When I began Blogging

about  three years ago, I had no idea what to expect.  I did it all on the encouragement of my daughters who were already blogging.  I jumped in with both feet and began running with it.  In the process I have made many good bloggy friends.  A few, I have had the distinct pleasure of meeting and others I have plans to meet.  Some, I will always love even if we never meet.  It is an amazing world this blog world.  You can cry with people and you can laugh with them. You can pray for special needs of people you will never meet, but you feel you know them like they were your next door neighbor.  There are bloggers that if you were close enough to you would call to go out to lunch or shopping with. 

Gramma and Frizzy. December 2010

One blogger that fits the description is "Frizzy", whose blog is called Heaven's Gift. She blogs about her very special daughter YaYa and her family life in general.  She takes us on her adoption journey, we get to share her ups and downs while she travels this road.  We get to cry when things go wrong and rejoice when they rejoice.  I even have my yarn picked out for when we know who her next child will be.  We are all anxiously awaiting her "Phone call".
Gina and I had the pleasure of  meeting Frizzy when we made a trip to Disney Land in 2008.  In 2009 she and her husband and YaYa made a trip to Washington State.  (They come often because his family lives up here.)  Gina and I and my daughter Karyn had the fun of meeting them  for lunch!!  It was a really long lunch, we sat in the restaurant laughing and talking until we realized the lunch crowd had left and the dinner crowd were coming in. This year they were up again for their Christmas Celebration with his family.  Frizzy, Bird and YaYa were actually able to set aside one entire day to come to my home and spend it with ME!!!  What an amazing fun day I had!!  She is the friend who could live next door!  I know if she did we would be sharing as much time together as we could.  The age difference doesn't even seem to matter.
They arrived at my home at about 11AM, we had a lunch of Papa Murphy's pizza, talked, and talked and talked.  Suddenly it was 5 PM and time to start dinner.  Gina and her children were here as well as others who bopped in and out during the day.  Gina made a fine salad and I prepared a delicious Chicken Alfredo.
Sadly, they had to leave right after dinner as they had a ferry to catch, and a very long drive to get to Bird's family's home.
Bird, I really did enjoy your company too.  You are a great sport to come visit and spend the day with us.  The kids all enjoyed playing with YaYa. For not having met before, I really think the kids did quite well together.  They were all very tired by the time the day had ended. I am still looking forward to having the pleasure of meeting Therese and her family.  We both have a real desire to meet.  I hope that someday, I will have the honor of meeting Karin and Kate and Katie and Maria and Angel and Ros. Hoping that I will be able to meet Sarah next year when I get to return to Hawaii.  Remember Sarah, I am expecting dinner;)  ( I'm thinking Sarah is spending more time on Face Book than her blogs though.) Yes, blogging has been fun and good.  I would jump at a chance to meet any of the people I share with here in cyber space, so if ever you are in my neck of the woods, let me know.  My door is always open!

Latest knitting project

Not finished yet, but want to post it so my friend can see where I am with it.

It has not been blocked yet.  This is a close up of the stitch detail of the yoke.

I will cut the sweater up the center, where the valley is.  Then I will knit on the front band and put the buttons on.

Close up of the stitch detail of the body of the sweater.

Normally, I knock out a baby sweater in less than a week.  I have been working on this one for more than a month.  It is a new pattern, but not only that, the charts were all off and I had to rework them in order to make the pattern work.
I am pretty sure I will throw the pattern away as soon as I am finished with this ONE sweater:)

Wordless Wednesday. In the throes of decorating.

12-12-10 Pineapple Express floods South Fork Stillaguamish River

12-12-10 Pineapple Express floods South Fork Stillaguamish River

North Fork of the Stillaguamish River

South Fork of the Stillaguamish River

Confluence of the two rivers.

Highway 530.  South Fork of the Stillaguamish.  The road Angie takes to go home.

West side of Highway 530

Directly across the Highway on the East side.  Note the Jersey Barriers being pushed over.

Huge tree floating down river

Summer time swimming hole.
We live about three miles from the river and atop a hill so we were never in any danger from the flooding.

