A warm thanks to everyone: )

 I just wanted to say thank you so, so much for all the kind comments on my posts about my friend Amy. I really appreciate your warm thoughts and prayers.
Sometimes it helps to put what you're thinking, feeling or going through into words when it feels like you are the only one. And to know that someone out there reads it, has experienced it or understands what you are feeling really makes a difference. Ashton is dealing with it a lot better too. She and I have shed many tears, shared many stories of our friend and some laughter as we remember things that Amy would say in a way that we now call "that's so Amy".
Time does eventually heal all wounds. And those that have left us behind are never truly gone, they are forever with us, as long as we remember them.
Till next time,
Kimberly : )

Saying Goodbye

  It so hard for me to believe it has been just over a week since the memorial service for my friend Amy.  It was beautiful, if that can be said for a memorial service. Friends gathered in a room filled with pictures of Amy and her pets. I have had a very difficult time dealing with the circumstances of her accident. Sometime after midnight on January 24th she lost control of her car, struck a phone pole on the right side of the road, crossed to the left side and struck a bridge support causing her car to burst into flames. She had to be cut from her vehicle and the firefighters found her faithful furry friend Calvin lying in her lap. I was told she did not suffer and I know she is with our Lord and Savior now. I just can not grasp why terrible things happen to good people.

I am very blessed to have known her. I have many wonderful memories of my sweet friend. Thank you Amy for all the talks and all the laughs.

Amy Lynn Zinsser

April 21, 1977 - January 24,2011

Calvin & Tasha

Till next time,

Kimberly: )

When God called Amy answered

My heart is broken and my mind is confused as I try to understand why bad things happen to great people.

On Monday just past 12 a.m. my dear friend Amy lost her young life in a car accident.

This is a picture of Amy & me at my bridal shower in the spring of 2009.

She was such an amazing person. She was an artist and she had worked for several years at a local Animal Hospital before becoming one of Fayetteville's best hairdressers. Everyone who met her instantly loved her. She cared about everyone she knew. It is still hard for me to believe, I can't help but think that if I show up for my 3:30 appointment today she will be there waiting with a smile.

Amy had her two dogs Tasha & Calvin with her and if animals do go to heaven then they too are in the presence of our Lord. Please pray for her family.

Thank you for following,

Till next time,

Kimberly

Feeling lazy

 Good evening blog friends, I hope every one's new year is off  to a great start. We had a very nice New Year celebration here at home with the kids. We ordered deli trays, made desserts, drank some Moscato {fruit punch for the kids} and it was nice, just the family.

This is the new cross stitch project I'll be working on from time to time when I'm not working on smaller projects. I have always loved these prints so when I found the cross stitch kit on clearance at Michael's I knew I had to have it.

I have gotten a bit more of it done since I took this picture but I know it will take me a while to complete it because I keep stopping to work on pin keeps and things like that.

I haven't been feeling well lately, I have COPD and sometimes simple things like sweeping or mopping the lobby {sometimes our clients pets have accidents} at work is a difficult task and can bring on an attack which is what happened a couple of days ago. This one was severe enough to cause me to nearly pass out.

Struggling to breathe causes my chest to feel sore, kinda like I've been kicked. And I feel tired a lot. I know anyone out there living with COPD or Asthma know what I'm talking about. I have never smoked nor has anyone around me so my doctor isn't quite sure how I came to have it. For a while they thought it was my heart because I was having severe chest pains and had been sick for months. After a visit to Cape Fear Valley ER I was finally diagnosed with COPD.
I would love to hear from any of you who have COPD or has someone in your family who does.

Thanks for stopping by.

Till next time,

Kimberly : )

Yes Kimberly there is a Santa Claus!

  I made a wish for Christmas and it came true, one day late.

I have always said that if we have to suffer through cold weather we should be rewarded with snow. Well, sometime after midnight last night we were rewarded with beautiful, fluffy snow. I was so excited, I couldn't wait to go out by the lake behind our house and take pictures. Around 9 a.m. Chris and I took Baby and Harley out to play in the snow. Baby wasn't quite sure what to think of it, she took very careful steps and kept sticking her nose in it. Harley on the other hand was petrified. The snow was about as deep as he is tall, so once we put him in the snow he didn't dare move. We snapped a couple pictures of them and let them back inside to snuggle under the warm blankets.

The large picture in the collage is  the view from our bedroom window.

