High stress level--rant!

Man, things are so crazy here....As I mentioned before we are planning a move in the upcoming future. I have a business on our property so selling the complete package is a totally different experience than just selling a home. We will be selling through a kennel/horse farm broker. I have been told -thru the grapevine - to expect at least a 2year wait to sell. So, this past week I have interviewed various kennel brokers and have decided on one that I felt appropriate for our needs. I Flickr'ed her a set of 43 photos of home, interior exterior, kennel interior exterior, filled out a marketing sheet, got together my Schedule C's for the past 3 years, yada yada yada. After she reviewed everything she told me expect to be out by January. Whoa, wait a minute!!! No can do. We have to build the new house......stress..... Husband is leaving his job next Friday, has 6 weeks vacation, then will find out in September what his pension will be, in which case, if he decides to take his pension he cannot work in his field for 6 months. Fine. That will give him time to build. September he has a meeting with his company boss to see if he wants to continue full time or cut back to a 3 or 4 week schedule and , of course, prices will be discussed.Great, his decision. Personally, knowing him ,I think he will continue on in one form or another. So, the decision was made that we will build our barn first, in case we need to get out and store our belongings until the house is complete. We made the decision that we will not market the kennel and home until Nov. 1st knowing that the winter market in NY is slow....Broker says that will work and expect to be out by July but ya never know may be a year... maybe March......still stress.
Along with that I took a gamble this summer ( our busiest season ) that my kennel helper, who has been with me all through her graduate school, will not get her *real* job until September....WRONG, she is leaving this Friday....stress..... Now I will be working 7 days a week for the rest of the summer....stress.... Husband had Dr. check up yesterday and his usually low blood pressure is now high!!!....stress.... could it be that he is stressed also???? Man, such life changes.... I am sure hoping that this year will be the last Thanksgiving/ Christmas I will have to work....I am soooo ready to not work anymore.
Also have daughter's wedding this August which is turning out a little fancier that I was hoping...stress....was hoping to lose those 20 lbs. that I put on over the winter before the wedding....no way!!!! I still do not have a dress and no time whatsoever to shop...stress....Oh no, who is going to work the afternoon of daughter's wedding since my helper is gone...stress...
A few quick phone calls by my manager to a girl who worked for us through high school and college ,but did not this summer, and she agreed to come in that afternoon as a favor...Yeah!!!
Husband & I unfortunately are pack-rats and we have so much sh*t to go through it will take a year and right now I have no time to do....stress ...Talking with broker she suggested that we live sparsely and pack into boxes BEFORE November everything and anything that we do not use on a daily basis.....yeah, right, do you know that I have enough yarn to fill an entire bedroom and I'm NOT parting with it. Please give me more hours in the day. Our next step is to have a *mixed property* appraisal done which usually is value of building/property plus one years business gross....more stress.
With all this my Lupus has reared it's ugly head ( gee, wonder why ) so I am having much trouble moving no less working and packing, along with that( and the 20 lbs. I desire to rid myself of) my steroids had to be increased soooo puffiness will be following shortly.... egad anything for the quiet life right now.

On a brighter note my eldest daughter finished grad school this spring ( MPA ) and has been sending out resumes right and left. Yesterday she had 2 interviews and the one looks promising and she is very excited about it. The job was not advertised yet and they contacted her, it is for a Playhouse in Connecticut ( where she lives ) if she gets the position she would be Executive Director of the Playhouse, running the place and doing Grant Writing...they talked with her for an hour and a half and she thinks it is really a great place (albeit it does not pay much ) They will contact her in 3 weeks. Daughter interned with the Red Cross and the person interviewing her used to work there and is friends with her direct boss at the internship, they already checked her out before she went for the interview. I am really hoping she gets it.
So, that's the story, and now I must get off here as I have about 2 months of bookkeeping to catch up on.
Later all!!

Finis !

Here is a photo of the finished Granny afghan that I made for my daughter and her future husband!
It seemed to take forever and was getting quite *warm* to work on in these hot summer months.
I am pleased with it and also VERY glad to have it finished!!!

Stick a Fork in Him........

He is done!!!!
May I present Champion TRK 'N Stylebrites Yours Truly also know as Jeter or affectionately called "G-Man".
GOOD JOB G-MAN!!!!!

A belated Happy 4th!

