sherriknits

Don’t even ask me why I am showing up here tonight….I’m running on next to no sleep.  Not sure what the problem was, but at 4:15 this morning, i finally moved to the couch after I’d been up and down half the night.  I ran the battery out of my almost fully charged iPod listening to previously listened to playlists.  I am headed to bed in a minute and hope tonight is more successful.

At 3:30 this morning I remembered that I forgot to send out an email reminder for knit night and at 9 am I was incapable of figuring out how to word it and wondered if I’d even be there myself.  I had a 9 a.m. appointment for a haircut and after that, I came home and tried to rest until about 2:30 this afternoon when the happy couple was done with their first premarital counseling appointment.  (pretty cool that they scored 100% on communication and spiritual).  our first bride says the counseling is the best she has ever heard of, very helpful in targeting areas that need looking at and then dealing with them in a positive way.

Ok…gotta hurry here.  Yesterday we went for the fitting of the wedding dress.

Thankfully it pretty much just needs shortening and making the bustle.  Just a teaser of a picture for you.

We had a full day and raced home for hubby and the little imp and I to go to dinner at one of our pastor’s house.  They invited us so the little imp could play bowling on the Wii with them.  He WON every game but 2 and lost one of them by just 1 point.  No one tried to let him win.  Impressive.

I gave my mom her cuffs today and she wore them, not sure if they will help to keep her warm but worth a try.

I was really not capable of any ability to think tonight, so I made my mother-in-law a dishcloth. 

We’re headed to see her this week and after 9 people descend on their house, it might be nice to bring her an offering.  We ordered a chocolate peanut butter pie, too, to take with us.  I think she’ll be happy.

I was really, really hoping to get to go up to Madrona Fiber Arts retreat at least to check out the market, but I’m not at all sure how to fit it in.  I guess I’ll just dream about it instead.

And now, I am going to crawl up the stairs and do my best to fall asleep as tomorrow brings much, much to do. 

Technorati Tags: Event, Imp, Knitting

Well, the holidays are officially over for us.  We never feel that we get past them until Feb.10.  Christmas, New Years, birthday, birthday, whew.

An emotional one, though…this is the last one for the bride while living at home.  She’ll be a married chickie next year.  A little sad is the fact that we didn’t get to do the normal birthday breakfast because Daddy, sister and brother were on the worship team and there was no way to avoid that this time since we’re all gone next week.  She went to Starbucks with her sweetie, though, and I’m sure that was a little more fun for her if she were to secretly admit.

We had everyone over this afternoon for Baskin & Robbins cake that the fiance and I went to purchase while the bride and Daddy went for their traditional birthday lunch.

It was really good and no one noticed that we’d run out of candles, oops.

We spent a quiet afternoon watching a few movies and then barbecued steak (!) and had a great dinner of steak, baked potatoes and a really good salad if I don’t say so myself….spring greens, pears and craisins.  I forgot the gargonzola cheese but found out she doesn’t like it anyway.  I also forgot to cut the pineapple so we’ll have that tomorrow.

I did finish my mom’s cuffs and they are ’so-so’.  It was good practice for my fair isle but not wild about the finished product, I need more work on it and think I’ll keep at it because I do enjoy doing it, I just am not happy with the puckering and ladders.

The happy couple is looking at an apartment and we went to see it today…very quaint and in a good neighborhood with neighbors right across the street that are good friends of ours (and she’s a knitter who has encouraged me greatly!).  The little imp always has to imagine what life would be like in an empty room so here he is laying on the couch in front of the window.

It passed his approval.

The place is fairly close to our house and right on my way home from the shop, but since I already drive that way, they won’t think I’m being snoopy by taking that street every night.  I’ll try to look over at my friend’s house as much as I can.   lol

It’s been a very emotion-charged week for me and I do hope it doesn’t continue on this level.  Wedding jitters is part of it, so much to do.  I had a conversation with someone that was a little earth-shaking today, too.  Went up to say hello  and she burst out crying because I hadn’t talked to her in a long time. 

Tomorrow we head out early to do wedding errands and we have an appointment at the dressmaker for alterations…the dress really only needs shortening in spite of the fact that the dress is size TWO and she is a ZERO!  Oh, the days….

