A Walk through the Garden

Spring is at its peak and blooming is everywhere. My allergies really have not been as bad this season. I did quite well on April. May arrived and I definitely got hit...but still not as bad. The flowers don't bother me, it's thee oak pollen.

God's majesty and power is seen in the beautiful things he has created to bring us joy. My most prized flower is this pink peony which came from Kathleen (Cliff's mom). The blooms are gigantic and smell wonderful.

I have been enjoying this beautiful flower indoors as well. I liked it so much that Cliff bought me another Peony plant which will give white flowers.
Cliff takes pride in his pond. The goldfish seem to love it too. So far we have been lucky and the fish have not been attacked by any bird or animal. Here we are enjoying our wonderful lake property as he calls his pond.

Carla followed us during our walk. She was frisky too and climbed up on the tree house to show off.

The finale-------------------

Animated Amigurumi

I just love Amigurumis. Even saying the word is cute. Ha...Ha.. Once you start making them, your get hooked. Right now I'm working from patterns but some day I hope I'll be able to design and make my own. Connie did you get the Amigurumi book you ordered? Can't wait to see it and borrow it...:-)

I found this neat video on YouTube.




I've also found some tutorial videos that are neat to watch and learn. Like I said, just can't seem to get enough.

Caleb sings Happy Birthday to Pappa

Birthdays are special occasions in our family and we believe in the tradition of signing Happy Birthday. This past week we celebrated Cliff's birthday and Caleb couldn't get enough of signing this song. He has always enjoyed the candles on his piece of cake and singing over and over. He is so cute and we enjoyed his singing. We found this really neat candles shaped like balloons. The next day we had some more ice cream cake but there were no more candles, so I had to light a lighter while Caleb sang again. We did this at least 3 times.





Andrea and Travis gave Cliff a neat birthday card and treated us to dinner at the Golden Corral. He likes eating at places like this where a wide variety of food is served. He was happy to share this wonderful time with Andrea, Travis and the grandkids. He was also happy to get the sprinkler on a tripod.

Taite is a super vegetable eater. I'm really amazed at his preference of anything green (broccoli, green peas, green beans and zucchini are some of his favorites.




Me and Taite at the Golden Corral. Taite is such a joy and loving little one. Loves to be held and hugged.












Caleb makes the most amazing funny faces. He was a good boy at the Golden Corral.






On our first day we took a walk in a nearby neighborhood and I took these pictures:

We met a friendly kitty. Checkout Taite balancing.
We stopped by one of their friends. Taite has the most beautiful blue eyes.

The weather during our visit was excellent and we took the kids on a canoe ride.

A Fun Day off Work

Friday was my day off and I was looking forward to getting together with Connie. I love to knit and now to crochet and it can be so much much fun in the company of a friend. It's a wonderful experience and I always walk away with new knowledge. It takes a long time to learn everything there is to learn about knitting or crochet.
Connie had never been to a Panera's. (I still find that hard to believe). We arrived sometime before 11 a.m. and didn't leave until............I'm not saying yet.

Connie brought her new Noah's Arc baby blanket she's working for her future grandbaby. I hope she'll soon discover what a joy it's to be a grandmother. I brought along my amigurumi Frog. I've recently discovered these fun crocheted little creatures and I love to make them. We had fun as we always do, but we (mostly Connie) also worked very hard trying to figure out a lacy crochet pattern for a tablecloth from the book Vintage Crochet. Most everyone will agree that crochet instructions are complicated. Connie tried and tried to figure out the pattern. I don't think she even knew I took this picture.

So...........we didn't leave Panera's until after 5 p.m. We went home exhausted and hungry ready to eat a nourishing fish dinner. Later on that evening, Connie who had already figured out the pattern by just looking at the picture, asked me to come over. She was very determined to get me going and she did. It's so exciting to figure out a pattern. She and I both finished a sample done in worsted weight yarn.

Froggy without arms and legs and eyeballs....

