Happy New Year

Hi everyone , it is almost 2007.

We had a pretty nice Christmas, I had to work Christmas day, but the girls helped get Christmas dinner going.

Mostly Jeff and I have just been working hard.

I am working on some granny squares to make some more blankets/afghans. It gets chilly in the house at night and when the temperature is under 60 outside.

We have not had anymore snow since November 30, but we have had a couple of rain storms.

Yesterday we actually had a big thunderclap over the house yesterday evening . Poor Nermal the cat just about jumped out of his skin , Sylvester the cat did not even twitch an ear.

Sharon , my now 18 year old, got the cats collars for Christmas, most of the cats tolerate them , one of the cats, Sparky, actually likes his collar. That cat is kinda of a strange critter anyway. If you are staying up too late in the living room , he will come out of the girls bedrooms and meow at us to go to bed, if I don't tell him we are going to bed he will keep it up until we turn the lights off and leave the room.

Jacob the 15 year old boy went from a size 14 pants to small adults size. Oh and he is now at least an inch taller than me. (I am only 5 foot tall) I did not notice when that happened.

Back to Sharon. She got a job at a hotel as the desk person. She really likes the job. Like any job where you deal with the public she says there are some real wackos that come in.

Elizabeth is looking for a job for the summer.

Joe is going to start looking for a summer job , the job he is doing right now will stop in the summer, it is distributating fund raiser products to the schools in the state.

Here is a picture of the kids at thanksgiving , ain't they just the cuteset bunch.



Well, I will be back later with some pictures of Christmas , Joe's birthday (December 24), and my crochet stuff.

It has been a while

Hi folks,

It has been a while , it was busy here .

We have snow on the ground still, It snowed last Thursday, November 30th here is a picture of the snowthe guys went to shovel the snow and ice off the sidewalk and the driveway. Thats right , we had 2 inches of freezing rain before the 2 or 3 inches of the snow fell. Lucky for us the rain/sleet froze on the ground not on the trees and electric lines. Our directv only fluttered once during the blizzard part of the storm.

We were going to get Duchess spayed on the Thursday that the storm hit, so we had to cancel that . We are going to try to do it this Thursday. Here is a picture of her in the snow on that Friday

.

Look at her sniffing the snow.

Joe and Jacob had fun playing in the snow.

well , talk some more later.

This Last Couple of weeks

Hoo boy has the last few weeks been fun NOT!!!!!

First off , about two weeks ago our youngest cat, Duchess got sick. She is only about 3 months old. She stopped eating and drinking, and had diarrhea and vomiting. We took her to the vet and left her for the doctor to look at . The doctor was not in yet. Later that day the vet called and said that she was very sick . She pretty much collapsed an hour or so after we dropped her off. Turned out she had some kind of intestinal infection. After a couple of days of IV fluids and IV antibiotics she was fine. It took about three or four days she was back to her mischievous self.

She still thinks she has to eat a lot , she had not eaten for about two days.

Duchess is fine now

The rest of the cats are are doing well , to.

The kids are doing good now, Sharon has been battling a stomach bug herself, Vet and the human doc said it was not related to Duchess being sick.

Sharon is doing a lot better now. Elizabeth has been out of school two days from a cold/allergy attack/flu, don't quite know what , but she is much better.

Jacob is fine, no problems with him .

Joe is working full time in a temporary job. He is working in the warehouse of a place not to far from here that distributes the candy and whatever that the schools use for fund raisers. He is enjoying the job. It is one of those that when you get done at the end of the day you can see how much you got done.

My job is going fine, I got Thanksgiving Day off, YIPPEE!

I still have to work Christmas Day , but I am still working on that. I do have Christmas Eve off, which is a Sunday this year.

We are going to have Thanksgiving dinner at the house this year since I am off. The girls are going to be doing a lot of the cooking. I will get the boys in on it too. Sharon may not be doing too much , she is going over to Sean's house for Thanksgiving dinner at about 1:00.Sean is Sharon's boyfriend. We will have dinner about 5:00 or so.

