a reply to a comment

June, yes i did get a package, on wednesday! i will blog about it later, i gotta scoot. thanks for asking (and if you're my secret pal, you're a stinker! not activating your profile, lol)

Edit: um, yeah, june, you did goof up, lol. I'm not Char. But thanks for asking! (just the giggle i needed this morning!)

*sniff*

my babies are growing up. liam is a freshman in high school, and 15. And about to go to his first school dance with a girl. He asked one of his friends to go with him to homecoming. And she said yes. i know her mom (she's a band parent as well), and we are actually coordinating so that liam and her daughter look good together, lol. i don't think liam expected us to do that, lol! i promise i will post pictures.

i told steph that he had a date, and s he said "that's so cute!" she forgets that she didn't even get to go to her freshman homecoming. she was a hellion that year.

just one bad part. that day is a freaking insane day! there's a marching invitational that afternoon, steph's best friend from high school is getting married that day (and we're invited!), and then there's homecoming. oy!

One question for ya. Since Liam isn't old enough to drive and pick her up on his own, do we chauffeur them? More like, do I chauffeur them, cuz you KNOW mark is going to be sound asleep by the time homecoming is over. I'll have to order a corsage. I'm trying to decide if i'm going to be a nice mommy and pay for it, or make him do it, lol. I may just give him a bye this first t ime around, lol.

This is part of a super secret project that I knit for an upcoming book. You'll have to wait to see what it is, lol. Wanna see a little more?

Here's another part of it.

part 2 to my babies are growing up. we've been letting sean stay home for small amounts of time. he's been handling it well. this is a lead-up to next summer. he'll be almost 14. wow. tara had given me a pair of jeans that her hubbie wouldn't wear, and they fit liam like a glove. and i thought they'd be too big. sean is growing out of all his size 14 jeans. those had fit for a very long time, but i looked at him one day, and his jeans were high enough i could see his socks when he walked. growing up too fast.

bad blogger

I've been so busy, I've forgotten to post here! Miss V has me running my tush off. Wait, scratch that. It's still there, darnit. Anyway, I've been having fun posting over here.

I've also been knitting like a maniac. Many of you already know about the squirrel. I have to admit, i've been giggling ever since we hatched this plan. I finished it Friday and delivered it to Miss V, and she concocted the note and gave him all his other little goodies.

I've always thought unfelted, unstuffed critters look like road kill.

I finally got a good pic of Liam in his band uniform. He looks so cool! I was gonna say grown up, but . . . well, he's 15. And he looks it, lol.

We're going to adjust his hat this coming Friday. He kept complaining that it was down on his glasses, and trying to use the excuse that he needed contacts because of it. In fact, several of his (girl)friends told me i needed to buy him contacts so everyone could see his beautiful eyes. All the more reason not to, in my book! I'm going to have enough troubles with this kid when he finally decides that girls are girls, and not just buddies.

This is the evidence of Liam's first (and at this point, ONLY) driving lesson. Mark has decided to teach him in his pick up truck, which is a manual. I sat here and LAUGHED the entire time.

This little soaker was made from wool warps wound by a lady at the SWG here in Omaha, who passed away last year. Her husband gave them all her yarns and equipment, and between Tara and Miss V, i got all kinds of charity wool. Whee! Ok, now i gotta scoot, cuz i gotta get these LOVELY children ready for school.

While you're at it, we'd appreciate some good thoughts for the kitty joplin. She's been ill, and I finally convinced mark it might be a good idea to take her to the vet. She's going thursday. She's 12. sigh.

PICTURES!

and some will even be of knitting/crocheting!

these are some squares that i mailed out yesterday. the pink & the camo are for an A4A project (balboa military hospital, to be exact), as is the gold knitted square. the smaller, crocheted gold square is for a baby blanket for a friend.

well, apparently, i'm only going to get to upload one stinking picture.

i swear, there are days where it's just not worth chewing through the restraints.

anyway. i've been knitting like mad. yeah. uhuh. well, at least i've been TRYING to. i'm working on my red scarf, in handspun from roving dyed just for me by Lisa Souza. It's soft, and kushy, and ooooooooooooh, my. some college kid is just gonna LOVE me. and it's in mistake rib, so i can even do it while skeining mondo skeins for E.

I've also got several secret projects going. I'm designing a sock to submit for sockmadness II. the question is, at that point, if it gets accepted, do i want to join, and knit these socks twice? cuz this first pair is going to be for my MIL for christmas. i especially asked tara to dye a semisolid for me in a dark red. it's purdy.

secret project #1 is done. it's blocked. i just need to trim ends and send it off! you'll get REALLY close ups but that's it, lol.

i'm also working on a project for E, to go with carin on a trip. it's going well.

life?

meh.

i'm tired. it's hard getting up at 530 so i can get the kids up for school. sean has been having so much trouble getting up at 545, and being ready when the bus gets here that mark has been getting him up at 515, so he can wake up and get his meds in him. he actually had 2 bowls of cereal this morning before the bus got here (at 635, sigh). he's doing well in school, though. he's been mainstreamed in a number of his classes (he is in the resource room for behavioral issues, for those who are unaware of what his deal is), and, if he keeps up the good work, is slated to be mainstreamed into all his classes in 2 weeks. woot!

