Leaving

In about 48 hours J and I will be on an airplane heading for Memphis. Have I ever mentioned to you how much I hate traveling and all the stuff that goes along with it? Sure, the destination is great, but it takes a week of stress to get ready, two days to get over the post-travel jetlag, and then you have about an hour to enjoy yourself before you have to start making sure you've got everything organized so that it'll fit back in your suitcase so that you can travel once again. Blech!

And, of course, nothing can possibly go easily in this family. So, my flight leaves at something like 1:30 in the afternoon. Chosen so that no one had to get up at the butt-crack of dawn to get us to the airport, and because it was during J's nap time (yes, I'm silly enough to hope that he might sleep through the flight). Now there's the fiasco that Wil can't get off of work, so if he's to take us we'll have to leave for the airport at something like 5:30 in the morning. And my sister has to work, as do all of my friends, and I am most certainly NOT going to pay to park my car at the airport for a week! So, what's a girl to do? Yep, we had to go and book a taxi service. Almost $100 later (and yes, that's cheaper than parking my car at the airport) I've got a ride to Orlando. That went and made up for the cheapness of the airline tickets.

I swear, I guess I'm just not destined to travel at all! It seems like every time I make travel plans something always has to go to shit-- remember the Barnhenge flight problems?

That's it! Anyone who wants to visit with me or the J-man from here on out must do so by coming here!

Thankfulness and the birthday that doesn't stop.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Wow! It's been such a busy week with me going back to work that I haven't had time to blog at all.

I was going to follow in Erin's footsteps and write some mushy wonderful post elaborating on all of the things that I'm thankful for, in honor of the holiday. But J will be waking up soon (I can't believe he hasn't already!) and when that happens, my blog time will be over.

And so, I'll tell you this: I feel like one of the most fortunate people in the world. I have great friends, a wonderful home, a job that (for the most part) fits my needs, a family that I adore. I have a heart full of love. Throughout the past year I've been blessed to share in the lives of so many people, every one of them important and precious. Every one of them leaving their own unique stamp on my own. I've been able to feel sorrow, absolute joy, and everything in between. I've made friends in places I never knew I would.

I couldn't be more thankful if I tried.

For those of you who read here, thank you for sharing with me, at least in some small part, a part of your life. You mean the world to me.

Happy Thanksgiving to you!


And in the never-ending birthday roundup...

This has truly been the birthday that never ends. I've had goodies of one sort or another trickling in all week- messages, cards, e-mails. I've been very very spoiled!

So, you all know that my parents gave me a new camcorder a few weeks ago. So look at what my sweet hubby brought home on Monday!



Up until now (and including the above picture) I've had a true dinosaur of a digital camera. It was big, heavy, and bulky. It had a tiny and very scratched LCD screen (We're talking less than an inch!) It was a 3 megapixel thing that, when first purchased all those years ago was top of the line. I had convinced myself that it was adequate, despite the fact that all of my pictures were either dark, blurry, or pixelated. Wil saw through me, though.

This new one is amazing! It's 7.2 megapixel and the images are amazingly clear and crisp. Here, let me show you:


This was taken in a mostly dark room, at arms-length, and is of a squirming J-man and me. (Ignore the bags under my eyes-- It was a long day at work!) Sweet, right?

Then, I came home from work last night to find some more birthday lovliness waiting for me in my mailbox. I knew what was inside the minute I held it in my hands. There's no mistaking the squishy wonderfulness of yarn! And not just any yarn, mind you. No, Amanda went and spoiled me rotten with this:



Delcious Koigu KPPPM! I can't begin to describe to you the wonderfulness that is this yarn. The colors, the softness! In this town/county where Red Heart rules, it's impossible to find anything of this quality. Oh, and it's all mine! I rarely, if ever, make anything all for myself, but sorry, this little bit of luxury is just for me. Now to find the perfect pattern.

Thank you Amanda and family!

And now, off to rustle up some breakfast and get to work around the house. We're not doing the traditional Thanksgiving feast this year, but we'll probably grab a couple of Turkey subs later and veg in front of the tv. Hope you all stuff yourselves silly.

Let the video begin: Now with handy translation!!

Just trying out my new camcorder here. We all got a real kick out of this. Jonas is really starting to develop a sense of humor and it's usually directed towards me. Listen closely to what he says. The child knows and understands my addictions! :)

Sorry if the image is crappy/dark and not well edited. I'm still figuring all of this stuff out and I don't really have a lot of video editing software.


