Sunday?

Me?!? Post on a Sunday?!?

We went to the parade and the fun center yesterday. Also, yesterday I downloaded the pics off my camera. NEVER downloaded the pics the same day i took them - especailly almost 100 of them.

So - here goes:

The boys really did have fun, no matter what thier faces say here.


Try as she might, Ayanna got no sleep.


There were lots of these - pooper scooper entries.


This was the coolest float, ever. There are two Bikers in there. They went around and around that ball.

Same float - amazing!


One of my favorites - Clydesdales.


Look - Llamas

After the parade, we went to the fun center.

The boys got to have fun at the Radio Disney tent.

It seems that Blogger won't let me post any more pics. I will try again later. I have KIP update, too.

Friday

My 11 year old son was suspended for three and a half days for getting into a fight with a friend at school today. These would be the last three and a half days of school. A bit excessive, don't you think.

I was right about the spindle. The hook broke off. The lady is sending me a new spindle. She was going to have me just go get another hook, but decided since the hook broke off in the spindle, she would send me a new one. No spinning this week. Hopefully, I will get it on Monday, so I can maybe go either Monday or Thursday and get some help.

Tomorrow is the parade, the carnival and the ships. I plan to have LOTS of fun (even if my children may not be allowed to have fun)!

Happy Birthday Dad!!!

59 years ago today, my daddy was born -

I’m sooo excited…

...And I just can’t hide it.

Ok, so I live in Portland, Oregon. Home of the Portland Rose Festival. This is a yearly occurrence. It gets a bit of a bad rap, cause a lot of the times the rains come right about the same time. Rose Festival is my favorite time of year! Tomorrow, is the Jr. Rose Festival Parade. (I don’t get to go, but the boys get to go with my step-dad, cause school closes early.)

The biggest deal, though will be Saturday. The Grand Floral Parade starts at 10:00. After that we will go to the Fun Center. For more on this, you can read Casey’s post. We are also going to check out the Navy ships. It also happens to be KIP day, which, of course, I will be KIP all day. There is a group here locally who are trying to get some KIPers at the parade. I’ll be there, regardless. And the weather forecast this morning was for Saturday to be 75 and sunny! (Of course, the forecast 4 days out usually changes 4 times, so I am still a little weary about all my dreams coming true.)

So, all this excitement is taking place in my head all morning after I hear the weather forecast. Then I get the mail at work. I don’t remember giving the lady my work address, but I must have. I won on eBay (Sing like “I lost on Jeopardy.”). This. I got it today. It actually looks like



…in real life. I must admit, I am a little bit disappointed at the smaller than I expected amount of roving. Plus, the hook at the top was bent when I got it. The hook is very pliable, so I was able to bend it back, but that makes me nervous about how well it will hold up. But, now I get to spin! More excitement today and it wasn’t even 9:30, yet. I really should have had this sent to the house, cause now I REALLY don’t want to work. I am going to go to the LYS at lunch and see if they can help me figure it out. I don’t know if anyone there knows how to use it, but I will see.

I joined two KnitAlongs over the weekend. I even updated my blog to reflect this. The first: State Fair Knit a Long. I don’t know the rules, yet, but this would be neat to knit something and enter it in the state fair. I am going to enter my blanket I am making from Knitty Gritty.

Second: Summer of Stash. Thankfully, I bought my spindle and roving before I found this Knit a Long. Of course as soon as I joined this, I got an e-Newsletter from a LYS telling me all about their Christmas in July festivities. They are having free classes all month long, but you have to pre-register and then buy the materials there. And I just remembered that I wanted to make Christmas Stockings for everyone. I have lots of stash yarn, but nothing Christmas-y. Oh, I get two exceptions. Ok. That’s easy, one will be an exception for yarn for Christmas stockings. Notice, I kept it very limited - yarn for Christmas stockings, not Christmas presents, but stockings.

TGIF

I just had to share, since in a previous post, I was so worried. I don't think I have to worry about Ayanna's weight, anymore. We went to Denny's last weekend. Since it wasn't a scheduled trip, and she has had pancakes before, I ordered her a pancake. Look at her go!!

Motivation...

...I have NONE!

I really have to file at work. I have two files that I have let get out of control. Because they are a mess, I don't wanna work on them. All my other filing is up to date. Just these two.

