Butts & Bowling

The chances of catching a face shot during bowling is pretty slim. So, ya get butts!

Sunday night the fam went for Sunday night movie and bowling at Strike Zone. We had a great time snagging the last two lanes of the night. Three hours of bowling, pizza, cake and the movie Nim made for a wonderful evening.

James did really well bowling by himself.

The best face shot of the night. Jon has problems with my camera.

I LOVE her pigtails!

At age 89, Grandpa decided he had to try bowling once in his life. He bowled four turns and called it a night. He even got a strike and the grin on his face was wonderful.

Peace and Love Family Outings!

Cheating Cats

I started a blanket on January 30, 2010. I haven't finished it. It is sitting there taunting me yelling "Imma WIP!". Not a fan of WIP's, but this blanket kicked my ass the first few days and I haven't been brave enough to try again. For the very first time, my hands hurt to crochet, and I gave up.


In other news, I've mentioned Whiz before. He's my she-male. He comes out to my car every time I pull in the driveway. He greets me, climbs in the car to visit and then tries to schmooze some warmth off the hood if he is lucky. Nevermind he has two heating pads in the garage to schmooze some warmth off.

And Guy. Guy Guy Guy. I thought he was faithful, but our relationship has been having some difficulties. I worried it was the interloper in the garage, the extra cat or two trying to snatch some food, or even just a man thing. I was wrong. He's been cheating on me with another PERSON.

Oh, I've smelled the scent of another woman. A perfume that wasn't mine, an unfamiliar laundry detergent smell, and even the occasional rebuff from him when I tried to pet him.

See the trail? Yeah, it's a cat trail. That means lots of visiting between our house and someone else's house.

Remember my neighbor? The one who mowed a strip in our yard? The one who mowed our yard? Yeah, the lying cheating no good heartless cat has found another petter and it ain't me. My neighbor has enabled Guy's behavior by giving him easy access in the fence. I'm going to have to declare some serious war.

Wish that man would feed Guy, save me some money. Dude eats like a horse.

Peace and It's a Monday!

Giveaway!

It's my birthday and blog anniversary! Give me a big woot woot!

Today in celebration I not only got all the birthday wishes from my lovely blog followers, I got over 30 birthday wishes from my gorgeous facebook friends, and the icing on the cake was the awesome welders on the jobsite singing Happy Birthday to me at 6:30 this morning.

I am home and have hugged my kids and Jon, been groped and ogled by Jon, kissed my kitties and opened my present from my Sis. (I got a canning set from her. :D) So, life is good and I want to spread the happiness.


Amanda Soule's book is awesome. End of story. It is all about living simple, living frugal, living. You can feel the heartbeat of the home in her blog, in her book, in her words and in her projects. I love it.

Hippies aren't the only ones that carry their babies in slings. Busy moms find it easier to strap a baby to them than have to wield the stroller on outings. The sling is the answer to this need. This project is simple and can be made in an afternoon.

Repurposing a pillowcase to make a toddler dress is about the most awesome idea ever. Mama Soule shows you how in this book.

I love banners and this banner is simple, easy to make and fun for everyone because it can be modified so many ways. Mama Soule gives you the tools to create this banner and voila personalize it to your event.

How about it? Wanna win Amanda Soule's autographed book? Leave me a comment telling me what inspires you.

Also the lucky winner will be able to request a hat, scarf, OR arm warmers that I will personally make for them.

Love my blog readers! Thank you so much for making this past year so much fun and encouraging me each and every day with your wonderful comments!

Peace and Bloggy Love!

Edited to add: Giveaway ends a week from today at 5PM EST. :)

Vampires

Hi, ya'll! I've been in the motel all week with Internet access and have ignored the prodding I felt to post a blog. For one thing, I didn't want to bitch and moan about my job and for another I've been knitting and crocheting. :D Job is fine. It has been a good week. Guys are nice, jobsite is a black filthy mess and I've read a 600 page book in a day and a half.

The book. The book sucked. I bought the book based on two criteria, 1. page length and 2. the author. Maysville, Kentucky has three places to buy books, Walmart, K-Mart and Rite-Aid. The selection is pretty slim, but I had read this author as a teen and since it was about vampires, I thought I'd give it a try.

Thirst by Christoper Pike is a book about a vampire named Sita. Blah blah blah he spends the first part of the book defining what kind of vampire she is and introducing the conflict. Blah blah blah and then her spends the rest of the book not following the rules he set in place for the kind of vampire Sita was supposedly suppose to be.

