I’m sure you’ve noticed that posting as been a bit sporadic in November. Since I’ve gone back to work full time, blogging has suffered, as has my knitting. I’ve pulled  out  some old cross stitch things (thanks to my mother in law and Jenny) and have been working on that. Sometimes the thought of working on a post just makes me want to pull the covers over my head. I’m not going away, just taking a bit of a break. You might find a post now and again, but I plan on just relaxing until January 1. Maybe the break will give me some much needed inspiration. Just keep me in your reader or blogroll. You’ll never know when I might pop in again. Hope ya’ll come back in 2009!

Amanda’s high school football team is playing in the state semifinals tonight and she went with some friends. She had one request though, she wanted a fleece blanket like the one I made in LSU colors. Four yards of fleece, one mother-in-law, a daughter, three pairs of scissors and twenty minutes later, we had the blanket. 

I’ve also been knitting: 

This is the beginning of a pair of felted clogs. Above it you can see Gretel, another beret. 

Thank you for all your comments on our recent loss. It will take time, but we’ll get there. I keep looking around my feet to make sure I’m not stepping on her and glancing at her bed to see if she is there. 

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving if you’re in the US or a Happy Thursday if you’re not.

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Originally uploaded by christybelle30

Today we made the decision to put Jasmine to sleep. She had been having issues for a while and this week (especially this morning)  it was evident that it was time. I called the vet this morning and Joel took her there. He refused to let me go as he knew that I would be a wreck and he wanted me to remember her at home and not at the vet’s office. She has been with us since about two weeks after we got married, so she’s been around longer than Amanda.  While I know this was the right thing for us to do, it doesn’t make it any easier. I know she’s up in heaven telling  Way Too (Joel’s childhood pet) and Wiggles (my childhood dog) all about us. She will be greatly missed.

I recently hosted a Pen and Ink Fall Swap over on Ravelry and my lovely package came from the frozen north….Kata from Canada packed this tiny box to the the brim..it was like Tetris! This package packed a wallop! Look at the gallery below. 

See! She included ink cartridges for my Lamys, my Pilot Petit1 some Herbin Ink for my Rotrings and a new body for my Hi-Tec Coleto. She knew I already had one body for the 10 refills and said that I needed another one, so she sent a pink one.  She also sent a Platinum Preppy fountain pen and refills. I used it all day on Friday at school and love love love it!! Oh! I almost forgot, an entire set of Martha Stewart permanent pens in the Autumn colors.  Kata is also a fabulous yarn dyer and all around crafter. She made the beautiful necklace which I have worn every day and the dyed the yarn and made the magnetic pattern holder. The pattern holder is already in use and the yarn is waiting for a special project. Check out her Etsy shop! There is also some tea and some lovely notecards. The tea is already in use and I didn’t get a photo of it. Thank you Kata, I absolutely adore it!

Both my father and my father in law served in the armed forces. My dad served for four years in the Air Force and spent time in Pakistan in the 1960s. He saw President Kenndy at Carswell AFB about an hour before he was assassinated.  He talked about his time in the Air Force so much that I considered joining up when I graduated from high school. My loathing of anything having to with running quickly shoved that thought out of my head!  To this day, if I ever have a military question, I can call him up and he can usually answer it right off the top of his head.

My father-in-law made a career of the Navy and spent 24 years in service to our country. He retired 13 years ago as a Commander in the US Navy. He and his family lived in some wonderful places including Sicily. When called to the Phillipines to shut down Subic Bay, he did it in ten months, two months before the deadline. See, he  can still get into his dress whites.

Most of us know of someone who is currently serving in the military or has recently come back from overseas. Next time you see a young man or woman in uniform, take a minute and thank them for serving. They are serving and putting their lives on the line so we don’t have to. If you see an older veteran, thank them as well because without the Greatest Generation and the ones after, we wouldn’t enjoy the freedoms that we have today.

Wow, this working every day thing really takes time away from blogging..lol. Seriously, I LOVE my job. I’m back with my kids that I started off with and while it was a fast and furious week, I made it through and have Monday and Tuesday off.  It’s great because I really really need to work out lesson plans and make some heads or tails of what needs to get done. All three of my language arts classes are behind the other teachers, so I’ve been trying to catch them up.  On the home front, last weekend we ended up trading in one black car for another black car. I got to enjoy exactly two weeks without a car payment. That’s right, I paid off one car, then traded that one in for another. Hubby is happy, and well, at least now, everything is covered, maintence wise. The other car wasn’t and we were getting ready to drop about $6,000 in it in repairs. Hubby has a thing for foreign cars, so just imagine the repair bill. Yesterday we drove up to Tampa for the Motor Trend Car Show. I told my husband that since I suffered through two and a half hours of car overload he owed me the same amount of time in a yarn shop or a quilt show! I did get a couple of cute pictures of Amanda and her boyfriend. Here she is in her favorite car:

A convertible VW Beetle. She’ll be able to get her permit in about a year. My heart stops just thinking about it.

My favorite photo of the day. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were there and the mascot was playing with this little girl. He had given her his sword and she was handing it back to her after she “knighted” him.

I am knitting another hat, and will have photos up for you soon. I’m also thinking of knitting another Clapotis, so we’ll see. I’m looking at different yarns right now. The Lion and Lamb is a bit pricey, so I’m looking at alternatives. Any suggestions would be awesome! Have a great week.

And that is all I have to say on that matter.

A while back, I volunteered via the Flickr JetPens Group to review some really cute Pilot Sweet Latte pens that can write on both paper and plastic/glass/etc.

See how cute they are! Of course, I have my favorite colors, purple and pink. They are pretty tiny when all capped, about 4 inches.  It took a bit to get the ink flowing (that could just have been a shipping issue) but once they did, it’s pretty smooth. This is written on plain copy paper:

As you can see, the pink is darker as to be expected. I also labeled my scissors with the pink.

Again, it took a couple of seconds for the ink to start flowing, but once it did, it put down a nice line and dried almost instantly…no smudging! I don’t know if I’d use these everyday, but they are a nice addition to my pen collection and I’m sure Amanda will use them all the time. Thanks again to the lovely people over at JetPens…they are fabulous!

See what her take is on the Presidential election: