No new pics, but a new prez!

So I have been knitting, but this post is just to say how impressed I am with our country. Being a proud American all my life I cannot imagine living anywhere else, although I've travelled in limited amounts, so that's not to say that there are other places in the world I wouldn't like to visit, but I can't actually imagine being a citizen in any other country.

We have a new President. He's the first African-American President, which is historic of course, but above that I think that this new President will make life better for the citizens of this country. I am encouraged and hopeful for the future, which I haven't been lately with all my friends losing jobs, losing homes, losing everything. With healthcare costs skyrocketing and no money to pay for medications I've seen people go sick and hungry and yet today there was hope that tomorrow will be better.

It may take a little time, but there's hope. And hope springs eternal they say. My hope is that my kids will never go hungry. They will never sleep cold and they will never know what it's like to be in fear of losing everything they have. I am blessed to have made it this far in life also never knowing hunger or serious poverty, but we are closer than ever and it breaks my heart. Until today. Today, there is hope. Today millions of people gathered and cheered in Washington and all over the country around their televisions and radios and were united in that spirit of hope. Young and old, demorcrat and republican, that hope is there. Hope for a better brighter tomorrow. I feel it everywhere!!!!

Thank you Mr. President. God bless you and God bless America.

Happy New Year!!!

Holy moly. There's nothing new going on here except the major amounts of snow we've already gotten. Even us hardy Michiganders are sick of winter already and it's only just begun!!! Egads!!!

So to keep myself warm and snuggly, I've been knitting. What's new???? Only a couple things.....

I finished a hat yesterday which I really need since I can't seem to find any good head coverings...



And I'm still working on a sweater. I actually started this on New Year's Day, as part of a sweater knitalong/new years cast on project thingie for my friends on Rav. Basically I was just waiting until the holidays were over, but I've been wanting to knit this particular sweater for a few months already and had purchased the yarn back in November!!!!

Here's what I have done so far...



It's not done, but it's pretty close!!! Just needed to take a break, my hands are starting to scream at me and then I'm getting hungry too. Thought I'd work a little on the computer first. I love my new camera... can you tell?????

Family Fun

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I just couldn't resist this little piece of "artwork". I wish I could put it on the wall at home!!! Make one, it's easy!!!!

Oh, and happy Monday. Work is crazy, it's year end and I'm exhausted already.

Merry Christmas

So it's finally Christmas! The best day of the year for so many reasons. The first we celebrated last night at church with the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. I was so blessed to be a part of a wonderful time of worshiping the newborn King once again and I just pray that those who attended felt the same way.

This morning we opened our few presents here at home before driving to the fam. My hubby totally surprised me with a NEW CAMERA!!! I've been eyeing this one for a while and he's so good at surprising me (he does this every year) but this was a biggie and I'm so happy. The problem is, I think I have the picture setting too big because I can't seem to upload them very well!!! Ugh!! Should have checked that closer before I snapped 45 pics today, huh??? I wanted to show you a couple of the things I knitted with their new owners, but I didn't catch everyone. Here's what I have...



This is Grandma (she's 94) and her new shawl. She never wants us to spend money on her and I didn't go hog wild (wish I would have done one more ball, but hey, it's big enough for her) and after she opened it I told her that I just had to knit her something and she was very happy with that. We love her so much!!!



This is Addam, my nephew, and the hat I made for him. He is such a great kid and I was so happy that not only did the hat fit perfectly (he has a rather large brain) but he loved it and didn't want to take it off!!! Perfect compliment for any knitter~!!!!

The socks I made for MIL are shown here...



She can't wait to wear them since it's freezing outside and she's always chilled. So overall, it was a very happy Christmas. I'd share more pics but I'm afraid I'll have to try that another day. I love my family!!!

Holy Snow Batman!!!!

So, ok, since the last time I've posted, we've had about three feet of snow fall in West Michigan. No, that's not a typo, three FEET!!! Maybe more, I can't really tell. All I know is the snowbanks on the side of the road are so huge I can't see around them when I'm driving and it's making people very crazy. I've luckily been safe on the roads so far, but in the past five days we've had school closings, work closings, church closings, and mall closings. Just to name a few. This is serious winter stuff folks. And the funny thing is, the first day of winter was two days ago. I'm already sick of it. It's not even Christmas yet!!!

I wanted to share kind of a funny story as related by my hubby tonight. I got home from work and he wasn't home, the kids had said he was at the store. No biggie, I thought. So when he gets home, he's crazy mad. I don't know what he's mad about, but he's in the crankiest mood he's been in for like ever. I've known this man for 20 years, this was at the top of his rage. Yikes. Poor kids, they didn't even realize it was coming.

