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This has been a very busy week, but some of it has actually been really fun busy.  You see, we are getting ready for two little girls to descend upon our household!  The fun part is knowing that visits such as this are going to be a permanent and I hope frequent part of our lives rather than just once in a great while.  We've made seating arrangements:

And cleaned out the hall closet to make it into a toy closet.

We've bought a storage bag for bath toys:

And have started looking at all kinds of things that need to be baby proofed:

Hubby has been busy contacting realtors to try and find a short term rental while they look for a house to buy, but that has been a challenge.  Most people around here want one year leases. 

In between all of this activity, there have been a few quiet moments for knitting.  I had started a couple of top-down sweaters for the girls, intending those to be their Christmas sweaters.  But they are DK weight and just a little too lightweight for winter around here.

 So I've been working to try and complete them before they arrive.  They'll be perfect for cool summer evenings in the Pacific Northwest.  I have a feeling all four of them are going to be a little chilly until they acclimate!

It was a busy week at work as well.  On Wednesday we had our first day of general anesthesia.  I had really obsessed about this day with a new dentist and a new anesthesiologist as well.  All of the logistics leading up to it were a veritable nightmare and I was very stressed.  But when the day came, it went off without a hitch.  I even got an "attagirl" from the anesthesioloigist and his nurse for going above and beyond the call of duty in arranging everything.  Sadly, a lead I had on a possible replacement for me fell through.  There is still time and I'm praying that God will send someone walking through the front door, but if not we'll need to start advertising no later than September or October.  I keep telling myself that my replacement is not my problem, but when you've "owned" something for 24 years, you really want it to pass into good hands.  I really don't think I'll have trouble letting go, although hubby laughs out loud at that thought. 

We've had more blessedly cool weather and even a little rain this week.  Today is cool and overcast.  Hubby is off to a local car show and Maggie and I may walk down to see him later.  In the meantime, I'm off to do more baby proofing and clean my bathroom.  Exciting, eh??

Pacific Northwesterners are notorious heat wimps and this past week has tested our endurance to the limit.  On Wednesday it was 103 degrees in Seattle and not much cooler here on the island.  Our average summer temps are in the low to mid 70's!  Very few houses have air conditioners and we were melting!  Fortunately it did cool down a little at night, especially here.  Blessed relief came Thursday, with a nice offshore breeze and temps down to where they should be.

Needless to say, very little knitting was accomplished.  All we could do at night was lie prostrate on the couch with the fan blowing on us and squirting ourselves periodically with a water bottle.  The thought of even laceweight yarn was enough to induce a coma!

On Thursday, in addition to the wonderful cooling, my Embrace the Lace shipment arrived.  I really should have taken a lovely photo right out of the box, but I was so anxious to start knitting that I wound the yarn into a cake and cast on right away!  This really is a wonderful shipment.  The shawl is oversized and has a bit of heft to it.  Although I do love the light, ethereal shawls, I also love those that have some body.  The pattern is not easy to memorize, but it is easy to follow and I hope will go quickly.  Providing I am not distracted with other projects, as you will see soon that I am.  The yarn is slightly heavier than laceweight and is a lovely cafe-au-lait color:

Today was again cool and I tromped off to the mainlaind for some fabric shopping.  Did you ever have one of those shopping trips where everything went so smoothly that it was a little scary?  I found everything I was looking for and even found some of my favorite camisoles for 70% off!

I bought fabric for an upcoming Mystery Quilt project with my Round Robin Group:

I bought fabric for a quilt for Abby:

Yes, I know it looks plain, but it's going to have a lot of elaborate machine embroidery.

When I bought the fabric in Orlando for the girls' quilts, I made a huge tactical error and didn't buy anywhere near enough.  Since I bought it at JoAnn's, I checked the JoAnn's here and they had every single fabric I needed:

And then, I stopped by the yarn shop to buy some nice soft, comfy Encore, because two little girls are going to need warm woolies come fall.

