Rose's Birthday

Rose turned six yesterday, so after spending the afternoon knitting at the coffee shop in Paducah, I drove down to Sedalia for birthday cake. As I left to come home, Sara said, "Don't hit any deer." (Yes, Jim, there are a lot of them in western KY) I think she jinxed me!

 That's my dogwood tree in the background.

I was about five miles from home when it happened. It was too dark for me to see where the deer went. The radiator light on the dashboard came on, but the car didn't overheat.  I'm hoping it's only a hose knocked loose. When I got home, I discovered that the driver's door wouldn't open more than four or five inches. I've lost a lot of weight, but not enough to get out through that small a space. I had to push my seat all the way back for me to get my feet up over the console. Then I climbed across the purse and knitting bags in the passenger seat and got out that way - not easy for an old lady who's not very agile!

The right front quarter-panel is pushed back, blocking the door, and the hood is a bit crumpled. The plastic on that headlight is also cracked, but the light still works. I called the insurance company this morning, but they can't do anything for me - I dropped the comprehensive last year, since the car is so old. Bad move!

What's kept me busy

I've been knitting baby blankets with Christian symbols on them. I'll take them to church tomorrow. I don't know if any babies will be baptised on Sunday when the bishop makes his annual visit or not, but I want the baptismal/christening blankets to be available if they are. There are a couple already there, I think. These are the two new ones:

The first one is off-white and the second is yellow, although it doesn't look like it here. The motifs don't show up well either. I'm not a good photographer.

Now that these are finished, I can get back to my other dozen projects.

Dance School Fall Fesival

After I took the apron and bonnet (see last post) to Sara, she embellished it with artificial flowers and leaves. Here is what it looks like now.

Rose was definitely the best dressed Munchkin!

There were five different groups dancing to different 'Halloween-y' songs: Monster Mash; Ding, Dong, The Witch Is Dead; Purple People Eater; The Munsters theme song, and I don't know what the fifth one was, because Lexi and I didn't stay until the end. The Purple People Eater group was the really young ones.

Alyssa called me while I was at Big Lots and asked me to pick up Lexi at a birthday party for her cousin, because Alyssa wasn't going to be able to get there from Metropolis on time. Afterward, I dropped Lexi back at her grandparents' house - it's almost on my way home.

Tomorrow is the children's birthday party for Rose at the YMCA pool. I asked Sara today if it would bother either her or Rose if I skip that and just attend the cake and ice cream, family party at their house on her actual birthday. She said that's fine. I bought Rose's gift on Wednesday when I was in Paducah. I like to give kids books, since there are plenty of others who give them toys and clothes. Not knowing what books she has, I went to the Amazon website and searched for new children's books. The first one that popped up was Everything On It by Shel Silverstein. Perfect! I still need to wrap it and select a card from my supply, but I have plenty of time - her birthday is Wednesday.

Special Request

Sunday, when I was at Sara's house, she told me that Rose's dance school will have a program/mini-recital next week. Rose will be one of a group of munchkins dancing to the "Witch is Dead" song from the Wizard of Oz. Sara had bought a suitable dress for her, but asked if I could knit an apron and a bonnet. Since Rose is the one who thinks that I can knit anything, I figured I'd better try. I had Sara sketch what she wants and include measurements. So, when I got home, I pulled out suitable yarn and needles, and started working on the apron. I made a few false starts, but finally worked out how to make the bottom semi-circular as she drew it. I finished knitting it on Monday.

On Tuesday, I looked at bonnets on Ravelry to get ideas, and then sort of did my own thing there, too. I ran in the ends on both garments this morning. Here's what they look like.

Beautiful Day

I think I agree with my niece that she was named for the best season, although I like spring a lot, and parts of summer and winter are OK. I spent a lot of time outdoors today. The temperature got up into the 80's, the sky was clear, and there was an occasional soft breeze. I mainly sat on the back porch knitting. Every few minutes I heard a walnut or two or three or a dozen fall. Looking at that part of the yard, one wouldn't believe that Rose and I picked up hundreds of walnuts on Friday. I only picked up one bucketful today - of the ones that had bounced a distance from the others. I also tromped around on the ones we had placed on the rocks to loosen up the hulls. I used a walker to make sure I wouldn't fall. Then I picked up several dozen nuts without hulls; I wanted to bring them inside before the squirrels got to them.

Family Reunion Reprise

My sister Pauline just sent me two pictures from the reunion in July that I hadn't seen before. At the supper Friday night, we went by 'families' to one end of the room so people who wanted to could take pictures.

 We are the Ethel (Mother's name) family. From left to right: Mac (Pauline's husband), Pauline, me, Renee, with her grandson Aidan in front of her, Liam (Renee's other grandson) and Autumn (Renee's daughter, mother of the two boys). We had 'introduced' ourselves, and were ready to return to our tables, when Renee belted out two choruses of "Y'll Come." I love the expression on Autumn's face. She obviously didn't know her mother was going to do that.

And this was a moment later, when we all applauded - even Renee. The shirt I'm wearing is from the reunion sixteen years ago. It is a family picture from 1935 showing Grandma and Grandpa Lien, with all twelve of their children. The names and birth dates of the twelve are printed around the picture. That time, each 'family' had a different color shirt; it helped in identifying the younger ones.

I got my flu shot Thursday -

at the pediatrician's office!
I guess this is an example of why it's good to have family around when you have young children. Rose was sick Thursday morning (she didn't seem sick, but Sara knows her child), so Sara took her to Reggie's grandmother's house rather than school. Since she can't make phone calls from work, she asked Alyssa to call the doctor and get an appointment for her and let Jane know when it was. The one she could get didn't work well with something else Jane needed to do that afternoon, so Alyssa called me. I had planned to be knitting with the charity knitting group at that time, but I agreed to pick Rose up from Jane's house and take her to Dr. Paul. Rose has flu. She made an awful fuss about the test they use to confirm it. I had mentioned in passing that my immune system is weak, so they asked if I had gotten a flu shot yet this year. I said that I needed to call the county health department to find out when they are giving them. Dr Paul and her nurse said that they could give me one. Since I was being exposed to flu right then, I decided that was a good idea, so I gave them my insurance information, and Rose watched while I got the shot. I commented to the receptionist while I was giving her my insurance cards, that they probably don't often bill Medicare. She said they had one other grandmother so far this season.

Rose spent Thursday night with me, and most of the day yesterday. Since she was feeling OK and it was warm, we went outside and picked up black walnuts. They were so thick on the ground, that she filled her one-gallon bucket without moving. I raked some of them together and then sat on my canvas camp chair to fill my five-gallon bucket. I lost count of how many times we filled them. I've been making a pile and letting the squirrels have them. However, a friend told me a few days ago that she has a nut cracker especially for black walnuts, so we spread some of them out on the rocks between the back porch and the herb garden to dry out. After we get the hulls off, I'll take them to her house to crack.

Later, Rose played 'school' with a bunch of stuffed animals and dolls. It was picture day.

And then the group picture with the teacher:

Sara picked Rose up after she got off work yesterday, and then I met Alyssa halfway between here and her house and got Lexi. This morning I had her model my most recently completed shawls.

This is a 'random shawl' done in many different green yarns, plus one silver eyelash one.

These two are basically the same - a solid and a variegated worked in alternating garter stitch ridges, and then with a simple border in the solid color. Very easy, but I like the way they turned out. Do you thing the orange one is bright enough?