Family Fun

We had a great visit with Shannon, Will, Morgan and Taylor. It was so hard to say goodbye when it came time for them to leave. I was not ready for them to go.

The kids played very well together, about an hour after they had left Q was asking me when they were coming back for another visit.

I have been looking to buy a new camera, I love the one I have but I feel like I have outgrown it. I wanted something with more zoom capacity and something I could play with a little more. As you know Shannon has been posting great pictures on her blog so I played with her camera a little bit and fell in love. I thought if I could pick up one like hers she could teach me a thing or two before she went home. I don't know if I will get as good as photography as she has gotten, but I am going to have fun trying!

She posted about our walk and here are some of my pictures from it:



I took this photo because I liked the way the grass looks, but if you look in the background you will see I accidentally caught a dragonfly in the picture.



On our hike there was this butterfly that fell in love with Shannon. Shannon tried to take a picture of it but she was to close to the butterfly to focus on it. I took a lot of pictures of it and these two are my favorite. I wonder if Shannon liked the same two or if she would have chosen a different one to post.

I am not sure if Shannon posted a picture like this one or not?

I think it is interesting that we went on the walk together and saw the same things but took our photos differently. I love the photo of the dead tree that Shannon took and I never even saw the dead tree! It just goes to show how differently we all see the world.

Shannon took a picture like this one but I framed the picture differently, she framed the trees and the cloud and I framed the photo with the wild flowers in the foreground.

And the prettiest picture in this batch, two lovely ladies. I think they look a bit alike, they have the same chin and mouth and nose. It is the eyes I think that make them look so different.

The Frogs Are Jumping

I have plugging away on the latest instalment of Sock's that Rock. I love the yarn and I think I will enjoy the pattern once I get the hang of it. I am having a couple of problems with it. The first is a size issue: It looks like a small touque, but it should look like a sock.



The pattern gives four 'sizes' or rather gives you four different numbers of stitches to cast on with no size associated with the number of stitches. Is is XS, S, M and L? Or could it be S, M, L and XL? I have a big foot, women's 10, I went with the greatest number of stitches the pattern suggested.



This did not work out so well for me. As you can see the $%&*!! sock is to big for me. I would have preferred if the pattern had sizes printed on it, you know something like for a women's size 7 cast on 60 stitches, for a women size 8 cast on 65, for a child sized touque cast on 85...

It has taken me longer than it should have to get even this far on this sock. My eyes are doing very well following the surgery, but they are still healing and I have found I can only knit for small, precious periods of time. In learning a new pattern apparently I get so focused (no pun intended) that I forget to blink. The only time my eyes bother me is in really bright light or when they get dry. Not blinking tends to make my eyes a little dry, go figure.



I wanted so badly for these socks to work just like they were, I tried to tell myself they would shrink in the wash. They would fit better when I hit the ankle, I could only fool myself for so long before I realized I would never be happy with these giant socks.

Tonight I took a dip in the frog pond:



Due to the construction of the toe, I could not just take a little dip into the frog pond, I had to go all the way:

Oddly enough, I felt somehow better after things looked like this:

I know I will be happier with the knit in the long run. It is amazing how much you can rip out in only a minute or so.

I am going to leave you with a smile and I am going to mix myself a martini.

Cheers!

Moo Moo Moo

Here is the promised picture of the Udder hat. It was fun to knit, the teats took me longer than I thought they would. I made it so we would have a strike out hat of epic embarresing proportions.

As it turns out we played out year end tournament with out a strike out. We only had one or two strike outs the entire season, so we may have to find another way to get the cows to wear the udders. We will have to figure it out next year as the season is over and the cows are out to pasture until nest year.

I am going to hop up on my soap box and vent for a minute. Here's the set up:

The kids are in soccer camp for the week with the Montessori school. PJ and Q go from 8:30 to 12:00 and Sebass goes from 8:30 to 4:30. It has been hot and unusally humid in the Loops lately.

We sent the kids to camp with juice boxes and cups for water. We sent snacks with all three kids and sent Sebass with a sandwich for lunch as well as the snacks. Paul made Sebass a PB&J for his lunch on Monday.

