When schools fail what can you do?

Yesterday while reading one of my favorite (who am I kidding, it is my favorite)blogs I read a comment from another reader that mentioned a HORRIFIC event in a school in Florida. If you have not hear of this, as I hadn't, a teacher encouraged her students to tell another child what they didn't like about him, and then they voted him out of the class. Horrible on all accounts, but this child is also in the process of being diagnosed with Aspergers. School should be a safe place for a child. Why is it that these actions were not reprimanded? Why is it that we live in a society were this is considered acceptable. I am outraged! Today Sue, my favorite blogger, wrote a lovely post about this. I encourage you to check it out. TTFN, Miki

Motorcycle accident update

Not sure how to title todays post. I just read in my email prayer requests from my previous church in Oregon that the husband of my friend who died in the motorcycle accident has also passed. His injuries were also to severe. I pray for peace for the family as they deal with this tragedy. I also pray for the driver of the car as this is something he will live with for the rest of his life.
TTFN, Miki

I am getting to old for this

Wednesday night Craig and I attend the Eagles Long Road out of Eden concert. It was FABULOUS!! We had a terrific time. They sang many of their new songs, and many of their clasics. The next night we attended a James Taylor concert in Virginia Beach. Normally I wouldn't go to back to back concerts, but we had purchased the James Taylor tickets before the Eagles announced they would be here. Long story short, Thursdays concert ended at about 1130, and we arrive home at 315 in the morning. It took us about 2 hours to move 5 miles. The traffic through the tunnel was down to one lane due to construction. I was tired and cranky the next day and no ammount of coffee was going to help.

I will say though, if you get a chance to see the Eagles, do because they were great.

TTFN, Miki

Motorcycle Safety

The last several months, as gas prices have increased, Craig and I have argued over the purchase of a motorcycle for his work commute. He drives about a half an hour one way. While I can see that they get much better gas mileage than even his Taurus, I don't think it will save us money. He thinks it will. My arguement is that I don't think motorcycles are safe. Even the safest driver can still by killed. I think that after getting more life insurance, and buying the motorcycle, and taking the classes to be a responsible rider, and the insurance, and the personal property tax, and even possible the therapy for me after worrying that he won't come home each time he rides, we will not be ahead financially. Even if we were ahead, I don't think it would be by much, and that fact that it scares me too death that he isn't a safe as he could be, makes it not worth it.

Normally I wouldn't blog about this, but as I "cleaned out" one of my inboxes this morning I read a prayer request from the church in my home town. I dear friend of mine and her husband had been injured in a motorcycle accident on their way to the Rhodedenron Festival. She apparantly had been life flighted to another hospital where she eventually died. Her husband was in critical condition at a closer hospital. I immediately began searching for info on this crash. I finally found some on a local tv station website. I was saddend to hear that they were hit from behind as they slowed to turn into a waypoint. What the article did not say was if speed was a factor. I am sure it was. This for me only proves my point in how unsafe motorcycles are. The driver of the car that struck them was not paying enough attention, and as a result my friend is dead and her husband critically injured. I know in my rational mind that my husband could also die in a car accident, but I also know that he is better protected in a car to survive. Plus, I am not ready to live without him, and don't think I ever will be. TTFN, Miki

School?

So here I sit, on the lunch hour of my first class since being back in school. Ugh! I sure hope this isn't going to be what it is like. I mean really...! Now I am remembering why I didn't finish the first time around. I wasn't challenged enough to study, or pay attention, or go to class for that matter. Of course this time will be different. I am older and wiser, or maybe just older. Hopefully I am not as cocky as I was back then. I really just want this to be done with.

What class am I taking? Well it is a lovely class called Introduction to Microcomputers. It is required as part of the nursing program. As is another lovely class I need to take called College Success Skills. I opted to take the computer class over two Saturdays, hoping to not draw out the agony anymore than I need to. I am glad I made this choice.

The first part of the morning was about random thought regarding the computer and anything sort of computer related. We learned the history of numbers, and loads about Lord Byron, yes the poet. Did you know he had a club foot? What this has to do with computers I am not sure, but it was a tangent and he went with it.

