~ June 16th ~

Goodies in the mail. . . while I was away, I received my Yarn Junkies-Black package from Kathleen in MI. Its fabulous, there is sock yarn ~ Araucania in charcoal 107, one that I was planning to buy myself and 2 skeins of Hempathy in cool blue 09, another wish list item. I’m loving my yarn ~ lovin’, squeezin’, huggin’ and calling them my very own. Whoops ~ thats looney tunes. LOL Here is a picture of them which also includes a little note and lovely crocheted bookmark ~ there‘s a hope angel charm on it:

~ Araucania Ranco in 107 Charcoal ~ sock yarn ~

~ Hempathy in 09 Cool Blue ~

I’ve been gone for almost a week and it was a good time though I was very tired. I didn’t realize how tired until the drive home yesterday. I couldn’t actually drive all the way as I’ve done in the past. I wasn’t physically able to do ~ my body is sore, swollen and simply worn out. Its my own fault since I took that new job which I really thought would be great. I love the work, the store and helping people, but I stand alot and it’s just too much for me. I will get a good pair of shoes this week to the tune of $60 but if I ever leave this job, what will I do with the shoes? I know, I should just think about my body for now since the shoes will greatly help in feeling better. My schedule for this week is much lightly than past weeks and I’m very grateful. I was thinking of working more for the summer to make a little extra $$ but now I will just rest. You know, I’m not getting any younger ~ I’ll be 41 this year and I really want to live and feel better about myself but first I have to learn to say "no". LOL

When I was away, I was visiting friends and enjoying the scenic beauty of the East Coast. Oh how I love that side of the world ~ beautiful mountains, tall trees and lots of water. Ok back to earth, I do miss living on there and visiting was great. I attend the CM Conference in NC where I visited with lots of online friends, friends I made last year and a lot of new friends. My girls and I left on Wed at 1am headed for TN to picked up my dear friend Leslie and her son. This leg of the drive started out great, we drove thru OK and AK w/o a hitch and good time, I might add, but when I got to TN life as we knew it changed. I love the countryside I mean mountainside of TN but its a very long drive that turned into a nightmare for 2 reasons ~ construction detour and storms. I used mapquest to get me to my friend’s home but it gave me incorrect directions for the detour, so guess what happen? You’re right ~ I got lost. The directions actually took me into the main construction area not the detour which was I640 and into downtown Knoxville which was under a serious storm warning. There were actually 3 parts to the storm and I ended up in all 3 ~ lots of rain, hail, thunder and lightening. I was over 5hrs later than planned which means we arrived in NC at 10p instead of 5p.

The good is ~ we had a blast. Leslie, as always, is a great roommate, her son and my daughters had a good time getting to know each other and I got to sleep. ;O In another post, I’ll share some of the things I learned at the conference to keep my daily report separate. Due to major fog and the generous hospitality of Leslie and her family, the girls and I stay with them before we headed home. I’m glad we did because we got to enjoy her a little longer and Riley made a new friend, Miss M. She is adorable and loves the same things that Riley does though there is a 11 yr difference in their ages.

We made it safely home though we ended driving into a storm that was over OK ~ wow 2 storms in the same cross-state trip, who knew?! I’ll do again to have as much fun as we had. I returned home to my hubby who had been home alone, Da Boy was with a friend off at the lake and now at their family home in Ada. He is having a blast, so I’m not too mad at him that I’ve not talked to him since he left a week ago. Hubby was glad to see us and had done some cleaning which was very nice of him. ;) The house was very inviting and he even had a pot of coffee waiting though I didn’t get to enjoy it until 2hrs later ~ I past out, I told you I was exhausted. ;)

I did some knitting ~ I finish my friend’s peds.

Yeah me! I worked a little on a scarf but I know I need to rest so knitting has not been a priority. I’m getting excited about knitting again but it will be slowly and more for gifts. I really think I can make things to give away for Christmas if I start in the next month.

Thats all for now. Have a great week!