Picture Perfect?

As you may know, we returned from a big, Disney Vacation on Thursday! Having just been to Disney World for our anniversary in 2017, we felt less confused and had more fun this time, especially with our son and his family along for the ride! Now that we are recovered from the travel, the heat of Florida in summer and the average of 14,500 steps each day, I feel like this is the perfect time to show some pictures! 

Animal Kingdom - checking out the Tree of Life

Please take note: that was your warning. I am going to show vacation photos. You were not there, and you may not care, but you are not trapped at a 1960s dinner party...if you don't want to stay, I promise that I will not be offended, and I hope that you will have a lovely afternoon!

After the Finding Nemo ride in Epcot, at Bruce's House!

Still here? Great! Because I took about 200 photos on this trip! I promise they are not all in this blog post, but I did get some pretty good shots! 

Drumming in Harambe at Animal Kingdom,
our first park together!

I also got some of the bored, waiting-in-line photos...

Waiting in line to see Minnie, Mickey and Goofy!

Just got on the ride, where-will-it-take-us? photos...

Toy Story Mania - we rode 3 times at Hollywood Studios!

Fuzzy, moving-ride photos...

Mad Tea Party at Magic Kingdom! She rode twice!

And, of course, badly-lit-and-staged selphies with 3D glasses!

As for the rest, I am so glad that Disney is on their photo game! Disney tip: If you are going to Disney World with kids, get the Memory Maker for unlimited downloads of every character meeting...

ride...

and chance happening along the way! 

The photographers are great at what they do, and yes...you DO need the photo on Main Street with the castle (and Tinkerbelle!!!)!

But remember that even professional Disney photographers run into bad lighting, or a grumpy, really-needs-a-nap 3-year-old from time to time!

Of course, they also set you up for picture perfect Princess photos!

Parents and grandparents, I found that I was most thankful for the professional Princess photos, so that I was paying attention when Anna asked, "Are you two sisters, too?,"

Anna and Elsa in Norway at Epcot!

and the 3-year-old answered, "Yes, and Lolly never lets me look at the iPad!," with a bit of a boo-boo-lip.

I think Anna, a little sister herself, understood the frustration,

and Elsa seemed to connect with big sister, probably for the same reasons!

I did take some photos of my own with characters and princesses as well, they were necessary at some of the character meals...and they were less than perfect...

Seasonal Character Meal at Hollywood and Dine, Hollywood Studios.

But the looks on the girls' faces as those princesses became people right in front of them? Priceless!

Princess Lunch in Norway (Akershus Royal Banquet Hall) at Epcot Center.

All in all, it was a great vacation, and I would do it again, even with sometimes grumpy granddaughters and other relatives! (Did I mention how HOT and humid it was??? And it rained 3 of the 4 days we were there...)

On the third day, it rained HARD!

Today, my feet and I are glad to be home. I missed the girls almost immediately when we left, and I always wish they lived closer...but I am so thankful for the memories we made and for technology that lets me document those memories. We video chatted with them again just last night, and I think they are glad to be home, too. Though I will miss these views...

Waiting in line for the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Magic Kingdom.

Now that you have seen the photos, I have to go back and choose which ones will become 8x10 on the wall and 5x7 on my desk at work! There is also some post-vacation laundry to finish, and the cats are in serious need of extra cuddles, but I am glad to have had this time to catch up with you! I hope your summer is full of knitting and vacationing, and doing the things you love!

Thanks for stopping by, and Knit in Good Health!

Pre-Vacation Jitters

I am going on vacation. Disney World. With my grandkids. This is going to be fun, right?!? It is going to be fun!

However, I am not to the fun part yet. I am a nervous Nellie with travel and fun, so today is reserved for packing and panicking. Not to air all my dirty, emotional laundry...because all of my laundry is clean today, I promise...

...but I am a mess. Am I the only one who freaks out while planning a stay at the happiest place on earth? I mean, here is where I am:

Pack 4-5 pair of underwear and 4-5 pair of socks. Check. How long will it take us to get to the restaurant where we have our first dinner reservation? 

