Head hurts much......

So last night setting up the stage with props actually meant painting the props indoors......with regular paint. And me being a creative person I painted a LOT of the props (foam surfboards and palm trees). And now feel like I have a hangover - and I wasn't even drinking! I left at 10:45 last night and was still slightly awake because someone bought me a coffee drink (yummy chocolate, coffee, snicker cooler goodness!) that wile I wanted it probably wasn't the best thing to have knowing I was tired and needed sleep. I fell asleep at 12 after reading a while.

So here it is 1:30 EST or is it EDT right now.....can't think. And I have this huge headache and just want to crawl into bed. I think I will soon too but only after having some tea, maybe that will help me feel better. Yum tea......
Eating didn't I felt like I was about to send it all back up but I knew I needed the food. Shoot it is past my lunch time.....I should eat....but I don't know what. Hmm.....eat, tea, and sleep are on my agenda for today. And maybe some knitting soon too. All depends on how I am feeling later. Plus there is the grocery shopping that I really should be doing but I'm not venturing anywhere with this headache.

ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Sorry needed to mentally do that instead of actually screaming out loud like I want to. After trying to not beat my kids all afternoon (joke but seriously wth is up with them not listening!!!) i decided to try and do some non-knitting creativity. So I made some stitch markers......and plan to use them for a secret purpose.
>.>
<.<
No telling who reads my blog other than my SP spoiler these days. So I'll post pics of them once the swap is over. :D I think they turned out rather nice if I do say so myself and hope he/she likes them.

I can't remember if I mentioned it but I have turned into a lobster. I was super sunburned yesterday at the older two girls end of year parties - EEK! The only real good points of yesterday were the:
*Teacher gift for my 2nd grader's teacher - She LOVED everything and was totally surprised.
*We had our weight loss challenge last night (see my link on the side for weight loss blog) and I am down 1.5 lbs this week for a total of 7 lbs since 4/28/08. WOOT!

Gotta run hubby is barking about feeding kids ASAP and then I have worship team practice and we will be setting up new props afterwards. So no more posts until tomorrow........maybe. :)

Question of the Week

Our lovely Hostess Robyn sent me the QOW today. This week's question is:"What's your favorite summertime beverage?"

Hmmmm that's a tough one. I normally drink water during a typical day, summer or not. I try to stay away from other drinks that are filled with empty calories. But I love lemonaide, sun tea (but I sweeten it) and coke zero. So I guess the best/my favorite summertime beverage would have to be an herbal tea as sun tea. That reminds me I have to look at my jars to see if they are useable this year. I'm thinking that washing the plastic rings in the dishwasher isn't such a great idea because after doing that I suddenly have leaks.

I'm also thinking this was for non-alcoholic beverages......although if not - Mike's hard lemonaide for me! Quick easy and simple :)

I'm halfway through the last panel on Becca's scarf and should have it done and need blocking by this weekend sometime. Most likely this and something knit in the lovely Noro I have will be my travel companions for Saturday/Sunday. We are heading to Laingsburg (roughly 30 minutes outside Lansing to the North-East) for Mike's grandparent's 50th wedding anniversary dinner. Then his parents have invited us back to Lansing on Sunday for a father's day dinner with his mom's side of the family. Shoot! Must remember to buy cards when I go shopping on Friday. >.< But we have been debating going to Lansing on Saturday and staying over vs. driving up for each event. Will know more later, but will mean that little blogging will be done this weekend.

A quick thank you to my Secret Pal - I am loving the patterns you have sent me! I had looked on Ravelry and found someone who had made Calorimetry in Noro Silk Garden Chunky - what I have and decided that one skein will be used for that and another for a scarf for me. So now I have a new pattern to try for my scarf -thanks! Hope you have a great Thursday. Kids will be home from alst day of school any minute so it's off to make lunch for me and then make them clean! Muahahahaha! >:-D

In reply....

Because I was bad and just noticed the comment after posting the last post....LOL I have no plans for the Noro at the moment. I saw it on Ravelry and wanted to try it because the colorway I saw 264 was sooooooooo pretty in the scarf someone was making: here- http://www.ravelry.com/projects/Loopitylou/2-weeknights-with-warrick. So I looked online and found out my LYS (The Knitting Den, South Lyon, MI) carried Noro and ventured out there. And as luck would have it I went the day that they were having a sale and got a great deal ($4.99 USD per skein of yarn. WOOT!). So I picked up some colorways I like as I didn't see 264 there and brought them home. I like yarn that is more than one color like the Noro and the others I have posted on Ravelry. The end product is always different and so pretty when you combine the colors into a project. It's like knitting with more than one color but without the hassle of joining the next color ball. :)

Most likely they will become a scarf.....because I really only know how to make those right now or maybe I'll venture into something else like Calorimetry: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/calorimetry I thought this looked really neat and want to make them to match the girls scarves once I finish them all.

