Birth Day Celebration

I left mom alone until noon so that all of her friends and relations could call and wish her happiest birthday. During that time I made her a dozen gluten free cupcakes. I called Teresa to get a second opinion on whether it should be a single layer cake or cupcakes. Teresa recommended cupcakes. I made a yellow cake with milk chocolate frosting. Looked quite yummy.

I had asked mom months ago where she would like to go and we had decided on Ruby Tuesdays. I had never been there and she hadn't been there in years. She used to go with Heather and Kathy. So while I was waiting I looked up the address. It wasn't in the phone book but that isn't unusual for here. So I looked it up online. The closest Ruby Tuesday was 217 miles away in Pocatello. That is a four hour drive with me behind the wheel. We needed to pick a different restaurant. We settled on TGI Friday which I have also never been to. Mom says that she went with Heather and Kathy all the time and it was very good.

We got to the restaurant and began with our dessert. Since it was a birthday party, I wanted to make sure we had enough room for dessert. We split a dessert then we split an entree. Mom opened her gifts from Teresa and I. We gave her a Nook so she would have lots of books. Mom had already opened her gifts from Heather and Kathy. Books. Books will always be a well received gift for mom.

After lunch we went to the Yarn Shop to turn in our helmet caps. Mom turned in 8, Teresa 2 and me 1. (My excuse is that the pain is so bad I can't even knit. And it is and I can't) I tried to get hold of Teresa cause I couldn't remember the name of the amigurumi book Teresa wanted. So I bought mom a knitting book for her birthday and I bought the same book for me for my birthday. We each got a copy of Knit prayer shawls cause we really liked the one called Sunny Days Ahead. You can see it on the front cover. We didn't get Teresa anything cause she didn't answer her phone.

Mom was pretty tired so we headed home for a nap. After our nap we went out to dinner but stayed here in Emmett. The restaurant we chose was ... well, neither of us would recommend it. Fred was still working so it was just the two of us. We were there 20 minutes before we got menus and put in our order for beverage. Another 30 minutes to put in our food order although the water and tea came rather quickly. Food came 29 minutes after we ordered. (Cousin Jimmy called just before we ordered and we discussed the time difference and what time was it here and there). The food was not worth eating much less worth the wait. Oh, well.

We headed home and mom was off to bed. I guess when you get ancient you just don't have the stamina to party all day and all night. I know I don't have the stamina.

So mom has had another birthday and she is . . .

Happy Birthday Mom!

From all of us . . . .

So helpful

This is Cat being so helpful.  I started this sweater for Miss S on the way
to drop her off at college because it gets cold where she is going to live. But I forgot to put in the second button hole in a reasonable place and with too much space between them, the sweater was either going to be too long or too short.  I guess that is one drawback of making up the pattern as you go. So, I had to rip and reknit - I should have gone even further back because the first two button holes are still going to be too far apart. Cat is missing her girl and so she came to spend time with me. She found the ripping process fun, but she was polite and did not chew the yarn through at all.  She's been spending a lot of time with me and I've learned that if she wants to be petted and you aren't doing an adequate job, she bites.  Now, I must get back to knitting before it gets cold!!

Passiflora's a bloomin'

It's that time of year - late summer/early fall when my passion flowers start blooming like crazy.  And they are doing just what I would expect them to do . . . bloom.  I have so many buds it isn't even funny.  I don't know which ones are getting ready to bloom because by this time of summer the vines are so totally tangled that they cannot be separated.  We'll know what they are when they bloom.

And, of course if the passiflora are flourishing, so are the frits . . . .

She's All Moved In

to her dorm. First a view of the back part of the campus. Miss S on
the back porch of the admin building. View from the president's front
yard and a girl with brand new ID! Dad in front of the presidents
house and sunset from her backyard. A horse on campus then a sunset
shot over her dorm and last a birch tree outside her dorm - that is
the view from her patio. She is in a gorgeous place!!

Big Day

Expect pics . . .

We're on our way!

So today is the day we take the girl across several state lines.  She's alternating between being very excited to be going off on her own; being terrified of the big world and being on her own; being thrilled to meet new friends and experience new things and being sad and lost at the idea of being away from her family and friends.  I'm not alternating at all - I'm going to miss her terribly.  But the car is fixed and packed and we're about to head out.  By this time tomorrow I'll be putting her stuff in a room hundreds of miles from my room and there'll be no more nighttime visits from a scared little girl . . . well, at least not that one but the other one is never scared.

Do you think she packed enough stuff?

And as if it were a consolation prize, my tropical waterlily finally bloomed for me today.  I can't really capture the subtle shading on the ends of the petals so it looks a lot planer than it really is - and it smells divine.