Three of my capri pants, 1 pair of shorts and 4 tops. Can I bring my knitting needles on the plane?

Do not forget the sunscreen, and pack a small container in the carry-on. How much can I really fit into the carry on?

Already pre-registered for the resort hotel on the app. Did I remember to get more Tylenol for the trip?

Yarn wound for a pair of socks, to keep me busy during the layovers. What if the yarn wants to be something else?

I already think it might want to be hat...should I bring it and knit a hat? Or should I find some sock yarn? Should I bring both?

I have q-tips, toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant...all my toiletries and essentials. Should I leave a list of important info for my daughter in case the plane crashes?

Jammies. I need decent jammies for the hotel...in case the hotel catches fire during the night, and I am left with nothing else.

Chargers. I have to remember the chargers. And the battery back-up pack. What if the internet crashes around the world while I am on vacation? 

Swimsuit. Check. It is in the bag already. What if my swimsuit rips and I have to go swimsuit shopping? ugh!

I want everyone to have fun. What if any of us does not have fun? 

We are checked into the flights, boarding passes saved to my phone. Is our suitcase going to come in under 50lbs?

I am hungry. I need to eat well today, and not worry about that on vacation. Wait. What does our meal plan cover again?

What if TSA takes away my favorite knitting needles?

What if we miss a connecting flight?

What if the airline loses my luggage?

What if all (or any) of my pre-vacation nightmares from the past couple of weeks actually come true?

Hopefully I will be better by the time the landing gear touches down in Orlando tomorrow, but I will likely not fully recover until I hug a granddaughter or two! 

By the way, I am looking forward to my vacation. But I am stressed. Please pray for me, friends. Not just for safety and travel mercies, but that I can pry my fingers from the control panel of this vacation and simply have fun. It is a goal of mine to have more fun, and to worry less,* even when I am not on vacation!

Thanks for stopping by, and Knit in Good Health. I hear it eases anxiety. ;o)

*Luke 12:22-26

“Do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?”

Go Ask Alice

This post is a little sad and a little fun. Let's start with the fun. 

You may or may not know that I knit. Hahaha! OK, we all know that I knit...like a maniac...a little bit obsessively perhaps? Be that as it may, and even though yarn is to me what vodka is to the alcoholic, knitting has brought me so many good things! For instance, had I never knitted, I may never have known how much I like photography! See the hand-knits on my porch?

Nice composition, perfect lighting (no filters), and joy in the stitches! I really do like to take pictures, that has never been a secret...but there is something about capturing the yarn in this way, in the cool of the day, with the morning sun not yet glaring down but just coming up...sigh!

Yarn is never self-conscious. Yarn never says, "Wait. You want me to do what? So you can take a picture?" Yarn never has a bad hair day, or a goofy smile...it just poses and waits patiently for the photographer to snap the shot!

Yarn is like Jenny.

Speaking of Jenny, had I never knitted, I may never have met many of the members of my Thursday night knitting group, CKW (Cleveland Knits West)! 

One cannot capture in a photograph how much fun these ladies are, or how varied their personalities. Of course, one can try...and Alice will always oblige!

I take a lot of photos at knitting on Thursdays. Most of them you do not see on Facebook, or even the blog, though we often share them phone-to-phone, with open-mouthed guffaws (I refer you again to the photo of Alice, above). And sometimes, days after taking a grainy photo of a friend, and still finding a way to use it for fun, I find other things in the picture. I mean, if I zoom out, you can see that Alice and Michelle were at first oblivious to the photos, but not Diana. Diana is tuned in...

...and then someone says something silly, and everyone laughs!

Finally, Alice sees me...and poses...and that picture above is forever captured for the world wide web. But Diana clearly disapproves! lol!

It's like that time in 2010, at Woolapalooza, when Ali noticed Michelle going a little crazy with the brown sheep...bwaaahahaha!

