A Stitch in Time

Still Around

2012-01-29T09:31:00.000-08:00

Last Friday, January 20, I took SeaBass to a hockey tournament in Kewlona. When we arrived home om Sunday I unpacked and remember telling Paul I did not feel very well. The hotel was very loud and I never slept well that weekend. I thought I would lay down for a bit and shake th mild headache I had.

The next time I remember waking waking was over 24 hrs later and 8 had the worst headache of my life, with nausea and vomiting and fever thrown or good measure. This Friday I scraped myself out of bed and went to see my Dr. He did some blood labs and toughly checked me over. He tells me I have the Influenza virus and I can expect to feel third crappy for another full week. I don't ever remember spending a full week in bed before, but as of today, I have. Not even able to watch a bit of TV until yesterday for a couple hrs. I feel a better this morning, so hopefully not to much longer now.

Changing the World

2012-01-15T14:48:00.000-08:00

One knitter at a time:

The picture is Deb's daughter LB, she just celebrated he1 11th birthday. PJ and discussed what we should give this lovely lady for turning 11 we hummed and we hawed, and then a light bulb went off over our heads. LB has mentioned in passing to both PJ and myself that she would like to learn to knit.

PJ and I went down to Micheal's armed with very important information, LB's favorite colours for example. PJ went hog wild and picked out two very pretty yarns and the needles she thought LB might like, she even picked out a little notions case, darning needles and a small pair of scisiors. We came home and PJ carefully wrapped everything up and tucked in a knitting bag, wrapping it with a bow and making a card. She walked herself down to the sleepover birthday party, where the gift was a hit.

So much so that the next afternoon there were four young ladies in the Kissing Cave asking if PJ and I would teach them all how to knit. Supper cool.

A bit spinning all done up and ready to knit. Shannon and Mom will recoginze it as that sample pack of camlid fibers from the Brown Sheep Festival. It is soft and sweet, and I had to get if off my niddy-noddy so I could load it with another finished fiber.

I ment to post this last week but got sucked into spending my time off writing reports for work, my least favorite part of my job. On the up side, only one more report to go...

For Mom

2012-01-08T08:44:00.000-08:00

A bit about PJ, who would be mortified if she knew I was posting on this topic and even more mortified if she knew I was posting pictures.

PJ for many years was the tidiest of my children, in fact when it came down to the kids bedrooms she used to have the cleanest of the three kids. I thought "This is so great, I don't know how it happened but it seems as if the messy child gene that was so strong within me jumped right passed my children! Yippee!" Indeed I thought of Shannon and her wonderful childhood tidiness, I even thanked Shannon quietly in the back of mind, how blessed I was that my lovely daughter decided to take after her Aunt rather than myself. Then it happened:

I am wondering if PJ was exposed to an environmental toxin of some kind within the past 8 months or so and the recessive Messy gene was exposed to rear it's ugly head. The boys rooms they get a bit untidy but never downright messy. Mind you they don't spend as much time playing in their rooms as PJ does in hers, they are often playing Lego's downstairs. (Crap, now I am thinking they also have the familial Messy gene, they are just better at spreading their messes throughout the house so I don't realize how mess they have!)

I know your laughing Mom as you scroll through the pictures, you are thinking about karma, remembering all the times you went in a mucked out my room while I wept and you mercilessly threw out all my treasures. I understand now your motives and your passion for a tidy space, I hereby publicly apologize for driving you halfway to insanity with my mess. (I would like it on record that I am only responsible for getting you half way there, the rest I think Shannon should take credit for, it's only fair)

Then it happened: I got fed up with looking at the mess, I could not take it anymore. I waited until she was off to school in one morning and I went into her room with a garbage can and a broom. It should be noted for the record that I gave my darling daughter warning and let her know I would clean her room if she choose not to herself, I was kind enough to give her a time line to work within.

I had no mercy, I recycled an entire garbage can full of tiny bits of paper, half finished paintings, cardboard boxes that she just had to have for one project or another, old birthday cards, hidden candy wrappers, flower petals wrapped in Kleenex that were a treasure as far a PJ was concerned. After filling an entire (read huge) recycle bin, I proceeded to fill two large garbage bags full of garbage and took those out to the curb thereby rendering them 'unrecoverable'. I stripped the sheets off the bed, washed them and put them back, tidy, neat and wrinkle free.

When PJ came home from school she was very angry with me, very angry indeed. She asked about her bits of paper, "Mom did you throw away that little yellow note that I was saving?" "Mom where are my American Girl magazines?" She tearfully sat on her bed and said, "Now I have nothing left to play with, my room is practically empty!"

To which I answered, "I know, isn't it lovely?"

Bagged Out

2012-01-05T16:27:00.000-08:00

I usually feel pretty bagged on Thursdays, but this Thursday I am bagged out like a cheap pair of jeans on their second day of wear. Why I am always so tired on Thursday takes a little bit of explaining. This year SeaBass asked if he could try out for Development Hockey. In the past he has always played House Hockey, which means league play within our local Association with a two out of town tournaments during the season.

Development Hockey involves trying out to play at a competitive level with the idea of developing the stronger players in each city for a higher level of play, if you don't make the team you get automatically put back into the House Hockey and play regular league games. If you do make the Developement team you play other Development teams from surrounding cities. BC and other provinces are divided up into geographical regions for hockey, Development teams play only teams from cities within their region.

This all boils down to traveling to play hockey, sometimes day trips involving a 2 hour drive to an arena in another city, sometimes staying the night for back to back games the next morning. The farthest teams in our division are 3 hours away, most closer to an hour to an hour and half (one way drive time). Paul and I told SeaBass he could try out for the team, but were not sure whether or not we really wanted him to make the team, it is a huge time commitment and more costly due to the travel. On the other hand it is competitive outlet for a kid that has a competitive streak and mile wide, the drive to play hard, and a passion for the game. Also better to be out on the ice than have time to get in trouble.

I am sure you guessed that he made one of the three Development teams that represent our fair town. It means he plays three days a week, including a practice every Wednesday morning at 5:30 a.m, we are lucky there happen to be two other kids in our neighborhood that are on the same team, we take turns carpooling the kids to the early game, but no matter what I am up every Wednesday at 4:30 in order to get him out the door and onto the ice. I told you it would take some explaining.

I do pretty good through Wednesday, but come Thursday I feel hung over and tired even though I have not had anything to drink. To add the mix I picked Q up at school yesterday with a fever and ended up staying home myself today to take care of him and not feeling so hot myself. We are both feeling better now, but a good nights sleep tonight will help us both be back to normal for tomorrow.

Just so you are not to bored with this post a couple of photos for you. I took these sunrise pictures Tuesday morning around 7:30, it looked like the sky was on fire.

Are you impressed with the amount of snow we have? So far only 4cm this winter, apparently our weather systems are coming from the tropics, were 11C yesterday for an all time historical high, 18 degrees warmer than we usually are at this time.

One more for the road, a pair of plain vanilla socks I knitted up while watching the kids play hockey. More to follow.

The Feet We Meet

2012-01-02T15:03:00.000-08:00

I believe that Dr. Seuss gets the credit for the tittle of today's post. If my memory serves me correctly it is a line (I think the last line) from The Foot Book, one of my favorites. (By the way I had to ask SeaBass how to the good Doctor's name was spelled, he knew and I did not!)

Can you tell which legs belong to which kid? Mom knit up these socks for the kids Christmas gifts. They love them, they have an appreciation for hand made goods and they ask me to knit them socks with some frequency, so a perfect gift. They seem to really like that the socks don't match perfectly, they also enjoy that are really slippery on the tile and laminate, they are doing more sliding than walking down the hallways.

Mom sent me a text not to long prior to Christmas asking for the kids shoe sizes, I can tell you these socks flew off her needles. Three pairs I think in as many weeks, and all my kids wear adult sized shoes, PJ and Q are about a women's size 5 or 6 and SeaBass is a women's size 7/8ish.

I am hoping to have this all spun up by the end of the day today, it would make it my fastest spinning thus far. The fiber you see in the photo is all there is left to spin, should be easy to do this evening, except for the fact that my hands are little bit sore from spinning the past two days. I think that is more the function of the weather here than anything, we are unusually warm and have been all winter that means it is not near as dry as it usually is which equals sore hands I am guessing the moisture in the air aggravates the joints a little bit. Here's to hoping it cools off a bit more, and snow would be great too.

P.S. Mom, I remember the case but the kindle fire itself funny that knitting project stuck in my head but not the kindle.

Something Blue

2011-12-31T16:33:00.000-08:00

I bought this fiber from a yarn store that was going out business here in town (don't worry another one opened up to replace it) It was a great price and I love the color. I am not sure the fiber content off the top of my head, but I am pretty sure it's merino wool.

I am going to try to ply it in such a way that I end up with a yarn that preserves the look of the hand dyed fiber, I am hoping I get enough to knit up a pair of socks.

I started spinning this fiber yesterday afternoon and worked on it on and off throughout the evening. I am going to try spin a bit every day and I think it will be ready to ply fairly quickly. I am about half way through the fiber already.

Gettiing My Feet Wet

2011-12-30T12:28:00.000-08:00

I keep thinking about starting to blog again, but I end up sitting at my computer feeling like I need to explain why I have not blogged in so long. I think of all things I would like to say on that topic and figure:

A. no one is reading anymore because I don't blog anymore so why explain.

B. I don't have a great reason anyway, I just haven't felt like sitting down and putting my thoughts and activities down on paper.

I have been working on a couple of knitting projects that I would like to share, I am thinking the best way is just to try to jump back into blogging. If anyone would like to have a read, that is wonderful and if you have given up on me, no worries, that would be my fault for falling off the blogging train for six months.

I have gotten into lace over the past year. I started with some easy stuff and have tried to gradually move up in difficulty. I have seen some of the pretty shawls Shannon has made and thought I would get my feet wet.

This a scarf I made for a birthday gift, I had one skein of a pretty silk yarn that needed to be knit up into a scarf, downloaded a free pattern from Knit Picks and a gave it a try.

I thought I had a picture I took after blocking it, but I can't seem to find that one right now. It is entirely possible those are on still on my camera, I have not downloaded in a while. These were taken with my phone.

Drumheller, Alberta

2011-07-30T21:23:00.001-07:00

Thursday we packed up the trailer and kicked off our summer vacation. We left around noon and headed to Banff, Alberta in the Canadian Rockies. We camped only one quick night here on our way to Drumheller Alberta, the Dinosaur capital of the World.

We are staying here for three days and then we will head back towards Banff and camp a bit through Jasper on our way to a wedding in Sexsmith Alberta.

Today we went to the Royal Tyrrell Museum, it was amazing. We all had such a good time.

I don't think I have ever seen so many dinosaur fossils, it was fascinating. I had no idea that the area here is known world wide for it's groundbreaking (hehe) fossil finds and its research facilities.

This is a Mammoth, I think this one came from the famous dig site in Utah, not actually from the local area. If you look carefully you can see the Saber Toothed Tiger set up to attack the Mammoth. This was one of my favorite displays, but only the tip of the iceberg.

I loved so many of them I had a difficult time choosing which ones to show you. So you get a Stegosaurus as well:

I have been lucky enough to grab a free Wi-Fi signal right here at the campground. The kids are sleeping and Paul is off to the showers and laundry mat. There is one here, so we figured we would try to keep on the laundry while we are at a campground that has a washer and dryer.

I think he really took the laundry with him so he could read his book, I finally talked him into the reading the Harry Potter books. He is on the third one now, that is saying something, he has never had the love of reading Shannon and I were lucky to be raised with. I have only known him to read about ten books since we have been married. If he is doing laundry so he can hang out in a place that has enough light read by, he must be enjoying the book. He may have done less than ten loads of laundry since we have married!

I am going to shutdown my laptop and enjoy my camp fire. I should be able to share more pictures soon. I am going to do a little campfire knitting.

We Interupt Your Regulary Irregular Programing...

2011-07-21T14:21:00.000-07:00

For a yarn post, not just any yarn post but new stash.

I have been trying hard not to buy yarn for over a year. I have quite a bit of stash and have been picking my projects from my stash. I did slip a bit with some enabling from Shannon and Will upon my last visit to California. If I am honest they did not enable me one bit, unless taking me to a neat little yarn shop in Alameda qualifies?

Where is this all leading? My favorite local yarn store is going out of business. I find the owner a bit odd, but she carries lovely yarn and lots of spinning stuff so the store is very nice. I think she has done well business wise, but had a surprise baby when she did not think she could even get pregnant. I think the lovely little girl is around two years old and the owner is closing up shop to have more time with her.

This all means big going out of business sale. I caved, I bought yarn, for a great price. I will even confess to plans of dropping in next week to see if she has lowered the prices even further.

I bought this amazing alpaca and downloaded the free pattern. I have planning on knitting up a sweater for quite sometime now, but had not really found the right sweater/yarn combo yet. I am going to double check for gauge and then cast on this week sometime.

I also bought this pretty sock yarn, the picture does not do the yarn justice, it is really red. It is 10% Cashmere so very soft. It was a great deal.

I bought some really nice lace wt. alpaca that ended up being about $8.00 for 440 yards, that I have not photographed.

The good news is someone is opening a spinning/knitting store right downtown on September 1st. Only three blocks from the office, that will be tough to stay out of!

Thank You!

2011-07-19T08:46:00.001-07:00

We had a postage strike here in Canada for several weeks. After being without mail for more than two weeks the government stepped in and mandated the postal employees back to work.

We were so excited, we had ordered checks not long before the postal strike and our Visa cards expired during the strike, while our new ones were trapped somewhere in the mail system that had ground to a screaming halt. We were in a bit of pickle for a bit with all that happening. We do a lot of things with online banking so that saved us.

Meanwhile all the wonderful Birthday cards that my family had sent from home were jammed up in the mail as well. The workers have been back at it for over two weeks now and we just recently (yesterday) received our personal checks and one more birthday card (Thank you so much Shannon, your gift of an amazon gift certificate is so perfect for me right now, I can download some books to read while my shoulder continues to heal) Thank you to everyone who sent birthday wishes.

Paul took me to Sparkling Hills Spa for a huge bit of being spoiled. We have never done anything like this before and it was wonderful.

I know this picture is a bit dark, but in the foreground is the king sized bed and in the background are the huge windows that make up one entire wall of the room we had.

A close up of the bathtub you can sort of see on the left in the photo above. I had a bath in it the morning we checked out. I don't think I needed one but I could not leave without using that tub.

The incredible view from our room looking over Okanagon Lake:

View of Paul swimming in one of the salt water pools, there are two one indoor and one out.

Really neat all glass shower that allows you to check out the view while you get soaped up:

The bed is not that interesting, I took this picture because I love the lights that are hard wired into the headboard, each one having its own small switch as well. Genius, every headboard should have this feature.

Me after a Salt scrub that sanded the marker off my shoulder. (Note: Salt Scrub massage was not as lovely as it may sound, was like being rubbed with sand paper over your entire body, but you get up and shower half way through and then get lotion slathered on, and I am pretty damn soft right now) Also, I do have a shirt on it this picture, it's strapless.

When we left the hotel on Friday we stopped in Salmon Arm for Sturgis North and then to pick the kids up from camp. I will post a few pictures of that next time.

The Day After

2011-07-18T19:40:00.000-07:00

I was told after the surgery I could take the bandage off and shower in 24 hours. I took these photos about 30 hours after the surgery. I tried to wait until Paul got home from work to have him peel off the bandage and so someone would be around while in was in the shower because the pain medication made me a bit wonky. He ran late with a with a meeting and I could not wait anymore.

The first picture looks the most dramatic, but is really quite tame. The big blue thing is a Cryo/Cuff. If you follow the blue tubing from the top of my shoulder you will notice a white connector that Velcros at my chest, that connect to another piece of blue tubing which in turn connects to a thermos full of ice and water.

I rented a small pump, only $20 for the entire month, that pumps the cold water into the Cryo/Cuff. The pump cycles on and off constantly cycling fresh cold water in and the water my body has warmed out. Very cool. This thing rocks. I have been sleeping with it on and use it after my stretches. I am a week after surgery today and have very little bruising and have taken no pain medication in the past 24 hours.

The bandage looked huge! I understand after they do the arthroscopic surgery and they remove the surgical instruments from the holes they cut they then irrigate all the holes with a saline solution. The bandage is large to soak up the liquids they pump in to clean you all out afterwards, not because I was bleeding profusely or anything like that.

From the back: I have to say I would have saved myself a layer of skin back there if I had waited for Paul to get home. Down where I could not reach the tape and gave it a good yank, not pretty.

One hole in the back, which is the largest at maybe an inch long:

And two in the front, which might be 3/4 of an inch long. Each incision only has one stitch and they get taken out tomorrow morning.

