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Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Busy Days

Yesterday as a very productive day.  More work in the motor home was completed.  Those little things that seem to bug us when we are having a quiet evening have been fixed or cleaned.  Why is it that we pick, pick, pick.  It's almost impossible for me to just sit without visually inspecting everything to see what needs to be done next.  Oh well, really, it is fun to work on the "roadhouse". 

I also worked in the studio.  At the last show people were happy to find our knitting, weaving, handwork lights.  We almost sold out!  I ordered more and they have arrived.  Also, the wet felting kits were a very popular item, so I made more for the Great Lakes Fiberarts Show in Wooster, OH that is coming up this Memorial Day week end.  This is a super show and again we look forward to seeing the friends we made last year. 

Sunday, May 22, 2011

We Have a New Great Grand!

New babies are so precious.  Especially when they are our grand children and great grands.  Today, Harper Howe entered the world at 6 pounds 7 ounces and she is just beautiful!  I even have the photo to prove it! 

We have been waiting with a bit of anxiety.  She has created a stir for the last 2 or 3 weeks.  There was an irregular heart beat.  Cause for concern!   An ultrasound showed that there was an umbilical aneurysm and the physicians were fairly confident that the increased pressure created by the aneurysm was pumping too much blood into the heart creating the heart rhythm problem.  But we had to wait until delivery to be sure.  On top of that, our little darlin decided to present her tush, rather than her head.  Therefore, a Cesarean delivery was scheduled for this morning. 

The parents to be were to be at the hospital at 9:00 this morning.  The hospital personnel told them that it was "all clear" for their delivery.  When they arrived, they went through the registration process etc.  And then they waited, oh, oh,  the OR was needed for an emergency delivery.  Then another emergency... they had to wait their turn for the operating room.  Finally, it was time and Harper entered the world, easing every concern we had about her health. 

Megan had visitation all planned.  First she and Adam wanted to be with her for the first hour.  Just a nice quiet time to bond with their loan from God.  Next they wanted the grandparents for the next hour followed by the greats!  We calculated that if Harper was born between nine and ten o'clock, that would mean Meg and Adam would be alone with her from say, ten to eleven, followed by grandparents from eleven to twelve o'clock.  Then, last but not least the  greats at noon.  Now, I added about ninety minutes to that schedule based upon past experience.

I passed some of the waiting time reading and then I decided to spin some yarn.  But when the ninety minutes stretched to two hours, we decided we would make our way toward the hospital, hoping that we would get a call and we would be close by. 

We went to Camping World to make a couple purchases for the motorhome, then drove by Sam's Club. We decided that since it was a Sunday crowd, we did not want to stand in line, so we just moseyed on down the road.  While driving, we called daughter #1 - Karen to see what the progress was and she informed us of the delay, but said she was on her way to the hospital.  We knew from that it was going to be a bit longer, so off we went to our favorite Mexican restaurant to wait.  The good food helped distract us and made the time go quickly and suddenly, we get a text from Meg telling us to come meet our new little one. 

She is so petite and cuddly!  The hospital has swaddling blankets that make them feel nice and secure.  She looked so cute in her white blanket and her pink and white hat.  She's just a "knock out".  Can you tell I'm a bit biased?  Oh well. 

Well, the rest of the day is history. 

Yesterday, we spent time spring cleaning the motor home in preparation for next week's trip to the fiber festival in Wooster Ohio.  I was amazed at how much dust and grit there was from the desert of California.  Now all the wood is cleaned and polished, mirrors are shiny, windows are clean, exhaust fans are cleaned, etc, etc.  I even cleaned closets and drawers!  We are ready to roll and are looking forward to meeting up with our friends that we have  not seen since last fall and those we have not seen for the last month or so.  This begins our busy time with art shows and the fiber festivals.  Having our home on wheels makes our travels more comfortable and we are looking forward to hitting the road on Thursday. 
The gas prices have gone down fourteen cents a gallon.  Nice timing, don't you think? 
Well, it's been a great week and a marvelous weekend.  Till next time....God's blessings to you....

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

The Joy of Having Children and Grandchildren

Wow!  Double Wow!!

