The Amazing Shawl

 As you know, I have been doing a huge deep cleaning all over the house.  Currently I am working on the knitting room. I also store all my shawls in there too. So today’s project is to start going through all my shawls. I am happy to report that one of my favorite traveling shawls has grown over the winter. 

When I first bought this shawl it was just big enough to go around my shoulders. Over the last several years it has grown big enough to be used as a blanket.  I am definitely keeping this shawl. I am also going to have to plan a trip somewhere so that I can use my new traveling blanket/shawl. 

By the way this makes me very happy. Now to choose where to go. 

We’re Back

 We took a small break from the everyday of life.  I took a spinning class on the Navajo Spindle and wandered around the Flagstaff Wool and fiber festival.  We then went to Page to explore.  If you have not gone it has some must sees.  More later.  Also a bit of shopping in Phoenix at my favorite store.  

I came back with a cold because a twenty something turned around and sneezed in my face.  Yes we were outside with no masks on.  However there is no way to avoid the fall out when someone is just that rude.  Please remember for the health and safety of your community to sneeze into your arm, elbow, tissue or shirt or if you have a really good friend the back of their shirt will work too. 

In this case offering to wash said shirt is just a very humble suggestion.  It is never ok to sneeze into someone’s face.  

We have already unpacked and the laundry is sorted.  The beds changed.  Laundry will start tomorrow.  I will be going in the speed of snail for a few days.  I can already feel the achy feeling.  

TTFN

Teri Time

Teri time is almost over. Teri and I had a great weekend.  I will pack before bed tonight; have breakfast with Teri; and then head to the airport.  I still have some knitting to do on the flights and while I wait for my planes. I will get home in time to tuck Eric into bed. It looks like the guys did great on their own. : )

What Makes Us Good Mothers

With Mothers Day just over in the United States it brings yesterday's encounter even more revelant.  It always amazes me that whenever people learn about Eric and ask if he has any siblings.  When I say yes, the look I always get is should I ask her about her other child?  Some people start out by asking if they are in the same day program. Other just want to know if she still lives at home too.  Yet all are stunned to find out that Teri is a Copyright Attorney in California.  Like how is this possible?  

Motherhood gives each mother a unique opportunity to interact with each child as an individual. I have found that both my child are very unique. My children are polar opposites.  My job as a mother has been to help Teri and Eric each reach their unique potential in an optimal way for their learning style.  

Since Eric was about 6 months old I have always stressed to Teri, that Eric is her brother and not her responseability.  I have always stressed that mom and dad are responsible for the care of both Teri and her brother.  That Teri's job in life is to be the best possible Teri possible, even if it meant leaving Eric behind at times.  In that endeavor Teri has exceeded what I thought was possible.

Each child has made my life so much better in their own unique way. Eric has helped me learn patience. Teri has help me learn to dig deeper for the answers, although on technical issues I am quite sure she hates the line "wait until your father comes home".  Eric has helped me find the time to knit 100's of warm winter items for kids in need. Teri has taken me to England and Italy, which were life time dreams of mine. I would still like to go again and explore some more.  It is not possible now.  Eric has taken me to our nations capital and explore all the history, something that I have dreamed of doing.  Yes each has given me so much. 

I guess in my own meandering way I am trying to say thank you to my 2 increadable kids. They along with John have made my life so rich. For that I am very thankful. 

Thrush Again!!!

Believe it or not Eric has thrush again. This time he was not even sick or on any antibiotics.   So between the thrush that Eric has and the cold going around his day program, not to mention staffing issues, he will be home helping me for the rest of the week. Yes I have thrown out the toothbrush, toothpaste tube and have sanitized the electric toothbrush. All have been replaced with brand new or newly cleaned items.

On the bright side I am almost through my current deluge of laundry, just please don't tell Eric. I really need to finish the samples for my new patterns and get one ready to print up by Thursday. Then it would be nice to finish the scarf on the loom and any UFO's that can be finished. Oh, did I mention I do not have my piece to model for the Guild Fashion show a week from Thursday.  I am debating using one of the UFO's or taking some Addi turbos circulars in a 10 or 11 and a skein of sock yarn and just whipping up something while on the plane and airport wait time later in the week.

