This was supposed to me my return to blogging post

Well, I guess better late than never to start all of this again. I haven't done much blogging or photographing of my knitting in the past 2 years. It isn't that i haven't been knitting and crocheting, I just didn't feel like doing it. I have decided to start again. These are 3 dishcloths that I made for my business partner for her birthday. I am attaching the links to the patterns for those who are interested in making the same dishcloths.

Dishcloth #1





Dishcloth #2

Dishcloth #3

This was not how I wanted to start blogging more

I wanted to be blogging about my knitting. I never expected to be blogging about Sasha passing. I guess we are doing ok. Yesterday coming home from work was a little rough. She was always the first cat to greet me when I walked through the door. Yesterday, it was Misty that greeted me. I don't think she thought it felt right either.

Darrin had a little of a hard time. He came out of our bedroom (where Bandit is in seclusion) and petted the 4 cats that were waiting for him. He kept waiting for Sasha to come stomping up the stairs (how something so little could make so much noise, I will never figure out). I was in our computer room at that point and Darrin came into the room in tears and hugged me.

This morning I realized something else that she did. She would jump up on the bed and stomp across my pillow to wake me up.

The morning before she passed, I should have paid more attention. I should have noticed that she wasn't acting the same. Yes, she was sleepy, but she would usually wake up enough to play with the wrapping paper when I was wrapping something. I should have listened to the voice in my head that was telling me to stay home, but I didn't. I wish I could have done something more for our Ooo Ooos. She was so young. She shouldn't have gone this young.

The cats keep looking for her. Zeus keeps going to the step that Sasha died on and sniffing and looking for her. Misty and Angel keep sniffing the towel that we carried her to the car in. I figured I should leave the towel there for them for a while. Bandit still has to be by himself until he is done with the meds. We also have to keep an eye on him to make sure he is eating and drinking...he hasn't started really doing much of either. Although he has perked up a little. He has been getting on the bed with us instead of staying on the back of the chair and looking ot the window. He walked around the bedroom last night and tried to do one of his typical things when he has a water bowl - he tried to flood the bedroom with it by knocking it over. This morning will be his dose 4 of 15. I am not looking forward to those last few doses. By that point, he will be fighting us more.

I guess that is all for today. If you have a pet, give them and hug and tell them that you love them.

Bandit Update

We brought Bandit to the emergency clinic tonight. We have been really worried about him with the sniffles. He has been getting worse. In the past 2 weeks, he lost 2 pounds. They ran blood work and urine testing on him and concluded that he has an elevated white blood cell count. He has concentrated urine with a high protein level. But his kidney and liver function is fine. He is on antibiotics for a week. The vet thinks he needs an abdominal ultrasound. We are going to wait and see how he is after the antibiotics. At this point, I am hoping and praying that he is going to be ok. After going through what we went through with Sasha last night, we need him to be better.

RIP Sasha "Ooo Ooo Baby Girl" August 24, 2007 - January 8, 2011

I know I am going to have a hard time with this post. I know I have to get all of this out. One of our other cats, Zeus is lying under the desk while I type this, purring up a storm like he always does. He must know that he is helping me to be calm.

One of our cats, Sasha, passed away last night. We were out at the Empire and Eastern Holiday dinner and when we got home, I was walking up the stairs to feed the cats. I found her lying on the stairs and she was unresponsive. I screamed for Darrin. We hadn't taken a close look yet and we thought it was Bandit, our cat who has had the sniffles and is going to the vet today to get checked out. We started CPR, wrapped her in a towel and sped off to the emergency clinic. She was still warm at this point. By the time we got there and handed her to the vet, she was gone.

Sasha was born on August 24, 2007. She was the kitten of Bandit and Misty. Darrin and his mom helped with the birth. I was not around at this point. Darrin and I were just friends. Sasha was the first one born. She had 2 siblings; Zeus and Angel. They were born in that order. Here is a photo of Sasha a few days after she was born. She is being held by my mother in law.

This is another photo with her and her siblings nursing from Misty. Sasha is the one in the middle, Zeus is cuddling Misty, Angel is the one on the end.



This is a photo of Sasha with Angel and Zeus. Again, Sasha is the one in the middle and, Angel is next to her and Zeus is barely visible in the frame on the bottom.




These are some photos that I took with Darrin's camera after I moved in. This is one of her and Zeus on the stairs...their favorite place to hang out and wait for us to get home. Toward the end, Sasha had taken a liking to wait for me to come home on the chair by the front door. I am really going to miss seeing her squint at me when I walk in the door after work. Zeus is on the left, Sasha is on the right.




Sasha LOVED windows. She loved to watch the birds and squirrels and talk to them. She was such a talkative kitty. A lot of the time she would just walk through the house, just talking to herself and then look at me to see if I agreed with what she was saying. I am really going to miss our conversations.




