Monday, June 27, 2011

Weekend of Travels

We took a trip south over the weekend, first to see my mother who is in a nursing home and secondly to see the birthday boy who turned one!  I did get some knitting done while we traveled! 

I took some pictures of something we put together for my mother, she loves looking at pictures and really doesn't have much of  a place to put them... so my sister in law Shanda came up with the idea of making a big poster board with a flower pot on it and to put flowers with everyone's faces in the center of the flower!   I had some paper flowers for scapbooking that I use and I also attached slips of paper with names by the pictures.  Mom still knows us and oh how her face lights up when she sees you coming... it always makes me cry.. I just feel so badly that she has to be there... She sadly doesn't know much different.  Most days she really doesn't know where she is!  I guess in some ways that is a good thing.  Mom has always been a good natured person, so she goes with the flow pretty well.  The staff always says she is so nice to be around.  Doesn't really make me feel that much better though!  Thanks  to Shanda for the idea and getting it started with the making of the flower pot and stems and to Jean and Pat for attaching the flowers to the flower pot!  Mom has really enjoyed looking at the pictures!




Otto turned one and he is just the cutest little thing!  He has two big sisters who absolutely adore him!  He wasn't quite sure what to do with his cake!  I don't think he really ever got into the cake part just ended up with icing all over him and when he was done he was done!  My grandkids brings such joy into my life, it is undescribable!   Capri and Abigail came squealing "Nana is here, Nana, Nana" when they saw me and their cousin from the other side of their family was with them and they wanted to know if I would be Elizabeth's Nana too?  What could I say?  Of course I will!  She hugged me!  :)  She of course has her own grandmothers but evidently not one called Nana!  I laughed!  What they don't think of!


Wish I had pictures of Jilane and Jagger they were Flower Girl and Ring Bearer in a friend's wedding on Saturday, Jagger bailed out on them and wouldn't go down the aisle, but I hear he looked adorable!  I hear Jilane performed her duties without a hitch and looked as pretty as a princess!  Jala made their outfits so I hope to get some pictures of them soon!

Here is the finished vest for one of the boys!


Waiting to be knitted!

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Absent without Leave!

I guess I have been absent from this blog for the past week!  We have been so busy the last month moving two of our children, one just across town in Missouri and the other from here to New Orleans!  Then in between that we have been visiting children and grandchildren here and yonder!  I have one more trip this weekend!! Little Otto turns ONE and we cannot miss that!  Little Jilane and Jagger are going to be in a wedding and I would love to see that one!  Hopefully Momma will get some pictures!  Hopefully I will also get to visit my mother since we are heading south!

In all of that the only crafty thing I have accomplished is knitting in my travels!  So here are a couple of projects in the works... A vest for whichever of the boys it will fit, then I will have to alter the pattern to fit all the boys between 4 years and down to 9 months!  I would like to get those all done by fall but you also know I cannot just work on one thing unless I am working on a hat!  I am also taking a fairaisle knitting class so that should be a fun project!

SOON I will have some house projects to show you!  Can't wait for those!

In the meantime here are some knitting pictures to bore you with!

Back of the first Boys Vest I am working on!  It is a tweed green!

Dropped stitch scarf made with a ribbon type of yarn.  Not sure I will do one of these again, although I love the teal colors in it!


Potato Chip Scarf or Ruffled scarf (Pattern on Ravelry) because they claim you cannot knit just one! 
The yarn I am using has sequins in it and it gives it a little sparkly here and there!


Hoping you all have an awesome week!

Nancy


Thursday, June 9, 2011

Jilane turned 4!

The big 4 for Jilane meant that she could now chew gum!  Her mommy made her wait until she turned 4 to chew gum and guess what that is the first thing this girl wanted to do on her birthday!  When asking what she wanted for her birthday she would simply say gum!  I thought she needed a new bicycle complete with a basket and a purple horn!  The kids just kept blowing the horn until Dad or Mom stuffed it with a hanky! ;~)

So yes I am going to bore you with Birthday pictures from Miss Jilane's party!

Aunt Amber came to spend the weekend with the kiddos!


the 3 Princesses had a ball playing together!  Jilane got the coolest wardrobe to store all of her Princess attire from her Grandma and Grandpa Smith!

Thank you Jilane for the magic wand!

Girls just want to have fun!


Blue eyed Otto is a doll~

What's a princess to do on her birthday?

Capri

Jagger after jumping on the trampoline!!

Capri showing some attitude!

Abigail

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Dancing Girls!

Abigail and Capri had a Dance Recital a couple of weeks ago and I went to see them!  What fun!!  I took a video but for some reason I cannot download it here!  They have only been doing the dance lessons since January, they also did Tap.