The pink you see on me is due to a couple things, me taking the bandage off, red paint they used to clean everything once they put me out, and maybe cold skin due to the Cryo/Cuff.

Before the surgery, the surgeon came and talked to me for a while. He confirmed what side he would be repairing and actually signed his initials on my left upper arm in great big letters with a permanent marker telling me this was his contract to me that he would be operating on that side. I find it funny that they cleaned off the initials but I woke up to find other markings on me instead. I think those may have finally completely washed away after my shower this morning.

Basket of Good Intentions

2011-07-12T18:00:00.001-07:00

In the process of getting The Cave just organized I have come across a few unfinished projects, as I came across anything that was on needles I just tossed the project into this basket, figuring I could deal with these projects over the summer and after The Cave was in a more organized state of affairs. As I tossed in project after project, I started calling it my Basket of Good Intentions.

I have decided it is time to tackle The Basket of Good Intentions. I am showing you two more pictures to be entirely honest about what else I have on the needles. I don't want to shamelessly post about some old project I finished up and have you all mention to me that it was one I never disclosed to you all to begin with. Here is one lonely thrummed mitten and all the materials to make it's mate.

I don't know if we can call the squares unfinished or not, I am still churning out squares pretty regularly with no real good idea what they are going to end up being, but you should keep in mind they are definitely in the ongoing project pile.

Here lies the first project I am going to work on out of The Basket. It is a lace wrap I started years and years ago, maybe even my first attempt at lace. Since the start of this project I have finished a few lace projects and I have been jonesing to start another so this should fit the bill nicely. I was really enjoying this project and think the only reason it never got picked up again was the fact that I was not sure I would be able able to figure out where I left off in the pattern. I spent some time figuring that out and after a knitting a row or two I think I need to change the kind of needles I have it on and then it should be good to go.

By the way the surgery went well, I am recovering nicely and really in love with the CryoCuff. I have pictures to show you soon. I am headed out town for a quiet couple of days with Paul.

I Bought It!

2011-06-28T12:49:00.000-07:00

No don't worry, not the farm, but I did turn another year older. Thank you to everyone who called and everyone who thought of me and sent a birthday wish my way.

I bought the Red Table I eluded to a post or two ago. I am not sure the pictures do it justice. I love the piece so very much that I spent the better part of my weekend in The Cave with PJ teaching me how to make friendship bracelets. (I caught on quickly, it seems it's like riding bike you don't forget all the things you knew in grade school)

The boys would pop in The Cave now and again and join us for a while then they would run around outside and come back and play with PJ and I.

It is 120+ years old, made of Elm and even has the wax seal on the back that authenticates that it is indeed significantly older than I am.

I think I only need one more piece of furniture to make The Cave complete, I just need to decide on a colour. I have been thinking a bean bag chair in there would be perfect for the kids, it would give them a place to flop when they come down to chat with me, a good way to make them feel like they can join me anytime with a book or a craft project. Any ideas on the colour? Can you have to much red?

Got Bumped?

2011-06-24T17:04:00.000-07:00

I have been having some problems with my left shoulder for a couple of years now. I could not tell you what triggered the whole thing but it has been a hell of journey.

It started as tendonitis and bursitis. That in and of itself bugs me as these are both symptoms that Drs. like toss out there like they are a diagnosis. Tendonitis simply means inflammation of a tendon, likewise bursitis means inflammation of the bursa. I always ask my patients what caused the inflammation? Over use? Poor bio-mechanics? Trauma? I wish I had an answer.

Eventually my shoulder simply started to seize up, the up side of this was the tendonitis and bursitis eventually settled down (it turns out if you can't get enough range of motion to use the involved tendon and bursa they become far less angry) the down side of this is really poor range of motion and therefore a decrease in overall function.

I started treatment with the easy stuff, chiropractic and massage therapy. When those things did not work I tried acupuncture and did a spiritual workshop in an attempt to hear what my body was trying to tell me with all this pain and dysfunction. I have worked with people and their bodies for 15 years and in that time have learned so very much, I understand that pain is not just physical but that it can be emotional as well. I see many patients that I believe get something they need out of their pain experience and I wanted to explore the idea of this being the root of my shoulder dysfunction. I wanted to know if there were emotions in my life I had chosen to ignore until they decided to make themselves known with physical pain. With all this work I had still come up with no answers and no relief.

As I traveled this road of treatment protocols my thoughts have always been of working from the least invasive treatments and gradually into more invasive treatments if the less invasive stuff did not work. At this point the next up was seeing a pain specialist who injected lidocaine into the joint space to numb the entire shoulder and have Paul attempt to move my shoulder through the range of motion and break up some of the scar tissue thereby increasing my range of motion, breaking the pain cycle and putting me on the road to recovery. No go. In fact we were never able to numb the shoulder enough to increase the range of motion more that maybe 10 degrees, and that improvement only lasted days.

Next up was cortisone injections, some would put this under less invasive than the last procedure, but in fact the long term damage from cortisone shots can be quite severe. Most medical practitioners do not use cortisone as it is meant to be used. The idea of cortisone is to turn off the pain response so you can rehab an injury. Today most Drs. use the shot as the treatment protocol by itself and leave the rehab portion out, I believe this is one of the reasons why some Drs. find themselves giving cortisone shots every six months or so for the same injury. They have in essence used the cortisone to shut down the pain, but have not taken any advantage of that period of pain relief to change the function of the injury they are treating. The cortisone did give me temporary pain relief but by this time I had so much scar tissue in the shoulder my range of motion was very poor and limited my rehab, so this was an unsuccessful treatment protocol for me. I have wondered if it may have worked if I had been less stubborn and tried it before I lost so much function.

This has left me with no options except surgery. Over a year ago I saw a surgeon who said I was one of the worst cases of frozen shoulder he has ever seen and that I was indeed a surgical candidate. He put me on his wait list.

A year and a bit later and I had my surgical date. Until yesterday I was scheduled for surgery Wednesday June 29th. Yesterday I got the dreaded phone call from the surgeons office. I got bumped! After all the planning, organizing and time booked off work I got bumped!

I should not be so dramatic, I am very lucky that only got bumped a week. My new date is for July 6th. I am so thankful that I am not the emergency that someone had to bumped for, I am thankful that I got bumped only week and not three months. I am thankful for the fact that they tell me they are not allowed to bump me again.

Random photo: I was downloading the pictures off of PJ's camera for her and came across this one, they clearly took this one of themselves. I love it, it made me smile so big I thought I would share it with all of you. That is PJ, Paul's mom Judy and Paul 's sister Jodie. Aren't they beautiful!

The Cave

2011-06-21T12:30:00.001-07:00

Months ago I told you I planned to show you the craft room. I am so happy with the room that I have been spending time down in my Cave instead of on my computer. There are even several finished projects I should show you soon.

You may remember the naked pine cabinets I showed you many moons ago. Here is one of them all loaded up with yarn. I have to say I don't know weather to proud or embarrassed about my stash. There is quite a bit of yarn on display in this post. When people walk into the Cave and gasp, "You could open a yarn shop!" it makes me wonder if should be seeking out a some sort of ten step program for fiber addicts.

I love my red tool box. That is a hand me down from Paul. Years ago he bought a bigger one for his tools in the garage and I asked him if I could have the small one for knitting tools. The thought just occurred to me that I may feel slightly less sheepish about showing you my Cave if I did a post on Paul's garage. He has a wonderful collection of stuff it would put my hobby to shame.

Here is my project desk, where all the ideas happen. I love sitting here with my iPod on the dock listening to an audio book while I swatch or work on a project. Shannon you may recognize the little desk, I think it is a drafting table, Shannon and Will were kind enough to pass it on to me when they no longer had a use for it.

A place to spin and read:

The white cubes you see are the cubes my yarn lived in under the stairs, in a space we called the Kissing Cave. I would ask the kids to come down and help me pick out yarn for projects and then I would shower the kids with kisses and tickle them once they were under the stairs with me. That is how the craft room got the name "The Cave" I am thinking maybe "The Room of Good Intentions" might be better. Maybe we test drive calling it "The Room of Requirement" What do you think?

One last photo of the second yarn cabinet and bit of mess. The wire rack with the cloth bins on it is soon to be moved. That is where the kids put there winter boots when thy are not on their feet and each kid has a bin to put there mitts and toques in so they don't get lost. I will move that soon as I have been eyeing up an antique red table to put there. I have been eyeing up the table for months, I think I need to bite the bullet and buy it before someone else does. Maybe for my birthday.

A huge hug to Aunt P for sending me the nudge I needed to finish the post that has been half written for months.

Festival and Spring in BC

2011-03-11T15:21:00.000-08:00

I keep seeing the lovely California spring pictures you are all posting, Aunt Patricia with her blooming plum trees, Shannon posted pretty pictures of the lush greenness while she was doing some yard work a while ago, and quick peek at Mom's blog showed me blooming Almond trees.

I thought I would show you what last Sunday mornings spring rain looked like around here.

A look down the street:

And our house. It was a good snow, you can see how wet it is by looking at the shovelled driveway. It was 1C at the time, so just above freezing. Big fat wet snowman building snow flakes.

Every year there is a Festival of fine arts here in town. Kids prepare pieces and perform in front of adjudicators who give them feed back. Kids of all ages perform anything from memorized poems, pieces of plays, all sorts of dance and musical instruments.

It so happens that my kids have a wonderful teacher, who has a huge fear of public speaking. She feels it is an important skill to learn and insists that the children in her class take part in the poetry portion of the festival. She has a speech trainer come into her classroom as part of a class project and has the entire class perform a group piece together.

In her classroom it is mandatory that all her 2nd and 3rd graders perform at least one solo poetry piece. It is optional for the 1st graders but many choose to do it. SeaBass is no longer in this class room any more, but he chose to do two poems and spent a lot of after school time with the speech coach memorizing a preparing his speech.

I broke the rules and recorded the kids during their performances. Here is Q with his first poem. I will post the others soon.

That was so cool

2011-03-07T21:10:00.000-08:00

I thought I would try it again.

There should be sound, Paul was not able to get the sound on his computer, can you?

Testing 1...2...Testing

2011-03-07T20:55:00.000-08:00

Just a quick test to see if I can upload some video.

I have Mac and I am not sure if all the software will work and if the video will work for you guys so let me know in the comments please.

New Books

2011-03-01T19:28:00.000-08:00

When mom blogged about the high-lighting tape I went online to see if I could find some. The best price I found was amazon.ca. If you have ever ordered off amazon you know if spend enough you get free shipping. (They really know how to suck me in)

Of course the tape was not enough to earn me free shipping but I since I have been doing a bit of crochet I had noticed the distinct lack of any crochet books in my library. I was not really looking for a pattern book, but just a good crochet book that would give me some good stitch patterns with clear directions and good pictures. I came across this one and I am already so glad I picked it up. The pictures are great and the directions are good, the stitch patterns are labeled from easy to experienced. The book is good for even a beginner like myself.

I have been sucked into the blocks so I picked this one up as well. I am looking forward to trying some different blocks.

I am seem to have been bit by the same bug that mom has been bit by. I am having a bit of startitis. I finished my hockey knitting (plain sock) and need another one on the go for the remainder of the hockey season. I was feeling a bit bored with plain socks but Q picked this yarn out the stash and asked if I would knit him a pair of socks out of it.

I am going for plain vanilla socks but I am trying a different technique. I am knitting the sock in the round on one itty bitty circular needle. I think the needle is a new one out by Addi for just this purpose.

I am not sure how I am liking it yet. It was an easy start, you don't have to worry about moving the stitches to other needles and there was no trouble with twisting the stitches or anything. I found the ribbing a bit fussy, but I find socks are always easier when you get about inch on the needles anyway.

I think it is faster that using the five needles, but I it may be hard on my hands. I have fairly big hands and the yarn seems very slippery on the needles so I am having to pay a bit more attention to a plain sock than I usually need too. I figure now that I am starting the leg it will get more comfortable and I wont have to pay as much attention to my work.

I am wondering what happens when I get to the heel flap and picking up the gusset stitches, but I am going to just enjoy a slightly different technique and cross that bridge when I get to it.

I just realized looking at these pictures that mom and I are now knitting socks pretty near the same colour yarn. Q picked this yarn because he wanted 'Army Socks' and this colour fit the bill for him. It is Socks That Rock yarn, but I am not remember the colour way off the top of my head. I will check the label later. It is from last years sock club.

Weight and Balance

2011-02-28T14:40:00.000-08:00

You remember the crochet squares I have been working on? They are still coming along. I needed only 12 for the bag I had planned for them but I still have yarn left so I am well over 12 by now. Mom had a great a idea that I use to make a baby blanket for a friend of mine that is expecting baby number four. I am thinking that idea is looking better and better with every square.

I had three small balls of of some yarn I have been using for the stash busting project. I was sure the balls were just a little a to small to t make a square, but I thought it would be close. I decided to get out the scale and check it out. First I weighed a completed square:

Then I weighed the green ball:

Then I weighed the last of the pink:

Then a weighed the small ball of yellow:

I could not believe that all the bits of leftover skeins weighed the same. It made me laugh.

I am late in writing the post so you will be happy to know the balls are all crocheted up into little squares already and there was of course, just of enough of each colour to complete a square. It was destiny from the beginning.

(I don't really know where the balance comes in as far as my title goes, I just thought it would give mom some flashbacks from her old job)

Hibernation

2011-02-11T08:42:00.000-08:00

I am sure you noticed (or not) the Traditional Danish Shawl listed over there on your left in the "On the Needles" portion of this blog. Has been sitting at 99% done for ages. In a very mild case of finishupitis I pulled it out of the basket to have a look. I thought it half way bound off and needed to be finished up. I was surprised to see the only thing it needed was crochet ties on it. Less than 5 minutes worth of crafting!

I finished it up and have been wearing it every evening since. I love it. It is warm and soft, perfect for keeping my shoulders warm while I knit in the evenings. I don't know if you remember but it is knit out of the hand spun that Shannon gifted me for my birthday. Which makes it more delicious.

I tried to use every yard of the yarn she spun up and I came pretty darn close:

On another note we have had the flu bug on and off, PJ had been feeling very poorly for weeks maybe even a month, complaining of abdominal pain and general acheiness. She was also extremely grumpy and very sensitive, I was quite worried about her. I am glad to report that she is back to her normal cheerful self. I think it was a combination of things, and am now left wondering if this lingering flu bug was a big part of it.

Q and I have it now, he has missed 3 days of school this week and I missed two days of work. I understand how PJ felt, I swear this thing just makes you feel all around crummy. The stomach ache I can handle, but the headache is nasty and it has generally made me sensitive and crabby to boot. I put everyone on Vitamin D to help the winter Blues, we have not seen the sun around these parts for ages. The Vitamin D made an immediate difference everyone's mood and energy levels. I am calling it the happy pill.

Everyone seems on the mend, but this is a bug that seems to come and go for weeks at time. I am hearing lots of people say it has taken them three weeks to a month to really feel good again. That appears to be the pattern I am seeing around our household, so I am making sure everyone is getting some extra rest and eating well. On that note, I was sick on grocery day so I need to get off to the store before I meal planning with only a can of coconut milk and black beans left in cabinets. Ick

Hockey Hockey Hockey

2011-01-25T10:19:00.000-08:00

I worry that you must get tired of reading hockey content on this 'knitting' blog, but here goes. (by the way these are some of the pictures I told you I would show you when I got around to downloading them) PJ and Q played one another in a league hockey game a weekend or two ago. They had a great time and I did not who to root for so I rooted for everyone. That is Q in the above photo, a rare shot of him with his stick actually on the ice waiting for pass. He has a bad habit of skating with his stick up off the ice, making it very had to get that pass. He is working hard it, I love this picture, to me it is a picture of his improvement.

PJ shocked us all by volunteering to by goalie for this game. She is on the only all girls at her age level and they rotate goalies so that everyone who wants to try the position gets a chance. Last year she opted to never try the position, had no interest in it at all.

Her coach was shocked when PJ asked to play goalie as was I! I had no idea PJ was even entertaining the idea let alone ready to don the gear. I think the coach was almost disappointed when PJ volunteered. PJ usually plays rightwing, is one of the older girls on the team, she plays position well and is a strong skater, I think the coach missed having her in the line up.

I am thrilled she has developed the confidence to try the position and she had a great time in net. I also a bit glad she is not in love with the position. Goalie gear is very expensive!!!!

On another note, she played in her first all girls tournament this past weekend and scored 5 goals and had 2 assists. She won the award in her first game for the player with the most heart and won top gun for her team.

The girls very rarely get to play against an all girl team, all the teams they play here are boys teams. It was cool to see the girls play girl teams and have success.

Pictureless

2011-01-20T13:38:00.000-08:00

I have been meaning to post for days but have not gotten around to downloaded some pictures I want to post. I still have not taken the time to download my photos so I thought, duh, post with no pictures.

