Wednesday, February 28, 2007

simple pleasures

HOT WATER! yes, a hot shower, the ability to run the dishwasher, the ability to wash clothes in the washer in HOT water, washing my hands in at least luke warm water.... all things i was not able to do since LAST monday evening until this morning. yes a week and a 1/2 without hot water... because of our lack of hot water, i woke up this morning and took a long hot shower all by myself with no interruptions from a crying baby at 6:30 this morning. the luxury! i never shower that early in the morning. i might just start though, it was very relaxing and max wasn't sitting in the upstairs hall crying his eyes out because i wasn't paying attention to him while i dry my hair... simple pleasures i tell you....

on the knitting front, i made these....

I'm really not happy with the final product. i put them on, was all happy about them, they are super cute really, but then when i wore them for the first time they stretched out beyond belief and are not in the least bit cool anymore... they flop around on my hands... and look silly... the yarn is a 47% acrylic and 53% nylon mix, the directions say to hand wash so i might toss them in the washer with some warm water to see if that fixes them... i'm guessing it will temporarily but that they'll just stretch right back out again once i wear them... oh well....

i'm still working on absorba, and i'm knitting some bibs that i think i've screwed up as well... and my log cabin... i need to get back into that project or i might just end up proving chris right and not getting it finished before NEXT fall...

ooh, ps max is 6 months old now! my god!

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

the funniest woman on the face of the earth

that's me! yep, all me! apparently, i am the funniest woman ever and it's not just in my head this time around.

ok, so maybe all mom's are hilarious to their children at least when they are in the "baby" stage. i know my mom was pretty cool until i hit my "teens" then she was the farthest thing from cool. she's now regained that "cool" status but that's another story for another day. back to ME being cool!

all i have to do is look at him, LOOK at him! and he smiles like he was just given a golden ticket, and giggles and *raspberries* like it's going out of style! this in turn, just melts my heart! it's the coolest most gratifying feeling on the planet to be a mom and to be someones most exciting form or entertainment! no one else can get these kinds of reactions from him. only me! that's why I'M the funniest woman on the face of the earth and no one else is... poor daddy...

i know i promised knitting photos... but they didn't turn out how i would have liked, so i need to enlist chris and his expert shutter operating skills. THEN... i'll have some photos for you all.

i'm now off to play with the bubby...

Monday, February 19, 2007

ba ba ba, 18 lbs, and solids

ok, this is a mostly baby related entry.

max has a new word, it's ba ba ba, he'll say it to us, he'll say it to the grandparents, he'll say it to the cats, and anyone else that will talk to him.

he also weighs a whopping 18 lbs.

and as of last week, he's been having at least one "solids" meal a day. his favorite is baby cereal and bananas. he also likes carrots and sweet potato and he tolerated squash. he took the spoon with NO problem what-so-ever. and even took some water from a sippy cup like a pro last night. it's all very exciting! especially since he's a week and two days shy from being 6 mos. old.

in the knitting world, i've started these but have modified them a bit to suit my liking a bit more. photos to come soon.

i'm also stalled out on Absorba in MDK.... it's just super duper hard to pick up stitches... and it actually wears out my arms and dries my hands out like crazy... photos coming soon.

that is about it in a nutshell.



Thursday, February 15, 2007

ahhh, valentine's day wrap up

first to lay it out, chris and i aren't huge v-day celebrators. it's sort of a silly holiday, i mean we love each other everyday (usually) why do we need to have one day a year to profess this love to each other when we should be doing it everyday.... well, i guess it's just a reminder to us all that we SHOULD be professing our love on a daily basis. reminder noted.

ooh, i just glanced at a stack of mail to realize that i have a Real Simple still in the packaging that came last week that needs to be read! yippy! anyways.

So as for my gift to chris for v-day, i had made a trip to our local grocery store on monday and picked up some steaks. I had planned for my own version of surf and turf. I bought sirloin steaks and used some frozen shrimps that we had. We paired that with a sweet potato and some red wine called Boomey (it had a boomerang on the label, was $4 a bottle and was really quite tasty! it even had a real cork not a fake plastic one). anyways, i took no photos, so you'll have to imagine what it all looked like... really i could shoot myself for not doing so because everything looked amazing! I prepared the steak earlier in the day by letting it marinate for a few hours in a ziplock with olive oil, parsley flakes, and black pepper. the green parsley looked very pretty on the raw red meat. then i heated up the iron skillet, got it as hot as i could and preheated the oven to 325 degrees. once the skillet was piping hot, i put the steaks in and seared each side for about 15 to 20 seconds, then i quickly put the entire skillet in the hot oven and cooked one side for about 12 minutes then flipped them and cooked them for another 10. (about two minutes too long but it was still quite pink in the middle). very very tasty...

as for the shrimp with tails on, i marinated those in a ziplock with lemon juice, hot sauce, ground pepper and crushed and roughly chopped garlic for a few hours. then i transferred that package to a small baking dish, sprinkled some more parsley on top and threw those in a 400 degree oven for about 6 minutes.

as for the sweet potato, i pricked it with a fork, and zapped it for 8 minutes... sliced it in half, and put a pat of butter on top.

No dessert... we had plans to go to a friends home later that evening for a little dessert party but because of the weather it was cancelled. so instead we just finished the bottle of wine together (haven't done that in a while) and snuggled on the couch after max went to sleep.

steak and shrimp dinner was my gift to chris. his gift to me was a $25 gift card to a yarn shop in sewickley! i can't wait to go spend it!

Oh, and my cutie pie little boy got me a card with monkeys on it! the one monkey is wearing pearls, i guess that's the mommy monkey :) so cute!

Tuesday, February 6, 2007

mommy to the rescue

yesterday i came down with a 24 hour flu type bug, i couldn't keep anything down, i was weak, dizzy, half asleep... not good with you have a 5 month old that just wants to play...

my wonderful mother-in-law came to the rescue (totally by mistake) father -in-law was doing some maintainance for us at a rental so MIL decided to come visit max. i talked to her earlier in the day, i was fine and then BAM, all of a sudden i was sick. so when she came to the door it was a godsend. she played with max for a good 4 or 5 hours while i worked on getting warm and getting some rest.

now i'm pretty much better but my mom is now bringing me some homemade soup and applesauce that she made for me this morning! yay for moms!

how i plan on having a day filled of knitting and playing with max and KEEPING warm! jeez, it's too damn cold! currently it's -4..... it's beautiful and sunny outside but way way way too cold...

Saturday, February 3, 2007

log cabin update


so far it is a nice leg and mid-torso covering blanket, it's nice to knit it in these cold cold days we've been having... my furnace has been running for over a half an hour just to keep the house at a nice balmy 65 degrees... eek... enjoy

knitting project updates



new set of pot holders and COASTERS for lauren and steve, a late housewarming gift.