My Knitting Heart

I am so lucky to have joined a Mom's Group about a year and a half ago. I am being totally sincere when I say joining the group changed my life. Until then I didn't know anyone in town and felt very lonely and isolated and completely stressed out raising two little chums with no help within 100 miles. Since joining the group, I've made wonderful friends and created a network within town that keeps me feeling so happy and no longer alone. It was such an amazing blessing in not only my life, but, indirectly, the boys' and Cole's lives, too.

One of my favorite things about my group is all of the different talents the moms have. I'm not entirely confident that I bring any talent to the group, but I feel no guilt in benefiting from everyone else's. It's kind of a one-sided relationship, but I don't think they mind too much. :) I mean, I bring fruit when it's my Thursday to bring fruit.

Anyway, back in November one of members who is an amazingly talented knitter taught the group how to knit. I had learned to knit six or seven years ago in order to meet the requirement of giving a handmade gift to one of my sisters for Christmas, but didn't keep up with it for very long. However...now that I've got my needles out  again, I. Am. Loving. It. I am also becoming much more confident in my ability to follow a pattern and learning new techniques. Don't get me wrong, I'm still a total novice, but I like to think of myself as an "Advanced Beginner" now.

Since November I have knitted three scarves, five pairs of leg warmers, and one and a half sweaters. Yes, half. Cole's sweater is still on the needles.

I've made five pairs of these leg warmers, and let me tell you, there is nothing cuter on a little girl's legs than sparkly leg warmers. This pair went to one of my nieces. I've made them in pink, too....also super cute!

This pattern came from Charm Stitch.

I made this scarf for my nephew. In case you have no idea what is going on here, it's a LEGO brick scarf. Excuse the junk on the table. It was right before Christmas, and to say I was scrambling to finish everything is beyond an understatement.

I bought the pattern for this scarf from the author of this blog.

Something I didn't see coming was asking Santa to knit two of these dragon scarves, only to realize they scared the hell out of the chums. Um, that REALLY stunk considering the time it took Santa to knit these things. We're talking hours upon hours. Oops!

This is a really bad picture because I forgot to rotate it. It's giving me vertigo just looking at it. Yikes!

I have more projects in the works and will post pictures once they are complete or have been given to the intended recipient. I can't wait to finish everything currently in the works and get started on the boys' Easter sweaters!

Why 2012 Rocked!

I have been MIA around here for a couple of months. Our camera broke, I lost all motivation to document our lives, we replaced our camera, and I remained lazy. But, I'm back to it (hopefully). So here's a rundown of why 2012 was, in VH1 speak, "The Best Year Ever!"

January
: : Hmmmm......I'm sure something cool happened in January, but nothing is springing to mind right now.

February
: : Eli potty trained!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Nothing else in February even comes close to matching the excitement from this accomplishment. Maybe I can't remember January because this thrilled me so much.

March
: : Cole got a promotion! I was so, so proud. :)

April
: : The boys started Little Sages Preschool. They LOVED it, and I had a full HOUR by myself four days a week for six weeks. Cue the choir of heavenly hosts.

May
: : Cancun, baby! We took our first international family vacation. In all honesty, about 30% of the vacation (that being mainly travel time) sucked. I mean, It. Was. Awful. Flights that were way too long, standing in immigration for hours, extremely turbulent flights and a landing that had me hovering over an airsick bag while praying we didn't all die. But, now that it is just a memory, I have chosen to block out the bad, like the mediocre air conditioning in our room, and focus on the good, like Eli and I snuggled on a chair on a white sand beach while he napped the afternoon away and Cole chasing all of our sand toys and shoes down the beach in an attempt to save them from a rogue wave that washed WAY too far up the shore while our children screamed like they were on fire. Ok, if they were old enough to remember this particular event they would be in therapy for years, but to me it was absolutely hilarious.

June
: : Ian started swimming lessons! He adored them. We spent SO much time in the pool this summer. It was fantastic.
: : Cole turned 28!

