Two Thumbs Up!

for "Away We Go" starring the always adorable John Krasinski. I seldom get to go to movies that aren't a) cartoons or b) feature superheroes, so this was a super treat! Funny, cute and a little poignant. Go see it!!!

Congrats Megan!

Megan, I am so proud of you! You completed the Rock and Roll Marathon and I think you lived to tell the tale (tho not sure bc you didn't show up at the cabin damn you).

I hope you were not wearing underpants while you were running the marathon, because you promised you would start working on getting pregs as soon as you finished, and I am holding you to that promise...

A New Sundstrom-ism

Those who follow 'Fluther' are prolly aware that my family has a whole dictionary of family-centric names and terms. We coined a new one at this weekend's get-together. In my opinion, it's a keeper:

LAPOXIA: noun. Originally given to Tate's little clothespin dolly she made this weekend, then gave a case of chicken pox to (little dolly is evidently weak and prone to illness). When Tate was thinking up names, I suggested Lapoxia. Tate refused that name for some reason, but Katie and I were off. Tate finally gave up and we started calling people who were annoying us 'Lapoxia'. Seems like a totes perfect name to call someone who is bugging the shit out of you, doesn't it?

Faboo Stitch N Bitch Weekend!

The Second Annual Sundstrom Ladies' SNB was a smash hit! Although we missed some of our girls (Meg, running a marathon, Lis, working, and Cara, still in hideous VA), those who attended had a grand time. B-Z aka The Hostess With The Mostest, entertained us in fine style at the cabin, the weather was perfect, the food divine and the knitting/yarn winding/chasing small girls around was perfection. Here are some pix:

Tatum is pondering the mad skillz of Katie at game-playing.Katie, B, and Pia taking a lil knitting break to play some sort of card/board game. Too complex for me.

Tate explains to Maddie that the yarn winder is NOT a fun new ride-on toy.

Susna, Pam and Logan relaxing on the deck. Knitting is happening!

Loggie knitting on the world's tiniest project. Or checking out a bean from B-Z's Container O' Beans For Kids To Dig In.

B-Z displaying her heretofore unknown mad skillz at yarn-winding. This was the only knitting-related activity the B got to participate in the entire weekend, as she was also doing Zaide duty with Maddie and Hadley. And how adorable is Mads with her super-long hair!?

The gals at Show N Tell. Pam is explaining why this darling baby sweater has languished in her knitting pile for ages. I think there's a knitting old wife's tale that says if you don't finish a baby sweater, you will be sure to get pregs, Lootie. So pass that puppy to Megs stat!

Pia in a happy moment, right before I suggested that she rip out her entire project and start again.


Reaction to said suggestion.

Katie snuggled up with her Blue Sky Chicken project. I hope this is my birthday present, Katie...


Also in attendance were B-Z's bestie Michele and Grandma Shirley to help corral the babies. No knitting by those two, but their company was much enjoyed! And all 4 girls were so well-behaved and a joy to have around! Y'all better be there for the next SNB!

Week 24 Results

Finally off the schneid! I lost 2.2 lbs last week. Little Lotta over there is looking a wee bit skinnier!

Portland, Anyone?

August 6-9 I'm going to be working in the Cherry Tree Hill Yarn booth at Sock Summit! I get paid in yarn, which is fine by me :0 Is anyone else interested in spending a few days in beautiful Portland OR? I was thinking it might be fun to rent an apt or house in Portland since I am going to be there for a few days, so if you want to chip in and have a grand time with me (well maybe not WITH me since I will have to work, but at least we will be in the same place at night and for coffee in the morning), let me know.

Before & After

Liam drew me a couple of portraits the other day. I think they are of me before I take the boys somewhere in the car and after:

At least, that second picture is generally what I see in the rear view mirror after being in the car with the boys for any length of time :-)

Mikey the Fancy Dancer

Mikey got to go to work with Mama this morning and participate in a special ceremony. He's wearing the beautiful ribbon shirt his Auntie Ricky made for him. I hope someone took video of our little Fancy Dancer!

How Much Fun Can a Dollar Buy?

A LOT, if you ask the boys. We went to the Dollar Store yesterday, because the guys had done all of their chores and behaved themselves for two whole days :-) Each boy had $2.00 to spend, and let me tell you, it was agony to narrow the choices down. We made many trips up and down the crappy toys from China aisle before settling on Poppers (noisemakers) and Fake Rotten Teeth for Liam, Glow Sticks and a race carfor Alex, and a motorcycle and Glow Sticks for Mikey.

