Happy Turkey Day!

Guest Artist Alex P. and
Guest Artist Liam P. wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving!

A Couple of Cute Pix

Here's Liam posing with his prize winning pickled onions at the Spokane Interstate Fair. Yeah, Liam!!!

Liam and Mikey hamming it up at the zoo's children's prison.

Bring Em Home Week 7

This week, we interview various family members to see what they have to say about Cara & Tony living in Virginia!

Aunties Susan & B-Z (circa 1977): hey Cara, we put you in a cardboard box when you were 3 days old and showed you off in our booth at the Bothell Art Fair! Come home, and we promise to find another cardboard box for you to lay in (and one for you too, Tonsy!)

Your mother (high school days): come home you two, or I'm going to pull out the bib overalls and start wearing them to show my solidarity with West Virginians.

Cara, I just KNOW this is still how you spend every holiday. I promise to rock you if you come home!

Pooh Bear rockin' his trademark squint. The sun is WAY too bright there for a photo-sensitive guy like you. Get home where it's only sunny part of the year.

Auntie Jamie Clare says "get home y'all, before I hurl myself off this cliff face and into Lake Sammamish and get bitten by eels!"

Did you even KNOW that Pia has become a member of Heaven's Gate?

And were you AWARE that Uncle Joe had to have a tricky bit of plastic surgery done recently?

Lavs, Mimi, Grandpa Walter, Sliver and Clare are contemplating starting a cross-country hike to retrieve you two. And we WILL be wearing Daisy Dukes and head scarves.

Katie is going to join us, riding her Chubby Chopper. In her Strawberry Shortcake swimsuit.

The Gang says "it's not a party without you two, so get on home!" Bonus points to anyone who can name all the relatives in this picture.

And B-Z reminds us "This is what West Virginians look like...you've been warned"

Finito!

I have finished a few things! And found my camera + batteries. The pictures may not actually be any better than those on my cell phone. Maybe it's the photographer :-^

Here's my "Secret of The Stole" which is actually called Estes Park. You can't see all the pretty beads and lace patterns but trust me it is very fancy.

Here's the Advent Tree! OK, it's maybe a little tippy-tonks, but it's no longer looking anything like genitalia, thank god. I am starting to knit on all the little ornaments, lots of tiny pieces to sew together, but will be super cute.

And here's the 'Faux Fair Isle' cardigan I made for Brieanne. I do hope she likes it, and that it fits her little girl.

Heading to The Park

The twins and Mikey came over today and hung out. They all give the new house two thumbs up, especially since we are only a block from the park! We walked over to check out the playground this morning:

Alex brought his guitar along just in case there was an audience (or for panhandling, not sure which)
Mikey took his puppy along for the walk. Puppy only tipped over about every two feet so it took us a while to get there. But he was a good dog, and no need to take a poop bag with this little guy.

Young Writer's Club Meets at Lowdie's House

Liam loves to dictate stories for me to type and print. Usually they involve animals and the facts he knows about them. Yesterday, we did this one:

About Bunnies
By Liam Parlange
November 20, 2008


Bunnies like carrots. Bunnies jump high. Bunnies and deer are the same animals almost. Bunnies are black, white, brown, grey, green. Bunnies hop so far, farther than a grasshopper. But bunnies cannot fly. Bunnies can only stay on the ground. People like to see bunnies. Bunnies are afraid of people, people aren’t afraid of bunnies. Famous bunnies are Peter Rabbit, Rabbit from Winnie the Pooh. People like to knit bunnies, like my Gramma Laurie. Laurie can knit anything she can knit a rabbit, a pig, a donkey, a race horse. She is good at knitting animals and anything. She knits me anything and Alex and Vera and Mikey. And Mom. And Steve. And Pia, Little Tony, and all the rest of her family.

Bunnies live in the forest.

The End.

I think he set the bar pretty high on my knitting skills -- a race horse, yikes!

New Kicks

Is there anything better than Nordy's children's shoe dept? I think not. Mikey and I went to Nordy's yesterday to buy some new sneakers (he lost one shoe on a stroller ride. Hard to keep track of all the equipment when you are stroller-ing).


Here's our little man with his pretty new Stride-Rites. Blue and silver (no light ups though, rats)

Then we celebrated our purchase with a Big Pink Cookie and some hot cocoa.

Hanging Out at 'Bucks

Sorry, Lis, still having to use crap cell phone pictures...The twins and I headed over to the Gonzaga area 'Bucks to have a coffee break and do our homework while Mikey was at preschool.

Here's Alex with the proof that he FINISHED his homework! Victory!
Liam doing his patented "Posie Playmate" face. When we went in, he said "Laurie, the president is here!" He pointed out an African-American gentleman in a suit standing with a silver-haired white man and said "Is that Barack Obama and John McCain?" I think it was lol.

Brills!

Tatum has solved the age-old question: how does one combine wearing glasses with drinking milk and pull off a great new look?

I must have a pair of these!

The Holidays are Creeping Up!

Bringing out Baby Jesus again this year to mark my start for Christmas season! The girls and I went shopping today and I am proud to say I have THREE Christmas Gifts. Hey, I actually have like SEVEN if I can find all the stuff I have been knitting for people. (and no Katie, I am NOT giving you hand knitted socks. You are not worthy and you've already said they are creepy and you will never wear them)

I am trying to have a modest holiday this year, as I really need nothing, and figure most of my family is loaded to the gills with stuff. Handmade or edible may be my motto this year! So if you are expecting something lavish and store-bought better let me know stat.

