{ It's Kris, with a "K"

Scooch over, there.....there's gotta be room.....

2008-08-15T22:11:00.002-05:00

on the bandwagon.

I am officially coming out as a "Phelps Phan."

Back later.....

Oh, for Pete's sake.....

2008-08-11T20:45:00.002-05:00

It's once again been forever since I blogged! It seems that the more I have going on to share or muse about, the less time I have to blog about it! Life, eh?

So, here's to catching up again in bullet form:

Go check out this blog. She's an Austinite, and recently blogged about our (very typical) record-setting heat. Always a fun topic around here this time of year! Wendi Aarons blog

Congrats to Ali Edwards and her husband Chris on their baby-on-the-way! Big brother Simon will be wonderful with the baby, I am sure.

Band camp started up August 2nd for Eric and Alex. It's old hat for Eric, and brand new for Alex. I worked in the Med Tent that first morning, and when I got there at 10 am the band had just finished running for 10 minutes straight, and doing Pilates. All of a sudden the tent filled with staggering teenagers, some ashy white and unable to see (dizzy), others dehydrated, and one vomited. Yippee! I think it probably happens every year: the kids are warned to get outside, acclamate to the heat, drink lots of water, etc. They don't, and they pay for it. I am proud that both boys never did use the Med Tent...they both toughed it out. My only concern is how Alex is going to handle the pressures of marching season and the demands of this year's show...it's very technical, and quite hard on the brass players. Guess we'll see.

This past weekend was my last official time working at Archiver's. I was supposed to be done the previous week, but when I gave my notice I said that I'd 'return' to help out with the Make-and-Take weekend. It's always a busy and fun time, and they certainly appreciate extra help. It felt weird, on my last day. I brought in my camera, and was able to get photos with most of the other employees at the store. I was a good girl, too, with my last purchase with employee discount: I bought a lot of cardstock (mmm.....Bazzill.....), adhesive refills, and supplies for a Christmas gift/project. I'm considered a "casual" employee, available for employees to call if they need a shift covered, and the store manager said that any time I want to go back onto the schedule I can just give them a call. That in and of itself was a wonderful and flattering thing to hear, but what also made me feel all squishy inside was the when others heard I had given my notice, they were mad at me and didn't want me to leave! It's good to be loved.

Now that I have my days back (and my weekends!), I need to keep myself grateful for the time I have. My plan is to keep myself very busy, so that I do not fall into a lazy and slothful routine that would put weight back ON...I still have only lost the 45 pounds, and want to lose another 15. Perhaps when school starts I will join the greyhairs at the mall and walk. Shoot, I have the grey anyway! The plan of attack for staying busy is LISTS. Lots of To Do lists. I am drafting a list for each day of the week, starting with things I need to do daily, followed by the chores I need to do that particular day of the week. (I also have one for monthly and semi-annual, but I won't start those up yet. Daily is first.) I'm taking all of the things I need to do around the house every week and assigning each to a day...hoping to get a real schedule going, so that I can check things off as I go. Today was Day 1...I'm not far into this at all, but today was great! I feel like I was very productive, and had pretty much everything done by the time the boys were home from band at 5 and when Joe was home. I even played Becky Home-Ecky and made Toll House Cookie dough balls and Rhubarb Coffee Cake tonight! In case you are wondering, here are the sources I used for the basis of the lists, and my favorite organizing blogs and sites:

Scheduling/chorelist/to do list based on Movivated Moms
Creative Organizing
Organized Mom
The Lazy Organizer
I'm an Organizing Junkie

Spending time watching Olympics, especially the swimming...last night's 4 x 100 freestyle relay....HELLO! Go USA! There's more to share on the knitting front, including photos this time, but the swimming is about to come on again. I'll save that for next time.

Later, gators!

QUACK!

2008-07-20T20:45:00.000-05:00

It seems that summer goes more quickly every year, doesn’t it? Here it is halfway through July, and school starts August 25th for us. Wow.

This weekend for the first time in a long time I was able to enjoy a day in which I didn’t have to be anywhere all day. I was able to dictate my own time, and I loved it! Joe and Eric went to San Antonio to watch DCI (Drum Corps International) competition, while Grace, Alex and I hung out here at the house. I finished up my ‘hippie purse’ made of mitered squares of leftover sock yarn, even the straps. The design of the straps took me the longest, with much research via googling and on Ravelry. I finally decided on using 4 I-cords and braiding them together for each of the 2 straps. I also covered a piece of plastic canvas for the bottom interior to keep it stable. I am really happy with it.

We’ve come to a big decision here, too. Looking forward on the calendar, we saw that along with 2 weeks in August of Marching Band Camp for the boys from 8-5, Joe also had travel pop up this week (to Minnesota), as well as a strong possibility of all of September to various locations. (Who knows yet what could come up last minute in August!) When school starts in August, we’ll be watching to see how Alex does not only during Band Camp, but also as a freshman in high school. We wanted me to be as available as possible, especially with both boys after school every day with band, leaving Grace needing a ride home.

Because we’ve recently been quite blessed, we decided that it was best for the family that I didn’t have a work schedule to be a possible stressor added to an already packed and tenuous family schedule. Without a work schedule, I am available for the kids whether it’s during the daytime or evening, regardless of whether Joe is in town. We won’t have the added income, but we’ve run our numbers and feel quite comfortable.

So I am a lame duck employee at Archiver’s. (Thus the title of this blog post.) I gave my notice, and am working through this week and next as scheduled (I gave notice last Monday giving 2 weeks…which is actually becoming quite atypical in the workforce nowadays, sadly). I am returning the following weekend to help with a hopefully sales-filled Make and Take weekend, and will be considered an ‘as needed’ employee; this means that part timers can call me to work for them, I can offer up dates when I am available if they need me, and whenever I am able I can be added back on as a permanent employee. There is a lot that I will miss (like the 3-% discount!), especially the amazing women that I work with, but I feel I am doing the best thing for my family right now.

So, yeah, QUACK.

Have a great week!

Yes, Virginia, there IS good stuff on YouTube....

2008-07-07T22:51:00.002-05:00

Alex and I are watching our DVD of the Bugs Bunny and Road Runner movie. (I highly recommend it to the parents and kids who love to laugh!).

A slightly different take on the Rides of the Valkyries, by Wagner. (You know his sponsor was crazy King Ludwig, who built the stunning Newschwanstein in Bavaria, right? Yep, I was there. coolest thing evah.)

And one we can't stop laughing at: Rollercoaster Rabbit, with Roger Rabbit.

Enjoy!

They're villains, Claire.....

2008-07-07T20:36:00.002-05:00

Oh yeah, coming September 22!

Sure, I'll be watching the Olympics. But seriously....I am looking forward to Heroes this season. I wasn't thrilled with the last season, but I think this one has real potential. Sigh, another addiction! And I'll just be getting over Hell's Kitchen (season finale tomorrow night, people!).

Crazy summer that it is, notes on the Summer of '08, thus far:

I miss Eric! He was gone for 2 weeks counselling at Camp Allen. Then home for 2 days, and off again for 2 weeks on a mission trip! He's completely incommunicado, too. Can't wait to have him home again! So glad I had the week with him in June, while Joe, Alex and Grace were on the mission trip. Cool thing: he was able to send text messages from camp, and one ended with "Give Mom my love".... what a great kid!

It seems that this summer I've been able to have a full week with just one of the kids at a time. When it was just Grace and I (Eric was on week 2 as counsellor, and Alex was a camper), we had a few days during which we didn't have obligations, so we declared them "No Pants" days! We just hung out with the dogs, cleaning, scrapbooking, etc in our Tshirts and grunders. Poor Joe when he got home: we were all giggles! Such fun.

Grace is at camp this week, so it's just Alex at home this week. Besides time at Archiver's, I am helping out a friend with getting their daughter to her cheer camp. Hoping for downtime with the Zandermeister! Tonight we are hanging out and watching a couple of Mystery Science Theater movies. Tomorrow night, of course, is Hell's Kitchen...he's a huge fan, too. We are bummed that the DVDs that are available and the computer game are NOT censored. Rats.

Bringing back a few memories from the high school years, another link to Wendi Aarons' blog. You really should read her blog on a regular basis. What a hoot! Here's the one on a week in the life, and here is the one on having a party.

Family health is an issue, if you are shooting up prayers, please include my extended family. Thanks.

Powerwashing makes a heck of a difference on our patio and driveway. Grace and Alex are both wonderful powerwashers!

Oh, my new photo! It seems that I have grey hair coming in, and it has decided to be curly. I've had stick-straight hair all of my life. Perms were the only way to get a curl. But my hair guy, Tim, tells me that often times grey comes in a little freaked out, and a different texture at first. It'll probably go straight again. Oh, why can't you see the grey? That's because I pay Tim a pretty pennyto keep me as very blond as possible. One can never be too blond, right Zillbutt?? So for now I am loving the natural curl.

And although I still have about 15 pounds more to lose, with the current loss of 45 pounds, the ensuing necessary wardrobe change (including my first 2 piece swinsuit in a scary amount of years, and a size change now at 4 down!), and the curly hair, Joe has gotten himself a new trophy wife! He says it's easier this way...he doesn't have to 'break in a new one.' I agree!

Hope for more soon....trying to enjoy life inside the revolving front door! It seems that school just let out, it's now into July, and before I know it we'll be up at the crack of dawn again for school. Life zooms on!

Right here, right now....

2008-06-08T22:18:00.002-05:00

Watching Eric kill off bad guys in Rainbow 6 (XBox game)
Wishing Joe, Alex and Grace a wonderful week on their mission trip to Houston (Grace's first!) .l.. which means Eric and I have the place to ourselves this week! Well, except for the 3 dogs and the hamster.)
Still full from lunch at Mesa Rosa after church!
Got 2 beds' linens washed
Completed the second of 2 wristwarmer/gauntlets (made to match the Logan River Wrap I finished last week...I just adapted the cable pattern and designed as I went.). Amazing deep, smoky purple yarn in a wool/silk/cashmere that I got on sale!
Comfy on the couch, ready to watch some Family Guy on my Ipod before I go toddle off to bed
Planning on going to the pool tomorrow after I get off work at 2, to start on the real tan...
As opposed to the streaky orange color I am right now. But I'd rather be streaky orange than pastey white!
Kind of excited to wear a new swimsuit this year, with 45 less pounds on me! (Still have about 15 more to go....)
Thinking I really do need to take photos of knitting projects to post to Ravelry
Have quite a nice list of 'summer projects' for myself...actually looking forward to some deep cleaning/purging/organizing!
Realizing that I am the only one here all summer, while everyone else comes and goes for a week or more at a time. Grace thought that an "In and Out" board on the wall would be a good idea so we'd know who was here each week...I am starting to think it's not a bad idea!
Going to set up time for Eric to have friend K overnight this week, so his parents will get a night at home without kids! Hoping Eric can stay at K's also, and I'll end up with a night here to myself! "Risky Business", anyone? Party at Kris' house! Bring chocolate and 'Ritas!
Wishing I had taken a photo of a gift I made. Alex has had the same team for Special Ed and Inclusion for all 3 years in middle school. I really wanted to thank them in a tangible way for all they have done for him, and helped him become so selfconfident and able to advocate for himself. I found a wonderful transparency/overlay at Archiver's, that had a heart design and the quote "Teachers touch the world one heart at a time". I made a scrapbook page, kind of a collage really, with some vintage looking school papers I had, a ton of embellishments, and used clear 'ghost' letters of an a and a v on it, and framed it. I wish I'd taken a photo of it before I wrapped it and had Alex drop it off! The note he wrote for them was so sweet and heartfelt. He was pretty emotional the last few days of school. He was like that leaving elementary school, too. He gets very attached to people; I think it's wonderful. Such a neat, neat kid!
Realizing I should get off the computer and get some sleep, if I intend to be worth anything in the morning when I work. Sigh. I don't sleep very well when Joe isn't here.
Saying goodnight.....

Feeling the love, and the gratitude....

2008-05-29T20:31:00.002-05:00

Just sitting here with Grace, watching "So You Think You Can Dance", and realizing how blessed I am. (Yeah, I wish I could still dance, or at least be as limber as I once was, but I do love to watch dancers all these years later.)

There are so many reasons I am grateful right now. Too many to list, really. There are people in my life who are blessing us in ways that are immeasurable, and certainly in ways that cannot be repaid, but will definitely be "paid forward." I have friends with whom I celebrate right now, and friends with whom I grieve right now, and I feel priveledged to be a part of both. There are many changes coming for friends...some wonderful, some -well- not so wonderful. I only hope I am able to make them feel grateful for me in their lives during the changes.

The boys are home from high school music camp, and although Alex has (a little more than) some adjusting to do, I am optomistic. We are one week away from the end of the school year...and Alex will start high school in the fall. I do think I'll be wearing my knees out in prayer over his success.

Eric's combination of academic grades, lack of absences, and phenomenal TAKS scores allow him to excempt ALL of his finals this spring.

Grace has successfully navigated the often treacherous waters of 6th grade girlhood, and maintained a strong self-image and a confidence I know I never had at that age.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I added a badge to my sidebar, to the left. It's taken from Ravelry (thanks, Sujo!), and here's the description (I felt I deserved it!):

The “I Will Crush You With My Math Prowess” Badge - The recipient has applied the principles of higher mathematics to knitting including, but not limited to hyperbolic planes, Fibonacci sequences, Klein bottles, Moebius strips, fractals and Flying Spaghetti Monster hats.

So I'm back to watching the auditions, living a little vicariously through the dancers, in jammies and freshly cut and colored hair. (Thanks to Tim, I'll be a blond for as long as I possibly can!)

Just checking in.....

2008-05-27T18:13:00.002-05:00

Here's an interesting blog entry. (I read a LOT of blogs about organization. Turns out it's not osmotic. Who knew?)

the Organized Mom

And a little funny I copied from a friend's blog...some are oldies, but still funny.

Why did the chicken cross the road?

BARACK OBAMA: The chicken crossed the road because it was time for a CHANGE! The chicken wanted CHANGE!

JOHN MC CAIN: My friends, that chicken crossed the road because he recognized the need to engage in cooperation and dialogue with all the chickens on the other side of the road.

HILLARY CLINTON: When I was First Lady, I personally helped that little chicken to cross the road. This experience makes me uniquely qualified to ensure -- right from Day One! -- that every chicken in this country gets the chance it deserves to cross the road. But then, this really isn't about me.......

DR. PHIL: The problem we have here is that this chicken won't realize that he must first deal with the problem on 'THIS' side of the road before it goes after the problem on the 'OTHER SIDE' of the road. What we need to do is help him realize how stupid he's acting by not taking on his 'CURRENT' problems before adding 'NEW' problems.

OPRAH: Well, I understand that the chicken is having problems, which is why he wants to cross this road so bad. So instead of having the chicken learn from his mistakes and take falls, which is a part of life, I'm going to give this chicken a car so that he can just drive across the road and not live his life like the rest of the chickens.

GEORGE W. BUSH: We don't really care why the chicken crossed the road. We just want to know if the chicken is on our side of the road, or not. The chicken is either against us, or for us. There is no middle ground here.

COLIN POWELL: Now to the left of the screen, you can clearly see the satellite image of the chicken crossing the road...

ANDERSON COOPER - CNN: We have reason to believe there is a chicken, but we have not yet been allowed to have access to the other side of the road.

JOHN KERRY: Although I voted to let the chicken cross the road, I am now against it! It was the wrong road to cross, and I was misled about the chicken's intentions. I am not for it now, and will remain against it.

NANCY GRACE: That chicken crossed the road because he's GUILTY! You can see it in his eyes and the way he walks.

PAT BUCHANAN: To steal the job of a decent, hardworking American.

MARTHA STEWART: No one called me to warn me which way that chicken was going. I had a standing order at the Farmer's Market to sell my eggs when the price dropped to a certain level. No little bird gave me any insider information.

DR SEUSS: Did the chicken cross the road? Did he cross it with a toad? Yes, the chicken crossed the road, but why it crossed I've not been told.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY: To die in the rain. Alone. (from Kris...this still cracks me up!)

JERRY FALWELL: Because the chicken was gay! Can't you people see the plain truth?' That's why they call it the 'other side.' Yes, my friends, that chicken is gay. And if you eat that chicken, you will become gay too. I say we boycott all chickens until we sort out this abomination that the liberal media white washes with seemingly harmless phrases like 'the other side. That chicken should not be crossing the road. It's as plain and as simple as that.

GRANDPA: In my day we didn't ask why the chicken crossed the road. Somebody told us the chicken crossed the road, and that was good enough.

BARBARA WALTERS: Isn't that interesting? In a few moments, we will be listening to the chicken tell, for the first time, the heart warming story of how it experienced a serious case of molting, and went on to accomplish its life long dream of crossing the road.

ARISTOTLE: It is the nature of chickens to cross the road.

JOHN LENNON: Imagine all the chickens in the world crossing roads together, in peace.

BILL GATES: I have just released eChicken2007, which will not only cross roads, but will lay eggs, file your important documents, and balance your check book. Internet Explorer is an integral part of eChicken. This new platform is much more stable and will never cra...#@&&^(C% ......... reboot.

ALBERT EINSTEIN: Did the chicken really cross the road, or did the road move beneath the chicken?

BILL CLINTON: I did not cross the road with THAT chicken. What is your definition of chicken? AL GORE: I invented the chicken!

COLONEL SANDERS: Did I miss one?

DICK CHENEY: Where's my gun?

AL SHARPTON: Why are all the chickens white? We need some black chickens.

Have a great rest of your week! ....and knit on!

Cool Beans.....

2008-05-22T21:02:00.002-05:00

Just a few little links:

Wendi Aarons blog....known as "The Always Lady", she lives and blogs from Austin. Just hysterical, especially this post.

Keep watching Ali's blog...she's doing one layout a day, and they are wonderful.

The Summer Interweave Knits in in 'da hizzouse' and the patterns are fan-stinking-tastic once again.

