LWML Portland Convention and more...

This is a picture of my roommate and fellow Floridian, Juanita!  We spent the entire convention together and she is such an amazing person!  Here we are at our dinner with President Jan Wendorf who reminded us that we are all princesses because our Father is the King!  Honestly, I have never really thought of that, and it was really nice!  That is one thing from the convention that I will never forget!  Juanita and I are already planning on going to our district retreat together and future national conventions! 

This is a picture of Crysten Sanchez who I worked with at camp many years ago!  I was really excited to see that she was also going to be a YWR at the convention!  I didn't have much time to sit and talk to her, but it was really nice to see her!  Check her out on facebook because she has made some of the most gorgeous looking cakes! She has a real talent, people!

Here's a picture of Juanita and I working on our servant event project.  We tied quilts and we met some really awesome women while doing this!  It also has me thinking of some great service projects that I could do with ladies of my congregation! 

Here's a picture of the ladies that I hung out with during the convention.  What cracked me up is that most of them are nothing like the people that I normally hang out with, but they just loved that I am from "Hollywood".  They are amazing children of God!  Tina, who is standing on the left side of me in this picture, is a friend of Margaret's from college!  It really is a small lutheran world! 

This picture is not from the convention at all, it is from the night before I left.  This is Margaret and I when we went to see STOMP for her birthday!  I wanted to surprise her and bring her to something musical, so I didn't tell her where we were going until we were in the parking garage!  It was cute to see how excited she was!  It was also nice to surprise her with a fun outing!  She is an amazing person and I am truly blessed to have her in my life!  As you can see, I was supporting the Johnny Cash outfit this evening!

The Birthday!

It is true, people, that Saturday was my birthday!  I enjoyed my day quite a bit!  I started my fun with spending some time on the phone with my parents and with my grandmother!  It was quite nice.  Then, Margaret and I went out and got haircuts.

Here we are showing off our haircuts that we got at the Aveda Institute.  I have heard a lot about going there, but never been there.  So, Saturday was the day.  It was nice.  Margaret had some coupons, so we got free haircuts.  For the people being students, they did quite well.  And they wear all black which I realized while waiting for Margaret is a very slimming color.  I may switch to being Johnny Cash and wearing all black.  We'll see!

After the hair fun, we went over to Joy's house and Carol, Darla and Christina joined us.  We had a fondue party which I had never done before and it was a lot of fun.  It was really nice!

Here is Margaret, Ronnie, Carol and Christina enjoying the fondue.  In the front right corner, you can see Joy's arm.  That is the only picture that I got of her that evening because she was always in the background. 

Here is Darla and Christina enjoying dinner!

Then we played some games and opened gifts!  I really dislike opening gifts in front of other people because I am afraid that I am not going to be as excited as they would expect me to be when I open the gift.  I enjoyed all of my gifts and I don't think that they should have gotten me anything, but it was very kind of them!

I think that I am telling a story here about Brent and I at Sweet Tomatoes.  That is the only thing that I can think of that I would have had everyone looking at me so intently.  Christina helped some with the gift opening!

Then we had cake.  Joy slaved hard to make me this gluten free cake which was really hard and wasn't as pretty as she wanted it to be, but I loved it because I could eat the whole thing and not worry about feeling ill later!  Carol and Margaret were having a hard time choking down their pieces, but it was good! 

I had a really awesome day and I was glad that I got to spend it with people that I really care about!  They are wonderful!

The Talent Show and Stuff...

On Thursday, Lynette and Jerry were over and we had eaten dinner and Lynette was just sitting there and was like, "Do you have any yarn and a hook?  Will you teach me to crochet?" and so, I did.  Here is a picture!

Tonight was the talent show, so I played the piano again.  I played "A Spanish Fiesta" and "Amazing Grace".  Here is my awesome piano teacher and myself!

I was quite happy because I didn't stop when I messed up and I didn't shake my head.  Both are very big accomplishments for me!  I achieved my goal, I made my piano teacher proud!

Recent Projects and Upcoming Projects

So, I decided to write a bit about knitting and crocheting since I haven't really had that much going on lately, but I always am working on something. 

Right now my digital camera is broken and my mom is sending me one for my birthday with my aunt when she visits next week!  So, some of these have been taken on my cell phone.  Pictures of my other projects will be added soon!

Here is a picture of a diaper bag that I made for Janine and Rocco's little boy, Caleb Joseph! 

