Sunday, December 17, 2006

Happy Holidays from Jet and Celtic Crossroads

I know the last 5 posts or so have been under the same date, but I had to republish them from my other blog on MySpace.com. I wanted to make sure you all were caught up on what was going on in my world.

It's interesting that so much has happened in a few months. My November spinning class went well, and my student and I have become friends. I have another kids knitting camp this Tuesday and Wednesday, and that will be fun. I'm pretty excited and I love working with kids. I used to volunteer for the YMCA when I lived in Seattle and used to have great in depth conversations with the kids there...most were very bright and knowledgable for the 8-15 yo group...but kids are growing up much faster than when the boomers were kids. Television, radio, music, magazines, etc., have all helped that happen and I'm not so sure it's such a good thing. Kids don't seem to have as much fun with their busy schedules: sports, extracurricular activities to the nth degree, starting to worry about college when they're still in the 5th grade. No wonder kids are so stressed with everyone pushing on them from their grandparents, parents, and teachers to their friends. It's especially bad in the BIG cities, but even in the country where we live, it's like that now, though they're a bit slower about it than in the big cities, but the stress is still there nonetheless. The kids now don't have any spare moments to really play and be kids for the most part.

I was invited to participate in another festival in Prosser, WA, for the 3rd Annual Wine Country Festival. I'll have a chance to demonstrate spinning and it is so fun to watch people. I love doing that because parents and their kids take such an interest in it.

The people who bought Rommy, two 2006 ewe lambs and a 2005 yearling ewe, will be picking them up today... It's been awhile since we have held the sheep until they could pick them up, but they are getting them. They live here in town, so they'll have the chance to build their sheep farm well with 30 acres (lucky for them).

Lance and I are searching for 20-40 acres near where we are now, but it hasn't been easy. We not only need the land for me to have a profitable business breeding and selling sheep, but we also need water rights to make sure the sheep have their pasture and have some grass/alfalfa we can grow so we don't have to buy it for the sheep each year. It will all work out, but ti takes time. On this land, we'll be building our own home: either a straw bale or a partial underground home. We'll figure that out when we get the land which we'll build. The house will have a solarium where I can keep my plants and raise some exotics that I cannot grow now due to lack of light. I want to raise a pomegranite as well as some oranges and satsumas, maybe even some kumquats and limes. Some orchids too. I wish I could have a banana tree. It would mean another fiber source and banana leaves for cooking if I weren't so allergic to them. It is a shame, but being able to recognize your limits and boundaries is part of life.

I finished spinning up my Ronaldsay wool a couple days ago. On Monday, I have to stop by the airport gift shop to see if anything has sold and to replace or change stock. I have to go by every two weeks, but it's worth it to have a place to sell my crafts and yarn in the winter. With the Farmers' market closing at the end of OCtober, it does make it difficult to sell things though sometimes people come to the house to buy yarn or other items, so I have kept a few here for that reason.

We're practically finished Christmas shopping, only two more gifts to wrap and send. I made a pair of tube socks for my SIL to wear with her new Birkies (blue with peach stripes on the toes and a band of peach at the top). I also have a shawl I'm knitting for a friend and a shrug I'm making for a woman I met through Knitochet (www.knitchet.com), the local yarn and fiber shop. Every time I go into the store, I find some interesting yarn and fiber to knit or spin respectively. This is going into her 3rd year of being in business and her store is beautiful and just as nice, but very different, as Wild Women Yarns, the LYS in Walla Walla that went out of business two years ago.

December 30 will be 9 years since I met Lance, my husband, the first time. When we met that day when I got off the plane at LAX, was the best day of my entire life. Our life together hasn't been perfect by any means, but we love each other a lot, and we both have the same ideas about what we want to do with our lives and our marriage, so it works out pretty well. We've both had to compromise to a certain degree as in all marriages if you want them to work out for very long, but it's not because we have to, it's because we want to. We'll be married for nine years on Valentine's Day next year.

Get your shopping done ASAP so you can enjoy the Christmas Spirit and n spend your time worrying about getting it done. It only gets worse when you procrastinate and you have to deal with all the crowds.

Happy Holidays!

Hugs,
Jet


My Friend Left, but Other Things Have Happened...

Well, my friend, Bill, is gone now to Denver before he heads back to Nicaragua in two weeks. He has family and friends there. He says his stay with us was fine, but it was way, way too cold for him, not to mention the lack of sunshine.

We've lived in Walla Walla for almost 4 years now and this is the first time we've been overcast this much. Usually, it's sunny most of the time and it's overcast only when it rains or snows or is foggy, but when it's foggy, it burns off by noon. Oh well...the same thing happened when I lived in Seattle and my youngest sister, Linda, came to visit. It was the worst winter we ever had with flooding, tons of rain and overcast 100% of the time. The next year, when my second youngest sister came to visit with her husband and his family, it was beautiful with sun every day and warm enough weather that you didn't need to worry about wearing heavy clothing or a raincoat. Much different than the weather in WI at the same time: lots of snow, wind, and cold. That is the main reason why I moved from WI to live out West. Seattle might not get much snow in winter, but it's moderate most of the year. Walla Walla is hot in summer, cold in winter, but usually there is sun all year long because we're in what is considered the Banana Belt of the area. Spring is earlyt here as well, so lets see what happens this spring. I already have 4 seed catalogs...and I can plan for what I want to grow next year.

Looks like some of my ewes are already pregnant, so that is great. I will probably start having lambs the end of February to the beginning of March...then start the sales and the shearing. I can hardly wait.

The last 3 alpacas will be shorn this spring as well, so will have plenty of fiber to spin...

I love having doing my spinning and other crafts that I do... They give me such a sense of peace, very similar to meditation or prayer. I noticed that some of the knitting and crocheting magazines have prayer shawls, so that's a good thing.

I was asked by the "Country Register" to write an article about my farm and business, so I'll get that to them as soon as possible, an article for Fiber Femmes (fiberfemmes.com), and another article for the "Country Register" about the fiber cooperative we're starting up in the Blue Mountain area of SE Washington, NE Oregon, and SW Idaho. I can harldy wait. I have to write up an outline for the Kirkman House Museum to see if they can help with this, but it's possible, so I need to cut this short and get that done ASAP.

Other than that, I've finished 1/2 of a pair of socks for my SIL, Joann, and have 4 more Christmas projects to go...

So, get all yoru projects for Xmas finished, and I will chat with you all again later.

Hugs,
Jet

My friend's here fron Nicaragua

Hi! My friend, Bill, came to stay for a week. He lives in Nicaragua and had a band named "All Those Wasted Mangos." It disbanded when the people who were in the band went back to their respective countries. I think he really enjoys living there and likes not having to deal with so many people as he's kind of shy.

I had a really bad headache just before he got here--it had lasted 8 days, so when I picked him up, I felt rather exhausted. But the visit's been going quite well and there is one more thing we need to do before he heads back to Nicaragua...but we have a couple more days.

I talked with my Mom for the first time in about 4 months or so. I never thought I'd hear this come out of her mouth, but she apologized for all the bad things she did to me when I was growing up. She also told me that her mother, my maternal Grandmother, had abused her when she wqas growing up: physically, verbally, emotionally, spiritually, sexually, & every other way you can imagine...so it was no wonder Mom had passed that on to her kids. I just thank God I didn't pass it on to my daughter, or I'd have been perpetuating the abuse. Not that she didn't get a spanking once ina long while, but only when she scared me by running in the street and not looking and she got a spank on her bottom because I didn't want her killing herself. I think I spanked her about 12-15 times in her whole life...not like when I was a kid... I was lucky I lived through my childhood and teenage years the abuse was so bad. In the 50's through the 70's, there was no Child Protective Society to help kids and no one really listened to kids, "kids were seen and not heard" was the phrase of choice. No wonder abuse was so rampant, not to mention incest.

Anyway, I was very happy Mom apologized, but even so, I forgave her long ago, but not for what she did--that was unforgivable. The physical abuse was hard enough to deal with, but the head games (emotional, spiritual, verbal) she played were worse by far. It took me years of counseling to get to the point where I even knew what mental health was...and I still got fooled by people who were good at playing those same games.

I learned after a while though...making lists of good qualities that I wanted in friends and boyfriends, as well as lists of negatives to make sure I didn't miss things. It was a lot of work, but I did figure enough out that I did find the man of my dreams, as well as many friends who I enjoy being with and doing things with. It's one of the things people don't realize is that any relationship, whether friendship or love relationship, needs to be worked on. It's not easy, and it never is, and if you never fight, someone is stuffing something they don't want to talk about.

I sometimes feel I spent so much time trying to fix me, that I missed out on lots of other things. I've resolved that though because if I hadn't done the work, I wouldn't be the person I am today--I've become a person that I can say I love and want to know and be friends with...and I don't think many people can say that about themselves. I like being with me and can stand to be alone with myself for hours at a time.

When I was younger, it was easier being drunk or really busy to the point that what I felt like or thought about was buried under tons of stuff. If there are tons of stuff to do or drinking so you cannot think, you never get a chance to love yourself or get to know yourself. And if you don't love yourself or know yourself, then how can anyone else love you or know you. As a famous philospher once said, "Know Thyself." I'd have to say unequivocally that he was absolutely correct.

I heard from Alley, my daughter, via email the other day. She's doing well, and is again living in Seattle. She had a boyfriend who was insecure, jealous and manipulative (which is how her father was with me). Apparently, the city they were living in had floods and they had to be lifted out by helicopter which she thought was "way kewl." She got all her stuff, and when she got to where the helicopter dropped them off, she told him she was leaving, and she did. He was isolating her from family and friends, adn it was only a matter of time before he started to become abusive. It's the same pattern her Dad had when we were first dating, and it only got worse after we married. I stayed with him for almost 10 years (my daughter was 2-years old when I left and divorced him under the domestic violence act in King County), but was so happy after we were apart. Once the divorce was final, April 15, 1986, I cannot tell you how much I celebrated with my friends. It was the happiest I've ever been and the freest I've ever felt.

I have my handmade items on consignment at the new Walla Walla Gift Shop at the Airport. I'm one of 12 artisans who are selling things there. I sell most of the summer at the Farmers' Market (sellilng from the first Saturday in May until the last Saturday in October), and don't make any money during the winter months. Selling my items at the Airport will give me a chance to bring in a bit of money during the months I usually don't get much income.

