Little Miss Innocent Pearly
SCORE!! She got her big brother, Tall Dude
Victory is sooooo sweet
Pumpkin boy, 9-yrs old, couldn't get enough of the white stuff
4-yrs old Bunny had the time of his life
Brown eyes - 7 yrs old
Who dares to cross this line?
Today we got the rare treat of snow in Oregon. I've always wanted have snow in the background of a knitting project. Here is the snowman stocking that never got to be hung this Christmas due to obvious reasons this past month (read December blog posts). It's coming along well, now. I did have to take out a few inches while getting the hang of figuring out how much slack in dragging the alternate yarn along on the inside of the project. I'm hoping it will smooth out after it is blocked. This is the Annie's Woolens kit mentioned earlier.
On the homefront - dh picked up the laminate flooring at Home Depot last night and brought it home only to discover that they ordered the wrong flooring. They gave us the correct trim. The order # was just off by one number. It took 2 wks to get this order in, so we are going to try to extend our stay at the apartment by another 2 wks. It would be pretty difficult to put flooring in with all the activity of a large family around.
Brothers - 15 years apart
We love Nerf! (See the orange dart to the right of the hanging gorilla?)We are still at the apartment. The plumbing in our house has been repaired. The flooring is on order and should be arriving any day. We have been busy with much neglected schooling and now the homeschool co-op has started up again, so the busy life has begun again. A little knitting has been accomplished.
For Christmas, Pearly got the Just Like Me American Girl doll. She had been dreaming about this doll for quite a while. Unbeknownst to her, I also bought a book with patterns to knit sweaters for 18-inch dolls - Knits for Girls & Dolls, by Charlene Schurch. There was a mistake in the sleeve pattern, but was an easy fix. I will probably try another pattern. The sweaters don't take much yarn, so it would be a great way to use leftover yarn and of course Pearly won't mind adding to her doll's wardrobe.
I used Patons SWS Yarn. It's a wool/soy blend. It's a great yarn, but probably more suitable for larger sweaters - the striping was obviously wonky on such a small project, but we liked the look. Most importantly, little doll's owner loves it and that is what counts. I would definitely buy this yarn again.
Sometimes it's nice to have others in the family who pick up the camera. I found a treasure on my memory card this morning. Here's a picture of my 16-yr old son and me singing Christmas carols. It's a little dark, but that's exactly how it was. This year I'm directing a homeschool high school choir and he is in it. I love singing alto next to his bass voice. Makes a mom proud!
Here I am, world!
Love this newborn shot with the baby still coated in vernix.Yesterday, we went to friends' property to get our Noble Fir Christmas tree. It was a gorgeous day and we could see Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Hood from their yard. I silently prayed for the 3 mountain climbers who were still missing on Mt. Hood. There have been other times people have been missing on the mountain and it is always so weird to be so close to the mountain, to see it's majestic beauty and know that at the same time people could be suffering that very moment - very tragic.
Then we spent several hours at the house cleaning, packing, ripping up carpet that got flooded again with the most recent storm. There must be so much water beneath our house. It stinks very badly now. I dislike being there.
We returned the the apartment and heard a bang. A ball of fire shot up in the air and then all of the power went out. Turns out there was an explosion at a substation and the power company shut off the electricity to about 50 thousand customers. The kids were very excited to see the fire, so the older ones took off down the block to get a better glimpse of inferno. Dh and I followed behind with the little ones. We got back to the apartment realizing that we could be wtihout power for days since there were already still thousands without power from Thursday's storm. Of course we were not prepared for no electricity, so we went to the store for candles, flashlight/batteries and breakfast before church. Can one have enough excitement in a week? Thankfully, power was restored around 12:30 am.
Sadly, after church today, we found out that one of the climbers had been found dead. This is so sad - along with the recent tragic story of the Kim family. 
On a lighter note, here is the first of our baking - molasses cookies. They are/were wonderful. More to come. And on this day, I became the mother of a 20-yr old. Is that even possible? Surely not.
We went on the pompom bandwagon. It was the perfect craft for us in our temporary housing. The kids from 16 on down all loved putting them together. After they were strung, there of course were extras laying around. You see what happens when you have boys and their toys. Doesn't every boy need pink pompoms to transport in their matchbox trucks?
