Happy New Year!!!!

With the New Year looming before us (just about 5 hours, 20 minutes from now), I've been giving more thought to my resolutions. I've got the Knitting ones & the Real-Life ones this year... This upcoming year will be FULL of NEW BEGINNINGS for our family (New Baby, Ty's first day of kindergarten, etc.)... Why not get the ball rolling now?

So, here they are.... My New Year's Resolutions for 2008:

KNITTING RESOLUTIONS:

1. I WILL give a good attempt at doing color work.
2. I WILL knit myself a sweater that actually fits me.
3. I WILL knit lots & lots of items for both of my boys.
4. I WILL begin my Christmas knits in April.
5. I WILL spend a little time spinning every week.
6. I WILL update my blog at least one time every week.

REAL-LIFE RESOLUTIONS:

1. I WILL read my Bible every day.
2. I WILL keep my house clean(er) & more organized.
3. I WILL keep my business/work space organized.
4. I WILL get this pregnancy weight off by Christmas.
5. I WILL embrace change and new experiences.
6. I WILL contribute to my retirement more consistently.

Well, there you have it. There are my New Year's Resolutions for 2008. They are already printed on Post-it's and stuck all over my house.

I hope that you have/had a Happy and VERY Safe New Year's Celebration... I'll see you in 2008!

Merry Christmas!!!

Hustle & Bustle...

I don't have any photos today. I am just popping in while Matt is on a lumber-run to Lowe's.

We are in full Christmas swing around here... The house is buzzing with excitement. Here's a little bit of what's going on:

• We are spending most of the day working in the basement... again. We still have five walls to build & install, and that is what we will be doing most of our time this weekend and next week (when Matt & I are both off work).
• We are taking some time out for the Christmas festivities, though. Ty will be sleeping over at my dad's tonight while Matt & I go to an Ugly Sweater Party. I will DEFINITELY post photos of this, as I think I may have found the two ugliest holiday sweaters on the planet!
• All of the Christmas shopping is done. I still have to wrap everything, but since we ended up buying a good number of gift cards this year, that shouldn't take long. (I should mention that I usually HATE giving gift cards. I think it's a bit of a cop-out. I prefer to carefully think about the person we're buying for & try to get something they will really love. However, between work, the house, the construction, and being pregnant... we had to go the easiest route this year.)
• The Christmas cards have been mailed. I have mixed feelings about this as well... due to the aforementioned reasons, I bought Christmas cards to mail out this year. I have NEVER done this before. Every year since Matt & I got married (10 years ago) I have made all the Christmas cards - usually it's anywhere from 50-100 of them... I didn't even send them to everyone this year... just to family & our closest friends. And I BOUGHT them. Ugh... what a Christmas slacker I have become!
• The Christmas Knits are NOT done. This is causing me a bit of stress. I still have to sew the handles onto one felted purse and finish one gamma sock. I only have about 3 more inches of foot to knit before doing the toe decreases, and normally I would have no problem getting it done in time... except that we are spending today & tomorrow building walls, and we are going to a party tonight. That's going to suck up a lot of my knitting time.
• There are a few foods left to prepare. Thankfully, we go to other people's homes for all the festivities & I am not hosting any of them. We can't show up empty-handed, though, so I am baking two batches of cookies and making a sausage-cheese dip to go with crackers. I'm excited about the dip because it will be deer sausage that goes into it. I hope it turns out okay... it has a great smokey flavor that goes perfectly with cheese.

Well, I think that's all for now. I'm sure there are things to do that I have left off my list, but for the sake of my sanity, it's probably best that those things remain forgotten for now.
Have a great weekend!

Winter Wonderland

It snowed here in St. Louis!

It snowed a lot. We haven't had this much snow in about 7 years!
So, what did we do while the snow was falling Saturday?
We made a snack of birdseed and bread for the birds...

And Ty & Matt played a little Rock Band on the XBox...
And I dyed some yarn. I had to hang it in the poorly lit garage to dry , so the colors look a little funny in this photo.
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And what did we do Sunday... after the snow had finished falling?

We had a snowball fight...

