Happy New Year

Hey, it's still January, so I can still title this as "Happy New Year". It's me, the haphazard blogger, back again for an update.

On December 1 I went to visit the doctor after endurring a weekend's worth of pain in my left hand. The earth stopped spinning when the MD told me I had carpal tunnel syndrome, and I was not to knit until further notice! I strictly followed her orders for about 4 weeks until I just couldn't handle it anymore. I think I'd entered into a mild depression, so I justified to myself that it would be okay to start knitting again as long as I knitted English instead of Continental. Afraid of the pain in my hand returning, I've knitted only for durations of 15 minutes 2 or 3 times a week. This little taste is all I needed. Once physical therapy begins, I'll have a clearer picture as to when I can pick up my big projects again...and really get back to it.

Grace & Owen are great. Oh, with the exception of Owen's bilateral ear infection. Poor guy has had a fever and such pain for about 2 days now. I've been so worried about him, and I only hope the antibiotics begin to help him soon!

Our dear friend, Leah, and her son, Ben, are coming out to see us from Kansas City in less than 2 weeks. We'll be taking the kiddos to Disneyland after months and months of them begging to go back. We plan to pull this off as a surprise, so stay tuned for the outcome... We can't wait to see Leah & Ben. I saw her briefly when I went to KS City last July for the Silpada Designs conference, but didn't get to see Ben at all. I know we're going to have a great time at the happiest place on earth.

Soon after our return from Anaheim, we'll be expecting my sister & nephew in for a visit from Pennsylvania! We get to see them once a year and we really enjoy our time with them. We'll be visiting another theme park while they're here, Magic Mtn. The crazy deathwish coasters will be perfect for my 11 year old nephew and husband. My sister, the 3-year olds, & I will be hanging out at the kiddie area. Once home from the park, I hope to catch up on my knitting with my sister! It's such a bonding time for us.

Over the last few months, I've been looking for a job. I never paid much attention to unemployment rates, although I did see the trends when I was doing HR work prior to becoming a mom. However, now that I'm on the job market, I'm finding that California's unemployment rate of 8.6% is daunting to say the least. It seems like every day I hear about more and more lay offs, which means more people are out there looking for the same jobs I am! It's tough right now for everybody, and I'm definitely feeling the affects. Hopefully something comes my way soon. Now that Grace & Owen have started preschool, I feel good about returning to the workforce, and I look forward to the mental stimulation!

Well, my update is complete. I won't go into the whole Christmas scene, as it was nothing less than magical for our whole family! Read Twas the Night Before Christmas, and that'll sum it up for us. Simply amazing!

My New Years goals:
1) knit (and complete) one project each month
2) lose 10 pounds (that's on my list every year)
3) stop buying yarn
4) get a job
5) tell my family that I love them everyday
6) meditate or do yoga daily
7) walk the dogs daily
8) keep my blog current
9) stay better in touch with my friends
10) count my blessings

Happy 2009!

Summer 2008

Our family summer plans are set in motion! It all begins when we host a big "end of the year" party for G&O's fellow school mates here at our house in just a couple of weeks. Our poor dogs & cats better brace themselves when about 20 2-year-olds show up for gold fish crackers, string cheese, and juice!

Next, we'll be traveling to Palm Springs to visit our dear friends for the weekend the last week in April. Their home is like an oasis in middle of the desert where we always feel so welcome. It will be great catching up with these friends while spending most of the time in their fantastic pool right off the golf course. (I expect it's going to be hot!)

We're celebrating Grace & Owen's 3rd birthday in May, instead of July, by taking them to Disneyland before the summer crowds emerge. We have a 3-day package planned, and we're all so excited about going! It'll be Grace & Owen's first time there, so we're hoping it'll be magical for them!

All of this, along with weekly swim lessons, Music Together classes, beach trips, strawberry picking, and our regular weekly play dates has our summer 2008 full of exciting fun for the whole family!

200 plus stashed!

First let me comment on how embarrassed I am to even have a blog existence. I haven't kept up with my blogging nearly to the extent I thought I would. Keeping up with it is something I definitely want to do, but I struggle with finding the time. Don't we all!

I'm posting today because I'm in shock at the end result of my Ravelry update! I finally finished entering, updating, and posting photos to my Ravelry account, and I cannot believe I have over 200 skeins of yarn in my stash! How did this happen? Just how? Here I complain about not having enough time to post to my blog - and I know it's not because all my time is spent knitting!

If I had an analytical mind, which I don't, but if I did, I could calculate how many yards of yarn I have, consider how long it takes for me to knit 100 yards, do a little bit of math, compare that number to how many hours are in a day, a week, a month, a year, etc, and I know I would find that there is easily not enough years in an average lifetime to knit the amount of yarn I have. Again, I ponder to myself, "how did this happen?" The unbelievable truth I hate to admit is that I'm about 90% sure that by the end of next week, I'll be picking up that beautiful Misti Alpaca sock yarn I saw at my local yarn store the other day!

I'm So Proud

A couple of weeks ago my kids & I were on our way home from Bakersfield. I decided to take some country roads for a length of the trip, and we came across a couple of farms, one of which was an Alpaca farm! We got out of the car and attempted to bond with the cute little guys, but they would have nothing to do with us.

When we got home, I pulled out one of my coveted balls of alpaca yarn, and explained to my 2-year old children that "if those alpacas had let us pet them, this is how they would have felt".

Over the course of these last weeks, the kids would touch my yarn, look at me and ask, "mommy, this alpaca or sheep?" In the past few days, they have both confidently informed me of which is which! We're now learning about silk and cotton.

Updating Ravelry

I've had very little time to update Ravelry. The holidays have kept me away from the computer and knitting lately, and I hope to return to both after next week.

Here is my "to do" list for this week:
grocery shop
clean house
finish laundry
create labels for Christmas cards
assemble & wrap gifts
write newsletter for my twins club
shop for one more Christmas gift
make business calls

...yikes!


Once I'm back on Ravelry, my "to do" list is as follows:
finish entering my stash
update my queue (there's just so much!)
visit some of the groups I've joined
do some knitting, so I can add to my finished projects!

Updating my Ravelry Account

Being a Ravelry beta tester is such fun, but I'm finding that it's taking away my precious knitting time! Is this a conflict of interest? In the short-run, perhaps it is. In the long-run, I can just see how organized my stash will be. All those projects that cross my path and later are forgotten will be documented in my queue to access when I'm ready. Oh, and the friends I'll meet. Just look at the people who I have projects in common with. People have invited me to be their friends, and I've done the same. I can join groups, sell/trade/buy yarn. I can look at projects others have completed using the same yarn I have stashed and get ideas.

The inspiration to be had by the thousands of talented fellow knitters on Ravelry is priceless! How did I ever exist as a knitter without it?