OH Secret Pal....I am bad, I forgot to thank you for the last package you sent!! You can ask my fellow gals I knit with how happy I was because I was showing off my yarn you send BIG TIME when I got it!! The Chocolate Hedge hogs are long gone! haha!!
My pal send me this Mohair & Blue Face Leicester. It has a pattern on it for soft mittens/socks, AND it is from Halifax, Nova Scotia!!! How cool is that! Secret Pal...is this local yarn made by someone you know? Here's a link on the label if anyone is interested (and knowing some of you, you are!) http://www.fleeceartist.com

Over the Holiday weekend we went camping. We had a blast!! I'll post a couple pictures today and then some more tomorrow. I took like 75 pictures, I promise not to post all of them... I'd be posting forever! LOL Here's a picture of the boys swimming. TOO COLD for mommy! Self Portrait of me and hubby
Jacob and his knife. See it in the tree. Brent was teaching him how to handle the knife safely. The friends we were camping with and Brent were throwing the knives at the trees. Brent gave Jacob a try and this was the outcome. Hit the tree pretty good!! He was tickled. Note: all knives in the house have been hidden now, and a HUGE discussion about how there is no knife throwing allowed unless we were camping and daddy was standing RIGHT beside him to supervise. We're not THAT Crazy people, come on!
And Spagettio's were ate!! Camping's not complete with out a little Spagettio's sauce on ya, right?! :)
And I faced a fear of mine. I walked across this rickety bridge with train tracks on it. Now listen, we got half way across the bridge and looked back at the start of the bridge and there stood our dog Lincoln. He was NOT coming on the bridge....that should have told me something right there!!! Brent had to go back and put the leash on him and practically drag Lincoln across. I thought I'd be the one that would need to be leashed to get across. The boys were bouncy and bubbly the whole time walking across this silly bridge, making it MORE worrisome for me. Brent's laughing the whole time knowing I'm about to freak right the heck out!! But I got across.

Now for the Secret Pal 10 Contest...Post your unfinished projects. Geez, thanks Robyn...now I'm going to be going crazy to try and finish this stuff and hubby will know there's NO reason to buy yarn until these are finished. haha just teasing.
Above we have the Lillehammer hat from Cider Moon. (Free Pattern!! Go get it now!) Very easy knit for beginning color work. I'm enjoying it greatly!!! This is the second hat I've made from their free patterns. I hope to have this hat done today!! It would be great to have a FO to post for tomorrow.
Above, um.. well... uh.... OK..This. Yeah I don't know either. Started so long ago I have NO IDEA what this is supposed to even be!!!!! But it's on the needles so I guess it counts. I may rip it out and save that yarn for something else. haha
Above the BEAUTIFUL Lady Eleanor from the book Scarf Style. Why is this not finished?? Um it's a BIG PROJECT!! But it's being left out, now that I pulled it out and I'll start plugging along on it now again. I want it done for Fall. Surely I can finish it by then?!? LOL
And another Hedge Hog started. Not done because I picked up the Lillehammer hat first. He may be a project I take with me to Kentucky this summer.

Happy Birthday Mom!!

Today is my mother's birthday. I really love Suzy Toronto's poems and here is one of her poems called "She Who Is My Mom."

She Who is My Mom!
As a child, I opened my eyes
For the first time to
‘She who’ wiped my tears,
Kissed my boo-boos,
And loved me more than life itself.
As a young woman,
I opened my eyes once again
and saw‘She who’ was a strong
and independent woman.
She gave me wings
And taught me how to fly.
Today I open my eyes and see
‘She who’ is my dearestand truest friend.
She encouraged my dreams,
Applauded my accomplishments,
Understood my mistakes
And has always
been so proud of me.
She’s my Mom!

And I love her more than Life itself!

(By Suzy Toronto)

me and mom

Please wish my mom a Happy Birthday in the comments if you wish. Her name is Loretta.

Ground Control to Major Tom, Ground Control to Major Tom, Take your protein pills and put your helmet on. 10- 9- 8- 7- 6- 5- 4- 3- 2- 1 Lift Off (how'd ya like my song Sonya??)

Check out our wicked Space Boy!! I made him over the weekend. I ordered a cute book from Wee Wonderfuls that has a Space Boy and a Robot pattern in it. I'm on a toy kick lately.

I have decided a name for the Hedge Hog. His name is going to be Splinter!!! Thanks to my good beady/knitty buddy Lisabeth for the suggestion.

In other homely news. :) Nathan....he's doing well. We went to another Dr. today and I am so comforted with this Dr. He was a bit more, oh should we say believable?!? haha. Anyway, they ran some vision test, Nathan, bless his heart, was a trooper. After the vision test and other little random assessments, He said Nathan is far sighted. He said a lot of other stuff but I'll spare you the blah blah blah part...remember I had Brent there with me so he caught all the informative mumbo jumbo.... :) So...we are getting the little guy some Wicked Awesome Glasses that bend in every way possible LOL!! They looked to be good and sturdy (and for the price they better be!!!) A vision therapist will be sending us an info packet on exercises for Nathan, so I'll be working on that with him, probably wear my glasses more often than my contacts so he has a partner in vision crime! :) I'm feeling a lot better now after today's visit. This guy didn't rush us, answered all of Brent's questions WITHOUT contradicting himself (hey imagine that!). So it looks like Nathan got my bad eye site. Good ole genes. haha.

Love me Squeeze Me Take ME HOME!!

Sitting on the back step.
pre-felting sitting on Jacob's hand.

FO FOR FRIDAY. Look at my darling Hedge Hog!!!!! Now I just need a name!! I'll take some suggestions from you in comments if you have a name that's just fitting!! :) It's a big hedge hog! Bigger than Nathan's head.

I've been tagged by Jennifer for 8 Random Things about me. I think Heather tagged me too for 7 random things...but I'll spare you with 8.

1. Lately I'm addicted and drawn to hedge hogs! Imagine that. haha. I was surfing the net this morning and found some CUTE hedgehog trim I just would love to have!

2. I like the movie "Grease". Just the first one though. I remember one summer watching it a lot and drinking sweetened iced tea and eating butterfinger candy bars every time I watched it.
3. If I would have had a daughter, I would have named her Claudia.
4. I like Mexican food. I miss Qdoba.
5. I just started drinking coffee when we moved to New England. Before that coffee was gross and disgusting. I like it with French Vanilla creamer and a packet of sweet-n-low.
6. My favorite season is Fall.
7. I do not like riding over bridges. I get antsy driving across them (sometimes go over the speed limit, and I'm a slow driver). Lordy but the Tapenzee Bridge in NY about kills me when we drive over it. I used to hold my breath when I was younger. I can swim, so I have no clue why I don't like them.
8. I love rip your heart out ballads! Nothing like a good song!

ok I have to tag 8 people..I think half my bloggy friends have done this already. so heck If ya wanna do it..say I tagged ya. :)

OH yeah...the hedge hog has a home!! That was just the perfect title for hedgie . :)

Alright...here's the deal so far on Nathan. I know a couple of you out there know what's going on, but quite a few of you don't.


On Friday we noticed that Nathan's left eye started turning in and he started squinting, closing the left eye. We made an appointment with the pediatrician and she sent us to a specialist (a.k.a. QUACK!! he was a doosey!) Sometimes his eye's look ok, and when the eye turns in he squints the left eye. I just took these two pictures and you see in one he's fine but the other he's gone to squinting. These two pictures were taken in less than a minute.

Geez! But he's a handsome little man!! Can't you just hear him saying in his best Joey voice from Friends, "How you doin'??" tee hee

He has acute strabismus, to keep terms simple, lazy eye, it's just easier to say for me. The quack, I mean specialist, believes he has double vision, but his eye sight is OK for distance and such. SO...right now we are in the process of getting a second opinion. This "specialist" seems to want to do surgery like really fast. To fast for my comfort. Most of my hubby's research on the Internet shows that vision therapy could be successful if the problem is caught early on. So that is the route we're taking at the moment, until the second opinion comes through. We are patching his good eye to work the muscles in the left eye, so now I'm on a mission to get some Diego fabric and see if I can make him a Diego Eye patch because he LOVES that show!

**Disclaimer for Comments ** Thanks for listening. Not to be rude, but if you're going to comment keep it supportive. I really don't need to hear, you should have done this or you should have done that. Honestly...I've heard enough from Dr. Quack that I just needed to get this off my chest and share. I'm not asking any of you for answers. Just support. Brent and I are doing what we feel is right for Nathan. If you want to say something about how we should do something else, feel free to email me privately if you have my email. I may or may not chose to read it, depending on my feelings and stress over this issue at the moment your email comes in. I've have two good friends who have been through this in different ways that are giving me info, and I feel I know them well enough to say "ok I've heard enough now" and they'll hold off until I ask again. (thanks Skeeter and Sonya).

You Are Totally Like Your Mom

You and your mom are practically clones. You think alike, and you even seem to read each other's minds. You're definitely you're mother's child... and that's just fine with you.

Are You Like Your Mom?

Happy Belated Mother's day Mom.
Love you & Miss you

(Chill out...I called her on Sunday, but this little bloggy quiz was too cute to pass not posting)

Wow what a weekend. Saturday the boys and I did a little exploring and found a new mall we had not been to. Inside this mall we found a wonderful candy store and the boys picked up these cool mugs! Great for milk and cookies, I say.

On Sunday, Mother's Day, The guys and I went to the NH Sheep and Wool Festival. Jacob woke up saying he didn't want to go, but I think in the end he was happy!! I love this picture below of the boys. Yes, boys get dirty. WHAT is on Nathan's nose?!? Behind them is a bunch of Sheep wool that was sheared.
I think Nathan and this Alpaca were trying to figure each other out...either that or they had a "moment" haha.
We enjoyed a KettleKorn show! I saw this because the boys thought it was cool that they got to see the pop corn POP and when the guy poured the kettle korn into the other bowl he got the loudest "OH YEAH!!!!!!!!" from Jacob. I'm sure the guy doesn't get that many people THAT excited about kettle korn, but Jacob loved the "show" haha.

Shortly after the kettle show we got to see a wind exhibit!! We were sitting across from the little cookie place there by the "barn" and the wind kicked up and "UP" went the tent that gave them shelter and shade. Yep, you guessed it....another rip roaring "OH YEAH!!!!!!!!!!" from Jacob, though I don't think the owners were amused. Brent said that little show there was worth the price of admission LMAO!
Jacob got to help with some wool explanations and brought some sheep wool home.
I had a good time looking at the animals and such. Just know I have a book, camera, phone, kleenex, and some other girly things in my sweatshirt pocket...that's not ALL ME! :) haha
Brent and the boys looking at some babies in a pen.
It was a great day!! I'll post my mother's day gifts when they get here....they're in the mail and it's going to be an awesome day when they get here!!! :)

Update on Nathan: We have to take him to an eye doctor tomorrow for further consult. hooray...... *sigh*

FO Friday
Hello all. It's FO Friday. I have a couple finished objects. First is the Amanda Headband designed by Gina. I changed the fringe, I didn't have the right beads (yeah don't faint, I said I didn't have the right beads... I know I know... I have a lot, trust me ok.)

Next on the FO parade we have TA-DA, Captian Underpants. Jacob is a happy camper now! I've been working on this for a bit. I finally figured I should finish him before my kid outgrows it. They do grow fast ya know. You can find the pattern here. ok and Totally not knitting but a cute cute bunny from the Wee Wonderfuls website. This was one of the freebie patterns she had on her site.
In other news, I'm a bit on edge. Nathan has a slight problem going on with his left eye and he's squinting a lot. We have an appointment Monday to get it checked out. To answer questions ahead of time, No I don't recall him hitting his head on anything, No he doesn't seem to be in pain, Yes I'm pretty worried and somewhat stressed about it, and yes it sucks the appt isn't until Monday. Brent and I noticed this for the first time today. The excessive squinting worried us too. So, when *I* know something I will let ya know. Until then, just send good thoughts his way please....
Also to all my motherly friends out there.

Yesterday the boys, Brent and I went to Boston. Brandi Carlile was going to be a Borders for a CD signing session and a mini-concert. She played 3 songs. I took a video of it and I'll put it at the end of this post. It's not the BEST video, but I had fun!
We started the day by figuring out the best way to get to the bookstore. I talked to Jackie and I called Borders. Both recommended the "T" and one point or another. I did a little research online and we ended up driving to the Alewife T stop. The boys were very excited about riding on the subway, train, whatever ya call it. :) Nathan just called it a Train, so I will too. Parking at Alewife was $5 for the day and that wasn't bad. It was one of the stops that had enough parking for mobs. haha. Brent and I had to pay $2.00 a piece each way, and the boys rode for free. When we got on the train is was pretty empty. But by the time we got to our stop at Park Street, there were more people, some standing. All I could keep thinking about was the crazy subway ghost Vincent Schiavelli on "Ghost" coming through the door screaming "GET OFF MY TRAIN". I know...weird. Silly little fact about me...that was the first ever VHS movie I owned!! Anyway...back to the story. So we found our way out of the Subway and we come out in Boston Commons, Jacob looks to his left and yells "McDonalds!" Yeah you just can't escape them haha.
So we found Borders....listened to the music, walked around Boston. Went in to a little cemetery, it was cool. John Hancock and other supposed to be buried there. People from the Boston Massacre buried there too. All in all it was a FUN day.
Sometimes doing things with out too much planning is good. I mean we had to plan for parking and such. But just roaming around Beantown was fun. I'll share some pictures now. :) (if you've managed to read this far haha).

Brent and the boys walking through Boston.
Brent giving Jacob a view of Brandi Carlile singing. Man it was crowded.
I didn't feel like standing in line for an autograph, so I saw this poster in the store and stood in front of it and Brent snapped a shot.
This was the coolest thing! That spiral staircase caught my eye and I took a picture and then two seconds later Brent said, "Oh Man, look at that spiral staircase."
The boys in Boston. Nathan was a bit mad at the moment, but shortly after this picture he was happy chasing pigeons. haha

We walked through this cemetery. "Within this ground are buried the victims of the Boston massacre." Pretty neat eh!! Below is video I took of Brandi Carlile.

Where I Knit.
I'm in the Secret Pal 10 program and our sweet hostess gives us ideas to blog about. This go-around is Where do you Knit? So I set up a photo shoot. I tried a 3 year old photographer, but his skills just were not that good yet. LOL So I turned to the timer on the camera and got some suitable shots. These shots are where I knit at home. Had I read the email earlier in the week I would have had a picture taken of me at B&N while at knitting practice.

This is me in front of the computer. Most of the time this is where I knit. I watch TV shows online or read blogs or listen to Gina's Podcast (There's a new one up here). I should really try to find more podcast to listen too, but so far Gina's is the only one I'm loyal too so far. That's my elephant sock bag. Isn't it cute. I'd love to find some more fabric like this because I know Sonya's going crazy seeing it and not having one. Another place I sit and knit is on our couch over in the corner. I'm most likely to be watching cartoons while knitting. If it's any other show I mess up my knitting because I'm so into the show. Wow... our walls look bare. That big pillow on the floor is Lincoln's bed (our dog.)
Thanks to everyone who shared their corner grocery store story with me!!! Now share with me where you KNIT!! If you have a blog I'd love to see pictures of where you knit, and even you sitting there knitting! If you don't knit, and you read my blog, tell me where you create whatever art you create!!

A big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my niece Lana!! She's one now! Her birthday was yesterday.

Growing up I have fond memories of walking down to the corner to Moser's Market. (Where Ma Saves Pa's Dough.) Sometimes we would go get candy. Sometimes a coke. Sometimes an ice cream. And on crazy days we'd walk down and get a pack of cigarettes for our neighbor Ella Mae, yep, back when you could buy cigarettes at age 9!! haha.

I remember sitting on these steps with Scott (my brother), Tommy, Heather, Joe Don,Timmy and Joey. Wow....now that I look back, Heather and I were kind of out numbered. OH wait...there's Sheila, Melissa and Michelle...almost forgot about them. Wonder where all these people are now? Well I know Joe Don is living next door to mom and dad, but the rest of them...it's been awhile since I've seen them. Anyway...back on track here... We sat on these steps drinking our cokes and eating our candy. Mr. Moser put up with us wild kids a lot on his steps, but I bet you he had all our parents phone numbers too. LOL
The reason I bring this up is now my kids have a "corner market" just like I did. Nathan gets SO excited when someone asks "Want to walk to Bunny's?" He loves walking to Bunny's. So today we walked to Bunny's and got some Candy and Coke, just like I did when I was a kid.
It's funny how things come back around to you. How your kids end up doing things you did when you were little. Too bad Bunny's doesn't have cool steps like Moser's. But they are a little more upscale on groceries than Moser's was. Yes, I'm serious! I know those of you here in New England who have been to Bunny's are laughing right about now because it's a little Superette. But Moser's never had a freezer section like Bunny's and I don't think Moser's had Beer or Liquor. If they did I never went down that isle!
Above is a picture of Nathan across the street from Bunny's.
Nathan and I went to the park today too, and Brent joined us for lunch. It was a fun time and kind of cute when Nathan tried to push Brent on the swing. PUSH AND RUN, NATE, PUSH AND RUN!!
And some knitting. yes I'm knitting but the picture below is NOT something that I knit!! I know I know... but it's entrelac/garterlac.... I am, I admit, hooked on entrelac. But apparently I come by it honest. My MOTHER made these cute dish cloths! She is just cranking these dish cloths out! They are Great mom!!!!!!
Have a great Tuesday!

Special thanks to Mom for the pictures of Moser's Market. It sure looks loney and deserted now. :(