MERRY CHRISTMAS

What a wonderful Christmas we all had. It was great to be with family and friends both on Christmas and Christmas eve. Also attending a few parties that were fun and had a lot of laughs.

Got a lot of nice presents and also made some people smile with their gifts. Hope you all had a great holiday.

Happy New Year.

It's been a while!

I completed a knitting project as a gift for someone only to find out it came out wrong! It is dish cloth with a motor home and the words Going camping. Well i apparently used the wrong size needles or something because you mcna not see the words clearly nor the camper. It may also be the color..I used an off white. It did not say the needle size in the directions so I used the ones I have used in making other dishcloths. Oh well.....that's the life of a knitter.

I have transferred out of the high school (at my request.) I am now owrking at an elementary school on the south end of Brockton. K-5. I work with 2 very nice girls. In fact the boss Laura and I grew up near each other and her sister was my friend in High school.

Have my Christmas shopping done!

A few things

Had a great Thanksgiving with family and friends. As usual ate too much. Why do we feel the need to stuff ourselves each year..probably because everything is delicious!

Been really busy making my Christmas cards..Got a late start this year due to couldn't make up my mind on what to make this year. I need to get my act together sooner next year.

Still having work done on the entry hall..am hoping that will be near done by Christmas so that the dust is down. This place has a mountain of dust that never settles all at once to be dusted away..it lingers in the air and covers stuff daily!

GREAT NEWS

I finished knitting the vest for my mother. I now need to sew it together. My SIL is going to help me. It was so much easier than Kelly's, less complicated.

Thanksgiving is tomorrow...then December around the corner! This year is flying! I am thankful for my husband whos is the best anyone could ask for. My daughter, She is a sweet person. My mom and Dad and my friends.

Had a great scrap weeknd in Mansfield. Got about a dozen pages done.....Still working on Kelly's childhood book. Lots of laughs and fun!

Nothing new really

Had a good weekend...had dinner with Kelly on Friday night and then did some shopping with her. She wanted to buy some luggage. Finally got a deal at BJ's.

Today while Joe and Josh worked on the hall Kelly and I went to luch and then got our hair done. It was a fun girls afternoon. We look new and refreshed.

Went to dinner with Joe and then home to watch the Wizard of OZ in color no less. That show no matter how many times I watch it still amazes me. The witch still scares me too..hope I don't have any nightmares tonight!

This week I ahve to get my scrap booking stuff together..believe it or not the fall scrap weekend is coming up next weekend. Should be a lot of fun...like always!

Lots of things

Finished with Physical therapy....last Thursday. I now have 9 exercises to do at home 3 times a week. At least I don't need to rush off there twice a week for an hour.

Checking out Wii fit..borrowing Kelly's for a a few days to try it out. She has set me up. It's interesting to do. It covers balancing, yoga, arobics boxing ETC.. I might ask for it for Christmas if I like it and think that I will do it.

Still working on my mother's vest. It is a lot easier than Kelly's..whitch I will post a picture of as soon as I find my camera charger and charge it up. The pictures are still on the camera.

Hoping the patriot stay on their winning streak for a while longer. It's good to see Tom Brady getting his groove back along with Randy Moss.

Happy Halloween

Joe carving the pumpkin at East Hill farms. Us showing off our finished pumpkin. The other 2 pumpkins were carved by The Smith's and the Salvucci's.,

Alaska trip 2009

Here are some pictures of our trip to Alaska. We had the best time. We took a train ride 3000 feet up a mountain which was the Youkon trail. We also panned for Gold along with Jim and Jan. We visited Juneau, Ketchican and Skagway.

Great!

Went into work this morning to find the floor repaired! It was such a nice day not tripping in the hole all day. Our boss has been back for 3 days now. It is so nice to have her back. I hope she does not have to go out to another school for a while. Things run so much smoother with her here than her fill in who screams a lot.

Doing well up til now

I was doing good at PT until this week.. Becky my therapist added a bike exercise and I feel like I have run the marathon. My knee hurt, my hip and my back. Let's not forget I twisted my ankle at work so that is bothering me. It is the ankle on my left side....I can not win this school year. We have some floor tiles missing in my work area and I stepped wrong and twisted my ankle. I complained and they took me seriously. It is on the list to be repaired but it could take 3 months or so like the last time this happened.

I had a bad week at knitting too. Last Monday I could do nothing right. I decreased wrong and realized it 6 rows in. That needed to be taken out. Then I found a stitch just sitting there, I apparently took it off the needle but never knitted it. I was like a bumbling idiot. I am making progress on the vest for my mother. I have the back and one side done.

