I Finished Steve's Hat

The day after Christmas, I think? Or two days after.. But, I wrapped it in Christmas paper, anyway.  He still hasn't worn it. Even though it's been cold in the morning here. He said it isn't cold enough.    I started another hat that I was going to give him, but...   Since Eli got the job, I think I will give it to him. Since he will be working outside. I'll see if he wants it.  I am not happy that he got the job. Well, I'm glad kind of. He won't be sitting in his room all day, sleeping til one in the afternoon...   He does need to get out and do things.  But, if you read my last post. I don't want him to go out and do things/meet people/meet a girl/like it here...   :(     They must be desperate for people to hire there. He has no work experience at all. So... maybe this will be an experience. It's only 20 hours a week.  She's supposed to call him next week.    The other hat is just like this one but in grey Wool-Ease.  Oh, I do have something else to post about..  Let me get the picture.,.

Someone was selling this on Facebook. (Someone I used to know from a charity group who is also on Ravelry; and I don't remember where else, maybe Crochetville? Which I haven't been on in a long time...)  Anyway. She was going through her stash/projects and cleaning out. I said I wanted the mitered squares blanket.  So I bought it; and some scrap balls of yarn for $6 something.  

Christmas 2016

Did everyone have a nice Christmas?..  We had a nice Christmas. Even thought I never did find that box of ornaments (I still haven't)...  The beat still went on.  

I wasn't going to give anything to my brother and sister in law...  But in the end, I did. Nothing much. A star trek coffee mug and a Christmas candle. A knitted bell and a knitted catnip toy for their cat.

This is the catnip toy. It was a pattern from Wendy Knits, a long time ago. I can't seem to find it online anymore. 

This was actually right around the time Christmas break started, I think..  We got snow a couple days, and Christmas break started two days early. Because no one knows how to drive in the snow here. No one knows how to drive period here. But forget if it rains or snows...  Anyway, Duke loved the snow.  

Eli's stocking..

And Eon's...  Duke wanted to get in the picture. :)

Stuff I put in Eon's stocking.. Except the bean boozled candy and the deadpool sticker, it was basically the same for Eli's. 

Combs for Eon because he always loses combs... (Drives me nuts.)

And Xbox controller chocolates. I got them at World Market. I thought they would like those..

My Santa towels.. One in the kitchen.

One in the bathroom..

I made a lot of cookies...  These actually were the last batch I made. The peanut blossom Hershey's kiss cookies. Recipe is on the back of the kisses bag around Christmas.. My Grandma made these for all the holidays. :)

Peppermint Meltaways.

Christmas Sugar cookies. I like these for some reason. They're just like sugar cookies, but then you do the fork on top like peanut butter cookies, then the sugar. They have a cup of oil in them which I thought was weird. And I did have to refrigerate the dough before rolling it into balls..  Otherwise it was a soggy mess to try and roll and got all over your hands.

And I attempted (and succeeded, yay!) another chocolate cream pie.  I only made this one other time when we lived in Tennessee. And it never did get thick (the filling). I don't remember what I did wrong, I vaguely remember not having cornstarch maybe?....   Anyway it turned out this time, and was good.  Granny's Cocoa Cream Pie recipe.

Christmas dinner.  Christmas was better this year than it was in 2015.

Today Eli has his first ever job interview. He has been applying at several places, no one would call him.  Well he finally got an email, and finally got a hold of them. And today is the day....   :(   I am glad for him that he has an interview. But...   I am going to sound like I need a therapist, here...  I don't want him to get a job here. I don't want to stay here. If he gets a job, he will meet people. Maybe even a girl...  And want to stay here.  Not to mention, (well I already did mention), no one knows how to drive here and I am seriously worried about him driving (if he gets the job, which he probably will) here. It's about 8 miles to where he would work.  I want to go with him for a few weeks (months, the rest of his life..) to reassure myself. He hasn't driven very much at all. Even though he's had his own vehicle since this summer. Then, there's his asthma... (Sigh...)  He has asthma. And, we haven't had insurance since we lived in Nevada/my husband got laid off. Which means we haven't been able to afford his asthma medication ($120 a bottle which lasted a month).. He does have his inhaler. (If it is even still good..)   See why I am stressed out?...  It's not just him getting a job. That in itself would be a good thing.   Sigh...    Maybe he will hate his boss and all his coworkers and not want to stay here either.  :/  I need therapy.

2016 Projects

I know that 2016 isn't over yet, but I wanted to do a "Year in Review" album... I haven't done one in a really long time. Let''s see if this works...  2016 Projects

Snow Day

They cancelled school for today, last night. Eon went out and was playing outside in the snow for about two hours.  He made a snow angel, too. 

Then I open the freezer, and "Why is there a snowman in my freezer?"   Lol..  He cracks me up.  It's still in there too.  

I got the nicest surprise in the mail yesterday. A Christmas package from one of my pen pals!! I struggled with trying to decide if I should send little presents to my pen pals for Christmas...  And I decided that we probably couldn't really afford it.  It was so nice of her to do that. I love the dishcloth cotton, and the little bag is so cute.  

I am posting this because... I don't know.  I "tried"
 to do a family "Christmas picture" to send in cards this year...  But, it didn't really work out..  There was a glare off the flash on the fireplace. And, everyone looks SO happy...   :(  So, I didn't order any.  It was a "fail".

I did do a photo collage, though. Which came out pretty nice. I did one of these a couple years ago.  It just works out better for me than... (See above...)  :)

New Mailbox

I know I already posted a picture of our old mailbox..

But this is our new one. How lame is it to be happy about a new mailbox? Well I don't think it is, at all.. Especially when all our mail was getting wet. All the time.

Because all it does is rain here...   This is our ditch. A river.  I hate it, so much!!!  It's just a wet, sloppy, shitty mess here; and grey skies all the time.   

A "Christmas" sweater set I finished for the OB Ward...

I posted the banana bread I baked yesterday..  Well, last night we were driving to JoAnn's (I needed some red buttons), and I asked my husband; "Would I be a total nerd if I took a loaf of the mini banana bread up to the lady at the post office?"... He said no (I think he was just being nice, lol..)   Well then I was thinking, "I should give one to our mail carrier with a note explaining our mailbox situation.."  So that's what this one is...

Then two more for the girl in the post office, and the post office manager/owner?   It might start a chain reaction of people being nice and then I will be sorry. ;)   Yesterday, after all the phone calls and UGH about the mailbox..  My husband said he would just put a board in there.  So I called the landlord back and told them not to worry about coming out, blah blah blah...  Well, he didn't just put a board in there. He put foam in too.  I thought it would look nicer. So I went out and painted the flag (long story..)  Ugh... It looks terrible!! We are just going to get a new mailbox.  I looked online and there are some decent ones that aren't ridiculously expensive..   But until then, I thought I would "sweeten" the deal with my Christmas pictures/mail carrier, and no one messing with our mail because of all this mess...  I hope my pictures don't get ruined.  How hard is it to just get your mail delivered around here, without it getting ruined...  Sheesh.

Jetta was waiting patiently for Santa Claus yesterday...  She's there right now, too. :P

We got some snow the other day...  It looked so pretty (until it all turned to mush when it started raining later and all melted..)  

One of our trees in the back yard...   Now today, school is closed. I don't have a picture for that. But if I did, it would be: No snow, nothing... ?  But, we are supposed to get hit.  Still waiting for it...  They closed school last night in anticipation of this Winter Storm..  (They are worse here than they were in Tennessee!!)  We were at Fred Meyer's and I said to the cashier, "What, is everyone stocking up for the storm?" (It was insane in there!)  He said, "Yeah I guess... They closed school already too."  (That is another one of my rants here..)   Earlier this week, I drove Eon to school and pulled up to the school. No one was there. There was one car.  Usually, there's all kinds of cars, students who walk there...  No one.  I said "What the...  Is school closed or something?" No one called me, no email, nothing...  Well then other students started coming in, and one of Eons' friends..  None of them knew what was going on, either.  What kind of school in the whole country does this?  Apparently, this one does...  This is just another reason to add to my already long list of reasons why I hate this school. And Oregon.   I have since then "liked" a local news station Facebook page so I can find out about school closings. (We don't have cable, so I can't just watch the news and find out..)     It's like no one knows how to do anything here.  And trying to get one simple problem fixed becomes a huge ordeal.<---- a="" about="" add="" all="" already="" am="" and="" annoying="" another="" answered..="" are="" arlier="" at="" because="" big="" but="" by="" cable="" call="" called="" can="" car="" cars="" chool="" closed="" closings="" couple="" didn="" do="" does="" drove="" earth="" email="" eon="" facebook="" find="" for="" forgot="" found="" friends="" from="" general...="" get="" going="" hat="" hate="" have="" here="" him="" his="" hour="" husband="" i="" ice="" in="" inally="" is="" it="" just="" knew="" know="" late="" least="" let="" like="" liked="" list="" local="" long="" look="" looked="" lot.="" lot="" me="" mention="" my="" nbsp="" news="" no="" not="" nothing...="" nyway.="" o="" of="" on.="" on="" one....="" one.="" one="" only="" or="" oregon="" other="" ound="" out="" over="" page="" parking="" phone..="" phone="" pparently="" rants="" reason="" reasons="" refuse="" s="" said="" school.="" school="" see..="" since="" so="" something="" sons="" start.="" start="" station="" students="" t="" td="" texting="" that="" the="" them="" then="" there.="" there="" this="" time="" to="" too.="" turn="" two="" up="" ust="" usually="" walk="" was="" way="" ways="" we="" week="" well="" were="" what="" which="" who="" why="">

