Happy Birthday Anna!

Happy birthday my sweetest Anna Marie! You have blessed my life with your precious spirit! I have become a better person because of you. I can remember the day you made me a mom like it was yesterday. How I loved to hold your little baby body next to miss and kiss your head and whisper promises of the future to you. How I now love to hold you to me, kiss your head, and still whisper sweet promises to you. You have always had an adventurous spirit. Happy birthday!

My sweet Anna turned 11 years old today. I can't believe I've been a mother now for 11 years! How time flies. I still feel like I just graduated high school.

So, I added some of my FO's on the sidebar. I added a pattern I wrote up for Madalyn's birthday. Don't you just love that photo of her. lol. She was trying to take a pose for the photo like we did for the photo shoot. The photographer was trying to get us to look away from him, like just slightly over his shoulder and stuff. Madalyn did a great job, but she looks a little forlorn. You can take it as her trying to model for me. hehehe. Gotta love 'em.

We are going to celebrate Anna's birthday tomorrow as Tim has to work late tonight. Should be tons of fun. Sunday we are going over to a friend's house to play cards. I'm jumping up and down as giddy as a school girl. How I long for adult interaction. The only adult in this house is me and I get bored talking to myself or tired of the arguments. (What did you just say? I told you to shut up!) Tim gets a little worried when that happens. Oh, that's right... Tim is physically an adult. I should say that I long for adult minds interaction. snicker. Anyway, dinner is ready, shepherd's pie, and the kids are circling like wolves. :)

Tisket Felted Basket

Tisket Felted Basket
4 skeins Cascade 220 or approximately 900 yards feltable wool
Size 13 needles

Yarn is double stranded throughout entire basket.

gauge: 2.5 stitches per inch

Cast on 14 stitches.
Row 1: Purl
Row 2: (RS) k1, M1, knit till 1 stich remains unworked, M1, k1.
Repeat row 1-2 until you have 20 stitces.
Work even for 3 rows.

Row 3: (RS) k1, M1, knit till 1 stitch remains unworked, M1, k1 (22 sts).
Work even until piece measures 9.5 inches from cast-on ending with a WS row.

Row 4: (RS) k1, SSK, knit until 3 stitches remain unworked, k2tog, k1 (20 sts).
Work 3 rows even.

Row 5: (RS) k1, SSK, knit until 3 stitches remain unworked, k2tog, k1.
Row 6: Purl
Repeat rows 5-6 until 14 stitches remain.
Leaving stitches on needle and with RS facing, pick up and knit 32 stitches to cast-on edge. Pick up and knit 14 stitches on cast-on edge. Pick up and knit 32 stitches down side and join in the round (92 sts). PM.

Round 1: knit
Round 2: k7, M1, *k23, M1* 3 times, k16 (96 sts).
Knit 4 rounds even.

Round 3: k8, M1, *k16, M1* 5 times, k8 (102 sts).
Knit even until sides measure 8 inches.
Purl 1 round.
Knit 1 round.
Purl 1 round.
Cast off in knit next 28 stitches, k11, cast off in knit next 40 stitches, k11, cast off remaining 12 stitches.

Handle:
Join yarn to 1 set of 11 stitches.
Row 1: k6, bring yarn forward, slip 5.
Repeat until handle measures 27 inches.
Bind off both sets of 11 stitches together using the 3 needle bind off technique.
Weave in ends and felt to size/look desired.

It's going to be a great day!

That's what I woke up saying. It is going to be a great day!

Ok, so I last blogged on Friday. I wish I've done better blogging. Anyway, so Saturday started off great. We had been playing badminton off and on all day. I finally won a game, woo hoo! I was so excited!!! I think my batting average is 1%, hehehe. I was just sitting down to blog I was so excited. Rowan and Bella were playing in our coat closet. Cutie bugs. I pick up my laptop and Rowan starts screaming in front of me. He had a hanger hanging out of his eye and he's trying to rip it out. I started screaming at Tim. Madalyn is on the couch screaming and totally flipping out. I throw down my laptop and run over to him as he's madly flailing. I pull the hanger out which is now hanging on his lower eyelid. I sit down with him putting pressure on his eye. I just know he's blind in that eye and expect to see blood everywhere when I move my hand. Tim finally walks out of the bedroom, that's where he's freaking with EQ, and says, "whasshappening?" Madalyn and I both start blabbering to him. He grabs Rowan, checks him out, then sits down to munch on some watermelon with him!!! I can't believe it. He's unharmed! Tim hadn't even realized anything was wrong because he couldn't hear over his 7 point computer sound system. grrrr. Anyway, I had to lay down because I was blacking out. I've rarely been that scared! Madalyn packed Rowan around for the rest of day. She was pretty shaken up over it.

So, Sunday. We went to the photo shoot. I was hoping that they wouldn't need me, right? Well, they did so I helped out. I don't know how many shots they'll be able to use from us. Anna was thrilled to do some modeling. Isabella was uncooperative. Rowan didn't model anything as the sweater's neckhole was too small. Lily got to model a sweater and a hat. Even Tim got in on the action. We weren't expecting that so don't know how many good garment shots they got from him as he was wearing Hawaiian shorts... doesn't complement large heavy winter sweaters. lol. I even forgot to take out my piercings, sorry bout that! So I call on Monday to see how they turned out. Like I thought. Not gonna be able to use a whole lot of the shots, but they want to know if I'm comfortable being on the cover!!! I'm ok with that... really I am... I'm just so super self-conscious that I would never choose for myself to be on the cover. I'm the type of person that goes to a party and then spends the next 3 days going over every bit of conversation to see if I sounded stupid, ignorant or just plain tard. *sigh*

Monday felt like a total waste to me. I didn't get any homeschooling finished before we had company. We had a couple o' grandmas and other relatives over. Then I realized that I HAD to go grocery shopping. crisis level here. By the time we got home the day was practically over. But, yummmmmmm we had honey salmon, baby greens and peas for dinner.

So that sort of catches us up. Feel better? I do. hehehe.

Fiber world... I bought some more yarn. (hide my face) More wool to try out on soakers. It's for business, that justifies it, right? I haven't done a whole lot of knitting or crocheting. I finished the new Harry Potter book yesterday. I was a little disappointed with the size of it. I thought it was going to be a big book. 650 pages of large print doesn't count as a big book to me. I read the first 1/4th while taking a bath. I finished the book in less than 2 days all while playing badminton, homeschooling, shopping, etc. Normally I sit down and read a book in one sitting. hehehe. Anyway, so knitting. Have about 9 inches more to go on the pillow cover. Hope to finish that up in the next couple of days. Then finish the scarf. I am *so* torn. I keep buying yarn. I'm not buying it nearly as fast as I used to. I have this *need* to move to Ireland though. I'm hoping to move there in 8 years (when my oldest can choose to come with us or stay here with her dad). I cannot ship my whole stash over. I just won't. But my only options are 1)use it up and stop buying more until it's all used up 2)sell it off or 3)pay for it to go into storage. I'm rooting for option 1, but I'm too undisciplined I'm afraid.

Time to get off the cpu and tend to my little ones. Time for schoolwork and boobie munching (breastfeeding). See you all next time at the Crazy Station. *waves*

Cabled Shrug

Ha ha! I finished it! In less than 2 weeks. It is an FO, not a UFO. So there dork!!! I finished the knitting on Wednesday and blocked it out. I sewed it up on Thursday. I got it done in 12 days total. hee haw! You can see a photo of the rest of it down below. Looks a little patchwork-y, doesn't it. That would be thanks to the Manos. Each skein was a slightly different color even though it all came from the same order. One of the skeins was quite a bit darker than the rest. Most of it blended with the first washing. Unfortunately the yarn also faded quite a bit. I am hoping that with time that it will all blend together. If it doesn't I'm going to try to over dye the whole thing. I love it though. Perfect for someone who doesn't wear a coat in the snow. hehehe. So now I'm working on the Ruffles scarf and a crochetted pillow cover. I'll post the pattern when I finish it. I have the pattern written up, except for the buttonhole band. I'm crocheting it in aweful Red Heart. No flaming please. I know better than to use that stuff. I have an afghan that I WILL finish it in even if it kills me. The pillow cover matches. Then I will never have to touch the stuff again. lol.

