OH but Etsy is dangerous!!! I've been surfing today and just look at this list of things that I have decided I love

Watermelon Sock Yarn (complete with seeds) See some knit up on ravelry here.

Knitting is Sexy!

Ducky Stitch Markers

Elephant Wristlet

EEEEE LOVE THIS Elephant Wallet

ok better stop now.... I Love etsy! And don't forget I have an etsy shop myself!
http://loraskeyhole.etsy.com

On another note, TODAY IS WEDNESDAY!!!!!!!!!!!! That means knitting tonight! I haven't knit with this group in a little over a month! Can't wait to see them. Hope they are ready for me to come back. :o)

Today is my good friend Sonya's Birthday
This one's for you Sonya!

Crap...had a post all typed out and hit something and whoooooooooooosh...all gone. Ok granted it was only 3 lines but still....

Anyway, we are home. We have Lincoln. (Thanks Melissa!!) and the car did great coming home and we even got better gas mileage with the new alternator! (Thanks Dad and John!!)

Now for week 7 of Secret Pal questions:

What is(are) your favorite place(s) to knit?
I like to sit on my couch and knit. I like to knit with my knitting gals where ever they may congregate!!
What supplies (besides yarn & needles) make the setting perfect for knitting?
Maybe a Mtn. Dew. OH let's not forget Tequila Balls. yum. But the BEST setting is with my friends, be it in Kentucky or New Hampshire. There's something about being with other knitters that makes your project all the more fun! As far as supplies....I think cute stitch markers are fun as long as they don't get hung up in the knitting.

So my dad got the alternator. I had a friend that was going to come over and replace it for me since Brent is still in New Hampshire. I wanted to have the part on before he got here tomorrow so we could leave on schedule. My friend got hung up running an errand for a family member so off to plan B.
What is plan B you ask? Sonya's Husband and my Dad!! John and Dad were able to get the alternator off and get the good one on the car. John checked my fluid levels on the car and aired up my tires to make sure those little things were taken care of too. I am so glad that John and Dad were able to get the car fixed and I know it was a load off Brent's mind. Two people he knows and trust to work our car.
Of course this didn't go with out the ribbing of John. He told Sonya to never answer the phone again. and I said "Especially if it was a 603 area code!!!" hahaha
Again, I am so happy I was somewhere with friends and family when the car flubbed up and not on the road back home. I can only imagine how much someone might have took us for!
It also gave Sonya and I some chit chat time while they worked on the car. Occasionally Sonya and I would hold a light or walk around to trip the motion sensors for lights.
I didn't take the camera but Sonya got a few shots with hers.
But gladly....the car is fixed. *whew!*
And now for some special pictures!A visit with my grandmother, the boys great grandmother.
She was so happy to see all of us and glad we came to visit her a few times while we were in town. I think it made her days when we'd visit.
The great elephant knit along. I can't help but sing this little song in my head when I see these little fellows. That's Nicole in the back ground, one of the KY knitters.

OK... maybe I jinxed myself. Go back to THIS blog post and read the second paragraph, last sentence. Yep... It's all my fault.
All I can say is thank goodness for Dads like mine!

Just sit right back and I'll tell a tale, a tale of a not so faithful CAR!!!

