Look at the pretty yarn

Will a picture of pretty, soft, sock yarn distract you from the boringness of my posts?

This gorgeous yarn came from Jan, another Michigan knitter. It is so seriously soft! I'm going to use it for myself! Thank you, Jan!! I love it!

Well, yesterday I thought I'd steal a little time for posting after I had an unbelievably crazy day, but the internet went down!

Here's how the crazy Monday started:
In the middle of the night, the answering machine kept going off, talking to itself. I finally got up at 5 and shut it off. So, when we got up for school, the phone was total static, no calls could come in or out. (I thought) So, after taking the kids to school, I went to my mom's to call the phone company, and I couldn't get through. (Big surprise!) So, I chatted for a bit, then left to go to the post office, and run errands.

As I was driving past my house, I saw the cops pulling up to my door! So, I pulled around back and ran around the house. I was scared something happened to one of the kids, or something. The police man asked if this was Arleta's house. (pronouncing my name wrong) and I was like "Yes, Arleeeeta." (Not Arletta) and he said "Is she alright?" He sounded worried. I said "Yep, I'm standing right here. Why?"

That's when he told me a 911 hang up call went out from my house and when they tried to call back all they got was static! I told him the cat and dog were the only ones home, since I had been at my mom's trying to call the phone company, and he said ok and left.

Later, I got to thinking what if I hadn't been who I said I was. He never asked for i.d. That's a little bit scary!



I just got back from 'work'. I'm hoping this gig will turn into a real job! I LOVE being a stay at home mom, but the choice may be taken away from me, and if I have to work outside the home, I guess there could be worse jobs. It's close, and the boss seems to understand that my kids still need me.

It's almost time to go get the kids, but I thought I'd try to sneak a little update in here. I've been typing all day, anyway. ;)

I've been knitting on my UFO Jaywalkers, I started LD's Topi, and I've been trying to make myself knit the never-ending red squares for SP's blanket. Poor MM, I have to come up with something to knit for him, too. All of that makes for some boring pictures.

I have 30 or so emails from y'all, friends, and family that I need to get to. I just want to say Thank You for the nice 'get well' wishes from everyone. I hate being sick! It is going around, though, so be careful!!

Knit On!!

Blah!

I had the flu last week. BAD!!! I have lots to talk about and some cool pics, but I have tons to catch up on! Be back soon with a real post!!

Busy weekend

Well, thank you to everyone for the encouraging comments. You won't believe what the weather did here! I got up this morning, and looked out the window at a scene from the North Pole! It snowed again! The kids have a two hour delay. Watch us be late anyways! I hope this is the last snow storm of the season. I need some sunshine and warm weather!

We had quite a busy weekend. Thursday LD and I came home from the post office with a package! She saw the return address and said, "It's yarn, I can tell, because it's from Rhoda." hehe She's so cute sometimes. She wanted to open it, so I said she could as soon as we got home.

We walked in the door to the phone ringing off the hook. It was the mother of one of LD's friends. Play date? Yes! So, she forgot all about the box, and I couldn't wait for her to come home, so .... the phone rang again! It was SP and MM, they wanted a ride home, since the after school group they are in wasn't meeting that day.

I finally got the box open, totally expecting only yarny left overs for soap socks, I was very glad to see the most beautiful orange stitch markers ever in there with the yarn! I tried to get a good photo, but those lil' things are hard to capture! (Click the pic and see how great they are!) Then, when LD got home she had to make a bracelet out of some of the yarn. Thank you, Rhoda, you sweetie!!

So, Friday night, LD went to a friends house, and MM and I went to my best friend Lisa's house. When we left I had two extra teenage boys with me. LOL The three of them came into the kitchen and said "You're the best Aunt, You're the best Mom ever" .... What could I say to that? Of course they could come spend the night.

Saturday, I picked the Little Diva up from a very fun Shamrocky birthday party. She was so tired out, that she fell asleep while we were taking Lisa's boys home.

When we got home we had a green dinner. Everything except the meat (yes we are carnivores) was green. LD wanted to dye the meat with food coloring, but I couldn't stomach that idea. LOL

So, Saturday night, LD and I went for a nature walk. We needed something to put in the pretty vase my bestfriend had given me the night before. The sun was slowly setting, and it was cold, but not windy. We saw some of her friends out, too. We found some dried weeds and pretty sticks, and a pine branch. There isn't anything growing around here right now, but it looks nice. (If you click the picture you should be able to see more detail)

While we were out, we decided that we needed the camera, so we came home for that and LD's scooter. We went across the street to the bay, and tried to make it to the beach before the sun was all the way down.

That was a fun time! We even went some where on Sunday. I really can not wait for the weather to be nice enough to just up and go out to get the fresh air with out freezing!

Oh yeah, I dyed my hair again, too! I'll have to post a pic, because I know everyone wants to see. LOL! It's a really dark red with lighter red streaks. I like it.

