Crisp mornings, Warm afternoons

We are having such a lovely fall weather right now. Crisp mornings with temperatures in the 30s and warm afternoons in the upper 70s and low 80s. This is the perfect time of year to my way of thinking and I wish it could stay like this.  The photo below is where I’m sitting right now, as I just finished writing a few letters at the table outside. Chloe enjoys laying in the sunshine on her blanket too.

I forgot to show you this picture when I was showing you our fall decorations last week. This hangs just inside the front door.

I finished the “Monkey Socks” last night at almost midnight. A quick wash and they’re hanging to dry in the sunshine. The yarn is from Knit Picks. It is Stroll tweed fingering weight in the Persimmon Heather colorway.

Piper’s sweater arrived on Monday and as you can see it fits almost perfectly. I have the yarn to make her a lavender one, a red one, and a pink one too. One of them will be cast on today.

She turned eight years old yesterday! I can hardly believe it! When did that happen? As you can see she’s pretty thrilled with being eight.

There isn’t much else new since I posted a couple of days ago. We have ordered skirting for the trailer for winter and the installer was supposed to be here last week to put it on the trailer but he postponed it. Then he was supposed to be here yesterday and it was postponed till today. I just called and now it’s tomorrow. He has not come out once when he told us he would. I sure hope he does a better job on the actual skirting.  I’m trying to remain optimistic, but he has to get it installed soon. It’s getting cold at night and we don’t want our pipes to freeze.

I keep forgetting to give you an update on the mittens. I have 115 pair made and fellow blogger Sherri in Las Vegas is going to send me some that she has made. I will call the school in October and see if I can deliver them. I’m not sure what days anyone is there or if they’re letting outsiders into the schools right now.

I also have a huge bag full of baby hats and blankets to go to the hospital, but right now they are not accepting outside items either. Nita has graciously said I can store them at her house since I have no room in the trailer. Every time I finish a hat or blanket I just give it to her!

I hope you are all having a wonderful day and enjoying fall, (spring), where ever you may be.

Blessings,

Betsy

Busy Days

I sure don’t know where the time goes but the days are flying by. Last Friday I made shears for the windows. I can’t believe the difference it makes. It’s so much more homey and cozy now.  We have had to turn the furnace on a few times overnight. This morning we woke up to 34°F. Brrrrr!

Please excuse some of the clutter, but we do live in here and it’s a very small space. I try to keep it picked up but a few piles here and there are bound to happen.

In the dining area we have taken the chairs out and put them in storage, except for the two folding chairs. We tend to eat sitting in our recliner’s and use the space more as storage. On the left is the little freezer we bought from Amazon with our printer on top of it. On the table is the toaster oven that works amazingly well. It’s a convection/air fryer/toaster/oven and a few other things. In the bowl is candy for the neighborhood kids. Grandma’s have to keep candy available, don’t we? On the right side is Chloe‘s dog food and on top of that is our file cabinet and my laptop.  The cart with all of my craft things sits in front of it right next to my chair. There is a lot in the small space, but we make it work. My mom embroidered the tablecloth over 80 years ago. It’s one of my prized possessions.

The dresser area in the bedroom

This is my new portable sewing machine that Dennis bought me for our anniversary. I got it on Amazon for $210. He told me to get whatever kind of machine I wanted but I didn’t want to spend much money and this one works amazingly well. I wasn’t sure how it would do on the thin fabric of the sheers, but the tension was perfect and it didn’t drop any stitches.

It poured down rain all day Friday and was very chilly. I had the electric fireplace on and my little lights and it was so warm and cozy in the trailer and a perfect day to make the curtains. We needed the rain so badly and I’m very grateful for it.

This was a sweater that I made for Piper a few years ago. I finished a white one just like, it only bigger and mailed it off to her last week without taking a picture! So I dug this photo up from the archives. Maybe I can get Mandy to take a picture of her wearing the new one once it arrives. I also have the yarn to make her a pink one, a lavender one, and a red one, at her request. She wears these sweaters all of the time.  Tomorrow she is going to be eight years old! Can you believe it?  I sure can’t. It seems like only yesterday Mandy and I were walking around their neighborhood in Portland trying to get Piper to decide to come out and meet the world.

