Where was I?

Saturday J and I drove up to Merritt Island to hang out with Michele and go to the Fiber-In.

Michele's a sweetheart. When she and her husband went to the Tampa Bay Stitch n' Pitch she ganked an extra goodie bag for me. Inside were a couple of different magazines, including the Summer issue of Interweave. There was also a set of dpns, a giant, double ended crochet hook. I'm telling you, if this were in an adult store, most people would shy away from it. Still scratching my head over what in the world you're supposed to do with it. It also had a couple of balls of novelty yarn, and the cutest little Ravelry button that says "Where my stitches at?" Heh! It's now residing on my purse, along with one my friend gave me that reads "No, my powers can only be used for good." Sheesh! I get a few more and I can become an employee of TGI Fridays. :)

The Fiber-in was pretty much a letdown for both of us. I mean, there was some nice fiber to be had, but I found many of the vendors to be more than a bit stuffy and stand-offish. We didn't stay very long at all. It wasn't a total loss, though. She and I both have had an interest in learning to spin, and so we each bought a drop-spindle. The really nice lady who sold them to us also gave us a bit of the fiber she was spinning with to practice on. Michele is a MUCH better spinner than I am, but I haven't totally given up.

Here's a picture of her giving it her best.



After the disappointment of the fiber-in, we took J to Cocoa Village so he could run around the park while we gabbed about all things knitting. I think we all had a great time. After the park we enjoyed a little browse through the one and only yarn store in the county, and had ice cream and drinks at a little shop nearby.

There was also this whole incident with a dude and his monkey, but Michele already covered that one pretty well, so I won't rehash it.

As far as knitting goes, there just doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day to get it done. I'm still working on the sleeves of the shrug I started before going out of town. I'm about 3/4 of the way done with the second, then it's just a matter of picking up stitches and creating the back.




I've got a TON of projects that I want to get started on. And silly me! I just signed up for NaKniSweMo. How crazy am I? But I've been wanting to make Kepler ever since my SIL made it, and if she can finish it during the Olympics, I'm sure that I can do it if given a whole month. :) I'll probably add a few inches of length to it, but other than that, I like the pattern just the way it is. Do I really expect to finish it in a month? Nope, not really. But signing up will at least get me started, and once it's started it'll get finished eventually.


And I'll leave you with cute J pictures. One at the park, the other playing superheroes with me last night.

Long time, no blog

Well, it feels like it, anyways.

Since my last post, life has been pretty hectic. Some of it good, some of it not so much. But we seem to be back on an even keel, I suppose.

Let's see. Where to start.

Wednesday I came home from work to find the shower in the master bath full to the top with (eewwww!) back-flow from the septic tank. Now the good news, if there is such a thing in these matters, is that it was just the grey water and not actual raw sewage. So, I used a small garbage can to bail out as much of the water as I could and resigned myself to the fact that I'd be calling the septic folks in the morning.

Morning arrives and hubby wakes me up to let me know that there's no water in the house again. Yes, the same problem we had the day before we left on our trip. So, now I'm calling the plumber AND the septic people because, don't you know, there's not a company around here that'll do both. Of course not.

As I'm on the phone with the septic folks begging them to please come today and not make me wait until Monday, hubby steps in from outside and says "I need you NOW." Not in that lusty way that you'd like to hear those words, but in that panicky, something's terrible wrong sort of way. Wondering what terrible thing may be waiting for me, I hesitantly step out the front door to find a gloopy glob of what appears to be dead kitten still in it's placenta. Nice.

We suspected that the little stray that's been hanging around might be pregnant, but had no idea she was THAT pregnant already.

Being the strong stomached womanly woman that I am I swallowed back the bile in my throat, and retreated inside to gather the necessary items of kitty disposal. When I returned to do the deed and actually leaned over to pick up the poor kitten, it squeaked a pitiful little mew and kicked one of it's legs. Holy crap! It's not dead!

I wrapped it in a towel, cleaned it as best I could, and placed it in a box while I got myself and J somewhat dressed so I could take it to my office.

Dr. Carraway was an angel, cleaning up the little kitten and tube feeding it. After hearing my woes of the morning, she agreed that the kitten would be best served staying there where a team of techs could help feed it and keep it warm all day.

Then it was the race back home to meet the septic guy and the plumber. We got all of that taken care of to the tune of several (several) hundred bucks. But the good news is, we have empty septic tanks, a new pressure switch on the pump, and snaked drains. We should have no more plumbing problems for the rest of our lives... or at least until next month.

The kitten thrived throughout the day, and J and I returned to pick it up just before the office closed. I was given tube feeding instructions and we returned home to begin our every 1.5 to 2 hour feeding schedule.

I'll admit that I'm not a good kitty surrogate. I tried my best, and things seemed to be going well up until it's 2 a.m. feeding, but by 4 a.m. it was apparent that kitty was not doing so well. She was sluggish, nearly impossible to wake, cold. She was still alive at 7 when I arrived to work and handed her off, thankfully, to the folks that know what they're doing. They did their best, but poor kitty, who was already guaranteed a home with a number of the girls, gave up the fight just before noon. Oh well, I tried. Still, it sort of broke my heart.

Friday night I went home and slept like nobody's business. I was exhausted.

Shall I continue?

Well, I could tell you about the Fiber-In, and I could tell you about the great time I had with Michele hanging out in Cocoa Village, but it seems such a waste to toss it in almost as an afterthought to this depressing post. Besides, it really does deserve a post of it's own.

Tomorrow, perhaps.

But for now it's time I took a shower and got myself ready for bed. J has his first speech therapy session tomorrow at the butt-crack of dawn and he's even worse of a morning person than I am, if that's possible.

For your birthday

I really did want to get you something. Something nice. Something you really wanted. Sure, it would have been a little late, since I don't get paid until Friday. But still, you would have liked it a lot.

Instead, for your birthday, I'll be getting my septic tank sucked so that I don't have to wade through years worth of sludge in my shower anymore.

Trust me: You would have liked the first gift better. But I'm really thankful for the second. :)

Oh, and one other thing... if ever you think you'd like to buy a house, please come spend a weekend with me.

In all seriousness, happy birthday little sister. You're hardly the sweet little baby you once were, and you're certainly not the wild child you used to be. You're not even the crazy teenager you were just a few short years ago. What you are is a beautiful woman with a bright future and a sweet little girl of your own. I love you. Always have, always will. I hope you enjoy your day.

Mommy for hire

J had his appointment with the speech therapist this morning.

We were about 5 minutes late getting there due to traffic. Who knew that it'd take over an hour to go less than 15 miles? It took 20 minutes just to get through the first intersection past my house, and another 20 to make it another couple of miles to the interstate on-ramp. Ugh! I despise being late for anything, so my morning did not start off well.

Once we got there, she and J set to work on some evaluation where they looked at pictures together and he named them while she wrote down stuff on some sort of score card. Meanwhile, I filled out all the paperwork that I should have arrived early to do.

After the verbal assessment, she felt around in his mouth and had him play a funny face game with her where she tried to get him to stick out his tongue and move it from side to side/ touch his teeth, etc. They blew bubbles together and tooted on horns and played with some toys. He really enjoyed his session, and was upset that it was over.

The verdict? He has some weakness in the right side of his jaw and in his right cheek/lip. He also has poor coordination of the muscles of his face, as well as some general muscle coordination problems. The good news is, she's pretty confident that he can overcome it in time, and that the drooling will also improve. He has some lag in his speech, but she says that he's pretty much within the norm for his age group and that we'll work on that too.

Now for the bad news: It's going to be expensive.

I don't know why I didn't consider that before getting started. I guess I just sort of thought, rather foolishly, that we'd go, have our evaluation, then be sent home with some exercises and stuff, then go back in a month or so to see how he's improved. Ummm... negative. The cost for evaluation alone was ridiculous, and sent me scrambling home to transfer money before the charges bounced. And now we're looking at an undetermined number of weekly visits at $45 per 1/2 hour.

I'll gladly pay any amount of money to ensure that my son has every opportunity in the world, but man does it start to add up!

That said, I really like this particular therapist, and chose her based on both the fact that I know her personally, and she comes highly recommended by my pediatrician. But insurance won't cover her... and according to her, and to phone calls I've made to the insurance company that have been like talking to a brick wall, they don't cover a whole lot of anything anyway.

The only option I have right now seems to be picking up some extra shifts at work. Blech! But really, what other option is there? If I can figure out what I'm going to do with J, I'll be begging them tomorrow to let me pick up another shift, or find another VERY part time job on the side.

**Sigh**

Just another post

Wow, I'm still catching up on everything from before we left on vacation. It seems like things such as dishes and laundry are never-ending. But besides that, things are just about back to normal.

So, vacation was great fun. The best part for me was watching all the kids play together. I really do wish we were all a bit closer together. It's a shame that they only get together once a year or so.

We took advantage of the fact that we had all the kids in the same place and took them to get portraits made together. They turned out super-cute, and I can't wait until I actually have the prints in my hands.

Other highlights of the trip included the boys catching their first fish in Daddy Dave and Granny's lake, going for a ride on the tractor, and the little boat, catching butterflies in the front yard, and watching deer run across the golf course behind Mom's house.

Then there was the children's museum and the fair, and so many other great things...

There wasn't a whole lot of knitting time to be had, but I did finish up the first sleeve of my shrug, started the second, and managed to sneak in a lesson to my very eager, and quick to pick it up, little sister. We'll have the whole family knitting sooner or later. insert evil laughter

We got home late Thursday, and I had to be back at work Friday morning, so this is really my first chance to catch up with anything.

Let's see... what else?

Oh yeah, I'm finally a full-fledged ravelry addict, although I haven't been able to play with it nearly as much as I would like to. It's awesome, to say the least. I could easily get lost there for hours at a time.

I'm also excited about the fact that the Florida Fiber-In is this coming weekend. I don't have a penny in my yarn budget, but it sure will be fun to go and gawk at all the fibers and prove once and for all that there really are knitters in FL. Thankfully, I'll be in good company since Michele and her husband just bought their house. She and I can go and daydream together. Yay!

J-man has his speech pathologist appointment tomorrow at 8 a.m. Yeah, the time sucks since neither of us are morning people, but I'm looking forward to getting some answers to all these worrisome mommy questions I have. She asked me to bring along some examples of foods that he won't/can't eat, and the cups he drinks from. Well, the cups are easy enough, but the foods? Well, should I really be cooking up steaks and chicken and roast beef at 8 in the morning? Funny how I know what he will and won't eat when I'm looking at prepared food, but now that I'm forced to think about it, I can't think of very many examples other than meats and some breads.

Anyway, off to do the rest of the laundry and maybe do a few other things. Just thought I'd offer some sort of post since it's been so long.

Whew!

What a whirlwind week it's been!

We're home from our vacation.

It was wonderful.

I'm beat.

Another day at work tomorrow.

Then rest.

Then blog.

I promise.