The Ghost

I started the purple fuzzy monster and I didn't like it so I decided to do a ghost. I got some white yarn and started on what I thought would look like a ghost. I finished the first side and it turned out to be a triangle. It didn't look like a ghost at all. I then got on line and started looking for bell patterns. I found one and started to work it up and it didn't look like a ghost at all. Then I started playing around and voila, I got my ghost. I added eyes and a smile and there he was. A few arms and we had our ghost.
Now I am off to work on the pirate and I will have all three done before Halloween.

20th High School Reunion

Last night was my 20th high school reunion. It doesn't seem that long since I graduated but it has been 20 years they tell me. I certainly don't feel that old! I am not real sure why I was nervous but I was. I didn't RSVP until the very end and even yesterday I had thoughts about not going. But as I told my husband when we went to his, if it is bad and we want to leave then we will go and have a nice dinner somewhere. As it turned out we arrived around 7:45 and before I knew it, it was midnight! Everyone looked just the same. Some of the men had turned grey and some had lost some hair. The ladies really all looked very much the same. I would have recognized them in a heartbeat at the mall. Speaking of which, I am not sure why I don't run into more of them. Most everyone there lived still in Richmond. We have spread out a bit but I was surprised to find out many still live within the same high school district that we lived in growing up.

So to anyone out there reading this and thinking that their reunion is coming up and it questioning whether or not to go. GO! You will find that you will have a really good time. I can't wait until the next one now!!

When all Else Fails...

use Italian Salad Dressing. Or if you like a good Ken's Caesar does well too. No, I am not talking about eating salad. I AM talking about marinades. Italian salad dressing is great on fish, chicken, tuna, pork and turkey. It is also great on shrimp! You can also marinade most kinds of vegetables if you are going to grill them. I am talking about zucchini, squash, onions, eggplant, and even fresh green beans. What a versitile item!!

Crazy Hat Day

Yesterday was "Crazy Hat Day" at the Logos church group. This was Alexandra with her crazy hat that we made and the butterfly wings that she got at dinner the other night.

Our local sports bar has "kids eat free" night every Tuesday night. They put in a kid friendly movie on the big screen TV's in the restaurant side of the place and keep the sports on in the bar area. It is a fun crazy night. There are tons of kids and the movie is playing loud and they have a guy "uncle bert" who comes around to the tables and makes balloon animals and such.

Applesauce

Because we went apple picking two weeks ago, it seems that all I am cooking right now is applesauce. I have made a ton of applesauce in the past two weeks. It should keep my family happy until next summer.
Here is my recipe:
I take about 10 cups of apples peeled, chunked and cored, about 3-4 cups of water. Put all in a big pot and cook on medium high heat until the apples are soft. Stir often! Once the apples are soft mash them with a potato masher. If you like smoother applesauce then put in a food processor and mix until smoothness desired is achieved. Add about 1 to 1/2 cups of sugar and about a 1/2 TBS of cinnamon and stir. Taste. You may want to add a bit more water if it is too thick, you may want to go light on the cinnamon until you taste it and then add some more. Fill canning jars and process in a water bath for about 10-15 minutes.
The chunky style is great served warm with pork chops or ham. The smoother, cold stuff is great, well, anytime!

Another New Blog

I have contacted Lion Brand website and asked them to please look at their blogs that they have on their site. They have approximately 7 blogs and only one blogger is writing at all. I asked them to consider adding other bloggers to their site and to consider me as one of them. They responded with a very nice email stating that they are redoing their site and will be making changes in the spring time including adding and deleting their bloggers who don't write. They asked me to contact them in the spring and they would be happy to consider me.

With that said, I thought it would be wise for me to begin my own blog of my handcrafts for two reasons. One, if they consider me they will need something to look at and this blog would be an excellent example of what kind of material they would get from me. Two, I do so much handwork (almost nightly I pick something up) that it would be a great outlet for you all to see much of my work and my thought process in completing it.

So do check it out. Remember that I have just begun this blog and there isn't much on there right now but it will bulk up quickly.

www.whitneyshandwork.blogspot.com

Couple photos of the Beach!

Here are a few photos of the beach for you. It was very nice and the weather was great. We got a new camera, as you may have guessed by now. It is great and can take video too.

We go to the Outer Banks in North Carolina and my step-mother still owns my father's house down there. We go when the house is not rented and this summer weren't able to go because of that. So we had to wait until the Fall to get our beach time. Unfortunately we can only spend a weekend because of school.

