Questions

I am in Kansas right now having a blast house hunting and missing my kids. This post has been auto posted.

I am answering the questions from Ask Awesome Mom Anything in the order they were asked.

Kelly from Don Mills Diva cuts right to the chase and asks: "What was your most embarrassing moment?"

My parents are people who love to tease (which is a nice way of putting it). Over the years I have had to learn to have a rather thick skin. However when I was a teenager I was not quite so thick skinned, but I was learning.

Some back story: When I was a youngster of about 5 or 6 years of age we lived in a area that was being newly developed. There were a lot of vacant lots that were waiting for houses to be built. In one of those lots there was a massive weed. My friend told me that it was a man eating plant.

I rushed home and convinced my mom to call my dad at work to warn him of the neighborhood terror. I was rather literal minded about the idea of the man eating plant and thought it only ate men. Eventually I was convinced that it was just a weed and that my dad was safe.

Fast forward to Jr High. I hated parent teacher night with a passion. My dad was a high school teacher and I always felt that my teachers and parents were conspiring to do evil deeds to me behind my back (I was not wrong in my paranoia as you will see). I would do every thing possible to hide any kind of advertising about parent teacher night from my parents. The school was too good about getting the word out and invariable something leaked through.

The day after the parent teacher night I thought that I was home free. I was not grounded which was a good sign, or so I thought. I was sitting in band (I played trumpet at the time) warming up when it happened. The band teacher, in front of the class, asked me about the man eating plant. I wanted to die! But I oh so carefully feigned ignorance. The teacher then admitted that my parents had told him to ask me about a man eating plant. Again I told him that I had no idea what he was talking about. I am sure that I was beet red and my voice was quavering, but the band teacher then dropped the subject much to my relief. I wanted to die and at the same time obliterate my parents.

So, there you have it! That was my most embarrassing moment... so far.

Bye bye Mommy and Daddy!

House hunting

Tomorrow we fly off into the great unknown to do a bit of house hunting. We have been doing some online peeping, but this is going to be the big trip where we get to see for ourselves what the houses really are like. I have a rather nebulous idea of what I am looking for: I would like to have a bathroom off of the master bedroom, we need a fenced back yard, we are looking for a house with a basement, and I would like four bedrooms but would take three.

What are some things you like about your dwelling? What would you change about your current dwelling?

Sunday Cuteness

I have a feeling that Harry is aiming to be the next Monk.

The other day when we were at the grocery store picking up some fresh fruit and milk I decided to let the kids out of the cart to walk with me. I generally don't do this because the shopping trip will end up being five times as long as it otherwise would have been. So any way, the kids were busy being small children that had been let loose in an environment where they are normally tightly contained. I start looking at bunches of bannanas and when I turn around to check on the kids I find Harry trying to put a green pepper that had fallen from it's display back up. It was rather comical seeing this short little guy reaching as high as he could to put something away. Eventually he decided that he was not tall enough and gave the pepper to me so that I could put it away.

On nice Saturday mornings you will often find us walking in the park. It is a great way to tire the kids out so that we can have a productive afternoon at home. As Harry was ambling along in his toddler way he noticed a piece of a fallen branch. The branch still had leaves on it so he made the connection that the branch had previously been a part of a tree. He then looked at me and told me that the tree was broken. I agreed with him and tired to move on. Harry then picked up the branch and handed it to me and insisted that I fix the tree. I obviously do not have that ability, but knowing the tenacity of Harry I employed a tiny bit of trickery. I pointed out something exciting and then threw the branch into the bushed while he was not looking.

The final proof that Harry is very Monk like is his obsession with wipes. After every meal he must have his hands cleaned and every speck of dirt mush be off of them. He even requests napkins at meals and uses them.

We have two winners!

The winner of the videos is CanCan, who should also win an award for the most rambling comment of the contest (it really gave me a good laugh).

The winner of the knit stegosaurus is Joanna. Henceforth Steggie will be known as Buford. Don't ask me why, but the second I saw that name I knew that it would be the eventual winner. Buford is such a random and funny name, I think it fits much better than Steggie.

