Knitterykate 2

"Let the children come unto me." These little girls have never been to Sunday School before and are so excited to be there. They are such a joy to teach with their eagar little faces and happy smiles. Of course, it helps a lot when you are free with the stickers, prizes and candy treats!

We use to do things as a family every Saturday afternoon. First stop was the bakery. We would all get a donut and pop and ruin our appetite for the rest of the day.

To my family everwhere all over the globe: My hope is to see you all soon--either here, there or in the air! Have a very happy holiday season and "think on Him, when it is well with thee". Lots of love, Knitterykate

I found this list in some papers that I was saving. What Can You Do For Jesus? By LJ, aged six 1. Pray 2. Obey 3. Obey Mommy and Daddy 4. Read your Bible every day 5. Be good 6. Be nice to people 7. Make people dresses 8. Help people 9. Make a house for someone 10. Put peoples' hats on for them 11. Say, "please" 12. Comb people's hair 13. Make people hats 14. Preach 15. Go to meeting 16. Make meeting rooms 17. Help at weddings (put on dresses on the maids) 18. Set up meeting chairs 19. Sing to the Lord By LJ, July 1994 I really wish she would have put on there "Clean your room."

We dedicate this page to a brave girl who today has begun anew to practice her driving skills. With many starts and stutters, biting of fingernails, cowerings in corners, stomping of feet and just saying no, the day has finally come that H decided (with strong urgings from her mom!) to get behind the wheel of the car. Someday the streets of Vancouver will be graced with the skill of this fine motorist. Alas! Said girl skipped the country with nary a driving lesson under her belt...We'll be waiting at the border.

I had just gotten home from doing errands. I ran around town doing the banking, paying bills, buying CD's to burn an update for our printer's driver (our computer finally died and since it's not hooked up to the internet we had to download an upgrade and thus burn a CD), getting a Starbuck's :), picking up LJ from school, going to the grocery store for a few items for dinner, mailing a parcel to B&P and finally getting home. Does it sound like your day? I suppose it does because we are just normal busy people. (That really was just one hour in the afternoon.) When I walked in the door B asked me, "Do you want to go out to eat tonight or Thursday?" You mean I get a choice? I thought he meant for H's b-day since we planned on taking her to a Greek resturant but he was thinking of using the gift certificate that a very generous friend from CA had mailed to us. Here is where they wanted us to go. We have never been to this kind of a restuarant so we didn...

My "little boy" turns 20 today. All moms everywhere say, "Where did the time go?" And I can echo that. When he was a baby he was given a pair of size 18 months pants and I cried just thinking that he would one day be big enough to wear them. Those days are long gone and in their place is a pair of pants to fit a 6'3" man. My greatest desire for him today is not that he would grow big and strong but that he would be a man of God. That would be the greatest gift that my son could give in return for the years that I've raised him. That's all I ask.

Poor Prince D will be an old man and too big to wear this sweater by the time I finish it. It's so slow going because there is so much happening in my family's lives that pre-empts knitting time. (Hectic is one word to describe our lifestyle. I sometimes wonder who is going to be home for dinner when I'm cooking at night. I always console myself with the thought of Teegee eating at 10:30PM when he comes home even if no one else has touched the meal. As long as there are no onions. Besides that, if there's any left over someone is apt to take it to work the next day for lunch.) Well, D will be four months old at the end of this month and this was suppose to be a shower present for a shower that was held before he was born. At least Mom knows it's coming. post script. Yes, I finished the Wonderful Wallaby on Saturday. Mom was pleased as punch when I gave it to her yesterday. Alas, there is no picture of the finished product. I will try to get one when he wears it.

The hat that I'm working on has a cabled band around the crown. You start with a provisional cast-on --one that is worked in a different color so that it is easy to pick out later when you knit the two ends together that fit snugly around your brow. Look here for pics of the technique.

There's a long-standing joke in our family that when we're up to our ears and can take no more we say, "and to top it all off, the border was lined up." It goes back to a friend that had had a horrendous day and at the end he had to wait at the border and that was the straw that broke the camel's back. Go figure.

H's birthday is this week. You'll never guess who has to help wrap the presents. I don't know why I even bother. He could probably do a better job than I can.

It took us eight and one half hours to make a three hour trip to the SeaTac Airport. The kids' plane landed at 6:30PM--right on time but we were three hours late picking them up! The roads as well as the border were horrendous. Snow and ice and accidents everywhere! And no one knows how to drive in the snow and no one wants to put snow tires on for one mile, take them off for two and put them back on again for five. It was hopeless. Just to get from North Seattle by the 405 interchange to the airport was three hours. The on-ramp alone took us 30 minutes because someone keep slipping and sliding towards a parked bus and thus refused to budge. It was a relief to finally pick up the kids. I sure miss them when they are away. We left the airpost at 10:00Pm and got home at 4:15AM--only a little over 6 hours this time. But I would do it again in a heart beat because of who was there.

