sherriknits

I do hope you had a Merry Christmas.  We had a nice one, quiet but busy.  Most of the family was there in the morning.  For some reason for days and days I have barely remembered to get my camera out. 

I thought this present above was pretty great.  I got very sentimental on Christmas morning when I realized last Christmas we had just found out she was coming.  There is just nothing like being a Grammy. 

I took Kenny and Tyler to see “Marley and Me” on Christmas day.  We had to break the rule of staying in pj’s all day, but we put them back on when we got home.  It was a pretty cute movie, I loved the family values.  I cried, but it was good.

The girls got matching gifts for Christmas…they use G Diapers which are environmentally friendly and they seem to be working well.  Daddy got them matching t-shirts. 

I finished the blackberry cowl and now all I need are buttons.  This was a very relaxing knit.

We realized that we are both beyond tired.  Kenny and I were not supposed to get gifts for each other this year and had planned to get something together later… like maybe a new table.  We both kind of cheated, though (him more than me). He gave me money for something I’ve been saving for for a long, long time.  I gave him a little trip away…and today we drove to Portland.  We went downtown tonight to purchase my long-saved for item.  That wasn’t the point of our trip, though, and tomorrow I suspect we may be visiting a few old haunts that he wants to see….music stores from the days when we first got married.

Before I show you what I got, I wanted to show you what a drive to Portland can produce!

Calorimetry!  I could have finished it but I talk too much in the car and laid it aside a few times…I don’t think I realized what a quick knit it is.  I started getting it off the needles while Kenny was checking in. 

A funny aside…we stopped at Starbucks halfway here.  Kenny commented that the poor girl at the drive-through window was soaked.  I said, “Maybe she needs a calorimetry.”  He said, “A WHAT?!?”  I repeated and he said “What in the world is that?!!?”  LOL  He didn’t even get it when I held it up to show him.

We drove and drove looking for somewhere to eat but we were tired and ended up re-parking where we had just been when we went shopping and we were going to walk down to Pioneer Place to eat but stopped instead at this high-class joint.

We wanted to sit in the window and watch the street while we ate but cold air was blowing on our feet so we had to move before our food came. 

And what have I been saving for???

I cannot even tell you how excited I am.  I think the diligent saving and saving made it even more fun.  I still had my Christmas money from last year and only had to let a third of it get away for something practical.

Ok, I was windblown and rained on today, but here I am, the proud and excited owner of a new macbook!

I was reading the book trying to figure out how to even turn the thing on! 

And here it comes!  Kenny was pretty excited, too.

We had to change rooms after we got here because we had no wireless connection in our first room.  Kenny took his laptop and they went to find a room it would work in.  I have to say, having a new macbook and no connection might not have been much fun.

And this is what we look like tonight.  I am not sure if you can see, but there are 2 laptops on the ottoman in front of the chair.  The macbook side by side with the old sony.  I had to keep messaging Rhianna to ask her how to do things, like get messenger on the mac, never did figure that out.  I am now writing this on the Sony but then it is going to bed. 

Yea for time away!

Tags: my life

Best wishes to you and yours. 

I can’t even believe I am on here this time of night doing this but I’m waiting for Kenny to get home, he had to get some things from his office.

It’s been a very busy day starting with breakfast with my family.  I didn’t get any decent pictures other than this one.

love those BabyLegs!

And this one…  for some reason no good pictures of any of the rest of the family.

Then tonight we had our impromptu Christmas Eve dinner.  I think I might have said yesterday that we had to cancel the big family dinner at my sister’s because the streets where she lives are still really bad.

Our dinner was simple but good!  We had spiral-cut ham with cranberry relish like I made for Thanksgiving, baked potatoes, rolls and yummy apple-snickers salad!  Brittany made that and she also made her first pie from scratch~banana coconut. 

Myself, I like simple meals. 

The kids did their exchange gifts.  I was so proud of Rebecca.  She made Rhianna an apron with her new sewing machine.  I know this isn’t a flattering picture because she’s got it on over a bulky sweater, but how cute is this!

