Odds 'n Ends 'n Things...

Forgger...Ripit!

2011-02-06T13:59:00.001-06:00

Forgger...Ripit!
Originally uploaded by mlochk22@

Yup, heres a name of a pair of socks that just called for trouble, which is exactly what I got! The floats on the inside at the gussets are too tight on both pair on both sides and so bye bye they are going!

Well, I think this is the first unintended frogging this year...and it only took me a bit over a month! Yeehaw!

Time flies...

2011-01-17T07:21:00.000-06:00

Wow, I was amazed at how quickly 2 weeks go by, especially when you're crazy busy. Which I, I mean, we are right now. Alot of the care taking for my grandmother has now landed on my husband and I, so that has been keeping us busy as has taking care of other things, like studying for my registration exam (which I'm not doing enough of in my opinion), and other various things.

High light of the last two weeks:

Went out and saw a few eagles.

Found my perfect buttons for my cardi that Im doing a redo on (fixing some of the annoying parts of it or maybe just putting on a button band and new buttons...we'll see. I feel I should fix all of it, as that would be the "correct" thing to do, but as there are *no* knitting police, we'll just wait and see what happens).

Started another damn project...no comment there...

Anyway Im outta here for now and will return sooner rather that later!

2011 and what I hope it brings...

2011-01-02T10:45:00.001-06:00

Tools of the Trade
Originally uploaded by mlochk22@

Well, first things first...I am hoping to be able to maintain this blog better now that, finally and officially, Im done with school. I still have some studying to do for my registration test, but other than that, Im done.

So, first things first on what I'd like to accomplish this year:

1. Blog at least twice a month. I don't want to get overwhelmed on my first year of being done with school. I started school in 2005 and don't want to get bogged down with all the things I *want* to do, so slow and steady is the key!

2. Shop the stash! As you can see above, I have enough now for 4 sweaters, a few shawls and *gobs* of socks. I shouldn't have to buy anything unless its something specific to a project (like something for a baby present).

3. More family time. While I tried to maintain some amount of family time during these past few years, it has definitely diminished since my child hit middle school/junior high (whatever you'd like to call it). So Im therefore proposing a Sunday Movie Night and a Wednesday Family Night. This Sunday: Lord of the Rings Extended Version :-)

4. Project 365. In order to get me back doing something I loved doing way back when, I'm going to try to do the Project 365. In case you don't know, its taking a picture once a day, every day, for an entire year. I don't know if I can actually accomplish this or not, but I'm certainly going to try. What would be the coolest is to actually manage to do this for a whole year and then turn it into a book...that would rock! :-)

5. A garden, of the veggie sort. We didn't do one last year, but we're really thinking hard about it this year! This, however, is not a one person show, so will depend upon others help as well. We'll see what happens about this later on this year.

Now to explain the pic: Number 2 and Number 4. Welcome to my yarn stash that I plan on shopping this year and my first picture for Project 365. Wonderful bit of yarn, isn't it? *sigh* I love it!

Now, I do have some knitting goals, though I don't know if I'll be able to accomplish them all. I'd like to complete all the stuff I have going right now by February (haha) so I can then get started on those 4 sweaters and gazillion socks...ok so really, I'd like to finish 4 sweaters and 6 pairs of socks, but I have the potential for so many more!

Now, lets see where the year leads me!

New Year, new starts

2011-01-01T00:20:00.002-06:00

So, since its now 2011 and many things are different, I think I'll start blogging on a somewhat regular basis. No, not daily...heck, maybe not even weekly! But I'll try for twice a month. Hopefully Im not overextending myself with all the things I want to do now that I finally have the time.

I will catch up with all of the news and happenings...later, like tomorrow or Sunday, when I have time to go over the rest of it (and when I haven't been drinking copious amounts of champagne!)!

Dont bother, Im not around much...

2009-09-22T19:18:00.002-05:00

Im at a lot of other places tho!

If you're looking for me for knitting projects, Im at Ravelry.com under the name "mlochk22" Come see my projects there.