Tatting Tea Tuesday

First a little tatting that I've completed recently.  Some of it I cannot show you as it's on it's way to you - let me know when it gets there so I can post the pictures.  I found this terrific pattern - The Seahorse Dragon.  The pattern is by Anne Bruvold based on a seahorse that Debbie Arnold of DS9Designs created.  I thought it was really cute and I had this lovely size 10 hand dyed thread, dyed by Yarnplayer in the Aqua Bay colorway.  The thread was perfect for the pattern and had been waiting for the perfect pattern to come along.

Lovely, isn't it?

I'm working on Anne's Dragon Wing Doily now, but it's going slowly.  It's not going slowly because the pattern is difficult, because it isn't.  It's not going slowly because I've been knitting, because I haven't.  It's going slowly because I've been so crazy busy lately.  I did get to tat a little today . . . while I was waiting in the  lobby of the transmission shop for them to tell me that even though my transmission is very broken they won't work on it.  They won't work on it because my car is barely 3 years old and has low mileage and wasn't cheap to start with and so, in their opinion, it should not be broken and should not need fixing.  In the transmission shop's opinion, the dealership or the manufacturer should fix it for next to nothing because it has to be their fault.  That doesn't help me get ready for a seven hour road trip in the morning.  Anyway, here's what I got done while waiting for them to look at my car (and they didn't charge me anything, by the way).

And this bit is really exciting!  Miss S has been making molds and pouring pewter for a couple of years now.  She made a cute cat head shuttle for herself and I talked her into making a Lady Hoare shuttle for me (actually two).  It's very nice because the pewter warms up quickly in your hands and it holds quite a bit of thread.  I haven't done a lot of tatting with it yet, but I'm going to if I get to go on my road trip tomorrow.

And last a picture of some little critters on their way to the first stop on the trip to their new homes . . .

Knitting Monday continued on Tuesday

We started with this:

Then we added another and had this:

Then we washed them, gave them eyes (Miss S needle felted the big area around the eyes to make them look more like real owls), stuffed them and sewed the wings on.  This is what we ended up with:

Too cute!

Knitting Monday

Baby Owls from the Fiber Trends pattern. The plan was to make one,
but somehow it became two. Before pictures and better after pictures
tomorrow.

What it looks like and this and that . . .

Fitting posts in between all the comings and goings of company hasn't been easy.  Sure is a good thing I figured out how to pop a picture up with my iPhone.  Here are some catch up bits and pieces and tomorrow there should be some new stuff for Knitting Monday.

First, what the hair ended up looking like.  It looks really great.  Chris put some red highlights, some light blond highlights and two shades between the blond and her regular color - so there are lots of different colors in there and it makes it look really good.  Miss S didn't go too terribly short this time, and I like the cut a lot.  She looks great in really short hair, but I like it just a little longer on her than she does.  

Uncle Mike arrived the night before Jon and Jen left and he's still here.  He's trying to get a work visa so he can go back to Istanbul and work, but it takes a lot of bureaucracy manipulation to get one and so we don't know how long he's staying.  We hope it's a long time . . .

Miss S and I have been very busy trying to get everything she's going to need for college sorted out and packed.  Problem is neither of us really knows what she's going to need or want.  We're just doing the best we can.  We make lots of trips to various stores getting this and that and then we come home and try to fit it into the boxes and bags we are planning to take.  She'll probably get there and only need a quarter of what she's got and need a gazillion things she doesn't have.  

And, for Dena, here is a picture of a gulf fritillary on the lantana in my back yard.

And some of the passion flowers that drew him/her and all their friends here in the first place.

What will it look like?

I don't know. Stay tuned . . .

Future Pharmacist

Guess who is going to be a Doctor of Pharmacy? Just got accepted to
the program an hour ago!!!

Family and Geocaching

First, here are four of your grandkids Mom.  They met, they ate, they enjoyed each other's company.  Don't they look like they are having fun?  It was very nice and especially after all this time.  They are really nice young people - you should be proud.  I know I am.

Dena, this one still seems to have the same problem with the growth on his face.  Really, don't you think you should take him to the doctor (maybe the psychiatrist) about it?

Then later in the afternoon, while we were waiting on someone to have a guitar lesson, we went and found a geocache.  Here is Jon training his first official geocache hunting dog . . . she wasn't so thrilled with the idea.

This little guy came out of the geocache - he had to because otherwise we couldn't fit the travelbug in it.  He was very relieved to be out and about with his own kind instead of locked up in a plastic box with cars and rulers and ducks.  Isn't he cute?

And finally, some hibiscus from the pond.  There is a reason I have so many of these plants . . . just love those flowers!