She Knits Shizknits

wordless wednesday

random ramblings wednesday

-This is the best, most REAL post about marriage + babies, evah!

-it's supposed to be 'cool' today..that means 75F instead of 85F. Seriously? 85F in November?

-I went shopping at Old Navy yesterday and picked up a sweater dress. I'm not sure it's a keeper- I'm kinda scared to wear it, but it looked cute in the store so we'll see.  Of course I don't know why I was trying on sweater dresses when it was 85F- I was sweating like a pig in the fitting room!

-it looks like LIttle Man cracked one of his baby molars. augh.  And of course our dentist is out sick...the crack happened yesterday but the tooth is still holding on and it doesn't seem to be bothering him too much right now. I'm waiting for the dentist's office to call me back...

-for goodness' sake, end the drama

-I want to wear my new boots- these are seriously the most.comfortable.boots.ever.  And can I tell you, I bought knee socks? To wear with my boots? And it's totally cute? 

-I haven't worn knee socks since Catholic school

-TMobile has been acting all wonky...I can make calls, but not receive them. Then I can receive calls, but not make them. This morning it seemed to be working fine...but we'll see!

-I have an oatmeal breakfast muffin that I want to make today...

-Little Man is the sweetest little boy....this morning I was dropping him off in the car-dropoff line and he leaned inside as the van door was closing and yelled: "You're the best Mama ever!"  *unclench heart*

-I need to clean my kitchen

-Laundry is the devil

-I dropped off LM early today so I could make the 745am yoga class; so glad I went!

-wanna try some soap making....why not?

-I have a crafty home project to work on today....so maybe it'll be muffins, then dropoff, then crafty project???? Or more likely I'll just fart around on the computer till it's dropoff time, then fart around at home and waste the whole day.

-Why do I feel like I spend all day picking up around the house, but it's never clean?

-need more coffee

-That's all!

All Fall, all the time

Wow, we've been so busy I haven't had a chance to post for a week!  So this will be an epic post, with plenty of photos....

I was worried we wouldn't be able to get to the pumpkin patch this year. Usually, we go to Tanaka Farms, take the tractor ride, and pick our pumpkins from the fields.  Unfortunately, the Dearest has been so incredibly busy that he couldn't find the time in his schedule to join us at the farm. So when friends suggested meeting after preschool at a local pumpkin patch, I decided to take the small men and go. We've been to Pumpkin City several times in the past...

It's not one of my favorite patches since it's set up in the parking lot of the local mall...but the boys love it because there are lots of rides!  The first ride Monkey Boy went on was the tractor 'race':



The kids went round and round in the circle on these little tractors...MB seemed to have an advantage since we have a battery powered jeep at home- he knew how to steer and step on the gas much better than some of the other kids.

Little Man pestered me to allow him to try the 'fishing game'. The kids had to use fishing poles with magnets on the end to pick up one of the prize bobbers from a circulating stream of water.

Here they are with their prizes:

Next up was the boat ride:

Then the boys saw the big round swing ride and wanted to take it for a spin (awful pun, I know!)


I was off to the side, watching and taking photos...and after a while I wondered when the carny was going to stop the ride. Two minutes turned into five minutes while he chatted with a busty female customer...and then some of the kids on the ride started looking a little green. Finally one boy began screaming that he wanted OFF! or he was going to be sick! LOL

After that, the small men were willing to oblige me with some silly 'still' shots:





And then we had one final ride around the patch with some friends:

There are a few more photos here if you'd like to see them. One thing that is strange about this particular pumpkin patch is every time we've visited, it's been SO HOT! Notice how all the kids are wearing shorts and tshirts? It was probably 90F that afternoon. Crazy!

One of the things keeping me from posting recently was the costume-making for myself and Monkey Boy. Last Thursday, Little Man and I went to the fabric/craft store to buy some last minute supplies. While we were there, LM spent a long time in the kids' craft aisle, looking at all the fun kits. I told him he could buy whatever he wanted as long as he spent his own money. He also had a 40% off coupon that I had given him to use. He finally picked out a dinosaur excavating kit, and as soon as we got home he put on the included safety glasses to excavate his dino:

I think this safety glasses were the cutest part of this kit:

The safety glasses were also worn during our pumpkin carving escapade. Both the small men had picked out LARGE pumpkins that I could hardly lift, much less cut into. It took me about 20 minutes and much cursing under my breath to cut the tops off of each pumpkin. Luckily the boys were pretty good about cleaning out their own pumpkin guts. Then it was time to trace our templates onto the pumpkins:

We taped the stencils we printed out onto the pumpkins and then used pushpins to poke along the outlines of the shapes.

