It seems like everytime I sit down to write, something happens and then I end up writting a blog with the intro sounding like this “so, it’s been awhile”… so, ugh, here we go again! (damn)

UPDATES:

1. I GOT THE JOB!!! So exciting, but I’m working about 50-60 hours a week leaving everything else in my life up in the air and in disaray.  (they are telling me that this is what salary is about)
2. KIDS: hey, somehow they all managed to finish school; even with mom out of town for trainings.  Catie is excited about her new school and is even talking about playing soccer this year.  Abbi is not understanding why she isn’t going to school; and Joe, well; he’s rarely around (still being an avoidable teenager)
3. LIFE IN GENERAL: well, like I said, it’s been crazy hectic.  There’s so much going on at work, with restructuring and inspections looming… I feel like I can’t breathe.  Nice thing about it tho, I get Fridays and saturdays off… but on those days I just veg.  I feel like I’m just running through life and missing out on the important things right now, but I’m certain that I will be able to slow down soon enough.  We are finally able to be in a posistion to save money and pay all of our bills. It’s weird, but I do like it.  Atleast in that area, I finally feel like I can breathe.  Since I started the new job I’ve lost about 5 pounds, from walking… added bonus of working in an outdoor adventure program… and gained the most amazing calf muscles!  We went to Lake Anna for the 4th of July and I really enjoyed my time off… but I couldn’t leave work behind me… I need to learn to seperate the 2.  The kids went out on the boat and went tubing for the first time; it was exciting but scary.  When Catie got flipped of the tube, the wonderful ex-lifegaurd hubby decided to dive in to save her and got attacked by a fish.  He has the bruises to prove it…. so we ended up rescuing him and Catie.  I haven’t had time to think about knitting since I started the new job… so everything has been on hold.  But I made a promise to my swap partner to send it out on the 15th… so I should go get that done.

Well, I hope everyone else is doing well…. I must go knit until my fingers bleed.

ok, so I haven’t written in awhile; and it’s not because I haven’t had anything to say… I’ve actually been very busy.  So here’s a short re-cap of what’s been going on (on and off the needles):

1. Work- one word : UGH! I love helping people, but it’s hard to help resistant people, I’ve realized that quickly. 
2. ABBI- yes, my daughter.  She graduated from preschool yesterday… it was so cute.  They handed her her diploma and she didn’t know what to do with it, so this is what she did:

yes, she rolled up her diploma and used it as a spy glass… I just hope when she graduates from High School she doesn’t do the same thing.
3. JOE- this would be my son, and oh my gosh… he’s driving me crazy.  This impending doom that is being a teenager is upon us, and I’m going nuts!  He was recommended to take an AP Math class next year in 7th grade, signed up to play football, went to DC on a field trip and got kicked out of orchestra, all in one week.  If this is what being the mom of a teenager is, let me off this ride now!  He’s been practicing football everyday, leaving little time for his eagle scout project (but he is working on his proposal… actually, I’m helping him write it… thank god for a mom who knows a thing or two about proposals) and anything else.  He’s so certain that he’s going to be an NFL player, I don’t have the heart to tell him he’s just not that athletic.  Poor kid.  He trips over his own feet.
4. Catie- well, she had her placement meeting for school today (told you I’ve been busy) and is going to be in an ES classroom at Fairfield Middle School next year, unless we move (whole other story).  She’s doing ok, but a bit more defiant than usual and way more drama queen than ever.  I have come to terms that this is life with a bipolar child.
5. Speaking of moving…. yeah, we may be moving to Harrisburg (camp hill area more likely) depending on how the job search goes.  I have interviewed (and am at the top of a list of candidates) for a job at VisionQuest and if I get it, we won’t be moving… if I don’t get it, the move is inevitable.  Our landlord is raising our rent and we can’t afford to stay.  It sucks, I don’t want to move, my family is here, and it’s the house we brought Abbi home to. 
6. Job: I got lost in Harrisburg yesterday enroute to a job interview and I had to call and reschedule with them.  I was on Cameron St and thought I was able to get to State St. from there, but with the Memorial bridge issues, I couldn’t find my way.  I was afraid to stop and get out of my car… there were moments when I thought for sure I was going to end up in a ditch somewhere.  The whole time, I was on the phone with my husband and he kept saying “it should be right there… ” in retrospect, not such a great idea calling him for direction… I should have called Angela, she would’ve been able to save me.
7. The war of tackiness (AKA: my bagalicious bag swap adventure): I gave my sister explict instructions to pick up a Hershey Kiss hat at Hershey Park yesterday, and unfortunately, they have stopped selling them.  So that’s one less item of tacky to put in the bag.  Now I have to figure out a plan B.  Altho, this weekend is the Memorial Day parade and I am going to get that picture of the bag with a re-enactor and Shannon asked for a picture of the bag with a big burly biker… so, that will be on my plate on Monday.

