Radio Silence

I've been pretty busy as usual, but that's nothing new.  Since I last posted, I got the results back on Alex's blood test and confirmed that he is anemic.  We've started him on the iron supplement and he'll have his blood work done again in 3 months.  I'm hoping this will help him get into a normal sleep pattern soon, because this morning he was up at about 5am and climbed into my bed...so I've basically been up since 5am...and I went to bed at about 2am.  I only have so many of these days in my before I'll snap, lol.

The sale at work has been fantastic!  We only do one sale a year, and when we do, we do it right.  I've acquired enough yarn at this years sale to knit 8 sweaters!  I just went through my que on ravelry and added the yarn to my stash so that I could put those yarns in with the patterns that I had in mind for them when I bought them.  They are the first 8 sweaters in my que...actually, the first 12 sweaters in my que have the yarn hiding out in my stash somewhere and I hope to get them knit.  If I want to, I could join 'knit a sweater a month' and actually make that happen (except for when school, work, and kids interfere).  And I still have a full bag of yarn coming that I ordered when we did the Fall ordering!  I think I've finally lost control, lol.

In knitting news, I'm still plugging happily away at the sleepy monkey blanket but I'm not going to have time to knit the back piece before the shower next Saturday.  I'm thinking that I'll either buy a piece of fabric to attach to the back and give it to my cousin-in-law, or I'll knit a quick pair of baby booties and include a photo of the blanket as an IOU gift.  I really want to knit the full blanket as written, so I'm thinking this is the more likely solution.  I've also finished the Night of the Lepus sock sample and pattern for the Super Sock Scarefest group.  I emailed the PDF to Yarnyenta yesterday and I'll be notified of when the pattern will be released.  If you want to join up and knit this pattern (plus several others), go on over to the Super Sock Scarefest group on Ravelry and join up.  We start knitting on September 1st, and sign-ups close on the 5th.  Come on...you know you want to knit socks designed around scary movie themes...give in to the pressure. 

I've been designing on the fly again, and I've come up with a chart for a robot-head blanket that looks promising.  It's inspired by the comforter on Alex's bed and I'm thinking of knitting it up for him since he really likes robots now.  Maybe I'll even get around to knitting the Mr. Roboto kit that I ordered just for him and promptly had to put on the back burner.  But not before I finish the shawl for Garner's bride.  Totally off topic, but I love it so much that he married a 6' woman.  As a 6' woman, I think he has fabulous taste, lol.  Maybe I'll even get to meet her in January when I go out to help my mom after surgery.

In school news, I received an invite to join the Golden Key International Honor Society!  I accepted.  The invitation said that I was in the top 15% of my class at Kaplan, and my GPA is 3.95.  That's the highest I've had in my life and I was so excited.  (If I've posted this already...just scroll down, lol.)  Somehow as much as I'm not enjoying my statistics class, I'm still pulling an 'A', and I earned a perfect score on my last homework project (which I was sure I'd bombed).  I also have 100% in my research methods class (although this last project could change that...) and I just don't care for that class very much at all.  I should totally be doing school work right now but it's hard to push myself to get it done because I just don't enjoy the subject matter, although my new status as a Golden Key member is certainly a motivating factor.

My obsession with True Blood continues full force.  I'm reading the books like my life depended on it, and I own the first 2 seasons on DVD.  I even converted a friend and she liked it so much that she got HBO so now I can go over to her house on Sunday evenings and watch the episodes in real time!  It's great!  I bring my knitting, but I don't touch it because I'm afraid I'll miss something.  And my love for Eric, Pan, Lafayette, and now Franklin keep me from being able to concentrate on my project lest I should miss the most minute facial expression or turn-of-phrase.  It really is out of hand.

Well, I think I've fooled around long enough.  Back to statistics.

Hot and tired

I know it's been quite a while since I've taken time to post, but as you may know...it's been pretty hot and I've been pretty tired.  Things are basically good.  The sleep study found that Alex may be anemic, which might be part of the reason for the excessive leg movements in his sleep.  They didn't find a cause for why he gets up most nights, but did say that it's a symptom of sleep deprivation.  That at least proves what I've been saying for so many years now.  So we're making some adjustments to his bedtime routine and trying to see if that helps at all. 

