Starting the day off…

Happy Monday… (I think)

I get Runner’s World’s daily ‘kick in the butt’ and today’s is sooo me:

“Running is my meditation, mind flush, cosmic telephone, mood elevator and spiritual communion.”

Lorraine Moller

My foot injury has gotten so bad lately that I’m unable to run again… tomorrow I head to the podiatrist..

__________________________________

I got this email this morning.. my husband is going to be busy with classes this summer…

Summer Classes for Men at
THE
ADULT LEARNING CENTER

REGISTRATION MUST BE COMPLETED
by Friday, August 17th 2008
NOTE: DUE TO THE COMPLEXITY AND DIFFICULTY LEVEL
OF THEIR CONTENTS, CLASS SIZES WILL BE LIMITED TO 8 PARTICIPANTS MAXIMUM

Class 1
How To Fill Up The Ice Cube Trays–Step by Step, with Slide Presentation.
Meets 4 weeks, Monday and Wednesday for 2 hours beginning at 7:00 PM.

Class 2
The Toilet Paper Roll–Does It Change Itself?
Round Table Discussion.
Meets 2 weeks, Saturday 12:00 for 2 hours.

Class 3
Is It Possible To Urinate Using The Technique Of Lifting The Seat and Avoiding The Floor, Walls and Nearby Bathtub?–Group Practice.
Meets 4 weeks, Saturday 10:00 PM for 2 hours.

Class 4
Fundamental Differences Between The Laundry Hamper and The Floor–Pictures and Explanatory Graphics.
Meets Saturdays at 2:00 PM for 3 weeks.

Class 5
Dinner Dishes–Can They Levitate and Fly Into The Kitchen Sink?
Examples on Video.
Meets 4 weeks, Tuesday and Thursday for 2 hours beginning
at 7:00 PM

Class 6
Loss Of Identity–Losing The Remote To Your Significant Other.
Help Line Support and Support Groups.
Meets 4 Weeks, Friday and Sunday 7:00 PM

Class 7
Learning How To Find Things–Starting With Looking In The Right Places And Not Turning The House Upside Down While Screaming.
Open Forum
Monday at 8:00 PM, 2 hours.

Class 8
Health Watch–Bringing Her Flowers Is Not Harmful To Your Health.
Graphics and Audio Tapes.
Three nights; Monday, Wednesday, Friday at 7:00 PM for 2 hours.

Class 9
Real Men Ask For Directions When Lost–Real Life Testimonials.
Tuesdays at 6:00 PM Location to be determined

Class 10
Is It Genetically Impossible To Sit Quietly While She Parallel Parks?
Driving Simulations.
4 weeks, Saturday’s noon, 2 hours.

Class 11
Learning to Live–Basic Differences Between Mother and Wife.
Online Classes and role-playing
Tuesdays at 7:00 PM, location to be determined

Class 12
How to be the Ideal Shopping Companion
Relaxation Exercises, Meditation and Breathing Techniques.
Meets 4 weeks, Tuesday and Thursday for 2 hours beginning at 7:00 PM.

Class 13
How to Fight Cerebral Atrophy–Remembering Birthdays, Anniversaries and Other Important Dates and Calling When You’re Going To Be Late.
Cerebral Shock Therapy Sessions and Full Lobotomies Offered.
Three nights; Monday, Wednesday, Friday at 7:00 PM for 2 hours.

Class 14
The Stove/Oven–What It Is and How It Is Used.
Live Demonstration.
Tuesdays at 6:00 PM, location to be determined.

Upon completion of any of the above courses, diplomas will be issued to the survivors.
The Man’s Prayer
I’m a man, but I can change, if I have to, I guess.

Sometimes I just can’t stay away

I know… but… the homework was negligible.. (actually there was NONE).. shocker…

So, I sat in the sun, wove in the ends, and finished my tank

Summer Top - Bernat Design Studio (you must sign up for their website to get the pattern, it’s free though)

Ravelry Link Here

Knit with TLC Cotton Plus, in Spruce and Mint, on US 7 and US 8 Clover Bamboo needles.

As far as the pattern goes, it was easy peasey, and I’d do it again, though I’d alter a few things, first, I would knit a bit more of rib on the bottom to prevent the curling on the bottom, and I would probably knit the size smaller than I knit… it seems like it might stretch over time and be even baggier than it currently is.  All in all though I’m pleased with my first knit garment.

Sunny Dogs on Thursday

I’ve missed the last few weeks for DOT… and I feel badly about it.. it’s been pretty crazy around here… so I don’t want to miss today.

My boy just enjoyed a few minutes of snuggles from the kids when they walked up the driveway from getting off of the bus… he gets so excited when they come home, tail a wagging away..

