Son II Settled In

We got Matthew all moved into his new house today.........by the way, Bill and I are taking a vacation from our moving van business if you are thinking of scheduling a move with our help, we must decline!

Matthew used to be 5 minutes from his Sherwin Williams store, but the new house is now about 20 minutes away. He doesn't mind the extra minutes in exchange for the larger and more private living space.

This is what we saw upon our arrival this morning...Matthew and his co-worker , Mark, who also works for Sherwin Williams as a salesman and is also renting the house with Matthew, had moved 99% of the stuff out of their apartment already so all we had to do was load it up and haul it out!

With the storm clouds threatening, we decided we had to make 2 runs after all for not all the stuff would fit on the first load.
I volunteered to stay behind and keep watch over the remaining treasures........I had my knitting and chocolate-what more could I need?!
This is Mark's dog, faithful sidekick , Nicco, who helped me stay behind to guard the goods........ Load number 2........

and then head 'em out and wagon , ho!

The new house! (sorry for this view of Bill.........I didn't notice it when I took the pic!)
Side yard is a large forest........
Down the street are just a few neighbors......
The living room is the first room you walk into..........

then on into the diningroom ,

......and out to the patio or

........ into the kitchen, note the door next to the fridge-it's a pantry-they have so much room in the kitchen now-it is huge compared to most apartments......

Matthew's bedroom and master bath...........

Mark's room , only slightly smaller than Matthew's-belive me, they measured! is to the right of the livingroom and next to this, the spare room /office.......

Here is the garage which also has an entrance to the house through their laundry room. I thought I had a pic of that but I can't find it!

The electricity wasn't on when we moved in-the power company said it would be today, they just couldn't tell you when............! Matthew called and it came on at 5:00- at least it was still light out even with all the rain falling outside! Matthew treated us to a late lunch and then we hit the road for our little abode. Glad we are close enough to be involved in the boys lives....even if it does tire us out!

(Sorry this took so long to post, for those of you who knew I was posting an hour ago-Bill is bringing in the washer and dryer 'cuz our old ones went to caleb/matthew and I needed the ones from storage brought in for me! I had to 'hold and go get' sporadically during the whole process--the specialty of all good wives!) Here is a pic of the new set up of the old machines-------------->

(Yes, that is my old Ashford spinning wheel and chair.........they will be out in their place of honor when we add some more room!)

Gator Sighting!

I finished the alligator scarf! Didn't he turn out cute! One thing about being in the car all the time is that I can do my knitting at least-

I sat down to do some sewing this afternoon and the power went out! I did manage to get some borders cut for the red and white quilt to work on some day-I had to be creative for the power outage! This is a pillowcase for a young man at church that is leaving Friday for college-it is in his school colors of purple/gold. The lettering was done with purple behind the stitching so I cut the top layer to see the purple beneath-it fuzzed up after trimming-just the look I imagined so I was glad it worked out.

Our permit paperwork is submitted to the county, the contractor is hired for cement slab and the framing. We are ready to begin next week, Lord willing!

Son III Moves to His Own Place

Caleb is all moved in to his new address in Lake City! We had a fun day and added quitet a few miles to our trucking experience! Here is our caravan arriving to his humble abode.
We ran into a bit of rain but did get everything in before we got soaked. The trailer has done its share of hauling and it comes through again.
We stocked the kitchen with a few basics thanks to the local WalMart......Caleb will have to add to his supplies over the next few weeks. He was given a dining room table and chairs.............

and a couch and loveseat for starters. He fit pretty nicely-picture him here each night!

He has a bit of a backyard and enough of a patio for his grill.

He is using his garage for a weight room and laundry room for now-not to much call for keeping the garage in out of the weather since it is always nice! We had only a small pile of leftovers -we made good use of all his space.

I didn't get a picture of his bedroom-it didn't get put together before I left but it is a good size with 2 large closets; ditto for the spare bedroom-it will be used for his computer and has a futon in there for future visits.

We got a mini tour of his new town, had dinner at the only chinese restaurant, a visit to his Sherwin Williams store, met a co-worker and had a lot of laughs! It is good to see our youngest all settled in his new digs. What a great moving day ---> let's do it again on Thursday!

