Love it!

What do you think about it? I love it, the colors all blended perfectly. This is actually 2 columns wider than the pattern called for. It still needs to be blocked again, but before I do that, I think I'm going to knit 6 more squares. My original plan had been to knit 63 squares all along and make it a 56"x63", but I wanted to start another project so I decided 56" x 49" was fine. Because I couldn't block all of my squares to 7 1/2" it's not exactly the measurements it should have been. I've got so much sock yarn left over, it shouldn't be that big of a pain to knit up 6 more squares. I've already got 1 extra.

So I've decided I'm going to enter this in the Rogers County Fair. I just need to figure out who to talk to and how to get it entered.

Nothing left but the sewin'

This is a picture of the 1st half of the square that have been blocked. Look closely, do you see your donated yarn in one of those squares? I wish I knew how to make the names appear when you hover your mouse over a square. Not that I can remember exactly which person gave me which yarn, but I do remember some of them, like the dark turquoise, 3rd row from the bottom, 4th from the left came from a great competitor in the Amazing Race...Kara, or better known as Knit4ever. The bright orange with the reddish stripes on the 3rd row from the bottom. That is a joined effort. The golden orange came from Zoe, aka Tekgirl and the red stripped came from Michelle, aka Vaguegirl. See the one pink square, 2nd row from the top all the way to the right. That yarn came from Kimber, aka KnitKimberKnit. The picture makes them kind of hard to see, but I'm going to have to tag them somehow. Here's another picture of some that are still on my blocking board. See the light blue square at the top of the picture in the 3rd column? That came from my good friend in the Traveling Scarves Groups, Nancy aka MsPalmTree. She also sent the yarn for the turquoise square in the next row 2nd column. 3rd row down last column, the turquoise square with a hint of greenish yellow in the corner also came from KnitKimberKnit. In the 4th row down the 1st column, the varigated green square came from Jody26, and the denim colored stripes, came from Tekgirl. The pink in the 1st column at the bottom of the picture came from Vaguegirl.

I need to take some more pictures, I've got some other squares, I mean donors that I need to acknowledge. I'm planning on spending the weekend sewing this baby together.

Thank you all so much for your donations, and I'd like to pay it forward. If anyone wants to make the barn raising quilt, I've got lots of scraps that I can send out into the world.

Barn Raising Quilt

I don't have any pictures yet, but all the squares are knit and half have been blocked. I'm very excited to get this blanket finished.

This is a picture of the newest project on my needles... The Susie Hoodie. I'm making it with knit picks "Wool of the Andes" in cranberry color. I've completed about 20 rows, the celtic cable took a few rows to wrap my brain around, but now I'm catching on and it's moving along great. This will be the perfect sweater hoodie for this winter. I'll continue to post updates as I progress.

I should have completed pictures of the BRQ by the end of the weekend.

It's cool to be cool

I don't know if I mentioned in my last post that our AC/Heat unit was on the fritz. It is a Geo Thermal unit, the kind that has wells buried in the back yard with antifreeze and it keeps the water circulating through it at a constant 70°. This keeps the electric bill down and helps with the hot water costs. Anyways, the guy came out on Friday, May 29th to do whatever he could to make it run. After about 3 hours, he told me he could fix this and that and it would cost approximately $3,500 and maybe last a few more years. The unit was put in the 39th week of 1985. So it's old. Or, I could spend $7,600 and get a brand new unit that will last 25 to 40 years. I told him to order the new unit.

It was a hot, muggy week and a half, but on Tuesday, June 8th, two guys showed up at the house at 8am. They worked on it until 7pm, but it's done. They did have to make a couple of adjustments. The old unit had an air return in the ceiling of our hallway with the thermostate in the hall also. This unit being brand new stainless steel (did I say, it's really pretty) has a return on the side instead of the back so they had to cut a 24"x24" hole in my dining room wall and that's where the return and thermostate are located now. I was hoping that the hole could be cut closer to the floor, but nope. It's pretty much right in the middle of the wall, which really sucks. I asked them if there was anything else they could do and they mubbled off a few things that didn't really make any sense to me. Oh, I was at work during the installation, so the mubbling took place on the phone. And they didn't tell me the hole would be 24"x24". I thought it was going to be like 9"x9" (like an air vent). It's probably alot more noticable since my walls in the kitchen and dining area are a tuscan terra cotta reddish color. I wonder if I could paint the grate?

By the time they were finished it was 91° in the house. It took several hours to get it to a comfortable 75° and it was so nice to be able to sleep without sweating.

Let's see, my son moved out into his own apartment. That left a vacant bedroom and I had some big ideas of turning it into my knitting room. I wanted cubbie shelves on one wall and I was going to have all of my yarn sorted and displayed beautifully. I wanted to put a big chair in there and a tv so I could sit back and knit. Also, I wanted to move my desk and computer into that room. My big ideas quickly dwindled when Chelsea said, so is that going to be Hayden's new room......If you've been reading my blog for very long, you might remember that a few years ago when Chelsea was pregnant. I remodeled my house for the new baby. I turned the formal living and dining room into a mini suite. Chelsea and Brennan's room was the living area and Hayden was in the dining room side. I thought about putting a wall between the rooms, but ended up running out of time and money. They have a king size quilt hanging as a room divider. So back to my original story. Chelsea wanted to know if Hayden could move into the other room. Of course I wouldn't deny my sweet boy anything and off I went to purchase new paint, curtains, a book shelf, etc. We got everything painted and set up and last night was his first night in his new room. I was a little worried that I would be up all night. But he didn't wake me up at all. I never heard him even once.

