A Relaxing Week

My week of vacation is drawing to a pleasant close. I didn't do anything much, but that was the best thing about having a week off! I spent many happy hours sitting out on my little side porch, knitting and listening to a book on CD. I finished some projects that had been languishing for too long, did a lot of reading, took naps and visited my garden every day. Steve & I are very very excited to have veggies appear!

I'm ready to see my boys early tomorrow morning; I've definitely missed the hugs, the early morning rocking, the questions and stories, and even the hundred requests to "pull my finger" that I hear every day

:-) ah boys, they are special.

Week 20 Results

Not so good, I gained 1.2 lbs. Of course, I deserved that since I have been a complete slug all week (though I did go to yoga ONCE, thus should have been rewarded for that effort). I am going to try harder this week! 20 weeks=20 lbs. That's kind of sucky.

Spiderman, Spiderman...

I am getting a lot of stuff finished this week! Yay, that means I can start new projects! Here's the Spiderman blankie I knit for my little buddy Mikey. He is 3, and you know 3 year olds really believe they ARE superheroes. Mikey is pretty dang sure he's the webspinner himself. So he's going to love his new blankie.

Beach Bum

Lorraine just sent me this photo of RJ enjoying the sunshine on Whidbey. The lucky pups get a whole week off school, and the weather there is evidently beautiful. She says the twins haven't been seen all day, they have been on the beach non-stop. And they've all eaten tons of clams, mussels, oysters and other yummy seafood. Plus Mikey ate a whole pan of brownies, which got him the stink-eye from Riveria.

Wish I was there, it looks grand!

Too Sweet!

This is the hat I just finished knitting for one of Katie's work pals' brand new baby. It's the Pea Pod Hat and I think it's about as cute as can be. Come pick it up Katie!

Author! Author!

Exciting news! I just got a letter from Knitter's magazine, saying they want to include my contest socks in their next book! I'm super excited! Now I just have to remember how I knit these socks. I coulda sworn I wrote the instructions down somewhere...

So Tiny!

I just came across this picture of the boys from the first spring I babysat them. OMG they are SOOOO little! Hard to believe so much time has passed and they are big gross boys now :-) And if you don't believe me, just hang around them for two minutes and they will ask you to pull their fingers...

It's Finally Warm in Spokane!

nataliedee.com

So Purty!

Just finished my pretty new socks! These are "Kai-Mei" from the book "Sock Innovation". The yarn is Zauberwol, and I love the happy rainbow colors. Thanks P, for taking a good picture without showing my hairy legs!

Sittin' and Knittin'

Not in the car, as I've been known to do while stopped at a light, but on my cute little side porch! The weather has been so nice here that I've set myself up a little 'nest' out on the porch so I can listen to music or a book on cd and knit away. Now all I need is a comfy wicker rocker and stool and I am set (I'm forced to use the fug plastic lawn chairs cuz that's what I have available, boo).

I actually have A WEEK OFF! I plan to do as little as possible, other than knitting, catching up on a little housework and puttering in the garden.

Week 19 Results

I lost .8 lbs last week, ALMOST a pound. I'll take it. Slow but steady is evidently my theme.

A Couple of Cute Pix

There's not much exciting happening around here this week, but must blog anyway right? :-)
So here are a couple of pics for Cara, to make her even more homesick and needing to come back to Spokane!

Mikey waiting to go into his speech class. He's a pretty good sitter and as long as I am willing to read to him or play with him, no problem. For some reason, this waiting area has NO books or toys for little kids, so we brought our 'emergency' bag of Power Rangers (I keep some in the car bc you NEVER KNOW when you will need the help of the 'Rangers). He let me be a Blue Ranger (not the good one mind you, I got the one that looked like it has been chewed on by Rex the Wonder Dog), and my Ranger was immediately kicked in the crotch by Mikey's Green Ranger, so he went down for the count. Luckily, Blue Ranger must have been wearing a cup, he survived to fight another day.