Oh wait!   Didn't I tell you??  Ben & Abby and girls are moving back to Washington!!!  Hubby will be flying out the last week of August to help them pack up and then will help them with the girls on the flight back.  Words cannot express how terribly happy we are.  They're not sure yet exactly where they will live.  It will probably not be on the island, but anywhere between here and Seattle will send us over the moon.

So now I've gone from having almost no knitting projects going to having a handful!  Lace, little girls sweaters, finishing of Abby's warm sweater, not to mention at least four quilts.  Retirement cannot come soon enough!

What a fun week this has been – time off from work, Ben and Isobel here and lots of time with friends and family.  Ben and Izzy arrived on Wednesday and on Thursday the rest of the family started trickling in.  This was the first time in probably 20 years that hubby's brothers and sisters have all been together.  It was a mad whirl of activity with lots of photo ops:

There was art appreciation:

Poking sticks in the pond with grandpa:

Snuggling with great-grandma:

Chowing down:

Posing with family:

And more family:

The oldest and youngest at the reunion:

On Sunday Ben's best friend came to visit with his 4-year old and they dragged Nana and Yeh-yeh into the sprinkler (Maggie didn't have to be dragged!);

All in all it was a lovely, lovely time.  Our only regret was that Abby and Ivy were not here.  But we certainly understand the challenges of traveling across country with a 22-month old!  Ben & Isobel left this morning.  Hubby took them to the airport and said as he drove away Isobel was standing at the curb, yelling at the top of her lungs, "I love you Yeh-yeh!  See you soon!"  Ben said when they got into the terminal she was wiping her eyes and said, "How about we be sad next time?"  I think that was her way of trying not to be sad this time!  We will miss her and her Daddy!

Well gang, it's official!  I notified my boss and his wife that I will be retiring at the end of the year.  I had told my old boss, but he didn't tell the new ones when the practice was sold.  Since there was so much stress during the transition, I decided to wait until things had calmed down a little.  I also made sure the staff was notified.  As expected, there was general wailing and gnashing of teeth.  Everyone thinks I am indispensable, but I believe they just have gotten used to depending on me.  They really need to start thinking for themselves.  For instance, I have the reputation as the resident computer genius.  But half the time I find out that all that's needed is to turn something on, turn something off and then on again or call tech support.  Thursday after work hubby and I went to the local Farmer's Market.  I must not have heard my cell phone go off because apparently phone calls were flying fast and furious.  Our part time doc had called in to leave a message and discovered that there was no outgoing message leaving emergency contact numbers.  He tried to call me, he called several employees who tried to call me, he called the owner doc who tried to call me.  No one could seem to figure out what to do!  When I finally got the message, I calmly (or not so calmly) went into the office and turned the answering machine on.  Sigh.

So this has been a blissfully calm weekend.  Hubby is gone to a car show today and I've spent most of the day sewing on Isobel's quilt.  It's starting to take shape:

 

I'm debating on the size.  Should I make it a twin size, which is seeming to look quite large, or should I make it a throw that they can drag around with them?  Any opinion Abby?

And, speaking of Abby – this kind of flew in under the radar, but Abby was sworn in as an American citizen on the 10th of July.  We were a little disappointed that it couldn't happen while we were there.  But we're just grateful that a very long, involved process is at last completed.  Congratulations Abby:

 

On the knitting front, I finished the Heart to Heart scarf:

 

It's hard to get a good photo because it's so long.  This was a lovely pattern, and I will probably make it again.  That's supposing that I'm able to figure out how to wear it gracefully.  I love scarves on other people, but I just don't seem to have the knack of draping them so they don't look goofy.  I do know that this will not be my last project utilizing the crochet method for adding beads.  Although it does slow you down a bit, it's so much easier than stringing them on the yarn.

