Olympic News and Other Stuff

First, I want to thank everyone for all the kind comments and emails after we lost Ms. Kitti. Ya'll really helped me.

Last week, my girls and I went to the shelter, just to look, and we came home with Jamie. She is the sweetest dog in the whole world, and has done alot to help my girls heal after losing Kitti. She's a 2yr-old border collie mix. She's sort of housebroken - she only goes in her crate or in the litter box. She absolutely will not go outside, but she hasn't messed anywhere else in the house either. While Kitti was my little snuggle-puppy, Jamie loves to run in the yard with the kids. She also loves the kittens we are fostering right now. I often find her carrying one around, or a couple of them curled up with her. Though she will never replace Ms. Kitti, she has already made her own place in our hearts and our family.

In Olympic news, I finished Kate. I had my wisdom teeth pulled Wednesday, so I thought I might have to pull a Michelle Kwan and drop out, but I made it!!! My grandbaby loves her, and I already have requests to knit more for my younger girls. I used left-over yarn from grandbaby's things to make Kate's body. I think I may do the same for my older girls too, using extra yarn from the sweaters I'm making them. This pattern is really quick - a good thing since my knitting time is severely limited this semester - and it turns our really cute. After I took this, I added an i-cord tail. Grandbaby likes to pull on the tail the best. And yes, I made her "sleeping" because I can't figure out how to embroider "awake" eyes to save my life.

It has actually been nice having the past couple of days off to just chill out. I haven't done much except sleep and watch TV. I missed several days of work and school, should have been studying, but having teeth pulled seemed like a good excuse to take a much-needed break.

In memoriam

One of my neighbors hit my dog this morning. I was running out in the street to get her, and instead of slowing down, or stopping, they just sped up. They didn't even stop after they hit her. Fortunately she died instantly, and didn't suffer.

She was my sweet baby - I rescued her from the pound - she was literally on death row because she was older, and she was "unsociable." The handlers at the pound couldn't handle her without her snapping. The day I came in, she ran up to the cage door as soon as I walked in. She acted like she had known me all of her life. Of course I brought her home - and she was wonderful. She was already housebroken, though if she had to go REALLY bad and nobody was home, she would go in the bathroom. She wasn't a yappy dog, but she would sometimes bark at the cats or noises outside. We would occasionally give her pizza crusts, which she would hide in various places around the house and protect. She never ate them, but she took good care of them.

She was also really good with the baby - she would let the baby pet her, though she did growl a little once or twice. We weren't worried about her biting though - she had no teeth. She used to sleep curled up next to me, and if I was ever sad or lonely she would curl up in my lap. She also liked to lay on my yarn while I was knitting, and was constantly getting tangled up.

I am going to miss her so much - I don't even know what to do. I have lost other pets before, but I guess this is just so sudden, and so senseless. I'm at work, and I went to school this morning, but I'm still in shock. I know she was "just a dog" but she was MY dog, and she still had several good years ahead of her.

I love you, Miss Kitti, and I miss you.

The Olympic Cast-On

I am now officially cast-on for the Olympics. And I've knitted 7 whole rows on Kate. It's so cool to think that all over the world other knitters were waiting (and waiting, and waiting, and waiting) for the torch to be lit. I don't think I've ever been so excited to see the torch enter the Olympic stadium, or to cast on a project either.

I plan to wake up early tomorrow, since I have to work, and get in an hour or so of knitting before I have to leave. I also plan to knit on my lunch break, and of course when I get home tomorrow night.

I do, unfortunately, have two tests next week, so I'm afraid I must take some time off to study. I guess I could sacrifice a couple of grades for the team - but if I get some good progress made by Monday, perhaps I can put Kate aside for a day or too without being too overcome with guilt.

Well, I'm off to bed - my kiddos crashed sometime during the parade of nations - middle child at about Serbia and youngest at the Koreas. Eldest has cast on for her Debbie Bliss Special Knits sweater. I'm wondering if she shouldn't have joined this team....

Preliminary Training....

