Gratuitous Kitty photo

See...Leah really does use this bed when I am at my desk. If I put it anywhere in my house, she won't use it but does when it is on my desk.

I can also see that you see that the office/spare room is the last one to be unpacked & organized. At the moment, it is the junk room.

Still no knitting photos.

I had a quiet weekend. I watched "I now pronounce you Chuck & Larry".
It did have redeeming qualities. A lot was predictable but certainly mind candy and easy to watch.

I bought some Hocus Pocus roses at the grocery store today.
The thing about them is the striated color and they open to look like stars. Just thought they were pretty.
Miss Suzi sent me a "thank you" gift for participating in her charity donation over the holidays with Puervian Baby Cashmere from Knitpicks and Malabrigo yarn in the color Toureg.
I am sure I will find something fun to do with each of them. Thanks Suzi!!!

Mangos & Frida

Kelli is queen of getting people together and yesterday was no exception. Mexican food at Mangos and notecards at the Mesa Arts Center.

The kids & I got there early and looked at some of the art on the street downtown.

After a great Mexican lunch we headed over to the art center to make Frida Kahlo cards.
The teacher had lots of rubber stamps and different stations set up.
Hannah chose to go with another group that had girls her age. In a twist of fate, she had taken a dance class 4 years ago with them! What a small world.
Simon & I finishing up our embossed cards. They both did a great job and have note cards on which to write their Christmas thank you notes.
We also visited my Dad & Linda to pick up my bike that Dad put back together. Thanks Dad! I took a spin on it this morning and it works great!

We also hit IKEA on the way home and bought lights and a few other sundries. You KNOW you can't go to IKEA without spending some money. ;)

EASY MEATLOAF

I saw this recipe in the paper just before New Year's and thought I would try it last night.

It was a hit with Hannah & Simon and their friends that were over.

Easy Meatloaf

1-2 lb ground beef
1 package Stove Top Stuffing
1/4 cup chopped onions
1 cup beef broth

Mix together, put in a loaf pan and bake at 350 F for 1 hour.

I served it with mushroom gravy and I only have one small piece left. Sounds like a keeper recipe to me.

Roadside Assistance

On our way home from Flagstaff, I saw a minivan on the shoulder on the northbound side of I-17. There is a whole lotta nothing between Phoenix & Flagstaff on the highway and long stretches with no services.

So, I see this minivan full of people and a guy on a cell phone. I got some gas at the next major exit about 3 miles after we saw the van and think, why don't you drive back and see if they need help.

So we head back the opposite direction and they are still there. I pull up and see a flat tire and Dad trying figure out how to use the jack. This is probably 15 minutes after we first saw them.

I learned to change a tire in my early 20's (by having my Mom reading the owner's manual and supervising my brother Matthew & I), before I even had a car and have had ample opportunity to change tires since moving to Arizona. The heat seems to really trash tires and they blow out in the middle of summer. Don't know why, but they do. Even a new tire seems to go some summer days.

So, I put out my hand and took the tire iron and started loosening the lug nuts and then put the jack under the "correct" side of the vehicle and start cranking up the car.

It was funny that there were 6 people (Mom, Dad, 2 teen boys, teen girl and young girl) in the van and no one had ever changed a tire. How does that happen?

One of the daughter's spoke good English so I told her they needed two tires since the one that blew out was so bald you could see the steel belt along the edges and the other rear tire was no better. She asked if they could get back to Phoenix on the donut....um, NO WAY with 7 people going down 6% inclines going 75 mph.

I HOPE they got home ok......They were very appreciative that someone stopped AND knew how to change a tire.

Happy New Year

Well, a wee bit o' champagne was had during New Year's and I found a nice feature on my dishwasher. It has this little rack to hold the stems of your glasses so they don't break and so they can go through the dishwasher.
On Wednesday, I took the kids to Flagstaff to go sledding. There wasn't a lot of snow but we did find a spot that had enough to slide on for an hour or so.
I did knit Hannah a hat but it was left home on the coffee table. However, they did both wear wool mittens so even when they got wet, they were warm.
At the bottom before we hit the car for the kids to change out of their wet clothes.
And then, we drove back to 65 F weather.

Finally grown up...again.

Since the decision was made to divorce late last year, I have pretty much been sleeping on a twin bed at the old house and after the move in August since the bedroom set (and dead mattress set) stayed with David.

I missed snuggling in bed with Hannah & Simon plus, I was getting sick of my early refugee decorating style in my bedroom.
So, on Dec. 26, I bought a mattress set and headboard. One of my co-workers had given me a very nice frame last weekend and my neighbor, Brittany, helped me get the headboard off my roof rack and upstairs to the bedroom.

The mattress was delivered yesterday afternoon and I slept really well in my new bed last night.

Now, all I need are some night stands, a dresser and maybe another TV. One thing I can tell you, the dresser will be purchased somewhere that delivers and can take it up the stairs.

