Evan's first touchdown!

As miserable as Saturday was for a football game, I'm so glad I didn't miss it, because Evan scored his first touchdown! The team got creamed in the end, but it didn't matter one iota :)

The pictures are courtesy of the team photographer, who does an awesome job! I have a shot from another perspective, but I haven't taken them off my camera yet.

I was sitting in the stands (alone), the boys were on the 5 yard line. I saw the QB getting ready to hand off the ball. I thought it looked like Evan holding the ball, but I wasn't sure. The crowd roars with the TD, and I'm still wondering if it really was him! I'm waiting for a sign from him, a thumbs up or something, but none is forthcoming. So I went down to the field and asked the team photograper, and she confirmed that it was him, and that she had pix!

I'm hoping that I can blow the top on up and use it in the redecoration of his room. That would be a cool focal point!

So today is cold, wet, rainy and windy. I think summer has officially left the building!

FO's-Big Jack, bunny sweater & Madelaine dress

Not that I have shown anything, but I have been knitting every day and I have a few more FO's to show for it!

First up is a custom order...a bigger version of my lil' Jack felted bag (in my shop, see link at right). He has 2 handles and an insert in the bottom to make it a little sturdier for extra candy gathering potential :)

Next is a 0-3 month baby sweater with embroidered bunnies. This is the same sweater I made, in a smaller size. The first one was white with duckies.
This one may look familiar- it's the Madelain vintage baby dress that I finished last month. Except that it didn't fit it's target audience (1 year olds) and I needed to rework it. Tearing it apart was excruciating and time consuming, but I think it looks much better now. I hope that the sizing is right. Cross your fingers!
I also have all the pieces for a very cute vintage elephant. Going to piece him and stuff him tomorrow!

Happy Wednesday! Tomorrow morning I am meeting my friend Jan for coffee and a trip to the farmer's market. Good stuff!

weekend recap

Hi, and happy first day of Autumn!

Our weekend was a blur of activity that usually requires a day or two of recovery. I expect the cycle to continue until the end of November. Scratch that. Probably more like January. Sigh.

A short pictoral of our weekend:

Evan & Aunt Roberta after the Michigan game. UofM won, he had a fantastic time, and talked Aunt Ro's ear off. He is the good luck charm for team's this weekend-every game he attend the home team won.

Friday was Em's big 12th birthday. Celebrations were very low key this year. In fact, this is the only photo I took (in part cuz I was busy, in part cuz she won't let me) She & I had her favorite dinner on Friday night (Noodles & Company), ate Ben & jerry's ice cream and watched Princess Protection Program. Cute girly movie. She fell asleep before the boys were home from the hockey game. She opened our gifts on Saturday morning,and her friend Kailey came to sleepover Sat. nite. Extremely low key. we had our family celebration on Sunday after Ev's football game. Another great haul, giftwise.

Saturday her team played a great game out in Brighton. The final score was 2-2, but they played really well. We brought Costco cupcakes for the team. If you haven't ever tried the Costco cupcakes, you should. Each one is the size of a softball.

I love the look of determination on her face in the first photo. She also got her first injury of the year when she took a kick to the knee. The girl dragged her cleat down Em's leg, and she has a huge black bruise.

Sunday was all about football. First home game of the season. First game I was able to attend.

singing the national anthem

GO Evan! He still is a bit scattered out on the field. His blocking is pretty good, but the tackling needs some work. Twice he dove at an opposing player and twice he got a faceful of turf. He needs to hold on and not let go!

I thought maybe he was going to go out and punt, but apparently he was just goofing around. Which is totally frowned upon, and I don't know why he didn't get his patootie kicked.

Here he is making an awesome play so the quarterback can run the ball. Oops, I think he got a penalty, however. Looks good on camera though! The Stallions won 33-28 in a last quarter nail biter.

The family party was a good time, but I've figured out how these things could be better. All the prep work we do, all the cooking and cleaning and shopping, that stuff is easy enough. What I would really like is if someone came in and did all the cleanup. All of it. That way, I could just sit back and enjoy the company, the conversations. Instead, I'm stuck washing a bajillion dishes and being resentful that I am missing all the good stuff. It's also when we're at our most exhausted, and more likely to snap at each other (ask me how I know). Party clean up. There's my million dollar idea. Who wouldn't love that?