The official name of the pattern I'm using for the Olympics is KATE. Isn't she adorable? I've raided my stash and decided to make a gray kitty with pink and purple pastel stripes. Since this is for the grandbaby, I'm making it to fit the color scheme of her room, and the cat itself will be closer in color to the cats we have. Thought about making the cat black, but I am determined to use up some of my stash on this project, and I own no black yarn at this time. I have the pink and purple left over from various baby things, and the gray left over from the Harry Potter socks I made for the book premiere.

On a slightly more somber note, I can only find 3 size 8 DPNs in my bag. I have nothing going on DPNs right now - the only UFO I have is a sweater for middle child that I'm working on my Denise needles. I use the Balene II DPNs. My daughters don't like them, they use Denise or bamboo needles. And nobody but me uses DPNs anyway. If they don't turn up by Friday I may have to go down to whatever size I have on hand. Not really a problem, since I'm making a toy and not a sweater - nothing worse for a math moron like me than having to recalculate stitches because my gauge is off.

Let the Games Begin

My daughter has talked me into it - joining the knitting Olympics. Since in doing so, I committed to completing a project in only 16 days, I have decided make a toy for the grandbaby. I'm doing the kitty-cat from knitty, and I'm planning to put jingle bells or something rattley in it.

That said, I am joining team DPN - for those of us knitting with (and poking people with) our DPNs during the event.

With school, and work, and getting divorced, I have very little time, but this may be just the thing I need to get my mind off things.

Let the madness begin......

Who am I?

You are Scarlett O'Hara. You are beautiful,
stubborn and despise the silly rules of
society. When times get rough, you are strong
enough to survive, although you would rather
save yourself than anyone else.

Which Character from 'Gone With The Wind' are you?
brought to you by

Back to School

The kids and I are all back in school. My first class was Friday, and my teacher assigned about 100 pages of reading over the weekend. Nothing like reading textbooks to induce long, deep sleep. The kids have no homework.

Wednesday we have orientation to the unit I work on - we're doing clinicals up there this semester. We have to be in uniform, meet at the school, then we're all going over to the hospital together. We have to park several blocks from the main hospital, walk over there, then ride the tram (if it's working) to the hospital where I work. Then I have to go back to my car and drive back to my hospital so I can go to work. Stupid, stupid, stupid. This semester I'll spend quite a bit of time driving the one mile between the parking lots for students and my assigned place. I'd leave my car in the student lot if security would give me a ride back to it at the end of my work shift, but they won't. What a friggin' waste of time.

Finally finished the alien scarf - it's in the dryer right now so I can wear it tomorrow. I decided to quit with 7 aliens. I'm ready to move on to the next project.

Tomorrow is my youngest child's birthday. Big plan - take cupcakes to school, go see her dad at the visitation center (hoping he will remember that it is her birthday), go out to dinner, and eat cake. I'm hoping to take them to see Narnia too, but I don't know if we'll make it. I also have class tomorrow - orientation to college. No laughing please. And yes, I do graduate next semester.

Happy New Year....

In the year 2006 I resolve to: Procrastinate more. Get your resolution here

Very cute automatic resolution generator, though some of the resolutions are a bit PG-13. Use with caution.

Knitting, the Next Generation

I have already taught my eldest to knit, in fact, she is the one who got me back into it. Now my youngest has decided it is time to pick u[p the needles and try her hand at it. She is making a skinny red scarf, garter stitch, to wear on days when it's "only a little cold."

My digital camera is dying, I really need to get a new one. But you can see her here starting a new row. She knit three whole rows all by herself, and was very proud.

As for myself, I managed to get a couple more rows done on the blue fuzzy sweater. Tomorrow I will be at work, and I'll work on the alien scarf if I get a lunch hour. It's typically a busy day for us, since most people want to have their babies in time to get the tax deduction. With all of our pre-holiday inductions though, I'm not sure how it will be.

