Crochet Me Crazy

I have a head ache.... we just got back from a long over due confrontation with our neighbor who we share a back fence with. We've lived here for 8 years and I first realized this guy might have a problem years ago when he trimmed our tree branches that were hanging over into his yard and threw the branches into our yard to pick up. Keep in mind, this guy is obviously extremely obsessive compulsive about everything in or around his house being absolutely perfect. One look at his house or yard shows that. He's out there at all hours of the night doing stuff in his yard, he pressure washes his roof, he has fake trees stuck into his trees to fill in the bare spots along the fence. You could eat off his garage floor. I swear he would know if a blade of grass was out of place. We've been in our back yard when he's shot his BB gun at the birds. (I think they must make a mess) After the 2nd cat we got turned up dead, we suspect he killed both cats after talking with other neighbors with the same suspicions. Another neighbor's cat has been shot with a BB gun several times. The evidence strongly suggest that he sprayed some type of exfoliate on our trees one time. We notice all the leaves on two of our trees which were right by our shared fence turning brown. When we tried to figure out what it was and Jeff looked over the fence, we could see where he had sprayed something up against the fence conveniently where our trees where. When we put our above ground pool up and Jeff build a deck around it, he put up an extra 3 feet of lattice along our shared fence just on the section where our deck was. The kids have reported him yelling at our little dog when she would bark and hit things up against the fence at her and Jeff has heard him yell at the dog for barking. Keep in mind, we've never really even talked to the guy or even seen him close up for that matter. He stares at us when we drive by his house though so he obviously knew who we are. He is not actually a neighbor but our houses back up to each other. All of our other neighbors in our culdesac we get along with great...more than great, actually. We are VERY close with at least 3 neighbors and have friendly relationships with all others and everyone loves our kids. I couldn't care less what the guy does or how anal he is but recently there was an incident when my son was out in the our back yard playing in his tree house. Michael is a huge fan of Ron Paul and had made his own signs and had them hanging in and around his treehouse. came into tell me that the jerk came out yelling at him and telling him to take those signs down. Michael was building a home made bow out of wood and he was yelling at him and telling him he better not shoot that at his house or he better not find anything in his yard. After that Michael was in his treehouse after dark (Jeff has lights up there for him) and he came in the house all freaked out saying the jerk had come out and just stood in his yard in the dark and stared at him. Now mind you, this man has never said one word to US about anything, EVER. I went out there that night fully prepared to say something to him the next time he came out. He never came out that night and Michael hasn't been playing out there recently. I had a feeling he was going to call the homeowners association on us...I looked to see if you could see Michael's signs from the street in any direction. I knew that if we got a letter it would have to be because he called them because they are barely visible. You would HAVE to be looking for them to see them way through the trees...not something they are going to see on a routine drive through looking at peoples YARDS...not up in the trees through several lots. Sure enough, today we got our letter from them! I was very angry and it was the last straw for me. Tonight we went our for dinner with some other people after the Senate District Convention and we got home after 10 o'clock. When we turned to our street we could see him talking to his neighbor in his driveway which is about 4 houses after where we turn to go to our street. When we turn, his neighbor turns around behind him to look at our car turning...I told Jeff he is saying something about us for his neighbor to turn around to look at a car four houses away turn down a street and he's staring at us. That's it....We drove in our driveway, and decided it was time to have a chat with him. He is obviously a coward because if he wasn't, he would have said something to us a long time ago if something was bothering him instead of yelling at our kids and dogs when we aren't around. So we walked around the block to see if he was still outside. I think we took him by surprise. The guy lied through his teeth and denied everything. I told him he's lying and I don't belive him but I'm wasn't there to debate that with him. I did my best not to be too angry but I'm pretty sure he was aware. By the end of the conversation, he had admitted to things he was denying at first in the conversation. He had denied yelling at Michael and even denied telling Michael to take his signs down. By the end of the conversation he did admit that he had flown off the handle and that he shouldn't have done that. I told him I am a very reasonable person and if he would have come and told me my sons signs were a problem to him even if I don't agree with it, I probably would have done something to alleviate his discomfort however because of his methods of dealing with things, I didn't have Michael take them down. I believe in holding my kids responsible and I expect them to be respectful of his property and if he has a problem, he needs to say so. I asked him if he had called the Homeowners Association on us and he admitted that he did. I told him that was a very un-neighborly thing to do when all he had to do was speak to us like a mature adult instead of acting like a butt to people he has to share a fence with. Now, if you know Jeff and I...we are not the kind of people to make excuses for our kids. Michael has had his problems but he's doing okay now and I think its a lot in part because we have always held him accountable. When he was 4 years old and took something out of a store (I think it was a pack of gum or something), we took him back up there and had him apologize to the manager and return it. One time he some holes in some neighbors pumpkin bags with leaves in them and when he told us he had done it because they "scared" him, we had him go apologize. I'm just saying, we do our best to teach our kids and to take the high road. I expect even more of "adults". He said the kids have thrown banana peels in his yard or leaves from our banana tree. I told him, from now on he needed to say something if that happened and we would deal with them. Regardless of how silly it might be to someone, that is his property and our kids are required to respect others property. So anyway, that was a long time coming and Jeff said that I "tore him a new one"...I did? Really? Wow, I felt like I was really holding back but I went there to say what needed to be said. Jeff said I had that guy with his tail between his legs because he knew I was right. Fine, but I am NOT a confrontational person at all. I guess that's why I let this go on for so long. He was never rude or didn't bow up to us at all...he denied, lied, and then finally admitted to *some* things and then went on a long narration about how if we hear him shooting BB guns, he's shooting the possums and that he's trapped a bunch of possums and raccoons and even a "cat" one time but he let it go. He laughed...I didn't. I didn't confront him on the cats but I'm pretty sure he went on that narration because he was out in his back yard today sweeping when I called Jeff on the phone to tell him about the letter from the homeowners association. I knew he was listening and I loud enough for him to hear. I was telling Jeff that if he wants to start reporting people for things then I can report him for shooting at the birds in our neighborhood which is a bird sanctuary and I mentioned the dead cats, too!! During this confrontation I did get confirmation that he really is a coward and that is the last thing he wanted was to actually talk to us. I think he would have went inside before we got there if we wouldn't have taken him by surprise by walking up when he least expected it like that. He even turned his back and started looking away when we got close...probably hoping we were out taking a stroll.... Well, in any case...hopefully that will take care of the problem and the guy will actually say something next time he has a problem and all of the childishness will stop. Maybe he'll think twice at least because I'm not waiting so long before I say something the next time.

