Family Ties

We've had a lot going on over the past week....well, actually over the last five days, and I'm terribly behind on my correspondence. If I owe you a note, please bear with me while I try to get caught up.

On Thursday, my father-in-law called to let us know that he was in the Critical Care unit of the hospital because he had blood clots in his brain. Within a few hours, he was taken to the operating room. My brother-in-law went over to Jacksonville last Friday. Tom will drive there on Thursday, and his brother will go back to New Orleans. My father-in-law is doing well, and the "good news" is that the blood clots were caused by the bad fall he had about 6 weeks ago and not vice versa.

Knowing that there was nothing we could do right now to help, we went to Chicago, as previously planned, to see our daughter, son-in-law, and grandson. We even got to babysit Haiden (now 27 months old) on Saturday night when his parents went out to dinner and to the ballet.

Here's Haiden in the play area of the Museum of Science and Industry which he calls the "train museum". I'm no sure what he likes better--the trains or this playhouse.

In the afternoon after nap time, he wanted to go for a ride in his red wagon. Since he had lost his cap, he had to wear his father's Cincinnati Reds' cap.

We hadn't gone too far when he decided that he wanted to be the one to pull his wagon.

Sunday night, Tom and I went to see the Blue Man group. What an entertaining show even though we were among the oldest ones there!!

We headed home on Monday making a detour to stop at House of Stitches in LaPorte, Indiana to see Linda and her shop. House of Stitches has been in business since 1982, and Linda has been the owner since 1987. Boy does she have lots of goodies in her shop! Linda was one of my first "automatic" shops.

Here I am with Linda. Guess what she had in one of her showcases? Quaker Turtles!! She also had one of the Floral Needlerolls, but I forgot to take a photo of it. Today I've been filling orders from the On-Line Needlework Show, which took place over the weekend, and also catching up on email. Among the emails were photos from a wedding shower for my cousin's daughter-in-law-to-be, Amanda. Imagine my surprise to see that my cousin Nancy had stitched Family Ties! Isn't that a wonderful wedding or shower gift and a wonderful way to welcome Amanda to our family?

Here is Amanda with the framed sampler and my cousin Nancy. Kylie, Nancy's granddaughter, is also in the photo. I bet she enjoyed being part of the festivities for her "aunt-to-be". Here is a close-up of Amanda with the sampler.