25 Random Things About Me

This is something going around Facebook, you write 25 things about yourself and "tag" your friends so they can read about you. It's a pretty good way to learn things about people. I'm re-posting mine here for those not on Facebook:

1. I met my husband Darin on eharmony - we were matched in January 2005. I had been on a few months but I was one of his first 5 matches! We met in person that March, were engaged that May, and married that September!

2. Darin and I just sort of got engaged, no one proposed! We were talking about getting married and I told him I always wanted to use my grandmother's engagement ring as mine. So I got it out to show him and then said can I start wearing it now and he said sure and that was that! As they say, we lived happily ever after!

3. I taught myself to knit 2 years ago by watching videos on the internet and now I knit almost every day - I love it, it's so relaxing and I feel proud to wear beautiful things that I've made.

4. I love to be organized and therefore like to do menial tasks such as filing - this usually makes me popular at work!

5. As most of you know I love sports - I grew up watching soccer - the Rogues, Americans, Storm and Rogues again! We had season tickets to the Memphis Chicks from 1984 until they left. I had season tickets for 11 years to Memphis Riverkings hockey and now Darin and I have a season ticket package to the Kansas City Royals. I introduced hockey to Darin and now he loves it too - if only we had a team here!

6. My father was part owner of the Memphis Chicks baseball team in the mid-90's - he owned a very small percentage and kept that ownership when they moved to Jackson, TN. He got a championship ring when they won the Southern League - it says Cubs owner on it because at the time they were a farm team of the Cubs. He shows it off and has tricked many people into thinking he actually owns the Cubs - I wish!!

7. Darin & I were at the San Francisco Giants baseball games when Barry Bonds both tied and broke Hank Aaron's all time home run record. Darin had a business trip to San Jose and we decided to stop in San Diego - bought tickets off of a season ticket holder and saw the tying home run. We had already bought tickets for a game in San Francisco and it just happened to be the night he broke the record. It was the most amazing thing - I hate Barry Bonds and always have but it was so exciting to be part of baseball history, even if it is tainted by his past. I was surprised that I was so excited and thrilled by it. By the way, AT&T Park in San Fransisco is the most beautiful ballpark I've ever seen - it's unbelievable to be watching baseball and looking out over the Bay. Incredible!

8. I was at the final game of the 1992 World Series - game 6 in Atlanta, Braves vs. Blue Jays. I was a fan of both teams but had liked the Blue Jays longer so I was thrilled when they won. That was a surreal experience, to see a World Series end and to watch the players celebrate - it almost didn't feel real.

9. I got to travel so much when I was a kid because of my dad's job with the Commercial Appeal - he was Director of Operations and was in charge of all of the printing side so he went to a lot of newspaper conventions. He took my mom & I with him usually and through his connections would get us tickets to baseball or hockey games in the cities we went to - I have been very fortunate!

10. I hope to have the chance to visit every state - I love to drive through different parts of the country and see how different it all looks - so far I've been to 33 states plus Mexico (only Tiajuana) and Canada.

11. I took a trip to Europe in 1998 by myself - I wanted to go when I could afford it and am so glad I did - may never get there again! I flew to Munich and met up with a tour group - we took a bus through southern Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Austria. It was so beautiful - Prague was my favorite but I also really loved Salzburg, Austria. We took the bus up into the Alps on the next to the last day of the trip and it was super foggy - you couldn't even see a few feet past the side of the bus - it was really kind of scary. We went up to where Hitler used to stay - apparently you could see a lot of Austria and Germany but we couldn't see a thing! I was so sad that I was in the Alps but might as well have been on flat land! It was a great trip though and met a lot of great people on my tour.

12. I love to watch old movies - I think my favorites are those with Humphrey Bogart.

13. I love to garden, I get that love and talent from my mother. We had a huge yard in Memphis and we had huge flowerbeds. I hated leaving it when I moved to Kansas City and can't wait until we have a house here so I can garden again - I have containers of flowers all over my front & back porch in the townhouse we live in. I learned the hard way though that nothing will winter over in a container in this climate - it's just too cold!

14. I'm an avid reader - probably why I was an English major in college. My favorite genre is historical fiction but I also like sci-fi/fantasy - this came about from my Lord of the Rings obsession. I guess I just like books that I can escape to another world in!

15. I had surgery on my bladder when I was in kindergarten - I missed so much school that I should have been kept back but my teacher (Miss Jackie from Harding Wooddale) brought my work to the hospital and helped me with it so that I could keep up and I was able to pass.

16. I have bad allergies and could never have pets growing up but when I moved out on my own was determined to have a cat. I take a lot of allergy medicine to be able to live with them but it's worth it, I love my cats and plan on getting a dog when we have a house with a fenced yard.

17. In high school, with the help of Shannon and JJ, I made up a story that I had a pet ostrich that I kept in my back yard - I think I convinced Jason Brumley that it was true! It's name was supposed to have been Otto. I was very silly!

18. I went to the University of Memphis because of my love of Tigers basketball! I was going to Union University and I remember sitting on the couch with my friend Bobby, who was also a Tigers fan, watching them in the Elite 8 in '91 (I think). I remember thinking, I could be there watching those games in person, why am I in Jackson, TN!! LOL. I also got bored at Union very quickly but it was the basketball that pulled me home. I'll never regret it and am proud to be a Memphis alumnus. It was fun being there at the same time as Penny Hardaway!

19. Now the bad part of being a Tiger - I married a die-hard Jayhawk fan - didn't know that was going to be a problem when I married him!! Oh well, at least the Tigers lost to my 2nd favorite team, it just sucks to see Jayhawk championship stuff everywhere I go - even got taunted by a driver the other day, he was making fun of my Tigers sticker.

20. My cousin Nycki and I have a dream to one day open an antiques store/coffee shop - maybe even a yarn shop. Maybe if we ever live in the same city it could happen!

21. I would love to live in England even though I've never been there. I feel like I lived there in another life or something because of all of the books I've read and movies and tv shows I've seen that are set there. My ancestors are from England and Scotland and I guess I still have their blood in my veins.

22. I am part Cherokee - 1/16 I think, I'd have to check with my mom on that - a lot of her family was Cherokee and her step-dad was even a Cherokee chief - his Indian name was Chief Running Horse.

23. I worked for a year as a medical transcriptionist, I loved the work but hated the hours. If I have kids then I'll probably go back to it so that I can stay home with them.

24. I had a crush on Darth Vader when I was a little kid - I told you I was silly!

25. I got a Camaro for high school graduation - my dad had made a deal with me when I started high school that if I got a scholarship to college he would buy me a car. Pretty sweet deal! I miss that car.

Recent Knit Projects

I've been knitting up a storm lately! Guess it's the cold weather that makes me just want to sit in my comfy chair by the fire & knit. I found a great pattern on http://www.ravelry.com/ for a cabled hat - the pattern was super easy. I made myself one and then my co-worker Erica loved it & asked me to knit her one. Here they are:

My hat in progress (I could wear it like that as a new style!) and completed:

Erica's Hat:
Two weeks ago I made this little ruff/scarflet out of some mohair yarn that I've had for 2 years and didn't know what to do with. I was making a longer scarf and messed up so I started taking it out & decided to just make a short scarf & added a row of buttons to dress it up. I used some buttons from my grandmother's button jar. I wanted a hat to match but couldn't find a pattern I liked. So when Erica asked for the knit hat, I asked her for a crocheted hat like one she had made for herself. I wanted a hat like that and couldn't really replicate it in knitting so it worked out - I love the one she made! Now all I need to do is learn how to knit gloves and I'll have a set. Don't hold your breath! Here's the set:


This week I also knit a baby hat for my friend Kim's new baby Andrew. I haven't taken a picture of it yet but it's really cute. I knitted myself a scarf out of some really colorful ribbon yarn, I love how it looks! I wore it to work Friday and one of my customers came in and said I needed to market it - not a bad idea! Here it is:

So today I'm looking at more patterns, trying to decide what to knit next! Guess I should knit something & see if I can sell it. It would be nice to make money on something that I love doing!

