we should all have something we love..........

As much as Gabby loves her football......She's had a new one every six months ever since we adopted her. She always knows where it is and if it is stuck where she can't get it she'll lead you to it, and she won't come inside till she knows it where she can get at it again.

What I've been up too......

Well....if you are seeing the one that just posted that is clearly incomplete I apologize. I hit enter instead of shift.......so it goes. What have I been up to? Besides knitting and work and teasing my friend about her birthday present?

Well clearly from the first few photos I've been torturing my dogs by taking their pictures. Quintus, above, refuses to look towards me but clearly he is giving me the stink eye, as is Gabby below because I was right in her face. The only thing holding them there was the sun, otherwise the picture would be a blur. Cleary, where food will not work anymore I can count on the sun.
The picture below of Gabby is my latest favorite. It's her ball, which she loves above all things. I believe food is next on her list, followed by Dale, Mr. Brown, and then me. She has to include me on the list because I am her primary feeder, and every once in a while I can be called upon to throw that nasty little ball she loves so much.

Ahh yes, I also went home to Minnesota for a week with Dale. This is a hydrangea in my mothers yard, and if she was home right now she would be answering her phone to tell me what variety it is, however she is out and about and unavailable to educate all of us this fine Saturday morning.

It is lovely though, isn't it?

This is mom's orchard, where she also grows, beets, pumpkins, beans, squash and........Heirloom Tomatoes, by the bushel.

Ahh, yes I did do some fancy black and white pictures of the yard as well. This is a white hydrangea in her yard, that also has a special name. Again, mom's not home to answer her phone.......

This is the best sign in her yard, mostly because it's true. If the dogs don't know you, they tend to bite. Ask Dale, Jake would sleep with him the first time he visited but would bite him during the day. A warm body at night becomes chicken flavored delight in the morning.

Some of the harvest...This is at the end of the road by mom's place on Lake Minnetonka, they put a dock section out to place the harvest on and a jar to collect money to donate to the local food bank, when I left they were up over $300.00 so far, unfortunately someone in the area has decided to start stealing the money jar, I suggested wiring it for shock but then no one would put money in either.

Lake Minnetonak in the early afternoon......

View of the lake from mom's grass garden, I've decided that next year, I'm going to rip out nearly everything around my pond and put in a grass garden. It's really pretty......I apologize again that mom's not home to answer her phone otherwise I could tell you all what variety of grasses she has in there......

This is Dale enjoying the stone chair.....

The 15 foot sun flowers that she has growing in the orchard among the 8 foot tall tomato plants....
This next photo was taken with my phone so it's hard to make out the figures on the deck but that is my husband, Dale and my brothers oldest son fishing in the evening.
This is the stone chair that mom found in Sedona, Arizona. It is seriously the most comfortable chair you'll ever sit in. I love it. It's a nice place to sit to. It's situated in the grass garden on the point right by the shore, so in the mornings you'll hear the Loons calling, the lake slapping the shore, and the fishing boats trolling by.
And, the newest member of our family........Rupert. My younger brother adopted Rupert while I was home. Isn't he fantastic! He has the softest black nose you'll ever want to touch and the sweetest demeanor, laid back and full of love.

here's the thing.....

It's September.....actually, it's the middle of september. You know how I know, besides the calendar telling me so? Yarn. The fall yarn has come in with a vengance.

Can you believe that I am so overwhelmed with knitting right now that I have actually created an excel spreadsheet just to organize it. Along with printed/copied necessary patterns, purchased the yarn, and put everything in a ziploc bag with a note card attached that has the recipients name, likes, dislikes, and color preferences. This is just for christmas. I'm making a surprise for my friends birthday party coming up and if I could I'd post picutres but then it would ruin it and I don't want to ruin it. I have a hard enough time keeping a surprise secret, especially when I'm the one giving the surprise that it's amazed me that I haven't told her up to this point. Don't even think about it ML. I'm not telling. It's going to be amazing!! Probably more amazing once the party gets started but still.......

Went to Minnesota for a visit with the family at the begining of September so I'm a bit flabergasted that it's September 17th already. Apparently the older you get the fast time flies. I swear I blink, have a melt down, and a year has gone by. Meltdowns? I have them once in a while. Something will set me off and I'll be all wonky for a bit. I straighten out eventually. A sure sign that something is bothering me is that I start rearranging things. This happens mostly at work if I have something new that I'm learning how to code for a surgery. Surgery coding at best is simple, but you add into it new codes, new implants, etc, you have to wrap your brain around it and try to make it work, or figure out how to say, 'sorry, this is not going to work'.

I like September though. It's probably my love for new school supplies. September is my January. I love a fresh start and there is something about January that doesn't give it to me but September does.

You've played all summer, hopefully, and now, everybody is back to the routine they follow for nine months. School, study, preparing for the holidays, knitting for the holidays. September is wonderful. You get sunny weather, but there is a bit of a bite in it, the leaves are starting to change, people are wearing their new fall wardrobes, kids are carrying shiny new back packs. It's all fresh and new. I think that September should be when we make our resolutions for the next year, not January. That's why I've made my list early this year. I have a big list, and it's not impossible, a lot of it is stuff I've already done but I read somewhere that it's important to share your goals with people so here goes.

1. Breast Cancer 3-Day 2010


2. Lose another 50 pounds (don't know why I can't do it again, but clearly I've had some trouble these past couple years, and I think that trouble is spelled H-A-P-P-Y H-O-U-R)


3. Run the Race for a Cure.


4. Seattle to Portland bike ride (done it once, should probably do it again, especially since there is now an official club of people who have done it for 20+ years) go to http://www.cascade.org/ to learn more about it and other rides in our community.


and this is the really hard one....


5. Finish the knitting projects I've started, AFTER I finish my Christmas knitting of course.


Tomorrow, I'll post some pictures of what I've been working on, and no ML I won't be posting pictures of your surprise. I would do it tonight but for some reason when both my husband and I are using the wi-fi posting pictures causes it to drag like a banana slug through the forest.


Good Night All


and


happy knitting