The last hour was spent learning all about the world wide web. I now know that it wasn't created by Al Gore...sorry Al. Of course I already knew that, but whose keeping track. Actually the only really useful thing that I have picked up today was regarding HTML code. I know very little about this. Of course anyone reading this blog and who understands the code, knows that. Again, who is keeping score. Anyhow,...I know have a better understanding of HTML, and maybe now I can tweak my blog. Of course I am not sure how that will help me with nursing, but we shall see.

During the first part of my lunch break I was telling my husband that this class really didn't seem to be designed for students who were working towards any type of degree. Most people in college are much younger and have never known anything other than using a computer. This class seems better suited for older students, who have lived in a hole in the ground for the thast 10-15 years, or for seniors who don't quite understand how it works. Or maybe for people who have a VCR that is still blinking 12:00.

Well gotta go, lunch is almost over, and I need to get back to it. I will keep you up to date. TTFN, Miki

Earth Day

So I had planned on writing something yesterday for Earth Day. It didn't happen. I will however write something today. In my quest to be greener, I feel like I am still falling short. I have been working hard at remembering my own bags for the grocery store. The clerks usually give me a funny look and then still only put a few items in each bag. I end up grabbing groceries before they can to stick in my still empty bags so they won't give me any plastic bags. Sometimes it feels like the bagging person, gets paid by how many plastic bags they use in a day. Seriously!

Sunday with my Girl Scouts, they decorated canvas bags for the grocery store. The bags had a piece of the Girl Scout law, either make the world a better place, or use resources wisely. Each bag was similar and yet different. My oldest daughters was awesome! I am constantly amazed at her effortless artistic ability. She would have loved to have taken an art class at school this year, but she wasn't willing to give up choir. I guess I could always sign her up for a class at a local studio. Where I would find the time for it, I am not sure.

Yesterday's Weekly Grist was informative as usual. I particularly liked their top ten. I will definitely be looking into some of these items. The led lights and power strip were two of my favorites.

Living Greener?

So much for my resolution to live greener. I have always been a good recycler, and try really hard to garden organicly. This year however, I decided to work a little harder at leaving less of an impact. Remember how I said that I wanted to start using my own shopping bags? Well I am using my own most of the time. That has been great. The checkers seem inconvienenced by not using their bags, but screw them!They are so wasteful with them sometimes only putting one or two small items in a bag. Last night for example, we were at a store and purchase a pair of capri sweat pants and two packaged t-shirts. When I told the clerk we didn't need a bag, he looked shocked. Please! We could totally carry these ourselves.

Anyhow I found out yesterday that most of this work has been in vain. A few months ago we got a water bill for almost 500 dollars. I thought to myself, oops I must have missed the last bill. We are billed bi monthly. Now the ammount seemed high even for 4 months, but I really didn't pay much attention. Well then we got another 500 dollar bill. I then called the department of utilites and they were less than helpful. Their inspector came out and was supposed to knock on the door to make sure we weren't using any water when he checked the line. He didn't he looked and left a note that said we had water running in the house. Well, because he didn't knock I didn't know if we did or not. So the lady at the department of utilities, which I would like to call the department of uselessness suggested that I dye test my toilets. I questioned whether that could really make my bill go up by almost 4 times. She assured me that it could. I asked even if I couldn't hear my toilets running and she said yes. Well....the plumber yesterday told me no. He also told me after turning off the water to my house, under the house that we had a break somewhere from the meter to where it comes out of the ground under the front corner of the house. YEAH! We get to dig up our front yard! In my quest to live greener, during a near drought(we have been under water restrictions) I have been using tons of water. I am shocked that this wasn't a red flag to anyone at the department of uselessness. I mean we aren't allowed to water our lawns, or wash our own cars, but apparantly can have HUGE leaks in our front yards. Or course a dear friend suggested that I look for the silver lining. Hmm....the oak trees in the yard have been well fed...I will have one nice green strip of grass where they have dug up the line. Umm...my water bill should go down...and considering the size of the leak, I should have better water pressure. And, I can once again continue my quest for greener living.

BTW, I am typing on my new laptop, and keeping hitting an unknown key that causes the cursor to jump somewhere else on the screen. It is getting VERY frustrating and I don't know what key it is or how to stop it. The strange thing is this has never happened to me on any other keyboard ever. So, if there is a typo I missed...sorry.

