Yesterday was possibly the best day of my life…

Nick finally arrived here in California and we took a drive up North into the mountains. Holy cow. I have been so uninspired for so long–it was like a breath–no scratch that–a very strong gusty breeze of fresh air. We were visting a good friend of mine from high school, the lovely and talented Nadia. Time has stopped here, the world is beautiful and although I do not have pictures yet they will be coming. I am going to make some hula hoops today and am very excited for the stores to open and Nadia to get here as she is visting me today. Oh yes–eggs benedict with avocado is like the food god’s gift to mankind. The heat from the eggs and the hollandaise sauce softens the avocado and it is heavenly. All I can say about that. Simply heavenly.

In need of scholarship

I am 25, returning to school to get my bachelors in psych and then planning to get my masters in counseling. School is expensive. If anyone needs a tax write off, how about make a scholarship donation for my education? I’m serious. It’s a win win situation and even small donations would help buy books. I can write essay or spin yarn and knit you something just to make it interesting. Please respond!

Laid off but still getting by

It has been 2 months since Nick was laid off from his job with the wind turbines. They told us to expect a call back in June but after 2 months of sitting around he was beginning to get stir crazy. We looked into buying a house and made an offer on one but couldn’t get the financing approved in the end because of lack of income at the moment. So, I have been working at a daycare here in town for the past 2 months and losing weight very quickly from all the running and lifting I have been doing. This makes me happy! Nick just got hired on with a construction job and seems to be happy with it although it was a big paycut. So although we aren’t living lavishly we are getting by and happy.
Lulu is the funniest dog. She is wild and not scared of anything! She is quite the hunter–we have to keep her on a leash because she likes to follow her nose and we aren’t always able to keep up. We went camping last weekend and she drove everybody crazy with her leash under their feet and tripping them. But she had a blast and in the end we were all tired and dirty. Hopefully I am able to get back on here soon and update more often–off to wrestle 3 year olds right now—gotta put on my warpaint!

Lulu at 7 months, painting, and knitting

So I have been busy and have neglected this blog. We are currently in Colorado City,Tx and living it up. Not a lot out here so I have been cooking a lot and of course, knitting and of all things–I started painting again. A friend here has a baby and I am quite smitten with her. So far I have made her a hat and a baby sweater.
Here is she in the sweater:

Lulu is growing.

The last pics on here, she had humungous ears and weighed 2.5 pounds. She is quite a character-she makes me laugh all day. The cats have become very fond of Lulu–to a point. They still get tired of her but tolerance is much higher than before.
Here she is sleeping with the black cat:

She loves to go on walks and prances like she owns the whole block. She is also the first dog I have had that likes–LOVES–kids. Even babies. If the kids are outside playin, Lulu wants to play too. She has yet to meet a stranger, she is very much the socialite.

And the painting–well, I use to paint nonstop about 5 years ago and then just quit. For some reason, the urge struck me again last week and luckily I had paints and a canvas handy since there wouldn’t be anywhere near here to obtain such items. I painted this for my mom–it took a little to get back into the blending and what not so if you can’t tell what it is–it’s an island, the sky above and the ocean below…

Lulu gets a sweater

So, it’s 90 degrees outside and I have a new puppy–why not make her a dog sweater?!? So I set off for the city, get a book on dog sweater patterns, hit the yarn shop up for some yarn and come home to make the sweater. After a full day of knitting, I finished the sweater around 10pm. These pics were taken before I wove in my loose ends so just ignore them!

Next on the agenda is to make her a little blanket snuggie type thing that she can sleep with. We are potty training right now and ringing a bell every time we go out. According to what I’ve read and heard, you ring the bell every time you go out to potty, take them out for 5 mins at a time and eventually, they start ringing the bell to go potty. Yesterday, she rang the bell and peed outside one time. Which is a start. Nevermind 3 accidents yesterday afternoon, I’m staying positive. It is amazing how fast she is learning. Just 7 days and she is walking on a leash, has learned her name and the word “No”. Another thing we are trying to learn are the names of the toys so that eventually, we can throw all the toys on the floor and tell her a specific one to retrieve and she will know which one we are talking about. Oh, and this dog loves to watch TV. Her and my hubby sit together in the evenings and channel surf. Pretty cute!

LuLu the Westie!!!

