Double Points of View

Paramore's Decode

2008-11-03T14:35:00.002-05:00

I flippin' can NOT wait for this movie to come out.

Brandi and I will have our butts totally planted in that theater allllllll day

The Molly Ringwalds

2008-10-26T13:06:00.002-04:00

Went to the Molly Ringwalds show last night, just can not remember when I had a better time. They were so much fun, energetic and the nostalgia was thick in the air with the laughter. Brilliant.

Not the best clip here, but it's what I could find right now. Enjoy.

OKGo again- Here it goes again

2008-10-19T19:06:00.000-04:00

Last one I promise..................today

Muse - Assassin

2008-10-19T18:36:00.002-04:00

This is one of many Muse tunes I've hit on today, I think I'll just buckle on down and buy the album LOL

Absolution

Take a Bow

ok go = superfun music

2008-10-19T18:34:00.001-04:00

OK Go - Invincible

what can I say? Heh heh

Rockin out kinda day

2008-10-19T18:23:00.000-04:00

Yeah thats me-------> Dancing around all over the house today whoooohoooooo :D

"The Resolution" by Jack's Mannequin

2008-10-19T10:34:00.000-04:00

The song that is currently dominating my brainspace-just thought I would share :D

Edward is my Doy...only my Doy is better looking....just sayin'

2008-10-15T20:07:00.004-04:00

My girlfriend Brandi turned me onto the love story of Twilight, and I promised my Doy I would lay off politics for a week....so I got enmeshed into the saga of Edward and Bella from Twilight

My Doy....he is just as fascinating as the eternal Edward for many reasons, but mostly because he is deliciously human and not a vampire. HA! One really relevant difference is Doy can read my mind. In my eyes Doy is blessedly human enough to make mistakes, and apologize, but not let his past mistakes color our future, especially when he has been forgiven....and has, continues to forgive/laugh at and continues to wink at my own fallibleness. He knows me and knows he has nothing to worry about. How incredible is that feeling for me to know that he trusts me to just be me, and know that I am his and his alone. It truly is freedom in marriage, it is incredible, and I am still wrapped up in his love for me after 7 years.

Still, the incredible love story that Twilight is, resonates because I am His Bella Like Doy is My Edward. It's a forever and then some way of life. Simply put, he is the main pole of the tent that is my life. Without him I could function, but only would survive for the sake of those that need me.

It is Forever and.........well........... however long that takes.

A machosauceproduction

2008-10-09T10:39:00.001-04:00

I'm voting Democrat

2008-10-04T22:09:00.001-04:00

Federal Bailout eh? What started it?

2008-09-26T19:15:00.000-04:00

Potty training

2008-09-23T16:12:00.002-04:00

I bought Evie Elmo's potty time hoping it would help. She watched it a few times, did not seem impressed.

Have a Dora the Explorer potty seat. Just as unimpressed.

Ruffled panties=are okay
Dora panties are awesome.

However, yesterday, my little anti-potty Princess, one first day of hard core training, took the elmo DVD AND the potty seat and hid them.

HID them.

Is that not the funniest thing you have ever heard? That girl has a stubborn streak the size of Texas wahahahahahahahahahaaaa

Just had to share.

Making worm glasses.

2008-09-23T16:03:00.002-04:00

So my clever 5 year old comes up to me and asks if we can go see his watermelon. About 2 months ago we planted some seeds. I told him I was very sorry, but I think watermelon died. He wants to go see anyway.

So off we go out the front door. Getting our noses to the dirt we peer deeply into the spot of watermelon's old home. It's true. Watermelon has left us. HOWEVER!

We see Worm! :D oh happiness and joy for a little boy who spots a worm! We discussed how worm had moved into watermelons old home, and how that was fine with us. I wondered aloud if worm got a good lease agreement or if he was a transient. 5 year old looked at me that way he often does when I feel he pities his dear old Ma's addled brain.

Ethan suggested we take worm and put him on the side walk so we could see him better. "Oh no Ethan, the sun would burn worm, that would not be nice."
So he replies "Mom, lets go make worm some sunglasses so the sun never burns him"

I thought that was a brilliant suggestion, and thus we are now making worm sunglasses.

5 year olds rock.

Best movie line ever

2008-09-11T14:16:00.001-04:00

WAHAHAHAHAHAHAHaaaaaaaaaa

Factcheck Facts

2008-09-11T13:24:00.002-04:00

Rumormill has been claiming people should trust factcheck dot org. Not one to just trust that, I decided to see how they are funded. This is what I found:

Fact Check. Org is led by Brooks Jackson: is a journalist who covered Washington and national politics for 34 years, also reporting in turn for The Associated Press, the Wall Street Journal and CNN.
All in all no big deal.

But then things get interesting. There is the factoid that factcheck dot Org is paid for by the Annenberg foundation. Hopefully you willl recall that Factcheck was the second site to publish the now-suspect Certificate of Live Birth (COLB)claiming to be received directly from the Obama campaign. There is a lawsuit going on about the validity of the birth certificate. I personally am pretty curious as to why it was that factcheck was one of only a small handful of media to get a copy of the COLB? Why with the mystery is it not being sent out to all the news outlets to squash the concern?

Another fact to keep in mind: Senator Obama was the first Chairman of the Board of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, which was a Division, (or Project) of the Annenberg Foundation.

There is great conflict of interest there when it comes to being unbiased and strickly for the facts, don'cha think?

Walter Annenberg, founder of the $500 million gift that funded the Annenberg Challenge, had deeply rooted Chicago ties that clearly intersect with some of the same ties to Thomas and William Ayres.

Don't know who Thomas Ayers is? He is the daddy of William (Bill) Ayers, unrepentant Weather Underground terrorist and a friend of the Obamas, who himself was instrumental in founding the Annenburg Challenge, (thanks to his ties to Mayor Richard Daley). The first Daley was also a pal of Thomas Ayers, Bill’s father, who is the former CEO of ComEd.--Incidentally, the current CEO of ComEd, Frank M. Clark, is a major money bundler for the Obama campaign.

In a nutshell factcheck is far from unbiased about Barry Obama. So keep that in mind during this political campaign, and have a nice day.

Speaks for itself

2008-09-09T11:05:00.000-04:00

So much of this election comes down to powerful symbolism don't you think?

OBAMA: Says he wouldn't want his daughter punished "with a baby."
PALIN: Encourages her daughter to take responsibility for her actions.

OBAMA: Says rural Americans cling to their guns and their religion because they're bitter.
PALIN: Joyfully worships her God, and engages in outdoor hobbies such as hunting and fiishing

OBAMA: Uses his power to reward corruption
PALIN: Uses her power to blow the whistle on corruption

OBAMA's WIFE: Salary at non-profit organization doubles after Barack becomes Senator
PALIN' HUSBAND: Quits his oil production job after wife becomes governor to avoid conflict

OBAMA: Despite ailing economy, asks for a billion in earmarks during his Senate tenure, and wastes millions of campaign dollars on outdoor spectacle and fireworks at Invesco field.
PALIN: Cut her salary as mayor, vetoed $500 million worth of wasteful spending as governor, and still shops at Wal-Mart

OBAMA: Couldn't be bothered to visit injured troops in Germany without the press corps
PALIN: Visited the injured troops because she actually cares

OBAMA: Throws everybody under the bus
PALIN: Praises Hillary Clinton and Geraldine Ferraro in her announcement speech and actually means it

OBAMA: Takes the flag off his private jet
PALIN: Puts the private jet on eBay

OBAMA: Votes against Born Alive Infant Protection
PALIN: Gives birth to a Down Syndrome baby and calls him "perfectly beautiful"

Dear Mr Obama........

2008-09-04T13:47:00.000-04:00

The end suprised me. God bless the USA.

My experience comes from running for President!

2008-09-03T16:37:00.000-04:00

Newt Kicks butt

2008-09-03T14:49:00.000-04:00

Obamas media so desperate to destroy another strong woman.

2008-09-03T10:34:00.002-04:00

By Warner Todd Huston September 3, 2008 - 03:02 ET

John McCain's campaign spokesman is reporting that the media has deluged the campaign with demands that it provide DNA samples to "prove" that baby Trig is the true offspring of vice presidential candidate Governor Sarah Palin. Imagine the effrontery of this demand? Imagine the ignorance and outrageousness of this attack that Governor Palin is receiving at the hands of the Old Media? Worse, realize that this storm has been raised by gutter websites like DailyKos and the DemocraticUnderground! The media is not only indulging in the lowest of attacks they are allowing the most extreme, unhinged of the far left to dictate the direction of their coverage. The Old Media are worse than dancing puppets for the hatemongers on the left.

The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz reported that McCain campaign manager Steve Schmidt is being buried under an avalanche of these unseemly demands for Palin's DNA by the media establishment.

In an extraordinary and emotional interview, Steve Schmidt said his campaign feels "under siege" by wave after wave of news inquiries that have questioned whether Palin is really the mother of a 4-month-old baby, whether her amniotic fluid had been tested and whether she would submit to a DNA test to establish the child's parentage.

Imagine the temerity of these media scavengers?

Even Kurtz admits that hate sites like DailyKos is leading the media around by the nose.

The intensity of media inquiries hit a new level after an anonymous blogger on the liberal Web site Daily Kos last weekend charged that McCain's running mate is actually the grandmother of Trig Palin, the 4-month-old baby born with Down syndrome, and that the real mother is her daughter, 17-year-old Bristol Palin. That led to mainstream media inquiries, which prompted the McCain camp to disclose in a statement Monday that Bristol is five months pregnant and plans to have the baby and marry the teenage father.

These disgusting allegations were proven completely false on the same day that the ignorati at the DailyKos raised them. Dozens of photos were produced that proved that Palin was pregnant and eyewitness accounts were brought forward cooberating the photos. Yet the mean spiritedness of the press corps pressed onward anyway with these hateful attacks on a mother of a special needs child, a baby with Down Syndrome and a teenaged girl.

And now they have the gall to demand DNA?

It causes me, at least, to ask some salient questions. WHY didn't the press ramp up their demands for DNA during those fateful days when the Blue Dress filled with Bill Clinton's DNA was all the topic of the news? Why have they not been demanding DNA evidence to prove or disprove John Edward's is or isn't the father of the Rielle Hunter's baby? They don't seem all so interested in DNA in those cases, do they?

The Old Media double standard is in full effect here, folks. Any tiny line of smear can be used freely to destroy a Republican and their family members -- including children. But when it comes to liberals... why, it's hands off, it's all about safeguarding a candidate's privacy, sex isn't a topic, and leave the candidate's kids alone!

To be a journalist is the most shameful profession on earth at this point. And they just keep sinking lower and lower to support Obamas empty suit campaign.

Sarah Palin

2008-08-29T14:13:00.004-04:00

I am over the moon happy with McCain picking her for VP. She has a track record of incredible strength and honesty, putting people before government. For the first time I see a politician who fights and wins on every single point that is important to me and my family.

I was going to vote for McCain as a vote against that no experience elitist. But now I will be voting for McCain and Palin as they really will be bringing change that is good for the country=not special interest groups.

letter about Guantanamo

2008-08-25T16:24:00.001-04:00

A lady wrote a lot of letters to the White House complaining about the treatment of captive insurgents (terrorists ) being held in Guantanamo Bay .

She received back the following reply:

The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington , D.C. 20016

Dear Concerned Citizen,

Thank you for your recent letter roundly criticizing our treatment of the Taliban and Al Quada detainees currently being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba .

Our administration takes these matters seriously and your opinion was heard loud and clear here in Washington.

You'll be pleased to learn that, thanks to the concerns of citizens like yourself, we are creating a new division of the Terrorist Retraining Program, to be called the 'Liberals Accept Responsibility for Killers' program, or LARK for short.

In accordance with the guidelines of this new program, we have decided to place one terrorist under your personal care. Your personal detainee has been selected and scheduled for transportation under heavily armed guard to your residence next Monday.

Ali Mohammed Ahmed bin Mahmud (you can just call him Ahmed) is to be cared for pursuant to the standards you personally demanded in your letter of complaint. It will likely be necessary for you to hire some assistant caretakers.

We will conduct weekly inspections to ensure that your standards of care for Ahmed are commensurate with those you so strongly recommended in your letter.

Although Ahmed is a sociopath and extremely violent, we hope that your sensitivity to what you described as his 'attitudinal problem' will help him overcome these character flaws.

Perhaps you are correct in describing these problems as mere cultural differences. We understand that you plan to offer counseling and home schooling.

Your adopted terrorist is extremely proficient in hand-to-hand combat and can extinguish human life with such simple items as a pencil or nail clippers. We advise that you do not ask him to demonstrate these skills at your next yoga group. He is also expert at making a wide variety of explosive devices from common household products, so you may wish to keep those items locked up, unless (in your opinion) this might offend him.

Ahmed will not wish to interact with you or your daughters (except sexually), since he views all females as a subhuman form of property. This is a particularly sensitive subject for him and he has been known to show violent tendencies around women who fail to comply with the new dress code that he will recommend as more appropriate attire.

I'm sure you will come to enjoy the anonymity offered by the burka -- over time.

Just remember that it is all part of 'respecting his culture and his religious beliefs'. Wasn't that how you put it?

Thanks again for your letter. We truly appreciate it when folks like you keep us informed of the proper way to do our job. You take good care of Ahmed - and remember, we'll be watching.

Good luck!

Cordially, your friend,

GEORGE W. BUSH

Only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you, Jesus Christ and the American G. I.

One died for your soul; the other for your freedom.

good grief

2008-08-25T15:27:00.000-04:00

Obama mocks the Bible...again.

It's a Jelly Belly wonderland

2008-08-24T17:53:00.001-04:00

Vote Acia Berry!

A good kid has gotten into The Top 5 out of Thousands of Entries for a new Jelly Belly Jelly Bean Flavor - the winner will receive $10,000. whooooohoooooooo

If you could all vote for: Joel from Mattheson with the Acai Berry Jelly Bean - That would be fantastic!

How is your Hurricane?

2008-08-23T22:03:00.001-04:00

Mine is dandy.

I've had sneezes that blew harder.....and were wetter.

But by golly the folks around here are acting like it's another Ivan or Katrina. Gas lines into the highway, grocery stores running out of staples......it's been interesting. More than one story of a bank ATM running out of funds.

We are good. Smack on top of Mobile Bay so pretty dead center of the newest landfall. Let me just say I'm glad we are the 4th hit of this storm and not the 1st, we got the very softest hit of Fay. I'm glad for the slow rain, it's soft enough to soak in instead of running right off to the rivers. The breeze is enough to skeedaddle the dust out of my carport, but so so much as to blow the kids toys all over.

Wish I woulda mowed the lawn before this 4 day rain came tho......

Did I mention I got married?

2008-08-21T15:45:00.002-04:00

To Fundaddio again?

It was our anniversary and he always said he wanted to get remarried on the year of the itch lol.

It was fantastic. 50 pounds of crawfish, ten pounds of shrimp, hamburgers, hot dogs and a sandcastle wedding cake. Neighbors brought their boat and it was just a day full of fun and games. Val took pictures, my skirt blew up over my head in the middle of vows and music was provided by Jenny.
Got to see piles of relatives, just a really awesomely good time.

