short attention span

I am almost done with Ava's sweater. I just have to make the hood and sew it all together. That means of course it is time for me to look towards the future and get antsy about starting Rhys' sweater. I bought yarn for his today. Very exciting stuff.

The blue isn't really blue, more of a turquiose.

Tonight I am going to see all three of the Twilight movies. I am looking forward to it, though I am not looking forward to being made to feel old because there are more 15 year olds than anything else.

me and my nook

As long as I can remember, (really since 2nd grade) I have loved reading. I can remember the exact moment it happened. I was reading Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great by Judy Blume. I remember staying up late to finish the book and after many nights of reading and getting involved in the story, the book was finished. I wanted the story to go on and on so I could keep observing my friends. From that moment on I was completely hooked. I regularly finish good books in a day or two, so I go through a lot of books. This was part of the reason why I wanted a nook. Our house was being taken over by books.

In college, Justin and I always said we wanted to have a huge library. The problem with this scenario is, we don't have the space or the shelves to have a library at this time. So ever shelf like surface was covered with books. I started trading them on book mooch. This worked sort of but I was having a hard time finding books I wanted so I was just paying to ship my books to people. I sold a couple on amazon, but I had to then ship within 24 hours of selling the book and that just didn't work out for me. I got books from the library but regularly returned them so late that I might as well have bought the book. So now I have a nook. It is the ereader from Barnes and Noble. I can finish a book and in 5 minutes have a new one to read. I love it. I am on a mission to find more people who have a nook or use the ereader on their blackberry or iphone. I want to trade books with people! I need to establish a network! I am burning through my gift cards like nobody's business.

I have been looking for a widget for this thing that will let me list what I am currently reading and haven't been able to find one. I should just end my posts with that info. It will probably be more current that way anyway.

Currently reading: Sizzling Sixteen by Janet Evanovich.

Welcome to Hollywood. What's your dream?

Thanks for the comments on being able to comment. I am happy to see it only doesn't work for Justin. He must be technologically challenged, I am sure that is it.

Everybody has things they want to do in life. Some people really want to go sky diving, climb a mountain, eat entire cakes in one sitting. I don't have those dreams. I have generally had just a couple for as long as I can remember. I want to travel around a lot more and see all sorts of places and I want to go on a whale watch. The whale watch started in 4th grade when we watched The Voyage of the Mimi. Every few weeks we would watch a mini episode and do a workbook to identify whales. It was possibly one of my favorite things that I have gotten to do in school ever.

So recently I have been doing lots of little things that come to mind when I think, hey I want to try that some day. Like making jam or bread or learning to knit. I just do it. My newest addition to the list of things to do is going to be a bit harder. I want to make my own syrup. I want to tap the tree, collect the sap, boil it down and make syrup. I read quite a few books when I was younger, Little House in the Big Woods for example, where they made their own syrup. I just want to do it. It sounds fun, tedious and a lot of work for a little syrup, but I want to say, check, I have done it. Considering the fact that I don't have any grown trees anywhere near my house, let alone an maple, is definitely going to hold up this goal. I wonder if there are syrup making vacation spots, like in Maine. Instead of going to a ranch to pretend to be a cowboy for a week, be a syrup maker for a week. (I would love to go be on a ranch for a week too, by the way. I seriously do somewhat curse the fact that I feel doomed to always live in the suburbs.)

In other news, I got an A in my business economics class. Not an A-, a full on A. I am pretty excited about that. Because I posted a picture of my pumpkins yesterday, it was apparently necessary for me to look out at the buds opening up into pretty orange flowers and then the skies to open up and pick the chair off the patio up and throw it down on my pumpkin plant.

comments

Not that I am fishing for comments, but I have heard that some people are having problems commenting (some people being Justin) and I was wondering if others have had that problem. If that is the case, please email me and I will see what I can do.

positive

The landscapers put mulch down today, for the first time in two years. They skipped last summer for some reason. Anyway, they killed my sunflower. It was growing strong and straight. It now has no leaves and is bent in half. So we will focus on the positive and look at how big the pumpkin blossoms are getting.

