I heart to knit!

Is this not just about the coolest thing you've ever seen??? I made this collage in about 15 minutes with a program I downloaded here. It was free, it was fun, and the possibilities are endless. You must try it!

He's a Stallion, again

Got confirmation yesterday of Evan's placement on the Northville Stallion youth football team. This time it's full steam ahead. No dropping out to play soccer another year. Happy happy joy joy!

Today was uniform fitting day. Between soccer games I took him to be fitted. He is a size small. No surprises there :)

In the second picture he looks particularly small to me. Maybe it's an optical illusion. Maybe it's my mom brain trying to tell me he is too little to play football.

The good news (for us) is, the rec team he has been playing soccer with is going to continue on, and he has been invited to play for as long as he wants. So we can still keep up his soccer skills for when he eventually wants to go back. We hope.

This weekend his team is playing in a futsol tournament @ Madonna University. The games are lively and quick; 20 minute halves played in the gym. They won the first game 9-4, playing down a man from the other team (they added a guy when the score was 7-1), and the second game 6-4, against a U11 rush team. These kids were much bigger, and we still were able to beat them on skill alone. Awesome.

We also took the kids to see Monsters vs. Aliens in 3D. It was a great movie! Go immediately!

Happy Saturday!

FO-Evan's man socks

Here's a super quick FO that I did last week but didn't post-Evan's man socks.

He has been voicing his dipleasure with me and the fact that it's been 2 years since I have made him a pair of socks. After looking thru my stash and finding nothing appropriate for boys, I ordered this yarn from The Loopy Ewe and whipped up these basic socks for him.

They are a 4x2 rib knit from the top down. They should have plenty of stretch.

Then again, it is Evan we're talking about. The same kid whose foot grew dramatically since fall, necessitating a trip to buy new cleats.

I also used my creative skillz and made these sock blockers for smaller feet. I have a pair of larger ones, and I won't tell you how much they cost. You would probably choke. So I cut out a set from some IKEA placemats we got 8 for $2.00. Ka-ching! Now when I wash and dry the socks they will look good. And it's all about looking good.

adding insult to injury

Ev hurt himself playing sports this weekend.

It was a very sporty weekend for him. In addition to 2 soccer practices, he had 3 indoor games, one flag football birthday party, and harassed his dad into throwing the football with him at least twice. He took several hard body slams on the soccer field, as well as numerous tackles playing football.

But which sporting event left my tough guy begging for pain reliever and a heating pad?

This is the culprit...

First of all, he was beside himself on Saturday afternoon, because he couldn't believe he wasn't instantly good at a video game. (Now he knows how the rest of us feel). So he got up extra early Sunday morning to play uninterrupted for as many hours as he could. My guess is he logged at least 3 hours before the rest of the family woke up.

This morning he came in to tell me that it hurt to move his arm. He tried to play a little bit before school but it was too painful.  I gave him some Motrin and suggested he not play football at recess today. The look he gave me in return would have been appropriate had I told him to chase and kiss girls during recess.

After school he got another dose of Motrin and a heat wrap on the affected area. And some ribbing from me.

This is the kid that never wants to take no for an answer. All three of us will poop out long before he does, at any sport. This is the kid who tried to get me to throw the football with my left arm when my neck was hurting from throwing too much with my right arm last summer.

Done in by a video game.

Ya gotta love the irony.

FO-Is It Spring Yet? Twisted Flower socks

I finished these socks last week but didn't wash and block them until Tuesday, so I present them today. Ta-da!

These are a pattern called 'Twisted Flower' by the fabulously talented sock genius Cookie A. The pattern has been in my stash awhile, but I was always too chicken to try it. Lots of twisting that I was afraid to deal with. In the end, it was a very easy pattern to follow, just time consuming. After the first sock I was dreading the second sock,  but I refused to let myself start anything else until it was finished.

The yarn I used is Wollmeise Wellensittichvogelfeder , a highly sought after German yarn. There are no words to describe it other than delicious. It fells great in my hands. The color is vibrant. The fabric is smooshy and light. And I have a ton left over from one skein so I can make something else. :)
If I ever decide to make this pattern again, and I just might, as a challenge to myself, I will use a  more subtle colored yarn than this. As beautiful as it is, the stitches tend to get lost and after the amount of work I put into them, lost stitches wasn't what I was hoping for.

good days

I love when March throws you a beautiful, warm, unexpectedly gorgeous day. I especially love when we don't have to go anywhere. And I triply love when our cousins come to visit and we can go to the park and soak up all that sunshine.

Shan came in this afternoon with the kidlets. After school, they came up to the school park to swing and play and run and laugh.

Olivia kept begging Emma to do 'Supergirl'...
Buddy getting a little attention from Isabelle and Livvy.
Em & Liv racing down the slide. Guess who won?
Ev & Luke caught in the spiderweb
Liv swinging like a big girl.

It was great. We would have stayed for hours but potty breaks were needed. There's always tomorrow!

things I hate #413

Dear random neighbor,

I just wanted to take a minute to thank you for not cleaning up your leaves this past fall, like the rest of us. I knew that yesterday was going to be a boring day, sunshine and all. You cured my boredom!

