I just can't not post

I know this is supposed to be my day off from posting, but I am so in the habit that I just have to post something.

I ended up going to play yesterday. It had been so long since my friends and I had gathered that I just could not resist. I did bring a toy that I was knitting for Evan's birthday to work on instead of scrapbooking. When we got home there was a message from another friend who wanted to get together and practice knitting (she was not going to be able to go to the activity that night) so she came over and helped me pick up the living room before we knit. It all worked out, the cleaning and fun.

I have been dying to show you these pictures. I made this for my mom so I did not want to ruin the surprise. Now that she is safely in the car on her way here I can post it. The color in the pictures is not the true color. It is a much deeper and darker red. It also has a nice sheep that my poor photography did not catch. The yarn is a wool silk blend that blocked so beautifully. I almost don't want to give this one away.

Life

As this week progresses I am starting to feel more and more overwhelmed. Major things have been happening and minor things are still happening which results in a huge massive pile of things. I am starting to feel overwhelmed by the barely contained chaos that swirls around me. Right now a seemingly minor choice of whether to clean my house for the knitting night that is going to be held here tonight (which I have no idea if anyone will even show up since it was kind of thrown together at the last second) or if I should throw caution to the wind and spend the morning scrapbooking with friends is paralyzing me. I want to spend the time doing something fun. I am horribly behind on my pictures. Yet I don't want people to think I live in a pig sty and I want my house to be cleanish for when my parents come this weekend.

On top of all this I lost my mind and decided to have a friends birthday party for Evan on Monday (I can't believe my baby is turning 4!) . I still have to come up with some sort of main dish that does not look too different from what the kids normally eat, but is also good cold and portable since the party will be at the park unless it rains (which reminds me I really need to check the weather reports to see if rain is even likely). I am glad that the park has a nice playground which relieves me of planning games and that my friends are not competamommies and very low key people.

Well at least tomorrow is my freebie day off from the Blog 365 (woo hoo for a leap year!). I will be attending a wedding that night that I am having mixed feelings about, but since I went to the trouble to buy a gift I am at least going to show up for some of it.

Not so Wordless Wednesday

You guys are making me laugh. I especially love Michelle's comment about the bar fight. We actually told someone one that Evan was in a bar fight when he got a particularly nasty black eye. The looks we got were priceless especially since we were at church at the time. We have also been jokingly accused of beating our children (it was coming from a mom with three boys, so she knew how it was).

This morning I had a dad at the library tell me that I should have gotten stitches for the cut on Harry's eyelid. I almost sarcastically asked him is he was a doctor, but then decided I would feel silly if he actually was and left it. I had actually pondered stitches but decided that the hassle would have been worse than the tiny scar. I did not fancy having to hold Harry down while they went at him with a sharp needle near his eye. Besides Evan has so many scars that Harry is going to need a few to keep up with his brother.

Wordless Wednesday- You Should See The Other Kid

Alternative title: Why You Should Listen To Your Mother When She Tells You To Stop Standing On The Rocking Chair.

Awesome!

Minivans sure have changed a lot since I first rode in one as a kid. My parents had a bare bones ultra boxy Plymouth Voyager. Here are a few ways my minivan is different than my parent's minivan.

I think this is one of the coolest differences. There are vents in the roof of the van so that the passengers can actually get hot or cool air directly on them. I remember road trips in the summer with my parent's van. The people in the back would be melting, the people in the middle would be ok and the people in the front would be freezing cold. My van is so souped up that the passengers can have one temp, the front passenger can have another and the driver can have yet another.

This is a super cool storage space that is in between the middle and front seats. It is a cool secret compartment where you can hide stuff like emergency diapers instead of having it rattling around loose on the floor.

This is a built in sun shade. Very handy for keeping the sun out of the kids eyes with out having to try and use the ones that you can buy in stores that never fit or stick very well.

Another awesome difference. Two, count em two sliding doors! No more waiting to get in because your sister is being slow about getting in the minivan. My doors open and shut on their own. I am not really too lazy to open my own doors, I was just worried that I might chip my nails if I had bought the one with no power doors.

Fold flat seats! No more hauling out the back seat and storing it in the garage for the cats to sleep on.

Extra deep storage. No more putting groceries in the car and worrying that a can might get loose and roll around the car.