Middle of December, Guess it is time to post my November birthdays:)

Andrew Kelton's  #4209 14th birthday was on November 27.  Here he is detailing his grandpa's car this summer. He had the opportunity to go to Alaska with his Uncle.  In our family if you want to do something like that, you must earn the money yourself, or at least make a honest effort to do so.  Andrew is not in the least bit afraid to get dirty or to work.  He did earn the money he needed to make the trip with his Uncle too.  Yep, this Gramma is very proud of this hard working boy.

Cooper Daniel's, #5216, 7th birthday was on November 26th.  Cooper is the boy that is afraid of nothing at all.  This summer he went on a river raft trip with the family and had a great time jumping from a huge rock into the river. His great sense of adventure is always a delight to see.  Nothing stops this boy.

Johah Sebastian #6518 had his 6th birthday on November 23.  As is usual with the younger member of a large family, Jonah is proving to be the family clown.  We love his antics.   As Grandpa says, Jonah is a party waiting to happen.

 

Three of the greatest boys in my life.  Each one so special to me in his own way.  Andrew and Cooper are not in the neighborhood, so I do not get to spend as much time with them as the others.  When I do, I truly relish every minute.  Actually, I relish every moment I spend with each of the 19 Grands in my life and I am so proud of each of them for their unique attributes.  I praise God daily that he has trusted our family with each of these precious souls.  Next birthday post will begin with our January birthdays.

Tricia

left her bag in her car today while she ran into Ben's school.  The car was not locked.  She lives in Bethel Alaska for heavens sake!!  Someone stole her bag, which she loved.  It had my little hat (shown below) in it.  She had put it there so she could show it to the lady who had bought the dress.  The boys birth certificates, keys to her safe, checkbook, keys to her car down here in Washington, the mail she had just picked up and whatever else you keep in a bag.  She had taken her wallet out when she ran into the school so they did not get her cards or license.  I told her to walk around the school area tomorrow and see if it was discarded someplace.  I am sure it will probably be thrown aside.  I also suggested that if the little hat shows up on some baby, maybe she walk up to them and ask where they got it.  Then tell them that she knows it was stolen because her mother had made it and it was stolen from her car.  It is a small village, so there is a chance she will see it at some point.  If not, I truly pray whom ever has it enjoys it and their baby looks very cute in it.

It is the same hat

in both pictures.  Just added an interchangeable flower.  I made this for the lady who bought my sweet little green dress.  She asked for a hat to go with it.  She can unbutton one flower and add the other if she wishes. I am so in love with the dress I am very tempted to knit it again.
My goal was to sell $1000.00 in knits this year.  I am right at $900.00.  I am trusting God to help me fulfill this goal.  I am also thinking I may have to raise my goal.  My all over goal is to raise $5000.00.  At the rate of $1000.00 per year, I will be closing in on 70 once I make it.  I want to still be able to go back to Africa to help with the building, so therefore, I will be raising my mark.  Stan thinks I knit a lot now, let's see what he thinks in the coming year:)

"Christmas with a Capital C" with full lyrics

What happens when a boy is downstairs and Gramma is upstairs.

He is trying to match his camo clothes.

Mad at gramma for scrubbing his face

Green bath water.  Most of it washed off of the boy.  Darius #1419
Glad he did not get  a hold of the sharpies:)

My beautiful Mama

 About 1947 as I am at least 14 or 15 months old here

1959. Mama is in the very back. I am at her right front, nearly blocking her with my big hair.

This is in the "70's" sometime.

2005.  Our last dinner together before my brother Daniel entered the Monastery. He is now Father Nathaniel

Not sure of the year.  I think this was take at my Nephew's wedding.

2010

A favorite picture.  Taken about a month ago.  My daughter Kris is with her.

Fall Scapes

Cornstalk Scarecrows my brother made out in his garden

My Wysteria changing color

The Cherry Tree in the corner of my yard.

I planted this weeping willow from a branch I took from my Uncle's 50 year plus tree.

A flicker in Mother's yard.  There was some creature in the bird house that he was fighting with.

