Dented

For the past three nights, I've put in about 2 hours a night into this doll for Olivia.  I have the legs and the body finished.  I'm aiming for a body part a night.  I haven't amigurumi'd since making Wonder Woman for Isabelle in April, so I'm out of the habit of crocheting so tight and I'm feeling it.  My thumb on my right hand is dented from pushing the hook into the tight stitches and my forefinger on my left hand is dented from holding so much tension in the yarn.  It'll be gone by morning, but I'm convinced by the time this doll is finished that I'll have permanent dents.  And carpal tunnel syndrome.  Good thing I know good ortho docs, huh?  LOL

I pulled out the Daisy (formerly known as Zoe's) afghan yesterday and Olivia asked me if that was what I was working on and wanted to know why I wasn't working on her birthday present yet.  She's a harsh task master, that one.  I told her I wasn't going to work on it with her around... it has to be a surprise.  She also actually asked me for legwarmers, too, so I was pretty proud of myself that I've started a pair of those for her also.  I'm working on those at work, and hoping I can get them done in addition to the doll.

Now I have to show you something that has been added to my list that I hope to accomplish by Christmas.  I've mentioned before that my husband's aunt has asked me to make the kids from South Park.  There is a pattern for them, but as I'm working on this doll, I'm more and more convinced that I might be able to figure it out on my own, since they aren't very complicated-looking shape-wise.  She's also requested Michael Myers, which I will have to make up on my own.  That will be a challenge. 

And then I saw this on Pinterest the other day:

Source: blog.craftzine.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

The BeeGees!  My husband loves The BeeGees.  This is knit, of course, so I'd have to make the pattern up on my own, but they have chest hair.  Oh my gracious, I can't handle it.  Seriously, how hilarious would it be to make a doll with chest hair?  My cousins have already put in their requests if I figure it out for their own sets.  I am just dying over here.  Chest hair.  I can make a tutorial:  How to make chest hair for your amigurumi. 

I am losing it, folks. 

Blog Award

Well, lookie there, Sam from  Not Your Gram's Afghan  awarded me The Versatile Blogger award.  Thank you, Sam!

In order to accept the award, I am supposed to tell you 7 interesting things about me and then nominate 15 other blogs for the award.  Well, I'll do the 7 things, but I don't have 15 blogs to nominate.  I mean, a lot of the blogs I read are pretty popular blogs and I interpreted this to be for fairly new or undiscovered blogs.  No biggie.  I'm honored all the same and I will nominate a few blogs because I'm interested in their 7 things.  I'm nosy like that.  =) (and if you don't do them, it won't hurt my feelings... I'm also easy like that)

So... here are 7 possibly interesting things about me:

1)  I was my high school class Valedictorian.  AND I dropped out of college.  I mostly felt that I was racking up student loan debt for no reason because I didn't know then and I still don't know now what I want to be when I grow up. 

2)  Once upon a time I did know what I wanted to be... and that was a fashion designer.  I still have most of my designs.  This was middle school era.  I wanted to go to the Rhode Island School of Design.  Then I decided I needed to be all practical and stuff and you see where that's gotten me.  LOL

3)  I have 6 tattoos, or 10 if you count the symbols individually.  Left ankle:  dragonfly and Kanji symbols for "dream" and "love".  Right ankle:  Pink Twiddlebug.  Right boob: falling star.  Left boob:  little blue flower.  Back:  ugly sun and moon that I'm going to get covered eventually.  Neck:  a stick man and Kanji symbols for "believe" and "happy".  And yes, I do want more.

4)  I hate the word "y'all".   I especially hate it when people say things like this:  "I need y'all's number."  First of all, that's too many apostrophes in one word to possibly be right anyway, and secondly, that just sounds awful.  I'm Southern born and bred, but I just can't handle that word.

5)  I once lived in a haunted house.  That's a really long story, but there is no way you can convince me that it wasn't haunted.

