Best Laid Plan

Ever have plans for something, really good plans too, only to not have them go through? The better question is if you ever have had a list and plan for lets say a hundred things and only complete two of them? It seems as though that has been the story of my life for the last year. I make a list (usually mental) of things that I want and or need to do and I prioritize the list. Of course blogging is on the list, unfortunately it has been one of the items that has not been on top of the list. Other things that are on the list (that have yet to be done) include cleaning my baseboards and windows, going through the closet, re-doing my garden (though I wonder if I can really call it a garden, if technically it is nothing but overgrown weeds, rose bushes, and shrubs), you get the idea though.

Most of my time this last year has been spent volunteering for various things that my boys are involved in. And though I have had a lot to say, I'm not sure that you want to hear about things that are not knitting/craft related. Another thing I'm not sure about is whether or not you like to read posts without pictures. I know what I like and I try to give what I like to receive. I love when blogs have pics and since I have not been taking as many pics lately, I have been hesitant to post. I don't know, I just feel as though, there has been a lot on my plate and I have seemed to justify to myself why I haven't posted. I still check on many blogs frequently, I just haven't been giving back.

One of the (many) reasons is we have recently had a new addition to our family.

Obviously, she is not of the human kind, but the canine kind. Her name is Duchess. We are not sure of her exact breed as she was abandoned on the side of the road with four of her siblings. The wife of Hubby's co-worker saw them be abandoned and well, the rest I guess you could say is history. The vet thinks Sheppard/Terrier/Chihuahua mix, though I can honestly say I don't think think there is any chihuahua. The pic above was taken the day we got her home and she weighed in at a whopping 3.8 lbs. That was about five weeks ago. Today she weighs closer to 12 lbs.

If only someone could have reminded me the part about how hard the house training process was going to be...UHG!!!!

One is more than enough

It's still not here. Fall that is. For a couple of days after my last post, I honestly thought that it was working. The weather started cooling and I actually put on long sleeves in the morning while I was walking the kiddos to school.

It is now a couple of days into "Fall" and I am still wearing shorts and tank tops, with no need for knit caps or socks...yet.

This is a pic of one of the things I had worked on over the summer. It is China Doll from Interweave Crochet Spring 2008.

It is actually finished but I don't have a pic of me in it. So that is all you get.

Oh, I almost forgot. I was at the dentist with Big Monkey a couple of weeks ago and as usual, I was knitting in the room while he was having work done. The dentist who was working on Big Monkey is relatively new to us since he has only been with the practice for a few months noticed that I was knitting and asked what I was knitting. I told him it was a sock, to which he replied, "For a set or are you making just one?"

What I wanted to say was, "Usually when I wear socks I like to wear one on each foot, just like my shoes. Doesn't everyone?" Though I didn't dare because for all I know my sarcasm wouldn't have been taken to so kindly and then I would have pissed off the person who was working on my son.

Inspiration

Inspiration (in-spe-ra-shen) n. 1. stimulation of the mind or emotions to a high level. b. The condition of being so stimulated. 2. One that inspires. 3. Something that is inspired.

Inspire (in-spir) v. 1. To fill with noble or reverent emotion; exalt. 2. To stimulate to creativity or action. 3. To elicit or create in another.

Lack of the above is why I have been out for so long. I have still been knitting and have even done a bit of crochet while I have been gone. Though I have had the lack of inspiration to blog about it for a couple of reasons. One being that some of the things that have been made I have to keep a lid on for now. The other is because I have to keep a lid on things. I have no less than six FO's that I would love to share but can't. That's right six, maybe even ten.

The summer has been super busy with the kids. This past spring was the first season that Big Monkey played kid pitched baseball. I was the team mom, which kept me busy scorekeeping during the games. It was a fantastic season! Their team won their division championships. During the same time he decided that he wanted to also play flag football. That is in addition to all of the activities that Little Monkey, Hubby, and I are involved in. I think at one point in the last few months we counted ten games within one week.

