The Eleanors - A Girl's Trip and an Update

Eleanor is in the slow process of leaving us. On Monday we had a meeting with the social worker from the hospice telling us that the next stage for her will be when she becomes unconscious for a long time, most likely upwards of 72+ hours. After that she is likely to die. That was a hard meeting to get through. No one can give us a guess at how long this stage will last. She has a catheter and sleeps much of the day. Her body, especially her stomach, feels bloated. She often makes a "whish, whish" sound to relieve the sensation. However, she is still there. She greets us by name and tries to look at us, even if only for a second.

I purchased a device to transfer images from slides to digital and am working through the huge number of slide reels that represent her life since the 1960's. It is a slow but really wonderful process. I wish I had started this years and years ago. There are such lovely photos that I would have liked to print and hang up. I am focusing mostly on Don and Eleanor, but from time to time I find a really fun image of Larr, Doug or Rex that I just have to scan it, too. In an effort to share it with family members who are not in town I have set up a free website through Shutterfly.com. It is a wonderful, personal way to share photos. I am so glad they offer that service.

We have realized that the time for asking questions is over. We have to be contented with mostly sitting with her and holding her hand. It is hard for me to sit quietly for long periods of time so I have started describing the photographs to Eleanor. One of my favorite ones is the one above where Eleanor is standing by a Fuchsia plant. As I was talking about it she chimed in, "The fuchsias grow wild in Ireland. That bush was more than three feet taller than me." Wow, that caught me by surprise! It helps me see that she is still in there, even if her body does not want to cooperate. I thought the project might be hard (and it is) but it is more healing than I had expected. I hope to get it done before she dies. I also want to put the photos into a book for Don, Doug, Rex, Larr and whom ever would want one. Thank goodness for technology and Shutterfly!



On an entirely different note, the younger Eleanor has a fun girl's trip in her near future. Here you can see how much fun Ellie and Anna have together. Laura's brother (Anna's mom) has invited Anna to visit for spring break. He encouraged her to bring along friends. Anna, Ellie and Christy will spend nearly a week in sunny San Diego. They will swim, play on the beach, play with the dog, go to Disneyland and many other things. Ellie is super excited. We are thankful that such an opportunity is available for her!

Jumping into Digital Scrapbooking - Sites I love

If you've followed my blog lately you know that I am diving into the world of digital scrapbooking. At first it was totally overwhelming. I did not know how to go about finding the art stuff that fits my style. Many of the sites I found at first were either too cute or too country for my taste. I have since stumbled upon some great sites. I decided I would start out slow and get to know a company or two really well. I found those sites by looking at digital scrapbooking galleries. The first source were pages I liked in the Shutterfly.com galleries. If you click on the photos you usually get more information. I found that two companies kept showing up.

Now I am a devoted follower and purchaser from DesignerDigitals.com. I love a lot of the stuff they sell. They have wonderful galleries and amazing sales. On Sunday through Monday they feature two items for $.25 each. On Thursdays a bunch of stuff is 30% off. I've even found some that was down to $.99. They also have several inspiring challenges each week. Each challenge comes with a freebie. I love to see what people post in the galleries.

Another one I love is Tracy Anne Digial Art and the TADA Blog. They also have wonderful galleries and freebies.

Other recent finds that I will explore in more depth include Creashen's Blog, Natali Design, CatScrap, Studio Girls and Two Little Pixies. I found these by following links on various blogs related to digital scrapbooking.

I also love some of the blogs for the designers. Creashen's blog is on. I really appreciate the clean lines and lovely color found on Ali Edward's blog. Anna Aspnes has wonderful tutorials on her digital scrapbooking site, too. {We Are} Storytellers is also a fun site. I have only explored it a small bit. If you want tutorials, Jessica Sprague has some lovely ones for free, as well as a few freebie downloads. She also offers online courses.

Okay, this was actually a long list, not just the two companies I work mostly from. As I figure out more, I am sure the list will grown. Now I just have to figure out how to get it all organized on my computer. I am going to try something similar to how I organize my actual, tangible scrapbooking supplies and try to keep track of what company each thing is from so I can correctly label my gallery entries.

Swedish Meatball Recipe

There are some recipes that my family and I love, but that I forget about. Swedish meatballs is one of those recipes.

Swedish Meatballs

2 TBL. Butter or Olive Oil
Premade Meatballs (or use the "Pete's Famous Meatballs" recipe I posted a while back)
(1 Onion, chopped - optional)
1 1/2 cup Beef Broth
1 can Evaporated Milk or 1 cup Sour Cream
1/2 tea. Nutmeg, ground
1 tea. Dill
1/4 cup cold Water
2-3 TBL Corn Starch

Melt butter in a large pan. Add the meatball and heat throughout. If the meatballs are frozen this may take 10 minutes. If you decide to add onions to your recipe remove the meatballs to a bowl and saute the onions until they are soft and semitranslucent. Put the meatballs back into the pan. Add the beef broth and boil for 10-15 minutes. Add the evaporated milk or sour cream. (Either one works, the sour cream has a bit more zing than the evaporated milk.) Stir to combine. Add in the nutmeg. This adds a subtile depth to the flavor. Next, add in the dill. Sometimes I add more than I stated in this recipe. Simmer for 10-15 more minutes. Pu the cold water in a mug and mix in the corn starch. This is then added to the meatballs. Stir until thickened. Enjoy over egg noodles or toast. This is a lovely comfort food that freezes well.