Just some thoughts

Physical Therapy is going well. I have my 6 exercises that are the standard ones I also have to do at home. Then each visit she adds one more to do while I am there. They are getting harder. This last visit she put a weight on my ankle. The best part is the heat and the ice. They both feel good.

My parents have been here since Tuesday. They are leaving on Sunday for Florida for 6 months. It has been a busy time for us all this week. They are visiting everyone under the sun and doing a lot of eating out.

Joe's annual Fowler, Fowler, Fowler Fall Folly is being canceled for the second time tomoorw due to bad weather. They will try for it one more time next Sunday the 25th. Let's hope the weather will cooperate.

We had the threat of snow this weekend. It did snow in some areas as close as Canton.. We however did not see a flake. Wouldn't it have been great for my parents to see snow before they left for Florida????

Columbus Day Weekend

We are here in Maine at our trailer getting it ready for the winter. It is always a sad time to be closing down and locking up for the season. As much as I like not traveling up here every chance that we get it's sad to know that we can't. It was a wet Summer this year but we still had a great time here.

We had our annual Camper's stew get together which hailed about 28 people this year. Not our lowest count and yet not the highest either. Joe still got a lot of fishing in but we didn't get much lake time. It is usually cooler at the lake and windier. With the rainy Summer the time was less for us to go to the lake. This was the first full Summer in our new trailer. It was so much more comfortable than the last one. I love it. It is so much fun up here and relaxing.

Another year has come to an end for us camping wise. It is time to bundle up our trailer for the cold Maine winter and look forward to seeing it again in the Spring. I will say the foliage is absolutely gorgeous up here right now. Thank goodness for New England.

Physical Therapy

Had my first session today. My therapist is Becky and she seems really nice. We did a lot of talking today so that she could get to know how I am doing and what I do for work ETC... she gave me about 8 exercises to do at home on the days that I will not be seeing her. It's all about strengthening my knee and the hamstrings. I am hoping that this will also help my hip not to hurt so much. I go back tomorrow for my second session. I hope this helps and will not be painful for me. I am feeling so much better I don't want to make it hurt.

This past weekend I worked on my afghan for the camper. Because I can not work on my mother's vest with her around. They will be here Tuesday for almost a week before heading to FLA. I will be working on the afghan.

MRI RESULTS

I saw the specialist today and he told me the results of my MRI. It is not showing a tear in the area of my knee. Which is good news. I need to have PT for my right knee due to the fact that it is not aligned right. I start the PT next Wednesday. I hope it won't hurt too much. The last time I had PT was for my pinch nerve and it was a whole lot of massages. I don't think this will be that relaxing. This is going to take some work and have some pain involved. Wish me luck.

First day back

I started back to work today after being off for 2 and a half weeks resting my right knee. It bothered me a little bit soon after going back but it did not hurt a bad as I thought it would after being on it all day. I will go back again tomorrow and hope it will be the same amount of pain and not more.

I started back to knitting class last night. The teacher Elaine had fallen a month ago down her basement stairs and got hurt. she broke both wrists and her nose and also a couple of vertibrae ( spelling) in her back. Victoria a knitter in our class has offered to run her classes until she can get back to it. Victoria did a really great job last night. We had 16 people and I would say 9 were brand new knitters. I worked on my mother's vest. So far this one is a lot easier than Kelly's.

MRI

Had my first MRI today. I did not have to go all of the way into the machine but I was darn close and that was enough for me. I was put in feet first up to my chest area. The crew there were very nice. Before going in they give you a panic button to press in case you need to come out and take a breather. I held tightly to that little baby but I did not have to use it. I kept my eyes closed and listened to Country music. It took about 20 minutes to do the MRI. I would not want to go all of the way inside I'm not sure how I would do. I will find out the results on the 29th when I go back to see the DR.

Knee Update

Went to see the Orthopedic specialist on Tuesday. Apparently my right knee is not lined up correctly. I am thinking that it was caused by my favoring my left leg when I had plantar factitious several years ago in my left foot. I also need an MRI ( Thursday) because I have a possible tear in my meniscus. It is on the inside of my right knee. About a year ago I fell on the table bed in the old camper and it did really hurt there. Don't know if that is the cause because that was a year ago. I may have turned wrong at work and re injured it. I need to have Physical Therapy For the realignment of the knee. I will either have to have one some or all the following : Physical Therapy, Cortisone shot or surgery for the torn meniscus, depending on the tear size and location.