Middle windows that roll down!!! Again I remember those summer road trips with windows that only kind of popped out. Not much cool air got in making the window essentially useless for cooling.

Here is a full shot of The Gray Ghost. Sorry about the sun glare but my neighbor was parked on the other side so I could not take a picture from the other side. I am loving my new ride. I am having issues with parking. I seem to pull in to one side and when I park at home I keep parking too far back. I actually blocked a sidewalk with my car and was so far from the garage door that you could open it with out moving the car.

Knitting Meme

I have been tagged by the awesome Tama to do the seven things meme again. Since she is a knitter extrodinare and sells some beautiful yarn (Seriously you should go check it out! In a few days I will post pictures of something I knit using yarn I bought from her and it is dreamy) I am making this version a knitting version.

1. My living room is peppered with works in progress (WIPs to those who know the knitting lingo) and odd balls of partially used yarn. I usually have about three WIPs going at one time.
   
2. I keep selected skeins of yarn downstairs in a basket so that I can look at them and pet them from time to time.
   
3. I used to think that I learned to knit wrong. It turns out that I had stumbled upon what is called combination knitting. This technique while awesome for knitting in the flat had to go when I got up the courage to knit in the round as it produces a twisted stitch. I seriously had a complex about knitting in public because of this. The two times I knit in public in front of other knitters I had people coming over to gawk at my knitting technique.
4. I have knit while holding a clingy child. If there ever were a knitting Olympics I think I would get a gold medal for that.
5. I am a process knitter. I love to feel the yarn, see the colors, try new techniques and color patterns and enjoy watching the item come together. Wearing and using the object is not as huge of a thrill as making it is, which is why I knit so much for others.
6. I want to learn to spin my own yarn and hope to one day have some fiber animals of my own.
7. I bought some yarn in a color that I really liked to make a diaper cover for one of the boys. I forgot I bought the yarn and later on at a sale almost bought the same yarn again. The only thing that saved me from doing it again was that there was not the quantity I needed. I later found the yarn when I was cleaning out my coat closet.
   

Awesome Mom has a shiny new car

Our long and rather frustrating minvan search is over! We are the proud owners of a 2005 Honda Odyssey EX. We went south and found that the dealers were actually willing to sell us a car. It was amazing the difference.

My husband woke me up this morning telling me about this awesome ad that he saw in the paper for new Toyota Siennas and they even had one in black (and man that van was sharp looking, I am not sure why there are not more minvans in black). While we were test driving the salesman discovered that we had wanted leather seats and he really talked up a Honda that they had on the lot. The reason he was so eager to get us into the Honda was that they were going to make more money selling us the used car than the new one. They gave us more money for our trade in and bent over backwards to get us into the Honda which is the kind of behavior I had been expecting at the other dealerships. I even got our salesman to pet my knitting and listen to me talk about it.

It is a really nice van. It has a lot of bells and whistles like power doors and a moon roof. It also has seating for 8 which is a big plus. We are really going to be able to pack the people in. The only thing that I wish it had was a place where I could plug my iPod into the stereo. It is going to be strange making the switch from driving a sedan to being up so high and having so much car around me. My husband is thrilled that he gets to drive a nicer car to work. The one we traded in did not have power anything (including steering).

I am so tempted right now to take The Gray Ghost (that is what I am nicknaming her) on a road trip to Utah. I am sure that it would be a lot more comfortable ride than the last time we crammed into our car to head over there. I think that we may head up to my inlaws place soon so my husband can build us some book cases. We finally have the room to haul them home in bigger pieces.

It was pouring rain out when we got home, so I snagged this pic off the internet.

I am informing Disney

Evan has officially renamed Mickey Mouse, he has decided that he is now Poopy Mouse. I can only assume that this is because Disney has seen fit to place their icon on the disposable diapers that we use at night.

Loud Longies

I mentioned that I was working on these ages ago. I lost my motivation to finish them when the weather started getting really nice. It is a little sad that Harry will not be able to wear these too long, but when when I thought them up I just had to knit them. I haven't even lanolized them and I am not sure I will because it will make storing them for the summer a lot easier. I am keeping my fingers crossed that they will fit next winter and hopefully by then I will have the perfect shirt to go with them.

