My First Mammogram

I went in and got my first mammogram yesterday.

I'd heard several stories about what all was involved and I was a bit anxious about it.  Yes it was everything I expected it to be but considering what it helps prevent I suppose it wasn't all that bad.

 I actually went in last week for an annual exam.  With my history of uterine cancer and my father having passed away last September of gastric cancer, I've been a little concerned with my health.  I've been feeling alright.  I just wanted to get a proper check up.  We did all the other female tests too.  None of those are very pleasant but I'm glad I had them done.  We have to take care of ourselves even if it's invasive, inconvenient, and sometimes embarrassing.

We're worth it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

July so far...

This is the only thing blooming in my yard at the moment.  

Beautiful orange marigolds.

These are my favorite flowers because they are so easy to grow.

They are supposed to be annuals but the seed spreads so easy they come back year after year.

Love, love, love that cheery pop of color.

My creative project at this time.

These little chicks are the cutest things.  Pattern is here.  It's taken me longer to finish them than I thought it would but I only work on them for bits at a time here and there.   I always think in the summer break I'll have more time to do stuff but it never turns out that way.

A photo of the family last week on July 4th.  We picnicked at a local state park that we had never been to.  It was actually very nice.  I don't know why we hadn't ever visited.  It's only about five miles outside the city limits and it has a small lake that local residents use for fishing.  It was very peaceful and quiet.  There wasn't very many people so we had a lot of privacy too which was nice.

  There was a roadrunner that stayed nearby and kept running from here to there which was fun to watch.  You can see the rustic dry landscape which is typical in New Mexico.

I've gotten used to it and I've grown to love it.  There's beauty in everything if you look for it, as is the case with everything in life. 

Don't you agree?

♥♥♥

It's July

My favorite month.

My favorite season.

My favorite colors.

Can't get much better than that.

A little red, white, and blue for you 

on this Independence day weekend.

  

The colors of the flag...

  

White represents purity and innocence.

Blue represents perseverance and justice.

Red represents valor and strength.

It's a beautiful combination.

My plans for the fourth are simple.  I'm going to do as little as possible, maybe watch some movies on Netflix, have a picnic with the family and go watch fireworks in the evening.  Sometimes it's nice to just chill and enjoy the holiday.

Happy Independence Day weekend!

♥♥♥

Summertime...♥

 Hello there!

Happy official start of the Summer season.

Can you believe it?

Is your head spinning?

Mine is.

I'm still wondering what happened to Spring.

It came and went and left me in the dust.

I'm in the mood for some red, white, and blue.  I'm already looking forward to July fourth and all it's celebratory glory.  I love this time of year.  I know everyone always complains about the heat and all that but this time of year is one of my favorites.  I love the long days and the sunshine.  I love the Patriotic theme and seeing the American flags that start popping up all around town.  Ahhh...it's a magical time.

 Found this beauty at my favorite charity chop last week.

It was dusty and dirty and priced cheap and I said,

"Uhh, Yes Please" and I snatched it up and brought it home with me.

The first thing I did was give it a good washing.  The next morning I filled it with water and a couple of tea bags and left it out on my front lawn for a few hours and made sun tea.

I don't know what I enjoyed better, 

the refreshing sun tea or using my cool patriotic vintage jar...

(thinking, thinking, thinking)

...Still can't decide. 

;)

Last Sunday was Fathers day. 

This was the first Fathers day since losing my Dad in September.  I was actually dreading it because I didn't know how I would feel.  It went ok.  I wasn't too sad surprisingly.  Instead I felt proud that God blessed me with a good daddy.  He was gentle and kind in every way possible.  That was his gift to the world  and I strive to let those gifts live on through me.  

Those are the thoughts that keep me going on rough days.

♥♥♥

Happy new season to all of you dear sweet readers. 

I hope it's a magical time for you as well.

I wish you much fun and creativity.

New Name...

Hey everybody!

How do you like my new name?

I changed the name of my blog from Foxxy's Cottage to Mi Casa.  I was really wanting a change.  I've had a blog for nine years.  That's a long time.  As you all know, a lot of things can change in the span of nine years like interests, hobbies, needs, and wants.

