Update on the happenings of tomorrow...

Tomorrow will be a busy day for us. Devonia especially. We leave the house tomorrow at about 5:15 a.m. for the hospital and a 7 a.m. surgery time. We expect to arrive back at the house by early afternoon. I'll try to post another update tomorrow evening. If you don't see anything from me, then e-mail me as a reminder. Prayers, good karma thrown our way, anything will be appreciated. Until tomorrow.....

Retirement Party! WOHOOO!

What a turn out Devonia had. Bob Hughes, Director of their office in Collin County, made the presentation for Devonia. He talked about her being bossy and taking charge! Like we didn't know that! ;-)


I have no idea who this gal is with Devonia.




Patti and Lisa.

I know everyone had a wonderful time visiting and reminicising.




Baby blanket completed! Yeah! In between retirement party's today.


Choco's glad to see us again.

Monday!

Well I did it! Devonia liked the color scheme of this bag and "It's so cute!" was the statement made upon its completion. So I gave her the bag, which was the point of making it in the first place. The bag is so easy and I got it done, basically, in one day.

Dinner tonight was at "Ocean Seafood and Grill" in Plano. Its been in busines for years and is the first time I've ever been there. We were so hungry! The prices are great!

As you can tell I forgot to take a picture of, before "wolfing down" commenced! Devonia had the Salmon, I had the fried Catfish! It was wonderful....

Catching up.... on pictures.

Can you guess who this is?

Your right! The lady of the hour, Devonia.

Taylor

From (l - r) we have Craig, Taylor, Rick, Pa-pa and Devonia's head in the bottom right corner.

Grammie and Candy.
Our creation. Unfortunately the colors don't show up in the picture.
Beautiful reds, golds and browns.

This picture is really for Kaitlyn and Kristina. We had a good time........... hehehe!

Grammie and I enjoying a Starbucks in a Kroger store in Allen. Anyway..... Grammie had the White Chocolate, peppermint, mocha latte! I preferred the Pumpkin Spice latte. Yum!

For dinner Sunday night, Devonia and I headed out for Barbeque. Unbelieveably our favorite place, Shady Oaks, shut down a few months back, mysteriously. So we headed down US 75 to SpringCreek Barbeque. Very good food. Here is a picture for Olivia, Jolie, Parker and Hunter. Can you guess what Devonia is getting ready to eat!?

Boy! Was it good...... YUMMY!!!

Hello from Texas

Well I don't have internet connectivity on my computer so I can't post pics with this entry.

I arrived in Texas to 92* temps and what felt like 100% humidity. I'm sure the humidity was wrong but I know the temp is right. Sweat started rolling off my head as I wore my sweater coat.
I couldn't wait to get into the car and experience the air conditioner. We arrived back at Mom and Dad's and Mom quickly had dinner on the stove and heating while I unpacked. Brunswick stew was on the menu along with hot water corn bread and a salad. Yum! I don't make Brunswick stew like my Mom. It is one of my favorite "home" recipes. Two bowls later I stopped eating.

Saturday morning brought us getting ready and heading out the door for a morning of shopping and seeing just how much Allen, McKinney and Fairview have grown and changed. Wow! Every corner has a shopping center! Its unbelieveable. We used to joke about there being a 7-11 on every corner, from there it went to a Starbucks and now they have shopping centers! Oh well.....

Saturday evening we headed up to Mr. Wok for a wonderful Chinese dinner (authentic) with friends and family. Craig, Devonia, Rick, Candy and Taylor were able to meet Mom, Dad and I for the evening. The food was great and I was only disappointed in one dish. A chili shrimp dish. Very colorful and tasty, but the taste was to ketchup-y for my liking and not spicy at all. :-(

Tomorrow I head over to Devonia's for the rest of my stay, but before I leave Mom and I are putting together a flower arrangement. Can't wait to see how it turns out!

Wednesday - ahhhhh

This week has seemed very long to me. How about you? I've been running non-stop.

The new medication that I'm on for my hbp is making me uncontrollably sleepy at about 1 p.m. and I'm taking naps! Frankly this is about to drive me nuts. I keep thinking that I'll adjust to it. We'll see.