Poor La-la

I am shocked and appalled at your deep dislike of La-la in particular and the Teletubbies in general. I actually like the Teletubbies. It is one of the few kids shows that I let the kids watch. I think I mostly like it because of how Harry reacts to the smiling sun baby. I have no illusions that it really is educational in any sense of the word. It certainly is much more tolerable than some of the other shows out there.

I feel sad for La-la who used to be number one in Harry's heart. She has been ousted by the stuffed animals that I made for the boys. Bunny, Doggie and Bear (who was supposed to be a prize in the giveaway, but Harry latched on to him so I had to make a replacement prize) are painstakingly hauled upstairs at nap time and bed time. If Harry is having one of his patented freak out sessions I just suggest that he hold one of them and he will quickly calm down. All La-la gets any more is abuse from her former favorite person in the whole world. She will always have my admiration. I love to put hats on her.


The one TV show that has been banned from this house and I refuse to allow to pollute my children's minds is Barney. Way back when Evan was in the hospital after his stroke I came into his room in the PICU after being elsewhere to sleep for the night. The nurse was playing a Barney tape for Evan to help keep him entertained. I about killed myself rushing over to turn off the video to prevent the horrible poison from seeping into his mind. Harry is 100% Barney free, so if Evan ever goes bad I know why. I know the nurse thought I was nuts for freaking out about it, but this is just something that I can't compromise on. I actually had a computer game on my computer called Barney Carnage. The whole point of the game was to kill all them in various horrible ways to prevent them from taking over the world. I miss that game. Heck I even went through all the toys when I was nursery leader and removed the offending purple dinosaur from the room. No pollution I say!

Oh and guess what? We still have no @$#$@#%#@$ing orders despite the fact that we were told that all orders would be out by yesterday. Arrrghhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!! The only thing worse than waiting for orders is car shopping but at least you are a greater measure of control in the whole process and you get a shiny car at the end of it. Once we get orders we get to rip up our lives and move. I guess I should not be in such a hurry, but I just want to know but I need to plan. I can be a go with the flow person, but secretly inside while I am going with the flow I am freaking out because this is not how I planned it in my mind. It was fine having surprise moves when we did not have kids, but that is just not going to be very doable with two little ones in tow.

Freaksauce

I can tell that the apple is not falling far from the tree.

Harry thinks this is hilarious:

Poor Lala is getting smothered.

Evan's physical therapist introduced him today to the phrase "Open Sesame" only Evan purposely is repeating "Open Stephanie" over and over all the while laughing. I just wonder who this Stephanie person is and what she is supposed to open.

Car Shopping: Revenge of the Sith

We had another marathon car shopping session yesterday. My husband has been doing a lot of calls to the local dealers sniffing out leads. He is also constantly online searching and comparing prices and models. He had not though of trying the Nissan Quest (thanks for the tip Cammie) so that was first on our list of cars to test drive. While we were at the Nissan dealer we also tested a Saturn Relay.

The Quest was nice. It had all the features that the Toyota and Honda had (fold flat seats ect.). The big drawback is that the newer used ones seem to be going for higher prices but as they get older the value drops off pretty sharply. The dealers in our area seem to be trying to inflate car prices and are not willing to bargain with us. Through internet research my husband has found much better deals in the more populated areas south of us. Now that we have driven the vans that we would consider buying it will be a lot more productive to search further distances away and when we find a deal we like we can make the drive to the other dealership. It is very frustrating that the local dealers are being so hard nosed about prices, it is not like they were crawling with customers when we were looking around.

We actually looked at two Quests today, one was at a Ford Dealership. The price they were offering us would have ended up being (with financing costs, tax ect.) almost as much as a new base model Sienna with 0% financing. For a few thousand more we would have driven home with a brand new van versus a older one with a rather beat up interior. It kills me how the salesmen are always insisting that they are dying to sell us a car and they are giving us the most discounts that they can and yet the prices are still so high.

I think we would have been a lot more tempted by the first Quest that we looked at if it had not been white. We really want to get a colored car. Oh and the price of the much newer and lower mileage white Quest was actually lower than the higher mileage beat up interior (yet the price was "as low as they could go") Quest. Explain that one to me because it makes no sense at all.

