I am not a good blogger . . .

I fall off the face of the blog-earth so to speak. But I thought I would try, once again to blog on a regular basis. There is a lot going on in my life. I am still knitting, working, excercising and losing weight. I have also met somebody. Almost three months ago now. He is wonderful. I am learning a lot about myself because of him.

Thought for the day: “Problems have only the size and the power that you give them.” —S. H.

Belated Gratitude

November and Thanksgiving is the time to give thanks and to express your gratitude. This is my belated gratitude post. I am thankful for my three sons. I spent Thanksgiving and weekend with them and had such a wonderful time. I was thankful my oldest was able to be home for a couple of days.

I am also grateful for a wonderfully healthy little grandson. I even got to “babysit” him for a couple of hours Saturday evening. (Basically, I just held him until he fell asleep.) He has such wonderful little expressions.

I am thankful for my mom and dad. Mom called me both on Wednesday worrying about me driving late into the night and on Sunday as I was coming home worried about the weather. It’s nice to have somebody worrying about me every now and then. And thankful for Dad who flew to Kansas to spend the Thanksgiving with me and my boys. I am not sure he knows how grateful I am for him doing this every year. It’s hard to spend Thanksgiving at my ex-husband’s but with my dad there it makes it easier.

I am grateful for my wonderful Denver friends.  Need I say more?!  We are an eclectic bunch and that makes it so great.

While in Kansas, I got to see a lifelong friend for dinner and a best friend from high school for breakfast.  I am grateful to rekindle old friendships.  I have missed them over the years.

I am grateful I have a job to get up and go to every morning.  This time last year I lost the part-time job I was working at due to downsizing.  A lot has happened in a year.

There is a lot I am grateful for and it is hard to put it all in this post.  I am very thankful for all the little things as well as the big things that happen in my life.

It’s been so long

since I last blogged about anything. And in the months since I last wrote, I have lost 25 lbs. I am still working on more. I go to the gym about 5 out of 7 days every week. I am working hard at this.

Another update: I moved last weekend. I moved to a nice 1 bedroom condo/townhouse in Denver. I am so happy there. I had lots of help moving on Saturday and was completely moved in by Saturday 1 pm. Even have my kitchen, bathroom, closet, and linen closet, and all books unpacked and put away. Yeah for wonderful friends!!!

I live in a new neighborhood but closer to my friend Amanda so Friday eve we are going to a knit night (and taking Tam with us) down in Parker.

A couple of weekends ago I went hiking with my mom and saw the Bristlecone Pines. They were so fascinating.

William has arrived!

After a long and trying labor, William B. arrived via emergency C-section July 22, 2010.  He was 9 lbs, 6.2 oz and 22 1/2″ long when he was born. 

I flew to Kansas and arrived at the hospital less than 12 hours after he was born.  He is adorable! 

His parents (Ryan & Renee) are so proud.  His uncles (my sons John & Matt) are really enjoying him as well.

It’s getting closer . . .

. . . to baby time.  And it doesn’t matter how hard I crunch the numbers I cannot afford to go to Kansas at the end of this month.  😦  I am so disappointed.  I truly wanted to be there.

June 29th I joined a gym (24 Hour Fitness) and have been working out almost every day.  The weight is slowly coming off.  I feel better too and I think my attitude is better.  Not that I had a bad attitude before but I am just happier than I was before.

Got turned on to some really cool music last night, Apocalyptica.  They take rock songs and play them on their cellos. 

It’s been a couple of months

So much has happened in my life in the last couple of months and for whatwever reason I didn’t feel like blogging about everything.  The biggest and most important thing is I started a new job on June 7, 2010.  I am the office manager and bookkeeper for an orthotics manufacturing place.  Great group of people.  In fact, they just won an award as one of the top 50 businesses to watch for Denver.  So, yes, they are very up and coming. 

June 12, 2010 three of my friends and I went up to Estes Park for Wool Market.  The weather was horrible and the temperature was in the low 50’s (fahrenheit) with rain.  Luckily the vendors were inside a sale barn at a fairground so we weren’t out in the weather the entire time.  Picked up some yarn for two different projects.  I went prepared with projects and yardage in mind so I didn’t just buy yarn here and there.