Since the boss is away until Thursday, I am even less motivated to file. I, instead, have been working on my genealogy. I have, actually, been sucked into a black hole of information. It is very interesting to me, and there is a lot of information online. The Church of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) have a site where there is software you can download information and enter your information into. You can then create all kinds of documents. Family trees, calendars. Lots more. I have found (not from the Mormons) scanned copies of the documents from my paternal grandmother's family. Census from 1910 and 1920, and Ellis Island. So much fun! So distracting from work. This weekend was good. The only thing I got accomplished was I now have all three seasons of Knitty Gritty on tape. I also finished sleeve #1 of Malik's sweater, and finished the ribbing on sleeve 2. I only worked a couple of rows - maybe less than that - on Marcus' vest. While I was taping Knitty Gritty, I found a baby blanket I had to make. This will be the first project I really made modifications on. It is supposed to be 3 hearts across and 3 rows. I am making 4 hearts across and two rows. I am using a worsted weight on size 7 needles. I am doing one row pink, one row white, then one row pink, one row white. I toyed with the idea of intarsia for the hearts, and doing one row pink with white hearts, then the negative in the next row. I decided I didn't want that much yarn "hanging around." I finished half of one repeat. I really like it.

I guess that is all, for now.

OOPS! Almost forgot - goals

baby blanket - finish the repeat I am on and at least start the next one
Malik's sweater - half way through sleeve #2

That's it!

The Amazing Lace

Dear Rachel and Theresa, I am going to sort of follow your rules. I understand the rule where you don't want to scroll forever on 300+ blogs to find knitalong content. So, this is your update section. I will let you know when you can stop reading so that you can move on to other topics and I can have the rest of my post.

I have joined The Amazing Lace. Lace has been in the back of my mind for maybe a month or so as something I maybe wanted to try. This knitalong is kismet. Plus, if I get finished with something in time, I can even wear it for my birthday. Labor day this year is Sept. 4 and my b-day is September 6.

I can't settle on a project, yet. I have the yarn, but it is at home, so I will add that later. I will either do a feather-and-fan or a yo, k2tog across every row. I think I will swatch both and see which I like better. WHAT?!?! ME SWATCH?!?!? Well, first time for everything!

I even successfully put a button on my sidebar! (Scroll down) This is huge for me!! There is an actual picture that actually takes you to the actual Amazing Lace site. ALL BY MYSELF!!

Rachel and Theresa - move ahead to other blogs, now.

Everyone else:

I got my new book in the mail this morning. I can't wait to dig in!

I finished the fair isle heart sock this weekend. It is WAAAAYYYY too tight for Ayanna's feet. There is no stretch to it AT ALL!!! There was almost not enough stretch to turn it inside out so I could get the sock to turn wrong side out so I could weave in ends. Of course, I didn't bother weaving in ends. I will most likely just throw it out. I might get a pic first, though. I don't know if I knit too tight or if it is the crappy (nearly free) acrylic yarn, or if it is a combination of both. Either way, I am not making the mate.

I had a productive knitting weekend. I have taped all episodes for seasons 1-3 of Knitty Gritty on TIVO. I had started taping the different episodes on to VHS in order. Then our machine started to do wierd things. We called DirecTV, and they said they would send a new one out, but we had to dump everything from our "old" one). Therefore, I was recording all day yesterday. I had started the project earlier, but was in no rush, and I hadn't finished even season 1. Yesterday, I got all the way to towards the end of Season 2. DH & I decided that we would just return the box when we were done with it. He got almost all of his stuff off of it on Saturday. We were around 51% full, and we are now around 15% full, so, we worked real hard, but...

Plus, I went through all my magazines, patterns, catalogs, books, flyers, print-outs, what have you, and tried to organize them somehow. Progress was made in that my one shelf on the bookshelf isn't HARDLY enough, anymore. I need to buy some more of the plastic doo-hickeys that make a magazine fit into a 3-ring binder, and some more 3-ring binders so I can finish.

As I said, I finished the fair-isle sock. I am progressing slowly on the blue cardigan that I have had forever. I am working on a Sirdar sweater for Malik.

For the first time in a long time:
GOALS:
I would like to have sleeve #1 done for Malik's sweater and cast on for sleeve #2.
Pick a lace pattern
Work on DH vest.

I was planning on working a lot on DH vest during Memorial Day weekend cause he was going to spend the whole weekend golfing. Looked at the weather forcast for the weekend - not so much golfing! I thought he was going to cry.

Knitting Queen

I don't think I have ever had such a productive week. On Wednesday I finished my step-dad's socks.














On my way to work yesterday (literally, while walking in the office, I was knitting and finishing my sock), I finished a pair of socks for me! ME!! Imagine!! Saturday I worked for a couple of hours and started and got to the heel flap for a pair of fair isle socks for Ayanna.

















I also got about half way done with one bootie for her.

