I finished my baby dragon - and he turned out very cute!

AJ's camping trip got cut short this weekend. The Scouts were camping up by Mt. Lassen for a snow competition with all the other local scout troops, and they got 6" of snow Friday night, and forecasts for another 12" Saturday night, combined with 60-70 MPH winds. Too much for tent camping! They did get some competitions in, but not all of them. AJ was happy to be home for the evening. He had been home all of 5 minutes, and "can Dallas spend the night?" Those two were joined at the hip for the rest of the weekend.

I finished three "Caps for Kids" and have them ready to mail today. They turned out so cute! I also started a doily - another charted doily. I worked a little bit on my "baby dragon" but don't have it quite finished yet - one leg, two arms, and the details (eyelids, etc.) to make, and then get him put together. I hope to get him done this week - he has been waiting quite a while!

I (finally) finished this doily. I actually made 2 or 3 of them by the time I frogged (rip-it, rip-it) the rows as many times as I had to. Usually, I can watch TV or a movie and do just fine, but somehow on this doily, I forgot to count too!

Ralph got to go emergency shopping yesterday. Alli's VCR machine broke! No Pokemon! Bad News! He went out yesterday afternoon and got a brand new VHS and recordable DVD player, so she is up and running this morning. Last night she was stuck with the one DVD of Pokemon we have, over, and over, and over.

Alli has been doing well lately. This last week, we had two notes home from school. On Tuesday, she "had a super day. She was cooperative, so happy and so high energy. She chose to stand for many projects (instead of sitting) and was excited by scented bubbles. She even did great walking around the track." I asked if they had the right kid and the right notebook? It didn't sound like Alli! Then on Friday, they wrote that one of the other kids got her to dance with him, and they made a George Washington hat and played with her with it. They showed her herself in the hat in the mirror, and she started kissing the mirror! Just the fact she was "playing" was great, and then to "interact" with the mirror was even better!

Here are the baby booties - I don't like the picture - they are too small to get a good picture of with my camera!

Yesterday, Ralph and I actually sat down and watched NASCAR! To do this, we had to kick Alli out of her chair and to the "other" TV, which usually doesn't work too well, but yesterday she handled the switch just fine! I think it was because she had such a soft and fluffy pillow on the other couch! Willey stayed there on the couch for quite a while, and then left after she got up and wondered around for a while. I did add local programing to our Dish network so we can watch NASCAR and a lot of the Giant's games with a clear picture. Luckily, they could add it within 15 minutes of me calling, so Ralph could watch most of the race with a clear picture. I think I still need to call them - the "other" TV didn't seem to pick up that programing change yesterday, so I will check today, and if it doesn't have it, I will have to call in again. Bummer!

I finished the afghan yesterday, and then last night, I made a pair of little sandals. I will get a picture of them later and add them to the blog. I had a doily started, but I couldn't read the font of the pattern (couldn't tell the difference in a 3 and a 5), and AJ and his friend were on the computer, so I whipped up the booties while I was waiting. I know the boys would have let me use the computer, but I didn't ask! The original pattern was e-mailed to me, and it is hard to read even on the computer. Luckily, if I do it wrong, no one will even know!

Never leave your afghan out after taking a picture of it! Alli carried it all over the living room!

It's the weekend again! I swear the week went by really slow - except - here we are again at the weekend! Work has been really slow, which makes the day drag, and then for after work, AJ had two basketball games this week, scouts, and I had a nail appointment one night after work.. Add in Valentine's Day, and a birthday at work (I baked a cheesecake after getting home from a game in Red Bluff, and scouts), it was a very busy week. Next week doesn't look much better - OA on Monday, scouts on Tuesday, a seminar on "special trusts" on Wednesday, TLC (scouts) on Thursday, and Friday, AJ is going camping up at Mt. Lassen for the weekend, and has to be in town with his gear by 5:30. Good thing I have Monday off to rest up for it!

The biggest issue with me being gone all those evenings is dinner during the week. Ralph doesn't cook when I am gone for the evening, he just uses left-overs, so I need to cook enough this weekend that he can feed Alli. I also need to have leftovers for her lunch during the week too. It looks like I will be doing a lot of cooking this weekend too! Other plans - since it supposed to be such a nice day today, I am going to try to take AJ and Jasper on a walk on the River Trail. I want to do the walk, so even if AJ is busy (over at a friends?) maybe Jasper and I will walk anyway. Ralph has plans to deal with some yard work this weekend too. We need to get weedkiller down now, since the weeds are growing! With our dry, warm end-of-January and most of February, everything is bursting out in full bloom this month!

