February Birthdays.

Our February Birthday month starts out with my daughter Tricia who blogs on It's my crazy life and I love it. I won't tell you exactly how old she turned on February 4th, but lets just say she is a child of the 70's. Tricia and her husband Dave moved to Alaska almost one year ago. They are on an adventure. Even if she may not always recognize it as such. Currently they are living in Dillingham. Some day she may even be able to meet Sarah while she is walking down the street.Next, on February 10, Brystan (2310) turned the big 13. Bry as we call him is the son of my daughter Karyn of Candarbry Garden. Bry is one of the most tender gentle boys I have ever known. All of the little cousins just love him and he is never to busy to stop and play with one of them. No matter their age, he will get down and play right along with them, whatever they are playing. Never forget Bry, Gramma loves you THE MOST!!!

Benjamin,(5113) is our 10 year old Valentine. He was born on February 14, 2000. This picture was taken when I visited them in Kotzebue this fall, right before they transferred to Dillingham.

Ben is our drama king. Seriously, someday you will see him in the movies! He also loves to cook and rivals one of his older cousins in the fine art of getting in the last word. Gramma always loves every minute we get to spend together. They are not as often as I would like now. Before he moved to Alaska, he would come spend two weeks during the summer and go to VBS at Gramma's. Ben, never forget Gramma loves you THE MOST!!Last but not least, Elizabeth, (#6314) shares her birthday with Great Grandma. She was born on Great Grandma's 80th birthday. This year she turned 9 years old. Elizabeth is a bit of an old soul in this tiny little body. She mothers everyone she can. We do not get to do it often enough, but Elizabeth and I do like to sew together. One summer she made a complete shorts outfit with little help from me. Her first sewing project. She has had the opportunity to do a couple of other small sewing projects with me too. Elizabeth's mommy is Gina over at A Handful of Life. Elizabeth, you know the truth is that Gramma loves you THE MOST!!!

Happy Birthday to all three of you and remember that Gramma does Love You The Most!
Oh yes, and Tricia, Mom does love you an awful lot too!

I have a niece

who is in kidney failure. She is just 47 years old and the mother of four. She is a beautiful young woman, inside and out. Her husband called me tonight to tell me that the stint that is in her stomach is not working and she has to go in for surgery to remove it and place one in her arm. Her situation is very serious and without a transplant we will lose the battle.

My plea to you is: Anyone out there with O+ blood who has a spare kidney they would be willing to donate, we are not too proud to accept!!!!

Truly, if it is something you would be willing to consider, please contact me and I will give you the information you need to see if you are a likely candidate.

Thanks so much.

My Week in Review

In addition to my mother turning 89 yesterday, February 21, my granddaughter Elizabeth (#6314)

had her 9th birthday. She is holding the obnoxious ugly sock monkey she asked me to make her for her birthday. My mother has over 100 direct descendants. I think Elizabeth is about her 30th great grandchild. I did not go to my mother's yesterday with all of the crowds so Elizabeth and I are going down today. We always get a Great Grandma, Elizabeth picture. Since this could easily be the last, Elizabeth got to skip school to go visit her.

One sock I worked up yesterday. Have the other started. I will probably finish it today.

Another pair of special order heart socks. She wanted lavender with white, but the colors just melded together with no distinction so I changed it to lavender and purple. Will make a reverse pair for her also. Was just waiting for a decision before I began. I should actually do them today so I can get them into the mail.

My back yard. I wanted a before picture before anything blooms. My Curly Willows are finally beginning to bud.

A Rhododendron I saw in full bloom up in Burlington. Burlington is about 25 miles north of me. It is truly unusual to see them blooming this early in the season. Rhododendron is the Washington State flower.

Today is my Mother's 89th birthday.

One year ago, I was doubtful that we would have another year together.
But we did, and I cherish every moment God sees fit to leave her here with us.

Thank you Jesus.

She is new to the bloggy world.

You can find her right here. Let's go give her a big bloggy welcome and enter to win her give away.

She has a flour sack she is going to give to someone and it could be YOU!!

Hello, My name is Evy

And I have NOT had a Coke in three days!! It is hard, as hard as many other addictions.
You go through the day thinking about it. You get a massive headache, you get the shakes
Because, you know, this is my Caffeine. In the morning right after I get up, at noon with my lunch.
In the afternoon while I am knitting and at dinner. Today was especially hard. I have thought about having one all day long. I resisted though, I even stopped at a fast food place and did not order one. Actually, I made it easy for me. I stopped at one that serves Pepsi. Anyone who loves Coke knows you cannot substitute Pepsi.

I am tired of not feeling good so I had to make some tough decisions. The first is to kick this habit. After I am over this hurdle, I will think about what I eat, because you see I LOVE junk food. I love anything that crunches and is loaded with fat and carbohydrates. I am a carbohydrate junkie! I am smart enough to know and recognize these things, but as a sinful human, I have trouble with the resisting part of it.

Now that I have told you, I will have to be accountable. I have an idea of what I weigh, but not the exact numbers. I will know I am having results when I put on a smaller size pants and my X-Large shirts have some room in them. Maybe by the end of the summer I will be able to post pictures side by side. One of me this winter and an after. We can always hope:)

My week in Review

The hallway into the family room and my new laundry room doors.

The entry way floor. Trim for this job will wait until we are finished with all of the other changes. New doors and possibly tearing out the stairway wall. I am undecided on that one right now.

Signs of Spring, my big beautiful Poppy coming up,

My weeping willow with tiny little leaves.

My Lilac in bud.

My Curly Willow, still naked and stark without any new life.

