Birthday Party

Today is son's birthday party.  Pray for me.  ha ha  The one thing that made me nervous about parenting was the thought of having to plan birthday parties.  Oi vey. I grew up in a rather solitary family.  My parents never had friends over or even family more than a couple times.  Socializing is just something I never learned.

Anyway, that's the genesis of my stress today.  We're heading over to an indoor pool for several hours and then back here for an ill advised (chuckle) sleepover. 

Our tree is decorated now. All these decorations have special meaning. The angel is from before I was born.  My parents bought it at Target for $2.39 I think.  So much has changed since 1969.  Not only in my life but also in the world.  Oh well.  I don't want to get going on that right now. 

Check out the balloons from the party:
Aren't they cute?  $30 worth and we had to tape them to keep the forward facing.  lol
I'd better go curl my hair for the party.  We only have an hour until they arrive.  Yikes.  ;-)

A Happy Thanksgiving!

Action shot




Ok!  We had a great turkey day over here.   First, it was gorgeous mid 60's weather, or maybe mid 50's, it really doesn't matter at this point in Minnesota.  Second, we had people other than ourselves over!  lol  We had Zach and his mother in from Chicago, not to mention our own new grandbaby Jackson.



A game of Cranium after dinner.  l-r: Eric, Amanda, Zach, Linda



Then on Friday we got up at 12:30 A.M. to head over to Target.  The lines were so long in the dept. we needed to be in that we just got some other junk and went home.  For the record: this was my husband's idea.  I wanted to stay in bed.  Later that day we ended up at Best Buy and got what we'd been wanting with a much better deal on it too.  Love when that happens.  Saturday I scrapped all day with Amanda and later on at 6:30 Linda, Zach's mom, and her sister Cindy came to Archivers and joined in.  We stayed til closing.  FUN!  I only got 5 pages done.  They're posted on my Scrapbook page here  While I was there having fun, hubby was home with the carpet shampooer.  It's an environmentally friendly company.  They did a great job.  I think they're at http://www.oxifresh.com/  Two rooms, 13 stairs, hallway upstairs for only $127.  Nice. 

Our son slept over at a birthday party so after we picked him up Sunday morning, we went to Home Depot and bought our Christmas tree!  YAY!  A real one.  The first time in two years.  Last year we had a little fake one.  It was nice, but too short.  This one is a Scotch pine and is full and fluffy and smells divine. 



Before it warmed up and 'calmed down'. 

Scotch pines are good for anyone who enjoys balance.  They have the perfect combination of long and short needles.  Not so long, like White pines, that you can't hang much on them, but not so short that you can see through them. 

Later that day we decided to go to MOA.  In my mind it's always cozy there while we sit at Caribou (just down from Bubba Gump) looking out from that balcony.  To make a long story shorter, we ended up picking up daughter and grandson and made it a big family event.


Eating dinner at Ikea first



Once at MOA, Amanda and Eric took off with the baby and left Curt and me to sit at Caribou and knit and read.  Perfect. Of course they stopped by to get us to buy them a Caribou too.  ;-)



Jackson was conversing with grandpa @ Caribou MOA





On the way home we were all cozy in the car listening to Christmas carols.  So far, this has been a fun season.  Some years I'm just not excited for it; not true this time. 

We're almost done with the shopping, and wrapping, for that matter.  We just leave the bows and tags til Christmas Eve.  That's an incredible feeling.  My parents always did all the wrapping on Christmas Eve so that's how I used to do it.  It just doesn't make a lot of sense.  This way they can't sneak a peek either.

Now, on Monday we got the lights put up then realized we don't have garland left!  I've already put the car in the garage and I'm done running around for the night.  So we're stuck with finishing up tomorrow.

Here's our mantel that I decorated last night.  Still not finished with that of course, but I'm definitely ahead of schedule.



A little skimpy on the left eh? 



Here's Curt not wanting his pic taken.  

I'm so sensitive, aren't I?  ha ha

 

I bought an apothecary jar at Michael's last night for only $10 w/coupon. I went to the dollar store for garland and ornament balls. It's not very intricate, but I like it.

Well, I'm off.  Gonna go work some more on my unfinished sock.
 
Thanks as always for stopping by. 
 
Erika

Wow!  I had no idea Brokaw asked such a heinous, not to mention incredibly stupid, question.  Great article making some wonderful points though.  Brokaw's Douchery

A Whole Month!?

Sometimes, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary to force one's self to blog even when not feeling like doing such.  So it is that I am here.  Blogging.  Sigh. 

It's not that I don't like blogging, but there are so many things that have happened, it feels overwhelming to try to put them all down.  Then I remember that it's my blog and I can put down or keep out whatever I feel like.  :-)

To start with: my birthday was in October.  It was a perfect day.  I took Daisy dog for a long walk, then I worked with hubby and son in the garage putting up sheet rock.  There were a few close calls (sheet rock falling very near son) but we all made it out alive.  That's always a good thing.  We also went shopping that day - kickin' back at Caribou Coffee.  Then at 2 I had my first sock class.  Very fun.  It was at a local yarn shop.  There were only 3 students total and I did really well.  We only got to the 'divide for heel' part by the end of that day.  (Two day class) 

The product of day 1 - worsted wt sock class



Here we are about to order: Me? I always get
the veggie stir fry with the spicy Thai peanut sauce.



When I got home, son, hubby and I went to pick up daughter and grandson and we went out to dinner at Big Bowl in Rosedale.  Going there for my birthday is becoming a tradition.  Great atmosphere and food and as a bonus I get to use chopsticks.  :-)  I got some awesome presents.  Eric bought me a book I'd been wanting: Killing Lincoln.  Very cool.  And then Curt, who always thinks he has to outspend himself every year bought me an i-pod Touch along with a dock to play it on.   I haven't uploaded any songs yet, but have a blast being able to go online without needing a laptop everywhere I go.   Hey!  Be sure to check out grandson's cool new shoes...lol  They were so funny/cute looking on him.

Ahhh, let's see, what else has been happening?  Well I finished the socks and wear them quite a bit.  They're a tad large, but they stay on and they're very warm.  I wear them out with sandals so I a) look like an old retired man in Miami and b) can show them off.  See?  There's a method to my madness.  Seriously though, I had it stuck in my head that I couldn't do socks.  That they were just for those really advanced knitters so it's been exciting that I can do it.  They're really quite easy to knit.  I get giddy thinking about it sometimes.  Here are some other socks I've made or are making: 

The baby blue baby booties were actually the first pair I finished.  After that first class I was so psyched to keep going and not wait for the second class that I decided to try to make a quick pair instead of messing with my actual class socks.  I ended up with the baby booties.  I did the Kitchener stitch and all!  Very fun.  Only problem is that since they were just a practice pair, I used Red Heart Super Saver.  It's a rough textured yarn/plastic.  I'd like to make J some nicer ones.  The red shoe looking things are from a book I've got.  They're so cute and the pattern's genius but they looked so funny on J that I couldn't quit laughing.  Very girlish.  The striped middle pair I'm still working on.  It's really quite fun working with toothpick sized needles.  I like the way the sock folds up on the needles when I want to put it away.  I can see why everyone loves sock knitting.



Isn't my grandson beautiful (in a manly way of course)? He's wearing his aviator hat here.



I also knitted J an Aviatrix Baby Hat (see above)  It uses all short rows, ya don't even join in the round.  I'm astonished (no hyperbole) at people who come up with these patterns.  I really think they're geniuses. 

In other news, son finished his autumn soccer season.  They won the championships and had an almost flawless record of all wins but one tie.  I think it was 11-1-0!  Nice going guys and gals. I'm so happy for him.  He's been thrown on some seriously shite teams in the past.  It's cool to watch how success breeds more success.  Our belief systems are so tied to what we've learned in the past...for obvious reasons, but it's kinda scary.  Luckily, we humans are also quite resilient.  I digress...I'm very happy for E.  Here's a scrapbook page I did about it.  Nothing fancy but gets the point across.

Son had birthday.  He's a teenager now!  His party's going to be at a local community center with an awesome tropical indoor pool.  I'm so glad we've got his party planned.  That's been the worst part of being a parent for me.  lol--not kidding. Of course hubby's on call that weekend!  Oh man.  This could head south fast!  We'll persevere. 

We bought son an acoustic guitar for his b-day.  It sounds so beautiful.  I've always loved the acoustic guitar.  That along with the violin and piano are the most beautiful musical sounds there are IMO.  I should have him teach me some more of the guitar. 

We're getting ready for Thanksgiving. We're having daughter, son-in-law Zach, and his mother, Linda, over.  I'm looking forward to it.   The Saturday after Tday, Linda, dd, and I are going scrapping so I've been trying to get prepared for it.  So often I've spent 5 hours 'scrapping' but only have 1 or 2 pages to show for it.  This time I'm making a list of the pages I want to accomplish, a rough idea of the papers and extras I want to use and have all the pics printed off before hand.  I actually did that soccer page while I was organizing my ideas.  (I love simple pages.)

