The next generation

My new pic over here to the right shows my youngest, Malcolm, looking like he knows what he's doing. I LOVE love love this picture! It makes me think of all the possibilities that open up just because he watches me with hook and yarn so much. I was at the grocery store recently and Malcolm has made it his duty to help load the groceries onto the conveyor belt for the cashier. On this particular trip I had various things we needed for the house and him and he named each thing as he loaded it onto the belt. I have to hand the things to him because he can't reach down into the basket when he's sitting in the seat. So he was naming all the things, milk, juice, bananas, yarn...I was so surprised to hear him say it. I had no idea he knew the word! I don't know why I was surprised, I guess just because I'd never heard him say it before. I was sorta touched by it, and hopeful. My older two kids aren't really that interested. They pretend to be, I think they WANT to be, but they're not true yarn lovers as I am. But Malcolm, he will have the yearning, the need to put needles to yarn and actually make things. I will definitely see to that!

Politics, ahhhhhhhh!

So here goes my one and only venture into talking about politics in a public forum. First, I'll be the first to tell you that I don't know all I should about the candidates and what their qualifications are. I do know this: I wouldn't vote for Hillary if she was the last politician in the world. I don't know why either, I just don't trust her. Some women may take offense to that since if she won, she'd be the first woman president. I just don't get a good feeling about or from her. That's probably not the best way to pick a president, but it's all I have right now.

Now onto Barack. He seems to be the golden boy as of late. Oprah loves him, Iowa loves him, but I feel kinda iffy about him. I'm just worried that he's so new to the game. Will he be able to be effective? Will he know how to play the game? I'm afraid he won't be able to get anything done. Most importantly, is the country ready for a black president? My answer is, I'm not sure.

As for the rest of the crew, I don't even know enough to mention the names. I was rooting for Guiliani, now that he's dropped out of the race I'm sorta lost. I just KNEW I was gonna be voting for Rudy for president! Now that he's gone, I'm lost. I do look forward to, in the coming weeks (well days, 'cause my primary is coming up soon) reading up on each candidate and choosing who I think would make the best president for me.

I'd like you to leave a comment and tell me how you decide who to vote for for presdient, or for any election for that matter. Happy voting!

Yarn weekend update

The yarn weekend was awesome to say the least!! Friday night at Knitter's Night Out was great fun with my new knitting friends, Kim and Gretchen, and my best friend Mz. Knitting at Heavenly Creations Fiber Arts was followed by a late dinner at Noodles. This was my first visit to Noodles and I liked it a lot. I didn't order any noodles though (I had eaten shortly before going to the yarn shop), but we all shared what we ordered so I did get to taste some. I will definitely be visiting them again!

Saturday was our little knitting circle that's composed of me, Mz, and my mom, sometimes we let the kids tag along too. We met at Mz's house this month. She had some awesome snacks and my favorite beer (the only beer in Creation that I will drink) Miller Chill, and her neighbor, Sue jumped on the bandwagon. Little did we know that we were in for hours of laughs and some knitting and eating in between. My mom works at an adult day care center and apparently has some of the raunchiest co-workers ever! She shared with us the highly personal, inappropriate for work, stories of these young ladies sex lives and we were all on the floor laughing at Mom's reactions! My mom is not usually the best storyteller, but she was on that night! That was one of the best times we've had together. It was really nice for me because I got to go with NO KIDS! They all stayed home with dad this time.

Sunday was another really fun time! Once again we (me and best friend Mz) met up with our new knitting friends, Gretchen, Kimberly and Lori. This time we went to Bucca di Beppo's for lunch. Bucca's is a great place to eat! I love the family style meals. That means that I eat way more than I should of course, but so does everybody else so I don't feel so bad! Anyway, after stuffing ourselves with really good food and (two?) bottles of wine, we made our way over to Nationwide Arena for the hockey game and Sticks n Stitches. Now this was my first time to such an event and it was great fun to watch the game and see so many people knitting. I also met a lot of Ravelry.com friends which was really great! We knitted squares for Warm Up America, we ate (they gave us free food!), we watched the game, a fun time was had by all. I was a lucky door prize winner, unfortunately I won something I already owned. I still wouldn't have changed a thing, we had a really good time. I would've finished my square but I was too busy talking and walking around and of course eating.

I've heard some talk about a Pitch n Stitch event coming up when baseball starts up again. I don't even like baseball, but it would be really fun to go and meet up with a bunch of knitter's again. I'll post an update when I hear one.

All in all, I had one of the best weekends I've had in a while. It was great fun and I can't wait to do it again!

Yarn weekend!

I am so excited! This weekend I will be able to spend virtually the entire time playing with yarn! I could just scream from the joy of it! First on Friday, my yarngirlfriends and I will be at Heavenly Creations Fiber Arts for their monthly (not often enough) Knitter's Night Out. I'm looking forward to seeing some of the girls we met last time. We've been trying in vain to get together again since then but have been unsuccessful. I have kids and a house to take care of, they have jobs, school, boyfriends, and pets, it just has not worked out for us! Anyhoo...we'll all see each other again Friday. Then Saturday, my best friend mz is hosting our personal little crochet round robin that we do with my mother. We'll probably be including my dd and her friend. They both want to learn to crochet, my daughter not so much, her friend, very much so. That's always a fun time though. We get together at someone's house, we try to share yarn, we're all pretty protective of our stashes. I like to think I've been a little more generous with mine as of late. Mz and I decided to make our stashes into a sort of co-op where all the yarn is available to either of us, but I don't know how that's working out. Neither of us has really asked the other for anything major. Oh sorry, ok back on track here. We'll get together, eat, knit/crochet some, talk some trash, it'll be fun! Then on Sunday, we will be going to the Blue Jackets hockey game. They've got a special event set up for knitter's (crocheters too) called Sticks n Stitches. I'm really looking forward to it. If we show up early enough, we get goody bags, and I love a good goody bag!