Other names that tickled me were:

• Yarnasaurus submitted by Paige. It did not win because a Yarnasauras is more of a species name to me rather than the name of an individual dinosaur. I will now consider any dino that I knit a yarnasaurus.
• Charlie submitted by Marcia. Charles is the middle name of the guy that named the stegosaurus.
• Rawr-chomp-chomp submitted by Michelle. Her two year old picked this name out. How could I not go aww over that name?
• Stella submitted by Julie D. After all how can I really know that Buford is male? Joanna may find that someday she will have a nest of eggs on her hands.

• Armand the Armored submitted by Frances. That is just such a smooth sounding name. I may just use that name for my next knit dino. I am sure that Armand will be quite the ladies' man (and not in a bad way, after all these are children's toys).

Patience

Harry was a very clingy infant. For the first few months of his life I could hardly put him down, it was not until he got control of his hands and could suck his thumbs that I was able to get a small measure of freedom. He was still very interested in keeping me in sight and would freak out if I left the room. Slowly I gained more and more freedom.

I am seeing some of that freedom slip away. I think that Harry is having a bit of a regression. Awhile back I read a really great child development book I learned about on Ask Moxy (which is an awesome parenting advice blog by the way). Basically it states that kids go through periods where they are doing great and moving right along and then about six months later they regress. Harry is in that crazy and frustrating regression period. If he could, he would sit on my lap all morning long (unless he found something really interesting and I mean really). Harry's legs have seemed to stop working and I find myself carrying him around a lot more. Little things seem to frustrate him more than previously.

At least I can comfort myself with the thought that this is just a phase. Hopefully I will get my lab back before long.

One of those days

When your toddler has a temper tantrum because you try a different diaper on him than normal you have to assume that things are just going to go down hill from there. I think that the high point of my day yesterday was that I thought up and planned ahead for dinner. I can't help but wonder why my kids think that putting toys into things that are not meant for toys is the height of amusement. I also have toys shoved behind every possible surface that one could shove a toy. I am seriously thinking about hiding all the toys after the move and only bring out one or two at a time. Thank heavens I only have four and a half more days until our trip.

Darn!

I guess that I will have to find another explanation for my odd behavior.

There's a 44% Chance You've Been Abducted By Aliens

Maybe you've really been abducted by aliens... but probably not. Let's face it. You're just a little weirder than most people.

What Are the Chances that You've Been Abducted by Aliens?

You know you are a cloth diapering nut when...

You research new diaper folds so that the diaper that you put on your son's anatomically correct doll does not gape around the leg areas. Yes, I know that he is not at risk for a massive poop blow out, but I just could not help it. In case you were wondering I used the jelly roll fold and the "cloth diaper" is one of the cloth wipes that Karen sent me. People I could not let Evan take the doll out in public with his goods hanging out and the diaper that came with the doll was MIA, I am not completely insane.

Even my kid's dolls have cute diapers

It's Giveaway time!!!

The enormous and massive Bloggy giveaway is here again!

I am giving away a set of three DVDs that are not getting any love in my house. We are moving to Kansas in a month (breathe deeply and try not to panic!) and I am trying to get rid of stuff that we do not use any more. You will receive a copy of Franklin and the Turtle Lake Treasure, Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Kids and Good Morning Maisy.

Because there was a sad lack of hand made goods last time I decided to make sure that I give something hand made away again. You could be the winner of a super cute stegosaurus made by yours truly. I knit it for Evan's birthday, but poor Steggie ended up being buried deeply in the stuffed animal basket never to be seen again. I think that he needs a more loving home with a kid that will appreciate him.


Now for the nuts and bolts.

• Please make sure that I have a way to contact you should you win. Make sure that if you don't have an available blogger id that you leave your email in your comment.
• Make sure to read the entire post about the prize and answer the question I ask. Any non complying entry will be deleted with extreme prejudice.
• As always this is open to all readers, even that creepy guy in Iran that goggled a rather weird term to get to my blog.
• Winners will be announced on Saturday.
  