The twins this morning at RJ's speech session. We have to be there at 8 am, and these guys have the right idea. Bring 'comfy blanky', bowls of oatmeal and set up a bed using 2 chairs in the waiting room. If there were cartoons to watch, we'd never leave.

Week 18 Results

FINALLY!!! I reached my 10%/20 pound goal this week with a 1 lb. loss! I'm very happy, guess it does pay to get off my a** and do some exercise. I did an hour of yoga class and treadmill + swimming this week.

It Had To Happen

A Snuggie pattern to knit! Now y'all know what you are getting for Christmas...

Too Cool For School

B-Z reminded me of the year Susan, she and I all got 'Beatle hats' for Christmas. Ours were black leather (probably pleather now that I think of it). Man did we think we were soooo cool. I'd give a million bucks for a picture of us three dorks wearing our B.C.'s to church!

Leave It To B-Z!

A day late, but happy birthday to my beloved little sister The B. That's her down on the right with the blond hair (and we still have those same legs, don't we?).

Here are some random observations about the B:

1. She has long been known as 'Beaner Cleaner' and if you know The B, you know that is a PERFECT nickname (on top of her nickname B-Z, which is also perfect). She could have made millions just cleaning people's houses and keeping them organized.

2. But instead, The B opted for lifetime employment at Ostrom's Drugs in Kenmore. She started there in high school (not going to say how many years ago, but I believe they were still delivering drugs by horse and wagon lol) She is the heart and soul of the store, and when she retires, they're just going to have close the store.

3. She's always been a good athlete, which made me envious to no end when we were kids. She could ride a bike, ride a horse, do backward somersaults and probably even cartwheels, plus skied like a mad woman. None of which I could (or can) do.

4. The B used to collect pigs. She had some good ones and a lot of crappy ones. She quit thank God. Of course, that makes gift buying for her a tad more tricky.

5. I was a pretty mean big sister; when my best friend and I played Barbies, The B either got locked out of Susan's bedroom or if we HAD to let her in (she was a major tattletale), then she had to be Ken, Midge or the dog. I also hit her on the head with my arm (which was in a plaster cast at the time), with a wooden tennis racket, and I believe with an apple thrown full force (see #3 above, and you'll know she didn't get hurt all THAT bad). However, in my defense, I'm sure she deserved all of the hitting.

6. The B always inspired my imagination. Not only were we the creators and co-editors of the late lamented newspaper "Bits O' Fairy Business", but I created the timeless duo of "Beetsie and Braid" just for her. I think Beetsie was the good girl and Braid was the brat.

Anyway, I hope your day was full of fun and presents! Maybe I will make up a new Beetsie and Braid story and mail it to you for your BD :-) Love you!

This and That

Odds and ends from this week:

Lots of new knitting projects, because my attention span seems to be awfully short. I always have a pair of socks on the needles and my latest is from "Sock Innovations" by Cookie A. Here is a pic of my sock in progress using "Zauberball" sock yarn, which has cool rainbow-y colors:

I'm hoping these will actually fit me; Cookie A. socks seem to be designed for people who don't suffer from the dreaded cankles.

Here's #3 square in my cashmere Aran afghan. This one was dead easy :-)

Steve dug up the garden for me, and we are going to plant veg this week! I'm excited to have a garden, it's been a few years. Here's a pic of our front porch with 2 new planters. Hope the frost doesn't strike again or my pretty geraniums and petunias will be toast...

And here are some darling art projects by Liam. On the left is Mr. Skunk, center is a sweet tulip and on the right a smiling bumblebee. His class has been studying bees, so we are all about pollen, nectar, stings, hives and honeycomb lately. Grade school art is the best!

Week 17 Results

Lost .4 lbs. At least I lost. At this rate I should hit my goal weight sometime in 2050 lol. Oh well, I guess I'm averaging about a lb a week, but that won't last if I don't get off the schneid and REALLY lose some weight soon!

