I got up this morning thinking that this was going to be a good day. It looked like rain outside, for those of you who now think I'm crazy we have not had a good rain in months we are in a drought so rain is very appealing to me right now. I got good sleep last night, thanks to the @Estroven that I'm taking, I have had it with the damn night sweats, if I wanted to wake up wet I would sleep in the pool. The kids were all in decent moods and better than all my husband has a job interview with a new company today that might actually pan out. So I thought it might be a good day, UNTIL..... After I got up this morning I went to let the dogs out, thinking that I might want to go and check the fence to see if my smart son actually fixed the fence back, its gerryrigged, so the dog wouldn't get out, so the female escape artist that we have wouldn't get out and we wouldn't be chasing her all over the neighborhood. Lo and behold even after the speech last night about please go and make sure the fence is fixed and everyone in the house saying its OK the fence was not fixed and she was heading for it. So, I go outside in my underwear, not that you wanted to know that, to fix the fence. One of the items that we use to block the fence till someone will fix said fence is my wheelbarrow. The wheelbarrow is full of something, I'm thinking grass clippings and bark from a tree (I don't know the answer to that one) and as I went to move it back into its prime place of blocking the fence it dropped on my foot. My foot hurts so bad!! There I stand out in the back yard at 6:30am, in my underwear, cussing at the fact that the boy didn't listen and my husband didn't go check and that we have to even block the damn fence because she will get out and get hurt. See that would be a perfectly good reason for me to stay home. Dropping a wheelbarrow on your foot at 6:30am should be a reason. And I really want to stay home, I would work from home if I could make what I'm making now and the bills would get paid but right now I have to go to work, I hate it!!!

My oldest son has the opportunity to go to Europe over spring break. I just don't know how the hell I can afford it for him. We can not come up with 2500.00 by November there is no way. They want us to come up with 100.00 this week then another 150.00 more in the next two weeks then 450.00 a month till November. No freaking way. I wish there was a way. I have looked into every possible way and I can't find it. Gary and I really hate it, we would really like to see him go what a great experience it would be for him. He would be going to England, Paris and then take the night train over to Italy. I so wish he could go.

I am loving Raverly what a place. I have already been trading yarn and making new friends, found old friends, I'm having a ball!!! I have been working on a pattern out of Wonder One Skein, the pattern in Bamboo Baby. I have had all kinds of problems with this one, well I found a girl that had made the same one and she had thought far enough ahead to take pictures as she went and the different pieces once they were finished. What a help she was to me!!
I'm telling ya Raverly rocks!!!

My Wittle Fireman

Gary has joined the Walls fire department isn't he cute in his fire outfit. He is really enjoying it and sounds like a little kid when he is talking about all the stuff he is learning. I'm glad that he has found something that he likes to do. I never thought he would want to be a fireman but he is. It is on a voluntary basis but he will start certification training in January.

My Best Friend is a Grandmother

My very best friend in the whole world has become a grandmother for the very first time. This is her new grandbaby!! She is one proud granny or MiMi as she is going to be called. Congrats Angie, I love you girl!!

Gary and Airsoft

Gary in all his airsoft glory!!! This was taken last summer when they were out playing airsoft.

Creation of socks

I don't know how to flip them other wise you wouldn't have to hold your head funny to look at my socks.

The Day Before the 4Th

Tomorrow is a holiday, not just any holiday but the birth date ( or what we celebrate as being) of America's freedom from the British. A day of barbecue, fireworks, watermelon and just plain fun. I'm sure down here in the south its going to be sweltering with temps as high as the humidity. We will all be melting like a Popsicle laying on a sidewalk in 100 degree heat as we hang our heads over our grills charring the meat that the families will be consuming. My family will probably stay in the house to avoid the heat. Gary might throw something on the grill don't know yet what is going to happen. Frankly I would be happy just hanging in the house playing video games and or knitting. I might even play Everquest all dang day to annoy the heck out of my oldest son, or rather he will annoy me telling me that I don't know how to play the game correctly. And I have a sock that needs completing. Oh I know the chores, that I can't stand to let go for not even one day, will have to be accomplished but there will be time left. I'm sure that the neighborhood kids will be in the pool either at my house or down at the other neighbors house that has a pool as well. So that means tons of towels to launder and puddles of water of feet prints running from the back door thru the laundry room out the door to the garage but hey its all in the name of fun. I just wonder what our fore-fathers, what they would think about all the carryings on of today. I'm actually looking forward to having a day off and not having to feel guilty taking it either, even with the kids home. I tell you this, I'm looking somewhat forward to the kids going back to school. On one hand, I love it because they are home, they do the chores but they give me headache arguing with each other, they make sure the dogs get outside to take care of business, but they argue with each other. School at least gives them something to do to keep them busy but then I wind up spending a bunch of time going to the office because the youngest can't stay out of trouble (I'm thinking this new year he will do better, he is getting older). I am going to take off a day after they go back to school just to regroup. Ahh there's the ticket, regroup. I do need to do that and get some priorities back in perspective.Ok back to the grind of work, hope all ya'll are having a great day and I wish you all a very Happy Fourth!!!

