IT is ALMOST finished!!!

Some of you who've visited the hill since school started have seen the two concurrent knitting projects I have going. I'm glad to report the nautical afghan (which I cut down to a more managable 6 1/2 feet by 4 feet) is a short 30 rows from finished! I lack knitting in the name of my brother's boat, excuse me, ship, into the header. The lace bit for my niece has lived in my purse and I knit on it when I'm in the back seat of the car. I figure I have at least a month to finish it and I'm well over 1/2 done. Emila probably won't elope for a month, unless she decides to get married while her sister is in from Hawaii. My knitting log has at least 4 projects to be finished by Christmas, but hopefully they will all be fairly quick.
I know the rest of you are not knitters, but I stumbled upon the picture of the two ladies at a knitters' convention (ah, what a dream) and thought the afghan Shelly (the tall one?)
is knitting with donated scrap sock yarn from all over the world was just gorgeous. Looks like a log cabin quilt pattern. OK, I know I'm a knitting nerd to post someone's picture I don't even know, but hey...it's art!
Phone just rang. Motorcycling on the Natchez Trace. Yippee!

When was she going to tell?

Lyn's pic was in the Searcy paper. Front page...glad she wasn't skipping class! (Click the title... : )

Didn't know till Scott's aunt put a copy in the mail!

Gene and Scott headed out today. Scott rode as far as Memphis with Gene. I hear him coming up the drive now.

No more news. Hope all are well.

YEA!!!

Lyn's blood work revealed she is still hypoglycemic, not diabetic!!! YEA! Her potassium is a little low though which would explain the feeling like dirt for a couple of weeks.
If anyone thinks you might have misplaced Gene, he's here playing at my house with Scott and Aaron. I think he might even try to squeeze in a little Reagan time tomorrow! He rode over on the bike, back roads, 9 hours...whew!
I'm up too late. Just had to tell Lyn's good news.
Love all. Serve all.

I Covet...

I covet your prayers for Lyn for the next couple of days. Her sugar has been strange, she's made an appointment to go for the glucose tolerance test she hates so much. This is the one where you drink the quart of syrup and have 1/2 a pint of blood drawn every 30 minutes for 4 hours. Haven't done that one for about 4 years now. Her daddy said it's poor diet, little exercise, and no sleep. I sure hope he's right as usual.

I covet an alarm clock that works. Or a cat who hasn't figured out how to punch snooze before the clock goes off. Yes, Deputy the wondercat can not only make the piercing green light come on in the middle of the night, he has somehow figured out how to make that thing not make that terrible noise. The alarm clock lives in the bedside table now, away from abnormal 4-legged creatures.
BTW, we have retrieved Aaron's bed shaking alarm clock from the air vent where it has been since early summer, four full days after finding the clock which can literally "wake the dead " as it vibrates and reverberates throughout the whole house. I can recommend the "Sonic Shaker" to other hearing impaired people. I cannot recommend keeping it above the air return your son has taken the cover off of to maximize air flow. Gravity happens.

I covet patience. Now. Someplace in Hades has openings. I know for a fact some of my seventh graders vacated their spots recently. The same children I loved before Labor Day have turned into the Spawn of Satan or at least of Damien. Will any of you come visit me on death row?

I almost covet a new washer. Mine still works on one cycle if it is set to warm wash/cold rinse. I'm too cheap to get a washer repaired which is older than my children. I also have 2 industrial washers in my basement which could be fixed for 1/2 the price of a new washer and I'd be in 7th heaven. Those washers were born the same year I was. And I only need 1/2 of one fixed! I know...get off your duff, Rushton.

I covet a funny story from my readers on the comment section. One of you had a particularly stressful week which was at least in part due to my negligence. So, we all need a laugh. It doesn't have to be about yourself, though truth is usually stranger than fiction. Shall I tell you about the first time my first born pooped in the bathtub? Or about me asking my dad out loud at the Catholic hospital if the sisters were witches? (Those same "witches" were the ones who after that would sneak me upstairs, hiding under their habits, to see my brother.) Or how about how the dog likes to pull the cat around the house in a Walmart bag? Or about the first year I taught school and how "this" written by a dyslexic child on the chalkboard could translate itself to my black skirt resulting in coworker saying, "Freda, did you know you have "sh*t" on your butt?"

I covet someone out there knowing how to get Aaron's new portable keyboard to sync with his SmartPhone.

I covet your friendships. Thank you all for the support this weekend. I feel better.

I do covet one more thing. If I die before you, PLEASE do NOT have a funeral SERMON where it becomes necessary to have an invitation hymn sung at the end of it! Funeral #1 yesterday - fine, no "come to Jesus" sermon. Funeral #2 - OH...MY....GOODNESS! If we'd been Baptists there would have been an altar call!

I Miss You

I mainly started this blog because I felt guilty asking Lyn to keep one to keep me updated, but then she never got info from home. I was being very one-sided and selfish. I report poorly on the week, though I do try to call her at the drop of a hat and I text more than I can afford. All of that is not enough. I know two of you will understand this statement more than anyone else who might read this comment. "I miss my daughter."

I missed Aaron when he was away, too, but our communicaton is largely verbal. That wasn't interrupted as much when he went away to school. Lyn and I communicate by touch and looks as much as with words and I'm having physical withdrawl symptoms this year.

Both of them being gone was somehow easier for some reason. Maybe I just didn't have long enough to adapt to the empty nest before Aaron moved home and I was somewhat whole again.

Maybe all of this rambling is because of the funeral we have to go to today. A friend has died, single mom, killed in a one car accident. She leaves behind a young, fifth grade son. There are just so many facets to life and death we don't see until the beginning or end of a life. It's like we never fully learn the lesson a death teaches and we never really listen to all the lessons a birth can teach.

It has taken far too long to write this, and it is depressing. I'll do better next week. Maybe I'll even tell you something uplifting, but this week - thanks for listening, gang.

Flying by the Seat of "Her" Pants

http://photo.xanga.com/violynrushton/4ea2e76064726/photo.html

The photos say it all, except that she was the only one with a three-dimensional collage in the class full of art majors!