My Knitting Blog

I've started a blog about my knitting projects. There is not much on there yet but I am hoping to add more. I am hoping that fellow knitters will join me and share their knowledge. I am a beginner and there are fifty million projects I want to do but I am sooooo in need of help. There used to be a Stitch-n-Bitch group that met here in town but I don't know if they still do. I'd love a group like that!I've also joined the knitting Olympics which is explained on the other blog.
So come join me and share your projects and any tips/ideas are greatly appreciated!

And This Is Where I Knit

Valentine Goodies

On Friday Irene, Gavin and I dropped off Henry at school and went grocery shopping. After we stopped at the variety store that sells all kinds of crafting items and yarn. I was looking for some yarn and needles for a new project I am working on. We made out well there and on the way back to the car we passed a candy store. I am not sure how long it has been there, since the summer I am sure. We have never been in it...how is that possible? We stopped in and checked out all the candy. They had these adorable mice. Kinda pricey but too cute to pass up. They are made up out of two milk chocolate covered cherries with slivered almonds for the ears. I think they are so cute! I bought one for Hen and one for Roo. They assured me that they were delicious. Mommy got the big peanut butter cup :)

I'd like to thank God

I'd like to thank God that the children and I made it home safely last night. We had to take Mark back to Grand Rapids after having him home this weekend. We actually had a great although lazy weekend. We drove down on Saturday afternoon to pick up Mark. The time we were suppose to be there got pushed back two hours which made me a little cranky since I wanted him home NOW! We left Grand Rapids right away instead of staying for dinner. We stopped at Brann's Steakhouse about half an hour down the road. Their sign said "immediate seating" but they lied! We had to wait about 15 minutes. Of course 15 minutes with three kids is 15 minutes too long. After we were seated the kids were pretty decent. Henry order the children's steak and ate it all. Irene had mac and cheese and hardly ate any of it. Mark and I were actually able to eat and enjoy our meal. After dinner Gavin and I popped into Barnes and Noble while Mark, Henry, and Irene went to Toys-R-Us. Then we met back up and finished the hour and half trip home.
Sunday...what did we do? Not much. It was a lazy day. We were all kinda pooped out and relaxed at home. I really can't recall our Sunday...am I getting old? What did we do????
Monday Henry had school. It was nice to be able to take him in. My friend Ann's sister usually takes him in for me. Her daughter is in his class and she knows how difficult it is to take three kids in and out of the car. Plus I needed to talk to Henry's teacher about school next fall. I signed Irene up for the three year olds class that meets twice a week. I wasn't sure if I should sign Henry up for preschool again or if he should do the young fives class at the public school. He is the youngest student this year in the four year olds preschool program. I'll spare you all the details of where his birthday falls verses appropriate age for kindergarten and blah blah...basically his teacher and I decided that Henry will do the four year olds preschool program again in the fall. Then when he starts kindergarten he'll be older instead of the youngest student AND he'll have more experience with numbers and letters and should be at the head of the class instead of behind. He'll also be in the morning class which has more students in it. He'll have less one-on-one with the teacher and get a more accurate classroom setting. Right now he is one of six students and while I think the one-on-one time is just what he needs for his first time in school I think it will help him if this next year his class size is larger. Does all that make sense? It does mean we'll be paying two tuitions every month but I feel it is worth every penny.
On Monday we (or rather Mark) did our taxes. It went surprisingly well. Not getting unemployment for all though months, and having to sell some of my jewelry just to get by, may be made up for this tax time. And of course having Gavin...my little tax deduction ;) According to Babytalk magazine 2009 was a better year to have a child because of the higher deduction amount given. Quite frankly...I feel we deserve any and all money we get back. We had to beg and plead to get what little assistance we did and we never received unemployment and there were times when I thought Gavin would be born on the side of the road since we wouldn't have had enough money for gas to get to the hospital. Whew! Those were some tough months!
Tuesday morning we knew Mark would probably be going back to work. I made breakfast for us all and then Mark and Henry took the car for an oil change. Henry got a kick out of it since you don't get out of the car. Mark rolled down his window so he could see and hear everything. When they were done they picked up Irene, Gavin and me and we went for a little ride around town. After lunch we packed everyone up and heading back to Grand Rapids. We went to the mall and discovered that we forgot the stroller. We had to pay $7.50...YES $7.50 to rent a stroller!!!! What an obscene amount of money for a stroller rental! I don't feel we spent enough time at the mall to get our $7.50 out of that stroller. We did have a delicious dinner at a place called On The Border. Mark and I had a very good burrito made with shredded beef. Henry had a corn dog and ate the entire thing. I was very pleased since he eats like a bird and he was so well-behaved. Irene...yeah...the usual.
We drove Mark to his truck after dinner. I was starting to get worried about the road conditions. The weather had been wet and kinda snowy and it was already dark and cold. And this brings me to where I started this post...thanking God that we made it home. The freeway had not been sanded/salted and it was slick. I was going very slow as was the car in front of me. Then a tanker truck decided to pass me. Yeah...not my idea of fun! Then cars in front of us started jumping on their breaks. Cars everywhere in ditches, crashed into each other. Police cars and tow trucks lit up the road with their lights. I was frightened and we were creeping down the road at 25 miles an hour instead of the posted 70. I called Mark (yes I know I shouldn't have been driving and talking!) he said to turn around and come back to his truck. We made it back to him and we all went to Toys-R-Us. Why the toy store? Basically to amuse the kids and give the road commission time to get out and sand the roads. By the time we left again it was almost two hours later but the roads, while not good, were better than they had been. I still drove slowly and it was 10:30pm when we got home but we made it safely.
The kids are all overtired this morning and Henry actually told me he was too tired to go to school. Since he loves going to school I can only assume he really is too tired. I am tired too and wouldn't mind not having to go out in the snow. I guess we'll wait and see.
Even though our weekend with daddy ended a bit dramatically we did have a fantastic time and thoroughly enjoyed our time together.

Birthday Party Fun

Birthday Boy Eric and his mommy (my sis-in-law) KayeThomas cake made by Eric's Aunt BeckyAunt Becky and Eric

Unhappiness is...waiting for birthday cake...

Happiness is...devouring the birthday cake with your hands

Family hanging out during the party...Sarah, my brother Matt, my sis-in-law Ashley holding Gavin, and my brother Pete.

Kaylee (the photographer!), Becky, Anna, Emily, and Eric

Sarah and Kaylee

Ashley and Gavin

My dad with Gavin and Marne

My dad and my brother Pete

My nephew Eric celebrated his second birthday this month. He is my brother Matt's son. We went down to their house the day before. We had beautiful weather and I actually drove the three hour drive while Mark sat in the back with the kids. My mom sat in the front with me. We got there around 5. My sister-in-law Kaye had sloppy joes waiting for the kids for dinner. My mom and dad stayed with the four kids while Matt, Kaye, Mark and I went out for dinner. We went to Los Tres Amigos in East Lansing. Terrific food!!! And a pitcher of tasty margaritas!!!! And a shot of tequila...done by Kaye and me...the boys were wimps. Dinner was very good and the company was even better. We laughed and shared stories. It was truly great! It was wonderful get out and eat without the kids. After dinner we stopped by the bar near my brother's house. We had one drink and played a game of keno but the bar was no match for the fun we had at the restaurant.

The next day was Eric's party. Peter and Ashley drove over from Livonia and Kaye's parents and her brothers and their wives and family joined us. Kaye's brothers have seven children between them. My kids loved having all the other kids to play with.

Before we left we stopped over to Eaton Rapids. It is about 15 minutes from my brother's house and is where my father recently moved. He lives in an apartment in a converted mill. It is only two stories but it is huge including a two story, heated parking garage. I loved that it had history and my dad's place is very nice and large for a one bedroom.

The next day Henry had school. Mark was suppose to be home until Tuesday but he got called in with a load that had to be picked up Monday. We had to leave as soon as Hen got out of school. I hate when I get these surprises sprung on me. I seriously found out we had to leave an hour before we left. That started a huge fight between Mark and me. We did not speak the entire two hour drive. Thankfully we are speaking now and he is suppose to be coming home tomorrow which is a week earlier than I expected him!

The Most Beautiful Baby!

My beautiful baby boy Gavin posing for the camera. This picture was taken at my brother's house. The picture was taken by Kaylee Charles, my brother's niece. I am very impressed with the pictures.

This one is my favorite. I would love to have it framed! Gavin is now three months old. He smiles and laughs but has a pretty fierce temper. He still does not sleep through the night :(

This one is the first picture done in black and white.

The rest of these pictures are of Henry and Irene giving me pouty faces because they had been denied something they wanted. Kids are so funny.
This picture should be titled Irene in her usual state of being.

