EEKS!! - Another Closet De-Stashed!! - September 30, 2011

We are still just having the best of best times!! We have pretty much stitched all day, except for short de-stashing time. Going to stitch tonight and some tomorrow. Then, come Sunday will be my tears as Debra must go back home!!

We opened "the" closet today!! Hundreds of kits, most untouched and unopened, come flying out at us. Now, I have to decide "keep" or "out" so we can begin our evenings stitchings.

We "think" tonight is the night for Karen to finally give in and pick up the needle!! I sincerely hope she does. Each kit is just more cute than the last for her. I keep telling her she needs to start stitching to help me get through them.

Got lots I want to keep, but many more that I love, but simply know I will never get to.
I had to take a break for a few hours yesterday to attend a luncheon honoring my dear friend, neighbor and caregiver, Eunice. She was selected as top teacher in Iowa that returned to work after age 55 for 2011. There were two Iowa Senators in attendance. I am sitting at head table in bottom left hand corner across from Eunice's daughter, Zennia, who came in from Chicago for this great honor of her mother. Eunice truly deserved to be given recognition for all she has done for every one.
They told of every year of her life and what she accomplished right down to 2007 when she realized she had neighbors who were experiencing very "tragedic and serious problems" right across the street from her and how she simply just ran and took over even before she truly knew us. She surely helped me in giving Max and I another four years together that we probably would never have had. And, I know I would not have been able to gain as much independence as I have without her continual presence in our lives. It was very nice to see her receive such an award and honor.

We are sadly starting Debra's last day and evening to be with me in Iowa. I am going to be quite upset when she has to go back to the airport. My dear friend, Karen, has been with us a great majority of these days as her husband is away in Arizona for a few weeks. Karen is not a cross stitcher, however, she has had as much fun with us as Debra and I have had. Karen will be the one driving us back to the airport which is about a hour away on Sunday morning. This will make it a bit easier on me, but I truly am going to hate to see this time come. However, I was very fortunate in that Debra was able to extend her stay these past five days!!

Debra and Karen became almost instant friends also. They worked very hard in trying to finish yet a bit more of my "de-stashing". It is almost impossible for me to get into the closets and totes and other areas to access the piles of stash. They went through and pulled many, many boxes out and brought them to me to go through while sitting in my chair and assisted me in sorting it all. I believe the last I was aware of that Karen had taken five large boxes of just charts down to the lower level of my home. I truly do not know how to go about finding new homes for all these things!! At least now, they are all out of sight and hopefully will go out of mind until I can decide on a way to do this process.

Very excited about getting back to stitching this evening as some very all time favorites were pulled out for me to see and keep at my reach today!!

Love and Hugs!!

Deborah