What a nice holiday weekend! I was busy, but it was good (for the most part)! I was able to take a long run on Saturday, and a nice hike on Sunday. I didn't go to they gym over the weekend, but I'll go tonight. I did a lot of cleaning, shopping (both grocery and clothes!), and caught up all of my laundry. We used the new barbeque three times (did I mention that we pulled our funds and bought a nice barbeque?!! I wanted to buy the cheapest model just to have one. . . my husband always likes the biggest one. . . so we compromised. I put in what I was going to spend on a small one, he put in some money from some side jobs. . . and I sent my youngest with him to pick one out so he didn't overspend! It's big, but it was not the biggest one!! And there is room to upgrade with a rotisserie!!). Anyhow, there is a lot to learn when grilling certain things (like ribs, I'm going to have to try that one again), but we have down hamburgers and steaks fairly well! Oh, and pineapple. I like grilled pineapple!! I was also able to work on my sweater for a bit Monday morning, and find a couple of patterns for ponchos. One I was able to print off and I might try with yarn from around the house. The other is a pretty little one that my youngest picked out and the yarn had to be ordered. But, it will probably come in before I've finished my sweater, so that's okay. Not to mentiont hat I found another shawl pattern I want to do, and I have the yarn for it as well. . . even though I don't wear shawls!!

Life's been a bit hectic. ER with my youngest, now the doctors with both kids. Not to mention my husband's miscellaneous aches and hurts (he wasn't able to run for almost 3 weeks). Work is busy. Hurt my knee. . . complain, complain, complain! There, I'm done complaining! On the plus side, with my youngest daughter it's not her lungs that's hurting. And from what I can tell, it's an ulcer. But the doctor's assistant wants her to do some other test first because he knows better and an ulcer pain is usually lower. . . even though her pain is exactly where my ulcer pain was. . . so. . . we'll listen to the assistant and go through the other tests, and while doing so I am going to buy some more tagamet (or something like that) and keep her on that while we go through this before she can get an upper GI. And if I'm wrong, that's okay. But at least I'm trying to help her feel better along with the doctor's tests! And my other daughter, well she received her referral to the specialist like she wanted - and didn't have to wait a week or two for them to decide to do the referral! So, two on the process of mending. . . My husband's feeling good enough to run walk a few miles again. And my knee, no pain going up and down stairs and I can barely feel it at all now (I hit it on my bike handle bars. . . or did I mention that already?). I've still been able to do my long runs on the weekend, and my shorter runs on the weekdays. Although, I'm having more and more trouble getting up early. . . but it's staying light longer so I'm running after work when I sleep in :-)

On the knitting side. . . I'm almost done with my third try on the running hat. I could have used it tonight. After running on the weeking in 78 degrees, tonight running in 62 degrees felt cold! I wore a thick hat, but it was too much and I had to take it off and carry it half way through the run! Oh well. Like I said, I'm almost done with the third hat! And then I've found a couple of patterns I would like to do for a summer blouse. And as the stress is lightening at work (not quite gone, but will be big time relieved by next week), I'm relaxing and able to knit and read again. But, as the weather turns warmer, I don't want to do those heavy projects. So, I may go back to some socks or smaller hats, just to keep my hands busy and relaxing, but not having to carry the heavy, hot yarn around!

How's that for a *not so quick* update!!

So, it's one day after Mother's Day. . . and how did it go? Well, gifts were received well. My Mother liked the doilies (even the one a different size than she asked for), plus the cute blue beach bag and sun tea container (I bought one of those for myself as well)! And my Mother-in-law likes her speakers that my husband picked out for her. He even took our youngest child to go over there in the evening to show her how to use the music software and put some good classical music on her computer. . . only my youngest does things like I do - which is clicking too fast and setting things up quickly - so I'm not sure she knows how to use it yet! As for me, my youngest gave me a beautiful gold chain (she's been slowly giving me real jewerly - I just love it!); and my oldest gave me a new photo frame for my desk (said she's going to fill it with some nice family photos), a larger case for my CDs, and some games for my pda. . . which reminds me, I need to open it up and load them on!! Then we went to the Angels baseball game, and watched them lose 1-10. Really sad, but I like going to games!! So, all and all it was a pretty nice day. . .
Now the day before. . . I mowed the grass, weeded the front yard, got the car washed, took our dog for shots, took our dog for a bath (I'm going to post pictures of her soon!) and bought some stuff we needed for the house. A really busy, productive day though!

April is over, and I'm rather glad! It was a busy month at work and at home. Work will slow down soon, as it already has here at home.

I was able to finish my new running hat. . . but found the yarn was too small so the whole hat was too small. There was no gauge on the pattern, so there was really no way to tell ahead of time. I took it apart, and now I've added a strand of woolease to it as well. If this works, I will write down my gauge on the pattern and file it away. If it doesn't work, I may just have to put the pattern aside for a while. As for my crocheting, I'm almost done with the last doily - which is good since Mother's Day is in one week. And just a couple of days ago I was complaining about how it's hurting my left hand to hold the yarn and the little pieces while I crochet. Then we went to my husband's aunt's memorial service. . . some very nice things were said about his aunt, and one of them was about how she liked to sew and knit and even having really bad rheumatoid arthritis, she loved to work on her projects without complaining. So, no more complaints from me. I probably won't do another doily for a long time - and when I do it will be spaced apart - but I won't complain since I am able to do it and I luckily do not have any kind of arthritis.