What Do YOU Want To Be?

My kids were discussing Halloween this morning and I asked my DD what she was going to be for Halloween. She was having a hard time thinking about it so I asked if she were going to be a princess or a ghost or a...

DD (interrupting me): "ooooooh! A ghost. I'm going to be a ghost!" Brother, what are you going to be for Halloween? Do you want to be a prince...or...a (thinking) dragon?! (I have NO idea where those choices came from)
DS: I'm going to be a BOY!
DD: You already ARE a boy. What are you going to be?
DS: I'm a BOY!!
DD (to me): Mommy, brother says he wants to be a boy, but I'm going to be a ghost and I'm gonna SCARE the boy!

I don't know. Maybe is was one of those had-to-be-there things, but I was ROLLING with laughter. Good news is that, at least at this point in time, my only costume I have to create is tossing a sheet over my DD. That's easy enough. HA.

Guess Who's Coming to Town?

One of my all time favorite comedians, Jef-fuh fuh Dun HAM dot com, otherwise known as ventriloquist Jeff Dunham, will be performing in Austin on October 2nd! I've already told my hubby he may have to treat me to a month early anniversary date.

Some 18 years ago (eek... that was a long time ago), I was on the University Programming Board at Midwestern State University. We attended a conference where we watched gobs of comedians, magicians, musical acts, etc so we could determine who we wanted to book to perform at our campus. Jeff Dunham was one of those acts we saw. He and Peanut had me laughing so hard I couldn't breathe.

His most recent show which aired on Comedy Central a few weeks ago, featured Jeff, Peanut (who Walter has described as a "Muppet on crack"), José Jalepeño "on a stick", Achmed the dead terrorist, cranky ol' Walter, and Melvin the not-so-super hero. Apparently, he's also added Sweet Daddy Dee and Bubba J to his group of crazy puppets. I've yet to see them, but I'm sure they will be as painfully funny as the rest of the gang.

Anyway, I realize his humor isn't for everyone and the fact that my fave comedian is a ventriloquist is something some may find odd, but I was just so excited to learn he's going to be doing a show here, I had to share the news.... Nnneeeeoooowww

"Sometimes Accidents Just Happen"

Conversation had last night:

DD: Mommy, Daddy, I have to tell you something... I went tee-tee in my panties.
Us: Honey, why did you do that? You know how to go potty like a big girl.
DD: Sometimes accidents just happen!

Couldn't argue with that. We were rolling with laughter though.

Numbers Finally Match

After having taken a few deep breaths, I had to frog a lot of the sweater. Went back a couple rows before the eyelet increase, thinking that it had to be around there somewhere that I'd gained those 10 extra sts I mentioned the other day. Unfortunately, doing so only uncovered some of them. The rest somehow magically appeared over the course of just regular knitting (and my obviously not paying attention to what I was doing). Having already ripped out 1/2 of the work, I was not in the mood to rip back to the beginning so after a zillion times counting and recounting the various stitches and finding, I think, where I had some extras tucked in, I started knitting again - this time strategically decreases the necessary number of stitches to get me down to the 235 I needed.

After a count and re-count, just to be sure, I had it! Yippee... After a careful round of eyelet increases (spaced according to my own math which anyone who's read this blog knows means trouble typically), I counted a couple times again. As called for by the pattern, I was up to 282 stitches on the needle and, to the best of my ability, they are properly spaced between the raglan increases. Can I get an AMEN?!

Now I've just got to do about 7 rows of garter stitch (in all my free time between work, family, and remodeling with the deadline QUICKLY approaching) and then I get to begin my lace pattern again!

This is supposed to be a very simple cardigan, I don't know why I had so much trouble. Hopefully, the worst is behind me and I can knit up the remainder of this sweater without too many more hiccups. (Crossing fingers that strategically placed decreases to get me down to correct number doesn't screw up math down the line.)

Rip-it or Rig-it?

That is the question... Things were knitting up so beautifully on the February Lady Sweater I'm trying to make for my mom. I got all the raglan increases done, added in the eyelets, and got my extra rows added. Got three rows into the gull lace pattern when I realized that the extra stitches I had run across in row one of the lace pattern weren't my imagination. I frogged back to the pre-lace section only to discover that I wasn't 3 sts off, but rather 10. SOMEWHERE, I'd added TEN sts to the garment. Fortunately, since the lace is a 7 st repeat, I could feasibly make it so that there are only 3 add'l sts that I need to "hide". That is very tempting. I mean, it won't screw up the look of the sweater really, and besides, it is for my mom and she'll love it no matter what, right?

PROBLEM is that if I decrease those 3 sts, I still have 7 extra sts floating around....somewhere. While that doesn't affect the lace pattern (just gives me one more repeat), it DOES make it a WEE bit difficult in knowing where to separate the sleeves. I'm TRYING to look and count and look and count and see if I can finangle the stitch numbers in my favor. I fear, however, that I may have to just frog the thing back to kingdom come and start anew. Having already frogged almost 1000 sts, I'm not excited about frogging another couple thousand. URG.....

At this rate, I'll NEVER finish this sweater. I'm quite torn on how to proceed at this point. (insert huge sigh here). I'll keep you posted.