I found the pattern on the back of a skein of yarn label and thought it was cute and would give it a try!  It was a lot of fun to knit.  I didn't like the fur stuff that I used, but Janine was a big fan of that, so I used it on this pattern.  It was relatively simple to make, but I did not enjoy sewing it together after it was finished!  Janine emailed me to say that she loves it!

Here is a picture of a preemie hat that I made for Josh and Jamie's new little girl, Zoe!  I used a pattern that I found online with hearts in it. 

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This was not a hard pattern at all if you are good with double pointed knitting needles.  It was cute when I finished it because I was at book club and everyone got excited when I turned it the right way and got to see it!  Jamie emailed me and said that she loves it and can't wait to put it on Zoe.  I saved the rest of the skein to use as edging on a baby blanket that I am working on for Zoe right now.  I will try to put a picture of that up when I finally finish it and get it in the mail!

This is a jacket that I am making for my aunt, Sharla, who is coming to visit on Friday.  I made this pattern for myself in college and my aunt apparently loved it enough to ask me to make one for her, so I bought some yarn and got cracking on that.  It was a lot of fun to make again because there were things that I did differently this time and it isn't nearly as long as the last one that I made. 

I will let you know how she likes it when she gets here on Friday. 

Some other things that I am working on right now are:
-a dishcloth and towel set for Lynette's birthday
-Zoe's V-Stitch baby blanket
-an afghan for Joy

I am soon going to be making an afghan for the Hoyum's also...I just picked out the pattern out of a magazine that Valerie has and I am going to knit Sarah some socks with some sock yarn that I bought for her! 

I am also teaching a second grader named Samantha how to crochet on Wednesday afternoons.   She is such a delight to teach!  She really is getting a good grasp on it and is making her Barbie's a little blanket right now.  I am trying to decide what I should have her work on next.  I was thinking that she could just make a longer chain and make her dolls a blanket and then when she has finished that, she could start learning the double crochet.  Then I will start her on reading patterns.  That is so much trickier than people think!  This has been really fun because it really makes me think about how I crochet and the things that make it what it is! 

The Update

Well, it has been a bit since I updated.  We had National Lutheran Schools Week this past week which had a ton of interesting happenings. My personal favorites were the volleyball game that the staff played against the middle school (middle school won) and mini-olympics/Grandparents day!  When we were playing our VB game, I realized that if Lynette and I were ever on a sports team together growing up, I wouldn't like her, so it is good that we don't play in a sport regularly because I love that girl! 

Then on Friday night after I got home from babysitting Christina, I got an email telling me that I am accepted to be the LWML YWR for FL/GA at the National Convention in Portland this June!  I am really excited!  I texted Carol to call me when she woke up on Saturday and she texted me back that she was still up, so I called her and was so excited to tell her and I didn't want to call Gayle because I don't know when she goes to bed.  But I got to tell Gayle in person on Saturday when I picked her up for a meeting which was so awesome because she wrote my letter of recommendation and really has encouraged me to keep going with this!  Gayle and Carol have been so amazing and so supportive with this that I can't even put it into words! 

On Friday after Darla and Jason got home, Darla and I were talking about gardening because she has a nice garden out in her back yard.  She was telling me that her secret was composting and I got to thinking, "Why don't I compost?  I eat a lot of produce and various composting stuff." So, I decided that I will start doing that to improve my soil in my flower bed in the front yard.  Perhaps I can grow some tomatoes, carrots, and peppers up there.  Maybe even some onions and rutabega.  Darla and I will have to have some more talks about this.  Plus, my house plants can grow better with compost also.  So, I am composing a plan. 

I talked to my mom on Saturday and she hasn't been feeling too well and she is going to have some tests done on Wednesday to see what is wrong.  Today she told me that she is feeling a little bit better and she just hopes not to have to have surgery. 

I also went over to Joy's on Saturday and helped with Ronnie for a little while and worked out on the Wii Fit.  I have lost a few pounds since I was on there last time.  It was really nice to spend some quality time with them.

I went to BJs today and bought a good amount of food.  I have a lot of broccoli to eat in the next few days, but I like it and don't mind eating it a lot.  I might make Lynette a bit of the salad that she is so fond of with broccoli! 

I am off to finish some much needed things!  Blessings on your week!

Also, my camera died, so until my aunt visits in a month, we will be pictureless!