And Matt & Ty did some sledding...
And we built a snowman! This snow was a really wet, sticky snow, so it packed together really well!
After all the fun in the sun & snow, we came inside to have some hot chocolate and graham crackers...
...and I finished knitting a Christmas sock. It is the first of the pair, and I'm freaking out over the fact that I have about 8 days to finish it. The fastest I've ever knitted a sock was about 15 days, so I'm really stressing about it. Is Christmas really next week? Where did the first half of December go?

Speaking of "going," I should GO & knit on sock #2, which was cast on immediately after the first one was completed.

Caution: Work Zone

We were really busy last weekend. We have to finish the basement in order to make room for our new arrival. My office is currently in the third bedroom, and I really don't want to have to change poopy diapers in the middle of my desk!

So, we started the process of turning our cold, ugly concrete-walled basement into a warm, cozy family room/office. We started with this:

Our basement is a "look out," so we do have the benefit of two big windows.


See? Lots of cold, ugly concrete. And lots of stuff. The basement wasn't all that cluttered before, but it became a huge, overwhelming mess when we started moving stuff away from the walls.

So, this is what we spent all day Saturday & Sunday last weekend doing:

(That's my dad. He's our "site supervisor." Matt & I have no idea what we're doing. Luckily, my dad has done lots of building projects, so he's teaching us how to handle all of this!)

Even Ty got into the act. Although he's still too small to use most of the tools, he helped us out by painting a mural on the concrete wall. Unfortunately, his beautiful artwork will be covered up by a wall and gas fireplace, but we documented the whole thing in pictures!

Look at the concentration! He's our little Van Gogh (except that Ty still has both of his ears!)

After two days of hard work, we had this:

We ended up framing out 5 complete walls (three external & 2 internal). We still have about 6 more walls to construct... and we'll probably get to working on those next weekend. This weekend we are drilling holes for wiring, installing outlet boxes, and rearranging some of the stuff so that we can get to the next couple of walls.

Oh, and this came yesterday:

I bought some yarn to dye. It will be gifted to some of my local knitterly friends. The green skein is one of two that will go to a dear friend who has an unfortunate wool allergy. Unfortunately, my doctor has prohibited me from using the acid dyes I have in the stash box... he is concerned about fumes and the baby. So, I'm limited to using KoolAid this time.

I bought about 30 packets of KoolAid yesterday afternoon. Since the weather people were predicting 3-4 inches of snow by this morning, the grocery store was packed. I thought I would be clever and avoid waiting in a long check out line by using the self-check. The glitch? The stupid thing doesn't let you put in quantities of identical items. You have to scan each individual item... and it won't let you scan one until the machine has detected that the one scanned before it has been placed in the bag. I had to scan 30 packets of KoolAid, a turkey baster and pack of rubber gloves... one at a time. At about 6 seconds for each individual item, I'm not sure I ended up saving any time at all.

Oh well, live and learn.

A Christmas Meme

Okay, I don't usually do these, but I saw this one on Zarah's blog & had to steal it. What can I say? I'm a sucker for all things Christmas!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? That depends on the gift
2. Real or fake tree? We have a really skinny, very thin fake tree. I think we paid $15.00 for it at Walgreens... 10 years ago!
3. When do you put up the tree? Uusally the first weekend in December.
4. When do you take the tree down? A couple of days after Christmas.
5. Do you like eggnog? Nope, but Matt & Ty love it!
6. Favorite gift received as a child? Dance lessons from Santa.
7. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes. Unfortuantely, we don't have a great place to put it, so it usually goes under the tree. After having been out near Ty's train, it's a little sad. Jesus was born right next to the train tracks, and currently has 3 derelect (Matchbox) cars in his front lawn.
8. Hardest person to buy for? My stepmom
9. Easiest person to buy for? Ty
10. Worst Christmas gift you ever got? I can't think of one right now...
11. Mail or email Christmas cards? Uusally it's handmade (by me) Christmas cards, but I haven't even started them yet...
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Late summer - early fall
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Yes.
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Christmas cookies... of all kinds!
16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Colored. They help to distract from the scrawniness of the tree!
17. Favorite Christmas song? God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Most of the family lives here, so we stay close to home
19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeers? Yes, but I have to sing them to get them all in there.
20. Angel or a star on the tree top? Angel
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas Eve with my side of the family, Christmas morning/day with the inlaws.
22. Where are your favorite places to shop? Well, Target is my all time favorite store...
23. Most annoying thing about this time of year? Being discouraged from wishing people a "Merry Christmas."
24. What I love most about Christmas? Sharing it with Ty... I love to watch his excitement and joy with the whole thing!