We had a convo about why Dollar Store stuff breaks almost immediately; everyone decided that even though it's cheap junk, it's still fun to shop!

Sunshine Sockies

Just finished my "Sunshine Socks". So sunny! Love the bright yellow. I'm having trouble finding a good new project, everything I cast on looks fug. Need something for our Stitch n Bitch this weekend!

Buh-Bye Rex

Rex the Wonder Dog is dunzo. When he started leaping over the 6' backyard fence with ease, it was time to find him a new home. At least my cell phone is safe now. Hope you find a place with acres to run around in Rex Kwan Do!

A Conversation I Have With a Child Every Day...

nataliedee.com

Is There Anything Better?

Than an afternoon nap? This is how we separate the kids from the grown-ups -- kids hate naps but big people love em. All this to say that I took a long nap this afternoon and it was sheer bliss.

Those of us who tend not to sleep at night when we should be dead to the world could not survive without the nap. Although I hate waking up from a nap because I always feel both groggy and guilty (for sleeping when I should be doing something useful), I still think that the moment you succumb to the urge to nap is among life's great pleasures.

Week 23 Results

I lost a pound. Yay!

First Grader!

Tatum is now a first grader, I cannot believe it. But believe it I must, esp. when I see this picture of her with no front teeth. My favorite kid phase, the 'no front teeth' period.

A Nostalgic Visit to Sidies' Candy Aisle

The Candy Cigarettes (previous post) reminded me of wonderful Saturdays, clutching my 50 cent allowance and walking down to Sidies drug store, where the fab candies of the 60s were available in all their glory. I generally made my purchases at Sidies, as Meredith's Dime Store candy was even more ghetto than this stuff:

hello, wax lips?! What could be better. Wear em, then chew em up and spit em out!

Ditto wax soda bottles, full of some sort of unidentified super-sweet 'juice'. John Herseth, DDS, must have loved this crap.

Walnettos, yum. They always seemed like a 'grown-up' candy.

Sidie's always had a little rack of Sen-Sen by the cash register. I don't think I ever bought any, I'm not even sure what they are. Something for smokers?

Mountain Bars, YUK. This was always the candy left in the bottom of my Halloween pillow case o' treats. Probably kind of squashed. And probably given to B-Z (actually, probably not. She was the kind of child who organized her Halloween candy by name and always had more left in her bag than I did. I guess I ate the Mountain Bars when I got desperate)

Not technically candy, but every 60s child must remember Fizzies. SOOOO fun in the summer to plop one in a glass and have a really nasty tasting drink. And if you put your Fizzy in a metal cup, it was even weirder tasting.

Cinnamon Toothpicks were HOT when I was in junior high. Why?

Black-Jack Gum didn't really taste that good but it looked cool so I sometimes bought it. Not as good as Bazooka of course. You simply can't compete with bubble gum and Bazooka Joe comics.

Thank You Teachers!

Another school year is complete. And the boys' teachers survived and are planning to return next year :-) I knit each of them a little thank you gift, well deserved IMHO. Grade school teachers are amazing! Well, ALL teachers are amazing and deserve lots of gifts if you ask me. Here's what I knit:

Alex's teacher is a cute young thing so I thought the "Paper Moon" hat would be perfect for her. And I finally got the gauge right so it should fit her as a hat, rather than a shroud.

Liam's teacher is kind of granola-y, so she got a pair of socks knit from a 1900s pattern.

and RJ's teacher got this cool little purse for what-nots (maybe she can use it to stash 2 for 1 drinks coupons to use after work)

Summer Vaca Day 2

Not that I'm counting, but school starts again August 27th lol. The twins spent the afternoon with me yesterday, and were busy bees as usual. Liam wanted to have a garage sale and dragged out a ton of crap. Then he realized he could make money much more easily by searching the house for coins. He found a couple of bucks worth, put them in an old purse and he was good to go. End of garage sale for the day.

Alex found a portable CD player that Katie or Pia were planning to unload when we do finally have a garage sale. He was stoked! We found some 'rock and roll' CDs for him to listen to and got him ear buds at the dollar store. Pia promised to burn some cooler CDs for him (Miley Cyrus as opposed to my somewhat less cool music), so he is all set for the summer. Teenager to be...We also found a little mp3 player and Liam is going to use that if we can figure out HOW to upload some music for him. Of course RJ wants one too, so we'll have to keep searching the boxes in the garage.

What else does one do with pretzel sticks besides pretend to smoke? And what ever happened to candy cigarettes? GREATEST candy ever :-) Never mind, I just answered that question

Here's Alex, whitest/skinniest child at the park. But his neck and arms ARE tanned.