Unfortunately photobucket and flicker say my pictures are too big. Nuts.

Knit a long

2008-08-21T15:32:00.002-04:00

So Jessie and I are going to be doing a knit-a-long. It's the Baby Doll nighty with matching bottoms out of Knitting Lingerie Style. I wont post a picture cause I want the hubs to be suprised heh heh.

It'll be nice getting neck deep in a string project again.

The audacity of Death

2008-08-19T17:40:00.002-04:00

I listened to two sermons this past weekend on the elections. One was John Hagee - the other was my friends pastor. Both came down on ONE POINT - Do not EVER vote FOR abortion. Neither one of these pastors mentioned which candidate to vote for, but just vote the Bible. When someone says to me that they are "pro-choice but not pro-abortion", I view that as dishonest. If you're "pro-choice", I guess you think it's okay for people to "choose" to murder, rape, steal, or whatever laundry list of crimes/sins you can come up with. If you can tolerate the slaughter of an innocent child, then surely you can tolerate anything. Maybe we should just make everything legal and let society run amok.

It seems to me that the pro-life position would eradicate the problem. If we had more respect for all life and for God Almighty who gives life (and is the only One who has the right to take it), we wouldn't be in the sad shape we're in now.

The Obama camp knows if they do not get enough Christians to vote for him he will likely lose the election. This is why he is proclaiming his Christianity constantly. Words are cheap... actions prove the man. Obama's actions have consistently come down against Christian principles. He tries to paint a pretty picture but there is nothing pretty about killing babies.

McCain, by contrast, does not proclaim his beliefs - he exudes them - he lives them as best he can. He does not have to tell us he is a Christian.

According to Barack Obama, Gianna Jessen shouldn't exist.

Miss Jessen is an exquisite example of what antiabortion advocates call a "survivor." Well into her third trimester of pregnancy, Gianna's biological mother was injected with a saline solution intended to induce a chemical abortion at a Los Angeles County abortion center. Eighteen hours later, and precious minutes before the abortionist's arrival, Gianna emerged. Premature and with severe injuries that resulted in cerebral palsy. But alive.

Had the abortionist been present at her birth, Gianna would have been killed, perhaps by suffocation. As it was, a startled nurse called an ambulance, and Gianna was rushed to a nearby hospital, where, weighing just two pounds, she was placed in an incubator, then, months later, in foster care.

Gianna survived then, and thrives now, because, as she told me recently with a laugh, "I guess I don't die easy." Which is what the abortionist might have thought as he signed his victim's birth certificate. Gianna's medical records state that she was "born during saline abortion."

* * *

As an Illinois state senator, Barack Obama twice opposed legislation to define as "persons" babies who survive late-term abortions. Babies like Gianna. Mr. Obama said in a speech on the Illinois Senate floor that he could not accept that babies wholly emerged from their mother's wombs are "persons," and thus deserving of equal protection under the Constitution's 14th Amendment.

When I asked Gianna to reflect on Mr. Obama's candidacy, she paused, then said, "I really hope the American people will have their eyes wide open and choose to be discerning. . . . He is extreme, extreme, extreme."

More of the story here

The audacity of the woman to survive her own abortion

No Contest McCain won

2008-08-19T17:23:00.002-04:00

No Contest at all really. Obama consistently falls flat on which way he should flop when his pre-written teleprompter is not allowed. Open debate requires conviction on your stances, truly understanding the subject matter and not catering it to whatever group you are talking to.
No wonder Obama is backing out of anymore open forums lol. I could have written this article. It almost feels like I did with all the emails lately.

By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Monday, August 18, 2008 4:20 PM PT

Election '08: Last weekend's McCain-Obama protodebate made it clear why Obama won't keep his promise to debate McCain "anywhere, anytime." McCain, with a robust resume and details at his fingertips, won big.

It was only in May that Sen. Barack Obama cockily proclaimed he would debate Sen. John McCain "anywhere, anytime." But in June, Obama said no to McCain's challenge to have 10 one-on-one town hall meetings.

After what happened at Lake Forest, Calif.'s evangelical Saddleback megachurch Saturday evening, we may have found that debating is Obama's Achilles' heel. Whether or not you like the idea of such events being held in religious venues, the plain-and-simple method of questioning used by Saddleback pastor and best-selling author Rick Warren revealed fundamental differences between these two men.

"It's one of those situations where the devil is in the details," Obama said at one point. He could have been referring to his own oratorical shortcomings when a teleprompter is unavailable. We learned a lot more about the real Obama at Saddleback than we will next week as he delivers his acceptance speech in Denver before a massive stadium crowd.

The stark differences between the two came through the most on the question of whether there is evil in the world. Obama spoke of evil within America, "in parents who have viciously abused their children." According to the Democrat, we can't really erase evil in the world because "that is God's task." And we have to "have some humility in how we approach the issue of confronting evil."

For McCain, with a global war on terror raging, there was no equivocating: We must "defeat" evil. If al-Qaida's placing of suicide vests on mentally-disabled women and then blowing them up by remote control in a Baghdad market isn't evil, he asked: "You have to tell me what is."

Asked to name figures he would rely on for advice, Obama gave the stock answer of family members. McCain pointed to Gen. David Petraeus, Iraq's scourge of the surge; Democratic Rep. John Lewis, who "had his skull fractured" by white racists while protesting for civil rights in the 60s; plus Internet entrepreneur Meg Whitman, the innovative former CEO of eBay.

When Warren inquired into changes of mind on big issues, Obama fretted about welfare reform; McCain unashamedly said "drilling" — for reasons of national security and economic need.

On taxes, Obama waxed political: "What I'm trying to do is create a sense of balance and fairness in our tax code." McCain showed an understanding of what drives a free economy: "I don't want to take any money from the rich. I want everybody to get rich. I don't believe in class warfare or redistribution of the wealth."

To any honest observer, the differences between John McCain and Barack Obama have been evident all along. What we saw last weekend was Obama's shallowness juxtaposed with McCain's depth, the product of his extraordinary life experience.

It may not have been a debate, but it was one of the most lopsided political contests in memory. No wonder Obama wants to keep debate formats boring and predictable.

Stop the insanity

2008-08-18T18:03:00.003-04:00

HARROLD, TX -- A tiny Texas school district may be the first in the nation to allow teachers and staff to pack guns for protection when classes begin later this month, a newspaper reported.

Trustees at the Harrold Independent School District approved a district policy change last October so employees can carry concealed firearms to deter and protect against school shootings, provided the gun-toting teachers follow certain requirements.

In order for teachers and staff to carry a pistol, they must have a Texas license to carry a concealed handgun; must be authorized to carry by the district; must receive training in crisis management and hostile situations and have to use ammunition that is designed to minimize the risk of ricochet in school halls.

Link to rest of story.

Amen.

So many of our youth are absolutely fantastic, so many just want to do the best they can. So many are at school just to learn and make a few friends. The biggest majority are in school for the best reasons!
Unfortunately there are the minute amount that see taking out a classroom of peers as their only shot at whatever the goal is. Their peers are sitting ducks with clipped wings. Lets not leave out the great teachers that push the youth to learn, push push push because they know these kids are capable of so much more than the school system asks. These teachers end up as targets too.

If the teachers are allowed to have good training, I am so willing for my tax dollars to pay for it. These few nut jobs that waltz in packed with weapons for no other reason than to kill have zero reason to fear retaliation while in progress of their horror fantasy. If I know that the teachers can stop it dead on, how many nutters are going to think twice? Thrice?

Teachers are not normal. They LOVE these masses of children given to them 8 hours a day. Talk about dedication, cause it sure aint about pay! The last thing they would do is actively harm the students (outside of the nutters that make it into their ranks through lies and beguiling). I can't see them shooting to kill an attacker, but to stop them from killing the innocent kids in the class room? Absolutely. Not even to kill the attacker. Really, I see this as nothing but a good defense to the cowards coming after the ones they know are not able to defend themselves.

Look at Florida. When the gun ban was on crime rose over three times from the year before. Gun ban lifted and the criminals knew their next mark could possibly be protected. Crime fell to levels lower than before the ban.

The problematic thinking here is that people actually believe that criminals care about registering their guns and will abide by the laws. Look at the UK and Australia. Private gun ownership became severely limited and violent crime rose. When guns become harder to get, they turned to knives. Now they want to ban knives...what next? If someone wants to harm another person they can use a high heeled shoe. Shall we ban them too?

The proof is shown in Florida, once the concealed ban was lifted crooks knew they could be facing deadly retaliation and crime fell.

As far as I see it, this would prove true in schools. If these punks who felt so slighted knew the Prof could fire back, I doubt they would feel so free to waltz in and start a new armageddon in social studies.

Techno chicken

2008-08-04T12:59:00.001-04:00

Love it

read more | digg story

Home-schoolers threaten our cultural comfort

2008-07-10T17:09:00.002-04:00

Link

This is a relative of some home schoolers in my group. Sent me this article, and while it gets kinda snarky towards the end, I have totally encountered the attitude he describes.

Obviously not everyone is like this, but it is quite frightening the amount of people that do treat us home schoolers in such a way.

You think I will ever post about knitting again??????????

Going green, and I don't mean eco-green

2008-07-07T10:36:00.003-04:00

I mean green from being force fed all this junk science like it's holy writ.

From movies, to every blasted show on tv. Now it's smeared all over magazines....and it's simply crazy. What happened to peoples logic? What happened to their memories? When did opinion become fact in Science? Why does it appear that people have forgotten to follow the money whenever new campaigns start up?

Take the early 1980's. My teachers were completely assured that by the time we were adults, we would be living in an ice age, but it would not matter because we would all be too sick to go outside because of all the mercury in our drinking water. Fluorescent bulbs were the evil of evils because they contained the brain damaging mercury and when filling up landfills, allowing the poison into our groundwater. DOOM! DOOM! DOOM! Now, you are the antichrist if you do not have them in every light socket of the home.

Seriously, what is going on with people today? If we were to believe the propaganda, it looks like people are not sheep, but lemmings. Taking care of our planet is noble, worthy and an act of good stewardship. But swallowing every green piece of balonga is not going to help anyone. Including the planet.

Lets dismiss the insanely high emissions in Mexico, Russia, Iran, really all of the middle east and China where there are no save the planet programs, lets just talk about the USA. Take volcanoes for example. One volcano erupting for 24 hours puts out more green house gas and particle emissions than the entire USA puts out in a year. At any given moment we have upwards of 20 going off world wide. But it's the soccer mom in the SUV that is the cause of glaciers melting? Not the volcanoes erupting directly under the glaciers???? Get a grip people.

The Earth has a natural cycle of warming and cooling. This is why we had a mini ice age a few hundred years ago: BEFORE the evil empire of the USA drove cars and worked in factories. In our written histories we can see patterns of the Earth warming, and then cooling, of dry spells and long wet seasons. No where, at no time has there ever once been an time when the Earths climate was stable year to year with zero change. The planet is a living ecosystem, not a machine that can be tweaked into behaving by a few humans changing light bulbs. Contrary to Al Gore's newest money making sci-fi talk, things like acid rain have been around much longer than verbacious politicians. The systems in place on this planet to moderate itself is far greater and far more powerful than mere humanity can control. Certainly the planet can react to our actions, but we certainly do not control any of it. Earth quakes were around before deep mining, tsunamis occurred before underwater explosions. Hurricanes plowed over these shores centuries before people were too cocky to believe they did not need to get out of the way. Tornados were tearing paths in the woods before towns. It's nature, not a political platform.

Recycling is a good thing. Alternative energy sources is a good thing. Turning food into fuel is a bad thing. We have hungry people in this country and it's absurd to waste edible food and create higher food prices because we are trying to get off oil. Oil, as it turns out is not restricted to long periods of time to make(1 and 2). We should totally be drilling for our own in addition to coming up with ways to be more efficient. Do a search on Thermal Depolymerization if you are curious.

And for the love of sanity, would someone in hollywierd please stop this gang-greenous junk science pushing tomfoolery? Enough already. I'll get my science, my political views, my history, my morals and my opinions from my own educated sources. Hollywierd is for entertainment purposes only.

4th weekend 2008

2008-07-07T10:26:00.002-04:00

Fantastic :D

Wade and Family will be making it for the nuptial repeat this summer! Yes! I wanted them to be here but totally understood if travel expenses were too high (read: gas prices). Their attendance just makes my whole day. Carrie is going off to California with Patrick, and Steve will be on the work boat. Patty will be there with Monica I think. Diane and Scott are coming with their boat for tubing purposes. Man, tubing this 4th proved that I am no longer 16. Also proves that I need to get out on the water more often to get in shape. It's too hot to walk around outside these days, so water exercise is definitely the way to go.

Really miss the kids. It's so quiet around here without them. Hardly any laundry and the food I bought last week is still around! That has not happened in years.

Our 4th of July was absolutely fantastic. Blew up 2.5 hours worth of fireworks. We dominated the beach this year. Neighbors on both sides tried to keep up with the challenge, but the last hour were just cheering us on. LOL. Took quite a while to do the clean up the next morning, but completely worth it. In case the kids are reading this, YES we still have a whole box just for you guys when you get home. And yes, we will be getting more heh heh.
I'll ask the Hubbo if he will do a guest post about the canons he made.................

updAte

2008-07-01T14:35:00.001-04:00

YES!

Found my sock pouch! Whoot!

It was in a purse I used about 3 weeks ago *ahem*

Crisis averted.

Oh Hai

2008-06-28T21:13:00.002-04:00

Bible for the Kittahs

Excerpt:

Romans 1:
Paul Sez Hai

1 Dis r a letr frum Paul cuz Ceiling Cat askt me tells about teh Gud Nuuz.2 R teh same Gud Nuuz dat Ceiling Cat sed a long tiem ago in teh holi skripchurs.3 Teh Gud Nuuz r about teh Baybeh Jebus, who huz grate grate grate grate grate grandson uf King David,4 an we can knows he r teh son uf Ceiling Cat cuz he wuz ded, then zomg, he r alive.5 So Ceiling Cat ses we haf to tell evrbdy wat he did, an then they can obeh.

6 An Jebus, he r callsing all uf u.7 I is writing to evrybdy in Rome who Ceiling Cat luvs. An may Ceiling Cat gives u cheezbrgrs an u can has cookiez.

8 Furst, I thx to Ceiling Cat for u. Evrbody ses u has gud faith.9 If teh sun r up, or teh moon r up, I pray for u always an Ceiling Cat heers me cuz I srvs him and tells teh Gud Nuuz.10 An I prays to go see u all11 cuz I wants to hang out an halp u srv Ceiling Cat.12 An then I can halp u an u can halp me.

13 I tryed to visit u lots of tiems but I never cud. Monorail Cat was deraild an stuffs. But I wants to!14 Becuz even if ur stoopid, or if ur smrts, I haf to halp u.15 So I wants to go 2 Rome an tells teh Gud Nuuz.

16 Am not emberess uf teh Gud Nuuz becuz it meens Ceiling Cat has invisible powerz.17 An then if we has fayth then Ceiling Cat ses we r gud. An that r like teh skripchurs sed, "Gud ppl haf life thru fayth."

Yeah. Go read for yourself.

Wahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahaaaaaa

sock pouch come home

2008-06-27T22:23:00.002-04:00

*sniff*

I can not find my original first generation MessieCraftie sock pouch anywhere. It is yellow with flowers and butterflies outside, pink paisley on the inside. Blue cord, clear clasp. It has half a knit sock mate in it, with my favorite DPN sock needles.....I am bereft.

Under the couch? No.
In the car? No.
In the diaper bag? No.
In my room? No.
In the kids room? No.
At my moms? No.
At my XN laws? No.
At the bay house? No.
In the freezer? No.
In the green house? No.
In the twilight zone? Most likely.

I last knit with it in my van and it's just disappeared with half of Ethan's sock in it. I'm hoping it'll come home from it's adventure soon, I miss it.

Yay Steve

2008-06-27T18:50:00.002-04:00

My Uncle Steve is in town YaaaaaaaY!
I love my uncle Steve. He is a giant goofball. Loves his family, loves his girls. I'm one of em. He was 17 when I was born and he lived with mom and I for awhile when I was little. I was his #1 girl for 12 years until he had his oldest daughter. Yeah, I was jealous, but only half heartedly lol.
Steve has a penchant for being a lot of fun for us kids. He was the one with the best ghost stories, the one that sneaks us chocolate, the tickle monster no one could take down, he was and is the best. He was the one who tried to kill us on home made boogie boards that he's pull behind his boat. One such great invention was the "Zip Sled" of 1985.
Picture a giant sheet of plywood (6 foot by 10 foot I think) and we cut it lengthwise down the center. That gave us 3 feet of board space to perch on with 10 feet to fit us all on there. It was 3 of us. Shaun, Wade and myself.
About the first 3 or 4 feet of the board didn't count because it had to stick out above the water. We drilled a set of holes for the ski rope to attach to, and a whole other set for a different rope for a handle to hang onto. Smart, eh?
Lord as my witness it's a flat out miracle we did not all die.
He pulled us with a speed boat...... keeping in mind that the zip sled was not constructed with aero or water dynamics. Flat hard edges at 90* angles. We became adept at turning the dastardly thing with weight shifts timed with the waves. We didn't see all the waves. It was an insurance providers nightmare and we really did have a fantastic time on it. Got good enough to start doing tricks, like getting on each others shoulders, making a pyramid. In one spectacular bust up, I got a wedgie that I think thought had killed me dead. Going one bazillion miles an hour on an unlicensed piece of plywood gets a wee bit tricky on the turns.
On the upside I only managed one chipped tooth!

That summer was pretty awesome. One of those summers you really thought was going to be around your whole life.

Now Steve is a little older, but really no different. He has a better boat, and a better idea of how not to disfigure the children in his care. Now it's my children's turn to get to go play with Uncle Steve, and I gotta say it makes me pretty darn happy. I saw him today at my moms and his face just lit up. He grinned either with joy or with maniacal glee at the sound of hearing we would be joining him for the 4th of July. His daughters are not quite as into the rough and tumble of the boat anymore being prim, proper and fashion conscious like only college girls can be. But me? His first girl? Yeah I never grew out of it and I love that I get to share some of my childhood fun with my own brood.

We all need Summers with Uncle Steve memories.

Hey there buddy if yer reading

2008-06-26T16:36:00.003-04:00

I'm ready for you to come home. I miss you. The kids miss you. I can't knit straight. The lawn misses you. The mail. The garden. The house has stayed way too clean...(except the powder incident). The shed is lonely.

Yeah it's time for you to come home.

But not if you are flying this airline.

EEP!

[rant]

2008-06-26T16:04:00.002-04:00

Linky

The diversity in religious beliefs and practices in the U.S. in part reflects the great variety of religious groups that populate the American religious landscape. The survey finds, for example, that some religious groups – including Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses and members of historically black and evangelical Protestant churches – tend to be more likely to report high levels of religious engagement on questions such as the importance of religion in their lives, certainty of belief in God and frequency of attendance at religious services. Other Christian groups – notably members of mainline Protestant churches and Catholics – are less likely to report such attitudes, beliefs and practices. And still other faiths – including Jews, Buddhists, Hindus and Muslims – exhibit their own special mix of religious beliefs and practices.

As much as I hate it, this really is a nation of 'pick and choose salad bar religion'. What point is there in having faith if you do not believe everything about what you say you believe? Throw out anything you just do not like and that makes the whole shebang come up worthless. Believe or do not believe, just beware of sitting on that fence and becoming lukewarm.

I only bring it up because one person I love very much honestly believes that anyone who calls themselves a Christian is automatically in their Bible everyday. Learning the truth from the untruth, what it is to be different, set apart. In the world, not of it. There is so much deception in the world today, about many religions and faiths, with Christianity leading the pack. Piles of false teachers, false churches, false priests, false pastors, heaps of books that sound good but teach self absorption over self denial, so many hypocrites giving bad examples(I do not exempt myself from this crowd-none of us are perfect). Basically what I'm trying to say that overwhelmingly the REASON there is so much deception is because Christians are NOT in their Bibles at all. They just are not. For whatever reason 'oh it's too complicated for me' or 'thats my pastors job and he will tell me' or my personal favorite 'if I read something in there that tells me I can not do what I want to do then I wont be able to live my life my way anymore' I.E:Ignorance is bliss.

You know it has gotten bad when even the secular world has noticed our new enlightened way of picking and choosing what we believe from the one book we are supposed to call Holy.

Just sayin

[/rant]

hi

2008-06-19T13:53:00.002-04:00

We just returned from the bay house. Spent the last week building a new pier and sweating our tukusses off. It will be lovely to have that pier for the wedding tho, so I'm glad we did it. Just sent Leo and Gabe off to Hawaii for a month (twerps) and am down to two very short cute blond people in the house. It's weird only cooking for 4 instead of 7. Especially when two of the eaters only make a combined meal of one, so it's like cooking for 3. For instance, last night I was sauteeing some eggplant from the garden for our burgers right? I thought I did well snapping off two smallish ones. Ended up with a pile of them because it slipped my mind that the two babies wont eat em, and Daddio was only going to eat a few to make me happy. *sigh* Worked out tho because I can't have bread (Helllooo Atkins). But still. Getting the hang of not feeding an army is something else! My teenage locusts are not here and that is just stumping my cooking.

Wedding you say? Oh yeah. Well el hubbo and I are renewing our vows. He always hated that my family was not there when we got hitched in the Little White Wedding Chapel in the strip mall of Northville MI. Over and over he said he wanted to renew the vows on our 7th anniversary to thwart the 7 year itch. I had assumed he was kidding. I assumed incorrectly lol.

Jeez, how long was I gone this time?

Our "Calvin" two years ago...

2008-04-21T17:08:00.004-04:00

This is the 2nd anniversary of one of the most Calvinable moments of our youngest son. Thought I would reprint it here ;)

One never expects the destructive capacity of children....especially when they are less than 3 feet tall!!!

So it's a peaceful Saturday evening at the FunHouse, the family is fed and we are laying a puzzle in the living room. Well MOST of us are laying a puzzle. The children are wandering in and out of the room. they stop by and look at the pieces and try to fit a few in and then give up and go do something else, returning at regular intervals to scratch their little heads.

This continues for a while until we hear Leo from the kitchen (and I quote) "EEEETHAAANN!!!!!" Very exasperated and drawn out, almost whining. We realize right away that this cannot be good Rolling Eyes

So Daddio and I go into the kitchen to find that our youngest male prodigy feels really strongly about marinating the goldfish early. That is to say he has pushed a chair up to the counter and gotten the jug of olive oil, moved the chair in front of the fish tank, and then proceeded to pour about half of said bottle of olive oil into the tank! Shocked

The boy was promptly reprimanded and sent to the stairs to sit and "think about what you just did".....yeah I know he's two but what am I supposed to do here???? This is not one of those things that people write about in parenting books! Perhaps there is a market for such a thing? But I digress....

So we spend the next hour os so cleaning olive oil out of the fish tank....... at least our fish have been thoroughly anointed.

We finish the puzzle and go on with the evening. Ethanator feeling impish tries to help...*sigh* ok ok, we were not planning on keeping the puzzle together forever, but somehow I expected it to last the night. So much for thinking! Well it was a minor offense and close to bedtime anyhow....no big deal we let it slide.

Sunday......

We were laying another puzzle (Daddio has gotten on a kick with these confounded things) We had some popcorn and were watching the Star Wars movies while trying desperately to piece together a puzzle that seems to be made up entirely of small dots. So being obsessive compulsive people we do not notice the activity in the kitchen. Evie was starting to fuss so we called Leo (the baby whisperer) to come and try to soothe his little sister. He comes down the hall from his room and yells "WHOA!!!!!!!!!!!!! Shocked Shocked Shocked " AND RUNS INTO THE KITCHEN! This gets our attention. Pa goes in first and also exclaims"WHOA!!!! Shocked Shocked " Now it really has my attention!
I bet you are thinking...."olive oil again?"

HA!

No respectable 2 1/2 year old terror would pull the same prank twice in less than a 24 hour period!

Q: So what do you do when you are too short to reach the thermo-nuclear cooker and you want some popcorn?

A: obviously you stick the bag into the nearby toaster-oven.... it's practically the same thing right?

The scene in the kitchen was this: Pa had scooped up a terrified but unhurt Ebear and unplugged the oven, Leo was standing there shell shocked, and. there were FLAMES coming from the toaster oven !!!!! Shocked Shocked
Did I mention that this was right under the WOOD cabinetry??
Beeing a little out of sorts at this point I foolishly opened the oven door.
(I think I hear Johnny cash...." I fell into a burning ring of fire....")
I also foolishly forgot about the butter part and tried to blow out the fire...
("....and the flames got higher......") I won't need to trim back those pesky eyelashes for a while Rolling Eyes
Finally I regain my senses, perhaps due to the face full of flame, and dump the contents of the oven onto the sink....did I mention the sink was full of dishes?.... and extinguish the blaze with the dish hose! So now the whole kitchen is full of smoke and the new toaster oven is somewhat charred. I am sooooooooo glad I opted for the stainless steel model!

Guess it's time to install more smoke alarms.

Well we all survived no worse for wear, perhaps a little wiser, defiantly more suspicious of young children, and feeling rather blessed that we still have a house and not a pile of ashes.

Have a great week,
Dana

Garden fresh

2008-04-03T18:54:00.003-04:00

First up, we have the romaine lettuce. This is one of two window boxes packed with several plants each. I'm going with the competitive space theory......not really. When I planted my seeds I really didn't expect them ALL to sprout:

Dozens of tomato plants with a couple of spinach sprouts in there.....I really gotta learn how to can now I guess. Big beefys and romas. Everyone in my family (except el hubbo) eats tomatoes off the vine, tomato sammiches, tomato sauces.........maybe I should plant more? Green house smells SO good when I water these baby's.

Yellow squash. This plant grows like something out of a Stan Lee comic I swear!
Parsley you succulent green garnish and soup spice rawr!

And cilantro. The latin rumba, the passionate tango of the herbal spices. Zinc out the wazoo here....look at how it beckons you......

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Last but certainly not least, the beautiful, but poisonous, Azaleas in my yard........

lets not eat the flowers 'k kids? ;)

Caterpillar hunt!

2008-04-03T18:36:00.003-04:00

Be vewy vewy quiet. We are stawking callerpillars........

Caterpillars are very sneaky. They have great camouflage. Such bright colors. Looks like a crazy amount of eyes peeping up at you from a branch I think.

So so fuzzy. At first we thought they were spikes that would impale our little fingers like sticker bushes! But no, the little bug was fuzzy like our bunny. Look at how beautiful she moves with her feathery skirt.

When we first started talking to her she got very very still. Pretending she was a blade of grass, or some such. The quieter we were, the less scared Caterpillar became and we discovered she was friendly. Tried to give moms camera a kiss. You can not play with them cause they are fragile. No pet caterpillars, no petting caterpillar, no poking *sigh*

Not good for much these fuzzy bugs, but good gravy they are mighty tasty!

*no caterpillars were actually eaten for this post

2008-03-14T13:31:00.002-04:00

So my dearly beloved has announced that there are peoples out there that want to buy my hats.
Eep.
On one hand I am totally flattered. I put alot of effort into them, and I do try to not repeat a pattern so every one is unique. At the same time, I have only made them for my family and Jess (though she still hasn't gotten it sheesh).
What happened was my Handsome One went off to work somewhere in the snowbound states. He could not find his hat(s) so swiped my 10 year olds. As he went through the front office one of the gals stopped him and admired it. The next day she asked if I would make her one.
Now you must understand that in knitting circles we do swaps like no bodies business, so I assumed she wanted to swap hats. I make her one, she makes me one. A very cool way to share creativity. A week later I hear that she does not knit. No, she wants to BUY my hats. Then informs himself that she has other interested people as well. Sweet Onion Chutney I can make yarn money!
I need more patterns! I need more yarn! I need to figure out just what the heck to charge??????

Oh, and then there is the whole: figure out how to get past my onry nature. I have this really annoying, but predictable, thing in my psyche. It keeps me from going with any tide that is presented to me. A contrarian nature perhaps? Now that someone wants to pay good money for my knitting fetish results, I am finding it hard to want to knit.
AAAARRGGGGHHHHHHH
I do this all the time. Like my whole life I've done this. Will wear anything that is NOT the fashion, will choose anything that is not mainstream anyday. This often leads to interesting positions in my life.

So back to the hats. I want to make some cool hats, get a selection together and send em up. Suggestions on patterns? Yarn? What is the appropriate charge?

Eep.

Oh I got a fix

2008-03-13T22:27:00.001-04:00

In Love

I've got skillz

2008-02-28T15:53:00.003-05:00

How to prepare for becoming a parent:

Lesson 1
Go to the grocery store.
Arrange to have your salary paid directly to their head office.
Go home.
Pick up the paper.
Read it for the last time.

Lesson 2
Before you finally go ahead and have children, find a couple who already are parents and berate them about their:
Methods of discipline.
Lack of patience.
Appallingly low tolerance levels.
Allowing their children to run wild.
Suggest ways in which they might improve their child's breastfeeding, sleep habits, toilet training, table manners, and overall behavior.
Enjoy it, because it will be the last time in your life you will have
all the answers.

Lesson 3
To discover how the nights will feel...
Walk around the living room from 5PM to 10PM carrying a wet bag weighing approximately 8-12 pounds, with a radio turned to static (or some other obnoxious sound) playing loudly.
At 10PM, put the bag down, set the alarm for midnight, and go to sleep.
Get up at 12 and walk around the living room again, with the bag, until 1AM.
Set the alarm for 3AM.
As you can't get back to sleep, get up at 2AM and have warm milk.
Go to bed at 2:45AM.
Get up at 3AM when the alarm goes off.
Sing songs in the dark until 4AM.
Get up. Make breakfast. Keep this up for 5 years. Look cheerful.

Lesson 4
Can you stand the mess children make? To find out...
Smear peanut butter onto the sofa and jam onto the curtains. Hide a piece of raw chicken behind the stereo and leave it there all summer. Stick your fingers in the flower bed. Then rub them on the clean walls.Cover the stains with crayons. How does that look?

Lesson 5
Dressing small children is not as easy as it seems. Buy a live octopus and a small bag made out of loose mesh.
Attempt to put the octopus into the bag so that none of the arms hang out.
Time allowed for this - all morning.