I have my Soldier Christmas stocking letter done. I need to print off one more copy and I am ready to send them on the next person to be filled and sent. I have been knitting everyday I'm working on my Mother's vest. Back to work on Tuesday the 22nd. I hope It works out for me and my knee won't start hurting again.

Weekend fun

Went up to Maine this weekend and brought my aunt Virginia up to stay for the weekend with my parents. Usually she gets to go up there for a week or two each year but the last 2 years it has not worked out. This year she went out to Indiana to visit her family for 3 weeks. She lost her 29 year old grand son a month ago..(my cousin of course that wrote about) We finally got her up there but only for a weekend.

We had a great time. Joe took Friday off and of course I have it off due to being out of work with my knee injury. So we left at 9:00 AM on Friday so that we would get there early afternoon instead of 8:00PM. We went out to lunch for Chinese food and then to the new Hannafords to buy some food. The guys went fishing and us girls read our books and chatted about nothing. We had hot dogs for dinner and had a nice warm campfire. Saturday Joe cooked us all breakfast. he is good at that. The guys went fishing again ( which turned into 5 hours) us girls went out to shop for books. We went to 3 places and finally found a book we had been looking for since Springtime. 6th target by James Patterson. We then treatd ourselves to an ice cream at Cindy's Dockside and ate them out at the picnic tables by the Mariner. We had a nice chicken dinner with baked potatoes and corn on the cob. It started to sprinkle out so we decided on no fire and to instead play some games. We had a game of triple yahtzee in which my dad won. We then played 3 games of Cosmic Wimpout which dad won the first 2 and Joe won the last game.

The weather the whole weekend was in the 70's and sunny. Sunday we stayed til 3:00PM had gone out to breakast and then read our books and went through a million quarters looking for the missing states we needed for our books. We had a nice ride home and a wonderful weekend.

It's hard to believe that we will only be going up there 2 more times the last one on the long weekend to close up. It seems like we just opened up.

Labor Day

Had an absolute fabulous Labor Day weekend. The weather was great. Went camping down at Maple Park Jellystone of cape cod. We had water view sites. It was Sunny and in the high 70's. We did not go swimming but we did sit on the beach in the sun. Could not of asked for better weather. Although Sunday was somewhat windy and blew our tarp down it didn't ruin the weekend.

I have hurt my tight knee somehow after starting work last week. I don't recall anything that would hurt it but it is hurting. Went to the Doctors on Thursday and he thinks it is cartilage rubbing together wearing down. I have to see a specialist on the 15th until then I am out of work. I am resting my knee as best as I can. It's not easy staying off your feet when there is so much to be done around the house.

I hope I will get some knitting done while I am down and out. I am half way done with the button hole section of my vest for my mother. This vest is easier than the one I did for Kelly. No fancy stitches to confuse me. I also hope to get some reading done. I am not reading as much due to the knitting projects but I miss reading and have several books lined up to read.

Getting it done

Today was the first day of school where the students were there. It was a pretty good day. It always takes a while to get back into the swing of things and get the new routines down with the changes that have been made. I hope it will be a good school year.

I brought my knitting to my scrapbook workshop. I got a few rows done. I think after one more row I will be making the 2nd button hole. It takes a while to knit a row consisting of 202 stitches, At least for me. Tonight at the work shop there were only 8 of us. It was the last time that we would be in this church. It was sold and now we need to find a different place to hold our once a month workshops. Denise who is leading us has found us a new spot that we will start to attend next month. We had fun tonight with just our small group. Next month I am sure we will be back to about 20 people. Tonight was for us who have been going since the beginning. Most of the table and chairs have been sold so there was only room for the few that we had there tonight. Next month a new beginning.

First day of school

Today was the first day of school for us to get set up for the school year. The students arrive tomorrow. Why does it seem everyday at this time of year it is a surprise to the staff that does the ordering of supplies that school has started. Nothing is ever in. I absolutely hate the first day. We make a about 5-6 trips to the stock room for supplies and a quarter of them are not in. It is a long way down there for us because we are the furthest away. Everything that we could get is set and ready to go tomorrow. I will be in the new area of the cafe. They changed the old dish room over to be a grab and go of cold sandwiches and salads. We will see how this works out. I came home with a migraine and a sprained hand. Nice first day.

