Monday, January 31, 2011

Ugh.

Now I’M sick.  Darn it!  At least we had the weekend where people were mostly healthy (Gideon is going better, no fever just a lingering cough). I’m seriously ready for this to stop.  At least I’ve got My 365 already planned for the day.  ha ha

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Today

Gideon still has a low fever. I’m happy that 100.6 is all I got when I checked this morning. Much better than 103.6 like the other day.

I took out the video camera to capture Elias as he gets more and more mobile. Every day he’s better at getting around than the day before. He already tries to pull himself up on things. I wonder if he will be one of those 10-month old walkers. Zion and Gideon both had a go with the video camera (Gideon with some help from me). I still have to look at the videos, will try to post them.

Gideon felt well enough to tell me I should pick a movie today. A big deal for him since he’s our movie king. No movie played in this house goes without comment from this boy. That goes for the van too for that matter. He told me “Mama, you pick movie?” almost like a question. Then he opened the cupboard for me and showed me all I could choose from and said again, more certain “Mama, you pick movie”.

I immediately picked Bedknobs and Broomsticks which we checked out from the library. He said “No, not that one.” OK.

So much for letting ME pick the movie. Two or three choices later he finally said yes when I suggested Chicken Little (AKA Chicken Yittle). At least it he approved of one that I really do enjoy. Chicken Little cracks me up.

Zion was in rare form today as well. She kept me on my toes with all of these little acts of disobedience. At one point she got a swat on her bum for one particular incident and then for lying about it. I told her that I have been very busy with her sick brothers the last few days and would she like some Mommy Time. Oh yeah! That lit her up. So I painted her nails. She enjoyed it but I still had to address a few minor infractions throughout the day. Sometimes she has days like this where if I don’t schedule an activity for her every waking minute she does things she knows she’s not supposed to (like taking some of my scrapbook stickers and decorating the legs of my office chair).

Still, she’s such a precious soul and loves to help with Elias. She insisted on feeding him his breakfast and later wanted to give him his pre-nap bottle. She dashes to and fro helping with the bigger boys too. When Gabe was sick this week she got him his breakfast and served it to him on the couch.

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This photo ended up being My 365 today. So while I feel like I’m going stir crazy stuck in this house with sick kids for so long (almost non-stop since mid-December) I’m glad I have the My 365 project to give me something to do that uses up some creative energy. That could be my thin thread of sanity at this point.

ETA: when Zion was feeding Elias we'd already taken Gabe to the school bus stop. It's often easier to get Elias his "solid" food after the rush of that task.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Happy (Early) Birthday!

Gabe’s birthday is coming up. We are all really excited! OK, maybe I’m a little shocky that my oldest is turning 7. He’s JUST A BABY! (He always says “I’m not a baby.” in this incredulous voice and I always reply “You’ll always be my baby.”)
Rob and I hadn’t quite decided what to get him for his birthday. Then last week Rob dropped Gabe’s Nintendo DS and it broke. Oops. So we decided to get him a replacement and that it was worth getting the newer version that has a larger screen and is generally bigger for small hands to hold. It just so happened that our local store is carrying the limited edition Mario’s 25th anniversary special red DSi XL. Perfect timing.

It also just happens that Gabe is home sick today (last night his temp was 103.9, poor guy) so Rob suggested that we give him his present early. A little fun on a sick day and he won’t have to keep trying to play on his sad, broken old DS.

Gabe got to open his birthday present early.

And because he has parents who can’t keep a secret. We get all giddy with a surprise and can’t hold it in.

See. NOT a surprise-holder-inner (and I'm even worse).

The same household rules apply: No video games allowed on school days, playing with siblings takes precedence over playing video games and if the DS is left out after playing it gets put in time out. Though even though today was a school day we did “break” that rule today. We wanted to surprise him, not torture him.



Happy birthday, Gabe!

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Yarn Train 2011

Aw, yeah! The event I’ve been looking forward to since last year’s Yarn Train. (And I’m already looking forward to next year’s.) This year my partner in yarn, Jennifer, and I boarded the train in Tacoma and her mother-in-law, Kerrie, joined us. It was obvious from the time we walked in the door at the train station that things were a little different at the station that day. Knitters everywhere!

