Emily and Mackenzie...

Mackenzie stopped over to say goodbye to Emily as she tries to sort out and pack The Black Hole.

Black and Red Marled Socks...

Here's the progress on the socks. I have knitted in the waste yarn for the afterthought heel and am starting to work on the cuffs.

YEAH!!!! IT WORKS!!!!!!!!!

WOOOHOOOO!!!! A HOT TUB!!!!

Jim, Jeff, and Richard went over to JR's house to pick up the hot tub. I guess we have to replace the heater in it......but you can't beat that with a HUGE stick!!!! UNFORTUNATELY, we have to wire 220v out back before we can do anything. I would LOVE to be soaking in that tonight.

On a more sobering note....last night was *ANOTHER* huge blow up with Emily. She has mood swings something fierce and one minute she is wonderful, sweet, funny, and adorable....the next she is cussing and screaming at me/us. Last night was the final straw. I know she's dealing with depression, but she refuses to take anything to help with the mood swings and the anger. I told her that we are all miserable and that she needed to get it treated or that she needs to move up with her dad. I **********HATE********** the thought of her moving up there. He has hurt her so many times and just doesn't care. He will only do for her if it benefits HIM....no matter what he has promised her. But he's really good at playing the "oh my....I didn't realize..." with the puppy-eyes. Hell, he had me sucked in to his bullshit for 20 years. And I ***********STILL************* trusted him throughout the divorce and he screwed me.....and hurt Emily at every turn. I don't want her to go.......but we just can't live like this anymore. She's my baby girl and I know if she goes up there that he will start in on her about how we threw her out......I'm a terrible mother....blah, blah, blah.
I don't want to lose her, but if she stays our relationship will just get worse........I really don't have a choice.....this is HER choice to move up there............and I HATE IT!!

Knitting with Big, Fat Blobs on me!

Binx (14lbs) and Phoebe (11lbs) both decided they wanted to 'help' me knit........and cut off all circulation to my lower extremities

Fireplace Screen....

Jim ran to the grocery store this morning after building a fire. I got done eating my breakfast in the chair by the fire and went out into the garage to take care of some laundry. We have some clothes that some kerosene spilled onto and I was rewashing them. I kept adding laundry detergent.... to the washer in hopes of getting the kerosene out of the clothes. I stayed out there watching the machine so that it didn't suds over. It seemed like no matter how much I added there was no extra suds..............as a matter of fact, there were no suds at all!!!! I squirted a bunch of Dawn dishwashing detergent into the washer and watched that for a minute. FINALLY, a little suds. OK, it's cold out there so I head back in to sit by the fire.....
I opened the door to the kitchen and the house is full of smoke....I glanced at the fire but it was burning fine......so I didn't see what was causing the smoke. As I got closer I saw that a large, smoldering log had rolled out of the fireplace onto the hearth and the only thing that stopped it was the new fireplace screen!!!!!! Tucker was sitting right there by the hearth on a pillow........and I know that pillow would have gone right up in flames!!! I was out in the garage long enough that there's a pretty good chance that the living room would have been up in flames before I came back in!!!!!!
Thank you, Lord!

Jim winds yarn!!!!

More of the Worst Storm Day

Ok....so today was one of the worst weather days of this year.....and, yes, I DO realize that it's only 17 days into the year, but generally we have only 1 or 2 days like this....and they are usually in January or February.......so I'm PROBABLY right.

Anyway, school was canceled today so Rich and Emily were home. I got up at 6:00am to let them know....and OF COURSE I couldn't get back to sleep. So what else should I do.......KNIT!!! So I started knitting at about 7:00am and just stopped around 9:30pm. And what do I have to show for it?? Two sore arms and about an inch and a half of a pair of sock. LOL!

I quit making Jim's Armor-Plated Socks after we met the owner of European Knits in Austin on Monday. She told me that my stitches were WAAAAY too tight.........she asked me if I was trying to make him armor-plated socks! LOL! She was very cool and told me what needle sizes I should use. She said that she couldn't believe that someone didn't tell me that I was knitting too tightly.............but then I told her that I was learning out of a book and that there was no one around here that knits (or at least that I know of) and that the nearest LYS is over 50 miles from me. So I got some size 2 and 3 Addi Turbos and started on a new pair of socks yesterday. They were going along great.....after frogging the toes about 5 times......until the cat chewed apart my yarn!!!!! :-( I was so irked about it this morning that I just started another pair with some Australian superwash wool that I got in Cedar Park. I have worked on those things all day long......and probably frogged them 5 or 6 times. I finally got the toe done so I quit for the night.

