THIRD Cousins

Today was Neil's basketball game against the Buddhist Church of Oakland. He did much better than last night...although a third cousin did strip him of the ball. I would like to say that he was being nice...but, he didn't know he was related to her!

In the middle is my mother's cousin. The two boys (twins) and girls are her grandchildren. Neil and the girls are all 9...the boys are 14. (Jordan is 11)...it's always fun to see "family" at the games...

Christmas in January...hat for Mom

I know...it's almost February...and I still have five Christmas presents at my house...at least I did get one to Lori. Well, I sort of got one to Lori...I still have her purse to make. sigh...With Mom going in and out of Stanford for the last three weeks, life has been hectic. I try to go over for the Doctors' rounds everyday...I usually stay until 2 unless Mom has a procedure or I want to talk to the doctors again...so, my crafting has been limited...

Luckily, I made this bracelet for Lori before Thanksgiving...isn't it cute? She likes blue...it's mother of pearl bases with really pretty blue cabochons. Lori met me at the Stanford Shopping Center for lunch, (after my visit with Mom). We had a nice lunch and did a little "retail therapy". Look what I found at Lucy...a purple army knife...perfect!

One of the things that I have been working on at the hospital is a hat for Mom. Her original procedure (which was suppose to be an outpatient procedure), has caused her hair to fall out...so, I knitted this hat for her. It didn't come out like the pattern...so, I had to "doctor" it up with some ribbon and etc. Jordan was not that happy to be my model...but, I told him it was for Grandma!

...and my Baby turns 11!!!!

Jordan turned 11 today!!! Can you believe it? My baby!!! It's okay, he doesn't read my BLOG and isn't on Facebook...I think...he did get busted a few months ago setting up a FB account.
So, the tough part about Jordan's birthday is...he doesn't like cake...no cakes what-so-ever...so, I "whipped up" an "ice cream sandwich" cake. He loved it....put some ice cream sandwiches at the bottom of a cake pan...smash on some softened ice cream....freeze it...invert it (so that the sandwiches are on the top)....and spread on some more softened ice cream for the "frosting". He wants another one for his family party on SuperBowl Sunday....which works because there are more people (on Jeff's side) who don't like cake...but loves ice cream sandwiches.

Note: those "strange" people are on Jeff's side. My side? All about cake and frosting...yum!


Thanks to Teresa (Jeff's assistant) for this idea. I think Joyce Rice also did something like this for Zackary's birthday, no?

Glass and Ceramics

For the last two weeks, we have been going back and forth to Stanford Hospital. My mother
has been having some health issues and recently they have been getting worse. She is doing better...but, she will still be in the hospital for a few more days.

Whenever Mom is sick, my older brother Dean, who is developmentally delayed, gets very stressed....Dean had a very bad experience in the hospital about 6 years ago....resulting in numerous surgeries in a range of 6 months. So, he always gets stressed and irritated.

To help "calm" him down, I found this great place in the Town and Country Center....Create It!...Dean painted a vase for Mom. Unfortunately, she can't have any flowers or plants in her room...but she can enjoy the vase.

Here is the before picture...Dean in action...he painted the vase blue and then added green polka dots.
















Here is the "after" picture:





















Of course, I couldn't let him have all of the fun...I made two "fused glass plates...the first one will be a bowl...I don't have it back yet...

















The next plate is Jeff's family crest....I saw the hearts at the shop and I thought it would look cool....Actually, I went in the next day and spread out the hearts...I thought it would melt together...


















The final project is below....I also added a border when I went back...I like the way it turned out...I guess I did spread it a little too far...but, it looks ok.

200 posts? Go Wizards!!!! Shaq.

As I was getting ready to start a new post....I noticed that this is my 201st posting! WOW....funny, it seems like I just started blogging yesterday.

Today, Jordan had his first basketball game for school....The Warwick Wizards were whomped by the Patterson Panthers...but, we did get to see some really good friends.

Neil went to pre-school with Hannah. When he was about 4, he announced to me that he is going to marry Hannah, basically because she was the only girl he knew at the time who could understand his speech. They had met when Jordan and Hannah's older sister, Sierra, were in pre-school together...so, Hannah was about 1 and Neil was around 2. Too funny...I don't think Neil can handle Hannah! The little one is Hannah's younger sister, Amber, and their mother's request that I have another child so that her third sibling would have a playmate was "denied".Here are the two basketball stars....um, well, one of them is...you guess which one....did I mention that the Wizards were whomped? (both teams)

You might remember that we had to put one of our cats, Kiku, to sleep in April...well, today Shaq went to be with her. In February, we removed a malignant tumor....by August it had returned. He stopped eating his cat food in November, he was eating tuna....but, he stopped that a little while ago. Today, he weighed 7 pounds...in August he was 14 pounds, at one time he was 19 pounds....it was time and we were as prepared as we could be. The house does seem empty and quiet without him...

New Year's Resolutions? PHEWY!!!

Ok, so, I don't know if "Phewy" is a real word...but, you get the idea. I haven't kept my resolution to keep my BLOG updated at LEAST 3 times a week...but, I have a good excuse....blah blah blah....I have spending a lot of time with my family. Things are better and we can hopefully get back to a normal schedule in the next week of so.

While I was "bonding" with family, we discovered a restaurant called "Jason's Cafe" in Menlo Park. (http://www.yelp.com/biz/jasons-cafe-menlo-park) It was really good...I really wanted a salad and ordered the Chef's Salad above...OMG...I had enough for dinner. Jeff had the chicken fried steak....can you feel his arteries hardening???? ...and he said it was really good. My brother Gary had a half-sandwich/half-soup....and it came with a side! If you know my family, you know that they value the restaurant by not only quality but also quantity! :) I am interested to try some other items on their menu....they had not only "American" food, but also Thai, Chinese and some other things.....should be interesting!

Post Holiday crafts....

The holidays are over...the boys are in school...now mom can sit back and relax and make things for herself....yeah, right...there are two babies expected on Jeff's side of the family...but, before that....I made my Mom a blanket:
It's nice, soft and warm.....it's called a 5 1/2 hour blanket....probably could make it in 5 1/2 hours....I'm taking it to her tomorrow....

Next on my list is a crochet afghan for myself...in plum purple...then I will do the baby blankets....can't post pictures of those....I am FB'd with the expectant mothers and this blog downloads to my FB.

Hope you are having a great 2010!!!!