Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Yard work

Wow, it's been a while since I posted anything. I've been pretty busy the past few weeks. The fence that separates our back yard from our neighbors' yard has been leaning since a hurricane hit a year and a half ago. Our neighbor's business has been slow, thanks to the economic downturn, so he finally had time to work on the fence. I've been helping a bit with the demolition and building; since Hubby is working these days, he can only help in the evenings and on the weekends. Anyway, the fence is almost completed, and it looks great!
There hasn't been a whole lot that I could do, so I've been doing other yard work. I've trimmed our crepe myrtle trees, which I really should have done two or three months ago. I trimmed our Mexican fan palms...which needed a lot of trimming. I cut down several bushes and trees that were dead or dying. I dug out roots from those bushes and trees. I planted a few new plants. I raked and bagged leaves. I carried all of that brush to our back yard, to await permission from a nearby farmer to burn it in a small section of his field. Once we got permission, I carried brush from the piles in our back yard to the burn pile. My tasks for today are to mow the lawn in the back yard, and kill whatever poison ivy/oak/sumac I find, and maybe dig out some more roots in the back yard. I'm trying to get our back yard done so that I can set up the new wading pool I got for the girls. It's not technically summer, but summer weather has already arrived, as it usually does this time of year in our area.
In knitting news....not much has happened. I had an idea to make felted oven mitts that my girls could use, since the ones I have are really much too big for their little hands. I used size 15 needles, and three strands of worsted-weight wool held together. I started by making a very large swatch and felting it, to test the felting properties of the wool. That swatch became a potholder. Then I began knitting a basic (huge) stockinette stitch mitten. I felted the mitten, and it became the perfect size for my oldest daughter's hand. It was still drying yesterday, so she hasn't tested it out yet to see how well it actually protects her hand against the heat of a hot pan or baking sheet; maybe it'll be dry today, and we'll have the opportunity to do that. I haven't got the pictures downloaded from my camera yet, so I'll have to wait to post them.

Saturday, April 17, 2010

One week old.

The kittens are one week old! They are still so tiny. But they're very soft. Emily let me pick one up today, but she let me know she was watching me closely.

"These are my babies. Go stare at your own babies."

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Angel in the Bluebonnets

Sweet
Happy
Smells good
Pretty
Goin' for a stroll

Princess in the Bluebonnets

Wild!
Sweet
Tiptoeing through the bluebonnets
Pretty

Kitty in the Bluebonnets

So excited!
Pretty
Smells good...
Relaxin' (yes, those are airplanes in the background)
Wow!

Texas Bluebonnets

Taking pictures in and around the bluebonnets is a Texas tradition, since they are the Texas State Flower. Every spring, when the bluebonnets are blooming, people pull off the sides of busy highways and take pictures. Kinda crazy; a little unsafe...but you can't argue with tradition. This year, we kicked it up a notch. Since hubby is a pilot and part-owner of a small plane, and none of the other partners were flying last weekend, we decided to take off (literally) after church on Sunday, and get our bluebonnet pictures done. Our pictures were taken between the taxiway and runway of a small airport. Yes, you read that right. BETWEEN the taxiway and runway. We're nuts. Anyway, here are just a few pictures....
Bluebonnets
Kitty, Princess and Angel (l-r) in the bluebonnets
Bluebonnets, and my new favorite flower: Indian Paintbrush
Running between the flowery patches
And a family photo, on the runway sign
I was going to post more individual pictures of the girls, but Blogger will only let me upload five pics at a time, so I'll make a separate blog post for each girl. Later.
Safety disclaimer: no airplanes were using the runway while we were next to it. Haha...had y'all going there for a minute, didn't I?

Monday, April 12, 2010

Kittens!

Last Thursday, our cat, Emily.........
had kittens!
This picture was taken when they were just one day old.

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Happy birthday, Kitty!

First of all....a pic from Easter Sunday, just before church......
Yesterday was Kitty's third birthday! I didn't make a fancy cake, just cupcakes, because that's what she wanted. But here are a few pictures of the presents:
A sundress and a plush bunny from an aunt and uncle

Five dresses(one is for church) from Grandpa O.


Kitty hugging her new pink bunny

a Snow White dressup dress from Daddy

There were other presents, of course, but those ones were the best. ;)

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Visiting family!

I'm in Kansas, visiting my family. ☺ The girls and I are having a blast. My sister has brought her girls over every day that we've been here, so it's been pretty wild. Here's a little sampling of what we've been up to....
A daffodil at the zoo
Angel, reading to her sisters and cousins
All eight girls, at the zoo. (3 belong to my sister Sara, and 2 to my sister Rebekah)
Watching "Annie" on movie night
Me, having a little quality time with my dad and our firearms. ☺
I haven't had much knitting time, and what I've had was mostly spent tinking. I dropped a stitch on my Adamas shawl, and it fell several rows. I tried to pick it up, but since it was lace, there were yarnovers and decreases in the way, and that just made it worse. I hadn't used lifelines, so I couldn't just rip. I had to tink back about 5 rows, before I was able to pick up the stitch properly. Now I've caught back up to where I was before I messed up. I think I'll finish this repeat, then put it aside to work on Surf.
In case I don't get time to be on the computer tomorrow.....Happy Easter! I hope you have a wonderful Resurrection Day celebration. ☺