Oh. My. Gosh.
It's insane the stress my car is giving me.
Here's the story. Saturday I go to grab some dinner for my parents and I. When I step on the break, the radio starts bleeping at me, (this apparently is the way a car say, hey dummy, somethings wrong, remember this!) So later Sat. afternoon about 6pm, I load up the car and the boys to go to my brother's house for the evening. I was excited because I was going to go out with Sonya for the evening to hear Strum beat (yeah I know you know I made it there, but you are going to listen to this story anyway.) SO..... *reaaaaarrrrrrrr, click click click click.....rearrrrrrrrrrrrrr, click click click..........*sigh*........... beep beep beep beep beep beep beep (me calling dad in the house where my car is parked infront of) "Dad can you come outside please" Dad comes out. Reaaarrrrrr click click.....* Off comes the battery and off we go to Auto zone to get the battery tested. "Sir, this will take about an hour." So dad and I go back to his house and sit and wait an hour. Go back to Auto zone about 8:30 and get the battery, bring it home put it in the car and Rearrrrrrrrr purrrrrrrrr purrrrrrrrr YEAH it runs (no my car doesn't sound like a cat...but it's all i could think to type.
So without shutting the car off, I call my mother inside the house and say SEND THE BOYS OUT QUICK! And out they come and off we go to my brothers house.
yeah...go get a drink, I'm not done yet. I'll wait.
.
.
ok....so off we go to Indiana to see my brother and his family so the boys can have a sleep over and I can meet up with Sonya later. We get about, oooooh 7 miles down the road and the car starts dying on me this time on the entrance ramp to the highway. LOVELY! I make it on the highway and to an exit ramp where it dies TWICE down the exit ramp. I pull over into a closed business and call my repair man, aka, DAD. So dad and mom come with the van, I have dad drive the car back to his house so he can see what's it's doing and I drive the van. Wouldn't you know that STUPID CAR was running good like Nobodies business!!!! OH the nerve of that car!! But I wasn't taking any chances with the boys in tow with me and mom let me take her van to my brothers house. FINALLY about 9:30 we were on our way to my brother's house. I got to meet up with Sonya and we had a grand time, see her blog for the fun of the night!
So on Sunday I loaded up my boys and my niece and headed back to mom and dad's house to see what we needed to do with the car. I went out to it...it started up nicely, so I asked dad to go for a drive with me. It was great! The car was running well.
Later that evening I decided I would take the boys to see some family. Car ran fine... on the way home we stopped at a drive thru to get some food and the car started having the radio beep at me again... Oh dear I've pushed it too far and it's pissed again.
So... long story short..yeah right. My car needs a new alternator! Brent's in New Hampshire and I'm in Kentucky and the car is being a PITA! So it looks as though my last week will be spent watching who ever I can talk into working on my car. I guess the good news is Sonya's hubby can get me an alternator at cost and one of dad's friends said he would get one for dad at cost too!! Things are looking up it seems. So I hope that my dad and brother in law can get the alternator in. My poor brother in law....he wonders how he got sucked into this mess... well he can blame his brother for marrying me. hahaha My dad...oh he's used to me and my weird car antics. I'm sure my repair bill tab with dad spans the USA and then back!!
I am thankful that this is happening while I'm here and not on the road home to NH with the kids. That would NOT be a good situation. I'm safe, my kids are safe and that's all that should matter. So today I shall de-stress myself with knitting and the company of my mother.
Ok so this post isn't so boring....I'll find some fun pictures to add. :) After all this IS vacation baby!!!Dad and Jake on the Tractor. Jacob was so happy he got to drive it!Nathan and dad on the tractor. He said at first he wouldn't drive it, but had a blast!Carl and I at My Bar in Indiana
Jacob eats WAY to many White Castle Burgers. He had a belly ache later!
Nathan and I at Gattiland. He's driving a motorcycle, I'm knitting. We went there with Sonya and her kids Sunday afternoon. It was so fun to see Sonya's kids. They are growing up so fast.
If you made it to the end of this blog post....thanks for staying...love you too :)

I love the live music scene in Louisville!!! Thursday night, Mom, Dad, the boys and I went out to Macca's Seafood Restaurant to see our friends Another Colour. We had a grand time and a lot of my friends were there. Some I called and told I'd be there, some were there to see Another Colour and didn't know I was in town, so they were surprised. They couldn't believe how the boys had grown. I did get up and sing with them on one song for my Dad. We sang "The Rose" by Bette Midler.
singing

Jacob and I cutting a rug, dancing a jig! He's so fun
Grace and Paul, Another Colour, under the Umbrella singing away!
The Another Colour groupies that we used to hang out with almost every weekend.
And more pictures of me and my high school girlfriends. Jenny (holding Nathan) wasn't able to come to dinner and karaoke the other night, so she met me at Macca's for dinner. Nathan took a shine to her and only left her side long enough to eat his food.

