Author Archives: Jean

Animals and Nature, Family

Good-bye Sweet Girl

Posted on by Jean

It’s been a roller coaster week.  Bailey spent a couple of nights at the vet clinic on post while we waited for her blood test results because she needed to be on IV.  When Dan took her in we had no idea it was as bad as it was.  We were hoping that it was just an infection that could be fixed.  It took a day longer for the blood tests to come back.  We went to visit her each day.  They finally came on Friday.  She had hepatitis, we just didn’t know what caused it.   

The military vet referred us to a German specialist for an appointment this morning for an ultrasound hoping that it was “just” gallstones. We were going to pick her up on the way this morning but the vet called last night.  Bailey had blown her catheter and she couldn’t get it back in because Bailey’s blood was clotting too much. She said there was nothing more she could do for her and we might as well let her have a night at home before we took her to the specialist.

It was a long night.  I woke up several times expecting to find she’d already passed away and a few times because she kept getting sick.  I’m glad we got to have her for a bit though here at home.  She laid in her favorite spot along side the sofa while we watched TV and it almost seemed like everything was back to normal.

We got to the German vet this morning and as soon as she looked at the blood test she gave us the bad news.  Her kidneys and most of her other organs were badly damaged and it was best to just put her down instead of letting her suffer any longer.  She did an x-ray and found a large tumor or mass (it was hard to understand her english) just under Bailey’s kidneys.

I held my girl and sobbed while they put her to sleep and we told her that we loved her and would miss her.  It was one of the most heartbreaking things I’ve ever done but I’m glad I stayed. When she was gone she finally had a look of peace on her face after all week of being in severe pain.  We are actually slightly relieved because she is comfortable at last.  We pretty much knew this was going to be the outcome but had a glimmer of hope for her.

The boys took the news pretty well.  We all cried and talked about how she’s with our Blue Heeler, Dallas, now and they’re taking care of each other and how Bailey was so sick and in so much pain it wasn’t fair to her.  They were prepared for it all week so I think that helped.  It also helps having Aggie around.  She makes us all smile. 

We had 5 1/2 good years with our girl.  The pictures above are from a scrapbook I did shortly after we rescued her from the pound in Clarksville, TN.  They were going to put that adorable dog to sleep the next day.  When we took her to the vet that day, he told us she was very sick and that we could take her back for another dog or get our money back.  It’d only been a few hours but we’d already bonded with her and we couldn’t do that to her.   Three weeks later we got back a healthy dog that has been a good friend to our boys.

I took this one on the right and the one below within the last year or so.  I’m glad we have pictures to remember her by.  She’ll be missed but I’m glad she’s not suffering anymore.

Animals and Nature, Family, Friends, Knitting, Travel

Already?

Posted on by Jean

How is it that it’s already January 2006?  For our family it means we’re just a few weeks from Dan’s deployment.  Counting the time he’ll be away for training, we have about three weeks left.  I’m trying to stay positive but I gotta admit… it ain’t easy.  I’ve had a couple of breakdowns.  Usually when I wake up in the middle of the night and have nothing else to think about.  This too shall pass.  We’ve been through it before, we’ll get through it this time. It’s just not an easy thing and I’m looking forward to it about as much as someone looks forward to a root canal.  In fact, I’d rather have a root canal.  😉  Pfft. I jinxed myself.

Like I said, we’re trying to remain positive and make the best of the time we have.  How do we do that?  By cramming 2 1/2 years worth of travel into a few weeks.  We came home a few days after Christmas.  Look what was waiting in the mail for me from my friend, Jessica!

Isn’t it beautiful?  I wish you could feel how soft it is.  Thank you so much, Jess!  There was also a Texas A&M fleece blanket from my Elann pal, Bets. Thank you, Bets!!  I’ve met some wonderful friends via the net.

Speaking of A&M…  I haven’t shown you a picture of Aggie lately.  Here she is at 15 weeks.  Tell me how anyone could not love that face?  I think you can tell a lot about a person, dog lover or not, who doesn’t at least smile at that.  Seriously. 

Please say a little prayer for Bailey.  She isn’t doing very well.  She’s going to the vet today.  She’s been really out of it and throwing up for the past two days and today doesn’t seem to be any better.  Hopefully it’s nothing a little antibiotics won’t take care of and she’ll be rolling around the floor with Aggie again soon.

