Boydster thanks again for all of your sdvice.
I'm using a 6.5 gallon pale as a fermenter, so I really can't see whether krausen has peaked. Because of using a pale, I've been using air lock activity to judge what's happening and to justify opening the lid to take a specific gravity reading, not wanting to get nasty germs inside. I initially pitched yeast on Saturday, and I saw 4 hours of air lock activity on Monday morning. I convinced myself that I should open the fermenter and take a reading. There were definite signs that hrausen had happened, most of the foam has fallen back. My specific gravity reading this AM was 1.024 @ 70 degrees wort temp (1.025 corrected for temp). My original gravity was 1.054 @ 72 degrees, that's wort temp in the hydrometer vial (1.055 correct for temp). My recipe had OG = 1.069 and FG = 1.015. I'm not buying the recipe OG because the grain bill for this recipe is light malt extract. I've looked at similar recipes and they say OG closer to 1.058 to 1.050, so I'm in that range. My recipe says that fermentation should take 2 weeks (it's only been about 2.5 days), so I'm going to give it the full 2 weeks and see what happens. If you have more advice, please reply! I've only been homebrewing for about one year. Just trying all sorts of recipes, and boy do they behave differently.