Gardening

 Last week and weekend we did a LOT of yard work!  

Chris made me 2 trough planters for me to grow veggies in.  

I dug up the horrible spread of chives. 

 I rearranged the rocks and took out the Hell grass that had gotten into the front garden. 

 I planted 2 blueberry bushes and three peony plants. 

 I planted my flat of Petunias, with the help of the little girl from next door. 

 Chris was NOT happy with all my efforts, LOL. 

 He thought I did too much.

I was tired but it felt GOOD!

This spiral stand still needs to be re-painted.

This is just one of the two planters.  

All tomatoes in this one.

While I was gardening, Chris power washed the deck.

He got to use the power washer I got him for his birthday.

Now it will need to be stained.

It was a productive week!

My last radiation treatment is tomorrow!!!!!!!!

So far so good.  

I will get to ring the bell then.

~XOP~

Happy Mother's Day

 Happy Mother's Day to all mothers, adoptive mothers, dads that are mothers,

 heck any and all that identify as a mother. 

 I was sitting out on my porch yesterday and a van drove up and a man walked up my driveway with a huge bouquet of flowers!  

They were from my three children and my grandson.

I hope you all have a relaxing, blessed day.

~XOP~

Health Update

 Hey friends!  
I am still here and doing so very well.  

All your thoughts and prayers have been working. 

I got the pathology back and the margins of the tumor excision were all clear!  

They took 3 lymph nodes and all three were negative for cancer too!!! 

 Next step is they send the tumor for an oncotype score. 

 They will look at 21 genes in the cancer and give it a score based on what they find. 

 This score is predictive of reccurance and will determine if I will benefit from having chemo. 

 If my score is low then I am guessing I will not have to have any chemo, only radiation. 

 I have a video appointment with the oncologist on April 14v to discuss my treatment plan. 

 That's the update for today.

My neighbors send me the most beautiful yellow roses!

  FIFTY of them!!

 I had to split into 2 vases!

Also, my SIL sent some food for us and one morning this was my breakfast. 

 Sugar cookies and Diet Coke!

Next I will share the projects I have been working on, so stay tuned.

~XOP~

The Haw in Swepsonville, NC

 Since we get time to ourselves while A is in day care we find other things to do to keep busy. 

 For instance I have finished binding 2 quilts, made a quilt top and have almost finished the hand work on my Quite Contrary quilt top.  

I've also finished reading 5 books. 

 This day we went to Swepsonville and found a park on the Haw river. 

 Beautiful day to go for a walk along the river.

My Batman showing off his Bat Cave shirt.

I found a few interesting plants.  

This Clematis for instance. 

 It was going to seed but still pretty.

I had Moonflowers in my yard and this blossom looked like the plant was in the same family.

Chris looked it up and it is a Datura stromonium. 

 I wish we could have seen it in blossom!

These next 2 photos reminded me of faces on the log. 

 Kind of creepy for Halloween, right?

We went to the Saxapawhaw general store and THIS time I made Chris get some "quilty" beer.

I don't really drink beer anymore but I loved this can!  

We saw them the last time we were here and I didn't buy any.

  I picked up a 6 pack this time!

We did go to the brewery there and Chris enjoyed a beer.

Next up is Avery's first birthday.  

I hope you are enjoying our trip to NC so far!

~XOP~

Happy Mother's Day

My daughter called me home from camping to celebrate Mother's Day early.

We went to the nail place and I got my toes and my fingers done.  

I decided to try something new. 

 I had a sparkly teal for the "French" pedicure/manicure.  I LOVE how this turned out!

 My daughter in NC sent these beautiful flowers.

My son gave me these beautiful flowers too. 

 Apparently everyone knows how much I love Stargazer Lillies!

My younger sister sent me the nicest card this year too. 

She has CP and I work to make sure she has what she needs to live as independently as possible.

The family took me to dinner too.  

All in all a pretty nice time!  

Just missed having my other daughter there too, but I know she was there in spirit.

On Sunday hubby and I went back to the camper.  

I thought we needed a photo of the 2 of us.  We are terrible at taking selfies, LOL.

Hope everyone had a nice weekend too, whatever you got to do.

~XOP~

WIPs With Friends

I have been so busy with the new camper that I have little to show.  

I did finish my stars and have sewn 33 sets of the setting squares but 

I forgot to take any photos of those.  

Last 4 stars of what I had to make.
Linking up with Sew Fresh Quilts

I thought I would show you my fisheries biologist daughter at work in the field.  

That right there is a 57 pound catfish!!!

I also have some pretty photos of some flowers in my garden to share.  

My coneflowers were gorgeous this year.

I planted a new foxglove and it is doing so well.  

My grandmother used to tell me the spots on the flowers were where 

the bees walked in with muddy feet!

I also had this little guy show up on my house too. 

Apparently you should not touch them as their "fur" can cause a rash.

Who knew?

I will be attending the AQS show in Grand Rapids tomorrow 

so hopefully I will have more to show next week.  T

hen we are off on another camping trip this weekend.  Trying to eek out the last bit of summer fun!

Please link up what YOU have been working on and if we can get 10 people to link up I will do another little giveaway!

~XOP~

An InLinkz Link-up

Happy Birthday! (think of the voice of Frosty the snowman here)

So, yeah, that just happened.
 I had another birthday, last Friday!
Woo Hoo!!
After dealing with so much these last few months,
 I was happy to have added another year under my belt.
 My on-line friends and my real life friends have been so great!
When I got to work a co-worker/friend had left these (from her garden) on my desk.
 Aren't they beautiful??

Then my friend, Robin, brought these great HTF Munki Munki prints and gave them to me!

Hubby came to work and took me out for lunch.  Zingerman's YUM!

When I arrived home these beauties were waiting for me from my friend Cori! 

 (Who was NOT supposed to buy me anything). 

 We usually celebrate by going out to dinner as her birthday is in July also.

We ordered Chinese for dinner and hubby bought me my favorite desert, Tiramisu.

My daughter, Shelby, took me out for dinner on Thursday to celebrate. 

 My son had the best line about my birthday too. 

 He asked me how could he compete with 7-11? 

"They celebrate your birthday by giving out free Slurpees to everyone!!!"  

LOL

On Saturday we did some running around and 

one of the places we went was the Calder Dairy farm in Carleton.

Geese on parade!  

They were walking in a straight line all by themselves.

  How odd!

What's a trip to the farm without a photo of the Calder cow?

As you saw from my last post I worked on napkins most of the rest of the weekend. 

 I just want those babies finished and out of my life! 

 I have a new project planned, but more about that once I have my fabric pulled.

Other friends from the internet sent cards, a cake, some fabric and some Best Press too.

 (Thanks, Dianne, Windy and Abby!!)   

No gifts from the family though.  

I guess that means I am free to buy whatever I want right? 

 That's how I am taking that one!  

It was a little disappointing if I am being completely honest but 

I guess it is not as exciting to them to celebrate my aging, LOL.  

How do you celebrate your birthday?

~XOP~