Getting back to normal...

As I start this post, I want to first THANK everyone for stopping by and leaving a comment, sending emails, sympathy cards, and just being there for me. THANK YOU! Today will be two weeks since we lost him, and Valentines Day will never be the same.

It finally hit me Saturday night that Dad was gone. I was still in shock, and then around 2am Sunday morning, I just came to realization that he was gone. I woke up Brian just crying, and we sat up for awhile after and just talked. Then Sunday night I was kinda putting off going to bed, as I didn't want to lay there and think about Dad. But I started to think about Dad being gone, and what I was missing, and all of a sudden in my thoughts I had the message - "I'm with God" That brought me so much comfort and I fell right to sleep.

We came home last Wednesday - we buried Dad that afternoon. We had to wait for him to have his autopsy on Tuesday, and then we could do the burial. Even at the grave side, we still had several people join us to see Dad off.

The funeral - Oh wow, was it AMAZING! It was one of those where you cried and laughed. It was so great to have every member of the Clayton/Winchester Fire Dept and First Responders there, as they were Dad's second family. From the bagpiper taking Dad out of the church, playing Amazing Grace, to the Honor Guard that stood, to the fire trucks, to the HUGE American flag hung from the two ladder trucks, to the people that attended the funeral (they estimate there were close to 5,000 people between both days), the food, the memories shared, and to the American flag draped over Dad's casket. I'm so glad to have been apart of the funeral of my dad - I'm sure that he would have had a blast at his own funeral - cause you sure heard all the comments about Dad. He was well loved!

A family friend set up a memorial site for Dad on Facebook - you can check it out - Rememberance of Chief Dean Mathison CWFD You can see pictures from the day - Pictures There are 146 pictures at this point.

Oh course, shaking everyones hand it was bound to happen - early Thursday morning I came down with the flu. I actually called into to work, and of course (I heard from a coworker) my boss didn't believe I was sick, but just tired from being gone so long. So she made me come in to work, as she couldnt get anyone else to cover my area I work in. Well - I went into work at 1pm, to be sent home at 3pm by the nurse. Friday - I went into work, to be sent home after an hour and half, and then again on Saturday - I was sent home again - after 2 1/2 hrs. Saturday night I was starting to feel better, and I was able to work the next 2 days.

So I'm finally enjoying a nice day off. Did alittle cleaning up around the house, catching up on emails, and I have about 2 week of laundry to catch up on.

I haven't stitched since the night Dad died.. so I think later today I'm going to put in my first stitch.

Pictures from a sad day

I just want to post some pictures...

Thanks to all that left a comment or emailed me, your thoughts and prayers have been doing their job. Our family is still in shock, but we are coping. The funeral was a great send off for our Dad, and one that I'm sure will be talked about for a long time to come. We were amazed at the amount of people, especially firefighters that attended. There were 28 trucks from around the area and state that joined us for the last inspection of the fire stations.

Dean W. Mathison

Mathison, Dean W.

Winchester, Wisconsin (Larsen, WI)

The final page was put out for Fire Chief Dean W. Mathison, God called him home on Tuesday, February 10, 2009, he was 63 years old.

Dean was born on November 18, 1945, to the late Russell & Leona (Breaker) Mathison. He graduated from Winneconne High School with the class of 1963.

Dean married Sharon (Whitney) on December 3, 1966, at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Neenah.

Dean worked for 17 years for the Gelhar Sand Company, formerly of Larsen, and for 22 years at the Larsen Cooperative, as a fuel truck driver.

Dean has been deeply involved in the communities of Larsen and Winchester, and Winnebago County. His passion was serving as a member of the Clayton/ Winchester Fire Dept. for 42 years, 40 of the years as an officer, and 20 years as the Fire Chief. The Fire Department served as his extended family, and the Fire Station often served as his second home. He has served as Chairman of the Winnebago Area Firefighters Association for many years. He also is Chairman of the Winnebago County Fire Chief's Association, member of the Quality Assurance for the Winnebago 911 Dispatch Center, served on the Winnebago County E911 fire sub committee, member of the Northeast Wisconsin Safety League, and member of the Winnebago County Fire Investigative Unit. Dean was also a faithful member of Grace Lutheran Church in Winchester, where he served as an usher for many years.

Dean is survived by his wife of 43 years, Sharon, of Winchester; children, Kim & Brian Ritchie, of Long Lake; Glen & Lisa Mathison, of Winchester; Scott & Jenny Mathison, of Winchester; and Amy & Gregg Wilke, of Winneconne; six grandchildren: Alyssa Williams & Conway Mathison, of Winchester; Natalie & Kaylee Wilke, of Winneconne, Katie & Lindsey Mathison, of Winchester.
He is also survived by a brother and sister-in-law, Wayne & Mary Ann Mathison, of Readfield; Father-in-law and Mother-in-law, Jim & Joyce Whitney, of Neenah; Brother-in-law & Sister-in-law, Dean & Ann Whitney, of Winchester; nieces and nephews, and will be sadly missed by Princess, his pug. He is further survived by his extended family of the Clayton/ Winchester Fire Department and First Responders.

Along with his parents, Dean was also preceded in death by a sister-in-law, Shirley Mathison.

A Funeral Service for Dean will be held on Saturday, February 14, 2009, at 11 a.m. at Grace Lutheran Church of Winchester, Larsen, Wisconsin, with Pastor Dan Luett officiating. Burial will be in the Grace Lutheran Cemetery, Winchester. A Visitation for family and friends will be on Friday, February 13 from 4 to 8 p.m. at the CHURCH and will continue on Saturday from 9 a.m. until the time of the service at 11. In lieu of flowers, a memorial has been established.

Dean's dedication and uncanny sense of humor will be remembered forever.

Mueller Funeral Home
904 E. Main St.
P.O. Box 250
Winneconne, WI 54986
920-582-4242

Online obituary at Northwestern, PostCrescent

If you would like to send a sympathy card, you may do so by sending to

The Mathison Family

5255 Cty Rd II

Larsen, WI 54947

Dad is sure missed around here...

Article in the local paper of Dad's passing - Long Fire Chief Dean Mathison Dies

Please Keep My Family in your Prayers

We lost our Dad tonight.

Update @ 5:30am 02/11/09-
I just wanted to let you know that my Dad passed away last night. He died of a massive heart attack, shortly after attending a fire training meeting, at an area fire station. My brother, who was with my dad at the meeting, had found him on the bathroom floor at the fire station. He was transported to St Mary's in Green Bay. They tried for an hour to bring him back.

We are down by my family. Of course I cant sleep. We go tomorrow to make funeral arrangements, and I have to say its going to be huge funeral.

Kim

Spent alittle time at the Cabin today...

While it was raining out side, and there was no way I was going outside to deal with the mud and slush - I stayed inside and stitched some snow. Crazy huh?! This is Cabin in the Woods from HAED - there is a picture of the finished design on the sidebar on the right.

Well, if you remember I'm stitching a HAED. Yes, one of those pattern that are huge, and every square is stitched. Well I'm in the process of stitching snow, I'm talking like DMC #s 822, 3024, 753, and 415. So I'm talking greys.

Here is a progress pictures from way back in August. This is the last time I had a updated picture, and its great to compare to.

And here is my progress up till this post. Slowly making progress, in the past 2 days I have put in 1500 stitches alone.


So back in the bag it will go till it starts to scream for me again.

Started another one...

The other day I was looking for some fabric for a new project.. and I couldn't find the right size piece, and I kept looking. And then I came across the perfect size fabric for something else. I continued to look for the original piece I was looking for. Found it.

Guess what the first fabric was for?!?! ... It was long and narrow and fit one of the designs that I wish to start soon. As you can tell by the picture - its the Christmas Double Flips from Lizzie*Kate! I love how its turning out so far! And it stitching up fast!! I haven't decided how I'm going to stitch the outer border, its calls for Whitewash (712), but I'm thinking of going with the same color as the bow on the bottom, but I'm not sure yet.

