I'm Finally Back!!!!!

It's been FOREVER since I blogged and it's been driving me nuts!! The month of October was a very stressful month because I was worrying so much about the election!! (for good reason) I can't really pinpoint what happened after the election. The boys and I did school until the Thursday before Thanksgiving week. We always take off from the Thursday before until sometime in January. Unfortunately, this will be Logan's last year to do that with us!
The weekend before Thanksgiving I put up all my Christmas stuff!!! I love having the trees and lights up. I love looking at them and enjoying the sparkle and sentimental ornaments, etc. Every year since Logan was born my parents have bought them special ornaments. Their first 5 Christmases they got them Hallmark ornaments. They've gotten some from Branson or ornaments that represent something they love doing.
For example, Logan got a Thomas the Tank Engine ornament and Kelby got a Percy ornament. Logan took a paint pen and wrote "Buzz" on his ornment. He went by Buzz Lightyear during his Kindergarten year. I was so angry when he did that. Now every year I pull it out, apologize for fussing at him about it, and get a chuckle out of it!!

I'm not going to go on and on tonight. I just wanted to get my feet wet again!! I've missed blogging a lot and I promise not to let this happen again.

Next time there will be lots of Christmas and knitting content!! I'll also talk a bit about the "knitting" group I've started!!

Knit On and more later!!
Shama D

Not Another Manic Monday

I don't hate Mondays...It's the day we start back to our school week. I know the boys would prefer to play XBox Live all day, but I love our school time together. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, but every day with my boys is a good day!!!

Last Thursday was a particularly long school day for us. We all overslept and started school very late. I decided that we all need to get up a little earlier. So I got on up at 6:30 this morning, did my usual things and got on the bicycle. My plan is to be ready to start when Chuck leaves for work about 9.

On Friday, Chuck and the boys cleaned up all the fallen branches from Ike out of our back yard. Now the trash sitting on our curb waiting to be picked up, whenever that might be.



We just had a very relaxing weekend at home.

Mostly, I've just got knitting to talk about. I started a teddy bear for my youngest nephew. I knit one for his brother along with a box full of knitted things before he was born. But my brother and SIL got pregnant the second time when their older one was 7 months old. This poor baby has only gotten a blanket from me. I found a really cute bear in Son of SnB. The one in the book is called Deady Bear. It's really gross because it's a teddy being stung to death by a bee. But I'm going to knit eyes instead of x's and no bee or pool of blood!! I'm knitting him out of Bernat Camouflage in Baby Camo. I'm trying to find a good contrast yarn for the tummy and muzzle.

While I was at Hobby Lobby I found some red, white, and blue yarn in I Love This Yarn. We're all going to have hats for the election. (Even though we'll vote early)

The next thing I have OTN (on the needles) is the red and black fair isle skull cap from Sonf of SnB for Logan. I haven't gotten very far on it.

The last thing is the Invisibility Cloak from Charmed Knits in a chenille yarn I got at an alpaca farm. It's a lightweight yarn. I started it for a friend of mine that's getting married. I'm really not sure what I'm going to do with it yet.

The other thing I have going on is I've started a knitting group for ladies at church. I only have one confirmed for tonight. I only sent out the email after worship yesterday morning so hopefully we can get more people there next month.

Knit On and more later!!
Shama D

I feel like such a slacker!!

I really plan to blog a few times a week, but a lot of times I don't. Getting back into the swing of school has taken a while. It seems like at the beginning we take a lot longer than I'd like, but we eventually get it better organized. Not to say that we don't have our long days, but...One of the great things about homeschooling is that we start when we start. I like to start by 9:30 or 10:00. This year all 3 of us are riding the bicycle and the boys are lifting weights before we start. I think that's necessary, but it can cause a bit of a later start. Today was the best we've done so far. The only thing is that I messed up and don't have all the parts of my history yet, so we still have to add that in. Have I mentioned how much I love homeschooling my boys??

Last weekend was very busy and lots of neat things happened. On Friday afternoon the boys and I went to Lufkin. Some people where my parents worship had rented a place and did a show they call Branson in Lufkin. Several people performed mostly country music. It was pretty enjoyable. One girl sang a song about her baby - I was crying my eyes out!! (thank goodness the lights were down) Then Logan leaned over and asked if it was because he's a senior and I lost it some more. Right at the halfway point they did a tribute to the military. They had called wives of men who'd been in the military and requested a picture of them during their active duty. Of course there was a picture of my Daddy. I cried all over again. Then a boy sang that song called "Where Were You When the World Stood Still?" I'm sure I was a mess. My brother, his wife and their boys came up as well. It was a nice night. However, last week my brother fell off a ladder at his work and really messed up his knee. He's on crutches and everything. He's been to a specialist twice, but they haven't found out anything definitive.
Here's my favorite picture from Friday night:

These two are always full of something!!!

