Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Yee-Haw Boy-Howdy!

My boys took me out last Friday evening for my birthday present and I had a wonderful western evening. We had Texas BBQ for dinner and then it was off to see the Vocal Majority with special guest Max Q perform their Fall Show "How The West Was Won". Songs that they performed included: Deep in the Heart of Texas, Home on the Range, Big D, The Eyes of Texas are Upon You, and How the West Was Won WOW! What a wonderful show. I can't find a current video to share with you but I did find one of the songs that the Vocal Majority did during this show that they performed back in 2003. Before you listen to these make sure that you pause the music that is playing to the left.



Here is one of Max Q. The video quality isn't the greatest but the sound is wonderful. They did this song last Friday too.



Andy and Sam....Thank you so much for a wonderful evening!

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Good Read

If you're looking for a good blog to read I would have to recommend one of my best friends in the whole world. Here's the link!

Socks And Birthday

What started out as this:
Turned into this:

Then slowly, after starting over a few times, it turned into my very first sock! Here are some pictures:


Well today is my 40th birthday. So far it has been very uneventful. Andy went to work this morning and I probably won't see him until late this evening. I took Sam to school and I don't think he even knows it's my birthday. I'll pick Sam up from school later, have dinner and then head on over to church for bell choir and choir practice. Since we just moved here no one there knows it's my birthday and I'm not really the one to announce it.

I did receive a beautiful card in the mail from my parents yesterday along with an e-card from them today. THANK YOU!!!!

I think I'll go bake myself some cookies, switch the laundry around and then watch some TV and take it somewhat easy today. Still have a lot of unpacking to do but...hey....it's my birthday.

UPDATE: Received a wonderful card from my in-laws today. THANK YOU!

Saturday, September 15, 2007

Don't Worry...We Really Are Alive!

It's been a full week and a half since I've been on here to add anything. Wow! Has it really been that long since I've updated? I've just been so busy trying to unpack and set up our new house that I haven't had much computer time. I've haven't even been visiting my favorite blogs out there. I am hoping that will change this next week.

Now for updates! Sam is loving school! After spending this past year going to a school that wouldn't offer music or art to the 1st graders he finally has a fully rounded enrichment classes comprise of art, music, library, P.E. and theatre!!! The school system here is more than I could have ever asked for. Sam has also made a ton of friends here not only at school but on our street and the church that we found. In fact today he and his friends on the street have spent the day taking the empty boxes we had in the garage and have made a fort in our front yard/walkway. They are having so much fun together.

As mentioned above we have found a church. A wonderful church! Andy and I have both joined the Chancel Choir, I've joined two bell choirs and one bell choir quartet and Andy has joined one of the bell choirs. Sam is having a lot of fun doing their PRAIZE program on Sunday evenings.

Today I spend the morning/afternoon up at church attending the WE3 Picnic. It is a wonderful women's ministry program that they have there. Check out this video that explains the whole program. We all received our Junior or Senior partner today at the picnic. I'm excited about my Junior partner (I'm her Senior Partner) that I have. I can't wait for our relationship to grow and I hope it flourishes into a wonderful friendship.

We are all really excited about moving here and hope to be here for quite some time. It's a great place.

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Christmas Around The World Knitters Swap Questionnaire

(If you are looking for my moving story please see the post below this one.)

I am participating in the Christmas Around The World Knitters Swap and below is my questionnaire. This swap is taking place worldwide and it will be interesting to see how so many different people celebrate Christmas.


Are you religious?
Yes. I am a life long United Methodist.

How long have you been knitting? Would you consider yourself a Beginner, Intermediate or Advanced?
I have been knitting for almost 3 years now and I guess I'm right between Intermediate and Advanced. I don't know if I'll ever get to be advanced but it is a goal.

Do you have any other hobbies besides knitting?
Yes. I cross stitch, crochet, sew, quilt and do a bunch of other crafts.

Favorite color(s)?
Blue, Burgundy, Greens. I also love deep fall colors along with rich colors and jewel tones.

Do you collect anything?
Yarn. Oh, you mean besides something that deals with knitting. I would have to say that it would probably be Carnival Glass or Depression Glass. Antiques and anything to do with Americana too.

Are you allergic to any fibers or animals?
Nope.

Do you have any pets?
Yes. I have 4 dogs and 2 cats.

Coffee, Tea, or Hot Chocolate?
Yes to all the above.

