Thunder and Lightning

Today during a blizzard like snow storm we had of all things THUNDER AND LIGHTNING! Have you ever experienced that? It was way cool. I have only seen this happen once before, also in Colorado. This little storm lasted about 30 minutes and then went away and just left more cold and a little snow on the ground.

I have been playing taxi again. This time is is for a member of Rich's ward and his non-member mother. They are in a pretty poor situation (no car, no home) so I have been driving them to the Employment center for classes and interviews, and to the Storehouse for food. Tomorrow we will be helping them get an apartment (hopefully) and moving in.

The ward has been so great about donating money and food for a food basket and help with a little Christmas cheer. These are such great kids! They are so willing to help anyone. It is a great Ward!

I got all the packages mailed today so watch for the mailman. There is nothing big in them, but I wanted to send just a little something to remind you that I love you all and we appreciate everything you do for us.

save the dragon...

Please click on the eggs to help keep them alive. They should hatch in 6 days!

Where did November go?

Has it really been over a month since I posted? I have no idea where the time went.
Notice the biggest pumpkins in the picture with the cute little monkey? Well, they are the squmpkins.... they turned orange after they got brought inside. No longer are they mystery fruits : )

Did you have a good Thanksgiving? We got GOBBLED several times this morning. Who cooked dinner today? I found the day to be wonderfully calm and peaceful today due to doing a lot of the cooking yesterday and the day before. Roll dough, pumpkin, pepes, and cornbread for the stuffing were all prepared on Tuesday. The pies were cooked on Wednesday and the cheese ball, bean casserole, and shrimp dip were made on Wednesday as well. So, for today, I got up, got the turkey in the oven, stirred the fruit and cool whip into the pepe salad, rolled out and made the rolls, and mixed up the stuffing. Then, when the turkey came out of the oven, the rolls, stuffing, and beans went in. It was so easy! And yummy!

I really missed the kids, though. It was very quiet and we could have used a little RAGE or Shanghai and some laughs.

The dishwasher has stopped cleaning good and I am really hating having to hand wash or rewash the dishes. We get so spoiled with all the toys and conveniences we have.

Who is shopping tomorrow? NOT ME! No way do I want to go hand to hand with the crowds of rude people around here. I still remember the year the Cabbage Patch doll was ripped out of my arms by a crazed loony. I am going to stay home and eat Pepe salad and work on more socks.

I am looking for inexpensive ideas for neighbor gifts. Also, I need ideas for gifts for the meals on wheels folks that our stake is collecting for. What would be something fun I could donate that would bring a smile to someone?

Gobble Gobble

Dishcloth Clothes

Here's tmy latest creations. the dishcloth clothes are the funniest things I have seen in a long time. I LOVE the little dress. I found the patterns on a web site. It only took about 30 minutes to make the dress. There is a cute little poem that goes along with the pants.

Baby J is sporting his new Cammo socks I made for him this week. Baby socks are fun to make! The next pair of socks pictured is a pair I used a pattern for that turned out HUGE. Ok, I thought, they are made from wool yarn so I can felt them. Well, they felted but they did not shrink. So, off to the sewing machine. I sewed a seam up the front reducing them by about an inch all around and Wha-La.... they fit fine and will be very warm and comfy!

I also made baby J a hat for the cold weather but his melon is huge and would not fit into the hat. So, I am try trying again. I hope the second one will fit. The next size loom up is an adult size. No way is his head that big! Take a look, his melon does not look that big does it?

Right now the temperature is 34 degrees outside. The weatherman says we are getting a snow storm tomorrow. There are still leaves on the trees. I hope it is a light snow so we don't get any broken branches. I really don't like the trees to break.

The squmpkins might be pumpkins after all. They are turning orange now. I think we ate some of the smaller ones thinking they wer squash, but they may have been pumpkins all along. Next year we will plant the garden better and so we actually know what we are growing. LOL!

You haven't seen anything like this.....

http://www.koreus.com/video/chien-danseur.html

You really need to go watch this video.

First Pair loomed slippers

This is my fist pair of loomed slippers. I started following a written pattern but decided to do my own thing with them. I think they turned out pretty cute. At the top of the slippers is a sort of collar that ties in the front. The next pair I think I will make the collar a different color so it is easier to see. They are loomed in double thickness so they should be very warm. I was able to loom both socks in one day too. I love projects that are fast easy and turn out this cool!