Better get going for now.  That way I can more quickly remember what I forgot to post about. ha ha

SEE?  It worked! Only ten minutes after I posted this, I remembered our winter themed puzzles we've been doing.  Only two so far, but they're so dang cute I'm going to share them with ya'll.

This is the fourth puzzle - a surprise find one day last week.  :-)

I loveth these.  Only a dollar at The Dollar Store too!  Ok-- I'm off.  Ta-ta!

Pat Strikes Again

Boy if this doesn't NAIL IT!

A Truly Good Morning!

It is AMAZING what anything over 6 hrs of sleep will do for a person.  I got about 8 hrs of sleep last night, which is extremely rare, and before 10:30 a.m. I got two dinners made (one for tonight and one for tomorrow); 2 loads of laundry (some of it hanging outside), folded, put away; the upstairs bathroom cleaned-tub and shower included; then;after 10:30 I got some what I call 'inspirational reading' done; house vacuumed; 2 loads of dishes by hand, dried and put away; everyone's sheets washed, dried, put back on; and this post.  Pretty soon I've got to run to the bank and grab something for son to eat after I kidnap him and haul him down with me to pick up dear hubby from work.  (Truck trouble - we're looking for a new truck for him.  We readily accept all prayers...lol)  Then we've got to get home, eat dinner, and get son to soccer game.  He's undefeated (one tie) and they're down to their last couple regular season games.  We're very excited for and proud of him.  He's really stepped up his playing and practicing...gee, coincidence? 

Well, I'm off to do some more before I go.  Ta-ta. 

NEW LOOK!

Yeah, so here's a new look for the blog.  I still can't figure out how to upload pics better but at least it's something new to look at.  I hope the light lettering against the darker background doesn't bother anyone.  Cheers!

New Knitting and Other Stuff

Hey all.  I've been juggling so many knitting projects, I seem to have contracted a BAD case of Starteritis, but now have been diligently, if not effectively, working on them.  And of course starting new ones still!  My latest love is a pattern I came across on Ravelry and then the very next day on Pinterest.  It's called the Stockholm Scarf which is actually an infinity scarf or cowl.  It's on size 10's and w/dk yarn, mine is small worsted, I think it's going to be cushy as all get out.  Especially when I wrap it up double like it calls for.  I'm using Berroco Vintage which is a 40% wool blend.  Got it for $5/skein - using three.  I don't normally care for knitting in black or any dark saturated colors, but this is ok.  I think because it's not a dense fabric that's being created.  This is being done in two pcs. and sewn together.  I'd prefer to do it in the round, but don't prefer to spend at least $20 on a new larger circ. ;-)  Know what I mean Vern?    It calls for the Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off  I'm always a bit trepidatious about doing things for the first time but I know it'll be cool.  "Must be brave, must be brave!"  lol 


 I've also been working, on and off, at grandson's baptism blanket which is a pattern called A Shower of Love.  It's been really fun to knit.  It took a while to get into a groove with it but now I'm thinking of doing another one it's been so nice.  I'm very pleased that I actually did the French Knots.  Like I mentioned earlier, I tend to shy away from new things.  But this was fun!  There's something about needle and thread/yarn.  I love it.  It's very calming.  Anyway, here's my version of it.  Front and back, though I think I'll tie down those blue strands when I'm finished.



Front of blanket with knots













Backside of blanket



Ok, have I ever mentioned that I hate Blogger sometimes?  I can not control where these pics go.  I know it's my fault, but can't they make it easier to figure out?  Sorry 'bout the rant. 



In other news, hubby, son and I took a mini vacation to Duluth, Two Harbors and Gooseberry Falls this past weekend.  Gorgeous.  Lots of hiking.  Perfect weather.  I always feel as though I'm looking out at the ocean in Duluth. 

E at the sea.  Or Lake Superior, as it were.




Gooseberry Falls

Below the Falls @ Gooseberry

Another shot of the Falls.  Sigh.



Just north of Duluth on Hwy 61

It was a lovely get-away.  I'm glad we went.  My favorite part was waking up early on Sunday and going for a walk alone next to the harbor in Superior Wisconsin.  It was cool and cloudy and gorgeous.  It felt like I was the only person on the planet. 

