Catching Up, While Falling Behind

Good Morning All! Its 10:00am on Monday. Would you like to know what I've done today?

*Breakfast - oatmeal and coffee - fascinating!

*Knitting - finally figured out the part of the sweater pattern that was making me think I needed to take "Remedial Pattern Reading". So now I think I know what I'm doing!

*Cleaned the bathrooms.

Whoo! The downside? None of that is on the list of things I SHOULD get done today. poo.

Eddie took Zach down to his sister's for a couple of days. Zach gets to play with his cousin, my husband gets a road trip (I hate road trips, mainly because of the road) and I get time all. to. myself.

Here's the downfall....I always feel like I should do something "constructive" with my time. Ya know like...NOT knitting in front of the tv watching wretchedly cheesy movies on TBS. Actually, after a while I get sick of the thing being on and shut it off, but its good distraction when my house is TOO quiet while they're gone.

So...originally I thought I'd:

*make spaghetti sauce

*clean part of the basement

*paint the bathroom

*mow the grass

*clean the house

*get out the clothes bins and swap out Zach's 'too small' stuff for the larger sizes

*go to the gym

*knit

Stop laughing. Stop it. Your face is turning red and I can hear you snorting behind your hand. Knock it off!

=) uhh...yeah. I'm NOT painting the bathroom. I was going to mow, until I opened the front door. Its not too hot yet, but with the 80% humidity, its like walking in room temperature cream of something soup outside. ....I hear its good to let the grass go a few days longer. uh...stronger root systems...yeah, that sounds good.

The rest? We'll see. This is usually what happens, I make a list of great and wonderful things I'm going to get done with my "free time" and then I pace around the house trying to decide where to start. 2 days later, the boys are home and all I've managed is a shower, a few loads of laundry, a trip to the grocery store, and a list of funny youtube videos. Funny how that happens. hmm. *sigh* =)

so...here's me catching up on the blog, while I fall behind on my list for Monday.

This is what came in the mail a few days ago:

From one of my all time favorites:

Oh what fun! I was actually hoping to snag this adorable blue & patchwork totebag that I'd been eyeing for a few days, but apparently someone snagged it first. Bummer. So...I bought this fabric instead. Which, seems a little lame, since I love her patchwork so much, to just buy...fabric. But hey, its adorable! And I couldn't make up my mind on the other bags, so I got the fabric for now.

And, see that little patchwork 'satchet' on top of the red pile? Oh.my.gosh. Seriously. Go to her shop and buy a dozen! The whole box it was shipped in smelled AMAZING! They're so fragrant, and so cute. (They're on my "here I made it easy for you, this is what I want for my birthday" list I made for my husband) ;)

And some pictures of projects in various stages:

a crummy picture of the washcloths I made during the lockdown of '07

my serious love/hate relationship of the moment. I WILL make something out of it, if I don't throw it out the window first.

and ok, so now I'm about 7" farther than this photo. But you get the idea. The beginnings of a sweater for my nephew coming on October. Yay baby! =)

And just because I'm in love with this picture at the moment, and eternally in love with this boy, who I kind of miss at the moment.

just a little.

maybe a lot.

As much as I love my 'break'...I hate having them gone....

Eddie put him on the phone this morning to say hi. It went like this:

Me: "Hi Baby! I miss you!"

Zach: Hi, Mommy

Me: "Are you having fu--"

Zach: Bye Mommy! *something inaudible* as he tosses the phone and takes off to play.

Me: sigh

Allright! I hope you're all enjoying your Monday! I'm off for a coffee fill-up, change everyone's sheets, and then knitting. Maybe scrapbooking. We'll see.

Has anyone seen Sarah?

Oh! Hi there! I just stepped away for...oh...uh...3 weeks.

WHOOPS! *ahem* My bad.

How have you all been? How are the kids? ...College? Really? Wow, I need to blog more often!

(har har har) ;)

Ok, Ok, sorry. Things were a little nutty around here the last few weeks, and apparently when I get stressed, I do something that is very similar to yelling "RETREAT!" and hiding under my desk. Not literally of course, but very very similar. Blech.

Nothing TOO stressful, just both cars broke - one without air conditioning, and one without...starting ability. Normally, not having a car doesn't bother me. We go outside, we go for walks, we play ball. Oh no wait! That's when its NOT 95 degrees with eleventy-million percent humidity. Then...we stay inside. And stare at each other. And about go mad.

