Monday, December 31, 2007

Auld Lang Syne


It's the end of yet another year. I don't feel any older, and I sure don't look any older. But there is no denying that I am. Older. Reflecting back on 2007 I am grateful for so many things:



- I have one more child then I did this time last year.

- I've lost almost all 55 lbs I gained from my angel child.

- I have a new home that I will be moving into in less then 12 days.

- That home won't have any snow around it.

- I'm healthy

- I learned to knit.

- I started my book.

- No one close to me that I love died. I couldn't say that in 2005 or 2006.

- And just yesterday I realized for the first time that I am so very, very lucky. I have some amazing friends and family. I have never had to be alone if I didn't want to be and I trust them. Unequivocally. I trust that my friends will not betray me, turn their back or intentionally lie. It's the most important characteristic to have in a friend or anyone. I'm so loved.


The saying "don't sweat the small stuff" is easier said then done. Things don't seem so small when your mad about them. It's later, when you try to explain it, that it sounds silly. You can't even really explain why you were so mad or even if you can, chances are there's nothing you can do about it now. So let go. That for me is one of the hardest things to do. (I can hold a grudge just ask my husband.) but it's a necessary thing, if you want to be happy. You certainly can't go into a new year, let alone a new state with a monkey on your back. So I'm over it. It's done and I can't begrudge anyone or any event any longer. That doesn't mean I forget or don't care it just means I have to move on. The best is yet to come.
Goodbye 2007. Hello 2008


Happy New Year!

Funny Link

I didn't know how to post in the video format so you will just have to cut and paste or click on the link if you can. any of my old co-workers will really get a kick out of the first part.

http://inthemotherhood.msn.com/Default.aspx?source=email&videoID=3

Enjoy

Friday, December 28, 2007

The 12 Bars of Christmas




A good friend from my high school days, Erica came home from the Peace Corps for Christmas. She celebrated her homecoming by commissioning a pub crawl for her return. Erica has been in Africa, more specifically Berkina Faso helping the locals start their own businesses and utilize the resources they have available. It's been over a year since she left and already her mind and attitude and just everyday way of thinking has changed. The experience would humble anyone I think. Check out her blog it's linked on the right under "My Peep hole". You can can read all about her adventures and exciting projects. I told her I'm so jealous that I didn't think to go to the Peace corps right out of high school. It would have been an amazing experience. I hope maybe one of my kids will want to do something to the effect.


Anyway, back to the important part. The crawl. If you've never been on one then it's a must for your 2008 to do list. You (and a group of friends hopefully, alone you just look like a lost drunk) start at one bar or pub and drink for 45 minutes or so then you walk on to the next bar. Obviously, you want to be a place that has a few bars close together. Usually these crawls have a theme. Ours was the 12 bars of Christmas. So you guessed it, we planed to hit 12 bars in Royal Oak all while walking in 25 degree Michigan weather, singing Christmas carols. Yes, we had to sing while we walked on to the next watering hole. "Come all ye faithful", "Let it snow" and "Hark the Herald angels " were sung all while donning very festive Santa hats and ugly sweaters. Strangely enough we didn't sing the 12 days of Christmas. I only made it to bar #10 but that was 2 more then the goal I set. So that makes like an overachiever of sorts. Besides I told my babysitter I would get home before midnight and by bar #10 the momentum of the group had died down. I drank a few pints Winter Ale, siped a Chocolate Martini, downed a really strong Margarita, did a couple shots of Red Headed Sluts and Buttery Nipples and I didn't get sick. Man, even after 3 kids this housewife's still got it.

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

The Countdown to D-Day Begins.


T minus 14 to lift off. With 2 weeks left in Detroit I'm starting to feel the pressure.


We still have a ton of packing to do, organizing to finish and I have loads of stuff still to sell on www.craigslist.org I've mapped out our route and according to yahoo it will take us 32 hours. Of course, that doesn't include stopping for potty breaks, diaper changes, eating, resting etc... With 3 kids we are giving ourselves 3 days. I don't think that's asking too much. Plus, I just know this will give me some excellent writing material for a book. That is at the top of my goal list for 2008.
A very special thank you to my Mommy Pam for the great Christmas presents for the kids. I will be forever grateful for her and the love she has given to me and my family. She took us in so to speak when I needed a Mom for me and a Grandmother for my kids. I will love her forever for it. Well that's a whole other post entirely. Anyway, she got the girls some great activity items they can use while we are driving down the 44. Enough to keep them busy and us sane... I hope. My oldest is learning to knit as well so maybe she will make something beautiful along the way. I of course will have my knitting to keep my hands busy I also plan to take a book or two. Check out my other blog for what will be on the needles while I'm on the road. Next week I'm having a birthday dinner with a few friends. So I can get a chance to see everyone at least one more time before I go. I will miss my friends dearly but hopefully they will come and visit and I will of course get back here from time to time. I know there will be people that will fall away, it's just a natural progression in life. I just hope it won't hurt to much when they do. I told my oldest this when she admitted how nervous she was about moving. But she will surely make new friends as well as I. In the meantime we will have to be each other's best friend.