This one was taken on a winter's day in 2008 when we opened the windows to air out the house. As you can tell, they all loved the open window. Sasha is the one looking at the camera, as if to say "This is MY window, please tell them to leave!". Left to right: Angel, Misty, Zeus, Bandit, Sasha.



Sasha adored boxes. Didn't matter what size the box was, she had to get into it.







She was a very diplomatic cat. She rarely fought with the other cats. Sasha was always there for them to lean on and cuddle with if one of the other cats needed it. This is a photo of her and Zeus on a pile of Darrin's laundry.




This is a photo of her just chilling with Angel.




This is another photo of her cuddling with Zeus. She was his pillow, kind of like my sneakers are his pillow at the moment. Guess he is telling me I can't go anywhere until I finish this!


This is my all time favorite photo of Bandit and Sasha. You can tell they are father and daughter. I just love the love that existed between them. Bandit is on the left, Sasha is on the right.




Even when we brought Monte in, she loved him. They were buddies right from the beginning. They may not have cuddled together, but they had each other's back. These photos are from when Monte was a few month old.






The one thing she didn't like was when another cat tried to share the catnip on her. She loved her catnip.


I am really going to miss her helping me out around the hosue. She used to love hanging out in the kitchen, meowing at me with enthusiasm to tell me that I was cooking something wrong. She also love to lay on the laundry when I was trying to fold socks. Sasha also loved to attack the sheets when I was making the bed.














One of the things she knew how to do was get comfortable ANYWHERE! She adored being on my crocheted afghans. She liked to knead them while she was falling asleep.










This is the last photo I got of Sasha while she was helping me wrap our friend's daughter's birthday present yesterday morning. She was fine then. She was a little tired, but she always is sleepy at that time of the day because she is up all night. Misty was with her in this photo.


I still can't believe that she is gone. It just happened so quick and Darrin and I are still in shock. Some people may think I am nuts for loving our cats this much, but Darrin and I don't have any kids at this point. Our cats are our kids. I am going to leave you with Rainbow Bridge.

Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge.
When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge. There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together. There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable.

All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor. Those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by. The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind.
They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. His bright eyes are intent. His eager body quivers. Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster.

You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.

Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together....

Author unknown...

Starting of a New Year

I have decided that one of my New Year's Resolutions is going to be blogging about my knitting more. I am going to have to force myself to do this at first because I haven't done this in so long. I needed to have period of self renewal...I needed to find myself again. Now I have a lot of thoughts in my head to get out and I just need to get my thoughts organized before I start. Hopefully I will get these thoughts organized soon and get back to posting photos of my knitting and letting all of you know what is going on.

Until then, have a Happy and Safe New Year.

Things are still plugging along

So much that I don't have any time to do any posts.

Things that have gotten accomplished since the last post...

Backyard got cleaned up...still have to do the garage...front yard still needs cleaning...house still needs painting...

So far today I am getting 2 loads of laundry done, and the dinner is in the crock pot for once!

I think I have gotten about 5 dishcloths done to sell, I now have another project of making dishcloths for Darrin's pastor who is retiring.

Got the birthday gift of handmade soaps and lotion done for Darrin's future brother in law...did I remember to bring it to the Memorial Day? NOOOOO!!!!

Mother Daughter banquet is at my church on Monday...Darrin's mom and sister are going with my mom and I.

Darrin's car got washed, claybarred, and 1 layer of wax...mine...hasn't even gotten washed since I got it.

I changed the spark plugs in my car with some help from the guys in our car club.

Wedding plans are still moving forward...working on guestlist and caterer.

Other than that, I guess there is nothing going on! LOL

Holy Lack of Posts, Batman!!

I haven't been on here in FOREVER!!! My fiance and I have been doing a lot of cleaning up in and around the house lately. It just became time to get rid of a lot of the crap in our lives, clear out things from our past that we no longer need and move on with our lives. It is still a work in progress, but we are getting there. We both go through phases of going at the mess gun ho, and then we both get fed up with everything and just give up for a while. We are at a give up for a while phase. The office went through a MAJOR purge, the attic has been going through a purge so we can put our stuff up there, and we have been working on the mess in our backyard and garage. One of my goals is to get the dining room clean. It really became a catch all for both of us. When I moved in, that was where everything got dumped and it was the same thing for him. We are finally getting stuff put where it needs to be or just getting rid of it. It has taken us quite a while to get to this point, and it is going to take a lot of work to get through it, but we will.

My fiance is still unemployed. He has had a couple of "helping out a friend" type jobs, but there aren't really any steady jobs out there. My business has been slow, but it is finally starting to pick up a little. I am still trying to get things knitted and crocheted so we have Christmas gifts to give out and so I can try to sell some things online. We shall see how that goes.

In other news, this past Saturday, I did most of the work and changed my spark plugs in my car. I know, knits, photographs, works on her car, and she's a girl??? It is just something I always wanted to do. Yeah, it isn't a typical "girl" thing...but so what? I want to do it, I am going to do it. Yeah, I got picked on a litte, but who cares? It isn't going to stop me.