she's a happy girl

Here's the Madster, not always the happiest camper when she wakes in the morning. This morning I gave her a sample card of Vickie Howell's new yarn signed by the Knitty Gritty star herself (or "that knit chick" as G refers to her). You would've thought I'd handed Mad the moon. She fairly squealed w/ delight when I explained what it was. Said she'd keep it forever & is planning to use it as a bookmark. This snap isn't even the initial bigger than the cheshire cat's grin she had with the accompanying squeal.

So, yeah, I did go to the book signing at Showers of Flowers in Lakewood. Vickie's just as interesting a personality in person as she is on the tube -probably more so in person b/c it's more relaxed a setting & she's got more time than the usual 20 minutes on screen. Neat lady, glad I went :)

Her new yarn line made by Southwest Trading Company has 3 different fiber blends. It's "Rock" which is a wool/hemp/soysilk blend. The colors are named after rock stars, of course. "Love" is a bamboo/silk blend. Famous movie couples's names are used for the colors. "Craft" is a milk fiber/organic cotton blend. The names of the colors come from people who have influenced Vickie in her crafting life. I really really like the feel of the "Love" & would have bought some but I don't have a project for it just now. Put that on my never shrinking, always growing "things to do knit" list.

She'll be at the Lambshoppe in Denver tonight.

After the book signing, my friend Amber & I went to a new little winebar & bistro in The Highlands called "Tastes". I had a glass of Riesling & a few "tappas". Blue d'auvergne cheese w/ figs & bread & drizzled honey; lox, cream cheese, capers & super thin bread sticks; citrus stuffed green olives. All yummy. I may have to make that a date night event in the near future. Good people. Good food. Unique wines & beers & spirits. Check it out for yourself!

last week's art project

two FO's

I finished these two pair of wristwarmers a while ago but never posted the pics. They're comfy & pretty & all of the little girls want a pair too. The blue one's I made for Snick for xmas, size S. They're too small for me to put on, hence the still photo. They fit her just fine, though, petite thing that she is. Maybe I can get a modeled photo from her (hint hint). The reddish ones are mine, sz M. I've found that it is not an easy task to take a one handed picture of one's own hand & have it look as nice photographed as it does in person. The wool is Cascade 220. I hadn't worked w/ this yarn b4 & it was purdy nice. I have one more pair OTN & another planned with yarn at the ready. The pattern is Voodoo from Knitty.com. It was fast, easy & fun (would go faster if I could actually sit down for longer than 10 minutes stretches, if you know what I mean :P)

flashback of the week

I was looking for some old Johnny Cash vids b/c I had this memory of my brother sitting in his little rocking chair in front of the stereo -it was the credenza kind from back in the day- and listening over & over & over to my dad's LPs. Ben was about 3 or 4. Get this, he grows up & gets to meet Johnny Cash & June Carter-Cash, not once but a couple times for magazine article interviews. Who would ever think? Childhood fantasy becomes reality kind of thing...what a fortunate guy my brother has been.

I LOVE this version of Hurt but had never seen the vid. I hope that when I'm old I can 1) have spent my life with my true love 2) be so flexible that I can listen to good music from any genre & be able to find beauty & insight 3) continue to be an innovator instead of a follower

more posing & royal decorations & a cake (not mine!)

"ooooo a purse!!" 'cuz you know, a purse is her favorite accessory next to headbands

princess Fiona

So Fi got this throne for her birthday. The attending princesses all oo'd & aw'd over it, each taking a turn sitting in it. With absolutely no prompting, Fi started doing this "strike a pose" every time I snapped the camera. It was hilarious! And cute!

the most patient cat in the world

I thought she was chill b/c she put up with alot of rough handling from the girls...you know, the picking up in awkward positions at any given moment, without warning -be it from a deep sleep or walking by minding her own business. This tops the cake. And now you too can witness why I think she is the most chill of all cool cats. What other feline would put up with the humiliation of wearing a hairtie around her ears & being used for a doll chair? And she just laid there, & fell asleep. Not even an ear twitch out of her.

