Fuzzy Love

Still Here!

Yup, still here. Packing and cleaning and worrying that all the things I have to remember to do are going to fall right out of my overstuffed brain.

The house is feeling pretty empty right now. All the pictures and fun stuff is long packed and we're left with the crap that will be dumped into boxes of mystery: two toys from under Liam's bed, a candle stick from the back of the kitchen cupboards, a soother from the backyard (yup), a pile of (gulp) unopened mail. How fun those boxes are to unpack!

While I have a few minutes though, I do want to tell you about the week without television. In a nutshell, it was good. And I honestly don't think the kids really needed this week, but Mark and I certainly did. We needed a jolt of something to keep us from turning the television on automatically, especially at the end of a long day. It really brought to light how often we turn on the television just out of habit. Instead we played a bunch of games, drank some wine, and (gasp!) talked. Crazy.

As for the kids: Liam didn't ask for a show even once. That boy, I swear, is so fantasy-rich (thank you Auntie Sue for that term), he didn't miss it one bit. Case in point:

The Three Billy Goats Gruff acted out with a minimum of lego. Complete with bridge and yellow troll.

Olivia, well....she had a harder time. One of our little routines is that she watches a show while I shower in the mornings. This keeps her from standing outside the shower door crying and asking me to "come back, Mommy!" No show = no stopping this behavior. I was tempted, really tempted to turn the television on each morning, but I didn't and she actually did settle down by the end of the week. She and I read a LOT of books together and I took a lot of short showers.

Keys to success were nice days so I could toss them outside during that cranky hour after nap/quiet time and before dinner. Also books really were useful, particularly some identification books on bugs, birds, and local mammals that I picked up at the library book sale (I so love the library book sale). Although that meant that I was called forth any time a critter happened in to my children's sights; they were mostly of the bug sort, unfortunately, and close-up pictures of bugs are not amongst my favorite things (let alone the actual bugs).

We also played more games. At the end of the first day Candyland got packed (it's lucky it didn't end up in the garbage) and we started making up our own, better, games. Like this one: give your small child a hug, but turn it into a tight squeeze (use your judgment here) until he/she makes a weird noise because you are squeezing him/her very tightly. Then guess what kind of animal makes that funny noise. The noises will soon evolve from "a cat being stepped on" and "angry bird" to real roars, ribbits, and moos. Very funny for all involved (trust me); we now play this a LOT. And yes, I do think it is better than Candyland.

We also did a lot of packing. When I got tired, they got kicked to the backyard so I could have some quiet time. One day I gave them half a cookie to share with an anthill in our yard. That kept them (and a bunch of neighbor children) busy for a long time, although I think the neighbor parents thought it was pretty strange. And both kids played dress up more. The box (Tickle Trunk?) is overflowing with additional odds and ends discovered while packing, so they got really in to it and put on a couple of plays (with Liam as director, writer, and star; Olivia copying everything he did or said).

I won't lie to you - there were many more fights between the kiddos. More time playing together just means more fights, I guess. That part drove me a little nuts. But the quiet, when there was some, was fabulous.

But that's over now. This last week here is practically brought to us by television, especially since 99.9% of all toys are packed up. I hope to get into a more balanced routine in the new house. So, just three more days to go! I'm sorry I'm not keeping up with all the blogs I love so much, or the emails, but give me a week or so and I'll catch up. (I swear, I'm not moving again for a very long time).

Spiders, Sweaters, and (Possibly) Stupidity

God help me, my ass is tired. Mark and I spent most of the weekend shoveling out packing up our basement. Now, our basement was not a place in which we spent much time. Actually, it was not a place that we went at all without putting shoes on beforehand and washing our hands afterward. Frankly, the last couple of moves were done without a whole lot of purging, this house has not been big enough for some time, and apparently that basement is the ideal habitat for a whole bunch of spiders. There were boxes that hadn't been touched in years. Also a filing cabinet that we have moved two times without opening (still taped shut). Amongst other things, we found:

• all the books, swag, notebooks, and "awards" (such as the highly-cherished Who Moved My Cheese award) from my last cubicle
  
• every box from every piece of electronic equipment we've purchased in four years
• four computers, one monitor, three keyboards, and two Rubbermaids full of computer cables
• credit card statements, phone bills, and tax returns dating from 1994
• several BBQ accessories that our lovely children put away in the window well.