Technology Sucks...Sometimes

So the cookie sale is over. Finally! I just have some money collecting, and a little paperwork to do. The girls and I finished up two large projects for the cookie pins and submitted them electronically. I took a break planning on making the hard copies later in the evening. Well later when I came back the screen on my laptop was BLACK! When I rebooted the screen quicly flashed some ugly color, and then went black again. So, I took it itno geek sqaud today and they say the LED screen has gone bad. YUCK! So I bought a new laptop and paid for them to transfer my files to the new one. They however did not get all of the music...actually they only took the itunes. This works great for me, but not my hubby as his MP3 player doesn't use itunes. The most frustrating part is I was told they were making an exact copy of my hard drive...LIARS. Anyhow, now I have to either take it back to them, and watch them connect the two hard drives and tell them what to take, or figure out how to do it myself. Apparantly the spot on my old laptop to connect another monitor was also not working; LUCKY ME! As far as I can tell they got everything else. Now I just need to figure out how to get all my bookmarked sites back. And I need to figure out this new keyboard as every once in awhile, I touch something and the cursor jumps back a few lines.

On another frustrating front, we took Craigs new/used car in yesterday for its inspection. We knew they wouldn't get to it until today. Well they called this morning and ask how to shut off the alarm. I told them to use the correct key to start the car. I don't think they liked that answer. So apparntly there is a keypad to type in a code if the wrong key is used. Which I am sure they did, or the alarm wouldn't have gone off. Only problem is Craig wrote the code down on a scrap of paper that I had recycled, and while I was on the phone with the mechaninc, the recycle truck was pulling away. So I went to the mechanics and I have no idea what they did, but no matter what I did, keyless entry unlock, anything...the alarm went off. So I called the dealer, who called the previous owner to get the code. We typed in the code, and the alarm still went off. Now we have driven this car 3 or 4 times with no problem, so I don't know what they did, but long story short, they took the alarm out. The car however, did not get inspected today.

This keyboard is truly driving me crazy! I wish I could figure it out, and why it keeps jumping around.

Knitting Photos!

My mom has received her socks. They fit and she loves them. YEAH! She even ask if I had put them on my blog, I told her what I wrote and she laughed and said she hadn't check it in a while, but I was right if I had put the pictures up she probably would have seen them.



Also here are the face/dish cloths I have knit.


Enjoy, TTFN, Miki

Whats new

Val says that I need to update my blog...she is right. So here is what I am up to. Sleep and laying around. I got the flu about a month ago, and things are just not the same. I tire very easy, and my resting heart rate is still way higher than it should be. ANY activity (Im talking walking to the bathroom) raises it to lets say my target heart rate or above. I've been to the doctor and to a specialist and they have come to the conclusion that it is just a virus. Im going to give it a little longer and then get another oppinion. We are working on week four and they said the bug should last 2-4 weeks.

Needless to say, I have not done much knitting as I just haven't felt like it. I did however finish a round face cloth, and frogged another one. I am also working on a super secret gift for my moms birthday, which was yesterday. I say super secret, because she has started to read my blog from time to time, and if I tell you what it is, this would be the time she reads it. As soon as she receives the gift, I will post about it.

I am also at the middle of Girl Scout cookie sales. We actually got our cookies today. This will mark the beginning of a crazy busy week, and month. I love the cookies, and love that they support girl scouts, but they are VERY time consuming.

So that is what I am up to, hope to post more soon. TTFN, Miki

A dish cloth meant for the face

My BFF Val just started knitting. Like me she has crafters ADD. She quickly learned that a garter stitch scarf was boring! So she knit a dish cloth. Hers is great! However, she ran out of patterns. I looked up a few for her on Ravelry, and then found a couple I would like to try.

