say wha?
an update, eh? I've received emails and messages on this.. so here I am! Out of hiding, I return. :) I didn't plan to stay gone forever, just had to regain myself a little, redirect myself, and get a new game plan. With all of that evasiveness, that means absolutely nothing to 99% of you, let's jump right in!
Before I start in on anything really, I just want to close this stupid amazon link... so check this!
Look & Cook & See & Sew. I want these, lol. I love the vintage illustrations, and they have some good reviews on amazon too. Whew! One tab I can close! I hate when I have so many tabs open in Firefox that there is an arrow to see the rest...
I can guarantee this is going to be long, possibly boring, and definitely too many photos. :) Ready?
Alrighty! Jeremy was on vacation, he returns to work today, so we've had a week of chilling out around the homestead. I made great food that I haven't been in the mood to do for a fair bit. Stromboli with Garlic Ring bread... so good. We did a LOTR Trilogy event and did our "hobbit" meal, we haven't done this in *years*. We played so much Stratego and Backgammon... I've never beat him at Stratego, but I almost 99% of the time beat him at Backgammon... I always win at Othello, so naturally we haven't played that in 3 years.
Just because I love this booger so so much, and he was too cute laying in the sunshine the other day... Strider, our big fat kitty of love. That's his name, among other things.
I thought this one was cute of Ais and Jeremy.
Almost the entire vacation we had rain and chilly weather, we didn't get in the pool once. The only nice day, we went fishing, but of course everything was flooded. We knew a lot would be, but thought Snake Creek would be good with the big retaining wall... uh no. Pictures of that below. There is naturally a wall that is underwater, along with most of the sidewalk. One of the best was two college guys trying to kayak up the river, the flood waters were rushing very fast, one didn't make it.
This is one of my favorites from the day, I love how Arianna is laughing at something Miss Ais did/said. This is why you have more than one. *heart*
And because she is just beautiful.
Nearly the gang, minus one (me if you didn't notice) ;)
Us girls painted our toes and played My Pony Memory, and we did a breakfast picnic when we first arrived. It was a pretty nice day, the fishing wasn't too great, I suppose that goes without saying, with rushing flood water. Minnows were a hit like usual, and at the end they liked letting them go one at a time. William is happily playing with one in the picture above, love that expression!
Erika came by Saturday night and we did her belly pictures, and I gave her the present from Darci. I have something for you (Darci) buahahahahaha. Ok, pulling myself together. My little nephew, soon to be here! The doctors said she *may* even go early! Which is great because I'm anxious to meet him! Plus on a selfish note, I don't want her to birth on my anniversary, we are making plans and they mostly include my mom babysitting my three kids.
She is beyond excited! The nursery is amazing, and she has tons of stuff, lucky baby!
The knitting I did this vacation, is below. These are for my friend Traci. The yarn was my nemesis, I winged a pattern, and it didn't have enough stretch, so I frogged it. Then... then!!! Oh yes, 8 inches of knitting, and frogged.. it can get worse! Carli (the dog), decided to play "cat" and tackled my yarn, oh sad sad day. Took forever to salvage the tangles out of most of it. I didn't even save it all. But alas here are the socks, and only a few yards to spare.
I have so much to choose from to go from here, I'm making my friend Kim's daughter the fru fru tank, just need to get the yarn. I have my hogwarts sock yarn that arrived, and I believe I picked out the pattern! Then my sock it to me sock swap partner, who has yarn, and possibly a pattern (I can't make up my mind)... not to mention I finally got the yarn for William's "cardigan for merry". So I need to decide what to cast on today. Jeremy is working second shift Mon-Thurs this week, so I taped some shows to watch the kids... Honey I shrunk the kids, remember that? I'm afraid it's going to be a loooonnng week.
Oh! I made some ice cream handwriting paper; you can print it off. Just right click and save it to your hard drive to have for future use or save the URL. Click the image to see the full size. Don't worry, its not all warbly like shown below.
Ok now that I'm all updated, I won't be so dodgy with my next post.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
if i cared enough i could think of a title... guess not :p
I am getting things ready for the baby shower that is on Sunday, for my sister. Who happened to change her mind on the name for the baby, it went from Landen to ??? Unknown as of now. She is leaning on Tristan. She was surprised I've given her the least crap about this. My parents dislike the name Tristan (you know if he's named that they will love it.), and a few other nay-sayers.