6)  I have never watched, and do not ever plan to ever watch any of the Star Wars movies.  I've seen enough parodies and clips to have a pretty good idea of what it's about and I don't really care to watch them.  In fact, when I worked at Toys R Us, and had to deal with the action figure collectors, I vowed to never watch anything that made people that obnoxious and insane.

7)  I sleepwalk.  My mom said I've done it since I was a kid and I even had friends see me do it during sleepovers.  When Olivia was a baby, we had to move her into our bedroom because I was getting up and walking across the house with her to bring her to our bed and I never woke up.  I thought for the longest time Bill was doing it. I've never tried to leave the house, but I have awakened in the middle of making a mayonnaise and peanut butter sandwich in the middle of the night, so I'm seriously hoping that I don't sleep cook often.  I hope even more I don't eat it if I do.

So, I'm going to give the award to these chickies....

Tabby @ Buzzing Around the Apple Tree
Amanda @ Our "Normal" Family
Amy @ Sitting At Our Kitchen Table
Jen @ Tw-In Stitches

And anyone else that wants to share 7 things, please do.  I love reading about people =)

My Little Soapbox

Flu shot season is speeding towards us quickly, and I wanted to just give out a little PSA...

You have a choice to have a shot, which is a dead virus, or the FluMist, which is a weakened live virus.  If you have contact with someone who has a weakened immune system, please consider getting the shot over the virus.  While the chance is low that you can transmit the live virus from the FluMist, it is possible.  I honestly don't care how low the chance is, the flu can be deadly to people who don't have healthy immune systems and any chance is too much when it comes to people I care about.  Shot suck, trust me, I hate them with a passion and I know how hard it is to inflict them on children, but at least think about it.  Not everyone with immune deficiencies look sickly. 

Here is a link to the CDC information on the immunization:

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/qa/nasalspray.htm

Goofballs

My kids were watching MegaMind today, which is one of Iz's favorite movies - mainly because of the music.  She got up and started dancing, which quickly turned into them asking me to turn off the movie and put on some music.  What started out as a little dance party somehow turned into a fashion show.  They ran to grab some skirts to wear as little capelets (and if I were to make them actual capelets, they'd never wear them) and sashayed up and down the hall, stopping to pose for me.

The pictures are terrible.... I knew if I got up to grab the real camera that they'd stop doing it, so I took advantage of it with the camera phone.


This child's runway walk is primo!


Odd poses are her strong suit.


She hasn't quite mastered her sister's runway booty shake, but she's getting there.



I love having these three goofy girls.  I'm sure there has to be things that boys do that would amuse me, but I can't for the life of me think of anything better than having little girls.

We Interrupt This Program...

I always seem to realize about a week or so before my kids' birthdays that I need to get on the ball and make them something.  Olivia's birthday is in 12 days and, well, it's time for me to get busy.  I am going to make her an amigurumi doll like this:

Source: stitch.hellooperator.net via Jennifer on Pinterest

It's a free pattern... bonus!  I prefer Caron Simply Soft to work amigurumi, so I need to see what I  have on hand.  If I buy more, it's going to have to be in the colors I need for my aunt's South Park amis I need to get started on. 

I made my first amigurumi a year ago...  a bunny for Olivia's birthday.  I stayed up very late working on that thing.  It's now on my dresser waiting for a new eye and it's arms reattached.  If you want to see it, you can go here.

I can't work on this while Olivia's up, so it will have to replace my SGW as my evening project.   Amigurumi requires a bit too much concentration to take it to work to do at lunch.  On occasion, someone wants to sit and talk to me while I'm there (I eat lunch so early, though, that I'm normally alone) so I need something that doesn't require referring to a pattern frequently.

I hate stopping work on the SGW, I really do.  I crocheted myself a headache last night getting all the corner motifs finished.  Now on to the borders to finish up the squares, which means I'm now working square to square instead of all of them at once.  One one hand I feel like I'm almost finished, but on the other hand I still have about 2 skeins of black that have to go into this thing, so I know I'm not.

PS...

