WannaME: Gearing up for Stitches East.....

Good Morning YOUs,
 What a beautiful, crisp, sunny October Saturday. I say this as I lounge in bed, with absolutely no plans to venture out there. Today will be filled with laundry, knitting, blogging, and prepping for Stitiches East 2010. I think WannaME and TouristyME may be just a tad bit over-excited about Stitches. This will be my first time attending and I can't wait. It will also be the first time in years that I will be traveling all by myself. No MOH. No MiniME. Just ME. Calgon has finally responded to my pleas and will be here in 2 weeks to take me away on a mini-vacation to be filled with yarny, fibery, goodness. Ahhhhhhhh.

 Luckily, Stitches is taking place in Hartford,CT. Have I mentioned that I am FROM CT?!?  And that all of my family is in various parts of CT?!? So yeah I get to go visit my Mommy and Sis, and cousins etc. This also means that I don't have to worry about lodging. Although Mom  & Sis live about 45 mins to an hr away, I have tons of cousins who still live right in HTFD. So if I don't feel like driving I can crash somewhere.
 
So how exactly does one prep for an event like this? Well if you are crazy like ME, that means making lists and lists and lists. Lists of where to go. Lists of what to bring. Lists of what to make. Lists of lists to make. lol. See, crazy right? No,I'm just trying to keep WannaME in check. Cause I know as soon as I get there one of two things is gonna happen. I'm either gonna want to buy like everything I see. Or I am going to get soooo overwhelmed at the amount and variety of stuff and then not know what to buy or not want to buy anything. So I am researching and researching some more.

I've been all over OCS trying to find patterns that I'm really interested in making. Reading forums, looking at O.P.P. (Other People's Projects) seeing what yarns are getting good reviews. I've stalked the Stitches website for months waiting for the vendor list to be posted. Then I'm on the vendor sites, checking out pricing and yardage. Seeing if I can just order from them online.

 Dude, I'm so hyped about this trip. By the time it gets here I am gonna be missioned out. I'm going into that convention center with a plan, man. Armed with a budget and a shopping list. And I will stick to it! WannaME will not lose her frickin mind like she did at MDS&W, where I may or may not have spent double what I brought with me to spend. No sirree Bob. Not this time!  I'm gonna put my plan out there for you all to see. And when I get back I'll compare what I got to what I said I would get. I'm issuing the challenge to WannaME...control yourself. Will she be able to?.......Stay tuned.

CraftyME: sunday, Sunday, SUNDAY!

Can I just say I F'LUV Sundays. More than just Sundays, I luv Football Sundays. In Casa de ME, Sundays in the fall are certified "Be a lazy bum all day long, lay on the couch, snack, watch football. ALL DAY" Well for ME, I try to get most of the chores done on Saturday and then finish up what's left bright and early Sunday morning. No sleeping in for me.  But it's so ok. Cause come 1pm I'm chillaxin til bedtime.

Do you know what this means to a Crafty person such as myself??? 8-9 hrs of basically free knitting time. yessirre bob. Of course that includes bathroom breaks, and snack breaks, and checking on MiniME, oh and a nap. But yeah I just sit and knit and watch the games. Ah that's living man, that's living.

This Sunday was devoted to knitting slouchy, cabled hats. This past week I cast on the SYTYCD hat in hopes having a cute little "I'm a lazy bum who doesn't feel like re-twisting my locs this week" hat.You know just a little something to toss on in case I went out Sat nite. Unfortunately, just because size 8 and size 6 dpns are the same color, they aren't the same size. And if you knit a hat on size 6s instead of size 8s, you end up with a cute little hat. Emphasis on the word LITTLE. Luckily, it's just small enough to fit MiniME, so she will be rocking it to school this fall.

So Sat morning I ran out to AC Moore (after doing a little bit of damage at Old Navy's $16 jacket sale) to pick up some size 10 dpns and a size 11 24" circular needle to try my hand at the Star Crossed Slouchy Beret. Just to change it up a bit. Got the ribbing done on the 10s no prob. But once I switched to the circs, things got a little dicey. The pattern says you have to magic loop for a little bit. Um hello, either I was doing something really wrong or you can't really magic loop on 24". It wasn't happening. Yeah, Sunday morning, I kindly drove all the way back to AC Moore and exchanged those circs for some dpns.

Now cableing is tricky in and of itself with that pesky little cable needle. Then toss in a set of 5 double pointed needles and it becomes a whole new ball game. 

However, I'm very happy to say it was so worth it. Cause now I have a jaunty little cap to sport on my so in-need of being re twisted locs.

 Oh by the by. Let me introduce my new hat models Violet and Blue.

 I picked up Violet for MiniME on Saturday's outing. Of course MOH took one look at it her and was like "It's like a real life Chuzzle!!!! Do they have it in Blue?!?!?" He loves that game. So Sunday I had to get one for him too. Soon they will be joined by Scarlett because now that I look at them, they are kinda really cute. WannaME wants one too. lol.

MommyME: The tale of MiniME as told by MyOtherHalf (MOH)....