This week promises to be a very exciting one.  Ben and Isobel should arrive on Wednesday for a family reunion.  We're disappointed that Abby and Ivy will not be coming, but we do understand the difficulties of flying with a not-quite-two-year-old.  Hubby's siblings should be arriving by Thursday.  Friday night is a buffet and all day Saturday is a picnic.  Hubby's mom is not in the best of health and this will probably be the last time we'll be able to get all of her children together.  I'm hoping she's up for all of the activity.  I'll be sure to post pictures, but with a full house of company (my sister's coming too), it won't be next weekend!

Perhaps it's the contrast with the hot muggy climate of Orlando, but our weather here has been spectacular of late.  We returned to cool rainy weather, which felt great.  But later in the week the sun came out.  Mid 70's, low humidity, perfect!  For many years there was nowhere safe to walk around our house, but one of the few positive effects of development has been the creation of some very nice walking areas.  Maggie and I found a new one shortly before we left for Orlando.  It's a nice walk out our backdoor and through the woods to some new housing developments and from there to a beautiful community park complete with children's playground, soccer fields and a Frisbee golf course.  It's 1 mile there and 1 mile back – a nice workout for us both.  I had decided that a good pedometer might inspire me to keep at it, but in looking at them, the really good ones were rather expensive.  Imagine my delight when I found an application for my iPod that works beautifully! 

It records steps, mileage, speed and then emails me the result for an Excel spreadsheet!  All for $1.99.  And I can listen to audio books while I walk.

As I've mentioned, stress at work has kept my knitting rather simple, but I'm finally feeling like tackling some more ambitious projects.  I'm about halfway through my Embrace the Lace club selection, the Heart to Heart beaded scarf.  I'll settle in with Battlestar Galactica tonight and should reach the point where I start decreasing.

 

Hubby and I had decided to take another stab at growing tomatoes in our sunroom.  It doesn't really get warm enough around here to have much of a success growing them outside.  The plants were doing rather well when we left for Orlando, but suffered from a tad bit of neglect while we were gone.  However, we did have a few respectable little cherry tomatoes taking shape and some just about ready for picking.  Until we came home the other day to find the plants totally denuded of tomatoes and Maggie just finishing up munching on a green one!  The little stinker had eaten all but one of our tomatoes!! 

The only one left was too high for her to reach.  Maybe we'll try again next year, but put them on a table or bench.

Today has been a blissfully free day and I started working on one of a pair of matching quilts for the girls.  This one will probably be for Isobel – Abby helped me pick out the fabric while I was in Orlando:

My original plan was to make them both the same, but Abby suggested I use the same fabrics, but different designs.  So I'm on the lookout for a design for Ivy's quilt.

Off to work on the quilt for a little longer and then dust and shop for few groceries.  The usual mad social whirl!

Greetings from hot and steamy Orlando.  This is our last full day here; we leave tomorrow for home.  I will miss my children and grandchildren – I will not miss the weather.  For instance, today it was in the mid 90's and at least that much humidity.  Hubby read that the heat index was 103.  I think they were a little on the low side.  Abby and the girls and I headed out to the park for a blogger meet-up.  Kris, of Sonny and Shear, and her daughter Anna Grace met up with us.  We look happy, but we were standing in little puddles of sweat as we slowly melted into the ground:

Honestly, though, this has been the hottest day so far – the rest have been at least tolerable, but we have had a lot of rain.

The girls are absolutely delightful!  They have grown and changed so much and are so much fun.  Their parents are doing an outstanding job of raising them:

Both girls adore their Yeh-Yeh (grandfather), especially Ivy:

The first thing we hear in the morning is "Yeh-Yeh, oh Yeh-Yeh."  But Nana has gotten in a few coups herself.  Yesterday they had a little girlfriend over to play.  While the rest were watching cartoons, Isobel decided that knitting is way more interesting:

In fact, any time I've gotten my knitting out, she's come over to help.  Needless to say, not much knitting has been accomplished, but there is certainly a yarn lover developing.  She especially likes to cuddle with my yarn and sniff it!  Yep, Izzy, I love the smell of wool too!