Lesson 6
Take an egg carton. Using a pair of scissors and a jar of paint, turn it into an alligator.
Now take the tube from a roll of toilet paper. Using only Scotch tape and a piece of aluminum foil, turn it into an attractive Christmas candle.
Last, take a milk carton, a ping-pong ball, and an empty packet of Cocoa Puffs. Make an exact replica of the Eiffel Tower.

Lesson 7
Forget the BMW and buy a mini-van. And don't think that you can leave it out in the driveway spotless and shining. Family cars don't look like that.
Buy a chocolate ice cream cone and put it in the glove compartment.
Leave it there.
Get a dime. Stick it in the cassette player.
Take a family size package of chocolate cookies. Mash them into the back seat.
Run a garden rake along both sides of the car.
There. Perfect.

Lesson 8
Get ready to go out.
Wait outside the bathroom for half an hour.
Go out the front door.
Come in again. Go out.
Come back in.
Go out again.
Walk down the front path.
Walk back up it.
Walk down it again.
Walk very slowly down the road for five minutes.
Stop, inspect minutely, and ask at least 6 questions about every cigarette butt, piece of used chewing gum, dirty tissue, and dead insect along the way.
Retrace your steps.
Scream that you have had as much as you can stand until the neighbors come out and stare at you.
Give up and go back into the house.
You are now just about ready to try taking a small child for a walk.

Lesson 9
Repeat everything at least (if not more than) five times.

Lesson 10
Go to the local grocery store. Take with you the closest thing you can find to a pre-school child. (A full- grown goat is excellent).
If you intend to have more than one child, take more than one goat. Buy your week's groceries without letting the goats out of your sight. Pay for everything the goat eats or destroys.
Until you can easily accomplish this, do not even contemplate having children.

Lesson 11
Hollow out a melon. Make a small hole in the side.
Suspend it from the ceiling and swing it from side to side.
Now get a bowl of soggy Cheerios and attempt to spoon them into the swaying melon by pretending to be an airplane. Continue until half the Cheerios are gone. Tip half into your lap. The other half, just throw up in the air.You are now ready to feed a nine- month old baby.

Lesson 12
Learn the names of every character from Sesame Street, DoodleBops,and Vegetales. Watch nothing else onTV for at least five years.

Lesson 13
Move to the tropics. Find or make a compost pile. Dig down about halfway and stick your nose in it. Do this 3-5 times a day for at least two years.

Lesson 14
Make a recording of Fran Drescher saying "mommy" repeatedly. (Important: no more than a four second delay between each "mommy"; occasional crescendo to the level of a supersonic jet is required). Play this tape in your car everywhere you go for the next four years. You are now ready to take a long trip with a toddler.

Lesson 15
Start talking to an adult of your choice. Have someone else continually tug on your skirt hem, shirt- sleeve, or elbow while playing the "mommy" tape made from Lesson 14 above. You are now ready to have a conversation with an adult while there is a child in the room.

(author unknown, but clearly has a pile of offspring lol)

Denise Austin

2008-02-26T20:01:00.002-05:00

Is trying to kill me.

She kicked my fat arse all over the living room.

Ebears giggles and participation didn't help. The twerp ran circles around me.

Man, I have gotten so out of shape I thought I collapsed a lung. I died at least twice.

And I've committed myself to her for the next 6 months. 3 times a week.

I think

I will die.

I did her Boot Camp DVD.

If I still have a fat belly by the end of this stint, I am so coming after her.

And Jess.

Knitty Music

2008-02-26T12:08:00.002-05:00

Just curious, who out there has certain music they listen to when they knit? I need something kinda groovy, but mellow. Looking for input. Maybe something with a ukulele? heh heh
I say that cause way back when I first got sucked into really concentrating/learning to knit, I was also watching the first season of Lost. I found that when I rewatch those episodes where Hurley is listening to his CD player, I get that ole knitting feeling. So now I'm looking to expand that musical goodness.

Or am I just a dork?

Deep Breath, worsted weight

2008-02-25T13:07:00.000-05:00

cast on 46

Row 1: p3, k6, p5, k18, p5, k6, p3
Row 2 and all wrong side rows: k3, p6, k5, p18, k5, p6, k3
Row 3: p3, k6, p5 c6b, c6b, c6b, p5, k6, p3
Row 5: p3, c6b, p5, k18, p5, c6b, p3
Row 7: p3, k6, p5, k3, c6f, c6f, k3, p5, k6, p 3
Row 9:p3, k6, p5, k18, p5, k6, p3
Row 11: p3, c6b, p5 c6b, c6b, c6b, p5, c6b, p3
Row 13: p3, k6, p5, k18, p5, k6, p3
Row 15: p3, k6, p5, k3, c6f, c6f, k3, p5, k6, p 3
Row 17: p3, c6b, p5, k18, p5, c6b, p3
Row 19: p3, k6, p5 c6b, c6b, c6b, p5, k6, p3
Row 21:p3, k6, p5, k18, p5, k6, p3
Row 23: p3, c6b, p5, k3, c6f, c6f, k3, p5, c6b, p 3

repeat rows 1-24 for pattern to desired length

go ahead, I dares ya

2008-02-21T16:57:00.001-05:00

P.S.

2008-02-20T22:51:00.001-05:00

It occured to me that you may be interested in what Ebear was trying to get at with the robot and pistachio......

Newest teen boy got a robot for his birthday. It dances, picks up dirty socks, talks...says "rosebudddddd" when it is turned off. Hula dances, break dances, in general a really cool little toy.
Ebear is fascinated by it.

We also scored some awesome pistachios from Food World and have been using them as our snack treats.

So my best guess: Ebear wanted to feed the robot a treat.

Now, being the creative little git that he is, and knowing he has a working knowledge of manual tools, I can just see him unscrewing the battery lid for the robot to feed him some 'stachios. He knows what batteries are and that they feed electricity to electronics you see......

thus, the whole distraction ploy ;)

Fingernails.

2008-02-18T16:30:00.004-05:00

Today Ebear came over to me wanting to have a serious discussion about something in the serious manner only 4 year olds can put together. It had to do with pistachios and a robot. I'm not entirely sure what one had to do with the other, but can tell you that he was definately perturbed about it. Not wanting to get deep into the murky waters of agreeing with him on a subject I'm sure will backfire on me, I distracted him.
"Look at those fingers! Oh my! That dirt is going to eat them off! We better go wash your hands immediately." And off we trotted to the bathroom. Put him up on the counter to keep the chances of escape at a bare minimum. Soaped him up, start laughing, get him laughing which inevitably pricks the curiosity of the wee little girl of the house. Pop her upon the counter so she can watch too.
We scrub scrub scrub, but alas, that dirt is really in there. "Well son, I think we may need to operate" pull out clippers. He actually said "Ow" before I even touched him. Decide to make a really big deal out of it all and we clip each finger nail in small increments, looking to see if any dirt got out after each snip. Little girl is leaning in close for this inspection all the while holding her little balled fists in tight to her tummy (you aint getting aholda my hands dirty copper). After much concentration we get the offending fingers into snappy shape. Rewash hands, pat dry, and even had a grand finish of oohs and ahhs. Congratulations and promotions all around, job well done men. Ebear runs outta the room to dig in the potted plants to see if dirt really will stay out from under what is left of his nails. Then Ebear promptly realizes that was not such a good idea and high tails it to the other bathroom to rewash hands so "Mommy Dearest" doesn't see the evidence.
Little girl did not fall for the 'isn't this interesting game' but still needs her claws trimmed. I start out with her gently, asking her if she wants to get her hands wet, she pulls up her sleeves. We get one hand in the water, I soap it and wash. While rinsing I slip my arm around her and pick up the clippers. Bad idea, I was moving too fast for this conservative minded young lady.
RED ALERT flashed across her eyes while her hands flash back into balled position. She is no longer eying me with suspicion, but with outright contempt as the wrinkle in her scrunched up nose suggests.
It was a long time, but slowly I got her to extend just one finger. Clip! "See, that didn't hurt, and look at that dirt getting out!" Another finger.....then another....she starts leaning in again becoming fascinated with her own hands transportation into the land of the clean. Finally, with the end in sight, we rewash the hands, pat dry and have another grand reveal. Being the lone princess in a house of big brothers makes her especially prone to needing to pagent things on her person that are pretty. Some days it's her beads, other days it's hair barrettes, today it was her dainty little dirtless hands. She was applauded and thus satisfied went on to make mud pies out of this great dirt that just appeared over by moms peace lily.

I'm feeling good about this. It was an accomplishment. This was the first time in many a year that no tears were involved.........at least until I saw the lily........

Air purification suggestions?

2008-02-18T16:16:00.001-05:00

The dust factor in our new home is unreal. I'm not a big Dusting Bunny to begin with, but being in new digs (that are NOT under construction-Yay) I'm trying to keep on top of it. There is only carpet in the bedrooms, split brick everywhere else.

WHERE is all this flippin dust coming from???? Seriously. I took a damp rag and went over the buffet top where the tv is located, got everything good and wiped down yeah? I do this EVERY SINGLE DAY and every single day it looks like I've not dusted in a month of sundays. I do the book shelf edges, the mantle and the computer too. The dust on the floor absolutely trips me out. I washed this sucker leaving no place untouched. A week later while sweeping I corralled a dust bunny the size of King Kong. It was not happy.

Is this normal? Has my family always produced this much detritus and I just never noticed before thinking it was construction fall out?
After watching BBC's "How clean is your House" and seeing the nasties that thrive on dust I just can't let this go anymore. Frankly my sinus/ear problems have practically disappeared so I know I will keep at it. I just need help.

Any suggestions on an air purifier/dust destructocon? As it is now, I'm not burning fires in the fire place, nor am I using the furnace to stir stuff up. So it's not coming from the vents. All that is on is the ceiling fans and 5 mini me's. I do open the windows alot, but it's not the season for yard cutting and that sort of dust creating. Totally baffled, the amount of this dust take over just cannot be natural....

Can it?

Eep

2008-02-18T14:44:00.001-05:00

No labels

2008-02-17T15:01:00.004-05:00

WHY is it so hard to slap a label on something?

Yesterday we had the party for that teenage thing and I had purchased a cake from the local 'got everything mart'. I picked it up from the refrigerated area, saw it was chocolate layered and thought no more about it. Got home, gently threw it into the refrigerator and foggottabout it.

At One thirtyish it was time to bring the cake out and embarrass aforementioned boy/man thing. I popped that lid of, swore slightly as I saw the whip cream frosting was melting, jabbed in the candles quick as I could. Lit them while screaching 'get in here and sing already hurry hurry hurry it's an avalaaaaanche'
After a little bit of nervous laughter people saw I was not goofing around, we sang Happy Birthday---you remember those little portable record players where you could change the RPM's and make Mick Jaggar sound like Mick Mouse? Yeah, it was kind of like that.----Kid blew out his candles and I whipped out the cake knife. I may have caused a wee bit of anxiety as I began slicing and dicing like a Hibatchi chef on speed. I was chopping and flipping pieces of melting cake on plates so fast that I hardly have memory of any of it. Cake was everywhere....and the best part?
The cake WAS ICE CREAM LAYERED.
This is why the sneaky thing was melting like a crayon on brand new car seat leather.
No labels. No where. I had no idea I had set the thing into 'destructo' mode when entering it into the fridge instead of the freezer. Maybe the whip cream icing should have tipped me off?
There was a flash flood of vanilla ice cream that streaked across the counter top. Devastated all that was in it's path...but.....delighted the 4 year old standing at the edge of the counter with mouth wide open.

The one picture that we got of the cake..............

I lead a very exciting, glamorous life I know. Yer just jealous.

Two more birthday's this month....whheeeeeeeeeee LOL

Another massacre at a school

2008-02-15T17:04:00.002-05:00

*begin Vent*
Anyone but me notice that all these gunmen nutters going off have a common thread? All were 'off their meds' when they decided to go on a killing spree.

I remember having discussions years ago about what was going to be the result of all these kids put on ADD/ADHD/hyper drugs to calm them down and make em more manageable in school. Instead of discipline, self control and learning how to control yourself and focus like all previous generations had too, it was magic pills. One of the topics was how they are not learning how to deal with full blown emotions, walking around hazy. Then come the hormone years and how difficult it is to muddle through that highly emotional period in life....but if you are still medicated through it, how much actual learning to deal with life's disappointments and highs do you really achieve?

Now they get to college where Mommy and Daddy are not there to be sure scripts get refilled, much less taken and life comes at them full force, unmuddled. Those poor kids in universities that were jumping out dorm windows stories up a couple years ago, the suicide rates in young adults skyrocketing, and now as this breakthrough group gets in the real world outside college, killing sprees.

I'm not about to argue that some kids were not genuinely helped with these drugs, but I'm sure we can all agree passing out those little pill prescriptions became abused. My own step son was told he could not return to school until his mother put him on medication. (thankfully through the years I had been giving her reports about the seriousness the long term results were showing and she chose to home school him instead) He is not hyper, he was just bored. He lacked self control and the school lacked the capacity/patience to expect it from him. Imagine our lack of surprise to learn that schools get more federal money per child, if a child is labeled with a disability, and if he/she is on ADD/ADHD meds, it classifies.

*off Vent box*

Anyway

Am I the only one seeing this particular thread of connection in the violence thats on the rise?
I am not a medical doctor, I don't play one on TV. I am in certainly NO place to be giving medical advice. So all of this is from my own very limited experience. Earlier, in my venting ire I only put this in passing "I'm not about to argue that some kids were not genuinely helped with these drugs," to address that some kids are actually helped. Lets explore that. Some people are CERTAINLY helped by medications available today. I'm so very glad for them to have the opportunity at normalicy through the pharmaceutical company. This post is NOT about them.

I'm not interested in finger pointing, what is done is done, but the repercussions that seem to be coming from that generation of kids that were medicated throughout their young life deserve some conversation. How can we help others who may be dealing with this same confused rage before they explode without talking about the possibility of the connection? It's uncanny how these massacres are instigated by people that are 'off their meds' and it bears the question: WHY do so many flip out in violence without them?

My points on the haziness come from experience with and conversations with long time friends that were on the drugs. I've yet to meet personally a person that did not describe their time with the meds as foggy or 'dulled down' once they have been off for a while. Doesn't make it true for everyone, just my own limited experience.

It's very sad, and none of this helps those parents whose children are now gone forever because someone else lost control of their actions.

It's that time again

2008-02-14T09:01:00.002-05:00

Where my young men start having birthdays out the whazoo.

How can I possibly be old enough to have a TEENAGER? Seriously, thats gotta be a typo on the birth certificate. I only just hatched him a couple years ago. Never mind he is taller than me, his voice cracks, his sense of humor is sharp, almost too witty. Body odor aside, I still want him to crawl in my lap for snuggles, but my lap isn't big enough anymore.

*sigh*

Yes I grounded him for aging. Again. He never listens and continues to do this every single year. Insolent little man he is.

Time to make the birthday cakes.

To knit or to clean?

2008-02-12T09:14:00.000-05:00

Been plowing away on the lil ole Forest canopy shawl. For some reason I'm getting arm cramps.
Arm cramps from knitting? I must be hopelessly out of shape.

