sherriknits

When I closed my post the other night, I commented that I’d search for an old picture of the little imp…and not 5 minutes after I published the post, he walked in the room looking like this:

Who knows what he was doing that made him think he needed to do this.  Note the dirty face.  lol

Just to prove he does smile these days…

blurry and dark but a smile nonetheless.

What a lazy day.  I am so tired today that after church, I came home and put my jammies back on and I have not done one thing that required any amount of energy.  When I got to bed last night (a little too late), my iPod was stuck in disk mode so I had to get up and restore it to factory settings and then reload it.  let me tell you, it is definitely pushing my buttons these days.  I watched a few hours of the old Andy Griffith show this afternoon and then listened to a Star Trek podcast that some friends of ours did last year.  I am NOT a trekkie, just thought it would be fun to listen to someone I knew.  Impressive.  I didn’t know the wife was a closet trekkie, though…which is probably why I listened to it. 

Hubby did the sermon this morning on “Here I am to Worship” and did a great job.  The little imp and I stayed through 2nd service, too.  He liked seeing Dad speaking so I didn’t send him back to Kids Church.  We wrote notes to each other through part of it…but yes, I did pay attention.

We’re working on addressing the wedding invites to go into the mail tomorrow.  I wrote until my hand is cramped last night and the bride is working on the last page today.  I’ll finish off her list as soon as she can’t write any more.  Then we bag them up and give them to the groom to mail, that’s his contribution.

Tomorrow we have our last therapy until after the wedding.  Hubby is going along, much to the delight of the little imp.  He doesn’t go very often and the imp loves to show off for his hero.  Then we’ll go get fitted for the tux, pick up a bridesmaid’s dress, go to Party City, Cash n Carry, and where ever else we think of tonight. 

My one year blogiversary is coming up in a few weeks and I am considering having a contest.  I’ve actually blogged for 2 years now, but my domain is almost a year old and I’d like to do something for that.   However….I am in wedding time so am asking myself how wise that might be.  Stay tuned ~ on the chance I don’t go off the deep end between now and then, I will come up with something and let you know.  It’s hard to explain to those who aren’t inclined to blog how fun it is getting to know people and what they bring to your life. 

Hubby very kindly went to Starbucks and bought coffees for us this afternoon and I got an iced latte…coffee-flavored ice is the best!  The family is heavily glued to the tv watching Borne Ulitmatum…I hate these movies with a passion so I’m going to stick my iPod back in my ears and listen to some knitting podcast.  Or, oh yeah….invitations.  lol

later….

Technorati Tags: Imp, iPod, Blogiversary, Wedding

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Yesterday was the little imp’s birthday.  I should have looked closer at the pictures I got, not so many good enough to share. 

Our family has a tradition of “birthday breakfast”.  He was up early and was excited for his request for french toast.   But important things first.

This was the year for musical cards…he got 4.  I bought one for him in January or so…and then the newlyweds got the same one! High School Musical of course.  He also got Shrek and Pirates of the Caribbean.  We had dueling cards for awhile yesterday.

We aren’t sure he understands the concept of a gift card, but when he gets to go buy a dvd, it will make a lot of sense to him!  He wanted to get “Night in the Museum” but he actually got that for a gift.  We watched it last night and it was hilarious.

He also got to go to lunch with Daddy.  Every birthday person gets to have that privilege.  This year we moved up from McDonald’s to the favorite pizza parlor in town.  Make that “pepperoni, cheese, sauce, that’s all.  And ice water, please.”  The favorite waitress wasn’t working yesterday, though.

He blew his candles out in the silliest way I have ever seen…one at a time!

(Can you guess what his favorite shirt is these days???)

Today I continued to move along on my mystery stole.  I only have to backtrack one row if at all.  Today, though, I was struggling through one row (why is it that one will just give you trouble over and over? ) and I realized I didn’t even know which row I was on…my tape was covering 2 rows and I had no idea until I realized one of them had beads on it and this wasn’t a bead row.    Gosh, this silly thing will find any way to confuse me.  I have been able to work on it while carrying somewhat of a conversation with others, though.  I have stayed with the written version of the chart and still feel like I am knitting blind but I don’t make as many mistakes…my hope is that I can go back to the visual charts next project, but this one has no repeats so no opportunity to memorize.