I remember with Arianna all the crap we got from others, thinking that I was carrying THEIR child, and I needed THEIR opinion on what to name my baby. We never told names after Arianna, we left it a "surprise" (we never found out gender ether), but I was so fed up with the pestering. MIL hated the name William (Arianna's boy name), said everyone would think of Bill Clinton... yah he gets that a lot, no other great Williams in history just Bill Clinton and his scandal... that no one really cares about anymore, anyway.
I was reading over at Sara's blog and she posted her thoughts on the 3 R's (reduce, reuse, recycle). She used to live in Iowa, and made mention about how horribly toxic the state of Iowa is for hog animal pollution. We are, number 1! Call me surprised, I never knew, and we are taking the lead by a landslide. Minneapolis is #2, and I don't know if they could catch up if they wanted to, but heh who wants to be the number #1 pollutant in this category? Here is the link.
From the site linked above - "Bottled water is not safer. The bottled water industry has created a misconception in the United States that bottled water is cleaner, safer, and healthier than tap water. In fact, both regulation and enforcement of bottled water safety is weaker than of tap water safety." Great tips on water filtration. That site is just a wealth of information, you should check it out. :)
Time for "headshots" for CT teams, my old one is outdated, and my hair is long, I took it last October I believe. So I began my attempts today. It never fails that while I think I'm pretty looking in a mirror, quirky and cute, I will hate 99.9% of every photo I see of myself. And at some point the photos go from *smile* to *im weird and goofy*.
Maybe I could use this one, and save myself the hassle. ;)
And while working on this real quick, a lovely little joy came flying into my dining room. I went to open the window, it's a cool over cast 73 degrees out.. and in flies this big ugly green bug that is seriously 3-4" long. Ick, I have the heebie jeebies, I can not kill this, help it, or look at it. Its hiding behind my thin dining room curtain. What is this thing? And *how* did it get into my window, stuck between my screen and window... no holes in the screen to speak of.
So this has been fun, I suppose you could say. I'm planning to leave the premises of this aforementioned bug, and find a safer place to hang out. Mind you I have *two* farm cats, literally, and they are completely useless. I suppose Purina Cat food is to blame, it pampered them to the point of stunted house cats that don't know how to catch a bug!
Friday, August 10, 2007
cheesy, late night ramblings
My friend, Kim shared a picture of herself and family all Simpson style, so out of pure boredom and passing of time, I decided to give it a whirl...
While I don't think mine really looks too much like me, I think Jeremy's does.
I spanned out in music last fall when I was tired of the same old music, and I found Josh Ritter, and a few others that I really like, folk/acoustic/rock... This guy is from IA, which is kind of neat considering there isn't much here. ;)
Everyone hear of Chapman's Five Languages of Love? Google it if you haven't. ;) I don't have the book, i've skimmed it, but I've heard of it from friends/family. I found a quiz online to test, though I could tell by just the titles where I fell.
I feel loved when...
The Five Love Languages
My Primary Love Languages are probably Physical Touch and Words of Affirmation
| My Detailed Results: | |
|---|---|
| Physical Touch: | 10 |
| Words of Affirmation: | 10 |
| Quality Time: | 5 |
| Receiving Gifts: | 4 |
| Acts of Service: | 1 |
Take the Quiz!
Check out the Book
Apparently being a touchy/feely person made me at risk for rough teenage years according to the book, MIL was kind to let me know this, thanks for the heads up, heh. She also mentioned that the book includes a chapter on identifying your child's "love language" and how to then show that you love them, in the most meaningful way to them. I'm going to see if I can find something of that online, the book gives examples, like when Daddy comes home your child does A, B, C, or D...
Vacation was supposed to start yesterday, its now postponed to start this upcoming Saturday, urgent things at work need his attention. I'm tired.
Thursday, August 09, 2007
troops, politics, and all that stuff you arent supposed to talk about...
I warn that I am a little feisty today, if you are easily angered, hate the troops, or love war, you may not want to read.
Many people in this part of my state know about some of our troops coming home at the end of July. 8,000 people were at the stadium to welcome the 640 troops home. There were people with banners all along the interstate, and through town. Still two weeks later, there are banners and signs up at the Sullivan brother Museum, pretty fitting I thought, and a few other places scattered about. I really thought it was great to see such an overwhelming number of people welcoming them home.
We have several friends that are over in Iraq now, and we are looking forward to when they come home. One will not get to meet his son/daughter until then, and the other left shortly after his daughter was born. They truly sacrifice so much, not just with their family, and children, and memories, but their own lives.