Took himself to the airport this morning....Ahhhhhhhh.
I tell ya, I had no idea there was a 'slow season' in his line of work. Having him home for 6 straight weeks really threw a monkey wrench in all the habits and routines we were just getting used to. I don't understand why, but I am the laziest creature when he is around. When he is gone, the house is clean clean, like dust free, all laundry is washed/dried/put up within 24 hours of it being worn. The vacuum cleaner cries for mercy and even with 5 kids, I manage to keep the kitchen and living room clutter free. When he is here....not so much.
Like take tonight. We moved Bible study to Tuesday nights to help with some peoples schedules, and my Lost watching (hehehehe). I popped him on the plane, returned home only to discover that I have a heck of a lot of cleaning to catch up on before I have company over tonight. The pantry is pretty bare too. *sigh*

I foresee not having much knitting time today....ahhh well, at least he is working again.

Lizard ala Loo

2008-02-06T23:10:00.000-05:00

MOM there is a gieco salesman in the pot! Come look!

Sure enough, there was a little fellah in the potty. Better make sure he is dead *gentle prod* oh hey! yes! He's alive!! Whoot! Boy 1, go get your old hermit crab habitat, Boy 2, go grab some fresh grass, Boy 3, get some of the peach out of the fruit salad.
Poor little thing just lost his tail, the blood scab is still bright red. Obviously freaked out, I would be too if giants were handling me and squawking. Never seen this color before, like a pale peach with red highlights. Kinda spiky. I should name him Velvet or Smoothie
Fat bugger, so not undernourished by a long shot. Hiding his front right limb so often I thought it was missing at first too.
Now where in the world did he come from??? really, I'm kind of a neat freak and bugaphobic. I clean/bleach the heck out of that room so often that you would think any critter would steer far and clear just from the fumes. Granted I've had the windows open because of the nice weather, but again, ANY room but the chemically sterile bathroom....and he was found IN the toilet floating. The boys thought he was dead actually.
There is a vent directly above the toilet, thats my best guess, that he came from there.
Of course that leads me to wonder: Just what the hell has he been eating in my vents that has him so fat and happy....and who/what stole his tail in there? EEEK *insert loud girly scream*

He is now safe enough. Has fresh fruit, have the boys seeking crickets and other small insects outside. Has water, fresh grass, some climbing sticks, a hidey hole and a hot rock for warmth.

Where did he come from?
And what happened to his tail?
A brand new FunHouse mystery begins......

cracks me up

2008-02-04T10:11:00.000-05:00

I just can't stop giggling at this little dictator bird, cracks me up.

Happy Blogday to me

2008-02-03T22:11:00.000-05:00

I had no idea until I was peeping at my profile that it was my bloggerversary. How is it possible it's been a year? I swear Jessie just bullied me into having one of these things a month or so ago. Sheesh.
What does one do for a bloggerversary?
Me? I talk about my day and how it started out with the usual random chaos that seems to rule my life.
Ebear actually ROLLED THE JEEP.

A power wheels jeep. pow pow powerwheels testosterone makes it go.

Yessir, he rolled it.

No one was hurt except maybe his mother who jumped in and out of her skin 4 times before getting to the Jeep to check on the kids.
They were fine, Evie was doing her best impersonation of a back seat harpy reading him the riot act about not having the right tires to climb mount suicide (a small hill in the back yard).

This event was not related in any way to those two trying to escape the family back 40 (feet) and had everything to do with him being his fathers child.

I wish I had it on film *sigh*

Father was smacked smartly about the head with a newspaper for passing his thrill seeking idiot genes to the boy child. To make it sting all the worse, I, er, the assailant used the political commentary section. Doctors assure that he will be fine after some physical therapy....personally I don't think he will work his brain any harder now than he did before and the damage had nothing to do with the paper to begin with and he is just being a whiny baby. But I digress.

A pink and white Barbie beach patrol Jeep.
Oh the humanity.

Then we get to the afternoon which started off quiet, if not entirely sane. Ebear is outside my window this very moment standing on top of his rocket ship yelling at the squirrels. I think they are at war. I hear something about 'onnicles' which translated means Bionicles, a lego robot creature. I suspect the dratted gray tailed bandit made off with a part from Ebears stash and hell hath no emphatic plans like a 4 year old on a mission.
Evie, being the smart one (IE the girl) has decided to take her babies inside and is putting them all down for a nap. One baby is clearly not behaving because she is threatening to not read a story unless baby hushes.

The older boys are just whining about wanting to go to Mardi Gras today. It's Joe Cain day, which means it is the day to get drunker than hungry raccoon on a spring afternoon under the mulberry tree, if you know what I mean.
Not kid friendly.
So they are pouting and being insolent.

Big Daddy is recovering from his head trauma and attempting engineering.

How are you this fine Blogaversary Sunday?

what foul wind this way comes?

2008-01-30T17:16:00.000-05:00

The impossibly strong odor that engulfed the house is reminiscent of a decaying musk ox.

Who in the world gave that child pistachios??

The only way to remove that funk was to start a fire(to get a breeze going out the chimney) and discover that my (soon to be late) dearly beloved closed the flu. Normally the flu is wide open, and by wide open I mean never before in our entire history have we closed the flu-so it was not something I would have thought to check.
Smoke went billowing everywhere as I fought viciously with a truculent, surly flipping piece of crap flu handle. Lots of hollering and then kicking out the flaming logs, throwing windows open and beating my head upon the security/smoke alarm trying to remember the blasted code.
Fortunately the flames relieved my need to shave the ole pits, so that was a bonus.
Got flu open, restart fire because now the draft is needed to help clear the fumes.
Que naked baby that has escaped her bathwater and the phone. Answer phone, chase golden haired imp down the hall. Listen to Hubbo explain in minute detail the information he needs me to email him while my mother attempts to ring through on the other line. Not getting me on the land line she starts blowing up my cell phone....all just to ask if the kids are going with her tonight.
Naked baby is now dancing on recently folded laundry singing something at the top of her lungs...stopping only to fart and recharge the air with the revolting aroma that started this whole catastrophe.

Another heady morning in the glamorous lifestyle of motherhood.

*sigh*

On the knitting front : Zero stitches

Crop Circles

2008-01-26T21:00:00.000-05:00

Well the truth is finally out. We know where the crop circles come from.

link
About 100 woolly sheep formed a perfect ring while grazing in a field in England on Friday, baffling the farmer and other witnesses, the Daily Mail reports.

"I couldn't believe what I was seeing," said Russell Bird, who photographed the bizarre occurrence.

He continued: "I did see a dog worrying sheep nearby beforehand and the dog ran off round the hedge in a different field, so I don't know if they were discussing that."

As the farmer’s tractor approached, however, the sheep scattered, but another circle was formed three fields away. Both formations lasted about 10 minutes, the Daily Mail reports.

Where is Moulder when ya need him?

check out Jeepgirl

2008-01-26T08:51:00.000-05:00

SweetyHeart Yarns

Go check her out. This is a really good friend of mine. She combines two of our families hobbies, knitting and Jeeps, into one great package LOL.

Bless her heart, she even tried to show me how to spin yarn.

One of the few I dearly miss in Michigan.

Forest Canopy Shawl

2008-01-25T16:20:00.000-05:00

One of my more favorite wenches went and challenged/invited me to knit along on the Forest Canopy Shawl with her. She actually tried softening me up with fancy compliments reflecting on my passion for the convertible I started last spring. I got to giggle wildly as I confessed I am still not done with that bugger.
It was too late to retract her invite though, so she is stuck with me as a buddy on this.
Does it count that I have already cast on one yarn, got 3 repeat sections into it before deciding that I wasn't gonna love the variegation? I ripped it back.

Now I'm going to go with a lovely cherry tree hill sock yarn instead.

At least I think I am. I just realized that both my lace shawls will be in practically the same color. Maybe I should go with the hussy red after all?
Nuts.

Awe somebunny loves me

2008-01-19T21:36:00.000-05:00

My girlfriend of a bazillion years went to Italy for Christmas!. Amongst all of that adventure of coolness she still thought of me. Awe.
Look what she brought to me tonight:

Now thats love. Thats a friend you keep forever. She doesn't even knit y'all. Hand carried those balls. *happy sigh*

I want to encourage this behaviour, so am looking for a pattern for them. I want to make something for her....about 50 grams...no yardage and I don't have a yarn meter..any suggestions?

I heart you Val!

Crazy Cable'in Lady

2008-01-18T17:09:00.000-05:00

All sing the praises of Supercrafty! My yarn I ordered just 4 days ago is here! Whoot whoot! See how pitiful this project is? How little yarn there was to finish it? It was so sad to get into the groove only to find out you are outta yarn.

Oh happy day is today, Supercrafy rocked the mail system. I'm so incredibly thrilled. I'm used to a minimum of two weeks, not 4 days. SuhWheet.

I had no idea it would be that fast so I had searched Ravelry and found this Fly Capitan hat that the soapy knitter created. Not wanting to lose my new found love of cabling, I cast on some vintage tweed I had in the stash from a swap last year. I was banging. Finished that sucker and immediately cast on some Debbie Bliss tangerine merino to make another. I was in the middle of that when my yarn arrived in the mail. Today is a good day to knit.

Pardon the mess in the background heh heh.

knitterly black hole

2008-01-14T16:03:00.000-05:00

So I get this great pep talk from Jessie right? She points out great new resources for patterns on Ravelry to help alieve my lack of knittymojo. I go find the yarn sorter, I go retrieve the yarn that had been winking at me from the closet stash. I find a pattern. Print it and cast on. Great pattern, easy to read, takes one ball of yarn and is a quick knit. Perfect. The first gloves goes like a dream. This was my first real go at cables and I was soooo pleased with that left handed glove. Then the anti-mojo kicked in. I cast on for right hand glove, and literally had to frog my CAST ON because I had flubbed it. How does one screw up a cast on they do in their sleep they know it so well? I get the bugger cast on appropriately, get a round or two in, careful not to create a mobius strip. Set it down to go make dinner, come back, start knittin' and realize I had it turned around, no big deal, tink back and go forward......get to new cable, pay attention to be sure I have it going the correct way, continue. Got to the 3rd cable and obviously had a brain fart as the next 3 cable twists were a freak of knature. They were twisting, I was shouting, it was a regular boogie woogie knightmare.
I take another deep breath, go eat dinner and take a walk around the neighborhood. Sit down with some tension tamer tea and correct the blasted things. All is well. I'm relaxing, enjoying the play, still pretty giddy about the first glove and how lovely it looks. Get round and round, do next cable set and get comfortable. It sounds like things are going well yeah? I thought so too.
I've run out of yarn. I'm about 3 inches and a thumb short.
I bought this yarn well over a year ago at the local knit shop in Michigan.....which is now over 900 miles away....
*whinge*cry*wail*stomp*pout*

If you spot any Mission Falls 1824 wool in a amethyst 23 (either dye lot 4104 or 4685 I have 2 mission falls ball bands and have no idea which belongs to my gloves) take pity on me and let me know? I'd appreciate it.

LeSigh

**UPDATE**
Supercrafty had EXACTLY what I needed and I'm soooo freaking happy.
I ordered 2 balls just to be sure. Hehe

FINALLY

2008-01-09T15:19:00.000-05:00

Well here we are in the jolly new year of 2008 and I am FINALLY back on line.
I can hardly fathom how my last post was about the evil love bugs from Hades....soooooo much has happened. The short version: We found the house of our dreams in our neighborhood of choice in the very section of said neighborhood we wanted to live in. Due to never having/using credit cards in the last 5 years our credit scores were actually LOW!!! So with winter coming the mortgage broker offered to rent us her old home while we rebuilt our credit. We get moved into her place only to find out a week later that the people who own the house we really really wanted have "asked about" our family and decided they really want us in here so will rent it to us until we can get that mortgage. YAY. Wait.... crap...that means moving twice in one month. Le sigh.
So we moved again and are very happy about everything (especially the green house and the fireplace). Lots of moving, lots of stress, but ultimately, lots of the good stuff to.
We were asked to hold a Bible study at our house and that has been more successful than I ever expected. It has the added bonus of serving as church for us as the closest Calvary Chapel is a long long drive and the other local churches have not really felt right to us. Homeschooling is going like gangbusters and the kids are getting to include neighbor kids in projects (like foliage collection/identification). El Hubbo is really suited to his new self employment...if perhaps abit slow on the organization of his paperwork. Very satisfied with everything really, God IS good.

About the knitting. Well. *sigh* I've been dreadful. I'll start it at that. Just know that there are NO quality yarn places down here in the deep south. I may have to get a sheep. So I spent the last several months making log cabin blankets (out of acrylic...I know I know). I started some some socks only to get to the heels and lose all interest. I swear, I has gotta be stress and lack of communication with my knitting compadres. I miss Messie and her inspiration. I miss Marquita making patterns harder than they need to be hehehe I miss Ravelry and Harlot and Purl. I did have a fantastic email though! I found out my good buddy Jess has picked up the knitting lifestyle and I am thrilled *swoon*
After moving into the new homestead and settling in (and becoming excessively bored with endless garter stitch log cabin blankets) I decided it was time to work on my PW cardigan. Only I have discovered I am a moron and really should be under supervision when knitting. I tried to be smart and avoid cutting in for the sleeves and just knitted them on at the right spot. It developed shoulders that would make the blasted thing appropriate outerwear for a hockey player in full pads. I was in such denial I carried on for a couple of days wanting to get it done before hubbo came home (and with it being on a circ that denial was pretty easy to pull off). Finally I realized I had to put it on a line and have a look. It was bloody awful....so bad that it got stuffed into my knitting basked and buried under several balls of acrylic in punishment. THAT was the very moment I lost my knitting mojo. I have had ZERO desire to knit ever since. Once my beloved pointed that out to me, I promptly picked up the basket and frogged that sucker all the way back to where my 'genius' kicked in and made something stupid. It took nearly two hours to frog (Fair Isle ya know) and the thing is STILL stealing my creative juice away. I attempted pulling out the sewing machine to intimidate it, but instead the malicious thing had a few words with the Brother and now my sewing mojo is gone as well. Even new fabric and new shears have not re-revved those desires. I did make squirt a new dress, but honesly it looks like the gear you would wear in a mental ward. Uhg. Maybe I should make one for myself? Spread a few ashes on my head in repentance for offending the knitting goodness that is my PW? You think that would work?
Me neither..but it makes me giggle to think about it.

It's good to be back yall.

Ch ch ch ch changes..........

2007-09-12T18:04:00.000-04:00

HiDeeDiddlyho there blogger neighbor, How is ya?

Me?

Oh I'm just dandy. Love bug season is here at full throttle and it's amazing. These orange and black little things swarm like silent ticklish locusts. You have to wait for night fall to suck em up with a vacuum cleaner. Seriously, the floor is a moving black carpet of oddness. And the windows. We wont even talk about the nervous breakdown my chihuahua had in trying to 'get em all'. Poor thing is exhausted.
Made a discovery about moth balls. If you stick one in each window at sunset, absolutely zero bugs and the like will try to sneak in for some late night necking. That was a tremendous score on the bug war as anorexic pterodons (mosquitoes gigantus) were doing there very best to relieve us of all excess blood. The excess was measured by their own charts and I fully believe they were a bunch of liars. Blood sucking lier's. Snort. This also had amazing effects on the moths of doom from my prievious post. Oh, and Mothra came to visit me. She was the size of cheeseburger. No kidding. EEEKK!