I am on row 123 now, almost halfway through the 2nd clue.  Since this Friday we’ll get a clue and then next week we won’t, I’ll be caught up soon, I’m sure.

A friend stopped by today and blessed me with 2 books on cd for my iPod.  If I can figure out how to get them onto my computer, I’ll be a happy camper.  I’ve done it before but the ‘how’ is eluding me tonight!  My iPod is safely in my purse after taking a little trip down the hall yesterday.  I don’t want to point any fingers but everyone had wondered why it was where it was but me (who didn’t see it there) and one little imp.  I only could find my jumbled up earphones under my pillow and am amazed I didn’t wake up hubby trying to find it last night.  My Palm Pilot makes a pretty good flashlight but I never found the iPod until this morning.  (it seems someone might have asked me why it was where it was, though..don’t ya think? )

Back to knitting and the Mariners…..

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I decided to just start over on the mystery shawl.  I felt a little emotional over getting through about row 80-85 since I did them so many times, but a friend showed me the optional chart written out and that is working for me.  I kind of feel like I’m knitting blind because I like chart knitting…but I am not tensing up as I near row 80 or so.  It’s all going pretty smooth and since I always thought it was an easy knit it’s just going as it should.

Sometimes I just make it hard on myself.

I’m starting the heel on the Jaywalker, but didn’t take pictures of the progress.  That one has also taken a little journey.  I thought it just seemed so big so I knit it on 0s.  It looked great.

The only trouble was, it wouldn’t go over my heel.

So, while riding in the car, it got frogged.

I started knitting it again on size 1s and it’s much better.

Yesterday was therapy for the boy.  We hadn’t been since April because of the wedding.  Summer will be hit and miss for both us and the therapist, but it’s always been this way.  She did some testing this time.

He had to stop the ruler with his thumb when she let go of it.  He caught it every time, sometimes just in the knick of time.  He also did some jumping.

Today was hot, hot, hot.  I went to lunch at a seafood restaurant on the river.

I nearly over-heated on the way back to work so decided to go home and change my clothes.  Summer skirts sometimes are not made to keep you cool.  I ran in to work and grabbed my keys and right back out and a wind came up that fast.  By the time I drove home and went back to work…10 minutes…the temperature had dropped 20 degrees!  The fog was coming in from the ocean.  It’s ok, I was hot for the rest of the day.

And last but not least…my little world travelers are both home safely.

I’m kind of holding my breath on the laptop…it shut off twice today and won’t open one of my Quickbook files, but I decided to not fret over it today.  I’m just happy to see them.

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I had a fun day today. Our family has a tradition of having “Birthday Breakfast” together. I honestly didn’t care this year if it was Dutch Babies or French Toast. I just wanted cherries. We had a great breakfast together (french toast…it’s the little imp’s favorite and his birthday is in 2 weeks so he’s glad to get mine out of the way!) Hubby has the tradition of taking the birthday person to lunch but today a friend called and asked if she and another friend could take me to lunch. I could tell it really took some pressure off hubby and we just planned to do a family dinner instead. It was a great time. I have always felt like the restaurant we went to is a “chick restaurant” and I always enjoy it there.

For dinner tonight, we did shish kabobs, the yummiest corn on the cob, and baked red potatoes…it was so good.

While the barbecue was going, hubby put together my new porch-knitting chair.  :) 

Tonight I decided to face the music and see if I could get into my Quickbooks files for my business. I had them taken off my harddrive of my dead computer. It only took me an hour and a half to access the files off the disk. Gosh, I think I sweat off 10 pounds trying to get the program to give me permission to get into the files. I have done this before and never had the problem I had tonight. I can’t tell you how sick it was making me to think I had lost all of my bookkeeping for my business. All is well now and I’m not overdue on any bills….whew!!!

I’m still knitting on clue #1 on the mystery stole. I have not a clue how some of the ladies had their first clue completed in a matter of hours. I feel like I’ve knit pretty steadily off and on and I am only on row 79. I’m not that slow a knitter and I haven’t had to do much tinking and no frogging. The pattern is fairly easy if you just go slow and like I’ve said before, I am loving the bead knitting. I have tried and tried to get a picture of the beads but they just don’t show up on the camera. The pattern doesn’t call for a lot of beads, just enough to get the hang of it. I am pretty comfortable with the concept now.