The boy was bored, I was bored, and after about a week, neither of us was very fun to be around. =P Maybe a good thing I didn't blog ;)

I hate the heat as it is, but add in HEAT with no car, and I'm downright miserable. The kind of heat where its still 85 degees at 9:00pm. The kind of heat where you see that the mail has come and then decide "it can stay out there. I'm not opening the door".

The good news? The heat has come down some. Some. As in I think I saw a '91' for Monday. That's DARN NEAR 80-something. I'll take it. =P

On top of that, both cars are FIXED. We won't talk about how much that cost....because I'll cry. Hard. I will say it was less than eleventy-million. That almost makes me feel better saying it.

But I have air, so we can finally get out of this house! (And they rejoiced)

In the meantime, I knit a lot. A few ballband style dishcloths, a few other dishcloths, a scarf that I've knit/frogged/re-knit/frogged about 3 times. Right now its a ball of yarn, and I hate it a little.

I have a ton of photos I want to blog. (around eleventy-million actually! haha, I love that word!) But I'm also trying to figure out flickr. Hopefully I'll get those up tonite and you can look at something interesting, because we all know...my writing doesn't cut it! :)

Hope you all have a fantastic weekend! I'm going to go catch up on my blog reading. More from me tonite, now that I'm back amongst the living! =)

Bags are up!

So very excited! My new farmer's market bags are up in the Etsy shop!

I'm working on getting more photos to add to the listings. More colors, and size reference. (they're deceiving, they hold A LOT!) :)

Check 'em out, tell me what you think!

Allright guys and gals, I'd love to stay and chat, but I have to go do the boring stuff now. Pay bills and make my grocery list. Whoo! Wild! =)

Eldridge Days

Friday night we went to Eldridge Days with my aunt and uncle. If you want a wild and crazy night, this is your gig!

...Ok, ok, its more small town Friday night action, but seriously? We had the BEST time! The weather was absolutely perfect!

We'd heard about this "Bovine Bingo" and decided to check that out first....

Bovine Bingo? You're not familiar? Allow me to explain...

I guessed it was something to the effect of, they let the cow in, and wherever she stops, or grazes, or something....was the BINGO decider? ...not so.

A crowd gathers 'round, watching the cow (whose name I've forgotten, my apologies!) and wait for her to....well, make a cow pie. Yup, that's bovine bingo. We all stood around and watched a cow, hoping she'd produce. She did not, for what its worth.

Probably the most surprising event of the night:

He. got. on. the. horse. (pony!) ohmygosh, he did it it! We couldn't believe he got on. The plan was, sit him on there, maybe get a picture, and be happy with that much. MAYBE get him to ride clutching one of us to his side, maybe.

Oh no! Not him! He got on, grabbed the saddle, and went on his way like he does this every day! (this the same boy who is suddenly - oddly - afraid of dogs and my aunt's sheep, whom he used to adore) My aunt and I just stared at each other.... See him holding the rope? and he talked about it all night long.

Cowboy

And of course, fireworks!

We couldn't have asked for a better night. In between the cow watching and horse riding, there was also a few trips into the inflatable jumping "things". AKA - little boy wearer-outer =)

He was TIRED by the time we got home, and that....is a good night.

We'll deffinately be going back next year! Hope you all had a great weekend!

...And The Winner Is...

Kalurah! (cheers and applause)

The number was 23. =) Send me your mail info and it will be on its merry way!

Sorry for the blog absence. We've had....a week. My son, the sweetest - most angelic child - has nearly driven me insane! =) For sure mentally drained. The kind of week where I find myself thinking "we want another one? ...and we'll have to do this AGAIN?" ;) Half kidding of course, but man he's stumped me.

You know how with parenting, just about the time you feel like you've "got it" and everything is comfortable and easy, they go and change it on you? That's never been more true than now. The sweetest, most angelic child, has decided henceforth, he needs no nap. (ah! but he DOES!) So we've been having MAJOR naptime battles...major. And its just spilling over everwhere else. What used to be a 5 minute process, is now 2 hours if I'm lucky. So blog, craft, ...sane thought patterns, have been put on hold while I try to figure out how to 'parent' this one. Tomorrow we're trying a new tactic. We'll see how it goes.

You'll know, if there is a blog post about what we did friday night, and the new bags I'm putting up in my etsy shop, you'll know naptime was a success! If not, think of me, I'm sitting at the top of the stairs, praying for a nap! :)

Contest!

Let me start by saying, electricity is a GOOD thing! Sorry for the delay in posting the contest, I had planned to have it up last night. I put the boy to bed, finished a few things, sat down to post and....thunderstorm. More importantly....lightning! *sigh* shut down, unplug. wait for later.

