sherriknits

Oh my, life just doesn’t slow down. This week to come we’ll just have to expect there won’t be much rest…the wedding is Sat.!

I have one more picture I found on my camera from our little anniversary getaway and reminiscing of our early years. We bought our gas here!

(I took this picture as we whizzed by and I was on the phone…) The Bomber gas station. It’s not a gas station any more, but we didn’t even think anything of it when we lived there. It’s right down the road from Roake’s Hot Dog stand.

Ok, I’m trying to get myself some color before the wedding. I’m one of those who just doesn’t really tan. I’m not real fond of the idea of getting in a tanning bed even though my brother owns a tanning salon (best in town!!!) but I finally agreed to get in a spray on tan booth. I don’t think you’ll find me there often, but I do have to do it again.

When his manager was showing me how to do it, she said you have to stand on the plate or it doesn’t work.

She said be glad it’s not winter. lol

That’s where the spray comes out. Let me tell you, it’s quite humorous. I got it in my eyes and in my nose. Next time I hope I can get my eyes closed quicker.

Pretty cool tho and I’m grateful for it. I’m terrible at getting that self-tanning stuff on…no matter how careful I am, I can’t seem to get it on even.

Kenny got an early birthday gift. Remember the bass that was stolen 2 years ago out of our church? Several months ago two different people saw it in the possession of a young fellow in a local band. The police were notified and they walked in the club and confiscated it that night. We had to wait for it to be used as evidence, but he got it back the day before his birthday.

Pretty thrilling. The bass had a lot of sentimental value and he was so happy to be reunited with it. Woo hoo!

We had the usual birthday breakfast and most of the family made it here for it. We were going to have lunch together but he forgot about an obligation he had and I didn’t get a chance to eat until after 3 that day. My mom had a weird spell and we had to call 911. Scary…bad scary. She was fine by the time they got there but we made her a doctor appointment for tomorrow.

Because of this, we took Tyler along with us on our date. We decided to go to Red Robin and I ended up with a free meal. I ordered my burger with no pink and it came very pink. It just gags me to bit into raw hamburger. However, they were so nice about it. The apologized profusely and it was really enough, but they removed it from our bill. The fellow said you come to Red Robin to be spoiled and it wasn’t right that I got my meal late. It’s nice to be treated well and we love the place.

I’m trying to cut back on my pop drinking so we both ordered Freckled Lemonade. Kenny didn’t want his in the cute glass. Aren’t they cute together? See Tyler studying his menu?

You know how birthdays are at Red Robin, don’t you?

Here they come to sing. Tyler begins to say, “Daaaad”…..he hates loud (unless he’s making it)

Ok, now it’s getting serious. He’s actually quite rude about it. lol

Saturday I got up way too early and headed to Seattle for a trade show and a class with Cat Bordhi. She has an incredible new method of sock knitting that we can’t share until the book comes out in September.

Here’s my work in progress. I got a little sock done with a steeked leg! We also learned a new bind-off that is coming out on Knitty.com. Watch for it. We can’t share it until it is published there first. It’s worth it!

Cat is wonderful, I always learn so much from her.

I had a great meal at the restaurant there at the Embassy Suites.

It was actually an appetizer. Pineapple cole slaw! Wow, that was good. So was the teriyaki on skewers.

Today I was so tired, I wasn’t sure I’d make it to church….but being tired isn’t usually a good excuse so I went. I’m glad I did. Before the service, I happened to see this.

Tyler has started sitting in the front row by himself. Our pastor sat down with him for several minutes and they just hung out. I snapped the picture fast and forgot to turn off the flash so I had to really lighten it, but isn’t that sweet? He has shown genuine interest in Tyler…it isn’t the forced fake conversation but rather he just talks to him like he talks to anyone else. I’ve witnessed it so many times. Evidence that this is effective was something I saw today. After church Pastor Steve was talking to Ben and a group of people. I saw Tyler standing by PS facing Ben and friends. However Tyler stands is who he is “with”. You next to never see him plant himself next to someone else. I love it.

Ribbit goes to church with me because Missy Mayah loves him. A bunch of us are having fun with him these days.

My friend Sydni met Ribbit a few weeks ago. I very inadvertently caused her to break out laughing when I sat him next to me. He sat in Bianca’s lap for most of the service today.

I think he’s going to felt one of these days for all the handling he gets. Mayah flings him all over when she hold his legs. This is one of the greatest patterns I’ve ever done! And I am really NOT a toy knitter.

