Happy Birthday my dear Baby

This is why I blog, the fun little things you can do with it, wishing your spouse, kids, friends a happy birthday or anniversary or whatever you want to wish them.

June 1994

Kim is special, she has always been special. She is the eldest granddaughter of the eldest granddaughter of the eldest......you get the picture. Today she turned 13. This is a marker for her!! She has been excited for this day for several months. How many days til my birthday? She has been counting down and getting more and more excited. Does she want anything? NO. What are you supposed to do for a teenage girl who does not want anything for her birthday?

Well, I came up with a great idea. For a long time she has wanted to get her ears pierced. We have said no, not until she is responsible enough to take care of newly pierced ears so they don't become infected. A few weeks ago, Kim and I went to a Lia Sophia jewelry party. It was lots of fun. One of the items I saw in the catalog were birthday earrings. Pierced. I ordered them without her knowledge. They came last week. Yesterday I printed out a special coupon just for her. It said, "Redeem this coupon for your very own pierced ears." I gave them to her with the earrings. Oh my gosh, you should have seen her face light up as she read the coupon and opened the box. She was absolutely delighted!! She at first had chosen to get her ears pierced after our Spring Break vacation, but after visiting the shop, she decided that next week will work perfectly well. The other item she received for her birthday, two skeins of Lorna Laces Shepherd Sock in the colorway Black Purl. Oh it is so pretty!! We will take the yarn with us on Spring Break and hopefully a pair of socks will emerge.

I am excited for my dear girl, because she is excited. Happy Birthday Sweetie.

May 2006

Today, March 7, 2007.

Contest News

My unofficial hat, it's actually a bag that dd has been working on for a while. She took the names, stuck them in there and we pulled one out.

The winning name is "Pertelotte" submitted by Roxie. I have met Roxie, while standing in line together to meet Ms. Pearl-McPhee last year. Roxie, I will email you later tonight to get the prize sent off to you. Thank you everyone for playing along with me, and for the great anniversary wishes.

I read in one place that Pertelotte was one of seven of Chanticleer's wives, and he was infatuated with her. I have to say this would be funny among my friends, right Jean? I can just hear Penny giving me grief about it!! (sorry a little inside joke there)

Now, it's off to bed, so I can be a good mom tomorrow and bake cake and fix a special dinner for a special birthday girl, more later......

Oh, I know I messed up my blogger template. I am still trying to figure out how to fix it.

A Love Story

Many years ago, I saw this gorgeous guy at our church picnic. He was playing volleyball while my girlfriend and I were sitting under a tree. I had a test the next day, so I was studying hard, or at least trying to. (I was a senior in high school) I don't know if I actually met this guy that day or if it was several weeks later, after my 18th birthday. My dad had taken me out for dinner and at the restaurant, they took a picture of me that my dad kept and carried around in his pocket so he could whip it out and brag about his daughter. Well, this young man happened to be attending/helping with some meetings that my parents were also involved with. My dad pulled out this photo and it caught the young man's eye, so the next week at church, he wished me a happy birthday. I didn't think much about it, but several weeks later he came up to me again to tell me he was leaving within a week or so to go to Guam for several months. You see, he was in the Air Force, and he was stationed less than 5 miles from where I lived, in fact, it might have been 3 miles from our house to the end of the runway. During church that morning, my brain started working on this idea. Approaching my dad was easy. "Hey dad, can we invite this guy over for lunch after church?" "Sure, he's a nice guy." So, I went up to the young man and asked him if he'd like to come over. He had to let his friend's know he wasn't staying for the potluck and he wouldn't need a ride home from them, and then we all piled in my dad's little car and headed for home. It was a wonderful afternoon of getting to know Robert. Because this was California in November, it was nice outside, so we took a walk with our dog to the park. During this afternoon visit, it came out that he would be gone for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I think it was the weekend before Veteran's Day, and he would be leaving right after Veteran's Day. So we put together an impromptu Thanksgiving Dinner and Christmas Day, to be done on Veteran's Day, after we went downtown Sacramento to see the Veteran's parade. It was a fun day!! Then he left.

