My post for the day

is over here.

"Sheesh will you just help me outta here mom?"

I beat second sock syndrome!

I finally finished my socks! I bought the amazing yarn for these socks at a price that I will not mention, but it was much higher than I normally pay for one skien of yarn. I blame yarn fumes and an antsy three year old for this slip. The colors were just too amazing to pass up. Then I did my red practice pair of socks. There was no way I wanted to mess up my amazing yarn. By the time I got my first sock in the pair done I had already knit the same pattern three times. I was just not feeling the socky love any more. But I pushed past it and finished last night. I even had enough left over that I am going to make an iPod Nano cozy. I have already cast on for a super fun pair of really stripey longies. I am also in a knit along for a felted bag, so stay tuned for some more exciting finished objects.

The flash took out a lot of the more subtle color tones there are some really amazing deep emerald greens in this colorway. I will have to take some more pictures in sunlight, if it will ever stop raining.

A full view of the socks. Good thing I recently shaved my legs lol

I am a total Knitting Knerd

Last night I found out that my red hiking socks are going to be featured on the informational page on Ravelry of the pattern that I used to knit them. I am quite tickled. The pattern name is Hiking Socks if you are so inclined to have a peek.

Here are some pictures of one of my latest finished objects. I was no so to quick to display it because I did not make the legs the same length. I was holding the legs wonky when I was knitting the second one and did not realize that one was shorter than the other. It took me awhile to debate the relative merits of frogging vs. leaving them be. I left them be because I used a sewn bind off which would have been a (insert bad word here) to undo. Blocking did not really help much either so Harry is just going to have to deal. These are the longies that are going to have a matching sweater if I can just stop starting new projects and finish already.

I was going to duplicate stitch a heart on the bum but since I did not actually really know how to do that it turned out horrible. I am now a lot more confident of my skilz having looked up several tutorials.

Harry chillin on my bed. Note that I forgot to weave in the ends of the cuff.

A full shot. It was hard to get Harry to stand still long enough to get this picture.

Gotta have a thumb break.

It is Giveaway time! CONTEST CLOSED

I am so excited to be participating in this enormous carnival. I have had a great time each time it has been done and am excited to be giving away my prizes. Here is what you can win:

That's right! There are four cute stuffed animals made by me. That means I will have four lucky winners at the end of the week.

Now for the rules:

• This contest is open to everyone! These cuties are light enough that they are not going to cost me a fortune in shipping and I want my international readers to be able to get in on the fun.
• I must have a way to contact you. Please make sure that you have a link to an email address because I would hate to have you loose out on a chance to win.
• One entry per person.
• Flattery never hurts.
  
• I will pick the winners on Saturday February 2.
  
• Please make sure that you answer the contest question. If you do not, I will not count it as an entry. Sorry!

Ok, now how to enter my contest: I have a lot of fond memories of playing with toys when I was a kid. I want to know what was your favorite toy and why was it so fun for you? Answer that simple question and you have an entry into my contest, that's it!

On and Off

My life seems to be very cyclical. Last week was dead, we spent most of our time in the house being sick. Thus upcoming week is going to be super busy including a quick visit from my inlaws and another knitting class. I hope that I can keep my sanity intact.

Sleep!

Yes, the time stamp on this post is sadly very correct. It really is after 1am when I am posting this. I was headed to bed at midnight (hey I like to stay up on weekends) when a loud wail emanated from the boys' room. Harry was having one of his mysterious sobbing fits that he has now and then. I hope that they are not caused by nightmares but I am not sure what I can really blame it on.

So I take him downstairs and cuddle him until he stops crying. I finally get him into bed after asking him if he is ready numerous times. Five minutes after he is in bed he starts crying again. Sigh. So, here we are. He is finally in bed and I am waiting for a bit hoping that he is really asleep and will stay that way.

We got out of the house yesterday morning despite the buckets of rain that were pouring down (and are still pouring down). Evan wanted to take a walk, but I vetoed that idea. It is fricking cold out there, so he had to settle for some puddle splashing time. Harry got so wet that I had to change his whole outfit which included double layers to keep the chill out.

