Conversations with Kids

A Conversation Regarding Leprechauns

2011-03-15T08:45:00.000-07:00

The kids are currently obsessed with leprechauns. I really don't know why, but they were running around last night claiming that they saw a leprechaun in the house. The reason? They were playing MouseTrap and found one of the mice in a wind up clock.... Jeff says that he grilled them to see who was lying but no one broke. And then, when they were going to bed, I had this conversation with Emily:

E: Mommy, Bella told me a story that her teacher told her about a leprechaun that was hit by a car and became a zombie leprechaun. Now I'm scared.
Me: I highly doubt that.
E: No, really, she did.
Me: There is no such thing as a leprechaun. And if there was, there certainly aren't any zombie leprechauns.

So I giggled, told Jeff about it, and went to bed. This morning as Jeff was getting ready to leave, we had this conversation:

J: Did you put the kids clothes on the couch all freaky?
Me: What? No, that was Miles (they picked out their clothes last night for Spring Picture Day)
J: They're really freaking me out with this leprechaun thing. Did you hear about the mouse in the clock?
Me: (laughing)
J: It's really not funny..... I can't get zombie leprechauns out of my head now.

Sigh... LEPRECHAUNS.

In other, non-little-green-men related issues, I finally got motivated to finish my Que Sera cardigan that I've been working on FOREVER (ok, not forever, Ravelry says since Oct 26). I didn't mind the lacy stitch pattern, but the shaping really eluded me. And then the sleeves. I couldn't figure out why no one else had sleeve issues. It turned out I was over-thinking the sleeves and once I just followed the directions it wasn't too bad. I'm halfway done with the second sleeve, and then it's onto blocking and seaming. Wish me luck!

Just Not Enough Time

2011-03-02T10:27:00.000-08:00

Sometimes you don't have time to say goodbye. Sometimes it may be better that way. My good friend lost his life to pancreatic cancer last night. It was a very painful time and the last few months have been extremely difficult for him.

I was distraught when I found out because he didn't want to tell anyone until he had all the details (and yet I found out through well meaning family members). I was distraught right after the announcement, I saw him right after when a large community of friends and family came together to pray for him. Then, he had already lost a lot of weight and looked like an old man. But none of that can compare to how I feel now. He was in a lot of pain, so I'm grateful that he can be at peace now. But it hits me like a ton of bricks when I think of things to tell him. An article we would have shared. Seeing his screen name still active today on my chat. The fact that there's a Mac Announcement today that he's missing (at least he can say that to the very end he had the LATEST, an early adopter but never a fan boy). And mostly, the fact that I was going to see you in the next two days, whether you wanted me there or not.

Herman, my friend, I wish that I had a chance to say goodbye but in some ways maybe it was better. The disease had really hurt him and at least my memories can be of laughter and smiles, just as he always was. Be at peace, buddy.

Let Me Put on Another Hat

2011-02-25T10:15:00.000-08:00

Just a bit of knitting I've done in the past few months. Does it look like I have an obsession?

Both the same hat, but the color is truer on the second (crappier) picture. Here is my Hermione hat, knit with my now all time favorite yarn, Madelinetosh toshvintage, in Baltic:

Sonia loved it so much, she requested the exact same hat for her birthday. Seeing as she's awesome, how could I not comply? I did, however, make it in the toshvintage Molly Ringwald colorway, because the point of knitting hats is to have one that's uniquely mine, right?

Next up is Jeff's Knotty But Nice Hat (it's finished, but I apparently don't have a pic of the completed project), also in toshvintage. Do you see a pattern emerging?

He bought me the yarn for Christmas, and I in turn knit him a hat. Yarn, it's the gift that keeps on giving. :)

And lastly, here's Quincy, which I finished last night. I used Lion Brand's Amazing yarn, which is pretty neat. I have chronic I-Love-This-Book-So-I-Buy-It-But-Never-Knit-Anything-From-It-itis, so while cleaning out my yarn drawers last weekend, I saw this booklet, and grabbed the Amazing yarn and cast on. I was thinking of giving it to my sister, because I felt like the hat was a bit too twee for me, but Jeff approves, so it is now mine. SO sorry, Marie.

My First Attempt at Yarn Bombing

2011-02-23T15:20:00.000-08:00

Hello, interwebs, it's been a while. Too many conversations with kids, too much work and too much knitting (ha!!!!) and a lack of anything to say over 200 characters (damn you, Facebook, with your cute little status updates in which I have also failed at posting, since nothing I say is witty enough anymore). I'm going to try to post on a semi-regular basis, and hope that funny/witty things happen in life, but you just never know. ;-)

Anyway, the topic of today is a dear friend of mine who designed a cute little hat for Caps for Good, which my knitting group at work took part in. Here is my hat. While the rest of us were just using up scrap yarn and making random patterns that caught our eyes, she knitted about 2 dozen preemie/newborn caps and even designed a pattern that a few of us used. Go, Joanie. In order to celebrate her as a wonderful person, I took the liberty of yarn bombing her desk, which I've wanted to do a while. She hasn't seen it yet, but I was pleased with my token of appreciation.

Cute, no? Also, here is a picture of most of the 165 hats that our little knitting group completed in just under 1 month of knitting:

And here we are, with our wares:

(Please excuse my closed eyes, who the hell put me up front?)

He Didn't Bemember a Lot of Times (A Conversation with Bella)

2010-05-05T16:24:00.000-07:00

On Saturday we went to the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood to watch Disney's Oceans movie. Afterward, Jeff dropped me off a couple blocks away at my hair stylist's to get a long overdue cut and color, where my little sis was waiting for me. Jeff doesn't do well driving in general, as I'm the one who almost always drives anymore, and his driving experience is limited to driving 2 miles away to/from the Metro station. Needless to say, those 10 blocks were pretty stressful for all involved.

Flashforward to Sunday, the day after. Miles woke up on the wrong side of the bed and just was being a royal pain. He called Bella a name--Emily and I heard one thing, and Maddie and Jeff heard another. I think I'm right, he thinks he is, but whatever. After his punishment (standing in the corner), and the subsequent crying, I was trying to talk to him, to explain why it's not nice to say bad or hurtful words about someone else. Bella, the ever-present opportunist, pipes in:

Bella: Mommy, do you bemember (she puts BE in front of a lot of words, like BEnanas, BEmember or Benilla) when you got your haircut?
Me: Yes, Bella, it was yesterday.
Bella: When Daddy was driving, I told him not to say bad words. I TOLD him. But he didn't bemember. He didn't bemember A LOT of times.

Hehe. Busted by a 3 year old. I had to laugh. And so did Jeff.

It's Been a While (A Conversation Between Jeff and Emily and Miles)

2010-04-12T11:26:00.000-07:00

And during that while, I've contemplated my next blog post. And contemplated, and contemplated, and contemplated what I would write next. It's not that interesting things haven't been happening, I've just gotten blocked a bit. Anyway, since I was ever so politely reminded that I haven't blogged in a while, here is a tidbit of a conversation between Jeff and the kids while I was away last weekend in Sonoma:

Emily: Daddy, please make my bed (I washed the kids' sheets before I left, but Emily's were still in the dryer).

Jeff: Not right now, because it takes an hour to do it (the pitfalls of having the top bunk of a bunk bed).

Miles: It doesn't take Mommy that long.

Hehe. I thought it was funny. That was Saturday morning. I do believe Jeff had a long weekend without me. The kids, too. Not that you would have known that, had you been at my house this morning, when I was dragging them out of bed for school for the first time after the week and a half Spring Break they just finished.

Tic for Tac (A Conversation with Emily)

2009-12-21T08:06:00.000-08:00

Right before Thanksgiving, I was talking to Emily about what she wanted for Christmas. She said she would ask Santa for an aquarium with fish in it. I told her that she should not get hung up over that and make sure to ask Santa for more than just one thing, so that she wouldn't get disappointed. She started thinking about it, and asked for a few others.

That afternoon, we went to the grocery store to pick up some things for our girl scout troop Thanksgiving party. We were checking out when she suddenly exclaims, "Mommy, I know what I want to ask Santa for Christmas!" Me: "What?" Emily: "Tic Tacs!"

Funny enough on it's own, but fast forward to this past Saturday night. We're having dinner with my parents and Bella starts talking about this singing Rudolph that we saw in Target and how Santa is going to get it for her. Emily says that both of them will get it, and I (thinking about how I couldn't find the darn thing, plus it breaks the rule of no loud toys in our house) say, "Well, honey, Santa will probably only give you one thing from your Christmas list." Emily's face is crestfallen as she says: "Oh no, I shouldn't have asked for Tic Tacs."

Don't Judge Me

2009-11-02T09:50:00.000-08:00

My mom loves Halloween. It's the one time of the year that she's regularly busting out her sewing machine to make costumes for my kids. And, let's face it, I am probably one of the biggest party poopers when it comes to costumes and creativity, so I let her do it. Nay, I encourage her to do it. It's a lot of fun for all involved and my kids get AMAZING costumes out of it.

This year was no exception. My girls got hooked on the Power Puff Girls cartoons (conveniently found on our OnDemand service), and my mom created these lovely costumes for them:

Miles even won a prize for Most Original Costume in his class (I included a picture of what the Mayor of Townsville is supposed to look like):

My cousin Myca also got into the spirit of things, and my mom made her a Princess Morebucks costume to match (she's a villainess in the series):

All in all, it was a very successful costuming event. My mom nailed it with the eyes and the wigs. But, given the untimeliness of their costumes, not a lot of people understood who they were. We did get to one house where the dad said, "Wait! I know who you are!" And very excitedly was telling them their character names. And then his wife said, "Oh, that means that they watch too much cartoons." Well phooey. How do you know that, lady I've never met? And so what if they do? I saw any number of Michael Jackson's, who was a talented artist, but one who was marred by several accusations of child molestations, so is that any more an appropriate costume for little kids? Or eighth graders who were wearing a JigSaw costume at school? And really, why does it bug me what this nameless woman thinks of my kids? The costumes were cute and my kids do well in school, so if I let them watch cartoons, so be it. And I really just need to let this one go. Venting done.

I hope you and your families had a nice Halloween.

My Best Friend's Wedding

2009-10-18T08:50:00.001-07:00

My best friend Jill got married last weekend and it was a wonderful affair. Jeff and I drove up to Sacramento on Friday morning (stopping at Bravo Farms for breakfast, where I had chilaquiles---mmmm). It was such a wonderful fall weekend. The air was crisp and clear and a little sunny (though not hot, like the August weekend for the wedding shower and bachelorette party). It was even cool enough for the OWLS sweater to make it first appearance since it got shelved for the summer.

A few pictures from the wedding: http://picasaweb.google.com/marvelg/200910#.

What you won't see is pictures of the kids. Jeff decided that they're not going to any more weddings that they're not a part of. I think that may be distinctly unfair (if they're invited we should consider it), but I have to admit, the fact that I didn't have to chase them around the reception did make it more fun. It certainly made it more fun for Jeff:

Emily was very sad, though, for two reasons.
1) Upon hearing we were going to a wedding (not the first time this happened), she said, "I wish I was going to be a flower girl. Maddie, do you remember when we were flower girls?"
2) She was VERY bummed that I wasn't going to be at her Brownie meeting to run the meeting. My co-leader said that Emily was not happy that I wasn't there, which really makes me happy, not because I want her to be sad, but that she wants me to be in her activities with her.

Back to the wedding. Jill and Jacob had a very talented photographer, who was just amazing. Please check out her website for a sneak peek of their wedding album. (Their engagement session rocks, too.)

We had such a good time, and I really was saddened to have to go home. It's one of the first times that I really REALLY felt like I'm missing out being so far from my friends.

A Conversation with a Mom of FIVE Kids

2009-08-25T10:41:00.000-07:00

She: I had breakfast at Norms with hubby & two kids.
Me: Isn't it amazing how calm a meal with two kids can be?
She: It's sooo easy. The waitress looked at us & said oh how sweet a boy & a girl...Im thinking to myself, yeah right I have 3 more in school. But I stayed quiet. I let her believe I only have 2, like normal people.
Me: Sometimes people ask if Miles and Bella are twins. I want to say yes, because it's not like I'll ever see them again, and it makes me look less crazy. :-p
She: We understand each other... We do look like crazies... Seriously who has 5 kids??? Oh well.
Me: Seriously, I don't have 5 kids. :-p So I don't know what you're talking about.

Though in all honesty, there really isn't much difference between 5 kids and 4. I'm not willing to find out if that's truly the case, but seeing as the diff between 4 & 3 was negligible, I'm willing to bet the same goes with 5 and 4.

It's good to know there are other people as crazy as you out there. And that we're friends. :)

Summer in 60 Seconds or Less

2009-08-18T12:52:00.000-07:00

Just a quick recap of the summer:

1. Some sewing. I finished these skirts just in time for our family reunion in June:

2. Emily became a Brownie:

3. Bella had a birthday:

4. Maddie had a birthday:

5. We had a birthday party for both girls:

6. We went camping in Yellowstone:

7. I went to Sacramento for a wedding shower and bachelorette party:

8. We went to Sea World with our Girl Scout troop: (check out the bonus picture with the single bit of knitting I completed this summer)

Boy, I'm tired just looking at those. For more, please check out my Picasa pictures. :)

Exhausted

2009-08-10T14:28:00.001-07:00

Will post pictures soon. I really mean it. I had a great weekend, but I can't believe how I'm just not cut out for this type of thing anymore. Here's a pic to whet your appetite, though, just in case you thought I wasn't doing anything this weekend, and just abandoning my husband and children:

Oh wait, that makes it look like I DID leave them for a weekend of reckless abandonment, doesn't it?

The Beginning of the End

2009-08-06T08:16:00.000-07:00

That's how I feel about July. Especially this year. Summer just flew by. In June we had Emily's Brownie Bridging ceremony (where the Daisies became Brownies), Jeff and my 10 year anniversary, a family reunion, and Bella's birthday. In July we had Maddie's birthday, a birthday swimming party for Maddie and Bella, our Yellowstone vacation, and my birthday. And now it's August already. I am off to Sacramento tomorrow (yay!!!) for Jill's wedding shower and bachelorette party, then next weekend is our Girl Scout Sea World camp, and then school starts!!! How did that happen? Time is just zipping by. My mom said (years ago) that the reason why years seem longer when you get older is because they are a smaller fraction of your life. For example, when you're a baby, your first year is your whole life (not that you remember that year, but you get what I mean). When you're five, a year is only 1/5 of your life. When you're 33, then a year is only 1/33 of your life. Trust my mom to come up with a math analogy.

Anyway, pictures are forthcoming. Emily dropped and broke my digital camera on our second day in Yellowstone, but my mom and dad bought me a new one for my birthday. Luckily, I was still able to retrieve my few vacation pictures I took (Old Faithful!) and my father-in-law copied his pictures onto a flash drive for me. Hooray! I hope to get those done sometime.... Maybe next week? Ha!!!

Before I go, though, I'll leave you with a conversation with Maddie a couple weeks ago.

Maddie: Daddy, an ant crawled up my leg and bit me today. And I screamed.
Jeff: Does this mean you had ants in your pants?
Maddie: (sighs) NO. I wasn't even WEARING pants.

Maddie always gives her daddy a hard time. According to her, he is ALWAYS wrong. Snicker....

On My Way

2009-06-11T05:50:00.000-07:00

For some R&R for the next two days. No work, no kids, and just time for me and Jeff. Life is good. See you in a bit!

Oh, and in case anyone didn't notice, I FINALLY put up new pictures of the kids on Picasa. I have pictures of Maddie's Kindergarten promotion ceremony and strawberry picking with our girl scout troop up.

And speaking of strawberries, I am baking some strawberry scones this morning to use the last of them up. We have had organic strawberries off the vine, strawberry shortcake (our go-to recipe for strawberry shortcake for YEARS), strawberry bread, strawberry ice cream (Smitten Kitchen's buttermilk ice cream recipe, with some chopped up, macerated strawberries tossed in), and now strawberry scones. Delicious! But with organic strawberries you gotta eat them up pretty quickly, and they won't survive while we're in San Diego, so here's to throwing them into a bunch of recipes!

Jill & Jacob

2009-06-10T06:28:00.000-07:00

For anyone who hasn't seen them yet, the kick ass photographer that my great friends Jill and Jacob will be using for their wedding has posted up their engagement pictures on her website. Their photographer is wonderful, the pictures are beautiful and I cannot wait for this wedding in October. As an added bonus, I finally picked up my bridesmaid dress and stared at it for three days before plucking up the courage to try it on again, and it fits!!! I haven't lost the 5 pounds that I thought I needed to lose back in March, but I've been working out and maintain that I've lost inches, which is good enough for now. So, hooray!

Nope, No Blogging Here....