So, yeah. We have a lot of fun, and now I will get to the little bit sad part. Alice has been a member of our little band of banshees for the last 3 years, while her hubby has been stationed in Cleveland for his Coast Guard job. Alice has been a great friend to me, through thick and through thin...through better and worse, whether there are knots in my yarn, or stitches slip smoothly over the needles. Sometimes I just want to go ask Alice, and I have, and I am a better person and friend for knowing her.

Today, Alice and her hubby and the kidlets are on a new adventure. The next duty station is only a few hours away, but too far for weekly Thursday meet-ups (sad face here) but she plans to be back for the semi-annual retreats at Lakeside and (of course) Woolapalooza each May! Alice, we are gonna miss you, but we wish you all the best of everything!

If you have an Alice in your circle, someone who can be serious and silly, as needed and pretty much on demand, treasure her! And though I can no longer just go ask Alice in person, I thank God for technology! Marco...!

Thanks for stopping by, and Knit in Good health!

Church Secretary at Heart

As the month of June began, I found myself on Ravelry (think Facebook for knitters and crocheters, but better...if you yarn, check it out!), explaining to a group I used to post to very regularly the busy that has kept me from posting much in the last few months. I typed the following, and it dawned on me that I have not yet shared with the blog my latest job change...oops! (Below is only the job stuff...if you have been playing along at home, you know there was much more going on...at the same time.)

"So, in March 2016, I quit my job as church secretary at a church I loved from the bottom of my heart, about 9 months after my beloved minister passed away and the resulting staff-and-everything-else changes about did me in. I took a “dream job” (great salary/benefits/people are always trying to get into this company) for about 6 weeks, where my manager basically insinuated that I was too stupid to learn to enter data, and told me flat out that she was “embarrassed for me” because people referred to me as “that lady who knits.” Sooo, not a good fit.

"Then a friend gave me a job in insurance, so I got licensed to sell insurance, and he retired. I was hired by another agent, and stuck with him for about 16 months, and it was ok. But, I did not love it, so I started checking my options.

"On Indeed.com, I typed “church secretary” on a whim one day, and found an ad for a United Methodist Church that was hiring an office manager. I applied. What did I have to lose?

"I started at the UMC on April 2, and “shadowed” the current office manager for a month before she retired. There were a lot of “issues” to address, from files to processes to just about everything that applied to the job, and with no background in the Methodist denomination, I have had lots to learn. The GREAT thing is that I LOVE THIS JOB!!!, and I think they love me. The other great thing, is that I finally feel like I have my head above water most days, which means I get to breathe (and log onto Ravelry) from time to time!

"So, my summer plans include loving my job and going to Disney World (with son and family) later this month! Also, my sweet daughter is cooking a bun in the oven, the timer should go off around Thanksgiving! So watch for baby knits, and princess poses from me this summer! I hope you are all well and that you are finding some Joy this June!"

As my friends replied to that post, they encouraged me that "that lady who knits" is a great lady to know, and I can look back on my last two years as a time of adjusting to change on so many levels, searching for my best fit. Thank you friends! I knew almost immediately after starting at the UMC that the fit was a good one! I am thankful for what I can only assume was the prompting of the Holy Spirit to search a job-site category that barely exists, and I am so grateful to the church leadership for taking a chance on me, a lady who knits. 

As with any new job, there are always "issues" to deal with. Most are as simple as learning to live with Windows 10 (ugh!) on your work computer, or figuring out what each of the committees is responsible for (who gets this again???). Some are more delicate (forging relationships with an entire church!), but the bottom line is that I am taking it slow, and learning as I go. It takes time to wiggle into that empty space left by the gal who sat at my desk for the past 6 years, but I think I am getting there. There are still some gaps in my knowledge, but I am filling them in a little each day. Regardless of the gaps, I once again look forward to getting to work, so I can get to work, every day!

By the way, mums the word kinda on Disney...Pop Pop and I are surprising the grandkids with our arrival at the park (which is why the upcoming trip has not been all over social media, even though we have our magic bands and luggage tags, and we are ready to go! Squeee!). And yes, a bun in the oven for Face and Dollface, also mums during the early weeks, but now Facebook official! Again, squeee! Baby knits!