So, I’m sure you can’t help but notice that green YUCK on the side of the photo above.. yeah.. that’s the pool… we opened it yesterday,…

Yep, that’s it.. in all it’s green glory! This is our first pond pool, and our first time opening a pool… so I seriously was surprised at the level of green… though the pool guy assures me that this is a good opening… he opened his boss’s pool last week and it was BLACK… yikes! The pond is chemicalled up, and after some vacuuming (starting tomorrow) should look beautiful in no time… at least it was fairly clear, and no hint of the cloudiness our neighbors pool had when they opened last week…

Now.. just because the pool is open, don’t expect me to be sporting photos of the kids in swimsuits… we are in PA ya know.. the pool temp was a balmy 52 degrees F yesterday!

No thanks…

And, for my fellow coffee lovers… today is Free Ice Coffee Day at Dunkin Donuts…

I have NO idea what’s up with this photo and the colors… bleh! I’m sipping away enjoying my coffee and a bit of blogging time… any minute the homework ritual will begin…

Homework

I know I’ve mentioned it before, but my kids know that I blog… and often stage photos for me to blog about. So today’s post is one of those ‘assignments’…

I’m very proud of the fact that my kids can be extremely creative with a piece of paper, some scissors and tape… they regularly create all sorts of unexpected lovelies out of these simple items… including the ‘chef’ duck costume above for the Big Girls duck Webkinz. She knit that apron herself… and is dang proud of it…

I am proud too.. even though it started as a scarf for one of her other webkinz, and progressively grew wider and wider (I keep trying to show and explain how she’s adding stitches by accidentally wrapping the yarn at the end (or rather start) of a new row… it will be clear one of these days…

When she holds the scarf up, she’ll tell you it looks like a coke bottle… and it does..

So, instead, it’s a chef’s apron, and the white paper chef’s hat just adds to her creativity!

In my knitting corner, I completed my tank last night, it’s all seamed and needs just to have the ends woven in. My finished photo, and pattern comments, will be posted once I’ve completed the weaving…

Only in a small town…

Grab a cup… this is a picture heavy post…

I haven’t been blogging…

I mean really.. did I have to say that??? It’s obvious I haven’t been blogging … but I had to acknowledge that I haven’t so you can understand why… first… it’s been beautiful outside… and I’m a dirt lover… see…

That right there… that’s our veggie and herb garden, taking over my patio. We’ve had a garden in all but 1 of the last 7 summers… and unfortunately, our yard doesn’t have the ‘right’ location for a garden in it (meaning one with the right size, space, and sunlight hours).. so we’re going to give it a go with a container garden. In all reality, we’re Salsa gardeners… tomatoes, peppers, and onions make up the majority of our veggie patch, however.. I’m the Veggie freak of the house, so I always throw in my favs (lettuce, spinach, and herbs) a few ‘new’ things to try. This year’s NEW addition is artichokes…

wish me luck..

Some of my previous new trials were hits (for example the mini watermelons and cantalope, or the broccoli of 2 years ago), and other’s were flops, (like the carrots and eggplant of 4 years ago).. and let us NEVER forget the summer 3 years ago of the attack strawberries.. those buggers took over the ENTIRE garden bed (they gave great strawberries, but sheesh, they didn’t leave room for much else!)

Some of the above plants are store bought, others are seedlings I started… All of them will surely be good!

Today, I had to run to our local nursery to pick up some cilantro plants. All of my years of starting seedlings has taught me that I am completely unsuccessful at starting my own cilantro for whatever reason… and while we were at said podunk nursery/hardware store… the little girl asked for a quarter to get a gumball. Well, of course I didn’t have one, but I had a rogue dollar bill in my wallet ( I swear I don’t have a clue where that came from,) I mean seriously..

I. never. have. cash.

My kids claim it as theirs as soon as I have any anyways…

well I handed it to the cashier and asked for quarters, to which he said, ‘you just spent $20 on plants, you can have a quarter’… I tried to refuse, but he wouldn’t have any of that.. and then he stood and watched my little one ask me for a specific purple/pinkish (kinda tye dye like) gumball. I told her that it’s the luck of the draw what you get.. and we put the quarter in and she started to turn it when the guy walked over with the keys to the machine and he opened it, picked out the ball that she’d wanted and handed it to her!… I swear.. you only get that kind of service in a small town..

What else has kept me from the computer you ask?… well.. knitting for one…

I made the completely INSANE challenge for myself to knit an afghan for my little one for Christmas… BY JUNE 30TH!!!! Holy moly?? what was I thinking. Now granted.. .this is a dishcloth afghan, so I just need to knit dishcloths… and sew them together. She loves bugs, and gardening and all things creepy crawly.. and at the same time she’s a bit of a princess… so.. I’m picking girly squares as well as gardening type squares… and while I had the idea that I’d be knitting it to fit her bed.. she just wants it to be a blanket she can snuggle under on the couch… so I think it will be significantly smaller than a twin sized afghan, which honestly is totally fine by me… here’s where we are so far…

8 squares in…

The Dragonfly

Purple crown (her favorite color)

A pretty yellow flower

Butterfly

(that strip is actually all knit together, which I’ll continue to do for the rest of the throw.. it will save me significantly on the seaming… but requires that I alter patterns to a consistent # of stitches… )

I also have the following squares which I’ll seam together later…

Fairy #1 (I think it’s called Leila), I’ll find a pattern link and put it here at some point…

Fairy #2, Tatiana

Gabe the snail

Yellow crown…

And yes… I do plan to duplicate some of the squares. Also on my list are another (different) dragonfly, another (different) Butterfly, a hummingbird, a lady bug, and one other fairy.