Starting to get ready to pack tomorrow. Washing almost all done. New jeans especially had to be done. Don't want any colors running while I'm outta town.

I can hear the questions. What are the pictures of? Well the top one is pretty self explanatory. Its the string bag that I spoke about a couple of posts back. Very easy to make and fun to! While making it I came up with lots of alternative uses. The kids are all very excited to use it this summer for the pool! The girls can use bags like these for over night visits! This particular bag is only big enough for an over night bag at best and for the store to be used with others. The other picture is of the giant bag that I'm making. This one will take time to complete since I'm taking all these naps!

Happy Birthday to my "little" girls!

Shhhh...
Started project...

Today was set aside to celebrate 2 birthdays.
Olivia turned 9 this last Friday and Jolie turns 8 next Friday. Unfortunately I'll be traveling on Jolie's birthday so we celebrated 2 birthdays at once. My girls seem to enjoy sharing birthdays at the moment and Olivia doesn't mind dividing the difference between the two.

The girls finally got their Webkinz!

Love the birthday cake!

We took everyone out for Sushi! At a new little sushi place David happened to find. Not crowded, great service, reasonably priced and the food is good. Mobo Sushi.

Finished project.

New Projects! AND New Yarn!

Oh I'm so excited! I rode over to my hair appt. today. The weather is just wonderful and there were so many bikes out on the rode. Everyone riding with huge smiles and waving casually. Its days like this that I just love to be out on the road.

Got my hair done. Lovely color, no cut. I'm letting it grow out (Carolyn just laughed and said, "You'll be back for the hair cut!" She knows me so well.) My hair is really getting scary. Every time its time for coloring I see more and more gray. Carolyn tells me that I'm about 75% gray on top and about 50% in the back until you get half way down my head and then there is no gray at all. I'm debating going "a la natural". What do you think?
Anyway... On my way home I went by Hobby Lobby to see if they had any wonderful yarn. OH MY GOSH! They have gone green there also. There were yarns with the Bamboo mix and everything in between. I decided on a beautiful 100% cotton by Bernat. The color is a natural or off white. These little blankets are going to be just precious. I already know how I'm going to wrap them for the display to the new mom. (Though I'm going to need some help after they are shipped. More about that in another post)

When am I going to learn that I can't go in a yarn store without getting more than I went in for. Another lady and I were just having way to much fun. She complained, I complained....back and forth we went about never leaving with just what we came for. So in my search for a comfortable, lush yarn for these new blankets I happened across another wonderful cotton yarn with free patterns on the side for a string bag. Like you use to go shopping, instead of using paper or plastic. I just about had a fit right there in the store. I've been wanting to get some of these bags, but all the stores want $8 - $10 a piece of these. So I found the yarn for $1.69 a skein and the pattern calls for 3 skeins. So I get the fun of making them and for a little less money.

Lastly this is the sweater I have started for myself about 3 days ago. I'm actually going to make 2 of them just in different colors. The other yarn is on order right now and I expect it towards the middle to end of October. A beautiful dark brown.

Sweater finished and more news....

Here I sit working on Parker's sweater - desperately trying to get it finished tonight! As you know I've been "working" on this sweater for almost a year now. I am determined that he is getting this sweater before I leave town next week for Texas. My friend, Devonia, is having surgery on the 1st of October and she's allowing me to come and play nurse for her. I'll be leaving here on the 26th and staying with my parents for a couple of days before heading over to Devonia's to stay for the remainder of my time in Texas.

Parker had to try on the partial sweater so I could make sure all was well with size before I set off to put all the pieces together. He's one happy little guy.

Here's a picture that Devonia sent me today of (l-r) Amy (Jeremy's girlfriend), Kay (a friend of Devonia's), Devonia and Shelva (another friend). This picture was taken in Iowa at one of the many covered bridges. By the looks of it the weather was wonderful for her trip up there.

Here is the finished sweater. I'm so glad to have this done, especially after having to tear it out again after the last picture that I posted on it. This sweater has been long in coming and I'm sure that tomorrow morning Parker will want to wear it. Unfortunately our weather is warm and he will have to put it away until cooler temps arrive.