Last Sunday, our three violinists played Christmas carols with their Suzuki violin class at a retirement community. It was a beautiful program. I love to have the children visit the elderly. They get so much joy in seeing young people.
My mom really modeled for me to have respect for the elderly. She took me to retirement homes to visit elderly relatives when I was young. And most recently, she took care of her mother who was suffering from Alzheimers until her death.
When I was around 11 years old, I had a paper route. I delivered papers at an assisted living facility. When I collected the $$, sometimes I was invited in their rooms and we would chat a bit. I can't imagine my children collecting $$ for a paper route now, and especially wouldn't like the idea of them going inside people's rooms or homes, but it was different back then - or at least we were all naive. Anyway, as we would share stories, some of the residences found out that I played the piano and wanted to hear me play. So, one time, I stuck my piano music in my bag of newspapers and when the route was finished, I played some pieces for a handful of residences. They enjoyed hearing me play - mistakes and all. I eventually realized that these people were so anxious to see a young person, it didn't matter what was played. I decided that I would practice my lessons at the retirement facility - scales and all! They didn't care.
So, it gives me great joy to see my children using their music abilities and time to be a blessing to others. What a waste to play music just for yourself when you can bring a little sunshine to others. Here are a couple pics. This is the chaplain who interviewed our 7-yr old. He didn't seem to have any stage fright - lol.
Ok - working on a laptop, not having my photo editing software to crop is a pain - lol.
We are finally settling in to our new 3 bedroom apt. It is a 3-story townhouse.
I have come to realize after living here with only the bare necessities that we have way too much stuff at home. I will be spending a few hours each day packing up and getting rid of the excess that has been accumulating over the last 6 years. It will be a daunting task, but I know it will feel so good to have it done.
I just realized that I left my cord in the computer to upload pictures. I'll get that next trip. I am so thankful for insurance. We are probably going to be living here for 4-6 wks.
My girls made it their mission to find the Christmas decorations and have already put up lights and decorations around the place. They decorated their room, too. It's nice to have girls who want to decorate. Oh, and we had to bring all of our baking stuff over here - baking stones, Cuisinart, etc. We will be baking soon. How can you have Christmas without baking?
More later . .
Talked to dh after the meeting with the insurance guy. I'm supposed to find temporary housing. I would say yippee, but it's not all that yippee considering it's Christmas, but it will be a different Christmas and I hope it is a very special one.
Smoov (Stacy) posted a comment about what the victims of Hurricane Katrina must have gone through. First there was a smaller area in the closet downstairs that flooded - maybe 4 x 6 area. My wedding dress was professionally packed and in that closet. When there was the first puddle, it barely missed the dress and then it dried up again for hours. Later, I checked the closet and water was gushing in like a stream and there was no way to shut it off and the thought occurred to me that this water could go through the entire house. It flooded the whole length of the closet - probably 4 x 15-ft area and this time, the wedding dress box got wet. Thankfully, the inner box was fine. I had no clue that there was going to be more flooding or I would have moved it in the first place. After that, I started moving important things to higher ground. But my mind did drift to the victims of Katrina and the utter helplessness they must have felt. I get to find temporary housing nearby. There was no temporary shelter nearby for them. I can't imagine what they went through. We are so blessed and frankly spoiled rotten. When I go whining again, please redirect me to this post. We have our health, seven beautiful children, food, insurance. Life is good!
Plumber came yesterday and today. Yesterday's visit was useless since the guy didn't bring the right size camera and basically did nothing. Today, we had a proficient plumber who found at least part of the problem and a big one at that. The main line has to be replaced which means taking up carpet, Pergo-type flooring and going 2 feet into the concrete foundation. We're still trying to figure out what insurance will and will not pay. Whatever it is, I did not like the first estimate of $6,900 (which only covers the plumbing, not replacing flooring). This is going to be a long process. Everybody is booked for at least 2 wks. The plumber said I can run the washing machine at half-load. I just did a load and the walk-in closet started flooding again. I'm afraid to run the dishwasher. The insurance adjuster who was supposed to come 2 days ago is finally coming tomorrow. I've got some issues to bring to his attention:
1. Will you pay for us to move into temporary housing while this is being done (demo and/or installing new flooring)? We've been living in stench for 6 days now. The stench is not going away because each time we do laundry or dishes (which is often with a family of 9), water floods back into the room.
2. We have children who have been exposed to bacteria on the carpeting, wood flooring, etc, and a baby who only knows how to crawl. This is a health hazard.
3. The carpet in the family room appears dry now, but 1/3 of the carpeting was sopping wet from this waste water as well as underneath the cabinets. The carpet must be removed because it is a health hazard and how can we verify that it is dry underneath the cabinets? We do not want to deal with mold as we have mold allergies.
4. We homeschool, how can we continue schooling with all the work being done and the stench?
5. We are concerned about the water line from the laundry room down - this part was not looked at with the camera. The walk-in closet was flooded with only a half-load of laundry after pipe was supposedly cleaned out.
Read more...
Somewhere there is a leak in our house - we think from the foundation. On Friday, we noticed that water had soaked about one-third of the carpet in the family room (where we primarily hang out) and underneath the 20+ foot wall of built in cabinets we had installed. This morning, J told me about a bad smell in our extra room. There's something - mildew/mold - that smells bad on the other side of the house where we store sleeping bags/suitcases. Thankfully, the floor is just concrete there.
All weekend we have soaked up the carpet with towels, put it in the washing machine's spin cycle, put back on the floor, etc.
Can I come to your house and knit instead? I'll be nice and quiet and you won't even notice me. Oh, I do have to bring my baby along, but he's a good baby. Everybody says so. I'll even make some of that pecan/chocolate chip pie I made the other day. Anyone?
Updated: We now think the problem is a broken pipe. After I posted the above, the storage room filled with gross-smelling sludge. Then water poured in through the corner crack where the concrete slab meets the wall. This is a big nasty mess - not one anyone would like, but especially with a 9-month old who only crawls.
Appraiser is coming out today or tomorrow and plumber should be here between 2-4 today. Five days of replacing wet towels on the floor every hour or so is getting very old.
I miss normal boy chaos. That was easy compared to this.
She's been waiting a long time for this. Do you see? Here are the before and after shots:
I started this pullover last week: Child's Placket-Neck Pullover. It is from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts. I just googled to make sure I had the title right and look what I found Corrections for Child's Placket-Neck Pullover
Whew - I'm glad I hadn't gone too far in this project. The corrected version has me casting on 123 stitches and the other version has 122 for the 1-2 yr size. That's an easy "fix". I am making this for my brother's first baby using Blue Moon Worsted Wear 100% Superwash Merino, colorway Bronze. This yarn is wonderful to work with and I love the colorway. I purchased it at Farmhouse Knits in Beaverton.
Finished this felted Christmas stocking using red Galway yarn. It seemed to be missing something, so gold star nailheads were added. I found the pattern on eBay.
Last week, dh and I were taking a nap when our 9-yr old woke us up saying that PJ was hurt. We have a child's gate at the bottom of our stairs. When PJ is sleeping, sometimes we use a bungee cord to keep it open (because it's a challenge to open). The door was closed and the bungee cord was just hanging and PJ crawled over to it. He's at the stage where everything goes in the mouth and he put the end of the bungee cord into his mouth . . . . and . . it . as in the hook, yes, the hook. . got. . . stuck, . . .very. . . stuck . . inside. . . .his. . . cheek (yes, like a hook caught in a fish). I'm shivering just thinking about it. When we got there, my 19-yr old had finally gotten it out, but it nearly went through his cheek. He would not let me look in his mouth. I pried his mouth open and could only see one place where it was punctured, but the following day, I found a gouge and the roof of his mouth was pretty raw, too. I watched him like a hawk for the next couple days to make sure there was no infection. You can see the bruise on his left cheek - the bruise is coming from the inside of his mouth. Poor baby. Bungee cord is no more. I am too old for this . . . really!
I got this cute bonnet pattern from a book I checked out at the library. I'm kicking myself for not remembering the title. Anyway, this was a quick knit, but I don't like it. The garter stitch ribbing on the bottom does not work well. It should have been written to knit with smaller needles on that part or pick up less stitches. I was hoping to make my baby's head fit into it, but it really looks funny on him. I think I will actually rip out the whole thing. Ho-hum.
Flop #2: I thought I'd make PJ a helmet because he has been pulling hats off his head. I have a vintage pattern and made Size 4. My baby is 9 months, yes he was born quite large (13 pounds), but still, one would think Size 4 would fit. It didn't - it was way too small. F.R.O.G!
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