I'm Getting Old

Having a blast with my 7 year old niece visiting for a few days. But I'm discovering I don't have the same amount of energy as when my own kids were that age. (What's up with that??!!??) I'm working on the magazine while she watches Willie Wonka with her cousins, so I'll just post this pic of her and her brother outside their dad's office yesterday when I picked her up. (And I might add that my little bro's office complex is quite swanky indeed!!)

On This Day in 1917

Today is my grandmother's 92 birthday. Here's a photo of her, my mother, my sister (the younger cutie on the left) and me (matching dress, on the right) ready to go to the Mother-Daughter banquet at church in May, 1970.



I believe my mom is using me to camoflauge the fact she is pregnant with my brother who was born in October of 1970.

My grandma is one of 13 children who survived, all of whom were older than her except for one sister. All of her siblings have passed away. She had three children of her own, my mother and her two brothers (one now deceased). Altogether grandma has six grandchildren and eleven great-grandchildren.

Happy 92nd Birthday!

A Trip To the Orchard

(of course there were apples, cider and fudge as well....but those were the boring parts for the youngins....)

It's June (Finally!)

Ok, way back in February or March we realized that May was simply going to be "graduation" MONTH at our house. Between family and friends and our own events, there were several "graduation" events (rites, ceremonies, festivities, etc.) each week in May.

We had our party this past weekend. We had it at the county park just north of town. They have a WONDERFUL shelter there with a small kitchen, fireplace, lots of tables & chairs and AC!! The day included:

Memories. . . .



Family. . . .




Lots of Friends (way more than I can put on here). . . .






Some Teachers. . . .



Food & Conversation. . . .



. . . . and generally a good time for all!

We ended up buying WAAAAAY too much food. (Live and learn....won't have to cook this week as we consume sandwiches and cupcakes!)

We're tired but very happy to have given her a party and chance to say thanks to all her friends and family who have supported her throughout these 13 years of school.

And now I assume life will get back into a more "normal" rhythm, which will hopefully include my regularly scheduled knitting and photography!

[On that note: I have purchased Lisbeth Upitis' book on Latvian mittens which I hope to make for some of the women in the family for Christmas. Keep your fingers crossed and wish me luck!]



[Also I was out earlier today with the Federated Garden Club shooting photos for an upcoming issue r.e. their garden tour in July and enjoyed shooting some fun garden photos.]




Happy Knitting & Shooting!

Back From the Edge

Yes, I took a trip to the edge, both metaphorically and literally.

First, the metaphorical....

I had a bit of a rough patch at work last week, and while I thought blogging might help, I ultimately decided to delete the posts. In hindsight, I'm sure this was the prudent (if not kind) thing to do.

'Nuf said.

As for my literal trip to the edge, we traveled to the edge of our state this past week end in order to attend three family graduations.



While this may look like an ordinary graduation memory, it's really quite a special and extraordinary moment. This is my baby brother (who is a good 6" taller than me!) and his wife. They graduated with their accounting degrees this past weekend. What the first photo doesn't show is the reality of how they did it . . .




. . . while raising two little ones and working full time as the night manager of a local hotel. I couldn't be more proud of them!!!!! They deserve a TON of accolades and kudos and bravos on a job well done.

Love you guys!!

Also, my nephew graduated from high school this past weekend as well. He's off to finish up some military training with the army this summer and will graduate from AIT at the end of the summer. He is a fine young man and I'm very proud of him as well. Way to go N!!!!!!!

To top off an already joyous weekend, I received my Reducio Swap package over the weekend! Look at these goodies!!!!!............



It arrived all the way from Connecticut and had some WONDERFUL stuff tucked inside!

A mandrake (passed out a couple times before I got the poor thing potted!) per the herbology assignment.

A cute pedicure/sandals sock in Ravenclaw colors. (Love that it goes with summer! It's 90* here today, so the open toe is well appreciated!)

Some lovely hand-made stitch markers.

An uber-cool Gryffindor bag which is now my knitting tools/trinkets bag!

Some delicious chocolate in favorite flavors.....(also handy if dementors attack!)

And la piece de resistance . . . some mohair roving procured at a local fiber festival and tucked in for me to spin on my spindle!! (How totally awesome is that?!?!!)

I can't thank my swap partner enough!!
Knitters are such great people!!

