Which Sports Car Are You?

I'm a Mercedes SLK!

You appreciate the finer things in life. You have a split personality - wild or conservative, depending on your mood. Wherever you go, you like to travel first class. Luxury, style, and fun - who could ask for more?

Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.

Merry Christmas

My favorite part of the Muppet Christmas Carol. Have a blessed day.

More Winter Wonderland

Original isn't it!?

Today we chained up and headed to downtown Portland for the OBT's The Nutcracker.

The roads were interesting...........some areas bare and dry, other areas with snow wafting across it and still other areas of drifts. In downtown, the main roads we were on had not been plowed.

185th, just up the street from where we live.



Entrancing onto Hwy 26.



Downtown Portland, just exiting onto Market Street.



PSU looks lovely in white. This was just a quick photo opportunity, so it's not the best.



Robert had to pull over while we were still in Portland before heading home, to clear the ice off of the windshield wipers. This church was our view.


On the way home it was getting worse, with visibility about 100 feet or so at some points. Kim has decided she doesn't like riding with chains on. I think it upsets her tummy too much.

I think we are content to stay home now.

Winter Wonderland

Chipmunk Cheeks Redux

Deja vu. I think Kim actually looks worse than John did last year. I didn't take pix of John last year because I didn't want to embarrass him. Kim, however is my ham, and said she'd be disappointed if I didn't blog about it. It's mostly one-sided as you can see from the picture below. That's today. Yesterday she was drugged up and peeved at every one at the oral surgeon's office. She spent the majority of yesterday and today in her recliner. Though she is definitely more bored today.


She's been eating lots of homemade pudding, applesauce, we even tried rice pudding, but it was too much for her mouth to take. Today she tried some chicken soup with veggies and a smooshed up veggie hot dog. She was craving more substantial food, including meat that she normally doesn't like. I am hoping that the cold packs will help with the swelling soon. She's been using them most of the day.

I know my knits are appreciated when they are worn out in spots. Both thumbs and at least one pointer finger needed to be redone. I think he may have caught them on something.

These..........

became these again. I got them sent right back to the recipient, he should have gotten them today.

Podcasts and Christmas Stories

A friend of mine recently started a podcast, "At the Kitchen Table". She lives up near Mt. Hood, has some acreage, with Pygora goats, Angora rabbits, and other small poultry. Episode 1 and 3 are up, she lost episode 2 to sound issues. BUT, her sound quality is excellent for a new podcast. In episode 3, which I just finished listening to, she mentioned a holiday favorite of hers. "The Cinnamon Bear" radio story. I found a blog that posts it every year. So, here is the blog to download the mp3 of "The Cinnamon Bear". If you can, take some time to listen to Deb's podcast, "At the Kitchen Table." I feel like Deb and I are having a cup of coffee together and visiting!!

Not much happening here

I haven't had much to blog about lately. Dad was in the hospital for a week. He's not doing to well. His heart is wearing out. Kim is supposed to get her wisdom teeth out this week, but we keep getting a last minute call saying the doctor isn't in. (He had some kind of surgery and hasn't bounce back like they thought) I've been knitting, but it's all Christmas presents and I'm not done with them yet. I did get a pair of socks done, but forgot to take a picture before gifting them. Maybe next week I can get a picture of them on the intended recipient. Hmm, oh Robert's mom is out here for the next week visiting all of us kids. We had her for the weekend, now she's down in Eugene visiting another kiddo, and will go up to Seattle in a day or two to visit two other kids. When we took her to Eugene yesterday we had a mini-family reunion with 3 of the other siblings, nieces and nephews and great niece and great nephew. I put the pictures up on my flickr site. I got a really cute video of John holding the baby too. :) Another set there is the BMFA Destash Sale that was this last weekend as well. I took mil and Kim and both had a good time. Now I need to recuperate and catch up on some more knitting.

Kim holding her little cousin Leela. This is Robert's great-niece. She looks just like her momma at that age.