Part of my "being greener" in the new year has been to reduce my paper use, ie napkins and paper towels. Instead I use cloth, or for every day small dish cloths. They are inexpensive and I can re use them. So anyhow, I found this pretty feather and fan pattern and figured I would give it a try. Then I found a Sugar and Cream cotton by Lily that was self striping and the colors were so pretty. It was called country stripe, but I think it is a little more Pacific Oceany than country. The first picture shows the colors the best I can get tonight, and the second shows the pattern the best. My oldest daughter really liked how it turned out, and thinks it would be a shame to use on dishes, so it will probably be used for the face. Enjoy, Miki

Craigs Brithday Sweater

Here is the sweater I knit (on the machine) for Craig for his birthday.

So this is what I get for growning up in Eugene!?!

Your Political Profile:

Overall: 60% Conservative, 40% Liberal Social Issues: 50% Conservative, 50% Liberal Personal Responsibility: 50% Conservative, 50% Liberal Fiscal Issues: 100% Conservative, 0% Liberal Ethics: 0% Conservative, 100% Liberal Defense and Crime: 100% Conservative, 0% Liberal

How Liberal Or Conservative Are You?

Honestly what does this mean? It would seem that Obama would fit the fiscal profile I want, but he may just be a tad to liberal for me. My sister believes the only reason he is a viable candidate is because of Oprah. I think the same could be said for Hilary except that she is made viable because of Bill. I have to say I voted for Bill the first time around. But what is that saying, Fool me once.... I don't think I will be fooled by the Clintons again. I also voted for George the first time around, seemed like the best candidate to me. Didn't make that mistake again.

Growing up in Eugene, I tried not to talk politics too much. That is a VERY liberal city, and anything other than left wing politics was not a popluar stance. Most of my friends will vote Democraticly no matter the candidate. I think that is just plain sad.

My sister recently told me a rather amusing story of a time my mother didn't like either candidate and she wrote my fathers name in instead. Now mind you, my parents do not share the same political views. My mom is liberal, my father conservative. My sister ask my mother how she would have been able to live with herself if he had won. Now I know this is an impossiblity, but it would have been so funny if she would have had to dealt with it.

Thats all I have folks, if you have some suggestions to help me choose a candidate, I welcome them. TTFN, Miki

What I am up to

Have you ever been so busy that you never feel like you accomplish anything? That is how I feel lately. I keep cleaning the same rooms over and over and they still never look clean. Of course, that could be because I am the only one in the house that ever seems to put anything away.

I have stacks of things to do for girl scouts. I have knitting that has been requested. I want to get my transcripts and talk to a someone at the local college about going back to school. I have a calendar to update so I don't miss any important dates. I have 935 photos to pick up at Walgreens. Yes I did say 935. This would be the last almost 3 years worth of pictures. Before we moved away from Oregon I was COMPLETELY caught up on all of my photos and scrapbooks. It was such a nice feeling. I took photos to record our lives and they were loving placed in books that my family and friends good enjoy. However since we moved, I take the pictures and then never find time to put them in albums. This year I have made several resolutions. One was to get caught up on the albums. I figured I would make better headway if the pictures were printed. Lucky me, Walgreens had a sale.

For Bubba, I need to knit a devil hat, and of course the Princess Leia hat. I have two piggles to knit for my older girls, but they only want a ponytail hole as they don't wear pigtails anymore. I need to adjust that pattern because it peaks a little at the top and I really want it to lay flat. I was telling my mom that I just didn't want to adjust it because it required me to think and knitting for me is about relaxing and following a pattern, not thinking. How sad is that? Sue, tells me her daughter would love the Piggle. Sue, I would gladly make one for Eve. Just let me know.

I also want to update me blog a little,add a blog roll, blog everyday. Of course I would also like those blogs to be interesting.

So many desires, so little time.

On another note, and sorta unrealated, I have resolved to live my life a little greener. With some Christmas money from my brother and SIL, I purchased Green Housekeeping by Ellen Sandbeck. It is a very interesting read so far. I had already started using Vinegar with 4 thieves as a cleaner and love it, much to my kids dismay. They really don't like how it smells. I told them that they would get used to it and learn to like it. I also told them it was the smell of clean, not the smell of chemicals and perfumes. I think this book will definetly help me towards my goal of greener living. I also want to start bringing my own bags to the grocery store. I am really sick of all the plastic bags we get and having to deal with them and remember to bring them back to the store to recycle them. However, I had planned on knitting my bags out of hemp, or linen or something very natural and long lasting. Of course, if I wait for this to happen, who knows how long my goal will be postponed. I need to just bite the bullet and buy a few bags and when I have time replace them with the ones I make. Now to find some I like. Maybe I am just over thinking this.