I have started my mother's vest again for the 3rd time. After I got to the first button hole area things started going wrong. That was only in about an inch so it wasn't too bad. However I had to cast on 3 time s after that due to stupid mistakes. I am finally moving ahead and am ready to make the second button hole. That is 4 and half inches from the start so I am getting closer to getting the front done. There are a total of 4 button holes to make each 3 and a half inches from the other. Then starts the fun of decreasing for the arm holes. LALALALA. Wish me luck this weekend in that. I hope to get the button holes done this week so that when I go camping this weekend with my SIL she can watch over me with the decreases. So mandy fprojects for Christmas I need to get done I don't really ahve tidfme for any other hobby at this time of year. We all know I neeed to make my Christmas cards too. Those will need to be started soon too. First got to decide on the stamp set and then the colors ETC.... great now I've got myself depressed on so much to accomplish before Dec. 24th! AHHHHHAHH! That's me screaming!

Cats and knitting

I finally got my 202 stitches cast onto my needle for the sweater that I am making for my mother for Christmas. I m sitting on the couch...everything is set to go. Raven gets up from the other side of the couch and sits right next to me. I look over he is kneading my ball of yarn. I get his claws out of there and he stands up and he is wrapped around the strand of yarn that I pulled out for knitting tension. I finally get him unwound and I can get back to knitting. He lays right next ot me and goes to sleep.

I am hoping to get to a certain point in the project so that my SIL can help me through the section of the pattern that I don't really understand. I am seeing her over Labor Day weekend. Wish me luck getting it to that point this week.

I have to go back to work on Tuesday so my knitting time will be limited again. UGH! to think the Summer is over all ready is a sad thought. It went by so fast and it was not really Summer with the crappy weather that we had through 3/4 's of it.

Everything is going wrong

I wanted to cast on for my mother's vest that I want to make her for Christmas. I got everything set last week. I took out the yarn that I had bought, Looked for the right size needles in which I have. Then got the call about Michael passing away. Got side tracked talking to relatives. Then of course my parents need to come down to my house for the wake and funeral. I can't work on the vest with her here. Then I think about the fact that I need longer needles for the amount of stitches I ahve to put on. I can't find them anywhere.

Today I go to Saftler's again hoping that they have restocked. I find some needles that are longer but not sure if it is enough. I bought them and will cast on and check the room on them for work.

My truck brakes seemed strange to me on the ride over there. The pedal was going to the floor. I didn't think I would make it home safely so I stopped at Jiffy Lube. They said the brake fluid was extremely low but they don't top off fluids. I started to drive home when the brakes felt worse. I pulled over in a parking lot and called a friend that lived near by..he was not home. I called my Joe and he told me to walk a short distance down the road and there is an auto body shop there that a friend of ours frequents. I walked there and he was there chatting..He is the one I tried calling at his home. The guy there that owns the place drove over to the truck and put some fluid in it and I drove it home. It is now being towed to Sullivan tire to be looked at.

I am now stuck at home so I guess I have time to start the project that I have mentioned. I hope the needles that I bought are long enough for the stitches and I can get started. I will cake the yarn today and hope that it goes smoothly. Wish me luck at getting started on this today.

Emotional day

Today we laid my 29 year old cousin to rest. It has been a long week for his immediate family. They had a real nice slide show at the funeral parlor and today his brother made an emotional speech at the church. If there was a dry eye in the church there wasn't after that.

Hot Hot Summer

Now that it is almost over Summer has arrived this week. We had to put the A/C's in the windows and take cold showers. It was actually nice to see the sun for so long and feel some heat instead of clouds and rain like we have been having most of the Summer.

There is Hurricane Bill to watch as it comes up the east coast. ( A tropical storm) I think we will get some rain but it won't make land fall here. I am going by the weathermen and we know how they are at predicting weather. A shark has been spotted on the Cape at Chatum Beach. Now things are getting exciting. These are usually the stories we read about all Summer.

I have not done much knitting because it has been very hot in here. I only have AC in one room downstairs. My mind also has not been focused on knitting or reading. My cousins oldest Son ( 29 years old) died unexpectedly this week and I am thinking about her and her family and what they are going through. The wake is on Thursday night.

What a wekend

I had a sleep over at Kelly's on Wednesday night. We had Pasta, salad and garlic bread for dinner. On Thursday Kelly picked up Melissa and the 2 girls ( Bellah 2 years and Haley 5 years) and we headed to Maine. It was Halloween weekend. We stopped at the NH rest stop for a picnic lunch and to stretch. Then we stopped in York Maine at the Wild Animal farm and amusement park. We saw Several species of monkey's, lions tigers and bears oh my. We fed the goats and deer they also fed on Bellah. At the amusement park all of the rides are geared for little kids except the ferris wheel. Haleydid not want to go on the ferris wheel so I took her to ride on a caterpillar ride and we both went on the merry go round. We were at the park 3 and a half hours. We got to the campground after 8 O'clock ate hotdogs and went to bed.