"Hi, I'm at LAX, on a layover, I thought I'd call and say hi. We are stopping over very briefly in the middle of the night in Hawaii." A day or two later, I started getting letters. Beautifully written friendship letters. I wrote back and it started this wonderful, aching, long-distance relationship. On Christmas Eve there was a huge parcel on our doorstep. Addressed to ME, from HIM!! Inside was the most beautiful hanging shell plant-holders. If you think of the macrame hanging thingys, it's like that, but much more beautiful. I think we have 3-5 of them now, but no place to hang them.

When he returned in mid-January, we spent as much time together as possible. Weekends, evenings, whenever we could squeeze in the time. Then Valentine's weekend, we went to see my grandmother who was in the hospital at the time. Her birthday is February 14, so it was special to go see her. I did not see that at the time, I was bored!! I had friend's in the area, even an old boyfriend that I hadn't seen for a few years. BAD IDEA, I wanted to go out with my friends. I have no idea how I got home to Sacramento, it was a 3 hour drive, but my parents and Robert went home without me. It still hurts to this day to think of the hell I put him through. So, Valentine's Day is a non-day for us really. When I did get home the next day, it was tense. It was tense for the next 5 months as I partied with my friends and tried to finish up my senior year. Robert came to my graduation. There were other girls in my class that he was friend's with. But, when he came up to congratulate me, I melted and asked him to come over for our family and close friend's party that afternoon. He did, and we started over.

When he was done with his 4 year tour, I think it was another 7 months after this, he stayed in the area working for a while, then came home to Oregon to start at the community college in Roseburg where his mom and step-dad lived. We knew at that point we were going to get married. We just didn't know when. For 4 months one of us drove the 12 hour trip to see the other. I think I must have come up in October, he came down in November, I came up in December and spent Christmas with his family, and the car broke down, so his step-dad drove me to Redding and my dad came and picked me up. Then in January he came down to CA. We planned to spend Valentine's Day together in Oregon, but there was a snow storm coming over the mountain's and my dad would not drive me up. I fell apart. I called Robert on the phone and just balled my eyes out. How could this happen? So, you know what we planned? We planned a wedding. A "let's go to South Lake Tahoe and get married" kind of wedding. Who cares about anyone else. HA. Did it work? NOPE. I must have said something to someone, it came out and my grandma said, "no you aren't." I told them we were getting married in 3 weeks and that was that. Would you believe my mom put together a wedding for 350+ people on a very small budget, and we were married 3 weeks later? Yep!! I can only imagine the work that went into it. I really have no clue. I just remember all of my relatives there, even my other grandma who just happened to be in from Singapore (I think). So, we were married in our home church, on a Sunday morning at 11:00 am., had a fingerfoods lunch reception and by 4:00 were driving to Oregon so he could finish Winter Term at school. I am sure that many thought it wouldn't work out for us. I am sure they thought we married for "other" reasons. (See 7 months down the line) But we didn't, we (I) couldn't stand being away from him, still to this day, if either of us goes away for more than a day, it's really hard.

I don't know why I am smurking in this photo, maybe it's something Robert said to me, or his brother as best man was making a toast?

Yes there were hard times, not working when I should have, because I was pg. Going to school full-time for both of us, with a toddler. But we did it. We made it work. We had a great support system of friends and family. Yes it was hard, and there are days now that can still be a struggle. I think every couple has them, but marriage takes work, you can't take it for granted.

So here we are, 18 years later. Still in love. Happy Anniversary, honey.

Anniversary Contest

Editing for more information at the bottom.

I am a sockateer. What that means is, I go up to BMFA™ approximately every other month to help bundle, label, fill sheet protectors with patterns and generally have a great time with the shipping of the Rockin' Sock Club™. As part of this job, I have to be very careful what I say and when I say it away from the job. I can't let out the secrets. Because folks have been getting their packages, it's ok now. Another part of my job, is to attend Camp Cockamamie this year. I don't know exactly what I will be doing, but it should be a fun time!! However, I need to come up with a chicken name. Something catchy, something sassy maybe? I don't know, I'm having a hard time trying to come up with this chicken name. Here are the ones that are taken, Hen-Pecked, Hurricane and Etta, which is short for Henrietta.



