Twilight Tide Pettiskirt GIVEAWAY!!!!

Oooo..another awesome skirt giveaway. I know, I know, I need to just start making Ari stuff instead of trying to win them. Sewing cuts into my knitting time, though! lol (FWIW, I like knitting better because I'm lazy and I like to sit on the couch, and you can't sit on the couch and sew, at least not on the machine, and while I love hand sewing, for the kids' clothes, it's just not practical!)

Twilight Tide Pettiskirt GIVEAWAY!!!!

Sonic

Ok, for about the last 6 years or so now, we have had nonstop commercials for Sonic. What is this new and wonderful place we wondered? So, we googled it. The closest Sonic was at least 1 1/2 hours away, if not 2. We've waited. We've watched the commercials. We've periodically checked to make sure we didn't miss one, still, no Sonic. Even the kids would ask, "Mommy, if there is no Sonic here, why do they have commercials for it? I wanna go to Sonic." Because they're mean kids, very mean. But, to our wonder and amazement, Dan was going to see a friend, and on the way came across a brand new Sonic! We sampled its wondrousness last night. I'm still mad we had to wait 6 years, but it.was.good. sigh. The only sucky thing is, they're probably going to put the local good-burger drive-in spot, Swenson's, out of business 'cause they're right down the street. :0(

It's Official.....

I am a mommy to 3 school kids. I just got home from signing Atley up for kindergarten! My baby. My sweet, sweet Atley will be leaving me in the fall. He says he doesn't want to go (much to my happiness...he loves his momma) BUT he seemed to have fun with the other kids there. Poor little Charlie is still snuffly. At least his fever seems to finally have broken!

I started my Petunia Dursley Eyelet socks for the March SKA. I'm about halfway done with the ribbing on the first sock! I finished one of Charlie's socks last night. It fits pretty good! I used the Moda Dea Sassy Stripes I used on Ari's socks, and I found out when I looked at my stash page, it's marked as a DK weight...no wonder it's been a pain on size 1 bamboo needles! I'm going to rough through the second one, then I'm going to try another pair with actual fingering yarn.

Sick

I have sick kids. It's making it's rounds. Ari missed school Thursday and Friday, and still doesn't sound the greatest, but she went back to school today. Poor little Charlie got it Saturday, and he's just miserable. :0( I feel so bad for the poor baby. He's just so stuffy and he looks so pathetic with his little baggy eyes and runny nose. And Atley's getting it today. Of course, kindergarten registration is Thursday, and I've got 500 things to do tomorrow for it! Perfect timing. Tomorrow is my grocery day. We've got to go pick up his birth certificate. We've got to get our hair cut. AND I have to clean because Dan's having a friend over. Plus, his dad's birthday is Wednesday. Oh well, I'm not picking anything up for that...hehe. ;0) Then, just getting up the gumption to get Atley to kindergarten registration (which he still doesn't want to go to.)

I finished a project last night! Yay! I made another Bunny Blanket Buddy, this time I almost perfected the monkey ears, but it was late, and I was tired, and Charlie woke up and started fussing, and I just wanted to give him his monkey, so it's rather bear like because it could have used another row or 2. Oh well, it's good enough! lol 5 more to go for my Arithmancy OWL to be done!

Happy Ostara!

Happy Ostara Everyone! Now that spring is officially here, hopefully with the bright and beautiful new spring days, we can all have a bright and beautiful new lookout on life. I'm posting my favorite spring recipe. We always called this Easter Bread, though most Easter breads I've found are fruit filled, not like this.

Easter Bread

1 loaf of frozen bread dough
pepperoni
diced ham
swiss cheese
1 egg
oregano
mozzarella

Thaw bread dough and spread out. Lay 1 layer of pepperoni, ham, and swiss across center of dough. Fold bottom half of dough over the meat and cheese. Do another layer of pepperoni, ham, and swiss on top of folded over dough. Fold over top half. Do an egg wash. Sprinkle top with a little oregano and mozzarella. Bake at 425 for about 15-20 minutes until golden brown. It's just as good, if not better, eaten room temp or cold even!

Krispy Speckled Eggs Recipe

When I was a little girl, my grandma and I were always in the kitchen cooking and baking. Every year for Easter, we would make Krispy Speckled Eggs. They are still my favorite, and they are super easy to make. The kids love to help.

