Knitting Projects

There haven't been too many photo opportunities here in the past couple of days, so I took pictures of my knitting. This is my Pimlico Shrug which I am nearly finished with. It has taken a long time, but I really think it will be cozy and nice. This is a sweater called the Molly Ringwald. I am re-knitting it because the first time I made it, it was too large. The sleeves kept sliding off my shoulders and the body was sort of shapeless, so I pulled it all out and have left it on the shelf for quite a while, but today I decided to have another go at it.

David got home last night finally. I am so glad to have him home. Alexa slept in her own bed last night and I slept for 8 uninterrupted hours. Lovely. Furthermore, while it is raining today, the temperature is 48F, so no ice! Other news - my brother Cody and his wife Melissa are expecting. I will be an auntie for the fifth time about September 15th. Alexa's cold is better. She still has the runny nose and cough, but not so bad. I think I have escaped this one fortunately.
Here is a fun quote from a book I have by Brian Andreas "I didn't listen to her because she was my mother and wouldn't know anything until I was much older."
And another favorite "I need someone to invent a mirror that leaves out some of the details, she said"

The weather, the cars

Here is what the yard looked like on Monday morning. It was snowing at the time, but the picture doesn't show it very well. In fact this is what the yard looks like this morning also, we had a little bit more snow last night.
And this is the car with the dead battery. Fortunately Les Schwab makes house calls for a 40$ fee and they came out and replaced the battery. Karen, Lenore, Miles, Neil, Osten and Philip watched Alexa for me while I got the engine oil flushed and so as of Monday evening the car is working again. The van had a bent steering pin or and that should be fixed this morning, so David is buying chains for the van and planning on trying to come home today. I will be so glad to have him back. I am not so good at being the only parent, especially when Alexa is sick. We are going to physical therapy this morning, so that will be interesting.

Still a temporarily single mom with a sick child.

This is a really bad way to end a vacation. I had such a lovely time in Arizona, and I come back to nasty weather, cars with dead batteries, husband stuck in Washington and a sick daughter. I still think the vacation was worth it. Alexa has now been sick for 3 days. She has a cold and it comes with a recurring fever, nasty sounding cough, congestion and runny nose. This is the first cold she has had that has a repeated fever. She also coughs so much it is hard to sleep. I give her decongestant when I get desperate, but she hates it so much that she screams and coughs and I am afraid she will vomit. So I have only done that twice. The van that got a little bit broken in the Tri-Cities is being fixed today hopefully. If there isn't too much snow tonight through the Columbia Gorge then hopefully David will be able to come home tomorrow.
The one bit of good news we had this week is that our insurance company is going to cover a 4 month course of physical and occupational therapy for Alexa. If we have some evidence of improvement, then we should be able to continue. I really didn't expect that but am very happy about it!

Day 8 and Home

Here are a few more pictures from last week.



That's me with my new camera which is really fun.

Sunday morning David called me from the Tri-Cities, WA where he had gone to visit his grandpa to tell me that he was stuck there and wouldn't be able to get to Portland to pick Alexa and I up from the airport. The Tri-Cities had lots of ice and Saturday night the van slipped on the ice trying to go up the hill to Jim and Bernadette's house where he was staying. The wheel hit the curb at about 15 mph and David had to just park it pretty much where it was and walk a quarter mile to the house. Then it started snowing and snow tires or chains were required to get from Tri-Cities to the Dalles, which we don't have. So even if the van was OK he was stuck. So I started trying to change my flight which I didn't want to do because it is really expensive. The other problems were, a. my house key was on the van keys which were with David b. The car is also broken right now, needs a new battery About that time Renee called because she realized David might be stuck in the weather in the Tri-Cities. She and Curt have an extra key, and so they came to Portland and picked us up. We had an extra car seat in the garage for Alexa. On top of all this fun, Alexa has a really nasty cold. She sounds horrible and had a fever off and on Sunday and had on this morning when she woke me up at 5:00 am. So we got about 5 hours of sleep. I just dosed her with decogestant, so hopefully she will be able to get a little more sleep before we have to try and get the car fixed. Until I figure that out we are stuck here at the house. David will take the van in somewhere this morning and see if the wheel and the alignment are OK, and then it depends on the weather.

The other interesting news was that Phoenix was getting flooded with rain as I left. Phoenix isn't really built for rain, so the water floods the roads, canals, rivers etc. There were flash flood warnings in parts of Phoenix, even some fog at the airport. I am beginning to feel like Garfield with my own personal rain cloud.

