I got a total surprise in the mail the other day. We were all outside, getting into the truck to go run some errands; when a UPS truck stopped in front of our driveway. I said, "Huh? I never get anything from the UPS..." But I did get something from the UPS... :-D A boxful of scrap yarn for my scrap afghans!!! I had posted it on my wishlist at Crochet Mania. And less than a WEEK later, someone sent me some! Thank you so much, LadyH... :-D

Among the bazillion other projects I have going, I just this morning finished some "pumpkin" scrubbies. I used the Spiral Scrubbie pattern, and an idea Heart posted a long time ago on Crochetville. (The link for the spiral scrubbie is in that link, too... lazy blogger...) They're much cuter in real life...

And, I just last night worked some more on my Central Park Hoodie. One inch away from the sleeve caps, and I realized, "I did the cable wrong"... :( I did the C chart when I was supposed to do the B chart (or vice-versa?). It was supposed to be a double cable. Woops. Oh well. I'm not re-knitting both of the whole sleeves!

We still do not have any boxes to start packing with. Somehow, I'm not really worried or stressed out about it. (Yet...) My husband has been painting over there. (Our bedroom was hideous!!-- an awful pink/purple with blue splotches underneath.) It's white now. :-D It looks so much better. I hope the smell (from the paint) goes away, it was giving me a horrible headache... We also are going to get the carpet steam cleaned. Maybe eventually replace it? I don't know, it's just a rental and we aren't planning on staying there too long. I just hate stained carpet... Well have a nice upcoming weekend everyone.

Snakes

I am so glad these are finally done. I didn't mind doing the first one. It was kind of fun, stuffing it as I went... By the second one, though; I got burnt out big time. I didn't even work on it for about a week. Then one day I said 'I am just going to finish this and get it over with.' Ugh. I found the pattern in the 2010 Crochet Calender. I didn't know it is also an online pattern. I found that out on Ravelry. (I saw someone else's snake that was the same name as the pattern I used...) Ayame the Snake. These snakes have different names, though.

The black one is a girl. "Her" name is Crusher. Nice name for a girl snake, no?... I guess any name for a *snake*.... would not be a cute, fluffy, adorable name, right?.... :P

The white (off-white) one is a boy. He does not have a name. I don't know if he will get one or not...

I have lots of other things (TOOOOO MANY!!) I have been working on. Two afghans; the starghan and the pressed flowers one, still... I have three potholders going. All at the same time. (Sigh). My Central Park Hoodie is still waiting to be worked on some more.

I got the nicest surprise in my email the other day: A gift eCard (?), to KnitPicks!!! I was (and still am) so shocked and surprised. I couldn't believe it. I have been wanting to knit the "Amused" sweater for some time. I kept dropping hints to my husband that I would like to get some yarn that wasn't (crappy) acrylic... (Well, don't get me wrong-- I think acrylic is good for *some* things. Toys, especially. I use it all the time for afghans. But, I want to knit a sweater with something really nice, and that I will like wearing...) Finally, I came right out and asked him. It actually wasn't as expensive as I thought. (But I still feel bad asking, since money is so terribly tight right now for us, with moving again and all.... [sigh]) But he said to go ahead and order the yarn for the sweater. Well, I wanted to get the Amethyst Heather but it was $2.19 a skein and would have been a lot more. So, I got Fairy Tale instead. Well when I went to check my email later on (I was cleaning all day), there was the email for the gift ecard!!!! Thank you so much again (if you read my blog at all), TX! I know I will want to cast on right away when I receive the yarn, too. Then I will have even more projects going... Which makes me want to hurry up and finish everything right now. But, I'm going as fast as I can with what time I have...

Well, I will try and post again soon. I got another surprise in the mail again today (I will save that for another time, though).

More Afghans...