Next week we all start back to school - the kids first, then me on Friday. I'm actually kind of nervous about it. This semester we will have 2 clinical days every week, and it's hospital clinicals. One day each week we'll be on the unit I work on. I loved the nursing home, but I don't know if I'll enjoy hospital nursing as much. Maybe it's just that I've been with the hospital for so long - I started there 12 years ago, though I took a 2 year break to have a couple of babies. I go to get my books Thursday. They promise they will be in by that day, though we are not allowed to pick them up any earlier. Don't know why, maybe to keep up from seeing just what we've gotten ourselves into.

Some Progress

I finished alien #4 on the scarf today. The pattern only calls for 6, but I may go with 7 or 8, just depends on how much yarn I have. I reversed the pattern for every other alien.

Tomorrow I have much waiting to do at two different doctor's appointments, so I should be able to knit at least one more alien. I absolutely love this scarf, though it rolls more than I'd like. I hope once I'm finished that blocking will take care of much of this.

I'm not usually a big fan of illusion knitting - too much time and too cutesey, or too, well, ugly. But this is perfect.

Back to the Grindstone

I actually enjoyed being back at work today - only two babies were born on Christmas Day, meaning I only had two babies to test. I cleaned my office, did a bunch of paperwork, and generally enjoyed not being at home. The weather has been terrible, and with the sick child now feeling better, the kids are going nuts pinned up in the house. And they are overwhelmed with all the new stuff they got for Christmas. Most of the day they have apparently been fighting over the keyboard and guitar.

Tomorrow I hope to knit some more on the alien scarf. I took my DVD player to work, and so I'm going to spend my lunch hour knitting and watching LoTR. I hope to have the scarf finished before I start back to school on the 6th.

The kids go back on the 4th. I can't wait.

More Merry Christmas

The kids have had a great day, middle child is feeling better, and I am now on cup of coffee #5.

They have decided to form a band.

Merry Freakin' Christmas

It is 2:30 am, and Santa has finished wrapping the presents and putting them under the tree. Santa is VERY tired. He also did all the dishes piled up in the kitchen and now he is going to take a shower and go to bed. The sick child is still sick, but, miraculously, is feeling better and is up and bopping around the house. Santa didn't mind, as she had been sleeping for pretty much the past two days. He is just glad she is feeling better.

Right now she is sitting on the couch (which also happens to be my bed) and is complaining about seeing a bug in her room. I would really like to go to sleep. I know I will be awakened with the sun so the kiddos can open their gifts - and I have to make our traditional Christmas breakfast of orange rolls.

Hopefully I'll manage to get a few hours in before the fun begins.

On the Eve of Christmas Eve

Today was my last day of work before the holidays, and it was actually a pretty good day. I only had 6 babies to test (I was right about there being no pregnant women left within 50 miles), and I'm pretty much caught up on my paperwork, so I got to leave at 3. I picked up my eldest and we went to the local mega-toy-store to exchange a Barbie my in-laws had given my middle child. She HATES Barbies. She's almost 10, and a tom-boy. They should know this, yet year after year they insist on sending her something she'll hate. And so once again I went to the store to exchange it. I got her some Magnetix, which she has been dying for. All the in-laws will know is that she loved the gift they gave her, and she'll think they're wonderful grandparents for knowing JUST what she wanted. And two hours of my life have been wasted standing in line behind a hundred soccer moms fighting over animatronic dogs.

After I got home my mom told me that said middle child was "still asleep". She had gotten up for breakfast then gone back to bed. I check on her, found her feverish and breathing fast. I gave her some ibuprofen and called the pediatrician. He told me to give her an albuterol treatment and if she was still breathing fast after that go straight to the E.R. So guess where we went? After several more hours of my life wasted we were sent home with the "it's probably only a virus" line. Her temp was higher when we left the ER than when we got there, even after a dose of acetaminophen. I am now alternating Tylenol and Motrin every four hours. At least she's breathing a little slower. Since she has chronic asthma, I generally freak out when she has issues with breathing.

