say what?

Boys are weird.

End of story.

FO-Jen's brainless

Another FO for the log book!

The pattern for these socks is Brainless, hence the name (Jen is anything but brainless).

Yarn is Spinnulla from Norway. I received it in a swap and it's simply goregous! The perfect blend of green and blue. Lovely twist. A pleasure to work with.

Knit from the toe up...particularly challenging for me, but I like that I can try the socks on as I go.

I love love love her gussets!
I found the pattern to be anything but brainless. I had to pay close attention or miss a bunch of stuff! Yarnissima's patterns tend to be that way, but the end results are gorgeous!

Anyone who knits socks can appreciate the level of difficulty in her patterns.

The report is that they fit perfectly! Awesome.

get ready, go!

One thing I did this weekend was review my calendar and to-do's for the upcoming few months.

It wasn't pretty.

In fact, if cloning technology were in my hands, I would be making doubles right now. Maybe triples. So I could have a spare.

The month of April just makes me want to crawl into a deep, dark hole and not peek my head out until May 1st.

Not only is there something to do or somewhere to be on every weekend, there are multiple somewhere to be's. It's enough to make me wish I would have rethought the whole second child business. (Just kidding...I wish I had a few more that were of driving age to drive the ones that need to go places to there!)

I'm not quite sure how we're going to navigate through those 4 weeks, but I know we will find a way. I'm gonna try to not stress out about the things I give less than my full attention to, and try to enjoy the things I do.

But I will sure be glad when May arrives.

review time

A quickie for the week:

• Started the week feeling like I was coming down with another sinus infection/bronchitis-y thing, but by Tuesday it had passed. Thank God! So did not want to have to deal with that!
• Found out that Evan scored a 97% on his IOWA/COGAT tests, meaning that he scored higher than 97% of fith grade students nationwide. Holy mother, the kid is smart! We got two letters today inviting him to be in the advanced programs next year. It's official-both kids are smarted than their Mom.
• finished another knitty project and mailed it off.
• Hopefully drove to my last indoor soccer practice in Wixom for the year! (I say hopefully, because we may still have practice Monday. I hope not.)
• Evan scored a goal this past weekend...his first in a long time.
• Had a great weekend with BFF Heather, except that I worked myself up and didn't sleep well, so we didn't stay up late or do anything rowdy. Next time, all nighters!
• Thinking it's just about time to get an outfit to wear to the baby shower.
• HOW is next week Easter already??
• Went to the doctor this week and have agreed on getting an IUD, which I should have done several years ago. Now it's gonna cost me about $1000. Joy. My blood sugar is still above the charts high, so I need to see my regular doctor and find out what I should be doing. Diabetes is not something I want to add to my list of ailments.
• Another weekend of games ahead for us. Year round sports is beginning to take it's toll.

Have a great weekend everyone!

FO-baby sweater

I finished this baby sweater a few weeks ago, but just mailed it to Nicole the other day. I can share it now!

This was one of my favorite knitting projects ever. The yarn is soft and cuddly, and the collar is awesome. I hope her son will get a lot of wear out of it this fall/winter.

pattern: Retro sports check sweater

yarn: Rowan RYC cashsoft

size: 6-12 months

Rav link

And in other awesome knitting news, I got a shout out today from the fabulous Kelli Crowe, for knitting her a pair of fingerless gloves, like along time ago. I forgot all about them until she messaged me on Facebook to tell me her son was wearing one of them around the house :) Very cool to get props from a scrapbooking goddess!

Noodlepalooza twenty ten

Another gorgeous day in Southeast Michigan. Gorgeous doesn't even begin to describe it, actually. Glorious is a better choice of words! Yesterday at 4:00 our temp. was 67 degrees. I find it extremely amusing that we were 2 degrees warmer than Miami! It's going to continue on through the week, and turn to cooler weather with a chance of rain over the weekend, ending with a possibility of snow showers on Monday. I knew it was too good to be true.

In other exciting (for me) news, my friend Heather is coming to visit for the weekend! She's my internet BFF and all around fun girl. It's ridiculous how excited I am. One of the first things were are going to do is go to Noodles & Co. for dinner on Friday right after she gets here- her choice. Just as I was geeked to go to Chipotle, she wants Noodles. She's also threatening to bring her Snuggie to wear to soccer games on Saturday, even though the games are indoors. We'll be traveling to Lansing to visit the best yarn shop in the state, watching 'Glee', and who knows what else we can pack into 36 hours!

I have been a busy bee, taking advantage of the weather the last few days and getting my garden up to snuff. All the dead stuff from the fall has been trimmed back to allow the tiny green shoots to reach for the sun. I cleaned up all the leaves that found their way back into our yard; 2 bags worth. The pond is running smoothly and I have to clean the filter daily. I wish I had a floating plant...it feels so naked and the 4 little fish I have left look so vulnerable. They are still moving slowly (the water is cold!) and I don't want some heron to come and pick them off. Not to mention the ducks...they're back! No sooner did I leave for soccer on Monday than they took up residence.

Time to tackle Evan's room. Wish me luck.

busy good

Those two words describe how things have been lately. I haven't taken the time to write anything down and then I forget all that's going on...