Knitting? Oh, yeah, I did a tiny bit of that. Nothing exciting, though. I need to find an exciting pattern, but all of those UFOs are getting to me. I have to finish something first. Urgh. I did post the soap sock stats on my other blog.

Hope your knitting is more exciting than mine is right now!

Here is a little info on Lake Michigan that I looked up:

• It is the second largest of the Great Lakes by volume


• 118 miles wide


• 307 miles long


• 925 feet deep (at it's deepest)


• More than 1600 miles of shoreline

See, it's a BIG (Great ~ hehe) Lake. I guess we're in the Central Northern part of Lake Michigan. The bay flows into the lake and you can see the shore across the bay from our house. I complain about the weather, but I don't know if I could live (in the summer time) without Lake Michigan.

Bad Blogger

Thanks for all of the comments you've been leaving!! Y'all know I love them. hehe! Why, yes, Christina, that was Mario on the cookie. My little artists!

I've been a bad blogger. Sorry. The mood in my house is making me depressed and not much fun to be around. I haven't felt like doing much at all. Not even read blogs! Actually, I want to, I just don't get around to it .... I don't know .... winter's killing me!!

I have so many knitting projects that I want to do and that I want to start, but there's no time. I've been knitting some squares that are plain, and at first it was nice, peaceful knitting, but it has turned a bit boring.

When my boys were really little my mother made them some Granny Square afghans. MM's was crib sized, and SP's was toddler bed sized. Well, SP is over six foot tall, and his blanket is a bit short. LOL When they graduated to twin sized beds, I knitted some extra squares and made the blankets bigger. Now that SP is in an even bigger bed, his feet stick out of his blanket. I'm knitting some squares for each side, and then in the corners I will pick up stitches from the squares and knit mitered squares. It will look good, and keep him warm, but I wish it would get done quicker.

We got some warmer weather (40s-50s f) for a couple of days, but it's back into the 30s, now. :( Look at the difference one week made on the Bay! I love the fog, but I have Cabin Fever, or Spring Fever, or something! I think everybody in this house does! Everyone is cranky and depressed. Urgh!!!! I need winter to be over!!!!

Ok, I'm going to run the kids to school real quick . . . . Be right back.



I'm back, and I was wrong about the temperature out there. It's 23 degrees f., and if you didn't know, it's cold!


I have to take a quick shower, and go do some data entry stuff for the neighbors. Hope everyone, everywhere is feeling a lot better than I am!!

Ya Think?

You Belong in Summer

Energetic, creative, and very curious about the world... You're not going to let anything hold you back, especially a cold day. Whether you're chilling out at the beach or partying all night, you live for the warm weather.

What Season Are You?

Not Knitting ~ hehehe

Well, we do other things, sometimes, too. The boys decorated some cookies last month at their after school group. Cookies Rock, haha. They were really good. Click to make big, so you can see the awesome decorations.



Thanks for all of the well wishes. The Little Diva is feeling better. On her sick day, we sorted crayons, markers and colored pencils. And we tested every marker. A lot of drawing goes on in this house and we need to make sure the materials work, right? LOL


Thanks also for the nice comments about the irritating person in my life. I'm still upset, but I'm not going to dwell on it. Or I'm going to try not to dwell on it.


Crazy blogger, the paragraphs are squeezing together again! Sometimes it fixes itself when I hit publish, and sometimes it doesn't. Oh well, colorful post once again.

I had so much fun yesterday knitting with Carrie and Melanie. Just what I needed. I've been working on some UFOs, and soap socks. Nothing new has jumped out at me. Which is rare. I usually have startitis, and then I spread the startitis around. Last night after dinner, LD and I knitted a bit more. She is on row two of her 250 stitch scarf. I've been working on my second pair of Jaywalkers. I don't know why I haven't finished them. I'm just slowly knitting them ... on and on. I love that pattern, and I wear the ones I finished all of the time. Weird!



Ok, one time Suz showed a couple of pics of "the lake" at different times of the year, so I thought I'd copy-cat her. :P



Here are two pics of Lake Michigan, just a few blocks from my house. One is in October, and one is from this morning, right after I dropped the kids off at school. The snow drift (that you can't see in front of me) is as tall as my van, and the ones down by the water are HUGE!




This other pic is of the bay across the street from my house. There are ice fishing shanties out there, and you can see the old building that I've shown before. Those snowdrifts are very tall, and the road is snow covered, as usual around here!



Well, I should go get ready to 'work' over at the neighbors. Tomorrow, the kids will be home early, so I'll have to fight to get the computer to read blogs. LOL.



