Sick (no, really sick) and tired (I mean wiped out) of it!

• Well, it is another manic Monday! This weekend like too many to count before it was super busy! I actually said NO to a few invites because I just need to step back from the edge before I jump! On top of all the running around I have been doing for the past 3 months, I am sick. At first I thought it was allergies, because it pretty much started when I got back from Arizona. Now, I am pretty sure it has developed into a cold or a sinus infection. I was pretty miserable all weekend and I sure didn't want to wake up this morning. I am working at the law firm all week though, so I will be up and out all week.

• Lets see, on the needles right now I have the Satin and Jeans Tote.

• I saw this pattern in a magazine and really liked it and wanted to make it, but did not have it planned out. Well, this last week at my knitting group, a dear friend of mine named Chelle was destashing and she had purchased the yarn and pattern for this tote and she gave it to me. I am so excited about this bag that I have already started it!

• I also just whipped out a little glass sweater type item. I was sitting here at my desk with my ice water and I just hate it when the glass sweats and it gets your desk all wet and ruins the papers that touch. It is downright hazerdous to the office worker. So, I grabbed my crochet hook and some 100% cotton yarn (very absorbent) and I made glass a sweater. It is pretty much a glorified can cozy, but I crocheted the top around a rubber band so it won't stretch out on my glass and will keep it's lovely figure.
• Things are crazy right now, I have a lot of projects lined up and several home projects I would like to finish up. Mom and Grandma are coming to visit in October, so I am trying to get the house "guest ready" before they get here. Things will settle down eventually though! Please keep me and my family in your prayers! Julie

Date night and darn socks!!!

• Last night DH and I were supposed to go out with some friends of ours to dinner and then to go play some games back at their place, but one of them ended up getting really sick so they canceled on us. Then we got a call a little while longer that he needed to go to the ER and his wife does not drive, so DH and I went out and got them both and we were in the ER with them from 7pm until about 12:30am...a long night. I took my socks with me (great time to do nothing but knit) and I was cruising along on my socks when I noticed that about 4 inches ago, I dropped a stitch on one of my socks!!! WOW...let me tell you how bad that sucked! Since I was doing the 2-at-a-time, it would have been very difficult to rip back so many rows evenly to pick it back up, and it was so close to the ribbing that I just ended up ripping them both out there in the ER (grrrr). And since we didn't get home until around 1:30am, because when we were done in the ER we all went out to eat because none of us had eaten dinner yet, I haven't restarted them yet! In fact I am sitting here right now with my ball of yarn and my needles just staring at me, daring me to start a new pair...sigh!

• Well, I am off to cast on and then dust the living room...yay!!! I think I will set a timer and knit for 20 minutes and clean for 10, that may be the only way I will get both done today. We are going to a bbq this evening and I won't be able to clean then (but I will be bringing my knitting :-)

• Jules

Do you think this means I have problems?

• So last night I had a dream about knitting. Except it wasn't totally about knitting. I was at the beach with my daughter and she was playing in the water with the girls who's family was sharing the cabana. They were having a blast and I went over and started talking to the mom. She was sitting there knitting. Then I realized that I knew her, we went to grades school together and were friends back then. She was there with her husband and 4 daughters and she was pregnant with her 5th daughter. It was so great to talk to her and catch up and realize we had so much in common. She too had a knitting obsesssion, our kids got along great. We just really had a great time! We immediately became best buds and started spending tons of time together! She became my best friend and we had so much in common.

• I realized that maybe I am missing a best friend who shares the same interests as me. I have several friends who knit, but I only see them when I am at knitting group. I have several close friends who I spend a great deal of time with who don't knit, and they don't get it at all. In fact, they usually make fun of me for knitting. That is tough. My oldest daugther is catching my knitting obsession, and she is one of my best friends, but she is also my daughter. I guess I am starting to feel very lonely. I know I must be isolating myself, but I enjoy my hobbies. I don't see any reason to have to give something up that makes me happy just so I can have a close friend. I want both!

• Well, I guess that is what one would call my morning musings. Lame I know, but that is just what was on my mind. Thanks for reading!

Yard Sales, Graduation parties, Birthdays and Kickball

• So, this was a busy weekend. Saturday I got up early with Diehard and we headed to the Grain Valley City Wide Yard Sale. Let me tell you, we only went to a few of the sales and it was crazy. There were so many people you couldn't even drive through there. It took us 45 minutes to drive 2 miles when we decided to go home. We did get a few good things, but it just wasn't worth the stress.