So, I think my next plan is to go ahead and put up the wall between Chelsea/Brennan's room and Hayden's old room. I'll turn his old room into my new yarn room/office.

WOW - how time flies!

It seems like yesterday that I was typing about all the rain we've been getting. It's still raining occasionally, but but we don't need to call Noah to get the big boat out yet.

It's hard to believe that May flew by in the blink of an eye. So let's see, what's been going on this month?

The full moon run came and went. Yes, I had big plans and a goal to be able to run in the Tulsa Full Moon run this year. It didn't happen, my couch to 5k fell apart in March when I busted a rib on the baby bed. There's always next year!

Mother's Day was on the 10th, I won a Mother's Day basket from 94.1 FM, it contained a pair of Michael Kors sunglasses, a braclet, necklace, and a t-shirt. The kids cleaned the house and bought dinner.

Mom and Dad drove in from Colorado and arrived on Friday the 15th. We had a good week together, I took Hayden over to my sister's house just about everyday that Mom and Dad were here. He is still a little skiddish of everyone, but he's getting better around people he doesn't see alot. Except for Gramps, (that's my dad) I think Hayden is afraid of old men.

Yesterday was Memorial Day, didn't have a big weekend. The most excitement around our house was the air conditioner going on the fritz and the toilet backing up. To save a little money during this low economic period, we decided to do our own maintenance work. Starting with the AC, David tried to fix it, but he thinks it's a valve and he decided it was more than he wanted to try and tackle. So the AC guy is coming tomorrow morning. Then we moved on to the plumbing problem. Since all the rain we've had, our septic tank hasn't been very happy. If we flush a toilet or drain the tub, something in another room gurgles. Someone was in the shower on Sunday night and my bathroon toilet and the shower started backing up. The toilet was so close to spilling over on the floor it was scary. Monday morning, David and I decided that watching the plumber once or twice was enough experience to handle the problem ourselves. So, with our gloves and shovel, we started digging down to the septic tanks lid. Did you know, that snakes are underground? I was shocked when he dug up a baby snake. I couldn't tell if it was a baby cotton mouth or just a black snake. Do baby snakes that are poisonous have the triangle shaped head yet? Oh well, back to my plumbing story...by this time, the shovel has snapped in half and he's trying to just dig with the spade, but finally gets down to the concrete lid. Armed with the snake catcher, a big stick, two rubber gloves and 1/2 of a shovel, he pries off the lid to the septic tank.

OMG....is all I can say!

The snake catcher came in very handy with it's gripping mechanism. Apparently, Hayden has figured out that the toilet is a great place to drop things and watch them disappear. We found Hayden's baby comb. You know the cute little blue comb and brush set that you get at your baby shower? Yeah! That's it and then an entire roll of toilet paper was pulled out of the pipe. It looked like someone might have flushed a sock and some sheet rock. Yes, I said sheet rock! After a few flushes of the toilets, we made sure it was all running smoothly again before putting the lid back in it's place. Then we decided to just bury all our findings...It's now our time capsule. I'm sure we will be digging that hole up again in the next couple of years.

So that was my exciting weekend. Came back to work today, Mom and Dad left to go back to Colorado, Chelsea has been calling me all afternoon to talk about changing her major and it's now 4pm and I'm ready to go home and relax.

More rain in the forecast!

This has been one wet weekend. Friday, my town flooded, but not as bad as one of the neighboring towns. There was a drowning. A woman tried to drive through the water even though the road closed signs were up. It's very sad. As I drove home on Friday after work, I wondered what I would find as I got closer to home. The local dairy that I drive past was flooded, I don't mean a little water, I mean a freakin lake. You could just barely see the tip top of the hay barn sticking out of the water. Luckily, my road had cleared and I was able to get to the house, but the neighbors chain link fence showed the yuck and muck caught in the chain link and the water was either to the top or over the top of their fence. There is a pond in my backyard, thank goodness the house is higher than the pond, but I'm glad it was there because it took all the run off from the neighbors house.

They say we will have more rain over the next few days. I don't know if my septic tank can take anymore rain. Right now when you flush the toilet or drain the bathtub, the other toilet gurgles. Last night one of my son's friends used my bathroom at the same time my daughter was draining the tub. Bad combination, the toilet overflowed. But the worst part of this is that she didn't tell me the toilet was overflowing and just walked outside with the rest of the kids. So needless to say when I went into the bathroom about 5 minutes later, the floor was sopping wet. I could understand if she were a 12 or 13 year old, but she's like 23 years old. She just walked out and said "Thank you" and left. I don't know why she would say, "hey your toilet is messed up." At least I would have caught the mess sooner.

I didn't work on my BRQ squares at all this weekend. I was bombarded with TSG scarves. I received one from Group 39. I am the last stop for this scarf and it will be heading back to the original owner tomorrow. I meant to bring it with me today and get it in the mail and totally spazed this morning and forgot everything. I also got a scarf from Group 52, I think these are my favorite scarves. We are doing this group lengthwise, so we are each knitting on circular needles about 300-400 stitches per row. They are turning out really pretty. I then received a scarf from our Red Scarf Project. This is the charity for kids who have aged out of foster care. At valentines day the OFA puts together gift bags and gives each kid a red scarf. Last year we did this and each person sent the red yarn with the scarf and each knitter did a different pattern. This year, we are adding our own shades of red. They are turning out really pretty too. Then finally, I received my latest project the Friendship Chain Project. One of my buddies from TSG has started this group. It is her plan to make the longest continuing chain for the prevention of suicide. I was lucky enough to get to start the chain, so I'll be sending my link off to the next person so she can add her link to mine. Now that I have all my special little projects finished and ready to go to the post office, I can focus on the BRQ again. My goal is to be completely finished by the end of June. Let's see if I can do it!

