I think we might be done....

with diapers! J has been only wearing a diaper to bed for quite a while now. I have given all but a handful of Fuzzi Bunz away. At bedtime, I have been putting a Fuzzi Bunz stuffed with a prefold on him. Some nights he wet, some he didn't. Monday I needed to wash diapers, which I have been washing with the towels since we went to nights only. I forgot to put them in the dryer. So at bedtime I pulled out an emergency pull up. J, who does not speak well at all, said very clearly "Don't want that!" while vehemently shaking his head. Dh said he didn't blame him. I don't either. So I put him to bed in underwear and pjs. Before I went to bed I woke him and took him to pee. Tuesday night the diapers were dry and I was apprehensive about being woken in the middle of the night to a wet boy and a wet bed. I put the diaper on him but laid the prefold over the fleece so if he wet, he would feel wet. He was dry in the morning. Last night I decided to do underwear again. This time I put an old ratty towel folded under his sheet. I didn't wake him to potty before I went to bed and he is dry this morning.

With all of the changes going around here the prospect of moving away from diapers forever is great. It means I don't have babies anymore, I have boys. I'm so excited about going to school in January. In a few years I will have a job outside of the home. But I will be working when my kids are in school and home when they are home. It will be a huge step forward for us financially where we will not only be able to get by but we will also be able to afford nice extras like vacations, shoes, more yarn, etc.

Now if anyone knows how to get him to move out of the terrible threes, I am all ears!

Firestarter chart

I love the Firestarter sock but apparently I am an idiot so I have to have the chart written out and can't cable without a cable needle. Davina helped (a lot) me write it out so it would be easier for me so I am posting written out instructions with the use of a cable needle. Row 1 is a set up row and the same as row 2. Each section should have a ktbl before and after it.

RT - slip 1 st to back, k next stitch on left needle tbl, p1 from cable needle

RC - slip 1 st to back, k next stitch on left needle tbl, k st on cable needle tbl

LT - slip 1 st to front, p next st on left needle, k st on cable needle tbl

LC - slip 1 st to front, k next stitch on left needle tbl, k st on cable needle tbl

Row 2: p1, k1 tbl, p1, k2 tbl, p1, k1tbl, p1

Row 3: as Row 2

Row 4: p1, k1tbl, p1, RC, p1, k1tbl, p1

Row 5: as Row 2

Row 6: p1, LT, k2tbl, RT, p1

Row 7: p2, LC, RC, p2

Row 8: p1, RT, RC, LT, p1

I'm such a lame blogger. Oh well.

I have some cute pics of my Halloween kiddies in front of my neighbor's decorations:




And our spooky pumpkin. Even with a stencil and a battery operated cutter it took hours to finish.


Last weekend and the weekend before I had the great honor of meeting my long time internet friend Beautiful Roses (aka Gemini at MDC):

We had a great visit last Saturday with her, her dh, girls and furry Alice and hope to make it an annual event.

Everything is pretty much the same around here. very busy too. J started speech therapy. He will receive services for at least the next 3 years, two 30 minute sessions per week. I think I am noticing an improvement but it is still very hard for everyone that he is trying to tell us things but we don't understand. B is doing pretty well in school and I finally received the training I needed to be able to volunteer in the classroom. Next week I will be helping with the Halloween party.

My salsa tagged me with a thing so here goes:

Four Things About Me:

Jobs I’ve Had

1. Hostess at Shoney's

2. Customer service bitch at Office Max

3. Navy chick

4. Mom

Places I’ve Lived:
1. Schenectady, NY
2. Chesapeake, VA
3. Adak, AK
4. On a guided missile cruiser

Foods I Love:
1. Spinach dip
2. Quiche
3. Pasta with Parma Rosa sauce
4. Ice cream

Websites I visit

1. Local news website
2. Gmail
3. Xanga
4. Ravelry

Places I’d Rather Be
1. Asleep
2. With my daughter.
3. In NY with my family.
4. Villefranche

Movies I Love
1. Steel Magnolias
2. Office Space
3. Stranger Than Fiction
4. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

TV Shows I Watch
1. Heroes
2. Grey’s Anatomy
3. Brothers and Sisters
4. Desperate Housewives

Since I don't think I have 4 regular readers I tag you if you read it. Make sure to comment so I can come read yours.

The blahs

Sorry for the lack of posting, to those of you who are still interested in my blog. I have seriously had a case of the blahs for the past two months. I don't want to call it depression, it just seems like everything is the same every day. I'm bored with it and just want to lay in bed, knit and watch DVDs. I've been trying to find something to bring me out of my funk but I just kept going to get more DVDs. I think I have finally figured it out though. I'm going to see about going to college.

I have a meeting to talk to a counselor at the community college on Monday. He will help me figure out all of the money stuff I guess. It's pretty overwhelming with my GI Bill, getting grants, etc. I plan to go to community college for 2 years and then moving to another college after that. I am going to get a degree in teaching because it is the only profession I can think of that will work with my kid's schedules. I hope to teach older kids though. I scheduled to take my ACT on October 27. Tomorrow I am going to talk to the adult education center about ACT prep.


Scary stuff!

Warts!

Suddenly I have two warts on my right hand. One is on the front of my ring finger and the other is on the side of my middle finger. They don't hurt or anything, it was just strange to discover them there. I'm not a really vain person but I plan to try to get rid of these as soon as I can. I wonder if they are somehow related to the surgery and all of the crap I have been taking?

Pain still the same, last night I slept on the heating pad. It seems to hurt in my ears the worst when I am laying down. The pain is also worse on my left side. I am wondering if it is an infection. I am already taking an antibiotic so hopefully if it is the antibiotic will knock it out.

I forgot to mention yesterday that J stayed dry all night! He has been dry during the day for a couple of months but it was really exciting for him to stay dry at night. This morning he was wet though. I'm not in a big rush, just happy that I don't have to clean big poop messes on a regular basis. Plus, I only have to wash diapers once a week at the most!

Treats!

Well I got my tonsils out last week. It sucks. I am still in a tremendous amount of pain and have still been taking painkillers through most of the day. The nicest thing I can say if that I ran into another mom that I know today and she told me that it looks like I have lost a lot of a weight and it looks great. I thanked her and told her it was only because I had not eaten for a week. I also vomited quite a bit in the first few days, which I am sure helped quite a bit. Onto brighter subjects!

Getting my tonsils out has had some benefits, besides the weight loss. My favorite whore sent some fabulous flowers. They look a little wilty in the pic and that is because I waited almost a week to take it and they have been sitting in my dark bedroom. But I see them constantly through the day and they make me smile.


Then my best pal Davina sent me a gift certificate to Wool Girl. We have both been drooling all over this site for a few months so this was a huge treat. I let it sit for a couple of days before I used it. I was too sick to shop for yarn! But soon enough I recovered enough to comb through the offerings and choose some stuff. I could not settle on just one skein so I supplemented just a little and got two! I wish I wasn't such a glutton and had taken pictures of the beautiful packaging it came in before I ripped it off! The yarn was wrapped in light blue tissue paper with a silver bow around it. Jen sent me a lovely handwritten note complimenting me on my choices and included a sample of soak brand wool wash.

This is Mama Llama's Original Sock Yarn in the colorway Sea. It is self striping, fingering weight made from superwash wool, yum!


This is Lavender Sheep's 100% Superwash Merino Sport weight sock yarn. It is not self striping and I just love the colors. The colorway is called Bad Girl, you know that sold me!

On top of all of the gifts I have gotten lots of calls and e-mails from friends and family wishing me well. I sure do feel loved. But I will not ever be having any kind of surgery again unless my life depends on it.

Next!

I got my package from Sockapalooza 4 today and I am thrilled with my socks! My pal was Margaret from the Lots of Yarn blog. An especially lovely name, my mother is also named Margaret. You can see better pics of my socks there. The best, best thing I can say about my socks is that after I got the mail I changed out of my capris into jeans so I could wear my new wool socks out in temps near 100. Yes, I am a little crazy.

I don't think my requests were too hard to fill. I know some people think it is easier when matches are super specific but I am really happy with traditional length socks made from an all natural fiber that fit. She used Interlacements Tiny Toes, which I have never used before but must try now. The color number is 402, which my googler tells me is called Taiga. It is a beautiful mix of medium to dark greens. She adapted the pattern from the pattern for the Springgrass socks. These socks will be very well loved. But wait there is more! She included the leftover yarn, of which there is way more than I sent my sock pal. She also included a little headband making kit with some cotton/lycra blend yarn with a cute little stitch marker. AND! A gift certificate for a Commemorative Sockapalooza 4 Sock Project bag. I didn't even know about these or I would have picked one for my pal. I chose the multi friends and blue dots fabrics. Thank you so much, Margaret, you have completely spoiled me and totally brightened my day.

Just a couple of pics of the boys before I close. Today was ds1's first day of school. It was only a half day but he had a great time! I hope that this year is even better than his last. I took a couple of pics while we got ready this morning and also one of ds2 playing Nintendo.

Good fortune

I have been in a pretty grumpy mood the past few days, mostly due to our not so good money situation and all of the crap with dd's father. Yesterday I had some good fortune.

Our next door neighbors have been in the process of moving away to Utah. The mother and the youngest daughter left over spring break. The older daughter (our babysitter) left after school let out. The father has stayed behind to do some fixing up on the house and stuff. His last day of work is at the end of next week and he will be leaving soon after that. Over the weekend he stopped at my friend Nancy's house to let her know that he did not want to take his food with him and asked that we go over to spit it between us. I have been over there a few times before but I was completely shocked over how much food there really was. I wish I could have taken a picture of what I brought home because it was just unbelievable. Once we finished splitting it I had to get my car from next door and fill the trunk with all of mine. And my trunk was completely full. Dh and I were sweating after we carried it all in. We got the meat into the freezer and I left the non perishables until this morning. It took well over an hour to get it all put away. My pantry was so full that I had to empty a cabinet in the laundry room to finish putting it all up. It will cut down on the amount of groceries I need to buy next month tremendously so we will be able to save that much more.

He also has a bunch of wood and a few cabinets in his garage. He said he was going to take a little with him but would sort through it and let me have what I wanted from the rest. These people have been the best neighbors and I am so sad to see them go. I feel guilty for taking all of this from them when there are so many people in much more need than I am. I plan to take about 10% of what I got and donate it to a food pantry. I am also going to ask him if we could mow his yard until the house sells to make up for all they have shared with us.

Not much else going on here. I went out this morning and bought ds the few school supplies that I didn't already have here for him. I can't find his bookbag though so I need to launch an search for it. I also forgot that I need to get some lunch bags for him. He carries both breakfast and lunch to school because he will not eat most of the food that is served.

Five more days til the tonsillectomy. I am going to talk to my friend Natalie this afternoon so we can figure out what kind of homeopathics I can take to speed my healing. She did say that I can start to take arnica now to prepare for it.

Eleven more days until school starts. The first day will be a half day and there is no school on the 9th and 10th. I think it is dumb to only have school for 2 1/2 days on the first week but whatever. J's birthday is on the 24th and I plan to have his speech evaluated as close as possible to that day. Once he gets the evaluation done he will be able to get an IEP and start preschool. He will go to the same preschool that B went to. It is 4 days a week for 3 hours a day. I know that being around other kids will help him with so much, especially the anger issues he is starting to pick up from his brother.