Whew...I'm done with my rant now!

Alison had special Saturday dance class today. She has Saturday classes for the next 4 weeks to get prepared for her ballet exam. I sat in on class and watched and took notes for what she needs to work on.

My husband went to the Republican Senate District Convention today. We were both elected delegates at our precinct conventions after our primary on March 4. The Senate District is the next step up. I didn't go because I really didn't think I had a chance of getting elected delegate at this next level and Alison needed to be at her dance class. Amazingly, our precinct is only allowed 1 delegate to go to the State Convention and my husband was elected!! None of the other people wanted to go to state except one woman that showed up who had not been elected at our precinct convention. She had gotten elected afterwards by going before the elections committee. Usually, in order to be able to do that, its more difficult and you really need to "know" someone or at least that's what I was told at a delegate training we went to at 1st Baptist Church. In any case, my husband was voted in instead of her so I guess he's moving on! Luckily, the State Convention is here in town so we won't have to travel but if he makes it through that process, he gets to go to National in Minneapolis! That would be exciting!

I'm just hanging out today and making some buttons for my friend, Linda Hunnicut, the Granny Warrior. I have her button making supplies and she tells me when she needs buttons and me and the kids make them and mail them to her. So right now we're making about 200 buttons for Freedom Rally April 15, 2008 in Washington DC. Unfortunately, we're not going to be able to go. It would just cost way to much to make the drive plus Jeff has a business trip to Dallas he has to make the week before and he's picking up my elderly mother to come for a visit on his way home so my mom will be staying with us. We will, however, be attending this rally in Austin, Texas: Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom :: TexasTURF.org - MARCH ON AUSTIN APRIL 5!