I knew it was bad down there; over the years that room has been a reliable source of low self-esteem for me. It's actually occurred to me that it would be absolutely mortifying if Mark and I died in some sudden tragic accident and family members saw all this pointless crap.

But it's all gone now, baby! There is a mountain of trash at the end of our driveway. And that's with taking out two loads to Goodwill and three boxes of to-be-shredded stuff (like those ancient statements). I actually thought about taking a picture for you, but frankly it's embarrassing enough that my neighbors can see it (same reason why there's no "before" shot). Here's what it looks like now, with probably one third of the stuff that was in there yesterday morning:

Please note the dead-spider-free floor. I still wouldn't eat off it, but I would now let my kids down there in bare feet.

Perhaps the most bizarre thing I found down there was this:

That, my friends, is a sweater. A cables-with-lacy-bits, blocked, shoulder-seamed, and almost freakin' finished sweater. That I vaguely recall working on while preparing for my wedding. In 1998.

The pattern is missing, but it took less than five minutes on Ravelry to figure out what exactly it was (it helped that I only really had Vogue Knitting magazines back then). But then everything is complete but the neck, so I could easily finish it even without the pattern. Except for one unfortunate fact: I did NOT find any more of the yarn. Trust me, we went through every box down there. It's a nice scratchy wool with lots of white flecky bits in it, so I suppose I could find another use for it if I have to. But it certainly would be nice to finish the thing, what with it being such a surprise and all. (And Jeezy Creezy, now I have another WIP).

But now that I've washed the cobwebs out of my hair and am sitting on my ass, I'm feeling pretty good. Our move date is still three weeks away (May 9th!), and our largest and most god-awful task is behind us.

On to the next bit of craziness: Mark and I decided to participate in TV Turnoff Week this year. That means no television for one week starting tomorrow. Mark had to think about it a bit but he's on board now, which I find funny since he's not the one home with the kids all day where it is highly tempting to put on a show just to get through one simple goddamn phone call.       Ahem.      Anyway, we're not cutting out computer time completely, but we will cut back and do the bulk of our surfing, blog-reading, emailing, and posting when the kids are asleep or very much occupied.

In preparation I got even more books from the library (like The Treasury of Family Games), we have lots more packing to do, and beautiful weather is forecast. I've promised to teach Liam to play checkers and he dragged a 1000-piece puzzle out of the basement. Olivia has a new pad of drawing paper and her very own box of crayons. And Mark has just got sucked into The Dangerous Book for Boys. It does worry me a little that more than half of the kids' toys are packed but, oddly, they don't seem to miss them much. Instead they've been into the dress-up box a lot, which has had new stuff added as I've sorted through things.

Why are we doing this now, you ask, just as we are preparing for a move and maybe more than a mite bit stressed? Did you read the title?

Sooooo, wish us luck! I expect to have a bunch of new ideas on how to entertain small children by the end of the week. Assuming we make it, that is. I MUST be strong.

(Pray for me.)

Another Day in the Neighborhood

For about half an hour today I thought Olivia might never sleep again. I was just about to put her down for a nap when I realized I hadn't seen a soother (Canadian for pacifier, if you're wondering) in a long long while. Certainly she was plugged when she went to bed last night, but since then they had all completely disappeared. Now I realize she's old enough to go without pacification - I expect to get comments from the public whenever she's out and about with one - but we keep waiting for a less stressful time to ditch the habit. We're moving right now, for Pete's sake (it might not look like it, but we are). Anyway, the point is that as of today she still needs one while sleeping and I couldn't find one to save my soul. At one point I even checked the yard, because she's been playing out there a lot lately and you never know.

