Mondays

I have started to love Mondays. As most know, I retire in June and the school district will only pay you 160 hours of vacation when you leave. I happen to have an abundance of vacation and temporary leave hours so I have scheduled myself on vacation almost every Monday from now until June. I think I am working four more Mondays in my career. Today I looked brilliant for scheduling a vacation day. We got four inches of snow and the roads are a mess.

I also decided that my vacation days are for being on vacation. I ran the sweeper this morning and the rest of the day sat downstairs working on a cross stitch project.

Cross stitching was my passion until three years ago when I learned to knit. Somehow knitting became more than a hobby - I am addicted to the actual knitting but also reading about knitting, finding patterns and yes, buying yarn. My cross stitch projects have suffered.

I have crocheted for over 35 years, making doilies at first then afghans by the gazillion. Who knows how many afghans I have made over the years as most have been given to family members. Crocheting never got in the way of cross stitching though the way knitting has. So my Mondays are going to be spent cross stitching. I have one project that I have been working on longer than I want to admit and a lot of projects in the wings.

I have two cross stitch projects with first place ribbons from the Kansas State Fair and I have five grandchildren so I need to get busy and get three more first place ribbons so they don't fight over the projects when I am gone. :) Or at least one more so each of my kids get one and they can decide which grandkids get the ones with the ribbons.

Pictures of vacation

Here are a few pictures from the trip. Thought about buying the blue car - NOT - that was a new car for sale at the auction - $226,000. The top picture was taken at the auction - you can see the stage behind us. The next one is the three cousins at the race track.

Vacation

Time to catch up again. We had a wonderful vacation to Arizona last week. Left on Wednesday the 14th. Found out at the airport that traveling with husband is not as easy as thought. His name is on the watch list so it took forever to check in then the CPAP has to be taken apart and checked to be sure it isn't a bomb. GA (My cousin Nancy's husband) picked us up at the airport and took us to their beautiful house in Scottsdale where my brother Gary and his wife Becky were also there. After lunch the guys went to the Russo Steel car show while the gals went shopping. We hit the City North Mall which was too cool. It looked like a main street of a town with little shops. Very expensive little shops. Had to take a picture with my phone of a pair of jeans with lots of bling that cost $280. Thought that cheaper than buying them.
That evening the six of us played a game called Sequence which Dennis and I hadn't played before. It was a lot of fun and now I need to look for one.
On Thursday GA took Gary, Becky, Dennis and I to the Barrett Jackson car auction. That was an experience! I expected quite a few cars, did not expect all the vendors with the cool items of everything you can imagine and tons and tons of cars. We watch this auction on tv each year but that is just the tip of the iceberg. There were over 1,000 cars and every one was beautiful. I took a ton of pictures. In the evening my cousins kids, Greg and Cheri and her husband Doug came for supper. Doug had been at the car show with us and he matched me on taking pictures I think.
Friday morning started out for Dennis and I at 4:30 am with him throwing up. Apparently when the antibiotic says in bold large underlined font to take it with food they really mean it. He was sick most of the day but did manage to go to the gun range in the afternoon. The gals went shopping again. This time we went to a wonderful yarn shop. The owner gave me a bunch of business cards that have a place to keep track of your knitting needles to share back home. I wanted to get a skein of the special yarn that was dyed for that shop but the price they wanted was a bit more than reasonable. I did get a skein of lovely yarn and a book, Becky also got a book. After the yarn shop we drove around Old Town Scottsdale. That is high on the list to visit at length the next time. That evening the kids met us at Rumbi Island Gril and we had supper. It was a neat little place that we don't have here.
Saturday Dennis was better (thank goodness) and we went to the . What a deal. I will not fly to Arizona next time - We will be in the van with the seats stored away. :) This is a 55 acre facility with 1600 booths under tents. You name it - they had it. And the prices were amazing. We had so much fun. After the swap meet we went to the Phoenix NASCAR track. That turned into such a great experience. They were having SCAA car races and they let us go through the tunnel in Gary's truck and we parked and was able to walk all around the pits. It was so cool. After the track the guys dropped us off at the biggest Hobby Lobby I have seen and they went to Cabelas. Cheri came to Hobby Lobby too after dropping Doug off at Cabelas. We shopped then met the guys at Cabelas and a nice customer took a picture of all of us in front of the store. As we drove there we saw the Phoenix stadium where the Cardinals won their playoff game on Sunday.
On Sunday it was sadly time to end a great vacation. The six of us have never spent that much time together and we just had a blast. The hospitality was wonderful and the weather couldn't have been better. Sitting outside knitting in January is just the best. I can see why people snowbird now. GA took us to the airport and as we sat waiting on the plane, they announced they had oversold the plane and needed volunteers to spend another day in the great city. We talked it over and volunteered. We were given food vouchers for the airport, a hotel room at the Residence Inn and two free tickets to fly anywhere in the states. What a deal. We watched the game and then went walking around the area. There was a Chinese mall across the street with a cool grocery store with a live fish market. We saw so many things we had never seen before!
Monday we actually got on the plane and came on home. All good things must come to an end but we went to see the triplets that afternoon and that cheered us up. :) At the swap meet we had t-shirts made for them that had three little girl faces and the words "Yes, we are triplets. I'm -------"

