Stomping Through Mudpuddles

New Year

2011-01-02T09:06:00.002-05:00

Hello, Blog. You know what I like about you? You're like that old high school friend. The one you haven't talked to in years, but every time you run into each other, it's like time hasn't passed at all. Let's catch up over coffee, shall we?

I'm now into my third month of doing transcription. Some days I feel like this is amazingly awesome. Granted, I'm not making a killing at doing it, but it has really done a lot for my sanity, and J's sanity, as well. He seems to be thriving more in school, even though he still maintains that he hates it. I guess when you get off to a bad start, it's hard to overcome. But my days are less pressured, his days are less stressful, and we get to spend a lot of time together, which is something that was severely lacking before with all the craziness. It feels like we can breathe again, and every other word out of my mouth isn't "hurry up" or "we're late" or "let's go." I'll take the loss in pay, because what I have gained is priceless.

So, it's a new year. 2011. I'll refrain from all the 'where has the time gone' crap. I think 2010 pretty much sucked a big one, and I'm not the least bit sad to see it go. Sure, good things did happen in 2010, but I'm eager for this new start. Yes, I realize it's just a day, and nothing really starts fresh and new on January 1. There's no reset button that wipes the slate clean each 365th day, but let me enjoy my little delusion for a moment. If nothing else, it gives us a chance to realign our goals and actions, right? It's a time to reflect and maybe set some new goals in motion. Notice I don't call them resolutions. I think resolutions are sort of dumb, really. As if we can only chose to make them this one day of the year, and then set ourselves up for failure when we decide, somewhere in the second week, that we don't really feel like hitting the gym this morning, or that a danish does sound like a good breakfast after a month of plain oatmeal. Nope. Not going to make 'resolutions' this year.

What I am going to do is make an effort to live more simply. Don't get me wrong. A 5-minute glance around this house will show you that we aren't real extravagant people. What I mean by that is that I'm going to make more of an effort to really enjoy the little things that come our way more. Five minutes of snuggle time on the couch with the dog, or the 30 minutes of uninterrupted knitting time in the car loop. Simple things. They don't cost anything. They're there all the time for our taking. That's what I'm going to try to focus on more this year.

Hopefully I'll also find more time for spinning and knitting, which are some of those simple pleasures that I often don't make/find the time for. This year I'll let go of the guilt if I'd rather sit and spin for half an hour instead of fold the laundry. I'll read that book with Jonas rather than sweep the floor for the third time (yes, I have a very fuzzy, sheddy dog!) In short, I'll do my best to find the happiness that's already there, and not worry so much about the little things. It's really a pretty big little goal, isn't it?

So, what are you setting as your goal in this new year?

Bullets... or numbers really.

2010-10-22T13:23:00.004-04:00

Hello blog. I realize that I have a lot to share with you, but since I only have about 10 minutes, we'll just do a quick list, then maybe I can come back and expand upon those things at a later date.

1. I started a new job this week. I'm now working from home doing medical transcription. It's not the glorious, quick money sort of job that the schools would lead you to believe, and the market sucks when trying to find a job, but I have one, and I'm loving it, even if young children in India are making more money in sweatshops than I currently am.

2. I still work at the vet on Saturdays until January, and might actually ask to keep that position for a while longer while I work on my speed and increase my production. Otherwise we won't even be able to afford the ramen noodles J is so fond of.

3. Speaking of J, being home with him has really allowed me to take some to the stress off of his little shoulders. He's already showing less anger and frustration, and we're getting school work done. He's even (finally!) learning to read and taking an active role in it. Makes it all seem like it's the right thing to do.

4. We took in a new dog about a month ago. He's a sweetheart, even if he does chew up anything in his path and seems to think the floor is a much more suitable toilet than the yard.

5. We still miss Kelli something awful.

6. Mocha's been not feeling well for a while now. We've attributed it to her arthritis, mostly, but when she started having diarrhea I took her in for a checkup. Her labwork looked fine, so we just sort of shrugged and figured it's just part of her getting old. After two really bad days we did x-rays today. It ain't good news. There's no fixing it. So, we'll begin preparing ourselves for another big loss here soon.

7. And so we don't end this on a sad note-- Jonas has joined Cub Scouts and is loving it.

All blogworthy things, and I hope to revisit these topics soon, but just wanted to get them all on here so that I'd remember and feel more obligated to come back.

Random bits of catch up

2010-10-09T21:02:00.002-04:00

Hello blog. I won't even bother with the old 'long time, no see' crap that usually precedes my posts. Let's just agree to the fact that our relationship is a flighty one. Perhaps a numbered list will serve as a post today?

1. J-man continues to grow and do lots of amazing things. This year has posed many new challenges to my role as a parent. Most notably, the fact that school absolutely sucks for him. He's a smart boy. Exceptional, really. But school isn't his bag. It's become apparent that he learns differently than most of the other kids, and the classroom is not his ideal situation. I've spent these first 9 weeks in and out of meetings and conferences with the ex-ed department discussing his services and we seem to be getting nowhere fast. The system is designed so that it takes nearly a year to get the appropriate steps completed so that he can receive the things he needs- namely, a reading coach. Meanwhile he continues to struggle in class, or simply do nothing at all, and then bring home nearly his entire day's worth of work to be completed at home. It leaves me struggling with whether I believe that mainstream school is where he belongs. Yet, with our busy schedules, I also doubt my ability to dedicate enough time to education to even entertain the idea of homeschooling. And have I mentioned that working the system requires a degree of its own? It's baffling, and no one can provide me with a schedule, timeline, or roadmap. *sigh* So we press on, me butting heads with a lackluster teacher, and trying to encourage my boy to do his best while secretly wondering what value can be had by him cutting and pasting and coloring worksheets at home when what he really needs in order to learn is a solid foundation in reading. A skill he has yet to even begin to master. Math? No problem. The concepts of science, social studies, even story comprehension, he gets it. But unless he can read the questions, read the stories, read the damn instructions on his work, none of it really matters. He can't do the work.

2. The above situation has caused me to take a long, hard look at our home life. The world, and the economy dictates that I HAVE to work. We, along with most of America, don't have the luxury to allow me to quit my job and be home with munchkin full-time, living the June Cleaver life of wholesome meals, bake sales, and sparkly clean houses. My job has, for the past several years, allowed me to work only three days a week, plus occasional Saturday shifts, which has been a blessing. But those days are long. I'm gone from 7:30 in the morning until after 8:00 in the evening. By the time we get home, it's already past bedtime. That, of course, means that no homework gets done on those nights. Or, if it MUST be done that night, we have to skip bedtime, which sets the next day up for complete failure.

I've been resenting my job, and the long hours, for a long time. And now that I can clearly see the way it affects Jonas, I've made the resolution that it's time to move on. I love my job. I love what I do and where I do it, but J is my first priority, and if that means eating Ramen noodles exclusively for the next few years, I have to believe that it's worth it.

Sooo...

3. I landed a new job as a transcriptionist. I know, right? All these years later, I'm finally going to put that education to use. I started the transcription training program back when J was just an infant with grand hopes of breezing right through it and working blissfully from home before his second birthday. Now, finally, I'm going to be doing that, and no one could possibly be more excited and nervous about it. I wasn't exactly the star pupil in my studies. I squeezed by the final with the lowest possible passing grade-- an 85%. Not the stellar grades that make companies jump at the chance to hire you, or even give you a second glance. After nearly 100 applications and company testings, I finally found one willing to give me a chance. So, in about a week I'll begin a new chapter of my working life, after 8 long and mostly fabulous years at the vet's office, I'll be a work-at-home mom.

4. New jobs are scary things. I don't feel the need to expand on that. We've all been there. We all know.

5. J is now officially in cub scouts. This is a fun little adventure for us. He seems to be enjoying it much more than he did Karate, which was a big expensive failure. Note to self: Do not commit to a contractual sort of thing when a 5-year-old is involved. They are fickle and their interests are fleeting.

6. My knitting mojo has flown the coop. I've got a project stalled on nearly every pair of needles I own, with no real hopes of finishing any time soon. I still love knitting, but when I have 10 minutes to myself and the option to either knit, or just sit and breathe. I usually choose the breathing thing.

7. After gaining something like 30 pounds in the last year or so, I've gotten back on the healthy eating wagon (pay no attention to that cheeseburger behind the curtain) and I'm about 1/2 way back to my goal weight, and to fitting my fat ass in my jeans again. I refuse to go buy new fat girl clothes after finally donating them all to Goodwill.

And that's the last few months in a nutshell. Not very exciting, but good to get them all back into the open. Now, when I decide to pop in here and rant about something, at least you'll have some sort of idea of what the heck I'm talking about.

Where does the time go?

2010-08-12T08:39:00.003-04:00

Hello to the few of you stragglers that still drop by from time to time. The blogging world seems to have fallen silent lately. Not just in regards to mine, but many of the blogs that I have religiously followed for years as well. I think Facebook and other social networking sites are to blame. I'm just as guilty as the next person, but there's something to be said for the blog and it's intimacy. It doesn't need to try and condense a thought into a single concise line. No, I can blather on all I want in this space.

So what brings me here today? A thought on the passage of time.

Remember when you were growing up and things seemed to take forever.

"Are we there yet?"
You had to wait a whole year for Santa to make his rounds.
The Easter Bunny.
Halloween.
A school year.
That mail-order toy you are dying to get your hands on: Allow 6-8 weeks for delivery. Really? That's like 2 months!
Anything worth being excited about was pretty much guaranteed to take an eternity to arrive.

So why is it that in adulthood things are so fleeting? The moments you wish to preserve forever seem only like brief snippets. Nothing is static. Maybe it's because we're busier. We're juggling more things on a daily basis than we ever imagined we'd have to. Maybe it's because we know our time is limited. The childhood threads of immortality have begun to unravel. Whatever it is, things seem to press on at a maddening pace. And that, my friends, is why I'm here today. To preserve this moment in time. To attempt to hold onto it for just a few seconds longer.

What's so special?

On this day six years ago an amazing thing happened. Not all of a sudden and poof, like a genie granting a wish, but more like months of agonizing hard work piled on top of a load of chaos-- Hurricane Jonas came crashing into our lives. Yes, my friends. Today my baby is 6 years old.

Blink.

How exactly did that happen? No clue, really. It was one of those fleeing moment things. Seems only weeks ago that he was saying his first words, taking his first steps, walking into his first Pre-K class. Now I wake up in the mornings to a grown boy: Smart, handsome, intelligent, and the most humorously sarcastic little man I've ever met. He's phenomenal in every way. I am so honored to share these fleeting moments with him.

Of course, I realize I'm going to feel this way every year for the rest of my life. There will be Jr. High, High School, Senior prom, driver's licenses, college and a whole slew of personal achievements that will leave me slack-jawed and wondering when my precious tiny baby morphed into this amazing human. And dude, I MADE that. Amazing.

Every parent is proud of their child. I realize I'm not parent of the year, and he's not God's gift to mankind, but still, I think he's pretty damn cool!

Here's a picture from last night- his last night as a 5 year old, and missing his very first tooth. (The one I still vividly remember celebrating the eruption of so very long (and not so very long) ago.

To Remember Her

2010-06-14T13:08:00.002-04:00

We had to say goodbye to our sweet Kelli dog today. She lived her life with gusto, and wagged that tail to the end. We love you, sweet Kelli dog.

Vacation and an evil sock

2009-11-29T09:53:00.002-05:00

Howdy everyone. Heh, who am I kidding. I'm fully aware that there's very little reading going on around here, and it's all my fault. I don't update nearly as often as I should.

We're currently on vacation, visiting family for the Thanksgiving holiday, and it's absolutely gorgeous here. Chilly, but beautiful, for sure. Yesterday J, Granny, and I took a hike through the woods. J found a snail shell to add to his nature collection, and we had a great time rolling, running, and sliding down the levy and watching the sunset through the bare trees.

I'd share some pictures with you, but I don't have the cord to my camera, so you'll just have to use your imagination.

Before leaving for vacation, I cast on several knitting projects, so as not to find myself stranded in a strange place with nothing to knit. Imagine the horror! One of the projects that I cast on for was the Nutkin sock pattern. It's lovely, easy, and zips right along, which is why I'm convinced that my knitting is out to do me in. I cast this sock on three different times before finding (what I thought) was the right needle size. Then I merrily knit away on it during the flight to Nashville. After arriving here, and preparing to start the heel, I realized that the cuff was impossibly small-- like so small that I couldn't get it over my ankle. I tried it on J-man in desperation. It fit him, but he deemed it too girly for him. So I ripped it all out and started over. After working the heel completely, I realized I'd made an error that I couldn't live with, so it was ripsville again. Ugh! I'm proud to report that I seem to have conquered the sock this time, and I'm well on my way to the toe. Let's hope that the second sock doesn't prove itself to be so much of a troublemaker!

Pictures will follow, once we return to Florida on Tuesday. For now, I think we'll go out and enjoy our last days on the farm.

The story of a sock

2009-10-14T10:59:00.005-04:00

There were once these socks I had the idea to knit. Socks. Pshhh... they're fast. I'll whip these up in a few week's time and give them to my step-mom for her birthday. That's what I thought back in April of this year. I had a yummy yarn to use-- Schachenmayr nomotta Regia Design Line Kaffe Fassett in the colorway Landscape Earth. I chose Ann Budd's undulating ribs for the pattern. Enough depth to give these socks some life, but not busy enough to be obscured by the color changes in the yarn.

They were lovely but just wouldn't ever seem to grow. I'd knit and knit, and they'd just stay the same size. Anyone who knits knows what I'm talking about. It's the same reason that I have a hard and fast rule about sweaters. When I think it's long enough I make myself add about 5 more rounds, or another repeat, whichever is the greater of the two.

I finished the first one sometime around July, I think, cast on, and did the cuff of the second. Then came my sordid affair with crochet, which ate up all of my time, and made it easy to cast aside my eternal sock companion. You see, somehow, when I separated the stitches for the heel, I separated in a different spot in the patterning than I did on the first, and when I started working down the foot of the second, I decided to try and fix it the lazy way-- by a series of stitches cast on on one side and cast off on the other. Should have just ripped, but I'll be damned if I'm going to rip out a heel that took me nearly 4 months to get around to doing! It was much easier, and a lot less painful to ignore them. Finally, a few weeks ago-- after finishing Delia's blankie and finding myself captive in the car loop with nothing else to knit, the socks and I had a heart to heart. I agreed to finish them, as they were, if they'd promise to behave for the rest of their time on the needles.

And, now I present to you my eternal undulating ribs!

In other news, my car, Gertrude (yes, her name is Gertrude, and it's much cuter when you hear Wil say it with his accent!), and I shared a tender moment:

I feel like I should treat her to an oil change or something. I'm truly surprised that she's continued to lurch along this far. I'm hoping for about another 20,000 more.

Things finished, and just begun

2009-09-28T12:40:00.006-04:00

I've found that I get a lot more knitting done now that J is in school. It probably has something to do with the ungodly amount of time I spend sitting in the car loop in the afternoons. Seriously, getting in the lineup by 1:50 means I'm about 20th in line for 2:25 dismissal. I can't complain too much, though, since it's a nice quiet 35 minutes where I can sit and get things done.

Here's the latest project to come off the needles.

Can you tell what it is? Yep. R2D2 all the way around. I'm not terribly pleased with this one, but it was good colorwork practice. I'm hoping it'll fit hubby well enough to get a little use. I might knit a lining inside to cover up the floats and sort of snug it up a bit, but there may not be much hope for it. It swallows my head, and I've got a pretty big noggin. I am going to cast on another one with one less repeat and see how that does. Yeah, sure, I could probably avoid the frustration of a poorly sized hat by swatching better, but c'mon, it's a hat. I could have finished half of this before I could get an accurate swatch, so I didn't bother, and I'm not upset with the result at all.

Now that I'm done with this, I'm back to working on the eternal socks. I somehow got all wonky on the second sock, and so I stuffed them back in their bag for quite a while and gave them a time out until I could think clearly. I think I've got it figured out enough to complete it now, and although it may not be the most perfect pair, they'll keep my feet warm this winter, and the 'messed up' part will be hidden in my shoe anyway.

This is an old picture of the first sock. I'm half-way down the foot of the second, so I'm in the home stretch now.

I'm starting to compile my Christmas gift list in my head, and I've decided I'm scaling back from last year's effort, yet still plan on making quite a bit.

I, obviously, can't share the entire list here, lest I risk completely spoiling any surprises, but I have a few ambitious things already started. First of all... this yarn, which was intended to be a sport weight, but ended up, even when plied, as a thin laceweight. I originally spun about 800 yards of singles, but then ended up cabling them, resulting in less than 200 yards of a 4-ply fuzzy sportish weight 100% alpaca, which I am hopeful will be enough to complete a certain something for someone. It's drying as we speak, and then I have to decide whether I'm going to knit it first, or dye it first. I want J to choose the color and help dye it. Not sure if he'd get more pleasure out of dying the yarn or the finished product. Here's a really crappy picture of it hanging to dry.

And, finally, I started spinning up some mystery wool today. I have no idea what's in this, but I love the colors. It's amazingly springy to spin after a long run with alpaca. I'm constantly amused by it's bounce. This was given to me by Michele, who bought it to attempt spinning on a drop spindle. I can see why she had so much trouble with it. It's slightly felted, and without a lot of predrafting it can be a little stubborn. Still, it's lovely, and I think the resulting yarn is going to be delicious.

Beating the baby

2009-09-17T06:23:00.003-04:00

I finished up the blanket I'd been working on for Delia this past Sunday, just hours before the mom to be arrived at our house bearing the gift of a delicious Jello cake.

And then, less than an hour after her arrival here, I ended up driving her home because she was having steady contractions 6 minutes apart.

"Talk about good timing!" I told myself.

False alarm. She's still pregnant today, but baby Delia will be here soon, and doggone! I beat the baby. Here are some random pics of it in progress. Worked mostly in the car loop over the last month, one little square at a time. I think it turned out lovely, but I have sworn off the granny square forever. As much as I hate weaving ends, this was a total nightmare for me! 49 squares, plus the rows of sc that bind the squares together, plus the edging. Yeah. Not my idea of fun.

And now, being free of my car loop project, I've cast on for hubby's super-secret birthday goodie. He's always complained that I never knit anything for him. Can anyone tell from this picture what it'll be?

True to form, this is turning out impossibly huge. It swallows J's mammoth head, and mine, too. I'm thinking of adding a lining of some sort, which will also serve to cover the floats in the back. Any suggestions, knitty friends?

A month in review

2009-08-27T11:35:00.006-04:00

The past month has been a complete whirlwind of activity!

We celebrated J's 5th birthday with a party at the bowling alley with his friends, and the coolest army cake ever! Our fabulous friend, Mary, made it for us, despite being extremely pregnant and having an active 3-year-old underfoot. She's amazing!

J had a great time, and so did we. Best part? Not having to worry about set up or clean up or anything in between. We simply showed up, had a good time, and left. How refreshing! Totally worth the cost, if you ask me. Besides, we probably would have spent the same amount, or even more, if we'd tried to have the party here at home, and we'd have all been so crowded. Bowling was a great choice!

The same week as my baby turned 5, he also started Kindergarten. The first few days (ok, who am I kidding? The first week and a half!)was a tough adjustment for him, but he seems to be enjoying it more and more each day, and I can already tell how much he's learning! He's always been smart, there's never been a question about it, but now he's begun sounding out words, he can do math in his head (which is something I still can't do!), and he's become so much more patient and attentive. I can even tell what some of his drawings are! :)

This was his very first homework assignment-- sort of an 'all about me' project.

I'm just proud that he finished it at all. Even that is a big step from last year.

But enough about the J-man, what else has been going on?

I truly have nothing to show for it, but plenty! Heck, just trying to get ourselves back on a schedule after a summer of staying up late and sleeping until 10 or so has been a challenge. I've been knitting and crocheting and spinning, but so randomly as to have no real FO to share except for this pink wig I knit for a coworker's granddaughter.

Yes, I know it looks a little small on my enormous head, but it was made for a 3 year old. I tried to get J to model it, but ewww! It's pink!

I'm almost done with my second bobbin full of laceweight singles. I'm really proud of how even they've turned out. The wheel and I have sort of figured each other out, and we're getting along fabulously! I'm hoping to finish the bobbin this week, then work on getting it all plied up. I have specific plans for this yarn, but those will have to remain a secret for a while longer. I'm not positive on the yardage I've got going on, but I'm thinking that two bobbins full of lace singles will be probably double what I need, so I'm already dreaming of what to do with the rest. :) And, of course, at the same time I'm spinning lace, I'm dreaming of sweater knitting. No specific pattern in mind yet, though. We'll have to see. I promised I wouldn't cast on anything new until I finished the socks I've got going on, but I might have to let myself down on that one. I just can't seem to find sock inspiration right now. I do, however, owe someone special a new Sheldon, and a coworker has requested a pillow inspired by one she saw in a store for $60 or more. Hubby has been sulking for a vest for quite a while, so I might have to give in on that sooner or later, too. And I still have the Star Wars hats that I intended to make last year for Christmas.

Maybe once the temperatures drop below the boiling point I'll be more productive and start crossing some of these things off my list!

Obligatory Blog Post

2009-07-09T20:21:00.003-04:00

Hello, dear blog. It's been so long, I know. It's not that I don't love you. It's simply that there's only so much of me to go around, and lately Facebook has been courting me with it's instant gratification and speedy interaction. I highly doubt people are interested in reading one line snippets here in blogland.

But, dear blog, you are my true love. If I had to choose between the two of you, you'd win hands-down.

Where shall I begin in catching you up.

How about with a picture?

Here's a hat I recently finished. It's the Fake Isle pattern, and I adore it. Too bad it's about a million degrees and I won't get to wear it for about 6 more months, if at all. I really love it!

I've also been doing some spinning when I get the chance. Little bits here and there. I'm working on some lovely white alpaca my parents sent me, and trying my best to spin a laceweight 2 ply. I've been somewhat successful. I'm proud for a first attempt at something so fine.

Really, there hasn't been much in the way of knitting or spinning going on. Things have just been too busy and hectic this summer!

In the never-ending quest to get J ready for Kindergarten, we've been spending a lot of time in doctor's appointments. So far we've managed to finally eradicate the strep that he's been carrying around since about December or January, eliminating the need for a tonsillectomy this summer. *whew*

We've also visited the neurologist, who ordered a sleep study and an MRI to be done. The sleep study was completed 3 weeks ago, and it was a story all to itself. Be glad that I'm sparing you the details. Imagine hooking any 4-year-old up to about 30 various wires, then instructing him to go to sleep in a strange room, without his beloved tv or lights. Oh, and did I mention that it stormed like crazy all night, just to add to the creepy effect? He did fine, but it was a long night for both of us.

We've got an appointment with the pediatrician next week for a physical, which is a prerequisite to the MRI that will be taking place the following week. Being 4, they're going to sedate him for it, which scares the bejeezus out of me. I know that anesthesia is pretty darn safe these days, but still... The day after the MRI he has a dentist appointment to fill a cavity, and the day after that we have our meeting with the school board to discuss his services and approve his education plan.