I finally got some pictures on here of our decorating...  The fireplace. I have candles, pine cones in a Christmas basket, a Poinsettia..  My crocheted "Christmas gift" kleenex box. 

Our wreath from Home Depot..  It's a live wreath. 

And, Steve putting up lights...   We got three boxes of lights and (obviously) ran out. Right there, at the top of the gable.  

So, after two trips back to get lights... One, to get them. Two, to go back and get the right color... (Sheesh) We have Christmas lights on our house now..  I know, big whoopie.  But, I have never had lights on my house. Ever. Can you believe that?  

And, after it started getting dark out..  

We went to go see if there were any good Christmas lights anywhere. We drove to a very "expensive" neighborhood/town... They had nothing. ???  We were like "Huh?"....    But after some driving around, we did find some in one town.   I'll save those pictures for another post..

What is going on?  I am having the worst time trying to post this? First it wouldn't post all my pictures. Then all my text was jumbled and added onto? Went back in to see what the heck.. Now half my post is just gone?...

Mailbox Issues and Other Stuff..

...Oh, what a pain...   I have been having problems with my mail from the day we moved in here.  Besides the carrier just not coming to pick up our mail for days on end...  Now, it is the "rainy season" here. Seriously. From September-April, it rains...  Well all our mail is getting wet!! Not. Cool.  I took this picture to explain to the lady at the post office what is going on. See how the bottom of the mailbox goes down on the sides? Well, water gets in there.  And does our mail carrier just put the mail in the mailbox laying down flat like a normal mail carrier? Noooo....   They put it on the side. Where all the water collects. So all our mail can get soaking wet.  Well I finally went up, armed with my picture; and told the lady at the post office all this...  Sigh...  I have to call a different post office, they handle the mail delivery.  So, I call that post office. Without this picture it is hard to explain...  Long story short, we have to replace our mailbox.  We are just renting here. And if I told you how much we have to pay in rent, you would agree with me that we shouldn't have to pay one extra dime on this house!  So I have to call the landlord and explain all this again...  Now we get to put our mail on HOLD, until they come out to replace our mailbox. Which was probably original to this house, built in 1960 something...    Sheesh!!!!!   Then, my husband just went out to mess around with it and the mailbox almost fell over.    Arghhh!!  Why can nothing just be simple?  All this because I ordered pictures for Christmas cards, and if those pictures get wet I am going to blow a gasket!!  So now I probably won't even get my pictures on time, because of all this..  The landlords still haven't come out to fix other problems we called about a month ago. So who knows when it will get resolved..       That's my rant for today. (I had an even bigger one yesterday but I don't even want to go there...) Sigh...

I just wanted to escape my thoughts, and bake today... So, I did. I got a new mini-loaf pan and I had six bananas to use up. So I made a double batch of banana bread. I only used four bananas.  Those two bigger loaves are almost gone.  

Little mini-loaves of bread, they're so cute!!  I thought these would be good for Eon to just grab one, on the way out the door to school in the morning..

I don't know if I posted my Christmas Table Runner I finished?... I know I posted it on Facebook, and Ravelry... I was going to do the holly leaves with berries, but...  I ran out of enough green after the second leaf.  (Sigh..) And, I got that yarn at Hobby Lobby.  There are zero Hobby Lobbies in Oregon..  So, I just decided to leave it like it is..  (Oh, lol, get it.. Leave it?... I didn't do that on purpose..)  I got a new candle too! I love it.  :D  Now I feel a little more in the Christmas spirit...    I just went and looked, I did post it - but it wasn't a very good picture. 