The work week ahead is pretty sparse. Today was my day off, I work tomorrow, am off on Wednesday for the 4th, work Thursday and am off Friday and Saturday because hubby and I are going to a concert Saturday afternoon (Kenny Chesney and Brooks & Dunn!) The dear friend who lent me her laptop offered to work for me on Friday. We’re so ready for a break … recovering from the wedding and all the hassle with all my electronics…. just ready for a break!

Semi-good news on the electronics front. I called on my iPod once again. It’s been almost 2 weeks since they said they’d mail me a label so I could return the defective iPod they sent me. I am pretty ticked because it’s been over a month now since I have had it. The kind lady said she could fax me the label…why couldn’t they do that before? They have tried twice to email the label and once to snail mail it…and always told me all that had to be requested from another office. I told the lady how very disappointed I am in their service. She filed a complaint for me and then transferred me to their customer service to file a complaint myself. Who knows what good it will do but I am really fed up. (did I already say that?) I hope and pray I don’t go through all of this with my laptop, which should have arrived to the repair center by now. I really hope they don’t decide to replace it with who knows what they would offer me.

I think I need to be rolled off to bed…after dinner we had ice cream sundaes and I only ate part of mine. It was a good day even though the Mariners lost tonight.

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Tonight my daughter’s boyfriend commented that it’s been a long time since he saw me just sitting there knitting.  I am enjoying playing on the sample for the Mystery Stole 3 KAL.  I wasn’t going to test knit until my yarn came, but I broke down this afternoon and wound up some pink lace yarn.  I couldn’t catch the color, but it’s a soft pink and it’s beautiful.  Here is my first sample…

I couldn’t find enough pins to pin it nicely to block, but I do know it will work.  I am not sure if the yarn I am getting is this weight or not.  I liked this until I tried using the beads.  I don’t know if it’s possible to capture the beauty, maybe in the daylight tomorrow, but I love the beads!

The beads are kind of irridescent.  The process is really slow-going, but something worth sticking with.  The needles are sooo slippery and the yarn is so fine so trying to pick up the bead on a crochet hook and slide it over the stitch is a bit of a challenge but I plan to do the real thing on an Addi Lace needle, which is not as slick.  I hope to be able to get a picture that actually shows how pretty it is.

Today, my laptop went off to the hospital.  It’s no small chore to send it off…I had to fill out paperwork, try to get online with a dial-up connection to figure out which of the many numbers was the serial number, and then pack it all up safely and call DHL to come pick it up.  They were there in 20 minutes!  It is more than a little frustrating that my old laptop is so ancient and can’t seem to load a good majority of the pages I want to go to.  I also couldn’t get it to download the latest version of Acrobat Reader so I can get the info for the knit-along.  grrrr.  A friend kindly brought the info up to this point to me today after another friend called her and asked her to.  (thanks, Patty and Shanda!)

I am really ticked that I have yet to receive the label to send back my iPod.  I couldn’t access the page today to find the  number to call them.  I will call tomorrow.  What is the deal anyway?  This has gone on for over a month!  So much for their promise of quick service! 

We got the silliest picture the other night of the little imp when the kids were opening gifts.  Can you see why life is a joy (most of the time) with this kiddo?

I am being “haunted” by this owl.  He was in the barn when we were setting up for the wedding.  I said he was NOT going to be part of the ceremony.  Every time I turned around, he was somewhere the kids knew would bug me…including the front seat of my car.  The culprits were mostly my oldest son and my only son-in-law.  (prior to his holding that position).  It became quite the joke for them.  Well, tonight I came home and guess what is on my desktop on my computer?

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Things just don’t stop happening here.  As if we haven’t had a lot going on, yesterday we have an official new driver in the family!  It would actually have been nice to have this kind of help before the wedding.  The little sis got her license!

Home safe after her first drive alone. 

Big brother was pretty proud.

Immediately following this celebration, we took all the gifts to the newlyweds’ house so they’d be there when they came home from their 2 nights away, before the official honeymoon.  We had a creative helper.

These kids have been blessed!

This doesn’t really look like their hands (the fault of the photographer mom) but the rings are pretty close.

And today I decided I needed to put my mind to knitting again.  I tried to work, but I was so tired that I really just kind of played around.  I did manage to get my laptop hard drive backed up so I can send it in for repair or whatever they are going to do…grieves me…as does the fact that they have yet to respond to getting my iPod replaced!  grrrr

But the high spot is that I ordered yarn to take part in the Mystery Stole 3 knitalong.  I am hoping it ends up being something I like, but I need a knitting challenge and the surprise element appealed to me.  Hopefully the yarn will arrive tomorrow or Friday so I’ll be able to start with everyone else.  I didn’t ever get a chance to swatch, but hey…why start with that now? 