• Then I went to my friend Debbie's house for her daughters graduation party. Let me tell you, I don't remember ever getting money for graduation! That girl walked away with $1100!!! Hell, I was the only kid in my family to graduate from high school and I think I may have gotten a few cards and possible $20!!! My how times have changed! I mean when M graduated in 2007 I bought her alot of stuff to get her set up for doing hair and nails, but I didn't give cash. Grandma gave M $100, but that was pretty much it. Debbie gave Kris $500 and the rest of the family showered her in cash. I am not sure DH and I even got that much for our wedding! Oh well, I ain't mad at the kid! Cash out while you can, pretty soon she will be working and not making that much for doing 10 times as much work!!

• After the party we went out to dinner with Diehard's brother and his wife. DH has been helping them work on one of their rental houses so they took us out for Minskey's YUM!! We had the baby Cricket with us and she was just as cute as could be. She ate pizza and then showed off to everyone how well she could walk. She has such a great personality! She makes the cutest sounds! We kept her overnight last night and she was such a good baby! She let me sleep until 9:45!!!

• Then today we went to our neice's 5th birthday party! I didn't get a chance to get out and buy her a gift so we gave her a card with $10 in it. I felt pretty bad because it was a Tinkerbell party and everyone else got her all this great Tinkerbell toys. She opened our card last and she saw the cash and started jumping up and down and was so excited. She even had her mom take a picture of her posing with her cash!!! It was so funny! We took baby Cricket with us to the party too. She doesn't do well around new people, but she ended up warming up to a few of the relatives, and she loved playing with the other babies! Again, she was miss personality!!! She is just so cute and so petite that no one can believe that she is almost a year old, heck, I can hardly believe it.

• M was here when we got home so we knitted a bit while baby Cricket slept and then they went home. I took a 30 minute nap and then we went over to Larry and Anna's for dinner and kickball. We have gone there for kickball a few times, but I have never participated. I am too old and too fat and too out of shape. This time Anna made me play though. I had a great time other than the fact that I was the last one picked for a team. In fact, I don't think I was even picked I was defaulted onto a team. Oh well, I had a good time and I know I will be sore tomorrow! This was a very busy but very fun weekend!!

My re-entry into the blogesphere!!!

So, I have not blogged in about forever. Not that anyone really follows my blog, but hey you never know right. So, not real sure about what I previously blogged about. I know I tried to change blog sites so I could have a little more creative control, but I decided I was not an active enough blogger to actually justify the money I was spending on it, so I got rid of that. Not to mention, I really like the name of this blog much better. It suits me more.

So, quick (and let me really say QUICK) synopsis of what has been going on since I last blogged. M had her baby and now I have a perfect granddaughter. She is now 9 months old and has control of the entire family. M did not end up getting married. Her and Fiance have decided to wait until they can do it right. H is almost done with her1st year in high school. I have lost my job and have been home for the past 5 months and have actually (in the past month) managed to clean and organize my home. DH has traveled for about 3 out of the last 5 months and then quit his job and got another one right next door to where he was making more money and not traveling! He has been there for about a month now. My mom was diagnosed with Breast Cancer and had a single mastectomy and my dad was diagnosed with Lung Cancer and had a single lungectomy (that is a new word). Mom got better, dad did not and went back in the hospital a 6 months or so later with a HUGE brain tumor and passed away in October. The good news about that is that I had time before he got sick with the brain tumor that we were able to make amends in our relationship. That made is easier to bury him. He also got to meet his great granddaughter before he passed away. I think that about sums it up. There are a bunch more details, but if I get into them here I will be typing forever and I promised to make blueberry muffins for breakfast today.

Life is settling down now, I need to start looking for a job in earnest and get back into the world. I have enjoyed being home these past months though. Of course, the way the economy is going I believe I am going to have to find a retail job of some sort. Not that I am bothered too awful much by this, but I am not used to being on my feet for hours at a time, so I will have to adapt. Not to mention the hours will be different. I will learn to deal though. It is Lent now and I have given up frivolous "me" spending. This has been difficult for me as I normally just buy whatever I want whenever I want. But I am learning a valuable lesson and gaining some sense of self-control.

I have been knitting like crazy lately. I enjoy it more and more all the time. Over Christmas I had quite a little enterprise knitting mittens for people. I made the mittens Bella wore in the Twilight movie and they sold rather well! I woke up this morning and had a repeat order from a customer who lost one of her mittens this week and wants to buy a second pair (good for me, sad for her).

• 

Other than that, things have been pretty calm. I will try to update more often. I really need an outlet here. Sometimes being home so much I think I am going to go crazy-er!

Thanks for reading!

Julie