Lisa Bearnson's latest book just arrived in Archiver's yesterday, and my copy is sitting impatiently for me to pour over it. More ideas for scrapbooking the things that really matter, and what I want to remember. I've really enjoyed doing that lately...even to the point of either staging photos for the story I want to tell, or using a photo of the kid from any age and telling the story. My mojo is back! Whee!!

and I gotta tell ya....I am just BUSTING with good news about a dear friend! But I wasn't told whether or not I could tell, and I don't think I should yet anyway. But hot dang, IT'S SO FLIPPING COOL!!

I don't know if my friend reads here, but.....if you see this, friend....like I said to you: I am so happy, and so honored you told me!

Have a great Memorial weekend....enjoy and be safe!

Yeppers, it's been a while....

2008-05-12T10:15:00.003-05:00

hasn't it? I had a rough couple of weeks in there. It happens, thankfully not too often. But it's over, and all is well. So let's just move on, shall we? Yes, let's shall.

I'm going to share some little goodies I've been collecting for a while now, just to share with you:

Ok, is this not adorable? These are the kinds of little things we want to remember about our kids, isn't it? Glimpses into their minds.

If you don't know who Peter Walsh is, you've not been watching Clean Sweep or Oprah. He's a professional organizer, and helps those who are really out of control. Not the mainstream "I can't seem to get this house together," but rather the hoarders, those who are unable to part with things emotionally, and are paralyzed by the thought of getting rid of anything. He has the ability to get them to that lightbulb moment of realization that getting rid of the years of newspapers is not getting rid of the parent who collected them. Things are not memories. Can you tell I'm a huge fan? He's got a new book out, called : "It's All Too Much." If you even think you might have issues with STUFF, I highly recommend reading his books. Life is so much better without the stress that too much stuff brings us!! Click on the title for a link to Amazon.

Many of you know that I am a member of a message board of scrapbookers. Some of the dearest people to me live there, in my computer. I have been lucky to have met a handful in real life. The first weekend in May I spent the weekend in beautiful Salado, Texas with 40 other women from this board, scrapbooking, eating, sharing lives, and just plain refreshing ourselves. It's something that women need, I believe, to have time together away from our everyday lives. And these other women are so giving and loving....and stinking funny! It was wonderful to have sore stomach muscles from laughing that hard. Who knew a pregnant woman could kareoke "I Like Big Butts" so very well? We recently lost a member of the board to a very aggressive cancer. (We've lost more than one over the years.) Our Mickeylou touched us all with her courage. I wanted to share a little ditty from a scrapbook page made by Mickeylou: The quote reads: "Gentleness is not unmanly. Remember that Jesus, St Joseph, St Francis, Pope John Paul II and Grandpa were all gentle men. Being gentle does not lessen men, rather it is a true characteristic of manhood. Great men tend to be gentle men."

And to catch you up on life here at Chez Van Allen:

We are really looking forward to the end of the school year (last day June 5th). We're just ready for the lack of scheduling in the summer. We are in the midst of band concerts and marching camp for incoming freshmen...good grief, Alex will be in high school next year! (His annual ARD meeting went extremely well, we are all anticipating a great year for him next year, and the band directors are all on the same page that we are regarding Alex's Asberger's and his toleration of marching season. And by the way, he takes four TAKS tests this year -state standardized testing- and we have 2 results so far: he passed math, which we expected, and he not only passed his reading/writing but scored at a commended level! this is the boy who used to have difficulty with readong comprehension and written expression!)

Joe spent a week in ShangHai, and then had another trip to Philly. He doesn't travel nearly as much anymore.

I'm still at Archiver's part-time. We are trying to figure out how we'll handle the summer. We've got 2 kids going to camp, Eric may be asked to counsel at camp, a mission trip for Grace and Alex that Joe is also going on, and Eric will be going on a mission trip with the senior high. So I need to figure out pretty soon how I'll be able to stay at Archiver's!

Happy to be back in blogland again.....

I've not fallen off the edge of the earth....

2008-03-27T18:42:00.003-05:00

but it seems that as soon as I think I have climbed back up, I slip and am just hanging on again.

I'll be back soon.

Mama said there'd be days like this....

2008-03-07T15:15:00.002-06:00

I have quite a few things in a Word document that I wanted to blog about when I had time.

But today I've had just a bad day.

The kind where you realize what a complete idiot you can be, and nothing you do is right in any fashion.

The kind where you find out stuff you did or didn't do days before and can't fix now.

The kind where you just wanna go back to bed and turn back time. At least a couple of days.

I'll be back to blogland when I am done beating myself up.

Just one little word.....

2008-02-20T20:01:00.002-06:00

It's an idea from a message board I frequent.

Do a scrapbook layout about yourself, using one word to describe yourself. But you get the word from others who know you.

So in the spirit of putting myself 'out there' I am game.

Feel free to leave a comment here, using one word to describe me.

And be gentle.

Right now I am.....

2008-02-19T12:47:00.003-06:00

caught up on my general blog stalkings, particularly with Organize Your Life and today's entry about training our kids (she calls it delegating)
full from eating the leftover half of an amazing club sandwich from Palm Beach Grill
happy to have spent a chunk of the morning cleaning my kitchen thoroughly and finishing laundry
thinking Joe will not be pleased that he will come home to a 'pile'...I stacked up all of his things that were on the counter!
pleased to know that in a few hours I will have the cleanest feeling teeth! (dental appt today!)
loving that we paid for all three kids' new glasses and contact lenses with cash!
relieved that Jackie and I know what we are doing for our goodie bag contribution for the Spring Fling retreat in May, and that it's already started! (we even know what we are doing for November's retreat!)
proud that Eric is still a conscientious driver. A student at his high school was killed in an accident over the weekend...it appears that the driver (another student) was trying to pass on a curve in the road and ran headon into oncoming traffic, injuring himself and killing his friend. It has hit the kids hard, and although it's terrible to have happen, it is a glaring reminder to teens that they are, indeed, vulnerable. Please pray for both families involved, for healing for all of them. This will be a hard road for both families.
watching Court TV on verdict watch for a trial (I'm a geek)
laughing at the odd positions that my dogs sleep in during the day
beating myself up for emails I owe people (hi Donna!)
excited to start up the health/weight loss plan again on Thursday...it's been a hard month off!

So what are you doing right now?

Happy "Van Allen-tine's" Day....

2008-02-14T20:48:00.008-06:00

Yep, it's that time of year again!

We are not sentimental here anymore. I told Joe that I am no longer "Demandingly Sentimental"...no flowers or cards please. And really, if he has to go all out on Valentine's Day, then what were we doing the rest of the year? We celebrate all year.

Random blatherings since I haven't blogged in a while, but have been making notes to do so!

Recently watched the Muppet Show (Season 1) with the kids. Love Mummenschanz!

And then there is Shields and Yarnell. Remember them from the Donny & Marie Show?

We had to get a new vacuum this week. Our home/menagerie is hard on vacuums. We did find one at a good price that is good for pet hair. It's nice to have the smell of burning vacuum belt out of the house again!

Knitting updates, or did I mention that I hate to make gauge swatches? I really do. And I have recently had to make more than I ever have to again, ever. EVER. On one project, even! I found some great yarn on sale a while back, and got it to make a cozy for my new Ipod. I loved the pink, orange and yellow in the yarn, but as I wound it, I realized that I didn't care for the white in the skein...it was dingy looking. So as I came across the white, I simply cut and knotted the white out. Then I had to gauge out the yarn on different needles, and ended up using FOUR plies of the yarn! I was on about swatch number 9 when I stopped counting. I also went through a couple of different pattern attempts. Initially I wanted to make a perfect cozy, a la Grumperina, but couldn't get the sizing to work for the openings. And all those ends from splicing out the white! yikes! Eventually I gave up and made a simple envelope with a turned up flap that is ribbed, for the earbuds. The very end of the yarn I had left was for the tie: braided and wrapped around the cozy. Just need a big button to wrap the cord around and it will finally be done. We won't talk about the number of ends I had to weave it.

I did make a scarf for Grace, the Irish Hiking Scarf. She picked the yarn; it's from Cascade Painted, and is a pretty mix of bright teal, purple and blue. I also made a scarf for myself, out of lucious Baby Alpaca in winter white, all ribbed with overlapping cables at each end, making it appear to be basket woven. Then ends are from this pattern. I used ribbing for the parts between the cables, and at the ends as shown in this entry. It was cold enough to use the scarves for a couple of days! I am falling in love with cables, and the look of them. And the look of cabled sweaters. Why don’t I live in the mountains where I can knit jillions of hat/mitten/scarf combos in fantastic alpaca? Oh, yeah....the cold. Right.

I am still way behind on taking photos for Ravelry and my completed projects. Right now I am using Ravelry for great ideas: I can search by yarn to see what others have done with it, and by pattern to see what alternative yarns others have used.

Eric is now driving, or how life has changed already! He picks up Grace and Alex after school, so there are fewer miles going onto the Surburban, and less stress in timing for me! But there is always the mom thing...worrying about the other drivers out there. So far he is proving to be a very conscientious driver, and is increasing his 'drivable radius' from the house.

Lent: Do you give something up, or take on a discipline? I once gave up soda. Back in the days before bottled water other than Perrier. That was a tough one. I'm not good at the giving up stuff. This year all I am doing is, as a part of the 'moving to a healthier me', trying to increase my water intake from abysmal to decent. I don't set the bar very high.

Tomorrow Grace turns 12. Wow. My baby has moved from this:

to this:

and as a middle schooler, occasionally looks at me like this(sorry about the tilt...this is a read-only file. Tip your head!):

She just switched from glasses to contacts. She looks so much older!

So I'm off for another busy weekend at Archiver's. Take care!

It's happened again....

2008-01-29T11:05:00.000-06:00

I won another blog prize package! This is, if you are counting with me, number three for the wins! All were based on random number generation, so it's nothing like I had anything to do with winning, and considering the number of times I have commented on blogs offering prizes, I'm still upside down on the ratio, BUT STILL!

It appears I will be getting some ribbon goodness in the mail soon!

Here is the blog.

Coolio!

off to tend to a 'not feeling good' little girl.....

A Woman who really knows her man.....

2008-01-27T00:17:00.000-06:00

I loved this story. I found it via a blog of a friend, Kenny, and the script of the story from a link in his comments. Enjoy!

A Woman Who Knows Her Man
Here is a story about "a graying duo" that subdued two unruly passangers on a recent flight from Minneapolis-to-Boston. A retired police captain volunteered to help flight attendants, if they needed the men to be subdued. They developed a plan whereby the flight attendants would hold up plastic handcuffs if they needed him to subdue the unruly passengers. He looked around at the other men on the plane, but all of them averted their eyes. All, that is except the retired Captain U.S. Marine Corps.

But wait, this gets better. The retired police captain was accompanied on the trip by his wife.
When the captain announced preparations for landing, the man jumped up shouting, the flight attendant held up the handcuffs, and Hayden and the Marine came bounding down the aisle. Hayden said he and the retired Marine, whose name he never got, received an ovation from fellow passengers, and "some free air miles."

Hayden's wife of 42 years, Katie, who was also on the flight, was less impressed. Even as her husband struggled with the agitated passenger, she barely looked up from "The Richest Man in Babylon," the book she was reading.

"The woman sitting in front of us was very upset and asked me how I could just sit there reading," Katie Hayden said. "Bob's been shot at. He's been stabbed. He's taken knives away. He knows how to handle those situations. I figured he would go up there and step on somebody's neck, and that would be the end of it. I knew how that situation would end. I didn't know how the book would end."

Side note: still not started the (somewhat daunting) task of photos of finished knitted items for Ravelry. Some are here at the house and will require multiple sock changes for photo shoots, and others are with the recipients, and I'll probably have to use the photos used in the patterns themselves. I hope to get to that soon. I've been getting so much great info and reference on Ravelry, I want to pay it back. Where else could I find a pattern over a year old in a Knit magazine, the Nantucket Jacket, that I would like to make, and then IN ONE SOURCE find literally hundreds of other knitters who are either in process or completed the very same sweater, list their chosen yarns, and then comment on the yarn, the pattern, any modifications they used, etc. Ravelry is a God-send to me!

Grace and I did a little scrapbooking tonight, after my time at Archiver's. Eric and Grace had music practice at the Church, for the youth band entitled At His Feet. They are going to be leading the music more often, and I am looking forward to that! Eric then has friend stuff to do the rest of the day: hangout time, movie time, Red Robin for burgers, etc. This driving thing is working out to our benefit already! And he doesn't balk when we require him to call when he reaches a destination, and when he leaves it for another.

I'll be back at Archiver's again tomorrow...we are short a couple of people temporarily. They already know what I love to do, so I am getting to do organizing within the store, and labelling! (be still my heart!) Guess my reputation has caught up with me. Always seems to.

Last on knitting, I finished my own scarf from the baby alpaca (oh, so softy soft!), and closing in on the end of Grace's Irish Hiking Scarf in the new Cascade painted. So on the 'planning needles' is an ipod cover. Unfortunately it has required me to knit up gauge swatches. eah, plural even. I've gone with a fine yarn, but it runs from shades of pink, orange and a cream that I really like. Starting with single strand and size 3 needles, too loose, size 2 were still too loose, decided I was NOT going with 1s. Frog out. Unroll complete skein to have 2 ends to wind together. Now knitting at 2 strands with a size 5. Kinda loose. Size 4....still a little loose. Now at a size 3. Looking like the squishy/protective look I want. Problem now? the assembly I designed will be too wide for using dpns...Smallest straight bamboos are size 7. Aha! I remember the Denise interchangables!! Wahoo! The smallest size is a 5. However, in looking at the Denise 5s and the Clover 3 dpns, there is not a signicant difference. I am going to continue this swatch with the Denise 5s, and probably go with them. Pattern? started with Grumperina's pattern for the front openings and will be constructing 2 more panels, that when folded and sewn together it will open like an envelope, and will have a pocket on the front for the ear buds, using a buttons and Icord tie around for the finish.

Eric was approved for Cabin Caounselor Training at Camp Allen, so he will be out there next weekend, meeting the directors for the summer and training. Hopefully he'll get lots of time at camp.

Off to Archiver's again tomorrow, to rake in the big bucks! cya!

okay, one more to share....

2008-01-23T16:23:00.001-06:00

I have loved Jerry O'Connell as an actor for many years. THIS is so very stinking funny....he really nails Tom Cruise in this parody of the now-famous video. Enjoy the giggle.

Double D in the mail!......

2008-01-22T18:47:00.000-06:00

A short while ago I took some open time one morning to sit at a coffee shop and write a letter. Yeah, a real letter! It was WAY long overdue to a dear friend from childhood. Why is it that I think about my long-distance friends exponentially more than I am able to either write or email?

I was blessed for taking this time yesterday afternoon, when in my mailbox was a letter from another friend, one from my full time working days at Blue Cross in Minnesota: Donna! Gosh I think about her all the time, particularly at this time of year. Her son is not much older than Eric, and I've known her since before he was born. What a treasure to hear from her! Donna, thank you so much...I'll be in email contact, girl!

In other news.....

The deed has been done. Eric got his license! He's in front of the DPS building here:

Joe took him over there, and surprisingly it wasn't a nightmare of a wait. Because we did the driversed.com program, Eric took the final test online, passing, and we were responsible for the driving portion ourselves. At the DPS, all he had to do was show up with the school enrollment verification and the necessary papers. He's been driving to school, and will start picking up Grace and Alex when I need him too. We do have some restrictions right now on how far he can drive, and some others, that we feel are appropriate. He's even being cool about my telling him to 'drive safely' all the time...it's a mom thing, isn't it?

Because Eric shares a birthday with Elvis, we headed to Chuy's that night for dinner. Chuy's is a local chain of terrific TexMex food that is also a very fun place. They have a shrine to Elvis in their entryways. Every year on Elvis's birthday they have a party, with impersonators, dinner specials and giveaways. And free Twinkies after dinner! Of course we told the server that it was Eric's birthday so they got a group together to sing to him, and brought free ice cream. In our family, the birthday person gets to pick where we go for dinner on their birthday, and since the kids were little I added the restriction that it had to be a sit-down-and-get-waited-on place: no fast food. Otherwise we'd be at McDonald's, and we did enough of that when they were little!

I finished a scarf for myself in baby alpaca that is a wonderful ivory color, just in time for the cold weather here. I combined a ribbing of K2P2 with a cable pattern as an accent, and it's wonderfully soft. And I discovered that I really like knitting cables! A scarf for Grace (the Irish Hiking scarf) is halfway done on the needles. My design for my Ipod cover is complete, and I am making a gauge swatch (ew, I hate those).

Speaking of knitting, one of the blogs I follow, and have done a few of her patterns (Odessa hat and Jaywalker socks, and using her Ipod cover chart), is Grumperina. She also has a great tutorial on knitting cables without a cable needle. Brilliant. She just got married! Congrats, Mrs. Grumperina! Her blog is here: http://www.grumperina.com/knitblog/ , but you'll have to scroll down to the January 16 and earlier entry...her blog doesn't have links to each entry. The photography was gorgeous.

Report cards came out for the first semester and we are thrilled...Eric did well in all classes, including his Pre-AP Math and Chemistry, Grace is doing well in her first year of middle school classes/homework, and Alex got straight A's!

Pretty much everyone has seen the Tom Cruise video that was on YouTube until the powers that be had it pulled. Another favorite blogger of mine, Cathy Zielske, has been making some hilarious videos recently, similar to a mockumentary interview, a la Christopher Guest in my mind. So check out her version of 'The Scrapbooking Induction Video They Tried to Suppress":

She's such a riot!

Although life is still busy, I am feeling like I have a handle on the things I do and how to get them all done without going loopy-goobers. And that's a good thing. So far we have all managed to avoid the flu season, and that's a good thing too!

Off to do chores before heading to Archiver's....later!

A soon to be familiar sight....

2008-01-07T08:57:00.000-06:00

Tomorrow Eric turns 16.

SIXTEEN!

He'll be driving. Wow.

Just another thing to add to the "I can't believe I am old enough to ......." list. Have a kid old enough to drive. Yikes.

But on the other hand, I am proud of Eric and the responsibility he has shown in learning to drive. He takes it seriously. He wants to be safe. His friend B is a great driver of 6 months now, and has been a great role model.