I also started a pair of socks on Saturday. This is the “Monkey socks” pattern and it is free on Ravelry. I’m using Knit Picks yarn, but I don’t have the label with me right now. I’ll let you know the color later. I plan to give these as a gift soon.

Saturday night I made homemade chicken and noodles at Dennis’s request. It’s so nice to have the space to actually roll out the noodles and leave them to dry. Our other trailer didn’t have any space for me to make these. They were delicious and I thought I had made way too many, but we had them as leftovers last night for dinner and they’re all gone! We also had cranberry sauce, green beans with bacon and cantaloupe. I’m sorry I forgot to take a photo of them after they were finished cooking. We ate them too quickly!  The pizza cutter is my secret weapon. It makes cutting up the noodles so much easier than trying to use a knife.

Thought I would show you a picture of Larry and Nita at Mt. Rushmore last week. They had gorgeous weather for their trip and had a wonderful time. They are back home now and Sophie has left us to be back with her mom and dad. I must admit I miss having her on my lap while I’m knitting.

I’m sorry this post got a little bit long. I just realized I hadn’t written anything since last Monday. The week just completely got away for me. Take care my friends and I’m trying to check your blogs daily.

Blessings,

Betsy

Blue skies, smiling at me!

Good morning to everyone. I hope your Monday morning is going well.

We had a bit of rain on Saturday night and it scoured out the skies. For the first time in almost 2 weeks, we woke up to this! Our air quality was finally in the “moderate” range. This morning it’s in the “good” range. Hallelujah! It feels so wonderful to be able to breathe while outside.

I am making Piper a sweater for her birthday next week. I have made these same sweaters for her since she was in a size 2–3T. This one is an 8-9. The last ones I made her, the sleeves now go up to her elbows and she still wears them!  She is definitely knit-worthy. She loves everything I make her. I also have the yarn to make her a pink one and a red one too.

Sorry about the lighting but I took this at 5:30 this morning. I have the back completed and the left front and I’m almost finished with the other front side. Just the sleeves and the neck/button band left to go on this one.  I started it on Friday so I think I’m making good progress.

While Dennis was in Omaha last week Piper decided he needed to visit the dentist. Although he doesn’t look thrilled, he said he was having a great time playing with her. Notice the crown on his head! I think everybody should get a crown at the dentist and a hug like this would be nice too, especially if the dentist was as cute as this one. She most definitely loves her Papa.

Alex flew from London to Tokyo last Tuesday and sent us this photo of the inside of his plane. Notice how empty it is. That would have never happened before Covid. Now it was a relief for me to see how far away he was from other people.

I thought I would show you some of my fall decorating around the trailer. This first one isn’t really for fall as it stays up all of the time, but I do like it. This is just inside the door.  I made the cross stitch about 35 years ago and it has hung in all of our various homes.

My beautiful fall angel hangs right outside the front door, well the only door, on the slide. I used a command hook that is designed for the shower to hang it. I thought that way it would be able to withstand rain.

Some autumn color in the old camping coffee pot we used to heat water in when we tent camped.



The view from closer to the road.

Having familiar items that we have had around us in our house and flowers definitely makes this place feel home here. So far I am very content in my little trailer and not missing the house at all.

Larry and Nita decided on the spur of the moment to leave yesterday to go to the Black Hills and see Mount Rushmore. In all their travels around the world they have never been to Mount Rushmore and it was on their bucket list. We have seen it dozens of times and gave them a list of other things fun to do in the area. So we have Sophie staying with us this week.  She is very familiar with the inside of the trailer because of the lake, but she can’t figure out why it’s not in the same spot! Every time we go outside she looks around like, where am I?