You want pics, pics, and more pics, go to Flickr.com and find me as "mlochk22@" (dont ask...I already had one account and didn't realize it!!) and see my pics and videos as I upload them from time to time.

If you want to chit chat, Im on plurk.com also as "mlochk22". Come and visit if you want, sign up is free and painless!

For those of you who know me personally, I am finally on Facebook, so friend me there!

Otherwise, I might be here from time to time, but not always! Blogging seems too much when Im so busy with work, school, hubby, and kid. Oh, and the cats too! Cant forget them!!

Love yall!!

Since I cant seem to have time for real posts...

2009-07-09T21:52:00.002-05:00

I thought I'd bore y'all with our vacation pics instead. We went to Roaring River State Park in Cassville MO again, and be-bopped around to Joplin, Eureka Springs, Van Buren, the "three corners", the biggest continuous waterfall in MO, many geocaches and a few other odds and ends. We had a great time!

BTW: there are only 92 pics in this slideshow...I say *only* because I took *way* more than that! LOL!!

WendyKnits

2009-06-16T18:45:00.003-05:00

Well, let me tell you about one of my favorite designers of socks (I have two at this point, and I'll do the other one next...) I love Wendy's designs and the fact that they are designed from the toe up (which is my *favorite* way to knit socks as I think my joins suck on cuff downs) and are always sooo pretty!

Here's a linkie or two for you to see:

Pay for Pattern (all of her paid for patterns can be found at The Loopy Ewe)

Six Pack Socks

Here's a freebie from Wendy's website:

Catnip Socks

And finally a pattern that was originally just for her Plurk pals (and yes, that would include me!! :D )

Nanner Socks

And as a finale, the one I'm actually working on! I picked this pattern because I wanted something that no one would stare at me strangely at work! And I had a nice subdued colored yarn that would work well for my purpose. I had bought a Knit1 Magazine around Christmas time and found the pattern for Red Brick Road. I loved the simplicity and beauty of the socks and thought "this is the pair!" And I am now proud to say I have finally completed the first sock and already got the toe and one repeat of the pattern on the second one done...and its all of 85-90 degrees F here...and the yarn is wool...guess I'll be waiting a bit before getting to wear these!

But I wont be waiting to finish them since they are going on vacation with me!

My shoes...

2009-05-25T14:09:00.001-05:00

100_1451
Originally uploaded by mlochk22@

I like them, a lot.

'Nuf said!

Anniversary 2009 Dinner

2009-05-25T14:06:00.001-05:00

Anniversary 2009 Dinner
Originally uploaded by mlochk22@

One of the king crab claws that we munched on...man to I love kind crab...too bad its soooo damn expensive, or Id be eating it every other day!

Anniversary 2009 Dinner

2009-05-25T14:04:00.001-05:00

Anniversary 2009 Dinner
Originally uploaded by mlochk22@

Here's the bigger of the two lobster tails that we had for supper. Yes, thats Mikes hand, and yes, it was that big!

Anniversary pics...one at a time...

2009-05-25T14:02:00.001-05:00

100_1440
Originally uploaded by mlochk22@

Since blogger is screwing with me and my pics, I guess I have to do this separately, each and every goddamned one...

My tequila sunrise mike made for me...yummy!! With my ring on there...

next pic please :-)

Anniversary: Year 7 and counting...

2009-05-25T13:49:00.002-05:00

100_1442
Originally uploaded by mlochk22@

Id like to show off more pics, but unless I can get blogger to cooperate with me, this pic will just have to do for now!

This was my very beautiful anniversary present. Black hills gold grape leaves/vines ring. More decorative than the band I've been wearing, but not so decorative it gets in my way. I just think my hubby likes to buy me jewelry...

We had a wonderful anniversary, ate lovely food.
And it was good!! Mike made me a tequila sunrise (as evidenced by the pic with the ring...(and yes, that is a size 0 dpn used as a swizzle stick, isn't he inventive!) and he cooked the meal, and he even cleaned up!

