Author Archives: Jean

Family, Knitting

Happy NEXT MONTH!

Posted on by Jean

The new year means a lot to a lot of people.  This year it means one thing to me.  January 1st means that I can officially say my man comes home NEXT MONTH!!!!  Gotta tell you, 2006 pretty much sucked for me.  Don’t get me wrong, good things happened and I’m grateful for them but I’m REALLY happy to say hello to 2007 and all the adventure it’s going to bring.  Dan coming home, moving back to the States (I’ll miss Europe, lived here most of my adult life, but I miss family more), settling in at West Point (please God, let us get housing) and let’s not forget… RHINEBECK!!! 

Let me tell you, that move is going to sneak up and bite me right in the arse.  I can’t believe the movers will be here in about four months.  Right now all my thought processes are just getting ready for Dan to come home.  There’s racks of beer to be bought, banners to be made, favorite meals to be planned out….  a house to clean so that he doesn’t think aliens moved in and took his wife.

It’s amazing.  My mood went from the  doldrums to ecstatic overnight.  I’ve been walking around the house all morning all happy and every now and then I yell, “NEXT MONTH!  IT’S OVER, BABY!” and the boys get this scared look on their faces like their mother just lost her mind (little do they know that happened years ago).  A few minutes ago Joseph said, “Mom, people are going to think we’re crazy.  Please stop that.”  Yeah…  what do you want to bet that by the end of the day he’s the one that’s going to be yelling it and I’m going to be the one asking him to stop.

The boys and I went out to the field next to our house last night.  We have an awesome view of the Marktplatz and church towers of our town.  You can see it here from pictures I took in February (when we had this white stuff called snow).  Fireworks over here is a whole different story than in the States.  You can buy them everywhere for a couple of weeks before New Year’s Eve.  And they set them off everywhere.  I picked up a few stray rockets from our backyard this morning.  I was hoping to capture the light of the church towers in the fireworks but I didn’t get it.  Not a strong enough zoom lens and too far from the action.

I really think that my lack of knitting over the last year can be blamed on depression.   I mean, I picked up knitting again (and reading… which I also haven’t been doing) just a couple of weeks ago.  Dan’s coming home soon.  Coinkidink?  I think not.  Here is the progress on said knitting:

Don’t you hate the way cotton looks all uneven until you block it?  And so much for better photography.  It’s a very grey day here in Germany due to rain… again… not.snow.  Rain, rain go away bring a blizzard any day!  Yeah.  The blizzard will happen the day Dan’s plane is supposed to arrive.  Wow.  How’s that for snarky?  Even though you can’t tell it from that last paragraph, I really am in a good mood.  🙂

Another project I worked on was embroidering polo shirts for Dan and his troops for Christmas gifts.  I ruined the first set of polo shirts and had to order more so they were late getting to them but they loved them.  They also had SA (Special Agent) and their name under the  badge:

Family

Father and Son

Posted on by Jean

Everyone in our family has always said that Joseph is Dan all over again.  It’s a fact.  The first photo is Dan when he was about five or six.  The second photo is Joe at six:

See what I mean?  I had nothing to do with Joe except as an incubation system.  We have that photo of Dan in a frame in our living room.  Everyone always thinks it’s Joe.  He is his father through and through.  And not just in looks.  He’s a very charismatic, onery, funny person that everyone loves instantly.  They are buddies because they understand each other so much better than the rest of us do.   Daniel and I would have been bored silly over this last year without Joseph.  Daniel and I are more serious.  When we go shopping I can find Dan and Joseph anywhere in the store because I can hear them.  Two kids, one big and one little, having a ball no matter where they go.

Joe gives me stuff to stick in Dan’s packages when I send them.  He sent a letter to his dad with a secret message in “code” in the last package:

Yesterday we got this email from Dan:

When we were reading it the boys were laughing hysterically.  Even Joseph realized his “code” was pretty easy when he looked at it again and his dad was pulling his leg even from 3,101 miles away.

click it to get the real picture:

Ornament
Cooking, Knitting

See… I do remember how….

Posted on by Jean

Holy sheep wool, Francis!  I do remember how to knit!

I’m just about to the underarms using the Knitting Pure and Simple  V-neck Tunic pattern.  That’s Stahl Woolle’s Winter-Cotton in Brick.  I bought it from Elann in May of 2004.  Okay… so yea… it’s an easy peasy pattern, but at least the ol’ fingers are at it again. I gotta tell ya. It feels good.  Kind of like an old friend. 