This is a picture of a hat I knit for a friend. My camera did not catch the color real well. It is actually a purple cascade yarn with stripes of silk knit into it. I knit it a few weeks ago, but delivered it to her on Saturday.

The Noro hat I started during my grandsons concert this week. Finished it when I got home.

I love Noro, but it is a bit expensive for this project when I use it alone. Before I have mixed it with some of my stash yarn. It took more than one ball to make this hat. Fortunately I had some matching yarn that I had used in one of my stash hats.

This is from a cute pattern I found last week. I used stash yarn on it also. It is called Breeze. Unfortunately, I am having problems finding more of it and I love the way it knit up. Have a couple of orders for this set.

All three of these hats are from the same pattern, in the sizes available. The pink one is from stash yarn. I do not think I have enough to make the booties and mittens though. It is a size 12/18 month. Probably a baby that size would not wear booties any way. The white one is from Cascade. One of my favorite wools. I knit this one in 3/6 months. Have booties made but not sewn up. The purple one is the one I knit in Breeze. Size newborn. Very cute and knit very true to gauge with all of the different yarns I used. I love it when that happens and I do not have to fight with finding the right needle for the given gauge.

My brand new, barely two year old, refrigerator. The factory installed light bulbs are to hot and have melted

the pins that hold this dohickey up where it belongs. We have been waiting for a call from LG telling us what they are going to do to fix it. Actually, I think Stan is going to call them back again today. Stan says he can fix it, but I do not want him to. It is their fault and they need to make it right. We did not install light bulbs that are to big and hot.

The ingredients for this

sweet dessert I took to our friends house for dinner on Saturday night.

Darius, #1419 got to go to church with Gramma and Papa. I was trying to get a picture of him with his hands up dancing and singing, but he saw me with the camera and just stopped and smiled. You know a good blogging Gramma never leaves home without her camera.

These socks have been a huge hit!! I have orders for eight pair. I made these on Sunday.

For several days I have had this thought

I keep fighting it because I am an independent person and hate hate hate to ask for help, but it keeps coming back to me. And because I am a very strong believer in God and his willingness to talk to us if we are willing to listen, I am giving in.

I keep "thinking" that I need to ask my knitting friends if they would be willing to donate yarn to my cause. I do not want your project yarn, just what is left over. If I could get donations from many of you, I am sure I could put it together into many hat projects. Maybe even mittens and scarfs. Buying the yarn is becoming a bit spendy for me and I am coming to the point that I need to supplement my stash. I can use anything from sock weight to worsted weight.

The one caveat though, is that I cannot use craft quality yarn. I do not want to sound ungrateful at all, but what I am making must be of good quality. If you have yarn that you are willing to donate to my cause, please contact me and I will send you my address.

Have also been thinking that if any of you have knit or craft (bags and baskets made from recycled plastic bags, etc) projects that you would like to donate, I would be most happy to accept them also.

I figured out that if I can have 150 hats made by the bazaar season this fall, I can make $3000.00 for my church project. It is not impossible, and I am still counting on God to bless this.

From the very bottom of my heart I thank all of you for your generosity.

A desperate E-mail

To: THE AFRICA REFUGEE TEAM. Thank you for taking this opportunity , one year and four months ago ,when we have seen, only to express the calamity which take place now in the camp today. For moment the situation is very wrong and waiting tomorrow it will be last. The distribution program of food taken the WFP isn't good. Since the last distribution and now , we attend seventeen days ,as soon as the ration given was for fourtheen days. At time all the knows a critical moment of four days without eating anything. We ask you , first to pray for us , and to tell or express our misery to whom it may concern, than : UNHCR (GENEVA) ,UNICEF , HUMAN RIGHT ,and WFP. sincerly yours in CHRIST B.M.AMOS.

This e-mail was sent to me by Msoshi's Son. Pictured above with Msoshi. Things are desperate for the refugees from Congo (Zaire) who are currently in Tanzania.

What he is saying above is that their food rations have been stopped and they have not eaten for four days. They are being starved out of Tanzania and forced to return to Congo where the war still rages.

My Week in Review

I have decided that I kind of like posting my week in pictures. Not that everyone who reads my blog might be interested, but that when I think back I can see that something was accomplished.

Beginning with Abigail #6415 and

Jonah, #6417 helping Gramma make apple, kiwi, pineapple, orange and carrot juice on Sunday evening with the juicer Sea Chelle let us borrow.

Moving on to the tacky bathroom downstairs that is hardly used so sorely neglected.

We did put a new floor in when I became ill this summer, thinking the old one might be part of the problem.

So now, I want to paint it and pretty it up. I bought a shower curtain and accessories on Monday. Picked out paint colors, but I have to wait to buy them cause the $$ were spent elsewhere.

I am so happy with my new laundry room floor!! Now we must get the doors hung. Sometimes we have a habit of getting things just to working order and quitting. I want to finish this one before we tear anything else up.

On Tuesday, I masked and

Olivia #3317 and I painted the laundry room.

I am very happy with the colors.

I did not get a picture of her working, but Breanne #1203 spent a couple of days working hard getting the tile up from our entry and the hallway that goes past the laundry room to the downstairs family room

Laying out the pattern and figuring out how it will fit in the hallway.

Stan and Bryan putting the finishing touches in the entryway. Stan will grout it tomorrow.

I went for a little drive today. I wanted to take a couple of pictures. One was of this tree with the barn behind it. The other was of this

Eagles nest in the trees along the river. It will be totally invisible to the eye once the trees are full of leaves.

No knitting flew off of my needles this week. I did manage to make the second sock to this pair. I made the first one last week.

Today, I started a little hat. It will fit a three to six month old.

That is my week in review for the week of January 31 through February 6.