Happy New Year

What were some of the highlights of the year?

I'm sure that I will forget something, but here are a few highlights. 2004 was a much better year than 2003 was for me. One year ago I had just finished the first semester of going back to school to finish my BA in Psychology, and was sending in applications to graduate school (which were all rejected, but now I think I have more experience and better references, and I've learned more about what they are looking for so I should be able to present myself more effectively next time. I did one more semester, and finished the year with a 4.0 GPA for that entire academic year, and actually received my diploma. Was invited to at least three different graduation ceremonies (Spring on campus in Logan or at the Uintah Basin campus , or Fall graduation on campus), but didn't go to any of them. I participated in graduation in Spring 1991, and wouldn't have even known anyone there now, since I mostly took distance classes and had very limited 3D contact.

I read a lot of books. I keep meaning to add a page here for books I have read/am reading. I'll get there. Oh yeah, and a recipe page. Hmm.

In June/July I went to Norway and met my relatives there, and saw the place where my father was born.

Just before I left for Norway, Mark was offered a promotion to district director in Cedar City, so in August we moved to the opposite corner of the state. The kids settled in quite well - the younger 2 in public school and the older one with homeschool using an online curriculum provided by the school district. We joined a great homeschool association too. The kids found a ready supply of friends.



We have a house that is about twice the size of the last one (which was way too small for us), and also more than double the land we had. We got the animals moved here and settled in too. Can't forget all the lambs and our first camelid cria (llama/guanaco). To go along with the bigger house, our mortgage payments doubled also, plus I needed more experience, and I got two jobs (after being a stay-at-home mom for several years), and I really like them, but I don't have as much time as I used to for everything else.



I decided to work for another year before applying again for graduate school. Next time I really think I will get in though.



It's been a pretty good year. I asked the rest of the family about their highlights, and didn't get anything more specific than "I learned a lot," so this summary will have to cover it for now.

Look what Santa brought us!

A Christmas baby! This isn't the first time we have had a Christmas lamb, which is strange since we rarely have December babies at all. A few years ago we had Nickolas born on Christmas too. He was a black and white pinto, and we raised him as a bottle baby, because his mother didn't take him. This baby is from that same line. Bliz was Nickolas's mother, and she was our first ewe to lamb every single year, and she always twinned, and always rejected one baby. We sold her. This baby's mother is Cornflower (see picture below - that's a cousin, Shooting Star, standing with the lamb above). Cornflower is a Bliz granddaughter, and has been a great mother, but then she hasn't twinned either. It's interesting that things like lambing dates seem to be hereditary. Another thing we like about Bliz's line was the tendency to have lambs with really cool markings. I'll have to look at this baby again tomorrow to identify her color more accurately, but she seems to be brown with white and black markings. I don't think she's a badgerface because I don't think she has the black belly, but it was too soon to get a really good look yet.

Here's Cornflower:

That whole picture actually came out pretty good, except I wish the lamb had gone with Cornflower when she ran up on the hill and assumed a defensive posture upon seeing me come after them with my camera. Click here to see the whole picture.

I have to leave now for work, so I'll post more later, about Christmas, and the sheep we sold a few days ago, and Suzie's bad hair day this morning (she really does not like Tiger today).

Hope you all have a great Christmas!

Are you ready for Christmas?

I think I finished up the shopping tonight. And I even managed to avoid Wal-Mart. You won't catch me near that place this week. You know what? I think we really overdo Christmas - the shopping, the presents, the decorations. I went to three office Christmas celebrations just for my own two jobs. This isn't a complaint - they were a pretty good opportunity to get to know people, and I took my husband along to one and my daughter to another one, so they got a chance to know a little about who I'm working with too. It was nice. And I appreciate all the little presents that were exchanged (hope people understand if mine are late - like January - since I kept intending do do something and didn't get a round tuit). I didn't even know that I had that many co-workers, to be honest. No, they didn't all give out presents, but I was surprised how many people were at those gatherings.

What got me thinking about going overboard for Christmas is this article I just read about Christmas Lighting Addiction. I think the lights are fun too, and beautiful, but they are another thing that gets overdone. I've never had outdoor Christmas lights, and I've kind-of always wanted to. But my family has not done it. Maybe next year.

I guess it's about time for me to get into the holidays. We had the tree up shortly after Thanksgiving, but I just haven't had that much time. I want to do some baking. That seems to me to be an essential part of the Christmas season, not that we haven't had plenty of sweets. I have tomorrow off, and work thursday swing shift, and then Christmas Eve off, and then work Christmas and the next day, so that doesn't give me a lot of time. I'll have more time the week after Christmas.

Cats really think that Christmas trees are a lot of fun.

Click here to see a bigger picture of Tiger playing under the tree. He thinks it's cozy in there.

Here's another picture that shows the whole tree. The round present in front that is ripped open is to the dogs - it's treats, and the cats like that one.