These are the ones I have come up with so far, only by searching online for chicken names or famous chickens.

Miss Prissy from Foghorn Leghorn Looney Tunes™
Little Red (Hen)
Chicken of Bristol (Monty Python)
Babs or Ginger (Chicken Run)

So come up with some catchy chicken names and leave them in the comments section with a way to contact you. The prize is 2 of the older (original) skeins of STR in Rocky Horror. I think they feel like lightweight and they are 200 yds each. Rocky Horror makes great Halloween colors or great OSU Beaver colors. The other item is a Blue Boo. Sometimes mistakes happen in the dye process, this is one of them. I think the colors are really cool though. This is a worsted weight, 560 yds or 8 oz, and the colors are pink, light green, blue and yellow. Very pastel like. If these colors aren't to your liking, I do have some other of the sock yarn in the old colors of green and blue, but I didn't take pictures of them.

The contest is open until Tuesday, March 6, 6:00 pm. I am not sure how I will choose, but it will probably involve names in a felted bag. Hmm, can I turn this into a school lesson?

Oh, one more thing, if you are overseas or outside of the USA, please play along!!

Edited section:

This name is to be used by me as a "camp counselor" name. Like summer camp. And I think because of trademark issues I shouldn't use the name Rockin' Sock in it.

So So Crazy

This week went by so fast and it's now March. Time flies the older you get. Robert and I are celebrating our anniversary this weekend. It is actually on Monday, but since ds has a full day at the college, we decided the weekend would work better for sleepovers away from home. In about an hour we will take the kids to a friend's house. THANK YOU SUSAN!!


I have some pictures to share, first off, I participated in a sock bag swap over at the Townsend Knitalong group. This is what came in today's mail for me.

Sammie made the bag, felted it, then dyed it with koolaid. You can't see very well in my pictures, but the red gradually becomes lighter as it comes up to the top, with the top being a natural color. It is really cool!! The pattern is from the January Magknits, it is called Waders. It has a lace pattern in it and will look really cool in the purple and pink Hydreangea color that she sent me.

This little beanie is called Baashful!! The charms will be added to my collection for stitch markers. I seem to be collecting them left and right!! I love them though. Pretty things keep me happy.

The little gold bag on the left has flavored apple carmel tea. You can really smell the carmel flavor. It looks like black tea so I will save it a pick me up later this afternoon, after the kids are gone. :) Sammie, I love this package, thank you so much!!

Spoilers below for Rockin' Sock Club, so don't look if you are part of the club and still want to be surprised!!

Ok, moving on. This week, I spent two days at BMFA, even though I could have gone several more times, they needed the help. But, on Tuesday when I went up, there was a tad bit of snow/slush on the main highway maybe 3/4 of the way there. Then once I got off the highway and onto the next road, it became more snow. As I was ready to turn onto their road, there was a car sitting at the bottom of the road and they flashed their lights at me. I pulled over at the last minute and saw that one of the gals was backing down the road, she had gone off the road into the ditch. Fortunately my van did better at going up the hill. They had 3-4 inches of snow!! So, I couldn't go Wednesday, but called on Thursday morning, thinking I could do a half day because Kim really wanted me home. BMFA had a FOOT of snow. Well that was the deciding factor that I was not going. Then an hour or so later? I got a call and their power was out as well. They were without power ALL day long, though they did get everything packaged up. In my mail that day, my package of sock club goodness came.

The colorway is called Monsoon. It's not a color I would pick. Too much green and brown, but I also said that about the first color of last years and it was similiar, just a bit lighter, and I love it!! Kaci's pattern here is very unique, it can be worn inside out or right side in. And the sole has ribbing. Never seen that before, but I am going to try it even though I am concerned about my sensitive feet not liking it.

Contest will be posted later tonight!! Rox you are funny, thinking chickens!!

Gray, Blue and White

New Socks for Robert. He's gotten from me, 2 hats, and 1 other pair of socks that are more for fun, not really wearable. He was admiring some handknit socks last weekend when one of John's friends was over. So, here I am working on a pair for him now. It is an easy pattern. I think it is called Garter Rib. After the cuff it is a row of K2, P2, then a row of all knit. Very easy to remember. I am using Regia Silk for these, on size US 0 Addis. The color is Pewter, or 91. I am going to try to get them done by the 5th of March, for our anniversary, but I won't hold my breath either. Oh, I bought the yarn from Loopy Ewe. I ordered it on Sunday or Monday, I think and she had it here on Thursday!! I need another 1 1/2 inches then can start the heel.


Titania's Revenge by Cookie A. This was one of the Rockin' Sock Club socks from last year. The colorway is also called Titania. This is a cool pattern, but it is a 10 row repeat and takes a long time. I think I am partially through section 4, and need two more after that. On the foot part it switches to a cable pattern, so it is totally different than the leg.

Last weekend's sky.

This week is going to go by fast. I work two days at least. We have sock club shipments to do this week. 2000 members. Ugh!! We'll see what happens later in the week, I really need to do other things, but I know that these need to get out too. Then it's on to the weekend, again. It's anniversary weekend, so we are going to do an overnighter some place, maybe home. ;)

I am going to have a contest soon. Hmm, maybe an anniversary contest. More on that later this week. I promise!! Maybe throw some STR into the mix...............So, be thinking chickens this week.

Odds and Ends

I have so many things I want to share with you.......this is my 100th post. I have contemplated this post all week long. I don't have any good knitting to show you, nothing exciting has happened around here, well there has, and I will tell later in this post.

Warning: Lots of pictures.

Let's start with Tuesday. For a brief time, we had nice weather on Tuesday. Almost short sleeve weather. John came asking if anyone else was interested in having a garden this year. We didn't have one last year. Robert wasn't willing to turn it over if we weren't going to keep it up. That's what happened the year before. My allergies just go haywire if I am out there too much. So, several of us went out and started working on it. We haven't done anything since last Spring, so our yard has kind of gone to the birds, or the weeds in this case. We haven't even picked up the branches that were in the yard from the wind storms this winter. They aren't big ones, but they do make it a mess. Kim and I started on that while John pulled out some of the dead stuff from the main flower garden.

The after effects. It is a bit cleaner, and we will be able to see the flowers as they start to emerge. The Holly is growing bigger and has little tiny Holly plants growing under it. There was a tree this side of the Holly, but we had it taken out last summer.

Like these Oriental Poppies. Most of them are red and orange with one, maybe two pink ones. They literally take over the flower bed.

I can't remember what these are. Maybe the grape hyacinths, or there's another blue flower back here that goes nuts. It kind of looks like little bells. I probably have another picture of them somewhere. It's the second picture below. I took that last Spring, right about the time that I started this blog.

In the other flower bed, these are starting to sprout up. Grape Hyacinth,

Tulips, and

Daffodils. Our daffodils are always later than anyone elses.

This is our vegetable garden, or could be if we kept it up.

We did some clearing out of it, but by then we'd already spent almost two hours outside doing yard work. Surprisingly enough, I wasn't too sore afterward. Except the fingers where I got poked with sharp pieces of grass. So the next option is to pull out the grass, some of it is long and dead, or to just turn it under with the soil. I don't know what we'll do. The other stuff I need to find are the seeds, soil and pots of some kind so we can have some starts for some of the vegies my kids want. Hmm, I wrote them down somewhere and now I can't remember where I put it. I know there was lettuce, green onions, zucchini, cucumber, corn, potatoes, and I am sure there is more. Of course I need the tomatoes.

Less than an hour after we went inside, it started raining, and has been raining since.

Yesterday I worked my rear off at BMFA. Actually getting stuff ready to send to Stitches West. It's hard work bundling yarn. My arms were sore, I'm surprised they aren't today. Ok, several weeks ago, I mentioned something in passing that I was working on. Well, I am part of the admin team for this. I am so excited. I'm not doing the hard work but just keeping an eye on things, deleting comments if necessary and answering questions as I can. To top it off, I get to go on this trip in April as a "Sockateer" and I get to see the Yarn Harlot twice this year. She has her tour schedule up and will be in Portland in June!!

Today, I did this. I have never taken photos of myself. I thought it was funny and couldn't keep from laughing at myself. I took many pictures, most that didn't turn out. Finally, I closed my computer (the blue glare was on my glasses) and took off my glasses. I'm sitting in my favorite chair with all of my knitting junk around me.

Then I went and had this done.......

I feel light and airy and........younger. It's been a couple of years now since I've had it like this. It was time.

Hmm, I thought I had two Project Spectrum items, but I can only remember one. Unwittingly I read "Shades of Earl Grey (A Tea Shop Mystery)" by Laura Childs. I like this series. Each book is short and interesting, with tea shop recipes in the back.

I think that was all I had to say this week. I should be knitting, or planning our anniversary get-away, or even our Spring Break trip. I doubt I will get to any of those, well maybe the knitting. Have a good weekend.

Finished Items

Project Spectrum: My color is Gray, and a little bit of Blue.

This block is about 9 inches tall, it took one skein of Wool of the Andes to get there. I need another 3 inches, but blocking it won't pull it up that much. I will pull out to the sides though to make it 12 inches across. It is an easy 6 stitch cable, much like the hat below.



Here's John's finished hat. I took out one cable section. It could stand to be about 4-6 stitches bigger, but when he tried it on the other day, it seemed to fit just snuggly.

Tada!! We threw it in the washer last night for two heavy duty cycles. It came out perfect. I think the straps are a little long, but Kim says she's not done growing, so it will work for her.

With the MP3 player in it!!
Have a super busy weekend ahead of me!! Tonight Kim and I are going to a jewelry party for a friend. Mostly just to be present, but who knows, I might see something I like. Tomorrow morning, we have a 10:30 preview of "Bridge to Terabithia". Kim really wants to go to that, so the two of us will. I really hope we get in though. The tickets say that they purposefully over book these events, and you may not get in. Then we will stop for lunch somewhere and go to Mabel's Cafe for a small knit-together. I set up and sent out invitations to several groups, so I am hoping we won't be the only ones there. Sunday, I have a class on flower-arranging and need to get the other child to a birthday party. Fortunately Monday is an easy day, with one Drs. appointment in the afternoon. I really need to clean house today and I keep putting it off. If I could at least get the vacuuming done, it would help.

Signs of Spring

My gray yarn came on Saturday!! I can start my afghan as soon as I finish two little projects.


The first project is this little bag. Kim has been wanting a felted carrying bag for her CD/MP3 player. I did this on Saturday, there are two little button holes on the ends where we will thread through straps, which happens to be the purple below this picture. I am still working on it. We want the strap to be approximately 48 inches once it is felted, so I am making it about 1/3 longer.

The second project is resizing John's cable hat from Christmas. It was a tad too big and it was letting cold air in under it. I am to the decreases. Both of these projects could be done in an evening.









Signs of Spring at my house., regardless of what the hedgehogs said on Friday. I went out to get the mail yesterday and noticed the crocus are blooming. Usually we see them coming up, then just barely starting to bloom. It usually takes a week or so once we first notice them. This year it happened all at once.

The roses are starting to sprout before we have even trimmed them down. Supposedly we are not to trim them until President's weekend, but I am considering trimming them down this weekend.
And this guy, we saw in our backyard this afternoon. All of a sudden John said, hey, there's a woodpecker on our maple tree. So, I grabbed the camera in hopes he wouldn't leave before I was able to get a picture. He climbed all the way up into to y of the tree, then around to the other side.

February!!

A new month, a new beginning, right? Phil did not see his shadow, however, the hedgehogs here in Oregon did!! AND hedgehogs were the original animals used centuries ago in Europe when this superstition came about.