I was wondering why I wasn't seeing any green sprouts poking up through the ground, and that's because your plethora of leaves mucked up my garden and hid them from view. I thoroughly enjoyed digging out their delicate green souls. It was like a little surprise party!

Did you know how much I enjoy raking? You must have sensed my joy as I was cleaning out my flower beds. Again. I can never rake them out enough.

How thoughtful of you to just let your leaves blow away and pile up in other yards. I only wish I knew exactly which one of you was responsible, and I would properly thank you.

Suck it,

Sue

my mojo has left the building

When the sun doesn't shine, I don't either.

It seems as if I used up all of my mojo yesterday in cleaning. What a rip.

I'm hoping that tomorrow the mojo will be restored.

At the very least, I'll get to have lunch with  friend. Always good for a laugh. And I have Bunco tomorrow night, so there's that to look forward to.

In the meantime, here's a cute boy!

spring cleaning

This is what my kitchen looked like, a few short hours ago.

The cupboards had exploded all over the place. And let's face it, the only way to clean them out and put like things together is to pull out every last thing and start from scratch.

Cleaning out cupboards isn't my idea of a good time. In fact, it's a sucky job. After our weekend of kitchen remodel (more to come later), everything was filled with sawdust. And I mean everything. I was getting tired of looking at the crock pot and turkey platter in the middle of the living room, so I put on my big girl panties and tackled the cupboards.

The sun is shining and my cupboards are clean and organzied, so it must be spring.
Ahhhh, so organized.

I'm so on top of things around here

When did I become the parent who stopped paying attention to what was going on at school?

I blame it on the cookies.

I scheduled a play date (for me) for next Tuesday only to learn that they have the day off. Why? I don't know. I'm sure it's something super important.

And then, today I am sitting in a big pile of yarn (more later) when Emma walks in the door. At 11:25. I say, "Hey, what are you doing home?" and she replies that today they have a half day of school. All I can think to say is "For REAL?" I also missed parent/teacher conferences. That was only partly accidental- we were given the chance to opt out of conferences and I was leaning towards not going anyway. Emma's progress report shows 3 A's & 3 A+'s, so I thought maybe someone else could benefit from the teachers' extra time. The truth is, I did still forget.

Sheesh.

I spent my day very productively today. HA! Last year I had knit the back of a sweater for myself, and then decided to rework it, but never did anything with it. So today I frogged all 18 inches of the sucker. It was a pain. My ends were woven in so well I had a hard time finding them. And then, because I am stupid and like to waste time doing frustrating tasks, I frogged it into a pile on the floor. Which in two seconds flat turned into a tangled, irritating mess. 

I need to rub my walnut halves together a little more. For further explaination, please read Jen's blog today!

FO-loose nut sockies

I finsihed these over a week ago but was too lazy to weave in the ends and take a picture. Knitting is always more fun than weaving in. Or seaming. Bleah.

These are made from the same yarn as Emma's bitchin' socks. I like the way the yarn has pooled in funky stripes. And I still have a bunch left over!

One thing I don't like was the short row heel on these. One of them is a tad poochy in the back. This may have been fixed by shortening the sock a little, but I didn't want to undo the cuff and start over. Good enough for wearing about the house.

I will make these again with little bits of different left over sock yarn, as the pattern calls for. They will be like a crazy quilt for the feets!

Nothing else exciting going on around here. I have to start dinner, so I will see y'all later.

cookie time!

Today is Girl Scout cookie day in our area. Bright and early, my car was stuffed full of Samoas, Trefoils and Tagalongs. I'm glad today was a little warmer than yesterday, or I'd have been freezing my butt off while unloading the car!

An H3 comfortably holds 60 cases, by the way.

Now we wait for the girls' to come get their share.
And try not to eat them all in one sitting.

shopgirl

Today brings another first to the Treiber household; tween shopping. Alone. Sans parental units.

Emma approached us very cautiously on Tuesday night, wanting to know if maybe she could have some money and go shopping with BFF Anna. See a movie. And then immediately ran out of the room crying because she felt selfish asking for money when things are tight.

There was much crying and carrying on about what all the other girls at school are wearing and how she never gets to buy anything by herself, and how her closet doesn't feel like hers because she has some hand me downs. There was even more caterwauling when she mentioned that one of the stores she wanted to own something from was Pink, and how Daddy wouldn't let her because he didn't approve of their commercials (?????) but everyone has their stuff and she'll simple cease to exist without a tote bag at the very least!

(FYI- I am not really exaggerating all that much here. Anyone with a pre-teen girl can tell you this is spot on. The drama is very intense. And exhausting!)

After some rational discussions about being our own person, and the responsibility of money, and not acting like an ass at the mall, we agreed to let her go. Bart even bought her a pre-paid Visa debit card, so that she wouldn't have to carry a bunch of cash. Time and place were agreed upon. Rides to and fro set up.

The funny thing is, after all the drama, it was almost a non-event. She came home with one tiny little bag...

very much NOT from Pink. It contained 2 pair of boxers, 3 pair of earrings, and a handful of lip balms. Nothing controversial, or tight or low cut or inappropriate.
And the drama continues...