How to enter: Come up with a better name than Steggie for the stegosaurus. Come on and make me laugh. The best name wins him and a random entrant will win the DVDs.

Sunday Cuteness- flower power

This was entirely Harry's idea. He loves to pick and carry flowers when we go on walks. He suddenly stopped during our walk yesterday and repeated pocket over and over again. I helped him put the flowers in the previously decorative leg pockets. Quite pleased he ran off to catch up with Daddy and Evan. I guess I now know why manufacturers put silly and seemingly useless pockets on boy's pants.

Caution: Knitting talk ahead

I finally bought the last of my birthday yarn yesterday. I got two cards with some money in them and decided to blow the whole wad on yarn. Like any of you were surprised by that. This may be my last big trip to my beloved local yarn store so I wanted to make sure that I would enjoy it and that meant ditching the kids. Luckily my husband often gets off early on Fridays, which oddly enough are when my trips to the local yarn store usually happen. Any whoo, I ended up buying the first yarn I touched. I have a system when going to a yarn store, I start at one side and slowly make my way around the room until I have felt all the yarn that catches my fancy. Only then do I make decisions about what to buy. This helps cut down on the crazy yarn fume purchases. I had a hard time putting this down the first time.

I just could not resist this sock yarn. The colors and softness won me over. It is made by Misti Alpaca and is mostly alpaca (go figure!) with some wool, silk and nylon to give it structure, shine and strength.


I wish my photography skills were better, because this yarn has amazing colors. The bits with several different shades of purple that are not showing up very well and are looking gray. There is a nice chatty lady that works at the store (I wish we were going to be here longer because I totally want to be her friend). She saw I was buying two skeins and commented that I would only need one skien for a pair of socks. I laughed and told her that I loved this yarn so much that I had to have two skeins. She said I was a woman after her own heart.

Karen received her socks last Saturday(like a true blogger she documented it) and it has taken me this long to even show you all more pictures of them. I am a bad knitting blogger. Oh well, at least my cute kids make up for the lack of finished knitting projects.

First up, the leg of the sock. Finding a pattern for this sock was rather tricky. I had wanted to try a short row heel, but trying something new when you are also trying to be perfect in a new technique can really work out well or it can blow up in your face. The short row heel blew up in my face and I ended up with massive holes in my heel. So back to the drawing board I went.

I was browsing on my favorite knitting website Ravelry and found that someone had written a pattern for this very yarn and very colorway. I was thrilled! And then I was crushed when I realized that I did not have the needles that the pattern called for (which were tricky to find so there was no real good excuse to hunt for them). So I went up a size and cut out four stitches from the pattern. To compensate for the different number of stitches I used an entirely different pattern with the same number of stitches for the bottom part of the sock.

With the leg I did do an new technique, cabling. I had been wanting to try cables out after seeing them done on a knitting show that the kids sometimes allow me to watch. They make a neat patten of Xs and Os in the leg of this sock. I had been so intimidated by cables and confident that my short rows would turn out perfect. Who knew that it would turn out the opposite of what I would have thought. I know that more cables are in my future.

Hugs and kisses!

I love this heel, it kind of looks Fair Isleish.

An overview of the whole sock.

It certainly was different knitting something for someone else who had active input in the project. Most of the time I knit something that pleases me and then I decide who is the most deserving to recieve the item. I also enjoyed knitting up a yarn that I might not have otherwise tried. Lorna's Laces has some amazing colorways and the yarn really knits up nicely. It was hard to give these up.

Warm weather

The weather has been pretty crazy here of late. Things seem to be swinging wildly between winter and summer missing spring entirely. I still have not put away the long sleeved shirts and am debating if I should get the shorts out full time. Because of the sometimes nice weather we have been getting reacquainted with the parks in the area. It is kind of fun coming back to them after such a long time away, although I know that after a few weeks of this I am going to be tired of them all again.