Logan is so good with Kaden!! Actually, both my boys are really good with little kids and babies!! That makes me really proud!!
I also got a picture of my Daddy and brother. The shirt Daddy's wearing is one I did for him when I was going through my shirt painting phase in the 90's:


We went back to Mom and Daddy's and relaxed for a while. I got to bed very late, however.

The next morning at 5 Mom and I got up and got ready to go to Austin for the Knit Out. It's only one of the two times I can get together every year with a big bunch of my LSSK girls. This year was so awesome!!! It's always so much fun, but this year seemed extra special. I got to see several people that I've been with in person several times and that I love very much. I also got to meet in person a few people that I've grown to love online. I got some knitting done, a LOT of talking, a few pictures, and a good meal!! Not to mention a really good frap from Borders! It was an awesome day!!

It's taken me far too long to type this up, so I'm going to post and try to get better at posting more often and faster.

Knit On and more later!!
Shama D

Now What??

Now that I'm finished chronicling my Italy trip, what can I possibly blog about that can even compare. Don't get me wrong, I love my life, but it's not something anyone would tune in to read about daily.

Today was our first day back to school since Ike. Since we were at my parents last Monday and came back Tuesday we weren't settled enough to have a day of school. And since we only have school Monday through Thursday, I don't like to start on any day but Monday, if we can help it. So we had our first week of school then a week off. But like I said before, I'm in no hurry for this year to be over. Today we did our usual stuff but when we did Biology I pulled some of our human body books off the shelf and we looked at some of the body systems to supplement what's in our text book. I swear, we could probably spend a very long time on the human body. The circulatory system alone is amazing!! It all just continues to prove to me that God is and He is the creator of it all!!!!

It's kind of like when we started this history progam several years ago. I could have spent years on Egyptology alone. I didn't realize how quickly we would be in our last year and trying to finish it all up!!

There are still lots of people I know that don't have power. It's been tough for them all. Why were we so fortunate that ours came back on the 2nd day?? Tonight, Jasen, Chuck's assistant manager came over after they closed the store and ate dinner with us. He is one still without power. But he heard that they are trying to get everyone up and running by Thursday!! I hope so!! But, on the good side, I know people further south who came through with little or no damage or not as much as you would have thought. But I also know other's possessions were wiped out. I feel so sorry for them.

But to put it all into perspective, there's a couple I know who went to the hospital for the 2nd time last week to have their baby. For some reason her doctor let her go 2 weeks past. When her full-term baby was born she wasn't alive. Both of their families are devastated. Their having her funeral tomorrow!! It's such a horrible tragedy.

On a much lighter note:Knitting...
I don't really have much to report in the way of knitting progress. I'm still working on the 2nd jumper and I hope to have the main part done by tomorrow. I'd like to take them to the Knit Out with me this Saturday. I found a hat pattern and as soon as I saw it I knew that it needed to be worn by our preacher's 2 year old daughter. It will be fast and cute!! I can't wait to see it on her! If I can get the jumpers completed, I'll get that started and done quickly.
Here's the pattern:
Issue 57 – Daisy Chapeau
I'm not sure what color I should use. I usually don't use the color in the pattern, but this green is awfully cute!! But pink, purple, or blue would be awesome, too! I'll let you know my decision by the end of the week and hopefully some progress by the weekend.
Hopefully my next entry will be more interesting to read...