Tman was gone for part of this week. He was in Provo, Utah at Novell's headquarters on Tuesday, Wednesday and came home on Thursday. I missed him so much! Although, I had to laught at him. He tells me that he felt bad about leaving me with 7 children. all alone. with no break. Right? First, I'm alone with them 5 days a week until 6 p.m. I'm pretty good at hiding from them for that many hours anyway, snicker. Second, while he was gone I didn't have the frustration of dealing with all the kid issues by myself while he plays EQ2 all night long. It was easier when he was gone as I didn't get frustrated with him. lol.

Friends are having a photo shoot next Sunday for their next newsletter for their yarn shop. They asked if my little ones can be in it. They will have so much fun doing that. They asked me to be in it. I'm hoping they asked me just so they could get my kids, lol. I have such a hard time showing people my photo. My face gets so fat looking with excess weight. Still 45 pounds to lose. I haven't lost any weight this month. What a total bummer! No, I'm not dieting or exercising. I'm hoping that it will just get lost. lol. I almost had my daughter wear my shrug for the photo above, but broke down and had hubby take these shots for me. I know its over-exposed. Blaim the lily white skin on that one.

Roast Beast anyone?

I'm sitting here talking to my oldest, Anna, about music. I recently purchased a Coldplay CD and Cure's 2004 CD. I said that the Cure is really old and has been around since I was a kid. Grace says, "you was a kid?" Yes, momma was a kid. She's always telling me that she's gonna grow big and grandma is gonna grow small like her. lol. In many ways, grandma IS growing small like her. snicker. So then Anna asks, "what's for dinner?" Before I can say enchiladas Grace answers back "Roast Beast!" lol.

"What's for dinner?" The single most asked question in this house. It's like the kids wake up and decide whether or not the day is going to be good by the dinner menu.

I was informed by my oldest that I'm lazy. Man, was I upset! We sat down for a discussion. I found out that I'm lazy because I don't help her with her chores!!! She's almost 11 years old! So we added up the minutes it took for her to do an excellent job on her chores. Ha! I wish! Like that ever happens. Anyway... 26 minutes. A day. I explained to her that some days I work from the minute I wake up to the moment I go to sleep. Often with multiple children. So, it's 1 p.m., we're chatting, right? I ask her how much time I've spent doing things I want to do. I had knit 2 rows on my shrug. Less than 10 minutes if you don't count my shower. I think according to kid standard I should count that though... :p So then I ask her how much time had she spent doing things she wanted. An hour and a half. And since we'd already done our chores and schoolwork, she had 4.5 hours till dinner time to do whatever she wanted. Oh, the misery and agony of being a child. How I wish to be punished and put on a child's schedule. lol. To sleep... like a child... instead of with 3 children... *sigh* Life would be so good. hehehe. I don't think there is a more challenging job out there. To be a parent. A good parent. But to be a great parent... I know the older I get, the more children I have, the better I get. It's a long road with a precious reward at the end of it. The whole journey... the most precious treasure of all!

Death By Shuttlecock?!?

T-man and I have been playing badminton almost every night now for about a month. Yesterday, he starts making fun of me for flinching every time the birdie (shuttlecock) comes at me. Ok, so he makes fun of me for just about everything, but hey, we're talking about badminton, right?

Well, I can't handle playing out in the bright sunlight. Playing completely blind. He slams the birdie straight at me... and... Bam! Right in the eye!!! If I end up with a black eye I'll... I'll... I don't know what I'll do! Maybe take photos and hold them for blackmail.

"...really now, I think you have plenty of yarn to run a freakin' internet store..." Bam! Out comes the photos and I'll do something like clutch my eye remembering the pain... hehehehe.