Here are the little cuties themselves.....
Capri and Abigail

Capri

Abigail

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Traveling

Traveling again..... This past week we moved my stepson Robert and his girlfriend Michelle to New Orleans.... So I will be posting about our trip...

Tuesday ... May 31, So far we are behind on our schedule! First on the agenda we took all three dogs to Almost Home to board and get groomed.  We tried to convince the dogs we were taking them to a spa for a vacation! Not sure they bought it Dude usually has his feet firmly planted at the door of the boarding place like he is not going to go on in! Pretty funny! We are caravanning (is that a word) down the interstate or we will be soon as we had a couple of detours we had to make dropping off my car at Jala's.

Later in the day.....

We stopped at Lambert's in Sikeston, Mo for supper! Home of the thrown roll! If you have never been to Lambert's it is an experience but you best be really hungry if you go there! There are three locations Sikeston, Missouri.... Ozark, Missouri.... And Foley, Alabama! Now back on the road headed for Horn Lake, MS.

We stayed in Horn Lake, Mississippi just outside of Memphis on Tuesday night. The next morning we got on the road shortly after 8:00 am. Thankfully we have had good traveling weather! We stopped outside of Jackson, Mississippi at Five Guys Burgers and Fries for lunch... Might we just say we could here arteries clogging as we approached the building!

June 1,
Traveling down the highway we saw quite of bit of flooding.... later in the afternoon we drove across the longest bridge crossing swampland Lake Ponchetran... when arriving in New Orleans the heat was ...ummmm stifling especially for the guys hauling stuff up to the second floor apartment.  Their apartment complex is awesome, gated, gym, swim pool and spa, they have their own "Subway" and "P.J.'s coffee"  it is like their very own community.

By Thursday we had everything unloaded and started the day off at P.J.'s for coffee and breakfast.. then we walked a number of blocks to the trolley and went to visit Tulane University where Michelle will be a student in the architecture program.  Then walked back to the Trolley and rode to the French Quarters and found a place for lunch..  The humidity and heat was pretty much stifling... we were not really impressed with the FQ it seemed dirty and sleazy!  We then walked all over creation and I did find a knitting shop to stop in to visit.  I found some yarn I like but opted not to buy it ... rather pricey $95 a skein!  YIKES!!!!

After showering and relaxing a bit after sweating our socks off.. oh wait I didn't have socks on, not sure what I sweated off, I seem to have everything! hahaha  ...  The highlight of our day was dining at Emeril's on Thursday evening!  Nice atmosphere, good food, nice experience.  It is rather expensive but we don't do that everyday!

While in New Orleans we stayed at a guest apartment in the apartment complex, very nice!  We will stay there again!

June 3, Friday morning we went with Robert and Michelle to Target as they were getting a few essentials they needed.  We then headed to the Amtrak station!  Mark and I had decided to take Amtrak home for a unique experience!  We boarded the New Orleans Special at 1:30pm ... because we had a deluxe sleeper car we felt like we were treated like royalty!  They send you to the front of the line.  We had our own "hostess" Dorothy.... she took care of anything we needed!  The sleeper car itself while small was quite efficient we had our own bathroom complete with a shower (although I think you had to sit on the toilet to shower)... :)

We had dinner reservations at 6:30 and had a wonderful meal... when we returned to our room the air conditioning had gone out and it was HOT... so they moved our entire side of the car to another section where we almost froze to death!  We really did enjoy the train other than the "new" room was teeny tiny and we couldn't really sleep, because of freezing.  I know it sounds like I am complaining but we are planning to try it again.  It was fun!

We arrived in Champaign, Illinois our destination at 6:04am and we knew we had a several hour wait for my daughter Amber to arrive with her kids in tow on the way to my granddaughter's birthday party!  The worst part of that was that most Amtrak stations are also bus depots and oh my you really see some strange characters there! 

It was a crazy bittersweet week as another child leaves home.  Robert had already moved into an apartment over a year ago, but was close by.  He and Michelle came out for frequent visits!  We will really miss both of them to say the least!  This will be an adventure for Robert with lots more opportunity in his field of work in the film industry and for Michelle at Tulane University!

Edited to say that Amtrak ROCKS!!!  They are sending us a voucher for $365.  Which is how much extra it costs to have a deluxe sleeper room... so now we will try it again sometime in the next year!


Here are some pictures of our highlights of the week!


Mark in our room...


checking out the flooded Lake Ponchetran


Looking at the endless bridge from Amtrak
Hope you have an awesome week!

Nancy