Marley is 10!

Today is Marley's birthday. We spent the day doing various activities Marley asked to do.

Joan, David and I took Marley to the mall to shop for earrings for her, and we took her to the pet store and to Target so she could do some of her Christmas shopping for family and friends. We also went to the grocery store to get the specific foods she wanted for her birthday dinner tonight.

Steve, David, Sam and Cocoa took Marley to the lake and they went on a long hike on the beach.

Tom and Karin came over to eat supper with us and to enjoy Marley unwrapping her gifts and reading her cards. (Thank you, Victoria, Emmy, and Ruthie!)

Scout and Adeline came over to spend the night, and they went with Sarah and Joan to rent a movie for the girls to watch together later. Scout, Adeline, and Marley are now playing with dolls upstairs. Tomorrow Karen will take the three girls to the courthouse to see Santa.

It's been a wonderful day - because God gave us Marley ten years ago!

Socks, socks, socks

I finished Mom's third pair of autumn socks:

And knitted a pair for Jacy:

Then made a second pair for Jacy:

Now I'm on Mom's fourth (and final) pair of autumn socks, and I have a pair for Sam on the needles, too. After those (or perhaps while knitting them) I'll make a pair for Karin and some for EllaRee. Then it should be about time to start some socks for me.

Thanksgiving decorations

Mom and her granddaughters made the tables look lovely for Thanksgiving dinner last week. I took pictures because we never get to enjoy the Thanksgiving decorations for as long as we do the Christmas decorations. And later this week we'll go help Mom pack up the Thanksgiving stuff and unpack the Christmas stuff.

Knitting at the post office

All I can say is: Someone at the USPS has good taste!

Six years in a row

Auburn - 17, Alabama - 10.



WAR EAGLE!

Auburn vs. Alabama

Tonight's the big game. Steve and Joan will be sitting on the 50-yard line. The tickets are a Christmas gift from Chuck to Steve. Steve invited me to go with him, but I declined. I've been to many Auburn-Alabama games, but Steve and our children have never been to even one! Besides, I'd take my knitting and that would be too weird.

Jacy will be there, too, with a friend. Tom has to work, and the rest of us will watch it on ESPN at home (where I can knit in comfort).

If the phone rings during the game, we won't answer it.

Tomorrow, normal life will resume, and we'll start looking forward to the next Auburn-Alabama game.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We forgot - again

I guess my dad is right. One sign of a successful, happy marriage is forgetting one's wedding anniversary. We're so blissful that we have no need to set aside one day of the year to remember and be glad we're married. Every day is enjoyed and we're always celebrating being husband and wife.

Yes, we forgot it - again. Today marks our 25th wedding anniversary and we both forgot about it until Dad came with a card and a cheerful, "Happy Anniversary!" I guess the look on my face was comical, because he started laughing. I thanked him, then called Steve (he's at the golf course playing 9 holes of "best ball" with Tom, David, and Sam) and wished him a happy anniversary. The phone was silent for a few seconds, then Steve asked if I'd just now remembered. I apologized, and admitted that was the case. He said he'd forgotten, too, but he loves me and wished me a happy anniversary, too.

This is not the first time we've forgotten our anniversary, but it is the "biggest" one we've forgotten. Isn't 25 supposed to be the silver anniversary or something like that?

Fresh cranberry relish

Sherry is collecting and posting links to recipes for Thanksgiving.

Here's my contribution, and I think I posted it last year, too.

Fresh Cranberry Relish

1 bag fresh cranberries

1 large Granny Smith apple, cored and quartered

1 orange, seeded and quartered

Wash all items thoroughly, discarding any mushy cranberries. In a food processor using the blade attachment, chop the orange quarters (with the peel), the apple quarters (with the peel), and finally the cranberries. Add 1/2 cup to 1 cup sugar. Chill. Serve. Lasts up to a week in the fridge. (I usually take the relish and divide it in half before adding the sugar. Half I leave unsweetened because I like it tart, and the other half I sweeten with sugar.)

Thanksgiving will be here soon

We're taking the week off school and resting and getting ready for Thanksgiving. Well, technically, we're only resting from school-work. There is yard-work, and house-work, and cooking and baking to do, and we will do all of that work.

Mom is sick, so we may end up having Thanksgiving dinner here or at Chuck and Kim's. I guess we'll have firmer plans by Wednesday.

I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving with friends and family, too!

Autumn socks

I love this Quoddy Bay colorway from Done Roving and wish I'd been able to get more of it last year. Last night we went to see a movie and I knitted the heel and got on to the foot.

I'm not taking any new knitting projects to Huntsville this weekend - just the socks for Mom and the fingerless mitts for the kids. Those should be nice and portable, and easy to do while riding in a car.

Knitters run amok

Last night my Virginia friends' knitting group went a little crazy and dreamed up a year-long project for everyone to do. This morning Penny called and informed me that because I was not there (Guys! I've been gone for almost two years now!) I was volunteered to do a double-share in the project. (Knitters can be vicious!)

The project (which I think was Meg's idea) is for the group to use six different patterns and knit one pair of socks every two months. A sock a month. We will then each have six pairs of socks for ourselves at the end of a year. It's a great idea. I think most sock knitters end up knitting socks for everyone but themselves. I love the thought of six new pairs of socks for me!

I pulled all my sock books off the shelves and looked for patterns that aren't too complicated, and that I like - since I have to choose two patterns (and I do think that's a bit unfair...).

I finally ended up with two patterns from Nancy Bush's book, Knitting on the Road: Sock Patterns for the Traveling Knitter. I chose Conwy:

And Hiiumaa Mismatched Mates:

We'll share our patterns and as we each finish a sock, take a picture and email it to everyone else in the group.