Okay… I know you’re dying to hear about our trips. I’ll start with Ireland.  Dublin was fun, but it was very busy with the Christmas shoppers and all.  I was feeling guilty about not bringing the boys at first, but we would have lost them for sure in all the crowds.  They had much more fun staying with our long-time friends than they would have had being dragged around Dublin anyway. 

The hotel, The Westbury, was FANTASTIC!  We felt very pampered.  Everyone should treat themselves to this kind of hotel once in a while.  Evening turn-down service complete with complimentary slippers, robes and Godiva chocolates… Aveda (my personal fave) products in the bathroom, beautiful warm decor and a fantastic full Irish breakfast on china and silver with waiters in uniform ready to whisk away your empty plates so you can have room for more.  Pure luxury.  If you get on-line you can get some great deals.   We paid about the same price for this as we are going to pay to stay at a budget hotel in London!  Yes… I said London.  I’ll get to that later….

The highlight of the trip for Dan was the Guinness Brewery tour and the bus trip to the Wicklow Mountains. Dan’s been a long time fan of Guinness so it was great for him, but I have to admit, I enjoyed the tour also.  Very interesting.  My favorite part of the trip was the visit to Avoca Handweavers:

You can’t see it in the shot above, but the weaver’s sweater is beautiful.  Of course I knew you’d all like to see it so I took a close up.

It’s Ireland so we saw a lot of sheep.  I managed to get a few good shots.  Even had some made into pretty note cards by Shutterfly.  On the last day I got to meet up with my friends, Janet and Ian, from the Spinning Retreat in Scotland a couple of years ago.  I wish we could have spent more time together but I’m glad we got to at least meet over coffee at Bewley’s Cafe.

If you’re ever in Dublin and want the best scones ever… just around the corner from the main tourist info in the old church… go to the Keogh’s Cafe on Trinity St (almost on the corner of Dame St).  It’s right across the street from the Banker’s Pub.  We went back a few times and even grabbed a couple to take on the plane ride back to Germany.

Okay… before I bore you all to death, that’s enough for today.  In the next post I’ll tell you about our awesome Christmas surprise in Rome and our upcoming trip to London.

UPDATE:  Dan just called from the vet.  It’s Bailey’s liver.  They took some blood tests but they won’t be back for about a week.  They think it’s either cancer or hepititis.  My poor girl.  Please say a little prayer for her.

Family, Knitting

The Lion, The Witch and the…

Posted on by Jean

….Sweaters!!  We went to see Narnia on Friday night.  In a word… AWESOME!!  I knew it was going to be a good movie when the opening scenes had gorgeous handknit sweaters in them.  I loved these books as a kid and was not disappointed in the movie.   I bought Daniel a set of the books a few months ago hoping he’d read them before the movie come out.  Now I want to read them again.  Dan had never read them and thought it was one of the best movies he’d ever seen.  Joe faked that he didn’t like it because he wanted to see King Kong (yeah… that’s why he was so engrossed in it for the entire 2 1/2 hours).

Last year I shared Joe’s engineering talents with your and here’s this year’s efforts towards Habitat For Gingerbreadmanity:

I also shared a mini stocking pattern last year that Nilda (Waltzing Natilda) thought everyone might like to see again.  If  you click here and scroll down to October 26th, you’ll find the free pattern for a great little stocking.  Some friends and I made a bunch of these to send down to Iraq when their husbands were deployed last year.  They are the perfect size for putting a chocolate bar or a few small treats into.  I think I was down to about an hour each after I had the pattern memorized.

And lastly I have a FO to share.  It’s just a simple dropped garter stitch scarf using a strand of purple mohair and a strand of Knit Picks sock yarn.  I knit three rows and on the forth row, I knit but wrapped the yarn around the needle twice instead of just once before pulling it through.  Added a little fringe and you have a scarf perfect for any teenager:

Family, Knitting

The Start of the Wooly Madness

Posted on by Jean

Eight-month old Daniel in his first of many EZ sweaters and hats:

Ahhh… the start of it all.  This wasn’t my first sweater.  I’d already been knitting for about five years… sort of.  I’d knit something small and then not touch the needles for months or more.  It was, however, my beginning of the knitter I am today.  I was on a little group called the Knitlist around 1995.  That’s where I heard of Elizabeth Zimmermann and ordered Knitting Around.  And that’s where my love for all things wool began.  The kind of wool that’s rustic and warm and lovely.  This little sweater was done in Shetland Jumper weight that I ordered from Schoolhouse Press. This pattern is also in The Opinionated Knitter.

I took Aggie in for her 12-week vet appointment yesterday.  Last week I noticed a bump inside her left leg.   My fears were confirmed by our vet.  It’s an Inguinal Hernia.  She also has a hernia on her belly button which we knew about.  That wasn’t a big deal but the Inguinal one is hereditary and it just wouldn’t be responsible of us to breed her though we were really looking forward to letting her have one litter when she was old enough.  Oddly, the one who’s most disappointed is Daniel.  She’ll have surgery in about a month to repair the two hernias and to be spayed.  My poor puppy.

Animals and Nature, Knitting

A Hat for Lucy

Posted on by Jean

I hope all my American friends had a wonderful Thanksgiving.   We went to visit friends in Belgium.   They used to live across the street.  They’re in a wonderful old Belgian farmhouse that’s huge but very cozy.  It took us six hours to drive there but almost twice that to get back because we hit a huge snowstorm in Belgium.

I don’t know about you all, but I’ve found myself without much sit-down time over the past month.   It’s just crazy how much there seems to be to do these days.  I’m beginning to wonder if I’ll ever catch up.  The big time-stealing culprit has been the play that the boys are in at our community theater.  They play rats and kids in the Pied Piper.  Really  cute.  Dan and I really got into it.   I helped with the sewing of the costumes, keeping all the kids in line back-stage and we even ran the concession stand at the last showing.  Tonight is the last rehearsal (to remember everything everyone might have forgotten over the holiday) and then three more shows this weekend and we’re done.  I’ll take photos and video tonight during the full-run rehearsal.  Joe is the smallest and not the least worried about what the audience thinks when he’s picking his nose or playing with his pants. 

  During the trip I worked on a few knitting projects.  I finished the hat for my little friend, Lucy.  I’ll see if I can get a photo of her wearing it.  Until then, my dining room chair will have to model it. 

This was a fun little knit.  It seemed to take forever during the brim knitting.   Once that was finished it flew by.  The flower only took about half an hour to knit.  I can’t wait to see her in it.  She has the most beautiful blonde curls and pursed little lips.

The beginning of December means we have about two short months left with Dan before he leaves for Afghanistan.  We are making the most of it.  He and I are going to Dublin in a couple of weeks for some alone time.  We’ll be there three days so if anyone knows of some great wooly things to see, let me know.  I’ll get to visit with my friend, Janet.  I met her on the Scotland knitting retreat.

For Christmas we are going to Italy.  We’ll get to celebrate Midnight Mass with the Pope.  It’s a bus trip arranged through the post.  It will be a long ride, but we get to do all the Italy traveling we’ve been putting off.  We’ll be stopping in Pisa, Florence and Venice with a possible side trip to Capri or Pompeii.  The hightlight will be the three days in Rome though.   Dan and I have both been before but not together and it was something we really wanted the boys to see before we leave Europe.

For you Aggie lovers (and seriously… who isn’t?), I’m slipping in a couple of photos here.  I’m so in love with this dog is ridiculous. She takes my breath away when she just sits and looks up at me. She turned 11 weeks old on Tuesday.  She’s already been sitting on command for a couple of weeks now and she started going into her crate when told last night.  I was working on “lay down” today.  She’s the smartest little thing.  Spunky too.  She and Bailey love to fight over the felted wool ball I made for Bailey last year (look how Bailey has her “arms” around her puppy.  All together now… Awwwww… lol):

Family, Knitting, Travel

Won’t You Be My Teddy Bear

Posted on by Jean

This is Joseph at about seven months old.  I wish you could see the whole outfit.  It’s from Debbie Bliss’s Nursery Knits.  The hat is underneath was probably just a little plain vanilla in-the-round pattern (I made a lot of them for the boys when they were little) and the shawl is the beginning of the Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Stonington Shawl from Knitting Workshop.

I also keep forgetting to mention that a photo I sent in to Knitter’s over a year ago finally made it into the Fall 2005 issue (Where In The World section).  It’s a group shot of everyone that went on the Mull Island Spinning Retreat in Scotland a year and a half ago.  That’s where I met Nilda (Waltzing Natilda) and several other awesome knitters and spinners.  You can read more about that trip back in my archives.

Mull
Family

Thank You, Soldier

Posted on by Jean

My great-grandfathers were military, my grandfathers were military, I grew up as a Navy brat, served in the Army myself for nine years and, as most of you know, am a military wife. I know first-hand the sacrifices that our military and their families make in serving our country. While I’m grateful to each and every one of them, I’d like to tell you about my very own personal soldier.

I met my soldier at an Army school at Ft.Devens, MA on July 5 th, 1992. We were married just two short months later. I don’t thank him enough for the things that he does for me, our sons and our country. I think it’s clear that I love him as a man and the father of my children, but as a soldier, my heart swells with pride for him.

He’s been a Federal Special Agent with Criminal Investigations for ten years. He seldom wears a uniform. We’ve had neighbors for a year that didn’t know he was in the Army. His hours are very long and demanding and he has been very short-manned our entire tour here, but he maintains his positive outlook on life and always-jolly mood. Middle-of-the-night phone calls are common in our home

He is fair, professional and caring. His men love working for him so much that, on several occasions, they have asked to be assigned with him, even when it meant deploying to Afghanistan. In February he will leave for his second deployment to Afhganistan. The first time he was gone for eight months. It will be a year this time with two weeks R&R leave somewhere in the middle. It’s a year that he will miss out on not only the little luxuries in life that we all take for granted, but it’s a year that he’ll miss out on his sons and his wife. I know for my husband that will be the hardest part. Missing his family. And though daily life for us here at home will be tough as I muddle my way through single-parenthood again, the hardest part for us will be missing him.

Each deployment gets a little easier with new technology. When he went to Bosnia he got a video every week of toddler Daniel.When he went to the Pentagon to process the crime seen on 9/11, Celluair gave them all phones to use for free while they were there so we could get hold of him at any time and as it was playing out on CNN, he could call to let me know he was okay when the Pentagon collapsed and caught on fire again. When he went to Afghanistan the last time, we had Yahoo Instant Messaging and games to play together online (I cheated my pants off on online Chess and didn’t admit it to him until he came home). This time we’ll have DSL and great web cams. It will still hurt and we’ll miss him but we’ll get through it.

So, thank you, Dan, for being the man, husband, father and soldier that you are. For setting a fine example for our sons to follow and for loving your family and making us so proud.

A little update on Jeremy: As I type he is outprocessing during his last day in the Army. He will be on his way to his grandparents and civilain life this afternoon.

Animals and Nature, Knitting

Pure Sweetness

Posted on by Jean

She’s here… she’s here!!  She’s on my lap as I type.

I brought Aggie home on Wednesday!  She’ll get to go back and visit her mom, sister and one brother  on Saturday when we go for a bbq.  Actually she’ll see at least her mom and sister quite often as they live down the road and we’re friends.

She’s been a great girl already. I have a big basket on my side of the bed.  She whimpers to go out at about 2am.  We do our business and she goes right back to sleep until 6am.  Even though the basket has been serving as her crate (just easier for me to sitck my hand down and reassure her at night) we’ll start real crate training on Monday.  We’re huge believers in this method after we crate trained Bailey and I have yet to meet a vet that doesn’t think it’s the way to go. I’ve already introduced her to it for a few naps but I wanted to her to feel comfortable with us and in her new home first.  She hasn’t had one accident in the house yet.  She went everywhere with me yesterday in a doggie tote bag.  She slept so much no one even knew she was there.  Good girl.

Our friends that we got Aggie from have a little girl named Lucy.  She looks adorable in hats so I’m making her the Fiber Trends Garden Party Hat.

It will be perfect on Lucy.  I started the brim the other night.  Here’s how far I’ve gotten:

I’m knitting it with none other than Elann’s Highland Wool.  Speaking of Elann… they have a great line up for the month of November.  I just got my knittable swatches yesterday.  The new Highland Silk is some gorgeous stuff.  It does have a sheen to it due to the silk content.

I’m also working on a V-neck sweater for Dan with Highland Wool in the darker denim color.   The exact name slips my mind at the moment.  I think this may end up being one of his favorite comfy sweaters to just hang out in.  It’s just a basic wide V-neck with a band of ribbing that will go up the sides and down the inside of the sleeves.  Of course, I’m knitting it in the round so it’s a pretty simple knit so far.  Kind of hard to make out the ribbing before it’s been blocked but here’s a picture for proof anyway:

I leave you with one more adorable shot of Aggie:

Animals and Nature, Spinning

Belated Blogabirthday

Posted on by Jean

I’m so behind that I missed my own blogabirthday.  I can’t believe it’s been a year on October 1st.  Yikes.