Can't Blog Right Now

Sorry can't come to the blog right now, I'm watching too many of these.





Kim's getting some of their CD's and DVD for Christmas. Do you think Santa would bring me one of them for real?

Happy Halloween

What a week!

Wow, here it is Thursday night. It's been one incredible week. Last week I got a package in the mail that I didn't share with you. It was from Luxembourg! But, I kept this package mostly closed up because it was a birthday present. It was from a secret swap so I didn't know what it was at first. When I opened it, I read the card before anything else. In the card it did say there was something for Kim, so I let her open that. Today I opened the rest of the package. I have now entered the 40's. I am looking forward to it much more than I did when I turned 30.

Yummy lavender yarn, Belgium Truffles, and a collector's spoon. And of course the felted Phantom for Kim.


Other things that came today for my birthday: many birthday wishes on Ravelry, a singing phone call from my co-workers! And this was from them too. Thank you gals!!

The black ones are grapes, and the other larger brown ones are chocolate covered strawberries. Some of the flower pineapple pieces have cantaloupe balls on them. It is yummy!! We went out for a big lunch today, so this was just the right thing for a snack for dinner tonight.

My family gave me a new watch. I can't get a good picture of it. It is Black Hills Gold, and the outer edge of the clock face has butterflies on it. There is also a butterfly on the face.


Slippers with cables and pompoms, and Halloween socks. Now, I like the slippers and need a new pair, but the socks? I am not a fan of orange, but I will wear them next Friday night. :)


Knitting projects that were finished this week?


We found the ears and a tail that match the red in the yarn, at Party City. We got lucky as we didn't have the armwarmers with us to match them up. She also has a black cat collar with bells on it. She still needs to make her corset, probably a Friday night or Saturday night job as the dance she is going to is on this Sunday night!

Fingerless Gloves

I got a great package in the mail today!! It contained a pair of fingerless lace and cabled gloves made just for me. It was part of a Fall Fingerless Glove Swap. Thank you Readingknitter01 for these great gloves and all the other little goodies!!

The Light at the End of the Tunnel

I have to share a short video with you. This last weekend I went to the Women of Faith conference here in Portland. Kim did not go with me because she was concerned she would have to leave early and it would ruin it for both of us. I got home Saturday night and we were listening to a new CD I bought at the conference. Nicole C Mullen. LOVE HER! And love the fact that my babydoll is dancing again.




Yesterday we went to the Naturopath again. She had the results from a saliva test that she had Kim do about two weeks ago. Kim's hormone's are whacked! We are going to start out slowly adding certain supplements to help her get back to normal. Cortisol is one hormone that Kim does not produce enough of during the right times of the day. It can affect sleep, and how you handle stress. Progesterone is another one that was under the limits that they like to see in her age. The cortisol supplement we start now, the progesterone after the weekend. There will be some other hormones added probably next month, but for now we start this. Kim has been sleeping somewhat better with the help of the Ashwagandha. YEAH! Over the past two weeks, there has been a visible difference in Kim. She is singing again, smiling more, and definitely dancing more! I was able to get her out of the house on Friday to do several errands with me, then we came home and made up a bunch of picnic food for our group that was attending Women of Faith. We tailgated for lunch on Saturday. Kim had a great time helping me. Sunday we went for lunch for celebrate Robert's birthday. I hope this is the beginning of her feeling better.

I have been knitting. I finally finished a pair of swap gloves. I need more practice at this type of knitting. It is not fair isle and the name is eluding me now. Intarsia, that's it. Robert thinks it looks cool as it makes the picture stand out more. I need to send it off later today or tomorrow as it is already a week late.

It's about time

It's been OVER a month, so Linda goes and awards me this:


maybe in hopes I will be posting soon?

