Okay...these are the things bothering me today.

First of all there are two really stupid commercials on television that I either A) don't get or B) think are dumb! The first one is the Swiffer commercial(s) where the mud and the dirt are attracted to the Swiffer. There is some cheesy 70s romance music and some stupid pick up line. Dumb. Really Dumb. The other one (I really believe there were three, but I can only think of two off the top of my head...oh well) is the subway commercial(s) where adults sound like kids and they are asking about the other's sandwich. In one, a girl wants to be a boy's girlfriend and then takes his sammie and the other one there are like three firemen and they are rock, paper, scissoring for a bite...I don't get it. However, I guess the point of these stupid, meaningless commercials was to get me to remember...it worked.

The other thing...spelling. I am a tremendously wonderful speller...ask my grade school teachers and my mom (just a side note here -- when I was in grade school, they used to give us spelling tests on Thursday and if you got 100% on Thursday, you did not have to take the test on Friday -- I cannot ever remember taking a Friday test...just sayin')! But there are two words I can never spell right, never. It does not matter how many times I have to spell them, I get them wrong EVERY time. The first one us guarantee (damn, I was so close that time!!). There is something about that second A. I never get it. The other word is restaurant (thank you spell check!). That stupid AUR and the middle and "rant" is not pronounced "rahnt". I think these two words are stupidly spelled! Did you notice how guarantee has an U and then an A while restaurant has an A and then a U....?

Let's see...is there anything else I need to rant....pronounced RANT!...about? Crap...I guess not. I wanted to stay on my blog a little while longer, but I got nothing else to say! Back to work, I guess. Or, perhaps, I could ditch work and go to knitting. The Giants are on TV tonight! My favorite past times....knitting while watching my Giants play. I would normally have said Giants win...but, yikes, having a bit of a problem with the W lately! There was a good brawl the other day, but, alas, I missed it! I was at the movies with my man. (a quick side note here...Oh my gosh, went to see the Planet of the Apes movie, it was like....spec - tac - u - lar!! Trent did not really want to see it, it was my pick. I remember watching Planet of the Apes on TV with my uncle when I was a young girl. I was wondering how it all came to be. Well, lo and behold, I found out. It was so good, I almost want to go see it again and I never do that!!) I was rereading this mess and when I said "young girl" of course I meant "younger girl"!!!!!!!! LOL. And...one last thing...Are you ready for some Football? Can you believe this week starts preseason?!? My boys are taking on the Broncos Thursday. I hope we found a leader this year. I am thinking we are going to have a winning season. Hey...wouldn't it be great if my Giants won AND my Boys won!! Color me one happy Velvet!

I just thought of something funny I thought I would share about spelling. Let me preface here first...I work in the medical field and when doctors assess the way you walk, it is referred to as gait. Okay, so a while back I asked my husband in a note to look at the gate....of course the note read, "Trenty, I cannot get the back gait open, can you look at it? V". Hey...it was spelled write (duh, I know)!! LOL! Don't even get me started on bowl/bowel and pleural/plural. But I always get your/you're and their/there/they're right!

Okay...this was one hot mess of a blog post. If you made it this far, thank you for sticking with me!

XOXO

Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes

A movie I watched forever ago and recently came across the other day had this great line in it... "Get busy living or get busy dying." How is it that you want to live your life? You can live each day and look forward to tomorrow or you can live each day and wonder if tomorrow will come. You can look back on your life with regret or you can look back and remember the good times. You can ask yourself a hundred times, "What if?" or you can ask yourself, "Why not?"

I am generally the worrier, the regreter, the "what ifer". Not today. Today, I look back and remember only the good. I chose put those regrets and those if only's in the corner today. Today, I will get busy living.

Today, I will remember those late, late night pizza runs. I will remember the stupid jokes you would tell. I will remember the way you would come down the hall walking that walk. I will remember our banter for curfew. I will remember the walks to the park. I will remember you letting me take the wheel for the first time. I will remember you dragging me outside to learn about my car motor. I will remember me begging you to please not make me go to the parts store (those guys were mean to me!). I remember taking off your boots by straddling your foot and you pushing me with the other foot. I remember dancing on your feet. I remember all of my cuts and scratches that perhaps needed stitches that you took care of for me. I remember the milk carton throwing. I remember your attempts at Spanish. I remember climbing a tree and going too high and you having to come and get me. I remember poker at the "big house." I will remember you breaking your hand by teasing the dog. I remember the phone calls after I moved to California and the worry on your part about earthquakes. I remember how you would always tell me to call you if I needed you. I will remember our last hug only a few weeks before you left and with a little regret, I will regret not holding on for a few extra moments.

Today, I will remember my Daddy, the first man in my life, never letting me fall. Always positive in a world full of negative. Always in my heart.

XOXO

***

Seasons of Love (Rent)

Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes,
Five hundred twenty five thousand moments so dear.
Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes,
How do you measure, measure a year?

In daylight?
In sunsets?
In midnights?
In cups of coffee?
In inches?
In miles?
In laughter?
In strife?

In Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes
How do you measure a year in the life?

How about love?
How about love?
How about love?
Measure in love.
Seasons of love.
Seasons of love.

Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes,
Five hundred twenty five thousand journeys to plan.
Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes,
How do you measure the life of a woman or a man?

In truth that she learned
or in times that he cried?
In the bridges he burned
or the way that she died?

It's time now to sing out
though the story never ends.
Let's celebrate,
remember a year in the life of friends

How about love?
How about love?
How about love?
Measure in love.
Seasons of love.
Seasons of love.