So aside from the facts that I live in a 32 foot bumper pull trailer and travel around the country with my husband working AND have 2 very fat, lazy, spoiled kitties, I was still unsatisfied. Why? Because from the time I was 19 and saw my first west highland terrier I have wanted one and haven’t been able to have one and since my best friend just recently added 2 mini Australian shepherds to her family–I felt the time had come to get my beloved westie dog. So I addressed the issue on the home-front. “I need a puppy. Don’t you want one?” I would say to my hubby. Finally, we had a serious discussion about it and that night I was shopping for a puppy. I was very careful not to buy from a puppy mill. I found Lulu in Choctaw,OK, only a couple of hours from our current residence. It was a family that had a litter for sale and since the parents weren’t champion “show dogs”, she was a little cheaper than the other dogs I found. The lady explained that she was the runt of the litter and wasn’t eating very much but that she was healthy and very sweet. For some reason, her being the runt made me want her even more.
I made arrangements to pick her up and as I made the drive to get her I began to imagine meeting her and her tail wagging and her little tongue licking me…but quickly told myself not to get my hopes up, I would be lucky if she wasn’t scared of me. When I arrived at the house and went inside, the lady quickly went and got Lulu. And I kid you not, her little tail began to wag the second she saw me and as soon as I held her she began licking me all over. If this wasn’t meant to be than what was?
I brought her home, and she stared at me the whole way, just eyeballing me. When we arrived at the trailer, I tried her on her leash. She wouldn’t budge. So I took my chances with her off the leash and sure enough she ran right beside me around the RV park. My only hestiation about getting a dog was that I had 2 cats, Lulu lit up when she saw the kitties and went and greeted them with kisses. They weren’t very receptive. Hubby came home from work and fell under her spell immediately. As we watched TV that night, she took turns sitting in our laps sleeping. That first night as I put her in her crate for bed, she never once cried or whimpered and let me know around 4:30am that she was ready to use the bathroom. I was so excited that morning to have her that I didn’t even go back to bed afterwards. All day she ran errands with me, we went to the park a few times, it felt great to finally have a dog.
I have had Lulu for about 6 days now and she is now walking on a leash, trying to eat everything in sight, like rocks, (yikes) and we are trying to potty train. She does good at night with the potty issue but during the day is a lot harder. Yesterday, a neighbor explained that she trained her dog to ring a bell when he had to potty and so we are trying that now. It must be clicking for her because as soon as I ring the bell to go outside, her little paws outstretch for the door as if to open it. Potty training a puppy is much harder than I remember though, we have several accidents through out the day but when she potties inside she now acts ashamed as if she knows she wasn’t suppose to go there. The cats are getting more use to her kisses and let her jump on them a few times before they scurry off, I guess that is ok?
The hardest part about raising a puppy so far is being stern. She is so small and sweet, I feel like a monster when she gets in trouble. I know that it is necessary though and although I do not raise my voice to her, I am getting more comfortable disciplining her. Right now she is sleeping beside my feet in a little ball. Yay for puppies!

FLOWERS FLOWERS EVERYWHERE!

So we are down here in South Texas where everything is green and the wildflowers grow like wildfire. I have rekindled my love affair with flowers. I now have a lion’s ear–which is fuzzy like lamb’s ear but is bright orange like cheetos:

Here is my passion flower I picked up on Weds:

and here is my “teacup hibscus” which I have only ever found at one nursery. Usually people have never seen or heard of this beauty but talk to the greenhouse owner and he talks as if they are as common as can be.

see the tiny flower blooming out of the center? Isn’t that awesome?!?

Who needs petunias when you can have crazy looking flowers like these? That was a bit sarcastic–I love purple petunias more than I care to admit but my point is…wait, did I have a point? Oh yes….my flowers make me happy!

the gorge in Oregon

So went to the coast and camped, then a couple of days later we headed to the gorge and hiked. I was in awe the whole time letting the rest of my group trek on ahead of me so I could go at a slow pace and examine rocks, moss and what I learned to be lichens. I eventually encountered a woman with 2 little boys and we seemed to be at the same pace. We hiked together showing the boys igneous rocks and letting them touch the back of the lichens—kids are smart. DUH. Anyways–here are pics of the waterfalls at the top of the steep hike….

Here I am hiking:

a pic at the bottom of the trail looking at the colombia river

pacific coast

We recently went on a trip to the coast of oregon. What a beauty!

This is one of my faves.

the beach early in the morning….

I managed to snap this when the tide resided enough for me to make a mad dash to this rock that was surrounded normally under water!

So calm….yet so tumultuous…

fiber sandwich

2 weeks ago we had ROC day here in Groton, SD–for those who don’t know, ROC day is the day that the weavers and spinners began their work again after the winter break. I am pretty sure this dates back to medieval times. Well, all us spinners and knitters got together, had an awesome potluck and all in all had a great time with each other. 12 or so of us particiapted in a fiber sandwich which is where you contribute some raw fiber–batts, web, roving, top of all different types (basically a fiber pot luck) and then you layer the different types of fiber like you would a sub sandwich. The thicker the better I say! Then each who participated got an equal amount which in our case was a 5 oz!
Here is what my portion looked like:

I left mine just the way I got it and spun it by pulling random chunks–I had some pretty wild looking yarn!!!

Some opted to card their sandwich. This is a shot of the sandwich after Marie put it through a drum carder

Here is another carded into web. This is Kelly’s:

So each had a different method to the madness and each proved to make a beautiful yarn in it’s own right. Kelly, Marie and I all attended a second ROC day in North Dakota the following Sat. and spun our sandwiches. Upon the spinning, Kelly came up with the great idea that we take her more consistant sandwich yarn and ply it with my random chunks yarn. Thus creating this yarn:

That shot was before the yarn was blocked and now that it is blocked I am just to lazy to take another pic. You can easily see the colors in the yarn and that is what I really wanted to show. That is a digested fiber sandwich. So to speak.

Here are some pics of the ladies at the North Dakota ROC day–my camera battery was dead for the first ROC day!

We had a blast yet again and had yet again–a fabulous potluck!

Here is my Harvey with a closing comment: