Three of Three

This is the afghan that I made for my Honeybee Krystal. This is more of a birthday/housewarming gift as she doesn’t celebrate Christmas. Unfortunately because I stink at getting things in the mail, she did not get it when she moved in to her new place nor did she receive it on her birthday. Thankfully she gave me points for getting it to her within the month of November which was the month she moved and celebrated a milestone birthday. Whew!! So glad I have such good friends who forgive me of my shortcomings.

Yarn: I used I Love This Yarn by Hobby Lobby. (I really do love using that yarn, it is my most favorite.) This is red tweed. The best thing about this color is that it has little flecks of other colors that give it its “tweediness”.

Stitch: This is the interesting part. I was using a written pattern that alternated stiches for even and odd rows, well I am still a novice and have a short attention span so remembering what I did on the previous row is difficult at best. Needless to say I messed up. But, the mess turned out to be a pretty cool stitch.

What I like about this stitch is the fact that it looks like it’s a crazy mess but it works up so nice. I am so afraid that since it was a screw up I won’t remember how I started it. I know it involved a double crochet and then a chain and another double crochet in one stitch but I have no idea what I did to get to the next stitch. 😦  I guess Krystal will have an official one of a kind afghan.

Hook: Yup, I used a J. While a big hook uses more yarn it also helps the project come together quickly.

This project is Sheldon approved. And yes, all afghans were washed before they were given as gifts. 🙂

 

Two of Three

Next is another afghan for one of my Honeybees. (Happy Birthday Bee!!) This bee is a big football fan. She loves the Washington Redskins. Wait, can I still use that word? Well, I guess if you don’t see any more posts from me you will know that I was shut down for using the word Redskin. Uh-oh, I used it again.

This blanket isn’t as well traveled as BFF’s blanket but it does have a funny story. Husband and I met Honeybee and her husband in the city for a Zac Brown Band Concert. Well, Honeybee’s husband NEVER misses a Dallas Cowboy game. Yup, she is a Redskin fan (oooopppppss, did it again) and he is a Cowboy fan. While we were in the city, we had to find a place to watch the game. We decided on a Sports Bar just around the corner from our hotel. I am not a football fan, so I was going way above and beyond the call of duty but, since they promised to feed me I obliged. Honeybee and my husband tried to keep me entertained by talking to me about yarn. Honeybee’s husband took every opportunity to tease me about my crocheting, or yarning as he called it. Long story short the Cowboys were having a bit of bad luck in that they hadn’t been winning. Well, guess what, they won the game we watched that weekend. So, Honeybee’s boyfriend declared that they won because I had been watching. He instructed me to watch the Cowboys play the next weekend. He said I could even yarn while I did it. I didn’t think much about it until the following weekend when the Cowboys were up against last year’s Super Bowl champs, the Seattle Seahawks. I was reminded that I was supposed to watch the game and yarn. I pulled out my Redskin’s (Is that 4 times I’ve used that word?) project and yarned away the game time. Guess what, Dallas won and I sealed my fate of having to watch every game AND crochet. So, to Honeybee’s husband, while I was watching the Dallas games for you, I was crocheting a Washington-themed afghan for your lovely wife.

Stitch: This is a granny square. I continued going around until it was the size I wanted, or until I ran out of yarn. J

Yarn: I used RedHeart Team Spirit in the Red and Burgundy variegated color way. I broke up the colors and tried to stretch the variegated yarn by adding in white I Love This Yarn. I had to add two solid colors, Burgundy and Gold RedHeart yarns.

Hook: I used a J hook.

Wordless Wednesday Birthday Edition

Birthdays

Today was no ordinary day. It was my birthday. I drove to work in the dark after waking my two children. I lingered in the door of their rooms a little longer than usual. Nothing. They forgot. There were posts on my Facebook page wishing me a happy birthday. The posts actually started on Monday so in a sense my birthday celebration began before the actual day. As I drove to work, my eyes began to fill with tears as I thought about the phone calls I wouldn’t receive today. I began to think about those that I would never celebrate a birthday with again, theirs or mine.

It occurred to me that birthdays aren’t really about us. Birthdays are about love. Birthdays allow us to pause our busy lives long enough to let those who love us celebrate us. If you think about it, love is what brought about our birthdays in the first place. You know the story, two people fall in love and from that love a whole other person is created. YOU. Then every year on the anniversary of your birth people who love you give you gifts, send you cards, serenade you with a special song, post well wishes on your Facebook Page, make an extra effort to call you on the phone, or send you a text message. You seem to get extra hugs and people are just generally nicer to you even if it is just for one day a year.

I try to keep my birthday quiet. I don’t like surprises so I figure if people don’t know when it is, they won’t be able to surprise me. The birthday song sends me into a tailspin, makes me blush (even if it isn’t my birthday) and draws unnecessary attention to me. Everything was going according to my plan, no one seemed to be aware that my birthday was fast approaching. My boss walked into my office and said, “Hey, isn’t your birthday the day after tomorrow?” “No,” I stammered hoping she wouldn’t notice that I was beginning to break out into a sweat. She leaned in close as a Cheshire grin spread across her face, “Yes it is,” she said slowly. Drat, my plan was being foiled right in front of me. I quickly changed the subject and she seemed to move on.

When I got to work no one was there and nothing in my office looked any different than the day before. I was beginning to think that I got away with no one knowing. As I was gathering my things for my daily morning duty station check, Counselor walked into my office with a “Birthday Girl” button. She pinned it on my and sent me on my way. I had not escaped the “extra attention” after all. I went about my business with plenty of Happy Birthday Wishes along the way. Hey, this felt pretty good. Once the bell rang and students were in class, I prepared to get started on my day. Boss started her announcements. First the pledges and then the moment of silence. Then it happened, “if it is your special day,” she announced “stand up”. I was safe in my office. No one would know if I stood or not. I didn’t. “Today our Assistant Principal is celebrating her birthday.” I stopped in my tracks. She didn’t. “So when you see Mrs. Assistant Principal make sure you wish her a Happy Birthday.” She did. I felt my cheeks grow warm right there in my office.

As you can imagine the rest of the day was a symphony of Happy Birthday wishes. Several classes caught me, cornered me, and serenaded me. I created chaos everywhere I went. Students ran to hug me. I attempted classroom visits to no avail – it was just too disruptive. Throughout the day there were delightful surprises. It really was a great day. And you know what the best part was? Even though there were people who I was not able to share my day with who were missed, there were over 700 new people who tried to fill the void. At the end of the day, I truly felt celebrated.

By the way, I must tell you, both boys eventually remembered. Younger Son texted me not long after he got to school and Older Son made sure he told me as soon as I got home. 🙂

The Gift of Giving

September is no ordinary month. There are some days during September that I am not particularly fond of. But, there is Labor Day which this year brought a much needed girl’s weekend in the city. School is underway; this year that brought a new job opportunity. September is the month in which I celebrate my birthday and it is also the beginning of fall, my most favorite season.

September is also Heart Awareness Month. Lion Brand Yarn is supporting The American Heart Association with their initiative, “Little Hats, Big Hearts” to donate homemade hats to newborn babies. Little Hats, Big Hearts is a wonderful project to help raise awareness of heart disease, the number one killer of Americans, and congenital heart defects, the most common type of birth defect in the country.

This particular event is near and dear to my heart. My younger son has a heart defect as a result of his Marfan’s Syndrome. At 13 years of age and 5 feet 11 inches tall he is hardly a baby – but he is my baby. I am not only passionate about my son but I also love to crochet and collect yarn for projects I haven’t even thought of yet. So this is the perfect combination of September, gift giving, yarn, and crocheting.

Here are my contributions. I know it’s only three, but I believe every little bit helps.

Here is where I am sending my donations:

Prime Publishing, LLC
Attn: Baby Hat Charity Drive 3400
Dundee Road Northbrook, IL 60062

(I will be entered three times into a drawing for Lion Brand Yarn – more yarn means more crocheting.)

The rules are simple create a hat for a newborn or preemie. The hats can be sewn, knitted or crocheted but they must be red. Then just mail them on or before September 30^th.

What a great opportunity to provide, love, warmth, comfort, and support for little ones in need.

 

Two Birthdays

July is a busy birthday month at my house. Older son has his birthday at the beginning of July. Husband and younger son have their birthdays at the end of July. None of them enjoy baked goods, or maybe it’s just my baking they don’t enjoy, anyway I created two more unconventional birthday cakes.

Birthday Menu

Meatloaf (I don’t like meatloaf so I only fix it by request on birthdays)
Mashed Potatoes
Macaroni and Cheese (“Not the boxed kind, Mom.. Make sure it’s the good kind that you bake in the oven.” younger son requested.)
Chopped salad
Ice-Cream

 

Clutch. Shift. Go.

The day has finally come. I thought I was ready. I wasn’t. My older son is 16 and he has his driver’s license. This summer has been a big one full of anticipated milestones and rites of passage for him and tearfully happy moments for me.

