introduced to a new liquor from Spain. It’s 43 or something like that and it tastes like vanilla.

I actually can’t remember specifically what else happened during the week on what day. The fair had been ‘in town’ so we went 3 times. I love going to the fair. We go mostly for the concerts and saw Joan Jett, B-52’s, and Patty Smythe. I went to the stitching ‘barn’ and nearly cried over how few entries there were. I swear (and Kahuna brought it up as well) there was only 1/4 what has been there in the past. This struck a stitching fire in me and I’m dragging stuff out left and right. Kahuna has already promised to have stuff framed for me, and that’s really what has been holding me back.

That tattoo up above a a gift to myself. I always treat myself right on a big birthday, and 50 is big. In addition to the tattoo I bought myself a yellow nano iPod to go with the new speakers Kahuna bought me.

Nissan 370Z – 7 speed – I am in love!

That one more thing I mentioned above is dinner at Brennan’s at Disneyland since I didn’t get to go to New Orleans. I can’t wait to get me some Bananas Foster cher!!!

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Posted in Life

Getting started on the 50

Posted on June 7, 2009 by Terri | Comments Off

Believe it or not, I have only come up with 20 things for my challenge list so far! 😆 It’s harder than I thought it would be. There’s a mix of things (there’s no particular priority or order) and I’ll be putting them in their own tab to keep track but so far I’ve come up with:

1. ankle tattoo (I have a great design in mind and am meeting with the artist this coming Saturday. This tattoo will be at the beginning of my 50th year.)
2. lose 50 pounds (I’ve already started on this!)
3. back tattoo (I have some design elements I’ll be putting together. Some more of that ‘this is who I am stuff. Right now there are 4 elements involved…barbed wire, peace rose, dagger, and the Marine Corps emblem 😉 This will be at the end of my 50th year.)
4. re-learn to ride motorcycle (it seems almost every guy I ever dated had a motorcycle. I learned to ride on a dirtbike. Kahuna has a Harley but since I think it’s too heavy for me, I don’t know how I’m going to accomplish this, but we’ll figure something out.)
5. pay off CC #1
6. pay off CC #2
7. pay off CC #3
8. pay off CC #4
9. pay off CC #5 (all 5 of these CC’s carry small to medium balances that I tend to pay off and then recharge. I’m determined to pay them off and cancel them this year.)
10. purge closet (hopefully this will be easy with that 50 pound weight loss I’m working on.)
11. stitch ( 😆 how sad is it that I have to add this to my list?)
12. intro an author a week on blog ( I’m starting this one today.)
13. blog 2x a month
14. go to gym weekly
15. bike
16. swim
17. run
18. 5k (I skipped last year because of my PF issue, but I’m hoping to participate in the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving)
19. eat more organic
20. Change my ‘puppy’ avatar 🙁

So that’s what I have so far. I’d love suggestions. I’m having brain freeze!

The reduced working hours have worked out okay the first week. I think Boss is going to have more problems adjusting than me 😉 I made it to the gym twice last week. I had plans for Tuesday, we went out on Thursday, and Friday was supposed to be a gym day, but we settled a H.U.G.E. case Friday morning and we went out for margaritas at lunch. I hope I can find what I filed after that 😆 Needless to say I didn’t attempt the gym after drinking alcohol.

Friday night we went to a small Mexican food place just opened on the base. The food was cheap and very good! After that Kahuna and I finished off a half-bottle of Patron…one shot at a time.

Saturday was a do nothing day for me and with the exception of running out to COSTCO and doing some laundry, I did just exactly that…nothing. Today was much the same, except Kahuna and I hit up Henry’s for some groceries. (oh wait! another something for my list!)

As to my posting authors, a word of caution. I have some very adult tendancies when it comes to what I like to lose myself in. I spent too many years reading college books and my mind is majorly in the ‘gutter’ so to speak now that I read for pleasure so forewarned is forearmed 😉 Also remember….this is who I am. If you have a question regarding a subject matter you may get introduced to, I’m always happy to discuss it OFF THE BLOG. Just post a comment and I’ll email you if you don’t already have my email address.