Here are the rules for the award recipients:

1. Please put the award on your blog.

2. Add a link to the person who awarded you.

3. You must nominate at least 4 fellow bloggers for this award.

4. Add links to the recipients.

5. Leave a comment so the recipients know they have received an award.

Please stop by to check out these four blogs I love:

Purls Beyond Price Nathania from sock camp and her precious baby girl.

Magpie Ima Her kids, homeschooling, work and knitting.

Sanna's Bag Knitting, kitties and writing.

Deb on the Web New farm life, knitting, soon baby bunnies.

I know, I know

It's been a couple of weeks. I've been slacking, even though I keep thinking about blogging. Nothing exciting has happened over the last couple of weeks. It's nice that everything is flowing along.

I finished my Lady Grey. I love this sweater!! I like all of the sweaters I have made, even if they fit me funny. This one though I really love, which is why I am making another one.




Monday we took a trip to the cardiologist for John's yearly checkup. All the tests show that his heart is doing good. Possibly even better than last year. If you remember, last year we had a minor freakage because his murmur had become audible. The doctor said J could go for 3-4 years in between check ups. Woohoo! Friday we see Kim's GI doc again and since she isn't feeling better we are going to push for some other tests.

Tonight we are off to the state fair to see Garrison Keillor and his Rhubard Tour.

Beer

My beer as of today. It is bubbling along nicely. :)

Today's Scoop from the market

Fresh and local strawberries and blueberries.

Squash for grilling with onions, mushrooms, and sausage. YUM!


Maryhill Peaches

Maryhill Nectarines
The peaches taste have a hint of coconut.

Yummy dessert.

A Day in Pictures

With a few captions.


A batch of beer made just this morning. It will sit in this fermenter for about 3-4 weeks. This beer will be for my birthday. It is a dark porter and will need a good name. :)



I got a great book in the mail today and we made pretzels from it.

Last, but not least, cinnamon rolls for tomorrow morning or tonight's dessert.

Ooops

I just dropped $$$$ for one of these. :) Actually mine will be slightly used, and was less than the asking price. Fortunately it's my play $$.

Super Fun!

Robert and I spent the weekend together! Yes the kids were around, but everything we did was for us. This weekend is the annual Oregon Brewer's Festival. We attend it every year. I have been looking forward to this weekend for the last month because I knew I would be able to spend time with Robert.

We started Friday morning with picking two flats of blueberries. We ate at least half of one flat and froze the other flat and a half. Then we came home and got ready to go to the festival where we met up with Triners, a knitter visiting from California. We had a great time sitting with her, drinking beer, eating pretzels, blueberries and knitting on our socks. I think we left around 4:30 or so as it was getting rowdy and crowded. (Robert had also been on Thursday, but I had other stuff happening)

We went back on Saturday by noon so we got in about 4 or 5 more beers before it got too crowded for us. Just so you know, we tried samples, not full glasses. I think the sample is a couple of ounces.

Robert made pretzels when we got home. They were really good fresh, not so much today.

Today we hit the farmer's market to see what they had. We bought fresh basil, green onions, one zucchini and one yellow crookneck. The basil is for pizza tomorrow night, with fresh mozzarella and tomatoes. YUM! We also did some other shopping like Costco and the regular grocery store. It's been really nice to just hang out with him this weekend.

When we got home Robert made burgers for our late lunch, and I put basil, tomatoes and feta cheese on mine. Oh it was good. Then he made cinnamon rolls, carmel popcorn and I think he's thinking about something chocolatey like fudge or brownies. I love it when he gets in this cooking/baking mood! That's probably where I have gained all the excess this year.

Yesterday while we were downtown Portland, we hiked from the lightrail to PPAC. A couple of months ago we happened to see that "The Phantom of the Opera" was coming to town. This is Kim's absolute favorite musical. She doesn't know it's coming to town. She is going to be so excited. We aren't going to tell her until a few days before. Our tickets are for the first week of September, and they looked like really good seats too!!! I am excited because I know she's going to be excited!! Ok, I was able to tell a secret without bursting!