Bring Em Home: State Fauna

We are scraping the bottom of the 'state comparison' barrels this week, because I have tried my damndest to be witty and clever and those two clowns are STILL living in Virginia!

Time to get out the big guns: which state has cooler animals?

Washington has the Apple Maggot, Virginia the Gypsy Moth. I dunno, somehow the maggot just sounds tougher and meaner than a gypsy...

Salmon vs. Catfish. No contest there, I'm not eating anything with disgusting whiskers.

The Dungeness Crab is known as the "King of Crabs" and can grow up to 15". VA's Blue Crab is a punk, only about 5.5", and is mean as hell besides.

Does VA have Geoducks? Nope. And though we may consider that a good thing about Virginia, for the sake of argument let's pretend the geoduck is a desirable animal to have in your state...

Hanging Out

Katie came over this afternoon to watch the Zags game with me (we won by 30, not without some suckiness in the first half though).

Here she is waving to the camera.

And Here she is playing with her cell phone.

An exciting afternoon! Luckily, P showed up with pizza.

New Project

Since I am actually finishing some things (the Faux Fair Isle is nearly done, and I'm plugging away on the Halloween Mystery Shawl, but it's not a portable project), I decided to start on a cute holiday project: Alan Dart's Advent Tree That green blob is the tree, which is knit in fun fur yarn. Then you knit all these adorable little ornaments and hang one each day of Advent on the tree. Gotta get at least a few done before Dec. 1!

My New Favorite Show

I am an unabashed fan of QEII (that's the Queen of England, dontcha know) and last night PBS showed the first two hour segment of their new show "Monarchy". I was in heaven! It was all about the queen's visit to Jamestown last year. I kept looking for Cara and Katie in the crowds, sorry girls you didn't make the cut.

I LOVE her. And I miss the Queen Mum. There's a gal I would have loved to drink a gin and tonic with.

Precious Pup!

Mama took Mikey to a REAL barber shop for a haircut. He looks so tiny in the barber's chair! Yet so manly. What a cutie!

Hoo-Ah!

The boys got to go to 'Camo Camp' all day yesterday, and it was a HIT. Despite the cold, rainy weather, they 'soldiered up' and learned to build a shelter, scout for the enemy (Alex stepped on a nail while climbing a telephone pole in order to spot the enemy forces), got full camo face paint, learned to salute, made 'suicide stew', shot potato cannons and paint balls, and did lots of other army stuff. Liam is showing off the bars he earned and the proper form for saluting your superior officer. They are eagerly awaiting the spring session so they can track and shoot (! hope not) animals.

Such a boy activity. They said there was one girl there, but she was 'annoying'. Girl cooties live.

What Visiting D.C. With My Family Is Like...

I think we did the Smithsonian in record time!

Better!

Thanks to Handyman Steve, my evil storage cubes got put together and now all of my yarn is stored much more neatly! I could use another stack of cubes, but I will wait till Steve's hands have healed then ask him to put more together

;-)

Another Trip Down Memory Lane

Susan mentioned "The Wiggity" in her comments on our cute family photo where we are all wearing giant white underpants. That sure brought back some memories!

We used to do a LOT of shopping at The Wigwam, which was a discount (and I do mean discount) department store. I couldn't find a picture, but of course Wiki has an article.

I remember having to get a dress to wear to a wedding there, I hated it like you could not believe. It was made out of the scratchiest fabric, my neck was tortured the whole day. AND B-Z got to wear a cute dress, which made it even worse.

New Jobby-Job

Not me! Susna is now working at Bellevue's Hilltop Yarn East, and boy are they ever lucky to have her! Great knitter, knows what customer service is all about, and is hardly ever a knitting nazi.

Be sure to stop by and buy a bunch of yarn from her next time you are in the 'Vue!

What All Little Girls Should Wear...

...If they want to look as darling as our Logan does in her big dress, tights and shoes. Doesn't get ANY cuter than this.

The 50's Family

Can I say how much I LOVE these pictures of our family!!!??? Top one is dated 1958, before the arrival of the three 'little kids' (sorry Lisa/Jamie/Jon). Dad looks incredibly handsome, Mom is the perfect 50s housewife, and us kids are in various stages of scrap-noodle dress (now I know where my inability to dress neatly started). The Kids Left to right: Judy looking all prissy, Susan crabby that she is forced to wear a dress with red socks, Laurie in incredibly scrappy capris and saddle shoes, Raymond looking all manly in his slacks and t-shirt, B-Z with adorable fat cankles in Little Lotta shoes & socks, and Joey Love flexing for the camera.

No date on this one, but right around the same time period. Most of us must have decided it would be a swell idea to cool off in Toddie & Baba's fish pond or maybe even the cement pool out back. Susan is the only one of us who came prepared with a swimsuit, and Judy is all prissy again in a dress. Love the giant undies! Oh, and B still has those darling chubby legs!

An Homage to The B

I came across a box of old pictures, and have been having fun looking through them (when Iam supposed to be putting stuff away). The first batch included several of my dear little sister B-Z:

This must have been 2nd grade or so, about the time she toyed with spelling her name "Beezie". Love the gap teeth! And of course, the standard Sundstrom 'pixie' hair cut.

Here she is in all her nakedini glory. What a cute lil chub-deb! And apparently the nudist trend has passed down to the next generation: