Well look at this, the end of yet another year. What have I been doing since I last posted on here. Let me think! Well it has been a bit of a crazy year, but aren’t they all any more.

Let me start with the bad news first. Bailey our oldest sheepdog had to be put down in August. He would have been 10 this December. He had massive liver failure and it came on suddenly. He never really complained of any thing, we knew because he quit eating, and he was throwing up whatever he did eat. Took him to the vet on a Friday, and had to have him put down on Saturday. That about wrecked both of us, but it did make us appreciate the other 5 we still have here and to treasure the time we have with them. It’s just so sad to think that  these fur children we have give us so much, and they live for such a short period of time.What also amazes me is how empty the house seems now that Bailey is gone. He was the sheepie in the store, and if there are actually old customers out there that read this blog, you will remember that he grew up at Needle Nutz. He came to work with me every day, slept under the stitching table, and on occasion even helped keep your kids occupied as you shopped. He was a very gentle soul, my first champion Sheepdog and Andy’s and my first fur child. He was a very much loved member of this family and he is very much missed.

The next major thing with me is that I started working again. No I’m not doing the baking thing, even though I did think about it for a nanosecond. I am driving a school bus again. I did that a while back when Andy and I fist got married. It was an interesting job, and I decided that it would be a good thing for me to do again. I’m driving for a different district this time, so the whole adventure is totally different as well. I have a really good route, not one of the longest routes that they have there, but then again I have no seniority so I would not get a long one to start out with. I like the job, it’s totally different than the last time I drove. Trip down memory lane time, my last time driving, I drove regular ed, and had a bus load of screaming kids. The middle schoolers were totally out of control, no matter what I did. The high schoolers were awesome and the elementary school kids were somewhere in the middle. All in all it was an ok route. Fast forward to the here and now, and I drive a special needs bus, I have 3 students, adding 1 more to the mix in January and it takes me 1.5 hours to get them picked up, and delivered to school. I end up driving from way out east of the city to down near the southern part of the city. If you know the area, I drive from Falcon,   way down to Southgate. Round trip for those 3 students is 53 miles, during rush hour traffic in the morning. I hit all the traffic going into Peterson AFB. Now how fun is that? I get to drive that bus 65 miles per hour, on highway 24, 50 mph on Platte and Powers, and I get to drive on the interstate as well. It takes all my skills. Now for those of you that know me really well, you know that I hate to drive. I would much prefer to be the passenger which is why I go with Shelly to dog shows because she wants to drive.

I have done some designing, but not a whole lot, I did get Martina’s Alpine Seasons completed, now I need to get it framed. That’s a next year project. I am currently working on Martina’s PIG… or Persian Iris Garden, and I’m over 1/2 way done with that one. It’s awesome!

Guess thats all for now, I hope to actually keep the resolution i’m making to write on this more often, and to get my charts available on here for downloading.

Let me know what your interested in seeing, I have 3 more Santa’s ready to go, they are even charted, I have a very cute Santer sampler that has no decorative stitches in it, but I might see if JCS is interested. If not, well then it will be available here soon.