We are big fans of Saturn's one price business model and we love their cars so much that both of our cars are Saturns. I was in love with the idea of having brand loyalty which is why I was so excited when the Nissan salesman showed us a fully loaded Relay (which is no longer manufactured). My husband frowned the entire time we were looking over the van, so I knew it was not to be. He claimed that the interior was less roomy than the Mazda, but quite honestly while it was smaller than the other minivans we had driven it did not seem nearly as cramped as the Mazda had been. Another nail in the Relay's coffin was that it did not have fold flat seats (an absolute must in my husband's mind). My husband also was suspicious of the maintenance that the previous owner had given the car. It was a very new trade in, so the dealer had not had a chance to do much work on it. The tires were worn unevenly making it clear that they had not been rotated properly and tire rotation (as we knew first hand) is a part of the regular however many mile check ups they drag you in for when you buy a new car. We kept our appointments for our the Saturn that we had bought new and our wheels were rotated on schedule, these had not been. Who knows what else they may have been skimping on? So we passed.

It really amazes me the things that are crammed in to the fully loaded cars. The Relay had those electronic seat adjusters which, while nice, were completely unnecessary. I mean how much effort is it really to manually adjust your seats? Plus that is one more thing that can break. And seat heaters, why do you need your seats heated? Won't your bum do that naturally? Yeah it takes a bit more time but come on people. The salesman hyped up the DVD player in the Relay not knowing that he was actually playing up a feature that I did not like. Do my kids really need to have more screen time? Yeah they are nice on trips, but we have a nicer dual screen portable DVD player for long trips. If the one in the car breaks it will be a big hassle to get it fixed or replaced. If the one we already have breaks it will not be nearly as big of a deal. We can shop around, find a good deal and get one if we feel the pressing need to have a portable DVD player. Now that Evan is had had his surgeries the main reason that we even had the DVD player (entertainment in the hospital) is gone.

Evan got to sit in his dream car today while we were out and about. Evan goes nuts over PT Cruisers. He has a matchbox version of one and that is one of his favorite cars (he tells me that they are "so cute"). He loves to point them out as we drive around town, so he freaked when we saw one at the dealership. While my husband was jawing with the salesman I decided to give him a thrill and opened the door of the PT Cruiser so that the boys could hop on in and try it out. Evan did ask me to take it our for a drive but I had to tell him no. I was tired of moving the car seats around from car to car and did not think that giving him a joy ride would be good enough reason to yet again have to do the car seat shuffle.

How to keep your toddler entertained while you are trying to cook dinner

Step one: Place a long baking dish that used to contain some delightful chocolate chip brownies across one side of your sink.

Step two: Squirt some dish soap in the pan and fill with water.

Step three: Gather a few semi clean spatulas and spoons.

Step four: Step back and watch as your toddler splashes away. Try not to slip on the wet floor.



Guess who figured out how to open the bedroom door. I will wait........

Who? Me?

Yeah it was this guy. He is not too sneaky about it, he has not quite gotten the hang of it completely just yet. It takes him several tries before he figures out that you have to move back with the door as you are opening it, otherwise your feet will just push the door closed again. He came in to my room, I scared him (which he loves by the way) and then he went downstairs for breakfast confusing my husband who was not really expecting him. Evan followed after but did not initiate anything. It is quite clear who my rule pusher is going to be.

Oh and check this out, it is a pattern of my own devising.

Sunday cuteness

Golly I can't believe how long it had been since I last did one of these.

Generally when we do coloring I prefer to use crayons. It is less mess and I don't have to worry as much about a child running off with a marker to do some extracurricular coloring. When we were making valentines I decided to break out the washable Crayola markers. Harry got so freaked out when he got marker on him. He insisted that I washed his hands off the second that the tiniest bit of marker touched him. I think that the markers are gonna go back in hiding until he stops being a neat freak. It was an interesting change from Evan who loves to play tattoo parlor. While I was looking for that post to link to I found this post, if it does not make you go aww I am not sure what will.

I checked out a potty book for Evan in the hopes that maybe it would raise potty awareness in him. It is titled Once Upon A Potty. Evan is not really more into potty training but he enjoys having a laugh at the pictures of the boy's "wee-wee". I have told him that it is not polite to laugh at another guy's manly parts, but of course I am ignored as he giggles away.

On a side note, if anyone has good potty training book recommendations (for kids, I already know how to go on the potty) I am open. I have taught my kids the proper anatomical names for their body parts, so I was rather annoyed that the book used the word "wee-wee" instead of the proper name.