Does anyone have any tips on curing the afternoon grumpies? Harry has been awful in the afternoons for some time now. It is frustrating to say the least. It is almost like he needs a longer nap, but he just will not go back to sleep once he is up. I have tried snacks in the hopes that it was a hunger issue, but it did not help a bit. I just want to be able to make dinner in peace with out having a sobbing two year old at my feet.

We had a pretty exciting moment yesterday evening. We have metal doors to the outside, so I have all sorts of magnets on them and treat them as extensions of the fridge when it comes to art work. They boys had been coloring and I asked them if they wanted to put their pictures up on the door. All on his own Evan held the picture against the door with his left arm (the one affected by the stroke) and used his right hand to put the magnet on the picture to hold it up. It was so exciting to see him on his own with out any sort of prompting from me use his affected hand in such a constructive way. It gives me hope that maybe some day he will be able to do a lot more with his hand.

"I see you!"

"You want me to what?"

"Tee hee!

"I am the coolest kid on this playground."

Mmmm... Mac-n-cheese

I have to share this recipe with you. It is for the most amazing macaroni and cheese ever. Evan frequently asks to have it and when we do he always eats a lot of it. I add hot dogs to it, but you have to use really good hot dogs or the flavor of the recipe is ruined. I prefer the kosher hot dogs that you can get at Costco, they are to die for. We also use regular mustard instead of the Dijon. Harry does not like mustard very much and the Dijon was just too much for him. The milder yellow mustard adds the nice flavor, but is not so strong.

I made some last night for dinner and was going to take pictures, but it did not last long enough.

Pet Peeve

When it comes to movies I have a hard time swallowing gross inaccuracies. My husband just got The Bee movie from Netflix and it was just awful! All the plants withered up and died just because the bees stopped pollinating. Yeah right! The worst that would happed is that plants would not reproduce (never mind that not every plant in the world is pollinated by honey bees). They would be bad for us and our food chain, but the plants would not die because of that. Even worse was that they "saved" the world by using rose pollen to pollinate all the dying plants, because as we all know, roses are the universal pollinator.

Years ago there was a movie (that was also a cartoon) about cattle. Every time I saw the advertisement for it I wanted to throw a brick at the TV. Why? The main characters, which were male, had udders! Udders on a bull!!! I understand why they did not draw an anatomically correct bull, but come on people! My husband thought I was nuts for yelling at the tv, but I just could not help it. Udders on a bull!!!!

I think it is a good thing that we have stopped watching regular TV. It is better for my anger management. Now if I could just get my husband to be more discerning in his movie rentals I would be a happy woman.

What are some of your pet peeves?

Who knew?

When I started cloth diapering so long ago, I never realized how it would change my life. It sounds kooky, I know, but it is very true. Pre cloth diapering I was a mere dabbler in knitting. Now I am obsessed. I am now renewing my rocky, on again, off again relationship with my sewing machine thanks to cloth diapering. Look at what cloth diapering has driven me to:


Yes ladies and gentlemen, I made that with my very basic sewing machine. My husband asked me if I had bought that cover. It felt pretty good to tell him that I had made it all by myself. I found a really awesome free fleece soaker pattern and have been sewing up a storm. I needed (well wanted) some more soakers for the boys. The shorties that I had been making all winter do not do to well under shorts. This is soo much faster than knitting them, I can make one in about a half hour (if there are no kids bugging me). The yellow fleece was actually part of one of the million blankets that we were given as baby gifts.

I think I need to have another baby soon, because I have also been eyeing these websites. I am trying not to go too nuts with the boys, because I am hoping (fingers crossed) to potty train them both after the move (another reason I did not want to knit more soakers), but my fingers are itching to make more cute things than my kids could possible wear. I blame Diaper Swappers and it's craft forum!