What a time we have had since last talking to  you.  We have celebrated our grandson Ross' third birthday.  He is such a sweetie.  Beautiful red hair and energy to the max.  Ross has the sweetest temperament I  have ever seen.  He is totally into the Cars cartoon movement.  Ninety percent of his birthday gifts were in one way or another in the Cars genre.  He loved each and every gift and was totally overwhelmed with the entire celebration.  This is the first year that he "got it" as far as birthdays go.

Now the age spread between grandchildren is quite a spread.  Our two oldest are 23 and 21.  The younger two are 3 and 6.  A bit of a gap there, isn't there.  Megan, at 23 is expecting her first child, our second great grandchild.  Megan seems more like one of our daughters than a granddaughter and needless to say, there have been baby showers.  We took Meg to Babies R Us and she showed us the items they need for our little Harper.  We, being the stingy curmudgeon, of course did not listed....... HA!    We did our part to make her showers a total haul.

Harper is to make her entrance into the world this Sunday morning.  She has been a bit of a concern the last week or so.  An ultrasound has brought to light an aneurysm in the umbilical cord and arrhythmia  AND she is going to be a breach baby.  What more could be expected?  Nothing, I hope.  We trust that God has both mom, Megan and little Harper in His hands and we will have a healthy little girl to dote upon.

Today, Megan, her paternal grandmother and I all had lunch together at Bravo's.  It was funny to see the appetite an expectant mother can have.  Little Harper is not really giving her mom much room to breathe or to put food into her stomach, but Megan still managed to tackle her lobster bisque and salad.

After lunch, we went to Gymbore to look at baby clothes.  What fun!  The styles are so neat, I could have just purchased the store and been done with it.  Alas, that takes capitol....so we continue to spoil a bit at a time.  After our little shopping trip, we said our goodbyes and each of us headed to our homes.  Megan, for an expectant mother's nap, Gam's Pam home, and I went off to library and to our rental for a confrontation with our renter.

He is behind in his rent and is totaling up a lot of  late payment charges.  I decided that instead of a letter, I'd just show up on his door step.  What I found was very upsetting.  He opened the door and all I could smell was stale cigarette smoke - in a non-smoking home!  That really set me off!  Not good!  I asked for him to pay his rent to date and to add all the late charges.  Then I told him that he was not supposed to be smoking in the condo and he needed to be smoking outside.  Ohhhhh, the fun of being a land lord.  It is tempting to just sell the place.

I cam home and ranted to John, then retreated to family room to "cool down".  Following my cool down time, we went to dinner, but not before calling Megan and asking her to join us since her husband, Adam, works evenings.  We had a lovely time together and that just made the day complete..

One week from tomorrow, we leave for Wooster, Ohio for another fiber festival.  If you are in the area, this is a great opportunity to stock up on fibers, yarn, and all kinds of fiber arts supplies.  Today, I ordered more knitting lights and hopefully they will be in for the Hoosier Hills Fiberarts Festival that is June 3 and 4 in Franklin, Indiana at the Johnson County Fairgrounds.  You might want to check our our website: www.hoosierhillsfiberartsfestival.com to find more information about classes and all the vendors.

Well, tomorrow, John and I resume our exercise.  We have slacked off since returning from our winter tour.  But tomorrow, he hit the road - walking.  After our walk, we are going to tour some garage sales so John can get an idea of pricing items.  He insists on having sales to begin selling off things so we can think about full timing.

As for now, it's time to go, - God go with you and bless your walk. -  This reminds me of a sign I saw this week.  It read "If you want to make God laugh...........  just tell him YOUR plans!  ..............

Blessings..............

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Happy Birthday Ross!

Today is our grandson Ross' birthday.  You can see Ross' pictures along the side of this blog.  He is a hoot and a sweet, sweet boy!  We will be attending his birthday party Saturday.  Some of his gifts came from our travels this winter.  While at the Grand Canyon, then at Joshua Tree Nation Park, we admired the cutest Junior Park Ranger outfit - including a Ranger hat!  We didn't get it and now we are so sorry!  Next year! 

The sun has been shining all day.  Most of the ground is no longer wet so I mowed.  It was good to be outdoors and I plan on working outside again tomorrow - if the weather man will let me.  I still cannot get all the way back on our 5 acres.  A huge "pond" of standing water blocks the way.  I think we will have to bale it if it does not dry up soon.  If not, we will have to have a bush hog and that's expensive. 