When I first started blogging I blogged about my family.  The name of my blog was Ruby Lane.  My kids were little and I was a stay at home mom (still am).  That was my whole life, my kids and my home, so that's what I blogged about.  I did that for a few years until I had a problem with one of my sisters.  My blog was no secret.  Everyone knew I had a blog.  I was proud I told everyone.  Blogging was at the peak of its popularity back then.  I started noticing a change in behavior with one of my sisters.  She had an attitude, she made smart alecky remarks. One day it all blew up in my face.  She called me up screaming at me over the phone.  She told me I was a goody two shoes and blah blah blah.  She ranted, called me names, and threw a lot of things in my face.  All the while she was crying and screaming.  I was babysitting her kids at the time too.  Hows that for gratitude?   A lot of anger and resentment in that exchange.  She got jealous over reading my blog.  She had this idea in her head that my life was a perfect fairy tale and it made her so angry.  I ended up deleting that blog permanently.  It made me sick how something that brought me so much enjoyment brought about so much hate and anger in someone else.  So I was done with it.  I pushed the delete button.  The idea of outsiders reading about what my family did wasn't such a wonderful idea anymore. In fact I hated it and wondered why I ever did it.

This is really ugly but every one's blog header looked like this back then.
 Heehee!

I stayed away from blogging for about a year.  I missed it. I wanted to come back but I knew I couldn't blog about my family.  I decided to open up another blog (this one) and blog about my home, decoration ideas and stuff like that.  I titled it Summerhouse Cottage.  I kept the name for a couple of years then changed it to Foxxy's Cottage because we moved and the other name didn't quite  fit anymore.  I've had this blog for about five years now.  I've kept this blog a secret.  Only my husband and kids know about it and that's how I'd like to keep it.  Somewhere in that time by blog morphed from a home decor blog to a crochet blog.  See what I mean about interests changing over the years. 

Well anywho, now it's called Mi Casa.  I figured that name would be fitting no matter where I go or what I decide to blog about.  It's interesting looking back how our lives and interests change through the years.  If any of you out there have had your blog for a long time you've probably seen your blog morph as well.  Oh well, that's life.  Things don't stay the same forever.  Change is always happening and we just have to adjust and try to keep up.

Oh and by the way, my relationship with  my sister has never fully mended.  She still takes jabs at me whenever she can sneak them in.  She's still angry I suppose but I've moved on.  It's in the Lords hands.  I turned it over to Him a long time ago.  I let Him take care of these type of things for me.  He handles them so much better than I ever could.

Truth!

♥♥♥

Til next time,

Catching up...

With the school year coming to an end, the days have now settled into a calm and slower pace.

I'm enjoying it actually.  I have a whole list of things that I've wanted to get done that I had not had time to do with everything being so busy and chaotic.  So quiet mellow days are just what this girl needed.  Time to catch up with those things that always get pushed to the bottom of the list.

The first thing I wanted to do was get my house in order.  Things can get pretty messy when life gets full, especially in a small space.  The house was feeling a little neglected.

Things were starting to pile up on the counter.

My yarn was getting a little out of control by my chair in the living room.

I'm old fashioned at heart so being able to stay home and take care of these things is medicine to my soul.  I love these kind of days.  To me they are so very satisfying.

With the warmer weather comes the lighter meals.  I wasn't in the mood to fix a big dinner the other night so I looked for a salad recipe and tried this one.  It was wonderful.  It's my new favorite salad recipe.  I made extra dressing thinking I would need more since I added more veggies than called for but it wasn't needed.  It's basically just pasta and whatever veggies you like.  I added a whole bag of  Birds Eye Southwest Blend frozen vegetables which had corn and black beans and a few other things.  It was oh so good.  Recipe is here if you're interested.  We simply ate ours with Club crackers.

My current wip.  I started this shawl a  year or two ago.
I came across it the other day and decided to pick it up and finish it.   I'm changing color every row or every other row.  I'm really liking the look it's taking on.

I made another doily.  It's exactly like the blue one from the previous post only this one is one solid color.  Same pattern though.  Pattern is called Spring Song and it is found here.

My summer reading.  I ordered these books online.  My plan is to read all three of them over the summer break.  It's a series of novels about Pastors' wives and their everyday crazy lives.  I don't read much but I was intrigued being a Pastor's wife myself.  The books sounded cute and funny and I think they will be an easy read.  I found them cheap at Thrift books.  Four dollars a book with free shipping.  I love a good bargain, don't you? 

 Til next time.

See ya,