Froggy came to life at Panera's....and here he is by the pond. He is really cute and makes me smile. I will be making more since I got the beads I needed for the feet and arms.

I've completed one crochet square using the yarn I purchased at Michael's. It worked perfect and did not use as much yarn as I thought it would.

Froggy likes it and sits well on it.

Sorry about the blurry pictures.

Extreme Ice Gym

The Extreme Ice Gym was quiet and nearly empty this Sunday afternoon. Rob the trainer and two other members plus me and Cliff were present. I started my workout using the elliptical machine, then I worked out using some of the machines which have weights. I have to use the lowest weight available. I finished the workout using the treadmill.

Cliff has been enjoying going to the gym with me. He still maintains the machine he has been using at home can do most of the things the gym's machines do. He does like doing the cardio workout using the elliptical.

Here's Cliff trying to do pull ups.
Me working out the abs. It's actually easier to work the abdomen using this machine than doing it on the floor.
View of some of the machines.
Cliff on the treadmill.
More machines.

I set up the treadmill so I could brisk walk, with a slight inclination. Cliff said his feet felt funny after getting off the treadmill.
He seems to like the treadmill more than the elliptical. The elliptical does burn more calories, I think.

I'll be taking Zumba classes on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday or Saturday. It was neat to see some of the ladies who used to go to Ladies Workout Express again at this new gym.

Charlotte Purls Meeting

The real neat thing about going to my Knitting Group meetings is that I learn something new every time. Books are great but I love to get together and learn from other ladies who love to crochet and knit. Connie brought quite a few of dishcloths she has made which combine knitting and crochet. She knits them and adds a crochet border which adds so much. She held a crochet session for those who were interested in the basics of crochet. I think she had enough lessons for upcoming meetings. I noticed some of the ladies were having trouble even making a chain. I tried to encouraged them not to give up, because it does get better and easier.




Manchelle is an avid crocheter and knitter. The market bag I'm holding is one she has been using to teach. She was so sweet and gave me the pattern sheet. This pattern is also available online.

Manchelle also brought these cute knitted slippers which would make great gifts. She shared the pocket book slippers pattern and I can't wait to try it.




It's always so nice to sit and chat with Rose and she brought Jackie O to the meeting. She could not believe I was still working on my fish. I'm not really that bad starting and not completing my projects. This fish though has so many scales and they all have had to be blocked because of their curling tendency. Don't worry Rose, I'll have it finished soon.

I worked on my Crochet flower hot pad and completed the border which Connie suggested.



Turned out pretty. I love red and white in the kitchen so I guess I'll keep this one. Connie tried to steal it during the meeting. Actually I'm flattered that she'd like to keep something I made.

Busy Saturday

I let my laundry get a little out of control. I had two weeks worth of clothes to fold and put away. Today I finally managed to put everything in baskets. Hopefully tomorrow I'll put clothes, towels, etc..where they belong. What a chore, this is really my least favorite thing to do.

Decided to give Flippy a break and took him out of his cage. The bird won't stop whistling as long as it sees its reflection. In the afternoon I shopped at AC Moore and took advantage of the 50% off coupon book to purchase a book. On the way back home I stopped by Trim Up, a fitness club for women in Matthews and I was very impressed by this facility. This place is around 6 miles from my house. The owner will waive the joining fee and give me a special rate. The monthly fee includes the classes they offer, which include: zumba, step strength, pilates, FitBall, WOW., etc.. My gym, Ladies Workout Express will only be open through March.

Alladin's Eatery arrives in Mint Hill

We have a new restaurant in Union County very close to our home. I've been anticipating it's opening because when I visited Panama last year, my sister took us to a restaurant that served middle eastern food. The food is very flavorful since they season with garlic, lemon, parsley and mint. The few dishes that I have tried I like, such as Fattoush salad, Falafel and Tabbouleh. The name of this new restaurant is Alladin's Eatery.