Mother's day was good. I got to go to THREE LYS. While at Yarn Garden, I got a pattern, a size C crochet hook so I could pick up the stitches for the heel on Ayanna's fair isle sock, and buttons for the booties. While at Mabel's, I got two patterns and the yarn to make one, a Kacha-Kacha and a Universal Counter. Then we went to Abundant Yarn. OH, DANG! I just remembered something I wanted to look at while I was there. I wanted to buy some roving and a spindle, but they don't carry spindles, and the roving was in big huge amounts. I just wanna try spinning, I don't really wanna buy enough to make a sweater. Bought nothing there. Then we went to an all you can eat for "dinner" at like 3:00. Then we went bowling. It was fun, except my DH sprained or something his ankle, so he is hobbling.

Saturday we went to the cemetary. I saw this head stone:

I FORGOT!!!

How could I forget to tell you the good news!!

I got (almost) all of the yarn from the longest project ever unknit! I even washed it all a couple of weekends ago! There are right now about 4 skeins (still) hanging on hangers in our laundry closet. I wound the smallest one a while ago, because it was so small. I made a sort of nostprinde out of a paper towel tube. Then, I think, Monday night, I wound up a regular sized skein into a ball and started knitting it. This project might be done this year, after all!!! Maybe even before the fall starts and I can wear it. What is that, wear it??? OH! Is that what you are supposed to do with knitted items??? Wear them, not just let them sit around on the needles? Cough-cough-MARIAH-cough-cough.

OKC

PHOTO HEAVY!!!

This is, after all, a knitting blog.

I got to go see Debbie Stoller last week.

I brought the two books I already had (SnB and SnB Nation) and picked up the third.

I wasn't going to buy her new book, because I don't really want to crochet, but Malik wanted this hat from the book, so...

She got there, too bad I can't take pictures:

But Malik can take pictures, apparently:

Malik was there, so were DeAndre', Marcus and Ayanna. This baby, however, didn't want to be bothered:

I am making progress on my step-dad's father's day socks. This is last week:

Today I started the decreases for the toe.

And this was picture weekend at our house. The boys (I didn't really know they were getting thier pictures taken, but) got thier pics done at school and we picked up Ayanna's pictures.

This weekend, we couldn't resist:

Busy weekend

Well, it was a busy weekend. DeAndre' was getting his First Communion on Sunday so he had practice on Saturday. He also had a soccer game on Saturday. Malik had his birthday party on Saturday.

Lots of pictures

If her eating is any indication, Ayanna won't be tiny for long:

I have knitting updates, tho not much. I am close to done with the leg of the red sock that will be mine. This is sock #2 and all of the ends are woven in, but not cut, because I didn't take my scissors with me on lunch. There is an extra pair of ends on this project because the yarn had a break in it.

I found the black socks I lost - right there in the garage where I last had them. I am done with all of the heel. Just stright st. st. on the foot. This is also the second sock. I haven't been working on much else. There are a few groups I might go visit, soon, to get more knit time in.

Debbie Stoller will be at Powell's tonight to promote Happy Hooker. She didn't come like she was supposed to for SnB Nation, and I don't personally have much interest in crochet, but I will be going and bringing both my SnB books for her to sign. More on that (hopefully) tomorrow.

Happy Birthday Malik

It was 11 years ago exactly today that Malik was born at 4:?? in the am. It was even a Friday.

Here are some pics:






















And here is more recently:














Happy birthday baby boy. I love you.

TEACHERS!!!

Ok, first of all, I need some Blogger advise. I really would like the archive links on the side to be different. That list of months is getting a might long. I would like people to be able to use them if they like, but can I set it up to have older ones all one link or something? Anyone know how to fix this?

Now, back to the homework link from below. So, as I said, I had to teach my son how to add mixed numbers with different denometers. Well, he reported to me that she told him that he is confused because I taught him wrong. WHAT!?!?! Maybe if you had done your job in the first place, I wouldn't have had to do it wrong. How dare you tell my child that I was wrong!!!!!

WTF!!! Of course if there was a text, I wouldn't have done it wrong!!

I wanna slug her square in the jaw!

Worries

I don't know about this girl. She isn't growing "right." This is not to say she is small, she is, but that doesn't worry me. Even if she was the tiniest 4 month old, ever, that would be alright, if she was also the tiniest 2 week old ever. Instead, she is getting tinier. I hope this makes sense. I need some support.

At her 2 week appointment, her stats were:
weight - 7 lbs. 6 ozs. 60th percentile
height - 20” 75th percentile
head circumference - 36 ½ cm 100th percentile.

