So we just took our bus the rest of the way home. It was lightly snowing and everything was covered in 3 or so inches of snow – I felt pretty giddy about it and Mom felt adventurous so we decided to walk to our local Half Priced Books

The elusive SnowMom only found trekking around outside after fresh snow has fallen. Rarely seen when it's icy.

I found a book on sewing plus bonus serger use – which I need because there’s a new serger on our table and I’m not sure what to make of it…though if I can get the use of it down I know I will start making hella crafty stuff.

Headed back over to moms and watched movies till Scearley came for me in the early evening. GO TEAM MOM TIME!

Monday was a Federal Holiday and I requested that day off so was able to go on a road trip to PDX Scearley had been wanting to check out the brick and mortar store front of Ex Libris Anonymous (found here online)  http://bookjournals.com

and also found here on facebook https://www.facebook.com/bookjournals

Looking to the left as soon as I walked in the door I see a wall full of books. A WALL OF BOOKS. I haven’t seen a lot of these since I was in grade school and a great many of them are older than that. And even with the more aged books – they’re in really good condition.

I have always loved books. I love the smell and feel of them and seeing that there is still more life for books after they are either considered outdated (school books) or just not read anymore (for what ever reason) I got excited.

Scearley gifted me with some of these journals late last year and I fell in love with them. Standing in the store knowing I could pick out my own books to make into writing/drawing journals…STOKED!

To the right you can see Scearley and Anna by the two HUGE boxes of books. To the left is Jacob the owner and his associate (whose name I’m forgotten SORRY!) She greeted us when we came in and I just really dug her vibe. Super friendly and very cheerful about showing me the process. I totally geeked out. I have no shame.

They totally strip the book down and loving well handcrafted things it was pretty awesome to see them put it together. Did I mention my fan girl squee over the recycling of books? WOO!

Here is Anna and Scearley looking into the box as The Lady of the shop encouraged us to really get in there and check out the books. Scearley, Anna and I were sorta dubious but Athena had no qualms about it. So INTO THE BOX goes ATHENA:

Notice the turtle book that she hasn't yet seen....

Then it happens:

Athena loves turtles LOL

At first I didn’t get too involved with the box digging as I was busy reading all the titles on the wall o books Then Scearley called me over. He knows I love squirrels – so reminds me of my Poppo and so he chose this book for me:

That did it and I got the itch to start looking myself!

I found this one which I liked because of the color and the kitteh *hee*

And from the wall o books I found this really cool book and you know I love me some Cleopatra!

And it’s really cool because they take sections of the book (a few pages) and use them as dividers for the blank pages inside. So it’s not just the book cover you have parts of the original book.  I love old writings and being able to peek at a bit of the original work is really cool.

Meow Jones RECOGNIZE!

So this is a book I discovered in the box and it’s from 1917 it’s about a Belgian refugee cat HELLO! How cool is that! Ok I’m a total geek but I love this.  Flying Squirrels and Cats! I’m so set lol.

This book was given as a gift to someone in 1920

LOVE LOVE LOVE old things of history!

Title page after being bound in it's new state as a journal

After bidding farwell to Ex Libris Anonymous we paused a moment while I waived good bye to the yarn store I was hoping to check out (and is conveniently located next door to Ex Libris)

I want to see you...someday soon...oh YES...someday SOON

after that it was a day of exploring Portland and we made a stop by VoodDoo Doughnuts where Anna and Athena bought a huge box of said doughnuts – it was pretty impressive. Srsly.

Our last stop was Powell’s Books and we spent a very good amount of time in there lookie looin around. Scearley found some books and while I saw a few I liked I didn’t feel like spending the chunk of cash for them but what I did find (for $10.95) is a very heavy skein of recycled silk yarn. The multi colored threading is all jewel tone and so SOFT…I’ve always wanted to work with it to see what it’s like so I bought a skein. I’m making a scarf out of it to see how that works out I’m hoping it’s warm but we’ll see. I’ve never used this type of yarn before though it didn’t take me too long to get the feel of working with it

The picture is a bit faded but trust me DEEP JEWEL TONES

So that was Monday. Tuesday I tried going into work and put in about 5 hours but with the snow continuing like it was and taking into consideration the length of my bus commute I asked to go home early so knocked off around 1:30pm. I don’t have a problem with my commute on a normal basis but hearing about all the accidents on the freeway starting up and the buses getting stuck or chains breaking – I just didn’t want to deal with any of that at night after dark which is what would be happening if I left work at my normal time. I didn’t really want to experience getting stranded anywhere. No.