I am so excited for Chirstmas this year! We've been singing Christmas songs, reading Christmas books, baking Christmas cookies... I absolutely LOVE this time of year!!!

Last weekend we spent a good deal of time decking our halls. We put up the Christmas tree:

Notice that the majority of the ornaments are on the bottom half of the tree? That's because Ty was the first to hang all of his ornaments. Matt & I have since hung ours & it is looking a bit more balanced.

Ty got a special treat this year... his own Christmas tree!

I had one in my room when I was little, and I really wanted him to have one too. We wrapped it in some candy cane garland & he hung a few small ornaments on it. It came pre-lit, which is something I LOVE. We turn it on at night when we read Christmas books & he goes to bed. He loves to look at it while he falls asleep.

Did I mention that the dogs did not appreciate all the activity?

Here's Enos, sulking under Matt's chair:

And here's Roscoe sulking under Ty's chair:
We took advantage of what will probably be the last nice day of the season, and put up our outdoor decorations too. The outside is pretty simple, just white lights in the bushes, the white globes and the lighted garland. I need to get a new wreath for the front door... my big red bow was blown away during one gusty night last year. It was getting pretty cold, and this was the best picture I could get without having to drag out the tripod.
Oh, and look! Even my feet have the Christmas spirit!!! This is one of several pairs of Christmas socks I own. (I have socks for all occassions & moods... I love my goofy socks!)

Christmas Knits

It seems that I'm cruising right along with my Christmas Knits. I'm still a little concerned about getting a few projects done on time, but hopefully I'll get it all done. I have a lot of knits to be shipped out to loved ones who live out of state, and this year I've just given myself permission to finish those and ship them out after Christmas. This usually happens anyway, and giving myself permission to do so has relieved a LOT of my holiday stress. I do have several things finished...

The Concord Socks:

• Concord Socks
• Pattern - I didn't really used one, though I based them on the Yarn Harlot's Basic Sock Recipe.
• Yarn - Lamb's Pride in Iris
• Needles - Size 1 circs.
• Other info - I'm happy with these socks. They are a gift for someone & I am confident they will fit perfectly. I tricked her into trying on the first sock when it was almost done... she thinks they are for someone else!

I also got one washcloth finished:

• Lace Washcloth
• Pattern - I just used the "Light Tulle" stitch I found in my handy-dandy stitch dictionary
• Yarn - Sugar & Cream in Ecru
• Needles - Size 8 straights
• Comments - This is the first of several that will eventually be shipped out of state. The stitch pattern was really simple, but turned out to be a bit time consuming. It's really pretty, but I'm not sure I'd do anything larger with it. Oh, and speaking of size, it got seriously shorter as soon as I bound off. I think the weigh of the piece hanging off the needles while I was working on it gave it a bit more length.
  

I have also almost completed 2 of 4 felted bracelet purses I'm knitting for the holidays.

I won't share all the specs yet, since they aren't finished yet, but I will say that I got the pattern from Crazy Aunt Purl's book, and I love it. I knitted each of these in a couple of hours over a few days. The one on the left still has to be felted; the one on the left, obviously, has already been felted. I just LOVE felting... don't you?

So, what's on the agenda next? I balled this up last night (while watching House on the DVR):

It's getting turned into some socks. I'm casting on tonight. This is the only project that really has me worried. The recipient lives here in St. Louis, and I will be seeing her at some point during the holidays. I really want to get them done, but I have only a month... The Concord Socks took me 6 weeks to finish... I don't have 6 weeks until Christmas... so wish me luck on this one.

In other news, I got a little yard work done today. It was sunny and almost warm, so I took advantage of a cancellation in my schedule and got the porch looking a little prettier. It was seriously sad looking since I had not yet removed all the dead vines and plants. I also raked the leaves and trimmed the irises down to the ground.

