It Is Great To Be An American

I am so happy that this election is almost over, then perhaps everyone can move on and we can begin to look forward to a brighter tomorrow. The one thing I think we can all agree on is that as Americans we have a wonderful opportunity for our voices to be heard and to make our desires known. That by voting for a canidate we can help to shape the future not only for ourselves but for our children and grandchildren. This alone is a humbling thought.

Must of us will go home tonight to watch election results. No matter who wins another group of equally concerned Americans will be disappointed. It is my hope that while very few of us are actually able to make policy whether at the national, state or local level that we all endeavour to make our part of American just a little kinder. It takes no real extra time to get to know your neighbors and to be willing to lend a helping hand when needed. Attend your church, mosque or synagogue and make yourself available to opportunities to be "helping hands" in your community. Mentor a young person and make them believe that they can be anything they want to be. Love your family and make sure that they know that you love them. Take time everyday to reflect on your significant other and be thankful for that person.

Today may be a great day to be an American but tomorrow can be a great day for America.

Connecting With Family

I am busy working on trying to connect with the cousins I grew up. I have started a page on Facebook so that we can all connect including extended family like children and spouses. It should be fun to take and see where life has taken all of us. One of my female cousins that I was close to growing up has become a spinner, what an amazing coincidence! I guess I wouldn't be the only one dragging my knitting along to a family event as she also knits. The few cousins that I have been able to reconnect with have proved fun to get back in touch with.

I am planning on a trip to Des Moines to see our daughter and granddaughters. It has been quite a while since I have seen them and I have been in need of a granddaughter fix badly. I will be there for my one granddaughters first band concert and Halloween. I should have some great pictures to post from that.

Once I get back to Waterloo from that it will almost be time to gear up for Thanksgiving which I am really looking forward to. We will have over 50% of the kids and their families here.

Introducing JW

On Monday, March 10th at 1:15 am we welcomed our new grandson, he was born on his grandpa's birthday. He weighed 8lbs 3oz and was 19 3/4 inches long. His Daddy, Mommy and two sisters are very excited and can't wait to go home. We all happen to thing he is pretty perfect. Poor little guy, his only male cousin is already seven and lives in Italy, he is the first boy after six granddaugther's. Now some pictures of him!!

Things to Be Thankful For

It is so true that when you think your life is the pitts you don't have to look very hard to find someone else who is living through a much more trying ordeal. A young family from our Church has a three year-old son who has leukemia, to learn more about Elijah and his family's incredible strength and faith in the face of some real adversity feel free to read his blog at http://www.elijahhancock.blogspot.com/. It makes me so thankful for healthy grandchildren and children. I can hardly imagine how incredibly difficult it must be to have a small child going through this. I was incredibly upset when Son #3 had to have the emergency craniotomy to remove the subdural hematoma in October. Even though he is 27, my first inclination was to hop a plane and go to North Carolina to be with him. One of the hardest things to do was to respect his wishes and not do so and just wait to see him till he was able to travel home. Please remember Elijah in your prayers and I have an incredibly strong testimony of what the power of prayer can do.

Not much else is new, we are trying to make it through this cold snap which has included the water line to the dishwasher being frozen (can I just tell you how much I hate washing dishes by hand) and the furnance seeming to run non-stop.

Do You Hear What I Hear

Absolutely nothing . . . the last of the children left on Friday. Grandpa and I are enjoying peace and quiet. Don't get me wrong we had a wonderful time having the kids and their kids around for the holidays, but let's face facts, Grandpa and Grandma aren't terribly exciting and have gotten to the point that we really do enjoy the quiet of just the two of us. Grandpa spends a lot of time on the computer posting to political blogs and attempting to interest me in ones he finds interesting (one would thing after being married about a million years he would know that I don't like to be read ALOUD to) and playing WoW. I can usually be found knitting, reading or messing around on my computer. How we would ever exist with only one computer is beyond me, we have dueling computers with in the computer room.

I have been busy trying to map out a knitting strategy for the new year. I am going to try to accomplish at least one pair of socks a month this year (my goal last year and I woefully missed the mark) and am also going to get busy on some serious lace knitting. The first couple of months of this years I need to get busy doing baby knitting as we will be welcoming a new grandson in March. I am busy scoping out patterns and suitable yarns.