We went to Target for our outing (did you really expect any other store?) and came home with some of the surprises that we often end up taking home. I saw these cups and was charmed by them. I thought I would just test them out and see if Evan could hold one using his one working hand. I thought I would be able to put it back after and save the cup purchase for some other occasion. The boys had different ideas. I must say that I am pleased that the cups are getting the kids to drink more milk. After Harry stopped getting a bottle his milk consumption plummeted causing me to worry about his little bones. He actually insisted on having milk in his frog cup at dinner when we normally serve water. I am not to thrilled with the fact that these cups have a recommendation to be hand washed but if it keeps the kids happy I will do it (for now).


There seems to be a bit of concern about the preview picture that I had posted. The sheep was unfinished. I was showing off all that I had accomplished in one evening of crafting. Shep has his arms firmly attached and his eyes are present. He is also now wearing a cunning knit sweater that I made for him. I didn't use a pattern for it, I just made it up as I went along. I think it turned out quite well. All he needs is for me to embroider a nose on him and to make him some pants.



P.S. At the posting of this post it is official that Harry is now fully asleep and I will be asleep in short order.

We are out of here!

For the last three days we have been cooped up in the house and not gone anywhere. We can't go to play dates when the boys are sick. I am not a mom that likes to share her kids germs. We have not been to the park due to the super chilly weather (ok so I am a weak Californian who is a cold wuss, but still) and the rain. The library is out due to cold germs (I think that we may have picked up our current illness there), so all we have left is shopping. I will make sure to wipe down the cart when we are done but doggone it I need to get out of the house this morning!

Cold

I am so ready for us to get healthy. Both boys have been super snotty all week. I have been sick less time than that thanks to Harry thinking that giving mommy a kiss involves shoving his snotty nose into her mouth. Now my husband is getting sniffly and sneezy. I know that just when we finally all get well that another cold will be around the corner. We are already working on our thisr one in the last few months. Winter is such a fun time.

Meow

Yesterday I slept in until about 9:30, I am not sure how early the kids got up. My husband shut our bedroom door which I normally keep open so that I can hear when the kids get up (it works so well that when Evan woke up sobbing at 3 am because he dropped Kitty on the floor I was there very quickly to solve the situation). For many families that would have meant that there would have been two unsupervised boys running around the house. I could have come downstairs to their attempts to get their own breakfast, or something equally horrifying.

None of these things happened. Both boys were chattering to each other still in their beds. I have no idea what I have done to get so lucky. Evan is perfectly able to open the door, we don't have anything that prevents that like we do with all the doors that lead outside or to rooms I don;t want them getting into. Harry loves to try, but he has not quite got the hang of it. The best I can figure is that Evan does not want to try to leave the room and Harry follows the example of his big brother. I know this because when Harry naps in the room alone I have heard him rattling the door knob when he awake. I guess I will be in big trouble if they decide to bolt, but until then I am enjoying the peace of mind.

Yummy in my tummy

One thing that frequently astounds me is how much food the boys can eat when they are having a growth spurt. When they are on a roll they can eat more than me. Last night we went out for dinner as a special treat. Evan ate his corn dog, 1/3 of my steak and my entire dish of cinnamon apples plus some of the pineapple that was his side dish. Harry ate a cheeseburger most of the pineapple and half of the mandarin oranges that were his side dish. This morning Evan ate three waffles dipped in yogurt plus half of a Clementine and half of a banana, Harry ate the same amount of everything as Evan did. It is a wonder that his small stomach does not explode after being stuffed so full. I am going to be in so much trouble when they become teenagers.

Preview

Here is a preview of the prizes for a contest I will be starting next Monday.

Tangental

I have notices these last three weeks that my class loves to wander off on tangents. It is like pulling teeth to keep them on topic. They also seem to be allergic to their chairs. I can hardly blame them on that one since by the time we have class they have been sitting for some time. I try and do things like have them sit on the floor so that we can have a change of pace. I think the toughest part of this class is getting them to take turns while talking. I am going to bring some sort of item to hold when it is their turn to talk. Hopefully that will help keep them from interrupting me or their classmates.

One good thing that happened this week is that I figured out that if I threaten one of the boys with telling his mother if he does not participate in a constructive manner he will suddenly be more cooperative. I am friends with his mother, so I know that she will take it seriously if I complain. All three kids managed to bring scriptures this week so all in all it was a pretty good lesson. Next week we have Sharing time and I am still trying to firm up what we will be doing.