This was all just prep-work for tomorrow, though. It's supposed to be cold and rainy (with a possible wintry mix) all weekend, so I will be spending the better part of my morning tomorrow putting up the outside Christmas lights on the house. Yay!

I am SO READY for CHRISTMAS this year!!!!!

A Special Day...

Five years ago today, this little guy was born...

Two days later (on Thanksgiving Day) we brought him home...
I cannot believe Ty is FIVE YEARS OLD today. Didn't he just arrive yesterday???

He was very excited to have his birthday party on Saturday, and was practically buzzing with excitement when he woke up this morning. He ran into our room and asked (very loudly), "Mommy, am I 5 today?" He then jumped up and down and clapped his hands when I confirmed that, yes he is, in fact, five now.

I'm a little more weepy about this birthday than I usually am. I blame it on the pregnancy hormones, though I suspect it's really just because I can't believe how quickly he's growing up. On one hand I'm so excited to see the great person that he is becoming, and on the other, I wish desperately that we could slow time down... just for a bit... to give me a few more moments to enjoy and savor.

Ugh... I need another tissue.

It's A................

I'm sorry to have kept you waiting for so long. I've received a few emails that expressed concern over my absence, and I want to thank those of you who sent them. Everything is fine with me, and with the baby. I wanted to post the results of the ultrasound and some other stuff, but I really just haven't had time.

We were out of town for two weekends in a row, and every work day in between I ended up working in my office until 9 or 10 o'clock at night. I can't figure out where all the extra work is coming from... I complete things on my to-do list every day, and yet it seems to grow longer every day.

So, without further ado, I give you...

Our baby BOY!!!!!! Yes, yes, yes. I know I said I was sure this baby was a girl, but the ultrasound tech was quite confident that the baby does, in fact, have a penis. We are all really excited (especially Matt & Ty, who wouldn't know what to do with a baby girl if one fell out of the sky). I'm not disappointed, as some people have suggested. I never said I wanted a girl. I said I thought it was a girl. I absolutely ADORE being the mother of a boy... well, two boys, now.

I must pause in my post to pay homage to my Grandmother. G-ma, you were right & I was wrong, and I'm just really glad we never made a bet on the gender of this baby. Because I would have lost. As usual, you have shown your wisdom and intuition to be far superior to mine. You may commence with the gloating...

Now all we have to do is decide on a name. If you have any good names that you would care to share, I'm all ears. We have a short list, and so far Jonas is leading the pack, but we've still got a ways to go, so who knows what his name will end up being.

And now onto knitting news.

I have no real knitting news. I finished a washcloth... one of several that will end up being a Christmas gift set. I also cast on for, and have almost finished knitting, a bracelet purse, for a special little girl for Christmas. It was a very quick knit, and should be quick to finish after I felt the crap out of it. I love felting, don't you?

I do have some spinning pics, though. It turns out that I don't suck at it as badly as I thought. Oh, that's not to say that I'm good at it yet, but I'm just not as bad as it seemed. I hauled out some better fiber and things have been going much better. I haven't had a lot of time for spinning, since we've been out of town lately, and since I'm not spinning any Christmas gifts, but it is on my list of things to do this holiday weekend.

Not bad, huh? I'm pretty pleased... it looks pretty much like the pictures I seen on some of the other blogs, so I think I'm doing alright.

Oh, and now for some more exciting news. I got to spend the last two weekends walking up and down this road:

Isn't that so gorgeous? I took a bunch more photos, but this is one of my favorites. Since our St. Louis weather has been so warm and dry, the leaves hadn't fallen off the trees yet. It was beautiful. And one of the greatest things about this was that the nearest town (which consists entirely of two houses and a Quick-Mart) is ten whole miles away. We are not talking State Park here, people. This is serious "Drop-Off-Point, Missouri." "Middle Of Nowhere, Missouri." No rangers, no police, no cars, no cell service. (Okay, my iPhone got 3 bars every now & then...). No nothing.