All I have to say is that at times my husband is nuts!!
I know I am so far behind on my blog, but we are in the midst of our busy season work-wise and I have been on the run 7 days a week. Husband is gearing down and the 27th is his last day of working ( well, semi...I just cannot imagine him not working at all he has a type A personality ). Next up is to get all this we have here ready to go on the market & start building the *new* home. We have the plans chosen, a early new england cape. Those of you who know me personally if you'd like to see a link to the house e-mail me.
I know also that I have been tagged twice, please be patient with me I will get around to it. Must rush off to work now. Give me a few days to catch my breath and I will post lots of knitting/crochet that I have ready to post.....

My pretty flowers!

I love my garden!!
Uncle Sam was found in the crawl-space under my father's home...I took it home with me last trip up. My grandfather made him and it was his mailbox for many years. It is now on my front porch holding a plant. Uncle Sam must be at least 50 years old, if not older, I remember him when I was in kindergarten many, many moons ago.

Happy Preschool Graduation, Owen

Owen, Poppie & me at graduation

Happy Birthday Owen

Owen, Anya, and Glen

I'm So Happy!!!

To make an old story short, my wedding gown has been found, it was NOT sold to a Thrift Shop.
I have fetched it up and it is now our family's heirloom ( I hope).
My friend Jean is an avid quilter and she has made it into a ring bearers pillow...here are the photos of my transformed wedding gown.

It's been so long...

I have really been neglecting my blog lately. But there are good reasons. First is Daughter #2 is getting married this August, and don't ya know that takes alot of time & money ( more money than time ,I regret to say).

Husband & I have been traveling to Vermont and looking at houses , desperately trying to find exactly what we want. Why, you ask??? Well Finally he is RETIRING as of August 1st!!! Can't wait! Oh man, to live the quiet life and get AWAY from this rat-race of a county we live in...all I want is a peaceful life. He has 7 weeks vacation time then when he pulls his pension he cannot work for 6 months. After that he may want to work *part-time* for his company doing consulting. But, when he is off 6 months he is going to build a home on our Hebron property as we cannot find exactly what we are looking for. The only minor downside is that being I own a business on the property we live on now, my business & our home will have to go on the market..which is fine but I am guesstimating it will take 2 to 3 years to sell.......:(((
But, all in all I am so happy, for him, me ,and the new adventure. I cannot wait to make jams, jellies, work in my flower gardens, knit more, listen to the birds sing in the morning, and tend to the farm animals!!!! It can't come soon enough for me!

It Is Car Show Season

Super-Sized Grannies!

First granny is one that I am making out of some yarn stash that I've had for awhile. I am going to keep going 'till it will cover my entire bed!






The other two are ones that my Mother made back in the 1970's










This last one is one that I bought at a Thrift Shop last year for $10!!!! It is in need of minor repair but I love it!

Happy Mother's Day!

Some Mother's Day Fun

Perchlorate in our food supply???

GMA:Rocket Fuel Chemical Found in Food
Now this is some seriously scary stuff !!





http://us.video.aol.com/video.index.adp?pmmsid=1897138

Click on link, unfortunately there is a short ad I could not delete.

The weather has been wonderful here the last 2 days. The rains are gone and the sun is out and it's about 75. Yesterday, I managed to get my Angora Rabbits cut down and have to decide if I am going to send out the angora to be spun or if I will just chuck-it.
Like my present to myself??? I went out and got a 32" LCD-HD television, I just don't know how we lived without it....what a difference in the picture. We have it set up on our sun-porch for the summer & will move it into the family room when summer is over. I do feel a bit guilty as I do have daughter's wedding to pay for.....

Ripple update

I have been working on my 3 ( yes, 3) Ripples. The Brite one has caught my full attention right now, so that is progressing along well. The wedding Ripple for daughter #2 has not been moving quickly...but, I do have until the 18th of August to finish it. I am having fun with this as I have not crocheted in a long time.

Easter At Sandy & Dave's

Gosh, so much about my youngest daughter reminds me of my sister.

Happy Easter from Ours to Yours

Sandy, Dave & Owen.
Other photo is Owen, Brian, Amanda and myself

The Ripple is Growing

It is about 58" wide and 13" long right now....only about 70" more to go ;) I am escaping to the lake for 4 days of R&R and hope to have alot of progress to post when I return.
On other fronts my ISE 4 Scarf is complete but alas, I cannot post any photos as my Secret Pal knows who I am...Geez, I am such a dork...