SeaBass celebrated his 10th Birthday on Monday. I can't believe my oldest is ten! It is so cliche that it goes by so fast, but it sure does. He is closer to being a legal adult than to being a baby. I can't imagine how Shannon feels with Morgan being almost a full grown man now. (Happy Birthday Morgan)

We had some surprise company for SeaBass's birthday, Paul's dad arrived on Monday and brought his mom along with him for a quick visit. PJ had the idea to keep it all a surprise for SeaBass and we managed to pull off a small surprise party for him on Monday evening.

He had no idea! We even decorated the downstairs and the whole bit. He said it is the best birthday he has ever had. So we have been kept busy this week enjoying the company and keeping up the kids, it has been a good week.

They will heading home on Friday morning, I really enjoy having company. The house alway seem to empty when everyone heads home.

Happy Hooking

2011-01-13T20:00:00.000-08:00

I posted a little bit about moving rooms around in the house. I am still in a state of juggling, but things are improving.

I finished the cabinets (I have not taken photos yet) and have been moving yarn around. I am to the fun part where I get to fondle the stash and wonder how I have so much lovely yarn that I have knit up yet.

I came across a fair bit of left over yarn from other projects and as I moved things around new and old projects came to mind.

I stumbled across some Knit Picks Shine that is left over a baby blanket I made at least 3 years ago and immediately a pattern I had seen in one of my books for a tote bag came to mind. I dug out the book and pulled out the pattern...only to find it was a crochet pattern!!!

Mom reminded me how to crochet again when she was here for a visit in the summer. So I decided I would give the pattern a whirl. The first results were not pretty at all and I was doing was getting frustrated. I decided to take the pattern to work and ask around to see if anyone one who dared came in the door to be adjusted that day knew how to crochet and could answer some questions for me.

I remembered when I got to work that our newest employee is a knitter and the more I thought about the more I was sure she crocheted someone a toque for Christmas. She took about 15 and gave me a refresher and TADA! A square.

At the time of the photo I had not finished the top corner, but now trust me it's a square. Tonight I think I will try to do another one. I am surprised at how much faster crochet seems to be than knitting, and I am still poking along on the learning curve. I don't think it is made a hooker out of me, but I think I may dabble for bit.

Snowball

2011-01-05T17:46:00.001-08:00

You will have to forgive me, my pictures are loaded out of order but you will get the idea and nod your heads with me as you read, I know this happened to all of you.

We have basement suite which we have rented out to help out with our mortgage the entire time we have lived in this house. Our tenant moved out the last week in December and as part of another snowball I will share with you in another post we are going to remodel the kitchen in May.

There is full kitchen in the basement suite so naturally I was thinking I would not rent the suite again until after the remodel of the kitchen upstairs (or never rent out again, we will see). I can move into the kitchen downstairs, move our dining room table downstairs and not go crazy with my kitchen torn apart for a month while we all eat take out.

This whole plan began a complete juggle downstairs. Here come the out of order pictures, the one below is a photo of where the guest bed once was. I am hoping this room is destined to be my craft room or the crazy cave, whatever you want to call it.

This is the downstairs bathroom in which I have stolen Shannon's brilliant idea and have taken this over as my own. I can't even tell you how lovely it is to not have a sink full of toothpaste looking back at me every morning. I never realized how much bathroom mess I cleaned up every day that was not mine. It is such a treat to have a clean washroom all to myself.

This is the bed from the soon to be craft room moved into the bedroom of the suite, it is covered with everything out of my linen closet because of course during the juggle the closet took a nose dive and starting caving in on itself.

Paul kindly repaired the linen closet for me. I don't know why they built a 4 bedroom home with a little tiny linen closet upstairs but they did. So long ago Paul put cabinet this in laundry room for me, it works well, I just fold the sheets and pop them in here without a trip up the stairs. Now my linen closet is all cleaned out, tidy and off the bed.

The whole idea of craft room means I need a lovely place to store my yarn. I found some great pine and glass cabinets that were pretty inexpensive, but I did not want to leave them nude so that turned into another project. I am staining them with a 50/50 mix of white wash and black stain, trying to get a pewter sort of look. The first picture is closest to the true colour. I plan to finish them off with a couple of coats of semi-gloss clear coat.

They are coming along, but moving a bit slowly for my tastes, I only have evenings to work on them. Once I get everyone settled into bed I will see if I an make some progress tonight.

Hockey Tournament

2011-01-02T14:36:00.000-08:00

We are just getting back into hockey season after a little break for the holidays. We have started with a bang with SeaBass in a tournament in Salmon Arm. He played two games today and I think has two games tomorrow.

His team has lost both games, but not for lack of effort. SeaBass was selected for team MVP for the first game today. I think the smile here says it all.

He was a bit upset half way through the second game he was called for a tripping penalty that he did not do. This is not just the parent talking, he was coming up the ice with the puck on a break away and a player from the other team took him out trying to stop the play. The referee (kids that are learning to ref as much as the other kids are learning to play hockey) called Sebastian for tripping. The call makes no sense to me, the player with possession of the puck would not trip the other player.

I find sometimes when watching it is so hard to keep in mind that everyone out there is learning. Sometimes the play gets to rough because the young refs are not confident enough to make a call. There was a player on the other team actually trying to instigate a fight and he never got called for his rough play the entire game.

We are all having a great time and are about to head off to a bowling alley with an entire hockey team and all their siblings. I plan to drink a beer, knit and watch the kids bowl. Sounds like a great way to spend a winter afternoon.

6:30 PM edited to add:

Bowling alley was not licensed, this means no beer at a bowling alley. Who would've thought?

5 people in hotel suite, hockey gear airing out in washroom of said suite; I really wish I had a scratch sniff blog to share with all of you.

Sun and Socks

2010-12-18T07:59:00.000-08:00

We are supposed to have more snow this winter than any winter in the past 100 years. Everyday the forecast calls for snow and so far we have only had one really good dump of snow and a couple of lighter snows.

I am in Mom's camp on the unproductive cloud cover, if we have clouds they should be either dropping rain or snow. We are sitting at -7C (19F) this morning with flat grey lighting that makes the whole world look black and white and the weather report is calling for snow. I would love to have some snow!

So for everyone that needs a bit of sunshine: Here is a picture I took of a sunset in Hawaii from the ship we had dinner cruise on. Click on it to make big and fill your day with tropical sunshine.

PJ's mitts are just about done, in fact she is wearing the other one as I finishing up the thumb on this one. It took her two years to lose one of the mitts from the first pair I made her. When she misplaced the mitt she went downstairs to the yarn cave and picked out some yarn she liked. She brought it upstairs and put it on the counter and explained she could not find one of her old ones and asked if I would knit her new pair out of the yarn she chose. Smart girl how does a knitter say no to that request.

She managed to get a pair socks, a pair of fingerless mitts for her best friend and pair for herself, I apparently can not say no to an eight year old with sock yarn in her hand.

Snowman

2010-12-14T09:09:00.001-08:00

Saturday night we had the most beautiful dump of snow of the season thus far. It was only about -1C, which means you get big fat wet flakes of snow that stick together perfectly to make the perfect snow balls and snowmen. (I tried to make her snow girl, but the boys would not let me)

I have to be honest even after living in Canada for almost 11 years (WOW) this is the first snow man I have ever made. The boys did a whole lot of the work and Paul had to pitch in and lift the middle ball on the snowman, you would be surprised at how much it weighs. There is no way I can lift it, I am quite sure the snowman out weighs me.

The snowman stands only few inches shorter me, Sebass comes up to my chin these days so that should give you an idea how tall the snowman stands. The weather is sitting at 1C today and calling for snow, PJ and I have decided to make a snowwoman if we get some good snowperson snow. She tells me she think we should do a whole family this year.

Could you all do a snow dance for us?

Beautiful Bang (Summer Vacation Part II)

2010-07-10T13:19:00.000-07:00

The last post left you at the Canada/US Border. We had to cross at the peace arch as we were in Vancouver. We never cross at the Peace Arch due to the long line ups, we waited two hours to get across. Thankfully we left in plenty of time.

The kids and I were headed to Bellingham to fly out to Las Vegas to visit with Paul's parents. Paul dropped us off at the airport and he drove back to Canada via the Sumas crossing and only had to wait for two cars in front of him.

We had just the kind of flight you want, totally uneventful, we landed in Las Vegas around 11:30 Saturday night. Paul's parents picked us up and we off to their house to tuck into bed.

The next day we hung out around the pool and relaxed. As the afternoon went on SeaBass was not feeling well, he had a fever and was tired. He ended up sleeping the afternoon away and only getting up for about an hour to watch the 4th of July fireworks from the front yard.

The other kids walked around the block for a better view, but it was all SeaBass could do to sit on the front curb and watch them. He ended up going in and going to bed.

The fireworks were amazing. They live only a few miles from the strip and all the major hotels seemed to be competing with one another to see who could out do whom. They must have lasted hour or more.

Our Summer Vacation (Part I)

2010-07-09T13:42:00.001-07:00

We have been on a bit of an adventure, we started on Thursday July 1, Canada Day. We traveled to Vancouver for the long weekend to visit Ranj and Susan and their kids (they just had another baby boy)

Paul and I took the kids the space centre and had a blast. I could not figure out why the space centre has a huge crab outside but here you have it. It is really cool looking, but nothing spacey about it.

Inside there was a planetarium much like the one in the Bay Area. We watched a couple of shows about stars with the kids. They really enjoyed the one about the planets but I think the second one may have put us all to sleep. I am not really sure as I was one of the ones nodding off.

Photograph of blurb above goes with the picture above it. I only took the photo because I though it was pretty.

In addition to the shows in the planetarium they had an area that reminded me a lot of the exploritorium but with a focus on space. There was a lot for the kids to see and do there. The kids all climbed into this space suit for photos but Sebass had the funniest picture so it's Sebass you get for this one.

I was surprised they had this space suit there. It is the one the astronaut Collins actually wore into space. I was surprised because as far as knew it was an American mission and the suit does have an American flag on it. I know many of the missions were done jointly with many other countries so I am not sure why I was so surprised to see this there.

I was not aware that the Canada is so involved in space research and had such a big space program.

We got to sit a bit and listen to a guy talk about rockets. He was pretty good, he taught the kids the three laws of motion in a way that was really easy for them to understand. He got the kids involved in his demonstrations and used a hockey analogy to explain the science behind rockets.

Below is a photo of one of the rockets used to propel Saturn IV into space. (1969?) I should check the date for you but I am to lazy to look it up (I am on vacation after all)

Saturday all the kids had a swim in the hotel pool and we loaded up the van to scoot across the border. More on that in the next post.

Spring

2010-05-31T11:27:00.000-07:00

Spring is doing it's best to come to our neck of the woods. I think the day I took these photos was the only sunshine we have seen in weeks. We are getting rain the past two weeks, which is good, we are in desperate need of it.

Last fall I was in some store and they had a big bag of 40 or 50 tulip bulbs for something like $5.00. They were clearing out the last of the fall bulbs. I have always wanted to plant bulbs in the fall and have always been to done with gardening at the end of the season o bother.

When I saw the bulbs so cheap I thought, "For that price I can't be lazy" This spring I am so happy I planted them. They make me smile every time I am in the backyard.

The yellow ones all came up first, but now (I took these pictures a few weeks ago) there are some red, pink and white mixed with purple.

I don't think things have changed much around here, but for some reason I feel busier that usual. I keep telling myself I should feel less busy as the kids are long done with hockey and power skating wrapped up a few weeks ago. Sebass is the only one that decided to play soccer he has practice once a week and a game once a week, he is really enjoying it and seems to be a natural athlete.

Work has been busy, we added another massage therapist to the office and have now officially outgrown our space. Paul has spent all his spare time (haha) putting up some more walls in the office, turning some of the waiting room space into another exam room. He is in the process now of moving an existing wall, ripping out a sink and trying to magically make our office bigger.

We did our first camping trip of the season last weekend and went up to Wells Grey Park, we had a lot of rain up there, so we spent a lot time warming ourselves by the campfire and playing with the kids. It is always so good to get out and away from things for a bit.

Double Edged Sword

2010-04-12T19:09:00.000-07:00

I have been a quiet again, I know.

Two of our staff members lost their husbands to cancer last week. A bit of a rough go around here. It was crazy how it all occurred:

Both of their wives work for us (we only have 4 employees)

Both men worked for local car dealerships

They were diagnosed within weeks of one another

They moved into hospice care within 3 days of one another

They passed away only 18 hours apart from one another.

I am so thankful they did not have to suffer any longer.

The only thing I know to do is love my family like there is no tomorrow. The only lesson I can take from this is to let go of all the little crap I tend to hold on to and live life as fully as I can.

I love you all and fuck you cancer.

Eggperiment

2010-04-03T15:35:00.001-07:00

I was reading one of the blogs I follow last week and this really crafty lady (Knit and Tonic) posted an Easter egg dying technique I had never heard of, it sounded fun and different so the kids and I decided to give it a try.

I think she called them tie dyed eggs. So I started with a quick trip to the Salvation Army store to see if I could find 4-5 funky silk ties. (they must be silk) and a plain white T-shirt I could cut up. $20 bucks later I had eggsactly what I needed for the project.

I used a seam ripper to open the ties up and I ironed them out real quick to the kids could get a good look at them laying out flat.

I always give each kid 6 eggs to dye so I cut 18 squares (they need to big enough to wrap around an egg) out of the t-shirt and I had the kids kids come into the kitchen to do the rest of the work.

They cut up the ties into pieces to wrap the eggs with. I am glad I did not cut all the ties up for them because as they got more and more creative they would use pieces from several of the ties for one egg. They used rubber bands to secure the silk ties around the eggs.

Next you wrap the silk wrapped egg in a square of the white cotton t-shirt and wrap tightly with a rubber band.

Unless you are Q and then you spend most of the craft time playing with the rubber bands rather than wrapping the eggs. Who cares, he was having tons of fun and is thrilled at how his eggs came out. He did do some of the eggs and helped me pick out what he thought should be wrapped around the eggs.

Next you add water and some vinegar and let them cook away on the stove top for about 25 minutes, give take a few in this house.

We let them cool and then unwrapped them:

They came out pretty cool. I noticed that not all the ties transferred the dye in the same way. I had one Armani striped tie and it did not work as well as the cheaper/tackier ties (I paid a big $2.99 for that one, I thought that was quite a lot for a sacrificial lamb) For some reason the Disney tie with the 7 Dwarfs on it transferred all the colour except for the black, so you can't really tell what image we were trying to transfer, but we did end up with cool colours. The floral tie transferred really well.

We had a great time doing the craft and the kids are in love with the eggs. I will be keeping my out over the coming year for cool ties to use for next year.

Irony

2010-03-30T14:11:00.000-07:00

Here is the spelling list PJ was reviewing last week:

I test the kids on their words in the afternoon and long after the kids went to bed I was doing a quick tidy of the front room and found her practice work on the coffee table. Made me laugh.

I have been thinking a bit about my blogging, or should I say, lack of blogging lately. For a while now I find I really I want to blog but I just don't want to turn on my computer at the end of the work day.

I think about the blog all time. Things happen in my life everyday and I think to myself, "this is totally bloggable" But somewhere between the 'bloggable experience" in my head and turning on my computer I run out of steam.

I am not trying to excuse my lack of blogging, I am not even trying figure out for myself where I go astray between the experience I want to share and the power button on the computer.

On the contrary I learned with my sad cancer (fuck you cancer) post the other day that I need to blog. I need to blog in the same way that I need to do the laundry, sometimes I don't really want to do it but if I don't, the dirty stuff just piles up in my closet and gets kind of stinky.

I realize that I just made blogging sound like a chore and that is not what I mean to say. I mean that sometimes it feels like work to get your thoughts down on paper so to speak. But once you have thrown them out there they fit a bit better in your head. Do you see how it is like laundry, I dislike the stinky pile of laundry that overflows the laundry baskets but I do feel good when it is all folded up and put away where it belongs. The blog and the comments I get from friends and family help me fold up my thoughts and put them away.

I feel a greater connection to my family when I read their blogs and I check daily to see who has posted and find out what they are up to. So I realize that I need to make the effort to blog more regularly so that I hold up my end of the connection.

Head in the Sand

2010-03-28T14:15:00.001-07:00

The Hard Stuff First:

I have not posted simply because I tucked my head in the sand for a little while. We have had a bit of bad luck with health issues at the office and without bringing you all down and sharing to much of what is not mine to share I will try to catch you up the best I can.

I may have already shared with you that one of our employees is fighting breast cancer. She is undergoing chemotherapy and is fighting a brave fight. Sadly during her battle her spouse as also been diagnosed with the big C word and he is undergoing treatment as well. His prognosis is not as good as we all want it to be, but we hope for miracles, I have to believe they happen. Under the circumstances she has decided to take a leave of absence from the office, I think it is the right choice but it put me in a bit of pinch for staffing.