Monday, December 17, 2007

Enough Already! #@%$^!

One of my favorite pastimes besides knitting, reading, writing and shopping of course is watching television.

I love T.V. and I'm not afraid to admit that. I especially love to knit while watching T.V. (Makes me feel less guilty for watching so much) But the higher powers that be are impeding on my T.V./knitting time. There are these high powered executives out in L.A. who refuse to give writers a cut of the Internet and down loadable episodes of their shows. That they wrote! The fat cats in Hollywood need to stop and think and not be so damned greedy.



Here are the facts as I've been told:

-Writers now get about $0.04 per $20 DVD sold. They live off these residuals during down times throughout the year.

-They are only paid during the season of the show that they are working on. So say in the summer when we're all watching repeat episodes of Grey's Anatomy, the writers are living off only the DVD sales of the show.

-These writers also don't get paid nearly what I thought they would. I mean come on, a show like Grey's or E.R. where the actors get hundreds of thousands of dollars per episode, the brains behind the wit barley get a fraction of that. I read somewhere that "the writers are like the line workers of the industry." Living here in the "Motor city" I understand that statement very well. I especially feel bad because I love watching my favorite shows online. There are less commercials and I don't have to be upset if I missed a new episode. I will just watch it the next day online. Very convenient. I assumed everyone would still be getting paid for this convenience. There are at least 5- 30 second commercials and a sponsor logo at the top of the show for pete's sake. So who gets that money I wonder......

Having been in a union myself, I respect the strike and will keep my fingers crossed that they come to a fair agreement soon. Men in Trees, Grey's and Desperate housewives were all getting so good. In the meantime I will just watch my DVDs. Below is a link to 2 of my favorite writers take on the strike.



The Latina (L)it Girl: The Writers Guild Strike

http://jenniferweiner.blogspot.com/2007/11/as-d-day-approaches-we-have-been-making.html

Friday, December 14, 2007

Hello My Name is Erika W. and I'm a Yarn Addict

Here are some pictures of my stash
And some more...

And a little more...


The first step to recovery is admitting there is a problem. Well I did that. Now what? Is there a 12 step program for yarnaholics? Oh I know, a pill I can take, or maybe a reality t.v. show I can go on to work all my issues out in front of the entire human population. You know what, there probably is.

Well, I think I will just go with the good ole' American way and blame it on someone else.


SARA.

Yup it's all your fault. I watched you. In the crew lounge always throwing that yarn. Showing off all your shiny needles and using your fancy knitting talk.

"Oh I'm going to purl this row, then knit the next...."

"It's so hard when you drop a stitch..."Blah, blah, blah....

You made it look so enticing, sooo soothing and relaxing. To be able to sit in solitude and work on your own private project and drown out the noise of the airport. Looked like heaven to me.

So I begged and pleaded. "Oh please, please show me how you work your magic."

"I want to join your club".
"Be a knitter".

You didn't warn me how I would find any excuse to go to a yarn store. How I would want to knit in the early morning and then again late into the night. Carry around with me projects to the doctor's office, dentist, in the car while I waited to pick up the kids. Nope. She didn't tell me how many different types of needles and yarns there were. How I could accessorize with cute bags and caring cases. Or how I would print out pages and pages of projects I would want to do. Damn it! I'm out of ink again! Why Sara? why? You should have warned me that this would happen.

But now it's to late.

Let this post be a warning to the next knitter wanna be.

Well, I think that's how it happened anyway. It's all kind of a blur....

BTW Check out her blog under "My Peep Hole"- Curiouser and curiouser! or here: http://qu33nsara.blogspot.com/

Her forecast is bad ass. Sara you rock.