We have a battery operated pumpkin cutter, but the blade was too short to go all the way through to the inside of the gigantic pumpkins....so I would cut out shape, pop out as much as I could, and give a safety 'knife' to LM or MB to finish cutting.

Here are the finished pumpkins (LM's ghost on the left, MB's bats on the right):


Thank goodness the Dearest showed up while I was still carving, because LM still wanted to put a 'Scooby face' on his pumpkin. I kept trying to tell LM that I didn't think it would be doable because the Scooby stencil he'd chosen was pretty detailed, and his pumpkin was so thick.
The Dearest saved the day by using one of the smaller pumpkins, and look at how happy LM is:

The Scooby face turned out great, too! The Dearest really does these detailed carvings well:

You can also see the little punkin I carved in this photo...that's the Sanskrit word, "OM"....or my approximation of it anyways!

This past week also involved a lot of planning for our neighborhood block party. Our friends P and D were hosting, so we spent Friday night decorating their garage with sheets, streamers, bats, and spiderwebs. The party was "Come as you're NOT"...and look at these great costumes!

Monkey Boy as the "Riddler" (aka "the mystery man", becuz according to MB, that's not a question mark on his shirt, it's a "mystery mark"):

here's a little better view of his shirt:
I had to make his outfit because we couldn't find a green unitard in his size anywhere! So I bought some white thermals and dyed them green with RIT dye, then stitched a big felt question mark on the front. It turned out cute, except the thermal bottoms were waaay huge in the waist so we had to use safety pins to hold his pants on!

Little Man was a Ghostbuster:

He even made a ID badge for himself, and wore a flashlight all night.
I was "Stinkerbell"- Tinkerbell's evil twin (who is wayyyy more fun, too), and the Dearest went as "Edward Cullen" from the book/movie "Twilight":


The kids had a ball trick or treating, and everyone had lots of good food and drink...there was so much yummy stuff at the potluck, I kept going back for more! One of the funniest things all night was the doughnut game. We tied a doughnut onto a string and made the kids try to eat the doughnuts without using their hands:

It was SO funny watching the kids run around in circles, trying to bite their doughnuts. I think it might have been even funnier if we'd tried it with the adults (many of whom were a few cups into the beverages!). There are a lot more party pics here if you're interested.

This next week should be a little quieter...I"m looking forward to trying out this new set of paints I picked up:

I haven't painted with acrylics in YEARS....It should be fun to give it whirl again!

new hair

I got my hair cut and colored yesterday...I love how it looks right after the stylist gets done:


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Too bad it doesn't look that good every day! I don't have the inclination to spend 20 minutes every day blowdrying my hair. And even if I did, I know I don't have the skill to make it look that good!

ten on tuesday

Ten things I love about Fall:

1. the light: it changes from that allover *bright* yellow of Summer to a softer, more golden hue

2. the food: stews, roasts, pies....all the things that take a long time to cook and taste so good

3. the holidays: Halloween!  How can you not love decorating for this holiday? We do a lot of fun, not scary, decorating- giant fuzzy spiders, pumpkins, silly witches, etc..  Thanksgiving is also during the Fall and that's another holiday with lots to love- food!!! family!!  turkeys!

4. the weather: September and October can be very hot in So.Cal.. Some years, Halloween is freezing and there's rain. Other years, you are sweating to death in 90F heat. But usually by November, it's consistently cool and crisp.  I love me some cool and crisp!

5. the clothes: I knit sweaters and socks.  So of course I love Fall...I can finally wear some of my handknits! Oh, and I can pull out other Autumnal looks: boots (I'm in love with boots + skirts this year), cordouroy, skinny jeans + tunics...

6. the routine: school is back in session, and while that makes for a hectic week for me (two kids, two different schools = two different schedules and lots of carpooling), it's nice to know what's coming up on my calendar.

7. the colors: two of my favorite colors are orange and purple, which happen to be two of the big colors for Fall. Perfect!

8. the travel: Fall is usually when we try to go apple picking, and it's also when we go to the local pumpkin patch to find the perfect pumpkin. This year, we may not make apple picking....but plans are in the works for our pumpkin patch trip.

9. the drink: hello hot teas and yummy fresh apple cider!

10. the planting: Fall in So.Cal. means it's finally cool enough to plant annuals like mums and pansies. The flowers we plant now will last through winter and give us lots of color and blooms.