Nut products are not allowed at the schools these days and Paul forgot this when packing Sebass's lunch. When the kids sat down to lunch the teacher saw Sebass's sandwich had peanut butter on it and they took it away from him. Sebass ate his plum and a small package of yogurt that was also in his lunch. Sebass went on to play the rest of the day (soccer and other physical outdoor activites)

When Paul picked Sebass up at 4:30, the kid was flushed, very hot to the touch and could hardly stand up. By the time Paul got him home (5 minute drive, maybe) Sebass had goose bumps all over his body and was complaining of not feeling well. Paul got him home and into a cool bath and started him on lots of water and some electrolytes. Sebastian slept the rest of the afternoon and through the night with a 103C temperature.

Sebass was obviously suffering from heat exhaustion. I contacted the directress of the Montessori program with my list of questions: Why weren't we called to pick Sebastian up early when the child was in obvious distress? Why were we not called to provide the child with an alternate lunch? Why on earth when Paul picked up the other two kids did the teachers let Paul know that Sebass did not have enough to eat? I can't begin to tell you how upset I was.

The directress informed me that there is indeed a child in the camp who is allergic to peanuts and that is why Sebastian could not eat his lunch. I asked her why the safety of my child and importance of my child's nutrition was overlooked for another. We had this conversation in a private office adjacent to the classroom, why was Sebass not allowed to eat his lunch in the office?

I understand and respect that children have allergies. I don't understand why those children are not taught by their parents and the school system not to eat peanuts...instead the entire school has to modify their diet.

Let's not even talk about how upset I was about the heat exhaustion. The poor kid. You will be happy to know that he is doing just fine lots of rest, water and some food went a long way to make him feel better. He is enjoying soccer camp now but I check with him when I pick up the other kids to ensure he has eaten his lunch, had some water and that he is feeling up to staying for the afternoon.

Another thing that bothers me about the whole issue: Sebass was really looking forward to first grade and now that he has had so much trouble with a long day at camp he is worried about staying at school for the whole day. I explained to him that school is 2 hours shorter than soccer camp so he will be just fine.

Dracula

It has been a whirlwind! Things should slow down a bit after this weekend, I hope!

The eye surgery went great. The procedure is a little scary but totally pain free. You can see everything they are doing and that is a little weird. My doctor was really great, he talked me through the whole thing as he went and really helped me relax. The surgery takes less than 3 minuets an eye and was totally pain free for me. They give you a muscle relaxant before and a gravol (sp) and 1/2 a Valium, quite the mix there! I felt sleepy but other than that pretty good.

After the surgery they have you sit in a dark room for about a half hour and then they give you an eye exam (2 prior to the surgery) I could see 20/20 just a half hour following the procedure. Very cool. I can see great now, but my eyes are light sensitive (this will go away) and get tired by the end of the day.

I was finding the computer screen to be a little tough on the new eyes, but it is improving. I feel like Dracula in the morning, I keep all the shades closed and avoid the sunlight. It seems to get better as the day goes on. I think it has to do with eyes being so dry in the morning. I see my local eye Dr. tomorrow to make things are healing well.

I finished the Udder Toque today, I was unable to download pictures onto the laptop for some reason (I got it back on Tuesday) I will take some time to figure out the camera and post the photos tomorrow.

Birthday

I know I have not posted in a while, we went camping up to Paul Lake for 5 days. We got home on Monday afternoon and I was to beat to do much. Tuesday I unloaded the trailer and tried to catch up on laundry. The dryer had crapped out so I spent Wednesday washing laundry here and drying at the neighbours house. I worked today and then got the kids and myself packed up for another weekend away.

We are headed to the coast for Paul's grandfather's 80th birthday party. While we are at the coast I am going to have my big birthday present taken care of: I am having Lasix eye surgery tomorrow at 2:30. I can't wait!

We won't be back until Monday afternoon, so I am afraid I will have to save my camping posts until then. I will have lots to catch you up on.

Here are my birthday flowers that Judy sent: They are 8 days old and still look beautiful. They make me smile every time I see them. The orange rose smells wonderful.



Shannon taught my something for my birthday: Even happy feet,



can be made happier:



I have many socks that I have knit for myself and I love them all. It is strange to me that socks knit from someone's hand are so much sweeter than my own. I think I love them more because I know how long they took to knit and that every stitch was made by hand, for me. I feel spoiled when I wear them and I wear them all the time. Thank you Shannon.



The last photo shows the colour the best. They are so pretty. I was spoiled on my birthday, not just with wonderful over the top gifts but with phone calls from family and lots of well wishers. It was a good day. Thank you all for making it so.

I will be back on Monday to tell you all about my eyes and camping and a report on how to party when your 80. Whooot.