2009-05-14T17:45:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure if I'm still stuck in my rut, or because Jeff has commandeered the laptop (well, it IS his, after all), or if I just have nothing to say.

Instead of blogging, though, there has been:

Facebooking (or as I like to think of it, personal blog-killer)

Knitting:

A Red Relm (to go with some fingerless mittens someone has)

Another baby dress

My OWLS sweater

A herringbone hat

Another Porom

Just starting a Multi-directional scarf, out of two colorways of Noro Cashmere Island

Bread Baking:

Hot Cross Buns

Chocolate Babka

Cinnamon Rolls (sadly, no picture, but they were SOOOOOO good, made for Mother's Day brunch at my aunt's house)

Building (that was Jeff):

Planting:

Grilling:

And even a bit of sewing:

But blogging, nope, no blogging here.

Stuck in a Rut

2009-03-30T09:47:00.000-07:00

It sure seems that this time of the year I'm stuck in a rut. Not quite winter, not quite spring, and don't really feel like doing much. Oh, I've been knitting, but it seems like nothing substantial. I also did a sewing project or two, and I have A LOT to learn, like sewing curves. Ah well.

Jeff was not stuck in a rut, he's been doing stuff (a brand new super powered pressure washer does help his motivation). Jeff spent the weekend cleaning up our backyard and planting our vegetable boxes (we went shopping last weekend, but just now finally got to planting our seedlings and seeds). We have 11 tomato plants (these are the only seedlings we have), 4 tomatillos, 1 mint, 4 edamame, 1 melon, 1 zucchini, 4 fennel, and 2 cucumbers. We also have a couple giant sunflowers, some marigolds and some snapdragons. The kids were so into putting the seeds into the beds (Miles was a little TOO exuberant). But that's now all done and we can look forward to some plants sprouting up in the next few weeks.

I STILL haven't done my taxes. I don't know why I've put it off for so long. I usually have my return by now, but I just haven't felt up to it this year. But, as it's almost April, it's probably time to get to it. I'm going to spend my state worker Cesar Chavez day holiday tomorrow to get it done (taxes, haircut/color, and buying my bridesmaid dress are all on queue for tomorrow).

Girl Scout cookie season is just about over. Well, it's over already, really. We fell just short of 200 boxes per girl, but I don't think I can do any more. We got to 350 total, and that's really darned good, I think. What's nice is that the troop will pay for 100% of camp for one girl and 75% of camp for the other, and my share will only be about $30 worth, so that's not too bad. I really don't want to have to look at boxes of cookies again....

Some quick catch ups with kids:

For some reason, our first grade teacher thinks that our 6-7 year olds should be writing a page and a half paragraphs in school. My 7 year old doesn't have the attention span to do so, so gets poor marks on that. I think she's okay, though, because, really, she's SEVEN. When she does write a paragraph, though, it's about the PowerPuff Girls. I think the other girls her age probably write about Camp Rock or High School Muscial, so I prefer the PowerPuff Girls infinitely....

Maddie has problems with eating lunch. She's very picky about what she'll eat (which I didn't realize until her teacher brought it to my attention). So we had to experiment with lots of different things. I would rather her have some sort of protein at lunch, since I know my kids just don't eat a lot of meat, but that wasn't working. So I switched her to jam and butter on english muffins (yes, I know she's bizarre). That worked well for a while, then didn't one day. So I stumbled upon Nutella on loaf Hawaiian bread (she stopped eating the Hawaiian rolls for some reason). I had to sell her on the idea that Nutella was chocolate peanut butter. The funny thing is, all the other kids noticed and told the teacher that Maddie was eating a chocolate sandwich. I think she's the envy of all the other kids these days. But at least she's eating.

Miles is SOO ready for school. We're still waiting for his interview to be scheduled (should be in April). I'm hoping that his lisp isn't going to deter anything, because he knows his letters and numbers and can add numbers +1 or +2. He goes through a spiel at least once a day: What is 1 + 1? Two! What is 2 + 2? Four! What is 4 + 4? Eight! Two Four Eight, You unlocked the gate! (I think it's from Dora) Don't try to interject anything though, because he gets very upset when he can't do his whole spiel. Jeff walked in on him choking Maddie, and asked him why he was doing it and Miles said: "I saw someone doing it today." Jeff asked me about it and I said: "Yes, he saw himself trying to choke Bella, I caught him already doing it." Sigh. August can't come quick enough.

Bella is obsessed with babies, as mentioned before. She was so cute this Saturday night at dinner. She saw a baby boy, and said: "Me want a baby, they're so cute!" Poor her, though, no baby siblings for her. Maybe someone close to us can have a baby that she can play with....

On the knitting front, I've been knitting headbands (I have a box of sample mini-skeins, and this is a great project for them). I made one each for the girls, and two for one of Emily's Daisy friends for her birthday. It's a great quick project. I also knitted a pink and green baby dress for my friend Sonia's baby. And I finally started on a pullover Owls sweater for myself. I actually knitted a swatch for it, and I had to do some adjustments since I am using a worsted weight yarn for a pattern that calls for Bulky yarn. I THINK I did the math right, so we'll see how it goes.

As for sewing, well, our placemats are languishing because of my fear of binding. I did one binding and decided that I don't like the way our Quilting 101 book tells you to bind. Luckily for me, there are about 80 different ways to bind, so I think we can find another way that I prefer. I made Ashley's Orla Kiely beach bag a few weeks ago since I found the dishtowels at my local Target (only one of them carried it, and I bought some of the brown as well, since I couldn't find it anywhere else. Unfortunately there is only one set of brown, rather than two, so we'll see what use I make of it.). I gave the blue beach bag to Jill for her birthday. I also made a wonky pincushion caddy from Anna Maria Horner's Seams to Me. Most of it was okay, but I didn't have interfacing, and I'm really bad at handstitching. Just don't come over to my house and look at the bottom of it. Ha! I really need to start cutting into the fabrics for the quilt I want to make, and I found a quilting club here at work that I may get an invite to. Hooray for crafty people. :-)

While the Computer is on the Fritz...

2009-03-10T13:37:00.000-07:00

...I must blog from work, which is to say, on the sly. ;-)

It also means no pictures to show you, but that's ok because one of the projects I'm working on is a present for someone, so it's top secret. It's really cute, though, and I can't wait to show it to you.

However, I am sad that I can't show you the AWESOME pictures of Miles I took on Sunday. My cousin (Miles' godmother) turned 18 last Sunday, and in the Philippines that means you get a debut (like a debutante ball or a quincenara). That practice, however, is way too much money to spend these days so we had a really nice party for her. Camille was the flower girl at my wedding, and that year she was only one year older than Emily is right now, so that kinda freaks me out. But Camille has grown up to be a beautiful and wonderful young woman, so it was nice to spend the evening with her. We had a fancy party, and for her birthday present (because I have no idea what 18 year olds want, or can't afford it) we got her a picture frame and had an impromptu photo session with Miles. Now you probably can't tell from the pictures on this blog, but my camera takes GREAT outdoor shots. The indoor shots are not as good b/c of the poor lighting in my house, but it gets the job done. So, I dressed him up (complete with clip on tie that was broken, and which Jeff was able to tie as a regular tie, but ended up being WAY TOO small), he got his birthday Thomas the Train engineer cap on, and took some shots in front of the newly erected fence that Jeff is in the midst of putting up. I also made him fake laugh, because the picture frame said something cheesy like "Live Love Laugh." It's an awesome picture, though (just take my word for it), and I can't wait to show it to you. Someday.

Aging and a Virtual Hug to a Friend

2009-03-02T14:10:00.000-08:00

Every so often I'm struck by how long I've been around. I still can't get used to the fact that half the people in my department are younger than me (that DOES mean that half the people are older than me). But for my first two jobs I was just about the youngest person around (or close to it).

I was at a baby shower this weekend for a good friend (who looks so damned cute pregnant, and who is the recipient of some wonderfully knitted baby things). I only knew one other person there (that was not the mommy to be) and we were talking to a couple people that she had known there. One of them was talking about how her best friend was getting married this fall, and that she was going to be maid of honor. I told her I was going to be matron of honor in the fall, as well, and then I realized that I have known Jill for (wait for it) LONGER THAN THIS GIRL HAS BEEN ALIVE (she is 23, and Jill and I have known each other for almost 24 years). When I mentioned it she said: "Oh, so you've known each other since high school?" I quickly said: "Honey, I'm not THAT old." I don't think that she meant it (she was so embarrassed after those words flew out of my mouth), and she said she really didn't do the math until after I said that. Ha! But it just boggles the mind sometimes. Jill and I have known each other longer than a college grad has been alive.

So, Jill, I will be seeing you REALLY soon, but even so I am sending you a virtual hug. If we were of child rearing age when we met, you or I could have had a grown up child by now. I can't wait to see you!

The Conservatory Overcoat GIVEAWAY!!!!

2009-02-27T10:00:00.000-08:00

Wow, I really want this. Isn't it cute?

The Conservatory Overcoat GIVEAWAY!!!!

100 and 4 -- It's a Numbers Game

2009-02-17T21:15:00.000-08:00

It's my 100th post, and we have a bit of a celebration, too. It's Miles' birthday today. My little boy is now 4, which means that he gets to go to school in the fall. I am not quite sure how I can manage getting three kids ready for school in the morning without getting up at 4:30, but hopefully I can manage. At any rate, Miles is more than ready for school.

Miles talks with a bit of a whorl (like a lisp, but can't say his r's and l's). So he's been saying that his "boatday" is coming up.

Me: Miles, do you want a boat for your boatday?
Miles: No, I want a wobot.
Me: But it's your BOATday, don't you want a boat?
Miles: No, I weally want a wobot.
Jeff: Boy, someone better get him a robot, or we're in trouble.

Luckily, my brother came through and bought him an Iron Man toy (Marc thinks that Miles is a little too comfortable playing with pink toys). Miles was very pleased with his robot, as were the girls. But at least he wasn't disappointed by the lack of the robot toys that everyone else didn't give him.

Here are a few pictures of our celebratory dinner with Miles. Little boy, I can't believe that you're already four years old.

Oh, and I can't believe I've blogged this long. 100 is pretty big for my infrequent blogging, but it's a milestone, nonetheless.

Hibernation, and a Conversation with Bella

2009-02-09T09:12:00.000-08:00

Don't you sometimes wish that you could hibernate? Lately, all I've wanted to do (now that it's as cold as it gets in California) is sleep. I've been taking naps on the weekend (poor Jeff has to take care of all the housebound kids). And I obviously haven't been blogging. Haha. But I have been doing one thing semi-productive, and it obviously has to do with knitting.

I made a few things for Christmas, a beret for my mom (finished on Christmas Eve) and a pair of Fetching mittens for her, plus one for my grandmother.

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Originally uploaded by marthaandjeff

I made this hat and scarf set for Jeff earlier, and have yet to post it, amazingly. He loves it,a nd I actually knit him a hat that fits.

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Originally uploaded by marthaandjeff

Amazingly, I know about 8 women this year who are having babies (two of the bundles of joy have already been born). And in honor of all those babies, I've been knitting up a storm. Here are a few of the things I've made lately:

A Ripply Baby Blanket. Raveled here.

I originally intended it to be bordered with blue, then green, but when started knitting, decided it looked too "boy" and since it's for a baby girl, decided to go with green and pink. However, after knitting 4 skeins of the green and switching to the pink, decided that it was getting to be really long (and VERY bright). So I added on a skein of the blue for a cute "quilt top" effect and called it a day.

An "Oriental Lily" Baby Dress. Raveled here.

Eagle eyed friend Rosanna (who birthed baby #1 for the year) will recognize the yarn as the leftovers from the pinwheel baby blanket

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Originally uploaded by marthaandjeff

that I knitted for baby Cosimo. Rosanna didn't know the sex of her baby, and when I purchased the yarn it seemed to be all sorts of colors, so I thought it would be unisex enough. There may be a tad bit more pink than I expected, but Cosimo will take it in stride, I'm sure. Anyway, it makes for a very cute wrap dress, and the purple is leftover from my VERY FIRST knitting project.

I still want to make another of the Oriental Lily Baby Dress, probably with the pink and green leftover skeins that I have in my stash now that the blanket is completed. I will also make a pair of matching pink and green Mary Jane booties.

Upon finishing the baby blanket, I immediately decided to knit something else that was not a baby garment. I'm waiting for some yarn for a gift project (should be in this week), so I thought I would start a new sweater (I bought sweater yarn that has been languishing while I finished up baby stuff). Then I realized that was silly, and that I had other yarn waiting for a quick project as well, so I started up some Toasty mittens. I finished one and started the other (will make an adjustment for the second one). They are super easy and in a fun color, and will make a great gift for someone. I have one more skein in the same yarn which I believe is destined to become a beret.

Onto the conversation with Bella. It wasn't MY convo with Bella, but is pretty amusing. That girl has some sass. I took her two weeks ago to the girl scout meeting (leaving Jeff and Miles to some boy time). While waiting for things to go up, one of our leaders, Elsa, started talking to Bella.

Elsa: Hi, pumpkin.
Bella: I'm not pumpkin, me Bella.
Elsa: Oh, excuse me.
Bella: (Upon seeing Rachel-Elsa's daughter-with her Mission model) Look, Mommy, a house!
Elsa: Bella, that's Rachel's Mission project (a project that most California kids know, as all California kids study the Missions around the 4th grade).
Bella: (Frowning) No, that's a house!
Me: Elsa, there's no use arguing with that one.
Elsa: Oh, yeah, who lives in it?
Bella: (Pause) Nobody -- IT'S TOO SMALL!

For Those of You Not on Facebook

2009-01-31T14:07:00.001-08:00

25 Random Things About Me

1. I hate me-me’s. I figure that if you know me you can just ask me questions and I will answer them, rather than asking me a random question to which the answer is pretty bland. Or maybe it’s because I think that I am more interesting when to talk to in person. Or maybe I think that I’m boring. Or all of the above.
2. I do all of my laundry on one day of the week. I do 5-7 large loads (we have the largest commercially available home washer and dryer) of laundry, and don’t start folding until I have at least 3 loads of laundry before I start folding. I can’t imagine doing one load of laundry every night, like some moms I know. I also almost always leave one load of laundry unfolded every week due to sheer volume of it all.
3. While doing laundry, I like to empty the lint screen before I take out the warm dry clothes. When doing laundry one after the other this makes about a 2 minute difference, but I really don’t like starting laundry and finding lint in the dryer trap.
4. On the subject of cleaning, I don’t like rinsing my dishes before I put them into the dishwasher. I want to be able to instantly know whether or not the dishwasher is clean or dirty when I open it up. Plus, what was the point of buying a good new dishwasher if I have to pre-rinse my dishes?
5. I love a lot of different kinds of food. In my life I’ve eaten less conventional foods such as cow tongue, cow brain, escargot and alligator. Some people would even throw in calamari, soft shelled crab, oysters and veal into the “less conventional” category. I draw the line, however, at chicken feet, pig’s blood, frog legs and rabbit.
6. I stopped eating cow tongue the moment I saw my mom unroll it on the kitchen table. Blech. But I still eat the gravy and mushrooms that go in the dish with the cow tongue.
7. I was the first adult I knew to start reading the Harry Potter series. I tried to get other adults to read them, but they all told me they were kids’ books. They all eventually read them anyway.
8. Someone once asked if my older brother and I were twins, since we looked so much alike. I let him believe that for a few weeks. Around the same time, someone asked if my brother and I were dating (not knowing that he was my brother). So much for looking so much alike.
9. Someone just mistook me for someone who worked in her department (this was at work). When I adamantly said that I always worked for my current department, she insisted that the other gal and I looked like sisters. We don’t, though we are both Asian with black hair. The similarity ends there.
10. I have the same alarm clock I have had since high school. I absolutely love it, but it has to live on the other side of the room, and has ever since the one time I turned off the alarm and slept another 30 minutes. I got to school about 2 minutes before the bell rang, and only because my carpool friend called me from a pay phone to wake me up. Jeff used to mock the other side of the room thing but he has seen the light.
11. I have to wake up at 5:30 (or earlier) in order to work out. Otherwise I just won’t do it. In the same time that it takes me to shower after my workout, wake the children, get them dressed, fix their breakfast, make their lunch for school, get dressed for work, and sometimes eat breakfast, my husband will get up, have breakfast and get to work.
12. I usually beat him out the door.
13. I remember vividly that it didn’t matter whether my siblings or I liked the food that mom cooked, that was what we ate. I am trying to instill that same process in our children. It’s not working as well as I would like
14. I wanted to be a journalist when I was 9.
15. I don’t like making phone calls to people I don’t know. This includes ordering pizzas, making doctor’s appointments, or calling service technicians. It’s not so bad when I have to do it for work, but for personal stuff I just can’t do it. Jeff makes all those phone calls.
16. My brother doesn’t like doing it either. We usually make our sister do them.
17. It drives her nuts.
18. I only had one non-induced delivery. Jeff didn’t believe me. By the time we got to the hospital I was fully dilated. Jeff barely had time to finish the paperwork before we made the decision to start pushing. My doctor walked in and I was already fully recovered. Since it was 1AM he just looked at me and left.
19. We took a career skills test (or something) when we were in high school. My lowest score was in spatial cognition (or something). Afterwards I still thought I wanted to be an engineer.
20. One quarter of Organic Chemistry, Physics, and Chemical Engineering 100 took care of that.
21. I like to play Scrabble or other word games.
22. No one ever wants to play with me because I’m pretty darned good at them.
23. I have Scrabble on my iPod touch so that I can play by myself whenever I want to.
24. I like to go shopping, but mostly online shopping, which helps pass the time when work is slow.
25. I think that’s why I like to knit (and now sew). Because it just feeds my shopping obsession. I think Jeff is starting to catch on.