A Day In The Life

My days are spent taking care of the four cutest, goofiest, wildest 'tough nut scrumpies' (if you don't know what this expression means, just look at their faces, that should explain it all) in this world, and possibly in other worlds as well. Here are a few pictures from a typical day with Nanny Lavs 'McPhee':

Mikey found the old "Boppy" and decided to play precious baby for a while. Fake sleeper!

Mikey and I went down to the brand spankin' new YMCA and went swimming. While you will not see any pictures of Lavs in her swimsuit for quite a few more pounds, here's Mikey the fearless waterbug. They have a fun 'baby pool' with all kinds of toys, splashy stuff, a slide etc. He would have happily stayed in there until he turned into a tiny blue prune.

The twins never met a piece of furniture they couldn't use as a gymnastics apparatus. Here's Alex hanging from the top bunk, while Liam waits his turn to execute the tricky 'Bunk' move (squeeze in between the bunk and the wall, then hang upside down --follow with a daring flip off the top bunk and finish with a hanging back flip off the rails under the top bunk mattress). Cirque de Soleil has nothing on these two.

And here are the four men intently studying the laptop, giving lots of advice on how to win at "Inkball".

Some Cute Pix

Lorraine sent me some cute pictures of the gang doing their various boy things:

They are avid fishermen and caught a mess o' trout last weekend. Mikey is giving the whole thing 2 thumbs down, because he discovered the worms were meant for bait, not pets. He spent the whole time doing worm rescue.

Excellent Big Brother RJ walks Mikey back up the 'big hill' when his little legs couldn't quite make it up on the bike.

And here's Batman himself on his super fancy bike

Week 16 Results

Stayed the Same. GAH. I must get my 20 lbs. next week or I'm going to have to figure out how to give myself an emergency appendectomy at weigh in (I figure an appendix weighs about 2 oz right?)

Happy Birthday, Katie-Cat!

my baby girl is 28 today, I can't even believe it. Here she is in her beautiful babyhood with her big sissies.

And now in honor of my Katie, I present two tales from her childhood, both of which are indelibly imprinted on my memory:

Story #1: Katie was about 2 years old. I took La Bamba (the ginormous station wagon) full of kids somewhere, no one strapped into seatbelts of course, and everyone piled out when we got home. All the kids took off to play, and I went in the house unload groceries or something. After a half hour or so, I went out to gather up the tribe. NO KATIE. None of the kids had seen her since we got home (I assumed she went to play with them, since she tagged along with her sisters everywhere). None of the neighbors had seen her either. As you can imagine, I panicked. I had everyone looking all over the neighborhood, sure she had fallen into the ravine behind our house or been kidnapped. I finally called 911 in an absolute panic. The nice operator tried to calm me down, since I was about thisclose to breaking down in hysterical sobs. She walked me through what I had done that afternoon and when I said we had been in the car, she suggested I go check the car.

Sure enough, there was Katie, down in floor well covered with blankie, sound asleep. Thank god for 911.

Story #2: Again with the ginormous station wagon. Getting ready to go to the store, I put Katie and baby Tony in the car. I started the car, which was at the top of our steep driveway, and had no working emergency brake. Then I ran next door to tell my neighbor where I was going. As I stepped into her house, I heard this huge bang. That boy was a master at wiggling out of his car seat. He had gotten behind the wheel and put the car into drive (his father's child). It flew down the driveway and through the garage, pushing another car INTO our family room.

As I ran back to the car and opened the door, there was Tony smiling delightedly. Katie was standing next to him with her eyes as big as saucers. All she could say was "Bruddy Drove".

LOL, happy day Katie! Don't let Bruddy Drive you anywhere!

Annual Rite of Pain

Today is Bloomsday, which means I got talked into the annual 12k 'run' with Pia and Katie, plus 40,000 of our fellow citizens. God, I was so hoping the swine flu would force cancellation, bc I am totally not in shape to do this. No luck though, so we will be walking the streets all morning, getting our achilles clipped by crazy stroller steerers.