sherriknits

Rebecca and I have been wanting to make homemade laundry soap for quite some time. We finally did it the other day. Rebecca tells the story so much better than I do but I’ll share the pictures I got.

This is before mixing in the last of the fels naptha.

We had such a horrible time grating the fels naptha, so mid-way, I sent her to get a new grater….$5 and much, much easier!

It’s kind of like a pepper grinder and speeded up the process considerably.

Go read her account of the process, she’s so funny….. go here . She might have had too much coffee when she wrote it. lol

Today was my brother’s surgery.

We were one the road by 6:30, in spite of the fact that I was still awake at 1 a.m.! Things have changed a lot these days. There is a big tv screen that tells what is going on in surgery….when they are still being prepped and then when they are actually in surgery, then post op. Interesting. I couldn’t bring myself to go read the screen.

We were all fairly relaxed, I did have to go sit by myself for awhile and listen to my iPod. I love my Touch, I read my Bible on it and then listened to praise music and prayed. I found a comfortable chair and put my feet up and relaxed. Surgery was about 2 1/2 hours and they felt it went very well. The not only found the Chiari Malformation, but there was also some malformation in the vertebrae. If you are medically knowledgeable, I am sure I am messing it up in the telling, but I do understand what it was all about. The area was too narrow and they made the area larger and took out one of the tonsils in the brain. I had it explained to me so many times and in my head, I do understand but still don’t have the words. I did learn stenosis=narrowing.

I was able to update my facebook status using my iPod Touch and get encouragement back from others. That was so helpful to me and I shared it with my sister-in-law, who was also very touched.

We waited 3 hours before my sister-in-law and niece got to go to ICU to see him. My mom and I did get to go in for a few minutes. He looked good, his stats were all good and the best of all? He squeezed my hand when I talked to him. He is in a great deal of pain and we were told that would be the case. I am so grateful it is over and for all who are caring for him. I am so proud of my niece and my sister-in-law.

And now, all I want to do is cry from relief and gratitude.

On the way home from Olympia, I took my mom to the bulb farm.

It was just what we needed.

I’m sad this one is dark but isn’t it peaceful?

I got myself some daffodils. I’ll arrange them tomorrow but too tired tonight.

I bought the vase there, too. It just looked so cool with the daffodils.

To bed I soon go.

ps  A friend just shared a good cause…..

5 Days in May

Tags: my life

I need to get myself to bed but I wanted to remind people that my brother is having surgery Thurs. April 30 at 7 a.m. I’ll be heading to the hospital to be there. I’m hoping for a decent night’s sleep, but yikes…I’ll be on the road in less than 8 hours!

Good night!

Tags: my life

It’s rare that I do a commercial on my blog, but I have just started using Swagbucks to search with and have started accruing swagbucks to be used towards prizes. It’s totally free and no different really than using Google or anything else.

Today Swagbucks is trying to get 10,000 people following them on Twitter, where they give the Tuesday Twitter clue for a code which gives you extra chances to win extra prizes.

I have a link to swagbucks on my sidebar and if you decide to join, sign up through me so I can score when you do! In order for them to hand out a bunch of prizes today, though, you also have to sign up to follow them on Twitter. Since I’ve started using Tweet Deck, Twitter has been kind of a useful tool. Check it out and see what you think!

ps There is something very wrong with my blog today….the 2nd sidebar won’t load which then makes the background not load. grrrrr

Tags: my life

Tonight was the dinner and auction for my brother’s recovery fund. His brain surgery is next Thursday so we have that yet to come, but tonight was such an overwhelming show of support and I pray that carries him through the weeks to come. There were hundreds of people who came to the dinner and bid on the items and there were many people who could not come and gave anyway. My niece worked so hard on this and had almost 200 items donated. It warmed my heart to see people show such love and support to my brother. It also would take my breath away the last few weeks when I’d go to the bank, the grocery store, the popcorn shop, etc and see the posters advertising the event. Kind of strange to see a very beloved face on those signs.