The biggest complaint I have is this: How can a vampire live for over 5,000 years and be stupid enough to keep getting caught and underestimating her enemy? Really. A stupid vampire makes for a stupid book. Then there is the whole "I love him!". She "loves" three men (who incidentally all get killed trying to save her) in a matter of a week and a half. Her transition from loving to kill to developing a conscious was weak and unbelievable. As a reader of vampire novels I've read some great character development and Christopher Pike spent a lot of time not developing the character but defining the character and then breaking his own rules in a fantastic, from left field, unforeseen skill Sita the vampire suddenly develops to get her out of her latest predicament. It feels that the author got stuck and went "OH! I'll just do this!" and completely ignored the parameters he had defined for the vampire.

Seriously, don't read this book. It is actually three books bound in one. A smart move on the publishing because after reading the first book, I would never have gone looking for more books about this story line. Don't get me started on the other two books I kept reading in hopes the author would actual pull a good story out. He didn't and I wasted a day and a half reading it.

Other vampire stories I love to read include Christine Feehan's Dark series. Seriously great books if you want some good Carpathian love.

Tomorrow is my birthday and when I get home, after I've kissed, snuggled and loved on my kids and Jon, I will post the details of the giveaway.

Peace and Safe Travel!

Bye?

I'm leaving. Gotta go do a job that requires overnight stay in a motel. Motel. Ugh. Last time I stayed there they had Ethernet connection, and I have forgotten my Ethernet cable at the office and I'm not driving 45 minutes to get it. I may get lucky and they will have gone wireless and I'll be able to connect, but I'm not too optimistic. This place is in the middle of nothing, boasting a Walmart and a Caesar's Pizza as the highlights of the town.

So, look for me Fridayish, if I can't connect this week. Friday is my birthday and my blogging anniversary is this week. I will be doing a giveaway in celebration. A big woot woot for a "COME ON FRIDAY!"

Peace and Yay for Traveling!

Today

Today was a hell of a day.

Every day I start my day checking my phone for my daily Dave Devotional. Dave posts it every morning on FB at 4 or 5AM and I get it on my phone via text. Today was the following:

A gentle answer deflects anger, but harsh words make tempers flare. --Proverbs 15:1, NLT

I wish I could say "I should have listened." but I DID listen and a gentle answer does not always deflect anger. Sometimes you meet idiots in life and well, you get to go on the stupid ride. I've been dealing with an idiot or two at work. Today was "YOU are being UNREASONABLE!" "YOU are difficult to deal with!" "You better dot your i's and cross your t's cause WE are watching you!" "You can do this the hard way or you can do this the easy way."

Here is a clue: WORK SAFE, make it look right and we are copistatic! *idiot*

Years of dealing with union workers, crochety old men, wiry aggressive men and it never fails that something will go wrong on the job I am on. I have accepted this, I'm okay with this, I have a pocket full of horror stories of Jobs Gone Bad. It is okay. Today, though, the job attacked me, it went personal and I didn't know how to deal.

So even though I was right about the incident that sparked the two men yelling at me, it turned into a "Sara is creating a hostile environment for me and my men." Sara didn't do jack shit to create a hostile environment. Who is the idiot yelling? Yes, you, that is who. What was Sara doing? Watching you. Did she engage you? No, she let you vent your spleen and went on her merry way.

Yesterday was some similar shit. All I can say is Thank Goodness for Friday.

Oh and you know what I was doing when all the shit started? Knitting. While waiting for them to start the job, I was sitting there knitting. That is when they claimed I copped an attitude. Honey, bless your little heart, but no. I was happy to sit there and knit while ya'll stuck your thumbs up your ass and did nothing.

Men at work. Humph.

Sorry for the ranting! I wish I could take ya'll on a happy Sara ride, but life is life and this is my life. Crazy kids, crazy job, and a whole lotta going going going.

Too Busy

Me: HI! What have you been up to?

Mommy 1: Too busy too busy. Rush rush rush. Going here going there, don't know where. Where does my day go? We go go go.

Okay, inhale. Take a breath. Me: What do you do with your time?

Mommy 1: What time?! There is no time. Time flies. Don't know where it goes.

Me: So, you sew? Do you do any other crafts?

Mommy 1: Who has time?! We are busy busy busy. I don't know where my day goes! We have work, preschool, soccer, vacations, weddings. It's just busy busy busy!

Obviously, she is too busy. I give up trying to make friends. Gonna stick with the acquaintance thing. Seems to be working out well. I still get invited to parties.

The rant in my head goes like this: How can you be too busy for years on end? Is there ever an end in sight to the perpetual "filled scheduled"? Aren't you over-scheduled? Does it clue you in when your kids are R-E-L-I-E-V-E-D to spend an afternoon at home? Ever consider just stopping? How did you get on the go-go train and not know how to get off?