Life's A Bitch and Then You Die

That about sums up the way I feel this month. I swear I really do not think I can handle another damn thing to go wrong. It seems that everything that I have touched or came near has screwed up. Lets see the run down for the month is this (if I can remember all of it) First the bull with my lovely daughter, then hmm lets see, my window on my car just rolled down on its on the motor had gone out and had to be replaced ( I will say that we were blessed and it wound up costing a lot less than first assesed). Ok, then the computers hard drive crashed and had to be replaced (Dell fixed it for free because I had been smart when I bought the computer and bought the extended warranty), work and all its wonderful pleasures ***NOT***, getting sick twice this month actually I didn't get "sick" I have a hiatal hernia and because of said haital hernia I experiance GERD which causes my throat to become raw and burned and my stomach to be upset adn then the glorious onset of the trips back and forth to the bathroom. Due to all the stress it aggravated the problem and I missed two days of work, both on a Monday and both for the same reason which led to me being accused of "abusing sick time". Ok so on top of all the other stress that I am dealing with I was hit with that one too. And the cherry on top of all the BS I, yes I, and only I, screwed up the bank account that left a serious void in the bank account as well as putting some of the bills behind and no money for anything else. It was my screw up I will have to fix it just like I have to fix everything else. I'm sick of crying over all of it but dang it has to end at some point, hopefully that end is coming soon.

Back to work

I couldn't think of anything inspiring or interesting to title this post today. It's not that nothing is going on but instead my brain is not functioning well at all along with my body. I say back to work because I called in sick yesterday not because I wanted to stay home and knit or play around let alone clean the house or do laundry but because I am not well. I'm not going into the gross details or bore you with all that is wrong but I will say this, I have done it to myself. Most of the problems that I have would mostly go away (I say mostly because I know that I wouldn't suffer near as much as I do now) if I would only get this weight off my body. I have tried everything short of radical surgery or Jenny Craig (which one I won't do and the other I can not afford) and nothing seems to get my attention enough to stick to, so I continue to suffer with the problems that I have caused for myself. The stupid thing to all of it is that I know what the problem is but don't do anything about it. The absolute definition of insanity: Doing the same thing expecting different results. I finally finished the hat for the little boy that I have been writing about. I think I made it to big but it is cute. I still screwed up the decreases but my husband said that it looked great and he wanted one and Shelby said he wanted one too. I also have news about Will, he had his surgery last Friday and they were able to get to the tumor that was the size of a tangerine and were able to remove it and the mass around it as well as the tenticles that had branched out. I was told that the next afternoon he was sitting up in the bed talking to his mother. I haven't heard anything since Saturday but I was doing some thanking God for His mercy and love!! I told you miracles were possible.

The Curse of the Knitted Hat....

