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.

Ugh! I am pretty sure the memory card on my digital camera is shot. Whenever I take a pic and try to upload it my computer tells me it is in an unsupported file format. Same when I try to review it on the camera. I formatted it on the camera and again on the computer and it still does the same thing. Lucky for me, my SIL works at the photo center at Sprawlmart. A lot of people leave their cards behind in the machine. They save them for quite a while but after about a year or so they throw them out. She said she would send me one later this week.

Yesterday I had my pre-op appointment for my tonsillectomy. I have to go back on Friday and have some blood work done. Tuesday is the big day. It is not until 10:30 so hopefully the ILs will be able to get here before I have to go and we won't have to take the kids along.

Once I get better from the surgery I will probably be going out to find a job. We have spent most of our savings and it is just not a good position to be in. I hope I can find something where I can work around dh's hours and just work until around Christmas. Bleh.

I really suck at keeping up with blogging this summer. I just got back from bringing dd home yesterday so hopefully I can start to blog a little more regularly. Dd's father pulled a bunch of shit this morning that I really only feel comfortable discussing with my closest friends. I will say that I am getting a new custody order that will better explain everything that was not taken care of in the first order. It is great to be home without the stress looming over me like a big black cloud.

I have a week and a day before I get my tonsils yanked out and I plan to enjoy it to the fullest. I haven't really been dieting but I have been staying clear of foods that make me eat like I haven't had a meal in a week. This week I will be enjoying some of my favorite things like homemade mac and cheese and lasagna.

My nephew had his tonsils out on Friday. On Saturday he was doing pretty well but I was talking to my SIL yesterday and it seems that he didn't have such a good day yesterday. My brother and SIL are having to make him drink so that he does not get dehydrated. Which scares me even more for mine because I will not have someone to do that for me.

And to further how much I suck, I typed this yesterday and never posted it!

Garden update

Back in May I made some raised bed and planted my first garden at this house. I am still pretty new to gardening and apparently not too good at it. I recently noted that some of my plants are just not growing. My lettuce outright died, well over a month ago. I planted more but it didn't sprout. I wrote it off to the birds eating it. So here is how things are going now.

Beans

They look pretty decent here but they just aren't getting bigger. There are a couple of plants that have sprouts but people around here are already picking beans. Hmph.












Broccoli

The bigger one in the back has grown some but the rest have not grown much at all.












Peppers

The banana pepper (back left) just died outright. The green thing you see in it's place is a tomato my mom tried to transplant. The jalepenos are just as small as when I bought them.













Tomatoes
The tomatoes are doing better than anytime else and I will actually get tomatoes this year, yay. I even have a few Romas that are starting to turn red, even if they are a little small.

The cherry tomato is an entirely different story. This is the runt plant. There are a few branches at the top, which have sprouted baby tomatoes but it is not nearly the size it should be.

I also have onions planted in another bed and they are doing decently.

My FIL came over a few days ago and I asked him to have a look and see what he though. He told me that it looks like the soil does not have enough nutrients and that I should put fertilizer in it after gardening season is over. I can't lose hope that this is as big as it will get though so yesterday I stopped at Lowe's and got some organic plant food. I mixed it into the soil last night and watered everything. Hopefully I will see some growth in the next week or two.

















































I also have a few cute pics of ds2 to share. Ds1 is away at MILs and ds2 has been extra sweet lately.


Here he is "sleeping" in the bottom drawer of my dresser.



Helping daddy work on his motorcycle.


And one from the sandbox. He saw me taking pictures outside so I had to take one of him too. I used an old patio umbrella and planted it this morning so they would have a sunshade and also hopefully keep the rain out since it never gets covered.

You can't quit being mom

Today has been a very hard day. B had a major tantrum in McDonalds today. We only went because it is his birthday. I was and am so incredibly upset and embarrassed. We came home and have been spending the afternoon doing regular house stuff, except ds was sent to his room so it was quiet. Dd and I baked a cake for ds' birthday. It had cooled and I frosted it. Dd and ds were decorating it together and I came to do an internet check in. Dd had been using it and in another tab she had a message between her and her dad on myspace up. In it she told him that today was ds' birthday and it would be just another day of her being ignored. I am so. fucking. over. it.

I have spent the entire summer running here, there and everywhere. I spend more money on gas in one month than I usually spend in 4 or more. I make sure to pick out movies that dd and I can watch together. I take her out at least once a week to do something special with just me. I take the boys out to places that I know B might have a tantrum so that she has something to do. I scoped out friends for her before she got here. I go out of my way to pick up the girl that lived next door to us in the old house to go to the waterpark with us so dd has a friend there. I barely have any time to myself, ever, because when I would usually take time to myself I spend it alone with her. I even get up early in the morning to have sex with my husband because she likes to stay up late. I bend over backwards to accommodate her and she is telling her dad that I am ignoring her.

Once I calmed down a little I confronted her very calmly. I told her that I saw the message and it hurt me very much to see that she was telling her dad that I was ignoring her when I had
been running on overtime for the past month and a half to do things especially to make her happy. I told her that she may not use my computer anymore and asked if she had anything she would like to say. She said no and I went outside to cry. Today sucks. At least ds2 is being pretty well behaved. And now I am off to make a special dinner that dd will eat that dh, ds2 and I will also eat instead of making a separate dinner for ds1, dd and the remaining 3 of us.

I'm glad it's today....

Because yesterday was a no good, fucked up day. The morning went well. Ds1 is doing a thing lately where he is trying to be as annoying as possible and he also fights with ds2 constantly but those are just minor annoyances. In the afternoon I even got the house cleaned up. Then dd went outside and stepped on a bee. She was crying and I am trying to take care of her. Ds1 is hovering over her saying "Check!" after every little thing I did. It might sound cute now but at the time it was really pissing me off. I ended up chasing him out and putting him in his room.

Dh came home and I headed off the the grocery store with my mega list in hand. As I get to the end of the store I ran into one of the moms I know from school. I am also friendly with her aunt but we haven't talked since school let out. She told me that her aunt's house burned down. I read about this story a few weeks ago but I had no idea it was my friend's house. She gave me her number and I called and talked to her on the drive home. My heart is just broken for her. They lost everything. Since it was the truck that exploded, the insurance from that is what is responsible for paying off the house. They cut a check for the remainder of the mortgage but the mortgage company wants to charge a huge prepayment penalty. On top of that, they found out their home owner's insurance did not cover contents so they will not be reimbursed for replacing anything in the house. Finally, the truck that blew up was her husband's business. He does have a new truck now but he was out of work until he could get it replaced. This lady is one of the nicest people you could ever meet. She doesn't deserve all of this. They do have a place to stay, clothes and her husband is back to work. Hopefully they are able to get a new home sometime soon. Thank goodness that she and her daughter were away at church camp at the time. They likely would have been injured in the fire if they had been at home. If you own your home, call your home owner's insurance company and make sure that you have coverage for contents!

After I got home and got the groceries put away I went back to my desk to work on my knitting a little. Only one of the boys was spinning around in my computer chair and I found all of it completely wrapped around the bottom of the chair. I was so upset over it that even dh was helping. Then the doorbell rang. Btw, I did untangle the knitting. One of the yarns broke but I did not lose any stitches.

At the door was my neighbor. They are older than us, probably around my parents age. A few months ago her mother came to live with her because she had terminal cancer. She came to tell us that her mother had died and asked if her family could park in front of our house. Dh answered the the door and told her she could park in the front and in the driveway. She left and he came back to the room where I was untangling my knitting to tell me. I immediately dropped my knitting, grabbed my keys and went outside. I went to my neighbor who was still outside. She is so completely devastated. I can't imagine what it is like to lose your mother. I told her that they can park anywhere they need to. I asked my other neighbor if I could park in his driveway because he does not use it. He offered to let them use his too so I am going to move it down to her house.

