Indy made a trip to the vet's yesterday - poor baby! He is now neutered, and is doing fine. The vet's office evidently took a picture for his file - and took it after the drugs set in. The tech that checked him out thought it was too cute to just keep in his file, so she gave me a copy of it - too cute! He did look like he had a hangover that night when we got him home.

What a whirlwind of a week - I haven't posted in a while! I feel like I am running behind, and not catching up with anything. Last Friday, I found out that Angela's baby shower was the following Sunday - no baby afghan even started! I did whip up a couple of pairs of booties and a hat, though. She got an IOU for an afghan.

AJ actually started working on his Eagle Project last weekend. While I was in the middle of mopping the kitchen floor he asks "Can you go with me to the stores to talk to them?" Does it look like I'm busy??? Needless to say, I had my day all planned out already - after grocery shopping and cleaning, I was planning on going in to work to catch up on a few projects. That didn't work out. AJ ultimately decided that Dad would be better at the hardware/nursery/landscape store than Mom would be, but he had to wait until Dad made a dump run (No way was he going to stop that - I've been waiting months!) That meant I had Allison, so no bank work, just more housework for me. It did give me time to work on the baby booties, though!

So - change of plans - Sunday I'll go in to the bank. I'm going to stop making plans. Alli had an accident that required the cleaning of her carpet. The carpet cleaner wasn't working well, so Ralph and I overhauled it. By the time I had that mess cleaned up, including the kitchen after tearing the cleaner apart, I had missed church, and only had a couple of hours to put in at work before the shower. What a weekend! The good news - AJ has started his project. The scouts are gathering at the school this Sunday to start work, I hope. What a long journey!

Allison successfully slept in her brace last night, so we are off on the 24/7 adventure! She didn't seem to have any problems this morning, but she was scratching her stomach and back a lot in the shower - it must get itchy under there! I thought she might have problems going to sleep with it on, but she dropped off faster than usual - at least faster than lately. But that may be because lately we have been taking the brace off before bed, and she gets all excited. Now - nothing to get excited about at all!

I had a fun filled day yesterday - Ralph took Alli to daycare for me, and AJ was sleeping on the couch (he caught the latest bug circling around the school!) so it was just me ant the dogs in the morning! Then, I headed in to town for some serious shopping. Okay - not that serious, but I went to several stores in one trip - more than I usually get to do! I spent quite a bit of time in Joann's, and came out with a few more projects! I picked up 4 more balls of yarn, and a couple of yards of netting. The netting is for the crocheted kitchen scrubbies. I bought a couple at my church's bazaar this fall, and thought 'I can make these!' and for once, I did! With some help from AJ - he tied the ends of the net strips together for me as I cut them - and without the help of Indy - he got locked in the bedroom during this procedure - I rolled up 1 7/8 yards of netting, and then made two scrubbies!

I think Indy got back at me for locking him in - this was the main bathroom later that evening:

Jasper said "It wasn't me!"

AJ was very helpful in cleaning it up

After all my adventures in shopping (I even found a dress for the Christmas party - very red!) I met Mom and Dave for lunch at Casa Ramos - yum! I ate too much, but it was so good! Then - more running around with Mom and Dave. They left town around 2:45 I think - even then Dave said he hit snow on the way home. I headed back home and dove into my scrubbie project. I suppose I should post a picture of them - the first one wasn't too pretty - it took me a bit to get the hang of working with the netting. The second one was much better. I also finished up a scarf and an amigarumi cat (a Christmas present) yesterday - I love having the day off from work!

With a rainy start yesterday, I faced up to my procrastination, and took Rufus, Indy and Koori in for their shots. I could have gone last month, or even the month before, and it wouldn't have been raining. But no, I have to put it off until I have to stand outside in the rain in a long line waiting to get them vaccinated. I did think that maybe no one else would show up because it was raining, but evidently, I wasn't the only on that thought that. The line wasn't as long as I have seen it in the past, but...it was still almost an hour long wait outside. Luckily, it didn't rain a lot while I was there - just a drizzle!

After an inch of rain, the sun came out yesterday, and it was beautiful! The dogs and I went for a walk - I didn't even need a jacket!


We found this little guy handing out in the road - he didn't look happy. I think he was moving a bit slow due to the rain and cold.



I picked up a new ball of yarn on Saturday - a boucle' made by Joann's. It has the coolest pattern working up in it - I love it! I want to go back and get all the different colors they have!



I also made up a kitty toy - Ralph was making up a dog's toy from a fillet glove, so I whipped up a ballish shape, stuffed it with stuffing and some catnip, and.....



I think it's a hit!

A rainy, windy Sunday! I did remember to turn all my clocks back - except for my internal one. I was awake at 4:30, and could only snooze until 5:00. I'm up! Alli will probably snooze late - she wasn't asleep when I went to bed at 10:30. The teenage years are hitting her, I think - she wants to stay up later and sleep in later. I don't mind the sleeping later - it's the staying up later I don't like. I'm used to that being 'my' time. Pokemon is turned off, and I can have the TV and a little conversation. Oh well - I guess I'd better get used to it. AJ is wired to stay up late and get up late, and probably will be for a while, so Alli will just follow suit, I'm afraid!

I got Ralph started on a clean-up project - our overflowing stacks of computer discs and paper work. When we traded up from Windows 95, we didn't get rid of all the 'stuff' we had for it - until yesterday. He had a little help sorting out the discs.