I've finished my log cabin blanket that was started back in Feb at Jessie's! Yay me! Whoot! I immediately started on another and lo' and behold, with no internets to distract me, I'm already done. 10 days y'all. I thought long and hard for about 6.2 seconds and came to the astounding revelation that if I stop saying I finished the second blankie in 10 days and instead go buy more skeins of the same yarn, I can increase the size of the throw to a heave and wont look quite as much like I have time management issues when it comes to my online time. heh.
So now I can honestly declare that I am only halfway through my second log cabin blanket of goodness.
I've finished my fall harvest socks and begun the blue moon socks of my own design. Mostly lifted from other patterns....maybe I should call em my Frankenstein socks since I just used the bits of others pieces to mad scientist these together? It's a thought. Only they are blue..not green and I'm a simple person who will easily forget why I called em Frankenstein socks when they are really not a monstrosity at all and quite lovely if I do say so myself........

As for Himself. Well once again all we thought was going to happen has flaked out and changed completely. The boat job did a weird thing and now he is doing what we always said he wasn't going to do: Go work on the road. As in gone from the homestead days at a time...sometimes weeks. however, it just could not be denied anymore and he is now a private contractor finally making the money he deserves. My new job has me scheduling things for us to do as a family when he is home, focusing on the quality over the quantity. In a bizarre twist, we were both relieved when we finally stopped fighting this employment direction. I didn't even realise how much we were fighting it until we stopped. Crazy.

We made it

2007-08-26T15:41:00.000-04:00

Well last Sunday we loaded the kiddos into the assorted vehicles at 3 AM and rolled out of Detroit. All those rains that closed down the highway in Ohio and caused massive flooding were directly over us. Thankfully we managed to remain on the lead of the storms and avoided all the craziness.....unless you count the craziness that was inside the car. Lil Princess was absolutely convinced that the car seat of doom was out to get her. Mad as a wet hen about that.
21 hours later we rolled into the Bay House exhausted but very glad to have made it injury free. At one point in Ohio my eyes were falling out of my head so we pulled over to have a power nap. About 12 hours after that we pulled into another rest stop in Alabama so Himself could take the same power nap.
For the record, I really do not like Red Bull. Starbucks double shot espresso however is a fabulous beverage.
After a brief sleep we got right back up to go unload the moving truck into storage and then my Mister had to go BACK up to Cincinnati. ugh. He stopped in Birmingham to get some real sleep at least.
The little kids are wondering at what the heck is going on. One day ALL these people from church showed up and stole everything in their house, then they had to drive for a million years, and now they are at that place they kinda know from vacation in July, but their Daddy is totally missing. Very confusing. The older boys are totally bummed that their schoolbooks survived the move, and on top of that, mom even remembered to bring them and not put them in storage. Muhuwahahahahahaa

Still no internets for me really (today I'm at my moms) and I'm getting piles of knitting done. Now for the bad news. One hundred umpitty million moths got into my stash at some point during the move. One the upside I have a ginormous upright freezer that all the yarn went into as soon as the moths were found...on the downside, I have no idea what to do. I'm really very sad. We have no local yarn shops down here (hellloooo business opportunity I hear ya knocking) and without my internets, I got no way to replenish once I figure out what the moth damage ends up being. Dirty little scumbags. My gut tells me it's the PW cardigan that got the worst of it (sob)

And how are YOU?

D-Day

2007-08-17T09:49:00.001-04:00

Okay y'all.

Today we load the truck. This will be my last post for awhile.

Keep us in your prayers, and have a Blessed Day.

Wednesday

2007-08-15T14:29:00.000-04:00

I need to knit

I need to knit badly.

My nerves are getting freyed.

I can't knit. I get too busy...I have too too much to do......it's a bounding case of hurry up and wait.

I'm going to just say "Ta heck with it" and finish off the kitchen and anything else that crosses my path. I can't sit still, them boxes start closing in on me, and there are still so many boxes that need to be filled.

(I thought Yo was bringing me the dump trailer this morning arrrrrgh)

Okay. Dana, just chill. It'll be okay. Worse case scenario you can beat everyone with your unpacked yarn until you feel the stress is relieved. Yes, yarn abuse is frowned on, but sometimes you have to do the unpleasant things in order to keep the peace(s of your mind from flaking out).

*sigh*

My House

2007-08-09T13:42:00.000-04:00

So I walked into my room today and it hit me between the eyes...in less than 10 days this will no longer be my room. Or my house. These red walls that hubbo painted, this carpet I chose.....this whole second floor addition that we designed and toyed and played with from scratch. I had two babies while living here. Loud noisy inconsiderate neighbors, teenagers driving like jerks after the high school lets out....did I mention the neighbors we do not get along with at all? Their hot rod? Their constant noise making? Dog barking? The local garage band that only recently discovered how to carry a tune?
But still...I really really like my house. I like the layout. The open floor plan that happened when we tore down some walls. The wood stove we just put in a year ago that worked just as brilliantly as I told everyone that it would. The privacy of my bedroom, but still close enough to hear if the little ones call. The attic niche in the wall that looks like a hobbit hole, the cozy way our log bed fits that end of the room. Looking down at the stairs and recalling how crazy they once were before the back door was moved. My hide away washer and dryer...my jacuzzi tub. I even get a kick out of the crazy timing of the sump pump and the odd times it decides to spew forth, generally when there has been no rain for weeks! LOL.I like my yard, the trees that have survived my husbands obsession with chainsaws. My flower beds in the front. The lantern posts in the front and backyard that make me think of Narnia, where Lucy met Tumnus. I can glance over at one corner garden spot, and remember those baby bunnies that we tried to save...and finally buried there.
I look at our shed (still without siding on the front after all this time lol) and remember what a little tin hut was there before. How Phil wanted to help his best friend out, so he tore up the tin, and built that shed with such care and consideration. The way back of the yard where we used to sit on that rickety old picnic table daydreaming about what the addition should look like (and just where the heck would the garage need to go??).
My mulberry tree that insists on putting out fruit a couple times in a season despite my logical arguments with it. The grape vine that has simply burst with berries this year....the valiant struggle of the cherry tree trying to live.

Yes the windows should be replaced..all the walls painted. The entire downstairs desperately needs new flooring and will someone please connect the doorbell? All these things will be done after we have gone......I will miss my picture window and all the light it brought too....logically a house is just a house. It's my family inside of it that makes it into a home. I know this, this is a comforting truth...but I will miss these walls a bit. So much has happened here. We are comfortable here, even amidst the never ending construction.

As of this very moment, all I know for sure is that we are leaving for good in less than 10 days. We are packing up that truck in 8 days, and rolling out of here in 10. We will land at the family bay house and from there look for a new house. A new yard, A new home.
It would be rather unsettling if I had no faith that this is what we are supposed to do. There is no work here. Jobs are leaving at such a rate it boggles the mind...and the michigan economics. There is a future in where we are going, there is even a job waiting for hubbo. Our credit is wonky from not ever using credit but cash to buy stuff, and with changing jobs, I'm not entirely sure we will even be able to get a mortgage...and that too would worry me more if I did not have faith. Still, I am excited. I am so happy to be bringing our children back to where they can get to know my side of the family as more than visitors. I'm so happy to be getting back to a place where there is not a strip club every other block, and a liquor store on every corner. I'm happy we are going, but I am sad to be leaving my house. My church...my friends.
The first 5 years I was here, the friends made were far and few between. This last year we have been blessed with an abundance of people who are like minded. I'll miss the homeschool group, and their knit night. I'll miss Marquita. I'll miss CCDR..all of the people at CCDR. Sometimes I wonder if I did not make more of an effort to make friends because I knew we would leave and I didn't want to have any ties here? I would totally do something like that, I can be self destructive that way *sigh*

So back to point. My house. I do so like my little/big house with it's little/big yard. I hope the people who buy her really enjoy her as much as I did. Don't go feeling sorry for me though, I have an ace in the hole. My husband. No matter where we land, I have the fullest confidence he will turn that place into something I will love even more than I love this place. He will attack whatever trees are there, to whip them into shape. He will tear down walls, he will even redo the plumbing if we decide we must have a waterfall in the kitchen. Slowly but surely he will turn anyplace we are at into something that is fully ours. And with that comes the knowledge that it will be done away from these noisy neighbors, the jerky teen drivers, the constant barking of inconsiderate neighbors and their dogs. Garage bands. It will be a place in the south near my family where my future good memories lay. Lord willing we will be granted a place with land to grow some of our own food and maybe even have a sheep or two. My hope is that it will be THE place, the place we stay at, the place our grandchildren will come see us at. The place that we can really call home this side of Heaven.

Good bye House. I have you in my memories, I have you in my photographs. Take care of the next family, and may your sump pump ever keep your crawlspace dry.

T-shirt

2007-08-02T22:09:00.001-04:00

This so totally works! Whoot!

Friday's uncreative post

2007-07-27T12:48:00.000-04:00

Okay so it's friday, the day of yarn flashin' goodness and my camera is in Alabama with my husband.....sheesh.
He called and scored yet another job offer, this time from a family owned business that spent over 2 hours interviewing him and showing him around. This place is literally across the street from where my dad works lol.

So, recently I knit a lil phone cozy to put on my belt with a buttoned safety flap on it. I used my purple and cream dish cloth cotton. I gotta say it's pretty cute. And really, since there is no picture I'll just go out on a limb and say it's stunning. A work of art really. Debbie New would be proud. Envious even.

My delicious silk/cashmere from colourmart is looking at me and I'm totally smitten. It really is whispering "pet me, stroke me, love me" over and over. I've yet to actually knit anything from colourmart so that I could wash and experience the "bloom" I've read about. I wonder what this will turn out like? I keep hemming and hawing over what I want to make with it, which to me means I'm going to knit lace or a tank top deal. It really is quite lush......maybe if I combined it with my juicy jitterbug ralphael for a top??
The thing about tank tops is that I have bat flaps on my upper arms. I'd hate to highlight them, but not as much as I hate working to get rid of them it seems. Maybe a heavier purse is in order?
Right now I'll just enjoy it's purpley blue goodness.

And that's it folks. I think my creativity might have slipped into one of the moving boxes. Let's hope it's one marked "bay house" and not storage. Eep!

The Cure

2007-07-27T08:07:00.001-04:00

Gulf Shores?

2007-07-26T16:47:00.000-04:00

Well, Mr.PointyStickedOne landed yesterday, and had a solid job offer by 3 PM in Gulf Shores. Plenty of room for financial growth in this company, so maybe? They will even do schooling for/with him. He seems intrigued by the whole idea. By 4 PM today he had 2 more on the line, one with a possible second interview at a place out in Irvington. Which is close to my grandfather so that would be nice to.

All in all, we have something solid under our feet. We committed to jumping, and lo n behold, we were caught. God is so cool. I'm so excited.

Naturally this means our homeschooling friends and church family are making it hard on us for going *sigh*
I keep telling them they should all just come with us.

Moving on (yes! moving!)

I've decided to do Kiri after I was ganged up on and beat about the head with lace weight in Ravelry.
Apparently this is the starter pattern of my dreams and I will love it.
What is more: It's free.
Whoot!

Finished part of mom's gift, going to get some more cotton while I'm at it.

Life is good and the babies are napping. The quiet disturbs me.

Gulf Shores......mmmmmmm beach livin' here I come.

2007-07-25T12:02:00.000-04:00

He's off!

Mister PointyStickedOne flew off to Pensacola today for job interviews and landed about 10 minutes ago. Sqeeeeee!
He's got the first one over in Gulf Shores and from there is steadily making his way over to Mobile. My mom is giddy. I think she is more excited than if I was coming to visit. She said she was even going to cook. Poor guy :-P

am I excited?
You betcha.

My colourmart cash/silk arrived. I'm so happy I could burst. Now I just need a ring bag pattern.........

Whoa

2007-07-20T11:00:00.000-04:00

Next time hubbo starts eying the yarn stash, I'm going to have to show him The Mother of All Yarn Stashes.

Seriously. Compared to this woman, I have no yarn at all.

RavelryRamblin

2007-07-20T10:08:00.000-04:00

Ravelry is flipping addictive. That is all there is to it.
It is such a source of inspiration that I didn't get squat done yesterday.
I'm now in more stash control groups
In another sock a month club
Flirting with a lace shawl group
it never stops.
What is worse, they are now bantering about stash swapping.
This could get deadly.
String flying, running amok.

Absolutely Brilliant web site concept. I hope the creators make a mint.

Now what I need:
A packing up to move back home to Alabama in an orderly fashion web site.

Le sigh

I've gotten NOTHING done in the last 3 days y'all.
I've had a couple panic attacks, at least I think thats what they are. Flashes of "What are we doing moving out of paid for housing??" and I start breathing fast and hard and sweat pops out on my head, basically I fritter about all of that when I'm gently reminded, paid for or not, there is no work or future here. A paid for house wont mean diddley when we can't buy food (or yarn). We have to move, we have to get out our rut. We have to move forward. Michigan is dying right now, and though I'm sure it will make a come back, I have zero interest in staying here and waiting for it. Michigan is not my home, is not a place I will even want to visit after we leave.
Work. There is work in the South. Careers. A future. Our family.
We could stay here, but to what end? Jobless is jobless, might as well be jobless in the south where industry is booming.

Next Wednesday, Hubbo is going down for some job interviews and application passing around. He can get a job. Might not be the job he wants as a career, but it will do while he keeps looking. I've been looking at real estate. I don't know how that will work out, but I'm looking.
We can stay at the Bay House for a little while, but it's not exactly a winter proof home. It would be nice to just move right into a place, but thats probably pushing reason out the window. 4 weeks to find, inspect and get approved for a loan? WHILE I'm living in Michigan? Not too likely. There is this one house that I've been looking at for months that Hubbo and my mom are going to go look at. I'm trying to not get my hopes up, they've been dashed too often this last year. It looks perfect on paper. Lets see what they say when they get inside.
There is also that house in Chunchula...........

Stash Speaks Up

2007-07-16T08:32:00.000-04:00

When was the first time you realised that your stash was cognizant? That somewhere along the way, you have developed an inner voice that represents your well loved fibers. You've given it a personality, and that was cute an all, but then, possibly when things got quiet and dark......something shifted. You started holding conversations with some of it while practically ignoring other skiens. Some of the stash was genteel, while others grew feral.

Yesterday we started packing for the Big Move.
Princess's room was the logical first choice in my mind, as the classroom books are kept in there as well. We went first to her dresser, sorted, sifted, packed and bagged for Goodwill. Moved to toys, released several hundred thousand back into in wilds of the toy bin lottery at the Salvation Army, and kept a modest 6 billion for personal enjoyment. Moved next into the bookshelf region where the literary giants of our classroom reside. DAGGUM that's a lot of books! Out of all boxes packed so far, about 20, more than half are nothing but books. I even relinquished a few to greener pastures....of course "a few" being a relative term considering the quantity we are working with here.
If you have 10 apples and give away 3, that would be 'giving a few away'. If you have 40 llamas and give 6 to your neighbor, that's 'a few'. If you have 3 tonnes of a bibliophiles daydream sitting on your shelf, and you give half a ton away, well that counts as 'a few' right? Moving on.