I started two more afghans. I may or may not have already posted that. But, here are pictures of them... This one is 'Pressed Flowers', from a scrap afghan book I have. Can't think of the name of it right now. This pattern is also called Catherine's Wheel. I think I made a 12" square with this same pattern stitch a few years ago. I started this one for some friends of ours who are my parents age (just about, a couple years older). They have kind of 'adopted' our 17 year old as their 'unofficial grandson'. They have taken him to their cabin a couple of times to help out (and they pay him). He gets to ride their four wheelers; (they ride with him) and have fun, too. I wanted to make them something to say thank you. I thought 'How about an afghan to take to their cabin with them?' It's turning out so ugly, no one would want it for anything but a cabin! lol

I also started another Granny Star Afghan. I kind of stalled out on working on both of them. My hand is hurting. Today I tried working on the pressed flowers one, and had to rip out a row because I did something wrong (couldn't figure it out), then re-did the row completely. Then realized, 'DUH!!!' I crocheted only one blue strip, and finished the 'flower' with brown. (You do two rows of one color...) I knew that something wasn't right, but couldn't figure out *what* it was... I'm such a ditz sometimes. Too much going on in my brain right now, I can't concentrate... :(

We are moving (AGAIN).... :( I am really, really, really getting sick of moving!!!! I should just say no! I can understand we need to find a cheaper place to live. But, it's only $100 cheaper a month. Is it worth all the hassle to move? Ugh... Technically, I guess it is. If you look at it this way: That's $1,200 a year we will be saving. But... Ugh. The house we are moving to is on the other side of town. It's on two and a half acres, and has 4 bedrooms. I am really hoping this will help alleviate some of the bickering between the 12 year old and the 7 year old.... Although, I can kind of see it already: "Get out of my room' 'Can you tell him to stop coming in my room?'.... So, I don't know... One of the bedrooms is technically an 'office', but the only thing that makes it an office is that it doesn't have a closet. So, they will have to share closets. Not a huge deal. Maybe I can use it to my advantage with the 'fights'.... =^^= (Catty, no?...) Well, that's about all the news. I hope everyone is having a great 'hump day'. :P TTYS or L.... :P

It's Been a While...

I'm still here, though... My husband bought me the Bearista Bear! Isn't he adorable? I just love him. I haven't thought of a name for him, yet. Don't know if I will. I still kind of want to crochet a pumpkin bear. I need more time to make everything I want to. (Sigh...)

I finished one thing, though. The Chakra Purse. Yay.

Stuffed with a couple of skeins of yarn. :P

And the lining. (Sorry, blurry, pre-coffee picture this morning...) ;) Trust me, you wouldn't want a good picture of it. It looks like a seven year old sewed it in. I am not good at sewing. I will still use this purse, though; that's for sure.

I started a new (big) project. An afghan. :0 Can you believe it? (I can.) We only have to pack and clean this house to move in three weeks, but I am starting an afghan. That's me all right. Why do I do it? I don't know. To distract my mind from what is really going on? Who knows. :) This is Sami Jo Fitzgeralds Granny Star Afghan, it works up super fast. I'm just using colors I had in my stash. I looked through star afghans at Ravelry to see if I could find any good color scheme ideas (since I am brain dead that way). I saw a really cute one Vashongirl made; in the exact colors I am using. I am going to try doing mine that way. I will probably have to go get some more yarn before this is done, but... I have a good amount to start with, anyway. :)

Well that's about all the news. I have had some kind of a bug the last two days, I think. My husband was home sick Monday and Tuesday. Then Tuesday I started feeling kind of sick. Sneezed about a hundred times, my nose would not stop running all morning. My ears hurt. Kinda sore throat. A little bit head achey. Then today it was my stomach. :( I feel a little better now. But not well. Anyway~~ I hope you are staying well where you are. No flu allowed! Anywhere! :P

Pumpkin Bears and Pumpkin Muffins...

Well.... I couldn't find any 'Pumpkin Bears' to post a picture of... But I want one! Yesterday we went to Starbucks, and I got a Pumpkin Spice Frappucino. Yummy... While we were waiting, I was looking around and saw the cutest Pumpkin Bears. Well, more accurately Bearista Bears. With the cutest little pumpkin sweater on. I want one! My husband said he will buy me one. We'll see. :) But now I am on a mission to crochet one or knit one, too. Not that I don't have a gazillion other projects to do right now. (Sigh...) I know what I want, but don't know if I will be able to come up with a cute enough real life version...

Then I started craving pumpkin desserts. I wanted a pumpkin streusel coffee cake. But I couldn't find any. I found some pumpkin streusel muffin recipes. I might try one (of the recipes).

I Got My Calender, and I Got My Orders...