A Quiet Day Off

2009-01-19T15:57:00.000-08:00

I must say that I love three day weekends, even if Jeff has to work, because it gives me just some breathing time. I have all four kids with me today, and it has been rather pleasant, not doing a lot. Finishing up laundry from the weekend, ignoring the cleaning I was SUPPOSED to do, and even squeezing in a workout and some knitting. It has been nice. And it really won't be so great going in to work tomorrow after a nice day like this, but the bills have to be paid somehow.

I'm back to enjoying my day off. Hope your day (whether you worked or not) went just as well as mine.

P.S. We've been watching the PowerPuff Girls 10th anniversary on Cartoon Network. So awesome! My three superheroines are watching intently. ;-)

The Problem with Knitting

2009-01-14T14:24:00.000-08:00

So I'm wearing my very first knitted sweater today (pattern here -- mine doesn't look anything like the picture), and I'm realizing how much I hate this yarn. Even though it's expensive. Even though it's the yarn that was suggested with the project. Even though it SEEMS like it would be a cool yarn. It just pills really quickly and looks like hell even though I've only worn it a few times. I hate the yarn so much that I haven't yet taken a picture of my first ever knitted sweater. Oh well.

I'm getting the courage up to walk to my friend's cubicle to show her the sweater, but the last time I did that (wearing my second ever knitted sweater), said friend called out to all of her knitting circle friends to show them my sweater, too. They were all novice knitters, though, and exclaimed lots of delight over my second ever sweater, but it really overwhelmed me. I mean, it's nice to hear that they like what I've done, blah blah blah, but, really, I know that it's not the greatest. I thought I loved the yarn, but on second thought it really isn't THAT great. I had major issues with picking up yarn around the fair isle pattern for the button band, and I tend to bind off too tightly. It looks better than my first ever sweater, though. But still. I like to show off my knitting, but only to novices. Haha. Because I know my stuff is FAR from good, even though non-knitters and novices think it's great because it's a finished, wearable project. But it was quite an overwhelming experience, and I'm not sure that I can do it again. But I should because they were very supportive. I definitely do not want to go up to an expert knitter and show off my sweaters because I know there are mistakes, and I know where they all are. And they're pretty visible to someone who knows what to look for.

Anyway, I think I'm going to take the plunge now. Hopefully one day I will actually take a picture of this knitted thing and post it on my Ravelry and on this blog. Before this yarn disintegrates, that is.

And Now a New Obsession

2009-01-13T08:26:00.000-08:00

Well, okay, not really an obsession...yet. Once we get better at it, though, then watch out. :-p

Introducing the quilting/sewing skills of Jeff and Martha--for your viewing pleasure here. We got Quilting 101 a few months ago, after visiting Jeff's grandma in Mobile and have been itching to try it out. When my mom got us our sewing machine for Christmas, we immediately got started. The two apple applique projects are projects #1 and #2 (Raw Edge Applique Pot Holder and Hand Appliqued Zippered Bag). The tote bag is from Last Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts. I did some BAD cutting out of some fat quarters and fat half yards (Amy Butler) that I had bought last year, when I was making purses and needed liners. Jeff was able to square up the lining fabric to make it all work for me, though. He is a lot better at the precision cutting, while I'm better at pinning and sewing (he has this fear of needles, which is fine, but he's SOOO gung-ho about quilting that it makes me laugh and wonder why he wants to quilt so bad).

Anyway, we're having a lot of fun, and there are more projects to come!

Where's Our Pet Fish?

2009-01-08T16:18:00.000-08:00

We had a WONDERFUL holiday season, and hope that all of you did, as well. It is so very nice that my office is actually closed on the week between Christmas and New Year's, and that my boss was kind enough to let me take off January 2nd as well, since Emily's birthday is on the 4th (speaking of which, I CANNOT believe that my little Emily-bug is seven! Why does seven seem SOOOO much older than six?).

With all that time off we had Christmas, then went to Vegas for the weekend, from where Jeff left to see his dad for 5 days, and then back home. Once back home, I decided to repent for all of the bad holiday eating and work out twice a day. I succeeded on doing that while Jeff was away, but also ate out for dinner every day that week--ha! Luckily, though, when I weighed in at my WW meeting today, I was only up 0.2 pounds, which really is almost a wash, so I was happy. I am resolving right now to keep on exercising, and really watching what I'm eating. I need to get into a bridesmaid dress in October, you know. ;-)

The biggest success this Christmas was the three story dollhouse that my parents bought for the girls. (Miles loves it too.) Unfortunately, the success did come with a price. We had a tragedy this holiday season--our "pet" Betta fish. I use the term pet loosely because I don't think it had a name that we called it for more than two days straight. But, it was sitting in a tank in the girls' room, and when we got back from Vegas, I noticed it looking VERY peaky. I threw in some food, but it was not going after it, so I figured it was doing the death-dance. When Jeff came home he checked it out and SAID it was still alive, but if it was, then it hadn't moved for about 5 days.

So how does the dead fish relate to the dollhouse? Well, when we got back from Vegas I decided to take a look at constructing the dollhouse, but decided that it would wait for daddy. Sunday morning while we were at church, Jeff flushed the fish down the toilet and took the aquarium away from the girls' room and put the dollhouse in its place. All kids were ecstatic when they saw the dollhouse and no mention has been made of the fish since.

Then comes last night. Bella somehow got a hold of the leftover fish food and spilled it all over the floor. Miles came running out to tell on her, and about five minutes after I cleaned it up, he came out of the room with giant sad puppy dog eyes and said, "Mommy, where's our pet fish?" BUSTED. I tried to deflect the question to Jeff, who in turn tried to deflect the question too.

Jeff: Don't you like the dollhouse, Miles?
Undeterred, Miles kept asking, with his voice catching each time: Where's our pet fish?
Struck with having to face the music, Jeff came over to sit next to Miles and started up with: Well, Miles, it's like this....

And I do the chicken-mom thing and pipe in with: The fish got lonely and wanted to be with his friends.

Miles: (still crying) Can't we get him back?

Me: Remember Finding Nemo? How Nemo got flushed down the drain to find his dad? That's what we did. Don't you want him to be with his dad? He was really lonely by himself.

Miles: (wiping the tears from his eyes) I have a great idea. We should get both him and his dad so they won't be lonely.

Oh, dear, this is why honesty is probably the way to go with kids. He was crying so much though that my heart was breaking and I really couldn't hurt him anymore. I'm hoping that he forgets about it again. At least none of the girls have noticed...yet.

A Girl Scout Saturday

2008-12-16T08:43:00.001-08:00

This weekend we had girl scouts activities galore.

First up was a Tide Pool Walk at the Cabrillo Aquarium in San Pedro. Emily is always asking to go to the aquarium (the one in Long Beach) and was really excited. But the first thing we did was go through a slide show and she realized how slimy/gross everything was, and adamantly declared that she wasn't going to touch anything. We went into the learning lab and looked at animals through microscopes and touched some live animals.

Emily stuck to her guns, but Maddie eventually started, first with the seaweed, then the hermit crab, the sea cucumber and the sea snail. Then we went to the Touch Tank, and walked through the exhibit hall. Again Emily refused to touch anything, but Maddie was brave enough to touch a sea anemone.

The biggest hit at the exhibit hall (for our Daisies, at least) was the tank that simulated crashing waves. They rejoiced at screaming every time the unexpected gush of water came through the tank. It hurt my eardrums a lot. Then we went out to the tidepools. We saw lots of sea anemones and a couple of starfish. Maddie thought it was really neat. Emily just likes to jump around on rocks. It was COLD, though, and the wind was really whipping at us. I felt like I was going to be pushed off the rocks by the winds, and I'm amazed that the little girls didn't. My favorite quote of the day was from one of the aquarium personnel, upon hearing that none of our troop wanted to touch anything: "Boy, they don't make girl scouts like they used to, huh?" My response: (a little miffed): "Well, we are a new troop, and our girls are really young-most of these other girls are Brownies and we're Daisies, about a year to three younger than them."

Drove home, sat in traffic, got there, and Jeff and the kids weren't ready yet. (Even though I told him to be ready by 3:30 and it was already 3:45.) Both Bella and Miles were asleep. Dressed them warmly and headed into Long Beach for our troop Christmas party. Didn't realize that the Naples Boat Parade was going on that same day, so traffic into 2nd Street was AWFUL. We were late already (our troop Christmas party was supposed to start at 4PM, so the Juniors all got there on time, but the other Daisies were stuck in traffic like me), but eventually got there. It was a great location, right next to Mothers Beach, but I didn't realize what the house was like. It's a GS council property, but it's essentially like a large garage, with half of the wall open to the water. Great for a sleepover in the summer, but in December it's COLD. Jeff was not properly dressed for the weather, and was pretty miserable. The kids had a blast, especially since we were able to see a lot of the boat parade sailing by. I was too cold to snap any pictures, though, and they probably wouldn't have turned out. Oh well. I must say that the troop leaders are AMAZING, because they did a lot of work for the girls. They decorated stockings for all the girls, stuffed them with embroidered sweatshirts, candy and other little gifts, and also made little ornaments for them with their names on them. My girls had so much fun. We did crafts, sang songs, had dinner, and did an ornament exchange. It was a challenge for me, though, because I was helping both Miles and Bella with their ornament craft, and Emily and Maddie a bit as well, so it was a bit of a panic for me trying to get them all done. One of the other adults took pity on me and helped, though, which was nice. My favorite quote of the night was from Miles: "I am sad, I didn't get a big sock." Me: "A what?" Miles: "A big sock, like Emily and Maddie did." Me: "Oh, you mean a stocking? Well, Bella didn't get one either, it was just for the girl scouts. But your sisters will let you share their candy." Poor little guy, though he liked the attention from the older girls that night.

One last thing about this weekend. I finally got my swift. I'm so excited. Jeff bought me a gift card on my birthday (months ago) at this knitting store so that I could buy a ball winder and a swift. Well, neither were in stock, but thoguh I was able to get the ball winder a week later, the swift has been on backorder until last Thursday. I had made several phone calls waiting for it (rather impatiently), and Jeff's been rather peeved, but she called me last week and said that she was saving one for me. Hooray, because by the time I came in on Sunday all the others were sold out. But there was one just for me, and I am so thrilled. I even had enough left on my card to buy two skeins of yarn. The owner was so apologetic at the lateness, but now I kinda have a Christmas present. Now I just need a skein of yarn to wind up (all I have right now are balls--booo!). I guess I can use that last bit of cash on the gift card for one. :-) The Nifty Swift is wooden and made in Italy. It's a rare thing to find, as I've been trolling the internet for one since last August. This swift trumps all others, especially in house with four children who think that everything is a toy, the sturdiness of the Nifty Swift is a plus. Still, it's getting packed away so that no accidents happen. After all, I had to wait 5 months for it. :-) For my non-knitty friends, you need a ball winder and a swift to wind up yarn skeins (as opposed to balls) into nice neat center pull balls. Trying to knit off a skein is not easy, as the yarn gets tangled quickly. I used to wind them by hand, but that gets annoying, and you need the swift to hold the yarn skein while the ball winder is working. Before I got the swift, Jeff was my substitute swift, or the backs of two chairs. My favorite quote was from Jeff: "This is the best gift the husband of a knitter could have."

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

2008-12-15T09:06:00.000-08:00

Two weekends ago was crazy, getting into the holidays. Two weekends ago we put up the tree:

Jeff has a thing about having all of our ornaments match. It makes me sad to see all of our other ornaments (especially the ones the kids have been making at school sitting in the bin). We were going to put up our little fiber optic tree, but it doesn't work anymore. I guess $20 for a tree doesn't mean it's going to last that long.

Look at what Jeff did:

Isn't it beautiful? He had major issues with the hanging of the gate, but it worked out in the end.

No lights up outside, though. I usually do it, but just wasn't up to it this year. Especially now that it started raining.

A Few of Her Favorite Things

2008-12-01T10:50:00.000-08:00

Bella has been talking a lot lately, and I'm finding that I can understand most of what she says now. The glorious days of baby talk are almost done now. But before they are gone, I'd like to share two of her favorite words.

1. Christmas (pronounced Mis-mas). She absolutely adores all things Christmas right now, and has to point out every single Christmas decoration she sees, including all of the pine trees planted on the sidewalks. Mismas all day long.

2. Baby (pronounced BEEBEE). She also adores all babies. She thinks little babies younger and smaller than her are awesome. Maybe this is because she doesn't have a baby sister or brother. At any rate, she squeals when she sees babies, or even pictures of babies.

Which brings us to her ABSOLUTE FAVORITE expression-- MISMAS BEEBEES. She's seen pictures of them at the Target Studio, and she saw a baby dressed up when we went out to eat this past weekend. I think she was so excited she probably peed in her pants, but she's still in diapers, so it's okay.

I am thankful for all my children, especially when they make me laugh. I'm also thankful for Jeff taking care of me, and for folding laundry and putting it away while I was sick all week. Also, speaking of Jeff, I hope he has a great birthday, even though we both have to work after 4 days off. You can't have everything, I suppose.

Halloween!

2008-11-02T17:37:00.001-08:00

We found our camera USB cable. Thank goodness for St. Anthony!

Anyway, we went through several decisions as to what our costumes would be this year. My mom is usually burdened with the making of the costumes (as she is a good seamstress, even though she would hate to admit it). This year, I thought I would relieve my mom of the stress and told the kids we would do simple costumes. Emily was to be a heart, Maddie a star, Miles a robot and Bella would be Dora the Explorer. We went from that to having two cowgirls, a robot and Dora. And then somehow we ended up with a Wizard of Oz theme. My mom wanted Bella to be Dorothy, since she was the smallest, and have the other kids complete the quartet as the Tin Man, Scarecrow and Cowardly Lion. However, I have 3 girly girls, and that wasn't going to happen. Emily chose Dorothy, Maddie chose Glinda the Good Witch, Miles by default became the Tin Man (we figured it was close enough to a robot that he wouldn't know), and Bella would be the Wicked Witch of the West (which seems cruel, but only if you don't personally know her).

My mom thought she would be off the hook for costumes, because she thought that Emily had a blue gingham dress that we would just add a blouse to (the dress was actually red and white), Maddie had a flower girl dress from Michelle's wedding she could re-purpose, and Bella had a witch costume of Maddie's last year (it was orange and black and purple). She figured the only thing she would have to do was the Tin Man costume. However, it was obvious that there was a lot more work to do, but she performed wonderfully.

Mom made a wonderful Dorothy outfit:

I was panicking, because I couldn't find ruby red slippers for her. Target only has them up to 11.5, and she has size 2 feet. Luckily my mom found a pair at WalMart. They may not be glittery, but they were red patent and good enough!

We found two dresses that we put together on Maddie to make her Glinda dress:

The crown was giving Mom problems, but we got it fitted in the end, and even got her shiny pink shoes to go with the ensemble.

Miles really had an idea on how his robot costume was going to look, and he was very disappointed to find out that it did not include a belt. And not just a belt, but a tool belt, where his tools could hang on. He spent the better part of a Sunday dinner complaining about the lack of the belt, and describing in detail how it should look. My mom gave in and put a belt on, complete with hooks for the tools. Luckily, I was able to convince Miles (once we were in the car already, on the way to my aunt's house for Trick or Treating) that the tools could get lost. Unfortunately, his funnel hat kept slipping off him:

We even had a heart necklace for him to wear. Unfortunately, he kept turning it off all night long.

Bella was the cutest little Wicked Witch of the West. When Jeff found out what her costume was he asked, "You're not going to paint MY Bella green are you?" Unfortunately, that was my mom's idea as well. I was really miffed, because how else would you tell that she was supposed to be Elphaba? Luckily, co-worker Michelle came to the rescue: green eyeshadow! I wanted to buy this perfect green eyeshadow, but found out it was $18. Eek! Marie-Reine had some green mineral eyeshadow that she let me borrow, which worked out well. Bella loved the dusting, but it didn't really show up on pictures. It really more looked like she had a dirty face. :-p

Once we got out to trick or treat, it was pretty funny because we would be halfway down the driveway (after getting their treats) and then we would hear the owners of the houses say, "I get it, it's the Wizard of Oz!"

