One finished and one started

Max has been sickly the past few days and cares to mostly lay around and watch tv while coughing up his lungs. He's not sick enough to take to the doctor, just sick enough to trap us in the house.

Today I had to get out.

I had made a monthly meal plan for February and decided to see if our groceries made any difference in our budget with me shopping at Aldi for the things that could be bought for the month ahead and then just shopping our local Kroger or Walmart for the weekly necessities. It was fun to plan out the whole month and incorporate new recipes. I think that by the end of the month we'll see a definite difference in the grocery total. Or at least I hope so for all the planning I did.

I also went to my lovely dear local yarn shop. I hadn't been there since before I found out we were expecting baby #2 and so it had been quite a while. I found some lovely wool on sale and a few other skeins of wool. I went with a purpose to find something I loved for a slouchy beret for myself and found I loved something I normally wouldn't pick out for myself. But immediately after binding off a sleep sack this evening I cast this new yarn on for it and we'll see how much I love it when I'm done.


Knitting is finished on the sleep sack, but it still needs felted a little to bring it down to size.


Casted on and row one done of the slouchy beret


Love all these colors, just not my norm for personal things (I think it's the yellow that makes me nervous)

Projects in progress

This morning I'm sitting in the sunshine. It's been missing for quite a while. I think it was around some on Tuesday but I was too busy to see it much. Yesterday it flurried and today it looks a lot warmer than it is. But I'm watching drips of melting snow fall off the roof, so the sun must be doing his job.

I've got two more projects on my needles or hook and so I've got all projects I wanted for January at least started. With two days to spare folks. Now that's started, not finished. But none the less, an accomplishment for the lofty goals I had set for myself getting back into yarn.
Last night I added about 20 new projects to my queue of things that I would like to make. Anything from hats to animals to Christmas ornaments. All with yarn.


The second twin blanket. This one in crochet. Kinda fun since I'm making the pattern as I go.


This is a sleep sack for an infant. The picture doesn't show the color values accurately, the peach is actually much pinker. For a baby girl. It will be sent away if this one's a boy, but it's super soft. It's 70% wool and 30% soy. It's bigger than its supposed to be (why don't I ever check my guage) and so it will either be felted a little (wanting to try felting) or will be for about 6mos or so.

Yesterday was spent in rounds of baths and Disney movies. Max woke up with a fever and vomiting and so it was back and forth all day. But today he's looking much better and we're hitting the 24 hour mark without vomit here shortly, so hopefully we're out of the woods.

He fell asleep watching Buzz.

A couple days ago I organized Max's closet in an attempt to start getting things ready for the baby (which will share a space for clothes and things for a while in the nursery with Max while sleeping in our room) I found the step stool we put away for safety reasons a few months ago and realized that now it cannot be down for a whole other set of safety reasons. The first thing Max did was put it on his music table and try to get more height to climb into his crib.


And here he is playing with one of his favorite toys. The vacuum.

I'm pretty hands off when it comes to Max eating. We've reach the stage where he's pickier about what he eats and not quite to the stage where I can force him or bribe him to eat his vegetables. But all in all I've found he's the best eater when I just let him have at it. And it normally lets me get to eat my meal too instead of micromanaging his. Manners can be learned later. :) It can make for some interesting restaurant eating, but I tend to keep a tighter handle on him then, but what I really love is pasta night in our house, and pizza night.


At least he likes to clean up too!






And here's a little project I finished up this morning.

It still needs some buttons but it's so soft and will be a perfect weight for spring time in Kansas (where it's being sent).

I went to the doctor this morning and am just now at my original weight. But am still getting randomly sick anyway, so can't really track what's going on. Everything seems fine though and we'll have a sonogram in 3 weeks to find out what this crazy little baby is.

My class on Thursday night went well. It should be a piece of cake, there aren't many projects or papers, and it was nice to be in the classroom and not have to be the teacher. :) I'm looking forward to reading and studying later this week before the next class.

Back to School, back to school.

I found out on Friday that I needed to take a class at the community college to fulfill a requirement for transferring my teaching certificate to IL. So I made some calls and found out classes start today. So Friday was a hectic battle of faxes and online applications and a lot of prayers. You see, while I majored in English with education as my focus, I was a string puller and knew too many people and was able to skip classes and prerequisites. That only now came back to bite me. I have to take a remedial education class on teaching the exceptional individual. I guess teaching advanced English and also teaching 10th graders who couldn't read didn't cover it in real life.

So I'm taking a Thursday evening class. I start this Thursday and I'm looking forward to being in the classroom again. I'm also hoping it will be a piece of cake.

Woohoo!

My hands have been busy.

Today I finished organizing my scrapbooking supplies. This also gave me the motivation to finally finish the Disney 2006 scrapbook. It's not finished yet, but I realized I only have like 6 more pages left and everything's together and at my fingertips to finish it quickly. I'm also itching to start another one already... but can't decide if I should do our 2007 Disney trip or actually start Max's first year scrapbook and try to have it done for his second birthday.