If you were wondering what happened to my lovely purple sock I am sad to announce that it has been the victim of poor planning. I did not read the yardage requirements in the pattern. I have 275 and the pattern called for 400 so I would have been able to make one sock and maybe a few inches of another even with my shorter cuff. The poor sock had to be frogged. I have a much shorter sock with short row heels in mind. I have been wanting to try a short row heel and I was not really in love with how the flap heel was looking with the yarn colors.

A friendly warning!

If you think that there is even the slightest chance that your child will throw up don't give them dried black currants as part of their breakfast. Your husband might think that said child is throwing up blood. Thankfully I was there to point out that it was entirely the wrong color. It was also a very good thing that we own a carpet cleaner so that it did not stain the carpet. My husband even spot cleaned some high traffic areas as a nice bonus. Even better news is that the puking incident seems to be isolated and mucus related. It is not the first time that Evan has puked because of snot.

Despite all the fun and hilarity of having sick children that sneeze snot slugs constantly and are ultra clingy (Evan spent a good hour just laying on me after the throw up incident in the afternoon, Harry was off and on my lap all morning and I was battling a nasty headache) I managed to turn the heel of the sock yesterday and I am now doing the decreases for the instep. I did not do the proscribed 56 rows at the top. I felt that it would make the sock too tall for my taste, I am a short sock kind of gal. I love how fast this sock is knitting up, stockinette may be boring but it sure is fast (when Harry is not amusing himself by putting his hand up through the sock so he can play peek-a-boo with his hand). You know, now that I think about it, it is rather remarkable that I have been finding time to knit. I guess that is a testament to how hard core I have become when it comes to knitting.

Post 667

I just noticed that my last post was 666 which kind of reflected my mood for parts of the day.

Valentine's day was not too bad at the Awesome Mom house, but I did end the day with so much snot on me that I looked like I had been run over by a herd of slugs. Evan and Harry are quite content to scribble on anything that I put in front of them, so we made valentines for Evan's physical therapist who had an appointment with us yesterday. She is a very nice woman who loves to ruin lunch with all sorts of treats, so I thought that the boys should show some sort of appreciation.

We had heart shaped pizza and soda for dinner. My husband brought home clearance Christmas chocolate for me (it is dark chocolate 70% cacao Mom so :P on you) and I got yarn in the mail. All in all it was not too bad of a day even if my throat is rather sore and the boys are oozing in snot. I even get to look forward to some yarn that I bought as a gift to me from my husband that should be arriving in the mail any day now.


This is Eggplant Explosion. The sock will be a plane jane sock called The 56 stitch, 56 Row sock. I wanted something simple to show off the coolness of the yarn. There will be more than 56 rows in the foot part since that is for people will size 8 shoes and I have a delightful size 9 foot.

This beaut is called Ballooney, she arrived in my mail box on Wedensday. I won it from this contest. I was so excited to get her that I put it in a ball right away thinking that I would be able to cast on right away. She is fingering weight and I do not have needles small enough to make socks with her. *sob* I can assure that she will not be languishing in my stash for long, Momma needs a bright pair of socks and these will blind you.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I would have liked to do a fun and exciting post, but the boys have shared their cold with me. I am not feeling up to too much today. What a fun and romantic holiday I will be having.

7 ways CHD has changed my life

1. I discovered that I could do things I never thought I could. I was never interested in a career in any sort of human medical field. I decided that I could never poke another human being with a needle or do anything painful to them. I thought that I would feel too much sympathy for them and not be able to follow through. I was very wrong about that. When you have to do something to improve the health of your child you suck it up and do it.
   
2. You never know when or if things will change, so you learn to savor the here and now. Evan's stroke was a complete and utter shock. I thought that once he was out of the hospital after surgery that he was home free. As he gets further and further from his last surgery it is sometimes easy to get annoyed and frustrated wit how things are but then I go and look at old baby pictures of him using both hands and I remember that each day is a gift.
3. I have learned to balance my time better. I have become more conscious about the things that I fill our days with. It would be easy to be overwhelmed with therapy and doctor's appointments (which have lessened greatly, but were very pressing when he was younger). I combined when I could and tried to set things up so that there was time for Evan to just be a kid. I also keep Harry in mind so that he does not spend his day just tagging after his brother. It helps that Evan's therapists include Harry in as much as possible so that he is not left out.
4. I have met some really amazing doctors and wonderful nurses. There are a lot of caring people out there in the medical field. I am glad that I had a chance to meet them and learn from them. The attitudes they have really can make a huge difference in a trying time.
5. I am much more aware of others with children that have special needs.
   