Yesterday I fully intended to post on the blog, but when I went to retrieve my laptop, I discovered that Ben had taken it to work, thinking it was his.  Reasonable error, I guess, when this is the scene on the counter:

 

We are definitely a Mac loving family and I think we have a new convert:

 

Ben and Abby gave hubby an iMac!!  They weren't using their desktop and offered it to him.  That's one of the advantages to having technologically advanced children – we get their cast-offs, which are still pretty up-to-date.  I've been trying to convert hubby, but was a little leery of spending a lot of money to find that he didn't like it.  So far, I think we may have a winner.

A busy day tomorrow, with 4th of July celebrations, packing and then a long trip home.  It will feel so good to sleep in my own bed and be able to sit out in the yard in the cool of the day.  But I will miss the family here.  Good news, though – Ben and Isobel are coming out to visit in July for a family reunion.  I can't wait – and neither can Maggie.  I think she and Isobel will really hit it off!!

Well, work is still a bit on the stressful side.  I went in yesterday to find that the server had gone down.  It took me about on a hour on the phone with tech support to fix the problem.  Then I come to find out that every computer in the office can connect to the server except mine.  How fair is that?  Another half hour on the phone and it was finally solved.

However, I must be taking it a bit in stride because my brain wasn't sufficiently fried that I couldn't face tackling a new lace project (and inserting some double negatives to keep you guessing).  I started the Heart to Heart scarf by Sivia Harding from my Embrace the Lace club:

I don't know if you can see clearly, but it is beaded.  This is turning out to be a great project.  The yarn, a cashmere blend by Mama Llama is just delicious and once I got used to it, the beading is just motoring along.  I have, however, decided not to take this on my trip to Orlando.  It's definitely not plane knitting – I just see my little tin of beads scattering all over the floor of the plane.  And it's not one to entertain with a toddler around. 

My sister came up this weekend and today we went to a Garden Tour in town.  We saw some beautiful gardens and it gave me a chance to practice with my new camera:

I especially like the last one – the flowers just seem to glow!  When we came home we found that our sweet neighbor had brought over a flat of strawberries for us:

These are local strawberries from a farm just down the road and they are some of the best strawberries I have ever tasted.  Just look at this beauty:

We all had strawberry shortcake for dessert.

I also managed to get a few model shots of Hidcote:

I think I always look a little dorky in the model shorts – I'm just too self conscious!

Next post should be brought to you from sunny downtown Orlando!  We fly out on Saturday morning.  Abby's been tempting us since yesterday with all kind of cute video and audio messages from her new 3G iPhone.  Can't wait to get my hands on those babies!

Those who know me well know that I hate shopping.  And I especially hate clothes shopping.  As a result, my wardrobe is sadly outdated.  Thankfully the standards in a pediatric office are a little less casual than say, an upscale cosmetic practice.  So it surprised me a little that clothes shopping served as a little retail therapy this week.  I was hoping this week might be a little less stressful, but while less frantic, stress was in good supply.  I'm having trouble with my DSL.  For unknown reasons, it just quits on me.  It doesn't seem to matter what I try to do to resolve it, but after a while, it spontaneously comes back.  Not a big deal unless you're trying to close out the day (which requires a connection with the bank) and you really, really want to go home!  Then yesterday, I got a call at home at 6:00 a.m. (never good news!).  The anesthesiologist called to say that his equipment wasn't working and he had to cancel.  We had a full day of general anesthesia scheduled and I had to call a bunch of disappointed parents to tell them we had to reschedule.  It escapes me why the anesthesiologist can't call them – he has all their numbers.  Must be why I make the big bucks (Haha!!).  So anyway, I decided to take my new found day off and go shopping on the mainland.  My original plan was just to buy a few summer tops.  However, I came away with 7 tops, two pairs of slacks, two dresses, some undies and two (count 'em) two! pairs of shoes.  Just about everything was on half price, so I really didn't spend a ton of money.  So I may still be stressed, but at least I'll look good!