Go to my Picasa pictures for more.

A Break from Our Regularly Scheduled Programming

2008-11-01T17:54:00.000-07:00

Halloween was great, the kids' costumes were wonderful. Unfortunately for you, we have lost our camera cable in our great clean up this week, so.... well, you'll just have to wait. In the meantime, here's a picture from my sister's camera to whet your appetite:

Twins

2008-10-29T18:00:00.000-07:00

It's odd. My cousin Mycah is just a few years older than Emily (and about the same height), so they are quite close. Ever since she moved nearby, the two of them have played a lot together (Mycah is the youngest of her siblings, so always left out). Their favorite game was "House House." Essentially, playing mom and kids, etc.

Since then, all my kids games are the repetition of two words. Maddie and Emily play "Pony Pony." Miles plays "Blocks Blocks." All the girls love "Princess Princess." It's kinda annoying for Jeff and I, as all games are double named.

I think the last straw, however, was Miles saying that he was playing "Horse Horse Castle Castle."

Now why it wasn't "Horse Castle, Horse Castle" I just don't know.

Cute Kids

2008-10-27T13:39:00.000-07:00

So one day at my old job, I was talking to my staff when the following conversation transpired:

D: All moms think that their kids are cute.
Me: That may be true, but my kids, my kids ARE cute.
D: Yeah, but all moms say that.
Me: Yes, but my kids are cute. *turning to M* Aren't my kids cute?
M: Oh yeah, your kids are cute.
D: But ALL moms....
Me: Hey, C (other staff member), aren't my kids cute?
C: Her kids are cute.
D: But ALL...
Me: Hey, J (co-worker), can you please tell D that I have cute kids?
J: Her kids are freaking adorable.

I rest my case. Hahahaha. Anyway, here is the latest in cute kid pictures. It's my current fave, and I have it printed out and put it up by my computer so that I can laugh every few hours. I took it for my cousin, Camille, who is a senior in high school now (she was my flower girl when Jeff and I got married!). She had a senior retreat and one of the things that families do is put a collage of pictures together for the girls. Camille is Miles' godmother, so I gave her a couple pictures of him, one of which included this set of my misfits. I love it because the picture really captures the personalities of my kids. Enjoy!

Getting Ready....

2008-10-26T20:44:00.000-07:00

Halloween is almost upon us, and we are getting ready.

We went to a pumpkin patch in the valley with our Girl Scout troop:

At the pumpkin patch there was this really cool corn maze. Jeff couldn't belive that it was supposed to take us an hour, but it took us longer, especially with Miles and Bella.

Halfway through it, I had to convince Bella that when we finished we would get popcorn. That worked for a while. I kept spurring her on with some gulps of water and the promise of popcorn. However, at one point, she squatted down, furrowed her brow and said, "WANT POPCORN." She did a few times, actually. I'm pretty sure she didn't believe me when I said, when we get out, as it probably seemed like we were NEVER getting out of there. But we eventually made it, and got our kettle korn, too.

Afterwards, we also got our pumpkins:

No, we didn't get the fifty dollar giant pumpkins. We got two smallish pumpkins, and two teeny ones. I free hand carved the first, broke our little pumpkin tool, and had to run to Target to get another set. The set we got had these cool eyes that go with the pumpkins, and some neat designs, which Jeff used on the other pumpkin. I'll let you guess who carved which:

Sometimes it's just not fair.

Yup, all this in ONE DAY. Don't you feel tired just reading this post? I know I, for one, am exhausted.

FO-O-Rama

2008-10-05T16:57:00.000-07:00

Wowee, I have had a ton of projects that I haven't finished, and I took some time yesterday to weave some ends in and do some felting. It's pretty rewarding seeing all that you've been working on finished, so here are some finished objects from yours truly:

Scarves for my kids:

Chickadee Cowl:

Striped purse (still needs a purse strap, but it felted beautifully):

Buttonhole bag (with gradient striping):

Felted Box:

Blue and white striped wallet:

Yellow wristlet:

Claudia Trellis Hat:

Green Twitterpated Purse (still needs a strap):

Brown Twitterpated Purse (also needs a strap):

The felted things still need to dry, and all the purses need straps, but I feel very proud of what I accomplished this weekend. Well, technically, all the knitting had been done for a while... I just took some time to finish. :-)

When I Grow Up (A Conversation-or Three-with Miles)

2008-09-22T13:56:00.000-07:00

So Miles has been running around saying the same thing for a couple of weeks now. Here are two exerpts:

Miles: When I grow up, I want to be a baker.
Daddy: That's great.
Miles: When YOU grow up, you can be a baker, too, Daddy.
Daddy: That sounds wonderful.
Maddie: When I grow up, I want to help you, I am going to be the server.

Hee hee. That Maddie, she aims high. (Disclaimer, not that there's anything wrong about being a server, but if she wants to be a server, she's going to be one with a college degree.)

So, I was at my parents' house on Sunday, doing laundry (our electricity was out, don't ask, it's a long story), and I was sitting with my mom and I asked Miles:

Me: Miles, tell Lola what you want to be when you grow up.
Miles: When I grow up, I want to be a baker.
My Mom: Oh wow, do you like to bake?
Miles: Yes I do!
My Mom: What do you like to bake?
Miles: I like to bake NOODLE SOUP!

We could not stop laughing. He is so excited about the baker thing, though, so we try to encourage it. My parents and my sis were over for dinner last night (after the electricity was back on) and I thought it would be nice for Miles to tell Marie-Reine what he wants to be when he grows up:

Me: Miles, tell Tita Reine-Reine what you want to be when you grow up.
Miles: When I grow up, I want to be a, I want to be a doctor!
My Mom and Jeff: What?!?
Jeff: What happened to being a baker?
Me: That's okay, he can be a doctor if he wants to.
Miles: That's not what I said, I said, when I grow up I want to be a baker!

It's good to know that he's not getting disillusioned so quickly.

So Maybe I AM a Bad Mom (A Conversation with Bella, and then one with Maddie)

2008-09-12T14:54:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I just can't handle the crying. I mean, I've had four kids, and should probably be immune to it all, but when a child just doesn't stop screaming, well, I react badly.

Case in point: last Sunday I dressed Bella in a green and white checked dress (very cute) and put on her green sandals because they matched.

Bella: No match, want Dora (she has Dora sandals).
Me: No, Bella, the green ones match better than the pink ones.
Bella: No!!!

So I took her to the car, along with the other kids, and Bella was freaking out. And freaking out. And freaking out. Apparently the other kids don't like crying children either, because they all had their hands over their ears all the way over to church. I take the kids out of the car to go to church, and Bella won't budge on the sidewalk, so I pick her up to move her and she starts screaming and crying again, and kicking me. We walk towards where my dad was (waiting for my grandmother) and as soon as we get close enough, I put Bella on the grass and just let her scream and I told the kids that we were leaving Bella because she can't go to church screaming.

Maddie: But Mommy, we can't leave Bella there.
Me: Oh yes we can, because she's being bad, and if you ever are that bad the same will happen to you.
Maddie: But Mommy, someone will take her.
Me: Then they will have to figure out how to make her stop crying.

Of course, I knew that my dad was out there (he was already picking up Bella) and I knew I wasn't really leaving her, but the other kids didn't know that (apparently). My dad came in a few minutes later with my grandmother and Bella, but she was still crying, so he went to take her outside again. When mass started, I decided to go get Bella and have my dad come inside, but they weren't out there, so I came back in empty handed.

Emily: Where's Bella?
Me: I don't know.
Maddie: (starts crying)
Me: Why are you crying?
Maddie: Because we're never going to see Bella again.
Me: (feeling really bad about myself now) No, we will, she's with your Lolo, and they're outside walking around.

And then they came in with my mom and Bella was all smiles because she got some toy that she left at my parents' house. And she, of course, acted like she wasn't the giant brat that she had been.

But see, bad mom! Jeff couldn't even listen to me tell this story, he was so horrified. Am I totally wrong? At least I didn't resort to spanking her, right? I was just hoping that the shock of me leaving her (albeit with my dad) would get her to stop crying. In retrospect, if I had known how much drama the shoe thing would cause, I would totally let her wear unmatching shoes. After all, girls love their shoes.

First Days of School and an Ongoing Struggle (Updated with Pictures)

2008-08-28T14:49:00.000-07:00

This marks the beginning of the second week of school for Emily, and the third day for Maddie. Emily was quite the excited little first grader last week, and when I brought her to school she could not stop grinning at me with her too-cute missing tooth smile. However, since then 1st grade has not garnered a lot of enthusiasm so far for Miss Guiditta, as the only exciting thing that has happened this school year is that Emily brought home an invitation to a classmate's pool party. She is VERY excited, but it is a boy's party, so I'm not sure that Daddy is willing to let her go. We shall see....

Kindergarten, on the other hand, seems to be going rather well. We are tremendous fans of Mrs. Watson, who is quite possibly a saint. She is the most patient and most animated teacher we have met so far (in our children's educational forays) and she has not lost an ounce of enthusiasm yet. Maddie seems to be having fun, and she certainly does look cute in her brand new uniform. On her first day of school on Monday, all three of her former Pre-K teachers came up to her, were very excited to see her, gave her several hugs each, and cooed over how cute she is in her Kindergarten uniform. Maddie even obliged them with a curtsy and a spin.

Click here to see more pictures.

As for the struggle, it's me versus Ben & Jerry today.... One of the departments at work here had a picnic potluck, and as I was manning the front desk while the security team had a meeting, I was offered a plate of pancit (Filipino noodles) and a pint of Ben & Jerry's. How could I say no? At least I stuck to probably less than a full serving of Heath Toffee Crunch (so far), but there is still that pint sitting in the refrigerator of our kitchenette. It's calling.... I'm going to try and be brave and bring it home to the children, but it is quite difficult. However, it is increasingly becoming more difficult to put on my pants these days, so I really must resist. The bit that I ate already is more than I should have. I guess that means a salad for me tonight (I will also post pictures of the kids in their new uniforms, ready and eager for school tonight.)

MMMM Yarn

2008-08-15T08:07:00.000-07:00

I just bought this beautiful yarn over at Scout's Swag:

Absolutely gorgeous. It is destined either for a Chickadee Cowl or a hat like the one I made for myself.

Today Scout is holding a contest for some more of her hand dyed yarn, and since it was such a treat to get the first skein, I figured I would join by spreading the word about the OFA Red Scarf Project. Heck, I think I even have some red yarn not destined for anything in my stash to knit a scarf for a college-bound foster youths.

Here's the info:

Scarves for the Red Scarf Project will be accepted from September 1-October 31st this year.

And don’t forget, gift cards and notes attached to the scarves are very much appreciated. Mail your completed scarves to:

Orphan Foundation of America
The Red Scarf Project
21351 Gentry Drive
Sterling, VA 20166

Thanks for listening and go spread the word!

Olympics--Are You Watching?

2008-08-08T08:18:00.000-07:00

This post kinda comes out of a conversation I had with Jeff about the Summer Olympics. He is absolutely emphatic that our household not participate at all in the watching of the Olympic games, since it's being held in China this year, what with all of the political injustice (and probably also the shoddy workmanship of their imports) indicative of China. I think the closest I got to watching anything to do with the Olympics (so far) is watching the Olympic challenge of Project Runway this week (damn lot of ugly designs on that runway this year, btw).

Anyway, in support of those who struggle for their freedom, Beverly at PoMo Golightly is having a contest. You can win some pretty nice yarn from Pippi KneeSocks. None of us are free until all of us are free. Please visit one of these informational sites about Tibet: Students for a Free Tibet or International Campaign for Tibet.

Off my high horse now, and should start working....

And Now..... Maddie's Birthday (over a month later)

2008-08-04T21:29:00.000-07:00

Following Bella''s birthday post (also a month late), I figure that this is a good time to relate Maddie's birthday story.

We had a little dinner for her with family (little being a relative term, considering we had 20+ people at my house that night). Maddie was onto her presents and my mom was reading her the card that came with the present Jeff, the kids and I gave to her. My sister and her friend Tina were right next to me when the following occurs:

Mom (reading the card): Are you princess?
Maddie (very excitedly): Oh, yes, I am!
Marie and Tina: cracking up.......

I tell you, that was worth the price of admission for Tina, who absolutely adores Maddie. After all, oh, yes, she IS a princess. :-)

I only wish I had been able to record that exchange....

Bella's Birthday

2008-07-24T21:20:00.000-07:00

A little peek of our Terri-Bella (on her second birthday):

We thought it was really cute until we realized that it would disrupt Maddie's 5th birthday, only three days later. Funnily enough, she will fight with anyone who says it's their birthday, except for my Mom. When oldest friend Jill asked why, I said it was because she was afraid of my Mom. Jill wondered why Bella was scared of my mom, to which I answered, "Weren't you afraid of my mom when we were kids?" Shoot, I'm still afraid of her. ;-P

NOLA

2008-07-24T13:43:00.000-07:00

I'm back from New Orleans, and we had a fabulous time.

Follow me over to my Picasa pictures and read the captions to get an idea of my trip.

We ate at the following restaurants:
Crescent City Brewhouse
Cafe Du Monde
Central Grocery Co
Mother's Restaurant
Nan Seas Restaurant in Mobile
Dick Russell's Bar-B-Q in Mobile
The Gumbo Shop
Cafe Du Monde (2nd time!)
Tout de Suite Coffee Shop in Algiers
Johnny's Po Boys
Cafe Maspero
Cafe Du Monde (3rd time! though first breakfast visit)
Central Grocery Co (Jeff loved the muffuletta, and so did all the other non-olive eaters)
Red Fish Grill
Cafe Du Monde (2nd visit that day, and 4th overall)
Cafe Beignet (in the middle of the downpour that hit New Orleans from Hurricane Dolly. We had no beignets, however.)

Visually Inclined

2008-07-09T15:39:00.000-07:00

The rules:
a. type your answer to each of the questions below into flickr search
b. using only the first page, pick an image
c. copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker

The questions:
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food? (cheese bread)
3. What high school did you go to? (SI)
4. What is your favorite color? (blue)
5. Who is your celebrity crush? (David Duchovny)
6. Favorite drink? (Frappuccino)
7. Dream vacation? (Fiji)
8. Favorite dessert? (red velvet cupcake)
9. What you want to be when you grow up? (mommy)
10. What do you love most in life? (peace)
11. One Word to describe you. (spinning)
12. Your flickr name

Yosemite

2008-06-26T16:13:00.000-07:00

We had a great little mini-vacation in Yosemite this weekend. We didn't bring our camera, but we did bring Emily and Maddie. Their favorite activity by far was playing in the tent. I think they thought it was a private bounce house.

Here is a picture of me and the gals:

Here is a picture of Jeff, the girls and me:

Finally Back Home

2008-05-25T16:44:00.000-07:00

Needless to say that the best laid plans never work out. My doctor thought that I would be able to go home on Thursday, but the surgery ended up a little more complicated than he thought, so I ended up at UCLA through today. Ugh. I was on an NPO (that's feeding through an IV or a feeding tube) through Saturday, then graduated to clear liquids. I'm finally home today, still on clear liquids, but at least I'm home. Also, instead of my initial 5 day total recovery time, I have to be home all next week, which means I miss gal pal Michelle T's very first day at work as my partner in crime (well, really her whole first week). I hope she doesn't get scared off without me there! Anyway, I'm off to recuperate, whatever that mean. I must say, though, as much as I hated having to stay upright on those hospital beds, now that I'm home, I can't sleep fully reclined. Grrr.

In kid news, Miles can write! On my get well card the kids made for me, Jeff insisted he wrote his name (just needed help with the E). I'm totally amazed and need to start encouraging more hand eye coordination. I've been worried since he's a leftie that he doesn't know how to hold a crayon or pencil, but apparently he knows how to do enough!

What Sucks Worse than Surgery?

2008-05-20T14:18:00.000-07:00

Having surgery scheduled at 2:30PM, and being told that you can't eat or drink anything past midnight the night before. Blech. In keeping with the past few binge-filled weeks, I think that I am taking my family to Souplantation tonight and having a few extra muffins, and not feeling bad about it.

Note to those who aren't aware: the surgery is relatively minor, for the swelling underneath my jawline. It is ABSOLUTELY NOT malignant in any way and my doctor says I'll be fine after 5 days. Of course, I need to get a doctor's note so that work will let me back in. Silly little me, I let it slip to my HR friend and now she's making bring in a doctor's note, whereas my boss said it would have been fine otherwise. Oh well. It's not as big a deal as not eating for 14 and a half hours....

