Graduations, Stress & Friday Ramblings

We have had 2 more events this week regarding schooling.  This time it was 2 of the grandchildren.  Our 12 year old granddaughter had her 6th grade promotion on Wednesday evening and then our 14 year old grandson had his 8th grade graduation on Thursday evening.

I got a very unexpected call on Wednesday that put us in a bit of panic, but now that we have all had a chance to breath, it's something that while it will take a bit to resolve, seems to be manageable!  The grandkids are probably not going to be happy, but I have decided not to go to the James family reunion this year.  I hope to still see my 2 aunts & my uncle soon, but will probably just have to go to see them at a later time.  This requires my attention now more than a trip that I might want to take.

Today started out smelling like it was going to rain, but nothing has happened so far.  There is a breeze though.  It has finally made it up to 81 degrees.  I put a roast on to make bbq beef sandwiches for dinner, which still sound good, but not quite as good as when it was only 70 degrees out!

We are planning a gathering here on Monday of the local kids & grandkids!  I still need to do a little bit of shopping for it, but at least got more briquets & starter fluid last night while I stopped to get the cats & dogs more food.  The cats had been totally out, the dogs still had some, but I figured I would just take care of both while I was at it.

I need to go to the cemeteries either today or tomorrow.  I just can't do it Monday - too many memories to handle doing it by myself.  Memorial Day 1986 is the last day I saw my Daddy alive!  Next Friday is 26 years since his death.  I was almost 27 years old the day he died, which makes it hard to believe that he has been gone almost 1/2 my life now!  In just 5 years I will be the age he was when he died!

Last night - after the 8th grade graduation, the granddaughters & I went to E. & I.'s home for some fun & games.  I. went shopping with me before I got there & so we had an evening of movies, Simpson's Clue, chips, Mounds & Twizzlers!  I. has said that she will attempt to learn Monopoly on Monday while we have our family bbq at our house.  Now to decide if we will do Hutchopoly, K-State, Millenium, Las Vegas, Elvis, Rudolph, Scooby-Doo or Disney Monopoly!  And I may have even missed 1 or 2 that I have!  Can you tell we like to play Monopoly?  E. says he has a Simpson's Monopoly as well & I know that D. & J. have a reproduction original.

 It looks like I. will get a different car within about a week, which I know she will like.  We thought we had a problem on making it happen right away, but figured out a solution!  When family sticks together, that is how it is - a solution can be found to just about everything!  It may not always be the one we want, but it can work!  That is something that my mother never really got the message on when she tried to keep the family divided!

I believe the grandkids leave for spend the weekend with another set of their grandparents today.  I hope they have a great time, but I really hope they don't forget the sunscreen this year or at least to use it!  Last year C. had a whopper of a sunburn!  I think she is like me - I can get a 2nd degree on my back for instance in about 20 minutes!  So I avoid full on sun every chance I get.

Have fun, have a great weekend, don't forget those have served our country so that we may be free & Happy Crafting!

Tuesday ramblings

Well, I found out from another family member that G. must have taken his pain meds slept right on through his plans to visit us, not waking up until yesterday.  I can't imagine doing that!  The closest I can come to it was once when I was working in a nursing home near me & worked something like 12 days straight in the summer when I was already mostly napping all day so that I could also take my 3 kids to their summer activities.  When I got a day off, I slept something like 21 out of 24 hours!

After my nap yesterday the issues with my left arm cleared up.  I still have no idea why it was aching, but it did stop.  Which I was glad of.

I feel like I am being slow in my knitting this week, but then I stop & think - I have 3 active projects I am working on!  I did finish except for weaving in the ends the 1st sock of 2 different pairs of baby socks.  I had never made baby socks before, so was not sure how much yarn would actually be needed.  I still don't, but I have cast on for the 2nd sock of each.  And I crocheted several rounds on the 1st of 2 more baby afghans.  With just another 4 rows, I will have the wedding afghan 1/4 the way done.  I still am not fond of the yarn I am using, but it is what I have.  I have had so much trouble with it splitting & then me not finding it until the next row.

Through a conversation with D. I found out that I. was able to sell her old car recently for a price that I believe she is happy with.  So now she is ready to see about buying a different car, although I know it will be different than what she was actually looking at a couple months back with him.  I know D. will feel a bit better about it since he was worried about how old her car was.