I think it time for a cup of tea and some more knitting!

A Family Christmas

Everyone is either eating of looking at Grandpa

Christmas Dinner - Daughter-In-Law w/Grandaughter



Christmas Afternoon w/Daughter and her girls

Son #1, Daughter, Son #4, Son #3

After a perilous drive back from Chicago on Saturday which included Son #3 missing his original flight out of Raleigh (although that later became a mute point as that flight was cancelled), we were finally able to retrieve Son #3 from the complete chaos of O'Hare around noon. The drive out of Chicago and until Iowa City was just a great deal of rain. When I say that once we got to Iowa City that the weather went to the dogs that would truly be a gross understatement. It was about a 35 mph trip all the way from Iowa City to Des Moines. We saw lots of cars that had slid off into the ditch and the medium. However, the real tale of just how bad the weather was when about Grinnell there were two snow plows that had slid into the medium. We finally got back here to Des Moines about 8:30 p.m., so roughly an 8 1/2 hour trip.

The next couple of days were comprised of running around and finishing last minute shopping, a huge wrapping party, last minute grocery shopping (what an absolute zoo the Hy-Vee on Grand was on Christmas Eve).

All of it turned out to be worth it though, having four of the six kids here for Christmas with their families was wonderful even if it was a little hectic and noisy . . . .

Feeling the Crunch

It would appear that I like most of the knitter's I know have seriously underestimated the amount of knitting time available prior to the opening of Christmas presents. I may have bought some extra time by insisting that nothing is to be opened until Christmas morning . . . no exceptions! That being said, I am beginning to feel the crunch. Actually the time schedule would have worked had not son #4 with family in tow arrived a day early, an totally unscheduled trip w/daughter #1 to retrieve son #3 from Chicago due to a "snafu" with son #1's scheduled departure time from the greater Chicago area to Des Moines had not gotten put on the schedule. I am beginning to get seriously angry w/the United States military and their seeming lack of concern for my holiday preparations. Daughter #1 and I will be leaving Des Moines around 3:30 p.m. on Friday, arriving in Gurnee, IL at son #1's apartment probably about 9:00 p.m. +, retrieve son #3 from Chicago/O'Hare at 7:16 a.m. on Saturday morning (I certainly hope all the air traffic gods align so that he leaves Raleigh, NC on time and hence arrive Chicago O'Hare on time), knitting time on the way over will be seriously reduced by the fact that it gets dark early, hopefully knitting time on the way home will be better. However, as luck would have it the weather is supposed to turn to absolute crap around midnight on Friday . . . so the drive home may be tricky.

I still need to finish the multi-directional scarf for son #1, have four pairs of felted clogs to knit and felt, thank goodness that they are all for little people and whip up pretty fast and I had hoped to finish a pair of socks for son #4 . . . plus I still have to block "the daughter's" gift and the hat and gloves that match the scarf that isn't yet finished. I have to at some point go to the grocery store and get the fixins' for Christmas dinner.

Now that I look this all over I think I am going to have a nice cup of tea and whimper quietly in the corner before I start knitting again.

Finally Back

After a seriously long a absence from blogging I am trying to get back into it. I am again staying at home and filling my days with knitting and chasing after my granddaughter. She is 1 1/2 now and is seriously busy! Her favorite pastime these days is coloring.

Things have been incredibly crazy around here. The holidays have been fun and I am looking forward to a family Christmas with four of the six kids home for the holiday. This year will be extra special because son #3 had an emergency craniotomy in October for a subdural hematoma. It was very hard and I had to really reign in my mothering by not flying to North Carolina to be with him and respecting his wishes. Son #1 is will also be here and he will be deploying to Afghanistan the 3rd of February. Son #4 and his family are here (yes, for all of you keeping track the "baby" got married in May of this year). Next year at this time we will have a new grandson to celebrate Christmas with. Daughter #1 (actually the only daughter) will be here with her family, so it will be crowded, busy and tons of fun.

I had tried to back to work in August but it proved to be to much for my MS which really flared in late October/early November. Now that I am home again and watching my diet and fatigue level it seems to be doing better.

I have decided to work on one of my New Year's resolutions early to start consistently adding to my blog.