***

New Blog

I thought I would give this a try...a knitting blog. I don't know, we will see if I can keep it up or if I even want to. Hmmm....

Just a quick side note though.... as I was making the new blog, I thought I would take a picture of some yarn and needles to indicate that it is indeed my knitting blog. So, I got some old scrap yarn out of my stash and a pair of needles. I set them all out on the rug looking super good, if I do say so myself, I went to get my camera and when I got back to take the picture....this is what I found.



Fell in love with Maggie all over again! She will NOT be upstaged by my knitting.

The new blog is : Always Knitting....Velvet

http://vlwood2.blogspot.com/

XOXO

Knitting projects....

Thought I would quickly show you all my recent knitting projects....

First of all, I finished Natalie's Giants scarf. It is an illusion scarf meaning that when you look at the scarf from one direction, it looks like just stripes....(http://sites.google.com/site/laurasknits/heartillusionscarfpattern)



BUT....when you look at from an angle...


You see HEARTS!!!!

It was a fun project and it took me way longer than I had anticipated, but it is done and I feel really good about it!

My next project was socks...yes, you did not misread that. I made a pair of socks. I am frickin' amazing! I used double pointed needles (DPNs) and it was my very first project with them ever. I can't tell you have many times I started them and ripped them out and started them again, but it was plenty. So, let me take you through this process....

First of all you have to start with three needles and connect them. You still only technically knit with two at a time, but all four needles are always present:




I then knitted down for 2" for the cuff of the sock:



The next part of the sock is called the heel flap. The heel of the sock is knitted a little thicker for wear purposes. So, this is done with just two needles while the other two needles stay up top:



Then you have to do the "turn." That's right...that heel does not turn on its own:



Then, is the hardest part, at least for me. It is called the gusset. You have to take the heel and hook it, eventually, to the cuff part, getting back to using three needles:



Then you do the length of the sock. Then you have to do the toe shaping. Then you do this stitch to put it all together and .....drum roll....this is what you get:





Thank you, thank you very much. Doing a bunch of sockies for Christmas....be prepared dearest family to wear the best sockies ever!!!

I have a great blog post coming up, maybe tomorrow...stay tuned.

XOXO

To My Daughter ....

Dearest Natalie:

There are a couple of things I want you to know: First, I am so very proud of you. You are such a remarkable young woman. You are beautiful and talented and smart and honest and extremely kind and funny and athletic and so very fun to be around. You brighten my day by just walking into the room. You never give up, even in a fight, even when you are wrong (you can thank your Nana for that!). You make people feel better about themselves when they are around you.

I know this is impossible for you to believe, but the last 12 years have flown by. Heck, my baby girl, the last 18 have gone by in an instant flash. I remember the day you were born: We had scheduled a Cesarean section so they could take you 2 weeks early so you would not be as big as Garrick. I got to pick the day and pretty much the time. From about mid October, people would ask when I was due and my reply would be, "Oh...December 4 at 12:00noon!" It got me a lot of looks but it kinda set the road for us and our relationship. It was the start of what has ended up being a very close friendship between two great girlfriends. It was kind of our first inside joke. You were born December 4th @ 12:34pm...a little late, because you were starting your personality and you were not going to start your life coming on time; people would so start expecting you to be on time! The day you were born, it snowed, a lot; almost a foot. The hospital was quiet. My mom had taken Garrick home and dad had left for bed. It was just you and me in our room. I was laid up and could not get out of bed that first night because of the surgery, but they brought you to me. I remember one of the nurses coming in and asking if I just wanted them to take care of you that night so I could sleep; I remember thinking...ummmmmm NO! So, they brought you into my room and because I could hardly move, they placed you in my arms. I fed you and we slept. All night. You slept in my arms all night your very first night on this earth. We bonded. We had a chat about you and your future and the things I expected. We talked about how boys had cooties, except for daddy and Garrick, of course. We talked about how I was going to dress you in pretty pink dresses and how you were going to like it! We talked about me learning to braid your hair and how you would always be beautiful. I predicted that snowy day that you and I would be best of friends...I think I may have even insistent on it!

We may sometimes fight and you may roll your eyes at me a time too many or I may roll my eyes at you for being too young to understand. We may leave the room once in a while just to get away from the other. We may even say some things that we don't mean and totally regret. But, we are best friends, Natalie. I love you like I love no other girl in the whole wide world. I laugh with you and talk with you about things I just don't with anyone else. I have a friend who told me once that she told her daughter she wanted to get closer to her and her daughter said, "Like Velvet and Natalie are?" (Best compliment ever, BTW.) I don't think we can fake our relationship...I think anyone that knows us, knows who we really are and knows that we definitely like being around the other.

So, my darling baby girl, as you graduate high school today, know that I have never been prouder of you. Know that every day of your life, I have loved you more every day than the day before. I love you more now than that day they brought you and placed you in my arms; this is because I know you now. I know the wonderful woman you are. I know what a tremendous person you are. I know that girl who still takes my breath away every time she walks into a room. As you go on with your life and do all the things that I want you to do, always remember you have my heart, my baby. Always remember that no matter where you are or where I am or how many miles between us, I love you more today than yesterday. Always remember that I am missing you and my heart is never complete and is never full until you are home and under my roof. You will forever be my baby, my Nattie Jo, my sweet, sweet Natalie. And...you will forever be my closest friend.

Loving you,

Mama
XOXO