Marvie's Crochet Corner

Update

Well I'm home =) I've had a bit of sleep... not much though lol. I had a few hours of sleep after I got home, woke up when hubby got home from work, stayed up till around 11 then napped again till about 4AM. It's now 6:15 and I couldn't go back to sleep lol. Maybe after hubby and son are gone for the day. Then again I don't want to sleep much during the day bc I need to get on schedule soon lol. Probably just a couple hours of napping on the couch will do me for the day though. I won't go to my bed and sleep, otherwise I'd sleep all day hehehe it's quiet and dark in there ;)

So ya'll want to hear about my trip huh? =) Well, it started two weeks ago... I broke a tooth on the plane before we ever left German air space. The darn thing had gotten tender and the gum around it (my back molar) had sort of swollen on Sunday night, but knowing I didn't have time to fool around with trying to get seen I let it be. I honestly thought I'd probably just gotten something stuck between my tooth and gum and it'd just go away. Heh, well it didn't. I was munching pretzels on the plane and the next thing I knew I had an odd feeling in my mouth on that side. Went to the bathroom to check and there it was, way back there in the back, cracked in half. Still in place, thanks to the temp crown they stuck on it last year (which I was supposed to have finished once we arrived in Germany but have yet to do) so I lived with a loose tooth the whole time I was in the States. It didn't hurt (once the swelling, which was probably infection, went down) but I've got to get on the phone with Dental Monday morning to get this taken care of asap now that I'm back.

I was able to see all my friends while I was home, we had several Girl's Nights, which was quite nice =) I got to go to Wal-Mart, AC Moore, and ate lots of fast food and various crap ;) (probably gained 5 pounds, at least rofl)

The first weekend, we went to Maryland to a Celtic Festival, which was an absolute blast. Took us about 4 hours to get there, but was well worth it. We saw Irish dancers, Scottish bagpipers, a great Storyteller, saw a few bands, LOTS of kilts and accents too *g* Wandered through the booths of the various vendors. Bought myself a shirt, wished over some great pottery and fairy stuff. Got puked on by a 3 yr old on the way home lmao. All in all it was a wonderful day though =)

Mostly I just spent time with my friends. Taught one of them and her daughter how to crochet *g* Well, the friend already knew the basic stitches, she just needed a bit of help with turning chains and such. By the time I left, she'd gotten about halfway through a 6 ft long blanket =) I taught her daughter the chain... after that she got distracted with beading so I'm thinkin when I go home I'll teach her beaded crochet hehehe.

Brought my cat home =) I sure missed that boy! Sucked that he was kenneled the whole time I was there, but he's SO happy to be with us now. Had a bit of a ruckus at the airport in Norfolk. The security screener made me take him out of his carrier and walk through the metal detector. Well, the poor boy was super stressed out already... 5 weeks in a kennel full of barking dogs, the car ride, all on top of him having been so sick not long ago combined for a very upset kitty when we stood there next to the x-ray machine waiting for his bag to come through (somehow it got behind a few other bags) and he went a bit nutso. I had a harness on him, because he won't keep a collar on and I wanted his tags on him (the harness was another stress factor, never worn one before that morning) so I held on to that thing for dear life... but of course he turned my hand into hamburger and I must have loosened my grip a bit during that bc he got loose. Let me tell you, my heart went straight to my stomach. Oh, and not one of those sorry SOB's tried to help me catch my boy (though they did tell me I could NOT go over there (which is of course where he was) after a couple of minutes Tiger eventually darted to near where I was, I called to him and he saw his bag and came running for it, jumped right in it too lol. Guess he decided it wasn't such a bad thing after all after all that! Oh, and as I dripped blood all over the place, again, no one offered me a tissue to stop the dripping, or asked if I was ok or anydamnthing. I was quite pissed. I have one deep scratch over 6 inches long running from the base of my middle finger, down my hand and past my wrist, another four inch gash that starts between my pinky and ring finger, one across my index finger, and a few punctures on my forearm... oh yeah and a little (though deep) one on my ring finger of the other hand. None of them needed stitches, but I bled like a stuck pig and could have used some peroxide and a few bandaids. I had to settle for the airport soap and water and some rough paper towels. My damn hand is still tender and swollen between my index and middle finger knuckles (typing hurts like hell) and I wrote a long letter to TSA about it too. Told them they need a better damn system for cats. They aren't dogs you can stick on a leash. Granted some cats can be trained to walk on a leash, but it's time intensive and not so easy when you have older cats like mine. If you start 'em young it's much easier. Mine are older cats though. I might try to train Goofball to a leash though. He really wants to go outside, and he's younger so it might be possible for him. We'll see lol

