Back to the Old Grind

Today was our first day back at school since before Thanksgiving. I would like to say it went smoothly, but it did not. Benjamin is having surgery this week, and we had pre-op stuff at 9am. I tried to make sure the kids knew exactly what they were supposed to do while I was gone, but apparently they didn't. Mikayla has forgotten how to subtract, but she did remember what a verb was. :-) Devin had way too much free time after he was done with his work. Me thinks I need to schedule more. Katie thought that doing everything but write a thank you note and read was acceptable. In her defense, she did ponder the lay-out of the thank-you note. Benjamin came home and declared he didn't have to do school because he went to the doctors. He did complete handwriting and two math pages. Atleast we made some progress, eh? I don't imagine we'll be back into the full swing of things until next week.
I've done much thinking about what I want 2008 to be like for us. I can honestly say, good riddance to 2007. Not that some wonderful things haven't happened to our family this year, I'm just glad it's done. It'll be nice to not have to say that it'll be next YEAR before my dh comes home again. :-) I want this to be the year of the Happy House. I remember my Grandmother telling me she loved the house my parents used to live in so much, because it was the "Happy House" to her. She said that was the only time all of her kids got along. Of course, if you ask my Dad, he says it's because they were all toddlers/babies when they lived there. heehee. Anyway, I want this to be the year of the "Happy House." I'm tired of fighting kids all.the.time. I'm tired of no one talking nicely to each other. I'm tired of the selfishness. I guess I'm just plain tired. So, in order to get the changes I want, I need to focus on Character Training. I'm including myself in this, because I can see where I definitely need some character training. This is the book I'm thinking of purchasing. I'm waiting for dh to check it out before I order it. Knowing him, he'll say, "It looks fine Babe." :-) One more thing I'm going to do is put a lot more focus on Bible work in our homeschool. I'm currently trying to design a Bible Notebook that'll work for us. Stay tuned on that. :-) Of course, I've got the ever popular "lose weight" goals too. Who wants to hear about those though. lol.
Knitting....I have started the heel on the second sock, finally. I will be spending about 6 hours at the hospital on Friday, so maybe I'll have a nearly finished or completely finished sock by then! I have a couple of larger items I would like to knit this year, but I'll save that for another post.

Hallelujah, it's over.

This may sound horrid, but after two Christmas celebrations, I'm glad it's over. It was fun while it lasted, but bring on 2008. :-) The kids had a fabulous day though. They enjoyed all of their gifts, loved hearing the Christmas story, decorated cookies, made gingerbread houses and all of that fun jazz. Speaking of gingerbread houses, we are finished with kits. We had such a hard time getting our houses to stay together this year. Next year, we're either doing graham cracker houses or a lincoln log house. :-) Liberty was so excited to finally get her Dora's Talking Kitchen. This morning, she was sitting on the couch watching TV and said, "Dora's Talking Kitchen here I come!" Silly little girl.
Mike has finally made it back to his FOB. He sat at Baghdad International Airport from Saturday until yesterday. Nice, eh? He's getting back into the swing of things. They already shipped him out to the out-post. He wouldn't have it any other way though. Sitting in his room would drive him crazy.
I'm anxious to start a new knitting project, but first I have to convince myself to turn the heel on the socks I've been working on. Also, in order to start the new project, I have to do a guage swatch. I loathe having to swatch. It'll be worth it though, as I totally LOVE the new project I'm going to start. :-)

Bring Him Home Santa

I'm not fit for human conversing right now, but here's a song that brought a tear to my eye. OK, it brought more than one tear. Go have a listen.

Merry Christmas?

Today was Christmas at our house! Dh is leaving on Thursday, so we celebrated Christ's birth early! We had a fabulous day. We played games with the kids, I made a yummy ham dinner, complete with the Pioneer Woman's squash, much to my children's dismay. However, Mikayla loves it, which is why I requested it. I figure if my 8 year old requests squash, I must oblige her, eh? :-) We have lots of ham left-overs, so I doubt I'll have to cook tomorrow.

We let Devin sweat a bit. We're horribly mean. His gift cost over $200. With 5 kids, our Christmas budget has to be kept under control. So, we couldn't afford to spend anymore $$ on him. The other kids had opened a few gifts each, and he was starting to get fidgety. He said, "I wonder if I have any gifts under there?" HA! Finally, we gave it to him. He was in total awe that he got a Sony PSP. He didn't think there was any way he was getting one. It's nice to give Devin gifts...he wears his emotions in his shirt sleeve, so you always know how he's feeling. He is often emotional over gifts, which is nice...makes you feel like he really appreciates them. Some of my other kids are non-responsive about gifts. Namely Benjamin and Katie. You can never tell if they liked what they got or not. lol. Anyway, the bad thing about celebrating Christmas early? I am itching to take the tree down like nobody's business. But, I can't. The kids are opening gifts from family members on the 25th, so I have to keep it up until atleast then. I'm guessing I will be ripping it out of the living room on the 26th.

I have been knitting. I finally bound off the sock I started when I went to see the Yarn Harlot, and cast on for the match. I'm nearly ready to start the heel. Something tells me I'll be knitting lots by the end of the week.

Welcome Home!!!!!

So, as most of you know, my dh is home. He's sitting on the couch watching football, America's favorite past-time. :-) We picked him up at the airport last Saturday. His flight landed around 6:45am, we finally saw him around 7:45. Thankfully, I didn't get to the airport until 7:30ish, so we didn't wait long. I made sure to tell the kids just because they say someone in ACUs, they shouldn't assume it was Daddy. I was afraid one of the kids would go nuts and have it be a complete stranger. HA! Mike doesn't like to draw attention to himself, so as soon as we saw him, he wanted to get the heck out of dodge. I was able to snap a couple of cute pics though.

After we left the air-port, we headed to Cracker Barrel. We were all starving. Imagine our surprise when we went to pay our bill, and someone had already taken care of it! :-) After breakfast, we drove another 2 hours north to Greenville. It was Mike's Step-Mom's 60th Birthday. It was a pretty big deal. Lori flew in from Vegas, the boys drove up from Atlanta, etc. So, how could we miss it? Many thought we were crazy, including myself, but we went anyway. lol.

This week has been great. It's been so nice to talk to Mike in real life, not on the Yahoo IM. I'm so thankful we are able to have internet communications while he's gone, but the real thing is much better. :-) So far, he's taught a certain 3 year old to ride her bike, he's hung Christmas lights, he's played Army Men and we've went to the Zoo. He's also done a boat load of laundry, but that's no fun, so you'll see no pictures of that. Oh, I forgot we celebrated a birthday too! My baby boy is six now!

So, there's our week in pictures. That picture of dh with his feet sticking out of the window cracks me up. He didn't end up hanging any lights up there, as we had no idea how the heck I would get them down once he left. But, I had to snap this picture. It reminds me of the Pooh-bear episode where Pooh gets stuck climbing out of the hole and they have to push him out. HA! Tomorrow, we're taking a little trip. I can't wait. I had better pack something, eh?

The time has come

I'll be leaving for the airport in a few short hours. I'm hoping I can sleep. Anticipation does me in every time. :-) We are all so excited. He called me a few hours ago from Germany. Yee-gads! He's almost here! :-)

Funny three year old

Liberty is hilarious. She cracks me up all the time. I always say there is never a dull moment if you live with a Liberty or a Benjamin. :-) Yesterday, my Dad took a nap with Liberty upstairs. I forgot to warn him how she lets us know she's awake....he tried to slip out of bed while she was sleeping without waking her, which is nearly impossible. He got to the top of the stairs when she started...."Wahhhh, wahhhhh, wahhhh." He went back to the bedroom to ask her what that racket was. She replied, "That's my people caller." Too funny.