Case in point, Emma has a band concert tonight, and I somehow missed it even after my non-resolution to be on top of things. FAIL! Okay, it's mid March and this is the first thing I've missed, so that's pretty good. And I didn't miss it, I just didn't know about it.

My 'diet' is going just fine. I took the weekend off, and it was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. I'm trying to stick to the same type of foods and portion sizes. Saturday was fine, but Sunday was not good because we were gone all day with soccer. And last night I was gone from 4:15 until after 8:30, so I ended up having pizza with Ev at the Sports Bar. (best pizza, BTW!). So I'm gonna just roll with the punches, and not get down when things aren't going just right. And eat less. That's okay too!

I worked out in the garden today for a few hours. I am so stiff and sore. I got the main pump in the pond running and cleaned out the filters, trimmed all the dead plant tops off, and sucked up an entire garbage can worth of leaves out of the beds. It's looking pretty good. Much more work to be done, but off to a good start.

And it's become obvious that I am going to need some new mulch this year. Jen? Trip to Michigan in your future??

I took this photo a few nights ago, and already the buds have gotten so much bigger. they are fuzzy now, ready to turn into new leaves. I can almost believe that spring is here!!

peace in our time

I want to say Thank you to all my lovely internet friends who were so kind and supportive yesterday when I was crabby and down in the dumps! I feel very loved. And so much better today. Sometimes you just need some time to crab it all out, and then things seem better. I wasn't getting that time yesterday, so I was taking it out on the kids and myself. It didn't help that Mother Nature wasn't cooperating with my mood and produced a gorgeous day (which I wasted by being a crab-ass) Today is 'party cloudy', which fits my mood like a glove.

What better way to wallow than to watch global annihilation films (2012*) and The Biggest Loser (Inspiring!) while lounging on the couch and folding laundry? Watching the Losers wake up at 5:30 to work out, work an 8 hour day, come home and work out again made me realize what an absolute whiny crybaby I can be sometimes. I don't have to do any of that stuff....I just have to not eat bad shit! Snap out of it!!

To reward myself for my insightful morning, I gave my feet a much needed pedi. Pretty polish makes an overcast Wednesday not too bad after all.

*****************************

Funny story- I was jamming out to some of my favorite songs while getting ready to jump into the shower (literally JUMP, because my fat cat was laying on the bathmat and it was either jump over him or step on him). I forget that I lotioned up my feet after my pedicure and just about fell and killed myself. The next hour flashed through my mind, as I wondered when I would be discovered laying dead on the shower floor with the cat sitting on the bathmat. Would Emma just assume I was taking a super long shower? Would the water eventually get cold? Would she come in and ask why my computer was in the bathroom?

Evidently it wasn't my time to go.

******************************

So even after my near death experience, I am going to stick out the diet. After all, if this can occur...

...then anything is possible. 13 years and nothing like this has ever even come close to happening! Monumental!

*stupidest movie ever

Crabby McStarvingpants

Yesterday I embarked on a journey to a happier, healthier, leaner me.

I am completely miserable. And I have no one to blame but myself.

I started Nutrisystem. Yes, that Nutrisystem, with the Marie Osmond and the Valerie Bertinelli commercials. With the packaged foods and the limiting of the calories. With the "I lost 50 pounds" *results not typical*.

So far, the food has been okay. It's not going to win any culinary awards, but is also better than just about any flavor of Lean Cuisine on the market.

It's the portions. They are tiny. And I am starving.

{At this point I should also mention that Evan was sick yesterday, both kids have today off, and I am PMSing like nobody's business. In other words, I am a raging bitch. So naturally it's a great time to start a diet regimen that does not include ice cream, french fries, hamburgers, or brownies. I would cut off at least 2 toes for a Big Mac right now.}

I think the only way I may get through this is hibernation.

I'm also supposed to be exercising, but right now I can only focus on not eating. Not eating is going to have to be enough for a few days. Then I will get to walking. Because it's been gorgeous and I hate to squander the bits of spring that are all around me.

It sucks to be fat!!

a pretty good representation of what a weekend looks like around here

one near teen

one sunbathing cat

one good book

one comfy chair

one afternoon with nowhere to go

equals

one cozy but awkward cuddle session that last for many hours

much to my amusement

p.s. She finished the book all in one sitting.

she's got the fever

Guess who else has spring fever??

Happy Friday everyone.

Hello, March

So far, the month of March has been sunny and warm and glorious. Did I mention sunny? But I haven't really enjoyed it for more than 10 minutes because of the sleeping.

I'm not sleeping again. No sleeping at night=sleeping during the day. And we all know what happens when we sleep during the day.

Nothing. That's what happens.

Last night I was like Goldilocks, moving from couch to couch in search of the perfect fit. This one is too hard. This one is isn't long enough. This one is ok, but not great. And everywhere I went, I had two anchors at my feet. Because when you're tossing and turning, the thing you really want is an over sized lap dog pinning your legs down.

So this entire week has been 'day is night' and 'up is down'. I have gotten next to nothing done. And I am irritated.

Good thing March has been accommodating with extra loveliness.

Tonight is the 5th grade musical on the Revolutionary War. I'm sure it's the first ever show in which the 'worm' is performed, thanks to my son. Sure to be a hoot.