Books!

Happy Monday everyone!  I had a great weekend!  Lots of time just spent at home with Dennis, reading and watching reruns of "Fixer Upper" while I knitted on plain white garter stitch rectangles.  A potluck after church yesterday and then we had Panda Express for dinner.  What a lazy weekend with not much cooking for me.  One of the best parts was that I felt great all weekend.  Usually it's one good day and then one bad day, but so far so good and today is a good one too.  Maybe the meds are finally stopping the tachycardia and life can become normal again. Whatever normal is!

I finally got my shipment of books from Amazon.  I ordered them two weeks ago!  It took 13 days for them to arrive.  I guess since it was free shipping I have nothing to complain about.  I've been waiting for this one especially.  I have at least 90 of Debbie's books.  Most of them include knitting in them somewhere.  She lives here in Washington State and, in fact, goes through Spokane a few times a year to visit family in Colville which is just north of us.  Anyway, this book has had very good reviews and I'm going to start reading it as soon as I finish this post.

I have never read anything by this author before so I'm looking forward to it.  I like the cover!  :-)

This one looks like it's REALLY heavy reading but came highly recommended by some online friends so I thought I would get it.  Hmmm.  We'll see if I can get through it.  An intellectual I am NOT.

I snapped this as I waited for an ice tea at the drive-thru this morning.  A rose bush wth new leaves on it!  It's one of the first real signs of spring that I've seen here so far.  I've been reading Teresa's and Gracie's blogs about all of the new spring growth in the Portland area and I've been a bit jealous, but it looks like we may start getting some buds and blooms before too long over here on the east side too.

I snapped this last night as we were driving home.  Isn't it beautiful?  Almost like flames instead of the usual arcing rainbow.

My St. Patrick's Day decorations.  I don't have many but I enjoy this little bit.

I crocheted the garland a year or two ago.  Wow. Look at how different the wood on the island photographed between these two pictures.  I took them within seconds of each other.  The top one is the most accurate representation.

The orchids Dennis received while he was in the hospital are still blooming beautifully.

I can't believe I haven't killed them yet.  Ha!

I'm still making mittens.  With this pair I will have 51 pair done for next fall.  

The white garter stitch rectangles that I mentioned in the first part of this post were for a charity blanket that a group I'm in on Ravelry is doing for the Red Cross.  I volunteered to make two plain white rectangles.  Talk about boring knitting!  I was sure glad to get back to the mittens this morning.  I mailed them off to the joiner this morning and forgot to take a picture, but really, there wasn't much to see.  Plain white rectangles. 

Our youngest son, Alex, is coming home from Japan next month for THREE. WHOLE. WEEKS!!!!!!  I am seriously so excited I can hardly stand it.  We haven't seen him for over two and a half years, since August of 2013.  We face-time with him several times a week, but it's just not the same.  He is going to have foot surgery on April 26.  I just scheduled it for him this morning.  It's a long story, but he had pins put in both of his ankles when he was about 12 years old.  When he broke his back about 8 years ago while snowboarding when he first moved to Japan, his feet were hurt too, but they were so concerned about possible paralysis with his back, his feet were sort of ignored.  They have given him constant pain for several years now and he had an MRI done a few months ago and a DVD copy of it sent home for me to take to the foot doctor here because they won't touch them in Tokyo.  Apparently they've never seen pins in ankles before. ????  Anyway, he needs to have the pins removed because of damage caused by bones breaking around the pins in his snow boarding accident.  He's just having the worst one done this spring and if all goes well, he'll come back and have the other foot done.  He can't do them both because he needs to be able to walk, at least with crutches, when he goes back to Tokyo.  

I am so excited to have him home again, if only for a few weeks.  It will be awful to have him leave again.  He's my baby, (although he doesn't like me to say that out loud.)  Gosh, we miss all of our kids.  Wouldn't it be nice if they could all come home again while he's here?  Hint, hint, if any of you are reading this!  :-)

Okay, I'm ready to delve into my new book.  It's a rainy Monday and perfect reading weather.  I hope you all have a wonderful week!

"For the Word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart." Hebrews 4:12

Blessings,

Betsy