Spring Showers

Spring showers around NE Oklahoma really means torrential rain storms. It has been raining so hard this morning that I could hardly hear the phone ringing. The ceiling in the back office is leaking, I just hope the ceiling tiles don't fall and cause a huge mess. I've called the landlord, but who knows if he'll call me back. It's supposed to rain for four days. I wish you could hear what I'm hearing. Rita (my co-worker) called and she's stil trying to get to work, she said that hwy 69 is like a river, the water is up to the doors of her jeep right now. She just made it to work and her husband called and said they've shut down hwy 69 and that the traffic is backed up 8 miles and that people are getting their boats out to get back and forth.

Now lets talk about work...things have been looking better this week. We actually had some jobs to fill. We were able to actually place 14 people in full time jobs. That will definitely help our numbers. And, it looks like we are going to need another 20 people to start on Monday! YEAH!!!

Has anyone read the book The Shack? My sister bought it for me last summer and told me I had to read it, I told her not to buy a new book, I'd just borrow hers. She told me she didn't want to give up her copy because she's going to highlight in it and read it again. I started it, maybe read about 10 pages (actually, I don't think I made it past the Forward section) and put it in a drawer and really just forgot about it. A few days ago, my friends Sabina said, "I'm reading the best book, my sister, Pam bought a copy for me, Jackie and Monica because she didn't want to give her copy up because she's highlighting in it and wants to read it again." I said, " is it The Shack?" and she said, "OMG, how did you know?" Anyways, I found it in my drawer and decided to try and read it again. I'm about 1/2 way finished and it really is a good book. It makes you think about yourself, God and the relationship that you have with God or lack thereof. It's not a shove it down your throat book about Christianity or religion. It's just a good book. If you haven't read it, it's definitely worth the $10.00 to get a copy for yourself. I'd loan you mine, but I'm probably going to highlight in it and read it again. LOL

Now on to the really important stuff...my barn raising quilt. I've just finished square #47, only 16 more squares to go. I'm making it almost 50% bigger than the pattern calls for. I wanted it to be long enough to really be able to cover up with and not have your toes sticking out from the bottom. Rita (yeah, my co-worker and Thursday night knitting partner) has finished her 6th square and excited to get more finished.

After I get the BRQ finished I'm going to try and find a pattern for a light weight sweater, maybe with a lace pattern. Just something that I can put on in the office when the AC is turned down to 60° and I'm freezing to death.

Okay, gotta get busy and find those 20 people to start work on Monday.

Sunday Squares

I hope everyone had a happy Easter day. We got up and watched Hayden open his Easter basket. He actually had more fun throwing the grass around than anything else. But he was introduced to Hershey's Kisses which he calls cacalot (chocolate). He ate a half of a kiss and then another and we put the rest of the bag up for later. I bought him a cute little blue monkey that was wearing rabbit ears, and some Easter stickers. He loves stickers now, he likes to stick them on everything and can play for an hour or longer with 1 sticker, he calls them ditters. I forgot to get the peeps, but it's probably better, he doesn't need all that sugar.

The kids went to Brennan's grandpa's house in Jennings for the afternoon. It rained most of the morning and into the afternoon.

I started to make a ham and all the fixin's for an Easter dinner, but since it was just me, David and Davy I decided we really didn't need all that food. So instead I made chicken breast with rice and then some brocolli and cauliflower on the side. I really didn't have a recipe, but it was pretty darn tasty. I put some rice in the bottom of a casserole dish, covered it with cream of mushroom soup, place the cut up chicken breast on top, poured some chicken broth over the whole thing and then dobbed some green chilis over the top of the chicken. Added some poultry seasoning, and pepper and baked it covered for 1 1/2 hours at 300°.

After we ate, I started working on my squares again for my barn raising quilt. I finished #35 last night. I wish I had kept better track of the square that came from yarn donated by my Ravelry friends. I'll have to go through them and see if I can remember which square came from what yarn. But I was smart enough to start keeping track with the ones I just finished. This is the square that came from the beautiful Koigu yarn that Mspalmtree (Nancy) sent to me.

Isn't it pretty? I love the colors and it is going to blend so well with the squares I've already worked up. This was also the first time I'd knitted with Koigu. It's quickly become one of my favorites to work with. She also sent me another skein that I'm going to start of very soon.

I've got another picture of a square that was from donated yarn. Well actually this yarn was won in a bet. I'm involved with the Ravelry pool (The Amazing Race). It's a pool where each person who signs up is assigned one of the teams racing on the show. The object of the game is to be assigned to the team who wins the race. All the other members of the group will then send the winner a prize valued between $15 and $20. It's a lot of fun. So I was assigned the cheerleaders, Cara and Jaime. One of my buddies Knit4ever (Kara) was assigned the blond flight attendants or STEWS for short. We had a little side bet going that the first team out between the two of us would send the other an extra gift. My cheerleaders outlasted the Stews and this is the yarn that Kara sent to me. It's Panda Wool, another that I've never used before. It's so soft, I'd like a sweater out of it. But I don't think I could ever
afford to buy that much of it to actually make myself a sweater, I'll have to stick with socks.

I had also gotten some sock blanks and started dying them. I've got pictures of the blanks on my stash page in Ravelry. But I decided it would be a while before I got around to actually making myself socks and really wanted to use some of the yarn for BRQ squares. I seperated the 2 strands and wound them up. I used the "Northern Lights" for this square and I think it's one of my favorites in the whole bunch. The funny thing is that this dye job was a total mistake and a flop, but the finished square is gorgeous. I'm going to have to block some of these pretty soon and start trying to figure out the best color scheme and sew them together in strips.

