Toothache

This little sweater turned out so sweet it's laible to give you cavities.

It's all finished, and has been for about 4 days. It's just waiting for my lazy butt to get it in the mail.


And here's another cute one of J. He's got his own little laptop which was given to him by his Daddy Dave and Granny for Christmas. Doesn't he look like a typical little computer geek? So much concentration on that little face. He loves the alphabet mode, and is quickly learning not only which letter is which, but what words start with them. Way cool! Who says technology is bad for kids? What you can't see in this picture is that Dada is sitting on the couch directly behind him in the exact same position on his own computer. The apple never falls too far from the tree.

Rainy Day Comforts

It's cold and rainy outside, so what do we do? We stay in our jammies all day long and enjoy each other's company.

We play some games, and do some puzzles.


I'm so glad that Jonas inherited my love of a good pot of soup. It's one of those sweet little intimate lasting memory sort of things for us. We both delight in making and devouring homemade soups. His job is to gather the ingredients as I call them out to him, and he's quite good at it. Here we have a virtual cauldron of potato and corn chowder.



And while Mama mans the "hot", which is off limits to little fingers, J gets himself a little (ok, big) snack from the freezer. Looks like he's inherited my coffee love, too.



Is there anything better than a lunch date between friends?

It's all over except the seaming

I finished off the last bit of knitting on Emily's valentine sweater this afternoon. All that's left to do is sew in the sleeves and seam up the sides. I'll get around to it tomorrow. Don't know what it is about seaming, but I absolutely loathe doing it. I'm probably not alone on that, am I?

This is the cutest little pattern, and I have enough of the pink yarn leftover to make a little pair of socks to go with it.

When I started this, it was using yarn from my stash, and I went with the smallest size, which is designed for 6-9 months because I wouldn't have enough yarn to make anything bigger. Well, go figure, I ran out of yarn anyways, and ended up having to go get more. I couldn't stand the idea of frogging the whole thing and starting over on a larger size, so I hope that this fits the little chunk it was intended for.

The yarn is Bernat Satin in seashell and white. Yes, cringe. It's acryllic. But it is soft and not scratchy at all, and I'll make sure that Emily knows to stay away from open flames while wearing it. :)

Maybe

Just when I thought I'd gotten stuff somewhat figured out, I get a notice in the mail that my mortgage payment is going up by about $100 a month due to a shortage in my escrow. Bastards. I mean, honestly! I can't even figure out where the shortage came from. Our insurance didn't go up too much, nor did our property tax, so why such a huge shortage. Of course, I shouldn't complain. I know other folks that are in the same situation and had to come up with multiple thousands all at once.

So, what does a girl do when she's broke and grumpy? She goes and buys new curtains for the livingroom. (I know, real responsible of me.)I've lived in this house, or at least owned it for damn near ten years and haven't gotten around to putting up anything other than some mini blinds that are seriously in need of replacing. So now I have lovely burgandy tab top curtains to block the sight of my portly neighbor woman showering. Yay.

On the way home from the store, driving south, about 5:15 pm I suddenly realize that this long and familiar stretch of road is eerily empty for rush-hour, as if some cosmic law of Karma was giving me a little bit of payback. No traffic in a spot that's usually crawling along bumper to bumper! And the sky... wow! Sun preparing to set off to the west, big bank of storm clouds looming in the east, and there, directly in front of me, a wide swatch of incredible blue with the setting sun reflecting pink and orange off the clouds.

It was just enough of a perk to make me think that, yes, maybe things are going to be ok.

Pictures

I'm not one to quote lyrics in my posts

*poof*

I must be insane

because yesterday, on a whim, I cast on for this.

It all started by looking for a quick pattern to knit up a hat for J's little girlfriend's birthday this weekend. When I came across this my mind came to a screeching hald and said "Wait! You have some pink and white yarn in your stash, and this is perfect for it!" Then the voices in my head started taunting me... "Look at that adorable little ruffle!" "You know, it won't be too hard if you just take it one line at a time." "You could finish it in a weekend!"

And the sensible side of me said "Pssst... You've got TWO lace scarves to finish, and you're supposed to be doing school work right now!"

Like any true knitter would, I stuffed a half finished sock in Ms. Sensible's mouth and picked up the needles.

The funny part is, I don't even know if I have a recipient for it! I only have enough yarn to make the smallest size, which is 6-9 months. Hopefully it'll finish big and it'll be a perfect valentine's gift for my sister's daughter. She's such a chunk, though, that I'm afraid I'll end up with a really cute shirt for someone's baby doll.