Have you ever heard that, wherever you are, there is a spider within three feet of you? I swear that I must always be within three feet of a soother, but they hide from me (and possibly laugh). We must have close to a hundred hidden around our house and car, but damned if I could find even one.

Finally I found one under my bed. A reasonable place, and one probably I should have checked before going outside. By this time Olivia was whining, "Mommy, I'm tired" and Liam was done asking nicely for help with his miniature race track and was whining too. Soooo....fast forward past book reading and cuddles and Liam coming into Olivia's room to declare, "Mommy, I'm fwustwated that no one is helping me," and I'm just about to leave Olivia in bed. She looks up at me and says, "Mommy, me need two soo soos."

Sure honey. Wait right here and I'll be back as soon as I find one.

Olivia and I actually had a lovely morning together. After dropping Liam off at preschool we stopped in to the library. They had a few new knitting books in (although nothing that turned out to be too exciting) and Olivia made some friends while I perused them. I went specifically to get some sort of stitch dictionary, as I'm doing a traveling scarf exchange through Ravelry, and I needed a reference. The gist of the exchange is that you knit the beginnings of a scarf - four to six inches - then slap it onto a stitch holder and mail it off to someone in your group. That person will knit another four to six inches in the yarn and stitch of her choice, and then mail it off again. The scarf makes its way around a circle of knitters and comes back to you in about six months time. I honestly don't expect that I'll wear whatever comes of it, but I do plan on making it sort of a collective art piece in my craft area in the new house. Anyway, I picked up the Field Guide to Knitting, because it is small and I'd forgotten my library bag. It claims to show me "how to identify, select, and work virtually every stitch," but I don't know about that, seeing as it has 161 stitches and that can't be ALL of them, can it? But it is complete enough so I'll keep it checked out as long as they'll let me and then I'll probably pick up my own copy.

By the way, on the way into the library we passed a little girl, perhaps four years old, who was dressed in head-to-toe pink and waiting on the sidewalk for her mother, who was gathering library books from their car. Olivia and I passed by her and Olivia said, out of the blue, "Hi princess!" The little girl said, with a touch of awe, "How did she know I'm a princess?" Takes one to know one I guess. Turns out the girl's name is Jasmine. I imagine she will be quite popular in kindergarten.

Olivia and I also dropped by one of my local yarn stores to pick up that last bit of yarn I'm buying for my friend's hat. The yarn had to be about sport weight, navy blue, and not too itchy, and to my surprise they recommended Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool. I was worried that wouldn't be warm enough, but the two employees worked together to convince me it will be, plus it's a great navy color. So I'm going to cast on for this hat (Ravelry link, sorry) as soon as I'm done here. The pattern is an adaption of the official Navy hat, and I really hope he likes it.

As for Liam, he's got a new favorite joke (that actually makes sense; usually he makes up his own).

Why did the chicken cross the playground?
To get to the other slide!

Finally, we spent some time over the weekend moving our bird feeders over to the new house (this is the sort of thing you do when you are moving without an urgent deadline). I've set up a spot outside the family room window and I plan to keep a little guide to Colorado birds on the windowsill. But back at the old house, Sir Liam was worried about the birds in this neighborhood, so I gave him some seed to put on the deck railing. He didn't come back in very quickly and when I looked outside I found him like this:

Waiting for the birds to sit on his finger and eat. (Tell me, how do you disappoint such sweetness?)

Okay, is that enough randomness for you? I'm off to cast on.

Coming Up For Air

The last week has been very productive; I've been sorting, packing, organizing, and even have been partaking of a little yard work (leaving Mark speechless). And I've been doing a whole wack of knitting, mostly due to Malabrigo March over on Ravelry. Honestly, I got carried away. Everyone in this house has at least one new hat (bring on the soccer!) and my fingers are actually tired. But I'll tell you about that tomorrow; I want to figure out how to make one of those picture mosaics first (oh yeah, I've been that busy).