He also placated me by getting me a small present to "tide me over" until he got up! I love shoes, did ya know that? So he got me a pair... And these ones aren't bad. Nope, not bad at all!

Anyway, lets see if blogger cooperates now, and if it does, I might have more pics for this entry. If not, may have to make the pics separate posts.

Lost and Found

2009-05-03T10:33:00.002-05:00

Stuff I'm working on (knitting wise, of course):

Soap Bubble Wrap in naturallycaron.com's Silver Service

Red Brick Road socks designed by Wendy D. Johnson in Paton's Kroy Sock Yarn, Glencheck (I've named them "Dusty Brick Road")

a pair of socks for hubby of my own design, which I will probably share with all (just because I'm nice like that) using Nob Hill Yarns Carrington in ginger.

Im also still working on dishclothes and such for a couple of weddings.

And the stuff that is currently taking all of my time:

Baby Stuff!!!! Yeah! My friend Brandi is having her first baby this September, and I think I might just be going overboard! I want to make 3 sweaters of various sizes and fiber content, a couple of hats, and a pair of teeny, tiny baby socks...but we'll see how that works out in the end.

The one that Im working on currently is:

Seamless Baby Kimono in the 6 months size (its a freebie that way, though I would love to make a newborn size, using Hobby Lobby's I Love that Yarn 100% acrylic in Linen colorway.

The other one I will be starting, probably within the next week or so, is the Cabled Raglan Baby Sweater in knitpicks.com CotLin in Sprout. This will be in the 9-12 month size.

I also have every intention of making the Ribbed Baby Jacket in knitpicks.com simply cotton in toffee probably in the 12-18 months size.

However, I first have to get through the rest of the school year before I go completely crazy. Which brings me to why I haven't been here for the last month. Besides having my first allergic reaction in two years and being on enough corticosteroids to kill a horse, I have been swamped with homework. One class I know I'll be getting a C in, damn there goes the GPA, but thats okay. Its a damn class thats a requirement, not one directly related to my degree. So I'm not going to be too hard on myself about it.

We got our garden in last weekend, and then it started to rain. All. Damn. Week. I hope none of the seeds got washed away, because I would really be sad about that! We planted tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, tabasco peppers, potatoes, dill, marigolds, onions, garlic, summer squash, carrots, romaine lettuce, and beets. We are still waiting for the sweet potatoes to arrive so that we can plant them as well.

So, here's my first post this month, and hopefully I'll have more this month as well. So for now: Bye!!

Time flies yet again!! LOL!

2009-03-22T09:34:00.002-05:00

Wow! Where did a month go? School, work, school, school, home, school...yup, think that sums it up! Lets see, what else? Broken camera, yeah, thats a biggie...sick me, just a little...some other things. Ok, so I really don't have an excuse! Lets be honest, shall we? LOL! Now, I do have pics to share, so I'll get on with those, shall I?

Heres the first pic for ya! Its my crazy schedule for the rest of March and all of April. As you can tell by the yellow, Alex has joined kickball and it should be a whole helluva lotta fun for him...not so much for me! LOL! Add in school, work, and sleep, and I'm done! Just keep me in mind while I'm gone, eh?

This is what the cats think of the new furniture. Which, btw, I love greatly! Too bad we still can agree on a paint color for the walls! LOL!

Some num-nums for Mike and I. It was wonderful! Chicken breasts stuffed with roasted red peppers, feta cheese, artichoke hearts, some herbs, and cooked. Talk about wonderful! And to go with it (for me at any rate):

Yeah, it was good!

What else to share? Oh, how bout a big ol black lump named Ebony?

I think that just about all the good ones...oops, wait! One more!!

Alex at his last "Honor's Choir" concert for the PTO spaghetti supper fundraiser. Too bad you couldnt hear them worth a damn cause people were still talking throughout the musical performances.

