A giveaway mention

Jennifer, at http://feathersinthenest.blogspot.com is having a giveaway. You must go over there right now and see! A beautiful box and 3 pairs of beautiful scissors.
And as a bonus, her blog is fabbie!
Thanks Jennifer for the giveaway!
Donna

And the winner is...

Thank you to all who left a message on my blog and on my Yahoo groups!
My niece drew a name and RANAE is the winner of a 13x18 piece of Expressions fabric from Silkweaver's.
Ranae, I have sent you a private e-mail from my dwooleybooger address. Please e-mail me with your choice of count, fabric and color and I will in turn send your fabric to you!
Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Lunch with friends and a pic of my honeybuns!

Today we had a potluck at work. Good friends, who just happen to be co-workers, met to break bread in the office.
The food was great!



The laughter was even better! Here are some of my friends:
Stephanie, who always looks so put together and today had a beautiful cashmere scarf on:

Dawn & Kristin, who are two peas in a pod!

Janet & Deb, who brought most of the laughter to the room. And Deb brought most of the food! The girl can cook!

And then here is a pic of Deb and her son Kirk. I found out SOOOO many secrets about Debra from her son today. It was great!

My boss Jim, who is more like a father to me, and his beautiful prayer warrior wife, Elda. Seriously, when I was in the hospital the last time, I physically felt Elda praying for me!

And then there is Will. Have you seen his pic on America's most wanted? I am sure it probably is there. If so, contact me and we will share the reward. Just kidding Will!

And last but not least, my husband James was not able to be at the lunch, but this picture was so good I just had to share it. He is my honeybuns! Love you James, better than bread and butter!

All in all, a great time was had by everyone and our tummies were full and our smiles were wide!

The family and some stitching

Today our whole "local" family went out to lunch to celebrate my BIL birthday. Mom, my 2 nieces & one's bf and my sis & BIL and my husband and I. We started at Texas Roadhouse, but they were too full for a table of 8 so we ended up at Logan's. The food was really good and the company was even better. Here is a rare group photo of us all:

One of our local firefighters was killed by his son this past week. It was terribly sad.
My mom has a lifeline button and so when she falls & I can't get her up, the station this firefighter was at is the group that comes and helps her. This particular firefighter was always so nice to Mom and even remembered her name when he would come out.
After his death I spoke to the fire chief about how sad we were at his loss. The local TV station got word of that and asked that Mom & I do an interview for the news.
You can see the interview at KWTX.com and then look on the right side where it says video. We are the one that says "Waco residents remember"
And finally I have started stitching again. I am working on a square for my SFAC project. Here is a picture of the start:

All in all it has been a nice weekend. The weather has been wonderful. Maybe this means the week will get off to a good start. Hope your weekend has been great and your week is even better!

Thank you to all the Veterans

I want to take a moment to personally say thank you to all the veterans and all the military personnel and their families for the job they do (and have done) in keeping us safe and living in the best country in the world.
My dad was a veteran. He hurt his back in Korea and always walked hunched over as long as I can remember. I had just been born when he returned from overseas in a body cast. He was my hero in many, many ways and his being a veteran was one of them.
My boss Jim served in Vietnam. He was a Navy pilot. That took a toll on his back also. Many days I see him in pain even now for what he did for our country. And unlike the soldiers that return to the US now, he wasn't greeted with parades and people cheering. Like this war now, many people disagreed with us being there. But unlike now, they couldn't support our soldiers without supporting the war. Thank you Jim for all you did for our country!
Our Community Relations Director, Keith served in the military and while I don't know exactly what he did, I am thankful he served and helped keep us safe.
And we have two fine phlebotomists, Billy and Eddriel, who have served recently. Billy is going back in March and it will a big void when he leaves. Thank you to you two for what you have done and what you will do for us.

Another crisis and another outpouring of support

I have been in blood banking going on 20 years now. I love my job. I love the fact that I am making a difference each day.
But when a crisis happens in our community, it is the outpouring of blood donors to support those victims that gets me through the crisis.
I first witnessed this years ago during the raid on the Branch Davidian compound here close to Waco. When I saw on TV the officers being shot at I immediately called our blood center to see how many units of blood we were shipping to the hospital. And as the scheduling coordinator for staff, I knew my next thing was to mobilize all our collection staff to have them come in on that Sunday to help collect blood for the emergency.
Imagine my surprise when I arrived at the donor center before the doors were even open and saw over 100 people there. They continued coming until the compound burned down, even though they were aware that no one was using blood after the first initial strike.
I saw this happen again and again. The Oklahoma City bombing, when we went to war during Bush, Sr. presidency, after a Class 5 tornado and of course when the Twin Towers were struck.
On Thursday, when the largest military base, Ft. Hood, that is just 45 minutes from here, was attacked by an armed gunman I saw it happen again.
Thursday evening we saw about 120 donors. And again yesterday we saw over 100. We sent out 190 units in the first day. Every one of our blood drives all over our territory are seeing an increase in blood donors. So much so that at this time we are asking folks to wait a couple of weeks to donate more.
Why do these donors come out during these tragedies? I mean, if you look at the big picture, there is a tragedy happening somewhere every minute. Someone needs blood every 3 seconds. It could be a surgery patient, a cancer patient, an accident victim. And the truth of the matter for those big tragedies is that if someone hadn't donated blood BEFORE it happened, there wouldn't be blood to save those lives WHEN it happens.
Here is my thought (and you know I have lots of thoughts!): People need to do something PHYSICAL when a tragedy happens. They can pray, they can cry, they can wring their hands, but for a healing to occur in a community, they have to do something that comes directly from them. Like donating food for a food shortage, donating blood during this time makes them feel a part of them has actually become a part of the victims. And that they have really made a difference.
If you ever witness one of these type blood drives (and I pray that you don't!) you will see the emotions on the faces of the donors. And if you stuck around after the doors close, you will see the emotions on the faces of the staff. And it is at that time a healing begins. Emotional wounds are healed during a blood drive.
The one thing that each blood donation center would like to be able to get across to donors is that they can be a part of a healing everyday. Those patients in the hospital needing lifesaving blood may not have been the victim of a gun welding insane man, but they are victims none the less. Victims of illness, victims of accidents, victims of violence.
And they need you, everyday. When you donate blood, try to imagine your neighbor, your child, your spouse as the one needing that donation. Because you never know who is the face on that blood bag.
As the holidays approach, donations drop. And after an outpouring of support like we have just seen, during the weeks after donations drop.
We need donors. Just not today, but everyday. We need you in the weeks to come.
Give blood. Often. You can make such a difference. You can be a part of healing, a part of something great!

November

Well, November kicked off with a bang. I have felt really bad for several days. No fever, coughing or runny nose, but plenty of general achiness, sore throat and ear ache.
Feels like the flu, but with no fever or coughing.
But right now, I feel better. Just a sore throat and a slight headache.
I started a new SFAC project. It is always so exciting to start a new project to raise money for cancer patients.
And now I need to start a ornament for an exchange party I have here. But what to do, what to do?!
I guess I will dig through my patterns and fabric and decide. And probably look online and find a new pattern and then rush to get it done. This year I just can't seem to get into the whole "holiday" thing. Usually by now I am planning for Thanksgiving and Christmas. But Thanksgiving is less than a month a way and I don't have a clue what we are doing.
And Christmas? I haven't bought a single present and have no idea what my grandsons even want. All I know is that they will be here the day after Christmas and will stay with us for a week by themselves. I know they want to go bowling and the oldest wants to make a snowflake craft of some sort.
How are you all doing on your holiday plans? Anyone else in this same sort of standstill that I am in?