freezing in spring
Gas rising, groceries rising, and a freezing spring. Still have the heat kicking it, then a few days later it's off and we are outside, then it's back on and winter coats are out. This hot/cold I can't really keep up with. A million in one things to do, that countdown over there can cause sheer panic to break into my chest, I think it could be an anxiety attack... so much to do! I've gotten a ton done, but there's more!
This week a vehicle is on the list to conquer, did the research, and am heading back down on Wednesday, we shall see what happens. Good thoughts and prayers that it all works out would be wonderful. Everything worked out perfectly with the Blazer, and that's what I'm hoping for this time around. I got the insurance quote, and let me say that I LOVE our insurance company, they are more than 50% less for TWO vehicles (one fully insured) than the quotes I received online from big known companies... :D :D :D Now sales tax and registration are horrid, but that is a part of life.
The first song to the right "Makeover" sang by David Cook (I heart him on AI), has a lyric that I can really relate to.
"What are you looking for? Are you looking for something more?"
Kind of sums up what's been going on here emotionally. I know in the big picture what I hope to have and to give and to live in this life. But in the current situation of my life, I don't know where I'm being led, if it will get to the ultimate place I'd eventually like to be again, or if it's just a cycle that will repeat down a long hard road. Where's the yellow brick road? If I had one of those bad boys, I think it'd be easier to just follow a road, then have to decide... but then you know your curiosity would bite and you'd get off the path and go your own way. I'm sure I would anyway, I can't follow instructions to save my life.
I'm making the Mossy Jacket for Miss Pickle, just need to pick up stitches and do the seed stitch border. I want the perfect buttons, and started my search at ravelry of course. One response was a link to this blog post. What a great list!
I have a friend due with a son this summer so I knit a few items for her little man.
bib pattern
adjustments: I used size 6 needles, cause I like a tighter knit. I did 8 rows garter on top/bottom, and 7 stitches in garter for the width.
jester hat pattern
adjustments: I adjusted it for worsted weight yarn, I used size 8 DPN’s, and cast on 72 stitches. My goal was a circumference of 14.5” (plus stretch from ribbing), I need it to fit 0-3 months to go with the shirt that matches the yarn. I knit it for about 5-5 1/2” before kitchener stitch.
It's so darling, I'm making a jester hat for Miss Pickle in this yarn. Gosh I have so many skeins of this yarn! It was supposed to be a cardigan for Ari like forever ago... I think I'll use a few skeins though and sell the rest. Dashing Dach's Apple Snap Colorway.
octopus *sugi* pattern
William absolutely LOVES this! I surprised him with it, and he has carried it around and played with it, and built it houses for days! And my son being the charmer of names gave the little green dude the moniker - Octopu**y... think James Bond movie, though my son doesn't know Bond. Gosh I love Bond, I haven't watched any of them since the holidays.
Mochimochi released a new sweet pattern. Stackable kitties!
Monday, April 21, 2008
making a home...
Finally after ages of trying to find the perfect colors for the main floor, that I liked, that Jeremy liked, that didn't make the rooms look small, that made the room bright, but cozy... I finally picked colors this past summer... only to have no one to help paint. lol. I've been itching to paint the walls since we moved in and had an ugly color up. So let's see I will be living in this house for 7 years this summer... But no more I say! The painting has begun, all that is left in the second room is the trim, and then the main living area needs to be started today. We were up until 3:30 painting and I'm not dragging yet, but I know a nap is in my cards today. The colors look very nice, and the walls are brighter, which is so necessary with our lack of windows, and then add the front porch that hoards all the good, direct sunlight.
We took Saturday off to do nothing but lounge around the house, after a busy week of cleaning, tossing, and driving around, we all needed sometime to play and veg. We watched the Spy Kids movie since it was on Disney, and I was surprised that it wasn't awful. The kids are really into the Spy-theme right now, so they loved it.