Now I'm blind from the sun and the attack of the shuttlecock. I start wandering blindly towards our front steps so that I can clutch madly at my eye when POP I step on a slug!!! Oh how grody! So now he's laughing at me because of the sun, the attack, and the slug. Is my only value to you of that of entertainment? Why, oh why? Why have *I* chosen to hitch my wagon to this madman? He tries to justify all of this by bringing up the things I do to him. Come on! How does pouring water down his shorts compare? Or even spitting water all over him? I mean, even waiting in the dark so that I can scare him doesn't compare.

Now the plotting begins... how can I extract my revenge? Nothing simple. Nothing he can expect. Muh-ah-ah-ah-ah........ .

Help, my 3 year old has a fetish already!

Grace runs up to me yesterday all excited. "Mommy, mommy!" I was cabling at the moment so didn't look up till I heard... "mommy, look at my dick!" I think I got whiplash from looking up so fast. hehehe. Like her dick? It's such a lovely dick. Here's a better one. A couple of weeks ago she runs up to me and says, "Mommy, there's a huge penis in my room!" I asked her to repeat it with this sense of panic. I mean, what the heck is a huge penis doing in her room. "No, mommy, there's a huge penis out my window!" Great, in broad daylight, in our little neighborhood, there's a freak flashing... what else am I to think? I run into her room and ask her to point to it. Outside her window... is.... a.... bee nest! *sigh* Gotta love 'em. If they aren't doing something, they are saying something. hehehe.

My cabled shrug is coming along. I am working on it diligently so that I can move on to other projects that I'm desperate to start. T-man says Sculley and Mulder are investigating. He says they are certain a UFO is about to land in our garage. That's where I store all my unfinished projects. As I'm sitting outside with my little ones and Gracey's stick I hear the theme song from X-Files playing in our bedroom. He had remotely logged in and turned the song on his computer. What a tard!


I received my KnitPicks order today. 5 skeins of lace weight yarn and scarfStyle. Omgoodness! There's a ton of scarves I HAVE to knit up in there. Life is way too short. I soooo wish I was independently wealthy! Have a household staff, have a few personal assistants, and all the money to do all the things I want to do. Wouldn't that be nice. Wake up to a clean house. Have breakfast waiting for us all. Clean clothes sitting out. I could school the kids first thing in the morning and then have the rest of the day for fun, cuz hey, I don't have to cook, clean, nothing I don't wanna do. I have so many knit designs running around my head. I could have someone sketch it out after I describe it to them. Another could swatch it up for me. I could write up the pattern and then have someone knit it up to test out my pattern. That's only the items that I don't want to knit myself. Oh, how I could go on!

Well, Lily woke up and is STARVING, wasting away to nothing. Gotta run.

Umm, yeah, so ok, I've got a PROBLEM

I told you, I told you. Me and yarn... we go together like Laverne and Shirley. Lookie what I bought. Shut up, no one ASKED you :p. I picked up some Manos for the Cabled Shrug from Interweave Fall '05. Down below is a foto of my progress so far. The Premiere is for the whirly twirly scarf (can't remember the name of it) scarf from Scarf Style. The Stork is for Pismo hat found at www.marniemaclean.com . Two EZ books, 2 FiberTrends patterns, a set of needles and I special ordered 5 other FT patterns. *sigh* Why do I do it to myself? Is there a 12 step program for yarn huffers? I don't even have my Knitpicks order yet. The cabled shrug is coming along nicely though. I'm through 2 cable repeats. Only 7.5 more to go. My dearly departed husband said... I mean my dear sweet husband said that he's going to buy some custom labels that say "Future UFO" and pin them to my new projects. He thinks he's soooo funny. I am going to finish this project even though he believes it has UFO written all over it. LOL. He's such a dork. Pay no attention to him, I try not to. snicker.

My weekend consisted of buying yarn, molesting yarn, buying pattern books, molesting yarn, starting my new soon to be finished project. I have goals people. I'm GOING to finish this project in less than 2 weeks. Mark my words... moving on. Sunday we woke up at 7:30... people get up this early usually??? We went and helped friends scrape paint off their house. Thank you, thank you! Yes, we can step away from the knitting and EQ2 for a little while. The knitting followed me though. T-man (hubby) would have taken EQ2 along, however it doesn't play well on my laptop. hehehe. Anyway... we played our first game of bridge. The girls won. Woo hoo! Interesting game. I think I'd like to learn more about it, but it is one of those things that I think the more you learn, the more you need to learn.

