TGIF...

Thank goodness that it is Friday!  After being off work for a week and a half, it was kind of a long week.  Weekends are almost always a little crazy for us or at least there is never a weekend with nothing going on.  Tonight the hubby comes home from his week long mission trip to South Dakota.  From the texts that I have gotten he seems to have had a great time and I know he will be full of stories tonight (if he's not too tired to talk!)  Tomorrow is my niece's 10th birthday party, so we'll have dinner and then go swimming.  And Sunday we are teaching Sunday School to the little ones at Church and I feel like there is something else going on but for the life of me I can't think of what it is.

So, as I have been stalking several blogs---I have noticed that I love all of the pictures they have posted.  So I will attempt to get more pictures going on my own blog, I almost always forget to have a camera with me or for the pictures I do have I am very picky and have a hard time deciding what to post.  I promise to try a little harder at this!

Back to School

So, I work in a very busy orthodontic office, and just this week I heard people talking about how school starts in 3 weeks.  It amazes me that this summer is over, June felt like it was over way too fast and I blinked and missed July!  Enrollment is next Wednesday for my Caleb and next Thursday for my Lauren...it is another year that they will not be in the same school and we will have to work out the taking to and picking up from schedule (this is something I am not looking forward to.) 

And I am still trying to process the fact that Lauren will be a Freshman!  My how time flies! The last couple of nights I have spent a lot of time looking through photos (for pictures of Grandpa) and looking at the kids and my husband and myself, I am amazed at how fast they have grown up.  I remember thinking that if we made it to the next step life might be easier..ie sleep through the night, walking, out of diapers, start school etc.  But now my advice to any new or young parents would be don't wish the time away waiting for the next step because it will come faster than you think.  Enjoy every moment you can get because they are gone way too fast! 

PS-I'm sure someone said this to me and I just didn't listen to them---please be smarter than me!

Why Silver Paisley Lining you ask?

You may be wondering where in the world I came up with the name for my blog...well it was a bit of a process.  My original name was Grey Cloud Silver Lining, but that was taken...so we went through several variations and my coworker says to me you like paisley why don't you put that in the title.  And so Silver Paisley Lining was born.  I know that is not much of a story, but to add to it---my nickname at work is grey cloud...we have moved into our current building about 2 years ago and it's a wonderful brand new place with lots of open room.  Our old building was nice, but the x-ray room (my room) was very dark because there were no windows.  I never knew what the weather was like outside and it was a little dreary in there (hence the grey cloud).

So this is my online journal, for thoughts, feelings, crafts and DIY's...oh yes and to share my junk food love!  I tried the Pringles family faves-White Cheddar Pops flavor, and they are AWESOME!  They are kind of hard to find (I can only find them at KMart).  If you can find these, you should try them out!  YUM!

DIY Project #1

So, finally Project #1---I saw this on Pinterest and wanted to create a River Rock mat for the back door.  What you will need: a mat (the one I used was the one that's been at the back door for a couple of years), this picture shows 3 bags of River rocks and actually I needed 6 bags plus I got a bag of smaller pebbles to fill in the cracks, and some super strong craft glue (I needed 5 tubes of it).

 

                                                         
Step #1-brush off the mat (unless you are using a brand new one) make sure there is no debris on it.

Step #2-start gluing the rocks onto the mat.  They are irregular shapes and may have to fit them together before you add the glue to them.

Step #3-use the small pebbles to fill cracks.  And once the rocks are glued onto the mat, let it sit for a day or two to allow the glue to set completely. 

I have had this sitting at the back door for a couple of days...we'll see if it holds up in this extreme heat.  We have been in the 100's for weeks now and there is no end in sight!  Yuck, I really don't like the extremes (sweltering summer and blizzards every week in the winter).

I hope that this is a fun project for you, because it was for me!

PS-I should probably let you know that I am a Pinterest-aholic and you will be seeing a lot of my ideas come from Pinterest.

R.I.P. Grandpa Kenny

I received the call at 5:50 this morning that Grandpa passed.  It is a very sad day for us, but he has gone home and I know he is in a happy place. 

