Fall 2010

I have gotten settled in here in my new place. Keeping up the yard work has proven a difficult challenge, I have bought a lawn mower and leaf blower but I am still seriously behind.
I haven't gotten any nibbles on jobs, but I keep trying.
Annie seems to be doing well, her blood levels are good and she is happy.
I finished Aprils cardigan and a baby blanket so I will post pictures soon. I am going to try to keep my blog up now, I want this just for family so I won't be adding this to facebook.
Thanks for checking and Picures will follow soon.

Summer

I have been busy this summer, I am now in college studying Medical Billing Insurance and Coding. I will be done by November. Very exciting. I am adjusting to living by myself, well with Annie of course. I like it when I clean something it stays clean, what a concept. I am still working on April's Cardigan its been slow with school but should have some pictures soon.

Recovery Time

Pat has been home a little over a week now. Thank you for all of your support and being with us in the hospital. He is lucky that Mike got him there in time. The doctors were able to give him the clot busting medicine right away and his stroke did not do as much damage as it could have.
He has therapy twice a week, physical, occupational, and speech. He needs the most work on speech, his communication and discriptive skills are still weak. He is improving the weakness on his right side with motor skills.
I will try to keep you all posted on his progress, feel free to call any time.
I love you All
Sally

Heavy Snow

So today we continued to get more snow. I think we have about 8 inches. Casey called out at work which was a good idea since the van is a mile away in a parking lot. When we got up this morning the snow had a thick layer of ice on top. Very hard to walk in let alone drive in. Portland required chains on all vehicles and recomended that you just stay home.






Annie was very confused at first because she just slipped and then fell through the ice. But she got use to it by the end of the day.

She had fun chasing her ball in the snow! It would go under the ice and she would dig it out. It was great fun watching her use up some energy.

She fell asleep on the couch when she was done. She is adorable.

The news said we are still in for more snow tomorrow, so we will just have to see what happens, I think some one confused Portland, Or with Michagin.

Light Snow??

Portland/Vancouver was suppose to have light snow this morning and much heavier snow later tonight maybe 6 - 10 inches So we have postponed our Family Christmas Party until Tuesday hoping it will be better by then. Well the light snow has dumped about 4 or more inches on us I can't wait until tonight!!

Casey took the van to work today, it has studs and he was comming home around 3:00pm when he was unable to get up our hill down by the main road, so he went on down to another road and that didn't work either, so he walked the back way home about a mile. Pat and Annie met him and walked him home.



Annie remembered her jacket, did Casey?
He has at least 1/4" of snow on his head!




I think someone needs to sit by the fire with a cup of tea.




LIGHT SNOW! Tomorrow should be fun.

I hope everyone stays safe and warm.

Raverly Chocolate Swap

I am a member of Raverly which is a group for knitters. I joined a swap for Chocolate and yarn, how cool is that! I just recieved my package today, She even put in stuff for Annie.

Monday Weigh In

This last week went well for me. I was able to stay on my points and I met my exercise goal of 3 times so that was good. I lost 2 pounds and have been drinkning a lot of water, my goal for this week will be to exercise 4 times.
Casey came home on Tuesday of last week and he wants to eat healthier also, so he was a big help.

Weight Tracking

I have decided to try Weight Watchers again. I didn't have much luck last time but would like to try again, this time I am going to do it On-Line instead of going to the meetings. I am also trying to do some exercising. I found a video work out that I think I can handle. Exercising is so hard for me thats why I think I have so much trouble loosing. I am going to have a goal of working out just 3 times a week to start so I don't hurt myself and give up. I added a new weight tracker at the bottom of this page and will give updates on Mondays. Wish me luck!

Knitting Convention

This weekend, The Knitting Guild Association held it's West Coast Convention in Portland. I have never been to a knitting convention so I decided to attend and take a couple of classes that they offered. They also have a market and that was fun to walk around and see all the new and differant yarns they had. On Saturday I took a class about adjusting a written pattern to the size you need. I was looking forward to that one because I do that poorly. However I was dissapointed, it just didn't give me the information I was hoping for. On Sunday I took a class on Fair Isle Knitting. That is color work done in patterns, it looks hard but you only have 2 colors per row, it is mostly reading a chart and holding 2 yarns at a time. I really enjoyed that one and am looking forward to trying it on some projects.

Fair Isle Sample

August Happenings

August was a very hectic month. Sorry I haven't post for quite a while. Pat and April came home from China on the 13th. As I said before April had been sick and we thought it probably was the heat. However when she came home, it just didn't get better, hard to breath, pain, dizziness, nausea, exhaustion, yea, she was fun. On August 20th she called from school and it was obvious I had to take her to the Asthma Doc. She examined her and said the pollution in Beijing had damaged her lungs, the lining was inflamed and irritated so were her tubes. So she was put on a heavy duty medicine. As we were leaving the doctors office, Pat called, his Step-Father had just passed away suddenly. He and Pats mom have been together for 17 years, so he was Grandpa Knute. Good Day, Oh lets not forget that August 20th is Pats Birthday. Yea... Pat, April, and I went to Roseburg for the funeral the next week, unfortunately Casey could not leave, since he had just been home for Zacks wedding. He will be home in a couple of weeks and we will take another trip south.
For the last year and a half I have been the chairman of our churches Call Committee, to find a new pastor. It has been a very stress full and busy time. Yesterday we had a vote and issued a Call to a Pastor in Washington. So until he makes his decision my job is done.
I haven't had a chance to knit since they got home so I am hopping that now I can relax and get back to my regular routine.
Lets hope September is a little calmer.

