Monday, November 19, 2007

Happy Anniversary, Babe!

 (Click for bigger)

Twelve years ago at this time, I was at my parents’ house, getting ready for our 7:00 p.m. wedding.  Of course, I had no idea what was in store for me in marriage (though, of course, I *thought* I did).  It’s been so different from what I expected, but I’ve never had a moment of doubt about whether we were supposed to be together or not.  Marriage is the best roller coaster ride EVAH, and I can’t imagine going through it with anyone else.

Happy Anniversary, Hubby!  Here’s to many, many more years together. 

Posted by erica at 20:40:28 | Permalink | Comments (3)

Baby Shower

Araxi’s shower on Saturday went really well.  10 adults + Thing One + Thing Two was a nice number to have here.  With Nana’s card table and folding chairs, plus the “little table” from the laundry room, we were all able to sit at a table to eat instead of having the food on our laps, which was nice. 

Here is our butler for the day:

07 Nov - Shower - Butler

A Silk Garden Gioia in the wild:

07 Nov - Shower - Fat Gioia 

And, of course, we have to have a picture of Araxi and the finished baby blanket.  YES, you knittaz out there have probably guessed that it was a Moderne Baby Blanket.  Auntie chose the colors, and I did the knitting.  As you can see, Araxi appears to like it:

07 Nov - Shower - Happy Blankie

Posted by erica at 20:16:39 | Permalink | No Comments »

Christmas Dish Cloths for Adri - CHECK

PB190007PB190008PB190009PB190010 FYI, I did end up taking one item off my “to knit by the end of 2007″ list.  Whew!  The load on my shoulder is just a hair lighter.  Oh, and I’m REALLY glad (knitting-wise, anyhow) that we’re not having Christmas with Hubby’s side of the family until December 27th.  It helps.
Posted by erica at 20:09:32 | Permalink | Comments (1) »

Friday, November 16, 2007

Eight Random Things

Well, I haven’t been tagged for a meme in a while, but Jane just tagged me for the Eight Random Things About Me meme, so here goes.  I’m really going to try to find stuff about me I haven’t mentioned before. 

Here’s how it works:
· When tagged, you must link to the person who tagged you.
· Post the rules before your list, and list eight random things about yourself.
· At the end of the post you must tag and link to eight (!) other people.

1) I had pneumonia 27 times before I was seven years old, and then my parents lost count.  (Yeah, I know — That explains A LOT!)

2) For about a year in high school, I wanted to become a missionary Bible translator.

3) Monday the 19th will be Hubby’s & my 12-year wedding anniversary (Woot!).

4) Barack Obama made me late for church last night.  (Oooohhh, I’m gonna be milking this one for the next year!!)

5) My dentist says I have the worst TMJ he’s ever seen.  It totally freaks him out when my jaw comes out of the socket.

6) I have studied Spanish, Latin, French, German, and ASL.

7) I have a “reverse cafe au lait spot” - a blotch on my right calf that is paler than the rest of my skin.  Most of the time, I’m so lilywhite that it doesn’t show up, but when I have a tan, it’s really obvious.

8) I flunked the second semester of every math class I took in high school.  After repeating the whole year of Algebra 2, I promised myself that I’d never take another math class as long as I lived.  I just barely managed to get a high enough score on the math SAT to keep that promise.  If my score had been just 11 points lower, it would be a different story.

So, whom to tag?  Hmmm….OK, here’s eight people.  (And, curse you, Jane, for tagging Knitting Magic Girl before I could!)

Dani of Yea, I Knit

Wool Winder of Wool Windings

Tara of T’s Knits (Honey, you need to post!!!)

Kat of Kat Knits

Lu of Maglia!

Marly of Yarn Thing

OceanKnitter of OceanKnitter

Abigail of 1870 Pearl

Posted by erica at 05:28:49 | Permalink | Comments (4)

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Caps for sale!

Caps for sale!  Caps for sale!….OK, not really.  Only the blue one is for my table at the Christmas boutique at school, but posting the pictures made me think of that terrific old kids’ book.***  The dark Kureyon one is for Neil, Grandma Lorna’s beau, for Christmas (it gets cold out in them thar Texas oil fields!).

PB140001  PB140002  PB150002

Dontcha just love the “Woe is me!” look on Hubby’s face?!  Believe it or not, that’s actually the same yarn I used in Auntie’s bag that wouldn’t die.  I really love the masculine colors in the Kureyon. 

***Tell me I’m not the only one who remembers Captain Kangaroo reading this story?  Whenever I see the book, I hear his calm, soothing voice…

Posted by erica at 18:31:13 | Permalink | No Comments »

Exercise

Check out Hubby’s new hobby/Jenna’s new favorite form of exercise:

alt : http://www.youtube.com/v/_CAO7Y_f_sE&rel=0&color1=0xcc2550&color2=0xe87a9f&border=1

Posted by erica at 17:46:42 | Permalink | Comments (2)

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

UPDATES

ARAXI’S GIFT:  Well, I can’t show you pictures, but all the actual knitting is done.  I have three little stitches to graft, a bunch of ends to weave in, then I need to give it a bath and block it.  The ends aren’t fun, but they could be worse; it’s not like this is an Alice Starmore sweater or something.