Sonya and I went out last night... more pictures from that after Sonya gets them off her computer. I love love love hanging with Sonya when it's just the two of us. We didn't do a lot of talking last night. We both are big fans of live music and enjoy just sitting, relaxing and listening. We did have some entertainment other than the music. The bartenders were flipping and throwing the drinks around all night. Almost like Tom Cruise in Cocktail. Sometimes Sonya an I would see something odd and just look at each other and start laughing. We just KNEW what the other was thinking!
We went out to see Strumbeat. Someone has a video of them on youtube. FINALLY! I can hear them when ever I want (as long as they don't remove it)

I am still knitting while here visiting my family. I've gone to knitting practice here with the gals each Tuesday and have met some more super knitters I just want to bring home with me! I finished my Lisha Lace Scarf, and love it!! You can buy the pattern directly from Gina on her blog. The boys are at the inlaws tonight and my parents are gone out for the evening, Brent's doing the work gig, London or somewhere. I can't keep up with him. So that leaves me alone with mom's camera.
Nope...not a good angle to see the scarf.
Hum....Hello Boob, then straight up my nose. All clean :o)
By now the camera has apparently had enough of my mug and starts beeping at me in an odd way, but a better angle. So I try again and Voila, me wearing my Lisha Scarf. You can see better details of my scarf if you're on Ravelry. If you aren't, FOR SHAME! Also the cutest little elefante!! I adore this pattern. Gina printed out the pattern sometime ago and I begged her for it and finally made it while here in Ky with the knitting girls here as a KAL. I hope to get a picture next Tuesday of the Elefante's on parade with other's that have finished. (Knit, Sonya, Knit!)
I started another project, A summertime tunic from interweave knits. I'm excited to get this done in time to wear SOMETIME this summer I hope!
Also on the SP12 side of things I need to catch up on questions of the week.
What yarn (that you don’t have/haven’t used) would make your stash “complete”? Hum...well I don't know. I am not one of those knitters who buys yarn just to buy. I'm one of those who kind of needs a project in mind.
What yarn do you never want to be without?**
Sock Yarn. It's nice to have in the stash so when you don't have a project going you can just look for a sock pattern and get going.
Where is your favorite place to go for vacation/holiday?
Well before I moved to New England, it was New England. We went on a vacation once to Ocean City, Md and that was fun!
Where is one place you’d like to go?
I would love to visit England or Ireland or Germany.
What is your favorite type of project to take along on holiday/vacation?
I would have to say socks or stuff animals to knit! They a pretty portable and the animals keep the kids excited to see the finished result.
Tell us about a time that you packed too much knitting or were stranded without knitting.
That would be the Christmas we flew home to see mom and dad after we moved to New England. Our layover in Chicago was supposed to be 1 hour.... um yeah HELLO... CHICAGO!! It was 4 hours and my knitting was in the bag that I checked!! I figured I would put it in there because one hour is not long enough to knit when you have to keep kids entertained. After four hours I was longing for something to do!

Well that's enough of that! :) I think I'm caught up on the questions and hope that gave you a fun read. I'm off to sit on the couch, enjoy some quiet knitting time. Maybe I'll call the knitters at B&N tonight in Manchvegas.

I told you there would be more!!
Me, Tina and Meredith faking "Proud Mary" because for some odd reason the guy didn't have the lyrics showing! Tina did a cute shimmy stomp thing just like Tina Turner......gosh she's fun!
In the picture above is Meredith, Tina, Tracy and I. We sang "Puttin' on the Ritz" by TACO. Yeah..... Super Duper... haha
Who needs a mic when you have a bottle of Smirnoff to use! Don't know what I was singing here.
This is Sonya and I at Dublin's Cellar, the second place we went last night to hear a live band, Kimmet and Doug. We were faking a song for the camera.
Here are Kimmet and Doug singing a little ditty. Kimmet looks happy clapping and all. :) I had a SUPER DUPER time with the gals. It was fun to get together with them and even introduce Sonya to them.

