My Mum FINALLY figured out how to post!!

Yay Mum!! Way to go!

Finally, I'm done with the tomatos

We put up another 8 quarts of stewed tomatos!  Finally, we are done!  I have to say though... it was Benny that did the last 16 quarts for me. I did the chopping, but he did the processing and caning!

Way to go, Benny!  Thank you for being such a great help to me!

Knitting



Me & Sophie and the scarf I knitted
10/2011



Sorry for the less than perfect and blurry photo, however, that is me in the knitted scarf that I had just finished.  The ends have approximately 5" of fringe on them.  I'm 5'6" on a good day... when I put that scarf around the back of my neck and not looped, it hangs on the floor by 2" on each side.  It took me about 6 hours to make.  I don't know if that is slow or not -- it is my first ever knitted project.

I used Lion Brand Yarn, Hometown USA. Super Bulky #6; Color Aspen Tweed.  The needles I used were size 10.5, but I made the loops big and loose. Loose enough so that I could actually fit my pinky into them.

I was originally looking for a lumpy, bumpy, bulky yarn, but Wal-Mart didn't have any, so I settled for this one.  I think it's great though.

In September, I had put out a sign-up sheet for a knitting group.  I wanted to know how to knit, but I didn't want to have to join a group that would cost money.  I also wanted to gather some ladies in an attempt to make some new friends.  I rounded up about 7 ladies and we all decided that we would gather in January - after the garden harvests and after the holidays.  They all assured me that they could teach me to knit and help anyone else that would need it.  I was all excited.  I just needed to find my needles and get some yarn.

Before that all happened, another woman came in and she signed up.  She happened to mention that her son did finger knitting. I asked her what that was and she showed me thru hand motions and no yarn.  Well, I know what a knitted piece looks like. I know how the yarn LOOKS once it is knitted together.  Thru her descriptions, I was able to figure out finger knitting.  But, I got bored with just a five stitch scarf and my hand was getting stiff and sore. I then decided to try it with the knitting needles.  Having absolutely no idea what I was doing, I ended up with a scarf over 10' long.  I think I did pretty good!  I wasn't quite sure how to finish it off once I ran out of yarn.  I tried a few things that I thought was right, but nothing was working.  I decided that I didn't want to wait until January to finish my scarf as it would end up unraveling.  So, I turned to the youtube videos and found one on, "How to finish off your knitted scarf."  Go figure!! The internet can be great!

So there I am, in all of my finished knitted glory!

Where I Work

Part of the back area

A view of both floors on the East side.

This shows the Teen Area

&

Part of the Non-Fiction Area

The other half of the East side

Part of the Children's Area

Do you see the twinkle lights in the tree branches?

Another part of the Children's Area

My Church

I Added a New Information Box For My Mum

Dear Mum,

Please look to the right side of my blog page...

There you will see a title that says: New Posts On My Other Pages

Do you see it over there? Just to the right and up a little tiny way... it should be level with the copyright information.

Okay, there you will see a date and the Page Name of my newest post on one of my other pages.

When you read that I wrote:  10/12 ~ Health Page, you will know that you can go to the peach colored box(es) (links) just under my big photo title/header that says "Health...."

Click on (for example) Health.... and you can read my latest entry.

Or maybe I updated a new recipe, you would then click on the peach colored box that says, Recipes.

To leave a comment you go towards the bottom of whatever entry you are reading; click on the word comments; and leave a comment in the comment box that will show up after you click the link.

Does that help you?

Love n' hugs,
your ever loving, helpful and favorite sassy daughter,
Tyra

Card Swaps

I joined another yahoo group today - It's called Crafter's Delight.  It's a hand-made greeting card group where we can do card swaps, among other types of swaps.

I'm excited. I hope it goes well. I used to host card swaps at my home all the time.  There'd be about 6 or so of us.  We'd all bring a card design to share and the supplies to make that card we designed.  We'd bring enough materials for everyone there. So, if we had 6 people, we'd have to bring enough supplies to make 6 of our cards.  At the end of the night, we'd have 6 cards to take home!  It was great fun.

Unfortunately, everyone has to grow up and move on with their schooling/jobs, etc. Most of my ladies can't do it anymore.  There are probably 2 or 3 that might be able to, but we are all in different family 'seasons' and it's challenging to get together.  Also, the economy the way it is makes it difficult to purchase supplies at times.

