Happy Times

I am enjoying my time with Teri very much.  Even though we walked 3 miles this morning and I wales another 3 miles during the rest of the day for a total of 12,000 steps, I am not quite able to keep up with Teri.

We had fun at Savers, lunch with John and found some time to catch up with TV.  Well it's late and time to call it a night.

Family Time

For a very short time we are all under one roof. John and I will enjoy this time immensely. I am really enjoying the very bright and nice young woman that Teri has turned in to. Eric is really enjoying his Teri time too. When Teri is in the room I am all but invisible, which I don't mind at all, more knitting time for me. Did I get to mention I always love watching them together, I am glad that my children get along so well. John and I are just so lucky to have these two wonderful children.

Too Busy

I have been too busy to blog lately. My excuse is that I have been deep cleaning the house. From the linen closet to the craft/guest room and everything in between. No drawer was left untouched. All the shelves were gone through too. Up to 8 hours a day, yes that's right up to 8 hours a day of cleaning. My hope is that when I am finished I will have more time to do what I want. Also to spend less time looking for things. Or even worse buying duplicates because I have lost something I need.

Even after I finish there will still be some fine tuning to do. I hope that will not be as involved. I really want to go back to spending more time spinning, knitting and enjoying my 5 hour break when Eric goes to his day program.

Well my ice cream cup is empty so I think its time to try some sleep. caffeinated tea with dinner was not my best idea of the day.

To Early to Count my Time Off

Just when I think Eric has turned a good corner, I find myself sitting in the rocking chair again. It's an hour past my bed time with no new bedtime in sight. Well I guess I should back track a little.

Eric had 4 very good days at his day program. He is enjoying his time with his friends and staff. Well the first thing he did when he came home today was eyrp.  So here I sit after 10 pm. I am slowly ramping up hi fluid intake.  We are at 12 and need to be at 30 before I can go to sleep.  I am to tired to knit , spin or play a game on my pod.  I am actually watching Sprout and following the story line. Wish me luck that I can get to bed before midnight.

I am very seriously contemplating some caffeine about now. It is either caffeine or a solid sleep. Just a little loner. I think I can last a few more hours. By the way I will be home tomorrow.

A No Fiber Day

I did not manage to spin or knit even 1 gram of fiber today. But what I accomplished today was awesome. Shopping for groceries, 3 baskets of recycling and 1 bag of trash out of the craft room.  I decided to not do any mending on a few thing and recycled the or put then in charity.  I finished filling up the 4th quart jar and 2 jam jars with buttons. I will be using a lot of buttons in my one of a kind pieces. Every box was gone through before I put them back on the shelves with the exception of my father-in-laws mending kit, someday,but not today.  I also started a second bag for Bookman's.

I managed to get Eric to sleep before 10. It is finally cool enough to run a load of laundry.  It is 16 degrees cooler right now than earlier today. Cues it was officially hot here today. It hit 11 at The house today.  Did I mention how much my joints enjoy he heat?  Just 5 minutes outside at mid-day was enough to make my muscles and joints feel better. I really do love summer in Tucson.

I think I am rambling so it is time to put a close on a very busy day and get some sleep. V

A Busy Day

I spent a very long day cleaning and throwing. Followed by bits and pieces of organizing. It really is slow going but I am cleaning every drawer and shelf in the craft room. Throwing out what I don't need. I have started a Bookman's bag and perhaps Teri will be kind enough to make a trip to Bookman's when she comes and visits us next.  A trash bag, recycling bag and a charity bag have also been started.  Sheer exhaustion has set in so this will be a very sort pot tonight.

Vacation?

Eric had a week of vacation from his day program. We did a lot of hanging around the house. So as a result I got a lot of knitting and deep cleaning done. I did manage to run away to the spinnings wheel a couple of times. Speaking of spinning, my fluff which does not have a permenant home yet is on a tour of the house right now. In this week aline it has travlwd to 3 different  rooms.   With a little more deep cleaning I am sure that a permenant home is not to far away.  well it is almost 11pm and I think it is time to wind down for the night.

Knitting Time

I seem to get a lot of knitting done when Eric is sick. This is very good for the 1 million row challenge.  Today was no exception.  Right now I have 2 UFO ponchos in Eric's room. I am 1/4 of the way through both.  One has quiet needles the other has noisey needles. Depending on his mood is what I knit.

I was lucky enough to get a few mInutes of spinning and a trip to the supermarket in today also.    It is going to be a busy day tomorrow, so I think it is time to turn in. Sp

A Day Off in Mommy Speak

Today I took a mommy version of a day off.  I went light on the laundry.  I did one load but did not fold it.  Brought the dry clothes off  the line and put them away. Re did the linen drawer in the kitchen and moved the towels that had seen their better day to the rag pile. Of course the drawer is all nice and neat now.  Got Scooba ready to run on the kitchen floor and started her. This was all before I dropped Eric off at his day program.

The it was waiting for the Century Link guy to fix the telephone yet again. This time it was 2 bare wires touching each other and doing random shorts in the system. So I caught up on e-mail and such. Then it was off to do a return, get some lunch and go to Trader Joe's. Since I went after lunch none of the food looked appealing at all, so we landed up with goat cheese sandwiches and salad for dinner. I put most of the grocery's away and did some light picking up before it was time to go get Eric.