Krispy Speckled Eggs

1 jar of marshmallow cream
1/2 c. creamy peanut butter
2 T. melted butter
3 c. Rice Krispies cereal
1 c. chopped pastel M&M's

Combine marshmallow cream, PB, and melted butter; stir until smooth. Mix in Rice Krispies and M&M's until coated. Spread butter on your hands and roll a golf ball sized amount into an egg shape. (Make sure you give it a little squeeze, or it won't stick together.) Refrigerate until set.

Boy, I am just a bloggin' fool today! I just had to post the "Injury of the Day." Today at school, Melodie stabbed herself with her pencil, erasing a math problem. Bad enough to cause a puncture wound and make it bleed. She said she was pressing down to erase and pressed too hard!

Fun times

Yesterday, Melodie had a field trip to the McKinley Monument / Museum and Discover World. My dad had gotten us a membership for X-mas, so I decided to take the boys (solo since someone bailed on me...geez!! j/k how is the poor kiddo, BTW? That volunteer guy was telling me about a chess club he helps run from the main branch of the library.) Anywho, Atley had a great time. He loves the trains. There is a HUGE model train display set up, and it is just his favorite part. He also got a certificate for being brave and not scared to walk past Alice, the animatronic Allosaur. (This was the first time he wasn't scared.) He still won't go down the fireman pole. (Wonder if they have a certificate for that?) We saw Melodie and her friends a couple of times. Poor Ari was so upset she didn't get to go. I picked her up a new squirrel friend from the gift shop. She was very excited to see her. I set her on her seat when I went to get them from school so she saw her right away. Yes, this one is a girl, to go with Earl, her boy squirrel. It's name? Arianna, of course. All of Ari's girl toys have 3 names....Arianna, Hermione, or Emma (one of my baby cousin's names.) Well, that and sprinkled in with names like Ballerina Baby (she came wearing a tutu, of course, though now she should be bald baby because Ari cut ALL of her hair off...poor Ballerina Baby) and Target (named, of course, after where Ari made her purchase.)

I don't know how many people ask me, "How old is the baby, 2?" Nope, he'll be 11 mo next week. "OH MY GOD!! He's big for being 11 mo old, isn't he?" Yes, yes he is.

We took a picnic lunch to enjoy the beautiful WARM spring weather (yay! heat!) Charlie smeared chicken and stars baby food all.over.everything. I've never had him get so messy. During our lunch, we also decided to walk up the steps at the end of our visit.

Atley: "Why are people going up and down and up and down and up and down the steps?"
Me: "Because they're exercising."
Atley: "Can we go up the steps?"
Me: "Sure, but when we're all done because I can't take Charlie in the stroller up the steps, and I'll have to put the stroller away."

I'm sure you can see where I'm going with this. Yes, I was planning on carrying Charlie up the steps. Me, the 5 foot 1, sits on my butt and types all day, gets sunburned through windows me, was totally thinking it was a great idea to carry Charlie up the 100+ reflective granite steps in 60+ degree weather. So, we finish our lunch, go back inside, visit the gift shop, look at the trains again, look at the animals again, walk through Space Station Earth again, and decide it's time to take our trip up the steps. The first flight, I was okay. This is a piece of cake, I thought. Boy, I must be in much better shape than I thought (ha!) Second flight, okay, Charlie's kinda heavy, but at least my knee isn't grinding like it normally does going up steps. Third flight, my right leg starts to shake. From there, it was all a blur, just trying to keep upright and keep up with Atley. On the way down, all I could think of was, "You cannot fall with the baby. You cannot fall with the baby. This is granite, and he will squish, you cannot fall with the baby." By the time we got to the bottom, I could hardly stand up.

Atley: "That was fun, can we go again?"
Me: "Sure, knock yourself out. I'll wait for you right here."

My calf feels like it's going to explode today. I can hardly hobble across the house, and keep in mind my house is only about 800 sq ft! I was thinking about taking the boys on a bike ride today...nope, not gonna happen!

As for the yarnin', I ordered yarn to make a vest for Charlie for his b-day. I'm almost done with my Fanny socks! I ordered a ball of sale yarn for another pair in purple. (Knit Picks has their 50 g Essential Kettle Dyed on sale because they're getting rid of it for 100 g skeins, in case anyone is interested!!) I think I'm going to start on some b-day dino knitting when this one is done. Well, I take that back, I might FINALLY start a pair of socks for Charlie. My friend and her hubby are supposed to come over Saturday night so I can give her a lesson on heel turning / gusset shaping (yes, me, the one who is only on sock pair #5...such an expert! lol)

Modern Pirate Frock GIVEAWAY!!!!

Another AWESOME creation from Grosgrain! Wow, would Ari love this dress or what!?!