So, Dad is mad and he is throwing things around and I'm wondering what the heck this is all about. Then he says, "some idiot hit the Jeep." Ahhh, little light bulbs going off in my head since we've had to put so much money into that thing in the past month and I just can't fathom another stupid repair bill. So he calms down. I ask him how bad the damage is and he starts giggling. Ok, so he's raging one minute, now he's almost laughing and I'm praying for his sanity and mine. "My Jeep is fine, but she isn't going anywhere... except maybe to jail!" Ok, so now I need to hear this story, right!!!!

He was leaving Meijer (which is a nightmare on a good day but the day before Christmas Eve was like every freak of nature and their brother was there getting crap they probably don't need at the last possible second) and was already crabby about the shopping experience from hell (there's more to tell there too it turns out) when the traffic in front of him slowed to a stop. So he stopped. So the lady in a newer VW behind him decided to become intimately acquainted with his trailer hitch. It wasn't a good meeting. She pulled off the road. He followed suit. Several people were pulling off that had witnessed and were already calling 911. The lady gets out of her car yelling all sort of obscenities and demanding that hubby show his insurance information and that the accident was HIS fault! Yea, right.

So the cops show up and listen to several stories from hubby, the crazy lady, and witnesses. He then proceeds to right her a ticket (with her continuing to hurl naughty words left and right and is now screaming AT the cops which is why she's likely going to jail) and send hubby home while the tow truck comes and hauls off her pretty and now useless vehicle. The day before Christmas Eve. Now if that's not holiday spirit for ya!!!! Holy cow. Get a life lady, if the person in front of you stops, especially in weather like this.... STOP!!! Don't ram into them and then scream that it wasn't your fault because guess what??? It is YOUR fault!!!! I almost wish I was with him for this so I could have witnessed it myself. Almost.

Oh, and Merry Christmas early everyone. I only have to work half a day tomorrow and then I'm off til Monday. I'm so happy I could cry. Or sleep. Sleep is good. But I'm knitting now. Need to finish knitting..... Can't wait to show off all the things I knitted!!!!

One week til Christmas!!!

Are you ready??? I am!!! Finally I'm feeling really relaxed. My shopping is done, only need to wrap up a couple things too. Also in the past two nights I finished two knitting projects that I was hoping to get done before the big day. I started another one that would be nice to get done in time, but it's not totally necessary. So I should have some good gift-giving vibes this year like usual. I totally love giving the perfect gift! I know this year I wasn't able to spend lots of cash, but I got something special for the people on my list, and that's what matters. Even if my silly neice only wanted a gift card. Seriously, she's such a shopper she just wanted gift cards. Or money. I chose the gift card. Maybe she'll let me tag along this year for the annual mall day after Christmas? Maybe?

So this new computer is divine, but I haven't loaded in the camera software, and I'm not entirely sure I'll be able to since the camera we have is also from 2001. I haven't tried that hard yet either, so we'll see. I'm truly hoping to share lots of pics next week after the big day so I can have all my handknits properly shown off on the proper peoples!!!!

So my friend at work became a Grandma on Sunday. How perfect!!! But they need some prayers tonight because baby Dakota is in the hospital and we're not entirely sure what's going on. He's lost a lot of weight. In fact a whole 12% of his weight. This is not good. And he's puking up bright yellow stuff. So let's just pray they figure it out and he can be a good eater and gain lots of pudgyness in the coming weeks, ok!!!! He's sure a cutie patootey!!!

One week. I love Christmas!!!!

Why does this always happen....

We had to get a new computer this week. We had talked about it for at least six months. Our Gateway was from 2001 and was dying a slow and painful death, but somehow we were managing to keep it going. At least we were trying. You see, since we just had to pay about $2200 for hubby's car to get fixed (no car payment, it's a good thing) we just didn't see the finances holding out for a new computer and were hoping against hope that we could at least wait until February so the tax return would give us a little extra and then we would get a new computer.

So last Thursday I came home to find the computer off, which is unusual, and it would NOT reboot. Total system failure. It puked. It totally and utterly died. Hubby brought it to the computer fix it place on Friday and was told that it would be at least $600 to fix our seven year old computer. The guy actually told him it wasn't worth it, just replace it. I'm not surprised. I'm not happy, but not surprised. So he called me (I was at work) at told me the news and ran around to several different stores before he settled on a new system for us. It's really nice, I'm still learning how the heck to use Vista, but it's not bad. It's actually really really nice. We ended up with a new HP, we really didn't want another Gateway. So hopefully nothing major will come up in the next couple months, because if it does we can't fix it until our taxes come back. Let's just pray we'll be ok!!!!

Now I need to wrap all my Christmas presents, cuz I'm not buying anything else!!!!