I have a piece of advice for anyone buying a car. DON'T. Not really ,but if you need to get a car be very careful whom you deal with . The dealers and the people that work there are not in business to do you any favors. We "bought" a car from Big Red Sports and Imports in Norman, OK on October 16,2006 and we are still messing around with the financing and stuff. First off the lean from the people Big Red got it from had not been released when we got the car. The bottom line is to keep an eye on the people at the dealership and stand your ground to get what you need. Don't let anybody bull doze over you.

Well , more will be coming later.

HALLOWEEN

Hi , It has been a while since I have posted. Well , the Tigers lost the world series. They were just a little to young and inexperienced and the Cardinals were better.

Our little kitten Duchess was in the Vet Hospital over the weekend. She had an intestinal infection. She had to have a lot of iv fluids, and antibiotics . She did not eat for two days. She was real sick for a while, the vet said if we had waited any longer we would have lost her.She callapsed shortly after we left her at the vet's. She is back to her old tricks now , she is chasing the big cats around again. She even feels different when you pick her up now, before we took her to the vets she felt real lite and had no muscle tone.

The kids are out trick or treating, actually it was just Jacob, his sister Elizabeth took him out. Sharon is at a party with her boyfriend and Joseph is passing out candy.

Well, see you later

THE TIGERS ARE GOING TO THE WORLD SERIES

Well, they did it. The tigers are on the way to the world series. Now we just have to see who they will play. Both my husband Jeff and my son Joe are jumping around like crazy people. I think they are happy. The air horn went off a couple minutes ago.

Fall is coming

It's starting to get cooler now . Of course the air conditioning is working now. Did not work in September , but it is working now. Now it is cool . At least will be able to blow the warm air around with the fan in the ac fixed. Oh, well, at least the electric bill was down .

It is cooling down here in Oklahoma. Time for more crocheting and such. I got a nice wheeled sewing cart at the thrift store. It is a little scuffed up , but for $3 it is pretty good. I can get the sewing machine out and can at least repair the things that need to be fixed.

The man from work that I was making the afghan for had to leave town on a family emergency last week , so I put his afghan up for now.

I am knitting myself a scarf, knitting is good. I am still a crocheter at heart though. I got a real nice bone crochet hook in the mail today. I found it on eBay.
You can find a lot of great stuff on eBay. I have found some really great hairpin lace forks. One is about one and a half inches wide. The biggest is about eight inches wide. I have fallen in love with the bone and ivory hooks and hairpin looms. I also found some K-tel knitters on line. Follow my webshots link to see my eBay finds and some neat thrift store finds.

More later

Hello

All of us pray for Cory Lidel, the pitcher that died on Thursday in the plane crash in New York City. We also pray for his family

THE TIGERS WIN OVER THE YANKEES

Jeff is happy , his Tigers beat the Yankees.

Maybe now the talking heads on ESPN, ET all. will shut their mouths and stop yakking about how much better the Yankees are that the Tigers , who are supposed to be "a team who came in the playoffs through the back door". Back door , front door, roof who cares how they got in , they beat the Yanks.

Detroit has been good all year and showed how they can hold on and come back to win.

This is amazing considering how bad their had been over the last few years

Here are some photos of the celebration. The following is a link to more photos of the Tigers and the Yankees.(the following pictures are not mine , I got them from the following site)

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/photo?slug=5fb443b1600649f5b9499400ff0e7cf2.yankees_tigers_baseball_mips107&prov=ap

.DETROIT - OCTOBER 07: Marcus Thames #33 of the Detroit Tigers celebrates after the Tigers recorded the last out to beat the New York Yankees 8-3 in Game Four of the 2006 American League Division Series on October 7, 2006 at Comerica Park in Detroit, Michigan. With the win the Tigers won the series 3-1 to advance to the ALCS (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)

Detroit Tigers catcher Ivan Rodriguez celebrates left fielder Craig Monroe's two-run home run against New York Yankees pitcher Jaret Wright in the second inning of Game 4 of their American League Divisional Series baseball game in Detroit, Saturday, Oct. 7, 2006. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

back later with some more.

Hello

My husband's (Jeff) Detroit Tigers beat the Yankees in the second game of the wildcard playoffs today. He is happy about that, which makes me happy.


We finally got the AC fixed , the landlord got over here and changed the motor , it only took him 5 weeks to do it.