Best Cross Racer & Best All Around Racer Awards 2008

Saturday we packed up the crew and an extra person to head down to the American Cycling Association Best Cyclocross Racer, Best All Around Racer awards and 2009 Racing Season kick-off ceremony. It was held at the Great Divide Brew Comp. down town. Great Divide was very interesting. They let us explore the entire building. I loved seeing the bottling machine and the Archimedes's screwdevice that loads up the bottles. The party was loud and a bit unorganized, but fun as well. It was great to see friends that we have not seen for nearly two months. This gap between racing season always seems weird. We had pizza, soda and some people enjoyed the free beer. Both Ethan and Ellie were given awards. Ethan won the Junior Men 15-16 Best Cyclocross racer jersey. He also won it for Junior Men 17-18. We thought that was kind of fun because we did not realized that he had won points in that category, too.
Ellie won the same award for her division last year, missing it by two points this year. I feel kind of bad about that since those two points down might have been a result of a bike crash or two and untimely repairs. It is difficult to get some repairs done when the crash happens in the afternoon on Saturday and the next race is less than 12 hours away. Anyway, I digress. This year she won third place in the Junior Women 10-12 Best All Around Racer category. She also got third in the Junior Women 10-14 Best Cyclocross Racer category. Here too, she lost by two points. Mina, the girl who came in first place is also the national champion. Ellie has stiff competition.

Other members on our team won awards, too. Our team won 7 of the division awards. Our team rocks!

As you can see from this photo, the kids have a great time together. I love that the kids can race against each other and be friends after the racing is done.We can't wait for the season to begin again.

K4OT 2009 - Knitting for Our Troops

The local Denver Public Library has been running a neat event called, "K4OT: Knitting For Our Troops." On Friday and Saturday nearly every knitting store in town hosted knit-ins. The goal is to gather 5,280 hand-knit hats to send over to the troops in Iraq.

After work on Friday I went to The Knit Knack, a shop owned by my friend, Gerri, to take part in the event.


I managed to get two hats done. I hope that the people who receive them will feel supported and thought of. I hope they make a small bit of difference in making the people feel comfortable.

I spent the evening at a table in the front with Bonnie and Susan.



Later Carrie joined us. It was fun, but I did not remember to eat dinner so I was exhausted by the time I went home at 9:00.

Succulent BBQ Rib Recipe

I've been on the hunt for a good rib recipe for some time. Some that I have tried are messy and end up tasting like a thick, dried chunk of leather with BBQ sauce. Some end up with a unpleasant overly porky flavor without the smokey undertone of good ribs. I've also tried precooking them and finishing them on the grill. While at our Sunday cooking class at William Sonoma we learned about a delightful and easy way to make amazing, sweet, succulent BBQ ribs. At first I was suspicious of the recipe, but tried it and am now converted. Using this recipe you end up with tender, sweet ribs that fall apart as you eat them. Here is the recipe:

Succulent BBQ Ribs

You'll need:
Pork Ribs (this may work for beef ribs, too)
Brown Sugar
(Northwoods Fire Spice - optional and wonderful!)
Cayenne Pepper
Black Pepper
BBQ Sauce
plastic wrap
aluminum foil

Prepare by washing your hands then laying out a large piece of foil topped with a large piece of plastic wrap. Place a medium amount of ribs on top of this. (I worked with 3 ribs at a time.)Begin by making a sugar rub for the ribs. We used quite a lot. The proportions are mostly by feel but go something like 1 cup brown sugar to 1 tea. cayenne and 1 tea. ground pepper. We also added Northwoods Fire Spice from Penzy Spices. It is totally optional and wonderful. It adds a deep smokey note to the recipe. You might also be able to use a tiny bit of liquid smoke to get a similar effect. Mix well and use your hands to rib the sugar mix onto the ribs. Try to coat them fairly well. Do this to all of the ribs that will be wrapped together.

Next, wrap the ribs very tightly with plastic wrap. Then wrap that with one or two pieces of foil. The package should be tight and compact. Do this to the remaining ribs. Place these on a jelly roll pan or casserole dish. Bake at 225 degrees for about 4 hours.

Take them out of the oven and carefully unwrap them. There will be a lot of sweet liquid from the ribs. Place them on a new cookie sheet and brush with BBQ sauce. Place this under the broiler just long enough to heat up the sauce.

We made a lovely veggie side dish by sauteing zucchini slices and pepper slices that have been coated with olive oil and seasoned with poultry seasoning.

Knitting for the Troops and Charity Knitting

Our local library is running a wonderful project called "K4OT - Knitting for Our Troops." The library, in conjunction with about every knitting store in town is hosting special knit-in where people will meet and make wool helmet liners for our troops. They have provided a special pattern to ensure that the hat will fit under the helmet. Most of the charity knitter I know have already started. The goal is to send off 5,280 (Mile High City = 5,280feet) hats. They will be combined with other care items like fun food, toiletries, etc. I am nearly done with my first one and hope to get one or two more done. If I had more time I would certainly make more. I also want to attach a nice note or card to the hats I send off.

I have also made a few hats for the local homeless shelter to give away. I can knit what ever I like, but it is suggested that I use easy to care for fibers so the hats I made so far have been acrylic. I actually hat acrylic yarn, but the hats need to be easily washed. The first one was done in a day and actually went home to Rotterdam with Truike. It was very cold while they were here and she needed a hat. She fell in love with it so now it can be seen on another part of the world.

The next hat was a beehive pattern where I alternated between two very different fibers, the straight acrylic double was knitted. The acrylic with a knobby carrying yarn was purled. The result is a fun bit of bumpy rings.

The last hat was a bit more manly with a double yarn knit. I made the cuff part twice as long as needed and stitched it up to double it as well. They should keep a few souls warmer during the long, windy months. It would be a kick to see someone sporting one of my hats.