Catch up

Things have been pretty busy around here lately.  I volunteer a lot with DS's HS marching band.  We've finished our second week of band camp.  I work with some other wonderful women who support the band by trying to keep the kids hydrated, dispensing bandaids, etc., and generally helping out where needed.  We've been under a heat advisory since the beginning of camp and the kids so far are doing pretty well tolerating the heat.  We moms have been "working out" a lot by lugging cooler after cooler of ice water out to their practice field so they can refill their camelbacks.  This week they started putting some music to their drill, always exciting to see it begin.  Go, Buc Band!!

Yesterday we drove to Austin to move DS into his college apartment.  It's almost a 4 hour drive from here so, as you can imagine, it was a long day.  We discovered in Austin that we'd left part of his futon here at home so we'll be making another trip soon.  At least he can sleep on the mattress on the floor until we can make it back.

On the stitching front, a model I stitched for Nikki at http://www.countrycottageneedleworks.blogspot.com/ and http://www.countrycottageneedleworks.com/  has just been released on her blog so I can finally share it.  I loved this one!  My kitchen has an apple theme and I suspect I'll be stitching this one again for me.  Nikki seems to really be "on a roll" lately with lots of beautiful designs.

My birthday gift from DH this year was a StitchMate needlework stand and it just arrived Friday afternoon.  I think I'm going to love this...and wonder what took me so long to ask for it.  You can read about the stand here:  http://www.cozycottage.com/

I also finished and sent another model out to Nikki this week so I'm back to personal stitching (when I have any time or energy left from band.  I'm working on LHN's (Dianne Williams, Nikki's mother) designed this piece, Virtue Sampler:

I finished the Moonwalking with Einstein book (very interesting) and started another Erik Larson book,  IN THE GARDEN OF BEASTS: LOVE, TERROR, AND AN AMERICAN FAMILY IN HITLER'S BERLIN and am finding it very interesting.

Until next time, happy stitching!

Checking in

I'm stitching a model for CCN so I can't talk about what I'm stitching...except to say that I know you'll like it.

My foot is a lot better.  I reached a milestone in the past few days.  I can now tolerate wearing shoes on that foot and even went out yesterday to run errands wearing shoes.  Yes!!!!!  I still have a bit to go to be back to normal (well, my foot, anyway) but I'm pleased with my current progress.

Since I can't talk about stitching, I'll talk a little about reading.  I LOVE reading a good book.  I just finished one, The Devil in the White City  by Erik Larson.  It's about the Chicago World's Fair, the people and the development/building of it, it's "run", some of the developments introduced at this fair (like the Ferris Wheel), and also some side stories about other things going on about that same time including a serial killer.  The author has a great talent for telling the historical story and making it seem like a good novel.  (I was told there's a name for that writing style but the person telling me didn't remember what that name was.  If you know, I'd love for you to tell me.) 

I also read another of his books, Isaac's Storm  about the 1900 Galveston hurricane.  Unfortunately I read it shortly before moving to the Texas Gulf coast.  It scared the bejeebers out of me.  Larson has at least a couple other books out and I plan to look for them.

Someone in my SS class was talking about a book he's reading, Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer which I'm currently reading.   I remembered the title and author without looking it up.  This is significant because the book is about human memory....about the capacity of humans to remember things, how many of us forget things, about how memories are formed and retrieved, and about "mental athletes".  It could be a rather dry subject but the author makes it interesting...at least most of the time.

I love hearig about what others are reading...and recommendations for good books.

Soon both my stitching and reading will be taking a "back seat".  DS's band will be starting band camp the first week of Aug. and since I volunteer with them nearly every day.......  It's very rewarding though and they're a great group of kids  I also enjoy working with the other adults.  I'm just never ready for band to start yet.  lol!