School is school.  I have four weeks to go before I finish math for the rest of this degree program and I'm looking forward to it.  I've been trying to fit in reading my books, and knitting on my various deadline projects and it's getting to be a bit much.  Actually, I've been trying to fit school into the other things because I'm having a tough time forcing myself to stick to my studies.  I'm just burned out with these classes.  But my scary sock design is done and I need to tweak the pattern a little bit.  I'm working on the Sleepy Monkey Blanket for Nicole's baby and loving it.  The monkeys work up so fast!  I still have to finish the Bridgewater shawl for Garner's bride, and then I have a pair of toe socks to knit for Aaron's counselor.  After that...I have 7 sweaters-worth of yarn to knit through that I picked up at the Bella Yarns make room for more sale!  You read that right.  Seven-sweaters-worth.  I will never have to buy yarn again at this rate, but I already bought some this week when I ordered a chart-keeper for a buddy, just to make the shipping worth it.  I need a new scarf and hand warmer set so I bought a kit and got some extra yarn for this pair of hand warmers I want to knit for myself.  This will be a pretty little set to wear when I don't feel like wearing the same tired old red scarf for the 5th year in a row.  Now, if I can just keep from getting side-tracked by the new fall yarns when they come in.

Sometimes things work out

Today, after church I went with the boys to my In-laws for a bar-b-que/party for Dante's birthday.  He will be 13 tomorrow and I've been busy trying to wrap my mind around that one.  School has kept me busy enough to ignore the reality until now, but it's here and there's nothing I can do about it anymore...nothing but accept it and roll with the punches.  So, I brought over a half-sheet cake from Sam's Club and we hung out with family.  It was great!  It was the first time that I've ever had a large party for Dante.  With his birthday being the 5th of July and all, most people are away on vacation and we just can't get anyone together.  Well, Weina knew how much this meant to me because I cried to her on the phone for 30 minutes when I thought Alex's play-date party wasn't going to get off the ground, so she called her family and told them in no uncertain terms that they were to change their plans and be there for Dante...and they did, and they were.  She even had her brother fly in, and some of his cousins dropped what they were doing to come by.  The only let down was that it was fast-Sunday and Dante and I were fasting (in our own way...Dante isn't allowed to fast so he gives up junk food) so I didn't eat until pretty late and Dante didn't get any of his cake till dinner time.  But that was a minor inconvenience given what I got in return and I was happy to do it.  Alex had a great time, everyone was in a good mood, Aaron came (!), and we stayed until about 6:30pm when I finally decided that I needed to get Alex in the tub and into bed.

Right now Dante had a friend, that he met when he was at his grandparents' last weekend, over to stay the night.  We'll be taking them to a movie tomorrow and they'll hang out for Dante's birthday.  His friend (Ike) is exactly one day younger than Dante so I'll be getting him back to spend his birthday with his Grandfather.  This is Dante's first sleep-over, and the boys are having a great time.  I'll be sad to see Ike go back home, but it does make me feel much better to know that Dante can make friends so easily and to see that he was pretty into the idea of having him stay the night.  This is good stuff, given that my son spent most of the school year in a depressive fog caused by his ADHD meds.  So tomorrow I have to cook breakfast for these boys, send them out with Aaron to the movies so that I can work on school stuff, and then take them all over to Nana's for another bar-b-que.  Today was over all one of the best days ever, and I'm just content.  I hope that I get more just like this one.

Cool stuff happens here sometimes, lol

For those of you who don't know (and I don't know who you would be if you didn't know this already, lol), these are my boys.  Big, Bigger, and Biggest, AKA The Baby, The Boy, and Daddy.  So anyway, Daddy (as he's known to the boys) landed himself a part as an extra in the new Verizon Droid commercial!  His first ever audition, and he gets a paying part.  I'm really proud of him and really excited that he gets to do this.  It's really gratifying when you pray for something to break, and then it just falls into your lap.  I knew he was going to get something out of this (although it didn't turn out to be the leading part that pays 40K, but we'll take it).  When they called him up to see if he could come down for the audition (with one day notice and about 5 minutes to make a decision).  It didn't look like we could do it because we just didn't have enough time to secure a sitter for Alex, so he told them no.  Later he was talking to his mom and she said that she would have done it, but we though it was too late.  Then about an hour later they called again, said that they really wanted him to come in, and to bring the kids if necessary.  Well, that sounds like Heavenly Father providing an opportunity if I've ever seen one!  So the MIL took The Baby for the afternoon while Daddy went down and did the audition.  He said it was completely weird (he was handed a stick of deodorant and told to pretend it was the phone and he was sending and receiving text messages, which he was supposed to be reacting to).  Anyway, he didn't feel very good about the whole thing and we didn't hear anything for a while but they called today and asked him if he would like to be an extra!  It's a paying role and it's not bad pay for two days of work.  So my Honey is going to be in a national commercial for a cool product.  I'm really excited for him and I thought you would all be excited too.  Wish him luck!

open book

I've been feeling tired and down lately.  I thought I was doing a much better job of hiding it, but I guess not.  My husband notices (but he always does).  My little guy can tell.  He made a big cheesy grin at me and told me to do that do I could be happy.  People have been sticking a little closer to me than usual, and asking me to call them if I need anything (not that they don't usually offer help, but I can tell they're worried).  I'm just a bit overwhelmed and I think I'm having trouble with this mostly sunless summer we're having so far.  I told my friend Eric that I've been crying at the drop of a hat lately, and he jokingly told me that it was because I'm a woman and we're all bat@$%t crazy.  I don't feel like this all the time, or all day, but it's more and more lately.  I'm usually good early in the day.  I'm plenty cheerful at work, or with friends, or out running errands, but when I get home it's like I've used up all my happy and I'm just tired and I have no emotion left on my face. 

