Knitting, life, Christmas time, and Diet

I have picked up my lovely hobby of knitting once again. My current projects should be linked at the side via Ravelry widget. My sister-in-law asked me about the Mermaid Tail blanket that is all the craze right now. I found a pattern that was knit, bought it and yarn, and have been working on the girls gifts. Not done in time for the party unfortunately. :( But we will be in Lansing again soon and can deliver them then. I also found an awesome Shark blanket (same designer) for my nephew! But first he is getting a TMNT hat in Raphael's colors.

In knitting the girls blankets I was asked by a family friend if I could make one for her daughter after said daughter saw it and went gaga. Of course I said yes. So I'm casting that on now to bust it out before the end of the month. Another friend asked about Harry Potter house mitts and scarf for her daughter, those go on the needles next! I'm slowly getting my sanity back via knitting and will be glad to sit over break and relax with my knitting!

Life - my poor middle child! Due to some outside circumstances we decided to pull her from public school and have her attend online schools. No more than a week in she faints due to low blood sugar while I'm at work and gets a concussion. Concussion = no stimulation....meaning no screen time....meaning no school until cleared of symptoms. Fast forward a month and still having headaches, next step is a neurologist appointment. She believes that the concussion triggered migraines and we are now trying an elimination diet. The girl is a picky eater as it is but when you take away chocolate & cheese - you severely diminish her foods she will willingly eat. Let's say she hasn't been entirely the strictest on this diet as I cannot starve her. She already doesn't eat much from one food group - dairy due to issues with lactose. And then on top of this she has hurt the muscle in her thigh at the knee. We are watching to see if swelling goes down for another week. If it doesn't potential physical therapy and/or MRI. Mind you this is all since the tail end of September to today.

We attended the second of four family parties we have this month. The first my youngest and I were scheduled to not attend due to a conflict but it was canceled so we went to the mother-in-laws side. Today we attended my side's party and I ate my fill in yummy cookies and homemade fudge. We even took our family photo outside since it was a lovely but damp almost 60 degrees here in the Mitten state.

Diet - more life a lifestyle change. I had to give up my Jazzercise position that gave me a free membership due to my work schedule changing. But I had a backup - Beachbody and became a coach. My awesome cousin Nettie is my sponsor and my Rockstar leader. I love 21 Day Fix but I have fallen off the wagon after Thanksgiving. :( My Monday is actually Sunday so I am starting over tomorrow. And since I got my Black Friday sale deals I might mix it up and try a new program! I'm tracking that journey on my other blog Slimming Down to RockTheFit (linked to my profile).

We have another animal.....

On 2/18 my friend saw a cat frozen to the ground outside her house. She sat with him, rubbing his paws until she was able to remove his feet from the ground and take him inside. Unfortunately due to her and her daughters allergies they could not keep him in their house long. She called me begging me to take him in. And we did. His poor back paws were severely swollen because of an infection caused by the frostbite wound on his tail. He had a wound on one of his back legs and his paw pads were torn up from being frozen.

On 2/19 we took him to a vet to have his paws looked at. Me being the animal sucker that I am, told them to do the works. I couldn't decide to hold off on anything, especially if it would be something needed in a few days time. He was left there to get fluids, rabies shots, and a slew of other things. He wouldn't allow the vet to examine his leg wound but he was given an antibiotic and some pain meds. We were asked to return with him in four days time.

On 2/23 we went back for his recheck. He roamed all around the room, exploring everything, trying to eat the treat they had whole (it was a piece of jerky).


*****UPDATE*****

So I originally started this entry back in Feb. when we got the cat. And then promptly forgot to come back to it! Colby is healthy and an expensive FREE cat! But we love his crazy butt and wouldn't have it any other way. Hard to believe this poor baby was once outside and frozen. He had some complications - needed to have his tail partially amputated from being frozen. And must have had frostbite to his bits as when they fixed him he wouldn't stop bleeding. One trip to stay overnight with the emergency vets and he was ok and still alive! He is a miracle cat and we wouldn't have him any other way.


We called him Tiny Cat to begin with as we weren't sure we would keep him and he was soooooo tiny compared to our BIG Jack cat.

Mother Nature needs to up her meds

For the past month and a half every time the weather changes my allergies go crazy. Sometimes it's as little as a headache or migraine. Other times I'm in bed hiding from the world because my head is so full of snot I'm not fit to be around others. This has caused a lapse in my reading and reviewing. I'm attempting to play catch up over the next few days but I have quite a few books to review that I didn't think to write down my thoughts on while sick. Today is yet another headache day but I am powering through and getting reviews up once again.

