He's 8!

Today is Cody's birthday, and my blog readers get the present! Enjoy! Click here to go directly to my products. I'm sorry, but the kit that I used to make the coupon is not available for sale until April 3rd, but aren't you lucky- the coupon is good until April 5th.

Happy Easter!

Mike asked me today what I plan on doing with three dozen colorful hard boiled eggs. I think that the answer is simple. Tomorrow, I'll go to the grocery store, get some mayo, some mustard, and some dill and make egg salad. I love egg salad. Especially on toast or Ritz. Yummy!

The boy had a ball coloring eggs. Cody took his time and was the last one to finish. Dylan tried to take his time, but the excitement was too much for him. Evan didn't even bother to take his time, he just went for it. I remember taking my time, mixing colors, getting creative. Not my boys, oh no. Only one color, per egg... until I showed them how to use the crayon to their advantage, how to make two and three color eggs, etc.

Dylan is the luckiest kid alive, I swear. Friday morning, I took the boys to Casey's to get donuts for breakfast. It was the first day of spring break, I thought it would be a nice thing for a lazy day. While there, we signed up for an easter basket raffle that they were having that day. Then, I promptly forgot all about it.

Around 2pm that afternoon, I'm cleaning, Cody is at Grandma's house, Dylan and Evan are playing, when the phone rings. The caller id says Casey's Takeout. Um, ok. I answered, and they ask for Dylan. I'm thinking 'why is Casey's calling for Dylan? Maybe this is a wrong number or something...' It still hadn't dawned on me that it was the raffle. I'm sure that the woman on the other end thought that I was a tad rude, because I had my leary, 'what do you want with my 5 year old?' tone of voice going. Then she says that magic words: 'easter basket raffle'. Yay! My tone changed, she gave me some information, and then we headed over to pick up his prize. His basket was one of those prefilled ones that you get from the dollar store or walmart. He won the sports themed one, which had a basketball and water bottle in it (this is why I don't buy the prefilled ones- I can spend less money and fill a basket with more/better stuff. but it's not bad to win one, ya know?).

So, there he is, hugging his prize. He insisted on taking the basket everywhere with him, including to the town easter egg hunt, but he decided that his basket handle was too big and he needed to use something smaller, so that he could move easier to get the eggs.

I call him lucky, because he helped Dad win a trophy at a car show, and when he goes fishing, the fish just come running and he always catches bunches of them.

Bunnies And Shots And Billy Bob Teeth

Evan and Dylan got shots yesterday. We're playing catch up, so Evan needed four and Dylan needed three. Dylan did great, until his last shot, and then he cried, which set Evan off. Poor Evan, he screamed through all of his. Dylan went back to school when we were done, but Evan missed school entirely, which he cried over. Cody's hit the point where he's starting to not want to go to school, but school is still fun for Evan and Dylan.

Evan's pre-k class has a class bunny named LuLu. LuLu is a boy bunny. They named LuLu before they knew what gender he was, hence the girly name. Today, Evan came home with a framed Easter picture of him and LuLu. His blue eyes just pop in this picture, which makes me wonder what camera his teacher has (note to self: ask the next time I see her). There's also a picture of Evan in this week's paper from the pre-k boot camp (family night, where the kids got to play and have fun). He's riding a bike, and just looks so happy in the picture.

And I posted about this in my last post, but I have pictures of Cody's latest gap. Last year, when all he wanted to do was lose teeth, he lost two. Now, he has four gaps in his mouth, which makes him look pretty funny.

He handed me his tooth and told me that I owed him money. I think that is what bothers me about this whole 'knowing the truth' thing. It's not that he knows, its that he gets a kick out of knowing while I just want him to go on believing in the tooth fairy and santa claus and the easter bunny. Plus, now that he knows the truth about one, will he still believe in the others? Am I going to have to include my 7 year old in hiding the easter eggs this year or am I going to have to include an eight year old in wrapping the santa presents?

So, my resolve to complete my current projects is going great so far. I started with the Noro socks, and while I've added new patterns to my queue at Ravelry, I have not started anything new. I've added a few inches to the leg of my Noro socks, and once I reach where the stripe pattern in the yarn repeats, it will be done and I can start the second sock. I'm hoping to have them done by Cody's birthday, but if I'm going to think realistically here, I'm such a slow knitter that it could be May before I finish them.

I Have A Confession To Make

I am a serial projecter starter (or would that be habitual project abandoner?).

I was just trying to figure out how many knit projects I've finished since I taught myself to knit back in November. Since then, I have finished...

1. a pair of socks
2. an iPod cozy
3. a rolled brim hat for me
4. a cabled hat for me
5. and a hat for my niece.

