Another Sad Tree Day

Yesterday was my son Allen's 21st birthday. He wants to go in the Marines. His dad an I are not happy about it. We tried to talk him into the Coast Guard, which has the best retirement AND does not get deployed. But he says only sissies go in the Coast Guard, he is a REAL man. Well I hope the marines will be good for him.

While Des and her babies were here, we got another big storm. As we watched from the front door, the storm took out what was left of the big pear tree we lost half of last month. Ironically the other half was surviving. See the black buckets thrown like dirtball people's yards, around on the ground UNDER the piece of broken tree? Those were the replacement apple and peach trees. I don't know yet if they will be alright.

Then as if that weren't enough, we also lost about 1/4 of the 3rd tree, which was also a nice healthy tree. You might believe me when I say, the wind was fierce. This was not lightning damage, just wind.

Note in this last pic... the center tree, which is skanky, has crown-spread and is about half dead, came away almost unscathed. Only a little damage high up where the other half of the first large tree hit it on the way down. Wouldn't ya know.

Artemas has been sleeping on the sofa at night, because its narrow confines keep him from turning over on his still-healing broken collarbone. Beverly, who LOVES her big brother, awoke about 2 AM. She stretched and hung out on her bed a minute, then came over to mine. She climbed up, slept 3 minutes, got back up, down off the bed, and went to the door. She said, "Armis!" and out she went. I went out into the great room to see where she went, and here she was, already back to sleep.

All our family shops are participating in the 4-day Etsy Yart Sale, through the 14th. Check our shops for new items... we have put up quite a few, including this gorgeous recycled, hand dyed Superwash batt which sold in 12 hours! And for Yart Sale specials!
My7kids Recycled Yarns
Heartfeltfun Accessory Boutique
Fluff4Ewe Handspun Yarns and Fiber
Rossoaps Handmade Goat or Soy Milk Soaps

I have been knitting a ball today. Ok, so I am not that fast. But I have a lotta kids underfoot and I was gone 3 hours running a futile errand. And made dinner, all that. So I need 2 of these black Merino balls and got one done. So sue me. LoL




This Evening B got into the stack of clean laundry and tried to put on some of my clothes. She informed her dad that this was for "Nurtsies!" Think it will be a while before I have to worry about sharing clothes with B. LoL!

Sad Tree Day, and Mom, You're So WEIRD

This morning about 8 AM we started to have a lightning storm. For the first little while, maybe half an hour, it was "dry" lightning. It wasn't raining, but the lightning was fierce and very close, as there was no delay to the thunderclap, and you could hear the thunder echoing through the hills and valleys around here.

Then the rains came. I grew up just 22 miles from Xenia, Ohio, and stayed 2 days in the basement when the tornadoes went through that leveled that town (in what, 1972?). Then lived 22 years in FL, just above Tampa, the lightning capital of the country. So I have lived through some storms! But this was seriously the worst wind I have ever heard. When it was over, I started to leave the house... and this sight greeted me from the front porch.

Our front yard has (had) three large Bradford Pear trees. They don't bear fruit, but are gorgeous in Spring, totally covered in white blossoms... great shade in summer, and fiery red in Fall. The center tree (in front of the porch), is ailing... the crown is spreading and we are probably going to have to take that tree out. The one nearest the driveway (pictured) was our favorite. We sit under that tree often. We park motorcycles and cars under its shade to work on them. And the storm killed it.

Three little bright spots: one, I can make a LOT of pearwood, handmade, chunky, double-pointed knitting needles like these in my My7kids Recycled Yarn Shop if I cut and peel the branches while they are still wick. The second is, the tree missed our 450 Suzuki that was parked under it, by like 3 feet. And the last is, the kids didn't know what to get me for Mother's day, and I have been wanting an apple or peach tree. So today we went out, found one of each cheap, and they got them for me.
Oh and a Basil plant for my garden.