    
8. Painting!- I have been busy picking out paint colors for our living room and hallway.  This weekend I will be painting them Eggshell Blue.  I’m excited to finally get this project done, as we started it about a year ago and haven’t had time to get it done. 
9. Knitting… sigh, I haven’t been able to sit still long enough to knit a thing lately.  I think my mojo is hiding from me. “mojo, mojo… here mojo”.  So, I’m planning on finishing some spring cleaning today and being able to knit some of the bag.  However, I finally found Colonial Yarn Shop in Shiremanstown yesterday (of all people, my husband knew where it was!) but was unable to go in.  I need to get to Shiremanstown more often.
10. Farmers Market!~ My darling husband took us all to the farmers market in Lemoyne this past weekend.  We found this great candy company that had gummy anythings.  Abbi got penguins and Sharks.  They made it 2 days before getting devoured here!  Robb got a half pound of rootbeer barrels and I bought garlic.  Yeah and oil for baking. On the way home, Catie got a gummy penguin that was (as Joe put it)in an oil spill… it was the only one that looked like this!

So, that’s where I’ve been and what I’ve been up to.  It’s been hectic and crazy, but it’s been fun.  I have been able to spend time with my dear friend Melissa and her hubby Dan.  Mel and I have incorporated Wednesday nite cocktails on my patio (the weather was uncooperative this week tho) and I am so enjoying having “girl time”.

 Melissa and I have a bit too much fun together, but it’s so great having such an awesome friend to help keep you grounded.
I’ve also been talking to some people on Ravelry and other places about hosting a World Wide Knit in Public Event here in Gettysburg, possibly on the battlefield.  So that we could get some great pics like these:

                    

 I’m trying to see if there is enough interest before commiting a time and place.  I don’t want to be the only knitter there! That would suck…

 

So it’s Friday (yea!), and I have to go to work… ugh.  I got up this morning, fought with my lovely daughter to get her on the bus and then proceeded to the bathroom to shower.  As I’m enjoying the peace & quiet that is my house (when the older 2 are gone to school and the youngest is still sleeping) the phone starts ringing… damn.  It’s the school.  I answer the phone and hear my son “uh, mommy, can you write a note and bring it in so that I can go on the field trip to D.C. ?” —- are you kidding me?!  This is not at all unusual for him, I think if we stapled items he needs to remember on him, he’d still forget about them.  I’m almost half tempted to NOT write the note and punish him that way.  Responsibility is not real big with him.  It’s so very irritating.
It’s raining… which means my day will consist of fighting with a 4 year old child with Autism to let me in his room to work with him, and we can’t go outside and play.  I really don’t want to do this today.  It must be the week for hating your job.
What I don’t hate is my knitting.  It makes me smile… the fact that tomorrow is Saturday makes me smile too (there was a promise of yarn shop shopping from my hubby this weekend).  I took a break from working on the bag for the Q2 swap yesterday to work on a hat for my hubby that I started in Febuary when he put a hole in the hat I made for him (it was an Alpaca and wool double knit and my first hat, so I learned from my mistakes).  I love the new hat.  It has no frills, nothing real fancy, just a hat.  A simple ribbed hat, in Cascade 220 (charcoal).  I also searched the internet for a great yarn shop that sells Malabrigo for cheap (I’m so addicted to this yarn) or a nice lace yarn for cheap so that I can actually start on the Whisper Shawl.  Now, if I can just figure out what a cabled cast on is, I’ll be good to go.  Well, the youngest is up and I need to get going…. hurry up Saturday….

Another beautiful day, blue sky, wonderful weather… and that stupid statue of General Lee lurking in the distance calling to me to hang my knitting off of him. 

How does one scale a statue that large? Especially with all those nosey tourists hanging around?  Ideas welcome.  I think in the meantime that I will continue to search for locations to take pictures at, but all of them are weather dependent of course.  I wonder if one could consider Tommy’s Pizza to be a local landmark… it’s the one thing (other than UTZ potato chips) that I missed when I moved away.  Tragically, they changed their sauce formula and stopped making their own bread, so it’s just not the same now. 
I would love to find a reenactor to have my knitting photographed with, that would so rock.  I suppose I should get a real camera first.  As much as I <3 technology, my  cell phone is just not doing the pictures any justice.  I think I’ll map out some possible locations, think of it as my own knitter’s guide to Gettysburg…….. oh, I smell a best seller!