I also was invited to participate in the 3rd Annual Wine Country Spring Fair in Prosser, WA. It's the second Saturday in May which coincides with the Farmers' Market, but I'll have to wait until my friend leaves on Dec. 7 before I can decide what I want to do. That weekend is the same weekend that the parents/visitors are in town for the graduation ceremonies at Walla Walla College and Whitman College, so it is a HUGE sales day. On the other hand, the Wine Country Spring Fair could be a bigger sales day as more people come to that (thousands, rather than hundreds), so could prove to be quite lucrative. I just need to sit down and work out the numbers.

I taught the spinning class last month and it was really great. The woman I taught already had an inkling of how to spin, having taught herself, but she wanted assurance that she was doing it right and if I could teach her anything she didn't already know, then that would be great as well. She did really well, and I told her that after I taught the class and it was totally over, that I'd like to develop a friendship. She was game to doing that as well, so we're on our way to becoming friends.

I have another knitting class in mid-December though with 6-12 yo girls (maybe a boy or two as well) adn that will be terrific. I like to teach and teaching kids is so fun because they really want to learn. I'm pretty excited about it and will possibly have a chance to teach both spinning and knitting regularly.

In addition, I'm going to be knitting a shrug for a woman who bought a kit and is afraid to knit the shrug. So she was looking for someone to do that, and the owner of the LYS (Local Yarn Shop) suggested me, and will wait until after the holidays to I'll have time to do that. I'm already knitting a pair of socks for my SIL, 4 rabbits for my husband's business partner's wife, a wool sweater for my husband, and a pair of socks for myself. Another friends, Miss C, asked if I'd knit her a shawl, so I need to get together with her so she can pick out the yarn of her choice so I can get working on that as well. In the midst of all of this, I'm spinning and working on small projects to add to my inventory at the airport as well as making more for the Farmers' Market. You can see I have my work cut out for me.

I am sending off 4 or 5 (can't remember how many) scarves down to Sacramento for a friend to give out to the homeless down there. I'm also sending off a tiny lavender teddy bear to a friend who is doing a book that she'll auction off to benefit abused children. Just have to get both boxes down to the Post Office to get them off.

One of the many things I want to do this year is to get some certificates: hand spinning, handknitting, machine knitting and crocheting. Not so much that it will do anything but help me feel that what I'm doing is of the highest quality so I know my clients and customers trust my skills in these endeavors. It also helps people feel more confident about my skills in teaching them what they need to know about these crafts, so I've got a lot on my platter...not to mention that I want to learn to do some bisque ceramics and maybe some clay bead work. I can get them fired locally, and I'm hoping that they'll have some classes soon. I also need to get the glazes and the clay to do the work, but that's coming along as well. The biggest project of all is learning to weave on a loom. We'll see how much I can accomplish this year.

The only thing really stopping me from accomplishing any of this stuff is the head pain I have from the botched brain surgeries and the migraines and the hormonal migraine headaches I get from monthlies and the peri-menopause hormones that I hoipe will finish soon (Doc says it could take from 1-10 years to finish up menopause--oh great). Other than the pain, I'm amazingly healthy...don't know what would happen if I got really ill, but I think I'll do fine until I finally just die in my sleep (at least that's how I'd like to go). We'll see if I can fight against the pain long enough to get what I need to accomplish, accomplished. Keep your fingers crossed.

The nice thing about doing the fiber arts I do is that many are akin to meditation and prayer...like spinning for instance. The sound of the wheel turning, the rhythm of the treadle, the yarn starting from loose fibers and changing into nice even yarn--well, it's all part and parcel of that meditation/prayer feeling. You don't really have to concentrate really hard once you've learned the particulars of spinning, so it leaves your mind clear of that worry. Once the worries are gone, you can let your mind just flow and you find that you can think more clearly. That's the best part...solutions pop into your mind like it was there all along and you're free to act on them or not as you choose. Knitting and crocheting are the same way, unless the stitches or patterns are really intricate because if they're complicated, you have to focus on them rather than the meditation part of knitting or crocheting. But I love doing them anyway.

I hope to hear from you all soon...

Look life full in the face and tell it--YES!--I want it all.

Hugs,
Jet

Things Are Going Well...

Things are going well...I sold 7 more sheep this weekend, but I sold two I wish I hadn't sold--Rabbit and Sweety, two of my original 3 bottle fed lambs from my first lambing in 2004. I did keep Sophie though. Rabbit was this white ball of wool, a Finn/Icelandic ewe lamb and Sweety was a black ball of wool, a purebred Icelandic ram lamb, who became a wether (a wether is a castrated ram). Both were sweet and nice lambs, but Sophie was outstanding and is our public relations sheep now. She stands and lets people pet her and she wags her tail...and it doesn't matter who the people are or what size they are (*kids or adults) and she will do the same thing. I do miss Rabbit and Sweety though.

We did have an accident though. One of the brown ewe lambs drowned...and I didn't even see her. She looked like a lump of mud at the bottom of the creek and if the water hadn't moved her so we saw her tags, we might not have found her at all. Poor little lamb...it broke my heart to see her there. We buried her at the back of the property...

I also sold some of my wool and some of the hats I've made. I'm shipping off 5 scarves to Sacramento and a tiny bear to a woman who is using it for a project she's doing to raise money for abused children..

My spinning class went well and I made a new friend, Anne Glassley, a sister fiber artist who's interest is in felting, but wants to spin. She was not the beginner I thought she was, she had taught herself both the wheel and the spindle, so it was more a matter of building her confidence and showing her how to check her twist so she wasn't over-spinning the fiber. It was if she was a spinner in a past life she picked it up so fast. I told her that we should get together for lunch soon and she thought that would be great, so that's what we'll do. Her husband, Bob, was a very nice fellow as well. He was so considerate and really cares about his wife a lot and wants her to enjoy her life--you can see how much he loves her..

Lance bought a Yamaha V-Star 1100 motorcycle and both got helmets and may take a ride if the weather warms up over the holidays. He wants to take it out towards Clarkston or Lewiston, so that will be interesting. I haven't been on a motorcycle since well before I divorced my former spouse. When we took a long trip, he kept dumping the bike while I was on it because he kept packing wrong...it has to be balanced or the bike's off-balance and you get dumped. 4 times was 4 times too many, so I told him I wasn't going to ride with him any more, and that was a couple years before I divorced him. Best move I ever made, and I became a single parent of a beautiful 2 yo daughter..

It's been interesting though...seeing a motorcycle in our garage, but it's a real beauty...dark red with silver/gray flames outlined on the tank and fenders. Low to the ground and it has a nice rumble to it, not the potato-potato of a Harley Davidson, but a good sound nonetheless. In the summer, we might get a Yamaha Virago 250 for me to put around town to do some errands. Gas being what it is, we'll be saving more gas using the bikes rather than the cars anyway. If we didn't live right on the highway, I'd settle for a moped, but a moped won't go fast enough on the Highway so a 250 is the bike I'll need to have..

I'm working on a pair of peach cotton/merino socks for my SIL, Jo, who got her first pair of Birkenstocks this summer. I've wanted a pair for quite a while and that might give me the impetus to get a pair. I told her I'd knit a pair of socks for her to wear with the Birkenstocks and she was all for it..

I'm still working on Lance's V-neck sweater out of the silver gray Icelandic from Moe, one of the Icelandics I sold this spring. He had a beautiful fleece and the sweater is going to be very handsome with the light, dark, and medium gray striping as I spun it from the lock. I've got the sleeves finished and the body to the underarms, now it's a matter of getting the arms to the underarms and then finish up the upper arms, shoulders, and neck, then putting on the edging...and it's done..

I finished my shawl and took it with me to Knitochet to see if the owner could sell it for me. It's made from a wine/silver/white/black gimp type of yarn made of rayon. I loved the color and how it worked up...looks like I put metallic yarn in it but it's how the rayon shines. Really lovely with lots of ruffles and movement when you put it on. Keep your fingers crossed..

Well, I'm off to bed. Take care....

Hugs,
Jet
.

AAA Fiber Arts Answers

I've been getting lots of questions about fiber arts: knitting, embroidery, crewel embroidery, rug hooking, papermaking, crocheting,spinning, felting,dyeing, weaving, needlepoint, cross stitch, sewing, quilting, serging, or any other fiber art you have technique or how-to questions on.

Based on all the questions, I decided that it would be a good thing to start a blog group related to answering those questions.

If you have any questions, please ask and if I do not know the answer right on the tip of my brain, I can find someone who does.

I just want to help you enjoy your fiber arts as much as I enjoy mine.

Just so you know, the group is moderated so there won't be a ton of XXX-rated or other slimy sorts able to post nasties of assorted types on this group. It is a help group, not an advertising group.

Hope you'll have some questions soon so I can help...I love helping people who are interested in learning about fiber arts.

I've also posted some new upcoming classes on the bulletin board, in case you'd like to learn in person.

Hugs
Jet

Being Successful

I was looking at the calender today and noticed that we're halfway thought the month. Time is really flying by this year. My Grandmother used to say that as you get older, time just flies by... You start out when you're a kid and you're always feeling bored, so you run around with other kids and even then, you still feel kind of bored. As you get older and there are more enticing things to do, you find that you're not as bored as you were before. Then you graduate from high school, you go on to college or you get a job or get married, and then there never seems to be enough time.


One day you look into the mirror and that 20 yo is no longer there...there is a more mature and, hopefully, more intelligent person than there was even a few years before. And time is flying by like there is no tomorrow. Kind of scary, isn't it? This is where I always wish that I was back at age 8 when I first started saying to my folks and grandparents that I was bored, but knowing what I know now.

Wouldn't that be terrific? Going back to an earlier stage in your life and knowing what you know at 50 or more? I'm not talking about what stock would be making money back then. I'm talking about the mature thinking, the mature emotions, and all the things we learned on our way to 50 or more.

Knowing which person to watch out for (not the exact person, but that certain type of person) or that you want to get to know better. Behaviors we had when we were young seem to have mellowed out by the time we hit 50. Knowing that we need to start saving when we're young so that when we retire, we can take care of ourselves and not worry about pensions (those would still be nice tough), social security (that will be long gone soon enough), and our families. Knowing that we made the right decisions that we won't pass on knowing that we screwed up when we were younger because of bad choices we made or not so nice things we did.

Personally, I'd only go back to age 23. I had a nasty childhood and wouldn't go back to before 23 even if I had the chance. 20 was the start of my life when I could made my own decisions, the right ones, so that I could feel good about who and what I was. I had saved $25,000 by that point, but I wouldn't have married my first husband--he went through my savings like it was water.

'd have made different decisions about my life...have gone back to college sooner to get my degree so I could have been promoted sooner and gone up higher in the ranks.

I'd have taken more art courses and more courses on sales and merchandising than I did, so I could have done better when I had my custom-made sweater business.

Oh well...as they all say, the past is past, and we have to look towards the future, which I am doing. I have high hopes for my future, despite of the head pain.

I want to raise more Icelandic sheep and sell the lambs. I want to make sure that I raise them well so they have nice fleeces that I can process and spin and sell. I want to teach more people how to do the crafts I love so they don't disappear forever. If the world keeps going the way it's going, we may need those crafts again for clothing and household goods.

I want to sell the items I create, from patterns, clothing, and home decor items to regular folks, to creating things that businesses would want for their front offices.

I want to learn more fiber crafts. I want to learn more about everything. I love learning and can usually do much of what I've learned, so I keep learning. It's a neverending cycle.

I want to enjoy my life more, and if that means creating things until I'm 100, then that's what I'm willing to do. I love doing it and sharing what I do.

Anyway, I'm successful at what I'm doing. I'm selling sheep and lambs, fiber, yarn, baby, teen and adult clothing, afghans and toys. I'm also selling patterns I've created myself for shawls, mittens, toys, etc. I'm teaching classes to more and more people, and I'm learning more about myself throughout all of this. I may slow down with age, but I feel that I'm happy I'm doing this now when I have the energy to do it, than to wait until it's too late and miss the boat.

So, do what you love and hopefully, the rest will follow. You'll be a success in your own eyes. Isn't that what's most important? It doesn't matter if you're a success in anyone else's eyes, but your own.

You are the most important person in your life, so take care of yourself. You can love people, but if you don't love yourself, they won't feel loved.

Hugs,
Jet

Life, Love, & thanks for all the Jalapenos

Life is so strange sometimes. You run into people in real life or on the Internet and you wonder who and what they are in reality. Are they honest, do they give to charity, are they ethical and moral or the opposite. It's hard to say unless they actually do something to prove themselves one way or another.

Because I survived a very abusive childhood and young adulthood, I really have no reason to trust anyone. However, I try to trust most people because if I don't, I feel the abusers have won. Most people I've meet have good hearts, and I think that's a good thing, especially when we can't even trust our politicians--even the President.

I haven't voted for anyone of the Presidential candidates since 1980 because I didn't trust them and I refuse to vote for the "lesser of the two evils." I've written in the person I believed to be the best person for that position. I may not get that person into office, but I'm making a large statement about the quality of the candidates by saying that I don't like the people that are getting onto the ballots, besides exercising my right to vote.

I guess I make a real effort to vote because no one that I know of in my family does vote. My Mom thinks it is a good thing that she hasn't ever voted, my Dad and Stepmonster (oops, I meant Stepmother) do the same thing...but then they complain about who gets elected. I don't think that they have any right to complain if they didn't do anything to make a difference in the first place. But that's my opinion on voting and who's elected.

Anyway, I tend to trust people first, and let them show me what they're really like over time...how else can I explain why I have people I've had friends for over 40 years... Mostly, I like people, and though I do make mistakes like everyone else, I try to make amends and apologize if I've harmed someone.

In the past 13+ years since I had the 1993 brain surgery, I've had to up with severe, chronic head painm and it's been a lot harder to stay in contact with people and make new friends (thank God for the Internet). I'm down so much of the time from the pain and breakthrough headaches, that I have to make a extra efforts to stay in touch. I've had an additional 4 surgeries since then, and the last finally reduced the level 8-9 pain to a 7-8, it's still hard to function.

Let me explain a bit more: after the first surgery, the neuro-oncologist left me with all but 1/5th of the tumor in my optic nerve, and didn't seem to care about the 3-day cerebral spinal fluid leak, that left me with chronic, severe right-sided head pain. I was let go from my job at the University because I couldn't do the work because the pain was so bad. The good news was that the tumor was benign, but that was about all the good news after that.

After the surgery, I couldn't read without tossing my cookies after only a few minutes, and that about killed me as I love reading: text books, reference books, poetry, romance and scifi--everything and anything. I'm what you'd call an information Junkie. The original surgeon wouldn't prescribe any pain meds. I went to a neurologist in Bremerton, WA, who tried to find something that worked--accupuncture, medications, etc. and found one medication that sort of work, but he sent me to the pain clinic at Swedish Medical Center to see if they could find something that worked better. The MD, who had my case, tried other things like injecting lidocaine into my spinal column and other things before he tried other medications. The injection didn't work, but he did find a medication that did work and it brought the pain down to a lower level, but then the breakthrough pain was still higher and the meds didn't work for that--I had to stay in bed with a pan beside me because when I had that pain, I was throwing up constantly...so I didn't have to diet. lol

I was already exercising 3-4 hours a day to build endorphins, I knitted, crocheted, and did what I could to keep my spirits up and to not focus on the pain, but it was so bad, there wasn't much I could do. I did want a life though, so I did what I could, and was as functional as I could be under the circumstances.

