You may have noticed on the “about us” section of the yarn shop site that I am listed as an “inadvertently retired nurse practitioner”.  Well, life being what it is, things change.   After Dana’s layoff, I got a great opportunity…. I could meet the legal requirements in Florida to return to seeing patients but be able to work for myself.

I start tomorrow.

None of this affects the shop.  I will be doing pediatric housecalls in the early morning and then get back home before lunch….and be able to spend the day with Anna Grace.  So, I have the best of all worlds.  I get to keep the shop, I get to spend the day with my daughter, I get to make my own schedule, I get to go back to being an NP (which I loved) and I get to provide some needed income for our family.

Things have been a little weird since Dana lost his job but we have savings and things seem to work out juuuust right every month.  We are really blessed by that and know exactly where are blessings come from.

Dana is continuing to try to build his business and now that he has me up and running, he’ll be able to focus on that a lot more.  I am able to do three things I love: be a nurse practitioner, be a yarn shop owner and spend time with Anna Grace.  Yep…money gets tight but we have never gone without and I don’t believe we ever will.

So…today was my last day of retirement.  I am excited about going back to work but nervous too.  I know all things will work out just fine….but I’m nervous none the less.  I’ve dreamed of starting my own housecall practice for many years and I now have that opportunity.  Yep, Dana had to lose his job for us to make it to this point…to get us to think this far out of the box….but we still have a great life.

Life is happy.

Life is weird.

But life is still weirdly happy.

Yep…I actually have works in progress.  Who knew?!

Work in Progress:  What to do with 20# of peaches….

Make a whole lot of peach butter.

I’ve also made a peach cobbler and tomorrow we’ll make a peach something else.  I still have 1/4 of the box left. Lots of peach eating goin’ on around here!

Work in Progress:  Forest Canopy Shawl

I was knitting on this shawl and y’all didn’t even know about it.

Forest Canopy Shawl lying on the floor of the Charlotte airport.

I knit this using the handspun that I just finished a few weeks ago.  It took me 8 days from cast on to cast off.  I’ve never knit anything that fast.  I used to think folks were crazy when they talked about a pattern being easy to memorize but this pattern….is easy to memorize so you can just knit and knit and knit.

Blocking will commence sometime in the not too distant future.

Work in Progress:  Bathroom floor

We love the house we rent but the fact remains…the management company has done a really poor job of taking care of this place. I feel pretty bad for the owner. I know he’s paid them lots of money to take care of things but they haven’t done a thing.  So…there is a long list of things being repaired around here and then there are cosmetic things as well.

The bathrooms have been cleaned and mopped and bleached and steamed and this and that by me….and they still look filthy.  So, now I’m taking an acid cleaner to the bathroom floor.  Its not that I want to take care of what they should have been doing (they haven’t had this place cleaned in years…YEARS!)  I’m just embarrassed to have anyone over because of the bathrooms.  So…I’m on a mission….a mission to get the things clean…and I’m making progress.

Before on the right…after on the left.

Another day or two and this bathroom will be presentable.  Then I’ll have to start on the master bath.  Ugh!

Work in Progress: Entertaining small child throughout long, hot summer

…when the heat index is 110!

I took her….to a reptile show.  YUCK!!  Lots of snakes and lizards…..and a humongous albino python named Jessie. (Who. Names. Their. Reptiles????!!!!!!!)

Snake Guy with Boa Constrictor

Hey…it was free!

I got to knit, she got out of the house and she even saw kids she knew and I got to visit with a friend from church (Hi Sonya!)….a real live adult!   So… it ended up being a WIN  but it did give me a good case of the creepy crawlies.

Work in Progress: Very Fraternal Handspun Socks (or… VFHS for short)

VFHS

I took the leftover handspun from the Forest Canopy Shawl and cast on some plain stockinette socks….toe up.  This way I can stop knitting when I run out of yarn.  I do think I have enough yarn to cover my freakishly long feet.  If not, oh well.

The socks are totally different and thus…fraternal….but I’m still enjoying knitting with my handspun.  Woo Hoo!!

Work in Progress:  Class

I have to take an uber long (40 hour) class for AG’s co-op.  It starts tomorrow.

Kill me!

Work in Progress: Getting Pictures of Anna Grace

Trying to get a picture of this child is still quite difficult.  Today I was kidding around with her and saying “don’t smile, make sure you don’t smile.  Don’t let me catch ya smiling”, etc.  And then I caught this….

Anna Grace Practicing her Smirk

…which totally cracked me up!!

So what are you working on this week?

There was quite a gathering this weekend.  I met up with my dad and Gail (his girlfriend) and my sisters to celebrate a great accomplishment!  My sister CJ graduated from college. (Woo Hoo!)  She is one of the only people I know that decided what she wanted to be when she was a wee little kid and she stuck with it and became…..a chef.  She now officially has a Bachelor of Arts in Culinary Arts!

Liz, Me, Dad, CJ (the graduate…complete with tiara) and Kate

All together for the first time since 1998.

I got to meet Kate’s husband and CJ’s boyfriend….2 great guys!

It also worked out pretty good since graduation and Father’s Day fell on the same weekend.  So we all spent Sunday morning together and had a great breakfast with Dad and Gail.

Dad and Me on Father’s Day…along the Magnificent Mile.

I came back home yesterday to see the beautiful smile of my precious little girl.  I missed her quite a bit but I had a wonderful weekend.

I’m a pretty talkative person.  I’m social and love to chat and such.  But there comes a point, a point when someone has been talking “at me” non-stop, that I just need SILENCE!!!  I have these moments around my MIL and, not surprisingly, when I’m around Momma Wannabe.  In recent months, however, I am having these moments more frequently….with Anna Grace.

I’m usually able to just keep up, not get flustered, etc.  But with the move and everything, having a hundred questions flung toward you at rapid speed just makes ya tired.

Today we went back to the other house to clean.  Last day of cleaning…and there was a lot of cleaning.  Anna Grace was over it and I sympathize with that but she had decided that she didn’t want to watch movies, she didn’t want to play, she just wanted to ask me questions.  Usually the same questions…over and over and over again.

I found myself getting testy.  Okay…really testy.  And it just occurred to me:  Anna Grace is old enough to talk to, to reason with.  I’ll just apologize for being testy and tell her I just need a few minutes of quiet to finish what I’m working on.  I’ll let her know how much I love spending time with her but if we can be quiet for just a few minutes, I can finish up quicker and we can go have some fun.

So…we have the conversation.  I ask if we could both spend a few minutes just not talking.  She agreed, she was really great about it.  I turned around and started cleaning again…pretty proud of myself…. and then SMACK….Anna Grace decided that she had some questions:

Why do you want it quiet?

Why did you ask me not to talk?

Do you know it’s rude to ask me not to talk?

When do you want to talk again?

Are we ready to talk again?

How much longer is there no talking?

Can I talk on the way home?

Can I talk to my doll?

Why are you cleaning the oven?

Are you going to mop in there?

Can I talk while you mop in there?

Why can’t I help you paint?  I promise not to talk?

Why’d you tell me not to talk?

And then suddenly…..POOF….my head exploded.

The end.

Tonight, after a very long day, I decided to let Anna Grace know about the plans for this weekend.  I was kinda bracing myself because I wasn’t sure if she would get hacked off over me going on an airplane without her.  She’s been asking to go to their airport for weeks so this could get ugly.

Me:  Anna Grace, I’m going to Chicago this weekend.

AG: Why are you going to Gachato?

Me: For Aunt CJ’s graduation.

AG: Do you have a ticket?  How’d you get a ticket?

Me: Grandpa C bought me an airplane ticket.

AG: Just one?

Me: Yep.

AG: I think that ticket is for me.  It’s my ticket.  I’m going to Gachato.

Me: No, the ticket is for me.  I’ll leave on Friday and I’ll be home on Sunday.  You’ll have fun with Dad this weekend.

Anna Grace thinks about this for a moment and I think she might be about to start crying when suddenly, I fire lights up in her eyes and you can tell she’s hacked.

AG: Fine!  Grandpa C bought me a ticket to go to see Aunt Liz and I’m going by myself.  You can’t come. Dad can’t come.  And I’m takin’ the pick up truck too!  (All said with finger pointing and shoulders swingin’!)

I don’t have the heart to tell her that Aunt Liz will be in Gachato!

We did a little shop update today. 

Check out all the pretty colors.

 Yarn Love Marianne Roving: Bayfield Apple

Yarn Love Marianne Roving: Plum Cake

Yarn Love Diana: Mermaid

Yarn Love Diana: Summer Sangria

Pigeon Roof Studios Superwash Merino: Fatale

 Pigeon Roof Studios Superwash Merino: Comfort

Have a fibery day!!

The move has gone well and we’re unpacking boxes and cleaning our old place.  Things are slowly but surely coming along.  With all of this my brain is a little scattered and there has been zero knitting. ZERO.

But there is one thing to share….

This whole area of Florida has been consumed by the NBA finals.  People who never cared a bit before about basketball, the Orlando Magic, etc are suddenly big fans.  I am a football fan, I hate basketball and (I know this will be unpopular) when the Magic used to threaten to leave town if they didn’t get more money and a bigger arena….I offered to help them pack.  I was all in favor of lettin’ them go to wherever and not giving them a dime.

So…now they’ve made it to the NBA finals and my opinion hasn’t changed.  Don’t care, not interested.   With one exception.  There’s a little girl…a little girl on the autism spectrum….who is singing the Star Spangled Banner at each of the home games and has been since the playoffs.  So, I’m not too interested in the Magic.  But…. I’m pretty thrilled at what this little girl has accomplished.

So… let whatever happens with the Magic happen.  But where this little girl is concerned…. Go Gina, Go!!!!!

AAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

Hissy Fit

Hissy Fit 

Hissy Fit 

(Insert long string of unladylike language RIGHT! HERE!)

 ::stomps off::

One

Two

Skein

Yarn Love Marianne Roving

100% Superwash Merino Top

Color: Awakening Earth

Anna Grace had her Pre-K graduation tonight.  It was very cute.  I did cry but, thankfully, I didn’t do the ugly cry.  I still think of her as being my baby but she’s quite the grown up.

Getting Ready to Go

Tolerating Her Mother’s Picture Taking

The Graduate

For friends and family that are far away, we did video tape the graduation.  I should have a link posted soon.

Edited to add: Video link (which starts out with me having my usual debate with AG over trying to take her picture.  Sigh!)