My camera battery went dead so I only got a few not so great pictures.

The line for the food was LONG and the auction tables were very crowded.

Anyway, we came home with some fun things.

A sheep puppet! I collect sheep and several people said it really needed to come home with me.

Next up we have a very sweet sleep-theme basket put together by a very dear friend of mine. It was filled with bath salts, cocoa, popcorn, music, a teddy bear, chocolates….and that’s not all!

A sleep shirt and magic socks! How cute!

I love it! Thanks, Shanda!

Kenny got in a bit of a bidding war and I was shocked when I was sorting the slips and found our number on this one!

A tv sound system. He’s pretty thrilled. Sorry for the bad picture but I am tired and didn’t want to carry it somewhere easier to take a picture.

I also got in a bidding war. My sister-in-law has an aunt with Down Syndrome and she is an artist! She had 2 pictures up for auction and I don’t know who I was bidding against, but I had to put in several bids to win one of them, I tried for both. I was then honored to get to take a picture of her with her art.

This is a water color she painted and my niece named it “Earth”. Evidently she paints daily and takes great pride in her work. My camera battery went dead when I wanted a picture of her so I tried using my cell phone and the pictures were terrible. I found a friend who had a camera and I stuck my card in her camera and got this. I asked this sweet lady if she minded having to stand there so long having her picture taken so many times and she said, “Oh no. I love having my picture taken!” She repeatedly shook hands with me and told me congratulations. I will treasure this and am so glad I ended up with it as I heard someone else really did want it. I had decided to stop where I was when I was told that, but I secretly hoped it would come home with me. I love that someone else was fighting for it, too, though.

Anyway, to say I am blessed is an understatement…..if you are reading this and you had any part at all, I humbly say thank you in behalf of my family and ask that you keep my brother and the rest of us in your prayers over the next few weeks, but especially on Thursday.

We’ve had a few other things going on here lately, too.

I finished my project and will post pictures soon, I need to mail it first.

The other day, Miss Mayah got a very sweet package in the mail from Finland….a just because!

Isn’t that sweet? It was knit by Hasbu, who had her baby right after she mailed this to us.

We went for therapy the other day and got to Red Robin before they opened, here’s the silly boy checking out what hours they were open.

Kind of fun to be the first ones in the door!

And then I have to show my two silly boys.

Why is it that I raised my kids to not love super heroes and they do anyway?

And I leave you with little missy and her swimming lesson.

Tags: my life

Kenny had to go to Oregon this weekend for a funeral. Part of the changes in our lives now that the kids are getting older is working all of this out with making sure Tyler is covered. We went back and forth over whether or not I should go or whether or not he should just take Tyler. Kenny had taken this week off and he wanted to just have some down time even though he had dozens of things to do at the church here and there. He did end up getting some time on his own and I was thankful for that. I really thought he needed to just take this trip down the coast by himself and have that time driving in his Jeep and it all worked out so he could. His best friend from high school (best man in our wedding) called earlier in the week and told us his son had been killed in an accident and even though it would have been nice for me to go, it just seemed this was one of those times he should have the freedom to do what he needed to do.

It was a pretty emotional weekend for him but he did take time to go find some other old friends who we’d heard were going to be camping just a little south of Lincoln City where he was headed. He actually drove down to the park and found them! I’m not sure if it’s a girl thing or what but I’m really big on connecting and staying connected to people and I feel like I’m constantly urging him to do the same. Well, he was so thrilled at his time with them, it was like old home week and it took the edge of the sadder reason he’d gone down there.

Anyway, I was looking forward to having some time Saturday night just relaxing but the kids told me they’d planned a Mariner’s party and they were all meeting here for a barbecue and watch the game. They assured me it would be just fine if I put on my pj’s and did whatever I’d planned. Ummm, yeah. lol

I do love the Mariner’s and the kids did a great job with barbecuing and putting together a meal! I did nothing bugt eat. I told Ben for all he’d done, though, that I’d do the dishes for him since he’d even bought much of the food. We had fun.