He must have some GREAT lungs!!! A Flute Rapper!

The Wavy Ripple

Okay, so I have not crocheted in probably 20 years but when I caught wind of this I just had to pick up the hook again!!! Wow, check out all the photos on this *along*, some of the colors are just breathtaking.....geez, am I color impaired. I have always loved colors but have always had a difficult time with them, I just cannot in my mind put them together.
So out came my hooks and I have begun 2 Ripples. The one in the photo is a *regular* ripple and the photo of the yarns will be the wavy ripple ( I'm thinking I love these colors the best ).

While grazing thru all the new crochet books out there I came across this jacket that I just HAVE to make. To make it more appealing I already have the Kureyon in my stash. Boy, crochet has come a long way in the last 20 years!!! ( hoping you are reading this, Pat ;) )

The baby blanket has been gifted !!! Hurray, a finished object. I'd been beginning to get depress as I have had little time to 1) update my blog and 2) finish anything...I tend to get very edgy when I do not have enough time to knit!

One more point to go!

After a 5 month rest from dog showing Jeter was taken out again and picked up 2 more points. Only one more to go to finish his Championship! We're not in a hurry & I think we will wait 'till he & I can show outdoors.
Jeter ( aka, Lenny ) is a year and a half old.
Love my *boy* :))

Dearest Mother Nature

Dear Mother Nature,
Excuse me, but, 'What The ____"!!!!
Wednesday I was cleaning up my gardens in a tee-shirt and today???? I mean come on give me a break!!! 10" already with another 10-15 tonight???? Wazzzup Mother Dearest, Nature????

Non-knitting-- RANT

Thank goodness that Blogger & I have issues ! I just typed out a long message explained what happened today and got into detail of the lifelong, mind-games, relationship that my father plays to me. It felt really good to type it all out and get it off my chest, then I hit the wrong button and off in cyber-space it is floating!!! That is probably the best palce for it to be.
I will give you the condensed version of why I am fighting off tears all day today. My father called me this morning and as I was driving I could not get into more than just a few seconds of conversation. He called to tell me that he was in the attic today to check on something and he wanted to let me know ( because I had inquired ) that he had ( don't know when) given ( sold?) my wedding gown to the Thrift Shop in town and told them to "cut it up and sew it into something for the needy".... now, those of you who know him know that he loves to play mind games and when confronted he will say sweetly---who, me?? you're just to very sensitive. Don't get me wrong I have been enjoying having a relationship with him but he ALWAYS has to get his little digs in , kinda like holding a carrot in front of a jack-a**. Why would he not ask me if I wanted my wedding gown back if it was taking to much room in his attic...or could it be the fact that he cannot stand my husband ? What if one of my daughters wanted it for a wedding or wanted me to sew it into something for them or their children???? Now I will never have the chance as it is gone.
So, dear readers, do I call him tonight and let him know I am upset?? Do I ask him why he gave it away to a stranger and told them to cut it up??? Or do I just grit my teeth and tell myself I am being too sensitive.

Love You Tube!

For those of you who know Amanda

Okay, those of you who know my eldest and her dry sense of humor will understand this as it has been an ongoing joke with her...she has a birthday coming up next month and I HAVE to buy her this!!
I found it on a knitting blog this morning ( sorry I've forgotten which one ). It is a Cat-Lady Action figure :))) Here is the site.

Knitting update

I have been working on the *baby blanket* for daughters friend....it is coming along nicely although I am becoming quite bored with it and cannot wait for it to be finished. March 3rd is the shower so I have a light at the end of the tunnel ... need to move on...




Waiting in the wings is the Asherton scarf that I found on this blog. Wow, check it out , Marie has many great patterns on her blog for the taking!! I feel she has enough to publish her own book and feel she should consider it. Wonderful blog and worth the read if you are a knitter.
I am knitting mine in some Classic Elite Lush that I have in my stash. The angora in it is making this scarf very soft!!

Crongrats to Diane and LIZA

Many Crongratulations to friend Diane and her GSP Liza!!! They won Best Of Breed at Westminister Dog Show this past Tuesday !! Liza was handled by Valerie.

Engaged!!

Youngest daughter got engaged this weekend!!
Yes, I approve ! He is a sweet, hard working guy who loves my daughter and her son. He will be a wonderful SIL ! They are planning a simple backyard wedding on August 18th.