Hey, hey, hey seventeen!!!

Yup, it's official now... seventeen freaking pairs of socks that I have finished this year!!! I grafted the toe on Derek's bluejean Tuffy pair last night while watching "Thirteen Days" for the third time. I actually made it through the ENTIRE movie this time without falling asleep! I'm quite proud of myself for both accomplishments *teehee* That adds another 392 m to my total. I'm nearly at 5 KILOMETRES of sock yarn!!! Can you believe it? I know I can't! I'll be casting on an oxford grey pair of work socks for Derek as soon as my hands behave this morning. I hope to have the stripes done before I go to work tonight.

The next two weeks are gonna be busy ones. I only have 7 more shifts at work. *YAY* I have Knit-out at the Forks on Sunday, and McNally's on Tuesday. Next Friday is my last night at work, and Saturday is the party my aunt is throwing for us. Sunday-Monday-Tuesday is moving. I'm very proud of the progress I'm making here. I've put up quite a bit on Freecycle to get rid of, the garbage bins behind our house are never empty, and the Salvation Army store is almost ready to make a permanent spot for my car at the donation door!!!

On the new house front, we now have a PO box, and a phone number. I have the kids' school supply lists... HOLY CRAP!!! I've been spoiled with only having to pay a fee for the kids for the last 10 years or so!!! Derek will be bringing home the transfer papers this weekend. We're moving on the 26th or 27th, and even though the phone is getting hooked up on the 27th, I'm not sure when I'll be setting up the Interweb. I'm hoping it won't be too long. It will only be dial-up, so I can see me doing a LOT of stuff offline, and then hopping on just long enough to get everything updated. I still need to take "The Purl in the Oyster" website down since the ISP change will mean that I will lose that web space.

All the packing in the front room this week has led me to the following conclusion: I HAVE TOO MUCH FREAKING ACRYLIC YARN!!!! I have absolutely no clue what I'm going to do with all of that stuff. I can only off-load so much to Rebecca. I know I'll be crocheting up quite a few lapghans and such. I'll definitely need an afghan to keep in my car. It may be only 20 minutes or so to either Virden or Brandon, but this still *is* Manitoba, and we still *do* have wicked winters. Better safe than sorry, right?

Work boot approved!!!

Well Derek's feet didn't fare too well during his first week back in steel toed boots. This silly guy was afraid to ruin the new socks I had made him by wearing them in his boots. After I told him that *that* is why I made them for him, he decided to try them out last week. He'd gotten several blisters his first week, despite double-socking. He proclaimed that when he wore his new socks, he couldn't feel the blisters at all. Only problem is that *this* weekend when he came home... he tossed them not only in the washer without the protection of the laundry bag, but he threw them in the DRYER as well. I couldn't look... I'll see them next weekend... I hope. I'm afraid -- *very* afraid. The only bright side of this possible disaster is that I somehow made the legs of that pair two different lengths... about half an inch of difference, so when I make the replacements {if necessary}, I can rectify that.

His second pair of work socks is nearly off of the needles. As of this writing, I only have about 20 more rows to the toe decreases of the second sock. That means he will have a fresh pair waiting for him when he comes home on Friday. As an added bonus, Derek has said that we can go to Rams on Saturday to stock up on my supply of Tuffy. It's not like I won't have something to knit in the meantime. I've started a pair for him in Durasport using a pattern given to me by a designer friend of mine. I've also got 2 more hanks of Tuffy in charcoal to get another pair of work socks started as soon as these ones are done.

On the home front, we move in 2 weeks!!! I have 7 more shifts left at my store, or 52.5 hours. Yes, I'm counting the hours already!!! I have plenty of work socks to knit, and plenty of packing to do during that time. I'll be on my two weeks vacation when we move, so that will require even more sock knitting, and even more unpacking! I can't wait... yes... really!

Another ball of sock yarn gone!!!

Yup, I finished the Mega Boots Stretch socks for Derek this weekend. That makes SIXTEEN pairs of socks, and another 400 m added to my total distance knitted this year! I started a pair in Durasport in green for him, and finished off the first sock in the second pair of Tuffy socks, this time in blue jean for him. I'm just trucking along here!

FOURTEEN!!!

Yup, I just updated my sidebar to realize that the 14th pair of socks to come off my needles this year was Derek's work socks that I finished up on Sunday before he left for Virden. That makes over 4 km knit this year in socks!!! I just turned the heel on the first sock of his next pair, so those will be finished soon too.

