monkeymom's Diaryland Diary
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Sheep in the Big City -- of Rockford
23 February, 2002
Hi Mooksy,
This has been a pretty dull week. I went over to Ruthann�s on hmmm, was it Wednesday? She called and sounded pretty desperate for company, so I took some knitting and we sat at her kitchen table and watched the tail end of You�ve Got Mail. She is expecting her mom to die soon, so she is dealing with that, and not sad about it, because it will be a release for both of them.
Sarah and Inger and I decided that MY mom needs to fly home from AZ this year, so we are working on that plan right now. Sarah is investigating deals on flying Mom home to Michigan on an airline that will allow her to use Oxygen on the flight, so that is one part of the arrangement that is being made. The other thing that we have to work out is who is going to fly back to Michigan with Mom (not me!) and who will drive her terrible van?
My mother isn�t happy about the whole thing, but after the way she went downhill this fall when she went to AZ, we are insisting that she can�t ride home even if Roger drives the entire way. And she has made such a big deal out of Roger�s health problems, telling me that he can�t even drive to Phoenix without suffering chest pains, and a couple of months ago she was talking about the trip they (Gma, Mom, Roger, and Marilyn) want to take the Las Vegas temple, but oh, they will need a couple of days to rest up after a long trip like that (7 hours), I don�t see why she thinks the 3 day trip to Michigan will be better. She is such a nut.
Oh and get this, when Inger got back from visiting Mom in AZ last week, she told me that Mom is yelling at Gma all the time, which I have heard before, so I called her up and told her she can�t treat her mother that way. She tried to tell me how frustrating Gma is, and I explained nicely that we all have frustrating, lunatic mothers, but it is important to be patient and treat them kindly so that when they are lying in their coffins we won�t have to feel guilty for how we treated them. She tried to protest, and I insisted that many people have mothers to deal with, and finally I think she got my drift, that she is a crazy old woman herself, but we all try to deal with it and not yell at her! I almost feel bad about it, because I know it had to hurt her feelings a little, since she doesn�t see herself that way at all, but then I think about her being mean to Gma, and I can�t allow that kind of behavior.
So today Dad and I and Kim went to Rockford to Barnes & Noble. I slept until 1:30 this afternoon since I worked the midnight shift last night, and when I got up Rich was laying on the couch, making up a little song about his diarrhea! He had been complaining of it when I got home in the morning, but he had to go out to a Boy Scout Pow Wow at the church, so I told him to take some Imodium, which he did, but in the afternoon he was claiming it didn�t work. He wanted to go to Rockford, though, so we took a Harry Potter tape (Goblet of Fire) and we went off like a thundering herd of turtles, with Dad continuing to make up verses to his diarrhea song on the way.
We went to Michaels first so that Kim could get some supplies for a school project that would have been cheaper at Walmart, but I am always happy to look at the yarn and patterns at Michaels. I bought another skein of Aran natural white yarn so that I have enough now to make Dad an Aran sweater, and they had a bunch of knitting magazines there, so I bought two � Interweave Knits and Knit N Style. Neither of them is anything to get excited about this time, but still�
Then we went to B&N and Kim scored big there! She had 20 dollars from Harold and Bertha that they sent in her Valentine�s Day card, so she used that to buy the next two books in the Series of Unfortunate Events. Then she found another book in the Young Reader�s department that looks like a cool fantasy book about a young man whose father is a friend of Merlin the magician and the kid is named after King Arthur. It looks good, so I�m looking forward to reading it. Then as we were leaving the kids area, I spotted a book on the Featured table (which is where I first saw Harry Potter), so I grabbed that, too.
Rich didn�t see anything he wanted this time, but we got a Chicago paper because we want to plan an outing with Kim to see a play and a museum and stay overnight in Chicago. I also got a copy of the new Vogue Knitting, which has a beautiful cabled sweater in it, but sadly, it�s sleeveless! It would be possible to use the cable design on another sweater though, and add sleeves. It�s really pretty. I bought one paperback mystery, but when I got it home, I found that I had already read it, so that was disappointing, but I�ll give it to someone as a gift. Maybe Sarah.
Sarah has been knitting baby gifts for her friends! She is using some Debbie Bliss designs from one book that we both have, called Celtic Knits, and then she went to her LYS to buy a needle or something and ended up with another Debbie Bliss book that she is making some little fancy baby socks with!
