Vacation bound!!!

Well we are off on vacation tomorrow after work. Yeah!!! I have lots of packing and things to do tonight so I am signing off. Talk to you all when we get back. Hope you all have a great week.

Linda

Bag Addict

I am going to call this confession Tuesday. As I have mentioned in a previous post I have a little bag/purse addiction. Well if I am really confessing I suppose I shouldn't use little to describe it. (ha-ha). Boy I hope my husband doesn't read this post. He would agree it's not little.

Well on with my story. I will just say I had to get another fix today (tee-hee). It all started this morning. I was on my way down to a meeting I had for work about 35 miles south of me. Been to our other building many, many times and as usually have to pass this one outdoor mall they have. Have gone by this many times as well. Well today I forgot there is a new L.L. Bean store there. Of course it was too early for the mall to be open but as I sat in my meeting getting myself distracted by thoughts of L.L. Bean I remembered I have been wanting another one of those large Madras tote bags. I already have the bright navy but when I ordered the navy they didn't have the newest one which is the multi berry in the picture above. Even though I love the navy the berry is definitely more me. Well the other day when I was ordering the cute rug online I checked to see if they had any more large berry bags. No luck. Completely sold out and I called and they said they were sold out for the season. I was bummed but went ahead and ordered the medium since I really like it. So the rug came and the bag was shipping separately. So as I sat longer in my meeting this morning I just kept thinking maybe the store has the large ones. So after I got out of the meeting I called the store and YES they had the large multi berry Madras totes and they would hold one for me!!!! Meeting was boring but I was excited now. So on my way back to the office I did a quick run in to pick up the ADORABLE!!! bag. Oh girls it is so cute in person I can't even tell you. Now that I am home UPS just delivered the medium berry tote. The girl at the store today said I can return it to the store though so that is good. I was kinda in a hurry earlier today so I didn't have time to look around. It is a 2 story LL Bean store!! So when I go return the medium bag I will have to look around a bit. My plan now is my husband can use the navy madras and the berry is for me. He liked this idea. Oh update!!!! Another LL Bean catalog just came in the mail. Madras skirts.!!!! Are they trying to drive me crazy. I love Madras and I now have no time to go to the store or order it before we leave for vacation. I hope there are some left when I get back. Oh and I just was on the LL bean site the only Madras bags left in either color is the mini. These have been super popular. The mini is too small for me. The medium could work but we are always carrying things back in forth the large works for us. Well you know the 2 bags will be loaded in the car tomorrow all ready for vacation. They are going to look so cute!!!

Bye for now. I really need to start packing!!

Linda

Weekend Update

Well even though I was completely exhausted this weekend I did force myself to get a few things done. I did go through some of my spring and summer things to get ready for vacation. This was depressing. I found many things that didn't fit me this year. Yikes!! I am donating 2 garbage bags full to charity. Not everything didn't fit just some things I don't wear any more. Our year starting with last June has just been one thing after another. First losing the baby then my mother in law having the stroke. I will be honest I have not felt much like exercising. Things have just been too busy and too depressing. I didn't gain any drastic weight but enough. I am not going to beat myself up about it though. After I was pregnant and then wasn't any more my whole body went crazy. I was only pregnant 3 months but boy it just played total havoc on me. And then with my hypothyroidism they were constantly changing my dosage of medication with all the hormone changes. The endocrinologist said it can take up to a year to get back to normal and he was right. I've now stayed on the same dose of Synthroid for 3 months now so I hope I am stable with that for now.

With my mother in law seeming to be stable we hope to head out on vacation Thursday after work!!! Yeah. My husband and I are so ready for a break. And I guess this girl needs some new clothes so I will just have to do a little shopping while I am away. I especially need summer work clothes. I have a ton of winter work clothes which I love buying but am not thrilled with summer work clothes so I hope to find some cute things in North Carolina. They tend to have a different selection down there since there weather is nicer than ours up here.

Of course I LOVE L.L. Bean and look what came today in the mail. This cute rug. I still had a $10 coupon to use so I bought this. I thought it would be cute in the house down in NC. My husband loved it too. I love my pink and green but also love anything nautical. My dream home would be overlooking the ocean. That would be if I knew there would be no hurricanes. (ha-ha).

Have a good one.

Linda

Mother-in-law update

I am happy to report my mother-in-law has bounced back once again. We are so thankful. She was doing so much better the doctor was able to discharge her from the hospital yesterday back to the nursing home. It has been such a stressful week for my mother-in-law and the entire family. It is so crazy how tired we all are. Sitting at the hospital and worrying really sucks all your energy out of you. We thank God for hearing all our prayers and watching over her during this difficult time.

