End of October already!

Wow hard to believe - on a couple levels. My DSS has lived to see his 17th birthday for one. He has given us lots of heartache and disappointment in the past year. Hoping someday soon everything will "click" and he will wake up to be the great kid we know he can be. DH says he is too much like his mother..lol. I believe that but DH had his rebellious days from what I hear. :)

Tomorrow is one of the most fun days to have a 7 year old in the house. He can't wait to be Spiderman. Tonight is pumpkin carving and cupcake baking for tomorrow's class party. The pumpkin carving is being left to me so it will be a very simple design. Was hoping to carve them over the weekend while DS #1 was home but that like all weekends lately, we ran out of time.

I did accomplish getting two Santa hats done for The Preemie Project. I used Tracy's Christmas hat design. Thank you Tracy. Much faster hat design than the others. I feel it is a better size for the Preemie's also. More on those with pictures later. I also had a Bead Retreat. I held it at my office (big conference room table) which worked much better than my little kitchen table would've also we didn't interrupt the game & race. I think I've found a new hobby. Beading. I love jewelry but hate paying the big prices. Now I can design my own stuff. It is also much faster than knitting. I'm thinking quicker gifts! DH better watch out at the craft stores now..lol

Better get back to my paying job and I will have pictures after tomorrow!

Hike at Starved Rock

This is the time of year I love my drive to work.
I drive this road to and from work and get to enjoy the scenery that people drive for days to see. (They call me for information that is how I know :) )

This is a special trip tho.. DH is with me and we are about to go hiking in St. Louis Canyon. We are entering Starved Rock State Park.

This is the path we hiked. I don't remember that tree that fell across the path. Luckily it is high enough most adults can walk under it with out ducking.

This is the South Canyon wall. The big rocks are part of the wall that has fallen.











Me resting on a rock. This hike woke me up to just how out of shape I really am. Think I better start working out on the treadmill before I hit the couch to knit :)

This is one of the better pictures of the waterfall. It was so dark it was hard to get a good picture. Told DH we have to come back in the winter when the waterfall is all ice. I enjoy the canyon hike in the winter. You can see so much more of the canyon when the leaves are gone and you can see the animal tracks in the snow.

DH enjoyed our hike and time alone together. Being the parents to 5 boys that kind of time is hard to come by. Next time maybe we will even include the boys.

So So Busy!

I've been so busy I haven't had a minute to get on here. Last week was the auction. ANyone hwo knows me knows that part of August all of September and most of October are consumed by "The Auction". For those who don't know.. this is the main fundraiser of the year for my office. I work for a not for profit Economic Development organization - also the Chamber of Commerce for the Illinois Valley Area. This helps pay my salary so I have to be all consumed with it. We had a recordbreaking year this year! We hoped to surpass our $30,000 goal and we did we are $30 and change short of $35K. Which is an all time high! This was our silver anniversary (25th). We celebrated with Sparkling Grape Juice and donuts at yesterday morning's Executive Committee meeting. Champagne would've been nice.. but not at 8:30 on a tuesday morning.... when you have to work the rest of the day.

IN other news....... on Thursday (auction day) my brother who had had nerve damage in his back, went to "the spine specialist" @ Northwestern Memorial in Chicago. He was admitted imeddiately and told he needed surgery as soon as they could get him in. He was shocked and a bit freaked out.. but he knew this is the answer to what is needed to correct the problem. He had another MRI and waited.. he had his surgery yesterday and is doing great. I tried to call him earlier and he wasn't in his room so mom and I assume he was in therapy. His thigh muscles were so bad he could hardly walk. He had been sent home from work about a month ago and had been walking with a cane.. he will be 42 on Nov. 1st. Way too young to have a cane. He ended up having a ruptured disk in his neck. So that was all fixed and he is on the road to recovery.. it may be a long one but we all have our fingers crossed that this is the answer to the many prayers.

