Socks Socks Socks

Still working on various socks! Perfect summer project, small and portable.

Here are my "Rivendell" socks, very elvish!:

And here's a little better picture of my "mystery" sock:

Just One More Natalie Dee Cuz I Love Her

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The Twins' Wildest Dream Come True...

Alex and Liam WORSHIP oatmeal, they'd eat it 3x a day plus snacks if they could. Funny, when I was their age, I preferred Lik m Aid and Fizzies...which may be why my teeth are rotting away.
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Time Out for Girls!

I love my boys, but it's fun to see some girl action too! Here are some adorable pix I stole from Pam's Facebook page:

It's blistering hot in Seattle! Loggie and Tate beat the heat in super cute swimwear. Um, how adorable is the suit with the built-in grass skirt and lei?

Tatum, jump roper (or rope jumper) extraordinaire!

Two Safety Susans with their big ole dresses and shoes, plus helmets. We are NOT going to be having any brain damage when we ride our bikes!

We Heart Mobius!

The twins, Mikey and I headed out for an afternoon o' fun while RJ 'helped' Pia pack for her upcoming move. We started at the Y, where Mikey single-handedly closed down the pool when he swallowed a ton of water and barfed :-0

We decided to beat a hasty retreat to Mobius Kid's Museum when we got bored of waiting for the pool to re-open (and to avoid all those hate/death stares from the shivering kids on the pool deck lol).

Here are some pix:

Mikey practices his heavy equipment skills with the front loader; Alex posing in "Cooper's Corner". This is a neat installation dedicated to bike safety, inspired by a Spokane boy who was killed in a bike accident.

For some reason, there's a Filipino grocery store exhibit (at least I THINK that's what it is), though I'm not aware of any huge Filipino population in Spokane. You'd think they'd have a Zip-trip exhibit with toothless white folks stocking up on Slim Jims, Colt 45's and American Spirit cigs lol.


Anyways, Liam LOVES this play area, and spent about 2 hours working the counter. Mikey happily played customer and stocked up on the plastic fruits and veg.

A Day at the Beach

The boys and I headed to Coeur d'Alene earlier this week, trying to beat the heat. The lake is absolutely perfect for swimming! Not too cold, not too warm. We had a very good time, tho I got a bit burned in a few spots where I failed to apply the sunscreen and the gang was a little peeved that I didn't shell out for everyone to take an airplane ride. We stopped at the cool city park and played on the way home, here they are perched on the chain saw bears sculpture.

More Knitting Fug!

(obvs. there's not a lot of excitement in my life right now lol) So I'm browsing the interwebs today instead of cleaning. Came across this new hat pattern from Classic Elite. Would you wear this? Seriously, I happen to like wacky hats, but this thing is just stupid looking IMO. Why would you combine a watch cap with a tam? It's like a hat cake of hideousness..

OMG OMG OMG

OMG WTF? Sooooo super creepy! And what is that little girl DOING!? Do you think someone REALLY knit these for their family???

Sock Progress!

Here's a pretty bad pic of my "Mystery Sock" which I just finished. Not sure if sock #2 is going to get made, these are cute but were a bit of a PITA to knit and the leg is definitely tight. Those are apples, cherries and watermelon in case you couldn't tell :-)

I'm almost done with my Rivendell socks and they are very beautiful! It's too hot to knit anything big, that's for sure. I have one sleeve of Maddie's Monster sweater to knit and I need to get on that bc I hear little sister arrived this morning and she's gonna need some sort of item knit by Auntie Lowdie!

Week 28 Results

I'm still going the wrong direction, gained .6 lbs. Totes deserved it. I promise to track my food choices this week!!! I did eat a slice of beet last week, that should have been good for something!

Why Jon Is Invaluable...

our little bro Jon is romancing Lorraine, hence the boys get to learn all kinds of new phrases...

Another car convo:

Alex: Laurie, what's a douchebag?

All other boys: Yeah, what is that?

Lavs: um...well, that's a not very nice name to call someone who is annoying...

Everyone (except Lavs): You're a douchebag!!! lololol

Car Conversations

The driver in a car full of boys gets to hear all kinds of stuff, most of it gross :-) Yesterday, we had this convo:

Liam: Laurie, did you know I did a grown up fart?

Lavs: No, what is that?

Alex: yeah he did and it smelled really bad!

Liam: you save up all your farts for a month, or all winter, then you fart. It's really loud!

Mikey: Yeah!

It's Hot!

The temp here has been inching up to 100! The boys and I (plus Steve today, thanks for the help!) have been heading to the Little Spokane River to cool off the last couple of afternoons. Lots of fun wading, swimming, jumping off rocks, floating, getting swept away by the current ;-0, hunting for crawdads and little fish, and lots more. We'll be back tomorrow, I suspect.

Birthday Boys!

Today is a very special day! RJ turns 10! and Mikey is 4! Man, time sure flies...these guys are growing up way too fast. The birthday boys are celebrating with a big bowl of Top Ramen for breakfast. RJ and Jon are going rock climbing and snake hunting; if they make it back alive (doubtful) there will be an ice cream cake tonight. Mikey wants Transformers cake, hope Baskin & Robbins can deliver.

Beets!

Our Weight Watchers leader assigned us beets as our 'new food' for this week. I do NOT like beets. But Jon gave me some gorgeous beets from his garden, so I decided to give them another try. I sliced them up, roasted them with olive oil and garlic and still don't like them. But at least I tried.