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's not over yet, right? :-) We had a great day! My parents plane was delayed a bit, but they still got to Columbus in time to eat our Thanksgiving feast! The food was all awesome. If you're looking for a great squash recipe, head over to the Pioneer Woman Cooks blog and check out her recipe. It.is.yummy. I should probably link you to it, eh? There ya go. Oh, and she's right, you MUST puree it. Yumm-o! :-) I cooked enough food for an army. Guess I won't be cooking much the rest of my parents visit, eh? In my defense, I was expecting 4 more guests, but three of them couldn't come because their Mom was visiting the Bradley Center. :-( I'm not really planning on doing much shopping tomorrow. I did pick up a nifty little gadget from bestbuy.com this morning. A TomTom One Navigation system! Yesterday, I explained to my dh why I needed one, he promptly told me to buy it. He's awesome, isn't he? :-) I told him I'll wait for him to get home before I open it though. So, he's off the hook...he doesn't have to shop for me for Christmas, even though I know he won't listen to me and will shop anyway. Men. :-) I have a few crafty projects planned to do with Mom this weekend. We may have to run to Michaels tomorrow to get the supplies, since I didn't think to pick them up before they got here. Until next time...........

Thanksgiving Frenzy

Please tell me I'm not the only one who has a to-do list a mile long and no motivation to do it? Ugh. I put the pumpkin bread in the oven a few minutes ago, so that's done. I need to get to the grocery store this afternoon. I would rather go today than tomorrow. I have to do the usual "the parents are visiting" cleaning. Actually, it's not too bad, but I need to mop, finish the laundry, wash the bed sheets, clean off some clutter areas, etc. Plus, the kids have their regular Wednesday chores to do tomorrow. Oh, and we have church tonight. I have nursery....again. Nursery duty is a blessing to someone, right? ;-)
Knitting news....I FINISHED THE CLAPOTIS! Well, not really. I still have ends to weave in. Maybe tonight. We'll see. I've been sick, so I haven't felt like doing anything after the kids get to bed.
I'll have to share my latest drama incident with you later. It involved 8 MPs and 2 CID agents. Lots of fun. :-)

Lions and Tigers and Bears Oh My

I am a multi-crafter. I don't just knit. I scrap. Sometimes it's hard for me to decide which I'm more passionate about. It's hard for me to find the time to do both. I think they serve different purposes for me. I wouldn't want to be forced to choose just one. When we moved into this house, the kids were so excited that they would have their own bathroom. Actually, they have a couple of bathrooms. :-) Of course, with 4 kids using one bathroom, they couldn't decide on a theme. Katie wanted SpongeBob, Mikayla wanted Princess. We compromised with this:
Katie adores anything monkey. Liberty loves lions, and Mikayla loves Giraffes. Benjamin was just thrilled not to have anything pink! :-) We've got the elephant toothbrush holder, a few brown towels, and a purple bath rug. We're still working on the minor details of the decor. lol. They want the lion trash can but whew, that thing is spendy. I think they'll just keep the Madagascar trash can they have now. Hey, it's animals, right? Anyway, here's what I came up with for a couple of picture frames to hang on the wall. The frames are 12x12. I cut the animals/leaves/grass on my Cricut Expressions machine. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this machine. It seems as though I use it for every scrapping project I've done lately. The kids have made some Christmas ornaments with it, they've used it for school projects. If you're a scrapper, and you don't have one of these machines, get one. You won't be sorry. :-) Anyway, without further delay, here's what I made.....


Anyway, the kids love 'em. Mom is bringing me another frame when she comes next week. I think I'll call her and ask her to bring me two more. That way I can do a monkey and a lion to hang right above these! Until next time...........

In Honor of Veterans Day

In honor of Veteran's Day, here is a picture of my favorite Veteran! Short...his time is getting short. :-)

Watch very soon for a picture of my completed Clapotis. I WILL finish it this week. I'm working on the decrease section, which I'm hoping will go very fast. I have a list of Christmas knitting I need to finish. I guess in order to finish it, I would need to start it, eh? Nothing major, just a few little things. I don't know if I'll get them all done. I never do. However, since my dh will soon be here, I'll be able to knit while he drives! :-)

I had totally planned to do school with the kids tomorrow. Until Katie was invited to a friends house to spend the night. How could I say no? :-) So, I guess tomorrow will be an off day. I'll have the kids do a couple of short lessons, but that's it. We all need a free day every now and then, right?

My house is coming together. I emptied a couple of more boxes today, hung a few more pictures, etc. I still have quite a bit to do before my parents come, but I'm not going to stress over it if it doesn't all get done. They won't mind, I'm sure. :-) I just realized what my kids are watching on TV. Santa Clause. We just decorated some sugar cookies with fall colored sprinkles. You mean, we could have made Christmas cookies today? Yee-gads! Until next time....................

House

Here are some pictures of my house! We are finally getting settled. Katie told me the other day it's starting to feel like home! I still have some boxes in the garage to sort through, but not too many. Maybe 8 or so? I really need to work on the garage this next week. It needs to be done so I can actually park a car in there! :-) Plus, I don't think my neat freak of a husband would like to see it in it's current state. HA! So, there you have it....pictures of my new house. :-) Until next time.............

The Bitter Homeschooler's Wish List

I read this on a message board today, and had to blog it. If you're a homeschooler, you'll understand. :-) If you're not, please know I posted this in jest...mostly. :-)

The Bitter Homeschooler's Wish List
From Secular Homeschooling Magazine, Issue #1
1 Please stop asking us if it's legal. If it is — and it is — it's insulting to imply that we're criminals. And if we were criminals, would we admit it?

2 Learn what the words "socialize" and "socialization" mean, and use the one you really mean instead of mixing them up the way you do now. Socializing means hanging out with other people for fun. Socialization means having acquired the skills necessary to do so successfully and pleasantly. If you're talking to me and my kids, that means that we do in fact go outside now and then to visit the other human beings on the planet, and you can safely assume that we've got a decent grasp of both concepts.

3 Quit interrupting my kid at her dance lesson, scout meeting, choir practice, baseball game, art class, field trip, park day, music class, 4H club, or soccer lesson to ask her if as a homeschooler she ever gets to socialize.

4 Don't assume that every homeschooler you meet is homeschooling for the same reasons and in the same way as that one homeschooler you know.

5 If that homeschooler you know is actually someone you saw on TV, either on the news or on a "reality" show, the above goes double.

6 Please stop telling us horror stories about the homeschoolers you know, know of, or think you might know who ruined their lives by homeschooling. You're probably the same little bluebird of happiness whose hobby is running up to pregnant women and inducing premature labor by telling them every ghastly birth story you've ever heard. We all hate you, so please go away.

7 We don't look horrified and start quizzing your kids when we hear they're in public school. Please stop drilling our children like potential oil fields to see if we're doing what you consider an adequate job of homeschooling.

8 Stop assuming all homeschoolers are religious.

9 Stop assuming that if we're religious, we must be homeschooling for religious reasons.

10 We didn't go through all the reading, learning, thinking, weighing of options, experimenting, and worrying that goes into homeschooling just to annoy you. Really. This was a deeply personal decision, tailored to the specifics of our family. Stop taking the bare fact of our being homeschoolers as either an affront or a judgment about your own educational decisions.

11 Please stop questioning my competency and demanding to see my credentials. I didn't have to complete a course in catering to successfully cook dinner for my family; I don't need a degree in teaching to educate my children. If spending at least twelve years in the kind of chew-it-up-and-spit-it-out educational facility we call public school left me with so little information in my memory banks that I can't teach the basics of an elementary education to my nearest and dearest, maybe there's a reason I'm so reluctant to send my child to school.

12 If my kid's only six and you ask me with a straight face how I can possibly teach him what he'd learn in school, please understand that you're calling me an idiot. Don't act shocked if I decide to respond in kind.

13 Stop assuming that because the word "home" is right there in "homeschool," we never leave the house. We're the ones who go to the amusement parks, museums, and zoos in the middle of the week and in the off-season and laugh at you because you have to go on weekends and holidays when it's crowded and icky.

14 Stop assuming that because the word "school" is right there in homeschool, we must sit around at a desk for six or eight hours every day, just like your kid does. Even if we're into the "school" side of education — and many of us prefer a more organic approach — we can burn through a lot of material a lot more efficiently, because we don't have to gear our lessons to the lowest common denominator.

15 Stop asking, "But what about the Prom?" Even if the idea that my kid might not be able to indulge in a night of over-hyped, over-priced revelry was enough to break my heart, plenty of kids who do go to school don't get to go to the Prom. For all you know, I'm one of them. I might still be bitter about it. So go be shallow somewhere else.

16 Don't ask my kid if she wouldn't rather go to school unless you don't mind if I ask your kid if he wouldn't rather stay home and get some sleep now and then.

17 Stop saying, "Oh, I could never homeschool!" Even if you think it's some kind of compliment, it sounds more like you're horrified. One of these days, I won't bother disagreeing with you any more.

18 If you can remember anything from chemistry or calculus class, you're allowed to ask how we'll teach these subjects to our kids. If you can't, thank you for the reassurance that we couldn't possibly do a worse job than your teachers did, and might even do a better one.

19 Stop asking about how hard it must be to be my child's teacher as well as her parent. I don't see much difference between bossing my kid around academically and bossing him around the way I do about everything else.

20 Stop saying that my kid is shy, outgoing, aggressive, anxious, quiet, boisterous, argumentative, pouty, fidgety, chatty, whiny, or loud because he's homeschooled. It's not fair that all the kids who go to school can be as annoying as they want to without being branded as representative of anything but childhood.

21 Quit assuming that my kid must be some kind of prodigy because she's homeschooled.

22 Quit assuming that I must be some kind of prodigy because I homeschool my kids.

23 Quit assuming that I must be some kind of saint because I homeschool my kids.

24 Stop talking about all the great childhood memories my kids won't get because they don't go to school, unless you want me to start asking about all the not-so-great childhood memories you have because you went to school.

25 Here's a thought: If you can't say something nice about homeschooling, shut up!

****Here's my disclaimer....I have never read nor intend to read Secular Homeschooling Magazine.****

I hope you chuckled a bit while reading this, I know I sure did. :-) Someone was asking me when I'm going to post pictures of my new house! I will do that soon. I've tried about 5 times, but each time I try, I'm either having internet issues or blogger issues. I'll try again this weekend. :-) Until next time............

Heat

It was chilly last night. I don't know the exact temperature, but it was supposed to get into the low 30s. So, I turned the heat on before I went to bed, lest my kids freeze to death. Imagine my surprise when I was awakened by a raging smoke alarm at 6am. I was not happy. Liberty told me this morning that she heard a really loud noise and she covered her ears and went under the covers so she couldn't hear it, but it didn't work. :-) The heater is pretty smelly too. I've called in a work order. Let's see how long it takes them to come fix it! Never a dull moment I tell ya. Until next time...........

November Fun

November is going to fly right by, and I am so glad. I'm hosting an FRG function here at my house, so I'll be super busy with that very soon, we're going to the Millers for Thanksgiving dinner on the 17th (which we are excited about....we always get exposed to some new southern food, so I can't wait to see what she cooks up for T-day heehee), my parents are coming for Thanksgiving, and my dear sweet husband leaves his FOB before the end of the month! Did I say my parents are coming? Most times news of them coming is fine, but this time, for some reason, I'm super stoked. Maybe it's because it'll be the first holiday I host in my new house? Who knows, but I can't wait. They're actually flying in on Thanksgiving, and leaving the Tuesday after. It was about $600 cheaper to fly on Thursday vs. Wednesday, so they went for it. They fly into Atlanta at 10:30, so barring any delays, will get here just in time for dinner. Although, we may wait until Friday to have our turkey dinner, we haven't decided yet. Then, once I send my parents home, it'll be not very many days at all until I'll see my husband!!!!!!!! It's been a longgggggg nearly 8 months since we've seen each other. We have lots of fun things planned for him, but you'll have to hear about those later.
Knitting news....Clapotis.....oh how I'm sick of working on the Clapotis. It really is a fun knit, and I do love it, but it feels like I've been knitting on it forever and a day! Soon....soon....I'll start the decrease rows. I ordered a fun little knit the other day. As soon as the kit comes in the mail, I'll show it to you. Oh, I need to bring my camera to church tomorrow. My friend Amy crocheted the cutest sock! She showed it to me on Wednesday night, but I didn't have my camera to photograph it. I can't wait to post a picture of it here! She did an awesome job! I bet she'll have the match finished by time I see here tomorrow! :-) Until next time.........

School is never fun

That's what my 8 year old told my husband this week. "School is never fun." Broke my heart. I will say, school isn't always fun, but I do try to make it fun sometimes. So, I would guess maybe I'm not doing a good enough job at this homeschooling thing? So, do tell...what can I do to make school fun? I just bought and downloaded a few notebooks from www.historyscribe.com. I attempted to print out the United States Army book, but my printer ran out of ink on the last page. Hmph. I also downloaded an Age of Discovery book and a History of Christmas book. Maybe she'll think notebooks will be fun? Who knows. I tend to think she would think that no school at all would be fun. For some reason, I'm not raising a bunch of kids who love to learn. They learn 'cause I make them. :-) So, if you have any ideas or advice for me, please leave me a comment.
Knitting news...I found my yarn. It was hidden in my closet. I hadn't been able to find my one lonely rubbermaid tote that houses my yarn stash. I was so glad to find it tonight. I needed some of the yarn that was in it! I've been working on the Clapotis. Still. I swear, it's never ending. I think I might make a couple of pairs of Fetching (google it...I'm too tired to link it right now) for my nieces for Christmas. Atleast the 2 older girls. They're 13 and 18. I should probably start them soon, since my husband will be home in the near future. Until next time............

Chaos

That's what my life has felt like lately....chaos. Will it get better any time soon? Probably not. :-) I am getting my house in order though. I still have quite a bit of stuff in the garage, but a lot of it will stay out there. It just needs some organization. I figured that will be a good project for dh to do while he's home on R&R. He'll have lots of helpers. Heehee. The last two days, we've spent organizing the bonus room, which we're using a toy room. I am putting a couch and a love seat down there soon. My friend Lori just got new couches, and she's giving me her old set. Gotta love a free couch! :-) It's in better condition than my current set, so I'll put hers my main living room, and the old set downstairs in the bonus room. I really hate to spend a ton of money on new furniture, because I have no idea how long I'll live here. I doubt we'll go anywhere within the next couple of years, but you just never know.
This is our second week back at school since we returned from Florida. We're having our good days and our not so good days. Monday was horrid. Tuesday and Wednesday went pretty well. I just realized that Benjamin knows almost all of his letters and their sounds, so he'll be ready to start reading in no time at all.
Mike will be home for R&R soon. I can't say exactly when, because I don't know exactly when. But, it'll be before Christmas. :-) He's supposed to give me a more accurate date soon. I can't wait. We're planning to maybe take a 3 or 4 day trip to Gatlinburg, TN. We've been there a couple of times already, and love it there. We'll most likely rent a log cabin and just stay there. We'll go to the aquarium, but that's probably it. We'll just enjoy being together the rest of the time. Last time Mike took R&R, we traveled for atleast 10 of the 14 days. He doesn't want to do that again. So, we'll travel for 3 or 4, and stay home for the rest. Maybe I see a 56" DLP TV in our near future? Who knows. Heehee.
Knitting. What's that? I haven't knit hardly at all since I've been back from FL. Seems like I've been exhausted since I returned. I'm almost done with the sock I started when I was at the YH event. That's it. I had big plans to do some knitting for Christmas gifts, but I doubt that will happen. We'll see.
Here are a couple of pictures for your viewing pleasure. :-) Well, never mind. I've been trying to upload pictures to blogger for 2 days now, and it won't work. Until next time................