That was around 8. By 9:30, thunderstorm passed, now just a nice easy rain coming down. "ah! I'll finish a few rows on this scarf, finish watching nanny 911, and go post"

...Then darkness. Then the lights flickered on a second or two and, dark again. I waited a few seconds thinking "It'll kick back on" ....lights? ....hello? ....Air Conditioning? ....guys?

And then the boy CRYING upstairs....and I had to feel my way up to him without breaking my neck. Then feel my way back downstairs (you wouldn't BELIEVE how dark our house is!) to fumble for candles, and matches - which, smart mommy I am, I'd 'hidden' WAY up high. Just to make this moment that much easier. All while the boy is clenched onto me.

A few minutes later, we were on the front porch, happily eating raisins and talking about how dark it was. Go figure.

(see, I can ramble!) All that to say we didn't get power until almost 1am, after I'd set up camp in the living room (sleeping on the floor didn't always hurt did it??).

Note to self: make that stupid power outage box I'm always telling myself I'll make.

I did realize at one point, we DID have a flashlight, and retrieved it:

yeah, the doggie flashlight. It only stays on for about a minute, but it did fill the requirement in that - it makes light. Good enough!

Alright, enough about our power outage (after all, my AC works again and that's all that matters!)

--------Contest!---------

First the why? I SOLD MY FIRST ETSY ITEM YESTERDAY! ...and I'm freakishly excited about it. You have no idea. =)

So to celebrate, I'm doing a little give-away!

(minus the slightly crumpled cup, my son likes to play with it and its taken a beating)
The yellow is a bit more mellow than in the picture, but still a very cute coffee cozy if I do say so. 100% cotton, wash and wear.

So here's the deal, starting...now! and ending Sunday the 15th (let's say midnight). I've picked a number between 1 and 100. (I even wrote it down) Leave a comment with your guess. Even better? Send a new reader over and when they post, you can guess a second time (or third...or fourth...)

The good news? I don't have many readers, so your chances are pretty good ;) LOL!

Have fun!

The Week In Review

Phew! Where to begin?

Our biggest 'event' was Papou and Yaya were here for a week. (Though it literally felt like 2 days, the week FLEW, I can't believe how fast it went!) A few quick pictures:

(I'm now now realizing how silly the phrase "a few quick pictures" is. Do they run? Are they only shown for 3 seconds before dissapearing? hmmm...)

Papou and Yaya are also known as "my dad and step-mom" (though I hate the word 'step-mom') They took the train out - from California to Illinois - to spend the 4th with us. We had a fantastic time, and it has been reported, that they enjoyed themselves as well - success!

We did a lot of sitting on the front porch, a few trips to Whitey's Ice Cream (third picture above), Iowa Machine Shed, and of course - a 3rd of July BBQ and fireworks down by the river. (well, everyone switched fireworks to the 3rd this year, so we had to adjust!) As well as an....interesting dinner....that I'm not allowed to discuss ;) Let's just say if you ever visit the area, I have a place to warn you about!

And when you visit here, we put you to work! They also painted our 'entryway'

Hey - they offered! And did a fantastic job might I add! ;) There's no before picture, but just imagine a big window sized dry-wall patch in the middle of the wall...there's your before! I love the color - I wanted something neutral, but not BEIGE. Soon the trim will get a new coat of white and the door will be painted too.

Zach is IN LOVE with Papou and Yaya, though especially fascinated with Yaya - and a certain turtle brush she possesses. It was a wonderful visit, and we're already in the early planning process for the next visit!

In other (less interesting) news -

I did some clearance shopping and got a new skirt (ignore the dusty mirror) and a couple new watches ($3 ea!)

And some new nail polish -

...and I love it!

Oh and see all these pictures? That's because I got a new camera.

"But Sarah, what happened to the old one?"

*clears throat* Let's just say, never put a fountain soda in your purse thinking it WON'T tip over. ...it will. ...on your camera. 'nuff said? Moving on....

there it is - however - we won't discuss the price of this little find...let's just not.

...I'm trying to forget...

BUT...now I can do all the things a blogger does like -

Flowers and Food! (yummy sandwich, by the way!)

So there it is! Where I've been the last week. Hoping you had a great 4th (or 3rd, if you also live in a city that's decided its easier?)

And as a teaser....I'll be posting a contest of sorts later tonite. And I'll also tell you WHY later tonite. See...teaser ;)