Our Beach Visit

We took the truck to the beach today! It was so much fun to be in the truck-for Bill it is a long standing dream come true. He even had to slip it into 4 x 4 mode when we hit a section of unpacked sand-flip of the wrist and it powered right through the powder! It was nice.
We also did some fishing at a new 'park' a fellow fisherman told us about-Bill lost a lot of bait but didn't catch a fish. We learned a lot and had a lot of laughs.

We got a cloud burst when it was lunch time so we sat in the truck and watched the waves and let the rain fall all around........it was very calming-no storm, just the rain. It let up in 15 minutes and we took a long walk. Another couple who were fishing told us to check out the beach where the old Marineland used to be so we took a drive when we had finished our walk-it is only a 7 minute drive from our beach (Crescent Beach) and we had fun exploring there, too; hardly any people which is just the way we like it. The beach is very different there, the beach is not a gentle slope into the water-the waves were much more dramatic and there is quite a few large rock jetties every 150' which we had never seen in our area before. I had left my camera behind on this walk so you will just have to imagine the beach-we will be going there again soon so I will picture it then for you.

We stopped in town on the way home and had the tires rotated-Bill didn't think anyone had done that yet and there was a bit of uneven wear on the tires. The ride was much smoother on the way home and we got 19.6 mpg on our trip-nice bonus.

Multi-tasking!

Thanks to some inspiration from a blog friend, Wool Enough and Time, I have sat back down at the spinning wheel and am wondering how I could have stopped my spinning time each day?! I am spinning up the rest of the merino/silk blend I started back in January and it has got to be my best work yet. It is very relaxing.

The gator scarf is moving right along.............he sure does have character, doesn't he? I love it when you hit a place in the pattern when you don't need to read instructions and you can just knit and be. I think there are a lot of these little critters to be knit before I am done with this pattern. The quilt it coming to life right before my eyes. I have finished the cross-hatching of the applique blocks and now I am working on the borders and sashing-I had to take the quilt off the frame and turn it to do this part now. It is more efficient to be able to work on long horizontal areas than to have to keep winding the quilt vertically.........well, trust me this is the way to do it. After the quilt is finished, I will soak it to remove the blue marking lines which I used to follow for my quilting lines. It is going well and I so glad to finally move it from its place in a box and to finish it. Unfinished projects call your name and ridicule you so you know what how much it means to me to silence a 'voice' that is many years old!

Happy Husband

See what we brought home today?

Met with contractor and I should be posting pictures of a new garage and addition under construction in a few weeks.....what a journey!

We did it!

We are the proud owners of this new truck. It has been a long hunt but it has all the requirements we wanted. It is a 2003 Diesel DODGE RAM 2500 HD SLT 4X4 with only 64,000 miles for all of you who need details! Thanks for sharing with us!

The Last and First Stitches

I have vfinished the sage colored shawl! It is as long as I am tall-a good rule of length for a shawl next time I plan one. This way, it stays on my shoulders because it hangs down far enough on the sides! It is going to be just right for the hazardous a/c occasions we experience! And here is a close-up of the stitches. This is one of the first wools I had spun, a merino from the LYS in Oswego, NY, Northwinds, which has since closed.
I have already started my next project, a kit that I have desired since I first saw it in a magazine after we moved here. It is appropriate for my new environment, don't you think?! This is a pattern and yarn from Morehouse yarns-an on-line store and mill. Can you see what shape the scarf is developing..........? Did you notice the little chocolate candies? One of the best tips I read about in a knitting magazine is using candy to help you keep track of the rows......I need to work even for 4 rows between the 'scale' rows on the gator so I set out 4 chocolates, eat one at the end of each row and when the candy is gone I am done with that repeat! It is a good and useful excuse-Bill does like to share in my 'counting', too!

This is to record progress on the grill-he says that it will get finished today when he has to come in for the afternno when it is too hot to be working outside. I have my camera ready.

No truck yet, but we will need to have one by next week so we can help Matthew move into his new house (still in Ocala) and to help Caleb move into his new house (Lake City)...but there is no pressure Bill. I am rooting for a silver truck but it is a thousand over budget and he backed out on the deal.......what is a thousand when you need a truck?! We will see what the next few days produces. We will soon be hauling building supplies, too because................there is finally some

House progress-----------> we have hired the contractor to pour the concrete for the slab. Another man comes this afternoon to give us an estimate on finishing the paperwork for the permit and to frame up the addition. Things are starting to hop around here-well, it is too hot to hop, how about ripple-that is progress! Really!