Except for this:

I BAGGED MY FIRST DEER!!!!!!!!! I HAVE BEEN HUNTING FOR SIX YEARS AND FINALLY GOT MY FIRST DEER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He's a button buck. Yes, he's a little small, but food has been scarce this year. We had a serious frost in the late spring that killed all the little acorn buds on the trees. That was followed by a very dry summer that left us over 4 inches short in rainfall. The deer haven't had easy access to food or water, and as a result they're all a little scrawny.

My dad got a deer that same day, and I'm sorry to say that Matt did not. He had two chances, but didn't get a shot off the first time, and took a bad shot but missed the second. Poor guy. Since only the three of us went hunting, Matt was the only one who didn't get one.

Out of deference to the faint of heart, I have omitted the more explicit photos of the as-close-to-perfect-as-it-gets shot and of Matt field dressing my deer. (Normally I would have to do that part, but my doctor has advised me against that type of activity while pregnant. COnvenient for me, huh?)

I took it to the processor and will probably end up with a couple of small tenderloins and some summer sausage. Matt will go pick it up on Friday (while I clean house in preparation for Ty's birthday party on Saturday). Mmmm.... I can't wait.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving and a great weekend!

You Can Run...

...but you can't hide!

Yes, my knitty friends, it is that time of year again. This Saturday is the greatest holiday of the year. Well, I guess it's not an official "holiday," but to us it is. The State of Missouri will open the 2007 Deer Season this Saturday morning, exactly one half-hour before sunrise.

I am so excited, I might just go into labor! That was totally a joke. This baby had better NOT make an early arrival. Deer season comes but once a year, and lasts a scant 8 days.

My awesomely warm insulated pants do not fit right now. Well, they fit, but I can't get them zipped or buttoned, so I have to buy a pair of suspenders tomorrow morning. I will still be wearing them , of course, since it gets really cold out in the forest this time of year, and I HATE to be cold. Thankfully, my bright orange parka does still fit, so I should be pretty good to go.

Tomorrow is exciting for a bunch of reasons. Not only are we leaving for the "deer woods," but we have our ultrasound and checkup appointments. We will go first to the ultrasound, where we hope to find out what we are having. We're taking Ty with us, since it's his baby too. Then we will head over to the doc's office for the monthly weigh-in & check up. Oh, and I'll have to pee in the cup. Don't you just LOVE that part? Then Matt & I will be taking Ty to school, packing up the car & heading out.

To stalk, shoot at, and hopefully bag us a Bambi.

Don't be mad at me. I know, I know. They are beautiful, majestic and gentle creatures. I get that. I always get a little sad about the thought of killing one. But our state is currently in danger of being overrun by them, and that leads to a fate even worse than being shot. At least being shot is quick & mostly painless... If their population becomes too large, our forests won't be able to support them. They will end up perishing, en mass, by disease, starvation, or automobile. We are simply doing our part to control the population.

Also, did I mention the summer sausage & deer chili? Mmmmm.

It's fixed! It's fixed!

I'm very happy to say that the wheel is fixed. After a small amount of frustration (and the mild curse words that accompany) I finally broke down & asked Hubby to help. I'm sure Matt would have helped sooner, but he knows I'm very much a "I can do it myself kind of girl). He fixed it by noticing a screw that was missing. Okay, so I'm usually very detail oriented, but this trait can very quickly become completely eclipsed by my short tolerance for frustrating things.

I got to do some spinning on Saturday night. It took some time to get all my body parts coordinated, but I finally got into the rhythm. I learned a very important thing: I suck at spinning! I'm not upset or frustrated. I know it will come with time and practice, and I think with some better fiber. I did not expect to pick it up and be turning out fine handspun yarns on my first try, but, WOW, I am much worse at this than I expected.

I plan to try again tonight, with some different fiber. We'll see what happens.

In other news, we reached that totally AWESOME time in the pregnancy where, not only am I feeling GREAT, but I'm feeling the baby move all the time! At various times during the day I'll get bumped a few times... after I eat, after I work out... it's cool. And the bumps are sometimes strong enough to be felt outside my belly. Of course, this baby refuses to cooperate when Matt or Ty is around. I'll be sitting there, and I'll few a couple of strong bumps, and as soon as either of them puts a hand on the belly, the baby stops. I think Matt & Ty have both pretty much given up on feeling any movement for now.