It’s 49° this morning and I haven’t turned the heat on so both Sophie and Chloe are snuggled up in the bed with me as I type this.   They love these fleece blankets and so I lay them down on the cold mornings because they seem to be warmer for them to cuddle in.  Happy and content girls.  A bit spoiled too.😍

Eventually though, I’m going to need to get up and out of the warm bed and start my day. I have a small grocery pick up this morning and I need to find another skein of white yarn for the sweater. I don’t think I’m going to have enough for both sleeves. It’s amazing how much more yarn the bigger sweaters take than the little bitty ones I used to make for her! I hope you all have a wonderful day.

Blessings and love,

Betsy

Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

Oh my goodness it’s smoky out! This is our third day of not being able to be outside at all. This first picture is one that I copied from one of the Spokane news media posts on Facebook. It’s not my picture but it shows basically the same view with and without the smoke looking out from Spokane’s South Hill neighborhood.
I took the next two as I was driving to Jeremy and Alicia‘s house for dinner Saturday afternoon. It’s gotten much worse than this since then.  Our Air Quality is 498 on the AQI (Air Quality Index) chart which peaks at 500.  We’re in the Hazardous zone. No surprise there.

I don’t stay outside long enough to take photos now.

This was yesterday while I was waiting for Chloe to finish going to the bathroom. That is the sun.

I have begun wearing two cloth masks together when I have to go outside for anything. With one I was still choking and gagging on the smoke. With two masks it is much better.  Four layers of cloth. People look at me funny, but that’s okay.  If I can breathe it’s worth a few funny looks. 😍

This is the second time I’ve had this blanket this size. I realized I was knitting it with size 8 needles when I usually use size 10. I figured I didn’t have anything else to do so I just frogged it all and started over yesterday.

My phone completely conked out on me about a week and a half ago. I didn’t realize how old it was. It was an iPhone 6! It wouldn’t let me do any more updates and it was freezing a lot. I have a new phone now with a picture of this handsome guy you see as my wallpaper on it. It’s an iPhone 11 and I love how fast it is.

I had to pick up my grocery order this morning and on a whim I stopped and “gasp” went into Hobby lobby. It’s been ages since I was there. I picked up three packages of these mini LED lights. I think they are going to really brighten up the trailer this winter. They make me happy and really help with the darkness from the smoke. I have three strands of lights and each of them use four AA batteries. They are supposed to last 10,000 hours, so we shall see!  I had a gift card with $17.00 left on it and these were $16.84 with tax. I didn’t even have to feel guilty for buying them!



I am praying for everyone who is affected by the fires in the west and the hurricanes and tropical storms down in the southeast.  Our country is really going through quite a troublesome time in our history right now. All of the weather issues, political issues and even individual attitudes. I pray for peace and for an end to all of the violent rioting and protesting. I pray that people would remember that this country is a melting pot and that each and every person the world over matters to our Lord and Savior. We should matter to each other too. Hate will get us nowhere. It never has and it never will.

I love you all.

Blessings,

Betsy

Alone Again

Hello everyone! Surprise, surprise. I’m home alone with Chloe yet again. I was not able to go with Dennis to the funeral, but he did drive to Helena, Montana this morning and pick up our son Jamie, who is going with him. I’m glad he’s not making the drive by himself. I was really worried about it, but you can’t change what you can’t change. It’s probably for the best with all of the fires around here anyway. He got all of our important papers and documents and put them where it would be easy for me to grab and load the car up if I’m forced to evacuate because of fire. The way things are going in Washington, Oregon and California it’s not a far-fetched idea.

I started a pair of socks for his mom on Sunday night and I finished them about noon yesterday. These are plain vanilla socks as I didn’t have time to do a pattern and she likes the plain ones anyway. This is the Lion Brand Sock-Ease yarn in the rock candy colorway.  Mom really likes the socks I make her with this yarn. She wears them year-round because her feet are always cold. I don’t think I can make her too many socks.  Here they are with my feet modeling them for you.