So I was talking to mz this evening and she is as excited as I am if not more and we decided that this will probably be the most fun we've had together since our last yarn weekend! So I'll check back in on Monday and relate how the weekend actually went!

Design? Me?

I've decided I want to try my hand at designing. It makes me a little nervous to say that. Two things caused this sudden desire: 1) My dh has issued me a challenge. He will learn how to knit AND actually complete a project if I a)design the pattern he is to use, b) learn how to write a computer program. 2) There's a design contest in the current issue of Crochet Today! Magazine. You have to make a heart motif and you could win a $50 shopping spree at yarncollection.com. I originally didn't care about the magazine contest, I was designing a square for dh to knit. Once I came up with the design and it was a heart, I figured, might as well enter it into the contest. I think I'm gonna go work on it right now. I'll post pictures as soon as I get it done. I have to figure out how to write the pattern too. I think the best way to do that is gonna be by using a chart. Now, if only I knew how to READ a chart! :-) It's ok, I'm reasonably intelligent, I'm sure I'll figure it out. Wish me luck!

Family life these days

So, I named this blog the way I did because I wanted somewhere to write about, well my life. My life includes my family of course and they certainly keep me on my toes. I have an adorable two year old who does what he wants to do and is in speech therapy, a very handsome 8 year old who I homeschool, who tries me by the hour, and is really, really smart. I also have a 9 year old daughter on the cusp of puberty and she is sometimes not my favorite person. She's beautiful and energetic and can switch on the attitude at the drop of a hat! I love these 3 dearly and attitudes and behaviors and all, I wouldn't have them any other way! I complain, but probably 95% of my life is with them or about them. I'm always hoping that they know how much I love them.

My husband, who is my favorite person in the world, works from home half the time and is in his office out of town the other half. So he is around for a lot of the antics the kids put me through, which I love. My mom and dad split up when I was almost too little to remember and my mom took us and moved back home. So unfortunately my dad wasn't around for LOTS of things when I was growing up. It's funny how things affect you and what you turn it into when you grow up. I wanted nothing more than to make sure that my children would have their father in their lives. So I married a great guy, and we live happily ever after.

Are you doing what you thought you'd be doing when you grew up? I have almost exactly the life that I imagined when I was growing up. I have a great husband who thinks that it's his job to work and bring in the money, and my job to take care of the house and kids. Now, I agree with him. Somehow I'm this old fashioned girl with these crazy ideas about what a family is supposed to be. I love the fact that I found a guy who thinks the same way I do. It's a great life for us, it works for what we want to do.

Soon though we're gonna be shaking it all up and trying to get me back in college. I'm so nervous at the thought of it! I'm so worried about what kind of student I'll be after all these years, will I be able to be disciplined enough to do all the things I have to do now, AND study and get good grades! Will my kids be better students than me? I don't want to disappoint them, or me for that matter. I guess the honest truth is, time will tell. I won't know for sure until I get there. I've been promising myself for a few years that I was going back and I haven't made it yet. I think I'm gonna actually do it this time though. I hope so anyway. Only the Lord knows!

Here goes...

Ok so I went looking for help for my problem and I didn't really find what I wanted, but here goes anyway. I'm gonna publish this post as best I can.

Here are some pics of some things I've made over the last couple years. I'm really very proud of the things I've done, I just wish I had more time! Well I guess I wish I knew how to use my time more wisely.

Anyway, my favorite project pictured here is the red and orange scarf. I made it because the yarn was calling me (c'mon I know I'm not the only one that happens to!) and I ended up giving the scarf to my best friend when I finished it.

The other scarves I made because they were quick and easy to knit up and I'm in the process of trying to destash a little bit. See I want to buy more yarn but my dh has been fussing about all the yarn I have already. He has a good point though. So I'm trying to make all the quick and easy patterns that I can so that I can make room for more of the yarn that I REALLY want.





The white blanket is a baby blanket that I started for a friend and it took me so long to get it done that I actually ended up keeping it. I don't think this picture does it justice because it really is nice. It's an angel with the wings made of this really cool loop stitch.

The peach blanket is another baby blanket that I started for not particular reason. Then my mother suggested that we make some things to sell at a craft booth during the holidays and then we never did. It's not finished anyway, I need to find that yarn again and put a border on it. I'm gonna make another one like it in green for my best friend who has no babies (and no prospects on the horizon either). Why would I make a baby blanket for someone who's not pregnant and not even trying? I don't know, it's a Nyketa/Eboni thing. You'd have to know us to understand. Well that's probably not true either, I don't think my dh understands yet and we've been married 7 years!

Oh yeah! One more thing! The square I made for a CAL I joined on ravelry.com. I like the ones that everyone else made, mine looks deformed! I'll give it another try though. I'm making the next one in light green. Hopefully it'll come out better.