Chocolate for travel

Two years ago we were getting ready to move from Virginia to Alabama. We were glad because we'd be close to family for the first time since we married, but sad because we were leaving wonderful friends and a church that was family to us.

Penny said she would miss me, but we'd stay in touch with phone calls and she'd come see me at least once each year (and she has!). I asked her if they might not be able to move to Alabama, too. Maybe Huntsville? She asked Randy, but he said there were no job openings for him in Huntsville.

Now Randy's employer is moving them to... Huntsville! Yay! I'll be able to see Penny more than once a year! (Steve goes to Huntsville once or twice a month, and I could ride with him to go visit Penny.) I just love the way God does things!

So Penny is flying down this weekend. I'll pick her up from the airport and she and I will do a little househunting in north Alabama. Penny likes dark chocolate, so I'm loading up on candy for our stay in the hotel. I still have to figure out knitting projects and books to take. And probably clothes. Because that kind of thing is important.

Our pecan crop...

... is much better this year than it was last year, thanks to Dad fertilizing the trees last winter and spring. In a few more years we should have a very good yield.

We also have Delilah, the mighty hunting cat, to thank for chasing off the squirrels who try to get our pecans.

Unfortunately, we recently realized that Cocoa is eating all the pecans she finds on the ground. She crunches the outer husk, cracks the inner shell as best she can, and eats the nut, shell and all. Of course, she prefers that we crack the pecan for her, and give her only the nut to eat. She's a terrible beggar and whines and yelps when she sees us eating the pecans without sharing with her.

Cheerleaders

Glenn and Amy dressed Abbey, Hayley, and Madyson as Auburn cheerleaders for trick-or-treating. Aren't they cute?! (Of course I can see that blue in their costume is a little too light, and somehow some 'gators got in the place where the tigers are supposed to be, but I'm sure by now they've realized their mistake and will have them properly attired next year!)

Love all those pictures, Amy!

Fingerless mitts

Yesterday while at the lake I started a pair of mitts for David, who requested them after he saw the ones I made for Jacy.

David took them with him for tonight's football game - the last one of the season. He said he was pretty cold during the last game he filmed. (That's not the camera he uses, by the way.) I hope they keep his hands warm. I hope all the coaches and team and helpers have a great time, no matter the outcome of the game (we haven't won a game yet this season, and Chilton County smashed us last year, so no one is really expecting a win tonight), and that they get home safely.

New island

Yesterday we went to the lake to help the grandparents. After Sarah and Joan finished their work they decided to walk out to a new dry spot in the middle of the lake in front of Mom and Dad's place.

They took Cocoa with them, waded out from the existing point, and waved back at those of us on the shore.

The word is, the lake level is going to get lower, so I'm sure the next time we're there they won't have to do any wading to get to that new island - it'll be a peninsula.

Back on October 30th

For some reason, our town held trick-or-treating on Tuesday night, rather than on the 31st. Last year we went to the Harvest Festival that Lakeview Baptist put on, so we had no idea whether or not anyone came by our house hoping for candy.

Last year at this time we'd been here only nine months and of the 3,000 or so residents we knew maybe 30 or 40. Now we're approaching our 2-year anniversary of moving here, and we probably know a couple hundred people - at least by sight, if we can't always remember the names.

Last year our elderly neighbors came over on November 1st bringing candy they'd saved for our children and telling us they'd looked for us the night before. (I laughed today when I read that Cindy and Carmon both had similar experiences.)

This year I asked Steve to please pick up a few bags of candy on his way home from Birmingham. Steve is never one to do things by halves, and he brought home over 15 pounds of candy. Marley was allowed to go with Scout and Adeline to the neighbors' homes - all three were dressed as princesses - and Sam, as a little pirate, went to the elderly neighbors across the street, our neighbors on both sides of us, and his Uncle Chuck and Aunt Kim's house. When he and Joan came home, we were already out of candy, despite Tom's excellent job of handing out the candy to make it s-t-r-e-t-c-h. Our porch and front yard were filled with little children and parents, and Sam promptly dumped his candy into the bowl to be handed out to the children still arriving.

On Tuesday morning, while going over the catechism we got off track on Halloween. We talked about it, the origins, why we did not do certain things/activities, and what we did do. All-in-all we had a great day.

Knitting and a movie

While we were gone last week, Steve watched a movie he thought I'd like. He wouldn't tell me anything about it, just that it dovetailed nicely with some of the shows I watch on HGTV. On Monday night, he asked me to grab my knitting and come watch the movie with him in his office. It turned out to be a small film I'd never heard of - Closing Escrow. I did find it very funny, but probably because I've watched too many episodes of "House Hunters" and "Buy Me." Steve and I were both laughing a lot as we watched it, and agreed that it's too bad it is directed at such a tiny audience - because I don't know if someone unfamiliar with those HGTV shows would enjoy it. The dialogue was mostly improvised, and the director, because of his religious convictions, would allow no cursing or nasty language. It's a keeper for us.

As we watched the movie, I knitted a pair of fingerless mitts from Melanie Falick's book, Weekend Knitting.

The mitts are for Jacy, but Sarah modeled them for me.

More pictures from last week

For some reason, Sarah and Joan thought these goggles and flippers were hilarious and would laugh so hard when Joan put them on they'd start sinking.

On our last night there, we ate at Logan's to celebrate William's 7th birthday.

After we ate, Mike took Sarah, Joan, and David to Downtown Disney for a fun night out.

They took lots of goofy pictures and two that weren't so crazy!