We have nice, spring weather - it was over 60 yesterday. I didn't get a lot of time to enjoy it, though. Work was a zoo, and my lunch "hour" was spent running home and picking up AJ and bringing him to work with me, and then leaving a little bit early from work to take him to an orthodontist appointment. After that, we went home and I fixed dinner and we went to scouts - just about that fast! Scouts ran late, so we got home after 9:00 last night. A long day! Today may be longer!

Alli has a dentist appointment this morning at 8:00, so I will get in to work late today, and today, the conversion team is arriving at the bank. We are converting the computer system to a new system at work on Friday night - so we have all weekend to work on problems. Ralph got home yesterday from Sacramento after working on his computer conversion, so he is going to be in charge at home for the weekend - I may just run away from home, even if I'm not needed at work for the conversion!

It's beautiful! Check out my new ride! It is a 2007 Rav4, with under 5,000 miles on it. I wasn't planning on getting it yet, but...the best laid plans! It got the seal of approval from my sister and her husband as well - we took it to town tonight when we went to the Ron White show. Lots of room in the back for adults! Even AJ fits in it!

I thought January was rainy! In the paper today, it said we got 9.98 inches of rain at the airport in the month of January. That is a lot of rain! Just above Redding, it came as snow. I took a couple of pictures (from the car) of Lassen with all the snow - gorgeous!

Willey helped me with my crochet projects the other day. I eventually just gave him the thread to play with - I didn't want to use it!

I was able to get some projects done - a few book marks and a 12 inch doily - done in light yellow.

It looks like today is clear to partly cloudy! I guess all the wind last night blew the rain away. It was howling last night! Ralph was worried we would loose power again (though he probably secretly wanted it to go out so he could play with our new generator!) Last weekend, he bought a lightly used generator, about the size of the one we borrowed when we lost power. He wants to eventually get a big generator, powerful enough to run the entire house, including the well, and hard wire it in so it kicks on when the power goes out automatically. He priced it out, and just the generator and parts works out to about $3,000.00. We agreed to buy a used generator ($325.00) until he can start working on that project. Personally, as often as we have to use a generator, the $325.00 will work just fine!

Yesterday I signed AJ up for Spring Soccer with the Redding Youth Soccer League. He didn't make the school team last fall, and the head coach encouraged him to play spring soccer to hone his skills for the next season. Practices should start around the end of February, and the season runs up until the end of May. What fun! I am thinking of starting an afghan project to do while I wait at practices and games. I have a cute granny square project picked out, and the squares would be a nice, easy portable project! (I "only" have to make 600 of them!) Hmmm......

I made 12 of the heart bookmarks yesterday - ready for Valentine's Day. I still have to put the tails on them - I starched them last night, so they will be ready to finish up today. I will probably make a few more - they work up very quickly!

Alli had a rough day yesterday. She fell after getting off the school bus, and landed on her knee on concrete. She was pretty gimpy last night, but seemed a little better this morning. Poor thing! It doesn't slow her down for walking, but she is very hesitant about standing up.

I finished another doily - this one is about 16 inches across, done in an off-white and pale green.

I think life is back to normal - AJ had scouts Monday night, Tuesday night, Thursday night and Saturday. I don't think I got anything done at home this week! I finished up this little tissue cover last weekend, and didn't even get a chance to get a picture posted.

I picked up chew toys for the dogs last weekend - one large one for Jasper and a smaller one for Koori. Needless to say - they switched. Koori ended up eating both of them I am sure, but she looked so funny running around with the large one in her mouth.

I did finally "get around to" scanning a couple of pictures - one of Ralph and I at the Bank's Christmas party, and the other is Alli's school picture. I have no idea how they got her laughing!

Yesterday was a non-productive day for around the house, but I got a couple of projects finished that I had started! I finished the last few rounds of a doily, and I finally finished a bookmark! The bookmark has been started for probably a couple of years, I just needed to "finish" it with the bird, flowers, etc. I don't know why I never finished it before, but I still have one more base done - I will probably wait until someone "needs" a bookmark, and then finish it up too!

AJ had the neighbor kid Alan (Dallas' older brother) spend the night Saturday night, and when I got home from church, had David (Alli's daycare provider's son) over as well! Alan stayed most of the day, and David spent the night. I have had a house full of boys all weekend! (and it has been fun! - loud, but fun!) Today is a holiday for both my work and the kids school, so they will keep each other entertained! I need to go in to work for a few minutes today, so I will have the boys babysit for me too. That ought to be fun!

I finished another doily! Not too bad! This one is supposed to have ribbons woven around the outside pineapples, but I think I like it better without them. I put a couple in (in the second picture), just to see. It is about 20 inches across - done in white thread.

I also managed to get the Christmas stuff put away in the attic, get the house vacuumed (especially where the tree and Christmas stuff had been), straighten up the garage where things were "piled" more than normal, get AJ to clean out the pool - which meant he also had to fix the monster, and all sorts of things done around the house! Yesterday was a very productive day! (I don't think today will be nearly as productive though!

I've been bad! I haven't posted in a long time! Sorry - I got busy! I did finish up a doily, but even that doesn't seem to be what I have been busy with (or I would have more doilies done!) - I just have been sleeping in in the morning and haven't gotten up in time to type! This doily is about 23 inches across - done in a size 20 thread.

I had company last weekend! Unexpected, but not unwanted or unappreciated! My sister and family came in Friday night and stayed through Sunday morning. That ate up most of my weekend! This is a three-day weekend, so I might be able to catch up a little bit. I still have my Christmas tree up! I took all the decorations off, but the tree is still standing (artificial tree). It looks like AJ and I will be the ones putting it away, so that is on my agenda today. It will be nice to have everything "back to normal". I have boxes of decorations stacked up as well - so it is time!

Here is a bookmark I was thinking of making for Valentines Day - it is pretty quick to make, but I am still looking around at patterns. I better make a decision soon, or I won't have time to make many!

Well, AJ is now 15! He didn't have the best birthday ever though - poor guy! It was the first day back to school after Winter Break, and, he was planning on having about 3 boys spend the weekend with us for his birthday, but....when he finally saw them at school, none of them could come this weekend. He was so bummed. He wasn't very excited at all - and since he already had his birthday present from us (the rip-stick) there wasn't anything exciting at home either! I did fix his favorite dinner - shrimp with cocktail sauce for appetizers and scampi and steak for dinner. That helped a little bit, but he is still a bit down about his birthday! He couldn't even use his rip-stick, as he had a hair cut right after school, and it was dark and rainy by the time he got home. Poor guy!

Well, I've been lagging! I noticed that my last post was 12/31! I had good intentions to post this weekend, but Mother Nature had different plans. We lost power Friday morning, and did not get it back until Sunday night at 5:45. (We were lucky - I just spoke with my sister, and she won't even have an estimate of when she will get power until Wednesday!) We did manage to borrow a generator, so we were able to have heat and - even better - a TV for Pokemon! (You try to explain to Alli that the power is out - she just thinks you are being mean and won't turn on the TV for her!) We lost power because a power pole snapped at the base from the wind - we had gusts of up to 82 MPH at the Airport (and we live less than a mile away!) We have great neighbors around here though - everyone seemed to be doing okay. Ralph got some good pictures for me, and talked to everyone in the neighborhood while he was at it. We did loose out cherry tree - but it wasn't much of a loss - most of it was dead, which is probably why it snapped!






I did get the chance to finish up a new doily (crocheting by candlelight!) This one is about 22 1/2 inches across.