I also have been getting things ready for the "Fall Festival" friday night at little guys school. I have to man a booth for a half hour.. my neice is going to take him around while I'm stuck in the booth. I also am making cakes for the cake walk and getting things ready for the class party on Halloween. DH will be taking the treats in for that. I have been crocheting an afghan for my DS and working on a pair of socks. Need to regraft the toe on the finished sock as it looks funny. I keep the sock project in the car for lunch time knitting and the afghan at home as it is finally getting "there" so it is larger by the day. I'm hoping to finish it by Christmas but I'm not sure..... not many homemade gifts this year. I've been doing more things for Charity. I feel horrible because I haven't done anything for Camp Square Crew in awhile and do some for Preemie Project Michigan as I blogged earlier.

Photos from hiking trip soon!

Fall is here... altho you can't tell by the weather.

These are the hats I've made for the fall donation for Preemie Project in Michigan.
I was hoping to get more finished but as you can see in the next picture, I've been busy with another project.

This is the baby blanket and lace beanie hat I made for DH step daughter. This is a daughter that came along with his first wife. She had a baby girl today. Mom & baby are doing well, Daisha (sounds like day-sha, also not sure on exact spelling) arrived a couple weeks early and weighed in at 6 pounds 6 oz and 19 inches. I'm sure pictures will follow as soon - altho DH upset the ex by saying he wasn't technically a Grandpa. We havent' seen mom in almost 4 years to explain my DH attitude toward the whole thing. Babies are always a blessing no matter the circumstances. I just hope they like what I'm sending.

Tonight was open house at school for lil dude. We had fun. He enjoyed showing me his work and all of his papers around the classroom. He was also thrilled when he got the book he wanted from the book fair! He is disappointed about not being able to watch the Cubs playoff game as it starts after his bedtime. Thank god for DVR's. :) I told him I don't think daddy will make it to the end either. Go CUBS!!

What a Fabulous weekend.

Mike and I had a great weekend. The weather was fab and we had a lot of time with just us. We don't get that very often. Yes, lil dude goes to his moms every other weekend...but we always have so much going on that we don't take time to breathe and concentrate on us. Satuday morning we got up, met my parents for breakfast then headed up to Plano to go to the Plano Molding Outlet store. We found some great deals on things we needed. I was especially happy about the tool rack for big tools. This would normally go in your garage.. to keep shovels and brooms in order.. instead it will be in our basement to hold many brooms and mops of DH. Owning a cleaning company those things seem to multiply when you aren't looking. After bargain hunting we headed to DH old hometown to go to Harvest Days. We had a blast walking around the craft show and flea market. DH got a new Cubs shirt and I got some Halloween decor for the door and outside. :) We headed home and cooked brats for dinner on the grill. We had planned to sit outside but the bugs were bad so we stayed in and vegged out on the couch. I finished a candy corn preemie hat and started a pumpkin hat. They are so cute. I feel bad that I haven't done more of my charity knitting recently but as I usually do this time of year the carpal tunnel is aggravated by all the typing needed for the auction at work. I was happy to finish the 2 hats I got done this weekend. I still have a ton of knitting to do before christmas. I just do what I can as I can and hope it's enough. I will make up for it after the holidays like I usually do. :)

It's been 3 years already!

Hard to believe 3 years ago I had just gotten married to my soulmate and best friend. DH sent me these beautiful flowers to brighten my day for our anniversary today. We decided to not buy each other anything and get something we both want so the flowers came as a complete surprise! I thought we would just exchange cards tonight after he got home from work, but he as he always does knows how to make me smile and put me in a better mood. He is the champ at that! One of the many reasons why I married him. :) I know we will be together until the end.

Glad last week is over!

I will start out with what I purchased at Stitches. Yes I know it was a couple of weeks ago. But things in my life have been crazy. So here goes - I got to meet a lady in one of my Yahoo groups. She is just as sweet in person as she is online. She is basically a neighbor living about a hour west of me. Near where my maternal grandparents are buried. I bought some Noro Kureyon in a fabulous varigated color. #214 for the Noro fans out there. I'm just finishing the bag I decided to make with it. I also bought some sock yarn. Regia I don't have what kind right in front of me as I'm at work. I love the color and can't wait to get "going" on those. I also bought some Cascade 220 in Orange and a funky fall tweed color. I want to make some felted pumpkins and I didn't want to buy green and brown so I got this lovely color that is a mix. Got home to find it is exactly the color called for in the pattern I have. :) Pennie and I had a blast she took a class and it filled up before I could get signed up so I sat and knit at Project Linus and waited for her. Met some lovely ladies from Ohio and Virginia. All I can say is either bring lots of cash or prepare to have your credit cards smoke because the I've never seen more yarn in one place in my life! It was like a mall of yarn stores. All the online stores I've ever heard of and more in one place. That is the best way to describe it for anyone who has never gone. Every kind of yarn imaginable. Demonstrations on many different things. I dyed my own yarn - that is the strand kinda draped over every thing in the photo. Beads are big also. Adding beads to your knitting. Pennie is a Bead Instructor so she was really interested in that. I did what I set out to do tho. Purchase yarn I can't find at home. I can't wait for next year!! Starting to save for more yarn. Working on using up the stuff I bought too.

