Tis the Season

So now that we are just past Thanksgiving my mind has finally realized that Christmas is just 4 weeks away.. So I went out shopping today and got absolutely nothing except for some great ideas for my girls, my nieces, husband and my mom. I had already spent a little bit of time on Amazon this morning getting Matchbox garbage trucks for Lily since she is totally obsessed with the Garbage and Recycling trucks that come down our street. I had to make it worth the shipping charge so I also bought them a DVD that I hope they will enjoy, a book for the girls to share and a book for Lee that I recall him telling me about (and I hope that he doesn't already own). Most of it will be here in time (the book for the girls won't be here till between Jan and March) for Christmas. In the meantime I need to get them some dress up stuff since Anna likes to pretend that she is a Princess or a Ballerina. They also need a couple more tops/ outfits. Lee is looking for PJs to get him through the winter. I saw a couple of things that my nieces might be excited about. I have a feeling that most of what I get toy-wise will be coming from the toystore that just opened in my hometown that I am working at currently.

I still need to figure what we are using for a card this year... I'm leaning towards a photo card this year to go with our yearly letter. In true procrastination fashion I still need to take or find a good photo(s) for the card. There are a few contenders already but I just can't decide. Hopefully next weekend once my mom's tree is up and the house is decorated I can get a nice picture of the girls there that will hopefully work.

Lily Drumming

I just figured out how to post this on FaceBook and thought I'd annoy people on my blog with it too... but she sure is cute...

We were playing around at my Brother's house with the drumset from the Wii Rockband and my brother happened to get this on video for me...

Fourth Time might be the charm

I am so my father's daughter.... he was extremely stubborn and so am I. I hate being bested by an inanimate object like a sock. I have casted on my first of the lace socks for the fourth time. So far so good... well not exactly good... more like ok.. I casted on the 84 stitches that I needed on my circular needles... halved them for Magic Looping and somehow wound up with 85 stitches. I decided to roll with it since once I got the first 1.5" of K1P1 ribbing done I would need to increase the number of stitches anyway so I just did 5 stitch increases instead of 6 and called it acceptable. So far the pattern seems to be shaping up ok since I'm only 5 rounds into the 6 round pattern as of this writing... and I have many more rounds to go before I get to the next section of rounds where I will need to decrease my stitches and get to the same spot that I was in on my 1st attempt at these socks before I wound up ripping out my work. I might need to start learning about how to use lifelines in my knitting so that I don't wind up ripping everything out if any other calamities come my way with these socks.

The picture above is from the Patons website for the Lace Socks http://www.patonsyarns.com/patternbook.php?PBS=500863. I really hope that I eventually get to the point where I get to wear them..

Mornings with Mommy and Lily

I took Lily out the next day while Anna was at school to the Mall.


She really loved seeing the Puppies at the Pet Store



and playing on the Mechanical toys too



Ok how do I drive this thing again???



Ok Mommy that's $5 for the burger and fries



What's this button for???

Mornings out with Mommy... Anna edition

Anna and I went to Dunkin Donuts for some Apple Juice and a Blueberry Muffin
last week..



Yummy



Drinking her juice like a 'big kid'



she had to have a napkin to clean up her spills.

