WOW...She knit something!

Can you tell that the kids are truly back in school? I actually found time yesterday to cast on a new project! I bought the yarn for this sweater over a year ago and never had the time to make it. It is a Jo Sharp project out of one of her contemporary knitting books. I love it! I love the color, I love the yarn, I love that I got to sit and watch movies yesterday while I got going on it! Now I just have to make sure I don't have a reoccurrence of "startitis" and forget about it when it begins to get a bit cooler and I decide to cast on something else, esp holiday gifts! Think of this as a Christmas gift for Kristi! Maybe that will do it!

Darn, now I brought up the idea of knitted gifts so now my brain is thinking about what I need to knit! Guess I will have to start a list! If you have any requests let me know now instead of in November! :O)

Girlfriends

This was taken the weekend before Tiffany and her family left us to move to Japan. Jo and Tiffany and I (and a bunch of others from our church) spent the evening at an Emmaus event that served as a farewell meeting too. It is harder to be on the side where you have to say goodbye and be left behind I think, we are used to being the ones that do the leaving. Tiffany gets to go off to another country and see and do all those exciting first time things. A part of me is jealous but there is the part of me that is beginning to think about putting down roots here also! Shhhh....Don't tell the railroad that I said that or they will think about moving us!

Tiffany, we just want you to know that we miss you! Disciple just won't be the same without you and keep the blog entries coming, we love getting a feel for Japan through you, even if you have cheaper yarn! In your honor, I will cast on something new tomorrow! Or maybe finish a sock!

Happy Birthday

I told myself that today wasn't going to be that bad, it is just a day after all. The thing is that we always used to make a big deal out of birthdays. Sandi and I were so close in age that we made a big deal about that month and 6 days between our birthdays. I was always excited to be two years older for that month and six days and she (as we got older) was excited to be two years younger. I never really gave any thought to the fact that now she gets to stay 33 forever! The thought vaguely crossed my mind on my birthday but my girlfriends took such good care of me that day that it didn't really have the time to dwell on it.

It doesn't help that Mom and dad and Jami and Courtney and Carol are getting together for lunch today and I am five hours away. Then they are all going out to dinner with mike and the kids. I talked to Mike earlier in the week and he said that things are OK there. The kids started school yesterday and it is the little things that I wonder if he will remember. I am sure that he does the things like pencils and paper and lunch boxes but does he remember the little things like taking a first day of school picture and making sure the ribbon in Lauren's hair matches her new outfit? I know this is hard for all of us, I keep thinking of the next hard thing that will come along, when does it get easier?

The Last Hurrah....

If I had thought ahead I would have probably posted this blog entry prior to the Back to School one but hey, That was the moment we were waiting for, I got distracted!

Last Wednesday the girls and I were over at my friend Stacey's house and as we were lazing around the pool and floating in rafts she began to lament the return of school and the fact that she was going to have to go back to work. She really wanted to have a chance to go to her family's lake house one last time before school started but she wanted to be back for church on Sunday because she had missed a bunch over the summer.

As we sat there, she got that look in her eye and asked me if I could back the boat into the water. Being me, I said, "Of course!" The plan began to take form in our minds and we decided to call some other friends to join us. Sadly Tammie had important doctors appointments scheduled and was unable to join us but Jo jumped at the opportunity to bail on work and join us and we invited Desiree, who is the wife of our new Music director at church. Funny side note here...turns out I was on the Mothers of multiples club board with Desiree's sister Angie for two years before Angie moved to Germany! How strange is that!

Thursday morning we got things together and got ready to head up to Greer's Ferry Lake where the Davis family has their lake house and we got our belongings stowed. Stacey and I decide to try to get the boat out and get ready to go swim.

Now...bear in mind that I was thinking something small, like a ski boat or such. Stacey was thinking Party Barge! That thing was massive! Maybe it wasn't that big in reality but when I saw what I had so boldly stated I could manage, I have to admit, I got a bit nervous! After much preparation and some phone calls to Don, we finally head over to the boat ramp where I am proud to say, I got the boat in the water and Stacey got it started! The first time was almost a comedy of errors and questions and learning curve but we managed! All of us learned a great deal about boat maintenance and care and we had a great time. Stacey complimented me on getting the boat in the water and I laughed and said that I was surprised at how easy it was considering I had never done it before! I thought she was going to pass out, she had thought I knew how and I just had confidence in my ability to learn how!

Katie of course had to show us her pouty side, I swear it is PMS starting! Poor Kevin, he doesn't even know what is coming, his sister was older than he was so he probably missed the puberty stage with her!

We had a great time. We had 4 women, 6 girls age 7-11 and two boys ages 2 and 3. We put the boat back in on Friday and got some more sun and fun before we had to head back for naps. Jo's husband Marty and Stacey's husband Don came up Friday night and played cards with us before we all headed back home Saturday morning!

Can't wait for next summer! Only 284 days to go!

WOOO HOOOO!

That was for Christine! Be sure that I did the arm motions to go with it just after I typed it AND I expect that everyone who knows her will do them when they read this!

Today is.......

Drum roll please....

THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!