Then it was Barney, followed by Dinosaur Train. When Eric's aide arrived I did some finishing work on 3 projects so I could take their pictures and post them to the 1 Million Row Challenge. If the mittens look like they are different sizes please remember that I knit each one on a different flight. I am 327 rows into the challenge, I only count rows on finished projects. I will get more knitting done tomorrow.

Eric was a bit fussy tonight and wanted more mommy time. It is all quiet at the back of the house so I think is is time to go to sleep.

A Busy Day

It has been a very busy non-stop day for me. It took me most of the day, all 5 hours of it with out Eric to get through the top 5 items on my to do list. So to save time tomorrow I wrote my to do list tonight. That should save a good 5 minutes, which might be useful tomorrow.

I did not have much time for knitting or spinning. I still did find the time to get 1/3 of the way through the first fingerless mitten. I really think the person who picked the yarn will be happy with them. All I can say is the merino/silk combo is just yummy. John says my new found fondness for small projects is that the row count for the 1 million row challenge will go fast.

Well it seems that my boss has settled in for the night and I have another very busy day tomorrow. it's time to say good night.

Back Home

I am back home after a week of helping Teri. Yes I did leave her with a freezer full of home cooking. We do have to wait until November for the bar results. Which is going to be hard because I want to know right now.

While I was gone John got the washer fixed, the leak in the roof fixed. Also had Eric home sick for the entire week, and still managed to get into work. Isn't he just awesome? No I am not going to share him.

  I spent the day recouping, doing laundry, unpacking,and redoing the linen cabinet. Tomorrow will be scouba, bills, pictures. I will see how much I can get crammed into 5 hours.

Teri Time

As I write this blog post, Teri is on day 3 of her bar exams. There are a couple of things that I found out about myself this week. The first being that I can not knit for more than 6 hours a day. I packed way too much fluff, Teri has been very calm and has not needed to zone out to the spindle just turning around endlessly. The new clothes I bought for Teri's graduation are all getting longer and the waists are getting looser.  I though I would be more nervous so I brought a lot of snack food. The good news for me is that most of it is staying with Teri and her roommate when I leave. Most of the packages have not even been opened, including the chocolate covered almonds.

Teri is doing well. I am so pleased how she has turned out as an adult. I have enjoyed spending time with her this week. I hate the fact that we have to wait until November to to get the results of this weeks test.

John has been doing very well considering that Eric is giving so a run for it. Well It is time for me to go pack up Teri's stuff as we have a 1pm check out.

1 Million Row Challenge

Well the washing machine is officially down for 2 more weeks and I will be making twice weekly trips to the Laundromat. I don't think I could stand doing it once a week and doing 20+ loads at once. As it was I used the jumbo machines that hold between 2 and 4 loads each today.  I still had 6 full wash loads today. I brought along a wool cowl to work on today and now understand why people in hot humid climates prefer cotton for summer knitting. Did I mention that the Laundromat has a swamp cooler.  It was at least 85 degrees and 50+%  humidity outside today, this is not what the cooler was designed for.  I still did manage to get 3 rows knit while doing the laundry.

We are up to 57 members in the 1 Million Row Challenge .Just use this link if you would like to join us. Remember we are there to have fun and use up our old and newly acquired stash yarn. Yes any yarn that crosses our thresholds is considered stash yarn. I wounder if any local yarn shops would like to get involved, by hosting knit ins or party's? After all having a bunch of fiberholics around is sure a good way to add to our stashes. Did you really think 1 Million Rows would reduce my stash by much?

We are crossing our fingers that the leaky roof is now fixed so that we can tear out the damaged wall board and replace it. Then repaint. I hope the carpet decides to dry out with out any mildew otherwise we will be replacing that too, but not with white. Beige or brown would be my first choice, after all it does not show the dirt. Which of course would leave me more time for knitting and spinning.

Next week will be my official spin/knit-a-thon week. I have heaps of projects lined up from wrist warmers to shawls. I also have my drop spindles and braids lined up.  My goal is to have as many projects done as possible by next Saturday. I will give my row/skein count and show pictures next Sunday.

I wonder if I have time for a quick nap?

One Million Row Challenge

Last night I decided to share the One million Row Challenge with my fellow knitters and crocheter's on Raverly.  We are using the hash tag 1 mil rows to identify the projects, I would like to thank Melissa for coming up with the hash tag. We have also found a counter thanks to Annette & Alexander and here is the link to The Ticker Factory .

If you would like to join us in this journey just follow this link to Raverly 1 Million Rows Challenge . As of this blog Post we have 32 people going at their own pace, trying to bust their stashes. We all plan on having a good time doing it.

Have a great evening of knitting and family time.

The Million Row Challenge

The guys are very creative in thinking up ways to get me to use up my stash yarn.  So tonight they came up with the million row challenge. Its suppose to be knit entirely from stash yarn. I am not sure if that includes new stash yarn that just happens to land in my stash. You know how those stash fairies can be. They did not say if I should count the newly spun yarn, after all once it is spun it is technically stash yarn. They said I could choose any patterns I wanted to do, with any stash yarn I had. The goal is to knit a 1,000,000,000 rows.

