Flap Happy

Or My Best Pick-Up Job (since my husband)

Or As The Heel Turns...

Huh, how about that, if I spend a little bit of time knitting on something, it actually grows. How about that?

goal and rest

Today is the last day of summer...and...Well, I am so happy that I can hardly contain myself. I actually met a goal today, and then went above and beyond the said goal. I ran a mile, then another and finally a third, and for good measure, I ran another quarter of a mile. That makes my three miles by the end of summer officially met. Isn't that exciting? Now, I need a new goal, any suggestions?

In knitting news, I have been working on the angels rest sock here and there, but I am waiting for a certain pattern to come out to knit for a friend. I am a bit preoccupied with finding just the right wool for that certain pattern which will remain nameless, because in case she checks in, I don't want to spoil a surprise...now everyone is going to be expecting a knitted surprise, and thinking that it is for them. I'll tell you that it is for a friend who depends solely on public transportation. There, if you thought it was you, and you don't ride a train to work and the grocery store, you were wrong. Sorry, you'll have to wait your turn. Anyway, back to angels rest, I have been plugging away somewhat inconsistently since the beginning of time, but I am actually using the entire swim team hour to work on it. And by George if it isn't growing. I should be done with it by the end time if I keep up the hard work. Part of the reason that I am so bad about working on them is that they are for me, and I obviously don't need any socks at this moment, if I were in dire need of socks, it might put a fire under my feet. The other thing is that I really don't enjoy knitting lace that much. They will be beautiful when they are done though, maybe I'll wrap them up as a Christmas gift to myself, if they're done, that is!

We (the progeny and myself) went to a garage sale down the street this morning. I am a garage sale junkie, and would waste all my money on other people's crap if J would let me, but I have not been to any lately. Anyway, I got Mimi the cutest little dress up outfit, and a Robin Hood hat for Jack that is actually from the real Nottingham. Only, I can't take any pictures because my camera is on the Arkansas river today. J has definitely earned a few fishing days, in between the Bose speaker and working his tail off in the office, going in at 6:00am on your day off qualifies you to take a day to your self.

I have been reading some of the "classics" lately, and I have to say that I think I am enjoying them more now than I did in college. I am not sure that I really read as thoroughly as I was assigned to. Many great books were merely skimmed to get through them. I finished Pride and Prejudice the other day. What a great book! I started Emma yesterday, and next in the queue is a re-read of Moby Dick. I am having fun reading them and then discussing them with my literature buff friends. Ahh, nothing to make me feel so smart as to have some scholarly discourse about a classical text...I feel smarter just saying it, now where are my schoolgirl glasses to complete the illusion...

You've been warned...

Never trust a face this cute, cause while she is chaming your pants off, she is also ripping the pages out of all your library books and doing this to your walls:


That is permanent marker, people, on a rented wall. So long deposit.

One happy birthday

What can I say? I'm a spoiled little brat, but I am really, really happy. My poor husband got so tired of being ignored when he called to me and hearing me sing at the top of my lungs while I listened to my iPod that he got me the best birthday present ever. EV-AH. He got me my Bose SoundDock which I have been coveting from nearly the moment that I got my iPod. You may remember. I have the best husband ever. EV-AH. Now, how to repay his kindness...

Something that might make you smile today. I know I can use it.

(You might have to turn up the volume because the car is so loud. B was on his second straight week with out his allergy medicine, so his nose was itching, he normally doesn't rub it so often. They were watching the Muppet Show. )

Because I didn't want to.

I didn't post yesterday even though I had plenty of fodder, because I didn't want to. I just didn't like the thought of talking about anything happy, because I still feel weird about all the unhappiness that surrounds 9/11. It was the saddest day in history, it was the saddest day in my life, a sadness that fell over us all for weeks and months. There isn't a way to commemorate it properly, and I won't try.

Saturday, I tried to make a compromise with my fishing-obsessed husband. I said "Let's hike into a fishing place, then you can fish with the boys, and we can all hang out as a family, doing something outside. You fish, we hike, everyone wins. " Uh, we may have forgotten that we have a quarter of a dozen kids. (3, if you're math challenged), we also may have forgotten that two of the three kids have legs that are grossly shorter than our own, meaning that we would have to carry them. We also may have forgotten that we are not entirely used to hiking at 9,5000 feet...We are a forgetful couple. It also seemed to slip my mind that I had a cold. But, we actually hiked for (I think) about five miles. Jack galley-lagged until J finally picked him up. I carried Mimi on my back or front the whole way, and B, made me carry his water and hip pack so he could carry a rock to throw in the stream. We never made it to the stream, the park closed at four and we had to get back to the car before they locked the gates, but we did have a good time and were all sufficiently worn out. Next time, I think we will have to look more closely at the map and pick a more kid-friendly trail. I love hiking and it was fun to get out of the house and see something new.

In knitting news: My friend finally had her baby, after many, many hours of labor. I am pretty sure that the baby was waiting until I got the package in the mail before she made her appearance. I finished the it Monday night, but needed to get a ribbon to call it 100% done. Last night I got a call that she was in labor and they were expecting the baby before midnight. At nine this morning I got another call saying that she was not progressing quickly, but they expected a baby before noon. I ran out and picked up some ribbon. 2:00 came, and still no baby. I walked to the post office at about 3:00 and mailed all three hats and came home. It turns out that she had the baby at 4:30 this afternoon. Ugh, what a labor. I just hope that the smallest hat fits her! She was bigger than they expected. Well, here the third and final instalment of the hat trio:

Stats on all hats:

Upside down daisy hat from Itty Bitty Hats. I used size threes on a cotton yarn that my mom got me when I was pregnant with Mimi. I have no idea what the name or size of it is. I can tell you that it was bright and had a beautiful color, and that it knit up wonderfully with a sort of light catching sheen. The white came in the same batch of unknown origin. The pale pink was my own desperate attempt at hand dying. I used red food color and rinsed, and rinsed and rinsed to make sure it would hold. I tried the same hand dying technique for the stem, but apparently yellow and blue food dye is a different chemical configuration and refused to stay in the yarn. I got extremely creative and tried microwaving it with a salt bath (like Rit dye) but no go. So, I used the Cascade Fixation and it worked beautifully.

The little green hat is a knock off of one that was made when Mimi was born. I stole her basic format. I used my own creative license on parts, but basically it is Sadie's. The flower is from Stitch and Bitch Nation. The yarn is some 100% acrylic Caron or Red heart. (In case you haven't noticed, I can't keep a ball band around here to save my life, the kids seem to think that they are meant to be ripped off and shredded.) I used size three for it too.

The purple creation is all of my own. I used size three needles for the brim, and after several rows, I reduced enough stitches to take an inch out ( eight stitches over all) and then switched to size twos (removed from a work in "progress"). The yarn was a sock weight cotton. I don't really know where it came from. Probably from the same batch that I used for the daisy hat. It turned out just how I hoped it would, though it may have to be blocked every time the little dear wears it. But it is so cute and I am pleased at the way that I was actually able to execute a creation from my own vision. Let's see it one more time since it's so cute.

By the way, those are my tomato plants growing there, bearing fruit. Yay! I can't wait, there are some that are actually almost ready.

in which I am humbled by someone great

This morning, as I was running, I was mentally blogging about how hard it is to run with a jogging stroller and how Jackson talks to me the whole time, making it hard to keep my music going because I can't hear, and how I can't talk to him and run at the same time because it uses too much oxygen etc. I had my whole list of complaints about how hard it is on this mom to get out and run when I would much rather be eating and watching tv, but good for me that I do it because it always does make me feel better blah blah blah.
Then, I remembered this video that a friend sent a few months ago, which was really moving and everything, but I didn't run then, so I couldn't possibly appreciate how moving it really is. He runs and swims and bikes and parents and doesn't even complain about it., he actually enjoys it. I run/walk 2 miles a day people, a mere warm-up for these guys. Check it out, after you grab your box of Kleenex, of course.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gm7XwtIJdM

Is summer over yet??

I need a vacation from summer vacation. We are so tired and over-traveled that all I can dream of is laying in bed till eight o'clock on a Saturday and not having to be anywhere at all. Since July, we have only been home for one weekend that I can think of. We keep saying that we will settle down now that school has started, and then we run off again. I plan to stay home until Thanksgiving, and maybe even longer if neither of our families are around for turkey-day. In the past, we have spent every other Christmas with my family or J's, and Thanksgiving at the other place, but then suddenly, my parents started a new tradition of flitting off to here or there and abandoning us all together. So for the last five or more years, Thanksgiving has been with friends or at J's parents. Then, suddenly, they started traveling on Thanksgiving too. And since moving, we really don;t have many friends who are willing to feed us. Poor us, I've never even baked a turkey, and if I live a hundred years, I probably never will. All of my childhood memories surrounding this holiday consist of a turkey being put in the oven at some ungodly hour and the host of the dinner being so tired by the time the dang bird is ready that she can't even keep her eyes open and nods off into her mashed potatoes. Well, maybe not that tired, but you get my drift. Sooo, unless someone takes pity on us and decides to cook for us, we will be eating turkey sandwiches and watching football (well, J will, I'll probably read a book or knit.)

Speaking of knitting...

The nice thing about itty bitty hats is that they are knit for itty bitty heads and they are quick to make. Even with all the traveling and stuff going on lately, I've managed to complete two whole hats and I am casting on another one this morning. I've got to get a move on, because my friend is due pretty soon, and tends to have early babies. But, just for fun, I'll give you a preview of two of the trio and when I'm done with the other one, I'll take a picture of it too. For some reason, my kids have been obsessed with these hats, especially the upside down daisy hat. Mimi tries to wear it and cries when I take it away from her.

Right now, I am reading Jane Eyre and nursing a smallish head cold. I am not necessarily blaming the book, she is a very descriptive author and I am a highly suggestive personality. The descriptions of freezing rain and drafty halls may have gotten to me...

I am also trying to catch up on the pile of laundry that is taller than my eldest child. How does that happen?

One more thing to update you on...Now I know that I had a goal of running three miles before summer ended...So, I am trying to get out and run more. I ran a little over two miles with out even dieing on Saturday, and I have been running with the jogging stroller when I can. I have a little less than three weeks till the fall equinox and I am still trying to make it. So there you go.