I've also finished two of the 5 projects I put on my Ravelry list for January. They are both crochet so I knew they would be a little easier and faster for me, but nonetheless, that's two in a little over 24 hours. Whew, at this pace I'll be looking for more ideas in no time!



Both of these are scarves and both are birthday presents being mailed to Ohio this week. The top is cotton and a hip bohemian pattern that I made up as I went along for a hip young mama and the bottom (a progress picture, not finished) is acrylic for a soon to be OSU student, so you know, he can't mess it up in the wash.

I've got a little boys sweater and hat combo to start (crochet also) to mail to one of my favorite little men in Kansas, a sleep sack either for our little girl (still convinced it is a girl) or it will be shipped off to Ohio, and the second twin blanket. I guess I should finish the first one and also Adam's scarf already also, but I'll tell you what, there's nothing like crochet for instant gratification though.

I realized today that I signed myself up to help coordinate the women's retreat for the church. I had kept thinking about it, but kinda forgot I actually did it. So that should be fun and keep me busy until March. I'm excited to put some handy work directly into the church since besides Bible Study, I haven't done a whole lot since VBS ended. But this year is looking more and more promising for me to actually be involved in ministry in the church. Well more than I have been as the pastor's wife I guess. I'm looking forward to the ladies I'll get to minister to in this coming year! As I think about it, this is what I've been missing, putting myself out there to change others.

It's gonna be another crazy year folks. :)

New Projects

The yarn heebies are officially gone! This makes me so excited that I just added 5 new projects to my Ravelry page! I've got lots of lost time to make up for. :) Quite a few baby things for assorted little ones and a couple scarves for special people who I realize have never had a Cara Made Scarf. I'm amazed there are still those without one.

Whether it's a combination of nesting and New Year urge to purge, I'm not sure, but I've been randomly going through different areas and getting rid of things. This morning it was my spice cabinet, the other day the electronics drawer, hopefully soon the craft room.

I actually started the craft room yesterday, but it was mostly just picking up stuff and putting it in the area it belongs so that I can sort it. I have three major areas: yarn, fabric, paper. All of these need dwindled down to important things and purged the living day lights out of. I started in the paper area yesterday once everything was all picked up and made some progress. The problem with paper is that includes, stationery, card making, scrap-booking, and photos. I found a lot of things I'd forgotten I'd had. So some went into the trash and some went places where I would be sure to use them. I need a few things to organize my scrap-booking/card making so Max and I might be heading to Hobby Lobby this afternoon to help with that. :)

The craft room organization is all in the beginning or preparation for the new baby and Max's big boy room. We've decided to give Max the smaller room that's already been done in a yellow and turn the larger room into the guest/craft room. Adam realized there was no way I could get rid of enough stuff to fit it into the smaller room and also that smaller room stays a little warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer, and has better light. There's a number of other reasons for the change of mind, but nonetheless, I think it'll be a good one.

So I atleast have to make room in the craft room for the bookcases (that'll be totally awesome for some storage, if I can make way in some of the books) and guest bed. There should be enough room left for my work table and desk with my sewing machine. The twin bed and dresser with hutch will fit in the yellow room with a bit of toy storage hopefully.

Right now the yellow room is just a yellow and white with blue coming out in the quilt. I'm hoping to make it a little more boyish and have decided to not do a theme necessarily, but instead to do yellow blue and green. This will compliment with the other room which will be done in the same green as the kitchen with blue and yellow accents. So a little backwards of the other room.

At least that's the plan for now. :)

A pregnant girl can dream right?

I love Boden. I have never owned anything from them, but I drool over their catalog every season. The spring collection is no different and i've been flipping through the catalog this time with more reason than the prices to be sad. I won't get to wear any cute flippy skirts this spring because I will be miserably pregnant and by that time my legs will be a road map of veins and I will definitely not be feeling up to making myself pretty. But in the mean time I know it will be for just a season and come summer I'll forget all about it when the baby is here.

So enjoy some lovely skirt eye candy. It makes the snow seem less cold.



Hunh, see a trend in my love for blue and green? Oh! And I love those cute circle sandals too.

Back in the saddle

Now that we've recovered from vacation around here, I've been needing something to keep my hands busy. Especially yesterday while waiting for phone calls and texts regarding a certain little baby girl who decided to make a very dramatic arrival. Now that Mama and baby are doing as well as possible, my hands have slowed to a less frantic pace, but nonetheless like to remain active.