Thank You Katie!

for giving me your old Blackberry! Now I am hooked up with a 'real' cell phone, and it's heaven. And Rex will NOT be chewing on this one...

How Do You Know It's Summer?

When you hear the annoying song "The Entertainer" coming down the street, because that means the ice cream truck is coming!

We just found that we have TWO ice cream guys in our 'hood, tough on the pocketbook. The boys heard the truck and went TEARING out of the house, including Mikey who was stark naked at the time (I grabbed him before he got off the porch luckily). Since it's the first day of summer vaca, we had to get the good ice cream (Spongebob with gumball eyeballs, not the cheap-o popsicles). But with 2 trucks a day, we'll be reduced to making our own popsicles pretty darn quick :-)

School's Out For Summer!

FINALLY! Last day of school! We headed right to Audubon park to play at the new 'splash pad' until the black clouds chased us home:

RJ blasting some wimpy kid who kept screaming every time he got sprayed. Made the game even more fun!

The twins checking the fountain feature.

Liam in his cool new orca swim trunks. Already has a farmer's tan.

Mikey in on the fun and games.

Alex leading the group in attack strategies. Ditto on the farmer tan.

Spuds!

Our "potatoes grown in a garbage can" are going crazy! It really doesn't take much to make me happy and the thought of eating homegrown spuds is making me very very happy :-)

Stuff I'm Loving Today

It's been a lazy weekend more or less, giving me little to blog about but time to reflect on what makes me happy:

1. Little kids riding bikes. Esp with training wheels.

2. My children. Even though I don't EVER get to see the Virginians, I love em all like 60 and I'm happy every day knowing I birthed four of the world's greatest people.

3. Living a block away from Audubon Park. It's the perfect neighborhood park, always full of kids, dog walkers, old people, young people, coffee drinkers and more. And hardly ever a weirdo lol.

4. Books! Good old fashioned made out of paper BOOKS. I'm never giving up my books, at least until they make a Kindle that you can read in the bathtub. And even then I'm not sold on the concept.

5. Newspapers. I am soooo sad that the newspaper seems to be on its way out. I have read the paper every day for the last 50 years, since I learned to read. And I hope to continue my daily habit until I go to the big newsstand in the sky... PS HATE the new 'skinny' page format. Gak.

6. Knitting of course. My daily habit, meditation, relaxation, sanity restorer. If I didn't knit, I guess I'd have to do drugs. And what's better than the engineering marvel of turning a sock heel? Nothing, in my opinion. Also, it's great to be a knitting 'grandma'; my boys are convinced I can knit ANYTHING. And frequently request stuff like: a nest for the two robin's eggs they found, a boat (full size pls), a tree for the pterydactyl I knit Alex so he'll have somewhere to sit and get food, pajama bottoms for RJ after Rex the Wonder Dog ate his.

7. Weight Watchers. Yeah, I'm the worst lifetime member ever, having 'lapsed' 4 or 5 times since my first success. But the program is fantastic, it really does work (if you follow it lol), and I like the fact that you eat real food, and nothing is 'forbidden'.

8. My Garden. Steve and I planted some veggies this spring, and it's the first time I've had a little veg garden in years. Every morning, we go out and see if our plants have grown and it's so exciting to see them getting bigger. I am growing potatoes in a garbage can (most brilliant idea EVER, they are growing like mad), tomatoes, zucchini, green beans, watermelon and squash. Can't wait until something is edible!

9. TCM (Turner Classic Movies). I heart old movies, and this channel is a dream come true. From Charlie Chaplin to Cary Grant, there's something I love showing every day. I just watched a World War II movie called "Mrs. Miniver" and it was great! I'm sure I must have been a silent movie extra in a previous life...

10. Steve! It's so nice to be married to such a kind, thoughtful man. He makes me coffee and a bagel every morning, always makes sure I have my $2.99 bottle of WaWa white wine for after work, mows the lawn, does the dishes, laundry and takes out the garbage without being ASKED. A gem of a guy. And he'd even rub my neck if I asked him.

Week 22 Results

I gained the .4 I lost last week. Would all of you pls. put very mean comments re how fat I am and make me get my butt motivated? I'm counting on ya :-)

#%^*&@! Rex!

that dang dog ate my BLACKBERRY. Gak. He is pure evil. But you can't really hate him because he's a lovable idiot. I came close though. If anyone has a spare T-Mobile Blackberry phone ... (Katie)....

A Great Way to Waste A Morning!

Browsing through Awkward Family Photos. This one is my fave.