This Moment

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words  - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.  Happy Friday!!

Number Two Son learning how tiny babies really are.

 Inspired by Amanda Soule - Feel free to join in and share a link to your moment.

Christmas Cold.....

Christmas is the time of caring and sharing and Car Guy did just that.  He "shared" his cold with me.  I told him that this was NOT the gift I wanted and to take it back, but he told me there was no return policy...Smarty pants...so rather than whine and moan, I thought I'd share some really sweet pictures.....

Sleeping niece

Awake niece....who is this crazy lady?

Number One Son keeping someone occupied while the rest of us eat.

Number Two Son playing with his cousins so the adults could chat after dinner.

If you couldn't tell, we went to the local cafeteria for dinner last night with Car Guy's family.  I was so proud of my boys for the way they entertained all the little cousins...not that it's hard cause they are so darn cute!

I'll be back when I'm over the sniffles and can string together a coherent thought. In case I don't make it back, I hope everyone has an amazing New Year!

This Moment

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words  - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.  Happy Friday!!

A man and his cat...true love.

 Inspired by Amanda Soule - Feel free to join in and share a link to your moment.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Good Winter Solstice, Happy Kwanza, and Joyous Whatever You May Celebrate!

Hello everyone!  I hope you are all doing well and having a WONDERFUL holiday season!  Sorry I've been away, but I've been busy, busy, busy!  Santa has me working overtime and I am still soooooooo very far behind.  Don't you hate that?  And then, this morning, I was grabbing my bag of Christmas so that I could take it with me to work and try to get something accomplished at lunch, and realized that one of my DPN's is missing.....I wonder which little kitty thought that it looked like a toy? Hmmmm...Car Guy is home from work today, so he's supposed to be looking for it. We'll see.  Needle and haystack anyone? Argh!

Anyway, things on the wrestling front have been kind of quiet.  Number One Son got clunked in the head in practice over a week ago and suffered a very mild concussion, but the state has a strict return to play policy when it comes to head injuries. So he is gradually getting back into the groove of things.  He should be able to wrestle after the Christmas break. He's one very frustrated boy. Number Two Son wrestled in a tournament this past weekend and tied for first.  He tied because the other guy he would have wrestled for first was one of his teammates so they said tie and left it at that.  He doesn't get to wrestle until after Christmas because he developed a mild case of Cauliflower ear....I'll let you Google that one.  It's really kind of gross and we had to take him to the doctor to have it drained....ewwww!

So, one the bright spot in all this craziness was that I was able to get together with my Knitty Girls last week for drinks and dinner.  We had an amazing night.  Evidently the men in our lives were in Scroog mode because we had a good old gripe session and I must admit that I came out of there feeling much better....or was that the two glasses of whine wine. That dark, hardly visible picture over there is the desert we had - Oreo waffles.  They were terrible.  So bad in fact, that we all had some and had to eat every last bite just to make sure.  My hips and thighs claim that they didn't get enough of a taste, so we may have to go back and order it again. Either way, it was wonderful and now for the good stuff.......I have some incredible generous (and talented) friends!

We'll start with this absolutely adorable Christmas ornament. Annie got creative and made us each one of these...including the knitting needles.  Love this!

Some of you might recognize this....Dawn is so talented!  I LOVE sock monkeys, if you haven't figured out and so she also had to throw in this little guy...

Monkey! Isn't he just too cute?!?

And if that wasn't enough, she also gave me a couple of her adorable hooties.  Do you know Annie saw these guys in Pinterest?  How cool is that?  I know someone famous?!?!

 I finally met Deb.  I've heard so much about her, but over the past year, have never seen her. I've joked that she was a figment of everyone's imagination, but she shows up and proceeds to bless me with this gorgeous yarn from China!  How cool is that? She also gave me a jade good luck charm for my phone. Cross your fingers it works, cause I need to go buy a lottery ticket!

As you can see, I decorated my bulletin board at work with a little Christmas spirit.  Isn't it great? ...and cluttered. Yikes!  Do you think maybe I should clean it up a little?  Nah!  And finally.....

Mel gave me an ornament that has a sentiment that a lot of us share :)

I hope that you all get the yarn or whatever else you've wished for this year.  But most of all, I hope you find joy in the small moments and love where and when you least expect it. I'll be popping back in sometime next week, until then, thanks for joining me this year and I hope we continue our friendship into the next!

This Moment

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Happy Friday!!

