We've had a lot going on around here. Since the school year started I've hardly had any time to knit (or eat or sleep), but I've still got some stuff to share.

The garden is not yielding as much as I had hoped. Problems with pests have decreased this years harvest, but we've still been able to get some cucumbers, green beans and corn.


I finished Scarlett. It's been felted and a button has been stitched on. It is now waiting to be wrapped in festive Christmas paper and gifted to someone very deserving.
Riley has started eating people food! He loves everything we've tried so far. Carrots, green beans, peaches, bananas, apples, and prunes. (The prunes were necessary to counteract a few to many bananas...) I'm making all of his food at home, so I spend a couple of hours every week steaming, blending and straining... it's totally worth it.
He enjoys eating, but sometimes it turns out to be just a bit much for the little guy.
We have a new addition to the family, too. This is Spot, a leopard gecko, and he is all Tyson's. Ty loves his new pet, and is great about taking care of him.

Well, that's all I have time for today. We've been busy, but having fun and enjoying life.

Some Cheese With That Whine? Maybe.

I'm posting from the Family Mac, so there are no pictures. I don't know how to do the pictures thing from the Mac. It's really easy to turn, resize & upload photos from my PC, but I can't figure out how to accomplish all of that on this crazy Mac.

Well, the new school year has arrived. And it has brought with it a TON of stress. Like, the "I'm-not-sure-i-can-handle-all-of-this" type of stress.

Ty starts kindergarten on Tuesday. Tomorrow is his last day of preschool... forever. The transition to real school is going to be a really tough one for him. He hates change, and anything new terrifies him. We are going for his orientation tomorrow: he will get to see his classroom, meet his teacher, and have a short ride on a school bus. We'll see how all this goes. I'm not sure he gets it yet. I'm excited for him - kindergarten is a big, exciting deal! But I'm also terribly sad. This is yet another growing-up experience that I know is right for Ty... one that he is ready for, but that I am decidedly not ready for.

I am doing with this the same thing I did with giving up breastfeeding, giving up binkies, potty training, and sleeping in a big-kid bed. I am pushing my baby from the nest despite the fact that I want to hold him on my lap and keep him small & cuddly forever.

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My "new" job started this week, and has brought with it a ton of stress as well. Oh yeah. A few people have asked about my "new" job. It's only kind of new. See, I am a music therapist and an applied behavior analyst. I serve children with developmental disabilities (and thieir families). I own a company, and for the last five years one of my biggest contracts has been with a local school district. Last year they began the process of converting independently contracted music therapists to employed music therapists. Since this was my biggest contract I had little choice but to take the position they offered me (which will pay more and has benefits). So I'm actually doing the same job I've always done, but now I have to give 7.5 hours a day only to the district, and there's a WHOLE LOT MORE paperwork. (Plus I don't have to work summers anymore.)

I have not closed my company. I still own it and I still see kids after school hours Monday through Thursday. This is one of the reasons I'm so totally overwhelmed. I've got about 15 additional clients and 6 additional buildings for the district, plus four families for the company to serve. Every school kid needs a new file, data sheets, consult forms, etc., and most of my private kids need updates for ABA programs, data graphs and behavior intervention plans. I've got a music thearpist who subcontracts several kids for me, and I've got to figure out all the rules and how-to's of hiring her as an employee while also trying to find an additional therapist to contract for another client. Other than my own payroll, I am also responsible for all the business tasks related to the company, including taking care of the books, answering the phone, billing and bringing in new clients. It's a lot to be responsible for, and I hardly ever get to be at my desk... since I'm now working from 7:30 in the morning until 5:00 at night. I'm sinking deeper & deeper into a dark pit of paperwork.

There are a lot of people who are depending on me to do things for them, and this responsibility is weighing heavily on me right now. They all need something from me, and many of them need it, like, yesterday.

My house is a wreck and I can't seem to get on top of it. It seems that there is stuff everywhere and my laundry is seriously out of control. I never have the energy to clean it up, though. I'm exhasuted by the time the boys go to bed at 8:00 every night.There is always something to do: meals to prepare, dishes to do, laundry to fold, piano to practice... it just goes on & on & on. The UFOlympics started nearly a week ago and I've only managed to knit 2 rows on the Veste Evereste.

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Not that it matters much, since it's unlikely that I'll be wearing it at all this winter. My weight loss has completely stalled with 13 pounds to go to get back to my pre-Riley weight. Add that to the 10 pounds I never lost after having Ty and that gives us a grand total of 23 pounds I need to lose. I'm stuck and it's frustrating. I haven't been to the gym in two weeks and I'm beginning to feel like a big lump of yuckiness. Ugh.

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And did I mention that everyone around me is falling apart? Riley is still recovering from his first ear infection. (I got an hour and forty minutes of sleep Sunday night because the poor thing sreamed bloody murder all night long. Not kidding here. He screamed. all. night.) Matt has torn his other meniscus. (For those keeping track, he's now two for two on those. The other one tore a while back & he's been living with it. This one was injured when he was checked during a hockey game in a "no check league" two weeks ago. It swelled up like a fryer chicken and will likely need to be corrected through the magic of surgery.) One of my grandmothers fell & broke her hip over the weekend. (She has to have surgery and tons of rehab before she can go home.) Someone I know has cancer. (She's less than a friend, more than an acquaintance. She has a couple of small children and is a really great person. I like her and I think very highly of her... we just don't really have much in common. I don't knwo her prognosis, but I know she's going to struggle with treatments and taking care of her family.) And the most recent news I received was that one of my closest friends (who is also a colleague and mentor to me) has a meningioma growing between her brain and her skull. (She is having brain surgery next week to get it removed. It's probably benign; 95% of this type of tumor are non-cancerous. And it's not down inside her brain, it's on the surface. But it's still really scary for her and for everyone who cares about her.)

I am completely overwhelmed... emotionally, physically, mentally. Do you think that maybe we could petition God to put a few more hours into each day? Or maybe I could get Starbuck's to start offering intravenous caffiene drips? All I want to do is to take Matt, Ty & Riley out into the woods, pitch a tent and avoid all of this. But that would be too easy... so I guess I'll just stay here and tread water for now.

Lotsa Stuff

The Scarlet Bag is almost finished! The knitting is done, and it has actually already been felted. Sorry, no pic of the felted item. It needs a button and button hole & then my first Christmas Knit of 2008 will be done. Yay!!!

Check this out:

See that? That's my boy... holding on (for all he's worth) to my sock bag. I will make a knitter out of him yet. Pay no attention to the iPhone in his car seat next to him; it's mine. I'm sure the boys are going to get an early start with the gadgets (thanks to Matt), but we're not starting them out this early!
Now I just have to get him to stop trying to eat the knitting project...

So, a couple weekends ago we had Riley's baptism. It was a nice evening ceremony, and surprisingly he didn't cry at all. In fact, he appeared quite amused by the whole thing. Tyson & his Uncle Ian couldn't resist a little clowning around after church services had ended. (Uncle Ian is also Riley's Godfather.)
And ultimately it was all a little too much for Riley. After fussing a little during the sermon he was pooped out.
Here's a photo of Ty, Riley and Riley's Godmother, Stephanie. (She's also one of my best friends and Ty's piano teacher...) We had everyone back to our house after church for a bit of dinner...
...and cake. (It just wouldn't be a celebration without cake!)

And the following weekend (July 26) was our 11th wedding anniversary. It's hard to believe that we've been married for 11 years already. It seems even harder to believe that July 31st was the 15 year anniversary of our first date. I love this guy more today than the day I married him:

In 11 years he has never forgotten our anniversary. In fact, he starts thinking about it weeks or months before. He came home that Friday with this:

Because cookies are my favorite food. And what's better than a cookie than a big-ass cookie?