Oh, oh, oh. My 50 pack of pregnancy tests came in the mail today. I'm neurotic. You should know this by now... anyway, I like to test often. Ok, so I like to test psychotically. No, I'm not pregnant. I checked. LOL. You can buy them cheaply in bulk so you can take a test for no reason, any reason, or because you are bored. hehehe.

Here's the photo of my shrug. It isn't laid out prettily so you have to use your imagination a little. A friend of mine made those stitch markers. Aren't they too die for? He also made my husband a set with Celtic knots and purple and green stones. Since T-man can't knit I might just steal them for myself. Oh, his wife made me a set of beautiful ones for my birthday a year or two ago. They have sterling silver roses and freshwater pearls. I like bling bling for my knitting. I'm such a blessed girl!!!

I've got the blues...

Isn't he gorgeous? I snapped this prideful bird at the zoo recently. The kids had so much fun following him around. Peacocks make me smile and I need all the reasons I can find to smile right now.

We live in such a depressing world. London! My life is like London right now. They are on a high from being selected for the Olympics then wham! a slam up against the head. I don't mean to trivialize the bombings by comparing it to my life.

Most days I am thrilled to have the best job on the planet. I get to be home with my little blessings. I get to teach them. I get to play with them. Then there are days when I just feel like a doormat. Yesterday was one of those days. I guess you can say today as well. I feel like I am there only to provide the means for everyone's wishes and poo on me if I don't. I just need some me time. Makes me feel guilty though. I am so thankful to be able to do what I do. No other job gives me such a creative outlet. *sigh* I'll feel better tomorrow after some extra sleep.

Sorry to be such a bummer, be thankful you aren't here with me now. I'm a life-sucking party person today. Look at the peacock. smile. have a great day.

Meandering Scarf

Meandering Scarf
200 yds Wool in Woods*
size L hook
size 10.5 needles

gauge: 5 sts and 4 rows per inch relaxed

size: 4 3/4" by 70"

Row A: k1, *k2, p2* to last stitch, k1.
Row B: *k2, p2* to last 2 stitches, k2.
Row C: k1, p1, *k2, p2* to last 4 stitches, k2, p1, k1.
Row D: k1, *p2, k2* to last stitch, k1.

Crochet cast-on 22 stitches.**
Work following rows as set by above row definitions.
1-2: A
3: B
4: C
5-6: D
7: C
8: B
Repeat rows 1-8 once.
Repeat rows 1-2 once.
19: C
20: B
21-22: D
23: B
24: C
25-26: A
Repeat rows 19-26 three times more.
Repeat rows 19-22 once.
Repeat rows 7-8 once.

Repeat above rows until length desired ending with row 18.
******************************************************************
*Yarn was wound from hank and was labeled as Wool in Woods. They had a limited yarn with wool and alpaca. This appears to be it. It is a single ply.
**Here are instructions for doing the crochet cast-on: http://www.knitnet.com/common/support/caston.htm . If you'd prefer to do a different cast-on, go for it. This cast-on matches the bind off and is a nice way to make both ends complimentary.

Other notes: This reversible scarf is basically a k2, p2 rib that meanders. Here are some observations that might help make the scarf easier. On the odd number rows the stitches 'walk' one stitch to the left or right depending on which direction the ribs are traveling. On the even number rows you are going to k1, knit what you see, k1. Knit what you see? If you see a knit stitch hanging off the needle, knit it. If you see a purl stitch hanging off the needle, purl it. I hung a marker off the front of the scarf to indicate the odd side. If I saw the marker, take those stitches for a walk, if not, knit what I saw. Hope this helps.