Has anyone read The Great And The Terrible series of books by Chris Stewart? What do you think about it? It is sold at Deseret Book Store. Do you have a copy I can Borrow?

My, My, I made this pie ....

I just had to share my very first ever beautiful peach pie! I have never made such a pretty pie. : ) And, it tastes wonderful too!

This week

Nothing has happened the past few days to tell about. Brisingr was released, you know, the third book in the Eragon series. So of course we are all reading that. Actually, i got it on CD so i get to listen to it and still have my hands free to knit or sew. It is a great way to read if you ask me. I got a fun picture of my little helper yesterday. He found the squmpkin and claimed it for his own.

One of the pumpkins got invaded by some little critter and had a big hole in it so we picked it and brought it in and made pumpkin cake and cookies from it. Pretty yummy! They were even better knowing that the pumpkin came right out of our garden.

I just got another calling as a genealogy specialist in the ward. Too fun! Now,with the new system in place for doing temple work, we will be able to teach people how to use the system in their homes or help them get their ancestor search started. The new system is so cool! Go to http://new.familysearch.org and register. You can find yourself and your family members. You can directly enter any new info you have. You can see who still needs work done. Check it out!

It is not the Great Pumpkin but ....

Here is the largest squmpkin growing in the garden. As the weather gets colder the foilage gets smaller and we are finding some fun things. The squmpkins are actually in the bushes. the vines grew over the bushes and then over the fence. As the squmpkins got heavier they got hidden in the middle of the bushes. I wonder what a little more creeping around in the bushes will reveal.

Today I did some trailer checks at the theater. I was able to watch about an hour of Eagle Eye before I had to go to the next auditorium. IT WAS REALLY GOOD! Lot's of action going on. If you had to choose one movie to go see, I recommend this one. Now I have to go and pay to get into the show to see the last half : )

Squmpkins .....

I found a surprise in the garden tonight. The squash and pumpkin have branched out so much that were have not been able to look for fruit in the bushes and trees where they have grown out to. With the cold weather the foliage is dying back and WHA AA LA .... Tonight we found 2 very large squmpkins! Cross bred squash/pumpkins …. Hiding in the bushes. I am so surprised that we have missed them because they are huge. The real orange pumpkins are only a quarter of the size of these squmpkins. I don’t know if I want to carve them for Halloween or cook them. : ) It was too dark to take pictures of them so tomorrow after a couple of mystery shops I have a mission to take pictures of them. Perhaps we will have the only green pumpkins in town sitting on the porch on Halloween.

pinwheel dishcloth made on a loom

Just wanted to show you one of the things you can do on a loom ... These are fun. Notice the stitch, you can make knit and purl stitches as well as the more loopy looking loom stitches. Somebody in one of my Yahoo groups made this spiral on a larger scale for a baby blanket. It would be a very fun baby blankie I think.

AH! My first 2 at a time socks are finished. They turned out pretty good except I do not have a small enough set of cable needles. The recipe says you should have a 40" cable and a size 2 needle. Do you know how hard it is to find 40" cables anywhere in town? I have searched everywhere. All any stores around here carry are 29" in the smaller needles and if you are lucky enough to find a 36" cable, the needles are always 13, or larger. Brother!

All the knitting/yarn shops are shutting down around here. So are a lot of other small stores (like the scrapbooking stores). I found a new kind of sock yarn with a little stretch in it at Hobby Lobby and am excited to use it for my next pair of socks.


Here is a fun recipe:
preheat your bar-b-que grill

what you need: Pizza sauce, green pepper diced, mushrooms sliced, tomatoes sliced or diced, shredded mozzarella cheese, pineapple chunks, sliced olives, pepperoni, cooked sausage, any other of your favorite pizza toppings. Several cutting boards will also be needed.

Make your pizza crust dough or go and bum a ball off of the closest pizza joint and divide it into small balls large enough for a 6 - 8 in crust. Give everyone a ball of dough and instruct them to flatten it out into a 6-8 in pizza crust on a cutting board. Then you let everyone create their ideal pizza and bring it over to the grill. Carefully slide the pizza off of the cutting board and place it onto the rack in the grill. Let the pizza cook watching the bottom of the crust. Once the crust is brown it is ready to eat. If you would like the toppings to be more melted and browner, lift it onto the top rack and let it continue to heat through. These are the best little pizzas! I love the crispy crust you get when cooking them this way.