Meanwhile two weeks ago the husband of a different staff member was diagnosed with an ulcer. Guess what...it's not an ulcer. He has cancer and is already in hospice care. Needless to say his wife, who has worked for us for over 5 years has taken a leave of absence. I would do no different if I was in her shoes.

We are small office and anyone hired to work for us seems to quickly become family. We are all so broken hearted at the office, so full of grief and anger at this beast called cancer.

In the midst of it all I still have an office to run and family to celebrate. I am trying to get someone hired to rescue the amazing staff I have remaining so they can stay healthy and happy.

I have been hesitant to post all this. For two reasons: One: thinking of the privacy of those affected and two: not wanting to bring anyone left left that still reads this blog down. But sticking my head in the sand and not sharing has not made things go away and just makes me feel full for not getting it out of my head and heart.

The Easy Stuff:

I have not been knitting much but I am pushing myself to get rolling again. I have been losing myself in books, computer games and a little bit of television. This weekend I made an effort to put the books down and pick up the sticks.

I have been chipping away on the traditional Danish wrap, I am up to 351 stitches on the needles. Mom, I was wondering if you could measure yours down the middle and tell me how long it is. I have no idea when to stop. I thought I would stop when I run out of Shannon's beautiful hand spun.

By the way the pictures here in no way represent the actual colour of the yarn. I have not idea why, but I could not capture it all. These photos make it look really grey, but the yarn is blue and purple in real life.

I finally finished some of the fiber I started in June on the Oregon trip. I am looking for you thoughts on how to ply it. Navajo or two ply? Or any other ideas you might have. It is 8oz of fiber. Does not look like very much here on the bobbins does it? The colour is pretty true in the photo though.

PJ's Birthday

2010-02-22T16:45:00.000-08:00

PJ decided she wanted a girls party this year for her birthday.

The idea of a girl party worked out really well, as SeaBass and Paul were away for a hockey tournament.

There is a new kids hair salon in town and one of the things they offer is glamour girl birthday parties. I checked into it and it sounded perfect. PJ invited six friends and they all had a blast.

At the salon they have a glamour room where the girls get to pick out a fun outfit to wear, get their hair, nails, and makeup done and then have a fashion show.

The place even provided juice, pizza and a gift for every girl invited. PJ got to pick out a necklace for each of her guests. All I needed to do was bring the cake. It was very cool and very organized.

PJ said it was one of the best days ever. You can see Q in the pictures. He was very good natured about being the only boy there, he brought some art stuff and his DS so he would have something to do. It turned out they had a couple of costumes for him to pick from and he played a bit with the girls.

Everyone had a wonderful time and I would do it again if PJ wants to next year.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PJ! I just can't believe how fast they are growing up.

Fit to be Plied

2010-02-07T11:46:00.001-08:00

I finished spinning this wool a long time ago, it is superwash merino that I bought online. I wanted to Navajo ply it, but did not know how so it is sat around on the p
spindles forever. I was feeling brave this weekend and looked up how to Navajo ply in book. Which only confused me.

I am a tactile learner and really need to touch things to get it my head so reading about a new technique does not work well for me. I decided to go online and Google some how to video. I watched two people do it on You Tube and then decided to give it a go myself. I ended up with this as a result:

I really felt like I was I ruining a decently spun fiber. I felt a bit frustrated and could not get any rhythm with my hands and my treadle speed. Not good. I went back online and looked at one more video. I noticed that in all three videos the spinners all held the single in a different way, they all did it a little differently. Of course, look at ten knitters and see ten different ways to hold your yarn, to hold your needles...why would a spinning technique be any different.

I went back to the wheel and played a bit more and ended up with this:

Way happier with it, I only wish I was paying more attention to where the end of my single was, I would have attached the next spindle of single ply and kept on going. I am going to try to do some more today.

This is the first time I have plied with the Wooly Winder, I have to say I have no idea how I managed to ply with out it. Totally rocks, no need to stop and move your yarn from hook to hook.

Ribbit

2010-01-25T14:03:00.000-08:00

On my birthday last year both Shannon and mom gifted me hand spun yarn, what a treat! As soon as I opened Shannon's I knew exactly what I wanted to knit out of it.

A long while back (Spring of 2008) I saw a shawl pattern in Spin-Off magazine that I really wanted to knit. It is a Traditional Danish Tie Shawl, the pattern is based on an old Danish pattern. I know mom has already knit one up, maybe she will post a picture of her completed one so you can see it.

The pattern is simple so I thought it would be a good one to lug along to hockey practices and knit while I watch the kids play. I was knitting away on it at SeaBass's game on the weekend and the game was so good I put one of my yarn overs in the wrong place. I did not notice for a few rows and then when I did see it I thought maybe I could live with it that way (Denial, I know) the more rows I knit the more I realized I could not live with it.

I did at one point decide to drop a few stitches in that area and see if I could go back and fix just that little section. I tried that and and was not happy with the results, so I knit a few more rows to torture myself a little.

Finally I decided I needed to just suck it up and rip back to my mistake. I tried a trick I have read about often but have never done. I used a smaller size needle and picked up the stitches on the row just beneath my mistake:

I took a deep breath and pulled out my working needle. I ripped back to the needle I used for the life line and prayed I picked up all the stitches and the few yarn overs all on the same row.

And it worked!!! You can see my stitches are leaning the wrong way on one side, but that was no big deal, I stitched into the knit stitches the right way to turn them around and I was back on track. Now I have even knit enough to be back where I was when I decided to rip back. Shannon did such a nice job spinning the wool that it held up nicely to the abuse of being ripped back and knit twice, it no worse for wear at all.

Shannon, if I am remembering right this is well traveled wool. I think I recall you posting pictures of this wool while you were spinning it in Oklahoma. I was thinking if my memory is correct then this wool has been from CA to OK and back to CA only to be delivered to me in WA and then knit up in Canada.

One for the road. This is Q trying on the chaps that Paul's parents got him for his birthday. A perfect fit.

About Damn Time

2010-01-22T12:35:00.001-08:00

I have about a million titles for this post, it has been to long I know.

I don't know really know why myself so I have no excuses (see there's a good title) and really no good reason (another good one) for not posting in so long.

So how about if I just start fresh and dive right in?

We had a wonderful holiday season, it was just Paul and I and the kids around here and we celebrated the season in the best way possible, just spending time relaxing and enjoying some family time.

We spent last weekend celebrating SeaBass's 9th birthday.

When I was pregnant with SeaBass I took a Lamaze class, there were only four couples in the class and we all ended up having our kids very close together. Three of those couples seemed to really connect and our kids even go to the same school.

You all know of Deb and her daughter Layne who is only 5 days older than SeaBass, and then there is Wendy and her family, there son is only one day older than SeaBass. Wendy teaches my kids piano and works out with me in boot camp classes. The third I see around town now and again and we always stop and catch up when see each other.

Wendy came up with the idea of a joint party at the tube park up at one of the local ski hills. Since the kids all go to school together their guests lists overlapped quite a bit. It made the party a great time and a more economical for everyone as well. They keep a couple of fire pits going at the base of the tube run so you can warm up when you get chilly and the kids had hot dogs and Smores instead of birthday cake.

I was talking on the phone last night with Mom about the crazy weather in CA right now. We have a crazy weather here as well. Ours has been on the other end of the spectrum, we are unseasonably warm.

Aunt Patricia requested some snow pictures and I can't provide you with any right now. We had snow for a little while but has all melted away with the hot spell we are having. Today we are sitting +4C (39F), last Friday if was +13C up at our house (55F), I just peeked at the thermometer and it has popped up to +9C (48F) since I took that picture an hour ago! I have been wearing sweatshirts to work and my winter coat has been put away for two weeks now. I am sure it will get cold again and I am hoping for some snow. I never thought we would in a situation here that I would consider asking California for water!

I will leave you with a couple of pictures of the back yard:

You can see the sun glaring off a bit of ice on the back lawn and bit a snow in the shady spot, but that's about it. (Oh yes and my finger in the picture too! Don't say I never post any pictures of me on here.)

A Fish Tale

2009-10-20T10:51:00.001-07:00

I can't remember if I posted about Sebastian catching his first fish or if I just thought about so hard I think I did it. Does that ever happen to anyone else? Often I have to ask Paul if I spoke to him about something I intended to share with him or if I just got to the thinking about part and stalled out.

Okay, swung a little off topic there. A while ago SeaBass and Paul went fishing and SeaBass (hehe) caught his first fish. He decided he likes catching them but is not so interested in eating them. So they decided they would go back out and catch release.

Q decided he would like to try fishing as well. (PJ and I stayed home for some girlie time, we painted our nails and did a princess puzzle together)

Below is Q with a nice sized first fish and huge smile on his face. He was totally jazzed when he came home. Paul said they had a blast.

SeaBass caught a couple as well. I think Paul caught one too, the kids were sure to let me know that they caught larger fish than their Daddy.

A Little Rant:

In BC there is a lot of government talk about the recession and the cuts that need to be made to keep the deficit from getting out of control before we start having the same problems that the US is having. We are experiencing a recession here, but not as bad as the US at this point in time.

The government feels that one of the solutions is to make cuts (surprise). It seems to be a government consensus that the school system would be a great place for cuts. Let me give you a bit of background.

There are less people in Canada than there are in the state of CA. BC is a whole lot of land, with not a huge population, which means there a whole lot of rural communities. Many of these rural have small schools so that the children don't need to bus in from far away to get an education.

The plan the BC government is coming up with means closing many of these rural community schools and having many of these children bus as for as one hour to school. Can you imagine your child spending two hours of his or her day on a bus and then getting home and trying to get homework done, or play a sport? How about getting your eight year old out of bed an hour earlier to get then to school on time? How about the danger of busing children long distances on snow covered winter roads? How about the cost of busing these children and maintaining the winter roads to get them to school safely?

Here's my beef: BC is hosting the 2010 winter Olympics in Vancouver. Wonderful for press and tourism and general exposure for all the wonderful things BC has to offer. Our government has spent millions and millions of dollars to build housing for the Olympic athletes, millions on large venues for the athletes to compete, millions on law enforcement, security, advertising and so much more that comes along with hosting an event of this magnitude.

What I want to know: I don't understand a government that can justify spending millions and millions of dollars on hosting a world event when they cant take care of their youth.

It makes me angry as a tax payer, why don't I get to choose how I want my tax dollar spent? Isn't it more important to invest in our children and future of this and any country than it is on the Olympics?

Okay rant over.

Merry Chirstmas

2009-10-19T13:52:00.000-07:00

I think everyone out there knows that Paul has been wanting a bike for a very long time. He rode one when I first met him, I think he sold it sometime while he was in Chiropractic school, or maybe just after retuning home when he finished school.

We have talked many times about him getting one again. I told him he can get one when he finds one three car seats fit on.

Well, the kids are a bit older now and our work schedules play out in such a way that I drive them to school most of the time. We have a parking problem at the office and a bike would really help with that.

I have been watching bike prices drop since the recession and you can get a used Harley for a great a deal in the Great White North (and in the US I would imagine) I told Paul I thought he should keep an eye out and if he saw a good a deal on a bike he wanted he should buy it. (I gave him a $$ amount he had to stay with in budget)

Low and behold they had his dream bike right here at the local Harley dealership, used and his budget. He went down to give it a test drive and even had a cashiers check in his pocket to buy the bike if he liked it.

He test drove the bike and liked it so much he freaked out a bit and walked out of the store with the check still in his pocket. He even called me later to tell me he needed to call the store and apologize to the salesman for running away in a panic.

Paul is not so good at buying things for himself.

So I got off work that day and picked the kids up at school and dropped by the house to feed the kids a quick snack and grabbed the cashiers check off the dresser. The kids and I went back up to the Harley shop and found the salesman that Paul ran away from. I explained why Paul ran away and he laughed.

I called Paul and asked if he really wanted this bike or if he wanted to keep looking around. When I got his answer I said good bye and when I got of the phone I bought Paul his first Harley for Christmas, and his birthday, and our anniversary...for the next ten years.

I wish the light were a bit better in the pictures above, but she is gorgeous. Paul of course is so excited it took about a week before it really sunk in.

It feels so good to be getting a head start on my Christmas list.

Hockey Mom

2009-10-14T11:48:00.000-07:00

No pictures today, I need to download some and my camera is at home and I am at work. I have at least three blog posts in my camera right now.

We are all doing well around here. I am trying to get into the rhythm of a new schedule and I think I might have things under control next week.

The kids are playing hockey again, the season started up about two weeks ago. This time they are playing in a minor hockey program and the kids are in 3 divisions that are divided up according to year of birth. Each division has 2 ice times a week and each year of birth gets it's own ice time.

You've done the math haven't you? Yup that adds up to six ice times a week for this family. (That does not include Paul who has two ice times a week as well, but I don't need to be there to lace up his skates quite yet)

The kids are having a great time, they seem to be enjoying this program even more than Peter Puck. Peter Puck is a great program but the kids are pretty comfortable on their skates and wanted more puck time and more game time not just practices and drills.

All three kids are hoot to watch, PJ is playing on an all girls team. It is a bit more of an age group blend. Some of the girls want to play on boys teams and some don't. There are not enough girls to put together an all girls team in each age group, so PJ's team has 6, 7, and 8 year old girls on it. They all grin from ear to ear while they play.

In SeaBass's division they divided all the kids up into three groups and have spent at least two weeks just having the kids skate and play games on the ice, like freeze tag and some drills to evaluate skills. They rate each kid on different skills on a scale of 1-5. Then they divide up the teams as evenly as they can so no team dominates the season. They are using the this week to have the teams play thier first games and decide if the teams are even. If there are teams that are to week or to strong they may juggle a few players to balance things out. Very cool.

At Q's level they are teaching more skating and puck handling skills. They teach alot by playing games, having the kids pull one another across the ice and playing a game called star wars where they have to try not to have pucks touch them, freeze tag and so much more.

So far it is stacking up to be a good program for all of them. I have the crock pot out and often have cooked breakfast, lunch and dinner by 8:00 in the morning. If anyone has a good crock pot recipe send me an email. I can only eat so much roast.

Paul has been helping out, he takes SeaBass to the early weekend games (sometimes he plays at 7:00 am) oddly enough SeaBass says the early games are his favorites.

There is an up side to sitting an arena freezing your buns off 4-6 times a week. That's a whole lot of knitting time. I actually get more sitting time than I ever have in a week, but the house is a mess. How does it get so messy when we are not even home to mess it up? It's a mystery

Finally

2009-10-06T10:58:00.000-07:00

The kids tell me one of their favorite things about from Dad and Corrine is story time with Corinne. They are captivated books, which I think is very cool.

My pictures are a bit out of order here, this one should be somewhere further down. Some how I thought I had pictures posted that I did not and then when I posted one another disappeared. I think my computer is doing what I tell it to do not what I want it to do.

I think I have been trying for post for about a week now. Every time I fire up my computer either I get sucked into reading everyone's wonderful blog posts or I have technical difficulty, or someone tells me I have a patient waiting, or a kid needs help with homework. I think you get the idea, the blogger gods are not with me.

I took these pictures when Dad and Corinne were here for a visit, Dad came out for a dirt bike ride with us, we had a great time. My pictures are bit out of order so clearly that's one of Paul not Dad. I love the dirt bike shadow in the picture below, I don't know why.

Here's Dad on the quad. He only took for a short spin by himself. It was so funny when we started out I asked him if he wanted me to drive it or if he wanted to, he said he wanted me to drive first. So he gets on the quad in the seat in the back and as I am climbing on the front to give him a ride he said, "This is just weird." I laughed.

I started up the quad and put it into gear and dad leaned forward and and yelled through the helmet, "Kelly, if you kill me I'll haunt you forever." I laughed so hard. We did a little ride up to this small lake and a look around.

The water was the lowest we have ever seen it, there is usually an island in the middle of the lake and we could walk right out onto the island without ever getting our feet wet. The kids had a blast chasing little frogs all over the place.

Dad said he spent the first half of his time on the quad holding on for dear life and then about halfway through he realized there was a seven year old on a little quad in front of us leading the way and he began to relax and really enjoy himself. I am glad he decided to come out with us.

When we go out dirt biking for us is about having a great time and day out with family, we are not out there trying to go as fast as we can racing one another. (If I can keep the boys from racing one another as they get older and more competitive I will be doing well)

(My post seemed to jump all over this time, it took three sittings for me to write it, so it might be a bit confusing)

Playing Hardball

2009-09-15T12:26:00.001-07:00

We had a wonderful time in Las Vegas , George and Judy have such a beautiful home and are always so welcoming. Here are some pictures of the backyard. The first is the temperature, it was about 100degrees every day. Just perfect weather for enjoying the pool and the kids outside.