Miss Pickle has a travel set! I've never had one of these bad boys before, so I'm excited about it! I'm wanting to get the matching pack n play at some point too. Though not the matching bouncer seat, I'd like to get this one for that.
and the travel system:
A few fo's :
Capris to match Blossom (still needs to be blocked, eek), I'm going to thread matching ribbon that I use on the Blossom above the ruffles.
And Miss Ari's Skirtsicle. She absolutely loves it, she wants to wear it constantly, and I'm so glad that it's getting a lot of use. Very easy pattern, I didn't block it so the picot cast off is rolled up and not really noticeable in the photo.
Friday we had Mike and Kris over to grill and had strawberry shortcake (sort of, I need a blender and keep forgetting that!) and sang "Happy Birthday" to my not so little baby.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Woot! I have a date!
I'm very excited to have a date, and an actual number of days to countdown the arrival of Miss Pickle. I'm very excited to "meet" her and get to know her personality, which is about that a fish for the first few weeks, but I don't mind. Just to see what she looks like, and get to experience all those firsts again, smiles, giggles (oh how I love baby giggles!).
I added a countdown of days to the right, the official date is June 2nd. My Dr. reviewed my past history and wanted me to go on the 29th or 30th... but the entire idea of delivering in May just seemed SOO soon, not to mention that Jeremy is required to work the weekends, so I really needed a June baby (for selfish reasons) and I really needed it to be at the beginning of the week. Which is what was accomplished with the 2nd, Jeremy really wanted the 3rd, but my dr was unwilling and unable to deliver on that day.
So some 40 days, holey moley! That is way fast, I need a vehicle to fit us by then, and a handful of "large" items, just organizing and cleaning my house. I'm getting the main floor painted on Monday/Tuesday. The girls' room just needs some decorative touches, and then I start on William's room. Which makes me want to sit in a corner and cry, it's so unorganized. The amount of paper that my kids have is just overwhelming, and they all want to keep a thousand different projects, and you hate to make them toss stuff, but honestly they color/draw every.single.day, I can't keep 20 plus pages a week per each kid.
My baby Aislyn had her fourth birthday this week. She's very excited that the day has finally arrived, and I hope to have a break from the daily question (which started in December). She picked IHop for breakfast, and then we went to the mandatory Chuck E Cheese. I think she had a great time. The waitress' sang Happy Birthday to her and gave her this gigantic sundae! She loved it. She's such a spoiled princess to begin with, when she ran out of tokens today she found her Dad, and demanded, "I NEED MORE MOONNNNNEEEEEYYYYY!" Ahh nightmare of teen years. ;)
Here's a photo of my little pirate princess on her special day (wearing her special shirt she's been anxious to wear since it arrived a few weeks ago).
Now I'm off to tuck these wild rascals in, and spend the evening relaxing. This week has been wildly crazy! Especially when we thought that Sissy escaped and Jeremy spent 3 hours walking the 'hood. I walked and then had to stop and ended up driving to find him and Ari and us girls drove around.... only to find she was locked in the linen closet. oy!
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
so much to do
It's getting close to crunch time, and closer to the time when I'm even more uncomfortable. I'm working hard at getting the house decluttered, painted, cleaned, and ready for Miss Pickle. We are hoping to paint the living/play area on Monday/Tuesday, I got a lot of the kitchen done, need to clean out just 2 more drawers (over run with recipes). Today I hope to get the kitchen part done and the area cleaned out where the dogs sleep, actually changing their whole arrangement since they've been so good lately (I hope it continues), and then I'm going through all the girls' clothes, keeping what Ais and Miss Pickle can use, and tossing/donating the rest.
I'm putting William's bookshelf in the girls' closest so it's out of the way, and the books won't get destroyed by the boys. And a lot of stuff in the living room (like an entire bookshelf) is going bye bye. Anyone live locally want a bookshelf? I'm excited to finally get the living area looking how I picture it, instead of a hodge podge. Not to mention downsizing the kids' toy collection, that will be sooo nice!
