2012 - Week One - Let's Do This2012 - Week One - Let's Do This I'm starting off 2012 with a positive surge of energy and eagerness because I know this is going to be a great year!  This year, although I don't set new year's goals or resolutions, I am looking forward...

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Week Fifty - GiftsWeek Fifty - Gifts This week's post is all about gifts.  First I'll start with the gift of an amazing husband who cares for me way more than I could ever deserve.  This past week, my laptop that I use for doing my job...

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Week Fourty Nine - Lessons LearnedWeek Fourty Nine - Lessons Learned One of the things I have learned about blogging over the past years, is that the very thing that you most want to write about generally keeps you from writing. That thing is called life. When I get busy,...

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Week Thirty - Rabbits Reborn and Sharing the Game of SoccerWeek Thirty - Rabbits Reborn and Sharing the Game of... This week has been a long one.  Scott has been in Africa all week and does not get back until Wednesday.  Although I have missed him greatly, I have been able to accomplish much with the quiet house...

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Week Twenty Nine - Missions and MittensWeek Twenty Nine - Missions and Mittens Scott left for Uganda yesterday on his first mission trip, ever.  He will be gone for 10 days and is part of an all male (testosterone rich) group of coaches and active guys.  He was excited, nervous,...

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Week Eighteen – It is May, Do You Know What That Means?

Category : Journal, Travel

It means that it is time to prepare and go to the annual National Polka Festival, of course.  This year I decided not to make new costumes.  I will be doing that next year, hopefully for the whole family.

This year I decided to spruce up and adjust some of the current costume components.  Starting with my red skirt that I made for the festival two years ago.  This skirt had four huge bias panels in it and was ridiculously heavy to wear.  After about 2 hours work, one of the panels is now removed and it is much lighter.  When I made it I was unsure if there would be enough “swing” and so I put in the four panels.  After wearing it at the 2009 festival, I realized that three would have still provided plenty of swing without weighing me down quite as much as I moved.  So, the adjustment has been made.  I’ll be adding a little bling here and there to the red and the purple costumes, ironing, and fluffing, etc.  Then we pack them up and head out for the Memorial Day Weekend festivities in Ennis, TX.  If you actually read this blog and are anywhere in the area (and are not a stalker) come to the festival and see if you can find us.  Sort of a modern day “where’s Waldo”…

 

Quote of the week: “This is Serious!!” Harrison Ford, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

Week Seventeen – Picking Up The Pieces

Category : Fiber Arts, Journal

This week was a devastating one for the state of Alabama and the southern United States in general.  Currently, the death toll is at 248 in Alabama and 345 across the south, with hundreds still missing from the viscous tornadoes that ripped across the south on Wednesday.  Tuscaloosa, AL seemed to be hit the hardest.  Scott ventured up to Dadeville, AL with some people from our church to assist in the relief effort on Saturday.  There is so much devastation everywhere that it is difficult to do anything, because anything you do to help just seems so small in comparison to the overwhelming power of the storm’s wrath and the aftermath.  To see some wonderful photos that Scott was able to capture on Saturday, please see this post.

In crafting news, Sock Madness 5 is officially over for me.  I made it to round 4 and the pattern for that round is one I just couldn’t bring myself to spend the time and energy on.  It was a lovely sock, but the pattern contained too many “omissions” for my taste.  So, I moved on and finished one of the Spider Socks this week.  It was not a hard pattern, but a challenging one.  In contrast to the SM5 pattern for round 4, the Spider Sock pattern is very well written.  I am going to knit a few mindless things before picking up the second sock.  Here are the unglamorous photos:

That is about all for this week.  Happy Knitting Everyone!

Quote of the Week:

“I bought a cheap watch from a crazy man
Floating down canal
It doesn’t use numbers or moving hands
It always just says now
Now you may be thinking that I was had
But this watch is never wrong
And If I have trouble the warranty said
Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On”

Jimmy Buffett, Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On

Week Fourteen – It’s All Good

Category : Fiber Arts, Health, Journal

Ever have one of those days when everything went right and it made you a little afraid to step out in the street for fear of being hit by a truck?  Well, the last half of week 14 of 2011 was like that for us.  Let’s see if I can break it down.

We received the liver biopsy pathology results from the doctor on Tuesday, April 5th.  There is no cancer.  From here on out I will have to have periodic MRIs to monitor the disease, but that is the best news we could have hoped for.

Next, we finally received the paperwork on our sponsored child in Uganda.  Her name is Joanita and she is 8 years old.  We are so happy to finally know that she is the one we are helping to clothe and educate.  Now we are able to begin corresponding with her and we are hoping that Scott will be able to meet her in October when he goes to Buloba.  The organization we are working with for this sponsorship is African Renewal Ministries (ARM).  If you are so inclined, have a look at what you can do with $35 per month.

Also in the mail on the same day was my diploma from Liberty University.  It was a long two+ year endeavor, but I am glad I did it.  I now have a Master of Arts in Religion (MAR) to add to my list of completed objectives.

On Thursday, Sock Madness Round 3 began with the release of the pattern at 7 pm.  So the rest of my week was spent furiously knitting whenever I was sitting still. I stayed up until 1 AM last night to finish the pair.  My hands are killing me and, so, I will be laying off the knitting at least for a couple of days.

Finally, while knitting on the socks and talking on iChat with my son and his family, my son let it slip that he will be coming to visit us in June.  We were expecting to visit with our daughter-in-law and grandson on that trip, as our son was not planning on coming.  Their family is going to Disney and he was trying to avoid that adventure.  We are thrilled to pieces that he will now be joining them.

So, there you have it.  An overall GREAT week.

Quote of the Week: “Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.” Dr Seuss

Week Eleven – The Madness of March // Flat Stanley’s Visit

Category : Fiber Arts, Journal

This week was filled with learning all the new ways to use the iPad 2, renewing my use of some older networking tools, cooking pastries and candy, showing Flat Stanley around town, and getting psyched up about the start of the actual Sock Madness 5 competition.

The iPad 2 is SO much more useful to me than the generation one was. With the camera feature, I am able to journal everyday about anything and everything, then include photos with my entries in the journal. The video feature is amazing, and the ability to use Facetime is super fantastic. I can pretty much do anything computer related on this device I can think of, except text messaging and phone calling, which are actually cellular activities anyway.   If I could do those two things on my iPad 2, I would totally ditch my phone!

This week was slow at work (everyone is on Spring Break), so I was able to attempt the Facebook thing again. It is a little more understandable, but still confusing. I think the problem I have is that I am not “friends” with a lot of the people on there. I have no desire to connect with blasts from the past, or keep up with people who cross my path from time to time. Getting past the “friend” label and what it means to me compared to what it means on Facebook is probably my biggest hangup about using it. But, in an effort to keep up with my son and his family, I am giving it a go.

Our grandson. William, sent his friend Flat Stanley to us for an adventure. Scott and I took him into town for the tour of the Auburn sites and then he took a ride on the John Deere back at the farm.

The kitchen adventure began this week with the creation of St. Patrick’s Day candies for the people Scott works with at the church. I used some new candy molds I bought recently with green, yellow, and chocolate melting wafers for the candy. This is the easiest candy to make, takes the least amount of time, and produces an impressive result because of the candy molds. The tall ones in the box have pretzels as their “lollipop” sticks and the round ones are chocolate covered mint flavored Oreos.

The cooking continued with the frying of rosettes, something that I have always wanted to do, but just never made time for. I grew up eating these light, airy pastries and have had a rosette iron in the drawer for years. I just never made them before.

The third “candy” item I made this week was chocolate caramels. These are so delicious, but I think I could have let them boil a tiny bit longer, as they are softer than I would have liked. Oh well, this is why I am making these things in the first place, practice.

Finally, March Madness started this week and it has been fantastic! So many close games and with the job I now have I am able to watch all the games! Not only can I watch them from my television, but I can also catch every game on my iPad 2.  Yes, I am a geek.   Friday I went with Scott to Best Buy and while we were walking around the store, I fired up my MiFi and the iPad 2, and watched the live feed of the game on NCAA.com.  Oh yes, I did!   It was really funny.

Back at home, while waiting for Sock Madness 5 to start, I started on a surprise gift for the new baby.

The official name of the team that I was placed on for Sock Madness is “Sock Madness and the Sock of Secrets.” It is a take on Harry Potter, of course, and I like it so much better than the other three team names. Now, the ultimate madness is that I am just waiting (and constantly checking my email) for the round 2 pattern to be released! AAAAHHHH….

Week Ten – The Unexpected

Category : Fiber Arts, Journal

This week was filled with events that were quite unexpected, here at home and around the world. An earthquake of magnitude 8.9 struck Japan on Friday followed by a Tsunami of unimaginable proportions. The devastation is just horrible. Our hearts go out to those who experienced this tragedy which was quite unexpected. Donate

Closer to home and on a much brighter note, Scott and I both sold our iPads (generation one) on Thursday and then we stood (well, that is me sitting) in line for two hours with a friend on Friday to become two of the first wave of iPad 2 owners in Auburn. It was certainly nothing I had planned on doing and not something I would make a habit of, but it was fun, nonetheless, making new friends in line and chatting with others we already knew.

The only Best Buy in town was shipped 15 units and Scott and I were #4 and #5 in line. How do I like the new one? LOVE IT! It is faster and the transfer of my apps and all my “data” was practically seamless. Awesome job Apple! The only thing I would like to have now is a cover that I like. The new magnetic flap things from Apple just didn’t do it for me and so I went with the complete leather cover from Griffin. I like it well enough, but I think I am going to try my hand at making my own by taking a pattern off of this one. Stay tuned for the progress on that project.

Here is the awesome knit row counter I use on my iPad (and my new iPad).  The counter keeps track of rows, repeats, overall count, etc. and even has alert sounds for key points in the count. It keeps track of multiple projects and has an awesome, great big, green click button. Cool huh?

Speaking of projects, I am so psyched about finishing my Sock Madness, Round One Socks!!


Total number of hours spent knitting this pair will be 27. I can’t believe that I can knit a whole pair of socks in that amount of time. I guess it helps if you take your knitting with you, like I did, to Best Buy. :-)

The last unexpected thing that hit us this week was that the liver specialist in Birmingham wants to do a biopsy on the one spot that they can’t seem to give me an all clear on.  The MRI results finally came back and they could not give me an all clear on that one spot.  So, I go for a needle biopsy in the next couple of weeks and then we should know for sure.  If it is cancer, the doctor said we talk about transplant sooner than later.  If it is not, liver transplant is still on the horizon, but hopefully the very far distant one.  Either way, transplant seems like the “cure” for it all.  So, I am not really sure what difference it makes when…

Quote of the week: “Did you see the size of that document? It’s like the Declaration of Independence, who’s gonna read that?” Jerry Seinfeld (Season 3, Episode 11)