So, third time is a charm and tomorrow I will for sure post the pictures of my project.  Sometimes life gets away from us and other things become more important in the moment.  Well, that's my philosophy moment for the night.

This woodcraft cut-out was hanging in the Chapel at Midland Hospice.  What a wonderful place with a very caring staff.  Thank you to all of you for the care Grandpa recieved!

PS-I had some fun with the Original picture that I took with www.picmonkey.com/  If you liked Picnik, then you'll love this website! 

Wow

It's been a crazy vacation (or stay-cation) for me.  As I sit here on a Saturday night I am fascinated by all of the things I have not accomplished.

I guess a little update is in order...my family made the tough decision to put Grandpa into Hospice.  When the doctors started talking about feeding tubes and the likes we knew that was something that he just didn't want.  It has been a very long process and Grandpa is still hanging in there, but my stay-cation has allowed me the opportunity to spend some time with him and I have had a few very special moments with him.

My very extra special wonderful hubby cut his trip to his father's house short to be with me an extra night.  Now as I sit here, he has left again to go on his mission trip with several youth and leaders from northern Kansas (28 people in all).  My biggest worry for him is this heat!  I am almost 100% sure that he will waste away in this heat.  I guess we will see when he gets back.  (I miss him terribly already!)  Oh, and did I mention that he has poison ivy on his arm...yeah, that's an extra special misery for the trip.  Love you hun!

So, my daughter and I are having some girl time while dad and brother are gone.  We went to the grocery store tonight and of course being junk food queens, we ended up with more junk than good for you food (we did get some good stuff fruit, breakfast stuff and sandwich stuff...)  We also had to purchase her dance shoes today.  She needed new pointe shoes for ballet, black and tan jazz shoes and jazz tennis shoes for dance team, plus tights and all the other bits and pieces...I'll just say it's good that dad was not home to see that bill! (And even better that he doesn't read this blog!)  She is so excited for high school and all the things that go with being a Freshman.  And I just can't believe we have a freshman in high school!  Oh how time flies, enjoy it while it lasts!

The son is on his whirl-wind (is that the right wording?) tour of the Grandpa's houses.  He stayed with my father-in-law a few extra days and then was taken to my father's house.  I know that he enjoys being away from his sister and getting all of the attention for his self.  (Love you bud, and I miss you too.)

So it's Saturday night and have another big week planned.  It's summer and in an Orthodontic office that means busy, busy, busy!  Plus Lo (the daughter) has dance camp, my niece turns 10 and we have Church and a pool party tomorrow---oh and a baby shower.  Oh, my. 

I know that I promised pictures of my recent craft project, but I think that will wait until tomorrow or Monday...I know that I have talked your ear off tonight.  (PS-I am still reading the Diary of a German War Bride, it's just taking longer than I thought it would)

Good night for now.

What a day...

Well, today I spent most of the day at the hospital.  Grandpa is fighting an infection and it's taking a lot out of him.  I do have to say that the level of care he is getting at this hospital is above and beyond what he was getting at the other hospital.  And that is a real comfort to me.  Hopefully he can get better soon and get back to the nursing home he was at for just a day (if even that long).

While I was listening to Grandpa snore away ;-) I started reading a book from the library.  It's called Diary of a German War Bride by Trudy McFarland.  It's pretty fascinating so far.  Trudy has published her mother's diaries that were started when Barbara was seven years old.  What I find fascinating so far is the fact that my great-great grandmother on mom's side of the family was a German immigrant and I feel like these might be things she felt or did or had issues with.  My Grandma had told me once that her grandmother didn't want to teach her kids and grandkids German because we live and America and English is our language...and this is one of the things in Barbara McFarland's diaries.

Then I thought about all of the blogs out there and the fact that these are online diaries/journals that the Internet has allowed us to publish ourselves for everyone or no one to read and I think that's pretty cool.  There are a lot of bloggers out there and I love to read what they have to say.  Mostly for the decorating tips, fashion advice or recipes...but sometimes for the fun of seeing what other families are like. 

I guess this isn't just blogs, but facebook, Twitter and all of the others.  There is a friend on facebook that posts an online journal of the fun things her boys do and say and I love to read her daily posts.  She is a wonderful mother!