Onto the crochet things I've finished.




This is a bath mat (obviously)...I felt like using up some cotton yarn and making squares so I put this together using various square patterns.


This is the same dish towel I posted a few days ago but I finished a hot pad to go with it so this is the set together. It's a nice hot pad pattern I got free here:
Scalloped Potholder
This designer, Priscilla Hewitt, has very nice patterns that are beautiful and easy to follow. Someone over at the Crochetville forums compiled a nice list of links for her patterns here: Priscilla's Crochet.


I have now started on the Crochet Triangle post that I posted the link for a few days ago. I'll admit, even though my plan was to finish unfinished projects before I start a new one, I still have a ski mask that I'm neglecting to finish before I start a new one! I will drag that out and finish it up though. Michael asked me whatever happened to that the other day. He said it was un-like me not to finish something! I consider that a compliment! :)

Alison and I ended up buying her math for next year while we were at the homeschooling store. She was actually almost *excited* about the math book when I showed it to her. We bought Modern Curriculum Press Math I went ahead and bought it because I found the Teacher's Manual 1/2 price on the consignment table. I decided I liked this and they also had The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child: Volume 1 and the teachers book 1/2 off on the consignment table so we bought that too.
I bought Alison the Handwriting Without Tears cursive practice book. She already knows how to write in cursive but she needs some practice, especially after a year of purely computer based school.
I showed this book to Alison and she really wanted this book Doorposts - Polished Cornerstones. It's a $50 book so I'm going to have to find that used somewhere if we get that. That's the kinda of thing I have in mind for Bible this year though. I want to do something that she will choose and study what she wants on her own and just have some resources to gently guide her.

I also bought this book and started reading it to the kids last night:
The Story of the Constitution I realized last night that this is an 8th grade book and might be a little over Alison's head. After all of our Ron Paul campaigning, and realizing how little people understand about our Constitution, this is a fitting subject for our family. Michael has already started reading Good To Be King: The Foundation of Our Constitutional Freedom: Michael Badnarik: Books after hearing Mr. Badnarik speak at a conference we attending several months back. We bought the book for us but he picked it up and started reading. Michael absorbed alot from attending the trainings on Roberts Rules of Order in preparation for our precinct convention meetings after the primary. I know this because when people asked me questions, Michael would answer them if I couldn't remember which term meant what! "That's a division of the question, mom." It was all new to all of us!
Well, even after those purchases, I still have some decisions to make for the other subjects. I'm really feeling led to get out of the box this year though....

Let's see, on the crochet front I am finishing up a potholder tonight to go with the dish towel I was making.

I skimmed the pool and tried to get some of the leaves out while the kids swam. I will be glad when these pollen things quit falling. I just did my regular ol' things around here...washing clothese, etc. This evening I put Weed 'n Feed and the front lawn and re-potted a few plants. Jeff went off to move the camper where he had it stuck in the mud on our friend's property where we are keeping it. I guess that went okay. He was gone all day and came home with some homemade bread he had bought from some lady out there in the country. I think that was supposed to be a peace offering for staying gone all day and not calling! One of them is really good...some sort of nut bread. The other one is french bread and I hope the rest of them eat it because its way to heavy for me.

Well, I'm trying to be a better blogger. I like to keep it up for myself anyway, because it makes a nice record to keep.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

I'm trying to finish up some project I've got going before I start anything new. Finished this last night and a bath mat. I haven't taken a picture of the bath mat yet. Then, I'm going to dig to see what else I need to finish before I start on any new inspirations! I hate having a dozen unfinished projects around!

I plan on getting out of the house today to visit the homeschooling store. I'm planning on a change in curriculum next year for the kids. I've been spending lots of time online reading reviews and trying to narrow my search down. The kids are will be winding up this school year soon and are right on track to finish at the end of May. We are using computer based Alpha Omega Publications - Switched-On Schoolhouse this year but I believe Alison needs a little variety next year. Doing everything on the computer is convenient for me and has probably been okay for 1 year time but that's enough of that!

