Saturday, September 7, 2013

So Much to Talk About... So Little Time to Write

I know it has been a very long time since I last posted, geez nearly a year has gone by! And so much has happened in that year.

Let's see where to start, I turned 42 in January, yeah for my 40's, just means I'm getting that much closer to retirement and knitting on a full-time basis. In April I celebrated 9 years working at my day job, another milestone for me, I usually get pretty antsy after a couple of years of working in a job and start looking for a new one. But I guess I've gotten tired of the job jumping and am settling down, ah I must be becoming a grown-up!

My son and nephew graduated from high school this past June. I'm hoping Aiden will be starting college classes in the upcoming winter session. My brother came to celebrate the graduations with us. My sister, niece, nephew, and Aiden had a great week catching up with my brother and just having an all around good time together.

Aiden was working for a while last summer, but quit when they stopped giving him steady hours. He recently found another job and gets pretty steady hours each week. He got his first paycheck last week and was happy that he was making his own money again. He got his learner's permit over the summer and has been steadily gearing up to take his driving test soon. It brings me bittersweet joy that my baby boy is growing up and moving forward with his life. I'm looking forward to a new chapter in his life as well as my own - the empty nest is going to be hard to bear I'm sure, but it will get easier as time goes on.

Some sad news to share, we laid to rest our family pet last month, she got really ill a month after my son's graduation and we discovered after several visits to the vet and emergency veterinary hospital that she had a large tumor in her intestines and was a very poor candidate for surgery due to her age and all the weight she lost during the six weeks it took us to finally pinpoint the problem. It was a sad day when I had to break the news to my son that there was nothing more we could do for our Tara-girl. We adopted her from an animal shelter 8 years ago (she was 4 1/2 years old) and I feel our time with her was way too short.  And even though we were saddened by her loss, she will always be in our memories and hearts.

Tara enjoying some zzz's on the loveseat

I also spent the summer working at two different Farmer's Markets. I really enjoyed the comaraderie of the other vendors and the feeling of success when I sold my handmade knit and crochet products. I'm currently gearing up for the Renton Harvest Festival scheduled for October 5th at the Renton Piazza. Then in December I am once again scheduled for the Annual Kent Winter Craft Bazaar on December 6th and 7th.

That's all for now. I'll try to be more diligent about keeping up with my blog this year and in the future, but as you can imagine, life is changing around me and I'm just trying to keep up. Next post, I will take the time to share some of my finished projects and not so finished projects.

Happy knitting!!!

Tara enjoying the road trip to Long Beach, WA - July 2009