Which leads me to the point of my post. I am absolutely fed up with people using the war, the troops, to their own gain. Let's see...
It's just so popular to "support the troops" (as we freakin should), but it's not always for the right reasons... lets go into my annoying conversation.
A person I know, that people who know me can probably guess... takes photos for a living. ;) Yep... Well she happened to get a press pass (for what, taking photos of kids for their birthdays, needs to be here for this?), and got "really good seats" she was "right up there where the troops were" and "took lots of photos for work," because her boss thought, it'd be really great to put up on the wall, "because people love it when you show support for the troops".... really... so you want to use their homecoming ot make yourself an extra buck. Well I will not be going there for my children's photos (no real loss as I don't go there now), but even more so, will I not go there.
These aren't times you should be using people for your own gain, oh i feel so good, I supported the troops, well atta girl... or oooh i could make money off this... go corporate America. Hooray, job well done. *sarcasm*
Then the other side of the spectrum... "I'm anti-war/Bush/Iraq/oil and that means I'm anti-troops." Really people? You think that black/white, that you just throw these peoples lives into the same realm as President Bush? There are a lot of things gone wrong here with our government, but I would never consider taking it out on the troops that are over there, I would never even consider not supporting them.
I am active when it comes to government, I have made many phone calls, letters, and emails to my states representatives, and I am on all their mailing/announcing lists, so that I know what is going on. I highly urge everyone to do this. You will also get to know where your representatives truly stand.
Around the same time as the troops coming home, the Democrats held a vote to bring the troops home. I tried staying up to watch it, but it went through until early morning, and I didn't have the stamina. In the end the Republicans stuck with Bush. I am looking forward to a new presidency, I have a feeling though that like most areas, it won't come balanced, as much as it will swing democrat. I can envision a lot of "er i don't like bush so ill vote democrat."
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
crafty corner
a little update with some crafty things that have occupied my time in the relatively nearest future.
Robin Carlton & SSD
robin carlton, at songbird avenue.
Robin made this great kit, Dreamsicle for Songbird Avenue. They donate 100% to charity, which is great & the kit is really cute!
Here is Traci's sock in progress, I decided on the jaywalker pattern from MagKnits. I had to make some adjustments for my yarn, and needles, so its the repeating pattern. This sock is ready for the heel.
Here is the cardigan I knit in secret in July, this is for Kris' daughter's first birthday. Miss Aayla herself, I can't believe she is one already!
This might be my new favorite song because its just so utterly ridiculous, the title cracks me up every single time, the lyrics... all of it. And what is up with these rock songs using sayings, like in this song -> "Oh, take a gander the bigger they are the harder they fall." haha, its the best part of the song, hilarity at its best (especially the way they "sing" it). ;)
Maybe I'm easily amused, but hey that's a good thing. I have a few songs that have won their way into my heart by being so annoying, catchy, or funny. Another one of these is Paralyzer, lyrics. We *saw* them in concert in January, we decided to come late to the concert, and mostly just to see Hinder. Favorite of this song is "that would be cool with me."
I should go do something productive, the kids are
Monday, August 06, 2007
back then..
I've been telling myself at inopportune times that I need to check out what happened with Goo Goo Dolls, Darci mentioned they were still around, just not as good as they used to be. I was fixing some files on the computer and decided to play some music. I haven't really checked out the new stuff much, but gosh, these old ones, just take me right back in time. I can remember who I was back then, and it's hard to see me in that person now.
While driving this weekend, Arianna saw a tree, and asked if it was a grape tree. There is a house on the way home that has quite an extensive garden, including grapes. I was telling her, it's by the old ice cream shop... she didn't know what I was even talking about. They closed down some years ago. Seems like another life when I had ice cream there.
By my old house there was this rather large wooden area that me and Jessie always trampled through. Its now a housing development. Every time I drive that way it just catches my eye at how empty it is, and makes me a little sad.
My thoughts lately have been too heavy for something like my blog, I've spent too much of this year reacting. We have all these dreams when we are young, naive to the world. Then we are in it, and then what? What I thought I always wanted, I realized isn't as sweet. I love the innocence in my children, I wish they could hold on to it forever, be pure and full of dreams. I wish a dream alone could carry you.
Thursday, August 02, 2007
little of this and that
I imagine that many have seen on the news about the I35 bridge collapse in Minneapolis. It's horrifying. Like many, I always had fears of crossing big bridge/rivers, which in my locale would be the Mississippi River, usually from Iowa to Illinois. I've been watching the news and praying fervently for all those involved and still lost in the debris. :( You can read more here and pictures here.
I hope all my readers are safe, some of my friends I've talked to, missed going on the bridge by just a few minutes. It's intense to me how things happen in these instances, those that would of normally been there that weren't, those that wouldn't of been there, but were.
How do you bounce from this subject to something much more frivolous? Probably not a great way to do so, but here it is.
Jeremy had yesterday off so we went to Circus Park, we planned it out ahead of time so the kids were just thrilled all week. Everyone had a really good time, it's their favorite park so much that they usually don't want to go anywhere else. I'm hoping to take the kids to the Buffalo Park, which is where I went as a kid. I think they'd like it though I hear it's changed a lot. We swam for an hour then went to softball where Jeremy's team won by 20 to 1, in the third inning.
One of me and Jeremy at the park, don't have many pictures of us together.
My kids are growing up so much, William's face has changed a lot this year, he's gone from his toddler face to a big kid one. It's changed from rounded features to more defined ones. This was taken the other day when we made Mocha Muffins, and I thought gosh he's getting so big! He'll be five this winter!
Then my baby, Ais is going to be in Awanas on Wednesday nights. This has really hit me hard. Last year we would drop the kids off then we'd go visit Jeremy at work. This year it's just me. Can I keep her home an extra year? I know I couldn't, I am so proud of her and excited for her. She can not wait to go to Awanas, and is thrilled in Sunday School now. It wouldn't be fair to hold her back, but it's hard to even let them go this little bit, and they are
still so small!
William desparately wants a brother, he tells everyone that Landen (sisters baby) is going to be his brother, he will be his cousin. But he won't hear none of it, Landen is his brother. How impossible that would be in real life, being
as she is my sister. ;) I feel sad for him, he prays every night for a baby brother, and recently this guy below has become my son's brother.
Why yes, that is a broken in two robot that is missing an arm. *sigh* Makes me think back to the "My Buddies" from the 80's, ah the song comes screaming back in my head. My buddy, my buddy, my buddy, my buddy, my buddy and me! My buddy and me, like to climb up a tree. My buddy and me are the best friends that could be! ... Those kids had dolls, my son has a broken robot for a brother. So sad and funny at the same time. ;)
I got the blanket finished, just need to sew in the lose ends, you would not believe how close it was for the last row, like 6" remained of the brown! Quite a bit left of the turquoise. SITM partner, I left my crayon review in the comments section. I'm trying to get in the habit of responding to comments in the comments section again.
I have the yarn for my Sock-it-to-me partner, but am not sure on the pattern yet. I have my hogwarts sock swap that I'm mulling over, I need to buy yarn, but I want to decide the pattern first. And before I can begin ether of these, I need to get my swap socks done for my friend Traci at Midnight Spectrum. She is having socks made in the "punk" colorway that is her own, I bought it for Christmas and had a skein left, and I'm trying to decide on this pattern, I plan to cast these on today more than likely... unless I go with the booties. I have until the 19th to get booties done. It depends on my mood when I finish the lose ends of the blanket if do socks or booties.
Aislyn this morning got in trouble for hitting Dylan, several times. That is the boy I take care of. Here she was in time out. She calls the microwave a "cooker" it's so cute!
I made a new button for the KAL and one for the SAM KAL 4, which I signed up for again. I like making buttons. I used this picture of mine for the KAL one. And if you don't know me that well, these are all dyed by Traci at Midnight Spectrum, I *heart* her dyeing abilities.
I should get out into the pool with the kids, and enjoy this 90+ weather, this year we haven't had any outrageously hot times like last year. This time last year we were camping at Backbone, and the temps were *over* 100 degrees before humidity. We've been watching the series The Bronx is Burning, it's an ESPN tv show on the year of Reggie Jackson joining the yankees and the Son of Sam, its really interesting. They have lots of clips from the actual news back in that time, and just so much drama. Who knew? Surely not I! If you are wondering how I tracked from hot weather to the series, last night's episode mentioned the New York 1977 blackout.
Oh and we watched Batman Begins last night, last time I fell asleep (I must have been really tired) because the movie was awesome! Not cheesy or corny like the other movies, definitely not made for the kids. I'm actually excited about the next one. AND! Narnia's next movie is set to come out in May of 08, and then each May after until all books are finished. :)
