Throw out 50 things part 2

Given all the snow and the fact that we are snowed in....we were able to work on the Throw out 50 things list.

We finished with the number 36 last time.  If you can't remember the post here is a link.


http://michelle-champion.blogspot.com/2013/12/throw-out-50-things.html


37.  Clothes the kids have outgrown

38.  My mother-in-law's comforter.  It is very nice, hardly used but it is a very old lady looking and white.  I hate white.  It is white with pink flowers if someone wants it before I take it to goodwill

39.  Bent rails from Trevor's bed.  Trevor's mattress was constantly falling through the bed because the rails were bent when we got the bed (it was used).  We are selling Grandma's house and we sold all the furniture inside it.  Well, most of the furniture.  For some reason, the auction company did not sell the bed.  I took the rails from that bed and brought them home.  They fit Trevor's bed....no more falling through the frame!!  I am tired of having crappy stuff that is falling apart in my home.  My goal is to get rid of it if it is falling apart.

40.  Old letters from my mother-in-law to my husband.  They are miserable.  Please remember to talk to your children nicely.  I burned these horrible letters!!!

41.  Sunshades from our Sebring that died...all our cars are now tinted.  I passed these on.

42.  Scraps of paper

43.  Pillows from my mother-in-law's house.  For some reason, we brought them home.  Trevor had 8 pillows on his bed, Hannah 6, we had 5.  Too many!!!  I got rid of 4 crappy pillows.  Thrown away.

44.  We only use cloth napkins in our house, but I threw out a bunch of napkins that had seen better days.

45.  An extension cord that had been scrapped and looking pretty unsafe

46.  Screwdrivers that were chipped and really worked to remove no screw

47.  Old school agendas

48.  Paint cans that looked like they were 20 years old (and they may be)

49.  Crappy paintbrushes

50.  Cassette tapes, I have no player why did I keep these?

I am going to keep going.  Streamlining my life. 

Day 3 of snowed in

Being poor on trapped in the house if wearing on me.  Cabin fever has set in.  Holy Moly!!  I have done all the dishes, all the laundry, all the sewing repairs, all the touch up of paint, all the cleaning, all the changing of sheets...good gravy you get the picture. I have made 32 cards, 2 canvas thingys, bunches of die cuts paper piecings, organizing of my drawing materials, the taxes, made a peanut butter pie, bit all my nails to the quick, and even got all the recyclables together.  This stupid ice must melt soon, I am not made to sit home all day!!!!

Here is what I created today:

Snowed in.

Here we are on our one millionth snow day of this winter.  Ok, so I exaggerated the number a bit, but you get the picture.  We have had lots of snow days.  I usually do home improvement projects on these type of days, but I was saving my money for our big vacation this year so no projects.  What I have done is touch up walls/cabinets that had chips or just needed to be refreshed (or where my son poked a hole in the living room wall playing basketball), I have done our taxes, perused the internet for a deal on cars, and today made a painting.

This painting started with die cuts that I made with my Cricut cartridge (thanks DiAnna) Art Nouveau.  I have wanted this one since the day it was released, and my friend bought it for me for Christmas.  I broke it out a few weeks ago and started to see what it could do.  Here are some photos of the die cuts I have made with the cartridge.





Today's project started as a blank 8x11 canvas that I painted an old fashioned mustard color.  I then used wood icing and a stencil that I bought at Ephemera Paducah and went to town.  What  a great stencil!!!!  It fits in great with the vibe I was going for with this canvas.  I then decided to make one of the girls the lady in the moon.  I made some cattails for the ground and a beautiful lady in purple for the foreground.

I am not sure that I am done with the painting, time will tell. I am however finished with it today.



Thanks for stopping by.