Not a good sales tactic

Note to all sales people out there: If you plan on selling me something, say furniture, maybe a sofa, or dining room table...do not flirt with my husband. It also probably not a good idea to come up behind him and stand close enough that it looks like you are touching him, or even have your arm around him, lean over his shoulder and try hard to convince me that it is THE perfect item for me. Even if it was, and it wasn't, I would NEVER buy it from you. And when I walk away instead of saying something really rude to you, do NOT follow me, and ask if there is anything else I need help with.

I really hate shopping where things are sold on commission, especcially when the economy is bad, and people are just not spending money. Sales people are like vultures and they really annoy me.

Piggle

Here is the long awaited photo of my nieces piggle hat. I am only showing it from the back. The front looks the same, I am sure you get the idea. TTFN, Miki

PS you can find this pattern at Knitty, for free.

Knitting updates

Here are some pictures of the projects I have been working on. First is Jill's felted hat.


Then we have Ms. Bertie's prayer shawl.



Then we have Marks scarf. The scarf is not done yet, but I wanted to post a picture of it now.



TTFN, Miki

Pueblo Diorama

My youngest daughter had to do a project for shcool about Native Americans. She chose the type of project and the region. She chose a diorama and the Southwest Region. Here is a picture of the Diorama. She worked very hard on it. Notice her adobe, and the garden with the corn and melons. Also the irrigation system between her rows. She got an A on it and was very proud of herself. I love how it turned out, and just had to share. TTFN, Miki

Catching up

It has been a long while since I've blogged and I have some catching up to do.

First both my daughters cheer squads took third at States this year. This was a nice end to a busy season.

I have been knitting away when I can find the time. I finished a prayer shawl for my neighbor and am working on a scarf for her husband. These will be Christmas gifts for them. I will post the pattern and pictures soon. First I need to get the knitting machine off the table so I have a place to take the pictures that has decent light.

Speaking of the knitting machine, I pulled it out of storage to knit a hat for my youngest neice. She will be two just after Christmas and that is about the right age for the felted hat. She says her favorite color is purple, but my sister begged me not to make another purple hat. You see the other three girls all have hats that are a purpley shade and there is always a fight about which hat belongs to which girl. So it make both of them happy, I knit and felted her a hat in a nice bright not purple shade of aqua, and hand knit her a lace beanie in a lavender with a silver sparkle thread running through it. This yarn is the same kind as the yarn I used to make her ruby red mary janes, but lavender instead of red. The best thing about this hat, is that it has two little holes on the sides for her pigtails to stick out. I need to put it on one of my girls so that I can post a picture of it. I can hardly wait to see it on her! I guess that is one good thing about living MANY miles away from them, I can't give it to her early.

The last thing I can think of, is the thing that has me frustrated right now. I knit a hat for a friend. She wanted a charcoal grey one like mine. Well, I can't find a LYS that carries that type of yarn. I know I can order it, but what a hassle. So I went in search of a different brand. The other yarn I use to felt also didn't have a grey. Then I found a beautiful yarn that was named Alpaca Natural Blends. It was perfect...or so I thought. I knit the hat up, threw it in the wash and a hour or so later went to check on it. NO change. WTF! Then I read the label. 30% Alpaca, 70% Acrylic. YUCK! No wonder it didn't felt. I guess I should read the label before buying. So, now I still need to find and knit and felt a grey hat. I guess I will keep the other for a snowman. Or maybe I will frog the whole thing. BTW...it snowed today. It didn't stick, but I still think falling snow is one of the most beautiful things in the world. TTFN, Miki

I love retro

Pedal cars, record players, and a coke cooler. I LOVE retro. My kids are too big for the car, and we already have an awesome vintage turntable. So the cooler is my favorite. It also helps that I collect Coca Cola. 5minutesformom is having another awesome give away and these are the prizes you can win. Don't like these well you can also choose a cash voucher to purchase something from the retro store. See what else you can win here I so hope I win. TTFN, Miki