I am having a hard time getting a good picture of Rhys' new hair. He won't sit still long enough. He has fully hit the terrible 2's at 18 months. He throws fits about everything because he gets so frustrated with not being able to do exactly what he wants. When he is being nice he is awesome because he can communicate more and he is just funny. Anyway, here is his hair...it definitely needs trimmed up more but he got tired of sitting and so he looks like he might have been in prison sometime around 1950.

new site

Look! Our church has new website, including a blog. Isn't it so pretty??? Just thought I would share. I think it is just an example of the connectedness people feel when they are at church.

fuzzy wuzzy was a bear

We all had a case of the Monday's today. It was just weird weather, and we aren't into our summer schedule yet. Ava had gymnastics. She wore her leotard and I am hoping it shrinks a bit when I wash it, though I am sure it won't. If she had any meat on her bones it wouldn't gap in places. She made improvements over last week. She can walk forward on the balance beam with no problem, though she had a hard time getting on. She smiles when she does everything so that is enough to make me keep signing her up and being the mommy chauffeur.

We have set up more things to drive her to. She is signed up for soccer in the fall. It is a very low commitment, intro league. One hour a week, that is it. The game are on nights or afternoons when I don't work so I am looking forward to them being fun family events.

On a whim, I cut Rhys' hair. I have zero experience cutting boys hair, but I just started going to town anyway. He looks pretty cute and so old. He definitely isn't fuzz-less, but his head definitely has a nice new narrow shape instead of a round puff ball. He is VERY blond. Any darkness he had has been cut off. Remember around Christmas and his hair was kind of brown and wavy? That hair is all gone and probably will never be back.

all day long

All day long I have had ideas and things going through my head that I wanted to say and now I can't think of anything.

*Earlier in the week we went grocery shopping at Target. Ava was so excited, she could hardly contain herself. She acted like everything was a great find. Who needs Disney when we could just go grocery shopping.

*The painting is finished in the house. It looks awesome. It is now a small mystery to figure out when things will be hung back up on the walls. It took years the first time, I highly doubt it will take that long again.

*Ava started gymnastics last week. It isn't really gymnastics. They are mostly learning how to jump and balance. Very basic intro skills. Ava definitely needs the intro skills. She still doesn't really know how to jump. Good news though, we found a leotard so at least she will look cute while not really jumping.

*I have the whole body of the cardigan I am knitting finished. I am working on the first sleeve. I have been pretty distracted with other things going on so I haven't worked on it much lately.

*Justin ran in the warrior dash this weekend. I am sure it was a ton of fun for him and something he enjoys doing. We tried to go and watch. I am glad we got to see the set up and stuff, but it turned out to be a huge waste of a Saturday for me and the kids. Tons of waiting and being hot. Shockingly enough, we weren't the ones sunburned. Justin just dabbed it on in a few places and got burned everywhere else. The rest of us were totally fine.

*I have a new favorite Keurig coffee. It is Daybreak Blend from Caribu. I just love it and think you should know.

*We went to the pool on Friday afternoon as a family. Justin got to experience Rhys' fear/fascination with the drain at the pool. We also figured out that Rhys loves the splash station thing. He will stand under the water as it pours in his face and he really doesn't care, yet he still isn't too thrilled about the idea of standing in 6 inches of water. The lazy river was broken which was a bummer since Ava really wanted Justin to come just so she could go on it. It looks like he will have to come with us another time this summer.

*8 days until we watch Eclipse! I should re-read the book, but I must pace myself. Now that school is finished (hallelujah!!!!!!!!!) I have some more time to read so I have at least 5 days to read something else.

*I just finished reading Her Mother's Hope by Francine Rivers. LOVED IT! I can't wait until the 2nd part comes out. I read another book by the same author a while ago and got completely sucked in. I know she has quite a few other books, but for some reason I am hesitant to read them. I read the first two off of recommendations, so I am not sure what the thoughts are about her other books.

*I also finished reading Water for Elephants. I know it has been out for a while, but I really enjoyed it. I love having things on my nook! I just wish I knew more people who either had the nook or used Barnes and Noble ereader. I am a generous sharer of books, so let me know if you would like to be on my share list! Plus, somebody share with me!

it is almost over!

All we have left to do this week is take our final and we are done with our economics class! I have been dreading it and hating it the whole time we have been taking it but I am getting an A so far. Not just an A, a pretty solid A and a little higher one than Justin. I can't be too confident in it though, since our final is worth 30% of our grade, I can still definitely blow it.