Happy Mother's Day

2008-05-11T16:53:00.000-07:00

Well, all right, this was TECHNICALLY taken on Easter, but it's the most recent picture I have of all four kids. I also took some time to upload pictures to my Picasa site and to my knitting pictures on Flickr. If you are on Ravelry, check out my projects, as I've updated images and added some knitting that I've been doing. Phew! That's a lot of work! Signing off for now to enjoy my day....

Already Thinking of Marriage

2008-05-04T17:21:00.000-07:00

Emily: Mommy, you know, I don't HAVE to get married.
Me: Yes, sweetie, I know. In fact, I'm sure that your dad would be very happy to hear that.

The next day:
Emily: Maddie, you know, you don't have to get married when you grow up.
Maddie: I know, I know, I know.
Me: That's right, Emily, you don't have to get married, you can do whatever you want to when you grow up.
Emily: Mommy, I don't want to get married.
Me: That's fine, you don't have to, but can you tell me why you don't want to get married?
Emily: Because I'm shy and I don't like people looking at me.

HAHAHAHAHAHA I need to show her this in about 20 years.....

Stop Stalking Me

2008-04-24T09:00:00.000-07:00

No one likes a stalker, even one as harmless as a parking spot stalker. You know who they are, and let's face it, we all do it. However, if I'm getting out of Costco, with a large basket full of groceries, and you see me with my four children, please don't stalk my parking spot AND THEN IMPATIENTLY WAIT UNTIL I GET OUT OF IT. Seriously. I need to take two of my kids out of the large shopping cart, put them into the car, get the other two into the car, then take out all my groceries, and I actually try to put the cart out of the way or into the stall for returned carts. I know that you want my parking space, but I have a lot of things to take care of, and really, a little bit of a walk isn't going to kill you. Or you can stalk someone else. But I am certainly not going to rush because you're waiting for me to vacate. You know who you are, and you've been forewarned.

I'll Be Right Over

2008-04-16T14:05:00.000-07:00

Have you ever been at work when someone calls you and says, "Oh, I'll be right over there," when they are going to pick something up from you, or talk to you about something specific. So you don't want to leave your desk because you figure "I'll be right over" means that they will be now. But then you really have to go and do something, like, say, go to the bathroom..... That is the situation I'm in right now. I really have to go, but two people have said they would be right over. One of them said that this morning, though, and I have left my desk several times since she said that. And of course, as soon as you go, you come back and there's a bright pink note on your desk with the words "I stopped by to get my...." Yeah.... I'm just saying that if you tell someone you will be right over you should be right over. It's not like the building is THAT big....

The Life and Times of a Busy Mom

2008-03-10T20:18:00.001-07:00

I've been pretty busy lately, what with work, four kids and a husband to take care of (love you, hon! even if you ARE a few thousand miles away this week, the only consolation being that you are in 30 degree weather), so I've had little time to blog. However, here is a snapshot of what I've done so far in 2008:

Emily's birthday cake (ok, so I didn't make it, but I have a very talented friend who was willing to practice her cake making skills for my daughter--you're the best, Emil!)

I spent some school-mommy time at the kids' annual Mission Fair (where I ate a personal Pizza Hut pizza, played games with the kids, allowed them to have their faces painted, and hung out with a couple other Pre-K moms):

And we celebrated Miles' third birthday (I made some very awesome Hungry Girl red velvet cupcakes, no one knew that they were low fat! I also made some cheddar cheese no knead bread):

Whew! I'm tired just recalling it all. :-p

Jeff also bought a new MacBook Pro laptop, and hid all of the computer wires, so I haven't been able to download pictures until now. No worries, though, I figured out where the Camera cable was and I'm going to be updating my Picasa pictures shortly.

I've also finally gotten over the weight loss plateau I've been at. I'm totally energized and am proud to say that I'm down about 40 pounds, and only have 10 more to go! Jill's wedding (date still to be determined), here I come.

Resolutions, Surgery, Ponies, and a Snowy Mountain View

2008-02-01T11:16:00.000-08:00

New Year's Resolutions: (I figure they would be more official if I actually wrote them down somewhere, so that I can be accountable. Let's see if that works.)

1. Get back on track with Weight Watchers. I have lost 30 pounds and want to lose about 20 more before Jill's wedding. 20 may be too idealistic, but I at least want to lose 10. Gladly, Jill hasn't set a date yet, so I have time. Status for this first month, okay, I've lost the 5 pounds that I put on over the holidays, plus about 3 more.

2. Stop pulling out my white hairs. I've had white hairs on my head since before high school, and pulling them out has been a pastime of mine. However, they've been multiplying at an alarming rate and if I continue to pull them out, I'll be bald. Status for this first month, rather well actually. I've only pulled out one, and that was in a moment of forgetfulness. I think I'm going to have to start dyeing my hair soon, though.

3. Save money by eating at home/bringing food to work instead of going out. Status for this first month, decent. We're definitely limiting our dinner spending.

4. Start working out again. This is related to resolution number one, but when I lost a lot of weight, I was working out 1-2 times per day. I have found that working out twice a day at 30 minutes a day rather than in a 1 hour block actually boosts my metabolism a lot more. I've succeeded in getting my butt out of bed most weekdays to work out, and cubicle-buddy Dianna and I have been walking at lunch about 3 times per week. Prognosis this month--good.

Maddie had outpatient surgery on January 11 for a Thyroglossal duct cystectomy. She had what looked like an adam's apple, but since she's a girl it turns out that it was some sort of blockage, probably congenital. She went in to surgery on Friday, and I was so nervous about it on Thursday that I couldn't sleep. I ended up falling asleep past 2AM, which made my total hours of sleep about 3 since we had to be in the hospital by 7:30. Maddie was fine for a while, she brought a stuffed monkey with her, and was playing in the kids' waiting area (complete with TV, slide, and activities).

At about 8:45 she decided that she had enough of the hospital thing and demanded to go home. An aide was nearby and asked if I wanted her to go through this little procedure with Maddie to calm her down. Maddie's favorite part was the strawberry scented test mask, which she decided to keep with her until surgery time. When she was called in, I was allowed to be with her until she fell asleep. She sat there puffing on the mask, and it didn't look like she would fall asleep, and I thought no way is this happening. But, magically, at her 40th breath, she suddenly collapsed, which is unnerving, too. Then came the longest hour and a quarter of my life. I was fine for a while (Jeff was there with me, and I had my knitting and iPod), but once the hour was up, I started freaking out. Luckily, the doctor came out, said she was fine, and that they would call me when she woke up.

Only one parent was allowed in the recovery room (it's teeny, and there are a few kids in there), so we decided that I would go in. I could hear her crying and freaking out when I got there, and a nurse was sitting with her trying to calm her. As soon as I got there, she started flailing around and was about to rip out her monitors and IV. She kept wanting to go home. Poor baby. After a few minutes without any change in her state, I asked if Jeff could come in, which they allowed thankfully. He calmed her down a bit, though she still had issues. She also kept saying she wanted to go home. We gave her the monkey she brought in and the nurses kept trying to calm her down, asking her if she wanted juice, or a popsicle, etc.
Nurse: Does your monkey want a popsicle?
Maddie: No, it's just pretend.
Nurse: Can we pretend that the monkey wants a popsicle? What flavor do you
think your monkey would like?
Maddie: It's not real, it's just pretend!
The nurse finally had to give up....

Maddie calmed down finally, and so the nurse started taking off her monitors and her IV. Jeff is sitting down, Maddie is on his lap, and I'm right next to them on the floor. Suddenly I hear the nurse say, "Dad, are you okay?" Jeff started to pass out! By that time, my nerves were wound so tight all I could do was start to laugh. But, the ordeal was just about over, and we got to go home. On the way home we stopped at this uber-yummy Mexican place in Signal Hill. MMMMM. I was going to stop at McDonald's for Maddie as a treat, but she just passed out.

The rest of Friday Maddie slept, then woke up, ate a little, and was kinda grouchy. But by Saturday she was back to her normal self, and was even running around again. Kids are SOOO resilient. She is definitely back to normal, and she was missed at school for the few days she was off.

Right after Maddie went back to school we went to a birthday party for one of her classmates. The parents were nice enough to invite any of Maddie's siblings to come, too, but I was prudent and decided that just Emily and Maddie would go. The party had a jumper (with a slide), a pinata and 2 ponies for pony rides. The girls had a blast, but when the kids all lined up for the rides, Emily and Maddie were towards the end. The day was sunny (the only really nice day since then, what with the storms that have been hitting us) and the girls were ready to give up their space in line. Luckily I happened to be right there (I noticed they were at the head of the line) and I said, no, wait, you're next. They were so excited, and I curse myself for not bringing my camera. Oh well.

Funny thing about the party, I was talking to the parents of the birthday girl and when I told them I had 4 kids, they were of course amazed and then they asked why I didn't bring all of them. When I said that there was one other mother that I knew who had 4 kids under the age of 6 like me, the mom said, "Oh, but you two must be young, in your 30's? I was 40 when we started having kids." An innocent enough comment, I know, but I didn't think that I looked like I was in my 30's. Sigh. I guess I don't have that 20's look anymore.....

All of California has been having a wet January, and we are certainly no exception. Last week, the snow levels were at 3000 feet. We finally had a clear day, and I snapped this picture:

I have mountain views! It's pretty remarkable, don't you think?

Well, kinda.... It was more remarkable a few weeks ago, right after all the rain/snowfall we had.

Happy Birthday Emily-Bug!

2008-01-04T22:04:00.000-08:00

Happy 6th birthday to my first baby. Emily has gotten to be such a big girl.

Emily is already over 4 feet tall! She will definitely be taller than her Mommy, and maybe even taller than her Daddy.

It seems barely yesterday (and also so very long ago) that we first had Emily. On that night 6 years ago we had no idea that we were jumping headfirst into parenthood, but we haven't looked back ever since.

FO's Update and It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

2007-12-23T22:50:00.000-08:00

Just a little peek at what I've been doing instead of blogging: knitting! I have finished three hats for each of the girls, and three hats for their friends (the V boys) at school. I have two scarves that were without owners, and they go to the D girls at school, plus a felted iPod cozy that will go to their last friend (I didn't have time to knit him a hat, because the one that went to Bella was actually supposed to be for an older kid, just the size was off). I also knitted all the washcloths that I meant to knit, and they went to my coworkers instead of the girls' teachers (one of the other parents--a friend of mine, can you believe it, asked if I would contribute to a group present instead).

Three Little Words

2007-12-05T11:28:00.001-08:00

from your husband that just makes your day.... Even better when you have written proof!

Ravelry!

2007-11-13T16:24:00.000-08:00

Hooray, I got my invitation to Ravelry. Sadly, unless you are currently a Ravelry member, you can't view my page. But, if you happen to be, then go and check it out. I spent a ton of time putting up pictures of projects I've done, and just started to look at other projects to put into my queue. It's very cool. For all my non-knitting friends, you can view my knitting pictures here, if you so desire. Once Ravelry is out of beta, you'll be able to see my page on there.

Right now, I feel like I'm fending off the flu. Or maybe not even fending it off. The aches are coming on pretty strongly, but I can't take tomorrow off work. As soon as I get home I will start dosing myself with Airborne and Emergen-C. I also have a PTO meeting tonight and I have the choice of going there, or staying home with 4 children. I really can't tell which would be better.

Halloween

2007-10-31T21:16:00.000-07:00

A few pictures from Halloween:

Emily the Rockstar Cat Princess (aka Josie from Josie and the Pussycats, with Emily sporting a knitted Kittyville hat):

Maddie the witch princess (and my cousin Mai, who I made a cat hat for):

Miles the pirate (not a princess):

The whole gang (Bella is an American Indian princess):

More pictures can be viewed here.

Night at the Wiltern

2007-10-22T08:07:00.000-07:00

Jeff, Marie and I went to see the Silversun Pickups on Saturday night, along with one of Marie's friends. We had such a great time, and I was very pleasantly surprised by seeing women in all of the bands that night. The opener was The Happy Hollows, who Marie has booked for her Eagle Rock gig, and who my kids listen to (and love) when my sister picks them up from school. The Happy Hollows is not a band for everyone, but I could appreciate them. I think I need to listen to their album before I pass judgement. The lead singer is a little dynamo. The second band was the Midnight Movies, who are really awesome, and who Jeff likens to the Moody Blues. My sister couldn't comment because she had no idea who the Moody Blues were. The lead singer was good, and played about 4 instruments (no exaggeration) during their set. It was definitely different from the Happy Hollows in many ways. Silversun Pickups were absolutely awesome. They got into way more guitar riffs, and extemporizing, way different from the album, which is what you want from a concert. Jeff appreciated the performance, but didn't think that he would listen to the album, so I had to convince him that the recorded songs were way different, more "pop-y" than how they played. It was so cool to see three local bands play, and especially at the Wiltern. SSPU gave a really long encore, which was pretty awesome. Always listen to your local bands when they come home, as they are usually extremely excited to be home. The last concert I went to that was like that was when Marie and I saw No Doubt on their final date on one of their tours, and they gave about an hour and a half encore.

All in all, we had a really good time. We went and had Korean barbecue (the Wiltern is in the middle of K-town) at about 12:45AM before going home to pick up the kids from my parents house.

Am either fighting a cold, asthma (from all the smoke right now), or allergies, so I'm going to stop here. I've got a couple great kid stories from the weekend that I hope to get to soon. Until then

Jury Duty

2007-10-16T08:33:00.000-07:00

I got my first summons for Jury Duty since I decided to become a U.S. citizen, and served yesterday. Jeff's policy is to toss the summons in the trash, because he had an internship at the Long Beach courthouse in his college days and found out that 70% of the people who get summons don't responds, and there just aren't enough resources to prosecute them all. As a state employee, I get paid for unlimited amounts of jury duty, and just couldn't toss the summons.

So, on Saturday I called in, and just my luck, I had to go in on Monday. Luckily, the courthouse I went to was about 1.5 miles from my house, and only a few blocks from my local yarn store. Check in at 8:30, don't hear anything from anyone until 9:00, start orientation, then wait. I brought a scarf I was knitting, and the latest Thursday Next book to read, both of which I did in turns. The jury person said that there were only 3 cases for trial, so we had pretty good chances of not having to serve. But, my name was called at 11:30, in the first batch of names. Not a good sign. However, that also meant that I had a 2 hour lunch break, as we didn't have to report until 1:30. I walked over to my LYS, bought some yarn to finish my scarf with, as well as some double pointed needles to make a hat for Jeff, and sat and knit with a couple other patrons, as well as chatted with Candy, the proprietess. (She is so awesome, she taught me how to knit, and is just one of the nicest people in retail.) I packed up after an hour of knitting in search of some food, and went back to the courthouse. We waited until 2:20 (well past our 1:30 court time) before we got in (lots of knitting occurred), then got our instructions.

My thoughts on our justice system:

My judge was VERY patient. As in EXTREMELY patient. And kind. I can see how quickly a judge can get annoyed and fed up with potential jurors, but he was definitely a patient man and you could tell was trying to make the experience good for all potential jurors.
Lawyers are not necessarily eloquent. I believe both of them said a lot of "Umm's", "Er's," and "Like's."
Lawyers are hot. Well, the female prosecutor and defense attorney at my trial were, at least. It was quite amusing, in a way. :-p I suppose if I were male, I wouldn't have minded sitting in the jury box for this trial...
People REALLy don't want to do jury duty. I mean, it's a pain and all, but it really seems like they've streamlined a lot of the processes. But it was funny to sit in the hallway in between sessions listening to people plot out how they were going to get out of having to sit in the jury box.

Anyway, it's back to work today. I finished knitting this really cute hat (my first one!) for my cousin, and decided to add a scarf to go with it. I'm knitting the scarf from side to side (lengthwise) so I have about 350 stitches on each side, but won't have to knit too many rows. I picked some cute colors, but upon reflection, the scarf kinda looks like neapolitan ice cream. At least, I'm pretty sure that's what Jeff will say. As soon as the scarf is done, I will take pictures of Emily modeling both scarf and hat and post them. I also have a couple other finished items to take pictures of--the first (elongated stitch) scarf I knitted, a crossover scarf, and two needle knitted washcloths (that I can compare to the loom knitted ones using the same pattern that I finished a while ago).

GeoCache

2007-10-03T19:34:00.000-07:00

We recently started a new family hobby--geocaching. It's kinda neat, and the kids think of it as a treasure hunt. You take your GPS unit, punch in some coordinates that you get from a site like http://www.geocaching.com/ and try to get as close to the coordinates as possible. Then, you look around for the treasure--X does not necessarily mark the spot. Here are a few pictures from our very first attempt at geocaching. Technically, it's our second attempt, since we tried two in one day, and the first was a disaster. We couldn't figure out where by the library it was....