I�ve been knitting hats from a cool pattern that I got off of the internet, but I think I�m about done making them now. It�s fun to do and very easy, too, so I�ve made 4 and given away 3. I also made that DNA hat for Scott from a similar pattern. I ordered a Norwegian � patterned hat online and got the kit on Friday so I worked on that last night and then did some more today. I can�t read while knitting it because the color pattern is too complex, but I can watch TV, sort of.
What else am I working on? I still have the blue sweater that was too big for Bertha, and I am halfway down the first sleeve. It�s from that Tunic for the family pattern. I have the two Dale sweaters, both languishing in their baskets, and a top-down raglan sweater that I started for myself just to have something mindless to work on.
Yesterday I ordered 4 sweater patterns from a site on the internet � all four of them are knitted circularly from the top down and come in largish sizes, so those will be fun to do. I�ll look for yarn for them at the Fiber Fair, which is coming up in April!! Whoo hoo!
Last night I had an interesting night at work. This is my weekend for the 3 midnight shifts, and last night was night 2 of 3. When I was about to start the reports, the computer system went down, and everyone in the hospital was calling to tell me, while I was paging the on-call person as fast as I could. We ended up with both Carole and Jeff coming in and staying most of the night, and for a while there was a maintenance man and an electrician here, too. It was pretty darned exciting, and I loved all the company.
Tonight there is still some fallout from the problems of last night, so I have a little extra work to do with the reports, because I couldn�t do the whole thing last night. The maintenance guy has to do some more work, too, so he�ll be around later.
Kim and I read some of All Creatures Great and Small tonight. She needs to read some books for AR points because she isn�t getting the grades she should be in that class. She picked out two big thick books that earn more points, but they are both written for a more adult audience. I think she will enjoy All Creatures once she gets started on it.
I fell asleep after we read that, and she went downstairs and colored one of those velvet marker posters that she bought at Michaels. It is a big picture of a dragon and she is doing a nice job on it. I saw it before I went to work.
Oh, she told me the other day she thought she was getting her (whisper) period (!) because she was having some pain in that area. I told her to take some advil, and then later I stuck my head into her room and said that when Aunt Fifi (wink) comes for a visit, I bought her a new package of pads. She looked a little confused when I mentioned Aunt Fifi, and when she finally got it, she said that if I had said she was having the painters in, she would have understood it! Haha! We read that in a British book and we both thought it was pretty funny, but I forgot about it. I�ll have to try to remember to use it.
Scott has spent a quiet week in the dorm. BYU had a break this week during the Olympics, and a lot of people went home, including his roommate, but Scott stayed and has been reading and playing video games. Some of the Olympic hockey games were played at BYU�s ice arena, and I tried to get him to go watch one, but he didn�t do it.
Kim wasn�t interested in the Olympics at all in at first, and I had to work 3-11 most of last week, so I have hardly seen anything, but Rich and I watched some ski jumping and speed skating, and some bobsled. We also watched some of the Ice dancing, and a little bit of curling � by the way, no one in IL knows about curling! Then on Friday night, Kim got interested in the women�s figure skating competition and she and I stayed up watching it until it ended right before I had to go to work at 11. It was very exciting, and there was ample opportunity for crying over it, too. Of course, you know what Kim wants to do now�that�s right, take skating lessons! We�ll see about that, but I�m hoping she loses interest in that, soon. She hasn�t mentioned it since Friday night, so maybe she�s over it.
26 February, 2002
I finally got a letter from you yesterday! I�m so happy to hear from you, and I can�t wait to hear more about the food and what you�ve been doing! I can�t believe those people who don�t want to talk you! Who wouldn�t want to talk to a beautiful little girl like you?
I talked to Scott on the phone last night and he has enlisted the girls in his FHE group to help find out who stuck the mystery valentine on his door. They made him promise that when they found out who it was, he would ask her out, and he said he would. Isn�t that cute?
I�m going out with Ruthann to the grocery store in a few minutes. That�s all I�ll get done today since I slept until noon and have to go to work at 3. I couldn�t sleep last night after I worked midnights all weekend, so at about 3 I took a pill, and finally went to sleep after I finished my book at 4!
Love you boo-
Mumsy
12:20 p.m. - 2002-02-23
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