So, five knit items, total. Right now I have two pairs of socks, a hat for Mike, that scrubby, and an apron on the needles. I spent some time tonight looking at more sock patterns, and filling my queue with more patterns at Ravelry.

It's not just knitting, either. I spent some time this afternoon reorganizing my scrap stuff. I had about 10 kit folders in my designer folder, and when I moved the stuff that I'm not really feeling right now, I was left with one kit (the one that I previewed last week). It's sad when your 'incomplete, might never be complete' folder has more folders than your 'completed and uploaded' folder.

About the only thing that I can finish is a layout, lol.

So, I have decided that I'm going to finish what I have in progress, or at least do something with the papers that I've made for those kits that I haven't finished. I giving myself until April 25th (my birthday) to finish or frog the knit projects that I have going. I resolve to not start something new (even when my Smooshy yarn gets here) until I have finished my Noro and Trekking socks.

As for the scrap stuff, I'm thinking that I should just package that stuff up and make a new freebie. I'm not releasing anything this week (too lazy today), but look for it next week. Oh, and be sure to stop by and visit on the 29th, because I have a nice, big surprise.

Cody lost another tooth last night. He no longer believes in the tooth fairy, which is kinda depressing. Two lost teeth ago, I screwed up. Big time. He lost the tooth, showed it to me, put it up, and then hid it, when I wasn't looking. I did the unthinkable.

I forgot. The next morning, he was in tears. When I asked him why, he told me that the tooth fairy, who used to leave dollar bills folded into various shapes, left him a PENNY. Apparently, when he hid the tooth, he hid it near a penny without realizing it. He was so broken up and depressed over it, I just had to tell him the truth. As soon as he heard that the tooth fairy was really mommy and daddy, he perked right up. But we have a deal. He will continue to get money for his lost teeth, because to stop now could ruin it for his brothers. But now, he is in on the secret and has fun with it.

And so far, he's been good about keeping it a secret.

The boys start spring break on Friday. Is it sad that I'm looking forward to their week long break because it means that I get to sleep in? I've been so tired lately, and right now, it's only a quarter after 7 and I'm ready to head for bed. And before anyone says it, NO I'm not pregnant, lol. This is entirely my fault, I'm tired because I can't seem to get into bed before midnight lately (which you think would be easy, since I'm so freaking tired all the time!). I'm hoping to get my sleep schedule turned around this week. It was nice at the beginning of the year, when I could get up at 6am and could take my time getting the boys ready for school in the morning.

Picture Day!

Getting pictures off the camera and onto my laptop is a chore (only because I have to open up my laptop/knitting/carryall bag and dig out the cords. So, when I went to get pictures off the camera, I got a bunch. Pictures of Evan's pre-k boot camp, pictures of the lunar eclipse (they didn't turn out), pictures of the 4 wheeler with a car battery attached (some questions are better left unanswered), and some pictures from today.

Like this picture, taken earlier this week (I think it was Monday or Tuesday).



Or the picture on the right, taken today. (Yep, that's Rosie. She's turning into a little butterball, although it's hard to tell from this angle.)

Uploading my pictures this was does have it's advantages, though. There's always a surprise in there. It's almost like Christmas, in a way.

In case you couldn't tell, we had snow today. We also lost power for about a half hour, forty five minutes, which is funny, because we'll get 10 inches of snow and not lose power, and then get this little dusting that melted two hours later and lose power. Cody and Mike went bowling with Cub Scouts this afternoon, and then the boys and I went to the abelskiver supper at the church with my mom. I look forward to this supper every year.

Which leads to my doh! moment of the day. We find our seats in the fellowship hall (otherwise known as 'that big room downstairs where we hold church dinners'), and I proceed to pour myself a nice cup of coffee. There are two bowls sitting in front of me, one with sugar and one with what I thought was powdered creamer. I stirred my coffee while chatting with an old sunday school teacher of mine, took a sip of my coffee, and omg,it was horribly SALTY. I didn't put cream in my coffee, I put SALT in. Blech. I have since decided that at church dinners from now on, I will drink my coffee without cream (or salt).

The reason that I was pulling pictures from the camera was because I wanted to update my projects on Ravelry. Since I had to frog my first Noro sock, I wanted to put up a picture of what the new one looks like, and I've started a new, quick project: a dish scrubbie out of ugly sock yarn.


I really like how the Noro sock is turning out, but the stitch pattern is starting to get a little boring, hence the need for quickie projects like the scrubbie to kill time. I try to knit 2-3 rows on the sock a day, but it's still slow going.


The scrubbie is about half done, I should be able to finish the knitting and get it sewn up tomorrow. The pattern calls for a heavier weight yarn, so I'm playing with this right now. I think that I might have to make the next one a bit wider.