These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things

Christmas was extremely kind to me considering I wasn't really in the spirit this year. (I still can't believe we didn't put up a tree.......) Look at these wonderful gifts I received!

How many women are lucky enough to have their husband go into a yarn shop while on summer vacation in hopes of purchasing a memory to give at Christmas and unwrap this:



It's a gorgeous suri alpaca/merino blend, specially dyed there in Colorado. I wish you could feel it. It's to die for. Really. Good job hon!

My kids got me two things I LOVE: Starbucks and Crayola Crayons. (Everyone needs a new box of colors every now and then. I ended up with 120 different colors! Yeah!!)





My SIL in Ohio has ventured into making jewelry and she designed this gorgeous necklace just for me! It's made up of my favorite colors and will go with half my wardrobe! I love it!




Thanks T!!!! I got the chance to sit and visit with her for over an hour and it was so nice to reconnect again. That was one of my best parts of Christmas...and when I think about it may have been a turning point in the whole holiday for me as I felt so much lighter and happier after seeing her. I think she was my Christmas angel.

Other items that make the highlight list of gifts received: Delicious homebaked goodies from my sister, my other SIL in WI, and my friend from college; a fun Wii game of Mini-golf that we have all been enjoying immensely; a new pair of Crocs I can wear in the snow; several hugs from my niece; time spent with nephews; yummy chili my step-dad made; lots of letters from family and friends.

In the end it is the relationships I am most thankful for. While some of them remain a bit tenuous for now, others saw some progress toward healing, for which I am most grateful.

May 2009 be full of favorite things: friends, family, knitting and photos!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving has come and gone once more. We had a delicious dinner at home on Thursday. Amanda worked the 5:30 am stampede at Target while the rest of us dispersed to other shopping destinations on Friday. Finally wrapped up and got home about 5:30 pm. Went to my sister's on Saturday and enjoyed extended family time with sibs and step-dad. Jeff was there and it was really nice to see him again. Here are some pics of the event!



We had just finished playing "Would You Rather" which Jeremy won by letting Sara draw a mustache and glasses on his face with an eye liner. (You had to be there.) He is not a Malawi warrior.

Gratuitous kid pics:








All in all I'd say that was a much better way to spend Saturday than in the Emergency Room, which almost happened. (But that's a story for another time and place.)

We drove home in heavy fog and drizzle, but thankfully the roads didn't get slippery. We got about 1/2 inch of snow on Sunday and the cold air is settling in.

Only 24 days until Christmas!

Cute Kids

I drove over to my brother's house, about 2 hours away, on Saturday in order to take some photos of his adorable kids. They are so cute and such sweethearts! I thought I'd share my favorites from the photoshoot.

This is my niece who will be five years old in January.




And this is her brother who is 18 months old.




I had fun doing it and my sister-in-law made delicious spaghetti for lunch! My niece wanted me to stay longer and watch a movie with her, but we needed to head home again. I also enjoyed spending time with my own son coming and going and he enjoyed playing with cousins.

Super Hero Saturday (or Farewell to Nathan)

My sister gathered a bunch of us together on Saturday to wish my nephew a fond farewell as he heads off to boot camp next week. He will be going to training for the Army down in Oklahoma next week and will return in early August. Fortunately, in addition to my nephew who is following his calling to military service, our gathering included a couple other Super Heroes from our family:

Sunshine Boy



and

Bubble Girl



When they aren't pursuing their super hero roles, they are - in "normal" life - my brother's kids.



In the background there you can spot my sister's youngest as well. (She's got three boys, the oldest of which just turned 17 in March and was the center of the festivities!)



As you might detect the youngest of my brother's children also has a second characteristic: he loves cookies! (Ok, this may be simply a family/genetic trait as most of us in the family tend to like cookies. It's quite possible he is surrounded completely by enablers in this area. Hopefully he will develop relationships with fruit lovers as he grows and makes his own friends and romantic connections.)

As you can see, this little corner of the world has finally turned green and decided to bloom.....YEAH! It was a perfect day filled with too much food, lots of sunshine, watching kids play together, too much food, and a beautiful "breeze" (stiff wind is more the truth, but it was lovely nonetheless!)

I hope Nathan has a good summer. I hope that this choice is just the right thing for him. I hope he knows he starts this venture with lots of family who love him and want him to succeed. We'll be thinking of you all summer!

