The knitting, the flu, and the Wardrobe

Yesterday was a busy day. I took the boys to the pediatrician for Zim's 2nd flu shot and Sprout's 6-month check-up, which also meant two shots for him. Only to find that when we arrived, they had run out of flu shots for kids, so Zim wouldn't be getting his. At least I didn't run all the way out there for nothing, because Sprout still had his appointment. I'm crazy enough to drive 45 minutes to this office because the doctors there are that good. I was worried about Zim because he is asthmatic, and any illness he gets is amplified. But the nurse said that at least he should be getting some protection from the first shot.

Sprout was seen and weighed, etc. He had the flu really bad over Christmas, and it's good to see him recover so well. The office did have flu vaccines for infants left, and I opted to get one for the baby because it was so sad to see him so sick over the holidays.

By the way, I forgot to mention that Girlie threw up in the van (in a garbage can) on the way to the appointment. She said she felt like it was from too much hot chocolate.

Fast forward to bedtime, and Girlie is now throwing up. She counted six times this morning. And now Drammies is sick. She is also throwing up. And Zim threw up this morning. But now he's running around like a wild man. Maybe that first flu shot did help him some. Girlie and Drammies are sleeping. Sprout doesn't seem sick, but he is fussy from his shots yesterday. So I am nursemaid today. I just got over that terrible 24-hour flu last week. It came on so suddenly I thought it was food poisoning, but when most everyone we know has been sick with the 24-hour thing, it looks like that's what I had.

Drammies was supposed to drive home to Seattle today. She wanted to leave by noon. But of course she is not well enough to drive, and I'll keep her here until I'm sure that she's strong enough to make the trip.

On a lighter note, look what the UPS man brought today:

Yes, that is a wardrobe box, with little ZimDee sitting on top of it, and it contained this:

Trophy Wife Extraordinaire sent it from Chicago. I'm beside myself with glee just waiting for Girlie to feel good enough to open all the presents with me.

And as an added bonus, Zim has a new playhouse:
It's his secret cave. Who knows what kinds of adventures he's thinking up in his little boy's imagination?

On the knitting front, I have made absolutely no progress on the heart ornaments. The main reason, of course, is because I'm trying to help my family get over this flu, and the other is because I have some sort of mental block that I want to start new projects, not fiddle with these old ones. And with everyone sick here in the house, I won't be getting together with my buddy to deliver the ornaments tomorrow. My fingers are itching to knit, but I know I shouldn't start something new until I finish these.

And then Drammies introduced me to these devilish new puzzles called Su Doku. If you haven't heard of these and someone mentions them, run, run away as far as you can. They are terribly addictive.

By the way, no one has ventured a guess on the movie line trivia contest I posted on 12/28/05. There is a fabulous chocolate treat still waiting for you if you are the first to answer it correctly.

My love to all.

Don't make me get back into the van...

Today was a pretty productive day, all things considered. Dram-Dram (my mom) is here visiting and her presence really helps out with the kids. Somehow Girlie and Zim slept in til noon--it must be all the holiday video game playing catching up with them. While they slept I caught up on laundry while Drammies sewed flannel pajamas for the kids. Once the babies were up and about, we set out to pick up Girlie's new reading glasses from the optometrist, which she swears make her look smarter.

I tell her she doesn't need glasses to look smart, but she feels good all the same. ZimDee decided to have a meltdown in the van, and that zapped any energy I had to get on with the rest of my day. But persevere I must, so it was off to the beauty supply store to take advantage of my wholesale discount and stock up on shampoos and such. Next came the grocery store for stuff for tonight's spaghetti dinner.

On the way home we stopped at the barber and had Zim's "ears lowered" as my Grandpa used to say.

Doesn't he look handsome? And that's little Sprout hanging out on the floor practicing rolling over. He's trying on the flannel pajama top that his Drammies is making for him.

I've done surprisingly zero knitting in the past couple of days, which is not at all like me. I think I was distracted by all my Christmas toys. I'm supposed to be meeting my ornament exchange buddy on Saturday to give her the 12 ornaments I was supposed to have finished a couple weeks ago. I wanted to knit them this year, and found the cutest heart ornament pattern in Nicky Epstein's Knitted Embellishment book.
I knit this up in Lion Brand Suede in size 9 needles. I modified the pattern to make it smaller, since it knit up kind of big for a Christmas tree ornament. But the larger size would be good to hang from a door knob or from the wall.

