ahhh the stress

Hello all,

i really have missed having time to write on my blog. It really helps relax me. I have been soo stinking busy. Work is simply crazy. I have had so many problems getting my shops in South lake Tahoe California booked. I get a headache just thinking about this.

Next topic.
Micah is very excited about trick or treat night. He wants to go as a ninja. Every year he has to pick the costume that i can't bundle him up in. Last year he was a ghost but the year before that he was spider man. I just am excited about the candy overflow. Ya know, they always have stuff left over that they won't eat but mom and dad just love.

Coffee swap:
I finally have all of the partners out for the coffee yarn swap. Silly me left my list of partners sitting in my desk last night and missed the deadline by one day. Oops, please forgive me.

Head docs:
I still have heard nothing from the oncologist. I know this sounds a little strange but i think god is trying to tell me to get up off my behind and make the doctors test me. Today i got in my car after work and the radio was on a christian radio station. I never listen to this station, so this was pretty strange in itself. I was driving out of the parking garage and the man on the radio was telling a story. He was saying that one day he found a black spot on his shoulder. He ignored it for nine months. when he finally went to the doctors they told him that he had two months to live, he had cancer and it has spread to his brain.
Now if this was the only time something like this had happened i may be able to brush this off as coincidence but this has been happening alot. Every time i turn around i hear something about someone having cancer and not getting checked right away.
So i think i have gotten the point and i am going to call the doctors tomorrow and light a fire under them.

Well i think i really need to go to bed now.
I am just beat.
Best wishes and happy stitches.
Mandie

I'm a hostess helper

Hey folks,

Life has been pretty busy here in little town ohio. I'm working my butt off at the office and i'm trying to knit as much as i can. I'm doing a couple swaps which are sooo much fun. I think one of the most exciting bits of knitting news is that i'm helping out on the lastest coffee yarn swap.
Knittymama J sent out the call for helpers and i offered my assistance. It has been alot of fun so far. I'm sure there will be little snags along the way but i've been having a good time matching up partners and checking out their blogs. I have even found a couple great new patterns.

A friend of mine is having a baby in a couple of months so i have been trying to knit up oodles of stuff for the new little boy not to mention that i am doing a craft show next month with a friend of mine so i have been busy building up my inventory.

Well i hope now that i'm busy in swap world i will be able to post alot more on here and get back to doing what i love. I'm trying to put work a little bit on the back burner and realize that i don't need to live and breathe my job.

Well i will talk to you all soon
best wishes and happy stitiches
mandie

wow it sure has been a while hasn't it

I've missed you all so much. Well let me give you a quick update.

HEALTH

I have yet to hear anything about the whole lymphoma thing. I've kinda tried to keep it out of my mind until i need to deal with it.

WORK

I still love my job. I am in charge of two accounts now. Coco's and Carrow's restuarants and Fountain tire in canada.

I've had some stress from all of the drama that comes with working with about 50 women but i'm getting used to that.

FAMILY

We just got back from a much needed vacation. This was the first family vacation for micah, his father josh and I together. We went to a very small town in canada to a cabin with my parents. It is right on a lake and soooo peaceful. No tv, phone or computer. I simply enjoyed the silence.

Pictures can be found below or at http://picasaweb.google.com/mandies2happy

All of the vacation pic's can be found here.

KNITTING

I have gotten so much knitting done. A scarf (no pic yet) that curls around itself. A beanie for a friends son with the anarchy symbol on it. She is a bit punk rock so it fits just great for her son.

I also made her son the Henry Rollins doll from the stitch N bitch nation book. I have finally finished the baby sweater i have been working on forever. I am currently working on another curly scarf. After that is done i will need to start to work on stuff for the craft fair i'm going to do in october. My friend Jeni and I are going to do our first craft fair together. I'm going to be making lots of school colored items (the craft fair is at the high school here in town), Cell phone cases, beanies, washclothes, belts, headband/ear warmers, fingerless gloves, and several kids items. I'm also going to be making some stitch markers.

All in all i've been really really busy but i'm going to make time for the blog from now on. I've missed all of you and the messages you send. It means alot to me to know that people actually read what i write about and that you care enough to leave comments.

Here are some pics for you.

Thanks all,

Best wishes and happy stitches

mandie

Micah showing off for the camera in a hat that was in a gift shop

Josh and I in a garden behind a gift shop. Micah took this pic for us

Micah's first catch of the vacation. He is pretending he is gonna kiss it.

