Leavenworth

B and I are in Leavenworth by ourselves. (pictures to come. I don't know how to connect to the hotel computer and I forgot the camera thingy, too). It's such a quaint little town; Bavarian in style.
Last night were serenaded by a piano player until we could take no more. The piano was out of tune.



This morning at breakfast we were serenaded by a man who played some kind of horn that was at least 12 feet long. Something native to the Austrians. Again out of tune. Besides all that it has been a very relaxing time for us and I'm glad we came. Believe it or not, (believe it) we miss the kids and worry about them. We've gotten two phone calls from them and we've sent two ourselves. All in the space of less than eight hours. They should be okay and we'll see them tonight, D.V. But there was a schmozzlle of happenings last night. LJ had an awards ceremony to attend and they all wanted to go to meeting. They thought it would be short but it wasn't. More later when we find out what the award was. (probably "Most Days Missed In A First Year Of School" award).


We spent yesterday afternoon and last night here and plan to go on to WW later today. Breakfast was scrumptious. One Chuggy Pepper would enjoy.
Next was the treadmill for me and a bike ride for Bruce. I don't know if we'll count those for breakfast or for the Coldstream Ice Cream later on today. No lunch, is a given.

BTW Did you know that the British put the period inside the parentheses and quotes and the Americans put it outside? I think. Or is it the other way around? (I can never remember so I do both.). I read it in "Eats Shoots and Leaves"

Officially Summer

LJ took her last provincial exam today. (For this year, that is.) T worked over 12 hours and has a sunburn to prove it. H, LJ and I went shopping and found "cute" stuff for either WW or Lassen. LK went shopping too (on her way home from work), but didn't find any cute things to wear. Just a hostess gift for the family she's staying with at WW.

Rejoice with me! (in a small way). We can now see the furniture in our living room. It even echoes in there! Want to know what a huge dust bunny looks like? No? Well, I didn't take a picture anyway. But yes, the truck came today to pick up the albums! There were 499 cases (of 12) but we only got 449 on the truck. And we lifted every single one. I should say B did. Twice over. H, LJ and I helped in our measure. That is not work I want to do too often in the heat. The last 50 go tomorrow. Hip, hip hooray!Thankfully, too we went to Triple O's for dinner tonight. Besides working till after 5, it was just too hot to turn on the oven.

Tomorrow LJ and I see a principal of an on-line school locally to get her going on a program of doing courses on-line as well as at the local school. It means she'll be able to graduate at the end of next year. She's pretty excited about it. Even though it's a heavy load she thinks she can do it. We'll see. They give her the full year (til June) to do the four extra classes. Twelve in all.

Caught in the Act

Enough of Moe.

Here's Felix and his latest escapade.

He cannot leave a lone ball of yarn by itself.






He thinks he needs to take it to a safe place--away from me.


He grabs it in a hurry,






runs quickly,






and as soon as he gets away he drops it in the middle of the floor.




He then drops to the floor himself, turns over and expects me to rub his tummy for a job well done.

WhooHoo!! We found out today that LJ can graduate next June. We were thinking that she would have a whole other semester after June 07 to finish. We were also thinking of summer school this summer but she would only be able to take two classes and it would cost $300 for each class. Policies have changed and she's able to take on-line classes concurently with her regular course load. And they're free!!!! But it means a huge work load next fall. She'll have done three years of high school in two. That may not sound really significant but last year was her first year at public school and she was playing catch-up, hop-skip-and-a-jump all year long. There are a lot of pre-requisites that the school requires and there are no challenge exams to take. But she took to it like a duck to water. (I think she takes after her Gramma Al in the smarts department).

Moe

Gran and Aunt Ruth

I miss visiting with Mom. We live so far away that the visits are too few and the time too far between. That's one reason why I appreciate my mother-in-law. The one in the pink is mine. She's a wonderful woman and lives with her twin sister since both of their husbands are gone. We try to visit them once a week on Tuesday nights, but if not, then on Thursday.
Last night the girls and I were there and we had a party like every other time! We get chips, pop and oodles of cookies. "Eat til you drop" is the motto at Gran's house.
They don't knit anymore but I sit and knit while with them, and we visit. We catch up on the news and fill them in on anything they miss because their hearing aids aren't working properly or because no one bothered to tell them.
Sometimes it's hard to remember what I've told them and sometimes they forget that I've told them. But usually they hear the latest news soon after we do. It's very relaxing visiting and I look forward to it because it makes me slow down. Life is so busy and if I take time out of my day to see them it's worth it. I hope they enjoy it as much as my girls and I do.