The boys have started school. Lil dude survived his 7th b-day and is anxiously awaiting going to the Peoria Chiefs baseball game next weekend. We tried last weekend (a week ago) but the rain kept us away. Little did we know it wasn't raining down there and we would've been fine. Oh well gives Hubby a chance to go buy a new cubs hat so he can get Ryan Sandbergs autograph. More on that later. He is enjoying the first grade and is proud to be the only one he knows with the Chicago Cubs backpack!

We had more rain then I can ever remember in this last week. My basement lost it's carpeting but that is the worst that happened to us. Thank goodness. My parents were in MN and came home to a glowing thermostat. The HVAC guy that came and replaced it at 11pm saturday night said he had never seen that before. Mom says the dvd doesn't work either so we are thinking that is from one of the many storms that came roaring thru. Glad nothing else was wrong. Easy to replace items. With their move a couple weeks away they really didn't want to have to replace anything major. My brother got 8 inches of water in his basement and he has his house up for sale. They had luckily moved everything out of the basement about a month ago so they are just cleaning up the mess.

Saturday night that same brother and I headed North to WI to Alpine Valley to see The Dave Matthews Band! Once we got there it was great! With all the rain that had gone thru everything was mud. The parking lot, the "lawn" you name it - covered in mud. We left home at 2 pm arrived in Lake Geneva at 4:15 had a great dinner at a little place right on the lake. Great view, excellent food. We left and was on the road again by 5:20 started heading north on this back road DB said he likes to take o.k. Well I guess everyone found his "backway" because we sat in traffic for over 3 1/2 hours. We finally got into the concert about 9:00 we found out we missed only 4 DMB songs and the opening band. I didn't care at that point we got there and we had fun. We had pavillion seats (thank god) and right before the encore I asked DB is up the hill (over the so called lawn) the only way out of here?? He said yes. I said you are going to have to help me up the hill. As I thought it was solid mud so it was a joke trying to get up it. Lost my sandel at one point which he hurried and grabbed. Thank go dhe wasn't afraid to hold his big sisters hand! After that I went shoeless until we arrived at the parking lot (part gravel) Got in the car to sit and wait again. We finally made it home just before 4 am. DH knew I would be late just not THAT late. But he didn't worry cuz I was with my bro. I felt bad for my DB as he had tickets for last night so he had to do it all over again. Better seats (11th row) made him make the trek again. His wife went with him to that concert and he planned on leaving at noon! I haven't talked to him to see how it went. I definately will think more than twice about seeing a show there again. It was still great to spend time with my DB I think it was the first time we had ever spent that much time alone together. Many wonderful and funny memories from it too!

Bunny Foo Foo and more!

This is Bunny Foo Foo - we adopted him from our neighbors who called him Thumper, many buns are called Thumper and he just looks like a Foo Foo to me so he is called that. We have had Foo since right before Christmas but he is shy when it comes to getting his picture taken.

DS2 has a love of animals bigger than mine - he needed to get in his bunny loving time while he was home. He got Foo to go into a trance with no problem!

They stayed like that for a long while. I just had to share these pictures. Now if I can only figure out why Foo is recently pouncing when we feed him. I think he is either saying hey this is my house get out or he is trying to play.. not sure. Anyne with bunny knowledge on that kind of behavior please comment!!

In other news I got my invite to Ravelry late yesterday. I considered myself warned by others who say it is addictive.. that is the understatement of the year. I now realize I need to take better photos of my work! Also, once better photos are taken get them uploaded to Flickr!!