ARRG! Enough to make your head spin, right?

Now add to that a crazy-hectic work schedule, the fact that I'm also working my butt off to finish my transcription course. I finished my very last report yesterday. Now it's just a matter of submitting them all and taking my final exam. Yippie! I'm really, truly almost done. And just in time, as the girl that does our transcription at the office is going on vacation the first week of August, and I'm hoping they'll let me take over.

And to top off our crazy summer, our shed was burglarized last week and they stole all of our lawn equipment. More of a pain in the ass than a major crime, but still, a HUGE inconvenience in the middle of rainy season when the grass needs cutting twice a week.

But I don't want to end this post on a sour note. Let's focus on something good, shall we?

Our house sits right on the border of three school zones. Two of the three schools are decent schools, but unfortunately, we're about two streets to the other side of the decent schools, and J is zoned to go to a failing school. I put in a request for transfer before the end of last year, but wasn't holding out much hope. Due to budget cuts and capacity issues, most of the schools in the county are not accepting any transfers. Today I got the letter in the mail letting me know that J's request was approved, and he will be able to attend a different school! Yay!

Spinning stuff

2009-06-14T20:04:00.004-04:00

I finally finished spinning, plying, washing, and skeining the alpaca that Amanda sent me for my birthday last year. I absolutely loved every minute of working with this and wasn't in a hurry to finish.

I taught myself the long draw method with this in hopes of making a light and airy two ply. I succeeded to some degree and this is a huge improvement over my denser worsted spun yarns of the past. Here's a pictorial timeline:

Last week my friend Tracy agreed to sell me her barely used hand carders, and today I spent the better part of the morning learning how to use them. I've pretty much turned my leg into ground beef with the sharp little teeth. For future carding adventures I'll be sure to wear jeans instead of shorts. I'm hoping that as I improve I will stop being so clumsy with them.

I managed to make about 40-50 little rolags, which barely even put a dent in the bag of fiber my parents sent me. I'm so excited to get this stuff started and see how it spins up. I'm going to aim for a very light fingering weight/heavy lace weight with which to make a lacy scarf. Being so new to spinning, there's really no telling how it'll turn out, though.

Tomorrow J will be here again:

Wish us luck!

What I did on my summer vacation

2009-06-08T18:19:00.003-04:00

Summer is here, and we're off to a busy start.

Saturday we met up with Michele for one last pre-baby afternoon together. We wandered the mall a bit, let J play in the mall playground while we sat comfortable and knit on our respective socks, and then met up with Wil and the in-laws for dinner at Olive Garden.

Yesterday we headed over to Mary's house for a barbecue and swimming day. Unfortunately, it rained like crazy, so there wasn't a whole lot of swimming, but the barbecue was good, and the company even better. J had a great, even if he did have to play with girls.

Today we had our appointment with the neurologist, which was a treat all in itself. Both he and his staff were rude and cocky. But I wasn't really there to make friends, so I can let that go. Overall, he seems to feel that J-man is neurologically intact, just awkward and slow. That's a relief, huh? Still, he wants to run a few tests just to be sure, or to line his wallet. He's got J scheduled for a sleep study next week, which means that I need to stock up on some good coffee and yarn since I'll get to stay there all night with him. I'm sure it'll be a real treat, and I'm positive I'll have no trouble getting him to fall asleep at 8:00 with wires glued all over him.

I have to keep reminding myself to think positive.

We're still waiting for the hospital to call and schedule his MRI. So for now it's just a waiting game.

What else are we doing? Well, next week, before the sleep study, J's having two fillings done. We're looking to signing up for karate lessons, and I've got J signed up for a 3 day a week playgroup with one of his teachers.

My original plan for this summer was to simply work on my transcription and get it done (we've heard that before, right... yeah, for the past 3 years or so!), and simply enjoy these last few months together before 'real' school started and routines got crazy again.

I'm sure we'll still find time to enjoy ourselves, but as the days go by, and the calendars fill up more and more, I'm starting to think I'll need to set my alarm an hour or two earlier just to fit everything in.

Oh well, that was a boring update, wasn't it? No pictures, no yarn. I'll do better next time.

All good things must come to an end

2009-06-01T20:00:00.003-04:00

Tomorrow is J's last day of preschool. I can't express how sad I am about this. Not only because it means I'm stuck with a bored 4-year-old for the entire summer, but also because it means that tomorrow when we walk out those doors it'll be the very last time I see so many of these faces that have truly become part of our family.

Some of you may remember the struggles we've had with previous attempts at daycare. It was with a heavy heart and a huge weight of trepidation that I decided to entrust my baby to them, but they have blown me away with their love, dedication, and compassion for the children.

I've watched my son go from a clingy, crying, self-conscious little boy to a confident, boisterous, intelligent little man right before my eyes. I can't even begin to describe the bonds he's formed with his teachers and his classmates. Ms. Tracy 'gets' him, turns her curriculum on its ear on a daily basis to accommodate him, and does so in a way that makes him feel successful, even at things he's not so astute at.

Last week when they had the school circus, and J was sad because he wanted to be a clown, but got stuck as a tumbler (certainly not in line with his motor skills) Ms. Tracy talked him up, velcroed the beanbag to his head, and held his hand as he walked the balance beam. And when it came to the actual tumbling, while all the other kids did summersaults, she got down on the mat with him and they barrel rolled together.

And I'd be lying if I didn't tell you that I wasn't bawling like a baby behind the camera lens when he walked across the stage in his burgundy cap and gown at graduation, pausing to hug each of his teachers-- a display of affection that even I rarely get the privlege of receiving.

Yes, my baby, you've grown so big, so strong, so smart, and so capable this year. You take my breath away, and I owe so much of it to this amazing school, and the beautiful women who are a part of it.

So tomorrow I promise I'll try not to cry too much, and I promise that we'll do our best to keep these people as life-long friends. I know that all good things eventually end, but will try to remember that for every ending there is a sweet new beginning.

yummy

2009-05-25T10:26:00.002-04:00

Computers baffle me

2009-05-24T08:48:00.002-04:00

I've been trying, for nearly a week now, to upload video of J's graduation so I can share it with family and friends. Hubby bought me new software so that I could edit it, etc. But it seems that software now comes in a DVD format, and my computer does not have a DVD drive, so we installed it on his laptop instead. No big deal, right? Right. So I go to connect the camera to his laptop, and imagine my frustration when the camera drivers weren't compatible with Windows Vista!

Can't anything just be simple? Seriously.

I'm going to look around and see if there are any updated drivers available, and if not I'm probably just going to go and get a DVD drive for this computer. It seems I need one anyway if I intend to keep up with modern technology.

Processing

2009-05-20T16:31:00.002-04:00

I took J-man to the doctor today to have a follow-up strep test, which revealed that he is, indeed, a carrier. No big surprise there, right? He's had strep 4 times since February! The course of action for now is Clindamycin for 10 days, and that's supposed to knock it out of there. We'll go back to the doctor in 2 weeks and have him re-tested. If he's still positive then the next step is a tonsillectomy. There's something so unsettling about considering any sort of surgery for your baby. Yes, I know that a surgeon can probably perform the procedure with his eyes closed and one hand tied behind his back, but still... it's surgery, and it's my baby, and it rattles me.

And while we're on the subject of being rattled...

I also talked with his doctor about his motor skills, the testing we're going through with the school board, and what her opinion was about it. She's referring us to a neurologist for evaluation, and lightly mentioned that there's a possibility that he has a defect in his corpus callosum, which is the band of tissue that joins the two hemispheres together. Sounds scary, but she assures me that it's really not a big deal and that with some special services, he'll be able to do fine in school and life.

So, the proper paperwork has been submitted to the insurance company for the referral, and I'll be calling next week to get an appointment with the neurologist. They'll most likely schedule an MRI. Yikes!

It's a lot to swallow. I came home and did a little reading about this whole corpus callosum thing, and here's a blurb:

"Signs and symptoms of ACC and other callosal disorders vary greatly among individuals. However, some characteristics common in individuals with callosal disorders include vision impairments, low muscle tone (hypotonia), poor motor coordination, delays in motor milestones such as sitting and walking, low perception of pain, delayed toilet training, and chewing and swallowing difficulties. Laboratory research has demonstrated that individuals with ACC have difficulty transferring more complex information from one hemisphere to the other.[4] They also have been shown to have some cognitive disabilities (difficulty in complex problem solving) and social difficulties (missing subtle social cues), even when their Intelligence Quotient is normal."

Umm, yeah, so if a paragraph could be written to sum up J-man, that's probably it. Scratch the vision impairment, though. As far as we can all tell, his eyes work fine.

In the meantime I'm supposed to go through and gather as much info as I can for the neurologist-- things like when he reached milestones like sitting, walking, talking and also any significant family history of abnormalities. Umm, yeah, it could be a long list! :) All joking aside, I've got a lot to process and try not to worry incessantly over.

The Yarn Harlot Comes to Florida

2009-05-17T07:03:00.003-04:00

Yesterday Michele and I took a short (shorter for me than for her!) trip down to Vero Beach to attend Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, aka The Yarn Harlot's book signing. This is only the second time she's ever come to Florida, so there was no way I was going to miss it. Last year she came to Jacksonville, which, lets face it, is just barely Florida, and it was on hubby's birthday, so I couldn't really justify it.

Even on just a few hours of sleep, after a nightmare of a traveling experience, she was hilarious and engaging. I'm so glad that someone with her publishing company realized that there really are knitters in Florida, despite the unfathomable heat. We're tenacious like that. I know that we didn't produce the same sort of turnout that she might get in Portland (ahem!) or some other more fiberlicious venues, heck, we don't even have a LYS to show off, but we do love our sticks and string, and our Harlot, Just as much.

We met up with three of the other girls from our knitting group at the book store, and sweet baby Sarah, who totally steals the show in the Harlot's blog post. In this post you can also find us sitting on the far left of the group shot, about 5 rows back. You'll recognize me by the enormous and shiny forehead. :)

And here are a couple of shots swiped from Hannah, who most certainly has a more superior camera. Thanks for taking these for us!

After the signing, Michele and I tooled around Vero for a little while. We stopped at the outlet mall and snapped up a few bargains at the Children's Place Outlet store, both for J and for her sweet little baby to be. See picture above. Doesn't she look fabulous for someone who's due any moment now?

We also had lunch at Olive Garden. Who can resist their soup, salad, and breadstick lunch? Not us, apparently. While there, Michele helped me figure out where I'd gone wrong on my current sock in progress and came to the rescue with a teeny-tiny crochet hook so I could pick up the stitch I dropped. Apparently I can't knit and laugh at the same time. I've never dropped a stitch, in a pattern row, and let it ladder back 8 rows before realizing something's wrong! All's right with the world of sock again, I'm happy to report.

After that, we headed back to Melbourne, stopped in at Jo-Ann to pick up some stencils for the baby's room, and some yarn, of course, and then to Starbucks for coffee.

It was great to get out with the girls for an entire day. I had a fabulous time. I sure hope the Yarn Harlot decides that Florida is worth visiting again soon.

Am I really Kreativ?

2009-05-02T20:28:00.003-04:00

My dear friend, Myth Maker bestowed upon me a Kreativ Blogger Award today.

Despite my lack of posting lately, I really have been a creative person! Swear.

So, what I'm supposed to do is list 7 of my favorite things, and then pass the award on to 7 other bloggers. Here we go!

1. Being Jonas' mommy. Every day with him is a whole new adventure, and he never fails to amaze me. Whether we're just cuddled up on the couch reading the same book for the 10th time that day, or we're making a mess in the kitchen together, I'm overjoyed to have him with me.

2. Hubby. I may not always give him a fair shake, but I truly wouldn't change a thing about him. The past 10 (it really doesn't feel like that long!)years have been wonderful, and I love the way we've grown and changed together through all that time. We keep each other grounded and focused, but also allow each other the room to dream.

3. Knitting & Crochet. What more is there to say? There's nothing as relaxing as an hour or two with a ball of yarn in my lap and needles clicking away.

4. Spinning. I'm still in the newbie phase, but I'm loving my wheel more every day.

5. My garden. It ain't much to look at, but that tiny little plot does more than simply grow vegetables. It holds onto the memory of my Daddy Dean, and weekends and summer days spent among rows and rows of tomatoes, beans, watermelons, and the like as a child. Every moment I spend out there pulling weeds, watering, and otherwise tending to it is a moment spent with him.

6. My pets. There's nothing better than a warm kitty in your lap, or a fuzzy dog at your feet. Mo's been my constant companion for 13 years now. I only hope that I can take care of her as well in her senior years as she did me in my younger ones.

7. My friends. I don't need to list you by name. You know who you are, and hopefully you also know how much you are loved.

Ok, so now to pass it on.

1. Michele, who hasn't blogged in a while, but I'm hoping I can tempt her back.
2. My super-crafty SIL, Amanda.
3. Tracy, mom of many, knitter extraordinaire, and all around amazing lady!
4. Erin. No explanation needed. She just plain rocks, and is one of the greatest poets ever. No BS.
5. Amy. Yet another amazing knitter and really cool chick.
6. Mikey. A deep thinker with a knack for photograpy, art, music,poetry and humor.
7.The Blue Yonder Gang. Ok, so they're not personal friends or anything, but I visit this blog daily, and always walk away feeling uplifted and inspired.

Hurry up and wait

2009-04-27T11:56:00.002-04:00

I've got a lot to share with you, but just haven't had the time to sit down and blog about it, or to upload pictures from our vacation, which was wonderful. So, until I have some uplifting bloggy stuff, allow me to vent my frustration regarding the competency of the state run speech and occupational therapy department.

I've already spent several thousand dollars out of pocket on speech therapy for J, and would do so again in a heartbeat, but since there is a free service available to all school age children in the state, I decided that we should go ahead and take advantage of it when his teacher approached me about it back at the beginning of the school year. That week I called to set an appointment, and waited and waited to hear back from someone. Just about the time that I'd given up hope, I finally got a voice mail asking me to come to the school board for an evaluation... that was more than 2 months ago. The therapist there was delightful, experienced, gave me some idea of the progress that needed to be made in order for J to be successful in school, and then mentioned that she'd also like for him to meet with someone in the OT department, and that they'd call to set that appointment just as soon as possible.

Just as soon as possible happened to be today. Two months later, and just a month before the end of the school year. Today's appointment was a total waste of time, in my opinion. The girl didn't even have all of her supplies with her. She was not very encouraging or engaging with J, and relied more on my oral history than any sort of 'evaluation'. She did toss a ball with him, and did try and get him to use a pair of scissors, and she had him try and copy a few shapes.

We signed another sheet of paper and was told to wait for the next phone call to meet with the next phase, whatever that phase may be. I've been working on this since the first six weeks of school and now it looks like we won't even get started until next year. I asked the girl if they worked through the summer vacation, and whether J would be able to get started before next school year. She was clueless. And until they finish shuffling their paper and scratching their asses, I can't apply for the necessary scholarship to get him the help he needs in public school, so Kindergarten will be a total waste of time. Homeschooling sounds like a better option with every passing day. I have no confidence in our school system or any of it's related services at this point.

And as if he's not far enough behind the eight ball here, he's also zoned into one of the most failing elementary schools in the county. I can either put him in private school, or I can let him fail a year and then have the freedom to move him to another public school. Some decision...

I know I sound pretty negative right now, but it's hard to remain positive when someone tells you that your child is in the 9th percentile for motor function, that he needs some pretty heavy therapy, and yet, you'll just have to sit and wait.

In order to lift my spirits a little we stopped on the way home and picked up a few new plants for the garden. Digging in the dirt is sure to make me feel better.

So much for frequent blogging

2009-04-02T19:41:00.004-04:00

Gaah! It's not that I don't enjoy blogging anymore, it's just that there are these things that I must do... like sleep, eat, clean house. While not nearly so much fun, they sort of demand my attention while the blog sits here ever so patiently.

Apologies to all 3 of my regular readers for not being as diligent as I should. I really do love that you take the time to come here and read the junk I post.

So, without further ado-- the latest rundown.

J continues to grow like a weed. Seriously! I had no idea that I'd given birth to a linebacker, but apparently I have.

The boy loves him some Popeyes!

Every day he amazes me with his intelligence and curiosity. He still loves to play his 'worst case scenario' games with me. "Mama, what if...", and then when that question gets answered, its "but what if..., and then "but what if, butwhatif, butwhatif, butwhatif". It's almost become a singular word. I think it's cool that his mind is working so hard a processing all the possible options involved in everything, but sometimes it's too much!

Still, I love those long conversations with him and wouldn't trade them for anything.

I've beek crocheting my hands numb over the past month, too. All in an effort to finish this sweater that I wanted to make for myself. Just about everything I've ever made has been given away, so it was time to be just a tad self-indulgent. I found a pattern I loved, Genevieve, and set to work in hopes of finishing it before our Easter vacation to TN. That way I might stand a chance of getting to wear it before next year. Well, I finished it, and it's quite pretty, but it looks like I'll be giving this one away, too... providing I can find someone it fits. The construction of the garment is a little odd. You start at the bottom edge of the back, work in one piece all the way to the bottom of the fronts, fold it in half and seam the sides and arms. It would work out perfectly, if I had a giant hump back and thin little arms, but as is, it's very tight through the shoulders and underarms, and pulls hard across the back of the neck where all the extra fabric lays. I thought I did something wrong, and checked the pattern a dozen or so times, but I made it exactly as written. After reading some reviews on Ravelry from other people that have made it, I find that I'm not alone here. Oh well. It's still wearable, just not the comfy, cozy thing I was looking for.

At least I finished it before the deadline, which is more than I can say for my step-mom's birthday socks. Sadly, they are still not a pair. I'm hoping I can finish them up while on vacation.

Speaking of vacations. We leave at the buttcrack of dawn tomorrow for Tennessee to go visit with the family. I'm really looking forward to some quiet relaxing time away from all the chaos of every day life around here. That, and Dad's cooking. :)

So, dear readers, thanks for hanging around for another quiet month. I've said it before, and I have a feeling I'll say it again, but I promise I'll try and do better!

How in the world...

2009-03-09T15:14:00.005-04:00

do you go an entire month without blogging a single thing? Apparently it's easier than imagined, or else I'm a total lame-o blogger. Either is a possibility, but I'd like to think that I've just been so busy that I haven't had time for anything but the essentials around here.

So, in no particular order, here are some of the things that have kept me away from my beloved blogging.

Laura and Doug and baby Sebastian (really, he's not a baby at all- more of an adorably cheeky toddler) drove all the way from Pennsylvania (yeah, I know- they're hardcore like that!) to spend some time in the Florida heat and sun. The last time we got to spend any amount of time together was back in May of '06. Back when J was just a toddler himself and we traveled up there for Fairy Festival and just some good relaxation time.

I've not been nearly as good a host as they were to us, but I've really enjoyed the time we've been able to spend together. We played on the beach a little,

stayed up late drinking coffee, and Laura and I even managed to take in a pretty sorry excuse for an Annie Leibovitz display at the local museum. We both agreed that there was room for a lot of improvement. Sure, the photography was stunning, but the little blurbs with each picture left you with a lot of questions. What was the reason for this photo, the inspiration? Who commissioned the piece? What was the occasion? Etc. Still, it was a nice way to spend an hour or so on a Wednesday afternoon.

On the other end of the spectrum, my sister and nephew, who have been living here for a little more than a year, have finally moved to an apartment of their own. While I'm really enjoying having my house back to myself, and I'm sure they're enjoying having a space of their own, too. It's sure is quiet. Quiet is good, but it's still an adjustment for us. Jonas asks me every night when Steven will be home. *sigh* Change has never been J's friend.

In my not so busy time, I've done a lot of crochet and knitting. I don't have a lot to show for it, but you'll just have to trust me. I did finish up Granny's sweater, version 2.0.

This one is sure to fit her, and is a lovely shade of green that I was afraid would look too much like bad '70s appliances, but it's grown on me, and I really do think I like it now that it's done. I've got some crappy pictures of it. It's hard to take pictures of yourself modeling a sweater! Especially while simultaneously spending time on hold with an electrician because you've found out that all the wiring in your house (among other things) is buggy and done half-assed! But that's a story for another day, isn't it?

I've also completed a baby sweater in a lovely purple wool and silk blend. I'm not sure who it's for yet, but there are lots of babies on the way around here. Almost everyone I know is knocked up, so it'll find a home soon enough.

There has been some spinning going on, too. I've been wanting to learn to spin long-draw, and so I spent some time on you-tube watching how-to videos before finally breaking in to my lovely box of alpaca that Amanda sent me for my birthday. Truly, it's the most delicious stuff ever! Starting out, I was pretty uneven and lumpy, but after a few false starts and some practice, long draw seems to be my method of choice for spinning. I love watching the fibers magically draft themselves out into a nice length of single right before my eyes. I'm working on my second bobbin full of this now, and then will decide how I want to ply it. Isn't it gorgeous?

And, to round things out nicely, I've started a sweater just for myself. I almost never make anything for myself, so I'm really looking forward to this one. Knitting friends, stay with me-- it's a crocheted sweater. I know! But it's so much faster, and I really love this one! It's the Genevieve pattern from Inner Child Crochet. It's really lovely, and coming along pretty quick for as little attention as I've given it. I'd like to have it done in time to wear while we're in Tennessee in April, assuming that it'll still be cool enough to do so then. We'll see!

Tennessee. Yes. We are going on a vacation. It's the first time that all three of us will be going on vacation together in ages, and we're really looking forward to it. Of course, J's bursting at the seams at the idea of being able to see ALL of his grandparents in one trip. Let the spoilage begin! (As if he's not spoiled enough at home, right?!)

And finally, to round this whole "what have I done in the past month" post out, I took J to be evaluated by Child Find today for both his speech and his motor skills. The lady that evaluated him was absolutely fabulous. Jonas loved her from the start, and she made every one of his tasks seem like a game. He played along willingly for the entire hour, and the results were pretty much where I expected them to be. As far as his speech goes, he's pretty much right where he should be. Cognitively, he's operating at the level of 6 years, 7 months, which also comes as no surprise. He amazes me with his intelligence and his reasoning on a daily basis. The part that really shocked me was getting a number to put alongside his motor deficits. After doing several different tests, he scored at the level of 2 years, 11 months. I guess I sort of knew that, but he seems to have improved so much over the last year that I sort of hoped that he'd be closer to age-appropriate by now.

We'll have a followup test in about a month with the OT department, and then he'll get started with weekly sessions after that. We may not get much done before this school year ends, but it'll carry over into kindergarten, too.

I was given a stack of paperwork with suggestions on how to get started at home with some of the stuff that he needs work on. The one thing that she pointed out to me that I'd never really noticed is that he doesn't cross over mid-line, which is a fundamental to things like reading and letter recognition. So, we'll start with some exercises that encourage that, and go from there.

And that's a month in a nutshell. I promise I'll try and be a better blogger from here on out.

This is no surprise

2009-02-06T16:35:00.003-05:00

Your rainbow is shaded blue.

What is says about you: You are a tranquil person. You appreciate friends who get along with one another. You share hobbies with friends and like trying to fit into their routines.

Find the colors of your rainbow at spacefem.com.

