OUR DEAR SOPHIE GIRL IS GONE

14 years ago,

 in 2010,

 we rescued the best pup both Jim and I have ever had,

our dear Sophie.  

She was 6 months old and clung to both of us (but mostly to Jim) 

at the rescue place,

so we knew she was supposed to be ours.

Sophie was so cute and funny and loved to be snuggled under or between things,

but she hated her baths and clippings.

She loved to play fetch and always brought the ball back and dropped it for more.

She slept with us every night.

And loved Xmas time up at the cabin snuggled on the couch next to the fireplace.

She was always up for a walk,

and loved car rides,

especially in my VW Bug with the top down.

Treats were a favorite,

 actually any food was,

 and it was so hard for us not to feed her from our plates. 

Snuggling up after a delicious meal..

She'd let me dress her up in her raincoats but never seemed too happy about it.

And she would make her toys squeak on demand.

And every nite she's sit by my side as I worked on one project or another.

She was so much company for the both of us.

So it is with extreme sadness and grief 

that I share our sweet, sweet girl is with the angels. 

 She suffered a series of seizures that buckled her under herself laying in her urine,

and she was unable to walk, eat or drink.

Of course we rushed her to our local animal emergency 

where she seemed to rally and walked slowly around the place.

They advised us to take her home and see how she did that evening. 

 But after 3 more seizures that night we knew it was close to the end.

And she had actual tears that were running down her face after the last seizure,

and we couldn't take seeing her in such pain, confusion and sorrow,

so back to the vet we all went for a grueling and heartbreaking goodbye.

(our last good bye)

Both Jim and I have had to put several animals down in our lifetimes,

 but Sophie was the most brutal of them all.

She was our child that we never got to have together as a couple.

Extremely loving and loyal to the end.

Our dear, dear baby girl.

Sophie always seemed so very human,

and more than once I felt in my heart that my mother sent her to us.

And I swear she would communicate with us,

such a smart pup especially when she would run out of water.

She'd stand between the two of us and point her nose to her water dish.

And she never had an accident in the house until her last day with us.

At the end,

 with her eyes,

 she told us how much she loved us,

 and that she understood it was time for her to leave,

and how sad it was for her.

She was stronger then both Jim and I.

The both of us were such a mess. 

And we cried for days afterwards.

I just know my mother met her as she left us.

AN EASTON UPDATE

The last pix I posted of lil E was at the end of March on Easter Sunday

when he was 5 months old.

Well here is our cutie patootie at 6 months.

Even though his hair is getting longer in front,

he is loosing small patches of it here and there.

My son's hair did the same at that age only it looked much worst.

Kind of resembled a sumo wrestler.

Ha ha!

Easton wakes up with big smiles for his parentals every morning.

Below was shot right before they had to lower his mattress for the first time.

You can akso see below that his tiny bald patches are filling in

 as he approaches 7 months.

We have him on my baby blanket from 1956.

My mother saved it,

 and then when she passed I found it among her things in 2013,

and of course my two were too old for it,

so I saved it for my first grand.

Those eyes, right??

At 7 months he has really figured out

 what his cubby little legs are for.

Not crawling forward yet, 

just backwards a bit,

and pulling himself up to a standing position 

but then boom right back down.

His abs are getting so strong.

His bubbly personality is really shining thru.

 He's also discovered real food.

He's still loving a bottle and binky,

and drooling like crazy.

Trying so badly to cut his first tooth.

And he rarely cries,

one of the happiest, sweetest little ones I've ever known.

Am I a bit biased,

you betcha!

But that's who he really is.

An easy baby!

I'm averaging usually 2 nights a week of babysitting.

Both parents work late into the night which works great for me

 as I'm a night owl.

I love giving him a bath and putting him to sleep.

It seems I can hold him for hours in my arms as he naps 

and I never want to put him down.

And goodness,

 what a snuggly bunny he is!

When I do put him down for the night it's right next to me on the couch 

till either mom or dad gets in.

His best buddies are right there with him.

First we have Miss Tatum who thinks Easton is her baby 

and is constantly checking on his well being and giving big licks.

She loves cleaning his face after every meal.

And even bigger, sloppier licks come from dog daddy Kepler,

a huge brown Lab.

He loves this little guy too,

and as you can see wants to always be by his side touching him in some way.

Then there is Granger, the Blue Healer, the meanie,

who wants nothing to do with the little fella. 

But because he is black and white,

Easton wants to get his attention the most.

Figures.

At 8 months his looks are really changing.

He's filled out into his pudgy self, 

and his hair is sprouting out everywhere 

and getting blonder from the summer sun

Just like his mommy's does. 