I've found that I'm also in a knitting slump. Which sucks as I am spoiling the most awesome person I know and can't tell you who that is. I have stalked them and plotted what to send but the actual knitting and buying of items has been waylaid. By what you ask - JV soccer. My oldest has finally tried out for a sport and wouldn't you know it we have to buy things for it! So buying for other things is on hold until that is done and my bowling fees are current. Ha so basically no new cool things until May-ish. Which is of course when I will be getting my hair done once again and potentially getting a new tattoo with my girl cousins.

Living paycheck to paycheck sucks behind.....I was going to say sometime but no it's really all the time. But enough ranting about that. I've noticed that the stat count on this blog is up, and it seems to be because of the review blog - thanks for stopping by if that is the case. :)

New turn in the road

I decided to do something different. One of the many authors I read shared a link for a fellow author with an ARC link. I followed it and joined the site to get my ARC's to read and review. Yup review, I've started a new blog on which I read and review books. As well as a new twitter account to go with said blog.

Why not right, I read a bunch as it is so this is just one more step in the process. And I'm having fun doing it. So far I have enjoyed all the books read. The current one I am reading is a bit wordy, and hard to follow but I'm toughing it out. I was even pre-approved for an YA ARC and I'm excited to read it once I finish the current book. My new blog - kkmreads is linked in my Blogger profile if you'd like to check out what I have been reading. :)

I have lost my mind......

This week was the longest week ever since I have started working waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back when the girls were in elementary school. This week was elementary conferences. This meant two half days; two days off the lunch lady (playground not food) gig and two looooooooong afternoons with the before/after school program. We decided this year to split the days and I got to stay the whole time on one of them.......

I am soooooooooooo tired! And to top it all off - I have lost my mind......there are 5 girls in my house, 3 are mine, 1 extra is spending the whole weekend and the last 1 was a last minute add. I sent the hubby to pick up the pizza because I knew he will want the escape. HAHAHA

Life......again!

It seems like all I do is work. I've hardly knit anything in the last two years, which is sad. I have a half finished monkey to make for my nephew. As well as a few other monsters to make for family members. I should probably get moving on those. But it seems like as my kids get older there is less time for me to do the things I did before. Probably because I am carting them everywhere instead! I'm looking forward to this afternoon when I can sit and figure out what to do for a couple special people. But I'm off to work now.

Life.......

Has this tendency to run away from me. Crazy busy lately. Enjoying the peace of a quiet home while the kids are at their grandparents for a few days. Then back to the hub-bub of the holidays. One Christmas knitting project down - knit my FIL some slippers he could wear inside his boots for extra warmth. Onto the next projects - 2 Maddox the Mischievous monsters for my nieces & a Grumpasaurus for my nephew.

Got an awesome gift from my friend Amy sent me an awesome Christmas gift this year. I got 2 batts of fiber to spin from WoodenSpinner Fiber by Brenda in Hot Stuff & Babbling Brook colorways. Soooooooo pretty!



And she sent me Itty-bitty toys by Susan B. Anderson. I look forward to making some of those for my nieces & nephews as well as other babies to come in the future. :) Thanks Amy!!! ♥



Now back to knitting........

Knitting....

Yeah so I finished Hubby's scarf finally! Can't remember if I posted that or not & being too lazy to double check if i did. :P Then I got stuck because I have one to finish that is literally just putting the darn thing together but I have no time frame any longer on when it needs to be done by. So it's in the wait pile. I have another project that is mostly done but I don't like how it turned out so it's sitting to be finished and sent on to the person. I have my hat that I need for winter that I wanted to knit myself......since last winter. Hasn't happened yet. And i have a swap project (or a few) that I started, messed up and now need to tink it before I can do anything else. And lastly I took on the task of knitting house shoes for my father-in-law as a Christmas gift......was ok with the idea until I found out he has extra wide feet in one area only. I've only successfully knit socks for myself because I could try them on as I went. So we'll see how this works out....

The frustration......

Tub has been one little problem after another to replace. Did I mention that hubby couldn't find the spout? Yeah and of course we find it after he has bought a new one. No biggie it's returnable. But frustrating & the tub could have been done a day before. It's mostly done now - not pretty by any means but it's done......mostly.

What a day!

The tub - ugh! Guess hubby wasn't looking at it right last night & he drilled a hole in the wrong side for the spout to go into..... grrrr. Not to mention the walls & the tub combined didn't work well together. It was a very TIGHT squeeze to get the tub into place. Tore up the trim on my walls that wasn't right by the tub. I had to work at Jazzercise this morning so my jello arms were not carrying the tub into the room. We lucked out & had a friend who could help us come over. Then it was just up to me to remove all the things they couldn't get to because they were holding up the tub. Comedy of errors basically was the day. Get it in place & it becomes apparent that it should probably be tucked up under the walls. That's not happening because we weren't removing the walls. So hubby caulked where the tub doesn't quite meet the walls. It's not pretty but as long as it doesn't leak it'll do.

Off to clear off the bed so that I can eventually get to sleep tonight.