Tomorrow night, hubby, the imp and I have a dinner date so the imp can play Wii with one of our pastors.  We are having an increase of interest on the part of several of our friends to build relationship with the little guy.  I’m grateful. He has friends, but it’s easy for him to live in his own little world and not care too much about it.  He is his own best entertainment. 

oh..the snow from the last post lasted as predicted, about an hour.

I think the cake is calling….

Technorati Tags: Event, Imp, Knitting

The next few months will probably be what today was….wedding prep.  We didn’t accomplish too terribly much today but sometimes even if it’s just looking for something and finding out it isn’t carried is necessary.  Ever try to find a little boy’s brown suit?

The little imp, the bride, and I went to Oly for almost the whole day…but before we left, I got a text message on my phone and you know what it was?  An ultrasound picture of my grandbaby.  I have to say, I went nuts.  What a fun, fun thing.  Then if that wasn’t good enough, they were on their way home from their appointment as we headed out of town so we stopped partway and got to watch the movie of the ultrasound.  To see that little sweet pea moving all around was nothing short of thrilling.  Baby is due in late August and she is 11 weeks, 4 days into it.  Gosh, I’m dying to get knitting.

I want to thank everyone for their kind comments on the horrific bombing in Baghdad.  That boy, as ornery as he is, is a treasure and right now I am feeling pretty emotional about him.  I’m glad he lives in a safe place and is surrounded by people who love him.  On our way out of town, I got him a Happy Meal and told him he needed to eat the nuggets before he could have fries.  He is horrible about foods and we have been trying to get him to eat more meat…even in this form.  Well, he told me he had finished but I knew by the tone of his voice that he was being sneaky.  Sure enough, I found the nuggets all sans breading and under a book on the console.  Sooo, I told him to finish them again..and after he said they were done, we were stopping to wait for big sis and her video camera so I got out and looked and guess where they were this time…in the door handle. grrrrrrrrr   I did win the battle but man I get tired of that one.  But how I love him.

Here he is at his best at church yesterday.  We were doing bulletins and he was asked to help with the candy for visitors.

I’ve never had the nerve to take a flash picture but there’s enough commotion going on right at that moment that I just did.  Sadly, there was no one for him to give a bag to this time but he had his day in the sun and that’s all that matters.

And I did manage to get one of the cuffs done more to my liking…but not sure how this could happen, i lost the pink so didn’t get the 2nd one started.  How does that happen anyway?

I am going to be glad to be done with these colors.  My mom likes them, though, so that’s all that matters.  I didn’t notice until I saw the picture that I left off a row! oh wellllllllll…………

We have a busy few weeks coming up.  We were going to therapy today but the therapist got sick so we go in 2 weeks.  We have a dress fitting next Monday.  Then we will be heading off for a fundraiser at Grandma and Grandpa’s in Oregon.  We probably won’t really stay, too much to do.  Then the next week we have therapy again (uh oh, I just this second realized no we won’t, that’s the 3 day weekend and I bet the OT didn’t even think of that!) and then we have a fitting for orthotics for the little imp.  I dread it.  Just being honest.

We did something we never, never do.  We went to a matinee this afternoon, too.  We saw 27 Dresses.  I wish they’d leave out the bad language, it added nothing to the movie but thankfully there wasn’t much of it.  What a cute movie otherwise! 

And now, off to bed.  Thanks again for your kind words.  Tonight I just needed to ramble on and it’s just because that pain is running through my mind and I just needed to get myself out of hiding.  I’m not sure how this works that friends out in the cyber world can make such a difference in my life but I’m thankful it happens.  Blessings to all and thanks for being there.

Technorati Tags: Baby, Event, FO!, Imp, Knitting, Wedding

Tonight was our community’s beauty pageant.  This isn’t something I’m usually interested in, but tonight I went with my girls and a friend.  We had a good time and my friend and I actually kept score and picked the winner!  (good thing they agreed with us!)

But why did I go?  My baby brother (I was 15 when he was born) was getting an award tonight and he had NO idea.  He got the spirit award for all of his support for the pageant and really, in the community.  He owns his own tanning salon and he is always right there offering help and encouragement.  He also offers a scholarship…but I think he gives the contestants tanning packages. 

The award was presented at the very end right before they announced the winner and he sat there thinking it was a grocery store at the beach that they were talking about.  He had not a clue until he heard his name.  I was so proud of him!!! 

He had asked why we were there…oh, girl’s night out, we said.  He went with his manager and a high school friend who works part-time at our family’s business as well as for him.  He figured she’d gotten her hubby to go so he could watch the Super Bowl tomorrow.   lol

Cool, eh?  I might note that they cannot get me in those tanning beds for anything.  I finally got brave enough to stick my legs in the leg tanner but they never seem to really change color…hmmmm.

I had a little bit of a rough day emotionally today.  Did you hear about the suicide bombing in Baghdad yesterday?  Did you hear that the terrorists used 2 women with Down Syndrome to carry the bombs in?  They had no idea what they were doing.  I sat at work and cried.  I seriously thought I was going to have to come home it made me so sick.  When I did get home, my little imp got several hugs from me…and he actually cooperated and returned them!  lol  (he’s a teenager, what can I say?)

I have to share that he came with sis to see me at the shop today and gosh if he didn’t get the ladies who were having a class giggling.  We’re really working on being polite and I could actually tell that he was thinking about it because he listened politely while I introduced him around and then he looked at sis sideways and said, “Moooooooooommmmmmm!”  Everyone cracked up.  He was so embarrassed that he wanted the attention off himself.   I tried to oblige but it was pretty fun.

And tomorrow we get to hand out bulletins at church and hope that the mommy-to-be will get there early enough to help because it’s a bit of a job to hand out the bulletins and keep them in his hands to help out.  He tends to get a wee bit side-tracked…but he does well. 

Technorati Tags: Imp, Event

Last week there was not one day that there wasn’t something going on.  It was fun, but I am sure enjoying my day off after I got some paperwork done for the little imp.

#1 son had his 21st birthday last week.  It seems like just yesterday he was a babe in arms.  This young man is my sensitive one, he loves tradition and he’s been a joy to my heart.  He’s kind and loving, creative and funny.  He’s talented in so many ways.  He was the child God promised me when it didn’t look like there would be another child and he’s been all I could have wanted.  We’ve often thought of him as the entertainer in this family with his quiet sense of humor.  When we had a Japanese student many years ago, her parents wrote me saying they heard he was very mischevious…but our student loved him and he was the one who broke the ice when we were all so nervous. 

This year we got him a Baskin & Robbins ice cream cake, yummm!

Then we had the first shower yesterday for the little bride. 

Since this was for family and the big sis now sells Sensaria, we did a little foot spa at the same time. 

My sister decided to do the shower this way since it was mostly just our family and January has double hostess credits so she gave most of them to the bride.  She is well set-up now to pamper herself before the wedding.  What a blessing for her!  Beautiful gifts and lots of new Sensaria!

The other day I got to work and found this sitting on my desk…

I could barely contain my joy!  This was my grandma’s fishing pole and many, many years ago I caught my very first fish with it…a shark! 

My grandparents had taken my sister and I fishing and there was no way they could convince us that the shark was not going to eat us alive (it was probably 18 inches long but I remember it as HUGE) so we hid behind my grandma while my grandpa puttered us around in the little boat we were in.  We had to help him bury it so we could be assured it was not going to come get us. lol  I am thinking we didn’t hear much about catch and release in those days.

Anyway, my grandma had always told me the pole would be mine some day.  It got lost years ago, but my brother found it several years ago in the garage of our beach cabin and rescued it.  He had always intended to paint it for me.  I am secretly glad he didn’t because this is the way it was.  It is a huge treasure to me now!

And yes, I have some knitting to show.  I finished hubby’s Fuzzy Feet.  We’ll see if he actually wears them, but at least he finally gets an FO. 

I’m not sure I’d use tweed to felt with again, but they felted just fine.  I think the extra money for the tweed gets lost in the felting. 

yarn: Cascade 220 tweed

pattern: Fuzzy Feet from Knitty.com

I followed the pattern as written and just knit them longer and they came out just fine.