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Jennifer, Kerrie and I are eager to board the train and I was so pleased to wear my Noro scarf made with yarn that I bought on last year’s event (though I’m a little horrified at how frumpy I look in this picture).

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The event organizers really out did themselves with the goody bag. Wow! Look at this score (or should I say swag?): a row counter suitable for circular needles (I really needed one of these), a tiny flashlight, highlighter tape (perfect for marking patterns), a notebook with paper and post-its, a pen, a pencil (which was pre-sharpened, talk about attention to detail), a key ring with double ended crochet hook for emergency repairs and these totally adorable little cards intended to put in with a knitted gift conveying fiber content and care instructions. Wow, wow, wow! I think I said that already but, wow!

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Proof that I did actually knit on Yarn Train. (I have no idea who that is next to me, poor kid was already on the train when a swarm of knitters descended upon him. He kept his head buried in his laptop the whole trip. I was a little disappointed that he didn’t seem interested in learning how to knit.)

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Our train, above, and the Portland station, below.

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My friend Jessy hopped the train in Lacey and Jennifer’s friend Michelle met us in Portland so our group grew to five. We had lunch at The Tea Zone. I just love that place, Jennifer and I found it last year and loved it so much at lunch that we went back for dinner. This year it was on my “must do” list. Done! And Michelle was super thrilled to find out that they had gluten-free bread there. She ended up being so impressed with it that she asked the waiter (who I suspect was also the owner) where they bought it. Seattle funnily enough.

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My lunch because I knew you’d be dying to see it. A Hot Cinnamon Latte, falafel and salad. Lord help me, I want more now!

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I didn’t take pictures of the first two stores that we stopped at (Urban Fiber Arts and Dublin Bay) though I should have since those were the stores where I actually bought yarn. But I did get some at our last stop, Knit Purl. Wall after wall of yarny goodness.

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And look at who I found! That’s Zion’s elephant only it’s not Zion’s elephant. It was almost as if someone had snuck into her room the night before and stole her elephant. Funny. And a little weird. But mostly funny.

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More yarny goodness! If I actually had any of my budget left the choices would have been overwhelming.

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Yes, this sign says that ONE of those skeins is $55.00. I thought it would be the most expensive yarn I saw that day until…

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I found the $72 yarn (and to be honest it wasn’t all that soft, if I’m going to spend excessive amounts of money on yarn it had better be not just soft but damn soft. This was not.)

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This year we did not head back to The Tea Zone for dinner we hit Kenny & Zuke’s Delicatessen instead. I agree with myself when I suggest to me that we need to come back again when I’m more hungry. It was so good it boggled my, our?, mind apparently.

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On the way home our train had been replaced with the Coast Starlight which, as you can see, was somewhat of an upgrade. I managed to knit and not sleep but not by much. It was pretty comfy (and we were on the top of a double decker car – though I’m pretty sure that that’s not technically what they are called when it’s a train and not a bus).

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Home with my score: 5 skeins of “Solid Gold” and a skein of gray that will become a wrap for me (the gray will edge the gold wrap), the book Ocean Breezes that had so many patterns for gorgeous scarves and shawls, that silvery yarn will become a scarf from the book, the blue/brown multi-colored yarn will be a head band for me, the fall colored yarn may be a scarf, not sure yet but it was just so darn soft and beautiful I couldn’t resist (also I keep hearing about how wonderful this yarn is so I really wanted to try it), and then all the goodies from my goody bag. Quite a successful trip I’d say. Maybe next year I’ll be wearing my wrap on Yarn Train 2012. Looking forward to that!

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ETA: For Marfa, the expensive yarn was bison of all things. The blue thing I'm knitting is a shawlette. The pattern is called Sweet Jazz. If you're a member of Ravelry the link is here. And thanks for the compliment about the gold yarn, I can't wait to start this project!