Today is a blessedly free day off with nothing pressing, so I decided to block Hidcote.  I had help:

Maggie was in a bit of a funk because Kirby got to go ride in the car this morning.  Kirby would just as soon have forgone the trip to the groomers, but Maggie was disconsolate!  It's long been a standard in the family that Kirby is the lap dog and Maggie is the car dog.  She was very unhappy and parked herself in the middle of the living room, put her head up in the air and howled!  I've never heard her do that before.  Then she pouted:

About halfway through the blocking process she decided that "zoomies" were in order and started tearing, at breakneck speed, around the bedroom.  Unfortunately, her route took her right over the shawl I was trying to block.  Thankfully I remembered a suggestion of bones with cream cheese stuffed in them and frozen as a dog treat.  I had put one in the freezer and Maggie was more than happy to be diverted with that.  So Hidcote was finished blocking with no further incidents:

Stats:  Hidcote by Miriam Felton, unnamed lace yarn from my stash, size 4 Knitpicks Options needles.  Started in January, finished about a month ago, but not blocked until today.  While this was an interesting knit, I did find several errors in the pattern.  They were not enough to throw an experienced lace knitter off, but might trip up a novice.  They may have been corrected in later versions of the pattern.  By the way, I would have never been able to capture that picture with my little point-and-shoot.  The new camera with wide angle lens is wonderful!!

Now what to do with the rest of my day?  I may work on some digital scrapbooking stuff.  I have a class that I bought months ago that I have not had time to play with.  How nice to have a day stretching ahead with no firm plans!

I can't believe I haven't blogged about this subject yet, considering it's been such a huge part of my life for the last 6 months!  I have alluded to stress in my life to explain why my knitting projects have been fairly simple.  Six months ago the dentist I work for told me that he was selling the practice.  He had an opportunity to go back to school to become an orthodontist and decided to take it.  However, I was sworn to secrecy until it was made public, only about a month ago.  That in itself has been stressful, but nothing compared to the whirlwind of activities that was required of me, both in preparation for the sale and the transition.

The new doc started last week and I have to say I am favorably impressed.  Although he is different in temperament, he seems to be kind and gentle and has a nice way with the kids.  But nothing (and I mean nothing!) in a transition is simple.  Even in the best of transitions there are a lot of ruffled feathers both with staff and patients and I feel torn in a million different directions.  Then there are the logistics, making new arrangements with insurance companies and DSHS to make sure we get paid, talking to telephone companies, computer software people, you name it!  We were told by DSHS that it would take 90 days to get all of the new doc's paperwork through due to a changeover in their computer system.  I just hit the wall on that one – 90 days of no service for our Medicaid clients??  So I spent a lot of time on the phone and found a friendly woman who actually walked our paperwork through and got us qualified in just a few days.

I worked last Sunday and I have to go in today (Saturday) to deal with some computer issues.  The new doc wants to upgrade our internet to DSL (yes, we were in the dark ages and still on dial-up).  But after an hour on the phone with Verizon I was having no luck at all.  I think it may be that our computer equipment is too old!  So I have to go in today and meet with the IT guy to see what the problem is.

So, you can see why I'm under just a little bit of stress.  I'll feel better when we start receiving payments from insurance companies and I know our cash flow is, well, flowing.  Oh, and to top it all off, the new doc is still commuting to his old job as Head of Pediatrics at Loma Linda University (yeah, he is well qualified)!   During this time, the old doc is working some days, the new doc is working some days and our part-time doc is working some days.  I told them I was going to name them Who, What and I Don't Know.  Who is working Mondays and Tuesdays, What is working Wednesdays and I Don't Know who's working on Thursdays!!

However, stress relief is on its way!  Yesterday I booked our flight to Orlando for later in the month.  We have about a week when none of the docs are available for a few days.  I got a sub for the other two days and told the new doc I was taking off!  I think a little granddaughterly therapy is in order.

