No Knitting Pics and New Discovery

It has been a while!! Things have been busy, busy, as usual around here. I also haven't posted much because my knitting focus has changed to doing Christmas presents and too many recipients read the blog.....so....not many knitting pics will be going up over the next few months....and this is a knitting blog after all! Anyway, posts may be a bit fewer and farther between during this gift knitting period!! I have 15 people on my "Knit List" for knitted gifts! Then I have to do another sequined felt stocking for the newest grandchild before Christmas as well!

I have made some progress though....I have finished 3 gifts and am working on the 4th. I'm not that far from finishing the MS3 so it's really hard to ignore it and focus on Christmas knitting....I'm dying to finish it for two reasons.....one, just to say I finished it and see what it looks like.....and two....to see if I'm going to have enough yarn....yes....it's looking like I may not!!!!! When I bought the yarn I was looking for 1200 yards like she told us we would need in the beginning. Someone that was in the store with me told me she had posted a comment amending that yardage and saying that 760 yards would do it.....well....unfortunately, I listened and bought 2 420 yard hanks!!!! I have the entire last clue to do and I'm down to one itty bitty ball.....if I finish with enough yarn it's going to be by the skin of my teeth! If I run out I will probably frog the wing portion back to the section where we can shorten it and do the symetrical version....but I AM going to finish....one design or the other...how ever it works out.

On other things.....DH and I took off last week for a mini-vacation in the motor home. We decided to go to Eureka Springs and see the Passion Play. We went there on our honeymoon but only got to spend one night and half a day there before getting a phone call that his Mom had a stroke! We have always intended to go back and just never gotten around to it. We had a wonderful time, but it is a hard trip to explain.....so many things happened!!! Things that could have been so upsetting, but ended up being a blessing and life lessons in humility and patience!

We were just the other side of Siloam Springs when DH made the comment that the needle on the battery gage went down to nothing. Everything seemed ok so we kept going....well....about 60 to 70 miles out of Eureka, the motor home started sputtering, back-firing and losing power off and on. By that time we were on rain soaked, slick, two lane, mountainous roads with no place to pull off! He was afraid to slow down too much and lose the momentum and I tell you, it was one of the scariest rides I have ever experienced. This big ole, top heavy box of a vehicle literally careening up and down those roads with hills, valleys and hair-pin turns.....and in several places, sheer drop-offs on the passenger side!!! We just knew we weren't going to make it to the rv park!

By God's grace......we did! Blessing number one! Safe, sound and electricity to plug into! (It did take me a while to unlock my arms and legs, though...lol) Blessing number two......we found a man who worked on it for us both Saturday and Sunday....which, according to the locals, is unheard of!!! It was a long drawn-out process with this wonderful man driving to two other towns over the weekend to find the right alternator to fit our rig. He put the first one in on Saturday....didn't work....so he drove to the second town to get another one and put it in on Sunday! He took one look at the mechanical issues we had and said he had no idea how we made it there......it should have been mechanically impossible! Turns out the alternator that was on it to begin with was wired wrong!!!! God is good! This process, normally, would have driven me insane.....we had our trip all mapped out and planned about what we were going to do and when.....and were stuck at the rv waiting on the repair guy....for two whole days of our 3 day trip! Blessing number three......we ended up enjoying our down-time and relaxing instead of running ourselves ragged....plus we met some of the most wonderful people that we would not have met if we had been out running around!

We did get to go see the Passion Play and enjoyed it tremendously, but the best part of the trip was discovering an artist I had never heard of before!!! He had paintings in the Passion Play Museum and the symbolism in them just takes my breath away! His name is Jack E. Dawson .

We saw two paintings that really spoke to our hearts. We really wanted to get one, but we had gotten to the compound late because of the rv repairs and didn't have time to decide which one we wanted before the play started. That in itself ended up being a blessing!

