Finally grown up...again.

Since the decision was made to divorce late last year, I have pretty much been sleeping on a twin bed at the old house and after the move in August since the bedroom set (and dead mattress set) stayed with David.

I missed snuggling in bed with Hannah & Simon plus, I was getting sick of my early refugee decorating style in my bedroom.
So, on Dec. 26, I bought a mattress set and headboard. One of my co-workers had given me a very nice frame last weekend and my neighbor, Brittany, helped me get the headboard off my roof rack and upstairs to the bedroom.

The mattress was delivered yesterday afternoon and I slept really well in my new bed last night.

Now, all I need are some night stands, a dresser and maybe another TV. One thing I can tell you, the dresser will be purchased somewhere that delivers and can take it up the stairs.

Hmm...I hear there might be bonuses in February. ;)

The Weekend

On Friday night I took Hannah to see Dancing with the Stars on Tour.
I got free tickets at work so our tickets were in the upper tier.
However, you could see pretty well and we had a good time. It was a good show but a tiny bit long. Grandma Linda was upset because Wayne Newton did 3 songs but I told her she didn't miss much because it was obvious he had a cold (he could barely talk) so his singing was a bit rough to say the least.
Now, I have had this cat bed for some time but Leah won't go near it. How do you get a cat to go into a bed they normally won't touch???
Put it in the spot on your desk that they normally sit and hope for the best.
She has been ensconced there for the last half hour.

Thursday

Today I had to TYPE a form. They have it online in PDF but you can't fill it out electronically. They did not like my clear printing the last time around. Truly, how many people still have typewriters? Apparently me......but, the correction ribbon is out so this is about how many times it took me to finally get one that was good enough to use. (I was tempted to break into the Mojito mix & rum in the photo!)
The Ice Queen the 2nd time around is REALLY EASY because the pattern is all matching up and it is really only one row of repeating pattern with 3 knit rows.
You can barely see little red beads on the knitting.

Ice Queen

I spent yesterday at Dad & Linda's where we had a nice prime rib with all the trimmings. It was a quiet Christmas since the kids were at their Dad's house but we had had our Christmas on Monday.

So...I was having problems with my Ice Queen pattern working out and yesterday sat down to figure out what the problem was by reading my knitting and the pattern again. Turns out I had read the pattern wrong and was repeating the wrong section. I thought when I started doing the 2nd repeat of 20 rows that I thought I was supposed to do 16 times that I was going to run out of yarn and that would have been true since I was only supposed to repeat a 4 row pattern.

Needless to say, the knitting returned to its original state. I have to be honest, I was not sure the Kidsilk Haze was going to allow itself to be ripped out but it did so I am well off to another start which I will work on tonight.

Merry Christmas

Christmas Morning started early for us...yesterday, since Hannah & Simon will be going to visit their Dad for the rest of the week. Dad & Linda made the trip over EARLY yesterday morning and scared the heck out of Simon & I when we went downstairs at 6:30 am. I had been awake since 5:30 am but did not hear them come in.

Anyway, there is the just got out of bed look in these photos. My Mom got me a pretty bracelet, gift card & a cool Walletbe Wallet.
Dad & Linda picked up some GORGEOUS lace weight yarn. There is 1,800 yards in that ball.
Simon & Hannah got the usual stuff from Santa.
And a big gift from Grandma Barb, Grandma Linda & Grandpa and myself....a Wii.

Grandpa was nice enough to hook it up while I made breakfast.

Grandpa got a couple of things.......single serving Spam and a whole house FM transmitter. Dad is so hard to buy for but we surprised him with something he wanted but would not have necessarily bought himself.

Grandma Linda got a variety of stuff but...no good photos other than this one of the dinner table.
I hope everyone has a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS.

Sunday

On Sunday we were invited to a Santa Party. They had this guy that did AMAZING balloon creatures.
Simon's turtle from Finding Nemo.
A family photo.
And then there was SANTA! Santa came and called each child by name and gave them a present.
It was really magical!