HOLIDAY KNITTING:  Oy.  Just, OY.  I know some things are going to have to fall off the list.  Good thing I only told a couple of people that I was going to knit for them.  Thing Two said I could wait to do her sweater till her birthday in March, thank goodness.  I think I like the idea of knitting them birthday sweaters instead of Christmas sweaters a LOT better b/c there’s not as much clustered around that time.  I’m still going to make Thing One’s scarf, and I’ll make a little drawstring bag for the wheels for Thing Two’s Heelys, but that’s a lot quicker than making her Drive Thru.  I’d tell you all the rest of the stuff on my list of knitting that needs to be done by the end of 2007, but a) it would make my head hurt, and b) I’d have to XXX out a bunch of stuff so the recipients don’t see it on the list.  Suffice it to say that when I had to list it out for something else, there were over 20 things on the list.  Like I said, OY.

On that note, off I go to do housework, do some special cleaning for the shower on Saturday (Gee, Araxi, I must love you if I’m going to wash walls and clean baseboards!  Or maybe it’s b/c I’m afraid of what Carol, Toots, Sonia, Gus, and April will think.  Yeah, I think that’s it.  I know Araxi won’t care, and my mom & sister are used to it.).  AND, I have a bit of knitting to do…

P.S.  Another reason for the “overwhelmed” icon on the right is trying to get my weight loss “mojo” back (I’m at a long-time high right now and officially 50 pounds overweight) as the holidays are beginning.  I’m grateful that we have so many friends and such a close family that we have a busy holiday calendar, but you can see why it’s a bit overhwelming.  Check out what I have ahead of me:

  • 11/17 – Hosting Araxi’s shower at my house.
  • 11/19 – Going out to dinner w/Hubby for our anniversary (12 years, yippee!)
  • 11/20 – Big church Thanksgiving potluck
  • 11/22 – Hosting Thanksgiving at my house
  • 11/24 – Thanksgiving leftover (birthday) potluck at my house
  • 12/8 – Hubby’s company Christmas party
  • 12/16 – Nephew’s bday party
  • 12/24 – Christmas Eve dinner w/MarkyMark, Bobcat & Andrei (here)
  • 12/25 – Christmas
  • 12/27 – Celebrate Christmas with Hubby’s side of the family
  • 12/31 – New Year’s Eve dinner w/MarkyMark & Bobcat (there)
  • 1/1 – Annual football party w/longtime family friends

 

Posted by erica at 17:23:16 | Permalink | No Comments »

Well…

…it’s not beautiful, and she certainly won’t get the best grade in the class, BUT, much more importantly (to Hubby & me, anyhow):

a) She did all the actual work HERSELF.
b) She (mostly) had fun doing it.
c) She (hopefully) learned a lesson about communicating change in plans to us and not waiting till the last minute.
d) She’s proud of what she did.

So, all that being said, BEHOLD the wonder that is Thing One’s relief map of California:

07 Nov - CA Relief Map DONE

Thing Two, Miss Crafty Girly, was really into it, had suggestions for Thing One (good ones!), ran off to draw her own map of California, etc., so we know that when it’s her turn in three years, hers will be better.  And that’s OK b/c crafts and creativity are her “thing”; they’re not Thing One’s.  We tried to make it fun for her (“Pretend you’re God creating California, making the mountains and valleys and rivers.”) and get her to think it through (“OK.  Look at the instructions.  What do you think you should do next?”), then stand back instead of micro-managing or taking it on ourselves like the mom I spoke to who talked about “our” relief map.  Uh…NO.  I already did fourth grade, thank you.  I already DID a relief map of California (but mine was made from sawdust and didn’t have stuff labelled on it, just the relief map).  It’s HER assignment, so SHE needs to do the work….

So, now we have a few months to prepare emotionally for….the California mission model in the spring.  Oy.

Posted by erica at 17:08:19 | Permalink | Comments (1) »

Sunday, November 11, 2007

SQUEEEEEEEEE!

When the mail came today, the mail carrier handed me a Priority Mail box.  Hmmmm…I didn’t remember ordering anything, but the label had my name on it.  Return address said it was from The Loopy Ewe.

Loopy Ewe?  THE LOOPY EWE?!  OK, I know I’ve bought yarn when I shouldn’t have lately, but I would REMEMBER ordering something from THE LOOPY EWE.  Odd.

I opened the box, saw that it was from Knitting Magic Girl, opened the inner packaging and squee’d on myself.  Check it out:

PB100002  Wow.  How cool is THAT?  Yes, I’d say that it’s shaping up to be a terrific birthday (and the actual day isn’t for two more weeks!). 

THANK YOU, KNITTING MAGIC GIRL.  YOU ROCK!!!

Posted by erica at 01:00:54 | Permalink | Comments (6)

A Clue!

A clue!  A clue!  Over there, on the bed.  A clue!

PB090002  OK, Knittaz, you know what it is NOW?  Shhhhhh!  Don’t tell Araxi….

Posted by erica at 00:55:12 | Permalink | No Comments »