Then I remembered Snick dressing one of my parents' cats up in doll clothes & making him sit in a doll high chair. Which cat was that? Was that my cat Podraig? I can't remember. I have a photo somewhere that is distinct in my memory; I'll have to dig it up & post it.

grumbly in my tumbly

Ash Wednesday. So I find out in my internet research -trying to find lenten activities for the girls- that not only is it an official No Meat day, it's also a day of fasting. You know, it's been a long long time since I actually chose to forego food. You may remember back in the day when I was the cafeteria's "ethiopian poster child" as named by my friend & classmate Lisa Steele. I saw a picture of me from '96 & even then I looked drug thin. Ew. And get this, in my 20's I actually contemplated having some liposuction done. OMG! What would they have had to lipo??? Talk about distorted body image.

These days I'm looking healthy, to be sure, albeit a few baby pounds more than I'd like to be. And then there's this thing today. How in the world did I ever get to be one of those teenage girls who doesn't eat? It's only 10am & I feel like I'm starving!!! And I have the whole rest of the day to go until dinner!

I was listening to this episode on BBC Women's Hour about pro-anorexia websites (I'm sure my parents are quite thankful that I didn't have that as encouragement.) It got me to thinking about when exactly did I get over the whole eating disorder phase? I would have to say that it was from hanging out with G who has no problems eating -none whatsoever. So I ended up eating like him; big portions, junk food -the man has a serious sweet tooth- eating at night, the whole nine yards. It is really no mystery why I haven't been able to get back into my pre-pregnancy clothes. I don't ever want to get to be that high school skinny again. But it would be heavenly to get back into the pre-Fiona healthy shape that I was. Back when, much to Nikki & Maddie's chagrin, we didn't have a lot of junk food nor soda in the house. But how to convince a manly man with a bottomless appetite that we would all benefit from such a pantry? Then again, junk food tastes good. Especially right now it would taste good. Real good. Lots of it too. I'm salivating as I type. Must. stop. thinking. of. food. I've even turned into an emotional eater as of late. And one of those mindless munchers. When I'm hungry I can just stand in the kitchen & eat whatever looks good as I'm rummaging through the fridge. I think I'll stay out of the kitchen until dinnertime. Then again, I do have to feed the youngsters. ARGH. I've also morphed into one of those mom's who eat off their kids' plates during & after dinner.

Yikes. Seeing it all out here in writing is quite the eye opener. So does this count as a lent confession. Looks alot like gluttony to me. Well add that to the ever growing list of reasons I won't be a saint anytime soon (not to mention that I'm not dead). (The thought that Maddie considers ME as saint material still blows me away).

Here's a not food thought: I'm getting a new dishwasher today! Yeah! It's my "Valentine's present". Luckily I'm fairly practical & wasn't too very put off by the idea of an household appliance as a gift.

new flashback

oxymoron?

old vid, "new" music School House Rock, "Three Is a Magic Number" -Blind Melon version...good memories with both

oh, great

So now I feel like I have to post an addendum to the JT comment. So I've been wanting to put the song on my site for a few weeks, but videocure didn't have a code available for "What Goes Around...", I imagine b/c there was, as yet, no video. When I did a general google a couple days ago, I found the UTube code. Yay! Right. I was excited until last night when I watched this week's Grey's on dvr & caught the last 15 seconds of Ugly Betty. Lo & behold, I hear MY favorite song in the closing scene. It hit me that just b/c I don't listen to the radio & I have no idea what exactly is "popular" now, doesn't mean that I'm the only person who really likes this song. Grrrrr.

It's almost like the day when skinny jeans are sold at Kmart it means EVERYONE has a pair. You know, the tail end of the bell curve. Alright, so it's probably not THAT bad, not THAT popular yet. Or is it? I honestly have no idea. I do know, however, that I like EVERY song on that CD. How is that possible? It's, like, pop music or something. Or is it R&B? Or Disco? Or what? I don't know how to classify it. It does remind me a bit of Michael Jackson when he was really talented & popular in the 80's -circa Off The Wall. Or not. I can't put my finger on it. It's a little funk, a little disco, a little pop. It's all danceable & sing-along-able. You know, the kind of CD that you just can't sit still while you're listening to it; you have to dance. Or maybe you don't know. Maybe that's just me. Whatever.

