Pictures. and tree update...

So I thought I'd update again.. got a few pictures for you.. (and I really hate pictures of myself so I'm biting the bullet to post these.. vain as I am. )

Here is me trying not to scratch with my bow.. see me biting my lip?

Then there are the others in my household that are happy with my new passion...

Me in my newest finished sweater.. cotton, summer hoodie. (reversible, zipper up the front. ) I've been living in it.

Here is the newest sweater I'm working on.. a lace aran. Hard to see I know, but I'm really pleased so far.

Here are the very start of the sleeves, two at a time on cable needles. And clearly lacking really cool stitch markers to keep track of my increase place.

As for the tree news, we had an expert out today and they said that this tree can be saved.. that even it we cut it all off at the point of the break, our tree would grow back.. 6 feet in one year! By the end of next week, we will have this done! I cannot have another winter of wind, rain and worry. I do not want limbs falling on our children. We will be getting a couple of different bids and opinions, whether to lop it off at the break or trim it back drastically but keep some of the height. (I kind of like that idea) But we get to keep the tree!!!

Stormy Weather..

Big storm last night.. Big! Lots of rain, (nothing new for us.. this is Oregon.) but at about 7:45 PM (ish) there was a loud CRACK! and lo! a big branch from my swingin' tree fell into our house and shed.









That is right on top of John and I's bedroom window. No broken window, no roof damage! Yeah! No children outside in the swing (although Sam was swinging in it an hour before) no animals underneath the limb.







Look at that! One of the main limbs off of my beautiful Sweet Gum.












The gutter is the only real casualty and we will have to replace that soon (this weekend) .. remember, this is Oregon, one does not go without gutters.










This is what is left of my tree.. I'm nervous, we have to have someone come out and let us know if the tree itself must come down. I would be a sad, sad, sad lady if it does, but I will not risk house, or most especially life for the love of my tree..

The real problem .. I have a young teenager who has gone decidedly panicked over the possibility of losing a mainstay of his life.. he doesn't even know that the tree may have to come down yet. I do not want to tell him. I don't even want to tell myself.

A not so quick update...

Yep.. Still here.

Just wanted to let you all know. I've been stinking busy with all four kids almost daily, and of course there is work nearly everyday. (this does not include the housework, just leaving to get paid to do a job outside of home)

The summer has flown by though and there have been great changes.

The first big one you know, I started playing the violin. That is going to be a constant in my life from now on. I cannot believe that I did not do this earlier, what I have been missing! For those of you who do not know me well, I'll let you in on a little secret.. I sing. I sing a lot, and if I say so myself, I sing really well. I have been doing this all of my life. I was singing harmony to my mother when I was 2-3 years old (her story, not mine) When I was 10 I started playing the guitar. This was the 70's and I really just learned cords to accompany my singing. I never learned to play individual notes.. or to "pick" if you will. I sang in College.. Opera if you can believe it. I've sang in Churches all my life. The point here is that music is a constant for me, a never ending, everyday, background, flowing constant. AND I COMPLETELY STOPPED LEARNING NEW THINGS ABOUT MUSIC! DUH!

This is really the first time I have ever had to learn to read music.. before, I hear it once, maybe twice, I sing it. No problem, and I usually never forget it...Now, I have to learn what these notes mean, and how my fingers need to move to produce these sounds. Boy, do I have some clunkers in me! I also have some soaring, heart expanding sounds that come out.

I'm finding that my fingers are trying to find the notes on the fret when I am at the grocery store (Mom told me I did the same thing when learning the guitar.. I'm sure I did)

I'm listening to Bluegrass, and Celtic fiddling. Lots of Nickelcreek, but also Bond.. amazing talents, stuff to aspire to. Of course while I'm screwing up my scales I lament that I will never be there. (Thank God that John reminds me that this is a long term project and that I've only been doing this for 12 weeks.)

The point is that I ignored a huge part of who I am as a person for a very long time because I was too busy, or too whatever excuse there is, and I suffered for it. I was not nearly as happy as I am now. It seems the silliest little thing, but really, even if every note I play that day is just crap, I still walk away feeling heart-full. I walk away singing, my head full of music..

Don't worry.. knitting is still one of my babies.. I finished a summer sweater (what I call my Jedi sweater) and I am working on my new winter sweater (cable and lace... really nice aran!) and I have another winter sweater that I will do immediately after the cable and lace. It's a hoodie, a lovely green elfin "Lord of the rings" hoodie that I must, MUST have.

Oregonians need hoodies, because we never carry umbrellas... actually that's how we know that you're a tourist, you're carrying an umbrella.. really. I mean it.

I'll try to post pictures of the new sweaters tomorrow, or Sunday.

Also, I just got a new position at work that I am very excited about, I start training for this in October. I won't really get into it, but this is all new stuff to our site and I get to be one of the first 15 to learn it. I am, frankly, deeply honored that I am among the first, and it is a huge blessing to be growing and learning new things at work too.

Now to the children.. School starts again this next week for us, and Ben will be in the 4th grade, and is kinda ready to get back. I am really excited about getting him started on a musical instrument this year. Of the two boys, Ben is the one that walks around singing, interested in what I do on the violin, unconsciously singing the scales after I've played them. Yep, it's time to let him explore what instrument calls to him.

Sam is happily ready for school to start, he is ready for the structure (we run an Aquarian, artsy, fartsy household, I'm sorry to say) he is ready to be back with his friends and doing new things.. I will be talking to his teacher about the possibility of keyboarding for him (they have one in the classroom, and he has expressed an interest)

The girls are home schooled, but I know that they will be sent over with homework if their work isn't finished, soooo homework x 4...

I am also still wishing a had a spotless and organized household (snort. Like that will ever happen. See artsy, fartsy above)

If I write more, your brains may explode. I cannot risk your health for my own release.

See what happens when you post once a month... geesh.

Swinging in a tree

You know? I've never grown out of my need for a good swing. Not the dance type, but little kid swinging. Of course this is really hard to do on a little kid swing set, and even when we upgraded to the really cool wooden structure with swings, (that I help build, thankyouverymuch) I wasn't able to really swing the freeing good swing I crave.


My husband, John, he really loves me.


A lot.


So several years ago we bought a hammock swing and my loving husband installed it into our sweet gum maple tree.


I LOVE my swing, but of course, it became absolutely everyone's favorite swing.. I have seen several kids on that swing at the same time. Finding time to go to my swing is really hard, but I try to get out in the back yard when I can.

My swing's looking a little worse for wear. My garden is a box full of weeds, my house is not perfectly clean,(not even close) and frankly, although my laundry was done to the last stitch of dirty clothes Saturday, there is now at least 5 more loads to do.

But oh! Just a few minutes of time under that tree!

Lookie, Look! See what I see when I swing under my tree! (wish the photography was better, but I think you get the idea!)

A trip back east.

A trip back to Eastern Oregon, that is.. that's a good eight hours east traveling in a car with the whole family and a dog... really, that's east enough for me. This time the whole family got to go out and see Grandpa and Grandma, and it was much warmer! See this is what Dad's place looks like in the summer..

















The high desert is a beautiful place. In the bottom picture are the foothills of the Blue Mountains.. just without the snow this time. Dad and the boys spent some time four wheeling. The boys are just starting to learn how, and neither one of them will be doing it alone, Sam from over cautiousness, Ben because, (as my father said) he has no sense of danger.... (this is so true, not only would he not be afraid of a dragon in his path, he would absently pat it's head as he walked past it and comment on it's lovely coloring.) Not because he has no fear, but because he would not realize there is anything to fear. (Mother sighs deeply, shakes her head and mutters "Bloody Wolverine.")
Ben was Dad's shadow while he was out there, anywhere in the desert Dad was going, Ben was tagging along. If it was outside, and with Grandpa, he was there. They both loved it, but it tired them both, we got home Wednesday, and Ben spent the day needing "alone time". I think that he would live out there full time if he had the chance.
Sam was happy to see everyone, but was not at home. If the whole world could just come to him, in his own space, he would be pretty comfortable to visit. In this Sam and Grandpa are just alike. This is why we go to visit Grandpa, and not the other way around.... Sam loved seeing everyone, but was very ready to get home to his own room and his own routine. He handled being away from everything much better than he used to. He does, happily, go through the uncomfortable sensation of being away from home to see Grandpa and Grandma, he loves and misses them.



Here are Grandpa and the boys. Grandma had gone to work before I pulled out my camera, otherwise I'd have Marcie right there with them.