I had an awesome Sacrament meeting today. I was able to sit in my pew the whole time and actually was able to listen with no interuptions. You may be wondering how I achieved that bliss, a bliss that I have not experienced since having kids. It was quite simple, both boys were home with colds. I got to go to church all on my lonesome while my husband (who has a less demanding calling) stayed home with the boys wiping noses.

Maybe it is my imagination, but it has seemed to me that the kids have been catching colds at a higher frequency than in the past winters. They have not been too horrible, so I am not complaining. I am thankful that they have not been catching stomach viruses or anything equally gross. Maybe it was just their time to get sick more often.

Knock knock

Knock Knock
Who's There?
Kook
Kook Who?

Fun at the park

Knitting Class

I taught my first of two knitting classes tonight. It was exhausting but mostly fun. Six women showed up which is about all I could have handled. One ended up giving up pretty quickly. I was not too surprised about her since she asked me if this was a quilting class when she first came in. She had to borrow knitting stuff from people that brought extras.

We were supposed to be making cotton dish cloths but apparently my handout did not get passed out to everyone. Some of the women brought acrylic yarn and the wrong sized needles. I almost choked when one woman pulled out her honking size 13 needles and asked if they would work for this project. I lent her a pair of mine so that she did not end up with huge loops that looked nothing like knitting.

I think that I managed to keep them from getting too discouraged that they did not feel natural with all the motions. I kept reminding them that they would get better with practice. I wish I had saved some of my practice swatches to show them my awful start at knitting.

Harry has been dethroned

For lo these many years (two to be exact) Harry has been the youngest grandchild on both sides of the family. This morning at 3am Harry lost his position. My husband's sister just had her baby boy. He was a respectable 7 pounds at birth. Sorry if all the stats are not there, men are not very good at communicating details and that was about all I could get out of my brother-in-law. For some reason he was kind of tired.

Don't hate me because I am beautiful and really good at knitting

I spent a lot of Monday thinking that today was going to be Wednesday. Which was odd since I was doing all our normal Monday stuff like going grocery shopping.

I had a very strange interaction with a lady in the grocery store. She came up to me and asked me if I knit the hat Evan was wearing. I had not and she said she was glad that I had not or she would have had to hate me. I was a bit taken aback and also glad that Harry was not wearing a pair of his longies. She may have committed assault had she seen them. I never thought I would have to fear for my life when I took up knitting.

The hat is actually very cute (so I can't blame the woman for admiring it) and I have been trying to think up a way to reverse engineer it and make one for Harry. I won a gift certificate to the store that it was purchased from, but am too cheap to buy another. Besides, if I figure out how to make it I can keep on making them as the boys get bigger. The design is quite cunning and keeps the neck quite warm when tied on the head.

Here is a shot of Evan in the hat. We braved the cold and damp to play at the park. Evan is pushing Rabbit in the swing. I could not find Evan's real winter coat so I put a thick sweater on under that flimsy hoodie (don't worry mom, he was plenty warm).


A gratuitous cute Harry shot. He is pushing Dog on the swing. Dog and Bunny also got to go down the slides. Cat got left in the car by a mean Evan. Evan then co-opted Rabbit for his own use.

More stuffed animal fun

Evan was having a rough day today. He ended up having to take a nap because his attitude was wearing me out and I needed a break. While he was sleeping (he really did sleep which, I am sure is why he was being the way he was) I got the chance to do a bit of crafting, after all cleaning while the kids are sleeping is for suckas.

The Laundress tipped me off to an awesome craft book. It uses socks and gloves to make ultra cute stuffed animals. It is titled Sock and Glove: Creating Charming Softy Friends from Cast-Off Socks and Gloves. I have heard a lot of good things about Japanese craft books and I must say that they do not disappoint. The photography is amazing! Harry cried when I took the book from him, he wanted to keep looking at the pictures of the cute stuffed animals. The instructions are easy to follow and there is a lot of room for your own touch in the whole process. I did not use cast off socks or gloves as my husband's socks are well used, my own are lacking in the cuff department (I wear short socks so that my husband does not steal my socks) and the boys are too tiny. We also only have mittens in the house, so I made a quick Target run and picked up some cheapy knit gloves.

