Thursday, July 26, 2007

We're home again.....

And finally catching up on things.


I meant to keep better stats than this, but I do have some to share:

Days away from home… about 30

Days relaxing on the boat and on the dunes…practically every day in Michigan, and not nearly enough!

When we left Silver Lake, we travelled via ferry across Lake Michigan to Milwaukee.

From there we drove to the Wisconsin Dells, to spend the night at the Great Wolf Lodge (with waterpark!). That was our surprise for the kiddos, and they were very happily surprised!

We then left for a weekend in Hudson with Joe's family, and celebrated his youngest brother's 40th birthday with the whole clan. Lots of fun, cousin time for the kids.

On the way back to Texas we were able to visit with my Aunt and cousin in Kansas City, which is always a treat.


Emails received …1064. Yikes! That took some time.

Books read/reread…. Too numerous to count. Probably around 8. I reread the first 2 of the Blossom Street series by Debbie Macomber, and read the newest, third book. Sweet stories. Got really hooked on Orson Scott Card (he wrote the Ender’s Game series): I’ve read Sarah, and Rachel and Leah, and am about to start Rebekah. His book Enchantment had me up way, way late at night to finish it.

Socks knitted…..4 pair, and one of those had 3 incarnations before I was happy with a pattern!

Yarns frustrated with….pretty much just the Koigu. The hanks are quite short, and I ran short twice, having to rip back into the leg to shorten the socks. On the second of the pair I ran short AGAIN, with about only 1 inch to go!, but there was enough left from sock #1 that I could add the inch I needed. I don’t think I’ll climb aboard the Koigu fan wagon. The Artyarns is one I just love, especially for the stitch definition. But the color changes in this colorway had me stumped for the right pattern. At least I loved the yarn, since I had to work it and rip back 3 times! I still need to take photos of the socks.

Yarn purchased….only 2 hanks! I bought it from Annie Goatly at the annual Pentwater Art Fair. She raises the goats and llamas, spins and dyes her own yarn. I love the pink and brown hanks I bought, and they have a planned future!

Photos nabbed from the inlaws for future albums ….2 full brown grocery sacks' worth. Yippee!

Podcasts listened to….Lime and Violet , Cast On , Pointy Sticks


The saddest part of the whole deal is not that I didn’t take enough photos (but clearly I didn’t. I don’t know why; I just didn’t take many photos this year).

It’s that somehow, in the process of running the photos through my Film Factory software to organize the photos and use the AutoRetouch, I must have used the AutoRetouch more than once. Most of the photos are what I would call ‘overpixelated,’ for lack of the proper term. I am really hoping that Jackie’s photos will suffice for scrapping for me! We plan to trade CDs of photos when they return to town.

Vacations are so wonderful, and we certainly needed this one, but it's great to be home in our own beds. And we really did miss the doggies.

So tell me, how was your July??