Good to be home again too though.  I've been raking and cleaning the carpet.  :-( 

Yesterday hubby and I went to buy paint at Home Depot.  Off topic:  The scent upon walking into Home Depot is one of the greatest on Earth!  It's the smell of possibility.  Ahhhh!  Happy sigh.  Anyway, back to the story: DH took a couple days off work to hang at home.  Our deck was redone in June but we still hadn't painted it. Off to the HD we go.  We're in line to pay for the paint and what do we see piled before us in all its pink fluffy cotton-candy majesty?  About 20 rolls of R13 faced insulation!  Here's the clincher:  For $5 a roll!!!  HELP ME!  This is an insanely good deal. We've (meaning me) been really wanting to insulate and rock our garage for about the entire 10 years we've lived here.  It's extremely cold  in the winter and is just so unfinished.  So we grabbed 6 rolls, I later went back and bought 2 more, and started in that very day!!!  This hardly ever happens.  I was prepared to just be thrilled that we owned the insulation.  lol  We're going to be adding a ceiling to the garage too and a new window.  Maybe next year for the house's 50th bday we'll get that  :-).  I just can't wait to have a bright and clean shiny new garage. 

Isn't that a beautiful sight?  Answer: YES. 

In other news that shouldn't be as exciting as I make it out to be, but it is:  We got a rounded out shower curtain rod too.  That was due to our vacay in July.  All the hotels had these awesome shower curtain rods.  I didn't think it would fit in our bathroom due to a very tight fit between door jamb and shower, but it's mounted further back on the wall and it feels like heaven.  There's 30% more room in the shower and it's brighter in there too.  Ok, I'll go take a pic.  It truly is the little things in life that are the most exciting.  Or maybe it's just that they happen more often so of course they'll have more impact on your life.  Whatever.  Here's my new rod.  EEK!   

Rounded rod.  Do you see how tight a fit it is there?

Ok, well I guess you can't tell how nice it is inside the shower from here, but it is.  :-) 


WOW - do I digress or what?  I went from signing off to a rant about a shower curtain rod and insulation.  Ah yes, such is the mind of me. 

Thanks for checking in.  Adieu.

 

Quinoa dinner

Here's the finished product of the Jessica Seinfeld dish.  The only difference, if I didn't mention it in the last post about this, is that I add carrots, and extra clove of garlic, a 1/2 tsp. extra of salt, and I use Canola oil.  It's wonderful.  It works as a side dish as well as the main course.  Tonight I'm teaming it up with baked sweet potato and a lush lovely leaf lettuce salad.  How's that for alliteration?  We've been eating not all together healthily lately so I'm attempting ammends with our bodies. 

Later this evening we've got some Kirby guy coming out to do an hour and a half presentation - and free carpet shampoo - at our home.  Sigh.  On the upside, I really have been meaning to call to get our carpets shampooed, so at least one of the rooms will be done.  For FREE!

We're going to the state fair sometime this week too.  That'll be fun.  We went last year to see Weird Al Yankovic - excellent.  I enjoy seeing the knitted and quilted things.  When we were kids, my sibs and I would get so excited for Machinery Hill.  We'd climb up into the big huge tractors and feel like we were on top of the world.  I did anyway. 

On Saturday afternoon we brought a bunch of things down to A's new place.  Then we took her out for her birthday.  I love their apartment - even the white walls.  I put everything in its place, even though a lot of it was in bags.  It looked so cozy at night with the lamp next to the chair and Curt's old end table.  They don't have much furniture so the rattan chair with the very cushy thick cushion was nice to get. 

Speaking of homes, tomorrow will be our tenth anniversary of moving into this house.  I wish we wouldn't have taken down the rails on the stairway.  Sigh.  But now we have a fireplace, that's a nice addition.  And lights in the ceiling in the north (read: dark) facing living room.  And non-pink carpet...lol  And we updated the basement bigtime.  Our Oak tree Oakie is five this month, at least his anniversary with us is the 5th.  I adore that tree.  It looks like a glass of lemon lime Kool-Aid. 

Getting tired.  Better go rest before I move everything out of the living room for Mr. Shampoo.  Bye

More

So I knew I'd forget things while I was playing catch up with my posting yesterday.  I just didn't think I'd forget about things from yesterday!  That's gettin' bad.  >:-( 

Biggest cuke so far.

I was just out in my make-shift garden admiring my four cukes.  It's so dang exciting to see something growing.  Specially the thing you actually planted!  HA!  

Now down here to the left are some zinnias.  In 2009 I planted some multi colored -from seed- and they, all 20 of them, turned out pink.   Same thing this year.  Different seeds, brand, store that I bought them from.  Same color.  All of them.  Grrrr.  Could it actually be "something in the water"?  LOL  They're still fun to watch bloom, but I love them so much because there's normally a barrage of color with them.  Hmmm.  A mystery to solve.  



Zinnias - allegedly multi colored. 



My clearance priced flowers.  Luv that!  It goes perfectly there with all the wicker.



WOW! That was a long break!

Jese Louise.  Been a long time since I rock and rolled...blogwise anyway.  I've been putting it off because there are so many things going on, big things, that I didn't know where to start. 