With out further ado here is my first attempt: Dog

There were no plain white glove sets, so I got a set with yellow and white gloves. I guess this makes this dog a yellow lab or a similar breed.

I used embroidery thread to make the face. No choking button hazards in this house.

As you can see from this view the neck is quite long, almost giraffe like. I am pondering if I should take the head off, add more stuffing in the body and move the arms up. I may just leave it because Harry loves this little guy just the way he is.

Harry has taken quite a shine to Dog. Harry also loves to carry Rabbit around. Poor Cat is left alone to fend for himself, but being a cat he does not mind a bit. Here are some pictures from afternoon play time:

I was trying to get a picture of harry kissing Dog, but my blasted camera was too slow. I did get this charming fish lip picture, so I can't be too mad at it.

This is how Harry carries around poor Rabbit. His ears must be getting pretty tired.

Harry trying to cram both stuffed animals into the bed of the dump truck.

Poor maligned Rabbit fell out.

Harry tries to cram Dog in there tighter so that there will be room for Rabbit.

After awhile he gives up and decides to try and dump Dog out of the bed of the dump truck.

Sunday

Evan was having a hard time in Sunbeams today. He was eager to go, but was not all that eager to stay. He lap hopped during the opening exercises and singing time. One of the presidency talked to me when I went to pick him up at the end wondering if I knew a trick to get him to sit still for longer. He would not even stay in his class row for sharing time apparently. Other than strapping him down I did not have any fresh ideas. It is just going to take him some time to get used to having to sit stiller than he is used to.

Harry went to nursery with out a backwards look. The new nursery leader has not had young kids for awhile and got Luke to go in to check Harry's diaper because she thought he was wet. He had just been changed right before we left and he was wearing a disposable so it was not the big deal that she was making it seem to be.

I finished another knit animal. I made a cat this time around. The color in the picture is brighter than it is in real life. The yarn is supposed to be especially for afghans, but I can imagine using this orange in my home decorating. It is a perfect orange for cats so I am thrilled that it was there.

The front of the kitty.

A close up of the face. Evan was very insistent that I put a mouth on the kitty.


I made the tail out of icord. The pattern had the tail almost at big as the limbs and I was not liking how it was looking.

fluffy bunny

Here is one of my latest finished objects. I got the pattern for signing up for a knitting related email mailing list. They were so cute that I could not resist. Evan and Harry both were fascinated by my knitting once I told them that I was making a bunny. Evan kept asking where the bunny's eyes were. I did make some mistakes in the pattern, the most notable being that I put the head where the bum should be. For the bunny that did not matter all that much, but had I been making a bear or a cat it would have made a huge difference. The ears are formed out of the flatter bottom (what should have been the top) in those versions. I am also not thrilled with the light gray color, but I used what I had on hand.

Oh and for a little bit of follow up on my vow to not set foot into a craft store for three months. Well I did not even make it a month. Christmas gifts kind of blew that out of the water and once I started up again there was no going back. I have not been too bad but I have added a bit to my yarn stash. In fact I need to make a yarn run to get some more gray for the sweater I am making for Harry. It was very badly planned yarn wise and I am running out. I am planning on getting some brown so that I can make a nicer looking bunny. If you are nice to me I may even make a few to give away. I have a huge bag of filling that I want to use up before we move and this would be a fun way to do it.

Things I want to knit (NOT!)

I thought that I would share with you some of the knitting gems that I have dug up from the pattern books in my local library. Enjoy!

I can't help but respect all the work that would go into something like this. However any kid that wears something like this is asking to get beat up at recess. It screams nerd.

This sweater is making me dizzy just by looking at it. I think I am starting to get queasy. Plus is it not a very flattering shape even for a kid.

This is just awful, it is a sweater travesty. Could you imagine putting this monstrosity on your child? My husband would have me committed if I even tried to knit something like this.

Yawn

My life these last few days has been rather ho hum. The rain has been keeping us mostly inside and the kids are doing their normal harass mommy because we are tired of being inside. I actually caved on Wednesday and let Evan play with the play dough that he got as a Christmas gift. He only licked it once and learned his lesson very quickly. I think the most emotion that I felt today was when I found out that my Netflix movie was still not here. It was supposed to come in yesterday. I can't call it officially lost until tomorrow. I am ready for some heads to roll.

hee!