All day today, I thought I’d get to have some sit down and knit time, but I had an eligibility review to complete for the little imp.  Every year I sit on hold for half an hour to ask how I am supposed to fill the form out because it is so unclear.  This year, the girl told me to fill it out as if it was me.  She told me she was sick and wasn’t familiar with the form but when I asked if I should just call back, she said no, no one else really knew either.  lol…yikes!   I could not believe all the things they asked for…and I waded through it but just felt like it wasn’t right so I called again this morning, sat for at least 40 min. on hold to finally get someone who I felt knew what he was talking about.  He said no, fill it out as if it was him and just carry it in to their office. It had 2 layers of white-out on it but he said no big deal.  What’s weird is, even though I have to fill out the paperwork, he is on a waiver and won’t lose services anyway.  I am always so confused.  And yea!  That’s done for another year!

We had company all weekend, the grandparents from Oregon.  They left this morning and now the little imp and I are the only ones home for a few hours and just enjoying some down time.   Maybe now I can get out my knitting!

I pray you had a wonderful day filled with all you hoped it would be.

This Christmas, we were filled with a sense of gratitude for people and for God’s goodness in our lives.   It’s been a very interesting season leading up to today.  Even Sunday at church people were commenting on how difficult it was to get into the commercial side of things because of the storm.  We drove to Olympia after church and I haven’t really seen that highway in the daylight since the storm and I felt emotionally whipped after the trip.  It is just so shocking.  We’re not really stuck in the whole thing to the point that we can’t enjoy each other but as we continue to marvel…we really did go through something!  (and came out whole for the most part!)

It was an interesting week since I last posted.  The theater work was really affecting business in a huge way.  They had our street blocked off for several weeks and the last week especially, it was nearly impossible to find parking but we know in the long run, it will be a good thing.  Last Friday, they made good on their promise….

See the marquis reader board?  It’s still giving trouble, but they did get it running.  It will have the time and temperature along with whatever message they want running.

About an hour later, we were treated to this:

What was so cool was that there were quite a few people on the street clapping and whistling as it came to life.  It was pretty cool!  For our little town, this is a pretty exciting thing.  It is going to be fun to see the interior and I hear there is to be a little coffee shop opening soon in one of the front little shop areas.  We’ll get to have some big-name concerts here, evidently it’s something that can be done when bands come to the casino an hour away.  I don’t know how many I’ll go to, but I’ll get to watch the loading and unloading.

Moving along….

Our family always gets together with the extended family and the store crew (including some employees who retired 15 years ago) for a big breakfast.  The cafe we go to is closed on Christmas Eve, but they open to serve us and we get to order anything we want.  We put in our order a week ahead and we get seating with place cards and grouped by families.  I forgot to get my camera out, but we did have fun.

We had a crazy day at the shop.  I am closed on Mondays so my shop was not hopping although I did have several people pop in for last minute gifts.  For the most part, I gift wrapped in my family’s business and had a great time.  By 3 when we closed, I was really tired, but it was so much fun laughing and being silly when we were all getting pretty ready to be done.

We then go to my sister’s house for our big extended family gathering.  Poor number 1 son had a breakdown with his van on the way there so dinner was delayed while his girlfriend’s dad came to get them and take them home to our jeep.  We were only 10 miles away at my sister’s but her daddy was close enough to come help.  (we did get the van home today and it wasn’t as bad as we thought although the thing is on it’s last legs)

We got to come home and relax for about 2 hours before we headed to church.  Candlelight service is something we all look forward to every year.  We sing carols and have a brief message that is very low-key and personal.  Hubby only had had to schedule the music but actually got to sit with the family.  I was late getting to my seat because I went to find my friend who works in the office and we had a very special time of talking with each other.  The church has gone through some tough times that has divided family members and her family was especially affected, but we have definitely deepened our friendship over the past year and a half and we had a very positive time of talking and laughing together until we realized the service had started and my family was wondering where in the world I had disappeared to!

We have one little imp who evidently enjoys putting on his tux at least once a week so one big sis decided he needed to wear the jacket with his jeans to church on Christmas eve. 