Stitches Midwest tomorrow!!!! I can't wait. Will share the trip when I get back.

Why do weekends go by so fast?

Justin(SS1), Craig(DS1), me, DH, Lil guy(SS2) & Kyle(DS2)

At the end of a wonderful weekend with my boys, we all posed for a family photo. This is something Mike and I had wanted since we were married. We are missing Zach but it is a very rare occassion to have Zach, Justin, Craig & Kyle all at home at the same time. Our place just isn't big enough. Maybe when we get our house we can have everyone at home at the same time. This is my crew. This will also be the Christmas card photo.

Monday it was up to Wisconsin to take Kyle home. This was the first time I have been to his new apartment since he moved from Chicago.

This is his new home. The trees in the far end of the photo are at Lake Michigan. Big cliff down to the waters edge.

It has a fabulous view. This is to the south along the lake.

With all the heat and rain we have had I can say I had very safe travels. DS1 drove with me. He went home last night. He lives the other direction in Central IL. My brother drove with me. Lil guy doesn't like long car rides so he stayed home with DH. My brother and I had a ride home we won't soon forget. The lightening was unbelievable all the way home. Thankfully the rain waited for us to arrive home before it made it's presence be known. We received 3 inches of rain overnight.

Back to normal life in my house again. School starts in another week. The holidays will be here before we know it. That is when we will all be together again. Not soon enough for me but such is life.

I got my Swap box.

Cathy Davies was my swap partner. I wanted to get this picture posted so everyone can see what she sent. Thank you for all the cool stuff!

I have to run and get to the bank this morning. I can't wait to get home and "play" with my new "toys".

My boys are HOME!

Yes, not one but both of my boys are home!! I arranged for the train tickets and got them to arrive within a half hour of each other. For those of you who don't know. My DS1 lives in Bloomington/Normal IL. My DS2 lives outside of Milwaukee WI. so to get the trains that close was just short of a miracle. DS1 called to let me know his train was running about a half hour late, his was due to arrive first so.... I delayed leaving by about 20 mins. I get to the train station in Joliet ( about 45 mins away from home) I see DS2 walk up to the van. I wass shocked as his train was due in after his brothers. He said when he got to Chicago he was able to get on an earlier train so he did. Poor thing - his cell phone was dead and didn't have enough change to call and see where I was. So he waited in the hot sticky evening air. He was very happy to see me and I apologized for not getting there earlier. Minutes later his brother walked up and we headed for home.

I took the afternoon off today and they helped me out at work this morning. So nice to have them around. Love the DSS's but not the same as your own babies. Sometimes hard to believe they are so grown up as I don't feel that old! I did start earlier than some folks I wasn't a baby momma by any means. A week shy of 21 isn't old or too young. Just planning to enjoy them being home as I know this weekend will go by in an instant. They always do!

I will post pics later.

I've been tagged!

I've been tagged for the first time! Melanie tagged me and now I have to turn around and tag 6 people. I also have to tell 6 weird things about me. Ok here goes. This is hard... I don't think I'm that weird altho my DH could probably answer this with out a problem...lol

1. I eat potato chips with ketchup. I don't think this is weird but my entire family does. To me it is like having ketchup with french fries.

2. I'm a shoe collector. I like buying shoes - you are rarely too fat to fit in your shoes :)

3. I also collect snowmen. I would leave them up year round but family thinks the end of January is long enough.

4. I can't drink milk with pizza. My DH drinks milk with every meal. Milk and pizza just don't mix for me.

5. For a knitter I don't have a huge stash. I try to buy the yarn I need for a specfic project and use it up. My stash in recent months has grown a bit.

6. I have no LYS but hope to someday change that by opening my own shop. We all gotta dream right?!?

Ok. If I tagged you then you need to list 6 weird things about yourself then tag 6 different people you know or blogs you read :) Good luck and have fun. This was alot of fun.

My choices are:
1. Pennie @ Extreme Yarn
2.Tracy @ Wool Windings
3. Lana @ Knit and Pray
4. Libby @Knit Tidbits
5. Natasha @ Gritty Knits
6. Cat @ Cat's Crafty Corner

You're it ladies..... have fun.

Some other things I've finished this summer.

