The girls and I are currently in Houston.  In two days, we will be driving down to Galveston Island for a week stay on the beach.  I think we’re commendeering my stepdad’s laptop and wireless internet access so I hope to blog a time or two while we’re there.  I finally finished my beach cover up, but now I can barely move my hand from so much crocheting.  At least I will be able to wear it during my time in the sun!  Here’s a photo from one of our last trips to the beach, which sadly, was the summer after we moved back to Texas in 2005.  Living 30 miles from the beach for two years should have made summer trips mandatory.

We’ll be there with my mom and the most amazing dog ever, Hoover.  I saved him from a shelter while in college and he now is spoiled beyond reason by the parents.  Here’s mom with the girls:

I am so going to get in trouble for showing off this picture of her too, (Love you, Mom!) but it’s the only one I can find of Hoover in my Photobucket stash.

Have a wonderful week!!!!!

Tags: beach, Family, summer

Andy and Maddie spent Father’s Day playing on the Wii, while I was able to sneak off to finish picking up a few items for dinner tonight. I cooked a citrus-glazed pork tenderloin, parmesan risotto and green beans for the dad in the house. Maddie helped out by setting the table and then cleaning off the table after dinner. Laura is gallivanting around Montana at the moment and has not called yet for her daily check-in. She is enjoying her two weeks of one-on-one time with her grandma.

I finished picking up the last few items for my tawashi swap at Ravelry today and found a never-before-seen (by me) magazine. Have you seen Living Crafts ? It was full of many craft options that are budget-conscious and rather eco-friendly.

I’m starting to work on a new handbag tonight while the Wii play continues (it’s their day - non-stop Zelda and tennis would drive me mad). I’m making Jennifer Fletcher’s Meadow Handbag . I’m looking forward to seeing more patterns, both crochet and sewing-related on her site Fable Handmade Goods in the future. I tried to use something from my stash, but all of my good yarn is set aside for projects-in-progress, so I picked up the new Vanna’s Choice Baby in Berrylicious while at Michaels today. I wanted to go with a green because it seems to be my new favorite color, but went with the pink after finding a perfect set of wooden buttons in the clearance aisle. I think I have the handles already, but if not, I’ll head to Hobby Lobby tomorrow before driving to Houston for the week.

The dishes are done, the kitchen semi-clean before the pecan pie gets taken out of the fridge, the family is beating their virtual opponents at tennis, and I am going to sneak off to take a bath (hot temps in Houston mean lots of swimming to be done!) while all is quiet.

Tags: Crochet, Family, ravelry

My mother-in-law told my husband a funny joke when he called her on Mother’s Day.  What do President Bush and Senator Clinton have in common?

Neither one has an exit strategy.

My husband, oh wise one who avoids all current events unless they directly involve his line of work, did not get this joke and I had to explain it to him.  Before November, please let there be an election day for dummies that I can share with him.  (Disclaimer: He works for the government.  He practices law.  He should keep up to date on things other than Lance Berkman having a .393 batting average.)

We had a wonderful Mother’s Day weekend.  The girls and I drove to my grandparents’ house in the country where we had beautiful weather and the joy of catching the end of bluebonnet season.  Laura discovered the joy in picking dewberries fresh off the vine.

Maddie enjoyed walking along the road, chasing butterflies.  I think I managed to catch her mid-skip.

My grandmother made homemade ice cream and dewberry cobbler, while my mother brought a Honeybaked ham.  Instructions were lost in translation and I forgot to bring the materials to make sopapilla cheesecake.  Who needs cheesecake when you have homemade ice cream??  It’s very hard to work on crochet projects with such beauty around, particularly when it was cool enough Saturday night to have a fire and roast marshmallows and hot dogs.  I did do another tawashi, but it needs finished.  I started a few rows on a shawl, but left my stitch markers at home, so I’ll restart it soon, hopefully.