Our GPS brought us to a parking lot in Orange County. We looked around

and around

and around... to no avail. Finally, I spotted this on a lightpole:

Could it be? The cache? Well, it was a decoy....

So we looked again...

And then, I figured it out:

The funny thing is, we already looked underneath there, but since the container was painted the exact color of the lightpole, we totally missed it. The container was a little Altoid tin, with a logbook (to say you've been there) and a couple of little treasures to exchange. The girls took two things:

A little bead and a fish pendant. We left bubbles, I think. It was a lot of fun, and unexpected as to where we would end up. Jeff certainly didn't realize we would be in the middle of a parking lot. We've done several parking lot caches since, and a couple of park ones.

Computer is Fixed!

2007-10-03T08:59:00.000-07:00

Just an FYI, we finally got our computer at home fixed. Hooray! I am slowly updating pictures on my Picasa site. No more Yahoo Photos, since the whole application went away (and there is no way that I will go over to Flickr, with the whole common use thing these days), and while I did transfer those pictures over to Shutterfly, I actually am not posting those as public. I just wanted to be sure that I didn't lose all of my pictures. I may eventually (if I have time) reload all of the pictures from before onto Picasa, but we'll see if that project ever gets off the ground. For now, I'm going to update both blog and picture site again. Stay tuned for pictures from the first day at school to be uploaded.

Girls + Scissors = ???

2007-09-17T14:23:00.000-07:00

Well, the inevitable happened. Actually, the inevitable happened about a month ago, but I'm just slow to blogging these days. Plus the fact that I don't have a camera to computer hookup, so posting blogs with pictures is difficult.

Anyway, Emily and Maddie were playing with some craft scissors, and Jeff expressed some trepidation, to which I said, no, they know that they can only cut on the paper. And yet, 15 minutes later, I hear Jeff shouting at the girls, and he came to me with locks of hair in his hands. Maddie is sobbing in the corner, and I just can't wrap my head around why little girls ALWAYS feel the need to cut their hair by themselves. Then, I look over at Emily, who is very subdued, and I realize, wait a minute, she is the one with obvious chunks of her hair missing. Not Maddie, even though she claims she did it. Emily cut her bangs all by herself. Ugh. I don't know why I was surprised, my sister did it, my cousin did it, my old coworker's daughter did it--it's just something little girls do. I was just hoping that this wouldn't happen until 10 or later, if at all.

I had to get my mom to fix the damage on Emily's hair before school started, and she looks really cute, so without (futher) ado, I present Emily with bangs:

Jeff comes in and is pretty mad that Emily had full on bangs now (what else could we do). I think Emily looks adorable. Apparently, Maddie does, too, because (dum duh duh duh) she comes in with bangs too, looking as pleased with herself as she can be.

Needless to say, Jeff isn't terribly pleased, but let me tell you, the bangs really makes it easy to fix their hair. Especially now that school has started and I'm responsible for the way that they look in the morning.

Miles got a haircut, too, but it's the same bowl shape. His hair is way too straight for anything else, and if we buzz it (as we did last year), he loses half his head circumference.

Here's a picture of Bella. No haircut for her, but I couldn't leave her out of this post, could I?

Back Away From the Looms....

2007-09-07T08:08:00.000-07:00

Well, I have put aside my looms...at least temporarily. Why? Because I started a needle knitting class at a little yarn store by my house. My first class was yesterday and I have started the knit stitch and done a yarn over already. My first project is (what else?) a scarf. Unusual for beginning knitters, I'm starting on size 6 needles, since I do already have some experience in the world of yarn craft and I think I'm picking it up pretty quickly. I do have to figure out how to undo two rows of knitting, though because I somehow went from 20 stitches to 22. :-( I'm hoping to finish the scarf this week so that next lesson she can teach me casting on, purling, binding off, increases and decreases. I have three in the series. The instructor is pretty amazing, and even though I was the only one in the store for a beginning knitting class, there were 5 other women there who came in for drop-in help. Candy is very friendly, and very knowledgeable and whenever someone said, I made a mistake, she knew exactly how to fix it. Jeff, Emily and Maddie even came into the store to pick me up and see what was going on.

When I initially signed up for the class, I told Candy that I was a loom knitter, and she asked me to bring in some of the things I had made on my first lesson. So, I brought in the socks that I knitted, as well as the two dishcloths that I just finished for my coworker Amber (her birthday is on Monday). Candy was pretty astounded that I was able to make them on the loom, and she was very impressed, and now thinks that the scarf will bore me. Hahaha. I told her that I really wanted to learn on needles, so it's okay, but I think that if I can fix my mistake and finish my scarf we can get going with bigger things. I will post a picture of my scarf in progress once I find a computer to download pictures to. ;-)

I'm still lacking a camera, but I think I will give in and download some school pictures of the girls' first day so that I can put them up. This is the end of our 2nd week at school and things are going well, at least the girls haven't started complaining about our 6:00 wake up yet....

First Day of School! First Day of School!

2007-08-27T13:43:00.001-07:00

I have alternating visions of that Staples commercial with "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" playing in the background and Finding Nemo in my head the last few days. Today was Maddie's and Emily's first day of school. For the past two weeks, the two of them could not think of much else, and now the day is finally upon us.

We went to Back to School night to meet their teachers last week, and to my surprise not one of the PreK teachers are back this year, for various reasons. It totally bums me out, but hopefully the new teacher and assistant will be good for Maddie. Emily's teachers both rock, though to my dismay, I realized that one of them sits by us in church. Since I usually take all 4 kids with me, you can just imagine what kind of a ruckus they bring with them during the Mass. I need to be more patient with them during church so that Emily's teacher won't make mental notes about me. On a happier note, I did meet two parents who have kids in both Kindergarten and PK with me this year, which is really nice.

Anyway, back to the first day of school. The two girls were so excited to finally put on their new uniforms. Emily has a red and blue jumper in the exact same plaid that I wore when I went to school in San Francisco. Maddie is wearing Emily's old uniform from last year, which is the PE uniform for the school. Of course, Maddie is swimming in it. Emily, on the other hand, is taller than the next tallest girl in her class by 3 inches! My goodness, she is a little weed, isn't she?

Both the PreK and Kindergarten classes had only half days today for students with last names from A-G. Tomorrow is H-Z turn, so we have a day off. Poor little Miles threw a fit because he did not want to go to my aunt's house today. He kept pointing away and saying "School!" I didn't realize that he was cognizant enough of the distinction, but he certainly felt his exclusion this morning.

I can't wait to get home to see the girls. Jeff and I were able to stay a little longer than normal at school to make sure they were okay. Both girls didn't need us there at all, but it made Jeff and I feel better. Maddie was already playing with the play kitchen set (also Emily's favorite last year).

As soon as I get a computer back, I'll post the pictures.

Jeff and His Amazing Workouts (Or, The Incredible Shrinking Husband)

2007-08-13T08:19:00.000-07:00

So, Jeff and I are on a health kick. We both decided that we were going to lose some weight, so I started Weight Watchers at work, which he is unofficially following as well (makes it easier to only cook one meal, rather than two). I walk at work about 45 minutes/day, 4 times a week, but Jeff has taken it one step further. Since his car accident, he's been biking to and from work, plus putting in an hour workout during lunch, which includes swimming, biking or walking/jogging. Needless to say, he has surpassed me in weight loss, and has gone down 4 inches in his waist! He bought himself a new road bike with part of his insurance money. Along with the bike, he bought a new GPS bike computer, and signed up for an online workout tracker. Check it out here.

Naming Kids

2007-08-08T07:50:00.000-07:00

Emily: Mommy, when I grow up and be a mommy, I am going to have a boy named Eric.
Me: OK, but don't you want to name your boy after your daddy?
Emily: I'm going to have two boys, one named Eric and one named Jeff.
Me: And you're not going to have a girl? (teasingly)
Emily: I'm going to have two girls.
Me: Oh? What will their names be?
Emily: Hardy and Cutie.
Me: (stunned silence)

The things kids say....

Where's My Doggie?

2007-08-06T08:15:00.000-07:00

Maddie: Mommy, where's my doggie?
Me: I don't know, I don't play with it.
Maddie: (with tears in her eyes) Is it in the toilet?
Me: I don't think so, why on earth would it be in the toilet?
Maddie: Because I put it there.

Good friend Rosanna was on the phone with me when this exchange took place last night. She was rolling in laughter as I went over to check the toilet to see if the doggie was indeed there, which of course it was.

I would have taken a picture if it was not for the facts that it was 1) absolutely gross and 2) not publishable anyway, because of my computer malfunction at home (still blogging through work). Sigh.

Check It Out

2007-08-03T13:34:00.000-07:00

My little sister and her gal pal Janine are on the cover of Pasadena Weekly. Check it out, and if you live in the area, please consider going to their shindig on Sundays.

Congrats on the press, Marie!

Failure to Boot

2007-08-02T14:46:00.000-07:00

Yep, that's what my home computer says when I try to start it up. Either that or it just keeps trying to boot up. Sigh.... We are supposed to get our computer fixed, but who knows when it will happen. I just want you to know that I haven't fallen off the face of the earth.

Hopefully, by the time I get up and running again at home, I will have completed one side of the log cabin bag I'm making. It's really cute so far, and I want to do a few more color repeats before I start on the other side. It will either go to Emily for school, or to one of my cousins for Christmas. After that I will work on some other Christmas present projects, like cabled hats, fair isle hats, and convertible mittens. Such lofty goals... I wonder how many Christmas presents I will actually finish?

Harry Potter!

2007-07-21T07:42:00.000-07:00

In a rare night away from the kids, Jeff and I, along with my sister Marie-Reine, my cousins Miguel, Camille and Mona (all, except Jeff rabid Harry fans) saw Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix last night. Mad Eye Moody is still freaking awesome, Kreacher was so much better than Dobby ever was, and the climax in 3D was so unbelievable. I'm still reeling from the HP high last night and am running to Target right now to get my Book 7. Don't expect much from me for a few days. I'm going to read as much as I can, but have promised the hubby that I won't be as MIA as I was last time.

Happy Book 7 Day!!!!!!!

Ow!

2007-07-16T18:20:00.001-07:00

I had my first-ever Worker's Comp claim last week. My boss keeps exclaiming, "You didn't tell me that you were a klutz in your interview!" Oh well, a few stitches never hurt anyone. Well, they do, but they're not going to kill me.

I slipped and fell in the catering kitchen during our last round of cleanup. Unluckily for me, I was carrying a ceramic coffee creamer mug in my left hand at the time, and when I fell, my hand fell on the mug. Needless to say, I had a 2 inch laceration on my left hand/wrist.

My boss is absolutely pale, looks at me and asks if I was all right. I said, I'm fine, as I make my way to the sink to wash my hand and check the cut. She asks, Are you sure, and I respond, no....

A quick trip to the Worker's Comp clinic, one tetanus shot, and 10 stitches later, I get released from duty the rest of the day, to which I drove myself home and crashed from the adrenaline down. Ugh.

Hand is fine, but I went in today for a follow-up, and the doc noticed that I was developing an infection. Hooray. Another shot (this time in the butt, double hooray), plus a prescription for antibiotics before 8:30 in the morning. The doc wanted to send me home, but I knew today would be a busy day, and sure enough....

Sigh, is it Friday yet? I have a date on Friday with Jeff and my cousins Miguel, Camille and Mona to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in IMAX. Jeff and I seem to be the only people in the country yet to see it.

Finished Object Update

2007-07-09T20:55:00.001-07:00

Here are a few projects that I've finished, but haven't taken pictures of yet:

Emily's poncho (finished in March), modeled after one we saw during her last pediatrician's visit.

I used Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick and Quick yarn in Grass and Wood and using the Yellow Knifty Knitter. The pattern is my own. I made two pieces (front and back). I started with the brown, and knitted a 2x2 ribbed turtleneck part, then did an increase on either side (every other row) until the end of the round, using the moss stitch. I then joined the green color, then decreased in the same vein until I got to a point. I made two panels and stitched them together. I really like how it came out, even though my moss stitch ended up getting screwed up every so often.

My first pair of socks, in the RPM pattern from Knitty. I did them two at a time, so that I would end up with two socks at the end (rather than face Single Sock Syndrome). However, I messed up the VERY simple pattern of knits and purls on one sock, though the other is pretty perfect. Oh well, I'm glad that I figured out the short row shaping pretty easily. Since I don't check my gauge, I ended up with the socks being too small to fit an adult foot, so these go to Maddie.

My Inara shawl for Jeff's cousin's wedding in June.

I finished this shawl on the drive up to Arroyo Grande the day of the wedding.

My brother Marc's Jayne Cobb hat.

This was a surprisingly quick knit, but I did have to frog it once, because I made it too small (there we go again with the no swatching). Nevertheless, it was fast, and I like how it turned out. Marc will wear it to the Comic Con this month in San Diego, to his girlfriend Nicole's horror.

Bella is 1! Maddie is 4!

2007-07-04T17:42:00.000-07:00

Time does fly. Bella turned 1 last week, and Maddie turned 4 on Sunday. Both girls are getting so big. Bella started walking last week, and is really cute doing so. When she walks, she looks like she's about to fall over, though, and she usually does. Jeff is definitely not ready for another walking child and is discouraging it at every shot.

Bella in front of the birthday cake I made from scratch:

The girls on Maddie's birthday:

I started Weight Watchers (have to be a matron of honor at my oldest friend's wedding next year) and lost 6 pounds in the first week. My sister was quick to point out that it's probably water weight, but I don't really care, 6 pounds is 6 pounds. This week wasn't so great, I came in at about 1 pound under (no official weigh in, since it's 4th of July and my meetings are on Wednesdays). However, considering the fact that we had two birthdays and a wedding this weekend, I think that's all right.

Jeff's cousin's wedding was very nice. We had a great time alone for the night. Kinsey (the bride) came up to us and said, I'm so sorry we couldn't invite the kids (it was a very small wedding of no more than 75) and I responded, "we're not." Don't get me wrong, I love the kids and it's a lot of fun to be with them, but it was nice to have 100% adult conversation and not have to run around after them during the reception. I did finish my shawl on the drive up to San Luis Obispo, so that was nice, especially since it was SOOO windy up there during the outside wedding.

Jeff's dad has come to visit us this week, which is nice. They are spending our Independence Day smoking salmon ($1.99 a pound last week at Stater Brothers!). Luckily, Roger is also trying to eat healthier these days, so we're good with diet food. Jeff is doing well with the diet, too, and has already dropped down one pant size. Grrr. Since the car accident, he has been riding his bike to work, and on the way home he goes a bit farther for a longer workout. I've been walking at work for 30-45 minutes at lunchtime when I can. Hooray for healthier habits. ;-) Wish me vegetable cravings.....

No Time for Blogging...Must Knit

2007-06-27T13:24:00.000-07:00

I have had a whirlwind of the last few weeks, and just wanted to check in to prove I was still around. I'm trying to knit a shawl for myself for a wedding that Jeff and I are going to on Friday. I hope to get done, but don't think it's possible anymore. Lots has happened: Jeff got into a car accident (he is fine, car is not), Bella is turning one tomorrow, Maddie will be 4 on Sunday, Jeff and I had our 8 year anniversary, and I started Weight Watchers. Oh, and I finished my socks (still have to weave in the ends, then I will post a picture). I'll try to recoup after this weekend, but then Jeff's dad comes for a weeklong visit next week. Here's to hoping I can get through the next few weeks without harm, oh and that I continue to stay on plan with Weight Watchers (I've already lost 6 pounds in a week), and that I finish my shawl.... (this hope list is getting too long). TTYL

Future Knitting Projects

2007-06-14T13:49:00.000-07:00

I know I haven't finished my socks yet, but I'm *hoping* that I can finish them by this weekend. I have lots of ideas for my next projects.

1. felted flowers -- my work is having a company picnic, with a "summer hat parade" and I want to make some of these felted flowers to glue onto a summer bonnet here. I like the idea of small projects that will be finished easily/quickly.

2. a baby cardigan for Bella (isn't it adorable?)

3. a tote for Emily. For some reason, her school supply list for Kindergarten says no backpacks, but they are supposed to have a tote bag. So, I am debating between a felted tote bag (maybe something along the lines of this one, minus the fun fur: ), or a mitered square bag (only larger). Which technique do you think would be best for a 5 year old to appreciate?

4. tank tops for Emily, Maddie and Bella: for Emily, for Bella, and for Maddie, well, I guess I'll have to find one (maybe this one?).

5. socks. No, I haven't given up on the idea of hand knitted socks! These look neat, because they are only ankle socks, or these. However, they may still be too ambitious for me. We'll see.....