Eating good

I am a person that likes to stock up on items. I think that a big part of this behavior comes from being LDS. We are frequently reminded that we should have food stored up in case of emergency. Due to our upcoming move we have switched from stocking up mode to eating mode. I did a big stock up on chicken and ground beef early in March but since then our grocery shopping has been limited to milk, fresh fruit and other perishable items.

It has been a very interesting experiment to see how well we could eat off our food storage and I am quite pleased by how well we are eating. I think I may have over done it a bit on the chicken, but Evan and Harry love eating chicken. They will frequently eat more than I will and Evan often asks to have chicken for dinner. It is nice to know that my food storage practices are working and that should something happen we would be able to eat pretty normally for a time.

Now that I have quality down I will have to work on quantity. We don't even have close to a year's supply of food, but then I am not going to sweat that one too much. With all of our moving around it really is not too practical to have a massive food storage.

Par-tay!

Today I am turning 29 for the first time* and I thought that to celebrate I would shower you with pictures of my cute kids.

Yesterday we went to the park and had some fun in the super warm weather.

Evan loves to dig!

This is the first time that Harry wanted to be on the big kid swings. I have attempted to get him to swing on them before, but he would always let go and fall off. I think that seeing Daddy swinging motivated him to give them another try.

Every one in the house took naps yesterday. Harry and I slept in beds, but Evan and my husband fell asleep while watching some tv.

A blackmail picture. We are going to a birthday party for a girl on Monday and I thought it would be fun to make her a simple princess skirt. I needed Evan to help fit the skirt properly since they are similar sizes. In this picture he is helping me adjust the hem of the skirt.

Here is a video from the park. I think that Harry is a soccer star in the making.



This is one of Evan's latest tricks. He can go right to our mail box and open it right up.



*I was younger I never knew how old my mom really was because she kept telling us that she was 29.

Knitting goodness

Which looks better pompoms or no pompoms?





Here is a shot of the pattern. It was so much fun to have so many color changes and to not have to worry about weaving in ends.


Lookie what came in the mail today from my parents. Some hand spun from Tama! Mmmmm....

Routine

I know that kids thrive on routine, but two straight months of oatmeal would drive me insane. Every morning that is what Evan asks for. At least it is easy to make.

Awww! How nice!

These last few days I have been calling around and arranging for Evan's (and Harry's) medical records to be copied so that I can take them with me when we move. I have also been setting up various last appointments ect. Apparently I was a slacker mom last year and did not do Evan's annual well child check up until late May. That means that we will not be visiting the pediatrician, barring any major illness, before we move (insurance companies are rather strict about the once a year nature of the check up).

Get ready for the aww....... The pediatrician called me yesterday to tell me that he would miss our family and was sad that we were leaving. I thought it was nice of him to take the time out of his busy schedule to do something like that. I had always thought that he had a soft spot for us and now I know that he does. I hope that we can find one that is just as nice and as knowledgeable in our new home.

That is one aspect of this move that has been giving me the most trouble. I can keep in touch with my friends, but the great doctors that have done so much for us have to be more detached and professional. I can't expect them to write me a letter or send me a Christmas card. I do hope that they peek in now and then here at my blog (which I plan on sharing with them) so they can see Evan grow up even if it is vicariously.

You can still ask questions!

Yarrrrn!

Come on people I need more questions!

My husband is awesome. He got me exactly what I wanted me for my birthday.

I am on a lace weight kick. This is a lovely wool silk blend from Knit Picks called Gloss Lace in the Aegean color. Just look at it shimmer! I am planning on making it into a lacy scarf.


I got three skeins of this amazing alpaca lace weight also from Knit Picks. It is the stream color. I love how amazingly soft this is. I think that I am going to keep it to pet for awhile. Eventually I want to make a shawl out of it, but have not found the perfect pattern for it (suggestions are welcome, just remember I am still new to lace). Why a shawl? I don't know. I have been seeing other knitters make them and they look like they are fun to do.

My really great husband also got me a chart keeper so that I am a lot less likely to get lost when I am knitting a complex pattern. I love that this has snaps which will help keep little hands from moving my markers and the magnets make it easier to quickly put it away. Isn't my husband great? I have no idea how he knew exactly what to get me.

