A Lovely Beret For My Lovely Sister

At the first sign of fall, I eagerly take to my needles and prepare for the many October birthdays, followed by Christmas gift-giving! Finally, by mid-October, I have something to show for it! Mid October brings several birthdays and this year, my sister was the lucky one to receive a hand-knit birthday gift.

With her wavy blonde hair and airy bangs, she looks so lovely in berets. I’ve wanted to make her this one for two or three years now! I think it’s about time! I can't wait to see her in it!

I absolutely love the yarn I used for this. It is pure baby alpaca in natural grey and tan, by Lang Yarns. It is as soft as can be and has the slightest halo.

I’m working on a sweater for Hubs too, but I have a little fixing to do – as in, I have to unravel both sleeves and start all over again! It’s a good thing I enjoy the process so much. Here is a link to the original pattern. I sure hope I can have it done for him by Christmas!

I’m still working on my big squishy blanket from this post too. I wasn’t so happy with how one of the color blocks turned out and I didn’t decide to take it out and redo it until I was a few blocks past. Deconstructing and then reconstructing projects is always a great learning opportunity, even though it slows me down. It’s plenty big now to snuggle up with as I knit!

I also finished a pair of socks for myself, which I forgot to photograph! It’s the same style as hubby’s socks from this May post, but in my favorite yarn of all time – Paul and Carol Wagner’s Willow Series yarn. I used this yarn for most of my senior thesis and I just can’t get enough of it!

Now back to knitting! I sure have my work cut out for me!

Gushings of a Most Blessed Wife

I’m sure there are lots and lots of amazing husbands throughout the world, but I really don’t think any of them can compare to mine. How can I be so blessed?! I recently read in my daily devotional that a married couple who grow together and nurture one another in their faith “will have delight, love, and joy without ceasing.” Praise God for the truth in those words!! The Lord commands husbands, “Love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” What a demand! Could any greater demand be made of a man? In humility, Ryan knows that he falls far short of this demand, but strives to perfect it nonetheless, with God's help. Marriage to this man of mine has been the greatest blessing I have known, second only the great blessing of knowing Christ as my Savior.

His birthday just recently passed and it gave me the opportunity to think about just how incredible he is and how important he is to me. Hence, my gushing! I have so much respect for him and for his authority in our home, because everything he does comes from a heart devoted to God and to me.

We have so many friends and family members who have been praying for us for years now, and God hears those prayers! Please continue praying for us, and for all marriages around the world. The world needs to see God’s love, and marriage is one of His institutions in which His love grows and thrives!

Ryan ran the Chicago Marathon a few days ago and did so well! His parents came down for the event and were able to spend the whole weekend with us! We had such a great time chasing him around Chicago and cheering him on. 

Waiting for the race to start in the early morning light

The start of the race on the Michigan Ave. bridge

Proud Mom, patiently waiting for her son at the 26th mile

Climbing the last hill! 0.2 miles to go!

He finished the race in three hours and twenty minutes! That’s almost qualifying for Boston! The top 6% is not bad for his first marathon race.

His ability to balance his priorities has always been amazing to me. I have learned a lot from him! I guess he needs something as physically strenuous as a marathon to balance the mental strain of law school!

The Lord continues to bless our lives here in Chicago. Praise God! 

Tiger

While I was at work a couple days ago, I got a text message from my husband saying, “Be nice to kitty and my new friend when you get home ;)”

“New friend?” I replied. “Oh boy, what am I going to find when I get home?” We had been talking about getting a fish so maybe he just went ahead and picked one up. 

Wrong. Not even close actually. Instead I found a squirrel named Tiger. What the heck? What was my husband thinking? His wisdom is always a little beyond me :)

This little guy climbed a brick wall five stories high where he caught Theseus’s attention on our porch. Hubby opened our screen door and Theseus jumped out and chased him inside. He literally hung out on our screen door for quite a while, where he was supplied with bread and water. Maybe this could be kitty’s new friend!

Theseus is hiding behind the pillow :)

When Hubs opened the door a bit to see what Theseus would do, Tiger jumped into our apartment, where he was chased into our bathroom by a feisty grey cat. Eek!

Hubby is trying to feed the little guy :)

He's petting Tiger with the towel! 

Kitty looks very interested

We let him hang out for a while since Theseus seemed to quite like having some company. Sometimes when ridiculous things like this happen, it really is just best to go with the flow. Okay cool, there is a wild squirrel named Tiger living in our bathroom. Once dinner-time came though, it really was time to go. We tried to pull him down so we could release him back into the wild, but he squirmed away and fell into the bathtub. Did we really think we could loosen this guy's grip without being stabbed by his giant claws? Not really. He jumped out of the tub and hid behind our sink and found a jungle gym of pipes and a safe haven inside of the pedestal section of our sink. Uh-oh. Now how were we going to get him out?! Bad Tiger!

We spent a good portion of the night devising creative ways to get him out of there and he finally came out and ran right toward the window he come in. Hooray! In all of his haste, he bumped into the partially closed sliding glass door and re-routed himself to the kitchen where he found a hole leading directly underneath our cabinets. Aw Man! Why would anyone leave a hole that led underneath our cabinets?! Again we (including Thesie!) tried to lure him out before we went to sleep for the night. To make an hours-long story short, he finally found his way out and we all slept soundly that night. 

We learned that we are more effective at getting rid of squirrels peacefully than the 24-7 pest removal company that apparently doesn't answer calls after 11pm. We also learned that squirrels have a very wide range of vocalizations, one of which sounds like an "old man fart" according to the expert in the matter...ehem (that would be my male counterpart). 

What a goofy adventure! It wasn't exactly convenient to spend almost our entire night trying to remove this rodent, but it was pretty funny. Thankfully no animals or humans were injured in the making of this production. A note to the wise: even the best-behaved squirrels do not make good pets for cats. They poop all over and don’t take direction very well  :)