The weekend was fun. Haley was a fairy for Halloween and Bellah a princess, I gave out the candy and then helped with the games up front. Joe arrived on Friday night so I rode home with him on Sunday. The weekend was the best Summer weather we have had all Summer. Hot, Humid and Hazy. We spent Friday and Saturday down by the lake.

I got a little bit of knitting done but not much. I am making placemats for Kelly..she picked out the yarn.

Home again

I have been up in Maine for 3 weeks. Me and my 2 cats. Joe came for 2 weeks. The weather was a mixed bag including some hail. This was the time of year when everyone shows up. It was a busy time. Kelly had a surprise 50th birthday get together for me on Friday July 31st. On Sat Aug. 1 ( my real birthday) We had our annual campers stew day. There was 26 of us this year. We made 6 stews to share. Everyone showed up for the cutting and chopping. Only one grill caught on fire this year. Last year was ours this year my dad's.

This past weekend was Halloween. We had 78 trick or treater's . Then my mother and I were in charge of the food area at the games. We had pretzel sticks dipped in Vanilla, chocolate or strawberry frosting and then covered in sprinkles, popcorn cups and fruit punch. It was sometimes hard to keep up with the demand, but being in the food service profession I handled it. We didn't go in the haunted house, we will next weekend.

In a few days Kelly and Melissa and the girls will be arriving for the second Halloween weekend. I'm not sure if the costumes for them yet it will be a surprise. I will be busy with them here too. We are going to the York wild animal farm in York ME.

I did get some knitting done. I worked on my afghan for the trailer at the beginning of the vacation then the hot weather finally arrived so I switched projects. I made 2 and a half Christmas stockings for the soldiers . I need to have them completed and turned in by October so that they can be filled. I hope to make 2 more out of the yarn I have so that I will have made 4 all together.

I have a lot of projects lined up along with requests so I am staying busy knitting.

Back home

Well I am back home for a while. It was a gorgeous day yesterday to drive home in. Today back to rain. How much longer can this go on? My plants are water logged, my bird seed mush, but my bird bath is always full.

I didn't get as much of my knitting done while in Maine as I had hoped. I did a lot of reading though, something I have not done in a while. I read 5 and a half books in a week and a half. Due to the rain of course. I did buy some yarn though. The stash is getting bigger the project list is longer but the knitting list of completed projects is staying the same.

I am still working on my afghan for the trailer. I'm about a quarter of the way done. It matches the pillows on the sofa great. It will look good there when it is completed.

I have spent the morning on the phone talking to my friends about getting together while I am home for a little while. I do miss my friends when I am gone for any length of time. When you work as closely with people as I do everyday you miss them when you are not around them. I don't miss work just my friends. We are getting together next week for breakfast.

Still have not figured out how to get my photo's here. Believe me I have tried.

Summer??

Where is Summer? It has done nothing but rain since I got out of school. I am at my Summer place in Maine and the weather has not been good. Well there was one day that we got to go to the pool and that was last Friday.

Went up to Bangor with my parents on Monday to Hollywood gambling casino. We had a great time although I still need to go back to work come September. Today we are going about 5-6 miles up the street to a undercover market place which is an indoor flea market. The reason why we are going there is that they have a book nook in the back with over 5000 paper back books for a $1.00.
All well known authors like James Patterson, Nora Roberts, Debbie Macomber.. ETC...

The campground had Chinese weekend this weekend and it was fun for the kids. The best part of the weekend is Trash bag theater. The kids get a trash bag full of different costumes and props and get 1 hour to make up a play. They all do a great Job.

Well time ot go watch the rain fall again.

Schools out for the Summer

Hurray, School is finally out. Even though we only had 2 snow days it seemed like we went to school forever in June. We will start before Labor day next school year which for us will be Sept. 1. I do not like starting before Labor day it feels like I am being cheated out of having the whole Summer.

I have been knitting away on my afghan for the camper. It's a long process but I hope to get it done soon. I brought it up to Maine on the last trip to make sure the color matched and it looked great. I had picked out the color by matching it to a photo that we took of the camper.

I have to tell you all about my trip to Alaska but I want to do it with photos too and I am still trying to figure out how to get them here to the post. I guess I will need to ask for help.

School

It's been a while

Hello, It's been a while since I was here last but it was due to a trip. We went to Alaska on a 7 day cruise out of Vancouver British Columbia. It was the most beautiful cruise that I have been on and this is my 3rd. one. The scenery from day 1 was the best. I will elaborate more when I get my pictures up and running.

