F R I D A Y!!!!!

I am always glad to see Friday come, and today is no exception. It seems the past few weeks & weekends have been a whirlwind of activities and finally this weekend we have no plans other than church on Sunday. I am very much looking forward to relaxing a little bit. It is very rare for my boss to be out of town over a weekend, so that means I won't even have to check my email or worry about work for the next 2 days. What a relief!
I would like to take Logan for a "back-to-school" haircut and maybe some clothes shopping, but we'll just see how that goes. It is always an argument getting him to go for a haircut, but as you can see from the photo - he definitely NEEDS one! He is not confident in a lot of areas, but he definitely loves his hair!
Mom had a health scare this week with her heart, and she is going to see a cardiologist next week. I am growing more concerned with her health issues, and I wish she would take better care of herself. She is diabetic, has high cholesterol, a recurrent pituitary tumor, gout, and now some type of heart issue. Her PCP did an EKG on her this week and saw something he didn't like. I was discussing with my beloved therapist last night how scary it is to only have one living parent and see them go through health scares. I don't like the feeling at all.
On a happier note, I will hopefully have time to finish tacking my quilt this weekend so that Mom & I can bind the edges on Monday night (sewing lesson night) and it will be ready for use! I can hardly wait.

The Porch Cam

I have a new obsession and everyone who knows about it thinks I'm nuts. (Well, I am nuts, but that's beside the point). I have gone through repeated phases of missing my home and family when I'm at work during the day. This became especially keen after my surgery in March (boy is that a blog for another day).
As a little prequel, Kristi & I have a link to the Clearwater Beach Pier Cam and we watch it frequently. There are 3 stationary cameras that show Clearwater Beach from 1) a condo; 2) the pier; and 3) the marina. We watch these cameras all year long, but most obsessively right before and right after vacation. These cameras gave me an idea ... and then Amazon provided the catalyst. They put indoor/outdoor monitoring cameras on the Gold Box Deal of the day a couple of months ago. So I bought one. After explaining to Artie what I wanted to do, and watching his eyes roll completely back in his head, I hooked it up. On our screened-in porch. And now I can view our screened-in porch in all its glory at any time, from anywhere, even from my iPhone.
Now, to be clear, not much takes place on our screened-in porch. During the day when I'm at work, Artie is either at work or school, and Logan is in his depths of his xbox world. So no one is on the porch then. Why would I want to stare at an empty porch?
Well, it gives me peace. It reminds me of what is waiting for me at home after a long, stressful work day. It reminds me how blessed I am to have such a beautiful home. It shows me what the weather is like at home and how many cars are across the road at the pool. And when Artie is at home from school, I can see him sitting out there reading the paper or watering the plants. Occasionally I ask Logan to just walk out there and wave at me. Sometimes he will and sometimes he'll just say, "Mom," in that you-are-so-ridiculous tone of voice that teenagers have perfected. So my new obsession is the porch cam, and whether or not you think I'm nuts, I love it!

Returning to Blog World

After a long absence, I am returning to the blog world. I tend to get lazy after blogging for a week or two, but hopefully I can stick with it.
I have a renewed interest in some of my previous crafting activities, such as quilting and cross-stitching. We will see how long my wrists can take the extra work. I got a new sewing machine for my birthday and have managed to put together my first quilt on my own. Mom has helped me pin it all together now so it can be tacked. The whole sewing & quilting process makes me feel closer to my grandmother, Kathleen Valentine, who died in 1998. I miss her every single day.
I have a very busy day ahead of me at the office, but I have lots of blogging ideas and will try to blog more later today.