It's Been a While, So Here's What You've Missed

Since it's been so long, I thought I'd catch you up quickly. We're homeschooling both girls in kindergarten, and they are loving it and doing well. Nadine says she's never going back to "real" school again. They are both taking ballet classes this year and will probably take gymnastics and music next year.

Gabriel's cruising as of today. He's 10 months old and has no teeth, but he's never still unless he's asleep. He's a huge ball of fun.

Well, time's up, so enjoy the pics!

Back to WW, finally!

I started back on WW this week. I've been meaning to since Gabriel was born but everything's been so hectic I haven't had the right mindset to commit to it. On Wednesday I started and picked Sunday as a weigh-in day, and I've lost 3.8 pounds since then. I forgot how easy it was and how good I feel on WW. I guess I should have read my old blog posts, huh?

What really helped get me back on track is that Dean bought me a beautiful computer armoire that allowed us to rearrange our living room and put my treadmill back where it was when I was using it so much. I haven't totally finished reorganizing things, but just having the treadmill in a place where it's easily accessible and doesn't interfere with the living room furniture is great. I also found the DVD to my ball workout, so I'm psyched about that.

Let's see, what else is new? Oh! Gabriel is babbling away and rocking back and forth on his hands and knees. He is really wanting to get moving and follow the girls everywhere. He is madly in love with Nadine and could spend all day looking in her eyes.

Claudia's a ballerina now, too. Last week she was the leader, and near the end of class Miss Mignon tells her to lead the girls in one direction only to hear from Claudia, "No, I'm the leader and I'm going over here!!!" Miss Mignon explained to her that she was the leader of the students and that she still had to listen to her teacher. Claudia's response? "Oohh. Sorry." When she told me about it all I could do was laugh and tell her that this was the Claudia I warned her about.

On the crafty front, I've been knitting a lot of woolies for Gabriel but haven't had time to take pics. I haven't had time for sewing lately but am working on a Riding Hood Sweater for Claudia in a gorgeous deep red and also ballet sweaters and leg warmers for them both. I'm waiting on yarn to come so I can finish Dean's socks. I've been asking why I knit my first socks for someone with feet the size of Sasquatch. I don't know, really. I just don't know.

Magic Loop for Pin Mamas

If you're family, this probably won't interest you very much. I'm about to go on a knitting talking fit, so pardon the email you just got notifying you I had an update featuring my beautiful children. LOL!

Right now I'm at the Wonderpants Pattern on page 8 where the crotch shaping decreases (CSDs) start. At this point your work is all on your 16" circular but we need to transfer everything to the 40" circular to use the magic loop technique. Using the 16" needle in your left hand and your 40" circular in your right, knit to as instructed to the completion of the back leg. This is where you add your yarn. Some prefer to tie a new yarn on, but I just like to start knitting with it and leave about a 6" tail. If I know I can complete the project out of one skein, I just knit with the outer end of yarn wound into a center pull ball. The first leg is knit with the center-pull end and the second leg is knit with the outer end. Here's a photo of how it's all connected once you start knitting the second leg after marker B with the second skein/other end. You start with an SSK, remember. The marker in the photo is marker B:

Let your original working yarn just hang loose while you knit the second leg per the instructions (through marker C) but don't get all tangled.

So here we are at marker C and this is where the magic loop begins in earnest. The white marker is marker C. In this picture, the needles are parallel. The back needle with marker C on it is the 40" circular and the front is the 16" circular you are working on getting the work off of. Two needles parallel like this is basically the neutral position of magic loop. (Usually this will be each end of your 40" circular, BTW.)
Now pull out the back needle (the 40" with the C marker) until all stitches are on the cable and you have enough slack to work the stitches on the front needle (in this case the stitches on your 16").

When knitting the magic loop you want to keep the two halves of the loop close together to prevent any loose stitches or ladders, like this:
Continue knitting as per pattern through to marker D (purple in photos). This is where you switch back to your original yarn for leg 1 (the center if you're using a center pull ball. You will always switch to the working yarn coming from the back needle, see? In the picture you can see both working yarns, the one you abandoned when you came marker D (on the right) and the one you're using after marker D (on the left).
Knit according to pattern back to marker A and you've done one decrease round. You are also free of the 16" circular and have all of your work on the 40" circular and if you've been paying attention you realize you are close to neutral position for the magic loop. Turn your work so that the needle you've been working (right needle) is in the back and make sure the left needle has stitches mounted on it and not the cable. Here's a pic. The yellow marker is A and is on the right needle. Notice the loop of extra cable on the left.
Now we will do what we did the last time we were at a hip marker. We'll pull the back needle until the stitches are resting on the needle and we have enough slack to work the stitches on the front needle. Voila! You're magic looping!