After coming inside to warm up a bit we decided to drive down to the Food Lion a couple miles from our house to return a couple red box movies and to let Ashton get some peanut butter cookies and Hershey kisses so she could make cookies. Can you believe FL doesn't sell peanut butter cookies in the refrigerated section? I mean really? They have every possible type of premade cookies but no peanut butter! Ahhh, well after pulling the recipe up on her phone and seeing that the ingredient list seemed as long as her arm she decided she'd "settle" for the premade cookies with peanut butter cups in them.

On the way home from FL Chris pulled over to the side of the road so I take a picture of this big tree.

The snowman was made by some of the neighborhood kids, I love his hat.

Chris and I took a walk after the Chicago bears game { yay bears} so I could take more pictures of the snow. I know it seem like I've never seen snow before but you see, we don't get very much snow here in Fayetteville so this one is definately a treat. I think we go about 6 inches. I know most of you get much more than that and 6 inches seems like nothing, but this is probably the only snow we'll get this winter.

I can definately say I got my Christmas wish, I hope you got yours too.

Till next time,

Kimberly: )

Merry Christmas!

A little more of our Christmas decor.

We have had a very blessed Christmas this year and I hope each of you have too.

Where did the time go???

 Where did the time go? I can't believe tomorrow is Christmas day! I've been away from blogging much longer than I planned to be. I tried to do most of my shopping a little each day on my lunch break which was much better, less crowds.
 In the evenings I was busy stitching Christmas ornaments for the receptionists, managers and doctors at the animal hospital and wouldn't you know it, I forgot to take pics to show you.

 On December the 11th we had our staff Christmas party at Dr. K's house.

This is the CFAH gang minus two who were out of town.

This past Wednesday Ashton got her drivers license. She was so nervous, but the driving instructor she had kept her busy with chit chat and she completely forgot about her jitters and passed with flying colors.

I thought I would show you a few more pictures of the decorations around the house.

This is a little shelf  that sits on top of a bench in my dining room, I change it out depending on the season.

I guess by now you can tell I love Santa's. The first one I found last year at TJ Maxx for $4.99, the Santa holding the bell I also found last year at Marshall's for $5.99 and the Santa holding the wreath I got at couple of months ago at Prim & Proper.

These are the tallowberries that my friend Sherrie gave me a couple of months ago. I added some pine stems that I found on sale at  Hobby Lobby.

This is my Snowman grouping in my bedroom hallway.

And I guess you could say that I also love snowmen. I found these prim guys at CCTT last year after Christmas for 50% off.

A sampler girl freebie that hangs by my front door. I found the frame at Hope Harbour for .39 cents.

The timer for my green bean casserole just dinged, so I'm off for now to finish cooking a few things and I have a few more gifts to wrap.

 I hope everyone is having a great and safe holiday.

Till next time,

Kimberly: )

I love Sunday's and lots and lots of Christmas pictures

 Good afternoon folks. I hope everyone is having a great day. I must say that Sunday's are my favorite. I was fortunate enough to be off yesterday so I took advantage of that time and went to Hope Harbour to look for a small square frame for a Sampler Girl freebie {to be posted later} I just finished stitching. I can always count on my favorite thrift store to come through for great frames for less than $1.00. After leaving HH I stopped by Prim & Proper to see how the Christmas open house was going. Tony and Tandra were busy helping customers and setting out tasty refreshments. It was a cold rainy day mixed with sleet but that couldn't keep those of us who love P&P away. I saw so many things there that I love but exercised discipline and stayed within the $20.00 budget I set for myself. I found exactly what I went there for, grungy tapers, a tiny candle ring/wreath and a dishtowel. After leaving P&P Ashton and I headed into town to do a bit of Christmas gift shopping at Woof Boutique and Barkery for my granddogs Sasha & Lucy. I luv, luv this store! Kim has everything you could ever want for your fur baby, and her staff are wonderful.

 So, today is kinda, sorta my be lazy day. You know, laundry, a bit of housework, bathe the dogs, a bit of stitching and net surfing. Lazy.

 Ok, I went on and on long enough about my weekend so I'll  let you get back to yours, but please do continue scrolling down to see a bit more of my Christmas decorations.

I got this box from Country Comes to Town to add to my stack of old boxes/trunks that are in my den but decided to put hangers on the back and hang it on the wall instead. I hung the dish towel and tiny wreath that I got at P&P yesterday on the door.

Closeup of the top of  the box/cabinet.

I got this Santa last year from Jenny at Just Country, he's one of my favorites.