Florida

I'm just checking in from Florida! Today was rainy off and on, but SeaWorld was still good. I have a story to tell that made steam come out my ears, but you'll have to wait to hear it. :-) My oldest daughter turned 11 today! Where has the time gone? Geesh...only two more years and I'll have TWO teenagers!
We did get all of the stuff out of the old house. I didn't think we were ever going to finish, but we did. I couldn't have done it without my friends help, that's for sure. Thanks to Becca and Ruben, and Tracey and Jim! :-) I still need to sweep and mop, clean the appliances and sinks...I think that's it....in the old house. That'll happen after I get back home. Tomorrow, we're not doing anything. We're all exhausted. Wednesday, it's Disney time! Of course, it's supposed to rain. Ugh. Until next time.....

I cannot believe it

WE ARE GETTING A BRAND NEW HOUSE!!!!!!!!!! Those of you familiar with military housing know that a brand new house is nearly unheard of! When we found out in December that we would be here for a while, we decided to get on the 5 bedroom list. I called last month to find out our position, and we were number 7. Imagine my surprise when housing called my cell phone on Friday, then called my parents house and left a message for me. Of course, that would be the day I forgot my cell phone on my kitchen counter. I returned the call bright and early this morning. Of course, she wouldn't tell me on the phone, but she would make an appointment for me to come in to update some paperwork and talk to her. Off I went at 11:00 this morning. I had to update my contact information, give her a copy of my power-of-attorney, a copy of Mike's orders bringing us here AND the kids social security numbers. Why she needed those, I have no idea. Anyway, she was adamant that I have all of the paperwork. Of course I did, just not with me. Thankfully, she loaded us up in her van and drove us to look at our house. Imagine my surprise when I discovered we're getting a BRAND NEW HOUSE!!!!!! Five bedrooms. You can look at a floor plan here. The housing lady says it's 2700 square feet. Huge compared to the maybe 1400sq.ft. I have now. I am so excited! Here's the kicker though.....I can pick up keys to the new house on Wednesday, but I have to be OUT of my old house by Monday. I have no idea how I will accomplish it all, but it will happen. If God can perform a miracle to get me a new house, he will perform a miracle to get us out of this house in time. Right? :-) Amy is coming over tomorrow to help me pack boxes. Becca and Ruben will help me move stuff to the new house. I think Rear D might be able to help a bit on Thursday. I'm hoping a crew from church will help on Saturday. Hopefully between all of my helpers we'll get it done. I wish I could have had keys today, but an exception to policy couldn't be made. Hmph. :-) I did have to alter our plans to go to Florida a bit. We're leaving Monday instead of Sunday. I think that means we will miss the first week of co-op. I hadn't thought of that. Ugh. I guess I shouldn't be, but I am a bit surprised over the kids reactions. They are absolutely stoked that we're getting a new house. It means the two older kids will have their own rooms. BUT, they're going to miss their friends here. They're already exchanging phone numbers. I assured them they'll still be able to get together with their friends sometimes though. Me? I'm secretly glad that we're getting away from here. My kids don't get along very well with a lot of other neighborhood kids around. Our new neighborhood still has a lot of empty houses. It'll be very quiet there. :-) I better get busy packing boxes. Until next time.............

Fun with the YH

We had a blast with the Yarn Harlot on Wednesday. I would definitely go again, given the opportunity. This picture of the line doesn't even show the line at it's worst. By the way, that segment of the line was behind us. There were maybe 20 people or so in front of us. Not bad at all. We were able to get great seats in the theater. Who knew there were over 700 knitters in Atlanta who wanted to see the Yarn Harlot? Our first seats would have enabled us to take great pictures, but we were packed in like sardines. I am not even sure we would have been able to knit! So, Becca and I moved a few rows back. We were still packed in tight, but we did have about 6 feet of leg room in front of us. Much more comfortable. It was fun to sit there and knit. There were tons of hand-knits to look at. Some of them were begging to be touched, but I did restrain myself. :-) After the YH finished speaking, we got in line for the book signing. I think we may have waited longer to have our books signed than we did to get into the theater? It was totally worth it though. I was able to get my book signed, AND get a picture with her. Oh, and I got to touch the sock.
A special thanks to Amy and Ruben for watching the kids. Without you both, I wouldn't have been able to go. :-) Thanks to Becca for the ride and the fabulous time! Until next time............

Tomorrow is the day

You know the day I'm talking about....the day I get to see the Yarn Harlot! Mike calls her the Yarn Whore though, 'cause he says that Harlot is really an old fashioned name for whore. HA! I am excited. I think I've got my bag packed. I cast on a toe tonight, so I'll have a stockinette sock to work on if I need it. I'm thinking I'll definitely need it. :-) Clapotis is in the bag as well. I'm at the point where I don't feel like I'll ever finish it, even though I know I will.
We're in the 2nd week of school here. Last week went fairly well. Someone please tell me whos idea it was to start school the day after we returned home from our nearly 3 month vacation????? We didn't finish everything I wanted to accomplish, but we did pretty well. This week we're adding Latin, History and Science. Devin is LOVING Latin. He wanted to do three lessons today. We're using Getting Started With Latin. I really like how you can download the pronunciations in MP3 format. Very nifty. I didn't want something really in-depth for this year, something just to get their feet wet. This seems to fit the bill nicely. Today was the first day adding in History. I had forgotten how long it takes to do all of that Sonlight reading, but the kids really do enjoy it. Well, maybe not so much now that I require handwritten answers to the questions for the Readers. HA! Flying Creatures is going great. We did a fun little experiment today that the kids really enjoyed. I did take pictures, so maybe I'll share more about that later. Until next time.............

Home, Sweet Home?

Maybe not, but I'm home none-the-less. :-) I came home to a disaster, but I think it's fixed now. :-) I did get a sweet new computer out of the deal. :-)
So, Becca and I are going to see the Yarn Harlot on Wednesday. I am so excited! It'll be a blast, I'm sure. I'm going to have to figure out what to take in my knitting bag. I'm not sure I want to work on the Clapotis, socks it will be. However, I'm not sure working on Cross-hatch lace will be a good thing. I don't have the brain capacity to memorize the pattern right now. So, we'll see what I come up with. I do want to knit up a hat really quick to donate to charity. I wonder what I have in my stash for hats?
Mike has earned another award this deployment. It's an award I would rather him now have earned, but it is what it is. That's his most favorite statement lately..."It is what it is." He's earned a Purple Heart. He's fine, so he tells me. His tank was hit by an EFP. That's a fancy name for a big roadside bomb made of mostly copper. This was his 5th hit. The other 4 times, he's gotten off scott free. This time, he took shrapnel to his leg. His thigh to be more specific. He said they did x-rays to make sure all of the shrapnel was out, and it is. He said it hurts, but it's not above his tolerance level. HA! Praise God that it wasn't worse.
Fire ants. Have I told you how much I loathe fire ants? Liberty went outside this morning for a quick minute, and came screaming in with atleast 10 bites on one foot, and a few on the other. Poor kid. I filled the kitchen sink up with some water, threw a bunch of ice-cubes into it, and let her soak her feet. I gave her a few measuring cups to play with to take her mind off her feet. Seems to have worked. She's happily playing outside now with shoes on. :-) Devin carried something out to the trash and said the back yard is full of fire ants. I hope it's not, as Richard will be here shortly to mow for me. It's a jungle out there! I'll be glad when it's mowed though. There are lizards everywhere. Yuck. I hate lizards. They're not very big, and I know they're harmless, but those suckers jump. I've seen them all over my patio furniture. Yuck. Until next time.............

So I'm home

As soon as I got home on Sunday, I wondered why I even WANTED to come home. Seems that's the way it goes though. I don't have time to post all of the reasons why, but let's just say, I'm computerless right now. I'm posting from the neighbors computer. She was nice enough to give me a house key so I can check in while she's at work. HA! No worries though, I have a very lovely brand spankin' new Dell on it's way to me. The estimated ship date is Tuesday, but I'm praying it ships before then. :-) Until next time..............