At anyrate, I'm looking forward to some card-swapping again. I hope it goes well.

Nasty Fat Globule

Glad I lost 23 of these monsters in the past year!!

Final Weigh-in

I have before and after pics....



Before
14 weeks ago



Before
14 weeks ago

I lost 11 pounds and 9 inches on my overall body.  I am proud of myself, but I lost second place by only .2 of a pound!!! I am very, extremely sad about that. I truly am disappointed.

  


After
14 weeks today

After pic
14 weeks today

Today, Matt was so nice to me. He knew I was disappointed yet he encouraged me to still go to Good-Will to look for something 'new'.  Before we left, we went through every piece of clothing in my closet - no small feat, let me tell you!!  We went through every piece and ended up with a yard-sized garbage bag of clothing that is too big for me now.  That was exciting and made me a little happier. 

I had tops that were size 24 women all the way to my 16's.  Most of the size 14 clothing fit loosely. I'm wearing a size 12 right now!  I had to toss several tops that were XXLG. Going through all of my clothes made me realize that I still have plenty of slacks for work. I didn't really need anything new.  Matt persisted in encouraging me and we went anyway.  I found a long-sleeved T-shirt, a brown sweater and a purple jacket-type top. Oh! and a pair of shoes. My closet is now nice and tidy.

Also, since today was the last day I had to weigh in, I decided that the first thing I wanted to eat was a frosted molasses cookie from Festival Foods. It was so yummy. Now, I know that I can't eat gluten without being in severe pain, but there is something about the ginger, dark molasses and other spices.  For some reason, eating those types of cookie do not hurt going through!  So, I ate one and enjoyed it tremendously! I'm a tiny bit gassy from it, but that's all.  For lunch.... I wasn't hungry!! Then for my break at work.... I wasn't hungry!! It figures. When I got home, still not hungry, but I'm determined... I made myself a gluten-free pizza with lots of onion and mushrooms and extra cheese!  The crust is a 9" corn tortilla.  I could only eat half of it though, so I'm saving the other half for breakfast.

I'm pleased with my progress. Since last year I've gone from 196# to 171#  I'd like to keep going.  Just a little at a time.  It's hard to keep the weight off because I'm essentially a lazy person, I don't like to sweat and I like to cook.

Tomorrow I'm making chicken veggie soup!

Don't Kick the Dog

A Ricky quote that made us laugh... and then pet Sophie.

"I sense a presence of stupidity in the room."

"Oh wait, it's just the dog."

LOL "awww... it's alright Sophie." pat pat pat

Ben the Wookie

Benny is my second son.

He rides shot-gun.

His hair is long and wavy.

He thinks his life is a bit crazy.

Like a Wookie, alot he can eat.

In arm wrestling, he can't be beat.

We started to call him Chewbaca,

'cause his height made you say ahh-ahhh.

Then big brother started drivin',

second son never mindin',

that in the passenger seat he had to be

That's when we heard Ben say, "I call Chewy!"

Chewy for Chewbaca

Riding shotgun in the Falcon

Han Solo at the gears

Space jumpin' thru the years.

Glad your truck doesn't have hyper-speed

'cause as your Mother, I'd surely need,

The Force to bring you home,

Safe and sound and in one piece.

Becoming Yoda at the door,

Tellin' your brother, "Fast drivin' you'll do no more."

Fortunately, for your Mother Dear,

 Rick is your bro, the truck is slow

and Luke and Han Solo are nowhere near.

Pulling up the Garden

It's that time of year again. It's time to pull up the garden!  We had some really great tomato plants this year. Our favorite was the Black Cherry tomatos.  This our first year planting them.  What a wonderful surprise!  The vines were over 20' in diameter and the root systems were almost 1 foot down.  Some of them spread to over 5 feet in length!  Amazing.  We were able to put up 32 quarts of salsa, over 32 quarts of juice, 5 quarts of sauce, and about 12 quarts of stewed red and green tomatos. Wonderful! I am so thankful!

My gardens.... they can look a bit messy when we first pull everything up, but then it starts to look all tidy again.



Putting down some more dirt.



We still have carrots in the garden. I'll probably can them this coming week.  They grew to great proportions also!

Now it's time to decorate with autumn ~ although, I am already planning dimensions for next year's veggie patch...