Here is the pool we lounged around in first thing in the morning. As you can see we were really roughing it.

To take the picture above I am standing under a little cabana. Below is a picture of the tile work on a table out on the patio. It is so pretty, really makes you feel like you are on a beach in Mexico.

The kids would enjoy root beer floats at the bar with Grandpa George. The bar has the same beautiful tile work as the table above.

Now for the hard ball part. We made an offer on a building on Thursday of last week, they sent us a counter offer on Monday. Today Paul and I sent them another offer. They are looking for a quick closing date, so we are low balling them a bit...if they are in a hurry to sell then we have the advantage (I hope). The building has been on the market for almost three months and we are there first interested party. I will keep you posted on what the scoop is as things come along. Wish us luck.

Doesn't it Just Figure?

2009-09-13T20:18:00.001-07:00

I finally get my lazy bum going and fire up my computer to blog and blogger will not let me upload any photos for you tonight. Cracks me up, I have tons of pictures to show you.

Paul and the kids did a trip to Vegas to visit with George and Judy. I stayed here and worked for a week and then I flew out and met them for four days. We had a great time, someday I will show you some pictures to prove it!

We got home a week ago today and spent last week getting the kids into the school routine. Q was a bit nervous about starting first grade, but by Friday he had decided he likes it well enough.

Dad and Corinne got here Wednesday evening and we had a great visit. (I have some wonderful pictures to show you of their trip too) They left this morning, to head home. They have been away for almost three weeks, it sounds like they had a great trip. I am sure they are looking forward to their own bed. I love visiting and traveling , but nothing beats my own bed.

I even have some finished knitting to show you...all this suspense. I am going to have blog again. Soon.

Cleansing

2009-08-21T08:58:00.000-07:00

Paul and I are just wrapping up a 14 day cleanse. It is http://www.rbclifesciences.com/Products.aspx?ItemID=178 follow the messy looking ink, the colo-vada plus cleanse. It is 7 days of eating well and taking a vitamin packet with breakfast and dinner that prepares your body for the cleanse.

The next four days you try to not eat at all and take vitamin packets morning and evening and psyllium packets 4 times a day. You mix them with some juice and chug them down. The psyllium expands with the juice in your gut and makes you feel full even though you have not had anything to eat.

Paul and I chose to eat a little bit, we ate fruit and veggies, he was able to eat pasta and sandwiches as well. I found I was so full on the psyllium husk that I did not have to much room to eat, you are certainly not hungry at all. I had to eat or I would get terrible headaches. I ate fresh fruit, veggies, nuts and hard boiled eggs, cottage cheese, yogurt. I tried to eat light foods for the most part. By the end of every day I was so full of psyllium I looked like I was four or five months pregnant. We laughed about my gut every evening.

I gained about eight pounds during the cleanse in water absorbed by the psyllium husk. You spend three days after the elimination stage eating as well as you can and taking vitamin packets that help put all the good nutrients back into your body.

Other than the bloating I felt pretty good the entire time and I am dropping the eight pounds pretty quickly as I finish passing the psyllium. I don't know if I would do this cleanse again, but I will continue to try others. I try to do one at least once a year.

I really think this one put in a bit of a starvation state, I am not very hungry now and it takes very little fill me up. It is amazing to me how quickly you get used to eating less and how good I feel when I eliminate eating the processed foods I tend eat throughout the day.

New Roof

2009-08-16T18:14:00.000-07:00

I think our house is about 17 years old. An aging house needs a face life every now and again. Paul worked hard last summer to get the outside painted. This year we found ourselves in need of a new roof over our heads.

(What's with the half eaten apple on the window sill in the picture above?)

When they built the homes in this neighbour hood they used pine shakes for many of them. Pine shakes don't last long and the roofers are making a mint off the fact the company that built the first homes in this area cheaped out and used it. The newer homes in the area have been built with ceder, tile or asphalt shakes all lasting much longer.

City by-law has rules about the hours you can do loud work in the Loops. You can't start until 7:00 a.m. I swear to you the roofing crew would arrive at 6:45 to set up they would quietly put up ladders and climb onto the roof and exactly when the clock turned to 7:00 they would drop the hammer.

They did the house in less than a week. One night they asked me if they could work late and they worked from 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 on a Friday night. They were nice guys and made sure it would it be okay and were worried the kids would not be able to sleep though the noise. (The kids sleep though anything.

In this picutre you can see the new shakes on the bottom portion of the house and the old shakes on the top. The finished product looks great and the shakes are supposed to last us 30 years.

This and That

2009-07-31T16:20:00.000-07:00

Our view out the front window has not been at its best this week. Normally I can see down to the bottom of the valley and you can see the river snaking its way along the valley floor. I took this photo at about 8:30 in the morning on a beautiful 95 degree day.

We are socked in with smoke from surrounding forest fires. We are safe and this point no structures are in danger with any of the many fires in burning in our fire district.

We are hot and dry and our forests are full of dead brown dry trees due to the pine beetle.

I took this picture halfway down the hill on my way to work on the same morning. You can Google BC Wildfires and a great web site will come up that will show you the fires in BC it will even link you to Map Quest so you can see where the fires are.

Yesterday upon arriving to work I had one of pts. ask me if that was my van out back. I told him it was and he asked me if realized my license plate had been stolen. Apparently it was taken sometime the night before, either while I was at the YMCA downtown for a workout or in our driveway while I was sawing logs.

Either way it cost me $18 buck for replacement plates. I can't tell you how annoying it was that I had to pay for replacements. It is not as if I stole my own plates.

The funny thing is, I could have been stopped by the police and picked up for driving a stolen car. I reported the plates missing and then drove to BCAA to replace them. I got lucky and did not get puled over on the way there.

George and Judy come into town this evening and we are off to Kewolna for the annual family reunion. Should be a great time. Have a good weekend!

Many Moons Ago

2009-07-27T19:18:00.001-07:00

I am not sure how many weekends ago I took these pictures. These are from a Saturday morning we packed up the dirt bikes and the quads and took the kids out. We parked about 10K (6miles) from this lake and unloaded the bikes.

These pictures are really out of order so bear with me. This is a little snake we saw sunning at the lake.

Huge foot print at the same lake; I would I guess this is moose print. I am wearing a big huge boot in this picture and I have big feet myself, ladies 10. That is a big print.

The kids and husband are mine, the dog is not. It was up there with some guy that was fishing apparently we were way more fun than his owner.

Ah, here is the start of this whole post. We started here and rode in 10K. PJ rode with me on the back of the big quad. Q rode with Paul and Sebass rode his own bike the entire way. The younger kids get worn out on such a long ride, their hands get sore and and then it is to hard for them to work the hand brakes. Not good, so we switched things around for safety. We had a great day. Sebastian was amazing on his bike but pretty beat when we got back to the truck.

Happy Valley

2009-07-13T15:59:00.001-07:00

More vacation pictures. This is a campground we stayed in on our way to Eugene. I think it is called Happy Valley. It was one of the prettiest places I have ever stayed in. The entire place was surrounded by river and by trails to walk through.

Here is a little bridge that takes you over the river to one of the areas where you can have a campfire in the evenings. You can see they have chairs set up and firewood stacked and ready to go.

Here is one of the walking trails. There were a lot of them, not all as wide as this one. It was really neat, the kids would go on walks together and you could not see in them on the trails but you could always hear them laughing and talking to one another, so you knew where they were and that they were okay.

Here is the campsite. Full hook ups and not a mosquito to be seen.

This is the office and the laundry facility. They has a bathroom with a shower I would like in my own home. There is another nice spot to sit there, with a BBQ and a great big table and chairs all around it. Even wireless internet if you need it, at no extra fee!

I think I took about a million pictures of the trails and of the river.

I am ready to go back.

Borders

2009-06-24T10:31:00.000-07:00

We had a great trip to Oregon. It was so fun to travel and not have to rush from place to place. We did most of our driving in the late morning/early afternoons. When the kids would start to get restless in the truck we would have them start reading signs for campgrounds and we would pull into a few of them until we found one we all liked.

We would set up a quick camp and get the bikes out for the kids and they would burn off all their energy riding around while Paul and I got dinner together. Then we would all get showered up and get the kids settled in bed. Paul and I would have a fire in the evening and sit and chat a bit. it was great.

This picture is of the Washington/Oregon Border, which of course is the Columbia river.

Here is Paul teaching Sebastian how to skip rocks across two states. This was on our way to Oregon on highway 97, so we are on the Washington side where we stopped for lunch before venturing on.

PJ selecting a stone:

Q:

I will post some photos of meeting up with rest of the family on Monday.

Camping in Clear Water

2009-05-27T09:41:00.001-07:00

A couple of weekends ago we went camping up in Clear Water, it is the annual trip we do with the Cow's and Udder's. (That would be Barking Cows) You remember all the humming bird pictures from last year.

This year I bring you change of pace, the humming birds were there but I don't want you to get bored with my content.

We took the kids for a little hike to Dawson Fall's. They call it 'little Niagara' due to it's horseshoe shape. It was very pretty. I found it a bit scary though, there are areas where there is no fence and a kid (or an adult) could easily fall in and be gone. It is not that high, but high enough. Quentin said it scared him.

Paul and I made sure one of us had a hold on each kid the whole time we were there, but the amount of access to the falls made me nervous.

Here is the gang on the little hike in. I think the kids enjoyed the walk even more than they did the falls itself. There were so many mosses and lichen along the way, we hunted up all kinds of natures treasures. SeaBass said to me, "Mom, I am having so much fun and all I am doing is going for a walk!"

There are a few bears that hang out at this campground. We see them quite a bit in field just over the fence that marks the boundary of one edge of the golf course there. We leave them well enough alone and they don't bother anyone.

This year we had the pleasure of watching one for quite sometime. He was just across the river from our campsite. He sat and watched us for a bit as well. He sat long enough for me to run to our trailer to grab my camera and was even kind enough to give me a chance to change lenses.

He (or she) eventually got bored of watching us watch him and wandered off to more interesting things.

Crazy Week

2009-05-08T19:29:00.000-07:00

This week has been a bit more of a gong show than usual around here. Nothing to exciting just a big juggle of soccer for the kids, softball for me and hockey for Paul. PJ is so pooped she put herself to bed about an hour ago.

In my spare time I have been chugging along on the Mystery Socks. I will post a picture of them soon.

Paul and I are diligently searching for the Martini of the Summer for 2009. Last year and the year before we were really into the Carmel Apple Martini. Still a favorite but I am looking for a little change. So this evening I tried a Razzle Dazzle. I really like it but Paul dose not (even better)

give this one a try:

2 1/2 oz vanilla vodka
1/2 oz chambord (I put in a full oz)
2 oz of cranberry juice.

Yum. I had a couple of sips and I can hardly type. I think I will have a splash more and knit a little. That's a recipe for successful knitting.

Mystery Sock Troubles.

2009-05-01T16:21:00.000-07:00

Paul's virgin socks have been done for a little while. They are a little a big for him in the ankles but fit well as far as length goes. One of the doctors he works with at the Welcome Back Clinic admired Paul's socks on their maiden voyage and he snapped this picture of them and e-mailed it to me.

It looks to me like Paul works really hard while he is there.

Before the Mystery sock pattern was released the woman putting on the KAL posted the knitting gauge you needed and the number of beads you needed strung on before you start the pattern. I had, as you know, swatched, chosen yarn and strung on my beads.

The first part of the pattern was released last night and I was a bit choked to discover it was written for a "medium" foot and not for multiple sizes. They are knit toe up and you go into the foot with only 66 st. on the needles at a gauge of 9 stitches per inch. No way that sock will fit me and no pattern instructions for a larger size.

This leaves me no choice but to ditch the yarn and bead choice I had ready to go and move up to a heavier wt. yarn and larger needle size, so back to the drawing board.

Pictured here are my yarn choices, all KICK stash yarn and my only three colours of stash beads. I like the red, but I recently knit up a pair of plain red socks so I lean toward the other combinations. The colours a true in the pictures below, the one above is a bit washed out by the sun.

Warmest day yet this year we are hitting 23C, which I think is right up around 70F. Weather man says good for two days and then we are back to rain and cold. Still below freezing at night last night, but Spring is trying so hard to come to the Loops.

Help me decide which to string the beads on:

Combo A:

Combo B:

Combo C:

I would like to get started this weekend so I am looking forward to your input.

Mystery Sock

2009-04-30T19:56:00.001-07:00

I got my yarn ready for the Mystery Sock KAL. I picked out the yarn and swatched for the project a few weeks ago. My pictures are out of order and the green colour of the yarn is washed out a bit in the top picture.

Today I divided the yarn into two balls and strung the beads on the yarn. All I need is the pattern. I know it uses a cast-on techinique that I don't know yet. I may practice it a bit tonight...but I doubt it.

I will share more about the socks when I know more!

Startitis

2009-04-25T19:24:00.000-07:00

I've suddenly got a bad case of startitis. I started a pair of kid socks, started a poncho for PJ, ordered a colour card so I can pick out the colours of the sweater I plan to knit.

Did I mention that I signed up for beaded sock KAL on ravelry with mom. I have even picked stash yarn and stash beads to knit it up with. That starts on May 1.

Serious Startitis.

Shock

2009-04-25T07:41:00.000-07:00

We had a bit of a rough week this week.

Tuesday morning after Paul went to work, I was at home getting the kids ready for school and getting myself ready for work, I received a call from the office. It was Hennie, who works for us calling me to me she had just called an Ambulance for Paul.

Paul woke up sometime in the wee hours of the morning with some slight abdominal pain, he got up and took some Peptobismal and went back to bed. A few hours later the pain woke him up again, we poked around in his own abdomen and wondered if it might be an ulcer. He went back to sleep. He got up with his alarm about 6 a.m. and went to work. He tried to eat breakfast but was unable to.

At the office he saw two patients and then hung a sign on the door "To Sick to Work" and he went into the break room. He started sweating profusely and vomiting. We got lucky and Hennie decided to come to work a bit early, when she got there Paul was in real bad way and she called an ambulance and then me. Our office is about 4 blocks from the office and Henine knew that Paul could make it there without the call. That should give an idea of how bad he was doing.

After I got the call, I was feeling pretty shaky myself. I did not say anything to the kids, I did not have any clue what was wrong with Paul and did not worry them before I took them to school. Paul had played hockey on Monday night and when I asked him how his game was he said it was 'rough'. He does not like to play when they hove rough games, it is frustrating to him and leaves him sore. He had a huge welt on elbow where a puck managed to hit him in the small space between his pads. The phone call from Hennie had me wondering if he had taken a hit that damaged his internal organs, I was thinking spleen, which can cause the symptoms Paul was experiencing.

I dropped the kids at school and went straight to RIH (our local hospital) Hennie called all the people booked that day for appointments with Paul and I.

At RIH I learned that the ALS unit is the one that picked Paul up at the office. Not good the ALS Ambulance is for people in big time distress, that's the ambulance with all the life support and the most highly trained emergency technicians.

When the ambulance pulled into the bay at the hospital Paul broke out into a very strange rash. if you draw a line across your chest from armpit to armpit and coloured everything about that bright red and added a ton a little red speckles above that line and including his arms you would have a damn good idea of what Paul looked like. His face was a bit swollen and had small dots on it as well.

He was given epinephrine immediately by the attending MD, the rash clued them in that he was most likely having a severe systemic allergic reaction.

We got lucky and two of nurses up there that day are patients of ours, they filled me in and treated us very well. The epinephrine did the trick and Paul leveled out in a couple of hours. They kept him there for observation until about 4:30 that afternoon and then sent him with an epi-pen in the event something like this happens again.

It took a couple of days and Paul is back to his normal self. We keep puzzling over what may have caused the reaction. He can't think of anything he ate or did differently in the 24-48 hours that preceded his allergic response. A day or two later he remembered he slept on a feather pillow and he does not think he has ever used one before. We have no idea if that would cause the reaction he had.

Everyone around here is safe and well, so don't worry about us. I did get razzed a bit at the hospital there was a nurse on duty who happened to be there when I took Sebastian in a few years ago, was my nurse when I had the abdominal pain in the ER last year and saw Paul come in. When I left the hospital that afternoon, he told me he would save a bed us. Let's hope that bed sits empty for a VERY long time.

Play Off Porn Star

2009-04-18T20:29:00.001-07:00

Paul's hockey ream recently played their final playoff game. They decided as a team they would grow porn mustaches for the final game. So Paul grew a goatee for 5 or six days and then the night of the game he cleaned it up into this:

He was going to leave it for April Fools Day but ended up shaving it that morning. It cracked me up.

While we were in CA dad had his train out for the kids to see. He has had it since he was a boy and it is in mint condition. The detail in it is amazing and the thing weighs far more than you might think.

The train is very cool and the kids are still talking about it. Q was just asking more questions about today!

Employees

2009-04-17T20:17:00.000-07:00

I think I have come up with a good idea.

