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!