I'm waiting on a call back from the dog groomer.  I would like to get my 2 poms in for a summer haircut before we head out to a family reunion on June 1st.  Not sure how I feel about an out of state trip starting on June 1st though.  My step-dad passed away 26 years ago on June 1st, which was a Sunday that year & the last time I had seen him had been the previous Monday - Memorial Day.  I always get a bit emotional that particular week!  But the good part is that we would start off driving to 1 of his 2 remaining sisters homes.  Don't know if we will see both of his sisters or not though.  It's not really our family's reunion, but these 2 sisters both married a James brother, who are distantly related to the outlaws - Frank & Jesse James.  I felt a little odd about even thinking of going, even though I had been invited many times by my 1 uncle, but when I talked to him a bit about that he told me that even though I wasn't a James, I was related by marriage to many who were!  The pictures are from a visit I had with these aunts, uncle & cousins a couple months back at my cousin P. home.

I finally picked up a frame to use for the grandkids school pictures.  I had seen 1 that I liked at Hobby Lobby, but they wanted $30 for it & that's a bit much for me at the moment.  So instead I found a frame that is about 16 x 20 that I can insert other pictures into as well as it's divided into multiple spaces.  Now to get either snapshots of the other 2 granddaughters or see about getting some portraits of them since it seems their mom doesn't buy the school pictures & dad doesn't either.  Not sure, but I think he could if he contacted the group that does them.  But that's not my call, so I will stay out of it.  I just want pictures!


Have fun & Happy Crafting until the next time!

Monday

It's Monday!  A day that most of us don't like to see come around.  I'm not to certain I like it this week!  I think I must have slept wrong last night because today my left arm feels weird.  The area just above my wrist is sore & achy & I don't know why!  Maybe I will get my foot tub, put some warm water in it & try a soak to see if that helps!  Of course, that will be annoying since while I am doing that, I won't be able to knit or crochet, etc.

I have a feeling it could be related to the fact that I am also annoyed a bit a the moment!  A family member had asked before the weekend if it would be all right to stay here last night so that we could spend some time visiting while they were in town & they wouldn't have to pay for a motel room.  I said yes, just asked that they not come until after 5 pm when the grandkids usually go home.  So since my dh was busy working on his vehicle & didn't want to take the time away from that to drive C. home for me, I called my oldest daughter to ask if they could come pick her up from me instead.  So J. arrived to get her & I started organizing dinner for 4.  The family member never showed up & hasn't called or texted to say they were not coming!  I sent a text this morning & so far have not heard anything back.  I know that this side of my family don't share my feelings of setting a time for when you will arrive & then sticking to it.  I don't know where the difference ever came in since we were all raised in the same home.  I feel doing so is respectful of the other person's feelings, time, etc.  So while I am not one to arrive way early for something, I usually try to arrive within a few minutes of when I say I will be somewhere.  If it is to a job, then I try to be there 3-4 minutes before time to start work.  I think that might come from in the past when we weren't allowed to clock in until 3 minutes before our scheduled time.  But I also know I did it as a young teen.  I was a child that dealt with bullying.  I had very low self-esteem as a result of this & when I got to Jr. High (they call it middle school now) I had it timed as to when I had to leave home to walk to school.  If I was at the stoplight waiting for the walk light to appear when the 1st bell sounded for class & everyone started entering the school, then I would have just enough time to get across the street, up the stairs & into my seat before the 2nd bell sounded.  I think it was 5 minutes.  But I didn't want to stand outside with all the other kids & risk being made fun of or beaten up & this was my way of coping.