Knit On and More Later,
Shama D

Ike and Knitting

As I said yesterday, my family made it through the hurricane pretty much unscathed. Here's the rest of the story...I was keeping an eye on the hurricane all last week. It started off with us on the extreme west side. Then we were smack dab in the middle. Last Wednesday morning I checked the Weather channel before we started school and we were on the extreme east side of the projected path. By the end of school that day I checked again and it had turned back and we were back in the middle of the projected path. My immediate thought was to get out. Wednesday night was the first Bible class of the new quarter and I'm teaching the 2 year olds this time so we went on to Bible class. We got to the church building early to make copies of a picture for the kids to color. Of course, people were discussing the hurricane, so I was listening to what they were saying. No one had any plans to leave. Of course, no one said I shouldn't leave. They were just giving their own reasons. Between that and what was being said on the news we decided to stay. The evacuations were being done by area, starting at Galveston and going north. They started talking about strength of hurricanes and how far north you should evacuate for each category of storm. Up to a category 5 we don't have to evacuate. That makes me feel better. And since the mayors of Galveston (Lyda Ann Thomas) and Houston (Bill White) did such a fantastic job evacuating and staying/and keeping everyone calm things were SO much better than when Rita hit. I'm so proud of our area because you never hear of looting, vandalism, blaming when things like that happen here!!!
Friday afternoon the wind began picking up like a thunderstorm was coming. I saw people out in our street. Kids were holding tarps or something and letting them fly out behind them like a cape. After dark our electricity started blinking off and on. Logan decided that the XBox needed to be turned off so that it wouldn't get the red ring of death. Also the satellite receiver would have to restart every time. I wasn't ready to turn the TV off for so many reasons. I wanted to watch the weather and I also wanted to keep some noise going. We'd kept our cell phones and Zunes charged. I fell asleep sometime after 1 on the couch, but I was up less than 2 hours later. The wind was whipping around outside. I don't know if it was real or my imagination, but it sounded like it was going in a circle. Everyone else in my house slept through most of it. I just sat here with a candle burning and knitting on an intarsia pocket for the little jumper I'm working on. I call it my hurricane pocket. The storm went on for several hours. I finally settled back down once the sun came up, but I never really went back to sleep. We finally took our frozen meat out of the deep freeze and put it in coolers. I had to work to get all the ice out of the deep freeze before it melted all over the laundry room. Once that was done I was finally able to sleep. I slept really hard for a couple of hours or so. All we had were some downed limbs and lots of pine cones and pine straw. Also the fence between our house and our neighbor's finally fell. That fence has been rotten and falling apart for years but they've refused to fix it. Now they'll have to if they want to sell it. By that evening we decided to pack up and go to my parents until we got power back. My parents had also lost power (2 hours northeast) but they got their's back the next afternoon. (Plus, they were connected to their neighbor's generator). Sunday night we called our house and our answering machine picked up.
Chuck came back home Monday morning. He was asked to check out several Mattress Firms on his was to see what/if any damage had been done. None of those stores had any damage. The biggest problem he had was getting gas. He stopped at a Walmart gas station and had to wait in line for 3 hours to get gas!!!!!!
My parents brought the boys and me back home on Tuesday. Costco and the Walmart nearest us were both shut down. I was able to get some milk. Yesterday we were able to get what we needed at Costco (milk and frozen food) and then we went to Walmart and got most of the rest. Walmart had almost no frozen or cold foods on the shelves. There was some milk.
We didn't have Bible class Wednesday night because there was no power at the church building. But it's back up now and we'll have Bible class and worship Sunday morning.
This whole thing has been so strange. But I'm thankful things are starting to get back to normal up here. Of course, my prayers are with all of those south of us who were hit so much harder!!

Knitting:
I've been working on Anouk ( knitty.com ) for my friend's newborn baby girl and the baby they're adopting that they'll have within the next month or two. This is a fun little knit. It's a little jumper that is not seamed up, but left open to wear a onesie or top and pants under. I'm about halfway through the second jumper. This time I'm knitting front and back at the same time.
Here's Rosemary's:


Here's the Hurricane pocket:


Here's what I've done so far on Maya's:


I also knit a miniature Christmas sweater ornament while I was at my parents. This is a super-quick knit. Probably just an hour or two.


Well, That's all for today. Tomorrow I plan to tell a bit about the people were with in Italy. What a great group of people!!!

Knit On and More Later,
Shama D

Second Sunday in Italy and Hurricane Ike

On the second Sunday in Italy we were still staying in Rome. This Sunday morning we got up, went down to breakfast, got on the bus, and Maurizio took us to the church building. I think this time he was able to drop us off right there. There were many places on the trip that he had to drop us off and we had to walk the rest of the way or we finished a tour and had to keep walking to meet him. The main reason was that the bus wasn't allowed everywhere. I think it was because of how narrow the streets were. As a matter of fact, there were some cities, including Florence, that we had to stop and get a permit to drive a bus in that city. Those permits cost money. In those cities there are businesses that pay for those permits, so it's a stop on our tours each day. When we stopped at the cameo place in Pompeii it was because they paid for our bus pass.
Anyway...We got to worship pretty early that morning. The little church building was pretty neat looking, but it was a small building. This building had pews instead of the miserable chairs in Trieste. It also had window units that they used.



