PIF Sent

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I got all the things for my PIF ready and sent them off a week ago last Saturday.  My PIF recipient has received it.  If she posts a picture of the things I sent I will post a link for you.  I sent her some really pretty fiber to spin, a cute old fashion Easter toy with candy in it, a pen with a soft plastic sheep’s head on the top, two hand knit dish cloths, a bag that I machine embroidered “I love to knit with handspun” on, two yummy special chocolate candy bars and the knitting book “One Skein -30 quick project to knit and crochet”.  As usual the PIF was fun to put together.  I may do it again next year.  The nice thing about them is you have a whole year to put things together for your (up to 3) recipients.

I broke down and went to the Dr on Saturday because my breathing has been uncomfortable, lots of dry coughing, and I’ve been so tired I haven’t even worked very much on the comfort shawl I need to finish.  He listened and said yes, you are rattling in there (referring to my lungs, not my head ;)).  He also said that this was the sickest summer he can remember in his 50 years of doctoring.  He attributed it the tearing down of many of the houses that were damaged 2 years ago in the horrendous floods they had here and all the mold and mildew that has stirred up.  Everyone’s allergies have been much worse this year, including my own (and I have awful fall allergies).  I’m afraid it will probably be the same next year when they finish up the “de-construction” of these flood damaged houses.  He put me on some medication that will help with the coughing spasms and I will continue to take my decongestant and allergy meds.  Oh the joys of allergies.

My supervisor at my temp job told me she had extended my stay and was checking into when they could hire me on permanent.  WOOT WOOT!!  That was what I was hoping for!!!  I have been working temp jobs since I lost my job at the Title Insurance company about 3 years ago due to the collapse of the housing market.   It’s been unsettling knowing the jobs were temporary, but Heavenly Father has been kind and they have been long term while I’ve waited for a job that I enjoyed and could do well that was permanent.  I wouldn’t want to do this again, but it has been a learning experience and gives me a lot of compassion for all those who are seeking work in this awful and depressed economy.  I know that my “good fortune” in being able to support myself (even if a bit scary because of the instability of this kind of work and the change in wages with each job), is because I pay my tithing.  And I know that my ability to have a safe place to live, that is within my means, is because I work hard at keeping the Sabbath holy, leaving the worldly things to the other 6 days of the week.  Those are promises that go with those commandments.  How blessed we are when we follow the commandments, and how grateful I am to understand that.

Comfort Shawl – New Update

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Click picture for larger image

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Well, I’m not knitting it as fast as I should be, but here is an updated photo.  I lost track of my rows one day and did a wrong row and didn’t feel like frogging or tinking back so I corrected the row below each stitch as I knit the next row.  Slow going I admit, and it probably would have been faster to frog the row and re-knit it and then go on, but then that was what I chose to do. 😛  I’m hoping I won’t be sleepy tomorrow so I can work on it some more.  When I’m sleepy and I start knitting, it makes me even sleepier until I can’t hold my eyes open anymore.  It is a little more than a 1/3 of the way finished.  I really need to put more time into it and get it finished.  Maybe I will have a bigger or finished picture to put up next week end. 🙂

Well the Cowboys can’t decide if they are going to play well or kill themselves with penalties.  I’d like to tell them, if you can’t do those things well that you are trying to get away with, stop it!!!  You are beating yourselves with them.  Tho I have to admit, there were a couple of questionable calls in the 1st half that even a Viking fan admitted to.  Even tho they are at the bottom of their division I will still root for them and hope they get rid of their penalty prone ways.

I finally got that call that all members of the Church anticipate with some intrepidation.  Yes, I will be giving a talk in Church this Sunday.  It’s a bit scary getting up in front of the congregation and talking about what ever spiritual subject the Bishop or his counselor have given you to talk about.  It’s similar to giving a 15 min mini sermon for those not familiar with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons for those not familiar with our formal name.)  As part of  my talk I decided to give an experience I had this Monday while driving to work just before the sun came up.  The Lord gave me some spiritual pause when I saw it.  I will share that experience below.

This last Monday as I drove to work, at 7 am when it’s not quite light yet, as I turned onto a street off of a main road just outside of town, I saw a car to my left on the shoulder of the road.  The people were standing outside the car looking to the right side of the road.  I looked over and saw a doe that had obviously just been hit by that car.  Because it was not quite light yet, I wasn’t able to see the damage to the car but the doe was just lying in the grass (not flat on the ground, but with her feet gathered under her), still alive but obviously injured and I knew she would probably be put down.  My first thought was, as I looked at that beautiful creature and tears started to well up in my eyes, “oh you stupid deer, if only you had just stayed off the road, you would still be running around.”  I wondered how many times she had crossed the road with no problems until she had become desensitized to her natural instinct for fear and danger.  Then I thought how often do we not heed the counsel of the Lord and his servants, or the promptings of the Spirit when, like the doe, we see no danger or do not understand the danger, until we too become desensitized to it, and like the doe, who paid a physical price, we pay a spiritual price.