So, there ya go! Some pics of the last month...Next weekend I'll have lots of pics, since its MOGA and I'm bound to have some sort of fun!

Really, Im doing stuff!

2009-02-17T11:40:00.001-06:00

Photo 39
Originally uploaded by mlochk22@

And lots of it! Trips to St. Louis, furniture shopping (that was successful), getting sick, having "deadlines" on knitting stuff, etc.

Just busy!

So, at this point, I've finished Mikes socks, pics coming if I dont forget! LOL! (I realize, Im really bad about post pics here because I post them on my Ravelry project pages.)

I'm now working on some disclothes for my sorta neices wedding coming up in May for part of their wedding gift, a pair of house socks that any of us can wear, depending on who gets to them first, and a pair of regular socks for me! Yeah!!

I'm also contemplating which damn sweater I want to make as well...more about that later.

Our house is a damn mess with stuff being brought in, held, moved out, and the generalized craziness of things. The tv arrived last night and is huge compared to what Im used to, the furniture should be here hopefully next week and then all that will be left is paiting, which will be a while still.

So, longer post soon, or maybe I'll fix this one up some and add more pics, we'll just wait and see!

Upgrading the house, a 2009 undertaking!

2009-02-01T12:56:00.002-06:00

We are upgrading some things in the house this year and thought I would share this stuff with you all as you might just enjoy it! Or something like that! :-D

The pics include the two old bookshelves that we have now gotten rid of, Mike working hard on putting them together, and the semi finished result. I say semi finished because we will be taking it down later this summer in order to paint and stain it. Although I guess first I have to figure out what color to paint the room. Damnit, this year, we ARE going to paint this room!

More to come soon, as we will have a new tv "system" within the month!

Feta Salsa

2009-02-01T09:56:00.002-06:00

Feta Salsa
Originally uploaded by mlochk22@

Oh Smitten Kitchen, how I love thee!! You have some of the *best* recipes on the face of the planet.

This stuff may look like puke, but it tastes like *heaven*!! I had soooo many requests for the recipe, that I finally had to save it to my work computer to easily access it and print it!

I also brought this to our office CHRISTMAS party (yup, something else I haven't blogged about for a while), and there was only about a 2 spoonfuls left, and if I hadn't snatched it up to take home so Mike could have some, I don't think there would have been ANYTHING left!! It was *that* good.

Snowball Cake Balls

2009-02-01T09:47:00.002-06:00

Snowball Cake Balls
Originally uploaded by mlochk22@

Yes, a very late posting about these (since this was for the office CHRISTMAS party!!), but a posting finally anyway!

As per Bakerella's formula, I made Snowball Cake Balls. It was chocolate cake mix, vanilla frosting and white almond bark to cover. Some had coconut pressed onto the tops while they were still damp, others did not. And yes, they were awesomely good!

I only came home with about 7 of them (out of the 50 or 60 I took to work with me). Talk about *good*!! Everyone now wants me to make the red velvet ones I had made this last summer, so that they can try that variety as well!

Because

2009-01-25T16:24:00.001-06:00

102_0724
Originally uploaded by mlochk22@

I have a headache, don't really feel like blogging and am feeling immensely soppy, I share a pic of my hubby, which I really like. To the weak knee point. Ah, what a cutie!

And that concludes my blog post for this week.

Brief knitting update:

Still working on scarf
Still working on shawl thingie
Still working on Mikes socks
Thinking about starting me a pair of socks courtesy of WendyKnits knit1 magazine pattern...don't know when I'll start it, but sometime.

Also, had a good time in St Louis, will share the few pics I took next week.

Daytrip!!

2009-01-18T14:48:00.003-06:00

Since having time to post for the next 16 weeks is going to be limited thanks to school, here's my post for the week:

After a few very unpleasant days of frigid temps, we had a very wonderful opportunity to get out into the mid 40's day and go somewhere. We decided on Hermann, MO, land of the grapes and wines! Yummy!

A slideshow of our trip to Hermann.