Four more days, and then we get to see if Sweet Pea will cooperate with the ultrasound tech so we can find out if she's a boy or a girl... Did I say "she?" Yeah, well, my money's on GIRL. Despite what my very sweet and wise G-ma says. Sorry, G-ma... I think you're mistaken this time!!! I see pink dresses in our future!

You...

...Spin me right round baby, right round, like a record baby, right round, round, round...

I am giddy as a school girl! This came in the mail (from the Netherlands)last week:
This was inside:
Despite some really crappy assembly "instructions," I managed to get it to look like this:
Now I just have to learn to use it. Oh, and I think I messed up one little portion of the assembly. I can't get the pedal-thingy to stay attached to the arm-thingy. (The instructions did NOT include the names of the parts of the wheel...) And, I don't really know how to use it. I have some fiber. I have a wheel. Now I just have to learn how to use the wheel to make the fiber into something I can knit with. Does anybody have Rumpelstiltskin's phone number or email address?
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I am half-finished with a new Christmas Knit. It doesn't look like it from this picture, but I actually finished this sock last Wednesday. I'm calling these the "Concord Socks," because this is grape-harvest season in the Missouri Wine Country, and this yarn is almost the exact color of concord grapes. This was my fastest sock yet... completed in about 8 days.

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We had a great Halloween yesterday. Tyson had fun at his preschool party, and loved going trick-or-treating last night. He was pretty shy at first, but after he received a few pieces of candy for his efforts, he was crazy with the doorbell ringing! (Check out that puppy dog costume... sewed by yours truly...)

We also had a great time camping over the weekend. I took the camera, but like a dope, ended up leaving it in the car all weekend, so no pictures. Ty got to go trick-or-treating around the camp ground and ended up FILLING up his pumpkin bucket. He has more than enough candy to last his until Easter... provided I can keep Hubby from raiding it when Ty's not looking.

Oh, and we will hopefully find out if Sweet Pea is a boy or a girl next Friday (Nov. 9)!!! I am COUNTING THE DAYS...

We are off to go camping for the weekend. It is our annual Halloween campfest & I am totally excited!

Before we go, however, I wanted to direct your attention to a new project I've started... and one the I need your HELP with. Please go & check out this site:

http://knitgreetings.blogspot.com/

It' s a second blog i started. It's for a really good cause, and there will be PRIZES!!!!!

Have a great weekend!

Fall is Finally Here!!!

Yes, fall is definitely here... and it has inspired me to knit. Well, the inspiration came partly because of the cool weather and partly because of the fact that I just realized that Christmas is approaching. Quickly.

The Garter Shawl is coming along, slowly as usual. The problem I'm having is that I can't really tell how big it is, so I don't know if it's done. I don't know how much stretch I'm going to get from blocking, and my needles are too short to see how wide it is. Which begs the question: Can a shawl be too big?

I've been working on other Christmas-gift knits as well. First up, I dyed some yarn! I haven't used the Kool-Aid to dye yarn before. It was surprisingly easy! I had some left over from a visit with H a couple of years ago. I needed some green yarn for a gift, but didn't have any in my stash. So, I bought 8 packets of lemon lime Kool-Aid & pulled out the big pot.


With the very electric green color of the lemon lime mix, I decided to do a variagated yarn. I wrapped it around a wooden spoon, balanced across the pot-o-green. I let more yarn out every 10 minutes.
Here's the end product: It's still got some white spots in it, which is exactly what I wanted. I'm anxious to knit this up to see how the colors will look.
But I can't start the gamma-green socks yet. I was so antsy to start another pair of socks while the gamma-green was drying that I had to start a different X-mas knit.
These will be for my step mom. I'm using some really rich concord-grape purple yarn. I just cast on this sock last Tuesday, and I'm already just a few inches from binding off. We're going camping this weekend, which means that this could actually be my quickest pair of socks yet!

