Monday, December 31, 2007

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!

Monday, December 24, 2007

Merry Christmas!!!

Saturday, December 22, 2007

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!

Sunday, December 16, 2007

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.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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.

Saturday, December 15, 2007

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.

Monday, December 10, 2007

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!

Saturday, December 8, 2007

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!)