Just wanted to check in and tell you all that everything is okay just been on vacation. OH YEA! My vest for Kelly is finished! I completed it on Memorial Day weekend with the help of my sister n law Jan. I sewed it together on Monday night of this week after returning from the cruise.

Okay still have jet lag so need to rest. LOL more details to follow about the great state of Alaska.

Cemetery tour

Nemasket Hill cemetery in Middleboro was conducting tours on Sunday May 25,2009. It is one of the oldest cemeteries in this section of the country. It was obtained through the 26 men's purchase in 1662 from Indian Wampatuck Thomas Southworth.

One of the areas in the cemetery we visited was the resting place of Huldah Pierce Warren Bump otherwise known as Minnie Bump. She was the sister n' law of Tom Thumb. Minnie and her sister Mercy Lavina Warren Bump were part of the P.T. barnum circus. Where Lavinia met and maried Charles Stratten who P. T. Barnum had renamed Tom Thumb. Lavinias height was the height of a yard stick and Minnie only came up to her shoulder.

We also visited some histroic figures graves from Middleboro. One was the RTeverend Samuel Fuller. He became paster of the first congregational church in Middleboro in 1678.. His father was a doctor who took care of the sick on his voyage on the mayflower.

There was also the graves of two men Mr. Wood and Mr. Tinkham. They were one of the first settlers of middleboro. We also visited the graves of Chief Red Blanket and his wife Princess Star Light. They were a part of the Wampanoag ponkapoc nati0n.

It ws a very informative tour. We also planted flowers at the graves of my in-laws. It was a very interesting hour for us. They hope t ogive another tour in the fall and maybe have some more information about some of the other grave sites in the cemetery.

Memorial day weekend

I went camping this past weekend and guess what! With some help from my sister n' law I am 95% done with my vest. The knitting is all completed it just needs to be sewn together. I am so grateful for the help to get this completed. I learned how to pick up stitches and they were hard due to the bobble stitch pattern. It looks like a vest now!

On Sunday me, Joe Jim and Jan went on a field trip. I had read in the local newspaper that the cemetery where Joe and Jim's parents are buried was having a tour of the cemetery. It has some really old stones there dating back to the 1600's. Indian burials too. One was chief Red Blanket and his wife Star light. Although those graves were not that old. He died in 1990. Also there was the sister n'law to Tom Thumb, her name was Minnie. She was smaller than a yard stick. They also described some simbles on the stones and their meanings. I will elaborate on this tour more when I find the map in my suitcase.

So much to do

There is so much to do in the next few weeks that my head is spinning. Before I get into that we had a nice visit with my parents. short but sweet. They didn't get to stay as long as they had hoped due to a mail mix up. Their bills were forwarded to Maine a lot sooner than they were suppose to so my folks needed to get up there and send them out.

We spent a nice weekend together going out to dinner, Breakfast and gambling. The 5 of us spent Saturday at Twin Rivers in R.I. gambling. We all did well but no one won big. We decided that my parents would return the week that we are in Alaska. They can stay with the cats and visit all of their friends and relatives then. The weekend they were here we spent totally together. It is a nice compromise. We got their undivided attention and then the next visit will be with others and our cats have company.

Now to the packing. We have a very busy Memorial day weekend and then the trip. I wish I didn't work but if it wasn't for that I would not be taking a trip to Alaska, so there goes that idea! So work and pack and plan for the next few weeks.

Arriving soon

Waiting for my parents to arrive from Florida this week. They will arrive here on Thursday and stay for a few days to visit with friends and family. Then they will head to their place up in Maine. We have gone up there twice all ready and have everything set for them to move right in .

I had a nice Mother's day. Went to Maine on Saturday morning after going out to breakfast. We arrived there around 10:30 AM. Relaxed the rest of the day. Went down to the lake to see what we could see. The mother eagle was in the nest with the baby (or 2) and the dad eagle was in a near by tree. We saw a Baltimore oriole, a yellow finch and a hairy woodpecker. He wasn't really hairy but that is what he is called. I practiced using our new video camera that Kelly gave us for our trip to Alaska. I did okay filming but still need practice. I did some knitting and Joe went fishing. We went out to dinner near by and the went to the bonfire at the campground.

On Mother's day morning Joe got up early and helped cook the Mother's day breakfast of Bacon, pancakes champagne and OJ. It was served to the mothers by the kids in the campground. The guys did a great job cooking. Joe left a gift for me to open in the trailer kitchen. It was a necklace and earring set. Round, gold and pictures of kitties. I wore it to breakfast so that he knew that I opened ti and loved it.