Yesterday – Yes I had another Birthday

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Pumpkins at Bloomsberry Farm

 As much as I’d like birthdays to just go away, they come every year anyway. ;P   

My children took me with them to Bloomsberry Farm.  It’s an annual ritual with them to take their children there to have fun and pick out a pumpkin for halloween.  It was quite warm for this time of year, it was in the 80’s, so we drank a lot of water.  I know I will miss this warm (even hot) weather this winter when the minus temps hit.  There are quite a few things for everyone to do there so I will put a few pictures on to show you just a few of the things we (my children and I) and my grandchildren did yesterday.   My children then took me to a wonderful Chinese dinner because it’s my favorite :), and when we got back to my daughters house, there was a beautiful and delicious fall birthday cake, which we enjoyed before I thought about getting a picture of.

Because of the very warm temps this year, my allergies really flared up.  I now have bronchitis (it started a few days ago with coughing and continued yesterday with some congestion) and today I have the coughing and congestion and am very tired because my oxygen supply is more depleted.  I try so hard to not let things go this far – it’s something I can almost always count on having when I catch a cold or influenza, seasonal allgeries, cats or am around strong smells (like perfumes) for very long.  Sometimes I can stave it off with decongestants and antihistamines – but it won this time.    I’ll be miserable for a week or two and then have the cough for about 4 to 6 more weeks and then I should be fine.   

I didn’t go to church today because I wasn’t feeling well and because of how tired I am because of my breathing.  While I was listening to the BYU channel (for some spiritual uplift) on Music and the Spoke Word, they said something that helps put things into prospective when we are offended or angry at others and find it hard to forgive them.  “Resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for it to kill the other person.”   Anger at someone else is detrimental to us personally and really doesn’t do anything to the other person at all.  It eats us up from the inside out and takes away from the enjoyment of our own lives.  Letting it go isn’t always very easy, I’d dare say that most of the time it isn’t easy at all, but I choose to let it go (and yes sometimes I have to work at it) and let Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ deal with the judgements, I do not yet see things as clearly concerning others as they do and I don’t want to be held in judgement for an unrighteous judgement.  It’s enough to know that they are righteous and just and that everything will be as it should be – even if it’s not what I would have wanted, I need to learn to want what is right and just before them.   

Now for those pictures. 🙂   

Dry Creek Mining for Gems

Pouring in the Sand and Gems to Mine

The youngest grandchild thinks the water is more fun!

The youngest stands in front of the Hayrack Ride sign.

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Comfort Shawl Update….

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click on picture for larger image

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The gauge wasn’t coming out right, so I frogged it and decided to go up to a size 9 needle from a 7 since I was doubling the yarn (one strand too light a weight, 2 strands a little too heavy but closer than the 1 strand) .  The pattern called for a size 8 needle, but I was using a 7 since I knit a little bit more loosely than others and generally have to go down a size needle to get the correct gauge.  The gauge is now more correct and the 10 skeins should make the shawl, tho it will only be 58 to 60 inches in length instead of 63, because I will run out of yarn before I get it that long.  But it should still be a nice length.  This yarn is very soft, which is why I wanted to use it.  A comfort shawl should bring comfort in every way possible.  I’m almost done with the first 2 skeins so I am about 1/5 of the way done.

Off to bed, 5:15 am comes awfully early.  Will be soooo happy when we get that hour of sleep back when they turn back the clock next month, which is almost here!!!!  I love that as much as I do football :).

Scarf Finished

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click on picture for larger image

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This is the hand dyed (Wilton cake icing coloring – Purple), hand spun and hand knit scarf that I have just finished.  It was interesting to see the colors the food coloring broke into.  The last time I used the purple Wilton cake icing coloring, it turned out different shades of purple and no blue, you can see it here.  This time it had a beautiful pastel blue in there as well, see it here.  You just never know when you use the Wilton colors what you will get.

I wish it was longer, but I mis-judged the amount of fiber I dyed and because I can’t match the color, it is a bit shorter than I had intended to make it.  I’ll be more careful to weigh the roving before dying next time. 🙂

I originally had different plans for this scarf, but felt prompted as I began knitting it to give it to my neighbor who has been graciously giving me her Sunday paper every Sunday so I could look for work.  She’s a very nice lady and it will be a simple thank you gift.   Now I will have to chose a different fiber to spin on :).  Think I will begin spinning more of the cria (baby alpaca), it’s so soft and soooo relaxing to spin. 🙂

In Memory of 9/11 …….. I Will Never Forget

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In Memory

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Have you Forgotten?

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In Memory of all those who died during the terroist attack on the United States of America on September 11, 2001. 

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Especially those on flight 93, and all those who on that day willingly and unselfishly sacrificed their lives to save the lives of others.   And to those in our armed services, who have given their lives and those who continue to fight, selflessly putting their own lives in jepardy to protect us and others from terrorism.  They are all heros to me and I will never forget.