I did my best to proofread this pattern. Please let me know if you find any errors and I will fix it. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

100 Things About Me

1. My name is Loralyn Wanda Horine.
2. My name is derived from women in my family. Lora was my great-grandmother's first name, Lynn was my aunt's middle name, and Wanda was my grandmother's middle name.
3. I am married to my best friend, Tim.
4. I have seven babies, Anna Marie 11, Madalyn Laurice 8, Timothy David Jr 7, Grace Ellen 3, Isabella Pelagia 2, Rowan James 2, and Lily Mae 1.5 months.
5. I have 2 step-sons, Jacob Bishop 13 and Zachary Taylor 9.
6. I'm born and raised in Washington state.
7. I lived in Southern California for 5 months in 1991.
8. I lived in Michigan for 5 months in 1994.
9. My birthday is February 22, 1975.
10. My first marriage was when I was 18 years old.
11. I was divorced at 21 years old.
12. My marriage lasted that long because ex-hub was military and gone for over half that time.
13. I received my AS in 2001.
14. I am the first in 5 generations to graduate from high school, let alone any sort of college degree.
15. I want to eventually go on for my BS, probably in mathematics.
16. I probably won't ever use that degree except for the boost in pride.
17. I come from poor white trash in all the bad meanings of that phrase.
18. My mother had me when she was 17.
19. I have 3 half sisters and 2 half brothers from my mom.
20. My mom died in 1986, less than a month before I turned 11.
21. I became an orphan as I had no father listed on my birth certificate.
22. My legal guardians tracked down my biological father in 1990.
23. I met him for the first time in 1990.
24. I don't have a relationship with him because he didn't want to develop one.
25. Overall, I'm ok with that.
26. My legal guardians adopted me in 2001.
27. I have 4 adopted sisters and 1 adopted brother.
28. My adopted siblings are all the biological product of my adopted parents.
29. Boy, I like talking about myself.
30. I was a vegetarian as a teenager.
31. My adopted family are a bunch of loggers, wood mill workers and meat cutters.
32. Being a tree hugging vegetarian in a family like this... not an easy mix.
33. In high school I went through many phases.
34. I went through a goth phase before there was such a thing.
35. You can paint your nails with clear polish and color in with a black sharpie to get black fingernails when black fingernail polish isn't available (or even in stores like back then).
36. Dyeing your hair black, by yourself, at 14 years old results in very streaky hair. lol.
37. 1 goth girl in a school of cowboy hicks... no one even wants to look at you because of fear.
38. I listed to Cure's 'Love Song' every night when I went to bed. I had it on repeat all night long.
39. I went through a hippy period in high school as well.
40. Dad's closet is an excellent source for butterfly polyester shirts.
41. I was a total trendsetter before my time!
42. I hear now that in my high school some people don't even own cowboy boots, how shocking! lol.
43. My favorite book is Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.
44. I love A&E's version of the book.
45. My favorite drink is Mountain Dew.
46. I make midnight runs for it when I run out.
47. Doctor says that I have an addiction to it. He thinks a 12 pack a day is too much. Doctors are stupid.
48. I'm not addicted to Mountain Dew.
49. Did I say I like talking about myself?
50. hrmm, lets see... I'm artsy fartsy.
51. I rubber stamp.
52. I scrap book.
53. I draw.
54. I love to do oil paintings.
55. I quilt.
56. I attempt to make clothes.
57. I love needlework.
58. I crochet.
59. I knit.
60. (insert screeching tires audio) I have a yarn problem.
61. I buy too much yarn.
62. I love to sniff yarn. Yes, I'm a yarn huffer.
63. I have over 30 UFOs (unfinished objects) in knitting alone.
64. I have ADHD.
65. I'm amazed when I finish anything.
66. I'm going to be particularly proud when I finish this list.
67. I love hazelnuts.
68. I especially love hazelnut chocolates.
69. tee hee, 69...
70. I consider myself mature... 69 tee hee.
71. I love snuggling babies.
72. I had to be a mother so that people would stop staring at me. It seems more logical for a grown woman to tie a blanket around her neck and 'fly' through the house when kids are around.
73. Even my kids look at me with the 'what the...' expression when I fly through the house with a blanket cape.
74. I sing christmas songs all year round. sniff sniff, even hubby makes fun of me for this.
75. We don't celebrate christmas, what's up with the song singing!!!
76. ummm... I stay up way too late. Currently going to bed between 2-5 a.m.
77. Always been a night owl.
78. I've always tried to fight it.
79. I love the idea of sitting back, having a drink and relaxing. In reality, I have average 1 drink every 2 months.
80. When I was a teenager I wanted straight black hair, violet eyes and to be named Bleu.
81. I have naturally curly dark brown hair.
82. I have blue eyes. Hubby would describe them as being light grey/blue.
83. I am currently 45 lbs. overweight. Give me a break, I just had a kid!!!
84. I don't pay attention well. Even when I find something interesting.
85. I have bad hearing. I need to go to the doctor to have my ears checked. Stupid doctors.
86. I started repeating to people what I hear them saying.
87. I can swear up and down my hubby called me a 'stupid whore' when we were out to dinner. We laugh about that one still. Btw, my hubby would NEVER do that.
88. Schwann's has an ice cream bar called gold nuggit. I think there's something like 12 in a box. I have eaten an entire box in one sitting.
89. I am a fiend for candy.
90. I used to take my lunch money and buy 5 candy bars for lunch.
91. I currently have a wide selection of candy at my house. Got to be at least 5 pounds here.
92. I'm 5'10". It wasn't until 9th grade that there was a boy my height in my grade.
93. My favorite color is blue.
94. My favorite food is peas. Yes, now you know I AM a freak.
95. I seperate my candy and eat them by colors.
96. I have to eat my meals one dish at a time. No taking a bite of steak, then a bite of potatoes, then a bite of salad for me. I would eat all the salad, then the potato and finally the steak.
97. I'll eat an ice cream cone minutes before dinner.
98. I don't let me kids do that.
99. I love to have my babies sleeping with me.
100. drum roll... I like talking about myself.