The evil sock is still taunting me from it’s veiled shroud that is my yarn chest.  I opened it the other nite to retrieve some yarn for Shannon’s bag, and it was just sitting there… wishing to be slain.  Stupid sock.  It was screaming at me right next to the lace for the whisper shawl I’ve been intending to make for several months now (and haven’t).  The lace was sobbing “why won’t you knit me? I’m so beautiful!”… needless to say with all the screaming and sobbing that was going on in there, I slammed the chest shut and walked away.  There are too many UFOs in that chest, I think I’m going to have to put them into a seperate container so that I can open my yarn chest without getting yelled at.  Ugh, I suppose that would be considered work tho… and I don’t need to exert myself doing that.
I heard a buzzing rumor from a dear friend that Reenie (from Material Whirled) is in town this week. (waves, HI REENIE!) Alas, work seems to be interfering with me being able to go see her at Uncommon Threads (sobb).  Stupid job, always interfering with something great.  What I need to do is get some moola so that I can purchase some of her wonderful yarn…. oh, to dream of bathing in lucious yarn.
I am still working off my punishment from the yarn gods… and I’m certain I don’t want to cross them again.  But a little bit of scavengering on Ravelry can’t be wrong, right?!

So, as person who holds no personal value for the knitting pattern (atleast when it comes to bag knitting), I have embarked on a journey of intarsia (go ahead, laugh, you know you want to).  I mean, how hard can it be, right?  It’s just a few extra balls of yarn… and some different colors… no biggie. HA HA HA HA HA!!! What was I thinking?!  I started the turtle pattern the other evening and it looked good… now as I’m progressing onward… I’m not so sure.  I know I have a book around here somewhere that shows me how to do this right, in the meantime, I’m just floundering through, hoping for the best… we’ll see where that gets me.  I sat down last nite to figure out if the colors were even going to work for me, by scrounging up all my kid’s crayons and colored markers (in the exact color of each yarn) and coloring in  the intarsia graph pattern… it looks good.  Oh lord help us all… I hope this works out!
I was reminded today that it’s been almost 2 months since I was in a yarn shop (not Michaels or A.C. Moore, a bonefide yarn shop).  So I also decided that it is time I sit down and have a chat with the yarn gods and confess my sins…. here goes: “oh gods of yarn and all that is knitting, it has been almost 2 months since my last yarn shop visit.  I have been knitting without a pattern (for the most part), not checking for gauge, I have numerous UFOs in my yarn chest, and have fallen victim to second sock syndrome.  I unwittingly left a ball of Malabrigo in my dogs reach and he played with it until it became a mangled mess…. that I have yet to fix.  Is there any chance that I can be forgiven?!”  I hear them answering now “moss stitch, that is your punishment…. now go… 40 rows!”

Man they’re harsh!

Amazingly, I haven’t much to say.  Things around here have gotten very, well crazy, loud and out of hand.  I am in the process of preparing for the yard sale on Saturday; cleaned out the shed last night (it hadn’t been done since we moved in almost 4 years ago) and it was great to regain some type of order in this place.  But at the same time, it was a difficult evening for my daughter.  She got caught in a lie, and confrontation with a bipoloar child is never fun… then again, neither is holding ground while you tell her no.  She started screaming and biting herself in the meantime, my son took off.  Once I finally got Catie calmed down (she went to sleep), I went to find Joe, and he was no where to be found.  In true Joe fashion, he didn’t have his cell phone on and wasn’t anywhere he normally is.  Around 5:30 last night, he came sauntering through the front door. 
I guess I’m just not having the best few days.

My knitting has not suffered tho.  The purse is coming along great and look better than I could’ve imagined it would.  I started the turtle chart last nite and I’m even impressed with how well it’s turning out.  Who would’ve thought that the girl with no creative ability could knit this well? 
Yesterday on Noggin, my daughter was watching Maggie and the Ferocious Beast and they were knitting!  It was so funny because Hamilton (the pig) told Maggie he dropped a stich, and Maggie grabbed his knitting and fixed it for him.  I sat here laughing about a cartoon pig and a girl who were knitting in “Nowhere Land”. 
Well, things aren’t going to get themselves ready for the yardsale…