It broke the first of September, usually it starts cooling down in September. From high 90's to the lower 90's. Even in October it has been pretty warm. Up in the high to mid 80's. That makes it really hot in the house.



Here is half afghan I made for work . I use it a shawl. It is in Simply Soft yarn and the pattern is the box stitch.Here is a link to how to make this stitch pattern.

http://www.crochetcabana.com/stitches/diag-box-st.htm
It is a really fast stitch to do and depending on what type of yarn you use you can make all kinds of things with it.

My first sweater

This is the first sweater I have ever made, it did not take very long , it was made out of raglan sweater general instructions. One of the ladies I work with wants me to make her one.

Right now I am making a afghan for one of the men I work with. He chose the colors he wants it made of . He asked me to make him one because all the other ones he has seen or had are too short to cover him , he is bout 6ft 2 ins.I will post pictures of that as I work on itTalk some more later.

Some of my recent projects

This is my Webshots album with my recent projects in it
http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/album/554487391SDJRvk

Hey everyone

I have pictures of Sharon's 18th birthday party. Take a look.

The young man on Sharon's right is her boyfriend Sean.The young man who's face you can barely see is Scott , he is in band with her. Sean graduated last year.



More pictures are on my Webshots Albums ,the link is in the links list

Long time No talk

Hi , been busy since last week. Time does have a way of passing you by. My oldest daughter turns 18 on Saturday. Kids grow up fast.
I will have some pictures to post tommorrow.
I found another great website that has lots of free patterns , mostly knit this time.
Take a look at it, http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEfall06/index.html

Friday the 15th

Hi, today was my payday . You may think "OOH money ! lets go get some stuff!" . Not a chance, have to pay bills, bummer

Oh, well, that's just more We don't have to pay them on Jeff's next payday.

However , I got three pairs of pants for Jeff at the thrift store, one pair of Dockers and two pairs of black denim jeans, they have been barely used. One pair is good enough to wear to church. Now before you say anything , we live in Oklahoma . It just fine to wear jeans to lots of places, including nice restaurants. Cowboy boots are the referred footwear.It is also allowed to wear pearls with you blue jeans.

Well , on a lighter note , I was off today , and I am off tomorrow.

Got a lot of running done today , Jeff was with me , now he is starting to understand why I get so little done on Fridays, which is one of my regular days off. He found out just a little bit of going places to pay something or to got pick up some stuff at the store can take up most of the day. He now also understands how it can make you so tired, and he did not even get out of the car at most of the places we went to.

Had to stop for a minute to take a ant trap away from Duchess, that kitten gets into a lot of stuff, not much difference between a human child and a animal child.

Fortunately , she has not learned to do this.

We do have a kitty who loves toilet paper, his name is Nermal .

He also thinks that he is the center of the universe, boy is he going to be mad when he finds out different.

Back in a minute , the cats are hungry , gotta feed them before they eat me.

Back again, yep they were hungry, they are not looking at me anymore.

Hey , did you hear about Dog the bounty hunter? The Mexican government has got a lot of nerve charging him with a crime because he had the guts to go get Andrew Luster when they were just sitting around on their butts. Dog (Duane Chapman) has a reality show on A&E. He was the only one who went after Luster when he fled to Mexico, Luster is the Max Factor heir who was a serial rapist, he would give girls Rohipnal (not sure if I spelled it right , it is the date rape drug) and then video tape himself abusing them.

Pretty disgusting man. I say 'way to go, Dog" for getting him. Luster was already sentenced to 124 years in prison. Not long enough if you ask me.

So , anyway , I have some great EBay deals to post about , I will do that tomorrow .

Bye for now.

Today

We also think about September 11,2006
We will all pray for the dead and the families, and for everyone in the world that fight for freedom.

Steve Irwin

Here are some links to some items about Steve Irwin , the crocadile hunter.
http://www.startribune.com/722/story/656054.html
http://www.kogo.com/pages/national_headlines.html?feed=104668&article=803239
http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Steve+Irwin

Everyone at my house is sad to hear about Steve Irwin, we join the many others is prayer for his wife and childern.

Thrift store find

Here are some panels for an afghan, I am still trying to figure out what to do with them.