China News

I have heard from Pat and April more this week, They went to the Great Wall, and perfomed, perfomed at Tianamen Square, and also at a Soccer match. They are doing sightseeing now, the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace among other places.

April has had a very hard time physically. She just hasn't adjusted to the climate and the other factors, long walks to practice, small amounts of food. We have several Doctors that are chaparones and they and Pat have been taking good care of her. She did have to miss the perfomance at the soccer match, two students near her right before they started had to get her down from the platform and to the closest directors, one from University of Oregon and the other University of Washington, the U of W director got his doctor/ chaparone and they took her to the medical tent. He told them he was her doctor and they let him stay with her the whole time, that was very nice. Now that the practices and perfomances are done they should do better, air conditioned stores and just staying out of the heat more.

Their Hotel

Tianamen Square

The Great Wall Performance

The Great Wall

Sweater progress

I have the back of April's sweater done, and I am working on the left front. My friend Teresa from McMinville is comming for the weekend and we like to spend alot of time knitting and chatting so hopefully I will get more done before April gets home next week.

Mosaic

This is something fun I found on yarnprincesses blog. Can you tell I miss April and Pat.

A. Type your answer to each question below in flickr search

B. Using only the first page, pick an image.

C. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into FD's mosaic Maker

1. What is your first name? Sally

2. What is your favorite food? Steak

3. What high school did you go to? Douglas High School

4. What is your favorite color? Pink

5. Who is your celebrity crush? Tom Seleck

6. What is your favorite drink? Hot Chocolate

7. What is your Dream Vacation? Disney World

8. What is your favorite dessert? Chocolate

9. What do you want to be when you grow up? a mommy

10. What do you love most in life? family

11. One word to describe you - Loyal

12. Your flickr name - mammabear

First Days

I have gotten a few e-mails from Pat and April since they arrived in China. They are 15 hours ahead of us so when I am getting up they are going to bed and visa versa. Pat will send some pictures soon probable today. The Olympic website has updated now so check them for photos and announcements. She is with the Skyview and Hockinson High Schools. www.beijing2008olympicorchestra.com

April hasn't been feeling well since she arrived. She has always been susceptible to heat exhaustion since she was very little, and we do well at getting her through it. The chaperones had her miss the first practice and Pat said she spent most of the day in bed. I hope that did it and today will be better.

I am doing good. Annie and I just do what we want and I have been watching a lot of movies. I finally saw the Star Trek-The Next Generation Movies. I also have finally gotten a chance to work on April's sweater I started, hopefully I can post my progress soon.

And They're Off!

Pat and April left yesterday. They went to Seattle to meet up with the others from the NW Delagation, about 600 The Vancouver, Wa. group will be in the Seafarers Parade tonight. Then more rehersals until they drive to Vancouver BC on Tuesday and fly to Beijing from there. They will meet with the other orchestra members from around the world I think on Wednesday of next week, altogether there are 2008 members of the official orchestra. The official website is http://www.beijing2008olympicorchestra.com/ Once they get there they will start posting. I will be getting some pictures from Pat and I will put some of them here when I get them.




Pat and April getting reading to leave.





They took 3 bus loads from Vancouver, WA up to Seattle. Vancouvers group is about 150 plus chaparones.

Baby Birds

Our neighbor has had a nest on his ladder, by our fence all summer. I have been watching the momma bird sitting and then feeding the babies, but today was the first day I have seen the babies. There are 2 and they are very cute. I haven't seen mom today, so I hope I see her tommorrow. They are not big enough to leave yet, so I don't think they have eaten today. They look adorable.

Zack's Wedding

We went to Roseburg this weekend to my nephew's wedding. It was a beautiful day, Colleen's dress was so amazing, it was perfect for her. The reception was held at Zack's grandparents ranch. It is very large and a great setting for a large group. It was great getting the family together.

We had a great time we took turns dancing with Zack, grandma even danced, gotta admit, that was kinda scary! Mom doesn't move that fast.

Kate and Casey were both able to make it, we were so excited. On sunday Pat drove us back to Vancouver and then took Casey up to Seattle so he could fly back to Alaska. He will be done at the end on September.

Pat and April leave on Friday to China for the Olympics. This will be a hectic week trying to get them ready to go, but they will have an amazing time. More on that later.

New Car

This weekend we bought a new car! It is a Lincoln MKX. It is very comfortable, I like it alot.

I haven't posted much because we are trying to get Pat and April ready to go to the Olympics. One of the things on the list of "To Do's" was to buy a new car. I think the van will be fine but to be on the safe side Pat wanted to do it now. I can't believe how much we need to do in 2 weeks. I know everything will get done and they will have a wonderful time. Once in a life time.

Lace Cardigan

Since the votes were tied between starting a Christmas present, or making April a summer sweater I decided to make the sweater. It is going to be a black lace cardigan. Getting started was definatly tricky, but once I got going I think I am getting the hang of it. Here is a picture of the back, there is a lace border, kinda scalloped, and then the lace pattern.

All Done!

I finished my sweater today. I like it, although it was a challenge to make it totally up as I went along. But I don't mind ripping out as long as I am happy when it is done. I know I will wear it alot once it cools back down.