Yoo Hoo?? Where are You?

Good Day all my knitterly friends,

It has indeed been TOO long since I have last spoken up. SO much has occurred that I am unsure where to begin. With that in mind, it is always best to begin at the beginning. Let's see, we start with A, B, C,

Oh wait- wrong beginning. Last post was in May. June hits. And with it a proliferate of chaos. An ended friendship. The ending of the school year. A new house. A new season. A new chapter in my life. I know that I intended this to be a knitting oriented blog, but life has just seemed to have become more vocal in its attempt to take away from my knitting time. This post, due to the lack of them before, will inherently be a bit long winded, but I beg of you, please stay.

The ended friendship was completely from out of left field and really, only now, am I able to look at it and not feel the inner stab of hurt, disappointment, confusion, and regret. It was not about me. And I am better off knowing that now. I am sure that I did something but I cannot change what I don't know. I am who I am. I do not try to be someone that I am not. I have to live in my skin and I like myself. When I don't, get out of my way, I will change me. Otherwise, like me for who I am or don't. Your loss.

The end of the school year. That was a mess. We had already moved to a new school district, but I choose the hassle of letting the two continue at the previous and did the daily struggle of delivering and retrieving each day. Little did I realize how much of a inconvenience that would be with the traffic that is so unpredictable in this area. I am sure thankful now for a school bus that picks up and if nothing else can bring them home each day.

A new house. WOW! What can I even say about it? There has been so many struggles and adjustments with it. Its wonderful bone structure is there. Its facade just waiting for some loving tender touches. It will be a good home for us. I just hope that it can be patient for me to come to know it before making any rash decisions. But more on this in a moment.

A new season. Summer always becomes so full of wonderful ideas, but the daily grind gets the better of us and we are then in competition with Fall to see who can get here/done quicker. Fall gently swept its way in and left us blinking in where the time went but also, ticking the calender till Spring. Winter has been here and kicked us in the backside with such loud gusto that I don't think I can enjoy him as much as I use to. Again, just to keep the suspense a bit, more on this in a moment.

A new chapter in my life. This is probably going to be the most detailed aspect. I should really have been telling this story along. But when one is in the 'box' it becomes difficult to see the light with all the twist and turns and bends and ups and downs to really appreciate where you have been and what is more in store.

Not to mention, I finally feel safe enough to tell. My wonderful husband is a solider. First and foremost in the profession of arms. Many will disagree with that. That is fine. He fights for your right to have an opinion and the freedom to express it. With that calling, he chose to deploy to Iraq. He left us in June. We have two weeks till he returns. Since he has been gone, ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE! You might think that I am prone to exaggerating, but seriously, it did. And as my new favorite quote: we learned to 'EMBRACE THE SUCK!' We did just that.

Just a quick run down of what occurred.

In June: knowing that he was going to be deploying, he leaves for three separate TDYs. (For you readers who are not military acronym literate TDY stands for Temporary Duty Assignment. Yes, theoretically, it should be TDA but that already stands for something else or the Army already claimed it.) We have not moved completely in this house, and he is home for less that one full week before leaving for 9 months. Can you feel the chaos just brewing? And No real time for knitting. I did manage one pair of socks. Just one.

In July: He's gone. I am flying solo in parenting, still working part time in a LYS (local yarn store) that is really now 50 minutes from the new house. Finishing up one more semester in the ever long extend plan of my undergraduate degree. Trying to juggle everything when not only does the friendship end, all but one of my support group moves. The nanny that I hired blows off the job of watching my children leaving them stranded at the day camp while I am an hour away at the peak of rush hour traffic. To make matters worse, the youngest falls at said daycamp and breaks her nose. Not across the bridge where we could easily tape it and be okay, but perpendicular to the bridge instigating an absence of ALL activity. Dr's. orders: Sit, watch tv, play video games, read. That's it. It's JULY and we live at the BEACH!! ARGH!!! And No time for knitting. NONE!

In August: I have had to forgo the Sock Summit due to lack of childcare. My mother calls to inform me that she diagnosed with Breast Cancer. Not just a small lump, though any at all is caused for concern, but a rather aggressive form that they are saying in the month since she found the lump is a Stage 3. I start to panic as I have had a lump since April but have ignored due to lack of time to deal with it. I cannot go another month without knitting. So, I start a new a pair of socks and whip up the Boobie Socks. For mom. Beads and all.

