Growing Up

Trucker with his truck!
Picture courtesy of my Mom

My Trucker is growing up super fast. Physically, he grew up super fast, he was 6' by the time he entered middle school. Now he is 6'2" and will be starting his sophomore year soon. When does this growing stop? God is certainly turning him into a big, handsome man!

Big and handsome is nice, but God has so much more in store for him. As I mentioned before he is working a full time job this summer. The first day put a whoopin' on him, after that he has taken to it like butter takes to bread! A young guy he works with sold him some Flomaster mufflers Friday. I don't know anything about mufflers, I just remember reading that name brand on the muffler as Trucker was showing them to me. I guess that is one of the best, hottest mufflers to have if you like loud stuff on your truck. I personally don't like loud pipes, but I'm also not a fifteen year old gear-head!

Yesterday Trucker spent many hours working on getting his new muffler put on his truck. His Dad was gone for the weekend so he was on his own, for the most part. I know he put a few calls into Grandpa Marv to ask questions. Good thing Grandpa Marv is patient and a gear-head himself! The new, LOUD muffler was finally on and ready for a test drive around 7:30 last night. It was a moment a Mom will not forget. Once we got out on a straight stretch, and he could get some speed going, that stinkin' muffler was LOUD. I looked over at Trucker to ask him if it was the way he wanted it. I did not need to ask for he had a smile on his face that went from ear to ear! That made me smile to myself. He was proud. He had loud pipes and the fact that he did it himself I think made him proud, too.

This morning I was the proud one. During church we split up into small groups with the people sitting around us to pray for Vacation Bible School which starts tonight. Trucker was in a group a few pews behind me with several other youth students. A couple minutes into praying, I could hear his voice. Normally he is a quiet guy, so the fact that he would open up in front of his peers and pray for the youngsters coming to Vacation Bible School did this Mama's heart good! I could not hear his prayer, I just knew it was his voice. He didn't pray for long, maybe thirty seconds, I don't know. I don't need to know though because God knows and that is what counts!

I love you and am proud of you Walk. You are turning into quite the young man. Now I will go work on your quilt some more so you can have it before you are thirty!!

Lots of Learning Going On

Two weeks ago Trucker spent the week with his Grandma and Grandpa in southern Minnesota. He was learning a ton from Grandpa Marv about doing body work on his truck. He had to learn a lot as fast as he could because he only had one week down there.

When that week was up, he had to get back home because he started his first honest-to-goodness, tax paying job last Monday. He is working at a potato farm; doing physical work with his hands, getting dirty and spending his days outside. All fun stuff to him. However, he learned how many breaks a day you get the hard way. I packed him two sandwiches and two snacks Monday morning. When morning break rolled around, no one told him that it was only break time, he assumed it was lunch. So he ate all of his food - then had to go several more hours through lunch and afternoon break with no food! I don't think he has ever gone that long without eating since the day he was born, other than when he is sleeping. We both learned a lesson that day. I learned he will be putting in some long days and needs more food. He now gets three sandwiches and three or four snacks in his lunch. He learned that you get a few breaks a day and that you should spread your food out over all of them!

I do have to wonder about the guys he works with though. Trucker told me over the weekend that he was embarrassed eating baby carrots as one of his snacks last week. I personally don't know what is embarrassing about eating baby carrots so I asked him why. He informed me that the rest of the guys don't eat healthy snacks, they eat lots of cookies and cake. I only give Trucker one junk food snack a day, the rest of the snacks are fruit, yogurt or veggies. Do you suppose the adult men working there really eat that poorly? Or do you think Trucker is trying to weasel more cookies and pieces of cake and pie out of me?!!

How Frustrating!

Our Princess and Jenna
Just tilt your head because I'm having trouble rotating the picture!!


Yesterday I went through many pictures from when the Princess and Trucker were wee ones. I picked out a few pics of the Princess and scanned them because I wanted to put them on facebook and on here. No go. I scanned them okay and they are stored in my computer as an adobe pdf. but neither facebook nor blog recognizes that kind of file. Any idea on how I should change them so I can publish them?