They also threw in a bonus that I could count the shawl I am working on now for the challenge. This is a good thing because I am already 100 rows in. Which leaves 999,999,900 rows left to knit.

What I am looking for is a good row counter for the blog. So any ideas would be wonderful. Also does anyone want to join me in this endeavor? I would love some company along the way. In that train of thought do you think I should start a Raverly group? Who would like to join the group, if I started it?

Well it is getting late and I have dragons to slay tomorrow. So Good night all.

Getting Organized

I spent the weekend zenning the house. I decided to put all the kits together (this should read that I lost some yarn and a pattern that I wanted to start knitting). I found projects that I would no longer be working on and recovered the knitting needles and project bags. The yarn has already been passed on. I found at least 18 pairs of needles and circulars. Which is very good, it means that I don't have to go buy knitting needles for the projects I have lined up for my week of knitting.  I have a week coming up where I will have 9 hours a day to knit and spin, so I want to see how many me projects I can get out of the way.

I did find that my spinning projects had less UFOs that were stored. Well one to be exact. Looking at the fleece I can see why I had stopped spinning it. So today it went through the carder twice and is now a fluffy mass without a lot of VM in it to spin. It may not match the first 2 skeins but I am OK with that.

I did manage to put all the raw fleece in separate bags by color, breed and animal. It is all piled under the carder for some play time. I think I should probably put the roving by breed and color too. The sewing machine is now recovered too so I see some sewing happening soon too.

The more I clean and organize the better that I feel. I am also finding more time to take part in my favorite creative endeavors. I am having an easier time letting go of things too. Well it is getting late and it has been a long day.

Content

Although Eric is still home sick, I feel very content. This might have to do with the fact that I got out of the house today and now have some good snacks in the house. Summer fruits and crunchy stuff. Nom, nom nom.  I did get some spinning and weaving done today too. Laundry was at a minimum of the obligatory 2 loads.

We put Eric to bed 3 hours ago, now if he would just fall asleep so I can get some shut eye too.

It is Tuesday All Day

I am having a very surprising good day today. Eric work up with a fever of 99.5 and a stuffy nose. So needless to say, we got off to a very slow start. I got my mojo realigned about 10:30am. After that things went quite well.

Three rooms got a visit from Roomba. The master bath mats got washed and dried in the sun, it only took 2 hours for that crispy dry. The master bathroom was mopped. One load of laundry was washed and hung to dry. Two loads of laundry were folded, no they were not put away yet. I did not have that much ambition today. All the odd socks were matched up and at least 6 pairs were reclaimed from the odd sock basket, yeah me!!!  I caught up on part of the back filing and found that I did not need everything so the shredder got a real work out, half a basket shredded!!!

I am way behind on my spinning for Tour de Fleece. My plan was to get mounds of spinning done. the reality is that some days only a 12 to 24 inches are getting spun. My goal was to have all my WIP off all the spindles, not so much now. So I will be happy with what I have and not stock up on fleece and roving before next years tour. To have a less lofty goal and go for pretty and artsy instead of volume.

I really have to say that today lacked a  lot of pre planning such as not having Scooba charged so that I could get Eric,s floor mopped after vacuuming with Rumba. I also need to fire the lady in charge of snacks, she really feel short of having the right crunchy food in the house today.

My goal for tomorrow is to get Mondays errands done. I will really get that package out to Teri. I have help for 4 hours tomorrow. Well it is time to go make dinner. I might not barbecue the steaks the rain just started.

Lazy Summer Days

It is well in to July and I am still searching for the lazy,hazy days of summer. I am still very busy and seeking some down time. If you happen to stumble across them please lets know where to find them. I seem to be stuck in the crazy part of summer.

5 Hours

I am trying to find the right balance in my life riht now. I have exactly 5 hours a day to call my own. The first thing I do most days is to walk for 30 to 60 minutes. That leaves exactly 4 hours to sechdule appointments, run errands, clean, do laundry. Those are the have to do things. I still need to find time for the want to dos like knitting,spinning, weaving,sewing and maybe even do the most unusual thing of turning on the tv and watching a show. If anyone has a secret workable plan please let me know how to do it all. In the mean Ike I will try not to get hit by drivers using cell phones while driving. I swear people should not be allowed to drive a chat on the phone at the same time. It just makes them careless and I attentive. Well it sounds like someone is asleep. So you guys know the drill by now. Night all.

A Long Day

My day started at 4 am with Eric. I spent the rest of the day knitting, cleaning, doing errands, baking and last but not least 2+ hours of phone time. Since I have now hit the 18+ hour work day I am hoping that Eric goes to sleep soon. Tomorrow will be filled with baking, cleaning,sewing and a party. With any luck I will find a few minutes to knit and spin. I would like to wish everyone a happy 4th. Please enjoy your family time.

