sherriknits

Yep.  We have another wedding to plan.  We are happy, we have known this was coming for a long time.  This has been a mother’s dream in how the kids have handled it all, complete with the fellow coming to us to ask permission to get to know her and then meeting frequently with Dad.  We finally decided we couldn’t ask them to wait any longer so dad gave the go-ahead.  Not sure when the big event will take place (oh gosh, I am not sure I’ve recovered from the last one!) but I’m sure things will start to fall into place soon.

The little boy has spent the last 2 days working through it.  At church this morning, hubby and I were talking to someone in the office and we heard him in the hall around the corner saying… 4 boys, 2 girls.  3 brothers, 2 sisters (brudders and deesters).  Mom, Dad married.  ___ , ____ married.  Then he started saying the first and last names of the newly married couple and the name his other sister will end up with.  We asked him what his name was and he told us his first name and the last name of his big sis.  Gonna take some explaining for awhile.    He is VERY excited to wear his new suit again.  lol

I did some lazy knitting today.  I got a new book the other day and wanted something besides socks to do today.  This is nearly impossible to get a picture of so I’ll just show you what I got and leave it at that.

This is from Hats On! by Charlene Schurch.  I love the book!

Tags: my life

At knit night the other night, my friend brought in socks she had knit with scraps of all her sock yarns.  I could not believe how cool they are.  She used Trekking, Opal, Step (I think), and Tofutsies.  We all were so amazed at how well the colors blended.  Gosh, if I ever coveted a pair of socks, these would be it.

Most of us all immediately started wondering what we had in our own stashes! 

I spent my entire day at work trying to get my old computer set up so i don’t have to take my laptop there and back every day.  I am not very gifted when it comes to hooking up anything electronic…I can use my computer just fine, but I am so lost doing any setting up.  Hubby didn’t have time and told me to just follow the colors.  I did get it running in no time, but for some odd reason, all of the usb ports have quit working.  I took #1 son there tonight and we took it all apart and couldn’t figure anything out.  He checked all the drivers and all of the stuff I don’t understand.  We went to Staples twice and finally got online with an ethernet cable but now I have no working printer and I do need the usb port.  I did a search and found a few more things to try but I didn’t really enjoy having my whole day shot.

I am so excited.  I joined a sock club and got my first yarn today.  I’m not going to put pictures here until people start getting their yarn.  People were wondering on Ravelry and since I’m close to where the yarn comes from,  it was probably only mailed yesterday. 

Tonight at home, I was wondering why I didn’t wind it at work so I undid the hank and had it hanging off my arm and got excited about the Mariner’s coming from behind (and winning!) and as hubby walked thru the door, I was telling him and the dog came running in and put his head straight through the hank of yarn!  I ended up with a bunch of it all tangled and hanging loose!  My dear hubby held out his arms when I looked at him and we got it wound with almost no trouble.  I don’t recommend doing it when the Mariner’s are doing one of their coming from way behind, though.  He kept scolding me for not paying attention!  All is well now and I will re-wind it tomorrow.

Tomorrow is Friday and date night and I am so ready! 

Tags: my life

I barely slept last night.  Sometime around 3 I got up and placed a book order.  I didn’t let myself start doing anything else because I had to be to work today at 9.  I didn’t quite make it.  Doesn’t really matter, though.  I spend my Wednesday mornings doing books for my family’s business.  My sister and brother were outside painting the building and I spent all morning and part of the afternoon trying to get a bank statement reconciled.  I did it 3 times before I could find the mistake, a transposed number.  Do you ever just have the worst time sticking to what you need to be doing?  I was really wanting to do just about anything else. 

I didn’t knit a stitch today.  However, last night was knit night and I did finish this little sock, no big accomplishment.  I got the second one started.  It’s funny, they are just weird to photograph.  It didn’t help that hubby was making fun of me for taking a picture of my sock on the floor next to the dog.  It’s dark and I didn’t feel terribly creative.

I heard today that Cat’s book has gone into 2nd printing and the books are getting hard to get.  I love it.  She deserves to have this do so well.  I managed to get ahold of 6 more for my shop and one is already sold.  This was my 3rd order since beginning of August!  (good thing I got up in the night to order, right?)

