Sunday, January 29, 2012

Still Around

Last Friday, January 20, I took SeaBass to a hockey tournament in Kewlona. When we arrived home om Sunday I unpacked and remember telling Paul I did not feel very well. The hotel was very loud and I never slept well that weekend. I thought I would lay down for a bit and shake th mild headache I had.

The next time I remember waking waking was over 24 hrs later and 8 had the worst headache of my life, with nausea and vomiting and fever thrown or good measure. This Friday I scraped myself out of bed and went to see my Dr. He did some blood labs and toughly checked me over. He tells me I have the Influenza virus and I can expect to feel third crappy for another full week. I don't ever remember spending a full week in bed before, but as of today, I have. Not even able to watch a bit of TV until yesterday for a couple hrs. I feel a better this morning, so hopefully not to much longer now.

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Changing the World

One knitter at a time:


The picture is Deb's daughter LB, she just celebrated he1 11th birthday. PJ and discussed what we should give this lovely lady for turning 11 we hummed and we hawed, and then a light bulb went off over our heads. LB has mentioned in passing to both PJ and myself that she would like to learn to knit.

PJ and I went down to Micheal's armed with very important information, LB's favorite colours for example. PJ went hog wild and picked out two very pretty yarns and the needles she thought LB might like, she even picked out a little notions case, darning needles and a small pair of scisiors. We came home and PJ carefully wrapped everything up and tucked in a knitting bag, wrapping it with a bow and making a card. She walked herself down to the sleepover birthday party, where the gift was a hit.

So much so that the next afternoon there were four young ladies in the Kissing Cave asking if PJ and I would teach them all how to knit. Supper cool.



A bit spinning all done up and ready to knit. Shannon and Mom will recoginze it as that sample pack of camlid fibers from the Brown Sheep Festival. It is soft and sweet, and I had to get if off my niddy-noddy so I could load it with another finished fiber.



I ment to post this last week but got sucked into spending my time off writing reports for work, my least favorite part of my job. On the up side, only one more report to go...

Sunday, January 08, 2012

For Mom

A bit about PJ, who would be mortified if she knew I was posting on this topic and even more mortified if she knew I was posting pictures.

PJ for many years was the tidiest of my children, in fact when it came down to the kids bedrooms she used to have the cleanest of the three kids. I thought "This is so great, I don't know how it happened but it seems as if the messy child gene that was so strong within me jumped right passed my children! Yippee!" Indeed I thought of Shannon and her wonderful childhood tidiness, I even thanked Shannon quietly in the back of mind, how blessed I was that my lovely daughter decided to take after her Aunt rather than myself. Then it happened:



I am wondering if PJ was exposed to an environmental toxin of some kind within the past 8 months or so and the recessive Messy gene was exposed to rear it's ugly head. The boys rooms they get a bit untidy but never downright messy. Mind you they don't spend as much time playing in their rooms as PJ does in hers, they are often playing Lego's downstairs. (Crap, now I am thinking they also have the familial Messy gene, they are just better at spreading their messes throughout the house so I don't realize how mess they have!)



I know your laughing Mom as you scroll through the pictures, you are thinking about karma, remembering all the times you went in a mucked out my room while I wept and you mercilessly threw out all my treasures. I understand now your motives and your passion for a tidy space, I hereby publicly apologize for driving you halfway to insanity with my mess. (I would like it on record that I am only responsible for getting you half way there, the rest I think Shannon should take credit for, it's only fair)

Then it happened: I got fed up with looking at the mess, I could not take it anymore. I waited until she was off to school in one morning and I went into her room with a garbage can and a broom. It should be noted for the record that I gave my darling daughter warning and let her know I would clean her room if she choose not to herself, I was kind enough to give her a time line to work within.



I had no mercy, I recycled an entire garbage can full of tiny bits of paper, half finished paintings, cardboard boxes that she just had to have for one project or another, old birthday cards, hidden candy wrappers, flower petals wrapped in Kleenex that were a treasure as far a PJ was concerned. After filling an entire (read huge) recycle bin, I proceeded to fill two large garbage bags full of garbage and took those out to the curb thereby rendering them 'unrecoverable'. I stripped the sheets off the bed, washed them and put them back, tidy, neat and wrinkle free.



When PJ came home from school she was very angry with me, very angry indeed. She asked about her bits of paper, "Mom did you throw away that little yellow note that I was saving?" "Mom where are my American Girl magazines?" She tearfully sat on her bed and said, "Now I have nothing left to play with, my room is practically empty!"

To which I answered, "I know, isn't it lovely?"

Thursday, January 05, 2012

Bagged Out

I usually feel pretty bagged on Thursdays, but this Thursday I am bagged out like a cheap pair of jeans on their second day of wear. Why I am always so tired on Thursday takes a little bit of explaining. This year SeaBass asked if he could try out for Development Hockey. In the past he has always played House Hockey, which means league play within our local Association with a two out of town tournaments during the season.

Development Hockey involves trying out to play at a competitive level with the idea of developing the stronger players in each city for a higher level of play, if you don't make the team you get automatically put back into the House Hockey and play regular league games. If you do make the Developement team you play other Development teams from surrounding cities. BC and other provinces are divided up into geographical regions for hockey, Development teams play only teams from cities within their region.

This all boils down to traveling to play hockey, sometimes day trips involving a 2 hour drive to an arena in another city, sometimes staying the night for back to back games the next morning. The farthest teams in our division are 3 hours away, most closer to an hour to an hour and half (one way drive time). Paul and I told SeaBass he could try out for the team, but were not sure whether or not we really wanted him to make the team, it is a huge time commitment and more costly due to the travel. On the other hand it is competitive outlet for a kid that has a competitive streak and mile wide, the drive to play hard, and a passion for the game. Also better to be out on the ice than have time to get in trouble.

I am sure you guessed that he made one of the three Development teams that represent our fair town. It means he plays three days a week, including a practice every Wednesday morning at 5:30 a.m, we are lucky there happen to be two other kids in our neighborhood that are on the same team, we take turns carpooling the kids to the early game, but no matter what I am up every Wednesday at 4:30 in order to get him out the door and onto the ice. I told you it would take some explaining.

I do pretty good through Wednesday, but come Thursday I feel hung over and tired even though I have not had anything to drink. To add the mix I picked Q up at school yesterday with a fever and ended up staying home myself today to take care of him and not feeling so hot myself. We are both feeling better now, but a good nights sleep tonight will help us both be back to normal for tomorrow.

Just so you are not to bored with this post a couple of photos for you. I took these sunrise pictures Tuesday morning around 7:30, it looked like the sky was on fire.



Are you impressed with the amount of snow we have? So far only 4cm this winter, apparently our weather systems are coming from the tropics, were 11C yesterday for an all time historical high, 18 degrees warmer than we usually are at this time.



One more for the road, a pair of plain vanilla socks I knitted up while watching the kids play hockey. More to follow.

Monday, January 02, 2012

The Feet We Meet

I believe that Dr. Seuss gets the credit for the tittle of today's post. If my memory serves me correctly it is a line (I think the last line) from The Foot Book, one of my favorites. (By the way I had to ask SeaBass how to the good Doctor's name was spelled, he knew and I did not!)

Can you tell which legs belong to which kid? Mom knit up these socks for the kids Christmas gifts. They love them, they have an appreciation for hand made goods and they ask me to knit them socks with some frequency, so a perfect gift. They seem to really like that the socks don't match perfectly, they also enjoy that are really slippery on the tile and laminate, they are doing more sliding than walking down the hallways.

Mom sent me a text not to long prior to Christmas asking for the kids shoe sizes, I can tell you these socks flew off her needles. Three pairs I think in as many weeks, and all my kids wear adult sized shoes, PJ and Q are about a women's size 5 or 6 and SeaBass is a women's size 7/8ish.



I am hoping to have this all spun up by the end of the day today, it would make it my fastest spinning thus far. The fiber you see in the photo is all there is left to spin, should be easy to do this evening, except for the fact that my hands are little bit sore from spinning the past two days. I think that is more the function of the weather here than anything, we are unusually warm and have been all winter that means it is not near as dry as it usually is which equals sore hands I am guessing the moisture in the air aggravates the joints a little bit. Here's to hoping it cools off a bit more, and snow would be great too.



P.S. Mom, I remember the case but the kindle fire itself funny that knitting project stuck in my head but not the kindle.