Home and glad to be here.

Here are some of the pictures I got of the family while I was on vacation in Chicago. The first one is on the first night. Josie was turning her cousins (Jaden and Bryson) into frogs and dogs. Of course I was thrilled with this as I had to kiss them to make them back into little boys again. GOOD JOB JOSIE!

Then we have the day the kids all got to drive the cars around. This was a first for Josie and she had a blast driving. Her steering left a little to be desired but she had fun. The boys are pros at this most of the time. Bryson (the youngest) seemed to find himself up on the grass a lot but he still had a ball too.

The next three pictures are of the day we walked to Lake Michigan which is only about 2 blocks away from their house. I was told that I might have a problem getting to the lake and when I got there I saw what they meant. We were about 100 feet up from the beach area and the incline was quite steep that we had to go down to get there. But after watching the boys and my son in the water I told my Daughter in Law and Granddaughter that we would give it a shot. We made it down without anyone falling and rolling! After I got down there I noticed another path leading up that was not as steep and asked if we could use that one on the way out. WELL!!!!!!!! It was all concrete with rocks sticking out of it and was like doing a rock wall. Piece of cake! This was the first time Josie had been to the beach and she really enjoyed getting her tootsies in the sand and letting the waves rush over her feet. The boys are experts at this and so they spent time looking for seashells for their bathroom to decorate it up. They got some real nice ones too.

The next picture is of Neiko getting his hair cut. He does sports and hates his hair to be in the way. So his Dad said he would be happy to cut it up for him. It really turned out nice. My son (Neiko's dad) cuts his own hair about every other week since he is an instructor at the boot camp there in Great Lakes.

The last picture is the first day of school. Jaden is in 3rd grade and Bryson started Kindergarten this year. It was so hard to see them leave for that first full day. It was also the day we left so we did not get to see Jaden again but Bryson was home before we left and I got some good lovin' from him before I left.

The weather was wonderful while we were there so it made all of our outings great and enjoyable. We spent a lot of time outside as we were so used to 100+ days here that the 80's felt pretty good to us. There were a couple of nights that it was so cool out that we were able to put a fire in the fire pit outside and enjoyed that.

The day after I came home DH went back up to Las Vegas to see his father. He is going downhill gradually but my DH is trying to get all the loose ends tied up so that when the end comes we don't have a bunch of legal and emotional stuff to take care of. He was there for 10 days. As of this writing he is back up there again. He is only suppose to be there a week this time but if anything happens he will stay a bit longer.

Please keep our family in your prayers as we all go thru this emotional time. It effects all of us in different ways but I know with God's help we will get thru it and be able to move on with our lives. Even though our lives will be different once we loose Big PaPa Joe.

Not much on the crafting front. I am still working on Jamie's socks. I thought I would get them finished while I was in Chicago but we were on the go so much I only got about 2 inches of the cuff done. I still have another 2-3 inches to go. Since I have been back I have not really had any down time to work on them. Hopefully I will get them done before their first snow fall!

Have a great day and keep on crafting. Let me know what you all are working on. Maybe that will inspire me to get back to my yarn!

I promised

Ok I promised you pictures of the place I stayed at in New Mexico so here are the ones of the room I stayed in. I loved the ceiling with its big wooden logs there.

I thought I had taken a picture of the "ribbon" shawl I completed there but it seems to have disappeared from my camera. HUM...........I think a 3 yr old got a hold of the camera recently. Must remember to keep it up higher.

I am off on Saturday to Chicago to visit my son and his family. I am taking the 3 yr old with me so she can play with her cousins. Hopefully I will blog quicker after I get back and put up some pictures so you can see how beautiful my family is.

On the crafting front........I am knitting socks for my DIL in Chicago. I am almost done with the heel of one sock and ready to do the other heel. For some reason I seem to have too many stitches at this point so will have to do a bit of "reducing" soon or they will be slouch socks. I am using the magic loop method so I don't have to worry about having orphan socks around the house.

I also have a prayer shawl in the works (crocheting) and another prayer shawl on my loom. I need to get more prayer shawls done as I am being called on often now to get them to people. I am hoping to get a prayer shawl ministry started at our church after I get back from Chicago. That way there will be more shawls available and I won't feel like I am all alone out there.

Better get off of here and get some packing done for the trip.

Before I go I must leave you with a picture of my Grand Daughter on her 3rd birthday. This was the family party we had and as you can see she really loves this one gift she got. She saw it and screamed "George Washingtons"! I am telling you she is gifted!

Still Here

I don't want you all to think I have left the blog world. I have just been so busylately.