Slumdog Millionaire

We saw Slumdog Millionaire today. I really enjoyed it. I'm not sure that it is Oscar-worthy but does at least deserve to be nominated. It was really hard to see children living in poverty but it was so amazing to see how they overcame that on their own with no adults helping them along the way. It was a heartbreaking movie but uplifting too. And I loved the dance at the end!

In other news, I finished the hat I was knitting this weekend - it is really cute and I wore it all day today. I need to take some pictures of it and post them. I just started working on a baby hat for my friend Kim who gave birth to her 2nd son last week - welcome to the world Andrew Collins! I'm very proud of myself for learning to knit hats on multiple double-pointed needles - I was really scared of trying it but now think it's a snap after only a few days!

LOL Cat of the Day

more animals

Knitting a Hat

So I've been busy knitting this week. Earlier in the week I finished a scarf I was making for myself - it is out of turquoise colored mohair. I started off making a longer scarf but messed up several times and it didn't look quite right so I started ripping the stitches out. I decided to instead make it into a short little scarf/neck-warmer. It just wraps around the neck and then has a row of buttons at the edge - I used some of the buttons from my grandmother's button jar. It looked pretty cute and all the girls at work loved it. I wore it over a black sweater & left it on all day - it makes a nice accessory.

Wednesday night I started making a hat. This is my first attempt at knitting something round - the pattern calls for using 5 double pointed needles plus cabling so at any given time I'm using 6 needles at once!! This was hard for me to get the courage up to attempt it, but after a couple of times around, it didn't really bother me. This is also my first attempt at reading a knitting chart. The first night I couldn't even figure it out but Friday I sat down to read it & figured it out pretty quickly. Friday it was cold, snowy and there was a season 4 of Battlestar Galactica marathon on so I sat on the couch & knitted all day! Pretty awesome day. Saturday evening I finished the hat only to find that it was too small!! I kind of had that feeling but was hoping it would stretch out enough after I got it off the needles. Alas, it wasn't so. And it had turned out so beautifully too! The cables were perfect, I couldn't believe it came out so pretty but too small! Oh well. I ripped it out & started over on larger needles. I will just have to check it sooner th

is time. I found the pattern on http://www.ravelry.com and looked through what others had done on this hat so hopefully I'm using a better size needle this time. If it comes out, I'll post a picture.

It's now Saturday night and I'm on my 3rd movie of the day. I watched Miss Potter this afternoon while Darin was watching KU basketball. It was a really good movie - I love Beatrix Potter's books and it was neat to see her story - sad & sweet at the same time. Then tonight we watched In Bruges. It was ok - parts of it were funny. Bruges looks like a beautiful town - I'm sure they have had a lot more tourists since the movie came out. It's very medieval looking, which I love. Maybe I'll get to see it one day. Now we are watching Army of Darkness. Darin really likes this movie & I've never seen it. We had it recorded on the DVR. I don't really know what's going on. Parts of it are funny - basically the parts I already knew about. We'll see. I'm halfway paying attention as I blog & knit.

I'm thinking of knitting something and seeing if I can sell it on www.etsy.com - I'm trying to watch some scarves on there to see how much they sell for. It would be nice to make a little money off of something I enjoy doing!

Toby & Alex

Here are my beloved cats Toby & Alex:

TOBY

Toby is 5.5 years old & weighs about 20+ lbs! I got him when he was 6 weeks old from my next door neighbors in Memphis. He gets along ok with Alex, I think he would prefer to still be an only child! To be fair about his weight, he was around 15 lbs. when we got Alex and I guess he was afraid the new kitten was going to eat all of the food so Toby ate constantly! He's been better lately, I don't think he's gaining, just maintaining the same weight. I have him on diet food! Toby is named after the Christian singer Toby Mac because I was totally in love with him when I was in college & always wanted to name a child Toby, then realized that it wasn't the best name for an adult but a good name for a pet.

ALEX

Alex is now 9 months old - we got him when he was about 7-8 weeks old from my sister-in-law Nikki. We had been thinking of getting Toby a companion and I fell instantly in love with Alex when we were over at Nikki's house. I begged & Darin relented so we took him home that day. He looked exactly like Toby did when he was a baby so I couldn't resist! They still look almost exactly alike except that Alex has a white spot on his chest. Alex has been a handful though - he's a yeller and pounces on Toby at every opportunity. But they seem to play well together most of the time and we often find them curled up sleeping together. Alex was named after one of our favorite Royals, Alex Gordon.

Recycling

So we started recycling about 2 months ago - we live in an apartment complex so there is no recycling pickup in here - I really should suggest that to the new managment. Anyway, we've been recycling cans for a while but we decided we could do more. I bought some clear storage bins & we cleaned out a corner of the garage where they would fit. We are recycling all the magazines and catalogs that I get (2 tons - LOL), plastic, glass and cardboard. Darin took the recycling over to the center off of 119th St. last week - it works out well since it is about 2 blocks from my office. I'm very proud of how gung-ho he has been about this - I'm more of the environmentally aware person than he is but he is getting into this. Thanks Darin!!

End of the Holidays

So I'm pretty glad the holidays are over even though I'm not looking forward to January & February - the 2 most depressing months of the year. Back in Memphis they didn't bother me so much since it started turning to spring in February and I had hockey to go to. Go figure, I move to an actual winter climate and there's no hockey team here! Not true, there is KU Jayhawks club hockey & they play just down the street but it's about 30 degrees in the building they play in so it's just about too cold to go to very often. I'm sure we'll go to at least one game though. I really wish KC would get an NHL team or at least a minor league hockey team. Independence is getting a CHL team which will be fun since the Riverkings are in that league. I can drag out my old gameworn R'king jersey with the puck marks all over it and wear it over there - I don't think they'll have a team for another year or 2 though. We did see the arena being built when we headed out of town for Christmas; at least it's next to the highway so it will be easy for us to get to albeit 45 minutes away!

I'm just not looking forward to the bitter cold & snow/ice of the Jan/Feb months - at least that's what we had the past 2 winters and it doesn't look like this year will be any different. And there's nothing to look forward to until March - my birthday and NCAA basketball tourney (praying Memphis & Kansas keep playing well & make tournament again but praying they don't play each other again - that was TOO much drama!). Oh well, it will be kind of nice to get back to the normal routine. Poor Darin though, he was on vacation for the last 3 weeks! I can't imagine how hard it will be for him to get up tomorrow!

We do have good tv to look forward to, as pathetic as that sounds. 24, Lost and Battlestar Galactica will all be back in the next few weeks - that will help get through the cold winter nights!!!

I also got some new books to read - my mother-in-law & sister-in-law each bought me a Philippa Gregory book - books 2 & 3 in the Wideacre series that I haven't read yet - and I used some of my Christmas money & Borders coupon to buy book 1. Too bad I had just started another book so they will have to wait a little while.

I also have several knitting projects that I'm working on - several upcoming birthdays and new babies so I need to figure out what I'm doing for those. I'll post more on knitting later - that's a whole post in and of itself!

I'm going to go make some macaroni & cheese from scratch for supper now - yummy! We deserve it after putting away all the Christmas decorations today. By the way, Darin made an inventory of all of our Christmas decorations when we got it all out and putting it away was so much faster & easier because of it! I highly recommend doing that, especially if you have a ton like we do (27 boxes including the trees, gift wrap & tins)!

Christmas Presents

Christmas rocked this year - as always! I'm an only child so I LOVE getting presents! But I think I love giving presents even more.

Favorite presents given:

To my mom - 2 scarves I made - one while we were there visiting from some yarn she had bought years before - I love giving something I've made. The one I made while we were there was pretty cool looking - it was made with 2 yarns, a navy and a silvery-blue ribbon yarn. I may have to make another for myself!