I have always wanted to knit with beads and tonight we left town a bit early to try to get to the bead store before they closed.  Shipwreck Beads is supposedly the world’s largest bead store.  We really were cutting it close and when I ran through the door, the gentleman on duty told me I had 9 minutes.  I needed to find size 8 seed beads and I did know what I wanted.  I was actually able to find a size 13 crochet hook that belonged to my grandma that fit through the little hole in the bead so I’m all set.  I think I understand the concept of attaching the beads this way so I’m confident I can do it, although I won’t be suprised if it feels awkward at first.  I’m up for the challenge.

I don’t know if you can tell how tiny that hook is…I can’t believe it just slides right into the hole in that tiny bead so easily.  I’m excited to try this!

I got to have a nice dinner with hubby…it was our ‘mini-date’ night and we went to a nice (and cheap) Italian restaurant.  Then we got to meet up with the newlyweds at Barnes and Noble just because we had some gifts in the car for them.  We’re dead set on not bothering them too much, but it was nice that they wanted to meet us for half an hour.  They had to stop here on their way home to pick up her laptop (which works!) and another gift that was left here.  I loved listening them talking to the other kids and enjoying each other.  My kids are all used to going to their big sis’s house on Wednesday nights to watch Lost after youth church. 

I still have so many pictures to look at for the rehearsal and decorating days for the wedding, but it’s a huge chore.  I’ll just make flikr pages as I get them done.   Hopefully I’ll have more knitting content to share in the days ahead….a nice change of pace.  I did work on my Tofutsie socks today in the car in spite of that fact that all those days of being tangled in my purse bent one of my size 0 addi’s pretty bad.  I got it somewhat straightened and it should be ok. 

And now, to bed!

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Today was the last kind of not busy turned busy day this week.  The rest are just plain busy. 

This morning it occurred to me that we had to get the sequins tightened back up on the dress because it is headed to the bridal shop tomorrow for steaming.  I called the girl who said she’d help me and she said she could come if it could be ‘right now’.  She’d had every intention of calling me to find out when she could help and got busy and forgot, too.  I am so grateful that she came so quickly.  She fixed the dress and the bridesmaid’s dress that the lace had ripped on.

Then we headed out to the ranch to check it out again.  We had every intention of doing the ceremony in the field….

We even had a few practice runs of the boy walking me in.  (how am I going to keep from crying?)

Then we went in the barn…

(see how strong he is?)

As we walked around planning for the reception, my sister had this brilliant idea.  I think the whole thing may take place indoors now.  It’s a good thing because it is threatening to rain and we have a violin and cello that cannot be out in the open.  They are willing to sit in a little portable tent, but who wants to sit in the rain?  There is a chance the weather will move forward and be nice, but it may solve a lot of hassle to do it indoors.  We won’t have to drag the chairs up and the people won’t have to walk on the uneven ground.  They can even drive right up to the barn doors.

The hay bales will be stacked however we want them and the wagon will be outdoors.  I guess some people have left it in though so people can get up there to speak.  Since there isn’t much of that, I doubt we’ll leave it there.

I had to leave there in a rush to get to my nail appointment.  That was interesting.  Quick, though. 

This evening, I got a phone call and went out on our deck and as I was talking, I see a little boy’s name written on the side of the house!  I didn’t realize he would choose to write out his last name, too.  When questioned, he told me the bad guys did it…he didn’t.  Of course, that didn’t go over.  He didn’t get ice cream tonight until he confessed.  So, guess what he got to do?

This isn’t very clear, because it flashed in the window, but you can see how happy he was to be doing this.

Blessings of the day:  I had several friends call and e-mail offering their help in any way.  I also had a friend e-mail and almost insist that I borrow her iPod!  Aren’t friends the best? 

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This morning I got up early and headed out of town to find ribbon for the jars for the flowers for the table.  lol  The bride and I found some really cool lantern type candleholders at JoAnn’s….and the great thing is that they were 60% off!