I also went to start dh's truck to move it and it is dead. I'm not sure what is going on there but he says he knows what is wrong. He doesn't work far from the house so he can have a co-worker pick him up if he needs to.

I made a big pasta salad and some cinnamon muffins for my neighbor and brought it over last night. I think I am also going to bring over a lemon cake tomorrow.

At the end of the day I was glad to go to bed and have that day over with. While nothing terrible happened to me I am greif stricken by what my friends and neighbors are having to go through. They have both suffered devastating losses. I wish to be a good friend and neighbor during this time to help them both through whatever they might need from me.

Being responsible is sucky.

My husband only gets paid once a month. We are also trying to be more budget conscious. In an attempt to do that I sat down today and figured out the bills for the month. Yuck. Then I did an inventory of the food we had on hand, a list of suppers that I can prepare for the month and a list of (hopefully) all of the food I will need to prepare those suppers, along with breakfasts, lunches and snacks. In the past few months I have gotten into the habit of running out for one or two things and spending like $40. I will have to go back to the store for things like milk and bread but if I buy enough food for everything else I can eliminate these quick trips 2 or 3 times a week.

Ds1's birthday is in one week, which he has reminded me of at least 20 times today. We are not doing very much. I will take him to the McDonalds with the playplace for lunch. It would not be my first choice but he really loves it and it is fairly inexpensive. I'll make a cake or cupcakes for us to have and sing happy birthday after dinner. I also have a couple of small gifts and am trying to resist the urge to buy more. School starts in a month and I am planning to have a party then so he can invite his friends.

Tomorrow dd and I are going to watch fireworks. I am debating if I should take her and maybe ds to the skating rink tonight. It costs $1 to get in. If I just go with her then we could skate together and she would not be bored. But ds1 likes to go too. Not sure. Summertime is so difficult because I feel like I need to do things to entertain the children constantly but I would really just be happy to stay home and knit. Plus that's cheaper. Until I start buying yarn at least.

Sorry for the absence. My parents were here for a week and a half and there wasn't much time or privacy for blogging. I am very grateful for my parents generosity but they are some seriously nosy people. They have no concept of boundaries. I won't say anything else out of respect for them raising me.

I have decided that I am going to make a separate blog to talk about what we are doing with ds1. I don't want people to not read me because all I am talking about is RDI and other therapies but I would also like a place to be able to do an in-depth documentation of his progression. I have not decided if it will be a public blog or not yet but I am leaning towards not. I would like it to be somewhere where I feel free to be completely honest about my feelings without worrying about getting flamed.

In knitting news I am working on the Back to School U Neck Vest for me. It is from the book Fitted Knits. I am using Harrisville Designs Flax and Wool Blend in Spice. It is worked from the waist up and I am almost finished with the ribbing. I am also making my mom a pair of Jaywalkers in Steinbach Woole Aktiv Effekt. I picked both yarns up at a yarn store I visited in Knoxville recently. Next up I am making socks for dd and I have to re-knit my Sockapalooza socks. The other socks that I had knit the cuffs of vere just too messed up and I had to completely frog them.

There are lots of other things going on around here, some good some bad. I hope to get back in the swing of things this week and hopefully be back to blogging regularly.

It is very hot in my house right now. About 2 weeks ago the central air was acting broken. We called the repairman, he came out and fixed it for $65. This morning we were going out for the day so I turned it up to 82 and left. When we got back I walked into a greenhouse. I checked the thermostat and it said 90. I went to check the unit outside. The fan was turning in the top, it was not when we called the guy last time. If you have a central air thing you can look at the bottom and see 2 pipes going in. One is covered in insulation. If you are using the central air it should be cold and sweaty. It was hot and dry. I turned off the ac, opened the windows and called dh and the ac guy. He just got here so hopefully he can fix it quickly and cheaply. Ugh.

