Home at last

It's that time of year again, where I lament how fast time flies, how I claim that next summer will be much less busy and how I swear that school starting will be a welcome break from my over-stretched and traveled summer. Whew, glad I got that out of the way.

We had a wonderful trip to VA to see my sister-in-law and her family, which was also the first time 2 of my 3 kids has flown on an airplane. It was quite an adventure, believe me. Let us just say that my kids may have been the reason that half the Midwest missed their connecting flights out of MI. If you flew out of Detroit on June 22, and were stalled by kids stopped on the moving sidewalk, or on the escalators, or at the handless paper dispensers in the bathrooms, or at the check in kiosks or at the applestore vending machine, or fighting over who pushed the buttons on the elevator, I apologize. Those were my kids. The novelty of such things never ceases to amaze my kids. If I hadn't been so freaked out about them being run down by angry travelers, I may have shared in their excitement. As it was, I played the part of the frazzled mom of three young children. They are actually wonderful travelers, in cars, on planes and subways, and every time I saw a toddler throwing themselves to the floor, I counted my blessings that my kids are so great.

Virginia was a great time, the kids spent every spare moment in the swimming pool, except for Jack, who spent every spare moment testing the water and freaking out about his face getting splashed. It is time to get that boy into swim lessons. By the end of the week, he was fine, though and was actually enjoying the water. B has spent some time in VA and DC with my mother-in-law, so he was old-hat at most of the activities. We spent two days in DC, which was an adventure. We caravaned in two cars, and yours truly actually drove in the crazy traffic. We saw the Smithsonian and the Lincoln Memorial and walked around the Washington Mall. It was a lot of fun, even when we were hot and the wheels had come off the bus, as far as the kids were concerned.

We also visited Virginia Beach for an afternoon, which was the only thing that Mimi requested we do. We all had good, sandy fun and got lots of sun too. What a great trip!

By the time we flew out, we were all ready for a rest and reprieve at home. But does that sound like a typical summer for us? Oh no. We barely got our bags unpacked and we were packing again, this time to see my family in Durango. I tell ya, it is time to hang up my traveling shoes and put on my slippers. School starts in a mere two weeks, and I am looking forward to the routine and the mellow....wait, didn't I already say all this, last summer??

Say it ain't so

Oh dear, I just saw a headline stating "Day-glo is Back in a Major Way" This makes me want to curl right up in my not-fabulous hoody sweatshirt and out-dated boot cut jeans and cry. Why must we relive the late 80's and early 90's? Didn't that era cause enough sno-blindness the first time around? Sigh, I am too young to be retro. Now I know how my mother must have felt when I wanted to dress in her old 501 Levi's with a pair of Birkenstocks and walk around flashing peace signs and listening to the Beatles. Sorry, mom. I guess I'd better go find my Jackie-O sunglasses, I'm probably gonna be needing them.

Summer in full-force

We are about to end a 2 week travel hiatus when we board a plane early Monday morning, headed toward Virgina to see those people that we love out east. The kids are so excited to be riding a plane, and I'm excited to see a part of the country that I've never been, and some family to boot. We plan to go to DC for a few days to take in some sights there as well. I'm hoping to get the kids on the new playground equipment at a certain Pennsylvania address, and maybe get some fresh produce from their garden while I'm at it. How do you think it will go over? Do you suppose they are more strict about letting people play on their swing set than they are about their airspace??

We spent the first week of summer vacation in New Mexico, visiting our dear friends in Los Alamos and making up for lost time. The kids and I went down for a brief visit over Thanksgiving break, but it was really too short to see everyone and get to spend quality time with each of my friends. This visit was so refreshing and wonderful. We stayed with a family that has become family to us, and we enjoyed a week of staying up late, getting up early, eating a thousand wonderful foods and really, just catching up. It was great, I was zonked, and when we got back to the rancho, our fabulous Albuquerque cousins were there to greet us. It is always so nice to see the kids play with their cousins, and they all get along so great. It is always a special time, and of course I have no pictures, because that is how I seem to vacation. But imagine all the giggling, swinging, running, bed-jumping, ice cream eating, lap-sitting, kid silliness that you can cram into a single day, and you will have a pretty good idea of how things went. We had planned to stay for a few days, but by Sunday night, Jack came to me with his eyes welling with tears and asked if he could just go home. Of my three, he is the one who emotes the most, so I decided it was about time. When I asked B, he said he was really missing his dog, so we packed the car and off we came to surprise Juan 2 days early.