For the time being you can look at a pic of her at a Brewer game last summer with Jenna. While tailgaiting at Miller Park they noticed their neighbor tailgaters were having shrimp. Being the shy people that they are, my Uncle, our Princess and Jenna went over to check out the shrimp boil and how they were doing it. I was told the shrimp was awesome.

The shrimp was boiled with onions, lemon halves and crab boil mix. Today is the Princess's birthday, and she wants to try the shrimp boil. The King got the big pot out, we purchased the shrimp, still need to get the lemons - but we are ready to try this Saturday night! Grampy and Miss Joy and some of the Princess's friends are coming out and we will have our shrimp boil.

I'll let you know how it turns out!

Oh, Shoot!

More prom pics!

Prom court

Our Princess and Andrew, the gentleman she walked with on court.

Our Princess

Last month I picked out a Mother's Day present for the King's Mom. I called both of his sisters to let them know that I had something for her. They were both willing to help pay for her gift and it is from all of us. I cannot send the gift to her because it would be too awkward to mail. Not a big deal, I will let her know in a card that her gift will be there whenever we visit again. Two weeks ago the King and I found the perfect card for her. I thought it was too soon to mail it then so I set it on our desk to wait a week or so. I should have known better!

Mother's Day morning the King calls his Mommy to wish her a Happy Mother's Day. Half way through their conversation I remember that her card is still sitting on our desk! Shoot! Way to go, Candy! Now she doesn't have a card nor does she know that she has a gift here that is from all of us. Thanks to me, she probably thinks all of her kids are losers and didn't think about her!!

Thankfully she is late with her cards sometimes, too, so she will totally understand! And I will be getting that card in today's mail.

Monday Morning

Tess, Cassie, Autumn and Winter. They stayed awake most of the night, and they still look beautiful!
Pic courtesy of Mom

Tess, Winter, Sami, our Princess, Justin, Cassie, Wyler and Autumn, wearing their prom attire to church!

Pic courtesy of Lon and Dennise

After a tremendous weekend, now it is back to work. My weekend started on Thursday afternoon with the arrival of Mom and Marv. I love, love, love it when they come up. We bummed around on Friday while the rest of the family was enjoying school and work. Part of our errands included doing some grocery shopping for a few students coming to our home after prom and picking out some flowers for Mom's yard. Neither of which is exciting for Marv, but he was a good sport about the whole day. I think his favorite part of the day was the trip to the land fill!

Satruday we woke up to four or five inces of snow. It was all melted by late afternoon, thankfully. Mom and I spend most of Saturday preparing food for our prom attendees. We had some snacks out for them as soon as they got to the house. We also made two pans of sticky buns, two breakfast casseroles and a huge fruit salad for everyone to eat Sunday morning before church. I never could have got through all of the food preparation without your help, Mom. Thanks!

Sunday all of the youth group prom kids put their formals back on and went to church all decked out! They were a mighty fine looking bunch! It even went smoothly having thirteen people all needing to eat and get into two bathrooms to get ready for church, as long as a few people didn't mind brushing their teeth in the kitchen!

The rest of Sunday was a very relaxing day which included a nap, a short walk and a ride with Mom and Trucker.

For whatever reason, I can't move the pictures around to be with the paragraph that explains what they are doing, but I think you can figure it out!

May 2010

What an exciting month this will be! Trucker gets his learning permit (we called it our temps back in the day), whatever you call it - but he will have his temporary drivers license today. Hopefully. If I can find his social security card. So far we are not doing well on the search!

This month our Princess will be going to her first prom! She is pumped. After prom a few students will be coming back to our house for the rest of the night. I believe the plan is to eat some (probably lots) of food, watch movies and stay up all night long. Sunday morning they are all planning on wearing their formal attire to church. I look forward to that every year; seeing the students wear their prom gear to church. It's not too often we get to see them all dudded up!

This month our Princess turns seventeen! Seventeen! That means it is our last year to be responsible for her. After that we can no longer make decisions for her. We can certainly encourage her and give advice when asked (maybe even when not asked!), but she will be a legal adult in one year.