Project Bags

The thought occurred to me today that I do not have to many projects. Ok I see you all laughing. Now get up off the floor and finish reading this post. I have to many project bags. Yes that's right to many project bags. I don't want my project bags to get lonely,so I pick a pattern and some yarn. Then I cast on. I work steadily on the project until Tje next project bag says it lonely. So being the social butterfly that I am I just have to find some suitable yarn, a pattern and some needles. This is just to make the bag feel better I cast on yet another project. The cycle repeats it self dozens of times a year. This is why I have so many ufo's. Today I did get some work on various projects done, but nothing was completed. I am going on another UFO hunt tommrow to find more unfinished projects. Now if I can just find a way to make all those empty bags less lonely.

Day 37 of 100+

Today Eric and I caught the movie Madagascar 3. The movie was very good. Eric enjoyed the music so much that we got him the cd of the music. The story line was very good. I would rate this as a good one to take the kids to. Please note that we did not see the 3D version, but you could clearly determine what was suppose to be in 3D. I have declared this week get the ufo's finished week Even if i am tired of the yarn or pattern I will finish as many as possible On the knitting front I finished 2 more ufo's today before I lost my knitting mojo. For Tour de Fleece I started and got a little over half way done with a colorway called Maple Leaf by Natlie of http://www.cloudlover.bigcartel.com. It is a very lovely blend of one of my favorites BFL combined with silk. The color is flowing very well. I am finding it a very delightful spin Eric is asleep and I am just waiting fi the dryer to stop so that I can get one more load in the washer and dryer befor I call it a night.

All Things Fiber

Yesterday was filled with friends and knitting. I finished a shawl and worked on a charity scarf. The shawlette does not look quite right on me. It really needs a size 12 or smaller person to wear it. The shawl was knit using the crazy sock yarn from Germany. It is just wide enough to keep your neck and shoulders warm. I will post a picture of it on my twitter and face book feed. If you are interested please let me know. The price will be $80.00 until I post it in my etsy shop and then the price will jump to cover the listing fees. Today was spent cleaning, napping( I got 2 naps in today), spinning and knitting. I skein of yarn was finished for the 1st day of The Tour de Fleece on raverly, all 102 yards out of 2.1 ounces of fiber. I can't wait to boil it up so I can knit with ot. Well it sounds like Eric is asleep so it's time for me to sleep too.

Normal

Today I got a taste of normal. After I dropped Eric off at his program I tanked up the car and got it washed. This was followed by 40 minutes of walking, the good news is that I covered 2 miles. Yes that was 2 20 minute miles today. Followed by knitting,lunch with friends. The service was bad so the eatting establishment shall remain nameless. I did manage to get a quick nap in. I have also made the decision to make a list of political robo calls, whom ever wakes me up from a nap will be put on the list and will not get my vote in the primary or general election coming up. We it is getting late and I have a very early morning tommrow.

Overwelmed

This has been a very over whelming week for me so far. I did training Monday morning followed by a lot of errands. You guessed it Eric got sick again this week, but thanks to Lisa I only had one 29.5 hour day this week. Yes I know that it is technically more than one day. My feeling on the subject is that the day is not officially over until I go to sleep, so that's how I get such strange days. I am project hopping right now. I will do a few rows of knitting on one project then hop to another project or some spinning. Exhaustion will do that for me. So this will be a very short post tonight.

Hot and Busy

Here in Tucson we are setting a record pace for days over 100. So today I tried to beat he heat by getting the laundry done very early on Saturday morning. I almost made it. By 9:30am we had hit slightly over 100, just as I was taking the last load out to hang on the line. I have no doubt that they were dry by bed time . A great summer family activity is going to the movies then taking a lap or 2 around the mall. So we did both.

We saw Men in Black 3, not a bad movie. It was well written with lots of twists that I did not see coming. You will be surprised by the cliff hanger. That is all I am going to tell you until you see it for yourself and want to talk plot line. I did knit about 1/4 of a new scarf while watching the movie. It is a simple broken rib pattern in light pink for the charity bag.

Later my friend Lisa and I went through my new Phat Fiber box together. I have been doing a pretty good job about teaching her about fiber. The good thing about sharing the box with Lisa is now I don't have to worry about any allergies, she can use the fiber I am allergic to. Then it was time for her first spinning lesson. Man I got to tell you her first time spinning was great. After about 15 minutes of fumble she had that spindle going  and going. He first spun yarn was at least 10 times better than my first spun yarn. Lisa had watched me enough to join fiber with out help. All I can say is wow!  Lisa is the second person I have taught to spin, and I think she was hooked before she even picked up the spindle.

Sunday we got off to a rather slow start. Then it was off to see Tucson's new Iron Chef. We had one of those roving lunches where we tried a little of this and that from the various restaurants in town.  Afterward it was nap time for all.

A little spinning but no knitting got done today. I had to wait until after dinner to start the laundry because I got off to such a slow start this morning. Since Tucson is on pace for a record year of over 100 degree days, I have a feeling I will be doing a lot of early morning or late night loads this summer. Anything over 100 and I give the appliances the afternoon off. It just messes with things when it hits 100 so early in the morning, then stays over 100 until after dinner.

Well I have a long day tomorrow. The final load is in the dryer so it is time to go to sleep for the night.