This one gets some words.  This is Number One Son and his Wrestling Coach at last night's gym dedication and match. Can you tell he admires and respects this man a great deal? It was a very special night for everyone there as the gym was named after Coach for his 33 years of service as an amazing coach, teacher, mentor and friend. It's just a small thank you for all he's done for my boys.

Inspired by Amanda Soule - Feel free to join in and share a link to your moment.

Hooks and Needles

The hooks and needles are flying around my house.  I'm still working on "giftmas" knitting and crocheting. ( a special thanks to Denise for that wonderful word!) Some gifts have even been handed out.  My sister was here for Thanksgiving (YEA!) and I so enjoyed her company.  I sent Charli's gift home with her and I actually let her open hers because she is currently working in Virginia and could use it....that's right, she was the recipient of the lace socks. I do believe she liked them.

There is still so much to get done.  However, I was able to finish one very sweet little gift this weekend...

Sorry for the lousy picture, but this is a little dress for Piper.  I think I'm pretty safe in showing this because I seriously doubt that my month and half old niece will be cruising blogs anytime soon.  I have to block it so that the lace pattern at the bottom doesn't look like holey knitting.  I also made a little something to go with it.....

Because  every well dressed Little Miss needs a coordinating diaper cover.  I have enough yarn left over that I thought about making some little booties...hmmm....the possibilities.  Or would that be over kill?

After all the craziness of the past month, it was absolutely wonderful to spend some quiet time at home knitting while watching Christmas movies.  It really did help get me into the spirit. 

This week we will be getting all the boxes out so that we can decorate the house.  Talk about over kill.  It looks like Christmas positively throws up at our house with all the red, green and gold.  But it does make for a cheery house and I think we need a little cheery about now.

Have you decorated yet or are you slow like me.  Do you celebrate Christmas? Hmmm...inquiring minds want to know....Hope you have a wonderful week!

This Moment

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words  - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.  Happy Friday!!

From this....

To this.

My baby turns 16 today.  I adore this funny, sweet, amazing and talented boy, but he's growing up way too fast!  Happy Birthday Baby!


Inspired by Amanda Soule - Feel free to join in and share a link to your moment.

Moving Forward

Thank you friends, for letting me get all that negative energy out!  I feel sooo much better. Sorry to have burdened you.

From all the craziness, I did get this wonderful picture of the older kids all cleaned up.

Aren't they a good looking group? The two boys on either side of the girl are mine.  Number One Son it the red head in the bow tie. Number Two Son is the blond. The other three are my niece and nephews.  Not only are they a really attractive group, they are incredibly smart and kind hearted. They make me so proud! This picture is just missing the four little ones, but they will be home for Christmas.  I am looking forward to some quality family time.

Recovery

Well, I'm back.  November was a very trying month for my family, but it also shown me what an amazing family I have...

My husband's step-father passed away on November 27th.  He was an older gentleman and lived a full life. His death has been very hard on my mother-in-law and the entire family.  It has helped show me the strength of my family and that the glue that keeps us together is very strong.  It's also shown me that there are some very judgmental and shallow people in this world only concerned with appearances and what's in their and other people's wallets.  The whole situation was very disheartening. It saddened me that, in this day and time, there are people who won't take to time to learn who a person is, but insist on sticking to their preconceived, inaccurate notions. Everyone should have been drawing strength from each other, not drawing a line.  At the same time though, I was so incredibly proud on my family for rising above it all and taking the high road. They have shown great grace and class in a time of grief and proven to me that it doesn't matter what the shallow minded people think. For that, I am very proud to call them my family. 

And that is all I'm going to say about that.  

However, I will admit that sometimes we forget our manners.....

That's Number One Son showing everyone what he was eating for Thanksgiving several years ago. That woman in the background, peeking around the corning and shaking her finger at someone...that's me....I guess I'm trying to make sure they learn something...what, I don't know. The one with the cheesy grin is Number Two Son. Just a little something to lighten the mood.

I would again like to thank everyone for their kind words, emails and friendship.  I can't tell you how much that means.  It definitely helped me keep my head high this past month and as a friend said, "the holidays can only be better."

This Moment

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words  - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.  Happy Friday!!

Piper - The bright spot in our world

 Inspired by Amanda Soule - Feel free to join in and share a link to your moment.

Missing You

I just wanted to pop in and say that we are alive and well.  We've had another death in Car Guy's family, so we've been taking care of that and each other, as it should be.  I've been randomly visiting you and I'll get back to my obnoxious commenting self soon. Thank you in advance for your kindness and sympathy. They are greatly appreciated.