sherriknits

It continues to rain and big brother had some fun with photoshop today.  This happened to make one little imp very angry because he is NOT superman, he is spiderman.

It gave the rest of us a good laugh anyway.

It’s been a totally lazy day.  I have accomplished some knitting on the Lucky Lurker sock but I won’t bore you with a picture of that. 

We’ve been discussing some tentative wedding ideas and doing some searching…and I’ve been reading a little bit.  I have a lot of bookkeeping to do in awhile but I just couldn’t do it earlier today.

The Mariners went out of the season with a win, which was really nice and a little emotional.  Of course the fiance was flipping back and forth between the Mariners and Seahawks so I didn’t see any of the post game show, which is really ok because I was distracted anyway, would have gone upstairs to watch if I wanted.  The bride-to-be was gone co-leading cell group for middle-school girls.  It was just a lazy, pleasant day.

And now back to that sock.

I used to not like the colder weather until I started knitting again.  Funny now how it’s something I start to look forward to.

I bought a publishing program called Ecto and if I end up with duplicate posts here, it’s because I have been having a heck of a time figuring it out.  This one finally made it over here but the other night I sent out a test post and it showed up sometime in the night and Carol asked me what the test was for.   lol….let’s hope all my duplicate posts don’t start showing up somewhere! 

Last night I finished my first Lucky Lurker sock sans heel.  I didn’t have my pattern with me so I couldn’t finish it completely and if I can ever get this post online, I will finish it tonight.  This was a fun knit and I do like the yarn.

I didn’t have my pattern, but I did have my new sock club yarn for the Yarn 4 Socks October sock so I cast on that one.  Lovin’ this yarn, too.  I had to go down a needle size on this one, too.  Since it is an 11-stitch repeat, I had to try to figure out how to decrease it still by more and did find a way to do it.  I am really confused why I need to do so much reducing on most sock patterns.  I am getting 8 stitches to the inch and it is still too loose.  Do I just like mine tighter than the pattern calls for?  My feet get claustrophobic of they are too tight in the toes, but I find if they are looser through the rest of the sock, they wear out too fast.

We haven’t seen the boy on here for awhile but he did want to show off his new watch.  He is loving telling time on it (digital) and we think it was $1.78 well spent by sis.

Edited to add:

The first Lucky Lurker Sock is done.  I like it.  It is a little bigger than I am used to, but I can wear it with my clogs and they will be just fine. 

Trying to get a picture was nothing short of funny.  I am going to have to find a sock blocker that I like.  The dear daughter was taking pictures and laughing hysterically because I pulled up my skirt so high…she got a picture that looked like the leg lamp on Christmas Story.  She was just sure I should post it on the blog.  haha

Remember my 7 random facts about myself last week?  Look what hubby bought from a little boy at church tonight.

$2 a pound…fresh picked.  Everyone was chewing on them raw.  My first bite brought me right back to that conveyor belt I worked on in the cannery 33+ years ago.  hmmmmm (sorry, I nearly gagged)

A month or two ago, I had one of my customers email me and ask me if I’d ever heard of a yarn called Duet.  It was a really fun email because she told me that a year ago, she had stopped in my shop and I had encouraged her to try knitting socks with 2 circular needles because she must have told me she couldn’t do it on double points.  She emailed to thank me and tell me she’d been happily clicking away ever since.  She then told me that when she was at Stitch n Pitch, she’d met one of my friends.  She mentioned my shop (!!!!) and my friend said that she knew me.  How fun is that?

Well, she asked me about this yarn and I did an internet search that ended up costing me some money!  lol   It so happened that Angi was advertising her Lucky Lurker Sock Club and you just had to be on her site in the little windows of time that sign-ups were open.  I checked that link a few times and then one of the times, it was actually open and of course I had to sign up!

I also had a fun email exchange asking her about carrying her sock yarn.  She’s only a one-woman operation right now so she can’t wholesale to any more retail stores, but she said she would definitely consider me when she gets some help. 

Anyway, during vacation, I got my little welcome kit and about a week ago, I got my first shipment.  The fun part of Duet Sock Yarn is that you get a solid color for the heels and toes.

Excuse my sloppy photography because I forgot to take any pictures when I received the package and now am trying to squeeze everything in.  She does a great job of packaging everything so sweetly.

I love my new little measuring tape and the little bag to put all my little goodies in.  I’ve been lurking on the site for awhile anyway because I just love her web design. 

The sock is knitting up fast although I did have to go down a needle size…she recommends a 2 or 3 and I had to do a 1 and still do less stitches than she called for.  She says 52 and I am doing 48.  I am really beginning to wonder if I really am an average knitter.

Anyway, I am having fun and will do my first after-thought heel.  I’ve been hesitant to post about this because I’m not sure everyone has received their yarn yet, but I decided not to put it on Ravelry yet and just show it here.

The new bride-to-be and I and of course the little imp went to Olympia today to look for a wedding planner.  We had fun and I think the little imp did, too.  We stopped at Target and he found a dvd he’s really been wanting for $5.50 so I treated him to it.  We had his little dvd player so we set him up at the table at Barnes and Noble.  I rarely go there in the daytime and it’s kind of a fun treat.  While the girl looked at piles of planners, I wandered around and found a smoothie recipe book.  I’ve been looking for one for ages that had things in it I would actually drink.

She was in a hurry to get home, but I did manage to run into the health food section of Fred Meyer and grab a few things like wheat germ and nutritional yeast (and green tea, which I hope I can drink…NOT a tea lover here).  I was pretty proud of myself for being so quick, not getting distracted and looking for other things, going through the self-checkout and not needing help to weigh the bulk items..and get back out.  She wasn’t impressed, thought I took a bit too long.  oh well.   lol

We had a fun day.  We stopped at the grocery store on the way home and I tried to keep the brakes applied as the little imp insisted on driving the shopping cart.  I saw a mom of a special needs kiddo in produce and tried to say hi as we raced by her.  She just smiled in understanding.  We even managed to get the silly boy to say hello to the checker he snubbed last week.  Hard stuff working on manners these days. 

Back to the knitting, I think I’ll work on the hat for awhile before bed.

Yep.  We have another wedding to plan.  We are happy, we have known this was coming for a long time.  This has been a mother’s dream in how the kids have handled it all, complete with the fellow coming to us to ask permission to get to know her and then meeting frequently with Dad.  We finally decided we couldn’t ask them to wait any longer so dad gave the go-ahead.  Not sure when the big event will take place (oh gosh, I am not sure I’ve recovered from the last one!) but I’m sure things will start to fall into place soon.

The little boy has spent the last 2 days working through it.  At church this morning, hubby and I were talking to someone in the office and we heard him in the hall around the corner saying… 4 boys, 2 girls.  3 brothers, 2 sisters (brudders and deesters).  Mom, Dad married.  ___ , ____ married.  Then he started saying the first and last names of the newly married couple and the name his other sister will end up with.  We asked him what his name was and he told us his first name and the last name of his big sis.  Gonna take some explaining for awhile.  :)  He is VERY excited to wear his new suit again.  lol

I did some lazy knitting today.  I got a new book the other day and wanted something besides socks to do today.  This is nearly impossible to get a picture of so I’ll just show you what I got and leave it at that.

This is from Hats On! by Charlene Schurch.  I love the book!

As usual, I had a rough start to the new clue…it just seems to be my way.  The pattern is fairly simple but it’s short rows and I had to learn how to tink back without losing the purl 2 tog at the end of the purl rows….they get away so fast!  I finally got smart and put a lifeline in the last row of clue 4.  I wore out some of the yarn and ended up just breaking it off and starting over.  I had the brilliant idea of changing needles and ended up with quite a mess on my hands.  Oh well, it’s just part of the journey.

I know it’s all over the internet, but in case you don’t know about the mystery stole, we did find out last Friday what the theme was…Swan Lake.  The last part of the shawl is a wing…it is asymmetrical.  Melanie gives the option of repeating all of the clues over and making it symmetrical but I think most are going with her original design.  I am hoping I don’t regret shortening it, but personally, I just don’t want to go back any more.  It should be about 66 inches and I hope that’s enough.

I seem to be sailing smoothly now.  I’m on row 71 of 99 rows.  It was my hope that I’d finish the clue this weekend so I could knit on something else, but it wasn’t to be. 

Tomorrow we go for the little boy’s therapy.  We have only gone once this summer so far.  This will be the only visit this month because we hope to take a little bit of time off later this month if I can figure out how to do it.  I think it would just be the 3 of us this time since the other kids are working now.

