Yesterday I decided to start knitting a Sophie Bag. By the time I went to bed last night, it was done! It was a really nice distraction from the hats that I've been working on. (Although, my last two hats have been crocheted, so I was able to finish them in a couple of hours) I don't have a picture yet, but will take a picture when I've shaved it. It was my first foray into the world of felting, and I must say, it turned out pretty well! I was concerned that the bag might turn out larger than I intended it to because by the time I was done knitting it, it was seriously the size of one of those reusable grocery tote bags. I was planning on it being the size of a smallish purse. Apparently I had NOTHING to worry about though because, after felting, it turned out the size of a TINY purse. LOL Drake says he doesn't want me using it because it would look stupid for a grown woman to be carrying around what looks like a toy purse. I think it's adorable though and absolutely plan on using it!

Labels: knit

Okay, so the title to this post is horribly insensitive, but whatever.

So, I'm sure you've all heard of the Southern California Fires. What? You thought they were only in Malibu? Yeah, I love how the news reports on the million dollar homes that are being lost, but forgets the little guys...you know, the 600,000 people evacuated and the 1200 homes lost in San Diego. But, I digress.

We were evacuated on Monday morning. The fire burned through a neighborhood just a few miles north of us. Thankfully, short of terrible air, and a lot of ash, our neighborhood was untouched. We were able to go home Wednesday afternoon. The fires are still burning to the east, but we are no longer in harm's way.

We were lucky and able to stay with a friend instead of having to stay at an evacuation center.

Bland, boring post...sorry. I'm just drained.

I hurt my back today. I have no idea what I did to it, but it HURTS! I think I messed it up when I was lifting boxes of books in the storage room. Caitlin was complaining that she didn't have any books to read for her 30 minutes/day that she has to read, so I figured now was a good time to pull out the boxes and boxes of books I packed away when I moved out of my parent's home. I've been keeping these books, just waiting for my children to grow old enough to read them. I think she's just reaching that point and I couldn't be more thrilled!

I have a thing for books. Ever since I was 3, I LOVED to read. I read anything and everything I can get my hands on. Seriously, it's an obsession. Trips to the library were a weekly, if not more often, occurrence once I was able to go on my own. Sadly, I didn't get into the "I'd rather buy a book than check it out from the library" mentality until I got older. So, a lot of the books I read as a child, I don't own. I do own a few though. I think I pulled out four boxes today and sorted them by things I thought Caitlin would like and things I thought she wouldn't like. Here's the sad part...Caitlin hates to read. :( So, my "things she would like to read" pile was MUCH smaller than the things she wouldn't like to read pile. She looked through my pile, chose about forty books and ignored the rest. It made me sad. She does, however, have a nice assortment of books she can read and she can no longer say, "I don't have any books to read," when it comes time to read. Today she had the gall to ask me if she could read a magazine instead of a book. lol

Emma is a reader though. I'm very happy about that. She's of the "I would rather buy a book than check it out from the library" mentality, so she costs us quite a bit of money. lol I don't mind though, because I know that someday she will be able to pull out boxes full of books and be thrilled to share them with her children. She'll be able to say, "This was one of my FAVORITE books! I hope you really like it, too!"

So, I'm a big fan of wasting my time with online quizzes. They're usually pretty dumb...which is what makes them fun. lol Anyways, I took one tonight. Six simple questions. One not so simple answer. I'm amazed at how right it really was:

You're The Sound and the Fury!

by William Faulkner

Strong-willed but deeply confused, you are trying to come to grips with a major crisis in your life. You can see many different perspectives on the issue, but you're mostly overwhelmed with despair at what you've lost. People often have a hard time understanding you, but they have some vague sense that you must be brilliant anyway. Ultimately, you signify nothing.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

We all do know that I'm brilliant, right? ;)

I have been in quite a funk lately. I don't know what it is. Perhaps it's the sun not shining as much during the day. Perhaps it's because I haven't been getting out of the house much. Perhaps it's a late onset of baby blues. Whatever it is, it just sucks. I have been UNBELIEVABLY irritable. The other day I was out running some errands and someone almost backed up into me. They then had the NERVE to honk at me...like it was MY fault they weren't looking when they were backing out of their parking spot and almost hit me. All of a sudden, from the back of the car I hear, "Mommy, what does ***hole mean?" I was SHOCKED. I replied, "Where did you hear that word?" He said, "You just said it." So, apparently I'm randomly swearing and not even realizing it...in front of my KIDS no less! Great...no mother of the year award here!

Even the littlest things have been bugging the heck out of me. It's gotten to the point that I feel like I should just lock myself in a closet until this all blows over because I'm just plain mean. My poor kids. The slightest thing sets me off and boy do they hear it. :( I've been such a crappy mom lately. I hear myself yelling and think, "Katie...GET A GRIP! This wouldn't even normally bother you. It's not a big deal!" yet I'm still yelling. Then I'm crying because I feel like such a crappy mom for yelling.

