Between Loads

I can’t believe so much time has passed.  I already feel like I lost my summer…but the fall is also flying quickly by.

When last I posted I sounded quite morose.  Come to find out, my thyroid indeed had been affected by my surgeries and was basically at zero function.  Good news - I lost 10 pounds - bad news - my husband was ready to commit me (or at least take me to the emergency room) when I was HOT for hours, super anxious and basically sounded like a fruit cake.  The thyroid- although small - is a very powerful gland!

Anyway - I am working with doctor on my meds and feel much more like myself.  This has taken most of these past few weeks.  To top it off, dh was in NY for a week, scout weekend camping with son when he got back, then got another short term gig - in town but no less crazy.  He was camping again this weekend and next weekend (MEA already!!) our family is invited to a friend’s cabin!  This last weekend was our school festival as well as a band competition.  My 14 year old gets to complain the most about the cold as the colorguard girls were in their very lightweight, no arm covered costumes on the Eden Prairie football field Saturday night with the horrible wind and cold.  They did a great job though despite the fact they were freezing.

The boys survived camping in tents as well with 4000 other people and enjoyed a wonderful fireworks display and band performance after a very cold, but fun filled day working on advancement, meeting race car drivers and black hawk military personnel - oh yes there was a trapping station - to name just a few things they did. (Did I mention my son is REALLY interested in hunting and trapping?  He has a few snare traps set up around the yard.  I had to have him point them out so I don’t set them off)

The best part of my day was my WONDERFUL class over at The Yarnery with Susan Rainey and Glove Anatomy!!!!  She is a great teacher who never dispoints.  I have never made gloves and am sooooo excited to learn her secrets!  I have plans for at least 2 more pair after my initial ”test” pair. I have 2 more Sunday afternoons with her and a great group of knitters.  She is also teaching this at Amazing Threads in November so if you have a chance, check it out.

Gotta go - really have to get things back to square one around here.  I did a lot of shoveling in children’s bedrooms yesterday and washed practically every piece of clothing/towels we own!!  Now to get them all put away.

Lame title…anyway.

Update - overall my voice is better but I do not feel like myself yet.  I won’t go into it but I will just leave it by saying that I am just going to give it more time and hope to be feeling like me again soon.

I don’t think I am particularly fun to be around right now, I am trying to distract myself and get out of everyone’s way by getting ready for a huge destashing of our house later this month.  DH and I are going through every nook and cranny and will be using ebay, craigslist, and a garage sale to get rid of the stuff.  Let me just say that it is amazing how much stuff you can accumulate for other people and organizations in your house! We called my son in DC to ask him about all his stuff in the storeroom.  We will be taking pictures and having him OK what to get rid of.  He can use the money more than it being in my house.  I even had the kids go through the back entry closet yesterday.  It seems like the shoes multiply with no help and I do not want to rummage through the bin this winter to find mittens that do not match and hats that are too small.  I washed everything and it should be dry today.

I even had everyone strip all the beds and wash all the blankets.  The kids use the blankets to wrap up while watching TV and some of them were getting a little gamey due to being wrapped around bare feet all summer and being dragged across the floor.

Even though for most of the state school doesn’t start until Tuesday, we had 2 start last Tuesday.  It should be a good year - 4th and 7th grade now.  The 4th grader is really appreciating the wonderful organization of his teacher and the 7th grader is chomping her bit to get to the high school and she learns more about the variety of activities and classes. The 9th grader has been very busy with Colorguard and I am sewing 2 costumes this weekend - their first competion is later this week I think but I just do not have my calendar organized yet…sigh.

I did put a package in the mail for my mom yesterday with a book I ordered and the vest so she should get that on Tuesday? hopefully.  My buttons are still not sewn on to my free sweater but I did buy more yarn!  Michaels had the Patons wool on sale for $3.99 a skein so I picked some up for a sweater for myself.  I also purchased the Lion Brand Fisherman wool - maple tweed? - for a sweater for my husband.  It should only take 4 skeins so I sent the kids through the line separately with cash and a 40% off coupon :)  Hey - Don’t judge - I saved a chunk of dough!