One day, an average girl decided that she was going to take her knitting with her to pass the time between her daughter being dropped off at preschool and the time she needed to go to work.  With nothing better to do than soak up the wonder of her home town, our heroine (we’ll call her KG) set out to find the perfect spot to complete some early morning knitting where she could enjoy nature.  Spot found, under a wonderfully large maple tree near a wonderful rock formation KG sat to knit and was unaware of a crowd that was gathering behind her.  Knit one, purl one, knit one, purl one, kni…. what the hell was that?  A loud noise had startled KG and she looked up from her knitting to see a group of men standing directly to her left.  “Hello.” KG said to the men, all the while continuing her knitting, a deadline is a deadline you know… Shannon’s bag isn’t going to knit itself.  “Exactly why are you sitting here, doing that?” burly man one said to KG; snarling through his over grown neck beard.
“Knitting? It helps me center, and I enjoy knitting.  Why?”
“You shouldn’t be out here, knitting is something that should only be done at home, by pregnant women and old people”
“Oh, I see.  Well than perhaps there’s something you need to know… knitting isn’t only for old people and I don’t have to knit at home if I don’t want to.  I can knit anywhere I want.  I’m not hindering you from doing whatever it is you and your group is trying to do here, so I’m going to sit and knit, feel free to continue being an ass if you want.”
snorts and snarls could be heard along with rustling feet and what almost sounded like a group of bison retreating.  KG looked up to notice that the group of men were gone. “Success” KG thought; “back to knitting”.  Score one for the home team!

Speaking of home team….. Someone please wake me when the NBA playoffs are over.  My life is being run by them and I can’t seem to walk away from the current series of Celtics v. Cavaliers.  I feel so torn between the two that I can’t sit in my own living room with my husband and watch this once loved-by-both-of-us sport.  He’s a HUGE Celtics fan, has been for years… and while I don’t dislike the Celtics (I’ll cheer them on and don’t mind at all watching Big Baby, Garnet, and Pierce play) I am still a Cavs fan at heart.  They are, after all, the NBA team that made me love basketball.  I got to see James play in his rookie year in Cleveland and I was hooked…. the thrill of being in a crowd united by a common goal, the smell of the arena… it got under my skin.  So, last nite, while I attempted to knit Shannon’s bag, we watched the game… Shannon, if you’re reading this and you notice some mistakes in your bag, this is the reason.  Once my husband started yelling at the TV (and his Celtics) I realized that I needed to not be in the same room as him.  So, I packed up my knitting and went to bed.  I just couldn’t stand to listen to him anymore.  Sadly, the Cavs lost game 1 to the Celtics last night… so we’re on to game 2 which will undoubtedly be yet another night of yelling in the house and knitting mistakes.  I guess you really can’t win them all, can you?

It seems to be tradition in this family that when our children have a birthday, and we get them a cake, something is always misspelled.  In September my oldest fell victim to this when the local Dairy Queen spelled his name “Jossepph” (don’t ask me how they can misspell the name Joseph, but they did) and in March, the local grocery store misspelled the word “birthday” on my husband’s cake (burthday)… so it only seemed logical that Abbi’s birthday would be no exception to this rule.  My mother (in her usual fashion) placed the order for Abbi’s ice cream cake with the local Dairy Queen on Thursday, letting my niece pick out a beautiful pink Disney Princess cake and giving them the exact words for the cake “Happy Birthday Abbi” (now who could screw this up, right?).  Much to our surprise and amazement when they showed up with the cake on Saturday for Abbi’s party, my niece declared “Aunt Kelli! They did it again! Look!” I began examining the cake to find the new misspelled word… hmmmmmmmmmmmm, Abbi was spelled right, birthday was spelled right… you can’t tell me they misspelled….. oh my god, they did! And there it was, in all it’s glory eternally etched in perfect computer aided laser print out the word “happy” spelled HAPPP. Hmmmmmmm, happp? I’ve never laughed so hard in my entire life… and it was a good thing I got to laugh about something, b/c as is her normal fashion to screw up my life, my mother in law showed up an hour and a half late, and the rest of us were stuck waiting on her.  Granted she had to work, but when you call someone and say “I’ll be there at 4pm” you DAMN well better be there at 4pm.  My husband called her when she was 10 minutes late and she said “we’re almost there”, so how the heck between almost there and there do you end up still being another hour and twenty minutes late?  When they all finally rolled in, there were no apologies to everyone else who was waiting on them, just a “here’s the gifts, where’s the food?”.  My sister had to work that day too, and she managed to get here before them!  There are things that irritate me, but telling someone you’re going to be somewhere for a party at a specific time and then not showing up for another hour and thirty minutes is ridiculous!  I was very happy when my best friend Melissa showed up (had she not shown up, I may have very well strangled my mother in law and sister in law bare handed with a smile on my face)… she had gone to her niece’s birthday party and I didn’t think she was going to make it to Abbi’s (she politely said she didn’t think she’d make it, but she’d try)… I don’t think I’ve ever been so glad to see someone in my entire life!  It only took us about 10 minutes to break out the rum and start the drinking.  We drank until the bottle was gone (it was a new bottle) and the sun had set and my mother in law had left (thank god for small miracles!).  I don’t drink that often, but man, when my mother in law is around, that women drives me batty!  And the combination of her AND my mother in the same area for any amount of time is like being in a cage with wild lions, and I’m the meat!  They each find someway to make me feel as if I’m not being a good enough mom… like somehow everything I do isn’t even close to being as great as they are/were.  They’re both irritating like flies… and I can’t smack them (well, I could, but it wouldn’t be pretty).  Thank god for good rum, good friends and hot coffee on Monday mornings to remind me why I exist on this planet anyways.

