What a Week! What? It's Only Tuesday?

I think Ginger has the right idea. It has been quite a week. Actually it's been quite a week for the past two weeks. First the refrigerator died. I think it was from magnet overload, but you can never be too sure. Do we get it fixed? Do we get a new one? It was seven years old. Aren't they supposed to last fifteen? Whatever. We ended up getting a new one. Runs beautifully. Definitely an expense we weren't counting on for quite some time....QUITE some time.

Do you like the afghan Ginger is on? My grandmother was great at crocheting. Every year one of us grandkids would get an afghan made in our colors. I still have mine. It's pink, blue and white. It makes the rounds around here in the winter keeping us warm. After Gram died in 1997, these squares were found in a hope chest in her bedroom. My sister had them for a while. When she found out that Gram had never made baby afghans for my babies, she sent them to me. My babies are now 20 and 22, but it was still nice of her. They've been sitting in a bag for some time now. The weekend before last was her birthday. I thought that would be a wonderful time to finally crochet them together. So now we have a new lap afghan thanks to Gram and my sister. It is WARM too. It will be perfect for this winter.

Do you see that? No knives or knitting needles permitted. What kind of world is this? R got called for jury duty - well, IF they call your number. Wouldn't you know - they called her number. Well, she won't be chosen. No, she can't be chosen. They chose her. Not only did they pick her out of all those people, they wouldn't let her bring knitting needles! What kind of animals don't let you bring knitting needles to a stressful situation? R is not an early morning person - okay, I'll be honest here, she's not a morning person. Actually, noon is a little early. That's a whole other story though. So, we got an alarm clock that said it was guaranteed to wake you up. When I went to check on her that first morning she was afraid she had had a heart attack and was seriously considering an aspirin regimen. We pumped her full of her favorite hot tea and tons of reading material. Two days later and a major learning experience behind her, she is finished. Whew!

There you have it. I made myself tired reliving these experiences..... I'll try to do something a little more exciting that doesn't require major appliances or a government summons.

Baby Knitting

Seems like it's that time of year again. Baby knitting time! RL has a coworker who is expecting her first baby in November. He asked me to knit a hat. I was thrilled! I have knit hats for his coworkers babies before, but he's never actually asked me! I went through all my books, needles and yarn until I decided on this one. I probably wouldn't have chosen red and black on my own, but the baby Mom is a graduate of NC State, so it was necessary! So far I've knit for babies belonging to a Michigan grad and an Appalachian grad. I don't care what else you knit for babies - the biggest reaction comes from hats knit in Mom's or Dad's college colors! I have some left over and if I can find the right size needles, baby Mom might be getting one too!

Thank you for your comments regarding our friend. She is sorely missed.

Thank you also for your comments regarding the German restaurant. You'll have to give me some ideas on what to try next. I have no idea what is good!

Are You Still There?

Sorry I haven't been around in a while. It's certainly not for lack of blog worthy content! It's been wild and wooly around here lately.

Last week we lost a dear friend. What a woman she was! Years ago we met her and her husband at a small church we were attending. Her husband was the minister there. Never in my entire life have I met anyone like her. She had been diagnosed with cancer about 11 or 12 years ago. At that time she was given about three months to live. Needless to say, she beat the odds. The cancer would reoccur and she would beat it again. However, the last time she was not meant to beat it. She never let it get her down though. She continued to travel to the Ukraine for mission work. Continued building furniture and remodeling. I could list her attributes all day long and still wouldn't be able to get to the core of her. One thing I most admired about her was that she could talk to anybody about anything and be able to relate to any subject! She had been ready to go to Heaven the entire time I knew her. Any second and she was ready! The rest of us said we were ready too, but we wouldn't mind having a little extra time! Not her! She was READY! And now she is there. You can't be sad for her. However, you can be sad for all who miss her and there are many who miss her.

Anything else I could say since my last post pales in comparison to losing her. However, I'll give it a go. Last week was spent getting to know my dentist a little too well! A filling came out and become lodged in my gum. Off I went to get that fixed. Then my bite was off. Back to the dentist for that. It's still painful, but I'm hoping it will get better without another visit and a few more hundred bucks! Today it is Rs turn to go. She's dreading it since I've had problems with this tooth, but her problem isn't as bad so it should be easy breezy for her!

The kids and I spent yesterday afternoon in the DMV. The two of them can take an otherwise boring place and make it an adventure. We are people watchers, so we had plenty to watch! People coming and going - finding out they sat in the wrong office for almost an hour! Little bitty teenagers trying to get their licenses! Scares you to death to think about them on the road! Now my kids are 20 and 22 and have had little interest in driving until recently. R has had her learners permit for a couple of years and had to get that renewed. L just hasn't had an interest. I know this is unusual, but face it, we aren't a usual family! L decided at the last minute to cram for his test and he passed! I was so proud of both of them. Now I've got to motivate myself to get out there and teach them. Pray for me......

This beautiful spot was where we spent part of Sunday afternoon. L had wanted to go to a German restaurant for his birthday. We weren't able to go that day, but we made it up to him on Sunday. I wish we had gotten a picture of the place. It is not in the middle of nowhere, but pretty darn close! It has a real original name - German Restaurant. I was hesitant to go since I've never had German food. However, this place was really nice. It was clean, spacious, friendly and the food was pretty good too! We will have to go back. On the way home we stopped at a little park next to the river. It was a cool day - high 70's, low 80's - so it was perfect. Off came the shoes, in went the feet and the rest was spent quietly listening to the river go by. I could go in for more days like that!