As if I have nothing better to do....


Go ahead....make your own at the portrait place.

What I really should be doing is finishing up my preparations for the leg of my summer journeys -- Washington DC, where I will giving two sessions at the Attachment Parenting International Leader Enrichment Seminar. One of the best parts of the trip (aside from getting to meet some of the API Leaders and Applicants in the DC metro area, is that I will get to some time with my close friend Diana.

Conveniently, I will be dropping off the kids at my mothers house in PA along the way and picking them up on my return trip. The only problem (not that its a problem really) is that I have to pack for the kids, not just their clothes, but snacks and games, and the tv and videos, etc for the 5 hour trip to Memoms. We are supposed to leave when Ahren gets off the bus tomorrow. Right now, only Sean is packed.

Funny story about how Sean is packed. Lately Sean has been in this major *playing* phase. He wants to play games constantly, which is great. It does make it hard for me to get my work done, but I'm managing. So today he wants to play, I need to pack and prep for the trip, so I said, how about we do your packing? He was thrilled! What I realized is that if I had said, "no, I need to pack your clothes" he would have been bummed out. Instead, we got his suitcase, I told him what to pick out (3 shirts, 3 shorts, undies, etc) and he got them out of his drawer and put them in his suitcase. He is so cute. He really loves his suitcase, whenever we go somewhere and he takes his, HE has to be the one to put it in the car, and wheel it wherever it needs to go. In Colorado, he wheeled his own suitcase the entire airport walk. Too funny.

Knitting?? Oh yeah, knitting....I am hoping to finish Broadripple this week. I also picked my Chickami back up and did some rows tonight. I've got some mercenized cotton to do some gauge swatches for the Fiesta tea set in IK. But that is about it.

Whee!

My how time flies! I can't believe it is 2:00 already. I've been so crazy busy, it's nuts. But I have actually been getting things done - which is better than feeling crazy busy and having nothing to show for it.

So far, I've done a ton of paperwork that was awaiting some attention. That was a big job and it is almost done - just have to mail out a bunch of envelopes.

I figured out what the problem is with my brocolli that I've planted. It has cabbage worms - yuk! My sister-in-law said that I should pull it out and start over, what she doesn't know is that my brocolli is huge!!! It is easily two feet - two feet, six inches tall. It would break my heart to pull it out. She said that the alternative is to dunk the harvested brocolli heads in salted water and watch all the little worms come out -- but then you may not want to eat the brocolli. I decided to go with whatever I could find to kill the buggers - a trip to Walmart and I got me some spray. I really hate using it, but I feared loosing all my crops - the dreaded cabbage worm also likes lettuce and my lettuce is doing tooo wonderfully to risk loosing it all. So now the little worms are squirming to the little death and hopefully my plants will be able to recover.

Knitting-wise I picked up some new yarn at Saybrook Yarns. YEAH! I got some Cotton Fleece for another Chickami, some more Lamb's Pride and Eros for another Booga J bag to donate as a silent auction item. And some bright pink ribbon for a tank for Ahren (pattern yet to be bought - I know which pattern it will be, but it hasn't come in yet).

Still on the list to do:

pick up the living room
change the sheets in the bedrooms
laundry, laundry, laundry

The housework is calling....

I'm baccckkkk!

Whew! What a trip - or trips, I should say! My first destination was for the Nashville/Alabama area for a staff retreat for work. It was really nice, we were treated to some awesome music at Lake Ida with the Songwriters Showcase. I was so thrilled to get to hear Don Henry again - he is truly one of my favorite songwriters. I also got to hear some new (to me) songwriters. Waylon Patton, Amy Silver, and Jim Parker also entertained us with some wonderful storytelling lyrics. What a great night!

Much of the weekend, I was able to do some knitting on Broadripple. Here is the photo to prove it! I just noticed that not only am I working on Broadripple, but I'm wearing my Chickami and draped on the chair behind me is my completed Cobweb (which is also in the family photo below). :)



Then I returned home, only to do some laundry and pack the fam up to my next destination: a Colorado wedding! Our neice, Shannon married her best friend, Greg. It was an awesome location (even if the air was so thin, I was seriously out of breath with every trek up the flight of steps to our room and my skin was so dried out that it was cracking and bleeding - don't even look at my feet!). The ceremony was simply beautiful and everything was perfect. Ahren and Sean were soooo good during the wedding and had a great time at the reception. Ahren danced every single song and Sean was boogying with the bride for a while. The band was great - a self-described "junk blues band" they don't often do weddings, but it was awesome. We even were treated to Greg (groom)playing the drums while Shannon (bride) and Bridget (maid of honor and bride's sister) sang out Me and Bobby Magee. Then Greg with his band mates Chris and Steve from Gabriel's Hold. Chris and Steve also played at the wedding and did a truly fab job.

Here is a pic of me, Peter and the kiddos all dressed up in our wedding best.



One of the coolest extra bonuses of the weekend was the wonderful wildlife that we saw - the hummingbirds were amazing. Almost constantly they were flying around feeding on the feeders that the B&B had on the decks. It was hard to get a good shot of them, because they are so fast, but here is a pic for you to enjoy:



Now, life will return to normal for at least a week until my next ventures in another week!

I'm baccckkkk!

Whew! What a trip - or trips, I should say! My first destination was for the Nashville/Alabama area for a staff retreat for work. It was really nice, we were treated to some awesome music at Lake Ida with the Songwriters Showcase. I was so thrilled to get to hear Don Henry again - he is truly one of my favorite songwriters. I also got to hear some new (to me) songwriters. Waylon Patton, Amy Silver, and Jim Parker also entertained us with some wonderful storytelling lyrics. What a great night!

Much of the weekend, I was able to do some knitting on Broadripple. Here is the photo to prove it!



Then I returned home, only to do some laundry and pack the fam up to my next destination: a Colorado wedding! Our neice, Shannon married her best friend, Greg. It was an awesome location (even if the air was so thin, I was seriously out of breath with every trek up the flight of steps to our room and my skin was so dried out that it was cracking and bleeding - don't even look at my feet!). The ceremony was simply beautiful and everything was perfect. Ahren and Sean were soooo good during the wedding and had a great time at the reception. Ahren danced every single song and Sean was boogying with the bride for a while. The band was great - a self-described "junk blues band" they don't often do weddings, but it was awesome. We even were treated to Greg (groom)playing the drums while Shannon (bride) and Bridget (maid of honor and bride's sister) sang out Me and Bobby Magee. Then Greg with his band mates Chris and Steve from Gabriel's Hold. Chris and Steve also played at the wedding and did a truly fab job.

Here is a pic of me, Peter and the kiddos all dressed up in our wedding best.



One of the coolest extra bonuses of the weekend was the wonderful wildlife that we saw - the hummingbirds were amazing. Almost constantly they were flying around feeding on the feeders that the B&B had on the decks. It was hard to get a good shot of them, because they are so fast, but here is a pic for you to enjoy:



Now, life will return to normal for at least a week until my next ventures in another week!

I'm baccckkkk!

Whew! What a trip - or trips, I should say! My first destination was for the Nashville/Alabama area for a staff retreat for work. It was really nice, we were treated to some awesome music at Lake Ida with the Songwriters Showcase. I was so thrilled to get to hear Don Henry again - he is truly one of my favorite songwriters. I also got to hear some new (to me) songwriters. Waylon Patton, Amy Silver, and Jim Parker also entertained us with some wonderful storytelling lyrics. What a great night!

Much of the weekend, I was able to do some knitting on Broadripple. Here is the photo to prove it!



Then I returned home, only to do some laundry and pack the fam up to my next destination: a Colorado wedding! Our neice, Shannon married her best friend, Greg. It was an awesome location (even if the air was so thin, I was seriously out of breath with every trek up the flight of steps to our room and my skin was so dried out that it was cracking and bleeding - don't even look at my feet!). The ceremony was simply beautiful and everything was perfect. Ahren and Sean were soooo good during the wedding and had a great time at the reception. Ahren danced every single song and Sean was boogying with the bride for a while. The band was great - a self-described "junk blues band" they don't often do weddings, but it was awesome. We even were treated to Greg (groom)playing the drums while Shannon (bride) and Bridget (maid of honor and bride's sister) sang out Me and Bobby Magee. Then Greg with his band mates Chris and Steve from Gabriel's Hold. Chris and Steve also played at the wedding and did a truly fab job.

Here is a pic of me, Peter and the kiddos all dressed up in our wedding best.



One of the coolest extra bonuses of the weekend was the wonderful wildlife that we saw - the hummingbirds were amazing. Almost constantly they were flying around feeding on the feeders that the B&B had on the decks. It was hard to get a good shot of them, because they are so fast, but here is a pic for you to enjoy:



Now, life will return to normal for at least a week until my next ventures in another week!

Broadripple!

I've been packing up my bags for a work-related trip to Nashville. After being inspired by Jenn to start Broadripple, I figured it would make a great travelling project. So here is the sock underway:



I should take pics of my Sitcom Chic and ChicKami, but the lighting is terrible right now, it will have to wait until I return.