FINALLY! Blogger is letting pictures back on my blog!

Here's the beginning of the sock that I started from my Knit PIcks yarn I got from my Secret Pal 8.
Finally decided to make the Branching Out scarf from Knitty. I'm LOVING how much I like to knit lace!

29 Part Deux.....

Yes today is my birthday, but I'm not going to be 30 today. I decided after a long talk with my grandpa that I'm just going to be 29....again. He said that you can stay whatever age you want to until your oldest child reaches that age, so he told me that he is 59! LOL.

Last night I tried to upload the knitting pics finally, but blogger was being a butthead, so I'll try again this evening.

Over the weekend there was a lot of knitting because I was determined to NOT DO ANYTHING PRODUCTIVE besides knitting. Now, I didn't completely accomplish this, but I tried really really hard! LOL. Friday night, the girls went to the ILs and Mr. Outdoors took me to Tulsa, to the Cherokee Casino. He took me to the buffet there, but unluckily it was a Seafood buffet. I HATE anything that ever lived in water or swam. Mr. Outdoors got mad at me because all I would eat was a salad. All the side dishes even had seafood in them. Finally after him saying, "I paid $20 for you to eat a small salad!" I said, "Be quiet, I'll eat the $20 if you don't say anything to me." He agree so I got up and got a dinner plate, went to the dessert tables and piled anything chocolate on my plate. It was AWESOME!!! I'm sure my thighs are mad at me, but they just can be. We went gambling after that and Mr. Outdoors lost all of his money and I was down to my last $5 when I hit $60.00 in pennies. I gave him his $40 back and started gambling on my winnings. I ended up winning almost $200, although I only came home with $150. I had to keep giving Mr. Outdoors $5 bills to go away and let me gamble! It was a good time.

Sunday the girls took me (even though I had to drive) to Woolaroc a wild animal preserve and museum about 10 miles south of us. We had a great time. Mr. Outdoors stayed home and painted our living room.

So far my birthday is going ok. Mr. Outdoors let me sleep in this morning! WTF??? You don't let someone sleep in 30 minutes later, when they have to get up and go to work today! LOL. Then while I was putting on my makeup, he says, "You don't look THAT old for 30!". I told him that he was taking the girls to school this morning since I was late and then left. He is such a guy. Guys just don't get that aging is harder on women (as a whole) than on men. I received a bunch of nice phone calls on my way to work including my dear friend Barb from Nebraska.

Today is our busy day after work. I have to work late (faculty meeting), we have dance lessons and soccer tonight, so I'm not anticipating that much this evening. Although, it would be nice to receive a card from the girls or something. I told Mr. Outdoors that I expected a birthday present from him because Friday night only cost him $20, and his birthday present is a trip to Nebraska to go pheasant hunting at the end of October for 4 days, so I'll be interested to see what he comes up with. LOL. Have a great day!

McYummy!

OK, so to go with my Grey's Anatomy obsession, let's talk about age. I forgot to post earlier that yes I am on Monday I will turn 30. I have been rather upset about it....however, when I think about it now, there are people who get better with age and hopefully I'm one of them! LOL. Then/Now

Random blatherings....

Ok, so my official birthday is Monday at 3:31 am in which my grandmother inevitably ALWAYS calls then and sings me "My Wild Irish Rose". Dunno why, always has! LOL. I'm glad to know that I'm almost sharing a birthday Sharon, my personal knitting goddess, and that we are almost 10 years apart to the day! How cool! I'm running into a major dilemma. I'm freaking out a little about 30, but also freaking out that Mr. Outdoors will ruin my birthday....as he always does. I'm trying to remain quiet and hope for a gift certificate of yarn, but I doubt that will happen! LOL.

The Branching Out Scarf is really coming along! I suspect that I'm at about 24 inches or so...which isn't bad in two days as I had to rip a bunch of it out because I'm new to lace knitting and I'm an idiot at times and don't pay attention.

I know I keep promising pictures, and really I will, I just haven't had much time to actually download the pics and edited them appropriately. I'm hoping for some down time tonight or tomorrow, but then again, probably not tonight because you all know what I'll be doing! LOL. I will be Tivoing GA because I don't want to watch it unless I can sit uninterrupted, plus be able to fast forward through the commercials! LOL.

It's been a REALLY rough week at school and I can't wait for 3pm tomorrow. I need a break so badly!

2 days and counting until the Premiere!

I'm such a big dork! My obsession with this show is a little creepy! However I HAD to get this for my birthday present!

Edited to add that you can sample all of the music here! That's how I realized I had to have it...that and it was on sale for $9.88 at my local W@l -Mart.