I have been knitting some odd items that I will probably send to the indian reservation in South Dakota.  I am trying some new quick patterns.  I know what the weather service has said about the El Nino effect on our weather but I am more likely to believe the Farmer’s Almanac forecast.  How many times have they been wrong?  I also have other evidence by the crazy activity in my yard of the mice and chipmunks - and it is only September!  They are crawling up the downspouts and burrowing into the landscape much more than ever!

We are having my daughter, son-in-law, and grandson over for lunch today.  I can’t believe he starts 1st grade on Tuesday! 

Gotta go - I have cinnamon rolls in the oven.

Well - I have 2 very lovely finished objects to show you.  One I will be keeping and one that I will be gifting.  I will show you the gifted item first:

I made this vest from Cleckheaton Merino Supreme.  The yarn is soft and scrumptious.  I purchased this at Coldwater during one of her wonderful sales.  I didn’t have enough of one color so I blended the colors together for the vest.  When I was finished I liked the way it looked but it looks awful on me - way too big.  The yarn has a wonderful springiness to it and that was enhanced by the seed stitch pattern.  I will be sending this to my mom.  She has more bust than I do and I think she will fill it out better.  She can wear it open or pin it shut if she likes.  If she doesn’t like it she has my permission to rip it apart to make hats and mittens with it :)  Mom - I will be sending this out sometime this week along with the book I ordered.  It should also arrive some time this week.

The other finished object I am keeping.  This is my “Free Sweater”

I ripped out the edging and redid the neck.  I put in a row of seed stitch around the neck and then did the applied i-cord.  I added 3 stripes to the sleeves and 1 stripe to the body.  I also reworked the sleeves from a different pattern - didn’t like how they felt. This is made from mostly Cascade 220 and Galway.  The buttons are on the bottom and I will be putting those on soon.  I happened to hit a sale at Hancock Fabrics and they were even 1/2 price!

As for the collegen injection…Everyone imagines their first injection - will it be the lips? the cheekbones? no - mine will be my vocal chord. :(  My right vocal chord is still paralized so I am going into surgery again on Monday for about an hour and have it plumped up to fill the gap between the 2.  This should help my voice and my breathing and swallowing and hopefully will remind the nerve where it is supposed to be.

I have many projects I am working on and a HUGE garage sale that dh and I are planning for the latter half of September!  Nothing is sacred!  Hopefully I will also sell some of the items my son is storing in my storeroom.  He needs the money more than these collecting dust in my house  

Well, another week, another horse show.  We picked Sophie up Saturday from her week at horse camp.  It was a beautiful, sunny day so we did see what she learned.  This is Sophie with her horse Ditter.

They had a special bond.  They were actually built quite a like - long and lean.

I have many more pictures but they are on her camera and not easy for me to download onto my computer.  She received a ribbon in all 4 of the events held.  She did very well.  It was fun to see her go around the ring.  She basically jumped up 2 groups and was cantering this week.

Oh yeah - she requested a fast horse, so they gave it to her.  You could tell that he wanted to really go but she did a great job holding him in and he responded very well to her.

I can just see her behind the wheel of her first car!

Well - I guess you never really know what goes on in your child’s mind - do ya?

Zoe - our new high schooler - has discovered that she really wants to participate in marching band.  Now she does play piano, but I don’t think any of us has seen a piano rolled out onto a football field or in a parade route - at least on it’s own power and not on a float.  No, she has decided that she really likes colorguard, the people who twirl the huge flags around and have to learn choreography and flag manuvering.  Go figure!    We are very pleased because:

1.  Band kids are usually a good group of kids to hang out with.

2. She will have a built in LARGE group of faces she will know on the 1st day of school as they are practicing big time to prepare before the football season starts and their competitions.

3.  She will have a cute costume to wear - that I will probably be sewing as the other moms were very excited to learn that I can sew…yes, I signed up to be on the costume committee…

3.  She just might build up some muscles waving those flags around, especially in a nice brisk fall wind.

I was in marching band in high school and really had a lot of fun.  I just never figured this child to participate in this manner - she never ceases to surprise me.

(This is just a random shot of a colorguard.  More updates to come.)