Sunday, Sunday

Happy Sunday!  It's a beautiful sunny afternoon here in Spokane.  It's 65F and so beautifully calm and serene here.  Dennis is outside mowing the yard and I'm inside doing laundry so tomorrow I can go back to the lake!  Yesterday we were woken up again by the carbon monoxide detector in the trailer.  We knew there was nothing wrong, as the same thing had happened earlier in the week and we had all of the windows open.  Upon further investigation we found that the devices are programmed to sound the alarm intermittedly after 60 months of use.  We've had the trailer since 2012...it's now 2017 so it was time to buy a new one.  Dennis called around and the only place we could find one in stock was in Post Falls, Idaho, so off we went.  We drove to Spokane and dropped Chloe off at the house and then drove to Idaho to buy the detector.  There was no putting it off because it's hardwired to the electrical system.  We couldn't just disconnect it because then nothing worked, apparently it's a safety feature.  **sigh**  Then it was back to the trailer to install it.  I'm so glad I have a handy husband.  It did take the majority of the day though, and of course we had to take some time to look at the new trailers while we were there. :-)  He also did all of the mowing and trimming for our lot and four of our neighbors last night after the other repairs.

Now everything is working again...did I mention the shower knob didn't work when I tried to take a shower yesterday morning either?  At least we were already going to the parts store, so we bought a new one.  Everything is made of plastic to keep the weight down in these trailers and since we spend so much time at the lake, it all gets used a lot.  We do try to take good care of everything and do routine maintenance.  In fact, just last weekend Dennis spent all day Saturday washing the roof and resealing around all of the vents and skylights just as a preventative measure.  He is such a hard worker.

Now to reveal my Amulet Shawl.  I finished it last week and wore it to church last Sunday.  What do you think?  I absolutely love it.  It's hard to see the beads in these pictures, but it has over 500 beads knitted into it.

In fact, I loved the pattern and the way the author wrote it so much, I immediately cast-on for another Helen Stewart pattern, the Asana Shawl.  Here it is in it's beginning stages.

This was it last night just before I put the first row of beads on it.  I can only work on it when I'm alone because now that I'm past the garter stitch section each row is counted and needs to be completely accurate.

Friday I woke up to a flat tire so off I went to get it fixed.  Dennis was already at work so it was up to me!  Here I am in the waiting room of the tire shop while the tire is being fixed.  I finished another pair of mittens while I waited.  There was a nail in my tire!  I have no idea where that came from but they fixed it at no charge so all is well.

That made two pair for this week.  I need to up my game on these mittens. I find I am very distracted by all of this shawl knitting and I don't want to make mittens anymore.  :-)

On Wednesday I was wandering around our local yarn shop, Paradise Fibers, which many of you know of since most of their business is online.  I saw a lonely skein of 75% merino/25% nylon undyed fingering weight yarn on a shelf all by itself.  Needless to say I bought it and promptly dyed it.  It was my first attempt at dying yarn and I must say I really enjoyed it.  I used a very easy method using Kool-Aid.  This was Mango-Mango flavored Kool-Aid that I had had in my cupboard since our kids were little!  Who knows how old that stuff was but it worked for dying yarn!  I love the pretty peach color it turned out and the tonal qualities were exactly what I wanted but I never thought I could end up with.  I don't know if I'll ever dye yarn again, but I sure have fallen in love with this skein.  It will make a nice pair of socks or a shawl, I haven't decided yet.

I bought new curtain panels at Shopko today to make curtains for the trailer.  The ones that came with the trailer are just plain icky and I've never liked them.  Would you believe they are GLUED to the valances?  I was going to buy material at JoAnn's and make the new curtains, but then, when we went to buy the curtain rods I saw these.  The perfect color for the trailer to match the valances and on sale too.  Normally $21.99 a panel, on sale for $7.99!  You can't beat that price.  I bought all they had and hope it's enough.  Worst case, I have to make a different color for the bedroom as I think this is plenty for the living room/hallway.  Much less expensive than the material I was looking at, they're room darkening to block sunlight AND most of the seams will be done for me already! ( I will be cutting them up to fit the trailer windows.)

We got new gravel on the road by our trailer at the lake last week.  It's very welcome as the dirt was making lots of dust when cars drove by.  Please ignore the trash cans across the road, it was garbage pickup day when I took the picture.

The maintenance staff has been very busy getting the cabins all gussied up for the summer crowds.  This winter was a hard one for everyone and everything, including the buildings on the grounds.

Here's my handsome Hubby replacing the outside shower hose on Larry & Nita's trailer.  He does most of the maintenance on their trailer too since they are somewhat older than we are and have a difficult time doing it.  This guy is amazing.  He works 12 hours a day/five days a week without complaint and then does everything else he does for me and everyone else too.  I am blessed to have him as my husband and I never, ever take him for granted.

I think that's about all of my news.  I'm still trying to adjust to my medication and find myself exhausted a lot.  We're planning to drive to Omaha at the end of June to spend a week with family and friends.  It's a 25-26 hours drive each way, so please pray that it is doable for me with my back, etc.  I'm determined to go because Mandy, Brad and Piper will be there by then too.  I can't wait to see everyone.  My sister, my brothers and Dennis' family all live there too. 

I hope you're all enjoying your summer, (or winter if that's the part of the world you're in.)

Jesus replied, "Love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all of your soul and with all of your mind.  This is the first and greatest commandment."   Matthew 22:37-38

Until next time!
Blessings,
Betsy