sherriknits

We’re still alive and kicking here.  We had company all weekend, my in-laws came to see little miss Sweet Pea.  It’s been fun.  The parents are tired but happy. Tomorrow is the new mama’s birthday….their birthdays are one week apart!  August used to be our easy month but now we have the new fiance’s birthday, little Sweet Pea’s birthday, a wedding next summer and the new mama’s birthday.  July was already a mess!  No rest for this mom!

Here’s a little snapshot of the new little family…

Daddy loves her little fingers.

Here’s the new uncle taking a picture of me taking a picture of him…

When big brother came home from Mexico, he brought something fun for him, can you guess what it is?

Daily, I have to act surprised at Spiderman in the midst of our house!

I loved the sunset the other night!

We’ve had alternating days of sun and wild rain.  Yesterday we had deep water running through the streets on our way home from church.  It was dry when we went there and pouring buckets when we came out.

And I actually have some knitting content.

I’ve started a Baby Surprise Jacket 4 times now!

This is 2 of the starts.  Actually, I started one before baby came.  It was in generic colors.  As soon as she came, I started one in the same yarn as the hat a few days ago.  I loved it in the hat, hated it in the BSJ.  So I started one out of this yarn.  The first one I think the needle was just too small and the fabric felt so tight so I went up a few needle sizes and am much happier with it.  I am almost to the end of one skein and will knit from the tight one next.  I’m sure it will work fine and I’m too lazy to rewind it.  I have been enjoying the knitting, though.

Do you remember my mystery stole from last summer?  I had never blocked it.  I wasn’t too thrilled with it and it just meant a lot to me that I actually finished it.  The pattern itself I wasn’t too wild about.  Well, one of my friends was with me the other day as I pulled it out to show someone and then stuffed it back in the bag it has lived in for this past year.  She said she felt it had too much meaning to me to be stuffed away so she took it home and blocked it for me!

I have to admit it looks a lot nicer blocked, but it’s still a strange pattern.

Hmm, I should have checked to see if it was right side out….I’ll look tomorrow.

The significance of the whole thing to me is it marked the end of a long period of time that was very difficult for me emotionally and I was determined to stick with something and see it through to the end.  I did it even when I realized it wasn’t going to be something I liked and that has a lot of significance to me.  I am very grateful that my friend insisted on doing the last step! Thanks, Lauri!

As soon as I finish the BSJ, I’m going to make a few Saartje’s booties now that I have a little girl to knit for!  Oh, the endless possibilities now!!!!

It was a fun time and we hated to come home.  I guess it’s best to come home when we feel that way rather than waiting for it to be time to get home!  One little boy started getting homesick yesterday.  It’s funny that he does that, but he does every year about the day before it’s time to come home.

We’re off!  This is his spot and I don’t even try to sit there.

We had an eventful time getting there.  The RV worked great until we were 5 minutes into the trip.  We had to stop by hubby’s workplace to get something, he left the engine running but when he jumped back in to start it…it would NOT go into gear.  We sat there for at least 30 min. and made several phone calls trying to find someone who might know what was wrong.  No help.  Finally it just jiggled in to place, something is loose in the ignition.

We drove an hour and stopped at Walmart to do our biggest shopping.  Then to the gas station….did it again, but hubby is on to it now and it didn’t hold us up.  We were maybe 10 min. down the freeway and he notices that as it gets dark we have no dash lights.  We pulled over and this is where I found my few min. of wireless connection, my last time for a week.  (yes, I survived!)  This time it was a fuse blown because some wires had accidentally shut in the Jeep door behind us.  It wasn’t too easy changing fuses under the dashboard in the dark.  Thankfully I’d found a flashlight in a drawer when we were moving in to the rv or who knows how we’d have fixed that one.  I don’t think my iPod or cell phone would have put off enough light…they are what I use for a flashlight.

We stayed our first night in a rest area.  After our nice breakfast, we discovered the battery was dead.  This used to happen frequently and hubby unhooked the Jeep, jumped it, and hooked up the Jeep again and away we went.

We stayed the whole week at Blu-Shastin RV Park .  We had one spot for 4 nights, then had to move to another spot for the last 3.  This spot was in the open but we had this nice little yard and we were one space away from the restrooms. 

