I think I am on a roll now!

Wow, here I am ready to rock and roll and update my blog. Drat! I see that my promise to blog every week religiously has failed miserably. Good intentions, but lack of discipline. Or maybe just time. Either way, I have some blogging to do.

Where do I start? First I guess I should start from the beginning, where ever that is.

I think I should share with you that I got to spend yesterday with my granddaughter Kaylee. I received a call from Chad, my oldest son, saying that Kaylee wanted to spend the day with me. Yes, I bought it hook, line and sinker. Wouldn't you? Anyway, we all ended up meeting at the children's park in Bidwell Park and spent an hour playing on the toys and visiting. Then I got to take Kaylee to the book store so I could buy the new Harry Potter book and we could spend time in the children's section. We had such a blast. She finally decided on a Mother Goose book, which grandma bought for her. We then went to IHOP and had lunch. I did not realize how much fun lunch could be. Her mom came to pick her up at my house at 5:30 p.m, so I had a full day of memories with my Kaylee.

Next weekend will be my first weekend to have both the grandbabies stay overnight with me. I have big plans and I am sure more memories will be created. I so love being a grandma. I just didn't know it would be this way.

Now I should move on to my birthday being on Friday the 13th this year. I am not a superstitious person, usually, though every once in a while when the 13th falls on a Friday, I find I am a little more cautious. Well this year's birthday went off without a hitch. Work celebrated by having cake and champagne the day before my birthday, I got oodles of e-mail cards and birthday cards. My sons, daughter-in-law and grandbabies all came over on Sunday to have a BBQ and cake and ice cream. What more could I ask for? So now I am another year older, but feel years younger. Go figure. Here are few pictures from our time together.

Now, I don't know how many of you remember my past blogs about the doilies that I promised to make my sister Charlotte. Yes, it has been almost a year and one-half since I promised those doilies. But guess what! I finally got them, well at least one of them, started! I have tried to crochet the blue and white varigated doily, and have started and ripped it out at least 4 times. Well, my friend Lynne, also known as the mutant penguin, agreed to come over for pizza the day after my Birthday BBQ and help me get started. And started she did get me. Actually, she came up with the brilliant idea of starting the red and green doily as that pattern was easier. Duh! Never crossed my mind to do that. No, I just would rather frustrate myself by trying to crochet a more difficult pattern. Keep in mind that I have not crocheted for at least 10 years. Yes, I believe it must be like riding a bike, but good grief, I think I need training wheels. Well, the good news is that I am breezing along rather nicely, and I think that this little doily is going to make it way to my sister before her birthday in September. Of course she has threatened me with disowning me if she doesn't have it before her birthday. But, she loves me and she would never follow through on that........right sis? Anyway, I have taken a picture of the both doilies that I will be making so you can see what is going on.

I guess the picture is a little dark so you can't tell that the thread is burgundy, but look how much I have done so far. Of course I won't be starting the blue and white varigated one until I finish the red and green one. Lynn and I decided with the pattern on the left that the center will be the burgundy color and the forest green will be the outside rows. We think it will look beautiful when it is done. The pattern on the lower right is the one that I will be making out of the blue varigated. It should look beautiful when it is done.

I think I have you completely updated for now. I hope you enjoy reading about what's been going on in my neck of the woods. Until next time. Toodles.

What is a girl to do?

Okay, so I know that I promised to blog every week, and I believe that I am almost two weeks from my last blog, but I have good excuses! 1. Work has been hectic. I have a new gal that I have been training and so when I get home at night I am too tired to get on my home computer. 2. New computers were bought for our office and my boss has been trying to get them up and running all week, as our computer guy baled out on us. Keep in mind my boss is an attorney, and he knows pretty much nothing about internet, computers, networks, etc. Got the picture? So of course my computer is the one that he has had the most trouble with. Meaning that I lost my internet access! What a tragedy! So any time that I use to be able to do a little cheat blogging has been non-existent! Can you feel my pain? 3. Last, but not least, I procrastinated and the time just flew by. Okay that's all I am going to say about that. But hope I gave you some good reading material.

So, now how about an update on other parts of my life. Well, my son and his family have gone to Idaho for one week to visit my daughter-in-laws family. They have been gone all of 14 hours and I am missing them already. I talked to them as they were on the road heading out of town at 10:30 p.m. and I could hear my little grandson Jaden fussing and I just wanted to reach through the phone and give him a hug and kiss. Geez, can you believe that I am such a sap for tears! They called me at 11:00 a.m. today and let me know that they had made it safe and that the kids were happy and fully of energy. So I was able to breath a little easier and will just have to wait a week to get my grandma fix.

I had big plans for this weekend, but my back had other ideas. I somehow got my lower back into a bad bind and find that I can only sit for short periods of time and only on hard surfaces. Actually, the truth is that my lower back has been a little soar and tight for the past three days, but I just thought it would work its way out. I continued with my jazzercise routine and my lunch time work out routine thinking it would get better. Well, by Friday I could not even sit for 5 minutes without being in pain, so I did the right thing and got in to see my Chiropractor. He adjusted me and said if I would just do a little stretching and iced it I should be better by Monday. He made it clear that I needed to take a few days off of my usual work out routine in the meantime. Of course, no where in that conversation did he say I would be pain free, but that is what my brain told me. Joke was on me, as I finally had to get out of bed this morning at 10 minutes to 7 because I was in such pain I could not stand being in bed any longer. All I did was pace around the house for the first few hours. Thank goodness I know my limits and called my girlfriend Roni and got some sage advice. So here I am at 3pm, feeling a little better with high hopes of tomorrow being a much better day.

Tell you how good of friend Roni is. She actually came over and we walked to a nearby Jamba Juice store and then walked back home. The walking really did feel pretty good, and I am alternating heat and ice now, with still loads of Ibuprofin. She knew I was going stir crazy so she was willing to give me a little company and exercise on a moderated scale. On top of all that, she has invited me over for dinner, a movie (Cassablance, which neither of has ever seen) and jaccuzzi. Oh my back is going to be very happy. See what a great friend she is! And yes my fellow knitters, I am going to be taking knitting with me to work on too. Remember, I am really far behind on all my projects.

Well, I think I have sat long enough things are starting to get a little uncomfortable so gotta go for now. I will continue to blog when time allows. But rest assured, it will not be 6 months at a time. Heh! I have too much to keep you posted on.

Wow! Things have changed!

I guess it has been a while since I have blogged. Actually, I guess it has been at least six months since I last blogged. I am surprised that they even let me on. I had to look my blog name and password up just so I could get started, and then I had to create a google account. What the heck! Guess that is what happens when you don't blog regularly.

Well, I have a lot to catch you up on, and my fellow knitters and friends are going to be so excited to see that I have joined back into blog mania. Let's see........I went to Mexico in April, my first time to go any where that required a passport. It was awsome! I went with my sister and niece and we had a blast. We stayed in the Playa Del Carmen area at the Rui Palace hotel. Oh my gosh were we spoiled. I ate, drank, laughed, sunned and relaxed to my hearts content. We decided that we needed to plan another trip there in the very near future. Here are a few pictures just to give you the feel of what I enjoyed. I see I still have a lot to learn on how to post my pictures, but at least you get the drift of what I was trying to do.

Now, keeping in mind that I started this blog as my knitting blog. Have I been knitting you ask? I am ashamed to say that I have been remise in working on my knitting projects. I have so overbooked myself this year that I barely had time to sleep. Work definately got in the way, and then my Mexico trip was a must, my Denver trip, which I will share here shortly was a must, my Legal Secretary conferences, one in February in San Francisco and one in Palm Springs in May could not be missed. Oh! And we can't forget my grandbabies. I have to spend time with them. So can you see my delemia? Good, cause I sure don't want to keep whining about it.