These are all good things! All of the above mentioned items will give us plenty to pray for and be thankful for. I am thankful that Trucker can finally get his learners permit. This is the beginning of his dream. Ever since he could verbalize his thoughts, he has told us he wants to be a truck driver. You go, Walk! Chase them dreams, work for them and achieve them. I will be praying for safety in all driving adventures he has coming his way. Driving as a new driver, driving as an adult in a few years and driving the big rig someday!

I am thankful that our Princess is excited about prom and that she wants to bring friends back to our home after the dance. I am thankful that other parents trust us enough that they will let their babies come to our home after prom. We all know there are some activities after prom that are not what we want our children participating in. I will be praying that all students will be smart on prom night and for the safety of all of them.

I am thankful that our Princess is growing into a lovely young lady. I'm thankful that God has given us the gift of that beautiful young lady. I will be praying that during her last year as a minor, we can continue to teach her to be a God fearing, law abiding citizen.

She did give me a laugh this morning, too. When I got into my office and tore April off of the calendar, I saw a few little notes she left me for the month of May. May 6th has a note, "2 weeks til Bessie's b-day: think about present". May 13th says, "1 week til Bessie's b-day, buy present". May 20th says, "Bessie's b-day!". I think I am going to make a visit to her bedroom today and start marking her calendar for Mother's Day!

Father/Daughter Bonding Time

picture courtesy of google

One night last week the Princess was sitting at her desk, in her bedroom, listening to the Brewer game. The King went in her room and plunked down on her bed to listen to the game, also.

I was in our bedroom, reading. After a few innings, I heard the Princess softly saying, "Dad, Dad, wake up, I want to go to bed"! How cute is that? He goes in to listen to the game with her and falls asleep in her bed. It was one of those sweet moments that I cherish.

When he came into our bedroom, I asked him if he fell asleep. He told me that he had and he thought it was rather rude of her to wake him up!

The Princess's first softball game of the season is scheduled for this afternoon. It hasn't rained in months, and now we are supposed to get some today! We do need the rain, so I am not complaining, but I was pretty pumped to go watch her play.

Twenty-Five Years!

pic courtesy of Google

On tv the other night Dairy Queen was advertising the 25th birthday of the blizzard! Twenty-five years! I had to stop and think if it was actually twenty-five years since my first blizzard. Sure enough, it was. I was in high school at the time.

My Dad and I used to love going to DQ for a blizzard. Back then they wanted you to know how thick they actually were, so they always handed them to you upside down. Does anyone else remember that? Even now, once every year or two we still sneak off to Dairy Queen for a treat. Fun, fun memories. I just can't believe that it is twenty-five years worth of memories!

Now I take the Princess and Trucker to Dairy Queen every spring the first time it hits 70*. I wonder if when they are out of school and all grown up they will still want to go to Dairy Queen with me for a blizzard. I don't think it would be quite the same going by myself. Who am I kidding? Of course it is more fun to go with someone, but I have been known to sneak a treat by myself every now and then, too!

1948??

Pic courtesy of Google

A couple of weeks ago we were at Dan and Carol's, the King's parents, house. They are doing a huge spring cleaning, decluttering, remodeling project. Carol had a chest full of magazines and craft patterns that she wanted to go through. We started hauling piles and piles of patterns and magazines from her chest to the table and going through them one by one. We worked on this for three hours, then it was time for us to leave. She had to finish up on her own, and we were not half way done!

All of the magazines I saw were craft magazines, covering a wide range of decades! Several of them were from the eighties. I remember looking at those with her when the King and I were dating! I never dreamt she still had them. Many of the magazines were from the seventies. Her girls graduated from high school in the late seventies and the King was in high school during the late seventies. That meant she had a lot more time on her hands than she had had for several years. She still has many afghans in her house that she crocheted during this time. All of her kids have afghans she crocheted then.

We found a few magazines from the early sixties, when her children were quite young. As we looked through those patterns, she showed me toys and Christmas ornaments she had made for her kids. Her writing was even on some of the patterns, marking her place!