June 19, 2010 was the monthly Pajama Jam at one of our local yarn shops, LambShoppe.  I took some fruit and homemade fruit dip that went over well.  There was some gf cake I could eat and some yummy homemade salsa as well.  Oh yeah, and besides the eating we knit a little bit.  😉  lol

June 22, 2010 was Jinger’s Birthday Potluck party.  I improvised on the fruit dip making it again and adding vanilla yogurt to it and made it into a fruit salad.  Sue brought her scrumptious deviled eggs (these are the best deviled eggs because she uses a special mustart for them) and some other of Jinger’s friends came with lots of more food.  And Jinger brought out this huge bowl of gazpucho!  Oh it was soooo good!  (I had two bowls.)  Jinger also made these cranberry almondy bars that were gf.  Scrumptous!

On the needles: 

• the back of a ruana vest for a sample for Black Water Abbey Yarns
• Chestnut Street Wrap – I got the yarn for at Estes Park Wool Market
• Baby blanket I need to finish for my new grandson
• crocheting a baby blanket for Pine Ridge Reservation using up acrylic yarns; I needed to shift gears for a little while and that’s why I am crocheting
• a pair of boot socks for the elders of Pine Ridge Reservation for a sock drive we are doing that comes do in October.
• various other projects

I think things are going well with my daughter-in-law’s pregnancy.  Due date is still July 25th.  I am thinking of flying to Kansas the evening of Thursday, July 29th and spending the weekend and coming back evening of Sunday, August 1st.  I could drive it but driving 500 miles by myself is taking a toll on me.    I may put this off a whole week as well so they are more settled in with the baby.  I don’t want to be in the way. 

My dad reminded me that when they come home from the hospital they can skype me as well.  They have a video camera and I do too.

Well, I should get dressed and start my day.  It is Saturday after all!

no pics today

I don’t have much to share with you today. Not much is new. But it is Easter and Springtime, the time of new beginnings. The weather is beautiful out. I talked to all my boys and my daughter-in-law this morning to wish them all a Happy Easter. Oh how I miss them!

Sock Madness IV Round #2

Sock Madness IV Round #2

Originally uploaded by semunger

Finished! I like these. Because of the nature of fairisle and “floating” yarn behind they are thicker and will be warm during the winter.

not much is new . . .

Not much is new to report.  The week went by and before you know it, it was already the weekend.  We received about 8-10″ of snow on Friday alone but the temp was back up in the 50’s already yesterday.  Today they are predicting a high of 67*F and then a rain/snow mix tomorrow and snow into Wednesday.  It’s springtime in the Rockies.

Sue & Chaz, Tam & Nick, and I went to a Home & something-or-other Show yesterday.  It was fun.  Sue & Chaz own their own house whereas I live in an apartment (so do Tam & Nick).  So you go along looking at roofing, siding, windows, gutters, heating, cooling, etc, and then there would be something interesting.  lol  And there was a small food area.  There was a lot of taste testing I missed out on because they used bread cubes (for the vinegerattes) and pretzels (for the dips, mustards, etc.).  One dip place had little plastic spoons for me to use.  Had I had any money I would have bought some of their stuff because they went the extra step for me.

Taiko Drumming

We finished up just in time to see the second performance of the Denver Taiko.  Taiko is a type of Japanese drumming that involves dancing somewhat by the dancers but is very coordinated by the dancers.  It was pretty cool!

in the meantime. . .

Charly's baby's hat

I am working on a baby hat from a favorite pattern.  Here is one I have done in the past.  This is called the Lily Hat .  It’s this great little hat done in two different sock yarns.  It is reversible.  I think it is so clever and although the sock yarn is light weight, it is double thickness, and sock yarn is wool (I use superwash).  So I am working on another one while we are waiting for Round #1 of Sock Madness to end and Round #2 to begin.

This Friday, son & daughter-in-law go for another sonogram and hopefully we will know if I need to be using pink yarn or blue for knitting wonderful little things for my first grandbaby.

Baby due July 25, 2010.