Daxton's 1st Birthday & Maiden Voyage

I just can't believe Dax is one year old already!! Seems like just a couple of weeks ago we were holding him at the hospital! His party was Saturday afternoon with mostly family there. He had such a good time...and so did everyone else :-)

DH made his cakes....he has made all of Savy's birthday cakes, the wedding and groom's cakes for both Amanda and Melissa and the groom's cakes for all his kid's weddings. He is sooo talented when it comes to that....even if he is my hubby.....I have to brag on him a little! He is amazing.....just give him the "theme" of the party or tell him the basics of what you want and he takes it from there! I'll have to post pics of all the other ones he has made sometime. They are just fantastic! That was one of the reasons we tried so hard to buy that bakery...but it obviously wasn't meant to be!

He made Dax his own little cake....and it's a good thing he did...lol. No one else would have gotten any cake if he hadn't!!! Here's why:

We also took our "maiden voyage" in the motor home this weekend. We left after the party and headed out. We went to a little rv park in Stillwater so we would get there before dark to get everything hooked up. I think we are really going to like this rving thing!! We really did enjoy it! The park we went to looked really nice online......however.......you guessed it.....it was really a crummy little park!! It was ok for our purposes....to figure out how everything works and to just rest a little, but I sure am glad we didn't take Savy with us this time! There was nothing....and I DO mean nothing to do there! And the spaces were so small we didn't have room to even put out our awnings! They did have onsite restrooms and a small laundry room but that was it! No picnic tables, no park, no playground, no pond or anything for fishing, no pool....not a good destination for a family fun type outing!

Overall we are still really pleased with our new toy. With it being 20 years old we have been so pleasantly surprised at how little is wrong with it! We had a minor leak on the kitchen faucet, the automatic step has a couple of issues and the little tv that came in it doesn't work....that's it! All the main stuff...generator, a/c, stove and icebox, hot water heater, water systems....it all works great! The dogs did really well in it too! We were very pleasantly surprised at how good they did....just no problems at all.....well....maybe only one.....Stoneleigh likes to help drive...lol

Didn't get a whole lot of knitting done this week....just too much going on. Still have second Tidal Wave sock going and have started doing mitered squares from left over sock yarns. Going to try to do one from every pair of socks I make then put them all together in a blankie. Only ones that will be AWOL will be those I do for DH....his foot takes up pretty much all the yarn...lol! So far I have two done but am going to have to move on for the time being. I joined the Mystery Stole 3! I have never done anything like this....and have never worked with lace weight so it should be interesting. The first clue comes out Friday so I need to get my yarn wound and swatched the next day or two. Will post more about the yarn and some pics as it goes along.

On other things, I got my last SP 10 box out and she got it yesterday. She seemed to really like all her goodies. This was really fun! I loved getting stuff for my pal and I have gotten the nicest things from my upstream pal! She has told me there is one more coming so I'm haunting the mailbox these days...lol. As much as I loved doing this and the swap-bot swaps, I'm going to take a little break from them for a while. I have so many things lined up I want to do already and there are other things I'm wanting to spend on right now, so I'll probably wait until at least fall before I do any more swap type things.

Curious new friend, New toy & Knitting Guild

I can't believe it has been less than a week since I made a post! So much has been going on it seems like a month ago!

DH and I picked up a new "friend" on Friday. When I was a teenager my Dad was a traveling salesman. He used to pick up turtles when he saw them on the road and bring them home. I don't know for sure just how many turtles we had in our backyard, but it was a lot! We even had several babies show up after a while! I used to feed them canned dog food from a spoon. It was really a fun thing to watch....I would go out on the patio, tap the spoon on the concrete and they would come running....yes turtles can run.....and eat the dog food right from the spoon in my hand! I told Savy that story one time and she has been begging Poppy to pick up turtles for her ever since. Well, when we went to pick up our new-to-us motorhome on Friday and walked out the door to drive it home, there was a turtle sunning right behind the motorhome! We got a box and brought him home. Haven't been able to get him to eat anything yet, but the other "kids" were sure curious about him!

We finally had to make Stoneleigh come in the house because he wouldn't leave the poor little guy alone!! Am going to go pick up a can of the really cheap-0 canned dog food today to see if I can start training him to eat from a spoon too!

After picking up the new RV, Amanda and I went shopping for the stuff to "make it a home!" I had a lot of surplus stuff already but we did need a few things to get it set up for our first trip. We are all really excited about it and I know we are going to have so much fun! We had it at the house off and on all week-end loading stuff in it and sanitizing the water system, etc. We grabbed some burgers Friday night and ate our first meal in it. Savy was here and she thinks it is just about the coolest thing she has ever seen......we couldn't get her out of it...lol! She has her own set of crayons, markers and color books that will stay in it and she has her own little shelf where they all go! She can't wait until we go on a trip and spend the night in it!