Then tonight we had our Christmas Eve service at church.  It’s the first time I’ve been there since the snow.  We had someone clear the parking lot with a backhoe yesterday.

I forgot my camera so all the pictures tonight were taken with my phone.

We have a big parking lot and around the entire perimeter was snow piled high.  This is so amazing…and even more amazing, it is snowing again tonight.  Our street is white again but I doubt this will stick around for long, it’s much wetter.

We sang a few Christmas songs and then Kyle read a children’s book that was very simple with a clear message.  I snuck a picture of him…

Then he sang one more song

We had cider and cookies afterwards and now we are home, we have on our new Christmas jammies and are ready for bed.

Merry Christmas!

Tags: my life

Yea!  I drove the car today.  Here’s what I saw when I came into the downtown area.

Ben cleaned off the frozen snow from my windows but I was still peeking out through the snow.  On the left are the city workers in orange shoveling snow.  On the right is a backhoe piling it up. 

This is the snowpile near the shop.  There are some that are over 6 feet high.

They say we should get more snow tonight or tomorrow but there doesn’t seem to be a lot of concern that it will stick.

We still don’t know if we’ll have a Christmas Eve service at church.   Today they plowed the parking lot, the snow was 18 inches deep and even 4 wheel drive trucks were having trouble getting up the driveway and if they managed that, couldn’t navigate the parking lot.   We are just not used to this!

I am almost done with my blackberry cowl but I forgot to take pictures while it was daylight.  Why is it at the end when you really should be sailing along, you suddenly make mistakes every row?  lol  Overly confident?

Anyway, at this point I am doing as much frogging as knitting but I also knit while visiting with friends today so who cares about the mistakes. 

Our Christmas Eve dinner got canceled because we can’t get to my sister’s house so we are having dinner here with whoever comes.  I’m looking forward to it. 

Tags: my life

The first thing I did was finish the fingerless mitts I started for Kenny last week.   They were simple but sometimes the most simple things just don’t want to cooperate.  I had trouble getting them the same size although I counted and measured and counted and measured.  I won the battle.

and to prove that I finished both…

I really like them.

We had breakfast together.

Dutch babies!  It’s a family favorite.

The rest of the day we just dinked around, watched the weather, I knit, Kenny was busy doing his stuff. 

We had freezing rain, snow, huge snow, little snow…all day.  It’s something we’re just not used to.  Who knows what tomorrow will bring.

We did have company for dinner.

This is actually her when they were leaving.  This girl is so funny.  They can rarely avoid this reaction to the carseat.   Rhianna walked around with her and tricked her into her little bear suit.  She’d walk with her, stick her leg in, walk with her stick the other leg in, etc.  Then boink!  Screams.

As she screamed…the guys were busy doing something.

I got to start a new project and I’m over half done!

The lighting was not good but I started a cowl for myself…Blackberry Cowl by Tidewater Knits.  It’s a simple knit and fun.  The color is not true, I’ll get a better picture when it’s done.

And now…off to knit a few more rows and get myself to bed.

Tags: my life

Tags: my life

It began to snow this morning.  We had snow before, but this was for real.  I watched it blowing along the street for quite awhile.  Before long, the buildup was only because the wind was blowing it along the street and it would stop at the curb.

I was so happy to see my friend, Lauri, show up to hang out for awhile.  This is her when it came time to leave.

Someone graciously asked her if knitting was so important that she had to get out on a day like this.  lol  Of course.

We did close up and come home early and I drove…and made it just fine.  By then the snow was about 6 inches deep.

Here are the boys coming home.

And now, the decision has been made to cancel church and we are going to hunker down and be cozy at home.

Here is the view out our window.

Too far to focus, I guess, but you get the picture….

Tags: my life

It’s beautiful but it is sure putting a crimp in Christmas shopping.  This year we are really simplifying things so it isn’t as stressful as it usually is, but still…there are things that need to be done.

Yesterday we had snow in the morning and then it rained all day and the snow disappeared pretty much, just a little bit of a reminder left.  I think it snowed a little bit in the night but this morning was sunny.  We are supposed to get more of something tonight and it’s cold out there! 