I got my Crochet Pattern a Day Calender (although it isn't a 'pattern a day', anymore. I guess it is the 2010 Crochet Calender. I don't know... There was a mix-up with my address (even though I sent my new address several times...) Anyway~~ I got it, finally. It wasn't any hurry. My 12 year old son, just a few days prior to getting the calender; had said to me, 'Can you crochet me another snake? Really long?' They had one I had crocheted years ago. But I think it got thrown away since the stuffing was all coming out of it, and it was ratty looking. It was the 'Guard Dawg and Sentry Snake' pattern. I don't know if it is an archived pattern now or what... Well when I got the calender, I said 'Hey!'... and showed him the snake pattern. Well, you can guess the rest... And, little brother wants one, too (of course). ;) I haven't crocheted a toy in a while and it's fun for me, so... I don't mind. :P Here is the 12 yr olds':

He wanted a 'white snake' with yellow and black eyes (he drew me a picture). So I have been googling white snakes. They're kinda creepy looking. (Well, aren't all snakes? But..) I think it's funny, my big 200+ 6'1" dad, and my tatoo artist brother are deathly afraid of snakes. Here I am, crocheting them... :P When my brother came to our house for my Grandma's funeral (we flew out together), there was one of the kids plastic snakes laying in the garage, and my brother thought it was real and jumped. It was kinda funny. I was just standing there, going 'What?...' :P

I am also making progress on my Chakra Purse. I finished the front. I had the whole back and front flap all done, but my heart was slanting so I ripped it all out and am going to re-do it. I am on the strap and gussett part, now. I bought some fabric to line it with. I could only find one teal colored fabric that I liked at all. So I guess I'll use that. I also bought a bling-y button but I don't know if I'll put it on there, or not...

I'm also making progress on my CPH sleeves, too. I'm almost to the last increase on the sleeves then I just have to work straight til they are long enough. I have so many sweaters in my que (sp?) at Ravelry. (Among other things!) It took me a while to figure out, but I think that is supposed to be things you are actually working on? I have been using it to keep patterns that I *want* to work on, somewhere where I know where they are... Oh well. :P

Well that's about all folks. I hope everyone had a nice weekend. We didn't do much, my husband worked Saturday. Just hung out around the house... :) Til next time~~~

I had forgotten to take a picture of the potholder I crocheted for a recent swap on CrochetMania.... This is it. She said her kitchen was a 'rainbow' of colors. I thought of this variegated for some reason. It's got bright cheery colors... Then when I was crocheting it, it was turning out way too big. So I frogged what I did and chained only 45 or 40. It started turning out like a rainbow! I thought that was so cool. :P

I recently joined the Chakra Purse CAL in the Crochet in the Philippines Group I am in on Ravelry. I don't live in the Philippines at all, but Mimi invited me to join the group (and the CAL :P), so I did! This is what I have so far on the purse. It was all going well til I did the flap. :( I think it is the pattern. I followed it exactly, and it is all wonky and lopsided. It is also 'pulling'... I noticed someone else's Chakra purse on Ravelry did the same thing (I searched for other ones people might have made...) There was another one someone else did that looked perfect, though. Sigh... Maybe once I get it all finished, it will work out. Maybe if I try blocking it.

I started the front last night. I think I need to slow down. In between my shoulder blades has been aching. My wrists and hands have been aching... I thought it was from knitting, since I have been working on my Central Park Hoodie recently. (Knitting too much hurts my hands..) Who knows. I should start slowing down, though..

Here is a picture of Baby E, in his Fishy Sweater I knitted for him before he was born. :) I was really into knitting sweaters back then for the kids. I don't know why I got away from it. Probably because they never wore them, and the ones I knitted for other people I felt were never appreciated (or worn) either... Now, it's too hot where we live to wear sweaters! I guess I'll stick to knitting them for just me. :D (CPH...)

I hope everyone is having a good week so far... I suppose I should get busy here and start the day. :)

Catching Up...

I have been neglecting my blog for a while... Sorry. I have been crocheting some, though. I'm trying to get caught up and finish some of my projects I should have finished a long time ago. (Sigh.)