What do you think about the price of gas?  It has gone down from $4.29 to 4.15 in the last two days.  Thank goodness the Miata gets wonderful mileage.  We have just parked the truck for now.  I sure wish Obama would do something about the gas prices. 

I want to knit another sock on my circular sock machine tomorrow.  Looks like I have a big day planned!  Oh, I also have a hat in the studio that I need to finish felting.  The St. James Art Show in Louisville, KY is sneaking up on me.  Art shows, fiber shows, oh my! 

Have a great day all!  Blessings....

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Flood Warnings and Crank In

Right at this minute it is not raining.  We came to the Brown County State Park in Nashville, IN for the annual Brown County crank in.  We arrived in the rain and are supposed to return home in the rain.  Thank goodness for the motor home to keep us dry and comfy. We have even stayed a day longer than planned in hopes of no rain and the ability to hike through the park.  I wanted to get photos of the beautiful Dogwood in bloom.  That is not to happen this year.



I did get pictures of the crank in that was held Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Nashville library.

I was surprised to see 'crankers' from Canada, Minnesota, Maryland, Ohio, Illinois as well as those of us from Indiana.  The crank in is for fellowship and for learning new techniques or like me, just learning how to use my  antique circular sock machine. 

Friday was extremely frustrating for me.  I had problem after problem.  Jenny Deters worked with the machine and found that I had 5 0r 6 rusty needles that were making stitches drop.  One problem solved.  I got so excited,  I forgot to follow the pattern and had to rip the sock out.  Back to the beginning # 1.  I started again and forgot the second step....dang, I was sooo excited and wanted to crank that sock out quickly!....Rip it out again and on to beginning #2.  Now, I thought,  I would remember the steps!  On I knit, ......  oops, I dropped another bunch of stitches.  Beginning #3, #4, #5...by now, I had a raging headache!  I kept going though, this silly machine was not going to get the best of me, no siree, not, no way!  Let's see now, I start again and again dropped stitches.  By now it was 6:30, I had not had lunch, had a raging headache, was so frustrated that I thought I could just scream. 

Instead of making a spectacle of myself, I chose to head back to the park and the safety and comfort of the motor home.  I was greeted at the door by John....all smiles!  "Well, how did it go?"  I held back the tears and grouched at him instead.  I grabbed a ham sandwich and was in bed before darkness fell. 

Saturday morning, I woke up ready to tackle that machine.  I walked to that dratted machine and thought, buddy, I'm BACK.....we ARE going to make socks today, so no more dropping stitches today, ya hear?   That machine didn't hear!  I kept dropping stitches until an angel from Illinois came over and asked if she could have a try at my CSM. Even she dropped stitches!

 She went over the CSM just like Inspector Gadget and found another problem.  When using the CSM and you are knitting socks, weights are supposed to create tension.  If the tension is too tight or to loose, the CSM will not knit properly.  Usually to drop stitches.  Barb Woodard, my angel from Illinois, gave me tips on placing the weights so that the entire sock is at the same tension. Voila!  I was off and knitting.  When the sock was almost finished, yep, I did it again, I dropped 3 stitches. I had not moved the weights up as the sock was knitting.  Lesson learned and another rip out.  BUT this time I was not discouraged.  I started the sock, stopped for the evening and went back to the motorhome for a delish dinner, thanks to dear John!  I didn't go hide in bed and we even played a game!  I took Oliver for a walk and we sat by the campfire that would not start.  What a nice evening...until more rain came! 

Sunday morning came and I was off to my last day at the crank in.  I cranked a bit, talked to a lot of crankers then came "home".  I set up the CSM in the motorhome and was off!  I'm to the toe now.  I have never come this far.  I dropped a stitch!  Guess why! HA!  I left it be and went to bed.  When I got up yesterday, I decided to take the day off and now, today, I am gonna pick up that stitch and finish that sock....hopefully, it's mate. 

When I purchased the CSM at the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival in September, I was warned that there was a huge learning curve.  I underestimated just how huge it is.  I feel that I'm over the hump, but will still run into road blocks.  It's just like when I learned to spin my own yarn and now I am a good spinner. 

Now, what did John do all week end?  He re-couped from a cold and tied flies in hopes that someday, it will quit raining and he can go fly fishing. 

What a memorable week end! 
Blessings to all!  This IS the day the Lord has made....Let's rejoice and be glad!