It’s a holly jolly Christmas

So it’s the night before Christmas and we are yet to be tucked into our beds. It’s been a short year. Where has it gone? I’ve been doing some updating on my site, mostly in the crochet section. Though I still have more pictures to take and add to the site. I am hoping next year to get more visitors and also hoping to add a new catagory to the crochet. I want to start selling things that I make. I’ll start with some small things like purses and pot holders and things of that nature and hopefully build up from there. The other day Robert and I went to Denny’s for breakfast, I was carrying my pink purse that I made. Our waitress really loved it and asked me a few questions about it. She also asked if I had a website so I gave her the address. I don’t yet know if she has visited yet or not but in case she hasn’t and she reads this I’d like to say HELLO THERE to her all the crew at Denny’s!!

I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful Happy New Year!!!

The perpetual car alarm…in my living room

So the other morning I get up and sleepily zombie walk out to the living and plunk down in my computer chair, as I do most mornings. Robert gets up soon after me, and also sits down in his chair. After a few minutes of waking up I look at him and say do you hear that? He says what? I said that car alarm, I wish whoever owns it would shut it off.

It was one of those noises that is faint but just loud enough to drive you crazy. I get up, open the front door expecting a blast of noise to hit me, and nothing…nothing but the birds waking up the morning with their songs..HUH??? what the…I know I just heard it..well maybe they shut it off before I opened the door….maybe I’m just going crazy.

I shut the door and go sit back down..there it is again…arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggg not something my ears want to hear when I first get up. So I get up and head for the kitchen door…when I get underneath the ceiling fan the car alarm get louder….what the….

I look up and really listen to the faint yet distinct sound of my ceiling fan doing a perfect immation of a car alarm!

Friends are forever…or are they

So Taben has been attending church with one of her friends that she met when she was in public school.

Things have not gone so great for Taben. Taben has said several times that she has thought about quiting church soley because of her friend…I’ll call the friend JO.

It seems that JO is a very needy and stingy friend and really not much of a friend at all. She won’t share, and all conversations revolve around her. In fact she dominates all conversations not allowing Taben to get a word in edge wise. Taben has said that JO often complains about her family life, for example JO’s parents are mean (her father is the Pastor of the church) and that her older sister who is 16 won’t play with her anymore.

I’ve asked Taben how JO thinks her parents are mean and she said that JO, said that they won’t give her, her alloance money when she doesn’t do her chores. Taben knows how JO feels because our rule is the same, no chores, no money. However for JO it’s not always like that…sometime her parents give her money anyhow…Taben doesn’t think JO has anything to complain about and even once told her that she wouldn’t last a minute in our home because we have rules and if the rules are not followed then there is a price to pay.

Though Taben isn’t sure how to put it into words of her own, I think she feels used by JO. JO has told her that she asked her to go to church just so she would have someone to talk to.

I told Taben that she needs to talk to JO about how she feels. Even if she quits going to church with JO. JO needs to know why Taben is quitting. And of Taben doesn’t quit JO needs to know how she makes Taben feel, so that they can improve their friendship.

It’s so hard talking to friends about how they hurt us…..especially so when your young and just can’t find the right words to use. Taben doesn’t want to hurt JO, but she doesn’t want to feel like the neglected party anymore either.

Yes It’s Early…

So I was thinking about where in the world am I gonna place my Christmas tree this year. Having lived in the old house for 4 Christmas’s I knew right where it went..the same place every year. But with a new house comes new holiday decorating challenges.

My living room is nice and long but kind of narrow, and it’s filled to the max, tv center, dvd shelf, 3 computer desks, printer rack, 2 sofa’s, 2 end tables, a recliner…and a partridge in a pear tree….lol

I was able to move a few things around. But I’m still in the planning phase.

Cheating

So Saturday Robert informs me that he found the answer section under Taben’s workbook. I had specifically taken them out of the book to avoid the desire to cheat and to also make it easier for me to grade her papers.

