Deja vu

Once again, more than a year has passed between blog posts. 'Life' has gotten in the way of my quilting more times than I can mention. Here are a few highlights since my last post:

The economy hasn't gotten much better for our little business. We still struggle to make ends meet, so...

My husband and I are in the beginning stages of changing our business focus from IT to concert promoting. We have made many contacts through work over the years, and have a partner who will provide the funding for the startup costs involved. We hope to have our first concert in April!

The kids remain heavily involved in extracurricular activities. Our daughter Mackenzie was selected as Drum Major of our high school's marching band and our son Logan is the trumpet section leader. I remain active in the Band Parents Association on the executive board, and support the kids through every single game, competition and fundraiser.

After Mackenzie attended Drum Major Academy at West Chester University in Pennsylvania this summer, we took the opportunity to travel to Lancaster and Hershey to have a short family vacation. It was during this trip that...

I bought a Bernina Aurora 440QE with the embroidery module! I have been wanting this machine for YEARS. I received a small inheritance from my grandmother's estate and hoped to use the money to buy something special in her memory. We made a quick trip to Hinkletown Sewing in Ephrata and got a great deal compared to the stores near home.

Logan made the varsity soccer team, so that meant running him to practices and attending as many home and away games as I could. That was cut short in September because...

He was hit by a car while riding his bike without a helmet. I was out grocery shopping when I received a call from a bystander. He was riding down a hill (after he visited his girlfriend without permission) when a woman driving up the hill made a sharp turn as he was about to finish crossing an intersection. He hit her windshield and was thrown a good distance. We met the ambulance at the accident scene and it was decided that he needed to be taken to the nearest trauma unit. Logan spent about three hours in surgery with a plastic surgeon who sewed "hundreds of stitches" in his face. Amazingly, he never lost consciousness, had no broken bones and no concussion. Logan had deep cuts on his forehead, across the bridge of his nose, under his eye, on his cheeks, on his ear, and inside his mouth (which is NOT very good for a trumpet player). Shards of glass were making their way to the skin surface weeks after accident. We've had many followup visits with the plastic surgeon and his scars are healing very well. The plastic surgeon wants to wait a year before proceeding with laser treatments to minimize the scars, depending on how much they fade in that time. After all of this, we NEEDED a vacation. So...

We went to DisneyWorld!! I got a great deal in late November, staying for 7 days and 6 nights with FREE dining at the resort restaurants and cafes. We had been talking about going there for YEARS (about 12 of them - since the kids were little) and we finally booked it. It was WONDERFUL!! The Christmas decorations were already up and we were able to do 'most' of the things we wanted, including attending the Candlelight Processional. I'm convinced that we NEED to go again ;)

Sound busy? I hope so, because I don't have much stitching to show for that past 16 months that I've been away. Any pictures that I take will be with my cell phone, since I dropped my camera at WDW and it's been taking awful photos ever since... I'm going to check back on my previous posts and take some pictures of tops that I completed during the time away. Hopefully the new Bernina will help me turn some of my tops into actual quilts!