He also gave me this:

See, I'm a pretty low-maintenance girl. My old watch was gross:
...and I didn't even realize it. I seriously didn't even notice that the face was scratched & covered in hairspray, or that the band was frayed and missing pieces of the feaux leather... but Matt noticed. And he thought I should have a nice, new watch to go with my nice, new job.

Ain't he sweet?

AND THE WINNER IS...

First, let me say that I'm sorry I didn't get back to ya'll about the contest sooner. I've had too many orientations and trainings for my new job (it's like a college hazing... if you can make it through all the orientations, you actually get to do your job!)... and we had some ill-timed internet connection problems. Let me just say this: Charter Cable SUCKS!!!!!

Anyway, we here at Chez KeowdieKnits have, indeed selected a winner. We used cutting-edge random winner-selecting technology (read: pieces of paper pulled from a hat...) and the winner is...

The adorable Sarah!

Seriously, folks, her blog is great, so go check it out. Go on! Click the link!

Sarah will receive some handmade Knitting Buddha cards & something else I have yet to select. It'll be a surprise.

I would LOVE to show you a photo of the cards, but, alas I cannot. I had a bunch of photos from the last couple of weeks all lined up, got ready to upload... and pht. Nothing. Matt got a new Apple Passport to replace our server/router/backup drive. He spent the entire day in the basement yesterday, making sure that everything works. Unfortunately, he forgot to check that my laptop works. I can get to the internet on the family Mac, but not on my laptop (which is where the photos are). It sucks, too, because I have SO MUCH TO TELL YOU ABOUT!

I'm mostly off work this week (meaning, I have no more appointments scheduled, but have to scale Mt. Saint Paperwork before Friday), so I'll definitely be posting later this week. Check in early, check in often! I have some completely adorable photos of the boys, and a finished Object!!! (Yes, I managed to finish my first Christmas Knit in the midst of the training mayhem.

Have a great day!!!!!

A Little Chaos & A Little Contest!

Wow! We had a really busy week/weekend! My mom came into town from AZ, and got to stay with us for half of her visit. She was able to schedule her annual visit to coincide with Riley's baptism, which was on Saturday.

I picked her up from the airport on Wednesday afternoon.
That's my mom on the left. (The lovely redhead on the right is my sister, Katie, who met us on her lunch hour).

We spent the rest of the day getting mom settled in, running errands and relaxing.

Thursday we slept in a little and went to lunch with Krissy (my other sister) and Mary (her partner). After lunch, Krissy gave mom & Tyson henna tattoos. It's a skill she refined while studying abroad in India a few years ago, and she's really good at it.

Here is my mom's (before the henna paste was removed):
And here is Tyson's:
We hung out for a while afterward, and then ate an early dinner. We discussed plans for Riley's baptism and the party afterward. (Remember, this was Thursday, and the baptism was Saturday). Tyson asked for a scoop of ice cream after dinner, and since he ate all of his healthy foods, I said okay. I went to the freezer and quickly realized that everything in the freezer was in a goopy state of half-frozen-ness. We thought perhaps the freezer door had been left ajar, but just to be on the safe side, we moved most of the contents to our chest freezer in the basement. Then we closed the door tight and put a thermometer in the refrigerator, which felt suspiciously tropical inside.

An hour later, the verdict was in: our seven year old refrigerator had kicked the bucket. Two days before the party. I think it's safe to say that I started to um... ahem... well, I may have stated to panic a bit.

Matt & I quickly ran up to Lowe's and picked out a replacement just ten minutes before they closed. After that we had to pack everything from the fridge into a cooler and take it to my dad's house. We got home from this chore just after midnight.

The new fridge was delivered on Friday, and by Friday night we had all the food put back inside, but on Saturday morning, just hours before 20 people were coming over for the party, our kitchen & dining room still looked awful. It was chaos.

