oh hell yeah!

  ooh! well, that’s teensy. you get the idea.

tomorrow. so excited! 

yes, we are coming off an unintended 5 day weekend. crazy weather. cuh-razy!

and i loved every minute of it.

sewed.

knit.

cooked.

baked.

did laundry (ok, didn’t so much love that part)

and tomorrow we go back. the kids will be good, they are always low key after an extended break. they missed me and each other. they will be themselves again by friday. 

my student teacher starts tomorrow.

not the most organized day to have her there. 

let’s hope she doesn’t judge.

for her sake.

peace out.

yesterday came suddenly

yesterday:

went to chicago with dan

saw the oscar mayer weiner wagon 

stopped at arcadia knitting

might have bought yarn (amnesia, you know)

stepped in a snow drift up to my thighs (no choice)

did not take pics of any of the above.

went to natalie and tony’s house

saw this cute boy:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

gave him knitting toys to play with:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

watched him try to skate board on the bed:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

talked with this pretty girl:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

heard “help! pants!” from teno when i did this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and fell in love all over again (while admitting i can emphasize with natalie for hating it):

grocery store adventure and some finished objects

i don’t know if it’s a common thing elsewhere, but our local grocery stores hire mentally challenged people as baggers. other than the fact that they are generally kinder than most employees, nothing is unusual about it.

until today.

the man bagging my groceries was singing a song of his own composition. it went a little something like this…

“i’m off in ten friggin’ minutes,

i’ve been here since friggin’ ten o’clock.

i can’t friggin’ stand it!

i’m so frigging bored i can die…”

la la la la laaaaaa

it was pretty hilarious. and for the record, he correctly used my first envirosax (envirosack?). the second? he put in a plastic bag with my groceries. the third, he used correctly.

ay yi yi

and now, for your viewing pleasure, are the photographed FOs, mostly christmas gifts. i neglected to get photos of them all, probably because there was no sun for weeks.

for teno:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and these:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

lily, nina and natalie also got slippers, but there’s have pom pons (pom poms?) because they are girls.

oh! i do have a photo, stolen from natalie’s flickr:

 

 

 

 

 

for lily:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

a couple of things for me. not gifts, of course. i just got around to uploading them.

my soft, squishy hat:

 

 

 

 

 

 

my amazing, amazing, fast, fun, smooshy mittens that make me wish even harder than ever for snow:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

oh, and the mittens i made for natalie’s birthday, but didn’t give to her until christmas day:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

happy new year and happy new season of BIG LOVE!

titles are over-rated

 

presents are good

i’m not sure what was going on here, but chances are good lily was schooling teno about something or other. the scarf she is wearing is just like the one i made for my second graders. the girls got the pink dots and boys got navy with dinosaurs. oh, they loved them. i was the rock star of the day, i tell you.

and here’s my most-used pressie. i have barely taken these off since xmas morning, and i am always reluctant to do so when forced to wear real shoes. danny boy hit it out of the park with these, and the fact that he drove to the mall in a snow storm to get them only gets him bonus points. the man is crazy about me. he he

 

dead sexy am i

i had some FO pics, also. i don’t know why i didn’t take pics of all of them. well, that’s a lie. i do know why. i was lazy. but you’ll have to wait for those. i’ve got a knitting date at s’bux in a few.

peace out.

it was a love/hate kinda day here at chez knittah.

i love to shop, but i hate that it takes all day. i still need so many little things for the house, but trying to navigate an over-filled cart (a folding chair takes up a LOT of room. who knew?) around the browsers at homegoods was not my idea of a good time. midway through my last stop, target (aka the mothership), i just wanted to go home. or did i? home means i have to put all this crap AWAY. oy. 

but, as always, i put on my big girl “gidderdone” panties, and did it. i told myself i’d knit while watching my ina, then i’d start baking that cake. thanks for the cake pans, homegoods. i needed them.

i began putting the first ingredients in the food processor when the doorbell rang. it was a very sweet guy from com ed who was very, very sorry to bother me, but they had orders to upgrade our ampage, or somethinglikethat. sounded good to me, except for the part where i would be without power for 30 minutes or so.

did i mention it was just getting dark? yeah. it was. 

to make a long story…um…less long, i finished the cake about 7:15 tonight. i’d started it at 4:30.

and you know that trick about putting a little waxed or parchment paper on the cake plate, then pulling it out after frosting. yeah. right. in what universe does THAT work?

 

peace out.

It’s a Marshmallow World in the Winter

when the snow comes a tumblin’ down
and the sun is red
like a pumpkin head
i dream about it all year long…

yes, it’s official.
i am a nutball.
i LOOOOOOOOOOOOVE the snow.
love!
and you know one of the very coolest things about teaching second graders? i am not a weirdo.
they love it as much as i do.

my elementary school music teacher, the late Mrs. Rosemary Martis taught us so many songs that stuck with me all these years. she was really one amazing lady. she taught us what she loved- show tunes. and i still remember the lyrics to every single one of them.

and i have no proof, but in my heart i truly believe she, too, loved the snow.

what the hell is this about?

i’d be eternally grateful if someone can explain it all to me. tell me why/how people can be so ignorant.

tonight i went to best buy to do a little holiday shopping. at the checkout counter, i handed the nice enough (albeit ignorant) young man my reuseable bag. you’d think i’d handed him a two-headed rubber snake. he was totally confused.

sidebar: i thought i had this deal down. at the grocery store, i’ve learned to avoid the ummm…more mature cashiers, opting to stand in a longer line with a younger cashier. as ageist as it sounds, the older ones have generally been using 28 plastic bags for the same amount of groceries that will comfortably fit in two envirosax. (runon sentence, anyone?)  when i do convince them i really am crazy enough to want my groceries in the bags i’ve brought, they insist the meat will somehow penetrate its plastic containment and migrate through the tube, thereby contaminating my toothpaste, or something. i’m not sure what they fear, but it always ends the same. coming home without having added to the slaughter of a hundred plastic bag trees (or whatever), i have to assert myself. i’m quite sure i’m the topic of discussion around many after-work dinner tables. the insane redhead who will be brushing her teeth with meat-poisoned toothpaste for weeks. if only she’d not been such a bitch, i could have saved her!

back to the nice young man at best buy. he checked out my dvds, reluctantly placed them in my weirdo bag, then all but dived head first into my purse to retrieve the receipt i attempted to place in it. “keep that out!” he insisted. “they may want to see it at the door. they do that when something looks unusual.” 

my next stop was barnes and noble, where i generally find the bookringeruppers to be on the hip/nerdy side. qualities i admire in people in general. can you see where this is going?

sidebar again: i’m not a kid. i’m 51 years old. natalie says there’s still a lot of hippie in my soul, and she’s probably right, but the leftover hippie likes italian shoes, 600 thread count sheets and her iPhone. the salespeople who are the subject of this rant ranged in age from about 19 to 25. why am i more environmentally conscientious? for whom am i trying to save this planet? a bunch of youngins who don’t care? it’s very nearly 2009, people.  wtf???

meanwhile, back at b&n, i handed over my books, giftie items, membership card (the best $25 i’ve spent in ages) and…wait for it…

another envirosax.

youngish bookseller was confused. she looked for a price tag.i explained the situation to her. she said my bag is so cute.i thanked her.  she asked if i was sure i wanted my purchases in the bag. i assured her, yes, i am indeed THAT crazy.

this is where i want to scream, “WHY DO YOU THINK I GAVE IT TO YOU, DUMB ASS?” but i did not. i am calm. i am in the right.

i then told her it was ok, people often look for the price tag, and then related the best buy story.

one of her coworkers, who apparently could not mind her own beeswax and was also stupid, said, “they do that. they will want to see your receipt when the buzzer goes off.”

i explained the buzzer did not go off. i was not even at the door yet. this occured at the cash register.

she then said, and i quote, “well, they do that when they see something weird “

then i did it. i got pissed off. i lifted my bag, looked her right in the redlipstickthatmadeherteethlookyellow face and said, “this  is  not  weird. the word you meant to use is RESPONSIBLE”.

then i hairflipped out of the store.

mature? maybe not, but i, for one, am OVER THESE IDIOTS!

a renegade christmas

i had a good day. it started out not so good. i picked up nina and we headed to the city to go to the renegade holiday craft fair with natalie, her mom in law, sis in law and a friend and her mother.  (got all that?) we got about a half hour from home when nina realized she had will’s keys. will had to go to work in the afternoon, and there’s no way we would have been home in time for him to go. we stopped at starbucks to consider the possibilities because, you know, a little gingersnap latte helps in these situations. ok, so maybe helps is the wrong word. “doesn’t hurt” is probably more accurate.

so anyway, we had to turn around and bring will his keys because not only was his car key with us, but so were his work keys. yeah. she gets that key stealing from her dad. i have a place for my keys and i actually put them there. i know. i’m unreasonable  like that.

we drove around several blocks about half a million times and finally scored some pretty sweet parking. the show was awesome. i was in knitterly heaven, i tell you. not in the buying sense, but in the looking sense. there were so many people wearing handknits. warmed my heart, it did. i’ll have to document my purchases later, since one of them is a gift for a certain little bakin’ and destroyin’ girl. i got a beautiful necklace from le photique. it’s not this one, but i do love this, too.

 

mine has a bird. the thing is, i am not a fan of birds in real life, but i do like 2 dimensional birds. 

hmmm, i AM a fan of that winter scene, though. and winter in general, which reminds me of this convo between 4 y/o lily and me:

lily: mimi, do you like the winter?

me: oh, i sure do!

lily: you’re crazy!

me: excuse me?

lily: my mama says you’re crazy

yeah. busted, nina!

here is the child who told her child her mimi is crazy, as we left natalie's condo tonight. isn't it gorgeous out?

more on the day next time. remind me.

urkel-nomically correct

mwaaahaaaa. i’m a week late in the thankful bloggage, but i am definitely most grateful for the office. sweet godzilla, it makes me laugh so much. and i’m not a LOL at the tv kinda gal. 

i’m also forever indented to the DVR. especially now. miss lily grace (aka LG) is here for a while, and i’ve heard approximately four words of the entire show. chickie comes from a long line of talkative women. she is doing a good job of living up to her heritage. 

tomorrow is not on my list of thingsicannotwaittodo. not only is it winter musical day (always a nightmare), but we have a 7:30 AM staff meeting and no plan periods. none. thank you, christmas. it’s going to be a long one.

now back to the stealth holiday knitting. 

maybe i’ll be less boring tomorrow.

 

goodnight from lily and me

i’m about half way under the weather today. i came home from school at the half way point, and have done next to nothing all day. i have to be good to go tomorrow. i have a very important meeting about a very sweet little 8 year old. i have to be there. too many teachers have now fought to get this child what she needs. i can’t not be present.

if i were 100%, i’d get off this couch and upload a photo from my iPhone. it would nicely illustrate this tale, but again, i’m taking it easy. or maybe i’m just lazy. take your pick. it doesn’t bother me.

so picture in your head instead. in this photo is the open back end of one of two very large penske moving trucks. it’s cardboard boxes, as far as the eye can see. in those boxes are the contents of our lives. not just my life. not just dan’s life. not just our combined lives. it’s everything. every scrap of paper, every little piece of black plastic left from who-knows-what. yeah. all the crap you don’t want, probably don’t need and should have thrown away long ago, but it slid to the back of the drawer and you forgot about it. (and did i mention that my parents left “stuff” here when they moved away? and my kids? and my nonie? and all the way back to my brothers when they left home? yeah. that much crap.)

then the house caught on fire, and complete strangers were swarming around. at one point, dan commented that our house was like a clown car. at noon (lunchtime), it was as if a whistle had sounded and dozens of men and women exited our doorways, piled into vans and went to lunch.

but it’s what they were doing in the house that this post is about. they were packing up everything. my emergency underwear (you know, the ones i should have thrown out, but hung onto in case the washer ever died and no one could come out to fix it and all of my decent, comfortable panties were dirty. those emergency undies), every mother’s day and birthday card made for me by my children, every receipt stuffed in random drawers in my dresser, the clapton concert ticket stubs from 1992. everything. it was all packed, shipped off to some ozone chamber to rid of any possible smoke smell, then wrapped in 7 or 8 layers of paper per item and boxed and stored until we were back in the house.

also, consider that none of this was textiles. no clothes. no socks. no bed or bath linens. we didn’t get any of that back. (another story for another day)

in the photo i’m too lazy to get up and download is over 600 of these boxes, filled with things we had managed to live just fine without for seven months. and now they were back. everything we really needed, we bought while in the rental. 

what did i learn from this? aside from the obvious gratitude that everyone, including our dogs are just fine, i have learned to think twice before acquiring. for most of my life i’ve been an acquirer. i loved my things and i wasn’t ashamed to admit it. but having my “things” gone for so long, then all dumped in our garage and basement in a matter of hours, has made me rethink it all. i can still spend with the best of them. make no mistake about that. the difference is, with the exception of some yarn hoarding, nearly everything i buy these days has a purpose in my life. oh, there are seasonal items. that’s what makes it home to me. but more and more i find myself closing a window before i click “send”. i pass up the tchochkes, choosing instead to seek out the perfect floor lamp (a mission i’m still on, btw). something about having at least 50 various notebooks and notepads surface all at one time makes me close my eyes and hurry past that damned tempting aisle of paper cuteness at target. i can now actually leave office depot with the needed printer ink, and not purchase ONE adorable post it pad. it’s a miracle. 

i’m able to resist the previously irresistable yankee candle holiday display, opting instead to burn the candles i bought last year. and the year before. and possible the year before that. 

and considering i just now wrote a check for $13,150 to hector, the drywall guy, i’d say the change is for the better.