Cookies or Sweets?
Yes to both. Can you tell I like the good things in life?

Do you knit socks?
Yes.

If not socks then what? (tell us about your favorite knits)
I have knitting everything except for an actual garment (not counting socks). But I am really starting to branch out now. I have also really gotten into felting and love watching something that I knit turn into something else.

Do you put up a Christmas tree? If not then what do you do?
Yes we sure do. In fact this year I am planning on putting up at least four! Can't wait for it.

Favorite holiday treats?
Cookies.

Favorite holiday smells?
Evergreen and cinnamon would have to be the top two.

Do you celebrate Christmas in a traditional or unconventional way? Please elaborate.
Traditional. We celebrate Christmas with all the trimmings...tree, stockings, manger scene, advent candles, wreaths, etc.

What are your favorite holiday traditions?
Putting up the tree/decorations. Holiday cooking and of course going to church during the holidays is just wonderful!

Finish the sentence: “For me Christmas is all about....”
Family.

If you were a Christmas ornament you would be…….?
Just a basic old ornament that sits back in the tree. But it is one that is cherished more than the newer ones out front.

What was your favorite gift you've ever received? Or given?
I would say that the best gift I ever gave was when I surprised my sister. When she and her family were stationed over in Germany her storage locker was broken into and all of her Christmas ornaments were stolen (along with some other things). I was really mad at whoever could have done this. So I emailed her good friends over there and got them involved in my plan. I emailed friends and family, told them what happened and asked if they would be willing to donate an ornament of their own or to purchase a new one. Also if they would enclose a story about Christmas or a background of the ornament they were giving to her. I ended up shipping two huge boxes over to Germany to her friends. They in turn were doing the same thing there. Once everything was received they asked my sister to be home at a certain time and surprised her with all of these huge boxes. I had them read a letter that I had sent to her explaining what was going on. I think that she now cherishes these ornaments more then some of the ones that were lost. I think that the best gifts anyone can give are those of the heart.

When do you start your Christmas?
Shortly after Thanksgiving. I am a true believer that Thanksgiving needs to have it's holiday before moving on to Christmas.

Do you send Christmas cards? Do you make them or buy them?
Yes and Yes. I send, make and purchase the cards. Just depends on the year.

What is your favorite Christmas dish?
That is a hard question for me because I love food. Especially during the holidays.

Carolers are at your door. What do you do?
Open the door, listen and if the house is neat I will invite them in. But this has never happened to me so I can only dream.

When do you open presents? Christmas eve or Christmas morning?
Christmas morning. It was the tradition that I had growing up and we are doing it now with our son.

Do you celebrate with family or friends or both?
We celebrate with both friends and family. To me that makes the holiday.

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Our Adventurous Move

So...you want to know about our move....here it is:


Before we get started on the actual move I need to start on the evening before (Tuesday) we were scheduled to have our truck loaded. I would say at that point we were 98% done packing. We had put Sam to bed and wanted to relax before we finished up some final boxes. Before sitting down with Andy I wanted to do one final load of laundry before moving. I've moved before with dirty clothes and I didn't want to do it this time. During the spin cycle I hear water sounds and not the normal water sounds. I went running to our laundry room and there on the floor was an inch of water covering the entire room. Not only was the floor flooded but the sink in that room was also backed up. Here it was 9:00 at night and I had a flooded room. We had already packed up all the towels and only had one mop and a bucket to bail us out. Next we discovered that the room where the hot water heater is (which was out in another room off of the garage) was flooded and had gone into the garage where we had staged a bunch of boxes. Now not only did we have to clean up the room inside the house but that room along with moving boxes. Finally around 10:30 we had it all cleaned up and were headed to bed. Forget packing those last boxes as they would have to wait until morning. Not what I had planned!


