I finished another doily - I only had a round and a half to do, so this morning, I took a couple of minutes and finished it up! This one is called "Invitation" and is about 12 inches across.

Wow - a week of vacation, and when I am done, I still have no time for anything! So much for catching up on my blog! I did (finally) finish the doily I was working on for almost a month. It isn't that big, just about 17 inches, I just had to rip it out quite a bit from where I wasn't paying attention.

I also made a beaded necklace that turned out very well (if I do say so myself!) I even wore it to work, and got complimented on it by people who didn't know I made it. Not too bad! It is made with wire, crocheted with beads. I finished it earlier this week, and then my camera bit the dust! (I had been expecting it, it has been "temperamental" lately.) I got a new camera yesterday, and then had to read the instruction manual last night, so finally got a picture up! The new camera shows a lot more detail - I like it!

I finished it! Not too bad, and it even fits! The top (from Wal-mart -

$3.50) matches pretty well!

I finished the dress for Ronna's wedding for Alli, and it even fits! (Not by much though!) I do not like the way this dress is constructed. For an "easy" pattern, they sure do things the hard way sometimes. I may try this out of knit material, just so it "eases" over Alli a little bit better. I still need to hem it, but other than that, it is done! Depending on the weather, she can wear a long sleeve shirt under the dress. She may even end up wearing pants or shorts, who knows!

Another couple of projects done! I finished the blanket on Monday, and started the first bootie Monday night. I finished and and the second bootie yesterday. The baby isn't due until August, so I am ahead of the game - what a thought!

Well, I got the carpets cleaned yesterday, and Alli just initiated them. They aren't even completely dry! (They feel dry, but the guy told me to wait 24 hours before moving stuff back in.) It is definitely a good thing she is cute! I hate cleaning the carpets - it takes forever to move everything, and then to clean everything and put it back! It is amazing how much "stuff" we have. Of course, I had all the bedrooms cleaned and the living room and dining room cleaned, so there were more rooms of stuff this time. It was also scary to see how much dirt had gathered in to hard-to-reach (therefore not cleaned) spots. The plant leaves behind my couch were awful! (I knew they were there, and they aren't even hard to reach - I was just ignoring them!) This may be the last time I have these carpets cleaned - they are getting so bad it is time for new carpet. We bought the house 8 years ago and the carpets weren't new then. Between Alli and the animals, there are some major spots and stains that will never come out.

One day of vacation down - not enough left! I did get quite a few things done yesterday - cleaning around the house, Allison's dress cut out - but not even started sewing it yet - the grocery shopping, new cell phone shopping, etc. I like my new phone - I got a pink Razor phone, and spent last night programing my phone numbers into it, changing the ring tone, etc. So much fun!

Alli had horse therapy yesterday, and did better, but still not good. She got on the horse and rode one full circuit before starting to protest. (Last time she wouldn't even get on the horse.) One thing about horses, if you protest, you get off! Any other therapy, you can let her protest and just work through it.

Today the carpet cleaners are coming, so I will spend the morning getting all the furniture out of the way, and the afternoon putting it back! I will be glad to have it cleaned though - I have put it off too long. I need to do it more often, but somehow the time just slips right by!

Here is a picture of Dad's tomato cages. He has been working in the greenhouse to get them all set up before the tomatoes start taking off.

Also - my first ever snowflake design. One of my Yahoo Groups - Simple Snowflakes - has the challenge to design a snowflake based on a real flake. Here is my version, and the original:

AJ's home, and I'm on vacation! Well, AJ was home, but now he is spending the night at his friend's house. Go figure! He came home Saturday afternoon, and I was up in Susanville. I came home Sunday afternoon, and spent a couple of hours with him before he went to Dallas' to play and spend the night. He will be home this morning, as he wants to go phone shopping with me today. I told him he only wants to see me when I am going to buy him something - which he denied. I need to go grocery shopping today to when we are in town, so he may not bee so happy going to town with me. I took some pictures of Dad tomato cages this weekend, so I will be getting those posted later today I think.

I have the whole week off, and very little planned! I am planning on doing some cleaning here today, and tomorrow the carpets are being cleaned. That is about all I have on the horizon. Sometime this week, I need to get my nails done, and I would like to take a drive up through Mt. Lassen - such a full schedule! I do need to do some shopping, but still, nothing major planned. I have about finished a baby afghan - I just need the border on it. That should get finished today. Ralph is off Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and Alli is out of school on Wednesday. Her daycare is closed Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, so I will have to pick her up at school on Tuesday and Thursday. We just got notice about her school for next year - she will be on the same campus as last year, but with a different teacher. She will have the teacher she has for summer school, so it will be nice to meet her before school starts.

