Guest Blogger: Dee Jr.

Hi. This is Dee Jr., Dee’s son. I'm filling in for her today so she can continue working on stuff for the Conference we'll be going to in August. This is my first time blogging for her.

I was thinking of writing a book called, "What It Is Like to Have Dee Stanziano as Your Mom." Sounds exciting right? (I hope. Otherwise it won't sell) (grins) Having her as my mom is actually quite interesting. Let me tell you about her...

First, she's a big time fan of crochet! There's her yarn stash, (the dreaded stash for most families) which has literally taken over the house! In order to navigate through it we need a compass and 2-way walkie talkie in case we need to call for help in the event of getting lost. (Oh all right! There's a slight chance of exaggeration, but not much!)

Second, my mom knows a lot of people! Through her I've met more famous crocheters than some people have in their lifetime -- and I bet they all have yarn stashes as big as hers! Maybe bigger! Now if only we can get her interested in professional baseball as I would like to meet Derek Jeter! ...

Third, I get to go to cool places I normally wouldn't get to see! I've been to many expositions and fairs such as the Big E (The Eastern States Exposition) and the Bridgewater Fair (a semi local fair), sheep and wool festivals too! I've even gone to the crochet conferences -- and modeled her crochet on the runway! And when my Mom is crocheting up a new cap and needs a head for gauge, she always seems to call my name first! I don't mind because she's crocheted me some great stuff like the tie I wore on St. Patrick's Day

Speaking of cool places, she loves to surprise us. One day she told us we were going out to a yarn shop. This doesn't excite us as much as it seems to excite her, but we go because you never know where we'll end up. One day she said she was lost and said she had to pull over to ask for directions. We weren't lost. It was a surprise for us -- she took us to a really cool truck museum! And another time she took us to a museum with a pedal-car exhibit with a cool park built on the side of a hill. My favorite time was when we stopped for some old fashion ice cream! YUM! And just this week, she slept out in the tent with us! That was fun!

Mom also likes to play games. She's good at chess and at Monopoly, and she likes to play Rummy too. Just don't ask her if she's "Smarter than a 5th Grader," because then she'll start telling stories of WHEN she was a 5th grader -- and yeah, that means stories of yarn and crochet.



She likes to read too. She often times reads crochet patterns like novels, but if we tell her a book is good, she'll read it along with us. Last summer we read "Yellow Fever" together. This summer we're reading "The Mysterious Benedict Society." If we tell her we're out of books to read she'll take us to our local library, to the Goodwill or second-hand store (they have books for $1 each), or to our local Borders. Our house has almost as many books in it as it does skeins of yarn!

She's funny too. Ask her how to spell any word in the world and she will! She'll spell it right out without any hesitation: "D-i-c-t-i-o-n-a-r-y." When she is hanging out with me and my friends, they'll ask her for answers to their homework. She's right there helping, offering answers like, "Pink should be in the rainbow," "R is to the right of the second moon," and of course she's ready to spell any word they can think of asking her to spell ... (Of course her answers are silly and way off base, but it's way better than hearing "do your own work!" My friends agree and we all giggle at her answers.)

I think the best part of having Dee Stanziano as your Mom is that she hugs us every day, letting us know how special we are to her. I wouldn't trade her for the world!