The little imp got a job at church morning.  We give mugs filled with candy to any first-time visitors.  A few weeks ago, I was talking to a friend and I saw him take some of the mugs to the front to hold them up when they asked if we had any new visitors.  I am not a mom who sits back smiling when her child does something like this, but somehow I saw he had a need to have a part.  So did the the head usher and he went up with him and sat in the front row.  When some people raised their hands, he steered him to them and they were pretty tickled.  I was talking to them this morning and they said they could certainly arrange to have him help.  He needs to understand that he can’t do it every week, no one else does… but he can have a part.  It might keep his thoughts from being part of the worship team. 

I was blessed so much during worship this morning.  Hubby was leading and during one of the songs, I heard a beautiful (young lady’s) voice singing this song:

Amazing grace, How sweet the sound
Amazing love, Now flowing down
From hands and feet, That were nailed to the tree
As grace flows down and covers meCHORUS:
It covers me
It covers me
It covers me
And covers me 

and it took me a minute to wonder who it was…when I looked up there, I could have fallen over…it was my #2 daughter who was the only female on the platform! (I did know she was playing keyboard).  We’ve always known she had a beautiful voice but she hides it from us all.  She also has a heart of worship.  She’s been leading worship in youth church for a few weeks, but we’ve respected her wishes to not go until she is more comfortable.  To hear her voice come out so strong and clear during Sunday service was so incredible.  Hubby and I have been humbly grateful the past few months over our kids and what we are seeing.  So, my heart just sings today.  I am the only un-musical member of our family, but I do love worship just the same…I just need someone to follow.

I totally forgot Saturday’s sky yesterday and can’t even remember what it was like…pretty exciting, eh?

Back to knitting a few rows on this crazy stole!

The last few days are a blur to me.  Good blur, though.

The other day at work, the noise and activity continued across the street.  It is very fun watching this grand old theater getting dressed up again, even if the constant warning signals from the equipment is very annoying.  They are giving her a new coat of paint.

 (that’s my reflection in the window…lol)

I could NOT believe it when I left work and saw what they put on the roof!

 (Do you remember the one from the wedding that my son and my then-to-be son-in-law made it appear everywhere I went after I said it would NOT be part of the wedding!)  Do these plastic things fly?

Yesterday was the big game day.  We left town at 12:15 pm to make it to the 7:05 game.  Sounds silly for a 2 hour drive, but by the time we got there with our two cars, we barely could find a parking place on the street.  We did get to park within a block of Safeco Field, though.  We were probably the last ones to get a spot.  We didn’t have much time before they opened the gates at 5:05…we had to make several little stops on the way.  Next year, I will set the goal of leaving at 10.

Here’s my handsome little man waiting to go to his first major league game.  My kids didn’t get the sock picture at all.  However, the newlyweds thought it was not at all silly to take pics of themselves!

It was early when the Fox Sports Network had their cameras rolling.

It was really cool to see them interviewing some of the many guys who were knitting. 

I took my Jaywalkers to work on as a mindless knit.  Last year I had been working on a Nancy Bush sock and it was way too hard to concentrate on while trying to watch the game.  We had 18 people all together in our party and I couldn’t even count the 7 stitch repeat.  (maybe the fact that there was a lady behind us who talked non-stop, we all began to wonder if she ever came up for air…)

So, I switched projects.  In no time at all, I did the typical-for-me thing.

How’s this for pretty?

The bride actually agreed to knit…she hadn’t touched needles in about 3 years and then had only learned because when she was class advisor in her school, she had gotten the kids started  knitting wrist bands for a fundraiser.  Her little sis and a friend had taught the group of kids to knit but when they were constantly coming to her later for help, she had to break down and learn herself.  Soooo…in the car on the way up to the game, I gave her a quick lesson in knitting continental-style as opposed to throwing…and she just started knitting!  (a natural?)  She, like me, is left-handed…I was impressed with how easily she got it.  We do knit right-handed.

She has about 2 inches of a dish cloth started!

Everyone else seemed to have a great time, too.

I did make good progress on my sock.

However, I got that far to realize it was way too big.

The Mariners lost, but we had a great time so we won.  I got to see some good friends there…my friend who owns Village Yarn and Tea and one of my rep friends from Skacel.  I did buy a few things from Village Yarn and Tea.

 I’m just a sucker for bags and they had it in my current favorite color.  The yarn matches!  Actually, I am so enjoying lace knitting that I bought this SuriBlue and got their shop pattern as well as a pattern called Stole-n-bases. 

I also got a belated birthday gift!

Those are chocolates and very short needles that I’ve wanted to try.  Thanks, Lauri!

I couldn’t resist taking a pic of the brothers-in-law.

