The good news is that Thanksgiving and all related craziness is over. The bad news is that Christmas is right around the corner. December is the one month each year that I love and dread all at the same time. I love it because there are so many wonderful memories associated with the Christmas season, but I hate it because I feel like I am being pulled in 12 thousand directions. My life is already crazy with work and taking care of a toddler, then add gift shopping, meal planning, grocery shopping, present wrapping, party going and house cleaning to it and I want to run away and hide.
This Christmas should be a little more fun than those in the recent past though, because Caleb is starting to realize a little of the magic of the season. He doesn't completely get it yet and trying to get him to understand that putting the tree in our living room doesn't mean Christmas is tomorrow has been a challenge, but he is getting there.
We went yesterday and picked out our Christmas tree at a choose and cut place near Waupaca. Very nice place that we hadn't been before and the tree cost up $45. Considering we paid more than double that a few years ago, it is worth a little bit of extra gas to get it while we are up in Waupaca for Thanksgiving anyway. That is the advantage of living so close to the Christmas Tree capital of the world. We got a 7.5 foot tall Fraser Fir and it looks great in the living room. Will try to get it decorated this evening, but I am not going to hold my breath. We are also going to be shopping for the lights to put on the OUTSIDE of the house, which means that we will probably be eating dinner out or getting take-out AGAIN. We have tried to put lights on the outside of the house the last couple of years but by the time we finally get around to it, neither of us thinks it is worth the effort. Caleb is adamant that we have lights outside this year, though, so I think it will really happen.
Monday, November 26, 2007
On Ravelry!
I have been waiting for over a month for my invite to join Ravelry, a new knit and crochet community on the web. Currently it is only in the Beta stage so they were only accepting people a little at a time. I have spent the last few minutes looking around, but I know I will be spending a LOT more time working on my stuff on the site. Great place to keep info on projects, hooks, yarn stash, etc. Can't wait to meet all the neat people there either!
On another note, I got lots done this weekend, crochet wise. I FINALLY finished Mom's Christmas gift, but I am not going to post a picture on here yet because I don't want her to see it! IT turned out much better than I thought it would while I was working on it. All the fighting I did with it was definitely worth it. I also got LOTS done on Caleb's blanket, which is now about half done. It is bright and cheery and I hope he really gets some good use out of it.
I had intended to get even more than that done, but my thoughts of a relaxing weekend where there was lots of time to crochet was a figment of my imagination. Oh well...maybe next year.
On another note, I got lots done this weekend, crochet wise. I FINALLY finished Mom's Christmas gift, but I am not going to post a picture on here yet because I don't want her to see it! IT turned out much better than I thought it would while I was working on it. All the fighting I did with it was definitely worth it. I also got LOTS done on Caleb's blanket, which is now about half done. It is bright and cheery and I hope he really gets some good use out of it.
I had intended to get even more than that done, but my thoughts of a relaxing weekend where there was lots of time to crochet was a figment of my imagination. Oh well...maybe next year.
Friday, November 16, 2007
Mighty hunter weekend
Yes, that time of year has come again. OPENING DAY! For deer hunting that is. Tomorrow morning, before first light, hundreds of thousands of manly men dressed in bright orange will go out into the woods and shut them some deer. All of the men in my life are extremely excited. Even the littlest one. We haven't quit figured out how to tell the 3 year old that he is too little to go out in all the woods with all the other guys, but since they will be long gone before he is awake I think it will work out OK.
Mom, Caleb and I will be spending a lot of time inside or out on the Gator. I am hoping to make a bunch more progress on my crochet projects since Nana will be there to entertain and play with the little guy. We have a birthday party to go to tomorrow afternoon, which should be nice but more than likely will be very tiring (for me, not Caleb). Will try to get mom to come along so that maybe we can hang out in Appleton and have dinner. Planning things in the afternoon are always tricky, especially since Caleb isn't all that great at taking "mobile naps" any more. Will have to just play it by ear and hope for the best.
Mom, Caleb and I will be spending a lot of time inside or out on the Gator. I am hoping to make a bunch more progress on my crochet projects since Nana will be there to entertain and play with the little guy. We have a birthday party to go to tomorrow afternoon, which should be nice but more than likely will be very tiring (for me, not Caleb). Will try to get mom to come along so that maybe we can hang out in Appleton and have dinner. Planning things in the afternoon are always tricky, especially since Caleb isn't all that great at taking "mobile naps" any more. Will have to just play it by ear and hope for the best.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Wednesday Craziness
Last night was the usual Wednesday craziness. Scott had bowling (4 PM to 6:30 PM), Caleb had swimming lessons (6:45 PM) and I had bunco (7 PM). Luckily, we were all able to get where we needed to go, but we were running around a lot.