The preacher at this congregation is one that we help support. And we helped support his Father-in-law until he passed away. Now we send some money to his widow because if you preach in Italy but you aren't Catholic you are not recognized as employed, so she has NO money to live on. This particular congregation has been in their building since the 50's. They could sell this building and make millions of Euros, but they still wouldn't have enough to buy another place. Real estate in Rome is ridiculous!!!! Several members of this congregation were related to one another. Once again, these brethren were very sweet and friendly. They had a guest book they call "The Book of Life". They pass it around to visitors and we all signed it and put down where we were from. This book has been around for many years. Once again we sang in Italian and, once again, the fruit of the vine was real wine!!! GOOD GRIEF!!! After worship we stayed around and visited for a while. In a bit we walked down the street to this really neat restaurant. It was a very cool (as in temperature) place. So I really didn't mind staying. However, the room we were in was long and very narrow. I went on down to the end of the table and ended up being separated from the adults. I really liked the kids I sat with, but I felt like I was being antisocial. I couldn't understand the menu and some the people with us were helping, but I was too tired to ask for help. I even dozed off with my chin in my hands. I ended up getting a calzone that really wasn't good. But that was the very least of the meal. They brought out plate after plate of meats and cheeses (including fresh mozzarella!!!!!!) We weren't charged for any of that. We stayed there for about 3 hours. From there we started walking - and walking - and walking...My stupid blister started coming back...Needless to say, I was not a happy camper - AGAIN. We ended up back at the Colosseum. It was amazing from the outside - again. From that point it seemed a bit more tolerable. We passed a really neat statue of Julius Caesar.

If you'll notice at the bottom of the statue are the letters SPQR. We actually had that when we were studying Latin a few years ago. I couldn't remember what it stood for. It took Logan a bit to remember the Latin saying, but he remembered what it meant.
Senatus PopulusQue Romanus - The Senate and People of Rome. It really made me feel good that it had stuck with Logan all this time!!! We saw that everywhere in Rome - even on man hole covers:

Once again we walked through the streets and they were very hot and crowded. We came through a street and suddenly we saw this:

This is the Trevi Fountain. It is absolutely breathtaking!!!! I didn't get very many pictures and they aren't as good as I would have liked. But we were supposed to go back after we ate dinner and get pictures after dark. Unfortunately, we didn't go back. The fountain is really lit up at night.
We finally got to our last restaurant in Italy. It was probably my favorite. It was called:

We stood around outside for a while. While we were waiting we decided to look at the menu. (Even though our meals were pre-planned just for us) Here's what the salad page looked like:

There were pictures all over the walls in this restaurant of people like Dean Martin and Audrey Hepburn. I took pictures of their pictures! We weren't all that hungry because of how recently we'd had lunch. I did eat some of the food, but I mostly enjoyed the atmosphere. We were all exhausted, but we laughed and enjoyed our last evening together.
After we left we started walking again. (It was getting dark but I was still sweating like a pig.) We all walked to Hard Rock Cafe'. It looked so much like the ones in the US, but we still enjoyed it. We walked around and took pictures. I felt a little awkward walking among the paying customers, so I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked. But I was able to get quite a few. Here's one of my favorites - I imagine Kelli's too!!!

Here's one of Logan's

It was a really neat place. Oh, yeah, I almost forgot...We were right across the street from the American Embassy:

After HRC we split up. Some of our group went back to the hotel, the rest continued sight-seeing. It was too expensive to sight-see independently in Rome because you either had to take a bus, subway, or taxi back to the hotel. On top of which, I am very uncomfortable on public transportation. I won't even take a city bus in Houston downtown for jury duty. And, I was so afraid of getting lost and not finding my way back to where we were supposed to be. On top of which, I was so exhausted every night, that I was more than ready to get back to the hotel, take a shower, and rest. We also wanted to get all of our stuff packed up and ready to go very early on Monday.

Obviously, we made it through Ike in one piece. It could have been so much worse. However, I feel like I've written too much for one reading. I'll go in to more detail tomorrow.

Knit On and More Later,
Shama D

Third Day of School and Pompeii

Well, today was our third day of school. This is the same time we started last year. We still get off from the Friday before Thanksgiving until after the first of the year. And we finish up by the middle of April. This is bittersweet for me. I absolutely love homeschooling my boys and being home with them everyday. Coming into the school room and closing the door (to keep the dog in) feels so right to me. We're in our special room, just the 3 of us and all's right with the world. But this is the last year I'll be homeschooling my Logan. He's a senior!! No one asked me if growing up was OK. It was never part of the plan!! At least I'll still have 3 more years with my Kelby. At the end of the year we'll have a graduation blow-out at home for Logan. There will be a lot of preparation for this throughout the year. I have some very special things I want to knit for him. Plus, I'd love to get him a new guitar.