Ugh

My computer has been acting up a lot lately. My hubby suggested unintsalling and reinstaling windows and formatting the disk drive. This of course requires me to figure out if I have all my internet passwords written down somewhere, transfer files to another disk drive and try to backup those that cannot be transfered easily. I think I have done most of this now. So that means that tonight I might potentially be without a computer. However, this means I get to steal one of hubby's comps to use despite if he likes it or not. >:-D Yes comps - we are a very computer oriented family. If my handy dandy laptop.....thought I was going to say notebook didn't you? LOL....was working I'd use that. But evidently leaving it on, even with being plugged in, 24/7 will make it not work anymore. It is old and if the stinking battery would charge long enough for me to get the thing to recognize the new fan I put in it might work again. My other alternative is to buy a new battery (which it probably needs anyway) or/and a new AC adaptor cord. But outside of that we have 5 computers in the house plus the non-working laptop. 1 is mine, 1 is the kids, 2 are hubbys and the last is a server that he has been working on building to store files on.

On the knitting front - still working on Becca's scarf. And she is getting inpatient to have it finished. Which is odd because it is 80+ degrees here today - no need for a scarf. But the faster I get hers done the faster I can move on to another project. Most likely another scarf. LOL Hey they are quick to work on and will make great Christmas gifts when I get them finished. Plus I am excited to head to my library on Friday. The Klutz Kids Knitting book that comes in a kit with all kids need to learn to knit, the one I saw at borders for $24.99 USD, is waiting for me to pick it up. Some quick simple projects that I can learn and then teach the girls once they get the hang of knitting. Julia so far is the only on knitting.....because she was grounded and had nothing else to do. hehehe But she is just doing a row at a time of garter stitch and has maybe 4 rows done. She was getting frustrated with it because I evidently didn't show her well enough how to slip the finished stitch off the one needle and onto the other. So it looked wrong to her and we had tears because of it. I guess I was moving too fast when I showed her. I think I will knit the next project continental/picker/left handed so I can brush up on the basics and be able to teach the youngest later. Which if I had listened to my father-in-law and made her right handed I'd not have this problem. Honestly I never did anything to make the girls pick which hand to use - I just let them start feeding themselves when they got old enough and the either continued to use that hand, switched constantly, or like Becca used one for eating and the other for writing. But i think she is either using both for eating now or switched to left only. Can't remember, will have to watch her eat dinner. hehe

I'd love to make something that has an Owl in the pattern for my Aunt, the one who knits things for everyone. She loves Owls, has a ton of them decorating her house. I wonder if I can find a scarf pattern for that....and have little owls decorating it. Probably better off getting some fabric and making her a scarf or something that way. Oh Oh I know I have the bag pattern from the back of the SnB book that I could use if I can find the owl fabric and make her a knitting bag. She could use it for traveling - like on the many cruises they take. Now to just figure out the sewing machine.....I have the basics down and have made a few things......that are lumpy and not quite even.....but they are holding up pretty good so far. :) I'll have to post pics of my Care Bear pattern bag that I made. It was a piece of fabric with the pre-patterned panels all on it. So I just had to cut along the lines and sew. That I got great it was the trim that was making it hard for me. But it is done, works well and I love it so cute! Plus I have gotten so many compliments on it and I can proudly say I made it myself. :)

Today is busy: Laundry this morning before leaving to have lunch with the older girls, then their end of year parties that I get to bounce between (oh joy), weight loss challenge her after school, dinner and then Wii Fit exercise at some point in time between. I am so going to bed early and sleeping well tonight!!!! Gotta dash later Jland.

Junk and stuff

SO as you can tell I have been messing around with the background on my blog. :) The templates they provide are great but sometime can be limiting to what you might like them to be. I however just discovered that in the layouts tab you can change the color of background, text, etc. So I picked the layout I like but it was a blah color and changed it up after adding a pic to my header and ta-dah here is the new blog design. :) I'm sure I knew about the changing the color thingy before since this isn't my first blog on here but I totally spaced on it evidently.

Well my batteries were finally charged in the camera so I took some pics of my new yarn from the other day. Jack decided he needed to be in a few.....couldn't be because mom put a plastic bag (read Jack's FAVORITE toy) on the floor. Nope couldn't be that. So here they are and picks of the size 8's that I got for the girls. Julia is using 1 set now to get the hang of the garter stitch. I'm using another to demonstrate with and the last is the one pictured still in package. And yes I remembered finally that I can resize pictures on here so they are not huge like tha last few have been. LOL!



