Sunday, October 31, 2010

I had help yesterday unloading my groceries. Oh wait! This would NOT be labeled "help", now would it!



This is the kind of help I get on the computer too - she has to stand/sit in front of the screen. Occasionally, she does lay down. But then,,,she usually turns off the monitor when she does - there is no winning!



I felt very restless yesterday - I woke up with a headache that I just could not make go completely away. I couldn't settle in to anything. I did my normal shopping run, and cleaned house, but never really got comfortable with anything else. I worked on a crochet scarf and decided I didn't like it, so I ripped it out and started over. I have a amigurumi cat basically finished - I just need to weave in the ends. I didn't dare pull that out to work on in the mood I was in - the reason the ends are woven is is because I am 'living with' the placement of the ears,etc. to see if I like them where they are or if I need to move them. I think if I had looked at it yesterday, I might be doing the cat all over again! I ended up baking cookies - peanut butter and oatmeal raisin, but that was about all the constructive stuff I got done. I still have the headache today, too. Bummer!

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Poor Alli! Friday at school was "Black and Orange Day (are they Giant's fans?) and Crazy Hair Day. Not being a fan of crazy hair day, I put Alli in an orange Halloween shirt (that said "I've got cattitude") and called it good. When I got home, she looked like this:



Ralph thought I did it, so he left them in. Poor thing! She had about 10 little pony tails in her hair. She was so happy to have them out (once we got past the pulling them out part!) Other than that, I think she had a good day. I sent 6 dozen cookies to school for them to decorate, and didn't get any back, so the kids we re all probably on a sugar high!

On deck today - more cookie baking! I'm on refreshment committee at church tomorrow, so I thought I'd bake some more cookies. The peanut butter ones went fast last time, so I thought I'd do those again, and some oatmeal ones. That should be 'fairly' healthy, right? All of this will be after shopping and house cleaning! I guess that means I should get started. Alli let me sleep in till 7:00 this morning, so I am out of sync - I haven't even taken a shower, and it's almost 8:00! Unheard of! (It sure felt nice, too!)

Friday, October 29, 2010

It's Friday! And, it's raining! We've gotten almost an inch out of this storm so far. Luckily, I can 'dress down' today. I'm not doing a Halloween costume this year - just not enough energy left! - but I am wearing jeans and a Halloween t-shirt! I baked dozens of sugar cookies Wednesday night for Alli's classroom, and finished up my treat bags for my department, so I am set to go! Now, to remember to pick up candy for the trick-or-treaters for Sunday!

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Whew! I made it through the day! The rest of the week should be clear sailing! AJ had his pre-op appointment yesterday in Chico at 3:30, but of course we didn't see the doctor until after 4:30. I knew he would be running late, since he had to rearrange his whole day (we were originally scheduled for 9:00 a.m.), so I didn't stress about it. I finished up a knitted scarf while I was there - almost all of it was made while waiting for something medical - in the doctor's office, at the orthotics place, at the dentist, etc. Not bad - something to show for all that time! I'll post a picture later, I hope. Since we were late in Chico, I skipped out of Scouts last night too - my bad!

Alli is scheduled to see her doctor next Wednesday. He is double booked as well, so they are squeezing us in at 4:00, which means....we probably won't see the doctor until 5:00! Oh well! She has to have x-rays taken that morning too. AJ's surgery is the following day. If I can make it through the next two weeks without a melt down, or forgetting something important, I'll be doing good! Tonight is cookie baking night (I hope) so I can send cookies to school with Allison, and I need to put my gift bags together for my staff as well. That way, I can leave them on their desks Thursday night, and they'll think the Pumpkin Fairy came! The best laid plans!

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

I made it through yesterday, and only missed one thing - the staff meeting. Alli's appointment went well - she had her brace adjusted to flare out a bit at the tummy - where she got a welt on Sunday. She didn't welt at all last night, so that was a success! My plan for the staff meeting went over well, or so I hear, and my department did very well with it, too! They did it fast, too. I got to work at 8:21, and they were already done! My dental appointment was kind of anti-climactic after all the rushing around in the morning - nothing unusual there! It turned out to be a pretty good day!

Today is still a moving target. AJ was supposed to have his pre-op appointment in Chico this morning at 9:00 (which means leaving here at 7:30) but we got a call to the house yesterday that they needed to reschedule it. I have to call in this morning to see when we can get in. According to Ralph, they said either this afternoon, or Friday. Since Friday is the last day of the month, and I'm short staffed (vacations again!) I will try to get down there today. I just don't know when yet! Good thing I can text AJ at school, and he can meet me at the house. This just gets too confusing to deal with without cell phones!