Way to go, Daddy!

Dean got all As this semester and now qualifies for Phi Theta Kappa, the academic honor society at Co-Lin. He has worked really hard for this and we are all so proud of him!

Gabriel's getting to be a big boy now. He loves to play with his feet and is really relaxed. Every time Dean comes home he just about explodes into a mess of smiles and squeals. Claudia is my little dictator of sewing. She keeps me busy picking fabrics and almost always wants a dress. Nadine's doing really well since the ballet recital fiasco. She's doing really well with potty learning and is having fewer GI issues as a whole, so we're trying to encourage that without being too hard on her because goodness knows she's hard enough on herself when she's not perfect.


So for those of you wondering what's new with me, I'm learning to knit because wool is a more breathable option for diaper covers and I can't afford to buy the wool I want. This is my first pair, and there are some errors but they are functional so I am not worried about it. The next pair will be better. Right now I'm knitting up a spa set with all sorts of nice bath goodies in it. It's a good break from knitting pants with the heavy wool. After I finish this project, I'll make Gabriel a pair of pants and then start the sweater for me. I have some good patterns for knit dresses for the girls, but I have a mountain of fabric to sew through before I can even think about that. :-)

Ramblings...

A conversation with a friend got me to thinking about forgiveness and what it really is. Talking to others, I realized my thoughts differed a bit from the mainstream. The friend in question was amazed when I told her I had forgiven my stepfather who "got to me" as a little girl. I was amazed when she thought this meant we had re-established some sort of relationship. I told her we hadn't, that in fact I had never told him I'd forgiven him, and that if he ever so much as looked at my girls I'd put a bullet in his head. To me forgiveness doesn't change the nature of the person; it's something you do for the sake of your own soul. I have found peace with what happened by forgiving him that I never had in the years of holding on to being angry or hurt. Forgiveness is not a doorway back into my life to cause more trouble, though. If a person is a predator or a liar or a cheat, they still are after they are forgiven and it is still my responsibility to protect me and mine from them. I dunno where I was going with this, I've been chewing on it for a while after said conversation and this little tidbit from U2's new album:

Choose your enemies carefully because they will define you
Make them interesting because in some ways they will mind you
They're not there in the beginning but when your story ends
Gonna last with you longer than your friends

Random Thoughts and Gabriel photo

I got a great deal on some knitted wool pants from one of the Pin mamas and Gabriel looks so cute I had to share a pic with everyone. The shirt I made according to his weight but it's too big, so I customized the pattern and will have to post another pic when it's finished. I'm trying to hunt down some green trim...

I'm having trouble getting started back on WW after Gabriel's birth. Most of my WW food requires a bit of cooking and I've been too tired trying to figure out how to juggle 3 kids and adjust to Dean being on a 7/7 schedule now. It's really rough around here at the moment.

Gabriel looks so much bigger in photos than he really is. He's got Nadine's build and a really tiny head. He's my dad with Dean's nose and eye shape. I don't see a resemblance to Claudia except in photos. I can still hold him around the waist and have my fingers touch...he will come out just like Nadine but he has Claudia's voracious appetite. This should be fun to watch. He frustrates me the most in photos because he has this really bright smile that will light up a room and loves to show it off but the moment I pull out the camera it's mug shot time. *sigh*

New Gabriel Pics and Another Sewing Adventure

We've been crazy busy around here. Last week was spent getting ready for Nadine's recital, and on Saturday she came down with a panic attack from stage fright and just couldn't dance. We're heartbroken in a way but she will overcome it. She's wanting to beat it this summer so she can try out for Nutcracker this fall. I got her ballet pictures on Friday, and if I can get my scanner to cooperate we'll have those pics sometime this week. The glass is dirty and I'm having a heck of a time getting rid of the streaks from cleaning it...if anyone has any ideas for no-streak glass cleaner I'm all ears. I did get a blouse done for Nadine in the last couple of days, and she loves it. She says she feels very ladylike in it. See pic on left.