What's invisible & smells like carrots?

Come on over!

I baked some cookies.

Socializing

I had a pretty nice morning this morning. I went to a friend's house and chatted with her all morning while our boys ran wild. Her neighbor popped in too with her son (for a total of four boys) and stayed for a nice chat. I am not sure why I do not do this sort of thing more often. It can be a lot of fun and my kids are a whole lot less whiny when they have a room full of "new" toys to play with.

It was interesting watching Harry interacting with the other kids. He was quite the pushy little guy and got his way almost all the time, even though he was the youngest and the smallest. I did not really notice this side of him in nursery, but then I was pretty busy keeping my eye on the other kids. He was very interested in what ever Evan was playing with. There were several fights over a garbage truck even though there were two nearly identical ones. Harry just had to have the one Evan was playing with.

Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam

Today was Evan's first day in Primary. I think it went well, no one came and got me because he was freaking out or anything. I got to see him during opening exercises. I had to tell him to turn around a few times. He was very interested in all the people and the different room that he was in.

It was my first day teaching a new class too. I only had two boys show up and it was rather interesting. They were very fidgety, but it was nice being able to give a real lesson. I could ask questions and expect answers instead of the usual blank looks I would get in Nursery. I am happy to be teaching out of the Book of Mormon, I now have an extra incentive to keep up on my scripture reading.

Harry and my husband ended up staying home because of colds. It will be interesting to see how Harry does in Nursery with out his mom and brother near by.

Cute picture time

Hang on to your hats, there is about to be a cute picture overload.

Here is Evan putting his cement truck down for a nap. I didn't knit the blanket that is being draped on the cement truck but it is hand knit. It is one that he was given while he was in the hospital and has been the one that lasted the longest. It is a nice sturdy cotton.

This is Harry's new favorite place to hang out and read. Note that the book is upside down.

Evan is not one to let a great idea go to waste even if it is not his own. There was a battle royale over the green laundry basket so I had to get another one.

Harry is a kind brother and not one to hold grudges. He helped Evan back up after Evan fell over. Evan thought it was such good fun that he tipped himself over again a few times.

A closeup of Harry's filthy face. That blurry spot is his finger approaching the camera lens.

It has been Noah's Ark raining. I let the boys out to have some time playing in all the lovely puddles. Harry got soaked, he was not satisfied with polite splashing.

Note the look of glee on Harry's face.

Here is a video of the splashing. Please excuse my jerky camera, I am not exactly a pro at taking videos.

Resolutions and a Meme

My lovely sister suggested in the comments that I should have a New Year's resolution to post more pictures of the boys. I thought it was a very good idea. I decided that I am going to open the floor to you my dear readers. You get to decide what my resolutions should be this year. I can't promise to do them all, but I will give it a try. So go ahead and suggest away!

Now for the meme. The lovely Laundress (I adore alliterations) has tagged me for the 7 things Meme which I have done a number of times. I figure eventually, if I do it enough, I will have a nice list of 100 things about me and can compile them into one post. Here are 7 more weird/random (mostly random) things about me.

1. I wear a size 9 shoe
2. I wear a size large glove. I have small palms but long fingers, so in reality gloves rarely actually fit me. If I get the big size my fingers fit, but the palm is baggy. If I get the smaller size my fingers do not fit. I am going to have to knit myself a perfectly sized pair of gloves, until then I will stick with my mittens.
3. My favorite color is blue and my second favorite color is green. Oddly enough the boys wear a lot of blue and green.
4. My favorite scent is lavender. My parents got me some hang made lavender soap for Christmas. It is sitting in my downstairs bathroom so that I can take a sniff whenever I feel the need.
5. I have pierced ears but hardly ever wear earrings. I got them done when I was eight after a whole lot of begging.
6. I have certain writing utensils that I favor because of how they feel in my hand. My art classes in school taught me to be sensitive to that.
7. I don't bite my nails. I used to because my mom does, but when I was young my uncle told me about all the germs that were lurking under my fingernails and I stopped biting them.

Here is a teaser for a future post that will include a ton of cute pictures that I just took yesterday. It is amazing the funny moments you will catch when you are looking for them.

This is one of Harry perusing one of my knitting books (well it is owned by the library, but who's counting?). This one is his favorite (mine too, I just bought it and it's sequel on Amazon) and he seems to really enjoy thumbing through it on a regular basis. I think it may be that it has really nice pictures in it.