Random thoughts

We're going home in three days. Why is it that I have so much to do, yet I feel like it's too early to do any of it? I mean, we can't pack our clothes yet, as we still need to wear them. :-) I suppose I could just pull out a couple of outfits per person and pack the rest. I should do that tonight. I would rather spend my time working on lay-outs and knitting though. That's exactly what I did last night. After a grumpy day with 5 kids, I put them all to bed at 8:00, worked on a lay-out and knitted on the Crosshatch Lace socks and the Clapotis. Oh, I should mention, Devin was gone, so I didn't make my teenager go to bed at 8:00. :-)
We had a fabulous Labor Day weekend. We spent Saturday at a fair. I won't even try to spell the name of the county we were in, but it was a blast. Perfect weather, and no crowds. The kids had a blast riding the rides. Let's just say I'm glad Dad was footing the bill. $51 for 65 tickets. With five kids and most rides taking 4 or 5 tickets, they didn't last long. We ended up with two sheets of 65. They did have fun though. Liberty and I had talked all week how she would be able to feed the sheep at the petting zoo. Once we got there, she fed the goat once and decided she didn't want to do that every again. :-) Sunday, we headed to my parents cabin, which is five miles in the woods. We spent the night, but I don't think any one of us slept much. Well, maybe the dogs did. The kids had a blast though. I was good, and didn't even yell at them when they fell in the brook. HA!
I feel so behind because we haven't started our school work yet. I know flexibility is the beauty of homeschooling, but still..... I'll just tell everyone we're following NYs school schedule...they started today! :-) Next week will be a good time for us to get used to no TV until after lunch. TimeWarner can't install my cable/phone/internet until the 14th. Have I ever told you all how much I hate TimeWarner? Ugh. Oh well. Thank God for cell phones, eh? I just hope Mike has lots of minutes left on his phone cards. HA! Until next time..........

Jaywalkers

Finally, finally, finally. I have a finished pair of Jaywalkers. Mind you, they're not for me, but they are finished anyway. :-) Mikayla LOVES them. She's been asking me nearly everyday if they are finished yet. She was delighted when I told her yes, this morning. ;-)

Jaywalkers

Lorna's Laces. I can't remember the colorway, I'll have to look later.

KP Size 1 circs, magic loop method

I'm so glad to be done with Jaywalkers. I have another pair started, but honestly, I don't know if I'll finish them. I love the way they knit up, but I've ripped and re-knit so many times, I think I'm done. lol. It's time for me to cast on a new pair of socks. I'm thinking Crosshatch Lace using Fleece Artist, but we'll see. I may swatch a toe tonight. Clapotis is coming along nicely. I'm going home a week from tomorrow! Yippppeee! :-) Until next time..........

The early bird catches the worm?

I confess....I am a night owl. Extremely so when my husband is gone. I prefer to stay up unti the wee hours of the night, 1 or 2 am, and get up about 9:30am. Horrible, I know. I so wish I could get up early. Mind you, early to me is 7am. :-) It just doesn't seem to happen. I am better about it when we're doing school, but it doesn't last long before I resort to my old ways. My Mom told me last night that it's awful that I let my kids sleep so late. There have been days since we've been here where they don't get up until 10am. She says I'm not preparing them for the work force if I don't make them get up early. I reminded her that my husband never got up early when he was growing up, and he gets up just fine for work now. HA! However, I do need to get up earlier once we get home. Here, there's really no reason. lol. In order for us to get all of our work done before dinner, I have to get up early. Plus, Devin and I plan to try the Couch Potato to 5K program....can't do that if we sleep the day away. If you're a morning person, share your tips with me please....it's gonna be rough. Until next time............

Hip in Hemp Photos

Ugh. I uploaded my photos a different way, and it's being a pain. It took f.o.r.e.v.e.r, so I'm not starting over. :-)
So, there you have it. The finished Hip in Hemp skirt. I still need to block it. It'll happen, eventually. Don't worry...she won't be wearing it with that Bobby Jack shirt. I bought her a plain black t-shirt to wear with it. Plain and simple, just how she likes it. :-)

Pattern: Hip in Hemp, ladies size small
Yarn: Hempathy
Needles: Knit Picks size 5
Time on the needles: Just under 2 months.

The last picture shows what is currently on my needles. Until next time.........

Hip in Hemp is off the needles!

I am so excited! There were times I didn't think I would ever finish it, but it's finally done. Well, except for weaving in all the ends and blocking. I had Katie try it on real quick before she left this morning. It looks adorable! I was up until nearly 1am last night binding off stitches. Do you know how long it takes to bind off 500something stitches purl-wise? Plus, the Knit Picks needles are really slippery. So, my stitches kept slipping off the needles. I got such a rush when it was DONE though. Who needs drugs? Just complete a knitting project! :-) Pictures to follow sometime this weekend. Probably tomrrow. I'm seriously thinking about making one for Liberty. I would probably make her a size 4, with a little more length added in...that would go much quicker than the ladies small. HA! Next on the needles....the ever-popular Clapotis. Until next time...........

Three more weeks

Three more weeks and I'll be heading back home. We've enjoyed our time in NY tremendously, but I.am.ready.for.home. I miss my things. Isn't that silly? I'm ready to share a queen size bed with a certain 3 year old rather than a twin bed! She's ended up in my bed the last 4 nights now. I'm not sure why, but I'm so over it. I'm not sleeping well because there isn't any room for me in the bed! She is so sweet when she's sleeping though. HA! The kids are ready to go home too. Well, some of them are. They miss their friends. Liberty woke up crying in the middle of the night last week because she misses her boyfriend Austin! I did let her call him on the phone though, so she was better after that. Today she asked me if we could hurry up in NY because she wants to go home to GA. I tell you what though....I'm not missing the heat wave at all! We're supposed to go to Booneville on Saturday. It's supposed to get into the 30s at night, and warm up to a balmy 70 degrees. I'll love it I'm sure. BUT, I have no pants with me!!!!!! Atleast the kids do. :-)
Can you believe I finally started the border on the Hip in Hemp skirt! I am so excited to be almost finished with it. I hope to blog about it this weekend, so I won't share too much as of yet. I do love it though. Enough that I'm thinking about making one for Liberty. :-)
Last weekend I enjoyed my cousin Becky's wedding. Everything was fabulous. The food was out of this world, and there was so much of it! Sunday, a bunch of us met at the Saratoga Race Track. It was my first time at the horse races. It wasn't what I expected at all, but still fun. Can you believe they had record attendance the day we went? Something like 75,000 people. Yikes. I'm so glad I left the kids home. I would have went nuts if I had to keep track of all of them by myself! Becky and Al left for Hawaii Monday morning...just in time for an earthquake and a hurricane! Good thing they're staying for two weeks, so they're bound to hit some good weather. :-) Until next time...................