So, I’m watching the news last night and I see this report about how the illustrious president, George W. Bush, is asking Congress to approve sending 770 million dollars overseas to assist with the “global food crisis”; and I about choked.  WTF?!  We can afford to send 770 MILLION DOLLARS to other countries to help them with the food problem, but we can’t help our own people with the food crisis?!  So, maybe he doesn’t see what we have as a food crisis… you know, Milk is now almost $4.00 a gallon, eggs are almost 2 dollars a dozen and don’t get me started on gas prices.  It’s sad that at the end of the week, after I get paid and attempt to pay my bills, I have to choose what is more important for the family, milk or school lunches this week?  Eggs, or putting gas in the car?!  Is he THAT freaking blind that he can’t see that we are swimming in a HUGE problem of our own?!  And those “stimulus” checks, meant to “boost” the economy… Hey George, they’re not even a drop in the bucket for the working class of this country!  You want to help out?! Do something about the fact that there are working people who are starving b/c they don’t have enough money to put groceries on the table because they are filling their cars up with gas to get to work to keep a house over their heads!  Fix the problems that are broken HERE before you decide to send millions of dollars to other countries that aren’t going to help us when we need it.  I realize that I may sound selfish, but the thing is that we’ve spent so many years assisting other countries that have never really helped us when we needed it.  You want to send food to other countries, find a resource that they have that we need and swap it with them… don’t just hand it over and say “ok, we feel warm and fuzzy now, but our people are having issues”.  This has been bugging me ever since I saw this at 11pm last nite and I had a hard time sleeping because my mind wouldn’t let it go.  I’m sure everyone has their problems, but I think that we need to help the people of our country before we set out on a humanitarian mission to save the freaking world… hasn’t it gotten us into enough trouble?  I’m not saying that ANY of the candidates for the upcoming presidency could do any better, but maybe they need to step up and listen to the people who help this country run on a daily basis, so they don’t screw it up any worse.

I am coming off my soapbox now… return to your normal banter!

Ok, so my Q2 bag swap partner has a “thing” for turtles (I will not say this is odd b/c I have a slight obsession with frogs, so much that I have 2 tattooed on my body… yeah, I’m a freak)… so after hours of frantic searching, I finally found an awesome turtle chart on Ravelry.  I’m going to incorporate it into her bag, hopefully she’ll like it and hopefully it will turn out right, seeing how I’ve never followed a chart before (how hard can it possibly be?). 

I also found the cutest turtle toy pattern on knitty.com and I’m planning on making her a turtle too.  It’s name is sheldon (how original) and is hands down the cutest darn turtle I’ve ever seen; well, next to Franklin (who I’m currently watching right now due to my youngest’s obsession with Noggin). 
The garden is well under way.  Robb planted peas last nite and some other things and the seeds that we started inside are currently on our porch, getting some sun (well, what’s showing of the sun).  We’re hoping the weather will cooperate and let us get the tomato plants in tomorrow evening along with all the pepper plants and potatoes that still need to get planted.  Unfortunately, the weather guy is calling for showers this evening and tomorrow evening.

I’m still not feeling 100%, but it’s getting better to deal with; for the most part.  I went in search of some great yarn out of my yarn chest this morning, and now the living room is a disaster area again!  Didn’t find the yarn that I was looking for… not sure what I did with it.  I’m hoping to decrease the stash by making the bag and turtle from stashed items… besides, if I decrease the stash, that means that I can buy new yarn (and that makes me happy). 

I have a list of a million things that I need to get done before tomorrow afternoon, along with picking my son up from camp at noon and it will be even more difficult to accomplish because I will have all 3 kids with me.  Yeah, who ever thought up teacher in service days was evil, I’m sure of that!
The crazy dog is trying to eat my curtains, so I suppose I must go and detach him from the curtains…stupid dog.