I found this on Betsy's blog as I was reading through today, and just like her, it points directly to the colors I often choose to knit with. Kind of neat.

I'll take Strep for $200, Alex

2009-02-06T11:11:00.002-05:00

A visit to the pediatrician's office this morning rendered the diagnosis of strep, and a 10 day course of antibiotics. Apparently half of the county is sick. The lobby was standing room only, and they'd only been open for 30 minutes when we arrived. Wanna talk about a germ factory! I felt sick just walking in there among the hacking coughs, snotty noses, and kids with flushed cheeks and garbage cans in their laps. We always joke that if J isn't sick when he walks into the doctor's office, he will be when he walks out.

We camped out in a corner to ourselves for the most part, me holding my 65 pound kid in my lap, drool running from his chin because he didn't want to/couldn't swallow, and listened to people bitch about the wait time.

When we finally got called back, we got stuck with the one doctor in the entire practice that I can't stand. I gritted my teeth through the entire 30 seconds she spent in the room, took my prescription, and went home.

You know, they should open a drive-thru pediatrics office. Don't even have to get them out of the car, just roll down the window, have them stick out their tongue, and give a discount for the parents that bring their own pre-swabbed Q-tip. Pick up your prescription at the second window, please.

Anyway, this post is just a product of my lack of sleep, and can be completely disregarded.

Life in a petri dish

2009-02-05T09:47:00.006-05:00

The nephew came home from school yesterday vomiting. There's a strain of Norovirus going around down here something fierce, so I just knew that we'd all have it by this weekend, and jokingly suggested that we stock up on toilet paper quickly.

Since then I've been Lysol-ing the hell out of every surface. Lets face it-- it sucks to see a kid sick, but it sucks even worse to share his germs AND watch him feel sick, and I have a little one around that probably wouldn't be as discreet about his bodily functions, should he become infected.

J spent the day yesterday being comparatively lazy. Not lethargic by any means, but just not his usual rambunctious self. He played a whole lot of computer games and stayed wrapped in his snuggi. Nothing I considered odd or indicative of impending illness. I mean, look at him. Does that look like a sick kid face?

(Yes, my desk is THAT messy, and yes, that is a giant RV in my yard, thank you very much.)

But 3 a.m. told a different story.

Wheezy, croupy cough, unable to breath. It's the first time we've had to break out the nebulizer in years, but man am I glad we had it! The last time he had croup we nearly had to take him to the emergency room. After about an hour of wheezing he was able to fall back asleep, but not until spiking a fever.

Yup. My kid's got the crud. It'll only be a matter of time before we're all hacking and feeling like crap.

I'm staying home with him today. He seems to be a bit better, and after an early morning trip to Walgreens for Motrin (because Tylenol is a joke) and popsicles, he's actually upright and hanging out with me. Technically, I suppose I should have taken him to Abuela's house and gone to work, but why when I have a perfect excuse to stay home and knit and snuggle?

Happy Monday

2009-02-02T10:28:00.003-05:00

Just a little blog update while I have 5 minutes to myself.

Not a whole lot of interesting stuff is going on around here. Hubby's car finally broke down on Friday. We've been wondering how long it would go before finally doing so. It's been a great car, so I'm not begrudging it one bit. We were hoping it would give us a couple more months because we're currently on the lookout for a new one, anyway. Looks like we're going to have to fork over the repair money and keep it a little longer though.

The only inconvenient thing is, it broke down on the very top floor of the parking garage, making it impossible to get a tow truck to pick it up. This morning after dropping J off at school we had to go up and push it back down to the street so that the tow-guy could get to it. Fun times, I tell ya. There's nothing like pushing a car, in the cold and rain, through a busy hospital parking garage. We got some ugly looks. But it's done, and it's now at Mr. Bruce's shop waiting on a new front axle and serpentine belt. The beast should run another 100,000 miles after this, given it's track record.

In the knitting/crochet arena. I have lots of projects I'd like to be working on, if only I could find the time. I've got the Granny cardi version 2.0 currently in the works. All I've managed to accomplish is the back and part of one front. Alas, I need to set it down and get to work on some baby goodies. Two of the girls in my knitting group are expecting. One of them in the next few weeks. I picked up some lovely purple wool/silk blend yarn the other day on clearance- $2.00 a ball. I'm thinking little eyelet cardigans for both, along with some booties? I'd better get crankin!

And that's it. Nothing much to report. I promise a better post when I have the time.

Little bits

2009-01-26T09:25:00.007-05:00

I haven't really found the time or the burning desire to blog lately, but I wanted to update in some way. There's been plenty going on around here. It's just been hard to find the time to put it all together in some sort of orderly fashion.

Consider this an extremely disorganized rundown, since I have about an hour to myself (bliss!) and don't want to spend the whole thing in front of the computer.

Where did we leave off? Oh, Christmas, right.

Since then, we've had a birthday around here. The nephew turned 10. Hard to believe it, but it's true. He's no longer a baby, or even really a kid. He's in the double digits, and seems more like a young man every day.

Of course, he wasn't too grown up for a Pokemon birthday cake, which I had the pleasure of making. Anyone here ever had to try and make frosting red?

My original plan for the cake was to make it an actual ball, but I had to bake the hell out of it to get it done in the center, and it was dry and gross. After tasting a little piece of it J gagged a little and asked "Is it still going to taste like this when it gets to the party?"

You have to appreciate the honesty there. So we baked a second cake at the last minute, and just a plain round cake had to do. I didn't even out the layers very well. Did you not read that comment about last minute? Seriously. It may have still been warm when he blew out the candles. Also the reason you can see chocolate crumbs peeking through the white frosting. Oh well. No one deemed it ugly, and everyone agreed that it was moist and delicious. There was only one tiny piece leftover, too. Not bad, considering it was 4 layers thick.

What else? Well, for Christmas Granny and Daddy Dave bestowed upon my son a bug vacuum and this little kit of tubes and bubbles and connectors and magnifying glasses. I waited the appropriate amount of time for him to forget about the thing, then tucked it into a box in his closet, hoping he'd forget it's there. Anyone in my family can attest to my dislike, and maybe even my fear of six-legged crawly things. But J has a mind like a steel trap, and he adores this particular gift. So I pulled on my big girl panties the other day, and we took the bug vac to the yard to try and catch us some.

Here's my budding entemologist inspecting his find.

Thanks Daddy Dave and Granny!

On the knitting front, I finally completed what I've officially dubbed "that damn sweater" that I started for J back in October or November. It's not that it was all that difficult. As a matter of fact, it was just that boring. I couldn't bring myself to work on it most days, simply because one more inch of plain grey stockinette was going to kill me. It turned out well enough. The sleeves are a bit too long, but but it fits him well otherwise. I could have made it an inch wider, perhaps, just to make it easier for him to get into and out of on his own. But it doesn't really matter anyway because he refuses to wear it, opting for his store-bought fleece hoodie. He says that "the yarn one is too itchy". He's right. It's not the softest yarn in the world, and he does have sensitive skin. But I intended for it to be worn over a long sleeved shirt, so didn't think the itch factor would bother him so much. Oh well. Did I mention I finished the damn sweater?

Moving along... we've had a cold spell here the past week. The temperatures have even dropped below freezing a couple of times, and J needed a new hat to wear. I'm the world's worst hat knitter. I don't have any idea what it is about the simple hat that baffles and eludes me, but my hats always turn out terrible. Either enormous, or too tight, or too short, or big enough to pull down over your shoulders. I can't knit a hat to save my life. But I do have a lot of this yarn, so I figured it wouldn't be wasteful to give a go to some stranded knitting. I mean, it's only about 30 total rows from cast on to weaving ends, so it's not like it was a major commitment or anything. I started this hat, the Polar Knits Skull Beanie, just before dinner time, and finished it before tucking J in for bed. I'm quite pleased. The pattern was simple enough that it wasn't overwhelming, and I learned that I'm not too horrible at the whole stranding thing. There's certainly room for improvement, but this one, amazingly, fit J perfectly. Made me want to cast on about 100 more of them! Yippie! I did have to alter the pattern a little, though. With 6 pattern repeats this wouldn't have fit anyone, so I scaled it back to 5. Easy enough.

Finally, here's a sad little picture of Kelli. Her Mama dresses her funny.

And this (among other reasons) is why I knit...

2009-01-10T20:17:00.003-05:00

Two months of layaway, and weekly payments later, hubby has finally gotten his ultimate dream-- a real RC car. Not the cheap kind you pick up at WalMart for $50. No ma'am. We're talking the ones that go as fast as my real car, and have remotes that look like they could launch the space shuttle. It's a boy genetic, I'm sure... this need for speed in tiny packages.

We're operating on a 'don't ask, don't tell' sort of basis right now. I'm forbidden to ask how much it cost, and he's forbidden to actually tell me. But we do know that it was somewhere between a new car payment and a mortgage payment, and that, my friends, equates to a lot of yarn.

I mean, do you know what I could do with that much of a yarn budget?! Think cashmere sweaters. Nay, think long flowing cashmere coats if you so desire. I could knit a house cozy and still have a few balls to spare. Months and months of needles clicking serenely away in my lap.

So, an hour of waiting for the battery to charge, an hour of taking it out of the box and assembling it. And then 20 minutes in the driveway before it was totally trashed Seriously. We're talking one wheel completely shredded, and the front suspension busted and leaking oil all over my couch while trying to fix said tire.

And so that's why I sit here, my soft squishy darlings all laid out before me, half of a cardigan in my lap, the other in my head, biting my tongue and hoping that the hobby store accepts exchanges on slightly used cars.

The Catch-up Christmas Post

2009-01-04T12:20:00.006-05:00

Yeah, I know I'm a lazy blogger, and with Christmas come and gone, no one is really all that interested in seeing pictures of the event anymore. We're probably all on Christmas overload. But bear with me, since I feel obligated to talk about it.

I worked a half a day on Christmas eve, and then made the mad dash all over town. One of my coworkers was kind enough to volunteer her husband to play Santa for us and assmeble J's new bike, which is really the only thing that he asked for this year. Bless them for doing this for us! I never would have found the time to do it around here AND keep it a secret.

That freed me up to get all of the other gifts wrapped and under the tree before picking munchkin up from Abuela's house.

He and the nephew came home to find a tree just brimming with presents, and much inspection ensued.

At one point the nephew took a header straight down into a pile of gifts, and required assistance to get out without ripping half of them open. Gotta love the enthusiasm of little boys.

That night, before bed, J had to go outside and sprinkle glittered oatmeal on the lawn. He received this as a goodie at his school Christmas party with a little poem attached that read "Sprinkle on the lawn at night. The moon will make it sparkle bright! As Santa's reindeer fly and roam, this will guide them to your home!" What a cute little idea!

Of course, we left a note for Santa along with cookies and milk, and a bowl of carrots and celery for the reindeer. Can't have enough things to bribe Santa with, I suppose.

Morning arrived, and J was so excited to step out into the living room to find that Santa hadn't forgotten him!

It was a little strange, this being the first year that my parents haven't been here for the holidays. But we made the best of it by making use of Skype to all be together during the gift opening. It wasn't quite the same, but it did work out well, and it was really nice to get to be together in some way.

J loved all of his gifts, but the winner of the day was the Snuggie made for him by Nana. He's been pining for one ever since seeing the commercial for it several months ago, and begging me to order him one. Funny what captures a child's heart. Nana did an amazing job, making his out of dinosaur fleece, and even managing to package it along with the very same identical book light that comes with the 'real' one. Way to go Nana! Despite it being 80 degrees on Christmas day, J stayed snuggled under it for the rest of the day, not even getting up to open the rest of his gifts.

Handmade Christmas was a huge success, I think. Everything received and everything given seemed to be a hit. Of course, there were plenty of purchased gifts for the boys as well, but certainly not the amount as in years past. And the fact that the handmade ones were loved more by J than the store bought ones made me a super-proud Mama.

This post is getting long, so I'll save the handmade recap for another time. I don't know if we'll all agree to do it again this year, but I know that I'm certainly up for trying to keep the tradition up.

Hope everyone's 2009 is off to a great start.

Wow, it's really here

2008-12-24T06:07:00.004-05:00

It's hard to believe that it's Christmas already, isn't it? I mean, weren't we just at Easter? Crazy how fast this year has gone by!

So it's Christmas eve already, and I'm not ready at all. Well, I mean, the things that needed shipping got shipped, but all the gifts that have come in the mail still need to be unloaded from their boxes and put under the tree. All the gifts for those living here still need wrapping. I've got to work this morning, then make a delivery to a needy coworker-- I'm giving J's old bike and some clothes and toys to her grandson. No child should get totally screwed on Christmas, and J doesn't use the bike anyways. He's so big his knees bang the handlebars. :)I hope Santa got his request for a new one. :)

I'm being a bit of a flake, but there's a picture I wanted to post here, just to prove to you guys exactly how stubborn my boy is, or maybe how wonderful his school is...

The Christmas pageant was a week ago, and J's class had been chosen to play the role of "townspeople". They asked that we dress the children in dark clothing and sandals to go under their costumes.

I didn't worry much about exactly what dark clothing he was wearing. After all, it was going to be under a costume.

Now, I know it's a bad picture, but my little camera can only zoom so far, but do you see him? Yup! The one right there in the center of the stage refusing to wear a costume at all and carrying Dino, no less! To be honest I'm surprised he went up at all. I had promised him that if he tried and changed his mind, he could always come sit with us and just watch. He's not much for performances, despite his ham-ish nature at home.

So he stands there, center stage in his beach break t-shirt, tossing a dino around while the other children sing and look so sincere. Seriously, do you see the little girl angel on the right? How precious! And the girl that played Mary? OMG, she could bring you to tears in that way that only a 4 year old actress could. She was beyond words sweet.

And then we get to the part where they sing "Mighty Day", and my kid whips a harmonica out of his pocket and starts totally rocking it. I wanted to bury my head, but at the same time I was laughing my butt off because these are the moments that we're going to remember forever. It's what makes J who he is. And honestly, besides putting a tiny kink in the preschool play, what was he hurting?

I went to retrieve him from his class after the play, and thankfully his teacher was on the same page with me. She adores my kid, understands his quirks, and we couldn't be luckier to have her.

Anyway, I'm off to work, then home to wrap presents! Eeek! Merry Christmas, everyone!

If only pocket change was enough

2008-12-22T07:50:00.003-05:00

Hubby drives all day at work, and that equates to frequent stops at various gas stations for beverage refills, bathroom breaks, etc. This practice results in a center console full of change. Jonas delights in this fact, and periodically will relieve him of it.

Overheard the other night while he sat sliding his treasure, one tiny coin at a time through the slot on his piggy bank, sung in that syrupy, braggy tone that kids learn so quickly: "I'm going to college! I'm going to college! I'm going to college! Na-nee-na-nee-boo-boo!

The best acquisition ever

2008-12-12T21:24:00.002-05:00

A few weeks ago J's school held a swap and shop where all of the families were encouraged to bring in an unwanted children's or household items they no longer needed. Everyone was free to take as much as they wanted or needed, and anything leftover went to goodwill at the end of the day.

J picked out a little pretend doctor's kit as his treasure, and it's been the greatest toy ever.

That first day he spent about 3 hours treating me as the sick patient, which meant that I got to spend 3 glorious hours lying on the couch doing absolutley nothing while he examined and took care of me. Why didn't I buy him one of these a long time ago?!

When he tired of this game, he moved on to veterinary medicine in which I learned the true patience of one very adoring dog.

Poor Kelli was put through the ringer, and loving laid there and allowed Dr. J to perform all sorts of tests.

Blood pressure measurements:

Very thorough ear exams:

And even a blood draw, which was, of course, followed up with the application of a bandage:

(Isn't that the cutest thing?)

This dog may, on most days, be the bane of my existence. She might pee on my floor every time the neighbor's dog barks too loudly, and she might annoy the hell out of me with 3 am nudges. She might occasionally swipe entire pork chops from the counter hot from the oven. She may even wag her tail so hard that she busts it open on corners, walls and any other hard surface it contacts, leaving a spray of blood that rivals CSI murder scenes, but this- her undying love and gentle patience with J is the reason that she'll always, always remain a part of our family. Good girl, Waggy Dog.

Catching up

2008-12-09T13:44:00.005-05:00

That's what life seems to be all about right now- catching up. Catching up on bills, catching up on time, catching up with my kid, catching up on my Christmas gifts. That last one may be completely hopeless, but I just keep plugging along blindly denying that I only have maybe a handful of days before I have to start shipping things out. Eeek!

And of course, instead of working on anything, I'm simply sitting here blogging. But I've neglected the blog for a while and wanted to update a few things that have been going on, just for the sake of helping me keep the days straight, if nothing else.

After getting a grumpy start to the holiday season, I'm finally starting to find some Christmas spirit in me somewhere. We put up our tree this weekend, and for the first time since we became a family, it truly did turn into a family event. Hubby has never taken part in the trimming of the tree hanging of stockings, but this year he attacked it with full gusto. So much so that all I had to do was sit and untangle ornament hooks while he and J took care of the rest.

The obligatory under the tree shot.

We bought a new tree this year after somehow losing the stand to the old one last year, which made the fiberoptics and the lights not work, and also left the entire tree in a state of tumbledom. Yes, that's a word in my world. :) I love this new one. It's tall and slim, which works well in our cramped space, and is full and lovely and prelit, which saves me a huge headache, and probably is part of the reason hubby decided to join us this year. Good tree.

J even slept under it that first night. Sigh.

Another thing that makes me smile about the holidays is the return of this ugly old guy.

Meet Evil Santa, so named because when the lights flash they cast creepy shadows on Santa's face and it looks like his eyebrows are wagging up and down. Evil Santa has adorned the top of my parents tree for my entire life, and he grew quite endearing in our late teen/early adult years. Last year, with the knowledge that it would be the last year that we all gathered around the same tree, I tracked down Evil Santa's for both myself and my sister, and now we all have our own. I even love the fact that mine has a few burned out bulbs. Makes him all the more authentic.

There's so much more I could be filling you in on, but right now J is begging me to go outside and play in the yard, and it's so gorgeous out there that I can't possibly resist.

Go Elf Yourself!

2008-12-03T07:33:00.001-05:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

If I hear another #@%$&# carol...

2008-11-27T20:17:00.002-05:00

I realize that the rest of the world is intent on kicking off the holiday season on this day, but honestly... can't we just skip it this year?

Today I'm supposed to be counting my blessings, showing my gratitude, being all cheery and aglow with the season's magic or something like that, but to be perfectly honest even pretending to do so is taking too much effort.

I cooked the turkey, made the sides, and the three of us sat and ate it in silence, just sort of going through the motions.

That's my theme song lately, I guess. As if just simply sticking to the routine will somehow magically lead me out of the rut I'm in.

*shrug*

If I were a drinker I'd be sauced right now. But I'm not, so I'm not. I suppose that sooner or later just going through the motions is going to stop being enough and something will have to give. I'm not ready to speculate on just what that might be right now.

Gobble, Gobble

2008-11-27T17:29:00.000-05:00

No reason to panic

2008-11-22T09:40:00.003-05:00

Do you know how many days we have left until Christmas? 33. Yep... only 33 days left, and how many of my Christmas gifts have I completed? Ummm... 2.

That's not to say that I don't know what I'm making, or don't have the supplies to make what I'm making, because for the most part I do. But where has all the time gone? 33 days to finish everything. It seems impossible! Especially when you take into consideration the fact that I'll need to finish them a week early in order to get them to their recipients on time. Then go ahead and subtract out the days I work, since those are days where I can't possibly pick up a hook, needle, hoop, pair of pliers, or any other craft device. That leaves me about 13 days to actually get everything done.

If I had nails I'd bite them all off.

So, if any of you lovely folks get a small little package from me with an IOU stuck inside, please understand. It's not that I don't love you enough to finish your stuff on time, it's just that I am a horrible procrastinator, and while I've known since (what? February?) that I was going to make you something, I didn't actually start until about October. Forgive me, please?

And just to prove that I really AM working on something, but without giving much away, here are some fairly cryptic pictures.

And J is all excited about helping, too. So much so that he insisted I buy him his own needles and yarn. I'll make him a knitter yet!

Becoming a Hooker

2008-11-10T19:35:00.006-05:00

It starts out innocently enough. You'll just give it a try-- see how you like it. Then you fall in love with the nearly instant gratification of your work, and you just can't stop.

Yep, that's right. I've become a hooker. So much so that my poor knitting needles are starting to feel jealous.

Who would have thought that a simple little amigurumi cupcake made for your niece's birthday could turn you into a full blown crochet addict?

And before all of my knitterly friends roll their eyes and turn their backs on me forever, do know that my one true and first love will always be knitting. But it sure is helping me put a dent in my holiday gift list! I'm not a very fast knitter, and if left to knit something for all the folks on my list, I'd be in big trouble. Adding crochet into the mix allows me to knock out lots of the 'smaller' gifts so that I stand a slightly delusional chance of getting the 'bigger' knitting things done.

Mr. Worst Case Scenario

2008-11-06T12:17:00.004-05:00

Conversation between me and one little boy with a very active imagination today:

Driving home from school, we come up to the traffic light near our house. The gas station on the corner has a small retention pond in front of it which is surrounded by a chain link fence. It is currently bone dry.

J: Mommy, why is there a fence there?

Me: Well, when it rains, all the water runs off the road and fills up there so that we don't have a flood. They put the fence there so that people don't accidentally fall in.

J: But Mommy, what if there were a rock on the sidewalk and someone wasn't looking where they were going, and they tripped on the rock and fell over the fence and into the water? Then what would we do?

Me: (Being silly) Well, we could get a fishing pole and fish him out.

J: (Very seriously) But what if we kept catching fish instead?

Me: Well, we could encourage him to swim to the edge.

J: What if he was sinking?

Me: We could call a lifeguard to swim out and save him.

J: But what if there wasn't a lifeguard around?

Me: Well, the police station is right across the street. I'm sure a police officer could save him.

J: But what if the police officers were all busy catching speeders?

Me: Well, then we could use a really long stick to reach the guy.

J: But what if the stick slipped out of our hands?

Me: We could get another stick.

J: But what if all of the sticks slipped out of our hands?

Me: (Grasping now) We could throw him a tire.

J: What if the tire sank?

Me: Tires don't sink. They're full of air.

J: What if it deflated and all the air blew out?

Me: (Silence....) Well, it's a good thing that fence is really tall.

J: Yeah, but ...

Me: Let's see what's on the radio.

Do I see an anxiety problem in the making here? Or is this the stuff every 4-year-old thinks about?

Random bits of nothing

2008-11-06T08:57:00.002-05:00

A few days since my last post, but I'm having trouble finding uplifting, or even interesting things to blog about.