I did finish my Simply Striped Shrug, finally! I was worried I would run out of thread (which I did, in the end...). I had a second (less than half ball--well, they were both not full) ball, and no wrapper inside so I wasn't sure if they were the same red or not. But then when I started crocheting with it, it looked like it was. But then I started getting close to the end of the ball and knew I was going to have to finish it. It was a little tight (I tried it on that night with a bulky shirt all bunched up underneath it, though). It fits good without a shirt on under it. :)

Sorry for the blurriness in this one. My husband was taking the pictures.

You can find the Simply Striped Shrug pattern on Mimi's mycrochetstuff page, or on Mimi's Ravelry page! It is a fast simple pattern (fast for anyone on earth other than me!) ;)

Here is an old, old project I did. (The picture I just took.) :P I crocheted this Clint Eastwood Poncho for our now 12 year old. He NEVER wore it, maybe three to five times total. :( Well a couple nights ago, the 7 year old (he's not 6 anymore...) said, 'Can I have the ??? poncho?' (I couldn't understand what he was saying...) I said 'Do you know where it is?' He did, and then we had to go through a huge long process of reasoning with his brother, to let his little brother have it. I finally just said, 'You never even wore it, and it doesn't even fit you anymore, anyway. I made it, and I'm giving it to Eon'.... Why can't older brothers just be nice to their little brother once in a while?

Here he is, with his cowboy boots and hat...

I started a new CAL on Ravelry, and a new purse. The Chakra Purse. At first I wasn't sure I would really like the pattern stitch. But, I do. I'm making it in Red Heart Super Saver in Turqua. It is kind of curling up on the sides (I had to force it down for the picture). I hope that isn't going to be a problem later. I could not find out what kind of yarn Caron Spa is. I *think* it is a light worsted. Kind of like Caron Simply Soft? The pattern said to use a D hook, but I am using an F. I almost wanted to use a G. But maybe it is supposed to be a little stiffer. I don't know. It feels good, for a purse.

I have quite a few tops this purse will go with. I was going through my closet yesterday (trying to find a tank to wear with the SS Shrug), and so I started putting all my tank type tops in one spot on the rack. I have three or four of this type color. Plus a couple other tops, too... I am trying to wear more bright, cheery colors. Not so much black or grey...

And last, but not least, my Central Park Hoodie progress! I dug this out and started working on it again after only what, eight months?.... (sigh...) At first I couldn't find my notes and almost started getting angry. I guess that's one other reason why you shouldn't let so long go in between working on a project... But, I found them, and all was good. I just have the sleeves and hood. I was looking through Ravelry to see everyone else's CPHs. Some people did theirs with no hood. They looked nice, but I want the hood on mine. :P If I do another one, I will buy some nice yarn in a nice brighter color (maybe a bright green, or pink/purple?). I figured if I mess up on this one, I am only using Red Heart and didn't waste a fortune on yarn with it. This is the first adult sweater I have ever knitted. I used to knit baby/small child sweaters, and was getting pretty good at them. I found a picture yesterday of a baby sweater I knitted for Eon before he was even born, and I scanned it. I'll have to post a picture here of it. It's on my Ravelry page, though. If anyone can't wait. :P I also posted the Zip-Neck pullover I knitted (on Ravelry), too. (I didn't put a zipper in mine, though...)

Well I hope everyone had a nice weekend. Last night we went to a Going-Away party for two families who already left; that ended up getting turned into a 'Glad You're Not Going Away' party, for someone who's staying. :P LOL Our oldest son brought his guitar. It was really fun. We brought home cake we do not need. Ugh. If I can just keep away from it until it's gone. ;P It is "Italian Creme Cake", with coconut and walnuts (yuck, yuck...) but that didn't stop me from eating TWO pieces last night! :0

Simply Striped Shrug

...is done! I am kind of disappointed, though. It's a little tight. :( I could have kept going, but I ran out of thread. It fits, but is tight. I will try to get a picture of it on me soon. I got one today before it got too dark out, on a hanger.

You can purchase this pattern on Mimi's Ravelry page, or her mycrochetstuff page. :) Thanks again for letting me test out your pattern, Mimi!

I think I might work on my Central Park Hoodie now. I have two more sweaters in mind that I really like. One Miss Kitty started (on Crochet Mania): "Wicked Sweater", and one I saw just looking through Knitty one day, "Girl Friday".