One pile I pulled out of the back of the chest had several magazines from the forties! Are you kidding me, Carol? 1948? You were only seven years old then! What are you doing with these oldies?!! They had been her Mom's. We started looking through some of those old, smelly, musty patterns! We saw her Mom's writing on some of them, marking where she had left off. Many of the patterns during this time frame were for crocheting or knitting doilies, tableclothes, lace on the edge of a ladies handkerchief. Carol and I were both able to pick out doilies that her Mom had made for us! Did she still use these magazines in the eighties and nineties, or did she have the pattern memorized by then? Neither of us know. I can still see her sitting in her chair, crocheting, but I never looked for a pattern. As soon as someone showed up at her home, she would put whatever she was working on off to the side.

A few days ago I was talking to Carol on the phone. I asked her if she finished going through the chest of magazines yet. Yes, she had. I asked her if she found any more of the old ones. She found one from 1936! She believes that pattern book was her Grandma's! There was writing in there, too, but she does not know if it is her Grandma's writing or not. That particular book had patterns of crocheted edgings on ladies dress collars. Carol remembers a few of her Grandma's dresses having a fancy edging on them. I am assuming those were her "good" dresses. I wouldn't think she would have taken the time to doll up her everyday dresses like that. But maybe she did, who am I to say?

At first I was laughing at Carol because she had stacks and stacks of craft magazines stashed in her trunk. However, as we got going through them, it brought back many memories for both of us. It was neat to look through some of those ancient patterns, too. There were a few patterns for crocheting the edges on pillow cases. I remember seeing some of those when I was a child. I don't know if they were at one of my Great-Grandma's houses, a Grandma's house, our own house or somebody else's house. Too bad we don't pay more attention to some of that stuff when we are little tykes.

Easter Dinner

What did you have for Easter dinner? How did it turn out? Were you feeding a large crew or just a few of you? We did not have any company this year for Easter, so I was only cooking for the four of us. Good thing, too!

When we went shopping, tuna steaks were on sale, so we grabbed a few of those to cook for our dinner. The Princess wanted a pasta/spinach salad to go with the tuna. Sounds like a yummy dinner to me. I made the pasta salad as soon as we got home from church. You make a dressing to go over pasta, baby spinach leaves, cherry tomatoes and onions; so it tastes better if it can set for a while before serving. When I was done making the oil and vinegar dressing, all of a sudden I realized I used two kinds of oil; olive oil and canola oil and forgot about the vinegar. Rats! Now I had to make more dressing, but use all vinegar this time and leave out the oil, hoping it would still taste okay. I put the salad in the fridge and knew it was ready for supper.

Usually we grill tuna steaks, but Easter didn't bring us very nice grilling weather. Not a big deal. I had seen another recipe for tuna steaks that marinated for a few hours and then you baked them in the oven. I got the marinade together and got that in the fridge. Now I can go sneak in a nap until it is time to cook the steaks.

When it was almost time to take the steaks out of the oven, I go get the salad out of the fridge. Yikes! What happened? There are a few pieces of onion and a little shredded parmesan cheese left in the bottom of the bowl! The King, Princess and Trucker didn't realize that was for supper so they helped themselves to it! Now it is 5:00, the tuna is done and they ate the salad around 4:00, so I know they aren't that hungry. We had tuna steaks (and some Easter candy) for our Easter dinner. How is that for a holiday meal? Good thing we didn't have company coming! I would have been scrambling!

After all that, the tuna didn't turn out very good, either! I crossed out that recipe so I know not to make it again. For dessert the King made us malts, though! Those are always yummy.

Anyone want to come to our house next Easter? I'll try to do better!

Precious

pic courtesy of allposters.com

Just after we started singing the first song in church yesterday, I happened to look over to my left and saw a young Mom holding her two or three year old girl. One look at the little girl and you knew she didn’t feel well. Her little cheeks were flushed, her eyes had a glassy look to them and her tiny nose was all red. If that wasn’t enough to let anyone know she was sick the fact that Mom was holding a Kleenex in her other hand was a sure give-away. I felt sorry for the Mom and the little girl, we have all been there.

A few songs later I looked at them again and the little girl was sound asleep. What a relief for the Mom. How comfortable, safe and secure that young child must have felt in her Mama’s arms; listening to her Mom singing praises to Jesus in her ears.