I interviewed a whole lot of people and looked at hundreds and resumes. I picked out four people who I really liked and I asked them each if they would like to come and work for 2 hours at the office (all at different times) and see how they might like the job and give them a chance to see exactly what positions I am hiring for and that I would go from there.

One girl worked two hours and I when I asked her at the end of shift if she had a questions, she looked me right in the eyes and said, "Only one." I said, "What's that?" She then asked me, "How do you feel about nose piercings? Cuz, umm, I have been thinking about getting mine pierced and I just wanted to check with you before you hired me."

I have no problem with nose piercings, I think they look great and have seen some very pretty subtle nose rings. I did have a problem with that being her only question. So one was out of the running right away.

One girl called and canceled, upon thinking about the hours it was really a bit more than she wanted to work with a young family to raise at home.

Two of the ladies are really very good. But here is my brilliant idea: I asked staff to make the choice of who we should hire after they worked with each candidate for a two hour shift.

You see, we have been so lucky at work with a great team. After my last hire my team kind of fell apart. So I think the people who do the training and work side by side with the new hire should have a choice. The more I think about the more I think their chances of making the right choice are actually greater than mine.

I think I start to build my team back with letting them take part choosing who they work with. I stressed that they should not sweat it if the the hire they choose does not work out. I hired a girl once who seemed great in interview but when push came to training, she could not add, no joke could not add up the day end. I let her go within two weeks and was back to the drawing board. I am in no way infallible in the hiring department. So wish me luck, I hope to have a team decision sometime Monday.

Dirt

2009-04-11T21:51:00.001-07:00

We took the kids dirt biking last weekend and again on Friday. What a blast.

Here are PJ and Sebass on a little quad just right the size for them. They are blowing through the puddles and having a great time.

When we went on Friday Sebass spent a lot of time on his dirt bike and not as much on the quad. I have never seen do as well as he did on Friday, he went at his own pace and just cruized around having a great time. I watched him for a long time and he was using a lot of the techniques we learned in the dirt bike course we took at the end of last summer. Very cool.

PJ and Q have tried the little dirt bike a time or two, but both are more comfortable on the little quad.

I would type more but I am computered out. It took me a while today but I finally read through the 100+ resumes I have had emailed to me and I rewarded myself with too much Zuma time. I finally made it past the 6th level and found level 7 much easier, but I got tired and have not made it through yet.

Okay, totally random post tonight. Sorry about that, a little punchy and tired.

For The Love of Sugar

2009-04-06T19:35:00.000-07:00

I think all the kids have fallen in love with Sugar. While were with spending time Mom and Darryl we got a double bonus, we got to spend time with the horses and with family that I have not seen in a long time.

The kids all got a ride on Sugar and they all got to lead her around the training arena. I think they got more joy leading such a big sweet animal around than did riding her. She was wonderful with the kids and they are sill talking about her.

I wish I had more time to talk with Aunt Patricia and with Uncle Ray. It was such a treat to see the both of them. There was so much going on that day that I wish we could have made the day longer so we got more time with everyone there. I feel like I barely had a chance to say hello to Sandi (Hello Sandi!) and to Mike.

In the picture above the kids are playing pick-up-sticks. Who knew PJ would be so darn good at the game, I think we may have surgeon in the family when that girl grows up.

Aunt Patricia, I promise I will make sure that kids are not all grown up next time you see them. Ten years is way to long in between visits. I find that seeing everyone for short a time makes me miss you all so much more now that I am home.

No Pictures Downloaded

2009-04-04T19:03:00.000-07:00

No pictures downloaded on our first family day since coming home from California.

We had tons of fun playing together which was more productive. Q learned how to ride his two wheeler. PJ and Bass got new bikes. We played street hockey for two hours.

I read almost an entire paper back and managed to get Sebastian hooked on Zuma. I have been trying to get past level 6 myself. No luck yet.

Now we are going to watch some hockey and knit.

Post Before Coffee

2009-04-04T07:48:00.000-07:00

I realized late last night that if I am to get two posts in this week I am going to have do two in one day. Like we all do after we get home from a trip I have been playing catch-up all week.

I was just beginning to feel caught up on Friday when I got a phone call from Paul at the office. We had one of our office staff give us her two week notice.

It leaves me in a bit of jam to get someone hired and ready to go in two weeks time, but we have been having some issues with staff and change maybe exactly what we need. I feel sometimes that hiring is a bit like buying a lottery ticket; the possibilities seem so bright when you buy the ticket but as you scrap away that shinny silver layer you are really never sure what you are going to find underneath.

I really like the woman who put in her notice, it was just not the best fit for either of us in the long run. I am going to post the job online today and see if I get a different group of people to hire from than when I put an ad in the paper. Wish me luck.

Later today I am going to get my vacation pictures downloaded and post some of them.

Half Moon Bay

2009-03-27T21:01:00.001-07:00

The kids and I are having a great trip.

We had a bit of a schmazzal with the rental car that still is not quite worked out, but I am keeping my fingers crossed. The rental car company had us flying into Boston (like I would book myself into the wrong city) and there was a bit of a price difference (try $350bucks US) they want me to pay the difference and I don't want to.

We got to spend two days with Shannon and her family. The kids get along so well together, every time we get them together I think we need to get them together more often.

The kids and I talked a lot about what else we wanted to do and I suggested the beach. They loved the idea and I decided we should drive out to Half Moon Bay. The day was beautiful and the kids had a great time. They have been to a small beach in Vancouver before, but I don't think they had ever been to a beach with the power and energy of Half Moon Bay. You should click on the picture below and make it big, well worth it.

It is one of my favorite places in the world and I think I have three kids that are now in agreement with me. They loved the drive there and really had a blast playing in the ocean and in the sand.

On the drive home we all talked about the power of the ocean and agreed it has this ability to sort of wash away your worries and stress. We all came back from there feeling refreshed and relaxed. I am so glad that we made the time to get out that way.

We are having a great time and the weather is improving everyday. We are spending the second half of the trip at Mom's house I am going to try to post some photos for you in the morning of what we were up to today.

Honors Performance

2009-03-17T12:20:00.001-07:00

Here is what we looked like on Saturday. Normally by this time we we are having rain and there is no snow on the ground. We are sitting at 8C today, but the even better news is that I will in Sunny California in just a matter of days.

There is a Fine Arts Festival here in the Loops that is put on for all the students who want to showcase theirs skills in front of an adjudicator and get some feedback on how they do.

There are all sorts of categories: musical stuff from vocals to instruments and there is coral stuff, kids who do short plays, children that stand up there all alone and do a memorized piece. There is dance stuff as well, everything from ballet to modern dance. There were 1200 performers all total that were a part of the festival.

At the end of the three week festival the adjudicators pick a few of the top performers for honors and they perform at the Sagebrush Theatre for all of the Loops.

Sebastian's and PJ's class did a performance last year that was chosen for honors so we did not expect them to be chosen again. They try to spread it around a bit from year to year.

As it turns out their group was chosen for honors again this year and they were the only group in their category invited to go. They performed a choral piece called "Sun Up"

The kids were amazing they memorized the entire thing, it was a 15 minute piece. Sebass got an honorable mention for his solo as Father Time.

The piece was about a group of Puddle Jumpers that are tired of the rain and want spring to come. They think of several ways to ask the sun to come out to play with them. First a general orders the sun up, then a girl suggest that they ask the sun to come nicely. They try to charm it up. They even have a go at casting a spell with the help of a witch in hopes of bewitching the sun to come out.

Finally it is father time that brings out the sun. He ticks through the months, right through to May Day and the sun decides to show herself. They were wonderful and they all had a great time doing it.

Quickie

2009-03-14T21:25:00.000-07:00

Paul's Grandma is here for the weekend having a visit. We have not seen her since the summer and have been having a great time catching up.

I have my suitcase out and I am trying hard not to start packing until next week.

I am sorry to be so brief, I wanted to catch you up on our weekend doings. I am going to scoot, Paul is off to play hockey and I am going to enjoy chatting with Granny for a little while.

Mooning Over Finished Stuff

2009-03-10T20:00:00.000-07:00

Here is the view out our front window this evening.

This second picture is a close up of the moon that shows you the true colour this evening. Amazing isn't it? Mother nature sure knows how to put on a show.

I finished the buggy socks last night. I am happy with them, in spite of all the breaks in the yarn. I never did find any bugs in the ball of yarn itself. There is a little leftover that I am going to put outside tonight, the -15C should kill just about anything.

I talked Sebastian into taking a picture of the lace cowl for me. He was funny, I am in my pajama and therefore not wearing a bra, I asked him to make sure my breasts where not in the picture so no one could tell I was bra-less. So the first picture he takes is from my chin down. When I explained again what I wanted he said "Ohhhhhhh, I got it." Cracked me up

Shannon knit her pretty lace cowl and I liked it so much I asked her what pattern she used. She said "the one on Knitty." So I went to the website, clicked on the "archives" and did a search for cowls and scarves. Only one cowl came up so I printed the pattern and started knitting.

One day I am to the cast off edge and I am talking to Shannon on the phone. I ask her, "Did you use this funny bind off they are talking about here in the pattern or did you make up your own?" She said, "what funny bind off?" We compared pattern and it turns it out this is not the same lace cowl Shannon knit. I got a chuckle out of the whole thing because it was her pattern that inspired me to knit this.

The yarn I used was a very lovely silk that Shannon gave me for Christmas 2007. It had seed beads spun right into the yarn and it was so fun to knit with and feels so soft against my skin, I love it. Silk is very warm, I think I will wear it Wednesday to work.

Wooly Weekend

2009-03-08T19:04:00.001-07:00

Holy Cow! I did it. I wound all that yarn into balls and got them all organized downstairs, I will try to take pictures of that later. To tired right now. (All my stash was not featured in the the pictures on the back deck, there was also a bin of cotton, a basket of wool hiding in my room, a medium sized bin yarn set aside for felting project and a bin of misc. stuff.

That blue bin in the picture above is three balls deep. Now that is sentence you don't get to type every day, "three balls deep" I hope someone googling for some freaky porn comes up with this blog post on knitting instead.

Some things that surprised me about my stash:

1. Huge variety in colour. I don't seem to lean towards any one colour at all when it comes to my yarn choices. Lots of rich jewel tones and earth tones, but also a mix of pastels.

2. Made me feel very spoiled. The amount of yarn that is there that has been gifted to me on birthdays, Christmases and just for no reason at all is staggering. A HUGE thank you to fellow knitters for making me smile and feel so spoiled.

3. I only came across three unfinished projects. One sock for PJ that I gave up on because I worried the pair would be to itchy for her. (Delicate flower thinks everything is itchy) She tried it on and decided she would wear them if I finished them for her. One half finished sock that is a very pretty yarn from Blue Moon Socks that Rock kit that is fussy and is sucking up the yarn so fast that I don't think I can even finish the pair. I decided about an hour ago I am going to rip it out and start a different pair with the yarn. And a pretty lace shawl that I have left because I put it down for a while and I forgot where I am am in the lace pattern.

4. I apparently need to start some lace knitting 'cuz there is some beautiful lace yarn stashed away in there (Thank you Shannon and Mom!)

5. I have a sizable stash. I could go on a yarn diet for a long while and not go hungry. I think I will be knitting from my stash for while and only buy yarn if I really really love it or have specific sweater in mind.

6. I realized why I love to buy sock yarn. I know I will use it and I always know how much of it to buy.

(Is my count right? Did I blog 3 times last week and I am starting out this week with under my belt already?)

Frozen Wool

2009-03-06T16:38:00.001-08:00

Mom had a great suggestion for my little bug problem. Freeze my yarn. What a great idea!

Here is the problem: family of five and only two little freezers. I have the small freezer above the fridge upstairs and the small freezer in the beer fridge in the garage. I can't buy a stick of butter and without using up what I have first for lack of freezer space. (I know I could really use a deep freeze, but the brand new washer and dryer was really a better choice at this point)

So I am racking my brain about how to freeze my stash a little at a time, you know I could quarantine the yarn that had not been frozen yet, while organizing the stuff that had, I could wind everything into balls as I go, I had lots of ideas. Then it hit this morning while I was telling the kids to dress warmly as it was -11C when they were heading off to school. (It warmed up a bit by the time I got organized enough to have my camera out)

The latest cold snap I have been complaining about (we are ready for spring around here but mother nature is not hearing us) is my salvation. Put the yarn outside! Duh. I don't know if I owe mother nature a thank you for the cold snap or if we call it even; after all she is the one that hatched the whole idea of wool eating beasts.

I took this picture before I got my entire stash out onto the back deck. It is a bit embarrassing how much yarn I have collected. I am wondering if I could give mom a run for her money yet?

This is a great chance to organize things. I have hatched a master plan that I will share with you on my next post. (I have not forgotten to tell you the story of the Cowl, I just got distracted by wool)

Knitter Nightmares

2009-03-03T12:33:00.001-08:00

I have fallen a bit in love with simple lace patterns. (I blame this on Shannon and her lace cowl. I have knit one of my own but that is a story for another day) After I was done with the cowl I thought I would do an easy lace sock pattern. I pulled one out of my Socks that Rock collection. In the sock kit the pattern was paired with a very pretty pastel yarn that came with two patterns to pick from. I am saving the pastel for the second pattern, I think this pattern is called "sweet tarts" but I may have that wrong.

I chose some older STR yarn to use, it is a lightweight that I got in one of the kits the first year Mom and I subscribed the the STR. I did not love the pattern that the yarn was paired with those many years ago (3 I think) so this yarn has been sitting (wound up and ready to go by the way) for quite sometime.

The first sock has moved along quite quickly, but I have been having some trouble with the yarn. I did not get to far into knitting the sock when I came across a spot where the yarn was weak and a little frayed. I frowned at it, cut out the small bad spot, knotted the yarn and kept on knitting. I little further into the sock and I came across another spot, I treated it the same as I did the first.

I remembered that the first year Blue Moon did the sock club they changed yarn suppliers part way through the year. I thought about that and figured they must not have been happy with the yarn they were getting. I mean two week spot in one hank was a bit unusual. I kept knitting.

A little while later I am knitting along and a yarn end slips through the hand I keep the tension with. Okay now I am really unhappy with the yarn. I have a close look at the yarn ends, they are clean break, like someone cut the yarn, no frayed ends, no weak spot, just broken yarn. I tie another knot and keep on going.

The fact that I did not clue in at this point kind of baffles me. In retrospect I wonder if I am an idiot or just to optimistic to think this could be anything other than poor manufacturing. I knit on. I knit for quite sometime with no more incidents. I figure it must just be fluke and worry about it no more.

Until another yarn end slipped through my fingers. Then I complained to Paul about the yarn quality and picked the ball up off the floor for a closer look. Do you see what I saw? First look in the picture above. If you can't spot it there don't feel to bad, I had to get out the macro lens for the photo below.

Something ate my yarn.

I really not sure how to proceed. Is this an epidemic? I my entire yarn stash riddled with yarn eating vermin? When I showed the hole to Paul he had the nerve to say, "I bet something crawled in there and laid eggs." I can't even go there.

I decided I am going to knit my way to the answer. I am going to finish the socks, knotting yarn when I need to and see what is in the middle of the ball. I will keep you posted.

On another note PJ wrote this note and posted it on her door yesterday when she got home from school. I was at work but Paul told me about it. I guess when he and Quentin read the note they both went in and helped PJ.

She was in a great mood by the time I got home from work and showed me the note with a big smile on her face. I love the phonetic spelling of 'only', which of course is the word "olee" in PJ'S note. I have to respect anyone that can express themselves as well as PJ did yesterday. She managed to turn her "Bad Bad Day" into a good one and the whole family shared a laugh about it.

A New Love

2009-03-01T15:49:00.001-08:00

I have been wanting a pair of front loaders (get your minds out of the gutter) for years now. I don't know how I have gotten by with a family of five and no front loaders. I bought these about a month ago and I am in love. I can fit way more stuff in there and they are better for the environment.

I love that this pair has a sanitize mode, no more bleach for my running gear. I washed all the linens off the beds with the sanitize mode, all the towels in house smell fresh all time. I used it on Paul's hockey gear and it took the odor out of it all together. I don't know if you have the pleasure of hockey stink but it one of the worse smells ever.

When I bought them, Paul actually asked me if really thought we could use a washer that holds so much. Dude seriously needs to do some laundry in this house. I definitely don't have to do laundry as often as I used to.

Shannon and Mom have been posting such pretty spring pictures I thought I'd show you what our backyard looks like right now. Last week we had another cold snap, we are usually starting to melt by now but the melting season seems to be starting a little late this year. We got a bit of fresh snow last night and the sun is shining today. Here is the second snowman of the season. The first one is a chunk of ice about the size of an exercise ball hiding behind this one.