The picture is dark but the smile is real.  One of the pastors took this picture at the candlelight service.  Notice the raw nose, he’s really been struggling with a whopping cold … owee.  He’s not very happy to blow the nose these days, it hurts.

I think hubby and I got to bed around 1 a.m. after we got home from church.

This morning, we woke up to the closest thing we see to a white Christmas.  It was kind of a fun touch.   

It was a little harder getting everyone together this year and we have come to the realization that life as we know it is going to be different now.  With one daughter married, one to be married and a son who will be married sometime in the near future, they have other places to go and other people who have become more of their focus. 

Most of us were together this morning and the little imp got a huge surprise.

A cell phone! Big sis has been trying to talk me into this for 2 years and we finally decided it was something to try.  The main reason we got this is to teach him responsibility…keeping ahold of it, keeping it charged, learning to call people, interacting a little more with others….then on top of that, he is a wanderer and with his phone we hope we won’t panic so much if we lose sight of him for a minute.  We know it won’t be a babysitter, but I can’t tell you the stressful times he has put us through.  Adding him to our family plan was pretty cheap.  And yes, we have all had several calls from him today but he received one call from one of our pastors and as he walked by the doorway on the phone and daddy asked him who he was talking to, he took the phone away from his mouth and in a stage whisper said, “it’s Pastor Rick!!!!”  He was pretty tickled.  We had anything that could cost us a lot of money blocked (texting, downloads, etc) and they assured us he could not call overseas.  I had a long talk with his case manager from Dept. of Developmental Disabilities and both she and our former case mgr. said they’ve seen families do this for kids who are a lot more involved than he is but for the same reason.  I’ll let you know if we made the right choice.  lol

And now to the knitting part, after I show you one of my gifts:

I know the lighting isn’t good, but can you see the knitting needles and yarn?  This is from hubby.  Here’s the front of the mug:

Can you read that on the inside rim?

Here’s another hint:

Yep, a week ago Saturday, we found out we’re going to be grandparents!  This is my wild knitting over the past week when I didn’t really have time.  These are Saartje’s booties and I’ve wanted to make them for quite some time.  They take very little time, I think it takes almost as much time to weave in the ends.  I tried the in the round version but wasn’t wild about knitting a row, purling a row and opted to do the original version.  Quite fun!!!

Here’s the inside of the little basket hubby put together for me

The new mommy really wants lots of hats. 

Baby isn’t due until the end of August so there is lots of knitting time from here to there but it’s going to be quite the year for us…another wedding and entry into the grandparent club!

As I was finishing this post, we got a call from #2 daughter and her fiance.  We had told the kids we were cutting back this year.  Our immediate family is now 9 people when you add the extras…and since we are not the main focus of their lives any more, we need to do things a little differently.  We have a tradition of giving pjs to the kids to wear on Christmas day and anyone who is hanging out here has to wear jammies on Christmas day.  We gave them to the kids before breakfast yesterday.  Today they got house socks (no, I didn’t knit them ~sad to say) and little Starbucks or Blockbuster gift cards and some money as well as their Christmas stockings filled with candy.  We had hung the tree with little Christmas buckets and put the money in those so when they opened their little gifts, we also gave those to them.  Well, the fiance was having his time with his family when we did that and then when he arrived, #1 son threw the little pail to him, it hit the floor and the lid popped off so the little bride handed it to him and said there was nothing in it so he wouldn’t be embarrassed looking.  It wasn’t until this evening as they were driving to his house that he thought it would have made sense if there was candy in it and when he opened it, he saw $$$.  They were embarrassed but laughing when they called.  She said she was so grateful for everything she got and was just fine with it all but now they felt terrible for not noticing or acknowledging it. Isn’t it funny how you think back to the things you said assuming they would know what you meant?  (like pooling $$$ and giftcards for something)  We just figured they could put their money together and get something or use it themselves but at this age, they usually want something that they appreciate the help getting there.  We’re all laughing now and I called the other kids to see if they had noticed there was anything in the pail.  I can only imagine how strange those two thought that was to be handed a silly little thing like that.  lol

The kids will be here soon for the exchange between themselves and games.  We’ve had our naps and are gearing up for the final round.  I haven’t even figured out if I’ll open my shop tomorrow.  (the nice thing about having it located inside my family’s business is if I’m not there, they’ll help out and call me if they need help).