The ride home was something else.  #1 son was driving the Jeep and got ahead of us once we hit the freeway.  We were rather horrified when we saw him take the Renton exit by accident.  Traffic was heavy and we couldn’t get over.  I called 3 cell phones before one of them answered and hubby told them how to get back to the freeway since they didn’t take the easy, obvious route.  Shortly after the phone call, we got into the worst traffic mess….5 lanes of freeway going in to 1 lane.  The kids got on the freeway ahead of us and ended up home at least 20 min. before we did.  It took us ages to get thru the slow-moving or stopped stretch of the freeway.  I am now thankful for practicing knitting in the dark.  I turned on the light while we were stopped and frogged my sock up to the ribbing.  I then decided to do a wider rib of 6×2 and did this in the dark with no lights except once when I couldn’t get the last purl on the needle to work.

I actually knit back to where I had been.  Notice the closeup of the clock

Can you see what it says?  12:47…and we were an hour from home.

Are you still with me?  We did get our date tonight…since we were pretty tired, we just went to our favorite place for a bit.  The roses have been cut…I can’t remember if they re-bloom, but it seems to me they do.

We have a wedding tomorrow, then I am headed to Seattle to spend the night so I can take a class from Cat Bordhi at 7:30 a.m. Sunday. 

 Yesterday was so wet and all day long I listened to these men working with the power sprayer on the building across the street from my shop.  I was trying to balance a checkbook and that warning signal that sounds like a truck backing up went all day.  It was fun watching them, though.  It’s exciting because they are restoring the old theater across the street, something this town has wanted to see for a long time.  I’ve watched them haul out a ton of junk.

About the only cool thing about this building as it is is that once in awhile a fellow with a sax comes and plays for awhile and it’s just beautiful.

Today I made a little more progress on MS3…I am on row 137, not much hope of being caught up before tomorrow morning…not thinking I need to sit up and knit 63 rows.  It moves slowly when I’m visiting with friends, but sometimes that’s more fun than worrying about progress.  I got to spend the afternoon with a friend and I’m not sure who got more knitting accomplished but she finished her beautiful shawl a few days ago and we looked at my blocking kit trying to decide when we’d have the wherewithall to put it together on a board.  Not much progress on that front, but I can’t wait to see the shawl done.  I should have taken a picture, but I will do that soon.  There’s something to be said for a simple shawl with a beautiful lace edging.

It must get boring seeing this shawl every few inches but it just wanted to go outside tonight and blow in the breeze a little bit.

I am still trying to capture the beads in a photo…they are pretty when the light hits it just right, very subtle.

We have some exciting news in our family.  The newlyweds were going to move about an hour and a half away, but there was opportunity for him to take a position as youth pastor in our own church and the way was clear for him to do that.  Here they are this last Sunday when the announcement was made.

To the left is the very sweet girl who has helped fill in when we needed it.  She’s headed off to school to study for youth ministry herself.  She’s so good when you hand her a microphone…she mc’d at the wedding and people were absolutely amazed at her.  Many of the youth gathered around her to pray for her.

Our church is full of so many talented young people.  It’s been such a blessing watching them grow up and become what they were meant to be.  Hubby and I feel like there are a special few who are like our own kids in a way. 

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…..

Hubby and I got away fairly early on Friday.  We got a 2 day date!  I think this is the first time either of us could remember getting away and actually having some quiet, down-time.  We got to Seattle in the early afternoon and checked into our room.  We went out and got a bite to eat and drove around downtown Seattle a little bit.  It was crazy….lots going on!  I took a few pictures, but none of them were really good enough to waste space here.  For you coffee lovers, though…here is the Starbucks executive offices.

I wanted to get a picture of the original Starbucks but the crowds were so crazy and we didn’t get on the right street because we were sick of waiting for lights to change.

We got back to our room early and spent an enjoyable time relaxing for awhile.  Then we had to drive over to Barnes and Noble to spend our usual Friday night.  :)  The difference was, we didn’t have to drive an hour home.  We of course had to visit Starbucks there…but it’s not a B&N Cafe as we are used to and we had to sit in there without anything to read.  (Although I have been to that one several times and never knew I wasn’t supposed to bring things in to Starbucks just to look at!  I’m glad I never set off any alarms!)

Hubby was pretty tired and went off to sleep at a normal time.  I could not quit thinking about my Mystery Stole so I got up and started working on it.  MS3 and I are  not on speaking terms at the moment.  What’s crazy is the this is not a difficult pattern, but why I spend more time going backwards than forwards is beyond me.  I decided to put it down for a few days.  I was up until 2 working on it!!!!