We ate pizza and pop for a late lunch and moved into our bedroom. Now, our bedroom has somehow become the office and the catch all for any and every little thing that goes no where else. Ever since we cleaned out the attic space, I've been too protective about letting anyone but me put stuff in there. So I say to just 'put it in my room'. Well you know how that goes, and this is the chaos we started on.
First the easy room then the most difficult room. That leaves the rest as mediocre, and we can all say that at least it's not the bedroom again. Heh.
This is where the stash comes in.

El Hubbo sacrifices himself and goes straight for the jugular of the clutter problem: the clothes. But first, he needs a basket. Well what is in the giant wicker basket? Video tapes of course! Sheesh.
After a good 45 minutes all of the video tapes are properly boxed and labeled for archaeology. *This is where I go to the store for caffeine, milk and more boxes so am unclear as to what really went down* I return from the box hunt to a good deal of the clothes in the hamper, and my beloved husband sorting through clothes and actually tossing ones he hasn't worn in a million years! What is even more astounding is that he is putting HIS clothes in a separate box from mine, and LABELING them according to season and whether they will go to storage or the bay house. Unsure about this behaviour, I tread lightly and move to the other side of the room so I don't break his concentration.
The stash calls me at this point.

Now, if you are a knitter, I really do not need to explain anything about string and it's ways of getting attention. If you are a non-knitter, you have likely just written me off as a lunatic.
The stash called Cotton saw that I was near her home in the basket under the bed. I was separating my bedside reading into 3 groups: makes me happy book, knitting goodness book and time to move on book. Cotton started asking when I was going to come and properly air her out and make sure she was stored in a manner which was befitting of her stature. Cotton has a very southern belle kind of high maintenance attitude. Think Gone with the Wind, Scarlett O'Hara, tough as nails but wants everyone to think she is delicate, kind of personality (disorder). I started giggling and replied if she did not watch her tone, she'd become accustomed to a dishrag stature.
Oops.
I talked out loud to the stash when another human being was in the room. What is worse, it was a non-knitting human being. Even worse than that, a non-knitting human who just discovered that the silver vinyl suit bag in his hands was not in fact holding clothes, but instead was filled with yarn.
He looked at me. Looked hard. Like he wanted to laugh, run or call someone to get help for his wife. It was the kind of look that tests the resiliency of your spouse and whether or not he thinks this is cute, funny, a joke or whether he should inquire if sheep will be allowed to visit his wife on the funny farm.
With a dry tone he simply stated: You know hon, your yarn just lunged at me from the closet. I think it meant to hurt me, but it could have been after a hug. What do I do?

I love that man.

Naturally I told him to just put it right back in the closet and I'd have a stern talk with it when I got over there. Seeing just a hint of fear remaining in his eyes, I assured him that I was going to be gifting a good deal of that particular group to Marquita for the log cabin blanket she was making. He relaxed considerably. By bed time he found my quirks quite charming again and was laughing at the way The Stash has grown under my sneaky ways and how he never knew.

Perhaps he believes I started talking to it just to make a joke. We were working hard and it's good to be silly at times. Perhaps he even thinks he misheard and caught just half of the joke?...And you know what? Perhaps it is best we let him continue thinking whatever it is that he wants to think as long as it lets him remain happy with his brides string habit.

blahs

2007-07-12T09:27:00.000-04:00

I got the knitting blahs I think. That or there is a gear that got stuck on dishrags. I pick up needles and all I wanna make are dishrags and washcloths. Even the socks I started are stuck into SSS (second sock syndrome) and I just can't go near them.
I am dreaming about my fabrics, but can not settle on one thing to make, so am making nothing. When I get Lydia's measurements, maybe that will click me outta the blues. Gonna make that girl a comfortable girly dress so she can be a real southern belle. Apparently marketing for the 8 year old females in this country have decided that they all want to be dressed like mini hookers. Grrrrr. I suppose its a good thing I'm re-embracing the sewing machine. Looks like I'll be making my little girls clothes as well.

le sigh

Perhaps I am just thinking so much about moving that I've gotten the: STOP WAIT deer in the headlights feeling. It's kind of like treading water....again. I need a dumpster delivered so I can get rid of everything that's junk, and set aside everything that needs to go in a yard sale (what does not get sold will go to Salvation Army).......and chocolate will not help this mood of mine.

While I was at the Bay House, there is this very cool dresser that was my grandmothers that has a giant mirror...I noticed bits and pieces of my naked self sagging in brand news ways, much of it chocolate induced I suspect. Time to put aside the ole faithful mood lifter of chocolate, and pick back up the ole fitness for life eh?

You know what cracks me up? Health nuts. They must be so surprised when their finely tuned machines stop working. I'm all for keeping fit, it has everything to do how well you will feel and enjoy your old age, but there are limits y'all. When my fitness routine takes more precedence than my sewing...well okay. When my fitness routine intrudes on my knitting.....well that will be the sign that I've gone overboard and need intervention. When my knitting has hit a "blah" block, then it's time I start exercising. The pain and sweat will make the charms of knitting/sitting still all the more enticing once again. Yes?

Jojo

2007-07-11T10:48:00.000-04:00

Jojo is my X mother in law. I hate that I lost her in the divorce. She says I didn't lose her, but you know how it is. Anyway, we are really good friends. Enough so that when we are in town, she invites us all to dinner and pool time, including my new husband. Himself gets totally weirded out by how un-wierd he feels at their house. We all get along like maple syrup and pancakes and I only get checked on where I am when I see a pic of my X on the wall. Hehehehee
Jojo and Doc are pretty great though. They never flinched or missed a beat in including my stepson as their grandchild too, and its no different with my two new babies. They tell people about their 5 grandchildren, and that is pretty fantastic aint it? Jojo knows how it is, as technically she is the step-parent to my X. (His real mum is...........different about the whole deal*ahem*)

On this trip down we went over for dinner our 3rd night there. She heard I was learning to quilt and sew....and she smiled....almost wickedly. The woman then went over to a closet I had rarely even glimpsed in all the years I've known her, reached up, and pulled the light chain.
WHOA.
It's like she raided every fabric store on the planet and hid bits and pieces in her closet for Armageddon or something. Piles and stacks and heaps of fabric. Much of it I recognized from blankets she had made for the boys when they were little, and some of it was fabric that was just set aside, but still followed the themes I was going with for the children. Others were bright patterns on a black back ground that really really popped. Color coordinated just itching to be made into something. Trucks, dinosaurs, frogs, the alphabet, bulldozers, trains, Noah's Ark on and on and on. There were even a few yards of sold colors that matched all the prints! Quilt Heaven!
Without so much as a "would you be interested" she started putting fabrics in a bag....then another bag...she just kept going like there was no tomorrow until her entire closet was bagged. She looked at me and said "It's yours"
I was really rather speechless, I mean, there was archaeological history in those bags. I asked if she was sure, and she said it was an excuse to go buy more. That combined with Doc cleaning out the house makes me a little nervous-but that's another post.

So thanks to Jojo I have about 80 pounds of quilting goodness just waiting to be designed and cut to sew into grand creations. I've washed folded and put up all the fabrics. It's much like a yarn stash, just lovely to look at you know? Now if only I would take pictures....heh

Thanks Jojo, you have rocked my world and put a major distraction into my knitting time..somehow I think you knew that would happen and it's making you giggle maniacally.
Love you.

the job thingy and whatnot

2007-07-11T10:13:00.000-04:00

So I know I know I owe a report on the jobbie thingie I was so incredibly excited about before we went to Alabama.
*sigh*
Total wash out. Not entirely sure what happened, one day they were wanting to talk to himself, and the next day they said that they really did not have anything long term.....so maybe consulting would be the answer? I dunno.
It was dissapointing to be sure, but then there is always a reason for everything and I'm still very peaceful about the whole idea of moving.
Only now, we are looking at moving directly into the Bay House and doing the job search in the direct Mobile metro area....which is where I wanted to be to begin with. My family, nutty as they may be, is incredibly loving and supportive in ways that would be considered rare, practically extinct. Maybe it's from working together in a business for years and years so that they HAD to see each other and the assorted cousins on a daily basis that makes us all really feel like one single family unit instead of branches. So. There you have it.

My hubbo and I have been doing much talking, and tonight we talk with my stepsons other family about the details. We are moving, Lord willing. The time frame is what is up in the air. We had been saying November 1st....but for the life of us can't figure out why. After talking with him last night, he sees no real reason we should wait, especially after getting the property tax bill on this place. (Over 4 THOUSAND just for the summer taxes. It works out to about 500 a month in property tax....thats really ticks me off). Property tax is due Aug 31st and we have to pay it, but wouldn't it be lovely if the house was already up for sale and sold before we had to do that? 5 bedrooms are rare enough, and a 5 bedroom in this area of large Muslim families, heck, HUGE Muslim families!.......well seems it might be easy enough to sell, right? Time will tell, and meanwhile we are stuck trying to get all the work done with so many of our own little helpers in house. FIL keeps saying the work will get finished when we move out, so following that line of thought, the sooner we move out, the better.

Savvy?

We came down to September. At that time we would be down and around for my cousins wedding, and princess's birthday. Daddio wants to still be here for his fathers retirement party/pig roast which is the second weekend in August. If the kids and I were to go right after the party, that would give the two weeks to finish the remodel before taxes are due. Not that I really think for a second it will sell that fast, but keep in mind we are really just kind of daydreaming and tossing out ideas here.

And that is that and the whatnot an that whodunnit and every leetl theeng.

Runaways and Box Jellyfish on vacation

2007-07-09T14:01:00.000-04:00

We have two beach houses in our family, they are side by side. My grandparents stay in one and the rest of our chaotic clan make good use of the other. The kids run back and forth between the two all day. Well. One fine Tuesday morning I was in the bedroom ironing my husbands clothes because he was going to a job interview. He had been eating breakfast with the kids and the little imps had already made one trip over to the grand-house. When he went outside he thought princess was in with me, and I thought all of the kids were with him.
Apparently, she thought it was time for a morning stroll down Alligator Lane and slipped out undetected by the 7 people around her. She got about 5 houses down by sticking to the MIDDLE OF THE ROAD.
*shudder*
I mean, that's the stuff nightmares are made of. Even now I find myself getting up in the middle of the night to go make sure she is still in her bed.
Thank God she was picked up by the AT&T guy and a local who stopped as well who thought she belonged to another house where 2 little girls lived. Everyone was reasonably worried and called the sheriff about 5 minutes before they saw me running down the road looking for her. After the cop saw that we had 5 kids and the layout of the houses he stopped acting like we were horrible neglecting the two year old and more like we had a herd of kids and she just got away from us. I get ill just typing it out and thinking about it. But praise the Lord she is okay and safe. Now I'm just going to keep bricks tied to her somehow to slow her down.

Then there was the battle her 9 year old brother faced(who used to escape the house back in his 2 year old days too *sheesh).

Last Friday we were out on the Bay in my uncles boat getting pulled around on the inner-tube. L(12 year old) had jumped off to give G(9 year old) his turn and now he has a war story to tell everyone about an epic battle he got into with a huge box jellyfish. He is fine, but there may be a scar on his arm. Normally we don't get jellyfish until late August, but there has been a drought going on and the normally fresh water flow that keeps them out is just not there at all.. The water is super salty and we knew the jellies had made it in, but regular jellies are a totally different story than what he got into, I mean we have never seen the blistering like he has going on before. He must have jumped directly on top of this creature. He is such an amazing kid though. While he thought this brainless jelly was attacking him, all he was doing was yelling for L to get out of the water. What a trooper. He made it back up to the bay house to get vinegar poured on his wound (it neutralizes jelly venom) and got loads of sympathy. Then the fellah went back out on the boat and got back IN the water to get his turn on the tube. Yus, I am proud
That was just the highlights.
heh.

Ravelry

2007-06-22T10:29:00.001-04:00

Whoot!

A whole new knitting place to spend some time in, hot diggity.
Just in time for me to go on vacation for 2 weeks
heh heh heh

Have I mentioned lately how much I love the knitting community? Just 5 min in the forums exposed me to so many very talented (and funny) people. How loverly :0)

Now y'all will have to forgive me, but I am going to be completely off line for at least these two weeks. But never fear, I'm taking my knitting AND my camera :D

Micronic Mistakes of the Costly Kind

2007-06-21T10:20:00.000-04:00

This last Monday Daddio's employer came up to him asking why we had not responded to the offer that was given almost 3 weeks ago. He had been dropping hints that he was open and ready to talk, but was simply told that we were crunching numbers, looking at things, we would let him know when we were ready to talk.
Well on this fine Monday,*giggle* Daddio was done dodging the question and whats more, was feeling able to be completely honest. Hit em with both barrels, not in an angry freak out pompous 'how dare you offer such trollop" mode that was likely the attitude he would have had a few weeks ago. Cool off time is a brilliant thing. But he calmly, FIRMLY, pointed out why the offer was complete crap and an insult to boot. He said it was so freeing to be that honest (and interesting watching the back pedaling). He confronted the fact that they expect us to go live in some kind of poverty. Boss did his predictable "but you have already been getting the highest raises the last 3 years" shuffling his papers around and such. Hubbo looked him straight in the face and said "that really doesn't matter. You know we are living cheap, in my fathers house, and that's the only reason we get by on what little I make now. No one time bonus is going to sustain anything for my family. You expect me to take my family away from what little support we have here, move them to where we know nobody, and ADD the cost of housing to our expenses with no cost adjustment at all? I already discussed with you that we had looked into the real estate market there and even the 200g homes are covered in burglar bars. I can only assume you could care less what neighborhood my children are raised in, because clearly we could only afford the ghetto on this offer. That is completely unacceptable and I did not think there was anything further to discuss since it shows you really don't think I'm worth very much."
Razzle Freakin Dazzle baby*, WHOOT!
Plus I think he was even able to point out HUGE mistakes that were being made by the company and remind him that we HAD offered to go down early so these costly mistakes would have been avoided.
For instance: Micron. This is a unit of measurement that is used in high precision machines. One micron is about 1/100 of the thickness of a single sheet of paper. TeeeTiny right?
The machines Daddio builds are required to remain in certain tolerances measured in microns. These machines are steel. Steel expands with heat. Running the machines creates heat. So you can imagine the delicate balance it takes to get these tolerances perfectly balanced.
The new guy in Cincinnati decided that putting air conditioning in the new building was too costly. Ummm McFly?
Yeah, I know, how obtuse is that? Steel warehouses, even with doors open are not exactly cool places to be, temperature wise. Getting the machine balanced in the warehouse(if it's even possible with the temp varying all day) wont mean diddly once it gets to the client, everything will constantly be grossly out of whack. Talk about costly, this is a mistake that will keep on giving. Also consider oxidation. No AC means there is nothing controlling the humidity levels. Metal parts. Idiot.

