sherriknits

Ok, how many people do I tell to knit to the end of the row before laying down their project?  Do I take my own advice?  Hmmmm…..

 This is a reason why it’s not wise:

This poor project has been riding around in my purse for about a week.  I dig through my purse, I take the knitting out and put it back in.  I dig some more.  It may have been feeling neglected so look what happened.

And then notice the weird broken piece just standing up waving for attention.

This baby is headed for the frog pond. 

And I do have some proof of knitting that is happening around here.

Pedicure socks.  I actually am trying these out to be used more like bed socks because I cannot stand my toes closed in at night and I know others who are the same.   It’s been kind of a fun knit although I am tired of stripes.

I do want to thank those of you who emailed or commented on the assessment today.  It went well.  It usually does, his case manager is awesome and makes it feel better.  I’m thankful for good people on our team!

Next week we get to go to a foot casting clinic because he is going to end up in orthotics.   Oh, the joys.

:)  Life is actually good.

I planned to go to bed early tonight, but realized that I needed to download something to listen to on my iPod tonight.  I found Zoot Radio which has all kinds of fun old time radio shows to download.  I’m currently listening to The Couple Next Door.  They’re about 15 min. shows and quite entertaining.  Last night hubby and I shared my headphones and listened to one of them and he actually enjoyed it, too.  Well, when I got my iPod, I found that it had been playing (can it possibly still be going from when I fell asleep last night?  It doesn’t seem possible)…there was no power left and it was playing through my entire playlist.  Weird.  Sooooooooo…..got to get some charge on it before I head off to bed.  I’ve looked on Ravelry and (oh hey!  They said we should get some snow tonight!  Not to last, but maybe something to at least look at…we hardly ever get any).  Anyway, I’m just waiting to get enough charge on the old iPod so I can go to bed.

We have an appointment for the little imp in the morning.  It is the one I really kind of dread every year…evaluation for services for the year to come.  I like to think we don’t need them but we do.  He has a lot of things that I forget about that we need that medical coupon for.  My insurance doesn’t cover everything and some of the monthly things would make life pretty difficult if we didn’t have the coupon.  What’s hard is…there is no way he doesn’t qualify for services, he has Down Syndrome and it’s not going to go away, we’ve jumped through all of their hoops…but every year we still have to qualify.  My kids are all care providers for him, too, and this determines the hours they will have to divvy up.  The hard part for us is that we live life looking at all he can do and even trying not to focus on the disability, but when you have these meetings, you have to look at it all backwards.  It’s not the time to share all of his accomplishments.  ow.

Last night, I came home freezing cold.  I asked the little imp to help me warm up.  He did a half hug, laughing the whole time, then when he realized the job was too much for him (translation: he wanted to watch his movie) and he told me ” fire, mom”.  Smart kid.

I’ve been half-heartedly knitting but still haven’t taken any new pictures.  I do have to share a tiny picture of my mom’s work though.

She spends the whole year knitting slippers for the local mitten tree.  She gives them to anyone who wants them…she even sends them to soldiers in the hospital.  In spite of that, she has 297 pairs to give to the mitten tree!  She never will count the ones she gave away.  Good job, eh? 

I also am thrilled with my new Christmas skaters I found.  Ever since we went to NY in Dec. 2001 and ice skated in Central Park, I have loved ice skaters . 

I didn’t look quite this graceful, though.  I was going to hold on to the wall and get myself around one time so I could say I did it, but my friend came along and grabbed me and around we went.  So romantic, me hanging on my friend and hubby shakily (but much more steady than I was) skating by.  There was just something about that rink outdoors in the park with all the skyscrapers surrounding the perimeter.  We did manage to skate around together about 3 times after I got my legs, though.  Ahhh, so romantic!  I love vintage, too…so these just begged me to bring them home. 

And now, I am unplugging my iPod and heading off to bed! 

Eek.  The holiday season is upon us and I feel anything but ready to do what needs to be done over the next month.  I’m quite certain I will get in the swing of it all soon, but not today.  I spent the day in the shop trying to get Christmas decorations up.  I can’t remember what I have but I know some of it is missing.  Hubby, kind soul that he is, came and took down my lights in the huge window that one section had burned out of and strung up new ones.  He also put a garland around my door.  That will help get me moving along, I’m sure.

The little imp is a little bugged.  He has this clock in him that says it is time for a tree…every year on Thanksgiving since he was about 5 he will start telling us on Thanksgiving day how the furniture needs to be arranged and where the tree goes…and it is TIME.  A few years ago, we changed where we put the tree and it took a few years to get over it.  He does not take well to change.  It’s life, buddy.  lol

Well, today, big brother asked him what he wanted for Christmas.  “Tree”, he said.  In other words, things must be done in order and he cannot move on until that tree is in place.  Thankfully he isn’t a greedy little fellow.  He usually wants one thing and is fine thinking about it.  This year it is High School Musical 2, available on DVD for the holidays.  That is exactly how he says it.  When an anticipated movie is coming out, we hear the commercial word for word. 