Thursday, December 13, 2007

It's Ladies Night







A post or so ago I told you that a woman named Melissa offered to display and sell my scarves at her boutique after seeing them at the mom to mom sale. Well, she had a special after hours affair last Thursday at her store and it seemed to go pretty well. I must say she did display my scarves very nicely. I felt like a real designer or something. Now I just got to get some people to buy them. Her store has some really cool stuff in it. She has everything from jeans to baby items, vases, dishes, books, purses and did I mention some really snazzy scarves. The place is small so you would think with all that stuff it would be crowded or cluttered but it isn't. It's actually very neat and tidy but in a eclectic way. It reminds me of the bed and breakfast that my husband and I were married at (without the beds and breakfast). Just a very comfortable place to go and shop with friends. She's holding another event tonight and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that my scarves are sold out. I'll keep you updated.

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Viva Las Vegas



The husband and I just touched down back at DTW a few hours ago and I feel like I'm still flying. Now it could be the beer from the many beverage services that our wonderful flight attendants ran or the fact that our moving to Las Vegas is finally starting to feel real. Even with some slight bumps along to way our trip was a major success.
We found a house! It's in a great area with a school for the girls less then 4 minutes away. Even better there is a Big Lot's just as close! Anybody who knows me knows my obsession with Big Lots, especially since I've been finding some great yarn there for a buck or less. I mean yarn that I found at a leading craft store for $8 a ball was only $1 at Big Lot's! How can you not love that?! Sorry, I digress, the trip started out with an ice storm looming over the Midwest. Six inches of freezing rain was expected so I called the airline and spoke to someone I believe was not even in this country and told him my dilemma and he moved our flight up 7 hours without a problem. We got to the airport after dropping 2 of the girls at their "vacation homes" and got through security without a hitch. If you've ever gone through airport security with a infant and all her gear then you know that's not a small feat. I'm not kidding when I say we used at least 10 of those grey bins to hold all our stuff. Laptops, coats, shoes, the quart sized Ziploc bag of liquids that are allowed on the plane, bottles, car seat and stroller well you get my point. The plane was late getting into DTW due to weather so we were 2 hours late getting out to Vegas. The rental car company gave us shit about our coupon and the hotel http://www.excalibur.com/landing/2007/?CMP=KNC-Google-Excalibur_Corp had it's own set of issues. Since it took us so long to get our stuff together we lost a half day of house hunting. I thought that would be detrimental but it turned out to not be such a problem. The weather was great, to us anyway. The weatherman kept talking about how cold it was outside and not to go out unless you had to. It was 54 degrees for heavens sake. I hope I don't become that much of a sissy when we become full time "Las Vegans". Regardless, we drove around all day Monday covering most of the city looking at townhouses, condos and single family homes. When we finally came across this beauty we knew we had found our new home. It was love at first sight. My husband even got the price knocked down. As I said the house is in a great location about 25 minutes from the strip. That's close enough for me. There are great views of the mountains on all sides from the street. If it was a two story home then we could probably see them from the house but oh well. I could say plenty more but honestly I'm beat. I'm going to go to sleep tonight Las Vegas dreamin........I can't wait. I just can't wait!

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

My First Sale



This past weekend a friend and I attended a Mom to Mom sale. If you are at all unfamiliar with one then I will explain briefly. It's sort of like a swap meet or indoor garage sale. Moms (and Dads) try to sell all their children's gently used items. Some also sell crafts and such. My friend had quite an array of baby items she wanted to sell. From bottles to a travel swing. I wanted to also sell some baby items and leftover Avon products from my very short career as a sales Representative this year. Although, my main objective was to sell my scarves. Since I began knitting I found that I really enjoy it and someone (Ms. Otay) put a little bug in my ear and said I should start trying to sell them. So, I made 8 scarves and a few other things and sat them out with my fancy sign that I made the night before (see picture) and kept my fingers crossed. And you know what? I sold 7 of them!




Woohoo!!!




Yippie!




Go me!




O.K. I'm done now.




Well technically I sold 6 and a cute little girl bartered the 7th one out of me. I'm always a sucker for a cute and spunky child. I'm still kicking myself for not getting her name. I did take her picture modeling one of my creations though. Getting on to the best part, a lovely woman by the name of Melissa thought so much of my scarves and fine craftsmanship (my words not hers) that she asked if I wanted to display them in her store. Second Glance boutique and resale shop located in Harper Woods, MI. Of course I jumped at the chance. She wanted 20 or so by Thursday but the most I could do was 11. Not bad, I think for 4 days.




All in all I think it was well worth the 20 bucks I paid for the table space at the mom to mom sale.