6. I used to think that birth defects were devastating and horrible. They can be at times but it is hard to be sad when you have a happy smiling child who could really care less that he walks with a limp and has scars all over his chest. I know that as Evan gets older he will start to notice his differences but I think that I will worry about it more than he will since it is really all he knows.
7. I have become more willing to accept help from others. When Evan was born we were generally pretty seemingly self sufficient. One day after a hard day with Evan my mom called telling me to not be mad but she was going to fly out the next day to come be with us in the hospital. I had not really realized it until then but I really needed someone to be with me. My husband was like a caged tiger in the hospital and he had to work. The nurses were nice but they also had a job to do and that was primarily taking care of Evan and not me. I also started using my Visiting Teacher as a resource, something I had never had to do before. She was able to keep the ward members updated and do some little things for us that helped ease our burden. I now know that I don't have to do it all especially in times of crisis.
   

7 great websites

Here are 7 great websites to learn more about CHD.

1. Congenital Heart Information Network
2. Blue Baby Operation
3. Cincinnati Children's Hospital
4. Kid's Health
   
5. Wikipedia
6. Congenitalheartdefects.com
7. Lucille Packard Children's Hospital
   

The boys are sick again with yet another cold so I have been dealing with cranky snotty children. I am about ready to turn us all into hermits that never leave the house so that we can finally get healthy for longer than a week. We have not been to a play date in forever because of this. I need some mommy chat time bad.

Damselfly copied me! Go check it out. I am quite flattered.

CHD Awareness week

Technically I am a bit late with this since it started on the 7th but I am going to add my little bit in any way. The Congenital Heart Defect Blog which has launched the 7 for 7 campaign: Lists of 7 things about CHD. Here is my first list: 7 pictures of Evan in the hospital.

1. Evan before we were able to spring him from the hospital. He had had his first surgery but we were stuck in the PICU while we were waiting to see if his heart block would go away which it didn't. At the time he was hooked up to an external pacemaker so holding was rather tricky.

2. This was after his Glen. I had just given him a sponge bath thinking that he was going to have to spend another day in the hospital. About an hour later we got the news that we were going to get the boot and he got a real bath later that night.

3. Evan right after his stroke. He was not allowed to have any sort of food for 48 hours to help keep brain swelling to a minimum. He was attached to that pacifier because he was so hungry. Those glasses came from a stuffed doctor bunny that he was given when he was a baby. I brought it with him to every hospital admission as a sort of good luck charm.

4. Evan cheerful and happy right before getting his stomach pierced (aka Gtube surgery). He charmed the heck out of the nurses. Harry was along for the ride too as I was about six months pregnant with him.

5. A rather cranky Evan still feeling the effects from anesthesia for a hearth cath. We had to stay overnight with this one because he had a narrow pulmonary artery ballooned and some collateral blood vessels coiled off.

6. Evan chilling after his Fontan surgery. Those straps on his chest are to the Holter monitor which was used to look at how his heart beat during a 24 hour period. He was a good boy and did not mess with the leads at all.

7. This was his last overnight stay in the hospital (Par-tay). He got readmitted after his Fontan because of issues with his pacemaker. He was given steroids which shot his INR (level of clotting factors in his blood) through the roof making it dangerous for him to do pretty much anything for fear that he could start bleeding. As you can see he was getting to be quite the hospital pro and was having fun turning the room lights on and off.

Walkies

Here are some pictures from a walk that the boys and I went on last week. We love to get out of the house and explore the neighborhood. We went to the local park which we do not visit that often. The play structures are rather old and not very usable for a child that has Evan's issues so if we are serious about play in the park we have to drive elsewhere.

On the way to the park.

Harry's first time getting to the top tier of the play structure. He is becoming quite the climber. As you can see Evan is not able to make the climb.

Harry was willing to pose for the picture but would not slide down the slide.

As you can see the structure is quite old. Those whole area turned into a lake when we were having the massive rain storms. The sand is still very wet.

Harry checking out the creek. It is dry in the summer but after all the recent rain it is running pretty full and fast.