Every morning around 7:30 am, should you drive by my house, you would hear screams of torture and pain, although if you were to watch, there was no torture and no pain inflicted upon the victim.  Maddie does not like mixing her hair and her hair brush.  Thus, we went for a haircut Saturday morning.  She loves her new look, almost as I love the sighs of content and noticeably lack of tangles in the morning.

Tags: Family

I feel like the week should be over, but we’re barely halfway through. Both of the girls had their class field trips this week, and I went on both. For Laura, we went downtown to the Ft. Worth Stockyards, which I always enjoy. Maddie’s class went to the zoo, another personal favorite in our new city. I’ll post photos at the end of our trips.

On Sunday, we went to the Texas Rangers game for Girl Scout Day. All of the Girl Scouts and their families could walk around the field during the pre-game ceremonies. The stadium looked empty, but I think there were a lot of us on the field to make up for the lack of people sitting in the stands. It was exciting to see so many girls, large and small, dressed up in their uniforms and enjoying being with the friends at the game.  We had to leave early to drop off my mom at the airport after a weekend visit and the Rangers eventually lost the game in the 10th inning.  I loved getting to see the new Cowboys stadium going up next door. It’s going to be huge and very beautiful once finished.

I do have photos from the DFW Fiber Fest, but I will save them for the next time. I am in a horrible slump with my crocheting. I have all of this beautiful yarn and no idea what to make with it. I will find a new project that I cannot live without soon!

Tags: Baseball, Family, fiberfest

The girls and I were in the library this afternoon for our weekly visit when I heard sirens in the distance.  Having grown up in Houston near the refineries, a siren to me means that there was an unexpected release of a chemical from one of the plants.  A siren in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area signifies severe weather and sometimes, if the weather is just right, a tornado.  I knew that we were under a tornado watch thanks to hearing the latest weather on the radio before entering the library, so I calmly returned to browsing our library’s amazing DVD collection.  A few minutes later, all of the library employees were gathered around the TV set watching the radar.  I was doing my best to stay calm to finish our library trip without stampeding for the door with freaked out little girls, but no, everyone had to start talking about tornadoes, which made the girls start talking about tornadoes.  After I reminded them that we would be just fine and would head home in five minutes, they returned to hanging out in the children’s section.

We all finished picking up our weekly goodies, checked out, and made it home almost a minute before the rain hit.  It was nasty.  The weather in Houston can be nasty, but this was nasty.  Then, after about five minutes, the rain ended.  Andy arrived home from work about 30 minutes later and said he had sunny skies the entire drive.  Boob.  So not fair.

I am so awesome!  The dishwasher was clogged yesterday and after a quick Google search, I found out how to fix it.  I didn’t attempt anything until today because I couldn’t find our allen wrenches, but after a few cranks, I completely cleared the clog.  Ha!  Andy came home and laughed at my celebrations, saying that I could do all of the handyman fixes now.  He thinks he’s funny.  I am not handy.  This was a wonderful fluke.

Maddie has lost both of her front teeth in the past week.  There goes her speech therapy for the rest of the school year.  Her therapist is going to have to be creative for the next two months.

I finished a quick shrug for Laura’s Molly doll last night.  I’m going to write up a quick pattern and post it on here and Ravelry.  Here are a few photos, along with photos of Maddie’s empty spaces.

Tags: AG doll, Crochet, Family, spring, thunderstorms

I am glad the holiday frenzy is over. I’ve spent the last week detoxing from running around like mad during the past month. I should have dug out my oriental spice tea long before I did today, but at least I did lounge around in my favorite slippers (they massage!) all week when I didn’t have to leave the house.

I’ve been working on a pair of fingerless mitts with yarn I picked up on our vacation in Montana. I have pictures to show, but I’ve got a fire-breathing Maddie requesting a few minutes to register her Webkinz bear. She also knows I’m talking about her, using her newly developing reading skills.