Beautiful Bella

Yesterday was a friend's birthday, right?. We decided to take our Isabelly with us. Her formal name is Isabella Pelagia. We call her about every variation of that. She's 2.5 years old now. She's so shy and quiet around other people. She was thrilled with the tigers you can see from their back yard... ok so I corrected her, they were cows. LOL. She stood on their deck peering over the fence at them for quite a while. Such a precious soul!!!

Anyway, friend's hubby (he's a friend as well, but wanted to give props to the gourmet guys) made some to-die-for pesto grilled salmon. Belly was so taken by the tigers that she only ate a little bit before running back out to watch them. Then we had birthday cake. What an understatement! It's more like G-d made the world in 6 days, rested for 1 day, and then made this cake on the 8th day. Yeah, it's THAT good. So Bella Baby is eating her cake. I finish mine and then start picking at the few bites left of her salmon. Next thing I know, she whips the salmon off her plate, pops it into her mouth, chomps on it a couple times for good measure and then puts it back on her plate. LMBO big time! Talk about territorial. What's even funnier is that I had just finished this diatribe on how my little ones are fascinated with bathrooms. They feel like they MUST pee in the new bathroom. Stores, restaurants, friends' homes. We have not arrived until we've used their potty!!! I was just commenting that it was like they needed to 'mark' them. Well, Bella definitely 'marked' her salmon. No way am I eating it now. I'm not one of those freak moms. I've seen some moms take half eaten food out of their kids' mouths and eat the rest. Barf-o-lah!

Knitting news... Knitty has their next edition out. I HAVE to knit up a Satchel. Still trying to decide what colors, whether I want to do it multicolored, striped, and if I want novelty yarns in it. Got to finish Meandering first. I should have the scarf finished today. I need to edit the pattern for errors, take some photos and hopefully I will have it up tomorrow. I bought more yarn. *sigh* I know, I know... I have a problem. Ya'll have heard of yarn ho's, yarn-a-holics, yarn addicts, and what not. I'm in a league all my own. I honestly have several thousand dollars of yarn in my stash. When I say I have enough in my stash to knit for the next 5 years, that's an understatement!!! Moving on... I bought some KnitPicks Shimmer. I feel like I'm cheating on my LYS when I buy yarn from other places. They don't carry lace weight yarns (yet :p) so I feel a little better about my wandering eye. I am in serious need of knitting some lace. I need something dainty and complex. Nothing like lace. :)

Well, Little Lily is work on her third chin so I must run now. Have a Great day!