My most sincere wishes for a very meaningful Christmas for you all!

We had 2 storm warnings for this weekend but so far they have not materialized.  I have to say thank God!  Some of us actually got warnings by telephone…the concern was mainly that since so many roofs had tarps and so many trees have loosened, there could be damage from even a 50 mph wind.  I tell you, it is still so shocking when we drive around the area and see all the sawed off fallen trees or blue tarped homes.  For the most part, we’re doing fine, but this has definitely taken an emotional toll on the community.

Last night, we went to a wedding.  It was very sweet, the bride was a doll.  It’s so fun to watch these kids grow up and then walk down that aisle.  This little bride actually majored in mechanics.  She made a very beautiful bride, but I had to ask her to show me her shoes!

How cute is that?

Tonight, we went to our children’s play at church.  The play was written in mid October and then we lost all that time due to the storm, but I think it was the cutest thing we have ever done.  It was a tv news program following events of the birth of Jesus. 

Here are 2 shepherds wandering around before it started.

I have to say, it was heartwarming to see all of the children who helped keep one sweet shepherd on task.

Here are newscasters Katie Suric and Barbara Falters…

It was just shocking how well these kids did.  These girls had so many lines to learn and they had to do a little bit of ad libbing but they were so professional, it was adorable.  We had roving reporters and some of the kids were 4 and 5 years old and said these big lines.  It was soooo cute.  Even though it was funny, it was all done with so much respect.  We had some videotaped portions and some live, it was really hard to tell what was what because the live interviews were shown on the big screens just like the taped ones.  Some of the scenes were taped outside in the dark with flashlights.  Gosh, what a hit!

This is most of the cast during some of the songs. 

Here’s a closeup of the object of our interest.

As the kids all gathered around the manger, one little shepherd got a little distracted and no one noticed.  He’s standing by the open door…and spent most of his time smiling at his family.  Yes, that’s big brother looking at the camera.

The house was packed and we heard rave reviews afterwards.  They even had a little reception line for all the stars.  The little red-headed girl was the flower girl in our wedding last summer.  Those are her handsome big brothers.

Ahhhh, it’s all over, now the good stuff.

No, I’m not losing my mind.  haha

2 heartwarming little stories:

• Some of the power companies who sent crews requested that they now return home.  The workers said no, they can’t.  The people here still need them.  So they stay.
  • Those same workers marvel at the resiliance of the people in the community.  Even when they have had no power for 5 days, they bring them coffee and donuts.  So, we are blessed by them, they are blessed by us. 
• Our friends began to move out of their house today.  Someone has given them a house to stay in and they are figuring out how to get their internet hooked up and all that fun stuff.  $10 to change it to the new house.  $45 for one month of cable since they are used to satellite.  Not so bad.  But that’s not the cute story.
  • People wen tto help them move their stuff today.  There were so many people that they told hubby not to come (he did anyway).  They had gotten their tree literally about an hour before the storm.  The wife/mom was lamenting that they bought and decorated their tree and she didn’t do laundry or dishes and they lost their power immediately after decorating the tree.  Some friends went to their house today with a trailer, put the tree on it and put a bag over it and moved it fully-decorated to their new house.  Is that cool or what?

We went on our date tonight and it was fun.  We went to the mall and saw several people we knew and heard lots of stories.  Some had power now, some not.  What a sense of community, though.  This young kiddo we’ve known since he was months old, he is now about 16, stopped and talked to us for about 20 minutes.  I don’t think in all the time I’ve known him he ever talked that much.  We all just need to connect.

I so wish I could get pictures of some of the stuff I saw tonight but it was dark.  The power trucks are out on the highway working.  And a sad one…this really cool restaurant that has been around forever…used to be really good, then went downhill, then new owners about 2 years ago brought it back and we have never driven by but what the parking lot was jammed. It’s out in the middle of nowhere.  On Monday, crews were there working and suddenly they heard a sound like a freight train and suddenly someone screamed “RUN!” and a huge wall of water and mud came cascading down the hill and totally demolished the restaurant.  Last night the news said the insurance will not cover the loss, now totalling a million dollars.  (not sure how that is, but that’s what they said).  We could barely see it when we drove by.