My co-worker was not thrilled to see that I had taken my nail tips off myself.  I think it isn’t really recommended.  I took her my Jil Jordan nailcare kit and she buffed and sanded on one hand this morning.  This afternoon, she did the other when she took a break   I promised her that next time, I would do it right. 

This post is so boring I can’t even believe I am going to put it out there.  haha

ps  Liz commented yesterday that we need to hold on to that spirit that brought out the best in many people after the tragic events of 9-11.  She is so right and I really do see that, too.

I just got off the phone with a dear friend who asked me to pray for a family member who is terribly ill.  Remember to tell those around you that you love them. 

It was kind of a theme of my day now that I think of it.  I heard on the radio on the way to work a book discussion about writing notes to someone in your life who needs to hear from you today.  I only heard about 5 minutes of it, but I think he said a person should make a list and then choose someone. 

Then tonight on the news, Ann Curry was sitting with a group of elderly ladies discussing the importance of friendship… there are really some health benefits to having multiple friends.

When I listened to my friend weeping for her family and asking for prayers for strength, I thought about that news story and told her about it.  We told each other how much we cared about each other.  The thing I love about friendships is that not one of my friends takes the place of another, they all add something beautiful to my life.  Relationships are important to me.

We had a funny end to our conversation…she told me there was a huge truck in front of her house and it was kind of creeping her out.  Her hubby was in bed.  All of a sudden she started screaming and screaming, which led to me screaming and screaming for her to tell me if she was ok and wondering what to do….when she told me she’d stepped on a slug! okkkkkk  thanks for scaring the daylights out of me!   lol

Anyway…do you have someone you need to love on today?  Take a minute to reach out.

pss  Yea Mariner’s!  I just woke up hubby and #2 daughter who had fallen asleep on the couch when we won the game tonight!  (finally)

Tags: my life

Today is the anniversary of one of the most devastating events in modern history.  I know that September 11, 2001 changed my life forever.

We were in Leavenworth for the very first time.  The town is so quaint, a Bavarian village in the Cascade mountains of Washington state.  There is music piped through the streets and some of the shops have employees dressed in Bavarian costumes.  We were staying at KOA and were going to take the little shuttle bus in to the village when I turned on the tv saying I just wanted to see what was going on in the world that morning.  I literally said that.  I switched on the tv in the bedroom of the RV and I saw the Pentagon but the little ticker running across the bottom of the screen said that the towers at the World Trade Center had collapsed.  I was so confused and remember calling to my hubby.  We both stood there in disbelief as the story started unfolding before our eyes. 

Our cell phones didn’t work well there so I ran up to the payphone and called my family on the 800# for the family business.  They were all stunned.  It was my step-dad’s birthday and I called him and we kind of cried. I managed to get ahold of our oldest daughter, she was working the front desk at the YMCA back home and she had watched the 2nd plane hit the tower.  It was so unreal.

We decided to go to the village anyway and when we got on the little bus, there was an older couple sitting there.  We asked them if they had heard.  The wife said she almost turned her tv on but didn’t want to miss the bus.  We told her what happened and she asked us to tell her husband who was very hard of hearing.  I will never forget seeing my husband lean forward and cup his hands to tell this veteran about what happened.  He looked back in disbelief.  We all rode silently to town.  We walked through the village … it was such a strange contrast … that happy music and the people all walking around white-faced.  We stood in one little shop with the shopkeeper and watched her little tv and we all shed tears.

We had to head home the next day and everything was on high alert.  We had to pass Fort Lewis and the traffic was just horrible.  I remember feeling like such a target because the rv has a huge American flag on the back.  We kept getting cell calls from the church because they were setting up safe homes for those in our neighborhoods to be able to go to.  It was so surreal.

For days and weeks, all I could do was watch the news.  I feel like I was obsessed but what kept me needing to watch was the personal side of the people.  I just kept seeing these faces.  I tried to imagine trying to cope with having your entire life turned upside down.  I watched as they showed people going back to their apartments to find such devastation.  Does anyone else remember feeling so helpless?

Well, November 7, an announcement was made at our church.  We were going to send a team through Real Ministries in Maple Valley and we were told that the team would go in and clean apartments.  I sat there thinking, “I can do that.”  It seemed like a total impossibility though.  Our kids were fairly young, the little imp required a lot of care and I had this fear of being out of reach from him.  However, I did stop by the information counter to talk to the girl in charge of it all.  She said she thought I should take an application and consider it.  We talked about it over lunch and hubby said he had the same thought about going.