Tyler enjoys everyone so much. He really enjoyed helping with the cooking.

Yep, that’s one of my aprons, and yes, it’s on backwards. You might notice that he dressed himself…..love the combo.

here’s the back view when Rhianna and missy Mayah showed up.

After dinner, Kyle found him watching tv and who knows where he pulled this out from!

That’s Ben in the pic,not Kyle.

Maybe it’s time to get rid of this coat, but he’d never wear it when it fit.

The other day the marching band went by and I couldn’t run out there so we could walk along for awhile so I made him stay on the porch. We can always tell when Spring is here because they’re out several times a week practicing.

Kenny should be home any time so I’m going to knit for a few minutes before he pulls up, almost done with my project!

Tags: my life

This is the first time Tyler has been decisive in choosing his own glasses. He did not hesitate when given a choice. I think he did a good job.

His poses always crack me up.

He has the clip on sunglasses on in the picture and we were only going to get one shot at this….so you get the sunglasses version.

Here’s the side view with the detail on the arms. He loves them.

Tags: my life

We had a great day with the family. My battery was dying on my camera today so I got pretty random pictures.

I gave the dear boy the option to look for eggs this year….I asked him if he wanted to or is he too old? He said, “I’m fine!” , which means….he’ll hunt for eggs. We had a horribly busy week so we didn’t even get to dye them until 10:30 last night.

What’s funny is, we still don’t really hide the eggs, they are pretty much set around the room because he doesn’t see things the way any of us would. We’ve worked and worked on this, but he can look at a surface with 3 eggs on it and only see one. All the kids take part in trying to be creative in their hiding of the eggs while Tyler waits in the other room, he gets such a kick out of this.

What is she doing?

This is Brittany’s last egg and she was sure she could make it stick on the door handle.

She’s such a good sport.

No, the egg wouldn’t stay.

We did have some humorous spots.

This next one is on the piano and using his Handwriting Without Tears pieces.

After the eggs were all safely in the carton again (I forgot to get a picture of him finding them!), we were ready to eat our simple meal.

Rebecca made “He is Risen” rolls……the empty tomb.

After dinner, the kids played games and sad to say, I fell asleep.

Tyler was playing “baby”.

(on any other occasion, he would be offended if you called him baby, so I have no idea why this was ok today!)

Here’s the little doll all dressed up in her pink satin dress and sparkly headband).

Ok, Ben…….you don’t want to smile, that’s ok. I don’t have enough battery to re-take the picture.

And here’s the smart dad getting ready to leave and being silly.

That’s it for the day. We had a great celebration at church today, Kenny led a wonderful worship service. It didn’t matter that there was a monsoon going on outside.

Also, we’ve been babysitting little missy a few mornings a week while mommy goes to work out.

She wasn’t too happy the other morning but we still enjoy it. Here’s Uncle Tyler taking his turn!

Happy Easter to you and I do hope you had a great day.

Tags: my life

I saw this on my friend Mary’s blog. I thought it was so touching that I wanted to pass it on.

Grandmother, 98, Survives Quake, Knits to Pass Time (Update1)

By Flavia Krause-Jackson

April 7 (Bloomberg) — A 98-year-old grandmother was found alive by rescue workers this morning after Italy’s deadliest earthquake in three decades buried her for 30 hours under the rubble of her home.

“I worked, I knitted,” said Maria D’Antuono, from the village of Tempera, close to the city of L’Aquila. Her comments were previously reported by television news program “Studio Aperto,” broadcast on Mediaset SpA’s Italian 1 channel.

The elderly woman, who lives alone, was in bed when the 6.3 magnitude quake hit at 3:32 a.m. on April 6, trapping her beneath the wreckage of her home. D’Antuono stayed awake throughout the ordeal, and kept herself busy with her knitting needles. When she was dug out around 8 a.m. this morning, her first request was for a comb to tidy up her appearance.

taken from here .

At knit night last night, several of us thought about wasn’t it fortunate her knitting was nearby. We decided she must be a serious knitter like Elizabeth Zimmermann or Lucy Neatby. (I wonder if I should start keeping knitting in every room? lol…..it’s already taking over my living room and I can’t seem to tame it back!)

Tags: my life

Wow! I’m actually sitting outside with short sleeves!

I have a few exciting things to share. I just finished vacuuming all my front porch furniture and it feels so good. I actually thought I might have to get new pillows this year because I was a bad girl, I never took them in over the winter and the cat has slept on them all this time. Niiiiiiiiice.

Well, yesterday we got away on an afternoon date. As we drove out of town and I was enjoying the sun and the freshness of spring, life breaking out everywhere! I was thinking about how much I love a date in the afternoon, even if we did have a young man in the back seat. I think our life will be more and more like this and I choose to enjoy it and maybe even chuckle at the humor in it. Our friends are moving in to that empty nest syndrome but we may never know that and what am I going to do about it but choose to smile.

Anyway, I digress. We got to Olympia and I was headed to return some shoes when Kenny said “We should get an Oreck vacuum cleaner!” We turned in to the strip mall, had the demo and walked out with this….

Woo hoo! I have never had a decent vacuum cleaner in all our almost 35 years of being married! Of course you get the little hand held canister with it and today I put it to use. The cushions are like new! What a great feeling. All I need now is a few pots of flowers and new door mat.

Now I sit here, enjoying the fruit of my labor. (haha….about 30 minutes). I’ve got my mac and I’m listening to Melina’s cd. Nothing like a sunny day, spring in the air and easy listening music! (especially when you just love the girl behind the voice!)

I found this the other night when I couldn’t sleep so I leave with this for your listening pleasure!

Tags: my life

It feels like this week just flew by. Tonight is the last night of the fundraiser and I’ll get to see Kenny again….looking forward to that. We’ll have a short little date tomorrow night, too. It’s always nice when we pass each other coming and going. Tyler’s looking forward to things the way they are supposed to be.

I was blessed today in several ways, great way to end the week!

First of all, I heard that a young lady who has been much like a daughter to us has had her first CD come out and it’s awesome. Check it out….

If you like Norah Jones, you’ll probably really like this, too.

A joke in our family is that I like to listen to a small select list of music at a time. My current playlist is about 12 songs and I repeat my current favorite song all the way through the list. My likes change and I move songs in and out but I really only like to listen to a few songs at a time…. that’s why an iPod has been such a blessing to me….I don’t have to listen to anything I don’t want to any more!

Well, today my playlist doubled! lol

This was so fun to me. I have several young ladies who I have watched grow up, one of them is 2 weeks younger than Ben and we were all in the nursery together for years. In the last year, I have started to get to know these girls as friends. I love it. I really enjoy spending time with them. They’ve become knitters which gives me opportunity to sit with them and you know how knitters get….we talk….and talk…and talk. Two of these girls went to California for a week and this afternoon they showed up to say hi! One of them took the time to put all the names of the songs from Melina’s cd into iTunes for me.

I was so touched that they both came to see me.

Other than that…a crazy day. It was quiet in the shop for hours. All of a sudden, I had 2 knitting disasters come through the door at abut hte same time. I also had Rebecca come in for her weekly little bit of time between when she gets off work and when her hubby does. Behind her came another friend who I haven’t seen for weeks. By the time we got the disasters straightened out (I had one going on, too, that another friend helped ne fix!), Rebecca and my long-lost friend had to leave. I didn’t have too long to cry over that when the other girls showed up.

I’m looking forward to having some time with Kenny tomorrow….yea!!!!!

I don’t know why Melina’s cd cover is so teeny, it isn’t on my computer but I can’t get it to show up any bigger. This blogging software is threatening to make me crazy(er)

Tags: my life