I finally got the pics done of Gabriel in his Goodmama and Bububebe cloth diapers so my 'Pin mama friends can see how they work on an itty bitty skinny minny. The MCZ is the Bububebe (bottom). In this pic he has the newborn doubler in. I like the fit but my one complaint is that the leg elastic keeps turning in now that it has been washed a few times. I have to turn it out with my finger every time I put it on him, and it's not a big deal but still annoying. The blue hiding giraffes Goodmama (top) is without any doublers. In both of the above diapers Gabriel is 13 pounds and 24" long. I like the fit of the GM a lot better because the leg elastic stays turned out and I still haven't had a poop leak from them. If B4 pricing goes up too much, I'll probably stick exclusively to GMs. I do think the B4s will last longer (they are larger) and I like the quality of the construction better, but that stupid elastic turning in causes poop leaks sometimes...Grr! I love the cloth, though, and am really wishing I would have had the nerve to bring it up to Dean with the girls. Boy could we be ahead financially plus I don't miss the daily leaks and poopsplosions we had with disposables. Our trash has been cut in half, too. Dean and I both love them. :)


Oh yeah, I have one more pic for this installment of the blog if the family's still with me. It's half showing off Dean and the girls and half showing off our new Canon digital SLR. This was taken about 9 p.m. with the camera on full auto. It is amazing (even more amazing in full 12 MP quality, but still. I didn't edit it except for cropping the pic down to size.

More Sewing Projects and Beautiful Models...

I love my girls, and my girls love clothes. What can I say? I spoil them rotten. We go in fabric shops and they pick what they want and then I figure out what to make of it. It's worth it to see their faces the first time they put their new clothes on and then when they tell people mommy made it for them it's like I did something magical. OK, so they are spoiling me a bit more than I'll admit. Dean likes that I make them because I can make the dresses long enough for Nadine. Most of her clothes are cut the width of a 3 or 4 but the length of a 5. I love my little string bean. ;) First up is Nadine in her bright striped skort set and then in her Easter dress. Next is Claudia in her froggie skort. I still have Ariel PJs and a Tinkerbell dress to take pics of, but they are in the wash.

We got Dean fixed last week, so no more babies for us. I think 3 is all we need. Now I can get serious about losing the weight and moving on towards a career. Now all I need is oil to go up about $20 a barrel and the oilfield will be a stable job again...

Oh Beth, I haven't forgotten to take pics of Gabriel in his B4 and GMs, I just plain ole haven't done it. He's been sleeping in those dipes lately, and I'm pro letting sleeping babies sleep. My new Canon DSLR is just too dang loud and the flash too bright. *chuckle*

Bit by the sewing bug!

Yep, I'm having way more fun than a person should be allowed to have, and I'm having it sewing! I have a few other things I haven't taken pics of, but Dean and I fell HARD for this dress on Claudia today. It is stunning in person and worth the week or so of anxiety about the zipper (stupid Natchez doesn't carry yellow zippers). Claudia chose the fabric and I admit it looked pretty out there to me in a 2-yard lump, but she was persistent and I figured that with Claudia's personality the clothes don't have a hope of wearing her, if you know what I mean. We bought Easter dresses, but this one has replaced it and now Dean has picked a fabric for Nadine so I can make a dress to replace her Easter dress, too. Her Tinkerbell dress, oddly enough, is too big even though it's the same size and supposedly for the same measurements of other patterns of the same brand. Oh well. She's not going to outgrow her Tinkerbell fascination any time soon.

No one is allowed to have a heart attack...

...but I've been learning to sew this week. Stop laughing. I'll just wait for the tears to dry before continuing.

{waits}

OK, so the girl who said she'd definitely never get married and definitely never have kids is becoming Holly Homemaker. I'm enjoying it, though. Sewing is relaxing for me. The fabric is bargain bin rejects but turned out really cute. Heck, the whole thing turned out really cute. It could just be the gorgeous model. Take a look at the pajamas I made for Nadine. Not bad for a first attempt, eh?

I know I haven't blogged for a while. Gabriel was born and everyone knows the story there. He is 2 months old now! He has his doctor's appointment on Monday and we'll finally get to find out how big he's gotten. I'm betting he's right at 10 pounds. My doctor's appointment, OTOH, got cancelled. I'm still a little annoyed by that...

Oh yeah, evil WIC woman is now being investigated thanks to a phone call to the head WIC nutritionist in our state. YAY!