It's still a heat wave.....

Although the thermometer was a little lower yesterday I think!  There was rain all around Kansas the night before last, but I think we only got 0.007" of it.  Not enough to really count in my opinion.  But as I keep telling myself & the dogs - it won't be long!  It will cool off a bit & maybe even rain again!  It is so very dry around here right now!

My dh has been off work this week with a plant shut down happening.  So he is now darker, but with a bit of a reddish tinge from working outside all week.  We have just about 1 acre of land & he has been trimming trees, etc.  He's gone to the dump a time or two.  The last couple of days I have gotten almost hourly reports of some hawks that have decided he is doing something wrong.  He thinks it might be a mother & her babies, but there are 4 of them.  At first it was the biggest one almost dive-bombing him.  Now yesterday he called me to tell me they were even following his van as he moved around the yard with his trailer attached & even down the road as he left the yard!  So every so often, he gives us & comes in to just take a nap.

He has also gotten in to get his eyes checked and is in the process of getting new glasses.  About 3 years ago, he had cataract surgery on both eyes and so there are some changes.  Recently he talked about not being able to see everything he wanted while driving.  Our prescriptions are not too far apart, although his eyes are a little worse than mine.  A few years ago, I was working at a company where the outside doors were kept locked & for various reasons, I also needed to be able to see which phone line was ringing when I was a distance from my desk before I answered.  But if I am wearing glasses for distance, I couldn't see what I needed to read or the computer screen in front of me.  So I had a pair of trifocals made to use at work.  So when D. started talking about what he wanted to see, I had him try driving with my trifocals.  He liked them, so has decided to get his own.  So right now, he is down having 1 of the fittings done that he is going to need to do to also get them done as a pair of safety glasses for work.

I did finally finish the socks I had started on July 5th for my mil.  My dh will get attending a family wedding in the Seattle, WA area in mid-August and his mother lives in the area and it will be her 84th birthday the day he flies home.  So I wanted to send something with him for her.  I am still deciding if I will make the soles non-skid so that she can wear them as slippers socks.  They are made with worsted weight Cascade Pacific and so I think they are too thick to wear comfortably in shoes.  But I would hate for her to fall & break a bone because of trying to wear them without her shoes.  So need to maybe do some checking around soon to see what I can do.  I have heard of a product that The Home Depot might have for coating tools that can be used to make them non-skid & I have also heard of using puff paints to do that as well.  I made them in a burnt orange color - orange is her favorite color - so not sure if I can get a good color to go with it.

After finishing the socks, I picked back up my latest shawl to get it going on Chart B & am about 10 rows of 30 into that.  Not sure if I will make it through all the chart by Sunday when the next chart is posted, but maybe!  This weekend is a weekend with a granddaughter & this granddaughter likes to knit as well, so maybe we can watch some movies while trying to stay out of the heat & do some knitting!

Next week I need to start doing some baking, probably in the early morning so that the house doesn't get too hot.  A great-niece will be having her Quince celebrations on August 11th & I have volunteered to make her cake as my gift to her.  Her colors are yellow & white, so that will work out great for making the cake!  I like to make the cake ahead & freeze it so that I can get the 1st coating of icing on while it is still frozen to
trap crumbs, so that they don't show through.

This year is 35 years since I graduated high school, so some classmates & I, that have reconnected on Facebook, are putting together a weekend of fun for us.  We are planning for the last weekend of September, which is still about 2 months away, but when you think of it in terms of only 8 weeks, it seems closer than that even!  I had such a miserable time when I was in school, that for years, I swore I would never attend a reunion!  I didn't figure I had any reason to.  But then I got on Facebook & started to get brave enough to ask former classmates to be friends, went to a couple of Junior High reunions (planning to go again this year too!) where my son went with me for emotional support.  Then last year we had an informal 34th high school reunion that was great!  I realized that while some things happened - both at home & in school - that made me be a loner, most of it was when I was younger & I got into habits that made it so that by the time I got to high school, I didn't even give anyone a chance to be my friend!  I was in my own little circle & all I wanted was for everyone to forget that I was there!  And now it has been many years, I have come out of my shell a lot & we are all different people, so why not?  It has been great!  I can't wait!