Boxes

You're looking at my living room. This is what it looks like today. And we're expecting company this week-end. That's okay. We've done it before. It was even like this when we had our conference and we made it through. The only reason I mention it today is because the shipper is finally coming tomorrow. I think. At least that was the last I heard. This is for a customer that has a business in the east. I don't really know where. Just that it is further east than Winnepeg and Toronto. Maybe New Brunswick. It's really all the same to me. (Geography was not one of my strong subjects in school). But he's had trouble getting the right shipper. When he comes to take this away I'll get my living room back. And part of my family room. And the hall that connects the two. I'll also get my back porch too! That is even more exciting to me than the living room. I think I could live without the living room because we really don't use it all that much but the porch??? I could really use that! Porches are made for summer. Right now it's full of boxes of little wooden birdhouses. When the garage is emptied of the cases of albums that are going east the birdhouses will go in there. Now that summer has arrived with a vengence it will be really pleasant to relax outside in the evening with the family, enjoy the breeze from the ocean and listen to the traffic from Highway 10. (Maybe a mocha will make up for that!)

Horray!

Yes, yes, yes!!! I finally finished the Wonderful Wallaby for Baby Bug. It's washed, blocked and dried waiting to be packaged off to sunny California. How ironic. Just in time for summer. Oh, well. At least it's a two year old size. Maybe there will be some cool blustery days at the beach next winter. I had so much fun making this.

The pinks look totally different. I guess that's the difference between night and day. Literally. I took one with a flash at night and the other in our sunny family room. I don't really know which is more acurate. But I like them both. I hope Baby Bug and her momma do too!




Now I start another Wallaby for Joyious and her new baby. The yarn is little different. Because it's heavier it will make a stiffer fabric.






Moving right along.

Every year Gramma and Kedj send b-day presents to my kids. Every year the thank-yous get lost in the kafluffle. This year we have the perfect medium to show our gratitude and to show them how they fit!
Don't mind. Even though these are normal expressions the girls are actually smarter than they look.

Showers of Babies

HH is about to become a big sister. That baby will be the first of four to arrive this summer in our local assembly. Already baby showers are coming fast and furious. Even though most of them are not first babies, we've never had showers for their moms before. Whew, we're going to be busy! (and no more "fighting" over who gets to hold the baby!)

We expect to see Snootch at J and J's barbeque this Saturday. I think he's dropping off #5 to help J and J when the baby is born and staying for a week himself.

Moki

We just got home from meeting (local). LK, H and T are in Marysville or Seattle. It's All-Day-Meeting in Kirkland but they were in Marysville on Saturday for the Strawberry Festival (H and LK) and paint ball whatever (T). So it's pretty slow around here ... and quiet.

Moe and Felix missed us. They always do on Sundays since we're often gone all day. It's too quiet for them. They like activity and lots of it. Definitely people cats. They really don't want too much attention but they do want you around for comfort, I guess. I hate to be in the house by myself too. I would take rowdy loud over eerie quiet any day. Usually, they run to the door to greet us as we walk in. Then start on a rowsing chorus of "hello, hello, you left me alone all day and I won't forgive you forever. Give me some food." They soon settle down and only pipe up once in a while for a short time to remind us that they were not happy but that they're glad that we're back.

Emergency Room

Last night LJ called from the barn while B and I were busy with customers.
"Dad, can you get Mom to come and get me?"
"Well, we're really busy with customers. Can you wait a few minutes till we're done?"
"Umm, no. I fell off my horse."
"What??!!??"
"Yeah, Gypsy turned one way and I turned the other and I fell off and hurt my arm. It's all gashed and bloody."
"OK. I'll get her to come."
B got off the phone and said, "LJ fell off her horse and her arm may be broken. You better go get her."
The whole way there I'm thinking about broken bones, what hospital to go to, where her medical card is. In my wallet or hers. I check. I can't find it in my wallet. Hmm. She must have it. But does she have her purse? Highly doubtful if she's at the barn. Oh, well, check when I get there.
I arrive and it doesn't look like she's in a lot of pain. Of course, she's one that has a high pain tolerance so I really can't tell. She's walking, though. That's a good sign. Turns out her arm doesn't seem to be broken, but she does have a huge gash. Looks like it needs a good cleaning out and maybe some stitches. Not my department.

"Do you have your medical card?"
"No, you have it."

She thinks I have it. I check again and sure enough it was hidden in my wallet after all. We were headed towards home but we turn around and head off to the nearest hospital. We arrive and can't find the emergency entrance. It's so deserted. Wow! What a relief! Nobody is there but a couple of nurses, a volunteer and the doctor. We were seen right away. Whoa, we came to the right hospital. In and out again in less than an hour.

Thankfully, there were no broken bones. Only three stitches and no tetenus shot. Last year's was still good.

LJ said we should come here next time. Next time???