Nicholas Sells Popcorn

Want Some???

Allie gets a haircut!

Allie got her twice yearly hair cut yesterday evening. Her hair was well below her waist and it was time for a trim. So I pulled out the scissors and started chopping away. I cut 3 inches off and it brought her hair back up to the top of her pants waist. This way she doesn't have to pull it out of her pants when she is getting dressed.

I asked her today if anyone noticed her hair cut. She said not one person.

How to Cut Fresh Pineapple

Many people are afraid to buy a fresh pineapple because they don't know how to properly cut it. It is quite simple if you follow these steps.
1. Cut the bottom off about 1/2 inch from the bottom, then cut the top off. Now you are left with the spiny outside and a very flat bottom so it doesn't roll around.
2. Next start cutting off the spiny outside from top to bottom about 1/4 inch in. This way you get most of the seeds out too. Just go around the outside cutting in small strips the outer skin and spines.
3. Then, look at it from the top and you will see the round core in the middle. For chunks begin by cutting large strips one the sides from top to bottom cutting away from the core. You will cut 1/4 of it first then turn it 1/4 turn and cut again straight down, then turn and cut and turn and cut the last bit. This will leave you with a square core if you did it right.
4. Take the large chunks that you just cut and slice them as small as you like. Trim off any outer spines that you didn't get when you "deskined" it.
5. If you want circles then cut the pineapple sideways and then use a small knife to core out the inner core. If you have a small round cookie cutter that will work too but they are very hard to find.

My oh My...

So it has been quite a while since my last confession and I wonder what I have been doing since then.

Here is the long and short of it. Soccer, soccer, apple picking, soccer, scouts, OT therapy, soccer, soccer, and then we went to the beach. The beach was fun but short. It is still there though not as much anymore. We played putt-putt and had a great time.

Caroline on Kenneth's shoulders picking apples.

Like my Pixie?

So what do you all think about my Weather Pixie? She is on the sidebar. She will tell you all what kind of weather I am having currently. She stays current and updates her outfit according to the weather.

Like her? Want one? Just click on her and she will take you to the site were you can personalize your own Pixie!!

Progress

Today we set out to try to accomplish some cleaning today. So we started with the living room. Now we don't use this room except for holidays and birthdays. It usually ends up a catch all room from time to time and we have to clean it out when we want to use it. It is supposed to be our "formal" room. We have a white couch in there along with white patterned wing chairs and our piano. Today it was easy to clean as there wasn't much in there that wasn't supposed to be there. I began with a quick removal of all things not belonging in the room and then began vacuuming. I then decided that we needed to rearrange the furniture. It took three trys to get it right and I am pleased with the results. I will have to post a picture for you all to see.

We moved the couch from one side to the other and put the wing chairs opposite the couch. The piano is still at the far wall. Now, we only took out one piece of furniture which was a sofa table but the result was a much larger looking room. I think it was from the rearranging not the removal of the table.

I am so pleased with our results I think I will just live in that room only and not bother with the rest of the house. Unfortunately, the computer resides in a messy room. Tomorrow I really hope to tackle another room.

Fall Schedules

This year we signed the kids up for fall soccer. Last year we didn't and had intended to use the free weekends to go camping but we never did that so this year we went ahead and signed them up. All three a playing and that means two nights a week we have soccer practice and then most of the day on Saturday we have the games. It is good that the games are all at the same location so we literally pick up our chairs and move them from field to field on Saturdays.

We also have started back to church from our hyatus. Sunday school has started and the kids really enjoy that. It was good to be back last Sunday. While we were there we also signed up for their "Logos" program for Allie, which is an afterschool program from 4:30-7pm on Wednesdays where they do arts and crafts, activities, lessons, children's choir, and have dinner. It will be nice because the others have soccer that day and Allie gets bored hanging out on the sidelines just waiting around.

At church we also signed up for Kenneth and I to participate in their "supper club" which meets once a month with 3 other couples and we have dinner together centered on a theme. I figured that it was time to meet more people and this was a great way to do it.

Moving on, Monday, Nicholas had cub scouts and they had signups for a camping trip and we got our schedule of cub scout events for the year. Man is our calendar filling up.

Caroline announced that she wants to do Girl Scouts this year and she will be a Daisy. Yeah, we will squeeze it into the schedule...somewhere.

So, I have now done exactly what I didn't want to do and that is fill our week with activities all the time. It really just seems like that and isn't really that. With three kids they each have two things that they do each week. But when it is all together, Kenneth and I are running raged just trying to keep up.