We are going out in it this next week-end by ourselves to figure out how to work everything before we take anyone else along....there is a lot to learn! We are really pleased with it at this point! It is almost 20 years old and so far we have only found two really minor problems with it....the main stuff or big stuff all works just great....and it is in great condition!! I wish we could just hop on it it and take off today...lol!

The plan is to take off Saturday evening after Daxton's 1st birthday party. We are just going to a nice little park close to Stillwater so we can get there quickly and get set up before dark...since we don't know what we are doing yet...lol! Here are a few pics of the inside:

On Saturday Amanda and I went to our sweepstaking group meeting. We hosted the meeting and had a gift basket auction. It ended up being fun and we raised $217 for our group! The group picks a "charitable cause" every year that most of the money goes to. Last year we did Christmas for a single mom with 3 boys. Along with money raised during the year all the members bought extra stuff for them and they had one fantastic Christmas! The meeting went a little better, but we were still missing a lot of the people who were really active last year. It is such a shame that a couple of crappy attitudes can mess up something so good. We are down from an average attendance of 15 to 20 people to an average of 5 to 10!

Of course, after the meeting we had to go check out the new LYS in Norman! Really nice shop! And the people were very friendly. We had Savy with us and she really took to the owner of the shop.....she decided next time she goes there she is going to spend the night with her...lol!

On Sunday we had a great day, too!! It was Father's Day and Guild. Family and knitting....my two very favorite things!!!

Guild was fantastic and we had a much bigger group than I expected since it was Father's Day!! Linda P did a great lesson on entrelac and the donations to our charity knitting......OH MY GOODNESS!!!! Look at this!!!

After the meeting we all headed to Amanda's and had a fantastic dinner and spent time together!! I love watching my Dad watch Savy and Dax! His face just lights up and every once in a while you can hear him chuckle! He will be 84 this year. He had a massive stroke about 15 years ago which left him with very little verbal skills. It is really amazing to watch him with his great-grandchildren! When he tries to talk to an adult he just cannot get the words out and gets so very frustrated.....but if Savy is talking to him (especially if there are no adults close by).....he can and will sometimes respond to her in complete sentences!!! I really think he could get much better if he would just do speech therapy again and work on it, but he refused to continue with it years ago and just gets really mad and upset if I try to push him to do it. He can be pretty stubborn when he wants to :-).

Far away, there in the sunshine, are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead.

Louisa May Alcott

Birthday Boys!

Weekends this month have turned out to be jam packed!! There has been....or will be something going on every single week end in June. Should have a few quiet ones in July though.

The first Saturday of the month we had Savy's dance recital. She has been taking dance since she was 2. She says she doesn't want to take it next year, but I'm hoping she changes her mind....they are just so cute up there and the older girls who have been doing it a long time are just amazing. Time will tell when registration starts in the fall.

The second weekend was busy starting with the WWKIP day at the downtown library....such fun and a terrific turn-out! It was so exciting to see some new faces from our knitting community. After the knit in we had a birthday party to attend!! Our grandson, Clayton turned two years old on Saturday!! It was such fun to watch him do his packages and cake! I did have to miss knit-in at GY, though....that part wasn't cool. I was sick, sick last month so I have missed two in a row :-(

The next day I went with Amanda to a Tastefully Simple home party. I had never been to one of those and it was fun....got to taste all kinds of yummy food! Of course, I blew the budget because it all tasted so good I had to have some of it......but food should be like sock yarn don't you think.....it doesn't count...LOL!

The busyness continues this coming week end!! I belong to a sweepstaking group and I and Amanda are the hostesses this month so we have to go! I have been sweepstaking since June of 2004. It started out great and I did win quite a few really nice prizes......a Weber grill, toys, food, gift cards, make up, A CRUISE FOR FOUR!, candles, tooth care package....and more! My luck has not been so good this year....haven't won anything since July of last year!!! I'm sort of starting to loose interest a little. We have a couple of members who stirred up some "stuff" at the Christmas party by being tacky and several of the most fun members haven't been back to the meetings since....of course the "problem children" with the attitude problems are still coming....and complaining.....soooo the meetings aren't as much fun as they used to be either .....and I'm not winning anything lately, so I'm thinking I might take a break from it. One good thing is the meeting is in Norman....so we will definately be going by and checking out the new LYS while down there :-)! But..... Then Sunday we have Guild.....always fun and I can't wait to go! Great program this month by our esteemed VP on entrelac too!