For my wedding shower those many years (eight) ago, the theme was for every invitee to bring a recipe that would be placed into my first recipe book.� One of these recipes was for a “Better Than S*x” cake and believe me, it almost is.� I think it’s the large amount of chocolate that makes my toes curl.� Anyhoo, I was gifted with a large amount of Nordicware bundt pans for Christmas from my brother and his significant other so I used the tree pan to make the now aptly named by the girls, The Best Cake Ever:

The Best Cake Ever (as named by the Roots girls)

Ingredients:

1 box butter or yellow cake mix

1 pkg (3 3/4 oz) instant vanilla pudding

8 oz. sour cream

1/2 c. vegetable oil

1/2 c. water

3 eggs

6 oz. chocolate chips

2 oz. German sweet chocolate squares, grated

1/2 c. nuts (I use pecans)

Small amount of powdered sugar

1. Mix all of the ingredients except the chocolate and nuts until fluffy, about 2 minutes on medium with electric mixer.
2. Add the chocolate chips, grated chocolate, and the nuts.
3. Pour mix into greased and floured bundt pan.
4. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.� Cool, remove from pan, and dust with powdered sugar.� Enjoy!

I baked this on New Year’s Day and intended to post the next day. I’m a little less than a week behind, so not too bad! I cooked this, along with a delicious batch of chicken & dumplings, while lounging around in my massaging house slippers, and squeezing in a little reading from an amazing book that I got for Christmas.

My mother-in-law went to the Montana Festival of the Book this last fall and was able to have James Lee Burke’s newest short story compilation, Jesus out to Sea, autographed for me.  See?

I’m a huge fan of James Lee Burke’s Dave Robicheaux novels set in New Orleans and New Iberia, Louisiana, but he also rights about Montana, being a resident of Missoula also, and I had recommended him to my mother-in-law, so I was blown away when I opened this package on Christmas day.  One of his novels was turned into a movie, Heaven’s Prisoners, starring Alec Baldwin as Dave Robicheaux in what I think is one of his best roles while also being a very decent movie.  They’ve just finished up In the Electric Mist, with Tommy Lee Jones as Dave, which kind of makes me leary, but might work.  It’s scheduled to be released some time this year.

The fire-breathing Maddie is back, so I’ve got to go.  We’re going to watch The Bourne Ultimatum tonight, which means I can get in a few hours on my mitts, which I’m knitting so they’re taking a lot longer for me than I like, but I’ve got one finished so I can’t turn back now.  Maddie likes them so much that she wants a pair for herself.  Her pair will be crocheted.

Tags: , books, Family, food, Home

Never, ever cut one of those hard plastic zip ties holding together your strand of Christmas lights with an exacto knife. Even if you try to be careful, you’ll slice a deep cut into your thumb. Right after the pain medication kicks in and you try to do something as simple as zip up your jacket because the temperatures dropped 30 degrees in an hour, you’ll realize that just because your thumb is no longer throbbing, doesn’t mean you can use it yet. Nor will it feel better when you try to get back to work on your socks because the idea of wearing wool socks in a houseful of tile floors sounds really tempting. ugh.

Speaking of the lights, here is what the almost-finished outside of our house looks like. This is before the ladder fell out from under Andy, many more fuses needed to be replaced in the strands from busted light bulbs, and Andy’s pants suffered many holes from climbing around on the roof.

While uploading these photos, I found a few surprises thanks to one of my daughters.

The culprit outed herself by attempting a few self-portraits.� I love the photo surprises that I get when I download my photo card.� I think some of the greatest photographs in my collection where taken by the girls during random moments.

The culprit:

Ack. My thumb’s killing me. I’m trying not to use the cut side to type, but it’s hard to break a habit. I’m going to go in search of my notes for the hats I made for the girls. I want to make more, but I’m not currently feeling patient enough to try to recreate the pattern by looking at their hats.

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Now playing: Marly - Episode 19 Whatcha’ Gonna Do With A Gall Darn Ball Of Yarn
via FoxyTunes

Tags: Family, Girls, Home

I’m still alive.  I took a part-time job, started volunteering at the girls’ school, volunteered to be their Girl Scout troop leader, and joined a local mom’s group since we’ve moved here to the DFW area.  Needless to say, I’ve been a little preoccupied.  I took a little mini-break from anything crafty while catching up on my neglected reading habit, but I’m making an effort to get back into crocheting and knitting socks.  I’ve decided that I’m just going to be a sock knitter.  There are too many beautiful tempting sock patterns out there and too many overall crochet patterns that catch my interest.

For my birthday (which is today, but I went shopping Friday), I visited my LYS for the first time and bought Amigurumi by  Elisabeth Doherty along with a gorgeous Madelinetosh sock yarn.  I’ll show it off with a photo tomorrow when I can take said photo in decent light.  I also picked up a few beautiful plates at Crate & Barrel for food service (I want to practice “plating”.), and a set of doily dessert plates.  I don’t know if I could take a photo to do the plates justice, but I may try.

For some reason, being 32 feels so much older than 31, but I can’t figure out why.  I’ve just been feeling rather lost over the past few weeks.  Hopefully, it will pass soon because I miss my happy self.  I feel unaccomplished, which is silly because I have a beautiful family, but that feeling still exists.

Anyhoo, my birthday goal is to work on my writing, which means writing more on here, so hopefully, there will be a little bit more of a purpose here soon.  Happy Veteran’s Day and have a wonderful week!

Tags: Crochet, Family

How was your Labor Day weekend?  We spent the weekend visiting the Ft. Worth stockyards.  On Saturday, we watched the cattle cruise through the streets followed by a Labor Day parade. 

Longhorns are my favorite breed of cattle.  There is just something beautiful about them.

Mom and the girls getting snow cones before the parade

The stockyards are worth seeing if you’re ever in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area.  The girls had a blast, despite having to drag Laura to the car to get there.  The old station, where they loaded the cattle on or off the trains, has been turned into a little shopping area.  They sell Dublin Dr. Pepper at the general store.  I should have bought more.  It’s not that far away…..  I might have to go back and pick up a few bottles. 

The girls wanted to be sheriff.

Sunday, Andy and I went back to the Stockyards for the 2nd Annual Red Dirt Roundup.  We went last year and with it falling near our anniversary (8 years!), we had to go back.  I can’t pass up seeing Ragweed, Gary Allan, The Black Crowes, Stoney LaRue, the Randy Rogers Band, plus more all in one venue.

We followed the same plan as last year, except I was fearing hot weather so I left my crochet at home.  We lounged about halfway between both stages, venturing into the crush of people near the front only for one man.

This is the third time I’ve seen Gary Allan this year, which makes me feel like I’m obsessive, but I’m not.  Really!  The first was a Christmas present from Andy to see him in February in Louisiana.  This summer, Ragweed and Gary Allan came to Houston and I couldn’t pass up the price of the lawn seats.  Then, we couldn’t pass up the 2nd annual RDR after we’d been at the first, particularly now that we’re living in Ft. Worth permanently.  Ragweed was as awesome live as ever.  I can’t wait to see the set list next year. 

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Tags: Family

It’s not set in stone yet, but it looks as if we might be relocating 3/4 of our family up to the great wet metroplex to the north of us to join the lonely 1/4.  We’re negotiating terms right now, meaning that we have to decide if it’s a financially wise move.  I’m of the opinion that it is, but I haven’t crunched the numbers yet.  Basically, by me not working and combining our homes, we’ll lose over half of my paycheck in expenses alone.  Realizing that has made me realize that I’m working just to pay to expenses that exist solely because I work.  I would rather redirect all of those hours that I spend here pretending not to work towards networking and beginning my teaching career.

Anyhoo.  We’ll have more of a sound decision between now and the 4th.  In the mean time, I have organization (i.e. dumping of the junk) out the wazoo to do now so that I can start packing!  AND, I’ve got to have at least one awesome meeting with two fellow crocheters here in Houston.  Oh, that “organization” begins with that contest I mentioned before.

Tags: Family