Memorable Sunday

Yesterday was a memorable day, so I thought I would write about it.

We woke up with thunder storms (This IS November... thunder storms are not usual). Danny-dog did not like them and tried to climb into bed (and was rejected) but this was just the beginning of the weather.

Church was good. The sermon was about Sampson, and how to not be like him.

P had Youth Group after church, so we went to the nearby Culvers for dinner. When we got there, the tornado warning sirens were sounding, but the sky didn't look too bad, so we went in. While we were eating the weather news was on. The Bears game at Soldier Field was suspended and all the players and fans were moved into sheltered areas. It was organized and orderly, they did a very good job. I understand the fans continued the party while the storm went on.

Back at Culvers the sky got darker and the wind got stronger. One of the managers announced that since there was a tornado warning no one would be allowed to leave, and they moved everyone away from the windows. They also mentioned there was a room in the back where we could go if it got really bad. DH and I were not really too upset, but C was getting a little worried; her hands were shaking! It did feel safer to sit on my or grandpa's knee with our arms around her. so we did that. We did talk to the people at church as well, and found out they were continuing their meeting in the basement, and so were also safe.

At one point the wind and the rain were so strong we couldn't see across the expressway. There was a lot of rain. When it let up we slipped out and drove the mile back to church. By now there was a blue spot in the sky, so we were feeling much more comfortable. We waited at church with another couple whose son was also in Youth Group. There is a "living room" area in the basement with very comfortable furniture where we waited, and we couldn't hear any weather at all. In fact, it was so calm that C started to get bored, and wanted to join the fun with the other kids. (Earlier she had been in line for lunch with them--before we left for Culvers.)

When we got home, our alley was blocked off with a fire truck because of a downed electric line! It was no surprise to find out that we had no electricity at home. Because of the power line trucks came to work on it quickly; unfortunately the fix wasn't quite so quick.

We spent the time finishing the reading of The Last Battle by C. S. Lewis. It is the last of the Narnia Chronicles, and we had been reading it, on and off, for quite a while. We had to use a flashlight to finish reading. We walked down to supervise the repairs several times, and were encouraged that each time we went down there there were more trucks, except at one point the parade of repair vehicles went down the street and there was no one in the alley! (Shortly afterwards they were back, so it must have been a supper break.)

The lights came back on, and we were settling in for a comfortable evening, but 1/2 hour later they went off again! We ordered pizza after finding a place that was open. They said it would be an hour wait, but we didn't want to open the fridge more than we had to, so we placed the order. After an hour and 15 minutes DD1 checked the website and we were shocked to see "Closed Because of Weather"! It said the same thing on the phone answering machine. By now I was getting a little hungry, and a little crabby too. We decided to go out and find some food. We had to make a detour to get around the repair trucks. We tried to duck through the alley, but there were still lines down there too, so we backed out of the alley and went around.

We found an open Subway store, and picked up some food and came home, just to find the pizza delivery car in our parking spot! So we had a choice of suppers. I ate some pizza stuffers (too salty) and my cookie from Subway, and I have a sandwich for today. I felt much better afterwards.

For the rest of the evening we mostly read; DH still had power in his iPod, so he was listening to music. I had a paperback book that had been languishing next to my bed for some time.

At bed time the power was still not back on, so DH had to go to bed without his C-PAP machine. He woke up gasping for breath... and was extremely happy when the power came back on after 1 AM and he could relax with his mask on. I made a circuit to make sure most things were turned off (had to adjust the light that was on a timer, and turn one or 2 things off, including the TV) and we are back to normal!

It just takes one day like that to be so thankful for electricity, and all the things it does in our lives.

Family Turkey Craft

Last week C came flying home with a large piece of paper with a pattern for a turkey. It was for the whole family to work on together, and she knew I would love helping her with it.



I went shopping in my craft room, and we came up with a whole bunch of stuff. We used 6 different fabrics for the tail feathers. C stuffed all of them.



The wattle is on foam-core; and is kind of cool. It is white glue with salt encrusted in it, and then water color soaked into it. C painted it orange and then red, and it turned out great.



C got a rubber band loom for her birthday to make bracelets, and that gave us the idea for the feet: rubber bands around pipe cleaners.



We made the base for the whole bird out of foam-core as well, and painted the edges and the background so the white wouldn't show through. C did the painting.