The good news is that I actually have been working on my socks that I started in January and have the cuffs of the first pair almost done.....hey, what do you want, it is my first pair (tee hee).

Okay, now I promised that I would tell you about my trip to Denver. My girlfriend Roni and I want to Denver June 1-4 to see the play Wicked. Neither one of us had ever been to Denver so we planned a girls weekend, bought the tickets and went. Mind you, we did all this planning last August, but it was so worth it! The area is beautiful! All the culture and architeture, weather, people, I loved it! This place had such a good feel to it for me that I am planning on checking it our more seriously for possibly retiring there. I am serious. Oh, and the play Wicked! It was wonderful! We had great seats and we were entertained far beyond our wildest hopes. We both agreed that we want to see it again, only we will wait for it to come back to San Francisco, so we don't have to travel so far. But I have to tell you, if you have not seen this play yet, go......you will not be sorry and it is worth the money too.

Before I stop for the night, yes I promise to keep my blog weekly updated from here on out. Believe me, my friends will hold me to my promise. Remember my grandbabies? Well Jaden is now going on 9 months, he has four teeth, two top and two bottom front teeth, he is crawling and trying to walk. I call him my little pumpkin. Kaylee, my granddaughter is my little princess and she is precious as ever. She is so good with her little brother and a dear to be around. I actually got to be with just the two of them for a couple of hours on Father's Day, while my son and daughter-in-law ran some errands and we had such a good time. Kaylee and I made cookies, Jaden and I played peek-a-boo and then I read fairy tales to my heart's content. I wanted to post a picture of both the kids, but I guess they must still be on my camera. I will post them a little later, but for the time being, here is a picture of my son Chad and Jaden (daddy and son).

Family

I just had to share the family picture that we took on Sunday Janauary 21, 2007. My Uncle Bob's birthday is January 28th and I wanted to send him a framed picture of my little family and this is the results. The picture turned out so much better than I had hoped so just had to share it with everyone. The line up of people are as follows: Nathan, my youngest son, is standing behind me on the left, Tia, my daughter-in-law, is behind me in the middle, Chad, my oldest son and husband to Tia and Father of the grandbabies is behind me on the right, Kaylee (whose 2yrs) is in my lap and Jaden (whose 3 1/2 months) is of course on my right. No doubt you recognize me in the middle as the very proud mom and grandma! I am so blessed and happy with my family. Aren't we a good looking group? Poor Jaden would be smiling up until the flash would go off and he would get that startled look for the camera. But that's okay, he is still a cutie.

Pictures as Promised

Here are the pictures of our Champs group at Knit Wits. I guess the lighting was not as good as I thought, or too good. Or maybe I just need to take a photography class so I can learn how to take pictures correctly. Anyway, the gals in the pictures are Brooke in the purple shirt, Linda who is to the right of Brooke in the middle picture, Lynn who is in the red in front of the window, Heather who is standing behind Roni and Irene who is in the green. Devvy, who is the owner of Knit Wits is the upper left picture. She is a great gal and we love her store.

A New Year Already!

Happy New Year!

Wow! Here we are half way through January and I have no clue where the time has gone! Sunday I finally was able to get together with my Champs knitting group at the new location for Knit Wits, our yarn store in Paradise. The place is wonderful. It is larger so we actually have room to spread out and still not trip over each other. The chairs that she has for us are soft and comfy too. Oh, and I don't want to be remise in mentioning the fireplace. It gives such a cozy, comfortable feeling to the room. I will post pictures that I took from Sunday, but since I am blogging from work (tsk, tsk, bad girl!) I have the pictures on my home computer. So look for my next post.