It's the end of another year of school in our area this week!  Last Thursday 2 of our grandchildren were involved in an end of the year band concert.  Our grandson T. is finishing 8th grade.  Our oldest granddaughter A. is finishing 6th grade.  Both play brass instruments.  At the time they each started 5th grade in other school districts, the band was the only option for this type of activity.  This school year they have been in a school district that has both band & orchestra.  This is the school district that I went through when I was in school.  I had played the viola for a short period of time.  My own children went to the district that I now live in that is a neighboring district to the one I attended growing up.  The district my children went through only had band & it is the district that my grandson attended when he started 5th grade.  Then they had moved to a different district by the time my granddaughter was starting 5th grade.  At the time each of these grandchildren started band, their family had some financial issues that might have made a difference in them being able to participate, so I made the decision to be the one to buy them their 1st instrument.  After buying the 1st, then I feel to treat all grandchildren alike, I need to continue.  Not all people agree, but my feeling is that I don't want any of the grandchildren to feel that someone else is my favorite - if anything, I want them each to feel they are my favorite, if only at the time I am with that child!  Anyway, we have 2 grandchildren down & 3 to go at this point.  The new district that 3 of the grandchildren attend has students starting band or orchestra in 6th grade now instead of 5th.  And I believe that is the same for the other 2 granddaughters.  So that means, I don't need to buy any this year!  And no new grandchildren will be starting band this next fall.  But the 2 that are in band, had a joint 6-12 grade concert last Thursday evening that we attended!  I had the though while listening to them that I wondered how many of the parents & grandparents that were there were people I went through school with.  I know my daughter D. mentioned that 1 of the band directors was someone she had attended college with!  This wouldn't even be a thought if I didn't live within minutes of the same area I moved to when I was just 2 years old!

On May 12th our 2nd child graduated college with his bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering!  That same day a 2nd child's spouse graduated in a different state from medical school.  This was his 2nd time graduating & he is off to his end career!  We stayed close to home, spent time with in-laws & attended our child's graduation.  I made 2 cakes for the family for this - the mortarboard cake is a devils food cake & the white cake is a sugar free cake with my fil in mind in particular.  My in-laws were only in the area for 2 days, so we tried to spend as much time as possible with them.  While doing this, we realized we had 4 generations of my dh's family in 1 place at 1 time, so we decided to get some pictures of it!

I took a break from the computer & had a nap.  My mouse wasn't working quite right, my arm was hurting & I got frustrated.  Now everything seems to be working better!  Left-overs for dinner since the company never arrived yesterday, so that makes that part easy!  I think I will just have a quiet evening with some needlework & TV.  Hope everyone had a great Monday!

Have fun & Happy Crafting until the next time!

A New Start

It's been a while since I blogged & I decided to start over totally fresh!  It's been a quiet weekend with 1 of my grandchildren.  It was C's 10th birthday this weekend & she wanted to make sure that nothing changed that when she found it out.  We rented 3 movies from RedBox - Treasure Buddies, Barbie in a Mermaid Tale 2 & We Bought A Zoo.  Then we got out our knitting!  She chose to buy some fun fur yarn when we visited Hobby Lobby to use on the knitting machine to make a scarf.  Originally she wanted to use her plastic Singer circular machine/loom, but she kept having issues with it.  So we finally got out my Bond Fashion Knitter & set her up to knit on 11 needles.  That worked pretty good for her.

For me - I have several projects going at the moment.  I am making an afghan for an August wedding in crochet.  I have 2 pair of socks for the grandkids Christmas gifts of the needles.  I had the granddaughter try on the 1 pair & she wants the ribbing to be about another inch longer, then I will bind off those.  That gives me measurements to use also for her oldest sister since they wear nearly the same size shoes.  I decided to try making some baby socks as well - it's the first time I have ever followed a pattern for the socks I make, so it has been interesting & they are just so darn cute!  I also hae a couple baby afghans going.  One I have a recipient in mind, but the other is just to have on hand finished in case I need a gift.  I have about 4 shawls in the works as well as about 6 pair of socks for myself.  I want to try to get at least the 5 grandkids their socks & 1 of the shawls done before Christmas.

I recently finished a shawl & gave it away to a niece.  She had mentioned one day that she would love to have a fine lace piece & I just happened to have just started working on the Sugar Plum Fairy shawl project by Bad Cat Designs & it was in a color I was sure she would like!  Here is my version of that shawl:

We had thunderstorms in our area last night & at least 1 tornado was spotted, but it was a ways away from us.  I kind of enjoyed the drop in the temperature that came with it, but as the granddaughter said - it also will be more humid again because of the rain.  But it is only mid-May & our front yard is already mostly brown here in central Kansas!  That's about 2 months earlier than normal, but then I also read where a friend on Facebook says that she saw a combine harvesting a wheat field near here this weekend!  And that is quite early as well!

Well, going to get off here.  Waiting for a family member & his wife to arrive.  They plan to spend the night here while they are in town & they are supposed to have a new toy for me to play with when they come!

Have fun & Happy Crafting until the next time!