14 posts tagged “friends”
Took Rachel and Katie down toward DC on Sunday. We stopped by the Homespun Yarn Party, which was a gathering of local spinners and dyers. SO much pretty fiber and yarn to see! I purchased some artsy stitch markers that I've been eying for a while, and also finally snagged a Ravelry button!!!
We returned this evening from a lovely weekend away at Williamsburg and Jamestown. We go down to that area once or twice a year, but this was the first time we've gotten there with just the two of us since our honeymooon in 1988! We had a lovely trip, but what really struck me was the excavation at Jamestown. We listened to one of the archaeological volunteers describing...
Okay, so that's the blog entry I began in mid-November! Lots of stuff happening since then:
1. We did indeed travel to Jamestown for a wonderful little getaway.
2. Katie played the part of an Indian in the Waynesboro Children's Theatre production of Peter Pan. She had a blast, did a great job, and is looking forward to returning next year. Her dream gig: staying in the theatre until she's a senior in high school, by which time the rights to Wicked would be released, and she could play Elphaba.
3. In the middle of tech week (which required me, as a member of the costume committee, to be at 4.5 hour rehearsals every night), I made a business trip to Detroit. It was so freakin' cold; I never want to move there. Great trip, though. I had a blast using a GPS for the first time, as well as visiting some really great toy stores. The end result means major changes to the structure of the game night program, which in turn means that I will have some job changes with the new year. A lot of the busywork that has been mine will be doled out to a handful of people. None of it is overwhelming for anyone, but combined together, it will mean more time for me to work on actual marketing and design ideas, as well as more time with the family during family hours.
4. I've been knitting and spinning. I received a HitchHiker spinning wheel as an early Christmas gift from my darling husband! Her name is Lucy, and we love each other very much already. I've attended a couple of Ravelry meetups, and met some new fiber friends, as well as visiting a local fiber guild which meets monthly. I've knitted a Monster Hat for Emilee, and am working on one for Rachel. I'm also working on a pair of plain ol' green socks, and will shortly begin a lovel pair of handwarmer fingerless gloves.
5. We finished our homeschooling "semester" and had our review, which went just fine. Nothing big about that, other than I'm always amazed at how much progress our girls make over the months, and I love seeing how their interests grow and change.
6. We (okay, Chris) worked with the younger girls to move around their rooms and sort through their stuff. He's the most fabulous all-daughters dad you could ever imagine. Not many guys have the patience to wade through boxes and bins and baskets of Littlest Pet Shop, My Little Pony, Barbie, Polly Pocket, Pirate dress-up, odds and ends toys, and a gazillion books. But he did it, and they all helped. We purchased a bunch of lime green bins (to match two of their walls), and two big white shelves, and they now have all sorts of space for their stuff to be put away, which is a Wonderful Thing.
7. We've done all our Christmas shopping, and Rachel (God bless her!) wrapped nearly ALL of it for me! I have never been this far ahead, this early! Tomorrow morning, the last of the need-to-be-shipped stuff goes out. This week is pretty empty, so I'll be taking the girls shopping, wrapping their stuff, and figuring what we might do for a Christmas dinner.
8. Chris' brother and his family (two cousins the same ages as Rachel and Katie) have always come up for Christmas week. In the past couple of years, as the kids get older, they've spent more time camping out at our house with our girls, instead of hanging out at Grandma's. They're not coming up this year, so Christmas week will be quite different. I've invited my dad over on Christmas day, as well as Chris' mom, but don't know if they'll make it or not. We'll see!
9. We had a great holiday family party with my dad and two brothers and my sister-in-law. My mom sent up all the dinner fixins', and my brother and SIL cooked it all. I barely had to lift a finger! I was supposed to bring deviled eggs, and Rachel and Katie took care of that, even. It was a very nice, relaxing day.
10. I'm looking forward to a girls' night out on Tuesday. A bunch of old friends from our old religious group are getting together at Borders for coffee and chatter. I can't wait!