French Vanilla

Today went so smoothly that if it were an ice cream flavor it would have to be the rich creaminess of French Vanilla ice cream. The training went well. They liked the fact that Eric came with a cheat sheet on the basics of Eric. It did hit 108f in Tucson today. 3 degrees hotter than yesterday. This might be the reason why I am spending time thinking about ice cream. No I have not indulged yet, but just thinking about it is refreshing in an odd way. I have been hitting the ice tea and iced water with gusto though. Now if only tomorrow was Monday. It has been a very long and trying week so you can see why next week is looking good me right about now.

Rocky Road Better Known as Wednesday

If my day was classified as an ice cream, then today would be named Rocky Road instead of Wednesday. There were a lot of bumps along my path today. Lunch did not happen. But I did get some watermelon after I got Eric home. The day turned around when John came home and I choose the hot dogs and beans for my left over meal. Ah starchy comfort food. Followed by a little TV and knitting. With a large bowl of Rainer Cherries for dessert.

I know tomorrow will be a better day. I will be training a new advocate for Eric in his day program. In between teaching and answering a lot of questions there will be plenty of time to knit and spin. Well its time to get some sleep so I can get through a busy day.

Just the usual stuff.

Well Eric was home sick today. So I got all the laundry done last night. Today was filled with cleaning, taking care of Eric and a nice walk at the mall ( it was too hot to walk outside in the middle of the day, 105 I think.) when I got a little help with Eric.  I might have to either wear different shoes, or cut back a little on walking until my left heal and right knee feel better. Did I forget to mention lots and lots of knitting.

Well its late and time to call it a day.

Summer Time

Summer time in Tucson never fails to surprise me. There is always the really crazy driving and the tempers tend to flare as the heat goes up. But what surprised me the most today was that I boiled some yarn and had most of it hanging in the garage to dry by 1 pm. At 7 pm it was still damp even though it hit 107 at our house today.

I have been walking on a very regular basis since I got back from L.A., some days are better than others. Being sore and achy does not lend it self to me wanting to walk. I am hoping that it will help in the long run. My hope is that the walking will help lessen the pain. I will let you know how that goes.

My summer in Tucson tip of the day is to park in the shade when ever and where ever possible. Even if that means parking at the back of the parking lot and walking farther in the heat. Your car will be much cooler and you will be able to touch the steering wheel.

Suprised by my Family

Even after 28 years of marriage my awesome husband can still suprise me. Yesterday I mentioned that my mom had this lovely machine called a Keurig, that made wonderful tea without having to deal with a kettle of hot water first thing in the morning. With Eric's new schedule my day starts earlier. A cuppa tea is always a breakfast thing for me. I need a little caffeine to start my day. My body does not always love me first thing in the morning so I have been doing soy chai 7 days a week, don't get me wrong I love my soy chai, but it should not be an every morning thing. So with the Keirig I figured I could save over 1,500 calories a week. I broched the Keurig at dinner, but John deflected with the simple matter that I had. Ot done my homework. I had only looked at one C-Net review. I had not gone to the holy grail of reviews,Consumers Reports. So he tabled it pending more research on my part. So I was totally suprised when one showed up in our house today. The whole gang also had a number of other suprises today. My very own copy of a Dinosaur Train DVD, a Danish strip from Nadine's and some awesome slider cup cakes made by Lisa. I have already asked Lisa to do a guest blog to share the recipe. It is well after 11 pm and Eric is not close to falli g asleep so I think I will break out the knitting and hope that the rhythm will put him to sleep soon.

Busy

I spent last weekend with my mom and came home to a boy who caught the stomach flu that was going around. This was after he was told he was not allowed to get sick until I came home from my visit with my mom. John has a much greater apperation for my all nighters or near all nighters with Eric. I personally think he did a terrific job with Eric.

Since I got home Sunday night, I have had 1 all nighter and one relatively early night where he went to bed at 1:30am ish. It is now Wednesday and my body has hit the very tired stage. As a result I am very grumpy and not a lot got done today. I am sure that things will be better in the morning.

I did manage to finish 1 scarf today. Then did the finishing work on that scarf plus 7 others that are now tagged and bagged. The only thought related to the scarfs is how 2 kitchen trash bags full of yarn only translates in to a little over 1/3 of an XXL Ziploc bag full when knit into scarfs. It seems to me that the finished bag should be fuller.

Well it is getting late and it is time to call it a night.

Random Acts of Spinning

If you hang around me long enough you just know how I love getting my fluff samples from Phat Fibers. This sfternoon I took a bunch of samples in the same color range. All kinds of different fibers and colors, not to mention prep styles. Preped them and mixed them all up in a one gallon ziplock bag. I then started pulling them out at random from the bag to spin. What I am getting is a one of a kind art yarn. I am so into this one that at 10:30 I had to pull myself away from the wheel so I can get some sleep. Tommrow I plan to be back at Tje wheel in between chores. Pictures will follow. Fibers

A Long Over Due Blog Post

I write so much about Eric, that some people might not realize that John and I have a very talented daughter also. I am so very lucky to have such a wonderful daughter like Teri in my life. So I would like to share with you the write up I am sending to our local paper.