Then I needed to have another surgery--the second--because the MD didn't take out all of the tumor--he took out what was from the right optic nerve to the carotid artery and optic chiasm behind it, where it was girdling artery/chiasm, and took the top off the optic nerve, then put it back on. No one could figure out why he didn't take the tumor out of the optic nerve. The second surgery happened because the other MDs thought it might help the pain and becasue the tumor was growing outside the optic nerve again. A little later, we found out that the tumor by the artery/chiasm was growing again.

So that's where the third surgery came into the picture. It was called a Gamma Knife procedure that was supposed to stop the tumor from growing--it was supposed to help within a year--and eventually it did stop it, but after 9 years. And through it all, the pain was so bad I wasn't sure that anyone could do anything about it.

During this time, I was trying to date and figure out if there was something else I could do despite the pain. I tried going to school, but with the problems I've had from the pain when I read, I couldn't do it, so dropped the math class.

I joined Match.com when it was still a small company and met a lot of single men, and made some friends with some women as well. I met my second husband, Lance (see the pic on my main page) through them. We were friends for almost a year and we talked about everything: how we felt about our divorces, what was our part in the failed marriage, childrearing ideas as we both had daughters (his daughter was about a year old than mine), what wines and foods we liked, our families and the problems there. We were both still dating as we weren't sure the 1000 miles expanse between us would allow us to get closer than friends.

I met a guy, let's call him Johnny for the sake of privacy, who seemed to be nice. He took me to meet his Grandmother and we became friends with his now deceased Grandmother. She warned me about Johnny--saying he never stayed with any woman for very long--and I told her that I was aware that he wasn't going to be in my life for very long. That didn't make it any less painful when he broke it off 3 months later (we were together for 4 months and he'd proposed to me after 1 month). I told Lance about it, so he suggested that as friends, I should come down for 5 days over the Christmas/New Year's Holiday. He's take me to museums and we'd go for hikes/walks and that would help me get over him.

So, I flew down to LAX from Seattle on December 30, 1996. When I got off the plane, he was as good looking as his picture. He asked me if I was too tired or would I like to do something before we headed back to his home. I wanted to do something, so he took me to the Huntington Library and Arboretum near Glendale. It was so nice there and I had a great time, and all the while we talked. Then he took me to dinner. We both realized we had started to love one another over the time we were emailing and phoning each other.

The next night was NewYear's Eve, and he cooked me dinner (ratatouille, boulliabase, veggies, salad) with fine china, crystal, candlelight, and silver dinner ware. No man had ever cooked me dinner before and it was lovely. He had bought some very nice champagne, and even made a whipped cream cake for dessert. I gave him the Christmas gift I'd bought--Ottmar Leibert's Nouveau Flamenco CD--and we danced to it. He proposed to me. I asked him if I could give him an answer in a couple days, so over the 3 remaining days, we spent a lot of time talking instead of sleeping--we probably got about 10 hours of sleep in 5 days as we talked about even more than we had, seeing he was talking about spending the rest of our lives together.

So, now we talked about more private things like our previous lovers/spouses, what life was like and what we thought we'd like our lives to be like if we did get married, favorite colors, favorite music, and those sorts of things. The last evening, his daughter came by to spend the night after her return from her Christmas vacation with her mom and grandparents in Hawaii. So, she opened her Christmas presents from her Dad, then we all goofed around with she and I putting Christmas ribbons on Lance's hair...we even have some pics of that. After she went to bed, we danced more to Ottmar, and I told him that I'd marry him. To say he was ecstatic was putting it mildly...and I was very happy as well.

The next day, I was going to leave about 3 PM, we went shopping for an engagement ring. I've never liked diamonds all that much because they're too cold and I've never been a traditionalist anyway. I chose a 1/2-carat amethyst--which was perfect being that our birthdays are 4 days apart and I was the older of the two of us--with diamond chips around it. It was beautiful. Lance and Andrea took me to the airport after we ate lunch, then waited until I was settled at the airport and left. I couldn't believe those 5 days...and when I got on the plane, I promptly fell asleep on the trip back to Seattle. I was so tired.

I told my daughter what had happened and she was so excited for me, not to mention that it meant we'd be moving from Seattle to Southern California and she could be a "beach babe." Mainly, she just wanted me to be happy and she always wanted to have a sister, so she got everything she wanted.

We were going to get married in June, but we figured that we'd waited long enough and decided instead to get married on Valentine's Day. We were wed at the Maple Leaf Evangelical Church, the same church I became a born again Christian, and were married. There were 26 people at the ceremony and Alexandria, my daughter, was there with Susanne Wilhelm, my Matron of honor, and Sol Porras, Lance's Best man. My friend and our wedding photographer, Herb Goode, gave me away. Neither of our families were at the wedding, but I had all my friends there.

The next day, we loaded up the moving truck and were on our way to Southern California. It took 4 days as the truck they gave us couldn't get past 15 mph on the steep hills. When we got to Fullerton, we unloaded the truck, then we went to his folks for our belated reception with his family and friends. It was very nice, but I could tell that his folks were worried because he told them after he proposed to me, that we were going to get married. So, when we got married 45 days later, I guess they had a right to be. It took a year or so before they realized that this was going to last.

It's been almost 9 years now and I can harldy believe it.

