Barn Progress!

We've had help for the last two days! YAY!! A good friend, Ryan, came over and worked for hours with Gary and Noah starting the roof!




Here's the first panel going up.




And today Noah brought two friends over (Colin and Isaiah) and with Alex cutting rafters I can't believe how much they accomplished until rain drove them in.


Colin surveying the land...

The view looking up at the house and barn when I went to gather the horses.

Snow tonight so I don't know how much the boys can get done. And if it is windy they can't work up there with those enormous panels. Hope everyone is having a wonderful, peaceful week!

xo

Goodbye to a Dear Friend

Some of you might remember that I had a small group (two other women) who had pancreatic cancer. One of them, our sweet Cindy, died in late August. The other amazing woman, Chris, I met in NYC at Memorial Sloan Kettering where we were having the same surgery with the same doctor at the same time--January 2010. What are the odds??! She was stage 3 and had some lesions in her lungs and some lymph node involvement. I was stage 2 with no lymph involvement. We became fast friends. She was organized, I am not. She was a hiker and a kayaker, I am a slug. She was an amazing researcher and where I get distracted she persevered. Always sending me emails about this or that "cure" to try. At one point I remember we were talking on the phone and both of us were sort of jumping around because it stimulated the lymph system to remove poisons. We talked about chemo, bowels, eating, pain, medication, exercise, food, wine, family, housekeeping, end of life, money, fear. We compared scars and diet and survival stories. We kept positive. Though when Cindy was dying we sat with her and clung to each other. Meanwhile I got fatter and Chris kept losing weight. We held a vigil around her house last week, each holding candles, singing songs, someone played the recorder. She was still conscious. I took a picture of us the week before that not knowing that it would be the last time I saw her. Her liver gave out and she died Christmas Eve morning. Still a shock even though I knew she was dying.



Rest in peace, my pancreatic sister and friend.




xo

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

Alex and I went up to the woods to cut a tree...I came back and took a nap. This is what I saw when I woke up. Alex is such a sweetie!


Noah came home and the two of them worked on the barn though it was really cold...


I made pies. Dom and Duke feasted on peelings and cores.



My guys with their very old stockings.


And look! Santa left the boys teddys from NYC! Just what they always wanted! ;)

A Merry Christmas to all of you!

xo

Rainbow Mist...

Weaving up to the last minute here...don't know whether I will get any more scarves designed and woven before Christmas but one of these is done, photographed, and loaded on Etsy! Two more to weave...

Lots of color here! Warm and wide, too...almost 6". So nice and soft for that shot of color by your face. I'm happy with it!
xo

New York City!!!

Just got back from a 4 day stay in NYC! It was amazing. Even though I grew up near the city I don't remember ever going in to see the windows at Christmas. I loved it! Shopping is hard for Gary so we didn't really do much...just looked. But we did do a dinner cruise and we had fantastic food and we walked and walked and we had a wonderful room in the Westin Hotel off Times Square. AND it was all on Edward Jones (the investment company Gary works for!)!!! The best thing was that I wasn't there for any medical reason and we didn't stop by to see my surgeon which we did the last time I was there.

Two windows at Tiffany's...LOVE the Zebra!!


Hmmmm...wouldn't I love to have one of those little blue boxes...



Sax Fifth Avenue...a real horse theme in several stores!



I didn't really care about the clothes but the horses! Sigh...



OK, you have to put up with me. I'm just crazy for horses!



Rockefeller Center...

The Dinner Cruise! This is something that I never would get Gary to do if it wasn't part of the deal...we had an MC who was doing the bad wedding thing...and wait staff who would burst into song (one of them could actually sing...the others...well...) and dance. But great food and all the wine you could drink!

We actually cruised under the Brooklyn Bridge and around the Statue of Liberty but the statue was shrouded in fog and we couldn't even see her!

Some of the skyline from the boat.

And the view from our window at the Westin!