On to Pompeii...Pompeii was our last big outing in Italy. It was on Saturday before we left early Monday morning. Let me go back to the day I found out Pompeii was one of our destinations. We had gotten a list of places and I was reading throught the list. When I came to Pompeii I screamed like I was at a Rick Springfield concert!!! I have just found the whole story of Pompeii so fascinating - sad, but fascinating. I had an idea of what I thought it would look like. I figured everything would be totally flattened. Just rubble lying around everywhere. It was still very exciting to me. Our trip up there was a lot of fun. We had bus ride from Rome to Pompeii that ws 150 miles. That trip was a lot of fun. For several days we had been making playlists on our Zunes and iPods and they were being played on the bus's stereo system. Logan took mine up front. It started off being down too low so no one heard my first song - the best song ever - "Jessie's Girl"!!! In a few minutes "Love Song" by Sara Bareilles came on and everyone wanted it turned up and started singing at the top of their voices. The boys next to me, Kent and Jeremy, started acting crazy!! They had us laughing our heads off!! Here's are 2 videos:
Kent and Jeremy getting down to Love Song on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
More Kent and Jeremy getting down to Love Song on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
I told you, these were the best people!! So much fun!! I am so ready to go on another trip with this exact same group!! (like that could ever happen)
Anyway, before we went on our tour of Pompeii we ate lunch. It was some of the best pizza I've ever eaten!! It was big (and not too cheap) so I bought one to split with Logan. I cut out a slice and gave him the rest. The plan was to let him eat all he wanted and I would eat what was left. Guess what?? There wasn't any left!! Mike practically forced me to eat some of his. I don't know if he was really full or if he felt sorry for me!! But I ate a slice of his, too!!
All week there had been talk about how this was going to be the hottest day of all!! I was really dreading that part. It turned out not to be as bad as I expected. I don't know if it was because I was so excited or if it was a bit cooler than expected. (cooler - not hotter than any other day)
Our tour guide was an older man who had been giving tours in Pompeii for several years. The really neat thing about him, aside from his outstanding personality, was that he had worked on a dig in Pompeii for a year in the late 50's. He knew what he was talking about!!! I was completely surprised at how much is still standing!!! Temples, stores, a bakery, houses, even the whore house!! The first big thing we saw was the Temple of Apollo.

Apollo shooting arrows

Diana facing Apollo
The next big thing we saw that day was a warehouse-type building where they store items as they are excavated. About 30% of Pompeii is still buried. This building had a lot of pottery, tables, statues, and other decorative items. There were also plaster casts of people and animals who died when the volcano erupted. The most interesting were a 17 year old pregnant girl who was lying on her stomach to protect her unborn baby:

And a dog that was tied to a wall and it balled up to protect itself:

As we walked along the cobblestone streets (one of the most difficult places to walk) there were so many small things to see that really stuck in my mind. For example, we saw some piece of broken marble. This is one that our tour guide referred to as the first Lego:

Pompeii was a very advanced city. They had running water. Unfortunately, the water ran through lead pipes. They had baths - cold. hot, and steam. I don't know how they accomplished that. We got to walk through the baths. In the first bath we came across a dog asleep on the floor. There are dogs all over Pompeii. Apparently these homeless dogs come in to Pompeii every morning and leave every night. One poor dog got up and walked off and he was SOOOOO skinny!! It made you want to cry! One of the next things we saw was a house. There was an opening where the front door used to be. There are partial walls, a fountain:

There was even a garden area. The houses in Pompeii apparently had up to 60 rooms in them. As we were leaving this house there were several dog asleep against the wall. Tempestt had a reputation for sleeping every time she sat down on the bus. They told her to sit down with the dogs and pretend she was asleep:


The next big thing we went through was the red light district. At the beginning and the end of the district were phallic symbols - one on a wall and one on the street. We actually walked through the whore house. There were several rooms. On the wall outside each room was a painting. These paintings were VERY graphic that showed what each girl's "specialty" was. I was amazed at how graphic it was and how the paintings were still so clear. After this we were headed for the Temple of Jupiter. It was a big open area. It was very attractive. There were lots of marble columns. There were columns on the ground and columns on top of those. This had been two stories.

This was basically the end of our tour. And my description is very abbreviated. While we were standing in Jupiter's Temple we got to visit with our tour guide. He told us about when he was working on the dig almost 50 years ago. They had found a metal box. They had a special oil they put on the hinges so that the boxes wouldn't fall apart. When they opened the box it was full of coins!!!! He asked his foreman if he could have one for a memento. He was told that it all belonged to the Italian government. At the end of his year his foreman came up to him and told him again that he couldn't give him a coin, but he had gift for him. They had uncovered a red cameo of a Roman soldier's head. He had it mounted in a ring. I was so excited that I wanted to squeal!!!!