Sorry we've been sick here

It started with Grandma... yes I'm blaming my mom... she wasn't feeling well and asked me to get her some Jello since she was unable to keep anything down... so I went... Two days (or was it one day) later I brought the girlies to see Grandma quickly since it's our Thursday thing to see Grandma after EI playgroup is over... Everyone was feeling fine till Saturday morning.. like 3am morning.. when I heard Anna crying over the monitor... at first I ignored but my Mommy Radar was screaming for me to get up... I ran into the girls' room to see Anna throw up something rather fiercely.. so I shouted for Lee to grab her so I could commence Operation Clean Up.. he stripped her and put her in new jammies.. I cleaned and stripped the crib... we put her back to bed with some water in a sippie and tried to lie back down... but the Mommy Radar wasn't done with me and neither was Anna's tummy... So we repeated what we had just done and this time I kept Anna up with me just in case.. she told me that her tummy was ok and then retched all over my pillowcase... daddy wasn't too smart and gave her milk.. so i called the Pediatrician office to be told to give her little sips of water to help her tummy settle and keep an eye on things.. and maybe go out and get some Pedialyte for her. While I was in the shower at 6:45am, Anna decided to heave again and bought herself a ticket to the ER where she earned 2 stickers, a chance to wear a child size johnnie, a Zofran (to make her tummy feel much better), a popsicle and some Playhouse Disney. Meanwhile I was starting to not feel so good myself but I kept chugging away... I had too much to do...

Later that day while at the Harvest Fair I was feeling rather icky and decided to pack our family up and head home. Good move cause I took a nap at the same time as the girls and then started my own heaving cycle which didn't last very long.. but I had Lee call my mom to bring us some Jello. Fast forward to Tuesday and guess who's sick now... Miss Lily. She didn't fair as well as Anna... she got a trip to the Pedi office. They gave her a Zofran and some juice. She took one sip of the juice and gave me her best sleepy look before passing out in the car on the ride home... she eventually felt better but it took a few smidges longer than Anna and me..

And then ... you knew it was coming... Lee got sick on Thursday... and the world stopped spinning somehow.. or so it seemed. Thankfully he recovered somewhat quickly but it felt like a really long time to me..

Everyone is better now.. and we are back to our regular programming...

It isn't You it's Me

Or is it really you... my second pair of socks are giving me fits.. they started out great... my friend Aaron taught me about using the Magic Loop method and all was going well till I encountered a mistake in the pattern... I tried to get help from my favorite knitting shop and at first they were helpful till I figured out that they had steered me wrong and that had I gone to the website for the pattern all would have been well and good and I might have an almost completed sock by now... but alas.. I got frustrated and ripped the sock apart and started over with a different sock yarn hoping that it would go better... and it started to... till I hit a stupid snag and wound up dropping stitches all over the place... tried to get help from same knitting shop and this time they barely even tried to help me.. so I tried in vain and wound up ripping it all again... thought that maybe it's the method I was using... so I switched to dpns (double pointed needles for the non-knitters).. and somehow I didn't join the sock correctly (thankfully I noticed after 3 rounds so the ripping out process wasn't as gut wrenching as the previous 2) and that got ripped out also and I have put the project away for the time being.

Instead I have pulled out one of two blankets that I had moved to the back burner of my projects. The one that I selected to work on ... it's a nice project and the pattern is easy enough to do... but it's just not socks... yet it needs love too. Once things calm down I'll be able to go back to the sock project that I was really loving.. and hopefully with the original yarn that I was using since I do have 2 skeins of it (the first skein is in a heap in my closet - protected from my cats,kids and myself in a big Ziploc bag- and currently in a timeout).

So maybe it's you, maybe it's me... maybe it's just the rhythm of the sea..

Halloween wrap up

I have to admit.... Halloween was great this year... we attended the Chamber of Commerce Halloween Event in my hometown on Friday and it was fun... We picked up Grandma at her house and instead of driving (good choice) took the wagon that the girls had gotten for their birthday to go for a walk to the Downtown area. Anna was smart and rode in the wagon (and even snuck a few pieces of candy)... Lily was stubborn and refused to ride... she wanted to WALK... and walk she did.. almost 2 miles total between walking from my mom's house to the Downtown area..up one side of Main Street and down the other side and halfway back to Grandma's before she finally relented to sitting in the wagon with Anna. The next day we went to our Church's Halloween Party (mommy and daddy dressed up too) and then Sunday was the big event of Trick or Treating with Mommy and Daddy in Grandma's hood. The girls scored big on candy.. Mommy and Daddy are enjoying the benefits of that..

One quick photo ..