Is There Anything to Say Other Than "Sorry"?

My daughter's idea for the title...since I have been so lax at updating this site. It's really not that turning 40 got me into a slump, funk, or anything like that. It's just the usual busy-ness of summer, including but not limited to, a whopping 7000 mile cross-country road trip in the van with 4 kids! (Yes, we had an awesome time, and we are all actually still on speaking terms after over 100 hours in the car.)

Anyways, onto the real motivation for posting: Sock Summit 2011!!! I feel so spoiled that SS was once again held in Portland...to the point of actually feeling a teensy bit guilty that we got to have such easy access to this fabulous event! Anyway, I spent far less this time around (seeing as I still have bags of yarn from SS 2009 that I haven't yet knit...that actually makes me feel even guiltier!). So, instead of shopping, I took two very cool classes.

The first was on Morphing Cables...this one I will admit was far beyond me. After explaining the "basics", the instructor told us to take it away and improvise. It was at that point that I realized all those people who flew across the country to attend SS were WAY better knitters than me, because I really didn't have a clue. But, it was still fun and the instructor was very entertaining.

The second class was on Textured Colorwork in the Bohus style and taught by Chrissy Gardiner. For those of you who aren't familiar with Bohus Stickning, you should just Google it and be prepared to drool over all of the amazing sweaters, hats, and other patterns from this cooperative. So, the class was really informative and at the end, I had my very own textured colorwork coffee cup wraps to show for it.



Next up, I'm thinking of something a bit more challenging, but not too crazy... At this point, I can't decide if I should follow a pattern or just make one up myself...

Turning The Big 4-0 Today...

Here's how I basically feel about that!

A 4 Year Old's Product Endorsement

How's this for a product endorsement?

Ginny sidled up to me this morning and whispered in my ear..."Can I have some Sugar Babies? They tasted good; they changed my life...It was magic."

Now even I kinda feel like I should try some of those caramel candies at 8am!

Zombie Capture the Flag

Now, I know the title seems strange, but let me explain...

The zombie part comes from the fact that Aaron recently has been obsessed with an iPod touch app called Plants VS Zombies, where zombies are attacking your house and trying to eat your brain, and you have to defend it by planting zombie-attacking plants.

The capture the flag part comes from the fact that we signed Aaron up for flag footbll and he confused it with capture the flag.
The following conversation was like this:

Me: So in capture the flag, there's two teams, and they each have flags. They hide the flags, and then the other team tries to find it without getting tagged, because if you get tagged you have to go the their jail. If you get their flag then get onto your side, you win.

Aaron, confused then understanding: Oh! So it's like if a zombie breaks into your house, steals your brain, takes it to the other side of the road then eats your brain.

Well, I guess that's one way of putting it...

An Unexpected Day "Off"

Other moms may appreciate this throw-up story that is "too good" not to share. (The rest of you may just be grossed out, so feel free to stop reading here.) Let me preface the story by noting I made the kids a nice healthy breakfast of scrambled eggs and wheat toast. (These enter the story again later in a most spectacular fashion...)

So, we get to school in the "stop-n-drop" lane with the usual 3 minutes to spare before the bell. It's our turn for the kids to get out. The doors fly open; the kids start their daily scramble out of the van, when Ginny starts to throw up everywhere.

Since she's standing between her car seat and Chardy's seat, it gets on (here's where it is amazing, folks):

• the floor,
• Chardy's seat,
• Ginny's car seat (and yes, of course, by that I mean both her car seat and the van seat),
• Ginny's backpack (I threw that one away),
• Ginny's coat,
• Ginny's pants,
• down Ginny's leg into her Ugg boots (the name really fits now)
• and probably a few other places I am forgetting...

Consider this: We're in the stop-n-drop lane; the other kids are all shrieking trying to get away from Ginny and the puke, cars are lined up behind us...the scene was...rather funny. Anyway, 30 minutes later, after I cleaned all the throw up out of the car and Ginny, we are now back home for an unexpected day "off"...

Snowy Toes

Our Artist

Alli has such amazing artistic talent... Here's a sampling of her recent drawings and sketches:





She also just started working with pastels:





The artist: