Michelle is Sick

As if life wasn't keeping us busy enough....Anne and I got back from Austin to find that Michelle was sick. It didn't seem all that bad on Wednesday, although she was coughing a lot and seemed pretty stuffy. It seemed more like a cold than anything.

Well, her temp kept going up and by the time Christine came to get her, she was running quite a fever and not feeling good at all. Christine took her to the doc this morning....ear infection, a good start on pink eye, and a cough. Meds for all, which is great fun. Michelle takes after her dad when it comes to her willingness to take meds. Although actually she isn't quite as bad as he was--LOL.

By this evening, she was feeling some better, thank goodness. It was quite a day...Christine brought her over after she got the prescriptions filled, and had time to go change and get to work (starts at 11). It has been a good long time since I have dealt with a sick kiddo and I haven't missed it at all--haha.

We will hope she continues to improve rapidly!

Brian has his knee surgery tomorrow..

Take care all....send plenty of good thoughts, okay?

Snow in Austin

They act like it has never happened before. I do know it is pretty rare though....

Anne's appt for ending her trial was at 11 a.m. today and we left an hour early just in case of bad roads, accident back ups, etc. I didn't have to drive on the freeway so that was good too. The roads were totally fine, which was good. There had already been reports of accidents in other places but we had no problem and didn't pass any accidents.

I got to see the wires being pulled out of Anne's back. Kind of interesting/weird. The gal pulled a good 6 inches or more of wires out. The human body is a wonderous thing, as they came out clean as a whistle, the little holes didn't bleed or leak any kind of fluids or anything. It was pretty cool. Sadly, of course, it means the temporary end of her pain relief. Her knees started to hurt before we got back to the motel, and she is pretty much back at her previous pain level already. Oh well....

So the snow. It is accumulating, mostly as slush, on sidewalks and places on the roads that aren't driven on. It has looked pretty coming down. It snowed really hard while we were waiting at the pain clinic, but slowed down a lot by the time we were ready to go.

She has an appt for injections in her knees tomorrow and then we hit the road for Abilene. It is to be warmer tomorrow and dry, and the storm is to have moved on by this evening... so all should be good tomorrow.

I will try to update here more often.

Round Up Time

I had intended to write more about the Richmond trip ages ago and it didn't happen. Suffice it to say, we had a really good visit! It is always fun and relaxing to visit with Jo and Eric.

Jo and I both did a lot of spinning. I finished spinning and plying all the solar dyed fiber I brought with me. I haven't done a thing with it since I got home, except take it to knitting group to show. I had almost forgotten that I wanted to put the one skein back through the wheel to reduce the twist a little bit. I will have to do that next week. Then both skeins need to be finished.

Jo gave me some fiber to spin on that last Thursday. The day when we were supposed to be home except for our flight being cancelled. It was kind of interesting/strange looking fiber--maybe not a color combination I would have chosen. Well, it spins up really pretty. I spun up half of it while at Jo's. I have the rest to do and still haven't touched it yet, except to take it to knitting. They all loved it, both the unspun and the spun. So, I guess it is just outside my usual comfort zone and not a strange combination after all? I am really pleased with the way it looks when spun so I guess that is the big thing?

Okay, back to our visit--lol. We went to the Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens and had a great time there. The flowers were lovely and the grounds are wonderful. Mike and Jo went in to see the Butterflies-turned out that was the last day for the exhibit. Mike got some great butterfly photos.

On Tuesday we went to Colonial Williamsburg. Mike took his camera and we had a great time walking around and seeing the sites. Mike and I hadn't been there in a good 15 years or so. It seemed to me that the surrounding areas had changed a good bit, but it is hard to say--15 years is a long time to remember too many details.

One of the big highlights was: eating lunch at the Trellis Restaurant. You may remember Marcel Desaulniers, who did two different cooking shows years ago--Death By Chocolate and The Burger Meister. He is co-owner of the Trellis. We ended up eating lunch there and it was wonderful! We had a good lunch and had to order a slice of the Death by Chocolate cake. We split it three ways and all had more than enough cake. It was delicious!

It is amazing to think we have been home as long as we have.

We have made another trip to Epcot, enjoying the ongoing International Food and Wine Festival.

This past Thursday I took Mom and Dad to Orlando to see my Aunt Glenda and some of the family. It had been 30 years since I had seen any of them. It was a great visit! Two of my cousins, their wives, and a daughter each were all there. I hope it isn't another 30 years before we meet up again.. Thanks to email and FaceBook, I am sure we will keep in touch better than we have in the past.

