Happy Independence Day!

Hi! I hope this finds you all well and content with life. I just wanted to pop in to say hi and ask you to stop for a minute today to think of and remember those who fought for our independence in this free nation of ours. Remember those who sacrificed their lives, their limbs, their time with their families, and all they did to make sure we are able to live our lives free. Remember those families who lost their loved ones and gave up so much for their loved ones to fight for our country. Most important - remember that freedom is not free - ever.

I have had one heck of a week so far. Sunday morning I went kayaking with two girl friends and loved it. I may be buying my own! It was so serene and peaceful. It's a wonderful de-stresser. Then after we got done kayaking we got dressed and rode our bikes to the Harley shop to meet up with another friend and ride with a bunch of people to Brunswick to escort the Patriot Flag to be handed off to the next destination. It was sooooo hot. It really was too hot to be riding a motorcycle but that's what you do sometimes. I barely made it home as I felt heat exhaustion coming on. It took me about an hour to get hydrated and cooled off. Even though I was not doing anything physical, the heat of the day and the heat off of the bike and pavement made for a very hot ride. When we got to Brunswick we went to the restaurant next door and ate salads and hydrated before getting back on the bikes and heading home. We stopped about halfway at a McDonalds to hydrate again and it was almost as hot in there as it was outside. Two of the girls made another stop and I and one of the others kept going to go home. I was worried about Leo being outside in the heat. It seems he endured it much better than I did. I was about 10 miles from the house when different parts of my body started hurting and I knew it was because of the heat. All I could think about was getting home and getting inside with the AC.

On Sunday evening a really bad storm came through that knocked out power for almost 24 hours. There were people that were still without power last night in my area. I lucked out that it was only 24 hours for me. And those were not easy hours either with the heat. There are those that are STILL without power in VA because of the system that went through. There was more than one violent storm that hit the east coast.

I stood at my bedroom window just after the power went out and watched my trees sway so furiously that I thought I was going to have a lot of snapped trees and feared for my and Leo's safety. I thought I heard trains twice. I went to the living room, which is in the middle of my house because I have large oak trees and pine trees on the east and west corner of my house. If one of them came down I needed to be somewhere safe. Leo of course was freaking out. I ended up not having any trees come down on the house but I did have two across my driveway. They were a good size but not too big that I couldn't pick up the ends and pivot them around to get my car out. I had to charge my phone in my car and had to go to my friend's to charge my iPad and take a shower late Monday afternoon. What did we ever do without our electronics?? I had to have my iPad and phone to communicate and be able to watch the weather and news and maybe learn when my electric might come back on. When I was on my way home from her house I noticed a couple of houses not far from mine that had electric. I prayed the rest of the way home that I had power and voila!! I was sooooo happy to have my power back. I managed to save everything in my fridge and freezer. I only opened the fridge once for water to drink and brush my teeth. There wasn't much I could do with the power off. I did go out on the porch and crochet until it got too hot out there. Then I came in the house and laid down and actually took a lengthy nap. I guess I was tired. I'm normally not the nap type of person because I feel worse when I get up than I did when I laid down.

Yesterday morning we finally put Norm to rest in the Veteran's Cemetery. It was a small gathering of closest friends. I think it was fitting that he was laid to rest the day before the 4th of July. He was a Vietnam veteran and was very vocal and participated in every event he could up until he left us. I felt his presence there with us.

We had another storm go through yesterday afternoon and I was so fearful of losing electric, but we did not. Yay! It was not near as bad thankfully.

Today I am sitting here chilling out so far. Well I say chilling. I have crocheted, made macaroni salad and picked up a little bit. I went outside and picked up a lot of branches and debris from the storm before it got hot out. So I have been a little bit productive. I haven't gotten near what I wanted to get done on my stay-cay but ya know what? It will be there when I get to it. :o)




I am 3/4 of the way done with this awesome piece! I am using double strand size 10 to make a size 3 thread and a B hook. This piece is out of the book below that I just got in the mail yesterday. I have wanted to make one of these for a while and just having the pattern in this book made ordering it well worth while. :o)





More motifs in thread. :o)




When I was at one of the girl's house Sunday morning after kayaking we hydrated and she didn't have any coasters on her tables. I made her two. :o)



And I had started to make all of the motifs for a soccer ball from Crochetbug's blog (over there in my blog roll), but I have a problem. :o( They are all different sizes!! I used a G hook for all of them. And all RH yarn except for the light pink on the one African Violet. Gauge.....what can I say? I was just reading Doris Chan's blog the other day when she posted about gauge. And it hit home on this project. One skein of yarn might have different gauges within the skein. Even though all of the RH skeins that I used say the same type #4 medium. All of them are different gauges, some skinny, some thick. And in this project it requires 12 pentagons and 20 hexagons. I don't think it's going to work with the different sized motifs. I wanted to make a purple and pink one for Kylie for Christmas. I think it will be big. I'm going to keep plugging away at it and see what happens. :o)

Ok folks....that is what's going on in my world. Leo and I are sucking up precious AC as of this minute and we want to wish you a wonderful and safe 4th of July. Cya soon!!

TTFN
Kat
xoxo