Motivation

Who knew that the key to motivation regarding school, is new school supplies. Yup, that's it. Want your kids to be excited about the upcoming school year? Take 'em to Wal-mart, let them pick out new binders (try not to gag as they pick Princess, Spidermand and HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL), 10 boxes of CRAYOLA crayons (they usually get RoseArt which break easily, so Crayola was a treat), oodles and oodles of pencils, glue sticks. folders, loose leaf, well you get the picture. Benjamin wasn't even out of bed the new morning and he told me he was doing school that day. Katie promptly finished 2 or 3 more lessons in her math book. I should put in a disclaimer....this key to motivation does NOT work on a 13 year old boy. :-)
I've been trying to put together the list of what we still need for curriculum this year. I still need to order Apologia Physical Science. I think he has 3 modules left in General Science, so I can wait a bit to order still. I need a writing program. I love BJU Grammar, but Devin needs more writing help. I'm looking at Writeshop 1. I'll probably end up ordering that once I get back home. Becca has it, so I plan to look at hers first. It is so hard to order curriculum sight unseen. I'm thinking about Latin's Not So Tough. I want something for the two older kids to just get their feet wet, without spending a ton of money or time. I figure Mikayla can wait to learn it with Benjamin. :-) All I need for Mik is the new First Language Lessons book that just came out. I can't remember the exact name of it, and I'm too lazy to look. Google is your friend. :-) Oh, I will order Fallacy Detective for Devin. I guess Katie wants to try Mindbenders again. I do believe that's it. I'll probably get the Abeka Art books too. They're cheap and easy...that's the name of the game. I'm hoping this is the year that Devin realizes that school is important to his future. He's said some big words lately, West Point is one of 'em. That's a pretty big deal. Scared the living daylights out of me when he said it. I told him the fun and games are over....it's time to get down to business. He only has one more year until high school. Yee-gads!!!!!! His friend Tyler will be homeschooling this year. Tyler is Devin's bestest friend in the whole world...he lives in NY....he's very smart....he just turned 13....took the SATs...scored better than most high school seniors. Go figure! They're using some of the same curriculum, so maybe Tyler can motivate Devin. :-)
If I was home, I would share a new picture of the Jaywalkers. It's such a pain to upload to Mom's computer. I'm just about ready to start the ribbing. I could have probably knit 4 pairs of socks if I hadn't ripped the darn Jaywalkers out so many times. Finally, after deciding to forget the heel flap and going with the short-row heel, we have a winner. Fits Mikayla's foot nicely with a bit of growing room. Saturday, at o'dark thirty, I'm headed for Ocean City. I don't have to drive, so I'll have alteast 10 hours of knitting time there and back. I'm bringing the Hip in Hemp Skirt. Until next time..........

Lake Placid

I went to Lake Placid with Mom, our friend Mary and Mikayla on Saturday. It was much fun. The weather was beautiful....couldn't have asked for a more perfect day. For future reference though, I'll remember not to visit Lake Placid the weekend the Ironman competition is taking place. Yikes. The busiest weekend of the season. We visited a yarn shop called Adirondack Yarns. She had some of the yummiest Alpaca yarn I've seen. I think it's by Catalina. I'm not exactly sure though. I should have written it down. I did get another hank of Artist Fleece, in a much darker colorway. Here's a couple of photos. :-)

Just for giggles, here's a funny picture. I'm sure this "snow" is really just ice they scrape off from the ice in the Olympic Center, but it was still fun. Cold, but fun. lol

Oh, I should mention one of quite possibly the most exciting things that happened while in LP. I found a pair of dressy sandals at Bass, in size 11! We walked into the store, and there they were....my sandals...it took all of 5 minutes. They were regularly priced $70, on sale for $21 including tax!!!!! Yee-haw! I found a shirt to wear to the wedding at Vanheusen. The next time I go there, I will be sure to budget more $$ for clothes shopping. :-)

I don't have time to blog about our visit to camp on Sunday, but here is a teaser picture....there will be more pics to come later. :-)

Ribbit, ribbit

So, I frogged the entire Lorna's Laces Jaywalker. Thankfully, my ball winder came, so I just wound it back up into a neat little cake. That thing is too much fun by the way. :-) I cast on a.g.a.i.n. last night. I finished the toe. This time, I'm just going to do a plain old short-row heel. Not as fancy as the heel flap version, but obviously, I can't figure out how to do a toe-up Jaywalker with a heel flap. lol. I also wound up one of the hanks of the Artist Fleece Mom gave me. It looks so much different once it's wound into a cake. I can't wait to knit with it. I think I'll use the Cross-hatch Lace pattern from More Sensational Knitted Socks. That'll be pretty with that yarn, eh? :-) It's taking me about an hour and a half to complete a stripe on the Hemp skirt. That's a long time to knit 4 rows. lol. Thankfully, I think I only have 3 or 4 more increase repeats. So, it shouldn't get much worse than it is now. I'm hoping to have it done in 2 or 3 more weeks. We will see. It's not really portable right now, and I've been driving everywhere we go since I've been in NY. So, there has been no knitting time in the truck. :-)
We're planning to go to Lake Placid tomorrow. I drove through there the other day with Dad, but I didn't stop anywhere. Can you believe I drove by TWO knitting shops AND a scrapbook store without stopping? I knew I would be back up there with Mom and Mary....that was the only reason I didn't stop. :-) I just love Lake Placid. Mike wants to come up here for a week or so next summer when he gets back. I'm hoping he and I can get away for a night and head up there. It's such a quaint little town. Totally amazes me that the Olympics were held there. I just can't imagine that many people on the streets up there! We toured the Olympic sites about 4 years ago. It was amazing. Mike even rode the bob-sled. He said it was a blast! :-)
Tonight, I'm taking Devin to the little historic theater in town to see Transformers. He's already warned me, the pop-corn up there is nasty. I guess that'll save my diet, eh? lol. He went last week with his buddy to see Evan Almighty. You know, even though I always say I'll never retire in NY, I just love it once I get here. It'll be super hard for me to go back to the GA heat, that much I know. We've actually had cruddy weather since I've been here, but it's cool.....makes it all worth while. :-) Until next time............

Stash Builders, Finished Knitting Projects and Progress

Let's just say this post will be fairly picture heavy. I should have just thrown all of my new yarn into one photo, but what fun would that have been? :-) First up.....the long awaited photo of Liberty wearing the never-ending Girlfriend Shrug:I tried to get a cute frontal shot of her, but she wasn't cooperating. She didn't even want to model the shrug tonight. I had to make her. :-) Please disregard the clothes that don't match. Sometimes you've just got to let them dress themselves.

Specs:

Knit Picks Pallette, KP size 2 needles....or was it size 1? I can't remember right now. I'm sure I speficified that detail on another post. I totally love this shrug. I can't believe how much different the yarn feels after it's blocked. I started this shrug in March, and wove the ends in right after I got here. We'll just say it was sometime at the end of June. I wanted a shrug that she could wear over her sleeveless church dresses, and this fits the bill perfectly. I would totally knit another Girlfriend Shrug, but on say.....size 9 needles? :-) Up next....finished socks.....
These socks feel awesome on my feet. Please forgive the nasty white legs....who has time to sun bathe with five kids? :-)

Specs:

Knit toe-up, magic loop on KP size 1s.

Yarn is from Crash Into Ewe. Yummy, yummy yarn. I have a couple of more color-ways at home. This particular color-way is Brown Eyed Blues, but I don't see it on her site right now.

I did a basic foot, with a K3P2 rib leg. For the heel, I used a heel from wendyknits.com. I'll have to check my notes and see which one. :-) Next....

Jaywalkers. Oh, the beloved Jaywalkers. OK....I love the pattern. They're so easy to knit, and oh so pretty. I should know....I've knit the same stinkin' sock oh.....atleast 4 times? I started out using KP size 2s with Socks that Rock. I LOVE the STR.....but, the Jaywalker didn't love STR. I'm using Natalia Knits toe-up Jaywalker pattern. Honestly, after much thought, I think it's the heel. It takes about 4" to complete the heel. Maybe I'm doing something wrong, I dunno. But, they socks end up HUGE! First off, here's the STR Jaywalkers. I just can't bring myself to rip 'em out again, but I think I have no other choice. I should have put them side-by-side with the new pair I'm making, but I didn't think of it until just now. Sorry. :-) The yarn is so pretty,
isn't it? I just love it. The new Jaywalkers are in Lorna's Laces. Very nice yarn to knit with. I'm knitting these with size 1s. I started out making them for Katie, then thought maybe Mikayla. But, since I didn't realize it takes 4" for the heel, they're long enough for me. I'm not sure they'll be wide enough to go around my ankle though, as I knit them with only 64 stitches. At this point, I just want to finish the stupid things. I figure Katie will someday wear a size 11 shoe too, so I'll just save them for her if need be. HA! Here it is....I'm almot finished with one.....