Our house is officially almost done being painted. One more wall was finished today and the ceiling in the kitchen. We just have the center wall dividing the kitchen and livingroom left and then it is finished. Everything will be painted a color other than white! Seriously, never in my life have I lived anywhere that didn't have white walls. We have had a couple rooms upstairs with painted walls for the last few years, but definitely not the whole house. It looks awesome and I am very happy with our color choices. It actually looks so nice that I am all inspired to clean through stuff and rearrange and make the whole thing look nice.

Have I mentioned that I have started to like wine? I have many things in life that I want to like, but just don't, no matter how many times I try. I don't want to be picky. I want to be versatile, it just doesn't always work out that way. Well I have figured out that there are definitely different flavors to wines and different things taste good to me. It all started when I had this niagara wine at a friend's house. It tasted just like grape juice! Justin ordered a couple bottles for me for mother's day. Then I went to wine styles and got a really good reisling. Just liking those two didn't make me feel versatile. I still felt restricted and picky, now just with certain kinds of wine. I wanted to be able to order a glass of wine with dinner and know what to order and like it. When we went to dinner for our anniversary I tried the wine flight. It was four different kinds of Spanish wines. One was really good and I just can't remember what it was, though I know it was a red which surprised me. A friend told Justin to get me Oliver's soft white. It was also very good and easy to find at Jewel. This weekend, we went to a wedding and I had the cabernet and it was also good! Meanwhile during all this wine adventuring, I have planned an overnight with friends to go on a wine and chocolate tour. We actually have a limo that drives us to a few vinyards and we go wine tasting. I am getting so excited about it. It seriously has made me crazy for years that we can to people's houses and Justin gets a beer and I am just kind of stuck. It isn't like I can bring everything for mixed drinks everytime we can go out. Wine is my solution. Hopefully by the end of the summer I will have expanded my horizons and have a list of wines I like to drink.

at the pool

So today was our first day of the summer spent at the pool. By day, I mean a little over 2 hours. That is plenty of time for us. We brought all the sand toys we have collected this year and a good hour was happily spent in the giant sandbox.

I liked this time too because I actually got to sit back and burn my legs. Later on we went into the pool. Ava was following her friend that is a little bit taller and a lot braver into deeper water. I was right with her but she started to get scared when the water was over her shoulders. I was holding Rhys in one arm and she was hanging on my other arm. She started to panic as I was lifting her up a bit higher and taking her over to the wall. I said, "I've got you." As soon as the water got up to Rhys he started getting scared and he said, "I got you!!!!!!!" Pretty much anytime he was in anything more than 5 inches of water, he got scared and started crying, "I got you!!!!!!" I thought it was pretty cute in a sad puppy dog kind of way.

so many projects.

Things have been busy around here.  Half of the rooms have been painted. The downstairs is getting started this week.  One or two walls are being painted at a time so we don't have to move everything in the entire living/kitchen area at the same time. It is a much easier system on my end and since we are in no rush, it works out well. 

I have finished some yarn projects and started another.  Here are my first pair of booties.   Because they are baby booties, it doesn't really matter that much that they aren't exactly the same size.  I really am not sure how that happened, but I clearly added a row or left out a row, just not sure which.  I had to force myself to keep going on the second one.  I probably shouldn't really develop a sock making habit because I am not great at follow through on the 2nd one. 

This hat was supposed to be a newborn size but I think it is a lot bigger. It looks that way to me at least, but who knows, I didn't have a newborn handy to try it on. I guess too big is better than too small. Either way, it was pretty easy and inspired me for a future big project.

This was a great beginner knit blanket. It moved fast enough that I wasn't hopeless that I could never be able to finish. It also seemed very stretchy and cuddly. I will probably make more in this style in the future.

Last week a friend came over who knits. I really don't know that many people who knit regularly. It really could be a social hobby. I want to learn from other people so I have been trying to get a group together for a while. Ok, not trying, but thinking about it. I did finally just send out an email to try to set it up. Anyway we went to my favorite yarn shop and picked out some awesome yarn for a sweater to make Ava. One of the main reasons I wanted to learn how to knit was to make sweaters. I figured it would be easier to start out with small ones. Good thing I have some little people to make them for.

Here is her yarn choice. I am really liking how it is looking so far.

Last weekend we did the Relay for Life. We brought both the kids and I really liked having them there. Sleep wasn't that common but there was very little crying or whining so I didn't mind. Plus they both slept during the day on Saturday which was nice when I wanted to sleep.

This has become difficult to write since Rhys keeps flopping on me and saying he is my blanket.