Modern Pirate Frock GIVEAWAY!!!!

Yarnin' Progress

Things are plugging along here. I've been working like crazy. Dan's work said they might call him back next week, so we'll see!!

Other than playing Big Mutha Truckers and Big Mutha Truckers 2 (boy, it's amazing what you find in the back of the cupboards on the entertainment center), I've been yarnin'. Mostly while Ari has been kickin' the pants off of everyone, including Dan (which really cheezes him off...hehe) in Mortal Kombat 545 (ok, so I forget what one we have...it's about 5 years old, for PS2, if that helps, if anyone cares.) Yes, we are bad parents. We encourage our children to play violent video games and applaud their 5 yo selves for getting 11 straight wins in a row, most of them flawless victories. (Mortal Kombat is nice like that and keeps track of how many times one person beats another, just to rub it in a little more....)

Anywho, Charlie has tooth #6 coming in! Yay for Charlie! He loves brocolli and cheese soup and is very sad it is gone. What is it with my kids and brocolli? They are like the kids on the Hidden Vally Ranch commercial. They fean brocolli. Charlie at 2 bowls of it one night. He wanted more, but I didn't want him to explode. He also, finally for time #2, slept through the night last night! Yay!!

Here is my newest FO. I test knit a baby viking hat. I love this pic of Charlie.

Of course, I know have to make one for Atley. Incidentally, when I googled the spelling of Attila, I found out that Atley is a derivative of Attila. Who knew!?! Here, we just thought we were naming him after someone in the most awesome car movie ever. Dan will be so proud when he comes home. He has always been pushing for the name Attila. I vetoed it with Atley, and with Charlie we tried to stay away from "A" names because we didn't want Melodie to feel left out being the only not "A" child (that, and we didn't want to be confused with the Duggars.)

Baggu Grosgrain Guest GIVEAWAY!!!!

Another great giveaway!! This one is for reusable shopping bags!!

Baggu Grosgrain Guest GIVEAWAY!!!!

Tip for the Day!

Another one from Real Simple!! To get those cobwebs on the ceiling or to dust crown molding, rubberband a rag on the head of a broom. (They suggest a microfiber one.) I've already got one of those loopy duster things, but when I've got the pad off to be washed, not a bad stand by when Dan squishes a spider with said broom and leaves guts all over. Us short people need all the reaching help we can get!

Chuggin' Along

Well, so far things are going okay. My mom is a big help, though. And, she's in Florida for the week. :0( I miss my mommy when she leaves me! She's even gone over her birthday.

My knitting has been coming along good. Yay for stress knitting! I'm doing a test knit for a baby Viking hat. OMG, too cute. I hope to have it done in a day or 2. I'm a little over halfway there. I just hope it fits! So far, it looks a little small, but it's supposed to have negative ease to fit snugly to keep the horns up. My little Hungarian baby is going as Atilla the Hun for Halloween this year. (We've decided this based on the hat.) Atley has also put in an order for a Viking hat.

Cinnamon Sticks GUEST GROSGRAIN GIVEAWAY!!!!

Another cute giveaway!!! This one is for jewelry.

Cinnamon Sticks GUEST GROSGRAIN GIVEAWAY!!!!

Tip for the Day!

Again, from the Real Simple emails I get. (These can have neat tips in them.)

To polish chrome, use baby oil! I don't know about all you moms out there, but invariably you get at least 1 bottle of baby oil from your baby shower. I don't know about you, but they've always sat in the back of my linen closet. Now, I've got a use for them!

Again, and again, and again

I swear, every time we finally think we're starting to make some progress, we get knocked right back down again. Monday, Dan got laid off. We're already behind on stuff from me being low on work for the past year. Of course, my work finally started to pick up, and I was going to call all of the "wonderful" people who call me 15 times a day that I could finally start paying them at the end of the month. (yes, because when you have no money, if someone calls you 14 more times, you just might have some *rolls eyes*) And, for a double whammy, my good hospital is going to voice recognition. I got trained to edit it, but the editing is less pay per line. It's supposed to even out because I'm reading and editing, not transcribing, but we'll see. Yesterday was my day off, so I've just barely gotten my feet wet with it. Hey, maybe now they'll finally think we're broke enough to get the kids some freakin' Healthy Start insurance! nah, I'm sure there'll be something that will keep us from getting it. That would be too much luck for us.

Born 2 Impress GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Another awesome giveaway from Grosgrain! This one is for a $20 gift certificate to Born 2 Impress for hair bobbles and bows for your little princess! Designs from infant to teen.

Born 2 Impress GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!