I hope everyone has a really good week and I'll try and post again really soon!

Teresa

Medication and Insurance Companies

Okay, I just posted a nice fun post, but now I'm irritated. As you all know, my daughter got married a couple of weeks ago and you also know that she has been diagnosed with a seizure disorder (epilepsy, is what they are calling it but they don't really know). Anyways, when she was on my insurance her medication was a $50 co-pay. On her husbands insurance, they are telling her it's going to be $86.44. When she told me that it made no sense at all because, I had contacted the pharmacy before she got married to find out the cost of the medicine without insurance and was told $150 something dollars. Her new insurance card states that prescriptions are as follows: Tier 1 - $10, Tier 2 - $20, Tier 3 - $30, all other 20% copay. Okay $86.44 is more than 1/2 the cash price. So I called the pharmacy, I know, she's married now and an adult with a child of her own, but I'm still her momma. Anyways, I called the pharmacy and they are now telling me the cash price is $331.72 for a 1 month prescription. What the hell happened in the last 3 weeks???? Okay, so if her medicine is that much and she has to pay 20% that's only $66.34, where is the other $20.10 coming from. The pharmacist technician, Mandi, told me that I would have to contact the insurance company because everything is done online and that was the price she was given. Chelsea called the insurance company and found out that her medication is actually a Tier 3 drug and should be a $30 co-pay. Wait, Chelsea just called me back and was told that because she has to take 100mg per day and the pills are 25mg each it is basically a double prescription each month and the price will be $86.44. I don't understand that at all, if it's a Tier 3 and should be a $30 co-pay, even doubled would only be $60. What a rip off.

Now my question, what if she didn't have insurance? How in the world is someone supposed to live with a siezure disorder and carry on a 1/2 way normal life if they can't afford $331.72 a month for medication. I guarantee you that the insurance company isn't paying near that for the prescription. They are probably only paying 1/4 if that. It's so sad, but shouldn't it be the other way around. I know Wal-Mart has the new $4 prescriptions, unfortunatly her medication isn't on that list.

Okay, my rant is over.

Did you get fooled?

I went all day long yesterday and nobody tried to get a joke on me until I had already left work. I stopped at the tag office to pick up the car tag and left my phone in the car. I came back out about 30 minutes later and had 5 missed calls. Just seeing that the calls were all from Chelsea and David made me panic just a little bit and when I noticed that they were all within minutes of each other I really started getting nervous. My mind started spinning out of control and all I could think was something has happened to the baby.

I immediately called David and he asked if I'd talked to Chelsea. I told him not yet and asked what the heck is going on. He said, "You know the wooden spoon that 'little dude' (Hayden) likes to carry around?" and I said "Yes". He said, "Well it's found a new home." I was confused and asked him what he was talking about. He replied with "Well let me just say, I can't move the big screen TV by myself." I gasped and said, "Is he okay?" "Yes, he cried, and it scared him when it popped and sparked, but we got him calmed down." All I could picture was him sticking the wooden spoon through the screen and hurting himself. It's not a glass screen, but I thought maybe he could have been shocked. David told me that the screen was ruined and the spoon had fallen inside and messed something up and the TV was dead. I guess once I realized that the baby wasn't hurt, I really didn't care about the TV. I just said I'd have Davy and Brennan move it out and put the TV from the bedroom in it's place. (The big screen is old, probably from 1995) I've been wanting a new TV anyways. After I hung up with him, I called Chelsea to check on Hayden. She informed me that it was April Fool's Day and it was Dad trying to get me. Okay, ha ha ha, you got me.

On to the important stuff, like knitting.

I've been working on my barn raising quilt and I've got 30 squares finished. The pattern calls for 42 squares but I think I want to make it a little bigger so I'm aiming for 56 squares. If I knit when I get home, I can usually get a square finished in about 3 hours and depending on what's going on during the weekend maybe 2 or 3 finished. This is Chelsea and Brennan's wedding present from me, I knew I wouldn't get it finished by the wedding, but it was a good start. When Chelsea saw the picture she asked if I could make it big enough to fit their bed. They have a king size bed and I have no idea how many squares it would take. I'm enjoying knitting the little squares because they are a fast knit and I don't get bored. I like being about to bind it off and put it in my stack of squares and start with another colorway. My plan was to have the 56 squares finished by the end of the month, but you never know, I may keep adding on squares until it will fit their bed. Maybe this will actually end up being their Christmas present. Here are some of my squares. In no particular order. What do you think?


I'm also working on a new Red Scarf for 2009. The Traveling Scarves Groups, better known as TSG has a group that is working on the charity for the Orphanage Foundation, they give scarves to all the children who were in foster care that have aged out and are now in college. Last year, the TSG - Red Scarf Project made scarves that started out as a 4x5 inch square with live stitches that traveled from person to person, each adding their own unique pattern to the scarf. All the scarves were made with the same yarn (which traveled also). This year we are going to have a free for all. Some of us are making lengthwise scarves, casting on 300-400 stitches and then each person that it travels to, will add up to 3/4" of their own red shade of yarn to the scarf. It should be very interesting, some are going with the traditional scarf like we did last year and sending their own yarn and others are going with a uniform pattern throughout but with different shades of red. The scarves officially start their travels on Saturday, April 11 and all the scarves should return back to their original starting place within 4 to 5 months as long as we don't have any snags along the way. I'll make sure and post a picture of my red scarf as it travels along.

Mr. & Mrs

It's finally over and they're married! Chelsea and Brennan said their vows on March 14, 2009 at 4pm.