He's becoming so very expressive and animated.

And there is serious teething going on.

In fact,

 this week he finally cut this first tooth and it is sharp!

I read on social media that if you give babies the inner core of a pineapple,

it's the perfect teething stick as you can see.

And it numbs his gums at the same time.

I hate cutting up a pineapple,

but for this little love bug,

anything!

At 8 months he loves the camera and will sit patiently as you snap away.

And he has become so much fun to play with.

He wants to stand up constantly and explore surfaces where he doesn't belong,

so when I babysit I surround him with age appropriate taller toys 

that he moves from one to the other on his tip toes.

He pulls himself up so quickly from a kneeling or sitting position

 so you can't take your eyes off him, 

because there is still a lot of tipping over.

My daughter Dani has been taking him to swim lessons and he loves the pool,

and thinks his bath is a pool as well.  

He is a powerful kicker and wants to take off.

He's even been in the Colorado River boating and swimming 

with his parents, cousin, aunts and uncle and other set of Grands.

He goes early every morning in his jammies

with his mom and dad to the cross fit gym, 

and has since his birth.  

He is their honorary gym baby mascot.

You can see he has recently found the kettle bells

 and is practicing his balancing act.

So proud of himself!

Fourth of July was hot here,

in the low 90's with high humidity this year.

He accompanied his parents to several swim parties 

in his adorable little man outfit for the 4th.

He also is doing the cutest thing with his hands.

See below.

Holding them together as he tries very hard to understand 

what you are telling him.

Easton loves studying our mouth movements and sounds.

Dada is down and now we are working on "Mama", "Oh" and "Baba".

And of course he's making a lot of funny noises with his throat, lips and tongue.

Raspberry noises are his fav along with tapping his hand over his open mouth.

He started that this week.

And about two weeks ago he finally figured out "the Crawl".

And man oh man,

 is he a busy little rascal now.

He is super fast with his favorite destinations being the dog's water dish,

the wheels on his stroller,

the doggie door that leads out onto the patio, 

and the diaper pail. 

But his favorite place of all are the toilets.  

A fascinating discovery for him.

He loves using his hands and seems to already be very mechanical.

And that handle on the toilet is just irresistible!

Caught ya!

LOLOLOL

GIFTED

My lovely and dear cousin Susan

 wearing the shawl I gifted her on a recent visit.

You can see close ups of the shawl if you scroll 2 posts down.

PRAIRIE BOOTS

Loved the look of these knitted up in the local knit store via a Coco Knits pattern.

I knew I had some bulky Malabrigo wool yarn in my stash,

so at least 3-4 years ago I started on these and wasn't enjoying the pattern.

It was a bit difficult to follow,

 so after being half done with the first one, 

I put it away and forgot about it.

This January I ran into it while looking for projects to finish up.  

So I pulled it out, 

spent a lot of time trying to figure out in the pattern where I was,

and plowed thru.

The pattern wasn't as bad as I remembered and they sure turned out cute.

I had my husband cut some leather soles and punch a few holes,

and I found a couple of buttons to accessorize with 

and Woo Hoo,

they are done!

They will be a Xmas present for a favorite person in my life. 

ON A 2 DAY POSTING ROLL, ha ha!

Even though I'm rarely present on my blog anymore,

I've been busy cranking out knit projects that I started but never finished.

I'm trying hard not to allow myself to start something new

till I finish long forgotten projects which is incredibly hard for me.

This shawl was started many months ago to learn some new knitting tricks.

Fading contrasting colors, pointy scalloped edges,

 plus more lace work then I usually do.

I can't tell you how many times I messed up the pattern and had to frog back before I could move forward again.

It was so good for my brain.

Above is a picture of how I block my pieces with tons of sharp pins

and a special squishy board after I soak/wash the finished piece.

This locks in all the loose ends as well 

as stretches out the work to show off the stitch pattern.

After removing pins it's pretty much holding it's shape.

This is a kit I found on a new site to me called Ranching Traditions Fiber

located in Montana.

The kits comes with a lovely skein of wool yarn (you pick the color).

It's called Roots in the Valley and the pattern is housed in the sweetest booklet.  

It also comes with a wooden shawl pin

 that I can't seem to find anymore.  Ugg!

However,

I didn't use the yarn because I wanted to use up some of my handspun stash.

I thought I had enough yardage to finish the shawl

 but sadly ran out 3/4 of the way thru.

But I love challenges like this.  

It forces me to think outside the box.

I had some leftover Malabrigo Worsted which was about the same diameter

so I ripped out a couple of inches and faded it in.