I'll leave you with a question. Look at this picture, and then tell me this:

Am I the only one who believes this is the most ridiculous strategy for "washing" the floor? In case you're wondering, the idea of skating around on cleaning rags was NOT the four year old's idea. It was the THIRTY-four year old's. (And for the record, they left streaks and dirt all over the floor. It actually looked worse than when they started, so dear old *pregnant* mom had to come back later & give it a real scrubbing... um... yeah. Thanks for the "help," boys.)

Have a great weekend!!!!

A Week of Endings...

Before we get to the part about this week's endings, I have a baby update!
I went to the doctor this morning and he say that everything looks great! My weight, blood pressure, etc. are all looking good. And Sweet Pea gave us a good, strong heart beat (149 bpm) and was apparently doing the cha-cha in there.. we could hear lots of movement.

Although I am still incredibly tired, my nausea is totally gone. And, I'm learning to get as much done as I can early in the day, because otherwise stuff doesn't get done. I'm so tired by mid-afternoon that I have to force myself to do even the simplest of tasks (finishing paperwork, cooking dinner, standing upright..). So, everything is going well so far.

We have our detailed ultrasound scheduled for November 9, and that's when we'll find out if we have a boy or girl. I am happy to have either. I love being the mother of a boy, and another would be great! But, it would be interesting to have a girl, too. I suspect my MIL is secretly hoping for a girl since all of the children in her family are boys. She has three sons & a bunch of nephews... I'm certain she would l-o-v-e a grand-daughter.

I'm going to go on record right now and say this:

I think this baby is a girl.

I cannot explain why I think this, but I do. Again, I will be happy no matter what. But I think it's a girl.
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Now, onto the Endings that I mentioned in the title.

For some reason, this has seemed like a week of endings.

Up first, I finished the Lattice Socks. The eye strain of cabling on size 1 needles is at an end!

I know, I know. I'm a knitter. A FO shouldn't be all that rare, but around here... FO's have been few and far between.


Pattern: Lattice Socks. I based the pattern on Yarn Harlot's basic sock recipe.
Yarn: I think it came from Knit Picks... Heather & I dyed it over MS&W weekend, 2006
Needles: 2 - Size 1 circulars.
Pattern Notes: I'm not sure I can take credit for "writing" this pattern. As I said, the basic pattern came from Yarn Harlot's recipe, and I found the Lattice Stripe in my stitch dictionary. I added 2 seed stitch stripes and a few ribs for extra texture, though.
Comments: I sort of imagined that the legs would be a little taller, but if I had added any length to the legs I probably wouldn't have finished them until 2008!

All in all, I'm happy with these socks. They turned out pretty much exactly as I had hoped.
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There were other endings as well:

Roscoe (named after the sheriff in the Dukes of Hazard) has had a thing growing on his ear for about 6 weeks. It seemed to not really bother him, except for a little itching now & then, but it was gross! We had the vet take a look at it after it became obvious that this thing was only getting bigger. It was a melanoma. I had no idea that dogs could get skin cancer.

He went in to have it removed on Tuesday, and hopefully his skin cancer ordeal is at an end. For now, he's a little funny looking since they had to shave part of his ear.

Doesn't he look annoyed at the indignity of having only half of only one of his ears shaved? Maybe they should have shaved the top half of the other one... then it would be ike a rebellious K9 fashion statement!

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And, the saddest ending of all: My cat, Shadow had to move into a new home this morning. She has been my faithful companion for ten years, but it was time for her to go. She's been living in our unfinished basement since I got pregnant because the last time I was pregnant she peed all over our first floor carpet (and my husband's hockey gear). Since we just replaced the floors this spring, we couldn't take the risk that she'd freak out & starting peeing all over again.

So, she's been in solitary, downstairs... with only a brief daily visit from me. She's actually a pretty social cat, so I didn't think it was fair to her. Also, Hubby has been quite surly about having to scoop the litter box since I got pregnant. So, in order to smooth the turbulence with Hubby and give Shadow a better home, I relinquished custody of her to my intern. I know that she'll be happy with Intern Katie after she adjusts to the change. She's probably already forgotten all about me... though it will take me a lot longer for me to stop missing her. I think the pregnancy hormones are not helping with this, since I tend to be a bit teary-eyed over the silliest things anyway.

Overall, it's been a good week. Busy and productive and now I'm ready for the weekend!!!