I wonder if that little girl will remember being held in church as a wee one by her parents when she grows older. I wonder if my own children remember that. I will have to ask them tonight. Do they remember sitting on my lap playing with my fingers and rings because they were bored, but at least they were quiet and sitting still. I wonder if they remember a few times when they weren’t sitting still or being quiet and we had to go remedy the situation?!! A quick trip to the washroom always made a child sit very quiet and still in church for the next several months!

Seeing that Mom hold her little girl made me think of a verse in Proverbs. Direct your children onto the right path, and when they are older, they will not leave it.

~ Proverbs 22:6 nlt I hope and pray that my own children, along with other young children that are raised to love Jesus, will not leave that path. I want my children to get plugged into a church and follow Christ when they are adults. I pray that they will raise their children in a church where the Gospel is preached. I hope to one day see my own children hold their babies during church services just as their Dad and I held them.

I know I missed the point of a few messages as I was holding one of my babies. I was too busy looking and thinking about the gift God had given me rather than on what the pastor was saying!

Happy Late Valentine's Day

The Princess, a friend of hers and I went to Mom and Marv’s for a long weekend. We did some prom dress shopping and hit up Mall of America twice in two days! We were able to find a prom dress for our Princess, but still need to find one for Helen. So hard to believe it is their Junior Prom. It seems like it was only a few years ago I was sitting on the floor with them on their first day of kindergarten! They were cute little girls then, now seeing them trying on formal dresses reminded me again what beautiful young ladies they have grown into.

When we got home yesterday, these flowers were waiting for me on the table from my Valentine! What I guy I got! What a Dad he is, too, he also had a vase of roses waiting for our Princess. I love it that he does stuff like that for our daughter. I pray that these random acts of kindness along with the love that he shows her will teach her what she wants in a husband some day. I’m not saying in any way that her husband needs to get her flowers on a regular basis (although that never hurts!), but a man that does not treat her the way God wants a man to treat his wife will be unacceptable in her eyes. I pray that she will not settle for anything less. I feel that the way a Mom treats her son and the way a Dad treats his daughter has alot to do with the kind of spouse they will look for. If your Dad never shows you much love and you don't see that he cares for you, you assume this is how all men are. You may not expect more than that. However, if you are raised with lots of love and care from your Dad (or Mom, if you are a male) you will expect that. You will think that is how the opposite sex is supposed to treat you. You will be able to spot a loser a mile away!

I already, and have for years, pray for our children’s spouses. I pray that they will marry godly people and raise their children to know and love Jesus.

Sympathizing With Others

picture courtesy of Mom

Saturday we spent the day with the King’s family, celebrating Christmas. Once a year we all get together and it is always a blast. This year we had a new baby to hold so that added to the fun!

When we all meet at the King’s Mom’s house, one of the “must do” activities is sliding. Their driveway is on a hill, with a curve towards the bottom. That curve is in the perfect spot, you pick up some pretty good speed by the time you get there. Then you have to hope you can make the corner, if you don’t, you will be hitting the snow bank! I speak from experience! Several times I made the corner, a few times I didn’t! I have the cut chin and bruises to remind myself of the times I didn’t make the corner!

While we were sledding, I got to thinking of other people. One time the Princess and I went down the hill together, I don’t know what happened, but we wiped out. I flew out of the sled and hit the packed down snow and icy driveway. That made me think of Brett Favre (quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings)! He and I are within a few months of each other in age. How does he keep hitting that cold, hard ground that doesn’t give much and then get back up and do it again? I felt the hardness of the unforgiving ground, and I didn’t have any 300 pound players pummeling me at the same time!

The other people I thought about were the people of Haiti. While I was on top of the hill, waiting my turn, I could hear people laughing and screaming on their way down the hill, I could hear people at the bottom of the hill laughing at the ones on their way down. The ones of us at the top of the hill were laughing at the King’s sister, because we all recognized her scream on her way down. As I was standing there with my husband, children, nieces, nephews, great-nephews, brother-in-law, sister-in-law and father-in-law, I thought about how blessed we all were. We could all see and hear each other. We all knew the rest of the family was safe and enjoying themselves. I can’t imagine what the people of Haiti are going through. What is it like to be standing on one side of town and not know how your children, spouse, parents or extended family are doing on the other side of town, not even knowing if they are alive or dead. You might not even be able to walk to the other side of town because of injuries you sustained. Or, maybe you are fine, but because of all the rubble in the streets, you cannot get through. That would be a horrible thing to experience. Thinking of those people made my sledding with the whole family more fun and special than it usually is.