Okay, before you all tell me "just wait until they are teenagers", I know!! I am waiting but hopefully I will be a bit more organized....not.

Lessons Learned

My grandfather passed away last week at the age of 90. There were a few lessons that I have learned from him that I thought I would share.
1. It is better to listen well then to speak well. My Pop-pop always listened to us. He usually didn't give his advice right away but he let us work through situations and learn from our mistakes and our accomplishments. Then he would tell us what he really thought.
2. Always stay active. Up to his death he was an active man. Slower in pace as the years piled on but active still. He played golf through his eighties and even got a hole in one and he played bocce ball and traveled.
3. Set your goals and make them happen. In the 1990's he got cancer and fought through it with surgeries and treatment. He set a goal that he would live to see the year 2000, and became healthy again and accomplished it. Then after my grandmother died in 2004 he set another goal to travel to the Panama Canal. This past March he took a cruise through the canal and loved it.
4. Take time to watch the sunsets. You see them a zillion times but they are beautiful each time and oh so different. His house on the river has a porch where he would sit and watch the sunset each evening. They mark a beautiful life.
5. Err on the side of patience. The good things in life will come if only you are patient.
He was the most patient, kind and considerate man I have ever known. He will be missed greatly in this world.

New Blog to Check Out!

I found this new blog and I think it is great. This guy, Jimbo, hand carves crochet hooks. I love to crochet and I am DEFINITELY going to bid on one!!

He has declared September 12th "International Crochet Day" and I think it is a great idea. Much of our historic handcrafts are falling to the wayside. It is so much easier to go to the store and buy a $5 pair of mittens but it is so much nicer to receive a pair of handmade mittens. We in our fast society are rushing out to the store and just buying what we need and not taking the care, love and time into making exactly what we want! I will always support handcrafts and will always practice them in my home.

So head on over to:http://jimbosfrontporch.blogspot.com/ and check him out. By the way, he is "raffling" off a crochet hook. Scan down to August's blogs and find his entry for the contest. You will see that I entered!!

Back to School

When I was a kid I remember the weeks prior to returning to school. Now, of course we were at the beach for most of the month of August and we would return the Sunday a week before school began. Mom would return to work the very next Monday, as she was a teacher so she started the week before school began. We would spend much of that week out shopping and getting our school supplies and a new outfit or new shoes for school to start. In the weeks prior to this week while we were at the beach I would scour the fashion magazines, teen magazines, and newspapers to figure out what I wanted. I loved new school supplies, the new notebooks, pencils, and markers. We didn't use a book bag or back pack back then but I remember as a kid thinking about what lunch box I wanted. I had a Holly Hobbie lunch box and a Peanuts one. It was such an exciting week.

Nowadays, that week has turned into a month long series of sales. I have been collecting school supplies for my kids for the past several weeks. Nothing goes on sale at the same time and they never are at the same store. Walmart will have crayons on sale, Office Depot will have glue, Staples will have pencils. My kids are barely involved in the process anymore.

While I don't mind having the super sales and getting packs of pencils for a penny, I do miss the excitement that no longer exists. The biggest excitement we have had was back to school day (or really half hour) where the kids get to take their supplies to school and meet their teacher. It is a madhouse at the school for a half hour but the kids really enjoy it.

Does anyone have anything that they do to help get that sense of excitement back like we had?

Alexandra Quits School After 1st Grade

Last night Alexandra announced at dinner, "Mom, I've been thinking and I don't think I am going to go to school this year."

Kenneth looks at me with a look like, "so, what are you going to do with this one honey?"

Nicholas stops eating in mid bite and looks with wide eyes as if to say, "oh no Allie you have done it this time."

Without missing a beat (and you all would be so proud of me), I say, "okay, if you have really been thinking hard about this and you are serious about not going to school this year, then you don't have to go."

"Really? I can stay home?", she asks.

"No you can't stay home because you aren't allowed to stay by yourself yet, and since Daddy and I have to work you can go with Daddy to work everyday." Kenneth still keeps silent.

"Now of course, since you aren't going to be in school anymore then you will have to start paying rent here and helping out with the bills, so it will be important for you to work hard so you can earn enough money to help us out."

"Okay," she says, "I can work with Daddy."

Kenneth then says, "We will drop off Nicholas and Caroline at the bus stop in the mornings and the you and I can go right to work." (for those of you who don't know, Kenneth does lawn care and maintenance, so this isn't a desk job but manual labor mostly.)