Karen made it in town for business on Wednesday after spending 3 weeks in Japan and China for the Paralympics. She was able to sneak away for a dinner Thursday evening at Mirch Masala (our favorite Indian restaurant). I forgot to take my camera so I have no recent picture to post. Karen also has a blog, http://www.fithippietravels.blogspot.com/, that you would find interesting. So make sure to check it out.

Karen and I met through "Riders Edge". This is the class that we took to learn how to ride our bikes, safely. Through this class I made a dear friend and a great riding partner. This is a old picture (6/2006)

As always we're sad to have her head home, but we always look forward to her next trip back to Colorado and another wonderful visit.

The finished product with my satisfied customer.

Yesterday came and went.....

I never had a chance yesterday to celebrate a very special day for our family. 8 years ago we traveled to China to adopt our daughter Olivia Mattie. What an adventure that was. We were united as a family on the 18th of September.

Gottcha Day September 18th, 2000

Olivia came to us a velcro monkey! She and I were inseparable. Every time I tried to give David his "daddy time" she screamed.



So...... David summoned up a wonderful store of patience and inbetween we tricked her a few times to allow Dad his sweet time with his new girl. This particular pic is of Olivia having just woken up to find that Mom is no longer holding her!

This is how most people saw Olivia for the first two weeks. Never out of my arms and virtually glued to me. Of course I absolutely hated every minute of it........ [sigh].... I miss those days.



Learning to walk.....

We're home! Olivia's introduction to some of the "other girls" in the family. Please take note that this occured at about 3 a.m.

Dinosaurs, Knitting, Gangsta's and Fish!

What a weekend! We've been going and going. If not for fun then for errands or chores.

Saturday found us in Woodland Park at the Dinosaur Center. Very fascinating and kid friendly. All of us were surprised at just how much the center had available for seeing and experiencing. The Dinosaur Center is a real archaeological center. They do clean up and store fossils there.
Here is Kristina checking out T-Rex's teeth. Wasn't that nice of him to accomodate her!

The boys enjoying unearthing their own fossils!
Story time! The group was able to pick 2 of the 3 books available for story time. First they heard, about Dinosaur's going to bed and then about what Dinosaur's ate. Thankfully these books were set up for kids and really quite nice to listen to. The girl reading did a lot of animation as she read.

Olivia working on her knitting and learning to notice dropped stitches a bit sooner. She's trying so hard and doing a great job! She already talking about knitting blankets, scarves, etc. Won't be long if she keeps up the great work!

The boys got new jackets, t-shoes/hiking boots and glasses. I thought, I've got to take a picture of them and Parker started up with the "Gangsta" hand moves. Hunter followed suit. They are such "Gangsta's" in their Osh Kosh!

Leona, our lionfish. She is a big girl now. This tank is in my bedroom where we can keep a better eye on it. The fish in this tank are agressive (so to speak). The lionfish and rabbitfish are venomous. If you get stung you won't die, but you'll be in a great deal of discomfort for a few hours. The rest of the fish will bite!

Yes, even the one hungrily smiling at you!

"I think its going to fit!," says Parker.

One year ago this November, David and I traveled to Macau for a business conference. After the conference we headed off into parts of China that we've never seen before. When we were traveling around I kept seeing women knitting sweaters for their families. Which of course gave me the knitting bug once again. Finally I asked, before leaving China, where a yarn store was. In Guangzhou, Judy took me shopping and what an adventure we had. So I came home with enough wool yarn to make each of the little ones a sweater with yarn from China. Jolie's sweather was completed in a matter of weeks. Then life took hold of me again and time got away with only part of Parker's sweater completed. He is disappointed, but only occasionally brings up the sweater not being completed over the next months. Fast forward 10 months --- I'm knitting again and Parker has grown so much that the sweater I started will no longer fit. (Yeah!) I rip it all out and start over.

This is the beginning of his sweater. I have about 4" done. This morning Parker ran over to watch me knitting. He quickly realized that this was the yarn I bought for him. He became so excited and wiggly. He blurted out, "I think its going to fit!!!" I was able to stifle my chuckle and quickly put the knitted swatch up to the top of his head and agreed with him.

That's my boy! Always the optimist.