And listen to this.  There are some construction companies who are going to houses who lost their roof and for free putting tarps on them … the tarps are being provided free by Home Depot!

A grocery store has been giving out free ice.  An employee told me today that they are going to give a one-time coupon to everyone for 20% off all groceries so people can get back on their feet.  *smile smile smile*  It is so heartwarming.

Anyway, most of what we are seeing is the kindness of others.

I promise I will stop talking about this soon, still trying to sort through it all.  I do hope to pick up some knitting needles sometime soon!!

This post was originally started at 10:30 am Monday:

A few days ago, we had half a day of snow.  As predicted, it started raining that night.  Then we were told that we’d get wind.  They did say it was going to be a wild weather week, but I didn’t dream what we’d actually get!

Last night the wind started hitting.  Around midnight, it was getting pretty bad and hubby and I ended up coming downstairs as our room takes the brunt of the wind and it felt like the wall was going to come in on us, the house was really shaking and we kept seeing huge flashes of light (lightning, I assume).  At 1 I was doing dishes and trying to keep busy because it was getting worse and worse.  We rarely lose our power because we are on our hospital grid.  Neither of us slept much last night and it was hard not to worry about people like my mom who lives on low ground and is alone.  I didn’t know if she was at my brother’s house and didn’t dare try to call.  (wouldn’t have mattered, phones weren’t working).  We’ve heard that we’ve had winds up to 81 mph but then they lost contact with the weather service.  What’s scary is, we are totally an island at this point, there is no way in or out of our community.  A power company employee was badly hurt last night around midnight when a tree came down on his bucket and they had to cut a way through to get him to Seattle.

Excuse the quality of the pictures because I am not caring to go outside again, but this is across the street from us.  Funny how you can’t get the wind to show.

After I was looking out the front, I was horrified to see this on the side of our house!

This is our tree and it took out our neighbor’s fence.  The tree is Y-shaped and part of it is still standing but not looking terribly stable.  Thankfully, no one is in the neighbor’s house and the house is ok.  Thankfully, too, it didn’t hit our jeep!

The winds are supposed to continue through the day.  The whole community is shut down. We seem to be an attraction, though, because cars are driving by and videotaping our damage.  I can’t imagine what else other damage there is because it sounds like it’s awful.

The little imp is disturbed. He got out our broom and laid it across a shoe to re-enact the tree disaster outside.  Our family is all home and our oldest daughter and her hubby are coming over in a little while because they don’t have power.

I’m borrowing our neighbor’s connection because ours is out (they don’t care).  We don’t have tv….I’m really concerned for some of my friends in outlying areas (Dip Lady…are you there?????)  

ps  And wouldn’t you know, when I pressed save to server…our power went out.  It’s been half an hour and this is really unusual!  Some people won’t have power for 8 days but they said most will be out for 5!!!!!

Well, yes, we did lose our power and it was 37 hours before it came back on.  It is 2 am and I am still a little wired so thought I’d post more pictures, but so tired I’ll try to make sense. Part 2: The storm continued in quite a bit of fury until about 5 a.m. Tues.  It started late Sunday night.  We have talked to so many neighbors who have all said they cannot ever remember a storm that kept on and on like that.  We expected it to start subsiding at 4 pm Monday but it just kept blowing and blowing.  The weather stations were knocked out so the highest wind gusts clocked at 81 mph but our neighbor who’s been in many, many hurricanes and huge storms said it far far surpassed that so we’re thinking we did have hurricane force winds.  We’re used to wind and rain but not like this!!!  I actually considered getting the family into our bathtub at one point.  Our house was shaking and felt like we’d blow away, seriously.  One of the closets in the middle of the house kept blowing open.   

They did get a road open so we could get out of here, but travel is pretty difficult right now with many detours. 