Noro Silk Garden Colorway 6 Lot A


Noro Silk Garden Colorway 3 Lot A


Julia's Yarn





"What's with the light ma?"


Ugh when will the rain end? I don't mind it bringing down the temps because it was hot outside this past week during lunch recess. But if it is still raining later today that means indoor recess, which means headache for me and mean lunch lady for the kids. Plus my whistle is super loud inside. ;) The rain is making me wish we had put a roof on the deck and enclosed it. Then I could be sitting on the deck, knitting and watching the rain fall in nice cool non-A/C air.

**Special note** To my secret pal if you decide to purchase something for me from my Amazon.com wishlist - I am ok with items being used/like new vs. brand spanking new. I figure it's one way to recycle books without actually recycling them. Could be why I love my library so much. ;) And thanks for the comment. Being without power wasn't so bad as it got really hot in the house fast and the girls are soooooo spoiled that all they did was complain. By the time I finished reading and blew out the candles it was so dark in the house that it freaked me out a little. I'm too used to my alarm clock that glows. It's basically a night light for me. :D Not that I need one I just like to see that I am going to fall on the dog when I get up in the middle of the night because she is laying on the floor on my side of the bed. Never Mike's side - always mine. Why???? I don't get it. Anyways. Breakfast time, some knitting then work for now. Maybe another post later if I finish Becca's scarf today. *Crosses fingers*

Blargh!

Yesterday was great up until about 4 pm. That was when Mike’s parent’s called and said a bad storm was heading our way and to get to safety ASAP. Well about the time we got off the phone with them is when the storm started and our power went out. We live in a manufactured mobile home park and with the winds supposed to be up to 60 MPH we seriously thought about getting out of the house. We must have been on the very edge of the storm because all we really got was the thunderstorms. No hail, no high winds, just rain and thunder. But no power until the middle of the night. Once the rain stopped we opened the windows because it was REALLY stuffy in here. My hubby is soooooo spoiled into thinking that he needs the AC running once it hits 60 degrees outside that he was roasting last night. I on the other hand was fine. But the girls were all complaining that it was too hot. They are spoiled too.

The upside is that I almost got Becca’s scarf all finished and had her try it on. She wants it longer of course. Grrrrr. I think I am only going to add two more panels and be done with it. I finished my book I was reading by candle light because I couldn’t sleep yet. That put me to bed at midnight….well after that when I finally fell asleep. And then woke up every time that the cat decided my pillow was the best way into the window. Ugh! So I got little sleep last night to be woken up at 4:30 am to turn on my fan because the power was back on. Then there was no getting back to as deep a sleep as I had been in. But the dreams were interesting. Must have had New Kids on the Block on the brain somewhere when I went to bed last night. LOL!

Bus time gotta run.

New yarn!

So I had gone to Border's yesterday with the girls to get one of their teacher's gift card for the end of year gift. While I was there I looked around the kids section to see what they had in the way of knitting kits. I found Klutz Knitting. It is a kit made by Klutz that comes with a book that has 6 patterns in it, yarn, a pair of size 8 10" wooden needles, a F crochet hook, a tapestry needle, two buttons and a carrying case. Cute - but not for $24.95 USD. Besides I'd still have to buy 2 other pairs of needles, buttons and yarn for the other girls. They all of course have voiced the want to learn how to knit. It all started when my MIL taught the girls finger crocheting. Then they wanted to learn how to crochet. I told them they'd have to wait until I figure that one out first. :) So I got to thinking - I bet I can find the book at the library for those patterns...... Sure enough I did and have it on transfer from another branch as of this morning.

Then I decided to check out my LYS as I had not been there yet since discovering it. I went to The Knitting Den in South Lyon and found some beautiful Noro Slik Garden in colorway 3 (Purple, Blue, Green & Brown) & 6 (Green, Teal/Aqua, Pink) . I bought 2 of each color as they were having a sale that made then only cost me $4.99 USD. WOOT! I bought 3 pairs of single point size 8 9" long bamboo needles for my girls to use when I teach them and point covers. I realized after opening them at home that they were for circular needles - oops! they still fit thought and eventually I hope to have some circular needles too. Julia was with me and picked out her first yarn. Universal Yarn Inc. Classic Worsted Tapestry colorway 7017 Indigo Blues. Very pretty and i'll post pics later once I have charged batteries in my camera. :) But hey as I was shopping I realized that accidently teaching myself to knit left handed will come in handy as my youngest Becca is left handed! Now to just learn left handed purling and she will be all set. ;)

Sanity......