Yawn

Well, I've done pretty well with my not-a-resolution plan for getting my transcription courses finished on time. Of course, that means that I've been neglecting other areas of my life--like laundry and cooking. But would I be raising my child in a traditional American way if I didn't fill his belly with fast food and garbage on a regular basis?

Actually, on the J front, we've had a major tastebud breakthrough this week. While spending time with Granny he decided to taste a bit of her salad. Now, we've tried veggies, and salads, of all sorts in the past. All have been met with dramatic gagging and spitting. But this time, he decided it was "crunchy good" and managed to consume quite a large amount. Around midnight, his new gastronomic explorations came back to haunt him and much music was made from the nether regions. :)

Since then, he's been hooked. So, along with his packaged, processed crap dinners, he's had a salad almost every day since. Sweet!

There's been no knitting all week. Oh! How my fingers have ached for the needles, but I held fast in my resolve to spend my free time glued to the keyboard and headphones. I finally sat down today and did a single measley repeat on one of my lace scarves. I love the pattern, and will share it with you all very soon. Almost done!

I also treated myself to a haircut this week as a reward for my hard work. It had been more than 9 months since my last one and I was looking something like Cousin It on a bad day. Now it's a bit shorter, and a bit more manageable. Genetics were not kind to me in the hair department, giving me straight and heavy hair underneath topped by a layer of uncontrolable frizz and wave. No one ever knows quite what to do with it when I go for a haircut. I always get the no frills trim with the slight layering. It's boring, but it's an improvement.

Next week is my last week of extra shifts at work and I couldn't be happier about that if I tried. It's been a difficult couple of weeks and I'm ready for a break.

And that's the report from 'round here. *yawn*

Whatchoo lookin' at?

We may be making great progress on the potty training, but table manners are going to take a while.

What is it about kids and ketchup? Jonas loves it so much that he'd eat it on his cereal if I'd let him. We've officially dubbed it a vegetable in our house, and that makes us feel less guilty about the mass quantities that he consumes.

I made a promise to myself- not a resolution, because I don't DO resolutions- to get more serious about my medical transcription courses. I vowed to get up two hours earlier on my days off so that I could get some work done before J wakes up and still save his nap time for other important things, like knitting. Well, we all know that hasn't happened, right? Me? Wake up early? Yeah, right.

But I have managed to get back into the swing of things, much to the dismay of my lace scarf that is aching to be finished. Hey, occasionally I have to get my priorities straight.

So, if there's a lack of knitting content here for a while, it's not because I've lost my love for it, or because I don't have a cabinet brimming with lovely yarn to play with. It's simply because being back at the clinic makes me realize all the reasons I left in the first place and I'm anxious to get the heck out again. Besides, is there anything sweeter than getting to quit the same job twice?

We're going to break in the new fancy-schmancy grill tonight. It almost seems sinful to use such a fine and fancy piece of equipment for something as mundane as a hamburger, but ground beef is what we've got, and so it's what we're gonna use.

I've yearned for a grill for the last 5 years or more, always giving up the desire for things more practical- like new walls in the shower, a tile floor, a spoiled child... whatever. Now that I have one, and have had it since the week before Christmas, I haven't had a chance to play with it. I can't wait.

In other not-so-exciting news... J and I went shopping today to find him a new pair of shoes since his old ones were starting to gnaw at his toes. Target had a great clearance sale going on and I picked up two pair of sneakers and a pair of sandals for him. I also found a neat pair of clogs for myself for $4! How can you resist a comfy pair of shoes that cost less than a Happy Meal? Now I'm dying to cast on for a pair of cool socks to wear with them. Oh! The agony of not having enough hours in the day!

Look out Calvin Klein!

Up until today, Jonas has refused to wear underwear. We've tried all of those sneaky parent angles- you know- encouraging him to be like his big cousin, high praise for how handsome they are, buying the favorite characters, downright bribery (wear the undies and get a sticker!) None of it has worked.

"No Mama!" he insists, "New diapee!"

So, imagine my surprise when I woke up this morning feeling all gung-ho about the potty training, and figuring it was a good time, since I have a the next few days off work, the holidays are over, and we have nothing else to do and nowhere to be, and he chose to wear his Thomas underwear!

Yay!

So, we've run to the potty religiously every 20 minutes today. It's nearly 1 pm, and we've only had one accident!

And isn't he handsome and oh so big boyish?! Look at him, striking the Austin Powers pose and everything. :)

All you young ladies watch out! He'll be available in about 30 years.