This boy impresses me. I not only love him as my own, my firstborn, but I LIKE him. I would choose to spend time with him. He's funny, witty, caring, mature, empathetic, smart....just a great ~~kid~~ young man.

So raise a glass, sing out loud, whatever you choose, to wish Eric a Happy Sixteen tomorrow!

(BTW, he shares his birthday with Elvis. That's cool.)

Now blogging from the passenger seat.....

{insert witty New Year's title here}.....

2008-01-01T22:31:00.000-06:00

So Happy New Year!

Spent New Year's Eve with friends...annual party here at the house...fabulous time! One of the very best parties I think...everyone laughing, talking, playing Trivial Pursuit...Guitar Hero 3 in the backround....good times, good times. We were missing one family terribly but understand that right now their very first priority is to keep their newborn both healthy, growing stronger, and 'bubbled' from all possible exposures to germs/viruses. We love you all!

New Year's Day today was sleeping, jammies all day, no one showered, lots of knitting time, slugville. Just perfect.

Oh, and those Christmas cards? Yeah, still gotta go to the mail place...will probably require extra postage. And the 2 boxes of Christmas gifts will be coming along, to be mailed out to KC and Plano. And a lovely little bargainy thingy for Stacy will be on its way to Cowtown.

It's the time of year for resolutions, but I'm not one to make them. I've talked about that before. It was interesting to go back and read my blog entry from last year. Definitely food for thought. I know I've done well on some things, not so hot on others. But that all sounds pretty durned typical, doesn't it? More interesting resolution shtuff, should you choose to peek in on these blogs (two of my very favorites to visit, albeit for very different reasons): Cathy Z and Ali E.

On Christmas Eve we went to dinner with other church families, as we do every year...IHop. Another beloved tradition. This year we attending the 10 pm service, and really enjoyed hearing the choir singing carols. We arrived home to find that "Twinkles" the jammie elf had visited, and left us all new jammies for Christmas!

Christmas morning came far too early for Santa and the Missus...they were up till 4 am on the phone with Microsoft trying to troubleshoot the XBox360 that just wouldn't work. He ended up leaving a note of apology for the boys with a promise to get it fixed or replaced. (He was able to do that on the 26th...thankfully Target works with Santa on exchanging presents that turn out to be another customer's return that was broken and put on the sales floor! Grrrr...... ).

But the kids were all up by 6:30! (I even overheard a comment of waking at 4:30 and coming out to check out the gifts and returning to bed! Nearly caught Santa in the very act!) After Santa gifts and stockings, Joe and I grabbed some more much needed sleep.

The boys were wonderfully understanding about the XBox situation. Grace loved her new blue Ipod Nano! And Santa preloaded some of her music for her; Eric loaded 'better rock and roll' onto it later in the day.

Christmas Day was great, fun, all the positive adjectives. Here at home, with my parents and Sis. Wonderful and thoughtful gifts. I'll describe them another time.

Suffice to say that a great Christmas break was had by all (Joe being on vacation!), and we have one more day before school starts up again on Thursday.

Oh, and on the (frantic!) knitting front, all projects completed prior to Christmas [pat self on back] but few photos taken! Descriptions will be another time. Both the January Magknits is up, and the new issue of Knitty. Check them out! {.....reminds me of how far behind my profile/stash/photos are behind over at Ravelry.....grrrrr again.....}. If you are a member, or awaiting your invitation, watch for me. I am KriswithaK.

Rock on....

I feel like Sleeping Beauty....

2007-12-23T22:42:00.000-06:00

Like I just awoke from a long sleep. Well, maybe not long, but about two and a half months! Since about the end of September, my life has been nuts. Just nuts. I kept intending to blog about things, but wanted to either add photos or details, and time was so short! It was like a fairy tale…..

Once upon a time, in lovely Cedar Park, Texas, lived a beautiful Princess and her handsome Prince. But an evil spell had been cast on them years before…a spell causing them to overspend! The handsome Prince finally found a cure for the spell. It would involve sacrifices, but he was both handsome and brave, so he was ready to fight for the cure. It would also involve his beautiful Princess making sacrifices…so he gently asked for her help. After appropriate soul-searching, the beautiful Princess realized that they could only be cured together, as a couple. So forward they lept, into “Baby Step One”, and farther! She started working part time at Archiver’s, a scrapbooking store. And life as she knew it changed. At least for a while. Gone were her days of leisure. She began to see that she had been wasting away her time, now that she was working far more hours than she anticipated, being hired as part time. The beautiful Princess was going to have to learn efficient time management, if she was going to keep the castle clean and the royal family fed and in clean clothing!

She is still working on that.

Here is what has happened in our lives since my last serious blogging:

Joe turned 45!
Halloween happened some time in there. Candy was eaten…by the kids. I was really good this year!
I bought a new coffeemaker (see here).
Friday night football games for the high school.
Marching band festivals for the high school band.
Thoroughly enjoyed watching Plan 9 from Outer Space, Attack of the Crab Monsters, and The Killer Shrews.
I went on a scrapbooking retreat to the Fort Worth area, and had an absolute BLAST with other ‘axe murderers’ from an internet message board.
I turned 44!
Thanksgiving happened as well, I believe. I don’t really remember because that week I worked THIRTY SEVEN hours in 6 days. That’s kind of a lot for a stay at home momma working part time!
I decided that this year our Christmas cards needed to be handmade by me.
I also decided that I needed to handknit some of our Christmas gifts.
Christmas cookies and breads were baked.
Clearly I lost my mind in there somewhere.
I was inspired creatively by Ali Edwards’ December project, and have plans for next year.
I started a health program with my doctor and have lost 27.5 pounds so far, and two pant sizes!
I had portions of my hair colored bright pink.
I may or may not have taken photos of some of the above.

I wish you a very merry Christmas, and Happy New Year, filled with blessings galore!

Happy Birthday.......

2007-11-07T22:06:00.000-06:00

TO ME!!!!

Yep, today I am 44.

Realizing I have not blogged in FAR too long, but also realizing I have a long list of things to blog about.

For now, I will use this opportunity to allow you all to shower me with well wishes for a Happy Birthday. Ha!

Will catch up on blogging this week, including info from the far points of my life.

I know...the anticipation is killing you. It's okay, you can make it. Deep breaths......

So I am in a coffee mood....

2007-09-24T20:01:00.000-05:00

Thus the change to the blog layout. A little change never hurt, right?

Been a bad blogger lately. I know. I was sick for a coupla days with what I believe it a funky crud virus that was going around. Laid me up all day Friday, but I managed to get to the high school's Homecoming game Friday night...Cedar Park won, and the band performed after the game doing their entire show for this year's competitions...all I can say is WOW. It's quite a show! I love to watch the band perform. And Eric has so much fun.

I finished the shower gifts in plenty of time, but forgot to take photos...hoping the mom-to-be will take some for me to share here. Still working on another secret project that cannot be revealed until mid-November!

Joe turns 45 on Wednesday...why does that sound like such a round number to me? I am reminded on how far behind I am on cards...AGAIN. Sheesh. Hoping to fix that in the coming week.

So a little funny about coffee....realized this morning that my machine no longer works (I am now in the market, if anyone has suggestions!). Here's what happened one week ago:

That lovely Monday morning I went to make yummy coffee...Taste of San Antonio from HEB...realized the carafe of the coffee maker was dirty, so filled that with hot soapy water. When I smelled the coffee and didn't hear the maker running anymore, I skipped in for a big ole cuppa, only to find that the carafe was still in the sink, and the water had brewed into the filter container and spilled over onto the countertop. About 2 cups of nice, hot coffee all over the counter. I just stood there and laughed, and when I walked away (to get the camera out of my purse) Joe even said, "oh jeez, get the camera!" We think alike. Yep, it's for a scrapbook page entitled "not a morning person". Well, for that, and he can use a copy for the commitment hearing.

Yeah, nice Monday. So I let the machine rest for a week, hoping it would be okay. It's not. Snot.

We've been watching season 2 of The Office on DVD thanks to Netflix...holy cow that is some funny! Looking forward to Heroes season premiere tonight (we'll be watching it later off the DVR). I've managed to score some nicely bad movies on the DVR lately...including Plan 9 from Outer Space. It's the movie that Jerry, George and Elaine are trying to get to see on the Seinfeld episode in which they wait forever for the table in the chinese restaurant. Quoted by Jerry, "The worst movie ever made." I will let you know what I think....but my guess is that Bela Lugosi in a space movie will definitely place it in the running.

Here's a funny little article for you, from FemaleFirst.co.uk.....kind of the lousy, alternative ending of the Pina Colada Song:

A Bosnian couple are getting divorced after discovering they have been seducing each other online under fake identities.

Sana, 27, and Adnan Klaric, 32, began chatting on the internet - under the pseudonyms Sweetie and Prince of Joy - both pouring out their marriage troubles and declaring themselves soulmates.

But when they finally met up they had a nasty surprise.

They have now both filed for divorce - accusing each other of being unfaithful.

Sana said: "When I saw my husband there and it dawned on me what had happened I was shattered. I felt so betrayed."

Adnan said: " I still find it hard to believe the person who wrote such wonderful things, is actually the same woman I married and who has not said a nice word to me for years."

Later, gators!

Stick a fork in me...

2007-09-10T16:53:00.000-05:00

I am DONE!

And I think I need a life.

The photo project is complete. All that remains is to order hard copies as I need them.

{insert Happy Dance!}

Final number, for those keeping track: total images from those scanned off negatives and those digitals already on CDs.......

drumroll, please.....

7,536!

Guess that is why my left hand and wrist are sore. (For some reason I 'mouse' with my left hand on the laptop.)

These images are all on new CDs, under new categories, and contact sheets of each CD are printed & neatly tucked into page protectors in a 3 ring binder. Binders make me happy. Yeah, easy to please! You should have seen me giggle when I first used my P-Touch labelmaker. Simply giddy like a schoolgirl.

So while I have been attacking this project head-on, and obsessing about it....who made my house this dirty and messy?? Guess it's time to reclaim control over my house now!

Go, SuperKris!

have a great week!

I'm a poet, and didn't know it....

2007-09-06T09:17:00.000-05:00

I have a stie. In my eye.

It hurts, and it's swollen. Everyone feel sorry for me! Just kidding, but it does really hurt and looks icky. Hopefully it'll be better soon.

There's been no blogging because there's really not been any fodder.

I have a few knitting projects on the needles, but as they are 'secrets', I can't show them or talk about them until after they are done and given to the appropriate recipients.

Also, the photo project has reached a new level! Wahoo! The end is in sight!

I have now:

scanned the (over 5000!) negatives into digital format on the external hard drive.
organized those images into a new system of folder filings.
loaded existing digital images from CDs onto the external hard drive.
organized THOSE also into the new system.
moved images from the hard drive of the laptop to the external hard drive.
organized those also into the new system!
went through every digital image at this point, and rotated and/or retouched as needed using Film Factory.

After all this, I copied the newly filed photos in their folders onto new CDs to keep.

created a binder for these CDs, and will create contact sheets for the CDs to keep in the binder (once the black cartridge is replaced in our color printer)

And finally, I am uploading all of these images and folders to Scrapbookpictures.com for both storage and for printing at a future time.

Phew!

So while the kiddos are in school, I have been busy, but unfortunately it does not produce very tangible results. I'd really rather have tangible results.

Over the weekend I did have fun....Scrapbook Crossing, a local LSS, reopened with a VIP soft opening Friday night. Jackie, Amanda, Jeanne and I went, and I ate my weight in cold shrimp. I do love that stuff. (Jackie took the photo, so she's behind the camera.)

And on Saturday, two ScrapShare sisters (online friends from a message board) were travelling through here on their way to IKEA and home to San Antonio, so Jackie, Amanda, Jeanne, Alli (Austin area SS sisters) met up with Joanie and Diane. Amy was working at Archivers when we met up there.

Have a great day!

School started! Another year begins...

2007-08-28T21:15:00.000-05:00

I don't remember who blogged it, but I agree...September 1st should be New Year's Day. The start of a new academic year, fall is coming...all that stuff.

Don't you just love the smell of new school supplies? Ok, maybe it's just me. But I loved getting a new bookbag, new supplies, and reorganizing it all so many times. Sigh. The only stressers for me is the supply lists for the different kids. I don't like getting the lists after the first day of school...so much to get in so little time. And there's always something weird to find, too.

So here they are, yesterday morning, headed out the door: Eric is a sophomore this year!

Alex is an 8th grader, and Grace, my baby, is a 6th grader and starting middle school! Yikes.

I hope all of your 'First Days of School' went well. Here's to a great year!

Golden Joe strikes again.....

2007-08-28T17:52:00.000-05:00

So yesterday I managed to move a bunch of furniture around, including rearranging my white cubes and shelves in the room I scrap in. In order to make the fronts flush with the 5 shelf unit I have, the back of the 5 shelf does not touch the 2 walls in the corner.

While trying to put things away, my little penguin fell off a cube and into the few-inch gap between the cube/shelves and the 5 shelf. In trying to retrieve the penguin, with kitchen tongs of course, I leaned the 5 shelf back against the 2 walls for more clearance.

I didn't check to see if the top was clear of stuff when I leaned it back. It wasn't clear.

So as I rescue the penguin, I hear "ting ting" as something falls behind the 6 foot shelving unit. I just figured "I won't see that little pail for a long time!"

After Joe got home from work, I was explaining all I got done today, including the little comedy of dropping things behind things.

Joe to the rescue! He used PVC pipe and twine from the garage, adding a refridgerator magnet, and went fishing. Of course it was on top of my wheeled desk chair.

He couldn't get it. Hm.....Leaning over he sees it's not a little pail,, but rather a pink Naljean bottle. Magnet no work. Need the right bait for the right fish.

He removed the twine and magnet, and used the PVC to rescue my Naljean bottle!

Go Joe! Go Joe! Go Joe! (Oh, and he fixed my Adobe problem, too.)

Now you know why he's "Golden". Well, that, and when he need to change lanes, the traffic opens up like the Red Sea for Moses.

Magic Hands....

2007-08-22T17:16:00.000-05:00

The stats are in....

2007-08-20T13:59:00.001-05:00

I have completed the scanning! Wahoo!

Days working: 9
Average hours/day: 14

Total images scanned: 5779!!

Loaded CDs: 20

Est total number of negative strips (the scanner takes one strip at a time: 1646

Est money saved over have Target do this: $400!!!

I am so psyched! I have loaded the CDs onto an external hard drive. I am now in the process of moving images from the scattered and out of order CDs into folders that make sense to me. I have moved the OVER FIVE THOUSAND images into folders, and will be starting to load the CDs of digital images I already have into these same folders. (Right now the CDs I had done already are in chronological order, and I want to rearrange the images into folders that match the album categories I use now. Go NOW to read The Big Picture, by Stacy Julian. Seriously. Drop what you are doing and go GET.THIS.BOOK.AND.READ.IT. if you scrapbook. Or want to.)

Here's a little something I found...granted, the negatives are quite damaged, but still...Joe and I ready for his Senior Prom. Yep, that's white tails he has on. And I have VERY 1981 hair, complete with big bushy on one side, the other side pulled up tight in a barette with dangling feathers and beads on it! And yes, we are high school sweethearts!

Have a great week!

A blogger gone MIA....

2007-08-13T18:08:00.000-05:00

That’s me lately. You see, I have a project. A larger one than I first anticipated, but rewarding nonetheless.

While my parents are on a “once in a lifetime” vacation celebrating their 45th wedding anniversary, I have borrowed Dad’s negative scanner. I had about 2 shoeboxes filled with negatives (remember those things?), and really wanted them digital. Really.

So I set up a station at the coffee table with my laptop and the scanner, and set about the job. At first I estimated 2400 images. I thought that was pretty close. As of 6 pm on Monday, I am just over 2800 with a few days’ worth to go. I am scanning practically 12-15 hours a day. But it’s so fun to see all these old photos! I had forgotten all the pictures I took when the kids were little, before we went digital. ROLLS of possible Christmas cards. Sheesh. I’ve relived their births, parties, New Year’s celebrations over the years, and some bittersweet memories.

Even though I’ve been at the puter all day and night, I’ve avoided blogging as nothing else is really going on here…just scanning. I think I am becoming radioactive. And I believe I glow in the dark.

I do manage to knit in between inserting negative strips and clicking the ‘scan’ button. I finished a tote bag that needs felting. I am also using leftover Baby Cashmerino (from the granny square afghan) and am designing a wallet-like ‘thing’ to hold my Dave Ramsey cash envelopes in. My first foray into design. So far, so good!

I’m off for more scanning…..hope I return soon with more news!....

We're home again.....

2007-07-26T21:29:00.000-05:00

And finally catching up on things.

I meant to keep better stats than this, but I do have some to share:

Days away from home… about 30

Days relaxing on the boat and on the dunes…practically every day in Michigan, and not nearly enough!

When we left Silver Lake, we travelled via ferry across Lake Michigan to Milwaukee.

From there we drove to the Wisconsin Dells, to spend the night at the Great Wolf Lodge (with waterpark!). That was our surprise for the kiddos, and they were very happily surprised!

We then left for a weekend in Hudson with Joe's family, and celebrated his youngest brother's 40th birthday with the whole clan. Lots of fun, cousin time for the kids.

On the way back to Texas we were able to visit with my Aunt and cousin in Kansas City, which is always a treat.

Emails received …1064. Yikes! That took some time.

Books read/reread…. Too numerous to count. Probably around 8. I reread the first 2 of the Blossom Street series by Debbie Macomber, and read the newest, third book. Sweet stories. Got really hooked on Orson Scott Card (he wrote the Ender’s Game series): I’ve read Sarah, and Rachel and Leah, and am about to start Rebekah. His book Enchantment had me up way, way late at night to finish it.

Socks knitted…..4 pair, and one of those had 3 incarnations before I was happy with a pattern!

