December Happenings

We've been keeping ourselves busy in December. The first Friday of the month we traveled to Philadelphia to see a wonderful presentation of 'Peter Pan' at the Arden Theatre. The girls were a little scared at times, but now seem to have fond memories of the performance. Later this month, T will go to a workshop at the Arden, taught be the young actor who played Peter Pan.

Two weeks after seeing 'Peter Pan' on stage, we were fortunate enough to get tickets to see 'The Nutcracker' at The Acadamy of Music in Philadelphia. Thanks to my parents. The show was wonderful and held the interest of both girls. They are familiar with the story and the music from the ballet.

As Christmas draws near, I busy with shopping, decorating, sending out Christmas cards and planning for an extended family dinner. I'm happy with the progress I've made on the socks I'm knitting as a gift. I won't show them to you yet because it's a secret. Shhh.

Fall Already!

I'm trying to give myself a bit of a kick start here for some more regular posts by writing a brief summary of the past three months:

August 2009 marked the sixth birthday of my oldest daughter and her first day of kindergarten. She did fine; I was in tears.

In September, my younger daughter turned four. Both August and September were filled with parties with friends and families. I attended Knitter's Day Out, taking a course on working on gauge and blocking. I learned a lot and became a believer in doing a gauge swatch. I bought a fun kit for a "Something Sheepy" hat, some sock yarn and a bag of felted balls. I'm hoping that my daughters will enjoy stringing the colorful felted balls to make necklaces. Since KDO, I've finished the sweater and socks in my July 31 post and I'm 90% finished with my "Something Sheepy" hat.

We had a great time in Hillsgrove in early October. My Dad owns a hunting cabin there with a bunch of other guys - nothing fancy. We spent the days walking to the general store, going on short hikes and playing games. It was a wonderful way to welcome fall. Also, in early October, T learned to ride her two-wheeler bike!

Knitting

According to my blog, my last knitting project was a pair of mittens for Sam. I'd like to be able to recall everything I've knit since.

I'm drawing a blank, but I do have a couple projects on needles:

Rainbow socks for Anna in Opal, lollipop and a boatneck sweater my friend's new baby boy in Mission Falls 1824 cotton.

Memory jog. I also knit a nice green scarf for Brad. That just needs blocking; plenty of time to finish that before the snow flies. I could probably completely finish socks, sweater and scarf in a matter of hours. Don't you think?

Golf

In May I went golfing on a real golf course for the first time.  My husband, Brad, has been golfing for over 35 years.  He used to hit golf balls with a few hand-me-down in the fields behind the house where he grew up.  He was on the golf team in high school.  He has three brothers who also golf, so golfing has always been his territory and something he has enjoyed with his siblings.

We had discussed the idea of me trying out the sport in the past and I always scrunched up my nose at the idea.  To be honest with you, I never really thought of it as much of a sport and I've always been turned off by the costs associated with it.  "I'll stick to my knitting", I'd say.  And his reply was "that's probably best since you probably would not take it very seriously and I'd want to help you get better".

In March, we went to Play-A-Round Golf in celebration of Brad's birthday.  We went with a group of people and had a lot of fun.  My sister-in-law had recently purchased clubs and she was starting to join her husband on the course.  When they invited us to play at a real course that day in May; I went thinking it would be fun.  It was.  Here's an outline of my golfing experiences so far, only time will tell where it leads me.

1.  At Play-A-Round Golf the most memorable line of the evening was "Whacky, whacky"!  One of the women there came up with that line when she'd smack a long drive.  

2.  At Arrowhead (April 25) , my first outing, we golfed 9 holes late in the day.  I had some nice straight shots and had way more fun than I thought I would.  Brad shot better than normal because according to him, "he was thinking less about his shots and more about mine".  My sister-in-law was surprised I did not bring my knitting.

3.  At Blackwood (May 15) we golfed 9 holes and I got to experience a fun, memorable hole. It's so hard to describe the challange of this hole and the feeling when you're teeing off this hole. You're on one side of a small ravine and you have to hit over the creek to the green.

4.  While at Bethany Beach (June 16), Brad and I played nine holes late on a windy day.  It was a nice course, bathrooms at the fourth hole and nice greens and carpet-like fairways.  There were also yardage marker stones along the fairway.  He was so close to an eagle on one shot, it was fun to watch.  He also shot back-to-back birdies.  I regained some confidence, hitting better than my game at Blackwood.  

5.  Today I bought my own clubs on e-bay.

Happy 20th Anniversary!

As soon as I opened the mailbox on May 15 and held the package from my brother, the date sounded familiar.  May 15.  May 15.  Then it came to me from the dark corner of my brain.  My brother had remembered the anniversary of our bicycle trip across the USA.

So many years prior I had sent him cards celebrating the event.  This year, he had remembered and sent not only a card, but also a cd with jpegs he had scanned of his slide collection from the trip.  

It has been wonderful looking through those photos and remembering those days we shared.  Thank you, brother.