October Birthdays

Darius James, #1419 celebrated his third birthday on October 3rd.  It really does not seem that it has been that long since he was born.  It has been three years of wonder, watching this boy grow and become an active member of this family. He is a constant joy to his Gramma.  For a three year old he has a wit and sense of humor to rival any one of the family.

 

Caleb  is his Gramma's Hero.  He hates it when I call him that.  He tells me he has never done anything to be called hero.  Little does he know.  He has fought his way through some serious troubles with his health.  This year he is up on par with all of his classmates in fifth grade and that has been no small task.  Yes Caleb, you are a Hero and Gramma will think that all of her life.  Caleb #6212 turned 11 on October 8th.

Olivia #3317 celebrated her 6th birthday on October 15.  Six years old means you are a kid and no longer a baby.  She did tell me though that if I want to still call her Baby I can.  I do and I do.  Probably will until she walks down the aisle.  She has been my sidekick continuously since she was 6 weeks old.  It has been a hard year adjusting to her being in school full time.  It helps that I spend time with mother, otherwise I would be so lonely.

All three of you always remember, Gramma loves YOU the MOST!!

Three of my totally amazing sons in law also celebrated birthdays this month.

Joseph, who is married to my daughter Kris, celebrated his birthday on October 18th.

David, who is married to my daughter Angie, celebrated his birthday on October 22nd.

Sebastian, who is married to my daughter Gina, celebrated his birthday on October 30th.

I am very proud to call each of these amazing men son.  You all know I Love You the Most!

Happy Birthday, and I am forever thankful that God directed you to our family.

FINISHED!!

I finally finished them!! When I finished the above dress, I knew that it needed a perfect pair of tights to go with it.  After many starts and stops with hurdles along the way, I finished them last night.  If you saw last nights post, you may have seen that I had a small problem with them then.  I was knitting along happy that I was nearly finished when I held them up to look (admire) and discovered that I was knitting the last sock on backwards!!! I certainly was thankful I had just started it.  Rip it, rip it, rip it, and start the sock over.  I really wish I had a tiny grand daughter to wear it.  Since I do not, it will be a nice addition to my fund for the church.
Dress, $60.00. Tights $ 35.00.  I will ship for free:)

Sometimes it

Doesn't even pay to try.

The Rosebrook Family circa 1981 or 82

Bryan, Karyn, Evy, Stan, Angie, back row

Gina, Tricia, Kris, front row

Obligatory dog, Bandit
(Doesn't every family have one?  At least he isn't licking himself.)

AAARRRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!

Last night Stan was using my laptop and a McAffee warning came up.  Without reading it, he hit block.  It was something to do with my Google Chrome.  Now I cannot get onto Chrome at all.  I uninstalled it and tried to reinstall to no avail.  I got a warning and I clicked on allow and it still will not install.  I am next to computer illiterate and do not know what to do!!!  Any ideas?  I hate the Windows internet explorer my computer has defaulted to.   I had everything on Google, just a click away.  Now I have to enter every thing I want to look at.  Not fun:(

I think I will go buy some yarn.  
That always makes things better.

I knit this little dress this summer.

I absolutely love it.  It cost me close to $24.00 for the yarn.  I had enough yarn left over that I thought I could get another hank and knit some tights to go with it.
I do not have a tight pattern that I wanted to use so I started improvising.  I work on the tights intermittently, between other projects.

So.................I picked them up tonight to work on them.  This is what I found!!!  Some little person, (I am thinking my darling #1419 otherwise unnamed to protect him if he is innocent.  He is three years old though.) took a pair of scissors and cut the yarn.  Not only on the outside of the $12.00 skein, but he put them inside the middle and snipped too!!
I am hoping there is enough yarn that I can finish the project without having to continuously stop and work in loose ends.
I am hearing some of you saying I should not have left it down.  But.......when you are knitting, you want it to be available when you have a moment or two to sit down and knit.  Could have even put the scissors up, but again, they were in my knitting basket.  Available when I am knitting so I do not have to get up and go search.
Guess I just need to be a little more strict when they play in the area that I keep my basket.  Which, by the way is in the corner between my two couches, not right out in the open.  Maybe it should be out in the open, seems it a little to easy to crouch down and snip, snip, snip.