I happen to know that one new brother-in-law stood in the freezing cold for half an hour at Staples to get him something he knew he’d love.  I cannot stop telling all of my kids…my own and their chosen ones…how incredibly grateful I am.  I know that not all siblings are as patient and caring as mine are towards that one who had gotten much of the attention for many years, something that can’t always be helped.  But not only are we blessed with wonderful, caring children of our own, but they chose life partners who also love and value him.  It honestly makes me cry, good tears!

This year our extended family did something new.  We had a breakfast gathering at my sister’s.  Here’s a little glimpse.  I really just included my own family because I don’t know how the others would feel about being posted here.  (I couldn’t resist one picture of cousins and little baby, though)

The little imp had fun at therapy the other day.  I never could get a decent picture and even tried to take a little video but as soon as I started, he got distracted and it wasn’t worth trying to do anything with.  It was pretty funny.

Have I been knitting?  Yes.  i just haven’t gotten any pictures to post.  Nothing hugely exciting.  I was really wiped out on Thanksgiving day and instead of knitting, I vegged out instead.  After the breakfast, all of our kids went the other directions and it was just the little imp, hubby, my mom and I.  We had a nice dinner but after I cooked and cleaned the kitchen twice (while hubby undertook a huge project), I just did not much of anything when I was done until the kids arrived to play games.

Here’s our Saturday sky.

About an hour after I took this, I walked into the kitchen and commented on the moon….I tried to go out on the deck to take a picture of it but when I went out there, I couldn’t see it so hubby and #1 son both went out and started snapping pics.  Ahh, the joys of being tall.

I want to say thank you to all the friends I have made on here.  Tis the season to be thankful and I truly am.  It’s been a fun venture.  I was a little leery of putting myself out here like this, but have found it to be a huge blessing because of all the friends I have made.  I wish you all God’s best during this Christmas season.  Remember to stop and be thankful for the good things in your life.  Remember, too, that even the hard things work good things in us if we let them so there’s something to be thankful for there, also. 

I found this on one of the Ravelry message boards.  There is a huge discussion about helping Jess and Casey for all the work they have put in for Ravelry with no financial benefit so to speak.  A little background…I do know that Casey quit his job to do this full-time.  A lot of people have benefitted from Ravelry so people are asking that if you are able to donate on Thanksgiving day to please do so.

 I just wanted to do my part to get the word out.  Here is part of the post

 Will you help me say “Thank You!” to them in a very practical way?

• Regardless of whether or not you can or will give a donation, would you please leave a comment about at least one thing you’re thankful for in Ravelry? There’s also a great “Thank You” thread going on over here; why not chime in on both threads?
• You can donate via PayPal from the Ravelry home page, from the site’s footer, or by clicking here. On the PayPal donation form, there’s an option for leaving instructions for the merchant - feel free to send along a little “love note” with your donation in that field.
• Those without PayPal accounts can donate by snail mail if they like - checks or money orders can be made out to “Ravelry, LLC”. The mailing address is:
  Ravelry, LLC
  P.O. Box 290055
  Boston, MA 02129
  USA
• We plan to do a mass donation on Thanksgiving Day in the US. For those outside the US, it would be Thursday, November 22nd. However, give what you can when you can!
• I have not yet heard back from PayPal about post #162, and Suzanne17 kindly linked us to Jess & Casey’s Thanksgiving Day plans, so feel free to do a PayPal donation anytime you like: I’ll bet the ThankRavelryDay celebrations will be going on from Wednesday, November 21st - Sunday, November 25th (with the bulk of donations on the 22nd).
• From Knitwit84, we found out PayPal keeps 2.9% + $.30 of the total amount given.

I think I spent the first part of it recovering from being the sole care of one little imp.  lol  Now, it’s not like it’s a burden, but he IS a lot of care for one person.  Lots of fun, lots of constant verbal guidance, lots of having to pay attention to where he is…but yeah, fun.  :)  It just took me a day or two to recover.  I think partly because that last night I had a terrible night’s sleep due to a snoring imp sleeping in a sleeping bag on the floor and a dog who barked when I’d finally gotten to sleep.  Tues. when I went to work was interesting to say the least.

Here was last Saturday’s sky.  (wow, don’t those wires add a lot?)

And remember the tree?  Last Sat. it was still pretty.  We’ve since had several wind and rain storms and not quite so beautiful any more.

The family had a great time at the worship conference.  Hubby had to come home before the concert that evening, but he was pretty wiped out and had to be at church early in the morning.  His new shirt made me smile. 

I did get some knitting done.

Glad to be done with that one…easy but I really made a lot of silly mistakes along the way.  I haven’t had a lot of time to work on the next square, but this is another easy one so far.