Cutie Bugs

Look at my wonderful hubby and son Rowan. Isn't he just scrumptious? They both are, tee hee.

Movies last night were Miss Congeniality 2, White Noise and Fear Dot Com. We've yet to watch Fear Dot Com. Miss Congeniality 2 was exactly as I expected, why bother making a second one. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed the first one, but how could they possibly expect to write an interesting story line to a second one. I guess they couldn't. Lol. White Noise got really bad reviews. They need to have horror flick buffs review these movies. Horror is my favorite genre. I really enjoyed the movie. Fear Dot Com... has yet to be rated and by the title I think I will have some berating to do. snicker. Its got to be better than Alone in the Dark though. Pee-u!

We are going over to celebrate a friend's birthday today. She's turning 30 years old today. I feel for her. I turned 30 in February. I spit on all those that say, "Come on, 30s are the new 20s!" Its like barfing on a canvas and calling it art. lol. Being 30 gives me a little more credibility on being a mom of many. All the good things end there. I'm thir-ty! Nothing glorious about that. I can remember thinking being old enough to drink was old.

Time to go. Wish I could write more. Now that I'm thirty, I wake up and the day is over! I'm like all the other old people saying, "I can remember when..."

I've learned something new

Last night I decided to pop in an oldie but a goodie movie, Emma. I love Jane Austen!!! I wanted to relax and knit. See the new scarf I'm working on. I call it Meandering. When I finish it I will post the recipe for it. Nice reversible scarf. This photo doesn't show it off well. My new trick? Drinking and knitting. I've been leery about it as I usually get tired while drinking. My evils? Irish Cream, well before that was a little bit of port that I had left. mmmm. I can knit and drink. Hah! I got skills! A friend was also kind enough to turn me on to Limonata. mmmmm. It's like sparkling homemade lemonade, but much more expensive, lol.

If you haven't guessed, eq2freak is my husband. What a dork! I mean... you are my sweet prince. Yeah... that's what I mean. snicker. Today we picked up Rowan's pictures we had taken a few weeks ago. What a heartbreaker! Next Sunday we are going to get all of the little chillens pictures taken. Me...stressed... TOTALLY! I mean, 7 kids, all looking neat and tidy, all smiling at the same time, can we say mission impossible? hehehe. I style Grace and Bella's hair, walk to the van, and they look like they've never had a comb taken to them. *sigh* 7 kids... Seven children... YOU HAVE SEVEN KIDS!!! That's right. I'm a little unbalanced and that's the way I like my world. I'm a tattooed, pierced, baby lovin' 30 year old freak. I wouldn't have it any other way. Well, maybe some fun colors streaked through my hair. Freakboy won't leeeeeet me do it. Just kidding, lol, let's just say he wouldn't be happy with me. As long as he keeps his extra weight on him to fulfill my chub fetish I guess I can keep my hair a 'nermal' color. The moment he goes on a diet though, blam-o rainbow hair. hehehe. Oh! Maybe get my lip pierced too. He thinks if I get any more facial piercings I will cross the line into piercing freak. What's wrong with that? I have my eyebrow, nose and tragus pierced. I had to let my tongue heal up as I kept grinding it in my sleep and causing painful sore blisters on the roof of my mouth. Yuck!

Tonight's entertainment are movies (help us all, dorkboy is selecting them) and something he scavenges along the road, err I mean from the store. hehehe. We have a bunch o' kids, kain't afferd no vittels. LMBO. Well, that's what some people think. I even had one lady ask me where I buy my groceries from. The grocery store you freakin' moron. Course I didn't say that. Told hubby and he said, "we shop at the store for only big families..." derrrr. You wouldn't believe how many people ask if my husband has a good job... or if my husband makes lots 'o money. snicker. I need to start coming up with one liners. 'my husband is unemployed and we live off welfare.' 'you wouldn't believe how much welfare pays for all these kids, that's why we keep having them.' I guess only uneducated rednecks can have large families. tee hee.

We are e-vile geniuses trying to take over the world, one child at a time!