Got a few more inches finished on her sweater while we were waiting for the x-rays to come back. Blood work came back OK too. She did get the thrill of going to the drug store in her PJs and slippers, and got to tell everyone she just got out of the hospital. It earned her several free candy canes from the Wal-Green's staff. At least we're not going to be stuck in the hospital for Christmas. Her x-rays were good, and since her blood and urine cultures are going to take time to grow, they went ahead and let us come home and will call us if anything turns up. Until then it's just OTC meds and her nursing-school mom keeping an eye on her. God Help us All.

Work Sucks

I had 27 babies today. Twenty-seven. My God, there can't be ANY pregnant women left in a 50 mile radius. I have been on my feet for 12 straight hours (I usually only work 8) and I only got to pee once, didn't get lunch, and am SOOO tired.

Just finished cooking supper for my kiddos. I've started using a new cookbook called Saving Dinner that is really great. It has all the shopping lists, menus, etc. All planned out, eight weeks for each season. We are in the middle of the last week of Fall, (had to start somewhere) and so far my kids have loved all the stuff I've made, including the fish I cooked last night. This had NEVER happened before. And the recipes are quick too - so far I haven't spent more than 30 minutes on anything. My youngest child just told me how great it is that I'm cooking again, and my middle child told me she'd rather help me cook than watch Cartoon Network.

In school news, got my grades today - and I made the Dean's list. The one B that I got is for a 1-credit-hour class. So my GPA is 3.9. Maybe I will be a nurse one day.

Knitting is coming along. I've gotten 9 inches on the blue sweater and am now on alien #4 in the scarf. Oldest still hasn't finished seaming the pink sweater. And now I'm seriously thinking about what to make next.

Tomorrow I have to work again, then it's off for Christmas. Yay!!!!

Let the Holidays Begin

Today is my first day off since school let out. And I have to go back to work on Wednesday (the first day the kids are out of school). So I have a whole two weeks of holiday preparations to cram into two days.

The big plan for today - take eldest to work, babysit grandbaby, go to party at school for younger two children, take grandbaby to eldest's workplace to feed her, pick up youngers at school, pick up eldest at work, come home, help with homework, hopefully cash my child support check (which is now officially a week late), go to the grocery store, come home, do at least 4 loads of laundry, and collapse.

The big plan for tomorrow, more laundry, less running around.

You know, it really sucks when work seems more relaxing than being home.

No more school, no more books.....

Finals are finally over!!!! I managed to swing 2 A's and 2 B's this semester. I was one of only two people to pass the final in our Body Structure class. (Yes, just another name for Anatomy and Physiology). My brain is totally fried, and now I'm wondering what I'm going to do with all the free time I have until January 6th.

Grandbaby is now 4 whole months old - I can't believe it!! She's gotten so big and is now laughing at everything, eating baby food (which she loves), grabbing stuff, and just generally being too cute.

My younger girls are driving me absolutely nuts. This morning they both were complaining how sick they were - sore throats, stomach aches, nausea, headaches. I just looked at them as I was gathering up my stuff for work and said, "It's Saturday." Moments later they were both dressed and planning an entire day of frolic. Mean mother that I am, I told them that since they were recovered from whatever it was, they could clean their room. I left for work shortly after that. The mystery ailment must have befallen them again though, because when I got home, the room was still a mess. My mom doesn't make them do anything around the house, so whenever she babysits nothing gets done. Heck, I'm lucky if it's not 100 times worse when I get home.

On the knitting front, I did manage to finish the pink sweater for daughter #3, and am now working on a blue one for daughter #2. Oldest daughter is making up the sweater, as she prefers her seaming to mine. Her sister may have outgrown it by the time she's finished, but it's out of my hands (and more importantly, off of my needles.)

I am determined that after this blue sweater I am making something FOR ME. I don't know what yet - it may just be a pair of socks, or a hat. But I have ceased taking requests for things. I've been actively knitting again for over 3 years, and I have yet to make one article I can claim as my own. Yes, I have made scarves, but they have all been claimed by my children and subsequently lost. I am now knitting another alien scarf, not because I love it so much (which I do) but because I was trying to explain illusion knitting to a girl at school, had the SnB book in my bag, and so we made a run to Wal-Mart for yarn. She since dropped out of school, don't know how her scarf turned out, but I left mine in my bookbag to work on between classes. I am now on alien #4 of the 6 called for in the pattern. And I have a feeling that once this one is finished my oldest daughter's boyfriend will be claiming it, as he has eyed it hungrily every time I've had to pull it out to stuff more books in. The original alien scarf was lost on the playground of our elementary school last year.