After an awesome suggestion, I have put three of my crocheting patterns on Ravelry.  It's pretty exciting to see how many people have marked them as favorites and how many queues my patterns are in.  I really can't wait to see some finished projects. 

I'm kind of geeked out about it, if you can't tell.  ;)  It makes me want to come up with more patterns.  And you know I just have so  much time for that. 

You can find me on Ravelry here:  Silvertears

Someone just decide for me, OK?

I am probably the most indecisive person I know.  I really don't know how I get anything done.  :::sigh:::

Let's revisit the drama around making a gift for my boss.  Or rather, let's not... let's just let it suffice that it took me a ridiculous amount of time to commit to the Stained Glass Window afghan.  Just keep that in mind as I tell this story, which is long and convoluted and probably really confusing.

As I have mentioned before, I take part of Zoe's afghan to work with me to work on at lunch.  It's my little stress-buster because there are parts of my job I dislike and I work with some really negative people.  It's nice to take a break and do something I really enjoy in peace and quiet (sometimes).  Because of this, my boss is quite familiar with the project.  She also crochets, but to my knowledge, she only does chevron baby blankets.  So she's pretty amazed at how this is all coming together - she probably didn't even know half the stitches I use existed.  She's told me before that she thinks it's gorgeous, and I just graciously accept the compliment and move on.

Today, I was eating lunch at my desk, and therefore not really able to crochet, so I was doing some preliminary planning to Olivia's afghan.  I think I have found the patterns that I want to use for Olivia and Isabelle's afghans. 

Source: yarnyinspiration.blogspot.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

Olivia's.... but in different colors, of course

Source: tangledness.com via Heidi on Pinterest

Isabelle's... in pretty much those colors

First of all, I am thinking of doing these two afghans at the same time.  Like I am with the SGW and Zoe's afghan.  I know they both want to get the next afghan and I can't decide who should get it, honestly.  I was doing Zoe's first because she doesn't have a twin-sized quilt from my sister yet.  Olivia does have one and my sister is working on Isabelle's.  So it's a toss up.  I think I will use the same basic color scheme for both, to simplify things.  My only problem is that if their afghans coordinate, it just bums me out a tiny bit that Zoe's doesn't.  Their afghans will be all loud and bright and hers is soft and pastel.  It's not that they have to all match, but it was just an "I wish I had thought of this sooner" kind of thing.

Anyway.. back to the story...

My boss asked me what I was doing while I was working on my plans for Olivia's and we talked about it for a minute.  Then she said again how much she loves Zoe's afghan and how she loves the colors (which is odd because I never pegged her for a pastel person).  Like I said, she's mentioned how much she likes it before, but today it kind of struck me in a "Man, I wish I had one like that" kind of way. 

And the wheels start turning...

Here's what we have:  an afghan for Zoe that doesn't match her sisters but my boss is in love with and an afghan she may or may not love but I love.

Why not give her Zoe's afghan, keep the SGW afghan, and make a different afghan for Zoe in the same color scheme as her sisters' afghans?  Zoe won't really care.  She thinks everything I make is the coolest thing ever... God bless 3 year olds.  =)

Am I crazy?  I am going to just finish both afghans up as planned and decide then.  Maybe I'll see if I can get a reaction to the SGW afghan... maybe be like, "hey look at this pattern, how gorgeous is this?" and see if I get a stronger reaction to that. 

Oh, and if I do give her Zoe's afghan, I already have a plan for her new one...

Source: sewisee.blogspot.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

Spiderweb Beanie Pattern

Are you getting ready for Halloween?  We are in the planning stages on costumes... trying to break out of dressing all three girls the same.  But you can't be in costume every day - unfortunate, isn't it? - so you have to sneak in some spookiness where you can.

If it's getting chilly in your neck of the woods (sadly, not in mine), here is a spooky spiderweb hat that will help your little one keep the Halloween spirit when they can't run around in your Spiderman costume.  (Or yourself, if you know how to enlarge a child-sized pattern)  In fact, this might make a cool part of a Spiderman costume if you do it in red and blue.  And you could do it in a single color if you just like the texture of it and want to wear it throughout the chilly seasons.