We had such a beautiful day here yesterday it was wonderful. I have sooooo much to catch up on this weekend but I am not feeling real productive because I am so tired but I will just do one thing at time and get done what I can.

I hope you all have a nice weekend.

Linda

Preppy drawer pulls

Happy Thursday,

Lulu and Daisy http://luluanddaisy.blogspot.com/ are having an adorable giveaway. These cute preppy drawer pulls. Don't delay in signing up the giveaway ends tomorrow.

Linda

Beach Towel Giveaway

Good morning all,

Head on over to http://www.misadventuresofanewlywed.blogspot.com/ She is giving away a great Monogram Chick beach towel. The perfect thing to get you ready for summer. I have a tote bag from Monogram Chick. Love it!!

Linda

I spoke too soon

The latest update on my mother in law is that we received a call from the hospital this morning at 3 a.m. stating my mother in laws heart rate went to 170. They had to take her to ICU again and put her on medication that will help regulate that but they have to be in ICU for this. We just got home now. They have given her medication tonight that makes her sleepy so we are going to let her get some rest. She has definitely had a decline. She was barely able to communicate. The heart rate is doing better this evening however there is obviously more going on. I spoke with the nurse but they just don't know yet what is happening. I asked if she could have had another stroke but again it is too soon to tell. The nurse said maybe if she stabilizes some tomorrow they can do a cat scan of her head.

Well for now we will need to postpone the vacation plans. Not a big deal since we don't have plane or hotel reservations to cancel. We always drive and the house will be waiting for us when we can go. I will have to tell my work tomorrow. At this point I just keep saying prayers that her health improves.

Linda

Waiting for warm weather

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter. We went to my husbands cousins for Easter Brunch. Half way there I remembered I forgot the camera. I am still getting used to this blogging thing. We were having a wonderful time but only stayed for a short time since my mother in law is still in the hospital. She is doing so much better. I can't believe how last Wednesday we were worried she wasn't going to make it and now she is back to laughing and sharing stories. That for sure is a wonderful Easter blessing. They think she will be heading back to the nursing home this week. A long time back my husband & I had scheduled to leave for North Carolina this Friday but we thought we were going to have to postpone it. We are still waiting to see how she does but so far things look good and she said tonight she wants us to go. My husband still wants to go but we will see what the week brings us. With everything that has gone on for the past several months we haven't been down for a while. I hope we don't find any major problems when we get there. Here is a picture of me down by the ocean last June with my wind blown hair. I LOVE the ocean but I will say natural curly hair and ocean air are not a good combo (ha-ha). You can't really tell from this picture but I am wearing my FAVORITE flip flops ever--Douglas Paquette. If you've never tried them they are wonderful. They are like walking on a pillow.

Have a good week.

Linda

Happy Easter

Wishing you and your family a very Happy Easter!

Mom-in-law update

Great news this Saturday. My mother-in-law is doing much better and is now out of ICU. The doctors even say that if she continues to do well over the weekend they may be able to send her back to the nursing home on Monday. We all are very happy about this. Thank you all for your prayers they worked!!! She goes from almost dying on Wednesday to laughing on Friday. Thank you God.

I would like to wish you all a very Happy and Healthy Easter. It is supposed to be 60 here tomorrow. Our area has had below normal temperatures for so long it will be so nice to have a bit of warmer weather.

Happy Easter and thanks again for all your prayers we appreciate them so much.

Linda

Please send some prayers!!

Well we have bad news. As I have mentioned in a previous post my mother-in-law had a bad stroke after Christmas and has been in a nursing home. She has been doing so much better and her speech gets better and better each time we see her. Tonight my husband and I were on our way up for our normal visit and as we were driving we received a call from the nurse at the nursing home stating that she was unresponsive and they were sending her to the ER. We met her at the ER only to find things worse than we thought. She was unresponsive, blood pressure critically low and she wasn't breathing well. It was all whirl wind. It was crazy. There were 8-10 people in her ER room doing all kinds of tests, putting IV's in, hooking her up to all kinds of machines and finally had to intubate her and put her on a ventilator to help her breath. The ICU doctor was called down and was VERY concerned about her low blood pressure. They all were watching my mother-in-law closely which we are very thankful for. They finally had to put her on special medication that raises her blood pressure and because of this medication as well as being on the vent she was rush off to the ICU. It comes to found out she has sepsis which is a very bad infection. Now that she is in ICU she has even more tubes in her and has lots of monitors that are hooked up to her. They have her sedated due to the fact she is on the vent. Please say a prayer for her if you could she desperately needs them. She has been through so much I can't believe she is having to deal with this now. When we were in the ER we asked the ICU doctor if she was going to make it and he said he is not giving up yet. He thinks he can turn this around but told us he will let us know if he feels we are going to lose her.

