seriously folks... 2007 = worst. year. ever.
of my whole entire life.
bar none.
nuff said??
Here's praying that 2008 brings happier times, better health, less depression and anxiety, and closer relationships...
If you've been following my blog you know that the downsides of 2007 have been many... 1 cancer scare (sept), 1 cancer surgery (april), a big long recovery (april to now, and still going), many doubts in my faith (felt like God gave me wayyyyy more than I could handle), doubts in myself (I changed a huge amount because of that surgery), doubts in my marriage (felt like things just weren't working the way they should be), doubts in everything...
we didn't even put up our Christmas tree or send a single card because I couldn't think of anything positive to write...
and a friend called me on that -- challenged me to write down the positives even if I never sent the letter or even showed anyone... but I'm going to do that here...
positives of 2007...
1. Kathleen Elise Ciarochi -- born 1/17/07 -- my adorable niece -- I just can't say enough about my nieces!!
2. Mia Lauren Ciarochi -- turned 3 in may -- she's so much more interactive this year -- in the times that I got to see her she really was talkative and fun to play with.
3. Since I'm on a roll with nieces... Elizabeth Grace Ciarochi - born 6/6/07 -- love that lil sweet baby -- always grinning and just last night in talking to David (my brother) I overheard her cooing and chatting away in her babytalk in the background...
4. My two awesome sister-in-laws -- getting really close to these ladies and appreciating them more every time I get to hang out with them.
5. Tater Pie -- and ironically he was born the day after I had my surgery -- which cracks me up -- because if I hadn't had the surgery, we may never have gotten him... the whole reason I really needed another cat was because I was so terribly unhappy that I needed something that would make me happy just by it's very presence... just in and of itself... happiness occurs... and Tater totally fulfills that... just looking at him makes me grin, giggle or just bust out laughing.
6. All the other blessings that have been born into my friends' lives... Elli Smith (january 3), Josiah Ryan (april 27), Josiah Daniel (august 3 i believe)... all beautiful happy healthy babies that I have enjoyed watching them grow and develop over the past year...
7. The KnitWits -- who are they? you might ask... that is the name of the group of crazy knitters that I hang out with several times a week now... Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays... They are a great bunch of women who are sweet, funny, caring, talented, loving, and who have adopted me in and made me one of their own. They are teaching me as I hone my skills as a knitter -- I realize that I need to post my pics here soon! -- I have finished 8 pairs of socks since taking that first class in August. Plus 4 hats, 2 baby blankets, and a scarf!! This year has been the year of the knitting... for sure. Once I get my chair I plan to pick up my cross stitch as well -- I have a lady that I began in February of last year but haven't gotten any further with...
I think that's all my brain can handle coming up with for now... it is 2:20am and although I am more of a night owl now than before... I am coming down with a nasty cough/cold that Andy happened to pass on to me -- so I'm sniffly and my eyes are starting to water as I type... time to dose myself with some NyQuil (thank you LORD for NyQuil!!) and sleep like a rock.
I will post about my "resolutions" tomorrow -- not so much resolutions (because I don't believe in them really) as a "general plan" for the year 2008...
Miss Elizabeth in her Christmas best..... under the tree... what an angel!!!
and then Mia and Kate having a great old time playing peekaboo!
my pc (which is less than one year old!) had a faulty power supply that one day last week just went pffffffffffffffftttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt... and died... so it had to go to the "ER" at MicroCenter and be repaired... but it is now back and I am happy!!
I finished my candy cane socks this afternoon!!! YAYYYYY!! pictures to follow... also I mailed out Ry and Dash's socks! Big accomplishments today.
as if there were any more proof necessary that Jonathan Lefor is ready to get back to work....
he has "elfed" my boys!!!!
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1249181288
insanity....
This is the heel flap -- the leg is complete and you do the flap for the heel before picking up stitches to go into the foot part...