The beak is made from a pistachio nut shell, the wings are made with real feathers, and--crisis adverted--we found a googly eye in the button jar. We tried a bead, and we were talking sequins, but the googly eye fit the bill.



We are very pleased.



We hope the teacher likes it as well.

October knitting and Halloween

I did get a little knitting done in the last month or so. These mittens were a KAL (knit-a-long) on the "I knit mittens" Ravelry group for July. DD2 likes them and they fit her, so they are hers. I didn't start them until the end of the month, after I had seen the finished product; I tend not to like mystery projects.



C was Dorothy for Halloween. (She did have ruby slippers, but didn't have them on for this shot. She also had Toto in a basket.)

 

Everyone greeted her as Dorothy; she was really cute. P did have a Minecraft Creeper head, which he did like; but since it was almost raining, and his "head" was cardboard he decided to stay home and help hand out the candy.

Half September, most of October

Due to overwhelming requests from my fans (thanks mom!) I am back.

I finished reading the Gabaldon books about 3 weeks ago, but I had given myself permission to take a break until Halloween, so I took it. The problem with that is is that now I am even more out of the habit of blogging.

I really enjoyed reading the whole series of books in one stretch; I did see some things differently, but I am still hating the cliffhangers. When I was done I had to "cleanse the palate" by reading something else. Every morning when I got I would still wonder what Claire and Jamie were doing...

We had a guest in the back yard for about a week:



He lived there for so long that we named him! He is Peter, because Peter Parker had a real relationship with spiders. His web was amazing. It went from waist-height on the fence in the back yard up to the canopy over the back door, and the electric lines from the house next door. The web was repaired every day for that week, and the spider was either on the web, or hiding in a curled up leaf that had attached itself to the web. We checked it every day, and C would announce that she was going to run screaming past it every time she went out the back door.

I did a couple of handwork things while I was gone. In September my guild collected baby bibs for charity. I made a cute one:



C had her birthday in October, and we went to the zoo. Here she is at the wolf exhibit:



DH, DD1 and C hanging out with a polar bear.



 We brought our own picnic, for a change. I was going to post the pictures of that, but I don't think my family will speak to me if I do. This is a picture of the peacock that was trying to share our meal:



Here's a picture of C, P, DD2, and DD1 looking at the bald eagle.



Tomorrow is a family reunion in Michigan, and we are going to try to recreate a picture from our youth; it should be fun!

Jury Duty

It's like a whole day of detention, with a visit to the principal's office at the end.

I was interviewed to be on the jury for a murder trial, with a list of 25 witnesses. It would have taken forever! I was excused.

Reading

I can't believe how long it is since I posted... yikes!

I have been reading. One of my favorite authors (Diana Gabaldon) is coming out with a new book next April to coincide with the debut of the TV show based on the book (!?) She is hosting a read-along of the previous 7 books in the series so everyone will be up to date when the new book becomes available. We are supposed to read one book a month until My Own Heart's Blood comes out. That sounded like a very good idea, except that in the 3 weeks since I started reading, I have read Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, and half of Voyager. At this rate, I will finish the 7 books by Halloween.

See you then!

Stitches Midwest

I have been waiting for Moonsilk Stitches to post her pictures from last Friday, so I could piggy-back off her post here. We had a lot of fun, and I got some very nice stash. I shopped differently this time. I took a list of projects I was interested in making, and searched for yarn to make them with.

The biggest success was this:



This is for a sweater with sort of a tuxedo front and shirt-tails, with 3/4 sleeves. It is from Knitty.com, and you can see it here. I think it will look wonderful in turquoise.

I also bought this:



This is for another shawl:
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/queen-annes-lace-5

It is a "Queen Anne's Lace" shawl. I think queen anne's lace is beautiful, and I enjoy it every year during the summer. The cone is 1/2 lb of wool/silk mix, and will have plenty for this shawl.

The last yarn I bought is this:




It is cobweb weight! I plan to make a cowl.

I also bought a set of 40 inch size 1 carbon fiber knitting needles. I like bamboo needles, but needles that small feel very breakable, hopefully the carbon fiber will be more durable. I will let you know how I like them.

We had a wonderful time, even through we were exhausted by the time we were done shopping. We managed to make it through the whole market though, which we felt was quite an achievement.

It is never a lot of fun to ride home during rush hour though. Next time we will try to get an earlier start.