Here is a warning: never surprise a man who has lived as a bachelor for over a week. You wouldn't like to see the state of my kitchen when I got home. I knew that his intention was to fish until his shoulders gave out as often as possible, then collapse in a heap on the couch each night. Apparently, housework didn't figure into that plan until the very last night before, or more likely, the very early morning of my return. Let's just say he doesn't do proactive housework. But it behooves me to call ahead, even when kids want to surprise someone, otherwise, you never know what you might find rotting in the sink when you get home.

We have been enjoying the backyard, which finally has some grass, the kids spent the afternoon out there running in the sprinkler. It looks so much better, and it has really cut down on the dirt that comes into the house. I really love this house, and there is great potential in the backyard, as you can see.

We have a tree that has an aphid problem, but the good part of having aphids is all the ladybugs that are here, there are so many, and if you spend time up-close watching, you can actually see some of them devouring the pesky things. It is worth watching. The kids are as impressed as I am.

This is the Hawthorn tree in full bloom the week before I left, it was so beautiful. There are no blooms left now that it has really turned from spring to summer, but they were a sight to see while they lasted.
If I remember my camera, and then remember to actually use it, there may be a few pictures of our next trip. Until then, keep well, and keep cool. Summer is upon us!

How depressing...or not.

Despite the lack of sepia tones, barefoot children in overalls and lots of dust, we are surely in a recession of depressing proportions (at least that is what the brains on TV keep telling me). So it got me to wondering what good things could possibly come from this situation, I have been challenging myself to come up with a list. Maybe you can add to it and together we can spread a little sunshine, so with out further ado, here is my list of depression inspired happiness.

1. The return of the commercial jingle. I have noticed that there are several radio jingles out and I've seen ads for jingle contests. It looks like industry is actually trying some new techniques to get us to buy up products, it is a nice change from the old "you have money, we want it, buh-bye"

2. Acrylic yarn may make a major comeback and we can all get over our yarn-snobbery and embrace the .99 cent barrel at Hobby-Lobby. Red heart rusts and oranges ponchos that squeak when they get wet will be the new rage! I'm so excited, I can't wait till it rains. (just an aside here, but I never knew that there was no cent key on my keyboard till about thirty seconds ago. )

3. Five dollar foot longs. 'nuf said

4. This isn't technically a piece of sunshine, but I do smirk each time I hear one of these...Angry bank commercials. The president of some small time bank insists that they are not taking bail out money and that they never will. I'll go ahead and take your bail-out money guys. Seriously.

5. I get to challenge my family to eat and enjoy on the cheap. We're pretty cheap anyway, but I feel like a super-star when I can make a meal for a few cents (blast, I need that cent key)and they will actually eat in and like it. Beans and rice: makin' a comeback!

6. Parks are free, the backyard is free. Free is good.

7. Mimi and I spend a lot of time window shopping, which has been a lot of fun. This will probably go away as soon school lets out and we don't have to hang out so much, but still. The best window shopping is at places like Big Lots and Tuesday Morning. They have so much cool stuff and it is different all the time, and if you need to buy something, it is usually a few dollars. Plus, window-shopping is a lot like real shopping, I find it to be almost as satisfying.

8. Network TV, but especially PBS. We've been enjoying this perk for almost three years now, but I thought I'd add it in, because it just keeps giving.

9. (Juan's) Craigslist. We love to sell junk that we don't want and there is always someone looking for new junk at slashed prices. Garage-sales and thrift stores don't get added, even though I love these too, they've always been around.

