Wednesday, January 30, 2008

The big day

Yesterday was a big day for me. I hit the pre-Jake weight, which is the biggest I've been. And after 3 pairs of pants that I couldnt fit into, I started thinking about crazydiet. And yes, crazydiet worked well but I wasn't looking forward to 11 more days of eating lunchmeat twice a day. And although I dont fault crazydiet for my re-gaining-and-the-some predicament (that I blame on my own lack of self-restraint and christmas candy)(damn buckeyes!) I will learn from the mistakes of those that have gone before me and try to eat more sensibly.

And to that end, yesterday I signed up for Weight Watchers online. No meetings, but instead, a cyber-support system. Easy points tracking and all sorts of goodies like exercise demos and recipe creators, and more. We'll see how it works out. Wish me luck!

I did zero on the blanket yesterday (too busy last night playing on the WW website), but I did rip out the few heel flap rows I had done and started on a short-row heel (from the "sock to come" from the last post). I think I sorta have it down, we'll see.

Sean is a Mr Cranky pants the last couple days, he's getting in his 2 eyeteeth at the same time. Not a happy baby. And Jake decided to come down with an Asthma issue 2 nights ago, and we're still dealing with that. Not fun, I tell ya! Well, thats really it for now. Hopefully I'll have more to report tomorrow.

Monday, January 28, 2008

A sock, another sock and makin money?

Hi there, how are you today? I'm doing ok. We had a nice weekend - which included the Taylor Swift concert and a visit to Grandma at the nursing home.

Here's our view from the Gallery of the Performing Arts Center:








And our view of Taylor from our seats:









As for Grandma, she is doing well and seems to like the home she's in. They have activities for her and she's been doing a lot of coloring!

I finished the SuperShow sock - an even though it doesnt look like it could fit an actual human - it fits me! So it will fit Mom just fine. Isn't it beeUteeFul:









And then in the calendar for today I found these. It's like a vicious, never ending cycle. These will NOT be next since I WILL finish the other SuperShow sock and the blue sock, but they will be after that - unless I find a nice solid sock yarn NO NO NO... They will not be next! But maybe a nice baby blue, or NONONONONO!








It's like crack, I swear! Moving on.

Please notice the new clicky links over ---->. I have started whoring out the blog for monetary gain. I've checked out these 4 e-books and they seem pretty good. I especially like the knitting and crochet one since you get a free mini-course. And I am SOOO going to get the wheel - It would be so much better for the computer to dole out some pre-determined punishments than me always trying to figure them out! Anyway, there they are. And you can make money on your OWN blog by clicking on Get Your Own! Hey, cant hurt, right? ANd I've got to earn the sock yarn money somehow!

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Not another knitting update

Last night the kids and I (Travis was working) went to Pizza Hut to use Jake's reading "Free Pizza" certificate. That was fun, and the pizza was good. I had mentioned that we need to take Sean to get his hair cut since it's getting in his eyes, Jake thought it was a good idea, too. The first place we tried was closed but the 2nd was open, and the lady was so nice. Here's some pics!

Before:









During:









After:








This morning (It's a nice pic if you squint!):








That's it for now. Have a great day!

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Project list

Here you are, an actual post about yarn!!! Here's an update of what I have on the needles currently.

Cliff's afghan. I am on track to have it done by Christmas :).:










SuperShow Socks:









Blue socks: no picture update, I forgot to get one. The do come out every once in a while to have a round or 2 done but not often.

Brown sweater - not much progress, and I'm not in love with it so it will dwindle for a while:










That's it for now. More updating on everything else tomorrow!

Monday, January 21, 2008

Some videos & updates

As promised, here are the rest of the birthday cake videos and Mr. Stinkypants himself playing with his "new" toy. And at the end, an update on Grandma, Jovanni and yarn.








Grandma was in the hospital for a few days then headed for her new home. She looked really good and seemed in high spirits which is great. We were thrilled that she wanted to be placed in a nursing home, and this will give her a good opportunity to play bingo, have a manicure, make new friends and most importantly have nursing care round the clock. She has a roommate Cathy who just turned 97(!) and hopefully it will be nice for them to have each other to talk to. The staff is very nice and the facility itself is nice. I had to hold back tears though, not for Grandma but for some of the other residents that seemed to be alone. I hope I can figure out a way that I can visit often, and maybe adopt some of the senior orphans. Overzealous? Perhaps but isn't volunteering on my resolution list? I really should write that down somewhere becides this here blog, eh? AND, for my family - Grandma is requesting pics of each of the families. Please either send one to her or email me a jpg and I will get it printed up.