I’ve also been baking up a storm for Christmas gifts.  Here’s one of the little baskets I put together (I also made various quick breads and piled it all on top of the wrapped package which is a Scrabble game):

I actually touched yarn yesterday!   Nope, alas, not for knitting.  I’m making gift baskets up as gifts with biscotti and Gingerbread Coffee Creamer.  It’s nummy.  See the yarn?  It’s Classic Elite leftover from Aggie’s sweater. Here’s the recipe:

2 cups Powdered Creamer
1/2 c. packed DARK Brown sugar
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp allspice
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cloves

Blend well, add to taste to Coffee or Hot Chocolate (NUM!)

Today is the first day of Christmas break for the boys.  Yeah!  I’ve been really busy at the school over the last couple of weeks running the book fair.  It was very successful and we earned $1000 for the school!  Yeah!!  Not bad for a small school.  I swore that was my last big volunteer gig… and then I said I wanted to do it again in April.  I’ll never learn.

Family

‘Tis the Season

Posted on by Jean

Ahhh… at last Advent is here!  Last year, in preparation for Dan being gone this Christmas I bought a little 2 foot tree  for the boys and I for this year.  After a beautiful Mass this morning I just couldn’t do it.  I couldn’t settle and put that puny little tree out.  This is my very favorite time of year.  A little strange this year without snow (cold for that matter) and without Dan. 

It took everything I had but I got our tree out of the attic and the boxes and boxes of ornaments and decorations.  One of the great things about Germany is they do Christmas VERY well.  We have beautiful decorations and ornaments that we’ve collected over the 12+ years we’ve lived here.

If you haven’t heard it yet, check out The Nativity Story: Sacred Songs. Absolutely beautiful music. I also love all of the Mannheim Steamroller Christmas CDs.

We live in Bavaria and Bavaria is very Catholic.  One of my favorite things each year is to scour the florists for the perfect Advent wreath.  Not really a “wreath” but I fell in love with the one I found this year.  After we decorated the tree tonight the boys and I sat down and said a prayer and our intentions for this Season and then lit the first candle.

Family, Friends, Sewing

A Good Time Was Had By All

Posted on by Jean

The boys and I had a great Thanksgiving in Garmisch.  Three years ago we hiked half way up Kramer Mountain with our long-time friends to find snow and have hot chocolate at the St. Martin Hutte half way up:

We did it again this year:

I’d say the kids have grown a little, wouldn’t you?  Good thing because Joe was not riding on my shoulders most of the way like he did on Dan’s three years ago.  These pictures were taken in the exact same spot.  It was almost 60 degrees when the boys and I left Garmisch yesterday.  Not good for the skiing tourism.

Here’s a view from St. Martin Hutte where we had a nice cold beer (soda for the kids) and pretzels fresh out of the oven:

Meanwhile, Dan was having a fantastic Thanksgiving of his own.  Country Music star, Aaron Tippin, surprised them at Bagram with a concert.

We have about ten Saturdays until he comes home!  I can do that standing on my head.

Last Tuesday night the Spouse’s Club had a “Make it, Bake it & Take it night to raise funds for the club.  Everyone baked or made something (most brought gift baskets of some sort) to be auctioned off.  Here’s the large tote bag that was my contribution:

Both fabrics came from a German thrift store.   I’m positive the yellow is quite old.  Love it.  I found the flower tutorial at Wisecraft.  The pattern for the bag is from this book:

Cooking, Sewing

String

Posted on by Jean

The last few people that I’ve taught to knit or sew have called the yarn and the thread “string”.  Drove me nuts.    I haven’t been posting lately because I haven’t had any knitting to show.  It is a knitting blog after all.   I don’t know what it is.  I went through this once before and it lasted about two years.  I have been sewing like crazy though.  Then yesterday I was thinking (I know.  Scary.) in the end isn’t all just string? Then I started thinking again (must be something in the coffee).  I think most knitters like anything made of fiber.  I know I do.  And besides…  It’s my blog and I’ll sew if I want to.   Just think of the thread as really thin yarn. 

So until I get that knitting feeling back….  Here’s what I did yesterday:

I made a crayon bag for a three-year old’s birthday.  The inside is lined with the bandanna fabric.  I saw a pattern for the bag at Connecting Threads but didn’t have time to wait (the party is today) so I winged it.  Pretty easy. 

His dad works in Dan’s office and they are moving back to the States this week.  I thought it’d be perfect for the plane.  A Tonka Truck wouldn’t have been good since they are all packed out and ready to fly.  If I didn’t think Preston would get upset when I walked back out with it, I’d bring one in as a joke.

I did another happy little girl bag and accessories for Pam’s daughter (Amy Butler’s In Town Bag): 

Her birthday party is tomorrow and I can not wait for her to see it.  It’s very similar to the one I made before.  Madison, the five-year old that I made the last one for saw this one and was not happy about it.  I assured her they were a little different and she seemed okay with that. The little zippered bag and tissue case were made with scraps so that I didn’t have to cut into a new fat quarter.  The zipper bag is lined with the white flowered fabric on the sides of the purse and the tissue pouch is lined with the orange lining in the purse.  Usually a little of the tissue pouch lining shows up on the opening edges but the piece of fabric was a hair too short.  I used a pattern for the zippered pouch from this book:

Pam and I are doing Thanksgiving Dinner for the kids tonight. On Wednesday we are all headed to Garmisch for the Holiday Weekend.   Another family that we were stationed with here in Germany before are meeting us down there.  Can’t wait.  I hope there’s snow on the mountains because, not that I’m complaining, it’s been REALLY warm here for this time of year.  I planted bulbs in baskets to give out in February… I think I’ll be giving them out for Christmas instead.

So Happy Thanksgiving to all! 

Here’s my recipe for Sweet Potato Casserole.  It’s always a favorite and really low in fat (not).

Friends, Travel

Athens Was Awesome

Posted on by Jean

We may have only run the 10K but the whole trip was a Marathon in itself.  Pam and I got on the plane Saturday morning in Munich.  We landed at Athens Airport outside the city to the East at 3:00 Athens time.  We took a 45-min bus ride to get to the other side of the city where we had to pick up our bib numbers and race packet.  Then it was a 45-min tram to our hotel.  Too bad we were only there one night.  We got there just in time to drop our bags and go find dinner.  A woman on the plane told us about a restaurant near the Plaka.  We found it but opted for a more lively one across from it instead.  We figured you couldn’t get bad Souflaki in Athens.   We were right.  Our table was full of all our favorite Greek dishes and we PIGGED OUT!   We obviously aren’t athletes worried about our time in the run (good thing).  We walked through the Plaka on the way back to the hotel to find a jacket for me to run in.  We weren’t expecting how cold it was there.   Weather.com was WAY wrong.

The next morning we arrived at the Stadium and got ready for the run.   Since we signed up for the run we were worried about the course description, “the first part of the run is rather uphill.” 

Rather?!  What the heck is rather?  I’ll tell you what it is… it’s 300meters in 3 miles.  That’s what it is.  Every time we hit a hill in the first half, we thought, “Okay.  This is it.  Last one.”  We were dying to say, “It’s all downhill from here.”  The last hill was a whopper, but we could see the 10K turn around point at the top.  We ran the first half in 40 minutes and the 2nd half in 30 minutes.  Not bad for two middle-aged moms that hadn’t been training like they should.  But we did it and it was SUCH a good feeling to cross that finish line in the first Olympic Stadium to the sound of Queen singing We Are The Champions!  I’m so ready to do the Berlin Half Marathon in April now!

See the old man running next to us?  He crossed the finish line ahead of us.  *My* story is that he was only running the 5K.   There was also a homeless man who joined in the last little bit and crossed the finish line.  He was throwing a fit because they wouldn’t put a medal around his neck.  If I wasn’t in such a fog and didn’t realize what was going on, I would have given him mine.

We walked the 10 min. through the National Park back to our room, showered and were on the train back to the airport within an hour and a half of finishing.  We were walking like two old women but we had HUGE smiles on our faces.  It was like we had a big secret.  People were looking at us like we were morons.  lol. 

We got to the airport early enough that we sat down for a leisurely lunch.   When we pulled out our boarding passes the first time I noticed there wasn’t a ticket on Pam’s like mine.  We figured it was just because we were traveling together.  As we’re in the LONG line for the security checks we realize our boarding call was ten min. early than we thought!  Four minutes ago!  Uh-oh.  And everything had gone so smoothly up until then.  So we get to the gate in the nick of time and they stop Pam because there’s no ticket on her boarding pass!  They made me get on the bus to the plane and they told Pam to go look for it.  We told them we never had it but they didn’t believe us.  It was obvious she’d checked in and had it an hour before.  Smart girl that she is she wouldn’t leave the desk.  They finally had to let her go.  The flight took off fifteen minutes late because of it.  Whew.  We were wiping sweat off our brows as we looked at Athens disappearing below us.

I learned something though.  It may have only been 6.2 miles…  but those hills nearly did me in.  I kept going because I had my friend by my side.  We may not have finished first but we didn’t finish last either.  There were at least a hundred people behind us but they stopped the time at an hour and a half so we made it and I’m so proud of us. 

Sewing

Ladies and Gents… we have a winner

Posted on by Jean

Well.   I certainly didn’t think anyone would get it already.   Lisa must have scoured the internet for every photo of every stadium in the world.  She was the only one who got it right.   A pound of the lovely lavender will be winging it’s way across the Atlantic to her this week.