I have been working on squares for Camp Square Crew but I've also finished some things for the Preemie Project also.

Thanks to Jan in Michigan for posting this photo on the Michigan website so I could save it to put on here. I forgot to take a photo -thought of it after I mailed it. Sorry blond moment. I made one of the pink hats on our trip. Need to break up what I'm working on - I get bored way too easy.

The next thing on my needles is going to be a feather and fan baby blanket for my husbands step daughter who is expecting in October. Figured I better get it going now so it's finished. You never now when babies decide to arrive so earlier is a good thing. Plus by the time she is due Christmas is right around the corner, and I will be up to my eyeballs in projects like I am every year.

DH is home this afternoon. Told me he is cleaning and doing laundry. It's amazing how fast I got used to him taking care of that stuff. Now that his business is getting busier by the day, I'm alot more appreciative of him taking care of that stuff. I promised the family favorite dinner tonight in exchange for the hard work. Part of the madman cleaning is an appointment right when I get home from work. Counselor is coming to the house regarding SS1. Having teenagers is always exciting. Never dull. We only have him in the house for another 2 years then lil dude is the only one. The house will be so quiet. It will be a nice change.. altho..having had been close to an empty nester at one point it is very strange at first. Kinda like going home to mom & dads. Not quite what it was like when I lived at home.. back then it was crazy ( I'm the oldest of 4) Now it's only crazy when we all come over at once.. but now we bring spouses and children so it's even crazier!! My coworker is one of 9 I can't imagine the insanity of the holidays at her parents house. Especially because it is a SMALL 3 BR house.

My garden is doing fabulous. The rain in the last couple of days has probably made the tomato plants shoot up even more. I will have to check tonight after the meeting. We are starting to collect tomatos. Peppers are still off in the distant future but they are flowering and budding like crazy. We certainly picked the right spot this year!

We had a fabulous time!

Here we are on the beach. This is Vilano Beach which is in St. Augustine, Florida. I have a huge smile on my face because an hour before this photo was taken, I had lost my glasses in the surf. I prayed really hard and my guardian angel put my glasses into my hand under the water. There were strong wave warnings but after driving for almost 2 days and 1100 miles we went in the water anyway! Mike enjoyed his first birthday on the beach!

We made it!!! Now find a parking spot!

This is for the Jeff Gordon fans in my groups. I'm not a fan of his but I did think it was very cool that he "made an appearance" in the garage area. This was taken on Friday 7/6/07. The afternoon before the Busch race. We paid the extra to get admission into the "Fan Zone". It was worth the $20.00 a ticket. We got to see lots of Drivers and crew. You also are able to see them do the inspections of the cars. Cool to see. Kinda like an upclose parade of the cars and crew.

For the Camp Square Crew Girls - Ricky says THANK YOU!!!

My dear hubby told him about what we are doing for Victory Junction Camp and he thought it was awesome! We only stayed at Speed Channels Nascar Live for a few minutes because we got backstage passes to meet Shooter Jennings who was performing at the same time.

Here is Shooter Jennings. For those of you who don't know he is Waylon Jennings son. We had a great time but were anxious for the race to start. So soon after his concert ended we headed up to our seats.

A view of the mob getting a close look at Juniors car. They were just starting to uncover the cars.

This photo is one of the saddest moments of the entire trip.

Denny right after bonehead Tony wrecked him. Lap 14 and I wanted to cry! Then to see Junior get caught up in that made the blow even worse.

After seeing the crew trucks rolling down the highway- heading the same direction we were... I had my eyes peeled!

I got upset when I took this picture.... the one rest area we didn't stop at and it had 3 haulers. This picture..hard to tell is Kasey Kahne. Reed Sorenson(Target) and Jeff Green (Best Buy). Everyone is headed for Chicagoland Speedway, just 45 miles east of our town. Right down I-80 waiting for the phone to ring, my brother always calls at the last minute with extra tickets. Not sure if I'm up to it this year! After my feet I might just sit on the couch and put them up and watch both races.

These are only a few of the many photos we took on our trip. I'm going to have to put my needles down and get a scrapbook finished to document our trip. We had to wait almost 3 years but our honeymoon was worth the wait!

Only 2 more days!!

SO hard to believe that in 2 day swe will be on the road. Please bear with me.. I haven't had a "real" vacation in 4 years. Weekends don't count. Slowly getting things packed. DH thinks I'm nuts packing already.... He can pack in like 15 mins. But I don't like to forget things. Yes the sunscreen is already packed in the "bathroom" bag.
The weekend started out with lil dude going to mom's. Then the other son was invited to go camping for the weekend with his g/f family. We said seeya!! So NO KIDS for the weekend! Friday night we relaxed had a couple drinks and listened to music but by friday we are both so tired we ended up in bed early. Yesterday I had a hair appointment so I had to be up and in the hairdresser chair by 9. Karla redid my highlightes which were way overdue. We are slowly getting my natural hair grown out, with highlights to "cover the grey". She did another great job. Put a bit of red in this time....which looks good. :)

DH and I had a nice lunch and went shopping after I got home. We later rented a couple of movies which we laid around and watched after watching the DVR taping of the Cubs game and the Busch race. Getting tired of the Cup drivers dominating the Busch race. We had a nice night again no kids :) Unfortunately DH ended up with a terrible stomach ache. Toady we have some errands to run and then we will get home in time for the race. Then every for DH birthday party with my family. Lil dude has to have a party for daddy before we go.

I did finish a sqaure for Camp Square Crew and a Preemie hat. I posted the pics on Flickr. When I can get one of my boys attention for a bit.. I will have them tell me how to add that to this....lol I do so many technical things at work but this is beyond me....lol Showing my age I guess. Altho I see blogs from people that blow my mind. Where they find stuff and how they figure out how to get it on there makes me jealous.

Time to go .... stuff to do.

We are on the countdown!

I can't wait!! 12 more days til we head south. Just the thought of no kids or work for a whole week is exciting. We had to wait but I tell you I'm glad we did. We will enjoy this trip much more than if we went right after the wedding. Things in our life were very crazy back then. Not that now is much better but it just seems calmer. It has been 15+ years since I've been down there. I'm sure lots of things have changed. Just from what I've seen while researching for hotels..St. Augustine has grown! One thing I'm not thrilled about is that you can no longer drive on my favorite beach :( Oh well no kids in tow so no toys to drag out to the beach!.. I think we can handle carrying our stuff. I have to make a list of things to get before we go.. sunscreen is on the top of said list!! I already have the beach bag done and ready to go.. didn't turn out as well as I hoped but I'm going to give a different pattern a try.

What a week!!

Busy week! DH landed one of his largest accounts to date. This is for a larger company in the area, cleaning m-f. He held interviews yesterday and hired a couple of different people to help him. He hired 3 women, this way if one quits he has backup. We need someone to cover his accounts while we are on vacation.

I also joined Camp Square Crew Yahoo Group. This group is a knitting group that makes squares & rectangles in bright colors to be sent one or two other memebers to be joined together to make afghans for the Victory Junction Gang. This is a Camp for Special needs children, opened by the Petty Family. They aim to send every child home with a blanket/afghan as a souvenir of there time at camp. Most of this group is made up of the Nascar Knitters but that is great. Dana has been great to work with and her patterns are really fun to knit. Having worked with special needs children, having an autistic stepson and an Aunt with Downs I felt the need to put my talents to good use. I still knit for the preemies also.

DH went to one of his favorite clients the other day- he is trying to get out of residential cleaning as it is a challenge, but this couple he really enjoys. They sent him home with stuff.... thank goodness for the van. They sent him home with a dvd/vcr combo player for Michael... lost the remote so they didn't want it anymore. Gave DH a Yamaha acoustic guitar, a plastic 3 drawer dresser ( fit most of my stash very well) and a few other smaller items. He was thrilled with the guitar. He has wanted to take lessons and play songs for me. He is a fabulous poet so who knows....someday he may play me my own song.

Then last night I was relaxing, knitting on the couch while Mikey played outside and I got a call from a friend of my SIL she wants me to make knit bags - she has a few friends in her piliates class that keep asking her about her bag. Hers was a gift from a friend in CA but she saw me working on my beach bag and thought maybe I could knit some up and sell them. I said sure come on over and this way I can take a look at her bag to get an idea of what they are looking for. I hope I can come up with something they will like or that is close.