So why am I posting this on a public blog forum?  I don't know.  I don't really care I guess.  I'm just so busy lately and my life feels complicated right now.  I think I'll get in the tub, read a book, and go to bed early tonight.  Then if I still don't feel better tomorrow, I'll go tanning.  (Don't laugh, the light helps.)

Peaking my head up out of the sand

I'm tired people.  Tiredness is a general way of life for me right now.  Classes are back in session, and I'm having a tough time with statistics right now...and we've just started.  The thing is, the book doesn't give the clearest explanations in a lay-person way.  It gives very technical definitions, and that's cool but that doesn't help me to really understand the difference between the population and sample (which I get, but the examples make it tough to tell the difference), and I'm hoping things will clear up after my seminar.  They suggested that even though I only have to attend one of the seminars, I should listen to the recordings of the other two because the different professors will be covering different things.  I won't be knitting, or spinning, or teaching knitting, or doing repairs, or much of anything else but school, work, and Sharing Time.

In terms of work, I shortened my hours until these classes are over.  I'll only be working Tuesday and Wednesday, and doing my Friday morning class.  And that class?...I'm going to give it another month or so and if it still hasn't caught on by then I'm pulling the plug.  Day classes will have to be by appointment only because I just can't sit in the shop for two hours with no one there, considering how much classwork I have to do.  But I'll still be doing workshops, and I just announced the first of a series of sock workshops where I'll be taking students through heel flap construction and sharing tips I've learned over the years.  If you're interested in the workshop, it's Sunday, June 27th from 3-5pm.  Call ahead to register because space is limited.  In July, I'll be covering short-row heels.

Last week was really emotionally draining for me.  Alex turned 4 and I was afraid that no one was going to come for his birthday party.  I was so upset I was in tears.  It was really silly and dramatic but I have this thing about birthday parties where every time I host one, I invite dozens of people and maybe three show up.  Last year (Aaron's surprise party) was the only year that a party was successful.  At my Sweet 16, my best friend came...and no one else.  A few years before, my mom tried to throw a huge party complete with all the food and a sheet cake.  That year my best friend (who didn't stay that way for long) didn't even bother to come.  One kid that was on the track team with me came.  So I'm a little sensitive about parties and I fear that the boys will get their feelings hurt, and that means that I don't often do parties.  This was basically a play-date with cupcakes so it wouldn't really be a big deal if kids didn't make it, but Alex was so looking forward to it.  He kept asking me "where are my kids?" and "where's my birthday?".  After everyone left, he said "I liked when my friends came to play with me".  Thanks you guys for coming over, he really enjoyed it and it was therapeutic for me :)

In addition to the party fiasco of 2010, one of my best friends ever moved away to Utah.  I knew they would be moving eventually, but after being here for six years it felt like they were permanent residents.  I remember the day they came into our Ward, and I remember that Rex was wearing a bow-tie, and that Natalie looked so friendly and warm (and she is), and that Henry was the cutest thing I'd ever seen at just about 18 months old.  I got to have him in the nursery while I served down there and I just loved him because he could actually talk to me.  Then came Lucy, and I got to knit sweaters for a little girl for the first time in a long time.  I over did it a little bit.  After a while, I went down into the primary and I got both Henry and Lucy down there.  Sometimes they were lifesavers, being the only students to participate.  Along came Peter, and it was just a cute round little version of Henry.  And a few years later we have Hazel.  I'm sorry that I won't get to know her like I got to know the others, but I knit her a sweater so that she can remember her time in Rhode Island (what little there was of it) and that people here loved her.

The Neilson's are one of those families that I would see at church and want to be like.  One of those families that we wish we were born into, or that we could build for ourselves.  I've only met two other families like that in my life, but I didn't really get as close to them as I did to the Neilson's.  Rex confirmed Dante after his baptism.  He was a part of Alexander's blessing.  He came to my home to teach me the temple prep lessons, and he and Natalie took me to the temple for the first time.  Natalie sat with me and went through every step of the way.  We shared something special, and it was like having a sister.  They provided me with support and encouragement when my life got difficult.  Natalie helped me with feeding issues and sleep problems with Alex.  She helped me figure out why my bread wasn't rising, and what I was doing wrong.  She gave me her copy of the America's Test Kitchen cookbook with all of her notes for my birthday one year.  She was my visiting teacher at one point.  We started a knitting group together that eventually died a slow death, lol.  We've swapped books with patterns in them, only to give the books back months and months later with neither of the patterns ever being knit.  She organized the most wonderful baby shower for me when I was pregnant with Alex, and even bent to my wishes of not having to play the baby shower games that I hate so much.  Natalie and Rex have been the best example of patience, faith, obedience to the gospel, and loving parents that I have ever seen.  They're the family that I measure myself against, and she is the type of wife and mother that I always wished I was. 