In the midst of all of this, there's a movie shoot with an open call for extras at our local movie theatre. Three moms took our kids over, and they had a BLAST!! Here's a before and after makeup shot. We arrived around 8 PM, nothing was really happening until nearly 10 PM, and our kids didn't finish getting makeup until nearly 3:30 AM!
They shot some chase scenes out in the parking lot, and spent a LOT of time waiting around. They were tired and a little bored. Emilee didn't want a lot of blood on her shirt, so they didn't make her wounds as big as she would have liked. So I asked if she was sure she wanted to come back for the second shooting round tonight, and I got a rousing, "YES!!!!" Oh, not too bored, I reckon!
In other news, we're loving the food from our local farmers' markets... so much wonderful fall produce! We've been eating fresh veggies and fruits every day, and I'll be terribly spoiled by the time really cool weather rolls around. I definitely MUST plant a garden next spring.
Emilee turned 16 on Friday. She had a couple of friends over at the last minute, for a campfire, cake and ice cream, and goofing off with no little sisters around.
Whew! Spent today cleaning the garage. It's a detached building, and it's got a dirt floor. We emptied the entire room, and raked and made it as even as possible, and laid down some indoor/outdoor carpet. $20 at Lowe's, on clearance as a remnant, and just the perfect size! We then moved it all back in again, except two big piece of furniture, two or three boxes of yard sale stuff, and 6 or 7 big black trash bags of TRASH and JUNK. Yay!
My dad made a point of driving 1.25 hours to come visit and help! It was nice to have him here, and the work was definitely helped by his presence. The girls enjoyed having him here for the little 4th of July - End of Carnival Week Parade.
This evening, we went over to the Stones for a campfire. Very nice, very relaxing. I even took a little 15 minute catnap in my chair! One of our old church friends stopped by to visit for a while. It was so nice to see her, and her kids, and just hang for a bit. I've missed her friendship, so hopefully she'll come by for another visit soon.
I'm excited... a dear friend is moving (today is the Big Day, actually), and sent me some of her extra yarn stash. There were skeins of gold and maroon that are perfect for a Harry Potter scarf. And this morning I got notice that the library has the HP Knitting book ready for pickup. Can't wait to look through it!
The weather wasn't the most cooperative at first. Tropical Storm Andrea stood just off of the coast, threatening, but not worsening. It made the surf much too rough for anything more than wading, and that was after two full days of a "don't get in the water at all" advisory! The water was cold, as expected at this time of year, but with outside temps in the high 50's... well, not very beachy, to say the least. So we visited Norfolk, with its lovely harbor and Naval ships. We swam in the hotel pool. We walked and explored and enjoyed being somewhere other than home.
The kids (nine in total!) got along very well for the most part, and it was so exciting to see them playing in the sand and surf for hours, all ages mixing and laughing and helping each other in whatever project they were doing at the time.
By Thursday, the weather was nice enough to play in the sand for the day, although the kids still couldn't go much past their knees without really being knocked around by the waves. Boy, did they play!!! For several hours, they all dug and built and wrote in the sand.
Friday, it was a repeat, but the weather was gorgeous!!! It was a perfect day... cold water (so no wave jumping, really), but safe enough to boogie board and spend a long, long time in the surf. When they tired of the water, they began to build a big hole, which then got deeper and deeper... and another hole began... and they decided to connect the two. It became an exploration of engineering, as they realized that the pitch of the horizontal tunnels weren't matching up. They needed to manipulate the holes up/down to make them connect. They did it! As you can see, the holes were deep enough to hide small children! What a blast they had.
We're home for two days, while C is at his 20-year college reunion. On Monday, we head to Lancaster, PA for five quick visits: Wilbur Chocolate Candy Museum, Art of the Brick (LEGO) at the Lancaster Museum of Art, Intercourse Pretzel Factory,
Intercourse Canning Company, and Herr's Chips. It should be a fun, short trip - just one night, but we're staying at Willow Valley, which has a really cool indoor pool with a slide, fountains, and other fun stuff for the kids to enjoy on Monday evening.
1. Had a wonderful visit with new friends last weekend. Might get to go snowtubing with some of them tomorrow, depending on the weather. It's a rather heavy-duty post, but if you care, you can read about it here.