Yarns frustrated with….pretty much just the Koigu. The hanks are quite short, and I ran short twice, having to rip back into the leg to shorten the socks. On the second of the pair I ran short AGAIN, with about only 1 inch to go!, but there was enough left from sock #1 that I could add the inch I needed. I don’t think I’ll climb aboard the Koigu fan wagon. The Artyarns is one I just love, especially for the stitch definition. But the color changes in this colorway had me stumped for the right pattern. At least I loved the yarn, since I had to work it and rip back 3 times! I still need to take photos of the socks.

Yarn purchased….only 2 hanks! I bought it from Annie Goatly at the annual Pentwater Art Fair. She raises the goats and llamas, spins and dyes her own yarn. I love the pink and brown hanks I bought, and they have a planned future!

Photos nabbed from the inlaws for future albums ….2 full brown grocery sacks' worth. Yippee!

Podcasts listened to….Lime and Violet , Cast On , Pointy Sticks

The saddest part of the whole deal is not that I didn’t take enough photos (but clearly I didn’t. I don’t know why; I just didn’t take many photos this year).

It’s that somehow, in the process of running the photos through my Film Factory software to organize the photos and use the AutoRetouch, I must have used the AutoRetouch more than once. Most of the photos are what I would call ‘overpixelated,’ for lack of the proper term. I am really hoping that Jackie’s photos will suffice for scrapping for me! We plan to trade CDs of photos when they return to town.

Vacations are so wonderful, and we certainly needed this one, but it's great to be home in our own beds. And we really did miss the doggies.

So tell me, how was your July??

Giddy Up, Load 'em Up....

2007-06-24T20:04:00.001-05:00

It's packing time! Whee!

We are readying ourselves for our trek to Michigan. The kids and I in one car, Jackie and her kids in the other, caravaning for 3 days...the trip is half the fun! I'll be out of pocket for about a month, so no blogging...so I will leave you with the following entertainment, via YouTube. Enjoy!

Paul Potts, on Britain's Got Talent (yowza!):

A Little Bavaria from Blazing Saddles:

One of the funniest comedy moments on TV...the Mary Tyler Moore Show (episode: Chuckles Bites the Dust):

Something just to make you smile:

and finally, the Time Warp. This is a new stand tune for the high school band this year, so we really should learn the dance:

See you soon, we're off to the dunes! Ahhhhh.....

And now he has permission....

2007-06-19T17:04:00.000-05:00

Eric got his driving permit today! Joe took time off work to take him to the local DPS...and they waited 2 1/2 HOURS before being able to take the test. (Those of you in the Austin area know that this is not unusual, even for the Hyemeadow location.) But finally he had his turn, and passed the test!

So now we will be logging driving hours all over town and in Michigan.

Great job, Eric, I'm so proud of you!!

The countdown begins.....

2007-06-18T12:14:00.000-05:00

One week from today I will be on the road to Michigan. Jackie and I will again this year caravan our Suburbans with all 6 kids and her dog...three days, two hotels, and countless laughs and good times! The drive is such fun for everyone. So it's time to get some ducks in a row around here regarding the kids and I being gone, then Joe joining us for 10 days, etc. It's time for lists! yeah! I like lists. They are orderly. They help prioritize life and duties and chores. They show what is important, and others can get information without me being right there. I'm already packing the car in my brain, which is typical for me. I'm looking forward to the time to just read, lay around and relax. That's a vacation!

I finished the second pair of Monkey socks, using Artyarns Ultramerino4. Great yarn, fantastic stitch definition. Next up is Koigu, but I'm not sure of the pattern yet. I have 3 I am looking at, all Nancy Bush. Two are from Knitting Vintage Socks, one from Knitting on the Road.

Also I have lost, misplaced, or loaned out 3 books I want back to reread. I replaced 2 at Halfprice Books, thankfully, and will get the other somehow. I have #3 in the Debbie Macomber series about the yarn shop, so I want to reread The Shop on Blossom Street and A Good Yarn. (Still looking for A Good Yarn, will try the Halfprice over on Parmer this week). And I had read Promise, Texas but can't find it, so I was able to get a newer version that contains both Promise and another of Debbie's books. Although it's the Summer of Re-reading (so dubbed by moi), my next books will be by Francine Rivers. Check her out on Amazon by clicking on her name. Historical fiction of Bible characters. Cool.

Off today to spend time with my mom and dad, a day late for Father's Day. Joe's Father's Day was nice...lunch at Chuy's, golf on TV, and time for a nice drive around neighborhoods with just the two of us.

Later, dudes!

There's not nearly enough estrogen here...

2007-06-15T20:32:00.000-05:00

Grace has been at Camp Allen this week. Total fun: a week of camp, no parents, friends, bunkbeds, horseback riding....what could be better?

I took along a sock to work on as we waited in line for registration. Here's my dollface holding it:

But the house is so different without her here...I miss my girlie girl! We get to pick her up tomorrow morning, and I just can't wait to see her again. I just hope my little 11 year old hasn't grown up and is still my little girl for just a little while longer.

Ciao!

A week of the night owls....

2007-06-06T17:04:00.000-05:00

Joe and Alex are both morning people. They rise in the morning happy, energetic and ready to greet the day! Eric, Grace and I on the other hand, grump and growl like bears in the morning. Till noon really.

So with Joe and Alex off to Houston for a mission trip for the week, the three of us are up very late at night and rise around noonish. More ish than noon, really.

I did finish the granny square afghan, and here is my proof!

Specs: Mostly Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino, also used a bamboo for a dark purple replacement when the cashmerino ran out, and the sage is from Sublime. 10 rounds, blocked to 9 inches square. 48 squares total. After taking the photos I added one round of granny pattern in white around the outside edge to pull it together.

I had hoped to completely cover the king sized bed, with a drop as well. That just wasn't feasible. But I do like the dimension, 63 x 72, since it's a nice curl-up size and pretty much covers the duvet top up to the pillows on the bed.

To keep the pattern of colors random, I put the numbers 1 thru 5 in one baggie, and the color names in another and drew randomly for the color to use and how many rounds of it. Then after blocking the squares I laid them out to double check for the overall look.

I love it.

So then I needed something new to work on! I took my sock yarn stash to the LYS and wound it all up (and I took the granny, for show and tell and for the oohs and ahhs!):

With all that yumminess staring at me, what could I do? Of course, I cast on for Monkey, using the Claudia Handpainted in Blue Fields. Here is sock #1 and the start of #2:

That dark spot isn't on the sock. It's in the photo. Weird. Great pattern, and even though it's an 11 row repeat, it really wasn't hard to memorize. I used size 1 needles, with the called for cast on of 64 st. 6 repeats for the leg, 5 for the foot. And the yarn is a dream to work with.

On the medical front: I finally made my appointment with the gastroenterologist. He wanted to see another ultrasound of my liver to see if the 'nodule', which is probably a hematoma, has grown. And I get to have a lovely colonoscopy later this summer. I had the ultrasound today, so hopefully I will know something more by the end of the week. They are pretty quick about this.

I'm off to scrounge for dinner...we are eating at strange times around here, lately! Hope to get to the pool tomorrow. Splash!

The quick tour around the place I work in.....

2007-05-31T20:01:00.000-05:00

Not much going on here. I did finish the Granny Square afghan, but haven't decided if I am adding any more rounds to the whole thing or not. I have taken photos, just haven't loaded them up yet.

For now, here's a quick tour around my little happy place:

The Sizzix corner. Under the table is a rolling drawer thing that holds completed pages, waiting to go into albums, sorted by categories............

This is my happy wall...Target cubes on top of the shelving that Dad made for me for Christmas. embellishments are sorted by color. The top shelf of the 5-shelf unit holds sherbet glasses. In each are brads, eyelets, flowers, etc that are also by color. The things on top of everything, the decorations, are collected from various places......

My cardstock and paper are right behind me on the 5-shelf, also sorted by color. I have baskets for scraps I want to keep together (others are by color), for tags and word stickers, and for ink pads/chalk inks.

The window in the room. The 'valance' is 3 clearance dinner napkins from Target. The wooden blinds make a great place to hang ideas!

The desk I work at, from Target.com.

This is Grace's work area. The table is for her, as are the drawers under the TV. She is working on getting her own supplies organized, and loves my P-Touch! Do you like the framed TAB soda packaging on the wall? I love TAB.

Hmmmm.....maybe I need to go in there and spend some more time creating!

Later..........

As sung by Alice Cooper.....

2007-05-26T16:25:00.000-05:00

well, with a little help from the Muppets this time around, School's Out for Summer!

I just love the old Muppet Show. Here's the opening number:

And who could forget Pigs In Space, with Captain Link, Dr. Strangepork and Miss Piggy?

Just a little Muppet fun for your Saturday. We are off to a graduation Open House...the first of what will likely be many in the years to come, as our friends' kids (and ours, I guesss!) grow toward high school graduation.

Two more, and go read this.....

2007-05-24T22:09:00.000-05:00

More and more bloggers are doing the Seven/Eight Weird/Random Things list. Here are two more Joe and I came up with:

1. I can cross just one eye, leaving the other looking forward. Cool.

2. I can tie a marachino cherry stem into a knot in my mouth. Impressed the guys in college.

And go to Susie Davis' blog here, and read...great message about how very little time we have with our kiddos before they leave the nest!

Tomorrow is the last day of school! We all made it!

Later....

Wiping my eyes....

2007-05-22T21:29:00.000-05:00

We just finished watching the past 2 episodes of Heroes. I won't give anything away to those who haven't seen these shows yet, but suffice it to say that I did NOT want to see the sadness for that guy. Sniff. It will be a hard wait until the next season starts up!

School is finally winding down this week, and none too soon for us. Both band concerts were last week, and this week Grace has fifth grade festivities. We all had a hard time getting up this morning, even Alex, our morning boy!

Over at TwistedKnitter , Janet not only participated in a new meme that is going around, but is offering up a prize to those who also participate. Being a sucker for contests, I'm finally going to do a meme! (Remember when I said I would do the 'Six Weird Things About Me'? Yeah. I never did. I know. Maybe I just think that the weird things in me are normal.) This is easy, it's just Seven Random Things About Me. Consider yourself 'tagged' if you'd like!

1. I love to watch Court TV , especially COPS. There is something very satisfying to me in watching the bad guys get caught. That's my type of reality TV. I don't watch their recreation-like shows, like The Investigators, etc. I like the real thing. The other reality TV I like is the coverage of court trials on Court TV, the Animal Cops shows on Animal Planet. I have also been known to look up from my knitting when the Amazing Race is on.

2. I have my favorite movies just as anyone else does, but I think I am the only girl I know that really enjoys mobster movies with the F bomb in them. I don't drop the bomb myself. Well, not anymore! But for some reason there is so much real grit to those movies, and that bomb seems appropriate to the grit level. My short list: Godfather, Godfather Part 2, Casino, as well as Glengarry Glen Ross and The Usual Suspects.

3. Whenever possible, I will swim only in a chlorinated pool, not natural water. There are some creepy crawly things that live in natural bodies of water. There was a time when I loved to swim in the lake, and even opened my eyes underwater there. Now that thought just skeeves me right out. I will walk in the lake in Silver Lake. I will even swim in it if I needed to retrieve something. Given the choice, I am in a pool.

4. I have a thing about feet. I need to have clean feet when I get into bed. I don't mind walking in sand, or dirt. I just have to wash my feet before I get into bed. I gross out completely if someone has long or dirty toenails. There's a basic hygiene thing there for me.

5. My (cute, pink) ipod has more knitting podcasts on it than music. And I listen to the podcasts when I walk on the treadmill.

6. When I am sick I wander the house and whine incessantly. I am a horrible patient. On the very few occasions that I have been really, really sick (like with 104+degree fever and pneumonia) I will simply go lie down and sleep. If you see me do this, I am very, very sick. When the whining stops, call 911.

7. I totally love my signature...I developed it in school when I was bored. I must have been bored a lot, because I also made up a formula for determining the next square number in sequence, learned to write backwards & upside down. (I am left handed, and I think that helped with the backwards writing). I will have to take a photo of my signature and post it for you. You'll think it's cool too.

So what is your list???

Mudder's Day....

2007-05-16T07:36:00.000-05:00

Happy belated Mother's Day to the moms out there. it truly is 'the toughest job you'll ever love," isn't it?

My Mudder's Day was nicely quiet. (The thought of waiting for a table in any restaurant on a day like that just gives me the willies.) It was Youth Sunday at church, so the music for service was provided by the youth band, At His Feet, in which Eric plays electric guitar (tall blond, second one standing from the left side). Quite well, I might add! I love to watch them play together. Grace served as a greeter, usher, and on the prayer team. It's awesome to see the kids in service at the church!

{sweet kid story coming...}

To help encourage the kids on the prayer teams some of us went back after communion to ask for prayers. I asked that they pray for me to help me be a better mom to my kids. Grace piped up, "How could you be a better mom?" Yeah. There's a present I'll take every Mudder's Day!

I had a fabulous nap that afternoon (as did a number of us in the house), and Joe grilled delicious chicken for dinner.

Joe had visited his parents the previous week, so he took them some albums I made for them. Yesterday I visited with my mom and dad, and gave her the album I made for her, with photos from years ago to the present, including some from their 25th wedding anniversary party in 1987. It was so fun to put together and revisit those times.

Mom's been doing research on her family, thanks in great part to members of the family saving just about everything from Grandpa's army pay book and discharge notice (I have his old wallet and one he made in camp as a kid, even!) to greeting cards from relatives. The greeting cards provided jumping points for her further research into aunts/uncles, etc. The internet has so very much information, especially considering that there have been so misspellings on names and places.

We now know that my maternal grandmother's family originally came from a town just about 120 miles southwest of Minsk in what is now Belarus. This is so cool! I imagine some wild gypsy blood in me.

She's also researching her dad's side of the family now, and getting some good leads on tracking down information on her paternal grandfather's family.

This is just such a gift to me, my sister, and my own kids for the years to come.

"C" Things That I Love....

2007-05-12T10:57:00.000-05:00

Comfy and Cozy. I do love pajamas. If I can be in them by 5 I am thrilled. Old Navy Pajama pants with some kind of Tshirt, and the older the shirt the softer it is. Throw in a nice blanket and I am curled up for the evening!

Cap'n Crunch Cereal....specifically the Peanut Butter flavor. Just can't get enough.

Crossword Puzzles. Especially the Sunday one (Our paper carries the Los Angeles puzzle on Sundays). It's my Sunday afternoon habit. And I prefer using a red pen for some reason.

Crocheting. Before I started knitting a few years ago, I was a crocheter. I've been crocheting for probably 30 years now, primarily making baby blankets for nieces and nephews that were born. I've gone up a level now, and am working on a granny square blanket for myself out of Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino....mmmmm. So soft!

Coffee! I didn't used to like it, then I did. Then I tried a Latte and never looked back. Yep, my usual is the Venti Nonfat Latte with Sugarfree French Vanilla. And it's my weekly coffee date with the girls at Starbucks.

Cops and Court TV...Bad Boys, Bad Boys, I do love to watch the bad guys get caught. I'll add in To Catch a Predator in this list, too...it's that NBC show that catches the internet predators. Right now I am watching the Phil Spector trial out in LA on Court TV. And I'll watch reruns of Cops any time I can.

Casino. One of my very favorite movies. Just love Joe Pesci in it - he created such a great character. And Robert DeNiro? Nuff said. A great one. Sharon Stone as well, and even though his part was smaller, James Woods is also memorable. Who'd'a thunk that Don Rickles woulda been so good, too? Yep, a favorite. It goes with me to every weekend retreat.

Cropping. AKA scrapbooking. Creating pages of photos and written memories for my family and those I love. I'm sharing more and more of myself in my pages, and am really enjoying looking back at the photos of the kids when they were little, then writing about the qualities and character traits they possess.

Cookie dough!! Chocolate chip cookie dough, my own recipe. I realize I am tempting the fates, but I've been eating raw cookie dough for probably 35 years. I just love it. I've been known to, on more than a few occasions, to make up a batch of dough and never bake it into cookies. I just leave it in the fridge in a bowl with a spoon in it.

Just a few of the "C" things I love...

Ahhhhh...r...chivers.......

2007-05-10T19:58:00.000-05:00

Today was Cropping Day with the girls at Archiver's. so nice to be with friends, sharing, cropping, all the good stuff. It's my new weekly date!

We only have a few weeks of school left here, ending with a half-day on the 25th. I think this is the very first year that all three kids AND I are having Spring Fever about getting out of school. We can't wait! I guess that is a good thing, that it's taken this long to get to the "HOW many days of school are left???" And it just seems to get busier and busier, with concerts, marching band camp, band instrument interviews, finals, projects, field trips, field day, etc. Who am I kidding....there is no not-busy time of the year. It just changes during the year. Still.....when does summer start???

So as summer approaches, even with with a Mission trip for Joe and Alex, and camp for Grace (this means mega pool time for Eric and I!), I look forward to this:

The dunes of Silver Lake.

Sunset over Lake Michigan, in Pentwater.

I've been unfaithful to my LSS....

2007-05-07T17:43:00.000-05:00

(Local Scrapbook Store), and I'm not even trying to hide it.

As I posted previously, Archiver's opened here in Cedar Park. Just a few miles from my home. From my home! (hear that spoken a la Al Pacino in Godfather Part 2:

Michael Corleone: [Discussing the incident regarding the two unknown gunmen who fired through Michael's bedroom window earlier] In my home.

Frank Pentangeli: Michael, when I heard I almost died...

Michael Corleone: [Yells] IN MY HOME! IN MY BEDROOM! Where my wife sleeps... and my children play with their toys.

I ended up going back on Friday, and again on Saturday. Ya. Wow.

Saturday was really a 'field trip' from our all-day crop event celebrating National Scrapbook Day. Michelle and her mom of Scrapbook Escapes hosted it again, and it was really fun. Good food, good friends. Just what we girls want! I did get some pages, done, but not nearly what I wanted to. We did agree, though, that a bunch of us are going to meet at Archiver's on Thursdays to work on our stuff.

Grace had her interview with the band directors from the middle school last week. She really wanted to play the saxophone (she likes the reeds, so no triple threat of T-bones here), but she couldn't get enough air to get sound from it, so she'll be playing the clarinet. We are excited for her to start in band...it's been such a great thing for both of the boys.

With Joe travelling this week (various sites in North Dakota and Minnesota...allowing for a nice weekend visit with his parents), it's time to single parent here. That means interesting dinners and an earlier bedtime! (I'm no morning person, so I need the extra time to wake up and be civil, as well as cover the rides to the 3 schools by myself.)

So I will continue the stalking of Archiver's for now. It keeps me off the streets.

Home from stalking....

2007-05-03T11:35:00.000-05:00

Yippee, our Archiver's opened!! I've been driving by the storefront for a while now, slowing down as I pass to get a good look through the windows. I know I am not the only SUV that has been circling in that parking lot. Their Grand Opening is tomorrow, but I have a friend who has a friend who is working there, so we found out about the "super double secret" (no, not really) 'soft' opening today. They have so much there! And so many things the other stores have been out of for a long time. Oh, and the clearance! 25-75% off stuff already! I was there at 9, 30 minutes early, the first one. (One lady said she was there earlier, but must have left for coffee and come back so we won't count her. meh.) I was comfortable in my camping chair drinking a latte, enjoying the morning. Wish I'd had a photo of us all as we gathered at the door watching 9:30 draw near. Kim, Jackie and Terri were there with me, of course!

So many random thoughts running in my head, but I really need to take care of a few things before I blog again. I'll try to bring some cohesion to the randomness and return.

Until then....scrap on!

Happy Birthday, Zander Go!....

2007-04-26T12:34:00.000-05:00

Alex turns 13 today. Wow. he's so old all of a sudden! Here he is at a recent band concert. He's passed me in height, and is closing in on Eric. He's probably 5'10" now.
His annual ARD (meeting for Special Needs/Ed kids) went very, very well. He is right on course with his goals from this year, and we set goals for next year. I am excited for his 8th grade year next year!

Isn't he handsome? (sorry the photo isn't a closeup like I intended...Blogger hates me today.) And such a funny, funny guy! He comes up with something witty every day. This morning his remark was "let's grab a hold of reality and take it for a spin." Such a sense of humor!

Alex, Zander, Zander-Go-Berts, Boo, Bones....all nicknames I have for him. Poor guy answers to darn near everything...He has more nicknames than anyone I know! He's taught me more about joy, living life in the moment, how important hugs are, and unconditional love than I ever could have learned without him. He is truly a gift from God.

I love you Bones, and I am so proud of you!

Happy Anniversary, Baby....

2007-04-25T10:49:00.000-05:00

got you on my mind.....

Yeppers, today is the big TWO-OH for us. Married for TWENTY years. It sounds so long to the kids!

Truly, I can't believe how blessed I have been to have Joe not only in my life, but to be married to such a man! I love that we are growing closer every year, and that we have the same values and goals. Pretty incredible when you look at society as a whole.

We complete each others' sentences, can exchange a joke or remark in just a look, and have all of the same stories and inside jokes. I love the comfort we have.

Twenty years. Feels like forever. In a good way, right, honey??

wise words....

2007-04-23T19:44:00.000-05:00

This was just emailed to me from a friend...thanks, Jackie.

Anna Quindlen, Newsweek Columnist and Author:

All my babies are gone now. I say this not in sorrow but in disbelief. I take great satisfaction in what I have today: three almost-adults, two taller than I am, one closing in fast. Three people who read the same books I do and have learned not to be afraid of disagreeing with me in their opinion of them, who sometimes tell vulgar jokes that make me laugh until I choke and cry, who need razor blades and shower gel and privacy, who want to keep their doors closed more than I like. Who, miraculously, go to the bathroom, zip up their jackets and move food from plate to mouth all by themselves. Like the trick soap I bought for the bathroom with a rubber ducky at its center, the baby is buried deep within each, barely discernible except through the unreliable haze of the past.

Everything in all the books I once poured over is finished for me now. Penelope Leach., T. Berry Brazelton., Dr. Spock. The ones on sibling rivalry and sleeping through the night and early-childhood education, have all grown obsolete. Along with Goodnight Moon and Where the Wild Things Are, they are battered, spotted, well used. But I suspect that if you flipped the pages dust would rise like memories. What those books taught me, finally, and what the women on the playground taught me, and the well-meaning relations --what they taught me, was that they couldn't really teach me very much at all.

Raising children is presented at first as a true-false test, then becomes multiple choice, until finally, far along, you realize that it is an endless essay. No one knows anything. One child responds well to positive reinforcement, another can be managed only with a stern voice and a timeout. One child is toilet trained at 3, his sibling at 2.

When my first child was born, parents were told to put baby to bed on his belly so that he would not choke on his own spit-up. By the time my last arrived, babies were put down on their backs because of research on sudden infant death syndrome. To a new parent this ever-shifting certainty is terrifying, and then soothing. Eventually you must learn to trust yourself. Eventually the research will follow. I remember 15 years ago poring over one of Dr. Brazelton's wonderful books on child development, in which he describes three different sorts of infants: average, quiet, and active. I was looking for a sub-quiet codicil for an 18-month old who did not walk. Was there something wrong with his fat little legs? Was there something wrong with his tiny little mind? Was he developmentally delayed, physically challenged? Was I insane? Last year he went to China . Next year he goes to college. He can talk just fine. He can walk, too.

Every part of raising children is humbling, too. Believe me, mistakes were made. T hey have all been enshrined in the, "Remember-When- Mom-Did Hall of Fame." The outbursts, the temper tantrums, the bad language, mine, not theirs. The times the baby fell off the bed. The times I arrived late for preschool pickup. The nightmare sleepover. The horrible summer camp. The day when the youngest came barreling out of the classroom with a 98 on her geography test, and I responded, "What did you get wrong?". (She insisted I include that.) The time I ordered food at the McDonald's drive-through speaker and then drove away without picking it up from the window. (They all insisted I include that.) I did not allow them to watch the Simpsons for the first two seasons. What was I thinking?

But the biggest mistake I made is the one that most of us make while doing this. I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of the three of them, sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages 6, 4 and 1. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less.

Even today I'm not sure what worked and what didn't, what was me and what was simply life. When they were very small, I suppose I thought someday they would become who they were because of what I'd done. Now I suspect they simply grew into their true selves because they demanded in a thousand ways that I back off and let them be. The books said to be relaxed and I was often tense, matter-of-fact and I was sometimes over the top. And look how it all turned out. I wound up with the three people I like best in the world, who have done more than anyone to excavate my essential humanity. That's what the books never told me. I was bound and determined to learn from the experts. It just took me a while to figure out who the experts were.

Lists, lists, lists....

2007-04-22T21:26:00.000-05:00

I'm back from New Braufels! What a great retreat it was; we had so much fun! Lots of laughing, scrapping, eating, HobbyLobbying, chocolate-eating, jammie-wearing....all the good stuff. I got a TON of pages done, and feel quite accomplished. And I got to see some wonderfully creative women's work, and was very inspired.

But now it's time to sit down and make the To Do, To Call, To Remember and all the other lists I need for the week.

Back into the real world again tomorrow...yikes! Landry and ironing await! (Golden Joe did the boys' laundry for me before I got home today...what a great guy! Stacy, you can stalk him, but he comes home to me! lol!)

Have to remember to add "knit" to the To Do list.....yeah, that's the ticket...

Micromanager? Me? Maybe.....

2007-04-19T13:46:00.000-05:00

Tammy nailed it last night at our Bible study, during prayer requests. I was asking for prayers for this weekend, since I will be away (yes, again), and Joe will have a lot to schedule through without me. I realized it is a trust issue. It's not that I don't trust him...I just like to be here to help when there's all this going on around us. Thankfully, Mom and Dad are keeping Grace for the weekend, and they will all have a grand time together. So Tammy aptly prayed that I have peace in my heart so that I enjoy the weekend and not worry about trying to 'micromanage' my family! Thanks, Tam.

So Jackie and I are off to a scrapbook weekend, leaving in the morning. I have NO clue what I am going to work on, so it's all going with me. I will have to wander around and get inspired this time. At our Louisiana retreat I already knew that I was going to make mini albums for Alex and Grace (Eric already had one started), so I easily got those done plus some other 12x12 layouts. This time it's open season on the photos!

Now I am off to pack it all up, get my (overly comfy) clothes packed, get Alex's band concert clothing ready, make a list for Joe (because I just can't release all the control, dang it!), and all that.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Just another manic Monday.....

2007-04-15T21:16:00.000-05:00

whoa, whoa, whoa.....

Remember the Bangles? Yea, me too.

It seems lately that I am gone pretty much every weekend, but for really fun things. This past weekend was the Women's retreat for our church, out at the amazingly beautiful John Knox Ranch in the Hill Country outside Wimberly, Texas. We had gorgeous weather, including a thunderstorm Friday night (so cool to be out in the trees during a storm!). It was probably the very best women's retreat I've been to, also. The whole weekend was looking at women in the Bible to learn more about what God has in mind for us as women, and how to become more authentic. Awesome.

But coming back home is always a 're-entry' process back into the real world. So Sunday night I made another To Do list for the week, just to get myself back on track again. So far so good on the list...I'm pretty much in line with the goals there. Including working like crazy on something special for goodie bags for this coming weekend's scrapbooking retreat in New Braunfels. I'd show you a photo, but there is a slight chance that some who will be at the retreat might read here, and I want it to be a surprise. Sorry, Stacy!

This is kind of cool.....I found this on one of the many blogs that I frequent. (I wish I could find it again...I'd like to link it here. I had some links set up in a temporary Word document, but my computer hiccupped, and the document was lost into the cyberspace of lost data. If I find it again, I'll credit.) I thought it would be interesting, if only in that it would provide me at the end of the test a color strip that is supposed to represent my 'personality' according to the test results. I was thinking it might be a jumping-off point for a color series for my someday-to-be-completed Ripple Afghan. The test was interesting in its results, but I hadn't considered that the colors given by the computer would be from the tone range that font colors come from. If I do decide to use this as a color palette, I'll use shades of the colors, not the exact colors given. And if all else fails, there is always the Random Stripe Generator.

So here is my Personal DNA as a strip:

Respectful Architect

and here it is as a tile form (might make an interesting Log Cabin Afghan a la Mason Dixon Knitting):

Respectful Architect

I like the arrangement of the tiling, especially in the lower right corner. Let me know if you do the test...I'd love to see other results.

So with items completed such as reading for the book study (for tomorrow morning!), laundry, and vacuuming, I am done for the night. Ironing will have to wait for tomorrow, with the bathrooms. I have to have everything packed for the scrapbooking Thursday night, since we are leaving right away Friday morning, and I know I am pretty much bringing everything...I can't decide what to work on. When Jackie and I went to Louisiana I knew exactly what I would work on, and got it all done. For some reason I can't decide this time.

Meh.

So it's "Everybody in the boat!", meaning that I'll have to figure out how to cram it all into the half-of-a-Suburban that I'll have to work with. Who am I kidding? I'm excited about it, and can't wait!

Oh, just so you know, Ali's badge for Six Degrees DID make number one, and she got to talk to Kevin Bacon on the phone! Cool beans.

The Schnauzers are calling me to bed....off I go. I am truly at their back and call. At least when it comes to bedtime.

Toodles!

Retreat! Retreat! .....

2007-04-13T08:58:00.000-05:00

Or...

Serpentine! Serpentine! (If you haven't ever seen Red Dawn, you should. Great 80s movie about the cold war. Have your kids watch it too (mine love it) and then explain what the cold war was!

Off again this weekend, this time to a Women's Retreat with church. Looking forward to some reconnect time with my girlfriends, and some plain old quiet time away from the nagging sounds of the homemaking chores. The voices of the chores sure can get loud! I have to keep turning up the TV to drown them out.

Hope you all have a great weekend! Later, dudes!

Twenty Seven Years Ago today.....

2007-04-11T14:06:00.000-05:00

Yep, today is the anniversary of my first date with Joe. We were just babes! (well, 16 and 17). I love this man so much. Here are just 27 reasons, in no particular order:

He greets me on the phone with "Hello, baby" (like the Big Bopper) and a nerdy-sounding "Hello, dear." Just makes me smile.

When you ask how he's doing, the response is "Just dandy!" No one else I know says that, and you know what? He IS just dandy.

No matter how mad or sad someone is, he can always get a smile. And if you're mad, that's just frustrating, to be made to smile. I love that.

Joe is a FUN dad. Just plain F.U.N.

He is so stinking handsome.

He is a Godly man.

Joe is such a kid at heart...he's right in the mud with the best of them. Or chocolate syrup, or whatever the mess.

He encourages me in my interests, talents and hobbies. Even the ones he doesn't understand why anyone would enjoy!

He is a defender, protector and provider extraordinaire.

He appreciates all types of music, from classical to classic rock to country to jazz to the stuff Eric loves.

He has no problem being a full-time parent when I am away for the weekend, and loves being home with the kids.

He loves my extended family!

Joe has indescribable patience, with me, with the kids, with himself.

He has a real heart for the youth group he is working with right now.

Known as the Toddler Whisperer, he can calm the most fussy/irritable two-year-old.

He is able to have wonderful friendships with women, never crossing the line.

He is so faithful in his love for me and the kids.

Joe loves people and getting to know new people...everyone loves him!

He is a strong leader.

He lets me be in control of the remote control!

He is a great cook, and has no problem cooking dinner when he gets home from work if I'm not feeling well.

He has great self-control, especially when pursuing a goal.

He stays on the edge of advances in technology (and that means I don't have to.

Joe has the heart of a servant, and enjoys working with the Men's group at church in service to others.

He is sacrificial with his time, especially when it comes to being a leader with the Youth Group or in chaperoning for the schools.

He is enthusiastic about everything. It's an adventure.

He is a gentleman, with chivalrous manners, and hold high standards for young men, to grow them into real men.

I just love this man, and can't imagine the last 27 years without him. We've been through thick and thin, yum and ick together. And I love him more now than ever.

Babe, I just love ya. Sniff.

Home again, home again, jiggety jig.....

2007-04-08T21:55:00.000-05:00

Sister and I are home from a whirlwind weekend up to Kansas City and back. My aunt and cousin recently lost their dog to cancer, and since Moni's Holly needed a new home, it worked out very well for Holly to go live in KC. So Moni and I left Thursday afternoon with Holly and Tallulah in tow, getting in to KC Friday lunchtime. (One night in Blackwell, OK.) We had a wonderful day and a half visit complete with pajamas, mindless TV, magazine reading and only the yummiest of foods (read: Ben & Jerry's, egg rolls, pizza, etc!). Great, great visit. We drove home today, going straight through, in only 10 1/2 hours. It was also nice to have that much time for just the two of us together in the car. Many Barry Manilow songs and Broadway showtunes were sung at loud volume along the way, and of course the hand gestures and 'jazz hands' were also used for dramamtic emphasis.

So now it's time to get back into the groove of things for the week. I'll have to get a 'To Do' list started for this week. Totally enjoying the book study with Susie Davis. Looking forward to getting that part of the book read for Tuesday. Need to get BSF done too. Oh and there's that whole "home making" thing...cleaning, meals, etc. God Bless Joe for doing the boys' laundry for me before I got back into town! What a nice guy.

Hopefully this week will be less stressful emotionally...not stressful. Just tense. A few things brewing around here, nothing serious to be worried about. One thing kind of up in the air concerning helping out a family we are friends with during a trying time for them, and another is a personal relationship for me: a friendship that is currently very damaged, and I don't see a repair any time soon.

And next weekend I am off again for a Women's retreat with church. Joe is so understanding of all of this. Three weekends in a row, in one month, that I'll be out of town!

Resolved: eat healthy this week to detox from the car food!

No photos right now...4:15 came pretty durn early this morning. Hoping you had a Blessed Easter! Nighty night....

Rain, rain, all day.....

2007-03-30T19:36:00.000-05:00

and pretty much all week. But I don't mind. The dogs and I are having fun. And this weekend should be a great one for bluebonnets. I'm hoping we can get out to Llano to see the bluebonnet fields, and maybe even the bald eagles that have taken up residence out there for a few years! That would be so cool.

I came across a new blog to stalk, by Susie Davis. I will be attending a book club in April that she is holding based on a recent book of hers, and I am really looking forward to it. Here's a bit that I just love from her blog:

Getting rid of the unnecessary can really invigorate your outlook on life. And I’m not just talking about dumping that stuff in your over packed closet, I’m talking about freshening your viewpoint from the inside out. Because the truth is that there are tons of little things that can clutter your personal perspective and every once in a while, it’s a great idea to assess your life and get rid of the thought patterns that are holding you back. Negative things, like failing to give yourself a break when you mess up. Or always expecting the worst in life. Or even counter productive self talk. That’s just the kind of pessimistic thinking that is going to bog down your life and make you feel tired.

Wow, huh?

Along the same vein as clearing up clutter (I do so love the organizing stuff!), check out this article from the April Real Simple: Declutter Your Mind and Think Clearly. Great ideas on clearing out the clutter in our minds....making life easier and more fun!

On the knitting front (well, and now crochet, too!), I have swatched for both blankets that I would like to do next. The ripple and the Granny Square. I really do hate to swatch. But since I have no idea how much yarn I'll need, I really did need to swatch up a piece for both. For me, these are not the stash-busting projects that most of the crocheters are able to use them for. Since I pretty much have been doing socks, that's all I have in the 'stashola.' And there is NO way I could make a throw or blanket out of yarn that fine...it would take forever. So now it's time to go start collecting up skeins as I need them. No need to drop a wad of cash that large in one sitting without a sale at the the yarn store!

The Six Degrees competition/contest ends tomorrow at midnight, and Ali's badge for Austism Speaks is still holding at number one...I really hope she ends at number one. It's amazing to see how connected we all really are, and the power of the internet to bring people together for such very worth causes.

More later, now that Golden Joe had fixed my lazy computer! I do love that man.

And here's a little funny that really got me....so very true!

Catching up...again...

2007-03-24T12:42:00.000-05:00

I didn't get to blogging last night. I had a better offer.

