One of my favorite things about being around my grandparents is being surrounded by nature.
My grandfather built their house up on a little mountain in the White Mountain area of New Hampshire. I love getting up at the crack of dawn with them, wrapping up in a blanket, cup of coffee in hand, and going out on the deck to watch the woods wake up.
It’s so perfect to see a family of deer or foxes run across their land and listen to the birds. My grandparents can tell you each kind of bird we hear. They’ve always had lots of birdhouses and I remember my grandfather always at war with the squirrels trying to figure out a way that he could keep them out of the bird food. Ever since I was a really little girl I’ve loved Chickadees. I would actually start crying if the other birds looked like they weren’t letting the poor little Chickadees in the bird feeder. When my grandparents see Chickadees they think of me (there are a LOT of them in NH) . I love that. It’s sweet and makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Gram’s 81st birthday is on Saturday. My gift is late because I just found a great book (Backyard Bird Quilts) and knew exactly what I had to make her. The book just arrived on Tuesday so I dug into my fat quarter stash and spent yesterday afternoon working on this:
I took a little artistic liberty with the colors (that and it was really hard to see since it’s so dark here in the afternoons) but I think it’s pretty dern cute.
And because I’m feeling so nostalgic lately, here’s a picture of Gram when she was about three or four years old just outside of Boston.
After the whole Mayflower discovery that I wrote about in the last post, I went to the library and got the book “Mayflower” by Nathaniel Philbrick. I’m into the second chapter and really enjoying it. I had no idea that they lived in Holland for about twelve years first. It popped up a couple of times during the research but I couldn’t figure it out.
And finally, we are so close to Dan coming home that I swear the air is electric. I can’t remember the last time I was this excited about something. One week from right this very moment, if all goes as planned, we will be on the Autobahn and less than an hour from being home. YeeeHAW!
How about a little of both sewing and knitting today? Not that I knit anything but I still have lots of knitterly pictures to share from Shetland. I kind of feel like that person that you go to visit and they pull out all their vacation photos and make you sit there looking at them for hours. At least here you can just scroll by if you want to and I’d never know it. 🙂
Back to Shetland….What we thought was wool all stuck to the grass was actually a common plant in Scotland called “Cotton Grass”. We didn’t realize it wasn’t wool until we saw a bookmark with a photo of it. I took the picture above with full intentions of posting all about the wool everywhere:
There actually was quite a bit of wool all over. There was quite a bit of something else the sheep left everywhere that Daniel had a very hard time not gagging over. lol Sheep poop everywhere was not easy on him. Nothing like ruining a perfectly beautiful photo by talking about poop, huh? You’re welcome.
Vest outside of the “Croft House” at the Isleburgh Exhibit:
Sheep on Fair Isle near the Bird Observatory:
Everyone is friendly in Shetland. Shetland Pony saying howdy near Eshaness.
Hap shawls at the Crofthouse Museum:
I did more sewing last night and today. Joseph’s kindergarten teacher moved away while he was in 1st grade and had a baby last year. I promised a quilt. You know my motto: Better late than never. Perfect timing for the first birthday actually! I finally finished it today. Yeah! The kit came from one of my favorite quilting sources who happens to be in cahoots with one of my favorite knitting sources. You guessed it… Connecting Threads and Knit Picks. See… my knitting sort of lead to my quilting. That counts for something doesn’t it? The kit was called Daisies, Ducks and Dogs.
Some of you may read tea leaves or tarot cards but in our house we read milk spills. Okay… that’d be ridiculous but…. one morning a few months ago I poured the boys’ cereal. When I was putting the milk back in the fridge Joseph got all excited saying we had our own lamb. ???? I turned around and saw what he was talking about. Turns out that I spill milk in shapes. You be the judge:
In keeping with the theme here are some of the gazillion many sheep pics I took in in Shetland:
This shot was taken on Fair Isle. That’s one of the two little churches. They are really close to each other and apparently the islanders use both.