The job search hasn't turned up a job just yet.  I had 2 in person interviews this past week.  Have heard nothing from the 1st (and yes, A., I did send a thank you!), but I am not really surprised by that.  He told me at the time that he really thinks the person they are advertising to replace will change her mind & that he is in no big hurry to hire someone.  The other, that I thought had gone well, I got a letter yesterday saying they will keep my resume on file for 90 days, but no job.  Another that I had emailed my resume to emailed back saying they will start narrowing things down next week.  I really am hoping for something full-time, but could take part-time, if it has a chance of working into full-time!  But will keep looking!  Something has to be out there!

So how has life been treating you lately?  What is on the needles, if you are a crafter?  How has your weather been?  I would love to hear from you!

Have fun & Happy Crafting until the next time!

Pictures

Just a quick post to show off the pictures I took today of my 2 current knitting projects.  The first is the pair of socks that I am knitting for my mil.  I was just starting the gusset shaping.  I right now have about another 10 rounds to go before I start making the short-row heel shaping.

The second is the first picture of my Ruby Sangria shawl that I started last night.  In this picture, I have the start up chart finished.  I am now a few rows into Chart A.

Have fun & Happy Crafting until the next time!

Weekend fun!

First off, this is a weekend visit with a granddaughter!  C. & I have been going cheap this weekend by staying home & hanging out in our jammies!  She has been having a movie marathon.  Those $1 dvd's from Wal-mart that I was buying back in about 2004-2006 while I was helping provide childcare for the 3 children after their parents marriage broke up is about the best investment I have made for her.  She loves watching them!  Most of them are cartoons that were from my childhood or even earlier!  Right now, she has a Ernest movie going of a 3 dvd set.  I think I paid about $6 for it last year.  She thinks it's cool that my maternal grandmother's maiden name was Worrell like Ernest's name in the movies.


We made pasta for dinner Friday with meatballs.  Saturday morning she decided to have rice for breakfast after Grandpa had asked to have some rice put in the rice cooker for him.  I swear that man goes through more rice than anyone I know!  Anyway, I only put in ingredients to make 2 cups in the 3 cup cooker so that it wouldn't be so messy while cooking.  But after 2 bowls of rice for C., there wasn't much left for Grandpa when he decided to come back from the library or somewhere.  So I put on more.  After a while, he came in telling me that I had blown the GFCI with using the rice cooker & the crockpot because the lights weren't on on either.  But the crockpot doesn't have a light on it.  So I reset it (for whatever reason, when we built the house, he put the reset in the nearby bedroom!  Not the kitchen.), but that didn't fix it.  I think the rice cooker went.  Not a terrible thing, we only paid $10 for it several years ago at Walgreen's.  But I had another I had picked up, so was able to locate that in the cabinet & get his 2nd batch of rice cooked.  For lunch, we had burritos & then decided on Sloppy Joes for supper last night.  This morning she wanted waffles for breakfast & I think we will have leftovers for a late lunch before time to take her home later today.  Then I will had the oldest granddaughter in 2 weeks for the weekend.  This was to have been her weekend, but she wanted to go to a friend's house for the night Friday & so traded with her sister.

Yesterday was my dh's 1 sister's 39th wedding anniversary.  She & her dh do not live in the USA, so we don't see them often at all.  I know the last time I saw them was in 2002 at their 1 son's wedding.  I know my dh saw her at least a few years after that when all 3 siblings were organized, I think, into a visit for their mother's birthday by her much younger sister.  My dh will be seeing his sister again in about 3 weeks.  Their youngest daughter will be getting married in the Seattle, WA area on August 12th & so he is flying out for that.  This will be the 1st time in 35 years that I haven't gone to something like this, but I am at that stage of unemployment that I have to submit a sheet showing who all I have applied to over the course of the week in order to receive my unemployment benefits for that week.  And the benefits have been cut by 1/3.  So it just isn't in the cards for me to go.  So I have made an afghan for a wedding gift - undecided if I should mail it ahead so that I know it doesn't get forgotten or let him take it with him.  Mailing ahead also might help with the current trend of charging for checked bags & even at times carry-on bags.  He will get gone a week, so he could use that space for his own clothes.  But if I send it with him, then he could use the space when he returns for t-shirts or some such for the grandkids.  Decisions, decisions!