Barbie Stuff

A Barbie purse, to be exact. I have been crocheting Barbie furniture lately. (For a friends daughter.... long story...) I sent her the dishcloth I was knitting while we were in Colorado this summer, and her daughter thought it was a rug or blanket for her Barbie Dream House. LOL So I said, "I can make her something for her Barbie house..." (I used to LOVE crocheting Barbie stuff.) I don't think I ever even had a Barbie, growing up. I don't remember it at all, if I did. So, I don't know why I like making Barbie dresses, now.... I used to crochet Bed Doll dresses for everyone in my family who was a little girl. I made one for both of my nieces (I since have two more, who never did get Bed Dolls), I made one for my sisters.... I don't think anyone kept any of them. And, I think I got burned out from making them. (That was the only patterns I had for a while.) Anyway~~~ I don't know where this came from, but I made up a purse for Barbie. You can find the pattern at my other blog. :) I took a picture of the 'frame' (plastic canvas sewn together) of the blanket chest I made for her. Which I since have finished. I also crocheted a rug. Now all I have is the chair to do. My six (soon to be seven) year old said 'Can you make me one of these? (The blanket chest.) But different?' (sigh...) Then, I got out my latest issue of Crochet World, to show him the tent and sleeping bag patterns. (Sigh again...) And I crocheted him a sleeping bag. Now all he needs is a guy that fits... (Sigh...) I won't even tell you about going onto ebay and looking at the 7,000+ pages of G.I.Joes and action figures, then doll houses, then Barbie accessories (didn't look to see how many pages there was of Barbie).... Then crochet patterns for Barbie... It's no wonder I never finish anything... AND I am going to make a sleeping bag and tent for my friends son, too. (So he doesn't feel left out. He's really a sensitive kid... Even though he is all boy.) :) So, I will need to get more camoflauge (sp?) yarn to do that, too. Well, someday I may have pictures of the whole finished sets. Stay tuned...

Blueberry Muffins!

... dishcloths, that is... :P I have been knitting more dishcloths. I knitted the off-white one first. Then I thought, "Duh... I should have knit this in blue, for blueberry?"

Oh well. If you have a Ravelry account, you can find the link here for this dishcloth. If not, you can find it at digknittydesigns dot blogspot dot com. With a 'www' in front. :P




Is anyone else craving blueberry muffins now?...
I did make some muffins, although they aren't blueberry.... (In case you thought you were going to see some yummy blueberry muffins, from my blog post title...) They are 'Fat Free Zuccini' muffins. I think it is kind of misleading when they say these are 'fat free'. They are still loaded with sugar. And doesn't the body convert sugar into fat?..... Technically, they don't have any fat in them, but... Someone gave us a bunch of vegetables from their garden. My son did some work for him. He paid him a little bit, plus gave him all those vegetables. Tomatillas, tomatoes, cucumbers, beets (yuck), carrots, and two big zuccini. Which is all grated up and in the freezer. So far we have had two loaves of zuccini bread. (My 17 year old made some.) I just stay out of his way in the kitchen, and tell him 'Do whatever you want but you're cleaning up the mess.' :P He is pretty good about that. (Although, the dishes might not be *totally* clean after he washes them, but.. that's a whole other thing..) Anyway the zuccini bread was good. He googled zuccini bread recipes (before I could even get my cookbooks out to find some for him), and did it all on his own. Anyway, we also had some of it on the grill, and then I made a Chocolate Zuccini (Bundt) cake. It was okay. Everyone else said they liked it. (They were probably just trying to be nice...) ;) It was all right, but the frosting was kind of grainy to me. It was super sweet. I could barely finish the one piece. These muffins are too sweet, too...

Anyway~~ I also crocheted some more leaves... in more 'traditonal' leaf colors? I should have taken a picture of all the "leaf rubbings" my six year old did yesterday. He did two pages of 'traditonal' fall leaf colors, then decided he was going to make them ANY color. LOL He made a hot pink leaf, a black one, a blue one... Too funny. Maybe I'll take some pictures of them today.

We used to do leaf rubbings every fall. It is kind of ridiculous doing it here, but... Still kind of fun. Even if the leaf we used is still green!

I hope you all are having a nice day. :)

Guess What? I'm Still Here...

