Saturday, June 30, 2007

Done and Done

I finished up both baby blankets. The blue/white one got mailed out yesterday, and yes I did take a pic of it but it's living on my camera just now. I almost ran out of yarn, and by almost... I mean that I did run out about 3 feet from the end, so I frogged the last round and redid it in a hdc instead of a dc and ended up with about 5 feet of yarn at the end. Yep, took a pic of that too! I havent taken a pic of the pink & purple one, but I already put it in the closet to hang out until the baby comes.

Speaking of babies, Damarys' sister went into labor yesterday, and I dont have a text this morning, but I'm sure there's a new baby. So congrats to them.

I also managed to get 4 butterflies done for a charity project with the group. They go to lots of different types of people, over 100 people, terminal people and the like. What a sweet way to brighten up folks' day.

Today I will be hunting the 2nd hand places for one of the bouncy things that Sean loves so much. Once upon a child didnt have one, so I will try a couple other places around here. Wish me luck.

Today will also be back to working on the shawl. Have I told you how over it I am? Yeah, about that much. I do have the sock in case I get sick of the shawl, but if I start with that mindset, I'll have a pair of socks before half a shawl!

Tomorrow Other Tracy is bringing her 5 yr old Jack, and Tony & Nette are bring 6 yr old Tyler and baby Bailey to go swimming. Damarys may bring 5 yr old Jasyline, but because of her new nephew(to be) that is up in the air.

And finally, my big boy is getting his 6 yr molars. He's not happy about the pain, and thanks Kerry for suggesting the Motrin instead of asprin. Havent gotten out the bourbon yet, but we'll see how the whiney day progresses, eh? Funny that he's getting these without losing a tooth yet.

That's it for now, have a great weekend.

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Sean's Video

Here is the video of Sean. Please go potty before looking at this - I wont be responsible for puddles on the floor. Enjoy.

http://uncutvideo.aol.com/videos/42a3e701017ebfec0b4903af89fc285f

I went last night and finally got my hair permed. It's not beautiful today, so I'll take a pic tomorrow once I've been able to rinse it at least.

On my yarn progress - I was able to get a few rounds of the blue/blue done so I think I have about 4 left until it's done. Hopefully between lunch today and tonight I'll get it done to send tomorrow. Wish me luck.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Ugh

Our whole house is sick, and it sucks. Sean hasnt really been not-sick yet, but the 197 trips to the doctor havent revealed anything - apparently it's ok that he has gak in his chest and boogie nose! I wish I could just make him understand how to spit it out, but who can reason with a 5 month old? Sleeping at night has been hit and miss, but last night (let's whisper so that no one hears and realizes the cosmic mistake) he slept and I had to wake him up this morning! I was pretty amazed. Let's see if he can manage this on a day when the alarm isnt going off at 6:30! Every time I think he's making progress he reverts right back, so I'll try not to get excited. !.

Jake started a mini-soccer camp at school this week. He's enjoying it, me less so since they gave us 1 shirt that he has to wear every day... and it's WHITE! ?. So, I'm getting lots of laundry done - which is a plus, I suppose. He got a soccer bal for his birthday and has been showing us his newly learned moves. He's so cute when he gets excited about stuff. Also for his birthday, he got enough money to replace the gameboy that he lost. No, not the "we'll find it later" lost, but the "Mommy I left my gameboy in the gas station bathroom 4 miles back and can we turn around" lost. Of course it wasnt there when we got back, and after a week of summer camp and no game boy he was kinda twitchy. But, lessons learned, so that part is good.

I was able to get to Michaels to get the yarn to finish up a baby ghan for a friend of Travis'. The baby came on 6/11, but we just found out about him last week, so I'm trying to go quick. It looks nice, and I really like the star pattern. It looks like a lot more work than it is I think.
I am still a few rounds from finishing the blanket for otherTracy, but she's not due until November so I have some time.
I have restarted the convention shawl - this would be time #4 if you're keeping track. Angora is not a good frogging yarn, just so you know. I think it's going ok this time, of course I'm only about 6 rows in. We'll see how it turns out.