We went to lunch at a local restaurant and then headed home at around 2:00PM. it was a rainy start to the ride home but as we drove south it was getting brighter and sunnier and themps rose from the 40's to the 70's.

All in all it was a great weekend.

Opening day

Went to Maine on Friday straight from work to open up the new trailer. Everything was in fine working order. We were so looking forward to getting it opened up. It was like a whirl wind last Sept. when we brought it up there and threw everything in cabinets and then 2 weeks later had to unpack everything and close it up.

We also opened up Mom and dad's trailer. They had a lot of little visitors in there this winter making themselves comfortable. Everything in there is in working order too. Their screen room is attached and their furniture is all uncovered and set in it's places.

I brought up my knitting but didn't get a chance to work on it. I have decided t o try a different afghan because I had started over the so many times with the pattern that I picked I gave up and decided t o try a different one with less YO's and not as many sticitches. Still working on the vest. Actually I have not worked on it in weeks. I will soon.

What a week...

Well I did not get everything accomplished that I had hoped this week. I did get my parents room somewhat cleaned out for them but there is still a few more things to move out of there, Like a big TV box. I got the symptoms of a cold Tuesday night along with my pinched nerve aching again. The cold stayed with me all week in fact I still am clogged and sneezing. It is kind of like one hour blowing my nose like crazy the next stuffed up and can't breath. Taking medicines for both and nothing is working. It slowed me down considerably.

Back to work tomorrow and not looking forward to it. I still don't feel good and my pinched nerve is still bothering me. In order to stay home I would have to go to the Dr.s and get a note. No way am I paying a co payment for them to tell me what I all ready know. I hate this new rule about no paid sick days before or after a holiday or vacation. It's aggravating that people that abused the system have made it hard for the rest of us.

I got absolutely no where this week in my knitting. I again am starting the afghan over. My vest did not have a mistake after all so that is the good news. I ahve not had a good knitting week due t omy cold and I got NO WHERE ON IT!

Well there is always next week when I am tired from working and can knit mistakes due to sleeping instead of not feeling well.

The weather this weekend has been Summer like. High 80's. and sunny. Not that I want ot complain but it got too hot too fast. I like Spring and in the 70's for a while and gradually work my way up to the 80's and then 90's. It is suppose to cool down a little bit this week back into the 60's. Where are the 70's?

A week from work

Well it's been a pleasure not going to work this week. I don't miss work at all, just my friends there.

It hasn't been a busy week, actually it has been very relaxing. Other than the dentist appointment but that only took 15 minutes. I have gone to breakfast and lunch and dinner with friends and family. Today am trying anew restaurant that just opened up a month ago. I am meeting 2 of my SIL. I am bringing some knitting that needs to be fixed as one of them has been knitting for a really long time and helps me out a lot with mistakes.

I tried fixing my own mistake this time. On my afghan for the new trailer. It was a row of YO. K2tog, and PSSO. I was fine figuring out how to pick up all of the stitiches except the PSSO and now I am short 4 stitches. UGH!! I am also bringing the vest. That is still giving me problems.

Vacation time

YAHOO! It's vacation week. Not much planned but still to be away from work will be great!

I am have few lunch dates and only one DR. appointment. The dentist! YUCK! I am hoping to pop in and see my old bowling group. I miss bowling so much but work got in the way.

Not much to say but just chceking to see if my time is right now.

Easter Sunday

Had a wonderful Easter. Started in the morning with Kelly meeting us for church. It had been a while since she had joined us. Since she moved she does not come with us as often and I realized today how much I miss her being there with us.

We went to dinner with my aunt, uncle and cousin to a local restaurant. We had a delicious ham dinner with all of the fixings. We had entertainment by the chef, He was a lot of fun. We ended by having dessert at my aunts house. I talked to my parents on the phone a house full down there. I like knowing that they are not celebrating the holidays alone.

Saturday I went out and bought some yarn that hopefully will match my camper in Maine to make an afghan for one of the sofa's. I was thinking of trying to match the lavender that is throughout the camper but we found a green that matched matches ( I hope) the leaf pattern in the sofa. I am excited to get started on that project.

Knitting class starts up again for 10 weeks on the 13th of April. I love going to the class and knowing that it is my time set aside for knitting each week.

Darn it

I mailed off my mother's tote bag with out taking a photograph of it. UGH!! I guess I will have to make another one down the road! I was so excited to have finished it and get it off to her that it was all boxed up and taped when I remembered the picture.