I got home from bunco at about 9:30 in my usual GREAT mood. It is so freaking stressful dealing with these women! I am seriously thinking about resigning and becoming a hermit. I know they are supposed to be my friends, but I don't feel like I fit in with them anymore. Most of them are SAHM's whose kids all go to the same schools. And those that do work can only talk about how they would LOVE to stay home with their kids. They are constantly talking about carpools and teachers and field trips and test scores. Two of the women had their infants there and that just made me feel uncomfortable...I acknowledge that is all in MY head, but it just compounds the fact that I don't want to be there anymore. The NEXT bunco is supposed to be in 3 weeks and it is the annual Christmas party with gift exchange. I am definitely NOT going to that this year....last year it took almost 2 hours to decide HOW we were going to do the gift exchange. I do NOT need that stress in my life right now. And of course the "Supermom's" were there again last night. I spent the entire night avoiding them and I think I did pretty well, since I didn't sit by them the whole night. I know it is totally middle school behavior on my part, but I am sick of being judged by them. More accurately, I am sick of comparing myself to them and coming up short.
Mom and Dad are going through more hell with the business, and Mom is not doing well with it at all. I am really worried about her. Dad APPEARS to be doing OK, but that is because that is what he WANTS us to see. Yeah, learned a lot of ways to deal honestly with me emotions from that guy. I can't say much, but the IRS agent who has been harassing my Dad is at is again. Dad was just going to give in and retire, but Dad's lawyer is afraid that even if Dad doesn't sign any more returns ever again, this guy is just going to start digging into client's past returns and start assessing him penalties based on those returns. The lawyer wants Dad to "fight the good fight", but I don't know if either of them will survive the stress. Even after watching them go through 31 tax seasons, I have never seen them this stressed. At least with tax season there is an end in sight....get past April 15 and you can coast for a few months. This crap could go on for years and years.
Another epic blog post. Either I have a lot to say or I don't know how to shut up once I start.
I got home from bunco at about 9:30 in my usual GREAT mood. It is so freaking stressful dealing with these women! I am seriously thinking about resigning and becoming a hermit. I know they are supposed to be my friends, but I don't feel like I fit in with them anymore. Most of them are SAHM's whose kids all go to the same schools. And those that do work can only talk about how they would LOVE to stay home with their kids. They are constantly talking about carpools and teachers and field trips and test scores. Two of the women had their infants there and that just made me feel uncomfortable...I acknowledge that is all in MY head, but it just compounds the fact that I don't want to be there anymore. The NEXT bunco is supposed to be in 3 weeks and it is the annual Christmas party with gift exchange. I am definitely NOT going to that this year....last year it took almost 2 hours to decide HOW we were going to do the gift exchange. I do NOT need that stress in my life right now. And of course the "Supermom's" were there again last night. I spent the entire night avoiding them and I think I did pretty well, since I didn't sit by them the whole night. I know it is totally middle school behavior on my part, but I am sick of being judged by them. More accurately, I am sick of comparing myself to them and coming up short.
Mom and Dad are going through more hell with the business, and Mom is not doing well with it at all. I am really worried about her. Dad APPEARS to be doing OK, but that is because that is what he WANTS us to see. Yeah, learned a lot of ways to deal honestly with me emotions from that guy. I can't say much, but the IRS agent who has been harassing my Dad is at is again. Dad was just going to give in and retire, but Dad's lawyer is afraid that even if Dad doesn't sign any more returns ever again, this guy is just going to start digging into client's past returns and start assessing him penalties based on those returns. The lawyer wants Dad to "fight the good fight", but I don't know if either of them will survive the stress. Even after watching them go through 31 tax seasons, I have never seen them this stressed. At least with tax season there is an end in sight....get past April 15 and you can coast for a few months. This crap could go on for years and years.
Another epic blog post. Either I have a lot to say or I don't know how to shut up once I start.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Crochet overload!
I have been diving head first into crochet lately (again) and am loving it. I am planning on making a bunch of Christmas gifts this year and have been finding lots and lots of cute patterns in the process. One of the latest things I want to make is a "swiffer shrug", which is basically a reusable wet swiffer pad made out of cotton. Will probably have to modify the pattern slightly to get it to work for the swiffer "max" that Mom has, but that shouldn't be too hard. I found the pattern HERE. They look really neat and are definitely eco-friendly!