Work

Not much to write about today. At least my brain can't think of anything because I've been taking pictures for our online catalogue like this:















and this:


It's an endless job it seems. We have a hard copy price list that has 26 pages that I'm trying to get listed online. I'm only on page one!!!! With having to take endless pics it will probably take months to finish. You know, I really do like doing it. You can tell because I haven't had lunch yet and it's 1:40PM. It's not like I'm not hungry--I'm starving! I'm having fun, right? (BTW, this is amethyst).

The Opened Fridge Dilemma

LK opened the fridge the other day and yelled, "this fridge is 80% condiments! There's no food!"


She's right, of course. What do you expect when there's pasta salad for dinner and everyone wants something different on top? B likes Thai Peanut Sauce. LK likes Worcestershire Sauce. Both like sun dried tomatoes. H likes Newman's Own. T an LJ like Parmesan Cheese. And I like something different every time. So we keep a lot of condiments around. What my kids mean, though, when they say there is no food is that there is no food they don't have to prepare. I know that now. It use to bother me. Now I ignore it and try to keep stuff on hand to munch on. I'm not good at that because I don't like to keep munchies on hand for my sake. It's too tempting. It's really a Catch-22 situation. Oh, well. At least they haven't complained about the yarn in the freezer yet. (Just kidding!)

Noon Update

Just a quick note to let you know how my day has gone already.

1. Got out of bed
2. Made bed
3. Showered
4. Drank de-caff (that B made) on the way to take LJ to school
5. Checked to see if T had taken his lunch to work
6. Made an Isagenics shake for breakfast
7. Quiet time
8. Did dishes LJ didn't make time for last night
9. Shined my sink
10. Talked to TR about having overnight company from Tacoma and Colombia in two weeks
11. Cleaned kitchen
12. Emptied kitchen trash
13. Folded and put away clothes
14. Tidied family room
15. Folded pamphlets (that B writes and prints)
16. Talked to DC about baby shower for AML (among other things)
17. Exercized
18. Found books for DC on health that she wanted.
19. Moved yarn around
20. Didn't knit (but it's only noon)

Steveston Village

Steveston Village is a beautiful picturesque and quaint tourist spot in the city of Richmond. Since it hasn't rained much in the last few summers the weather is ideal for sightseeing.
We went to Steveston for LK's b-day and ate at a Mexican restuarant. It was good but I sure miss Californian-Mexican food. After dinner we walked to an ice cream joint and then down to the wharf. This is definitely a tourist trap.

It really is the time to visit Vancouver.

I think this is a birdhouse. It's not something I want in my garden, that's for sure. I thought it was so unusual and ugly I had to take a picture of it for posterity's sake.

Van Cleanse

Earlier this week I decided that I would start to do some weekly chores regularly. Like vacuum the house or clean the bathrooms. Two of the things I wanted to do on Saturday were to work in the garden :) and vacuum the van. Well, to vacuum the van you need to clean it out. Usually only B and I travel in it. Two of the kids have their own cars, take the other two with them and rarely travel with B and me anymore except on trips. So, it shouldn't be too much of a problem, right? Oh, yeah? You should have seen what I took out of that van! You would have thought I was going to set up a traveling pharmacy. Take a look. A good look, because that is the last you're going to see such a collection from MY van! I found oodles of trash--a given, five heat curlers, deodorant, toothpaste--given to T for our trip to Carolina in May, hand sanitizer, a de-icer for the windshield, three plastic forks, flora-life for the flowers, two hair elastics, two bottles of hand cream, three pacs of dental floss, hair conditioner, hair defrizzer (we all have long hair-but no hairbrushes or combs), hair clip, five books, a Bible and a hymn book, five fold-up maps, three book maps--two local and one continent, one pop-up map of Vancouver, dozens of pens, three small notebooks, two notepads, a starbucks cup from the holidays, a water bottle, an M&M chocolate peanut, a Smartie, one lost grape now found, a pair of scissors, one sewing kit, a spool of white thread with two threaded needles, two necklaces (home-made, must not have been good enough to wear), three pacs of soy sauce, four packets of sugar, cargo net--impossible to use, tire chains--to be removed now that it is summer, hockey mask, baseball glove, one pair of socks, two and a half pairs of shoes--(she better find the other one--they're her good pair!), a camera for taking pictures of car accidents, a large black bag for pop cans, key to the front door of our old house (we've been here over a year), CPR mask, dozens of napkins--stash from various restaurants, one half of a clothes pin (??? I don't even use clothespins!), Ron and Tami's memory card from Burbank (to be given to them at W2), a package of pamphlets--to be given to Sam at W2), a kid's stencil, an eraser, dozens of pens, a remote garage door clip, Ace bandage clips (2), letters and b-day cards from the kids' friends, two tire pressure gauges, wrapper from a Subway sandwich, box of chalk (??I thought they were done with that stuff 10 years ago!), four bandannas, LJ's immunization record, gospel tracts, red poppy from Remembrance Day (Veterans' Day--November 11), ear buds for a hand free phone, garbage Tag for the city of Richmond--useless for us, but worth $2 or$4, change purse--with money!!!, cassette tapes of all the meetings at Carolina Conference, eight music CDs, two vests, an umbrella, one only of a pair of earplugs, a finger messager (it's that round blue spiral thingy at the bottom of the pic--gotten on Granville Island on our anniversary last month from a street vendor) and four brass rings.