I missed the first day of February and Project Spectrum, but I have a really good excuse, I just can't tell you. I can tell you I was working at BMFA, and it has to do with the 2007 sock club, but not for the actual shipment. In a few weeks I'll be able to tell you more about it. I am thrilled to say the least!! Getting paid to......, okay enough. I've got some pictures to share and a little more information on my biopsy. I guess I can start with that and get it out of the way.

Yesterday the nurse called and said the final report said the same thing as the preliminary report. So today I needed to call them and follow up with what we are going to do about this lump. I figured we had a couple of options, do another biopsy to take the whole thing out, like aspiration; or we could leave it there and it would 1)show up on future mammograms and freak us all out again, 2)show up on future mammograms, but we know it's there and just watch that it doesn't get bigger, or 3)take it out and not have to worry about it at all. So, the 4th option that we are going to do at this point, come back in 6 months for another ultrasound to make sure it isn't growing or doing anything strange. I told them that if my doctor wanted to have a consultation with Robert and myself we were fine with that and could come in anytime. But nope, it looks like I have 6 months then a recheck. I think I'm ok with that, though I don't know now. A friend I talked to tonight told me that I could call and talk to the Dr. and ask my questions, then I realized that I also have the option to email him. It's on all of his business cards and I've actually done it before. So, now it's in the back of my mind to do this and I am trying to process the questions that I want to have answered. Robert also said I could call the nurse at the radiologist office and ask her.

Ok, I finished my socks last night, tried to take a picture and they turned out YUCKY, so I waited until today, so I would have the natural light from out south-facing sunroom. I have the buttons and you can see them on one of the socks, but I have had a time sewing them on, I don't like it and will be fiddling with them to get it right. They are the Rock and Weave pattern from BMFA Rockin' Sock Club 2006, in the colorway Fairgrounds. (Hey, does anyone know how to do the TM for a trademark sign) I know that the term Rockin'.......is trademarked. So is there a little keystroke that makes it?



Kim's violet opened it's third bloom, it is so pretty now. It opened sooner than I thought it would, about mid week, but I didn't take a picture until today.



Hmm, what else. I don't have my yarn yet for my grey project, though I do need to re-do John's cable hat. It really was too big, even though he said it wasn't. He wasn't warm enough in it, so I took out one of the cable repeats in the hopes that it won't be too small and it will keep his head warm.

I finished my quilt blocks for the Quilt Block Swap and sent them out yesterday. I won't post pictures of them until I know Jenny received them so I don't spoil the surprise. I did have a break through though on the swap. Now, why I didn't think about this before, I don't know. In fact, Robert thought of it for me as I was struggling Monday afternoon/evening to come up with a pattern to use for the swap. I do this every month. I get the name of my swappee and their colors/themes. Then I think about it for at least half the month, what do I want to do? I agonize over it, then as the last week approaches I plunge in and get it done. It's hard on me!! I have tried to make every single block different than the last block. I can't do that anymore. I don't know enough or have enough experience to keep going at that rate. So, my blocks will be the same ones each month, with different colors, or whatever theme they have going. I also decide to email Kristin a while back, we have an ongoing conversation. She is a young 20-something, finishing up college in IL. She was homeschooled!! I am swapping months with her, because, even though she started this swap, she hasn't been able to do a single month yet, due to an odd number of participants. So, I told her she should take the month of February and I will take a break, I need it anyways. I am also going to help her out with moderating the group as I can.
Project Spectrum: I was over at the Flickr site for it where Lolly and others have posted questions. I saw the one about the read-along. That would be kind of cool. They were posting some of their suggestions of books. I have one of the books for this month. Blue Latitudes, it is about Captain Cook's exploration of the South Pacific, I think. It was given to us as a gift several years ago and non of us have read it. Then I also picked up The Red Tent at the library this week. I am thinking I should save that for the red month.

I also saw on another blog that someone has presented the idea of a Harry Potter read-along for the 6 weeks before HP7 is released. Right, like I can read one of those in a week? Sure, if that's all I am doing, instead of knitting, or computering. But, I had considered listening to the audio versions while I am knitting, and starting on them now. That way I can actually get through them.