Skippin' Out!

Shirley and the Princess.

Did you ever skip out of school? Or play hookey? Or blow off a day of school? Or whatever it was called when you were in school? I did once in a while, usually with Grampy’s consent, though. There was that one time I skipped out without telling him, he found out, I got in trouble. I let the Princess and Trucker blow off two days a year, if they are maintaining an A or B average. If your not getting all A’s or B’s, then you can’t afford to skip out a day. I figure when they are adults, out there in the real world, they will hopefully have a job that will provide them with some personal days or vacation days, so I let them practice using them now!!

All of that to say I am skipping out right now. I should be in Bible study. I love Bible study, but tonight the house is very quiet with no one around but me, two dogs and a cat. And I was enjoying a good book. I don’t even feel guilty about skipping out, well, not guilty enough to go.

Trucker always uses his two “free days” for hunting. His days are already used up for this school year. This year he used them both in November for deer hunting. Some years he uses them for deer hunting and other years he has used them for turkey hunting. I personally think skipping out of school to go sledding with a bunch of friends, shopping or spending the day with the King made better use of a day then hunting, but we all are entitled to our own opinions. Some how I can’t picture Trucker skipping out of school to go shopping for a whole day!

The Princess always uses ½ day to go to Green Bay for Districts. That is a Christian youth conference that lasts the whole weekend, from Friday evening until Sunday noon. The adults that go along as chaperones usually go home feeling quite whooped after Districts. Those teenagers have a lot more energy than we do and can go on a lot less sleep, along with a real varied diet. Diets consisting of soda, smoothies, skittles, chips, cookies, crackers, maybe an orange or some pizza thrown in to make it sound good when you talk to Mom and Dad!

Last weekend was Districts ’10. Our youth pastor, his wife, and two other adults from our church loaded up two vans and took down several students for the weekend. I love these people. I love the fact that they are willing to give up their own weekend to spend it with our daughter and several other teens. I love the fact that they are reinforcing the morals and values that we try to teach our children at home. Rob, Shirley, Dan and Dennise; thank you so much for giving up your weekend to serve God and help thousands of young people learn about living for Christ, also. Thank you for the example that you always set for them. May God bless you!

Quilting Boo Boo

pic courtesy of Mom

Last night I was working on Trucker’s quilt. I was sewing strips together when I realized that I didn’t have the same number of strips of each material. How did I manage that? I re-read the pattern. Yikes! I am only supposed to sew six strips together and I already have twelve or fifteen done. Shoot! I will be spending some time ripping seams out this week.

Tomorrow I have a dentist appointment. I have not had a cavity since I was a little tyke, I hope that is still the case. After my appointment I am going to take my resume into a few places around town. We’ll see if anything comes of that.

For the fun part of tomorrow, I get to make the King’s birthday supper. His birthday is today, but he was ice fishing with a friend and Trucker. Since they didn’t bring any fish home, we are having beef roast with mashed potatoes and gravy. Oh yeah, peas too. Gross!

Must Be Gettin' Old!

Thursday we had a new baby join our extended family, Aliza Ashley. As of last night Momma and Aliza were both doing well. We get to meet her next Saturday. It’s been a long time since I have held a new born.

Okay, this is pretty sad, don’t even know if I should admit it! I knew what I was going to blog about, signed on and then went and made myself a cup of tea. While I was making my tea, I figured I would update you on our new niece.

Now that I am in front of the computer and blogged about Aliza, I don’t remember what the main thing was I was going to blog about. How sad is that?!! And I’m not even forty yet!

Since I don’t know what I was going to blog about – I’m going to take my tea, go watch some football and work on my afghan. I am using up some scraps that are in the closet. We’ll see how long it takes to finish this one!

I had another snow picture to show you, but blogger is being pokey. You'll have to wait until next week.