I love thrift stores , you can find really neat stuff there, I have found many things that are brand new, some of them still have tags on them . My girls love to go to the thrift store with me, they are really good at finding clothes , etc that they have seen somewhere else at really cheap prices.


more later

Today

Hi there, well , today was a fun day at work

The college football season started today. Football is not my favorite sport.

I was in band in high school, the marching band. Guess where I was every friday night.

You guessed it , at the football field. I played the flute. It got cold at night and my flute

would be ice cold. When your lips are numb, you cannot play your flute.

Also, I did not understand the game , no one bothered to tell me what everything meant.

I know the basics, the guy with the ball is the one that everyone chases.If the guy with

the ball gets across the goal line he scores. That sort of stuff. BUT what in the world

is a 'Touch back", what does it mean when you are 4th down with something or

another to go? See what I mean.

Now , baseball, that I can understand , don't know what all the terms mean or where

they came from , but I know what the object of the game is, basically how it is played

that sort of thing. I did play softball when I was young, mostly when we lived in New

Hampshire, at Pease AFB. My father was stationed there in the late 60s early 70s.

The cats are still playing Wrestle Mania. They can be hilarious. Take a look.

Oops got caught. The white and gray cat is Nermal, he is like a Rag Doll breed of cat. He has soft , medium length fur. It stays clean , but always looks rumpled. He is big, and when you pick

him up he really relaxes, you have to be careful or he will relax right out of you arms.

The other one is Leo. He is about 5 years old and is not too sure of what to think , what with

all the new guys that have moved in . He does like to wrestle with Nermal and Sylvester.

Have to get some more pictures of when they really get going.

Later,

Wednesday

The cats are chasing balls around the house. Felix likes to play soccer , he has a kitty sized tennis ball that really rolls good. He even plays fetch with play mice.
He is a riot.
I have some wool sweaters that I have felted to use for various projects. Felix stole a cuff off of one of the sweaters, it is now his woollie , he gets upset if one of the other cats gets it. He will carry it around and throws it in the air and then ponces on it. Dutchess the baby cat took it one night. He did not do anything to her , I think he knows she is a baby. He just looked really sad. I had to go into the felted wools and get her a cuff , he is now happy again.
If anyone has felted wool and caught a whiff of what it smells like wet, that person will know why the cats like their woollies, it smells like wet animal. I think cats are into smells more than dogs. Ours are constantly sniffing things, same food they have had for months , they have to sniff it before they eat it.

The kids are getting settled into school. They are finishing their second week already.. The girls have homework. Jacob does not have a lot of homework. He is in special needs classes, they try to keep homework to a minimum. He does most of his work at school.

Jeff is happy , his favorite Tiger , Craig Monroe, Just hit a 3 run homerun and now the Tigers are beating the dreaded Yankees (hee heee). Jeff is a diehard Detroit Tigers baseball fan. Been a fan thru thick and thin.

Any way, I am off Thursday and Friday this week , are days off were changed for this week and next week. We have to work Saturday instead of being off that day.
College football starts this weekend, the only way to miss Saturday and Sunday this weekend and next weekend (Nfl starts next weekend) is to be dead or have a doctors note.

I will post pictures of all the kids tommorrow.
Till then see you later

My sweater and a silly cat

This is picture of my sweater so far. The yoke is done , now I am working on the body of the sweater. I is made from Caron's Simply Soft in white and one strand of Yarn Bee's Wisp in Ivy color?, anyway it is a pretty green. It is really soft. When I wear it to work this winter I will have to be careful , some of team memebers like soft sweaters, scarfs, etc.
Here is the website http://www.io.com/~cortese/, it is under the crafts catagory.



Have you seen a sillier cat? He lays down with his legs out behind him like a dog.

Keep checking back for more from my family

It raining cats and dogs

Today it was over 100.
So now it is thunderstorming outside. Lots of lighting and thunder.
One thunderclap sent all the cats into hiding.
Hopefully nothing will leak tonight.
With all the lightening the satellite is out. It does go out in the storms, but when the storms clear, it comes right back on. When we had cable if the cable went out it stayed out for a long time.
Sharon turns 18 on the 23rd of September, YIKES is that scary.
I need to take a picture of the sweater I am making to put up here. It is a raglan cardigan. I am using a generic pattern instruction sheet, I will look at the website and put that with the picture

Cats and more Cats

Hi every one , I got some cute pictures of my cats to show off. When I can pin the kids down long enough to get some more pictures I will post them too. I do have a picture of Sharon , she will graduate next spring .She going to go to a junior college and then a four year college. Her major is going to be Mortuary Science.
Odd , but then again so is Sharon , she is in high school band and is a percussionist.