Friday night me and Cliff went after work. We arrived around 6:30 p.m and the place was packed. So when our waiter introduces himself, Cliff asks "Where's Alladin?" Very funny. Cliff, who had also tried this type of food in Panama decided to order the beef kabobs. His dish consisted of meat accompanied by rice and a very strong garlic sauce. He was disappointed that his entree did not include a vegetable or a salad. Usually kabobs come on a stick with vegetables, not the middle eastern ones I guess.

The food you see in the picture is what I ordered. It is an appetizer and I'm not sure I'll order it again. Cliff commented, "Well if you had no teeth, you'd have no trouble eating this food. This appetizer came with three different kinds of sauces (dip consistency), tabbouleh and the brown looking patties are Falafel. My friend Donna was there too. I saw what her daughter ordered, Salad Pita Bowl and it looked great. I highly recommend Fattoush salad; I'll be sure to order this next time. The cakes and cheesecakes they serve are one of the best I've ever seen, even better than the desserts you can get at the Cheese Cake Factory. I'm serious the portions were huge and the selection was incredible. I did not try any this time.

Visit to Williamston

Early Friday morning we headed out to spend the weekend at our daughter's house. It's so nice to be able to take these trips now that it only takes just over 4 hours instead of 9 plus hours it used to take when she lived in Ohio. Back then we did not see her and our beautiful grandchildren very often and this was hard on everyone.




On the way up I had my knitting with me. I have no trouble at all knitting in the car. The Knit Nuts Knitting group has decided to make baby blankets to donate to one of the hospitals in the are so I worked on my 5 inches. Connie started the blanket with a beautiful lacy stitch. I chose to do the reversible moss stitch. The theme of this blanket is clouds so all who work on this blanket will use different shades of blue and white. I also worked on the crochet strawberries I am making for a gift. Thanks Connie for your help. She still can't figure out how I was crocheting backwards. I am excited somehow the strawberries have taken shape. Pictures will be posted soon.

It's always so exciting to see our grandchildren. They are both a blessing and a joy. The first thing Caleb said when we arrived was "Nana I'm so happy to see you". He is so sweet and expresses himself so well. Taite, the baby is a hugger and he just opens up his little arms to receive love. He's talking his baby talk and we all talk back to him. I can clearly hear (what's that), "was da", "baw" (ball)

The weather did not cooperate; it was rainy, cold and gray most of the time with the exception of Sunday when it finally cleared up. So we spent time inside playing and pretending. Caleb has a wonderful imagination.




The mattress on the guest room became a boat. There were sharks all around it. Here's Caleb getting ready to jump. He is also swimming out of the boat trying to stay away from the sharks.


















Caleb is going through a picky stage of eating so it was great to see him eat a whole bag of mini carrots. He called him his fish and he shared them with me.





Taite is very attached to his bottle, blankie and of course to his mommy. He's ready to go nite nite. The little guy is fighting another one of his colds.








Me and Taite playing with one of the many trucks they play with. I will miss you kids. Stay sweet and loving. Keep up the good work Andrea and thanks again for the the super job you did designing the header and background of my blog. Just Love it :-)

My new Template

THANKS ANDREA :-)

Hmm

Hello everyone, thought I'd make a short post. Many of you might not know me or have heard of my though my parents. I joined the Air Force last year as sort of a spontanious thing, word to the wise... if your kids suddenly want to join the Military make sure they are 100% genuine about it and are educated on what they get themselves into. There are a lot of committments both in life one has to make, its not for everyone. It's what a person makes of us, typically unless you go to the Academy to be a Officer you are sent though basic training (BOOT Camp), this teaches you just that... the basics on the customs and courtesies of the Military. It's basically on a much higher level to than the real world Air Force. No one marches down the road in the real Air Force, no one has chow runners or someone yelling in there face while they try to eat, no one yells at you were folding your cloths wrong in your room. All that stuff is to teach discipline I guess.