The next weekend is little Mr. Daxton's first birthday!!! I can't believe that little stinker is a year old already....well...will be on Friday! We are having his party Saturday afternoon. Time sure does go by fast these days. He is really starting to be "Mr. Personality", too! VERY opinionated already...lol! His Mommie already has her hands full! He's not talking yet and already "argues" with her!

After his party DH and I are taking our "maiden voyage" in our new (or new to us) RV!!! We want to have a couple of days/nights under our belts in it to figure out how everything works, how the fur-kids do in it, etc. before we take the family out in it!! THEN the next weekend we are taking David, Amanda and the kids in it and heading to Turner Falls to meet my daughter Melissa and her husband Brian. David's Dad has a cabin up there so it will be a weekend full of family and fun!

Not a whole lot of knitting to show....since I was working the last month...and yes...I did quit....I couldn't handle my boss's flakiness.....and the weekends have been so hectic....all I have done is get down to turning the heel on the Tidal Wave sock. Now it is my "charity knitting" week so I have a teddy bear sweater otn and am hoping to get a couple of baby hats done too.

Another thought for the day:

We cannot tell the precise moment when a friendship starts...It is like filling a vessel drop-by-drop which makes it at last run over, so a series of kindnesses....make the heart run over!

James Boswell

Just Stuff.

No particular reason for the post this morning...just stuff on my mind. I did finish the ML socks in worsted weight. In Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's latest book she talks about the fact that there are two basic types of knitters.....process knitters and project knitters. I guess this experience has landed me in the project knitter category. I just couldn't bear the thought of that one lonely sock lying around....even though I didn't particularly enjoy doing them.

I had intended to do toe-up socks next but yesterday morning I was running late and needed to grab a project to take with me because I had a dr. appt after work. I couldn't imagine sitting in a waiting room without something to knit on!! Turned out that most of my sock stash is in hanks and I didn't have time to wind anything before I left. Soo...I grabbed a skein of Tofutsie's I got at GY and cast on the Tidal Wave socks SWTC has on their web page for it. They are working up pretty fast.....and remind me a bit of the Monkey socks. And it feels good to be back on my dpns!!

On other things....DH and I are looking at RVs!! I know that sounds crazy with the cost of gasoline these days, but for us I think it would end up being a wash compared to other forms of travel. If you factor in the cost of gas (or airfare), lodging, meals and the biggie for us.....the cost of kenneling all the fur-babies.....it costs us just as much if not more to go anywhere! With an RV we can just take the poo-heads with us instead of boarding them. Anyway, we have put the pencil to it and have found one we are considering. Not a new one, mind you...most of those cost as much as our house!!! Insane! This one is an older model....1989....but is in pristine condition!!! It actually looks like it was pulled off the show-room floor it is so nice. Not a scratch, dent or rust spot on the outside and the upholstry/carpet looks brand new....except for the fact it has an 80's color scheme...lol! It only has 63,000 miles on the engine and 350 hours on the generator. We still want to have all the mechanical systems checked out of course, but once we get all our ducks in a row....if someone hasn't bought it out from under us....we will probably do it! I think it will be such fun to take grand kids and our families on trips with us!!

As far as the part-time job goes......it is gone! Yesterday was just the deal-breaker for me. I feel so sorry for the lady I was working for, but being around her just drives me insane and wears me out. I can't even begin to tell how miserable yesterday was so I'm not going to even try.....I would end up writing a novel on here! All I can say is I really believe she needs to be hospitalized until they can find a combo of meds that will work to calm her down and get her mental state stabilized.

The other thing that is on my mind is the situation my ex is causing. It just breaks my heart. I don't have any direct contact with him anymore....thank the Lord....but when he hurts people I love, it hurts me too!! It is weird that you can spend 23 years of your life with someone....know them inside-out, and then they change to someone you can't imagine ever even knowing....much less living with and raising children with!! I and other family members think there is something wrong with him....maybe bi-polar or something like it.......he is really like another person that no one has ever met......a really mean person who says and does the most hurtful things possible to people he claims to care about and he just expects them to keep taking what he dishes out. He can be nice, funny and engaging (like he used to be) one minute then turn into something so hateful the next it is hard to believe! I am praying that God gives my girls the wisdom, strength and words to do what needs to be done to protect themselves and their families from the venom he continually spews. It's bad enough he treats his own children the way he has lately, but now he has started doing the same thing to his parents!!! They are some of the sweetest, most caring people I have ever met and have doted on him their entire lives.....it is just soo soo sad! The very thought of him having the chance to treat those precious grandbabies that way just strikes terror in my heart! Anyway....please say a little prayer for him and those around him that he is hurting!!!