In the morning we went to breakfast and actually just sat around the room until 11!  We can’t ever think of a time we just did that rather than being out and about and barely seeing the room.  It was great! 

Then it all kind of changed.  lol.  I realized I did not bring any mindless knitting with me and we were going to have lots of time to kill at the stadium before the concert.  Soooooo….I looked up several yarn shops in the phone book and told hubby just one was fine for me to stop at.  He wanted to figure out the parking at the stadium….but he said we had more than enough time to do that.  Well, we ended up way off track on the first shop and had to call #1 son for driving directions.  Since we wasted so much time driving through residential streets trying to figure out what in the world we were doing….it was getting a bit tense.  I also asked for directions to another shop.  That seemed easier so we switched plans and headed to that one.  Wouldn’t you know it?  It was downtown close to where we needed to be…but no parking.  Hubby dropped me off.  I won’t say much about the shop … I was so excited to go there but I had a really hard time finding some sock yarn (do love what I ended up with) and needles..and they didn’t seem to  understand that when I said hubby is driving around the block and I need this wound quickly please that I needed to get out of there.  I was feeling sick over it because it took so long at every light and I knew if he had to go around too many times it was going to be stressful.  He finally appeared in the shop (BEFORE they started winding my yarn) and told me not to worry.  The shop was cute, though.

We then drove to Qwest Field.  We have gone to enough Mariner’s games that we knew where to look for free parking and it’s a good thing we decided to do this hours before the concert.  People were already heading to the stadium.  We didn’t have to walk far at all.  In fact where we parked by a business, they were renting their lot for $20 a space. 

It was hot, hot, hot.  We walked around outside looking at all the fun stuff.  They were giving out free hot dogs, water, and pop by the Brooks and Dunn truck.  We’d just eaten, but stood in line for water, it ran out right before us and we tried a Jones diet cola…not bad for free. 

We got in line as a crowd started forming since we’d been told they’d open the gates at 2:30.  Thankfully we’d bought water but it was so hot and I almost finished mine.  For some reason, hubby didn’t open his.  We stood there baking and by the time they opened the doors at 3…we were all pretty hot, but in good spirits.  I had to throw out the rest of my water because it was open, but he got to keep his.  Our tickets were on the 3rd level and hubby said we should just walk up rather than find an elevator.  I think he might have regretted that decision later!

It’s a long walk when you’re hot and tired.  He wanted to walk around a bit but for some reason, I got concerned about our seats.  I am horribly afraid of heights.  He said he thinks all reason left me.  lol  

I wanted to go find our seats and let me tell you…they pointed up the highest section and said follow the alphabet until the double letters started, then find our seats  (we were ii)  As he started climbing, I fought panic but stuck with him.  Gosh… 35 rows up and it was already high.  I’m not sure if it was good that there was really no one else there yet or not.  Here is our view:

Please note the fact that the roof is hanging right over us.  I managed to take this picture after I finished bawling from being so freaked out.   I do have to laugh.  Poor hubby had a permanent crease in his shirt from me grabbing it when I felt like I’d spill out of the seat.  It really IS better when there are people sitting in front of you.  He is so patient and talked me back to rational thinking.  I was trying to figure out how in the world I was going to get back down, though, I didn’t think he’d enjoy seeing me crawl or go down backwards.  LOL

I was more than grateful for sock yarn at that point.

Sorry it’s blurry but I was not done shaking yet.  I don’t know how I managed to get that much knit, but by then people were coming up and I felt more secure in my seat.

A little aside, I am sick of this kind of thing ruling my life.  I had to rationalize my thoughts and looked around at everyone else laughing at how high they were and actually run down the steps.  If I believe God is in control, then I need to act like it even when I don’t feel like it.  I hope that’s progress.

Hubby really wanted to go walk around and convinced me that to sit in that seat from 3 until 11:30 pm was not very feasible.  Down we went.  I can do it easily if someone is walking in front of me.  We enjoyed roaming around but there is something I totally regret.  There were seats outside the food area that we think now were not ticketed seats and we could have easily had one!  I was kind of ticked that our tickets were NOT the cheapest ones and I couldn’t see how any seat there could be any worse than what we had.  I later met a lady who spent even more than we did and she was on the other side in about the same place.