I am the oldest of 4 children - the other 3 are actually my half siblings since we don't have the same father.  My natural father passed away when I was a baby & their dad raised me from when I was 2.  My sister is about 4 ½ years younger than me & then we have 2 brothers.  Today is the 47th birthday of my oldest brother.  Due to circumstances, I have no real way to contact him today to tell him Happy Birthday, but when I spoke with him last on June 30th, I had told him that I would wish him a Happy Birthday then in case I couldn't contact him on his birthday.  I knew he had quit his last trucking job & so might not have a phone available to him today.  So I have written on his Facebook wall at the very least.  If he ever figures out how to view it, he might see it.  Even though I am the oldest, I am the only one who is really computer literate as well!

Today is the day we are casting on for BadCat Designs newest KAL (knit-a-long) - Sangria!  The first charts & instructions are posted to the yahoogroups site for it & I just need to pull out my needles to get started.  I am using a yarn from Sheepy Time Knits called Ruby Slippers Sparkle with ruby beads & the champagne 6/0 beads on the border for contrast.  If you are a knitter & interested in doing a KAL, check out the details on her blog.

I am thrilled today to see that I have another follower!  It is always a pleasure to see who is enjoying something you are doing.  So welcome!

Have fun & Happy Crafting until the next time!

Cooler weather this week!

Well, it is now Hump Day as Wednesday has come to being called!  We are half way though yet another week, more than half way through 2012 & nearly half way through July!

The weather here in Kansas, as well as other areas of the country has been being really hot - not quite as hot as we had it last summer, but definitely over 100 degrees every day for several days in a row.  This past Saturday ngiht we had a few sprinkles & come Monday, it has been about 10-20 degrees cooler than it had been.  As I write this, it is just 74 degrees!  I don't even really mind this weather too badly!  My preference would be 60-70's year round, but that isn't a possibility here in Kansas for sure.

Yesterday was my youngest brother's (and youngest sibling) 45th birthday!  I hadn't planned to do anything personally about it, especially after being caught a bit by surprise with a shorter than normal deposit from my unemployment last week, but then got notification that I should have 14 weeks more coming, although at a lower amount that I had been receiving - quite a bit lower in fact.  So after initially turning my niece down on her request that I visit for my brother's birthday, I changed my mind, but let them know that this will have to be the last visit until I have a new job!  And I have to admit to a bit of panic about that part of it all.  I know there is a good possibility I could be hired back into an old position or something in the same field, but that wouldn't be my preference.  I left that position over 7 years ago & it feels like stepping way back to consider going to work in that field again.  But, if I haven't found anything within about a month, I will go & ask.  But back to the subject of the birthday - I was 8 years old when this brother was born.  He was the youngest of the 3 children my mother had with my step-dad.  All 3 were born within 5 years.  The oldest 2 of the 3 were only 19 ½ months apart, then the youngest was born just 5 days before the 2nd child's (or oldest brother) was born.  Our mother, in my opinion, was never a good mother.  She pretty much did her duty, but no true love was given to us, no cuddling, no fun times.  So when the 3rd was born, except for her nursing him, I pretty much took him over!  I called him my baby.  I bathed him, changed his diapers, etc.  When he started talking, he called me Mama as well as calling her Mama.  At a point later, I didn't feel like his Mama, but if you talk to all 3, they will tell you that I continued mothering all of them.  I think instead of mothering, what I did was have things that I knew either had to be done or was told I had to do & I did them.  I made meals, did the laundry, got them off to school, etc.  I didn't correct them unless I was told that I was to take care of them while our parents were gone & I would be in trouble if the chores we had been given were not done by the time our parents got home.  Usually I did them myself since if I didn't, it wasn't the others that were in trouble, it was me & they would usually locate themselves on our parents king-sized bed with a pair of legs aimed in all 3 open directions & if I tried to physically force them to do something, I got kicked.  So I would give up & do the chores to get them done.  I do remember one time, our mother had gone across the street to visit with her sister, our aunt.  She had taken my youngest brother with her.  When she came back, she didn't have him with her.  I asked where he was & was told that she had given him away to a woman who had been walking down the street as she was coming home.  I was totally freaked out & screaming about this, begging her to go back, find the woman & bring him home!  She thought it was hilarious!  She had left him with her sister for a while.  A couple years ago, he was in the hospital after a big scare with a blood clot in his leg, which he is now handicapped because of.  I was notified about it & about the fact that he was fighting the nursing staff & his wife wasn't able to be found.  It turned out, after I had driven there to see what I could do, etc., that she had been exhausted & found a place to get some sleep.  Anyway, his oldest daughter said that I gave him a look & he backed down - so evidently as an 8 or 9 year old, I must have developed a look that I still had!