I have been cursed, I think. I was asked by my mother to make a hat for a friend of her's youngest child who has been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor and is undergoing chemo and radiation treatment. So I started to work on this hat. The first time around I royally screwed it up and had to frog the thing. I started again on Sunday and yesterday when I took the kids to the dentist I started the decreasing on it but I screwed up again so back to the dang frog pond I went. About the time I had decided there was nothing I could do to save the hat my computer decided to give up the ghost and fry itself. Ok normally I would have gotten upset but after the last 2 weeks of crap happening to me I have about had it. Last week it was the mess with my daughter, then the window on my car rolled down on its own and come to find out the motor and the regulator and that was going to cost us about 210.00 to get it fixed. I'm telling you it has been a hoot. It got so bad last week I drank and entire bottle of wine by myself on a weeknight. Now, those that don't know me, I do not drink that often. I may drink a glass of wine with dinner, or a beer while watching the Titans play but as far as drinking its not my thing. I had, had enough that day and my mind could not take anymore from anyone. It was better if I were buzzed. However, sometimes if you just sit back and say a prayer or just hand it over to God things have a way of working out. I'm ashamed to say that I didn't do any of that but apparently God loves me and He wants to help me and I'm proud to say that I did say thank you. I may be a lot of things but one thing I most definatly am is a grateful person. Without Gods eternal love and care I promise you I would not be where I am right now. It may not be where I want to be but its where I have been placed at this time. The car was fixed not for the 210.00 but for 90.00. The computer will be fixed this week and it was under warranty and they are coming out to my house to fix it, I have lost a lot but I didn't loose a lot. See about 2 months ago on a whim I decided to buy 250 gig external hard drive and move all my stuff that I wanted to keep like pictures or files, over to that hard drive so most of my stuff was already backed up. Now I did loose all my games and such but thats a matter of loading all the software back onto the computer. My daughter will be ok its the age but the lying has to stop I can not stand the lying. My son is home and safe and the youngest is about to figure some of it out I think. And as for the hat, I guess I need to pray a little more thru the stitches for the healthy and the well being of this child and his family as well as for my own maybe I didn't pray hard enough. All in all God is good ALL the time even when you and I can't see it and think you can't feel it.

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Tori getting her hair done for the pageant tonight

A good day to play in the dirt

We worked on the new flower beds today. Last year in the fall we had dug up the new area and laid one layer of the stones we were using. Finally today we got the 2 yards of dirt and the rest of the stones to finish up. We had to dig up all the plants, put the dirt in the beds then replant all the plants plus put out a few new ones.

As you recall this is what the house looked like last year when we bought it:

And this is what it looked like when we dug up last year:

We really had a lot of fun out working as a family. My mom came over and joined in the fun the only one not out was Cody and only because he has a cast on his arm for the next two weeks.

And what it looks like now that we are almost finished. I say almost because we have another bed that we have to work on soon.

Teaching

The owner of the newest LYS and my friend, has asked me to teach a crochet class this Saturday, I couldn't be more excited. Let me share what I'm teaching: Isn't that cute! The colors are great and the yarn worked up really easy but maybe I could have put the colors together in a different way. Putting colors together is definitely not one of my strong suits. Speaking of colors, my husband and I are going to be painting out house the end of May when we finally get to take a vacation (vacation as in we are taking time off from work to work at home). So we have been looking into different ideas of what colors we want to use. Lets say this, I'm better at matching colors than him. For example, I want to paint the master bath an olive or sage green so when we were talking about it Gary makes a suggestion to paint the trim black. Oh no not going to happen. While that bathroom is very large its not that large I would really like it to remain large in apperance. No not black trim. But he did have great ideas about the exterior, so I must give him a bit of credit. I will post pictures of what we come up with, hopefully it won't be that bad.

This past weekend was a hoot. My mom and I had a carport sale I say I but really it was all her. She did most of the work while I was running around with kids. I have to say it turned out really well and I am most grateful. The city had an event for Arbor Day at the local park . My daughter and I went for a bit and I bought a couple of plants that they had for sale and we walked around a bit just checking stuff out. One of the booths that was set up was a rehabilitation center for wild animals and they had a large owl with them to show. The owl had been injured and lost a wing so it could never be released back into the wild.

What a gorgeous creature. The owl really did not like it when the helicopter started to take off.

Yesterday was a lazy day of sorts. Gary didn't get in till early in the morning Sunday but I got up early Sunday and went to Walmart for dirt and tomato plants. I have this old wash tub that I got from an estate sale so I poked a couple of holes at the bottom and filled it with dirt. I planted 2 tomato plants and 2 pepper plants along with some small marigolds. Then I also have an old coal bucket that I put petunia's in. So then I also bought a couple of basil plants, chives, and more marigolds so I took a plastic tub and put holes in the bottom, filled it with dirt and planted them also. After that I sat on my back porch and ate breakfast. It was so nice just to sit back there with the dogs with a nice breeze blowing thru. So after all the yard work I went in and showered, ate some lunch and did some laundry. Tori and I went back in the bedroom to watch TV. So I finished the baby blanket for her teacher and worked on my socks. She fell asleep and took a great nap. I looked over and Dakota had stretched out on the chair next to the bed and was just snoozing away. I couldn't help myself I had to take a picture of him.