So even though the weather was super lousy, I spent the ENTIRE day sitting by the fire knitting. Sometimes with the cat on my lap....sometimes with my dog...........it was GREAT!!!!!

The WORST Ice Storm of the Year....

And Jeffrey gets to come home on R&R from Iraq for it. He almost didn't make it in yesterday!!!!
Here's what it's looking like in Central Texas today.

Making ready for The Male Child!

Today we planned on a nice quiet day.....just putting logs on the fire and relaxing. Um...yeah, right!
I just wanted to move my chair into our bedroom and switch the sofa-bed with Richard's bed so that Jeffrey will have a REAL bed to sleep in while he's home on leave from Baghdad. OF COURSE, it's turned into an ALLLLLLLLLL day cleaning/moving spree. Jim has been working on the Front Room all day and I've been in our bedroom. In the end, Jim's desk and filing cabinet came out of our bedroom and my chair and sewing machine cabinet came in. His desk went into the front room along with Richard's bed. The sofa-bed is now in Richard's room for him to use while Jeffrey's here. That leaves the filing cabinet......which is still standing in the kitchen looking for a home. HOPEFULLY, Jim will go through the stuff in there and get rid of the big, ugly thing. I have a filing drawer in my desk that we actually use for stuff and then we have 2 drawer oak filing cabinet that's basically empty. His filing cabinet is just a big storage box of old papers and junk.
Speaking of junk.....Emily was borrowing Richard's game chair and heard a rattling in it. She told Jim about it and it turns out that it's the rest of Richard's STASH. Porn magazines, a huge buck knife, porn DVDs that were stolen from his step-brothers, cigarettes, and last but not least, a bag of Honey-Mustard pretzels. *sigh*
Off to a hot bath.

Jim Socks......

Ok.....so "Jim Socks" is a terrible pun, but I couldn't resist! This is what I've worked on for a good part of today while trying to keep my feet up. I've found that I have to sit in the front room to knit in the little rocker instead of in the recliner in the living room. The way the recliner is set up I have nothing to prop my feet up on so they end up sticking straight out....hyperextending the tendons in my feet and I end up feel worse than if I had been on them all day!!!!!
Back to socks....Jim thinks that they are going to fit perfectly.......I think they are going to be WAY too big for him. We'll see as the get further along.

Yeah! Now our house won't burn down!

Last week, Jim was sitting in the living room with his laptop. For quite a while he had 'been gonna' get up and do some stuff in the garage, but just did.....luckily for us! While he was sitting there a burning log rolled out of the fireplace, off the hearth and onto the carpet!! He jumped up and grabbed the tongs and got it off the carpet and it only burned a dime-sized spot on the carpet....so that was good. I was in the tub when this happened and was picturing a log-sized burn mark, so dime-sized was great. This is about the second or third time that this has happened.......but the other times the log just rolled onto the brick hearth.....still, Jim was really worried about it....and this was the final straw! Those chain-mail 'curtains' that are on the front of the fireplace are pretty much useless!! GRRRR!!!
Now we have a really heavy cast-iron screen on the hearth in front of the fireplace. No more logs on the carpet!!!!

It's getting dark outside....

Tucker and Tyson are loving the warm day. My sons used to say that it was getting dark outside because the dogs were soaking up all the rays. Here's Tucker:



So much for taking a picture EVERY day. Yesterday was a long day that ended with Terri being here. It was really late by the time she left and I was grumpy and exhausted! The last thing I even cared about was posting here.....unless it was this:

Richard and his skateboard. Emily and her grades..chores..whatever.
There's been too much teen drama over the last few weeks......my Whine Limit has been met and OVERLOADED!
GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!

Is my husband great or what? He made these at 0530 for me! <sigh> I was so tired this morning that I didn't even remember them when I got home from shopping with Richard...then I found them and made THE MOST PERFRCT Sandwich....ever!!!

Jim's finally trimming his beard....and a YUMMY beard it is!!!!!!!!!!

New Year's Dinner

What would New Year's Day be without a 12qt roaster filled with Jim's Sausage, Keilbasa, Pork Roast with Sauerkraut??? Mmmmm!!!