And I add, "You don't have to wait for school to start to start working for Daddy. He has a job tomorrow and you can start then." She smiles and agrees.

This morning at the breakfast table, Kenneth reminds her that she is working with him today and she said she remembered. They, then worked out a fair payment schedule and an hourly rate.

Two hours after they left to trim some bushes at a customer's house they return. Allie walks in and gives me a big hug and says I am going back to school now. Nothing else was said.

We were willing to play this out, even though it didn't take us long to convince her that school was the best choice. We were even willing to go as far as not sending her to school on the first day of school and having her work with Kenneth, but luckily she saw the light early.

Baby Seals

I asked my sister to help me today to come up with a topic for a blog entry. I said anything and she gave me "baby seals". I said, "okay, baby seals it is."

This subject, I thought would be difficult for me as I don't live near a place where seals inhabit. I did go to San Francisco several years back and went shopping on a dock overlooking the harbor. It was a beautiful, yet windy day. We wore sweaters and were still a bit chilly but I didn't want to wear a jacket for fear of having to carry it around. The shops were nice but I don't remember anything special there, and I didn't buy anything. I do remember walking towards the water and letting the wind hit my face and enjoying the briskness of it. There were seals lounging on the floating docks around this shopping area. They were making these great noises and some of them were wrestling around with each other. It was fun to watch.

I usually don't think about this area much nor really the shopping on the dock, however it all came back to me two years ago when I heard a news story about a woman and her three young children. Apparently the children were missing and later they would be found and she would be arrested for murder. The story was so horrific to me that it brings me to tears just thinking about it.

On chilly, but sunny day this woman and her three babies, the oldest just 6 years old and the youngest just 9 months, were out on a dock similar to the one that I was on shopping. The woman stripped the children down to no clothes and one by one and tossed them in the water. She later states that they wanted to go swimming. She later is found to be mentally ill. Each child, though, stripped down and tossed in the 50 some degree water. There were other people on the dock that day but no one either saw her or for whatever reason stopped her.

I just don't understand how someone could hurt a child. I don't understand how a mother could toss her children in the cold water. I don't understand how no one saw her or stopped her. I read so many news articles of adults harming or killing children and in our times now it seems to be common. Even the TV dramas like ER, Law and Order, CSI, and such almost enjoy making a child injury, murder, abuse, etc, show because they know they will get the ratings as people will watch it. I had to stop watching ER because there were too many children on it. I can't watch Law and Order any more for the same reasons. I truly believe that if we allow our TV networks to air shows like this then we are only making these types of crimes "acceptable" and we are conditioning our children to not find it horrific and shocking when these types of things occur in our society.

It is just sick and sad.

Instant Messaging

Our first computer that was hooked up to the internet or had the capability was in 1992. I had bought a computer with graduation money from College. It had a 102 mb harddrive, and that was an upgrade. It had Windows 3.0. Then I upgraded to 3.1 when it came out. I was on AOL as soon as it came out and I was one of the ones who paid BY THE HOUR! There were months that my AOL bill was quite expensive. I want to say it was $9.95 for the first 5 hours or something like that and then you had to pay for anything over that. It was dial up and the internet was fairly safe. One of the fun things on AOL was the chat rooms and I would spend a lot of time there, just chatting away. Then we had Instant Messaging. Wow... what fun when my college friends also got on AOL and we could talk online!

I loved it when AOL went to just a monthly service charge and you could be online as much as you want. Well there wasn't much out there other than what AOL had on their servers. But as time went by more and more websites were being formed and you could truly start surfing the net.

When we moved into this house, my husband was now in the IT profession (before he was a tennis pro) and he set up our computer and internet to go straight out to the net using netscape. I literally went through AOL withdraw. I tried to set up an AIM account and it didn't do much for me and eventually I found that life without AOL was fine and I found other websites to surf. But I missed instant messaging.

Life goes on and a few upgrades to the computer, no more dial up but now a cable modem and DSL. I still find myself on the computer a lot and hadn't missed anything since blogging.

However, a friend of mine mentioned that we could instant message each other through MSN. We both have Hotmail and they have recently been doing some upgrades and boom there it was in my face yesterday. So I did what it said, followed the directions, and downloaded the necessary programs and BOOM I now have instant messaging capabilities.

Wow, I didn't realize I had missed it so much. It is a good thing that I can't access it at work (tried), because I wouldn't get anything done otherwise.