Beth taught us that the best way to do a pair of socks is on two sets of needles, to do the leg of one sock, then the leg of the other, then the heel of one sock then the heel of the other, so that when you get to the exciting part (the toe!!) because you're almost done that you do the toe of one and then the toe of the other and you have a finished pair! Rather than doing the toe and then realizing that you have to start the other sock from scratch -- apparently some people have lots of socks where they have only the one sock knit because they never cast on the second one...
So here's both pairs ready for the last class where we learned to do the toe...
And lastly here's the finished product -- the toes are a bit wonky because of my twisted stitch -- but I soon learned how to correct that -- and in the second pair where I was still working in my twisted stitch (before Beth re-taught me how to knit) Beth helped me figure out that I just needed to slide several stitches from one needle to the next before starting the toe to have a straight toe even with the twisted knitting...
So now you can see why I am obsessed -- how COOL are these socks!!! Don't even ask how much they cost -- it's like those MasterCard commercials... Cider Moon hand-dyed yarn... $$$, two sets Ebony double pointed needles (the Cadillac of needles)... $$$$, Basic Socks class.... $$$ .... Kristen's happiness... PRICELESS.
I can only hope!!! It has felt this week that I have finally started an upward move -- changed from Zoloft (which was working well but had side effects of nausea and shaky hands etc.) to Wellbutrin which seems to be working with only minor side effects (dry mouth being most noticable)... synthroid is on a better level now that we have found the ceiling of "too much" and we already know the floor of "not enough" so the gap is narrowing and soon we should be in the land of "just right"!!
Next blood test is a week on Wednesday and will meet with the doctor (or her assistant) at the beginning of the new year (omword are we really THAT close to 2008??!!?)...
Also making huge progress in my latest craze of knitting -- finished the 5th pair of regular socks -- this pair is for a buddy of mine that I golf online with. Basic summary of my socks so far:
1st pair - did in the Basic Socks class - double pointed needles - learned from scratch how to do socks - made for Andy (twisted stitch socks)
(if he ever clips his toenails!! no way I'm letting troll-toes kill my socks!!)
2nd pair - used Claudia yarn first time -- LOVE IT!! - ankle socks for me - (twisted stitch)
3rd pair - did in Socks 2 class -- circular needles - same yarn as first pair - made for me - ankle socks (re-learned knitting so no more twisted stitch except when i do it on purpose cause it looks so stinkin cool!!)
4th pair - footies for RK (golfing buddy -- footies were his request!!) - double points - first pair of footies - really proud of figuring out how to do it myself -- did a cuff of 5 rows and then thought "hmmm I could just start the heel right now and they'd be footies!"
5th pair - long leg socks for Dash (nother golfing buddy - he asked me to do a pair the very first day he found out I was learning how to knit socks) - double points - first time doing a pattern in the leg/foot -- did a Waffle pattern of k2p2 for two rows then straight knitting for 2 rows... They turned out SOOOO cool!!!
6th pair - currently on the needles -- Candy Cane Socks!!! Cannot WAIT to show you all the pics of these socks -- the knitting ladies that I meet up with (3 times a week now) have been laughing at me because I sit and knit these socks and just giggle at how COOL they are and because I am SOOO pleased with them! I took one strand of white yarn (just regular doubleknit wool) and one strand of fine mohair and it has created the NEATEST effect!! I am not sure that pictures will do it justice but I will take some!
My current nickname from the ladies is "Sock Princess in Training" -- because my two closest buds are my sock instructor and the lady nicknamed the Sock Princess!!
I have posted some pics up on my ravelry account but I don't know if you guys can access that unless you have an account there (it's a knitting website -- really cool!!) -- but if you do look me up, I'm kristenkristen on there... I have pics of my first pair of socks...
I still plan on posting them here too -- maybe i'll do that next post.
We got some lovely snow on Wednesday and then some more on Thursday! I adore snow!
Wednesday morning I took some really beautiful pictures of the birds on the feeder and in the bushes -- here's a sample -- I'm sure Andy will upload the lot (or many more) onto flickr at some point...