The next morning (Wednesday) after we get Sam off to school we start packing those last boxes that we had wanted to do the night before while we were waiting for our loaders to show up. They didn't show up and didn't show up. Finally we called and found out that they had forgotten about us. So luckily he had 2 guys standing around waiting for work and sent them over. We had originally scheduled 3 guys for this so we were happy to at least get 2. They got there around 11:00 in the morning and started to work. They were not the greatest loaders but they were not the worst either so that was a plus to our day. They finished around 2:30 and Sam was due to arrive home from school around 3:00. At this point we realized that we had packed everything so differently this time around that we needed to get a trailer to attach to our truck. Great. So back to U-Haul yet again to see what we could get. Once we had the trailer and truck back at the house we realized how hungry we were and also remembered that we told Sam that he would be able to swim at the hotel we were staying at that night. So we did a little bit of last minute cleaning and then headed out to run some last errands and to get dinner. Once at the hotel Sam did get to swim for a while which was good for him as he got some energy out. We ran back to the house one last time to check on the animals and to also get our truck with trailer turned around. But wait...it doesn't work. The trailer keeps jack-knifing so luckily we have a neighbor that drives a truck and trailer all the time. He was wonderful and got it backed up for us. It made us feel better we he told us that he had a hard time with it too. Now back to the hotel for some much needed sleep as we had the drive ahead of us the next day. If only we knew what was coming up next.


Thursday was the actual moving day for us and we had no idea that we would not be having dinner until 10:00 that night. Left the hotel in the morning and went back over to the house to finish cleaning the house and load the trailer. Our intentions were to leave by 10:00 that morning but needless to say we ran into more interruptions along the way. Once the trailer was finally loaded we had last minute errands to run. It was getting so late that we ended up eating lunch there and it was already 11:00. Once back home we realized that there were two more errands that had to be run. One of them being returning the cable boxes which takes awhile because they have to check each item in. Back to the house to make sure we have everything and then to load up the car with the animals. Once everything is loaded and we have done a final, final cleaning of the house we are ready to hit the road. Pulled out of the driveway at 2:40 in the afternoon. Not even close to our target time. Oh well, it's only a 3 1/2 hour drive from there to here. But wait...there's more!


Our 45 minute drive to the Texas line was uneventful. Once in Texas we stopped at the "Welcome to Texas" road stop for our first bathroom break. Found out that Sam was already hungry and thirsty for a snack. Okay, I could do that too but of course there was nothing there. So we go down one more exit and get our snacks. Back on the road again. We stopped a few more times before getting into the Dallas area only to find out that there is a truck that was hit by high winds from a storm that we had just driven through. He is leaning on the guard rail that is over the highway that we are on. They shut down said highway and diverted 5 lanes of traffic onto another highway. We sat there for 2 hours! During this 2 hour wait/crawl Andy tells me that the truck is now sitting on empty! Great! Now I'm hoping that it doesn't run out of gas and we are the ones that would cause another traffic jam as we waited for gas. But lo and behold we got through it. Once we were on the other highway we got turned around and ended up pulling over to finally get the much needed gas for the truck along with getting directions. Finally get to the house and unload the car so that the animals can spend the night in the house. We go to the hotel, get checked in and then finally, finally head out for dinner. It was 9:30 at night when we got there and around 10:00 when our food arrived. That meal couldn't have tasted any better! Took the leftovers and our very tired child back to the hotel room for the night. Andy did run back to the house to check on the animals one more time and to get a lock for our trailer.


Friday morning and it is the first day in our new house. We have the guys to unloaded the truck scheduled to be at the house at 8:30 that morning and they were there exactly at 8:30. I thought that this was a great sign to the day. Nope. Found out after watering some plants and the animals that our kitchen sink is backed up along with a garbage disposal that doesn't work. Call to the property manager and the plumbers come on out. They call us and schedule to come on over at 2:00 in the afternoon to work on it. This will work great because we need to be at the house between 1:45 and 5:00 to get the cable installed. We also had a handyman show up to look at our garage. Why you ask? Ends up that the previous person to lease this house was evicted but came back through the back door and stole the garage door opener and the springs to the garage door. Now we have to prop our garage door open. This particular handyman told our property manager that he couldn't do the job so now she is trying to find someone to fix it for us. At this point I decided to take Sam back to the hotel so that he could swim and then we could pack up and check out. Get there around 10:00 and get him changed. Go out to the pool only to find out that they just put chemicals into the pool and it wouldn't be ready to swim in for another 2 hours. Oh well, back upstairs to the room to get a very disappointed Sam changed again and to get packed up so that we can check out. While we were back up in the room packing my cell phone rings. By 11:45 the truck was unloaded and handymen were all finished. This made us happy because we could go get some lunch before the plumbers and cable guy were to be at the house. Get back to the house at 1:45 to find the plumbers waiting. Great. One down and only one more to go. Once the plumbers look at the sink they determine that we need a new garbage disposal because the one that was in there was so clogged up with gunk that even the plumbers said that it was gross. While they were there we had them look at the master bathroom toilet because we had noticed that it was constantly running and ended up with all new works inside of it! Plumbers did their work and were out of the house by 3:00 or so. Sam was outside playing and riding his bike getting to know the neighborhood and all the kids while we waited for the cable guys. By 4:50 we still hadn't seen them and Andy called the cable company. To make a very long story short we ended up getting our cable installed by the technician supervisor and two others at 10:00 that night.