Jetta's Sweater Is Finished

It had been done except for sewing the arm hole bands on and weaving the ends in...   We went on a (horrible) trip to the coast. It was a six hour drive. It rained the whole way there. And the whole way back. And both the dogs whined the whole way there.  I did not even want to go. But for the sake of keeping my husband happy, I went...   It was not fun. Have I mentioned how much I hate Oregon?...

  Anyway, I hadn't done any of the above (sewing the arm bands on, etc) yet. But Jetta wouldn't let me take it off. So...  She wore it for two days before it was even finished.   When we got bsck home, I washed it and then sewed the bands on and weaved in the ends.  It is a little bit big. But she likes it..

This picture was when I first put it on her and it was still warm from the dryer.

She finally put her ears up.

I saw some Christmas table runners at the store, and I wanted to get one. But, the least expensive one I could find was $15. My husband said next time he gets paid...  Then, I thought "I should look for crochet patterns for one. Duh...."  I am only always crocheting things for the OB Unit. So...  :P   I liked a few. But (of course) the ones I liked were filet crochet, no pattern just a graph. (The old me might be able to do that, but not now..).  It came down to two: Either the Holly Trim Table Runner, or the Holly Table Runner.  I chose the latter. Sorry for the not very good phone picture..   I just need to crochet the holly leaves and berries. I hope I have enough green left... (Sigh..)   The thing is, I am pretty sure I got the green sparkly Christmas yarn at Hobby Lobby. And of course there are no Hobby Lobby's here...  Sigh... 

I finished a baby set for the OB Ward...  Everything here I've posted about/crocheted before. But the booties are a new pattern I got recently.  I added ties to them, chained 80 and sl st back.

I was cleaning out Eon's closet this morning. This is all from his closet. :0  On first glance/without knowing, you would think, "What a slob!"  But this was all in bags and boxes that he still has not unpacked from when we moved here.   And, I was getting overwhelmed unpacking/organizing it all.. And, we have moved SO much in the past ten years....   Well I posted this on Facebook (and said technically it was all still unpacked so I unpacked it for him). My irritating sister-in-law commented "Oh my God!!!! They are old enough to do their own laundry and that would not happen in my house!"  Oh. She put an "LOL" on the end of it, so it was all okay...   Not.  This is the Mom who abandoned her own kids. I don't know all the details, but I can tell you she was not a good Mom.  And she's going to tell me that my 14 year old son should be doing his own laundry???....   

I should have posted this for her. But, I unfriended her.
Grrrrr....   What is wrong with people..  

By the way, I found the afghan I posted about a few days ago, in his closet.  And three pencil sharpeners (he says he doesn't have one ever...), three pairs of nail clippers, a calculator, a USB flash drive, three pairs of jeans, two pairs of pajama pants, three pairs of shorts...

Scrap Blankets Progress... And Rainbow Bridge Doggies :

I took a picture of my scrap log cabin baby blanket... 

This was/is another scrap strip Tunisian blanket I had going. I don't even know when I started this, I forgot I even finished one whole strip. I was looking for the little strip on the left that I knew I had started.. :P And I had two little strips?  I don't even know.. 

This is one that I finished when our boys were all younger...  I took this picture when we still lived in Colorado.  I don't know what happened to it.  :/    I posted it on our oldest sons' wall on Facebook this morning asking if he had it (but other things have come to my attention since then that are more important...)  :(

Some muffins I made, and the hotpads Barbara sent me. I used them when I made these muffins. :D

I found out that Bailey died last night.  I am so sad about it....   Evan said she wanted to go out a couple nights ago, in the middle of the night. And Jayce let her out, but she ran away.  Well something attacked her.  :( I don't know what (they don't know either), but it must have been pretty bad.  I could just cry. And I probably will.  I kept saying "Take her to the vet." But they are broke... Which I can understand.  They gave her a bath and shaved her and bandaged her wounds.   It must have been way worse than what I even imagined. Poor Bay Leaf!!! :(  I texted Evan yesterday and he said she was howling...   I would have taken her in if I couldn't even make my car payment. If there was nothing they could have done for her, they could at least have put her out of her misery. She was probably in terrible pain.  I feel so awful for her... And them.  I'm not sure they should get another dog...  Poor Bay Leaf...  :(

And, my brother and sister in law's dog died a couple weeks ago, too...   Sweetie.  She was very old, 13 years old and not in good shape.  She had a tumor and all kinds of other problems.  She was shaking so bad and couldn't walk and she wasn't eating. So my sister in law took her in and they had her put to sleep.  I know I have posted about Eli house sitting for them, and watching their dog... This is her.   Sad day today...