I would consider this an intermediate skill pattern.  It might be a little much for a beginner.  But give it a try... you can't expand your skills if you don't try.  =)

On some rows, you will be crocheting in the back loops only.  Normally, when you make a crochet stitch, you slip your hook between both loops on the previous row.  Crocheting in the back loops only (BLO) leaves the front loops free and we will be using some of those.



On some rows, you will be making a TC down to a previous row.  If you are a tight crocheter, you will need to concentrate on making these loose or you will end up with a bunched up hat.  Maybe keep a hook handy a few sizes bigger, if need be. 

You can fasten off for each color change, or carry your yarn up to the next row of that color.  I prefer to just carry the yarn up on things like this where it won't show.  But it's your preference.



Supplies:

Worsted weight yarn in two colors (I chose black and orange)
H hook or your usual trusty beanie-making hook
Scissors

Join all rows with a slip stitch in the first stitch.

Make a magic ring or ch4 and join in ch farthest from the hook to form a ring.

Row 1:  (in web color - WC) ch1, 10 hdc in ring
Row 2:  (in background color - BC) ch1, 2 hdc in back loops only (BLO) in each st around



Row 3:  (BC)  ch1, *1 hdc, 2 hdc in next stitch, rep from * around
Row 4:  (WC) ch1, *3 hdc, tc in front loop of Row 1 stitch**, rep from * around


**yo twice, draw up yarn through the front loop on previous round and work tc loosely.  The tc should lay on top of the two previous rows



Row 5:  (BC) ch1, in BLO - *3 hdc, 2 hdc in next stitch, rep from * around
Row 6:  (BC)  ch1, *4 hdc, 2 hdc in next stitch, rep from * around
Row 7:  (WC) ch1, *5hdc, tc in front loop of tc on Row 4, skip next stitch on working round, rep from * around
Row 8:  (BC) ch1, hdc BLO around
Row 9:  (BC) ch1, hdc around
Row 10:  (WC) ch1, *5hdc, tc in front loop of tc on Row 7, skip next stitch on working round, rep from * around
Row 11:  (BC) ch1, hdc BLO around
Row 12:  (BC) ch1, hdc around
Row 13:  (WC) ch1, *tc in front loop of tc on Row 10, skip next stitch on working round, hdc in next 5 stitches, rep from * around
Row 14:  (BC) ch 1, hdc BLO around
Row 15:  (BC) ch 1, hdc around
Row 16:  (WC) ch1, hdc, *tc in front loop of next tc on Row 10, skip next stitch on working round, hdc in next 5 stitches, rep from * 9 times, tc in front loop of next tc on Row 10, skip next stitch on working round, hdc in next 4 stitches.
Row 17:  (BC) ch 1, hdc BLO around
Row 18:  (BC) ch 1, hdc around
Row 19:  (WC) ch1, hdc in first 2 stitches, *tc in front loop of next tc on Row 16, skip next stitch on working round, hdc in next 5 stitches, rep from * 9 times, tc in front loop of next tc on Row 16, skip next stitch on working round, hdc in next 3 stitches.
Row 20:  (BC) ch 1, hdc BLO around
Row 21:  (BC) ch 1, hdc around
Row 22:  (WC) ch1, hdc in first 3 stitches, *tc in front loop of next tc on Row 19, skip next stitch on working round, hdc in next 5 stitches, rep from * 9 times, tc in front loop of next tc on Row 19, skip next stitch on working round, hdc in next 2 stitches.
Row 23:  (WC) sl st to first tc, *(hdc, dc, hdc) in stitch, sl st next 5 stitches, rep to end.  Fasten off and weave in ends.







Happy Hooking!

Woulda, coulda, shoulda....

Today was interim report day for Iz and Liv.  Olivia has straight A's.  I figured as much, seeing the work they are doing.  I'm worried about her getting really bored with it, to be honest.  Her teacher didn't request a conference, but I might email her just to kind of voice my concern over her needing to be challenged more and see what kind of suggestions her teacher has.  She seems to enjoy her homework more when it's things I haven't seen her do for the past two years.