I know I am the only one reading this blog, and I know what is in my own head, but maybe I should give a little background on how/why I crochet. I have had MANY hobbies in my life, but some how I keep coming back to this one. I wish I could say that I learned at my Grandmother's knee, but while Grandma did crochet, she never managed to teach me. I first held a hook while attending River Valley School (I was one of 6 kids in my class), a very small private school which subscribed to the Waldorf Method. One of the classes that was taught by one of the parents was knitting and crochet. We did everything in the process....sheared the sheep, washed the wool, carded the wool, spun the wool, dyed the wool...then finally got ready to learn how to knit/crochet. I was pretty much hopeless with both hook and needle. I crocheted a LOT of triangles (chain 1; turn?) and knitted lots of things with holes in them. Gave it up at the age of 9. Fast forward 16 years to early 2002....we moved into our new house and one Sunday we were invited to our neighbors house to watch the Packer game. My neighbor had a book entitled something like "learn to crochet" and was busily making an afghan. I borrowed a hook, read the book and took off flying. In a matter of a few minutes I had re-learned everything I thought I forgot about crochet and was "hooked". (I know, really bad pun!) I have been crocheting on and off ever since.
I have started many projects and even managed to finish a few, including baby blankets, a crib mobile, hats, scarves, etc. I have yet to finish a full size afghan, but I have one that is about half way done that I would like to finish before the end of the year. Doubt it will happen, but miracles happen everyday. :)
I know I am the only one reading this blog, and I know what is in my own head, but maybe I should give a little background on how/why I crochet. I have had MANY hobbies in my life, but some how I keep coming back to this one. I wish I could say that I learned at my Grandmother's knee, but while Grandma did crochet, she never managed to teach me. I first held a hook while attending River Valley School (I was one of 6 kids in my class), a very small private school which subscribed to the Waldorf Method. One of the classes that was taught by one of the parents was knitting and crochet. We did everything in the process....sheared the sheep, washed the wool, carded the wool, spun the wool, dyed the wool...then finally got ready to learn how to knit/crochet. I was pretty much hopeless with both hook and needle. I crocheted a LOT of triangles (chain 1; turn?) and knitted lots of things with holes in them. Gave it up at the age of 9. Fast forward 16 years to early 2002....we moved into our new house and one Sunday we were invited to our neighbors house to watch the Packer game. My neighbor had a book entitled something like "learn to crochet" and was busily making an afghan. I borrowed a hook, read the book and took off flying. In a matter of a few minutes I had re-learned everything I thought I forgot about crochet and was "hooked". (I know, really bad pun!) I have been crocheting on and off ever since.
I have started many projects and even managed to finish a few, including baby blankets, a crib mobile, hats, scarves, etc. I have yet to finish a full size afghan, but I have one that is about half way done that I would like to finish before the end of the year. Doubt it will happen, but miracles happen everyday. :)
Friday, November 9, 2007
Crochet: Finished Projects!
Since Scott took Caleb to PetSmart last night, I was able to spend a little time finishing up two projects that were on my crochet WIP (work in progress) list. Thought I would post some pictures since I very rarely actually REMEMBER to take pictures of my work. How silly is that? I give 90% of it away and I have no real record of it. Anyway, here they are:
(I am not very good at posting pictures yet!)
The first is a baby blanket that I started a LONG time ago. I thought that adding the crocheted edging would be quicker/easier/simpler to do than actually crocheting the whole blanket....boy, was I wrong! It took forever to punch all the holes and then to crochet 4 rounds. And to top it off I HATED the yarn I chose to do the edging as it was a pain to work with, but I was too far in to quit. I got it almost done and just couldn't stand it anymore so it got put into a bag a stuffed in a corner. But after finding it I decided that I had to finish it or there was no point doing all the work in the first place. Don't know who I will give it to, but at least I have it ready to go for the next baby that comes into my life.
The second picture is of a little gingerbread man that I made as a Christmas ornament for a gift exchange through my local crochet guild. He was a ton of fun and worked up very quickly. I am thinking about doing a few more just like him for the Christmas tree or for gifts. With all my other WIP's though, I may have to way until next year!
(I am not very good at posting pictures yet!)