Friday Stuff

This has been sighted out back several times this week............

our neighbor is logging out the little forest in his back acreage and the only way to remove his timber is across our back area. We posted a route for the trucker to drive across and so he makes the trip at least once a day.

He goes down the right of way lane next to our house and then out to the main road. Nice guy, hopefully he stays on his appointed route so the turtles, etc , can stay out of his way.

I got a quilt ready to stitch on the frame. It has been a long time since I have had anything to work on. This will be a challenge; it is an applique in a day quilt that I started a long time ago but it is finally done and ready to be brought forth.........the quilting will need to be a bit more formal than what I have done previously so we will see how it goes! It is all ready for me to tackle first thing tomorrow morning.

I bought the backing for this quilt at JoAnns yesterday along with many notions that I had used up. I used to go to that store every week but now go once every 4-6 weeks so my list tends to be specific and not as spontaneous. I bought some red calico to finish the borders on the red and white quilt, some accent fabric for a quilt I am designing-a paper pieced one, several packets of needles and a quilt ruler-I have been slowly replacing my plexiglass rulers because they have gotten cloudy due to age. Bill dropped me off when he went to have the car worked on and I got to shop until I dropped. I even got done before him and sat and knitted for 1/2 hour on the green shawl!

He looked at every truck in Volusia county but didn't find just the right one. The hunt is on!

A Bit of This and Some of That

I made this for Abigail to match the one I made for Marsel for her beach walk. I did line it for Abigail and sent off a slip for Marsel to add to hers for when she wears it off the beach!

Bill sold his van..........couldn't get much for it at a dealership as a trade-in on a p/u truck so he put it out front to see how it would do-we sold it immediately........being a one car family for the first time ever in our lives is proving interesting! He is going truck hunting tomorrow. Hopefully, he will be successful so we can go out on the boat again-the Yaris just isn't up to the task!

I went to the doctor's today, a surgeon to talk about my gall bladder pain.............after suffering for so many years I found I had gone to the wrong kind of doctors in the past.......this man was quite cheerful about removing mine-says I have classic case of chronic 'gall bladder itis' and since it runs in my family it will be good to remove it before it becomes infected (like my Mom's!) Now that is a novel idea. I have had every test there is to have for the pain I have lived with for 20 years but I finally have some hope for its relief! My daughter was told in the ER when she went in with her gall bladder attack-go and see a surgeon about getting it out-never go to a gastrointeroligist. Well, guess where my pcp had always sent me . BUT at our new doctors I asked to see a surgeon and he said, "Great idea!" It was and will be............I have an appt for next month! Whoopee!

After the doctors we went to have a check-up for our Yaris-dealer gives free oil change and check-ups for life of the car-cool , huh?! Bill dropped me off at JoAnn Fabric Store and I shopped until I dropped...........I got everything on my list so I can finish up quite a pile of things!

We had lunch at Olive Garden and are ready to drop in our easy chairs.........it is hard work being retired!

Do It Yourself

I needed some mottled tan fabric for a new wallhanging. Instead of waiting until the end of the week when I will be 'going to town' I decided to do it myself! That is no surprise really, is it? And just look at the results.........it is so hot out is dried in just 10 minutes! I am ready to iron it and cut it up!

Speaking of too hot, the cats just dash out for a bathroom call and then lay around beautifully like cats do........

Speaking of cats and too hot.........the bbq is still sitting in the livingroom. I should put up a day counter and see where it leads. Maybe not.

I finished the morning surf scarf.........it is still a bit too short for my taste but I will let it lay around a while and see if I keep it or rip it out and knit it into some fingerless mittens.

It was really fun to knit and blocking it makes it look more like lace and less like bubbles. See how the color defined itself? This is why so many knitters love/hate multi-colored yarn. I like the color puddles.

My orchid is blooming still.........it looks so pretty outside. It requires so little care it is easy to forget about it and just enjoy it.

I finished piecing thered and white quilt. I will have to wait to go to the store to buy fabric for the borders for this...........I need a red print. I am thinking it needs a curved border to accent the older looking fabrics. I would machine quilt it with the borders sewn on straight to keep it squared and then cut the curves after it is quilted. So many good ideas.........