Hello from Chicago!

Sorry it's been a while since my last post. I arrived safely in Chicago last Wednesday to spend some precious time with my sister and her family. My mom was already out here visiting. She will return home to Seattle tomorrow.

My children were complete animals on the airplane. Sproutie screeched loudly for the entire flight, and ZimDee didn't seem to want to keep his clothes on (!). He was crouched like a naked Smeagol (Gollum from the Lord of the Rings) on the floor for most of the flight. Germophobe that I am, I was horrified. Both boys managed to fall asleep right when the plane landed. I knew that that would be the hardest part of my trip: taking my three kids on the airplane by myself, and that the rest would be smooth sailing. The Count will be flying out to join us later, and we will all fly home together.

Here is a sweet picture of my babies all worn out from playing with their beloved cousins in Chicago: Before we left home, it was annual jam-making time in our household. Every year the Count and I take the kids to a local U-Pick farm and pick fresh strawberries and raspberries, some for eating, and some for freezer jam, enough to last until next year. We picked over ten pounds of raspberries this year: Raspberries are my absolute favorite fruit. I love the taste, of course, as well as the fact that you don't have to spit out messy seeds or stems. To me they are the perfect fruit. Also, when I was growing up, my grandma had an acre of raspberry bushes. It was so heavenly to wake up in the morning and walk out the raspberry field and pick my breakfast right off the vines. Good times.

Here is my wonderful Count helping me (can you tell I miss him?) and a picture of some berries and jam. Yummy!
And here's my little Sproutie. It looks like he's going to be a raspberry lover like his mommy! In knitting news, we now have a sock! Yes, I completed my first Mock Croc sock! I grafted the toe just this afternoon, and before I catch the dreaded SSS (second sock syndrome) I immediately cast on for its mate. Behold my first ever knitted sock:
A shout out now to Amanda for putting this little knitalong together, or else I might never have started knitting socks. Thank you, Girlfriend!

Congratulations to Stephanie for winning the movie line contest from The Last of the Mohicans. Yes, Daniel Day Lewis was very charismatic in that movie.

The next movie line up for consideration is:

"Sorry. You just seemed like kind of an indoor girl."

Good luck to all.