John and Sheri Karobonik are pleased to announce that their daughter, Teri Jane Karobonik, has graduated from Santa Clara University School of Law in California. Prior to Law school Teri graduated from Catalina Foothills High School in 2005 with Honors and received her bachelors degree from the University of Arizona in 2009 with Honors. She was also inducted into Phi Beta Kappa at the University of Arizona.

 

While in law school Teri served as a Lead Production Editor on the Computer and High Technology Law Journal which is the #5 Science, Technology, & Computing Law Publication and #6 Intellectual Property Journal in the country. She also participated in Honors External Moot Court as well as serving as the co-president for Santa Clara's ACLU chapter.

 

Teri will be receiving a High Tech Law Certificate IP Specialization with Honors. In addition, she won a CALI Award for highest grade in Mass Comm II; A Witkin Award for Academic Excellence for Virtual World Law; two High Tech Excellence Awards and a Pro-bono recognition award for her work last summer at the Electronic Frontier Foundation(EFF).

 

 

 

 

 

In addition to working at the EFF, she has also worked at a small firm doing in E-discovery on a multi-million dollar Quin Tam Pro Case and as a Research Assistant. She also served as an intern for The Federal Legal Assistance Self-Help Center at the San Jose Courthouse (FLASH), where she helped pro-se litigants navigate their cases and served as an expert in copyright law for all of the FLASH-like programs within the state of California.

 

Teri is currently studying for the California bar exam and hopes to pursue a career in litigation and pubic policy work in the areas of Intellectual Property, Privacy and Internet Law .

 

*Please note that Teri was the guest columnist for this blog. I will be happy to forward any comments you have relating to this post to her.

 

 

A First for Eric

Today was a new first for Eric. He made his way into adulthood, he started his day program. So I spent the day training and answering questions about Eric. I think the day went well and things will get better as time goes on. I mean how can you flirt or express your independence with your mother in the same room?

As the day progressed I was able to step back and watch the interactions in the room and liked what I saw. I find it amazing that people seem to forget I am there when I was knitting or spinning. I wonder if they thought I was not paying attention to them?  Of course things will have to be fine tuned for Eric and that will not happen over night.

Not much else got done today, but that is OK with me. I felt it was more important to get Eric off to a good start then to do chores.  Now to gather the energy to do the things that needed to be done while I was with Eric today.

It's Here

Awe you just have to love summer. At our house it briefly got up to 109f. So I spent the day knitting wool scarfs. I also found the time to do some spinning. I also love this time of the year,because when else can you pull pj's off the clothes line at 10 in the evening and have the pj's feel like they just came out of a hot dryer? Yes this is a short one done on the pod. Night all.

Stash Busting

Sometimes the realization hits in my stash busting journey just how many hats and scarfs for charity I will have to knit before an area becomes yarn depleted. Don't get me wrong I do love knitting and I need to knit to keep my sanity some days. If you have ever watched kids programing for 18 hours a day while taking care of a sick kid you know exactly what I mean.  But I am just 2 scarfs shy of knitting 2 trash bags full of Joann's Sensations Licorice in the past 2 months.

Today's cleaning and organizing yielded yarn for at least 24 more scarfs and some where between 50 and 70 hats. I know I will enjoy knitting each and everyone of them. I know that in this economy every one of them will find a home and be out of my house in a few months.  Then it is off to the next area, and the next. 

I am slowly knitting down my yarn and have even passed some on to new knitters. I can say that I have no more yarn in the storage room or the living room. Yes the living room does look much neater.  I have 2 areas still out of control the craft room and the area in the garage with 6 - 96 quart boxes of yarn. I hope some day to have my entire stash in my closet not overflowing the storage containers. This I hope will also include the fluff. When I stopped buying yarn I replaced it with fluff sprees. After all you get more bang for the buck by spinning then knitting it. Right?

 I know I will never be one of those people who buy one or 2 projects at a time. I know this because I have been know to knit 2 scarfs in a day and start the third. But how exactly do I determine how much yarn is the right amount for me. Don't expect an answer today but sometime in the next year or so. After all I come from a family of pack rats. How do I know this? Well there are still a few boxes, still sealed from a move in 1965 in my moms garage.

I don['t know if I will ever be as organized as John or Teri but I am really trying my best. Well It is time for more kids programming and knitting . Maybe another couple of scarfs will get finished.

Not bad for a Wednesday

After a good nights sleep and 2 day time naps I am almost recovered from Eric's weekend. Lets keep it our little secret and not tell Eric that today I caught up on laundry too. Yes Eric is still home until next Monday, but he had a better day today too.  It seems to go hand in hand when he has a good day, I have a good day. When he has a bad day my seems to go down hill fast.

 Maybe tomorrow I can con him into supervising the clean up of the craft room or catching up on filing. I would like to get the craft room useful after I had to clear craft material from the rest of the house. Then maybe I can get some carding done and catch up on some sewing repairs.

I did manage to find time to knit and spin today, but no projects got finished. The result of a lot of much needed sleeping not a lot of cleaning got done, but that should be remedied tomorrow.  Now its time to go off to dreamland.

Musings

On days like today, life is measured in baby steps. Such as I did not break anyone, nor trample their feelings even though it was so tempting. I just put on my facade smile and worked my way through the mess, one thing at a time.