The twins will be in second grade at our new elementary school which is close by and Katie will be in 6th grade, her last year in MIDDLE SCHOOL! Next year my baby will be in Junior High. Is that really possible? We are looking for a transfer to happen in the next week so Katie can attend the other middle school in town, the one she is in is WAAAAYYY overcrowded and she is on the list for the transfer, pray for this if you wouldn't mind!


While this is a REALLY and I do mean REALLY happy day because my kids will all be in school again leaving me time to actually accomplish something for almost 9 hours each weekday, It is also sad in that so many of my friends have had time to play this summer because they either shortened their schedules this summer or they work for the school district and work the same schedule as the kids! Now I am finding that I am almost jealous that they are going back to work and realize that I wouldn't mind going back to work. I just don't seem to be the suzy homemaker type, I accomplish so much more when I am busy and if I could get on with the school district at least my schedule would mostly match the kids! Pray for an opening that I qualify for, I am!

Well, the buses were supposed to be here a minute ago so I am going to go check on the girls and make sure they got on their way correctly, then it is off to the gym for some much needed exercise!

Proof that I am certifiable......

I took a job yesterday that will probably run me ragged and keep me busy and the best part is that I won't even get paid to do it! I am however very excited to be the new Youth Director at Christ UMC in Cabot, AR.

I get to work with the junior high through college age kids and create events for them and teach sunday school for them! What a change from kindergarten two years ago!

That said, we are in need of lots of friends and families to come and join us! We are a start up church and have not even celebrated our one year anniversary yet and we are growing strong! We meet for sunday school and church at Magness Creek Elementary school on Sunday mornings at 9:15 and 10:30 respectively! Come join us!

Even So, It Is Well With My Soul

Sandi loved that song and that was the way she lived her life! No matter what came at her, she would say, that must be God's will and that she would learn to be ok with it. I used to call her Pollyanna because she could always find the silver lining! That said, I am trying to do better in seeing the good instead of the negative. Walk to Emmaus helped with that, my friends and church family help with that too. One of the things I have found that I have trouble with is forgiveness.

Here goes...

Dear rude obnoxious person that stole my Blackberry,

(see, it still creeps out there) I hope that you are enjoying my, oops, your new phone. Please know that I am positive that you needed it more than I do. I am sure that you wouldn't have opened my car door even knowing that I left it unlocked unless you had an emergency and needed a phone right that very second. I am sure you thought that borrowing my phone was easier than waking up the people in the house you stood outside to use their phone was the kind thing to do! I hope that you realize that it is not the money that bothers me, material things can be replaced no matter how much money was spent on ring tones or graphics or the personal information that was kept on there and how many numbers and addresses were lost to me, those I can replace. What bothers me most is the fact that the last pictures of my sister while she was living are on that phone. You will look at those pictures and think how terribly emaciated and ill that person looks and why would you have those pictures on there but only I know that those were the last days my beloved sister breathed life on this earth. I know that she is probably happy those pictures are gone and that she would tell me to get over it. I am trying to do that. I will forgive you for stealing my phone because that is what God would want me to do and I will pray for you and hope that you will find a way to change your life and use your God given talents for good, not evil.
So, enjoy your new phone, even though my husband secretly thinks that I gave it away in the hopes of acquiring a new iPhone. I will replace my phone and my memories of my sister will not fade or be stolen, you have to live with what you have done! God bless you!

Sincerely,
The owner of the red blackberry pearl~

What have I been knitting lately?

Mei recently posted and wanted to know what I had been knitting lately...

While I would like to say that I have knocked out Rogue this summer(which of course the yarn is present and paid for and waiting patiently), or that great cabled sweater by Jo Sharp that I have the yarn for, I haven't seemed to have the bandwidth to sit down and do anything complicated!


Apparently all I can manage right now is Dishcloths! (ok, I have three socks on the needles too but those are doing nothing for me right now!) I have knit I don't know how many of the Mason-Dixon washcloth this summer, I am addicted! Maybe someone needs to gently but firmly remove my circulars from my hands and hand me something other than dishcloth cotton. It has been so long since I was in a yarn shop that I have almost forgotten what wool feels like! I even placed an order with elsmore-pisgah for cones of cool colors of dishcloth cotton so that I didn't have to run to buy more all the time! YIKES!

I vow that as soon as I take this current washcloth off the needles I will cast on something less functional and more FUNctional!

Wow, I really need to post more...

Sometimes they card you and sometimes they are surprised that you are "only" 35! Just Kidding!

Not much has gone on lately, I think it is time for the back to school countdown!

The kids have been back from Grandma's and camp and have had friends over each day since then so we really haven't slowed down at all! I feel like all I do is run all summer so I am really looking forward to settling back into the routine that is the school year! Of course things really don't slow down much the kids are just gone 9 hours a day so I have some time to myself!

I might just have to find something to do this year since I managed to wiggle out of having a girl scout troop of my own and moving to a new school means that I am not on the PTO board again! YIPPPEEEEE~!

So the official countdown begins.... 14 days, 9 hours, 31 minutes and 19 seconds as of this minute!