I have "Wuthering Heights" on the DVR...the version with Lawrence Olivier and Merle Oberon. Grace asked to watch it with me! What a treat. We curled up together on the bed and watched about the first half, and will finish up today or tonight. I love that she still wants to 'camp out' with me when Joe is away, even at 11 years old. (Joe and Eric are enjoying a weekend retreat with the church youth group, so it's Alex, Grace and I.)

So here's what I have been saving up to share:

Are you watching the "Six Degrees" contributions I mentioned earlier? Ali Edwards' button is at the top right now, over all others! The top 6 will get matching contributions, up to $10,000, to their charity. Ali's is Autism Speaks, in honor of her cute-as-a-bug son Simon. The contest ends March 31st, and the minimum donation is only $10! Consider a contribution. Click on her name here to get to her blog, where you'll find her button and more information.

Another blog I just adore is Alicia's. She makes the cutest things, and if you look through her archives you'll see her survival story after a freak accident. Alicia brought back my love for crochet, and from her blog I found both the No End in Sight Ripple-Along, and the Granny-Along. This time when I do these, it's going to be with the 'good stuff'....nice, yummy yarns. Check out the '-alongs' to see some great work. And in the entry I linked to (by clicking on her name) you'll see the next thing I really need to do....there are some scary condiments in that fridge door.

I met Jennifer after having read her blog for a while, so when I spotted her in our LSS (Scrapbook Crossing), I was sort of a crazed fan. She shares a quote with pretty much every blog entry, which I find quite admirable. This was one that really struck me:

"Blessed are those who can give without remembering and take without forgetting."

- Elizabeth Bibesco

And here's a blog that's just plain fun. It's called Threadbared.....warning, though....it may take you back to those Saturday mornings that your mom dragged you to the dreaded fabric store, in which you spent hours trying desperately to amuse yourself with pattern books while she shopped for fabric and patterns, notions, and sundries. Click at your own risk, and be prepared for giggles!

It's a weekend of March Madness here, so I'd best be off to watch the hoops! Have a great weekend!

On a roll, baby!....

2007-03-23T16:22:00.000-05:00

I was going through my rather lengthy list of knitting blogs that I read this afternoon, compiling itmes for a new (and quite belated) blog entry here.

On Knitting in Pink (how could I not love that blog name?), Valerie was offering up a choice of sock yarn to her 500th commenter. Well, we are learning that sock yarn is a bit of a vice for me, so of course I left a comment. I wrote "Oh, those are so gorgeous!Dangle that lovely sock yarn in front of me, and I'll follow it like a horse follows a carrot....with a dazed, glowing look on my face and drooling slightly, murmuring 'mmmm....sock yarn......' a la Homer Simpson."

Within a few minutes, I received an email that I won! How stinking cool is that? I chose the Snow Patrol colorway from cheeky Monkey. It reminds me of the winter days as a kid in Wisconsin, playing in the snow until our snowmobile suits were soaked through to the skin.

Anyway, I have to run again, but still have more to say, so I'll
try to blog again tonight!

Ciao!

No need to beware the Ides....

2007-03-15T19:51:00.000-05:00

I don't know anyone named Brutus. But 'Happy Ides of March' anyway.

Did you know that yesteday was "Pi Day?" Neither did I. But it's a cool thing anyway! Math geeks unite.

So, yes, Eric made it home fine, and in fact sounded much better upon return than he did earlier. In fact they got into town a few hours earlier than expected! So nice to have him home again. So after a nice, hot shower, he was right back on the computer, AIMing with friends and playing games. And he picked dinner tonight...stroganoff. I do make a mean strogaoff. Recipe? Sure...if this qualifies for a recipe:

1# sirloin, cut into small bite size pieces

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 16 oz container sour cream (the 'light' doesn't melt well, fyi. use the real stuff)

1 # penne pasta

Cook sirloin pieces in skillet, season as you like (I use salt, pepper, garlic powder and onion flakes). Meanwhile cook pasta al dente and drain.

When meat is cooked, lower heat to simmer. Add soup, then add sour cream. Heat together well. Stir in pasta.

Ya. That's it. Eezie peezie.

So over on Ali's blog, she issued a nice little challenge. Go there. Cool idea, to catch the everyday. Even if you aren't making scrapbooks (and if that's true, why aren't you? tee hee), you should think about writing down everyday things for those who come after us. Think about what you wish you knew about your great grandparents' everyday life. Things have changed so much in different lifetimes...our own, our parents' our grandparents', shoot even our kids' lifetimes! Our kids have probably never had to get up to change the TV channel (and there were only the 3 broadcast and the one PBS station, right?), not had a computer, used a typewriter or rotary phone, etc. There are email lists that circulate with all those lists. Ok, off my soapbox. But seriously, think about that. Leave your mark. Record your life.

Here's an early Happy St. Paddy's Day to you all as well. With not a drop of Irish blood in me, I am sure that I'll forget by Saturday. I'll try to remember to play some of my beloved Irish Rovers music though, sometime this weekend. Really, I fell in love with these guys when I heard my Mom play The Unicorn for the first time No one sings it like them. (Did you know that the song was written by Shel Silverstein? Me either.) Go here to listen to a few of their numbers.

If you are looking for me, I am either trying to finish the cleanup in my workroom or watching March Madness. (Smart better will place their chips on the latter).

Toodles!

Good knitting news! Not so good kid news....

2007-03-13T19:43:00.000-05:00

The new Knitty is up!! Look here. The Tahoe cardigan looks so comfy. And Holy Cow... the Queen of Cups pattern for socks is a must knit!

Now if I only had my April issue of Creating Keepsakes. I hae a subscription, which I realize does not entitle me to receive it in the mail before the newsstands (only that I pay a whole lot less per year by subscription), but dang, it's already online! I need some reading material.

Eric called from the homebound bus. They made his bus, bus A of the three, into the 'sick bus'. Not everyone is sick, but apparently one of the kids went on the trip ill. Thanks, man. Now there's a bunch of kids feeling punky. One of Eric's friends even spent a park day in the hotel instead. So most of his friends were moved to bus B to make room for sickies on bus A, and he ended up sitting with a chaperone. Ya. And then he called again to let me know that he's running a low grade fever. Poor dude. I told him just sleep as much as you can (and sitting with a chaperone is even more incentive to turn on the Ipod!). At least he is calling, and I appreciate his thoughtfulness in that regard. I hope to get him well during the rest of Spring Break, since we'll have a few days yet after he gets home.

It'll be nice to have him home again. Miss this dude.

Spring Cleaning....feels like Christmas....

2007-03-12T13:23:00.000-05:00

It's Spring Break this week around here. Eric is still in Orlando, having the time of his life. We hear from him at least once a day, usually a text message, and they are really enjoying themselves. They did DisneyWorld (and their marching in the parade) on Saturday, Sunday was MGM Studios, and today is Universal Studios and Epcot center. They really have no down time at all! What a blast.

Grace and I decided to get some cleaning and organizing done. She is working on her room, as part of a deal for a Nintendo DS Lite, and I am covering the rest of the house. But mostly I am working on our little 'workroom.' It's a matter of unpacking from the Louisiana retreat, and putting everything back into the room into some semblance of order.

In the midst of cleaning I found a Christmas gift for my Mom that I forgot to give her! Sheesh. So typically me. Mom, if you are reading this, I am sorry! And I'll get it to you soon!

Alex is off conquering the world on the computer (I believe it's Yuri's Revenge he's playing right now), with the given that he will also put some time in cleaning later on.

We had a wonderful, eight hour long rain last night. So nice to sleep in snuggly covers with the sound of a thunderstorm outside! We have some sun now, and the rain will pick up again soon. We need it so badly...Lake Travis went up 3 feet from this last rain, but it's still 30+ feet below full level. The rain will make the trees bloom even more (oh, how I love it when the redbuds start blooming!), especially our backyard peach tree, and hopefully the bluebonnets will have a good year.

Time to get cleaning again....and the chuck roast in the crock pot smells so good!!!

Living on the edge? I don't like it....

2007-03-09T08:51:00.000-06:00

Weird day Thursday.

It started when I pulled the milk from the fridge for the kids' cereal. There was a bit left in the front container....I checked the date. February 28. Yargo. Thankfully no one got sick! Moved right along to milk gallon number 2!

Since getting home from the Louisiana retreat, I've been watching the gas gauge...my car has the 'range' feature, then after about 25 miles left it just says 'low.' It was on low for a while, but I've done that before. After Alex got his lower braces put on in the morning, my plan was to drop him at school (appropriately medicated with Advil), pick up Jackie, fill up the tank, and head to Scrapbook Crossing and Michaels. We need to start replenishing adhesives in anticipation of the April retreat. At least when we have a coupon! As I turned out of the school after dropping Alex, the car shut off. Just shut off. Right in the left turn lane. At first I thought it was the battery. Nope, windows still worked.

I ran my car out of gas. Plum out. Past the 'I'm driving on fumes' phase. Dry as a bone.

My rescuer? A knight on a white steed? Nope.

It was Jackie. A good friend in a white Suburban. (Apparently this is also the unofficial car of Cedar Park we have decided. We both drive one, along with about a kajillion other women in Cedar Park.) She ran to the gas station, bought a gas can and filled it. While we played "Lucy and Ethel put gas in the car", we realized that these newfangled gas cans are complicated. We couldn't get it figgered out! Thankfully a man drove by, and helped us figure out the configuation of the can and nozzles. Sheesh. I was so thankful to him, and felt like such an idiot. They really should put directions on the outside of the gas can, so women can put all those pieces together.

Later in the day, Joe's car didn't start! So I got to jumpstart him in a parking lot near the middle school.

Adventures all around.

In the middle of all that, in the afternoon, we saw Eric and the marching band off on their trip to Orlando. Joe and I went to the school with some other parents, watched the kids load up on the busses (nice busses!), and they left for a week. They are driving straight through, 22 hours. He called last night to check in and say hi, and that their dinner at the Luby's in Houston was good...I love Luby's too. They are going to have so much fun, but it is hard to send off your baby for a week! How did my parents handle putting me on a PLANE, to GERMANY, for TWO WEEKS?? I was only 16 at the time. Before cell phones, emails, all that. Man, they were brave. And I am thankful: I had a blast, and it was a once in a lifetime experience. I hope the same for Eric. And I'll be excited to see him again Wednesday night.

The kids are on Spring Break next week, and we are looking forward to it. No specific plans, and that's okay....we'll have spontaneous fun.

Ta ta and toodles!

What a whirlwind weekend...

2007-03-05T18:57:00.000-06:00

Jackie and I got back into town around dinner Sunday, after our fun-filled scrapbook retreat in Louisiana. Somehow we got home in one hour less than it took to get there...weird.

So we left Friday morning, and arrived at beautiful Lake D'Arbonne State Park near Farmerville, LA (just east of Shreveport). What gorgeous country! And the state park has lovely cottages and lodges that we stayed in .....

...12 women, 4 bedrooms, with a large common room (usually a living room) with a full kitchen. We had plenty of room to work. Our lodge was right on the lake...here's a photo of our view:

Yeah, just amazing.

I met wonderful women (you know, the axe murderers you meet from the internet), and a great gift from two of the ladies was that they gathered up everyone's memory cards from their cameras on Saturday night, and made photo CDs for everyone to leave with. What a great idea! So nice to get a copy of everyone else's photos, and right away. What did we ever do before digital???

I got a LOT done. I made a 6x6 album for Alex and another for Grace, and about 7 12x12 pages. And in the middle of all that I ate great food, laughed, talked, laughed some more, and even managed to sleep a little bit.

Here I am working....

.....and I brought quite a bit of paper....here's one of the containers on Bazzill I brought....

I did realize how old I am now...I was so tired when I got home! And I felt all the lifting/packing/unpacking in my back today. So, since the dogs insisted that I spend the day with them (they missed me so very much), I spent the day relaxing and resting up. And in April we are off again, this time to New Braufels! Can't wait. I love me some retreat.

AndI have to share this with y'all....I called Joe at work to bring home something easy from the store for dinner, like our favorite Chicken Voila (Bird's Eye brand, Garlic Chicken flavor...so so good!). Instead he brought home pork chops and stuffing, and grilled dinner while I slugged on the couch! Kudos to Joe, he's a good man. He sees how much the time away with girls means to me. As Lily von Shtupp would say, "I feel wefweshed."

So tomorrow it's back to the regular life, which will include the first-of-the-month trip to Target for food and shtuff, and getting supplies for Eric's Spring Break trip. The High School band is taking a bus to Orlando, to play in a parade at Disney World and see some parks. It feels weird to be getting my (still can't believe he is this old!) 15 year old ready for a week away that isn't camp! Yikes, I hope I make it. He'll have so much stinking fun, though.

So I am off to help with 5th grade math (Yes, I do hope that I am smarter than a 5th grader...what a hilarious idea for a show!) and get back into the groove. I wonder if I should unpack from this retreat or just leave it all nicely packed for April 22? Hmm......

Random musings....

2007-02-28T21:20:00.000-06:00

Haven't blogged in a while, and it's not because nothing's been goin' on. Lots has. Life has. Just haven't sat down to blog.

Went to Hill Country Weavers last week. (See, I got downtown way early for a haircut, and I've never been to HCW before, and it's on South Congress, which I never get to, so I drove down South Congress, and found the crack house that is HCW, and discovered I am an addict.) Yeah, I was bad. Way bad. Evidence:

What you see: brown Regia (socks for Joe, maybe gloves!), patterned Regia (currently becoming my first pair of mittens, for Joe...and these were on sale!), some Koigu for Joe in an amazing black/grey colorway, Austermann Stepp socks (these are already done, in this photo they were only one sock and the start of #2), another Austermann, then the lovely second row, all for me! ....Koigu! Koigu! And 2 colorways of Claudia....I've not knit with either the Koigu or the Claudia, but I am excited to start. Grumperina lauds the Koigu.

Grace's birthday party finally happened...bowling at Main Event. Fun was had by all!

I am off this weekend to Farmerville Louisiana, with Jackie, for a scrapping retreat. It's gonna be nice to get away for a bit, and spend time with just the girls. It's a group from ScrapShare, and I am really looking forward to it. A 7+ hour drive, but it'll be worth it. We girls just seem to need the time with other girls, don't we?

So with that, I will see y'all later. Ciao!

But they were burning a hole in my purse....

2007-02-19T14:17:00.000-06:00

see, I get the ad for Michaels early. When there will be an ad in the Sunday paper, I get the ad in my Wednesday junk mail the week prior. And then I also get it in the Sunday paper. It's nice to know what will be on sale, you know....for planning purposes. Planning is good. Very good.

Today is Presidents' Day, and although the kiddos still have school, Michaels finds it in their corporate hearts to have sales on holidays. The ad contained one coupon valid Sunday and Monday only for 50% off any one item, as well as a 40% off coupon valid the rest of the week. So I had TWO coupons for 50% off, that are, no were, in my purse.

Scrapbook Crossing honors Michaels coupons on Mondays only.

What's a girl to do? Head out to the store! After all, I have two scrapbooking retreats coming up, so I can at least stock up on adhesive refills at 50% off. I like the Hermafix dotto repositionable. And the Xyron Cheetah.

Since I plan on completing a 6x6 album for both Alex and Grace, I picked up the albums themselves (using one of the coupons. They only let you use one per person. feh.). And a few little things I knew I'd use. Then I stopped by Michaels (hey, I still had that other 50% off coupon, and at least there's adhesive, right?). I ended up getting a few little things, yes including the dotto refill and some word stickers for pages a la Ali Edwards....and got the Fiskars craft drill. Hey, it was a FIFTY PERCENT OFF coupon, people! Can't beat that with a stick. And now I can drill through the chipboard I have for mini albums.

And get this: I still have the 2 40% off coupons for Michaels for the rest of the week, 2 40% off coupons for Hobby Lobby (one from the paper and one from the website), and a 30% off coupon for Scrapbook Crossing! Appears I'll be having another field trip this week, over to the Hobby Lobby on Lamar.

Sigh. Such work, this saving money.

Can I get credit for the 4 of 5 laudry loads I have done, the clean carpet I have, and the dinner planned already? Please? Thanks.

FPU rocks!

2007-02-16T15:25:00.000-06:00

We've been doing the Dave Ramsey thing since this past fall. We took Financial Peace University at Hill Country Bible Church, and have been rocking the bills. It's awesome. We've been on cash only since September...no credit cards anymore! I got an email from Joe today that we hit another milestone in our plan, and we are so very psyched! We've set another timeline goal, and it's an aggresive one. Give Dave a listen online, or get his book. Even better, take FPU or see him in person! Like he says, Live like no one else, so later you can live like no one else.

On the knitting front, I picked up the new Interweave Knits Spring 2007. Check out those patterns! Too many that I like. Which? Well, the Green Tea Raglan, the Dollar and a Half Cardigan, the Cable-Down Raglan (check out the shaping with the cables!), and the Ruffled Surplice. Just gorgeous. So now to calculate which gets to be made first, by checking out yarn prices on the recommended weights. Might have to make my first order via KnitPicks (they have great prices on yarns).

Also, I have reached critical mass!! Or maybe the lack thereof....like a black hole. I am currently on the toe decrease of sock #1....on the last skein of sock yarn in the hizzouse! Quite scary. I have no sock yarn stash! I do have a WIP (work in progress) that I can work on...and I really need to get it done. It's the unravelled yarn from two, yes TWO, attempts at a sweater from....cough cough.....a long time ago. It's current incarnation is a vest, from Knitty. But still....to have no stash. I'm nearly frightened enough to put off the completion of the socks, so that I don't end up without something to carry around! I seem to have a sock going with me wherever I go now, and I like it.

We'll be busy this weekend with a Faith Alive event at church. I'm looking forward to it; it's been 10 years since our last one, and it was amazing then. Anticipating a great weekend. So I may not be 'seeing' you for a bit....take care!

Happy Birthday, Gracie-girl...

2007-02-15T19:36:00.000-06:00

Eleven years old, today. And I remember it so well! When you were born, your face was just so 'girlie'....so different from your brothers'. My birthday wish for you is health, happiness, and love. We love you so much!

Catching some rays on the boat in Silver Lake.

Riding in the car, three days from Texas to Michigan. Great fun!

A girl after my own heart...Blue Bell right out of the container!