The other day Sydni and my sweet friend Callie came in to see me at the shop. Callie was telling me how where she used to work, there was a sheep puppet she always wanted. I told her it was mine now. It had been donated to my brother’s fundraising auction and I bid on it. I told Callie since she loved it so much, if she can get it crammed back into her suitcase…it was hers. I brought it to her today.

Callie is home for the wedding but she is living in New York now. I miss this girl. Can you see how much fun she is?

And now I am going to crawl up the stairs to bed because tomorrow I have to get up early, get my hair cut and then pick up the bridesmaid’s dresses and get them up to Olympia for steaming.

Happy dreams!

Tags: my life

When we lived in Portland over 30 years ago (wow!) we lived very close to the famous Roake’s hot dog stand. When I was pregnant with Rhianna, I CRAVED those things. I was often quesy and we’d go thru the list of things to eat and frequently, all that sounded good to me was a coney dog from Roake’s. I know, that’s horrible. I tried to be careful with what I ate, but no matter how bad I felt, those always settled well. The place hasn’t changed a bit.

When you order, they give you a card….today we were queen of diamonds.

I’ve never tried one of their burgers because the dogs are just always calling my name. You gotta try them to “get it”.

After we ate, we headed up the highway to Mt. Hood. It was fun, but I don’t love high places so I got a little light-headed. Kenny made me start chewing gum and it helped….I know better.

I didn’t manage to capture much of the beauty we saw…mostly because I was trying to not freak out. lol

This is where we parked the car, right at the foot of the mountain. We could see skiers up there.

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See them streaming down? You’ll notice everything from shorts and t-shirts to totally covered from head to foot with layers and layers. It was crazy to see. Kids carrying snowboards and no shirts to the full garb.

On the way back down, we were better able to see the lake off in the distance.

Then tonight, we went to dinner at Pietros Pizza.

We used to go here every other Friday night on payday. Rhianna would scream and cry (her whole first year of life) and I would lay her on my knees and try to act normal as i rocked her and ate our favorite pizza.

Tastes the same….and it’s so fun to share the memories!

(I promise I won’t try to get a job taking pictures of food!)

Tags: my life

I want to begin this post with an apology. My last post was titled “the c word” and then the first thing I talked about was 2 friends diagnosed with cancer. What I had meant by the c word showed up later in the post when I talked about crocheting. I didn’t even connect it until this past Saturday when I was spending time with friends. I want to apologize for being so tactless. It’s been difficult dealing with the emotions of the diagnosis and I would never want to make it sound light. I am sorry.

Well….the boy is 16. Thankfully he forgot about wanting his driver’s license, like he used to tell me when he was about 11. I’m thinking it must have been something he was hearing on tv.

Do you remember last October when I showed you a picture of him on the morning of his 7th birthday?

Well, that was more than one picture. But here he is at 16!

I almost always manage to catch him coming down the stairs.

I love the look on his face.

Hmmm, this one is hard to get in to. lol

The whole family came for breakfast. Little Missy Mayah hadn’t eaten yet.

This is how his day went….fun with the family for breakfast. Lunch with Dad. (tradition is that every birthday person gets lunch with dad, except me, I usually get dinner. Then he got to go to the movies with Rebecca to see Ice Age.

We had to take a little detour from celebrating to go gather to pray for our young friend with cancer. He didn’t enjoy that part so much.

Then we headed off to Rebecca’s to have Baskin Robbin’s ice cream cake!

Before we had cake, this is what the boys looked like. Tyler is playing too, but his wii mote (how do you spell that anyway?) is laying on the ground.

Then here comes the cake with those crazy candles again.

Note that the ice cream is melting!

I love the look on his face again.

Note how Mr. Cool has his hands in his pocket while he blows.

I hope he never loses the thrill of these things. This is after he managed to get all the candles out….several tries and hopefully not too much extra spit on the cake. lol

This is how the little miss hugs. She lays her forehead on you. She makes the sweetest little coo when she does it and her eyes (I’m always eyeball to eyeball with her) say it all…..

and talking about saying it all, how cute is this?

I’m back to knitting the chickens. I’m a little bugged. The place I got the yarn from said that the 3 chickens could be made using 2 skeins of cream, 1 each of aqua, yellow, and orange. I’m glad I followed my gut instinct when I had started the second chicken, knowing I still need the aqua for the stripes on the little chicken because this is all the farther I got.

I still have a little over 2 inches to go on the body and then I need to do the head, not to mention the stripes and finish the dots on Lottie. It really kinda bugs me to pay postage a second time but am glad I did it when I did so when I got there I had it ready to go.