Came home and bundled up. Yesterday I checked out how it was outside and found Snopocalypse 2012 and lots of reports about people going nuts outside so I called in to be safe. The whole public transit thing was still getting situated with snow schedules and such and even the day before when I came home my commute was two hours longer than normal. All the buses I normally took were either canceled or running late A.K.A. Missing, Stranded, stuck from ice. Ugh.

So last night I’m getting all these reports of slush/rain and I’m thinking COOL! All of it will start to melt. Well there was raining slush and then there was SNOW. ICE was EVERYWHERE. I asked Scearley to drive me to our transit center and from there I made it into Seattle. My normal bus wasn’t running so I took the alternative bus which was on a sunday schedule and made my way a few cities over. I got there to freezing temperatures (felt colder than Seattle) and then it started slushing on me. My bus to work showed up but they wouldn’t let me on as the driver was only going one more stop and then that was it. I was informed that NO buses were going into down town Edmonds. Too icy. I was told I could maybe catch a bus from N. Seattle and take an alternate bus in. I checked with the transit supervisor on duty and he told me NO. He said all buses into down town Edmonds had been canceled due to ice. *sigh*

I checked in with my boss and got the go ahead to go back home. There really wasn’t anything else to do. I bussed it all the way back home. I was lucky and had seating all the way back too. Total busing time was about 5 hours Oi VEH!

Checked in on my Mom and she’s doing good. So I’m just keeping warm and catching up on my blogging. I’m really hoping I can go to work tomorrow. Come oooonnnnn warm weather! lol

That’s about it for now

XO!

I finished school and graduated with honors and all the hoopla. We got my Mom moved in down the street from us. It’s now much easier for visiting and helping out when needed (emphasis on the easier for me to visit and hang out with my long work/commute hours). Oh and I was offered a job at my externship  and accepted.

I used the last few months of last year to purge my physical belongings. I was able to gift a sizable amount of work clothes that I just hadn’t used in too long to a classmate of mine. I took SO many books to Half Priced Books & got what I like to call coffee money (usually no more than $5 a bag I take in). I was able to gift some coats to a home peep and it made me happy to see that they fit her pretty well

I had previously purchased two organizational books one for finance and one for home space in general. I had read the financial one on loan from the library and decided to buy it for myself. It’s broke down into four weeks per month and really I didn’t have to start with January – they make it easy to start on which ever chapter you want at any time of the year, but I like starting at the begining so that’s what I’ve been doing.

I didn’t make any New Years Resolutions. I did this because I wanted to do more for myself than just talk about things I want to do. I want to actually do them. So I didn’t make any ‘resolutions” not in the sense of  “I’M GOING TO DO THIS!” and then feel failure if I miss the mark. What I did do is change the phrasing so it doesn’t feel so “DO or DIE”.  One of the things I decided that I want to do is change my name. It’s something I really want to do so I’m looking at it as a goal to strive for. That goal is getting myself organized and the reward will be the name change. When I accomplish my goals I will announce my name change then. I’m aiming to have myself developed and on a path of good habits by year end.  The books have a year mark and if I can go to school for something completely outside my field and excel at that I can certainly read and follow along in a book and learn better habits.

In focusing on better habits and getting organized I can see how I’ve lived previously. A lot of room for change and forward growth. I’m proud of making it to this point and I’m also looking forward to living smarter and more organized.

I’m not a clean freak or at least I don’t consider myself to be one and I realized that I lose a sense of peace/grounding when I let my environment get out of control. After a morning melt down of “WHAT HAPPENED TO MY BURRITOS” I had to take a moment to focus on why I was emo about it.

Srsly I had a moment of panic over missing burritos – did I remember that I had eaten them over the weekend? Nooooo. I didn’t organize my burritos and chaos ensued. After calming down I realized if I had organized my burritos like I normally do (two per zip lock – one for bfast one for lunch = 1 zip lock bag of burritos per day) I wouldn’t have had missing burritos. I would have realized if I wanted them for work I shouldn’t eat them OR I would have gone out to buy more, but I didn’t.  I left them in the bag and over the long weekend I know I ate one and that means I probably ate another one and then I took an extra one last week so yeah.There’s my missing burritos *sigh* But at 5am and still half asleep none of that registered till I was half way to work. Then I felt like an ass.

THE POINT is that I took it as a sign. When one starts melting down over burritos it’s time to back it up a minute. LOL I’m laughing now but it was just a reflection of not taking care of the other stuff.