We went to Vegas right after mother's day to see my father in law who is terminally ill with lung cancer and were there for about 4-5 days. It was a good visit and I was glad we went. He is starting to show some signs of the disease but is still in good spirits and quite active. We also got to see my Sister in Law whom we had not seen in a few years.

In June I went to Albuquerque to see my daughter and Son in Law. He had just completed his Master's program so we had a small party for him. I stayed at a priory (Catholic retreat center) while I was there and really enjoyed the peace and quite it offered. The bugs were a bit of a problem but I managed to master the can of raid left in my room. LOL While there I woke up one morning to the wonderful sight of hot air balloons going right over my room! I got some great pictures of it. (Pictures will be posted later) I also managed to get quite a bit of crocheting done while I was there. I completed one prayer shawl and started another!

After I got back I took my mom to the airport for her 10 day trip to Kansas to see her friends and family there. She had a great time and was very glad to go back.

Today my DH and I are leaving for Vegas again to see his Father. We have never spent a holiday in Vegas so are looking forward to it. The hotel we are staying at will have fireworks on Friday and we are going to ask for a room that looks out over the display.

Next month my grand daughter and I are going to Chicago to visit my son and his family. He is in the Navy there and is an instructor at Great Lakes Naval Base. I thought it was time for my grand daughter to get to know her cousins so she is going with me for that reason. She will turn 3 just before we leave! She is so cute. She is telling everyone that we are going to "cago". She even has everyone's names memorized that she is going to see. Her Godfather lives there too and we are hoping she will get a chance to see him while we are there too.

In October my mom is going to have her right shoulder replaced. She is not looking forward to the procedure but is looking forward to the end results. She is unable to knit at this time and she loves to knit. once the shoulder is replaced she will be able to do all her favorite things again.

After that I think my life will return to somewhat of a normal pattern.

I promise that I will be posting pictures here hopefully before my Chicago trip and then again after that. I have some great shots of the prayer shawl I completed in New Mexico and lots of other stuff.

Until later..............have a crafty day!

Updates

Seems the older I get the faster time gets away from me. But that is ok, I know deep down there are only 24 hours in a day.

Crafting news: I am making an angel afghan for my mother in law. She really likes angels and I found it on Annie's Attic's daily free pattern. It is fillet crochet and I really like it. I am 1/2 way done with it and am striving to get the rest done by Wednesday so I can present it to her when we go to visit them this week. I also have a prayer shawl on my prayer shawl loom. It is for my Daugher. I have been promising myself that I would do one for her and so now seemed like a good time. Of course it is on hold until the afghan is done.

I am hoping to get back into my sock knitting in the very near future. I ordered some new circular needles so I could do more than one pair of socks at a time. I love the magic loop method and it seems so easy to me once I get into the grove of counting stitches.

Family life: My Father in law is starting to go downhill pretty fast. (he has lung cancer) So my hubby and I are leaving Wednesday afternoon to go to Nevada to visit them and see what we can do to help. My MIL has asked him several times to let her call in hospice but he refuses it. So I guess our first line of business is to convince him to let them evaluate him and maybe get him on some oxygen to make it easier for him to breath. We are also planning on getting their cemetary plots taken care of while we are there. They have a Veteran's cemetary close to where they live. After that I think we can relax for a couple of weeks. My DH wants to go up to Nevada for Father's Day. I TOld him to go up on the 7th as our neice is graduating from college and that is the day of her party. I told him to take the whole week after off and just stay there with him.

In June I am going to Albuquerque to visit our Daughter and Son in law. The SIL just graduated also and they are having a congratulatory party for him. I love Albuquerque so am really looking forward to that trip too.

Not a real exciting life but a might bit stressful right now. I will fill you all in when we get back from Nevada.

Happy Mother's day to all of you Mom's!

Thought it was about time for me to update the blog. So what better way then to give you all some pictures to look at. So let me give you a bit of a rundown of what they are.

First there is my grandaughter Josie with her Auntie Jenn (my daughter). Auntie Jenn took her to the build a bear factory and of course Josie had to have a bunny. While we were waiting to get the bunny stuffed we did a little shopping to find just the right dress and shoes for the bunny. So what did Josie find? Cinderella clothes and glass slippers. So now we have Cinderbunny.

Next picture is of Josie and her Daddy (my son) as she is searching for her Easter eggies (her word not mine). Her Grammy in Seattle sent down plastic easter eggs filled with MONEY! Guess the Seattle Easter Bunny is pretty neat. Anyway since the bunny left the eggies at Grammy Linna's (Josie doesn't say Linda well yet) house, Grammy thought she had better get them packaged and sent down to Arizona ASAP! Good thing she did too.