This was just a portion of the disaster. I had no idea how much crap I had stored on top of and around the fridge!!! And we discovered that I own more magnets than anyone else on the planet!

Here's our new fridge (this picture was obviously taken before I had a chance to plaster it with my many magnets!).
Overall, it was a completely insane couple of days. And not at all how I wanted to spend the bulk of my mom's visit. Of all the crap-ass times for our fridge to up and die... I should mention that my mom was amazing during this whole ordeal. She helped me move all the food around, clean the new fridge and restock it. She also helped out by cleaning my house for the party on Saturday morning. Isn't she great?

So, now that you've stuck through to the end of this very long (and possibly very boring) post, you're rewarded with a contest!

Leave a comment and tell me your best household crisis story (your oven went out on Thanksgiving Day? Your garage door froze shut during a snow storm?). Be sure you leave your email address in the comment (spell out "at" and "dot") and I'll randomly pick the winner. That winner will receive a set of handmade Knitting Buddha greeting cards and something else (that is yet to be determined). ETA: I'll leave this open until this Friday, July 25!

Oh, and I do have pictures from Riley's baptism and the party afterward, but Matt loaded them onto the Mac instead of our server. Now those photos are stuck in the Mac & I don't know how to get them out. (I'm still learning my way around the Mac.) So, check back in a couple of days for those photos!

Ch-CH-Changin'...

I was so inspired by Obama's mantra of "Change" that I decided to make a change for myself.

Okay, you caught me being a bit sarcastic... we all know that I'm not all that impressed with Obama... but I really did need a change. I wasn't so much stuck in a rut as I was stuck in a bottomless soul-sucking pit of boringness (is that a word?).

I don't know what happens to my sanity... every time I have a baby I decide that I need to go all natural and earthy with my appearance, and that I need to erase the last of the freak from my soul and start looking like a mom. I stop coloring my hair and start growing it out. I always think that it will look really good, but it always ends up looking something like this:

BLAH! BLECH! BORING!
So last night I went to see my wonderful Aunt-Turned-Hair-Stylist. My Aunt Tina (of the Salon Mystique in Crestwood, MO) made me look exciting, spunky, and (if I do say so myself) kinda pretty:

We took these photos inside after dark, so the color isn't exactly like the pictures. It's a bit brighter, a bit more bold.

My head feels about two pounds lighter, and I love this hair style. In fact, I think it might be my most favorite hairstyle ever! THANK YOU AUNT TINA!!! You Rock!

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go do a little knitting. I'm feeling super inspired after finishing Sweet Pea's Blanket earlier this week.

It Took Me Long Enough...

At least, it seems like it did. I finished Sweet Pea's Blanket! It turns out that it took me as long to finish making the blanket as it took for me to finish making the baby... 9 months.

I'm very, very happy with it.
So, what did you do for Independence Day?

Ty & I made this:

It's a "Coke Cake." We made it using a cake mix (two, actually) and a can of diet Coke (two, actually)... and boy was it yummy! We made the cake for a big family BBQ. I was bummed that my sisters couldn't make it, but most of Matt's family came, my dad & step mom came, and our friend Steph & her parents came.

There was a little baseball watching, a little knitting, a few fireworks and a lot of eating. Tyson overcame a fear and did something he's ever done before. He actually held some sparklers... and enjoyed it!

And Riley? Well, of course, he didn't get to hold a sparkler, but he did dress up for the occasion. He started the day by paying homage to our armed forces: And later he changed into a red, white & blue outfit. (I apparently missed getting a photo of the second outfit..).

On Saturday we took advantage of the unseasonable cool weather and took the boys for a picnic at the park.

After we ate, Matt & Ty played a little Frisbee. Ty's a natural. He can catch & throw the Frisbee better than I can!
And while the big boys played Frisbee, Riley & I relaxed on the blanket.
We had a wonderful three day weekend. It was slow paced, quiet and relaxing.