The black and white cat is Felix,. The white one is Dutchess, this picture was taken a few weeks ago. Her ears and her face are turning orange now.
Well, more later.
Debra

Neat Crochet site

Check out this website, it has cool patterns on it . The owner is from Australia.
http://crochetroo.blogspot.com/

Auction over

Well , my ebay auction is over , if anyone wants to buy some of the yarn , let me know , kittyquiltsandcrafts@yahoo.com.
The yarn is very soft, I have some green that I am using to make a sweater, since the wisp is sock wt. yarn I am combining it with one strand of caring simply soft white . I only have the yoke partially done , but it is really soft.
I will post a pict as soon as soon as I get a little more done.

This is a pict of a purse I knitted. I just recently was able to learn how to knit. It is still knit stitch, but I am learning, taught my self. I have been trying to learn for a very long time, tried to learn from teachers, no good. I was finally able to get the tension right , that was my problem, too tight. I have been able to crochet up a storm since I was under 10, ACCK!!!!! That was over 30 years ago. Anyway here is the pict , I made it with one strand of Homespun yarn and three strands of green wool yarn I got form a thrift store, the green was sock wt. , then I felted it. I think it came out really nice, the people I work with think it is cool.
The person holding it is my daughter Elizabeth , she did not want her face in the picture, she claims to be camera shy.

I will post some more later, the girls are going to a theme park this afternoon with their youth group from church. Gotta help them get some things together.

Yarn

Look what I found at the thrift store! I am selling some of it on my ebay site, the item number is Item number: 180017378471. the link is http://tinyurl.com/lqc9v



Take a look at it if you would, I have kept some for myself, but I have lots to sell. It is yarn bee yarn form hobby lobby.



I am going to post some of the things that I have made. Some of them are kind of funny looking , but some are really cute, others have told me they are cute anyway.

Last night I dyed one daughters hair red, it turned out cute on her. Tonight I dyed the other daughters hair blue black , it does look really cute with her hair cut. It makes her look a little pale , but I think that is what she wanted.

Gotta go to bed, have to go to work tomorrow and the kids go to school on tuseday .
bye for now

Thursday

How do you like the picture of Duchess on my last post?
Isn't she a darling?

She really bosses the males around, they are all nuetered adults and they still treat her like she is a queen. Her eyes are still blue, one of them is crossed a little.
She doing really good considering she came to us so young. The other cats ,for the most part, like her. She is very funny , like most kittens.

Here is a picture of two of the other cats.
Sylvester is on the left , he is the top cat. He is my cat, I think that is why he is boss cat.
The one on the right is Nermal, because he is cute and fluffy , ........... the orange cat does not like him.





His name is Sparky, he is a little cranky . He finaly has all his fur back. He is allergic to fleas . If he gets bit he developes sores and will pull his fur out on his back end. We were finally able to get all the fleas out of the house.
All of the cats stay inside for many reasons, like wierd people, cars, dogs running around, not to mention stupid people who cannot just let animals alone , they think they have to mess with the animal if it is out and about.
They are all washed on a regular basis, and yes that is an interesting event. Another reason they stay inside is because my daughter , my youngest son and myself are asthmatic. We react mostly to scents and the pollen and dust that is outside. Cats, like dogs, love to roll in interesting things, so I do not want them bringing stuff in . The fleas are another thing, by staying in we are not bothered by the fleas. They are an occasional bother , but not all the time. We have more problems with the ants than anything else.

Right now would not be a time for pets to be outside if they do not have to be , it was 103 faranhiet outside again. It has been something like 25 days or so in the hundreds here in Oklahoma. Fortunately the humidity is low so we are able to breathe . Hi humidity is not good for me , it is hard to breathe when the humidity is high. I am not a very good patient as far as taking my asthma medicine, I should know better, I was an LPN for 10 years.
I don't like the efect it has on me , I can breathe but it gives me the shakes, like I took some drugs or just got a bad scare. Not a good feeling.