Next we have Josie showing off her body painting that she had done at the renaissiance festival. She calls it her maritaposa. No I did not spell it wrong that is how she pronounces mariposa! Cute huh? Anyway we went to the festival on Easter Sunday (got out of cooking Easter Dinner) and it was a wonderful day. Don't get me wrong, we did not miss Easter Mass at Church. But the Easter Mass we go to was held on Saturday night and is called the Easter Vigil. (It lasts for about 3 hours but is worth every minutes) It is when we receive into the Church all the people that have been studying the Catholic Faith for a year or more. We have sessions each week during this time to help them along their journey. My DH facilitates for the adults and I cook for their retreats. So that is a VERY special Mass for us. So that freed Sunday up for us to do something special so off to the festival we went!

And the last picture is of Josie getting the tape off the eggie so she can count her George Washingtons! (She does tell her daddy that she likes Ben Franklins best though)

It was a wonderful day and I was so glad we all got to be together. Even my mom went with us for the day and she loved it too. Now I do not want any of you folks that spent your Easter shoveling snow to send me any hate mail. It is not my fault that it was 75 and sunny Easter Sunday. But I am not complaining about it either. Just remember that by June we will be 100+ degrees here and it will be just plain HOT!

On the crafting front............Great news. I have found someone that is in need or prayer shawls. We have a cancer ministry at our parish and the head of it found out I had LOTS of prayer shawls just sitting around my house. She had just given the last one she had away and was in need of more. Well, I dropped off that 33 gallon bag of shawls to her and told her more would be on the way! So I am crocheting a seraphina shawl in varigated yarn. I love this pattern as it just lays across the shoulders so nicely. I am also looming a dark purple prayer shawl for my daughter Jenn. It is really nice and airy. When she was here during Easter she saw it and was very excited about it. I also have chapel veils that I need to get sewn. I was given the material but just have not taken the time to cut them and edge them. Maybe this week while my DH is at his meetings I can get some of that done.

That is all for right now. I have lots more to tell you but will leave it for another post another day. Have a great day!

Finally pictures

I have been promising pictures for some time now. Well here you go. The first one is of a little mouse I made tonight. I found the pattern on Annie's Attic's free daily pattern today and knew I had to make one. I work with a lady who likes mice and since she is undergoing Chemo I thought I would make this for her to cheer her up.

The next 2 pictures or of the prayer shawl I am working on. It is such a nice and easy pattern and works up really pretty quickly if I could just have the time to really sit and work on it without interruption I think I would have it done in just a few days. But alas the phone rings or the dog wants a treat or hubby wants to go somewhere or (and this is the biggest reason) my grand daughter is over and we really have other "art" projects that we have to do.

A little update on my Father in Law. We were told last night that he was being released today from the hospital. We have not been able to verify that he is home yet but that is amazing. He just had major brain surgery on Monday and here it is Thursday and he is heading home.

It is late and I really want to get some more crochet time on the shawl so will close now and wish you all a crafty night!

Another update

Thank you all for your prayers! Here is the lastest on my Father in Law.

His surgery only lasted 2.5 hours! What a shock to those of us prepared for a 4-10 hour surgery. The surgeon said after he opened up the skull the tumor was well delineated (outlined) and he was able to get it right away and he could not find any other signs of tumor. Dad is being transferred out of ICU today into a regular room and could possibly be going home this week yet. He is alert and orientated totally. He is speaking and moving his arms and legs without difficulty. My husband is so pleased with the progress that he is even flying home tonight! I am so excited, he has been gone for 2 weeks and it has been too quiet around my house.

On to crafting news.

My mother has been winding my yarn stash up for me and has informed me I will never use all that yarn before I die. So I guess I need to live to be ANCIENT! I am so impressed on how nice it is starting to look in my craftroom. I actually got to use my serger the other day because I could find it!

I am working on a crocheted prayer shawl right now. It is a pattern I found on one of my group sites. I wish I could remember the ladies name that made the pattern as it is really pretty and very easy to do. My mom said it is the prettiest one she has seen me do yet!

My Daughter in Law has been crocheting too and has completed a baby blanket in "baby cloud" yarn. She loves this yarn and I don't care for it as it is so bulky and hard to work with. I did complete one baby blanket that I had started and I gave it to her. I don't know what she is going to do with all the baby blankets that are so heavy. Our coldest temp here this winter was 29 and that was just for a couple of hours. We do live in a desert and it does get really really hot here.

That is all for now. Have a great day!