Monday, October 25, 2010

I thought we were getting a lot of rain with this storm, and then a friend of Facebook posted they got over 7 inches of rain in 24 hours! We only got 3.7 inches in the whole storm! Wow! I think she lives in the Guerneville area - that's a lot of rain!

I did finish up the book marks I needed for work - I think they turned out very cute! Here are four of them blocking, and then after they blocked. I think the webflake design is much more what I wanted than the original pattern I found - at least for the web part. The spider is perfect from the first pattern, so....combination time!



After the storm passed last night, we had a beautiful sunset!



Busy morning this morning! Alli needs to drop by the Orthotics place and have her brace checked - sometime before 8:00. I have a meeting at work at 8:15 that I am supposed to be leading. We have a mandatory 'Monday Morning Huddle" with the entire staff that is supposed to something along the lines of "energizing, inspirational, etc." but there aren't any rules. Each Monday, it is a different department chairing the meeting, and this Monday is my department's turn. One of the items we have been working on in the department is attitude, and how a little change can make a big difference, so....we are rolling that out to everyone. I found a bunch of 'attitude' quotes on-line and printed them out. On Friday, we stapled a quote to a piece of candy, put them in plastic pumpkins, and are ready - the theme - a change in attitude can turn a trick into a treat. Wish us luck. If I don't make it by the work by 8:15, I may be in trouble! Actually, I have a replacement set up, just in case! Then....I have a dentist appointment at 9:00 myself. What a morning! If I make it till noon, I'll be happy!

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Talk about raining cats and dogs! We've had almost an inch of rain since midnight! So far, we have had almost 2 1/2 inches with this storm. Winter is here! Is it spring yet?

I got a nice surprise in the mail yesterday. One of my Yahoo! groups had a bingo game going on, and I won! I got a beautiful doily and a couple of pin items from Sweden - beautiful! Now, to start the next Bingo game! They decided to hold off until after the holidays, but then I get to choose the words and run the next bingo game.



I got a bunch of boxes out of my garage this week. AJ's Sober Grad committee had a rummage sale, so....off went a car full of boxes! AJ filled the RAV up as full as he could, and now I have a little bit more room in the garage, and it was all for a good cause!

Saturday, October 23, 2010

We are now in the first phase of Alli's treatment! We went in yesterday for another fitting, and she wore her brace for an hour and a half last night. It doesn't seem to bother her much - she spent most of that time rocking in her chair watching TV. When I started dinner, I went in and helped her up (one reason she didn't do much more than sit in her chair - it's hard for her to stand up!) and she came in to the kitchen and watched me cook - just like normal. Here is her brace - no shirt on it yet - just an undershirt. Her head is still cocked to the side, We go back in early Monday morning for another fitting, just to see how she is working with it. The specialist has been great. We had a discussion about what she hears from other girls, because Alli can't tell me what she's feeling, or where it hurts, etc. I hope all this helps!




The kittens are so nice! They discovered that the new fish didn't have any toys to play with, so they gave him one of theirs! I am still waiting for the day I come home and they've pushed the fish bowl over and killed the fish! Picot is small enough she doesn't move it around when she plays, but Indy is getting some weight on him! Between the two of them, they knocked off my container that held my crochet hooks and knitting needles - sending it crashing to the floor in quite a few pieces yesterday morning (at about 5:45 a.m. - good morning!)



The first good storm of the season is here - it sounds like it is raining pretty good. We are supposed to get over an inch today (if you can believe the weatherman!) and the Boy Scouts are camping at Nash's Pumpkin Patch! It seems like it always rains when they are there. I'm glad in many ways that AJ isn't camping, but it is just one more sign he is growing up! He is working today at the school - the senior class is having a rummage sale for Sober Grad. He piled up the RAV with all my 'stuff' in the garage - more room! I need to go back out and dig out more stuff to send to a thrift store/rummage sale! Just as a side note - one of the scout leaders checked for me - AJ's Eagle Project that he turned in three weeks ago just got picked up to be reviewed this week - the guy was out of town for three weeks! I don't know how long it will take to get reviewed, but AJ is down to not a lot more than 2 months - January 6th is his last date to turn it in!

Friday, October 22, 2010

Alli had what turned out to be her first fitting for her body brace yesterday. We were there two and a half hours, and I get to take her back today for (hopefully) a final fitting. Poor thing - she can barely even stand up in the brace - it throws her whole balance off. She has been compensating for the curve in her back so much that she doesn't know how to stand up straight anymore. If given a chance, Alli would not even stand - she would lean on someone to hold her up. This could be one wild ride!

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

I finally decided I WAS going to put together a Halloween gift bag for the people in my department, and I figured out what I was going to make for it! Here is the general idea:



It's a web/spider bookmark. I like the concept, but I'm not that thrilled with the pattern I found. I was reading one of my favorite blogs (http://snowcatcher.blogspot.com), and...she just posted the perfect web pattern! The spider isn't too bad, but I may tweak it a bit myself. They make up pretty quickly, which is a good thing - I've procrastinated already, and I'm sure I will procrastinate some more - I'm pretty good at that!