I’ve definitely gone downhill in the last couple of months and seriously thought about shutting down Scottish Lamb but I think I’ll wait to see what happens over the next couple of months.  It’d be kind of silly to stop now when I’ll be knitting more with the arrival of Autumn. 

I’ve been working on Daniel’s Harry Potter scarf for Halloween a little.  It’s just about finished.  I’ll post a picture with him modeling it.  I haven’t touched the Hopeful.  All I have left is the second sleeve.

We’re taking the boys to Legoland tomorrow but other than that I’ll have lots of downtime this four-day weekend, so I’m sure I’ll finish it up.  I want to start on the Birch with my pal, Jessica (Show Me Your Knits), but I’m also itching to cast on some Fair Isle.  Of course, there’s also puppy knitting to be done for Aggie.  We went to see her on Sunday.  A little over four more weeks and we can bring her home. Here she is at 19 days old, face all wet from nursing:

I want to knit her a little felted cuddle bed for her crate and a little sweater.   Those 2am potty breaks are going to be cold in November.  It’s funny because I was making fun of my friend (yes, Michelle, you) about how she treats her 8-month old pug like a child.  Ya.  Guess who’s not laughing any more.  🙂

The fleeces I sent in to Blackberry Ridge last month arrived the other day.  In a word… GORGEOUS stuff.  I’ll have plenty of wool to keep me spinning over the winter.  Over nine pounds of processed roving.  The darker grey on the left is Molly from Skylines Farm and the lighter grey on the right is a pound of mohair blended with Odessa from Whitefish Bay Farms:

Animals and Nature, Knitting

The Long and Short Of It…

Posted on by Jean

One thing that I’ve learned through blogging is that I know some knitting stuff that I just figure everyone knows.  I’ve also learned that other people know lots of knitting stuff that after I read it on their blog I feel like I should’ve known.  So… after writing yesterday about making my Hopeful a little longer after the fact, I got a few emails asking, “How’d you do dat?!”  I’ve done this on a couple of store bought sweaters to shorten them for Dan.  Of course, as with the Hopeful, it can also be used to make an item longer.  Once you’re finished you can not tell where you snipped and added as long as you make sure that your stitches aren’t twisted on your needle.  Look at the stitch as if it’s just a loop.  The right side of the loop (as you’re looking at it) should be on the front of the needle.  I don’t even want to admit to you how many years I’d been knitting before that light bulb went off in my head.

So my little sweater is too short… okay, so it has other problems too.  Forget those.  All that matters is it’s too short.  Or too long for you Hootchie Mamas.  Either way… here’s what you do.

Look at your knitting.  If you turn it upside down it looks the same doesn’t it?  That’s the magic of knitting and that’s why this works.  Now turn it back the right way and pick a spot where you want to put it back on the needles.  Carefully… OH so carefully… snip one side of a stitch.  I usually do this in the vertical center of the sweater.  It doesn’t really matter and honestly, now that I think about it, it’d probably be easier to start near an end.  At any rate after you snip that little stitch you will carefully pick the stitch out and you’ll see a little loop just sitting there ready for you to pick up.  So go ahead… save it.  Put it on a smaller needle than what you knit with.  This makes it easier and you can just transfer to the right sized needle once you get all the stitches on.  I started at the center and worked my way across.

After you pick out a couple of stitches it’ll look like this:

And then like this after I worked my way across the first half:

I pulled the needle through so that I could work the end through the other half of the stitches and here it is all ready to go:

Now you just knit down to the desired length.  Cool, huh?  You can not tell the difference once you are done.  Hope that helps.

I went to visit the pups today!  Two weeks old today. I can’t believe how much they’ve changed in only ten days.  Incredible.  Fat and happy.  Meet Aggie:

She was squirmy.  I interrupted her breakfast for this photo because I had to leave for a meeting.  I think you get the idea of how cute she is though.  Her eyes just opened yesterday so they’re still a little cloudy.  We’re going back with the boys on Sunday after church.  You can bet you’ll be seeing plenty more of her.  I’m remembering what it’s like to have a baby in the house again before she even gets here.  We’d had plans to go to Belgium for Thanksgiving with friends, but it’s just too far to take her at ten weeks.  Ahh… the sacrifices we make for our kids.  😉