There were 2 weeks to get in an application and half the money as a deposit.  Here is where it is interesting.  We had no money and since Christmas was near and we hadn’t started shopping yet, it didn’t seem very likely it would happen.  However, the little seed began to grow and we couldn’t shake it.  The closer the time got, the stronger it got and the more impossible it seemed.  I also had a friend who desperately wanted to go and she didn’t have the money either.  We prayed together so many times.

The day before the deadline, she was given a bit of money and decided to apply in faith that it would work out.  I helped her with the application, even gave her mine to use.  I took her picture to attach to it and helped her write out her testimony.  All the while I felt like crying but I didn’t want to go if it wasn’t right. (yes, she got to go!)

The next morning, I was sitting on our bed, bawling like a baby watching the news report of the plane that crashed in Queens.  I wondered how much the people could take.  Hubby walked in from his prayer time at the church with the elders.  He said…”If you want to go, we can go.”  What?  He said that our pastor was going to go but several elders felt it wasnt’ the right time for him to be gone so he wanted one of the elders to go.  My hubby said that I wanted to go and he said that was fine, but he wanted one of the men to go too.  He came home at 8 am to tell me and we had ONE HOUR to decide, get our applications filled out, pictures taken, yada yada yada.  What an hour! 

Now here’s what’s kind of funny but not.  As soon as we handed in those applications, I was struck with total fear.  What in the world was I thinking?  I hate to fly.  I am terrified of big cities.  I was really afraid of it all…yet I felt I had to go.  Over the next 2 weeks, we had so many things to do.  Don’t laugh, but I was sure I wouldn’t come back home.  The rational side of me was having to convince the irrational side that people do go and return.   It wasn’t too funny, though.  I had to go to the doctor for a medical release and I was convinced I had several ailments that would keep me from going and she (who knows me well) almost smiled at them…all stress. 

In our orientation meeting, we were told that the unions would not allow us to clean apartments but that there would be lots of things to do.  Now I was really scared.

We went from Dec. 1 – 8.  Our flight left Seattle around midnight on a Saturday night/Sunday morning.  We flew non-stop and I think I was the only one on the plane who didn’t really sleep.  I did watch the little map on the tv screen for the seat next to me and tracked our progress.  We arrived in New York at JFK airport around 8 am Sunday morning. 

We stayed at Abounding Grace church on East 9th Street.  All I know was it was 2 subway stops from Ground Zero.  I had no concept really of where we were.  We were taken directly to the church and shown the floor we’d sleep on.  Our team was in the basement on hardwood floors.   We had to roll everything up and put it away in the mornings because the room was used a lot for outreach.  Hubby was on the top floor of the building with the men.  It was an old bank building and the sanctuary was above us, then another long flight of stairs up to the “white room” where we got our assignments and ate. 

The first thing they did was give us an orientation.  There were teams coming in daily for 8 days, we were the 2nd.  We all stayed 7 days.  We were given our subway passes, our name tags, and then we were taken directly to Ground Zero.  They said they had to show us the area quickly like that so we could get over the shock, then get to work.  Since it was a weekend, the streets were jammed.  I have never seen anything like it.  We saw the walls of notes left by those who came.  We saw the ashes in the church yard at St. Paul’s chapel, the little church in the shadow of the trade center.  We walked on planks in some areas because they had the streets torn up to get at the water system.  I really was affected when I saw a little tent with teddy bears and notes from children to their parents who would never come home again.

What did we do there?  For that week, we worked in a feeding tent…I cracked 90 dozen eggs along with 2 young people from DC for french toast for workers all over the place.  Some of the meals went to St Pauls, some to military guarding both ends of the bridges…and some people came in to eat.  It was Dec. and the weather was unseasonably warm, but we worked the graveyard shift and it was cold. 

At daybreak, as our team was leaving, hubby’s team was coming in.  He got to help cook. 