So tonight I came home and after dinner which Scearley provided (he got us pizza and the night before made us yummy salads) I started my laundry and picked up the bedroom. I finally put away the Scearley’s clothes that I let sit in the corner of the room, I picked up my own dirty laundry which was all over the place, started on the kitchen and got the garbage and recycling taken out, unloaded the dishwasher then loaded it and got it running and wiped down the counters. Also a trip to grocery store where Scearley got me more burritos, some Skinny Cow ice cream (I’ve been craving the ice cream and also craving better sugars levels so I’m getting back on my better food habbits). I still have our corner chair in the living room full of my stuff and I still have a small table to clear in the dining room but I will save that for Saturday.

Through all of this Scearley has been my warm hugs and reassurance. He is constantly asking if I need help. Sometimes I take him up on it and sometimes I don’t. Tonight I actually felt good cleaning and clearing and a lot of it was my own mess so I felt better taking care of it.

Both last night and tonight Scearley made dinner happen and last night it was a relief because I felt a little under pressure and tired. Tonight it was a big help because I could get some food down and then focus on the cleaning up I wanted/needed to do. It was a very big help and thinking about it….he helps me all the time. It’s my first in having a partner that is right there when I need him. Even when I don’t realize I need him *smile* He is one of the most in tune people I know.  He really is my best friend

So that’s my thought’s on the year ahead. Family is good, Friends are good and I’m very thankful.

XO! Miss Kitty

I’ve been lamenting not having a regular knitting group to go to and that’s really a 1st world problem. There’s one not that far from me but with busing I would only be able to attend the last hour of it by the time I got there and by the end of the week I’m wiped out, so there’s a give and take there. It’s doable I just haven’t done it.  So that’s my own problem.  I’m thinking about just biting the bullet and doing it. There’s an alternative meet up on Sundays but that cuts into my normal Mom time so maybe I take her with and she can pick up crochet again like she’s mentioned doing before. That’s a possibility too.

In the end I solved my own problem by just sitting the fuck down and I got to knitting. Which felt VERY good – and I’m always surprised at how good if feels when I knit. Dugh! *laughs* I spent most of today sitting and knitting.

Last night I started getting a sore throat and by this morning I was a total mess. I called in sick to meeting up with my Mom but if I went out at that point I think I would have gotten worse. After talking with her I went back to bed for a few more hours then got up and ate some breakfast and took the theraflu Scearley got for me and these amazing Halls cough drops that have a “warming” action to them. My throat at this point is no longer sore and is back to dry/scratchy which is an improvement.  I’m still taking the thraflu and I don’t have a fever so that’s good too.

I have a xmas shopping meet up with both Mom and Aurica after work so it’s thera flu at work all day and I’m bringing those cough drops with me. I’m going to hate getting up and walking around in the cold tomorrow morning but I’m gonna suck it up. I’m exhausted and tired as hell but I’m going to suck that up too.

I’m about three quarters of the way through on finishing the second fingerless glove. I’m pretty excited and also can’t wait to be done with it so I can start the next project. I have a que lined up waiting for me so I’m all about tackling these projects in the wings.

I went through all my yarn and was able to gift all the excess out to two different people. This made me feel good because it’s yarn that’s just been sitting and now it will be put to good use I still have a butt-ton of yarn (a large plastic bin of it in fact) but that’s the yarn I’m keeping.

In the near future I want to go through all my stuff (again) and see if I can’t donate more to the GoodWill/Value Village.  I need to take inventory of the books I have now as well. I have an online place I organize them at called Library Thing (I think it’s called) I imagine I have books to add and take off my list there.

I have Monday night and then Saturday that I will be doing my xmas shopping. After that I’m done. I figure what ever I don’t get on Monday night I will finish up Saturday.  THEN I’M DONE!

My Mom is going to be cooking a xmas dinner not sure what yet but I will meet up with her about that sometime this week.

Stumbled through the first part of December thinking about my Poppo (Dad who raised me) the anniversary of his passing is on the 13th.  The actual day doesn’t affect me so much as the days leading up to it. My birth Father (whom I love very much and am close with also) is still mad kicking it so I’m thankful for that blessing and his bday was on the 5th and I remembered to call (I’m HORRIBLE with remembering birthdays and such) so I felt good about that and it was nice hearing his voice and joking around with him a bit. It’s odd but I can’t think of one Dad without thinking of the other. I feel it’s because they have had such an impact on my life and I feel that I reflect them both so much. It’s nice to inherit qualities from both of them. *thoughtful*

Looking at my health and scheduling a Doctors appointment as well as a Dental appointment. These are things I need to get in check right quick.