I watched a dog for some friends at church this past weekend. Her name is Charley, she’s old, very sweet but she does not like Aggie very much. Charley doesn’t get that the young whipper snapper just wants to play… really bad. And Aggie doesn’t get why the old woman snaps at her whenever she tries to get to know her better. I think they finally came to an agreement though because I found them somewhat close together for the first time in three days:
Aggie has that innocent “What?” look on her face and Charley just wishes she’d go away.
The Tooth Fairy visited our house Sunday night. We took this picture for Dan because the tooth was quite the topic most of the time he was home for R&R.
At bedtime it went something like this:
Joe: Mom… do you put the money under my pillow?
Me: WHAT?! Who told you *that*? I wouldn’t say that too loud, you’ll offend the Tooth Fairy.
Joe: Okay. I was just asking.
Santa, Tooth Fairy and Easter Bunny all exist in our house until the day I’m pushin’ up daisies. If you don’t believe, you don’t receive. Daniel’s known for quite a while but he won’t admit it. Not to me anyway. I think he thinks I actually believe or he’s just smart enough to not want to ruin my fun. I’m pretty sure he’s had a talk with Joe, “Mom still believes in them so don’t tell her”.
So the Tooth Fairy must have heard Joe because she left him a note telling him how great the tooth looked and how if he brushed really well, he’d get more money because the better the teeth look, the more she pays. Yeesh. She never left me a note. Joe is one lucky kid. He’s also easily bought off so I’m hoping the promise of extra cash will get him to brush better.
Don’t you just love it when something just comes together?! The partially knitted sweater back I showed you yesterday worked out great for a sweater for Aggie! I snipped a thread inside two of the diamond cables, picked up stitches and did a couple rows of ribbing. Presto! Leg holes! I added ribbing around the top for a neck and stitched the sides together into a seam!
As you can see we got lots of snow yesterday. We did a little sledding today. The snow was a little deep in spots for Aggie so she got to ride in style:
It’s quiet around our home tonight. Dan and Daniel took off for a post about two hours from here. Daniel has to see the dentist there in the morning so they took the opportunity to spend some time alone together and spend the night there. It’s left the house very quiet. Which is funny because Joe is normally the noisest person in the family. It’s just weird.
I managed to just about finish the baby sweater from Knitting For Baby. I just need to sew it together. This was a very easy and satisfying knit. I wish I could say the same for the photo. It’s tough to take good photos without good light and it’s hard to find good light in Germany in the Winter. I’ll take it outside tomorrow and take a good shot of it all finished up.
I’m happy to report Aggie’s doing much better today. She keeps forgetting that she’s sore and she’ll jump up and catch herself just wrong and yelp but she’s doing good.
You can see her little shaved leg in this photo from her IV.
I’m telling you, I’ve always been a dog lover. I have never fallen so hard for a dog in my life. There’s just something about her. I don’t know if it’s because I’ve watched her grow since she was three days old or what, but she’s the easiest dog I’ve ever had. She cocks that little head at me and I’m lost. I can’t believe she’s almost five months old already.
She really needs a playmate since Bailey died. I want another Cav but I think we’ll wait until we go back to the States. Dan said I could get a Black and Tan one because he thinks they’re hard to find and I won’t be able to. Bwwwaaahahahaha! Kim has two! Sign me up Kim!!! 😉 (Oh relax, Dan. I wouldn’t do that to you… I don’t think…)
Joe and Aggie enjoying a quiet evening in our casa.
Can’t sleep. It’s almost 4am here in Germany and I have to get up in four more hours to get ready for our flight. This happens every time we travel. I layed there for at least an hour trying to get back to sleep. Why fight it?
Checked the weather.
It’s London so it’s pretty much as we expected but it would have been nice to see one little sunshine in there. At least the temps are balmy compared to here in Bavaria where we’ve been freezing our patooties off all week. I wish I’d kept the cheap little plastic raincoats we had to buy the boys in Italy. Handy little things. Kept the boys bone dry without worrying about an umbrella.