We went home to try to sleep.  On Tues. morning, I had only had about 4 hours sleep since Sat. when we had left home.  I was so keyed up.  We got sent upstairs to sleep when our room was being used for church purposes.  I didn’t fall asleep until that night after we got away for a few hours and went up to the top of the Empire State Building!  I am afraid of heights, too, but was way more scared to stay down alone!  I am so glad I went up there, it was so beautiful.  I called the kids and kept telling them they’d never believe how beautiful it was.  They said what they couldn’t believe was that I was up there!  lol  

We also set up a prayer station twice right at Ground Zero.  People literally flocked to us.  I talked to a young girl from Queens who had seen it all happen from where she was. I still don’t have a concept of being far away and being able to see it all.  I think we talked for 45 min.  She was so dear and hurting so bad.  She had delivered food to fire stations and anything she could do to help.  We stood with a young business man from NJ who had come for the first time.  He had lost a friend.  We also stood with a lady who had come from Europe, her sister had died there.  It was very sobering.

Hubby and I went to a church where children from Stuyvesant High School ran by in the chaos.  Many came in for shelter.  Our job was to assemble packets of info to be used for a meeting to minister to the ministers.  The pastors in the area were exhausted and others were coming in to encourage and help them.

Probably the biggest thing we did was work the Salvation Army Christmas Toy Shoppe.  It was for children who were directly affected on September 11.  Hubby and I were asked to work as grief counselors.  Wow.  There were 120 workers the day we were there and there was one lady who was an officer in the SA who worked with us.  We were to mill around and just look for people who needed to talk.  I can’t even begin to tell the stories we heard.  Some had high paying jobs and now were there to recieve a toy or an article of clothing for their children.  It was set up so beautifully and tables were designated for each age group.  Each person was given an assistant to walk them through the toy shoppe.  It was quite a day.  We talked to a maitre d from a restaurant right there at the WTC who stood and watched it all, he was so thankful for the gifts for his children.  I talked to 2 sisters who were each in a different building.  They were told to stay but they left.  They told me about jumping into any moving vehicle to get away.  It took them both 8 hrs to get home and their families had no idea if they were ok.  One of them was supposed to be on that flight to the Dominican Republic but decided to wait until after Christmas to go…the flight that crashed in Queens!  The most memorable to me was a lady who at first said she was just fine and I felt prompted to ask her if she really was fine and she just fell apart.  We talked for over half an hour as she told me how she was so frightened all the time.  I gave her the Bible I had carried with me all week.  It had been given to me to give to someone I met, that I would know when the person came along.  She wept. She had always wanted an English Bible.  She was puerto rican, had lived in the Bronx all her life and barely spoke english.  We kept in touch for a long time until she moved to Florida.  Her husband mouthed out to me over her head, simply “thank you”.  He told my hubby that she really needed to be able to talk. 

The next morning, we were given a “debriefing”.  We were all so somber, changed forever.  When we left there we were taken to a hotel in Times Square.  We had that afternoon and the next day until 3pm to see as much as we could see.  We walked miles.  We ice skated in Central Park, we rode the Staten Island ferry, we walked and walked.  I called my family from Tiffany’s to see if they needed anything.  lol  It was nothing short of amazing.  I love that city.  I will always remember the faces and the feeling of gratefulness that was expressed to us every single day.  We have lots of fun stories of crazy things that happened, but we also saw things we never thought we’d see.

I am ever so grateful we got to go.  Thanks for taking the time to read.  I just felt the need to share it and if you made it this far, I pray that you take a minute to remember…not only those in NY but those in DC and all of the families who were affected. 

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Back to the grind.  We started therapy for the silly boy again.  The day was so warm and we had a new activity!

It ended up being a lesson in obedience.  When the OT says “Stop!”, that’s what we mean…not “pedal pedal pedal” (as he calls it) then “glide”…but stop.  We had to have an example so guess who got elected.

It’s a wonder she will go with me.  haha

We also worked on swinging (gross motor skills) and bouncing on the therapy ball.  Time went fast this time and we were on our way to lots of errands.  He wasn’t too thrilled and in one store stormed out and said “I’m going home!”  We finally had to throw in a bribe of ice cream so we could get the rest done quickly.

I did do a little bit of knitting.  It was a little silly that I couldn’t knit because I didn’t have my stitch markers.  Then I realized they were probably in my bigger bag in the back seat so I got a few rows started on a child’s sock for Afghans for Afghans.

I’m doing these double-stranded…I know it gets very cold there and if I’m going to make socks, I want them to be warm.  I made a few socks single-stranded and I just feel like they aren’t warm enough.  More opportunities to play with Cat’s new book!

