Bringing you up to date

Hello!  And once again I am sorry for the delay.  All hell broke loose and I wasn't sure what was going to happen but it's all good now and I will talk about it later if anyone is interested.  

So I left off with a recap of last Springs Retreat.  Moving forward from there...

First I want to start with Dan's latest finish.  He's quite proud of himself and I am proud of him.  This wasn't an easy stitch with all the back stitching and the 3 strands of floss on 18 ct Aida but he did it, it's beautiful and it's hanging in our family room.

Scenic Farm - Dimensions kit

 May 18th, 2015 brought the birth of Adam and Marcia's first child, our first grandchild and the first great-grandchild of the family,  Emma Grace.  She weighed in at a whopping 5 lbs. 10 oz and 18.75 inches long.  At almost 6 months she is just about ready to start crawling and weighs all of 13 pounds.   Dan and I traveled out east at the end of May to meet the little darling and they will be visiting here for Thanksgiving this year.  We can't wait to see them all again and to introduce her to her 2 sets of great-grandparents and all of her aunts, uncles and cousins.

Also last spring, Abby approached us about moving home to save money so she could pay off her student loans.  This involved taking down our Christmas Village and remodeling the basement which took my poor husband a good portion of the spring and summer.  It turned out very nice though and will be nice for Adam and family to have that area for themselves after Abby moves out and they come for a visit.  Right about the time Abby moved in she also started dating a young man named Travis.  He lives about an hour away so she really isn't home much and I anticipate it won't be long before she isn't home at all.

Amy is doing well in grad school but is kept so busy we rarely speak to her.  I feel honored if she manages to send a quick text saying she is still among the living.  We haven't see her in forever and it is looking like she will not be coming home for the the holidays this year.

So that leaves the only other piece of information that might interest you.  A year ago at this time we started looking into purchasing the framing & stitching shop that I have worked at for the last 14 years. Little did I know what a monumental task that would turn out to be.  The twists and turns, the ups and downs.  The stress.  Don't get me started about the stress.  As with everything in our lives, nothing comes easy and I have had to work the hardest I have ever worked in order to achieve this goal but I am happy to say that as of last Thursday I am now the proud owner of Reflections Framing & Stitching.  I am however sad to say that due to the shops landlord being a jerk we are currently homeless.  He went from saying he saw no reason to raise the rent back in July to tripling it by September.  But all is not lost!  I've leased a new space not too far from our old one and once the remodel is finished we will be up and running and it will be better than ever.  I just hope my customer's will be able to find me.  There wasn't a lot of time to spread the news and a lot of them (mostly the framing only customers) we don't have emails for so no easy (and inexpensive, a move was not in the business plan or budget) way to contact them. The landlord does not allow you to put a notice up that you moved so most will assume I just closed.  I'm hoping once we are open again that I can recruit some folks to help me call everyone and give them all the information on how to find us. In the meantime I am trying to get all my little ducks in a row and get business cards printed, accounts set up, paint chosen, and all the other million and one things I never knew I needed to do, done.  I hope you'll join me on this journey and if you're ever in the Omaha area, I hope you will stop in and visit!

   
Take care till next time dear friends!

Julie