I had started this on Friday - made some good progress, then I worked this weekend. Came home and I was too tired to stitch on it. So I finished up Stocking today, and had Holly stitched up on Saturday night, before I fell asleep.

The other piece of fabric is for "Its a Girl Thing", also from L*K - I'm going to stitch "Its Expensive to Be ME!"

I'm going to put this start down for a bit, and work on a HAED. Cabin is actually calling to be stitched on.. LOL So off I go..

Customer Service @ WDW.... ROCKS!!

You may remember me saying that I was having a hard time with a recent WIP. The skein of Mascara from Weeks Dye Works was giving me fits. I couldn't stitch more than 6 stitches before it would break. It was so hard to stitch with it. I had purchased it from an eBay auction, and rather than going back to the seller (even though I did give them a heads up on the problem), I went to WDW.

So I contacted WDW last week about my problem. I was emailed back the next day with a response that I would have a replacement skein sent to me. That I need also to send them my defective skein back to them.

The other day I received another email from WDW stating that the skein was in the mail, and not to worry about sending my skein of Mascara back, as they had heard from a shop, that they had a bad batch of Mascara also.

Today I open the mail box to find my skein of floss from WDW. To my surprise, I found THREE skeins! WOW! I only wanted one, just to replace the one that was bad.

I just want to thank Weeks Dye Work for their wonderful customer service, and the quickness (and generosity) of getting the new skein out to me. THANK YOU!

My Sewing Sampler WIP

I started on this design on Monday night - got some of the "squares" started. And the next night I continued with the motifs in the blocks. Yesterday I sat down and stitched till my eyes couldn't take it anymore..

Tonight I added a few more motifs. I had to move the fabric on the QSnap, so I thought I would snap a picture. So, its stitching up quite fast. I'm going to put it down for a bit (will see), and work on something else.

My Sewing Sampler, from Blue Ribbon Designs, stitching it in part of the SAL on SIQ - the BRD SAL. The SAL started on Feb 1st, but since I had to work the weekend, I started on the 2nd.

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For those keeping track of the Mother inlaw, broken ankle saga - it continues. Today - the pink cast was taken off, xrays were taken. DR said that for MIL's condition, she has healed up very well (to the point where he couldn't even see the break in the bones on the xray).

Next step - a walking splint, which she will have to wear for a month - but she can take it off as need be. She can walk on her own as soon as she is able - 2 -3 days - but I will say she will be doing it tomorrow when I go over tomorrow. The only therapy she needs to do is, spell the alphabet with her big toe from A to Z, and that's all the therapy she will need. Next appt is March 5, one month from today.

Dad made the news.. again

While we were enjoying our last meal with my parents before we made the trip home a couple weeks ago. Dad was telling me that there was going to be an article in the local paper in regards to building a new fire station. He explained to us that the fire dept, and most importantly, he, has not been included. You can read the article here.

Well I had an email from a stitching friend, and she mentioned there was a nice picture of your dad in the paper last Sunday.

So I did an online search, and was able to get a copy.

"Treat" finished

Last night after I posted Spooky, I sat down and watched The Office that I had taped after the Super Bowl.

I was stitching along great! Got Treat all stitched, went to go and stitch the candy corn on the left. I had a HUGE mistake. And guess what... I had to rip out off of the word treat!! Yep, I was so off that I had to rip out the whole word. So, before I could even get myself to bed, I had restitched the word treat, and one of the candy corn, and most of the other.

So this morning I got up and finished the rest of the design.

Im putting this away.. Ive been bothered by the frog so much, that I wanna wait alittle till I pick it up again!

"Spooky" Finished

Wow! This is my 900th post!! I'm going to have to start watching, so I can do something BIG for the 1000th post!! Amazing!

This is my first finish (well chart design) from the Boo Club from Lizzie*Kate. Here is "Spooky" Stitched in the recommended threads.

I had the frog visiting me *pout pout*, I was off by 1/2 a stitch! So I had to rip out all of the right side border. So I played catch up, and got that stitched.