It’s winter and I’m wanting to stay warm and cuddle up. It’s just that time of year.  I want to do more, socialize more  and maybe instead of pushing myself in that direction…maybe I should just get more rest so I’m not so tired. Maybe stop scheduling so much and putting so much expectations on my own self. Maybe I should just be for a little bit.

I recently went through the graduation ceremony provided from Everest College which I completed in July. I was very fortunate to be hired on by the place I was externing at. So I’ve been working since then. Going through the ceremony gave me that finalizing feeling that absolute completion of that portion of my path. Then it all hit me how long I’ve been on GO GO GO GO GO. I left my old job of three years because it just wasn’t a healthy place for me and from there I decided to sling coffee while I figured out what I need/wanted to do next.  That was an interesting transition and then it was school and temp work for a few months until I completed that assignment then panic attacks about working/not working and going to school then externship then work. Woah.

So that’s a lot that I haven’t fully digested yet and that’s normal for me. I just charge on forward and do what I have to do. Now I just have to digest it. I have been and it’s been ok.

Right now what feels good is going to bed. Getting some sleep because I’m up at 5 a.m. tomorrow morning. Bonus teen is home from seeing a play with her Mom and step dad. Scearley is home and I’m finishing this post that I’ve been telling myself to write for the last week or so.

Coffee. I need to put some coffee on so I can make my cold coffee in the morning   There is no doubt more that I wanted to ramble on about but my bus to sleepy town just pulled up so I gots ta go.

XOXO Miss Kitty

I need to look into some winter boots as my current ones are almost worn out but it’s not something I’m super worried about at the moment…more a passing thought.

Mom is pretty settled into her new place up the street and it’s been nice being able to pop over. She let me know she was making Mexican style chicken noodle soup tomorrow night…mmmm soup.  LOL.

On the PVC project front, there was some GRRR and UGH! from Scearley about the PVC yarn swift working properly.  It didn’t  balance right and didn’t spin freely but while Scearley was away on a business trip, I set it up and though it did have a slight slant to it I bent it a bit and tightened the connecting pipes to the connecting bits and it spins just fine – so I’m ecstatic about it. I’ve decided not to say anything about my discovery and just start using it. I know Scearley will be happy about this project once he sees it in action

I started work on the second fingerless glove at my moms today. I got a decent amount of length knitted up and I’m thinking I’m DEFINITELY going to work on some convertible mitten type gloves after.

While listening to Knit Happens (podcast) one of the ladies was discussing how easy thumb/finger holes are to knit up.  It was the right encouragement at the right time to actually try to do this.  So after the fingerless gloves I’m going to try some convertible mittens

Last night while  Scearley had Sabado Gigante on I downed a Go Girl energy drink then tackled the dining room which I had taken over with my clutter of yarn stuffs and the last of my belongings that I moved over from Moms old place in Tukwila.

I was able to get two large carry bags of donations for Value Village gathered up out of pile of stuff and I need to do something with a box that’s left over but it’s a small box and I’m thinking it may just be papers to shred. Also the gardening cart.  I need to put that together sometime this week and then put it on the balcony – clean up and organize the gardening stuff and planters outside.  Then the balcony will be clean and clear for the winter and prepped for planting stuff again come spring.

Two organization books came in the mail for me and so I’ve started reading those.  I’ve gotten rid of quite a few things of mine that I don’t use. I feel relieved about clearing out the clutter and find that I’m wanting to get rid of more of the things I never use.

I’ve been knitting more and feel good about that – it’s something I really enjoy. I have more than enough yarn too and have a continual flow of projects in mind so there’s that.  I was able to gift my sewing machine to a friend of mine and that felt especially good.

Back when @lyracole and I were roomies and she worked at Pike Place Market I had been talking about wanting a sewing machine. By chance Lyracole was talking to one of the tattoo artist ladies whose shop was next to where she worked and the artist had one in the back of her truck she was trying to get rid of.  It had a hiccup every once and a while while stitching but other than that worked great. Lyracole brought it home to me and HOW COOL IS THAT? Passed down from a kick ass woman tattoo artist and then it sat in the one of my plastic bins. *sigh*

It survived the fire and I brought it with me to our new home and have had it for the last few years sitting unused. I figured because of the hiccup that I would take it in to get looked at at some point but it never happened. When I go to do some sort of  crafty thing I end up picking up my knitting.  I twittered about it asking “Repair shop or Good Will it?” and my friend was like OMG ME ME ME! And I said YOURS.  ((yay!)) NOW it will finally be used to it’s full crafty use

Tonight I brewed up some Guatemala beans from Zoka Coffee and I have to say it’s pretty damn delicious. I have a weakness for Guatemala coffee beans to begin with and I discovered Zoka has a very fine roast of them.  Instead of hot coffee I made myself an iced coffee and it’s looking like a second glass of it.