All In A Day

Finally, here is another post.

Often after the sun sets,  I reflect on the day and ask myself, "what the heck did I do today?", feeling as if nothing got done.

So here is today.

7:15 woke

7:45  fixed breakfast for the girls

7:50 packed banana bread for coffee hour after church

8:00 showered.  Yep, I actually got a shower today!

8:30 kissed hubby good-bye (he very rarely works weekends, but this was one of those days)

8:45 packed the girls in the car and drove to church

10:10 intergenerational choir practice

11:30 lunch

12:00 cleaned up the kitchen (yep, sometimes I leave all the dirty dishes until later)

12:10 helped child #1 in the bathroom

12:20 resumed kitchen clean-p

12:30 helped child #2 in the bathroom

12:40 went for a walk with the girls who were very eager to push their "babies" in strollers

1:00 asked one of our teenager neighborhood sitters if she'd come by 4-5 pm so I could run

1:15 returned home

1:50 went to YMCA for open swim 

2:15 entered the pool

3:05 left the pool and helped the girls with their showers at the YMCA

3:45 drove home

3:50 got a craft and games out for the sitter

4:00 ran

5:00 returned

5:10 computer time suck while the girls played

5:40 fix dinner

6:00 my parents drop by

6:30 dinner

7:15 help with toothbrushing, baths, PJ's and hair brushing

7:20 watch some TV with the girls

7:30 neighbor stops by to pick up George, the fish we've been pet sitting

8:00 read books with the girls and lights out

8:30 down stairs and more killing time on the computer time

10:24 post this

See, I did something after all!  All in a day.

Mittens for Sam

I finished a quick pair of mittens for Sam.  I'm wondering if he will actually wear them.  What I'm envisioning is a reaction similar to the one from A Christmas Story when the kid got a  pink bunny outfit from his grandmother.

I had fun knitting them for him.

Who Needs A Sled?

Yesterday we had a great time playing on the little hill next to our house.  The snow had a thin layer of ice on it so the kids were able to do some "butt sledding" and belly flopping.

When the girls get older they will realize how small the hill is, and be bored with it.  But now it's the perfect sledding hill

Playground Mittens

I've knit two pair of Playground Mittens, one for each of the girls. The Noro Kureyon was a gem to knit with and the mittens are beautiful.  The girls are not too much into wearing them, oh well.  Maybe next year.

I finally convinced T. to put on the playground mittens and swish her hands in warm water to shrink them a bit. I've got to get her to do it again because they still are not small enough.  Or since spring is less than 6 weeks away, maybe I will set these mittens aside for next winter. Who knows how much their hands will grow by then!

Pattern:  Crossroad Knits - Playground Mittens

Yarn:  Noro Kureyon

Needles:  US4 dpn

Happy Birthday, Brad!

Last week we celebrated Brad's birthday.  The girls had a great time making and decorating the cake.  Any excuse to bring out the sprinkles and they're in! 

My idea to rent him a clarinet has proven to be a huge hit.  Most every day he gets it out and practices a bit.  Of course he is not pleased with the sound, but I'm impressed and think he sounds great!  I had hoped to have his old clarinet restored, but it was beyond repair.  Rental costs for the student clarinet can be applied to purchase of a new one.  I hope he decides to buy one and continue practicing.

My 2008 Rockin' ABCs

I thought it would be fun to celecrate events, accomplishments and new products that came into my life for 2008 in the form of an alphabet.  Here goes.

'A' Amy's 50th!

'B' Big Apple Circus

'C' "Colonel Hathi's March (The Elephant Song)" The Jungle Book

'D' Diapers No More!

'E' Emma Haring

'F' Flat Stanley

'G' Gilmore's

'H' Harmony Needles

'I'  IPhone

'J' Jingle Bell 5K

'K' Knit 2 sweaters, 2 hats, 4 Christmas tree ornaments, 2 dishcloths, a market bag, a pair of socks, a triangular scarf, a putter cover 

'L' Lemonade Stand

'M' MacBook, Mad Men

'N' Noro

'O' Obama

'P' Pumpkin Plant

'Q' Queen as in "Dancing Queen"

'R' RE instructor

'S' Sibling GAP Bike Ride

'T' Trailside Cottage

'U' bcmes a cmmn acronym 4 me as I m intrdced 2 txt mssgng

'V' Victory Brewery Gift Card

'W' Winter Olympic Scarf Project

'X' Xylophone

'Y' Y's Owls

'Z' Zingo

Let The Games Begin

My first finished object for 2009 was mailed today to the Special Olympics Winter Games Scarf Project. I had to use the required Red Heart yarn which was oh, not so lovely to work with.  Mine is worked up in a single crochet, lengthwise.  For some reason, crochet seemed a fitting technique (I had not crocheted an item in decades.) It's funny because many of my knitting buds thought the same and crocheted too!

Soon the scarf will be in the hands of a worthy group and my hope is that it will embrace a very Special Olympian.