Isabelle's report kind of made me feel bad.  She doesn't get grades, but her teacher did mention that she needs some work with her letters.  We sent Olivia to PreK, but didn't send Isabelle.  We assumed, incorrectly, that her Mother's Day Out teacher would teach her some of the basics... but she didn't and Isabelle couldn't even write her name the first day of Kindergarten.  Even Zoe is learning that already.  I really wish we had sent her to PreK now.  Or at least worked on it with her ourselves.  I know I shouldn't compare Isabelle to Olivia, but I just feel like she's so far behind where Olivia was at this time.  I know she'll catch up, she's definitely a smart cookie, but I still think she missed out on a huge advantage. 



Iz's teacher did request a conference.  She has an amazing teacher and I know she'll have all kinds of advice.  I'm interested in just hearing what she has to say about Izzy.... she had Olivia in her class last year and Isabelle is such a different child.  Definitely the spirited child of my three. 



But Daddy, upon hearing that Izzy was having trouble at school, scored mucho points when he went straight to the computer and looked up some online educational games for her to play.  He sat and helped her for a good little while.

Then he took them outside and built them a tree swing.

My Weekend

Well, our last Saturday Family Fun Day didn't go as planned.  It actually didn't go at all.  I was feeling really yucky.  I'm better now, thank goodness.  A visit to the doctor is just not something I am feeling right now. 

I did have a pretty productive weekend though...



All the green squares for Zoe's afghan are completed.  I also made all the centers for the last 12 pink squares.  Since I'm doing most of the work on this at work during lunch lately, I decided to just take it one color at a time for transportability's sake.  I'm making really good progress on this even as my second priority.



I also have all my centers finished for the Stained Glass Window afghan.  I have to do the corner motifs and then I'm stuck until I go get more black yarn.  The majority of the rest of it is black.

My landlords came by today to check on a problem we have with the floor and the landlady seemed a little shocked that I crochet.  I seem to forget sometimes that so many people think it's an "old lady" craft.  I see it all over the place online, but in my real life, I hardly know anyone who does it on a regular basis. 



And Olivia finally  lost that tooth on Saturday.  It was as traumatic as she could make it.  And even though Daddy was home, he refused to pull it, so it fell to me to do the deed.  He's just as squeamish about it as I am.  Olivia doesn't make it any easier.  She bit into something and it started bleeding again.  You would have thought I was performing mouth surgery without anesthetic with all the blood and screaming going on.  I seriously wanted to just throw up.  But I did it and managed to not show how freaked out about it I was myself.  All I know is that I hope she's the only one of the three who will be so dramatic about the whole thing.  Isabelle should start losing teeth soon and we'll be having teeth falling out left and right - I can't handle the freak out on a regular basis.



While I was feeling puny on Saturday, Bill did take the girls out to get a movie so that we could at least have a movie night.  On their way home, they pulled over and picked me some wildflowers.  How sweet is that?  Olivia and Zoe ran into the house and Olivia told me that Isabelle was bringing in a surprise for me and she was not going to tell me what it was.  Zoe piped up, "But it's going to be flowers."  She's the cutest.

So, aside from my body going on strike on Saturday, it was a good weekend.  I have been working on the pattern for the Spiderweb Beanie.  I have the actual pattern written out, but I need to finish the beanie for pictures. And I'm debating giving the finished hat away when I post the pattern.  I've never done a giveaway...  we shall see...

Oh what a tangled web we weave....

Last night, as I was drifting off to sleep, I had an idea for a hat.  It's inspired by the Stained Glass Window afghan pattern, with the overlay crochet techniques.  I was thinking how the black looks a bit like a spider web.... and Halloween is coming up... a spider web hat would be awesome.  I knew I had to get it out of my head as quickly as possible.  So, even though I am pressing myself to stay focused on the afghans I'm working on, I had to take part of this evening to work this out before it left me.