Ok, now its your turn. Ready, set, go.

just when you were going to give up

At the urging of my husband, (who started his own blog) I am logging on to say I am alive. We have been alive for all these weeks (as opposed to mostly dead all day) but we have been in the process of moving, buying a new car and house-training a puppy. In that time, we also had family visits three different times, and a trip to the Rancho. Whew! No wonder I haven't had time to knit or blog. I've barely had time to breath.

We have moved into an actual house, with an actual yard, and an actual garage the last week of March. It was crazy, we had an offer we couldn't refuse; to rent a home for the same price as our little town-home that we had been outgrowing. I can't tell you how much I love having a yard. True, it is nothing but dirt right now, but we are in the process of thinking about doing some landscaping, and in the meantime, the kids and Buddy-dog run wild in the dirt patch. They are so excited, and it is wonderful to see them play and burn off some of the energy they seem to have in abundance. There are many nice things about having a home, the main thing that pleases me is the storage. FINALLY! I love having space for all the things that make my home look messy. We have an office for the computer desk and the fly-tying/fly-fishing things, which instantly makes my house look 50 times cleaner. There is an entire room of children's playthings downstairs, which makes it look like adults actually live in our home, and the garage has room for things that don't need to be hanging around my living room, ie: bikes, snow-shovels, spare-tires. We are being conscientious not to fill our home with junk just because there is more room, but it is about to be garage-sale time, at least I won't have to remove 1 thing for every new thing I bring home. There is still a lot of unpacking to do, and I am still arranging things a lot. I haven't hung any pictures yet, but that is coming too. One thing that makes me so slow about the unpacking and moving-in stuff is that I now have to drive both my boys to school. It is a huge part of my day to transport them back and forth. I feel like I don't have time to start any big projects before it is time to hop in the car and drop someone off or pick someone up. Only a few more weeks of that and then summer vacation starts up and we will have more time at home. I am ready for those lazy days when we can just spend time here. I can't wait to start planting stuff in our back yard and enjoying the sun and warmth.

I have been half-heatedly training for a half-marathon this summer, we got up to 11 miles in March, but have gone back to 5-7 now just because it has been so hard to be consistent. I haven't actually signed up for any races, so that makes it a little easier to be inconsistent about it too, and the other thing is that I have less access to my running partner now, so we are only going out about 1 time a week . My dog is a terrible running partner, he is only good for about 1/2 mile before his little corgi legs give out and he just plops down. I am finding that I am a better runner when I have someone to go with, so I use that as an excuse too. Somewhere inside of me, I know that there is a Kenyan struggling to run, I just need to release her. Riiiiggghttt.

I haven't completed my Tess Shawl, and I haven't really started anything new either. I am planning on making some baby booties and a hat to send to a friend who just adopted a lovely little baby girl. But so far, I haven't started them. I am just going to get to it, but probably not for a few weeks.

That is the long and short of mi Vida loca. Run here and there, move here, chase the dog there, dust, dish, run, run, run, sleep and do it all again!

Here are a few pictures of our living room, I will try to post some more when I have made some house-keeping progress. Ignore the tool box in the window, and all the boxes and junk. Don't ignore the dog, he is impossible to miss! Enjoy the kitchey kitchen, which is growing on me by the day. I do love me a turquoise oven...and everyone knows that diamonds are a girl's best friend!

Crazy Times

Hello All. Things have been quite crazy around this house lately. Firstly, my dryer died for over a week, and I am just now getting caught up on laundry. I don't like to let it pile up, but it always gets that way, but let me tell you that for 7 days we could neither wash nor dry, and things got pretty ugly. I finally feel like I am back into my schedule, and I also came to realize that our family has far too much clothing. I, however, ran out of everything and spent about 4 days wearing men's clothing. Ugh. So that is now behind us, thank goodness.