Then I look at my life and I have to take stock. Cannot have "being a hypocrite" on my conscious. Do I have kids that are over-scheduled? No, they actually currently have NO scheduled or obligated activity for the entire summer. Am I overscheduled? Eh, yeah, at work I am, personal life calender is looking pretty sparse, though. Are my obligations too many to meet? No. Am I stressed? Yes. Have I read a book lately? No. Crafted lately? Yes. Have I just SAT lately? Oh, hells to the no. I haven't just sat in forever, it makes me nervous.

Man, I suck. I'm busy, too.

I tried though to have a conversation with another busy mom, tried to connect, but the connection just wasn't there. Her kids want to play with my kids, my kids are game to play with her kids, but us momma's aren't able to "play" with each other. She's a crafty mom, too. I really really wanted to connect on that level. I feel bummed.

Off to clean my house. I think this blog should be labeled as rambling, but it is a small reminder of this day. The day I tried for the crafting mom friendship. She's too busy to even consider getting together to enjoy some craft activity. :( I wanted to play.

Go To Scarf

I recently purchased The Go To Scarf pattern (Ravelry link) for $3 from Ellen Gromley of GoCrochet blog. It was great to do a quick, fun and easy scarf using crochet. My favorite aspect of the pattern is the shell stitch, which is five double crochets in one stitch.

Love affair does not describe my addiction to the shell stitch. Grandma Jewell made an afghan using all shell stitches and I had to ask my MIL to put it in another room, because if it was in the living room and I was sitting on the couch with it, lets just say I could not keep my hands off it. I love shell stitches and my MIL knew to keep her mom's afghan safely at her house she had to hide it from me. Ever since I warned her about my love, I haven't seen the afghan. Smart lady, I was going to make off with it.

Anyway, great pattern and now I have a scarf to report as being FO. Woot woot!

In other news, I took James to the doctor on Wednesday of last week to get his Kindergarten shots. He got three. When I asked him if the shots felt like pinches he said, "NO! They felt like Tiger Bites!".

He is now 45 lbs and so many inches tall. I've forgotten. Sorry! All is healthy. One thing I have to say is the eye exam annoyed me. James sees his eye doctor several times a year and the nurse issued an eye exam and failed him. She then starts questioning me about James eyes and him seeing an eye doctor. James was wearing glasses, that was her first clue he has a vision problem. Second when I say he just saw the eye doctor don't TISK at me. I told her to put up the shapes chart and James passed just fine 20/30.

The doctor gave James an exam and included was the "I am a doctor and only doctors are allowed to look at your privates. Is it okay for me to look at your privates?". Sorry, doctor, James has no clue what privates are. I just explained YESTERDAY what privacy means. He just looked at the doctor with his "Whatever" face. Guess I have to consider that conversation pretty soon as I prepare to send him to school. He might try to kiss a girl or show his privates in the bathroom. :S

James got to pee in a cup. Did I tell you about James peeing in a cup at home? No? Okay, he did and when asked why he said, "So I could measure how much I pee. Do you know how much pee I have inside me?". I'm just glad I didn't drink it. It has happened before. I was repressing that memory but it came rushing back when I found the cup. Jon wonders why I sniff things. Humph. You try drinking pee.

Finally, I just want to say, Jesse, Jesse Jesse. I needed a sign at the doctors office that said, "My breath does not smell like poop. It is the pair of underwear in my pocket.".

Peace and Happy Handy Crafting!

Monday Mayhem

I made a hat. Jon said it was ghey and refused to wear it, so I snapped this picture in the nanosecond he allowed the offending hat to grace his head. Then I sniffed the hat and it smelled like dip and I wondered how Jon's hair could smell like dip. Then I thought no more of it, since I had more pressing events happening, like Fishville fish needing fed by James.

I used Patons Classic Wool in the colorway, Wedgewood, which is a beautiful baby blue, dark blue, tan, dark brown, gray variegated yarn. Classic Wool is a worsted weight yarn and I used a size 8 needle, 5mm, cast on 120 stitches, did a 2" 2K, 2P, and then knit to 6" and then decreased starting with K6, K2Tog REO, K row, and so on.

This is the most important news I wanted to share with you. It ranks higher than announcing I am pregnant. I'm not. No. Anyway...

The TREE is DOWN. I repeat the Tree is Down.

March 12th has to be a new record for us. Ignore the ugly couch, I swear it makes the best camouflage in pictures. Did you even notice James? And doesn't Jon have lovely legs? Jesse got mine. *sigh*

I did two and eighth puzzles this weekend.

Jesse peed in the laundry bucket.