There were times when I wanted to blog, but because of the lack of craft content didn't. I'm hoping with the kids going back to school next week, I will be able to be a little more dedicated to blogging. That's right both of the kids are going back to school. For the first time ever both of my kids will be at the same school. Little Monkey will be there for half day and Big Monkey for full day. I can't wait, though I am a bit sad at the same time. Where did the time go? It seems like it was yesterday that they were brought home from the hospital.

With the kids going back to school, I'm hoping there will be a bit more time for some of this:

and maybe just maybe, I'll be a little more inspired.

It could be worse

Things sure have been interesting around here.

Yesterday I had kept Little Monkey home from school for what I thought was the stomach flu. Turns out he has Scarlett Fever. That's right Scarlett Fever or Strep-Throat with a rash. I so know what he is going through.

Good thing though, the Dr. said we don't have to cancel Thanksgiving this year. Although, I wonder what would happen if I had to call everyone (about 30 people) and tell them we couldn't have it here this year. I'm sure they would all find another place to congregate, though I would miss having all of them.

Enough about that. I have a FO for all of you.

click on pic for more info

Have a Happy and Safe Thanksgiving!

It's all good/Eye Candy Friday

I think I am finally at the tail end of the cold...yay for me! But it will probably be several more days until I am back full force.

As for my sockpal. Thank you for commenting on my last post. I don't think you are a crummy pal, I just hadn't heard from you and was getting worried. Now I know that you didn't forget about me and all is good. I can't wait to see the socks I know you are working so hard on.

And now for some eye candy. I did this about two weeks ago but forgot to post last week.

Have a great weekend!

So proud

I think it is fair to say that as a family we are casual and dress up only when the situation calls. Now don't get me wrong we are not running around looking as though we don't care about our appearance, we just don't go all out all of the time.

I think B would like that to change though. A few weeks ago, I took the kids shopping for an outfit to wear to my cousin's wedding. After trying on the clothes, B tried to convince me to let him wear the outfit to school because, "I look soooooo handsome mom."

Well, I didn't let him wear the outfit to school. On Saturday he was so excited to wear the outfit he tried to put it on first thing in the morning. The boys looked absolutely adorable. Unfortunately we didn't get a pic of them.

So Sunday morning after breakfast, B asks me where his tie was. After I told him, he comes to the kitchen looking like this.

And then he asks me to help him put the tie on.

I couldn't resist.

Also look what I finished.

He gets me/Eye Candy Friday

While we were watching the Dodger game earlier this week, B asked if I could take him to last nights game. He had seen the advertisement for it and they were giving away Dodger blankets. Unfortunately I had plans and was not going to be able to plus it was a school night and they had enough trouble the last time we tried that. While he was walking up to bed, he says, "I know, you could just knit me a Dodger blanket."

A couple of weeks ago Hubby was out of town for the weekend. I decided to take the boys hiking. While B was eating his snack he said, "Here mom, take a bite it is soooooo good, oh wait, take a picture first"

He knows me so well.

Have a great weekend!

Peekaboo

I realize that I haven't been very good about posting pics of my fo's lately, in fact I haven't' been really good about posting lately. A lot has been going on. The kids starting school, I hurt my ankle (again), college football season starting, and me just needing to come to terms with some issues.

So where do I start. That last post where K looked like he was going to kick my you know what on the first day of school. It turns out that he loves, I mean loves his teacher. He actually went up to her on the second day of school and gave her a hug. My little boy, the one who cried if we saw his other teachers at the store went and gave his teacher a hug. If that is not saying something, I don't know what will.

College football...it has been a little all consuming. We went to the season opener and tailgated all day, and I do mean all day. The game didn't start until after seven and we were there at O'dark hundred. I don't know if you know this, but on that particular day (September 1) we were going through a heat wave over here in Southern California.

Good thing my mom brought some misters. The kiddos played with those all day and kept everyone cool. I guess on the good side, our team did win the game.

Now for my ankle. I have been having some problems with it for a while, probably about ten months or so. While I was playing soccer a couple of weeks ago, there was a little "pop" during the game and it felt like the ankle was on fire. Fortunately there was no swelling and I was able to walk, but the ankle has been giving me more problems than normal.