Oh, and since Blogger doesn't like the size of the photo of Joe in the alps, here's one Jackie took last year in Silver Lake, on the boat, of Joe and I. Vacation Hair is not my best look, but the photo does show how stinking happy we are!

Off to have ice cream with the birthday girl......

Happy "Van Allen-tine's" Day....

2007-02-14T20:23:00.000-06:00

Just love to say that.

We don't do anything for Valentine's Day. Not even cards. I'd rather have the $ from the card for a latte, to be quite honest. And no flowers. If anything, Joe can get me a plant (the flowers just die, and it's not rose season. Well, tulips are my fave, so that is nice if he does that). But still, no biggie. When I was at Target this week I grabbed a bag of Dove chocolates, and told him he got them for me. I'm happy! I tell Joe he can brag to his friends at work that he gets off easy for holidays, even our anniversary.

So we are dog sitting for my sister for a few days, with her new Great Pyrenees. She's adorable, and named Holly. Well, Merry Holly to be exact (she got Holly from a shelter over Christmas break). so I have four dogs, and couldn't be happier. She's just precious. I even got her up on the couch with me tonight...she thinks she's a lap dog.

And later I got the other 3 up on the couch with me. Pardon the Winnie the Pooh jammies and the lovely no-makeup look...it's after 5 and that's what you get here.

Tomorrow my baby turns 11. Yes, ELEVEN. Wow. I'll have lunch with her at school, but her party won't be until next weekend, due to a very busy weekend already at church. The current plan is to take some of her friends to go see Bridge to Terabithia friday night, then cake and ice cream. Grace is my little valentine, one day late. (It's a busy month for birthdays: yesterday was my dad's, today is my mother-in-law's, and my mom's is the 28th!)

So Happy Van Allentine's Day...I hope you know how much you are loved! I surely do. Here's my honey, Joe, in the Alps a few years ago. Love you, babe! We're closing in on TWENTY YEARS, and I can't imagine itwithout you. {{ugh....blogger hates me and won't let me upload the photo. I'll try again later.}}

Back in the saddle again....

2007-02-12T14:06:00.000-06:00

Ah, I am finally on the mend! The coughing has subsided, so I am trying to catch up from being out of commission for a week. Dang the house can get dirty! Did a giant trip to Target today...success! I took an inventory of the meats I had in the freezer, wrote up meals for each, and came up with a shopping list for those meals and the necessities of every month. And shoot, with coupons galore I was able to save $11.90! I was pumped. Can you believe that? And I didn't use to clip coupons.

The Grammy awards last night got us in a music mood again. The Police opening the show was fantastic...love those guys. Carrie Underwood and Rascal Flatts did a great tribute to the Eagles. Happy to see the Dixie Chicks win awards (sorry Jackie! not really, though), I just love their sassiness. And the songwriting of theirs is good too. I don't have a good memory anymore, but thanks to the movie Jezebel, I do remember that it was Voltaire who famously said, "I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it". (great flick, and I love Bette Davis as the spoiled southern belle Julie). And can I just say that Blades of Glory, the newest Will Ferrell movie, looks so, so funny? It reminds me of the bit from SNL, years ago, about the brothers who are syncronized swimmers, and have Christopher Guest as their 'over the top' coach, with Martin Short as the brother who can't swim. Dang funny. Click and enjoy a good laugh.

Hoping to get caught up today, so I am off to clean some more. Later dudes...

There is cheese available to go with this whine....

2007-02-09T08:16:00.000-06:00

Shoot, I am from Wisconsin...there is always cheese available.

Man, I am a horrible patient. So whiney. Cripes. Still feeling icky, but at least my voice is back. I was all over the place from the Peter Brady cracking voice to the Suzanne Pleschett husky voice.

I did get out yesterday, and got to play with my best friend! Jackie and I went to Scrapbook Crossing, to see if they were getting CHA winter releases yet, and they've already started to arrive! We stopped at the Railyard Grill for lunch...hadn't been there in a while, and they make great sandwiches. I couldn't believe how good it tasted: I had a ham & turkey club, and get this...I ate the tomato! If you didn't know, I really dislike raw tomatoes..love 'em cooked. but I've been getting into them lately on sandwiches, but even more so on bruschetta. Antioxidents, yippee!

On another note: yep I called it. Kudos to me! We finally got around to watching Heroes, in fact we watched 2 in a row which is of course way, way better. I guessed who Claire's daddy is! Can't wait to see how this all plays out. Know what gets me though? The woman who portrays Nathan's wife (in the wheelchair) on Heroes also plays Graem's wife on 24. There goes my ability to consider Heroes as reality TV. Dang. Still, without that little revelation with Claire, and Skylar getting loose, these episodes were a little slow for me. I wanna know who is Linderman??? Hopefully soon that will all tie in also.

Hoping for more good college basketball tonight....

Superbowl Fever...

2007-02-05T10:22:00.000-06:00

I got to watch the game by myself last night. Joe and the boys were at a Superbowl Party for the Youth Group and Grace was enjoying playing in her room after 2 nights of sleepovers at a friend's house.

The first quarter was far more exciting than the rest of the game, but the high number of turnovers did keep me looking back up from my knitting.

And the halftime show....Prince....what more can you say? I though his voice was better now than 20 years ago, and loved that he mixed all the Purple Rain music in with some Tina Turner, Hendrix and Foo Fighters ('course, Eric was the one to point out Foo...he's so good with music). Love me the old Prince. We realized later that we have his 1999 on CD now, but the Purple Rain soundtrack is still in the LPs. Gotta get that on CD too. Great workout music, eh?

The only bummer was that my voice is going, and I started running a little fever. It's weird for me to run a fever, since I typically run only about 97 degrees (does that mean I'm cold blooded?). There was a time that I considered tossing the kids in the car for a little getaway during their school break, just to get outta Dodge, but then Alex had a band clinic scheduled during the break. In retrospect, good call. Wouldn't wanna be driving all day with a fever.

So although the weather is amazing, I'm inside whining. I'm so thankful that the kids are all old enough to feed themselves, play outside, do homework, etc. And the schnauzers are more than happy to make sure I stay put on the couch today. Maybe I'll get sock #2 done today in between Advils.

Signing off with a whiney sigh...

Ah, holiday....

2007-02-03T18:57:00.000-06:00

Yeppers, the kids are off school for 3 days next week; our school district is the only one in the area that does this 'clumping' of inservice days into a long weekend, but I sure do like it. And I know that the kids are ready for a few days off. Even if Eric did get loaded down with homework. Ick.

I am hoping that I feel better soon...I just woke up this morning feeling cruddy. It's probably just a simple cold or allergies. Not much accomplished today other than knitting, coughing and clearing of the throat.

I did get socks finished for Joe. I used Austermann Step, the one with the Aloe and Jojoba in it. The yarn is so soft to work with, and he says they are very comfortable. And the cool thing is that even though I didn't pay attention to where I cast on in the color change sequence, assuming I would just get some 'fraternal twin' socks, they ended up being pretty much identical twins! Cool beans.

Yes, they are the same length, they just aren't pulled up to the same height on the legs. I used a K2, P2 rib at the top and a simple K6 P1 around the leg and down the top of the foot. That's with a cast on of 56. I liked this because it was just a little more snug than plain stockinette on the leg but nothing really fancy. I'll do this again, for sure.

So in a previous post I was talking about yarns, and some issues I ran into, but was unable to post photos. Evidently I can post photos again, so here is what I was talking about with the Vesper Yarns...Here is one of the joining knots I encountered in the skeins:

And here is an example of the white spots within a color:

So, yeah, not really excited about all that.

Go check out Ali Edwards' blog (click on her nake in my sidebar) to see how she's now raising money for Autism Awareness. Kevin Bacon has a deal he's doing with matching funds, and it's called Six Degrees. You know that old 'Kevin Bacon game'? I just love it when celebs are able to laugh at themselves. And the fact that he's doing it with philanthropy just makes me smile.

There's a meme going around asking for a list of six weird things about yourself. I can think of a couple, but really, aren't we all a little weird? I'll see if I can come up with just six to share in a future post.

It's time for more Tylenol and perhaps an early bedtime tonight. I'm not a very good patient. I get pretty whiney. It's best I just go to bed!

Later, dudes...

Holding out for a Hero....

2007-01-29T13:22:00.000-06:00

Ah, Mondays. Heroes has returned! I'm not a fan of 24, but Joe and Eric are. So since the boys all have Scouting commitments on Mondays, our DVR works overtime at 8, taping both 24 and Heroes. Alex is the only one that doesn't really 'watch' Heroes; but he follows the plotlines. I love this show. Don't know why, but I am addicted. I felt stupid, though, when it took me forever to figure out why the actress portraying Nikki was familiar to me: she's the defendant in Legally Blonde. Anyhow, I even signed off our Christmas letter with "Save the cheerleader. Save the world." And who couldn't fall in love with Hiro? I wish they hadn't killed off Charlie. I really liked her sweet character. Hopefully tonight we'll learn more about Claire's parentage.

It's cold today, so it's meatloaf tonight. With smashed potatoes and green beans in honey-cashew sauce (recipe below). Sounds good to me!

Still hoping for the house-cleaning mojo to return.....

Green Beans in Honey Cashew Sauce

Frozen green beans
about 4 T. butter
about 4 T. honey
about 1 cup chopped cashews

Cook the beans about halfway...they will finish in the sauce. Heat butter in skillet over low to medium heat, add cashews to brown. Add in honey and warm through well. Add beans and toss in sauce to coat and finish cooking beans.

Someone stole my mojo....

2007-01-26T16:14:00.000-06:00

and hasn't sent a ransom note.

I can't seem to get anything finished. But I know that this too shall pass.

In the meantime, some knitting content:

I've been making socks for a while now, and just can't get enough of it. I started with Regia selfstriping yarn and size 3 needles. I used the"56 Stitch 56 Row" Pattern. All stockinette. Love that. Easy-peezie.

Since then I've tried different patterns and yarns, and have come to 2 fall-back patterns: Broadripple and Jaywalker. Broadripple is nicely lacy, and is so wonderful with yarn from Sweet Georgia Yarns. Once I finally realized the correct way to do a centered double decrease in the Jaywalker (I was slipping the stitches wrong), I fell in love with this pattern, too. It works wonderfully with my Vesper Yarns and Yarn Pirate Yarns.

I also enjoyed Mata Hari and Anastasia, but on both I reversed the swirling pattern for the second sock. It's not hard to do on the pattern, and I liked the mirror image in the pairs. Hedera was the perfect pattern for some yarn I was struggling with, and thanks to Sue Ann at my LYS Bluebonnet Yarn Shop, who was making Hedera with the very same yarn one Chicks with Sticks night, I completed that pair. I've also done a few other patterns, and need to get photos of the completed socks for my flickr site.

So much for patterns. On to yarns:

The first handpainted yarn I bought was from Felicia at Sweet Georgia Yarns. Yum-O! wonderful yarn, so soft, and beautiful colorways. Sadly, she is no longer selling direct from her site, but The Loopy Ewe carries her yarn.

Since then I have bought Yarn Pirate and Vesper. Both have great colorways. The Pirate yarn has short color changes, while the Vesper has very long color stretches. Both make for great socks, simply a different look. I have found joining knots in the Vesper, in every skein so far, that I have to work into the inside of a stitch, which is not so fun.

I also found white spots in the yarns, which I could understand as undyed spots at colorchange points, but these two were only about 6 inches apart in the same color stretch:

I can't seem to get Blogger to take photo uploads right now, or I would show you.

The Vesper is highly coveted, and typically sells out in less than 30 minutes. Get on her mailing list to find out about her restocking of the store. Yarn Pirate is available at the etsy site and also at The Loopy Ewe.

I would still like to try some of Scout's yarn, and some of the Hill Country Yarns Sweet Feet.

Catching up....

2007-01-20T19:54:00.000-06:00

Jackie's mother passed away Thursday afternoon. It was quick, yes. Click on her name to get to her blog...she wrote some lovely entries about Rina. I can't even imagine what she's feeling. But my job as friend is to just be there. And I am standing 'on deck' for whatever they need.

On other fronts, the weather today (very cold, wet rain, etc) dictated a day of knitting and scrapping...surprise!

I have some 'kits' started for 6x6 albums for Alex and Grace...just personality albums. Based on the one I did for Eric that I called 'Eric at 14', even though it reminds me of that afterschool special. I worked on assembling the kits some more, and finished the layout from Eric's 15th (gulp!) birthday dinner at Chuy's with the Gallops. You see, Eric was born on Elvis' birthday, and every year Chuy's has a big celebration for Elvis' birthday...this year they had an impersonator also. Way fun.

Have a great weekend!

What a week it's been....

2007-01-17T12:28:00.000-06:00

The good stuff:

A great weekend, with all kinds of time to myself! Joe and the boys were at a Youth Group event at church, and Grace spent one night at a friend's. I got some scrapping stuff organized, did quite a few layouts, watched movies of my own choosing, and knitted.

Monday was a holiday from school, and since all homework was completed on Sunday, we just laid around like slugs. And watched the impending weather...we don't usually get snowstorms and ice here in Austin, but dang if it hasn't happened nearly every year we've lived here! The predictions were dire...and the weathercasters visibly excited about something interesting to report on!

School was cancelled for Tuesday! A snow day! And yes, we had snow....lovely large flakes, and enough accumulation for snowballs, icicle-sucking, and fun. Warm blankets and cocoa were the routine of the day. Love days like that. Took photos of everyone and what they were doing at about 2 pm...for a layout called "Scenes from a Snow Day". Very Ali Edwards inspired. Like this one. She did one that I have printed out a hard copy, called '10 am', but I can't seem to find it online. Oh well.Even Joe was home from work...the whole city shut down for the ice and snow. We watched weather all day...hoping for another day off!

And today we are off again! Joe had over 1/4 of an inch of ice on his car (yowza) but did go in for a few hours. I might even scrap again today. And I now have 3 WIP(works in progress) of knitting...that's the first time I've been unfaithful to a project and started another before finishing! 2 pairs of socks and a cute vest from Knitty are all on the needles.

The bad stuff:

My friend's family member took a bad turn...very bad. I have her permission to link to her blog, here. Please, please pray for everyone. Such a difficult time for the family.

So at the 'humpday' of this week, I am trying to concoct some sort of dinner (I know that there are tater tots and fishsticks around here) so that I can put off my trip to Target until hopefully Friday, when the weather will be warmer (=no ice) but probably still rainy. Then I can start making dinners for the freezer for my friend and her family. I have to be able to do something. And I have to start walking again! Iced in here at the house, we are eating and not burning any calories. Scary.

Oh, and last week I finally went to the doctor to see about my 'ick,' since it had been something like 3 weeks. They were able to rule out the really bad stuff with simple blood etc testing. The next step was an ultrasound to rule out masses. Since I thought maybe they'd want to do something with me, I held off eating anything that day, so I was able to get in for an abdominal ultrasound right away the same day! Unheard of, I know. Now I am just waiting for the radiologist to read it and send the results to the doctor, and for the doc to call me..with this weather, who knows how fast that will happen, since so many offices are still closed. If all is OK, then the diagnosis will be IBS, and I will start taking Zelnorm. More than you wanted to know? Sorry. I often tend to wax medical. Here is a treat to put something entirely different in your head, and this won't leave your brain!

I'm a winner!.....

2007-01-11T16:50:00.000-06:00

I rarely win anything. I enter blog contests all the time - you know, the ones where you just post in the comments and the randomly chosen winner gets something (in these cases, since they are knitting blogs, the prizes are typically highly-coveted yarn!)

In 4th grade I DID win something: a DJ from the AM station in St Paul came to our school, and held a drawing (I have no memory of what he talked about). I won an LP! Johnny Whittaker's album. It even had the theme song from Sigmund and the Sea Monsters on it. That was cool.

A short while back Joe won a green Ipod nano from a vendor event at work. Yowza! And a friend of mine won a Nintendo DS from an entry at a convention.

But rarely do I win. Not even door prizes.

Until now! The magazine Simple Scrapbooks has a blog now that you need to check out. The managing editor writes the blog, and it's fun to read. She gives 'behind the scenes' for the issues, too. And she held a 'tell me where you're from' contest in the comments...I was winner #5 of 5! I can't wait to get my package! Here is what was on the blog, and a photo of what is coming:

Congratulations to our fifth winner, "Kris in TX" from Cedar Park, Texas (just outside beautiful Austin). Kris in TX has won a whole mess of Bazzill Basics buttons, plus two jars of Bazzill blossoms, plus FIVE doodling templates from Chatterbox. Yay!

So color me happy, and ready to scrap this weekend. Well, and break in to some more knitting. I need to get photos of the socks I've done, so that I can share about the patterns and the yarns. Most of the yarns I use are from sites on the Web, and are hand-dyed in amazing colorways. Just gotta get that done.

Oh, lastly, my friend's family member's health issue is resolving VERY well, thanks to a great surgeon and prayers! Thanks to those of you who prayed for them.

I'm off to do a lttle knittin', do some BSF (SO nice to be back into that again after a break for the holidays...I really missed it), and maybe watch some Creating Keepsakes on QVC tonight.

Later!

Best laid plans....

2007-01-08T19:50:00.000-06:00

So I didn't walk today. Lots of excuses and reasons. Nothing that should count for anything though. Just being a slug. But at least I did get up, cleaned up, and did a lot of laundry. I guess I am distracted by a friend's situation: her mom is facing a very difficult health issue, and it is stressful for all. I want to do something for them, but there's nothing I can do right now. I am a do-er. So if you are prayer-inclined, please do so. They all need prayers for healing and for peace and courage. Thanks.

On a far lighter note....fifteen years ago I became a Mama for the first time. Eric was born at 36 1/2 weeks, at 6 pounds and ready for the world. What a handsome feller he is becoming. He is smart, funny, witty, thoughtful, caring....all the good stuff. I love this kid!

So Heidi Swapp got what I wanted for Christmas...a pink fridge for her cropping room! Click on her name and check out today's entry on her blog. Isn't it cute? I want one so bad! Covetous me. I have the page from Pottery Barn Teens bookmarked, and I 'visit' it every once in a while. Sigh. Someday. After we are done with the Dave Ramsey thing. Then it will be without guilt!

