This is one of the blankets that was made by the loving knitters surrounding Virginia Tech. Recently I sent squares to the Mosaic Yarn Shop to be sewn into blankets for the families of the shootings at Virginia Tech on April 16th. The squares were to be sent until the end of May. They had needed 2000 squares, but instead they received over 6100 squares!

They received squares from all 50 states and 18 countries around the world.

What an amazing show of love and support for Virginia Tech. I cannot believe how many people responded to this call for squares in Hokie colors. I, for one, have been honored to have been a small part of the Hokie Healing Project! I see at least 4 squares of mine in the blanket on the right side.

To see your work in something that has become such a grand scale, worldwide project to help heal Virginia Tech, tends to give me goosebumps! But if you don't believe me, go over to the Mosaic Yarn Shop and look for yourself at the amount of people who turned out to help seam these squares together yesterday! Just follow the link above.

Take care of you and yours! Til next post!

P.S. Gina, Belinda, and Debbie of Mosaic, I borrowed the picture from your blog and if you don't want it here let me know... it will be gone the same day! No problem at all...

A Very Special Thank you

I thought that I had finished posting for today, but I had a surprise in my email that definitely requires a second post today.


I would like to take this opportunity to thank Karen Gielen, who co-moderates with me at Looming Angels Yahoo group, for designing the beautiful banner that graces the top of the page here on my blog.


Karen, this is truly a beautiful piece of graphic artwork! I deeply appreciate the time that you put into it. Especially considering that you don't have a lot of time to spare lately. This banner is exactly the shining statement that I wanted for my blog.
I will cherish it always! Karen is Creative KJ's Corner in my favorite blogs section in the sidebar.....

Go pay her a visit.


Again Karen.... Love you muchly girlfriend! You totally rock!

This is Bugsy....

This is Bugsy with his toy, Jaws....

This is Bugsy after you throw Jaws for him....

Bugsy is a Cairn Terrier with a bit of Westie mixed in..... Bugsy is a complete SPAZ!!!!!!

He is so danged cute it is hard not to throw whichever toy he has chosen for the day of romping around at Grandma's yard. (It is fenced in and we live on a very busy street, so we walk down the block to Grandma's yard to run him a bit...our yard is open right next to the street and it is a total weed forest, with some dirt showing for decoration!)

And Bugsy is a petter. He pets you, you do NOT pet him. One day I expect the animal control lady to come up to my house and tell me that our neighbors have reported animal abuse.... yes that is right..... when he pets you, he is so anxious to see you that he yelps like someone is killing him... which almost makes you want to when he does it at midnight while we are sitting out on the porch enjoying the summer breeze, if there is one. When you live in the Clothes Dryer of the world, you take a cool breeze whenever one falls upon you. Then the yelping starts, like we are beating him.... in actuality, we are only forcing love on him by petting him. Heaven forbid the thought!!

Bugsy is just over a year old and he is like the last picture above, from the time he gets up until we put him in the kennel at night, running the Bugsy 500 around the couch, under my computer chair, through the kitchen, behind my cedar chest, smacking his head on the wood stove, to the front door, and back again to do it all over again.

I had always thought before getting this cute little spastic bundle of hair that I was odd... well, I am still odd, but this little guy is way out there. I can give him a cottage cheese cup and he will run it around the house non stop, losing it under the couch, digging it out again, and everywhere until you can't even tell that it used to be a plastic cup. If only he could move the weeds in the yard after he digs them and all the grass up, on to the garbage can, then he could be used as a shovel... one day he may end up finding China under there after all!

OK I guess I have to go now.... just wanted to share my dog with you all. Unfortunately today, my Dishwasher/Lawnmower/Floor Mop/Bathroom Cleaner is spending the night with a cousin so..... ~Sigh~..... I guess I will have to get my butt up out of this chair and attempt to find my counters in my kitchen... they were there when we put the dishes on them, but they seem to have disappeared.... somewhere under there......

Til next time....... Take care of you!

I am not sure if I have ever mentioned what I do for a living. I am a subcontracted transporter for railroad crews. I have done this job for about 10 years now, will be 10 in July.

I have not written in my blog for a period of about a month now. Something happened at work with one of my co-workers (A conductor on a freight train). He was working on his job, and was ran over by a train car on June 1st. He is alive, thankfully, but unfortunately he had to have his leg above the knee removed on one leg and above the ankle on the other. The trauma of the whole thing is just to horrible to even imagine.

I wish I had his determination. He says he will walk again with the aid of prosthetics. I truly believe he will. He is a conductor on the Union Pacific Railroad, the Mayor of the neighboring small town, a firefighter, etc. He has many, many friends, probably more than even he realized. So many want to help out, but what to do?

So in his honor, I am organizing a blood drive. We are combining his town and ours which are only about 13 miles apart, in a combined effort to feel that we have helped out in some small way. Hopefully he doesn't need any more blood, but hospitals are so extremely in crisis for blood, that they will be able to use it no matter who it goes to. And it is the only thing that he requested that I could do for him.... tell everyone to give blood. I will write how many pints we managed to do afterwards, sometime in July is the date so far.

On that note, keep in mind all the hospitals in the country. When you can if you are physically able, donate blood. People need it badly at this time. Lots of hospitals are critical on their blood supplies. What if you needed it? What would happen if they ran out? Keep that in mind and donate when you can.