Here is Grandpa, the boys and Mr. Meta. (that would be short for Metamorphosis, Dad's sense of humor is as warped as my own.) That tortoise is 45 years old, and just in the prime of his life. He is a favorite attraction for anyone that visits Dad.

Lastly, here is a picture of myself and Dad. My heart always aches when I leave. It doesn't matter how long I get to visit, or how pleasant it's been (and it was lovely) it's never enough time.

Hobbies, or ways that our children are allowed to reach maturity

So first of all, it occurred to me that I have not taken pictures of knitting for a while. I do not want to misled anyone into thinking that just because I have started to torture my children with my violin practice, that I have stopped playing with yarn... it just ain't so. (I would never say the word ain't, but it looks so right there in that sentence.) Anywho, so remember when I said last summer that my goal was to wear only my own knitted socks this winter? Well, I was successful. I had the most comfortably warm feet all winter long. I have more than enough pairs, but I cannot stop. I have a red "flame" pair that I'm working on now.. Here are some of the newer socks..


It's hard to see the colors as they are on the computer, but you get the idea.

I'm going to have to do a pink pair after the red, or repair the pink pair I have (or both) as the cabled pair that I did 2 years ago is starting to wear thin. Now think about that for a moment. This is one of my favorite pair of socks, and I've worn them a lot. I knit them the summer I broke my shoulder, which was 2008. These socks are just starting to wear thin. That means that these socks were built to last sister!

Now I count 15 pair here, and I have one on the needles now. The two on the bottom I don't wear much, the blue and red pair is a really thick boot sock (I need to make more of these, I have the yarn, I'll do them before winter this year to wear with my boots....of course!)
It's a crazy obsession... I just can't stop. Luckily, I don't have to.

Now I'm not just knitting socks, I have a cotton hoodie sweater that I'm knitting/designing and I have just one sleeve and the hood to go. Then I have another summer sweater to make. THEN, I have the perfect pattern for a darling winter hoodie that is just all classic lines. My neighbor, Marla and I are both going to make this one. We went to the yarn store, saw it on display, and Oh Boy!!

But a lot of the time that I would be spending knitting has gone into violin practice, so the projects are moving slower than they normally would. On the other hand I can actually play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and This Old Man on the violin, and scales.. lots and lots and lots of scales. I play scales so often apparently, that Sam said to me yesterday while I was playing them, "Hey mom, I recognize that song." geesh.

Don't get the idea that I play them well yet, they sound as laborious as they are played but I am loving every (nearly) minute of the time I spend trying.

Just as an aside, Pam, if you haven't already seen the show, you really need to check out "Big Bang Theory" this is like having a camera in my house 10 years from now, except that the exclamatoins of "My Seat!" happen now. This is Asperger's 101, in it's funniest form. We have the 1st two seasons on DVD and have been watching marathons of the show...

Wolverine's Birthday

So today at 1:12 pm, that is 13:12 for you military people, 10 years ago I gave birth to my youngest son, Ben. He has always been my sober child, but he still knows how to laugh. Actually both of my children could tend toward the brooding side of life, but my husband and I are too full of mischief and humor to let that happen overmuch. But when I say that my Ben is wolverine, what I mean is that he seems to have been re-incarnated from an old 1940's movie. The strong silent type that all the women wanted and the other men wish they could be.. you know. He is, even at 10, the one who prefers to be working with his hands, doing a job, outside if he can manage. I wish, often, that we were living in eastern Oregon with my family, as he would have so much more to be doing everyday, He would love it.



Ben's grin is infectious, really downright impish, irresistible. And, because he is surrounded by his slightly insane parents (actually just me on that one, John is very sane) his sense of humor is developing quite nicely. I think that he will be just as perfect a deadpan humorist as his father.. they both just have me rolling all of the time. (Sam is more like me, we're apt to howl at the moon as not. Good thing we have them to round us out. )

I have to work today, one of the draw backs to Ben having a birthday on July the 3rd, is that work does not want to give me time off the day before the holiday... no matter how long I've worked there, so .. I have to see him after his exact time of birth. Dang it.

Happy Birthday Ben, I was determined to have you, even right after Sam was born, not even an hour after, I told your father.. We're having one more! I knew you would be ours even then. Life would not be right without you!