Happy -But Wet!

It's time again to join forces with Shelley Tucker -over at This Eclectic Life and do the Only The Good Friday event with her. If you've never participated in this, go to her site, check it out and then, go do a post of your own to show how optimism can turn lots and lots of things from the downside to upright and positive.

As I write this, we are in the early phase of a two-day yard sale event here. Mandy and another lady from along our street were the coordinators of this year's big "Grassflat Community Yard Sale -Rain or Shine" and sad to say but this is not the sun shiny day that one would prefer to have when having a yard sale!

It's rather surprising to me though how many people have shown up thus far -a little over four hours since the gates "opened" ya know and I mentioned to Mandy that it does seem to me that we've had more traffic this year -even with the sprinkles, then drizzle and now, back to sprinkles again -than we did last year when the weather was really great. No fair weather fans apparently these folks! And by gosh, by golly, that is really a good thing! Mandy is hoping for lots and lots of sales so she can at least recoup the expenses entailed in advertising this in the two newspapers in this area. The really local paper charged her $20 bucks for her ad and the a little further away but still semi-local paper charged her $41 to advertise the yard sale! So, since she has clothes the kids have out-grown (oodles and oodles of 'em) plus a bunch of other stuff, mostly priced at either a quarter an item or 50 cents an item (adult stuff, mainly) she's going to have to have a whole hell of a lot of sales today and tomorrow to bring in at least $60 to cover her costs!

She said the first people here this morning showed up around 7:30. I didn't hear anything in the way of strange voices talking till about 8:10 a.m. Considering the front yard, where she has everything set up, is just outside my bedroom window, I was lucky to get that extra half hour's sleep in before the voices woke me.

Although it's raining there is good in that ya know -it's cooled things off a bit from the heat of the past couple of days this week and boy, that is a good thing! Is it ever!!!

But I'm still a bit bummed with the darned rain as I had hoped if I had to sit out in the yard and hold down the fort from time to time that I could use that time by working on the big tablecloth I just started the other day here. This one is a Christmas cloth and is 50x70 inches so I can use all the time I can garner to work on this project and nothing else, ya know!

Maybe tomorrow the weather will be better and I can sit out in the yard, embroidering away to my pea-pickin' heart's content, huh?

Yesterday, we took a gamble and went to DelGrosso's Park over in Tipton, PA. We missed the big picnic this year over there sponsored by the Agency that provides the therapists for the kids because the day it was scheduled, the park ended up being closed. RAINED OUT! Now that was a bit of a bummer. But this trip yesterday -rescheduled from Wednesday so older daughter (who works midnight shift) would be able to have some sleep before coming to the park and the intent was that this would be a way for all of us to celebrate my older grandson's 12th birthday then. Well, we -Mandy, the kids, Kurt's wrap-around aide and the young lady who is the Behavior Specialist who supervises the aides and I made it to the park but as things turned out, older daughter (Carrie) and Alex (the birthday boy) ended up not making it to the park after all.

On the drive over, we encountered some sprinkles as we meandered down Sandy Ridge Mountain but by the time we got to Tipton, it was all sunshine and all systems go at the park! And the nice thing was that even though it did cloud up a couple of times while we were there, it didn't let fly with any raindrops fallng on our heads!

And boy, what a difference a year makes in the behavior of small children at amusement parks tooo -especially when those kids are also autistic -which sometimes can prove to be risky business when you take them to an amusement park, ya know. Last year, a lot of the kiddie rides, Kurtis was more than a bit fearful, fussed over a few of them but this year -at age 3 -he was "well, maybe I can try this but excuse me if I don't" and as a result, he was okay for all but one ride. The one ride that he pulled in the reins and absolutely WOULD NOT go on -of all things -was the merry-go-round! He went on it last year with me -not on a horse though -but he sat in one of those bench things with me and was fine. This year not so much fine. As a matter of fact, this year when Mandy suggested it and as Maya raced to pick out a horse, Kurtis kicked up his heels but not doing a happy dance. But it was the only "meltdown" we experienced with him all day at the park and then shopping too, after that! So that is still a darned good thing that he was that into the rides this year. He even rode this caterpiller-type thingy -sort of like a mini-roller coaster and we kind of expected him to freak out over it and have a hissy fit but instead, he rode it with Mandy and Maya and was fine. However, though Maya wanted to ride it again, he drew the line there. Once around on that ride was apparently adequate for his tastes.

