And The Bad News Rears Its Ugly Head.

I just found out tonight that a dear friend of mine who holds a very special place in my heart has been diagnosed with brain cancer.

I met her when I was a kid, only ten or eleven. She, her husband and two kids had just moved in three houses down. Our families became fast friends, and we spent lots of time with them.

She was a breast cancer survivor. She'd fought the disease and won. A few years later, she was diagnosed with breast cancer again. Once again, she overcame the disease.

Two or three years ago (was it really so long ago?), she was diagnosed with cancer a third time, this time in her spine. It was a hormone-based cancer, and so she had a hysterectomy to battle the disease. Some people live with diabetes. She was going to live with cancer.

Now she's has a brain tumor.

I'm not quite sure what to say. She had two young children. She's an amazing person, and I associate so many things with her. Ripening wheat fields and the smell of horses. Beautiful roan hair and lively eyes. A welcoming home. A sense of humor that never excludes anybody. Royalty.

I don't want her to lose this fight. It seems so unfair that she, who has battled and won against this disease so many times, is fighting it yet again. I don't want to think about the possibility that it might win the war.

Please, keep my friend and her young family in your thoughts.

Thank you.

Bloggosphere to Awesome Jocelyn

Your yarn is half complete. Pardon the crappy images. It's dark outside.







We're running at approximately 450 yds when the four ounces are finished, and it's spinning into about a Louet Gems light fingering weight yarn. It's soft as butter.

It's All About Me!

Stolen from Jocelyn, for whom I'm spinning some lovely Merino.

I am: Kayla -- Miss mew to my family and Kaylalalalala to friends.
I think: far too much about far too many things.
I know: a lot of really pointless facts, thanks to my job.
I have: a horrible disease called Acceptitis.

I wish: I had a prehensile tail.

(ibid)

I hate: spiders with ever fibre of my being.
I miss: sleeping in every day.
I fear: death.
I hear: Mulan in the next room.
I smell: my dog. Ick.
I crave: peanut butter M&Ms and Swedish Berries.
I search: for small moments all to myself.
I wonder: who is going to win the presidential election. (Go Obama!)
I regret: not being nicer to my parents when I was a kid.
I love: kneading bread.
I ache: pretty much everywhere. I've been painting all weekend.
I am not: tall or willowy or stunning, but I am happy with myself for the most part.
I believe: in paying it forward.
I dance: the polka every chance I get.
I sing: all the time.
I cry: when I feel upset, and I don't hold it in.
I fight: because I'm stubborn.
I win: because Robbie usually lets me.
I lose: in arguments with my Grandpa. He's more stubborn than I am.
I never: pee outside.
I always: nap in the afternoon.
I confuse: right and left all. the. time.
I listen: to everything my grandmother tells me. She's done most everything before me.
I can usually be found: in a good mood.
I am scared: of the dark and sleeping alone.
I need: to learn how to be a better cleaner.
I am happy about: pretty much everything in my life right now. Although I could always use more money, but who couldn't?
I imagine: fame and fortune in my daydreams because I know that I couldn't handle it in real life.
I tag: everybody who feels like playing!

Here’s how you play: in a post at your own blog, copy and paste all the questions below. Erase out my answers and replace them with your own.

Please leave a note so I may go learn all about you

Do You Ever Have One of Those Days?

You know the ones I'm talking about. The ones where you just want to throw yourself (or someone else) out a window and curl up in bed and ignore everybody? Yeah, I'm there. It has been a day from hell. I don't know if I was the grumpy one or if Elodie was the grumpy one or both, but we were not a dynamic duo today. In fact, we were pretty much as static in our position of repetitive grumpiness as two people could get.

Morning came far too early this morning, and the afternoon nap wasn't long enough. Robbie keeps forgetting to print off clue two for the MS4, so I haven't even had the opportunity to escape to my lace. The sock will be getting some action tonight. I will also be getting some blizzard action from my husband who happens to have worked all day in Red Deer and then abandoned me for a meeting this evening. Who knows when he'll be home, but he'll be bringing some ice cream, dammit!

I think I need to get my meds refilled.

Things around the house are stagnant. I have all these huge dreams for updating and upgrading our new house, but, well, a person needs money to do that. Factor into the equation that I had been hoping to travel to Denmark to visit my family next year, but that trip has now been called into question (not by me, but by my parents), so I don't know if I'm going. I'm depressed about it because I need a definite date for that trip so that we can plan the next stag eof our family. If I get pregnant and the date changes to a yes, I probably can't go because I was super sick last time, and I don't want to risk it this time.

Also, I'm terrified of having to give birth in a hospital again. It was, honestly, a horrible experience. I had to argue for most of the labour with an over-zealous OB/GYN who wanted to hook me up to Syntocinon and throw on a fetal monitor and strap me into a bed and just get that baby out NOW. She managed to keep me strapped to a bed, but I managed to argue enough during transition that she didn't get her way.

So Robbie and I are looking into a midwife. Did you know that Alberta is the ONLY province in Canada that regulates midwives but doesn't publically fund them? It costs $3,500 to give birth with a midwife attending you. And yet, the system is overloaded, there's not enough labour and delivery beds to go around, midwives are RECOMMENDED by the World Health Organization for low-risk births, and we're behind the times.