I've done all the knitting for the ornaments, I just need to sew them together and stuff them. Like a lot of knitters, I'm not very fond of the finishing part of knitting. I've signed up for a finishing class at the Knitting Bee for next month, so I can get comfortable with using the correct stitches and have them look good. I've got two baby sweaters and a pair of baby leggings all knit up, but I'm terrified to ruin them with a bad sewing-up job. Hence the class. I just hope that little Sprout doesn't grow out of them before the class is over.

The Count was talking about taking a drive in the van to go see some holiday lights that will be on display until the end of the year. But after spending a traumatic day running errands with my little monsters/angels, the last thing I wanted to do was to pile them all up again and sit with them for a couple hours strapped down in that cramped space. Besides, I've already changed into half of my uniform, flannel pajama bottoms, within minutes of walking through the front door today. I remember the days when I used to think that jeans were
comfortable.

The sweetest thing happened tonight. I was down in the dungeon (basement) trying to figure out this whole posting pictures onto the blog thing, when down drifted the smell of dinner cooking. Yes, it was the Count, cooking up the spaghetti dinner I had planned and laid out. I am married to a great guy. And it tasted fabulous.

Oh, now for my first movie line trivia question. Guess which movie this line is from: "Did they teach you that at the Bureau? How to rile up the deviant?"

The first person to guess correctly will be mailed a delicious chocolate candy treat. It's on now. Good luck, me hearties.

It's ok--I'm a dork

Sorry for the double posting of the photo below. I'm just getting used to the layout of this blog and how to add photos, etc. I'm sure one day I will become a pro at this, but for now, I'm just going to have to hiccup through this process.

The picture, by the way, is of me reading a precious journal that my dear sister, lovingly known as Trophy Wife Extraordinaire, sent to me. We have used this journal to write our letters to each other back and forth since she moved to the midwest in 2002. In the picture you can see the remnants all around me from her care package to me and my kids. But I had immediately ripped open the journal, still in my flannel pajamas (otherwise known as my official uniform), sat right there on the kitchen floor and absorbed every precious word she had written. I still miss her so much that it aches. You can see Girlie sifting through the rubble for toys, and that's a partial shot of ZimDee behind her.

I learned to knit with Trophy Wife, and I can still feel that connection to her when I knit here without her. My big sister loves me much, and I adore her.

 

 

Up and Running...

Hello Hello Hello! It's time I got this blog up and running. A word of introduction: My name is Katrina (yes...like the hurricane...though I had the name a good 30 something years before that ever became an issue). I am the proud mom of three wonderful/exasperating/beautiful/naughty/sweet children: Girlie, my 8-year-old angel daughter; ZimDee, my 3-year-old De-struc-tor boy; and Sprout, my tiny 6-month old baby boy. With these three around, there is never a dull moment in my house. I don't get out as much as I used to with all of the goings-on in my household. Hence the name of my blog, taken from that old Loretta Lynn song: "...but here in Topeka, the rain is a fallin', the coffee's boiling over and the kids are a bawlin', one of them's a toddlin' and one is a crawlin'..." But thank the Lord, there will be no more on the way. Dr. Rosenquist said so and I believe him.

I decided to start this blog to chart the progress of my knitting projects (my current obsession). I'm in pursuit of all things crafty, and in the past I've done beadwork (still love it), quilting (love it but it's not portable), cardmaking (totally over that...long story...) and scrapbooking (though I have to say I always seemed to buy more scrapbooking supplies than actually scrapbook itself, as a verb). What I love about knitting is that I can make something useful for myself or other people that they can actually wear or snuggle up in to keep warm. Cards are great, but you look at them for a while, maybe file them, or not. Soon I will post pictures of some of my past crafting projects and my current knitting projects to keep things interesting.

I am married to the most wonderful guy. We'll call him Count Zappula. He's a cross between (listen closely) Jackie Chan, Arnold Swarzenegger, and Bruce Lee. Trust me on this. Those who know me...am I right or am I right? We've been married for 13 years, and in that time, he has always kept me laughing. And if he is a Count, surely that makes me a Countess?

There will be more to come later. To quote Bugs Bunny: "I think this is the start of a byoo-tiful friendship." Love, Me.