Friday, December 11, 2009

Bump in the Road

Mom has been having a lot of hip/leg/back pain lately. It had been gettting worse. She figured theyed get it sorted out on her appointment in San Francisco, but didn't think it'd be anything big. Ijust got a text message from her saying that the "pain may be caused by lesion in sacrum. Admit to csuf med today. Not emergency, but timely. Pray that we figure it out. Please." Soooo that was quite the news. I'll be posting updates as I get them on her blog. www.myohmymm.blogspot.com

Monday, December 7, 2009

On Umbrellas...Sort Of.

Soooo it's raining cats and dogs here. Sure it's not Forks, WA but you get the point. Anyway. As a person who works at schools I would like to know WHERE parents get the bright idea to arm their children and send them to school with umbrellas? And WHY do so many of the parents get this bright idea? Children's spacial awareness is already limited, but give them another appendage with sharp points to bump into things (or other people?) When kids go out with umbrellas, they really are armed and dangerous. THEN as soon as kids get to where they're going, the promptly get the water they "protected themselves from" all over themselves anyway trying to get the stinkin things closed. Then they leave it dripping and wet by their desks, and one of the little geniuses decides to open his/hers in the classroom, consequentially setting off a chain reaction as each of his or her friends open their umbrellas too. Then someones umbrella breaks. On the way home, one child accidentally takes another child's umbrella leaving us to deal with the tears of the child whose umbrella is missing, because the only umbrella left has a name on it.

So Puuuhlease people, just buy your children a nice waterproof coat with a hood.

Ps. Today in the post office, this darling little girl walked up to the door with a penguin umbrella. Her mom closed her own umbrella, the little girl did not. The little girl then proceeded to take up valuable space in the crowded post office with her wet umbrella. Then the mother realised the situation and took he girls umbrella saying, "I'm going to close this for you...."
but she ended her statement with the horrible questioning "ok?"
This is a big no no in the interacting with children world...ending with a question mark instead of a "." tells the child this is up for discussion, tears and disagreement will get you the umbrella back. Which the little girl seemed to know. She disagreed and cried and to pacify the girl the mom gave the umbrella back. To be honest I would have preferred standing in a line with a mom I knew stood by her word and was teaching her daughter courtesy even if it meant her daughter cried (Plus, then i wouldn't have gotten so wet.)

Okay, I'm climbing off my soap box. Next time I'll take on rolling back packs.

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Girl Goes to Hardware Store

On an early morning trip to the hardware store I had some thoughts. I'm sharing them with you. That is all.

1.) I think the word is out that Lowe's is getting the women's choice award. 99.9% of the shoppers I saw there were women. And all the help stations were "manned" haha get it? The nice thing is I still recognized most of the people at the help stations from when I was working there in 2005. I think they know how to retain employees.

2.) A girl wandering in the hardware store in moccasin slippers, jeans, and a hoodie lined with fuzzyness must scream USELESS! When I asked WHERE the brackets were for the fence I'm building the guy didn't just show me WHERE they were he, found what I needed and then proceeded to count them out for me too. (I offered to count, but he didn't seem to trust my skills.) He also told me to tell the guys building the fence to put the bracket on the posts first...I didn't waste my breath telling him that in fact I was building the fence.

3.) I like going to the hardware store with Luke. When we go together I get the luxury of maintaining high lumber standards (I get to reject the ones I don't like) without having to do all the lifting and moving and lugging. Luke just makes it look effortless, which is why I was quick to reject the 4th guy who thought I looked useless and was offering to help me pick wood. I kicked my self later as I was super awkward. I did manage to get the better wood though.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

New Moon-My Very Own Wolf

I am quite the lucky girl in that I was at least able to con Luke into reading the Twilight series. (Well he listened to the audio books, but same difference right?) Because I am so lucky to have him interested, I did not want to discourage from enjoying the saga by going to see the movie before him. (He was driving with his brother Mark down to Grand Junction for Thanksgiving.) Part of my extreme excitement for this movie stems from the fact that I think Luke could fit in rather well with the Wolf Pack. That or the Wolf Pack was channeling him for their characters? While I don't have any pictures of Luke like that, I have this comparison:
It was hard to find a picture of Luke where he WASN'T smiling!He's soooo attractive! Yep, that's right, I get to marry my very own wolf! He's always warm, runs around in shorts when it's freezing out, has the reputation of going shirtless(my old roommates didn't hang out on his floor freshman year for nothing!) Swoon.
Oh yah, the movie was good too. The acting was REALLY cheesy at times...er...most of the time. But I think that's really why I like the book. Its sooo not real, but fun to pretend? The girls behind us who giggled every time Jacob showed up were mildly annoying, but can I blame em? I had my own sitting right next to me.
The movie made me want Stephenie Meyer to write more about what happens with the Volturi.
This movie made me like the guy who plays Edward less...but then I found out that he's Cedric Diggory...so then I was a little more patient and hope he gets better in the next two movies. The next movie is supposed to come out this summer! Cant wait! Luke and I will be married by then so we'll be able to go see it together! Woot!

Friday, November 27, 2009

One In Every Color-Tangle

Luke and I went to tangle, a yarn store on Grand Junction's main street. Upon walking in the door we saw:

Sweaters in Every Color at the door and on the tree, as well as mittens on a garland in every color! This snow man is only one color, but isnt it clever?

and YARN in every color! A bonus? They had Amy Buttler fabric!! Yum! Only sad point is they wont be getting her new line until January.



These awesome delicate looking giant snowflakes were on the wall above the yarn. Sooo cool!