I decided to take the day off and we headed to Olympia. 

First stop, the church.

This is looking from the church across the parking lot to the modular.  In town, we had almost no snow, a few miles away this is what we have.

Driving to Olympia was interesting.

As we drove, the snow just got deeper.  Isn’t this pretty?

These are all in order on the trip.

By the way, the road wasn’t bad at all.  As long as we stayed in the grooves, it was fine.

And then we went to visit some friends for a little bit before we went shopping.

This is the little road to their house.  We’re talking serious snow now, probably a foot.  The road was packed snow and we saw cars trying to get up hills and had to wait for them to back all the way down. We saw a poor guy under his car putting chains on.  It was beautiful and the Jeep did just fine.

We headed in to Olympia after our visit and right as we were getting to the edge of town, traffic came to a complete stand still. Every lane, every direction…stopped.  Every now and then we could inch forward and we managed to get across the main street (wow…so weird to see all those cars just sitting there!) and into a parking lot.  That was kind of busy, too, but we got across it and then sat waiting to cross a side street into the mall.  Cars were stuck and trying to get some traction, some were going sideways…it was awful.  Don’t ask me why I forgot to get out my camera. 

The plan originally was to drop me at the mall, Kenny to run an errand, and come back and get me.  By the time we landed at the mall, I was not willing to be left behind.  They closed the mall Wednesday and what if he couldn’t get back to get me?  He says I’m silly.  He dropped me off and did go across the street to pick something up.  By the time he got there, it was dark.  We had left home at noon and visited our friends until about 3:45 and they live minutes from town.  I have never shopped so fast.  I was running through the store, piling things in my arms (of course everything is bulky), knocking things over…my conscience won’t let me leave it there so I’d have to pick it all up….but what was exciting to me was that the one thing we went up there for:  I got the last one and although it didn’t have the case it was supposed to come in, I GOT THE LAST ONE!  That was the point of our trip.

Kenny got to the mall as I finished what I needed and we ran through Penney’s to get some big boy jammies.  (impossible to find!)

Then we ran the errand together and headed back to Oly, ate dinner, ran through Target and got home about 8:30.  The drive home was uneventful.

Safe and sound and waiting to see what comes next…maybe more snow tonight!

Tags: my life

Schools were closed today.  My meeting was canceled for tonight.  I have not been able to get my feet warm all day, but it is beautiful outside.  The wind was really blowing this morning and a lot of our snow left to rest somewhere else. 

My camera battery died so I had to use my cell phone.  It just looks kind of yuck out there and it is cold.  We’re supposed to get into the teens tonight. 

The cut up tree is from our tree from last year’s big storm.  I’m feeling grateful that this is the weather we are having now rather than that.

We had Tyler’s yearly assessment this morning.  We were kind of concerned it wouldn’t happen and it has to happen in Dec. but the case manager is great and not afraid to travel icy roads.  I’m so happy to have it done for another year but they have changed the assessment forms and what used to take 3 hours, took 1.  They now allow them to ask us if there are any changes and remind us of our last year’s answers.  I feel like every year I say, “Same.  Same.  Same.  Same.”  I do know we see steady progress but at the same time, hmmmmmm.  This is the only time of the year we are forced to look at the negative and usually it leaves me emotionally drained but today was fairly painless.

One funny part of it was we were telling her about Tyler’s obsession with song sheets.  We’ve noticed that he sorts them according the the CD or by the order the worship team is doing the songs that week.  We’ve been trying to use those for all kinds of things…handwriting with the therapist (he can write all of the songs by memory)  He looks up the lyrics on internet by himself and copies the words if it’s a song he doesn’t have the sheet for.  We’re going to have him start filing them for Dad.  It’s amazing.  She asked to see them so Tyler brought them to her.  She asked him something about the first one and then Kenny asked him what was next.  He told her.  Then she started asking him and now what’s next…what’s next, etc. and without fail, he got the whole stack right!  I was so proud of him.

