M is for the million things she gave me......

I want to start out by wishing all mothers and all women and Happy Mother's Day! Now time for the weekend recap.

I was planning on taking my mother, sweatshop worker Kimmy and her mother to Lancaster, PA for the day on Saturday. We were all looking forward to having a great time and some yummy pot roast. We didn't make it so we will be going this upcoming Saturday. Instead mom decided or let's say mom's health decided for her that she didn't need a trip to Lancaster, she needed a trip and overnight stay at the hospital.

*In my most TV Game Show announcer voice over cheesy game show music*
Yes, that's right! Mom you get to spend two glorious nights at the Robert Wood Johnson Hospital at Hamilton. Your stay will include two bags of fluids, a CAT Scan of your skull, 4 EKG's, an Ultra sound of your heart and coradordic auteries and several blood pressure checks. Also included in your stay is crappy hostipal food and several large pills that we're sure you will have a hard time swallowing. All travel accomidations will be provided by your local EMT & ambulance squad!

Mom was not feeling all the great Friday afternoon but insisted she cut the grass because after 10 days of rain it needed it bad. It was hot and sticky and of course she was not providing herself with enough fluids. She also had a recent medication change and she doesn't always eat properly or get enough vitiams. So while waiting for a table at Uno's she passed out and whacked her head on the floor. She says she doesn't really remember much more than herself not feeling good and getting up and walking over to me to tell me. But she didn't get that far. I turned to look at her and she was already on the ground. Passed out cold for about a minute and came to pretty slow. There were two men in the vastible asking her questions and helping me stay calm. I wish I could have thanked them because they really did help me stay level headed when all I wanted to do was freak out. EMT's came really fast, thankfully and they were great getting her hooked up and quickly to the ER. Later in the ER mom said there were two men and a women who mom mistaked for a man. She said her name was Meghan which then promtated lil' bro to provide some comic relief by telling me about a clip from Family Guy.

Lesbian Quartet | Movies & TV | SPIKE.com

He is good for a laugh. Mom had to have a CAT Scan and when she asked why he responded, "They have to see if you knocked the hamster off it's wheel when you whacked your head." Poor mom, down and out and getting picked on. But she may have deserved it (not really) because she kept breaking the hospital machines. No kidding! Either she has evil super powers or this hospital needs some funding for new stuff. The EKG machine went screwy,twice, the automated blood pressure cuff wouldn't work, her TV had no sound, the fluid drip regulator kept beeping and had to be replaced and her room clock stop working in the middle of the night. Good news is that it appears to be low potassium and dehydration. So I busted her out this morning (well, they let her go, I didn't take her without permission but it sounded cooler). I mean it would have really sucked if she had to be in there on Mother's Day. But now, I will be keeping a better eye on her because she scared the bloody hell out of me and I never want to go threw that again.

So kids a word of advice, if your body is trying to tell you something, anything, listen to it. Don't ignore your upset stomach, light headed, dizzy, nauseous feelings because if you ignore them they will slap you down and down hard.

That is what I spent my weekend doing. Hospital duty, laundry, yeah fun and this:

This is a full sheet. 6141 stitches plus a whip stitch border. Needless to say this is a very limited edition. I did this piece entirely myself and I have to say that I appreciate my sweatshop workers a lot more after this. I am very proud I did it all myself but I realized how much I would rather cut, prep and assemble then fill in. I mean that is why I have a sweatshop.

I may did a little break after this and do something fun, small and quick for myself just to recharge a bit. I don't want to get burned out and loose my mojo, the summer hasn't even started yet.

But it's a beautiful day, It's a beautiful sunrise....

Yes, I guessing most don't know that line or song or even artist. It's by Saving Abel and the song is Beautiful Day. It's a slow song, not my type and it's kind of sad. Now the reason I'm using it is not because I'm a huge fan of any sort, though I did see them open for Seether and Nickelback. They do have a few good songs (18 days and Addicted) and were really good live. I picked it because it will be a beautiful day when Saving Abel stops sending me text messages. While at said concert, I texted in during the show for a chance to win a signed guitar. Who wouldn't want a cool free guitar signed by a band? But by sending this text and entering to win, I apparently also was signed up to receive text message (about once a week) from the band. I no longer want to receive them but I haven't yet figured out how to make them stop, thus it will be beautiful day once I do.

This is three for one blog and all follow the beautiful day theme. Since I haven't blogged in a few weeks and already broke my goal of trying to blog once a week, I figured I would make it up to you all. (My faithful 5 readers). So I've broken this blog up into three parts. Why not just do three separate blogs? Feels like getting credit for something I didn't do.

Be very very quite, we're hunting dandelions, hahahahahahaha.
Sweatshop worker mom loves to do yard work when not working in the sweatshop. Her favorite pass time in the spring is hunting dandelions. And though I tease her about it endlessly, it is addicting to search for them, the trill of the hunt.
She's even got CEOreo out looking for them.So every evening when she gets home she goes out with her handy dandelion picker and a bag and goes to work.

She said the yard was becoming overgrown with them!!!!! Really?!?! OK, lets play a game, I used the larger format for this photo of our backyard. See how may dandelions you can find. Don't cheat by scrolling down to the answer. I'll give you a minute.





No cheating.




Ok you ready for the answer key?





Five. There are five dandelions in the backyard and it is considered over grown.

Too bad dandelion wine is not to my liking. I'd have a cellar full.

It's all fun and games until someone breaks a broom.

My idea of being an "outside" girl is sitting on the deck in the sun, chilling out and crafting. Sweatshop worker mom's idea is yard work. Now we know that she hunts dandelions but that is just a small part of her outside activities. She loves working in the yard. Loves it. She likes to cut the grass, pull weeds, trim and overall make the yard look great. And I must say that it always looks great and has a wonderful curb appeal.

I don't participate in those outside activities if I can help it. I have been tricked into assisting from time to time. I have helped with the beautification of the flower beds in the front yard and the rebuilding of the deck in the back yard, to name a few. Mom does all the other dirty work. However, she does not like to use the edger. She doesn't like the sparks that occur when you happen to accidentally hit the concrete. Since she seems to make a lot of sparks I have been entrusted with the edger job. I do occasionally make some sparks but I think it's cool. Of course it does wear down your blade quickly. Edging thankfully is not a weekly job like grass cutting. I usually edge about 3 times during the season and then in between mom uses the evil weed-wacker. So I was commissioned to edge for the first time of the season a few weeks ago. But I don't just get roped into edging, I also get clean up duty. That means sweeping. Ugh!

But if I'm going to do it then I'm going to put my heart into it like my mother does. Last year while sweeping, mom broke her broom, yes broke it. She was sweeping and sweeping and it just broke clean off and went flying across the yard. So this year she had to get a new broom. So she bought a cheap broom since it was for outside. I warned her that she should be a heavy duty broom since she has a super power of broom breaking. She said that this new broom would be fine. So, she got the broom at 5:30 pm while food shopping. She came home put the food away, ate dinner and was out in the yard by 7:00 pm. I was instructed to edge and sweep at approximately 7:30 pm. Yard work and clean up was nearing completion at around 8:00 pm (getting dark now). I was quickly sweeping and then.........I broke her new broom a 8:15 pm. This poor broom didn't have a chance. So now we have two broke brooms in the garage.And mom now has a nice heavy duty wooden broom that I got for her from Home Depot. If either one of us breaks that sucker, I'm just done with yard work.

We also have a new addition to our yard ornaments. I got this little guy for hubby and now that the sun has been shinning he is working. Kind of spooky but super cool.

