And Rachel in my dad’s little Miata sports car. So Rachel has now driven a cooler sports car than I ever have!

She really did well for a first-time behind the wheel AND in a manual 6-speed. She was so happy! Mostly they went around the huge front yard, but Rachel did do a bit on the long driveway/alley, and she practiced a bunch of 3-point turns.

I finally got new socks cast on with my gorgeous New Zealand sock yarn. They will be luscious – the yarn is so soft! And of course, it makes me think about my Kiwi friends with every stitch.

This week is a blur of preparation for the new semester that starts on Monday. Meetings, papers and copies to distribute, my own class to plan somewhere in the middle, and thinking about getting activities for the girls on the calendar. I’ll be working late on Monday and Thursday nights, but I will have Fridays off completely, so we’ll be able to do our co-op (run by different folks, but fairly similar to what we’ve been doing for the past few years) and hit several group trips to some fun places. It will be a crash of busy, but I can do anything for 15 weeks.

A huge highlight was a set of scrapbook pages for Emilee, highlighting her GED graduation and her roller derby team. She thought they were pretty sweet. I love the little derby girl in the bottom corner.

And for me? Some jazz… Duke Ellington, Dave Brubeck, and Ahmad Jamal, hand-picked by my Uncle Mike. Nice!

So… lots of happy girls here!

I will not die an unlived life
I will not live in fear
of falling or catching fire
I choose to inhabit my days,
to allow my living to open me,
to make me less afraid,
more accessible,
to loosen my heart
until it becomes a wing,
a torch, a promise.
I choose to risk my significance,
to live so that which came to me as seed
goes to the next as blossom,
and that which came to me as blossom,
goes on as fruit.

- Dawna Markova

We shipped a book and some other items to our Kiwi friends, and this was our “payment”… I think it was a nice trade! I am ready to start a new pair of socks, and now I know which yarn to choose! And those banoffi pie biscuits. They’re mine. Oh yeah. Might let the girls have *one*. Or not.

The rest of the weekend was pretty quiet. I watched a lot of Lost extras from the DVDs, went grocery shopping, visited a few yard sales (no good finds, though), and… drumroll…. we were able to track down a nice phone for Rachel, and she is now set up with unlimited texting. She’s a happy girl. We got a good picture of her hamster Charlie.

I did a little knitting, and finished up the relic bag. I hated knitting this, and I don’t much care for the finished product. I will complete it – it still needs seaming on the bottom, a braided cord to pull it tight, and the lining sewn and inserted. But I think  will probably pass it on to Katie for use with her period costuming. I didn’t like the feel of the cotton thread, and I don’t care for the look of the finished bag. But, it’s a project finished and a few lessons learned.

I also finished my TESOL course (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages). It was all online, and I will take the second half – focusing on adult learners – in October for another six weeks. I’m hoping I can do that with the busyness of the fall semester; this half took a lot of time and attention, and it’s the “less busy” summer semester. But it’s over, and I’ve done well with it. Time for a break. Oh yeah, the fall semester begins in three weeks, so it’s already time to begin prepping for that. Well, the Christmas break will be here soon…

Laurel, Rachel, Becky, Pat, and I were all surprised that we could be so close to the balloons. Several times we had to step out of the way as a balloon was filling on the ground near us. At one point, Rachel and I were so close to the basket, we could feel the heat from the flame! It was a festive atmosphere, and every time a balloon lifted off, the people cheered.

Becky was feeling very blue after some Sonic ice cream!

We stood near this balloon as it filled from beginning to end… a really interesting process to watch. (I’m going to try and upload video in a bit.)

And… once it was filled, it was my favorite, because it looked like a piece of wildly colored knitting!

After we had walked around and seen everything else that we hadn’t gotten to yet, we settled in the shadow of a tethered balloon. It went up and down, up and down, as people paid $10 to have a five minute trip in the air. We ran into a homeschooling friend, and had so much fun watching her littlest one goof off in the field and play with Rachel.

We hadn’t given thought to what the balloons would look like at night, but as the sky grew darker, a stunning sight filled the air whenever the flames were turned on…

It was a wonderful, peaceful end to a beautiful evening. We will definitely go again if they return!

I loved knitting these socks, but I felt funny while nearing completion because I didn’t love the socks. i couldn’t quite figure it out because I love the colors; I love the feel of the yarn; I love how easily they knit up and the happy memories I have of knitting them.

Today, the day I finished them, I was knitting with Julie, and I stitched up the last bind-off stitch and tried on the first completed sock. Uhm, it doesn’t fit. It’s tight. Really tight. And Julie says, “Well then, you should let me try it on!” And we did, and like Cinderella’s slipper, it was a perfect fit. So they are hers. As they should be, for a birthday gift – her special day is tomorrow. Happy birthday Julie!