We got a bit of melt in freeze in mid February so under all this pretty soft snow is a layer of ice about 4 to 6 inches thick.

I have never seen an icicle grow in this spot before. This thing is amazing and the kids have left alone to see just how long it would get. During the melt/freeze last the month it really grew quite a bit. I think it is about 3 feet long and would be longer if it hadn't run into the top of the retaining wall in the backyard.

It did get up to 5C today and here you can see the roof of our house steaming as it warms up.

As you look down the street you can see the whole neighbourhood steaming away. I think it looks pretty and makes me feel a bit like spring just might be around the corner. I heard a rumour of 10C for Monday T-shirt weather!

Shannon Calls Me Out

2009-02-26T20:11:00.000-08:00

Shannon called me sometime last week. I had no idea she called, she left a message with PJ that was never passed on to me. When I found out I swear I heard mom's voice in my head chewing me out for not taking a message when someone called her. I heard her voice come out of my mouth "How would you like it if one of your friends called and I forgot to let you know????" It has begun.

I called her back today and we had a nice chat. She razzed me a bit about not posting in almost a month. I deserved the razzing. We decided on a challenge Shannon and I are both going to post at least twice a week for the next month. If I fail to post twice in a week I owe her a ball of yarn and if she fails to post...well you get the idea. I have lots to update all of you on, I just need to get on the stick and post about it.

We can all thank Shannon for lighting a fire under my butt. I think it was when she said, "Your blog is getting to be like Will's, I just don't check it anymore because you never post." She nailed it.

Skiing and Kntting

2009-02-02T19:06:00.001-08:00

Here are those pictures I said I'd show you. It was such a pretty day out, the sun was bright and it must have been only about -3C. Here is Q skiing down the hill, you can't tell from the pictures but he pretty much skis straight down the hill as fast as he can.

I don't know very much about skiing but it really looks to me like PJ is the best skier of the bunch. She takes her time and really enjoys each run, she turns as much as she can linking lots of turns in a row and zig zags back and forth down the hill. She is not the fastest of the three, but she sure gets the most out of the mountain.

Here is the speed demon. Surprise, surprise. He was so fast I never did get him in motion. I think the boys need to slow down and learn thier turns. But this comes from the girl that has never been on skiis before. (Let record show that I do know how to snowboard, but would much rather snow shoe)

Here is the ony picture I got of the kids at the tube park. I was busy riding the hill myself to take any!

I took these to give you idea what the tubing hill looked like. It was getting overcast and dusk was on it's way so the pictures are really crappy. Hard to get any depth of field under those conditions.

These socks have been laying around with no toe until yesterday. I finished them up while watchig the SuperBowl. (I think the superbowl is especially for knitters: good excuse to knit, watch tv and drink beer on a sunday...as if we really need an excuse)

Tons of Fun

2009-01-31T19:45:00.000-08:00

What a fun day we had around here.

I got up this morning and drove out to this huge beautiful ranch, they have over 80 horses there. I was asked if I would come up and adjust a couple them. I had the pleasure of working with Copper and Champ, they are both sweet animals and did really well with the care.

I then went to meet Paul and the kids at the ski hill, I took a few pictures of the kids skiing, but I have not had time to download them yet. I will try to download them Sunday...we will see how that goes. I have time now, but I am a bit lazy.

After skiing we all went tubing. What a blast. The ski hill has a tow cable that pulls the tube up the hill as you sit in it. When you get the top the tube unhooks and then you get to ride the tube down the hill. I was surprised at how fast you get going they lay out hay and rubber mats to slow you down at the bottom of the slope. It was a lot of fun, but the lines moved a bit slow, I would like to go again sometime when there are less people there. I know the tubing hill is open at night, I think that would be even more fun.

By the time we made it home the kids were worn out to the point of grumpy. I went downtown and adjusted our local WHL hockey team before their game tonight. Paul stayed home to catch up on paperwork from the office. We often stay and watch the game after, but the kids are to tired to sit through it tonight, so I am listening to it on the radio. It is silly how happy it makes me to hear one of the players I adjusted score a goal.

Big Boy Room

2009-01-29T13:42:00.001-08:00

Every once in a while I go into the kids rooms and clean them out. I wait until the kids are at school and I really CLEAN them out. I throw away a lot of crap, I give a way a lot of crap and I get them organized.

Last week it was Sebastian's turn. His room was pretty clean already but I was having trouble him staying up late and reading in his bed. I wanted to move things around so that his books were less accessible for him, he could to easily pull one of the shelf and I would never know it. He will stay up until 10 or 11 at night reading and then be crabby and tired the following day. (I have no idea where this trait comes from)

As I began to pull furniture away from the walls I realized what a mess his walls were. Full of dings and paint chips and what not I thought it was time for a paint job. Classic how a room clean out turns into a weekend project isn't it?

I picked the kids up at school Friday afternoon and took them down to the hardware store. I took Sebastian to the paint isle and asked him what her would like his room to look like. He took a quick look around and pulled a neon green paint chip off the wall. "I want it painted this colour."

I didn't figure his colour choice would help him sleep any better than reading did. I tried to find a middle ground that he would be happy with.

He decided he wanted to paint an "army room." So we did. He picked out a few colours and this is what we came up with:

I even managed to get his dresser and some shelves painted for him. It was done by Sunday evening if you can imagine. He is very happy with and except for putting the shelves back up and finding some army hooks it is ready to go. I have been waiting for the shelves to get good dry and Sebastian has been thinking about where he wants them. I am hoping to put them up tonight.

This all snowballs of course, now PJ would like a room "full of stars" (I am thinking of stealing Shannon and Will's glow in the dark paint idea for that one!) and Quentin wants a "race car room"

It looks I am going to very busy over the next few months!

GoodByes

2009-01-17T15:30:00.001-08:00

Goodbyes are always so hard aren't they?

To allow Shmoo to depart from this life with the dignity she always had during it I had to have her euthanized this morning. She was 20 years old. She has been with me for more than half my life. I know I did the right thing and she was ready to move on, but I will miss her terribly.

I have so much in my head and heart as I think about her today that I am at loss on many levels.

10 days...

2009-01-16T16:34:00.000-08:00

...since my last post. I have the best intentions and so much going on that I want to share. I am finding by the end of the day I just want to unplug. I don't turn on the computer, the TV, I don't even open a book, I am not really sure what I do.

We have been undergoing a lot of changes at the office. We added another massage therapist and this is good for us...but we are jammed packed in there. It raises a whole set of problems that need to be handled on the fly. Growing pains...totally glad to be having growing pains in this economic environment so I am enjoying every problem I am dealing with.

How can I make this short so I don't bore you to tears? We have always sub-leased (they pay a flat monthly rent) to the RMT's in our office (registered massage therapist). This gives them a great deal and has worked out well for us, the thing is with me working more I am losing $$ on the room my RMT rents. I can make more $$ if I use it myself and Paul and I each run 2 rooms apiece.

When we hired our new RMT (started in Jan) we have him as a subcontract. We take a % and he gets the rest, we cut him a check twice a month on payday with the rest of the staff room now makes me $$. Old RMT has a really good deal and has been getting lots of stuff she does not pay for (laundry, reception benefits from out marketing...and tons more) we are changing her sub-lease to a contract that is more fair for us and she is NOT HAPPY about it. We are seeking compromise but this is a bit stressful for everyone.

Let's go back to the new RMT, he has contracted for services such as reception, laundry, billing and more...we are happy to provide it but we are working with staff to get proceedures in place and it makes more work for staff.

I went out to today and bought a new (my first front loader) washer/dryer for the office to accomodate all the laundry the RMT's generate. (I bought a pair for at home too! OUCH for the pocket book, great deal when you by two pairs) And guess what? The fridge at the office crapped out yesterday so I bought a new one of those today too (great deal $300)

After I bought it Paul checked the old one...it looks like it may have been unplugged. Do you laugh your ass off or pour yourself a shot? I am not sure.

Lots more at the office...we are trying to buy a building this year, we are actively looking, this takes time and energy. We are having a new billing program go in that will accommodate more practitioners, this will great and efficient, will keep me from having to hire more reception as we grow...(um like right now) we need a new computer built for the office we have let several computer places in town know what we need and are awaiting quotes.

Squeaky wheel at the office amongst my staff-she thinks she should be paid more than everyone else and has worked the least amount of time for me. I respect (sort of) what she is saying but can't do it. Staff meeting to iron that all out and clear the air.

Have I mention the parking problem? We are so busy with lots of people working for us...we are all out of parking spots. All wonderful stuff, I am enjoying the process of growing and love what the future is looking like for us but we are hopping busy right now. That is why I have not been turning on my computer at night.

Sebastian's birthday party is all planned for tomorrow. I will tell you about it then. Shmoo is not doing well, lost her sight last night quite suddenly. Vet tomorrow...I will keep you posted.

I need to get an early dinner on the table so I am going to roll. The boys are off to a birthday party for a few hours and we are taking PJ and her BFF Christina to the Blazer game. We manage to squeeze in a lot of fun between all the work!

A Bit Late

2009-01-06T20:47:00.000-08:00

I have not gotten around to posting any Christmas pictures...until now.

These are from Christmas Eve at the neighbors house. The kids opened the gifts from Darryl and Mom while we were over there.

They love the Zoobies as you can see by these pictures.

They were a huge hit with the all the neighborhood kids that we got them for as well. My Zoobie is well loved too, she sits on the couch in the front room. I even caught Paul laying down with her once!

We are back to our work routine and the kids are back to school. PJ cracks me up, when I asked her what she missed most about about school she said, "My friends and math." Huh? she must get the love of math from her dad. I can balance a checkbook and all but I don't love the stuff.

Kind of a random post. I am feeling better but still have serious brain drain by the end of the day. I think it is time to go snuggle up with a giraffe and a good book.

Birds of a Feather

2009-01-03T18:01:00.001-08:00

When we were down by the river for the Polar Bear Swim I was surprised to see we have 3 pairs of swans wintering here.

After asking around I understand they have been coming here to spend their winters for several years now. To me they seem incongruous with the snow falling around them.

When I think of swans I always think of ones that live in Disneyland. It sparks my imagination to think I could be sharing swans with Mickey Mouse.

To answer mom's question I posted the picture the women making their dash over the ice to the waters edge. It looks like they are cheating the cold by wearing tights, but don't be fooled those are fishnets and I can't imagine they provide much in the way of insulation. I did not post the picture with the last batch because I was not happy with the lighting in it. I could have brightened it up a bit for you...but frankly I am kind of lazy today.

I have had a bit of a nasty head cold/sinus infection since the day after Christmas and I every time I think I have recovered I get bogged down with some body fatigue. Monday we return to our regular routines so I hope to feel better by then.

Polar Bears

2009-01-01T15:15:00.001-08:00

We went downtown at noon today for the Polar Bear Swim. It happens every year, but this is the first year we had a reason to go.

Pablo and his current host father, Greg some how got roped into the swim today. I don't know the whole story, but I believe Pablo was volunteered by another Rotarian and then the whole thing turned into a fund raiser. If $1000 was raised for a charity then Greg agreed to swim as well. Naturally the club raised the money.

They both turned out to do the swim but lady luck it seems was on their side. You remember how cold it was a week ago? Well it has frozen over some of the river (the most I have ever seen frozen). I guess by the time you walk out on the ice to jump in the water is about 10 feet deep. It was decided by the city that the conditions were unsafe to do the swim. There was concern about the ice breaking and about the swimmers being able to get out the water once they were in.

Pablo and Greg did earn the $$ anyway, they rolled around in the snow in their swimsuits. As you can see in the picture above it was cold enough for Pablo.

We had fun playing in the park for a little bit. It is a nice day to play outside, about -5C and snowing. Very pretty and mild.

Some folks decided not to heed the safety warning and go for it anyway. I snapped a picture of this guy thinking I might be capturing the picture to accompany the Darwin award for 2009, nice to have that out of the way early in the year.

I like the idea of wrapping a rope around his middle. Ouch. He was able to get in and out on his own accord. And others followed. Lemmings.

Pablo and Greg after snow diving:

A picture of the railroad bridge I have never been able to get before. I am standing 10 feet out on the iced river to take it.

You Must be Tired of This

2008-12-22T19:26:00.001-08:00

Winter was quite serious about it's first day around here. That is -17F. It is so cold it feels weird to take a deep breath when you go outside.

You know what I find really strange about the cold? I find it odd how quickly we adapt to it. Today it warmed up to -18C and snowed a bit. Everyone who came into the office today was talking about how it is so much milder than the day before. People are very happy that it has warmed up to -18C. Funny.

I drove the truck to work today. Usually I drive the van around town, but Paul had the day off with the kids and had some errands to run so he asked me to take the truck to work.

The van lives in the garage this time of year, so it stays nice and cozy warm. The truck lives in the driveway, it has a block heater and the van does not. So we can plug it in and it won't free up. (Except for last week, when it was parked at the office and the fuel pump froze, chalk that one up to Mysteries of Winter)

When I left for the office I double checked with Paul, is the truck plugged in???? He mumbled something from our warm cozy bed and I scooted out the door. (which I am sure now was a "yes, don't forget to unplug it.")

I got in the truck and drove merrily away...you know where this is going don't you?

I forgot to unplug it from the house first. I did not even realize it until I got to the office. It dawned on me as I turned the engine off. A little to late.

I ripped the plug (it looks like your standard three prong cord only it plugs from your vehicle into an extension cord that plugs into your house) off the block heater.

I am a good wife, I went to the auto parts store to get him a new cord on my way home from work tonight. They were out of them all over town. It is nice to know it's an epidemic. I said to the sales man, "I'm not the only one?" He said, "Oh, no! you have plenty of company."

Still Cold

2008-12-18T19:16:00.000-08:00

It is still a bit cold outside, I think it is -17C right now and the wind is blowing pretty good making it feel damn cold.

We don't usually have any trouble with our vehicles or anything when it gets cold, we are pretty well winterized. This year the truck decided to make an exception to our winterized rules.

On Tuesday the mercury hung out at -20C all day. Paul had just filled the truck with supreme gas (I guess that supreme has a lower freezing temperature than the regular stuff.) Anyway the truck would not start in the evening leaving Paul stranded at work.

He thought his fuel line froze and put in an additive that was supposed to thaw things out. It did not. We figured out how to get home from work (gong show) and how to get him at work by 7:00 am Wed while I got the kids off to school before I went to work (another gong show)

He calls BCAA from the office and traveling mechanic comes out to take a look at things. He has Paul turn over the engine and the traveling mechanic says he can fix the problem right away. He gets out a rubber mallet and crawls under the truck, in the snow, in the very cold snow. He instructs Paul to turn over the truck and the mechanic whacks the fuel pump a few times with the rubber mallet. The truck starts right up.

Apparently the fuel pump was frozen and few whacks was all it needed to wise up.

This morning I am at work and Paul calls. He can't make it in, the truck died getting on the highway....blah...blah blah.

The moral of the story is the truck is still in the shop waiting on a fuel pump. They have it in stock, they just FORGOT to call us to approve the work order, so they did nothing instead.

As a lovely addition to this story while Paul was outside trying so hard to get the truck to start on tuesday night. He just about froze. How cold was he you might ask? He froze his cell phone. He has a three year old blackberry that has been through thick and thin with him. He froze it so that now when you dial the numbers, letters pop up.

I did not know you could freeze a cell phone just standing around outside with it did you?

It's Cold

2008-12-14T14:40:00.001-08:00

I have been working hard to keep the kids busy with inside fun stuff lately.

Here they are building a gingerbread house:

They worked on this for a couple of hours together with no fighting. I even had some time to make homemade turkey soup while they were working on it.

Up until this weekend our winter had been unusually warm. We had only a bit of snow, and what we got had just about melted away.

Our cold weather has decided to come with a vengeance and plenty of snow along with it. I think it snowed for about 24 hours straight. Starting Friday afternoon and was still going on Saturday night. It was -15C yesterday with a nasty wind.

For the metric challenged:

Today we woke up to clear skies and the wind has settled down some. It was -20C when I woke up this morning, I think that is -4F. The kids saw the sunshine and and decided they wanted to play outside. They were out for about 2 hours on and off today and even longer yesterday.

I guess if there is enough snow to play in then the bitter cold is tolerable? They have been building forts and snow tunnels. I think in this picture that Sebass (in the red coat) is relaxing in his snow bed while PJ and Q are digging in the snow.

I found better ways to entertain myself, cleaned the house, baked some bread, started a puzzle with the kids and now I am thinking I will spin for a bit and watch 27 dresses.

I loved your comments on the last post, I was trying to remember if I told you about the patient that asked me if I was Paul's daughter. He recognized the last name thing...but that was as far as he got. He is my favorite patient of all time.

Smart Cookie

2008-12-09T19:56:00.000-08:00

My patients often make me laugh. Yesterday I had a young lady in to see me at the office that really cracked me up.