This weekend will bring more of the same. Em has a game Friday, Saturday & Sunday. Evan's football game is on Saturday this week, and he has a soccer festival on Sunday. Needless to say, we will be split into groups all weekend.

And this, in a nutshell, is why I love Monday so much.

Be good!

first puck!

Evan is having a sports lovers' dream weekend!

Last night his dad & Uncle Greg took him to his first Wings game. They sat right on the ice, which was phenominal. And then to top it off, one of the Ref's tapped on the glass and pointed at Ev, and pushed the puck thru a slot for him. Isn't that the coolest! He was one happy kid.

Today, he is at his very first U of M game, courtesy of my Aunt Roberta. He just texted me to tell me that Michigan is winning, and that the stadium is awesome. And the weather is absolutely p-e-r-f-e-c-t for football; sunny and seventy degrees.

Tomorrow he plays his first home football game, and the whole family will be there to cheer him on. We are celebrating Emma's brithday after the game, so it should be a fun day.

I hope he realizes what a lucky kid he is!!

one two

12 years ago today, this amazing creature came into my life.

And it's been a constant roller coaster since that first day.

I can't believe how fast the time has passed...in the blink of an eye she will be off living her own life. But I can't think too closely on it or I will go crazy :) My heart can't bear it.

We are so proud of the wonderful young woman she is becoming. So much more confidant and strong than I was at twelve. More than I have ever been, actually. She radiates life and goodness and warmth, and I can't imagine any life without her.

Love you, baby girl!

new and improved!

I woke up this morning to discover that someone stole my Yahoo! during the night. It's been replaced with a new and improved version. People at Yahoo!, here's a little friendly advice-if I have to stare at my screen a full 15 second before I figure out where my mail button is, that is not an improvement.

Tack that onto the 'improvements' over at the apple store. I popped in the other day to add a song into my iTunes library, only to be thoroughly confused with the new home page. I forgot to add the song, I was so busy trying to figure out where everything was now located.

Even my bank is in on the action. I got a notice that my ATM cards were being switched to some fancy new card, so my PIN is going to change, unless you call by yesterday. I didn't. I called this morning and had to speak to a customer representative (who was less than happy to have to explain to my WHY I needed to do it yesterday blahblahblah) and "some members really like getting a new PIN number". Count me as one who doesn't. I have had the same numbers for 10+ years, and I'm not going to remember a new one now. Fix it.

It seems that every time you turn around, something is being touted as 'new and improved'. Like it's a good thing. What was wrong with the original way? Sure, some people probably weren't happy, but now you have a bunch of people who aren't happy. I don't want to have to update my software every other day to accommodate your need to switch things up on a weekly basis.

I realize this post will make me sound curmudgeonly and out of touch, but I'm not. I just don't like constant change of things that don't require it. I don't want to have to think that hard when I check my emails.

Now here's a change I can get behind: new fall shoes. Yes, I like this improvement!

Petoskey Autumn Blast '09

This past weekend was a whirlwind of driving, soccer, girls, and beautiful weather. I am just barely starting to recover.

We left on Friday right after school. In hindsight, I should have taken her out a few hours earlier so we could arrive before dark. The Yahoo! directions I had (directly from the hotel website) were wrong. After driving around for an hour, I called OnStar to get turn by turn directions. Also wrong. I 'arrived at my destination' in someone's driveway. Let me tell you, Up North Michigan is not a place to get lost in at night. There are no signs anywhere. I never knew what the speed limit was, what road I was on. Nothing is open. You are literally in the middle of nowhere. It's a miracle we didn't run out of gas and have to sleep in the car.

But we made it! We stayed at Boyne Highlands- a ski/golf resort. It's ginormous. All of the buildings look like medieval times. I expected Rapunzel to lean out one of the arched windows. I expected to see Shrek and Donkey.

See? There's Rapunzel's window. No strolling minstrels in sight...

view outside of our bedroom window @ 7:30 a.m. I didn't get a good shot of the chairlifts in the fog.

There was lots of soccer too. Wait for it.