We’re running the 10K at Panathinaiko Stadium in Athens the first weekend in November.   We will be in Athens for less than 24 hours.  How dumb are we?  We were so focused on being home in time to put the kids to bed on Sunday night that we didn’t even think about going on Friday afternoon and actually relaxing for a bit.  We will probably exert more energy trying to make our early afternoon flight back to Germany than we will during the race.  Poor planning.  Actually there was no planning what-so-ever.  We got excited and jumped in.  We’ll still have a blast and we’re still SO excited.  I’ve been to Greece before but Pam hasn’t.  Our hotel is right in the thick of things and the race course goes right by all the main attractions.   Gives a whole new meaning to a quick trip.

I’ve been sewing again.  We have the Wives’ Club Bazaar this weekend.  It’s a pretty big deal over here.  I’m making bags for the Ways and Means table (money that goes back into the club to help run it).  The Army changed uniforms recently.   So what to do with all those old Battle Dress Uniforms?  Get creative!

Trust me.  WAY cuter in person.  They are lined with the T-shirts that they wore with these uniforms.  I also made up large messenger bags and wine gift bags and little tissue holders.  I’ll share the pictures once I get more done.  I need to get back to the sewing machine.  The bazaar starts on Friday! 

My load will greatly be relieved come November 1st.  Soccer will be over and we’ve decided to put off the Tae Kwon Do until we get back to the States and the boys can join a proper class that isn’t so late in the evening.  That’s FIVE, count ’em, FIVE days a week we’ll get back the afternoons and evenings.  Whew.   Maybe I’ll actually have time to pick up the needles again.

During breakfast I’ve started reading to the boys.  The book we started this morning is Here Lies the Librarian.  They both love it.  This author, Richard Peck, is fantastic.   Daniel read one of his other books in class and I got hooked on him.

Family, Travel

18 Saturdays

Posted on by Jean

That’s how the boys and I count down the rest of the deployment.   We have 18 Saturdays left.  It’s so much more easy to swallow than 127 days.   Thank God because I’m about at the end of my rope.  Single parenthood is for the birds.  I don’t know how people do it on a permanent basis.  I am on the go from the time I slap the snooze button for the last time at 6:15 until the boys are in bed at 8:30.  Doesn’t help that I’m a moron and started the boys in Tae Kwon Do before the soccer season was over.  We have something every single day of the week now.  Even on Sundays there is Mass and CCD (and I’m the Religious Ed Coordinator so I have to work that day). 

We did get to spend about an hour with Dan (sort of) a couple of weeks ago.  He was promoted to CW3 via video conferencing (think really high speed web cam).  It was nice.  He was actually promoted on September 1st but held off on the ceremony until all his troops were back in Afghanistan from R&R.

I have good days and I have bad days.  I’ve told you all a little about my “battle buddy”, Pam.  She has been my rock.  Always there and we always seem to be on the same sheet of music.  Her husband is in Iraq and due home in December.  She has three kids and two of them are younger than the boys AND she has a full-time job.  On top of that, her husband had only been home from Iraq for about eight months before he had to leave again on this deployment.  We had three full years between Dan’s deployments and that was hard enough.  It just stinks no matter how you look at it but she always has a positive spirit and keeps me laughing.  I mean that awesome gut-busting kind of laughter where you start tearing up.  You can see why she’s my hero and I’m so proud to call her my friend.

We’re training to run together in the Berlin Half Marathon in April.  She ran it last year.  Both guys will be home by then and it’s our Grand Finale to the deployments to come out strong.  So I’m going to have a little contest to liven things up around here.  We’re running in a 10K next month to keep us motivated.  The prize?  A full pound of the lavender yarn I have up in the last post.  If I can’t sell it, I might as well give it away. Your mission, should you accept it, is to tell me where we’ll be running.  I’ll take all the correct answers and draw a name from them.  Don’t spoil the fun and put it in the comments, email your answer.  I’ll give a hint per post until I get the right answer.   I have a feeling someone will get it right off though.  Here’s the first hint:

On the knitting front I picked up the shawl kit that I bought in Shetland.  It’s a simple lace pattern but I’m having a heck of a time getting it set up and going.  Could be because I’m trying to watch “The Unit” while I’m knitting.  lol.

Knitting

Made with Love

Posted on by Jean

One of the best things about knitting is getting to make a gift from the heart.  Knitters seem to be very giving people.   You’d have to be blind not to see that with all the charity knitting being done in blogland.  Personally, I don’t think there’s anything nicer than giving something that you made with your own hands.  It shows that you took the time to really care about someone else.

I finished the chemo turban last night.  I have to say…  I like the way it turned out.  It’s very forgiving in way of fit because of the stretch not only in the ribbing, but the yarn.  I hope I get a photo of the recipient in it.

In case you missed it, here are the particulars:

Pattern:  Elann Chemo Turban

Yarn: Elann Esprit in Mauve (very lavender for being “mauve”)