BEST Hubby EVER!!!
YEAH!!! I got to see hubby again this weekend after not seeing him for many, many, many, many weeks. I missed him oodles. Of course I never get to see him with out some sort of work involved. I got to bring him supplies and I got to bring home, wash and return laundry. That is ok though, cause I get paid..........IN PINS!!!!! I think that is a great trade! HaHaHaHubby was in Los Angels for a few days and I didn't want to bug him about the Disney Soda Fountain and Studio Store. I know he is busy and seems to get annoyed with me when I ask. I get excited because he is there but I know he doesn't feel that way at all when it comes to pins, Disney and crowds. So I only mentioned it once and I prefaced with, "I know you are busy and I'm not asking for you to make a special trip but if you get anywhere near the store and have a chance, there are a couple pins that I would like" So not expecting anything I forgot about it. Until, he called me on a Saturday night at about 11:15pm, with him asking, "I'm here, what do you want?"

Such pressure and I have to move so fast because his patience runs thin. So I quickly looked up what was available and then we did the pin phone call dance. Now, the only way I can describe this is, imaging someone calling you while you are at any shopping store that you are extremely unfamiliar with and asking you to find them something that you have no clue as to what it is. That is what this is like. Hubby saw me in action briefly while on vacation this year. I told him I was running into the pin store while we were waiting for the parade to begin. 10 minutes, 25 pins and $200 dollars later, I was done, picked out, paid for and ready to go.

I know what I'm looking for but to have to describe it to him or worse have him describe them to me can be painful on so many levels. I urn to be there just doing it myself but I have to rely on him and use him sort of puppet like to get the goods. So after a short and painful conversation he ended up getting me 8 really excellent pins. Yeah him! But I decided that there has to be a better way. So because this tour takes him to WDW and DL, I made him a shopping list. Complete with photos, prices and descriptions, he is armed with an eight page list and ready to make his wife super duper happy. And I feel better about having to drive in NYC and North Jersey traffic several times, doing laundry and cleaning a bus. Wish him luck!

Because of my hubby's unique profession, it some times leads to some unique opportunities. But I learnt early on to always be & act professional, try & keep my cool and never ask for anything from anyone, photo, picture or otherwise. So imagine my surprise when I was offered the chance to meet the talent.

I'm not going to go into my hubby's job right now but he is currently working for Gavin Rossdale. There was a huge festival like concert event at the Meadowlands that they were a part of. I went up to North Jersey to visit hubby and we were hanging out and spending time with each other when duty called. Hubby has to go back to the venue and do some work. While there he introduced me to Gavin.

I have to say that in the 10 years I have been with hubby, I've never had a more positive and simply delightful experience. I saw him with Bush back in 1997, great show. His solo stuff is cool, it's mellower and softer. To me it's something you listen to while relaxing enjoying a bottle of wine at the end of a long week. I've liked what I've heard so far and I really, really like

Love Remains the Same.

Hubby introduced me and I get so nervous because I never know what to say to people. Famous or the neighbor next door I don't want to seem like a babbling idiot or embarrass myself or them. I know you will find it hard to believe but I can be quite shy around people I don't know. But Gavin could not have been a nicer guy. He introduced himself and his son. We chatted about the tour. I told him about the show I saw back in 1997 and started to borderline embarrass myself. I was nervous which rarely happens to me in those situations because I know in my head that famous people are just people. I guess because it was so out of the blue that I got the chance to say hi. We talked about the weather. Then he signed a picture for me. How cool is that!?!?! He is the only person that hubby has worked for that has ever done that. I thanked him and told him that he didn't have to do that but it was very sweet of him. As I'm freaking out inside. It was only a few moments but I have to say that he was probably one of the kindest people I've met in the business.

"Tammy Thx for letting us borrow your husband Gavin Rossdale XX"

If you made it this far, thanks for sitting threw and reading this very long winded blog post. I'm going to do better and try to stick to my goal of posting once a week. Next time, I will have some progress photos and maybe even a FO. It's a big one!

PS If you happend to find any gramatical erros in this post let me know. It took a very long time to compose it and I was just plain tired to keep re-reading it to fix anything. Thanks!