2010 Starting Off With a Bang!

By the time I finished blogging yesterday, Toad had made himself comfy! Maybe he thinks the afghan is his and he just lets the Princess use it!

2010 is going to be a busy year. Our niece went in today to give birth to her first child. Mama and baby have to go through a c-section. I just tried calling the baby’s great-Grandma and great-Aunt to see how things went, but did not get an answer.

I already know of four weddings we will be attending this year; none of them in our area. Three of the weddings we will be able to stay with family, the other one will require a visit to a motel!

2010 will also be the beginning of the Princess’s last year of high school. I’m sure her senior year will bring a roller coaster ride of emotions!

Only God knows what else 2010 will bring. The few things I already know about is enough to let me know I will be busy making some quilts or afghans! I better get busy!

By the way, do we say two thousand ten or do we say twenty ten?

The Two, Three or Four Year Afghan

The Princess's afghan.

The pattern came from Herschners Blue-Ribbon Afghans.

I saw this afghan and pattern in a book several years ago. I knew right away that I wanted to make this for our Princess. It is a big, heavy afghan; the kind I knew she would like to snuggle up in.

I was in WalMart one day and saw bright pink yarn. I thought she would like the color, but did not know for sure. A few months later she and I were in a Good Will store, and there was the yarn – much cheaper than it was in WalMart. I showed the Princess the yarn and she said she liked the color. That was two or three years ago! Maybe four, I don’t know!

We got the yarn home and I started on the afghan. I like to crochet during the evenings while watching tv. This afghan was too thick and heavy to have sitting on your lap during the summer months, so I didn’t even try to crochet then. It was strictly a winter project. During the last couple of years, I learned how to make quilts. Quilt making then took some time away from her afghan. Along the way I quit working on her blanket to crochet a baby blanket or a wedding gift. The Princess was beginning to think she was never going to have her afghan. I was beginning to think the same thing!

This fall I was sick of the half finished afghan sitting in a basket in the living room. I told myself it was going to get done this year. I always leave the crochet hook in the project I am working on. That way I can pick it up at any time and start working on it. One Sunday during football games, I picked the blanket up to crochet on it some. The hook is gone. Where could it be? I had just used it a week or two before. I looked every where for it, but I only have three spots that I put crochet hooks. As I said, if I am working on a project – I keep the hook with the project, I also have a pottery dish on the end table that I put a hook in once in a while if I know I will need it soon. Other wise, all crochet hooks are on the top shelf of a hallway closet.

I asked both kids if they had seen the hook. Nope, they have not seen it. I asked the King one day after work if he has seen it. I even told them what color it was. As soon as I told the King that it was a bronze color and had been in the basket with the afghan, he got a dorky smirk on his face. I knew right then he knew where it was. He told me that might be the one he used to rig up suckers for fall musky fishing! What?? He didn’t think I would need it or even realize it was gone?!!

At least I knew where the missing hook was at now. He said it was probably in his tackle box. That’s okay, you can leave it there! I’m thinking it was probably all scratched up and nicked, and then it will catch the yarn and snag it. Instead he was using it to snag a musky!

Now I need a new size K hook. The King said I had to have another hook the same size. He informed me I had a thousand hooks on that shelf! He didn’t think it was any big deal when he took the hook because I would have another one just like it on that shelf. I didn’t think I had another size K hook. I think I have one of each size, but no reason to have duplicates. He went looking in the closet; and sure enough I did have another K hook, but it was a plastic one. I used it, but don’t really like plastic hooks. I prefer the metal ones. I worked with this hook for a few days, and then it was missing. What the heck? Now what happened to this one? I knew the King would not take this one because it was plastic and because he already had one. Again, I ask the family if they have seen this hook. Again, no one has. I am going to buy another K hook. Or so I planned. I checked our Pamida, quilt shop, WalMart and the WalMart where my mother-in-love lives. All musky fishermen must’ve needed size K hooks, because I couldn’t find one any where.

