You have to check out Plurk.com.  I just heard about it in a podcast this morning.  I joined up right away.  It is another online community type thing, but you can see what people are "doing" in real time and update yourself and make friends, blah, blah, blah.  Looks like fun.  I'm HallieJo on the site, so Plurk me or follow my link on the sidebar to view my page and you can join too!

I'm taking the girls up north by myself againt his weekend to go camping.  I'm really looking forward to the time away, all the extra knitting time and the relaxing of course.  I have really fallen off on my diet, and gained 5 pounds….how depressing!  I have to get back into the order of things.  I was doing so well, but my family complained about my not being available to them and not spending time with them…..well look at the results of my time off!!  I've gained weight!  I have to go back on the strict plan, it is just so hard and so tempting.  Especially when my family eats the junk….I want it too!!  Give me strength oh Gods of diet and exercise!!

No, not me, but a lady I work with.  I'm not writing to spread her news or her story.  I'm writing because she's so young, and this was in her family history.  She asked her doctor for a mammogram after her mother passwed away of breast cancer and they wouldn't give her one.  Now she has stage 3 cancer, is planning a mastectomy and hysterectomy and she's only 31 years old.

This is just so distressing.  I'm not close with her, but I could be her.  So many of us could.  How for granted we take our health, my God.

We're planning fundraisers and I'll be doing what I can to help.  I wish there was more I could do, but she does have good friends surrounding her and giving her loving support, thank God for that.  I'm thinking of you, H and I'll be praying for your healthy recovery.

 1.  Hallie, 2.  Pasta, 3.  Oxford,

4. Red,  5.  Matt McConaughey, 6.  Diet Coke

7. Italian Cruise, 8.  ice cream, 9.  Country Singer

10. knitting, 11.  Outgoing, 12.  halliejo

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We had so much going on last week, that it just boggles my mind, and now to write about it all?  Where to start? 

Well, the highlight of my week was my anniversary.  Warren and I celebrated 9 years on June 26th.  I just felt so happy and giddy all day.  My girlfriend at work gave us a card, so did my parents.  How thoughtful.  Warren and I met after work for dinner.  We went to this really nice Mexican restaurant in Sterling Heights called Abuelos.  The food was excellent, presentation was great, but the service was divine!  The staff were very attentive and that was just what we needed for our special night.  Everything was perfect, and then Warren just added to the night and sweetened the pot.  He got his promotion at work!!  He had known the night before but kept it a secret from me so he could tell me at dinner.  I am so proud of him.  He has worked so hard to get this and he so deserves it.  What an amazing man.  Suffice to say that the night was great and ended well too.

So that was Thursday….Friday was Fireworks at the Elks and I worked all night, nothing exciting there.  Saturday was my 13 year old's birthday party.  She had 6 girlfriends over to spend the night.  Boy can these girls talk…..and talk…..and yell….and sing….all at the tops of their voices.  I was ready to run away.  My God!!  Sometimes, I can still hear the screaming of the girls.  Thankfully it was just one night, and Sunday was restful.  I had to after the girls kept me up all night.  They didn't sleep all night.  There was yelling and singing that never ended.  They ate a lot too….but that I expected at least.  I hope Catina is happy and pleased with her party.

I hope she doesn't need another birthday party until she's 16.

So last week was so busy that I didn't get to blog about anything really, so today is make-up day.

Thursday was my boss's birthday.  He having been in the military, and working where we do I thought it was only fitting to make him a tank cake for his birthday.  My co-worker and I made a big fuss over him on his day and put up posters and signs and brought in pizza and then we had cake.  The cake was so much fun to make.  I used fondant for the canon and the treads, oreos for the wheels and everything else is just frosted.

Then, Later that day Warren, and the girls and I went up north camping for the weekend.  We had a wonderful time.  We took an extra little girl with us and I think she had fun, too.  I did take some pictures, which I need to post very soon.  The girls went fishing and we went to the beach, and they played a lot.

We went to see the Jimmy Buffett concert this past Tuesday at the DTE Music Theater.  What a great show!  I've seen him before, but not at the outdoor event.  This was so much fun.  We set up and tailgated for about 4 hours prior and went in feeling fine.  

We had a nice little canopy, keeping some shade, with our Jimmy poster proudly displayed.

Dave was hard at work and just needed a little break before dinner.

   Fabulous food by Warren.

Here's Stephanie, Carla and myself with a talking Parrot.

Yes, I was getting a little fresh with Carla, but in my defense, I'd had lots o margaritas!!!