The hard part is getting the assessment in the mail.  It just all sounds so disheartening but it’s all in how you look at it and then you move on.  Even the case manager says read it fast, sign it and put our copy away.

I wish you could hear what I am hearing right now.  Tyler has his dad’s iPod on and he is singing (?) at the top of his lungs but I cannot recognize the song at all.  I’m sure anyone walking by can hear, too.  lol

I have to show you the picture message I got on my phone.

A dear friend designed this if you recall the silly picture a few weeks ago.  Well how cute is she?  lol  I think my friend should use this on Ravelry.

I hope where ever you are, you are safe and warm.  I am so grateful for our gas insert that keeps going no matter what. 

Tags: my life

We’re having weather!  Friday we had predicted high winds and rain.  They were right.  Unfortunately, after last year’s storm with hurricane force winds, 50-60 mph didn’t seem too huge to many of us.  We did prepare, though…Kenny bought us all little flashlights for our key chains and water and food that could be cooked on our fireplace insert.  We didn’t lose power although when I ran to Staples really quick, their lights went off and on and I stood in line literally for 30 minutes.  They finally got out their “crash kits” after ages of waiting.   Those consisted of a pad of saleslips, a pen, and a calculator inside a rubbermaid box.  They had “runners” who got the skus for every item.  grrrrr, it was a little frustrating that they waited so long to start doing it by hand and it was obvious they weren’t used to doing things that way.  oh well.

The weather forecasters also told us to prepare for snow following the rain and wind.  It rarely happens here…but last night we saw a few flakes.  We got up this morning to a little dusting.  Here was our view out our window.

Actually, the wind blew off the snow that had been there.

After church, we came home for awhile before we started to Olympia to an open house.  We had good friends following us in our Jeep.  Rhianna and Kyle were ahead of us by a few miles.   At about 15 miles out our friends called us and said they were turning around.  I didn’t blame them at all but we thought we’d still continue on.  When we were hitting 20 miles,  Rhianna called to say they were turning around as it had gotten better and then worse.  You just couldn’t help thinking about what it was going to be like in a few hours.  So we opted to turn around, too.  We could have made it in the Jeep and it wasn’t too scary but there are crazy people on the road.

We stopped for something to drink on the way.

We were waiting for Dad to come back out…Tyler was loving it. 

I have no idea why there was water on the windshield because it didn’t look like this while we were driving other than when Kenny squirt the “piddlers” as his mom calls them.  The wiper in front of me kept collecting ice chunks and I couldn’t see half the time.

We saw 2 wrecks and one truck off into a ravine. 

When we got home, it was actually sticking here…it hadn’t really been sticking on the roads when we left.

As we were pulling in to town, we got a call that my mother….remember that she just turned 80, had left work early and was headed to our house.  I assured my friend that we’d get home very soon and would be there to help her in.  However, she had gone grocery shopping instead.  She’d shoot me if she knew I was posting this picture but that’s what she gets for her stubbornness after Kenny went to find her.

And now it has stopped snowing and it is dipping into the 20’s tonight.

Rebecca and Chase walked over to watch a movie with us and said it was really slippery going home. 

(don’t laugh if you live where it snows all the time, this is big stuff for us….lol)

Tags: my life. snow

Just thought I’d pop in and say I’m still alive.  We’ve been tired and for some reason not sleeping great.  I next to never have problems waking up too early but that’s what has been happening this week.  Yesterday I finally got up at about 5:30 so I didn’t ruin another night’s sleep for Kenny but I’d already been awake for a long time.

We were finally able to get some shopping done tonight.  It’s just been hard this year for some reason.

I’ve managed to get some knitting done, though…

Last year I made Kenny some fingerless mitts but I have never liked them, they stretched out right away so I decided to try again since we’ve got cold weather headed our way.

I am considering making mittens for Tyler even though he tends to lose things after the first wearing.  (we’re talking take them off and toss them, you may find them hanging off a lamp or behind furniture or whereever they land)

Hopefully I’ll have something more exciting to say after the busy weekend but until then…have a great weekend!  We survived the wind and wonder if we’ll get any snow.

Tags: my life. knitting. shopping