As we lost our power, we were just starting to get out our Christmas decorations and one disturbed little imp was having fun and distracted from the wind. 

We got out a little bit so I’m going to share some of the pictures, not the greatest quality because I was just so amazed at what I was seeing and trying to snap from a moving vehicle.  Before we left, I took pictures of our tree.  This morning, a neighbor came over and told us that if we plan to cut the tree up ourselves, he is going to help.  Several years ago, hubby helped him when he had big trouble with his garage and he wants to return the favor.  How nice!  Our tree split in half, so only half came down and we do have to bring down the other half.  It was  s c a r y  during the continued storm because it looked pretty unstable. 

This is 1 block from our house.  We thought this was why we lost our power but actually it was because the whole Bonneville power system feeding our area got knocked out.

Remember the beautiful tree I took a picture of a few weeks ago?  Well, it is now stripped of it’s leaves.  I didn’t get a very good picture here but it kind of shows.  They lost tons of branches and small trees.

Not at all sure what happened to the temporary fencing they had put up around the theater but it’s not there now.  It could be in the next county.  Someone found my shop’s sign somewhere down the road.  There is a huge fan of some sort leaning up against our building and it’s hard to say where it came from.  We were fortunate but many of the buildings around us had a lot of damage.

This is next door to the theater.  This building lost windows on the front of their building, too.  It was sickening.

A few years ago, the city turned a park into a drain field and excess water is pumped here.  Some people were boating in it!  It did it’s job!

I know these machines are heavy. 

Shortly after we lost our power, we went to the grocery store.  It was crazy…packed with people and we could only use cash or check.  These are the lines.  I had a nice visit with a lady and her daughter and we shared experiences.

This is the 2nd day we went out.  We saw a line of people at the popcorn shop where we had our Knit in Public day.  We stopped for mochas and hot chocolate, so nice to have something really hot.  I also wanted to say hi to the owner, she was working so hard. After we got there, the line doubled.

We also drove up the hill to see the power lines right past the hospital.  This blocked the road in to a new community of homes.  I assume they are just stuck in there.  It’s weird when you can’t get news.

All and all, we fared well.  We have a gas fireplace insert so we were always warm.  We heated soup and chili on it and even toasted bread. 

When we got home from the grocery store, this fellow came running up the street asking if we had any phone service.  His parents are in a community about an hour away and he’d heard that their house had been taken by a river and they were on the roof.  He had phone service through our cable company, as do we, and that was totally knocked out even before we lost our power …and his cell phone didn’t work at all.  Ours worked sporadically but he couldn’t get a call out so hubby took him to a neighbor’s and they did have phones but he didn’t really get any information.  It was sickening…no way out of here and barely any communication. 

We plan to change our phone service back to the phone company, this was awful.  We also plan to get a phone that doesn’t need electricity.  Here is a crazy one, many of my phone numbers were in my computer, which I couldn’t turn on.  Believe me, tomorrow I’ll get them into my cell phone, I was just lazy and didn’t do it.  We’ll consider getting a generator even though we rarely lose power.  I think we learned a lot through this and it was probably good for us.  Our state has been declared a disaster (or whatever you call it, I am so tired) so hopefully there will be help to get this all cleaned up.  I can’t imagine what it’s going to be like because our main highway out of town will probably be blocked for 5 days.  Areas within an hour are dealing with horrible flooding.  I heard my cousin’s daughter (special needs, married) had water up to her counters and lost everything.  They also lost her, but found her at a friend’s home. 

I’m not sure what the answer is to the phone service because when it took an hour to actually get a call to my brother who lives a mile from me, that was pretty scary.  My mom came here and is still here.  If the river starts flooding here, we’ll end up with people staying with us in the next few days.  Our house is a disaster but when the power came on at 12:25 a.m. I was just too tired to start cleaning it up.  Tomorrow.

And for now, I am off to bed, counting my blessings and hoping we can get ahold of my in-laws.  We’ve had no way to reach them and that is unnerving.  I know they got winds up to 125 mph according to the little news we could get.  We probably had that, too.

It’s 2:45 am and even though I still don’t feel sleepy, I am exhausted so I’m headed to bed. 

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.