So, Every so often I have really bad days. Really sad days. Days when I really want to write about what's going on, but I don't/can't. It's hard to vent about those days without giving the background/history to where a lot of it stems from. But I never really know how to write up that history.
Well yesterday my 20yr old nephew sent out a note to all of us on FB asking for inspirational stories. This coming from a young man just back from a year in the Army stationed in Iraq. While out being CraftyME picking up yarn and getting a much needed breather, I noticed that I had been tagged in a response to this request. MyOtherHalf (MOH), Jamal wrote this, and I decided to share it here as it says much of what I've been wanting to say. *Disclaimer* (tm Sunny) it's kinda long and kinda emotional. but then again so is our life.

The tale of MiniME as told by MyOtherHalf (MOH)....

As you are well aware of, I have a daughter that is disabled due to complications from a surgery that was needed to save her life. She has been battling brain tumors since she was fourteen months old. Back in September 2006, she had a surgery that was meant to relieve pressure put on her brainstem by the tumor. Because of where her tumor is located, and the nature of what her tumor is, the surgery was beyond risky and wasn't meant to save her life as much as was to prolong it.
She survived the surgery. That was a blessing in and of itself. The doctors couldn't promise anything; not even that she would make it off the table. She didn't fully awaken after surgery, but after all she had been through, the doctors figured she would sleep for a few days in order to recuperate. The Sunday after surgery, however, something went wrong. Her stats were all over the place. One minute she was about to have a stroke and the next her heart rate would be so low that the doctors felt she would just fade away. At some point Monday afternoon her stats leveled out, somewhat, and she fell into a comatose state. Every doctor who had examined her said she would die there.
Six months passed. Hospice doctors had suggested that we take her off of feeds in order to speed the process of death. It was a very difficult time for Dorian and me. Who wants to make those types of decisions about their child? Then something changed.
Mikayla has had cats that have basically grown up with her. They are, in essence, her siblings. When she first came home on hospice they would lay in her room almost mourning her. They would lie under her bed, on the dresser, on the chair, but never in her bed as they would when she was awake. We entered her room one morning to turn her, change her, and fill her feed bag and noticed that Lady, one of the cats, was laying on the bed beside Mikayla. Mikayla's hand rested on Lady's body as if she was trying to pet her. We thought ourselves to be crazy. It couldn't be. We called her doctor. She came out to the house to look Mikayla over. She decided to bring her in to the hospital to run some tests. We took her in to the hospital and a few days later, she awoke!
Since then, life has been very difficult and complicated. Mikayla has numerous disabilities that make it even more difficult to care for her. Caring for her is a full time job but it doesn't pay the bills. In order to do that, we both must maintain fulltime employment. We get very little help from Social Security. What they provide us with financially per month barely covers the cost of her pull ups if that. I have heard stories of children with ADD diagnosis who get more help. It could be that we are asking the wrong people. I am not sure. I do know that we could use the help. My daughter is now ten years old. She will be eleven in August of this year. She has been surviving; continuing to battle in a war that the doctors still say she has no chance in winning. One day she will be consumed by her illness.
We continue to hope that something will change. Even if it doesn't, I count myself as blessed to have known a child as resilient as Mikayla. It hasn't been easy, but she has taught me that nothing is impossible. She has overcome obstacle after obstacle in her life and continues to amaze doctors and people everywhere.
We push on through this life with the hope that one day we will be able to get the help we need. We push through the unknown everyday in hopes that our child will one day be able to live the type of life she had before she got too sick. We push because that is all we know how to do. It is my daughter’s legacy.
Share this story with as many people as you see fit. Hopefully it will encourage someone. Hopefully it will inspire others."

D.M.M.: I asked for inspirational stories... and this is what I got from an unexpected source...

I've never heard him my uncle say anything more serious than "Stop yelling, I'm trying to hear the game." Or "who drank the last lil' bit of Moscado?" But, I asked for inspirational stories and this is what he gave me... Wow... Just goes to show that no matter how u complain about the situation ur in, u've got people who have a tougher hand than u and are dealing with it... I love my fam and its company... This is why!

RememberME: Memory Monday....Gram

So, I recently posted the WallofCourage.com picture of TheKid on FaceBook. My sister commented on how much TheKid looks like our grandmother. Now this isn't a newsflash or anything I mean TheKid looks just like ME, I look just like my mom, and my mom looks just like my Gram. But while TheKid is my MiniME, it really is eerie how much she favors her G-Gram. She even acts just like her. Here they are together, about 7yrs ago.

Now I'm sitting here QA'ing away, being mostly good WorkME (shh). But I got to thinking how much I miss my Gram. I am one of the last generations that grew up with grandmothers who were 2nd mom's. Not these newfangled ones of today. I lived w/my Gram and mom until I went to college. Most of my life lessons were learned in her kitchen. Heck my most memorable asswhippings were from her hands.

I don't want to get all verclempt or however you spell it, my yiddish isn't that great. So rather than go into a bunch of tales this time around, I will simply proclaim Mondays as Memory Monday. And this first one is dedicated to you Ms Dorothy Lee Hogg Folkes! Gone but not forgotten.