Still, it is a shame such a beautiful tree bit the dust. I have been a little sad about that. It isn't a big sadness thing like the loss of a spouse, marriage, child, or house. But sad still. And, those new little trees won't give good shade for quite a few years! ~~ sigh ~~

OK! A couple more pics! One is Veronica's feet, happily nestled in her mom-knit sox. Now that the cuff is fixed, she likes them. In fact, she had to have new sneakers to wear them with. (Just kidding, she was overdue for new sneakers. LOL)

Here is a little sneak peek at the Fuzzy Yellow Thing that I got from UFO Project Administration Service. This is the re-make that people voted for on my blog last week. I had a few people say they didn't think the lace pattern would show in that fuzzy yellow yarn, but it looks so far, so good. Yes, my carpet is purple.

Today Des said she thinks I might be on the cutting-edge of weird. What in the world might prompt a good daughter to say something like that to her mother?

Last night I was counting stitches in a knitting project that Diantha is doing. I needed a marker in the middle of a dpn, and instead of slipping the stitches off the needle to the marker point, I took out my left earring (a handmade sterling and garnet with a hook on the back for the wire) and slipped it on the needle and hooked it. I might add that I have my left ear pierced twice, and in the extra hole I had a long, turquoise and sterling earring that I lost the mate of last week.

Later on, Veronica was sweeping the floor in the kitchen and found my other turquoise earring. Without thinking, I stuck it in the only empty hole.

I promptly forgot about it and went out today, looking like this:

Des said, "You know, Mom, most people would have switched that top turquoise earring to the other side, so they had a pair and an extra." So I told her I never much cared for doing things the way Most People do them. LOL!

I got a special order yarn done after our errands today, and made homemade pizzas for dinner. But I did NOT get more knitting done, or the carding done that I needed to do, or folding laundry. On the other hand, I am not asleep yet!

Until Then...

I have other stuff to blog about tonight, but until then, I thought you might enjoy this Shine article on The Top 10 Worst Foods of 2009. I am happy to report I didn't eat a SINGLE one of these. But that's not sayin' much...

Well today I reached 200 sales in my My7kids Yarn Shop at Etsy, less than 9 months after my first sale ever! Woo Hoo! My current series of recycled yarns I am putting up is called Man-swers... things like Put The Seat Up, Walk the Stupid Dog, Mow the Lawn, Be Nice to Her Mom. I could probably do this one for a while.

Meanwhile I also put a new item in my HeartFeltFun Boutique at Etsy. It is a little felted basket or bowl with a rolled rim, built-in handles, and beads. I knitted and felted it out of one of the handspun yarns that were sent to me from Japan to donate to our Youth Center. I hope it sells quickly so that some little girl can have a darling Easter Basket!

Yesterday in our rainy-day travels, I took some pictures out of the car windows. This picture on the left is the Bull Run Steam Power Plant run by TVA just on the North side of Knoxville. It is HUGE... the building alone (at the base of the taller tower) has 12 stories of platforms on the outside, and it is dwarfed by the steam stack and tower. The steam was such a great contrast to the dreary sky I couldn't resist this pic, even through the windshield!

You may notice across the bottom of the stem plant pic, the continuous "cloud" of fluffy white. These are the dreaded (or coveted) Bradford Pear trees that are so ubiquitous here. These trees do not bear edible pears, but in the Spring they bloom entirely white. The fall of the blossoms could, I guess, be referred to as our last "snow." Then they are covered in the most audacious chartreuse new leaves... which develop into glossy deep green, wonderful shade. In Autumn the leaves turn scarlet red to deep plum.

They are all over the place, as evidenced by this picture of a major intersection in Knoxville, at Cedar Bluff Road and I-40 Eastbound. And, there are 5 of them in my yard. Oh so beautiful but I think the flowers stink (smell like vitamin B1) and the pollen has me acting like a mouth-breather for weeks. Hey, beauty has its price.

One more picture of community beautification for those of you not lucky enough to live here. All over the place, on the sides of highways and overpasses and in medians, some soul with foresight planted (or caused to be planted) millions of daffodil bulbs. This hillside isn't in full bloom yet... that will take a couple weeks. But for several weeks in the Spring we are treated to these cheery yellow blooms, just about everywhere we go. Guess you only have to take the time in your commute to actually notice them.

Happy Birthday B

Lots of pics again tonight. First off, today our Bradford Pears decided to bloom. Yesterday there weren't any flowers on them, and today there are. This is Beverly with a sprig of the flowers in her hair. I hate the way the flowers smell, it is something too sweet and slightly like decay... and as of today, our area will be Sinus Hell for a while. But they sure are purty to look at. LoL.

