Dad's Poem

As I told you all a month or so ago I lost my dad. He was a wonderful man and it seems a poet at heart. I always knew he loved poetry but he actually wrote a very beautiful one that I'm going to share with you.
A PRAYER

I wander thru the valley of life
And see the world so torn with strife
And pray that God will help me understand
The things, that make a man, a man
Help me oh Lord to be humble and kind,
And in the work, let me find
The joy of living a life complete,
So I’ll be ready, when it’s time to meet.
I stand ready to do thy will,
And pray the thou my heart will fill
The love of man, and kindness too,
To do the things that I must do,
And when I reach the time to go,
As the sun sink in to the west,
Then, may I look to the heavens, and know,
That, on this earth, I’ve done my best.
… James A. Stewart, CMSGT
USAF (Ret.)

Rest in Peace

My dad's funeral was last Thursday. We had a wonderful funeral for him, I think he would have approved of it. It started early in the day, a group of veteran's called "Rolling Thunder" escorted dad from the funeral home to the church on their motorcycles with flags flying. We had a lovely mass, Kelley and I did the readings, Kelley and Traci sang one of mom and dad's favorite hymns "Be Not Afraid" I can't sing that song, ever, every time I do I start to cry. My brother gave the best eulogy, he gave mom's when she left us 9 years ago.The topper to the whole service were two things, one-the same priest who did mom's service also did dad's and the very best part was the bag pipe player, he did "Amazing Grace" my dad loved that song. This young fellow is the only active duty military Bag Pipe player, anywhere in the US Military. After mass as were leaving the church the Bag Pipe player played "Scotland the Brave", the cars were all lined up and we went out the NAS Pensacola to Baranncas National Cemetery. Rolling Thunder was in the lead with the hearse, family and friends close behind. People all along the road stopped and payed tribute to dad, he would have loved it, he stopped traffic all over town. When he came through the gates of the Navy base even the guards stood at attention. We got to the cemetery and the AF honor guard from Eglin AFB were waiting for us. They did a flag folding ceremony for us, my husband Dave read the story of what the flag means to us. It was then pasted from the honor guard to all the military members of our family, from my brother to sister, to nephew-in-law, to my son, to my brother's son to my stepmother. Tears were rolling down their faces as they did this wonderful thing for my dad. After the flag folding dad got a 21 gun salute, a bugler played Taps and the bag pipe player played Amazing Grace and Scotland the Brave again. Dad was put in the niche with my mom so now they are together forever.

Sadness

It is with tear stained eyes and a very heavy heart that I tell you that my dear sweet daddy has gone to heaven to be with my mom :(. He was doing so well and had been home only a few weeks after being in and out of hospitals, nursing homes and rehab places since January. In May he had a subdural hemotoma removed and was doing great but the damed thing came back. It got big pretty fast and he became unresponsive and actually complained of pain over the weekend. My dad never complained of pain ever. They had done an MRI and found the new hematoma and knew there was no way to fix this one, he just wasn't strong enough yet to have more surgrery. Sunday he was moved to a hospice hospital and passed away in his sleep on Tuesday. I just don't know what the world will be like without him in it. His funeral is next week August 13, he wanted to be cremated and will be in the niche with my mother. Since he was a retired Air Force C/Msgt he will be getting a military funeral. Something I think he earned and deserves.

I love and will miss you forever daddy :(

Stitching and typing my days away

I have been stitching and typing these hot, hot summer days away. We have had heat advisories here in Georgia for 15 straight days. Hope it ends soon. I love my husband dearly but he really, really hates this type of weather. If he comes home from work one more time complaining about the heat I'm gonna find a really large crate, poke a few holes in it, knock him out stuff him in the box and send him to the north pole. We have lived in Georgia for almost 20 years and sure as the sun comes up tomorrow it will get hot here in the summer. Complaining about it day in and day out for the whole summer won't change it and just makes everyone more miserable. Anyway, I got off subject. I have been doing alot of stitching on Angel of the Morning and Alpine Garden. I will post pics later this week. I am also going to school to be a certified medical transcriptist and have been doing alot of practice dicatations lately. I am on my last class and will start the job hunt in the next month or so as it gets closer to end of term. Hoping to combine this with the diploma in CIS that I already have to get a fairly decent job.

I have also decided over the next few months to start selling some of my older stitching stuff. I have a large amount of cross stitch patterns that I bought over the past 30 years and will never, ever get around to stitching. If for some reason we decide to down size out living arrangements in the future it will be one less things to worry about if I get started early. Will keep you posted when I start the process. Probably will sell them on E-Bay, that seems to be the popular choice for this kind of stuff.

Hope you all stay cool, I'm working on it, thank God for AC.

Wow busy summer

I have had a busy summer so far. My dear dad is finally home after being in and out of hospitals, rehab facilities and nursing homes since January. Hopefully things will get back to normal for him and my stepmother now. He still has home health coming a couple of times a week to continue his physical therapy, speech and occuptaional therapy but he is doing great :).

I have been going to school to learn medical transcription, working in retail just isn't going to work for me anymore. I hate the hours, the standing all day and sorry to say rude customers. I have a wonderful husband who makes it possible for me to stay home and go to school instead of trying to juggle school, work and home. I just need to do a better job on the home department.

I have been doing a bit of stitching while home. I finished M by Nora Corbett and instead of pulling out something new from my stash I have decided to give WIP busting a try. I have tons of started projects that I really need to get done. I picked a sampler and an angel to work on off and on. The sampler will get done first as it's smaller but no worries I have others to do once this one is done to switchout with my angel. The sampler is Alpine Garden by The Drawn Thread and the angel is Angel of the Morning by Lavender and Lace.

Daddy

My dad is doing much better now then he had over the past few months. He has been in a nursing or rehab facility since January when he had a shunt put in for water in his brain. It's been one thing after another since then but now we seem to have found and taken care of the root cause of all his troubles and he is on the road to recovery and may after 7 months finally get to go have in a few weeks. Here's hoping.

Busy as a Beaver

I've been busy a beaver the past few days! I made a few new aprons. A cute mommy and me set that I just love. I also worked on two Zebra print aprons, one with rick rack trim and one with out. Go on over to my etsy shop and check out the zebra print ones and all the other available :)