I can't believe that I'm actually admitting that I like Justin Timberlake. How is this possible? It's unfathomable. It must be good. 'nuf said.

p.s. speaking of Grey's, why can't they have a really good, happy show once in a great while. I'm not asking for weekly belly laughs or even weekly feel-good episodes. Just once in a while. Granted, it is a "drama". So it's got to have that serious element. But sheesh, does it have to be a weekly weep fest? I mean, seriously folks. Week after week after week after week of tears. Not just a little sniffle -tears. But all out sad sad sad must cry b/c it's so freaking dramatic -tears. I do remember a few episodes that were good & humorous & entertaining. What happened to those writers? I don't have to cry to get my money's worth. Really, I don't. I get enough drama in my own 4 daughter household on a daily basis. And if it's not their tears, it's mine. And let's be honest, I'd rather laugh than cry b/c if I don't laugh, I will cry. So how 'bout it? After this "devastating finale" to the 3 part episode, lets have some merriment on Grey's. Just a little. Please?

button button, who's got the button?

Last summer I inherited my mom's button stash. Sifting through them brought back many childhood memories. Yes, there are some buttons that old. I was quite happy to have that tin in my possession. Granted, it's not the tin that I remember from my childhood. That would have been icing.

So now my kids get to play with the buttons. I had them stringing buttons last week. A few months ago we made those little button on a string "toys" that my sibs & I used to play with back in the day b4 there were 10 different kid dedicated t.v. channels and pc's were still the stuff of geek fantasies. Lib & Fi enjoyed them just as much as Ben, Sue, & I had done. So yesterday I was crafting a VDay card & Fi was bored while she waited for Lib to get off the "compoooooota". I'd been wanting to separate out the different colors of buttons & put Fi to work. She was content for a 1/2 hour, at least.

the city expo

Orlando. all work done by an actual 3rd grader -except for the typing, which she sat beside me & dictated while I typed; otherwise it would've taken an additional week to complete. Oh, & talked her through how to measure an actual mickey mouse ears hat & then how to figure the ratio to draw it larger on her board -she did the math & the drawing. I guess I did help print out pictures, but only with her sitting here helping me to look for them & her deciding which pictures she wanted to use. I did NOT mount her pics on foam core squares nor did I cut out the pics for her. I did no actual art work for her.

I wish I had taken my camera to the expo so that I could show you some of the projects that could not possibly have been done soley by a 3rd grader with minimal help from an adult. It was like walking into an exhibition of work done by adults, I kid you not. I mean, there were some like Maddie's that were for sure the work of a 3rd grader.

It was not required (or even mentioned in the specs) that the project be mounted on a cardboard display. Mad agonized the night b4 whether or not she should have one for her project..."what if I'm the only one with a cardboard display?" "what if I'm the only one without a cardboard display". She decided to go ahead & mount hers. When we arrived at school she saw a few kids walking in with 3D visual displays & no cardboard displays. I could see in her face & hear in her voice that she was concerned that her project would be "judged" as inferior. I told her that she did the best that she could & that she chose to do her project how she felt was best for her & that she needed to walk in there & be proud of all her hard work.

I'm really glad she did have the cardboard display b/c more kids than not had them & the ones without really were deemed "inferior". I've been told that one child was told in not so many words by a teacher. And thankfully I happened to pick up a "pretty" purple folder for Mad to hand in her report to her teacher. Another child was chided for merely stapling his report to his visual display. God forbid. Well, no one could leaf through the report while viewing his visual display. Oh, & one of the comments on Mad's grading sheet actually said "pretty cover". ?!?!?!?!? What if she had just handed it in stapled? I suppose it would have been sub-par work? In 3rd grade! I only bought it b/c she had been pretending that she was in college while she worked on the project & she could be "like Nikki" & hand in her report like a college kid would do; how the report was to be presented to the teacher was not mentioned in the specs either, just that it had to be handed in separately from the visual display.