Drake was gone for a week. I was SO excited the day he got home. I had missed him so much. But I swear...from the minute he went home until the minute we went to bed that night, we were fighting. I don't know if it was his nitpicking at everything I apparently did wrong while he was gone, or if I was just overreacting, or if I just had unrealistic expectations of what things would be like when he got home...I don't know. All I know is that NOTHING was as I expected it would be. I thought we would be this happy family, so thrilled to be back together after him being gone for a week. I was expecting a period of just being happy and reveling in the fact that he was home, but it was nothing like that. I felt like the moment he walked in the door he was all over me about every little thing that he felt was wrong with the house and with the kids. I had tried SO hard to make things run smoothly and get things done while he was gone so he would come home and be happy and it was for NOTHING. Not only did he not notice all the things I did, he harped on all the things I didn't do. I think with this funk I've been in, I was really relying on his homecoming to be a bright spot in my life. I was expecting at least a few hours of genuine happiness. It was unfair of me to put that expectation on him. I think that when things failed to go exactly how I expected them to, it just intensified the negative. At least, that's what I'm going to tell myself because otherwise he really was just a complete ass, which really sucks.

Usually, I can just move past things. They bother me for a second, then I just let them go. I can't seem to do that lately. Things that bother me, continue to bother me. People that irritate me, continue to irritate me. I just really need to get out of this funk.

Okay, so I am pretty much THE most unorganized person you will EVER meet. Some people have "organized chaos." I have pure chaos. You know how you see those television shows about the families with a gazillion kids and the mom is super organized? I wish that was me. I also wish my kids did chores like theirs do, but I digress. (Oh, and I'm super jealous of their laundromats inside of their homes...when I have a house of my own, I'm SO going to have multiple washers and dryers! So cool!)

So anyways, in an effort to be more organized, last night I made a list of household chores I wanted to get done today. Usually, I just kinda wander around the house, aimlessly, doing the things that look like they need to get done. I think this leads to a lot of wasted time. I have major time management issues. OH MY GOODNESS...lists are SO much fun! Seriously...had I known just how much I love lists, I would have done this a LONG time ago! Very few things give you the same satisfaction as checking that little box. Last night's list looked something like this:
_ Clean bathrooms
_ Do three loads of laundry
_ Clean bedrooms
_ Wash walls in hallway

When I got done washing the walls in the hallway, I checked that off. It was as though the heavens opened, light shone down and angels sang...yes...checking that off felt that good. So, I redid my list to look something like this:
DOWNSTAIRS BATHROOM
_ Wash countertop
_ Wash Sink
_Wash toilet outside
_ Wash toilet inside
_ Wash mirror
_ Vacuum floor (who puts carpet in the BATHROOM?)

So, now instead of one check for "Clean bathrooms" I got six checks for a single bathroom! So much fun!

The part I'm concerned about though is that I may not get through my list by the end of the day. What do I do with the things that didn't get done? Do I just put them on tomorrow's list? Do I not go to bed until every single thing is checked off? I have a bit of a problem with obsessive behavior. Once I start something, I go full steam ahead until it either gets done or I simply cannot move anymore. I HATE leaving things unfinished. I will fixate on something and do it to death. (Well, except with my knitting, it seems, hence the five or six projects I'm currently working on) I think that's a big part of why I have such a hard time with daily house upkeep. It's all incredibly daunting because once I start on a room, it must be spotless before I can move onto another room. However, with six kids, nothing seems to get spotless, so it all just becomes overwhelming. I'm hoping my new list obsession will help with that. If it's not on my list, I don't need to do it. If I don't write down that I'm going to clean the baseboards with a toothbrush, I just won't do it, and I'll be okay with that. Plus, I don't need to stick to one room and clean it until it sparkles. I can look on my list and decide to do one thing in one room, then another in a different room. As long as the list is getting checked off, I'm good! I figure this way, by the end of the day, the house is in a managable state because I had a clear view of what I wanted to get done in the beginning instead of, "I really need to clean this room."

Tomorrow I'm making a grocery list. WOOHOO!

Less than 14,000 people ahead of me on the Ravelry waiting list! YAY!!! Just under 2,000 people behind me. I can't believe how quickly that list is growing!

I got new glasses! I LOOOOOOOOOVE them! I thought I loved my old glasses. I love these ones even more! I'm going to dye my hair while Drake is gone (because he hates me dying my hair) so I'll post a picture of my new glasses and my new hair in a few days!

Since Drake has been working so many hours lately, we decided to meet up for lunch yesterday. I had forgotten something at home, so we ran home to get it. He went inside to get it. He came back to the car with a box and a not too happy look on his face. "$***** Katie!?!?!?!? How can you spend $**** on YARN?!?!?!" (Amount censored because it was a bit ridiculous) I didn't know whether to look sheepish and ashamed because he was obviously upset, or to squeal with glee because my knitpicks order had come in three days before it was scheduled to arrive. Darn credit card being in his name...the package was addressed to him!

I'm SO thrilled with my options needles and the yarn I got is just yummy! I can start on the hats now!!!!! I also got my teeny tiny dpns and some sock yarn! YAY!!!!!

I don't think it helped that just before we came home and he found this package, we were at Michael's buying more yarn and needles. I do, however, now have the right size needles to start on my purses! Yay!!!

Last night I made myself a little "works in progress" box. It's keeping my yarn nicely organized! Go Katie!

Labels: knit

I like to be awake when Drake gets home from work, so here I sit, bored out of my mind. It's 11:30 pm and Drake has no idea what time he'll get home. He only got to work at...oh...8:30 this morning. :( He had already worked more than 40 hours this week before he even went into work this morning, so by end of day Saturday (because he will be working on Saturday) he'll probably have worked 80 hours or so this week. :( Poor guy. I know the long hours are hard on him. I know he wants to be home with the family. I know he hates feeling like he barely closed his eyes and all of a sudden it's time to go back to work. I feel selfish thinking about how much I hate him working long hours, but I do. It's hard on the kids to not see their dad at all during the day...especially since he's leaving for a week starting Saturday. Caitlin has been asking me when she's going to be able to spend some time with him before he leaves and I just don't know how to tell her that she's not going to be able to. Even Allie seems to be having a hard time not having him around these past few days. He's usually there to put her to sleep. Tonight she screamed for hours, refusing to go to sleep. I'm fairly certain it's because she's used to Drake putting her to bed.

Anyways, enough of that mopey sadness. New revelry waiting list stats:

• You signed up on October 2, 2007
• You are #38828 on the list.
• 14957 people are ahead of you in line.
• 1053 people are behind you in line.
• 59% of the list has been invited so far

Moving on up!

I went and bought some new yarn today. (Shhhh...don't tell Drake. When I get sad...I shop.) I bought this GORGEOUS bamboo yarn. It's so luxuriously soft. I could only find three skeins from the same dye lot and they're really small, so I don't know what I'm going to make with it. I started a baby blanket, but I don't think I'm going to have enough of the yarn, so I think I'll frog it and decide to make something else. I was thinking maybe a sweater for Allie, but she's just going to drool all over it, so it's probably going to turn out to be a shirt for Caitlin. I think I'll have just enough for that. I also bought some wool yarn to make a felted purse for my sister for Christmas. (Now I'm hoping she doesn't read this. LOL Then again, I have three sisters, so they have no idea which one I'm talking about.) I also bought some soy/wool blend yarn to make the same purse for myself. I have to find the right size needles for the purse though. I KNOW I bought some quite a while back...it's just a matter of finding them. I really must get organized. You should see my yarn stash. It's such a mess. Just four more days until more yarn and needles come in the mail! YAY!!! The hat I'm knitting is on hold until I find my missing dpn. :( I should take some pictures of everything I'm working on...after I get my stash under control. It's a serious mess.

*Sigh* It would be nice if Drake would get home before midnight. He's got 17 minutes. Yeah, I don't see that happening. Perhaps before one? A girl can dream, right? lol

Anyways, off to find something to do to keep myself busy. I suppose I could clean the house. That's no fun though. lol

Labels: knit

So, I've been hearing about this site, Ravelry, on all sorts of knitting blogs lately. (Yes, I'm a dork and read knitting blogs) It looks like SUCH an awesome site! It's only in beta, so they're slowly inviting beta testers. I signed up to be on the waiting list to be a beta tester yesterday. I just checked my place in line.

• You signed up on Yesterday
• You are #38828 on the list.
• 16610 people are ahead of you in line.
• 282 people are behind you in line.
• 56% of the list has been invited so far

So, still over 16,000 beta testers ahead of me. It could be worse. I could be one of the 282 people who signed up after I did. LOL

Since I'm chatting a bit about knitting, I'll give you a list of the things I'm working on right now. I just finished a hat out of some yummy soft galenas wool yarn, dyed by Three Irish Girls in their Elsbeth colorway. It's beautiful! I knit it flat though and decided I just don't like hats with seams, so I'm using the rest of the skein to make the same hat, but a little bit bigger and in the round. This is my first attempt at cables. I was a bit worried, but they're turning out okay. I have issues with tension though...especially when going from knit to purl. I've got to work on that. On another set of needles I have a pair of pants going. I lost my second skein of yarn though, so those are on hold until I can find it. LOL

Coming in the mail I have the knitpicks options set of needles. I've been very limited in what I can do because I just don't have enough needles to do all of the projects I want to do. So, hopefully this will alleviate this issue a bit. I also bought their set of 1-3 dpns so I can start on some socks! I bought some sock yarn (in burgandy) to make myself a pair of socks and some yarn (in Volcano Twist) to make my little sister a pair. She's all emo, so I thought she might like a pair of knee highs made out of this.

I'm in a homemade hat swap on Friends and Families, so I bought the yarn to make the four hats that I signed up to make. I have an adult woman's hat to make, two young girl's hats and one young boy's hat to make. So, I ordered all of the yarn for those and when it arrives on the 8th, it should be all hats, all the time around here. lol

Labels: knit