I’ll be sticking with these four colors.

For Mother’s day, we stayed home due to a visit from the stomach flu fairy… hubby made me a nice home cooked breakfast, and we spent much time working on transplanting our veglings… I got the cutest tee-shirt from my middle guy… he made it during school… and I did my annual, knit only for myself thing… I started a tank…

yeah.. I’ve acknowledged before that I’m a fast knitter… that’s where it stands as of yesterday afternoon.. I plan to have the neck completed tonight and perhaps seam or get blocking

Well, my in-laws just showed up… so I’ve got to get off the computer!

See-sawing through spring in PA

That right there is how to ‘teeter totter’ (which is what I always called a see saw when I was a kid)… when you have 3 children. The little girl and the middle guy weigh just a tad more than the big girl, but it works pretty well ..

The weather is typical of the northeast for spring… we go from gorgeous sunny days, to rain and/or cold ones.. but this is much more of a Spring to us than it was when we were living in NC. There you get 70 for maybe a week, which was usually rainy, and then… 80’s followed soon with humidity… oh the fun!

I’m definitely enjoying this weather. What it means for my blogging though is.. on those gorgeous days, we’re outside, shooting hoops, hula hooping, catching bugs, hunting fairies, maybe if I’m lucky I get to sit and knit in my camp chair… but… lately it’s been more like… games of Dinner with the wolf (I think that’s what it’s called, it’s sort of a red light green light thing that ends in a chase/game of tag)… and soccer…

I’ll probably only be intermittently posting here in the next few weeks.. dependent on the weather… actually saying that is even a tad premature as we’re expecting rain for the next several days… and then cooler temps again early next week… but you never know.. my kiddos are all about saving the worms from their suicide drownings in our puddle at the bottom of the driveway… I’m sure you can picture it.. all three in their rain coats and boots, and me holding the umbrella while they sift the wiggly little buggers out of the puddle..

oh the fun! (I totally am serious)

I have been knitting though.. I’m working on a Knitty submission… sorry, that’s about all I can say here, and I’m working on a Q2 challenge knitting project (an afghan) for one of my kiddos for Christmas next year. I need to take photos of the squares I’ve knit so far… (not nearly enough of them… )

What to do now?

Let’s see…

Birthday number one… Check

Birthday number two… Check

First Communion… Check

Now what do I do??? how about KNIT!

I’m participating in the Year Long Gift Along blog.. .and made a challenge to do one of the dishcloth afghans the kids have asked for… so.. I’ll be working on that mostly, and a project for Knitty as well So.. off I go! have a great day folks, I plan to run to the playground with the Little girl in the jogger.. get some exercise and relaxation in at the same time! I need it after all we’ve had going on around here!

Another rite of passage

We’ve undergone another rite of passage, and as the Mother of the child growing up…

well it was a bit tearful..

I kept seeing her there as if she were in her Baptismal gown instead of her First Eucharist dress… I will admit that the tears formed but didn’t drop as we sang along and renewed our Baptismal Vows… and finally as she took her first communion… Lately (based on the whole birthday thing).. I have been finding myself saying over and over again.. where has the time gone???

Here’s our day in photos…

Oh yeah… the cake…

As I breathe a sigh of relief…

And now… it’s blocking

And a side note.. I dont’ know what’s going on with WordPress.. but NOTHING is working like it’s supposed to today… I’m starting to strongly dislike WordPress these days.. how sad because I really loved it up till this last update…ggrrrr

Slowly but surely…

My shawl work is crawling along…

Here’s where I’m at….

The pattern calls for 16 repeats of two charts, but this is for a child instead of an adult… so I thought I’d go with 8 repeats.  Then after bouncing that idea of the shawl queen Grace, I was going to do 6 repeats… well… this morning with 5 complete, I measured it on the big girl.. and I am going to stay right here at 5.  The picture of course is in it’s unblocked state and looks like  it will be a circle instead of a rectangle.. but we pulled it out this morning and stretched her long.. and she will definitely be a rectangle… a really wide one for a little girl (oh the lessons learned on my first true lace project)…  but the big girl really loves it and can’t wait to see it all pinned out tonight!

Thank you so much Grace for being an ear and listening!

Now.. back to my knitting and prepping my house for 7 visitors this evening! EEEGADS!