I’ve been feeling especially quiet and sleepy. I’m thinking it’s just the season. The nice part is that I’m feeling very projecty – this has definitely upped the knitting and I’m looking to put some of this into cleaning clearing out and organizing myself and my home space.

I’m most likely missing something here but there’s still some of my evening left before I get myself in bed and dinner is calling. Scearley made some tofu/brusselsprout/yummy goodness so yeah…gotta go get my noms on

Keep warm keep snuggly,

XO Miss Kitty

Then I stumbled across a yarn ball winder made of legos and then I thought about pvc and entered that and YARN SWIFT into google. I mean if someone can make a small ball winder out of legos then SURELY you can make a yarn swift out of PVC and OMG YOU CAN. There are a few different styles floating around out there on the internet. I tweeted a few of them and Scearley took off with it. He read them and then just did it himself.

So I came home tonight and I was so into tv I totally didn’t see it sitting there. Anna had to point it out and I felt like I’d been slapped (in a good way).  Scearley isn’t done yet. He says he needs to tweek it a bit, but I’m excited! It’s gorgeous and it’s going to let me get all my yarn wound up

When it’s finished I will take pictures.  I’m in serious knitter geek excitement over this.  The cost is going to be under $15 when he’s done.

This past weekend we resettled Mom into her new digs up the street from us. I can now walk to moms which means I can visit when I want and either walk home or have the pick up and drive home take less than five mins. THIS is a major win.

It’s a one bedroom and the way the land lord built it (he’s a retired architect guy) the place is super roomy and all the space is well used. I’ve not seen my Mom genuinely excited over moving since my Dad passed away. It’s always been under a huge amount of stress. And though I still stressed out…she was totally rollin with it. I had OMG COULD NOT HAVE DONE IT WITHOUT YOU help from Scearley and a night of loading up the cargo van from Anna. We got it done in a total of 5 trips and my Mom is ZOOMING on setting up stuff and she’s both very thankful and super excited for her new home digs. Lots and lots in walking distance too – very helpful.

I got to bring home my Cuisinart that Scearley got me the first year we were together. I had left it at Moms but decided to bring it home – she still has her original coffee pot and since she like preground better I snagged mine for The Kitchen (me and Scearley’s place) we like pre ground and whole beans. So we have the cherry coffee we got in Montana, we picked up a local roasted guatamalan coffee and some Krispy Kreme coffee and also some top pot coffee.  WE are TOTALLY set up for the caffeine LOL.

So that’s the latest this week

This has me knitting more. I’d like to finish a few scarves. One for myself and one specifically for my peep April. I’ve been switching between hers and mine and I’m aiming for finishing hers and getting it to her sometime in November I know I have tons more projects for others some requested and some I’m surprising people with….so yeah I’m enjoying my knitting.

The yarn and bamboo needles were donated to me about three years ago after my house burned down. It was a long time before I felt moved to even touch the yarn and needles and now I’m very fond of this project.  It’s a good reminder to be thankful for kindness given.  It’s a good marker for me working through a lot of life stuffs.

It’s taken a while but I’m getting speed on this project. This is going to be my scarf. The one I’m working on for April is a super soft fuzzy dark grey color. I’ll post pics once I get it really going.

I chose this one a while back with the thoughts of making Scearley another hat. I’m thinking this one skein will be enough

For my bday Aurica took me to a yarn store that I had never been to before and then booty bumped me to the side when I went up to pay for this. I am now her devoted minion. She plied me with delicious fiber LOL

Between road trips for zoomings sake and meeting up for coffee and just in the normal course of day to day doings I’ve gathered more yarn and I’m pretty over due for updating my ravelry page. I still have a hat for Anna that I need to get working on as well as a baby blanket for Angie. So yeah I have more than enough to keep me busy.

Also on the get it done plate for this month is relocating my mom down the street from me. Change is sorta AUGH! but exciting at the same time for her I think. I’m very excited and relieved to have her moving close to me.  Also this means that we will be taking over Redmond on a regular basis LOL.

I’m hoping to get keys sometime this weekend but we’ll see. Mostly I think at this point we are focusing on boxing up her one bedroom home worth of stuff and then all we have to do is just make a u-haul trip with it over to the new place It’s going to be a quick move and I’m looking forward to it. Did I mention I’m looking forward to this?