All Grown Up

My baby is growing up. She finally decided to get her ears pierced. When my girls are five, I allow them to get their ears pierced if they want. My eldest went the day after her birthday. My middle child, now nine, still won't go through with it. And my youngest, at seven-and-a-half, got it done yesterday.

She was a little freaked out, and was whining about it was going to hurt. Then she realized that the earrings were already in, and started laughing. She feels so grown up now.

I'm doing really well on knitting the sweater - finished one sleeve and started on the other. I had to make a run to Wal-Mart last night at midnight-ish because I couldn't find the fun-fur I was using on the cuffs. Fortunately, they had plenty and I also picked up some other junk I needed, like minutes for my cell phone and a new headset (as the last one fell out of the car at some point and I didn't realize it until two days later.)

Yesterday we made a little trip to the LYS, and saw a pack of really cool looking stitch markers for $35. There were five in a pack. Last night we made some, even better, and I spent about $10 on everything. So if anybody wants some fancy-schmancy stitch marker, gimme a holler (as we say here in the South) and I'll hook you up.

The Next Big Event

October 18 is the big day, we get the new Series of Unfortunate Events book. We won a free copy of it at the Potter Party's costume contest. Now, of course, my kids expect me to make them Baudelaire outfits for the Snicket Party. Nope. Not going to happen.

They keep tempting me though. My oldest daughter got a bunch of patterns on sale last week and pointed out that if I dressed in a particular Gibson Girl dress I could look like Aunt Josephine. Baby could go as Sunny. My eldest would go as Violet (of course). My youngest wants to go as the Quagmire girl, and my middle one wants to be Uncle Monty.

"Mom, all you'd have to do is dress the baby in one of our old christening gowns. Sunny always wore long dresses in the books. And I could wear a lab coat and take a rubber snake. "

"Mom, I'll help you sew everything. I know the pattern has three million seven pieces, but I'm home all day with the baby. I know I didn't have time to take a shower today and the sewing machine is buried under a mountain of baby laundry, but I could do it if you could help me find the machine and watched the baby for me."

"Mom, I could also use the costume for Halloween, and I could be Violet for Halloween, or maybe Princess Jasmine if you want to make me a Jasmine costume too because I don't like the one they have at the store because it itches and also I don't have dark hair so I would have to wear a wig for that and if I was one of the triplet girls from the book nobody really knows what color her hair is and then I could also wear the dress to church or even for picture day and...." (I must admit that at this point I shook my head and walked away. I'm sure my youngest daughter has already set the world record for the longest run-on sentence spoken without taking a breath, but frankly I'm just too tired to try to find out.)

Today I'm skipping school and taking a trip to the yarn store. I know, bad me, but honestly, I deserve some yarn. I'm making myself a shawl/shrug/thing to throw on around the house and snuggle up in. Yes, I said myself. And I want some yummy yarn to make it with. Estimated date of completion on this item: sometime around the birth of my first great-great grandchild.

Broadband a-go-go......

My modem has officially died. So I'm sitting here at school trying to catch up on my email and stuff. The provider should be out sometime next week to figure out what's going on, as this is the second modem I've burned through in less than a month.

It's funny, but when my connection is great, I don't seem to spend much time on-line, but when I'm on a lousy connection, like the dial-up I have at home, (best speed to date-30.2) I think of about a million things I need to look up, do, etc. and the slowness frustrates me so much I can never do them.

I have three tests this week, so not alot of knitting going on. Still working on the sleeve for my daughter's sweater, but alas, no pics since I'm here at school.

I'm now in the phase where I'm looking for my next project. I'm going to do a sweater for my middle child, same pattern, then I dunno. I'm thinking about actually doing something for myself (gasp!).