With the hope of sleep tonight, tomorrow will be a better day. A chance to get things done my way and on my own terms. Best of all I can put today into the history books.

I am headed off to dreamland.

Memorial Day Weekend or Keeping Busy

I would like to start this blog by thanking all the families that have lost loved ones through the history of our country do to war. You and your families have given up so much so that we can enjoy our freedom. With out you this blog and thousands like it would not be possible.

Friday, Eric came with me to knitting and was shocked to find out more people than mommy were addicted to yarn and fiber. I think he thought that we were totally nuts. But he did seem to have a good time when people talked to him. The walk around the mall was not bad either. Then it was on to lunch with Nancy. The best part of the day as far as Eric was concerned was just being out of the house.

Saturday all hell broke loose with Eric getting sick. It was a lot of work but we managed to keep him out of the hospital on a holiday weekend. I really don't think that it would be a holiday or vacation if someone did not get sick around here. He will miss his first week of summer camp, but we have to get him well.

On the knitting front I am almost done knitting the scarfs from the trash bags full of yarn ( yes it was actually 2 kitchen trash bags) that I was given 2 months ago. Less than 5 scarfs to go, about 2 1/2 days of knitting. I think I can really say that I am tired of that shade of blue. On the bright side a lot of little and not so little people will have warm necks this coming winter.

2 skeins of yarn got spun. I find the whole process of the fluff moving through my hands very relaxing. Just throw in a little music and I can go into my own little piece of heaven on earth.  Well its getting late and Eric seems to be settling in for the night.

Eric's Vacation

Today was Eric's first day of vacation. So we went to see the movie Dark Shadows. The acting was very good. I really liked the movie. The sets were awesome. I would not reccomend this movie for younger kids though. I did managed to knit 1 1/2 scarfs during the movie, yes size 17 needles and garter stitch. I am not silly enough to try knitting a pattern in the dark during a movie.

Afterward there was the promised 2 laps around the mall that Eric managed to turn into 3 1/2 laps. He enjoyed his outing very much. My only complaint about the walk was getting stopped by 2 different people who said the "knew" Eric. Why is it that every child/young adult in a wheelchair is the same gerneric person and not the individuals I know them to be? Turns out that they had never even meet Eric before but he looked like a kid in a chair at their schools. Yes dear world there is more than 1 child/young adult in a wheelchair in this world. Sigh, I wish there were not any.

Well Eric is being fussy so I am going to take my knitting to his room until he falls asleep.

A Chapter Ends

Today was the end of Eric's long high school career. It was the very last time that I would have to clean out his cubby or pick up his meds from school. He had his very last school bus rides today too.  He will transition to  a day program when the paper work is settled. Then it will be the mommy taxi to and from his program.

I know that most change is good, but we are now traveling into the land of adulthood with the very same boy we have journey this far with. I have no idea what to expect. What I do know is that the services that were suppose to be in place 2 decades ago have changed. The system that is suppose to help us is getting harder to navigate. The services are getting scarcer as Eric gets older and we need more help. Promises made by last century's politicians do not resonate the same with today's politicians.  I know I must prevail because I am Eric's voice.

 I have yarn to knit and fluff to spin. I will be able to hold my course no matter how rocky things get. John and I will be each others rock. Well it is time to go take care of Eric.

Tuesday

A lot has happened since I last wrote on May 15th. The camera we got when Teri graduated 5th grade died. We helped the encomy in California  by buying a new one when we got in. So the pictures will be up as soon as John loads the software and John or I download the pictures.  We got to see Teri graduate law school. Needless to say we are very proud parents. We had a great weekend just hanging around with Teri.

Today was spent at Eric's graduation at high school. Then working on his paperwork for Eric's new program. When it hit 105 today, which is still very early in the season even by Tucson standards, I hit the house work. Now I do have to be honest here, I would rather hang around with Teri shopping or shooting the breeze than do house work, but it was not an option today. A whole lot of cleaning got done. I even managed a little organization too. I might be in trouble later in the week as the recycle bin is half full and it is only Tuesday.

I did find time to knit and spin so it was not a bad day overall. Eric appears to be sleeping so I think I will call it a night.

Prepration

Today was a day full of preparation. We are going to see Teri graduate law school. Eric is staying home with some wonderful care givers. He is not up to the rigors of travel just now. After 3 months of preparation everything is in place. Fingers crossed.

The only glitch of the day seemed to be my camera dying. I think I got it for Teri's elementary or middle school graduation. I was a good little camera while it lasted. I am sure after all these years the tech is better and the new camera will be just a little smaller.

Well it is time to settle Eric in for the night. My next post will be from my pod. so I will have to keep it short.

WOW

It has been very hectic since I blogged last. I have still been busy cleaning. I would like to say that for a second week in a row the recycle bin was too full for me to roll out to the street. John has gotten in on the cleaning too. Which means that I need to do more cleaning just to keep up with him. No we are not moving, but have been in this house for 18 years and we have just acquired a lot of stuff over the  years.

