And Sometimes That's Okay

Despite my need for things to be symmetrical and my ducks to be neatly in a row, sometimes things get thrown out of whack for a reason. I do wholeheartedly believe that everything happens for a reason.

Today, a day earlier than planned we held the launch party for Melissa's first book "2-At-A-Time-Socks". It was suppose to be tomorrow, but when the weekend forecasts started coming in and snow/sleet/freezing rain along with high winds appeared to be more than just a prediction, we decided we had to make a very, very tough call. We know we disappointed some folks who simply could not come today. I am sorry beyond words. Given that we're a week from Christmas, the year-end sale, New Year's and Melissa's travel schedule, we really had no choice.

Thank you to everyone who came - what a GREAT day! It's been well documented that I truly love events, it's my background and my passionate. TODAY.WAS.AWESOME. We had a great turnout, our team did an incredible job, especially Mary and Karen! You guys truly rock. Everyone working in the store was great, LA thanks for the help, Sharlene - your floral arrangements were stunning and Linda we love your wine!

Then there was Melissa. As nervous as you were, as stressful the change was - YOU WERE INCREDIBLE! Great, great job! Fun was had by all!

We gave Melissa gifts:

There were others, but in the craziness of the day no photographs and trust me, the other chickens were way cooler, but mine, not so complex, but so from the heart.

The most wonderful shot of the day is this:

An Omie with her granddaughter, at her first book launch, surrounded by yarn, good friends, family. . . .doesn't get any better than this. (Not to mention, the darling GD was not happy until in said Omie's arms - only a few days old and she already knows the score. Smart little girl that April is.)

I'm going to keep this short because (a) Steve is home and hungry (b) Jackson spent 6 hours at the store and even he has had enough of computer/video game and is also hungry (c) Jonathan barfed in the parking lot approximately 1 hour before the event and (d) well, it's Saturday night, it's been a week.

I have to apologize for the photos. I left my memory card in my home computer (bad blogger). Fortunately, Petey, our Ops Mgr (read - they guy in charge of making sure you get your mail orders) suggested "the camera" we use for yarn photography. The camera is high end and definitely smelled the fear in me. Being reduced to "point and click" did not make the camera happy whatsoever.

I have a very important and overdue link I'll blog tomorrow and I"m also going to pull something from Melissa's blog. I will also update the links here, but seriously my family is about to meltdown.

Kathy

Not According to Plan

It has been a very strange week. I'm a relatively organized gal and like things to go according to plan. I'm not so rigid that I can't handle a few curve balls now and again, but too much at one time can sort of send me over the edge. I have not worked a full day at the store in 8 days and nothing has really gone according to plan for the following reasons:

1. Steve was on jury duty from last Wednesday until Tuesday of this week. It was a very difficult deliberation with an outcome he is not happy about. He did his civic duty and did it well. For me though, let me just say, it's not easy being Steve. Despite the fact that we work together, live together and spend A Lot of time together, there are things that we don't talk about, things he's doing or working on that I don't necessarily know about. Normally this is not an issue - I trust Steve has his responsibilities under control as he does with me. It does become a problem when Steve is suddenly, unexpectedly unavailable for 8 hours per day for 5 days.

2. I spent five hours here at home on Friday afternoon waiting for the "Geek Squad" to come an install Steve's Hanukkah surprise. I waited and waited and waited and waited. Go ahead, guess what happend. They didn't show. I was beside myself. I couldn't even be angry I was so upset. Steve is impossible to buy for and I rarely get to surprise him. The kids were totally in on this and we had all pinky-swore not to spill the beans. They held up their end of the deal, as did I. We were sneaky, we were stealth. He had no idea. It was the perfect plan - I even had a big bow already to adorn said installed gift. Instead, three said faces showed Steve the box, with the gift in it, uninstalled. Needless to say it went back the next day and never again shall I shop at Best Buy. I'll spare you all the gorey details - all I know is that we treated our customers the way I was treated, you would all refuse to shop with us again too. I went to another store purchased a replacement gift, had the electrician here this morning (our own electrician this time - he is definitely NOT a geek). We take the gift out of the box, we are all excited and then as Steve is admiring the bells and whistles, we realize that something is missing. We realize - THEY GAVE ME THE WRONG ITEM. I paid for item X and they gave me item Y and item X has more features than item Y. Next year he's getting underwear for Hanukkah.

3. Jackson's "possibly" broken finger turns out to be broken with a "displaced chip". We went from the pediatrician, to the hospital for x-rays and then onto an orthopedic for an evaluation. All turned out well in the end, but as the ped was explaining that "if" it was chipped and "if" it was displaced, it could result in his finger growing strangely without further "treatment" (he never said the "S" word, but it was screaming in my head) all I could think of was that we had waited five days to have it looked at and what terrible parents we were. Again, all is well. The chip is already healing. The only downside - no hockey until after New Year's.

4. Tuesday evening - 3am - Jonathan comes into our room crying, saying his belly is upset. I said "do you think you're going to throw up" and he says "yes". As I start to tell him to get to the bathroom he instead decides our bedroom floor is a better option. I'll spare you the details, but trust me when I say this was not a good situation. Two days at home with "barf boy" was not on this week's schedule.

5. There is a very big snow storm currently hitting us. Jonathan was already home sick as mentioned above, so the timing was actually pretty good for this one. It's actually quite beautiful outside right now.

6. Unfortunately, the next storm is not nearly timed as well. It is scheduled to hit here Saturday night into Sunday and is expected to be an even stronger storm than we are experiencing today. This is a major problem, because we were scheduled to have Melissa Morgan-Oakes HUGE launch party for her book this Sunday. WE HAVE CHANGED THE DATE!! If you are registered or thinking about coming - DO NOT COME ON SUNDAY! The new date is this SATURDAY 12/15 from 1-3pm. This should get everyone on the road and home safely long before the first flake floats down. Melissa will be there, the book will be there, yummy food and beverages will be available. Super special giveaways will be up for grabs! Plus, you know you need a project to work on during the snowstorm on Sunday! Don't let Melissa down - this is her first book! I'm expecting to see you all Saturday - this Saturday at 1pm!!

On the knitting front, I can't say much since the projects are gifts and I'm not sure if the recipients tune in here regularly. Here's a couple of sneak peeks:

(NOTE - Both of these pictures came out terribly. Especially the first one which is a to-die-for beautiful yarn.)

The time at home also gave me the chance to accomplish this:

I'll leave you with this:

Coming out of the hospital this week, Jackson was mesmerized by the beauty of this tree. Gotta love that kid.

Kathy

P.S. Blogger will not let me upload my pictures. This is so perfect. . .

P.P.S. Blogger has now decided to cooperate :)