MRI results

I met with my doctor on Friday to get my MRI results. I recieved some good news and some bad news.

The good news is that everything from my surgery went really well. I am showing signs of good spinal fluid flow and plenty of room for my brain.

The bad news is that they saw something on my scans that made them worry. They are sending me to an oncologist. They think i may have lymphoma. The last thing i expected to hear is the word "cancer". I have to have more tests run and meet with my new doctors so i wont know anything for awhile.

Work is going really well, well besides the ghost thing, but that doesnt worry me to much. I love a good ghost story, so working with one is kinda fun.

I found a new video on youtube that you may find interesting.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=OoCmYjfWus8
This is an actual surgery so beware if you get sick easy. This is the surgery that i had done in august. A crainial decompression and lumbarectomy.

I will keep you all updated just as soon as i know what is going on.
Tomorrow is my Sheryl crow concert and i can't wait. It's been nice to be able to focus on something else during this stressful news.

Best wishes and happy stitches
mandie

a ghost at the office.

This is morgan and kristin on the top (unused)floor of our office building. Look inbetween them and in the background. You will see a very bright circle. This was not on the floor.

Again, Morgan (showing her growing baby belly) on the top floor of our office. You will see a bright circle on her sleeve.

This one is plain to see. There is nothing on the wall by this light. The electric is shut off on this floor (4th floor) and is only used for storage. I actually took this before i walked into the room. I put my camera around the corner and snapped a pic.

Kristin by my desk. she told me to take this. SHe said she felt like if she put up her hands i would see something above her head.

The people in the office call the ghost "Bob". We just happened to be talking about him when i took this pic.

This was the first one i took. I could not believe what i saw. none of us saw anything with the naked eye.

I guess they have called in paranormal investigaters before. I don't know what they found but i'm thinking about leaving a tape recorder on my desk over night, just to see what i can find.

Well i hope i didnt scare you to much.

Best wishes and happy stitches

mandie

sheryl crow here I come

Do I have a story for you. I was on my way to work last week, I was listening to the radio and they were talking about people who have stupid fears. Well i have a bit of a drive to get to work so i called in. The women asked what i was afraid of and then wanted my cell phone number. I told her about my fear of kittens, YES KITTENS. Go ahead and laugh, everyone does. After i was done talking to them i turned my radio back on and listened to the rest of the show. Then the DJ says that there is a twist to this fear thing. Just then my cell phone rang. It was one of the interns asking if i would be willing to face my fear for front row tickets to see Sheryl Crow and the Counting Crows. I said yes.

They put me back on air and asked me again. I said that i would do it.

I went into the station on Friday to face my fear. If you would like to hear what happened to me here is the link to the pod cast: http://www.925kissfm.com/cc-common/podcast.html

If you scroll down you will see the pic of a cat, clown and a needle. I really don't know why I'm scared of cats and kittens but i am. I've never been scratched and have never been bitten. I have actually been trapped in my car before because there was a cat outside. They always seem to find me.

Not a whole lot to say for knitting news right now. I will have a pic to add soon from my knitting group. we finally were able to donate some afghans to the foster care children of my county. I will also be able to post some pics of my latest package from a swap. It seems that one of the busiest women alive had me in the swap and actually was working on getting my package out. I feel really bad for complaining about the wait, she took really good care of me.

I'll have pics soon, i promise. Busy, busy, Mandie, lots of work to do.

My concert is next Monday and I'll be in the second row. If i can take pics you know i will.

Thanks all,

happy stitches and best wishes.

Mandie

New cousin, Sad day.

As some of you may remember a few months ago my son's cousin was murdered in Wyoming. Well his girlfriend was preg. at the time of his death.

Well she had the baby. A wonderful little girl named Alexia Micheal. After her father. I thought that was so sweet. She looks alot like him. well here she is.

Welcome to the world baby Alexia. We all love you.

This is such a bitter sweet moment. We are all so happy that she is here and she is a healthy baby but it is so sad that her daddy couldn't be here. It just brings up so many feelings from his death. I cant get over how much she looks like him.

I'll be sending her lots of knitted items.

She will look so cute in the berry tart hat. he he.