It was really fantastic to see my husbands face after work that day. All those little things that had been eating at him, but he was not rocking the boat (swedes sheesh) was taking more of a toll on his mood and attitude than I realized. We are both keenly aware that the new employment prospect is not a done deal, but we are just as aware that we have no future with this current company. We are completely in God's hands, and as odd as it sounds to those not in Christ, we are just not worried about it. We will be fine, something great is on our horizon, and frankly it will be a relief to be done with a company that treats it's clients AND employees, so poorly. That afternoon he was walking taller for the honesty, and ya know what? The truth really did set him free. :0)

* Lost fans will understand, others, well just know it is really funny okay?......so is me calling you 'others'
heh.

Going to Alabama

2007-06-20T11:56:00.000-04:00

YaaaY!

We leave for vacation and I am so excited. I love going home to the bay house. It's even cooler that we have a lovely employment prospect that could get us down there permanently :0)

Our family has been living in a job security flux for longer than I wanna think about. His current employer is closing up shop and moving to Cincinatti. He was told he would still have a job....months ago. We've been waiting for the offer. Two weeks ago the hard job offer came in from his current employment about the move to Cincy. It was total junk (putting it very mildly)
Seriously, it would have us at below poverty level again, in ghetto housing. That is total crap.
He came home at lunch the day the offer came in to grouch and rant, was mad as heck. Deservedly so. I tried to get his mood to shift, you know me, "Praise the Lord we know we don't need to be with that company" yadda yadda
I tried, but you know, he went back to work still grouchy. Once there he was talking to the guy who was going to make the move with him and be his new boss (we really like this guy) and Rick was just floored at the backhanded slap that was the job offer. So as they were talking and getting more and more annoyed and just about where he got fed up........................a phone call came in.
It was for tech support on a machine made by this company he works for...only the call was from the company's leading USA competitor. Seems the clients are trying to find people to do the repairs and such because dealing with the original company is such an expensive pain in the arse.
So Hubbo is talking to the guy and being guarded with help, cause it's the competition after all, he finally asks "off the record, what do you guys do?"which leads to a good long conversation, and a few interesting tidbits. Like they are hiring, and expanding but do not yet have the expertise to really work on these machines. The fellah gives Hubbo all the names and phone numbers he would need to talk with, and is really very encouraging.
It would be ALL God to, cause you know, aint it just a curiosity that it's the one company My husband never sent his resume to?
It gets better.
The machine he was giving tech advice for(did I mention he is literally the only man in the usa who knows these swedish made machines inside and out and that's why we expected a MUCH better offer from his current employer? It will cost them 30g a month to bring in equally knowledgeable people from Sweden), is the SAME machine the sales guy dropped the ball on back in December.
Hubbo has jumped through a million hoops for this company trying to make the incompetents actually assist its client and the client knows it. All of the clients are like that. They specifically ask for him because of the efforts he puts into his job. 'Cause he does go the extra mile, and the clients all know the fall outs are not him.
So, it would be great if he got on there, and it's likely a good deal of clients would follow him as well. A win-win situation for the new company and my beloved ;0)
Hubbo hates having his name associated with this group of monkeys in engineering suits. This new place is family owned and Christian to boot! Their work goal page thingy is packed with scripture....AND it happens to be in the area we wanted to move to to begin with! *Happy Dance*

Not done yet
So Hubbo gets the hiring managers # right? The guy is out of the country right now, guess when he will be back?
June 25th, the day we were already going to be in the area on vacation. Isn't that like so totally cool? We planned our vacation a month ago. Gotta love Gods timing hehehehehehehee
Now if the company doesn't want Hubbo, well that's okay, but it would be so fantastic if this was the answer to our prayers and it totally changed his attitude an everything.
But you know me, I mean yall have been through this with me before where I thought something was gonna happen one way, and was let down, so I'm rather cautious on this one, you know?
If God wants this to happen, he will make it happen, in spite of everything.
Himself called the client that was at this new company on his personal cell phone after work hours and they had a nice long chat, and apparently the timing was really nail on perfect. This man offered to talk with the heads of the new company and gave DH plenty of insider tips and we are going in on the 25th to meet everyone. He talked to the orginal tech guy last night only to get his assurance that he would be talking to the hiring guy as well. WHOOT!

Now, yall also know this means I won't be bvlogging after Friday for at least two weeks? Just givin you'se a heads up and a whut whut.

sewing up and making more loose ends.......

2007-06-13T22:38:00.001-04:00

So my honey bunny, being encouraged by my sewing frenzy of craziness went and bought me an upgrade! This is the main reason for my lack of blogging, I am sewing people! I am so tickled with this new machine, and have been sewing every bit of fabric in sight....which does include any fabric that crosses my path in a store. Seriously, I need help.
Tomorrow I promised the older boys so 3 stooges pillowcases among other projects, I'll get those pics in sooner or later ;)
Meanwhile, here are 3 new dresses for Princess:

Yipe!

2007-06-13T22:33:00.001-04:00

Kelly from MyUtopia startled the beeswax outta me LOL

I keep forgetting that this is a world wide web and anyone can randomly stumble across my lil bloggie. I literally sat here scratching my head trying to figure out how she found me and yadda yadda. I'm such a dork. Hi Kelly *wave* nice to meet a fellow Bibliophile.

Thanks for the reminder that if I want people to keep reading, I really gotta update more often heh heh heh

JKGirl offroad adventure

2007-06-11T21:32:00.001-04:00

My Friend Mary is insane

Ethan Powell needs your Prayers!

2007-06-09T15:40:00.001-04:00

Turn on your speakers yall

Electric Goldfish

2007-06-05T11:32:00.000-04:00

MmmmmOmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmM
the gold fish shocked me!

What?

The goldfish have electricity Ma'.

No they don't, they have voracious appetites and wonky habits, but no electricty.

uh huh. they do. they shocked me. Stick your hand in there.

*ponders what joke oldest son is up to - decides to risk it* **further decides to not ask why son was petting the goldfish**

YEOOOOWCH! They ARE electric.......

Somehow or other my goldfish, you know, the suicidal, wanna be flying fish that should have died years ago? Yeah, well, they have taken their soul train folk show to the electric boogaloo. Lovely.

How does a goldfish, with a 2 second memory(HA!) get a power supply to the tank of 'tudeness? Apparently by flicking water over the edge and onto the waterproof filter? It's the best I can figure at least. We unhitched their power supply and decided to let the indoor pond go au'naturale. So far so good.

Beta, however, is going on protest. Our lil activist fish probably instigated the whole thing.

And so continues life in the Funhouse.

Cincinatti update

2007-06-05T11:28:00.000-04:00

Our family has been living in a job security flux for longer than I wanna think about. His current employer is closing up shop and moving to Cincinatti. He was told he would still have a job....months ago. We've been waiting for the offer.

so you sitting/stalking and want to hear?
yesterday the hard job offer came in from his current employment about the move to Cincy. It was total junk.
well, hubbo came home at lunch to grouch and deservedly so. I tried to get his mood to shift, you know me, "Praise the Lord we know we don't need to be with that company" yadda yadda
I tried, but you know, he went back to work still grouchy. Once there he was talking to the guy who was going to make the move with him and be his new boss (we really like this guy) and Rick was just floored at the backhanded slap that was the job offer. So as they were talking about get, getting more and more annoyed and just about where he got fed up........................a phone call came in for tech support from the company's leading USA competitor. So Hubbo is talking to the guy and being guarded with help, cause it's the competition after all, he finally asks "off the record, what do you guys do?"which leads to a good long conversation, and a few interesting tidbits. Like they are hiring, and expanding. The fellah gives Hubbo all the names and phone numbers he would need to talk with
It would be ALL God to, cause you know, aint it just a curiosity that it's the one company My husband never sent his resume to?
It gets better.
The machine he was giving tech advice for(did I mention he is literally the only man in the usa who knows these swedish made machines inside and out and that's why we expected a MUCH better offer from his current employer? It will cost them 30g a month to bring in equally knowledgeable people from Sweden), is the SAME machine the sales guy dropped the ball on back in December.
Hubbo has jumped through a million hoops for this company trying to make the company actually help its client and the client knows it. All of the clients are like that, they specifically ask for him because of the efforts he puts into his job. 'Cause he does go the extra mile, and the clients know the fall outs are not him.
So, it would be great if he got on there, and it's likely a good deal of clients would follow him there. Hubbo hates having his name associated with a company that treats its clients so poorly. This new place is family owned and Christian to boot! Their work goal page thingy is packed with scripture....AND it happens to be in the area we wanted to move to to begin with!

Not done yet
So Hubbo gets the hiring managers # right? The guy is out of the country right now, guess when he will be back?
June 25th, the day we were already going to be in the area on vacation. Isn't that like so totally cool?
Now if the company doesn't want Hubbo, well that's okay, but it would be so fantastic if this was the answer to our prayers and it totally changed his attitude an everything.
But you know me, I mean yall have been through this with me before where I thought something was gonna happen one way, and was let down, so I'm cautious on this one, you know?
If God wants this to happen, he will make it happen, in spite of everything;

Thats it inna nutshell.

So, would you all please pray for this job situation to be resolved soon? Living in this uneasyness is difficult at best and this company really does sound like the answer to prayer. It would be wonderful of you. Thanks

Sewing fiend

2007-06-04T10:48:00.000-04:00

I was a sewing madwoman this weekend.
Son's lizard drapes = check
Daughters flapper dress = check
New shade/roof for swing = check
New privacy curtain for huge front window in living room = check
Finish quilt = check check check

Back of the quilt

Hola!

2007-06-01T09:56:00.000-04:00

Last night I had 2 women at the church ask me to teach them how to knit, I am totally geeked. heh.

We are going to do the basic garter stitch washcloth. Easy Peasy and a quick knit!

My friend Sara is 5 months preggo with their 5th child. Can I just say how much I love that I'm not the only mother my age with more than two or three? And she knits, and she homeschools them too *swoon*
Her hubbo and Himself get on like mud and Jeeps.
Every Thursday night her kids come to my house to play, so she and I can zip off to church sans kiddos. This has only been going on for two weeks, and both times her hubbo had the night off from work so came over too. It's working out wonderfully. Himself gets to play, and the kids get to enjoy others that have a lot in common with. Whoot!
By the end of the night the house is utterly destroyed, but has a great feeling of contentment. Awesome.

My incredibly talented friend has finally decided to share her skills with the world. I own one of the first bags she made, and I kid you not, use it practically every day. It's my sock in progress "must have". You must go see.

In other news, for all you stressed out mommas out there, I can not recommend this stuff enough. I've been taking it for about two weeks and my DH wants me to never be without it. LOL
I'm getting some for my sister. Her personality turns into something no man should have to live with during her time of the month, I think it will help....I'm laughing as I write this, but I'm serious too. heh heh
It says it's a sleep aid, but really it just helps your crankiness factor. Ironically it's made from passion flower extract wahahahahahahahaaaa

Today I'm going to spend some more quality time with the PW while the kids play in the jungle of our back yard....

Your arch-nemesis is:	Jaws

Why?	Because they dug up your garden
The winner will be...	They are going to kill you
Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com

Memorial Day Weekend 2007

2007-05-30T12:10:00.000-04:00

Yeah yeah I know, I'm getting awful about regular updates, I hear ya.
Well at least this time I have finished objects to report wheeeeeee
Over the long weekend I got much sewing up done and now have FINISHED OBJECTS IN MY POSSESSION! Whoot!
I also managed to get about 3 inches done on my PW cardigan body! Double YeeHaw!
I sewed up Kelley's slippers (they have only been langushing for 7 months) *ahem*
I have the Baby Bog, which is just too small for Evie *sigh* but it will make a good baby gift. I cast on absolutely nothing and did my darndest to just get some items finished.
So without further ado, the pictures:

And now some pics of the weekend fun:

I've been tagged!

2007-05-25T08:25:00.000-04:00

Now, Jessie stated she was so far removed from the blogger super highway she was surprised to get hit with the meme going around, so can you imagine my horror surprise?
Okay so here it is, 7 things you probably did not want to know about me:

I have hobbit feet....and like them! Not hairy hobbit feet per se, but wide and short...and calloused because I'm a hillbilly and walk around barefoot at every opportunity. I was developing a bunion a couple years ago because I tried to be more lady like and wear shoes/boots/sandals with some kind of a heel on them. My poor lil hobbit feet thought they were torture, but tried to indulge me. I could go all day and night and be fine, but the moment those torture devices released the pressure from the nerve endings I was going to pay pay pay. Now that I've given up my quest to appear taller, my feets is happier. Precious. Now that I've discovered Crocs I am the happiest hillbilly in the world. Shoes that feel like I'm barefoot *swoon*
One of the silliest, smallest but incredibly joyful things in every single day is changing my MSN log-in name for the messenger feature. I don't necessarily actually change it on a daily basis, but I giggle with anticipation about it. Why you ask? Because of my FIL. He gets so funny about the names, almost like he thinks I do it just to hide from him...when in truth, it started to suit my mood for the day. I chit chat with Hubbo through the computer all day so it never occurred to me that FIL was trying to keep up with the name changes. Poor guy, now I have both his sons swapping up names on him (and it makes me giggle to no end) ((heh))
I want to move not JUST back to the south, but back to where I am near water. I've always been a water baby, and my babies are water babies, so it seems silly to live so far away from the water. Michigan, when you add up all the coast line from all the assorted lakes and rivers actually has more waterfront than Alaska! However, it's too cold to do squat with...and if it's not too cold, it's too polluted. Gimme that salty air thank ya veddy much. Do sheep like sea oats?
Pink has become my new favorite color ever since having a girl child. I was never a girly girl, though I had my moments. But I loathed the color pink. Not entirely sure why, it was almost a pride thing. I was proud to not like pink (can we all say 'nerd'?). Interestingly enough, my hubbo keeps finding pictures of me wearing pink. I still say those pics were snapped during my escapades into girlydom. Maybe it's because of Princess that I finally feel like I'm not alone in a sea of testosterone and can fully embrace how different girls are from boys? I always wanted to fit in as one of the boys (cause girls can be so mean) so maybe that was it? I dunno, I just know I love pink now. Just not that pansy shade of pink....
I want to make a huge beach blanket out of my frayed towels. Just sew em together and tada! Stop looking at me like that, it IS a good idea. The problem here is that ALL my towels are frayed somewhat (the teen boys are hardest on them) so if I carried out my plan, we'd all have to air dry until the budget could support new ones...and yall, that would seriously cut into the yarn money, so we know this will only remain in dreamland...for now.
Okay, now I know I already mentioned my feet, but there is another lil tidbit of secret knowledge that goes with them. Socks. I love knitting socks, always have a pair going on the needles....but hate hate hate wearing socks. There. It's out in the open now. I feel better, and lighter now that rabbit's outta the bag. This is not really a bad thing as I have 5 children who do wear socks and a hubbo that really loves his hand knits *whew* A bonus side effect to this is that the few pairs of hand knit socks I do have, last me forever and look so awesome when I do wear them out in the real world. My JessieMades look outstanding when worn with the crocs!
I miss my Granny more than I can describe. The only thing keeping me from just being all sad and depressed when I think about her is the knowledge that I will see her again in heaven. I love knowing without doubt that Jesus is the way, and she fully loved Him with all her heart. It was because of my respect for her and Bopie that I really looked at what they believed and why. It was their witness with their lives that led me to see who Christ was, and I have no doubt her continuous prayers for me as a child that saved my butt more than I wanna know. Miss you and Love you Granny Sue.