Last but not least (as far as progress pictures go), Hip in Hemp. I totally love this skirt. Katie asked me to knit it for her as soon as she saw the pattern. I'll put in my disclaimer though....she picked out the colors. :-) I must admit, I'm liking the colors more than I thought I would. I had to order a longer cable from KP, so I haven't worked on it in a little over a week. I've been working on the blasted Jaywalkers. :-) As soon as I finish the Lorna's Laces sock, I'll pick the skirt back up again. I'm nearly at the feather and fan part....I think one more repeat.

Stash Builders.......

Fleece Artist. Mom and Dad brought this back for me when they went to Lake Placid the other night. I cannot for the life of me find the colorway name on the labels. They must be hidden somewhere. I just love this yarn though, and I cannot wait to knit with it.

Claudia's Hand-Painted Yarn. Color Passion Fruit. I had planned to order this yarn from the Loopy Ewe. Maybe not this exact color-way, but it turns out they're out of stock in the color I wanted. So, Passion Fruit is the next best thing. I cannot believe they had it in the yarn store we went to!

Last but not least, Cherry Tree Hill in Earth. The lady at the yarn shop was nice enough to wind this for me. I don't think the colors show up as well once it's wound into a cake though. This is fairly manly, but I still love it. :-)

I bought some Sockotta in purple too, but there's nothing overly exciting about Sockotta. I plan to use it to make Mikayla a pair of socks. I figured it wouldn't do any good to spend a bunch of $$ on her socks, since the sock monster would probably eat one of them. Until next time.........

Finished Projects

I finally finished the Girlfriend Shrug. It felt so good to finally get that thing off the needles! I'll try to post a picture later, but I'm not on my own computer right now, so we'll see. I have started the cuff on a pair of socks I've had going for a while too. I've got about 4" left, then they'll be done. I'm waiting on the longer cable from Knit Picks before I can work anymore on the Hip in Hemp skirt from knitty.com. I can't wait to post a progress picture though. It's pretty funky, but I love it. In yesterdays mail, I got my yarn to start a Clapotis. The yarn looks a bit different than it did on the monitor, but I still like it. I got some new stitch markers too! Oh, and a letter from my dh! It was a good mail day! :-)
Things are going well here in NY. It has been unseasonably cool, so we're a bit chilly, but it's a nice break from the sweltering heat of GA. It's supposed to be in the 80s by the weekend, so maybe we'll actually be able to go to the beach! I probably shouldn't mention this, for fear that it'll jinx it some how, but Katie has started her 6th grade math book....all on her own. I think she's up to lesson 9 or 10. I had told her before we came to NY that the sooner she finishes the book, the bigger a prize she'll get. She's hoping to complete all 130 lessons while we're in NY. I don't know if that'll happen, but it's a valiant effort anyway. :-)
Happy Independence Day to my fellow Americans!
Until next time..............

Lists

Are you a list maker? I am. I have lots of lists. I have lists in my purse, lists near my bed, lists on the counter, lots and lots of lists. I even have a list of what history core my kids will use all they way through high school. :-) I need to make my list today of what I need to accomplish this week. We're headed to NY on Monday. Well, we'll actually stay in Greenville for 2 nights, then drive the rest of the way to NY. Mike's Dad thinks he's taking all five kids to a water park without me. I appreciate the thought....he wants me to have some alone time. BUT, he must not remember how much work kids are at the waterpark. So, I told him yesterday when I called to wish him a Happy Father's Day, that I"ll be going with them. :-) I did just accomplish one major thing from my list for the week (even though I don't have a tangible list yet). I re-arranged the living room. My kids are forever fighting over the love seat. They will all cram themselves onto it. All five of them. Then, the fighting begins....Liberty has her feet on me.....Benjamin won't move over, etc. Drives.me.nuts. So, I swapped the couches out. Hopefully it'll work. It means I now have to buy a new lamp for the living room, as the old lamp won't fit where it needs to go. Stupid military housing....they must not know what over-head lighting is. :-)
I started a new knitting project this weekend. I'll share details and pictures later. :-) Until next time.........

The never-ending Girlfriend Shrug

It's still not finished, but at least it's off the needles. :-) I knitted this Shrug with Knit Picks Palette on KP size 1 needles. I didn't think I would ever finish it. I must say, the Palette turns into a totally different fabric once it's been blocked. It is so soft, and I'm glad. I was a bit disappointed with the Palette at first. I know some people make socks with it, and I couldn't have imagined wearing a sock made out of the stuff, until I washed it. I could totally wear it now. All that's left, is to sew up the arm seams, pick up a bunch of stitches and knit a 1x1 ribbing. That shouldn't take long, right? HA! I'm contemplating letting my Mom sew the seams. My finishing techniques aren't that great. :-)

Sherilyn, this picture is for you. I know you'll totally appreciate it. HA! Ya'll should really check out Sherilyn's blog. She is an awesome knitter, and she is FAST! It's my new Cricut Expressions machine!!!! Oh wait, there is a sock there too. I'm working on it's mate....I'm in the middle of turning the heal right now. I'll post more details once they're both finished. :-)

Have ya'll checked out the new Knitty? I must admit, there weren't many patterns this time that caught my eye. But, this one surprised me. Becca brought the pattern to Moe's on Monday night. Apparently, Katie was paying attention. Yesterday, she said, "Mom, you know that skirt Miss Becca is making? Could you make it for me too?" I told her I wouldn't mind making it, but she doesn't wear skirts. She replied, "Well, there are two kinds of skirts...skirts I like, and skirts I don't like. That is a skirt I would like." HA! So, I guess I'll be knitting a skirt. I totally cannot wait to feel the Hempathy.

I have planned my next pair of socks. Toe-up Jaywalkers using Socks That Rock yarn. Yumm-o. :-) Mommy duty calls. Until next time.......

Never-ending?

You won't believe it. The never-ending Girlfriend Shrug is about to be blocked. As soon as I can get some kids in bed. :-) It feels so good to have it off the needles. Of course, I still have to sew the sleeve seams and knit the border, but that won't take as long as it took to knit the shrug. HA! Pictures to soon follow.
I have to share my excitement about something. Katie has always been a good reader, but she doesn't share the LOVE for reading that Devin has. She wants to read The Diary of Anne Frank. I'm not sure why. lol. She wanted me to buy it tonight at Barnes and Noble, and I probably would have. But, her friend said she can borrow her copy, and she's bringing it to bowling tomorrow. So, Katie is determined to finish her current read tonight....Where the Red Fern Grows. :-) I love it when my kids get excited about books. Until next time.........

We NEED to accessorize, right?

Thanks to Becca, I'm addicted to stitch markers. These particular markers. (Don't worry honey....they're cheap). I received my first order today. I just ordered another set. Hey...I had $$ in my Paypal account...what can I say? :-) They're oh so pretty, and as Becca discovered, easier to just buy rather than make. I am knitting lately though, so they won't be wasted. I'm about half-way done with a beanie hat for Mike. Why he wants a hat in the 120 degree Iraq weather, I'll never know. HA! I told him I would try and finish it tonight so I can get it out in his next box. He's bugging me for food, so I had better send it very soon. I have competed a sock too....finished the toe on the match...but you'll have to wait until both are finished to see the picture. The never ending shrug? It really is never-ending. I'm making progress though. :-)
Oh, I must tell my scary story. First, my disclaimer....we aren't morning people. Anyone who knows me in real life, already knows that. lol. I've also had sick kids, and have been ill myself. So, now that that's out of the way, my doorbell rang at 9:05 this morning. NONE of us were up yet. In the back of my mind, I remembered that I had called in a work order for the clogged tub last night. Have I mentioned they are coming out about every other week to unclog my tub? Ugh. Anyway, I had chosen the PM slot on the form. Usually, they abide by that. So, I had pretty much decided it couldn't be the maintenance man. Then, I started freaking out in my mind thinking maybe it was casualty officers coming to tell my that something had happened to Mike. In the mean time, Katie was racing down the stairs to answer the door. I had to nearly push her out of the way to make sure she didn't get to the door first. Thankfully, it WAS just the maintenance man. Stupid guy for not calling first. Until next time.........

