Back & Forth

An old draft I found from 2010 that I'd not posted:

My daughters are catching the bug and the knitting fever.  AM, my 17 year old, loves to knit toys and in the last 2 weeks has knit 2 16-18 inch sock monkeys. CE, daughter #1 at 20 years old, knit an elephant for her girlfriend. She's moved onto making a hat from Noro Silk Garden (sort of raising fiber snobs).  Now, the trick is to make sure they don't loose my Addi needles!! Now SL, CE's girlfriend, is being drawn into the web!!  At first she was completely opposed to knitting cause that was for those old grannies.  Well, her first project is with a rich purple Lambs Pride (wool & mohair) and after a few rows, she wants to do patterns & color changes!!
Mission accomplished.  Now when they have to seek counselling for all the things Mom did, they can knit in the waiting room. Brooohaaa.
Now one more to go. My son was learning but his dad made fun of him and he quit and took up skateboarding. Can you imagine - falling down over knitting ;)

Last night I had a dream!

Earlier this week I received my second to last mark for this term - leaving me on pins and needles for the very last mark of my Bachelor of Business Administration degree. My mind played with me last night and drifted me through a dream that reminded me that there was still one more assignment to do. My sleep was rattled with the too familiar stress and panic of getting an assignment completed. But  ahhh the relief when I rolled over on my cat, felt her squirm and realized it was but a dream.  I set a goal in January 2012 to graduate with my BBA in May 2015 and have successfully accomplished that goal. Now to exhale and live without the pressure of class and classwork. But for how long will this leisurely period sustain itself before the desire to push myself towards another major goal (i.e. MBA) starts to swallow the exhale?

For today, I rest in my natural state, no make-up and no pressure.

Life is a ride

I completely forgot that this blog had been started and see that my last post was nearly 2 years ago. As with all of us, so much has happened in thei last two years. My grandson can now count and spell his own name.  In September, he will be heading off to school. Courtney is now married and they are living in Canada for now, at least until she's finished university (uni and she & her wife call it).  They it will be back to South Africa for them.  In addition to a grandson, we now have 2 granddogs, 1 grandcat, 1 grandlizard, 1 grandhorse, and 1 grandbunnies.  Alishia-Marie has matured into a wonderful mother and great worker. My baby boy is now 18 and 6 foot tall. No longer my little Bubby but always my Boy!! He and I will graduate this spring, he from High School and me from University. Better late than never! Frank and I celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary next month. Crazy! Oldest married - 4 year old grandson - married 20 years and I'm only 27.  Here's a little glimpse of the last 2 years.

Father's Day 2013

This is my Facebook post on Father's Day:

To all the Fathers that have helped make us who we are, thank you. To the Fathers of the future, raise your children with love and discipline. To the Fathers of the present, hold your baby(s) today - no matter if we are 2 or 62, we are always your baby.To the Fathers of the past, this is a difficult day for those of us that watched you slip away from this world because the love you gave us is stronger than time and you're always on our hearts.Thank you Wally Bishop & Ralph Grew for being my fathers!Thank you Frank Gallant for being the father to my children!Thank you Bryan Thorne for giving my sister stability and love to raise Tavis Thorne & Tyler.

I have been so incredibly blessed in my life with wonderful men. First it was my dad, Wallace Meldon Bishop (1915-1983), and then my step-dad, Ralph Levitt Grew (1932-1997) and now with my husband, Francis Robert Gallant.

My drive & strong work ethic comes from my parents.  My compulsive movement is from my dad. When I was a pre-teen, say 8 to 10 years old, I was sitting on the couch either knitting or sewing. My dad looked over at me and said to me with his famous big teasing smile, "My mother always said an idle woman was a useless woman and I'm glad you're not going to be useless".  My grandmother was born in 1888, before the days of factory made socks, food and clothes.

That one comment 30+ years ago started the drive in me to make him proud and to make the grandmother I never knew proud. He likely wouldn't have even remembered making the comment but I cherished everything he said.

From that little girl on the couch learning to knit came the woman that was working on this today:

Second Cup Knit In

The Fundy Fiberistas met for the first time for Knit Knight on King Street at Second Cup. Service was so so but the atmosphere was truly a pleasure.
Our group is now in our 5th year together and the bond grows stronger as the months and years progress. It's a wonderful experience to have a group of women to socialize with and share our life experiences. We're all strong, independent women that have strong family ties and I think it would be fair to say there's a streak of feminism that runs through the group. Not the bra burning feminism but the feminism that celebrates each woman as a strong contributor to society, family and community. We are all religions, socio-economical status and family structure.  Our group ranges in age from 20 - 95 with the average age in the mid-thirties.
I encourage all women to find that special group of women with common interest and enjoy the interaction.