Before the kids started arriving, I got some serious knitting accomplished.  MS3 is finished! 

And put to rest until I have time to block it….

I am so glad I did this and I really needed this challenge to kick me out of a difficult spot I had been in for way too long.  This project for me was way more than the knitting…it was all about persevering and pushing through obstacles and seeing it to the finish.  I always seem to be able to measure what is going on in my life to what I am working on creatively.  Knitting has been that thing for the last few years and I have learned a lot about myself through it.

I also made this from Cat’s new book.  I’d tell you the name of it, but all of my knitting is still in the Rv and it’s too late to go out there and get it.

I used Lorna’s Laces that I bought from Cashmere Cottage.  I also got some fun sock yarn from Wooly Bully in Leavenworth but haven’t taken a picture of it.

At Stitch n Pitch, I got this lace weight yarn and was really eager to get started on it, I don’t think the needles were cooled off from MS3 before I had this one out.  I’m farther along than this now, but don’t have any pictures.  The pattern is fun and easy.

When it came time to move to the other spot, we had to wait for the current tenants to move out so we could move.

  Hubby was a bit anxious because he didn’t want someone to have to wait for us to move.  He tested the RV to make sure it would start and then turned it off and we waited. and waited.  Finally, they left and we all piled in.  (By now the oldest daughter and her hubby were with us.)  Click. Click. Click.  The battery again.  It would not start.  I finally went for a walk and prayed because it was getting so stressful and when I came back, it was running.  The little boy rode his bike over and most of us walked.

This spot had trees and grass leading to the creek.  Even though we had a little more space and it was shady, it felt like the neighbors were right there with us.  The water was fun, though.

Later this day, the other kids plus one showed up.  We had a tent set up in back and our oldest son and daughter’s boyfriend came in the first morning rather frozen.  We put blankets over the top of the tent and gave them extra for each of them and they did fine the next night. 

We had birthday breakfast for our oldest daughter.

I think we’d have had it outside but the boys hadn’t warmed up yet.

We got her this for her desk at school….(it has her full name and these things are so cool!  She had one for her first years of teaching with her maiden name on it but needed a new one for her new job and new name!)

We all ventured to town and drove up the highway at various times.

Someone hates shopping

But he did enjoy getting a phone call…

We enjoyed our campfire

Do you see the blue ball?  The newlyweds got it for a gift…it’s an ice cream maker!  We filled the outer section with rock salt and ice and the inside with cream, sugar and vanilla.  Here the little boy gets a lesson on what we’re doing.

We tossed it around and around for 10-15 min.  It was fun but we got barely more than a bowl….wow!  It was so good!

I haven’t remembered to do Saturday Sky for a few weeks, but here was the end of the day Sat.  It was nice to get some clouds because the days were so hot the first part of the week.  I don’t do heat well and was kind of glad when it rained one evening for awhile.  (never thought I’d say that!)

Some of the kids left Sat. and some on Sun.  The 3 of us got to enjoy one more day. 

This morning, we were loading up and I went out to help hubby take down the bug tent we got part way through the week because we couldn’t eat outside without entertaining bees.  We found a cheap one in Wenatchee and ate most of our meals outside from then on.  I had barely started helping take out the legs when I felt a sharp pain in the palm of my hand…. a BEE STUNG ME!  Youch.  It wasn’t terrible, but I did not get to knit on the way home today because it aggravated it.  grrrrr

I finished getting everything in place inside while the boys worked outside.

When we checked out, we asked about reserving the spot we had last year for next summer.  Can you believe this? Most of the camp was already booked up for next year.  People tend to like to get their regular spots and we did see several people moving through the week from one spot to another because like us, they got a few days here and a few days there around those who had pre-registered.  It’s a great place for big families and multiple spaces.  We saw many 3-5 spaces taken up by large groups.  We booked our favorite spot for 4 days next year and he told us the 2 open spots for the rest of the week.  We need to figure out which we will move to…kind of a bummer to move from the favorite spot later in the week…but we’re happy.  The only problem we had was one night from 12:30 am until 3 there was a LOUD party across from us.  They came in late, partied loud and in the morning there was a lone tent there and no activity.  The tent was there all day and by the next morning it was gone.  I have no idea what that was all about but it was weird.