Please note the MO river that is teeming with ice floes. Wonderful weather. Too bad the pics don't give you any idea of how quickly the river was moving that day. Also, there are pics of the wines we, ok, I (since I'm the only one in this house that drinks) bought yesterday.

We stopped at the Hermannhof winery and ate a lunch there of meat, cheese, bread, apple, true german potato salad, wine for me and juice for hubby. It was a wonderful date and day spent with Mike. I hope we get to do this again soon.

The Kitty Socks from Hell...

2009-01-11T11:14:00.001-06:00

Photo 33
Originally uploaded by mlochk22@

aptly named for the hell the first sock put me through! See previous posts for link to the pattern. Here is the whole story as shared on my Ravelry project page!

11/23: started these tonight! Yeah, new socks to enjoy!
11/24: oops, never talk while trying to concentrate on w&t, it will screw you up if you haven’t done it much! So, after trying to tink it, I had to frog it to be fixed…restart! And this time, I’ll use stitch markers to keep track of my wrap and turns!
11/27: Somehow I have managed to get my sock all screwed up…I’m purling when I should be knitting! WTF?!?!?! I’m not sure how I managed that one, but, I tried to tink it back to where I started the foot from the toes, and no such luck…back to frogging it again!! DAMNIT!!
11/27: Yup, you guessed it, AGAIN!!! I had only gotten to the tip of the toe when I realized I’d been NOT reading the directions like I should have been. You only slip a stitch 2 times, not every time! DAMNIT! When am I going to learn?
12/27: I’ve missed out on a lot with this sock in the telling of the story, but lets just give the highlights shall we? I made the sock long enough to fit my bosses size 11 womens feet and had to frog back (which I managed to do amazingly well!), left the lifeline in and proceeded to start on the heel, which could also be called yet another form of hell! Yup, screwed it up a few times and had to frog back to the lifeline, which I thankfully kept in. Smartest thing I’d done to date.
The second smartest thing I’ve done on this sock was to pick up 3 stitches on each side to help close in the hole from the heel. I did a knit, k2tog then a ssk, knit for one row on those extra stitches then a knit on the next row repeating until I had made the extra stitches go poof! And it look very nice if I say so myself.
Needless to say, I’m still working on it slowly, and my current desire to make other stuff right now isn’t helping me get this one done. But thats okay, it will still be there whenever I want to work on it!
12/31: finished the first sock and surprise!! Its a smidgen too big…damn. Oh well, I’ll wear them anyway! and maybe (hoping here) they will shrink a smidgen later on and wind up being perfect! Here’s to hoping. I’ll start the second sock tomorrow, I do believe!
1/4: This second sock is going much, much faster than the first one! Im only one full pattern repeat away from starting on the heel, believe it or not! How cool is that? Much much much faster this time around, and so far: NO MISTAKES! Heres keeping the fingers crossed that it stays that way!
1/9: Finally finished and wore them to work today! Didn’t even wash them first! LOL! I was too excited! It took me two days to get 8 rows completed on these, due to life getting in the way, you know what I mean, I’m sure! Good pics to follow! Soon, I hope!

I hope you enjoyed this wonderful masterpiece of oopsies and screw-ups and finally: REDEMPTION! wOoT!!

On the other hand: I'm already bustin out another sock for Mike, since he truly appreciates them! I'll share that info soon too. I need to get them done asap, since school resumes tomorrow and I have a *very* full classload!

My Kitty Socks!

2009-01-04T09:37:00.002-06:00

Photo 27
Originally uploaded by mlochk22@

Ive gotten one of my kitty socks completed, finally! I had a hell of a time with getting this one right and it stretched it somewhat, so maybe after a washing it wont be a smidgen too large. And if not, thats okay as well. I'll still wear them! And I didn't bind the cuff opening loosely enough, but again, I'll still wear them! I spent way too much time to NOT wear them!

I think this year my goal will to be to blog once a week, probably on Saturday or Sunday. I don't do a lot of blogging anyway, so that shouldn't be too hard of a goal, right? Just 52 blog entries...

