Two Weeks

WOW, it has been two weeks since I blogged. Well, I do have an excuse.......I just haven't felt like it, so there. I have been somewhat busy though. That last Sunday that I posted, we had dropped my parents at my aunt's home so they could get in a last minute visit before flying home. I think I came home and did all of the laundry and cleaned house to try to get back to a normal feeling around here. That same week, I had two Drs. appointments, one for a regular checkup and the other with the chiropractor. My back has been hurting since September right after we did all of that applesauce. I got it fixed though, for the most part. The chiropractor did a number on my back. He said I had a subluxated L-5, so it was lower back. He really whopped it into shape. It hurt so bad for almost another week, then all of a sudden it stopped. It feels much better now, unless I stand for too long.

We have skipped volunteering at the library for a while. Our volunteer coordinator told us to just take a break and come back when we feel ready. I am not ready for it, but Kim is ready now.

John signed up for classes next term. He's taking his second lower level writting class, and a Biology class with a lab. He might try for a PE class as well. He also wants to get a job. He actually asked for help figuring out what he could do, so I made him a long list of places to try. Mostly stores, grocery, Target, coffee shops, etc. I've actually stopped in to two of the places to ask if they were hiring, and they were, but you have to be 18. What's with that, when Oregon's law says 16. I am hoping he will try Starbucks and get a job there. YUM!!

Speaking of Starbucks......there's a new one at the little shopping center I frequent when the kids are at piano lessons. There is also a new store called Tuesday Morning. I love Tuesday Morning!!

I was out with the crowds this morning, not as early though as some years. I didn't have anything in particular I was looking for, but Kim had clothes on the brain. She came home with several sweaters and shirts, and I did actually find some add-ons to my Christmas dishes. A really cool pie plate with a little bird that vents so your pie doesn't overflow, and two covered tea cups with their own little infusers. I bought two instead of four because I think that Kim and I will be the only ones to use them. If I'd known there were all these goodies to go with them, I might have spent more money. Maybe it's a good thing I didn't know. We wandered the mall a bit, it was fun. I think I need to go more often, just to wander the stores.

Ok, back to last week. I had our knitters group over with their families for an evening dinner of soup and side dishes like bread, salad and desserts. I made Taco Soup and a Hungarian Mushroom soup. Both are really good, very hearty and vegetarian. I had a good time, I think everyone else did too. It was great, everyone was able to come, there were 9 adults and 7 kids. We will probably have another get-together before Christmas.

This week has been different in both good and bad ways. It was a nice break to not have my parents here for the week before Thanksgiving. My mom likes to go, go, go, and I don't. We had dinner at the neighbor's house last night instead of at our house. It was a very relaxing Thanksgiving Day, but it was different. My brother didn't come over. He said he didn't like the holidays. We missed him last year because he was in Malaysia working. I don't know about him, but I know this year has been kind of depressing and I think it will get to be more so for a while. Tomorrow would have been grandma's 91st birthday. I can't believe it has been 3 1/2 weeks already, it feels like a lifetime has passed, yet it feels like it was just yesterday. We normally spend Saturday at my aunt's home visiting, but they are gone already for a short vacation. Without grandma around, there is no reason to go over tomorrow.

I have been doing some knitting.......I started and finished this. It is a variation of the Midwest Moonlight Scarf, out of Scarf Style. I saw it in a store, really liked how they had the sample, so did the same thing. What they did, was to purl the back side, so there is a definite front and back to the scarf. I enjoyed the pattern, it was a very easy 8 row and 8 row repeat. I used SeaSilk. It is a very soft yarn to knit with, definitely a luxury item. I don't remember the color way at all. I got two different skeins to make two scarves. I even have a small ball of it left over from the first scarf after 25 repeats. These scarves will be gifts. I better get moving on the other one. The only thing I don't like about it, having to block it out.







I also learned how to do a little bit of this.........



I was asked at church to be on the flower committee and they will train me to do arrangements for the front of the sanctuary. I had fun, though it can be intimidating. I won't have to ever do it on my own if I don't want to. That's a good thing!! Next Friday night when we have the second class, she is going to show us how to do a Christmas arrangement with flowers.

I finished my two quilt blocks that were due for October, what a bad quilter I am. Fortunately my swap partner was understanding about it. I need to do the next two now. I think they will go faster as I have the patterns chosen. I can't show a picture yet of the ones I finished. Next week, after Leeanne gets them in the mail.

This weekend is for relaxing and knitting. They are saying we might have some snow Sunday through Tuesday. If it happens, it won't be much, and it won't last for long. It will be nice though. The rain has been horrendous this year. We did have a couple of days of this though this last week.