Today, December 11, is my two year anniversary from diagnosis. Two years since they told me I had pancreatic cancer. Living is sweet and I want to keep doing it. We have a bottle of champagne for tonight! and we're toasting life here!!

xo

Autumn Glow Scarf...

Another scarf...Autumn Glow...is already in my shop. I've just been too busy to post. But I love this warp and I'm still weaving the last one of 3 off the loom...








Well, it's been so busy I haven't had time to blog at all...First Thanksgiving, Noah got a ride home, we went to a friend's house for dinner, Alex stayed long enough to eat but went to Walmart for Black Friday (??) shopping. We had music, we ate, we played pictionary...

Gary on guitar, Mark on bongo, Noah fiddling...





I drove Noah back to school on Sunday and decided that since the weather was so amazing I would drive over to Keene, NH to see my Mom. I could only stay a day. She is getting so forgetful. Like asking me over and over what day it was. Like getting into the car to drive to the eye doctor but thinking she is in White Plains, NY. sigh...But it was wonderful to see her and to see a couple of my sisters who live nearby.

I was going to clean up and decorate for the holidays but my good friend and pancreatic sister, Chris, is not doing well. We met in NYC at Sloan Kettering Memorial Hospital having the Whipple at the same time with the same doctor almost two years ago and bonded completely. She lives in the next little town from here. I just came back from visiting her...she is two years younger than me, her liver is failing and she is so thin. I wish for a miracle. A Christmas miracle...



xo

Music Weekend with Noah and Friends

Ok, it's been a while...but my computer is acting up and doesn't always want to load videos...ANYWAY, Noah came home last weekend bringing 3 musical friends and we played music all weekend! WooHoo! It was amazing and I took videos, honestly, but I took them on a camera he brought from school and they are too dense to load. hmmmm...or maybe I'm too dense?? In any case, I can't load them so you are going to have to hum to yourself. They did play "Sinner Man" which you can also hear if you go to facebook https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Jake-and-Noah/116112751830280 We had such an amazing time. We had Jake on guitar, Joe on fiddle, Noah on violin, and the lovely Sofia as a beautiful audience member (though she also plays instruments). Noah's HS friend Isaiah came over to help with the barn and Alex came home and brought his Victoria to play board games after the music. And we had some good friends stop by with guitar and bowrain and bongos!

Sofia

Jake

Joe (I think Duke is asleep)

Oh yeah, they all rode Duke who wandered aimlessly around the outdoor arena. Did I mention that they had never been on a horse before? And they helped carry big heavy 2 x 10s up to the second floor of the new barn!

Sofia and Jake preparing to cut

Joe and Jake handing up the 2 x 10s to Noah

We're making progress!!

xo

Training Week!

Off to my trainers for a week...both Dom and Duke. Though I will only be training with Dommie. Loading went very easily this morning especially considering they only load twice a year! Dommie always has to think about it but Duke just walked on. Not bad.

Over to Nancey's with Linda to help.

Such cute butts!! Ohhhh...I just reread this...not THEIR butts, the HORSE'S butts.

They are happy and full of beans here. And there are other horses including a mare they both love!

Already settled in except for some squealing between Dommie and Nancey's older horse, Rocket.

After they ran around, we all saddled up. Linda on Duke, me on Dom and Nancey on her mare. Wonderful day. And I'm feeling more energized after riding than I usually do!

Lesson tomorrow!

xo

October Morning Scarf...

YAY! I got one of these off the loom, washed, ironed, photographed and loaded onto Etsy! A good day...though the whole day I kept thinking I should be riding cause the sun was out. But this tiredness is hard to overcome some days...And the Dr. said just eat right and exercise and your immune system will kick in. Hmmm...having a hard time forcing myself outside.

I was so in love with this scarf that I took pictures before washing which I never do. I love the yarns that make up the fringe!

I even like it crumpled up.

Washed, ironed and in the sun!

Thank you Velma for the inspiration!

Barn work this weekend. Maybe a ride (ok I will, I will!). Lunch with some former triangle weaving students who are driving 1 1/2 hours to see me! I'm honored!

xo