Life

Happy New Year

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Happy New Year

.Ok, I know it’s Jan 2nd, so I’m a day late. 😉  I hope everyone had a wonderful New Year’s Eve and Day and that you have an even better New Year.

I think New Year’s Day is a wonderful time to take stock of your life, the things that didn’t go so well and the things that did.  Looking back helps us determine what we need to work on and what things worked, it helps us to move forward when we can take that more distant look at our life instead of the up so close we can’t see the forest for the trees type of thing. 

Last year was a really hard year for me.  I lost my youngest son, an uncle, my previous mother-in-law (who I thought more of as a friend),  my car quit running and I had a really bad bout of bronchitis (my voice is still suffering as far as singing goes – singing is a comfort to me).  Those are just major highlights. 

I had some good things happen too (and you have to see the good things or life would be a real bummer), I found a permanent job that I enjoy, my dad is still healthy, I have very supportive siblings,  I have been able to keep my apartment through all the upheaval with temp work and that it is close to a bus line that goes to my work and house without having to change buses,  one of my co-workers lives not to far from me and gives me rides to work and home, and when she can’t I can catch the bus.  I have my faith and what a blessing that has always been in my life, it’s seen me through some pretty tough times.  Even tho my life has not been a bed of roses, I’ve always had a warm place to sleep, food on my table and family and friends, what more could I want.

Winter Weather & Thor

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Christmas Tree 2010

.I put my tree up the first week-end after Thanksgiving.  It’s a lovely little fiber optic tree that I bought from someone at work about 4 years ago.  I love the color changes and that it’s small enough to fit in my apartment.  Brings back memories of my mom’s first favorite tree.  It was one of those silver aluminum trees that had the color wheel that you put close to it, and the sliver aluminum branches would pick up the changing colors.  Later in her life,  she had a beautifully flocked artificial tree that looked as real as any I’ve ever seen, and the skirt was a beautiful alpaca fleece, it even looked soft in the pictures.

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Evening of Snow Storm

 

Next Morning

Well, we had a blizzard yesterday evening and through the night.  However because the snow was heavy and wet it didn’t blow around in the up to 40 mile an hour winds, so we were spared that part of what most people experience in a blizzard.  This was our second snow of the season and the snows are coming late this year, tho I’m not complaining, we will have plenty yet to come.  We didn’t get very much, certainly not as much as those north of us. 

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Can I come out now?

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Thor is doing well and is such a joy in my life.  He has been such a blessing to me.  He only expects food, water and time with me.  Well, and an occasional treat that I can’t resist giving to him.  He’s getting older, he will be 5 next spring which is getting old for a ferret.  I’m blessed that he has been and continues to be healthy, but I know the time will come when his health fails, then he will need me to be a good mom taking care of all his medical needs, which I will do with as much love as he has given me. 

I’m still knitting on the comfort shawl, it’s about 3/4’s finished now.  I’m also finding time to work on spinning the cria fiber, I love the softness of it as I spin it.  I’ve found that working on the comfort shawl for someone else who lost a child and spinning that wonderfully soft fiber has been comforting to me this Christmas season as I find my self missing my youngest son so much.

Happy Thanksgiving

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I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day with lots of Turkey, mashed potatoes, your other favorite side dishes and pumpkin or mincemeat pie.   It’s a time to be thankful for family and for living in a free country and and all the other tremendous blessings that brings us.  May the Lord bless you and keep you.

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Happy News Swallowed with Sad

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I watched the Cowboy’s game against the Giants that was played on Sunday, on Monday night  because I recorded it to watch on a different day, and OH MY GOSH they were awesome – it was like a different team.  I was going to gloat about their amazing win, and I was going to, with great excitement, let my family know that my supervisor where I am working let me know that my permanent position would start Dec 1st instead of Jan 1st, I’ve been looking for permanent full time work for 3 years and was excited to have found something I enjoy.  But I got some very sad news today.  Not just one but two sad things.  My daughter let me know that her Grandmother (her father’s mom) had passed away this morning.  She was a wonderful lady in every sense of the word, she was always very kind to me.  She will be greatly missed.  Then my sister called me and let me know that my Uncle had passed away today.   So my happy news was swallowed up with sad.  This has not been a really great year.  All we can do is pick up and go forward, hoping for a better next year.

Christmas Cactus – First Bloom for 2010

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1st Bloom for 2010

1st Bloom almost fully open

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They bloom fast once they get going.  I missed getting the picture of the bloom opening.  They are very unusual but pretty.  I love the hint of a very soft pink they have on them.

I’ll get another picture when I have several of the blooms open.

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click on picture for larger image

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Another update on this comfort shawl, which really should have been finished by now.  It doesn’t look like it, but it is half way finished.  By the time it’s blocked it will be much longer and wider than it looks.  I love knitting with Alpaca, it’s soft and squishy and it should be a wonderfully soft and very warm shawl.

I have several shawls in the wings after this one, so I best get my bottom in gear!!!

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My supervisor at the temp job I am working let me know this week that they will be hiring me permanent full time in Jan.  I am very happy to know I will finally, after 3 years of working part time or temporary jobs, have a permanent and full time job and it will be nice to be paid for the holidays they take and will make my financial situation a little less precarious.  I know we are given trials to learn from, and it has been a learning experience.   I hope I learned everything I needed to learn because I certainly hope I don’t have to re-learn anything in that experience again.

I Hope You Voted!!

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I hope you all got out today and voted.   I did.  My son and I tease that we cancel each other out.  But that is alright, it’s our civic duty to vote, what an awful state we would be in if we didn’t have that right and opportunity!!  Guess we will see in the morning who will be in control of the House and Senate and our state.

lsfiberadventure has posted a picture, of the PIF I sent, on her blog. 🙂  You can see it here.   PIF’s are fun to do, they take time and a little bit of money :P, but they are fun.  I think the most fun is waiting to see if they will like what you sent, and well, yes – the excitement of getting your own PIF package in the mail ;).

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.

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 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.