Okay, not as behind as some countries (did you know that having a midwife is illegal in 11 states??), but behind. Our peers are soaring ahead of us, England is moving toward a very aggressive midwife-friendly L&D approach, 40,000 babies were born in Ontario last year with midwives, and here Robbie and I are, contemplating how we're going to save up $3,500 for the birth of our next child.

Okay. Rant over.

100th post, Elodie the Yarn Wrangler, a Spider and Socks.

I'm sorry I haven't been blogging as much as I'd like to, but it's been a busy few weeks.

I have been crafting a lot more now that I don't have quite so much work to do. I've spun up eight ounces over the last few weeks, and they're really nice. I'm also working on the MS4 (done clue one!), a sock and I've been spinning for some people.

So let me begin my story with my day today. It's been a good day. I got some work done this morning, managed to eat lunch and take a bath. I had a nap when Elodie napped, and I worked on my sock while she watched Dora. I thought, hey, it's nice out. Let's take the yarn and the sock to the park, I'll knit while she plays, and before we go home, I'll get some pictures for the blog. Great idea, right?



4 oz hand-dyed Merino that Robbie picked up in Vancouver while on a transportation summit.
375 yds
Heavy fingering




4 ozs BFL, hand painted by Annie.
440 yds
Fingering

Elodie had great fun with the yarn shoot.













I even managed to get some good pictures of the sock I'm working on. It's my own design (!!!), that I will be publishing to the blog once it's done. Perhaps on Ravelry, too. I don't know.



I've been feeling the big cables lately, since they remind me so much of fall.



And then the Spider.

I was just packing our stuff up when I feel something hit my face. It felt like it was tugging to one side, so I turn my head in that direction, and ... you know on Charlotte's Web how the baby spiders release their silk parachutes and go flying off into the wilderness? This spider had a parachute. So said parachute hit me in the face, and when I turn around, here's Mr. Big Spider (a weird, white crab-looking one) all splayed out and blowing in the breeze behind me. So I freak out and quickly snap the little line that's attaching him to me.

I'm all shaky and ick, but disaster has been diverted (so I thought), so I'm starting to calm down. Then I hear this:

"Aw, hi, Charlotte!" Which is Elodie's name for spiders. All spiders. Even big, white crab-looking ones.

"Elodie, is there a Charlotte on my back?" (Doing some heavy mouth breathing)

"Yup!"

"Elodie, can you take the Charlotte off my back?" (Doing very very heavy mouth breathing)

"Okay, mommy." Brushes my back. "All gone."

I turn around. "Thank you, Elodie." I see movement. Charlotte is not all gone. Charlotte is climbing down my pant leg.

So after a weird, interpretive dance thing and a few questions ("What you dancing for? You happy, mommy?"), Elodie and I manage to pack up our things and head home.

Quite eventful for my 100th post. Perhaps it was fate.

Work-At-Home Mommy...Again.

Elodie and I have survived our first week with her at home full time. That was something that terrified me and made me so excited at the same time. The first day, I nearly cried when she woke up at 7:15. I generally don't get up until 8:30. Sometimes later.

All week, though, I've been waking up at 7:30 or earlier, and Elodie and I have started to fall into a routine. We wake up, eat some breaky in our PJs, she watches her Toopy & Binoo show while I work (or procrastinate). We play a bit, she has a nap at 11:00, I have a nap at 11:00. When we wake up at about 1:00, we have a bath, we have some lunch and then do our craft or play Playdough.

After playing, we walk to the park and play some more. After that, we generally make our way (walking) to Robbie's work to inform him of our trip to the library, please meet us there after work, and then we go to the library so Mommy can read and Elodie can play.

It's a really good schedule, and she's not so dependent anymore. If anything, she's so independent that it's scary. But I believe I have a new-found love of motherhood. Today, we cuddled on the couch while she watched Monsters, Inc. Okay, I watched it, too. Then a few mornings ago, we hid from the tickle monster under the covers. She's so cute, whispering and giggling.

Each afternoon, when we have our bath, I wash her hair and condition it. She thinks her hair feels so nice afterward and runs her hands through it. While I dry off, she giggles and pretends she's a mermaid in the tub. We read books and lounge. She informed me that she was going to knit me a hat (while furiously clicking some circs together). She sits at her chair on the kitchen table and fishes with circulars.

She watches me knit a shawl. She holds the yarn as I knit. She holds the fibre as I spin.

The baby that she was has vanished. She's a witty, funny, smart, beautiful little girl, and she has amazed me every day this week. I'm so excited for the next months. I'm loving this.

Don't get me wrong, I love my personal time. But I have a loving husband who understands that need, and I get at least a few hours to myself each night. At the beginning of the week, I was dreading being at home and being responsible ALL BY MYSELF for Elodie ALL DAY.

Now? I can't wait for next week to start.




On to the knitting/spinning. I can't show you my knitting right now because I don't have any pictures of it. Actually, I can't really show you my spinning either (I have two sock yarns on the go and two lace weights) because I don't have pictures of those either. I do, however, have pictures of fibre!!!

I took some of the shetland fleece that Terra and I got and brought it up to spinable form. Here are the original locks (pardon the poor lighting. I washed at 1:00 in the morning.



And the combed fibre (I used a dog rake and a fork...).





I'm spinning it for a shawl, Mystery Shawl 4. Super excited! The first clue came out today, but I'm going to start this one later. I've got to finish my sock yarns!!

And The Winner Is...

Ikkinlala!

YAY!

You should have an email shortly!

The winning pattern? Slippery Socks!