I've always loved fall-- the time of year when we can finally open up windows around here and turn off the a/c for a bit without suffocating or making the house feel like a sauna. And in truth, I still do love it. But for the first time ever I'm also feeling the effects of the shorter days. I know so many people who go around saying they suffer from something called 'seasonal affective disorder', and I've always just sort of rolled my eyes at them. But maybe there's a bit of truth to it. It just seems like there aren't enough hours in the day. I'm up and gone before sunrise, home well after dark, and I wonder if I'll ever see the sun at all. The list of things to do gets longer, and the hours get shorter. I find myself wanting to go to bed around 8, but most of the time I'm not even home from work by then. *sigh*

There's also a rash of stressful things going on in general around here. Mostly a house in need of some major attention and TLC, and that attention and TLC takes money that we don't have to spend, but every day we put it off, it's probably just adding to the cost of fixing it.

The things on my Christmas wish list this year are things like shed doors, window screens, a screen door with a screen intact and that actually latches instead of banging harshly against it's frame. A new refrigerator, a dryer (or a clothesline, even), a new septic/drain field. A water softener that works, since ours hasn't in over a year, and do you know how disgusting FL well water is? Let's not go there. I'm not even sure it's suitable for use.

Hubby and I have discussed these things, and the solutions to the problems that are 'must fixes', like the septic, and the only thing we can seem to come up with as a solution is another loan. Certainly NOT the solution we wanted, but it seems inevitable. Just as soon as we start getting ourselves paid off from past debts- mostly incurred long before we were married, or even met, it really hurts to have to put ourselves back into a situation where we owe again. But the equity loan seems to be the only real solution, and so we are preparing ourselves to simply suck it up and get it done.

I do realize that that sounds like a pretty petty little whine up there. I know folks that are struggling just to feed their families, find work, and so I feel a bit guilty whining because I have a house to take care of, and have the inconvenience of an ancient dryer that takes forever to dry anything and sucks electricity like there's no tomorrow, and running water that stinks and leaves orange stains in the toilets and showers.

It ain't all bad, though. I have a lot to be thankful for. Family I love, a job that often leaves me in a bad mood, but more often than not, leaves me feeling like I'm part of something good. I have food in my fridge, an amazing little boy, and a couple of stupid dogs that keep my feet warm. So, for the next few weeks I'm going to try and focus on things I'm thankful for on a daily basis, instead of the things I'm worried over, depressed about, or have no control over.

Today I'm thankful for my friends, both here on the net, and those in my 'real life'. They love me even though I'm a goof, they give me encouragement, and they aren't afraid to give me a reality check every now and then. Above all else, I find value in knowing that I can spend my time in good company.

What are you thankful for today?

Going around

2008-11-03T20:12:00.003-05:00

Guess who's got the chills, aches, and a sore throat today?

Yup.

Entirely my fault. But who can resist kissing and snuggling with a sick baby boy?

But we all know that moms don't have time to get sick, so I'm just going to press on and pretend all is right with the world.

And on an entirely different subject... tomorrow's election day. Go out and vote.

That's about as political as I'll get here, I promise. And to be honest, I'm not sure how I'm going to manage to do it. Right now I'm working on just finding someone to watch my kid so I can go to work. J's school is a polling place, and so there's no school for him tomorrow.

The grandparents will watch him, but they want to go vote, too. And, while Abuelo drives (god help us!) he refuses to drive with J in the car. He's just too nervous. And while that's absolutely fine with me-- him not driving around with my son in tow all the time, it makes it kind of difficult when I'm scheduled to work every single hour that the polling locations are open. So, while I could be late back from lunch and drive all the way across town in order to vote myself, I can't seem to find a way around the grandparents voting unless he'll simply man up and realize that he CAN drive the 2 miles it takes to get to city hall with a chatty 4-year-old in the back seat. Why does EVERYTHING have to be so difficult. I mean seriously... these are the silly things I have to deal with on a daily basis.

And now I'm going to go cast on a pair of socks, or a scarf, or some other fairly mindless and small project in preparation for my long lunch hour of standing in line.

NaBloPoMo...

2008-11-01T13:16:00.002-04:00

No. No. No.

I briefly entertained the idea of joining NaBloPoMo, but realized that it would just be a recipe for failure. I know darn well that I could manage to press the publish button on a daily basis, but the content of the posts would be worthless. So why bother?

I will, however, take the opportunity to try and blog more frequently than I have in the past several months. It's just that most of the crafty stuff that I'm working on is destined to be a gift for someone, which makes talking about it tough. And really, there isn't much other interesting stuff to talk about.

J's feeling better today. He tells me his nose isn't snotty anymore, but it's 'crumbly'. He can't seem to keep his little fingers out of it. But I suppose I'll take a crumbly nose over a runny one any day.

And there you have it. Post number one for November. :)

For Halloween J is...

2008-10-31T13:08:00.006-04:00

Sickie-boy.

Sucks. Sucks. Sucks. But what can you do?

He had his costume all picked out- one for trick-or-treating, and a separate one for his school party. Obviously, he missed out on the school party. And it looks like he'll be missing out on the treating, too. I'll probably bundle him up and take him to the next door neighbor's house, just so he can at least say he got to. How can you deny a child their rights to things like trick-or-treating? It's just cruel.

But it hasn't been a total loss. The other night it was record-breaking cold down here, and so we lit a little campfire, and J and the nephew and the sister and I had a little campout in the yard. I can hear the grandmotherly types out there telling me that's the reason he's sick today, but it was worth it.

Hot dogs, marshmallows, foraging for leaves and twigs for the fire, and of course, the pumpkins. It was all a blast for them... and for us.

And overheard, as they sipped their hot chocolate together...

"Wow, Stee-mon, that was the best campout ever, wasn't it?"

Moments I wouldn't trade for anything in the world.

BTW, you'll notice that the gazebo is missing it's top. We're really not that ghetto, it's just that we took it down for TS Fay, and decided we might as well wait until hurricane season is over before putting it back up. We're probably safe to do so now. :)

J goes on a field trip

2008-10-27T16:22:00.004-04:00

I use that term very loosely. Because his school is small and is only Pre-K, they don't have the required insurance etc. to take the kids on a proper field trip. So, if a kid's going to attend, a parent has to take them. No big deal, except that mapquest lies like a dirt dog and leaves nervous mothers stranded in bad areas completely lost and clueless.

We'll leave it at that.

We arrived late, which suited Jonas just fine. He would have preferred that we simply turn around and go home. But I'll be damned if I'm going to drive 2 1/2 hours somewhere only to give up.

So, Green Meadows was nice, and the day was perfect for a petting farm. But our tour guide was a total waste of time. Why they'd hire someone who hates kids and knows nothing about animals to work at a place full of both baffles me, but there you have it.

And did I mention that my kid refused to pet, or even look at, any of the animals. The closest we came was the last pen we stopped at on our way out-- a little pot bellied pig. Go figure. No fuzzy ducks or cute little goats for my boy!

It wasn't a total loss, though. They had tractors to climb on, and a hay ride, and a lame-o train that circled around a couple of acres of completely empty enclosures. All of those things ranked high on J's list of entertainment.

I was going to do a cute little narrative of the day, but I'll just pile a heap of pictures here and call it done. I'm honestly too tired to do it much justice.

Obligatory sheep photo

More drugs, please

2008-10-20T18:32:00.003-04:00

Good lord, sometimes life can be crueler than fiction.

As of Sunday we didn't have a single operational vehicle in our driveway. It always seems to happen that way, and usually when the bank account is at it's emptiest. Why is that?

Fortunately, hubby's car was an easy fix-- just needed a new battery. At least, that's what we thought. But after purchasing said new battery and installing it, the little beast still gave trouble starting. Ends up there's a bad terminal, too. Not a major problem, but one hubby wasn't interested in addressing at 10 pm while hunched over the hood of his car in the dark, flashlight between his teeth, in a drizzle. It got him to work today, so I'm assuming that it's still ok.

My car, on the other hand. Well, has anything ever been cheap or easy to fix on it? Nope.

So, after just paying off all of our credit card debt, I had to go and plunk down a huge sum of money this morning for a new serpentine belt and tensioner. Who knew that a tensioner was an expensive part?

My biggest predicament with the car being broken today, of all days, was that not only did I have to get J to school, but had to be back by 11 because his class was putting on a "funny feet parade" in honor of the letter F. Cute, right? J proudly designed his own funny foot coverings out of some of those little foam craft sheets and lots of stickers. He was quite proud of them. How could I miss my baby boy's shining moment as leader of the parade?

The mechanic assured me that he'd have it done on time, and I'll be damned if he didn't pull it off-- I pulled out of the shop at 10:50! I made it just in time to watch J throw a temper tantrum and refuse to participate in the parade because a piece of his little costume had come undone. So we sat and watched the rest of the school and I cheered them on while he stood in the corner, arms crossed, sulking.

After that, it was a trip to the dentist for me. I could stop here, but why?

You see, I've got this weird sort of tolerance for local anesthetics. It's happened in the past on three occasions in this particular dentist's chair, and he's well aware of it. He has me come in about an hour before he's ready to get started, he gives me the good stuff, and then leaves me to sit so it can take effect. Today it didn't work. We went two rounds- four injections each, and only the slightest bit of numbing. Finally, I told him to go ahead and just start drilling. Two excruciating hours later, I've got a new temporary filling holding a tiny fraction of tooth together, and he stated that when I'm ready for the actual root canal and crown, he's going to refer me out to a surgeon who can do full anesthesia, then drops the bomb that in order to get a crown on this tooth I'm going to require gum surgery as well. I'm now strongly leaning towards simply extracting the offending molar and being done completely and forever. I'm waiting on insurance to give me quotes to make the decision final. Even the dentist agrees that it won't be too much of a loss to go that route. Maybe he just doesn't want to see me back in his chair, white knuckling the armrests. Really, he's a great guy, and it's not his fault.

Perhaps the only saving grace of the day is that J fell asleep in the car on the way home from Abuela's at 6, which means I can probably drink myself into oblivion before he wakes up at 2 a.m. ready to start a new day.

And really, I do have cute and uplifting things to share with you. But it'll have to wait until the right side of my face stops throbbing.

Hello, Stranger

2008-10-09T09:32:00.003-04:00

How did it get to be this long since I've posted anything? Seems like time flies lately. We are so darn busy with day to day stuff that I often don't even find time to sit down until well after 9 at night. Heck, some nights I pick J up from Abuela's house and he's asleep before we even get home. Makes me sad and feels like such a wasted day because I adore those sweet cuddly evenings with him after a long day of being apart. But what can you do? We're not the only folks in the world with wacky schedules, I know, so it hardly seems worthy of complaining about. But still. There are weeks where I feel like we've done nothing constructive together, and that all of our time is spent rushing to get from one place to another. Really all I want is to be able to cuddle up with him on the couch with a big stack of books, or a pile of legos, and not have to worry about what bags need to be packed for the next day, what lunches, what time we have to be where, and whether or not we even have clean underwear and socks for the morning.

And I catch myself trying to make up for our lack of time by spoiling him in little ways... a new DVD to watch at Abuela's. A new Hot Wheels car for not giving me a hard time in the morning. A Pokemon figure just because. Like he needs more STUFF, and as if silly little toys are going to make up for all the time we're losing out on.

He feels similar, I know, because he's clingy, whiny, and has even begun reverting to baby talk sometimes. Instead of saying "Mommy, can I have some juice?" He'll whine, point, and say "Juice! Juice! Juice!". Frustrating, but we just keep telling him that big boys use their words, and wait until he uses them to give him what he wants.

But it hasn't all been chaos and negative around here. Last week we celebrated two birthdays in the family, as well as our anniversary. We've never been ones to really go overboard on celebrations. We didn't take a romantic honeymoon after our wedding, and usually we simply go out to dinner, or bring home takeout. But this year we decided that we really needed to do something a little more special. In the time crunch that we've been in, it seems that our relationship has been given the biggest share of neglect. I mean, when it comes to everything that HAS to get done, we sometimes forget that we need to take time for US, too. We both took Friday off of work and reserved a nice hotel room on the beach.

I don't know if I can remember the last time we've spent any sort of time together, and it was wonderful. We had a nice dinner out, and then just simply vegged together at the hotel. Here's the view we woke up to in the morning.

Not the greatest picture, but we didn't think to bring a camera. This was taken with my cell phone from our balcony where we sat and sipped our coffee while watching the sunrise. Spectacular.

So that's what we've been up to. Other than that, we're just steadily working on our growing list of things we want to try and make for our handmade Christmas gifts. So far the list is HUGE, but the FO pile is tiny. I'm starting to get a bit nervous. But we'll get it done, I'm sure.

Today is my day off from work, but I have a silly staff meeting to attend, which eats a big chunk out of my day. But once we're home and done, J and I have a date with the sewing machine. He wants to help make another pair of 'puppy pants'.

A new approach

2008-09-22T17:09:00.002-04:00

This week I'm taking a new approach to getting dinner on the table with more frequency. This is spawned by a disgust of just how much fast food we've consumed since school started and our schedules got a little busier. But let's face it-- when I'm up at 5:30, gone by 7:30, and not home again until close to 8 and sometimes later than that, it's hard to plan, prep, and actually COOK something/anything.

While running errands this weekend we also cruised through the bookstore and I picked up a few magazines full of recipes for the crock pot and casseroles. Yeah, I know, every time I think of the crock pot I think of boring, soupy mush, too. But if these recipes turn out as delicious looking as the pictures in this book, then my family might stand a chance at eating something that hasn't recently departed a drive-thru window.

I'm reserving the crock pot meals for the three nights that I work late, hoping that they'll survive their LONG slow simmer until I get home without completely disintegrating. But I've prepared a menu to follow for the entire week, and purchased the necessary ingredients that I didn't have on hand over the weekend. Today I went ahead and got the stuff ready to go into the pot tomorrow morning so that all I have to do in the morning is dump it in and turn it on before walking out the door. I'm hopeful. Maybe even a little too hopeful.

So, do you have any tips and tricks to getting healthy food on the table even on the busiest of nights? And be realistic-- don't go suggesting a big bowl of salad. While that would work for me, I hardly think the boys in this house would find that a suitable replacement for arroz con gandules and thick, juicy chuletas! Do you have a tried and true recipe that you go back to on those nights where you've only got about 10 minutes to get it all together and in the oven? If so, leave it in the comments, or post it on your blog and give me a link. I'll even take a more complicated recipe if I can do most of the prep the night before. I'd offer a prize, but sadly, don't think I have much to give away, unless you're a fan of dustbunnies. :)

Now that's just wrong!

2008-09-21T11:38:00.003-04:00

I've been waiting forever for the Yarn Harlot to come anywhere near the state of Florida and the closest she's ever been is Atlanta. It's hard to justify a trip that far just to see someone talk about yarn, so I didn't go to that one, even though Michele and I did consider it.

This morning she posted her new tour schedule on her blog, and she's coming! To FL! To the EAST COAST OF FLORIDA! I did a happy little squee! Started to pick up the phone and call Michele and all my other knitty friends to start arranging carpools to Jacksonville, and then stopped, looked at the date again... October 16th, 7:00 pm... Ummm... it's hubby's birthday.

Why, oh why couldn't it be a day before, or a day after that?

I don't suppose I could convince hubby that going to see the Harlot is a great birthday gift for the non-knitting man. :)

2008-09-11T14:58:00.003-04:00

Saw this meme on another blog and it got me thinking-- I couldn't remember a single song from that year. So, here's the list of top 100. What you do:

A.) Go to musicoutfitters.com

B.) Enter the year you graduated from high school in the search function and get the list of 100 most popular songs of that year

C.) Bold the songs you like, strike through the ones you hate and underline or italicize your favorite. Do nothing to the ones you don’t remember (or don’t care about)

Top 100 Hits of 1996/Top 100 Songs of 1996
1. ~~Macarena~~ (Bayside Boys Mix), Los Del Rio
2. One Sweet Day, Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men
3. Because You Loved Me, Celine Dion
4. Nobody Knows, Tony Rich Project
5. ~~Always Be My Baby~~, Mariah Carey
6. Give Me One Reason, Tracy Chapman
7. Tha Crossroads, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony
8. I Love You Always Forever, Donna Lewis
9. You're Makin' Me High/Let It Flow, Toni Braxton
10. Twisted, Keith Sweat
11. ~~C'mon N' Ride It (The Train)~~, Quad City Dj's
12. Missing, Everything But The Girl
13. Ironic, Alanis Morissette
14. Exhale (Shoop Shoop), Whitney Houston
15. Follow You Down/Til I Hear It From You, Gin Blossoms
16. Sittin' Up In My Room, Brandy
17. How Do U Want It/California Love, 2Pac
18. It's All Coming Back To Me Now, Celine Dion
19. Change The World, Eric Clapton
20. Hey Lover, LL Cool J
21. Loungin, LL Cool J
22. Insensitive, Jann Arden
23. Be My Lover, La Bouche
24. Name, Goo Goo Dolls
25. Who Will Save Your Soul, Jewel
26. Where Do You Go, No Mercy
27. I Can't Sleep Baby (If I), R. Kelly
28. Counting Blue Cars, Dishwalla
29. You Learn/You Oughta Know, Alanis Morissette
30. One Of Us, Joan Osborne
31. Wonder, Natalie Merchant
32. Not Gon' Cry, Mary J. Blige
33. Gangsta's Paradise, Coolio
34. Only You, 112 Featuring The Notorious B.I.G.
35. Down Low (Nobody Has To Know), R. Kelly
36. You're The One, SWV
37. Sweet Dreams, La Bouche
38. Before You Walk Out Of My Life/Like This And Like That, Monica
39. Breakfast At Tiffany's, Deep Blue Something
40. 1, 2, 3, 4 (Sumpin' New), Coolio
41. The World I Know, Collective Soul
42. No Diggity, BLACKstreet (Featuring Dr. Dre)
43. Anything, 3t
44. 1979, The Smashing Pumpkins
45. Diggin' On You, TLC
46. Why I Love You So Much/Ain't Nobody, Monica
47. Kissin' You, Total
48. Count On Me, Whitney Houston and Cece Winans
49. Fantasy, Mariah Carey
50. Time, Hootie and The Blowfish
51. You'll See, Madonna
52. Last Night, Az Yet
53. Mouth, Merril Bainbridge
54. The Earth, The Sun, The Rain, Color Me Badd
55. All The Things (Your Man Won't Do), Joe
56. Wonderwall, Oasis
57. Woo-hah!! Got You All In Check/Everything Remains Raw, Busta Rhymes
58. Tell Me, Groove Theory
59. Elevators (Me and You), Outkast
60. Hook, Blues Traveler
61. Doin It, LL Cool J
62. Fastlove, George Michael
63. Touch Me Tease Me, Case Featuring Foxxy Brown
64. Tonite's Tha Night, Kris Kross
65. Children, Robert Miles
66. Theme From Mission: Impossible, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen
67. Closer To Free, Bodeans
68. Just A Girl, No Doubt
69. If Your Girl Only Knew, Aaliyah
70. Lady, D'angelo
71. Key West Intermezzo (I Saw You First), John Mellencamp
72. Pony, Ginuwine
73. Nobody, Keith Sweat
74. Old Man and Me (When I Get To Heaven), Hootie and The Blowfish
75. If It Makes You Happy, Sheryl Crow
76. As I Lay Me Down, Sophie B. Hawkins
77. Keep On, Keepin' On, Mc Lyte
78. Jealousy, Natalie Merchant
79. I Want To Come Over, Melissa Etheridge
80. Who Do U Love, Deborah Cox
81. Un-Break My Heart, Toni Braxton
82. This Is Your Night, Amber
83. You Remind Me Of Something, R. Kelly
84. Runaway, Janet Jackson
85. Set U Free, Planet Soul
86. Hit Me Off, New Edition
87. No One Else, Total
88. My Boo, Ghost Town Dj's
89. Get Money, Junior M.A.F.I.A.
90. That Girl, Maxi Priest Featuring Shaggy
91. Po Pimp, Do Or Die
92. Until It Sleeps, Metallica
93. Hay, Crucial Conflict
94. Beautiful Life, Ace Of Base
95. Back For Good, Take That
96. I Got Id/Long Road, Pearl Jam
97. Soon As I Get Home, Faith Evans
98. ~~Macarena~~, Los Del Rio
99. Only Wanna Be With You, Hootie and The Blowfish
100. Don't Cry, Seal

Man, I graduated in a world of sorry music, didn't I? Even after looking at the list, I only know, or vaguely remember, half of them at all.

All in a day

2008-09-10T21:16:00.002-04:00

Man, some days you're better off just staying in bed.

Before 7 am J had already sneezed a mouthful of half-chewed raisin bran all over the back of my neck, and then proceeded to gag and puke the rest of his breakfast on my foot. Makes you all want to rush right out and have kids, doesn't it?

Who am I kidding, most of you already have kids, and are well ahead of me on all of this.

We had major meltdowns over everything from the way his underwear didn't match his pants to snotty noses, to sock seams, which all culminated in "I'm not going to school today, Mommy." Of course, this led to me forcing him, one gentle push at a time to the car, into the car, into the car seat, to the school, out of the car again, and ALL the way down the hall to his class, all the while whispering evil threats of Pokemon revoking, tv and computer game restrictions, straight down to a timeout right there in class, on the floor, while he kicked bruises into my shins. No idea where my son gets his morning mentality!

I can't take mornings like this, and yet I don't know how to prevent them. The snotty cereal on the back of the neck I can deal with, but the attitude and the stubborn streak and the just plain ugly? Not my bag. And I've said it before, but I can sympathize. Just like me, the child isn't wired for mornings. I could wake him up at 6, at 5, at 4 even, and he's still not going to be prepped and ready for a good day.

And I'll hang my head shamefully and admit to coddling him, to giving in to him all too frequently on the little things, but this going to school thing... well, it's a requirement. He has to attend, or get dropped. I guess the good side is that we're (hopefully) getting this out of his system before he starts kindergarten next year. That, and he goes to a great school, and his teachers and admin are very patient and understanding with him.

But still... I can't help but feel like one of our clients--one of the ancient old ladies ambulating with a walker, being dragged across the lobby by a great dane that's hellbent on eating the poodle cowering behind it's owner's ankle-- every time I walk through the door. I know all the other parents are looking at me and him and shaking their heads in disgust... or at least praising all that is holy that it's not THEIR child acting that way.

And then I went to work.

Fast forward to lunch time. I picked J up from school, got caught in the hall having an impromptu parent-teacher conference which ate up half my time, then rushed to the inlaws to drop him off there so I could get back to work, and they friggin weren't home! WTF?! How long have I had this same schedule? These same work days with these same times? So I called hubby, just to get someone else involved in the drama, I suppose.

J and I made the best of it and had a picnic on the front porch while we waited-- more because it was now after 1 p.m. and I hadn't even had any breakfast yet.

I finally got him dropped off, got back to work, and had a 45 minute phone conversation with a crazy lady who insisted that her cats were infested with some sort of parasitic creatures with red beady eyes that were burrowing under her skin and chewing holes in her buttocks and *said in that low, confidential whisper* "inside me, ya know... inside me." Oh God help me!!

Shall I continue?

On the way to pick J up I got a phone call from my sister telling me that the dog had locked her out of the house.

Then I get home, sit down, and the doorbell rings and there stands the pizza guy with a pizza I didn't order.