Home again

Back home from Colorado. I highly recommend the Staybridge Suites as a great place to stay if they are all like the one in Littleton. Clean, nice kitchen and great free breakfast.
Stopped in Gove on the way home and helped the economy there a little. The yarn shop was wonderful - had yarn I had never seen before. If I hadn't already bought too much yarn last week I would have bought more. Easy to find since it appears there is only one street in town. The area reminded us a little of Iowa so maybe that is why my great-grandfather decided to settle there for awhile.
I finished the pair of socks and started a beanie. Also worked on the sweater quite awhile.
The most interesting part of the drive was the huge wind turbines along the highway - they lasted for about 12 miles and some were very near the road. I hope my pictures came out. They were between Salina and Wilson Lake on I-70.
We listened to the newest John Grisham book - 12 hour book and 17 hour drive and we have over an hour left on the book. Figure that math out. He really adds a lot of "words" to make the book longer. Very unnecessary words in my opinion. Will finish it on the next trip. We didn't start it soon enough on the trip I guess.
Maybe tomorrow I will figure out how to add some pictures of the trip

Colorado Visit

We will be headed home today from Denver aka Littleton aka Lone Tree Colorado. We went riding around yesterday morning and saw the area when there wasn't much traffic. There is every store known to mankind in this area - I have never seen so many large and small stores in one small area. Few were open but we drove around the parking lots. The sun broke through and I got some great pictures of the mountains and then laughed as I thought of all the pictures of mountains and trees I have tossed when I had to go through relatives items after they passed. At least with these the kids will just hit the delete key on the computer. Ate at Panera Bread with my aunt and uncle and cousin and two of her kids. Then went to my aunt's house and watched the race and knitted and visited. I think it was the first time they had ever seen a race and they had a fit when the "big one" happened. Later went to my cousin's house which is two blocks away for supper. Rained, thundered, and even hailed small stones during the late afternoon.
I fixed my aunt's computer so she can now watch videos on my son's blog. She didn't have the add in and didn't know how to get it. She was so happy to watch the videos of his triplets.
Today we head home with a stop over in Gove Kansas. This is where my great grandfather homesteaded in around 1880 and where the billboards on the way here said was a grand yarn shop.
This was good to get away for a few days and see area we haven't seen in many years. Also nice to see where my aunt and uncle are living - it is a great area but I am very glad they have both decided not to drive anymore. This traffic is as bad as Dallas/Ft. Worth area.
Sandra

First Posting

This is my second attempt at a blog and will probably go the same way as my diaries did - I will post great the first week, a few times the second and then maybe again in a year or so. Of course by then I won't remember the password or sign on. I should have waited until I was home so I could get help from my son but I am bored where I am so decided to try it. Right now I am sitting in a dark hotel room. Husband still asleep but I am an early riser. We are in Colorado visiting my aunt and uncle that moved here from California. The hotel is wonderful and is only two minutes from my aunt's house. There are tons of shops and cafes around here and we plan to drive around and see the area this morning. One place I want to see, but not participate in, is an indoor parachute place. I guess it cost around 80 dollars to do it so I think that is too much money. Of course I wouldn't be afraid to do it - not me - just spend my money wisely.
The mountains are so pretty, but the weather is not very cooperative for us to see them well.