I did get a lot more knitting accomplished this week, but forgot to take pictures.  I knit and re-knit two different yarns usimg Cat’s book.  I guess it was more of an educational venture than something that ended up being something.  I am not the least bit upset over knitting, frogging, tinking, re-knitting because I am really just trying to get the concept in my brain.  I wish I’d taken pictures of some of the progress but was just having too much fun.  Some of the attempts just didn’t suit the yarn or I hadn’t gotten the fit quite right.  It makes a little more sense each time I do it, though and it’s pretty exciting!  More on that to come!

I have lots of work to do tomorrow and then we’ll see what the rest of the week holds for us…

We took our family to the county fair yesterday.  Our very generous friend bought our family (9 when you count the add-ons) and several other people front row tickets to see Lincoln Brewster.  It started out great…except the little imp only made it 3 strums in to the warm - up and put the hood up on his sweatshirt and covered his ears as tight as he could.  We moved way to the back and gave 2 good friends our seats.  We still had a great time and he participated in clapping and singing along.  I didn’t really think Lincoln would enjoy seeing him holding his ears like that, might have been a little distracting, we were front row center.  lol

The unfortunate thing was towards the end of the concert, the rain cloud we’d been watching just let loose.  It was a downpour of grand proportions.  I had an umbrella and shared it with a friend and the little imp.  We all got wet in some way, but it was definitely better than nothing.  He did get an encore in spite of the rain and since my friend thought it was over and had gone up front to find her hubby, I put the big boy on my lap and we stayed drier, but he was really annoyed with his wet shorts so we skedaddled over to the agriculture building to wait for dad….who was drenched when he found us.  All he could say was how cool it was, dripping wet and all.

I’m glad he enjoyed it so much because he had really bad news when he got to church yesterday.  He was leading worship so he went early.  He discovered his bass had been stolen!  It happened in a 20 minute period after everyone had left Sat. night. The church is often a hub of activity for various things, hubby always goes out Sat. night to get ready when he’s on the worship team.  When he left, a friend was playing guitar while waiting for someone else and he said yes, indeed, the bass was there.  We have church members who live right on the edge of the property altho they have to drive down the driveway and over to their home.  They heard the alarm and went up there to find a policeman standing in the foyer trying to find contact information. 

Here’s what happened…someone kicked in the side door and you can only make it 4 feet before the alarm system activates.  They must have dashed in and grabbed the bass (a fair jaunt through the sanctuary) and out the door.  The doors have all already been re-inforced. 

I appreciate his attitude because he has chosen to keep a good attitude.  I’m sure it’s not easy as he has to make phone calls to all area music stores, some pawn shops, etc.  We know it will all work out, but there was sentiment attached to that bass because of some emotional things he had worked through in life … he bought it at a time that he was re-focussing on what God was doing in his life.  It will be interesting to see how it all works out.

Back to the fair before I start crying because I am so proud of him.

We didn’t really look at the animals as we could have because we were wet and uncomfortable.  This little boy begged me to take his picture.

The little guy really enjoyed the train, especially when the engineer sent him a gift.

Candy!  However, he had quite a time understanding that the train dumped it into the little chute, so big sis got in there and showed him.  He laughed and laughed. Yea for sisters!

And last but not least,  I am done with clue 6.  I have all week to practice Cat’s new sock method. 

It’s really hard to photograph at this point.  I am intrigued with what it is going to look like.  It has really been fun and I may just take part again next year.

Today I finished clue 5…the first time since this whole mystery shawl started, I have time to spare. 

There are so many pictures around of what the whole thing looks like that I am just going to show the pattern.   Once you get the pattern, it’s easy.  (until you tell your friend that you can recognize when you make a mistake now….and 2 pattern rows after that statment was made, there was a glaring error.  I didn’t think I was in danger of getting too proud of myself….lol)

So, what am I going to do with my time?  Study my new book….New Pathways for Sock Knitters.  The concept is still new and I want to practice a little.  I got to try on my friend’s sock and I LOVED how it felt!

When I went to work today we had some real entertainment.  The theater work across the street continues and it was getting a little scary watching these fellows work.  When I arrived today, the lights were getting pulled off.