Photo Sharing - Upload Video - Video Sharing - Share Photos

Ok, so I realize that not everyone can speak and interpret J-manese as well as I can. Heck, I even have to translate for Dada occasionally. So, without actually listening to the video while I type this out, here's a translation.

J: Moo!
Me" Jonas, what does a cow eat?
J: Grass
Me: Very good! What does Dada eat?
J: Eggs
Me: What does Mama eat?
J: (laughing) Coffee pot! (more laughter)

Coffee pot is what he calls my coffee, which he sees me carrying around all day. Not sure why it's "coffee pot" and not just "coffee", but it probably has something to do with the fact that he likes to help push the button and turn it on every morning.

Holy Crap!

I got my birthday present early this year since the parents are going out of town this week and we won't cross paths again until the first week of December or so.

Check this out!



This thing is awesome. Of course, it came with two big packs of cassettes, and a 1G memory stick! I'm beyond words. What an awesome gift. What a lucky girl I am.

And now, prepare yourself for the onslaught of J videos that is sure to come. :)

Last day

It's my last day before I start back to work. As of tomorrow we will be getting up at the crack of dawn and dealing with the morning traffic once again. Oh joy.

Of course, this is just a temporary inconvenience for the next few weeks, and then I'll be back to blissful afternoon shifts. I can't wait for that.

I wish I could say that I used this day for something productive, but I haven't. I'm no good at change, even change as simple as going back to a job that I'm thoroughly familiar with. So, I've paced, and I've fidgeted. I've packed J's bag for tomorrow, as if Abuela won't have everything he needs already at her house. I've knit a little, and I baked a couple dozen muffins, because that's what I do when I'm anxious... I cook. And I already have a fridge full of leftovers from yesterday's culinary adventures so I needed something that doesn't require refrigeration. Besides, there's no better way to get back in good with the girls at the office than to bring in something fresh baked.

Jonas is absolutely in love with They Might be Giants Here Come The ABCs right now. Anyone who's seen it (hich will be me, Wil, and Amanda) will find this cute: Right now he's sitting in the middle of the livingroom floor with a giant metal bowland a wooden spoon. He'll beat on it wildly for a few seconds and then yell out "D for drums! D for drums!" while totally rocking out.

I'll leave you with a picture of those yummy muffins I whipped up. They're incredibly easy, very delicious, and not overly-sweet.

Cinnamon Crunch Muffins

Spider revisited

I wasn't brave enough to open the cabinet yesterday and remove the eight-legged visitor myself. Considering it did not move all day, I assumed that it was dead, but still... just the thought of it there creeped me out.

Dinner time rolled around, and, well, unless we were going to eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, I HAD to use the stove.

So, standing as far away from the cabinet as I possibly could and still reach the burner, I whipped out what anyone who doesn't want to be near the stove would... Tuna helper. Quick, didn't require me to access anything in the spice cabinet, and it's something Jonas will eat, as long as you tell him it's chicken, not fish.

We ate dinner in the livingroom- away from the creepy thing.

When Wil came home last night he dutifully went to sweep the presumably dead critter into the trash and when he opened the cabinet door my worst fear was actualized. That F***er jumped out of the cabinet, crawled across the counter, and hid behind my coffee pot.

***EEEEKKKKKK!!!!!****

Wil was able to hunt it down and dispose of it before I had a total nervous breakdown.

And then, just as I was drifting off to sleep last night he had to go and pipe up with this: "Hmmm... I wonder if maybe she laid an egg-sac in there."

It's official. I'll never set foot in the kitchen again.

Itsy Bitsy, my ass!

This is what is currently holding my spice cabinet door ajar.
Anyone want to guess what this is?



There has to be a law against spiders this big.

You've been holding out on me

Why didn't any of you knitters tell me that knitting gloves was so much fun? I finished the first of a pair of fingerless gloves that were requested by my step mom today. Well, almost finished. She wants them to be convertible mittens, and so I still need to create the mitten flap. I found that knitting it was actually a lot of fun, and quite a bit easier than I expected.