I went to the urgent care a couple of days later and the doctor basically told me to rest and wear a brace for a couple of days, which did absolutely nothing to make it better. My ankle would still pop while in the brace even if I was just walking around the house. Fortunately, I had a follow-up appointment with my primary and she referred me to a specialist which I will see tomorrow. Hopefully I will just need a little cortisone shot and all will be better, I can't stand not being able to go running and exercise.

Now for the fo.

They are my Peekaboo Rib Socks. Worked from the toe up.

Go K!

Today is K's first day of pre-k. I thought that he was going to have some difficulties when I dropped him off because when I took him to his class to meet his teacher last week he clung to me and cried a little when we were in the class.

Today when we were getting ready he was a tad fussy as you can see in the pic below.

Today's pic is the one on the far right. Doesn't he look excited?

When I dropped him off he found his cubby, put his snack in the cubby, turned, gave me a kiss, and was on his way.

You go K!

Now the only thing left is for me to decide what I am going to do with all this free time.

Eye Candy Friday

I did this on the kiddos first night of summer vacation and have been meaning to post this for a while.

Have a great weekend!

BTW B lost his second tooth in just as many weeks. I can hardly believe it. At the rate he is going he is going to bankrupt the tooth-fairy.

stash baskets

After seeing Isel's stash basket, I knew that I had to make one. Then I got the idea that I would make two as gifts for my neighbor who is about to have twins. I have to admit that crochet is not one of my favorite things to do as I have to watch the hook and yarn while crocheting, unlike knitting where I don't have to look at what I am doing. One day, maybe one day I will be able to.

Anyway, here are the finished stash baskets.

I am thinking of filling them with some various little things that my neighbor will need for the babies.

This is what I have on the needles right now.

Have to go. K gets to meet his teacher today and I'm running late

Cheese!

Guess who lost their first tooth. I'll give you a hint.

A few weeks ago, I noticed that one of B's teeth looked a little different, so when I asked him to show me the tooth, I noticed that it was a little loose. I told him not to mess with the tooth too much just in case it was my imagination and it really wasn't loose.

Well, the other day when B went to bite into an apple, he said that he couldn't eat it because of his tooth. That is when I caught him doing this.

And this is B three hours later.

I can't believe he is loosing teeth already, though I guess I shouldn't be too surprised because I know kids who have lost their baby teeth much earlier than this. The funny thing is, that as soon as B realized that his tooth was as loose as it was he took our point & shoot camera and took about three dozen pictures of his mouth. After the tooth came out, in addition to all of the pics that Hubby and I took of him, he took even more of himself.

Also look what I made this weekend.

It's the Yee Haw Lady hat from the Happy Hooker. I love it. My crochet skills are a bit lacking in the sense that I had to fudge with the pattern just a little because I couldn't keep the stitch count, but all in all I think the had turned out great. And it only took a few hours to complete. Though I think I need to learn how to hold the hook a bit differently because my fingers were a little sore afterwards

That was fast

Summer vacation that is. B went back to school yesterday and all I have to say is wow. I could have sworn that summer vacation just started. Though I guess when you are busy time seems to fly.

Our traditional first day of school pic.

Remember when I said that we did more well there was one more place to be exact.

Before we had kids Hubby and I would go casino-hopping now we go arcade-hopping...go figure.

We figured out that while Hubby was on vacation, we drove over eighteen-hundred miles, at least two months to achieve under normal circumstances.

Oh and I got my Ravelry invite. Let's just say that I have not had enough sleep for the last couple of nights because of it. It's that addicting.

And finally Cathy of Woman who says Knit tagged me for the Rockin' Girl Blogger! So now it's my turn. I am tagging Jean, Sachi, Cara, Scout, and Jill.

I know what I did this summer

Here is a little glimpse of what we have been up to for the last three weeks.

If you click on the pic, it will take you to my flickr page and you can see the bigger versions from there. And you know what, there is actually more, but I am too tired to upload the rest of the pics. Soon, I promise.

As for the knitting, there has been little, very little.

Back for Now

We just got back from a week of camping. The boys had a great time, I had a great time.


As for the knitting, I have eight more tiers of the Entrelac socks before I'm done. I wasn't able to knit as much as I would have liked.

Posting may be a little sporadic for the next few weeks since Hubby is on vacation and we have a few more trips planned. I'll do my best though.

