I have no new knitting news to share. Maggie is finished with softball. Her game last night ended because of lightning and rain. They were playing a very good team, and were only behind by two runs. It was sad to end the season this way. We have two nights off from watching baseball and then Patrick has a tournament this weekend. One game Friday night, two on Saturday, and one on Sunday. I hope to get some knitting done while I watch the games.

Maggie had some friends over yesterday for swimming, so now today Grant wants to have some friends over to swim. I guess that is only fair, but I have so much housework to do. It is hard to get the inside work done when I am outside supervising the pool. I know, it sounds like I am complaining about sitting around the pool, I am fortunate that we have one in our backyard. It is just difficult to get all my other jobs done during the day when we are out in the pool. Maybe I need to chill a bit and get over it. It will get done sometime.

Well, thanks for reading. It wasn't a very exciting post today. Happy knitting!!

Thursday Maggie and I took a kool-aid dyeing class at The Yellow Dog.
This is Maggie with her yarn.
This is my best friend Chris. She took the class with her grandchildren, Andrew and Robert. She also brought her daughter, Kaitlinn. We had so much fun. We also made our own knitting needles. Cindi was very patient with all of us.
I think I will try and dye some yarn with Patrick. He would enjoy this. He was suppose to take the class with us, but his big brother gave him a hard time about it, so he didn't come with.
We had a baby shower at my sister's house yesterday and Maggie and I ended up staying overnight. I didn't sleep very well, so I am off to bed. Happy knitting!!

FINISHED SOCK AND REALITY CHECK

This is the first sock made from the yarn I got from Shelly.
Isn't it cool yarn? It was fun the see the stripes come alive. I bought some sock blockers from The Loopy Ewe .
I don't like how my legs and feet look in pictures, so I thought this would be a nice way to show my socks that I complete. I may have made the sock a bit too long, but it's okay with me. I'm just glad I finally have a completed object to share with you. Now to explain the reality check part of the title.

I heard from the technical school about starting the sonographers program. Guess how long the wait is to get into the program....Fall of 2010!! That is if you have the classes needed just to get on the waiting list. I probably would need a few classes first, so we are looking at getting into the program in 2011. Then two years for the program. Now, I am not a spring chick, and this is the first time I have really thought about being a middle aged woman. By the time I finished with all the schooling, I would be 49 years old. Not very likely to get a job, huh?! Even though my body feels middle aged sometimes, I guess I never really gave my age much thought. When I get together with my friends, I still feel like a kid. I graduated from college 20 years ago and will be going to my 25th high school reunion in August. After I got the phone call, I was pretty bummed. My kids will be in college in 2011 and 2012. Patrick will graduate in 2015. We didn't budget for me to go back to school, so I guess I won't be.

I am okay with not going to school, what I am not okay with is the reality of being a middle aged woman. I need to process this. How could I not have thought about my age before now? It's weird, but I never really did. Birthdays have come and gone and I just keep on going. Being out of the job market for 14 years never really came to mind until now. I guess the best thing I can do now is try to enjoy my choice of being a stay at home mom, with teenagers!! It is just another chapter in my parenting book. I'll have to let some of the crap that my son says to me just roll off my back and try to not let it hurt my feelings. I've decided that I can just take a time out for myself when he gets to me. I'll remove myself from the stress(if possible) and hopefully that will make the tense moments a bit easier to deal with.

Well, my hands are sore from the marathon knitting I did today to finish the sock. I'm going to take some A*v*l, and go to bed. Tomorrow Maggie, Patrick, and I are taking a class at
The Yellow Dog.
By friend Chris and her daughter and two grandsons are taking the class too. We will be making our own knitting needles and dyeing yarn with Kool-Aid. It will be fun!! Happy knitting!!

New Look

Do you like it? My neighbor, Patrick, helped me with this. He is wonderful with computers and didn't mind helping this old lady with her blog. We had fun trying to figure out how to make these changes and I can tell you that I learned quite a bit. We may do some tweaking in the future, but for now, this is what y'all get.

No new knitting news, but I will post some pictures later of the socks I am working on with the yarn I bought from Shelly.
She has ventured into the world of yarn dyeing. Check out her stuff, it is really nice yarn. It is soft and fun to work with. I am making just basic toe-up socks. She sent me a pattern of hers in with my purchase. She wound the yarn into skeins too. What service!! Go buy some yarn from her.

I need to get to bed. Happy knitting!

I've made a decision to try and go back to school. I have a Bachelor's Degree in Early Childhood Education, but I don't want to go back to teach. I tossed around the idea of Cosmetology, but after talking with my hubby and a neighbor, I have decided to look into being an Ultrasound Tech. I am going to go to our local technical college to see about enrolling. What has prompted this idea?
Well, it is hard being a stay at home mom sometimes. I don't like having to ask my husband all the time about purchasing stuff. I want a Hybrid car and hubby isn't too sure about that. If I have my own income then I could make the payments and not worry about it. Yes, we both agreed when we had our kids I would stay home, but I feel like a little kid asking my parent for money. I've heard many people say, "well it is your money" together, but really come on, he has the paying job and I don't. Yes, I work hard, but don't bring in one cent to this household. My kids are older now, and why not go to school while they are in school? My oldest child said a really nasty thing to me yesterday, and I have had it. This is what he said when I kicked him out of the pool for not following the rules, "Kiss my A...."! I was shocked! I have never, nor would I ever talk to my mom that way.

I'll just have to see if I can get into the program. Happy knitting!!

SUMMER VACATION

This was the first weekday of summer vacation. We all slept in and it was wonderful. The kids spent some time in the pool and I read. I didn't look at the calendar, and oops! Maggie had a game tonight. We arrived 10 minutes late, but at least we made it. They won and that was nice.

Gracie seems to being doing okay. She is walking normal and is eating and drinking enough. I have gotten creative when it comes to giving her the required medication. She seems to like vanilla yogurt the best. I am just going to keep hoping she will beat the odds and be with us for several months. We go back to the U of M on Wednesday afternoon.

I did work on my Monkey socks yesterday and I am almost finished. Work continues on my blanket too. Well, it is late and I need to get up early tomorrow to drive to Somerset for Maggie to get a manicure, pedicure, and hair cut. (all part of her birthday present) Miss Maggie turned 13 yesterday!! I have two teenagers now. What fun!???? Happy knitting!

Update on Gracie....she has congestive heart failure. We probably only have two months with her. We are giving her medication to try and get the fluid out of her lungs, so next week we'll see if it is working. For now I guess it is a waiting game. I am so sad, I just cannot believe we will be losing another pet so soon. We gave her a good life and I am glad we rescued her from the shelter. She is a sweet girl and everyone at the U of M just loved her. If you want, keep sending Gracie good vibes, she could use them. Thanks.

Secret Pal=Wonderful This was in my mailbox yesterday. Sock yarn, Knit Pick needles I was wanting to try, raffle tickets for a quilt in Alaska!!, salad mixers in the shape of claws also from Alaska, yummy candy, and a mug. Thanks Secret Pal. It was just what I needed because........

Gracie
Yesterday when I woke up I noticed that Gracie wasn't walking quite right. She looked awful. I called the vet and was able to get her in within a half hour. They took x-rays and blood work. The vet then sent us to St. Paul to the University of Minnesota Vet Hospital. Maggie and I made the trip over there in about 1 1/2 hours. They took Gracie from us to evaluate her. We didn't see the doctor for about another 1 1/2 hours. Gracie has a clot in her femoral artery which usually causes paralaysis immediately. They can't get a pulse or blood pressure reading in her back legs. They will be doing an EKG tomorrow because they think she has a heart condition as well. It was quite a traumatic day for me. I couldn't get Tom on his cell phone for about 6 hours, finally he called us back while we were waiting for the vet to come talk to us. I know I did the right thing by going over to the Uof M, but the cost is extremely high. Tom and I usually discuss things like this, but I had to make a decision and go with it.

There is a 40% chance she will recover, but of that 40% , 25% will get another clot. I guess we need to wait and see what the results of the EKG are. If you want, send some good vibes for Gracie. When the vet called this morning, he said she was a very affectionate cat. We agree!! I hope she comes out of this okay. We don't know a lot about her because we got her at the Humane Association 2 1/2 years ago. We think she is somewhere between 4-7 years old.

My weekend of doing whatever I wanted didn't turn out the way I was expecting. I did get a little knitting in on Friday night. I watched three movies!! I know, that is a lot, but they were movies I know Tom wouldn't want to see. Go check out the blog at the Yellow Dog.

I have such wonderful friends.