Knit hat modeled by sock monkey for little Linleigh (matched shrug also made for her)

Speaking of babies, it made me realize it won't be long until I have two little new nephews to cuddle, and how behind I am on their little blankies. The knit one is killing me with its slow progress. Not gonna lie, that one will be a labor of love. I think I may start on the crocheted one to make some progress and come back to it.
knitted version of twin blankie

Adam is still birthday scarf-less, but it's coming along


And this is one of my favorite Christmas presents! Laura gave me a hank of hand spun yarn she completed on her drop spindle. It's called "Cara's Rose" and I just wish I knew if I needed to make a baby hat out of it for this little one or not. To complete it she also brought the drop spindle to Disney to give me a lesson, so I spun some roving myself. And discovered I'm definitely not patient enough for that.



And a little just for fun. Adam ran in the door last night from work telling me to grab my camera. Here's what I found.

Adam being attacked by a rogue icicle. It was floating on down a wire that goes across from our house to the electric pole in the alley.

Today Max turns 20 months old. It's unbelievable to me that he turned from skinny newborn to chunky monkey baby to the tall toddler he is today. He is an opinionated but good natured little one and loves to make us laugh and loves to sing and dance. His favorite things right now are to boogey down, eat cheese, and talk about our trip to Disney by repeating "Buzz, Buzz, Nemo, Nemo, Buzz, Buzz" all day long. He's a climber and recently a hugger, he loves to run up and give bear hugs while you aren't looking as a surprise. And what a wonderful surprise it always is.

17 weeks (post three and final one for the day)

I am a little over 17 weeks in this pregnancy. It's really funny that I'm almost half way finished because I feel that it really has flown on by. I know it's mostly because I have this other little one to keep me busy. But I kinda feel guilty that I don't get enough time to drink enough water, eat the best foods, rest, walk, etc. with this one like I tried to with Max. Even the other things like feeling the baby move haven't gotten the attention I feel like it should deserve. But then I remind myself that I already love this baby and at least have an idea of how much more that love grows that I've become so attached already.

Over vacation my niece Ella gave the baby it's nickname, we've been calling it the baby until now with a little joking calling it Chewbakqueena (if you watch 30 Rock you'll get that). But she's named it Peebo, and I think it's an appropriate name. To me it's sounds like a little people, so Peebo it is. :)

17 weeks taken in my cloudy old mirror.

And just for some good ol' entertainment and because I'm still in love with my new camera lens...

This is what Max has started to do when I tell him to smile for the camera sometimes, he thinks its so funny. I LOVE this picture and it may get blown up as an 8x10 to go in our house.

The rest of the vacation (post two for the day)

On day four of Disney we spent the morning packing up and had lunch at Sanaa, the Indian-African restaurant at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. They were very accommodating to our party's different food aversions and allergies and I think everyone enjoyed it even though it was different and the wild card for dining this time around. But I also think we were all ready to just leave too.

Adam, Max, and I spent the next three days in St Pete Beach at the Sirata hotel. We were disappointed in the weather and lack of beach time because of it. We were unprepared to entertain Max for long periods of time in our room and so the rest of our vacation was a wash according to us. Not as relaxing as we would have hoped. We learned a lot during this trip about traveling with a toddler. For instance, 3-4 days is a long enough vacation for all of us, a week is just too long.

Disney Day Three

Day three of Disney was jam packed with fun. We took family pictures in the morning all wearing our Breast Cancer Awareness shirts Grammy had made for us. Then it was off to Hollywood Studios where we met Buzz and Woody, twice because Max loved them so much and cried when we walked away again.


We also saw Mickey again at the park and both kids decided they loved him this time around (it was always a toss up as to whether they wanted to see the characters or not).

Max loved the Playhouse Disney show and was so entranced he was literally drooling.

We had dinner at The Garden Grill in Epcot and all really enjoyed it. The food was delicious and some was even grown right below the restaurant in house. The kids loved the characters (Mickey again!) and Max LOVED the food. I don't think I've ever seen him eat that much.

Disney Day Two : Minnie, Buzz, Minnie, Tigger, Minnie, Minnie - Repeat

Play by play of a boy and his mouse....

Needless to say, Max enjoyed meeting his favorite mice. However at first would only give Minnie hugs and refused Mickey. But as we were leaving threw himself to the ground not wanting to leave crying, "Buddies, buddies!" Don't worry we wouldn't neglect him, tomorrow we are dining with Mickey so the buddies will get a chance to be together once again.

Today we dined at 1900 Park Fare at the Grand Floridian. Adam and I have had dinner there with Cinderella on a trip the two of us took back in 2005. This morning we had brunch there with Mary Poppins, Belle, Alice in Wonderland, Pooh, and Tigger. Pooh and Tigger were a hit with Max, uh and the others, well he would rather enjoy the food.

We started the day early this morning and spent it at Magic Kingdom with some great breaks for food and a failed naptime in the middle. Max is preferring to fall asleep on buses and safaris instead of in the portacrib. Much more exciting that way.

Disney Day One

We spent some time in Animal Kingdom and Epcot today. Here are a couple pictures from the day.