It was in the the Temple of Jupiter that we got several group shots...It was then that I began to realize how much I was going to miss everyone. There were 3 girls that stayed together (2 of them had strep) and they had were from Alabama. I realized I was going to miss hearing them talk and laugh, and their cute accents.

Allison, Jennifer, and Emily. They were so sweet, despite their strep throat. They laughed and talked and were so sweet to everyone. Jennifer is getting married in November. I certainly wish I could see them on a regular basis.
In my next post I'll tell a bit more about our group.
Our tour guide told us that there were actually 3 different tours of Pompeii. I was more than willing to stay and go through the other two. Despite the heat and cobblestone streets, I could have stayed in Pompeii ALL day!!
After we left Pompeii we went to a shop that made cameos. We got to watch a demonstration of a cameo being made. The old man that did the demonstration had been making them for over 50 years. His hands were distorted from the work and the way he holds his tools. The cameos were beautiful and I found a couple I would loved to have owned.
That night we ended up back in Rome at another restaurant. This was such a cute little restaurant. I can't remember what we ate, but I do remember our waiter. He was absolutely hysterical. He started picking at the kids. He fed several of them including Logan. For some reason I was having a hard time getting pictures. Here is one of him next to Logan after feeding him one bite and waiting to feed him another:

Tomorrow I will post about our last day in Rome and in Italy.

Since I last posted I've done a good bit of knitting. I did a pair of socks for my Olympic knitting. I started them the day of the Opening Ceremony and finished them the night before the Closing Ceremony.

I think I'll save the other things I've been working on for another day. Tomorrow I will finish up our Italy trip.
Prayers for all of us that are in the path of Hurrican Ike!! I pray that is weakens and turns from the Texas coast!

Knit On and More Later!!
Shama D

Friday in Italy with a Little Knitting Content

The night before last I finished a pair of socks. I received the yarn for my birthday over a year and a half ago from my parents. It's Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock yarn in Mixed Berry. I had a hard time coming up with a pattern and there always seems to be something else to knit first. But before we left for Italy I started back on them. I knitted on them and finished the first one in Italy. I started the second one while we were there. I was determined to finish the second one (along with Kelby's blanket) before my online knitting group starts our Llympics at 7 am in the morning. I've finally decided that I'm going to use Knit Picks Essentials in the Peacock Multi colorway. It's a purple, turquoise, and green yarn. I'm going to do the Hourglass Eyelets from More Sensational Knitted Socks. Interestingly, my friend, Alice, sent out her daily patterns today and there was a pair of peacock feathers sock in this exact yarn!!




Friday in Rome was a turning point for me. The day off had really helped my foot. The blister was still there, but doing much better!!! I keep forgetting to tell about the graffiti in Rome. You have this amazing historical, yet very modern city and everything is covered with graffiti. It's such a shame. One of the tour guides told us that as soon as they power wash it off, it's right back on that same night. I didn't see any on any of the historical sites, but I don't know why. Anyway, Friday was made up of two main parts. The first part of the day we went to Vatican City. Vatican City is the smallest country in the world. It's surrounded by walls. We walked in and up a fairly high flight of stairs. Once again we had to go through security and screening to get into the visitors center. There were a huge number of people there. Our tour guide, Gloria, told us that earlier that morning three cruise ships had docked and all come into Vatican City at once. There were over 10,000 people there at that time. We were lucky we came later!!! Gloria gave us a little history and then she took us into a fairly narrow hall. This hall was full of statues, paintings, and tapestries. There were some beautiful things in there. We tried to keep our group together as we walked and marveled. One of the first things we saw was actually Egyptian statues:

I was especially enthralled with all the marble. Even the floor we walked on was a beautiful shiny marble. This next picture is of a painting. I thought these were 3D, but they were just painted to look like that. This is not the best picture, but:


While we were walking we heard a loud bang behind us. My first thought was that someone had gone past the ropes and knocked a statue over. However, there was a teenage girl with another group that either passed out or was having a seizure. She hit that marble floor and wasn't even able to catch herself. Darrin knealt down and was trying to do what he could. It was a minute before anyone from her group did anything. That was scary!!