... am I getting on your nerves yet? :P

Yesterday, our 17 year old had all of his wisdom teeth removed. :0 I could not believe how fast they did it!! His appointment was at 10:30 am. We got there at about a half hour early. They called him in at 10:15. He was done in just a little over a half an hour! ALL FOUR. A dentist appointment isn't even that fast. I was shocked. I was all ready to camp out all day; I brought a book to read, the two younger kids brought stuff to do (PSPs).... I hadn't even gotten into my book yet, and they were done. So far, he is doing all right. They gave him a prescription for vicadin :0 but we didn't think we should get it filled. (Is it just 'us' or isn't vicadin pretty strong for a 17 yr old?...) Well anyway I gave him one of my pain pills for my back. It's 'Hydrocone' ? (something like that). It just is basically the same strength (IMO) as two Tylenol. And he's been putting the ice pack on. He couldn't brush his teeth til this morning (ew...) This morning he also swished salt water in his mouth (they told him to do that). I guess by the third day it's the worst (for swelling, bruising,etc....) so we will see.

Here is a WIP I have going. I finally am working on the Earl Grey socks. I was really getting into them, and I just haven't picked them up again, since the day I started them... I actually have been busy and tired, so I really haven't had the motivation to do anything... I shocked myself again when I actually figured out something was wrong with the pattern (without looking at the pattern site online, or checking Ravelry first...)! After all the ribbing, you will work two rows of the cable pattern.... It should be: "Next Row: K1, work pattern, knit 28... work pattern, knit 27" The pattern had 27 and 26, but I don't think she added in the M1's from the previous row. So, I am almost done with one cable pattern section (?), this is when I first got started... I will have to take another picture soon (if my camera will cooperate...)
This is a quickie project I did somewhere in between everything. Someone who is on two message boards I am on (her username is Serena on Crochetmania, and Gran on Crochetville) has been sending me little goodies in the mail every now and then. She had sent me some leaflet (?) patterns a while back, one of them was 'Autumn Leaves'. I just love autumn, and I really miss it. We don't get autumn here at all. So I crocheted one of the leaves... They are fridge magnets but you could probably use them for anything.. appliques, whatever. When I was in Michigan, I bought some variegated yarn at WalMart in Fenton one day that just looked like Fall to me. I never looked at the color, it's Fall! How weird... My brain sometimes semi-works, eh? ;) I made this to send to one of the people I sent things to on the Pine Ridge Indian reservation; I have recently quit Crafting for a Cause-- for a while, anyway... I wanted to send her a little something with the letter telling her about that... I will probably make myself one of these, too. I think they are cute. Thanks Serena/Gran!! *Hugs*

Another F.O.

And they're socks! Holy cow. These are for my husband. I wonder when I started these... They might be the fastest pair of socks I've ever finished. I already cast on for the Earl Grey socks, but... I am already worried I won't know what to do. The pattern isn't a row-by-row or section-by-section pattern. It's just kind of vague. I want to try more kinds of sock patterns, though. So maybe I will keep on with it.

Blog It While You've Got It...

I guess. (The internet, that is...) :P Someone we know asked us over for dinner last night. She had a few crocheted rugs around her house. I asked her if she crocheted them. She said no, her Grandmother did those. Then she asked me if I crocheted. I said yes. Well then she asked me if I might be able to help her with something. I said maybe (I have had people ask me to fix things that were not able to be fixed, before...) Her cat had gotten to this rug and unraveled it. I thought there might be enough yarn to finish it with, but there wasn't. So I used some rug yarn (needleloft) that I had. It wasn't an exact match. But.... here it is, finished. :)

And up close. You can see the difference. I used an H hook and tried to crochet tight as I could, but it still turned out bigger than the original. I think part of that might be that it is worn and used for so many years... Oh well. I called her and told her all this and she is okay with it, she said she just didn't want it to get unraveled and worse. It makes me want to make a rag rug now. (Like I don't have enough projects right now, to finish...) I have wanted to make one forever.... Maybe someday.

Here is another project I recently finished. A 'Snow-Yo Man', from Gardener's Ramblings. :D Isn't he cute? I realized I forgot to put three buttons on the snowman's body. Oh well. He's still cute, to me.