Day 7 in Arizona Wildlife World

Saturday we went to the zoo. Alexa was so funny riding on Auntie Holly's shoulders.
Flamingos
A baby something or other.
The daddy something or other.
Some variety of tamarin.
More monkeys. Alexa loves monkeys.

A very fun day. I will try to post more pictures later. The funniest thing that happened was when I took Alexa to the petting zoo. This deer type animal started chewing on my skirt and I almost couldn't get away. When she let go I had slimy deer food on my skirt.

Day 6 in Arizona

On Friday we went shoppimg again but in Scottsdale this time. We went to Kona Grill with Shani and Blayde. Alexa ate a LOT of food. This is Shani and Blayde. He wouldn't smile, but this is cute anyway.
Alexa started playing with a baseball cap in the car, she was so funny.

Thursday Day 5 of Arizona Trip

Here is Alexa laughing and cracking mommy up.Here is Auntie Holly at Mimi's where we went for breakfast.
Nana and Alexa at Mimi's.
All of us after breakfast.

After breakfast we went shopping all day long. Mom and Alexa were very tired.

Knitting websites

Just a quick note about the two new websites listed. Ravelry is a really great new site for people who want to interact with other knitters. It requires you to get an invite by putting your email on a waiting list at this point since they are still testing the website and finishing it. Knitty is a source of free patterns and is really neat since they are new patterns, and I think the designers are often amateurs or people who knit and design as a hobby rather than a job. Anyway - good websites for anyone who likes to knit.

Day 4 Arizona

Well not much really exciting news here today. We went down to the house in Phoenix. Alexa slept in the car.
We are just hanging out here playing with computers and toys. Enjoying the 60 degree weather.

Day 3 in Arizona

Here is Alexa and Nana.Alexa, Melody and Joel.
Alexa and Poppa

Here is my first video of Nana and Alexa.

Days1 and 2 in Arizona

Here's Alexa and Mommy after meeting sitting in the SUNSHINE!

Alexa standing on a rock in the SUN!

More Alexa being silly with Auntie Holly.

Statuette of Liberty (no not in New York - Red Robin, Prescott, AZ)

And in the news today...New camera and itouch ipod for Alexa. (Mom will have to use for now!)

Leaving on a jet plane

Alexa and I are off to Phoenix today. We will be gone for a little over a week returning next Sunday. I haven't been blogging as much for a couple of days since I got onto a really neat website for knitters called Ravelry. You can load all of your current, past and future projects on there and look at pictures of the FO (finished object) from other knitters. Also you can load on your yarn stash, your knitting books etc. Total knitting addict site. Anyway - I have got to finish packing and we have to drive to Portland to fly out. I may or may not blog from AZ. Thanks for reading, thanks for commenting.

Alexa falls asleep again.

While I was writing that last blog entry, Alexa fell asleep on the floor next to me. Some of the positions she falls asleep in are really funny.

My vest.

Not a whole lot going on here the past couple of day. Random picture of Alexa. And picture of my vest. This is one of the things that I knitted. It is made out of a yarn I really like called Classic Elite Premiere, and is 50% cotton, 50% tencel. It is really soft yarn and not very expensive either. The pattern is from the Yarn Girls Guide to Simple Knits-the pattern was for a t-shirt, but I didn't have enough yarn for the sleeves, so a vest it is.
Alexa and I are going to Arizona for a week to get some sun. We leave on Saturday and will return the following Sunday. I am excited to get a little break from the gray weather.

Sunday afternoon

This is David and and three friendly fruitcakes. Aren't family pictures great! After special meeting we went to Burger King to play and snack. Sophia decided to make me work for a picture of her, she kept running away, but I am getting fast with the camera and I got one!
And Alexa getting ready to go down the slide.

We had a fun weekend playing with Jamie and Sophia. After they left for home, we went to see Aunt Carolyn's new apartment. Now we are home, and I am worn out.

More pictures of Alexa and Sophia

Sophia decided to drink the bathwater which has bubble bath in it, not to mention three kids? Yummy Alexa in her new "princess dress"
We tried to get a picture of these two in their pretty special meeting clothes, but Sophia was in a grump.

More Saturday with Jamie and Sophia

More playing with cars Sophia on the phone with her mommy
Jamie and Alexa (not asleep, playing dead)

Group bath.