In Memorium

For the longest time as I grew up I believed that everyone has an "Uncle Bob". Robert is a fairly common name....and nearly all my friends had someone in their family who they referred to as their "Uncle Bob".

My Uncle Bob passed away yeseterday, Monday, April 28.

Even though it seemed everyone I knew had (or has) an Uncle Bob, mine was special because he was....well, mine.

This is a photo of me and him taken in 1969 when I was three years old and he was 21 or 22 yrs. old. He served in Vietnam in the U.S. Army.....I think this is a photo of him after graduating from boot camp, ready to deploy to the war in Vietnam. He was just a kid, as were so many who went. In this photo I can see that my cousin looks an awful lot like his dad.

My Uncle Bob loved cars. He built his own hot rod from the ground up. He liked to fish. He liked playing games. He liked going for rides. He took me to my first demolition derby at the Monona County Fairgrounds. I always pictured him as a sort of James Dean, Rebel Without a Cause type guy.

Once our family went camping with both my uncles and their families. I remember we went to a local amusement park for entertainment one day. Somehow my Uncle Bob talked me into going on the rollercoaster with him. It was great! Scary, but exhilerating! Then we went on a ride called "The Flying Bobs". The seats were shaped like bob sleds which went up and down slight hills as they went around and around.

Being the kid prone to car sickness, this was not the best choice. I managed to hold my own (and the contents of my stomach) out of sheer concentration and will power for part of the ride. But then they kicked the thing into reverse.

Not even Uncle Bob had been counting on that.

We all came off that ride sicker than dogs (whatever that means!) While I was nauseous and had to sit down, Uncle Bob was out for the count. He was green. I think he even threw up. He had to lay down on the ground, then in the back of our station wagon. I remember the rest of the day being pretty slow-paced. Even a game of horseshoes at the campground might have been too much.

He and my Aunt Pat started their family a bit later in life. They have one son, Jim who has a 2 year old and another on the way. My Uncle enjoyed being a dad and was thrilled about being a grandparent. (He always lit up when there were young ones around to tease.) He had that certain twinkle in his eye.

These past few years he had many health concerns. Some of it was diabetes. Some related perhaps to Agent Orange exposure in Vietnam. He had been on dialysis too.

He was only 60 years old.

We'll miss you Uncle Bob!

Holiday Get-Togethers

Everyone should be so lucky as to spend time together with aunts, uncles, cousins....the whole gang!....over the holidays. You learn things about who you are, what it means to be a part of a family and something bigger than yourself, and the world in general.

Happy Holidays and may 2008 turn out to be great!

Neopolitan Socks

Well, I've completed my first pair of totally made-up-on-the-fly socks. I learned to knit toe-up socks specifically so that I might one day make a pair with the toes and heel in a color different from the rest of the sock. I took it one step further and added stripes, etc. And I intentionally made them to not be twins. Here they are:




I call them "Neopolitan Socks" because the color combination reminds me of Neopolitan ice cream. I love the combination of pink and brown! I used Pallette from Knit Picks and size US#0 needles. What I did learn from this first attempt is that where I made the color joins to switch stripes the socks have a little less "give" in the ribbing due to my attempt to make sure no holes developed. Live and learn. I have enough yarn that I think I may make a third sock so that a person can grab any 2 of the 3 to wear. I think they're fun!

One a non-knitting note: I had the pleasure of seeing my nephews from Ohio over the Thanksgiving weekend. This is them:



They are really growing up quickly! We were all really happy to see them and I had a lot of fun visiting with them. (Ok, well one of them was involved more with wrestling cousins than talking, but that's ok too!!) I have to say I've loved every stage of parenting, but I'm finding this stage where the kids turn into teens really cool. I love to hear their opinions and views. I find them immensely interesting. I really love seeing their humor develop and watching them blossom. It's a whole different sort of relationship with teens. Very cool. (Although I do wish I could save them the growing pains and inevitable heartaches that have helped each of us get to where/who we are today.....I guess that's just part of life and they have to go through it too. It's interesting to me how they process that kind of thing and what remarkable courage and strength of character they have!)

Anyway....

I'm teaching a small group of gals to do socks at knitting tomorrow. Wish me luck!
Happy Knitting!