Update

My, my, my it has been a looonnng time since I have blogged. Me, being KelliJean. So I guess its time for a quick update. I finished up my undergrad program, YAY!!!! So now I am currently working for Costco, where I got a new position working in clothing. I start that in two weeks and I am very excited for the change even if it is only for a few months. Also I have started working as a substitute teacher in the Spokane area. So far I have worked in the second and fourth grade. It has been a lot of fun, although very challenging. Well thats it for this quick update, I'll try and get back on soon. Bye!

KelliJean

New Years Resolutions

January is the traditional time for New Years resolutions to begin and end. Many of these resolutions at least in my experience are pretty vague like be more organized or eat healthier. Worthy endeavors yes, but not very quantifiable. This year I decided to not fall into the resolution trap but instead decided to seat reasonable and quantifiable goals.

Resolutions #1. 52 books in 52 weeks
Monday - Sunday read one complete book. Somewhat reasonable for a seasoned reader like me. Especially if I can recognize my time constraints and not start Anna Karenina on a Tuesday. I'm feeling pretty confident about this challenge, although I do have to admit the books I selected for January were somewhat thin and easy reading. February I will have to take it up a notch.
The 4 books I read:

News from Thrush Green by Miss Read
Battles in Thrush Green by Miss Read
Return to Thrush Green by Miss Read
Free range Knitter by Stephanie Pearl McPhee

Resolution # 2 Knit 1 sock per month
Most of the yarn stores I visit and a lot of the knitting blogs I read, people are always talking about sock of the month clubs. Usually this entails knitting a pair of socks each month & usually it involves having a yarn store send you a new pattern & yarn each month. I think knitting a pair of socks in 30 days as well as any other knitting I might want to be doing is a little much. So I'm imposing my own sock of the month club, where I just knit one the next month I will knit the mate. By the end of the year I will have six pairs of socks in my drawer which I think is a good start.

Resolution # 3 Charity knitting
I knit a lot, I really do and I usually give away most of what I knit to friends and family members. A friend recently got me to help knitting preemie hats for the VOGUE charity drive, which was very simple and fun. It got me thinking about how these hats were being mailed to New York City but there were probably lots of babies in my local area that needed hats too. After a call to one of the local hospital NICU's, I found out that hardly any hats are ever donated but they would be much appreciated. So starting this week, during our weekly lunch knitting group at work I'm going to be knitting baby hats to send to the local NICU.

Happy New Year!

Tiah

Minnesota Trip

I have fallen behind with the blogging lately.

My trip to northern Minnesota was a fun but sadly over. The boys and I had a wonderful time trying to fit in all of Duluth's many winter activities.

Pottery Painting:

This was a first for me, but the boys were old veterans at painting pottery. Dalton with his tank and Dayton with his snowman mug. It was a popular place, we ran into some old friends of theirs painting pottery for Christmas gifts. What a wonderful idea. Maybe next year.

Aquarium:

This was a surprise for me. I'm so use to going to aquariums on the coast with all of the ocean wildlife that I was not expecting an aquarium which focused on river & lake wildlife. It was very interesting and focused a large portion on forestry. I did really like the parrot, which I don't think was native to Minnesota but had been donated.

Ice Skating:

We spent a few minutes out ice skating on the pond in our shoes. I had never been ice skating outdoors, when I told the boys this there question was "where else would you skate, ice melts indoors." Next summer when they are visiting I will have to take them to the local mall, where we have an ice skating rink.

Bentleyville:

This is one of the main winter attractions in Duluth. It is a city of lights full of fun activities; Santa, Mrs. Clause, Snowmen, Reindeer. Also, cookies, hot coco, & roasting marshmallows. We had a lot of fun even in the freezing weather. I think the night we went it got down to negative 12 degrees. So cold!

Lake Superior:

I made the boys walk down to the lake with me one day. I really wanted to get pictures of the ice floating in the lake. It was so cold, we almost froze our noses off.

All in all it was a wonderful trip and Priscilla is healing nicely from her surgery. What a Blessing!

Tiah

Minnesota

This week I am in Duluth Minnesota taking care of my cousins two boys while she is in the hospital recovering from spinal surgery. The good news is the surgery went well and the recovery looks very good.

Me and the two boys are having fun, although I am questioning the sanity of anyone who chooses to live or visit a place where the temperature high is 2 degrees. The boys love to be outside in this weather - they just received new snowboards and they have been trying them out on the hill in the backyard. I prefer to watch from the kitchen window.

Tomorrow is a no school day, so we are going to attempt the zoo. I'm sure the animals are nice & warm with their fur coats, but I'm not so sure I will be.

Tiah

Book Review

I belong to a online group called Library Thing. Its a website mainly for cataloging your books, but it has a fun aspect of interacting with other people who are interested in the same kind of books. One of my favorite things about Library Thing is that they get books before they are published & they let a few lucky members each month review the books for free. I have always wanted to review a book, but as there are a limited number of books & a huge number of members who want to review, people are chosen by lottery.

Luckily, I was chosen this last month to review a book called, Christmas Chronicles: The Legend of Santa Claus by Tim Slover.

Here is my review:

The Christmas Chronicles is a heartwarming story about a man who discovers a book, "the true and authorized chronicle of Klaus." The actual story inside the story about Klaus is really unique and fun. He was an carpenter, who wants to make children happy after the black death hits his small village, by leaving wood carved toys outside their front doors. As more and more villages hear about his activities they too want a visit. His good deed, grows from just his village to the entire world with the help of his wife Anna, an evil bad man, and a group of Saints. The outside story, that of the narrator reading the chronicle, is pretty cheesy and not very interesting. Overall it is a book I recommend reading this winter.

Tiah

Knitting

The fall weather has really hit Oregon and what that means in Portland is rain. The rain has begun and with a few exceptions it will continue to rain until about June. That means for us Portlanders we spend a lot of time doing indoor activities. For me that activity is knitting, I have become an exceptional knitter during the past 10 years (or at least I think so).

Being a knitter for me, is all about the process and not actually the final product, which is why I don't really knit many things for myself. I tend to give away most of what I knit, which is a good thing that I have friends & coworkers with children. The past month I have knitted 3 dinosaur hats, a pumpkin hat, and a puppy dog.

This next month, I plan to finish up a toy dinosaur, a knit one or two pairs of socks. Stay tuned for more pictures.

Tiah

Busy Weekends

Weekends have been pretty busy for me this September.

Two weekends ago was the annual Race for the Cure in Portland, which is the largest race on the west coast. I could really tell, as I maneuvered through the crowed waterfront park with my friend. This was our 8th year, and our best time just a little over an hour for 5K's. Which might not sound fast, but when your trying to walk along with 40,000 other people your not usually too speedy. We had fun, came home with a bag full of goodies from local vendors, & raised money for a good cause, and best of all it did not start raining until we finished the race.

Last weekend, my parents visited to help me remove an ugly bush from my front yard. The bush removal was a success and we even managed to have some fun activities. Including a trip to the Portland Farmer's Market & several yummy restaurants.

This weekend I'm hoping for good weather, so I can finish more yard work before the fall rains begin again. I'm also going to try to attend the Annual Oregon Archives Crawl that the Oregon Historical Society is sponsoring.

Tiah