Hmm...I hear there might be bonuses in February. ;)

The Weekend

On Friday night I took Hannah to see Dancing with the Stars on Tour.
I got free tickets at work so our tickets were in the upper tier.
However, you could see pretty well and we had a good time. It was a good show but a tiny bit long. Grandma Linda was upset because Wayne Newton did 3 songs but I told her she didn't miss much because it was obvious he had a cold (he could barely talk) so his singing was a bit rough to say the least.
Now, I have had this cat bed for some time but Leah won't go near it. How do you get a cat to go into a bed they normally won't touch???
Put it in the spot on your desk that they normally sit and hope for the best.
She has been ensconced there for the last half hour.

Thursday

Today I had to TYPE a form. They have it online in PDF but you can't fill it out electronically. They did not like my clear printing the last time around. Truly, how many people still have typewriters? Apparently me......but, the correction ribbon is out so this is about how many times it took me to finally get one that was good enough to use. (I was tempted to break into the Mojito mix & rum in the photo!)
The Ice Queen the 2nd time around is REALLY EASY because the pattern is all matching up and it is really only one row of repeating pattern with 3 knit rows.
You can barely see little red beads on the knitting.

Ice Queen

I spent yesterday at Dad & Linda's where we had a nice prime rib with all the trimmings. It was a quiet Christmas since the kids were at their Dad's house but we had had our Christmas on Monday.

So...I was having problems with my Ice Queen pattern working out and yesterday sat down to figure out what the problem was by reading my knitting and the pattern again. Turns out I had read the pattern wrong and was repeating the wrong section. I thought when I started doing the 2nd repeat of 20 rows that I thought I was supposed to do 16 times that I was going to run out of yarn and that would have been true since I was only supposed to repeat a 4 row pattern.

Needless to say, the knitting returned to its original state. I have to be honest, I was not sure the Kidsilk Haze was going to allow itself to be ripped out but it did so I am well off to another start which I will work on tonight.

Merry Christmas

Christmas Morning started early for us...yesterday, since Hannah & Simon will be going to visit their Dad for the rest of the week. Dad & Linda made the trip over EARLY yesterday morning and scared the heck out of Simon & I when we went downstairs at 6:30 am. I had been awake since 5:30 am but did not hear them come in.

Anyway, there is the just got out of bed look in these photos. My Mom got me a pretty bracelet, gift card & a cool Walletbe Wallet.
Dad & Linda picked up some GORGEOUS lace weight yarn. There is 1,800 yards in that ball.
Simon & Hannah got the usual stuff from Santa.
And a big gift from Grandma Barb, Grandma Linda & Grandpa and myself....a Wii.

Grandpa was nice enough to hook it up while I made breakfast.

Grandpa got a couple of things.......single serving Spam and a whole house FM transmitter. Dad is so hard to buy for but we surprised him with something he wanted but would not have necessarily bought himself.

Grandma Linda got a variety of stuff but...no good photos other than this one of the dinner table.
I hope everyone has a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS.

Sunday

On Sunday we were invited to a Santa Party. They had this guy that did AMAZING balloon creatures.
Simon's turtle from Finding Nemo.
A family photo.
And then there was SANTA! Santa came and called each child by name and gave them a present.
It was really magical!

Christmas Cooking

Kelli inspired me to try this recipe for No Knead Bread. It really is an easy recipe but you do have to plan ahead because there is a 12-18 hour initial slow rise and then a 2 hour rise after letting it rest for 15 minutes. However, due to the slow rise, it has a bit of a sourdough taste and and the crust is excellent!
The kids & I were doing so last minute Christmas shopping and they convinced me to buy this gingerbread house kit. I forgot that 90% of the set up is parent related. It did turn out really nice.
And, we made Christmas cookies. My neighbor who doesn't cook started making cookies yesterday afternoon while I was there so I "helped" make the dough. After it chilled, she sent 1/2 the dough home with Hannah so we could make some today.
Off to visit Santa this afternoon.

Friday!

What a good Friday. I am part of an online cooking group and we do a gift exchange every year. This year, I got a great gift from Truckee, CA. It included home made chili sauce, a cookbook about chiles and indestructible spatulas! How did they know I melt them? Thanks Jen!
I took the kids to the park after school and they played on the swings....
slides and lava tubes (as Hannah calls them). She was doing her own version of a Survivor Challenge, along with Jeff Probst like commentary!
I also helped with Hannah's class party.
Here she is with her friend Maddie.

Moving....

Welcome to the same blog at a new address!

A picture from Christmas past!

We are going to visit Santa on Sunday so there will be a new photo. Hopefully, Simon won't look quite so scared.

Birthday!!

This morning I opened a present from Hannah & Simon after we got up.

Before we left, Simon came to me with all of his money in the world because he wanted me to have it because he knows I don't have a lot of money. Ah, the logic of a 5 year old. I did think it was REALLY sweet that he wanted his Mom to have all of his money.

We went out for dinner and Simon's money paid for dinner. He was very proud. After dinner, we went to Zoo Lights.
It was very pretty with lots of lights and music. A great birthday!
I had to take a photo of these shoes. Stiletto boots. They looked great and she was obviously on a date but to walk around the zoo in those shoes....well, a bit tough but she had a nice strong guy to hang on to!