My MRI's went well. I wont know until the 30th what the results are but I'm just glad they are over. I was in that machine for 2 hours. I've gained a bit of weight since my surgery and if you have ever been in an MRI machine you know that there is not a whole lot of room in that tunnel. I told a friend of mine that i wish i had a picture taken of me because I'm sure i looked like Pooh stuck in rabbits hole. lol.

I'll let you all know as soon as i find out what in the heck is wrong with my brain now.

Talk to you all soon,

best wishes and happy stitches.

Mandie

you have to see this

I was reading some older posts from this week on a yahoo knit group i'm on. I see that someone was talking about these cupcakes. If you have not been to this blog yet you must see the pics. I copied a couple of them here for you but check out the link and take a look at all her pics and her lesson on how to make them. They are priceless.

Link for you:

http://veganyumyum.com/2007/06/knit-night-cupcakes/

On a personal note:

It looks like it back to the neurosurgeon for me. I've been having my headaches again. It feels like someone is standing on my head. It is messing up my vision and my hearing. I called my doc today and he ordered me several kinds of MRI's for saturday. YUCK. then my follow up apt. to see what he found on the 30th. wish me luck.

Best wishes and happy stitches.

mandie

Oh how i miss Lorelai

Micah is in the middle of this group, he is in the brown shorts. This is his swimming lessons down at our local park. On this day he had moved up from level one to level two. A big feat since he has trouble kicking under the water.

I had the pleasure of going to see Evan Almighty. It really made me miss our Gilmore Girls. It was a really cute movie. Another GG sighting. Jess ( luke's Nephew) is in the new Fergie Video for Big girls dont cry. He is covered in tattoos but looks so good in a bad boy kind of way. He always has had that bad boy thing though.

My classes in school have really suffered with my new job. I have not had time to focus on much of anything. I am just so tired when i get home I dont even want to make dinner. I never neglect food.

well here is a pic of the fishing derby we took Micah to. He had so much fun and even won a prize. He won $25 dollars for catching this little guy. He caught him after only five minutes there. Then didnt even get a bite for the next two hours.

This is the fish Micah names Spikes.

Tonight is my towns fireworks, I cant wait to see how my digital camera does with this. It has a fireworks setting on it but i've never tried it out. We'll see i guess.

Swap problems

I have a swap question for you all. I've been in several swaps with out a single complaint. Now i'm in the spring felted bag exchange. I have a wonderful partner to send things too. she seems really nice but the problem is the person who has me. we were supposed to send two packages. one at the end of may and the other at the end of june. Well may has come and gone, june has come and gone and i still have not recieved anything from her. She keeps sending me emails telling me she is sending the first package out this week but i still get nothing.

The ladies running the swap are looking into it for me. They have been great.

I just wondered if this has happened to anyone else?

Have you been in a swap with a bad swap partner?

The ladies from the swap said that they have an angel ready to step up and be my adoptive partner if mine doesn't come through by next week. We are giving her some slack because of the holiday.

I understand that problems come up, money gets tight and bags dont felt right but i wouldnt even have a problem not getting a package if she wrote to me and said "look, i lost my job and just dont have money right now" but she just keeps saying, next week, next week. AHHHH.

thanks i just had to yell for a sec. lol.

Well i think i'm done complaining now. If i get any good pics from the fireworks i'll post them tomorrow.

best wishes and happy stitches

mandie

Work is going great

Hello all,
I know you all probably think i went bye bye but no such luck. I'm still around. I am just having trouble finding a balance in work, family, and blogging. Not to mention the fact that i've also negected my knitting. My poor yarn has no idea what's going on. I've been able to work on the warm up america afghan a bit more and i should be able to finish it tomorrow. I've also been able to work on my brother in law's afghan as well.

so back to the job now. What i'm doing is scheduleing people to do mystery shops. now i know most people think it's a internet scam when they hear that but the company i work for is actually legit. They dont ask their shoppers to pay anything to become a shopper. That's when you know you've got a scam, when they ask for money. I'm really happy with the people i work with and the way the company is run. It is a very relaxed enviroment. My latest problem is now that i've actually got a job this is when my car decides that it's a good time to break down. That is just how my luck goes. I think my transmission is going out, so there goes about 1200 dollars that i just dont have. Yuck !!!!!

Well i will be back tomorrow to post a few pics. I'm going to bed.
good night.
best wishes and happy stitches.
mandie