Finally making some progress

Doesn't it seem like the mail takes forever when you're waiting for something you ordered? If it's bills, they come faster than you can say "all out of money". If you're waiting on some yummy yarn, well, it feels like I'm 5 years old again and waiting for Christmas when it's still only April. I'm waiting right now on my sock yarn to come for my Hogwarts Sock Swap 2 pal (Nick keeps checking the mail, too-his LL Bean book bag should arrive any day now.No mail for Makenzie, she wanted a Vera Bradley-so we hit the Phancy Pheasant yesterday. My dear husband was not thrilled when he saw the price tag!). I can't wait to get started. My pal's a Ravenclaw and from the emails we've exchanged, I've got a GREAT pal.

In the meantime, though, I'm almost done with my Debbie Bliss raglan sweater and the second uptown boot sock. We're going to the pool in just a few so I'll start on the sleeves of the raglan sweater while I'm there. I hope I can knock those out by tonight. I had set a deadline of August 1st for the completion of my socks and the sweater and as of today I don't think it's an unreasonable deadline. We'll see as the next week comes and goes however.

We're getting ready for back to school and I have to say I'm dreading it. This has been such a great summer with the kids. We've had such a fun, lazy two months; just going to the movies, the pool, playing games (our most recent favorite is Scene-It, the Harry Potter edition), and just hanging out. I'm going to miss them dreadfully. But they're excited and hopefully it will be a great year.

By the way, the Harry Potter book was great. I'm sad it's over, but I'm one of those people who read their favorite books over and over again-I'll be fine. I finished it Monday after we had gotten our out-of-town company on the road on Sunday. It was sooo hard not to be antisocial and curl up with my book and shut out the rest of the world. Don't worry, I managed to be a good little hostess and hold off until they left. Makenzie finished Monday too. That girl can read really fast for a ten-year-old!!! She loved it too.

Here's the eye candy for the week. It's a sunrise shot I took on the way to work Saturday. I happened to have my camera with me and managed to get a shot while driving and managed to not wreck as well!

We're off to the pool-have a great rest of the week.

Harry Potter Sock Swap Two and other stuff

As I said in my last post, I'm joining the Harry Potter Sock Swap Two (notice the link and some shameless plugging I'm doing for the swap-if you're interested, visit the link. It's going to be a lot of fun for everyone! Sign ups started July 14th and it looks like they're filling up quickly, so hurry if you're interested.) Here's the questions that I have to answer in order to take part in the swap:

Hogwarts Sock Swap Questionnaire

1. What Hogwarts house have you been sorted into?

Gryffindor (YEA! Go,Go, Gryffindor!)

2. Shoe size?

5 1/2 to 6

3. Foot Length?

9 inches

4. Foot Circumference?

8 inches, let me know if you have any questions about the other diameters

5. List your three favorite double-point needle brands, including size and length.
a. Lantern Moon
b. Crystal Palace
c. Brittany

*all brands in size 3 or 4. I usually use a 7 inch, but sad to say, I have some delicious Lantern Moon sox stix in a 5 inch that I have yet to use. Any wood or bamboo brand works for me!

6. Would you like to try a new brand needle? If so, which brand? Size? Length?

Blue Sky Surina Wood Sock needles (they only come in 5 inches I think) and a size 4 would be great. Also would be interested in trying the Knit picks.

7. If you are a RAVENCLAW, do you prefer the colors in the film or the book? Do you have a strong preference?

N/A

8. Allergies? Do you have any? Will your knitting be exposed to smoke or animals?

I don't have any allergies unless you count penicillin. No one in the house smokes and we do have a kitty.

9. Are you an international participant (outside US)? Are you willing to have an international Hogwarts Sock Pal?

I live in the good ol' U S of A, but I definitely would not mind having an international sock pal.

Also, my camera has been more at the ready this week compared to last. The crepe myrtles are blooming great and the front porch ferns are doing so good I had to take a picture. Oh, and Nicholas wanted some Harry Potter glasses to go with his wand. Cute, huh?

P.S. I guess being that this is a knitting blog (or relatively so) I should mention that I'm finally working on my second uptown boot sock and making good progress on the Raglan sweater. Hope to see you all at Hogwarts soon!

I'm still here!

I'm still here folks. It's been a very busy previous two weeks. Week before last, Makenzie went to Camp H2O at the Georgia Aquarium and we also had 3 birthday parties . Two of them were in Fayetteville, about a 45 minute drive from our house (Happy Birthday Tammy and Brock!) and then the other was the Steve's (Happy Birthday, honey) party at our house. What with getting ready for his party, being gone every night that week, and then some serious yard work and redecorating the house, I only managed to work on my uptown boot socks and nothing else. Then this week I agreed to fill in for my manager at the hospital (I used to be the supervisor over L&D and mother-baby). Let's just say that when I stayed until 1:00 in the morning this a.m.(after getting there at 8:00 in the a.m.yesterday) I was beat down like a dog. And the rest of the week was no better-the new computer fetal monitoring system went down, the air conditioner broke for the whole hospital, and we were way out numbered in the nurse to patient ratio. I'm probably looking at about 50 hours of work this week, and it has throw my part-time self into a major tail spin. Anyone who's ever worked anywhere near a birth unit in July knows that there are better times of the year to be a nurse. So suffice it to say that there has been absolutely NO time for knitting. I 'm trying to tell myself, "suck it up cupcake, it could be worse", as the kids will tell you is our family motto. The one blessing was that my dad and step mom were able to keep the kids for a greater part of the week so that I didn't have to worry about them not having good care-what a blessing to have such great parents in my life. Still, Steve and I missed them both horribly and I don't think that we can go more than about a day or so without having them with us. It's nice to be home tonight, our happy little family in the nest. There's nothing like good Chinese food on a Friday night with some new knitting started. The new knitting is a sweater for my nephew. The Baby Albert coat just didn't feel right for me, I don't know if it was the yarn or what, so I started the Debbie Bliss Raglan baby sweater using Lion Brand's cotton ease. I love this yarn. I know that some knitters out there hate cotton, but I love the feel of it in every way, from how it is on the needles to the finished product. Hopefully I'll have some pictures of it to post next time.

Well, I'm off to join the Hogwarts sock swap II that starts today. (Most of this was drafted on Friday night with this last paragraph started on Sat morning. I was too tired to finish) -As yet another example of how bad the week has been, I haven't even been able to see The Order of the Phoenix, and that is highly unlike me, but I digress. Hopefully today will be a good one-the kids are having a "Harry Potter Fan Club party" for a couple of their friends, I'm going to join the sock swap, and we're going to see OofTP tonight. All that and knitting too, what a lucky girl I am!!!

P.S. I never got to post my 4th of July pics-here's one I liked a lot