Well, my daughter is 13 years old today.    I can hardly believe it, where has all of the time gone?  Seems like just yesterday I was preparing to be a mother, and now I'm an old one.  Well, no not really old, but I feel old.  I can't believe I have a teenager.   Happy Birthday Catina, I love you so very much and I'm so proud of you.

Of course I know that she has been turning into a teenager for quite some time.  I think I hear, "I know" and "ugh, Mom" more than anything else out of her mouth.  I keep wondering, If you "know" everything already, why do I have to keep reminding you to do X or Y only to hear back, "I know."  Typical right?

We are going out to celebrate as a family tonight, dinner someplace like Buffalo Wild Wings.  Hubby said he'd get a cake.  I much prefer to make one, but when I have to work all day it just doesn't make sense to fight with time to make a cake.  Especially when she doesn't really care if I've made it or not.  We still don't have a gift, just don't have the extra money to get her what we want to, so….  I'm not sure what we're doing.  She wants a birthday party, but we've agreed to wait until school is out and then throw a party.  I'd hate to see her party flop because we threw it the weekend before finals.  So, she'll get to have her friends out for a day, they'll make themselves some jewelry, eat pizza, watch a movie and have lots of junk food.  Sounds perfect right? Well, my initial feeling is that the party is her present, but I think maybe we'll give her some money for her piggy bank.  She's been saving up for a new iPod.

What else?  Not much, still working my fingers to the bone on afghans.  The wedding afghan is about 5 feet tall right now, but I made it so wide, that I think I need to go to at least 6 feet.  I need to lay it across my bed to measure, but I just can't bring myself to do it.  I'm afraid that I'll found out I have several feet to go.  Isn't that silly?  Just putting off the inevitable.

On another note, much more positive one…..we are going to see Jimmy Buffett in concert next week.  Soooo excited!  It is an outdoor concert at a great venue and I've never seen him there before.  Understand, that the outdoor Jimmy concerts come with the parrotheads tailgating (which we will be doing without the parrot crap) and there's lots of water thrown about and nakedness too.  I'm excited and nervous.  I know I'm going to have a blast.  I've taken that day and the next one off as vacation days…..just to be on the safe side.  Never can tell just how much fun I'm actually going to have.  LOL

I almost forgot to share my new wool!!  I have friends that own a llama and an alpaca.  They had them sheared last week and gave me all the wool!!  I have 2 large bags of wool.  They've had these animals for a couple of years and getting them sheared every spring and never using the wool.  They've been throwing it away!!  OMG!    So I asked for the wool.  I figured I could find someone to spin it for me or sell it as is.  What do you think?  Know anyone local I could get to spin it up?  There is absolutely no way that I could buy a wheel right now, plus where would I store it?  I have a very small house with very little storage.  Anyhow….that is the latest excitement on the yarn front (well almost yarn).

I finally finished the Tree of Life Afghan last night. I am very pleased with how it looks, just gorgeous. I was worried that the border wouldn't line up exactly at the end, but it lined up perfectly! Of course, I don't have my camera to take a picture of it, so I may have to borrow the 8 year old's camera to take one instead, cause I want to post the pics.

I started back up on the wedding afghan, and plan to have that finished maybe by the weekend. It doesn't need a border because it is knitted with a garter stitch border in the pattern, thank goodness. It is getting quite big and I should probably lay it out on my bed to get an accurate idea of how much further I need to go. I'm thinking that I'm maybe within 6 inches of being finished, but the only way to be sure is to measure it against a bed.

It was a very busy weekend, my neice graduated high school. I was not able to attend the ceremony with gas prices being so freaking high, but I was thinking of her. I have a card to fill with money and pop in the mail, so hopefully that will help. I'll go to her open house too. I have no idea if she is actually going to college or not, so I'm nervous about giving her much money. I'd hate to see it squandered on something stupid. She's a smart girl, but I'm not sure if she has any real goals or direction.

I'm saddened to say that her parents don't give her much direction or encouragement, either. On an even sadder note, a friend of mine was in a car accident this weekend. Mike drove off the road and hit a tree head on. I grew up with him and his sister. His mother is like a second mom to me. I don't have much information, but he is in a coma and needs lots of prayers. If you're reading this, please say a prayer of healing for Mike. His family has had enough difficulties and tragedy and he needs to come through this without any serious lasting damage.

I left my camera up north!!!  I took pictures of my knitting up there and have been looking for that camera all week.  I must have left it up there, where else could it be?  Now I will have to use my phone to take the pictures, and that just sucks!  Maybe I could borrow one from my mom.

I am now working the border on the Tree of Life Afghan….nearly done.  Probably be finished and weaving in the ends tomorrow.  I'm so excited!

Poor Baby Jake slept in the front seat the majority of the way up north.  Silly Dog.