My Dear Friend

Mwenebolongo, who I am trying to help build his church in Tanzania, is very ill!!!
Please keep him in your prayers.  I do not have any real details about his illness, just that he needs immediate prayer.  I am very frightened for his dear wife if he does pass.  He has the assurance of his salvation, but Motoko will be a widow in a country that widows are not cared for.  She will most likely lose her home and property and be forced to return to Congo.  Once Mwene is gone, there will be no reason for the Government of Tanzania to allow her to remain.  Her refugee status will become once again active.
I have been spend much of the day asking God what he wants me to do if He takes Mwene home.  I am getting the answer that I am to continue with my project.  If God does not want me to use it to help build a church, in His time, he will show me what he wants me to do with it. God's money will never go to waste.
Mwene and Motoko's picture is on my sidebar, so you can see who you are praying for.
I thank all of you for your care, concern and support, for Mwene and the Church Project.

Delivered!!

Oh how I fought with the pattern, but the end results were beautiful~

Not a real clear picture, I was trying to capture the detail of the pattern

My friend Joyce gets to choose which she likes most.  The others I will sell.  I have a favorite, am waiting to see if it is the same as hers.

Arlington High School colors.

Candy Corn

Baby Bumble Bee

My favorite yarn Spud and Chloe

What does one do when one's computer is out of commission?  One knits:)  I finished the sweater I had fought with for so long.  The finished product was absolutely beautiful.  If I were to EVER make it again, it certainly would not be in the round and I would have to rework the charts.  My friend picked it up on Friday and according to Stan loved it. (Right Barb?)
The blue and yellow hats were knit for a friend.  She had ordered it in the fall and I did make her one.  The colors were not exactly what she had expected, so it went home on the head of a grandchild.  I am hoping these colors suit her more.  I knit four so she could choose one she likes.
The baby socks are just to replenish my supply and the hat because I think they are so stinking cute:)
Currently I am working on a lovely pair of fingerless mittens and then on to a darling baby dress that the designer so kindly donated the pattern to me for my project.  Those little random acts of kindness mean so much.  I am really excited to get started on it:)
So...........I really had a productive week while I was computerless.  Guess I should discipline myself to only an hour of computer time so I can continue to make inroads with my knits.

I cried yesterday

They were selfish tears.  Not because of Arizona, not because of not feeling well, not for anyone or anything except me.  Last week my computer died on me.  Fortunately, it was still under warranty.  I spent almost an entire afternoon with a tech from HP trying to fix it remotely.  She could not do it, so I packed my trusty little lap mate up and sent her off for repair.  I paid extra to have the repairs expedited and to have HP collect and save two years worth of pictures.  She was returned to me yesterday in like new condition.  Exactly like new.  NO pictures were saved, none of my patterns I had collected, nothing at all.  She was naked, stark naked.  I had to reinstall virus protection and all of my favorites.  I did not mind doing that, after all I had my precious computer back in my arms.  What she did not have with her was my pictures!!!!!  The virus/worm that infected her had already deleted all of those things.  Sad thing is that I had been telling myself for a couple of weeks to get my pictures off of my computer.  It was a project for this month, you know, after the rush of the holidays.  The tech at HP told me that even though I have a very good virus protection, it is not, unfortunately infallible.
All I have to say to the A$$%@!!# who has enough time on his hands to create these nasty creatures is: Get off of your lard ass and get off of welfare and get a real job!!  If you were working at something respectful and constructive you would not feel the need to destroy what is not yours.
Guess I had better go buy that external hard drive now so this does not happen to me again.
The tears are dry and it is time for me to get on with life.  I am so thankful for the few pictures I have posted here and on FB in the past two years.  I do not have all of them, but at least I have a few.

New Years Resolution

The People Of Walmart This may be X rated, so do not watch with your kids:)

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:)