Traffic school sucks!

I have been dragging my feet on completing the traffic school necessitated by my speeding ticket. I gave myself the ability to wait until after the holidays, but now they are long gone and cold hard reality sets in. I get to do it online which is very handy and I don't have to worry about scheduling conflicts. I can do it at odd hours when sane people should be asleep or at the very least knitting while watching tv.

I had a very good traffic safety teacher in high school, he really scared us straight. He was old school and showed the really gory films to us on a regular basis. They were so old that he used a film projector instead of a VCR (which is a precursor to the DVD player, if you can't remember back that far) and showed real traffic accidents. The videos on the website are just plain lame and quite hokey, there is no blood or anything. Some of them even refer to people using car phones while driving. Who uses a car phone any more? The cell phone is where it is at yo.

I can't cheat and just take the test at the end. The sneaky program has questions in the middle to make sure that you are paying attention. So far I have learned that road rage is bad, speeding is bad (duh!) and that there are a multitude of forces acting on you when you drive including gravity, kinetic energy, momentum, centripetal forces and another one that I can't remember (it was just that important). I will be glad when this is all over and I can stop learning. It is making my brain hurt and I am forgetting things I used to know, the new information is pushing old stuff out of my brain.

How did I do?

It is now time to revisit the goals that I set last year.

1. Getting my sewing machine fixed. Done(ish)! My husband took it in (I always have him take care of the repair stuff as I often feel that I am likely to be taken advantage of being a non mechanically minded female) and it was determined that the cost of repair would be more than the machine was worth. My husband's grandmother moved into a senior apartment and downsized a lot of stuff and gifted us with her very nice Brother sewing machine. So, while I did not actually get mine repaired, I am in possession of a much better working machine.
2. New glasses. Not even close to being done. No excuse except for the normal day to day stuff getting in the way and distracting me.
3. Dentist. Very not done. I am not a fan of the dentist and now that I do not have my mom nagging me to go I find it hard to get the motivation to go. My husband is lucky, his work nags him and he gets time off work to go.
4. Organize the downstairs. Mixed results. I am happy with our current toy storage. My husband built a bookcase which greatly increased our toy storage but I did not even come close to taming the mess under the stairs. I have cleaned and organized it several times this year but entropy is winning.
5. Getting rid of junk. We have been doing pretty good at that. There is more to be trimmed but the idea that a move is in our future is giving us the kick in the pants that we need to get the junk out. Nothing is more irritating than unpacking a box and wondering why you even bothered moving it. I have plans to go through a lot of the saved boy's clothing and really thin things out. I have a friend that just adopted two boys so I know she will be needing clothing.
6. Enriching my spiritual life. Mixed results. We have been better about having Family Home Evening every Monday along with nightly family prayers, but I have not been doing as well with scripture reading and the like. My new teaching assignment will help with that since it is scripture based rather than the I Am Thankful for Being Able to Smell lessons that were in the Nursery manual.

I think that I did pretty good considering that I have a lot of demands on my time. I am not going to get all depressed and beat myself up over the things that did not get done. I got a lot of other things done that did not even make it to the list.

Happy New Year!

It is the first day of a bright shiny new year filled with possibilities. 2007 was a good year for my family. It was quiet, with no surgeries or serious illnesses. It was filled with visits from family and visits to family. There were some frustrations, my husband did not get the promotion that he had anticipated getting. In the past year both boys have grown and matured so much.

This upcoming year is filled with so many possibilities. We are very likely facing a major move. It will be my first time moving with kids in tow, so it will be new territory for me. There is still a lot of knitting that I have in mind. I know that the boys will be getting bigger and learning even more things. I joined the Blog 365 marathon, so you will be hearing from me every day this year. You can use old fashioned paper to blog if your computer is not available (I believe that my ancestors called that a diary or some crazy thing like that) so when we move I will be able to keep up even if you can't read it.

I hope that you had a fun evening. We celebrated by staying at home and watching our recently purchased season of the Simpsons. I finished the first sock of a pair that I am knitting with some rather pricey hand painted sock yarn. The results are amazing, the colors are beautiful and the yarn is so soft. Have I said yet how much I enjoy knitting?