Another Drive By Post - and HOUSE NEWS!!!!!

The dog saga continues...and we are dog-less. I am beginning to think that there is a list somewhere with our name on it that says not to let us have a dog. This is the most frustrating experience that we've ever gone through with the exception of the house saga (which I am not going to regurgitate).

The rescue group had a meet and greet on Saturday in Rochester which is 3 hours away from us. The DH contacted the families who are fostering the dogs that we are interested to ask a few questions. The one family never got back to us. Anyway, he asked the other family what their procedure was to take the dog home if we liked him and we all got along because it's a haul (6 hours in the car round-trip) and we'd like to close out this chapter. The foster family said that if we liked the dog and it appeared that we got along, they wanted us to GO HOME AND THINK ABOUT IT FOR ANOTHER COUPLE OF WEEKS THEN COME BACK AGAIN. They were not willing to let us take the dog home with us. So we didn't make the trip.

In the meantime, the DH found a private individual about an hour & 1/2 away from us that had a litter of older puppies that she was willing to sell.  Actually, she was willing to give away the male dogs that  are about a year old.  When Dave made the initial call to her, it took her 2 weeks to get back to us.  Then we made arrangements to drive up today but the lady asked that we call her before we made the trip.  So we did, TWICE and she never returned the calls.  So we stayed home.
And we are dog-less for at least another 2 weeks cause DH is going out of town.

On a happier note, our house is just about finished!!!! Can you believe it?  FOUR years later we are finally getting closure.  We found a Christian contractor who gave us a good price to finish up the work and he's been working daily for the last 3 weeks.  Now we are 99% done!
The chimney side:

The sunroom side:

The front of the house.  We are having a field stone facade placed around the door and dining room window.

The back of the house.

You have to know that I am SO happy that I just want to do a happy dance all day!  This is the happiest I've been since we started this adventure with the exception of Jenna and Mike's wedding.

Anyway, it was a great weekend, we went for a walk, I made scrumptious cookies, we grilled chicken and just hung out and marveled at our house.  There's a lot more to do (when is a house EVER finished) but at least I know that we aren't compromising the structural integrity of our home.  The rest will come in due time.  I can be patient.  That's one of the things I learned from this experience.  Patience.

Stitching, I've worked on a few wips, nothing to write home about.  And surprisingly enough, I haven't even opened up the box with my new sewing machine inside.  Just busy with yard work and trying to keep afloat at work.

So thanks for hanging in there with me on this long post.  I want to thank you for your prayers, friendship, emails and good thoughts through the house ordeal.  I so appreciate each and every one of you.  It's so amazing to me how we are all connected.  And I'm so blessed because of it!
Have a great week and I will post stitchy pics soon!

A Quick Post

It's cold, cold, cold here in Upstate NY. We had spring and summer a few weeks ago and now we are back into late October, early November weather. One of the managers at work said that we are to have the same summer we had last year. Dreary, cold and wet. Yuck.  Too grey to take pictures of my stitching.  I tried but the pics just are too dark. So once again, no stitchy pics.

I am very busy at work. Last week, we "entertained" Customers for 13 hours a day all week. This week, we are "entertaining" government auditors for 12 hour days until Friday. I am POOPED!

I've been stitching, it's been my sanity for the last few weeks. I finished up my Blackbird Designs exchange piece and now on to the finishing. I also worked on Alphabets and I am struggling with the buttonhole flowers on Lucy Minton. Lucy would have been done weeks ago but I can't seem to get a handle on counting when stitching the buttonholes. My flowers look mishapen and all alien like. I thought hard about doing something different with them but the buttonholes add so much charm to the piece. And, I am completely not going to let them get the best of me. LOL!

And, my clicky finger has gotten me in deep doo-doo. I've bought up a lot of Carriagehouse Samplings and kitted up a Quaker sampler, another Lucy.   Meet Lucy Haworth.

There is a SAL going on at Ellen Chester's With My Needle and Pen group.  I saw the sampler and fell in love.  I couldn't resist her but honestly, even though I kitted her up, I won't start her until later this year or even next year.  She's in the want to stitch pile.

And I really got in trouble cause I bought a sewing machine. A Janome 7330.

I've been looking for a sewing machine for a while and this will fit the bill quite nicely.  I shouldn't have spent the money but hey, you only live once, right?  It's got a little more that I wanted but the price wasn't bad and I did want some of the options that this machine offered. 

On another note, the 2nd Lietenant and the lovely Jenna are now at Goodfellow AFB in Texas for the next 9 months.  They got there on Sunday.  Today, they found an apartment.  Hopefully, the Air Force will get their stuff out of storage soon so they can sleep in their own bed and eat off their own dishes. I know they both are tired of temp housing. 

And we are waiting to hear if we can adopt a dog.  We are trying to get a rescue German Shepherd.  You would think we were adopting a child.  We had to fill out an adoption application, go through a phone interview, give them 3 references plus our vet (and they called ALL of them) and now we are waiting for them to come "inspect" our home to see if it and we are suitable to own a dog.  It's been time consuming and somewhat frustrating.   One rescue group turned us down because we have 3 house cats and they felt we couldn't handle a dog and the cats at the same time.  They felt that this situation required a professional dog trainer. We aren't "professionals" so we were denied an animal that needed a home.  We've had dogs and cats who lived in the same house with us for our entire 31 year marriage and the DH has had dogs all his life.  The animals work it out (and yes, we are vigillant so no one gets hurt) and they co-habitate quite nicely.  So cross your fingers that we "pass".  Otherwise, we may end up at the local SPCA.

Well, that's all the news in my little corner of the world.  Thanks for hanging in there with me, kids. 

Moderating comments

I am moderating comments.  Many links to porn sites.  SHEESH!!  This is a family blog.  Sorry for the inconvenience to those who have comments that don't link to smut.

Have you seen this?

Oh geez, when are they going to stop?  I love, love, love Blackbird Designs and my goodness, they've done it again!

Now, I can't wait to stitch this or at least add it to my bulging stash!

On other notes, our house is finally getting finished! The contractor has put in all our windows and we are waiting for siding to be delivered.  I will have a finished house by the middle of June!

Been stitiching too, my blackbird designs exchange, Alphabets by Merrily Beams (I snitched this pic from Littlebits blog) and Connie and I are going to begin our SAL again.  I am so looking forward to this SAL. 

Work is very busy right now so I apologize to those who visit.  I do love that you stop by and I especially love it when you leave me a sweet word or two.

Thanks for stopping!