And, finally, a funny picture of Monkey, my insistent kitty.

He thinks that he's an outdoor cat. He's not. He tries to act like one, but his wimpiness shows through. He's actually climbed up my screen door in this picture, and he's about halfway up. Remember those Garfield suction cup dolls that people used to have in their cars back in the 80s? Yeah, that's my cat. Only he's hanging on my door.

Why is he hanging on my door? Because doofus ran outside when he shouldn't have, decided that it was too cold for his wimpy butt, and was begging to be let back in. Yeah- not before Mama got her camera, though.

Chicks With Sticks And Other Assorted Goodies

I haven't been around in wow, almost a year. Sorry about that. I've been trying to think over everything that I've done in the last year, and why is it that I know that I've been busy, but nothing important is coming to mind? Which leads me to...

Life, Among Other Things

Let's see, in a nutshell, the hubs has been promoted, the youngest started preschool, the middle one started kindergarten, and the oldest has discovered the wonders of XBOX and TONY HAWK. In fact, if I would let him, he would probably change his name to Tony Hawk Jr.

Mike's computer crashed multiple times, I lost everything once, and now I have my very own laptop that he's not allowed to touch.

My sister is moving to Texas, which means that my nephew is going to grow up with an adorable Texan accent. And he's going to think that his Aunt T has a funny Chicago accent (although I don't say 'da bears', lol).

My New Found Love

I taught myself to knit. Which is what I've been doing obsessively for the last few months. Right now, I'm working on a pair of socks using Noro yarn and an apron using some cheap yarn that I bought awhile back. I'm dying to finish the socks, because I need those needles in order to work on yet another pair that I've already purchased the yarn for. *sigh*

Digital Scrapbooking Stuff

And now, a preview of my latest kit...

I love how this kit turned out. To tell the truth, it shouldn't even be a kit, lol. I started out with this idea for a journaling box element pack, designed some papers to use for the journaling blocks, loved them, and just went on from there. I haven't had a lot of luck with designing kits lately, and have been sticking to what I like best (papers and elements sold separately).

This kit will be released tomorrow, 3/13, over at TDC.

*Edited 3/14: The kit has been released, and it can be found here!

What's even funnier about this whole kit thing is that I have yet another kit in the works, this one inspired by one of Cody's... oops, I mean Tony Hawk Jr's latest obsessions. I can't show you all of it, mostly because all of it doesn't exist yet, but I can give you a little taste of the kit...


Just a little preview, don't want to give away too much... In case you haven't figured it out, these are close ups of the five patterned papers that will be included in the kit. So far, there's those papers, plus six solids. And a lot of ideas, lol.

I've been working on layouts, too. I'm loving the realistic scanned look right now, and I'm always on the look out for designers with great stuff, because I'm terrible at extracting. Not to mention, I hate it with a passion. Especially since my Wacom died and I'm using a touchpad on my laptop right now.

I did make a score while cleaning out my dad's office awhile back. A few years back, my grandfather had issues with printers. He bought this all in one printer, and couldn't get it to work. He had thrown out the box, and couldn't return it, so bought a new one. I found it in a corner in my dad's office, and brought it home. It's really old, and I'm not even sure if I can find ink for it, but- the scanner works. With Vista, even. Not good enough for scanning items, but it works great for scanning doodles and such.

Tales From The Trenches

Also known as: What Fun Boys Can Be.

Cody was home 'sick' today (silly rule about being fever free for 24 hours before they'll allow him back in school), and he was bored. This afternoon, when I went to pick Dylan up from school, he decided to have a little fun. I came home to find a package, addressed to me, from an online yarn shop. First, I thought 'but that yarn came last week, and I haven't ordered anything else since then...' Then, I thought 'maybe they messed up, and sent me more yarn.' (I will admit to getting my hopes up on this one, even if it meant my having to pay for the mis-sent yarn.) Then I opened the package...

Inside, nestled among packing peanuts, was a Nerf dart gun.

Then it hit me. That box didn't come in the mail today, it came last week, holding the yarn that I had ordered. Yarn that was protected during shipping by packing peanuts. I'm a packrat when it comes to boxes. Love them, you never know when you might need on. So when this box first arrived, I placed it on a shelf in my kitchen, and forgot about it. Cody found it today, packed his brother's dart gun in it, taped it up, and set it on the front porch.

I'll admit that I was a bit disappointed, but then I realized what it really meant. Cody knows that I love it when a package arrives at our house, and he decided that I needed some cheering up. But ya know what?

He should have rethought that dart gun idea, because Mommy is a crack shot with the dart gun.