Worked on Dan’s V-neck last night while we watched TV. I’ll take it along for the three-hour car ride to the airport but I doubt I’ll risk trying to take it with me since we aren’t checking any luggage and the flight is only about an hour and a half anyway.
The bucket hat for Ann at Elann is finished. It’s Elann’s own Pure Alpaca in color #3727 (the name escapes me). The alpaca felted just as nicely as the Highland Wool always does.
Here it is before I felted it. The color is much more accurate in the felted photo:
I also cast on this little beauty from Knitting For Baby:
I had some German wool that I bought about six years ago when a store in Würzburg was going out of business. A friend/neighbor that works in the office at the school is due next month.
I think the Sandman is calling my name. Maybe I can get a few winks in before it’s too late. I leave you with a picture of Daniel and Aggie. She has definitely helped all of us with the loss of Bailey. An update for those that I didn’t tell via email… the final diagnosis was a tumor in Bailey’s spleen. It was about the size of my fist. One thing we learned is that if your dog starts drinking ridiculous amounts of water… get her to the vet. It wouldn’t have mattered for Bailey, but in a lot of cases it could help. See you when we get back from England next week!
I’m beginning to sound like a broken record. It never ceases to amaze me how the blogging world can be so very supportive. I’d like to collectively thank everyone for your support, prayers and well wishes about Bailey. She was a very sweet and loving dog and she’ll be missed. Aggie still looks for her and they only had about six full weeks together.
Because it was drawn out over several days we were prepared for it. In fact, since about the second day I just wanted her out of her misery. She was obviously suffering and I couldn’t take it. So to see her peaceful face in the end was actually a relief. Hard to accept we’ll never see her again but it’s part of having pets as part of the family. It’s a good thing we already have Aggie or I think it’d be a very long time before we got another dog. It’s just too hard to say goodbye but a relief that she isn’t suffering any more.
Onward…
As you all know, we went to Italy over Christmas. It was a bus trip through the Army MWR (Morale, Welfare and Recreation). We got on the bus in the evening and arrived in Pisa the next morning. You can imagine how pretty we all looked. Note that you don’t see me in the photo.
We were only there for about two hours (not much to see in Pisa) and then headed further south to Florence. Beautiful city. We saw the church of Santa Croce where Galileo and Michelangelo are buried. We saw the statues of David and Neptune and pet the lucky pig in front of the market place.
The tired travelers boarded the bus again that afternoon and headed for Rome. We arrived at the hotel late that night. We were one of the last families to check in and they didn’t have a room for us. That was actually a lucky break because they gave us two adjoining rooms so we now had two showers to help out with the rush in the morning.
The main reason we went on this trip was to go to Midnight Mass at the Vatican. We’d always planned to do it our last Christmas so the boys would be older and hopefully remember. Obviously, Dan won’t be here next Christmas so we did it this year.
After visiting the Sistine Chapel and Vatican Museum our guide informed us that they didn’t have the tickets to Midnight Mass that they’d promised and because it’s the Pope’s first Christmas, they’d been gone since early December. Decision time. Most of our group decided to go anyway. They went to dinner first and then stood out in St. Peter’s Square for about six hours. It was freezing and they watched the Mass on huge screens. We decided to just go to Mass in the morning. It’s probably one of the best choices we’ve ever made. We had the best Christmas ever.
We thought Mass was at 9:30 and I was freaking out a bit because we didn’t get there until about 9:00. Our guide and a couple of people that go to church with us here went with us. We were in jeans and travel gear because we fully expected to be out in the rain in the square. We walked right into St. Peter’s Basilica and it was virtually empty. We were stunned. Suddenly all the disappointments of the night before were gone. We were in the Vatican for Christmas Mass! Come to find out, we were early. Mass didn’t start until 10:30. So we waited for them to move the rope so we could sit down. We’re were right up front of the line. Actually there was no line but by the time it was 10:15, there were a few hundred people behind us.