Cake anyone?

Yarn cake that is. :-) Thanks to Becca for winding my yarn into such cute little cakes for me. On the bottom is Socks That Rock in colorway Fairgrounds. I've been wanting to try this yarn for some time now. I just LOVE it. I cannot wait to knit it up into a pair of socks. On the top, is Lorna's Laces color 630 Bittersweet. It's pretty bright, but I got it for super cheap. The lighting is off in the picture. I assure you it's not quite THAT bright. :-) It'll make a really fun pair of girlie socks, eh? I have finished a sock this week. I am hoping to cast on for the second tomorrow at the park. I also need to make a hat for my sweet dh. He asked me about it the other day. In my defense, I haven't been knitting much. I'll get right on it though. :-)

We're finishing up our school work for the summer. I bought a couple of bridge books for Mikayla to work on in NY. I don't think it'll be good for her to take much time off. She does better with repitition. All the kids have finished their math books. Yee-haw! Mikayla is finishing up her phonics book. She has about 40 lessons left in Language. She'll finish that in NY. Devin is working on finishing his English and Science, then we're DONE! Well, except for history. We'll continue that into the next school year. No biggie there.

Here's some fun pics I took of a couple of the kids today. I looked out the front door, and saw this:

I was bout to go nuts.....until I realized the damage was already done. HA! I figured I might as well let them run with it. So, I grabbed the camera. They'll make for some cute pics for Mike to hang on his wall, I'm sure. lol. I must admit, they did a GREAT job cleaning up after themselves. They rinsed every ounce of mud off their cute little bodies before they came in the house. Until next time..............

High-way Robbery

Mike called me this morning. Yee-haw! :-) He called using a calling card someone sent him. It was a 1000 minute AT&T calling card. Know how many minutes it converted to? 90. I am not kidding. You read that right. I'm hoping it was a fluke, and there will be more minutes on it the next time he calls. Highway robbery, I tell ya. I'm sure I'll be calling AT&T to complain soon anyway. They called me last night to tell me they were unable to bill me for the collect call on my birthday, so they needed my name and address. I wonder what would have happened if I didn't give it to them? HA! Don't worry....I'll make sure I'm sitting down when I open the bill. Until next time..........

The Year of the Two-Hour Delay

That's what I've deemed the title of this year or so that Mike is gone to be. Seems we're always running on a two-hour delay. We get up two hours later than when he's here, we eat lunch atleast an hour and a half later, dinner is 2 hours later, and bed-time is sadly, probably more than 2 hours later. Most times, I don't care. Sometimes, I do. Today would not be one of them. HA! :-) It will make it hard for us to transition into Mike being home, but that's so far off, I don't even need to think about it yet. I guess I kind of get into survival mode when I'm an acting single parent. I crave time to myself, hence the late bed-time. I try to get the kids to bed about 9:30, but it seems it takes an act of congress to get them there lately. It gets dark so late now, they want to play outside until the last possible minute. Kind of hard to get them to bed at 9 when they're out until 8-8:30. I am usually up for 3-4 hours after the kids are sleeping. Three to four hours of bliss....quiet. :-) I use that time to watch my DVRed TV programs, knit, scrap, or play on the computer. Since I'm up so late, it's hard to get up. But, I really don't care. I am doing the best that I can to run things smoothly while Mike is gone. Some might not think this is the right way, but it's working well for us so far. :-) I should mention, next month when we're in NY, our schedule will change yet again. :-)
Tomorrow is field day with a local homeschool group. They have a used curriculum sale too. I have a stack of books on my bed right now that need to be priced. I'm hoping to sell most of it. I really need to clear some room of my shelves. The kids are looking foward to it. There will be game, a picnic lunch and a pool to swim in. Right now, I have to bring a dinner to church for someone I don't even know. I hope they enjoy it. :-) Until next time..............

Happy Birthday to Me!

I bought new phones the other day. We now have an answering machine. I haven't recorded a message on it yet, but the phone has obviously been returned by someone else.....there was already a message on it, and the only instruction manual was in spanish. HA! So, dh called collect this morning to wish me happy birthday. I'm having major modem issues, so he couldn't get through. He called my Dad in a panic. Here's how the conversation went:

Mike: Did Ang change our phone number?

Dad: I don't think so, but let me check.

Mike: This is the number I called......

Dad: No, that's still the right one.

Mike: An answering machine picked up. We don't have an answering machine. It was a MAN'S voice on the recording!!!!!

Dad: Maybe she's out shopping!

Too funny. He said he was in a bit of panic until he got through to me. lol. Then he assured me, he was rather certain I wasn't out shopping.....it was only 8:30am. lol. I'm sure it'll be the most expensive birthday wish I'll ever get, but that's OK....it's worth it. :-)
Check out this Tim McGraw song. He performed it on the ACMs last night. I'm not even sure if it's been recorded. I'll warn you....I cried buckets....http://youtube.com/watch?v=j7ixC-LYDGc
. I'll be buying that CD when it comes out, that's for sure. I love Tim. I've seen him in concert a couple of times. One of these days I"ll make it to a Soul2Soul concert. :-)
Mike is doing well. He's traveling a bit this week, which I hate. He had to fly via chopper to some other FOB, in the middle of the night. They dropped him off at the new FOB and flew away. He had no idea where he was supposed to go, and he was the only person who got off the bird. He thought to himself, "there are 360 degrees in a circle. Which degree should I choose to walk?" lol. He finally found a shack with some people in it. Of course, they did'nt know anything about his class, but they sent it on a mission to find someone who might know. By time he found his class, he was 30 minutes late. He hates to be late. lol
The kids are baking me a cake. What a mess. HA! :-) We're going to Outback for dinner. Yumm-o. Did I mention this is the 3rd birthday in a row I've spent without Mike? He'll be gone for my next birthday too. Sigh. I will just be thankful that he'll only miss one round of the kids birthdays, eh? Until next time........

Flowers

Look what was delivered to me today! I knew Devin had something up his sleeve, I just didn't know for sure what it was. :-) He called my Mom last night to talk to her about something. He was rather upset when he was done. Something about his idea wouldn't work 'cause he didn't have a credit card. lol. Mom called him first thing this morning. Very strange when she calls for one of the kids when she's at work, so I knew something was brewing. Devin is so very sensitive. Mother's Day and my birthday are big deals in our house. I get breakfast in bed every Mother's Day. Mike takes all of the kids out shopping for both events. So, I should have known that Devin would have a difficult time doing this. Last time Mike was deployed we lived with my parents, so Devin had help. He tries so hard to do the things that Mike can't do because he isn't here. Oh, by the way.....I did get cards for both events from Mike already. I can't believe they got here in time. He doesn't even know what day of the week it is, much less the date! HA! I tried to tell him last night that I'm just thankful that I am here with my family, and a dinner at Outback on my birthday would be enough, but that didn't fly. Gee....I wonder where he gets that from? :-) Even though he's a teenager, and I'm a much better parent to toddlers, I just love that boy. :-) Here's some more pictures of my beautiful flowers. By the way, I need to ask Mom how much I owe her now. HA!

Aren't they so pretty! I just love 'em. Oh, I should tell you the funny thing the delivery guy said. As I was standing at the door trying to get my flowers, Milo was trying to escape. Drives me nuts that he does that. But, often times, there isn't anyone to hold him back in the living room to make sure he doesn't run to the door. Anyway, he snuck his way past my foot and ran up to the delivery man to sniff him out. I told the guy not to worry, he won't bite. His response? "It's OK. I have a fake leg, so he only has a 50/50 chance of biting the right now. " Crack.me.up. :-)

Oh, I got some yummy, yummy yarn in the mail today. I'll give you a hint. STR are the initials. :-) I'll share that later. Also, I'm turning the heel on a sock using some yummy yarn I have previously blogged about. You'll see photos soon. Until next time...........