Epic Fail

Last night during the Super Bowl activities I made some great progress on the slippers I've been making for James. I had promised a pair since Christmas and finally got a chance to finish them tonite.

Felting ensued, and I failed. I mean really really failed. These slippers are supposed to be a 10.5 in men's shoes and they are probably just a little over 5 inches long. They will probably fit Brayan perhaps? I am not sure.. They also went from being sophisticated moccasins to dutch clogs.

*Sigh..... Time to warm up the knitting needles again!

Mistaken for a Canadian

Yesterday I was out on my lunch break and I struck up a conversation with a store clerk. Almost immediately she asked me if I was Canadian. I was blown away. No one has asked me that in over 2 yrs!

My mother tells this great story about her immigration to Canada a few short years ago (right Mum)? They were joj (just off the jet) from England and my mother had her 1st day of school in their new small town Canadian home. My Grandma said that when my mother came home from school she couldn't understand a word she said, because instead of a British accent, my mother was fluent in the local accent (thick fishing port near drawl). Apparently my mother's need to fit in with the kids at school was much stronger than her need to keep her accent!

I've adapted much the same way. I still get the odd look from someone here that tells me that I must have ceased speaking English and used a "Canadian" word. But, basically shortly after I got here I replaced my ooooots with owutttts and tried to fly under the radar. Usually it works, apparently yesterday it did not.

It should be noted that the woman who pointed this out to me lived in Canada. She explained she was born in Canada but moved to Mississippi at the ripe old age of 8 days old!

Three Years..

Could it be? Brent & I are entering our February week of anniversaries and special days and as we do, I wanted to just say how grateful I am to be his wife.

To have beside me a supporter, a cheerleader, a patient and kindhearted man, someone who has given me a refuge in hard times and love when I needed it most. He has given me many reasons to laugh and a load of blessings each and every morning when I wake to his email telling me how much he loves me and how he is looking forward to returning from work to be with me. He is a father, a lover, a friend, an employee, a deacon, a student, a brother, a son, a provider and a blessing. I am grateful for him and grateful for the gift of our marriage and our family.

A Fender Bender..

Our fender /bumper really is bent tonite. Brent, being the super husband he is, drove me to work this morning to escape the frigid deep freeze we've been plunged into and we were rear ended on Whitney Ave. this am. Of course we knew it HAD to happen eventually in our State / City of horrible drivers bent on getting to their destinations with overt disregard to anyone else who might DARE to get in their way. We were stopped a light when a inattentive woman plowed into the back of poor old Streak. Before we go any further, we're generally okay- I'm feeling a few aches and pains and not sure if it's tension or trauma, but I'm sure tomorrow will tell what the deal is. The lady in the other car is fine (which we're grateful for) and she is insured (another thing we are grateful for). So, we're probably looking at a few thousand in damages and a bit of inconvenience having to get the car in the shop, but at least her insurance will foot the bill. So it's off to the Police Dept. tomorrow to get the report. She pays the fine/ticket (she is 100% at fault) and we move on.

** Update.. Michelle's doing much better on Sat.. Feeling more like herself and although a bit sore, grateful there appears to be no whiplash.

Socks...

During the Christmas break Mum taught me to knit socks. I FINALLY finished my first pair tonite! They are riddled with mistakes, but I think I've figured it out now, and am well on my way to perfecting the skill! LOVED making these cuties, they will go to my favorite High School Student Tina!!

Breathin' Easy

Today I went to the Dr. It is always an adventure to get oneself through the tangled mess that is the Yale-New Haven hospital jungle, but I manged with the help of a very good friend who offered to drive me on this wet day. I had a nice "chat" with a receptionist on whether my co-pay was $20.00 or $35.00 (amazing how a CDN ended up to be right about that one), and enjoyed chatting with my Dr.

In an amazing twist of fate, my current Dr. has the same surname as my long standing family Dr. from back home (he had been my Dr. for over 25 yrs). I didn't pick my current Dr. for his last name, but it's funny how those things go. I'm still getting used to my physician sitting down, chewing the cud, and actually really LISTENING to what I'm saying. All in all we have a great fit with our PCP: he believes in less is more where meds are concerned and he's interested in a holistic approach. I appreciate that in a Dr. and I'm sure glad I had a chat with him today.

Since I was a little thing I've struggled with asthma. I can remember weekly visits to our Dr. in elementary school to get blood work done in connection to meds I was on for asthma. I remember how many events and activities were difficult or had to be tailored to fit my condition and I remember "Asthma Camp" which instead of making me feel more "normal" actually ended up making me feel like even more of a freak due to the fact that chlorinated pools are actually a trigger for me. Many attacks, inhalers and triggers later, I have managed well with my condition. This past fall I had a particularly bad cold and apparently I never really recovered from it. My Dr. told me today I am a "tough old bird". Not really, I just knew without a fever there really wasn't much he could really do for me. But, after a few months of wheezing, coughing and feeling like I was going to suffocate, I had enough.

A new inhaler later I will be on the mend in a few days. I came home today grateful for modern medicine and grateful for a really good physician. Two more blessings to add to the list.

Mohawk Mountain, Cathedral Pines & Kent

We visited Goshen once before almost 3 yrs ago. Today we decided to take ourselves on a 6 mile hike over a mountain. We have been feeling the cobwebs mounting in our minds for a few weeks now so today was glorious here in CT and we took full advantage of it.

We started in Cathedral Pines which is an old forest full of giant pines. It was glorious to see these monsters, (a large number of them were leveled by a tornado a couple of decades ago). We hiked through the forest and entered Mohawk Mountain. It's a favorite ski area in our state (think north west corner) and there were no shortage of skiers, & snowboarders today. We took a look see from the top of the chair lift out over the valley and then continued hiking up the mountain and got some beautiful views from the top of Mohawk mountain of the Appalachian mountains and simultaneously to the west the Catskill mountains. We stopped in Kent for a bite to eat before the long journey home!

It was 6 glorious miles and we're tired tonight but feeling blessed that we got to see one of the most beautiful bits of our state today. Brent says it feels much like Colorado out there -only smaller.