Ask me anything!

Karen suggested that I get my readers to ask me questions and since she stole my April Fool's idea from last year I think I will copy her and get you gals to provide me with blog fodder. Go ahead and ask me anything (well except for you mom, I know the kinds of silly questions you will ask and I am not putting that kind of stuff on my blog). The person that asks the question that makes me snort milk through my nose will get something special, but I welcome serious questions too. Come on you know that you want to!

Running on empty

I am kind of hitting a slight low point when it comes to my blog. I want to keep up with the commitment that I made when I signed up to blog 365 days but I am also finding myself wondering if I am really saying something that is worth saying. I don't want to end up having a blog that is filled with trite details from my life, but this is also how I keep track of the things that happen in my life since I stink at keeping a diary.

I think I am also being hit by vacationitis. I need a break from life and will be getting one at the end of the month. My husband and I are all booked for a trip to Kansas to do some house hunting. At first it just seemed like another boring chore to get done before the move, but then I realized that I will be taking this trip with out the children. Yes that is right, no kids! We have never left them this long, so I know that I will be missing them, but then again it will be a nice break from being pounced on at the crack of dawn. I also get giddy at the though of all the knitting I will be able to get done. And the legal peeking into other people's houses that I will get to do. And the quality alone time with my husband that will be happening. Wheee!!!

A nice thing happened to me last Friday. We were sitting at a Scout fund raiser dinner with a family that we are friends with. The wife is pregnant and due right about the time that we will be moving. She told me that she had such mixed feelings about the quick approach of the due date, she was excited to not be pregnant but she was sad that we would be moving. It is the first time that anyone has really come out and said that they were sad that we were moving. I am kind of an insecure person when it comes to friends (I have been burned a lot in my life) so it was nice to hear someone that I consider to be a close friend actually express regret at our moving. I plan on keeping in touch, but I am also realistic and understand that people grow apart so these days may be some of our last fun times together.

Oh and in case you were wondering it is less than a week to my birthday. *wink, wink, nudge, nudge*

Sunday Cuteness

Evan is getting to be quite the prankster. Yesterday afternoon he came to me insisting that he was poopy and wet. I could not really smell anything but decided to check any way since my nose is still stuffy from the cold that we are all getting over. As I start taking his diaper cover off he starts laughing hysterically, and I discover that he is not poopy or wet. I guess that was the little kid version of being punked.

I was wrapping some things up to send out in a package and of course the boys were very interested in what I was doing. I had some extra tissue paper so I took some of their toys and we played opening presents. It was funny watching their different opening strategies. Evan ripped right into his and even used his left hand to help hold the present still (AWESOME!!!). Harry carried his around for about a half hour before even thinking about opening it. When he did start opening it, he would rip a piece, run it to the garbage can, run back and rip another piece starting the whole process over again. After that was done he went and picked up all the pieces left behind from Evan's present. Harry is definitely a very detail oriented kid and likes things to be correct. As he gets older he is getting more rigid about things and less willing to accept alternatives.

A tutorial on how to make burp cloths

A good friend of mine is pregnant and having a baby girl. I thought it would be fun to add a personal touch to her present for the baby shower she is having in a few weeks. Here is how I made the burp cloths.

Materials:

1 yard of patterned flannel
1 yard of contrasting solid flannel
thread to match

Step 1: Wash and dry your cloth before you even think about cutting it. That ensures that all the shrinking that is going to be done will be done before you start sewing. Plus it fluffs up the flannel making it soo soft and nice to work with.

Step 2: Iron your fabric nice and smooth. This helps ensure that you are cutting your fabric accurately. I will then fold the selvage edges together and then fold that in half lengthwise again, this makes it easier to cut your cloths relatively straight.

Stop mid iron and sniff the air. Realize that you need to stop and change a diaper.


Accept the safety pin that your toddler has discovered on the floor.