My mom, sister and I started working on the decorating and food on Friday right after we got the call that the cala lillies didn't arrive. We took a quick trip to Sam's Club and were able to get some beautiful cream roses and white daisy. It wasn't what she'd planned, but they were very pretty.

We were able to get the sanctuary decorated and the punch made and in the freezer before the rehearsal started at 7pm.

Have you ever known someone who just carries stress and tension into a room with them? That would be Brennan's sister, Heather.

Let me give you a little background on Heather. She is 25 years old (2 years older than Brennan). Their mother died about 6 years ago, and their father has never remarried. Heather has now taken the role of the mother. When Chelsea and Brennan started dating 4 years ago, Brennan asked me if I could help his sister find a job, since I'm in the staffing business. So, it just happened that our Tulsa branch needed a receptionist for a temp position and I sent her there to fill in, a few months later she was hired as an admin. We've always gotten along okay I thought, until Hayden was born and that was when she decided she was in charge of everything.

So, back to my story...Heather shows up at the rehearsal and everyone is supposed to pay attention to her. I just tried to ignore her and get on with the business that we were there to take care of. At the rehearsal dinner, she asked me what time I was going to get to the church and I told her I had to be there at 9am to finish decorating for the reception. (I couldn't do it after the rehearsal because AA meeting in that room and I didn't want to take the chance of someone spilling coffee on a tablecloth). She told me she would be there at 9am...I quickly told her she didn't have to help us, if she could just pick up the cake at 11 and the sandwichs at 1pm that would be great. Guess what? She showed up at 9am and took over. I pissed her off a couple of times and then my mom pissed her off because she didn't like what we were already doing. Then out of the blue she says she wants a bouquet for her grandpa to carry, in memory of his late wife and she wants to carry a bouquet in memory of her mother. We didn't plan on this and with all the problems we'd already had with the flowers I was a little irritated. She wanted me to take flowers aways from Chelsea's bouquet so she could have flowers for the two bouquets that she requested. It was a nice thought, but it felt like she was trying to make the whole wedding about her mother and not about Chelsea and Brennan and the new life they are starting. But Chelsea decided to run to Wal-Mart and get a couple of bouquets of yellow tulips to keep the peace.

Chelsea got to the church around 1:30 to start getting her hair and makeup done. She was calm and relaxed and they were having a good time getting ready. Heather had left the church around 1:30 to go and take a shower and get ready. But at 3:00 Heather comes blasting into the dressing room wearing sweats and trying to get her daughter, Avery (the flower girl) dressed. I left the room to go get my sister (the photographer) to take pictures of them getting ready and Chelsea getting her dress on. We walked into the dressing room and Heather is standing in the middle of the room stark naked. We are trying to get pictures of Chelsea and keep the naked girl's reflection out of the pictures. That was about the time Chelsea started stressing and the tears started flowing.

The wedding coordinator (she tells you where to stand and when to walk) had the bride's family ready to go to the parlor and wait to be seat. Suddenly I see Heather hurrying around the corner with Hayden and he's screaming his head off. I went to him and she turned him away from me. He was reaching for me and she didn't want me to take him because she wanted him to walk down the aisle with Avery. Ok, that would have been a great idea and he enjoyed walking with her during the rehearsal and picking up the flower petals that she was dropping. But now it was a different story, he didn't want anything to do with anyone there except me or his grandpa. I took him from her and got him calmed down and walked down the aisle with him and my son Davy.

The wedding started and it was so pretty. They had made a slideshow of their lives. It started out with me holding Chelsea just minutes after she was born and went through pictures of her life, then it show pictures of Brennan's life, their lives together and then pictures of their family with Hayden. It was so touching, I cried through the entire thing. Then the preacher pronounced them husband and wife and I started bawling again.

After the wedding, we went back into the sanctuary to recreate some of the wedding pictures that we weren't able to get during the actual ceremony and that was when Heather told my sister that she wanted a picture of her family and Hayden but she didn't want Chelsea in the picture. What the hell is that about? This girl is a psycho. I think we were just a the same wedding and Chelsea is now part of your family. So here's the picture of Heather the matriarch and her family. (excluding Chelsea)

Here's Chelsea waiting while Heather get's her picture made.

Finally we were finished taking pictures and moved into the reception area, where everyone was having a great time.

The happy couple left to go on their one night honeymoon while I kept Hayden. He was so exhausted, it had been a couple of very busy days for the little guy and he was way past sleepy. He woke up a little fussy around 1:30 in the morning and I didn't want to make alot of noise and get him fully awake so I was trying to arrange him and his blanket without putting down the railing. I'm only 5 foot tall and it was a very bad idea. As I was stretching to reach the blanket, I suddenly felt my ribs seperate and the bar of the railing tear through the muscle. OMG...the sound of the cracking was enough to make me want to puke. It didn't really hurt, but I think it was because the nerves had gone numb. Yesterday morning, I hurt so bad and this morning it is almost unbearable to try and move around. I came to work, but all I can do is sit in one spot and type. I can just hardly answer the phone. I went to the dr and they took an x-ray and gave me some drugs so I can sleep tonight.

So that was my weekend.

The countdown begins

5 days and counting till the wedding...

Mom and Dad arrived on Friday night. Saturday we took the dress to Mom and she began the alterations. With a scare here and there and one point when I think I peed my pants it all ended up perfect. We thought for just a few minutes that the lop layer of chiffon had been cut wrong and ended up about an inch shorter than the other layers, but after Chelsea tried it on again it was perfect.

I've gone over the checklist several times today and with Mom's help (thank god for her) we are going to be able to pull this all together. Now I know why people hire wedding coordinators. The groom and his family are just laxidaisy (is that a word) about the whole thing. The bride is shutting down and won't communicate with us anymore, except with shruggs and or screaming. At this very moment, my mother is out getting the last of the decorations and stuff for the reception.

