and I’m almost finally back up to speed. Short version of the long story - I was sick. Really, grossly, coughing, fevered, feeling like crap, sick. Off and on for about 2 weeks. Thursday before last, Kim guilted me into going to the doctor. Strep and flu tests both negative, so it was most likely a viral infection, made worse by the fact that my immune system is suppressed - I just couldn’t shake it. She gave me a z-pack anyway, just in case it was something bacterial, but basically said the main thing I needed to do was stop my arthritis meds and let my immune system get back up to speed and fight off the infection. Almost 5 days completely in bed, and no Enbrel or methotrexate for a week and a half, and I finally seemed to shake the rest of it. Of course, by this Thursday I was hurting so badly that I asked Mark to cut my toes off. We made the decision that I was “better enough” to start taking my Enbrel again, so I’m getting back to normal now. Then I woke up with a migraine today - ugh. Ever feel like your body is just totally working against you? I’m definitely ready to trade mine in for a younger, healthier model.

Our beach trip was great, though way too short. The drive down there pretty much did me in, so I was on the couch or in the rocking chair on the screened porch during our downtimes. It was great being there with 2 cars - on Saturday morning the girls took off to do what they wanted, and Mark and I took off on our own - wow! What a difference from our normal “dragging the kids around” vacations. This was the last big family trip before the big girls leave for college, and that made it just a little bit sad. We won’t be a family of 5 for much longer - suddenly it will be 3, something we haven’t had in almost 13 years! The girls spent most of the weekend running around taking crazy pictures (with my camera), so I didn’t really get to take too many. Here are some of the good ones:

On the way…

The ice cream shop in Calabash

Silliness on the beach

Silliness around town

As you can see from the pictures, they just didn’t have any fun at all! Now that we’ve taken Holly to both the mountains and the beach, we asked which was her favorite. Definitely the beach, she said. I’m not sure how 2 mountain-loving people have managed to have 3 beach-loving girls.

There was of course knitting at the beach. We even stopped at the one knit shop in town, Knitting Up a Storm. It was a nice shop, run by a very nice British lady. There was nothing there that I would consider particularly unusual, though she may have had every single color of every single line of Regia sock yarn in stock. I did come home with some Regia silk, some Happy Feet and Universal Pace sock yarn for Mark, and some gorgeous Misty Mountain Farm Jubilee sock yarn for me. I spent most of my weekend working on these - they are Artichoke socks in the gorgeous Pagewood Farms merino/bamboo blend (colorway Creamsicle) that Tricia sent me for Christmas. This yarn is so soft, squishy, and shiny, and I need more. Right now!

I also finished up some Tidal Waves in another Pagewood Farms merino/bamboo for Mom (for her birthday - these went to her along with the socks in the last post, which were for Mother’s Day). These came close to not going in the package - Hayley developed a strong love for them, and tried them on more than once!

Also, for OtherMom for Mother’s Day, I whipped out some Fixation footies in between coughing and fever spells (I believe they should earn double points for that!).

Finally, I managed yesterday (on a trip to have lunch with the MINI folks for the club’s third anniversary) to finish up the socks I worked on during Hayley’s softball games this season (they finished 1 and 8, but they had lots of fun!). She picked this yarn and loves them. I did make them a little long, since she’s growing faster than ever, and her feet just keep getting bigger.

The best part of working on these socks was the reaction of 2 kids (1st and 3rd grades) to my knitting and the yarn. They had never seen anyone knit. The little girl, in particular, wanted to know how it all worked, and Sarah and I patiently explained the different parts of the socks (Sarah was at the toe, and I was at the heel). The self-striping yarn, in particular, fascinated her, and she kept trying to guess which color was next. I let her pull the yarn out of the center of the ball until the next color change, so she could see it. I believe by the end of that game we had created 2 future knitters!

These last few weeks of school are always crazy, with every group having an end-of-year party. Add to that all of the graduation stuff, baccalaureate, etc., and Holly’s family coming into town, and it equates to large quantities of stress. I suppose I should go finish up the grocery list so we can have food this week. I’m desperately looking forward to a 3-day weekend next week, and praying that I will feel good so I can get some stuff done around here!

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