I also put up my fall decorations yesterday such as they are. There’s not a whole lot of room. Maybe I’ll share one photo at a time with you. That way they will last longer. :-)

I am happy that I still have an island to hang my crocheted garlands on. The sign is one I picked up at the Dollar Tree several years ago.  It does make me ridiculously happy to still have some of our familiar things around us while living in the trailer.

Tuesday I ordered flowers for Karen’s memorial service on Saturday. I hope Dennis remembers to take a picture for me that I can share with you. Her favorite color was yellow so I ordered a standing spray of white flowers with yellow accents and a yellow ribbon that says “sister.”  It truly breaks my heart that I was not able to go, but I know Karen is the first one who would understand why I didn’t.  I’m also very, very happy that Jamie was able to get the time away and go with his Dad. As I said, I didn’t want him driving that trip alone again so soon after his last trip. It’s a long, long drive and also, they will get to have some quantity and quality father/son time that they haven’t had in years.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and those of you that have family or yourself in the vicinity of the fires, I pray that you all stay safe and alert. These are perilous times that we’re living in.

Blessings,

Betsy

Such a crazy week!

I’m just going to touch on the highlights or low points whatever you may call them for the past week as life has been very crazy with its ups and downs this week. Although, I think a lot of us experience weeks like that all of the time, we just don’t share them on our blogs.

First of all I want to share a definite High Point. I received this beautiful hand made card from Connie who is “Far Side Of Fifty,” on my blog list over on the side bar. She sent it to me and I received it on a day that I truly needed the message inside. Thank you Connie from the bottom of my heart. Doesn’t she do beautiful work?  She is truly a great artist in so many mediums.

Another High Point was on Saturday. We went with Paul and Lori for one last ride around the lake. They pulled their boat out of the water and most likely none of us will be returning to Loon Lake again. I have to say, the new management stinks. I won’t say anything else derogatory about it here, but it made choosing to leave and move closer to town a lot easier for us. Maybe them being not very nice was a blessing in disguise. Ha!  Many of the people who have been there a long time like us, have left this year. We have a friend who I will just say has links to the sheriffs department and he says the park is developing quite a reputation. That’s all I will say.

But, we had a wonderful time on our last boat ride on this particular lake. I’m sure we’ll be going out again with Paul and Lori as we’re planning a camping trip with them in a few weeks as long as the weather holds.  Here are Dennis and I enjoying speeding across the lake. I have one of his old shirts on because the sun was so bright and it was 98° out. I burn very, very easily.

Here is our Skipper, Paul. I didn’t manage to get a photo of Lori and the one I got of Nita isn’t very flattering so I don’t think I better post it here. If she saw it I would be in big, big trouble. 🤣

Another High Point is this corner stand I finally found at Walmart. I had seen it online at a group of fellow Grand Design trailer owners. However, as you all know, I haven’t been shopping very much in the past several months.  I finally ventured in to pick up my new glasses Friday morning when they opened at 9:00. There weren’t very many people there, so I took the chance and ventured to the section where I was told they had them back in stock. I love the fact that it gives us a little more counter space in the bathroom and a place to make it a little bit more homey too.  Be kind.  I want to shout it to the world right now.

One of the low points of the week are the horrible wildfires that seem to be popping up everywhere out west. There was a town about 30 miles south of Spokane that 80% of its homes and businesses burned down during the night last night. The California wildfires are getting most of the media attention, but the fires here are devastating as well. Jeremy and Alicia have a fire burning less than 8 miles as the crow flies from their house and the winds are blowing directly toward them. They lost their electricity yesterday and she has two freezers full of meat and things she has harvested from her garden. Jeremy came last night about 10:00 and borrowed our generator which is keeping the freezers going at least. But they have no water because they are on a well. That fire is outside of Blanchard, Idaho.  This is a horribly grainy picture for some reason, but this is what our skies look like. Disgusting.  We had winds blowing 20 to 30 mph yesterday, with gusts of 55 to 60. There are fires in all four directions from where we live. None very close to us but all within 25 to 35 miles.