Despite the fun I had, I'm not very pleased with the final result. This is the first project that I've encountered laddering on. Maybe it's a problem more common when using worsted weight yarn? I was able to correct it, to some degree, by inserting a needle into each stitch and gently tugging to even out the space. Still, it's not as smooth as I'd like it to be. I also had a hard time with gaps between each of the fingers, even with doing a C2F at each gap to sort of close it up. Not sure how to overcome that. I used my ends to sort of go back over them and close them, too. And there were some gaps in the thumb gusset, but I know what I did wrong there, and know how to correct it next time around. I may frog this one completely and start over, but I think I'll work on making a second one first and see if I do any better.

Maybe there's some mysterious glove knitting clan that is reading this and can address all of my problems?

Here's a picture of the finished (almost finished) first glove. I added a bit of moss stitch to each of the fingers for a little interest. I stole, er borrowed, this idea after seeing Gretchen do it with a pair of Fetching that she recently finished. I like it.



And here's a picture of some of the other things that have recently graced, or are currently gracing the needles. My first foray into lace with this Branching Out scarf. I think I mistakenly called this a "Falling Leaves" pattern. Got so many patterns in mind right now, it's hard to keep the names straight. :) There's the flop of a hat requested by Wil. Haven't gotten around to frogging it yet. There's the replacement Tychus which only got 4 of it's 5 wedges due to yarn shortage. Had I frogged the flop hat first, I would have had enough, but I think the 4 wedges is large enough. And my stand-by side project- J's little blue socks.



So, that's what's going on around here.

Halloween Pictures

My glow-in-the-dark J-man! The reflective stripes on his costume and the flash of the camera made for some really spooky ghostie pictures. Here he is in Abuela's front yard, getting ready to go trick-or-treating. Yes, that's Abuela in the background, but don't tell her! :)


And here he is with Abuelo at his very first house. He really didn't get the big picture with visiting strangers and asking for candy. I mean, isn't that what we spend their entire childhood telling them not to do?!




Just a cute picture of him in his "Martinez Fire Department" shirt. I couldn't find a plain black t-shirt to save my life, so we had to go with navy. He didn't seem to mind, though.


Wanna lick?


All mine!

Hi Ho!

Yep, I'm going back to work.

God, just that sentence sends chills of dread down my spine.

The good news is, I'm going back to work and I'm doing it on my own terms. You see, a few weeks ago I ran into an old co-worker from the vet's office at the hardware store. She was telling me how they were kind of in a pinch because one of the two girls that they hired to take my place (yes, it took two!) was leaving, and that two people were going on vacation at the same time. I offered to fill in if they needed a little help that week, no strings attached, just pay me for the hours I work and we won't worry about going through the rehire process, etc.

She talked it over with the other girls, and I got a call the day before yesterday asking me to work the week of Thanksgiving. Sure, why not? My parents are going to be going to Tennessee that week, and Wil's family doesn't really do Thanksgiving- not in the traditional sense. And even if I work that week, I'll still have the holiday off. So, right now I'm confirmed to work starting the 17th, and three days of the following week.

I think we may also have it worked out for the first week of December, too. And possibly a regular schedule of just two afternoons per week.

While I'm sort of tied in knots over going back to work- especially in such a high-stress environment, I think it's going to work out great for me, and for J. I mean, two afternoons a week is a great schedule for us. I don't have to drag him out of bed at such an ungodly hour of the morning, he gets to spend a little time with Abuela, and we still have a lot of time together.

I made it very clear that I don't want any more than 20 hours a week. When I came back part time after J was born, my 25 hours a week quickly turned into 30, then 35, then 35 with constant requests for me to cover someone's day off, etc. I'm not willing to do that again.

Truth is, we need the extra income, but not badly enough for me to sacrifice my time with J, and certainly not enough for me to put him back in daycare!

I'll find out today what my regular shifts will be. For this month I'll probably work Fridays and Saturdays, since those are the days that no one wants. I'm great with that. They close early on Fridays and Saturdays are from 8-12, which usually getts us out of there by 2 once paperwork is done.

Anyway, that's the latest news from around here.

Jonas had a much better time giving out candy last night than he did actually trick-or-treating for himself. He just didn't seem to get the purpose of going house to house and knocking on doors. But he loved sitting in Abuela's livingroom waiting for the doorbell. It would ring and he'd yell "Hold on!" and he'd go running for the door, dragging a bag of candy behind him. Cute!

I'll post pictures later.