Let's move on to Saturday morning. After a fairly restful first night in our new house we wake up ready to tackle a new day yet again not knowing what laid in store for us. Get up, have breakfast and sit down to watch a bit of Saturday morning TV. Then our power goes out. Come to find out that the power company that we had signed up with had "lost" our order and the previous company came to turn out the power. So here we were in our new house for the first full day with no power. I kept Sam entertained while trying to unpack the kitchen while Andy made phone calls. The power company that we had originally picked said that since things got messed up they would have to consider us a new customer all over again and wouldn't be able to get the power turned back on for 3 business days. Now remember this is Saturday and Monday is Labor Day so that meant that we would be out of power for 6 full days. This was not acceptable. Andy asked to speak to someone else there higher up to see if there was some way to make it happen that day. Nope. They didn't want to work with us. So we called another power company and had it turned on by later that afternoon. In the meantime we went out for lunch and ran some errands. When we came home there was an afternoon thunderstorm that made the power go out for a few minutes. After that happened our cable was acting up. This cable is for our TV, computers and our phone so more phone calls. On the phone we could hear a local AM radio station while we talked. Not fun to hear the other person on the line while you have a radio station in your ear. Again, to make a long story short it took until around 8:00 that night to get it all straightened out....or at least we thought it was.


Sunday morning....what a wonderful morning it was. No, really, I'm being serious. We had found a church online that we wanted to try first and it was just wonderful. Met the choir director and the bell director after church and talked to them for quite some time and can't wait to get started with rehearsals and to attend church next Sunday. Ended up going out for lunch at a pizza buffet and ran into another couple that was in the process of adopting and talked to them for close to an hour and found some friends and a place that we are considering using to adopt another child. Get back home, change clothes and again we find out that there are problems with our cable. Andy gets back on the phone and ends up talking to 10 people and promised phone calls back before he finally gets a manager that stays with us on the phone until every issue is resolved. We now have two different managers direct lines and names should anything happen again with our cable service.


Everything is now fixed except for the garage door but at least we know that is in the works. We are in the wonderful process of unpacking. It was a big deal, at least to me, to finally eat at home and off of real dishes last night. We took Sam to his new school this morning and we are really impressed so far. Andy is out working right now and I am finally getting this chance to sit down and write all of this down. I know that I have probably left somethings out but these were the major glitches that happened to us and believe me when I say that this is the short version.


If you have made it this far you are to be commended as it has taken me a hour and fifteen minutes to get this all down! Please leave me a message and I would love to hear your moving stories.

Sunday, September 2, 2007

We're Here

We are here in Texas now! I'll update a bit more later as it is late and I am very tired...and boy do I have a lot to share with all of you!

FFBE Contest Questionnaire

1. What is your favorite yarn for felting, and why?

Since I've only felted a couple of items so far and used the same yarn for those projects I'll just have to pick what I used. It was a wool/mohair blend. Loved it!

2. Name one person in the swap who is not from the U.S. and tell us where they are from, and link to their blog.

I would pick NotSoCarbonNeutral. She is from the United Kingdom and has a wonderful blog. I only hope to be able to knit socks as well as she does.

3. Find one person in the swap who has a dog, and let us know the name of their dog(s) and link to their blog.

Strings and Purls has two wonderful dogs. Their names are Jayda and Flex. You can see them here.

4. Find one person in the swap who has a child or grandchild and link to their blog.

Lesley at Yes, I Knit has three children and a great blog.

5. And finally, tell us if you like October or November more, and why! (Yea, I know part of September and November are technically fall, but for this question, only October and November matter!)

I personally would have to go with October. But November is a very close second. I like October because school has really gotten underway and fall is really in the air. Not to mention Halloween. Now that I have a child Halloween is just as fun now as it was when I was a child. It's like getting to relive it all over again. I like November because that is when the weather really starts to turn crisp and with Thanksgiving at the end with family gatherings during this month how can one go wrong?

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