At her 2 month appointment, her stats were:
weight - 8 lbs. 11 ozs. 15th percentile
height - 22 ½” 50th percentile
head circumference - 39 cm 75th percentile.

Then, yesterday at her 4 month appointment, her stats were:
weight - 9 lbs. 7 ozs. <5th> my sock WIP. I can't find it. The last time I saw it was Saturday when we came home from soccer.

Updated to add: Isn't being a mommy so much fun! I just talked to the doctor (she called me herself). I had called the nurse and she told me it was all okay. If the doctor had been really worried, she would have admitted her to the hospital. Then the doc called me to apologize for scaring me. Part of my problem was that ever since she was born people have been constantly telling me how tiny she is. Every stranger that sees her, practically! So, I had that in the back of my mind.

Thanks for the good thoughts!

Homework SUCKS!

I thought I felt that way when I was in school, especially since I NEVER did my homework and almost didn't graduate from high school myself.

Now, however, homework REALLY sucks! Especially when I am up until 10:00 on a Thursday night teaching my son his homework. Those of you who don't much care for math, please skip the next paragraph.

Please note that I said teaching, not helping. My son's teacher (from her words, not his) has not, yet discussed adding fractions with different denominators. This is fine because based on my small amount of research, I think that this is sixth grade work, and my son is in fifth grade. However, she sends home work where they have to add and subtract mixed numbers with different denominators. For those of you who forget, mixed numbers are like 1 1/2 (One and one-half) and when the denominators (the bottom number of a fraction) are different, you have to do a lot of conversion to get them to match, so you can add or subtract. So, I had to teach him to do this last night, since my son's teacher decided to give out homework she hadn't yet covered in class.

Come back, now.

I need any and all FREE Homeschooling resources any of you know of. Any lead will help! I will follow-up on all of it! We cannot afford for me to stay home and actually homeschool our children, but I will be practically homeschooling my children from now on! My son's teacher just isn't cutting it! Any advise, please contact me at jenknitter AT gmail DOT com. Thank you in advance.

Knitting updates

I have progress on a sock. I may even be finished with the leg by tonight. Mind you, this is a man's size 13 sock. Therefore, cut me some slack when it takes me forever to finish it! I'd show you, but it is 8 inches of 80 stitches around dark grey 2x2 ribbing - not very exciting!I like Knitty this time. I have four balls of LionBrand Wool-Ease in Dark Rose Heather that will go very well into the t-twist. I have practically already cast on for it!

I finished another pattern repeat for Voss!

I have made only a little progress on Malik's vest. He probably wishes it was done already, but I have some Knitter's ADD (and, maybe, even regular ADD), so he will have to wait.

We have a new schedule. The family is now carpooling to work. This is good news and bad news. 1. I have to get up earlier - WAY BAD NEWS!!!! 2. I get to knit on the way to DH work - good news. 3. I get done dropping others off a little bit earlier. 4. Save gas and wear and tear on the van - GREAT NEWS!!!

TGIF

I'm a joiner, so I joined sock-month-knitalong. I have two socks that I need to finish. Notice I said two socks, not one pair. They will be two pairs when finished, but first I have to finish them. Maybe if i hope for one per month, I can get them done.

I have been getting some slow progress on Voss, and the Vest. They are both about 300 stitches around, 2-color fair isle, so it is slow going. I don't have a lot of time to sit and knit, but when I sit, I do try to knit.

We just got word this week that Malik will continue on at his current school through 8th grade. This is the best news! Without dragging out the long, involved story, suffice it to say that the last couple of months have been a lot of drama and worry, and now it is all over. I wish they had made the decision about six months ago, so I wouldn't have to have gone through the drama and worry. But, at least it is over. It also means that DeAndre' won't have to go through the same drama in 3 years when it is his turn.

Well, I guess that is all for now. Work has been crazy, so I haven't had much time to post. I have internet at home, but don't much enjoy going into the back room to do something. I'd rather be in the front room. I usually am in the kitchen, though.

Have a good weekend!

WTF?!?!?!?!

So, my DH is not the boys father. I refer to thier fathers (each has thier own) as "sperm donors" because that is all they have done.

Anyway, my DH is going to adopt them. I found out that my DH's job has an Adoption Reimbursement program. YEAH! Now we can do it and not have to find the money for it!

HOWEVER, I just found out, this is not reimbursable if the children are in the parent's care before the date of employment - hello, even in the case of a step-parent adoption (which they specifically have included in the program) "No, ma'am, it is not reimbursable." WTF!!! What is the point of allowing step-parent adoptions if the children can't live in the home before the adoption is finalized!!!