2. Got to knit on my sweater this week, and even spent a couple of evenings spinning some merino top that I bought at Knitch. It's a gorgeous frosty taupe with bits of blue and cream and grey throughout. It's delicate and pretty, and I'm pleased to see how thin I'm getting it, and how consistent it is. I can't wait to ply it!
3. The girls are busy reading Nancy Drew, listening and reading Series of Unfortunate Events, sewing outfits for Doggie Day Care animals, and playing Nintendo DS. They've been helping out a lot around the house. We continue to declutter. It's a never-ending task.
4. Emilee lost her job a bit over a week ago... the joint is changing ownership, and the old manager held an employee meeting without calling Emilee to let her know. I only happened to drive by and noticed the sign in the window saying they were "CLOSED TEMPORARY" [sic] She's wavering between enjoying a less busy schedule, and running out of cash. She's going to apply at the tiny local grocery, around the block from our house. Very, very convenient, and the people there seem very nice. And bit more responsible that her previous boss.
5. I've been puttering at work stuff, trying to get ahead on some upcoming projects, but also taking a bit of a break after the busyness of the trade shows and the game nights. Next week, I really need to dig into some prep work for upcoming April events. I usually enjoy it all once I dig into it, but it's hard to take that first step sometimes!
6. Had a wonderful birthday visit with one of my oldest friends. She's been traveling from state to state for the past few years, obtaining her Doctorate last year. Lo and behold, her DH got a job down this way, they quickly had to find a house in the area, and it's ONE freakin' mile from my house, right on my road!!! Pretty wild, I tell you what. Our kids have really hit it off, and we're loving being able to spend time together. Last night, we had dinner at Panera and got to really talk for a while... very nice.
6. I'm picking up the tea vice in lieu of sugar and wheat vice. I've got to lose some weight. I'm disgusted at how much I've gained back after working so hard to lost it four years ago. I will lose it again. Permanently. Back. On. The. Wagon.... ... ... WITH TEA.
7. My heart aches for my dear friend Jay. Just weeks after losing her father, she's struggling with her brother entering his last phases of cancer. I wish I could be there more for her... even just to buy a cup of coffee and sit with her for a bit. I have no answers, but at least she wouldn't feel so alone and abandoned.
Whew! I’ve spent the week moving the grahlfamily.com site, and then trying to get the blog to work again. I stupidly moved the site before I downloaded the RSS feed for all the old posts. So while I could see the old posts, I had a heck of a time actually getting them downloaded and imported correctly. But, as you can see, I did it!
Latest news:
1. Went to International Toy Fair in New York for the third time. Had a blast, saw lots of neat things at the show. Ate some wonderful meals, visited American Girl Place and Times Square.
2. Am leaving next week for NSSEA (educational supply expo) in Atlanta. It will be warmer there than it was in New York! Plus, I get to visit Knitch.
3. We’re looking foward to Wayne Jacobsen’s visit in a couple of weeks. Not only will we get to see him, but we’ll visit with other like-minded folks in the area. We met several folks last year, and really enjoyed our fellowship with them.
4. The girls are doing well. They’re all involved in various books and projects and art and music. Emilee’s really getting good on the guitar. Rachel has been reading, really reading. Katie plows through more books, and has been constructing doll furniture. Becky’s vocabulary has grown exponentially, and she uses every opportunity to chat as much as possible. They are really a joy, for the most part (a few rough patches with me being gone, but I can’t complain).
5. Haven’t done any spinning, as I’ve been busy with work projects. But I’m working on a sweater, my first one that really has any shape or pattern to it. I’ll post pics as I move further along with it.
6. Our family lost a dear young friend this week. Jessie was the youngest of four beautiful girls, from a family who we’ve known for probably 15 years. I taught their girls piano, they babysat my girls when they were younger, we spent many hours together in church in years past, and we have remained friends since. Jessie died this week in a car accident near her home. The news was terribly sad for my girls, and has made us all feel incredibly mortal. I know she is at peace with Jesus and yet, it’s been a very difficult time for us.