Because of the cooler weather this week, I was able to get the afghan done that I had been working on!  Which is a relief, not only because it means that I am finished with it more than a month before the wedding that it is a gift for, but also because I don't have to have it on my lap causing me to be hot all the time in the hot weather we had been having!  No yarn sticking to my fingers instead of flowing through, etc.  Now I have a pair of socks on the needles to try to finish before my dh leaves to go to the wedding.  He will be flying home on the day of his mother's 84th birthday & I wanted him to give her a gift from me in particular since I won't be there this time.  But I need to get them done early enough to be able to put a non-skid coating of some sort on the sole of the socks.

This coming weekend will be a weekend with the oldest granddaughter again!  It is also the same weekend that my next KAL starts, so I probably won't get that started until Sunday evening.   But I know my granddaughter & I will have fun!  Possibly playing monopoly, which is a favorite game.  Possibly playing on the wii.  Most likely watching a few movies & hanging out together!  Most of the grandkids also usually take advantage of the fact that they can sleep in!  Unless we have a deadline for something, I don't make the kids wake up before they are ready, unless it is Sunday & it is getting close to the time I have to take them home at the end of their weekend.

This past week I tried making some cream horns.  I don't feel I have succeeded even though they have been very good.  I am doing something wrong!  I know the 1st time I should have looked at a recipe I had found before diving in, instead of using an egg white wash & then sprinkling on sugar, I used just cold water.  My dh said he liked it that way, but I felt they got kind of soggy.  The 2nd time I used egg white wash, but this time, they stuck really badly to the forms.  Maybe I need to put a strip of wax paper around the forms or maybe I should just oil or flour the forms.  I don't know - will do some thinking on it & give it another try when the weather is cooler!  I do know that both were good, but an thinking making my own puff pastry dough might not only be cheaper, but also better tasting!  Will try that!

On Facebook, I have been staying up way too late at night lately reading & commenting on a page about those of us who grew up in the same town.  There are some posts - mostly about what businesses had been in what building, or events that happened, that I remember 1 way and others remember another way.  Sometimes I think it is confusion by someone that might not still live in the area & other times I think it is selective memories or choosing to change things because another version sounds better. At times it reminds me of various times over our marriage where my dh has taken a family story of my family & changed what happened when he then tells it to someone.  I get upset about it.  Usually it is bad enough the way it actually happened, but in my opinion, it makes it so much worse when he has changed it to his version.  Maybe it is just me because of the comments that were made about me by a person in a position of authority when I was young where they claimed I was a liar - my story differed from their daughter's story, so I was the liar.  I admit it, I have an almost phobic response to things not being told the way they happened.  Although I am sure there are things that I don't remember the way others remember them.  A prime example is the way my siblings remember me being their caretaker - I don't remember it quite the same way.  I especially don't recall taking care of my oldest 2 siblings, I remember it more as just doing my chores.  In the end, we have had so many memories come flooding back to all of us.  A thread will start one way & before long, it has taken a turn & has almost no relation to the original subject of the thread, because something that was written has now reminded someone of something else that happened.

On this page, I have found someone that I evidently knew when I was just 5 years old, but I can't say I have a memory of them!  I do remember being 5 years old & supposed to be walking to & from school that was 3 blocks away by a girl in a family that lived diagonal across the street from us.  I do remember my mother saying this girl had either left me at school or somehow forgotten me.  The person I have recently met on Facebook says that she recognized me & my name after looking at a picture of me 47-48 years after the fact & remembers that she & her older sister walked me to school, but they didn't live diagonal across the street from us.  They lived 1 block away at the end of the next block, 1 street closer to school than we did.  But she says I would be outside their house every morning.  So I almost wonder if I had finally been allowed to walk to school on my own, but had chosen these 2 girls to walk with.  I don't know, but I do know I will be eager to see if I can recognize her by a picture once she can get back to her home to send me one of her.  I usually do have a good memory for things & people.  I have recognized people that I last saw as small children when I wasn't even a teenager yet myself.  I have surprised quite a few people with my memory, especially from my own childhood!  I feel as adults, our lives get more complicated & involved & sometimes we don't really let things sink in so that we remember them years in the future.  I know that I have waited on people in jobs that then when I met them in different surroundings, I didn't recognize them & had to be reminded.  Or they will look familiar, but I can't place why.  In any case, her maiden name isn't clicking with me, so I will hope the picture does!

