It's been a while...

So I thought I would post an update.

It's been another rough couple of weeks with not a lot of stitching. :(

First, because of the insane heat we've had (though the last two days haven't been too bad) it's been very hard to stitch because we don't have A/C and I have to wash my hands every three minutes. lol I tell you though, the weather network is full of crap. They said the high last Thursday was 37.6 - the thermometer on my porch said 42 and it's in the shade. With the humidity it easily felt like 50. Today is sticky again, the humidity is back, but it looks like we're in for some rain hopefully.

Second, my son moved out. While I'm immensely proud of him and happy that he's found his independence, I miss him terribly. He got a job doing road work, which was supposed to be a couple days a week for the summer, but after his first three days they offered him full time. The money and benefits are good, so he'd have been crazy not to take it. So he's staying at my parents' house (since it's much closer to work) while he saves up for his own place there. He's still planning on going to college next year too - part time - and he's still working on his tattoo apprenticeship, which will take him another year or so. Busy boy, huh? As I said, I'm very proud of him, but the house just feels so empty without him. We must have done something right though, since my mother and father keep telling me what a great kid he's turned out to be, how helpful he is around the house, and that he doesn't seem to mind spending time with grandma and grandpa. I'm getting better with it, the first couple of days I did nothing but cry. The tears have finally stopped for the most part, and they only return once or twice a day for a few minutes. So I'm on an upward climb and plan to continue that trend.

So to fill my time, I've been tearing the house apart, doing a thorough cleaning and re-organizing. I realized long ago that living with two men makes it near impossible to keep the house from being "messy". They both just drop things wherever, and their idea of cleaning is to stick things in whichever drawer or cupboard they can find room in. I do dishes and little things like sweep every day, and vacuum and clean the bathroom every other day, but to keep up with the clutter I'd have to follow them both around 24/7. Now, I only have to battle one of them, so I figured it was a good time to get things back in order, clearing out drawers and cupboards. I'm also pulling out extras (dishes, pots and pans, etc) to give to Nate for when he gets his own place. It's theraputic.

Oooh, and we've been overrun by spiders. I think we've had a couple of nests of them hatch somewhere in the house, because there are tons of these tiny little greyish green ones - smaller than gnats even - all over the place. Plus they're making webs all over the house, which I vacuum up daily only to find them rebuilt the next morning. I kill at least a couple dozen a day and there's always more. I don't particularly like killing spiders, they eat the mosquitoes and flies so I don't mind having a few around for that, but this is getting ridiculous.

On the stitching front, I've been working on Rose as I can. I've got the top half of the outer three bands done, so I'm nearing the halfway point. I'll have to post pictures in a few weeks - mom has the camera again for a couple of trips she's taking. If I can fit it on the scanner, I'll scan the top half when I finish it! I got the threads for MMG2 in the sampler colourway, so I may start working on that between the top half and bottom half of Rose.

I'm getting more and more annoyed with Canada Post by the day. My model stitcher mailed back Tulip almost 2 months ago and still no sign of it. The plan was to send it to JCS when it got here - which should have been about 6 weeks ago - so I may have to submit a different design in it's place. I've also got a parcel coming with fabric for the Antique Lace Band Sampler and threads for my bro's Christmas present, and no sign of that either. It's getting dire, I tell you. I still say that all of us small business people who depend on the mail system to do business should get together and file a class action lawsuit against Canada Post, the Postal Workers Union and Jack Layton for making our businesses (and our livelihood suffer). First we couldn't send or get anything at all, now we have to be "patient" while they sort out the mess. It would seem that they're sorting and delivering new things first, since Jon got several parcels from England last week that had been mailed at the beginning of July, yet my stuff that was mailed at the beginning of June is nowhere to be found. FRUSTRATING!!

Today's goal is to tackle the rest of the kitchen cupboards and the pantry... Jon is back to calling me Monica (from the TV show Friends) because once I get cleaning I get a bit silly about it. I said to him last night that the reason it takes me 3 times longer to clean than it does for them is because I actually do it right! I'm frightened of what I'll find shoved to the back of the pantry... probably boxes of KD from six years ago... I'm going in. If you don't hear from me in the next week, send search and rescue.