At knit night the other night, one of my friends brought another pair of her crazy socks.  Gosh, these are just so beautiful.  This time she is doing real fair isle and I forget how many ends she got to weave in.

Aren’t they beautiful?

I got my November Lucky Lurker Sock Club yarn.  I have finished the foot of my sock (toe up) but I am going to wait a day or two before I post it so I don’t spoil it for anyone who may not have their yarn yet. (Love the pattern!)

I got my Ravelry t-shirts today!  I missed that we should order a size or two larger than we wear, so they are a bit snug…it seems to be quite a topic on the Ravelry boards right now.  I’m not horribly disappointed, I think they will work but I sure won’t go without a jacket. 

And today…it rained most of the day.  I had to take pictures at work because it gets dark early.

Remember the theater that was such a source of entertainment for me all summer?  Now it’s hard to see what’s going on…but every day there is activity there.

This next week promises to be pretty busy!  We head for therapy on Monday, remember  last time we went?  I hope we don’t see any deer this time. 

Have a great week and remember to be thankful for those in your life.

We had a great day today.  The little imp and I drove to Olympia to see The Bee Movie. 

He was good company part of the way.

It’s been a long time since I lost him like that, guess we had too much fun last night.  lol

 We went to lunch together first at McDonald’s so he could get the Bee Movie Happy Meal.  We forgot to take pictures…as did we while we were at the theater.  But after….I pulled my little friend out of my purse.  I did get a better picture of CareBear but it wasn’t one bit flattering to an imp…so we opted to make the imp look better.  (sorry, Liz! )

We went to Barnes and Noble for awhile because he does enjoy looking at books.  We were going to buy a Bee Movie book, but the line was so long that we decided to do that later.  We managed to get home before dark.

We ran through the grocery store and had a little lesson on being polite when someone speaks to us by making eye contact and responding kindly.  Hiding behind mom doesn’t really cut it.  lol  This is a frequent lesson we have, maybe one of these days.  He was pretty excited to see a high schooler we know who was collecting money for FoodBalll.  I love how these kids think he’s so cool…

I took my knitting with me today, but left my pattern sitting on the couch.  I am so close to done with this square and am so ready to move on to another one. 

Last night I was horrified to find that my domain had been suspended.  I couldn’t figure out why I kept getting notices from the host server, my $4 is on autopay.  Then last night it was all gone and I couldn’t get in to my account to figure it out.  All of a sudden I remembered that hubby had lost his wallet and we had to change our credit card.  oops.  I fixed it at about 1 a.m. and it was back this morning when I got up.  I would have spared myself that if I’d actually read the email notices and then thought about what that might mean.  haha

Isn’t it just the coolest thing when you need a little extra hug, one comes your way?  This is how mine came.

I am just having an emotional day and when I got my mail today…here was a day brightener just for me and I am so blessed by it.  Although I was told his name was Carebear but that he’d answer to any name, I choose to keep his original name so he won’t accidentally be confused. 

He comes from Liz who had fun inventing these little guys last year.  I have had so much fun getting to know her and am constantly amazed at her talent.  She has great wisdom for her years and I’m so glad for the day I landed on her blog.  I consider her a friend and have enjoyed following her ventures.  You have to go see her wedding veil she knit and her gauntlets she is designing for her brother.

Liz, Carebear will get good care and I know he will bring many smiles to me through his life.  It’s always so nice to know when someone cares.  :)  Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

I’m still around.  I’m still knitting.  However, it doesn’t seem too exciting to show you the next 2 inches on my afghan square.  It’s still 2 steps forward, 1 step back.  It’s an easy knit, I just keep gaining stitches.  I’m so ready to be done with it and move on to something else but am not hating knitting it.  Life has been more occupied with things like paperwork… the not so fun side of running a business.

For some odd reason, I lost Paint Shop Pro on my computer so it is installing right now.  I probably shouldn’t be doing this at the same time, but if it isn’t right, I’ll just start over.  Where do these things disappear to?   

Pretty exciting things at the shop…we got wireless installed this week.  I’m not dragging my laptop with me every day, but my family’s business (inside which my own little shop is located) was still on dial-up and they started having problems with their UPS program so we decided it was time to do something about it.  They are now able to share my dsl connection and the benefit is that my customers can bring in their laptops and play on Ravelry, our new past time. 

Today was rather interesting.  I had a very inebriated gentleman pop in and ask if I was hiring.  I was trying to help a lady with a knitting problem.  I told him no, I wasn’t..so he kindly asked me to sign his paper stating he had asked about work and that I had paid him nothing and he blessed us all and left.  My customer dropped her head to the counter laughing, my sister and another worker from the family business were eating their lunch there and said the looks on our faces were priceless.  He had just come from the skincare business next door, and before that had gone to a very exclusive gift shop.  Obviously, he does not really want to work as he visits  businesses that are not likely to need his help.  Kinda sad, I thought.