Girls Night Out!! I went out to dinner last night with some old dear friends.... OK they aren't old, but I've known them all since the 9th grade (one of them since the 6th grade!) and we all graduated together. We met at Tumblweed for dinner, trotted over to Akiko's Bar for some Karaoke, and after the thunderstorm (my that came out of no where), walked two blocks to another bar called Dublin's Cellar and listened to Kimmet and Doug sing. My friend Sonya, who didn't go to high school with all of us, showed up later.

Left to right: Anita, Meredith, Me, Tina, Tracy at Akiko's

Meredith (known her since 6th grade) and Tina at Dublin's Cellar

Me singing Karaoke at Akiko's

Meredith, Tracy, Me and Sonya at Dublin's Cellar

Anita(wake up girl), me and Tracy
I had such a blast hooking back up with the girls. The last time we went out together that was almost 5 years or so ago...I was very early on pregnant with Nathan, you do the math.
I took some pictures last night but it was with a disposable camera, so more photos might show up later. :)

More Vacation picturesSwimming with Uncle Brent

Jake jumps in the pool screaming "CANNON BALL"
J

Lana kicks back and relaxes.

Nathan and I at Churchill Downs watching the horse races.

Jacob's winning ticket. He bet on a horse named "General Jake" and he won $5.50!! He was so excited!

Random vacation pictures that make me smile.

Looking at worms

The Wii is a Thumbs Up Baby!!!

My two favorite Red Heads!!

Cute as a button!! (Jackie, she'll still fit in the suitcase. Want me to try again?)

Watching the fireworks. (Cover the ears!!)

Jake watches from inside the house.
This is so fun!!

UH-OH!!
But in a good way!! I am keeping my secret pal on her toes! Making her chase me all over the mid west and east coast. haha!
I got a package here at mom's house yesterday with the Mochi Mochi Uh-ohs pattern that I've been wanting for SO LONG!!! There was also some yarn inside and a nice personal note! No pictures at this moment, but I plan on trying to make these Uh-ohs when I finish the scarf I'm working on. They are just too dang cute!!
Thank you Secret Pal!!!

We are having a good time in Kentucky so far. The weather has been nice and really not that humid so far, but looking outside today, it looks like rain and things might be taking a turn. UGH Hello frizzy hair! haha
The boys are enjoying their time with their cousin's. We spent the day with them yesterday. My nephew, Luke, cracks me up!! At one point yesterday, he told me out of the blue "I love you" I swear that kid is sweeter than sugar! That boy never hushes either... if he's not talking, he's singing! Adorable!
I have yet to make it to a yarn shop!! OH THE HORROR OF IT ALL! But in time we'll get to a couple.
Tonight the boys are staying over at my brother's house and Brent and I will have some time alone! We'll probably crash at 8:30 and sleep until 11 am. Yeah...we're wild that way! We went out to dinner last night with his mom and her husband. After dinner they took the boys back to their house for awhile and Brent and I got to stroll along Bardstown Rd. One of our favorite things to do! We stopped in and saw Rodney at Twisted Images. He is the tattoo artist that has done most of our work that we have on us. He's moved the business into a new building and I really love the character of the place. It's an older house in the Highlands and it just feels neat in there. I can't explain what it is, but I like it!
I had my favorite breakfast today!!!! I have not had this probably since we moved to New Hampshire!! BISCUITS AND GRAVY!!! Oh the beauty of B&G!! LOVE IT!
I'm still knitting on my Lisha Scarf and loving every minute of it! If you haven't check it out, jump on over to Gina's blog and buy yourself a copy! It's a beautiful project! Check out her recent podcast too. I need to download it and listen to it....but we are never still for long, but I'm sure soon we'll putter out and relax! haha!
Melissa, give our Lincoln a big hug from us and tell him we haven't forgotten him and the family keeps asking about him. :)