I’m more comfy with cooking with our slow cooker. I’m just tossing stuff in there now and Scearley was very proud of me for just winging it. I have a few good slow cooker recipe books and I am using them as a sort of frame work for putting stuff together. I like to mix n match it though.

I’ve been working on donating a lot of my stuff to the goodwill. I’m wanting to get down to only owning what I use. I’ve done a pretty good job. I went through my clothes and because I get to wear jeans and casual shirts I was able to gift a huge pile of career-wear to a schoolmate and I’m hoping they worked out for her.  At one point I had aspirations of selling the clothes on ebay and that turned into consigning them at Two Big Blondes and then it became “I just want them to be put to good use.” This was the best way to go because the clothes helped me out when I needed them and now I passed that on

I need to organize the bit of paperwork that I have and I’m seriously considering scanning it all and keeping it on a jump drive. Or limit it to one file box of stored info. There’s just no need for hauling around junk. I used to have tubs and tubs of mail and paper work. ALL GONE. I now only have about a file box worth left and THIS is good and something I’ve maintained *YAY*

I’ve also been extra mushy and family oriented lately.  Don’t get me wrong I love my family all the time – I’ve just been feeling especially warm and cuddly My peeps are rockin! Also my man is super cute. *SQUEE*

Ok the urge to knit is getting to me – gotta go play with some yarn.

XO Miss Kitty

They came down Friday so Thursday night I bussed it to the grocery store and picked up fixinz for spaghetti and some cereal and snack stuffs. I told my mom I was stopping by with this stuff so I didn’t have to hassle with it on a Friday busing to her place (which is a two+ hr bus commute).

I came in about forty mins before Sis and family showed up so when they knocked on the door I acted concerned (as Mom normally doesn’t get visitors on a friday night) and I thought she was going to fall over when she opened the door.

My niece (8) and nephew (5) came rushing in and hugged her and zoomed to me yelling “NANNA! AUNT KAT! We missed you so much!” I’m glad neither mom nor I busted into tears. I would have felt silly and I’m not sure if they’d understand tears of joy

I got to chat it up with my B.I.L. and Mom caught up with Sis and in the meanwhile I was soaking up my niece and nephew. My niece has my sense of humor I think. She’s wicked smart having just finished all of the 6th grade vocabulary and I think the school is having issues getting her more school work to keep her challenged and busy but hopefully that will work out. My nephew is a serious cuddle bug and super affectionate. He’s bright, heartfelt and kinda rough and tumble. I love them to pieces

I’d post pics but my B.I.L. and sister are particular with the kids pics being posted and I resepect that but I’m printing some I took for my wallet and I’m showing them off to anyone who asks. LOL Aunt Kat loves em!

Saturday we all went to half priced books and mom and I got the kids some book stuff. Each of them got a coloring book and got to pick out an additonal book. My nephew got an activity type “book” which was really a carrying case for CARS (Disney) magnets stickers and other misc stuff. He was totes happy with it. My niece selected a book that was a joke book and spent the majority of our time together reading to me from it. It was pretty funny because she picked it up going “WHAT?!” then flipped it open, read a bit to herself, chuckled then flipped a few more pages chuckling each time she read then she read the back of the book then looked at me and said, “Oh THIS is GOOD.” and I told her Auntie Kat would get it for her. OMG they crack me up. My nephew was very excited and serious at the same time in talking about his likes and the things he already has. He was pretty alert in patrolling the store to keep up with where his mom and dad were.

Sunday night Scearley and Anna ended up coming over which made me happy because I was hoping to introduce them to my sister and her family. Scearley had met my sister when she was down previously but Sis hadn’t met Anna and well everyone else needed to meet.

The decision was for Jimmy Mac’s Steak House and it was delicious! I liked that we were able to eat comfortably and that the food was good. I got some good family pics of us all and after having met more of Scearley’s extended family it felt good to introduce him to more of mine

We were all talking to each other and I noticed my niece looking deep in thought and she looked up at me and I smiled and she said to me, “You know I think he’s playing with us all like dolls.” I was surprised and knew who I associated that line of thinking with but from an 8 year old? “WHO hun?” I asked her and she looked at me and paused then said in matter of fact tone “God.”

OMG everyone around the table blinked and then I smiled at her and winked. She was very ok with her statement and went back to eating her macaroni. 8 years old and she’s on top of it. OMG LOLS. I love that kid. I can’t wait to see how they both change and grow. I love being an Aunt.