We fed the missionaries this pizza last Saturday. They enjoyed it SO much I think they both ate 4 pizzas. One of them remarked that this was a night that would be written about in his journal.

Well, I am off to loom ...... tata

Smitten with Knittin

So, I have become obsessed with knitting again. I have found the wonderful world of knitting looms. I have made baby afghans, socks, dish cloths, dog sweaters, purses, hats and scarves. Loom are so much fun to work with and the project goes much faster. With all the great yarns out there now, all I need is a good sale on yarn and I am looming again. Here are a couple of pictures of loomies ....

I loomed sweaters for Nicole's dog, both of Brandon's dogs, and also for my dogs. When I get pictures (maybe I should say IF I ever get pictures of all the dogs together) of these dogs in their sweaters I will post them. Most of the sweaters are made from the same yarn so they will be twins. I also made Nicole's dog a froggy hat and sweater so she can be a frog for halloween. She looks so funny in her costume. I wish she would come trick-or-treating here for pictures.

I have also been knitting dishcloths. Forget the old boring plain dishcloth. Now they have personality and flair. Thanks to the yahoo groups I am a member of and all the generous and friendly people there I will never make a boring plain old dishcloth again. Here are pictures of two cloths I finished today. Have been making several cloths a month. My stash is getting big.
















Can you see the butterfly? There are zillions of designs that people have generously made available for group members to use to make these fun dishcloths. I have been able to share a moose with Mom and a cat with Julie. Poor Laurie is getting a spider and web ...... but it was sure fun to make.

I am also experimenting with my first pair of 2 at a time socks. You knit them on the circular able needles and work both of the at the same time. This is GREAT because they end up being the same size and length. No more guessing or remembering row counts. I really hope they turn out and I want to make more this way.

Yesterday I started another sock on an oval extra fine gauge sock loom and I am wondering how this thing I am making is ever going to become a sock that can actually be worn. BUT, I have faith in the pattern so I will keep working on it and soon post a picture of this sock if it ever turns out.

Recommended fun read: Puddlejumpers by Mark Jean and Christopher C. Carlson
It is a fun book that is great for kids to read also. Come and see my bookshelf on Shelfari http://www.shelfari.com/o1518194267/shelf . What are you reading?

Sad Day

Today is a sad day. A friend recently died from cancer and today was her funeral. The service was very nice and the weather was beautiful. The cemetery is also beautiful. But, there are young children who still need their mother and a man who still needs his wife. Sometimes life really stinks. Now sadness and grief will rule their lives for a time.

I am thankful for the knowledge I have that death on this earth is not an end to the family. It is just a parting for a while. I pray for them to feel the Lord's comforting hand in their lives until they are ready to face the world again.

It has been getting cooler here at night. The leaves are already trying to turn colors. I heard that the ski areas are thinking about making snow by the end of the month..... Where did the summer go?

These are the first tomatoes of the season. The garden has lain fallow for several years. I guess it liked that because this year it has yielded us some great squash, pumpkin, peppers, and tomatoes. We planted mid-June thinking nothing much would come of it. Boy are we ever surprised. The squash and pumpkin leaves have grown to be enormous. Pic on the right is a growing pumpkin. The flower is a squash blossom. It was larger than my hand. The colors in this garden are vibrant. I love just sitting in it and breathing in the green growing smells of it. As the garden grows it is escaping the garden and growing into the bushes and up the fence. One branch of pumpkin is over 20 feet long with those huge elephant ear leaves. The squash mountain was nearly impenetrable. Later I will post pictures of the fruit. We have been eating and freezing the early fruits of the garden but if the weather holds, there will be much more.

Now I am a Gmail Blogger

I decided to try Gmail for my blog and am going to try to find something interesting every day or two to write about. Tomorrow I will be going downtown on the light rail and braving the DNC (that stands for Democratic National Convention) crowd to help some friends at their restaurant. So, tomorrow I should have something to write about.

Every time I ride the lightrail I remember riding in the subways of New York. We did some fun things when we lived in New York. I would like to go back again sometime, although I am sure it is so different now I would not recognize the town.

One day soon I will post pictures of my garden, you will be surprised.... it is a jungle!