There's also been a lot of super hero action around here. In lamee (not lame! Where does Typepad keep the accents?) capes, no less.

It all began with the following announcements:

Liam: I'm Super Liam!
Olivia: Me Uper Pooh Bain! [That would be Pooh Bear.]
Liam (seriously): I help people. She helps bears.

Okay, I'm going to bed. I keep telling myself that I'll go to bed early some night and I never ever do, which is probably why I've got so little for you. But tomorrow: a fancy schmancy mosaic!

Spring!

The weather has been beautiful the last few days. It's been lovely: bubbles, sidewalk chalk, soccer balls, and snacks on the deck. We can't get enough of being outside. Honestly, this is the best time of year in Colorado, hands down. The sun isn't too hot and burny yet, the grass will soon be green, and the crocuses are already coming up. Sure, we will have at least one snow storm after the leaves come out, but by then it will feel like a novel last peek at Winter.

I think the kids were out and about a good four hours yesterday; much of that time was spent scooping melted snow out of the sandbox and pouring it down our slide (we are so bad about putting that thing away each winter). Liam has also been holding extended chats over the back fence with the kids behind us - while perched on the top of the wet and sandy slide - and once again I'm wishing for a Backyardigans (fence-free) neighborhood. 

And then it is time for my annual Spring Surprise Extravaganza: "Do I still fit into last summer's clothes?" So far so good, although I haven't yet dug into the riskier stuff (like tank tops) and the bathing suits aren't even on the radar yet (yikes). Also not good for the self-esteem: I haven't shaved my legs in a while. To do that I have to either wait for a weekend or get up a whole lot earlier, as a certain little girl has no patience for my showers.

Anyway, my first Spring sweater is coming along nicely. I'm through one sleeve and almost the whole back of Geno, but the little tiny stitches make for slow going. And tired fingers don't help either - I have to take breaks for heavier yarn from time to time.

With Spring comes bolder bunnies. A rabbit came to visit us this morning and Liam said excitedly, "It's the Easter Bunny!"

And Olivia announced the other day, "Me Eeya. [What she calls herself.] Me pwincess. Fight bad guys." Influenced by her big brother at all, do you think? (Not that it's bad or anything).

So I hate to leave you, but I have to get outside again as it's somewhere around seventy today. Yay!

Happy Easter!

I hope you all had chocolate for breakfast. We certainly did (it's our most-beloved Easter tradition).

We did some egg dying yesterday and decorated our little Easter tree (which was not quite what Olivia expected in a tree) and put out carrots. Liam put his cowboy suit on over his pajamas because he thought the Easter Bunny would like it; he thought the Bunny would ring the doorbell and we'd all get to meet him and give him carrots. The things we forget to explain.

Anyway, we're having dinner with a friend who is a wonderful cook (thanks Lisa!) and I expect it will be fabulous. Have a lovely day, people.

Playing Hooky

Once in a while, Mark takes a random vacation day in the middle of the week and we all go do something fun. Yesterday was one of those days. We usually go to one of those places that are god-awful crowded on the weekends but manageable during the week, like the museum. The kids and I have been there a few times lately and Liam was dying to show Mark the dinosaurs. Plus it gave us all a chance to visit the Planetarium; even though the shows are only about twenty minutes long, I've never been too excited about taking two kids by myself, and without popcorn even.

But let me tell you, the Planetarium has changed since the last time I visited one, sometime in the mumblecougheightiesmumple. What I remember is something like Lite-Brite, but this show was pretty much a computer-generated IMAX* on a curved screen. Very dramatic; Liam was completely mesmerized. Olivia, not so much. She was pretty wiggly until we snuck some forbidden pretzels into her. You do what you gotta do, right? Anyway, Liam has now got the Planetarium on his "must see" list for museum visits. Good stuff.

Then, by five o'clock, we were all in our pajamas on the sofa. We had a popcorn dinner and watched a movie. Not a bad day, all 'round.

While we watched the movie, I seamed up Kite.