Anyway, we kept walking down this hall, occasionally we would go through doors into another part of the hall. There were tapestries that told stories and maps. It was such a treat. If I'd taken all the pictures I should have, I'd probably have doubled the number I actually took. As we were going down this hall, we were actually heading to the Sistine Chapel. The Sistine Chapel was very crowded and not as big as I expected. It had beautiful frescos all over the chapel. I thought the ceiling was one big painting, but it was a series of frescos from creation through the New Testament. They were breathtaking. But like everything else we did, it was very hot and very crowded. That made it hard to really soak it all up.
One of the funny/ annoying things about the Sistine Chapel is that they didn't want us to talk in there. Needless to say, everyone was talking. There were these guys whose job was to shush everyone. I was wondering what kind of resume' you needed for that job. "I've shushed people at the movies since 1984." "I've been a church shusher since I was a kid." "You've got the job!!!"
The last place we went in Vatican City was St Peter's Basilica. It was full of statues. It seemed like we walked around in there forever.
When we walked out we were in this big square and our tour guide showed us where the Pope's apartments are.
After lunch Lara took us on a tour of Rome. It was another walking tour. While it was very hot, it was one of the most amazing days for me. We walked through this one square that was full of artists of all sorts. There were painters and musicians. Lots of people were walking around looking and buying. One of the neatest conveniences in Rome were these water fountains that just run water all the time. You could put your water bottle under it and get very cold water!!!! Or you could put your finger on the spout and redirect it out the top of the spout. They call it drinking from the nose. Here's Logan drinking from the nose:

This was another one of those days where you'd round a corner and find something truly amazing. For example we came upon this ancient and very worn statue right on a corner. Underneath the statue were all these pieces of paper stuck to the wall. It's a place where people put up complaints about the government - and always have:

After walking and looking we were about to get a big block of free time. Lara took us to another square that had a really neat fountain in the center and stairs all around. It was a great place to sit (once the sun moved). But the most amazing part of this particular square was the Pantheon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Pantheon was built to honor all the Roman gods. It's also one of the cooler places we went. Logan and I spent a lot of our free time in there. First we walked around and looking. It's not very big. One of the most interesting things is that there's a hole in the ceiling. So when it rains, it rains in the Pantheon.

There are drains on the floor for when that happens. This was also the only place I had Logan take a picture of me knitting. I was nearly finished with the first sock and I was enjoying knitting right in the Pantheon in the middle of Rome, Italy!!!!!!!!!!!

After we sat in there for a while we walked around outside and looked at the Pantheon from the side and back. I must admit that I was not very adventurous. I didn't want to go off exploring because I was horrified that we wouldn't be able to find our way back and meet the group! Our group started meeting back up and sitting on the steps of the fountain. When most of them had returned I took a picture:

While I was taking this picture, the cutest British boy walked up and offered to take a picture with me in it. I accepted. Before he walked off he told us about a big 4th of July party they were having. We already had dinner reservations, but I thought that was so cool!
From this area we started walking back to our bus. But before our tour was over, we went to a really pitiful place called the Ghetto. It's the area where all the Jewish people live. The really sad part is that most of the Jews that lived there during WWII were hauled off to Germany and killed. It took a long time for this area to repopulate. It seems that even to this day, they pretty much keep to themselves. The history was interesting, but it really made me so sad. There are several pictures of this area in my Flickr album.
Italy - a set on Flickr
As it began to get dark that night we got back on our bus and met up with yet another tour guide who took us on a night tour of Rome. It was really neat. It was, however, difficult to get pictures because they came out blurry. I did get a few very short videos of the outside of the Colosseum.
One of the funniest things we saw that day were two signs outside a restaurant:


Tomorrow I'll be talking about our last big day of touring. It was the day I was most excited about.

Knit On and More Later
Shama D

Before I talk about Italy, I want to talk a little about my knitting. A few years ago (3 or 4) Kelby asked me to knit a blanket for him. The blanket is made up of 12 squares. All of the squares are the same pattern and even the same yarn. The only difference is the way I combined the colors. The yarn is Crayon 100% cotton boucle from Knit Picks. The colors are called "Red", "Purple", and "Blue". (I hope y'all can remember those complicated color names) The pattern is Retro Throw Pattern Free Knitting Pattern from KnitPicks.com Kelby really loves his blanket and that makes it all worthwhile. Here's the blanket:

Here's Kelby pretending to be asleep under the blanket:

While I was putting the blanket together I kept having to push Gracie off. I decided I needed to knit her a small blanket for the floor. While I was at my parents last their neighbor gave me two bags of yarn. I took 3 skeins of Lion Brand Homespun in purple and purple with other colors, mixed it with a blue and fuzzy blue yarn I already had. I used size 50 needles and got it done pretty quickly. Here's Gracie enjoying her blanket (although she still prefers to be on the couch next to one of us):



Now I'm up to Thursday in Italy. This was a bittersweet day for me. I already knew that my foot was needing a break. However, that was the day we were going to the Colosseum, the Forum, St Paul's church and the catacombs. They kept talking about how much walking would be required that day. I had already said I was going to stay behind that day. So we all got up that morning and I went down to breakfast with everyone else. That was going to be my only meal (besides some snacks that Donna shared with me) that day. While we were eating David told me that he was going to the Colosseum then catch a taxi back to the hotel to meet some of his Italy friends. He asked me if I'd like to go to the Colosseum and ride back with him. I said I would. I'm so thankful that I got to go. First, we met our tour guide, Gooyah. She began telling us things about the outside of the Colosseum. When it was first built they drilled holes and put steel rods in those holes to support the blocks used to build it. It was covered in marble. There was a war (I forgot which one) and there was no steel for making weapons, so the Roman chipped off the marble and removed the steel rods.