To my dad - impossible to buy for - the only thing he wanted was a specific level so we found it and now I want one - it measures exactly where the hanger on your picture is and tells you where exactly to put the nails! I so need that!

To Darin - don't really have a fave this year - I'm a little bummed because I didn't get him anything totally cool - last year was the remote-controlled helicopter that I surprised him with - but this year I just couldn't think of anything awesome. He wanted a Playstation 3 and the latest Grand Theft Auto but we don't have that kind of cash. Hopefully they'll come down in price next year so I can get it for him. I did get him some pretty cool t-shirts - a Predators Tootoo jersey shirt, a throwback blue Penguins Crosby jersey shirt, and a "Hoosiers" Jimmy Chitwood Hickory jersey shirt - he saw that online & sent me the link just to get a rise out of me because his obsession with Hoosiers annoys me. I bought the shirt because I knew he didn't think I would! I'm not saying Hoosiers isn't a great movie, I just don't need to watch it every single time it's on. I also got him the last season of the Simpsons and 2 books. Again, nothing too exciting.

I think my favorite things I gave this year were these little antiqued angels that we had in our wedding reception - they are actually placecard holders but we had them on the tables holding pictures of us as kids. I had about 50 of them total and I ended up with about half after my mom and Aunt Phyllis divided up the rest. I gave one to my mother-in-law & sister-in-law and then to several close friends. I also gave one each to all the ladies in my office. I looked up a scripture about angels and put that on a tag with the angel - I hope they liked that. I would have done this much sooner but didn't get the angels from my mom's house until this past summer. I had almost forgotten about them!

Favorite gifts received:

From my parents: A new camera! I so desperately needed one - my old one was not too great expect for close-ups and the view screen was miniscule! I got a Nikon Coolpix and am in love with it. I can't wait for baseball season so I can try out the zoom and panorama features from the upper deck. Oh, and the camera is red - my favorite color!

From Darin: A beautiful Brighton silver heart bracelet - it matches the necklace & earrings he gave me a few years ago - I love it! He totally surprised me with it too since I didn't even ask for any jewelry this year! He gives awesome presents though and my stocking rocked again this year as usual.

From my mother-in-law: Polka-dotted galoshes!! I'm so excited about these - I realized that I needed these since my work pants keep getting soaked in the snow this winter. This is the first winter since I moved here that I have worked outside of the house. In previous years I just stayed in when it snowed, now I have to get out. So I found these galoshes on Amazon and put them on my wish list. My fabulous mother-in-law who buys the best gifts anwyay bought them for me. I just had to take a picture of them and share:

The best part of Christmas though was visiting my friends Jenny & Patti in Memphis and getting to spend a week with my parents. It was wonderful to finally meet Jenny's 5 month old daughter - what a sweetheart! And it was fun to host Christmas with Darin's mom and sister's family yesterday. I guess now it's time to take down the decorations - I may be too lazy for that this weekend though!

First Post...

First of all I have to say that Blogger doesn't offer enough fonts for me. I'm one of those annoying people who uses fancy, florid fonts as much as possible. What can I say? I'm a visual person - just look at my layout! BTW, I'm sure that will change often, I get bored quickly. But I love these scrapbook-looking layouts! I love to scrapbook but never set aside time to do it. Maybe that should be a New Years' resolution - budget time to scrapbook. My problem is that all of my scrapbooking stuff is upstairs in our "office" (catch-all room) and Darin and I are rarely in there at the same time. I guess when I get sick of the football I should go up there and scrapbook but the thing is, I really kind of like the football. I've become a much bigger football fan in the last 3 years than I ever dreamed possible. I so love Kansas Jayhawks football that I almost cried yesterday at the prospect of my sweet darling Todd Reesing graduating next year!!

If you don't know me, you will think I'm a very strange woman - one minute scrapbooking, the next minute football, but that's me. I'm kind of like that with everything but I guess that keeps me from being boring! I'm sure it keeps Darin on his toes!

I guess that's enough for this post since it didn't really have much of a theme. Hopefully I'll keep posting!