The house is almost ready for a girl friend to come and stay with Eric while John and I sneak off for a few days for a late 30th or early 31st wedding anniversary trip. So the plans are on a need to know basis. If you don't already know the details you did not need to know. I do promise a few pictures along the way.

I Am Back Home

I left for California on Tuesday to take care of Teri for a few days.  She is doing much better now.  So I am back home in Tucson tonight. 

I my down time I went on a hat knitting binge. I have not counted the rows yet. Here are the 13 hats that I knit, a full bakers dozen. 

Recouping

I am still exhausted from the trip to Los Angeles last week.  I went in for my mothers birthday. We had the party at a place called Dukes in Malibu. The view was spectacular so I guess it was wrong of me to expect great service too. They could not grasp the concept of sauce on the side or can we get a basket of bread. So I got my lunch as everyone else was finishing up with nothing to nibble on in the mean time. It is one place that I don't mind being so far away from.  If you like your sauces on the side I would recommend dinning in Tucson. Even the mom and pop places can get that one right.

I also saw a fantastic play at the Mark Tapper Forum. It was called the Tallest Tree in the Forest. There was quite a bit of history in it. I had never thought of the world from a black point of view before. It is very similar to the Jewish experience at the time with the exception that we were mostly white and could blend in better in some areas. Skin color was and still is a very decisive issue for many people. The issue of name calling is still here today. I guess we have not evolved as far as we like to think we have as a country. So anyway if you are in Los Angeles during its run please do try to see it. It would be well worth your time.

I have almost gotten caught up on laundry, paperwork and getting Teri's room ready for her visit. I de-fibered her room and put things away. John dusted and vacuumed twice. I washed all the linens and will make the bed tomorrow.

I think it will take a few more days to get my body back in sync. Big cities are nice for some things, but I love the pace of life in Tucson much better. Tucson does not tie my tummy up in knots. Although with my tummy tied in knots it was very hard to come close to over eating or for that matter eating at all.  So I came home a little lighter. We are not all packed in like sardines. Even out winter traffic is better.

The Flight from He Double Toothpicks

I am on my way to visit my mom to help her celebrate her 75th birthday. It was a toss up wether to fly or drive.  About 10 minutes into the first leg, I was seriously regretting the decision not to drive. I do need to regress here for a minute.

I had the window seat which is usually not a bad seat.  A last minute boarder plopped her self in the middle seat. I am no skinny mini, but at least I fit in the airline seat with a little room to spare.  As the woman sat down not only did she fill her seat, but also half of each seat on either side. I was effectively pushed into the wall of the plane. This is not a comfortable way to spend over an hour of my life.  

If you think this was all, her companion in the seat right in front of me went into a diatribe of how he should high jack the plane before trying to get everyone around him to join in the speculation of where would this plane be lost.  This was followed by more trash talk. Thank goodness no one took his bait.  This leads me to the question of just where is an air Marshall when you need one?  

Then the PDA started. Yes over the airplane seat.  If I was a little bolder my comment would have been to get a room.  I got further smashed into the Planes wall. As I tried to regIn some of my seat space her companion then pushed his seat as far back as it would go. And started glaring at me. I am sure there are closets with more space than I had. Now I know how John feels on some flights. 

Every time I tried to knit or reclaim seat space I got rewarded with a swift jab to the ribs.  After we landed, I told her how rude she was, she became totally offended.  She could see nothing wrong with her behavior. 

Which leads to the question of manners. Do they need to be taught in school as their parents did not bother.  Rudeness does seem to be on the increase.  Can I put a sticker on the person as an award for extreme rudeness.  Maybe a likeness of a black lump of coal. After all we we reward  good behavior with gold stars. 

Then there is the question of what rights I have on an airplane in these post 9/11 days?  Do I have the right to the entire seat that I paid for. Can airlines require wide bodied passengers who easily fill 2 seats by their lonesome make them pay for 2 seats without being sued?  Where is the media on this issue?

Here is hoping that the rest of the trip goes better. 

90%

I am 90% ready to go visit my mom tomorrow.  I just have to find 1 more knitting project and get my glasses adjusted. Maybe even add a knitting and spinning magazine to the mix.  

I have made a stew for John and he packed up the left over spaghetti from this weekend.  I thought I had caught up on all the laundry until I walked into Eric's room tonight. I swear it was emptied this morning and it is half full again.  I asked him to take it easy on laundry while I was gone and he just laughed at me. 

I will be blogging from Los Angeles tomorrow night.  Well it is time to call it a night and to be very thankful that I did not blog about my thoughts from this morning. 

Clare's Cafe

Today while I was out and about with Nancy she took me to this terrific little cafe called Clare's in Oracle.  The food was good. I had the hash browns and a bowl of fruit.  I could have gone for another plate of the hash browns they were so good. Nancy had the breakfast casadia with eggs, cheese and sausage. It looked wonderful.  There was a small basic menu and all the food that came out to other tables looked good too. 

On top of the great food there was wonderful art work on the walls. If you want to add some art work to your walls this is deffently the place to go. There are several different mediums from water color, oils, photography. Some local crafts people also had things like silk purses, totes and a viratey of hand crafted purses.  I also saw jewelry, cards, hand woven baskets.  

Clare's is deffently worth the drive.  Here is a poster from the ladies rest room that includes the address. 

Back Home

My last blog post got lost somewhere in the digital world. I hit save and publish through the hotel wi-fi connection. So here is a summary plus a quick update.

Teri and I finally found an apartment to move into. It is 20 minutes to her new job. We went a little higher in price than Teri thought she would, but it is a nice and safe building that she will live in for the next few years. At Teri's request I will not give the city she is moving to.

This means we will not have to go through the process next week. Can we hear a nice and loud hip hip hooray from every one. To give you a brief over view of what we went through here are some of the very low lights. Such as the apartments under the flight path with a plane landing every 5 minutes. Then there was the one that used half the kitchen and bathroom space for the Murphy bed with appliances from at least the 1950's, but they might have been Pre Korean war. Even better the basement studio that you had to use a step ladder to get into, I am not sure that is up to any code. Some of the neighborhoods were on the very gritty side to be polite. We did not even get out of the car for some. The really cute one in a slightly less gritty area that we may have taken if the owner had not changed their mind and decided that parking was not included.

This was a very hard process to go through. I am very proud that Teri and I were able to accomplish it in only 4 days.

I meet her new boss and his wife, they seem like very nice people.

I got home just in time to shop and make dinner yesterday. I was to tired to do anything. Yes even too tired to knit.

John was wonderful and let me sleep in today. I did laundry for most of the day. This was mainly sheets, towels and dress clothes. John did a great job with keeping up with the laundry, and all things Eric while I was gone.

Eric seems to be having trouble with mommy permanence. He seemed genuinely surprised that I did not disappear over night. By mid afternoon he was in total con man mode. Coughing every time I said I was go to work on Teri's blanket.

He was an angel at night while I was gone. That seems to have gone by the way side now that I am home. So now it is time to try to settle him down for the night.

Getting Ready

It is almost time for my trip to meet up with Teri for a couple of days. I am looking forward to this trip. I already have my clothes picked out, I would have had them packed but I don't want to have wrinkled clothes. We are leaving the guys at home. This means that I don't have to share Teri with anyone. This is really exciting!!!

So to get ready I am cleaning the house and catching up on laundry. I told John that since it will only be a few days he did not have to worry about the laundry. It should not be more than knee high by Saturday. The fridge and freezer have been stocked. I just have a few more errands to go, a counter to clean off and put my knitting away. I also have to pick a pattern and yarn for the trip. I could not find the hand spun alpaca so I guess I will look for it when I get home. I already have my spinning project ready. I am bring some roving to spin into lace weight yarn. It might take me a few more years of trips before I finish. I only manage to get one small skein per trip and can't really work on it at home, to many distractions.

So since tomorrow will be a busy day its time for me to call it a night.

Life As We Know It

I had one of those humours moments yesterday. We are planning a surprise for Eric. No I can not divulge much to you except to say it involves a lot of planning. I was talking to the reservation clerk telling her what we needed to make the surprise happen for Eric.