We’ve got more birthdays this week and an anniversary. I’ll be back soon!

ps… Swagbuck update:  $45 in Amazon cards!

Tags: my life

It’s been a very heavy few days. My friend and co-worker who had the surgery has still been in very serious condition and it has been exhausting for all of us with the ups and downs. Then today we got word that two friends were diagnosed with cancer. It’s been a little much.

I got a call this morning that they were closing our family’s business for an hour or so to go stand in honor of a local fallen soldier. I decided to go meet them. It was very sobering.

The line of cars went on and on and we all stood silently in tears. So heartbreaking.

Yesterday Tyler and I went to his OT appointment. As the OT and I were talking, he went into the other room and got himself set up.

Very cute. He got out his own mats and picked out the swing he wanted to use. He wasn’t so cute when it came to counting money and writing lists. Man, that boy is really beginning to mutter a lot under his breath and it’s not very nice.

And as for the c word. I have not crossed over, but I have been seeing some very cute Amigurumi patterns and yesterday I broke down and bought 2 books on it because as you know, I am a grandma and I must keep my kiddos in toys…even if there is only one of them at the moment….and one on it’s way.

I haven’t crocheted in years and this was a trial to me, but I think it came out ok. It’s only about 6 or 7 inches tall.

Can you guess what it is?

Don’t feel bad, I can never tell what animals are either.

Especially when I am not the greatest at faces, even if I try to do exactly what I see.

That’s a monkey tail there.

I didn’t weave in the last bit because my needle fell through the deck.

Tomorrow I must get back to my chickens. I didn’t knit a stitch all weekend and then when I went to therapy with Tyler, I realized I did not have my pattern with me. Ribbit has been seen sitting on the big chicken’s neck, though, kind of a good size for him! Pictures soon.

Remember to hug those you love and tell them so!

Oh, and Swagbucks update…..I’m up to $40 in Amazon cards! I’m looking at either a GPS navigation system for the car or a Flip Video camera. I do have birthday money so I plan to do something like that and not pay a penny of my own money! We’ll see, maybe I’ll shell out a little if I can’t wait, but I love the thrill of the game!

Tags: my life

There really hasn’t been a thing going on that seems exciting in this neck of the woods.

Sometimes I guess this is good. I know we’ll be gearing up big-time in the next few weeks as the wedding gets close…3 weeks to go. I guess a little bit of down-time is good.

We went to see the kids tonight. The apartment is so cute as they get their things into it. Ben is adjusting to apartment life and very noisy neighbors upstairs. I’m thinking Brittany may get that situation in hand when she starts living there….lol. It’s such a cute place and their things are all so nice. It’s getting exciting.

At knit night the other night, we had fun with Ribbit and his friend Cactus. They let Henny in on a little bit of the fun before Cactus went home to his own house.

How cute are they!

And I’m done with my big chicken number 1. I started with the biggest and am working down. We don’t have eyes yet and will need more dots but I was so afraid we wouldn’t have enough yarn aqua yarn. I finally broke down and ordered more so I’ll finish the dots soon,

She’ll look much cuter with eyes and dots and she’ll really like it when her sisters are born.

And now I’m starting to get the amigurumi bug! I never thought I’d enjoy doing toys like this, but since the grandbabies are coming along, this grammy better have some fun stuff!

Have a great weekend!

oh…..ps  I cannot believe how fast my Swagbucks are adding up now.  I have $35 in Amazon gift cards and have moved them into my  Amazon account as they are processed into my SB account.  I actually got one of the cards within about 3 days because the people under me have been actively accruing SB!

Tags: my life

I haven’t said anything lately about my SwagBucks venture. I haven’t even been playing their little swag hunts or putting in swag codes lately and my points are still racking up. Thanks to those who have signed up under me! I now have 6 $5 Amazon cards. I seem to be getting one a week. Last week I didn’t have time to do anything but today I redeemed my points for 2 cards! There is a lot more you can do with the points other than Amazon, but right now it only takes 45 points to get a $5 card. In the beginning it took me forever to get anywhere, but now that I have friends signed up through me, the points are rolling in! This morning I got a 3 swagbucks on one search! I almost never see anything but 1s! (It seems to take almost 2 weeks for the cards to get placed in my account so dont’ fret if it seems slow).

I’ve started knitting another big chicken, but there is nothing exciting to show so I thought I’d show you Henny and Ribbit who were having fun hanging out together last night on the porch.

How fun is that?

I am now a little obsessed at filling a Grammy basket for when my little ones come visit. Yep, we got the news that another one is on the way! Missy Mayah is going to be a big sis!

