A Little Retail Therapy

There’s nothing like caressing and sniffing a little yarn to make my day!  Lexi took a break from exams and I took a break from doing nothing to hit Loops!  Lexi wandered around and just looked.  I spent money!  Here’s my big purchase:

This is 100% Linen by Claudia Hand Painted Yarns.  She uses Euroflax Linen and hand paints it.  I’m making this!  There was a lady in the shop wearing it and another one on a model made with Alchemy Silken Straw in orange.  I had a hard time choosing, but both were expensive, so I had to commit to one!

I also purchased this

to make this

Oh, and I bought these:

I have no idea what I’m going to do with them but Lexi insisted that I needed them.

We then went to P.F. Chang.  I could eat Lettuce Wraps three times a week.

I then brought Lexi back to school to finish a procrastination financial planning paper.  There’s a reason that college kids and their moms should live in different states!!!  I hung out with cousins, and then went back to my quiet hotel room and caught up on blogs.

Today, I’m off to the mall.  Our town is really small.  The nicest store in town is Herbergers.  Unless you live in Minnesota, you have no idea how sad that is!

Tomorrow, we get to pack up Lexi’s dorm room.  Thursday is the big road trip home.  We already bought junk food!

Bye!  I’m off to Chico’s!

What Day Is It?

It’s Weston day!!!  It’s our son’s 13th birthday!

Most moms are complaining about their 13 year old sons.  Their standard answer is, “uh, uh”.  Not this kid.  And here’s one of the reasons why.

Every kid needs someone that expects the most of them and thinks they can do anything.  Weston has his grandpa!  Thanks, dad!!!  Here’s where they spent half of April (it’s the smaller of the two boats)

They sailed this boat from Bellingham, Washington to Juneau, Alaska.  Weston was gone for 2 1/2 weeks.  He missed 12 days of school.  He did lots of homework on the trip.  He kayaked, ate crab, took pictures, played Wii with two retired American Airlines pilots, and generally had the trip of a lifetime.

He’s 5′8″ and wears size 13 shoes.  (I’m not knitting him any socks!!!)  Think he’s going to be tall?  He also copilots with his dad when we fly.

I’m down south waiting for Lexi to finish school, so I’m not even home for his birthday.

Hey, Weston!  We bought you a birthday present yesterday.  I think you’ll like it!  You’ll still get the new bass guitar though!  Happy Birthday!  I love you!

Just in case you think all of our children are perfect, our two boys are easy.  We also have three girls that keep us on our toes (and are on our nerves at times).

We now have 3 teenagers.  Pray for us!

Well Then…

This weekend.  I don’t even know where to start.  How do you describe three days of emotions?  Honey and I so totally enjoyed hanging out with uncles and aunts and cousins.  (I’ve accused Honey of marrying me for my extended family.  He doesn’t deny it!)   There were lots of stories and laughter.

There were lots of tears too, but God’s grace was everywhere.  K’s wife was amazing.  She spoke at the funeral and is determined to continue to do what they were called to do.  She will continue to run the Bible school.

K died from ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease.  K’s wife did a fabulous job of caring for him through a very difficult time.

My uncle and aunt are amazing as well.  Their hearts are broken, but nothing will shake them

I’m at a hotel right now ALL BY MYSELF.  It’s really strange.  I’m loving it just for tonight, but I’d hate it if it was for very long.  I watched a movie tonight.  I don’t watch tv.  Ever.  (Except for Nascar.)  I watched Monster in Law.  It was dumb, but the knitting was good.  I’m just hanging out this week waiting for Lexi to finish her finals.  We’ll drive home the end of the week.  I’m planning to knit a lot and sleep even more.

I worked on my Morning Glory Shawl tonight.  I’m almost half way.  I also worked on my Loksin a bit.

I do have a couple of photos for you.  Remember I said I got a new oil painting for my birthday?  I took a couple of really poor pictures of it.

Is he cute, or what?

It really is an oil painting.  I have such sophisticated taste!  We have black leather in our family room and it’s going in there.  We saw it in Hawaii about 5 years ago.  Honey tracked down the artist and found it.  I love it!

This really feels like a disjointed post, but after this weekend, everything seems pretty trivial.  If it’s hard for me to get back to normal, how much worse is it for a 40 year old woman and her two children.  I can’t imagine.

Now I’m going to go to bed to sleep for 12 hours.

Life is Good.

Life Is Good

I love all the “Life is Good” t-shirts and stuff. Life isn’t always easy, but it’s good. I’ll expand on that in a minute, but first I need to make all the knitters happy. They’ve had to suffer through a lot of quilting lately!

A sock:

I went outside to try to capture the color of this sock, because I just love it. I couldn’t find anywhere to put this poor sock that wasn’t ugly. There isn’t even a bud on a tree yet. Gotta love Minnesota. But life is good! (Actually there’s snow in the forecast for Friday.)

I love my lone Loksin. But never fear, this one will have a mate.

And now for what may be my favorite quilt ever.

I hope it doesn’t look too much like a little girls quilt, because I’m using it anyway. Doesn’t it make you want to go on a picnic?

Eleven years ago, I made this dust ruffle out of bridal lace. The lady in the fabric shop was having such a fit because I was spending so much money on a dust ruffle. I finally mentioned to her that, unlike a wedding dress, I was probably going to get my money’s worth out of it. I’ve “used” it every day for eleven years. And the other side is looking sad, so it might need to be replaced one of these days.

Life is good.  I was planning to be gone for 3 days next week. Lexi, the college girl, is blonde and needs someone to drive home from college with her. We joked that I could activate the GPS locater on her phone and just call her and yell, “Turn Left, Turn Left”. Instead, I’m driving home with her.

But yesterday morning, one of my cousins died. So, we’re leaving tomorrow for a funeral. And I’m just staying there and driving home with Lexi next week. So, suddenly, I’m going to be gone for over a week. And babysitters just fell into place. That never happens.

Life is still good because God is good.  I have an amazing extended family.  We all grew up within a mile of each other.  17 cousins!  I have cousins that are businessmen, teachers, doctors, pastors, moms, nurses, musicians, and just all around great human beings.  And a lot of us get to spend time together this weekend.  My parents and all of my siblings and their familes will be there.  There will be tears, especially for the wife and two children.  But we’re going to laugh and we’re going to celebrate K’s life.  (And I can about guarantee that we’ll sing Great Is Thy Faithfulness at the funeral.)   K left an amazing legacy.  Eleven years ago, he and his wife started a Bible school in the South Pacific.  There are now well over 200 students attending.  K only had 40 years, but he used them faithfully.

Here’s my “artsy” shot for the day.

I’m off to pack.  Yippee!?!