Plan B

I wanted to take the kiddos to the Los Angeles Children's Museum in Downtown, but when I was looking them up I found out the museum was closed. I called to see if it was a temporary type of thing, but the number was no longer in service.

I truly hope that it is a temporary thing and they do open again. I have very fond memories of that place as a child and would love for my children to have the experience.

I went with plan B, Kidspace Museum in Pasadena.

The boys had a wonderful time.

I almost forgot. Look what I did.

I dyed it for my sister. We were talking about colors and she mentioned that she loved green, all shades which gave me the great idea to dye some yarn for her and then make her some socks out of the yarn.

The only thing is, I like looking at the hank so much, I may never knit it, let alone part with it.

How wrong would I be if I just give her a pic of the yarn?

Peb's Mat

This is one of the things that I worked on this weekend.

I love the stitch pattern, which is the Spot Stitch. Very simple and yet effective.

The way I see it, she should have something nice to eat off of and we couldn't find a mat that either of us agreed on.

Holiday

Yesterday we celebrated Independence Day. For the last nine years out community has hosted a fireworks show. As a result, we have hosted a little get together for our family.

The boys got into the spirit by having their face painted by me.

If you look close enough, you can see the black eye just above the American Flag on K. Three days before he fell on his scooter and the handlebar hit him just below the eye. We are lucky because his eye could have been so much worse.

This is what we were able to see from our front yard.

I hope you had a great holiday.

Summer is officially here

That's right. Summer has officially started for our family. K's last day of school was last week and today was B's promotion ceremony from kindergarten. It seems as though the school year just started yesterday. It has been a great school year and he truly did have a great teacher who decided to retire after twenty-five years of serving the community.

B has learned so much this year some from his teacher and from friends.

Things he learned from the teacher:

Reading - mostly c-v-c (consonant-vowel-consonant) words, but there are others as well. Yesterday for example, when he sounded out the word organic during breakfast. Though when I told him to sound it out in front of Hubby it sounded something more like ogre-ganic.

Math - I would like to take full credit for his mad math skills, his teacher was able to teach B subtraction without having me scream and yell in frustration from explaining it to him for the umpteenth time.

Things his friends may have taught him:

Vocabulary - some of the things he now says, "Mom, you're my peeps." "Don't hate the player, hate the game." "OhNoYouDin't!"

Though my favorite thing he has been saying lately is, "MOM, how do you do it? This dinner is fantastic, you are the best cook ever!" I will attribute this last statement to his immature taste buds, but I will take the compliment.

The graduation promotion ceremony was great and we really lucked out as he was in the front row and were able to see him throughout the entire ceremony. Unfortunately during the ceremony he kept playing binoculars with the audience, shaking his leg, and as you can see in this pic, yawning.

I guess he was a little bored.

Now that summer is officially here, the countdown begins to the first day of school. Just kidding, though it is 55 days.

Party on and on and on

Wow, I think I am still getting over all of the hustle and bustle from the weekend. And it didn't contain one ounce of playing sports on our part. I did have a soccer game Friday, but I opted out. I think I had good reason too.

Look who had a party.

K had been talking for months about wanting to have a party for his birthday. And if you can't tell from the big furry thing at his side, he wanted to have it here. He had such a great time. And I am still in shock at how big he is getting.

So I think you would agree that I had a valid reason to miss the game Friday night.

Saturday was dedicated to my grandmother. She will be turning ninety this week and so we celebrated on Saturday.

There are four generations in that pic. Two of my grandmothers, my parents, me and my siblings (including Hubby), and two out of three of our kids (K was so exhausted from his party the night before he slept throughout the dinner party).

This is a pic of most of my cousins and our children with my grandmother.

And finally this is a pic of me and my sisters.

Sunday was K's true birthday and Father's Day so B and I took K and Hubby to the movies followed by my parents and sisters coming over for dinner. This was the first year that I cooked for Father's Day, I think I may make a tradition of it.

Then on Monday, well I'll just say that someone else celebrated a birthday.

With all the partying and eating I need to go to the gym. I haven't been in weeks and I think it's starting to show.