This plane flew in circles around Qwest Field for hours. Someday I will think to zoom in so you can actually see what I’m trying to get a picture of.  It said “KC 2nite  and the name of the radio station”

When we made the climb back up, I told hubby I wasn’t going to do that again.  It was too much in the heat.  I would rather stand than climb all those steps again.  We stayed up there for 1 1/2 groups and then he wanted to go get dinner.  We took all of our stuff and ate down there and then found a great place to stand.  It’s good it was great (although it was behind those seats that we could have had) because we stood there for over 3 1/2 hours!  My legs ached so bad all the way home and all day today. 

We went to see Kenny Chesney but enjoyed much of the rest of it.  What I forget about events like this is that many people get pretty rowdy and it can get a bit much to deal with when they start knocking in to you.  It was still fun. Hubby was a professional musician when we got married and he just loves all the lights and equipment and everything about the production.  All our friends laughed when they heard what we were going to…because now all hubby does is worship music but that part of him will always be there to see the big show so the kids gave him tickets to The Flip Flop Summer tour.  Here he is looking at all the equipment down below where he wishes he could have walked.

 
We loved when Brooks and Dunn did “Only in America”….they had several video screens behind them of differnt flags, and then at the end of the song, different members of the military came out and stood across the stage.  I’d have gotten a picture but they got a standing ovation and it was way too cool to think about taking pictures.  Hubby sang that song at church several years ago when the whole worship team wore cowboy hats and stood behind a scrim so we could only see the outlines and red, white and blue shirts. 

Anyway…Kenny Chesney really knows how to put on a show and appreciate his audience.  I love that.  Look how beautiful it was.  (my Saturday sky picture)

See that bright spot down on the floor?  Here’s a closeup.  He came up out of the stage and played for a little while. 

 It’s pretty awesome seeing a show like this.  Outside, warm…lots of energy.

At the end, he signed a guitar and gave it to a little girl in the audience. 

When it was all over, the crush of people leaving was incredible.  We walked down the ramp and hubby had someone step on the back of his sandal and loosen the strap.  If he’d tried to stop and fix it, there would have been a domino effect of people falling so we just kept moving.  I tried to take a picture on the last round before we hit the street…the camera was over my head and I just clicked…and missed the mass of people, but you get the idea.

We got home at 1:30.  Hubby had to be at church by 7:30 this morning and the middle kids were playing on the worship team this morning also so they had to be there early too.  This left the little imp and I home to get there by the time 2nd service started.  I got up at 8 and could not believe how bad my legs hurt.  When I decided we should start getting dressed and maybe make it to first service so we could have the rest of the day home…I couldn’t find the little guy.  He was asleep in our bed after getting up around 6!  He slept until 11:30 and I gave up and zoned out on the couch.  That’s a rare occurrence but I just didn’t have it in me to drag him out of bed, get him dressed (tons of verbal reminders) and figure out how to get myself ready too. 

The day was relaxing.  I worked on my new sock yarn a bit.  Can you guess what it is?

Pretty, eh?

Before  I show you…here is the boy doing his sprinkler imitation.  LOL  Big sis didn’t get the whole picture, but you see the fun he has.

Here’s hubby convincing me he should go to Stitch n Pitch on July 26 to see the Mariners…

He didn’t want me to put this on here … but then said I could.  He’d been sleeping and had put my knitting on his chest so he didn’t mess it up.  I asked him if he was knitting and he showed me he was.

Here’s the evidence that I did the work.

The daughter was taking pictures of me unbeknownst to me and I am not sure I really even combed my hair today so this is all you get to see.

And here is what I’m making.

If you’re still here after such a long post, thanks for sticking it out.   I’m finally making a Jaywalker sock…a few years behind everyone else.

ps.  My computer has been repaired and should be home Tuesday!!!!  No word on that blessed iPod.

It sure feels like it.  Gosh…the pattern was not that difficult.  I think I re-knit 5 rows at least 5 times, maybe more.  I’d be going along fine, then it would be off…over and over.  I had to get up and walk around, do laundry, etc. to ease the frustration.  Once I got past those blessed rows, it was pretty much smooth sailing.  What’s the deal, anyway?  Anyway, completed before the next clue (by a few short hours!), here is clue 1 complete.

And during one of my breaks this evening from knitting, I had to show off the new shirt.

We’re headed out tomorrow morning for a night away.  Looking forward to it…and I do plan to slowly start on clue 2 if I feel in the right frame of mind!  I hope not to put myself through this every week, I know I may likely fall behind and that’s ok.  Life goes on whether you think  you have a deadline or not!