Hmm what else... oh. Well the kiddo went and pulled another stupid stunt. Saw a wallet on the floor of his last class of the day and pocketed it. Hubby discovered some lunch tickets on B's shelf, saw the numbers weren't matching with the numbers of B's tickets so he made some calls and tracked down who they belonged to. Turned out it was a girl in B's class, and not only the tickets were in the wallet, but a pre-Euro French coin, her military ID card, library card a key and $40 were also in it and missing. Hubby found everything BUT the cash. B swears there was only a couple of dollars in change, which he used to buy extra lunch, but no $40. Unfortunately, with his history of stealing and lying... much as I'd like to believe him, I can't.

He's been going over to the home of the girl he took the wallet from every day since the discovery. The mother is a very nice lady, has 4 kids and her opinion was that if he goes over there, spends time in the home and with them all, the guilt will get to him and essentially be punishment enough. He'll have to repay the money as well of course. They treat him just like one of the kids, he is expected to follow their house rules etc. while he's there and he helps out with chores (trash etc.) just like her kids do. She takes him with to all the practices, games, and errands she does and brings him home before dinner. Is her theory working? I can't say. If *I* were B, it would be tearing me up to spend time with the people I had stolen from, and the fact that they are all being so nice about it would *really* eat me up. I don't see that in him, though I can't say that it would be obvious to the outside world if it were me, so who knows.

I'll be honest here folks, I'm pretty concerned about the boy. I'm kinda at a loss here. I know I have tought him right from wrong, morals, manners, all the things you teach your kids. I love him with all my heart, I tell him so often and I hug him often, I talk to him, listen to him and offer advice when he asks. I *feel* like I'm doing all the right things.... but somewhere something's not right.

I told hubby last night that I've thought long and hard on it, even before this happened, but especially since I got the phone call informing me of B's latest stunt... I'll be homeschooling him next year. If it wasn't so close to the end of the year I'd probably pull him out now, but there's just a few weeks left. So I'll let him finish out this year, do more research, plan a curriculum and file my intent to homeschool. Next year, no metter where we are located, B will be homeschooled.

The only thing I can think to do is spend more time with him. Maybe that's what he needs. I have to do something before I end up with my son in jail or somedamnthing. I did not work my ass off to keep this child in my life, raise him to the best of my ability to have that be the end result dammit.

Well, it's taken me nearly two hours to get all this typed out. Between dealing with the cats, getting hubby off to work and son off to school of course ;) I'm gettin the sleepies again, so I think I'll go lay down for a bit of a nap.


PS. To answer Kari's question about the shoes... I played it safe and wore slip ons both ways. Leaving Germany and in Atlanta they did scan them with the wand thingy but didn't make me remove them. Leaving Norfolk, I just took them off and put theem in the little container thing with my other stuff (so not only was I trying to catch a loose cat rofl, I was barefoot too!) All in all, other than the great cat escape, the security stuff was no biggie. Lines moved pretty quickly etc. I was kinda pissy about the new rule about not being allowed lighters anymore. First thing I wanted when I arrived in Atlanta after the 10 hour plane ride was a ciggie, I tried to buy matches but not one shop in the freakin airport carried them so there everyone was in the smoking room either bumming matches from those who'd managed to get them through security, or using other peoples cigs to light their own. I did get a book of matches for the return trip though and no one said anything.

OH! And for the question about crochet hooks etc. I took two plastic hooks in my carry on bag. The looked them over here in Germany and allowed them through no problem. My yarn cutter was in my bag and no one even looked at it. I later discovered a metal J hook in my wallet and it went through all the checkpoints both ways. I actually didn't use them on the plane either way though. I read a bit, watched the inflight movies, and catnapped. No sleep on the way home, too worried about Tigger and everything else, but I just didn't have the room to mess with hook and yarn on the way home.

K ni-night =)

posted by Marvie at 1:04 AM