Crochet Me Crazy

Caroling with a bunch of sweet, old people! LOL Well, Alison always tried to talk us into going Caroling in Houston and we would never do it. Well, tonight she got her wish. We went around with them and caroled to everyone in the RV park tonight. It was priceless.

We went over to the clubhouse tonight and I worked on my hat order. I'm making two tin can hats for a lady in the RV park. Alison and I also made these snowflakes. I failed on mine. Alison made this tonight.


They are a lot harder to make than I thought they would be! They are just cut out of plastic canvas.

Michael is still over there now working on one and watching Prince Caspian on the TV.

My special, sweet, sensitive, beautiful,loving daughter turned 14 years old yesterday. I thank God often for the blessing he bestowed on our lives and hearts through Alison. In the darkest of times, she always brings a bright spot because of her sweet, gentle and caring spirit. She's an amazing girl and nothing short of a gift of God...sometimes I call her my "salve" because her sweetness really has a way of soothing in difficult times.

Okay...so now that I've been all sappy...we planned a little party for Alison last night. Alison worked very hard planning and found a bunch of games to play she looked up on the internet. I had her make her list of supplies she would need for the games. Alison invited 3 girls from dance and instead of having a slumber party, we just were going to have a "late" party over in the community room at the RV park. I couldn't figure out what kind of food I was going to have without spending a fortune...then, I remember Jeff had bought several large bags of fajitas meat when it was on sale at HEB for $1.00/lb. It was in the freezer so we decided to invite several of the eldery couples in the RV park over to eat fajitas with us, have cake and sing Happy Birthday to Alison. The party didn't go too smoothly though. One girl couldn't come because she was sick. The other girl came but had to leave early and the other girl didn't show up until almost 10:00 pm. So we spent the first party of the party trying to hold off on some of the games until the 2nd girl got there. Then, we found out the 1st girl was leaving early with only 45 minutes notice so we tried to hurry up and do as much as we could before she was picked up. Then, the other girl showed up as the 1st girl was leaving. We were pretty much wrapping it up by then. We told her we were pretty much finished but we could do smores. So we did that. We didn't really get to do all the thing s we had planned at the party. Alison was pretty disappointed but she handled it well. It was still a good day all in all. We stayed up late watching a movie with Alison after everyone was gone and I was so tired today.

We went into town to get a few groceries and a couple of things for Alison's birthday party on Tuesday. She's inviting 3 girls from dance/church over Tuesday for her birthday. We went window shopping and checked out a few of the little boutiques, gifts shops and antiques stores in town. Normally, we go in on Sundays and nothing is open. There are some cute little stores in old buildings in town. It was fun just looking around. We came to go the a Christmas party at the RV park this evening. They had fajitas for dinner and then we had a Chinese Christmas gift exchange. There were 46 people participating so it was really fun. Everyone was stealing gifts. I came home happy because I got a quilted bag that a lady in the park makes! Jeff actually stole it from somebody for me. I was hoping to snag her gift! I love it!

I can carry my crochet around in it. I also got a pretty pot with a plant in it.

The plant was stolen 3 times too and I got it on the last steal. Everyone liked the pot. Alison got a really soft throw and pillow. Michael came home happy with a Winchester 37 in one multi-tool.

All the gifts we brought were crocheted things I had made. Everyone seemed happy with their gifts. A lady that got my crochet slippers came up to me afterwards and wants me to make her two beer can hats and and two more pairs of slippers. I already have tons of slippers made I can show her but I'll have to make the hats. I told her she would have to supply the beer cans!

Sadly, the little baby kid goat took a turn for the worse yesterday evening and she died in the night last night. I am actually very relieved that she died on her own because we started having conversations last night about putting her down today unless something changed drastically in her condition. I really didn't want to have to make that decision so I'm very glad that God decided for us. I am still in amazement of that little girl and how strong she was. I just don't think we got the thiamine treatment started soon enough. Even though she had showed signs of improvement, she was just already too weakened to recover. Well, now I guess I can have my life back!

Alison is still sick in bed this morning ~ I hope she can recover soon because she really has a lot of work to do to get ready for the stock show! Sometimes I wonder if this was not such a good idea doing this with someone elses animals. Now, Alison has so much invested in this -- time, work, her own money, emotionally -- it would take something drastic for me to make her pull out although I have wanted to at times. We are working with the 4-H director and taking his advice on how to get her goat to gain weight. It's been a struggle because we get different advice from different people. We have to have a plan and stick to it and also this has to be Alison's project. If she fails to get the weight up, it needs to be because of her choices and not because of someone elses. Her being sick in bed is just another kink in the plans but Jeff has been taking care of the goat in the meantime.

Well, it's really amazing that this little baby goat is still alive. She just keeps fighting to live. She is an amazing little girl. We are on our last resort of treatment for her right now. After a lot of reading and all the other things we have tried, we believe she has goat polio, which is a Vitamine B1 deficiency, and talked to the vet. He agreed it sounds like it could be. We couldn't afford a vet visit and we were thankful that they didn't ask to see her but we were able to buy the thiamine that she would need from them with a prescription. It was extremely inexpensive -- only $3! She had her 2nd dose today and she has shown two signs of improvement. He said to watch her today/tonight and if she shows more improvement, we can come get some more thiamine injections for her tomorrow. This little kid goat has been taking up a whole lot of my time.

Jeff worked at the ranch that he got the baby goat at again on Monday. He comes home and says he thinks he lost his cell phone while they were out on the guys little ranch vehicle. We drove back out there on Tuesday. And it is WAY OUT THERE and VERY REMOTE. We took the car instead of Jeff's truck to save on gas and we are luck our car is still in one piece after some of the bad spots on the road. Some of the spots were so rocky and bad that the kids and I got out of the car a walked so the car wouldn't be as weighed down and hit something underneath on a rock. The rode on the trunk most of the time because there were three gates to open and close on the way out there. Once we got out there, we spent hours walking back over all of the trails that they had drove on. Of course, on the very last trail that we hiked...we found it! My legs are sore today from doing all that walking!




I had gotten very behind on laundry because of the baby goat. Yesterday, I went over to a friend's house who said I could come over and wash laundry there anytime. It took me all day but I was thankful to get caught up without it costing me a fortune. I had extra laundry because of the baby goat as well. I may start going over there once a week to do a load to save some money on the laundry bill since Jeff is barely working.

Alison started feeling real bad yesterday. She spent most of the day in bed as well as today. Now, I've been having to take care of two babies! (Alison and the goat) My throat started getting soar on one side yesterday. It woke me up in the night last night. I've started my Vitamin C/Oregano regimen and taking Ibuprophen which eases it a lot. Other than that, I don't really feel sick.

Something else that I am amazed and exited about~ the friend that I was visiting and doing laundry was making yogurt. Now, I have made yogurt before but I have never heard of such as easy way or the method she was using. She had live cultures that looked like little tiny sponges in a glass jar. She didn't know what they were called in English. She said her friend gets them from Columbia. Your pour milk in the glass jar with these little sponges and in leave it. You will have yogurt in about 8 hours! Then you strain them out and rinse them real good and keep using them over and over again! They will continue to grow and multiply if you continue to make yogurt. I have done searches on the internet and I can't find anything anywhere about these or what they might be. Anyway, she is going to give me some of them. I didn't get them yet because I need to get an appropriate glass container and a strainer before I get them from her.

Now, I'm trying to get my brain around planning something for Alison's birthday on Tuesday!

Here is a picture of a hat I never got posted. I've had this done. I haven't had time to work on anyting for awhile now.