Then there's the issue that it was supposed take place in the classrooms, you know, each child @ his desk with his city? Apparantly this was changed a couple nights b4 to the cafeteria. Three 3rd grades -say, 75 kids or so- in this little caf space AND all of their parents & small sibs AND students from other grades all milling around. I had a heck of a time moving around (round tables, 4 projects to a table). My little ones were stressed out b/c it was so crowded; right, they only stand as tall as everyone's legs & there was no actual room to move. I honestly wondered if it exceeded the maximum capacity for the space. I did momentarily wonder what would happen if some disaster struck. It was another school event dominated by chaos. Kids running around -well, not running, b/c there was no room, but definitely limited adult supervision. Grrrr. It was nigh impossible to actually see all of the projects, which was a bummer b/c it could have actually been an informative, pleasant experience.

At least we learned alot about Orlando!








(btw, it was my idea to include a bibliography; it wasn't required. I don't think it's too early for a 3rd grader to learn how to give credit to the original information for her report -which is far more important, don't you think, than the outward appearance of the report?)

(the US map fell off the top right corner of the display. She had maps from distant -where in the US is Orlando- to up close -downtown Orlando.)

just when I thought it was safe to step out the door

old man winter says "not quite yet". What a tease the past couple days have been. In fact, yesterday I went to pick up the Madster at the bus stop & it was a mid 50s pleasant. When left I for work an hour later -no jacket on, right?- the temp had dropped at least 15 degrees & it was overcast. Foolish me for believing that Spring had arrived. This season is just all about the cold. Brrrrrr.

Have I mentioned that Fi is completely potty trained? Not one accident in about a month. I've been holding my breath b/c, you know, it's almost inevitable that there be at least one accident. I guess I can exhale now. One down, one more to go. Lib has absolutely no interest in the quest for "big girl" status, so I may be waiting a while to take diapers completely off the budget.

Madster got a 4 out of 4 on her city expo project. She was so stressed out she nearly made herself sick the last couple days b4 it was due. It's 3rd grade for cryin' out loud. And it was worth a whopping 4 points. Well, I guess it would break down to a 3 being a "B", etc etc. Oh, but we have this new grading system in Denver now. We no longer have letter grade, but a 4 point system.

Some numbskull thinks it's easier for parent & kids to understand. Really? Is it really necessary to spend our already limited education budget on a district wide grading system overhaul? The report card is friggin' 4 pages long. FOUR FRIGGIN' PAGES. IN 3rd GRADE!!!!! I mean, c'mon now. Do you really think the teacher with 24 kids in her charge has time to accurately assess each & every one of those student on a list of 100 items?!?!?! And then to break it down to a FOUR point system. In my eyes, it's the same as a letter grade. Look, is it really that more difficult to understand A B C D than it is 4 3 2 1???? WTF. If I truly wanted to know EXACTLY how my kid's doing in school, shouldn't the grading system be broken down into actual percentage points? You know, out of 100 points Mad scored 100 on her city expo? If the project has 7 or 8 items to be covered & a child misses just one of those, does that bring the grade down at all? Or when exactly does it become worth 3 points versus 4? I suppose if the number of items is divisible by 4, then it works out; but then isn't it worth the same effort if the child covers only 7 items instead of 8? And does that cheapen my own child's effort b/c she could have gotten the same grade had she done less work?

So there's my rant for the day.

Oh & don't even let me get started on the whole topic of who really did the work on some of those projects I saw -some of them, certainly not "just" the 3rd grader. And the fact that it was yet another chaotic school event with kids running amok. Or how 'bout the fact that Mad's teacher emailed "some" of the students over xmas break & then apologized that she thought she had everyone's emails but didn't. That looks like favoritism or at the least an unfair advantage when everyone else -including us- didn't get the project specs until 9 Jan. And one more thing today, CSAP testing started today & I'll just let that one go for another day's post as well.

flashback of the week

It's not a flashback, but it's my new favorite song. And no, I've never NEVER been a JT fan. I used to jag Snick about her 'nSync obsession many moons ago. It's just a catchy tune. At first I thought, it's really too "happy", too danceable to be a good "break-up" song. Then again, it is exactly the kind of break-up song I'd listen to when I'm at that point of realizing that the break-up is for the best; you know, it's all good in the end. I guess in that respect it is a "flashback". Besides, it has a good beat; you can dance to it. :P

(if I could find the code for the music w/o the video, I'd put that up instead of all the dialogue that detracts from the actual song)

(And THANK YOU Snick! for taking the time to make your mom 16 -that's right 16- CDs -including the new JT- AND for writing out the playlists -by hand, no less- for the whole lot! You're the most awesomest 18yo in the world! Without you, this post wouldn't have happened....)

oops, almost forgot...

