Another Fundraiser on the way

I had a request from Eric's camp, people want to buy my wash cloths and what knots from the kids. So I will be making up a batch and put everything else on hold till I knit/crochet up a basket of odd ball yarns into what knots, wash cloths, scarfs and what every else I can think of that is quick and easy.

I just wonder why; if they like them so much they just don't go to my web site and buy them direct. I price them the same. Oh well I just have to look at the donation as goodwill and a nice tax deduction. Also it is a good way to get the odd balls out of the house.

The current count 7 wash cloths and 2 what knots done.  Not bad for 2 days work. Maybe I can get it all done before the July 4th weekend.

Well I am off  to do something non productive. Have a great evening and enjoy your families.

Knitting Update

I made a lot of progress knitting yesterday. It seems I spent most of the day knitting. I made it past the 3 foot mark on Teri's blanket only 4 feet by 125 inches more to knit before the boarder. I am hoping for a September or October finish on that one. By the way this was started January 15 and is a little large to knit anywhere but on the couch.

The sweater that I started in the spring of '09 is now on the road to being finished. This week I tinked the lace that came out oh so wrong. I am now doing a fan and feather bottom. This is a top down sweater. I have completed 4 pattern repeats. I just need to add 10 or 12 more inches to this one and then the sleeves and edging.

I finished Eric's new winter hat and blocked it. It was finished on a day that was 107 so needless to say he did not get to wear his new wool hat. It is the first item I have ever blocked and it does make a difference  especially  on cable patterns. Did I mention that this is my first time doing cables? Eric's camp one on one like it so much I have started one for her too. 

I have also passed the half way mark on the baby blanket that never seems to end.

I will post pictures when I find my camera, I know it is somewhere in my purse. Look for pictures later in the week. I am now going to go work on Teri's blanket. Have a great day and enjoy your families.

Exercise

OK it's just me thinking out loud and looking for answers. This is all about exercise. I get a good routine going and start to feel really good, but when I put in more than one 20 hour day in a week my exercise routines just go by the way side.

I know long work days are just part of being a part of Eric's life. I guess I just need ideas on how to balance long days which lead to exhaustion and no exercise. So dear readers please throw any suggestions into the hat. I am sure we could all use some more wisdom in our lives.

Well my help leaves in 10 minutes so it is time to start another long day. Chores don't go away when Eric gets sick they just seem to multiply so its time to go off to work. Have a great day and enjoy your families.

Today

OK Eric and I are both under the weather today. So I started with all those knitting projects I did not want to do. First I picked up a baby blanket in Eric's room and made good progress, at least 6 more rows done. It is a square blanket done on point, so the rows are getting smaller.

When I got help this afternoon I tore out 4 inches of lace knit with out a life line and then picked up all the stitches back on the needle and picked a different pattern. It's a fan and feather stitch pattern with 3 rest rows and 1 pattern row. This is the sweater that I want to finish but got mad at myself because I goofed up the lace pattern and it has been sitting almost a year. It is time to get this sweater done. I placed stitch markers every 18 stitches so if I goof this I hopefully will not have to go back very far. I figure stitch markers in knitting are like pins in quilting, you can never have too many.

Well it is time to go make dinner. so have a great evening and enjoy your families.

Day 4 of Over-tired Me

It has been 4 very long nights with Eric. Last night ended this morning at 2:30 am. I was just to darn tired to even do laundry last night. After getting Eric to camp late today.  I did take a me day today. Some knitting, walking and shopping.

I did run across a very interesting sales person today at a new store in the mall. I wanted a particular style and size they had it in stock but she would not sell it to me. The reason being she was a professional and she wanted me to wear a different style. When I explained why I wanted that particular style she told me that she still would not sell it to me a dismissed me from the store. I am sorry big company that hired you, this haughty sales lady but my money is just as green as anyone else's money and I am a few years past the point that I want to be bullied by a rude sales person. I want what I want; not what you insist on selling me. I will not be going back to your store again. By the way this was a store in Tucson, not on 5th Avenue, Rodeo Drive or other fancy local.

It is a shame that in this poor economy that companies still insist on hiring rude haughty sales people. I am quite sure I would have the same reaction to this sales person even if I had more than 16 hours of sleep in the past 4 days. No mall store can afford to turn away customers with money to spend just because the sales people want to sell something other than what the customer wants. I do understand incentive programs where you want to push a particular product, but to push a shopper out of your store without a sale just  because they won't buy the item of the day is just plain bad business.

Other than the rude sales person, I have had a fantastic day. I am too tired to nap if that makes any sense to anyone else but me. But I did take time to put my feet up and relax. I will shop for dinner after Eric's aide comes tonight. I need something light but hardy at the same time.  Well have a great evening and enjoy your families.

This Weekend

This weekend has been a lay low weekend for us. Eric shared his cold with me which lead up to a flare up for me. Eric then became eyrpy tonight, cold followed by eyrpy is usually not a good sign. So we will probably skip camp tomorrow and join the crowd at the doctors office.

John has decided to post phone Fathers Day for a week to give Eric time to recoup. The plus side of this is that it will not be crowded next weekend when we go out.

I have a lot of yarn to keep me busy this week. I will post pictures of Teri's blanket when I hit the 3 foot mark. At that point the blanket will be a little over 1/3 done. I need to step up the pace to get it done for this winter. It has taken me 6 months to knit 3 feet, the question is can I knit 4 feet  plus a boarder in 3 months?

Well I am off to check on Eric and do some more knitting. Have a great evening and enjoy your families.

