What a weekend!

Sorry for the silence over the weekend. The birthday dinner went fabulously and I was able to spend time with some of my all-time favorite people in the entire world. They truly are my family here. I love you guys.

Whew!

Worked.

Tired.

Glad I did it, though.

Introductions Are Finally Made

Meet Jake. Cheyenne belongs to him and they live next door to us, as it should be for family. Jake came into Cheyenne's household in December 2008 as a tiny, wee pup and has grown into a whopping 70 lbs(?) of solid dog with a lot of puppy left in him for play, exploration, and just enjoying living and being around his people. Since Cheyenne currently lives alone, except for Jake, of course; Jake's "people" include me and Hubby and by virtue of association, his pack also includes our brood. Sadly, because Jake is the youngest, he still gets growled at a lot, but he is learning, which is wonderful to see pack dynamics in action!

So, World, meet Jake. Jake, meet The World.

Being a Part of Something

Although Chewie is the newest addition to our family, he has truly become the one creature who is with me throughout each and every single day that I am home. He sleeps on my side of the bed in the floor because JoJo takes her spot religiously up on the bed on my side; when I go from one room to the other, Chewie is there and so happy we are together. Of course he isn't the only one - JoJo and Gabby likewise make certain their presence is felt through the day and evening because in some inexplicable way we are a cohesive unit.

Hubby fits in there, of course. He is the disciplinarian more so than me in some respects and carries the alpha male role throughout our little pack. As the alpha female I have respect, but there is just a wee bit more of feeling, of love there. I nurture. I protect. I care for them and encourage them whereas Hubby doesn't. That just doesn't seem to be his job, especially as far as the rest are concerned.

Hubby is also convinced Chewie needs to be more aggressive because he is the largest of the three and he needs to step up to protect me if called upon to do so. Chewie's action are his protection: he covers me to take whatever bad thing he believes is about to happen. He is quietly between me and the danger and does not move from my side. JoJo and Gabby then proceed to get whatever is wrong in our world.

It is my goal to never take this particular "something", this dynamic we have for granted. Today it all came out in full force because I have been very under the weather and each time I have had to move from room to room or to the bathroom, we have moved as a unit and everyone was there to encourage me. They were there to love me and back me up, even if it was vomiting because of the stomach virus. Chewie couldn't get between me and whatever was making me sick, so he was there each purge of the stomach contents pressing himself up against my side and just letting me know he was there. Gabby and JoJo waited patiently by the bathroom door, I think mostly because we all couldn't fit in our tiny bathroom!

Just a little while after this particular bad bathroom, stomach-purging episode I picked up the remote and decided to watch some television. As usual, everyone chose their spots as close to me as possible. This time Chewie got up into the couch beside me close enough for me to reach out and touch him. When everyone was settled there was an almost collective sigh from everyone, including myself. We were just happy to be together with each other today, even though it wasn't perfect. We had each other, and it showed.

The black-eyed susans beside the house are so lovely and such a surprise that after work each day I have been actually going outside to visit them. A friend of mine said these really aren't 'black-eyed susans' but that's what they are to me, until someone else can give me a different name for them. Whatever they are, they make me happy.

Work this week has been incredibly odd. Bud* was let go - one of the best supervisors ever. Call volume was actually manageable for most of the week, which floored me each and every time I realized calls weren't slamming me. And, it actually felt good to be working from home. Not only did it feel good to work from home, but the thought of not having to get out at all this winter to go to work other than into my little home office took away some of the perpetual stress knot that seems to live between my shoulder blades. Work was a positive experience this week from beginning to end (week wise), and I am deeply thankful to God for that.

Elsewhere this have been...odd. The more I am finding positive things around me, the more negative some friends are becoming. Even old friends who are normally positive have been negative, which has made me cautious because when I have tried to encourage them they have bitten at my kind words and growled how awful their lives were and then had to proceed to describe to me exactly how bad their respective worlds are. I listened, because, as a friend, this is in my job description of being a friend. I tried to be as sympathetic as possible, but the entire time I just kept waiting for the "bad" stuff to jump out at me. I offered a shoulder and a hug and was brushed aside because I simply didn't understand and they didn't want to bring me down with them. Um, so why did you tell me all of this crap in the first place? Then, almost to add insult to injury, a friend has hinted at some horrible things that are happening and then said, quite pointedly that they weren't going to tell me because they weren't ready.

WTF.

I'm glad my flowers are still blooming. I need them.

Monday and an Approaching Full Moon

The full moon is advancing. According to all of my sources as well as watching the night sky, it will be full tomorrow. Work was busy today, but not to the point to where it was unmanageable. Hopefully tomorrow will be all right as well. Here's to hoping.

X-Post: The Dred Sock

I have been working diligently on a "dred sock" per Hubby's desire and request. He needed something that would be cool for the summer and keep his dreds in line and protected, but he also needed something that he could close up and make a tam also if necessary. Thus, the creation of the dred sock!



As always, he chose the colors, and, I must say, a very nice cotton blend yarn that was a true pleasure to work with: Cotton Fleece by Brown Sheep. It was one of the more enjoyable knitting projects I have played with.



The opening is the red section that was done in a k1p1 rib that turned out beautifully and the blue "end" is open. The end, which you can't see very well here, was done with a simple yarn over opening for the threading of a closing piece.



The "string" was actually a 3-braid of all three of the colors used in making the hat, and I am actually quite proud of how well the string itself turned out.











And here is Hubby with his new favorite hat as well as just a little more detail. And, just for those who were wondering, no, I didn't get a chance to block the project before it was worn.





This one is a little blurry, but you can still see how it is supposed to protect the dreds.



Here is a better one.



I am actually quite proud of this little creation of mine, and am working on another form of "band" for non-dreds or even dreds I suppose.

There is more to come, too! I have a skirt planned for winter/fall and possibly a couple of sweaters once I have ventured into the sweater knitting again. My brain is suddenly full of possibilities where knitting is concerned!

Acknowleding Paths and Directions

Have you ever had one of those moments where you look behind you and see the weird winding road that has brought you to your current position and then you look ahead of you and see about only 10 yards ahead of you clearly and wonder if you can keep on going? Can you keep on putting one foot in front of the other and make it to the end of wherever it is you're going? Today isn't one of those days exactly, but close.

There is much I would like to change in my life, in my little corner of the world, and yet there is actually quite a bit I like and enjoy and wouldn't change for anything in the world. Most of the changing I would like to do actually centers around me. I don't look the way I would enjoy looking; I don't feel quite as good as I'd like to feel; and I don't necessarily get to do all of the things I would like to do, but that is just the way living is - sometimes you get to eat chocolate cake and sometimes you have to wash the dishes after you've made said cake! The world just doesn't give you a break when it all comes down to it, and you really shouldn't expect one.

At the same time, the only person keeping me from making all of the changes I can see is myself. This sucks. I have no one to blame but myself, and no one else I can point a finger at and say, "They did it! They stopped me!" Normally this acknowledgement would make me feel quite sad, disillusioned in many respects. Today it just makes me sigh and set my face toward the unknown path ahead of me and keep putting one foot in front of the other. I guess I'll just have to change along the way - I am tired of standing still working on everything. I want to move forward and get out of this particular section of the road, the path.