What do you love about Fall?

bleh

Well, I've been sick since last week...It started with a scratchy throat while in Palm Springs, which then became a nasty head cold. After a week, I should have started feeling better, but by this last weekend I was actually feeling worse. While talking to a friend last Friday, she kept telling me that I had a sinus infection...well I normally gets LOTS of pressure in my sinuses with a head cold, often bad enough that my teeth will ache. So I kinda of blew it off, thinking it was just congestion from the cold.

Sunday afternoon we attended G'Ma O's big birthday party with the Dearest's whole family. I was still really super congested, despite using my neti pot and dosing myself with Sudafed (for the congestion) and Advil (for the pounding sinus headache). Right after the party we had to attend Open House for Monkey Boy's preschool.  By then the Sudafed and Advil had worn off and I was feeling like a giant pile of crap. My head was pounding horribly and I would barely see straight from the sinus pressure. I finally had to leave the Dearest and the small men and go lay down in the car. As soon as we got home, I took a handful of pills (more Sudafed and Advil) and crashed out for an hour. The Dearest had to make dinner and finish up the Sunday night routine because I was still out of it after I woke up.

By this morning, the congestion was marginally better, but it had been over 10 days since I first got sick and I was actually feeling worse, not better. At this point I should have been on the mend. Instead my sinuses were still completely gunked up (despite lots of nose blowing and using the neti pot), I had lost my sense of taste, I was exhausted all the time, and I just knew something was not right with my body. So I made an appt. to see our GP.  Now, I NEVER go to the doctor...the last time I took antibiotics was when I was preggers with Little Man and had an UTI...over seven years ago!  The last time I went to the doctor because I was sick? Probably well over eight years ago...I've been pretty healthy all this time- of course I have had colds and such, but nothing my body couldn't handle with some help from immune-boosting home remedies.

Anyways, the doc promptly confirmed that I was right: I did have a sinus infection so he wrote me a scrip for antibiotics.Take 2x a day with food, for 14 days. Fun fun!  I was shocked at how HUGE the pills are, though...seriously???? They are the size of my thumb (that's a BIG mug you see in the photo above). So now I'm on the antibiotics (along with some probiotics to keep the lovely side effects of the horsepills minimal), and hopefully I'll start feeling better very soon.  

Moral of the story? Trust your instincts...and it's probably not a good idea to hang out in smokey bars in Palm Springs when you are coming down with a nasty head cold!

morning routine

random ramblings wednesday

-waaay too much time spent running around yesterday...errands/carpool/shopping/carpool/science night...too much! I actually felt flu-ish going to be last night!

-thank goodness I'm feeling better today

-skipped 6am yoga class this morning. woke up at 5:30, looked at the clock and thought "nah", rolled over and went back to sleep...that extra hour of snoozing was prolly just as good for me as the yoga would have been

-cleaning up email distribution lists can be a pain in the patootie

-i need to sign up for another Cooking Light subscription...they have the best recipes

-today is supposed to be 96F..hello, Mamma Nature? didn't Fall start yesterday?

-no knitting going on around here as it's been too hot

-the Dearest has been working some crazy hours for the past month...I miss him!

-gearing up for a Girls' Weekend in Palm Springs this weekend....I was told I need a "hootchie-mama dress" for Saturday night...should I be scared?!?

-just got the Best Camera app for my iPhone...very cool! If you have a cell with a camera, you should try this app out! 

-wanna go shopping for some tights for Fall...despite the 96F temps LOL Am I crazy or what?

-our masterbath needs a serious deep clean...why can't I find a cleaning person who will clean just the bathrooms???

-sitting on my desk is a spiral notebook with a bunch of Little Man's passwords and account names...I love looking through it and seeing what he uses as passwords!

-I'm trying to journal at least a few times a week- started last week and have only managed to  write twice...

-over the drama...and that's all I'm going to say about that

-lots of books to pick up at the library...that will be my next stop after dropping off Monkey Boy at preschool today. 

-need to take more photos of LM...he's in school all day and MonkeyBoy isn't, so I have been taking lots of pics of MB lately...

-MB's preschool wanted a family photo and the most current one I have is from April. Seriously??? Wow..need to take family photos more often.

-the small men were yelling while in the bathtub together last night...I thought they were arguing and went in there to ask them stop. Turned out it was the Lego men who were 'arguing' (they take Lego figures into the tub for play)....doh!