That's really about it, back to work. I am trying to get some video of Sean that they took at daycare, which is so funny that I want to send off to AFV. Cant because Travis works for the rat, but maybe the daycare lady can. So, hopefully I'll be able to share that tomorrow.

Friday, June 22, 2007

Ok, but its not my fault!

So I started another star baby blanket last night. I knew the baby was coming but had no clue if it was a boy or girl or when the baby was due. Evan was born on 6/11 to Travis' friend Ginger and her boyfriend Dustin. They sent pics and boy is he a cutie! If Evan were an Eva I could just give them the one I started for otherTracy, but pink and purple just wont do for a boy! So, I started with the white and I'll work on the white/blue today at lunch but I need to get more blue. And I need to boogie. NOT my fault that I couldnt start sooner because I didnt want it to not be the right colors... and NOT my fault that he was born on the 11th since I just got the email yesterday. See!

I have not finished otherTracy's blanket, but I think I have only about 3 or 3.5 rounds to go on it. I ripped out the entire angora shawl and started another one - with my own design elements... wish me luck. We'll see how it goes. Once I finish my now 2 baby blankets, I will give myself 2 weeks on the shawl and if I dont like how it's coming then I start on an afghan. I could turn out an American Flag afghan in 3 weeks if I try hard enough, so I always have a fallback. I have not done stitch one on either the sweater or sock, so thats something. Moving on.

Tomorrow I am going to Disney to lets some friends in. Then on Sunday is Jake's birthday party. His Star Wars birthday party. With him being 6 and all we figured it was time to stop making his birthdays just another reason to hang out with our friends and actually invite some people his own age. So, We will have more than 10 people under 15... so it should be interesting.

I cannot begin to describe how grown up I feel right now. It's very strange indeed.

I didnt take any pics last night, so you're out of luck on that front. I am trying to ignore the little voice in the back saying "Hey, what about the blackmail video of you doing virtual reality sword fighting?". Have a nice weekend.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Number 1 turns 6.










To Jacob on the Occasion of your 6th Birthday. (even though I know you wont read this for a while, if ever)(everyone else, please bear with me)

You amaze me with your brilliance and humor and pretty blue eyes and eleventy million freckles (can I PLEASE connect the dots?). We love you very very much.

To celebrate this day, Travis Jake and I went to DisneyQuest for the day with a stop at House of Blues for lunch. Here's what it looked like (that's a virtual reality helmet on me and Jake) there's video too, but I dont have time to post it today. Maybe tomorrow:













And to backtrack, here's Fathers Day. Please notice the smile on Sean's face... he likes the pool now. And also, the makings of Leiber Knoedel - eewe!:











And because I am not at all faithful to yarn projects, here is a list, in pictures, of what I am working on right this very minute:

The baby blanket (T minus 5.5 rounds to go!)
The forgotten sweater - I'm about 6 or 7 inches into the back
The Convention Shawl... and why I dont like it anymore
And the proof that I have no shame... the sock I started on the way to DisneyQuest.













Monday, June 18, 2007

Whoops!

I forgot my camera at home. Pretend you are seeing pics from Grandma's birthday party, Jake and Sean in the pool and silly video of Jake playing his guitar. Ok, so maybe I wont post the video, because its kinda boring, but it was fun to try to be covert to get it!

I ran out of pink yarn to finish the babyghan, but got some yesterday and brought it with me to work on at lunch. While I was waiting to get that yarn, I worked on a couple squares for a baby comfortghan How sad is that! A little girl, age 1, took a tumble on the stairs. When her folks took her to the hospital to make sure she's ok they found a tumor on her brain the size of a golfball. Looks like she went in for surgery on Tuesday, but I dont have an update. But on my squares, 1 was crocheted, and it's done, and I'm knitting the other one in seed stitch. This is my first time sucessfully doing it, and I really like it. I'll show you tomorrow if I can remember my camera.

I have been kinda ignoring the angora shawl, I dont know if I like it enough to put in the silent auction for work. Its not as professional as I would like - all because of the holes down the back. For some reason they are zig-zaggy. If I were a real knitter, I might know why and how to fix it, but I dont. Perhaps I can make just a normal triangle shawl with the lace from this original pattern along the bottom? Hrm. I have less than 3 months to go, so if I'm gonna change it I probably ought to hurry it up, eh?

That's it for now. Have a good monday.

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

friends are great.

I mean really. But I'll get to that in a minute.

Yesterday, again, I blew the carbs portion of my "diet". If you'd like to follow along (dont know if you can without being a member, but maybe... you let me know) you can go to my.sparkpeople.com/BRANDEEKINS. I have not really updated it, but I can do that after this post. I like that it tells me what exercises to do on the stregnth training portion. Can I tell you that my shoulders STILL hurt from 2 days ago's push-ups! I was able to accomplish all of the stregnth training in my office, which was nice. I need to do it again today, so that will be in a little bit. This site also gives you the option of providing menus for you, or you tell it what you eat and it shows what the nutritional values are for those items. Brilliant I thought. Lots of food is actually in there, and if you dont find what you ate in there, you can put the information off the label in. Oh, and free. Free is good. Moving on.

I promised a pic of the Tracy afghan. Here ya go! This was before lunch, I've done another couple rounds on it. I am almost out of pink, but I have some at home that should be enough for it.









When it's done I'll show you more. I hope she likes it. I do. And on to friends. Damarys and her daughter joined me and my brood over at otherTracy's house for dinner. Our kids played together, well, Here's Tracy's Jack and my Sean:









You cant see Sean's outfit, but it says Rockstar and has a guitar on it. TOO. CUTE. I, of course, forgot to take a picture of him in it. Laundry will be done this weekend and you'll have one soon enough though. Back to friends. We had such a great time, sitting around and talking about work and kids and funny stories all while sharing a great meal. Travis and Tracy's husband Ben got on well, and I think he even enjoyed himself - and THAT is something. We left after 9:30 - way past Jake's bedtime, and he still was crying to not go. Soon we'll have to get the boys together again. They had a blast. Here are we three ladies with our 3 "J" 5 year olds (the nice one, then the slightly skewed one):









Can I show you what I saw on my way home from work yesterday:


Here's the story. I'm sitting at a red light, and the lady in the car (on the phone) on the right (and is in MY LANE) comes into my lane and stops. Like she's waiting on the light, but shes in my lane. I thought maybe she's trying to be in the turn lane? So the crossways traffic is going - starting with the left turn arrow - and she was blocking people by being in their lane - having to swerve around her. Then the crossways people go across, then is my turn lane (and the one across the street) but she didnt budge. She sat there. In my lane. My light turns green. I go forward and stop because she's still sitting there. Talking on her phone. In my lane. I ended up having to go around her. Her car was running, she had driven to this place, and breaked when she got there. Her brake lights were on, so she wasnt in park with no brakes. I have NO clue.
Anyway, that's really it for today. Have a good one.

Monday, June 11, 2007

Hello from the slacker

Let me start off by telling Sandy that the Lion Play was "The Learning Circus" or something like that (horrible, I know). Thank you for asking.


Sorry that I've been slacking, works been actually "worky" for a change. Got a "promotion" which is nice, and a $2/hr pay raise, which is even nicer. But more work came with it so hey, whatta do.

I gave Deanna her comfortghan on Wednesday. It took her longer to cry than I expected, but she was very happy with it. She is doing better, she went home on Saturday, 24 hours after her double mastectomy. That's a lot sooner than I would have thought. Saturday was bad and she wished she had stayed in the hospital, then she got a new lounge chair which made life much more bearable. She is in good spirits. Thank you for your prayers. Here she is getting her ghan. Someday I will learn to take pictures that the takee knows about and perhaps maybe face me?:








Let me give a quick "my week in pictures":

1. Hillsborough really IS hiring quality, educated individuals for road crews.
2. This big frog was hanging out between my sliding glass door and the screen. We grilled that night and he didnt budge.
3. Jake had the other Jacob and his sister over to swim and had a grand time.
4. Sean and Stacy hanging out.











In other news, Sean was home on Friday with Pink Eye. Wanna know how fun it is to give a 5 month old eye drops 4 times a day? It's not. It is REALLY not. If you would like to dis-prove this statement, you are more than welcome to come to my house and try!

I went to Citrus Park Mall for World Wide Knit in Public day on Saturday. It was nice, and I met some new people. Hi new people! I also met up with one of my friends from Jr high to unload, I mean pass along my maternity clothes. I have NO idea what to do with all that room at the foot of my bed now! Perhaps a hope chest filled with yarn? lol.
On actual project news - I have been working on the shawl for Convention, I am about 40 something rows in. It's only like 6 inches (unblocked) which is VERY dishartening. There are a total of 144 rows before the border which I think is like 19 rows. I am holding out hope that, unlike the picture, it will actually look like a shawl when I'm done. Otherwise, I will cry over my angora.
I found out Friday that otherTracy is having a girl (just like the Chinese people predicted. Very clever, them.) So I started on my Tracie's star afghan (well, not hers, but the one she made and gave to Sean, so sorta-hers) in white, pink and purple. I've got 5 sets of 6 rounds (double stranded - white/white, white/pink, pink/pink, pink/purple, purple/purple) to do, and I'm on round 3 of the pink/pink bit. It's coming quickly which is nice. The baby's not due until November, so I have time, but I like the sheer Not-shawlness of it. You understand.
Speaking of otherTracy, we are going to her place for dinner tomorrow. She has a 5 yr old son named Jack, and Jack and Jake have not yet met. I think they will have loads of fun together! I hope poor Jasyline doesnt feel left out. I'll show pictures, I'm sure. And I'll even try to share the quickly.
And finally, just so I can be accountable to someone (or 6) I have joined the www.sparkpeople.com dieting website. It's free and lets me track meals (and does the math for me), exercise, water consumption, etc. It also has message boards and groups and friends. I'm in the knitting group. So I guess it's like Myspace meets Weight Watchers. We'll see how it goes.



Monday, June 04, 2007

baby giggles, a finished comfort ghan and my handsome fellas

Hi all. I wanted to start off with a video. Shocking, I know. The first bit is Sean giggling, it is very very funny. It's kinda boring toward the end where my trying to coax him to giggle is funnier than he is! So there ya go. Enjoy.

I finished the comfortghan for my work-friend Deanna. She goes in Friday for a double mastectomy. Please keep her in your prayers. Here it is finished and wrapped, including a closeup of my beautimous picot edging:









See... Martha Stewart DOES live here! lol. Anyway, HUGE thanks to all my crochet group gals (and the dudes that love them) that participated in my "Please donate a square so I dont drive myself nuts(er) trying to get this thing done in a month"-athon. I really really appreciate it. And if she says ok, I will post pics of her getting it. She should be here in a couple hours. My favorite of mine is the bottom 2nd right - that is one of Drew's (www.thecrochetdude.com) from last years Crochet pattern a day calendar. Of course I dont have the sheet with me so I cant tell you what the name of it is... but its fun to make - all sorts of criss-crossy goodness. My favorite of the donated ones (if that's allowed - sorry to the other gals, I love them all!) is Kerry's (yarn-addiction.blogspot.com) butterflies- the darkest one. Butterflies are the symbol for Thyroid Cancer, of which Kerry's a survivor. How fitting, I thought.

And of course because I can't go 3.7 minutes without taking a picture... here are the best of the weekend pics:

Saturday, June 02, 2007

I ran out of aluminium foil

I know this sounds funny, and I guess it is, but I have FINALLY run out of foil.

This foil has lived in my house since I got married. Travis and I had just gotten married and moved into our apartment when I sent him to the store to get foil and milk. He went to Sams. He got 2 750 rolls of foil and a gallon of milk. I think I gave my Mom one of the rolls a few years ago. I just finished mine. It's been 8 years and 1 month. !. I find it hysterical that I had 1 roll of foil for 8 years. And to think, I made fun of Travis for getting so much!

That's it for now. Have a safe weekend, and if you're around here, try to stay dry.