So how has your week been going?  Tell me about it!  I love learning about other people!

Have fun & Happy Crafting until the next time!

Happy Independence Day!

It's been a week or so since I have posted.  It's been a hot week or so since I have posted!  Today I think the temperature is supposed to reach about 102ºF here in my area of Kansas!  I plan to have a quiet day at home since my other half has decided to go on an impromptu visit to Wichita our son & his gf.  I decided that didn't sound like much fun in this heat, plus I am about 80% finished with the wedding afghan I am making for the August wedding, so I can use the time to work on that.

Today the US is celebrating Independence Day - the day our country declared it's official independence from the English.  This day brings back many memories of camping trips with my family while growing up!  Most of the ones for this holiday seem to center around driving to the campgrounds near Chapman, KS and camping on Chapman Creek.  I know others had to use it or else it wouldn't have been as nice as it was, although it was nothing fancy - mostly just the grass kept mowed to a reasonable height.  But I don't recall anyone else other than our family being there during the same time we were there.  Daddy's brother H. would come & bring his family, Mama's sister F. would come with at least her daughter - I don't ever remember her dh joining us though.  Mama's brother W. would also come with his family at times.  I don't ever remember going to this campgrounds with any of Daddy's other brothers, but H. did bring the son of another brother with him the summer I was 14.  That was the summer I had 2 male cousins trying to peek into the tent while I would change!  But I don't think that trip was over July 4th.  The trip I remember over the July 4th weekend was just our family of 6.  We had fireworks to set off & it started raining on us as we were starting to set them off just before we were going to leave for home.  One I remember for sure was a spinning thing that we nailed to the tree.  We finally gave up & just left, hoping to get out to the blacktop before the road got impassable.  We didn't make it!  So we spent the night trying not to roll downhill in the camper, waiting on the storm to pass.  The the next morning, Daddy left to find a farmer willing to bring his tractor our to pull us out of the ditch.  Which he did & we were then on our way home!

My son was born June 30th, so he got to spend his 1st July 4th holiday at the community fireworks display when he was just a day out of the hospital!  We didn't attempt to go inside the fairgrounds that year - just stayed in my parents car for it.

Speaking of my son, he just had his 30+ year birthday last Saturday.  I had been trying to decide if he would want me to make him a cake, although I know in the past he has told me not to, when I got a phone call from his gf I. who wanted to arrange a surprise party for him after hours at her job, so I made the cake & she did everything else!  With all the 100+ days, I liked the idea of ice cream, so used my ice cream cone pan to make the cake.  Then at nearly the last minute someone decided the cake I was making might not be enough, so they had a boxing cake done for him too.  There were about 20-30 people at his party for pizza, cake, etc.

I knew that Andrea at Bad Cat Designs would be starting her summer KAL (knit-a-long), but was not planning to join since I have so many items in the works still.  But when she announced it, she said it would be an easy one that the pattern would be easily memorized, so I decided to join.  I ordered yarn from Sheepy Time Knits in Ruby Slippers, I order ruby & champagne beads from Charlene's Beads, dug out my #3 ChiaoGoo needle & then it all arrived.  When it did, I remembered that the last time I had to wind a skein of lace yarn into a ball, I had decided I was going to get a swift before I did it again!  So off to eBay I went to look for one.  I found 1 that wasn't too expensive & ordered it.  It arrived yesterday, so I got busy & wound my yarn into a nice center pull ball.  Now I am ready & waiting for the release of the charts, which should happen in about 11 days.  In the meantime, I need to get this afghan done.  And of course, since my dh will be going to the wedding & seeing his mother just before her 84th birthday, I am considering trying to whip out a pair of house socks for her.  Our feet are nearly the same size & if I do it in Cascade Pacific worsted weight yarn, I should get them done.  So tomorrow, I need to go to the yarn store to see what they have on hand!

Have fun & Happy Crafting until the next time!