I took it through the window because there wasn’t time to get outside.  It’s all quite a mess.

Add to it the fact that it’s raining…yuck.  It is fun, though….

Yesterday was therapy.  The little man and I went alone…which wasn’t a problem except I had to use the restroom.  I was considering how to handle it, and realized all I can do is take him in there with me, which flips him out because it’s the ladies’ room.  I just can’t risk leaving him outside, it doesn’t take much to distract him and he forgets all he knows to go after what’s in front of him.  As I made the decision and was dreading the fight, I saw coming towards me from the other end of the parking lot my sister-in-law and nieces!  What timing.

Anyway…he worked very hard yesterday.

When he has to do the writing, his breathing radically changes…very labored and he starts sweating.  He hates it.  Ah well, tis life.

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!

I was hoping to get the 4th clue finished before I go to work today so maybe I can knit on something else for a day.  I may accomplish that, but wanted to post before I get myself moving along with other things.

It is breezy today so I did the best I could do to get a picture.  Some people take the time to pin them out nicely, but I don’t think I care to have dog or cat hair on my unfinished work…

Last night, hubby and I were on our mini-date and as we were driving home and I was knitting, I was telling him about talking with a lady who was wanting to start some heirloom knitting to be passed down through her family.  Her grandmother had started a tradition with each grandchild as they were expecting their first baby.  She made white bonnets with a ruffle and pink rosebuds…whether it was a girl or boy.  Their family has now started a family tree that has expanded to over 500 people taking part.  As they share their stories of different family members on the tree, a story that comes up repeatedly is regarding those bonnets.  Even the guys treasure theirs. 

I kind of went through regretting not knitting the bride a shawl of some sort. If I had started early enough I could have done it but when I started wishing I had, there really wasn’t time and my family didn’t need to deal with me trying to meet a knitting deadline during wedding preparations!  She isn’t really the shawl type, but just the gift of it might have been nice.  I guess what kept me from pursuing it is that having 4 kids…3 of whom will certainly marry…I didn’t want to get myself into something that caused everyone a lot of stress. 

What I CAN do is make some special baby gift for my grandchildren to come.  Even though I wasn’t really considered a knitter then, I did make each of my babies a special hat to come home from the hospital in.  I need to dig those out one of these days and see what I did.

I was blessed when hubby said my stole was beautiful and remarked on the detail.  I have seen him get a bit frustrated a few times when I was so buried in finding a mistake that I couldn’t talk.  He does appreciate what I do, though…and encourages it.  Since I went back to knitting from the chart, I have been able to be better company so I haven’t seen any frustration for at least a week. 

The next post should be of the completed clue 4!  Tomorrow clue 5 will be posted and we’ll know the theme.

Before I get to my little story about my class with Cat Bordhi, I get to announce that I have finished clue 3 on the Mystery Stole.  I have one week to get through clue 4.  The encouraging thing to me is that I am going to shorten it and this is where that gets done…I get to skip from row 218 to row 303.  I’m not sluffing off, I am only 5′ tall and I think a 77″ stole would be way too long.  I was feeling a little overwhelmed at being behind over 200 rows until I read the fine print. 

Now on to my Cat story.

Our class with Cat was at 7:30 this morning.  We did not get much sleep last night so I was pretty tired.  My friend and I stayed in Seattle last night but we still had to get up wake up at 5 a.m. and we might have talked until after midnight.

  A class with Cat is always entertaining and I highly recommend anyone taking one if ever they have the chance.  We were there to learn the new method of “sockitecture” that she has come up with.  It is pretty amazing.  You’ll have to get her new book that is just out if you knit socks at all. 

Well, we were going to knit the sock double-stranded, which means taking the yarn from the inside and outside of the ball.  Wouldn’t it just be the way that I would end up pulling out half the ball trying to find the end?  I have many times been able to get the end with minimal excess yarn, but this time, I had this big tangle of yarn which was quite frustrating to me.  The good part is that the yarn pulled easily from it so it wasn’t all that hard to work with.

At about 9, Cat gave us a 5 minute break so I decided to run up to the 4th floor to check in for the little trade show that her class was part of.  When I returned, Cat was madly knitting on my little sock.  She was a teeny bit frustrated, but mostly laughing.  Evidently, she loves to pick up someone’s knitting while they are gone and knit on it and then set it down before they return for the fun of it.

She decided she was going to wind my mess of yarn into a neat little ball but as she wound, she got a knot in the yarn and try as she may, she could not get it out.  Therefore, she decided to hurry up and knit on the sock so she could hide what she did! 

Unfortunately for her, I returned before she had covered her tracks.  I told her I had totally forgotten to knit 8 rows before I started on the increases and she kept assuring me it was no big deal, this was a practice sock anyway.  lol   She just didn’t want me to find her knot. 

What was really fun was that I told her I knew she wouldn’t remember this, but 3 years ago at this same trade show, we were taking a class that was incredibly stressful.  Her suitcase was in the little back room, so she was trying to discreetly sneak through our class with it and she happened to run over my yarn (or string) and it tangled terribly in her wheel.  We were both down on the floor trying to free it and it was the stress reliever I needed from this (very poorly taught) class. 

So, I got my copy of Cat’s new book signed “I hope we tangle ourselves together again one day!”  My friend got hers signed “Maybe some day I will get to do some secret knitting on your sock too!”

I will take a class from her every chance I get, even if I have already had the class.  Today’s class was kind of similar to last year’s, but we weren’t able to share her secret method until her book was out.  I learned so much from her today.  She is so gracious and will take time to help anyone who needs it and teach you all kinds of fun things besides what she started helping you with. 

I forgot to take a picture of the sock before dark, but here’s a look anyway…

And our late day sky today…I forgot about it Saturday and today seems like Saturday anyway.

more on the title in a minute.

Yesterday was our 33rd wedding anniversary.  I did have to work in my shop yesterday because the city was having an artwalk so I needed to be there.  It was fun and I forgot to take my camera out on the street.  I had some ladies with spinning wheels in my shop and it was so pleasant, that whirring sound of the wheels and the smell of wool.  It was so peaceful…and then we suddenly were “serenaded” by an alternative rock band that was nearly blowing out the windows.  All I will say is it was interesting.  (When hubby and I first got married, he was in a rock band and I lived many years of having a band practicing in my basement while I was up on the second story trying to get my little toddler to sleep!  They were loud, but they were never that loud!  Thankfully they weren’t there more than an hour and a half (my guess).

We did get to go to dinner.  It’s nice to have been married this long and still like each other. 

We weren’t home long last night and we got a phone call that there were huge explosions and a fire downtown.  Since our family business and my shop is downtown, it didn’t take us long to get down there.  (altho I was sitting in the car while hubby finished washing a little boy’s hair!  we had rousted the girl out of her bedroom to hang out with him while we went.) 

It was devastating.  An 87 year old business was engulfed in flames that travelled to several other buildings.  Our son actually took several pictures that ended up on the news station website.  Here’s one of them.

I forgot to take a picture of Saturday’s sky, but it never stopped raining all day.  We’re having record rainfall this year.

And now, to the title of the post.  I hesitate to get too excited, but I think I am back on track with the mystery stole.  I knit the whole 2nd clue using the written directions and if I lost my place (frequently) I constantly had to tink back either to the beginning of the row or at least to a point I recognized.  It was really eating away at my self-confidence.  The charts are so big that I was having a lot of trouble using  them previously, my eyes were going everywhere. 

Tonight, I decided to shrink down the tiny chart (which still prints out huge on my printer) and get it on one page.  I am on clue 3 and it is just starting to move along easily again.  I didn’t like knitting “blind”.  Now if I have to tink back, I only have to go a few stitches back unless I’ve really messed up…but that isn’t as easy to do if I can see what I’m supposed to be doing.  I do hope I will now make better progress.  Hubby asked me on Friday night as we sat at Starbucks with our daughter and boyfriend if this wasn’t supposed to be fun.  It was stressful for him to watch me going back and forth on one row all evening.  I wasn’t too bugged about it but he was.  lol

Anyway, for the moment I am cautiously optomistic!

Tomorrow is my sister’s birthday as well as #2 daughter’s boyfriend’s birthday.  Tuesday is hubby’s birthday.  And Thursday is Stitch n Pitch!

 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…..