Uncle Tootie

Last Thursday, March 19, my dad's only sibling, my Uncle "Tootie," passed away.  He had battled cancer for 11 years.  He had beaten it twice, but with this third occurrence, he wasn't able to beat it again.

Tonight is his rosary and tomorrow is his funeral.  I will be singing at his funeral and I know it will be really, really  hard.  But I think he would be happy for me to do that for him.

Even though he was 72, he just seemed young to me.  I still cannot believe that I will never see him again.  He loved to joke around, hunt, drink coffee, talk politics, be with friends, go on road trips and fish.  He used to have this little Corgi dog, named Corky, and he LOVED that dog.  So much, that after her death, he would still cry from missing her.  I know that now, he is in Heaven with little Corky waddling after him on her short little legs.  

And that makes me smile.

Uncle Tootie drove Robert and I to our reception when we got married, in my grandpa's old Mercedes.

Last Thursday, on my first day off, my cousins Erika and baby Elena, and Sonia along with baby Coral, and I went for a long walk with the strollers down Main Street, lunch at the Coffee Company, cappuccinos and cookies for dessert at Moonside Bakery afterwards, and then a cozy afternoon in the sunshine in my backyard.  It was a great day being together with our babies.  As we went down the street my cousin Sonia would say, in a funny, high-pitched voice, "Babies on parade!"  or "Mommies on parade!" 

She's funny.

Kyle laying back in his stroller, playing with his "cell phone" on our way to the Coffee Co.

Elena sitting peacefully while we dessert-ed at Moonside Bakery.

Coral, laying in my backyard.  She is about 7 weeks old now!

Sonia and Coral.

All three of the babies with Sonia and Erika in the background.

We plan on having more of these days in the near future!

first week off and pictures!

I made him this hat!

Today is officially one whole week of unemployment.  It's actually been really busy!  My days are flying by.  I have been waking up, feeding Kyle, playing with Kyle, going for walks with Kyle and family, cooking (and experimenting with cooking and liking the random things I'm making!), and tons of knitting and visiting with family.  Oh, plus trying to keep the house tidy despite Robert leaving shoes all of the house.  Right now, his slip-on Vans are randomly sitting to the side of our dining room table!  LOL 

I'm working on four different scarves at the moment.  I get bored sometimes with projects so I have a bunch of projects, when i get bored with one, I can put it down and work on another one.  I work on all of them every day and am almost done with a couple of them.

I went to Fengari again on Main Street and bought some really gorgeous yarns.  There was a scarf there that was selling for $150 and when I looked at the stitch, it was a super easy one!  I bought the materials (which were pricey-no wonder the scarf was so expensive!) and am almost done with the scarf!  It is two different yarns, a ribbon-like yarn, and a slightly furry (not TOO furry) soft yarn.  They are really bright colors and I noticed that the scarf actually looks like something you might see in a Betsey Johnson boutique.  So that's cool!  I will post some pictures when I am all done!  

The other three scarves are also really pretty-one is a thin Merino wool in a range of shades of purple.  It's actually sock yarn but I am making a dainty scarf with it using size 2 needles!  I have never made anything with needles so thin so it takes a LOOOOONG time but it's still so pretty that I keep plugging away on it!  

I also bought some handspun-hand-dyed yarn on Etsy.com and I am making a neck warmer with it... it's really a shorter scarf (there wasn't enough yarn for a long scarf) and I'm going to search second hand stores for a really pretty brooch to accent the colors and hold the scarf around the neck.  Lastly, I bought some soft, baby yarn at Michael's a while ago.  It's acrylic yarn, but not a stiff one.  It changes colors as it goes along-from white, to yellow, to baby pink.  It's really pretty and I found a really cool ribbed stitch  for it.  

So I'm having a lot of fun with my new life right now!

This past week has been a tad stressful, emotional and crazy!  As I mentioned in an earlier post, we had heard rumors of possible layoffs throughout the City of Half Moon Bay.  Since I am lowest in seniority in my job description, I had a feeling that I would be one of them.  After spending every day with my coworkers thinking of different scenarios of what may or may not happen, it all finally came to fruition this past Thursday.

The Chief and the City HR rep called me into the Chief's office and told me that position was being cut.  Even though I had been expecting it, it still was shocking in a small way.  I did not want to cry while in his office because I wanted to appear strong.  But while sitting there I remembered how proud my grandfather was when I got that job; he would tell me that I looked pretty in my uniform (even though it is a really manly, unpretty uniform lol) and that my job was one that I could have forever.  It made me sad to think of how angry he would be to know that I got laid off.  Also, my grandfather was one of the people who worked towards making Half Moon Bay an incorporated City.  Now, with the lawsuit and bad economy, our city is most likely going to become just an unincorporated part of San Mateo County.  

These thoughts were going through my mind and it did bring tears to my eyes.  The Chief and HR guy thought I was really upset about losing my job but I just told them that I was a bit overwhelmed and that I was fine.  

I had already thought of my getting laid off as a huge possibility and what I would do if it were to happen.  I was ready for it.  Even so, the rest of the day was draining blur as I found out about the other 15 people throughout the different departments throughout the City who were also laid off.  People with mortgages, high rents, expensive car payments on brand new, luxury cars; multiple children, single parents.  I realized how lucky we are that Robert and I will actually be okay.  He has a job that pays of a majority of our bills.  We have pretty low car payments.  We have SUPER LOW rent thanks to our lovely 89 year old landlady who is just happy to be renting to a young family.  I will collect unemployment and since I was actually well paid at my job, the percentage of my salary that I will receive will be the same as what other people bring home while actually working.  We also have a lot of family that I know would be there if we REALLY needed.   I hope that it does not get to that because we are the types that like to do everyone on our own.  

So... goodbye Sephora makeup!  Goodbye eating out (too much)! Goodbye shopping just for fun!  

We are up for this challenge and really, we're looking forward to it.

My plans for now are that I am going to stay home for a little while and spend as much as I can with Kyle.  He will be 10 months old tomorrow and I want to enjoy his being a baby.  It will never be this way again and I want to make so many memories with him.  If I were working, I would miss out on all these things.  I can't wait to take walks along the beach trail with him on the beautiful Spring days to come; to enjoy the sun in our backyard and draw/knit/crochet/read while Kyle plays. 

I have decided to follow in my sister-in-law Melissa's footsteps and start creating things with the hope that they will sell.  I am going to be knitting and crocheting scarfs, different types of hats, bags and hopefully sweaters.  My plan is to sell them on etsy.com.  I am going to use my gorgeous cousins as models!  I talked this over with my cousin Erika who is a hairstylist, and she's going to help me with the styling (and be a model!)  I would love to style them in a pin-up fashion and have them pose while wearing the things that I make.

Cross your fingers that this works out!

some new pics of Kyle

Kyle is growing up so darn fast!  He is crawling around all over the place, pulling himself up on the furniture, grabbing everything (luckily he always reaches up to hand me whatever it was that he picked up).  He is so much fun and we are enjoying every single day.  

Here are some pictures I've taken recently:

Kyle during lunch time

Kyle always holds his hands together like this.  I love it!  He has such cute hands.

I have him this little banana flavored baby snack that is flower shaped and when I put it in his mouth he held onto it with his lips and it looked like funny little fake teeth!  He had me laughing. 

The classic bath time mohawk LOL  He was taking a bath with Daddy.