My first author is Maya Banks …. Enjoy 😉

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Posted in Life, Reading

Howdy neighbor

Posted on June 1, 2009 by Terri | Comments Off

Today is June 1st and I have started a major countdown. Actually the countdown has been ongoing in the back of my brain since the beginning of the year, but today it’s serious. My birthday is coming up (so’s my anniversary). Now for the past 49 years it’s never bothered me that I’m having a birthday. I’ve never been one to care about telling anyone my age, and actually I still don’t mind, but this year my birthday is actually scaring me. I think I’m about to have my mid-life crisis!! 😆

To celebrate this momenteous occasion, I’ve decided to keep with the BIG number theme. Between today (not my birthday) and my birthday in 2010, I’m going to accomplish 50 things. I’ll be posting that list in a few days.

I’ll be upfront now and state that two of those things involve something I’ve let go of over the past 6+ months. I’m going to attempt to post to my blog at least weekly and I’m going to be getting back in contact with two very dear women I’ve neglected horribly over the past 8 months. You two know who you are 🙂

Things are going okay with Kahuna and I. His race season started out with a bang and he has two races done fo this year. Miss Harley Quinn attended the second race with us and was quite the hit with the men. She’s a definite hunk magnet 🙂

I found out last Thursday that my hours were going to be cut at work and I’m determined to look at it as a good thing. When I was originally hired 14 months ago it was for 30 hours a week. The paralegal I work with has just now been released to return to work for 6 hours a day so I’m ratcheting back to 30 hours a week starting today. I’m planning on taking major advantage of it….I went to the gym, straight from work today. I’m thrilled to death that my plantar faciatis is completely gone. I had it for 18 months!!!! Anyway for the past two weeks I’ve managed to drop 5 pounds just cutting back on some bad eating habits I’d picked up. I’m actually looking forward to seeing what I can accomplish adding in the exercise. Kahuna and I have hit the weights a couple of times of the past couple of weeks, but now I’m going to crank that up as well. I hope someone is still reading my blog and will volunteer to help keep me honest and keep posting.

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Posted in Fitness, Puppies, Weight, Work

Life marches on

Posted on March 19, 2009 by Terri | Comments Off

I realized today that it’s been about a week since I last cried. It’s easier to talk about Bandit — meaning I don’t start crying as soon as I do so. I had my camera out this weekend and found some pictures I forgot about taking. They did ‘hitch’ my heart a bit, but not enough to make me cry. I still haven’t dreamed about him though and I wonder if that’s a good or bad thing. I used to dream about him all the time (sometimes having horrible nightmares). We’ve moved a few things, and put a few things away. We got rid of his ‘throne’ this past weekend. It was rather disconcerting to go out into the garage and see it in pieces so it would fit in the trash bin. A chair has been put in its place. His baby blanket sit folded neatly on the arm of my stitching chair but it no longer smells like him to me. Harley gives it a good sniff when she sits with me, so I think she can still smell him. His collar and tags are still sitting in the bottom of my purse, from that awful day. Eventually I’ll take them out, but I’m not quite ready for that.

Harley seems to have come out of her ‘funk’ a bit. She was running circles around the backyard last night wearing herself out. Bandit used to pounce on her when she started ‘racing.’ She’s so happy to see us when we get home in the evenings. She’s eating regularly, and has even picked up a couple of Bandit’s ‘bad’ habits — sassing us when she wants attention and we’re ignoring her; demanding a treat at that special “time” in the evening when we forget what time it is; banging her food bowl around when it’s empty (even if she’s just eaten a few minutes ago). She never was much of a tail wagger and we’ve noticed that she wags her tail a lot more.

I’ve started thinking about stitching again, even going so far to plan out a new start last night. If things go well this weekend, I’ll start pulling supplies and share my thoughts on what I want the finished project to look like. It may take me awhile to get organized since I haven’t stepped foot in my craft room since December.

Kahuna has started training again.

We’ve started house hunting again.

Life marches on. Some steps are just shorter than others.