I thought it would be too big, but it's right on for Spring. I'm really happy with it. And the most fun: picking out ribbon! Joann's has little five-packs that matched the pink Cotton-Ease perfectly. I figured it couldn't hurt to have extra - I imagine the ribbon will take a beating. And Olivia loves it, thankfully. She actually jumped up and down when it was time to put it on this morning. Oh my sweet baby girl, do you think you will always do that for my hand knits? And once she had it on: "Mommy, it's umphy!"

* The movie did talk about the extinction of the dinosaurs, which greatly concerned Liam, and we talked about that for a while afterwards. "But some of the dinosaurs made it, right Mommy?" Poor kid; I hadn't meant to get into that quite yet. Like I said, I was picturing more of a Lite-Brite show.

Meet the Clampetts

We've started packing.

The funny thing about moving 6.1 miles, with lots of time to do it in, is that packing is difficult to do. It's gone kinda like this: pick something up, think about packing it, realize it could just be tossed into the car, do just that, carry it into the new house on the next trip over. In that way we have transported a whole bunch of the kids' toys, much of my awkwardly-shaped craft stuff, a collection of old baskets, a rug, and a couple of lamps. Also at the house are a few things that we have purchased since closing on the house (I had a Craigslist problem for a while), like some bookshelves, a daybed, and a big china hutchy thing. They went directly to the new house because, of course, there was little point in bringing them here. And then almost all our tools are over there. It's a bit embarrassing, actually, to drive up to your house with piles of stuff that aren't even in boxes, like we scavenged it all on our way over; our new neighbors probably wouldn't be surprised if Buddy Ebsen climbed out of our car.

So we really started with the easy-to-pack stuff that we don't use a whole lot, like most of my books and the black hole cupboard in the kitchen. I do realize that it is a luxury to pack at such a slow pace, taking the time to gather up all the gardening books into one box and to take The Muppet Movie DVD that somehow was behind all the books over to the DVD box and place it back in its case. Unlike later when we'll just toss everything together in boxes of mystery.

Anyway, all those boxes put a huge strangle hold on the hallways so, after unsuccessfully trying to wrangle the laundry basket through it all, Mark decided he might as well load up the car again (twice). So this house is slowly getting emptied and Mark is getting quite the workout. And I'm sure our neighbors are talking. For the record, we DO plan on hiring movers for the real move, you know, when the piano goes.*

I haven't had a whole lot of time to sit down, but I have managed to finish another hat. It's the Koolhaas hat for Mark in Marine Malabrigo (mmmm...alliteration). He likes it, but he wouldn't sit still long for a picture and this was the best I could get:

You get the idea. I really enjoyed knitting it. The pattern takes no time to memorize (well, I always had the chart around, but it only took a few stitches of each row to know what I was doing) and the decreases at the top are brilliant. My plan was to knit a few rows to get a grip on the pattern, then stop and learn how to do the cables without a cable needle, but I didn't bother. Sure it was a little fiddly, but I apparently have a high tolerance for fiddling, because I just kept on going. So Mark finally has a warm hat, knit to his specifications. Just in time for Spring.

*When are we going to move, you ask? We're aiming for the 1st of May, having calculated that the kitchen should be done by then. That's the plan, anyway.

Random Things

So Ive been tagged for the random things meme, which I might actually have already done, but I'm too lazy to check through and find out for sure, so I'll do it again. I'll make them especially random. So here they are, thanks to the lovely Jody and lovely Jannett.

1. I spent all day yesterday painting at the new house and now I realize there are actually muscles in my neck that haven't been worked out in a while. For the record, painting ceilings sucks.

2. Over the past year I've developed a very unhealthy addiction to Mocha Frappuccinos. If there were a Starbucks anonymous (is there one?) I should be there, because the addiction has not only impacted my self-esteem (there are about a million calories in each one), but also my marriage. Mark just doesn't see the reason for trekking out on a cold January Saturday morning just because I have a caffeine headache.