Car shopping

My husband has been on a car shopping kick lately. I think he is trying to distract himself from the fact that we STILL do not have orders. We are ok in our sedan, but we know that we want more kiddos and that means a minivan. Evan and Harry are fine with looking at the cars as they get to climb all around in them while mommy and daddy talk with the nice salesman. We had a marathon session yesterday afternoon in which we hit the Toyota dealer and the Honda dealer. Last Friday we hit the Mazada dealer.

The Mazda was nice but way too small. It had the best gas milage, but it also had the smallest engine. I just could no see us being able to pile four kids in the back along with camping gear for the whole family and actually still being comfortable in the vehicle. The minivan drove nice and it was not all that different than driving a car. It was quite low and might have trouble getting over speed bumps. Evan had no trouble climbing in on his own. The salesman was nice and did not put the thumb screws on us to try and get us to buy a car.

I liked the Sienna. Many of my friends have them. It had the space that we needed and the newer ones have a nifty fold flat back row of seats. Evan had a harder time getting into this one but I also did not see us worrying about going over speed bumps either. The salesman actually pulled out the classic "What would I have to do to get you into one of these today?" I was quite flip and told him that if he cut the price of the car in half we would love to drive away with it today. Sadly he did not take me up on my offer.

The Odyssey was my favorite in the looks department. The one we test drove had a beautiful navy blue color (the same shade as my blog background). I also thought the metallic dashboard looked very sharp. I enjoyed annoying my husband by telling him that I liked it the best because it was the prettiest car. The salesman was slick enough and amusing enough to lure us into the sales room to "crunch numbers". They had a room with toys for the kids (donated by our salesman who had kids and knew that a toy room is essential if you want parents with kids to stay any length of time crunching numbers. A poopy diaper and two kids that had not had dinner yet got us off of the sales floor, well that and the fact that we were still not too sure we had to have a minivan right that second.

It is quite an exhausting thing to go car shopping. I am not sure that we will continue at the moment as things are so up in the air and it is not really distracting my husband from the fact that we STILL do not have orders. It would be nice to have the extra car space when moving (if we do indeed end up moving), but I am not sure that it is worth the hassle of doing all the looking and comparing and poking about here and there. I would love it if the minivan fairy would leave me keys to a fully loaded navy blue minivan under my pillow. I would give her a whole mouthful of teeth for that.

Check it out!

Isobel is done. Sadly she is not blocking well due to the wool content of the yarn being very minimal. I am not too sad since the yarn did only cost me a dollar and I am sending it away to someone as a gift so the tendency of the scarf to roll will not be in my face to constantly annoy me. The zig zags are not exact either as I tended to forget what row I was on while knitting it but I think that adds a bit of charm to the scarf. I would make this easy lace pattern again but I would use only natural fiber yarns.

Dinner idea

Here is one of my favorite quick and easy dinner ideas.

Black Bean Tacos

1lb of hamburger
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 can of black beans
Frozen corn to taste
Taco seasoning to taste
A large dollop of minced garlic

Brown the hamburger and drain the grease. Drain the can of beans and can of tomatoes. Add to hamburger along with the rest of the ingredients. Simmer for a bit until it is as thick as you like it. We top with cheddar cheese and sour cream. My husband adds gobs of hot sauce to his.

What are you talking about?

Evan is entering a very annoying yet funny phase. He is expanding his verbal skills by repeating phrases from the books that I read to him. He will often blurt out odd phases that really have nothing to do with what we were discussing and then repeat it over and over until I am nearly insane. His current favorite is "Hey wait a minute!"

Harry is quite the copier these days. It is hilarious watching him insist on something. If daddy puts pepper on his food then Harry much have pepper on his food too. He sees me grab a napkin and immediately he demands one too. He sees Evan play with a toy in a particular manner then he has to do it too. This has also developed into more complex copying behaviors. The boys had been looking a bit dry lately, so I bent my no drinks at times other than meals rule and let them have free use of a sippy cup. One dribbled a bit onto a side table we have. Harry rushed into the kitchen, got a towel out of a drawer, wiped up the spill and then put the towel into the dirty clothing pile. If only he were more consistent I would have my own little servant following me around cleaning up after me.

Evan watching the brownies bake. Harry was having a hard evening due to a short nap so he missed out on the FHE treat. You can see him in the corner of the picture having a sobbing fit over me offering to let him lick the spoon.

I don't think this picture really needs a caption.