My plan of attack is to bar the kids from the van forever--well, maybe til our next trip.

Wallaby Blues

As I was knitting merrily along on the baby wallaby I decided to stop and count the stitches on my needles to see if I had been decreasing properly. I counted. Oops! It came out to 103-an odd number. Not good. Well, I knew that it should be an even number so I checked the directions just to make sure. Whoops! It said I should have 252 stitches on my needles. What did I do wrong??? I recounted, and double checked the directions. Nope. There was something seriously wrong. Did I decrease too rapidly? It looked okay. The hole was large enough for a two-year old head. But the directions said I missed something.

I should have left it for a while and come back to it later but I was so sure I had made a big mistake that I started to rip. And rip I did--for miles, it seemed--until the arms fell off. Then I counted again. Whoa! There was no way I even started with 152 stitches much less ended with that many after decreasing every other row for 20 rows. All of a sudden it dawned on me. I was reading the wrong directions! Arggh! Always staple, glue, tape or clip the adult sweater directions shut while working on a baby sweater. When making a baby wallaby never follow the directions for the adult size. It will throw you for a loop. BTW I still have an odd number of stitches.



I had a picture of the puddle of yarn on the camera, but alas, it's gone. I guess H thought I had enough pics of yarn and yarn projects and that I didn't need any more. She must have deleted them while working her internet store. And now, thankfully, I'm way past that point and am on the homestretch (again!)






So instead, I'll show you some of the scenery we pass by to get to L's school. Pretty awesome, don't you think? It makes the walk very pleasant. But of course, in order to get such beauty we have to have the rain that goes with it.



But it really is worth it. It may rain everyday for a few weeks but rarely does it rain all day. We usually have a few hours of sun to even things out.

Horsing Around

Every day LJ goes to the barn to muck out five or so stalls in exchange for a stall for her horse Gypsy. Some days she takes H with her to "work" her horse after her chores are done. It's not my idea of a fun time (it kind of smells there) but she enjoys it and it is good exercize.

It also keeps her very busy. Every day after school she's there for more than an hour and then some, when she wants to do a little training. Right now Gypsy is learning to jump. L puts poles down on the ground and Gypsy is suppose to know enough to step over them. When she's good at that L makes her go a little faster. So far the poles haven't gottern raised. But I suppose that's coming.

What do I do until she's done? Sometimes I go home and come back again when she phones. Sometimes I sit and wait. And what do I do while I wait? Guess.

Color isn't everything

When I saw this yarn I thought it was beautiful. There were blues and purples and all shades in between. I knew I would love it. The colors were so soft looking. But where it shone in beauty it lacked in softness. Icck! Scratchy!!When I got it home and started to knit, it felt like a 1960's craft project. But I slogged on. After working on it for awhile, it got better. I'm actually getting use to it. But it sure is different from the yarn I'm using for H's sweater! Hers is so soft.

Check it out! Moving right along. I feel like I'm on the home stretch. This sweater is so fun to make. I feel like I accomplish something significant every time I pick up the needles. (And the yarn is pretty, to boot).

Moral: Always buy the most expensive yarn you can afford.

Iris Show

My mother loves flowers and gardening, and irises in particular.

While riding in her car when I was a teenager she suggested that we go to the Irish Show! Who wants to go see the Irish in Oakland, California? I had visions of green men walking around pinching anyone who wasn't wearing green, visions of leprechauns dancing the jig, and visions of tables and stalls set up with mugs and gaudy Irish souvenirs. That did not sound like a fun time to me.

But it got worse. After many attempts to help my teenaged intellect understand I finally realized that she wanted to go to an IRIS Show! Ahh! Flowers??? But, no, thank-you. I was not interested in spending a free Saturday looking at flowers. I don't remember what happened next, but I probably sat in the car while she and my sisters went into the show and enjoyed the phenomenal beauty of one of God's most lovely flowers. Now that I am older I can very much appreciate Irises. In fact, they have become my very favorite flower. I'm becoming my mother. (But I still don't garden!)

Briefcase Siesta

Felix likes to help with the bookkeepping for CTP. He would love to go to the bank, too if I would only take out $$$ for kitty food! (P.S. He likes to knit almost as much as I do).