Tags: my life

It was over 80 degrees here today and supposed to be the same tomorrow. 

No knitting today, for some reason, I was just wiped out.  I went to first service at church today.  Hubby and kids were on the worship team this week…it’s the first time back after 3 Sundays being gone on vacation!  I go to first service but stayed halfway through 2nd just standing outside visiting with a friend.  Fun.

The little imp and I drove through McDonald’s to get him something to eat and we came home to watch the rest of the Mariner’s game.  hmmmm…we finally won one!  I’m not a fair-weather fan, but it was nice to get a win after 9 losses!  Not sure what happened there, we were on a roll for quite awhile.  While I watched the game, I attempted to remove my nail tips I had put on for the wedding.  I had them filled twice and they were just too thick to be able to use my computer or much else without being a bit of a hassle.  I got them off but my nails look like I bite them…not too bad but not too great.  I definitely will get them again some day and maybe next time I’ll let them take them off for me.  lol

I asked if we could go for a drive since it was so beautiful out, hubby was helping #1 son put speakers in his van.  By the time he was ready to go, I had fallen asleep.  We did drive to the beach, though.  Just the 2 of us.  #1 son took the little imp to get a hair cut.  His girlfriend is a hair dresser and she bought him some gel and taught him how to do his own hair.  Cute.

Most of the time if we get a warm day here, the beach is freezing but not so today. 

It was calm and warm.  We drove on the beach for awhile and then when we came off the approach,  we saw deer in the dunes but I couldn’t get a picture….just a few feet up the road, look what we saw.

There were 2, the other one was already off the road and they were in no hurry to get out of anyone’s way.  I forgot to mention that a few weeks ago when I was downtown at my shop, in the middle of the afternoon I saw a deer run by on the sidewalk!  It was so scared and sliding on the sidewalk, I have no idea how it had come from the direction it had come on a busy street coming from the busier street.  It turned the corner and since I was heading out to my car, I drove around the block but it was gone.  We’re a few blocks from the river going the other direction but this poor thing was just lost and scared.  We see them in our neighborhood quite often, too.

We drove up the coast a few miles.  It was just too pretty.

We had to get home, though, because the little boy was being delivered home and we’ve been pushing our luck lately with getting to get away for a few hours here and there.

I guess I should let you see the new haircut!

Isn’t he just the happy camper?  Believe it or not, this is an attempt to smile.  lol

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Well, I got through my first week back to work.  No, it isn’t bad…but I couldn’t seem to get back.

I feel like I knit a lot this week, but I have no pictures to show for it.  None. 

I am still having so much fun knitting socks in the New Pathways book, but I knit and frog, knit and frog.  The frogging is not because I don’t like what I knit, but nothing has seemed right for the yarn or whatever.  I don’t even care, I am so loving everything I’ve learned out of it and my admiration for Cat Bordhi continues to grow and grow.  She is amazing and she really has a way of fostering enthusiasm in everyone I have talked to who have bought the book.  I love her passion for what she does.

This was my attempt at Saturday sky.

Ha ha….I forgot until tonight.  It was a beautiful day.

We went to a surprise party tonight for a co-worker and I have never seen a better shocked reaction.  The room was full of people and when we knew she was walking into the building, someone swung the double doors open and she stood there with her mouth hanging open…walked in the room, mouth still open…she kept looking around in such a stunned way.  I didn’t know anyone could keep their mouth open that long!  lol  It was great.   When I left work today, I told her I’d see her next week and I was so relieved to have gotten through without saying anything, we’ve all known about it since before I went on vacation!

I’ll go to sleep wit a smile on my face tonight…it’s fun to see someone so blessed.

Tags: my life

We got home this evening and vacation is pretty much over.  Tomorrow I have a lot of work to do but it’s ok, glad to have a job. 

We ended up going to visit my in-laws.  It was nice.  We drove down the freeway to the Oregon coast.  The first night we stopped to see my sister-in-law and I really regret not taking my camera in to get pictures of her 8 black kitties.  I tried to get one on my cell phone but it was too dark.  Had a great visit with her, but short.