He sits on top of the bookshelf in our den next to one of my small Christmas trees .

This is the small tree on the nightstand in our bedroom.

I call it the family tree because it has the ornaments on it that I stitched with all our names.

Santa & Elmer {another one of my favorites} sit on the nightstand next to my tree.

I hope you enjoyed my Christmas photos. I'll be back soon with more.

Till next time,

Kimberly : )

Goodies in the mail and a few more Christmas pics

                         Look what the mail lady brought me on Friday!!!

Last week I ordered these from Kath at The Olde Weeping Cedar. I was surprised to get them so fast. I luv, luv them! It's a combination of a bundt cake, three antique mold pantry cakes and a dozen of her prim cini mini's. I love them so much that I emailed her with another order. Be sure to check out her blog to see more prim items for sale.

Can you believe these are the same bowls that the pantry cakes are in? The bottom one I got some months ago at Hope Harbour for $2.00 and I bought the one with ivy painted on it for $1.00 yesterday from a vendor that was set up outside CWF.

I started sanding and painting them as soon as I got home.

Here they are on my dining table. Not sure if this grouping will stay but it works for now.

The quilt shelf in the den decorated for Christmas.

I think these Santa's are my favorites so far. I bought them last year at Prim and Proper after Christmas for 50% off.

I almost forgot to fill you in on my turkey cooking experience. As I mentioned on Thanksgiving I was cooking my first ever turkey. I know that seems hard to believe but I'm kinda weird because I don't like to touch raw meat. It completely grosses me out. But, since Chris had to work for a few hours that day the job was mine. I did ok getting it out the plastic wrap but I had to call Chris and put him on speaker for the rest. I mean really, what purpose does putting the neck and giblet things INSIDE the turkey. Really? That was the single most disgusting thing I have ever done. I know some of you are rolling your eyes and thinking pa-lees! But, put yourself in my shoes. There's just something about the way it FEELS! YUK! YUK! And double YUK!

But any who, Ashton woke up and came to my rescue. She injected the sauce into the turkey for me and I finished the rest. And after spending much time on pins and needles the house began to fill up with the aroma of turkey cooking in the oven. And, surprise! Surprise! It turned out juicy and tender and everyone loved it. I was so proud of myself, but boy-o-boy, do I ever hope and pray that Chris is off the next time we cook a holiday meal : ).

Thanks for stopping by,

Till next time,

Kimberly: )

Happy Thanksgiving!!

A quick post today while my green bean casserole cooks to say that I hope everyone has a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving.

Chris is working today so Ashton and I will attempt to cook the turkey. Not sure how that will turn out as it will be our first attempt. I know, all these years and I have never had to be the one to do the deed. Someone else has always cooked the turkey and I've always did the trimmings and desserts, so wish us luck.

Today is also a day for us to give thanks for all the blessings in our lives. Though there are far to many to list them all, I know I am blessed to have the love of my family, a roof over my head, food to eat and a job that I love. I know that God blesses me each and every day that I live and I am thankful.

And, can you believe it? We finally started decorating for Christmas.

Yesterday was a busy day of Dr. Appointments, stops at Harris Teeter, Aldi, Food Lion and Wal Mart to get all the things we need to cook for Thanksgiving dinner. And after a quick bite for lunch we headed to storage to get all the Christmas decorations {it took both cars}. Unpacking everything created a mess but it was an organized mess {there is a method to my madness}. So in between cooking and crossing my fingers and praying the turkey is edible I will be working on the mess I left last night.

I'm off for now to do a bit more cooking and cleaning before Erik, Amber and Ben's girlfriend arrive.

Till next time,

Blessings,

Kimberly : )

P.S. I guess that wasn't such a quick post after all : )

Where do the Years go??

 Wednesday my son Erik turned 21. It seems like only yesterday he was a little boy and now he is all grown up and married. Chris, Ashton and me met him, Amber and a group of their friends at Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner.

This is Erik proudly wearing his wing master crown.

Erik and Ashton.

And Ash after she took his crown.

Erik and Amber {to his left} and their closest friends. We all had a really nice time, lots of good food, lots of laughs. That's it for the birthdays this year, NOW, I can finally give Christmas gift making/shopping my full attention. I always say I have to get past the birthdays first, one in September, two in November. Then I begin the countdown for Christmas.

Is it just me or does it seem that the older your children get the more difficult they are to buy for?

Well folks, I'm off for now to relax {stitch} a bit before heading off to bed.

Till next time,

Kimberly : )