She passed!

The exciting news for the day is that my daughter passed her nursing boards and is now a real RN! Celebration is now in order! Too bad Roxie isn't here to fix her up a beautiful table when she comes this weekend but we'll figure something out (which shall remain secret since she reads this blog sometimes).

Last week was a busy one for our geriatric care business though I'm not sure how much on-going work we will have from it. We just keep plugging along trying to build a solid reputation. This week we are ordering polo shirts with our logo to wear around town. The fact that I think it is a big deal probably says something about my life :-)

Icy seems to be feeling some better and is back to being her obnoxious self. She insists on draping herself across the arm of the couch in the morning, which tends to put her tail dangerously close to my coffee. This would not be a huge issue except that she has a history of dunking the end in my java! Personally, I don't want to think about where that tail has been after 21 years.

I am yawning so must be time to put myself to bed. Goodnight

And now it is a pair

Finished my new socks over the weekend and will know put them away until about November. Too bad Arizona's wool sock season is so short! I've pulled some patterns to start a WWII watch cap for my son and a sweater for Rowan. Thinking about Cardigan for Merry based on the Arwen sweater. Anybody made either one? I've never cabled before but what the heck. The worst that can happen is I'll have to frog it.

I also pulled out a counted cross stitch kit Christmas stocking for Rowan. This should be interesting since I haven't done cross stitch in years. I do have my Ott light now so hopefully that will help with those itty bitty stitches. I got excited when I sorted the thread and saw all the rich colors. I'll keep you posted on my progress.

Still trying to find a balance in my life but my energy is picking up a little. My goal for this week is getting through the tasky stuff that has been piling up and clean my office. That should be a good start to re-organizing and prioritizing.

Spent the morning taking poor old Icy to the vet. She has chronic bladder infections and her antibiotic shot wore off. Peeing blood every 3 feet across my light beige carpet ensued. She seems very subdued tonight so I'd guess she doesn't feel very good. She is 100 years old in cat years so infections take a toll on her. Keep your fingers crossed for her to perk up.

Just finished a Dairy Queen sundae. Tomorrow it is back to Weight Watchers :-)

Finally updated with pictures and socks!

Just to prove I have been accomplishing some knitting lately, I got the camera out to take photos. I finished this one sock (Yarn Harlot basic sock pattern, Opal Harry and Ron yarn) I've been working my way through the first season of Bones on Netflix and this has been the perfect project for that. I love watching the pattern develop but the stitching is simple. The other one is on the needles and should be done by the end of next weekend.Embossed leaves pattern in Sanguine Gryphon Bugga (don't remember the color) I started these a year ago for a Bugga challenge on Ravelry and got sidetracked with Rowan knitting. I didn't really like the pattern when I knit the first sock and had trouble motivating myself to knit the second. I took it to Iowa with me and finished the second sock. Decided I like the pattern better now and like the yarn a lot.
I finally finished the #1 Husband socks, and I think my Guitar Guy will be happy with them. I used Shelridge Farms Heather Charcoal which knits in to a pretty heavy weight sock. Nice yarn but these are definitely winter socks in Arizona. We'll put them away until the air is a tad cooler here.

I hate working with pictures in Blogger and never can seem to get them in the right order without losing them and having to start over, so you get them in the order loaded :-) If anyone has insights to share on easily moving photos around please share!

Nicole graduated from nursing school in May and had her pinning ceremony on May 13th. This is the happy graduate with me, Guitar Guy and Nicole's boyfriend Pat (who you may remember from the great office redecorate of last summer)

This is Nicole receiving her nursing pin from one of the professors. Since she chose not to walk at her high school graduation and probably will not do ASU when she graduates there, this was the ceremony for all of us to celebrate her accomplishments!
This is me speaking at Nicole's pinning ceremony. I was so honored to have the chance and made it through with minimal emotional choke ups and no tears Rowan's first birthday party at a local park. He had a great time but wouldn't get off of the blanket and walk on the grass. He had his own little island :-)
Opening presents required some guidance from the experienced kid but Rowan quickly got in the swing of things. The big hit of the day was a ride on truck!

It has been a whirlwind month and I didn't even include handing out diplomas at high school graduation, attending Project Graduation that night or facilitating a round table discussion for local nonprofits. Guitar Guy and I were fortunate to stay the whole weekend after pinning and enjoy the graduation barbecues.

While in Des Moines I got sucked back in to the Fairyland Facebook game by Nicole and Alex. Since I am a compulsive and competitive game player, I shamefully admit to letting it suck up vast amounts of time in the last 10 days. Now that the holiday weekend is over, I have to get back to more mundane things like laundry and work.

I'm not entirely sure what happened in the last month, other than that I went on vacation and never quite came back to the real world. I had a lot of trouble reconnecting to my regular routine and just sort of crashed. I feel foolish whining about my brain feeling overloaded when some of you function in that state most of the time, but that is the reality. After 2 years spent re-inventing myself, learning about running a business, plunging head first in to social media promotion for two businesses and attending way too many committee meetings, my brain needed to reboot.

I didn't realize how much I had disconnected until I started reading your blogs and realized what I had missed. This summer my goal is to regroup, plan and try to restore some balance in my life. What helps you find balance in your life? Any advice?