Another thought for the day :-)

A friend is someone who laughs at your jokes when they aren't very funny and sympathizes with your problems when they aren't very serious.

*&^%$##%$^&**^%^%

It STILL didn't work!!!!! This is driving me INSANE! It looks fine in the draft...honest....as soon as I pubish the spacing goes all funky.....SORRY!!!

Flash Your Stash Challenge & Day Trip

First a quick disclaimer...lol! I am trying to blog using a different process today. I have had so much trouble with writing then trying to upload pictures that apply, re-arranging everything to look nice, then publishing only to find HUGE empty spots, long strings of words going down the side of the page with no pic, etc.... Anyway...trying something different today...hope it works!

Our latest SP 10 challenge is to flash our stash...this sort of activity could prove to be quite embarrasing...lol....I'm sure that I am in good company, though....right?....come on...admit it....I know some of you out there have a bigger stash than mine....I KNOW you do....at least that is what I keep telling DH! The top two pics are of 4 shelves I have in my ex-real estate office.... now hobby room. The two partial shelves visible to the right on the left pic are my knitting books/patterns. Keep in mind, I have been knitting a loooonnnngggg time :-)!

These next two shots are baskets I have in the den full of misc yarn and left over project/sock yarns. These, of course, do not include the other "categorized" yarns that are in bags stashed in the corner of the hobby room....stuff like baby yarn for chairity knitting and cotton yarn for dish cloths.....oh...and one little drawer of novelty stuff for trimming projects if the mood strikes. Didn't tak pics of those. I THINK that's all of it, but I'm not swearing to anything...lol! Anyway...there it is...and if my DH ends up reading my blog, I'm holding my SP 10 hostess responsible...lol!! Not really...he knows about it all....well....most of it :-)... and this is kind of a fun challenge...thanks Robyn!!

These and the following pics are of yesterday at the Oklahoma Aquarium in Jenks, Oklahoma. If you haven't been there it is definately worth the trip! It is a much bigger facility than I imagined and they have some wonderful displays!! Savy loved it and we all had a great time!

The ride only took about an hour and a half and going through took about the same amount of time so we were back home by mid-afternoon. A great day-trip!!

We sang a lot of songs on the way there and back, Savy did quite a bit of coloring and drawing and guess what I did? LOL....would you have guessed knitting! I did decide to go ahead and do the second worsted sock on ML. It is actually getting a little better. I worked on it all the way down and all the way back and my hands/wrists didn't hurt after!! So maybe I'll end up enjoying Magic Loop after all.......but I do have to admit, I still like my dpns better at this point. Will post a pic of them when I'm done. Still planning to do toe-up next and see what I think about those.

Another thought for the day:

"Laughing at ourselves as well as with each other give a surprising sense of togetherness."

Hazel Lee

Too Cute!

We went to the dress rehearsal for Savy's dance recital last night. I just love watching all those precious kids all dressed up and performing...they are toooo cute! The coordinators of the recital won't allow any pictures or videos during the actual recital so we had to get the pics last night. We all enjoyed watching them so much....even Dax!! He was so funny!! He was leaning forward holding on to the chair in front of him just transfixed watching all the pretty little girls dancing...lol. Every once in a while he would pump his little arms and bob his head to the music and would "holler" at the girls while they were performing.

Every year I just love seeing Savy all dressed up in her costumes. It always kind of freaks me out though because putting the make-up on her makes her look wayyy too grown up to suit her Mimi!!!

We are going to the actual performance in the morning then bringing her home for an over night. Am pretty sure we are going to hop up Sunday morning and do a day-trip with her and go the the Aquarium in Jenks!!

We told her about it a while back and every time we see her she wants to know if we can go see the big shark! It should be fun seeing her reaction to everything. Probably won't "do" any yarn shops this trip. I doubt it would hold much facination for her or DH...lol!

Well, I have figured something out on my "quest" to learn all the different sock making methods!! I learned cuff-down on dpns and am now doing a worsted weight sock on ML.....I have to say, at this point, I'm much preferring my dpns!! I'm not sure if it's from the "pushing and pulling" of the stitches.....or because I'm doing the heavier yarn and bigger needles.....but...every night that I have knitted on these ML socks for more than 30 minutes or so.....my hands and wrists start hurting!!!! I guess if I run across a really "just have to do it" sock pattern that is written for ML and I'm too lazy to convert the pattern....or maybe I'll adjust and start to like it more. But I doubt it...I don't really like having to move the stitches around all the time very much either. Want to do "toe-ups" and 2 circs next so I can say I have "done them all"...lol. Am almost to toe decreases on the ML. Will post a pic when I'm done because I'm not really sure at this point if I will do the other one.......does that make me a candidate for "second sock syndrome"?