Also in my news: I'm working on a big chunky scarf courtesy of knit.1 magazine that I will share next week, maybe by then I will be done with it! I'm pretty far already and it is a quick knit thanks to the super bulky yarn and size 15 U.S. needles! Plus, I'm out of school for another week, so that gives me a bit more time to get this one done and ready to wear! Which, on days that are below freezing, it will be very much so appreciated! Heres a preview for you:

I also made a hat for a friend of mine that I still have yet to send to her, and a hat that I want to make for myself from the same book (101 Designer One-Skein Wonders)...

Well, other than a more spring time scarf/stole thing that I'm working on, also from above mentioned book...

So, hope you enjoy this little bit of a sneak peek at what I'm knitting! I'm certainly having fun with it!

All things Christmasy...

2009-01-04T09:30:00.002-06:00

I just wanted to share all things xmasy with you! Here is a slide show form beginning of xmas to the end! Enjoy it! But be forewarned: LOTS of pic on here! Like, 118! Ah well, if you can't photograph it for posterity, what can you do?

FHS Chorale

2008-12-28T20:54:00.001-06:00

100_0466
Originally uploaded by mlochk22@

My brother is in this choir, not that you can see him! But here is a small sampling of what they sound like. This was (luckily) a small gathering of just a friends and family and I was thrilled to be invited to go and see him perform with his group.

I miss my brother lots since our falling out, such as it was, and his subsequent adoption and name change, but lets not go there. That he invited us was enough for me to be thrilled. And, amazingly enough, I even managed not to cry! Now that's a miracle!

The Holidays are here!

2008-12-23T18:36:00.002-06:00

Finally, after waiting for them for soooo long, they are right. here. now.

Wow!

Alex is, of course, excited. But who wouldn't be at the ripe old age of 11? There are presents wrapped and waiting, stocking stuffers bought and ready to be stuffed into those lovely stockings. Holiday goodies made, and ate, and made again only to be devoured again. Parties here and there and so on and so on...

I promise to blog more frequently as I have more time, but for now, I'm having too much fun with life to have time to tell the world about it!

Yule tree goodness!

2008-12-06T18:13:00.002-06:00

100_0245
Originally uploaded by mlochk22@

Just wanted to share this years yule tree goodness with everyone! Hope it makes you feel just a little bit happier!

And this is my gramma's christmas tree, done by me (cause noone else is willing to do it worth a damn, but thats a whole 'nother story!):

2008-12-06T17:49:00.001-06:00

Christmas parade pics for this year. It also has some pics of family members as well. And its only 187 pics long too! Damn, what an improvement for me! I hope you enjoy this slice of small town life.

This is what dedication looks like:

2008-11-30T12:06:00.004-06:00

100_0236
Originally uploaded by mlochk22@

And if you've never seen it before, here it is. Over 50 years at our local hospital caring for individuals, remembering house calls, and being paid with whatever the patients could give you, including animals, fruits, and grains, as well as their own hard work. It was wonderful listening to his stories. I found it even more memorable that he asked one of my coworkers (who is slightly younger than I) if she would like to have the painting in his office back, since it was done by her grandmother. Wow, talk about connections to the town people.

I just love how everyone in the pic, but one guy who never smiles, is smiling! Its a warm fuzzy pic!

Adult Tonsillectomy, the rest of it!

2008-11-21T06:44:00.002-06:00

By the Sunday after my tonsillectomy, I had house cleaning to do and was not feeling well still, thanks to that damn cold on top of everything else! I did clean the house, but my weekly home blessing, which normally takes me about 2 hours if stretching it out, took me 4 and a half hours to complete. I didn't realize how quickly I would tire out and have to sit down to rest!