I guess something else to get a grasp on is that SP9 ends the 31st of this month. I sent out my last package yesterday to my pal and revealed myself to her. Guess I will have to wait and see if she posts anything about it. My pal that spoils me has been great this time. She has stayed in such great touch with me. I don't go a week without some type of e-mail or comment on my blog. I definately know that I have a secret pal and that she thinks of me often. I was looking at the yarn and purse pattern that she sent me in my first package and plan on starting it this weekend. Of course if my sister knew this she would throw a fit as I still need to make two doilies for her that I promised last February. I just can't help myself, the purse just looks more fun and faster than the doilies. Okay, so maybe I should at least work on the purse and the doilies at the same time. I will think about it.

I guess I should admit that I also have started my first pair of socks. At the Champs session that is what I chose to start. My friend and fellow Champs Roni gave me this beautiful sock yarn, dpns and sock pattern for Christmas. I just couldn't resist getting going on them. Besides, she is teaching me the ins and outs of sock making and the socks are for me. Geez, do I sound selfish or what! Okay, I need to get a grip on myself. How about after I make the socks and purse (tee hee).

Thanks Secret Pal

I was not able to let my secret pal know that I received her package on Friday the 22nd as my son crashed his computer and was using mine to restore to his. Don't ask me how he was doing that, all I know is that I did not have access to my computer until today. So, all that to say, thank you secret pal for the latest package. I can hardly wait to try out the knitting thimble and to sit down and read through the magazine. I appreciate everything that you sent and it will all be used with great pride.

I just realized that I didn't take a picture of the Christmas card that came with it. I have a card holder that I pin all my cards too and that is where it is. Just know that I also got a sweet Christmas card as well.

I cannot express how good it feels to receive something from my secret pal. She has bee so great at keeping in touch through e-mail and sending her packages as well. I just want everyone to know how great she is and how happy I am that she is my secret pal 9.

I am still here

Well shame on me! I have not blogged since November 29th! That is just awful. I appologize to everyone, especially my secret pal and my SP9 Hostess. My friends already have given me a tongue lashing and I have meekly asked for their forgiveness. Whew! That is just plain embarrassing!

Well, enough of the groveling and let's get on with what has been going on in my world. I have lots of pictures to share and news to type. First off, I splurged about three weeks ago and bought myself an early Christmas present. Now, all of my friends already know this, but those of you that only know be through this blog have no idea. Drum roll please...............

Taa Daa! I bought a new car! It is a 2007 Honda Pilot SUV 4wheel drive! Since I now have grandbabies, they just didn't fit in my Honda Accord 2 door coupe very well. And let's face it, grandma was having difficulties getting them in and out of the back seat. Isn't it beautiful? I love it and it drives like a dream.

Now, for all the other updates that I owe my fellow bloggers.......I did mostly complete my knitting projects for Christmas. Carla's cable scarf was given to her on the 20th at our weekly coffee date.....I still need to finish it so I took it back so I could do that. I just need to make it a little longer and then it is finished. Thank goodness she understood and loved it anyway.....the next gift was the felted purse for Faith, my receptionist and that was given to her on the 22nd. 100% completed. Take a look at the finished item.

Faith loves it and I have to admit I am very happy with how it turned out. The two last items that I needed to finish were for Christmas Day. One was a scarf for my daughter-in-law Tia and the other was a sweater for my granddaugher, Kaylee. Well I have to admit that neither was completed 100% by Christmas Day, but they were both at about 90%. So, I wrapped them both up and gave them to each of them and then took them back to finish this week. Tia's scarf is just a little too short for her liking so I am making it longer and Kaylee's sweater has to have the button band knitted. All in all I am happy with my projects.

So let's talk about Christmas. Mine was just wonderful! It was the first Christmas with the grandbabies and they just made it so special. Kaylee, she's two, was adorable. You should have seen her face when she came out to the frontroom at 7am and saw all the goodies that Santa had left her. She was just plain amazed and in awe. My boys are in their mid 20's and it has just been too long since I saw Christmas through the eyes of a child. It was a blessing that I am so thankful for and will cherish for a long time. I would post pictures, but the last couple I tried to attach to this post didn't show up. So will save you the boredom. (ha, ha)

I hope all of you had a blessed Christmas and I wish you a Happy New Year!