He did get it down to a manageable stack, and disposed of old items no longer needed (stuff that was still 'good' but we didn't need are going to school with Allison - maybe they can use it!). He also made a run to the Electronic Waste dump and got rid of an old monitor and our defunct TV - more room in the garage! (Since AJ can't lift over 10 pounds, he put our "other son" Dallas to work to help him load the TV in the truck.) Between the rummage sale and this trip - there is space in the garage! Hopefully, now that we've got a start, we can keep cleaning things out a little at a time, until we can actually move around in there. What a thought!

I had a little help myself unloading groceries. Alli and I were still the only one up when I got back from the grocery store (Dallas did get up just when I brought in the last bag of groceries - he really is my 'other son' isn't he!) This time, I had both kittens helping me unload the bags

Notice the positions - Indy going in the bag, Picot watching

Attack!
Playtime!

They are so much fun to watch! I'm so glad we did get Indy - it gives Picot someone (besides me!) to play with and really defuses the disasters she was creating. Unfortunately, the two of them can still cause some major disasters (my beta fish has a new home in a new location!) but I think it is less with two than when we just had Picot.

What a week! Good thing it's Friday! I'm even playing hooky from work! I'm technically babysitting Alex as he recovers from surgery, but he doesn't need much babysitting, really.

Alli update - she is wearing her brace full days now. She started with a full 9 hours on Monday and Tuesday (from 7:00 in the morning until Ralph picked her up from school). Wednesday, when I put her brace on, she growled at me - not a good sign. She bounced back pretty quickly, but it was obvious she didn't like putting it on. The, her teacher called me at 2:00 to warn me that she was 'having one of those days' with Allison. Not good! At 2:30, I was picking Alli up to take her in to get x-rays - which means pick her up, drive to MD Imaging, wait to sign in, wait to be called to a little window and fill out paper work and then wait until our turn for x-rays and then wait to make sure they turned out all right and then wait for them to make copies for us to take to the doctors. It really isn't a long time in total, but the up and down gets to Allison more than just sitting in one place. I think we were there a total of 30 minutes - not bad, but that was a lot of ups and downs, not to mention trying to make her stand still in the exact right spot for her x-rays! She doesn't do half steps I found. She needed to move a little bit to the left, now a little bit back to the right, too much, a little bit back to the left, too much.....She really did very well through it all - though I was a bit frazzled. Then, since it only took a half hour, I took her back to work with me to wait until her 4:00 appointment with the specialist. That was so much fun! (for her!) Once again, she did really well. She likes going to my work - she likes looking downstairs through the glass handrails, and following me around. After all that, it was off to the doctor's. We got there before 4:00 and saw him around 4:30 - the usual! He wasn't happy with the way her brace was fitting (neither was I - this was the first time I had seen it on after more than just a couple of hours, and it was really riding up!) It was also catching on her clothes - the bolts on the back were tearing her shirts. So far, the brace has destroyed 5 shirts I think. Ralph had already put a call in to the Orthodic specialist, and she had a solution, so after the doctor's appointment (which was pretty non-committal - keep it up and see me in three months) Ralph went by the orthodics place. He was there for 45 minutes - once the specialist saw Alli and her brace and the x-rays, she wanted to do some work. Ralph went back again on Thursday for another 1 1/2 hours to get the brace re-fitted, and it seems to be working much better! Alli still doesn't like it, but it looks like it fits better. She moves into the full 24 hours a day soon!

Alex update - Alex had his procedure done yesterday in Chico - and they didn't even do anything. The doctors couldn't get his heart to go into an arrhythmia while he had him there. Go figure! So AJ had the whole anesthesia and recovery for nothing! We go back to see the doctor in two weeks, so will find out more then about possible medication, etc. Bummer! The good news was that, since they didn't do any ablation work, AJ didn't have to spend the night - he just had to lay flat on his back for 6 hours, and then he could go home. Luckily for both of us, he slept most of that (and his last nurse was willing to bend a few rules about being perfectly flat, etc.!) He is doing fine today - a bit sore at his incision sites, but other than that, he feels fine.

I did finally take some pictures of the scarves I've done recently. I didn't realize it, but I must have had a thing for red lately!

Three of my more recent scarves

This is a new yarn by Lion Brand - a tweed - I like the color changes

This one is actually crocheted - and I really like how it turned out.


And this one is a new yarn put out by Michael's - nice and thick and fluffy!

We're off and running - another Monday! It's already started out ugly - while I was fixing Alli's lunch this morning, she made a mess in her room. Not how I wanted to start my week! Oh well - my fault! I know not to ignore her when she first gets up - even if it is "just for a minute".

I had help around the house yesterday too - the usual help I get! She is ever so helpful when you're folding clothes.



A while back, Mom rescued some plants that I was killing at my house. On her last trip down, she brought them back - all healthy and ready to bloom! Aren't they beautiful!



The dogs and I went for a walk yesterday - intermittent sunshine, but still a good walk.



It was a very slow Halloween last night too - very few kids. We were asked so many time that it got to the point that if there were parents with the kids, we automatically told them the score on the game (we had the game on the TV and they could see it from the door.) Ralph pointed out that he didn't see a lot of Dad's with the kids - they must have stayed home to watch the game!

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!

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!)

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!

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!

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!

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!