Negativity and Knitting....

OK, just a quick review. I work in an inner city, 100% poverty, low performing elementary school, and guess what? I love it here. The only problem is that quite a few of teh people here don't. I've been getting rather discouraged and bedraggled with the fact that my co-workers are so stinkin' negative. They whine, butch, crab, moan, whatever, most of teh day. I bounce out of the car every morning, greeting all I come in contact with a smile and a "good morning". I noticed that last week I was really having difficulty trying to stay positive and I was being "Sucked in" to their negativity. I wasn't pleasant at work, home or just in general. Then I found the way to bring me back.....knitting. I realized that I had really sluffed off of the knitting and it was adding to my down state. I was disgusted with myself as it's Holiday Knitting time and I need to get moving. So I decided that in order to not get bored, but also to engage myself that I would knit 3 items at a time. I started doing this over the weekend and it's working quite nicely so far. I'm not bored, and I'm getting a lot accomplished!

So this week it is:

• in the car knitting - *blush* yes I do it and get weird looks, the Mason Dixon Warsh rag for the Dish Cloth Swap!
• game, practice, dance, etc knitting - A pair of socks using this pattern.(but not doing the stripes, just using self striping yarn).
• before bed knitting - Branching Out Scarf from Knitty.

The goal is to take on smaller projects and try to get them done in a weeks time. Next week I'll be finishing up Em's sweater and then starting another sweater for my SIL.

It really has helped my vim and vinegar. I'm feeling much more happy when at work and everywhere else. I think that knitting helps me refocus all of my days misery onto something else and I relax and start scrutinizing a lace pattern or irritate my husband while taking my knitting EVERYWHERE!

A brief note, that I am still working on Em's sweater from the Kool-Aid yarn, I just got tired of all that stockinette stitch and I started making stupid mistakes, so I put it away for a week or two, just to give us some needed time apart!

Happy Early Birthday to Me....

aka 29 Part Deux.

This weekend we had an early birthday party for me. It just included, Mr. Outdoors, Em, Nan, my grandparents, my mother and her latest husband. We went to Em's game then home for Pizza and off to the Pow-Wow for some dancing, shopping and watching! It might as well had been my birthday (not until next week), because it was a wonderful day! The gifts of cash were great, however, it was my grandmother's gift that made me feel so loved. She came in bearing a giant casserole dish and told me that the dish and what was inside were mine! My litle teenie tiny grandmother had made me one HUGE dish full of her "secret" Thanksgiving stuffing! It is my very favoritest food in the whole world. I ate quite a bit for dinner Saturday night and then for some breakfast and a snack yesterday! WOO HOO! I'm going to freeze some of it as well. They also brough by a birthday cake (marble) decorated in my two favorite colors pink and orange, complete with a candle (said 30 = 18 with 12 years experience) and the singing of "Happy Birthday" of which I haven't heard in a LONG LONG time!

Ok, done gushing! My only regret was that there was not enough pictures taken!

Saturday....

Gratuitous picture of Em playing soccer (in the hot pink). She's getting better and better each week. This week she had 2 goals and 4 assists! WOO HOO!

Yes, I have been knitting and here is the proof! I've been working on another B4 bag which is for my mother for CHristmas. I have officially started my CHristmas knitting as well. I felted the bag yesterday morning and it turned out fabulously! Now I'm working on a Branching Out scarf and a pair of basic socks!

Indian Summer part 1....

The girls and I had a change of plans and decided to go to the Indian Summer festival Pow-wow on Friday night. Here is the circle dance for the Coronation of the OIS Princess
The Circle Singers and Drummers.
A gorgeous Kiowa Indian outfit. Nan asked if the gentleman could fly! I had to reminder her it was just an outfit, not his actual body that had feathers! LOL

Tired girls by a tee pee! We had a fabulous time but it was late and the girls got tired quickly! Can't wait to go again next year!

This is for Sharon and all the other Aussies...

Or non-North American dwellers. Oklahoma is in the pink. That is where I live now! Nebraska is in the green, that is where I lived until May. This is a map of the state of Oklahoma. The blue circle is where I live. The city below it called Tulsa, is where I work. It's about a 35 minute drive.

For the Oklahomans that lurk about...

This weekend in my lovely town of Bartlesville there is an AWESOME free festival called Oklahoma Indian Summer! Em is going there on a field trip tomorrow and then we are going as a family to both Pow-Wows on Friday and Saturday night! I'm looking forward to taking some pics!

A few patterns I'm toying with....

Edited to say: Click on the picture for the pattern!