Hope everyone has a great weekend, if we don't chat before then. :D

If I say I'm not knitting ~ I'm probably lying

Hey, thanks for all of the nice comments. Right now I can sure use them. Kadiddly left me one about the History Channel, because at her blog I'd left a comment about Digging For The Truth. I love archeology, and like she said, that Josh Bernstein makes the show just a little more interesting, if you know what I mean. hehehe*wink, wink At least he's a little older than I am. I hate it when I get a little Hollywood crush, and then find out the actor or TV personality guy is younger than I am!

I have been such a bad blogger! I have reasons, though, and if you want to see what I knit, you have to read (or skim) through them first. haha

This sounds familiar, I know I read something just like it on someone else's blog recently. You know when you think a person is your friend and then you find out they are just backstabbing liars? Yeah, that. I've been feeling a little whiny and sorry for myself. You can usually tell if I'm not feeling like my normal self if I'm wearing my glasses. That either means it's really early and I haven't put my contacts in, or I don't feel well, so I'm not going to bother. My friend Carrie talks about putting good out into the world. I try to think of that every time I feel mean toward this person. I want a good, peaceful world, so I'm trying to be nice. Small town living, small minds. I know it doesn't have to be this way! Urgh!!

Ahhh, I feel a little better now. At the very least, I know one person who is always on my side. My best friend, Lisa. And if she thought of being on 'the other side' I'd just remind her of the cool things I knit for her. :D Like this wonderful hat I did for the Get Stitchy! Stitch for Chicks along. And yes, I did say wonderful! The pattern is fun, and quick. I have been getting tons of compliments on my green hat, and when I say "Thank you, it was so fun to knit." I love the looks non-knitters give me when they say "You made that!? It's so great!" hehe. See, commentslut.

In the last picture on the right, you can see the matching bracelet my LD made for her Aunt Wheeza. I'm going to have to put that kid to work and put some of those on my shop. **Just joking, child labor law people!

I am going to post the stats and a link to the pattern on my other blog. You can see what yarn I used and all of that there. Let me just tell ya, I used Sugar & Cream, and that must make this the least expensive hat in the world, but it looks great! I just might have to make me an orange one. My kids all want one, too. At least I could afford to make three more with the cotton.

Now, I have to go play nurse. I hate it when my kids are sick! LD is home coughing her poor little head off. She was not happy with me this morning when I told her she was not going to school. She doesn't have a fever, but she was hacking uncontrollably. She looked miserable, too. I know she wouldn't be learning much, if I sent her, and here she can breathe some steam from the vaporizer and hopefully get rid of that wheeze. She gets sick so quickly ~ overnight, and hopefully it will be gone as quickly, or off to the doctor we'll have to go.

Hope everyone is doing and feeling well. I think before I make the lil' convalescent some more tea, I'll go update the FO blog. Have a great one!

My Best Friend

I joined another monthly knit along at Get Stitchy!. For some reason these knit alongs don't scare me, like most of the other knit alongs. Yeah, I'm weird.

This is the Stitch for Chicks Along. Members of the knitting (crochet and embroidery too) forums can join. Any one can go see what everyone's up to, and see knitting pictures. Or just go join!!
They also have a huge knit blog list, if you feel like checking out some new blogs.

Here's what it says about Stitch for Chicks at Get Stitchy: "During the month of March, members of get stitchy! will be participating in the Stitch for Chicks-along! The goal of which is to make a gift, using the fiber art of your choice, to give thanks to a woman in your life. Any woman, yourself included, for any reason. "


Well, I have chosen my best-best friend as the recipient of my gift. She saw my hat, and I could tell she wanted one really bad!!! Mostly because she kept saying "You're making me an orange one, right?" LOL

This is the pattern I'm using by Jennifer. I love her patterns. She has more on her blog, and there are some extra notes about the Topi on her blog, too. And a gallery of the things others have knit from her patterns. (I'm in there ~ hehe)

I'm using Sugar 'n Cream cotton in Hot Orange. A lot of people don't like it, but I love the stiffness of this yarn. I just might have to make another hat with some S&C. The pics (click to see bigger) show where I started yesterday, and where I was (and still am) last night. LD and I had some knitting time. Since school was let out early for bad weather! Her scarf is one row down. 250 stitches per row! She took that pic of me holding it. You can see my red bracelet that I wear all of the time. LD finger-knitted it for me. I was going to say that before since it looked like part of my fetching mitt, but I forgot. Thanks for reminding me del. :)


My best friend is so important to me. I have regular friends, but she's more like a sister. Right after my kids, she is the person I love and need in my life most of all. I know it's the same for her. We've been best friends for over 20 years. She's going to kick my butt, because I can never remember exactly how long. LOL. She is the only person (except for one family member) who tells me they love me without my saying it first. It's a really good thing that Hubby likes her, because I'd probably miss him if he even thought of making me choose. I'm joking!! (kind-of) Hahaha ~ Relax.
I think everyone needs a friend that is like this. It doesn't matter what kind of hellish day I'm having she can make me laugh. And she loves orange as much as I do.

Thank you, Lee, for being my best friend!!