AJ is half-way through his trip. They are at Mesa Verde Park today, and then will move on to Moab, Utah this evening. He hasn't called recently - I assume there is no cell service, but it could be that he is still mad that I made him go on the trip!

Alli already has a new teacher at summer school. We got a call Wednesday from the GREAT Partnership coordinator (GREAT is Gateway, Redding, Enterprise, Anderson, and I don't know the T school districts combined for the special ed program) and were told (on answering machine) that she had a new teacher. I haven't talked to the new one yet. I meant to call from work, but got too busy on Thursday and Friday morning to call. The school office closes at 12:30, so I have to remember to call in the morning, and that is my busiest time at work. I wish they would call me at work when they try to get hold of me! Alli is having a few difficulties this summer that are unusual for her, sort of. She first had issues because her bus is the last one to get to school, so she stood on the sidewalk and watched everyone else get on a bus. That did not go over well. She kept trying to go get on a bus too. By the time her bus came, she was crying (and the bus driver didn't know why, but told the day car provider about it and everyone was upset thinking Alli had problems at school). An aide working with Alli wrote in her book the next day that the problem was because of the buses, and they were not going to take her outside until her bus came, so that should be solved. Then, on Thursday, when the bus driver went to unfasten Alli's seat belt, Alli hit her. Now we have issues with Alli not wanting to get OFF the bus too! I know most of this is because the summer school is completely different from regular school - different kids, different campus, different teacher and aides - and it will get better as the summer goes on, but.....by the time she gets "on schedule" with summer school, it will be over! Poor thing (and poor bus driver, teacher and aides!)

AJ called last night - they were on their way to Zion National Park. They drove from here on Sunday to Yosemite, and spent the early evening, night and all day Monday there, and hiked the Glacier Trail. They left Yosemite early Tuesday morning and drove 600 miles to Zion's. They were still en route when AJ called, so I don't know what time they got there. They are hiking "The Narrows" today - weather permitting (no flash floods expected!?!?!?) Dad talked to AJ and he was having fun, I talked to AJ, and he started crying. Go figure! I told Ralph not to prompt him to talk to me anymore, wait until he asks to talk to me. Poor kid! He is still tired, and he probably won't catch up until he comes home.

Alli had a good horse therapy lesson Monday. She is now the only kid in the class, and they were ready and waiting for her when she got there. She had a good half hour of riding before she started getting tired. She still rode a bit after that, but they were watching for her to signal that she was done. What a change! The group is really working with us for this. I think they are doing too much for us, and should be charging us for private lessons, but they won't. I think we will have to start "contributing" to their fund raisers!

Alli has also been swimming everyday for a half hour or so - depending on my schedule. I swear I have to force her to go get her swim suit on and get in the pool, and then I can't get her out! Last night, I went swimming with her, and she had so much fun playing on me like I was a gym set! She loves for me to bounce her in the water, and then last night she found a new trick. I had my back to her, and she swam up to my back and started pulling me backwards, bouncing at the same time. She half drowned me, and laughed hysterically the whole time- she is mean! Ralph was laughing too - they are both out to get me! Ralph just told me it was her way of paying me back for all the times I pushed her into the pool. I don't think she moved in her bed after I tucked her in last night. She slept hard!

I guess things are back to "normal", for a couple of weeks at least. AJ is off touring until 6/30, and Alli started summer school today. Alli's school runs for four weeks, from 8:00 to 12:00. Her morning bus picks her up at 6:15, and her afternoon bus drops her at daycare at 1:40. That pretty much takes care of her day! She has horse therapy today too. Hopefully it goes better today than it has been going. This is her third week, and last week she didn't even get on the horse. The first week, they were running late, and she waited 15-20 minutes to get on the horse, and was very frustrated before she started. It was a short ride. The volunteers did not recognize her request to stop (waving bye-bye) and she finally had had enough and ended up kicking the horse. They got her off very quickly then, as the horse was ready to bolt. Last week, they made her wait almost 30 minutes, and she didn't even get on the horse. Ralph and the therapist had a long phone conversation that night, and they are each going to try to do something different (Ralph will come late instead of being there early) so maybe it will work better. Ralph also mentioned the possibility of him becoming a volunteer so he can help them with her. We shall see!