I really, really, really like snow. For me, it's better than spending a week on the beach of Waikiki. When we woke up yesterday morning there was at least 10 inches of snow on the roof ofTeegee's car. We live where 10cm (4 inches) was predicted but we got much more than that. It started to snow on Saturday afternoon at 2PM but it didn't look very promising; it was so faint But within 24 hours we were very well cover. We thought of attempting the drive in to meeting but decided against it. We may have made it there but it was still snowing pretty heavily and to get home may have been a problem. G and D stopped by on their way in and we made them coffee to have along with her cookies. (Sort of like a pit stop on the Pony Express.) They were debating on whether to go in or not and finally decided to go. LK went with them (carrying two blankets, just in case!) and called us on the road to let us know the roads were not as good as some had led them to believe. So we stayed h...

Look what I got in the mail the other day! You might think that it's insignificant for a birthday present but if you know what my suitcase looks like you would realize how valuable they are. Like every other bag in the terminal mine is black ...with wheels... and a pull handle. Sound like yours? Well, I'm sure it is. That is why one of these is going on every one of my bags. Already LK used one to go to Regina and was able to spot here bag immediatedly. No more masking tape or ribbon for us! We're going in style. Not only are they good for bags they're also good as key tags! Yes, Teege and Lk left their cars with their keys in my hands. Since the keys are exactly the same it is very hard, if not impossible to tell them apart. Hence the luggage tags with convenient pockets for names. Thanks Jaigy !

By now The Brother has gotten his socks so here is a view of the (un)finished product. They are not warm because they are not wool. They are not soft but for someone with allergies there are concessions and compromises. They are a beautiful shade of blue. Some consolation.

LJ has an orthodontist appointment today. H needs to go shopping for the "snow weekend" in Regina. She, (H), Tom and Leanne are going. Lj is staying with the horse. Hi, Mom ! Send pics of the finished quilt. Better yet blog about it and post some pics! Ask SAJ to help you next time she's out. I'm sure she would be more than happy to help you out with the hitting of the wrong keys! Keep on sending the recipes. I'm collecting them in a booklet and am brain-storming ideas about how to get them bound. Things are not so hectic around here now that LK is working on the on-line catalogue instead of me. I just could not cram everything into every day that I wanted to get done. Things got half way done or not at all and I always felt like I was behind and always trying to catch up. Check out the web site now at this spot . It looks pretty good so far but has a long way to go. I started some socks for " the brother " and was excited about giving them...

I wanted to write about Mr. Owl earlier but every time I started to type, the picture disappeared. As if you cared. Well, anyway Mr. Owl lives near Gypsy's barn in Delta. He was actually visiting the winery during their open house. I had been driving down the road after taking LJ to the barn and saw that there was an open house at the winery. Since it looked like a rustic old barn conducive to picture taking, I turned in. Was I ever glad I did. Besides Mr. Owl there were old fashioned Collectors' cars, furry, fuzzy sheep, miniature ponies, spinning wheels complete with spinning ladies and their wonderful woolly yarn, (I did get some! Great for making socks.) beehives and their by-products, and rainbow colored tractors, A very pleasant way to spend a Saturday morning by myself.

Felix found this "spare" left-over ball of yarn in my bedroom stash. It's the leftovers from jailgy's b-day present. Any yarn left out is fair game for him. (I have stash all over the house. Anywhere there is a spare cubby. I really do draw the line at the freezer though.) He actually grabbed this in his mouth and took off down the hall, down the stairs and into the kitchen. I guess he knows a good thing when he sees it.

I've been to the airport in the rush hour traffic twice in the last 15 hours. Teege took off at 5:00 last nite and LK and H took off this AM for the same destination. The Regina YP are having a get together this week-end and the three of them were able to go. LJ opted to stay by the stuff. It's too much for her with school, horse and work to get to take off too many week-ends. It is so different without the kids around even though they all work and are usually out of the house (except H) all day. I'm thinking of doing a wholesale cleaning job of the house while they're gone. It will be a good time to do it because the twins, their brother and mom and dad are coming here on Saturday and need to use Teege's room. Also, Lk and H really, really cleaned their room this week and got rid of a lot of stuff which is sitting in bags outside MY bedroom. (Mom, can you get rid of this stuff for us, please?) Now we can actually see the floor! (I should get a picture, for sure)....