We have a sick puppy at our house. Jasper was off her food on Saturday - moping around, but perked up (after throwing up every thing she had eaten) Sunday. Last night, she had explosive diarrhea in AJ's room. What a mess! He's sleeping on the couch, and she spent the rest of the night outside. She came in this morning at 6:00, and was her normal self, so maybe she got everything out of her system! I hope so - She's AJ's baby! Now, to get his room cleaned up! I'll tackle that tonight after work (don't get me wrong - most of it was cleaned up at 3:00 this morning - I just want to scrub the carpet, etc., things that I didn't want to do at 3:00 a.m.! I probably should have done it then, I had a terrible time going back to sleep anyway, but I didn't want to be messing around next to Allison's room, or we would both be up the rest of the night.)

Sunday, October 17, 2010

I got a new pet yesterday - another easy one! I impulse purchased a beta fish - a beautiful blue one! I didn't really think about it, but I purchased a new kitty toy at the same time! Picot was fascinated by it, and it seemed to be teasing her. He swam up to the top of the bowl when she was around, and then down to the bottom when she left.



Alli's daycare provider has a beautiful maple tree in her yard, and it is starting to turn colors. Every year, I swear I'm going to take a picture, but wait too late and a wind storm comes through. I got some pictures this year, and I hope to get more as more leaves turn colors.



It turns out I missed the work day at the church. AJ, Alli and I showed up at 9:05, and no one was there. I figured I had the wrong day, so I went and did my my normal shopping. Turns out they met at 10:00 instead. Bummer! I did make it to the Eagle Court for one of the boys in AJ's troop - very pretty ceremony. AJ's next! (He is down to about 2 1/2 months - his paperwork has to be turned in by 5:00 p.m. on January 6th. He has his project in for approval - once he gets it approved, he can start raising money for it, and doing the work. Right now, he can't do anything!)

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Good thing I had a long weekend! That got me all rested up for a very busy week - once again, I was short on staff and over-worked (not that it takes a lot for me to feel over-worked.) I'm behind enough that I'm trying to figure out when I can go in this weekend for a couple of hours. It won't be today - it's a work day at the church this morning (I think - that's what I have written down, but I've missed church the last couple of weeks!) and then a Eagle Court this afternoon for one of the boys in AJ's troop. In between, I need to go grocery chopping, clean house, etc. Hopefully I can go in and get some on my 'supervisor' stuff done that I can't do when I'm actually working.

I did take a short walk on the River Trial with AJ on Monday. I picked him up from school at 2:15, and we walked a couple of miles. Beautiful day!



I can't believe how much AJ has grown/matured lately - he is growing up! He hates me taking his picture, but I got a couple anyway!



When Mom was down, and took over my 'hat' project, I started another grocery bag made with cotton yarn. I finished it up on Monday, and gave it to Alli's daycare provider. She loved it! I changed the opening a bit from mine, and I think I like mine better! Maybe next time I'll modify it a bit more.

Monday, October 11, 2010

I did more shopping this weekend than I have in a long time! Mom wanted a new canister set (how hard could that be???) so we started down at the outlets. We finished up at the top of Hilltop in Redding! In between was the mall and Target. She did get some really cool canisters at Bed, Bath and Beyond. Penney's had the same thing, but didn't have one of the sizes she wanted, and, BBB had it cheaper! That was our Saturday shopping (besides my normal Walmart, Foodmax, etc.) Sunday, we went shoe shopping for Mom. Needless to say, I found two pairs, and she didn't find any! I don't think she really expected to find what she wanted, since she had a specific shoe she was looking for, and Penney's didn't have it in her size. She can order it, which is what she usually has to do anyway.

I also got a project finished the easy way this weekend. In March, 2009, I made a hat for a friend's daughter. She recently told Mom that someone stole her hat, and asked if I could make her another one. No problem, except....what pattern did I use to make it originally? After digging through my files of patterns, I found what I think was the hat I made - a combination of two different patterns. Then, off to find yarn (I couldn't find what I used last year - a wool blend in camouflage, but Red Heart had one in the right colors, just not in wool). The best part?? After I got it started, Mom took over and finished it! I meant to get a picture of her finished project and compare, but I forgot. Here is a picture of the original on Allison:

Saturday, October 09, 2010

I got the rest of my birthday present yesterday - Ralph had a friend of ours come in and clean the house for me! She did a great job, and I am a happy camper! I spent most of the morning picking up, straightening up, organizing, etc. so the house is looking pretty good! I did tell my friend not to vacuum as that was AJ's job (and she was running late) so that still has to happen, but otherwise - a clean house! (It is no longer a picked-up and straightened-up house, but...oh well!)