-just noticed today that MB has some seriously hairy legs...lucky for him, he's a boy! LOL

-need to fold about six loads of laundry- ugh

now, I'm off to fold that laundry and get lunch ready for MB before preschool.....

just plain silly...

I have some great songs from MC Yogi on my playlist, and I must listen to them A LOT...otherwise how do you explain this?

I'm not sure what the serious face is all about...though the grooving body movement is perfect! Sometimes I'll catch the Little Man or Monkey Boy totally dancing to the music, which is always good for a giggle. LM does this silly robot walk move that just cracks me up! In other yoga-ish news, I finished my last Yogi Training class and have the t-shirt to prove it: On the last night we knew we'd be doing a full practice, but our amazing teachers surprised us with dinner at Natraj. Look at these glowing faces!

It was great to hang out and talk about how Yogi Training has changed our practice. I know that for me, YT gave me the confidence to finally own my own practice....I like being guided through a class, but now I'm perfectly comfortable to do my own thing, too. I also feel like things have changed for me off the mat...I'm a bit more mellow (believe it or not! LOL), and as one of the other students said: I feel as though "my shoulders have dropped"...it's easier to take that step back and breathe deeply when an obstacle presents itself. Who knows where the yoga path will take me from here...but after completing Yogi Training, I feel like I have better tools to continue on.

full-moon friday

Yes, I know the blog postings have been thin on the ground lately. It's not that I don't have anything to write about; it's that I have too much to write about! I usually open up the Typepad dashboard in my browser and stare at it while I try to figure out where to start.  It becomes overwhelming and I just click the window closed...and another day passes without a post.

So what have we been doing? Lots of beach time, lots of pool time...it's been very hot for the past couple of weeks. Hot enough that we turn on the A/C almost every day- something that's rare in our household. Last year the A/C was used maybe four or five days, but not this year! I'm sure our electric bill will be sky high this month. *sigh*

The Dearest has been slammed with work. One of his big clients- a school- is rolling out a brand new computer lab, and another big client has unexpectedly inundated him with a big project. He's been leaving for client sites early in the day and coming home from work late, then working into the wee hours of the morning after spending a couple of hours with us around dinner.

As for me, I've been spending a lot of time at the yoga studio. I haven't blogged about yoga much, but it's become a big part of my life over the past few months. I started taking classes in April at a local studio, and three weeks ago I got an incredible opportunity to attend a 6 week in-depth 'yogi training' series.  I had been wanting to attend the training for months, but due to travel plans and the cost of the series, I figured that I couldn't do this session.

Then circumstances changed incredibly fast (it was though Fate or karma was working on my side), and suddenly I found myself in a room with twenty-five other enthusiastic yogis.  We spent two full amazing days on philosophy, alignment, flow, and breath. On the second day, we met with our teachers and broke into small groups- I was incredibly happy to find I was being mentored by one of my favorite instructors, Keeley. That afternoon was spent in a full practice...I think it lasted a little over an hour and half, but I was so focused and the energy in the room was so powerful that it felt as though it lasted only 10-20 minutes.

Now we're meeting weekly with our small group, working intensively on both the physical and spiritual aspects of yoga. This week was our second meeting, and we had another amazing practice. There are two mentors/instructors, and only five students so we got a lot of hands-on adjusting and help. At one point I was in Natrajasana (Lord of the Dance pose), and with instructor Jen's help I had gotten into  such a deep, powerful backbend (I think my head was nearly touching my foot !) that I found myself thinking, "I didn't even know my body could do this!"

Next week's intensive will be all about arm balances, and I can't wait. To me, arm balances are the showy/scary/fun part of yoga. Every time I try a new arm balancing pose, I feel like I'll never be able to figure it out...and then one day it clicks and I'm flying. 

At the outset of our training, we were encouraged to set a goal for the course. My goal: to learn to become more present in my every day life, bringing the focus I achieve on the mat, off the mat. We all made a 'practice card'- a 3x5 laminated card on which we had written inspirational words. Mine says "patience, calm, grace"...because these are the things I'd like to work on. 

I don't know that I've been more patient, calm, or grace-giving since I've started practicing with the card at the top of my mat, but I do know that I find myself a bit more willing to slow down and take a deep breath before I start screaming! LOL Being patient does not come naturally to me, so seeing that reminder at least once a day is good....

Anyways, enough of the yoga ramble...we're off to find out who Little Man's 2nd grade teacher will be at the Meet N Greet at school.  Wish us luck- he is hoping that his friend from around the corner will be in his class this year!