As we headed out of town Monday morning, we stopped off at a cluster of shops to pick up a couple of souveniers to bring family members and went into a gift shop. Turned out that the shop owner is a personal friend of Jack Dawson's and had his work there!!! He was able to tell us things about the paintings that the tour-guide at the museum didn't know! These paintings are his ministry and based on scripture. He always places hidden images in the paintings. What we learned at the shop was that in all of his paintings (some more than others), years after the paint is dry....new images are found that he didn't purposely paint in!!! Ron and I both found "new" images in one of the paintings while we were in the shop hearing him tell about this phenomenon!!! We still had a hard time deciding which one we wanted but ended up getting one based on Matthew 10:31. "Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows." The name of the painting is " His eye is on the Sparrow". He definately had his eye on us this trip so we felt it was fitting!

I wish you could see the painting better on here, but if you look closely you can see the little sparrow in the center of the painting sitting on a branch. Above it, to the right, in the trees, you can see Christ's face in the leaves, his shoulders, arms and hands in the rock......keeping an eye on the sparrow!!! There are many more images in it as well that you can't really see here. If you ever have a chance to go see his work in person....DO IT!!!! It is truly amazing!

There are many more "stories" to tell about this trip.....funny now, not so funny at the time, but this post is getting too long, so this will have to suffice! Let's just say we are glad we went, had a wonderful time and made some special memories......much better than sitting in front of the tv night after night!

In closing this post, I would like to ask you to continue to pray for my beautiful daughter. We have a tentative diagnosis about her health issues. Next week we will hopefully have a definative one, but the rhuematologist has said he is 90% sure she has Fibromyalgia. The tests are to rule out Lupus and Rhuematoid Arthritis. If they do, the Fibro diagnosis will be confirmed. It is an incurable, pain centered disease and pain management is about all that can be done. Please, please pray that a course of treatment can be found to alleviate the horrible pain and fatigue that goes along with this insidious disease!

"The Wing", The kids and One Step Closer

Time has really gotten away from me the past couple of weeks! I didn't realize that it had been so long since I made a post!

Still doing a little on the MS3, but not as much as usual. I did get started on clue 5 and it is sooo strange! I decided to go ahead and do the wing just for the challenge. I can't imagine how it is going to look completed! I usually go for the symetrical look so this should be interesting. Am hoping to get through clue 5 this week and start on today's new clue by next week.

Not the best picture, but I was too lazy to find the perfect place to pin it all out this morning..lol!

I have had Savy & Dax all week this week so I didn't work on it at all. Instead I started the Christmas list. Am doing a bunch of arm warmers this year and got one done this week. I am using the Mock Cable pattern by Jo Ellyn, a member of our Guild and doing them with Gourmet Yarn's Alpaca. I got two cones of worsted, one in beige and one in gray. Figure those will work for most anyone on my list, male or female.

Found a good pattern for guy arm warmers too. Will be doing a few pairs of those and a couple of scarves from it.

Amanda had a rough patch this week. That's why I had the kiddos. I just enjoyed them so much! It was interesting getting back into the swing of things with two little ones 24-7...lol! But they were such good kids for me and it was a delight waking up to that "little voice" in the other room jabbering away :-). We played outside a lot while they were here. That insured that they were plenty worn out come nap time!

I think they had a good time with Mimi....and I know I had a good time with them! David and Amanda are so sweet......I got the most beautiful flower arrangement yesterday thanking me for helping them out with the kids. They are just gorgeous and literally perfume the entire room! They certainly didn't need to reward me for doing something I love, but I do have to admit that I'm enjoying their thoughtful gift!

Hopefully we are starting to make a little progress on getting a diagnosis for these health issues Amanda has been dealing with for so long......FINALLY! Both arthritis and lupus have been tossed out there. Not words we were wanting hear. The diagnosis isn't "official"....she is being referred to a rhuematologist, but at least we are getting closer to getting to the bottom of all this! THEN....whatever it is, with treatment, she can start feeling better!!! It has been a long road getting this far and I have to say, the medical profession, in my humble opinion....just stinks! The doctors don't come right out and say things to your face, but over and over again they run a handful of basic tests and if they come out "normal", they basically act like there isn't anything wrong with you and they just want you to go away....totally ignoring the fact that there most definately IS something wrong and more tests need to be done to figure out what is going on! It's almost like they don't want to bother unless it's an easy to diagnose, simple to fix problem.

Anyway, enough of my rant! Just please pray that we will get a diagnosis and be able to start a course of treatment soon!