Our six year old ~who will be seven two weeks from Wednesday!! :( said, 'It looks like marshmallows' :P (he loves marshmallows). Well that's all for now.... I hope you are all having a good Monday so far.

Well, I'm still here....

Since I don't have much to blog about, I thought I'd post a picture of an old pair of socks I knit for my husband. (Yeah, my camera works whenever I could care less... But whenever I really *want* it to.... Grrr!!) I knit these a long time ago. Must have been Pre-Digital camera days for me, because I'm pretty sure I don't have a picture of these. Unless it was just so long ago, I forgot?.. He never wears these socks. (I am knitting him a second pair, which I have posted about here a couple posts back.) I hope he'll start wearing them both. He said 'It's never cold enough.' I told him, 'Nice try. I knit you the first pair when we lived in Michigan or Colorado, and you didn't wear them there, either....'

I know I didn't post it here yet, but we are going to be getting rid of our internet soon. For a few different reasons (it's my husband's idea, not mine...): It's a big time waster (especially for me!), and a distraction (especially when I am supposed to be doing homeschooling with the kids right now...); for financial reasons, and other reasons... I will probably have to go up to the library every once in a while to check out all my sites: Ravelry, Crochetville, Crochetmania, and all my blog friends' blog updates :) .... It just won't be the same, but.... Maybe we have gotten too used to it, and need to step back for a while. What did I do in Pre-Internet days? I remember cleaning a lot more, and spending more time with the kids (yikes). So I think this will be a good thing for us right now.

I also forgot to post in my last blog update about all the other animals we saw in my Dad's backyard: Coyote (saw one walk through the backyard like it was nothing--we also saw one somewhere else while we were driving, it was just out in the middle of a field). Deer (I think I posted that), sandhill cranes, and a skunk! It was pretty cute, but it sure did smell! We actually smelled it before we saw it-- that night about 2 am, it sprayed somewhere around the house. My car smelled like skunk for days after. Yuck.... Now that I think about it, I hope I didn't smell like it!... Oh well... No one said anything to me, so I must not have. :P

My Dad is supposed to be coming home from the hospital tomorrow. For a 'trial period'. ??? I guess, to see how he does getting in and out of the house, and around the house, by himself? I KNOW he is not going to want to go back into the hospital, after being home. He has been acting very rudely to the nurses and doctors. I won't go into that, but... I don't know how it will all work out, but... I'm sure I will hear about it this weekend. (Sigh....)

Three weeks ago from Wednesday, my "baby* will be seven years old! :( I told him I am going to stop feeding him so he won't grow anymore. He said 'Mom. I would die.' ;P I said I wouldn't do that, I'm just joking around with you... They grow up so fast. The twelve year olds' voice just got deep like overnight! I don't know if I like that!....

Well I will be around every now and then. I don't know if I will be able to blog much anymore. I guess we'll see. Take care, everyone. :)

Phone Pictures....

.... Since that's all I have left from my trip. :( We'll see if these work okay.... While I stayed at my Dad's, there was a lot of wild animals we saw coming through their backyard everyday. This was a turkey we saw the day before we left. It came right up by the house. Was probably getting bird seed on the ground from all of my stepmoms' bird feeders. :) It was so cool. Another day we saw a mama turkey, with three babies, out towards the pond. I don't know if this was the same turkey or not, since it didn't have any babies with it... This is a baby chipmunk my twelve year old caught! (He used two sticks to pick it up.) You should have heard me, 'Don't you dare hurt that baby chipmunk!' He put it up on the table. It was shaking really bad. I said 'Don't put that up there, it's gonna walk right off the --' (table) (It fell off.) :( I said 'Go put it back where you found it, it's mama is probably looking for it.' Well later on that day, I heard a bunch of commotion outside; so I went over to the sliding glass door and heard that Buddy (my Dad's dog--he's a Border Collie mix and is the BEST dog on earth!!--except for this....) got a baby chipmunk in his mouth. It was apparently already dead. :( I told my stepmom about the kids finding it earlier; and I hope that they didn't do anything to hurt it... (I didn't tell her how it fell off the table... I know they didn't hurt it with the sticks, they wouldn't intentionally hurt an animal like that, but...) Anyway she said it was probably already injured, or they wouldn't have been able to catch it. Maybe. Well, here *was* the cute baby chipmunk: Poor baby chipmunk... :(

And these were taken at the mill pond in our old town. Tons of geese and ducks... (The big ones spreading their wings are statues in the water...) You can see the bridge going over the pond (this is where I took the last picture, from)

The geese will come right by you, but not look at you or come to you.