Chronologically speaking, the day after my last post, D-day no less (chuckle), I became a grandma!  I have a little grandson, very beautiful, Jackson.  My hubby calls him Waldo and now that the baby's lost quite a bit of hair, the name has morphed into Baldo Waldo.  Alliteration at its finest, no?  ;-)  My daughter is doing well.  They did the waterbirth thing.  No drugs.  Yay A!  Good job. 

Two day old Jackson William.  On a grandma-knitted blankie.  :-)

He looks so deep in thought doesn't he?  lol  He's got a very lusty cry and isn't shy about using it.  He's sooo fun to kiss and gobble.  And he's too little to get away!  Ha HA!  (I've got a tween boy who isn't too fond of that anymore.)

Gramps and Waldo

Uncle E and Baby J

 

"Hmmm, what do I do with him now?" 
So anyway, that's been taking up a lot of our time.  In a good way.  E and I also went on a mini vacation out to Mount Rushmore, the Badlands, and the gorgeous Blackhills. SIGH. 

The king surveying his land.  Badlands Ntl. Park.

A boy and his world.

Minnesota pride. 

The McNasty Bros. at a saloon in 1880 Town.  The saloon was real, except that they rented out costumes.  Couldn't get E to go down that road. 

E and Cornelius outside of the Corn Palace. 

It felt so good headin' out on the highway.  Then I heard Runnin' On Empty by Jackson Brown while we were headin' west out on the plains.  GORGEOUS.  That song makes my heart ache even when I'm sitting at home doing dishes - but to have heard it while I was driving out west.  Oh my goodness.  It was a holy experience!  LOL 

E and a new friend, a barn kitty.

1880 Town again.  I don't know if he was supposed to get up in that thing, but it was too cool to pass up.

There were a bunch of props from Dances With Wolves at the 1880 Town too.  That was neat to see.  I grew up on Laura Ingalls Wilder books, so this was specially excellent.  It was like communing with her family in a way.  E's favorite part was the Badlands.  He climbed all over those things.  They were made of clay or something similar.  I'd been there a few times before, but didn't remember their consistency.  I'd never heard him so excited about anything before.  "This is GREAT!  I can't BELIEVE how AWESOME this is."  Etc.  It's a bit thrilling to hear your kids happy, know what I mean?  I remember an addage: Give your kids experiences, not things.  In that respect, I had a good mommy day.  :-)  Actually, the trip started out as an idea by hubby for a day trip to Duluth MN, then an overnight.  Then I thought, "Hey, I can just take him to Brookings and DeSmet where the Ingalls lived."  Then hubby jumped in and suggested just headin' all the way out to SD.  I'm so glad too.  This was E's first big trip anywhere.  He'd been across the border into North Dakota for a night and across the border into Wisconsin for a couple nights, but those two places are so much like where we live, it was no big deal.  All this by way of saying hubby had a good daddy day too, since it was his idea in the first place.  :-)  Man I can digress like nobody's business!

On the 2nd day we met someone out at a rest stop.  We had seen their red Corvette the day before at the Corn Palace, and being from Minnesota, we remembered it.  Anyway, I mentioned to them that we had seen their car the day before and it turns out that they live about a mile away from our house in the same town.  Funny--I meet more neighbors on a trip in a different state than I do here at home. 

When we got to Mount Rushmore E talked me into going on a Presidential Tour, a euphemism for a long hike with lots of stairs in extreme heat!  lol  My knees had been hurting for a couple weeks, much worse than usual, but I decided to go.  I'm so glad I did.  It was a beautiful tour.  And it wasn't as long as I'd imagined.  Though it was extremely hot. 

This is at Mount Rushmore on the Presidential Tour, but it reminds me so much of northern California.  Just stunning.  The scent of the pines made my heart leave my body for a few seconds. 

View from a small cavern on the Pres. Tour.

I always wanted to be a cowboy when I was young so needless to say, this was pure heaven.  I hope E enjoyed it as much as I did.  I think he did.  Plus it was just the two of us, so he got the front seat the whole time.  :-)

I still want to take him out to the Rockies.  Glacier, The Grand Tetons, Yellowstone and definitely to Sequoia Ntl. Park. Being out there changes a person.  I don't know how, but it does.  Particularly when they're young.  It's like how the books you read as a child alter you.  So do the places in which you spend time. 

This was the lobby in the Holiday Inn in Rapid City.  We both really liked it, as witnessed by the 11 pics we took of it!  LOL  We were up on the 8th of 9 floors.  Very fun.  Glass elevators to boot. The last time I was at this hotel, I was pregnant with E.