Sock Progress

2007-06-12T21:34:00.000-07:00

Still plugging away at the socks. It seems like I'm taking forever, but, really, since I am doing two socks at once, it's not too bad. When I'm done, I will be done, so that's a good thing for me to focus on.

Here's a picture of my socks on my Wonderloom as they stand today:

Also pictured is the very first center-pull ball of yarn I've made. Don't ask about how I used to knit from skeins without winding them into a ball.

Here's a picture of the fingerless mittens I made Michelle T for her birthday:

They are a tad small for her, but she took them graciously, and I'm actually quite pleased with them. Knitting on the smaller gauge loom takes a lot of getting used to, but I'm adapting quickly. I really like making 2x2 ribbing on the smaller loom; it looks a lot better than when I did ribbing on the Knifty Knitter. I'm hoping that I can get the socks finished this week. Jeff doesn't like looking at green anymore....

Aloha Means Goodbye and Hello

2007-06-11T22:01:00.000-07:00

Emily finished Pre-Kindergarten. And they didn't kick her out of school, or anything. LOL. All kidding aside, a year of school has already finished. After the summer break, Maddie will be going into PK, and Emily into Kindergarten. Time is flying by at breakneck speed.

The Promotion (don't call it Graduation) ceremony was Hawaiian themed, and the kids sang 4 songs, then shook hands with the principal.

Here's Emily with her dad right before the ceremony:

Emily walking onto the stage (very hard to see, I know, but she's waving to us):

Part of a song/dance:

Bella getting into the day, and dancing/gesturing as well:

The new promotee:

In knitting news, I've been knitting my first pair of socks. I tried to take a picture of them on the loom, but they all came out blurry. I'm going to try again tomorrow (maybe Jeff can help), so that you can see the progress while the socks are on the loom.

More Wedding Pictures

2007-06-07T14:31:00.000-07:00

A quick update: my friend Michelle has more of her wedding pictures posted, and here are some of my girls:

I have more pictures to post up (from recent events), but haven't had a chance to download them from my camera. Maybe tonight!

Still a Princess

2007-05-26T23:36:00.000-07:00

My sister, Marie, came over around 9:15 tonight to start watching some of the last 15 or so episodes of LOST that I have saved on my DVR from this season. I thought that all the kids were asleep, but apparently Maddie wasn't. As soon as she heard her godmother's voice, she came running into the living room to chat with her. Marie (on crutches from a dance injury) was settling in when the following exchange randomly occurs:

Maddie: Everyone thinks I'm a beautiful princess.

Marie: (after a bit of stunned silence from both of us, through which we are desperately trying not to laugh) Everyone, huh? What does your Daddy think?

(Jeff is on the couch, too, reading a book and didn't catch quite what his little girl said, but looks up upon hearing his name)

Maddie: Daddy thinks I'm just silly. (giggles insanely)

Really, it's just all too much for me. Where on earth does she get this? But she started giggling at the end, so maybe she's not TOO serious about it. Whatever the case, she is most certainly a singular little girl.

Knock Knock

2007-05-14T21:44:00.000-07:00

Every parent of small children knows the inevitability of their child's fascination with Knock Knock jokes. I have four children. I -- HAVE -- FOUR -- CHILDREN. Guess how many variations of knock knock jokes I get? You guessed it, roughly four. Here they are:

Emily:
Knock Knock
-Who's there?
Boo
-Boo who?
Don't cry, it's just a joke.

Miles:
Knock Knock
-Who's there?
Diddy
--Diddy who?
Laughs hysterically. He hasn't quite grasped the whole idea behind knock knock jokes, and punchlines, but he's very adamant that you go through the motions when he presents you with a Knock Knock. And really, he doesn't say a whole lot, so you just HAVE to give in, about 30 times in an hour. The good news is, he's beginning to find a way to express himself in words, which for a seemingly vocabular-ily challenged boy, is a good thing.

Evan Bella has gotten into the action:
Knock Knock
-Who's there?
Laughs hysterically. What can I say, she's not even one, but with all the Knock Knocks these days, it was inevitable that she pick it up as one of her first dozen words.

And then there's Maddie, who probably started it all, and I'm not sure where she got hers. Needless to say, it too is always the same one, and she thinks she's quite funny:

Knock knock.
Mommy, I said knock knock, you have to say "Who's there?"
-(grudgingly) Who's there?
Tink
Mommy, you have to say "Tink who?"
-(knowing what comes next) Tink who?
Tink you're going to fall off the house because I'm so funny. (or something like that, I'm really not too sure, even after all these tellings of the same punchline.)
Mommy, now you're supposed to laugh.

Yes, about all I can do these days IS laugh.

It's Been a While....

2007-05-06T18:55:00.000-07:00

I've been pretty busy lately, but I can finally and resolutely say--I am done with my old job! Hooray! I've been out of there for a week, and have started my new job. I have to say, what a difference! The people at my new job are very nice, and my boss and co-worker (in my department) are astounded by how quickly I pick things up. And I have just realized that what makes me the happiest is being appreciated--it really makes a large difference in your outlook.

Here's a picture of my staff at my old job, I'll really miss them:

I've been trying to be busy on my knitting. I knit a set of fingerless mittens for my former staffer Michele, as a going away present.

My fine gauge loom (they're built to order) finally came in, though I didn't let myself touch it until I finished Michele's mittens. I decided to use the loom to make Michelle (also a former staffer) a pair of mittens, too, using the Bellita pattern, but the thumb part really has been eluding me. It may be because I've switched the pattern to use a fine gauge, though it calls for a regular gauge loom. I've decided to frog it (twice, already), and just do the thumb part the way that I know how. I'm going to do 24 rows of 2x2 rib, then 18 rows of knit stitch, then wrap and turn for a flat panel for 6 rows. This gives me 6 rows of a flat panel, which gives a little hole for the thumb. What's nice about my Wonderloom is that I can set up both sides of the glove and knit off two at a time. This way, as I change the patterns around, I can repeat the row directly on the second item, rather than having to remember (or count) how many rows of what I did. Wish me luck!

Before I embark on the mittens, though, Jeff (being frustrated with the two frog pond projects) has asked me to make him another ipod sock. He uses a blue one I made for him right now, and never did use the green striped/felted one, but since I never sewed buttons on them, he has every right to request another. At least I know someone who can use the one he never used. I just have to find it. ;-) It's under piles of paper on my desk, I'm sure.

In baby news, Bella has started talking! She says two words very well: Dada and Uh-oh. (is uh-oh a word? Either way, I'm counting it) I thought uh-oh was really cute until she started dropping her toys just so that she could say uh-oh, so that I could pick them up and she could drop them again. Grrr. And she resolutely won't say Mama. :-(

New Job!!!

2007-04-06T08:53:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to let everyone know that I have accepted a new position with the CSU Chancellor's Office. It's the office that runs all of the Cal State Universities. I'm so excited, and I have given three weeks notice at my current job. Now that I've already given notice, I can't wait for the time to be over. Hooray!!!

I am bummed, though, about leaving some of the people I work with. I will miss my staff dearly, now that I have a group that really works well together, but they're really happy for me. The nice thing is that my new job is just down the street from here, near the Catalina Landing (where the boats from Long Beach to Catalina Island depart), and I can come by every so often for lunch, or a Pinkberry run.

Spring Cleaning

2007-04-02T11:18:00.000-07:00

We spent this weekend, and two weekends ago, cleaning our house and it is SOOO nice to have a clutter-free house, if only for a few days before the tornadoes that are our children rip through it. However, our vacuum cleaner officially died yesterday, to Jeff's dismay. 5 Minutes for Mom is giving away a brand new Dyson. Sigh, a girl can dream.

This Week's Edition of Bad Parenting, Plus My First Felting Project

2007-03-30T21:33:00.000-07:00

As you can tell from my previous post, we were at a wedding, which was in San Jose. We got to see all of my high school friends (the ones I've kept in touch with, anyway), and we were all together for the first time since (drumroll, please) my wedding EIGHT years ago. Needless to say, it was a momentous occasion and I'm glad that we were all able to be there.

That being said, we stayed at a hotel for the weekend. We had two queen beds and a pull out couch. The website led us to believe that it was a two room suite, but really it was a long room with three beds in it. That was fine, though, because all we really needed were the multiple numbers of beds. Jeff and I slept in one, Emily and Miles in the other, and Bella and Maddie in the pull-out. I got up several times to feed the baby and Miles fell off the bed twice. I picked him up both times, put him back in bed, and he promptly went back to sleep. He crawled into bed with me around 6:30 AM, and I wasn't about to deny him that, since it was so close to the time we would get up anyway. In my groggy, non-glasses haze, I noticed a smear of something, possibly red on his chin, but thought that it may have been ketchup from dinner the night before. When we were getting ready to go and have breakfast, I offhandedly asked Jeff to look at his chin to see if it was ketchup, or, jokingly, blood. Well, of course it was blood. The best I could tell was that he must have hit himself on the nightstand on one of his falls off the bed. Poor boy. However, to his credit, he really does just roll over like nothing happened. He still has a wound now, a week later. :-(

In knitting news, Jeff asked me to knit him an iPod sock, since he's been using one of mine to protect his iPod. I was thrilled, and pulled out the eBay yarn to have him choose his colors. He thought that the olive was "puke-y" looking, but I used it anyway, since it was one of the more manly colors in my stash. I used Crystal's pattern for a flat-bottomed bag, and striped it with the olive and black. It looked cute, but was way too large for Jeff's video iPod. In a flash of inspiration, I thought, why don't I felt it? Felting is a process that "erases" the individual stitches in natural wool yarn, so your project ends up looking like felt. Unfortunately, felting requires the use of an agitator in your washing machine, and since I have a front-loader, it wasn't going to work. I spent all yesterday researching alternatives, and started hand-felting the little iPod sock/bag last night. It wasn't going too well (I wish I had taken pictures at different junctures, but alas it is too late now) at first, so I gave up after a while. The stitches were disappearing, and the consistency of the material was good, but the bag was still too big. I rolled up my sleeves again tonight to give it another whirl, this time making sure that I gave my project a few cold shock doses every few minutes. Lo and behold, it worked! I'm so happy. I wrapped Jeff's iPod in a ziplock baggie, slipped it in, and it's the right size! Now all I need to do (once my felted iPod bag is dry) is to sew a button on it, plus figure out how to insert a button hole. (I didn't get that far into the pattern, obviously--this is what happens when I start reading a pattern, then decide I know how to finish it off by myself, so I end up knitting in front of the TV--this week it was while I was watching LOST.) The bottom line, though, is that Jeff is happy, and once my knitting (which is drying, while being blocked right now) is ready, I can finish it off. Hooray!

Weekend Wedding Pictures

2007-03-25T20:24:00.000-07:00

Just a few pictures to from our weekend at my friend Michelle's wedding. More to come. :)

Going to the Bay Area

2007-03-22T13:26:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited. In about 16 short hours, we will be on our way to the Bay Area for one of my best friends' wedding. I've been looking forward to this trip for months, and it's finally here. Emily and Maddie will be the flower girls, and they're really excited too. All I need to do is get through three and a half hours of work. Happily, Pinkberry is supposed to open up today. It's around the corner from my office. If it opens, I've already promised my staff a medium frozen yogurt with three toppings on me. MMMMMMM.

eBay Yarn

2007-03-17T12:00:00.000-07:00

I went a little eBay crazy (yes, it happens fairly often) and bought a ton of yarn off one seller. Combined shipping really makes a difference. Isn't it scrumptious?

I already took two skeins of the blush pink to start knitting a poncho for Bella. I hope that I have enough yarn to do it (I have four skeins total). I'm using the same stitch pattern as the Inara scarf that I knitted a few weeks ago.

Need a Fine Gauge Loom

2007-03-13T16:50:00.000-07:00

I really need a finer gauge knitting loom. Hint, hint Jeff. ;-) I want to make socks, but my Knifty Knitters will produce more of a slipper-sock rather than normal ones. I also need to figure out how to do this cabling thing, and I'm thinking that if I get a finer gauge loom, and the accompanying less bulky yarn, then a cable pattern will show up a lot nicer. I think once my tax return comes in, I will splurge and buy myself a little present.

In other knitting spending news, I just went on eBay and bought tons of yarn off this one seller (combined shipping really makes a difference when dealing with eBay sellers). I can't wait for them to come in, I'm so excited. I have just about run out of yarn at home, so I can't do anything until my new yarn comes in. Tons of colors, different textures, what will I knit next?

In child-landmark news, Bella is pulling herself up to standing, and trying to crawl wheelbarrow-style. She really is an advanced little baby, I think probably because she wants to catch up to her siblings. I'm not quite sure how I feel about another little one running around the house, but I guess it's inevitable.

Only 10 more days until my friends' wedding. I'm so excited about taking one day off work, driving up to San Jose, and seeing all my friends in one place together. We haven't all been together in I don't know how long, possibly my own wedding almost 8 years ago. The girls have been practicing their flower girl smiles and my mom finished her projects for the girls' ensemble. Of those 10 days includes only 7 more work days. I can do this!

Must Resist Compulsion

2007-03-09T21:47:00.000-08:00

So, I have this overwhelming compulsion to be right, and to prove that I'm right to all the people out there who are wrong. Is that really a character flaw? Sigh.

As the middle out of three kids, I always thought that I had the middle child syndrome, which I'm pretty sure I didn't think I was a party to until I saw that Brady Bunch episode with Jan. Anyway, part of being the middle child meant trying to prove myself smarter than my siblings. Unfortunately, even though I've grown up, I don't think I've grown out of the compulsion to be right all the time. I try not to do is so much at home, because I'm pretty sure that Jeff wouldn't stand for it, but at work, I'm obsessive.

Cut to this afternoon: one of my staff got called out in front of the VP of sales at work for some bad typos in an email to a customer. I agree that typos and grammatical errors on an email is not the proper face that we want to present to our customers. However, I think that the staffer in question is an excellent worker and communicator. She just isn't a great typist. And, like all of us in this instant gratification world, she was more concerned about finishing the email and answering the customer's question quickly, rather than how the email sounded. And to tell the truth, we ALL do it. Anyone who says they don't is probably lying to you. So, I emailed back and said that I would take care of the reprimand, as I should, since she is MY staff member. VP of sales decides to pitch a fit in an email, and he decided to copy the president of the company, my boss, on it. The ironic thing about his rant? You're going to love this. He had two very obvious grammatical errors in his email. Granted, I didn't catch them right away (as I was fuming over the insensitivity of his email), but once I calmed down, they jumped right out at me. I mean, I understand completely that my staffer was in the wrong, I really do. There isn't any excuse for not thinking about what you're typing in an email. However, I also understand the circumstances behind it, and I think that if you're going to get up on a high horse about an issue, you had better be sure that you're in a position to do so. To have two grammatical errors in an email berating someone else about her grammatical and spelling errors is just preposterous. And, as in my case (and I'm a grammar nut), the errors were overlooked anyway. We all just tend to skim rather than really read what is in front of us, and errors like that are often ignored.

I'm just so sick of this zero tolerance policy that people have these days. No one is perfect. People are lazy, but if the person is a good worker, and you call them on it, my experience is that that person will turn it around and never do it again. You really have to believe that people can change, that they can learn, and you have to pick your battles. My staffer is 23 and this is the first desk job she's ever had. She's a great communicator, is wonderful to listen to on the phones, and is not a great typist. So what? She'll learn, and she'll probably learn quickly--she's that type of person. I just hope that this incident hasn't scared her away from working for me, because she's the best person I've had in her position these past 2 years.

A Week (or so) in Review

2007-02-27T20:36:00.001-08:00

I'm going to post some pictures that go with these entries, possibly tomorrow.... In the meantime, enjoy a week in my life.

The Measles? Don't They Have a Vaccine for that Now?

Bella had a fever (I swear, one child or the other is ALWAYS sick) for a few days. I had to go to a funeral in San Francisco this week and was planning on taking Miles and Bella (Jeff was to take care of the two girls, since he couldn't get out of work) up with my parents and me. But with Bella's fever, I was wondering if that would be a wise idea, especially with San Francisco February's being the way that they are. She seemed better by Thursday, though, so she went up with us. Unfortunately, while her fever had somewhat dissipated, she still was a cranky little baby for most of the ride up. (Miles, on the other hand, was perfectly content as can be, he didn't fuss the entire time, and was fine sitting in his car seat the entire ride up. Only after we got to South San Francisco did we realize that his pants were soaking wet as a result of 8 hours in the same diaper.) By Thursday night, I had noticed a crazy rash that appeared on Bella's back. I panicked and thought that she must have had a reaction to the Chinese porridge that I had given her a little bit of during dinner. By morning, it had spread to her stomach, and by Saturday to her face and legs. My mom came to the conclusion that she had the measles. Does she smell like egg, my mom asked, because apparently that's the way to tell. Her rash wasn't bumpy, just kind of inflamed? Under the skin? And she didn't seem itchy or bothered by it. Funny, I thought, don't they immunize for measles these days? Now that I think about it, she probably had a minor reaction to the vaccine that she received on the 16th. I could probably tell for sure if I still had the millions of handouts that they gave me when I took her to the pediatrician and she got her vaccines.

