Presents!

Hooray!!! I got my first SP box! First, I'm sorry this is late, we lost our internet for two days, and now the camera has gone missing. (insert sad face here) But enough of that. On to the goods!

My Secret Pal read me well. She sent me Felted Knits, which I have been coveting from afar, but have been afraid to order since for fear of unrequited felted love. Now that I have the book in hand I only have two bags, one pair of mittens (matches one of the bags), and several pairs of booties that I have to knit.

She also sent me a basics book illustrated Knitting & Crocheting, which I so needed. It's sad when a pattern says to knit four rows of seed stitch and you have no clue what they mean, then you find out its a "basic" design. A much needed book that looks like it will help immensely. I already saw some "basic" designs that I had not seen before and want to attempt.

The last gift is what makes me really wish I could find the camera. My SP sent me a beautiful notebook to write my knit notes in. It is in gorgeous metallics and jewel tones. Right on the money for my taste! The notebook has a magnetic closure (really strong magnet I might add) and a cool little pocket inside the back cover! I absolutely love it! Pictures will follow once the camera is found.

THANK YOU SP9!!!

(Two) Week(s) in review

So, we've been blog negligent and for that I'm sorry, but it's been a busy and stressful couple of weeks. Where to start...

The chipmunk: Much like "morning sickness" is not just for mornings, "terrible twos" do not wait for the second birthday. The kid is having separation anxiety every time she can't see me. I can't even go to the bathroom without a major temper tantrum breaking out (sorry if its TMI for some.) I also made the mistake of rocking her to sleep virtually every night of her life. We are trying to get her to sleep in her crib without Mommy having to rock her. This has turned into four hour battles each night with her screaming bloody murder in her crib while we try to alternate quietly sitting where she can't see us and soothing her every five to ten minutes (as prescribed by the "professionals".) She was already an insomniac like her dad - at 20 months she only sleeps about 10 hours a day total including naps, so we got little respite as it was. Don't let her cuteness fool you. She is as stubborn as they get! Now 50% of her waking time is spent screaming like a banshee! Oy! Please offer advise, though we don't promise to take it!

The cat: Next is my 15 year old kitty Phoebe. She decided to go into kidney failure a couple of weeks ago, so I've been taking her to the vet every day to get sub-q fluids. She has also completely lost her appetite (a side effect of the kidney failure) so I'm force feeding her from a syringe four times a day. Tomorrow I start administering her sub-q fluids from home. All this with a screaming baby at my side. Phoebe's spirits are good and we're hoping to stabilize her kidney functions and carry on. It's too soon to lose another kitty. I don't think I can handle it.

The Balls: Not those you sick-o. USMC Birthday Balls. Two of them in a week and a half. Not a big deal to some, but there's all this prep work - finding a sitter for the chipmunk, finding a dress that will fit you post baby and not make you look like a stuffed kielbasa, finding shoes to go with your sausage dress that you can actually walk in and not need a podiatrist in the morning, and there's the hair and makeup... I'm lucky if I get around to brushing my hair in the morning, now I have to curl it and look girlie or something? Ugh. And my version of makeup is cherry chapstick. So once again I ended up purchasing $50 worth of make up I will never use again and will go bad before next year. Anyhoo, you can see the results are simply mediocre, though the Lt. looks mighty handsome.

Homework: Lt. Mo and I are both in classes and we both have a tremendous amount of homework due and we both have not been able to get it done on time in the last two weeks. I'm sooooo glad I decided not to take any classes over the holidays! Turkey - homework... Pie - homework... Christmas tree - homework... Presents - homework... How it would really go is Turkey - Pie - Christmas tree - Presents... home what? So here's hoping we both pass our classes this quarter.

The Fire: The chipmunk has a book about fire trucks and firemen. It has this little button that sounds like a siren when you push it. She loves pushing it. Often it gets stuck and plays forever - "weeeoooo weeeooo". On this day, yesterday to be precise, she was playing with the book/button downstairs. We went upstairs to gather some laundry. I could still hear the "weeeooo weeeooo" in the background. Only it was really loud and really realistic sounding. I look outside and there's two pumper trucks, a ladder truck, an ambulance, several MPs and some fire marshal guys in front of our building. We wander outside to see what it is. There's a freakin fire in our neighbors unit and no one bothered to knock on our door! This is a four unit building and we all share walls. Can we have some communication here folks?!? I ran back in to get my kitty. We watched the firemen break the window to get into the unit. Smoke poured out of the window. As it turns out, there was no fire, just food forgotten and left on the stove. Still, it took hours out of my life and added a few gray hairs. I would have pictures, but the camera was in the building and we weren't allowed in.

All of that in addition to our regularly scheduled chaos. What a week (or two). (Exhale)

Knit update...

I finished the ballet top for the chipmunk. It's so super cute and tiny! Of course she's not so tiny, I probably should have knit a few more rows on the bottom. She's a little young for a belly top.

Here's the super model in the finished object.
I may have to do some modifications to the bottom to keep it from rolling so badly and to lengthen it. With the way she grows, it'll be a crop top by next week!

I also completed a scarf for our six year old (going on sixteen.) She's all about the rock star thing right now, so this is my interpretation of six year old rock star: pink with multi-color metallic eyelash. I think I'm going to add fringe to the ends and I'm going to make a matching hat.

This is the beginning of a Christmas present. Since it's a present, that's all I'm going to say!

Happy Halloween!!!

Here's the chipmunk a couple of weeks ago at kids Halloween fest on base.

We had no costume, so we made her up into a green garden fairy.

Everyone kept calling her Tinkerbell.

Here we are on Halloween. We were matching witch and cat. I knit her tail and cat collar. She loved having the makeup put on, but then wanted to touch it, so by the end of the night she had rubbed off her nose and whiskers.