And now? Now that it's nearly 10 pm. I think my day is finally reaching a moment of normalcy. Hubby is on the couch watching some weird Japanese game show, Jonas is running around blowing a horn and making all sorts of wild noise because he took a nap at Abuela's and isn't the slightest bit tired, and the dog is sitting here, head in my lap, banging her tail loudly against the metal base of the lamp, begging for me to take her out. This is calm in my world.

Over this

2008-09-07T19:07:00.002-04:00

Damn, I'm tired. Like room spinning, can't focus on a thing, tired.

J's been 'not right' since Thursday afternoon. He came home from school, whined for a few minutes, complained of his cheek hurting, then promptly fell asleep on the couch. Totally NOT J-like behavior. He doesn't nap- never has. He woke 2 hours later with a raging fever and was inconsolable.

The doctor just shrugged at me, acted annoyed by my presence-- just another mom that thinks the sky is falling every time their kid sneezes. But honestly, despite his lower fever in the exam room, and his much more chipper demeanor, there's something WRONG with him.

I kept him home from school Friday, even though he seemed to feel a little better. I'd rather not be one of those moms that sends their germbag off to class to infect everyone else.

All day Friday, he seemed to be better, although there was still the weird cheek pain thing, and no interest in food.

Saturday... Ugh! Saturday. If ever there was a world record for longest day of the year, it would have been Saturday. Between a whiney, not quite right kid, and the other crap that I don't really feel like rehashing right now, Saturday was the suckiest of sucky days. Total suckage.

J fell asleep around 9. I joined him around midnight. About half an hour later, I was yanked out of my nearly-sleep by that croupy cough that probably every mom has heard at least once. It was nearly two hours of watching him struggle for breath, his little belly breathing, chest sucking, no air getting in, panic while sitting in the bathroom floor, holding all sixty pounds of him and rocking and singing while the shower ran out of hot water before he was, as if someone flipped a switch, fine again.

After that, going back to sleep just wasn't going to happen. We curled up together on the couch and praised the great deity BrightHouse for the fact that Noggin is now a 24 hour channel until the sun came up and he finally nodded off to sleep.

This day isn't going fast enough for my liking. J seems to feel good today, but has laryngitis and is frustrated by his inability to talk much. I have to admit, despite how much I sometimes wish he'd put a cork in it for a little while, I really do miss my little chatter box.

The only positive to come out of all of this is some completely ADD knitting. I got a wild hair and cast on for a pair of mittens at about 3 this morning, but as a result of no sleep and not enough coffee, I got gauge all wonky and these things could have fit sasquatch with room left over. Fortunately I wasn't so delirious that I got much past the ribbing before the little voice in the back of my head spoke up and said "hey dumbass, put down the needles!" So I picked up the crochet hook and finished J's spidey blanket. It's blocking right now, and once it dries, if it ever does, I'll find somewhere to hide it until Christmas.

I also cast on for Mystery Stole 4. Since MS3 was such a total failure for me, I figured why not go and set myself up for more of the same. Maybe this will be the year for me to actually finish something lace. Maybe.

Oh, and I did a few more rows on the Shalom Cardigan that I've been avoiding like the plague. It's not the sweater I hate, it's the sweater. The pattern's great, the result is looking good, but knitting it is an exercise in knitterly hell. Knitting something that big and heavy on giant needles-- man! Every single stitch seems so exaggerated in it's execution. The effort of just wrapping each stitch, and moving the resulting fabric along the needles seems like too much work. Or maybe I'm just that tired. I do think that the final product will be something I'm proud of, if I don't end up in dual wrist braces by the time I get there!

Where's Joe?

2008-09-04T22:34:00.003-04:00

It's been a weird sort of day and I'm beat, but I wanted to take just a second to say how great it was to finally make knit night with the girls tonight- against all odds and despite the grumpy hubby I got to come home to.

I really needed a few hours of girly, knitterly time.

And the highlight of the evening was that Joe of SWTC dropped in for a little while to show off all their yarns and patterns. We had a great time petting beautiful sweaters and scarves and other samples he brought along with him. But it was almost surreal, having a real, true, yarny person hanging out with our little group for the night.

I'm sure I could do this post more justice if my brain were functioning at all, but I'm beat, and it's late. Perhaps I'll try again tomorrow.

This and that and nothing in particular

2008-08-31T16:00:00.006-04:00

Proof that you can buy a kid every expensive toy in the world, but a cardboard box will still hold their attention longer.

I swear, I really want to be a better blogger. It's just that things get so hectic during the week that I don't seem to be able to find the time to sit down here long enough to put together a meaningful post.

J's adjusting to school much better than we anticipated. We made it through our first full week with only one grumpy, melt down sort of morning. I'm quite proud, and I know his teacher appreciates it, too. He can be a real booger in the mornings, and I can completely sympathize. You see, he gets it from me. I'm totally NOT a morning person, which is ironic, considering a I work a job that requires me to be up hours before sunrise, and keeps me going until after the sun sets. But I have the benefit of coffee to ease me through the first few hours when my brain can't seem to keep up with the world around me. J-man, he's just screwed. And I don't suppose it's a good idea to go stuffing kids full of caffeine just to avoid the morning grumpies. So we deal with it as best we can.

Did I mention that this year is going to kill me? J's school starts at 8 and I'm supposed to be at work at 7. Ummm... *scratches head*. I could force Wil to step up to the plate, since he doesn't have to be at work until 9, but the man can't get himself to work on time on a good day. Between the car shuffle that would be required, and the anxiety it would cause in me wondering if they're on time, if J's been fed, or is even wearing underwear, it's hardly worth it.

The second issue is that school ends at 11. On a good day, I can get to lunch by 12, but it's usually more like 2. Fortunately, the school does provide after-care services for a reasonable fee, so that's less of a headache. I'd be fine with leaving him there until I got off work completely, except that they close at 5:30, and we close at 6.

So my mornings now consist of rushing around in a brain fog, trying to rush my son around in a brain fog, then zipping across town to work, so I can be an hour and a half late, so that I can rush back across town on my lunch to pick him up and take him to Abuela's, so that I can rush back to work and finish my shift, then rush back to Abuela's to get him so I can rush home to walk the dogs before they explode.

Most days I'm on the go from 5 am, and don't find time to sit down, or even eat, until 8 or 9. I'm exhausted, and it's only week 2! This is going to be interesting.

But enough about school and work. Let's talk about those fun few hours of complete and total silence that occur on my days off while J is in school. Yes, those 6 hours per week are golden. It'd be nice if I didn't want to try and fit so much into those few moments. Most days I get nothing accomplished simply because I can't seem to decide which I'd rather do. Pathetic, isn't it?

There has been *some* knitting, though. Nothing worth writing home about. I'm working ever so slowly on my Shalom Cardigan, which is a really simple and quick knit, except for it's on huge needles with huge yarn, and well, it hurts my hands. So I only do a row or two at a time. I won't bother sharing pictures yet. It just looks like a burgundy blob.

And there's the Spidey afghan for J-man. I know! I'm crocheting! And I'm enjoying it so much! It just lends itself so much more readily to being picked up and set down constantly, and doesn't require the same attention that my knitting does. It's growing and growing, and people keep asking me when it's going to be done. I usually just shrug and say "when I run out of yarn". I fear that time is fast approaching, and I'm really not sure it's big enough for my taste. It's certainly big enough to be a cuddly blanket for J-- something to toss across him in the car, or while sitting on the couch, but it's not the bed-sized wonder that I was hoping it would turn into. All the same, I could stop right now and be perfectly happy with it, even with all of it's imperfections. I mean, for a first 'big' crochet project, it's pretty darn cool.

And I've also been playing around a bit with the sewing machine lately. I have a million and one things that I'd like to be sewing, and a huge bag of stuff that I'd like to do some recon on, but for now I'm just doing some basic stuff to get used to using it again. It's been forever since I've sewn anything.

Here are some pants I made for myself. They're made out of some super cheap mystery fabric, but they're soooo comfy. I want to make about a million and one pairs of these to wear every day! I did learn that pattern sizing is a whole lot different than regular clothes sizing. These are two sizes bigger than what I would buy in the store, and they're a little snug in the hips and butt, but not so much so that I can't wear them. I'll remember for the next pair to make them just a smidge wider in that area. Still, I love them.

And my other sewing project for the week was a pair of Blue Yonder's 'bandana pants' for J-man, which were featured on the SewMamaSew blog a while back. What a genius idea! And J really enjoyed helping to make them. He's so proud of them that he wears them almost constantly. It's all I can do to wiggle his sleeping bum out of them long enough to toss them in the wash. We'll make a bunch more of these, I'm sure. They're excellent play shorts and jammie pants. Yes, they' are a bit long- almost capri pants on him, but I couldn't bear to hem them and lose the cute little bones around the bottom. :)

I suppose that's all I've got for now. Right now J-man and the nephew are buzzing about making ungodly amounts of noise, but I have to admit, the noise is tolerable when it means that they are entertaining each other. I haven't existed since 8:30 this morning.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

2008-08-21T11:08:00.003-04:00

Who'd have thought that a measly little storm like Fay would devastate the county the way that it has? I mean, four days ago we weren't even in the projected path, and now, after three days of torrential and constant rain, people are standing around, waist deep in water, and scratching their heads.

I got trapped at work yesterday. I won't even begin to tell you how I feel about the fact that we were required to come to work in the first place, but by the time they realized that it was a stupid idea, it was too late for me, in my little car, to even attempt to drive home.

Luckily, one of my coworkers with a big SUV was willing to be brave and selfless. She not only took me home, but drove through some of the deepest waters- think cars overturned on the sides of the roads and folks floating around in boats all around us- to get me to my son first. A huge thank you to Katy!

Every canal, lake, and other retention device in the county is overflowed, and it's eerie to look around and everything looks like a lake dotted with houses. The lift stations aren't able to do their job, so there's sewage backing up into the flood water, there are catfish in people's front yards, and it's STILL raining. It has lightened up some, thankfully, and the canal behind my house has gone from cresting last night to about a foot below the bank, so I'm feeling pretty fortunate. But it'll be a long time before things are the same around here again.

I won't fill this blog full of photos, but if you care to see what it looks like, and you haven't seen the weather channel or any other sort of national news lately, feel free to check out Florida Today for a ton of different galleries.

My baby is how old?!

2008-08-18T17:13:00.002-04:00

It's been a whirlwind of a few weeks- no pun intended with tropical storm Fay spinning just a little way south of us right now. But that's a whole 'nother blog post.

Last week we celebrated J's 4th birthday in style. J's not much for a party. It's just overwhelming for him to be the center of all that attention. And quite honestly, it's hard for me to justify the expense and physical work that goes into planning a birthday party for him, just so he can completely not enjoy it. So, with the money that we would have spent on a party, we decided to take a mini-vacation to Orlando. The timing worked out well since the parents were bringing the nephew home from a summer long visit in TN that same week.

We stayed at the Nickelodeon hotel and didn't even bother with any of the theme parks or anything like that. Lounging in the pool and running amok in the arcade was plenty fun for him.

Of course, being true to his character, he did find it more than a little overwhelming-- all the people, the loud noise, the characters. He wouldn't come within 50 feet of them. Not even Blue of Blue's Clues fame. Seriously, what child is afraid of Blue?! But I didn't push the issue. It scared him that they didn't talk more than anything. Weird.

But the pools were great fun, and we got a good sunburn. We also enjoyed cake and a good visit with the family, so it was time and money well spent.

I think that next year he may decide he'd rather have a party since he'll be making all these new friends at Preschool this year.

Yes, that's right. My little baby started preschool today. Not daycare, not Mommy's day out, but real, structured, have to do what your told to do, preschool. Seriously, it seems like they grow up entirely too fast, doesn't it? I know every parent says that, and I'm sure they truly mean it, but every time I look at my big boy sitting there, absorbing so much from the world around him, it just amazes me.

So, a big birthday, the first day of school, and today he also had his 4-year checkup at the pediatrician's. There's a whole separate drama surrounding that, but I can skip that for sanity's sake.

Essentially, he passed his vision test perfectly, and his blood pressure is good. He failed his hearing test completely, but I was assured that it's not uncommon at this age-- more of a selective hearing problem than a true hearing problem. But we'll monitor it, and if I have any concerns, we'll visit the audiologist just to be sure. He's still a bit behind in motor skills, but he's coming along in that department, too. I think being in school and trying to keep up with his faster classmates may solve a lot of that problem. He's off the charts in both height and weight, and the doctor tells me that, according to standard charts, he's obese. But honestly, he's just a big kid. I'm willing to admit that he's a little bit of a chunk, but he eats a healthy diet, and I think he's just going to be a tall, stout boy. Think linebacker. That's my boy. But I'll take the doctor's suggestion about cutting back on juice and adding more whole wheat options into his diet. Aside from that, I'm not about to consider putting my 4-year-old on a 'diet', or stigmatizing his eating habits. Especially when I know he really is a fairly healthy eater.

Anyway, I'll leave you with some pictures of our vacation/birthday bash. And I promise I'll try to be a better blogger in the future.

Break your heart with sweetness

2008-08-07T14:06:00.002-04:00

Have you seen the ASPCA commercial with the pictures of abused and neglected animals being displayed while Sara McLachlan's song plays in the background? Yeah, it makes you almost cry every time you see it, doesn't it?

Well, J-man saw it about 2 or 3 months ago, and every time he sees it again he freezes, watches intently, repeating "Oh, poor puppy. Poor kitties!" and asks if we can help them.

His compassion for them is enough to melt me. I don't know if he understands that these are animals that we'll never see, hold, or physically care for ourselves. And I doubt if he'll find it rewarding just to send money to the organization and 'trust' that it's doing the right thing. I mean, that's a pretty big stretch for a 4-year-old mind, isn't it?

He saw the commercial again today, and once again asked if we could help them. He even told me that we could skip going to the "Spongebob Hotel" for his birthday if we could just do this instead.

How can I say no to that?

I think that I'll take him shopping instead, let him pick out lots of food and supplies, and drive it out to the local shelter instead.

My son amazes me and makes me proud every day.

Just another weekend post

2008-08-03T11:43:00.002-04:00

Yesterday ended up being a ridiculously busy day, and it totally started out in a Murphy's Law sort of way. As I was getting out of my car at work, at the ungodly hour of a quarter to sunrise, sans caffeine, and juggling my large purse (mom-bag), my even larger coffee cup, and my soda, I fumbled my keys, and while trying to recover them, ended up dropping my soda. Sodas don't lend themselves well to 4 foot falls onto asphalt. And so there I stood, in an absolute shower of sticky soda, getting sprayed from head to toe, and soaking wet. What do you do? I cursed, picked up the now empty can, and slogged inside trying to figure out what to do about my situation. Too late to drive all the way back home for new scrubs, and no way I was going to be able to wear these, I went diving in the closet, hoping to find something at least relatively matching and in a size that might fit.

I managed to find a green top and green pants-- not the exact same hue, but close enough, and only one size larger than I usually wear. So, looking all wrinkled and frumpy, that's how my day started.

Then it just got better as I came home and got to mow the yard in triple-digit heat. Not so bad, except for every time I took a break to drink some water and sit in the shade for a few minutes, the darn thing wouldn't start back up. What's usually a 45 minute to an hour job ended up taking about 4. But it looks better out there, and I'm not going to lose a small child in the overgrowth now. :) Seriously, it's hard to keep the yard trim and neat when it rains every day after work. And true to form, just after I finished mowing, it stormed again.

In other news, I also have my first 'real' transcription job, and had to get it done yesterday, too. The transcription part isn't difficult at all, it's getting my templates set up so that they are identical to what the doctor is used to having. This isn't going to be a permanent gig, but if it works out and I do a good job, there's potential there for it to turn into one eventually. The girl that does the transcription for our office is on vacation this week, and so they've asked me to do it for her, instead of waiting for her to come back. I'm not looking to take anyone's job from them, but I'd really like it if they'd consider me for an in-house transcriptionist instead of sending out all of the reports. I could have a much quicker turn-around time-- same day even. Keeping my fingers crossed.

And finally, not really feeling like making a huge production over dinner, and yet absolutely starving, I made a big pot of chicken soup, using up some leftover rice from dinner earlier in the week and some other veggies we picked up at the produce store. It was warm and delicious, and a perfect dinner, despite the heat outside. There's just something so yummy about a big pot of homemade soup. And I'm thrilled that J agrees.

Today we're going to head up to Michele and Thomas' house to hang out for a little while and throw some ribs on the grill. I had to call my Dad to get instructions on the proper method, of course. No one I know can make ribs as yummy as his.

And finally, we're in the final week of preparation for J's birthday. I can't believe my little baby is turning 4 already! I know every parent says that every year, but truly-- where does the time go?

Instead of a big birthday party, we decided to take the money we would have spent on decorations and invitations and food and renting a place (since our house just isn't big enough) and we're going to the Nick Hotel in Orlando for a few days instead. The parents will be meeting us there, as well as the nephew and my sister. There's so much to do on site that I don't know if we'll end up going to one of the theme parks, or just enjoying ourselves there. Either way, it'll be great.

The dark side

2008-07-31T10:36:00.002-04:00

I've become bored with my knitting lately. There. I said it. It's not that there aren't a million things I'd like to knit, because there are. It's just that I made myself promise that I'd pay some attention to a few languishing projects before casting on for new ones.

Holding true to that, I've not cast on for anything new. Of course, that means that I've also not been knitting much at all.

Instead, I've been crocheting. *gasp* I know. But we all know that crochet is not knitting, and therefore doesn't count as 'cheating' on my UFOs, right? Besides, it's been sort of fun learning a whole new craft. And it goes so quickly in comparison. I haven't tackled anything monstrous yet-- just some little toys. But they're total instant gratification, and I can't seem to stop.

I've sort of lost motivation for a lot of things lately- crafting just being one of the small things. I can't seem to find the energy to do a lot of things-- housework, school stuff, real work, it's all suffering, but I'm not sure how to get myself out of this rut.

Sooner or later, necessity will drag me, kicking and screaming, back into the rat race, but for now, I'm perfectly content to sit here in my jammies at an hour completely unbecoming, and do absolutely nothing.

I did manage to spin about 1 oz of some pretty cranberry roving yesterday, though. Maybe there's hope.

House of Snot

2008-07-30T19:51:00.003-04:00

Heard in a whiney little voice last night in between Ny-Quill induced comas: "Mommy, my boogers make my words sound funny."

Yup... that about sums it up.

A beaver says what?

2008-07-27T21:00:00.003-04:00

I'm in the bathroom this morning brushing my teeth. J's on my bed with a few of his stuffed animals. I'm half-listening to their teddy bear dialog and his imagined scenarios until suddenly I hear "Dammit! Dammit! Dammit!"

Now, just an hour earlier, when he dropped his entire bowl of cereal, milk and all, on my freshly swept and mopped kitchen floor, I may have, in the silentest of whispers, uttered the same word somewhere in the vicinity of his keen earshot.

"Dammit, Dammit, Dammit!" he says again.

I steel myself and sweetly say, "Hey honey, I know you heard Mama say that word this morning, but I shouldn't have said it. It's an ugly word, and we shouldn't use it, ok?"

He looked up at me very matter-of-factly, holds forth the stuffed critter who has broken the language rule, and asks, "But Mama, what else is the beaver going to say?"

So much for productivity

2008-07-20T19:23:00.003-04:00

I woke up this morning wanting to accomplish so much, but sometimes whatever cosmic force you might believe in has it out for you.

After finally getting both J and hubby motivated and out the door, which is a small feat in and of itself, we headed to the produce store to get, well... produce, of course. J pitched a fit right in the middle of the shop, which I'd like to say is completely uncharacteristic of him, but lately it seems to be his normal routine. Quite frustrating. He's always been a fun and agreeable shopping partner, but lately, he's been ridiculously difficult. After assuaging whatever it was that had him all askew, we had a good time picking out all sorts of yummy stuff-- some plantains, an acorn squash, some apples, giant tomatoes, snap peas, a watermelon. Yum!

When we got in the car to leave, the damn thing wouldn't start. Now, we just spent $500 less than a month ago to correct this very problem, but apparently, my car's got just as much attitude as my kid. Some helpful kids who work at the store came to the rescue and were able to get it jump started. We drove it directly to the auto parts store where they diagnose it with a dead battery. It makes sense, driving it with a faulty starter for so long just put an early end to the battery.

The good news to all of this is that the battery was still under warranty, so we only had to pay half price for the new one.

Wil borrowed some tools and installed it while J and I sat in the shade on the sidewalk and shared an iced tea and swatted the gnats. Believe me, I was more than grateful for the simple fix, but what a crappy time of year to be stuck in the heat with a broken car and a whiny kid.

After the battery was installed, we brought the veggies home, and then went to get something to eat because the last thing I felt like doing was facing the mountain of dishes in the sink so that I could make more by cooking dinner.

Dinner sucked out loud. The food wasn't terrible, but the service was awful, it was crowded, their a/c was just barely blowing, and J, again, was being a booger. Seriously, I've never had to deal with this sort of phase before with him, and I'm somewhat at a loss for a solution. Do I drag his whiny butt out of every place? Or does that simply give him his way?

Sometimes just when I think I've got the parenting thing all figured out, he throws me a curve ball. I just wish I knew what was spawning this particular brand of behavior.

*sigh*

And I still need to go to the grocery.

Unfaithful

2008-07-19T14:12:00.005-04:00

There hasn't been much to show in the way of knitting lately. It's not that I'm NOT knitting, but simply that I'm ALSO doing a lot of other things, and so progress is slow and boring.

What's been occupying my time, you ask? Well, mostly this:

This picture cracks me up. Doesn't he look like a cross between Miami Vice and bad tourist?

He's also been eating into my computer time, ever since he discovered that he can play Noggin and Nick Jr. games online. Any time I sit down here to write something, he's immediately in my lap and stealing the mouse. To be fair, I'd rather him play a game than sit in front of the tv, so I don't mind so much.

Not having any computer time has lead way to another new addiction though-- sewing. To be fair, I've spent more time shopping for sewing stuff than I have actually spent sewing. I never realized how much you could love shopping for fabric! So far I've made one pair of pants that still lack a hemmed leg, and this skirt.

The picture's awful, I know. But it's hard to take a picture of yourself. Here's a closeup of the fabric.

It's just some stuff bought on the clearance rack for $1. I didn't want to invest too much in sewing if it ended up being just a brief phase.

And finally, after being inspired by this post by Amanda, I decided it was time
to revisit the world of crochet. I've never been good at it, and I've never really understood a lot of the required stitches, but I decided to try something easy, and went with a cute little cupcake pattern.

Here's my result. Still not spectacular, but cute enough to package up and include in a birthday gift to my niece, who turns two next week.

So anyway, there's my update on what's been going on around here. I've been terribly lax in my posting lately. Not that I ever have much of great importance to share. :)

This week I plan to do a bit more sewing, finish off a pair of very plain socks, and work a little more on a shrug I abandoned almost a year ago. We'll see how it goes.

Not lost

2008-07-07T21:59:00.003-04:00

I swear that I'm still around here somewhere. I've just found a lot of stuff to fill my time with lately.