I am almost finished with a baby afghan for a friend at work (for her granddaughter). It is done on the diagonal, and is working up very nicely. I haven't done this pattern before, and it is a fun pattern! It works up looking like a basket weave pattern, but is much quicker to do. This is good, since I didn't start the afghan until after the baby was born!

So far, it has been a relaxing weekend. I think Ralph took pity on me being gone so much lately and he went to AJ's Saturday game with him. For the last few weeks, between Scouts and basketball, I have been gone at least 4 nights a week, if not more. Next week, AJ has Order of the Arrow Monday (not too bad, I just have to take him to Anderson Park and drop him off, and then go back and get him) and a game Tuesday at 4:00 in Red Bluff :( , and Scouts at 7:00, a game on Wednesday at his school, and a I have a nail appointment on Thursday. This is the last week of basketball, so we will get back to normal soon.

I finished the latest doily - it turned out about 18 inches across - larger than most I have made. I really liked it, up to the end - I would rather not have the "points" on the end - just round. At least because it is large, you can't see the mistakes as easily! Now on to my other projects that are started! I have one more heart bookmark to make, (but if I make more, they can be given away!), I have a baby blanket probably 1/3 completed, one baby hat done, and I would like to make a few more to mail off to Caps for Kids, and other various projects under way.

What a week! I am glad it is Friday! We are finally getting rain, and the gloomy weather is helping me feel very tired and cranky. Of course, lack of sleep and work issues contributed a lot to that too! Yesterday, AJ started a basketball tournament in Red Bluff (30 miles away), with two games, one at 5:30 and one at 7:30. Ralph left work at 4:00 and grabbed Alli and then picked up AJ and Seth (neighbor) and took them to the tournament and dropped them off (They needed to be there close to 4:30). I left work at 5:00 and drove to Red Bluff, and sat on bleachers until 9:00. I took a pad to sit on, but after a couple of hours, it didn't seem to matter! We did not get home until almost 10:00 last night, and then Alli got me up at 4:00, and I couldn't go back to sleep. I drank enough coffee at work today to stay awake, but just barely. The team won both games though - but AJ didn't play in either games. He just got back from another game this afternoon, and the team lost his one. He didn't play in it either. Ralph went down to watch the game today, since it started at 4:00, and I didn't get off until 5:00. One more game tomorrow, and the tournament is over! Next week is also the end of basketball season, so we are almost done!

Alli's appointment with her Neurologist went well Friday. He wasn't too excited about the "possible seizures" that two people saw, but....he does want a new EEG scan done. Bummer. The last one we tried doing at Mercy Hospital was when she was about 4, and was a nightmare. Hopefully, it will go better this time. If nothing else, hopefully I will be better prepared this time. No stressing! (Easier said than done!)

I finished another doily - Framed Roses. I like this one, and it went very quickly. I also made one Cap for Kids - a quick little hat for a preemie baby. It looks so little! I need to make some more up and get them mailed off this month. I hope to do one charity project a month this year! I will try to get a picture up of the hat.

Well, we survived the basketball tournament - two wins and two losses. Ralph went to the game Friday afternoon, as Alli and I went to Sacramento for a doctor's appointment, so he got to see one win (close - by one point, and the opposing team had a shot at the buzzer that bounced around on the rim for a while before it fell out.) We had a game at 8:00 Saturday morning, and it was with a "traveling" team - these traveling teams usually practice together year round, and travel over the western states to play - they trounced us. The first few minutes had the score at 16 to 0, then the other coach pulled his good guys, put in the second string, and changed tactics enough that we could score once in a while. AJ got to play for a couple of minutes near the end of the game, and he played pretty well. He had a lot more confidence in himself, and it showed. We finished at 8:50, and had a game at 9:00 at another school! Luckily it was close by, but our guys were wiped from 45 minutes of trouncing. We did manage to win the game, but they didn't play very well. AJ didn't play in that game - the score was too close - I think we won by 4 points. We finished up at 9:50, and the next game was at 11:00 (be back at 10:30 to go over plays). The coach told the guys to go eat something! We went and grabbed some french fires for AJ, even though he hadn't played in that game, he could use a snack. The 11:00 game started well, but we quickly fell 10 points behind, and just couldn't catch up. We were pretty evenly matched, so once we got behind, we stayed behind. One to the next week - practice Monday and Tuesday, game on Wednesday, and a tournament Thursday, Friday and Saturday in Red Bluff!