I have put the vest aside. I am apparently doing something wrong because I keep ending up on the reverse side of the vest. I need someone to sit by me and watch to see where I am going wrong. I will start a new project and give that one a rest until I get help. I have so many things lined up to do I will never have nothing to knit.

I found a bag upstairs filled with yarn a friend gave me a while ago. There are needles and a started project from her. In the bag was also a couple of books. One is afghans for knitting the other is a learn to Crochet book. Don't worry for now I have my hands full with trying to learn all there is about knitting.

Finished 2 projects

The tote bag for my mother is finally done. It is all put together and felted. I plan on sending it to her this week. I also finished a dish cloth with the design of a light house in it. It was suppose to be a Christmas gift for an aunt and uncle but it gave me such trouble I had to put it down.

The vest is still challenging me. I am twisting it somehow and the stitches are getting reversed. I will keep plugging along on that project.

I need to figure out how to post sosme pictures here of the things I am talking about. I will tackle that soon.

Scrap booking went well

Had a really fun time at the scrap book weekend. I got a lot done. One of the reasons it was so much fun was because I am working on the section of Kelly's book which included her graduation from Pre -school and her second dance recital. They were a lot of fun to look back on. She was so adorable back then. With her pig tails and toothless smile. I got about a dozen pages done. They are all decorated and journaled. This album is coming along very nicely.

There is workshop this Wed.where I plan on organizing my stickers and paper. I have so much stuff, I try and keep it organized but there are times when it all gets away from me. I can intertwine my scrap booking stuff with my stamping stuff. Like using the tools , templetes, paper and punches from both. Knitting doesn't really come into play with that stuff so it is kept seperate and is organized differently.

The weekend

I am getting packed to attend an overnight at a local hotel for scrap booking. There are about 20 of us going. This is our second one this year the other was in January. That one I stayed over Friday and Sat. nights but his one I am doing just the one night ( sat) and 2 days. I like scrap booking very much but it gets over whelming to have to bring out so much of the stuff to complete just one page. I like the weekends because you get your own long table and can set everything up and keep it up for the entire weekend. I get so much done. The once a month workshops are not as desirable for me because there is too much to lug to and from for a couple hours of scrapping.


I am so far behind in my knitting projects I wish I could bring that instead. I finished all of the pieces for the tote bag. The bag, and the 2 handles. Now it all needs to be sewn together and felted then it can be shipped to FLA. I still have to complete the vest. I am working on the left front shoulder. That too will have to be all sewn together when completed. Not sure if there is a special stitch for doing the seams. Will have to check on that.

It's been a hard week at school. A 16 year old boy died on Friday from injuries after a motor cycle accident. He was known and loved by many. He was also my bosses neighbor so she took it hard. The funeral was yesterday and today his siblings were back in school. Also a former student died this week after car accident. My daughter knew him..principal and teachers spoke highly of him. It's just been a tragic week. I hope next week turns out to be better.

Well on my way again

I had e-mailed the Plymouth Yarn Company that I got the pattern from and they got back to me with a reply that was really no help at all.

I took my vest to the class tonight and the instructor got me back on track with it. I still don't know where things went wrong or hoe to get it right the next time but I am back on track. I don't think the instructor knew exactly the problem either. She just backed me up until the correct amount of stitches were on the needle.

It still will not be done by Easter but at least I can work on it again. The class is not getting together again until after Easter..so there goes that. I feel good that I am nearing the end of this project which was a bit much for me to do as a beginner.

Having a disppointing day

I am attempting to make my first vest for an adult. Actually it is my first piece of clothing that I am knitting. Just before the neck line I had to decrease for 16 rows yet follow the pattern. Well in the end the number of stitches did not add up correctly. I need to knit a swatch now and see if I can find out what went wrong.

I am disappointed because I was trying to get to a certain point in the vest for my last knitting class. Now a lot of it will have to be taken out and redone. I guess it won't be done in time for Easter. Sorry K.

On a good note. It's not snowing out and the sun is shining. My bushes are trying to bud. W e are well on our way to Spring!

Knitting

I have finally finished the bottom half of the tote bag I am making for my mother for her birthday. It needs to be sewn together at the seams. I am now working on the handles. The main part of the tote bag was long and boring. It was all stockinette stitch. Which is knit one row purl the next row for 240 rows. The handle will be the same only less stitches and only 140 rows. Then I will have to attach the 2 handles to the tote bag.

The bag is made out of wool yarn..it will be put in the washer in hot water to get it to shrink and felt. Then the dryer for a few minutes. It will come out all fuzzy. I hope she will like it.

I am late for her birthday it was March 8th. I did tell her I was making something for her but I was behind in my knitting projects.