I'm looking into a vehicle to get, not sure what yet. Running out of time on that one, so I'm hoping to test drive some and see what I like, and fits the family, and then look for used with good prices. Also need to finish buying things like travel system, pack n play (not intending to use a crib this time, since I mostly cosleep as it is), I'd like to get bedding for the bassinet, but am having trouble finding some that doesn't include an actual bed/moses basket. So much to do!
After cleaning yesterday I laid on the floor to help my back stretch out, and it cracked many, many times. Insurance is a nightmare right now, and stresses me out. Just so much to do!
I purchased my swaddle blanket the other day and it should arrive soon. I like to have at least one "real" swaddle blanket, by real I don't mean those weird shaped blankets, instead I am referring to the ones that are actually large enough to encompass your wiggly baby. The one I got is from Swaddle Designs, they are 42"x42" which is a good size, and supposed to be a light weight that you can use them in warm clients. I went with the pink/brown, I had wanted the organic one with the orange trim but couldn't find it instock for a good price.
Otherwise we had a nice weekend out at the farm, it was cold and rainy most of the time, even had snow on the ground one morning. We just had a relaxing time, I brought the WII over and my Dad had a great time playing that with the kids. He does really good with the bowling, and "cheats" at tennis as Ari says, cause he just swings back and forth constantly, and therefore almost always hits the ball. Ari is actually going to do tennis this year instead of softball, the softball schedule didn't work well with the baby being born and Jeremy's softball schedule. Plus she wanted to do tennis last year but last year it didn't work. She's very excited, and it's in July so that gives me time to recover before I start heading out to watch her play. She wants to take piano lessons too, so I need to look into that. She's really into music and instruments, and is always commenting on songs, "like oh I like the trumpet in this song." weird things like that, things I never pay attention to, so she may have a good ear for it, for all I know.
On the knitting front, I just need to cast off on the skirtsicle for Ari, I still need to block & seam the Blossom, then make the patch for it. Two projects that are at the end, just need to get it done with. Not entirely sure what I will knit next, so much I want to knit, not enough time. I want to knit anouk though, a sunhat, and a bolero to go over the dresses I got her, in case she gets chilled. Ais was always chilly. I actually need to get some yarn for that last one cause I want it to be natural/cream to match more items.
I should head upstairs and start on the girls' room...
Friday, April 11, 2008
walking on sunshine?
I am feeling so good, emotionally, where as physically I'm in my third trimester so that obviously comes with issues, my jeans still fall off, but I'm clearly quite pregnant, so that's frustrating. While we aren't sharing her name yet, I'm starting to feel more attached to the name, which is a relief. I knew she was a girl since I got the positive, and I knew her name, at that point, but didn't know if I was in love with the name. THis is my last babe, I had to be smitten, and I wasn't sure I was. At her 17 week ultrasound I hesitantly mentioned the name to Jeremy on Arianna's birthday, knowing full well that once I did, the search for the perfect name would be over, and it was. He was like that's it. And Ive spent all this time since then making sure I felt the same, lol. The way Aislyn says it, is sooo cute! And she's always like - what's her name again? Now no bribing my kids to spill the beans for those that see them irl. :p
For my birthday I was very much surprised with a new cell phone. I picked out the Motorola Razor 2, and am quite enamored with it. I need to clean out my loaner phone from Kris and give that back to her, the loaner that I had for 13 months. Geesh. The timing of the new phone, and contract were all perfect, well as perfect as things can be in a non-perfect world. :)
This is what mine looks like, I'm way too lazy to take an actual picture, resize, and upload... when it looks like the ones found online.
Everyone is healthy here, the bug didn't last long, one last late night with Ari on Saturday and we were all healthy by the end of the weekend. Me and Aislyn never got sick, thank goodness. I had her sleeping in my room, to avoid the germs, and sprayed Lysol in the air like crazy. I was determined to pray fervently, and be a germ freak to avoid throwing up anymore than necessary.