We saw some monkey mayhem while we were downtown. It's in the window's of a store called Mario's I think. There were sock monkeys everywhere. Climbing ladders, on stilts. They were having a great time!!









Kim update: The endoscopy biopsy results showed nothing! A good thing, but at the same time, now what! The doctor put her on Nexium and it is about the same as the other drugs she has been on so far. We will try it for a few months and hopefully over time she starts feeling better. He also prescribed an anti nausea drug, but it's not really an anti nausea. It's more for moving things through the digestive tract. She doesn't need that, so we went to the pharmacist and asked their opinion. They gave us an OTC that should work much better. She hasn't had to use it yet, the nausea has been 4 or under.

My Kimma

came through the endoscopy quite well today!! They gave her Versaid, a great amnesia drug, as well as something else for the pain she would experience. It took her a while to come out of the fog and sleep, but once she was out, she's been going strong ever since. She has a bit of a sore throat, but other than that, she's ok. The pictures show some inflammation in her esophagus, and a little bit of inflammation in her small intestine, but we won't have results from biopsy back until late this week or early next week. It can't come soon enough. I told Robert though, that if either of the kids have to have major surgery later on in life, they are going to have to sedate me. I don't handle the waiting room stuff to well anymore.

Second Jellyfish Video

First Jellyfish Video

Home, Sweet Home

ETA: I am putting some short videos up on Flickr too, but I'm not sure where they will land yet. They are jellyfish from the aquarium!

We got home Friday evening. I slept for the next 10 hours! It was a fun, educational and hot trip. We took tons of pictures from the train windows. I haven't sorted through them too much, or labeled, but if you go to my Flickr page, on the right side the top three sets are from this trip. We learned that getting a sleeper room is much more comfortable than coach. :)

Kim goes in for an endoscopy tomorrow morning. We are to get there at 10:30 and they start the procedure at noon. It's supposed to be quick. I hope she handles the medication well.

Our attendant on the train. She was a real gem!

Out to Lunch........

Kim and I are getting ready for our trip south. We are both really excited to be riding the train. I am seriously giddy inside!! We'll be back next Friday late. I might be able to blog, but it will be pictureless unless I can find Wifi access somewhere close by. Hmm, I know where the closest Peet's is to mom and dad's, then I could get a much needed cup of coffee too. :)

Have a fun and safe weekend.

Drifting Along

In knitting news I have finished some things finally!

I finished some dishcloths for a BBQ swap I am involved in. I realized as I was making them, that I could make some for me, so that will be on the agenda soon.


I finished a pair of lace fingerless gloves for my bff Julie, who I hope to see next week while in California. These are the same gloves I made for a Spring Fingerless Mitt Swap. This is Socks that Rock in Lightweight, colorway is Moody Blues. And I still have half a skein left.


And I finished my Mr Greenjeans. I am hesitant to like it yet. I am going to put in two more button holes at least. Has anyone done that after the knitting is complete? Kind of like steeking a buttonhole? I think it can be done, just carefully.



In Kim news, the GI doctor switched her medications again, back to a stronger acid reducer. It still makes her nauseas, but it's within her limit. If she's not feeling better in two weeks, right about the time we come back from California, then we will proceed with an endoscopy to see if he can see anything. She doesn't want to do it, but I think it's inevitable unless she starts feeling much better in the next week and a half!

Speaking of California, I can't wait, except I know I am going to be exhausted from the get-go! We take the train down on July 5, get there in the mid morning on the 6th, come back on the 10th, getting home in the late afternoon of the 11th. On the way down we are in coach seating, so not much rest for us. On the way back, we decided to do a roomette, which does give us space to stretch out and sleep, if we can. Kim and I both think it will be fun. We will be down there to see mom and dad, and to celebrate dad's 71st birthday. I just realized that I don't have a gift for him, so am trying to figure out what to get him or make him! Any ideas are greatly appreciated!