Time

Guinevere wondered how I found time to knit with two little boys running around the house. Easy! I let my kids run wild and naked around the house. Lol!

It is not easy to find time if I just think of it in large blocks, but if I look at just doing a few rows at a time there is a lot more time in a day to knit. I to the bulk of my knitting after the kids are in bed. I tend to do my more tricky stuff that requires concentration at that time since I know that I am a lot less likely to have a curious child climbing up onto my lap. I also take my knitting with me on playdates or other events when I know that I am going to be sitting and the kids will be busy playing. Basically any time I am sitting I try to be knitting. I have a hard time just sitting and watching tv. I get itchy fingers and have to pick up something to knit. Having more than one project going is key. I can pick a project that is appropriate for where I am and the attention level that I know I will need to have for the project.

I really need to find a way to knit and read at the same time. If I do that, I will rule the world!

Bummed? Not me!

It seems that I struck out this time around at the Bloggy Giveaways. Not one person has contacted me about winning a fabulous prize. I am not crying because I won something super fabulous in another giveaway. I won yarn people and not just any yarn but hand dyed yummy yarn! Jeanne, who is a fabulous knitter and a very nice person (and I am not saying this because she is giving me yarn), randomly picked me to be the winner of a gift certificate to SeeJayneKnitYarns store. Go check it out, but hide your wallets before you go.

Oops!

Instead of planning out the menus for the week I am taking time off from my lace to blog. I hate doing the menu so this will give me an excuse for at least a little while. Sadly it can't be put off forever since as soon as Sesame Street is over Evan will be harassing me to get out of the house. Sigh.

I am always laughing at my husband when he picks out clothing for the kids. Often he will pull out something for Evan and it will be Harry's and much too small. He stopped sorting the boy's laundry since he was constantly mixing them up. Well now it is my turn to mix things up. I put on one of Evan's sleepers on Harry. I could not figure out why Harry's feet kept falling out of the foot part. He kept insisting that his pjs were "broken". It took me a bit before I figured out what the issue was but was too lazy to actually change his pjs I just grabbed some of my hair ties and put them around his ankles. Problem solved (that is if you realize that the problem was Harry complaining and not him being in too big pjs).

Harry had another one of his crying episodes last night. For Christmas they got a Moon in My Room which we put in and then took out because Evan was crying at night when it turned off. Well it is back in since that was the only way I was able to get Harry back to sleep. I think that we are going to be putting a real night light in the room once I find one that does not need to be plugged in. If we get a plug in one I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the kids will have it out of the wall in five seconds flat. They will want to try and plug it in themselves and I am not comfortable with them experimenting with electricity at such a tender age.

Yesterday at church I saw a friend of mine that had moved out of our ward and into The Other Ward (when my ward talks about the other ward we always capitalize it with our voices as there is a bit of friendly rivalry between the wards). I had just been thinking of her so it was nice to see her again. She is pregnant with her first baby and due at the end of July. I am already dreaming up things to knit her baby even though it will be a summer baby.

Elmo is on, so I really had better get to planning. Sigh. I wonder if my husband will complain if we have pizza every night.

For those that asked the lace scarf I am knitting is called Isobel. I found the pattern on Ravelry. I had a skien of sportweight wool blend that I picked up for a dollar and wanted to make something fun with it.

Can't blog, knitting lace

It is every bit as addictive as I have heard it was.

And the winners are...

Mommy

Crunchy Domestic Goddess

Sara

and Brittany (who is blogless)

I had so much fun that I decided to do a little surprise giveaway to my loyal readers and commenters. I picked out the names of the people that I know comment on a regular basis from the entries and randomly picked two winners from the list to win stuffed animals that were completed last night. The winners of the bonus stuffed animals are:

Chelle

and Gina

Winners please email me with your mailing address and I will get your prizes shipped as soon as possible.

Barbie seemed to be the most common favorite toy of childhood. I was never all that fond of Barbie for a number of reasons. It was hard to style her hair. It was so thick that all I could really do with it was put it in a pony tail. Barbie's odd chest also made it hard for me to hand sew clothing for her. I was not a very good seamstress in my youth (I am not much better now) and the darting that needed to be done to get anything to fit drove me insane. I preferred horses, stuffed animals, and small muslin rabbits that we called bitty bunnies.

I had a blast with this contest and can't wait for the next one. I have something really fun brewing in my mind.