Thank you all!

It is gratifying to see how one life can touch another. It is humbling to see how a tiny girl who can't speak or walk can touch perfect strangers. Thank you to all of the people we have heard from in the support groups we are a part of and because of the article in The Daily Times this past Saturday. We have received letters of encouragement and suggestions on looking for the missing chair. Thank you! There have been offers of wheelchairs to use for Princess Junior while we wait to see what will happen on getting her a new chair - some from out-of-state. Thank you! We have heard from a several people who may be able to help a new wheelchair happen if the insurance won't replace the stolen one. Thank you! And we have been gifted with a pediatric special needs stroller by a local family who's daughter no longer needed it. It will serve her better than the loaner we have that was made for a self-propelling child. Thank you! There have even been donations made to the Room Addition Room Addition/Wheelchair Fund. Thank you!

What else can we say??? Thank you just doesn't seem to really cover it but it's all I can come up with. Please know that you have made a difference to many people by your caring. 


If someone missed the article drop me an e-mail.

Princess Junior in the paper!

Princess Junior's day nurse stopped and picked up a copy of the local paper for us this morning. There was Princess Junior - sitting in a skybox on the front page. The actual article is over 3/4 of a page in the A section of the paper and there is a HUGE picture! WOW! If you want to read/see it, e-mail me.

Because of the wheelchair theft we have been forced to expand the fund-raising scope to cover whatever her need is. Right now, it's the wheelchair, if the insurance company won't cover it. If they do cover it then we will again focus on the room enlargement.

And we didn't get the projected amount of snow. BOO... HISS..... As a matter of fact we are heading out to run an errand in a bit as the roads seem to be doing ok.

Throws and scarves...

I posted some scarves and throws on the Princess' blog. All proceeds will go to her building fund.

And thanks to all who have submitted recipes! We still need more so keep them coming, please. :)

If any of you that visit would like to help with a project...

WE NEED RECIPES!!!

If you would like to participate in this project you can find out more and how you can participate on Princess Junior's blog. Just click here.

Found: One set of keys - well hidden!

I think it was a conspiracy but the lost keys have been found. I asked Princess Junior's nurse this morning if she had found her keys and she said she had. She said she was embarrassed because they were in a pocket she hadn't checked. Personally I think she did it on purpose just so I could go by the post office to drop some things in the mail that I had forgotten to mail while Dak and I were out. :) But if that's her story...

Today is Dak's birthday. He is now... older than he was last year. I gave him his present to open last night. Two Princess Junior coffee mugs! He loves them!

These and other things are available as fund raisers for Princess Junior's room. CLICK HERE

The idea was for Dak to have his coffee in one this morning but GamerBoy made him (and me and GamerBoy) a most excellent breakfast of french toast with maple flavored sausage patties. Dak didn't want that to get cold while he made the coffee (GamerBoy doesn't do coffee) so he had a soda instead. (I had suggested the french toast because I knew that Dak likes it. He didn't used to but now he likes french toast better than pancakes. He just forgets to look for it on menus because pancakes are usually offered as side items or more advertised.)

Last night we watched "Mama Mia". I now know why a friend of mine said she sat through it swaying her arms and singing along. We even played it with the sing along option but we're not sure that was much, if any, different than the regular version. I enjoyed it but had a really hard time listening to Pierce Brosnon singing. OUCH! Dak liked it too and he isn't a big musical fan. (I am!) I let Princess Junior's night nurse watch it after we went to bed and her day nurse is watching it now. I'd say I got my dollar's worth on that one. :) Today we are going to watch the new Eddie Murphy movie "Meet Dave".

Is it too early in the day for popcorn???????

Ever not want to do anything???

I would have absolutely loved to pull the covers back up and snuggle in for a few more hours sleep this morning. I'm not really tired but it would have been so cozy and quiet. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) I know that for several reasons I just couldn't do that. #1 reason is that there are too many other things to do. #2 reason is that I would feel worse afterward. It never fails... If I sleep too long or take an extra long nap I wake up feeling worse than I did. So I try and avoid that. :)

It wasn't a half bad morning. I have actually gotten some things done and GamerBoy (aka ChefKidlet) poked around in the kitchen and ended up making delicious cinnamon rolls! Yummy!!!

Princess Junior has a secondary insurance due to her medical conditions and the company that held the contract this year does not have the contract for next year so we had to choose another company. I managed to get it changed rather easily and fairly quickly. I called the number her case manager at the old insurance gave us. The woman I spoke to there was rather businesslike, asking tons of questions. All the usual stuff, name, SS#, address, phone, birth date... only to then tell me that I needed to call another number. Excuse me... wouldn't it have made more sense to ask me what I was calling for first??? It would have saved her and I about five minutes. I called the new number and after giving them her Name, SS# and a phone number "where I can be reached during the day" I was done. That was it. I should be getting a new insurance card and handbook in the mail and she is ready to go as of January first. I'm still a bit skeptical that it is actually done but hey, I made the call. As for which company to go with, it wasn't a hard choice. All the doctors and the local Children's Hospital seem to have some inside knowledge so we went with the company they are accepting. A no brainer there... What good is insurance if the docs and hospital won't take it? Now I'm waiting to hear back from the nursing agency so I can update them on the situation.