Well I may be back tonight , but right now I need to get some iced tea to drink.
Bye for now.

Wednesday

Hi everyone, today is Wednesday.
Tommorrow is my Friday, I work Sunday to Thursday.
I am ready for the week to be over, it has been a busy day.
I am going to post some pictures Friday or Saturday.
They will be of my kids, cats and projects.

Got some really funny ones.

See you Friday.
Duchess the kitten

Sunday

Hi , it is Sunday evening.
I got a surprise when I got to work this morning, ................. More Training ...........
YIPEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now I will know just about everything.
Well, I sure hope they give me a raise, because as soon as I complete the training I will become more valuable to the company and become an asset,,Uh doesn't the fact that I am more valuable mean I should get better compensation so I don't take my value and go someplace else.

Enough of that.

The kids go back to school on the 15th of August , I am ready for that. When they are in school I have at least one day of the week by myself, YEAH.

Joseph, my 21 year old , a baseball game today. He is in an adult baseball league . He is a pitcher but is in the outfield and infield right now. He hit two balls to the outfield , almost out of the field.
One of the at bats he popped out . He seems to be getting better. He loves baseball. Did not get to play in high school. He is practicing right now , and is planning on going to some tryouts for some major league teams. His dad will go with him to the tryouts. Jeff(my husband ) wants to get out out on the field with him , but cannot . He had damaged great toe joints, from big bunions. He is allowed to throw soft toss baseballs now as part of his shoulder surgery.

Here is a picture of Joseph

He is holding on of our cats. This is Felix, he is a black and white shorthair cat. He has a Tuxedo pattern. He is a very laid back cat. Not to demanding, he will let you know if something is wrong or he decides he is ready to be petted and loved on. He will sit or lay outside of Joe's bedroom door and mope if Joe is gone and Felix decides he wants Joe to take care of him.

Cats and kids and dogs are really funny about that .

Well enough for now , gotta go get ready for bed , gotta go to work tomorrow morning. Have to be to work by 8:00 am. By the time I go home at 4:45pm it will be about 102 degrees Fahrenheit .Hot and melty.

Got it set up

Well, I got my blog set up .
Stay tuned for more stuff to come.

Now, a little about me.

I am 46, and yes I have no problem letting people know how old I am, I figure you either get older or you get dead. I prefer older , thank you.

My husband Jeff and I have been married for 23 years, working on our 24 th year.

I have four kids all mine and Jeff's.
Joe is the oldest , he is 21.
Sharon is next, she is 17 going on 25.
Elizabeth is 16.
Jacob is 14.
We have many cats, they are all rescues, they have managed to find us. I have never gone out looking for a cat. I just open my front door and about onec every year and half to two years there is a kitten there. The oldest was about 8 or 9 months old. The youngest was four weeks old. I found her in a store parking lot. I really getting mad at people that throw animals away. There is always something else you can do . Take them to the pound if you have to, at least they won't linger and die of starvation.
I perfer no kill shelters but they can only handle so many animals. I prefer sterilazation. All my animals are sterilized. I sure do not want to make kittens, I could never give them away for one thing.

I work for a inbound customer service company. I do troubleshooting and billing information/payments.

Jeff, my husband , works at an Air Force base. He is an aircraft inspector/repair/maintance person.
He is in the Air Force Reserves . right now he is in inactive status. Several years ago he injured his rotator cuff while he was on duty , he had surgery this past January. He is not at 100% and probably never will be. The damage was pretty extensive. He will get to where he will be able to play catch with the kids, and that kind of thing . Being 53, though, he is not going back into active reserves.

We are hoping to move to a house of our own soon. We have been in rental houses for quite a while.

Well , that is enough for today . Soon I will be publishing picts of the kids and the cats and my crafts , which are quilting , crocheting , knitting , cross stitch , ........

Thank you for stopping by

Starting up

I am starting a new blog for myself. I plan on posting about my kids, my cats and my crafts. I might even sell some stuff.
Stay tuned for more.
Debra