Jovanni went into the hospital last Monday to get ready for his surery. He had his surgery on Wedneday and it went well except he seemed to be in a lot of pain when he wasnt sleeping Poor little guy. They had to give him some blood because he was losing some after the surgery, and he is doing better now. I'm not sure how long he'll be in there but please remember to keep him in your prayers.

And finally - a yarn update! I brought the SuperShow sock with me today to work on at lunch, and I will take a pic of it. I turned the heel and am about to pick up the gusset so I'm about halfway done with it. I also worked on Cliffy's blanket some yesterday and it's about 18" square. I forgot to take a picture of it, but I'll try to remember tonight.

I suppose I should stop and try to find my desk. It's a little scary in here so wish me luck.

Sunday, January 20, 2008

I have survived.

Today is Sunday and my day off. Wanna guess what I'll be doing? C'mon, take a guess. Going to the RV show. Yep. Just cant stay away! EEEEw, I think somebody is stinky... brb. Alrighty... not pleasant. Anyway - moving on.
I had thought my Mom was going to meet me yesterday at the show but because we had some weather she wasn't able to. Good thing too because her "weather" was some fog and mist but by the time I left I was dripping wet from helping people out to their car in a golf cart before the nasty weather came. We had tornado watches and severe thunder storm warnings. I was out on the golf cart for about an hour and from 5 -5:45 it was fine and starting to mist a bit. By 6 it was torrential downpour and no amount of roof on my golf cart was going to save me. I had to go home and change every stitch of clothing before I went to get the kids. By the time I went to bed 3 hours later my hair was still damp. WET WET. But, some guy gave me a tip - that was funny. Sweet, and I did try to give it back but he wouldn't take it. So, since they didn't come out yesterday I asked if they wanted to come out today - when it's not rainy but nice and cool - perfect day for an outside/inside show.

I bought my niece her birthday present, I need to get it mailed out to her. I don't think she reads this but I wont mention it just in case. I also had some deep fried oreos. I did manage to give 1 away but was stuck eating the other 5 myself. Such a shame. But SOOO good.

Sean is almost a walker. He's taking 4-5 steps at a time, but only when he's aiming for something. He'll go from the table to the couch, the table to me, the couch to Mamaw but not from the table to nothing. And, he's found this "Slammer" from 100 years ago (you know, the little ball things that you throw on the ground and they say stuff) it says "OH NO" and "Help Me Help Me". He Loves it! He's also been saying "Hi". toooo cute. I will try to take some video from him walking. Oh, speaking of video, here is part 3 of his birthday cake video. When I get back to the office on Monday I'll finish uploading it to utube which takes forFREAKINever.



How about a knitting update? I started another sock. I wanted something to work on while at the show and the other sock is complicated (except that I didn't remember until just now that I'm on the round and round knitting part and not the leg - whoops) and Cliffs blanket is too big. The new sock is cute, made from Sockotta, and it will have its picture taken later, after I retrieve it from the show office where it spent the night instead of going out in the rain. It's in grey/blue/purples and the is a mock-cable rib. Oh, oh, and speaking of Cliff's blanket... guess what I got! Addi Turbos (40") long! I also got a 16" in another size for a ha pattern I saw that's kind of lacy and pretty. They came from Hong Kong via Ebay and I got them pretty reasonably. Soo. Excited!

I guess that's it for now. More pics and video tomorrow. Have a great Sunday.

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Sean has spots

I think the baby is allergic to fish sticks because the morning after his birthday when he had fish sticks... he had spots. not a lot but I gave him the tiniest tad of benadryl to help knock it out.. it made him sleepy but did nothing for the spots. I tried again last night with the benadryl and while I enjoyed sleeping that many hours in a row (I think it was about 7!) he was even spottier than when he went to bed. The advice I got was to try aveeno in his bathwater, so we'll see how that works out tonight.

Wish us luck - he seems miserable.

I am exhausted - how many more days until I get a day off? Ugh.

Monday, January 07, 2008

Sean's Brthday Party

We had Sean's birthday party on Saturday and it was very small and lots of fun. I made tacos - his favorite - and the cake that Travis and Jake made came out pretty good. I have some pics to post now, and some video, but because youtube takes forfreakinever I will need to post the rest of the video later, since I DO need to head out to the fairgrounds.

Sean's cake:









Blowing out candles:









Eating cake #1:






Eating cake #2:






The end result:










I'll try to get the rest of these videos uploaded for your viewing pleasure soon.
Tomorrow is his big day - but, Travis has work late, I have to be at the fairgrounds during the day so I cant take off, and Papaw is out of town so it will be dinner with just me, Jake, Mamaw & Sean. And very soon we'll take him to get his little hair cut - his bangs are always in his eyes!

Well thats it from me for a couple weeks - have some good times for me!

Friday, January 04, 2008

Sometimes I'm not too bright.

So remember yesterday, when I'm sure you were crying in your Cheerios that I'd be blogless for the next couple weeks - well... not so much. I don't have to be out at he fairgrounds until NEXT Monday. Whoopsy! Anyway,I don't have any new pictures, and I didn't get to work much on Cliffy's afghan, but have decided to add a little pink - just for effect!

New Years Resolutions. Did you make any? I am - let's see...

1) lose weight - I'll start on crazydiet again once SuperShow is over, which will be pretty easy since Travis will be working nights and wont be bothered by my lunch-meat and peanut filled dinners. I hate that I gained the weight back but it is SO my own fault (not the diet's) because I just cannot keep my hands out of the candy box. Love you Christmas but hate the effects.

2) get my home in order - I have been on a purge lately, and that will need to continue because we just. have. too. much. stuff. I am planning a yard sale in the spring, and have already begun setting stuff aside (baby stuff, Christmas stuff, crafty stuff) to go in said sale. For Christmas I got some more bins for the yarn area, and I plan to use them. I still have so much yarn still in bags in the closet, and while I have plans for a good bit of it - it's not all sorted. I also have the yarn that I got from my folks but most of that will be going into Cliff's afghan. I haven't really worked with this "vintage" acrylic, I am hoping it all washes up nice. But, I think he'll be excited about it even if it is a little scratchy!

3) Get the kids rooms in order - Sean's is pretty OK but I need to find a home for his toy box which is currently living in the dining room. I know where I want to put it but there is a mini-bookshelf there that is holding a couple toys, some books and his shoes. Probably not the best use of the space, but that's it. I also need to get 2 of the 3 bins of clothes (from Jake) up in the attic since they don't fit anymore. I had been trying to keep 1 bin at a time to put stuff in as they don't fit anymore, but that was 2 bins ago. Jake's room is a mess. He is trying to learn to keep his dresser drawers organized (and by organized I mean "able to be shut"), and he is also learning to hang his own clothes. It ain't pretty, but that is his chore. I thought I had a pretty good system in his closet of shirts on the top bar and pants on the bottom, but that would only really work if he were a couple feet taller. And since that wont be happening overnight, maybe I'll put school clothes on the bottom (since he wears them more often) and weekend clothes on top. I also need to weed through some of his stuff to make room for the Christmas explosion.

4) Cook more real food, and keep a monthly or weekly menu - Sometimes I get really good at keeping the monthly menu, then it slides. Right now is a slide, as witnessed by the calendar on the fridge marked "March" (but it's not as bad as that since I used a paper calendar for April... but that's still bad!). This will be more helpful when the rat starts cooperating and lets me have my husband in the evenings. However, I can still cook supper for the family and save his for when he gets home, but I really don't want to promote his dinner-eating that late. I just ordered a couple Semi-Homemade cookbooks which I think will be helpful to me, since time is against me and I really like some of the dishes Sandra Lee comes up with. Speaking of #2, I should probably go through the 90billion cookbooks to make room for the 2 that are coming I have some that I have never used and probably wont. Anyone want a signed copy of Emeril's Life's A Party? Guess I could ebay it. Anyway, moving on.