in not so good news, sean went out for football. the first practice was on august 27th, which ended up being a really hot day. he came home saying he was going to quit. we talked to him, and got him to give it a week. by friday, he'd decided he liked it, and wanted to keep going. we've been encouraging him to keep at it, because this will teach him to work with a team, as he is such a solitary individual. well, he came home from practice yesterday, and said he'd quit. first he said he wasn't doing well. then, he said that the kids were laughing at him. when we asked which kid, he admitted that he didn't actually hear anyone laugh, but he was sure they were anyway. then, he decided that he wanted more family time. RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT. he wanted more video game time. so, mark told him that even though he would be home, he would not be allowed to play video games until the time he would have gotten home after practice. sean decided to go back and ask the coach if he could play.

just to be safe, i emailed the coach, and found out sean had walked out of practice yesterday. soooooooooo, he's out. he is still not going to be allowed video games until 5, and any consequences will be tacked on AFTER that. i know, we're hard asses. we were pushing him because it was obvious, after the first day, that he was enjoying playing. and again, that whole learning to work with others thing. sean has a very small comfort zone, a low tolerance for his own inabilities, and not a ton of self-esteem, and we were hoping this would help that. it seems like those exact things were what got in the way of him playing. he knows he was wrong to walk out of practice yesterday, and he also knows that he's going to have to be on his most excellent behavior before we're going to let him go out for anything else. he wants to play soccer next spring, but i don't think it will work. he was having a hard enough time with the whole getting-in-shape thing of football, and soccer is 10x as grueling on a physical activity level. you never see a soccer player with a gut.

liam is having a ball with marching band. they marched in a game for the first time last friday, and while i didn't get to see much (i was helping with the band parent bake sale), i heard he did very well. i've watched them practice, and i'll say this: have you ever tried to hold an instrument as awkward as a trombone so that you are walking in one direction, while facing at an angle that is 90 degrees to where you're walking (yes, torso twisting going on there) and PLAY THE DAMNED THING? i've been watching, and the only instruments that make you move your arms as much is percussion. and most of them have straps, handles, etc t o assist in holding them. not a trombone. no wonder there's only 6 trombonists in a band of 130 kids. but he's keeping up!

up until tonight, he'd been keeping up with his homework, too! however, i got an email from his biology teacher saying he'd gotten behind. sigh. the hard part with that class is he is in band first period, which is in the basement clear over on the northeast corner of the ADDITION of the school. biology is on the third floor in the main building. oy. in addition, he fell asleep in class today. i'm sure that has to do with band practice running late last night, and he didn't eat dinner til he got home. he didn't get to bed until 1030, and still got up at 545. it's hard enough for me to do that (as i look at the clock and realize it's 1055, and i'm getting up at 530), but he's only 15. what do y'all think? i have been letting him have a substantial snack before band, but not full dinner because it's still been pretty warm, then letting him eat dinner afterward, w hich means he may not eat til 9 or later. with cooler weather coming, do you think it would be ok to give him a full dinner before practice (he'd be eating at 5), then a snack when he gets home? or keep doing what i'm doing? practice starts at 6, and is SUPPOSED to be done at 830. i can't eliminate eating after practice. he's 15, let's get real. he is my walking talking eating machine. he seriously can eat a full meal and ask for a snack an hour later (we had brats & kraut with mashed potatoes, and he wanted chips an hour later).

ok, i need to get to bed, but one more thing before i go.

What I'm Reading:

Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty & the Beast by Robyn McKinley.

The Girls by Lori Lansens (this is about conjoined twins that are 29. told from the perspective of the ambulatory twin (she carries the other one around))

The Fires of Heaven by Robert Jordan (booktape in car)

The Forgotten Man by Robert Crais (booktape in the house)

the girls is thoroughly fascinating. amazing how two identical conjoined twins could be so different!

i am sick

Today, while a blow for freedom of speech has been struck, a deeper, more heartfelt blow has been struck for prejudice, and inequality.

This happened today. Go read. I'll wait.

Back so quick? I don't blame you. While I do defend these people their right to speak as they wish, and the fact that they followed all the proper channels to demonstrate as they wished, the whole idea behind the gathering makes me ill. These people have said they want a "white america" as our forefathers wished. how do they know what our forefathers wished? Correct me if i'm wrong, but didn't George WAshington (scroll down a bit) have all his slaves freed at his death? And, as most of these slaves were born on american soil, according to our laws today, that would have made them citizens (even though life was much different then).

These people are so quick to disenfranchise anyone who does not look like them, act like them, or think like them. Their claim that this rally was strictly about illegal immigration is shallow at best, and put paid to as a lie with comments like the above about our forefathers.

And something else i'm sure they'd like to hide and stuff down? Who was here first? Anglo-saxon europeans? or native americans? if they really wanted to keep this country for those who "belong" here, then i think about 200 million people better start packing their crap.

What got me the worst, though? I was watching the video for this news article, and literally shuddered when i watched them do the nazi salute, and shout "seig heil." (forgive my spelling, i don't do german very well). they want america for white folk, and americans, and yet they give a german salute. what gives?

excuse me, i need to go wash my hands now. i feel filthy just typing about them, but i had to voice my outrage and disgust.