Two is Not a Baby Anymore

Miles turned two a few days ago. We had a picnic in the park, and I think the highlight (for him, at least) is the SpongeBob pajamas that his godmother (my cousin Camille) gave him. He was so entranced by them, that when he got to wear them, all he could do was look down at SpongeBob on his chest. My mom got him the cutest little brown pin stripe suit, that he'll wear when we go to my friend Michelle's wedding in a few weeks. His babysitter got him a tricycle that he just motors around in all day. So after a big boy day of being two, can you guess what my toddler did? He begged for some baby food that I was feeding Bella (which has been a common pastime with him lately). Little did he know that he was getting Green Beans, and not some yummy fruit snack. Still, to his credit, Miles did steal several spoonfuls of green beans from his baby sister:

Maddie-Lynn Rae the Princess the Most Beautifulest

That's what my 3 and a half year old calls herself. Don't get it wrong, or she'll be upset. Just ask her what her name is next time to get the full experience. My sister told me a few months ago that we have to break it to Maddie before she goes to school that she's not a princess, and I keep trying, but have not gotten very far. For instance, I try to tell her, "But, Maddie, you're just a pretend princess, right?" Her response: "I'm a pretend REAL princess." Sigh. Maybe the other kids just won't notice....

The Return of Stickers

A Pre-Kindergartener at Emily's school receives a star stamp on any day that she does not have Warnings or Comments for conduct. A week's worth of stars equals one sticker. And, after quite a long drought from sticker-receiving, Emily has brought home two stickers in a row. All it took was a week off school.

And Even More Knitting

I made two more sets of fingerless mittens, two hats and a scarf.

I made the hats and scarf on the way up to San Francisco this week. While that seems impressive, let me say that 1) the hats were for Miles and Bella, so they weren't very big, 2) I lost Bella's hat, which is okay because I was attempting to knit an "A" for Annabelle on it, but it ended up looking weird, and 3) they were all the same colors, because I only brought three different yarns. I have a ton of yarn now, because my co-worker gave me all her yarn that her friend gave to her, in an attempt to get her to start knitting. I just need to figure out what to do with it. I saw the cutest scarf pattern that I'm thinking of buying and trying out. Finished--here it is:

I just hope that I can figure out how to do it. (I did, but the pattern calls for blocking, which I'm hesitant to try. Plus, the yarn I used was thick and thin, so it didn't really show the pattern. It's still very cute, though.)

In the meantime, one of the recipients of my fingerless mittens (my mom's friend) gave me a knitting book titled Easy Jackets to Knit. It sounds daunting to me, but it looks okay. However, you have to use like 12 skeins of yarn per project, and that really does seem daunting. I don't know if I have the patience to do all that. Oh, but I did make a very, very cute poncho for Emily. Can you believe that I made the pattern all by myself? I did it using a moss stitch, but on the first side (which is the back now), I kept messing up my knits and purls and ended up with a few rows that were ribbed rather than moss. I figured out how to stop messing up eventually, though, and I am rather pleased with the result.

Tired

2007-02-06T13:14:00.000-08:00

Big surprise, a working mother of four who is tired, right? Yeah, yeah, I'm boring. Hee hee.

It's been a rough couple of weeks for me. Maddie was sick the last week of January. When I picked her up that Friday, she was so feverish that she was shaking, and her eyes were all teary. It totally freaked me out. She pulled out of it on Saturday, though. But then Emily decided to start with the fever-thing, and was out of school THE WHOLE WEEK from the 29th of January to the 2nd of February. Absolutely brutal. Each evening I would think that she was okay, only to find her with her 104 degree fever again the next morning. And before I knew it, Miles came down with the preposterously precipitous fever as well. UGH.

But, Miles broke it after one day, and Emily finally shook it off. However, not before managing to infect all the other kids in her carpool. :-p She's back in school now, and the one thing about her not being in school last week was (you guessed it) no comments on her weekly progress report. The irony of her being off school last week was that she just received a Perfect Attendance award for the last semester. Ah well.

Bella has really been zooming around the house crawling lately. Last night, my sister was over watching Heroes with me and Bella kept crawling from the living room down the kitchen to my bedroom. I figure she either wanted to be with her daddy or she wanted to play with the cat's water bowl.

I've also been knitting up a storm. I really wanted to be able to create cool lacy patterns, but I just realized how hard it is when you don't know what you're doing. I've joined three Yahoo Groups so far that deal with loom knitting, and I'm slowly getting there. It's hard to understand how to translate patterns, though. My godmother is so funny--she kept trying to convince me to learn how to needle knit. I honestly don't think that I'm coordinated enough to do it, though, and I think I would still have problems reading patterns because everyone I know who knits can't read patterns. I can read them, and I can visualize them, but there are certain stitches that I just don't understand. Once I figure out how to YO and SSK, though, I think I'll be fine. Yes, I know that I'm speaking in a foreign language, too....

More Knitting and a Naughty Girl

2007-01-24T18:54:00.000-08:00

I finished all the yarn that I have bought for my afghan, and need to buy more. :-( I'm going to wait, though, because then I'll spend way too much. I'm trying to use up the yarn that I have.

I was able to (finally!) figure out how to purl and decrease on my knitting loom. I made a pair of very cute navy blue fingerless mittens. I have been emboldened by my success and am going to look at regular mittens next. Wish me luck.

Emily, after having brought home all stars (if you are naughty, you get a comment, but only after three warnings) every day, which results in a sticker for the week, for about twelve weeks straight, has brought home almost nothing but comments. Last week (the first of the new semester), she had absolutely no stars, and lots of comments (three to four per day!). Funnily enough, when I talked to her teacher about it, Mrs. Garcia had to laugh because Emily isn't being mean or overtly naughty--she just wants to play all the time. She wants to play during teaching time, during nap time, during morning assembly. Mrs. Garcia attributes it to the cold weather--the class tends to stay in when the weather is too cold, so the kids don't get to run around as much. I hope that we'll have a break in the weather, and hopefully Emily will settle down, too.

Knitting

2007-01-18T07:03:00.000-08:00

Instead of blogging, doing dishes, folding laundry, or paying attention to my husband and kids, I have been knitting. Well, not really, but sometimes it seems that way to everyone else, I'm sure. ;-)

My sister got me Knifty Knitters for Christmas, which is a set of knitting looms,also referred to as knitting without needles. There are round looms or rectangular looms. The round looms are perfect for knitting hats or tubular scarves, though you can also make a flat panel on them. The rectangular looms are for knitting anything you want double sided, like an afghan. I have made four hats, one for each child of mine, though the one of Bella's was my practice one, and didn't turn out right because the yarn was too thin.

Maddie's Hat (the first one that I made). Jeff makes fun of the bits of yarn that I couldn't cut off because someone lost the scissors in our house.
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Miles' Hat, which I made while on vacation in Placerville. It was my first attempt in striping, and so I made a few mistakes, but now I know the right way to do it. Oh well.

Emily's Hat (which I made too long)

I made this hat for Bella, but found it to be too small for her head, so I knitted a set of baby booties to go with it, for my co-worker who is having a baby this year:

Vegas Babies

2007-01-16T10:09:00.000-08:00

My dad had his 60th birthday yesterday, and he wanted us all to go to Las Vegas for the weekend to celebrate. So, my mom and dad, my sister, Jeff and I and all the kids packed up our bags and headed out on Saturday morning. My brother decided to fly in and meet us there, to avoid what he feared would be terrible holiday weekend traffic.

We stayed at the Suncoast hotel in Summerlin, which is northwest of the Las Vegas Strip. We had a beautiful view of the golf course and the red rock canyons.

Let me tell you, it was FREEZING in Vegas this time of the year. Arctic blasts once you get out of the car, or leave the hotel. Brr! I let Jeff off the hook with the kids most of the time we were there, so he was free to gamble. I got about 2 hours worth in, by pawning off the kids to my mom. We had a good time, though, with the children and with the family. It was nice to be away from home, work, and the normal hustle and bustle. I wish that we had more time, because we wanted to take the kids bowling (there was a 64 lane bowling alley in our hotel), but it just didn't happen. Oh well. They're too little to remember things like that anyway. Maybe next time.

I did, however, win $100 in slots during the hour and a half that I ditched the kids with my parents on Sunday night. I'm trying to figure out if I should count that against the $100 Jeff and I spent total gambling + tips, or if I should count it against the 2 pairs of shoes for me, 2 shirts for Jeff, 1 jacket for Emily, and 1 shirt for me that I bought this weekend. It's a toss up. ;-)

My dad and all his grandchildren (notice how all his grandchildren = all of my children):

Deep Cleaning

2007-01-07T22:04:00.000-08:00

I don't say enough on here about my husband, what with all the children running around. However, he really is great. This weekend, he started cleaning, re-arranging, and organizing our kitchen area, to maximize our workspace and storage. He cleaned out a whole mess of cabinets in our mudroom that we don't use and filled them with small appliances and bulky items that we use only occasionally. He fixed most of our kitchen cabinets. He cleared off a large area that was dominated by our hardly used coffee maker and set up a decent sized kitchen prep space, complete with a permanent home for my KitchenAid Stand Mixer, my Cuisinart food processor, and wall-mounted immersion blender. The best thing, though, is that he took out all the food and shelves in the refrigerator and scrubbed them totally clean. The kitchen is wonderful, and the only thing we have left to do is tackle the pantry. The rest of the house is still a disaster, but we're working towards a more organized life.

Jeff plans on building a workbench in the garage and from there, building cabinetry for the garage, put wainscoting on the walls in all of our rooms, building bunk beds for the kids and building wall units for the bedrooms. We just need to be able to afford the wood components, and a few large woodworking tools. As soon as we stop reeling from Christmas it will happen. :-)

Five Years Old and Counting

2007-01-05T08:40:00.000-08:00

My oldest child turned five yesterday. It's kind of a milestone, and it's really hard for me to believe it. It shouldn't come as a big surprise, though, considering I know have four children, and they're all a year and a half apart, but nonetheless, it is. It really is amazing how quickly kids grow up.

I spent all of Wednesday night making cupcakes for Emily to bring in and share with her classmates yesterday. We have a small oven, and I only have one pan that holds 12 cupcakes, so I had to make four batches of cupcakes. I couldn't remember how many kids were in her class, and figured about 30, but I wanted to be sure there were enough. I also brought in 40 packs of juice. Emily had been drooling over the cupcakes ever since I pulled them out of the oven, but for some reason when I asked her about her birthday celebration at school, she seemed most interested in the juice. Funny girl. I also was panicking because I couldn't figure out how to transport the cupcakes to school without making a mess of the frosting. Jeff came to my rescue, though, by placing graham crackers in between some of the cupcakes to form a rise. I never would have thought of it.

We also had dinner with my family (all 30-something of us in the area). My mom and aunt were really great because they put it together for me. My house has been an absolute disaster since we came back from our trip. I still haven't put away all the things the kids received from Christmas, not to mention trying to fold and organize the 5 or 6 loads of laundry that I have been working on for 4 days now.

All in all, I think she had a good birthday. She is a little miffed at me though because I haven't let her open the play kitchen tools that my sister gave her last night. I am trying to make her understand that she needs to put her other toys away first, but she doesn't get it. After all, she's only five.

A Wheel-ly Great Christmas

2007-01-01T20:10:00.000-08:00

It's been a whirlwind of a holiday season for us, as you can imagine. The BEST part of having a large family around for the holidays is that we really don't have to go all out for the kids' Christmas presents, which helps when you have four of them. The kids got an over-abundance of clothes and toys, of which we are very grateful for, from both of our extended families and closest friends.

The kids love all their new toys (and hopefully didn't notice that I strategically put some of them away so that we'll have new toys in at least a month or two). My brother and sister, though, gave all of the mobile ones (Bella took her first crawl step on Christmas day!) toys with wheels. Emily got a Disney Princess schooter, Maddie some of those Fisher-Price roller skates that slip on over your regular shoes, and Miles got this really cool Radio Flyer Rocket ship that you sit on and push with your feet (it makes cool blast-off sounds, too).

Since we both have families locally, we go through the same Christmas routine yearly. Thankfully, each family has their own, non-conflicting, traditions.

My family gets together for 5:30PM Mass on Christmas Eve, then goes over to my aunt's house for dinner. We stay up late (the Gen X-Y-ers among us mesmerized by "24 Hours of a Christmas Story"), as close to midnight as possible, at which point the kids enter into a frenzy of gift unwrapping. My older teen cousins (approx 15-19) think that it's cooler to wait to open their gifts until Christmas morning, while Jeff thinks that 10PM is the perfect time to start. My brother and I are purists, though, and love the years-old tradition of waiting until midnight.

We then go home, exhausted, and try to hope that the kids fall asleep rather easily, do our family presents Christmas morning (at whatever time we wake up), and have a leisurely breakfast. Afterwards, we went down to visit Jeff's mom and open presents with her, capped by Christmas dinner (at 2PM) at her sister's place.

Lately, it's been a tradition of ours to go and see Jeff's sister in the week between Christmas and New Year's, which is what we did this year again. There was enough snow for the two oldest girls to play around, throwing snowballs at each other, but not powdery enough for snow angels. Traci is a budding photographer, and she took some great shots of the kids this trip.

After the three days in Placerville, we went to Woodland to visit my high school friends, which was a perfect time for the rest of our high school friends to come up and visit. We had another Christmas gift exchange (my kids don't really believe that Christmas is over yet, as they keep getting new gifts every few days), brunch on New Year's Eve, and had a house party in Woodland while awaiting midnight.

As you can tell, it's been a whirlwind of a few days. But, it's been fun. I've been off work since the 22nd of December, and, seeing as it's the end of the year, I'm really not looking forward to going back in tomorrow. Alas, unless my lotto ticket wins the jackpot tonight, such is my fate. Jeff already went to work tonight to check on his email and make a to do list for tomorrow, so that it won't be an absolute bear of a day for him. I SHOULD be checking my work webmail, but absolutely refuse to. Actually, I dread it, and am using the excuse that my spamblocker won't grab any of my mail when I check the webmail.... Yeah, that's it. I'm guessing about 800 email messages tomorrow morning, most of which will be spam that didn't get caught in my spam blocker. I'm sure there will be at least 100 legitimate emails, though. Blech.

Happy New Year. The diet starts tomorrow (am eating as many of my Christmas chocolates as we speak). I resolve to at least attempt to lose 50 pounds (will be happy with half that), to be more patient with my children, to go on a date with my husband at least once a month, and to blog more often. This blog really helps me to organize my thoughts and keep me sane. It also helps me to be more patient with my children, as I recount their mischief and their achievements. Here's to another wonderful year.

Gearing Up for the Holidays

2006-12-24T08:35:00.000-08:00

As you can probably tell, I've been a tad busy getting ready for Christmas. Jeff and I have started taking the week between Christmas and New Year's off, which makes for a nice end to the year. The primary reason for this is that he loses all but 2 weeks of vacation at the end of the year, and since he is notorious for not taking any time off, we have to take a bunch of time in December rather than defaulting it.

So, even though I haven't posted in a while, we have been doing memorable things. We made our first gingerbread houses, which were actually made out of graham cracker cookies. The idea was really good, but I really don't know how to handle icing out of an icing bag yet.

The kids were more interested in eating the candy than decorating, but we ended up with two rather cute, and definitely made by gingerbread novices, houses. Pictures to follow (once I dig up my camera, get the pictures to my computer, then uploaded here).

We did Christmas cards, and now that Emily knows how to write her name, she wrote it on a few cards. It's hard to stop her from writing the number 4 though, which she feels the need to write with her name, since that's how old she is. I wonder if she knows how to write the number 5, and if she'll remember since her birthday is coming up in two weeks.

We decorated the Christmas tree, and it's really funny because we first had a tree that had way more ornaments on the bottom, rather than the top (for obvious, small child reasons). However, Mister Miles has taken to grabbing all the ornaments within his reach, so I have been systematically taking them from him, and putting them out of his reach. Now our tree has more ornaments on top rather than on the bottom. LOL. I can see this being a problem for many more years.

I bought these really pretty serving bowls for three of our close family friends, and decided that I would fill them with oranges and limes (which we have an abundance of), then wrap them in cellophane. Miles decided that he was hungry yesterday, and was trying to open them.... Sigh. I love the toddler age, but will be very happy when we get out of it. Or will I? I'm not sure. It's hard for me to believe that Emily is going to be 5 in a short while. Where does the time go?