Wednesday, February 25, 2009

25 Random Things

This went around on facebook and I don't have time to write my witty parenting post, so here are 25 things about me for all my non-facebook friends!

1. I watch bad TV-Girls Next Door, Grey's, but I'm trying to cut back.
2. I met my husband in the woods playing with gorillas!
3. I gave birth to my second child in my home with midwives, it was the most empowering thing I've ever done.
4. I got arrested (on purpose) to protest the latest iraq war, turns out-I was right.
5. My Mom is still not happy about #4.
6. I love romantic comedies (roco), after watching them I get a happy feeling, the "post roco glow."
7. My favorite book of all time is Pride and Predjudice, I try to read it every year or so.
8. I made Robins Williams laugh, Pet Benetar's husband jealous and Sean Penn proud!
9. I don't believe in god or gods but I support goddesses.
10. I've been a vegetarian since 1997 and I drive an SUV with leather seats.
11. I love to take pictures. I think I'm pretty good at it.
12. I can siing like Loretta Lynn.
13. I did a cross country trip with my best friend and we traveled several thousand miles, went to 20 national parks and almost 30 states. We almost broke up in CA but worked out our differences and kept going.
14. I always think I'm right, which contributes to #13 and #4.
15. I love my kids, my great fear is that they will grow up to become Republicans.
16. Being a mom is the hardest thing I've ever done. Even harder than going to Nigeria and crossing a wire bridge to visit a village I should never have gone to.
17. I hate my skin.
18. I'm overcompensating for years of racial inequality and predjudice by trying to teach my kids about black people. I know I'm taking it too far because whenever my son sees a black person, he asks if it's Barack Obama.
19. I drink 2 cups of coffee a day, but my mug is really really big, so it's more like 4 cups of coffee.
20. My mom used to ask me to make my bed and I'd protest, what's the point, you are just going to sleep in it and mess it up again. As an adult, I can't sleep in my bed unless it's made!
21. I just got my city to agree not to use pesticides in our neighborhood park, if it's works I'll ask them to stop using them in all the parks.
22. I was born in Ky but since leaving for college, I've lived on water-Glouster MA, San Francisco, CA and now Everett, WA.
23. My favorite line of all time, "Do innkeepers have wives with Naturally Curly Hair?"
24. I knit socks and sweaters and anything else.
25. When I jump on a trampoline, it makes me have to pee.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Nice Smile

Show me a nice smile!

Children have evolved to use cuteness as a survival skill. After her brother took an hour and a half to fall asleep and she was up every hour, something has to keep us going. DH came down from the bedroom and said, "Our children are slowly trying to kill us."




But look how cute they can be when they get along. Actually, if you look closely he sitting on her.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

One Needs a Cookie

Well, here I am 8:30 pm and the kids are in bed but it's been a looong day. Both babes are sick with fevers and stuffy noses and I'm recovering from the flu. There were territorial disputes over my lap. My sister and I are only 15 months apart, I seriously don't know how my mom survived those early years. But, today wasn't bad we watched a movie, read a ton of books, got out old toys and a race track. I managed to throw two loads of laundry in and knitting a brioche hat is keeping me sane and awake. I felt like Loretta Lynn, "One needs a hugging and one needs a changin'." But, leave out the "one's on the way," part as we are NOT having any more kids! Two is more than we can handle.




This was yesterday.




This was today.








I brushed over a few topics topics lately, mainly DH's health. I did a one liner that he is fine and a number of people asked or emailed about more details. The two of us are still in near disbelief at the last year. I've been reliving each ordeal-the nosebleed, back problems, first surgery, second surgery, radiation etc by way of receipts for taxes (hello, Refund). It was pretty much always on our mind but it's less on our mind each day. Getting the thumbs up from the Doc last visit was a big relief and we'll probably hold our breath for the next test and the next but then it will all be routine and it won't be on our minds as much. He'll go back in four months, then get scans again and a check up four months after that, then every six months or so.
I have a lot to catch the blog up on: I finally made it to Madrona (did some shopping), I have some news about our local park and I have some knitting to share. I'll try to log in again in a few days.
Ha! Now it's 9:05 PM as both kids woke up already. Ugh. DH is still helping Butters fall asleep. He keeps coughing and waking up.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Art





































February really tests your winter preschool survival skills around here. Meaning, if you've got young kids who have been inside all winter and you've been to every bounce house, museum, indoor play area and fast food climbing spot and you are just about to climb the walls and find yourself yelling even after you've had your morning coffee, it's time to whip out the art supplies! I look forward to making some crafty messes outside....E got very serious and made some of the funniest faces and Butters always involved his favorite-cars. We put two colors of paint in bags and experimented with color combinations, we playdoughed and painted and we also ended some things early for not being a good listener. It's not all rosey!

Monday, February 9, 2009

Making Stuff


I finished my crazy Zimmermann socks, she calls them 'retreads,' as you can replace the bottoms when they wear out. They are thick, warm slippers but too small for me. They look crazy when they aren't on, like Japanese slings or something.






You can see they are a bit small. My only adaptations were that I did two at once on one long needle, knit the leg and top of foot, then picked stitches in the green and finished the bottoms individually. I love the toe decreases.
Since these are a wee tight on me, it's time for a contest, if you wear a size women's 8 or smaller (or men's 7 or smaller) and you swear you will wear these and you'll wash them in cold water and never ever put them in the dryer, they are yours! Email me or post a comment why you want them and I'll pick a winner at random and mail them to you.
Here's the other thing I made, a 5 layer chocolate chip cookie cake for my friend's birthday. You could get away with half the recipe and make a 3 layer cake, but the look on the kids faces at this giant pile of sugar is worth it! Recipe found here.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Pop Tarts



We made pop tarts a few weekends ago. I'm out of good, fresh blog material, so here are some shots!




I used whole wheat and didn't have shortening, so they were a little on the 'healthy tasting' side. Unless you eat 4 of them!
Here's the link for the recipe I adapted. Click Here.
We've been busy enjoying a few days of nice mild weather, going to our favorite parks, hiking the woods and swinging in the backyard.
Got some good medical news, here are their words: No finding strongly suspicious for local recurrence of tumor. Translation, Ty is cancer free!