In September: Luckily, the kids are now back at school. I can possibly get them into a routine with needing to have some semblance of structure. My mother has begun Chemo and promptly lost her hair. She tells me to knit her a hat and I do. A bucket hat. As per her request. I mail it to her. It doesn't fit. She looks like the Fat Albert character. My dad falls off the ladder, breaking his foot, the car window, and the ladder. I still can't go out there as there are three children who only have one parent. To make matters worse, I am giving this next one to October. One hat knitted. That's it.

In October: really it was the 30th of September, but since we were in the ER until well after mid-night, it counts. Middle child falls at the roller skating rink and breaks her wrist. In three places. Snaps the ball right off the end of the bone. OUCH! As soon as I saw it, I knew it was broken. What's worse? She heard it snap. "Oh, that was what that loud noise was!" Ouch! I cringe just thinking about it. But after the initial cry, she didn't cry again until the doctor told her no more riding lessons until the cast came off. One pair of socks knitted, but it took the whole month to do. Just not right.

In November: just when I thought the first child was what I needed to worry about and some broken legs, the wonderful weather of the East coast initiates us in what it means to live on water. The Nor'easter hit us. Hit us HARD!! At my back door, where the garage is, I had water up to my hip. I am 5'5". I am by no means short. I am by no means tall. I am right in the middle. But to have water running up that high, it's scary. I have never seen fear so prominent on my children's faces until I had to look up and see it on them. We now know what the term 'tidal flooding' really means. The hard way. It is now the end of January and we have still have not recovered. The house is a disaster. We had damage in four rooms. We lost everything in two of the rooms. And have now come to realize the sellers point blank lied to us and on the disclosure statement. There is SO much work to be done that they never did. Basic maintenance just neglected. NO knitting. The pair of socks that I wanted to knit, the cuff of ONE sock was started. Nothing else. Depressing.

In December: well, that should speak for itself. But instead of having a holiday that lent itself to really focusing on the true meaning, was spent dealing with insurance, contractors, insurance, inspectors, adjusters, contractors, and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of trips to the city dump. With all said and done, with inside and outside damage totaled up 26 trips to the city landfill with my generous neighbor loaning me her small pick up truck. We had it PILED every trip. We did leave for a week to fly to visit my folks. Mom was inbetween Chemo, surgery, and radiation. With her count levels higher than they had been, we felt it safe with no one having any colds to visit. But, all that said, one would think the month would have been the turn around. HA HA HA! Fooled you. On the flight home, US AIRWAYS told us we would have to 'gate check' our carry on luggage. The plane overheads wouldn't allow for the bags to fit. So we did. They didn't pay attention to see that we were not getting off at the destination, but just having a layover. They sent our bags to the baggage claim and my entire needle roll of Addi Turbo Lace needles were stolen out of it. I am POSITIVE some idiot thought he was getting lucky and finding a jewelry roll and swiped it. But instead found 30 pairs of circular knitting needles. Instead, I am out close to $1000 dollars. I AM ILL!! So I called the airline to speak about this. Their response, "You have three hours from the time of disembarking to make any baggage claims against them." ARGH!!!

In January: I am all set to have the contractors finally begin putting my house back together. Only to find that the wood, studs, and one wall will not dry out. Why? I ask. Because the brick, that is the front of the house, is below grade. It is not below grade quality brick. It needs to be cinder block, not brick. Brick is catepillarious. Meaning when it is wet, it forms catepillaries, like those found in our bodies, to direct water through it. Once started they always let water through. They need to be sealed. That means to dig out the front yard to seal the brick, then build another drainage system to direct all water from the house. BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH. I had completely glazed over by this point. And to make it worse, water will just come back in at the next Nor'easter because your berms not high enough. And you can't just build the berm back up because your seawall can't support it. And you can't build your seawall back up unless you get rid of these trees. And you can't get rid of these trees because you have to have the Chesapeake Board's approval. CB doesn't like trees on the water removed.

I have knit three scarfs in the last week. Pictures will follow soon, I promise. I have picked back up a cardigan that has been hibernating since 2008. I have three socks on the three needles that were not in my needle roll. And I have another sweater that has been swatched for and is just waiting for the Olympic Torch to be lit.

I WILL find my knitting mojo again. Soon, I hope.

Happy Knitting.