3. I really need a pedicure.

4. I hoard books and parting even with the crappy ones is a little like pulling teeth. Books are stacked two deep on my shelves (not an attractive look) and piles are slowly overtaking one corner of our bedroom. I've been trying to weed some out before the move but it's been very difficult; I think I'm down about seven so far.

5. One of my major motivators to use more eco-friendly cleaners (vinegar and etc.); so that I can allow my children to clean for me without worry. Liam, for some reason, really likes cleaning toilets, while Olivia prefers dusting.

5. I haven't been knitting much lately (too many paint chips and boxes in the way) and I'm really starting to miss it. But I'm feeling very uninspired by any of my WIPs. I'd like to try to find my way out of this slump without buying any more yarn (I found even more while packing - oops).

6. I collect snowflake ornaments and could probably do a whole Christmas tree of them. Someday I want to crochet some out of Kidsilk Haze, but I don't know how to crochet in circles yet. Yes, the granny square eludes me.

7. Um...I'm really dragging here. I wish I had a Frappuccino.

I hardly feel entitled to impose on the few sweet readers who are still out there, so I'll just say that if you want to do this, go for it!

Look Who's Blogging

So a few emails, not to mention lots of pestering from my husband and others, and a general out-of-touch feeling have finally gotten me off my ass and back out to this sad, neglected little website. It's been a tough winter, honestly. Lots of stupid, brain-not-working sorts of things going on, like walking away from the car and wondering if it's still running (yes, it was). I haven't left any kids anywhere (yet), but I have been worn out. Not quite just getting through the days, but close. So I started simplifying my life, so that I had enough emotional energy to give to my kids (and a little to Mark too), and blogging fell by the wayside. Then we did one of the most stressful things possible: we bought a new house. And blogging was all but forgotten. Sorry. (That's not all that was forgotten, either. If you are wondering if we dropped you from our Christmas card list, we didn't. The cards are still sitting in a box on top of the fridge. My brother suggested that we send out Valentines instead, but then we'd be late for that too).

But these guys are doing well.

Since you last saw her, Olivia has somehow grown into the girliest girl there ever was. She takes two baby dolls with her everywhere (and I mean everywhere). They must be dressed appropriately in fiddly little outfits (guess who gets to do that) and buckled into seat belts in the car. These babies get frequent boo boos and require lots of kisses. She also carries at least one purse at all times that is stuffed with soothers. She chooses her outfits, including weather-inappropriate shoes. Yesterday she wore a tutu. Clearly I have no control.

Liam is in love with Lego. He draws out "plans" for rockets and cars and so on, then meticulously constructs the items from his plans, or makes Mark and I follow them, which we never do correctly. He also uses anything and everything to tell elaborate "stories."

So on to the big news. We did, in fact, buy a house. It isn't very far from our old house, but it is larger. We've been bursting at the seams here for a while. Best parts? It has a big yard (for our area, anyway), it's on a cul-de-sac, it's within walking distance to a good elementary school, it has built-in book shelves (ahhhhh....), and a real live guest room. We weren't really looking either, other than we had a real estate agent and were, well, walking through houses that happened to be for sale. The idea was to begin to look right about now, but to start to get a feel for what the values are in a neighborhood that's been hit hard by the housing droop lately. Then we just walked in and discovered our house. So here's some pictures.

I love love love the house, but it does need some work and that's what has been consuming most of our free time lately. The kitchen has been a victim of old age, crappily-done home improvements, and a small toaster fire. It needs replaced and we're working our way through that horrible process right now. The bathrooms also need updating, but fortunately Mark is fairly handy and especially enjoys demolition. One tacky bathroom is already only a memory. I'll be spending this weekend painting, while Mark is going to try his hand at laying tile. Since we've spent a lot of time recently not dreaming about the future (more like dreading), this house has been a very happy diversion for us. We hope to actually live there sometime in April.

Anyway, I have lots of blogs to catch up on (I do miss you people) and a few memes to think about. Talk to you SOON. And not about paint colors, I swear.