Death

These last two weeks my family has been hit by death.  A tragic, unexpected, heart-breaking death.  One of my parent's closest friends, a beautiful lady whom I have known for over 30 years,  passed over and we said our goodbyes to her on Sunday and Monday.  I have been hit by her death harder than any other I've ever experienced.  Maybe because other close deaths I've known have been grandparents who, while still very sad, are not unexpected.  I find myself waking, like I have an internal alarm clock, every night for the past 2 weeks at 3.18am in the morning - I wake, I roll over, look at the clock and it's always the same time.  Then I toss and turn for a couple of hours and over and over in my head is my Mum telling me and my feeling of disbelief - that first inital thought of 'no, she didn't just say that, I must have misheard'. 

On top of that we found out a couple of months ago that a very much loved family member is terminal and I also find myself thinking often of him.  Bracing myself for the inevitable, hoping that it's later rather than sooner, trying to think of what to say when we see him.  It's very hard.

I'm very tired and I'm sure my eyes look like I have an extreme case of hayfever they're so puffy.  In fact when I went back to work yesterday even my male co-workers were asking if I was OK so I figured I really must look as bad as I felt!!

I'm not ashamed to admit I'm very, very scared of death.  The fragility that is life, something that can be taken in a second, a bad decision, a wrong turn.  The visit to the Dr for a cold that won't clear to walk out knowing you don't have long left.  And not just my own, but my husband, children, parents and friends.  The people who are nearest and dearest to me.

About now re-reading my post sounds like I'm having a little pity party here on the computer all for myself but I'm not.  I just wanted to impart to those of you reading to celebrate your life and those of your loved ones.  Work and money is not everything.  Take the time to relax and enjoy your life and hug someone and tell them you love them everyday.  Live for the moment because you really don't know what is around the corner.

Ravelry

If you're a knitter out there then I'm sure you know what Ravelry is.  If not then you need to go to http://www.ravelry.com/ and join.  If you're not a knitter - don't bother - it won't interest you (and I mean that in the nicest possible way - it's a total knitting community!).

I however, love Ravelry.  I've found projects and patterns to do and seen yarn to drool over.  I've joined many groups and made lots of friends, both here in Lower Hutt and overseas.  One such group was the button and stitch marker swap group.  The idea behind it was that we were given one person to send a small parcel to which included 6 buttons and 6 stitch markers.  I sent off my parcel to my swap buddy and patiently waited for mine to arrived.

In record time it turned up and WOW!!!  Was I spoilt - I shall never want for a stitch marker again, she made me 6 sets of six, all different sizes from sock to bulky.  Here are some photos so you can see just how spoilt I was:

All in green - my absolute favorite colour (I rather suspect I was stalked LOL!).  Thank you very much Joan, I love them all and you totally made my week!

That neglected feeling .....

Well blog, sorry to say you've been a bit neglected this last week and a bit. Life is busy, busy, busy!!

It's school holidays over here in New Zealand and they go so quickly. We've had a very peaceful week though as Brittany went to Taupo with friends so there's been none of that brotherly-sisterly love (otherwise known as fighting!!) happening. To top it off we managed to farm off Gareth for the weekend to Nana and Grandad's - BLISS!!

Not that I don't adore my children but it's nice to have some time out every now and then. Now I'm sitting in my lovely clean, tidy house, dogs at my feet and waiting for Mark to come downstairs so we can go and treat ourselves to coffee down the mall and a bit of shopping time. What's even nicer is that when we come home it will still be clean and tidy.
I have managed to get a few things done - couple of hats, pair of socks and a secret product that I'm working on and can't wait to finish. Hopefully it'll be done by tomorrow and I can show you all.

Well Mark's here so this is a short post, just so you don't feel unloved xxxx

Lame Pig Costume coming up

Well there it is, as promised, the lame pig costume I whipped up for Britt with a day's notice. I'm actually still amazed she chose to be a pig - Wilbur actually if you're wondering what pig - I mean seriously with all those amazing characters why a pig?? She could have been Fern, Nancy Drew, Hermione.... and many others but no, a pig *sigh*