I have no knitting pictures but I did want to share my most favorite tree in the whole world.

I have lived across the street from this tree for over 20 years.  I think of the time I was sick for about 6 weeks or when I was pregnant on bed rest and I’d lay on the couch for hours watching the leaves.  It is the last tree in the neighborhood to get leaves and the last to lose them every fall.  it won’t be long before it will be bare again…we usually have a big windstorm that ends up blowing most of the leaves down the hill many blocks away.  Only one time did the wind blow at us and we had basketloads of leaves to clean up. 

Right after I took the picture above, the sun started shining through it … isn’t this just beautiful?  (my yard doesn’t look anything like this…but this is what I get to see every day!)

The oldest son just came home with a slight problem.  He had a package of superglue in his pocket that started leaking, he reached in to pull it out and it bonded to his finger.

Let me tell you how proud I am of my kids.  Our church takes part every year in Operation Christmas Child where we fill shoeboxes with gifts for children.  The year, all 3 of my older kids are choosing to do their own and they are taking great care in filling their boxes with nice things.  On the other hand, the little imp and I went the other day to fill ours and all he had to say when I asked him what we were doing was “the little boy.  I’m tired.”   lol  Oh well, one of these years.

Do you notice the silly shirt my big boy has on?  I don’t want to start a political discussion here, but the daughter just returned from a trip to DC and this is what she brought him.  Perfect for the clown he is. 

Her fiance and his family had opportunity to visit the President in the Oval Office.  The girl didn’t get to do that part, but she did get to see the Oval Office in a tour the night before.  They did lots and lots of sightseeing and visiting areas around DC also.  What an opportunity.  Last night, one of our friends commented that he’s been to DC many times but never has he been able to come close to seeing anything like the Oval Office. 

They originally planned to take a day trip to New York City but that got nixed by one of the sisters.  I wish she could have done that…Lord knows she’s heard me talk about it enough…but they had a great time and that may have been too much. 

How fun is this that they sent me pictures over the days they were there to show me what they were seeing.  Who’d have ever thought.  Every few hours my phone would beep and I’d get to see where they were.

Well…what a mishmash of info.  Knitting content to return soon.

Good morning.

It’s been a busy, busy week.  Good busy.  I forgot last week to show the beautiful moon we saw when we were headed out on our date.  Every night the sky has been just beautiful.

It’s not the best quality picture but I did have hubby stop the car so I could take it.  It seems I have started to see life differently these days and I often want to stop and enjoy.  A good thing, eh?  As soon as we started driving away, the moon moved away from the trees and kept getting prettier when we could actually see it.

The little daughter and her fiance flew across the country last night.  When I got up this morning, I had a beautiful text photo message of the wing of their airplane and the sunrise.  I’m glad she got to make the trip she’s making.  She’s with his family and they have taken her in as their own.  They had this incredible opportunity which I’ll tell you about later.  His mom bought some yarn and was going to have her help her with knitting since they were flying all night and she knew she wasn’t going to sleep.  I think that she didn’t actually end up knitting, though.  All I know is they are all exhausted and trying to rest at the moment.  Yea for text messaging!!!

I’m doing a little bit of play swatching in the eternal quest for making something to wear.

I swatched for the Minimalist Cardi awhile back and while it is something I really think I would like to make, I’m not sure it’s what I want to do now.   The color is really washed out, this is really a medium heathery chartruese-y green.  I’m not feeling any kind of stress or pressure to do this, just am wanting to do something different so I can have one more wip.  lol

It’s date night and I am looking forward to it.  Next week, everyone but the little imp and I are going to a worship conference for 3 days.  So, my date will be with one little imp.  I think we may do something fun like a trip out of town and a matinee at a new theater.  The next week, hubby and I have a meeting we have to go to (the nerve of people setting things on our date night!!!!) so I plan to enjoy tonight to the fullest. 

Post date:

Isn’t it fun when friends stop by to visit?  The last half hour of work today, 2 friends stopped in.  We ended up standing outside in the cold talking about how much we love Seattle’s Chocolate and I have to admit I got really hungry for some.  There is a drug store a block from my shop that sells it and I may have to go visit them tomorrow for a piece. (or 5)  Hubby and I often like to share a chocolate bar on our date night when we drink our Starbucks. 

Had a great date tonight.  I was so blessed when I got a table at B&N Cafe and the lady who works there smiled so big and said hi…she has started working days so we don’t get to see her as often any more.  She said “Oh!  I’d better get your coffee started!”  because I like decaf drip Starbucks.  It just made me feel so special, isn’t it great when you feel like someone went out of their way to please you?  They don’t make decaf at night any more but they’ll make it for me because I don’t like Americanos.  I am ever so grateful.