Our new house... well in a month anyway!

I'm not going to bother apologizing for being such a bad blogger lately... but I *will* apologize for this image-heavy post. I'm very proud of our {nearly ours} new house, and I'm posting this for those of you that are interested in seeing it. If you're not interested, you might as well stop the page loading now 'cause it's gonna take a while!!! *ROFL*

Griswold, Manitoba

We are moving to the village of Griswold. It's located approximately half-way between Brandon and Virden on Hwy. #1. You can see the other half of our property here. Scroll down the page to the general store, and that's on the right side of the house. According to the website, there's about 30 people living there. With the two that are moving out, and the seven of us moving in, that's a population explosion of 17%!!!

Outside

This is the view of our house as taken from the road looking down the driveway. The store section of the property is just to the right of where this photo was taken.

This is the front of the property line, and shows about half of the frontage we have. Where the hedges end, is where our property ends.

This is the front of the house. The bay window on the right is the dining room and the living room is on the left. Somewhere in here I need to find room for Mom's peonies... they *are* coming with us.

This is the left {north} side of the house. The living room is in the front and one of the larger bedrooms is in the back. This is likely where we will have our garden until we tear down the other building. The septic tank is in the back, so can't garden there!!!

Inside - Main Floor: Kitchen, Dining Room & Living Room

This is the first thing we saw when we got in the house to view, and it sold both of us immediately! An oak kitchen is what Derek has dreamed about for years, and in about a month, that dream will come true for both of us!

This is what made me fall over... a wall of built-in glass cabinets. Mom's crystal, china, and silver is going to look stunning in that!

This is the kitchen and dining area as seen from the living room. Even though the oak is fairly dark, I still think that the stainless steel appliances that Derek and I want will look very nice in there.

This is the living room. I'm so happy to be having a 'picture' window again. I can't remember the last time I had a nice big living room window like that... probably when I was still living with Mom 18 years ago! We'll need to get something for in front of it so that Aladdin can sit there and look out the window. These sills are *way* too narrow for his fat butt! The half wall is actually a built-in bookcase, and is currently set up as a reading corner... I think renaming it a knitting corner is a good idea, don't you?

Another view of the living room. It shows off the size of it a lot better. I'd guess that it's around the same size or a bit bigger than what we have now, but seems huge in comparision as it's physically separated from the dining room. Derek doesn't want any computers in there, but we may do that at if we can't get a computer set up in the kitchen under the glass cupboards... I'm hoping to get a portable dishwasher to fill that space anyway! *teehee*

Inside - Main Floor: Bedrooms, Craft Room, & Bathroom

This is the bedroom on the northeast corner of the house, and the one that I'm leaning towards for our room. The house currently doesn't have A/C, and the north side will be more protected from the sun, and therefore the heat in the summer.

This is the southeast bedroom, and the one I'm leaning towards for Alex & Melissa to share. It will easily fit two twin beds, and we need them upstairs. I don't trust them downstairs at night! *LOL*

Even though this is the third bedroom on the main floor, it's too small to be a decent bedroom. I'm not even sure if a twin bed would fit in there, just a futon. Derek has allowed me to claim this as my craft room. The cabinets should be staying, so between that and the closet, I should have a lot of storage room. One of the computers will also be set up in here. Hopefully I won't need to completely take over the rest of the house with it... just some of it!

This is the main bathroom. It's not out-dated, so Derek and I won't need or want to do any renovations in there right away. The downstairs has a half bath with a shower drain already installed. Getting a shower stall and fixtures installed down there for the girls to use will be fairly high on our priority list.

Basement

When you get to the bottom of the stairs, this is what you see... a totally 70's rec room! It's absolutely huge, and Derek desperately wants to get a pool table for it! Until I relent, it's going to be the main living area for the kids.

This is the wet bar. I see it as being the kids' kitchen. You can fit a full-sized refrigerator behind there, so I think that would be a good idea. They can take care of their own dishes and such right there in the sink!

I only included this picture because we've been joking about having an indoor pool. Behind the blue wall is actually the cistern for our water. Our top priority for the house is changing the furnace over from oil to wood/electric, and getting this water storage outside. Derek is thinking about making this area his workout room once we do that. I'll be glad just to have the humidity level in the house drop!

This is the one of the bedrooms in the basement. It's fairly small, but a twin bed and such will easily fit in there.

This is the last bedroom in the house. It's a mirror image of the other one in the basement. We will need to set up bunkbeds in one of these rooms eventually so that they can be shared.