Friday, January 21, 2011

Photoshoot

Sunday Rob taught Sunday School so he and Gabe took off before the rest of us were up and going.  That is to say, they were gone before I realized Gideon had a fever and the rest of us would have to stay home from church.  So it was a PJ day which the kids love.  I may be a weirdo this way but if we don’t have to go somewhere most of the time I’ll let the kids hang out in their jammies.  Less work for me, more fun for them and less laundry for Rob (yeah, my hubby does the laundry, it was his idea and who am I to argue?).  Anyway, back on track.  Zion for some reason got the bug in her to dress up.  Really dress up.  Fancy dress AND tights (I usually can’t get her to wear tights outside of bribery) but not to stray too far from character she put on her pink sneakers.   So she got to be the subject of an impromptu photo shoot in search of my 365 photo for that day.  These were her idea as far as poses and activities.  I love the ones of her with her wand because it is clear she wasn’t sure what to do to begin with but as soon as Eva entered the scene everything changed.  These pictures are best viewed as the series and I put them on in order.  The photo that I ended up choosing is the last one, the close up of her twinkle toes.

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Thursday, January 20, 2011

Guilty!

Yep.  That’s me.  Guilty as charged.  I got all gung-ho about blogging with my new 365 project and then once I switched it to update automatically I haven’t blogged since.   That was an unfortunate result of my trying to be efficient.  I’ll do better.

I have been getting some extra knitting done, though.  Yay!

I also got to go on the Yarn Train event again last Saturday.  This year more than 200 knitters from the PNW signed up to go, the majority being from Seattle.  This year my friend Jennifer and I caught the train in Tacoma and her mother-in-law, Kerrie, joined us there and my friend Jessy hopped on in Lacey.  Oh.  My.  Word.  It was so much fun!  And very wet.

It rained.  A TON! 

Pictures to come.

I’ve also been tending to a sick Gideon again this week.  Seriously, when will it end?  One would think I’d be getting more done being home and pretty much having to cancel all my out of home activities.  Ha!  I laugh again.  Ha!

I have lots of fun pictures to post soon.  Right now I have to finish knitting a gift for a baby shower.  I started it today.  The baby shower is Saturday.  Yikes! 

Also, just a little reminder that you can still see ALL of My 365 photos just by clicking on the current photo that is up in the corner.  It’s a link that will take you to my whole calendar.  Adios!

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Future My 365 Photos

I have added an element on the sidebar that will automatically put up my most recent My 365 photo so that I don’t have to keep posting the picture in multiple places. How handy! So please just look slightly to your right to see the most recent photo AND you can click on it and it will take you to the website with all of my pictures. Thanks!

My 365–January 6 and 7

I DID get my project done for the last couples of days, I SWEAR! I just didn’t get them up here yet. One of the reasons being is that I’m trying to add an element to the side bar where the photo of the day will automatically post straight from ShutterCal. I’m having a problem with a width issue though that I’m hoping to get some help on. Anyway, without further ado…

My entry for the 6th:

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“Someone” found a color-tinted Burt’s Bees of mine and decided to apply it to his face in the same fashion that I put on his Aquaphor when his cheeks are chapped. I “wonder” who that “someone” is?

My entry for the 7th:

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Most of the ladies who were at my house last night for Knit Night. Jennifer, Nora, Julie M, Jessy and Bethany. It was SO much fun!

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

My 365–January 5

I had the hardest time deciding on a picture for today’s My 365.  I finished Zion’s elephant today and wanted some pics.  Zion was being a perfect model.  I couldn’t complain about the elephant either.  Here’s the elephant alone.

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And then one of the ones I loved so much of Zion.

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But this is the one I finally settled on.  The second picture I took.  I have to say, she IS pretty darn cute.  And I can’t complain about the elephant either.

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Christmas Eve

Trying to get caught up on the holidays now that people are starting to be a bit healthier around here. There’s still a slim chance that Elias could come down with The Pox but I don’t think it’s going to happen. Still, we’ve been laying low this week, abandoning all our usual activities that have started up again to stay at home with any potential contagions. Well, except for Gabe. School started up for him again and he is super thrilled.

So back to the holidays. Here are my favorite shots from Christmas Eve. We’ve a tradition of getting new jammies and that is the gift we open on Christmas Eve. The kids were SO excited for their jammies. Gideon pretty much stripped right in the living room and put his on immediately.

We also let the kids open the gifts that Rob’s mom, Marlene, had sent. Pillow/blankies (Zion calls hers her “flower bed” hee hee) and a book for each and two huge bins of Legos for everyone to share. Another huge hit! Thank you Grandma Marlene!

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