I did knit our Christmas stockings. The one on the far left wasn't intended to be a stocking - it is the sampler from The Sweater Workshop (Jacqueline Fee), but Mark liked it and claimed it as his stocking. Those samplers are interesting pieces of work that seem to find uses somewhere.

Here's another look at the stockings, but Mark's doesn't show up so you will have to click on the link above if you want to see that one.

I fully intend tomorrow to post some recipes, but you know how I am about promising to post things tomorrow. So, here is my favorite cookie recipe:

*****

Monster Cookies

1/2 cup shortening
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 Tbsp. honey
1 1/2 c. peanut butter
3 eggs
1 Tbsp. vanilla
4 1/2 c. oats
1 Tbsp. baking soda
2 Tbsp. Malt-O-Meal (optional - without this, the cookies are wheat free)
2 cups chocolate chips, raisins, m&ms, nuts, or anything else you like.

Mix the shortening, sugars, honey, and peanut butter. Add eggs and vanilla. Stir in the oats, baking soda, and Malt-O-Meal, and then the chocolate chips, etc. Drop onto cookie sheets and bake for 10 minutes at 375*. It makes a lot of cookies.

*****

Sorry it's not printer-friendly, but you can just copy the recipe and paste it into a word processor document, and there you go. I got this recipe from my cousin, Becky. She said she reduced it several times to come up with this. The entire recipe will not fit in my cookie jar, but we don't really mind. Oh, and the Malt-O-Meal is my addition, to make the cookies healthier. It tastes about the same with or without that, and you could add it to just about any cookie recipe if you want to try to fool yourself into believing that cookies are healthy. I do it all the time. Well, some are better than others, aren't they?

Kitties




Does your cat use your face for a pillow and/or demand to be petted all night? Tiger is one of the cats that we inherited along with this house. He's the runt. And he wormed his way in enough to earn housecat status. He goes out to play with his brother any time he likes (sometimes Fluffy gets to come in too, but shhh don't tell Mark, not like he doesn't read this). Don't feel too sorry for the outside cats either - they have access to the garage, woolroom, and outbuildings where the sheep and goats are, so they stay plenty warm. And they all have names. I just don't hold you responsible for learning all their names at this point. Tiger is just so good at demanding to be loved. I think that it is normal for cats to be a little like an autistic child. They are smart. They can become totally fascinated with the smallest details sometimes. They use people as objects - a means to an end. They even tolerate affection, but it has to be on their own terms. And they don't like their routines to change at all. Forget new people - that's too much change. But some cats are more affectionate than others. There are cats that don't purr a whole lot, and cats that can't help but purr even while making it obvious that they don't want anyone to know that they are happy. Tiger just purrs, loudly, any time that he is being touched by a human. Including when he climbed up on my bed last night and laid himself down on my shoulder, purr box right up against my ear. And he walked on our faces, and wouldn't leave us alone until he was being petted. At three or four in the morning. Lucky for him he's so darn cute.

Suzie and Tiger do not like each other. The kids put both of them on the bunk bed, with a blanket between them, and the two cats stayed put, but they sure didn't look happy about it. Tonight, Tiger was under my bed, and Suzie kept approaching him, and they kept growling at each other. Nosie broke up one cat fight. Better her than me, I say. We love Suzie too, but she's more the kind of cat that sees people as a means to an end. But at least we are good for entertainment. And so is she.

Mark got this toy truck tonight for his birthday. Suzie couldn't decide what it was, and whether she wanted to get it or hide from it. But her curiosity would not let her leave it alone either. It was even more interesting than the orange marmalade menace under the bed.

A couple more self-explanatory Suzie shots:

You may notice that Nosie isn't usually in the pictures. That is because she doesn't sit still that long. She often does things that I want to take pictures of, but when I get out the camera, she comes running to help, or to lick me, or something. Mark doesn't get in too many of my pictures either. He doesn't make it easy to catch him, but sometimes you might see a foot or a hand or something.

Clapotis

Now you can start to see that it is knit on the bias. The diagonal intentional runs are not showing up all that well in the picture, but they are there. I was showing someone how to knit one night, and she happened to ask me if I ever drop a stitch on purpose for decoration. Clapotis was in my bag, and I showed her. Besides just leaving runs like this, one could also take ribbon or a contrasting yarn, and weave it into the runs. That's a pretty neat effect also.

I've gotten a little farther, actually, than this picture shows. Just past the half-way mark. And started the second ball of yarn a little bit after crossing half-way, so two balls of yarn will be perfect. I'll have another two balls leftover, so I could knit another one, but I'll probably do something else. This yarn would make an interesting teddy bear or something. Or something to add to the stash until it's just right for something.

The Wool Room

I almost forgot, but here is the wool room. See, there is even a heater! I'm thinking about putting the kids to work washing fleeces, since they still think it's fun. Even if I'm too busy with jobs and stuff, maybe eventually this could become a business they could run. Meanwhile, would anybody like to come over and play with wool and processing equipment? It's a bit monotonous if you do it alone, but not bad with a little company.