ETA: Hooray, it's fixed and it only cost $32. He just charged us for the part since he was just here 2 weeks ago. Now I have to wait for it to cool down so I can clean up. My mommy is coming tomorrow!

Oh Jan!

I love this cute little dress pattern. So simple but so darling all at the same time. I have made this twice in a month's time. The first was a size 4 in tunic length, this is a size 2 in dress length. These pics are unblocked. I had to run to the post office to send some papers to my MIL so I sent this at the same time. The recipient is also a knitter so she can take care of the blocking. The specs:

Pattern: Jan by Wendy Bernard
Size: 2
Yarn: Popsical Blue (Turquoise) Cotton Ease
Needles: US 7 Knit Picks Options
Mods: I feel that this needs a ruffle instead of the garter stitch edging the pattern specified. I increased in every stitch, knit one round, did another increase round and then knit about 7 rounds before binding off 592 stitches! I also did single crochet around the armholes and neck instead of picking up the stitches knitting a round, then binding off as the pattern directed.

A few weeks ago I got a copy of Fitted Knits. It was a busy time so I didn't get to look through it like I wanted. Last night when I got into bed I read through the whole book. There were two patterns that I have a deep, burning desire to knit right this minute. The first is this U Neck Vest that you see pictured and being swatched for. The other is the Cozy V Neck Pullover with Deep Ribbing. I didn't have the yarn for the pullover and I also can't wear it now since it is about 5,000 degrees here. I do have enough yarn (I think) for this vest. I am using Harrisville Designs Flax and Wool blend. The color is Spice, which is perfect for the yarn. I am a bit disappointed with the yarn so far. The vest is worked from the waist up. I cast on the waist stitches and in 2 rounds the yarn pulled apart 3 times. I have knit 4 more rounds since then with no pulling apart so I am hoping that it was just a bad spot. I look forward to getting this knit up. Hopefully quickly because I need to resume on my abandoned Sockapalooza socks.

A little about me

I have been keeping a blog at Xanga for the past few years but I am fed up with the premium bullshit and the slow, almost nonexistent customer service. I'm going to leave my old blog up there and still check in for the people's blog I do read but for now on I will be posting here. You can go over there and check it out if you are interested at all.

First of all I am a stay at home mom and wife. I have 3 kids. My daughter is 11 lives with her father. We divorced when I was in the Navy and stationed on a ship. When I got out she was already in grade school and happy where she was. She comes to visit us on school breaks and we talk often. My eldest son will turn 6 in a month. He will be going to first grade next year. Last week he was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome and Oppositional Defiance Disorder. Now I have to begin to navigate the maze of therapists, school services and government agencies. I am still taking it all in right now. My youngest and last child will be 3 in August. He thinks he is a kitty kat. I've been married to my hub for 6 years now. We live in a small town in Southeastern Kentucky.

I'm also a knitter. I learned to knit when my youngest was born because I had to sit an nurse for hours and hours. I needed something to do with my hands. I have recently found that I really don't like big projects and my favorite thing to knit is socks. I can also crochet a little and sew enough to make a pair of curtains, though I would love to get better. I used to cross stitch years ago and am sure I still can, I just can't leave my thread laying around with the kids running around the house.

Another thing that I am trying to get into is meal planning and grocery budgeting. I used to coupon a lot, and still do sometimes, but it seems like most of the deals have disappeared in the last few years. I am very guilty of running out to the store for one of two things and coming out with $40 in groceries at least once a week, but often 2 or 3 times. Because of all of this I am spending way too much money on groceries. I would like to start planning a week of meals in advance and then work up to two weeks. I want to make a shopping list of all that I will need for the week, buy what I need and not go back. I also want to start buying everything that I can from Aldi, Sav A Lot and local farm stands and only go to Kroger for things that only they carry, like organic milk and cooking wine.

Oh, I hate this template but I don't know how to snazzy it up myself. If one of my more blogger savvy friends wants to help me figure it out I would love you forever.