I got my hair cut Sunday and decided to experiment with a dinner idea. Scearley and Anna hit up Canada for some lacrosse supplies and I had asked for some sort of souvenir. I worked a bit on the kitchen and living room and then started on my lasagna casserole.

The last few times I made lasagna it was delicious but a little juicy. SO this time I didn’t use any cottage cheese per my various culinary friends advice. I stuck to the ricotta and two eggs and added in about a cup of grated Parmesan cheese. I set that aside.

I used a jar of four cheese spaghetti sauce and mixed in a small can of tomato sauce. I worked it in with about 2lbs of ground beef a generous amount of powdered garlic and oregano with some salt and pepper.

I boiled up some macaroni noodles (which had these ridges ingrained which I like for holding onto the sauce). I put down some of the meat sauce, then put in the noodles. I slathered the ricotta mixture over it then mixed it a little bit, layered on some grated mozzarella then topped it with the last of the meat sauce.

I made the last layer more cheese and popped that thang in the oven!

I had glanced at a regular flat noodle lasagna recipe to get the ingrediant and cooking degree and time down so it was all about 40 mins at 350 degress and pulled it out checked it and put it back in for another 15 mins.

I scouped some into a bowl and it came out just like I hoped! It wasn’t soupy (yay no cottage cheese!) and the sauce was light and the creamy ricotta cheese came through with the savory meat sauce and I think I had put just enough salt (which I tend to not cook with normally so I was glad it wasn’t super bland).

I looked back at how much was in the pan

So I have a big bowl stored for the fridge as left over munchinz then I put together four cup sized containers to freeze and have an extra container to take for lunch tomorrow. I’m thinking I should freeze some more but I think we’ll see how freezing these individual sizes goes.

I have this big uber book about diabetes and so I’m going to start reading that. I’m also going to increase my knitting which I am about to do as soon as I post this. I’m making good headway in the April Scarf and the sooner I get that down the sooner I can start on a certain someones baby blanket (Looking at YOU Angela!)

I’ve got a good collection of yarn going on and plenty of projects and this colder weather is definitely getting me in the mood to knit more. I think I’m going to start bringing it with me to work.  I’m going to try to get up earlier and get on that schedule I outlined for myself. I’m hoping the rewards points that were turned in for Starbucks cards comes in soon. The idea of getting up earlier means that I get to sit at the Starbucks for an hour of me time and I’m thinking I’d like to knit then.  We’ll see how that goes. I think before I’m successful with getting up that early is if I can get to bed earlier. I”m thinking I may skip the knitting tonight to get more sleep.

Happy and feeling the love.

XO Miss Kitty

*zzzzzzzzzzzzz* sleepy time!

A new career and one that I click with VERY well. I lucked out big time as I work for a small billing company and the owner is a great mentor and genuinely supportive. This is the opposite of what I’ve experienced the past four years management wise (with the exception of the temp agency I was with – but that was only a three month contract gig). The women I work with know their stuff and I get the advantage of picking their brains and they’re good with constructive coaching. It’s nice to work in an environment that is big on sharing the knowledge. Also they are hilarious and I feel we click pretty good

My one co-worker’s bday is the day before mine so it was like two days of cupcakes and balloons. I approved. I’d post some pictures of my desk but I’m concerned about HIPAA laws and I don’t want to take the chance that a clients name or some sort of info could be obtained “somehow” lol. I CAN show you the moist delicious chocolate cupcakes that they got to celebrate my bday (for my coworker we had red velvet with cream cheese frosting YUM!).

So we celebrated our birthdays at work and on Friday when I got home I celebrated by going out to dinner with the family to Indian food.

I got jewelry this year.  I wasn’t expecting this but after the weekend was over I realized that I have a sparkly beaded bracelet from my Mom,  a FrozenWater design necklace made and gifted to me by my friend Elly and a 1940′s ring that show cases two champage european cut diamonds from my Love Scearley.

Also I was treated to a coffee gift card from the girls at the office (who decorated the HELL out of my desk with balloons and streamers and a sash and bday hat and bday lei  I had to wear all day LOL). Scearley took me out for dinner Friday. My long time friend Aurica took me to Taco Bell (which I was madly craving after a year of not having it) and Renaissance Yarn.  On Sunday @clockworkcrow and @lyracole took me out to a Cajun dinner Sunday night.

I haven’t socialized this much back to back in a while and I think I need another weekend to recover from the BEEG weekend I just had *smile* Truely THANK YOU everyone. I had birthday wishes on my many social networking spots that I occupy and over all I feel a bit quiet and very loved very fortunate.