A priest standing next to me warned me to hold onto the boys when the opened the ropes. He wasn’t kidding. Daniel was immediately squished between me and the woman in front of me. We grabbed the first seat we came to (in the back) to get out of the mob. The man handing out the leaflets in Latin ran out just as he got to our pew. He shrugged an apology and I shrugged a “that’s okay” back. He made his way down the pew and said something to us in Italian. Dan told him we were American and asked if he spoke English. He asked if we’d like to bring up the gifts! Is the Pope Catholic?!
So he tells us that we must wear our jackets (we were a little embarrassed at the way we were dressed, but we didn’t think we’d get in). When he saw my bright red coat he said that he was sorry but that was too bright. An American woman a few pews over was already ripping off her black coat and saying, “Take mine! Your boys can’t miss this!” He took us up to show us exactly what to do (we’ve done it in our own parish, but it’s a little fancier at St. Peter’s). He was worried about Joe. He joked with him not to mess up because the Pope would be watching. lol. We got to sit in the very first pew and when the choir starting singing, I started bawling. The whole service was a beautiful experience that we will never forget.
After wards we went out to the square to watch the Pope’s Blessing. Oye! The people! For as far as you could see. Tens of thousands of people. Just as we were trying to figure out how we were going to get through them we were guided to a spot corded off for those that had been in Mass. We ended up right under the balcony! This day couldn’t get any better. Why.. oh… why didn’t I bring the telephoto lens?!
Dan called his mother in Texas on our cell phone to tell her what had happened and where we were. It was hilarious because I was trying to explain to the boys how special this was and Joe said, “But can he make it stop raining?” I know. I laughed too. But it stopped raining the minute that man came out and it started pouring the minute he went back in.
What a lucky day, but it wasn’t over. We were walking by the Spanish Steps and the Kinder Chocolate (big chocolate company here in Europe) people had a Christmas tree lit up and were playing music with their little Kinderegg guy running around. Then a Santa came over and gave each of the boys a huge red bag filled with their chocolate products. It was about six pounds of chocolate each! Don’t ask me why we didn’t buy a lotto ticket that day. lol. It poured all day and the rest of our group was miserable. The four of us couldn’t be brought down from our cloud for anything. Smiles all day.
The next morning we checked out of the hotel and headed to Naples, Pompeii and the Island of Capri. We could have spent days at Pompeii. Incredible. I had no idea how large that city had been. It was very interesting to see how advanced the people were. We took the train to Sorrento so that we could catch a boat to Capri. It got dark less than half an hour after we arrived on the Island, but we were able to get a quick photo:
After all the miles we traveled, it was time to head back up through Italy to Germany. As we got closer to Venice the weather turned pretty ugly. For the fourth time in my life I was within an hour of Venice and didn’t get to go. No worries. The guy that will be Dan’s Detachment Sgt. in Afghanistan lives in nearby Vicenza. We’ve already made plans to visit each other while the guys are gone. We stopped instead in Innsbruck, Austria and visited their Christkindlmarkt. We found a great little cafe and had a cup of cocoa to chase away the cold before making our way back to the bus and back home.
So that was our Italian journey. It was a lot of time on the bus time. You’d think I’d have gotten a lot of knitting done, but I didn’t. It was dark most of the time and I didn’t want to bother my fellow passengers with the light. I managed to finish Chick Knits Felted Bucket Hat for Ann at Elann. She collects them each December 29th (I know I’m late) for cancer patients in memory of her dear mother. I’ll share photos in the next post. I still have to felt it.
Next week is our last journey before Dan leaves. We’re headed to London to see The Lion King (click the link and check out the video clips in the top right). The boys are so excited… okay… so are we.
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.
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.
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):