To me it is normal to travel with an IV Pole, feeding pump, percussion vest/machine, nebulizer and assorted medical supplies. After all aren't we know for packing the entire house for any excursion. Clothes are usually an after thought and packed in over night bags no matter how long we are gone. Well I think I heard her jaw drop as she tried to regain her composer after we started discussing beds and bed rails. I tend to forget not everyone has a real hospital bed in their child's room. No, the surprise place has no hospital beds available for guests. Really!

But that lead to a very funny dinner conversation with John about what we consider normal living with Eric and what the rest of the world must think of us. After all doesn't every one take a car full of medical equipment and extension cords on vacation?

It has also occurred to me this morning that Teri and I had a very similar conversation this summer. Doesn't everyone plan their trips around where there are children's hospitals? And that I might actually inadvertently be scaring people with young and healthy children.

I find it amazing how we can get caught up in our own lives and forget that the rest of the world does not live just like us. Well it is time to get my day started. Have a great day and enjoy your families.

A Travel Day

Today has been a rather long day, it started at 3:30 this morning. I would like to say that I was the only traffic on First Avenue until I got to Prince. I managed to miss the turn I was suppose to take to get to the airport, but made it there anyway. I did make some serious progress on my sock, I am at the heal flap and only have to tink 4 rows to fix the mistake.   Two plane hops later my darling daughter Teri meet me at the baggage claim area. After hugs it was time to find my checked bag and head to lunch.

We had way to much food for lunch and went back to her apartment to catch up. Then it was off to Starbucks for me for some more serious knitting, while Teri went to class.  After a short nap we went out to dinner with some of her friends.  They are a nice group of young adults. Well it is pumpkin time for me.  Have a great evening and enjoy your families.

It has been a while since I blogged

Eric has been home sick so many days that I have lost track of time. I have been busy cleaning, knitting and packing. On the knitting front I have almost finished a full basket of scarfs,what nots, coasters,bookmarks and wash cloths for Eric's camp fundraiser.  They have chosen the Tucson Ronald McDonald House. When I have a date I will post it on line. I have been doing a lot of light cleaning and not the heavy duty fill the Goodwill box and recycle bin type of cleaning.

On a very happy note I will be leaving the guys at home and going to see my daughter tomorrow. If you see me at the airport I will be the very,very excited one. A visit with Teri is better than a shopping spree at my local yarn store. Sorry yarn stores but some things are even better than yarn.

And yes I will be trying to finish the pair of red socks that I started when Teri and I went to look at law schools. I am really on the second sock. Apparently it is easier for Teri to finish one year of law school than it is for me to finish one pair of socks. I have also packed a very easy to do 1 skein shawl pattern.  Since I will let Teri do the driving I am sure to get a lot done after all it is on size 8 knitting needles.

I have not decided if I am going to try to borrow a computer or wait until I get home to blog. But Teri has some exciting things planed for us to do. I do hope she has saved time for long talks because I really miss them.

So I am going to wrap up the odds-n-ends and take care of Eric. Maybe I will even have time to knit before 8 pm tonight. I want everyone to have a great day and enjoy your families.

A Must Read Book

One of my must read books is being made into a movie, but before it happens you should read "Eat, Pray, Love: One woman's search for everything across Italy, India and Indonesia" by Elizabeth Gilbert.

Elizabeth is a very engaging writer and takes us through her post-divorce journey to wholeness. In Italy it's about the food, her flat mate and Italian language classes and her Italian tutor.

In India Elizabeth goes to a remote Ashram to try to understand her life and soul. Elizabeth goes into what life is like at the Ashram and the people she meets. By the time she leaves India she is well on her way on her new post divorce life.

In Indonesia, Elizabeth learns she does have power over her own universe and life. Elizabeth also learns to love again.

This is a unique book and the people Elizabeth meets along the way are awesome and teach her little life lessons along the way. I urge you to read the book before the movie comes out. It will have you laughing and crying and wishing that you could meet these people and make them apart of your life.

I have included a link to Amazon.com if you would like to buy the book on line, and use this link on the upper right corner of my web page, I will get a small commission.

Read this wonderful book and enjoy your families.