I think I am caught up now? With blogging anyway.

I have wool to wash. Ditto alpaca. I have spinning to do! I have skeins of yarn to finish. And Christmas shopping to get started on. Yikes!

Happy Anniversary!

We interrupt my greatly delayed recounting of our fun time at Jo and Eric's to bring you a very special announcement!

AnnaBelle and Earl Walters are celebrating their 64th wedding anniversary today!

They are a true inspiration to us all.....

Congratulations, Mom and Dad!

Home Again Home Again, Jiggity Jig?

We are safely home.

The Fates didn't seem to want that though?

We were to fly home on Wednesday, after several days with Jo and Eric. They dropped us off at the airport in good time and we got the bag checked, through security (hurmph!) and to the gate all in good time.

Mike and I were the next in line to get on the plane when they stopped boarding people. Before we knew it we were sitting again and the people already on the plane were back in the waiting area. There was a problem with the plane. A crew was called in and it was eventually determined that it could not be repaired in time for the flight to take off that evening.

We stood in line and chose to try the same flight on Thursday. We called Jo and she and Eric kindly came and rescued us. What a mess! It was nice getting to spend more time with Jo and Eric though....it made the whole situation much easier to deal with.

They took us to the airport again on Thursday. All went well, although our plane was a little late getting in. Unbelievably, the pilot announced that they had hit a bird on their way to Richmond, and they had to have the plane checked to make sure there was no damage. Good to know they take things seriously, but honestly---why so hard to get out of Richmond? They got a crew in to check the plane and all was good. We were about an hour delayed, but at least we knew the plane was not damaged.

We arrived safely in Orlando, and were glad to be back in warm Florida--haha.

I will post soon about all the fun things we did in Richmond!

In Virginia

We had a safe flight to Richmond. Jo met us outside security and Eric was waiting outside with the truck.

We have been keeping busy. We went to the farm on Friday and I bought half a fleece that was shorn from the sheep at the farm. Mike took a lot of photos, and there should be some good ones in there!

Yesterday we went to the fall music festival (not sure that is the real name?). There were a number of stages with groups performing. There were a number of different kinds of music being played--just about something for everyone. Jo says the craft area was smaller than in years past. There were a few artisans demonstrating, which was interesting.

We got rained on a little bit--the first rain we have had here since we arrived, I think?

Jo and I have been doing a lot of spinning. I brought some fiber with me that I had solar dyed. I have finished spinning an ounce of it and plied it. It is in hot water soaking. I think it is way over twisted and I might have to run it back through.

In any case, Jo is letting me use her Ashford Traditional wheel and I am enjoying it. I still like my own wheel best, of course, but I like hers too! It is a single treadle, which took a little bit of getting used to.

Well, I had best go....more later.

I Forgot Things!

Isn't that the way, I finally got myself busy and posted on my blog and then the next day I realized there were things I forgot to talk about. And it has taken me this long to get around to posting again.

Last weekend--on Saturday, to be exact---Mike and I went to Epcot for the first time since the birthday weekend! The International Food and Wine Festival had just started up on Friday. We were a little worried that it would be really crowded, as we had heard that is usually the case the first weekend. Although it got more and more crowded as the day progressed, it wasn't crowded at all that morning and early afternoon.

It is always fun deciding which country's offerings to try out, and enjoying again things we tried last year. We tried two new things, both of which were good! There was Spicy Chicken Sausage with Polenta in Canada, which was really good and they weren't kidding about the spicy! We also tried the grilled scallop from New Zealand, which was good. Oh----I almost forgot, we tried a dessert too------Lava Cake with Baileys chocolate ganache from Ireland. Oh was that ever good--- yummm! The other things we ate were all things we had last year and loved.

It seemed especially hot, which was a bit surprising, since we have often visited Disney parks when it was much hotter. We are looking forward to it cooling off a little bit. And we definitely look forward to trying out more of the great food selections.

The "Eat to the Beat" concert series is in full swing too. The group that day was Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. We hadn't heard of them before, but enjoyed the show. They are a swing band, and had plenty of brass in the line up.

Not much new on the spinning front. I did get the yarn off that bobbin (photo in last post) and onto the niddy noddy. I still need to tie the skein and get it washed and finished. Then there are just the last bits of the mint julep to finish plying and I will have to decide what to spin next.