We drove about half an hour from Portland and stayed in a rest area that night.  Of course, when we got up in the morning, the RV did not want to start.  It was getting worse and took about half an hour before anything happened.  While hubby was first starting to work on it, I made a not very pleasant discovery.  I had left my makeup home. 

I called #2 daughter and she looked up to see who might have Bare Escentuals in the area.  We did find one shop but they were out what I needed so I decided to be brave and rough it.  haha  I was really amazed, though.  When we got to Grandma’s house, I called one salon that advertised that they sold makeup and asked if the had BE….she said no but when I told her my predicament, she was horrified, probably more than I was.  She made one suggestion of somewhere to call but I decided to just let it go.  A few minutes after I hung up, my cell phone rang and she had called me back to suggest somewhere else I might try.  Wow!  There are still people willing to go the extra mile out there in this world. 

We got to Grandma’s about noon.  First thing the little boy did was to haul the garbage can up the hill….hubby asked him if it was already dumped…yes, he said…got it to the top of the driveway to discover no, the garbage man hadn’t been there yet.  They had one small bag in their big can, not like ours which is always ready to overflow.

We could not believe the growth in the area….houses on every inch possible it seems.  I tried to get pictures of how quaint some of the changes are but it was getting dark and the pictures really didn’t show anything.  We go there fairly often, but don’t take the time to drive around.

I almost missed the sun, amazing how fast it goes down!

Just seconds earlier it was so incredible.  After our little cruise around, we stopped once more to take a look.

We drove down to the beach again the next evening, but the fog was coming in pretty quick.  Here’s a cold boy waiting for Dad to bring his sweatshirt from the Jeep.

This is my Saturday Sky picture…it was beautiful earlier in the day.

I don’t think I remember being at the coast like that and seeing so many nice days in a row.  The fog came in that one night but was gone in the morning.

We had a nice visit with the grandparents.  Hubby found the problem with the RV not starting and now it works every time.  I have always respected hubby’s ability to fix things, but this time he really had his fair share of challenges to figure out.  There’s only one minor thing left that he wants to trace down…the lighter thingy doesn’t have any power and he can’t find where the fuse is blown.  We even bought a new thing for him to hook up….and he kind of jerry-rigged it so I could turn on my laptop on the long drive home but no go….I blew a fuse and it took the turn signals and radio with it.  He gave me the most detailed explanation of why, but it was lost on me.

He always tries to fix everything he can when we borrow the rv.  Our friends appreciate getting it back with all the minor headaches taken care of and we are more than appreciative that they let us use it. 

There aren’t many places along the coast to dump waste from your RV, but in Nehalam you can drive to the wastewater treatment plant.  I thought this box that had the envelopes to pay was interesting.

That’s algae growing all over the box, the spider webs don’t show.

We got to stop at the Tillamook Cheese Factory.  Actually, we never get to actually drive by it because one sweet boy has radar whenever ice cream is around.  We did walk through and see if they were working, we’ve seen it many times but today they weren’t.

The place was jam packed with people but we did find a table.

Eating ice cream is serious business for this boy.  He and I are both pretty slow so we finished in the RV.

We stopped in Astoria to eat and the silly boy made himself at home.

I didn’t have time to open the screen window as we approached the Astoria bridge.

I actually did get some knitting accomplished.  I made another Tibetan sock.  This time I used size 2 needles instead of size 5 as we did in class…and I like it much better.  The fit was perfect.  I need to frog part of the cuff, though.  The RV was so bouncy on the coast road and I read the pattern wrong and knit about 12 extra rows…I couldn’t remember doing so many rows on the first one I made and I wish I’d have checked when I was wondering about it.  I love it, though.

I think these will be the perfect house socks this winter!  I hope I stay excited about them and get some made for the rest of the family.

I also worked on the Riverbed Architecture…am hoping to get a pair of toddler socks finished before some friends send a box off to Afghans for Afghans.

I tell you, Cat is a genius.  Each sock I make, it makes more sense and I am just amazed that she figured this all out.  It is so fun and I can’t wait to start experimenting on some of my own ideas.

Well, I have rambled on enough…it’s good to be home and good to be back in touch with the rest of the world.  It was a nice break, though, to not have internet access, I think I’d have spent a lot of time playing on Ravelry and every other little thing I end up doing…but I’m glad to be back! 

Have a nice Labor Day…I’ll be working on catching up on bookkeeping.

Tags: my life