Peace and Life Goes On at the Handy Household!

Wicked (It is picture heavy)

I was too excited! And I opted for my new blue jeans with the flap on the but with my black high heel shoes and green shirt.




Wicked came to the Dayton Schuster Center and I attended the Thursday evening show on March 4th. I skipped out of an evening job at work, told Jon to watch the kids, and scooted off to what felt like a stolen evening for myself. I attended with my Aunt, Uncle and Cousin-in-law and their Mom/Grandma, Vi. Now I've never spent an evening with just them, and it was a relaxing evening because they were very gracious.




The sign says "Redhead loves Matty Perkins". My people will get the significance of the sign. Okay, so maybe only my sister, Janne. HA!

We went to the Spaghetti Warehouse, which was two blocks from the show, and had an enjoyable meal, or efficient might be more accurate. Jerry kept checking his watch and was really worried we would be late for the show. (We weren't.) I had angel hair pasta with vegetables, talapia and grilled shrimp. It was good. At the end of the meal Jerry said, "Ok! Everybody but Sara needs a box." Humph. It was good and I love good food. :)



Wicked was awesome. End of story. It had humor, awesome music, lights, characters, story line...the production was amazing. A three hour show with a 15 minute intermission means I got my money's worth for the evening.

Some lady dressed in a green dress, with a black crochet shawl and red sequin shoes. I loved the outfit. The Wicked Boutique was expensive! $39 for a tee-shirt. No thank you, ma'am!

We were top balcony. I wore my hearing aids and heard everything perfectly. Some of the music even sent shivers down my spine, it was that good or my hearing aids were screeching at me. Either way, I was glad I wore them, since I typically don't wear them day to day.

My favorite line of all was "There is a Goat on the lam(b)!" Hysterical! Dry humor is my favorite and these actors delivered with aplomb and timing that was impeccable.




Do you know the story? It is based on the book Wicked and is the other side of the Wizard of Oz story. The politicks, the other players, the dynamics, the life of The Wicked Witch of the West.



My favorite conversation during the evening was with Aunt Judy. She kept insisting that TWWOTW was killed by water. Water made her melt. Since I had read the book (shame shame Aunt Judy, you being a teacher, I thought you would have read the book. ;) I tease!), I knew that the water thing wasn't true. Elphalba is green and rarely baths, but part of her hygiene is rubbing her skin with oil. Trying to explain to Aunt Judy that water does not in fact kill Elphalba was useless. It was gratifying to be validated in the final scene. And I totally wanted to say, "READ THE BOOK!". ;D

So, yes, go read the book and then read the other books. They are awesome, too.

Great evening, good food, good people. I was so happy I got to go.



Peace and Something Wicked Come This Way!

It Was A Rough Weekend

On Sunday at 1PM I sent the following text to my Dad and sister:

Just to give you an idea of Jesse's "creativity" she has in the last 24 hours: put chocolate syrup under the carpet threshold between the doors, colored the carpet blue, bloodied James nose jumping on him, made her own pancakes, painted the kitchen floor, colored herself and James with markers, emptied the soap dispensers, used an entire roll of toilet paper to clean herselft and flushed it, put together her puzzles several times, colored her coloring book, ate an entire bag of chocolate chips with James, ate my sweettarts....she slept for 9 of those hours...I am scared for the rest of the day and I am tired.

My dad replied:

Aren't KIDS GREAT!

My sister replied:

I would be cowering in the corner! That reminds me of that movie with John Ritter and the red haired little boy terror...what was that? Devils child or something

I replied:

Makes you wonder what James has been doing? He has been unsupervised while I run Jesse damage control

Yeah, so those words bit me big time. James topped all Jesse's craziness in one fatal blow. I even forgot to mention the powdered sugar incident with Jesse and all together all she did was nothing compared to what James did. At 4:30PM I texted Dad and Janne a picture (see below) with the following message:

See the end is burnt? James stuck it in the TV and burnt up the TV. He said it didn't shock him. Thank God. The TV is fried. I knew something was gonna happen. At least it was only a TV.

For the record, I was doing this all day:

Yeah. I ignored the chaos, went to my happy place and ate bonbons. *I totally did. Have I mentioned I am a multi-tasker? Literally. Jon came home to a fairly clean house, clean kids and it was calm. Despite it all, Jon did not get ambushed when he walked in the door from his full day of work. My dad seemed really concerned about that part of the story, because he was talking to Janne and Jon and Dad was all "Does Jon realize what is going on at his house?!". HAHA! Dad has been ambushed before, he was doing the man thing and hopefully protecting his son-in-law from the ambush I had waiting at home. BWAHAHAHAH!*

James did this:

Jon did this:

I did this:

Jesse did this:

All is good in our world! No spankings were issued and we survived the weekend.