This young lady came in with her mom and her brother to get adjusted. I know the family well, it is a big family that reminds me much of mine back home. There are four daughters and their husbands and all their children and the parents of the four daughters. As far as I know the entire family comes in and sees us for all of their Chiropractic care.

It just so happened that on this occasion I was seeing a brother and a sister that I have not yet adjusted, they had only seen Paul.

I adjust the young lady first and I talk to her a bit about how she was feeling and why she was in that day. I showed her some range of motion stuff you know; pre-adjustment ROM compared to her ROM after her adjustment that sort of thing. I give her some exercises and some stretches and tell her to come back in a month for maintenance care.

I then adjust her brother, we go through some of the same stuff, but specific to how he is feeling. I talk to him about nutrition and a bit about allergies and ask to see him in a month for maintenance.

When I am wrapping things up, the young lady says to me..."You must have gone to school for a very long time, you are way smarter than that guy we usually see."

I laughed until I was in tears.

I guess you have to know Paul a bit to understand why I laughed so hard. Paul is crazy smart, he is so smart that sometimes he is so far ahead of me I wonder if I will ever catch up and sometimes I think he so smart it puts him a bit behind the rest of us, if you know what I mean.

I told the young lady that Paul and I went to the same school for the same amount of time, Paul just spoke to her about different things than I did, because he saw her body differently than I did.

I really believe that in our office Paul spends far more time on pt. education than I do. He is so good at teaching pts about their bodies and it is one of the big things that sets our practice apart from others in town. Paul and I both love to teach, what I said just resonated with her more than whatever Paul had to say.

Hanging Out

2008-12-05T20:43:00.000-08:00

We have been hanging out and playing in the snow. We don't have as much snow as we usually do by this time of year, but I don't doubt it will show up when it's ready too.

The kids made this snowman mostly by themselves. It is pretty big, almost 5 feet tall, the kids got Paul to lift the middle and the top up for them. Good wet snowman snow is heavy stuff.

-10C today, I think that is about 14F. To cold for snow, just right for putting up your Christmas tree and drinking hot chocolate.

Hockey Stars of Tomorrow

2008-12-02T20:03:00.001-08:00

I took these pictures while we were skating with the kids on Sunday. It is not actually their hockey skate, they just love gearing up. We do shoot the puck around and what not, and the pads do make for a soft landing when you fall.

That is Q above in the red and below Paul, Sebass and PJ. I think you can guess who is who.

PJ is so funny when we skate on Sundays. She skates around a bit, whacking the puck around with her hockey stick. After a while she skates to the bench and puts her stick down, then she skates up to me and says, "Mom, are you ready yet?"

"Am I ready for what?" I ask her.

"For your skating lessons." She says.

She makes me put my stick away and she skates me out to center ice. She makes me do crossovers (lifting one foot over the other, like your are climbing stairs sideways is how PJ explained it to me, you do it to get around the corners of the rink and to maneuver quickly around other players). Last week after fumbling my way around the circle in center ice, she shook her helmeted head at me.

"Mom, just stop. Try doing them just standing in one spot for a while and when you get the hang of that then you can try the circle again." Totally schooled by a six year old who can out skate me. Priceless.

Apparently next week I am learning to stop on a dime. "You know mom just skate like this" PJ demonstrates skating across the ice. "And when you want to stop just turn your back where your front just was." The kid executes a perfect stop. I may need to wear Paul's hockey shorts for the padding, I fear my backside may suffer during next weeks lesson.

I love how much my kids make me laugh. And oh yeah...they teach me stuff too.

Inspiration

2008-12-01T20:41:00.000-08:00

We had a really fun really full weekend. We took the kids to the Santa Claus parade on Saturday and then we took them to "Seussical" performed by the Western Canada Theatre. If you ever have the chance to see this production I highly recommend it.

It is a musical based on the works of Dr. Seuss. Dr. Seuss wrote 48 books this musical manages to wrap 18 of them up in the same story line. It is wonderful and witty and the kids were glued to their seats the whole 3 hours.

Sr. Seuss used his stories not only as art, but he used his works as political and social commentary. This musical spoke to the good Drs. ideas that "a person is a person no matter how small." (Horton Hear a Who) and managed to put forward the idea that our thoughts create our realities. (Oh the Thinks you can Think) all while keeping kids both children and adults entertained. It was wonderful.

Sunday morning we took the kids skating for a while and then Paul and I were off to an afternoon with Deepak Chopra. Yes you read that right. Deepak came to our little town and spoke to a group of three thousand people a sold out show. He was wonderful.

He opened with some idea's from quantum physics and in the end wrapped it all around to the idea that we are world on the verge of a metamorphosis. He talked about the change of consciousness that is occurring the world today. That we create our world and our reality with our thoughts.

If we all choose to be conscious and present we can change the world. I had this moment during the lecture that I realized that I had been give the same lecture twice in the same weekend. I found it amazing that Dr. Seuss and Dr. Deepak Chopra are delivering the same message in there own ways.

"Oh the thinks you can think...."

Gobble Gobble

2008-11-29T09:51:00.001-08:00

We managed to bring American Thanksgiving to Canada again this year. I think this was the 5th annual. I think that may make it an official tradition here in our house. I am getting smarter and smarted with it every year.

This year we had 21 children with Layne and Sebass the two oldest at 7 years old. We did two seatings this year: kids first and adults next.

We hired Uncle Chris the Clown to come for an hour and entertain the kids. It was the best idea I have ever had. 23 adults enjoyed a great meal while their children had a blast with Uncle Chris. Priceless.

I don't have any adult pictures. Kathryn was kind enough to grab my camera and take the ones you see here, or I would not have any at all.

Why I Don't Post Things I Knit for Me

2008-11-25T19:52:00.000-08:00

There is an easy answer for Mom's question. I don't post pictures of my FO's that are knit myself because I have no one to photograph them for me.

Here is a photo our baby sitter took of Paul and I last week. I wanted to show you all my pretty dress, that looked really great on. The kids hopped in the photo, the baby sitter was game to take the picture, but you can see how great we look. (NOT)

In fact, I look strained. I look like a crazy mom, trying to out the door on time and before a kid spill spaghetti sauce down the front of my dress. Paul looks equally pained, like he is wondering how many pairs of shoes I am going to try on before we get out the door.

Not a pretty photo is it?

Here is another prime example. I got my haircut last Tuesday and came home and took these photos. Trust me again, it is a great haircut. See the way my bangs appear crooked in the photo, they are not. See the weird look in my eye, I look stern and icky. It seems to be very difficult to photograph oneself in the mirror.

The back photo is no better. Honestly it's a good cut. It is an A line, but not crooked in the back as it appears in the photo below. Maybe I need to see my chiropractor.

Paul is not interested in taking a few pictures of me so I can post my modeled knits on my blog. He will take to bad pictures (with my head cut off or something) and will roll his eyes and complain if I ask him to take another. "This one is fine!" he says.

I don't want "fine" I want a good picture of my FO. So you see them on the living room floor, or draped over the arm of the couch.

Digesting

2008-11-18T20:30:00.000-08:00

I have not had to much to say lately.

I have been digesting the stuff that is going on with Pop in CA. and just hanging out in my cave.

Things are good here. We have been doing a lot of the usual stuff kids, hockey, work, school, dentist, haircuts and the like.

I have knit another pair of gauntlets for Q and and hope to start a pair for Sebass this evening.

Basically I have not been posting because I am enjoying being totally boring.

Gaile's Pedicure Socks

2008-11-14T18:45:00.001-08:00

One of my favorite patients at the office is a knitter. She is a lovely women who donates almost all of her knitting to charity.

She knits preemie hats by the dozens. A few months ago she told me she was knitting 20 children's sweaters to be sent to one particular charity. 20! She will knit them up in a matter of months. She knits for the joy of passing her stuff onto those who might otherwise do without.

A month ago she brought me a whole bag of sock yarn, enough for five or six pairs of socks. She had purchased a Pedicure sock pattern along with the yarn. She handed me the whole works and asked if I could put it to good use. Sock yarn..of course I could put it to use.

The yarn is quite fine and has elastic in it. She found it to fine to work with. I offered to pay for the pattern and the yarn and she would have none of it. "Just use the yarn" she said.

I did:

This is Sonya (she has the smallest feet in the office) she is the willing model of Gaile's pedicure socks. I knit them up for Gaile and planned to give them to her on Thursday, she called and rescheduled her apt. with me. I will leave them on my desk until I can pay a little something forward to someone who deserves it so much.

The socks only took one ball of yarn...I am thinking I can make her some gauntlets with the other ball of the same colour.

Knitting Content

2008-11-11T18:21:00.001-08:00

I only have one picture from the dance. The dance was a family deal, it was from 6:30 to 8:00 and the kids had a great time. I don't know if you tell in the terrible picture below, but all three kids are in it, have a close look and you will see them all. It was fun and PJ even won a prize for "shakin' everything her mama gave her" Go girl. She won it in a show your moves hip hop thing. Made me laugh.

If you really squint you can make out Debbles, Rory, Layne and Wren in the background.

I have hit a good knitting stride lately. I just finished a pair of socks, I will photograph them at work Wed and show them to you then.

The kids have been asking me to make them fingerless gloves like mine. I decided to finally give it a go. I made mine up without a pattern and did not write anything down as I went so starting a new pair seemed a bit daunting.

I faked it and ended up with a pair for PJ I am pretty happy with, I wrote down the pattern so I can do up a pair for Q and Seabass. It only took me two evenings to get them done, they were very quick and fun to do. I like the immediate gratification.

In the first photo below the colours are no where near true but you get a size idea, that is mine and PJ's.

Here is PJ wearing her's for a modeling session. The colour in the photo below is the most accurate.

PJ is the best knitting model I have ever had, she just kept posing and smiling. The pictures made me smile and I needed practice using the flash so I just kept clicking away. I posted a few of them to make you smile too.

My favorite:

First Dance

2008-11-07T17:09:00.000-08:00

We are getting ready to take the kids to their first school dance tonight.

How cool is that?

I recently heard about a web site for Obama, I checked it out and it looks like you can actually give feed back and send ideas for change. Check it out here

Jazzed

2008-11-04T21:05:00.000-08:00

I am so proud that our nation has elected our first African American President.

I now have hope and a feeling of optimism for the Untied States.

Thank you for all who voted!

Halloween

2008-11-04T10:43:00.001-08:00

Here is the gang on Halloween. We all had a fun time, Paul took them out trick-or-treating. It was the 7th annual trick-or-treat with Layne, Deb and her crew. I love that it has become a Halloween tradition to get them all together. We are up to an even 6 children between Deb and Rory and Paul and Myself. Impressive.

I thought these two pictures were funny. PJ and Paul before the candy fest:

PJ post candy fest:

All three kids were an absolute blur for two days. Paul has been very sick, seems to have a nasty cold/sinus infection thing. He went to the doctor yesterday and has been on some heavy antibiotics since. I am the last one to send a guy to get drugs, but I could not stand the growling bear in house either.

Sebass quote from Monday: "Mom, Dad must be feeling better, he did not even yell at me once today." proof that occasionally medication is necessary.

Dirt Bike School

2008-10-28T10:11:00.001-07:00

I told you about the dirt biking class that we were planning on going to this past weekend. It was lots of fun and we all learned tons. They did a great job of dividing everyone into groups based on skill level and making sure everyone got what they wanted out of it.

Here is Sebass cruising around one of the tracks we practiced on. There were three different groups and Paul, Sebass and myself were all in different groups.

I was amazed at all the kids taking jumps and handling the turns with an amazing skill level. I don't know how many times I was passed by 6 and 7 year olds.

A couple of tips on how to turn and how to sit on the bike and I feel way more comfortable on the bike. I think you take this course once every year and get something out of it every time.

I achieved my goals: I learned how to corner with confidence, I made it to third gear and as a bonus on my last trip around the track I got a little airtime. I think I rode as aggressively as I ever want to, rest easy mom and dad, third gear is plenty for me.

This is one of the instructor's taking a quick rip around the track at the very end:

Most of the instructors are competitive racers. Very cool to watch but not for me to do.

A bit of Girly Stuff:

I mentioned this to Shannon when I was visiting earlier in the month. As my body has been changing with age (read I think I might be peri-menopausal) I have been getting nasty headaches when I ovulate and when my cycle begins. I went to the health food store and had a chat with one of the ladies that works there, who I find to be very knowledgeable. I told her what was going on that my gut feeling was it was related to hormone changes as I age. She suggested I try Her Energy

I find I have way more energy since I have been on it. It has cleaned me out a little bit if you know what I mean, but not in a drastic or uncomfortable way. I lost 5 pounds of belly fat in the first two weeks and have held steady since. I had my ovulation headache yesterday but it did not last long and the intensity of it came down. I had been taking Advil for them (and I hate taking crap like that) and I got through the headache with no medication, I just upped my water intake for the day.

I have felt great the past two weeks and I often start to feel the season change this time of year and get a bit down. The time change this weekend will be a great test to see if this supplement continues to help me out.

Acorn Ass

2008-10-24T21:32:00.001-07:00

I was going to tittle it "Acorn Butt" but let's face it "Acorn Ass" has a nice ring to it.

You don't see a whole lot of Oak trees where I live. It is one of the first things I noticed (after the I got over the whole cold/snow thing) when I moved up here. I have always had a soft spot in my heart for Oak trees.

We had a huge Oak that grew in the backyard of the house we grew up in. I remember a particular camp ground we would go to that was full of big beautiful Oak trees. How about that huge Oak that grew right in the middle of the main street in downtown Danville. (I think it may be gone now?)

I noticed this Oak tree while walking the kids to school one day. I have meaning to take its picture for a couple of seasons now. The changing colours had me out of the house with my camera on a special walk just to grab a few pictures of it.

In the picture above I was not really trying to get the ass end of the acorn. The wind was blowing like mad and that is the end mother nature pointed at me when the camera clicked. I love it.

Pictured below: that's me, on a dirt bike. My maiden voyage. Fun and bit scary. I never did make it out of second gear. I played around with changing gears a lot. First to second, second to first, getting the hang of the clutch being in my hand and the changing gears with my foot when I have done just the opposite since I learned to drive.

Sunday Paul, Sebass and myself are taking a dirt bike course with the Yamaha dealership here in town. If you are going to do it you may as well learn as much as you can about technique. I am hoping they cover tips and tricks on how to fall...

Another One

2008-10-24T09:55:00.001-07:00

I just came accross this one reading my morning blog posts. I could not help but load one more. It is just so perfect. I guess everyone knows I cast my vote.

I am really learning to love Fridays. I work Monday through Thursday and have Fridays off. Today the kids have an in-service day and we are having a relaxing pajama morning. I am planning to catch up on laundry house work through-out the day.

I have another blog post planned after I download some photos from last weekend so stay tuned. I am going for two posts in one day! Shocking I know.

Maybe I will even get a chance to finish a sock and practice my piano today. I have high hopes don't I. I am always surprised at how fast the day slips buy when I work around the house and play with the kids.

Have you Seen This?

2008-10-23T15:09:00.001-07:00

I think some of you have already seen this, but it is worth a second look if you have.

It made me bust a gut.

Reunion

2008-10-16T19:44:00.000-07:00

The reunion was a great time. I think both Shannon and I had more fun than we expected to have. In high school I was never quiet sure where I fit in, so I was not sure where I would fit in at the reunion. As I spoke with many old friends and some people I barely knew in school it turns out that almost all of us seemed to feel that way.

Shannon was a great date, she looked hot, got tipsy on only one drink and we got hit on as a couple. One guy bought Shannon and I both a beer and chatted us up. He was quite flirty with us until he pointedly asked us "What's up with the two of you?" Shannon and I replied that we were sisters and he disappeared without another word. Once he realized he was not getting luck with lesbians he just turned around and walked away. Shannon and I got a great laugh out of it.

Most everyone looked great. The women have all taken care of themselves and looked beautiful. There were a couple of guys that had gotten paunchy but not to bad. Anyone going bald went for the shaved look that is so fashionable now anyway.

There were several people there that I renewed relationships with and I am sure we will keep in touch now. So glad that I went.

The visit with Shannon and Will was loads of fun. I had a great time bonding with Taylor and Morgan without my kids around. I got to really spend some time with them without my kids competing for my attention. Taylor talked my ear off and held my hand all through the corn maze, what a character she is! Morgan is at that great age where you can embarrass him with the right word dropped into casual conversation....fun stuff that.

Mom and Darryl are amazing with the horses, I wish I had more of a visit with Darryl, but he had to work. Their house looks wonderful and they seem very happy and lead a full and wonderful life.

Shannon and I had lunch with Dad on Monday. I got to bond with everyone...the trip was such a wonderful whirlwind. I just can't tell you all how glad I am that I went (I guess saying twice will have to do the trick)