On Monday, Older Son got his driver’s license. He told me he wanted to celebrate. I have tried to instil in them the need to celebrate achievements both big and small. I was giddy with anticipation of what the celebration would include until I found out it wouldn’t include me. Older Son asked excitedly if he could take the car and pick up his sweet girlfriend for a trip to Sonic. That sounded like great fun. I really had no reason to deny this trip. I stood in the garage and watched him sync the radio to his phone, heaven forbid he should listen to his mom’s presets in her car while he was driving. Then he looked up and I watched him check his mirrors and put the car in reverse. As he backed down the drive way, the tears welled up. Once he was in the street, he put the car in drive and, as he drove away, a few tears fell. It is a tough job being a mom and sometimes you just have to cry a little, even if they are tears of pride and joy.

He has his own car. It has a manual transmission, which I love. He is becoming more and more proficient at driving it every day. Since the big day, my Older Son has become quite the Personal Assistant. He has chauffeured his brother places, voluntarily I must add. He has gone to the grocery store for me and filled my car up with gas. I know that these voluntary errand running missions are just opportunities for him to be out and about and I am totally ok with that. Yes, my grocery bill has gone up a bit because I am sending a teenage boy to do my shopping but it means that I don’t have to go to the store so I am ok with that, too. He is becoming proficient at driving his car with manual transmission and he beams when people compliment his car or congratulate him on his license.

Don’t get the wrong idea, my Older Son does not have brand new car. He has a new-to-him car. His is a 2002 VW Golf. It is enough to get him from Point A to Point B. The car was very well cared for by it’s previous owner and we got it for $3000. Our budget had been $5,000. I am very glad we were able to save some, especially when we got the new auto insurance quote. HOLY COW!!! Young boy drivers are expensive. The funny thing is, Older Son is always telling me to slow down and that I don’t need to drive like a race-car driver. (I hope my Insurance Agent doesn’t read this.)

We have definitely started an extraordinary chapter in our lives. Unfortunately, I think this part is more about Older Son becoming independent and getting ready to move forward into manhood (oh, my goodness, he will be shaving soon…………) that means he may need his mom less and less. That is a hard pill to swallow. Of course, I do have Younger Son who is still in need of me, thank goodness.

Bert-day

Today is definitely no ordinary day. Today is my baby brother’s birthday. I still remember my mom telling me I was going to be a big sister. She told me he was going to be named after my dad but we would call him Bert. I was four when my brother was born so when my mom tried to have this “grown up” conversation with me, I could only think about the only other Bert that I knew – and he lived on Sesame Street. I didn’t even like Bert, I preferred Ernie but Big Bird was my favorite. That is what my brother’s name should be, Big Bird. That didn’t fly. So on March 3, 1977, my brother, Albert Stanley Williams Jr., was born.

Bert took his job as little brother very serious. He irritated me to no end and threatened to tattle on me every time I didn’t want to play with him. His favorite thing to do was play “little cars”. He loved Hot Wheels and had quite a collection of them. We would spend hours playing in the dirt with them. We would build roads and push the cars along like they had something important to do. We rode our three-wheeler everywhere in our neighborhood, jumping dirt and rock piles and just keeping the road hot. One of our favorite things to do was to ride across the ruts in the garden and between the peach trees. The ruts were just big enough to create a series of air borne bounces that would send the passenger flying into the air and crashing to the ground with a collection of bruises and a thud. Our parents frowned at this activity and warned us of impending injury worse than bruises. But it didn’t matter because I was usually the driver. Then one day it happened. I let Bert drive. Sure enough, mom and dad were right, I ended up not only landing hard on the ground but for good measure my brother ran over me. That was the last time we rode double on the three wheeler.

Fast forward to a few years ago. It was an unseasonable late and cold winter. We actually ended up with a snow day around the 19^th of January. I forget what year it was, I do know that my brother was living in my grandparent’s house and Bert had called to say he wanted to take his nephews sledding. Now, I know you know what sledding is and I am sure you are imagining a gentle rolling hill covered in a white powdery snow – well we live in Texas and this was more like ice, sleet and a dusting of snow. It was cold and wet. Bert was firing up our old three wheeler. The sled was actually the fender from an older tractor and it was topped with a cushion from an old patio chair. There was a long rope attached to back of the three wheeler. I guess this was more like water skiing on ice than sledding. Uncle Bert perched on the three wheeler and my oldest child, I think he was 5 or 6 at the time, ran to the “redneck sled” and sat down ready to go. I should have flinched or protested or something but I didn’t. I watched my brother drag my son around the frozen hay field. I smiled as I heard the peals of laughter from both uncle and nephew. When they stopped in front of me, my son’s checks were red and I didn’t know if it was from the wind and cold or from laughing. Bert turned his eyes toward me and motioned for me to have a seat. And just like that we were kids again. We took turns dragging each other on that old fender across the frozen ground trying to “throw” the other one off the sled.

Today, is Bert’s birthday. Happy Birthday to an EXtraOrdinary brother. I love you.