Thursday night I met up with a group of local knitters for a little stitching time. It was a nice little group of 5, and I really enjoyed it. I'm hoping that this can become a routine sort of thing, now that we all know we're really out there. There are a couple of other groups that meet throughout the county, but they're always mid-morning or early afternoon, and that just doesn't work for us folks that have daytime jobs. Hopefully our little group will evolve into it's own entity in time.

There's also been some sewing going on around here. It's been about 12 years or more since I've been serious about trying to sew anything, so it's like learning from scratch all over again. So far I've made a skirt and I'm nearly done with a pair of pants. They're certainly not works of greatness, but they've been great 'practice' projects. I'm itching to make some bags and wallets, but the skirt and the pants seemed much less intimidating.

One of the things I'm learning about sewing is that, just like knitting, I could spend a million dollars and still find that there's something else I need or want. So far the only major purchase I've made is a cutting mat and rotary cutter, which I'm insanely in love with. Makes me never want to pick up a pair of scissors again! Seriously. Now, I don't think I'll ever be a great quilter, so I didn't spring for a top of the line model, but my cheap-o will serve me well, I'm sure.

Between that, and just building up a stash of notions--threads, extra bobbins, trims, etc... I've seriously overblown my budget. I've only been a sewer for a week or so and I'm already having to put myself on a stash diet. But no worries. I did just clean out my closet in order to accommodate the sewing machine. That means huge bags of fabric in the form of scrub tops, jeans, and outgrown clothes. That's almost more fun than going out and buying new fabric, honestly-- the challenge of trying to repurpose stuff I already have is great.

And so, pictures eventually. If you promise not to laugh at my juvenile efforts. I know that when I look back at my knitting from just a year or so ago and I can see my progress. I'm sure that sewing will be the same, if I manage to stick with it.

Pimp My Space

2008-07-02T11:49:00.004-04:00

I posted a while back about how I was going to take my closet and turn it into a sewing/craft area. Well, apparently I had big dreams about how much I could do in a 5 x 3 space!
Weekend before last, I finally got serious about getting things set up, and I bought a collapsible table and some wire storage to start organizing the space.

The table is 3 foot by 4, leaving me just a sliver of space on the side. The wire storage cubes are great for holding my yarn, but eventually I'll buy some cloth 'drawer' things to go in there to keep them dust free, or else invest in some big zip-locks. The set I bought formed six cubes, but I mis-measured by about 1/10 of an inch, and they don't fit double-stacked. I can always build them and set them somewhere else-- but where.

I know that it looks pretty stark and boring in there, but come on, it's a closet! I didn't figure it would be worth the effort to paint it/decorate it all nice. I'm looking for functionality over anything else.

But I'm realizing that, as a space, 3 x 5 isn't all that big, and I have a lot of high hopes for this little spot. So, all you crafty people out there. I've shown you the beginnings of my little spot. What would you add, or how would you organize stuff to get the most use out of it? I'm thinking I'll add a cork board across the back wall to hang notes/patterns, ideas, etc. on. And that blue thing folded up on the table is a shoe organizer that I can hang on the wall to use for holding little odds and ends and folded up works in progress, etc.

But what I want to know is, what would be your must-have if this were your space to work with. What would make it most user-friendly for you. I'm just a novice sewer, but I'm determined to learn, and want to start doing a whole lot more of it. And knitting, well, the only space that takes up is the yarn storage.

And in case you're wondering, the wheel and fiber is still staying in the living room. It's too lovely to tuck in a closet! :)

Movement

2008-07-01T21:22:00.002-04:00

My long-time online friend and all-around good guy, Mike posted a request the other day for everyone to list 10 good things about him. His goal is to place these lists of good qualities into a 'self esteem folder' to refer to from time to time.

Now maybe that sounds sort of corny, or silly, or whatever. But it got me to thinking, how often do we actually take the time to tell people around us something good about themselves? I bet that if you think about it, it's not all that often. We have no problem complaining about things... bad days at work, the price of gas, something that someone screwed up at the office... but do we stop to say things like "You know, you're really good at communicating with clients," or simply, "I love that yellow shirt on you!" Or even just a "You look really nice today."

I'll bet you it's not nearly as often as you find reason to be negative.

And so I'll put this challenge out there to all of you: Make it a point every day to point out to someone something about them that you appreciate. I promise you. When you make their day, I bet, in some small way, you'll make yours better, too.

Cute kidism

2008-06-26T19:41:00.003-04:00

I often share the cute things that Jonas says with my friends at work, and inevitably someone will remind me that I should be writing them down so I don't forget them.

So, without further ado, my first cute kidism post:

J-man has a great vocabulary, both in English and Spanish, but as all kids will, he often forms words of his own. The most recent, and cutest, is "lousy". Yes, I'm fully aware that lousy is a perfectly valid word, but to J-man it doesn't mean the same thing as it does to the rest of the world. You see, somewhere along the line he's taken "noisy" and "loud" and combined the two into this new amalgam of a word which he uses to describe everything from the radio, the washing machine, to cars.

Still, it always makes me chuckle when he says "Wow Dada! Your car sure is lousy!"

Red on the head

2008-06-21T14:01:00.004-04:00

I've been wanting to show you a picture of J-man from last weekend. We took him to get his hair cut, and the girl made him feel like a total rock star, complete with glitter and red dye. Of course, it was washable, and came out the moment his head met water. This meant it took me until Monday night to get him to wash his hair in the bath. Oh well, no one ever died of dirty hair, right?

I know it's not a good picture, but he's in this "no cameras" phase right now. I guess it just plays along with his rocker mentality. Seriously though, I haven't figured out a way to sneak up on him yet. We have better luck with Wil's iphone than with the actual camera because he doesn't see it coming.

This week my car's been in the shop, which has been interesting, figuring out how to get here and there without transportation. But we've managed to get by, and the car is now home, $500 and a new starter later. Why must my car be a total pain in the ass?

The knitting continues to be mindless with a pair of stockinette socks going on, and a pair of ankle socks requested by one of my doctors at work. I'm not using a pattern for either, as they're just plain old socks, but I'm not really happy with the requested socks. They're cute, but the yarn is more of a DK weight, and so acrylic that they squeak (loudly) on the needles! I think I'm going to try and find some 'real' yarn in a similar color and reknit them at a different gauge. These fit and all, but I just can't see how anyone would enjoy wearing socks this bulky. They'll be good for me to wear around the house. My feet are always cold, so it's not like this pair is a wasted effort.

Pictures eventually. I still haven't charged the battery in my camera, or located the cable required to load them. Call me lazy.

When it rains

2008-06-17T21:57:00.003-04:00

My car is cursed. Seriously. It has a mind of it's own, and works on it's own schedule. Usually, when it's feeling snarky is exactly when I need it to be on it's best behavior-- much like my son.

For months now, intermittently, it's left me stranded somewhere. You get in, turn the key, and nothing. It's not the battery because I can still roll the windows up and down and the dome light works, as well as the radio. Twice, I've pulled it into the auto parts store to have the alternator checked, and it's passed with flying colors, too.

Yesterday, while out running errands in the too-hot-to-breathe afternoon heat, it decided to play it's tricks on me. Every time I give in and call someone to come 'rescue' me, it starts right up when they get there. And true to form, once Wil arrived, driving 20 miles out of his way, in his company van, it did the exact same thing.

Fortunately, I have a pretty cool mechanic, who graciously allowed me to bring it straight over. He thinks it's the starter. That's a simple fix, I suppose. The bad news is he'll need to keep the car for a couple of days while the starter gets rebuilt. Apparently, that's the cheaper way to go, and I'm all for that. The problem with him keeping the car is that I NEED my car. It's the only car that's really safe enough to put J in. I suppose the chances of having an accident in Wil's car in the two days or so that I'd have to depend on it are fairly slim, but still... who wants to strap their kid into a car with back doors that stick, has no a/c, and sounds like armageddon when it runs?

Yeah, it's only a temporary thing, but still... I'm going to have to suck it up. Right now I'm on pins and needles every time I start it up, not sure when it's going to decide it's done for good.

As a bonus, this means that I won't be going to Stitch N Pitch this weekend, which I really wanted to do. J would have loved the game, and how often do I get a chance to hang out with a bunch of knitters?

*sigh*

In good news, I got my new-to-me computer this weekend, thanks to Michele. Soon I'll have pictures to share and I can get back on track with all things net related.

And speaking of Michele, it seems we manage to find some excuse to get together almost every weekend for a little knitting time, and yet my FO count doesn't seem to go anywhere. Funny how that happens. I did finish up my puke monkeys this weekend. Pictures soon, I promise. Let me say this: I adore the monkey pattern! It was a great and quick knit, and the result would be fabulous in a different yarn. I can totally understand why Knit Picks discontinued the Dancing line. I love the elasticity of it, but the color? Total Fug. Still waffling on whether to overdye these, or just leave them as is. I don't know if I know anyone who's got a loud enough personality to pull off wearing them as is.

I cast on a new pair almost immediately. That says a lot for the pattern. I've never once had a desire to knit the same thing twice. There are just too many good patterns out there that I want to do. But Monkeys are great lunch hour, car ride, tv watching socks. Unfortunately, I didn't like the way this yarn looked in the pattern, either, and they were turning out huge, even after starting them three different times, on three different needles. So they got frogged. I contemplated Jaywalkers, but with instructions to cast on 72 stitches for the smallest size, I feared disastrous results, and so frogged those too. I think this yarn just wants to be plain old stockinette socks. Oddly, I've never done plain socks before. I'll keep these in my purse for mindless knitting, and maybe go stash diving for something more mentally stimulating.

Anyway, long post, no pictures. I'm sure you're yawning.

Another weekend done

2008-06-08T22:30:00.002-04:00

Where does all the time go? Seriously. You blink and *poof* it's gone.

Yesterday I met up with Michele at a coffee house for a couple of hours of knitting and just plain relaxing. It was nice to get away for a little bit and just unwind. I needed it in a MAJOR way.

We parted ways for a bit while she went and pampered herself with a spa manicure, and then we met back up with husbands and J in tow to go see a movie. J's been aching to see Kung Fu Panda since the very first commercial. Me, I'm not a movie fan. Haven't been to one in years. And it was years before that since I went to any others. But it was a cute movie, and just watching him have a great time was worth it.

I secretly cast on a new pair of socks before going, just in case I got bored and my hands needed something to do. But I got the evil eye from hubby when I went for my knitting bag, so I figured that just might cross his personal threshold of 'crazy'. He'll never get it.

After the movie we had dinner together at a nearby mexican restaurant. I suggested it quite selfishly because I love their guacamole. It's made at the table, and so delicious! The waiter was creepy, to say the least, and the food only so-so, but it was nice to get out and have a good time with another couple. It's something we never do, and was a nice change of pace.

Of course, somewhere towards the end of dinner, J insisted he had to go potty, so we made our way all the way across the crowded restaurant to the bathroom. Sitting there in a booth was this merry old gentleman with a flowing white beard and mustache. Jonas stopped dead in his tracks to inspect him. The man and his adorable wife smiled at J, and the guy winked at him. I nudged him along to the restroom.

As we came out, the sweet old guy hopped up out of his booth and gave J a high five, asked him if he'd been a good boy, and told him how many days were left until Christmas. It was really all too sweet- him taking the time to play into J's little fantasy. Then he whipped a little card out of his wallet and handed it to him. It was red and green with a picture of him and his wife in full costume and read "I met Santa today!" Cute.

So we finished our dinner, and then mingled in the parking lot for a few minutes, when Santa and Mrs. Claus left the restaurant. Wil thanked the man for his time, and commented on how he must get that a lot- kids stopping him everywhere. The man smiled, winked, and said "but I really am Santa." Then they hopped in their red car, and drove away.

Now Jonas is convinced that Santa spends his summer vacation on the beach eating Mexican food. (That's how he stays so fat, ya know?)

Today was a day full of little errands, of which I can spare you most of the details. But we did find a new desktop computer for about $300, which we're considering purchasing. We'll still have to purchase an updated version of Word, which will probably cost as much as the computer, but we'll have to buy that regardless of what computer we get, and this cheap one will serve it's purpose just fine.

And as an added bonus, hubby also found me two packets of okra seeds, which I've been hunting for ever since we started the garden. I can't wait to clear a spot for them! Hope everyone likes pickled okra, cuz I have a feeling we'll be canning quite a bit this summer.

A Public Plea

2008-06-05T17:14:00.003-04:00

After nine years of faithful service, my good old computer finally bit the dust.

And while I do not completely mourn it's passing, I do curse it just a little bit for going to the grave with everything I hold dear inside--- like all of my transcription stuff, my pictures, my bookmarks, and my email contacts.

I'm still hopeful that hubby can wave some sort of magic wand over the hard drive and make some of the stuff reappear, but as the weeks go by with no action, I am now putting out there a public plea...

If you were once in my address book, and occasionally enjoy a message from me, please, oh please, oh pretty pretty please, send me an email at mommyleek at gmail dot com, or mommyleek at cfl dot rr dot com, so that I might recover at least some of the addresses I've lost.

Further, if I seem to have been ignoring your blog for the past few months, I'd really appreciate dropping a link in the comments so that I might rebuild my bookmark folder.

Thank you.

One of the greatest things

2008-06-03T22:05:00.004-04:00

in the entire world is opening your mailbox and finding an unexpected package inside. That's exactly what happened last Thursday. And yes, I'm a terrible blogger, and perhaps a worse friend for not posting this any sooner. But I think the sender can understand and appreciate the way that days tend to slip by you completely unnoticed sometimes.

A little history:

I met both Laura and her husband, Doug, many many years ago on a poetry website that we all frequented. Over the years we developed a great relationship, which finally culminated in Jonas and I catching a flight to PA two years ago for a whirlwind visit with them. The time at their place, affectionately known as "Barnhenge" was one of the most wonderful times of my life. Let's face it-- no matter how much you think you know someone on the internet, they can always turn out to be raving lunatics in real life. I'm proud to report that actually meeting them in person just solidified my love for both of them.

We planned on repeating the trip the next year, along with a side trip to Maryland for Maryland Sheep and Wool and a meetup with Gretchen, but Wil landed himself in the hospital the day before the trip, and well, I couldn't just leave him there alone, could I? So the trip got canceled with a "next year for sure" clause.

Now to this year. Who knew that Fairy Fest and the Sheep and Wool festival would be the exact same weekend that baby sister would be graduating? Honestly, there was no competition, but still, it sucked to have to take a raincheck for the second year in a row.

Over the past two years we've been lax in staying in touch. Time changes circumstances and everyone gets busy. Heck, on top of keeping up with the chickens and the garden, they even went and got busy making a baby, and then being parents.

So imagine my surprise when the package wedged in my mailbox, beautifully decorated in butterflies, was from Laura! I did a little happy dance in the seat of my car all the way to J's school and back before I got to open it.

A peek at the insides:

Gorgeous alpaca yarn, (Amazing, especially considering Laura has yet come to the dark side... ahem... learned to knit), a beautiful gold bag with a stuffed Baltimore oriole inside for J man, which was actually a gift from their friend, Raven, a jar of homemade raspberry jam, cute bamboo coasters, a party favor from L's baby shower, which sadly did not make the journey in one piece, and some Tibetan prayer flags. Of course, the best part of the package was the sweet notecard inside, and just knowing that, even after two years of less than stellar communication, someone out there is thinking of you. It's a beautiful thing.

I guess what I'm trying to say here is that this little package meant more to me than you can ever imagine. Thanks Laura, for the goodies and for simply being an amazingly wonderful friend. I love you, girlie.

Long Overdue

2008-05-26T22:35:00.009-04:00

So, our trip to Tennessee seems like ages ago, what with all the stuff that's gone on since we've returned. But I'd be a bad blogger, and an even worse sister if I didn't at least share with you the pride of getting to watch Jessica graduate with university honors, Suma Cum Laude. Yep, there ain't no dummies in this family.

Way to go, Jess!

Of course, we did lots of other stuff while we were there:

We took the kids hiking in the woods... ok, so we went hiking in the woods and carried the kids, mostly.

We even dragged Nana to Chuck E. Cheese for an evening of bad pizza and mayhem

We built a bear... or two.

We visited with family, and generally just had a great and relaxing time.

I wish we could have stayed longer.

Still no pictures

2008-05-24T10:44:00.003-04:00

We got our cable, and our internet service back on Sunday, so on Monday I plugged my old computer back in, and sat down to do some catching up on my favorite blogs and various other online thing, and also started backing up my photos and other important files that I'd been neglecting for the past month or twelve. Sure enough, about an hour into my work, the poor thing went into convulsions on me, and was later pronounced dead.

We have two other computers in the house, so it's not like I don't have any alternatives, but that was MY computer. My comptuer with my files and my bookmarks, set up the way I like it.

We're going to try and pull the hard drive out and slave it to J's computer to see if we can retreive any of the stuff that's still on there-- ahem... like ALL of my transcription stuff that I'm truly ALMOST done with. Man, if I have to go back and re-do all of those reports I'm going to just sit down and cry! And I don't even want to talk about all of the pictures of J-man that are stuck on there, possibly never to be seen again.

Lesson learned-- I'll be more diligent about backing things up from now on.

On the knitting front-- did I tell you that I finished the ballet cami? Well, she's done. A bit too small, even after blocking the heck out of it. But if I block it a little less firmly, it'll fit my sister perfectly, so it wasn't a complete waste of knitting effort. She tried it on the other day and loved it, so I'll be glad to see it go somewhere where it'll get used.

I've cast on for the Shalom Cardigan, using an even thicker yarn than the pattern calls for, so I'm thinking it should fit just fine. Besides, it's a pretty forgiving pattern as far as size goes, I think. I'm loving it's simplicity, and I could see myself knitting this pattern again and again. Now to just wait about 10 months until we have weather cool enough to wear it!

Also working on a pair of Monkeys that I'm not in love with. The pattern, of course, is fabulous, and I like the make-up of the yarn I'm using, but the color is horrendous! It's stuff I've had in my stash forever, given to me by someone a long time ago. I'm considering finishing them up and then overdyeing them to tone down the blinding brightness and erratic color changes. Right now I'm calling them "puke-monkeys" and will share a picture of them just as soon as I have the capabilities.

Today we're meeting up with Michele and Thomas for a little while. The boys are going to go see Speed Racer, and Michele and I will do the usual coffee and yarn. Looking forward to it.

Whew! That was close!

2008-05-19T15:17:00.004-04:00

You know, you never expect for things like this to happen to you. No matter how big of a threat there is-- it just never seems like it's going to be your emergency, until it is.

A week ago today most of our city was battling brush fires-- about three miles south east of us it was a raging inferno and we were sitting right here watching it on the news, calling our friends who's homes were in danger, and offering assistance. We were sitting pretty, upwind of the blazes, and not worried a bit for our own possessions and lives.

Then, out of nowhere, I look out the livingroom window and there's smoke in our backyard. Hubby jumped up and ran outside to discover a new fire started about 4 streets west of us and moving our way fast. I can't even begin to tell you the entire sequence of fortunate events that occurred that day, and most of it is still a big blur, but someone was looking out for us.

As he turned on ever sprinkler we had and began hosing down the roof, I ran around inside, trying to gather important paperwork and throw a change or two of clothes together for us, knowing we only had minutes to get out.

I'll spare you the panic and the chaos of trying to keep calm and brave in front of the kids while being eaten away by total panic inside. But we managed to throw a few things in the car, load up the dogs and the two cats we could catch, and we pulled out of the driveway as the flames crossed the canal and began burning our street.

I'll never forget sitting there, less than a block away, stuck in traffic with the smoke billowing up in the rear-view mirror, sickly knowing that the black smoke was our house and everything we owned burning up. And while it hurt, I didn't lose sight of all rationality. I had my pets, my family, and honestly, nothing else really mattered. It was a sick sort of calm.

We got the animals to the kennel and went to sit anxiously at the inlaws, with no local tv, no radio, and no way of knowing how bad things were.

Sometime around midnight, after J was asleep, we decided to try and get back to survey the damage.

The neighborhood was a warzone of smoke, still burning fires, and chaos. But there in the bend of the road, amidst the cinders and smoldering woods, was our house, still standing, and untouched!

Our next door neighbors were our angels that night-- refusing to leave. And when the fire trucks ran out of water, they carried on, hooking the well pumps up to their generator and battling the hotspots with garden hoses.

They saved our home and theirs, and there's no way in the world I could ever repay them for such bravery and selflessness.

Things are slowly getting back to normal for us, but for so many folks around us, normal is gone. It's a charred wasteland surrounding us, dotted with eerily untouched homes. It almost makes you feel guilty to be so lucky.

Spring bug

2008-05-10T20:02:00.002-04:00

I still owe a post about our vacation, baby sister's graduation, and all the other stuff we did while in Tn, but since I haven't uploaded any pictures from my camera, it'll have to wait a little longer.

Instead, enjoy this post, void of pictures, where I simply ramble about everyday stuff.

Ever since we returned home, I've had the urge to clean and organize the house in a way that I haven't in years. Seriously. Years. And I never really realized how much of a pack rat I could be until I started emptying out my closet.

And since I'm feeling quite ADD at the moment, let's talk about the closet. But before I tell you about the closet, I have to tell you about my crafting area. You see, I never do much in the way of crafting because I lack the space to spread things out. We don't own a single table, aside from J's little folding kiddie table, so it makes it difficult to do things like cut out fabric, or attach a ball winder and swift in any sort of decent fashion. If I want to sew, I have to place the machine on a tv tray, and cut everything out on the floor. Not ideal at all. Then add to that, the fact that when I'm done, everything has to get returned to their respective closets and cupboards. It's hardly worth the hassle most of the time.

That's when it dawned on me that my closet would serve as a perfect small craft area.

The Layout: Our closet is a large walk-through closet. You have to walk through it in order to get to the bathroom on the other side. On each long wall are the usual clothes bars and shelving that you find in any closet, and right through the middle is just an empty walk way. One side has sliding glass doors to conceal the contents and the other is just an open area with the bar and shelves running along the top.

The problem: I hate cleaning out closets, and I'm no good at getting rid of things, even when I know that they're useless to me. Hubby is even worse than I am. On my side (the side with no doors) there were clothes ranging in sizes from 22 all the way down to 8. Probably 95% of the stuff taking up space in there will never ever be worn again. Hubby's side-- pants ranging from 30s, all the way to... ahem... he doesn't want me to divulge, but let's just say 'larger'.

The Plan: I started thinking the other day-- if I cleaned out the closet and got rid of all the stuff in there, we could fit all of our wearable stuff in one side, opening up a whole bunch of space. If I cleared up the side without doors, I could fit a sewing table in there, and use the bar for some of those hanging organizers to store my yarns, fabrics, etc. I could also line the top shelf with bins or cubbies of some sort, and have an actual craft space. Sure, it'd be fairly small, but it's a whole lot better than what I've got now.

So, it was just an idea until I opened up a Joann's email and it contained a 40% off and a $5 shipping coupon. Deal sealed. I'm making a craft room!

In the past three days I've hauled three enormous bags of clothing out of the closet destined for Goodwill, and two more have gone to the shed filled with winter stuff that we won't need for another 8 months or so. I've also packed a box off to my baby sister, which I hope she'll find useful and wearable. If not, she can always pass them along to someone else.

It feels good to declutter and get rid of all that junk, and I'm so glad I found a good reason to get my butt in there and do it.

Today J and I met up with Michele and we did some knitting while J played on an indoor playground, and we also did some shopping. I bought a slipcover for the couch. Yes, it's a fairly new couch, but I've learned that tan microfiber does not hold up well under the stress of a drooly child and two big dogs that sneak up there when we're not home. One of the cushions is lopsided, and not in that butt-print sort of way-- really lopsided, and Kelli has loosened up a seam across the back from standing on it to look out the window when we're not home. So, a slipcover will give us a bit more time with this couch before chucking it to the curb in disgust. I will never buy microfiber again.

But the big thing of the day, and perhaps the greatest mother's day gift I could ever receive is that while I was out having a blast- hubby was home cleaning his fool head off. Seriously. I know. He scrubbed the orange hard water stains out of the bathroom, steam cleaned all the carpets, cleaned the bedroom, and also steamed the couches. It looks almost brand new in here, or as brand new as a house can look when it's full of kid toys and dog hair. Makes me almost enjoy being home.

The garden is growing daily, the flower beds are colorful and full of life, the sidewalks are edged and the yard is clean. I'm almost tempted to invite everyone over, just to prove that I really don't live in a total dump.

Catching my breath

2008-05-07T22:30:00.003-04:00

Yes, it's true. Vacation is over for us. We arrived home last night, just in time to catch a few hours of sleep before I had to go to work today. Since then it's been a whirlwind of things to accomplish-- mainly getting the dogs home from the kennel and restocking the fridge a little.

On top of that, we're having to shop for a new washing machine. Ours is on it's last leg. It still washes, but refuses to rinse, so it's pretty useless. Man! If it ain't one thing, it's another.

And this week is "Teacher Appreciation Week" at J's school, so I just had to whip up a little goodie for him to take with him tomorrow for his teachers. I also picked up a couple of little things for the classroom that was on his teacher's wish list. I feel like a bad parent, not having the time to sit down and do cute little hand-made cards and stuff, but honestly, I just don't have it in me. J hates to color, and has no interest in making anything, and it's not worth the fight to MAKE him do it. So, it's homemade cookie bars from him. Good enough, considering I've been on my feet for almost 20 hours straight now.

More upbeat stuff to come, I promise, including some pics from our trip and a brief narrative. But first... a shower and some sleep!

Monkey Tale

2008-04-28T18:11:00.004-04:00

A few weeks ago a small goodie arrived in the mail from Granny and Daddy Dave. Inside was the most enormous pair of red-heeled socks I've ever seen. Seriously! I have no idea how they managed to sweet talk Paul Bunyan out of his knitwear, but there they were.

Of course, J and I knew exactly what to do with them...

Meet "Bluey". J chose the hideous blue buttons for they eyes, and he adores them. Bluey is now his best buddy, and they are nearly inseperable. He even took a trip to the dentist with us today and got to take a ride in the cool chair. He's developing quite a personality, too. He tells J things like "You don't want to eat that broccoli," and "Bedtimes are for babies." But he also tells him that he'll protect him from nightmares, which is an awful sweet thing for a pair cut up socks to do. We are quite grateful to the evil little monkey.

A day or two after Bluey's creation, J turned to me and said, "Mama, Bluey's naked. He needs a shirt. A red yarn shirt."

And so, while no one else will probably ever be gifted with their very own handknit sweater, the mighty monkey wears his proudly. I didn't really use a pattern for it, and it's perhaps a bit large, but it makes it easier for J to help him in and out of as the weather dictates.

In other news, our little garden is coming along nicely. The tomato plants are starting to show their first little fruits, and the beans are climbing higher and higher every day. Last night we harvested our first tiny crop-- two radishes. J was brave and tasted one before deeming them "too ficy" and passing them along to Steven, who ate them right up. I hope the kid has a big appetite for them, because he's the only one in this house that will even come near them, I think.

Tomorrow we're off to Tennessee for my baby sister's graduation, and to visit with family. I'm looking forward to the destination, but the traveling and the prep that goes into it has just about wiped me out. Thank goodness we were able to get the kittens off to their new homes before we left. Could you imagine the nightmare it would have been to find someone to take care of them?!

Wednesday off

2008-04-16T17:31:00.005-04:00

I switched my schedule around at work this week to accommodate my in-law's trip out of town, so I had today off.

I ended up going to work anyway, because one of my doctors wanted to adopt one of our kittens. They're technically too young to be going to new homes, but they're big and they're healthy, and the mother is done nursing them and anxious to escape the confines of our bathroom, so I decided to let them go.

I didn't think it was going to be hard saying goodbye to them. It's not like I ever entertained the idea that I might actually keep any of them, but kittens grow on you. Really, really grow on you. And when one of the other girls decided she wanted to take one, and chose the one that nearly died- the one I pretty much brought back from the brink of death- I did cry. Only a little.

So, two gone, two left to find homes for. And I realized after the fact that I really didn't have any pictures of them. Here's one of two and a half of them.

It's that little black and white one that really stole my heart.

After that, J and I went and spent some time at the park. It's been too long since we've done so, and it was great. The weather today was beautiful-- low 70s, no humidity to speak of, and wonderfully sunny. I was surprised that we pretty much had the place to ourselves.

Now, I do realize that the last picture isn't one of those cutest kid in the world sort of shots, but it's my absolute favorite out of the group because look what he's doing! Yes! My kid who, just a few months ago, had trouble negotiating curbs and steps is finally getting his balance and confidence. He's slow and meticulous, but he's climbing all by himself. We've visited this same park regularly for about 2 years, and today was the first time he attempted this.

The picture I don't have is of him deciding to try and slide down the pole! I'm glad I was underneath to catch him. Otherwise, instead of writing this, I'd probably be sitting in the ER right now waiting on sutures. :)

I still ahve yet to show you guys the progress I've made on the cami, but it's coming along. I'm just about to separate for the armholes, and I think it'll zip along from here. Still holding my breath about not running out of yarn, though. We'll see.

And I'll leave you with this shot of myself with a long-overdue haircut. I'm still adjusting to not being able to pull it back out of my face, but I do love it. She also trimmed J's up a little.

Whew!

2008-04-13T21:33:00.002-04:00

Taxes are filed.

'Nuff said.

Actually, it's not enough.

Small rant: It costs $17.95 or whatever to e-file, which is totally worth the cost of not having to copy all the darn paperwork, etc. and then stand in line at the post office to drop it off. I'll happily pay the fee. But when it asks me if I want to have that $17.95 automatically deducted from my refund, it then informs me that they'll charge me an additional $29.99 to do so. **scratching head** Do people REALLY do that? No thanks, I'm quite capable of entering my card number manually. Glad I could figure that out.

Almost no knitting

2008-04-09T05:55:00.005-04:00

It seems like forever since I've managed to update any sort of knitting content. I've been working on the ballet cami that I was supposed to be knitting, oh, about 6 months ago. I'm done with the waist decreases, and starting in on the increases. I'd share a picture, but I haven't got one. Besides, it's an uninteresting to look at purple blob right now. I do have my concerns about this pattern, though. I prefer my clothes to not be clingy. You know, hide the middle parts, etc. Even knit using a larger size than necessary, it appears pretty small and clingy. Yes, I do realize that's sort of the intention of the pattern. If nothing else, it'll look great as a shell underneath something, I suppose. Or I'll find it a proper home if I really won't wear it.

The reason there's been so very little knitting is quite simple. Time. Some days I feel like I haven't got time to even sit down. I'm on the go from the minute I roll out of bed at some ungodly hour (and I'm not a morning person), until my head hits the pillow at another ungodly hour.

Throw in a lot of gardening that needed to be accomplished before the plants died, and an impromptu plumbing job, and that's about all the excuse I need.

Yes, lets talk about plumbing jobs.

Hubby is not the most industrious person in the world. It's not that he's lazy, he's just difficult to motivate at times. He's slow and meticulous, and it takes him darn near forever to accomplish something that I could do in about 15 minutes. So, when he said he wanted to work on the flower beds, the skeptic in me rolled her eyes. But how do you discourage someone from doing something like that?

So Sunday, when he went out to finish the last of the straggling flower beds without prompting, I was quite amazed, and decided to stay inside and out of his way. Yes, I'm a hover-er.

All of a sudden, from the other side of the kitchen window, I hear a string of bilingual foul words, followed by a loss of water at the kitchen sink. Who knew that the main water line from the well ran directly through that flowerbed? Further, who knew it was only about 2 inches underground?

The hubby has bad karma. He cracked it with a hoe breaking up roots.

So it was a quick run to the hardware store to repair it, lest we be without water indefinitely. Ummm... not an option.

Neither of us have ever repaired plumbing before, but it seemed simple enough... Cut out the broken piece,

(notice hubby doesn't seem very amused)
fit in a new one, some of that blue goo to hold it, and viola! Fixed pipe.

Of course, I covertly made a quick call to Dad while hubby was at the hardware store just to make sure we were on the right track. Thanks Dad! and shhhh... don't tell Wil!

I wanted to show you pictures of the finished flower beds and the veggie garden. They're looking quite lovely! But once again, my morning time has run out. *sigh* maybe tonight, if I get home at a decent enough hour.

Handspun, Homemade, and other stuff.

2008-03-31T07:54:00.007-04:00

I finally finished spinning up the 2 ounces of merino I've been working on. Yeah, I know! It took me THAT long to do 2 ounces! But to be fair, I only get a chance to spin when the planets align just right and the moon is in it's proper phase, etc. In other words, only when the munchkin isn't around. And usually when that happens, I have about a million other things that HAVE to be done first. So, anyway, I finished spinning my 2 ounces of merino. The color was "forest multi" and it was quite lovely in the bag, burgundy with flecks of pink and green and all sorts of reddish-brown tones.

It's more muddy spun than I expected it to be, but I still think it's quite pretty, even if it's not so bright.

I plied two singles together to get the final product. Jonas decided he needed to help me with this process, but fortunately, he grew bored with it pretty quickly.

Please ignore the absolute disaster that is my office area. It seems that everything in the house finds a way to land in this little corner at some point or another. I'm really not that slobbish. :)

The result is still drying as we speak. I'm not sure on my exact WPI, but it's quite thin. Somewhere between lace and fingering weight, with the occasional slightly chunkier spot. My only problem with plying them is that I do not have a tensioned Lazy Kate, and my singles, on several occasions, decided to snarl up on each other. Perhaps an indication of overspinning? But my plied yarn was balanced, so I guess all's well that ends well, right?

I know this isn't a good picture, but here's the end result wound onto the niddy noddy.

If I'm doing my math right, by counting the number of wraps on the niddy noddy, I've got right around 125 yards here. Not enough for any big project, but enough to play around with, I suppose. No idea what it'll become. Probably a lacy headband or something. What else do you do with 125 yards? Suggestions?

I guess that as I continued spinning I became much better at keeping my single an even thickness because my second bobbin, despite having the same 1 ounce of fiber spun, ended up having quite a bit leftover after plying. I took that leftover single and practiced Navajo plying. The technique isn't all that hard to understand, but it kicked my butt in a big way. I think with some more practice I could learn to really love it, though.

The rest of my day was pretty busy, too. J and I worked on getting the rest of the vegetable garden planted. I hauled hundreds and hundreds of pounds of dirt, and my back knows it, too. But,with the exception of a couple of pepper plants and a few herbs, the garden is done. Hopefully it will do better than previous years. We intended to get it planted earlier this year, but time has been an issue all around, it seems. Oh well. We still have a few months to get these babies established before the blazing summer heat destroys them completely.

Aside from that, we baked some fresh bread,
and J and dad took a loaf to Abuela while I sat down and did some transcription. I have GOT to finish this before it kills me! I don't know why I'm procrastinating so much.

And one last picture, just because.

In cleaning out their attic, my parents came across a ton of my old stuffed animals and whatnot, and sent them home for me to sort through. Now, it was fun to go through the bags and remember all of them, etc. But honestly! I don't need another 50 pounds of plush in this house! I let J go through them to see if there was anything he wanted before I gave them away, and he promptly picked this!

Wait, it gets better! When you squeeze him, he farts. Of course, Stimpy was in there too, and now also resides in my son's room. Oh well, there are worse things he could fall in love with, right?

Easter, mostly in pictures

2008-03-25T09:30:00.003-04:00

EDIT: For some reason Firefox is showing the pictures in their unedited size and orientation for me. They are perfect in Explorer, though. No idea how to fix it. Is it the same for you guys, too? If so, my apologies, but I ain't doing it over unless someone can tell me a quick and easy fix.

The easter bunny was very good to the munchkin this year. And before you roll your eyes at the Tony Stewart cupholder, it was a very specific request. My kid loves Home Depot.

Afterwards, we went to Granny and Daddy Dave's for egg hunting.

And some more easter goodies...

I remembered at about 8 o'clock the night before that I'd wanted to start a tradition of knit bunnies for J every easter, so I had to come up with something quick. Here's blinding yellow yarn meets quick pattern:

J took one look at it and told me "I like the blue one better." Referencing the one I made him last year. I had to agree.

And Dad showed off his hillbilly roots with his newest acquisition.

And I'll leave you with a dose of cuteness.

This one loves to be held on her back and a good tummy rub. The others, not so much. She'll be the first one to go with her sweet disposition.

That is all.

Air Show, and Knitting, and Kittens, Oh My!

2008-03-18T09:38:00.004-04:00

We had a fairly busy weekend around here, but I somehow managed to get a little knitting done, too.

On Sunday we met up with Thomas and Michele for an air show that was literally minutes from their house. I figured that J would really love it, seeing as how he's completely smitten with his model airplanes. Well, he did really like the airplanes, but it was a tough day to be a shortie. It was very windy, and the airport where the show was had no shade, and was mainly dry sandy dirt. The poor kid was getting pummeled with sand in his face and eyes, and it made him miserable almost immediately. No sooner had we spread out a blanket and all got situated did he turn to me and say "Let's go home."

We compromised, though. He took my glasses, and that made it a little better. I was a bad mom and didn't even think about packing his sunglasses or even sunblock. *smacks forehead* I just can't seem to get organized lately at all. I wasn't real keen on him wearing my prescription glasses around, thinking of what horrible harm I might be doing to his vision, but my prescription isn't very strong, and it made him content. Besides, he's a pretty cute bespectacled kid, isn't he? Kind of reminds me of the kid from Jerry McGuire... "The human head weighs 8 pounds."

J's favorite part was watching the F-14 fly. He was amazed that by the time he could hear it, it was already long gone.

We wandered around and looked at all the planes on display, and he even got to climb a ladder to look in the cockpit of one. Fun times.

Afterwards, Michele and Thomas were kind enough to have us stay for a barbecue at their house and J had a grand time chasing around the backyard with their beagle, Diana. He pitched the ultimate fit when it was time to leave, but that seems to be the way lately. The child simply doesn't switch gears well.

When we got home it was already dark, and J was asleep. Wil went in while I was getting J unloaded from the car, and sitting on the entry rug was one of the little kittens. Somehow Kelli (the big dumb dog) managed to get the bathroom door open, and spent the day tormenting kittens. The baby was nearly dead, cold as ice, soaking wet, and hardly breathing. Luckily, Kelli isn't a mean dog. I think she thought that they were just squeaky toys, because if she was interested in eating/killing them, she certainly could have. This is where I am thankful for J falling asleep in the car!

I was able to get the kitten warmed up with hot water bottles and some vigorous rubbing, and rubbed honey on his gums to bring his blood sugar back up. Even then, I didn't hold much hope for him. But once he was relatively warm, supplemented, and dry, there really wasn't much else I could do. I put him back in the box with the others and mom, and said a little prayer that he'd make it through the night.

Amazingly, he did. And now when we're not home, Kelli gets to spend the day in her cage. I just can't trust her right now, and she's picked up a lot of bad habits lately, like peeing on the floor in the livingroom. So, a little crate time isn't going to kill her, and it'll give me peace of mind until these kittens are gone.

Whew... onto the knitting.

I made myself promise to finish up some straggling stuff before starting anything new, so on the ride up to the airshow I finished off an irish hiking scarf that I'd started back in November, and then lost interest in. It's not my favorite project. It's not that the pattern is bad or anything, but I used some acrylic from my stash, and well, acrylic is great for crocheted afghans, but not so good for cabled scarves. Oh well, it's finished at least. Here's the bad picture to prove it.

I had also started a little bookmark for J's teacher, whose birthday is Thursday, but realized that the pattern and yarn weren't doing each other any justice, so I scrapped that one, and I *drum roll please* finally cast on for the Ballet Cami that I was supposed to have been knitting along with Michele for the past 6 months! Michele, I'm just finishing the ribbing! :) And there you have it-- long post done.

Oh, and did I ever show you the tidal wave socks? I love them! This might become my standby sock pattern. Easily memorized, interesting detail without much fuss. A quick knit, even with the impossibly thin and inelastic Tofutsies yarn. I love the color of this yarn, but my love for it ends about there. It's splitty, tiny, and feels 'stringy' on my feet. I could never walk a marathon in these. It would rub blisters on my toes. But they're cute as can be, and that makes them totally wearable. :)

Gee, thanks

2008-03-11T10:43:00.003-04:00

There's no denying that my son is big for his age. He's not a fat kid, just big. He tops the charts in both height and weight, and you don't have to tell my back that he's almost freakishly heavy. It's never been a real issue with us, and we've often laughed at the fact that he and his 9-year-old cousin wear about the same size in clothes. It makes for laundry day chaos. But there is one major problem I've been facing recently: His car seat.

Now state law says that children MUST ride in a carseat with a 5 point harness until the age of 4 AND 40 pounds. Well, we've got the 40 pounds licked, but we're still pretty far from the appropriate age for converting his seat to a booster. But the straps are only rated safe up to 40 pounds, and, well, have you ever tries stuffing a big kid into a little seat? It's no fun. Fully extended, the straps just barely reach around him, and the buckle between the legs? Well, it's most uncomfortably wedged under his butt. Seriously, if he's got on anything thicker than a t-shirt and jeans, forget it.

At a loss for what to do, I recently queried his pediatrician's office with my dilemma. They searched all their safety books, consulted with their manuals, and came up empty handed. No one can tell me if it's safer to convert his seat based on his weight, or to continue cramming him in because of his age.

So, I sat down with all my car seat information, and I wrote a letter to the sheriff's office asking their take on the situation. I was thorough, listing the brand of seat I was using, that it's rated up to 100 lbs as a booster, the positioning of it in my car, my car make and model, my son's height, weight, and age info. And I asked for suggestions on the safest way to strap him in.

Here's the response I received:
"Most straps on car seats are rated to 40lbs. but there are some out there made for larger children and the straps can go all the way to 65lbs. They are not as common but they are out there.
Thanks"

Ummm... ok, well, until I can find one of these elusive car seats, what am I supposed to do? Is my son safe riding with a harness labeled for 40 lbs and under until I can get my hands on (and afford) one of these larger seats? And perhaps a link to an appropriate manufacturer, or seat? That was a lot of help. I'm not asking for them go go out and buy one for me, but just a little help would be appreciated.

Tax dollars hard at work.

Anyone know where I can find the husky seats? And I have to admit that, while his safety is certainly number 1 on my priority list, I'm a bit put off at the prospect of having to shell out a couple hundred bucks for a new seat that he'll use for all of 5 months before he can use the perfectly good booster I already have.

The things you can find in my shed

2008-03-09T10:38:00.003-04:00

Meet Dirty Kitty. She's the little stray that adopted me a little over a year ago. Literally. She walked up to me, climbed my leg, rested her head on my shoulder, and from there on out, she has claimed residence on my porch, or somewhere in the vicinity of my house. She's not the sweetest cat in the world, but she's certainly not feral.

You'd think that working for a vet's office, I'd have had her spayed by now, but to be quite honest, I haven't really got the resources to be taking in every stray that wanders this way, and I've resigned myself to simply being a food source for her, and not getting emotionally attached.

But time works strange magic on you, doesn't it? More and more often we find ourselves saying "Have you seen Dirty Kitty today?" or "I'm going to go check on Dirty Kitty. It's sort of cold out tonight."

Well, as all unspayed little kitties will do, she turned up looking quite a bit larger than usual one day, and we all knew what was coming. What we didn't know is that she'd pick the coldest, windiest night of the year to have them. Actually, she may have had them the night before, during the torrential downpour, hail, and lightning storm. Either way, her timing sucked.

But when I came home from work yesterday and she wasn't sleeping in her usual place behind the grill, and wasn't chilling in the shade under the RV, I knew she'd gone into labor. I also knew that the kittens didn't stand a chance of survival if they were out in the elements.

So, in the dark, in the cold, in the windy yuck that was last night, I waited, rattling her bowl and waiting for Dirty to come home for some food. Eventually, it paid off, and my suspicions were correct--she had had the kittens.

I sat patiently, in the cold, in the wind, in the dark, and tracked her back to her babies.

She surprised me, though, and proved to be a smarter Mama than I had anticipated. She had them in a box in my shed, under my table, behind all of J's outgrown toys.

I guess she knew I wasn't threatening to her babies because, although she won't let me pick her up now that she's an adult, she allowed me to wrangle the box out from under the table, and bring it, the kittens and her inside.

My hall bath is now a temporary nursery until I can come up with a better solution. And while I never planned on getting involved with any of this, and I always swore I'd just let nature take it's course, I have to admit that they are the cutest darn babies I've ever seen.

All but one have manx tails. How odd.

Anything BUT transcription

2008-03-06T16:04:00.002-05:00

So today was J's second day of school. Thankfully, he still loves it, and still hates me for returning to pick him up. I guess he thinks that if I forget to come get him he can just stay there forever.

I have very few complaints so far about the school. Only two tiny red flags have been raised for me, and believe me, they're really tiny. Today when I dropped him off, he headed straight for the "house" center with the baby dolls and the dress up costumes and the play kitchen. Then he turned to me, pointing to the purses and dolls and told me "I can't play with these. This is stuff for girls only." I don't know if one of the other kids told him that (most likely) or if one of the teachers told him that. I don't believe in gender biasing. As a matter of fact, J probably has more dolls and teddy bears than any little girl in his class. It balances out the side of him that turns everything else into a gun, sword, or laser shooter.

I simply reassured him that he could play with anything he wanted to. There were no such thing as girl or boy only toys, and left it at that. He proceeded to head to the train table, and I made my exit.

Second tiny flag: Today, in a completely random conversation he revealed to me that big boys should never cry. I had to sit and explain the difference between crying because you're really sad or hurt and whining simply because things aren't going your way. I don't think I like the idea of anyone telling my son that he has to be stoic, but have to admit that he is a bit of a whinebag at times.

Like I said, small things and neither of them are things that would prompt me to really worry at all. Everything else about school is going great, and I think he's already learned quite a bit in his two short days.

Today he brought me home Orange Ovals, a cute octopus made of a painted paper plate and streamers, another octopus decorated with cereal, and an owl. Yes, the letter of the week IS 'O'.