These pictures are my "first draft."  There will be some changes, and I definitely would choose a bigger contrast in color, but I couldn't find any white yarn (aside from the white in Zoe's afghan, which I don't like making hats with) and I wasn't going to use my black, since I need a ton of it for the SGW.  I found light gray and dark gray and went with that.  It's a bit like a dusty cobweb to me. 







I am going to try to put together a pattern for it. It will be a little more complicated than normal, with the overlay stitches.  I like the 3D effect of the web, though.  I could work it into a snowflake for Christmas, also.  So be on the lookout... hopefully it won't take me too long.

Linking up here:

Oh, heavens, the drama!

So, tonight I was making some Buffalo Chicken bites, per my husband's request.  My hands are all eggy and floury and Panko-y.  I hear a panicked cry and Olivia comes running into the kitchen with a half-eaten cookie and blood coming out of her mouth.  "My tooth!  My tooth!  I bit my cookie and my wiggly tooth is really wiggly now!"

This is not excitement.  This is full-on freak out.

This tooth has been loose for going on 6 months now.  I'm not exaggerating one bit.  I checked... I had made her a tooth fairy door as soon as she told me it was loose and I uploaded the picture on March 31.  But she refuses to wiggle it.  I felt it that day... it really was loose.  I'm surprised her permanent tooth hasn't come in behind it as long as this has drawn out.

I can't deal with loose teeth.  It makes me really squeamish.  I lucked out on her first two teeth.... one came out in the morning when it was just Bill to deal with it and the other fell out at school.  I won't even keep their baby teeth as keepsakes for the girls.  That just grosses me out. 

But I try to keep my cool about it.  She's flipping out enough for both of us (and then some).  I wash my hands and get her some paper towels and assess the situation.  It is really wiggly, but not to the point that I can just pull it out easily.  I asked for help on facebook and was told to do the whole tie a string on her tooth and to a doorknob and shut the door.  I can't do that.  Are you crazy?  I did try another suggestion of sticky candy... I gave her some Bit O Honey. 

She told me she forgot how to bite down.

Drama.  I'm not making this up.

She told me to call her father.  (Like he's going to rush home from work to have her not let him touch her)

She told me to call her teacher and tell her she can't come to school tomorrow.  (Oh yes, I remember "loose teeth" on the list of things to keep your kid home from school for)

I can only imagine puberty with this child.  If they make gray hair dye, I need to just go get some and get this over with.

Due to the fact that I absolutely can't bring myself to pull this tooth and the fact that she absolutely won't wiggle it, she is now in bed with all of  her teeth still in her head.  Daddy can deal with it in the morning.


They kind of look like ugly potholders right now.  =)

Busy Little Bee

Yup, that's me.



This afghan might not take me 5 months to complete!  Woo hoo!  I even got an orange round on two of them... the ugliest round of them all.  I'm not a fan of orange in the least.  And I snuck (sneaked?) in two of Zoe's squares, too.  I try to work on her blanket during lunch at work, but today I had a choice of working on the blanket while I ate my turkey Lunchable or eat Olive Garden.  Come on, is that really a choice?

I cannot type "Olive" without accidentally typing "Olivia."

My children were entirely too loud this evening.  We're talking way beyond outside voices inside.  I was yelling and couldn't hear myself.  It kind of made me wonder why on earth I am willing to add a fourth noisemaker in a few weeks....  Olivia is going to have her first overnight guest.  Her birthday is coming up and I just don't want to even think about a big party.  So I had this idea that instead of a party, I'd let her have a friend spend the night.  I haven't talked to the girl's mother, other than a note that I sent with Olivia to give to her BFF to give to her mom, but I have talked to the girl's grandmother when I picked Olivia up and she said the mom was fine with it.  I am really excited about it for them.  I didn't mention to Olivia what my plan was or what the note said, but they pretty much figured it out.  Why else would I be sending a note to the kid's mom?  So, they have the whole thing planned out already, including makeovers.  I'm sure it will be a blast (and probably sound like one too...)