Linda

Some Cute finds

Here are some of my recent purchases. First the black, white and yellow organizer can you believe I found that cute thing at Walmart for $3 or $4. Love it!! The straw purse I found for $5 yes $5!! Gotta love bargins. I thought this would be cute with some black capris or a black skirt this summer. Kinda looks like Burberry. The cocktail napkins were $1.69 and I got those at T. J. Maxx while we were in Michigan. Couldn't pass those up. And lastly the nautical knots also a T.J. Maxx find were $5.99 and $3.99. They have a nautical knot in the Ballard catalog for $39. I'll go with my cheaper version. I love nautical things and I've done our guest room in North Carolina in nautical so I'm going to do something with these in there.

Oh side note. Today I was so excited. I happened to be walking pass our gift shop at work and what do I see in the window but Lilly Pulitzer!!!! I couldn't believe it. I of course had to go in and they had lots of cute LP things. They don't carry clothing but all kinds of accessories. Nice distraction from work I have to say.

Linda

Card Class

Last night after work my friend and I went to Archiver's to attend 2 super easy card classes. We really enjoy going to these classes and have tons of fun. We are usually doing stamping or embossing etc. and make like 4 maybe 5 cards in 2 hours. Last night we made all 16 of these cards in just 2 hours. It was really fun and super easy. Sometimes there is just not enough time to get out all the supplies to make a card. These sets all came in a kit by Basic Grey and you just punch things out and stick them down. One class was for birthdays and the other was kids cards. The classes ran back to back. The pink little bird card was by far my favorite probably because it was pink.

Linda

Collecting

What do you collect? Well for me I am for some reason drawn to things that start with P. Purses, plates and paper. I know crazy. I LOVE!!! purses and totes of any kind. I have inherited this passion from my mother. I know several people that have like 2 purses and that is it. I just can't imagine. I know some don't like to switch purses but I am one who switches with almost every outfit. I have my purse pretty organized so I just need to switch a few things so it is not a big deal. People will ask me how many purses I have. Well I tell them if I don't count them I don't have to admit how many I have (ha-ha). I'll just say there is shelving and many tubs involved (tee-hee). As for the plates I have no idea how this started. I didn't intend to collect plates but when I am out I just see cute ones and they come home with me. I like to use different dinner plates, I have some really cute dessert plates and of course I guess I could include the several platters I have too. Luckily I have quite a bit of cupboard space in my kitchen to keep all these. Shhh don't tell my husband but there are a few sets of dishes that are in tubs in the garage as well as in the basement. (tee-hee) But for the most part they do fit in the kitchen. Then there is the paper. I have somehow accumulated lots of note pads, stationery etc. I have bought some myself and then I have gotten some for gifts. I love looking at cute paper when I see it in the store. There are so many cute paper things out there these days. I am on a hold for any future plates and paper purchases. Purses/Totes well I could never be on hold for that. There is that saying that a girl can't have enough shoes well I say a girl can't have enough purses :-) So let me know what you like to collect.

Linda

Lauren Nicole Giveaway

Head on over to http://laurennicolegifts.blogspot.com she is having another great giveaway!! Gotta love this cute Lilly Pulitizer jewelry roll and silver fleur de lis necklace. Contest ends April 16th and a winner (hopefully me ha-ha) will be drawn April 17th.

Linda

Gotta Love Etsy

Hi All,

I LOVE coming home to fun packages in the mail. Look what has come the last 2 days from Etsy. A set of 2 monogrammed hand towels, NC state dishtowel and Kleenex holder and a cute black and white Kleenex holder. I love everything!! My husband is a NC state graduate so I thought I would put the NC state Kleenex holder in his car and the NC state dish towel I will take down with us to North Carolina and put that cute thing in the kitchen. The adorable hand towels are for our bathroom here. I love them so much I think I am going to order another set. And that cute black and white Kleenex holder I bought that for my purse. Very handy I have to say.

We are almost to the weekend. Yeah one more day!!

Linda