The idea behind him being in school twice a week, besides his socialization and freedom from me, is to give me time to do my school work. This was supposed to be a fast sort of thing for me to breeze through. When I quit working when he was 18 months old, I fully expected to be finished by his 2nd birthday, and working from home. Ummm... yeah, we are approaching birthday 4. Thanks for reminding me. I've never been a bad student. And whether it seems like it or not, I DO like doing the transcription a lot. I just keep coming up with other things that I either MUST do first, or want to accomplish with the small amount of free time I have. To say that I'm discouraged about ever finishing would be a huge understatement.

So, in the two days he's been at school, have I worked like mad to push through this last unit before my final? Ummm... negative. I've scrubbed bathrooms down to the corners behind the toilets. I've done umpteen loads of laundry, I've swept, mopped, dusted, cleaned litter boxes. And today takes the cake: I steam cleaned all of the living room furniture. Then I spun about 1/2 oz of some merino I'm anxious to finish. Then, since I only had about 30 minutes before it was time to pick him up, I sat down and knit on the heel flap of a sock.

I keep telling myself that next week will be more productive school-wise. It has to be, or I'm in trouble, and will be left justifying myself to the hubby who has been gracious enough to put off going back to school himself so that I can finish first.

On the upside, J and I did finish digging out (by hand!) the entire garden bed. All 15x10 feet of it. Oh my blistered hands! Now to start our seeds and finish off the flower beds. Sooner or later our house is going to look a little less trashy, I swear.

First day of school

2008-03-04T10:28:00.003-05:00

J-man approached his first day of school the same way he approaches just about everything 'new' in his life-- with just a smidge of anxiety and trepidation. While I did nothing but talk great things about how much fun school would be, and how many friends he'd make, and how the teacher would love him, he still went to bed last night insisting that he didn't want to go.

This morning was more of the same, and finally broke down into him wrapping himself around me, burying his head and wailing "But Mama! I don't want to leave you!"

Talk about heart-wrenching! I assured him that I would go with him, and I'd stay for as long as he'd like me to. He cried all the way to the car, sulked all the way to the school, then walked through the front door, and I ceased to exist. Hooray.

I asked him, after a few minutes, if he was ready for me to leave, and he just shrugged his shoulders and said "Yeah, go Mama." Then he turned right back to his activity without so much as a goodbye wave.

I'll admit I teared up a little, but in a good way. I was just so proud to see him there, enjoying himself.

I had feared we'd have a repeat of the daycare days of screaming and wailing and misery like we have in the past. But I feel really good about this school, and it looks like mother's intuition is already paying off.

We tried our best to get a good "first day of school" picture, but it didn't work out so well.

After Midnight

2008-03-02T00:28:00.004-05:00

It's been a long time since I've stayed up this late willingly. What, you may ask, has me awake at such an odd hour? A surge of craftiness.

Ever since my SIL proposed the hand-made Christmas, I've been almost fiendishly seeking out ideas for things to make. I'm one of those folks that can come up with a million and one great ideas, but never is capable of following through. This year will be different. I'm financially obligated now.

Over the past week or so I've been craft store hunting, thrift store scrounging, and otherwise plotting the creation of goodies for all the good boys and girls on my list. And it's only the beginning of March! See, plenty of time to screw up a few times and still come up with something before the big day.

I'd love to show you some of the stuff I've been working on, but the production has been ridiculously slow for a variety of reasons.

1. My house is rather small and quite overpopulated at the moment. Take 1000 square feet, divide it by three adults, two kids, two dogs, two cats, an aquarium, and all of the stuff that comes along with them, and you've got a disastrously small amount of elbow room.
2. I haven't touched my sewing machine in about 3 years. Everything I ever thought I knew about sewing is filed somewhere deep back behind the place that helps me remember where the munchkin left his favorite spaceship, which cushion the remote is under, back even behind the little wifely GPS that allows me to always know where hubby left his wallet, his keys, and his glasses. We're just getting reacquainted, and the going is slow.
3. Real life seems to get in the way of the things we really WANT to be doing.
4. If I showed you pictures, then Christmas wouldn't be much of a surprise, would it?
5. Besides the crafty Christmas projects, I've also got a major lawn/garden upheaval going on. Plants can't be tucked back in the closet the way that fabric can.
6. I don't have a dedicated room where I can leave my crafty mess laid out and just shut the door. No. Every time I want to work on something I must pull out the necessary supplies, set up the necessary equipment in a way that will not disturb the traffic flow, interfere with the playspace of small children, or appear interesting to two curious cats. Then, after being interrupted for the 100th time in an hour, must pack it all neatly back away. The set up/clean up takes longer than the actual crafting time.
Let's just leave it with this: There is fabric involved. There are beads involved, and there, of course will be yarn involved. What else? Well, that is still to be determined.

And if anyone wants to know what I need and want more than anything else for Christmast this year-- 1000 more square feet!

Blah Blah Blah

2008-02-26T21:51:00.004-05:00

Sorry for the lack of entertaining posts lately. I just haven't had much to say lately, I guess. Or I could pull the optimist card and tell you that I've just been finding other things to do with my time besides sitting in front of the computer. :)

My poor kid looks like he's been beaten, and it's all my fault. The other day we were out playing on the swing set in the yard and he fell off the seesaw when I gave him a rather powerful push. He tumbled head first and landed across the bar on his chin. He's bruised across his jaw and chin.

Then,Sunday we took J to the beach for a park day. We had a great time, he played his little heart out, and when it was time to go, I scooped him up and jabbed his other cheek with my not-really-all-that-long-and-dagger-like nail. So now one side is bruised and the other side is cut. Poor boy. He's over it. I'm still hurting.

We've officially registered him with school, and he starts next week. Don't ask me how I feel about it right now. I'm still processing the whole baby growing up thing, and I'm still preparing myself for the pride/anxiety I'm having. I know he's going to be just fine. It's me that'll be sitting out in the hallway feeling lost.

But in other and better news, I met up with a couple of other local knitters/spinners last night for some girlie no-kid time. We all hit it off really well, and stayed out way past our bedtimes. It'll be interesting to see if our husbands will let us do it again any time soon. :) I sure hope so.

Oh, and I found a local source for spinning fiber for whenever I want some instant gratification while waiting for internet orders to ship. Sure, it's not as cost effective, but sometimes you just need a little something, ya know?

Knitting is going slowly while I work on other stuff--namely work and course work and keeping my house from falling apart. I don't know if I'm really succeeding at any of them, but they sure do seem to take up a lot of time.

And to top it all off, my back is killing me. Not really sure what I did to myself. It's not one of those acute and terribly painful things like a pinched nerve or a pulled muscle, but more of a nagging dull and constant ache that makes it suck to sit or stand in any position for more than a few minutes. Blech!

And I promise, the next post will have pictures and fun stuff and a whole lot less whining. But for now, I'm beat and it's bedtime.

So fast

2008-02-21T15:19:00.003-05:00

J and I went and interviewed with a preschool this morning.

Wow, just saying that takes a lot out of me. Preschool. My little baby is going to preschool.

Hold on. Let me catch my breath.

We went and met with his class, and took a tour of the place. It's small, it's intimate, it's clean and well-structured while still allowing kids to be kids. I immediately had a good feeling about it, and J fit right in, immediately striking up conversation with the teachers and the other kids. He was raring to go and ready to stay today.

I have a feeling I'm going to be the only one with separation anxiety on his first day.

He'll start in a couple of weeks, just part time. I figure if he's going to start Pre-k in the fall I need to get him used to the routine, and honestly, he needs the time without me. I'm no dummy, and I know that I smother him a whole lot more than I should. I think it's just a mother's instinct to not want to place their child in situations that are going to be difficult for them, and we had a rocky start to our daycare experience, which probably didn't help much. But I think we're ready now.

Holy crap! Where did my little baby go?

I must be insane

2008-02-17T08:03:00.004-05:00

My super crafty SIL proposed that this year we try a handmade Christmas instead of dealing with the consumerism overload that we dealt with this past year. Now, I'm totally all for it. I love the idea of handmade goodies and they certainly are much more meaningful than anything you can buy in the store. I've already begun deciding what to make everyone, and figured that if I want to even pretend that I'm going to finish on time, I'd better get started NOW. Besides, won't it be lovely when November rolls around and everyone is stressing out and scrambling from one store to the next to get that last lead-painted plastic must-have on their list, to be sitting back, sipping coffee and otherwise being content and finished. Don't worry, I'll only chuckle at you under my breath.

Ever since she proposed the idea, I've been obsessed with finding just the right thing for each person. No generic gifts here! So far my list is going pretty good, and I've got a solid idea of everything I want to do. The problem? Right now I'm feeling incredibly brave-- as if I can take on and master anything, and I'm afraid I may be stepping out of my crafty realm in some areas... even bookmarking crochet patterns *gulp*, and sewing patterns. *bigger gulp* I know for a fact that I wield a hook about as gracefully as an elephant walks a tightrope. And my sewing machine? It's buried under a stack of dog brushes and combs and about 5 years worth of dust in the hall closet.

But I WANT to do these things, and I think I can, given enough time and patience. I've got all the time I need, I'm sure. It's the patience that I usually find myself lacking. And so, if you find me curled up in some dark corner, rocking back and forth and wildly muttering something about seam allowances and jammed up bobbins while trying to slit my wrists with a size J hook, just back away quietly and call the guys with the white coats.

I always start out with the greatest of intents and faith in myself, but I know myself well enough to also realize that I'm going to have some major failures and reassessments before this is all done. But it'll sure be fun to get to play with the sewing machine again now that J's old enough to know not to eat the pins or stick his fingers under the presser foot.

Size does matter

2008-02-14T07:38:00.002-05:00

We had some rough weather a few nights ago, and when I woke up in the morning I realized we'd been hit with a power surge. Fortunately, everything in the house survived except for my computer monitor. Poor old thing! She was a good monitor- big and bulky and taking up far too much room on my desk. But I loved her and all her 17" of pixelated glory. She served me well for nearly 8 years, connecting me to family, friends, school, and all sorts of strange places in between. So I sighed a heavy sigh when I came to accept the fact that no sort of fiddling with her power cord was going to revive her.

New monitors are cheaper than ever now, and I'm really looking forward to an LCD screen and the smaller amount of space it will take up. Can you even buy an old fashioned monitor anymore? The reality is, no matter how much I'm looking forward to a new monitor, my checking account is not looking forward to shelling out for one, even at the cheap prices they can be had for. I suppose cheap is a relative term.

But I can't be computerless for weeks on end. That's like an alcoholic going cold turkey while working at the liquor store. Too much. And yes, I do admit that I spend far too much of my time on the computer. We all have our problems, right? So what's my solution?

My ancient little (I think it's a 15" that was hiding out in the shed. I got this baby for almost free back when I worked at Best Buy. $12 total for it and the little computer with the 4 gig hard drive that I was so glad to have. Amazing how quickly technology changes and we get spoiled to the new stuff, isn't it? I'm telling you, looking at this tiny monitor is doing terrible things to my eyesight! But it works, I think it might actually have a better picture than my old one, and it'll do until we're ready to buy a new one.

Sometimes I'm proud to be a packrat.

So Proud

2008-02-11T15:29:00.000-05:00

Well, he's a graduate!

Today was J-man's last session with the speech therapist. Despite my skepticism about the whole thing, he truly has made huge improvement. His shirt stays dry almost all the time. His jaw muscles are stronger, although not 100%, and he's starting to develop the ability to elevate his tongue independently. The therapist and I agree that we've done what we can with weekly visits, and now all we have to do is continue at home. She agrees that he does have some degree of general hypotonia, and so a lot of his delay is something that will just have to happen on his schedule.

And now that our Mondays are free, we're looking to fill the time with a playgroup or even *gulp* preschool.

He's growing up so fast.

Window shopping

2008-02-10T22:09:00.000-05:00

This weekend hubby and I decided to go window shopping for some new furniture. If our bedroom wasn't in a complete state of chaos and disorganization I'd take a picture so you could see just how horrendous our current ensemble is. Think 80s, think enormous, think laminated wood. Imagine a 9 foot long headboard on a queen size platform bed. Now squeeze that into a bedroom that's only about 13 feet wide. Yeah, that bad and then some.

But it's served its purpose well over the years, being handed down to us by friends when we literally had little more than an old full size mattress and a $5 screw together table in there. So don't get me wrong when I say I'm over it. It's not for lack of appreciation, it's just time for something new. Something OURS. Something we can choose together and enjoy for many years to come.

Oh, and I was on a mission to find a coffee table for the living room, too. I wanted something with lots of storage potential since many of J's toys reside in the living room. It would be nice to be able to store them in something that looks like it actually belongs in a living room, ya know?

Is this post making me sound materialistic? I'm really not. Anyone who's read here for any length of time would know that, though. I'm just sick of the "early Goodwill look we've got going on.

So, four furniture stores later, we wander tiredly and mostly discouraged into the last one on our list. So far we've found a few 'maybe' types of things, but nothing that's made us both stop and go "Wow!" And if we're going to spend an ungodly amount of money, we want it to be something we're both going to love for a long time.

Imagine our shock when we wandered upon a set of bedroom furniture that we both loved instantly!

I'm especially lusting after the chest that sits at the foot of the bed. I have this weird love of boxes, and a beautiful chest fits well into that odd obsession. Of course, we won't be buying the entire set, as that would be furniture overkill. We're just going with the bed, the dresser/mirror combo, and (just to spoil me) the chest.

And look! They had a coffee table that fit the bill, too!

Not only does this bad boy have plenty of room to toss J's toys into, but I totally love the lifting top on it. Have I ever told you that we don't have a kitchen table? We eat on our laps every single meal. There's just no room in our house for a big table. Especially considering our dining area is currently the office. I know this sort of table design isn't something new, but I'm still in love with it's functionality. And most importantly, we both agreed upon it instantly.

But wait... there's more.

On the way out of the store Jonas spotted this cute little thing, and it is a perfect solution to the "no table" dilemma.

Our kitchen just isn't big enough for a true table and chairs, but this little bar and stool set will fit nicely and won't take up much space at all. And while it's certainly not the most durable piece of furniture I've ever seen, the price is certainly right.

Of course, there's lots of other things we have to accomplish before we can actually bring our new finds home, but the list is made, and that brings us one step closer.

Please, just once

2008-02-07T16:58:00.000-05:00

can I have a day where something absolutely ridiculous doesn't happen to me?
Tuesday's super-stupid event:

I left my car unlocked in my parents really long driveway in a really good neighborhood while I ran in to get J after work. Sure call me stupid. You can call me even stupider when I tell you that I left my purse inside as well as Mocha's meds, which are controlled narcotics, in there too. Well, you can see where this is going can't you? Yep, my car got broken into. Can you call it breaking in when all they do is open the door?

Did they steal my purse, the dog's meds, or even my cell phone? Nope. You know what they took? A 30-pack of toilet paper I'd just bought at the wholesale club. And it's not like it was in plain sight- it was in the trunk!

Sometimes all you can do is shake your head in wonder.

Today's super-stupid event:

So, the dogs are bouncing around and doing everything they can to let me know that they have to go potty. I can't walk both of them at the same time. That's just too much dog to hold onto while also keeping control of a three-year-old boy. I took Kelli first, since she's the one that has that look that means "Hey Ma! My eyeballs are floating!" Once she's done, I return her to the house and leash up Mocha. Of course, I shut the front door because it's darn near 90 degrees outside today (that's a whole separate topic, though).

Well, you see, Kelli is the over-excited type who does not enjoy being alone in this world. Once we're out of sight she has a momentary meltdown of barking, whining, pacing, and of course jumping at the door.

What did she do? She locked us out of our house! Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the flipping dog threw the deadbolt. And of course I didn't have my keys or my cell phone on me because I wasn't going anywhere but to the end of the yard and back.

My situation looked bleak. Who wants to be outside in 90 degree heat with a furry dog, a sweaty kid, and nothing to drink for several hours until someone comes home? Not I. Not J. Certainly not Mocha.

I've heard that it's pretty easy to break in through a locked sliding glass door as long as it doesn't have a bar across it. Well, just so happens my bar is not in place because I was just out on the porch this morning. I figure it's a crapshoot at best. I mean, they say you can do these things, but they also say you can jimmy a car lock with a coat hanger and I've never succeeded at that before, either. But I figure it's worth a shot. What else am I going to do for the next 2 hours, anyway?

Imagine my surprise when it took me all of 30 seconds to lift the door off the latch and slide it right open! Hooray for being inside! But let this be a warning to you... or a couple of warnings, I suppose.

Don't ever leave yourself in a position where your dog can lock you out. And even more importantly, if you have a sliding glass door, make sure you have a safety bar on that mother, cuz if I can do it, your house is in serious trouble from folks that know what they're doing.

Work in Progress

2008-02-05T08:03:00.000-05:00

Finally! Some knitting content!

But first, kudos to Amanda for being the first to correctly guess the mystery object. I guess it wasn't as hard as I thought. I've never seen a tire shred so much before, so I was amazed and a little shocked when hubby hauled that out of his trunk after telling me "I had a flat on the way to work today." I think that's the first contender for the understatement of the year award.

Ok, so now onto the knitting. I'm still working on the tidal wave socks, and loving them completely. The pattern calls for 5 repeats on the leg, and then a plain stockinette foot. I'm seriously considering continuing the pattern down the top of the foot, but I'm not sure what it'll do to the striping. I guess the best way to find out is to give it a try, huh? What do you think: follow the pattern, or experiment. I mean, it's the foot afterall, and no one is really going to see it. Is it worth the extra effort to do the pattern down the foot? I'm not worried about it feeling bulky in the shoe. This yarn is incredibly thin. I really enjoy the pattern, though, and it wouldn't be that much more work, and might actually speed things up since it holds more interest than boring stockinette.

Jeez, I'm indecisive!

Here's what my desk looks like this morning:

And a closeup of the pattern, just because I love it so much.

And that's all I've got for this morning. :)

Healing in Progress

2008-02-04T10:52:00.000-05:00

I do realize that not everyone likes this sort of stuff, so if you're the type that can't stomach cuts, scrapes, and other sorts of owies, turn away now.

I've been taking progress pictures of Mocha's nose every couple of days just to sort of document the progress. I guess it's some sort of perversion that's rubbed off from work where we get to see some really gnarly wounds and stuff. It's fun, and often amazing, to watch the healing process. That, and Mo really hates going to the vet, so it's much easier for me to take a picture in and show it to the doctor rather than make her suffer the indignity of kenneling for the day.

So here they are- in chronological order.

These first two are from the day after surgery. You can see the bruising and inflammation. And, of course, you can see the pain in her eyes and demeanor. Poor girl. For the first couple of days she looked like she was a sharpei mix instead of a chow her nose was so swollen.

After the inflammation went down, these cracks appeared vertically down the front of her nose. They were there all along, but became deeper and more pronounced with the swelling. Don't they look awful?

What? You want a close up? Ok.

And here it is a few days later- looking much less inflammed and more healed than before.

Tomorrow she gets her sutures out and she'll be almost good as new. The scars will make her look tough, I suppose. I'm just glad that it has healed so well. I guess I'm incredibly fortunate to work where I do, or my dogs are, at least.

And kudos to the first person to identify this mystery object: (don't worry, it's not an animal part)

Still here... somewhere

2008-02-01T21:16:00.000-05:00

It's been a crazy-hectic week here. Nothing major, just one of those weeks where no matter how hard you try and no matter how many hours you seem to be on your feet, nothing seems to get accomplished.

Brief synopsis:

Met up with Michele last Sunday for some knitting time while Hubby and J went to watch Alvin and the Chipmunks. I got either 2 or 3 repeats on my latest sock done- Tidal Wave socks in Tofutsies. I really love the color (tenderfoot) of the yarn, but I'm concerned about how thin it is, and it's inelasticity. I'm knitting these on size 1 needles, and I sort of feel like I should go down to a 0, but can't bear to knit on them. I'll play it by ear. They fit me, but I'm afraid that they may slouch more than I like. But I love the color and the pattern, so I'm willing to take the risk.

And I got a great surprise, too. Michele and her husband bought the supplies and made a couple of swifts. I'd link to the directions, but I can't get the page to load right now. I've been considering shelling out the money for one for some time since I have a hard time convincing hubby to help wind skeins with me, but haven't done so yet. I'm in heaven over it. Too cool. Thanks Michele and T!!

We also went to the pet store for a sucker fish for J's aquarium. J instantly spotted a tank if tiny little black moors and commented on how they looked just like "baby Spaz fish", and so we ended up going home with one of them as well. The sucker fish went belly-up in less than 24 hours, but baby Spaz, who is really so tiny I thought that Spot would swallow him whole seems to be thriving. So much for phasing out the fish in this house.

Work's been a bear this week. I've tried so hard to have a good attitude about it, but it's getting more and more difficult to deal with coworkers who sit on their fat, lazy asses all day while a select few people do all of the work. Honestly, I don't mind working, and actually like my job, but it sucks to sit and watch them get away with earning a paycheck for browsing the net all day and otherwise doing nothing. I didn't make any friends today, either. Got the silent treatment all day, and it suited me just fine. I work tomorrow, but don't have to be back again until Tuesday. I think I'll use that time to try and get my head back on straight.

That's it. No spinning to report, no knitting at all since Sunday. I've just been too damn exhausted and busy with all the little things to enjoy anything this week. Hopefully that'll change soon.

Not for the squeamish

2008-01-23T20:27:00.001-05:00

This isn't a great picture. It was taken with my cell phone last night before the doctor sewed up the dangly nose bits.

She's home now, and aside from a little swelling and a pitiful looking shave-job you can hardly tell it was ever injured at all. Let's hope it continues to heal well. Noses are hard to heal up because of their very nature- wet, rough texture, always into something, lickable at all times. But I'm hopeful. She's in good spirits and sleeping away at my feet. She's a good old dog.

And it's not a good time to be an animal in our house. We mourned the passing of poor "Spaz" (J's favorite goldfish) yesterday. He fought a good battle and lived a long (for a goldfish) life. May his little tail flutter in fishy heaven.

Does it ever end?

2008-01-22T22:29:00.000-05:00

Just when I thought things were getting back to normal around here something had to happen to throw us for a loop.

This afternoon my sister let the dogs out to do their thing, and they got into a scuffle- through the privacy fence- with the neighbor's dog. Now, I'm not claiming innocence on my dog's part here. Kelli is a loudmouth and got the neighbor's dog (also a loudmouth) going. But it was poor old Mocha that stuck her curious nose through the fence for a sniff.

According to my sister, the bloodshed was incredible. And from the looks of my house, and her clothes, she's not exaggerating.

Fortunately, I work for the best vet's office in the county, and we have the best surgeons in the state. Dr. J reattached what he dubbed her "been through a cheese grater" nose in a way that makes it look almost natural.

Kelli didn't go unscathed, either. She's got a puncture on her cheek and a cut on her nose. She'll get looked at and the precautionary antibiotics tomorrow.

But to make things even worse, the damn neighbor dog later in the evening attacked my sister while she was outside cleaning out her truck. Now, I don't want to start a feud with the neighbors over their dog, especially since they're good folks, and their dog has never been an issue before, but do I wait until it's one of the kids that sticks a finger through the fence?

Hopefully lessons have been learned all around.

I'll post the gory pictures tomorrow.