I spent three fantastic days at a knitting retreat with a lovely group of women from Denver and Santa Fe in Buena Vista, Colorado. It was so great, and relaxing and wonderful, and would you believe that not a single one of us brought a camera?! The weekend was perfect, and we have all vowed to meet again next year, when I'll be sure to remember a camera. A bed and breakfast in town, The Liar's Lodge, hosts groups of knitters, quilters, scrapbookers etc. for weekend retreats. It was so nice to sit around and let someone else worry about the cooking and cleaning while we just sat around knitting and chatting. We checked out the local yarn shop, Serendipity, which had quite an extensive bunch of yarns, books, and gifts for such a small town. I didn't buy a single skein of yarn, but I picked up a pretty cool purse/knitting bag, which I am pretty excited about. It is from Tute-La bags, and is the Rosa style. I love that it has pockets on the inside where I can stash needles, or my cell-phone and other stuff that I used daily. I am using it as a purse that can carry knitting, too.

I worked on the side to side shawl pattern that I purchased a few days before we left. I am a little under half way through it, and I am enjoying the mindless knitting. It is on size 13's and is done in Patons Showers of Flowers. This picture shows the variegation very well, it is beautiful. I also made a little sweetheart hat for Mimi, seeing how her birthday is on Saturday. It is cute, and I want her to wear it now, but I am holding off till her birthday. It is perfect for a gal born on Valentine's day. Susan B. Anderson wrote the pattern, and is the author of Itty-bitty Hats, so I knew that I wouldn't have any trouble knitting this up, her patterns are so easy to follow and so straight forward. I'll post some pictures of her wearing it.

The exciting news in our house is that we are getting a dog. Yes, you read right. We are getting a little Australian Shepard/Corgi mix. My mom is on her way to bring him this very moment. I might have just made the worst decision of my life, but I am sure that the kids will love him, and at the very least, he will keep my floor clean after the kids eat...We haven't picked a name yet, but we are narrowing it down. I hope my marriage will survive, J isn't thrilled at the idea of it, but I think he will learn to enjoy him too, as long as he doesn't eat any of his fly-rods!

Other than that, we are pretty much hating winter, ready for the terrible wind storms to stop and are looking forward to spring.

random blogging

I spent the past two Sunday nights watching Tess of the D'Ubervilles on PBS Masterpiece Theatre. It was pretty sad, and made me glad to live in a time when women are treated more equal to men and have more say in their own lives and homes. It was very well done, though, and I am positively enchanted with Tess' shawl that she wears throughout the movie. It is a simple garter stitch brown wool shawl and I really love the way they wrap her in it for this movie. I can't seem to find a decent picture, but if you go on the wedsite you can see a not-so-great picture. I am attending a knitting retreat in the first weekend of February, and I am determined to find a good project to take along. This may fit the bill, I am going to dig around and see if I can find a pattern that would make a duplicate. I somehow doubt that I could contact the Emmy winning costume designer, James Keast, for his pattern...

Also, I found two new knitting books at the library last week, one called Woolbur, about a sheep that refuses to follow his herd, and Knitalong, which has a lot of cool patterns for knitalongs. One in particular that I love is the Pillow of Sei Shonagon. I think it is beautiful, but I wonder what quick work my kids would make of tearing that ribbon out of it. Maybe it would be a good project for a hope-chest for a daughter. Do people even do such things as hope-chests any more? I'll have to check Ravelry to see who is making that pillow, and for what.

One other thing that might interest some budding etymologist out there; This weekend, our family attended a fly-fishing show in Denver, and there was a woman there selling Caddisfly made jewelry. She collects the caddisfly puppa, then gives them gems and gold to build their cases, she then makes it into unique jewlery. What a novel idea! The jewelry can be seen on her website: http://www.wildscapes.com/, and if you want to know more about caddisflies, look here. The cases are made in stage three of the life-cycle. She was so kind, she gave each of the kids a necklace, and me a zipper pull.

How about a picture to make you smile?

Mimi dresses herself these days...