So there it is, for all the world to see. Once a church secretary (office admin, whatever the title du jour may be), always a church secretary at heart...for me anyway. And just like that, Pam the Church Secretary is back! (Hi Zach the Senior Minister!)

Where are you finding your joy this June? Wherever it is, I am glad that you clicked through to hear about mine.

Thanks for stopping by, and Knit in Good Health! 

Woolapalooza Wrap-Up 2018

Last Saturday my post was  kinda short, and my day was kinda long. This was a good thing, because last week was the annual trek to Woolapalooza for my knitting group! Are we happy to be here, Girls???

Yes, this is a weekend to be celebrated for sure! Yarn and fiber and animals...I am thankful, by the way, that I did not ride home with a lamb in my lap, because this was an option that was discussed...at length! But I digress...

Once we were out of the van, it was off to our favorite indie dyer, Destination Yarn! We had to get our hands on the Show Exclusive...Farmland Sunset!

Oh man! The purples! The pinks! The beauty of it all...we could barely control ourselves, and we dove right in!

I mean, just LOOK at it! (That's the mastermind behind all the color we love, right there she is. I am standing so close to a celebrity for this photo! Hi, Jeanne!)

While we were waiting in line, I did my best to capture a couple Saturday selphies with some of my favorite folks...

(I know that I am not as good at selphies as I am at others-ies, but at some point, you just gotta do it!) 

Anyhoo, as per usual, midway through the shopping, we stopped for lunch...

And (of course) knitting...

And (of course) some good, old-fashioned belly laughs! (They are clearly sheep, Lauren!)

And we wrapped up the shopping with one last stop to that favorite yarn booth, where the man behind the woman behind the yarn agreed to be the man behind the camera for our group photo! Extra kudos to Matt for knowing his stuff and taking 4 shots...I think all of our eyes are open in this one...I hope! (Thanks again, Matt!) 

Heading back to the parking grass, we decided to try our hands at some photos of the beauty of the day. Alice showed off a lace-and-beads shawl she had just finished for a friend, and Jenny agreed to model...beautiful barely covers it!

And Jenny took it upon herself to model how we all really feel about yarn, and knitting, and lace, and fiber, and spending the day shopping with friends...

I mean, look at the group haul we left with! Yarn and baskets and jewelry and soaps and YARNS...all the yarns!!!

We even managed to get ourselves out of the open fields and nearly home before the skies truly opened up and dumped the rain that we had watched all day. By the time we returned to our starting position in the local Wal-Mart parking lot, it was coming down pretty good, with lightning and thunder and everything!

Once I hit home and kicked off my shoes, I took a minute to survey my own personal stash enhancement. It is pretty impressive, and since I didn't set any over/under goals for myself, I neither overspent nor underbought! Go me!

Destination Yarns in a DK base in this year's show exclusive, last year's show exclusive (Roadside Wildflowers) and Electric Storm (the purple-est one!), handmade sock soaps from Tuft Woolens, a few cute buttons, a Behind the Pines hand-painted sock blank from Yarn Cravin', and a ClusterFluff Box ("an assortment of sizeable scraps") from 716yarns (aka KnitBuffalo)...all good stuff!  

Of course, this box o'scraps just tickles me to no end! And, with all the tiny toy knitting I tend towards, I think it was a pretty good buy. Besides, how can one even consider attending the local yarn festival without purchasing yarn from a truck?!? I love this ClusterFluff Box so very much! And the Destination Yarns! And the yarn that has funny sayings hand-painted onto it (even if some of the words are misspelled...lol!)!

So, to sum up the day, it was AWESOME! We can hardly wait for next year, and off I go now to decide what to knit next today! I hope your today is good, and that you have friends around you that spur you onto to bigger and better things, knitwise and otherwise, just like me.

Thanks for stopping by, and Knit in Good Health!