Step 3: Cutting out the cloths. I have a nice cutting mat and rotary cutter (think razor sharp pizza cutter), but you can use regular scissors. I cut these about eight inches wide and got four strips of fabric that I then cut in half again so I ended up with eight strips of each color.

Tell your toddler that they need to stop trying to take the cloths that you are cutting out. Also tell him that there is no way he will get to hold your rotary cutter.


Take a moment to comfort your now distraught child. Distract them by offering to get his toy trains out.

Step 4: Match a printed strip with a solid colored strip putting the right sides together. The right side will not matter with the solid colors, but it is crucial with the prints. Pin the strips together. I only used two pins at the top since flannel tends to want to stick together any way. The pins were mostly to remind me to leave a space so that I could turn the cloths right side out. I also rounded the edges, but you don't have to do that.


Get distracted by a barrage of trains hitting the back of your legs. Try not to step on the trains that are now on the floor.


Watch toddler pass out and decide that it is too close to lunch time/nap time to continue. Feed children and put the toddler down for a nap. Since the room with your sewing machine is the nap room, you have no choice but to take a break too.


A few hours later......

Step 5: Sew the two pieces together. I had a 1/4 inch seam for my cloths.


Let your toddler sit on a chair because he wants to watch you sew.


Get your toddler a drink when he asks. Then get another one for your preschooler who is suddenly about to die from dehydration.



Step 6: Turn the cloth inside out and make sure that all the corners are poked out.


Accept the button that your preschooler has found on the floor. Realize that you need to pick up your floor better.

Stop to remind your toddler that there is a perfectly good train table right behind you and that is where trains should be driven, not under the ironing board.


Step 7: Iron the cloth flat taking care to make sure that the fabric where the opening was is pressed nicely so that it will lay flat.

Accept the package of socks that your toddler has unearthed from somewhere. If you don't he will just keep screeching at you.


Step 8: Sew the neatly pressed burp cloth again leaving a 1/4 inch seam. This helps the fabric lay flat and just looks nicer. You can get fancy with this since it will be seen and use zig zag stitch or a bright thread if you like.

Stop midway because your bobbin has run out. Let your fascinated toddler help you with the winding of the new bobbin.




You are now done! Take a moment and admire your work.

First Aide

Every year as part of our preparation for Girl's Camp we would have first aide classes. I was always rather interested in the subject and was quick to figure out what was needed. I had one of my leaders even tell me that she hoped that I was around when something happened so that she would be well taken care of.

I never realized then what a positive impact all that practice would have on me in my life as a mother. I was reading Amanda's blog the night before last and the post hit home with me. I am sure that with out all that training I would have been overwhelmed with the challenges that my kids have presented me with. If I had not practiced this stuff until it became second nature then I am sure that it would be all too easy to freeze in a moment of panic.

With all this on my mind I ended up using my first aide training the very next day. Evan has a cold sore on his lip and he loves picking it (I am a picker too, so I am sure that is my genes showing through). This would not bug me so much if he was not on blood thinners. I just knew that if he got that big scab off his lip he would be bleeding up a storm. Evan knows he is not supposed to pick, so when he did he was very obviously challenging me. You should have seen the grin on his face as he ripped the scab off in one motion. The grin vanished when large drops of blood started dripping down his face.

He was soo mad when I had to keep pressure on his lip. Luckily he did stay still, even if he was mad about it. I did give him the option of sitting in the bath tub (I knew he was not going to bleed to death from his lip, but he would have made a horrible mess) rather than having me putting pressure on his lip. Once he heard the options he settled down and let me do my thing. It took a half hour of pressure to get that sucker to stop bleeding! I am sure that had I not had my first aide knowledge it could have been a lot worse. My calm helped keep Evan calm(ish) and it kept my floors a lot cleaner.

So, the lesson here is that you should try and take a refresher course in first aide if you are feeing rusty in your skills. If you have never taken a first aide course of any kind, you should!! You never know when it could come in handy. The life you may save could be some one you love.