And here is a view of the mill pond, from the bridge that goes over the pond... (With the top of my six year olds' head in there, too...)

Guess I should have taken more phone pictures, in this case, huh? Oh well... Just thought I'd share some of them here....

Projects From My Trip....

I bet you didn't even know I was gone... :) I went to stay with my Dad while he had surgery in August. I was there almost three weeks. He made it through the surgery fine, but then had other complications. He is an alcoholic, so went through DT's and they put him on a detox program. They kept him sedated, because he was so anxious and his heart rate kept going up, his blood pressure kept going up... Then, he developed pneumonia. So he was (and still is, I think) on antibiotics for that. Long story short, he will be in the hospital probably another week from when I left (Friday); then in a physical rehab facility for two weeks after that. So.... I decided I couldn't stay there another month. I was able to help out *some*, though.... I drove my stepmom to the hospital a few times (she doesn't drive highways), tried to help with cleaning the house, some... Made dinner a couple times... And if he is in the rehab place, he will probably be well enough to get around by himself when he gets home. (The whole reason-- mostly, besides wanting to be there for the surgery in case anything happened-- that I went, was to help him out after he got home from the hospital..) I think besides getting him to walk by himself, the big thing now is getting him back to himself. When he started coming out of sedation, he was really out there!! The first day I walked in his room after he was *awake*, I said, 'Hey! They have you sitting up now! Have you been able to walk around at all?' (Not knowing anything about how he really was doing at this point...) He said, 'It's against the law' I laughed and said 'No it's not, I'm walking around, aren't I?'.... Things like that. It was distressing.... The nurses said it is because he is in what they call a 'Med Fog'; because he was on so many different medications, he is 'foggy', and should come out of it soon. But because his liver isn't like as a normal, healthy persons' liver (from being an alcoholic since he was 16 years old), it may take even longer than usual for his body to get rid of all that stuff...
Anyway~~~ I only brought a few projects with me to work on. My Simply Striped Shrug. This is my progress so far. :)

My socks, which I started for our twelve year old son (I wanted to knit socks for all of them). He said he doesn't want them. :( So, I asked my husband if he wanted them. He said yes. (I don't know why he wants them, when he doesn't even wear the ones I already knitted him!...) I was going to make them for the 17 year old, but I have another pair in mind for him. I already have the pattern & yarn to make him the Earl Grey Socks. So, here is sock #1 of pair #2 for my husband....

I also worked on some more magic ball hotpads. I finished one other one besides this (which I gave to my stepmom). I took a picture of it, but my camera ATE all my pictures!!! I am so mad about that. I had 65 really cool pictures of the whole trip. It has done that to me once before. I want to smash it. Anyway, the other one was more black and white and blue... It was pretty cool. This is the second one I did...

This is the back. Here is the front:

Kinda crooked. I also did a couple more ballband dishcloths:

The brown-ish one is for my sister. Don't know about the blue one yet. I have a pile of dishcloths going. I was going to donate them somewhere but haven't decided yet...

Another idiot dishcloth.

When I was in Michigan, I got to visit lots of family. Two of my Aunts (well, three-- I saw one of my other Aunts at Target while I was there-- she works there :P). My one Aunt; I used to live with for a while, til I graduated from high school.... She had a lot of these dishcloths, she buys at craft shows. She was showing them to me. I said 'Oh yeah, I make those a lot'. She also had these really cool crocheted scrubbies. She gave me one (I should take a picture of it). I wanted to try and copy it; but don't know if I will ever get around to doing that... It's made out of some kind of mesh stuff. Mine is purple. I think she had a yellow or green one, too. I got to see my nephew. :) He's going to be walking any day now. He's only about ten months old, too. Our oldest walked at ten and a half months old. (My sister--my nephew's mama-walked at nine months!) So he might be an early walker, too. Well that is enough for today, I think. As much as I don't like living here, it does feel good to be *home*!