TWO OF THE GREATEST

QUALITIES IN LIFE 

ARE

PATIENCE AND WISDOM

Such a week!!

It has been a long emotional week.  On Tuesday my mother had some sort of a spell.  She kept going in and out or reality.  She never lost her conscienceness, but she would just leave reality for a while.  My sister called me several times during the morning.  Finally at about noon I went down to check things out.  We were almost all there. We were really pretty sure that we were telling her goodbye.  She rallied during the afternoon and by today she was nearly back to her normal.  She was very talkative when I arrived this morning. Gina brought the kids down and made lunch for us.  It was a nice diversion from the day.  Fettuccine with broccoli and zucchini.  She had told the kids that Great Gramma was getting ready to go to heaven and they needed to go see her one more time.  Poor Caleb had a little trouble making up his mind to come down.  It finally came out that he thought he would have to stay there and watch her die. It was good for them to see her and see her on one of her better days.  It would have been bad for them to have seen her on Tuesday.  As the day went on, she became more quiet and by afternoon she was very tired and slept most of the afternoon.  Waking and sleeping throughout the afternoon.  She has also had the crud that I have, which really wears her down.  I know how bad I have felt all week, so it is not hard to imagine how she feels.
I also had to fill out her directive, take it to the Dr. for his signature and pick it up today on my way to her house.  I showed it to my brother and told him where I was going to store it.  He read it and then walked down the driveway to his truck.  I watched him for a while and realized he was crying.  I went down and held him and we cried together.  He told me he felt like I had just signed our mothers death warrant.  I  told him I knew exactly what he was saying because I had said the same thing to one of my daughters while I struggled with filling it out.  I my heart, I know the right choice was made, but it was still very difficult.
I talked with another brother yesterday and he told me that mother has been hearing dad call her.  He has been gone for 20 years now.
I am still fighting with the crud.  I usually get it every winter and finally get over it by spring.  I am thinking I will need to get my prescription for my inhaler refilled.  Maybe I can be lucky and it won't hang on as long.  It would be nice.
On the fun side, I have decided to buy new dishes.  The kids bought me a set about 10 years ago, but they are all chipped and nasty looking so I made the executive decision to let them go and get new.  I bought two place settings of brown Fiesta ware this week.  I love it!!  Tomorrow I am going to go buy at least three place settings in cinnamon and one more in brown.  I would also like to get a gold color if I can find it.  Right now it is on sale for 40 percent off and then I also have a 20 percent coupon to add to it.  Can't beat that one.  The cinnamon matches the color of my kitchen wall exactly.  I bought a small bowl and brought it home to check.  I did not want to buy a complete set and have to return it.  Now I am ready to go back and make the plunge.
I really am glad to see this weekend.  I do still have two more days to do on this weeks Beth Moore study, I think I will get them done.

SICK

no voice,

can't talk.

Going to bed until.............................

Just finished a special order

Waldo hats for a Where's Waldo Halloween party.

Juan Williams Responds to His Firing From NPR

Remember people NPR IS funded by you. They proved with this act that they are in no way interested in any form of fair or balanced programing. NPR eats its own. Most likely he will be far better off free of them and their restrictions. I have to admit he makes me so angry that there are times I yell at the TV. I am waiting now to see how many Liberals will rally to his defense.

Today is the first day of my second week of the

Beth Moore Bible Study I joined. We are studying, Jesus, the One and Only.

I did not do real well last week, just got through the first day and started on the second day. Too many distractions. So, this morning I said I was going to finish todays study if it killed me!! Not done yet, but just one question left. Whew!! Of course some life happened between now and when I sat down this morning. More will before I answer the last question too.

Laundry to fold yet and a baby shower to attend as well as some floors that need cleaned. Better go get busy. Tonight I will have to read Isaiah 49:6 and then answer the question, Why was Christ not sent for the nation of Israel alone?

Right now, though, I need to wrap one of my beautiful knits for a gift and clean some floors.

I will see you tonight when I get home Beth, OK?

A year ago

while blog surfing, I came across Mel's Backyard blog. She was hosting a pay it forward. I have played before and enjoyed it so I thought I would play again. I left my comment. When she asked for my address as I was one of the first three to comment, which is one of the rules, I sent it to her and promptly forgot all about it. Imagine my surprise last week when I received a nice little package in the mail. From someone I had no idea who she was and an address I did not recognize. I opened it to find four bars of scented homemade soap. There are two bars of peppermint rose, and two of lavender. As well as a nice note that said, Surprise!! Surprise!! Doing this was a lot of fun. I hope you enjoy it. Best wishes Mel. I racked and racked my brain trying to figure out what it was and why. I did tie it into something from the blog but that was as far as I could get. Finally I wrote Mel a note to thank her and admitted to her my confusion. She sweetly sent me the link to her blog where I had commented. Embarrassed hardly describes it.

So, now it is my turn to Pay it Forward.

The rules are that the first three to comment on my blog will receive a handmade gift from me.

I will have one year to send it to you.

You must continue the circle by "Paying it Forward" yourself.

Your gift must be handmade.

I am adding one more rule. If you do not receive a gift from me within nine months, please remind me. Nine months because that still gives me time to get something whipped together and sent out within my one year time limit:)

So come on, comment and let's have some fun!!

I am not complaining

I am so blessed that I, at 64 years of age still have my mother with me. Up until this year she has been very alert. We are witnessing a very steady decline in her awareness in the past five to six months. Confusion is almost every day now.

What I wanted to write about though, is that I am officially one of the Sandwich Generation. It was not so evident as it was today. The Sandwich Generation are those who care for their elderly parents as well as their grandchildren or children. Squeezed between two groups of people who need you 24/7. Fortunately, I do not have to spend 24/7 with our mother. There are others who care for her too.

Today, though, I did feel very alone in the job. There was no one to spell me for the afternoon when I needed to be 25 miles from her home to pick up a granddaughter from school. Even though it is only 25 miles, it is nearly an one hour drive since it is not freeway driving. Olivia gets home from school at 3:55 and I usually pick her up at the bus stop.

At 2:30 I finally had mother and Darius in the car for the trip north to Arlington. We arrived at my home at 3:30 so I could unlock the door for another grandchild to come in after school. She wanted to wait at my home until time for the high school football game. My home is just four blocks from the high school. Unlocked the door, picked up Olivia at 3:55, started back down the highway to mother's home, stopped at the bank for money for her, stopped for gas, fielded a call from Olivia's mother because she was off work and wondered where I was. Made it to mother's home at 5:00, got her settled back into her chair, told my brother all that happened to her today, turned around drove back home. Arrived home at 6:15, Angie picked up Olivia, Bryan picked up Darius and I collapsed on the couch where I still am. 100 miles of running back and forth and I am exhausted!!

Gramma I'm not tired and I do not want to go to bed!!

Five minutes later

We were expecting

A cold snap last night. I went out to bring in my house plants that have spent the summer outside. My potted strawberry plant caught my eye with its bright red leaves. I thought I would try to take a picture of it so I got my camera. I could not see any image on the screen so I just pointed it and hoped it was right when I shot. Since it turned out, I just started taking pictures
of anything and everything. This is the lower level of my deck. The gate in the corner opens out into the common area of the neighborhood.
Then I turned around and shot a picture of my yard, down towards the far end. My swing is visible and the red behind it is my impatients.
Next I clicked the willow tree that is just outside of our fence. I actually planted this tree from a small branch I took from my uncle's tree about 12 years ago. I knew it would grow to big for my tiny yard, so it got planted up in the common area but close enough to my property line that I get full benefit from it. In the front of the picture is my wisteria.
Lastly, I took a picture of my curly willow. I have two, I also planted them from a branch I acquired about 12 years ago. These trees flank my lower deck. They are barely visible in the top picture. All of these pictures were taken at about midnight last night. I am not a huge fan of the fall season, but I did find beauty in my garden as it is winding down. Looking forward to next spring and more flowers:)