Oops, I forgot...

I finally had a chance to go to Fringe! which is a LYS that is closest to me at work. It's so homey and wonderful. Stephanie that owns the store had "heard" of me via the blog. She thought it was funny that most of my "regular" commenters were either from Oklahoma or from Austrailia!

I LOVE this yarn!!!

It's from Schaefer Yarn Company and each colorway is namefor a feminist.The website is http://www.schaeferyarn.com/colorconcepts.htm but the photos on the site do not do justice to the richness of the colors. Each skein has a tag with a brief bio of the woman it's named after. Just a few of the yarn names: Clara Barton, Toni Morrison, Emily Dickinson, Frida Kahlo, Indira Ghandiand HarrietTubman. There are both cotton and wool yarns and several weights in each color.

On other notes, there actually has been a bit of knitting going on around our house, but more meetings, cleaning, yard work, paperwork, job, soccer, dance...etc. I took a brief break of Em's sweater. I was getting quite a bit bored with it. So I decided to take a quick break. Now I'm working on another B4 Bag for my mother for Christmas. I really need to get working on my dish cloths for the swap!

Remembering....

I was going to type out a "where I was on 9/11" post, until I was sent this by my bestest friend in the world Jen. It pretty much sums everything I feel up, especially the last minute and a half.

What a week!

Monday: off and recovering from being at the lake all weekend.

Tuesday: sick but went to work anyway, rough day at school. Too sick to knit.

Wednesday: off from work, too sick to knit.

Thursday: feeling better, almost assaulted by a child's mother's boyfriend who was drunk and is an abuser, dog ran away, found her, Em's soccer scrimmage, no desire to knit any WIPs.

Friday: Cleaning and picking up, feeling a little better, cleaning out girls' closets, no knitting of any kind.


This weekend we have Em's soccer game in the morning and then that is it. I need to clean the house and a few other little things. Tomorrow sometime I hope to sit and knit. I need to finish Em's sleeves of her sweater and I want to look at a baby gift for a friend.

Next week I start playing PoKeno twice a month with some new friends that are also new to town (Transplants from Midland and Houston, Texas). Anyone ever played PoKeno? I have no idea how to. I just know that there is female companionship, no children, and wine! I need it after this week. Anyone know when the new Knitty is coming out? I'm going through withdrawl. I need to get started on my dishcloths too.

The lake and my SP8!

This is my own version of a Saturday sky! We were on my aunt and uncle's new boat and relaxing sans boot. It was a great afternoon.Em and Nan with my aunt and uncle's dog Eddie!
Mr. Outdoors, Nan, my aunt and 1/2 of my uncle.
My final package from my SP8 Cathie! Thanks so much Cathie, I got the package yesterday! It had 5 skeins of Knit Picks Wool of the Andes, 2 orange wool Knit PIcks skeins, a Tennessee coffee cup, some size 7 Addi Turbos, a beautiful candle with my name on it and a great 4 skein bag! I feel so spoiled....oh and some really cute note cards! Thanks a million!

Rest in Peace

This saddens me so much. ALbeit he was a bit over the top, I just loved the Croc Hunter and he made my children so interested in wild animals!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060904/ap_on_en_tv/obit_irwin

Happy Labor Day....

Went to the lake for the weekend. We spent Friday and Saturday with my family (pictures to follow in another post). We had a nice time and then some of us went to Buffalo Run Casino. I won $50 and was happy as a clam. I also spent some time at teh LYS there in lovely Grove, Oklahoma. I got some Lamb's Pride for a purse.

On Sunday morning we headed over to the IL's place across the lake and laid around pretty much. I got a TON of knitting done. I finished the front of Em's sweater as well as 1/2 of one sleeve.

Today once we got back I decided to treat the family to my winnings. Mr. Outdoors got Shot Gun Shells, Nan got a new camo t'shirt to wear hunting with her Daddy and then Em got a new Barbie Tea-seat she had been wanting. Me? Well I treated myself to a little Dr. McDreamy! YUMMY! Can't wait for season 2 that comes out next week!

I'm outta here!

After a trying week of work we are gone to the lake this weekend. We are splitting it between my grandparents house and the IL's lake house (on the same lake). Normally, the ILs house has much more relaxation and happiness, but I'm stoked to be going to the Alpaca farm outside of town as well as the great little LYS by my grandparents' house. The new issue of MagKnits is out and I'm loving the Snowflake Lace Socks. I might cast them on while there, but my main issue is to get Em's sweater done. As for the purse pattern. I'll post when we get back on Monday afternoon. Have a safe and happy weekend!