Here;s some pictures of the kids enjoying the park rides. Pretty much self-explanatory who's who in the ride pictures I think.


































































The last two pictures -of the adults here -were Mandy and Kurt's TSS (Sam) and the kids BSC, Renee -who were able to join us at the park.

All in all, with the exception of not getting to see and share the day with Alex -my birthday-boy grandson -it was a really great day.

After leaving the park, we were able to run up to Altoona to the mall there and Grammie got to do a bit of shopping at one of her favorite stores -A.C. Moore Crafts! It was imperative I get to a craft shop soon because I started working the other day on a new tablecloth -a Christmassy design with a cardinal in branches on two corners of the middle of the cloth area and another bird (chickadee, I think) in each outer corner of the cloth. It's a 52x70 tablecloth and even though I have five plastic storage containers filled almost to the brim with various colors of embroidery floss, wouldn't you just know it but this cloth required at least 7 different colors that I didn't have in my floss stash? So I was able to pick up those needed colors and oh, just a few others too -for a grand total of 60 skeins of floss! I managed to find a couple other little things that I really didn't "need" but I wanted them badly enough -and the prices were right on them, so home they came with me! Yay, me!

Earlier this week I finished the sweater I'd started last week for Maya and I'm pleased to say she was happy with it and so was I! Here's a picture, maybe two -of Maya showing off her new blue sweater that Grammie made!












And, last but not least -a little other information that made this week a really good one for me.

First off, if you recall my post on Tuesday (or Wednesday -I tend to loose track of days here anymore) I mentioned about being ticked off that J.C.Penney's didn't have an online presence where people like me -who don't leave the house very often, forget about the U.S. Postal service to mail payments in too -could make payments on their credit cards online (and hopefully then, on time too.)

Well, I found a website for J.C. Penney's and on it -in kind of smallish print -a place there that says "My Account" and people who have a J.C.Penney's card can use that site to pay their bills online! And the nice thing about this one -compared to the other store I have a card for (Peeble's), there is NO FEE to use the online site! Peeble's charged the user $10.00 to make a payment online! How absurd and insane is that, I say! Talk about money grubbers, huh?

And the other nice -and for me, exciting thing too is that the other night, while on my search and destroy mission for a knitting pattern for the cape I knitted my Mom 35-36 years ago I found a pattern that is very, very similar to the cape I made for her and purchased it! And, it arrived in the mail yesterday!

I was going to scan the card to get a good picture of the cape but it is a size that won't fit in my scanner so, not to be put off by that problem, I took a picture of the card just so I can show you this cape! The one I made my Mom had cables running down each panel whereas this cape is the same design but no cables to mess with and I think I can live with that!

The cape shown in this picture in the tan or taupe shade is the one almost identical to the one I made my Mom. Now, all I need to do is find the right color (and texture) of yarn -that is affordable too -so I can make myself this cape someday -hopefully in the not too distant future!

Now, all I need are days that never end so I will have time galore to sit and knit or embroider my life away!

But you know, that's a darned good thing isn't it -to have a hobby that you enjoy and that when your project is completed you have something that is really useful in the way of clothing or new pretty things to display in one's home. Or, to use as Christmas or birthday gifts too for adult children who you have no clue what size they wear now, and you know they probably are never going to get involved in crafting to make "pretties" (as Maya likes to call the embroidery stuff and some of my knitting and crochet things too) to have in their own homes.

All in all, just some really good things that came my way this week.

Here's hoping you all have had some really neat things take place that turned your world to the upside too! I'm betting if you give it just a smidgen of thought, you'll find some and you can post that to tell the rest of us all about them!

I'm waiting for your Good Things now!