Crazy

When we bought our "brand new car" (that is what Evan insists on calling it) last month we did the financing through the dealer. They applied to several loans and finalized the one with the best rates. One of the places they applied to was Bank of America, which then turned us down despite our exceptional credit ratings (think mid to high 700s). My credit rating was lower than my husband's (by a mere 20 points) and that was the basis for the refusal. Confused we scratched our heads and moved on with life.

Fast forward to this week. We are now getting pre approved for a mortgage. The place we are going to for this is willing to let us take out a $200,000 loan easily*. I find it amusing that we can get that rather large sum of money and yet one particular bank would not lend us a much lower amount based on a few piddly point differences. It was not like I had even had a bankruptcy or anything. My husband and I have been careful to try and make sure that there is ample credit building opportunities for the both of us. When we first got married I actually had better credit than him and at one point all our utilities had to be in my name so that we did not have to pay a massive deposit. The world of credit and loans is a very odd place.

* We are wise enough to not take them up on that massive loan. Sadly, in our current residence that loan would not get us much of anything. In Kansas that would get us a pretty hefty house if we were careful about it (new homes there seem to cost a lot more than an equal older home).

April fool?

I was too sick to plan anything funny for yesterday, although something kinda funny did end up happening. I was tickling Harry at the top of our stairs and he kicked out accidentally kicking the rather rickety plant stand that we have up there. That knocked over our spider plant which fell on my head breaking the plastic pot. Harry got a small mouthful of dirt in the process which really annoyed the heck out of him, the expression on his face made it hard for me to not laugh at him. Of course he has no concept of swish and spit, so when I put him in the tub and tried to get him to rinse his mouth out he ended up just drinking the water and the dirt down.

Yesterday afternoon Evan lay down on top of me for a little cuddle time. He ended up falling asleep (which was kind of what I was hoping for so that I could also catch a few extra winks) and it reminded me so much of when he was a baby and would nap on me. I can't believe how much he has grown in four short years. It is strange to think that some day not too far in the future he will be bigger than me.

I am feeling better now... In fact I think I might pull through

Slowly but surely I am starting to feel more like myself and less like I want to die because my my head feels like it is about to explode. It is amazing how even a low grade fever can sap the energy right out of you. Sunday was so bad that I did not even knit a single stitch. That is how sick I was.

The big stress for the move is the process of finding housing, not packing. The military provides us with movers, so moving day is actually relatively stress free. The boys and I will be hiding out at a friend's house while my husband oversees them, making sure that they do not drop anything or move something that needs to stay behind (like a can full of trash).

We are not sure that we will get the leave to make a visit to Kansas in late April so that we can look at houses. It would be very awesome if we could find the perfect house right away so that we would have a house waiting for us when we get there. I know that this is not very likely, but I can always hope. I just hope that we can find something that meets our needs and is at a good price.

I have not been entirely unproductive during my illness. I did manage to knit some and finished a project just last night.



These socks are for Karen. She picked out the yarn (I never would have figured her for a pink kind of gal) with a tiny bit of help from me and a lot of help from her local yarn store. I will show more detailed pictures once she gets the socks, but I thought it would be fun to tease her with a glimpse.

I have also been working on this:

Tama might recognize this yarn. I bought it from her as a Valentine's gift to me from my husband. The funny thing is that both of the yarns I bought from her ended up being knit as gifts for others. For me the joy in the yarn was in the knitting of it. I guess that is a sign that I am a hardcore Knitter.

By the way, this picture does not do this yarn justice. This hand dyed yarn has such amazing depth. Commercially dyed yarns are so very even and flat, they are missing the subtle differences in shade that you get with hand dyed yarns. This skein sat on top of my computer for quite awhile for me to enjoy before I came upon the perfect pattern (from 101 Designer One-skein Wonders) and perfect person to gift it to. It is going to be hard to let this one go, but the person getting it is very deserving (and does not read the blog, so if you are reading this it is not for you :P).