I want to write more and there isn’t much more to write about right now. I’m excited for this coming weekend but can’t write about it right now. I will be blogging about the SQUEE after the weekend is over though

And now it’s time for bed.

XO! Miss Kitty

So I’m looking down in thought and spot this and then look up the street/sidewalk and I’m like HOLY CRAP down town Edmonds has been YARN BOMBED. I snapped a few pics and shot one out on the twitter.

I was surprised as the Edmonds Komo news lady tweeted back asking what it was. I wasn’t thinking and thought she meant the yarn – what type of yarn (I’m a dork I know) and so I told her I wasn’t sure but it was really soft and everywhere. LOL

She was cool and twittered me back later that it was a yarn bomb which made me giggle as I knew what it was but I couldn’t help being happy that she thought it was cool enough to write an article about and so that made my day.

I took some more pics before getting my coffee that morning:

This is the picture I tweeted – Each ball has a yarn bomb sitting on top of it SO CUTE CUTE CUTE! I must have looked silly standing in the round about snapping shots but I couldn’t help myself

I’m not sure what if anything this is supposed to be. I noticed on both sides of the streets most of the green fluff had these red chili pepper/claw looking bits on them. I think this one looks like a muppet paw. I love it for some reason.

I had a sort of life awakening and had a good talk with Scearley about how I live my life, how I’ve lived in the past and where I am today. I’m really vested in getting my financial life organized and then realized that my personal life home and family/extended family & friends and me somewhere in there – I realized that how I feel about all these things are inter related. So if I’m feeling disorganized/sad in one area it’s likely to affect everything else. And it does.

The thing is: I don’t need to live so tiger by the tail. I actually haven’t been for a while but my actions and reactions to my life in general are all based on a life and circumstances that changed a long time ago. This also includes all those experiences that have impacted me in extremes. So I figure it’s time to take inventory and collect all my learned lessons and use them for the good I believe they are intended for and build myself up constructively.

Of course I want to do everything at once and I usually peter out becoming over whelmed but you know….not this time. My life is full and there is so much good stuff I want to do and accomplish So I’m starting with one thing at a time and focusing on some better habits.

First off I have decided to give myself the weekends off of having a set schedule. I mean you know agendas are good and all that but I’m sleeping in at least two days a week! *laughs*

I started yesterday to get a feel for some changes. Got up at the butt crack of dawn a bit earlier than normal and wiped down the kitchen, took all the clothes from the living room and bathroom and tossed them in my room and LaxQueen’s room respectively (the teen).  Then I  made breakfast sammiches for them both to start the day and unloaded the clean dishes, loaded up the washer with dirty ones and gathered my ready self and got out the door.

I made it to work an hour early so I sauntered over to the local Starbucks and that’s when I came into contact with the Edmonds Yarn Bombing LOL. I took this as a good sign that I’m doing the right thing then spent my hour on the internets (via my cell phone) and really enjoyed my down time before work.

Shoot. I can do this every morning. I was very awake for work and had a good day and when I got home the only thing missing was a ready to eat dinner but that’s what I just got done doing: Researching crock pot recipes for next week.

I figure if I end up with left overs then there’s ready to eat food stuff for my Lax Peeps (Lacrosse).  I need to do some more reading and research and I’m hoping to reach a point where I can start cooking more ahead than the night before crock pot thing and start freezing some food – home-made frozen dinners. Something simple that Scearley or Anna can pop in the microwave to heat up if I’m out and about on the weekends or when ever.

I got to hang out with @joleenkiesel today and we stopped in at THE GREAT WIND UP Got to see @alexjon, @badrobot68 & @sugarcollider WOOT! Also got to get a close up on the temporary shop spot and the new merchandise NICE! Afterwards we stopped in at a sports shop (never been to one before) and it was all SeaHawks and Sounders stuff. Miss Joleen got some really SUPER kawaii sports shirts and then it was off to the Fox Sports Grill for some lunch and a bit of college football (I actually got into the UW game!) then we went on over to Macy’s who was having a big sale and I picked up a few needed things for an incredible % off – just my preferred price range *heh*

I missed seeing @lyracole today – I was already home by the time we connected but I will be getting better about communication too.  I’ve got some stuff booked next month and looking to get more socializing set up.

I pretty much have everything I need and more than everything that I want in my life. I just need to work on re-organizing myself so that I can enjoy the people in my life more and be able to give back to them more. I’m very capable of this I just haven’t made the time to stop and figure out the dynamics of it – just living in the moment. I’ve started thinking about myself and how I connect with the world and those around me and that has me feeling good.

I’ve yabbed for days

XO Miss Kitty