Last Saturday it was gorgeous out so I snuck out to get a self-photo. I needed a new one for some things, and I actually like how this one turned out. It was 66 degrees that day... we haven't been anywhere near that since that one day. Aislyn doesn't understand why spring seems like winter, all I can say is that we are in the midwest and it has crummy weather. lol.
It seems if you get some women together, drama is sure to ensue. With the creation of Ravelry, there is a lot of yarnies in one area, and they all get to talking, and suddenly we realize that the loved Magknits was causing quite a lot of drama, that no one really knew since there hadn't been a place to talk about it in the past. With that, Kerrie the owner shut her doors abruptly and with no warning. I was in the middle of making Ari the skirtsicle pattern, and read that the owner is planning to offer it free for a week or so and then sell it for $4. Thankfully I am able to finish it because google has a cache of it, the pattern is here for those that might want it, it won't last long though.
You can save it to your desktop, or if you have Firefox, you can download their add-on "ScrapBook" and it does the same thing, but it's organized nicely without all those files cluttering your folder. I "scrapbooked" most of the patterns I wanted to make again, or for a first time while I could still get them. Some designers don't even have a copy of their patterns anymore, with computer upgrades/crashes.
So I have a lot of projects in progress, which I never do, but was forced to while I find a large piece of cardboard to block the Blossom pattern (also a magknits one), and get ribbon for the capris, and now Ari's skirt.
I was browsing my Family Fun magazine over breakfast the other day, and saw a section on visiting Chicago. It had some great recommendations that were off the beaten path. I'd love to get out there and try some of the things mentioned. It had a cute shop called Psycho Baby so I had to check if it was online, and obviously it is from the hyperlink above. :p I saw these cute stuffed animals though, they are all shabby and look like they've had lots of love. Deglingos for $42 a piece, I'll just be giving love to the photo. I really like their toys, another cute one Melissa and Doug Candy Jar for 6 months and up.
Deglingo's doggy
We are spending the weekend at my moms she's making my birthday dinner now since last weekend we were sick and couldn't make it out. My sister Erika, and me are going shopping at a boutique purse store, that also carries diaper bags, hopefully I can find a really awesome one for a good price. I love spending the weekends at my moms, Erika is moved out, and Marki is a teenager and has two jobs, and therefore never home. So it's just us, no drama, the smell of coffee when you wake up (I love my espresso maker but I want a coffee machine too so I can timer it brew when I wake up), and the kids play upstairs in the guest room, it's just so relaxing. I love my parents and the relationship we have now that we are all adults, so much less stress than when they were parenting over me and telling me what to do. I hate being told what to do. ;)
We were at the bank this morning and Ari asked why the car was shaking. I told her it was from Ais (who was wild and ornery), but that the car was also in idle, and it can vibrate in a way when it is... she's like "Oh because we're in IOWA." LOL Um no honey, IDLE.... "ohhh like American Idol?" no dear, english is a confusing language lol, enjoy your tootsie roll. ;)
I wish it'd be nicer out so we could be outside more on the farm, I love spring out there. This feels like fall, going into winter. Oh and my friend who is studying be an ultrasound tech, said according to her charts the baby will weigh around 8 lbs, and that it's a little over double a 30 week ultrasound weight. It will be interesting to see how much she does weigh.
Saturday, April 05, 2008
sick stop
William came down with some stomach bug on Friday, and by the evening Ari was sick with the same thing. I have to say though that so far it's not even lasting 24 hours, which is a relief. Because me, cleaning vomit when I'm not pregnant is tolerable (if its my kids), but it's absolutely the opposite when I'm pregnant. yuck.
We were supposed to head to my moms Friday night, sleep over and mom was going to do breakfast and then a steak dinner for me for my birthday, and some shopping... but we were sick so we skipped out on that. We should be going next week, and Friday night I'm hoping to go out with Darci to the local comedy club, which will be fun. It could be chimps up there telling knock knock jokes, and I wouldn't care! It's just nice to get out.
Miss Ais crashed on the sofa yesterday, and was wired last night so after we got the sickies in bed we stayed up to watch Little Foot. She really understands the concepts and what is going on, like when someone hurts someone's feelings, or if something is not nice. The whole social aspect.
I took out most of my baby items and snapped photos so I could keep track of what I need to get still. I put it in her own album at flickr here.
Some of my favorite outfits I got from Gymboree and Old Navy are below. I LOVE knowing what I'm having!!! It's so fun to buy pink outfits, and orange outfits, and dresses, instead of loads of yellow and green. Don't get me wrong, green is one of my favorite colors, and I plan to paint my living room a light yellow... so I don't hate those colors, but there's such a bigger world of color to enjoy when you know if you are having a boy or a girl. :)
I got this dress from Gymboree too (I had a gift card :D ) and I want to make a light weight bolero or cardigan to go over this and others that are tank top style, because indoors I think sleeveless might be a bit chilly. I'm thinking a natural/cream/cinnamon would work well. We'll see how far I get!
I'm working on Blossom, and am hoping to make a really sweet set. I just finished knitting it last night, now I need to seam, block, and do my fancy schmancy (haha yah right!) ideas to it. Then start on the rest of the set. :) Here's a site that gives you average measurements so you can work a pattern on your own: head circumference & Baby Size Chart. When it's all done I believe I will be casting on Skirtsicle for Miss Ari. I'm hoping to knit one thing for each kid before this one arrives, we shall see how far I get! I have a hefty list I want to accomplish before the babe arrives too.
I read that you can take a 30 week ultrasound and double the weight to get an estimated birth weight, if that holds true Miss Pickle will be around 6lbs 14oz. I'm thinking she will be around 7 1/2 lbs.
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
still no date...
I'm not impatient when it comes to setting the date for the c-section, but I've been told since January that my next appointment we would schedule, which puts it back to February! My next appointment is in 2 weeks (Wow 2 week appointments already!), and that I will most definitely be scheduling then, because my doctor wants to know when she works lol. We shall see. The thing is that, if I was having a normal delivery, I would not know the date. Everyone keeps asking me when she will be born so they can plan, and I understand that, but I wish they would just settle down. The woman I babysit for has been wanting to know for months... I promise when I know, she will... my mom is the same. Basically in 9 weeks, she will be here. That's all I can do for now.
The ultrasound went well, shes head down, and is a squished little princess. Estimated weight is 3lbs. 7oz. She should be around 7-8lbs at birth, hopefully. I'm 30 weeks, her body measures 31 weeks, and her head 32 weeks. Which all falls in the normal range, the head actually looked big in the photo... I'm very curious how she will look!
It was hard getting a face picture of her, but this is the best we could get. I had to lay on my side to get it since she's down in the pelvic.
The images are really kinda freaky especially on the video as they move in and out of focus. She was smacking her lips for lack of a better way to describe it during the ultrasound which was absolutely adorable.
My doctor had the serious talk with me about permanent measures, and while I know my time for deciding this is quickly dwindling... I just hoped it would go away, because I hate the circumstances in my life. I have 4 kids, I feel complete, happy, done... I feel like if I ever wanted to add to my family in the future that I would love to adopt to do so... I know that it literally puts me at higher risks, and that I shouldn't have anymore. But while I'm not legally separated, we haven't lived together since the first of October, and everything is just so messed up. I'm having a very hard time deciding this, and even if I know something, it's still hard to believe something. I get concerned if hey, I get divorced, I have 4 kids... I don't want to stay single forever. Would I find a great guy who'd be happy to help raise my four kids... who wouldn't want any of his own, or more of his own if he has some? I can say that yes, I should be able to, it would all work.. but it's unknown the future is. It's hard to do permanent anything, even in the best of circumstances. Makes me want to be an ostrich and hide my head in the sand, would that give me a solution? heh.
Enough of that heavy stuff though, and other than my appointment, not much has gone on. I had a great birthday, the kids sang "Happy Birthday" to me, and I got that stack of cards I had forseen, and they were just really sweet.