Hubby was quite instrumental in stress relief this week as well.  He called on Wednesday and said he was at the Navy Exchange and they had D-SLR's on sale.  We had been doing a lot of research and had it narrowed down to a Canon or Nikon, but I was thinking we would need to wait until the end of the year.  I told him to use his judgement and the sweetie came home with this:

 

It's a Nikon D60.  I haven't even gotten beyond automatic and I can't believe the quality of photos that it takes.  I tried getting action shots of Maggie chasing bubbles, but she's too quick:

 

However, when she sits still the results are amazing:

 

Hubby and Kirby are kinda cute when they sit still too:

 

 

I was especially impressed by its yarn photo capabilities.  My prize yarn arrived from Sonny and Shear and this photo was taken in the kitchen under artificial light with a flash:

 

The color is just about spot on!  The darker blue is Cascade Heritage and the teal is Araucania Ranco.  They will both be destined to become Cookie A. socks if I can ever again in my lifetime wrap my mind around a complicated knitting project. 

In the meantime, I've taken break from baby sweaters and have been working on Ivy's Christmas sweater:

 

I think it's just too cute.  I had decided not to worry about the color runs, but to just go with what the yarn gave me.  Imagine my delight when I attached a new ball to do the second sleeve that it matched the first sleeve exactly!  I couldn't have planned that.

I will leave you with this observation from Ivy (handing a toy to her mother), "Oh no!  It's broken.  Jie-Jie (big sister) broke it."  Ah – the blame game starts early!

Lately I've been toying with the idea of taking up spinning.  I figured after 24 years of hard work, I would splurge on a retirement gift – something that I could carry with me into retirement and provide me with a new learning experience.  I talked to the nice lady at our LYS who offered to let me come in and spin on several different wheels to get a feel for them.  I talked to several friends who are spinners and I spent time cruising the internet looking at different wheels.  My decision?  Not to spin.  First of all, I don't need to take up something completely new and I figured anything that stood between me and casting on a new project would only cause me frustration.  And there are so many beautiful yarns out there that I still want to sample, I don't really need to create my own.

Instead, I'm going to look at getting a good, high quality SLR camera.  I love photography and would love even more getting good at it.  This is also something that I can share with hubby and something that I can integrate with what is becoming a passion almost as great as quilting and knitting – digital scrapbooking.  I just bought some CD's with three years of back issues from Scrapper's Guide and have been having a blast learning new techniques in Photoshop Elements.  Here's my latest page:

 

So, if any of you photography buffs out there have any suggestions for a camera, please feel free to chime in!

I've continued my baby sweater obsession and have completed two more:

 

I decided that I needed to make some little boy sweaters, but when I dived into my Encore stash, this is what I found:

 

Do you think having granddaughters has skewed my color wheel?  So I had to go out and buy some blue.  While I was there, my local pusher had to show me some new yarn that had just come in, and of course, it jumped right into my basket and made its way home:

 

This is King Cole "Splash".  Although I usually avoid 100% acrylic, I loved the colors in this so much and it's very soft and not at all "squeaky".  This will be Ivy's Christmas sweater – a simple cardigan from "Top Down for Toddlers".  In the picture, it is actually upside down – the garter stitch area is the collar.  This is DK weight and I'm finding it a rest for my fingers from the worsted.

Today when the mail came, I received a surprise – my Embrace the Lace shipment.  I had entirely forgotten about it!  I think many of us were just a little disappointed with the first shipment, but this one made up for all of that:

 

Included in the shipment were notecards, two cute heart boxes with beads and a stitch marker, a heart box full of candies, a heart tape measure, a sample of a yarn soak, a highlighter pen, luscious cashmere lace yarn from Mama Llama, a great beaded scarf pattern by Sivia Harding, and a cute bag to put it all in!  Definitely a winner.

And speaking of winner – I won Sonny and Shear's monthly trivia contest!  Woo Hoo!  I hardly ever win anything.  But I now have $25 gift certficate to spend in their store.  Now I just have to decide on what sock yarn to buy.  Thanks Kris!