In 1999, I had my fourth surgery by the same neurosurgeon who did the Gamma Knife procedure, this called a cingulotomy. It took a few days to recover, but when I was feeling better, I realized I could read again--at a much slower rate, but I so didn't throw up, which was a very good thing and I could read again.

However, I lost my cooking skills...I had been a dinner chef at a Red Lion Restaurant and those are gone and the surgery did not get rid of any of the head pain.

I had the fifth surgery in December 2005. It was called a rhyzotomy and the result was a 20% decrease in the pain, which meant a 20% decrease in my pain medication. I'm hoping to have another of these surgeries because when they did the temporary procedure (when they inject lodocaine in both the upper and mid branch of the Trigeminal nerve), it reduced the pain by about 40% and I believe that if they do the rhyzotomy again, it will reduce the pain some more. We'll see how it goes.

As you can see, my life has not been as nice as some have had, but I'm a much stronger person than I ever thought I was or could be, so I'm happy with how I've grown over the years. What more could a woman ask for?

Hugs,
Jet

t's been busy around here...

I can't believe how busy it's been around here. I've had 25 calls from my ad in the Country Register for fiber, yarn or items for Christmas; then 5 people have stopped by this week. It amazes me how people are involved in the fiber community in some way or another.

I also have wool and alpaca fiber for paper makers as well as people who want to use the fibers for doll hair, wall hangings, weaving, paper mache, and other crafts. I have a lot of fun trying to find out what people want and I do love chatting with people about their crafts.

I've got tons of craft groups in my groups section and have all the crocheting, knitting, spinning, doll making, and other crafty ones that I can find having to do with fiber or yarn. It's amazing how many are there.

My ewes are getting pregnant, though it is hard to tell in the beginning, but I should start lambing near the end of February through April. I hope you can come visit me and see all of the animals, alpacas, sheep and lambs, not to mention the chickens and my dwarf Great Pyrenees, Bud, and Norphan, my cat (both he and she are neutered/spayed).

One of the things that really bothers me about living in the country is that people let their animals run wild and destroy other people's property and animals. Last year, we had someone who lost most of a angora goat herd including pregnant does and some of the kids, but the people couldn't figure out whose dogs killed them, so they took a BIG loss. My alpacas and my dog help a lot with keeping predators away from my sheep and I've not lost one to predators, though I have to the cold, the heat and/or being butted the wrong way by one of their flock mates.

When I first got my sheep, I lost the registered ram because he butted someone the wrong way and got a skull fracture and went into convulsions. We had to put him down, so he's buried in the back pasture. This summer, we lost Java, my favorite alpaca due to the heat and he's buried in the other back pasture we have. I hate losing animals even if it is expected, like with Java...the Vet told me he had some genetic problems and he wouldn't last the year and that was 2 years before he died, so though I expected it, I still cried.

And we've lost lambs every year for one reason or another. A friend of ours told me that lambs are born to die as they have one of the highest attrition rates of all the animals, but that's one of the reasons why I have mainly Icelandic sheep--they're used to tough conditions originating from Iceland, but there are still losses from getting trampled or butted too hard or other reasons (when they are still born or die because of birth defects). The first year I lost 7 lambs, the next year only 4, this last spring, I lost 3, so it seems to be going down, but we'll see how they do this spring.

Also, from time to time we get bummer lambs--bummers being orphaned lambs where the ewes won't let them nurse for some reason. Bottle fed lambs are the most friendly of all the animals. I had 4 the first year with one dying on me, the second year I had 1 and this last year I had 3. I hope to not have any because bottle feed lambs is a busy job because they get fed 3 times a day for a month, then 2 times a day for a month, then once a day for a month or two, then they're on grass.

Most of our sheep get grass until fall, then start eating alfalfa hay, which they eat throughout the winter and the spring while the grass grows again. I cut the grass in the yard and feed it to them and they love it because it's different. Even with the hay, if they leave a lot, all we have to do is to move it to another place and they'll eat it as if they never saw it before, but there was a lot of waste. Now, we have bale boxes for bales of hay and there's a grid (we made the grid from cutting up cattle panels) and they can't pull tons of hay on the ground, so the waste and cost of feeding them has dropped by 2/3's or more. Bale boxes work for both the alpacas and the sheep so all in all, we're now happier with our feeding arrangement. We roofedd the last bale box two days ago and with the roofing on it, it got real heavy, so we both had to lift it into the cart, which was attached to the riding mower and moved it out to the front pasture where we have fertile males that we haven't sold or are going to butcher. Our registered Icelandic ram, Rocky (named after Rocky of Rocky and Bullwinkle--and right now we do have a Bullwinkle, but he's sold--he's one of the bottle fed lambs) is in the back pasture with all the ewes so we don't have to worry come the day we have to register the lambs.

I've been working on a crocheted shawl right now made with a cone of gimp yarn (cotton and rayon with slubs) in a wine/reddish brown/pink/silver color combination. It's for a young or teenage girl and has a madarin neck and lots of lacey holes so it's very frilling and feminine. I'll post a picture later.

For those of you who've viewed my pics, the magenta yarn was dyed by me with Jacquard protein dyes in a red violet shade. I loved the way it came out, but I prefer to buy my dyed fiber or yarn and sell my natural colored fiber and yarns so that others may dye them. I have a lot of dyes for when I want colored projects for myself or my family, or when I do a dye workshop with a few others. It's fun to do, but I'm so busy spinning yarn or knitting or crocheting something, that dyeing is something I only do occassionally.