Happy Groundhog Day!




Maddie just happened to be assigned to bring snack in for her class today. She wanted to bring the groundhog cake that we usually do at home...it's a little morbid, actually. Imagine a chocolate frosted groundhog looking cake & when you cut it open, it's all red inside -like guts. yeah, I know, but we like it. (it's red velvet cake, duh!). But they don't like to do cakes @ her school b/c of the mess involved in the cutting, etc. So we opted for cupcakes with H A P P Y * * * G R O U N D H O G * D A Y !!! I didn't get a snap b/c we were running late. I had to get up at 6 to do the darn things, as it was. And then get everyone bundled up & out the door. It was, after all, like -2 degrees when school started. And I hear Denver set a new record low last night at about -19. I certainly hope Phil is right in his prediction. Which, the teacher did let Maddie read the official prognostication to the class. They don't have that tradition here & by golly, Maddie is bound & determined that she will be the official Groundhog Day representative every year. It's fine w/ me b/c it seems to me that her school could use a shot of fun just for the sake of fun every once in a while.

my first attempt at decorating a "fancy" cake

I had help from all three girls natch, and it was after dinner (you know in my house that's onwards of 7). I really wanted to give it a try on my own but you know that just doesn't happen unless it's before everyone wakes up or after everyone's asleep. I thought I would try another practice cake (or "uh-oh" cake, as Maddie called it) but haven't had an opportunity to do so this week. It's been a busy week w/ Maddie's city expo project (Orlando!) and sewing princess hats & other party preparations and STILL working on the bookshelf.

Fi is FINALLY potty trained! We were lent a book called "the Princess and the Potty" and it helped alot (Princess Fiona doesn't wear diapers anymore, she wears "pantalettes"). That and the promise of going to school with Maddie in the fall. Today we will attempt to register for ECE when we visit the school to check out the city expo.

It is snowing again. Again. And it's all of 19 degrees. I know summer will be here soon enough, and will most likely be the usual hot hot hot, but I am so done with the cold. I honestly don't mind the snow. It's the cold that I don't necessarily enjoy. Snowboarding is different because you don't notice the cold when you're having fun. I don't relish the idea of being outside just for the sake of going to the store, or wherever. I mean, one of the reasons I moved here was because the winters are (usually) so mild.

Then there's the issue with the roads. The ice is still so bad on some roads that it's like off-roading -in my civic! I was telling my dad that it's worse on some of the side streets than even the back roads in W. PA. Think driving in the winter to someplace like "the christmas tree farm" or "thud flat" back home or any number of those deserted outdoor keg party locations in high school. I think I can best describe it to folks not from my hometown as driving on a logging road, if you know what that's like.

Um, there's one street a couple blocks away that's like driving in one of those antique car rides at Cedar Point. Just take your hands off the wheel & step on the gas, b/c the car ain't goin' nowhere but following the 6 inch ruts in the ice for the tires. There were times when I felt that surely I must have been plowing the snow with my low clearance.

And get this, we have potholes here now that PA would be jealous of. hahahahaha. It's been what, a month? two at the most, of this weather? Talk about instantaeous potholes. It's like a disease, they're everywhere & spreading. It's gonna be a great year for folks in the auto repair biz. Suspensions and alignments will be most popular.

the coveted Nitti hat

Lib wore Snick's hat on the drive to take Snick back up to school. Lib fell asleep on the way and didn't wake until we got home. Of course Snick had to remove the hat so she could wear it at school. The first thing Lib cried about when she woke wasn't the usual "where's Nitti?" but "where's Nitti's hat" :P