I still have to find shoes that will fit and not kill my feet 30 minutes after putting them on, I've got to get my son something to wear because I'm sick and tired of waiting for him to go get something. If he had his way, he'd wear holey jeans and a holister t-shirt. Thank goodness he's not in the wedding party.

I'll be happy when Sunday gets here!

The things I put up with for Traveling Scarves

Before I tell this story, I first want everyone to know that I am not making fun of anyone.

As most of you know I'm one of the Administrators for the Traveling Scarves group on Ravelry, so every couple of weeks or so I'm at the post office mailing off my next package. On Tuesday, 2/17/09, (the post office was closed for President's Day) so when I walked into the building I quickly saw the line off 20 people or so. I took my place in line to wait and said hello to the gentleman standing in front of me. The line moved just a smidgen and the door opened as another customer entered, I turned to smile and saw a older woman approximately 60ish with a man who was probably in his mid 20's carrying a blankie and was extremely mentally retarded. I smiled and said "Hi" and the man began parroting me. He said "hi" to everyone in the post office. The woman said "Hold Grandma's hand." which he repeated many many times in his grandma's voice. She said that he was a victim of child abuse when he was two years old and that's where his mind stayed. I didn't have a problem at all until he walked up to me and said "Hi, Good Lookin and squeezed my boob. (it was just one squeeze but multiple squeezes) I gently removed his hand and looked to Grandma for some guidance or help in what to do in that situation. She said, "BJ leave that woman alone." then he repeated that several times. At this point I was afraid to make I contact because I didn't want to encourage the fondling episode ago. He then let out a loud cry and then in a high pitched voice said "he's baulin'." Then he did it again and in the same voice said "he's pitchin' a fit." It was like listening to a parrot mimick the family he lives with. The line started moving again and he got loose from Grandma and grabbed my boob again. By this point I'm really feeling scared and uncomfortable. The line moved again and suddenly my head jerks back like whiplash and grandma said "BJ don't pull her hair." I completely understand how a two year old behaves because my grandson pulls hair, has hit, etc. But he's only 25 lbs and 30" tall and a little bit easier to control. BJ then began flipping his blankie at me and then I heard the postal clerk call next. All I could think was thank God there was some distance between me and the 6' 200lb BJ.

All I can say is Grandma is one angel and what happened to BJ's abuser? Did they get a short sentence or a slap on the wrist? Poor BJ is stuck as a 2 year old for the rest of his life and Grandma will never have a peaceful life. I can't imagine what strength you would need to be a fulltime caregiver for an adult 2 year old.

So I just want all my TSG friends to realize that I'm willing to be molested in the post office line while trying to get my scarves mailed out.

Couch to 5K

I've been meaning to update my blog for several days now and just can't ever seem to find the time to just sit and type.



A week or so ago I was watching TV, it was late, I was in my bedroom lying on my bed. A show ccame on about the one ton man, he was lying face down on his bed because that was the only way he could breath. The firemen had to take out a wall to get him out of the house and to the hospital. I was thinking to myself, how in the world can someone let themselves get to that point and then I caught my reflection in the TV screen. There I was lying on my stomach, just like the one ton man. So I got up and did a few jumping jacks to remind myself that I could still move and be active.



The next day I was on Ravelry, talking to one of my friends and she told me about Couch to 5K. It's a plan to get yourself off the couch and doing a 5K race in 2 months. If you've read my blog, I'm sure I've mentioned how much I absolutely hate exercise and don't understand how people can say they are addicted to running or weight lifting. But, I remembered how proud I was of my sister when she started running years ago. I was proud and jealous at the same time, I so wanted to be a runner, but I always made excuses about my knees (yes, my knees do hurt and crack and make it really hard to jog) but I know if I were to lose some of the weight, they might not hurt as bad.



So I recruited my sister to join me in the couch to 5K. I've got a goal! My goal is to walk/jog/run the Tulsa Full Moon Run on May 9th. I might not be able to run or jog the entire 5K by then but I'll finish it. We started our "training" last week and we walked the trail at the lake it's a little over a mile. It's a hilly little trail and it's really hard for me to walk and talk at the same time without being so out of breath. The shin splints finally went away. We drove 2 cars and parked them at opposite ends of the lake and walked to one car and drove back to the other car. We will continue this routine this week and then next week, we will walk from one end to the other and back again to the car. After we are able to do that for a few days I think I'll be ready to start adding some jogging into the mix.



Remember a paragraph or two back when I said I hated exercise. Well, last night I didn't get to go to the lake with my sister for our walk and I really missed it. Chelsea's neurologist appointment was last night. She's been on the Topamax for 1 month and no freaky side effects which is really good. The dr asked how she was doing and said "Okay, I'll see you in 6 months." and that was it.



On the knitting front: The girls and I started up our Thursday night knitting night again. After Survivor ended last season we tried to switch to Tuesday nights, but that just wasn't working for us. I think we only met 2 times since Thanksgiving. Since the new season of Survivor started last Thursday, we met up again. Michelle ordered pizza, Rita invited her cousin Pam to join us. She's a brand new knitter, never held needles in her life. She did really good, we started her on a dishcloth. I'm working on my TASK squares and still have a few to finish. I was having so much trouble with them and the gauge. Who would have thought that knitting a 12" square would be so hard. But, I found a great way to finish them up. The log cabin pattern is really working out great and it's easy to stay on gauge. I've promised myself that I will get them all finished and mailed out before I start a new project. My new project that I'm wanting to get going on is the Barn-Raising Quilt which is a bunch a squares. I'm not real excited about knitting squares again, but at least they have a pattern and they are with sock yarn which is so much fun for me to knit with.