I'm finishing up a knitted, silver-gray, naturally striped Icelandic sweater for my husband, and I'm working on a pair of knitted socks for my SIL down in Southern California (aka SoCal). She's so excited and wants to learn to knit as well, so next time I see her (and if she hasn't already taken classes in SoCal), then I'll give her some lessons.

Speaking of classes, I'll be teaching a spinning class at Knitochet in Walla Walla on November 11 and 12. And then I'll be teaching another knitting class for kids in December. I'm so excited. I love teaching as much as I love fiber arts, so when I get a chance to teach classes, I learn as much as the students do. It also forces me to look at my techniques and such in a new light so I can create even better product.

I'm also planning some workshops at my home, as well as selling yarn and Xmas items, so people can call for an appointment and see what I've got now.

Anyway, you can see why I'm so busy, so I'll have to break off for now and write again later.

Hugs,

Jet

Life can be so much fun...

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, but things have been busy.

My husband's brother and his wife came from Southern California to visit us and their parents for 5 days and left this morning to head back. We went wine tasting, we ate at the best restaurant in this area called the Whoop 'Em Up, which has 5-star cuisine. I had a rare ribeye steak Cowboy style (really delicious), hubby had Jumbalaya, BIL had blackened catfish, FIL had a blackened catfish poorboy, SIL had a fried oyster poorboy, and MIL had a Frisee salad with chantrelles, poached eggs and some other stuff in the salad. Everyone was pleased, but my SIL commented that she never thought Walla Walla and the surrounding area would have a restaurant like this, and that Walla Walla was completely different than what she thought it would be, in a good way, of course. After dinner, we went to my in-laws and we had some wine and watch Brokeback Mountain. It was so sad that I cried. We took them up to the Elk preserve in theBlue Mountains above Walla Walla, but although we didn't see any elk, we saw mule deer, white tailed and black tailed deer, so it wasn't all a loss, and it was a fun drive.

I sold 6 lambs/sheep this week, so I'm very happy...it's always nice to have an unexpected windfall. The people will pick them up the end of October/beginning of November.

We finished roofing one of our bale boxes. A box that holds a bale of hay with a small portion of a cattle panel cut to fit on top of the bale to keep the sheep and alpacas from wasting it. Before we built them, they probably wasted about 1/3 of a bale just because they wanted the sweet flowery/leafy part of the alfalfa hay. Now they graze from the boxes and there is little or no waste, so we're saving more money that way, but we'll still need to get two more tons of hay soon so we have enough to last the winter.

I'm spinning some white Corriedale wool into yarn and it's very soft. Sometimes, the type of wool I'm spinning isn't as soft as I'd like, so then I felt it after I'm finished or I make a rug out of it. Either way, all my yarn goes for good things. I sell as much of it as I can and I sell quite a bit. My peers say I'm doing well based on the competitions I've entered, so I believe that my yarn is worth the price I sell it for. I keep working along.

I'm working on a shawl, not sure if I mentioned that before, but it's coloring is merlot red, silver gray and white with black under strand. I'm creating a new patterns and this is one, so what I'm working on is a prototype... If it looks good when I'm finished, I'll type it up, take a pic and make a copy so that I can enclose it in a plastic sleeve that you can put in a 3-ring binder and sell it. I'm also working on a domino rug with various colors of rug yarn, but that's to use up some rug yarn stash I've had for years...time to get rid of it, and if I can use it or sell it, I will.

I took my SIL foot measurements so that I can make her a sock to wear with her first pair of Birkenstocks. She's excited. I have a sweater for Lance, my hubby, that I've been working on for a year that is made from Moe's fiber, a nice silver gray. Because I spun the wool from the lock, it's striiping naturally and is so goodlooking that I'll probably have to make one for his brother even if it doesn't get as cold down in SoCal (Southern California) to wear a sweater. It does get chilly in winter, but most of the time it's temperate to hot, mainly hot. I don't know why, but I rarely make anything for myself. I sell most of the stuff I make or give it as gifts to family and friends. I think I'll make a nice skiing set for when we go to Sun Valley this winter to go with my ski outfit.

I learned to downhill ski right after Lance and I got married almost 9 years ago, and though I'm afraid of heights, I do it anyway. I just do more "esses" down the slope if it bothers me, usually if it's really steep like a double diamond or double black (it depends where you are as to what it's called). Lance just goes Banzai down the steeps like it's nothing...but it's where he gets his speed fix. he's been skiing for 14 years. I can hardly wait until we can go skiing though...we need a vacation. We both work really hard and haven't had a real vacation, other than one weekend, since we both became self-employed.

My 35th high school reunion is next year, so we are taking time off to do that. I want to show him off to my classmates--my younger man--he's so handsome and funny. LOL In truth, I'm 4 days older than he is, but we play like it's a big deal becasue it's fun and besides, I always wanted to marry a younger man and I got my wish. Though I can't say that the 4-days I'm older won't beat the statistics that say a woman should marry a younger man because me die sooner than women do... I still am happy I'm older than he is because I look younger.

Well enough chatting for today. I'll be back again later in the week...

Ciao for now,
Jet