Running with the Olympic Torch

Here are pictures of my childhood friend running with the Olympic torch in Alberta. His name is Christian Grimes and his mother was my mother's best friend while growing up. Chris, as he is known, is a few years older than me.

My mother had a pen pal in England when she was in her teens. They got along well on paper and her friend decided to come across "the pond" to visit. For company (and probably as a type of security since it was the 60's) she brought her friend Kate. My mom and the pen pal didn't really get along in person but my mom and Kate hit it off! Even my grandparents loved her. From then on Kate became a part of their lives. Even her parents, Joyce and Allan, became very good friends of my grandparents. They visited often, Joyce and Allan coming over here to visit several times and I think my grandparents went over there too (gotta check with my mom). Of course we went over to England for a visit when I was young and I still have memories of that...some are actually rather funny. Eventually Kate's husband was transferred with his company to Canada. They lived in Thunder Bay, Ontario for a while. If anyone has ever been there and drove to get there you'll remember and NEVER forget the ride...looong! The funny thing is that my husband has been there. I have always found that amusing because most people don't even know about the place let alone ever visited, but he has been there...well it's funny to me ;)

The last time we visited them they lived in Fredrickton, New Brunswick. We visited several times and from there we would drive to Prince Edward Island. We'd take the car ferry across to the island. Of course now there is a bridge but the car ferry was way more fun!

Well there is a bit of family history for you!

Unfortunately I do not know who took the pictures so I cannot give them proper credit but they are great!

Good Times

Today MOPS had a playdate at the church. We actually made it although 15 minutes late. The kids ran around then played with play doh. The lovely Mrs.Youngberg read them a story then lead them in some songs. I enjoyed talking to the other moms. One mom in particular seemed to have a similar mothering style to mine.

I missed the MOPS meeting last week. I was very disappointed, but Gavin had his doctor's appointment in Traverse City. I had already rescheduled it from the week before when we were all sick. The appointment was at 10am so I managed to have us on the road by 8:15. I was worried about the roads being bad since we've had so much snow. Traverse City is only about an hour and fifteen minutes from here during good weather but add some snow and ice into the mix...

I was almost to the office when Mark called me. He wanted to know what I was doing because he was in Grand Rapids with two days off. So after we were done with the doctor we drove the hour back home which took longer since it had started snowing and the roads were getting bad. Then after a quick stop at home we drove the two hours to Grand Rapids. When we got there Mark called to inform us that he was running behind. It turned out to be 4 hours later that he actually got there. The kids were hungry and Gavin was crying from too much time in the car. We left Grand Rapids around 8:30pm. The weather was not good and the roads were bad. We did stop for a quick dinner and finally got home around midnight.

On Friday Henry and Irene needed to get there second H1N1 shot. I called and got Mark added to the list for a shot too. Henry cried and carried on like a madman over the shot. It took Mark, me and a nurse to hold him down. At least now they are done with those!

After Henry was done with school we drove to Traverse City. We had a gift card to Outback Steakhouse so we had dinner there. The kids were pretty good until we were almost finished. Gavin started getting cranky. Afterward we got mark some new work boots.

Saturday we set up Gavin's room. He has been sleeping in the living room in his Amby bed. I figure that it is time to get him sleeping in his own room. We shall see how that goes! After doing that and having lunch it was time to take Mark back to Grand Rapids. It was a nice surprise having him home but it was pretty much three days spent in the car.

Sunday morning my brother Peter and his wife Ashley came to visit and have a late Christmas with us. They showed up an hour before I expected them and scared me when I turned around and saw them at the door. I was giving Gavin a bath when they arrived and didn't expect to see people at the door. I made lunch for everyone and we opened gifts. The kids were thrilled with their gifts and Henry is planning to take his to show-n-tell this week. Later in the afternoon during naptime my mom stayed with the kids and Peter, Ashley and I went to the casino. We each took a whole ten bucks! We played a few nickle slots, my favorite being the Hexbreaker machine. We checked out the gift shop and had some popcorn. We managed to kill about an hour of time which is pretty good since ten bucks doesn't go far in the casino! On the way home Ashley ordered breadsticks from Big Al's. They have really good breadsticks and she has heard several different people rave about them. We had dessert when we got back to my house. It seemed like all we did was eat! But it was a fantastic day and I loved seeing them. The best part is we'll be seeing them again this weekend because it is my brother Matt's son Eric's birthday. We'll all be meeting up in Lansing on Sunday.