OH I also have this link for anyone who thinks I knit too much. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=460754&in_page_id=1770

I think it is a cool idea and I hope they raise the money they hope to!

Knit in Public Day!!

Today is knit in public day. The only "local"events for this day is in Millienium Park in Chicago. Of course (my luck) I'm a week late. We were up there last weekend showing Uli around Chicago. No events in the immediate area so I guess I will just go sit outside on this glorious day and knit. I need to work on getting some sun. Don't want to fry when I go to Florida in a few weeks. Currently have a few different projects on the needles. I have my bag for FL need to finish the strap. I have a Earnhardt dishcloth, my socks, and a preemie hat. I think that is all lol.

I'm going to vote for Denny this week to win the race. He is starting second and dominated these races last year. I'm hoping for a repeat performance.

Gotta go finish my "inside work" so I can go and enjoy the sunshine and perfect temperature outside.

Almost the weekend.

My DH is a cleaning maniac. He is running around cleaning and straightening and just in general getting the house ready for our friend Uli who is coming in from Germany on Monday. If you didn't know better you would think she was royalty. :) He is just very excited that she has decided to come and spend her "holiday" with us. He has known her from chatting online for about 5 years. We've talked on the phone and she sounds wonderful. I can't wait to meet her. What I thought was funny is she was hoping I wouldn't mind her drinking beer. I told DH I don't care she's on vacation! She can do what she wants.. the other thing I can't wait to do is take her swimming at my sister's house. DH told her to bring a swimming suit. She asked him if we would swim in the creek?? He said no swimming pool. Her English is a bit broken but I have no problem figuring out what she is trying to say. Maybe it's from years of trying to figure out what my Grandmother was saying. She had a heavy Scottish accent. Some of her words had different meaning than what we were taught. Like a biscuit. To most american's that is a roll or a biscuit like biscuits & gravy type. Nope to Nana those were cookies. We figured that one out quick. Imagine her first time at the bakery after moving to Chicago. She told me she had "a hell of a time telling them" I guess she finally just pointed to what she wanted and they all figured it out. I think it will be good for the boys to learn about someone from another country. I had my grandmother so it was normal for me. My boys knew her breifly. My younger neices and nephews got to know grandpa.... but he didn't talk funny like grandma did.

I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend and remember those who fought for our freedom. Also anyone who has passed before us who shaped us into the people we are today.

I can't fall over.....

My beloved sister in law is coming over today and spending the night. I guess we are the only ones who can drive to and from Dwight in one day and not need to spend the night. We are talking about 43 miles here people... not like we live 4 states away. I shouldn't complain she hasn't been to our house since the Daytona 500 in Feb. 2006. She swears she was here this last feb for that same race, but she wasn't.. Justin's wonderful girlfriend came over and proceeded to piss of my father in law who left with half the race to go.
I'm hoping tonight will be like old times.. sitting at the patio table, sharing some good drinks and conversation and listening to music... maybe a fire to go along with it. This time it's at our house tho.. not hers. We used to hang out in her backyard when Mike and I first met. I'm also glad she is spending the night.. because I know from first hand experience.. it sucks to drive home late at night after having a couple drinks. Not to mention dangerous. I'm going to fix the other breakfast braid so we have food in the morning with out alot of fuss. As Mike and I have to go clean and meet with our insurance agent, and Jen to get her back in the swing of work for the summer. :) All in all it will be a good day despite what the wonderful teenager living in my basement tries to do to mess it up.





I hope to get close to finishing my bag. It's getting there.

My DH said is still looks like a boat not a bag.. but it takes time for knit items to "evolve" sometimes. I think he is just happy I'm finally making something for myself. I was looking through Knitty.com and found this wonderful bag it is called Kitchensink by Faye Whyte. I fell in love with it while searching for the perfect beach bag pattern. I hope to get the smaller bag done in time for our trip to Florida. I was recently bummed to find out you can no longer drive on my favorite beach.... so now we have to drag our crap to the beach.. hence the need for a big beach bag! We are going to spend a good portion of a day at Anastasia State Park , beach in St. Augustine. less than two months! I can't wait! If you would like the pattern you can find it here .