I Need An F-ing Vacation

Gosh, I'd love to be laying on a beach in Hawaii right now, wouldn't you? Even though I NEVER go in the ocean (there are ANIMALS in there! They might eat me!), I love Hawaii and the thought of spending a week on the beach reading and basking in the sun like a beached whale sounds mighty good...
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Week 27 Results

Another little gain .4 lbs. Damn. But at least I showed up and weighed in right? This week our challenge is to make half the dinner plate veg, and to either eat beets or radishes. Cara LOVES beets for some insane reasone; I do NOT love beets. So I guess I am stuck with radishes.

I'm In Love

with these gorgeous Sajou scissors from France. Yeah they cost 79 Euros (I don't even want to know what that is in dollars), but hey they'll throw in a meter of ribbon and a meter of lace if you buy them :-) Of course, if I did buy them, I would have to staple them to my body because I am not about to lend out or lose scissors that cost 79 Euros.

Get to the Movie Theater Stat!

Because "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince" is so freakin' good! Katie and I went to see it today and it was definitely the best of the series (so far anyways). Funny and exciting, and I even jumped and yelled "shit!" when the creepy ghouls climbed out of the water (I knew it was coming, but still...)

I Must Have These!

Are these not the cutest things EVER? Pocket Pie Molds at Williams-Sonoma. The boys would adore little pies made using these. I think I will stop by W-S when Katie and I go to Harry Potter this evening...(after much confusion on my part bc Katie for some bizarre reason trusted ME to buy moving tix for the opening day, by which I assumed she meant DAY not after work, we traded our 2:00 pm tickets for 5 pm and we are stoked for the new HP movie! I hope Katie wears a wizard costume...)

Beans!

Steve and I inspect our little "P Patch" garden every day to see if anything is sprouting. We were so excited to see that our green beans are growing! If we can just be patient for a couple of days, we should have enough for dinner :-) Our zucchini and squash are blossoming too, so we should be overrun with zukes before too long. Tomatoes are kind of meh, the Early Girl has 4 green little 'maters on it and my Heirloom tomato ain't doing squat. And the Potatoes in the Garbage Can are growing like MAD.

WTF!?

I just texted Megan to tell her to look at my Paul Blart post, bc I know she would totally agree Kip & KJ are long-lost bros. And she says she is CAMPING. Does this woman look like a camper I ask you? How will she keep her beers sufficiently cold!?

So Annoying...

So I'm just minding my own business today, and all of a sudden I realize that since about 6:30 this morning, one hideously annoying phrase has been running non-stop through my mind:

"PAUL BLART MALL COP"

Make it stop! I would sooner poke out my eyes than see this movie so why is it stuck in my head??

On the other hand, it has allowed me to play 'separated at birth?' with these two clowns:

Granted, that's a terrible picture to compare these two, but if y'all know Kipper, you know he is totes Kevin James' long lost brother.

Steve has a website!

Steve and I spent the morning putting together a little website for his business. It's still in the 'simple' stage, but after banging my head on my desk over Yahoo's web hosting manager, I think I got it all working (more or less). You can check it out here. Y'all be sure to book an appointment for a massage ok? (or let your pals know!)

Sweater for a Favorite Little Monster

I only have one sleeve to go and about a million ends to deal with, and the Monster sweater will be dunzo! It is SOOOO cute I can't even stand it.

This is a very late birthday gift for a cwazy little girl I know, who loves to fly around and swims like a mad thing. Can you guess who that is?

Fun At the Pool #2

The boys and I braved the huge throng of swimmers and spent the afternoon at the new Shadle Park swimming pool. Although there was only about a square foot of space per swimmer, we had a great time. The City of Spokane has done a great job building the new pools, and at only a buck per person (though it used to be FREE) I'd say it's a darn good deal for a hot afternoon.

Mikey was VERY excited to try out his new snorkel, mask and flippers. He wore them from the time he got up until we got to the pool.

Week 25-6 Results

Despite not going to WW last week due to the 4th of July holiday, and not paying too much attention to my diet, I only gained .2 over the last 2 weeks. I'm considering that a victory. Now to get back on the horse and see some poundage lost this week!

I Love This Guy!

OMG am I mad I didn't stick around! The 4th of July festivities at Priest Lake included a Talent Show. Steve & I went home early due to the damn air mattress debacle so we missed it.

Liam, our amazing dancing machine, performed at the show! Even though his music didn't arrive, he 'winged it' with his incredible interpretive dance moves and WON!!!! God I would give oh a million bucks for a video of Milam busting his moves. He is sooo amazing, would any of you guys have gotten on stage at the age of 9 and danced in front of a crowd of strangers? NO. Be looking for MJ Jr. on the next "So You Think You Can Dance".

4th of July Fun

no pix, as my camera batteries died...but we had a beautiful 2 days up camping at Priest Lake. The weather was HOT and sunny, so most of my time was spent on the beach or in the (still pretty chilly) water. Once again, my new air mattress would not stay inflated. Is this a sign that a chunky couple cannot share an air mattress?? Next time we go camping, it's going to be to a hotel :-)

Fun In the Pool

Since the boys are camping this week, I have free time during the day to exercise. And today I finally got off my can and went to the Y for water aerobics. Yeah, the average age is about 75 and the average weight about 280, but it was fun (and I felt awfully young and spry lol). An hour of exercise in the pool is surprisingly hard work!