The first is a baby blanket that I started a LONG time ago. I thought that adding the crocheted edging would be quicker/easier/simpler to do than actually crocheting the whole blanket....boy, was I wrong! It took forever to punch all the holes and then to crochet 4 rounds. And to top it off I HATED the yarn I chose to do the edging as it was a pain to work with, but I was too far in to quit. I got it almost done and just couldn't stand it anymore so it got put into a bag a stuffed in a corner. But after finding it I decided that I had to finish it or there was no point doing all the work in the first place. Don't know who I will give it to, but at least I have it ready to go for the next baby that comes into my life.
The second picture is of a little gingerbread man that I made as a Christmas ornament for a gift exchange through my local crochet guild. He was a ton of fun and worked up very quickly. I am thinking about doing a few more just like him for the Christmas tree or for gifts. With all my other WIP's though, I may have to way until next year!
Thursday, November 8, 2007
October Sucked
I know....I know....once again I am here explaining why I haven't posted in a really long time. At least this time I have a pretty good excuse. On September 18, I had a positive pregnancy test and we were really beyond excited. I scheduled our first OB visit with a new doctor and we went about picking out baby names and telling our family. Our first Dr appointment was on October 5th, when I was just 7 weeks along. The appointment went great, until the very end when they did an ultrasound. The doctor said that things were not as developed as she would suspect, but told us not to panic and added another blood test. That afternoon she called to tell us that the pregnancy was not viable and that we should expect a miscarriage at any time. I was devastated to say the least.
For the next week, I waited for something to happen and it never did. I was a weeping puddle of mush most of the time, but I couldn't seem to get past it or move forward in the grieving process because I was technically still pregnant. So, I called an scheduled a D&C for the morning of the 16th. Mom was kind enough to come down and spend some time with me and drive me home. I took that day and the next day off to be alone, but then I had to go back to my life as usual. At least once it was over, I was able to "move on". Whatever that means.
I still have episodes of sudden tears and a sense of loss, but they are getting further apart. It has been hard because not many people know I was going through this, so they couldn't understand why I was acting so strangely.
Added to that is the fact that after 33 years, my parents are being put out of business by a rogue IRS agent who has decided that he doesn't like my father. This has been super stressful for both my parents and I have been worried about both of them.
But some good things did happen in October. Caleb was an adorable pumpkin for Halloween and I won $40 at bunco. Scott shot a doe with his bow, which means that we have more meat in the freezer and now he has earned the right to try for a buck during gun season. We got to see some old friends when they came to town for the MTU vs UW hockey game last weekend; that was a lot of fun, but I think I am still recovering from all the cleaning I had to do beforehand. :)
We got the news last night that Caleb is being moved up a level for his swim classes! He is finally getting comfortable with the water and we are happy that he is coming along well. Of course, he still has problems with putting his face in the water and with listening to the teacher, but at least he is making progress.
Hopefully next time I will have some happier things to talk about. I am currently making a bunch of crochet items for charity and for gifts so I will try to take pictures of them as I get them done so I can post them on here. At least I am being productive now that it is too cold outside to do anything productive.
For the next week, I waited for something to happen and it never did. I was a weeping puddle of mush most of the time, but I couldn't seem to get past it or move forward in the grieving process because I was technically still pregnant. So, I called an scheduled a D&C for the morning of the 16th. Mom was kind enough to come down and spend some time with me and drive me home. I took that day and the next day off to be alone, but then I had to go back to my life as usual. At least once it was over, I was able to "move on". Whatever that means.
I still have episodes of sudden tears and a sense of loss, but they are getting further apart. It has been hard because not many people know I was going through this, so they couldn't understand why I was acting so strangely.
Added to that is the fact that after 33 years, my parents are being put out of business by a rogue IRS agent who has decided that he doesn't like my father. This has been super stressful for both my parents and I have been worried about both of them.
But some good things did happen in October. Caleb was an adorable pumpkin for Halloween and I won $40 at bunco. Scott shot a doe with his bow, which means that we have more meat in the freezer and now he has earned the right to try for a buck during gun season. We got to see some old friends when they came to town for the MTU vs UW hockey game last weekend; that was a lot of fun, but I think I am still recovering from all the cleaning I had to do beforehand. :)
We got the news last night that Caleb is being moved up a level for his swim classes! He is finally getting comfortable with the water and we are happy that he is coming along well. Of course, he still has problems with putting his face in the water and with listening to the teacher, but at least he is making progress.
Hopefully next time I will have some happier things to talk about. I am currently making a bunch of crochet items for charity and for gifts so I will try to take pictures of them as I get them done so I can post them on here. At least I am being productive now that it is too cold outside to do anything productive.
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