Comfort Shawl Started

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Comfort Shawl

I finally made my choice  and started this shawl today.  I decided on something simple and quick, but elegant looking.  It’s called High Effect Feather & Fan Shawl.  This is for an acquaintance at Church who lost her oldest daughter in a car accident about 6 weeks ago.  I hope it will help her to know that others feel her pain and care.  I tried to lighten this picture up but it’s a navy color and just very dark.  It will show up better (I hope) when I get more knit and have a larger project to take a picture of.  I wanted a lighter color but this was the only color I had enough of  in this alpaca yarn, which has been discontinued, and I wanted it to be soft and warm.

The Cowboys played the Texans tonight, and did not do well at all.  They were very sloppy on the field.  Only consolation is that it is still pre-season games.  I hope they look much better on the field when the regular season starts.

I’m still knitting on the scarf, but there is no hurry and it’s something I enjoy working on during my lunch hr at work.  I am enjoying my new job.  It’s very busy and fast paced, but has all the things I enjoy doing.  I’m  looking  forward to being permanently hired and having that financial security that temp jobs just can’t give.

The weather here has been really nice this week.  Still a bit warm but much better than last week when I felt like I was going to melt.  I much prefer the hot DRY weather out west to the hot HUMID weather in the mid-west.  Winter has never been my favorite season, so you can understand that I also prefer the warmer winters out west too :P.  I could so be a snow bird :P.  But we just have to grow where we are planted.

Knitting with My Handspun

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Spun Hand Dyed Superwash Merino on the Niddy Noddy

Skein of handspun, hand dyed merion superwash

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Well, on the left, you can see the Merino superwash roving, that I was spinning, wound on the niddy noddy.  It made a nice baby weight yarn.  I did have the wpi (wraps per inch) but forgot to write it down and so much has happened this week that I have forgotten what it was.  Some of it plyed all purple, some all blue and some heathered with both colors.

On the right is the final skein after it came off the niddy noddy, and below is the lace scarf I am working on with the skein.  🙂

Knitting a lace scarf from the hand spun

My computer is fixed (thanks to a very nice neighbor who had a boot disk and the operating system that I use.)  My 2nd hard drive was large enough to put my things on from my main hard drive so now it is just a matter of moving things back over to my newly reformated main hard drive.  So nice to have my computer back up and running!!  You don’t realize how much you depend on them until they are not available.

I started my new job on Tuesday.  It is very busy, but not stressful and I am doing things that I enjoy and working with people I worked with last year when I had a long term temp job at this place of business.  Things are a bit tight as I have been on unemployment for the last 3 weeks, but when the new month starts life will be back to more normal financially.  My job starts at 7:30 instead of 8am, so I will have to get up a little earlier sigh, but it’s just so nice to have a job that will become permanent in the next month or two. 

Yesterday was my youngest son’s birthday.   My daughter was going to come with me to the cemetery, but it was storming.  I went anyway because I can’t give him presents like I do my children who survived him, all I can give now is my time – so I did.  He would have been 29.

Are You Ready for Some Football? 2010

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Dallas Cowboys!!!

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Yep, it’s pre-season again!!!!  Dallas won their first game against the Bengals (16 to 7) and lost their 2nd game against the Raiders (17 to 9).  They lost against the Raiders in pre-season last year too. 😛  I didn’t get to see either game tho, I need the NFL channel ;).

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Well I’m doing this from my daughter’s computer because I did the last Micro Soft windows update and now my computer will not boot up. 😦   It won’t even get to the windows screen, it freezes before it gets that far.  So when I get some money saved up, I will take it to a computer place and have them get my data off of the hard drive, and reformat and add the OS back on and then restore my data.  Computers can be such a pain, but you almost can’t do anything without them anymore.

I hope everyone is surviving the heat.  We have been hot, hot, hot the last several days.  Suppose to cool back down starting tonight, thank goodness.  I have some pictures of the yarn I finished spinning, plying and am now knitting into a scarf. 🙂  But I will have to wait to do that until I get my computer fixed so I can upload the new pictures.  sigh

Oh yeah, I have a temp to perm job that is suppose to start next week either on Monday or Tuesday.  It’s at the bank I worked the long term temp for last year :).  I’ll be grateful not to have to keep changing jobs, which is sooo stressful.

Embroidered Apron

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1 Yard Apron with Embroidery

Embroidry text

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I forgot to take the camera with me to the Activity Day Girls activity and so I have no pictures of their sewing skills on the pockets.  I had two aprons left over so instead of sewing a pocket on them, I am machine embroidering on them to give as gifts.  Sorry my photography is not great, and I couldn’t find my iron, which I know is around here somewhere, so that I could make it look nice and not wrinkled.  But such is life.  I know I’ll find it eventually.  I have posted a closer picture of the actual embroidery so that you can see it.  I love this one. 🙂

Yesterday was my last day at the current long term temp job so I am out looking again.  Surely something permanent will be forth coming soon.  All I can do is rely on the blessings and tender mercies of the Lord after all I can do.