Mom came down for a visit this weekend. The original plan called for a visit to Crescent City with Ronna, but...the best laid plans! Ronna's computer system at work crashed, so she was trying to get it running over the weekend, and the person Mom wanted to visit in Crescent City had plans to be out of town. We'll go some other time! Mom was late (or later than originally planned) herself. She had a pellet stove installed on Thursday, and they were still working on it on Friday, so she didn't get out of Susanville when she thought she would. But, the stove is all installed, and working! No more bark and wood ships in the house! Even better, it runs on a thermostat, so she can now get up to a warm house, and doesn't have to wade through the snow to get wood to start a fire!

Friday, October 08, 2010

Yesterday ended up better than expected - yippee! AJ passed his driver's test with flying colors. Now, we just have to pay an extra $200 a month for his insurance - bummer! (And extra gas, tires....) He was so excited he passed! He drove to the local store last night - just because! Ralph made him pick up ice cream, since he was going any way, but he just wanted to do his first solo trip. Too funny!

Alli did very well at her "casting party". Her brace will fit on her hips up to her neck, including a neck brace, so she was swathed in plaster of paris from here to there. They had her lie down on her back and cast her top first - "No problem Mom, I could lie here all day!" Then, they (the specialist and two helpers, one a brawny young man, thank goodness!) turned her over (still with the front part of her cast on - a tricky maneuver!) and cast her back. This one wasn't quite so much fun - "Mom - what's going on - I can't see anything - what are they doing??" She lay still through it all - thank goodness. I figured we would have to try two or three times to get a good cast. Unfortunately, when plaster of paris dries, it heats up. Poor Alli was drenched in sweat and bright pink all over when we took the casts off. Now, we wait two weeks for the braces to be made from the molds, and then the fun really starts! The instructions for putting the brace on look daunting, much less the break in period for her and her skin. So much to look forward to!

Speaking of looking forward - I have a four-day weekend! I took today off, and Monday is a bank holiday. It isn't a school holiday, so I have it all to myself! Mom and I were considering a trip to Crescent City, but that didn't pan out. She is coming over here instead. We'll have to go find something fun to do.

Thursday, October 07, 2010

Today is the beginning of a new adventure - a couple of them actually! I take Allison in today to get her measured and 'cast' for her back brace, and AJ goes for his driver's test at DMV. What a day! Both of those scare me! I really think Alli will be okay with a brace, but....if not, I dread dealing with her every day, forcing her to. At least, once we get past the first month or so, it will be more of a routine for her, and so will be easier. I hope!

The company preparing the brace is a customer of the bank, and I have been talking to the owner for many years, but have never met her. When she found out I was coming in today, she made sure she was available to help with the casting. It's amazing how things work out. The cool side of this whole thing - the actual process of designing and fitting the brace is pretty amazing. We'll have to see how Alli does through it all. I'm coming prepared with candy and cookies!

Tuesday, October 05, 2010

I survived my cold, and so far, no one else seems to have gotten it. Ralph was thinking he might have caught it, but it never developed into a full blown cold, thank goodness. It is really running through work right now, too. Several other people were sick over the weekend - I'm glad I'm done!

Here are another couple of projects I finished up this weekend - one was a flower scarf for a c0-worker - I used Homespun yarn, and then put beads on the ends. I think it came out very nice!



I also finished up a little thread bird. I just stiffened it with starch, but I think I'll stiffen it with glue later and use it as a Christmas ornament.

Saturday, October 02, 2010

I think I'm on the mend - I went to bed early (or fell asleep on the couch at 9:00 - whatever!) and was up with Alli at 5:30 this morning, and feel okay. I'm still sneezing, but I feel better over all. That's a good thing, since this weekend is supposed to be a major clean at my house - it needs it, and I have been putting it off for too long. If I'm already sniffling and sneezing, playing around in the dust won't make it any worse, right?? That way, I really have no more excuses.

Friday, October 01, 2010

Okay, so sometimes "sharing" isn't "caring"! Someone shared their cold with me and I stayed home sick today. I think my self imposed stress over the kids' health caught up with me and lowered my immune system. I hate colds! My nose is sore and I am permanently attached to a tissue box! Since I didn't feel up to doing much of anything this morning, I did make a couple of kids hats. A co-worker has a little girl in her church that is in the hospital for a bone marrow transplant, and she asked if I could make her a couple of hats to give her. They don't take long to make up, so here are a couple of them! I'll make up some more if she wants them, but I'd like to know if these fit first.



I also finished up a bag that I made with Red Heart yarn - it didn't turn out as big as I would have liked, but it will still hold some shopping stuff.