Peace and I'll tell you about Wicked in a few days. I am still high.

The Morning Commute to Meme's

Baby Dinosaur was crying on our drive this morning. James rocked, kissed, patted and all to no avail. BD kept crying and crying and crying.

I hollar while driving, "Stick your finger in his mouth!"

James hollars back "That don't work!". Surprisingly, BD quit crying when James talked.

I had to investigate. So I hollar back, "Are you rocking him?!"

James snips, "YES!". A nanosecond of blessed no crying from BD. HMMMM.

Hollaring once again, "James, what does Baby Dinosaur need to stop crying?! Mommy can't take it much longer."

James whispers really loudly, "He needs somebody to sing to him."

Thank God. I ask, "Can I sing to him?" I mean, James is BD's Daddy and I didn't want to step on any toes or claws.

James says, "SURE! Sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. I think that is what Baby Dinosaur needs."

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
How I wonder what you are
Up above ....

Silence. Baby Dinosaur is no longer wailing! Hits the gas to get to Meme's faster.

HUSH! SHHHHH! Don't wake Baby Dinosaur. Easy now, hand him to me easy. Good. Am I holding Baby Dinosaur right? Yes? He likes to be held like a football? Okay. Go see MeMe.

Toss BD into the bag. See you cry now! BWAHAHAHAHAH!


*No toys or children were harmed during the above sequence.

**I totally took the picture during the chaos of the morning drive to Meme's house! I find the funniest part of the entire thing is that James is wearing my hard hat. No wonder BD was crying. James had an egg on his head.

Food

Sara at Sara's Organized Chaos posted a blog about grocery shopping on a budget. She rocks.

Crystal at Moon Lit Hill almost always has awesome tips and tricks on stretching the grocery budget.

Got me thinking about what we eat. I've basically given up on feeding my kids stuff I cook. I cooked myself beef stew last night. Kids had black olives and chicken nuggets. Meme and Papaw had fed them apples and peanut butter right before I picked them up, so they were not that hungry. Except they ate an entire can of black olives by themselves.

I'm pretty consistent about breakfast, usually a cup of coffee and a bowl of cereal. Yesterday, I had a Lunchable for lunch and the beef stew for dinner. The chocolate treat was thrown away. I hate cheap chocolate.

I need to work harder at eating all the leftovers. After three days I usually give up/forget about it.

Okay, it's 10am and I am hungry. Off to get some lunch. I forgot to pack my beef stew. Don't tell Jon.

Oh! Have you looked for a pocket knife lately? Apparently the only place to buy pocket knives that are not razor blade utility knives is at hunting supply stores. Sears doesn't carry them anymore. So I'm also off to Bass Pro Shop to purchase a pocket knife because somebody swiped mine.

Peace and Have a Good Wednesday!

What To Wear???

Ever play with those paper dolls that had those clothes with the little taps where you could change outfits on the paper doll? This is what I feel like, a paper doll with different outfits. Or maybe I feel like What Not To Wear in front of the mirror.

As I mentioned last week, I will be attending Wicked, the musical, this Thursday at the Dayton Schuster Center.

I made my Elphalba gloves and intend on wearing them, cause I made them specifically for this day. :D

So, one item of clothing chosen, here are the three outfits I'm trying to decide between:

Green sleeveless, ruffled shirt with black Levi corduroy pants. This is a typical comfort outfit for me if I was attending a party or going to be among friends and family. I like that it matches the gloves and that I get to sneak a pair of Levi's into a dress-up outfit.

Purple silk shirt with gray herringbone pattern slacks and black belt. I call this my court outfit, since I wear this for business meetings and court hearings. Comfortable, warm and I can accessorize it with my purple tunisian crochet scarf.

Orange Wicked t-shirt with black knit dress. This is totally beyond what I would wear, ever. I've tried to wear this black dress forever and have never found a time or place to wear it. The Wicked t-shirt was a find at Walmart and I love it. The outfit is definitely not dress-up, even with the skirt.

All these outfits have black shoes to pair with them. Black knee-high fuzzy boots, black patent leather baby doll high heel shoes and black patent leather high heel shoes (I typically wear them to work because they are so comfortable and cover most of my foot.)

I have a lot of Spring/Summer dress outfits, but not too many Winter dress outfits. Since it will be 30some degrees Thursday night, I'm thinking the short sleeves are even pushing it.

So, what do you think? Fashion go? Or do I need to dig some more in my closet?

Peace and Wardrobe Help is the Bee's Knees!