Christmas Cooking

Kelli inspired me to try this recipe for No Knead Bread. It really is an easy recipe but you do have to plan ahead because there is a 12-18 hour initial slow rise and then a 2 hour rise after letting it rest for 15 minutes. However, due to the slow rise, it has a bit of a sourdough taste and and the crust is excellent!
The kids & I were doing so last minute Christmas shopping and they convinced me to buy this gingerbread house kit. I forgot that 90% of the set up is parent related. It did turn out really nice.
And, we made Christmas cookies. My neighbor who doesn't cook started making cookies yesterday afternoon while I was there so I "helped" make the dough. After it chilled, she sent 1/2 the dough home with Hannah so we could make some today.
Off to visit Santa this afternoon.

Friday!

What a good Friday. I am part of an online cooking group and we do a gift exchange every year. This year, I got a great gift from Truckee, CA. It included home made chili sauce, a cookbook about chiles and indestructible spatulas! How did they know I melt them? Thanks Jen!
I took the kids to the park after school and they played on the swings....
slides and lava tubes (as Hannah calls them). She was doing her own version of a Survivor Challenge, along with Jeff Probst like commentary!
I also helped with Hannah's class party.
Here she is with her friend Maddie.

Moving....

Welcome to the same blog at a new address!

A picture from Christmas past!

We are going to visit Santa on Sunday so there will be a new photo. Hopefully, Simon won't look quite so scared.

Birthday!!

This morning I opened a present from Hannah & Simon after we got up.

Before we left, Simon came to me with all of his money in the world because he wanted me to have it because he knows I don't have a lot of money. Ah, the logic of a 5 year old. I did think it was REALLY sweet that he wanted his Mom to have all of his money.

We went out for dinner and Simon's money paid for dinner. He was very proud. After dinner, we went to Zoo Lights.
It was very pretty with lots of lights and music. A great birthday!
I had to take a photo of these shoes. Stiletto boots. They looked great and she was obviously on a date but to walk around the zoo in those shoes....well, a bit tough but she had a nice strong guy to hang on to!

Happy Birthday to Holly & Me

I have a friend, Holly, that shares my birthday.
So..a group of us went out and celebrated.

I am thankful this year for surviving a pretty yucky year and coming out on the other side with the two people most precious to me in the world, my children.

Charity Knitting

I moved this box of knitting from the old house to the new one and still, the items did not have a home.

Well, today I was reading Suzi's blog and saw she was collecting knitted items.

So...off these went with the exception of the shawl (long ago given away and the mittens).

SWTC Karaoke in a biased garter scarf.
Same pattern with Lion Brand Magic Stripes.
Flying V from Esquisite Little Knits in burgundy Karaoke.
Bejeweled in the same Karaoke. You see, I am knitting through the stash of Karaoke.

Christmas & Knitting

We finally decorated the tree. Here it is at the beginning. I had to do some supervision since Simon thought a good way to tell if an ornament was glass was to tap it on the tile since he wasn't allowed to hang glass ornaments. Yeah, well, an ornament from 1976 is now history using that testing program. Ah well, that is the way it goes.
Finished. As you can see, it is filled as far up as the oldest child could reach. I am going to leave it that way.
I knit two Tudora's this weekend. The bind off was a bit fuzzy for new knitters but I figured it out. I need to find buttons for them but each of them is made from stash, worsted weight, Southwest Trading Company Karaoke.

KNITTING

Ok...the new Knitty came out and there are two items I can make that I actually have yarn for!!!

The first one is the cover shot, Ice Queen.
I was recently gifted by Miss Kelli with a ball of Kidsilk Haze in Vino that she received in a swap. I have been eyeing but had yet to come up with a pattern that uses only 1 ball and then along came Ice Queen. I also have red bead from my WIP Mystery Stole along that would match perfectly. I would have started it already if I could find US 8 size circulars ANYWHERE in my house. Um, not so much so there might be a new set of needles in my future (tonight even) so I can use my gorgeous yarn.
The other one that caught my eye was Tudora because it looks to be a quick knit that I can use small amounts from my stash.

A Stash Sale...

Keri was having a stash sale...so of course, I had to buy some stuff.

Stitch markers!!

And a Lantern Moon Silk Tafetta Bag (that I need like a hole in my head) that is really pretty!
Thanks Keri!