Is it weird...

... that I want to frame one of my Stained Glass Window squares?

I pinned my finished square on the wall and I don't want to take it down.  It's going to be so hard to give this afghan away.

When I was working on the squares last week, I was missing one of them.  So I just started another one.  Then I found it yesterday.  So I caught it up with the other 11.  Now I have 12 in progress and the finished one.  I'm keeping one.  It's just too pretty.  I can't help it.  I may never make another full afghan from the pattern, so I want something other than pictures of it.

My book is falling apart now... I've been using it so much.  If you ever spend money on an afghan pattern book, I can't recommend this enough.  The pattern for Zoe's afghan is in there as well as the Stained Glass Window afghan.  There are quite a few others in the book that I would like to make.   I don't normally buy pattern books... there just aren't usually enough patterns in them that I like to justify the cost, especially when you can find so many great patterns online for free. 

Source: amazon.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

Did you know that today (Monday 9/12) was International Crochet Day?  I didn't until tonight.  I definitely celebrated.  I crocheted my way into a headache, I crocheted so much. And that was after cleaning.  I'm being super productive lately.  We better enjoy this while it lasts.  ;)

Saturday Family Fun Day

This was our next-to-last Saturday Family Fun Day.  *pouty face*  Next Saturday is Bill's last Saturday off.  They are switching his days off to Sunday and Monday.  So we'll have to start having Sunday Family Fun Days.  *happy face*

Of course, this means I'm going to have to get into a new routine.  Right now, Sunday is my big laundry day.  No matter how hard I try, I can't get into the habit of doing a load a day, and even when I do, there's still several to do at the end of the week.  I swear, sometimes I feel like there are more than 5  people in this family on laundry day.  So I'm going to have to get into the habit of doing laundry on Saturday so that I don't have that hanging over my head on Sunday.  I'm not a big fan of changing my routine. 

And I liked that the two nights a week that I can stay up late and don't have the extra tasks of getting things ready for the next day were the same nights that my hubby is home.  Sometimes I really dislike my husband's bosses.  OK, most of the time.  The man never calls in, always comes in when asked, actually takes being on call seriously, spends his own free time taking certification tests and whatnot... yet he's always the one that gets uprooted and thrown around when people quit.  Because he'll do it without making a fuss.  I just hate that the people who are the most difficult to work with always get their way... just because it's easiest. 

Enough complaining...  let's get back to the topic at hand.  =)

Bill had been planning our Fun Day all week.  Or at least the first part of it... going to an antique tractor show.  He loves tractors, having practically been raised on a dairy farm.  He can tell you just about anything you'd want to know about any kind of farm tractor.  So we took a little drive out to Scott, AR to look at some tractors...



They had a little plot of cotton planted.  I don't think I've ever been up close to cotton plants before, but I've heard my dad talk about having to pick it before...



It's actually quite pretty, I think.



Little cotton balls =)







There is a cypress swamp in the area... I think it's quite pretty, too.

We left there and had lunch at a new burger place that everyone keeps raving about.  I wasn't that impressed.  In fact, I had a bit of a tummy ache afterwards.  I had mentioned earlier that there was a new walking bridge that had opened recently, so we decided to check it out. 



Now, ever since I was little, I thought that the land that this bridge connects to was an island and I always wanted to go on this island.  It's actually just a little peninsula, but it was still really exciting to be able to just go walk over to it now. 





There is a walking trail once you get over the bridge.  It's actually a part of a huge trail system in the area.  We didn't make it to the end of this particular part of the trail, but I think we were close because we were seeing people coming back that had passed us (because we were sloooooow.)



The reason we were slow.  Short little legs and short little patience.  This was when we decided to turn around.



And this was when we got near the end.  Poor little Dodo was not happy.  It sucks to be the littlest person.  She told me several times that we should have brought the stroller or wagon.  And maybe I would have if we had actually planned that part of the trip, but it was kind of a "what can we do now?" decision.