I'm currently serving under the AFSC (career) of Security Forces which basically provides the Law Enforcement and Aerospace Security Arm of the Air Force, you can google or search youtube for videos about what we do. But most of those promotional videos you see about the job are totally false and give a wrong impression imo.

If anyone wants to entertain me with question about the military please feel free to send me a email at kevin.main@gmail.com. I check this address frequently, even more than my .mil address simply because of ease of use.

ps... My mom sent me a knitting book for baby booties. If you want to your son to commit social suicide tell him to bring knitting supplies on post.

The New Grand Gathering Table

After months for searching for the right table for our kitchen we decided to get this Gathering table, that's the name by which it is known at the World Market Place. I had looked at it a few months ago but decided to wait a while until it went on sale. I go in this store every now and then just because I like to browse. A couple of weeks ago after work I went to Michael's to get something and decided to stop at the Market Place. To my surprise I found out that that was the last day of the Furniture sale which had been going on for weeks. Can't believe I almost missed the sale. As you can see the table is tall and so are the bar stools. They call these tables Pub tables. Caleb will require his little stool to get up and down or I may have to set some other small table for the grandkids.

It is different sitting up high. Cliff makes fun at me because my legs dangle up in the air. There is a bar on which I can rest my feet. One nice thing about this table is that it has an attached leaf that expands the size of the table.

Learning the Magic Loop

Connie taught me how to knit in the round using two circular needles. I also learned how to do the Magic Loop which is great technique to use for knitting in the round instead of using double point needles. Maybe now someday I'll finally make gloves.

My Purly Valentine Swap

The Charlotte Purls February 9 meeting took place at the Bear Rock Cafe in the University area. This meeting was extra special because we brought the exchange gifts for our Purly Valentine. From the very beginning I knew I had gotten a very special person. Early on my Purly left me a $20.00 gift certificate at the Cottage Yarn. How cool and thoughtful was that gesture. I kept wondering who could have done such a nice thing??? No clue. I've heard a few of the ladies in the group say that they have shopped at this yarn shop.

My Purly was none other than my very best knitting buddy with whom I'm learning so much. Look here.

Take a look at the wonderful gifts that Connie so carefully selected and made for me. I'll always remember her thoughtfulness and I'm just blessed that she got me. I got the cutest lamb stitch markers, a special tool to pick stitches called the seed stitcher, locking stitch markers, card making supplies, Mini notes, designer collection tissues, Pink Hot chocolate, cupid candy corn, beautiful felted coasters, heart shaped crochet dishcloth. She also got me a special bug I can use to sign my e-mails.


These are the gifts before we opened them.
A newborn Purl.
View of the Bear Rock Cafe.

Playing Around with Glitterfy

Now I just can't get enough of this Glitterfy site. I'm just plain a bragging Nana :-)

Hope they know how much I love them.

Aren't they Precious?

The only thing missing in this picture was snow thanks to Glitterfy I was able to add it to this picture. This is a very neat site to enhance your photos or just have fun. I give credit to Connie who introduced me to this site.

Nursing a Cold

I'm not used to having colds, I really very rarely get one. I'm certain I got this one from my adorable grandkids. They are both so cute and when they come to visit it's kissing and hugging time. I'm just so thrilled when I see Caleb running in the house shouting "Hi Naannaaa!!"

Oh well so I finally got to use some of my sick vacation   leave. I have over 500 hours. It's strange staying home from work 3 days total this week. This is what I did to help my cold. The first two days I had a sore throat. I remember my mom's remedy doing gargling with very warm salted water. This was very effective in healing my throat. Had no need for lozenges or sprays.

Even though I think I started a little late I have been drinking Echinacea Tea with honey which supports the immune system. I actually enjoy the taste.

I'm going through the congestion and mild coughing stage (especially at night) of the cold so I got Tylenol Cold Multi-Symptom. These types of medicine help clear the congestion but do not heal that's for sure. The cold just has to run its course.