I'm finishing up a hanging kitchen dish towel and a bath mat right now. When I'm finished with those I'm eyeing these things to make next:

These are the free patterns I found on the web:

Loretta's Starburst Hotpad Pattern

DROPS crochet triangle bag ~ DROPS Design

I also cleaned up my crochet blog links. I figured out there were a few links that were dead and I took off the ones that hadn't updated in forever. Figure they weren't blogging anymore. I added some new blog links too!

Well, we're off to color some eggs now.....

Happy Easter everyone!

My husband laughed at me when I told him I had to get ready for our traditional easter egg hunt I do for the kids every year. He thinks the kids are getting a little old for it! HA! He said I'll probably our kids are going to be 19 years old and I'm still going to be having Easter egg hunts for them. I told him Alison would be severely disappointed if I don't do it! I asked her and of course she wants the easter egg hunt! When the kids were very small we used to go to the church for the easter egg hunts and of course, you would come home with more plastic eggs every year. I never threw them out..I just packed them up in the attic and get the down every year to re-use. Well, it got a little out of hand. Last year we had over 300 eggs! I don't even want to know how many their are this year...the kids got some brand new un-opened packages out of a neighbor's trash that was moving. We threw those up in the attic with the rest of them. Thank God we have a big yard! LOL It's costing a small fortune to "fill" all those eggs. We went out tonight and bought a few goodies and prizes for their easter baskets and dye. We'll dye eggs Sunday but I think we're going to do the egg hunt Saturday while the weather is still pretty. Since my kids are older, we hide the eggs really, really good for them and make it a challenge for them. Every now and then I find an egg we never located later in the season! Alison has invited a girl friend over for the hunt.

I have gotten a lot done around here this week. I painted the back door and side door. I was having so much fun, I went ahead and painted all of the railings on the back porch. I got my entire hallway painted. Boy, does that feel good having fresh paint! No more grubby kid hand prints on my walls...wonder how long that will last? I got a whole bunch of free paint on freecycle. I'm pretty sure I like the fresh paint look so much that I'm going to get around to painting my kitchen and bathroom too. I pressure washed the front porch and sidewalks and half of the drive way.

We've been dog-sitting this week for our neighbors 2 big dogs. Alison has been loving that. The kids have been walking the dogs. The dogs are not used to being alone because their owner rarely leaves them. Alison was going over there to do her school work and sitting with them during the day to keep them company. Last night, we brought them over here to our house. They are both sleeping on my living room floor right now. They are giant compared to our dogs.





Alison was looking at old post from way back on my blog tonight. Wow, I can't believe I've had this blog for so long. Michael and Alison have grown so much since this all started!

I think I've satisfied my "craving" for these crochet yummies. I finished up my son's crab that I started a year or more ago that he has been on me about and made him a Texas Flag chair back cover. I actually made the cover a few weeks ago but I finished up making the star for it tonight. I am now working on making a hanging dish towel for my kitchen.

I got a whole lot accomplished this week in the yard with the beautiful weather we've been having. Lots of pollen in the air and after the first day in the yard, I could feel it. Thursday, we got the front flower bed cleaned out. It's a huge bed so cleaning out a winter's worth of leaves is no easy feet. I got half of the back yard de-winterized this afternoon. We have a lot of trees so we have lots and lots of leaves packed in every nook and cranny. I did the easy half of the yard. The hard half is yet to come. We have some stuff to haul off and we're going to tear down our backyard gazebo. The lattice roof is rotting and we've never used it so its not worth spending the money to repair it.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

At the request of my kids, I have continued my edible crocheting last night and finished this today.

What am I doing? lol

Something I haven't crocheted before. My kids went nuts over this. That is supposed to be a banana slice on top of the pancake, in case you are confusing it with butter. I was supposed to make 3 banana slices to go with the "berries". I might make a couple of more banana slices. Hmmm...this would actually make some cute toy food gifts for kids....without lead paint from China in it!