Along with the cleaning I have been doing a lot of transnational paper work for Eric. I bet we could save a Forrest of trees if we just input all the information everyone required into 1 computer program and had everyone pull the information they needed instead of writing it over and over in different formats for each agency involved.

The guys made my Mother's Day very special. With flowers, A Thomas the Tank DVD with 24 episodes that Eric picked out, a new purse, dim sum for brunch, and Italian for dinner. During dinner I got a very nice call from Teri, who was taking a break from studying for her last final of her Law School career. I also got a pretty red rose for the guys at Buck's where we go to get out cars tanked up. I had a nice chat with my mom. I am so glad that she will be able to make it to Teri's graduation next week. It has been a while since I have last seen her.

Also Eric is on the mend. He was sick enough that I had no time for anything last week.  Ever the optimist I know things will get much better this week.  Well it is time to do a little spinning and relax.

Making a Care Plan

Today in the midst of boiling and thwacking yarn, doing laundry and general cleaning I decided to update Eric's care plan. I think it was a little over due. It was last updated when Teri was a junior in college, um 5 years ago. A lot has changed. its like I have a whole new document.

If you are the primary care giver a care plan is necessary for everyone but you. I know I have this all in my head, but they don't. So take the time to make one. Carry a small note book around with you for about a week noting what you are doing and when.  Include such things as when the person gets up. What will they wear depending on the temperature outside and they days activities. Exercises that need to be done. Personal care and treatments that need to be done. When medicine needs to be given.  When transportation comes and goes. When is bed time. What is the shower/bath routine. What is different on the weekends. Eating schedule and food likes and dislikes.

Be sure to include all the likes and dislikes of the person you can think of. Which TV channels do they like. What shows do they love and hate.  Where do they like to go. What books on tape do they like. Do they like to be read to. What do they like to do, even if it is just sitting with you outside listening to the birds.

I also include mundane things like the next door neighbor, doctors, car mechanic's for the special issues. If you have friends in the care plan be sure to let them know. You can include the local grocery store that delivers. Also have take out menus of places that deliver.

If you are going on a trip be sure to have a page or 2 with your itinerary also.

Once you have the document prepared, give it to one or more of your regular helpers. Ask them to mark it up with a red pen, just in case you happen to forget something or have the wrong information down. Make your corrections and place the sheets in protective  sheet covers. Then let everyone know where it will be kept.

When properly maintained they are wonderful for everyone one around your special person.

My Virtual Monday

Yes I know today is Tuesday, but lets face it I am not at my best when I have been up for most of the night. Sunday night I was up until 3:30 am ish on Monday morning. Yesterday the real Monday was a wash, so I did Mondays chores today on Tuesday.

Eric did go to the doctors today and the verdict is he will be home with me until I leave to go see Teri graduate law school. I can not believe that it has been 3 years already. So this means that I need to be super organized for the next week. I will be the list person, with a list for virtually everything that needs to get done in the next week. To that end I have broken out a new note book. So I am off to start making my lists. Yes I did say lists because there will be many of them with no master list. Where is Teri when I need her awesome organizational skills?

With any luck I will find time for knitting and spinning. By the way does anyone know if you can take a drop spindle in carry on or does it have to be packed?

Just the Ususal Stuff

Cleaning got stalled Sunday afternoon when Eric got sick. I would  like to say that his temperature is down, but we will most likely be going for a doctors visit tomorrow. I don't like his cough.

A lot of work got done on the Jaala Spiro’s Silk Moon Crescent Shawlette knit along. I am over half way through with it. Jaala did a very nice job on the design. I would also like to add that it is a pattern I would recommend knitting when you have been up all night with a sick child. This is also the type of pattern that you could take with you to the hospital or doctors visits. Here is a link to the pattern and it is well worth the price. silk-moon-crescent-shawlette . It has a few things that require a bit of skill but I would put it at an advance beginner or above. Because of the way the pattern is layed out, it would be perfect to use up bits and pieces in your scrap basket or small bits of hand spun yarn. Most of the techniques can be found on You Tube.  Can you tell that I like the pattern?

We it is time to go top off Eric and hope that he sleeps tonight. I don't think I am up to another day of no sleep.

Phase One

Phase one is almost complete. I spent the day cleaning and organizing everything. I started by packing all the fluff in zippered bags. Then dusted the shelf's where the fluff was. Next came the moving of the books and magazines. I was surprised that I had more magazines then books, but John was not.

Next John and I emptied my closet and cleared everything out. John's only comment was that there was a lot of yarn. Since I was getting sore at that point John did the vacuuming. I did manage to find empty space in the yarn storage bins, I used that space for the storage of more yarn. As long as I am redoing the house I am taking the time to go through everything and  de-cluttering at the same time. I did manage to get most of the closet done today but ran out of steam around 4:00 pm.

I did manage to find space for my drop spindles in the closet also. So now there are no knitting needles or spindles out. There are only a few baskets and bags that need new homes. The projects that I am working on tonight will go to the closet for the night and only be taken out when I am working on them.

Tomorrow I will try to finish the closet, living room and den before I move on to the craft room. I will also have to find time to start filling out a heap of paperwork for Eric's new day program.  Well it is getting late and I still have to get Eric ready for bed.