What I like About Summer Walks

I love early morning or early evening walks in the dessert. The dessert is so alive with lizards, bunnies and quail running around. They always seem to be chasing one another. It is so fun to watch. The snakes and the Gila monsters are slow enough to walk away from before we get to close to each other, although I find them nice to watch too. Entertainment and exercise at the same time, talk about fun multi tasking.

And finally I need someone to help me figure out how the scissors got underneath the washing machine and how to get them out. I have already tried a hanger and my sewing magnet. Any suggestions?

Have a great evening and enjoy your families.

Not a Cookie in Sight

There was not a cookie in sight but I decided to to some very deep cleaning anyway today. Well maybe not so deep, an area of of about 1 square foot covered with 12 inches or so of papers. It took a long time to get that deep. From the papers on the bottom of the stack, I would say about 2 years. I did find my way to the counter top; but the best part was I put 1 box of papers in the recycle barrel and shredded 1 1/2 bags of other stuff.

The lesson I learned from the whole process today was you can get rid of paper. It really does not hurt. It is fun to fill the recycle bin as full as possible. Next time though I am going to get a box of cookies or make a small pan of brownies to quell my anxiety about the cleaning process.

I do come from a long line of pack rats, I know this because I have help clean out a house or 2 in my time and do not intend to let Teri deal with my mess of papers and unneeded objects. I am trying to do my best not to follow in their foot steps.

For those in the U.S. I hope you had a great Flag Day. Well have a great evening and enjoy your families.

Just an Update

Not much has been happening since my last post. I have been cleaning and knitting. I am almost half way through Eric's new hat for school. I hope to have it finished soon. I am on row 9 blocks 7 of 17 blocks wide on Teri's blanket. After row 9 is done I have only 12 rows of 17 blocks left to knit. Then I will add a small boarder. So when finished Teri's blanket will be 21 rows long by 17 blocks wide. I really hope that this will be big enough, because I am not doing a redo on this blanket. I am using a mitered square/modular block with an initial cast-on of 41 stitches be square on size seven needles.

The boys surprised me last night with a dinner out for my birthday. I cannot remember the last time we went out on a Saturday night. Macyo's was good as usual. If you are in Tucson or Phoenix you must stop by one of their locations and have the chicken taco's. Be sure to leave room for the soapia's for dessert.

On the cleaning front I can say with certainty that I no longer have any shirts in my drawers from the last century. Yes the shirts from 1984 that have Hawaii across them should be at Goodwill sometime next week. The shirts commemorating the 1994 Northridge earthquake are also gone. I think I can now safely classify myself as a pack rat in remission. I still have a long way to go, but I did not save it in one day, it is not going to be gone in one day.


Well it is time to do some knitting or shopping for dinner. So have a great evening and enjoy your families.

Mayco's has not paid for a spot in this blog, we have been happily eating at Mayco's since 1994. It is a family favorite.

Today

I was a long night with Eric last night but I did manage to get all the laundry done last night. Although you have guessed correctly that is is yet to be folded.

After I dropped Eric off at camp I took the advice of a friend and took a nap. Well the morning was then gone. But after a light lunch I managed to get 3 baskets of mics. papers out to the recycling bin for a total of 4 baskets for the day.

On the knitting front I finished one more charity scarf and started another on the same small needles. I started another block on the blanket that never ends, well it will end but I am only approaching the 3 foot mark and have 4 feet left to knit. My one word of advice on this project. Never ever knit a queen sized blanket on size seven needles unless you really, really love the person receiving the blanket very much.

Well I am recharged again and am off to do more chores. Maybe I will even finish folding the laundry. have a great evening and enjoy your families.

It Really Needed to be done

Well I did do some really deep cleaning today. I went through a box of old school papers from the kids. A very teary victory was mine. There were 2 full baskets of paper for recycling and less than 1/2 a box of journals, pictures, and year books for Eric.

I also started organizing all those patterns that I am going to knit someday. OK not really organized but put in order, stapled, put in protective covers, and placed in a note book. It really is the first step. Once they are all in protective covers I will organize them by projects, socks, shawls, sweaters, etc...

I also got 40 stitches done on my kcal with they Raverly group The Counting Sheep farm. I know it does not sound like much but row 5 of the chart is very challenging for me.

Well it is time to say goodnight and enjoy your families.

Today

Today almost my entire day was spent knitting. Need I really say more about my day.

Have a great evening and enjoy your families.

Eric's First Day of Camp

Well today was the first day of camp for Eric. Eric’s one on one is a wonderful young lady that picked up on everything Eric very quickly. She had even managed to pick up tube feeding before we even finished lunch.


We had a brief tour of behind the scenes of the Tucson zoo and then went to lunch. It had been a long time since I had been to the zoo and I did like all the improvements that have been made. They now have a real lunch room with a real food menu. The snack only menu is a thing of the past.

After we got back one of the closing games was to remember each person’s name. One of the new campers could not pronounce our last name so I became Mrs. Eric. The first time I was called Mrs. Eric, Eric turned red but then he decided that it was a good name for me.

After a full day at camp with Eric I came home and sent scooba on his way and started the laundry. Then it was time to give Eric his evening breathing treatment and fold the laundry from last night. While Eric was doing his breathing treatment I almost finished the scarf that I had been working on for 3 days. I am using up the yarn from my stash that requires size 3 knitting needles. After a quick dinner of fish and chips it is now time to clean scooba and charge him for tomorrow. Then I can take the time to relax.

Have a great evening and enjoy your families.