Is that not pitiful or what? I guess I should have been snoozing as well.

I completed a second fair isle hat Sunday. I still messed up on the pattern, just can't figure out what the heck I'm doing wrong on it. Apparently I can not count. The hat is still cute and I figure once I put the pom pom on it no one will notice the mess up. Not likely anyone will anyway and really who cares the kids that wear them won't they will be happy just to have them. I will get it right eventually but in the mean time I'm just going to have fun knitting its really not that serious of a sport....er hobby.

Ok lets see what else is up, I have started a pair of socks with some yarn I bought at Kathys shop. The colors are just beautiful. I will have to take a picture and post it in the next few days. I also have a baby blanket on a hook that I have to pick up some more yarn so that I can finish the one I started. And then I have another one that has to be done by the end of the month as well. All these new babies. I really want to start knitting the pattern of Kathys the felted bag. Last night I went thru my yarn looking for the right colors to use and I think I found what I want to use. Also, Raggie crochets baby girl dresses out of the crochet thread and I want to learn how to make them. When she comes home we are going to sit down and she said that she would teach me.

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First Fair Isle

Thursday night there was a sweet lady at the after hours knitting group who had just learned to knit fair isle. The process looked very interesting to me so I thought that I would attempt to teach myself how to do it. Yesterday was a very rainy day, it rained pert near all day long and it was a good day to sit and knit with my good friend Raggie. I sat with her while she crocheted and I knitted while we enjoyed each others company as well as some wonderful conversation that caused some tears and laughter. It's a good thing to be able to sit with a good friend and not be in a hurry. While there with her I taught myself to knit fair isle. The hat is not the best in the world but its my first and I'm just impressed that I was able to work two strands of yarn at the same time. Here's a picture of what I had done as of yesterday evening.

I think I messed up on the pattern somewhere but thats ok really since it was my first. I will do much better on the next one.

I finished it!! And as promised here is a picture of my daughter showing it off.


Thanks to Bron and to Deneen for helping me out with this one, you guys rock!!


You can see how small she is, I made that sweater the smallest size because she is so small.

I was wrong I was sick all weekend and still sick today. I made it to work but I'm miserable and would really like to be home on the couch not doing anything but crocheting the last sleeve. See Here is the unfinished sweater which I hope to be a finished sweater and my daughter showing it off this evening.
I actually took this picture at work with my camera phone so its not the greatest but will at least show it off for now. I promise to post a picture as soon as it is finished and I can get her to put it on.

Not allergies...

Ok so its not allergies I guess I have a plain ole cold. My head hurts, my sinius' are on fire, my ears are stopped up and my throat hurts, in fact I feel so bad I missed my daughters last soccer game of the season last night and didn't get to go to the knitting group last night. Tori made another goal last night and I missed it but I couldn't pick up my head off the couch to go see it.
I'm going to take some medication and go back to bed and maybe I will feel better and not be sick all weekend.

Allergies....so much fun

Up until the last couple of years I had never had allergies of any sort, now is a completly different story. Tuesday afternoon when I got off from work Gary and I went out back to cut the yard for the first time of the year. All the dead grass, dirt, pollen and whatever else was under all that caused some of the most sneezing I have done all year long. My nose is now running, my head hurts, I'm sneezing, and my throat is raw from the drainage. Yuk!!! It's all allergies! I took a Clariton this morning but its not touching it either, well I say its not but really it is. I'm also so sleepy. The dogs kept Gary and I up from about 3am to 4:30am. Sucks. Dakota was coughing (he's not sick he has allergies of the sinius' too and he hacks up well you really don't want to know) till he woke us up. I got up to let him out of the house and then to get some water. I got him settled down then London wouldn't come back in the house. I can't leave her out because she is a great escape artist, finally I got her in the house. Then Indigo started up cleaning his paws and one of the cats started scratching on the bed. I finally yelled out will you animals stop it and for some weird reason they actually did.
I took a half of day off today to get the front yard cut, now I'm feeling worse since I'm stubborn and couldn't wait until Gary got home. Tori has her last school soccer game this evening and I have to be there but gosh I need to go to bed and stay there.