July
: : On the 4th we spent the day at the Indianapolis Children's Museum. We closed the place. We then came back to C-U, saw Brave at the theater, and watched the fireworks after. The "movie on the 4th" is becoming a little bit of a tradition with us. Cole isn't into traditions, but I am. I think this one is quite fun for us.

August
: : Ian turned four! How is that possible?
: : Cole and I celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary! How is that possible?
: : Ian started school. Wow! That was a total mind blow. He loves it and has matured so much in the last few months.

September
: : Cole began RCIA. This is so exciting to me because I'm glad our family will be one religion, but much more importantly this is exciting because it is what Cole wants. This was his decision not mine.
: : We bought Cole a new-to-us car. It isn't exactly a luxury car, but we were able to PAY CASH, and that was a real thrill for us!!!!

October
: : I turned 30. At first I was dreading this, but my MIL said something along the lines of 30 should be great because I have a wonderful husband, two beautiful boys, my mom is healthy, we have a cute little house where we have created so many wonderful memories, etc, etc, etc. She was so right! I have everything I've ever dreamed of, so why shouldn't this be the beginning of the best decade yet?

November
: : Cole and I went with our friends to see Jim Gaffigan in Indianapolis. We laughed SOOOOOOO hard. It was an absolute blast. So, so, so much fun.
: : I attended my first parent-teach conference. Talk about weird. As I was driving to it, all I could think was, "How am I possibly old enough to be doing this?!"
: : We went to Chattanooga to see friends for a long weekend. The boys adored this trip, and I must say, it was about as wonderful as a family vacation could ever be. We had fabulous hosts (thank you Henson Family), went to wonderful attractions, and took the boys to a Japanese hibachi for the first time. The hibachi was, possibly, traumatic for the chums, but the adults had a blast.

December
: : Eli turned three! And, at the risk of sounding like a total rip, I must add.....it was about time! Not that I want my kids to hurry up and get older, but Eli has talked and acted like a three-year-old for a very long time, so it didn't seem fair to have to call him a two-year-old. Now his intellect and verbal communication match his age. It just makes more sense.
: : Cole taped training videos for work. I watched one and it was crazy to think that people at work, who don't know Cole, will be watching these and listening to his lectures. But, hands off, Ladies of Caterpillar! I snagged that Senior Engineer when he was just a Freshman in college, and I'm not giving him up! :-)
: : I organized/hosted a Holiday Home Tour for my Mom's Group. It was pretty stressful leading up to that night. I was opening my home to a group of people for critique. I was SO glad when the tour of our home was over. The night was an amazing success, everyone loved it, and I already have one volunteer to host next year. Now I just need three more!
: : For the first time since we got married we woke up in our own home on Christmas morning!!!! It was fantastic. We have the most insane holiday schedules (we drove two hours and then went to SIX different houses on Christmas day in less than 10 hours) so waking up in our own home, with just the four of us, was our only time of peace and privacy that we had all day long. It was weird not being with family on Christmas Eve, but I was reassured that we were making the right decision for us by listening to Father Lopez's sermon two weeks in a row when he stressed the importance of finding "calm in the commotion" during the Christmas season. The few hours we had as just a family were the only moments of true "calm" during that day. The rest of the day was still wonderful being with family, but there was nothing calm about it.

And this is why 2012 rocked!

Check Your Manuals!!!

I don't consider myself to be a super paranoid, overprotective mother, but when it comes to car seats, Cole and I have always been very diligent in our efforts to keep our boys safe in the car. We bought Cole a new car back in September, and before that he only had the truck. Whenever someone was in charge of the boys, that person drove the Monte Carlo. Recently we've had a few occasions an extra set of seats would be handy. So, about a week ago I bought a set of boosters for the boys: a high-back for Eli and simple seat for Ian.

For a few days we let Ian use the booster while we cleaned and re-installed the regular five point harness seat. Neither Cole nor I was at ease with the situation, but we went with it. The booster just worried the bejeezus out of me. The seats were purchased with the understanding that they would be utilized on the very, very rare occasion that Cole was called into action unexpectedly and not as our everyday restraints.

Well, last night I finally had both of our regular seats all spiffed up and ready to go back into the car. As I was reassembling the brown car seat, I happened (thankfully) to glance down and see that Ian had, in fact, reached the weight limit for the five point harness. I panicked! I don't know why, but I had it in my head that you could use that seat, with the harness, until 80 pounds. Not at all. The harness is only usable until 40 pounds, but then you take it all apart, and two hours and many, many naughty words later, you have a booster to use until your child reaches 80 pounds. I couldn't believe that I had misremembered this safety guideline.

Then I really started to freak out because after four or five days of using the booster, I had decided there was just NO way I wanted to continue using it on a regular basis yet. Ian meets ALL of the criteria for using a booster...

*4 years old
*40 pounds (He's 40 pounds on the dot)
*43 inches tall

...but I still just feel like he is too exposed to danger in the booster. Yes, the five point harness is a hassle, but it doesn't bother me that much. I just can not bring myself to let him graduate to the booster seat. I feel like I'm not keeping him safe enough. (Maybe I am a super paranoid, overprotective mother. Hmmmm....)

I dashed out to the garage and pulled out the owner's manual of the gray seat, and I was relieved to see that the weight limit for using the five point harness in the gray seat is 50 pounds. That means we'll probably get another two years of use out of the gray seat. Yes, I will still drive Ian around in a harness when he is six, and I will do the same for Eli.

The whole point is...it is SO easy to forget the details of what you bought four years ago. If you haven't done so recently, check your manuals! It takes three seconds. You might be surprised by what you see.

Oh, I Wish I Were an Oscar Mayer Weiner...

Oh. My. Gosh. Life has been exciting in Anytown!! And, trust me, the Andersons have been in the thick of it. Not too long ago, I was searching online to see if the minutes from the latest city council meeting (don't even get me started about that) had been published anywhere. While digging for the desired information, I happened to stumble across news. BIG news. Big, BIG, news. The Oscar Mayer Weinermobile was going to be at County Market on Kirby and Duncan in Champaign the very next day!!!! I was insanely excited. Not to brag, but I've toured the Weinermobile before. I was in fourth or fifth grade, got to walk through it, and got a weinie whistle which is still available to play with at my parents' house. I couldn't wait to take the boys to see it, too. I showed them pictures online and got them super pumped up. Well, it just so happened that the next day I had to be in Champaign at 9:00 to take Prissy to the groomer. This was going to be awesome.

I immediately called Cole. He answered and words just started pouring out of my mouth in this ridiculous squealy voice that I get when I'm excited and can't stop smiling like the Cheshire Cat. Cole did not care. I repeat, Cole did not care. What was his problem? I finally snapped, "Why aren't you excited about this?!" To which he responded, "The better question is, why the hell are you so excited?" Well, really, what kind of question is that? I'm excited because I'm going to see a gigantic, driveable hot dog. Duh! Now, for someone who claims to love "my youthful spirit" he sure was being a punk. I hung up the phone with Mr. Fuddy-Duddy and went right back to searching online for unique food cars. I already knew about the Hershey Kiss truck, but I also stumbled across the Pepperidge Farm Goldfish truck, and the Mr. Peanut Peanut truck. This might become my life's obsession....seeking out food trucks. I haven't decided yet.

The more and more I thought about the Weinermobile, the more excited I got. My excitement level was about an 8. That's saying something for me, because my 5 is probably like a normal person's 8. I hit 10 once. It happened a little over six years ago, and I was lucky my head didn't just explode.

In May 2006 Cole surprised me with a trip to Chicago to be in the audience for a taping of Late Night with Conan O'Brien. It was amazing! It was truly 40 degrees outside, and we stood in the rain (we got free ponchos from some radio station), under the 'L' for four hours before we were let into the auditorium. They went through the normal audience warm up, and then gave about five minutes so people could scream out their favorite Chicago baseball team and suburb. Not kidding. Apparently, earlier in the week people were wasting serious air-time by screaming out "SCHAAAAUUUUMBURG" or "BUFFALO GROVE" whenever they felt like it. I don't get it either, but I'm just a country bumpkin so whatever.