It has been reinforced in more modern times. It's just amazing that they would resort to defacing that amazing piece of architecture to get their metal. Next we all went into the Colosseum. In order to get in you have to go through security and have your bags go through the xray machine like at the airport. It's sad, but I'm glad security is so tight. Logan was very amused to see this:

I guess when gladiators fought and it was SRO, those outside just had to watch it on a big screen HGTV!! We finally walked in to this breathtaking structure. We went into a shaded area while she gave us more history. Everyone was sitting on, what I believe, were fallen columns!!!!! She was one of the best tour guides we had!! We got some free time to walk around and look at more. Logan and a big group of others went up some very steep stairs to the 2nd level. They walked around and got a better look and some really amazing pictures. Looking down, it looks like a maze of walls. It turns out that this was the area where the gladiators, animals, and prisoners were kept until they came up to fight. The original floor is gone because it was wooden, so of course, it rotted away.

Logan and our fearless leader, Mike:

We were all supposed to meet outside at a certain time so the rest of the group could move on to the Forum. I waited and waited for Logan. It was time to meet up outside and he was not back with me. I was pretty much falling apart. I finally went to the meeting point and Logan was already there. Mike had made him go out a different way and he wasn't able to let me know. He was as worried about it as I was about him!! After that David and I left to go back to the hotel. I was so worried about leaving Logan and so sad about missing out on so much. Not to mention missing out on time with our new friends!! I left my cell phone with Logan and had him call me a couple of times during the day to let me know he was still with the group and OK. Once I got back to the hotel I spent the rest of the day doing a number of "interesting" things. I knitted and finished reading New Moon. After a while I remembered that I had podcasts on my laptop. Even though I couldn't get internet I could listen. So I knitted and listened. It really helped the time to go faster. That was also the day I had the pleasure of hand washing some underwear and socks for me and Logan because we didn't have access to laundry!!
The next part will be Logan's version of the rest of the day: After I left they walked to the Forum. Political leaders were required to go to the Forum once a week and hear about what was going on in the government. (He's no help!! He enjoyed it, but he doesn't remember as much of the history as I do!! I love history) One picture that Logan took that day was a place called Mamertinum. I looked it up and found out something super-fascinating!! This was the prison where Peter and Paul were held:


That just blows my mind!!
The groups also visited St Paul's church. Here's a picture of the front of it. It is a beautiful building:

While they were at this church there was a baptistry. They couldn't go in, but they were looking at it through a window in the door. Inside the baptistry was some writing, maybe a scripture, it was talking about baptism by immersion. Mike was explaining to the group what it said. They tour guide asked if our group was Christians. Mike said yes, we are. Then she asked what kind. He explained a little bit - that we follow the New Testament example of worship.
Logan's favorite part of the rest of that day was the Catacombs. Unfortunately, because of all the fresco's they weren't allowed to take pictures. Logan says I would have been claustrophobic in there. It was apparently one of the coolest (temperature-wise) places they went. It is an underground burial place. People reserved spots for their families to be placed together. Logan said the tour guide for this part was hysterical!!
We were lucky with all of our tour guides. Obviously, some were better than others, but they all knew their stuff. Most of them stood out in my mind for some reason or another. I just enjoyed learning more history!!!
That night the group ate dinner out and then they were heading back to the hotel. The traffic was so terrible it took them forever to get back! Logan even called me to let me know they were coming. On the way back, Donna, took pictures of the insane driving. There was a mother on a scooter with her two children that cut in front of our huge tour bus!!!! That is how it is in Rome. And pedestrians better make sure it's totally clear before crossing the street!!! Drivers will not stop for you!! David told Logan that he's been hit by cars two different times in Italy. As a matter of fact, he has pretty severe back pain because of it!!
Once everyone got back I just about ate them up. I went down to the lobby and hung out with everybody. At night at this hotel the kids would stay in the lobby til all hours playing Mafia and other card games! They all got closer while we were staying in Rome because they had a place to all get together. It wasn't as convenient anywhere else we stayed.
I guess that's all I can tell about Thursday. Tomorrow I'll talk about our Friday.

Knit On, and More Later,
Shama D