Here's a couple of pictures of the Barn-Raising Quilt that others have made. Aren't they pretty?

I love this blanket, I think it will be a late wedding present for my daughter Chelsea. Yep, she getting married in less than 4 weeks and we are no where near ready for the big day. I've planned to take off on the 12th and 13th just to finish up the last little details.

The Groundhog saw his shadow!

Yesterday was groundhog day and that damned groundhog saw his shadow and ran back in his hole. 6 more weeks of bad weather.

I just hope we are finished with the ice. Last week, Jan 26th on Monday afternoon the ice started. Freezing rain was coming down so fast that I had 1/2" to 1" of ice on my windshield within an hour. We closed up the office and slid home. It started out as a really scarey evening, my house is totally electric and like a goofball I never called the firewood people to have them bring out any wood. So, at approximately 8pm our electricity goes off. Since it was pitchblack in the house except for the couple of candles I found to light, we all decided we might as well go to bed.


I sat up and read by the light of my cell phone for an hour or so until it got so cold I couldn't keep my arms outside of the covers. At 3:30am the electricity came back on, because the TV was blaring and the lights came on. I shot out of bed like someone had invaded the house. I ran though really quick and shut off all the lights and turned off tv's and went back to sleep. The next morning, the schools were all shut down and the roads were like ice skating rinks. So I made an executive decision for our office to work from home. We were fortunate enough that the electricity stayed on for the next couple of days and the ice finally melted away.


We are on the countdown to the wedding...6 weeks from this coming Saturday is Chelsea and Brennan's wedding day. This Friday I'm taking a vacation day to take Chelsea to order the cake, pick out flowers, figure out the music, etc. The invitations were mailed on Saturday so it's a done deal. The date is picked and the dress is bought.


I finally finished the sweater for Angie's baby. I can't believe that Thursday is her last day and that her little boy will be here on Tuesday. Here's a picture of the sweater:

Slacking on my blogging

I really can't believe it's been almost 20 days since I let you guys know about my life and it's ups and downs.

Let's see, Chelsea had the ultrasound done on her thyroid because the neurologist said it was enlarged. She had the EEG and the MRI and then on Monday, the 19th we went back to the dr. I don't think I like this dr. because I can't go in the exam room and ask questions. It's driving me crazy. But, she told Chels that the MRI on her pituitary gland showed small tumors (she said they are benign, but that makes me terribly nervous), her thyroid was okay, no tumors and her EEG showed signs of distress on the brain. She gave her a prescription for Topamax and so far it hasn't turned her into a zombie. She has a follow up appointment on Feb 20th.

On the knitting side of life - I finished the cute little baby sweater for my secretary's new baby who will be arriving in a couple of weeks, but I forgot to take a picture. I can't believe I didn't get a picture of it, that makes me so mad. But I was litterally weaving in lose ends up until an hour before the shower started. Finished it, tucked it in the tissue paper and wrapped the box.
I'm hoping to get a picture of him wearing it sometime very soon.

My latest knitting obsession (which I haven't started yet, but I'm dying to cast on) is the Barn-Raising Quilt. But, before I can start another new project, I've told myself that I have got to finish the TASK square for the Traveling Scarf Group. So to curb my appetite a little bit, I'm using the Barn-RAising Quilt pattern to make my squares. I'm just using worsted weight and doing a few more rows to get the right gauge for the 12" squares. Then, and only then will I pull out all my sock yarn and start designing the color theme for my barn-raising quilt.

What else has been going on???? Hayden is getting smarter and smarter every day! He's talking up a storm, we aren't always sure what he's telling us, but I'm sure it's really important. The words we have deciphered all seem to start with a "d" sound. Like dog, and daddy, drink, down, diaper, but then there's also cat, which sounds like dat, or cow which sounds like dow, or pig which sounds like dig. He still hasn't said mommy or grandma, but I'm sure he will any day now.

Hopefully, I can check back in with you guys before 20 days fly by again.

Chelsea's tests

So after our long stressful evening with Nellie. Chelsea went to see the neurologiest today for the brain test. They tried to induce a seizure but were not successful. She didn't get to see the dr today and the lab tech giving the test couldn't say anything.

So we are still in the dark. She has the ultra sound scheduled for Monday to check her thyroid and then a follow up at the neurologist on the 19th. I'm assuming at that time they will prescribe her new medication.

On the knitting front - I'm ready to talk about fun stuff.

I'm working on the cutest little sweater for my assistant's new baby who should be arriving on February 10th. Baby Landon will get to come home wearing the Lutzling Sweater.

I'll post pictures soon.

Long stressful evening

Last night, I got home and got online to finish up some Ravelry issues and then I was going to settle in to watch the BCS Championship game. OU Sooners vs the FLA Gators. (We won't talk about the game - yuk)

Anyways, my son-in-law came in about 20 minutes after me and suddenly he said "Nellie's bleeding to death!" Nellie is our sweet little 1/2 weenie dog 1/2 terrier. I jumped up and she was standing outside the door looking for help. Someone had shot her. We live in the country where dogs have no boundries. It was already close to 6pm and I knew the vets office was closed. I called to find out that the vet was in Tulsa at a Football party and couldn't help us. We called several other vet clinics and it seems they were all wanting to watch the game. I finally reached one clinic and the dr. was a complete asshole (sorry for my language). He told me if I didn't have a credit card with at least 200.00 available credit he couldn't help me. I told him I had $20.00 in the bank, but I could write him a check to cash on Thursday. He said no! I asked him what I was supposed to do, just let her lay there a bleed to death? He said, maybe you should ask someone to shoot her. I hung up on him. Aren't vets supposed to be humane? Don't they take some sort of oath to help animals?