I pulled the rug out from under her today….While she was working I went in and asked her

“So why did dad find the answers under your workbook?” Her reply…”Ut oh….busted” with a huge grin on her face.

I asked her why she cheated and her reply was “because I didn’t want to do the work”.

I calmly asked her to show me the pages she had cheated on, which she did, and as she showed me each one I wrote…in big red letters F Cheater. Her grin was gone after the seond one replace with a low hanging head.

I then proceeded to take out 4 sheets of notebook paper. I wrote in big read letters across the top I WILL NOT CHEAT. She must fill all 4 sheets front and back with that same sentence, AFTER she has done her work.

I told her “like lieing I will not abide by cheating. You learn nothing when you cheat”.

I was very calm about it. I didn’t holler and yell. I’m very proud of myself.

She won’t talk to me right. I don’t know if she is mad because she got busted or if she is mad because of the F’s and the punishment of having to write lines. Probably a lot of both.

Yes she made a mistake in judgement…but she MUST learn from that mistake. If I do not teach her now that cheating is a no no, she will go through life cheating, thinking it is acceptable.

It can’t be!

I was sitting here thinking about Christmas and what we are going to get Taben….Sorry Taben I’m not listing it here hahahahaha

anyway it hit me…in 6 months I will be the parent of a full fledged teenager…that can’t be….I’m not that OLD

I better start saving up for that walker I’ll be needing soon…

When things don’t work

So I have been working on this:

Havn’t gotten past the boot yet and to say that I have had trouble with it is an understatement.

I am making it for my mom and to enter into this years County Fair craft contest, why you ask, Well because I love to crochet, love a good challenge, and mom likes Victorian stuff, and I like blowing the old ladies out of the proverbial water at the craft fair…Ok I know that was mean…but crocheting isn’t just for old ladies anymore, and I will be the first to gloat about my skills and say that I am darn good.

Now I consider myself an advanced crocheter. I have been crocheting for more than 6 years. I can do anything…and I mean ANYTHING with no problems. Have made several of my own patterns with ease and have followed countless patterns as well. However this pattern is kicking me in the arse!

Now it’s not any more chanllenging than anything I’ve already done…but when a pattern isn’t correct you run into trouble quickly!
This pattern has been incorrect in many spots, unfortunatly I have found out the hard way….Through trial and error. Take for instance…the top of the boot. I get through part of it and think hey this is gonna be nice….I go on to the other side and right away realize something’s not quite right…Now all my instincts…and my daughter… are telling me the pattern is WRONG…however I decided…unwisely….to ignore both…..and complete the second part….only to find that I should have listened in the first place.

My daughter joyfully sing songs ripit ripit ripit the little brat….and so I ripit ript ripit out and start over….and hour and a half of work down the crapper….

Now one would think that….and hour and half of work isn’t so bad…and I would normally agree…however when one is working with teeeee tiny thread and hook…as I am with this project…..an hour and a half is a lot of work and sore and cramping hands….Now I know why those little old ladies that I was mean to in the beginging of this post….have fingers that look like crab legs…all knarled up….it’s because of allllll those doilies that they have made and had to rip back out and do over. Maybe I shouldn’t be mean to these old ladies….because I might just be like them one day…with fingers that look like crab legs as my daughter calls them ….especially if this pattern keeps on the course that it has been on….

MOM I HOPE YOU REALLLY appreciate the ding dang set …IF I ever get it done!

Cool weather

Finaly we have some cooler days! Yesterday I got up and opened the house up for a good airing out. It’s been 3 years since I have been able to do that. The other house we lived in had all the windows screwed shut because all of the cranks were missing. It is so wonerful to be able to open the windows! It was about 62 yesterday and warmed up to about 88. It was so cool in fact that we didnt shut the house up until about 4:30 when the house got too warm.

So this morning here I sit at my computer with my cup of coffee and my house all opened up and the cool air blowing in at random. It’s a beautiful morning.