Is totally overrated and I have lost mine (ok ok so it was really gon a LONG time ago but I've had it now). The girls have less than one week left of school to go before vacation and already they are driving me crazy. Not to mention all the crap that has to be done this week because I was suckered into room mom duties for my older two girls classes. ARGH! Julia's class is doing a surprise memory book for the teacher. Great no probs there - my co-roommom organized this whole thing. Then one of the parents in Lily's class piped up and said "what a cute idea! We should do that too since it is the teacher's first year here!" I thought great, yeah no sorry not doing this because I already had other stuff planned and you waited until there was one week left BEFORE their party date and end of school to come up with the idea. They decided to get it done themselves. Sure go for it I think to myself while silently screaming because it is one more thing that I volunteer to help get any stragglers on. UGH! Just say NO. ::bangs head on wall::

I feel like I am PMSing but I know its not that. Its the diet....I am trying to lose weight (and slowly doing it) but man I miss real food and I didn't eat enough today. Because I was bad and skipped breakfast to get a shower when I was called in to sub today. Ok enough venting I smell food.......its dinner time. :)

Oh and on the knitting front. I took Becca's scarf with me yesterday to her end of year picnic party. While I followed her around the school to stations (we were rained out so we came inside) I knit when she was in the same area for 2 stations. One of the teachers came over and talked to me about knitting because she is a knitter too. Then the last station that we were in the gym for some kids came over to me instead of the ladies ruinning the station and asked me "are we knitting here?" LOL I thought it was so cute but I was also impressed that the first grade boy knew what I was doing.

Kids.......are going to kill me!

Well the picnic on Saturday was fine other than the kids pigged out on EVERYTHING they could get their hands on. We left the park and went to Mike's parent's house for him to fix a computer issue. Which of course made us late for the game because dad had to talk about anything and everything under the sun in the little time we really didn't have. Grandma had decided as we were trying to leave that we needed a group shot - then everyone had to go to the bathroom so it took us an half hour longer to leave the park than we'd wanted. Which meant Mike's boss and our friends were waiting outside Lugnuts stadium for us as we had their tickets. Oops.....someone forgot to let us know about the construction right by the stadium so we had to take a detour to where we parked. The game was good - withe the exception of the fat that Mike's work the guys NEVER sit in their own seats. This is the second year we have come to the game and had to sit in other peoples seats who then come back and have to sit somewhere else. The one group got really loud about us sitting in their spot - well hey we had 9 seats that we only got 4 of them so sorry but shut it was my thoughts. I was in the row in front of hubby and kids with my friend Emily. Her hubby had gone to the bathroom to change their son and what happens.......My youngest being cold (I'm not going there they were all told to bring extra pants to change into and didn't) tucked her legs up into her jacket. Then she must have rocked forward on the bench and because her legs and arms were mostly in the jacket proceeded to bash her mouth on the bench back in front of her. UGH! Yup, fat lip. Yup, blood everywhere. Yup, only noticed later the chipped tooth. Yup, bit the inside of her lip but the First Aid (provided by Sparrow Hospital up the street - THANK YOU!!!!) missed when cleaning her up and getting her an ice pack.





It is a little puffy there but was still bleeding a little. Mainly because Lily was holding the ice pack in a way that made all the cold liquid not sit on her lip. She got up the next morning the lip was twice the size, had bleed some more and looked like it was puss filled. So Mike decided he was taking her to the Dr. Of course he decided this on the day we switch insurance through his company. They only thing I knew about it was the in-house plan name that was provided to us, our copay amount, that we were still with the same company and that our out of pockets expenses are now ridiculously high. Luckily the Dr said no infection just a normal body reaction and prescribed a medication that was free through our Meijer pharmacy - yay! You can see the chipped tooth in this one.





But it doesn't end there. We went to a potluck dinner at a friends house and Becca gets in the door says her tummy hurts. She'd said this before we had left. But this time says she thinks she is going to throw up. Sure enough we got her into the bathroom just in time and she threw up 3 times. Ate a bun and some chip with water and then ran around playing like nothing had happened. Of course she still complained that her tummy hurt last night and thsi morning. Iu kept her home from school gave her some kids pepto and made her rest. Oh the joys of kids.

The one nice thing about last night was as we watched pictures of our friends trip to Denver I sat and knit on Becca's scarf for a little bit. One of our other friends came over and looked at it and commented on my stitches being beautiful. I have no clue, I just work the project until it's done. :) But she crochets so we got to talking. She is left handed and tried to hire someone to teach her to knit but all she could manage was to purl. I had somehow managed to teach myself to knit lefthanded when I first started. lol So I thought about it later and if I can teach her how to knit lefthanded maybe she can teach me to purl lefthanded and I can be an ambidexterous knitter. hehehe