I then went to my sister’s house and we spent hours tying ribbons on jars.  I could not believe that we had almost exactly the amount of ribbon that we needed for the jars.  The last few, I use 3 strands of skinny ribbon on the big jars and they were cute.  We used lots of different kinds of ribbon. 

I left there to race home so hubby could go to work for a short time.  I have spent hours and hours tonight trying to get my email configured on my home computer.  I think I mentioned that this computer is brand new.  No one will ever use Outlook Express but me anyway.  I had to talk to 2 tech support people to get help getting them configured.  I have forgotten so many of my passwords so I spent time getting them set up also.

I called to find out why I did not get my mailing label for my iPod.  Apparently they sent it, but I never got it.  Therefore, I get to wait another 24-48 hours to get another.  I am not a happy camper.  I called to ask them about that, then I asked if this was the number I talk to to get my laptop repaired.  lol   They had to send me to another number.  After I did everything the lady told me to do, she determined it needs to be sent in.  I had almost finished giving her all my info and the phone went dead on her end.  I waited awhile to see if she’d call back, I wonder why I thought she would.  I’m glad I wrote down the number so I didn’t have to call the iPod number again.  I got a guy who finished the call and I think the news isn’t that great after I told him the other issues I was having.  There is a good chance I can get my hard drive backed up before I send it in, though…and that is good news although I will have to pay for it.  It will save me months of work, though.  I hope I learned my lesson on backing things up!!!!  He said they may just replace my laptop, which does not thrill me in the least because it won’t be the same thing at all.  I am really bugged.  I think I want an Apple like my daughter’s.

I had a very long talk tonight with the mother of the groom.  My cell phone died while I was talking to her, though.  It doesn’t seem like my week when it comes to electronics!  I am the gadget girl and this is so amazing to me that I am having as much trouble as I am. 

But…I can laugh and I can count my blessings!  And you know the cool thing that happened to me today?  A friend offered to pay for me to have tips put on my nails!  I have never done that before.  She just wanted to bless me.  I cry these days at the drop of a hat, mostly good tears.

No pictures today, I am too lazy to get down on the floor to attach my camera to the tower.   I might not get back up! 

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Well, today we finally made the trip to try on the tux for real.  It is on it’s way for alteration and to get the ivory shirt we had ordered.  Big brother went along and the little imp really loves to imitate.

He loves his new ’suit’

He worked hard at cooperating. 

Let’s see, what else is going on today.  I did lots of forward-backward-forward knitting on the sock.  I am ready to be doing something else, but I did start the heel flap tonight.

And the weather today?  I hope it changes by next weekend or we’re having an indoor wedding!

I came home from work and found this in the refrigerator.

It was just so colorful, I had to take a picture.

And now for the sad news.  Right now, I am on the new computer we got yesterday for my work.  That in itself is exciting but I had to find all my disks to get any photo editing software on here.  I also found the kids had not put any anti-virus on here so I did that, too.

But why am I on this one?  I left tonight for a short time to take the little imp to buy a Father’s Day card and when I came home, my laptop was DEAD!  Nothing I do will make it start.  It did this same thing when it was a few months old and they sent someone to fix it.  Now it is in the extended warrantee and I bet I get to send it to them now.  I did all kinds of bookkeeping today and I did not back up my work and to be honest, I can’t remember the last time I did.  Shame on me, I know.  I am so bummed out.  Do you realize how much stuff is locked inside your computer?  Not to mention I had to figure out how to get into my domain stuff since they give me a bizarre user name consisting of very random letters.  I can’t figure out how to get into my shop’s email so I’ll have to call them on that one.

And to add to it, I am really mad about my iPod.  They are in no rush to get my mailing label e-mailed to me so I can return the defective iPod they sent me.  I have been without it for over a week and whenever they decide to send me the label, I am looking at a week’s wait.  So much for the quick turnaround they told me about when I bought the extended warrantee on that one.  I use my iPod to fall asleep to, I have pretty big sleep problems and have found listening to books is the ticket for me.  I finally had to resort to the Ambien the doctor gave me months ago.  I do not like taking sleeping pills at all and was so happy with the solution I had found.

I am just a bit melancholy tonight, but I need to step back and count my blessings.  I know I have a lot to be thankful for and I need to choose to look at those things instead. 

At least I started knitting on the sock instead of playing with my laptop!  (although if the truth were to be known, I am pretty good at doing both at the same time!)   lol

Hope you’re having a great weekend!

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