AJ is off to the wild wild west! Of course, things didn't go as planned for his "switch" from Washington DC trip to the Southwestern States trip. The paperwork I had from the teacher said they would be back around 11:15 or so Saturday night. But, if you read farther, it also said the plane was landing in Sacramento at 10:30. Needless to say, the 11:15 was probably a typo. I resigned myself to staying up until 1:00 to go pick him up, and then checked the plane schedule on-line. There was a two hour delay. AJ called at midnight, and they had landed, and were waiting on luggage. They got to the school at 2:55 a.m. (That would be 5:55 a.m for those travelers that were on Eastern time, and they had only gotten about 4 hours sleep the night before too, after taking a walking tour at 11:00 p.m.) AJ was exhausted. I took him home, and of course, he wanted to talk about his trip, so he didn't get to bed until 3:45 - and I made him go to bed then! He needed some of his clothes that he took on his trip for the SW tour, so I did a load of laundry, and waited for the washing machine to finish up before I went to bed, about 4:15. (If I had known he would be coming in so late, I would have just bought more clothes!) As I walked down the hall to go to bed, I heard Allison talking to herself. She was up! I don't think I caught more than a 15 minute cat nap after that. Now AJ and Mom were both exhausted!


I was up at 5:15 with Alli, and got AJ up at 7:00, and off to meet the scouts at 7:45. The scouts left town at 9:15, so for better or for worse, he is off! The first leg of the trip is a straight drive to Yosemite, so he has a good 6 hours to catch up on sleep, and I asked the leaders if they could let him sleep early at the first stop rather than "make" him go on the evening hike around the Yosemite Valley. I think he will perk up, but wanted to give the leaders a heads up that he was tired. He was so tired he was over-emotional. Talk about stressed out! He had a good time in Washington DC, but not in New York. He is not a city boy! Too many people!


I think I caught up on my sleep last night. I tried to go to bed when I put Alli down (8:15) but that didn't work out. Alli didn't go right to sleep, Ralph decided to go to bed then too, and other things kept waking me up, so I just got up completely until the house quieted down and I could go to sleep undisturbed! (Why did Ralph decide to go to bed then too? If I could have just had 5 minutes of quiet, and the knowledge that someone else was watching Alli, I could have been asleep! But no......I needed company! Granted, he was woken up frequently during the night too, but he went to bed at 10:00 on Saturday, and slept in until 7:40, and took a nap on Sunday. I know - enough whining!)


I did finish a doily this weekend, while trying to stay awake! It is about 18 inches across. I will go down to the fair today and pick up the doily I entered, so I will see if I took a ribbon or anything. I don't think I did, but...you never know! I did not make it down to the fair to check out the competition. It would have been nice, but I kept weighing the cost factor along with the time factor. It is $5.00 to park at the fair and $7.00 to get in. Was it worth $12.00 just to dash in and see the entries? Did I want to drive down to Anderson after work in the heat? I didn't, so I will have to wait until this evening to see anything.

AJ is back on the East Coast - and seems to be having fun. They were in Washington DC from Monday to today, and left for New York this morning. They saw all the war memorials, I think, as well as Arlington, the National Air & Space Museum, the Senate, and another museum, but I don't remember which one. AJ probably doesn't remember either! He told Ralph he had taken 400 pictures, and that was on Tuesday. I don't know all that they are planning on seeing in New York, but I know they are going to see Lion King on Broadway. Too much fun! AJ has been checking in each night, and seems to be in good spirits - getting more tired though!

I finished another doily - this one was very quick! I turned out about 12 inches across. Ralph helped me choose the colors too.

Mission accomplished! I got the Guest House cleaned up yesterday, and it has "most" of the storage stuff out (now stored in my garage). There is still plenty that could come out, but enough is out you can use the desk in the living room, sit on the couch, etc. Stephanie is planning on moving in on Monday, so we are trading one kid for another. AJ leaves Monday morning (at 1:00 a.m.) so will be AJ-less for three weeks! Ralph is already missing him.

I get to take my doily to the fairgrounds today - I submitted one doily this year. I don't expect a lot from it. It is good work, but it isn't a "splashy" doily. Someone who knows crochet may be impressed, but anyone else may not be. A lot depends on what else is entered too, so we shall see. I guess I have to go to the fair this year to see - usually AJ checks it out for me, but not this year. I wonder if I can find someone to go with me? I may take an afternoon off and take Alli down. As long as it isn't crowded, she should be okay for a little while - just not a lot of walking! I may reconsider, and take the afternoon off and go by myself too!