Tomorrow I promise to post the back door rock rug that was my weekend project but until then, Good night.

Sent the fam packing....

My vacation didn't work out as planned.  Grandpa took a turn for the worse yesterday and ended up back in the hospital.  After several tests, we have ruled out a stroke at this point, but he was sleeping all day today and we just don't know. 

So, I have opted out of the little family trip to visit my father-in-law and stayed home to be with my family.  It's not the vacation tha I planned but I have managed to get an appointment for a massage on Thursday and Miss Melissa is the best! 

I think that's all I can write for tonight...but I should say that it's hard to find the silver lining in all of this right now.  Hopefully I can have a better outlook on things tomorrow.

PS-(thanks for listening)

Yeah for Vacation!

An update on Grandpa, the doctors will be talking with Grandma in the morning, but he is doing better.  They took the temporary pacemaker out and they think that the meds are working for him now. I think that he will be going into a care facility for a while (or longer) tomorrow or the day after.  Now we need to worry about a more permanent solution.

I have finished my last day of work for the next 10 days.  It has been extremely rough week so the R&R is definitely in order.  I plan to try and figure out how to post pictures onto this blog and upload a couple of pictures of my current craft projects.  If I can't figure it out, my little sis can surely help me (for that matter I'm sure my 12 and 14 year olds can help too).  I also plan to work on a couple of Christmas presents (because it is never too early to stock pile these gifts).

More exciting news, we got our new chest of drawers that match each other and our bed.  Now we have a matching set (it only took 16 years of marriage to get this).  It may take a while, but we will soon get the master bedroom put together.

To do list for the Master Bedroom:
-rip out the carpet and put something different in (carpet or hard wood of some kind)
-hang the picture we bought at World Market a few months ago
-paint the room (don't know what color yet)
-get some sort of night stand (one to match my husbands or something different-don't know yet)
-a couple of smaller pictures for above hubby's dresser and wall by the window
-find a nightstand for my side of the bed
That means it's time to start shopping the sales and clearances and garage sales (although it's a little hot for the garage sales.)  One of these days I will post our Garage Sale rules the how's and why's and what not to do's.

So that's it for tonight, hopefully tonight I can't get to sleep at a decent time!

One more day...

Today was a pretty long day.  I worked mos tof the day away, but then went to the hospital to spend some time with Grandpa.  He is doing better, this evening was moved out of ICU and taken to the cardiology unit to be watched overnight.  We'll hope that tomorrow is even better! 

Speaking of tomorrow, it's my last day of work for 10 days and I can't wait for some rest and relaxation!  Woohoooooo!  Then I can start posting pictures of the projects I've been working on.

Talk to you tomorrow.

Not quite the day I expected

What a day!  It's summer and of course our office is crazy busy, almost too busy to think.  In the middle of the morning my mother called and said that they were taking my Grandpa Kenny to the hospital it was a little scary and overwhelming.  Since I had another patient before lunch and no one really available to take over my position so that I could leave, I called my wonderful husband who rushed down to be at the hospital with Mom and Grandma until I could get there.  He is a very steady guy who can be the voice of reasonwhen needed...(any time in the hospital it's definately needed!)

Just to make this quick he is in ICU with a temporary pacemaker in while they are running tests over the next couple of days to see if a regular pacemaker is needed.  When I saw him this evening he seemed to be in pretty good spirits, which is a very good thing.

On a side note: This was not in the plan as something to add to the blog, but it happened, and I thought that I should document thoughts and feelings through this too.  I promise to post some of the projects that I have been working on and some pictures from our short vacation.

More soon...

Oh my goodness...

Wow!  Okay, I have wanted to start a blog for a while now and have finally taken the plunge.  Let me just say for the record-now that I have a blog I am scared!  I follow several blogs and all of these other girls make it look sooooo easy! 

Well, this is where I plan to post a little bit of everything (food/cooking, crafts/DIY/decorating, life, family and friends).  For a while it may be one or two posts a day (I have a lot on my mind lately-hence the need for this outlet) then may be one a week.  Who knows, but I hope that I can put something out there that is useful to you.

Thanks!