The highlight of the trip was going to the beach on Saturday after the second game. I found the cutest bakery/yarn shop online and was dying to go before our team dinner, but the minute someone said 'beach' I was a gonner. It was the most beautiful day. The water was lovely, and the girls were exuberant; diving and body surfing in the swells. It was by far, the best 6 dollars I have spent in a long time :)

ooops. Were we supposed to stay dry?

looking for Petoskey stones in and out of the water. Emma found a ton of small ones.

And there were games. Two on Satuday, one on Sunday. We didn't win a single one. Bummer.

0-0. 0-1. 1-2.

They played very well the first two games. Emma was awesome, especially in the second half of game two. She did the most wicked header. Even her coach commented on her level of play.

Every action shot of her is blurry. Usually, she is on the opposite side of the field from where we sit, so it's nearly impossible to catch her. This games, she was on my side, and I only had my zoom. She was too close!

You couldn't have asked for a better weekend of travel! I wish I would have slept decently, the better to enjoy it all. In three days I totaled 14 hours of sleep. And put 800+ miles on the car.

So glad to be home, and to have a day to rest before I have to drive again!

time to hit the road!

ROAD TRIP!

The Treiber girls are hitting the open road tomorrow. Right after school lets out, we will be hopping into the car and heading north to Petoskey so that Emma can play in the Petoskey Autumn Blast tournament. If you don't live in Michigan, Petoskey is up near that break between the third and pinky 'fingers'. About a 5 hour trip. The weekend is supposed to be a nice one, and with the cool summer we have had, fall colors should be nearing premium time up north (It's usually still a few weeks away, but already we have many trees turning down here). I am excited to go, and to spend some time alone with my girl.

I'm also bummed because I will miss Evan's very first football game. Bart is going to take the camcorder for me, but it won't be the same. I wish I could be there to cheer for him, and to silently will the coaches into putting him on the field. The good news is that (right now) he isn't too upset with my not being there. he knows I want to be, but that it's important that I support Emma, too. The guilt we suffer for our kids!

School is going well for both of them. So far balancing sports and school hasn't been an issue, but I can see as we get further into the semester, having enough time to do homework could become a problem. And Ev never knows what practice he is going to on any given day. It's all written down and we have told him a billion times, but he still hasn't gotten it. I guess he is still on summertime-double-practice mode.

Happy Friday and have a great weekend!

back to school, 2009 style

I can't believe my shy little guy, who cried for the first month of preschool and hid under the playdoh table, is now in fifth grade. The last year of elementary. Not shy anymore.

And she, my first born child, in seventh grade. More than halfway finished with schooling. Going to college in a few short years. Looking smart and fashionable. :::sob:::
Two kids ready to take on the world, right after lunch. And no, I didn't bribe them for the together shot. Can't you see the love radiating right off them?

Happy Labor Day!

The weather gods are blessing us with beautiful weather this weekend

(perhaps to make up for Memorial Day?)

Bart and the kids spent the day today at his sisters' house building a pergola

I stayed at home, recouping from a two-day headache

and getting a few things finished.

Tomorrow we will have one last day at the pool

grill some hot dogs

relax

it's all good.

Have a great weekend!

FO-Jacques Cousteau hat in Royal Pain

Here's a quickie I made a few days ago. It's for Emma, who's birthday is in a few weeks. I hand dyed the yarn to match her soccer uniform.

pattern: Jacques Cousteau hat

yarn: Liond Brand fisherman's wool

dye: Wiltons food dye

modeled by Evan, who of course would like one in maybe another color and with stripes?

5 things

Five things making me happy right now:

1. Emma's plane is landing in less than 2 hours and she will be home! We all missed her a lot (although Evan would never admit it)
2. pumpkin spice latte's @ Starbux. My favorite drink of the fall season.
3. Canning homemade salsa and dilly beans. I would have been a whole lot happier if i had realized I forgot to put in the dill before they were pressurized, however...

4. finding out there is a Sonic in Michigan! Thanks, Nicole! I got a cherry limeade, and it was heavenly. I will be going there often.

5. these flowers:

Happy Wednesday!

september morn

...and in the blink of an eye, it's September.

The 9th month of the year.

I can't be the only one who thinks this year just flew by.

September brings with it lots of activity...

tomorrow Emma will be home

school starts in a few days

lots of soccer practices

lots of football practices

Emma's birthday

traveling for games

and probably a ton of other things that escape me at the moment.

yikes. I'd better get moving!