Chelsea was crying so bad, Nellie was a great dog and we couldn't let her suffer. My son-in-law called his father and he came over and shot her. It was horrible.

I don't understand how people can be so cruel. Was she doing something she shouldn't have been doing? Maybe. I don't know.

It was a rough night.

Update to Chelsea's dr's appointments

I wanted to let you guys know how the dr's appt went yesterday.

Chelsea saw the neurologiest yesterday morning. She was told "by definition" she has epilepsy. "by definition" means if you've had 2 seizures in your life. She is going back to the dr. on Friday morning to do the brain test. They will hook a bunch of pads to her head and then try and make her have a seizure to see if they can catch it on the scanner. The last time she did this, they couldn't force the seizure.

The other thing is, the dr. said her thyroid is enlarged so she is having an ultrasound on Monday to get that checked and then a follow up on the 19th. The dr is going to put her back on medication (not Keppra) and hopefully it doesn't react the same way that the Keppra did. I don't think my boss will want me taking another 2 or 3 weeks off of work.

I really hope that the seizures were caused by her thyroid. I think it would be easier to take thyroid meds for the rest of my life versus epilepsy meds.

The dr also told her that it is against state law for her to drive right now. Which she hasn't since December 2nd. She will have to be seizure free for 6 months to be able to drive again. The state hasn't revoked her license, but if she were to drive and had a seizure behind the wheel and wrecked her car or someone elses, we would all be in big bad trouble.

Deep down in my gut, I really think it has something to do with the time of the year, and studying for math finals. During the 3 years that she didn't have a seizure, she wasn't in any math classes. The neurologist said it doesn't have anything to do with math, but could be stress due to studying for math. But, the dr's and scientist don't even know what causes epilepsy, so how could she say for sure that it doesn't have anything to do with math.

I know there are people who live a normal life with epilepsy, they drive, take care of their families and hold down jobs just fine. But they aren't my child.

It's so hard not having a confirmed diagnosis one way or the other.

Christmas Gift Cards to LYS

Wow, Christmas is over. Thank God...I don't think I've knit so many hats in a one week period since...well...ever. Everyone loved their hats and Mom thought the Woodland Shawl was gorgeous. I have a picture of it on the blocking board, but didn't get a picture of it on Mom's shoulders. Hayden loved Christmas, technically this is his 2nd Christmas, but the 1st he was only 1 month old. He had a blast ripping off the wrapping paper. I think he actually liked the paper more than the toys. Out of all the toys he got, his favorite is the popper. Remember that toy? The blue handle with the clear bubble and the balls that make that horrible annoying popping sound everytime the wheels move. Yeah, that's his favorite toy.

I received $110.00 in gift cards to my local LYS, Loops in Tulsa. Luckily, I read my emails on Christmas day and found out that Loops was having a huge sale on Friday. Everything was 25-40% off and some stuff was 75% off. So Friday morning (I had to work until 10am) I headed to Tulsa. The store opens at 11am and I got there about 10:25am. So I parked and sat in the car knitting. I watched a lady with a knitting bag walk up and look into the windows and then walk away, then 2 more woman walked up, peeked in the windows and walked away. By now, I'm not knitting anymore, I'm watching the door like a guard dog. The clock in my car said 10:43am, and then I saw the first woman coming back. Right then I decided I'd had enough of these people trying to horde in on "my sale". (I really don't know what came over me, I usually a very docile person) I got out of my car and stood next to the door, eyeing the women in the store and checking the watch every few seconds. The big clock in the shopping center started chiming and donging the hours. I looked behind me and there must have be 50 people lined up to get in the store. Suddenly, I saw the owner of the store walking towards the door. I could feel my blood rushing through my veins in excitement. She pulled the door open and took a picture of all of us standing around the door like a pack of starving dogs waiting for their master to throw the last bone into the yard. Finally, she let us in...I ran straight back to the back room where all the clearence stuff is always kept. I grabbed up about 7 or 8 skiens of alpaca in varying colors and a lady tried to grab it out of my hands. I jerked it back and said "exxxcccuuussee you" and grabbed the yarn back. After making sure there wasn't anything else in the bins that I needed I made my way out to the store to see what 40% off stuff I could find. I filled my basket with Blue Skys Organic Cotton, Noro, Malabrigo and then a miscellaneous skein of this or that, just because. I finally made my way to the cash register thinking I was probably going to have to write a good sized check on top of my gift cards. Amazingly, the total was $109.83. I handed her my 3 gift cards and said "I've got $110.00." She replied "You've still got .17 cents." I told her to keep it and use it for the next persons tax or whatever.

Mom and Dad are heading back home to Colorado today. Dad was getting antsy, he was missing his own stuff and we all know how we like our own stuff. It was nice having them here and I wish they didn't live so far away.

Chelsea had her MRI on the 18th and there were no tumors, but she does have an enlarged pituitary gland. They ran blood work (which came back normal) and a 24-hour urine test (we don't have those results back yet).

I've started knitting the Dead Fish hat, you can find it on my favorites on Ravelry. I don't have a picture of it yet, but I'll get one posted tonight when I finish the hat. I'm also getting ready to start a wedding shawl. I haven't picked out a pattern yet, but I've got to hurry because Chelsea is getting married on March 14th. I'm not sure why they are all of a sudden rushing to get married except that Spring Break falls the same week and Brennan will have been at his job for 1 year and be able to take vacation.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas holiday and ready for all the excitement that 2009 will bring.