Thursday, November 26, 2009

A different Kind of Packing

On Wednesday we went on the best adventure to Horse Mountain Alpacas and visited Leah who showed us around the farm. Having recently become addicted to yarn and knitting, I have leapt at any opportunities to find out more about yarn and where it comes from . Neola met Leah at a farmers market and told me about it just so I could plan to make the trip. Jay, Neola, and Luke came with me.

Leah described the alpaca as being like cats, they're rarely the ones to come to you. Alpaca are, however, a little easier to catch. Leah is quite the expert at catching them!

The alpaca's fleece is soooo dense and much thicker than I had thought. My fingers just sank into the fleece.

Here is Leah letting me pose with this little guy! Isn't he adorable?!


Try 2. He wasn't so willing to listen to me.

Neola was very kind to take pictures while I gawked at the alpaca.





Leah told us that this guy likes to give kisses, and that it's the best way to coax him to come closer. Soooo...I kissed a girl ...and I liked it! Hahaha pop culture reference! Don't worry...you can tell by Luke's mildy disgusted face he's not especially jealous. I didn't get any germs, I inherited a rather large nose, and it turned into more of an Eskimo kiss.

I thought this chica was interested too, but right when I thought I'd wooed her...

She took a turn and went for Luke. I guess she knows a good lookin guy when she sees one.
Here's one of the babies. Sooo cute. OoooEEeeeh! Do you notice the fantabulously furry and lovable alpaca sized dog laying on the ground outside that fence? I'm not sure if that one is Max or Molly. They're companion dogs for the alpaca. (They keep the alpaca company, and break up any fights.) There's a board across the gate he's lying by because the way those dogs get from pen to pen is climbing up through the top gap. He's not supposed to get through that one. I'll believe it when I see it, but I'm still impressed.


Here are some of the nice male alpaca. They're kept in a separate pens. The girls are on the left. The more aggressive males have a nice cozy pen of their own.

Trying to make friends again.



So I guess high levels of testosterone in the males makes their fleece softer. Here Leah is holding him so I can feel the difference in this three year old males fleece.

These are the last two Pygmy goats, Christmas (the smaller dog), and Molly/Max. The Pygmy goats are in the same pen as the more aggressive alpaca. It's true, they can hold their own.



Here is the ornery guy himself and his buddy. The little play structure is for the goats. When they were younger, they climbed, now they sleep underneath.


Then Leah took us into the little side cottage/gift shop to show us several things. 1.) What the fleece looks like just after the alpaca is sheared (shorn?)
We also got to see lots of alpaca products and I even bought some yarn! I went with a white bulky. Wouldn't you know it, I forgot the name of the alpaca my yarn came from! Leah if you read this would you remind me?


Something I learned: Baby Alpaca doesn't really come from the babies. It can come from an alpaca of any age. Translation: Super soft is all that matters.

Giving Thanks in Alliterations

Fantastic Fiance
Continuous Crafting
Yummy Yarn
Done Degree
Faithful Followers (of my blog)
More Medically Sound Mother
Synical Sister
Dangerously Witty Dad
Friendly Future Family
Trusty Travel
Congenial Church Family
Wewarding Work

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

One In Every Color- Beads

Luke and I were exploring Main Street in Grand Junction. We stopped at Main Street Minerals & Beads.
Look at all the colors. It makes me happy they arranged them chromatically. :)

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Only One Color?

Or maybe two. I was packing for my trip to visit Luke and his family in Grand Junction. I'm a visual kid so I layed everything out on the bed to make sure I had what I needed/wanted. I took a step back to survey the math and noticed my color selections were very one track...
PS. We're going to visit an alpaca farm tomorrow! WoooH!

Friday, November 20, 2009

Kool Mittens and MossCap

Remember this yarn?My friend (Valerie's friend) Laura commissioned me to make her some mittens. Here they are fairly big and bulky.I washed and dried the wool mittens and they shrunk down, and tightened up to fit a bit better. They're not quite felted...but almost.I made her this hat to match. As I was finishing the mittens the yarn spoke to me and told me that they couldn't go on to fulfill their lives without a hat to make them a set. The hat was improvised. Lets just say I learned a lot. My mom tried to swipe Laura's hat. I guess that means there MIGHT be one in order for her too. Good thing I like knitting so much.I also finished this hat a while back. It's the Foliage hat. I love the pattern. I couldn't think of a purple dragon so I named this hat Barney...but I don't think Barney has scales...any suggestions?

Thursday, November 19, 2009

One In Every Color-Le Creuset

The other day I had just returned a purchase and thought I'd just stop in Sur la Table for a quick visit. One quick walk through and I realised just how MANY things they have their that come in every color! I asked the friendly staff if I might take pictures for my blog and they humored me saying yes. I took all kinds of pictures with my phone only to realise on the way home that I wasn't quite sure I would be able to get them off. Soooo I'm posting website pictures of the cool gadgets. You will probably see many more things from there but right now I'm just going to feature the brand Le Creuset. best known for their colored baking dishes, I became more enamored with their wood and silicone cooking utensils and accessories.


Just picture all of these goodies...

In all of these colors!Ok I was so bummed about not being able to use my pictures I finally remembered I could email them to myself!

Aren't they just delish!? I imagine food cooked with these utensils would even taste better!!

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

One In *Almost* Every Color- Corporate Logos

Aaron sent me this interesting graphic he found on Uniwatch. It's interesting to look at because there is a definate draw to those "power colors." It makes me glad my Etsy shop logo <here> is in pinks and purples! It also makes me wonder why not more green? Though I can see they left the favored John Deere logo off. That one is a biggie! Hah wouldn't it be funny if we could do this based on the clothes we have? Sure we can put our clothes in color order, but wouldnt it be cool if we could see them on a spectrum like this?