Another High Point is this.

There is a small airport directly behind the RV park.  A couple of mornings a week, three people take off with these contraptions. I don’t even know what they’re called. They have a harness they sit in and a fan of some sort strapped to their back.  It sounds like a lawnmower engine!  They fly all around and then come back and land. Look how close they are to the trailers!  It is very fun to watch them and all the children come out and point and follow them on their bicycles.  I am truly enjoying watching all the children play here. I miss my grandkids. The other day I took a couple of boxes of Little Debbie snack cakes outside and passed them out to all of the little ones. They sure did like that. I guess I can be the trailer park grandma! Ha!

This is a High Point and a low point. This is my Pimpelliese shawl. I love working on this shawl. I’ve made many of them. I always use one 100g skein of sock yarn per shawl. Look at that little tiny ball that’s left. There is no way I’m going to be able to finish this. I certainly hope I can order more. It is Stroll fingering weight from Knit Picks in the Manatee colorway. Right now it is out of stock but the website says it will be back in a couple of weeks.  I should have weighed this skein before I started. I know it did not have 100g in it.  Out of a skein that size I usually have plenty to make a shawl and still have a small ball left over to put into my cozy memories blanket.  That was disappointing.

Since I was going to run out of yarn anyway, I set it aside to work on these. I started this pair of socks late Sunday night. They are for Dennis‘s mom for her birthday this Friday. That is the day we should arrive in Omaha. I have until tomorrow evening to finish the second sock and I’m working as fast as I can. She loves homemade socks and wears them almost exclusively. This is Lion Brand Sock-Ease yarn in the “rock candy” colorway.  One sock is done to the point where I need to Kitchener it. The other one I have the cuff finished and I’m beginning the leg portion.

There are a few other family things that are definite low points.  I am trying hard to turn them over to the Lord and let Him handle them. We were never promised that life would be easy and I think many of us are being tried right now. It has definitely been a tough year for our family so far. We will be leaving on Thursday morning to drive back to Omaha again for Karen’s memorial service. The plan is to sleep in the back of the truck once again to avoid exposure as much as possible. We will be returning next Tuesday and Wednesday. We would appreciate your prayers and I have a feeling I won’t be online much at all during that time away. Please forgive me if I’m not able to read your blogs and comment.

I’m wishing you all a safe and happy week. Know that somebody out there truly loves and cares about each one of you. Not just me but our Heavenly Father does too.

Blessings and love,

Betsy

Goodbye

Dennis‘s sister Karen Sue Queen Briles passed away during the night last night from pancreatic cancer that had spread to other organs and her bones.  She was so excited to go be with Jesus and to see Dad and her big sister Susan who was stillborn. The family is devastated that she’s gone, but we all know that she’s in a place now with no more pain and no more tears.

I want to thank each and everyone of you that has been praying for our family and I ask that you continue to pray for her husband Howard and the rest of the family. Anyone that knew Karen will be impacted by her absence. She had a sense of humor that never quit and was always ready to help anybody that needed help. She loved her two granddaughters with everything she had.  The photo below shows how she was always acting silly no matter what her surroundings were.  This was at Mandy’s wedding rehearsal dinner. 💜

We’re still waiting to hear when and if there will be services.  The family will just not be the same without Karen here to take an active part in it.

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Ephesians” 6:10

“Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life, the one who believes in me will live even though they may die.” John 11:25

Blessings,

Betsy

Happy Anniversary!

This video.  This is how I feel about the love of my life.  He has been there for me since I was 15 years old!  We were told it wouldn’t work.  We were too young.  Here we are, 42 years later. Three amazing kids and three, (so far), grandkids.  If God me the choice of all the boys in the world, if He gave me the chance to do it all over again, I’d choose YOU again.

Happy 42nd Anniversary Dennis.💜💕💜

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ex1aL8TMtts&feature=share

Two years ago on September 1, 2018.


“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking. It is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. First Corinthians 13:4-7”

Blessings,

Betsy