Natalie, if you're reading this, I'm sorry that I didn't get to tell you on Sunday how I feel about you and your family.  I really love you and I really love your children.  You have a wonderful husband who gives up his time to see to the needs of others in the ward (and I know that you know this but I wanted to tell you that I know this).  You're the smartest person I know.  You set such a wonderful example of living the gospel just by being yourself every single day.  Your children are brilliant.  Lucy passed off three articles of faith and she's what now?...six?  I don't know how you do what you do.  How you manage to provide home cooked meals regularly.  How you bake your own bread for your family, and how you get them to eat it (when mine won't touch it).  How you remember your visiting teaching duties, manage to teach relief society weekly, get the kids organized and off to school.  Bring everyone to church on time, clean, fed, dressed.  I know that sometimes you've said how inspiring I am, but you don't see how inspiring you are.  Your friendship pulled me through rough times in my life, and times when I could have easily fell inactive.  When I get overwhelmed with my life, I look at you and all you're doing and realize that it can be done, and it can be done with class and poise.  I didn't get to say any of this to you because I was too busy trying not to cry all over you (and doing a poor job of it).  I've never grieved when any of my other friends have moved away, but I still feel sadness as I type this almost a week after saying goodbye so that tells me how much you and your family mean to me, and to our ward.  Your leaving has left a large hole, and it's not going to be easy to fill.  But even in my sadness, I really wish you the best and I know that big things will happen for you in your new home.  Thank you for being such a good friend.

birthdays, designing, and general busyness

As always, I'm busier than I've ever been in my life.  Alex is starting the CAITS program next Friday to help with his behavior issues.  Dante is having his follow up with the psychiatrist, and is still regularly seeing the clinician.  Wednesday was Alexander's birthday (he turned 4), and tomorrow he'll have a couple friends over to eat cake and play outside with him and his new tee-ball set.  I start my new classes on Wednesday and I'm not entirely sure what I've gotten myself into with this particular set of classes.  My research methods class is sure to bore me to death (and therefore be tough to get through) and my statistic class came with three books (two the size of a phone book), and a DVD...so I'm seeing a ton of work with this one.

Meanwhile, I've been knitting a shawl for my friend Garner's wedding as I won't be able to attend.  It's actually for his bride, but you get the idea.  I'm knitting Jared Flood's Bridgewater shawl because it's lovely, and this can double as a blanket for their first child.  I think it's got the potential to be an heirloom piece.  It's not the most fun to knit right now (with a large center square of garter stitch) but I've made it to the decrease portion and it should pick up speed from here.  Next comes the actual lace.  Hopefully I can finish it before the wedding on the 15th, and get it in the mail...because I didn't really think about it until about the 30th of May.  I've known about this wedding for 6 months, and I wait until I've got 15 days to decide to knit a lace shawl as a wedding gift.  I must love pressure.

I'm also having some trouble sticking to the shawl right now, because I've dreamed up a beautiful and delicate mitten pattern that I can't say too much about right now, but I'll share when the sample is worked up.  It's going to be pretty, and there isn't anything like this out right now (to the best of my knowledge after scrubbing a three digit number's worth of Ravelry project pages).  I really want to start swatching, but I can't afford to take time away from the shawl.  When I'm not knitting, I'm reading Shutter Island, which a customer of the shop gave to me.  I really wanted to read it, haven't been able to find it in the library or in stores, and she had a copy she was willing to lend to me.  When I went into work, she wrote an inscription inside and gifted it to me.  It was a really sweet gift and I'm totally into the book right now.  I'm really having a hard time not feeling guilty that I should be reading the first chapters of my text books right now, but this book is just too good and I only get to read something non-school related once every 10 weeks. 

School is getting harder as I go along (who would have thought!...) and I'm working more and more these days.  It's just getting to be tough to balance it all.  If things continue, I might need to see about letting go of Saturdays for a little bit, or alternating with Denise because I just don't have the time to take care of family stuff, do school work, and work as many days in the shop as I've been doing lately.  And totally off topic here, but I think I need to knit myself a stole.  I've got my Raggedy Ann & Andy quilt draped around my shoulders like a stole to keep the chill off my arms and I'm extremely comfortable, but I'd really like to be able to stick a pin in it and keep is closed.  I guess the time's come.

Well, back to knitting and watching Alice in Wonderland (for the 4th time since yesterday).  This is quite possible one of the best adaptations I've ever seen, and I've seen lots of them...I love Alice in Wonderland.