In casual conversation, Mom mentioned to me that she was going to WalMart to finish up her Christmas shopping. I told her about my whole crochet hook story and asked her if she would look for one for me. By now the Princess is convinced she will never have her afghan. I am ready to throw the whole thing in the garbage and call it done. While vacuuming one day, I find the plastic hook, full of dog tooth marks. Toad struck again!

Well, for the happy ending to this saga…Mom found me a metal size K crochet hook and gave it to me for Christmas. I was then able to finish the Princess’s afghan. As with every thing I make for people, I prayed a ton for our little girl who is no longer a little girl (even if she was when I started the thing!). I hope that every time she uses her three-year afghan she will remember how much I love her.

Next time I use a size K hook, I will have all kinds of memories! Thanks, Mom, for saving the day and saving the Princess’s afghan!

A close up picture of the afghan and the size K hook! The top picture is the color of the yarn, I don't know why this picture made it look more red.

2010?!

The Princess said this was her favorite gift this year.

Trucker can't wait to use his new hammer drill!

Wow…I have not posted in a long time! I have lots of catching up to do on here. Christmas was great. We spent an evening with Grampy and Miss Joy, and then Mom and Marv were here to visit for a week. We ate way too many cookies and poppy seed bread, but that is okay. We didn’t make church on Christmas Eve, due to the weather, but still let Jesus know I was thinking of Him.

I can’t believe 2010 is here now. It seems like two or three years ago everyone was all nerved up about Y2K.

When I was in high school, I was whining one day because summer was almost over and it was time to go back to school. My Uncle Rick agreed with me that the summer went by fast, but he also told me that the older you get the faster the time goes. It didn’t really make much sense to me at the time, there are twenty-four hours in a day, always have been and always will be. That fact still remains the same. But, Rick was right in the fact that the time seems to go by faster.

Why do you suppose time seems to go faster to us as we age? The only thing I could come up with is that when you are young, you are always waiting for something. When you are younger and always anxiously awaiting the next big event, time seems to drag. You can’t wait for Christmas, your next birthday, summer vacation or school to start back up again so you can see your friends. You can’t wait to turn ten (double digits, baby!), you can’t wait for your sixteenth birthday, your first dance, homecoming, prom, eighteenth birthday, your driver’s license or graduation. Once you have been an adult for a while and living in the big world with your own responsibilities, I don’t think you look to the future with as much anticipation as often. Obviously, we have a few things, we can’t wait to get married, buy a house, have children, watch children grow up and have grandchildren. We look forward to those activities over a few decades, though. The first twenty years of our lives are spent looking forward to more events in a shorter period of time. Does any of this make sense to anyone else, or just me?!!

Blessed With Family and Friends

The Christmas season is certainly here. Dan arrived Saturday. We have been able to spend some time with him, worship with him and go sledding with him. He is leaving tomorrow to join his family in Illinois for Christmas.

Another one of the youth group students who is now in college, Aaron, got back in town Friday. We got to spend most of Saturday with him. He and Trucker spent the majority of the day playing video games. He joined us for some sledding fun Sunday afternoon, too.

Sunday, a day I will always be thankful for. Not only did we get to see several of the youth students again, but the Princess was baptized. It was a beautiful service. We sang some Christmas songs, then the Princess and two other young ladies were baptized, and more Christmas carols to follow. Seeing all three girls get baptized was special; one was a good friend of the Princess’s (we have known her since she was a baby) and the other young lady just married one of the youth students who is now all grown up. He used to spend a lot of time at our house, so even though we don’t know his wife real well yet, it has been nice to see her grow in Christ. I am looking forward to getting to know her better!

The Christmas cookies are all in containers or on plates to give to friends and family. We will be delivering those tomorrow after work. Wednesday we will be celebrating Christmas with Grampy and Miss Joy. The Princess is making us homemade raviolis (sp?) for that dinner! It is always enjoyable to spend time with them.

Wednesday Mom and Marv will get here. Thursday Mom and I will make a batch of cutout cookies. Well, actually, I will make them, she will frost and decorate them! I don’t like that part. Thursday night we will enjoy a candle light service together at church. Friday we will spend the day together, making memories.

I have certainly been blessed with a wonderful family. I love these days. Thank you God.

I have some sledding pictures to show - but blogger is taking way too long. I will save them for another day.