Again more frogging!!

The fading was trickier then I've done before 

because the colors contrasted so much,

 and I had to cheat and go back after I finished the piece

 and weave in some more lines to help it fade more smoothly.

The beige handspun is wool with some small pieces of silk spun 

to bring in a touch of color.

I recently gifted it to a dear long lost cousin that I just reconnected with,

 and am asking for her to send a pix of her wearing it.

Hopefully coming tomorrow in an email.

And here she is, 

my lovely cousin Susan wearing the shawl.

I think it looks perfect on her and am so very happy I gifted it to her.

Susan is from my father's side of the family 

and lives with her family outside of Salt Lake City.

I haven't seen her or her mother Georgie Lou since my mother's funeral in 2013.

It's been way too long!

I'm so glad she reached out to me and came to visit.

Susan and her twin Karen are such lovely gentle souls.

Now it's up to me to pay all of them a visit.

So Utah,

here I come.

STILL HERE AND LOOKING BACK

My mom in 1940ish

I was recently gifted the most beautiful pix of my dear mother.

There was no date,

 but I'm guessing she was probably in her late 20's or early 30's here. 

Perhaps around the time she met my father??

Lovely.

Wish I would have been able to post it closer to mother's day.

WE MISS YOU MARY

Happy Mother's day to one of my favorites,

my daughter-in-law's mother and my dear friend,

 Mary.

It's been two years now since she passed but it still seems like yesterday.

Her image is still so very clear in my mind.

A very beautiful woman both inside and out, 

with a wonderfully fiery spirit and personality.

I believe I remember that her son choose what to put on her tombstone 

and it captures her so perfectly.

And her daughter chose the images around the words.  

Again so very perfect, 

and a great tribute and send off for Mary.

The flowers are from her daughter's and my son's backyard garden.

Some are California natives (Poppies, Rockrose, and Salvia),

 and other delights that are more common 

like Geraniums, Dutch Iris, Carnations and Roses. 

These pictures are from our recent visit with lovely balmy weather.

 Mary is located in the most gorgeous and historical California surroundings,

the Santa Susana Mountains in an area called Rocky Peak Park 

where they filmed many a Western movie back in the day.

If you enlarge this last picture 

you can see the fabulous rock formations which are perfect for climbing.  

In fact there is a popular trail there that the kids want to take me climbing thru.

  They say it isn't too hard for this older lady.

Huh!

My knees get weak just looking at it.

EASTER AND BIRTHDAY BLESSINGS

Funny,

 I never thought in a million years I'd be 68, 

but this is what it looks like after a lot of hard work in the gym, Pilates,

Intermittent Fasting and only 2 meals a day,

 one of which is a big vegie/fruit salad.

Seven pds. lost so far and going for at least 25 more.

I feel like I'm never going to make it,

and it's so hard not to give up.

Plus I love food and I live to eat my ex tells me. 

He on the other hands eats to live and has never has a weight problem.

Ugg!

Everyone tells me I hide it well,

but only because of big blousy shirts.

On another note,

I can only remember 2 other times in my life 

when Easter was on my birthday. 

So this year was double the celebration with my beautiful children,

and my bestest buddy Easton.

We celebrated with an Easter egg hunt 

while E was busy tummy timing it with his music and lights.

I love that my kids still want my ex and I to hide eggs for them.  

They continue to be very competitive siblings.

Can't wait for next year when Easton can participate too.

And color Easter eggs!

My ex hosted at his home

 and my husband drove down to be with his daughter and two grandsons.

It was a very rainy day but my son insisted we still do a barbeque.  

Because it was my birthday the kids did all the cooking 

and it was delicious.

Sadly my ex took a bad fall the day before Easter and was laid up in a sling.

He suffered a broken/cracked humorous and a very swollen leg.

He tripped on a polished wood floor while visiting a friend in the hospital.

It's such a shame because he is still recovering from his heart arrest

and has been doing really well in his physical therapy balance classes.

I had so much fun putting together an Easter bucket for E.  

All was thrifted from our local mountain thrift shop except a brush and comb set.

And if you look closely 

you can see two antique baby rattles from the 50's/60's.

 I picked them up for only 75 cents a piece.

It's so strange to handle plastic that old because it's very brittle.

And of course all the thrifted items got a bath including the stuffed bunny.

What was a little more challenging 

was to draw and watercolor Easton's Easter card.

I haven't done representational figures since I stopped teaching 4 years ago,

so I'm really out of practice.

But it turned out being super fun, 

and my kids thought it was store bought.

Hee hee 

I love when I can surprise them with something I've made.