Last night Dak and I drove to the mall. It was a bittersweet trip and not due to the fact that I don't usually do malls. I've never really liked them and these days my back and knees really don't like them either. But we were just going to the parking lot so my knees weren't rebeling. :) It was the reason that we were going that was getting to me. We tend to use the mall parking lot as a meeting spot for our Craigslist dealings. Neutral ground, everyone can find it, etc. Well I had listed a Little Bear game that we had for Princess Junior that she can't play with. It was still in the shrink wrap. We were meeting a woman whose 4 year old is obsessed with the Little Bear character. Her daughter will now be getting the game for Christmas. It does make me feel good that she will enjoy it but at the same time I am confronted with the fact that my daughter is different and there are things like this that she can't do. We should be buying Barbies and bicycles and playing tea party (I made GamerBoy promise when she was just born to do that with her.) and instead I order medical supplies once a month and make sure medications are stocked and we make it to doctor's appointments. Don't get me wrong... I LOVE my daughter tremendously, just like she is. But I do wish things weren't so difficult for her. It's so hard to look in those eyes and know that there is something that she wants to say, she just doesn't know how. She is the absolutely ONLY reason I would want to be able to read someones mind.

Since today is Wednesday I'll be taking GamerBoy to play with the ponies this afternoon. It's actually equine therapy so it's good for him. If he'll let it be good for him. But he tends to want instant results and that ain't how it happens in the real world. The ponies (mini horses actually) are adorable and he really does good with them. He is even paying for the sessions himself. I'm proud of that kid. Today he may work with one of the regular horses, Charley. He's gonna have a Charley horse! LOL!!! I've been kidding him all week that he's "graduating" since he might move on to a bigger horse. I'd better watch out... He may chose my nursing home some day. :)

I started a new Crochet project last night. Like I really needed a new WIP. Several years ago I bought some roll around book cubbies from Office Depot. I have my yarn and books stored in/on them. They each have ab out 12 cubbie holes and are on really heavyduty wheels so easy to move around. I would love to have 2-3 more for yarn and another dozen of them to use around the house! So I went to the cubbies and picked some yarn colors I thought went well together and it ended up being colors that I wouldn't have normally picked and I really can't remember why I even bought them. I chose HL's "I Love This Yarn" in turquoise and seaspray ombre.

I'm just making a simple granny square throw, alternating colors each row, but I'm really liking how it's looking. And I really love how soft the yarn feels. Another throw for the building fund fundraising stash!

I also may have a commission piece to work on. A colleague of Dak's liked one of the throws on the PDF I sent out but the colors wouldn't work in her house. So we are in "negotiations" I guess you'd say. She wants it bigger (blanket sized) and in different colors. No problem. It will be fun to do.

The list of things to do isn't getting any shorter... horses, pharmacy, grocery store, bank, bills, and on and on... I'm outa here...

I'm a blog virgin no more...

Ok... This is all Terri's fault. And she calls herself a friend...

I guess I have blogged before but it was a rare post on a blog my husband set up regarding our youngest daughter. I don't count that. This one is MINE...

What will I write about... Hmmm... That's a good question. Most definitely my yarn addiction and my daughter, Princess Junior, will be subjects. And I expect that the rest of the kidlets (GamerBoy, Chatty, Skellyson, Firstborn and her husband) and my wonderful hubby, Dak, as well as other family and friends will pop up from time to time. And I'll probably pass on cool things that I find floating around around in cyberspace. After all, word of mouth advertising is what I tend to trust the most.

I can tell you a couple things that I will stay away from. Politics and religion. Both are things that I think are personal. I take the stance that you are entitled to your own beliefs and opinions, and I mine. So I won't blather on about things here. Besides, I find that yarn is a much, much warmer subject.

So here we go......................................

Dak and I have been married since 2000. Makes it easy to remember how many years, doesn't it? Now if I can just remember what the date was.

We have a blended family. GamerBoy is mine, Chatty, Skellyson and Firstborn are his and Princess Junior is ours. GamerBoy, Chatty and Princess Junior live with us. Skellyson and Firstborn have been on their own for a while. Firstborn just got married a few weeks ago. Aren't they cute?

We have a nice house on just over half an acre. Dak would like more trees and, to be honest, I would too. We've got a couple in the front yard that are trying to grow but it will be quite a while before they offer shade for anything more than a bird. We have been trying to grow another in the backyard but it just doesn't want to grow.

I've been crocheting for ages... my grandmother taught me when I was about 8 I guess. I am addicted to yarn and especially love variegated colors. I tend to gravitate toward pinks and purples, pastels and brights, and also like the black, white and red combo. Odd selection, no? I don't do (unless I have to) greens or browns, and I never (unless it is absolutely, under no circumstances can I get out of it, necessary) do orange. I didn't like orange before I moved to Tennessee in '85 and I hate it even more now.

I love making blankets and throws. Since you can only use so many of those I have a small stock of them. I also have built up a small stash of scarves. Both the blankets and the scarves are being sold to raise money towards a much needed building project for our daughter. Our youngest, Princess Junior, was born with a rare chromosome disorder and requires around the clock nursing due to multiple medical conditions. She does have her own room but it has gotten smaller and smaller as her equipment needs have expanded and as she grows. We are working on funding a room addition to the house so that we can give her the master bedroom and small retreat space that we are currently in. This would make it much, much easier for her nurses to care for her and give Princess Junior more space where we could work with her for therapies and education. I'll put up a separate post of what I have available. Anything earned from these will go in the Princess Junior building fund.

Current WIPs are a couple blankets that I am just finishing up. Weaving tails, adding borders, etc. They will probably end up on the building fund page. I also am finishing up a sweater that I originally started for Princess Junior but she can't wear it now due to her tracheotomy. I'll post that to so some little girl can enjoy it.

We've been clearing out things around here. Last weekend we cleaned out the utility room. Who needs 4 picnic baskets?!? I've recently listed things on Craigslist and we have also have made several substantial donations to Goodwill. And there is more to come. Yarn, however, gets passed on to a friend who shares it with a group that she crochets with. I know they have, in the past, made hats (and scarves?) for a Christmas shop for underprivileged children to "shop" at. I'd say the yarn finds it's needed home!

Later...