A new ride

In 2005 my husband went to Driver Motors in Mayfield while I was at work.  He brought home a 2004 Chrysler Sebring.  I fell in love instantly.  It drove like my Saturn SL2 that was totaled by a woman would did not follow the laws of a stop sign.  It was small like that car and drove wonderfully.  I had the dealer put on a keyless entry system and we signed the papers.  Over the years, she was a good car.  In the last couple of years we began to have computer problems with her.  The computer was telling the car that things were wrong and they were not.  The solution a new computer at $2500.  That wasn't going to happen because the car might be worth $1000.  So we drove on and continued to have issues with the check engine light and the emissions and really there were no problems it was all computer related. Back to the shop we go, the dealer called in a Chrysler expert and it rigged up the computer to stop sending out signals and we were on our way.  Our dreams were to get two more years out of the car.  This was last year.

 A couple of weeks ago, my daughter was driving to the other side of Paducah when my little Sebring decided to die.  I mean DIE!  So dead it had to be replaced.  John and I began a search for a cheap car with low miles.  Why?  We were planning on taking the trip of a lifetime in April, a trip to Hawaii.  This just didn't pan out.  A car with low miles and low price just wasn't to be found so we talked about it and decided 10 days in Hawaii would be great, but we could have this car for 10 years like we had the Sebring.  We upped the budget and cancelled the trip.

We looked high and low for the right fit.  I called a dealership in Madisonville because I wanted to look at a Ford Fusion they had on their lot.  The dude on the phone thought I said Nissan instead of Fusion.  It was fine, and turned out to be fate.  I had not looked at a Nissan.  John had mentioned it, but that's really as far as we got.  We drove the car and fell in love.  I loved the engine, loved the feel and loved the get up and go.  It is bigger than my Sebring, but I still can feel like I'm driving that little car.  Here are some pictures of the new member of the family.

I have not gotten possession yet.  There were a few things I wanted done before I  brought it home.  The car is still in Madisonville going through the Michelle approval process.  I got the call today that the car is ready and the dealer (Greg) will try to deliver tomorrow (barring the roads clear up enough for him to get here).  I am very excited to see her once again.  Wonder what we will name her?



















Here are some photos of the new member of the family. 

Gall Bladderous: a year later

It was a year ago that I was at work eating lunch with Patty and Valerie.  I was having chicken and dumpling soup.  The dumplings were a big soggy and I thought I was getting sick from them.   All of the sudden I felt like I was going to have a seizure and very sick.  The girls knew what was going on and took me to Valerie's office to sit down.  I was feeling no better.  They wanted me to go home.  I hated to leave because I feel guilty because I have to leave work for my mother-in-law a lot.  So I sucked it up. I went home at 4 and it got worse. Now the pain was between my shoulders, I was sure I was in trouble.

John took me to the ER where it was determined I needed my gall bladder out stat, but they sent me home.  I had never had gall bladder issues before and this shocked me.  I didn't know to demand it come out now and I was in such pain I just did what they said.

I went home.  My friends called a doctor and he was going to work me in the next day.  I had the ultrasound the next day then I went to see him.  He said it had to come out it was in terrible shape and I wasn't well.

On the way to surgery

6pm I am wheeled into surgery with a bad gall bladder and a liver infection.  The gall bladder came out a drain went in and while the pain from the gall bladder was gone the pain from the infection set in.

It was a rough week.  Luckily, I have great friends and a mom that cooked for me and brought be goodies and puzzle books.  I made it!!  I went back for my followup and was told how close to death I was.  That is some scary stuff.  I was also told if I had died that first night my husband could have sued because it was evident that the gall bladder was scrapping the liver raw giving me a bad infection.  It took a while for that infection to clear, the stones were so giant it rubbed the liver raw.  I had two big stones a 1 inch and a 1/2 inch.  I had asked for a souvenir since I was paying all that money for the surgery.  It took an extra incision but I got my souvenir.

the 1/2 souvenir

A year later, I am doing well. However, since I never had an symptoms until it went bad I'm not sure how I should feel.  I feel great though and lucky God spared me through the infection. And I would like to thank the lovely staff at Lourdes for treating me so well.  I would like not to thank the ER staff....who tried to kill me. 

After surgery