It was a beautiful day. The kids played in the yard. In fact, here is Beverly with her hero and big brother Artemas, who is "sunbathing." Sure.

For about an hour this afternoon I sat in the sun with my feet up and knitted a little something I am working on for my HeartFeltFun Boutique at Etsy. I could tell you what it is, but then I'd have to... oh nevermind. To the left, you will see my afternoon view. Boy I love to go barefoot.

We did quilt blocks today too. We were a day behind, so we both did one for yesterday. The block was called Wagon Wheel. Diantha, being a sensible child, did hers in such calm colors, as seen on the right.

And since my block is going in my Ranger quilt for the Bumbling Bounty Hunters Mini Quilt Challenge, I called it Probably Hot Wheels and did it in very Ranger-y colors, as seen here to the left. LoL.

Then we did today's block, which was called Road to Oklahama. Again, Diantha selected a more conservative palate, as seen here to the right. I just LOVE her choices in layouts. (And the bubbles! Gotta love the bubbles!)

And once again, I called mine something different, since mine is for my Edna (Grandma) Mazur quilt in the above-mentioned challenge. In the Stephanie Plum Novels (Hot Six) Grandma Mazur once decided to get a driver's license. She practiced and practiced, took the test 6 times and passed. And then in ONE week, accumulated enough points in speeding tickets to lose her license for life. So mine is not Road to Oklahoma, it is Road Hazard. As you can see, I tweaked the 4-patches accordingly.

Alrighty, today is (was, oh dear, I am posting SO late again!) Beverly Jeane's Birthday!!! Yippee!! She is TWO years old! So I am giving the world a little tiny peek at the blessing that has been Beverly Jeane "Betsy" Ross for the past 2 years.

Here is little baby Betsy at a week old... doing bilirubin light therapy in her bassinet at home. See the bruises? She was born in only an hour, and she was born face first, then turned. Her entire face from the hairline, across the brow, and down the center of the front was bruised from the fast trip past the pubic bone. By a week the bruises had settled around her eyes, so she only looked like we beat her instead of just run over her with the car. See how peacefully she is sleeping though!

We skip to 8 weeks old, and what do ya know, she is SLEEPING again! Wonder she could do that at all in a small house with 7 other people. But she was a peaceful baby, which is a blessing.

I LOVE this picture, wrapped snugly up in the beautiful quilt made for her by her big sister Desiree. We had refrigerator magnets made from this print, and sent one to my Aunt Bev down in Florida, so she could see her little namesake great niece (and kept one for us, since it was so cute!).

Fast forward to the first birthday. We had to go to Florida to retrieve some dental records on a couple of the kids, and just happened to be there over the baby's birthday. So we went to Venice to visit Aunt Bev. Spent the day wandering the town and going to the beach (little B did NOT like the sand, like her mama). All the kids got wet in the surf, despite grave warnings to the contrary.

I could have taken them all to Walmart or Target to get dry clothes on the way out to dinner, but I told my cousin, if a person is going to get their clothes wet when they know they are going to dinner, they should have to get an outfit from the Goodwill. The Goodwill there has a warehouse on the back where they dump all the donated and unsorted clothing in bins and you pay $1 a pound for them! So we all went and dug, dug, dug through bins until every member of the family had "new" clothes to go out to eat in. My cousin said she had never done anything like this before and it was FUN!! I paid $4.70 for 6 people worth of clothing, and we went to dinner (and on to have cake) in style. LoL! This is a picture of the elder and younger Beverlies and the birthday cake.

One more... I took this one last night. Betsy had a walkie-talkie headset on and was walking around the house "taking orders" like they do at fast food places. She kept saying "Fee Fies" and bring me pretend milkshakes. What fun.

I am so thankful that God has blessed us with this one more child. I am thankful for her cleverness, her brightness, her gentleness, and her humor (because yes, right from the beginning, she has a sense of humor). I am thankful for this, another opportunity to win a soul to the Lord and nurture a person who can make, however small, a difference.

And I thank YOU for letting me share her!