5) Go to church more regularly & volunteer - I had stopped going for many many months after Sean was born, but did start going again a few months ago. It feels good to go, but I do have guilt about not really getting involved much. It felt so good to help out with the angel tree presents - I felt like I really made a difference. We haven't been involved in a church group in a few years, and I don't think we'd be able to since his schedule is so wonky. But maybe I can volunteer at a soup kitchen like my mom does or something like that once a month.

6) Manage money better - I got a huge raise this year but I don't feel like it's made a difference... mainly because daycare cost for Sean is so high. And while that will be going down a little soon (once he is a "toddler" and is able to eat table food), we need to be more frugal. Starting with not going out to eat as much (see #4). I find that if I don't have anything planned for dinner it is just easier to go somewhere than figure something out. When I had the menu up I could look at it in the morning and get out whatever meat I needed and it would be ready to cook when I got home. I don't have many meals that I make that don't require defrost time - and the ones I do aren't all that great. That's what I need, a cookbook of stuff I can cook without the need of defrosting. Our biggest fallback is chicken nuggets, mac & cheese and corn on the cob or tuna mac. Not great choices to help with #1, but easy and no defrosting required. I would hate to admit how many times in a month we eat that. It's sad really. Anyway, and while eating out is our biggest pitfall, I am sure there are others. I am looking for ways to conserve energy at the house - I bought the light bulbs and am having Travis convert the 3-way lamps to take them. Conserving energy saves on the electric bill.

6 resolutions. That's really not so bad. Resolutions that I want to keep, and really should keep. Wish me luck!

Thursday, January 03, 2008

Just a quickie...

I wanted to post an update to the log cabin afghan:









And also, Sean's daycare sent over a pic from their Christmas party that I thought was really adorable and I had to share:










And finally, starting on Monday I will not be in the office and therfore my blogtime will be greatly diminished, and my photos will be non-existant (non-exitent? whatever.) because the cord thing lives here. I will be back on the 22nd - love the ot but will miss the blog. I just pray that I am able to keep up with the bloglines from home. Well, that's it. Have a good one!

Wednesday, January 02, 2008

Happy New Year, some knitting and He Likes Cheese!

Happy New Year kiddos! I hope yours is full of life and love and all that. Did you stay up? Did you watch the ball drop? We didnt make it past 10:30. Sad really. Sean slept through the night, which was great. Jake woke up twice, which was not. Last night Jake slept through and Sean only got up once so all in all it was good.

We spent New Years day with my in-laws, and guess what Sean did? He took a step! Yep, from the couch to the coffee table. I know it was a real step and not a lean because he was not able to make the return trip without falling. I did not, however, manage to get a picture of this monumentous occasion, and I will make up for it by showing you this:











That would be Sean digging in his new toy box which I had to buy (Love you Once Upon A Child) to fit his new toys. (Please ignore my window's lack of curtains... they were in the wash. They're back up now, so no worries.) He really likes his new toys, especially the ones at the very very bottom that are sometimes hard to get at and still have your feet on the ground!

I started my firs Christmas project for next year - er this year! I am using the yarn that I got from my Mom's yard-saling (which Cliff made fun of) to make him an afghan. The irony amuses me. Anyway, for Christmas Mom gave me a Michaels gift card and one of the things I bought was the Mason Dixon knitting book, which I have been wanting for some time now but have not managed to get it yet. In said book is a pattern for a knitted Log Cabin quilt afghan. Made in many many different colors, and still looking swell, I thought this would be just the thing! Course it's ancient acrylic and I had forgotten how weird it feels to crochet with but hey, it's working. Wanna see? This was as of this morning. Since this was taken, I've finished the dark green I was working on and am halfway through the next block of primary blue. The colors are a little wonky, but they are pretty close to the same ones they used in the book and it looks fine in the book.










And finally, proof that he's mine. As you know, Sean (and Jake too) were made from cheese. I consumed MASS amounts of cheese - mac n cheese, cheese quesadillas, tacos, queso dip, etc - during my pregnancy. So much so that everyone was slightly suprised to see him come out not orange. Anyway, this weekend I introduced Sean to these lovely little cubes of wonderfullness. He was quite impressed.










He's getting so big, it's so hard to believe that he's almost one. Speaking of, guess who will be making his birthday cake? Nope, not me.... Travis and Jake will be making it. Should be interesting. I am having them make it on Friday so I have some Just-In-Case time (shh). Anyway, thats it for now, have a great day!