Finally, the time came for Conan to take the stage. I could barely contain myself. I wasn't quite a screaming Beatles girl, but I was damn close. I was jumping up and down and clapping my hands over my head and......crying. Yes, I started to cry I was so excited. I would say that it was possibly just my eyes finally thawing after a miserable morning in the elements, but everyone knows that at 40 degrees Fahrenheit that would be impossible at standard atmospheric pressure. So anyway, there I was, crying and jaw quivering while I watched Conan do the String Dance and La Bamba dress up like the Empire Carpet guy, and then it came time for Conan to drive the desk! Of course I knew what was going to happen....Andy was in the audience...somewhere. But that didn't stop me from standing and flailing and screaming in an attempt to get Conan to pick me! I'm pretty sure the only control I still had over my body at this point was not wetting my pants. Conan ran out in the audience and up the aisle. He kept getting closer and closer and closer and closer. I was freaking out. All of the sudden, he stopped. He was right at the end of the row right in front of us. Only then did I realize that Andy was sitting in the row directly in front of ours, and while Cole and I were in seats three and four, Andy was in seat two. He was right there and so was Conan! It was unbelievable. I was absolutely reeling. The rest of the show wasn't as much fun, but it was still so incredibly awesome. Senator Barack Obama, (remember him?) was the guest and Wilco was the musical act. I adored every bit of that day...except for the part when I walked into a revolving door frame and busted my eyebrow wide open. I was bleeding like crazy and the jerks at Chipotle wouldn't let me use the restroom to clean myself up because I wasn't a paying customer. A-holes. We ended up walking a couple of miles back to the hotel while I whimpered with blood all over the right side of my forehead and in my hair because the wind was out of control. People kept giving Cole the nastiest looks. I had a shiner in the morning.

So, Thursday morning we dropped Priss off at the groomer, and Jake the Snake and I went to see the Weinermobile. Oh my gosh, I was excited! I think Eli was excited, too, but I'm not sure. I told him to quit talking so he wouldn't ruin the moment for me <---I AM TOTALLY KIDDING!!!!! Eli was excited, too, and was free to say whatever he wanted. We dashed over to the Weinermobile to get a picture. Eli thought it was just the funniest thing he'd ever seen.  He giggled and giggled. The "Hot Doggers" (that's what they call the people on the promotional team) thought he was adorable, naturally, and he got his whistle and a sticker. We walked around the Weinermobile, and I held him up to look in the windows. You couldn't go inside, which I thought was totally bogus, but I'm kind of over it now. Kind of.

I called Cole again after we were done. I was still trying to add some excitement to his life. I told him they were giving out free hot dogs, excuse me, weiners from 11:00-1:00. He still didn't want to see the Weinermobile and then had the nerve to tell me that receiving four phone calls about the Weinermobile was somewhat excessive and more or less (definitely more than less) "don't call me about this again." At this point I just had to accept the fact that some people do not understand how to enjoy the little things, and if Cole was as wack-a-doodle-doo as me our family would be in big trouble or, at the very least, on reality TV. Yikes.

Blowing the whistle. It's just as ear piercing as you would imagine.

I don't really understand the hot dog inside a hot dog, but I might be over analyzing here.

Ketchup and Mustard upholstery

Ian had school until 12:30 that day, so even though we had already been to Champaign and back, we went again so he could see the Weinermobile. I'm not going to deny my child the privilege of seeing an amazing piece of American manufacturing just because I'd already made the 35 minute round trip once. Ian was excited about this! He had even dressed himself in his hot dog shirt that morning in anticipation of going to see the Weinermobile. That's my boy!

He was giggly when we pulled into the parking lot, too. We rushed the giant weiner again, and this time we had to stand in line. While we were waiting, one of the Hot Doggers saw Ian's shirt and she LOVED it! She couldn't get over how cute he looked and how cute it was that he chose this for himself. I could tell right away that this girl had her head on straight. She sent another Hot Dogger to get extra goodies out of the "trunk" since Ian was obviously a weiner enthusiast. (The Hot Doggers were very sweet girls.) We finally got up for a picture, and it was awesome! We hung out in the parking lot for a while and just admired the Weinermobile. We had to soak it all in while we could. I like to think that I just fulfilled a crucial childhood experience for the boys. They loved it! Now, I just have to find out where that blasted Goldfish is going to be next!

Probably going to be the Christmas card picture. I may or may not use Paint to add Cole...it will depend on whether or not he regrets his attitude towards the Weinermobile.

The Park at Moonrise

The boys and I hung out at the park a couple of weeks ago, and we stayed until dark. The evening was cool, but not cold, and the sky was clear. It was a beautiful evening to be outside.

Then, a group of jr. high school aged divas came along. In all fairness, I don't know what they will grow up to be, and I'm sure they were using the opportunity to be away from their parents as a chance to be a little more unfiltered, but I'm thinking they are a group of little b!%@#es in the making. Girl with seasonally and age inappropriate short-shorts decided to drop the bomb on girl on the swing that Dylan was now her boyfriend, even though girl on the swing liked him and girl with seasonally and age inappropriate short-shorts new that girl on the swing liked him. Then there was a great deal of screaming at each other, and the term "butthole" was thrown about quite liberally in reference to Dylan, even though short-shorts was to blame as well, if not more. (It took all of two-seconds to realize that short-shorts was a shit stirrer and LOVED her, undoubtedly self-appointed, roll of Group Drama Maker.) Then short-shorts stormed off in the direction of Dylan's house, while girl on the swing stormed off to the other side of the playground and screamed her head off for Maggie to follow. It was pretty clear that Maggie didn't want to side with girl on the swing because she was afraid of short-shorts's wrath. Ultimately she chose girl on the swing, which secretly thrilled me. I could tell that short-shorts is trouble, and the faster that friendship deteriorates the better off swing girl and Maggie will be. 

While short-shorts, her seemingly mute sidekick, and Dylan lingered on the railroad tracks (choices, people, choices) I noticed the moon was rising and it was huge and beautiful and I was totally engrossed in watching its progress in the sky. Cole stopped by the playground around this time, I quickly filled him in on the drama of the girls and how it initiated a wonderful little chat about what types of girls the boys are allowed to bring home to mama and which are to never cross our property line, and then we were talking moonrise. Cole wasn't impressed. As he put it, "The moon is in the sky every night." Well, I think that's a boring way to live, so I took the time to really soak it in and captured the progress in pictures. While these were just with our point-and-shoot (that's as fancy as it gets around this house, folks) and by no means "art," I still really liked the series of pictures, especially the last picture...it spoke to me.

How can you not be impressed by something that has been around for billions of years, something that lit the Earth at night for the dinosaurs!? It's amazing to me every single night. The universe is so amazing.

Ho Hey

We are a family that loves music. We listen to music for hours every single day. Recently, our favorite to listen to is kind of modern-folksy. I don't really know how to describe it, but The Lumineers is our favorite Pandora station right now. Eli's favorite song is "Ho Hey" by The Lumineers. We watched the video on youtube, and in true Eli fashion he had to become part of the video. So he got his guitar, his hat, his boots, and became an unofficial honorary member of The Lumineers. He stomps around the living room in synch with the band members and belts out the lyrics from the depths of his soul. It's adorable.

While I absolutely love his desire to live his imagination, this particular instance had me cracking up. Every time I looked at him, all I could think was, "He looks like he should be in...

...Run DMC." I mean obviously the resemblance is somewhat open to interpretation, but the hat, the giant "necklace," clunky shoes, the attitude....it's all I could see. No matter what you interpret his style to be, there's no denying that he's cute as a button and totally loves modern-folk music.

He must be in full costume every single time we listen to "Ho Hey."

Sweet little Ian waiting patiently to listen to OK Go's "Here It Goes Again" so he can slide himself under the desk chair like it's a treadmill. HILARIOUS!!!! But, impossible to capture in still shots. I'll get video of that!

Baby Snail

Eli, LOVES to pretend. He is "Eli" about an hour a day, and a variety of other identities for the other eleven waking hours. The other day he was dragging himself around on his belly while he had his legs shoved in the lawn chair. He was, of course, a baby snail. Don't worry, I had to be told what in the world he was doing, too.