So Happy FIFTEEN to my first baby. You make me so proud. Rock on, Guitar Hero! (tee hee!)

Still plugging along....

2007-01-05T13:19:00.000-06:00

So even though I am not into setting and shooting for goals, I did decide to start tracking my mileage walked at the gym. I stumbled across this blog, and liked the idea enough that even though I don't think I'll make the 100 miles, I'll still know how far I walked. Here's the button if you want to grab it for yourself:

So yesterday I walked 2 miles, which for me is good..I haven't been to Fitness 19 in a while. And I increased my speed so I'd be done with the 2 miles sooner, and as a result got my heart rate into a nice zone. This morning, however, I only made 1.5 miles...my shins were killing me and I had to quit. I've not had that happen in a long time, and don't really know what to do about it. I won't be back on the treadmill til Monday, so hopefully the rest will do my shins good.

Here's another little fun thing I found:

HowManyOfMe.com

There is:
1
person with my name
in the U.S.A.

How many have your name?

Kind of neat to think that I'm the only one!

It's a lovely day here in Texas, the kind of day that'll sell anyone on living here: low 70's, bright sunshine, a little light chill if you are in the shade...just wonderful. Yeah, we'll be colder this weekend, and in the 60's next week, but still I love this weather. I think I'll open a window (don't be shocked, honey, if you are reading this!....[I never open windows!]).

Loving that it's Friday!

Resolutions? not here....

2007-01-03T22:21:00.000-06:00

A new year. Resolutions? I got none. I’ve never really been one for resolutions. Shoot, I don’t even set goals. Remember the job interviews with the standard HR questions like: ‘Where do you see yourself in five years? Ten years?’ I never knew what to say. I probably came up with something that was more glib or flip than profound and focused. You just never know, ya know? Who can say what can come up in the next five years that will alter your chosen career path?

For me resolutions are lofty goals, and easy for me to break.

So I don’t make resolutions for New Years. I do, some years, take the time to sit and think about where things are in my life, and where I think they should be going. Like this year. Although I know I will have a continuing time of reflection, I do know that I want to:

• Choose joy even more often. Where did I see this first? Was is Stacy or Stacy? I’m not sure, but I DO know that I am enjoying life more now that I am concentrating on laughing more and finding the positive in situations. It can drive other people nuts, but I will still look for the silver lining in your cloud. You’re welcome.

• Take the high road. Even when I want to scream. Make decisions that I can look back on and say yes, that was the right thing to do or say. I want to hear ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant.’ Encourage my kids to do the same. It’s hard to take the high road. But He never said it would be easy.

• Reflect on why my personal prayer time is what it is (pretty nonexistent). It would be easy to say ‘I will start a daily quiet time,’ but for me it’s important to realize what the problem is before I start stabbing the situation with antibiotics that might not work. Maybe I am becoming more contemplative, or am more process-oriented. Regardless, I need to find out why it’s broken, before I can determine what will fix it.

• Continue with the food thing. We haven’t had a bathroom scale in months. Our old one broke and I just never bought a new one. Weird, since I practically live at our local Target Greatland. I think I have been losing a little weight, but if I did get a scale and I haven’t lost anything, that would bum me out. Ok, I hear you: silver lining, good outlook girl….get a scale and deal with it! I will buy a scale this week and let you know. But about the food…my portions have grown smaller (is that an oxymoron?), and we’ve not had Blue Bell ice cream in the house in months. It feels good. And so do my pants. Even my bra feels big in the band size. So the food thing/adjustments will stay. Even when it’s hard. Even when I pout.

• Get my rear to Fitness 19 again and stop paying them for nothing. There was a couple of weeks there where I was going 3-4 days a week, and it was starting to feel really good. I don’t remember why I stopped. Back onto that wagon again. No set goals, just get there. And keep going. Loading up the Ipod mini (pink, of course) with more knitting podcasts and I’m good to go.

So there you have my New Year’s reflections.

Blog news! Cathy Zielske is back from a hiatus! So excited to see her blogging again. Love her style, love her writing. And she lives in the Twin Cities, so her references to locales there are fun for me to read.

So I’m knitting socks, still, but also started a scarf. I am using Rowan Calmer…holy cow it’s so so so soft! The colors are coffee and an oatmeal type shade, and I am using the mistake rib. I started using the Cashmere Scarf pattern from the Yarn Girls, but after reading so many comments online that it curled in on itself, I switched to the mistake rib. It will be random wide stripes at the ends, with mostly the coffee color, and solid coffee in the middle.

The kiddos start school again tomorrow, so it’s back to the morning schedule. Better get the coffee pot loaded up for tomorrow…..

See ya!

A rose by any other name...

2006-12-31T15:39:00.000-06:00

Yes, I changed the name of my blog. Already. Yes, I still have a wonderful life. The problem is that (please don't flame me for this, it's only my opinion) I really dislike the movie It's a Wonderful Life. It's just too sappy for my taste. And every time I looked at my blog I thought about the movie.

So I've gone back to my original idea for a title. It's something I have had to say every time I am asked for my name, and I like that my name is spelled with a K. I think it suits me.

Happy New Year!

Wow, so much to catch up on.....

2006-12-30T23:35:00.000-06:00

I haven’t been blogging, what with the kids out of school, Joe home for the week on vacation, and Christmas festivities. Sorry! We are such slugs, sleeping in way too late.

I’m glad we didn’t depend on the Trail of Lights for our Christmas photo – we went on what must have been THE most crowded night! An editing note on the Christmas photo in the previous blog…the original I posted was the icky version before Target’s cleanup job. My friend Jackie took it, cleaned it up for me with her amazing software, and sent it back to me. Thanks Jackie for letting everyone enjoy a much nicer photo of my kids!

We had a great repeat of our Christmas Eve tradition: attending evening church, then to dinner with other families from church. Previous years found us at Kerbey Lane Café, then at IHOP, but this year we tried out the Village Inn. It’s much closer to all of our homes, and the food is good. They were so nice about taking in a party of 30 (yes, of course, we warned them days ahead!). Because we had some time between the end of the church service and dinner time, we drove through an area of Austin my parents used to live in, to look at the Christmas light displays. With no snow, they really do up the yards and houses here. It’s so pretty, and the yards are outlined in white lights with a number of painted plywood figures in the yards. The cul-de-sac with the geese is always my favorite.

Sadly, I didn’t take any photos this year on Christmas Day! Again! I just get to enjoying the time with family, that I forget. We had my sister and parents here for Christmas Day; we opened presents and had lasagna for dinner. So nice and easy because I can make it a day ahead, and just threw it in the oven while we opened gifts! I did start a Flickr account (linked in the sidebar) for photos. I’ll add photos of completed knits as I remember to take the photos.

One of my favorite gifts this year was this from Joe. Last year he gave me the tool case and I loved it…it was hard to wait for this case! I’m making socks like crazy now, and to have a beautiful case made from vintage fabrics…that’s just icing on the cake.

The most meaningful gift(s) I received were 2 items from my Mom…she handwrote a Grandmother Remembers book for my kids, which included photos and stories of her growing up years. An absolute treasure. The other is a binder she is working on that is the history of her side of the family, which I don’t think has ever been recorded: her mother came over to the US at age 14, alone, speaking no English, to meet up with her own parents who had emigrated earlier. There are stories and photos I’ve not heard or seen before. Thankfully she is planning to continue to gather information and photos as the years progress. Again, a treasure.

Speaking of icing, my sister and I went shopping once school let out (she’s a teacher), and at Bed, Bath and Beyond we found a cookie cutter kit that was in a metal lunchbox…it made cookies shaped like Rudolph, the Bumble, Sam the Snowman and Hermie the Elf! And even better, the cookies were 2-3 parts and were assembled to make 3D standup cookies! I used the leftover royal icing from when my parents were over doing Gingerbread Houses with the kids and Grace’s friend. It was part of my Christmas gift from her and I love them! Oh, and they were tasty, too!

On the health front, I realize I forgot to let you all (both of you?) that the biopsy on the lump by my nose was normal tissue! That’s good for me…we have to keep an eye on my face, as the basal cell carcinoma I made before wasn’t typical in appearance. Why do I always want to say “bobopsy” like Aunt Voula in My Big Fat Greek Wedding? Love that movie. Bundt cake.

We’ll continue another tradition for New Year’s Eve: we are on about year 8 for hosting a New Year’s Eve party for friends from church…nearly the same group as from Christmas Eve! We started doing this when the kiddos were little, and none of us could afford either dinner out or a sitter, much less both. So these kids have grown up with this party, and move from watching movies in one room, to video games in another, to playing Trivial Pursuit with the ‘grown ups.’ Another fun tradition I’d miss terribly if it ever ended!

So, here’s to wishing you a Happy, Happy New Year, that is full of health, happiness, fun, family and faith!

Knitting content, especially regarding yarn and pattern (socks – what else?) opinions to come in a future entry.

My babies are growing up...sigh....

2006-12-20T09:18:00.000-06:00

Just a quick little post to share our holiday photo. Yes, I fixed it up quite nicely at Target before printing the photo cards. Our living room walls, a buttery yellow, are not the best for photography backrounds, but I sure do like them. By the way, am I the ONLY one who can't get the photocard envelopes from Target to stick shut?? We had to use tape again this year. Scotch of course. Go 3M.

We were thinking we'd get a nice photo at the Trail of Lights this year, but I liked this one from the night we decorated the tree, so it's the winner.

Later, gators.....

I love it when Christmas comes early...

2006-12-19T17:55:00.000-06:00

Always a work in progress, that is my little workroom. My little piece of heaven. My haven of scrapbooking. "Mom's room."

I got a number of the cubes for storage the first time Target carried them; I read about them on Two Peas and knew they'd be perfect for me and my room. If you saw them the first time around, you'll remember how we all went nuts buying them up, and they were discontinued, only to be brought back again recently with additional pieces.

They are a great size and about half the price of the Store in Style cubes.

The problem I had was trying to get them off the floor, and to a height that was more ergonomic for me. The solution: call Dad.

My dad is doing some really beautiful woodworking lately. All I really needed was shelving, but I thought I could at least ask! So it's my early Christmas present. I love how they look in my room! Here's a photo of the three shelf units (I gave him the dimensions of the Target cubes, so he made them to the size of 2 side by side) and my tall shelves, before I added the 6 foot table back into the room.

So can you tell the theme of the room is 'pink', with touches of green, brown and black? I have been having fun finding things that are inexpensive for the top displays. Everything from Tupperware, to Heidi Swapp, including some pink bubble wrap I put in a frame!

I love my room. Now I just need to actually get some work done....

Dear Santa letter, from Mom

2006-12-18T22:20:00.000-06:00

This was boldly and shamelessly stolen from Scrapshare:

Dear Santa,
I've been a good mom all year. I've fed, cleaned and cuddled my child on demand and sold sixty-two cases of candy bars to raise money to plant a shade tree on the school playground.

I was hoping you could spread my list out over several Christmases, since I had to write this letter with my son's red crayon, on the back of a receipt in the laundry room between cycles, and who knows when I'll find anymore free time in the next 18 years.

Here are my Christmas wishes:I'd like a pair of legs that don't ache (in any color, except purple, which I already have) and arms that don't hurt or flap in the breeze; but are strong enough to pull my screaming child out of the candy aisle in the grocery store.

I'd also like a waist, since I lost mine somewhere in the seventh month of my pregnancy.

If you're hauling big ticket items this year I'd like fingerprint resistant windows and a radio that only plays adult music; a television that doesn't broadcast any programs containing talking animals; and a refrigerator with a secret compartment behind the crisper where I can hide to talk on the phone.

On the practical side, I could use a talking doll that says, "Yes, Mommy" to boost my parental confidence, along with two kids who don't fight and three pairs of jeans that will zip all the way up without the use of power tools.

I could also use a recording of Tibetan monks chanting "Don't eat in the living room" and "Take your hands off your sister," becausemy voice seems to be just out of my children's hearing range and can only be heard by the dog.

If it's too late to find any of these products, I'd settle for enough time to brush my teeth and comb my hair in the same morning,or the luxury of eating food warmer than room temperature without it being served in a Styrofoam container.

If you don't mind, I could also use a few Christmas miracles to brighten the holiday season. Would it be too much trouble to declare ketchup a vegetable? It will clear my conscience immensely. It would be helpful if you could coerce my child to help around the house without demanding payment as if they were the bosses of an organized crime family.

Well, Santa, the buzzer on the dryer is ringing and my son saw my feet under the laundry room door. I think he wants his crayonback.

Have a safe trip and remember to leave your wet boots by the door and come in and dry off so you don't catch cold. Help yourself to cookies on the table but don't eat too many or leave crumbs on the carpet.

And clean up any mess that you may make.

Yours Always, MOM...!

It's all fun until the novacain wears off...

2006-12-15T14:59:00.000-06:00

So this morning I went for a slightly overdue skin check at the dermatologist's office. Two years ago I had some basal cell carcinoma removed from the area between my lip and nose, and since then I've been getting skin checks every 6 months, and all kinds of things frozen off my face. This morning we decided to remove a bit via punch for a biopsy, just in case. Only one stitch, and a few more areas frozen. All fine and well, off I went to finish off the Christmas shopping.

I got it all done, or so I thought, until I realized I still need one more thing (that's easy to pick up) and stocking stuffers. Feeling quite good about that, I realized that the biopsy site was starting to hurt. A lot.

And my tummy is still weird. Ew.

So instead of running out for the one more thing, I am getting that later on, maybe Monday. I am relegating myself to the couch again, loaded with ibuprofen for face pain (I didn't know it took those muscles to talk!), with the two schnauzers keeping me company.

Might check out Knitterly Things tonight for Vesper Yarn colors I think I need.

Send good vibes! Later, dudes.....

Ugh.....the Ick.....

2006-12-14T10:01:00.000-06:00

Just like Donna, I have the 'ick.' Curled up on the couch, afraid to eat or drink anything....I figure nothing in, nothing out! Must feel better by tomorrow, as I need to finish the shopping this week. I am buying on behalf of my inlaws for the kiddos, and I help the big guy in the red suit, too!

Send good tummy thoughts my way, please! Oy!

A Challenge from Stacy.....

2006-12-11T21:25:00.000-06:00

A challenge from Stacy, borrowed off the Scrapshare forums:

1. My current favorite song is:
Current? Christmas, I guess. The Peace of Christmas Day, by John Denver and the Muppets.

2. The last book I read was:
The Big Picture. I'm way behind on recreational fiction reading.

3. The last book I bought was:
Beautiful Basics by Simple Scrapbooks.

4. The last cd I bought was:
Long time ago....maybe the Barry Manilow songs of the Fifties.

5. Another CD I wanted but didn't buy is:
Barry's newest, Songs of the Sixties I think. And a Carpenters Christmas one....I can't believe I don't have one!

6. Right now, I'm wearing:
Truly comfortable, unmatching pajamas.

7. The last gift I bought was:
Ornaments for goddaughters. Bought today.

8. The last time I laughed heartily and loudly:
tonight, at the Simpsons. Dang. Too funny.

9. My favorite holiday ornament is:
The last gold bell blown glass ornament from my parents' first tree. It's the last of the 12.

10. My house smells like:
three kids, three dogs and laundry. With remnants of meatloaf and mashed potatoes.

11. The first thing on my to-do list tomorrow is:
coffee with the girls!

12. If I could sit on Santa's lap and believe that he'd bring me whatever toy I wished for, I'd ask for:
A toy? Hmmmm.....maybe the gear I would need to videoconference with friends while we scrap!

13. If I could holiday shop in ONE store, all expenses paid, I'd shop at: Target. All the way.

14. If an angel alighted on my doorstep today and said, "I'm here to grant a Christmas wish," I'd wish for:
That's a toughie....world peace? Salvation for all? The end of acne?

15. When I see a bell ringer while out shopping, I:
Always dig out change for them. My mom started it....and now my kids give the change. I just don't like it when they CAN'T ring their bell.

We're off and running.....

2006-12-11T17:40:00.000-06:00

So after reading other's blogs for so long, I decided to start one. What a great way to keep up with friends and family...loving the internet!

I am sure that it will evolve over time, but right now I thought I'd start by sharing a little about myself. I'll probably get into what I'm knitting, scrapbooking, and what's going on in our wonderful life here in Texas.

(Oh, and yeah, I'll get going on changing the links in the sidebar. Really I will.)

For today, here is Me in Threes:

Three Things That Scare Me
Heights
Falling (from said heights)
Anyone I love being hurt

Three People That Make Me Laugh
My hubby Joe can always make me laugh, even when I'm really mad
Clever writing (either in prose on on TV...clever is funny!)
Babies with the hiccups

Three Things I Love
The Lord
My family
A really well-made french vanilla latte from Starbucks

Three Things I Don't Like
Hurtful or negative people
Tomatoes (raw...love them cooked! Go figure)
Impatient people

Three Things I'm Doing Right Now
Trying to blog for the first time
Watching Judge Alex in the afternoon
Realizing I am thirsty!

Three Things I Want To Do Before I Die
Become a Grandma
See salvation in loved ones
Tour Europe and see Germany again

Three Things I Can Do Well
Write backwards and upside down
I make rockingly good Toll House cookies
Parallel park my Suburban

Ways To Describe My Personality
Positive
Thoughtful
Centered

Three Things I Can't Do
Speak Spanish (wish I could!)
Golf
Whistle

Three Things I Think You Should Listen To
The voice of God
A baby's laughter
The Christmas album, John Denver and the Muppets

Three Things I Don't Think You Should Listen To, Ever
The voice of evil
Gossip
Kids Bop

Three Of My Absolute Favorite Foods
Shrimp Scampi, Ceasar salad and Italian Chocolate Cake from Johnny Carrino's
Chuychanga with Deluxe Tomatillo sauce from Chuy's
Thanksgiving dinner

Three Beverages I Drink Daily
Water
Coffee
A Diet Coke with Lime, if I can get one

Three Shows I Watched When I Was A Kid
The Love Boat
Fantasy Island
The Brady Bunch