Ethellovestalking’s Blog

Hello, everyone! Ethel is so happy to see you here!  Here I am yesterday morning- can you believe all the ways I can find to waste time on my way to work? I’ve been trying to get a good rearview mirror shot for months now. Finally, I have one I’m happy with.

Thursday was Jesse’s first day of school this year. She’s fairly excited to get back- I think summer was beginning to become boring to her. She’s wearing her new uniform jumper, which I like because it isn’t too short. She likes to play like a boy and the shorter skirt things never really worked with that. She’s also very, very tan. She gets that from Dana, not me. I’m very white. We’ll call it porcelain skin since that sounds better. Jennie has gotten quite a tan too, as they play outside a lot at her new preschool. In this particular picture, it appears that they are liking each other. No bickering at this specific time of the day, I guess.

This is the best I could do at showing the beginnings of a new wrap. It’s star stitch, which I found in a pattern calendar thing, and I like it alot. It’s easy to memorize and the pattern shows up great with this yarn. I’m going to do about 10 inches, maybe 12, of the star stitch on each end of the wrap, with all garter stitch between. I’ve managed to get about six inches done already.

It’s terribly muggy here in the South, which we rarely complain about. This is summer- it’s supposed to be like this. But I’ll sure be glad when fall comes along. Until then, I’ll sit in my chair near the air conditioning vent and knit on this wrap.

This is where we went Thursday- without kids! This is Raven Cliff Falls, in the Mountain Bridge between Caesars Head and Jones Gap, SC, near where my family is from. The hike to the viewing area was about three miles roundtrip, and it was nice. No climbing or hanging off of sheer rock faces, which were requirements for me if I was going to hike anywhere.

The falls were WAY across a gorge, but the conservancy had built a gazebo and deck for hikers to hang out at and enjoy the views across the way.

Along the way, Husband Dear found this nice rock for me to scramble out on for a picture. Sorry we are so far away- there are only so many places to put your camera for a timer shot. We really had a nice time without the girls whining and complaining about the day’s activities.

Here is my latest camera obsession, probably caused by looking at too much nature. This is a wonderful hobbit hole I found along the trail. At first, we were looking at the weird shape of the tree above the hole (see?)- but then I noticed the perfect hobbit house underneath the weird shape, so I had to take a picture of it. So there. I’ve shared my hobbit hole sighting.

Mountains are my favorite places to go. Beaches are nice, but they are nowhere near as beautiful as mountains. This is Table Rock, in Upstate South Carolina. My family’s land was in a valley between Table Rock and Caesars Head, so that either way you looked , you saw mountains. Dana and I drove through Table Rock State Park after we went hiking, and I couldn’t resist taking stopping and taking a picture.

This is the tiny hotel where we spent the night. I won’t lie- it’s not the most wonderful place on earth. It had a clean shower and satellite. There is a story behind it though… 13 years ago we were tent camping at Table Rock with our friends. Each couple had a small dog as well. Now, it started to pour, to the point that the tent was floating up from the stakes. We packed it up, loaded the dogs and went looking for a place to stay. This little hoteis all there is up there. And it only has four rooms- W,X,Y,Z. Our friend was amazed, in a real bitchy way, that a place with only four rooms chose the end of the alphabet to name them. I was just glad not to be sleeping in a wet tent. So the four of us plus the two dogs piled in this room for the night. We all had to take showers in the shower that was out in the open room, which upset Husband Dear dreadfully. This time there was only the two of us- no friends, no dogs… sort of boring comparatively.

Anyway, we are re-adjusting to our real life- with kids.  It’s nice too, I reckon. Louder and more frenetic, but normal for us.

Friends, Ethel has been sick. I mean, sicksicksick. Okay, I wasn’t near death, but still… I felt like it.

Remember Daughter Dear’s stomach virus thing Sunday? Guess what can happen if you sleep with a sick person? You can get sick too. Yup.

I left work early yesterday, feeling particularly crummy. Because I knew I would feel crummier, I did a load of laundry that had to get washed and then I took a bath and shaved so I wouldn’t feel my prickly legs the entire night I was sick.  Then I curled up in the bed and wished it was 24 hours later. I got better about 10 hours later, actually, although I am still tired and haven’t eaten a whole lot. That stomach virus broke my streak of no stomach viruses in 1o YEARS!

Tomorrow will be a better day, I think. As long as Daughter Smallest doesn’t end up with the virus!

Hello, Ethel’s friends! Can you see which one of these things is not like the others? All of them have a half- attempted decent polish on them, so that’s not it.

It’s the cutie piggie on the left there- the one that is red and purple all on its own… His injuries were a result of housework. Really. I stubbed my toe on the threshhold between my kitchen and den, thus resulting in a icky toe. I was afraid it was broken for a while. But Husband Dear did the “Can you wiggle it?” test,” and because it can wiggle it cannot be broken (according to him). It would seem that dangling horrendously would be wiggly AND broken, but it’s okay right now. And a Housework Wound badge as well.

The older daughter had a blechy stomach bug yesterday. I’m not even sure it was a stomach bug, as her allergies have been awful and it may be caused by drainage. Anyway, I spent most of my Sunday going  in and out of the sick room and watching cartoons with her. Fun for a while, but the cartoons get old after about the seventh hour! She’s better today- and I’m hoping that the little one doesn’t end up with it next (if it is a virus).

I am on little to no sleep right now… I think I might try to hit the bed early, but with the possibility of sickness I never sleep well.

It’s only 15 minutes until the workday ends, and I’m wasting all of it. There’s so little to do right now that I have to spread my work out over the course of a day.

I’ve uploaded some of my journal pages for y’all to see, because besides knitting, working in my journal is my favorite thing to do. At first I tried to create something specific with the pages, but now I just like to paste bits and pieces of interesting stuff in- a picture or something from my day. I don’t like completely written pages.

This is one of my favorite pages. I like the hat and the combination of parts that make the girl up.

I pre-painted this page with acrylic paint. The water marks are from pressing the opposite page and this one together. The hand is an accident on the work copier. But, with this one, I can’t figure out what to write on it, because there’s going to have to be a particular mood to fit it.

Anyway, there are no interesting plans for the weekend. Husband Dear will be getting rid of the limb in the back, and I will be doing laundry. I’ll try to take pictures of all the excitment.