Itsy Bitsy Spider

Too stinkin' cute is what it was! My DS, who is 2.5 yo, was sitting in the living room floor this morning singing "Itsy Bitsy Spider" to his own music. He'd stuck one end of a rubber band type thing between his toes and was holding the other end in one hand and was "plucking the string, as it were, to make the music for his serenade of "Itsy Bitsy Spider" to all of us. When we applauded his performance, he commented that he was making music!

It was so cute! Of course, five minutes later when he decided to make a different type of music in the form of shrieks and screams, we weren't as impressed. Oh well, it was precious while it lasted.

Bigger & Bigger

Just when you (or rather just when I) think the demolition part of this remodel is almost done and the putting back together stage will begin, we decide to rip something else out completely and start from scratch...usually another wall. That was, yet again, the case recently when my DH was working on the stove and what will be microwave electrical wiring. Rather than just making a hole where we were doing the immediate work, out came some wall cabinets that we weren't planning on removing and the entire wall behind the stove area.

Now, it has been decided that instead of tiling over the old counter top (which we can NOT remove in its entirety due to the original construction), we are going to pull the laminate off - that also goes half-way up the wall - and, yup, start over. The good thing is that we'll have a fresh palette on which to lay the countertop, the bad news is that this will be yet more demolition.

I'm SO ready for us to get on to the part of the remodel that you can SEE versus all this destruction part. I don't care that "prep is the most important part of the process". Prep is NO FUN.

Add to the ever so fun equation that we have two young toddlers running about and, well, remodeling a major room in a house you are living in WITH young ones running around leads to MUCH excitement... and exhaustion. Anyway, that's what's going on in the "Days of Our Lives"....We have our own little soap going on.

Enjoying every little thing you do in your kitchen, be it cooking a beautiful meal or just making some PB&Js, and just be thankful you aren't staying at my house right now!

Recipes, Science Fiction & Gardening

You are probably thinking to yourself, "WHAT do those three things have in common?"

Not long ago I got a card to send to a friend that had a quote from Rita Rutner that read, "I read recipes the same way I read science fiction. I get to the end and think....that's not going to happen!"

While I feel that way about my cooking, I also feel the same way about my gardening. I see these beautiful pictures in books and magazines and I drool over a friend's yards but try as I might, when I attempt to accomplish a certain look or grow a certain plant, well, my thumb tends to be more brown than green. People keep telling me that old adage of "1st year sleeps, 2nd year creeps, and 3rd year leaps". Unfortunately, with the way I seem to be with plants, I'm forever going to be in that 1st/2nd year phase.

Some plants I can bring back to life and they seem to be happy but others, typically the ones I want SO badly to do well, struggle and suffer a long and painful (I'm assuming from the way the look) death.

I keep telling myself it has been a hard summer and THAT is why my garden(s) aren't happy. I"m just going to keep feeding myself that line. In the meantime, Happy 1st Day of FALL and happy gardening, no matter your skill level.

From Blah to Beautiful

This past Saturday was our September Garden Hoe workday. We headed out to Naomi's to build a flower bed on one side of her home. To see the transformation, check out the post on our Garden Hoes blog.

Funny, how Naomi didn't comment on my singing and dancing... Quit laughing. We were working HARD and I needed to "rest". It was, as always, a super fun day and the result was stunning! I can't wait for my Garden Hoes work day (in October).

Teething..... Again

My poor baby boy. As if being 2.5 years old wasn't hard enough, my DS started teething a molar late yesterday. We were a big happy family out running a couple errands when, as though someone flipped a light switch, Ryan began screaming that his mouth and ear hurt. At first we didn't know what the problem was. All we knew was that our little baby boy was in intense pain, NOTHING we did could console him or get him to quit screaming at the top of his lungs in the store.

While I felt bad that someone was going to have to put away the items that we had in our shopping cart, and frustrated that we would have to make another trip to get the items, our main concern was getting our baby home. It was as we were pulling into the drive that I put 2 and 2 together. Teething! URG... I'd enjoyed that little hiatus we'd had with no new teeth coming in.

Dose of the BEST teething medicine in the WORLD, Hyland's Teething Tablets, and a little pain killer/fever reducer and all was well... for four hours. That little cry crushes my heart. He just woke up from the start of his nap earlier screaming that his mouth hurt. Couple teething tablets and he told me he was going to finish his nap... which is good, cause he's got a little fever this afternoon of 101.6 and needs to sleep that away.

I need to go and make sure my DD is actually taking her nap (which is doubtful since she recently decided that she "can't sleep during the daytime anymore") and check on my little man.

To anyone else who reads this and is suffering with a teething child right now, my prayers are with you..and your little one. Here's hoping you BOTH get some relief and rest.

Kitchen Remodel.... Demolition Begins

After a zillion ideas as to what we wanted to do with our hideous little kitchen (from blowing out exterior walls and completely gutting the thing to just paining, I THINK we finally came up with a plan that will result in a beautiful and usable kitchen that we can enjoy for many years. That said, today demolition began. The bar/island that was built to never be removed got sawed and yanked out. The overhead cabinets, soffit, and the entire wall of sheetrock were the next out. Now it is the daunting task of removing this mega glued on 30+ year old worn out and brittle linoleum... Keep checking back for updates on the kitchen remodel! (Oh, and unfortunately, you won't be getting pix for a while of this project (probably going to be a good thing) as our camera croaked and we've not gotten a new one yet. URG... Life without my digital camera? I don't know how I'm going to survive!