Tags: my life

It’s been busy since the last time I stopped by here.

I had my birthday on Thursday and it was one of those that made me feel so loved and appreciated! The big difference this year is that there were only Kenny, Tyler and I for birthday breakfast now that Ben has moved out. It was nice, though, I didn’t cry. I’m sure everyone was happy for that.

Friday night, Kenny and I drove up to The Ranch House Barbecue for dinner. It was soooo good. We went in the Jeep with the top off. I was so close to getting my squares done so I knit on the way. Here is the result.

It was a twisted mess but it’s done!

I got to go to lunch with friends!

Note Henny sitting there on the table. She enjoyed herself very much. I love the spinach salad there but I didn’t share because she tends to get her beak quite messy and besides, I don’t like sharing the salad dressing!

When I got to work, I had flowers waiting for me and a friend, and I’m sad to say I was a little rattled and didn’t get pictures. I had quite the time getting in the door and had a customer waiting for me. Had a nice visit, though!

That evening, we had a great family time.

Here are the kids prepping for a great steak dinner at Rebecca and Chase’s house!

Kenny is outside at the barbecue!

We ate around the campfire.

Tyler and Mayah played.

Yep, I made it through, she says!

We had cake

This picture is not great, but it was hysterically funny….Kenny was walking in very carefully and as soon as he got through the door, the fan blew out the candles and he had to run back around the corner and re-light them.

Mayah didn’t really seem to like this part for some reason. However, we’re thinking that between now and August 19, we have so many family birthdays that she’ll be in the know when her turn comes.

Aren’t those cute candles? Way to go, Kenny! Rebecca made the cake from scratch and it was so good! The day was so hot the frosting was melting off and she was a little embarrassed at how it looked but I thought it was great.

I was so shocked that there are new colors of Fiestaware. For the amount of time I have spent in Macy’s looking at it for Brittany’s showers, I am shocked they got out out after I had done my shopping. Here is a collection of what I got from friends and family.

The new colors are Chocolate (good enough to eat) and Lemongrass. I also got the gravy boat, not a new color but I love the 3 together!

I had to show a closeup of the bird, I love it.

I should mention, another reason I was really rattled when I got to work was that one of the employees at our family business who had surgery a few weeks ago was back in the hospital with a major bacterial infection and was barely hanging on to life. She isn’t old and it has been incredibly stressful. We cried so much that day and every update was just so upsetting. Today we had word she has started to turn upward but she has a long road ahead. Please don’t forget to tell people you love them. This girl is our Saturday girl and she and I often had the joke of being the first to ask what was for lunch. Sometimes we’d start emailing on Wed. to be the first one to ask. I have asked God to let me have the chance to do that again!

Friday morning, we slept in. We were all so tired. I woke up at 9! I went downstairs and picked up my cell phone to see if anyone had called. I had just missed a call from Rhianna and suddenly realized Tyler had swimming in less than half an hour! We did pretty good getting him woken and out the door!

The only thing we forgot was his shorts to come home in! LOL He walked through the door afterwards and dropped his towel and we all laughed hysterically. I love that he gets the humor of that. (yes, he was covered)

I started knitting on my next project on Thurs. and finished him last night….Ribbit!

I still have 7 toes to finish, but otherwise, he’s finished! He sits in the serving dish Tyler got me for my birthday. There is a tennis ball in his belly, isn’t that cute! He is my first in my collection of Grammy toys.

This morning I made breakfast for Tyler and Kenny.

Those are my birthday flowers I got at work.

Mary knows I love those green flowers and they match my lemongrass plates!

Not so creative on getting the photos, but it was really fun.

Isn’t that just beautiful.

I think the best thing I heard on my birthday from a friend who said, “You sure enjoy life, don’t you!” It meant a lot to me. She was laughing at Henny and Ribbit and taking pictures of simple things. I wish I was one who would take the time to capture pictures better, but even so….yes, I believe God has been helping me to look for the things to enjoy in life. I think my tendency would be to not do that, but there’s this thing in me begging to be noticed….the little God winks. I love that Sharon gave me the term. However, I can look back to when Tyler was born and I think that’s where the work really started….life sometimes feels so intense and so hard, but if we always look for the God winks, they are there. So, thank you to Beth for pointing out that it is noticeable that I am learning to enjoy life in the simple things!

Have a great 4th. We’re happy that Tyler is finally past the stage of getting freaked out over fireworks. He got offended this morning when we dared to say that he ever was scared. haha

Have fun and be safe!

ps…..I’m enjoying a little secret right now.

Tags: my life