So what did I do besides resting and watching TV and movies. My very favorite thing: knit. I discovered the BBC channel and watched a few episodes of How Clean is Your House. It's hard to believe some people live in some of the very dirty houses featured in the shows.

The picture shows one of the finished clogs unfelted. The next step will require washing the clog in very hot water to felt it. I'm pretty pleased with this project and will make more to give as gifts.

My Birthday Celebration

January can be a tough month for many especially if you don't like winter. There seems to be more sickness around us during this month too. People who suffer from cabin fever have a hard time. My birthday takes place during the coldest part of the winter or so I think. My beautiful daughter did something very special and I give her credit and admire her. She drove all the way from Williamston to visit and be with me with me during my birthday. She is very thoughtful and knew I would enjoy being around the grandkids. What a great birthday gift this was. I enjoyed every minute of their visit.

It is our custom to eat out to celebrate birthdays. We decided to eat at Jimmy's but the place was closed. Then we drove to Showmars; it was also closed. We ended up at Panera's. Both me and Andrea love it. Cliff doesn't get excited at all. So we did found a Panera's open and Cliff who had been working on a call joined us. The food was delicious. Their green tea is my favorite. I ordered their creamed tomato soup and shared with Taite. I believe this is when I caught a bug.

Caleb enjoyed his Wendy's Chicken Nuggets and some of Nana's green tea.

I send you my love and thanks for making my birthday memorable.

We said "Bon Boyage" to Kevin's car

The visit to Charleston, South Carolina went well. Our main objective was to deliver Kevin's Pontiac to the Vehicle Shipping Company. We were relieved to know we had all the paperwork in order. The hardest part was to use up the gas in the tank since the car could not be delivered/shipped if it had more than one quarter of gas. Cliff miscalculated and thought for sure we would use all the gas but this is a good fuel efficient car. He tried numerous times to siphon out the gas with a narrow hose he bought at a Boat shop we came across. He was not able to do so. So after doing the initial paperwork, we drove and went to a Chinese restaurant as directed by the GPS. We ate lunch, then we drove and drove across a real pretty bridge and nearby roads. Cliff did not want to be too far away from the place, since they told us to be back by 3:00 p.m. He said maybe they would close the gate, and then that would not be good. Then he said he was wearing himself with all the driving. W went back to the Shipping place and Cliff talked to a lady and asked if she could do something to help us. At this point the gas gauge needle was over 1/8 of a tank from the required 1/4. She was very understanding and helpful and said it would be ok that the car was over the gas amount required.

We decided not to stay over night but did take a ride and took a walk to check out the houses and gardens. Along the way we met a mean squirrel. She let us know that she was not happy with us walking through her nice park. Check out those sharp teeth. I had never seen squirrel's teeth so close. We left her alone. Who knows, she could have jumped on us or something.

The Mean Squirrel

Some more pictures here:

Enormous Tree
Beautiful court yard.
Mean squirrel's park.
Pretty pink house.
The cannons

I was proud of Cliff not complaining too much during our walk. He always under dresses when it's cold. What is it about men that wont wear gloves or use scarves? I guess he put up with the cold walk to see the palms he loves so much. There are plenty of those in Charleston.

Beautiful Street in Charleston

This majestic tree was quite a sight. Maybe the keeper of this beautiful tree was the mean squirrel.

Happy New Year 2008

Happy New Year 2008

Spent a good part of the day making Thank You cards. They are time consuming but everyone who receives them is very touched.

Speaking of being touched, all my co-workers at the Library were very touched by our Branch Manager's gift. She let everyone pick either a shawl or scarf from the ones she had knitted all year long. There are 20 of us. Wasn't that so special!! I picked this beautiful shawl. I was glad I had a shawl pin. This past December Connie and I found these great pins at Hancocks Fabrics. After dinner tonight I was hoping to go by Hancocks but they were closed for New Year's Day.