It definitely got me wanting to take more walks, even with all the whining.  I love trails.  Walking trails, nature trails, walking bridges.  It's one of my favorite parts of where we live, so many trails.  =)

Can you hear the angels singing?

I got a lot of crocheting finished while we had company.  I finished the sixth row of Zoe's afghan, which is the halfway point (not counting the border).  And I worked all 12 of my Stained Glass Window squares to the point where I needed new colors. 

Darn it all, had to go to Hobby Lobby.  What torture.  =)

I decided to just grab the 3 remaining colors and more black all at once.  No more stressing over my color choices.  Just get it and be done.  And since I had all the colors, I thought I'd finish a square completely to see if what I made would even look like what is in the book.

Want to see?  Do you?  Do you?

Here it is... 



I am not going to lie.  This is a very challenging pattern.  But it is fun.  On one hand, I'm thinking "I have to make 11 more of these?", but the fun factor makes it not so daunting.

It's also huge.  It's about 10 inches... I think.  I couldn't find anything to measure it with, but it was about as tall as my 8x10 picture close to it. 

When I had the center of it finished with all the colors, I was not sure I liked it at all.  The yellowish color just seemed "off" to me.  But then I got the corner motifs on and it looked so much better... it just tied it together perfectly.  I completely love it.  This is going to be such an amazing afghan.  It will be so hard to give it away.

The Hostess With The Mostest...

... Mostest what, I don't know.  =)

My sister-in-law decided to move back to Massachusetts from California.  My father-in-law flew out there to help her with the moving and the drive, and they decided to make a little pit stop here to visit us along the way.  We haven't seen them in about two years.  It's just such a huge undertaking to take all 5 of us on a trip that big and we, unfortunately, don't get to make it very often.  So we were so excited that they were coming to visit.

Now, it's very rare that we have overnight company.  I don't think we have had anyone here since Isabelle was born 5 years ago.  So I spent last weekend in a cleaning frenzy, totally stressed out to the point that I spent Labor Day with a migraine.  It was totally silly of me, but I just wanted things to be nice for them.  Plus, Bill wasn't able to get any time off of work so it would be just me and the girls to entertain them most of the time.  And, just in case you missed the bulletin, I'm so not a social creature.  Not that I didn't enjoy their company... don't get me wrong, I do like them immensely.  We had a great time.  But I can't lie and say that the anticipation of playing hostess didn't weigh heavily on me. 

The main reason that Bill wasn't able to get time off was that we weren't exactly sure when they'd arrive.  They ended up leaving a day later than they planned and had some late starts.  Originally they thought they'd be here Monday, or Tuesday at the latest.  It was actually Wednesday evening when they got here.  The girls were just out of their heads with excitement. 



They had their Papa on book duty pretty quickly.  That was pretty much the only time they weren't running full speed, giving the tour of the house, worrying over my sister-in-law's cat, showing off toys and pillows and blankets.  They wore me out just watching.

The next day, I did have to go to work myself, but only for a few hours and I was home by the time everyone was getting up for the day.  The girls were much calmer and really well-behaved.



Olivia even asked to do the dishes for me.  =)



Days of driving wears an Aunt Mandy out and Zoe was more than happy to join her in a nap.



They had a lot of fun taking pictures and just acting goofy.



Aunt Mandy taught the girls how to play Angry Birds and Papa taught Olivia how to do Sodoku puzzles.  And she was actually getting it... I can't even do Sodoku.

Amanda and I had a few long conversations and that was really nice.  I don't think we've really ever had the chance to just chit chat... just the two of us.  So, I wasn't all that antisocial.  I did get a lot of crocheting done, though.  It's just easier for me to talk with my hands busy.

They only were able to stay two nights and had to leave while I was at work.  It was a real bummer that they had to go.  It really sucks living so far away from part of the family.  But Bill has already mentioned making the trip to visit next summer and I'm excited!  I tried to plan a trip this summer and we weren't able to make it work.  I'm going to work extra hard to make it happen next year though.  There are many, many more people to see, but it was so great to see two of them at least.