Monday, I went to work. Hindsight is 20/20, and I should've stayed home that day. I tried to do too much and wound up having some post op bleeding. I was fast acting and got it stopped within 5-10 minutes, no big deal. I was still running a fever, so no allergy shot for me! That didn't happen, in fact, until that Friday! I also called the doc, since I had taken my last bit of antibiotics, and was still running a fever. I was told I should be ok, as the antibiotic would stay in my system for about 3-4 more days, after ending it. Turned out all right, in the end. Left work early cause I just couldn't make it through the whole damn day.

Tuesday, should've stayed home, but didn't. Had another smaller bleeding episode. Still had that damn cold (which actually didn't leave until about the middle of the next week) but felt a bit better overall.

I am now feeling really good! It's a month post op, everything looks really good back in there. My best bit of advise that I never thought of...don't use toothpaste that foams. It's difficult to get it out when you're mouth is swollen and it hurts to spit, I used just baking soda and good luck getting to those back teeth! Also, get an appointment for a teeth cleaning, cause you will so want one. I already had on scheduled for the 17th of Nov, almost a month later and they had to scrape and scrape the back teeth, cause they were nasty! I hadn't been able to brush those teeth for about 2 and a half weeks. Also, you will get sick of ice cream and pudding and will do anything to get away from it, I promise you that!

Oh, and would I recommend this to anyone? Only if it's necessary!

Me, you picked me? I really won something? Wow!

2008-11-21T06:27:00.002-06:00

That's right folks, me, the one who never, ever, ever wins anything, won something!

I read a lot of blogs (understatement!!) and one of them is Phat Fiber Sample Box. I really enjoy all of my blogs, and this one is no exception! So when they had a contest on a set of handmade stitch markers from Pedras, I thought "hmmm, why not? I like that set there...not too girly, functional, and I like them." So, left a comment, but didn't think I would win anything! However, I did!!

Wow! I had to read the blog post ~ twice!! LOL!!! How's that for funny? Didn't think it was me the first time...It was my blog name that finally got my attention!

So, my winnings should be on its way soon, as I have emailed Jessie with my RL addy, so here's to learning some more patience!

And to both Jessie and Priscilla, Thanks!!

Just an FYI

2008-11-19T20:55:00.001-06:00

I'm not dead, I promise!! I just got sidetracked!! Lots of pics to come, and some talking, etc.

Sorry for the long delay!

Adult tonsillectomy, post op day 4 (Saturday)

2008-10-26T08:59:00.003-05:00

Guess what y'all? I have a slight cold to go along with all the rest of this madness...now doesn't that just suck ass? It's a good thing that I do sinus irrigation anyway, cause it really does help thin out the mucus and clean ya out somewhat so you can breathe a bit better. On top of everything else too. I did not sleep well last night, probably because my throat hurt sooooo much and because my nose was a bit stuffy last night, so mouth breathing increased really causing my throat to dry out and wake me up from pain. Not even the narcotic pain meds were cutting it completely.

I found out the hard way that cold stuff is not going to do it for me at this point. I just makes my throat hurt worse, rather than soothing it. It was not soothing at all. More like tear producing. So, warm stuff for now for the most part. My ears even hurt to the point of wanting to cause some tears, but what can I do? it's normal after having your tonsils ripped out to have some ear pain to go with it.

I had been told several times by several people that days 4 and 5, or day 4 or 5, were the worst, and I think I've figured out why. Cause by that point you're feeling fairly well, only to have the pain come back in full vengeance to pay ya another little visit. Swallowing brings a whole new sensation of pain, and you have to force yourself to swallow anything, especially since getting dehydrated is BAD! And so is a decrease in blood sugar, which is a definite possibility when you're barely eating a damn thing! Yet another reason why people loose 10 to 15 pounds afterwards. I can barely eat ramen noodles without causing pain, much less anything else! And I'm a few days out! And I don't see it getting any better!

We were supposed to go to a picnic, but with the way I was feeling, I knew that wouldn't be happening for me, so I sent Mike off by himself. Sounds like he had a grand time with all of the local and semi-local geocachers searching out caches and eating up a storm. I slept on and off on the couch sitting up all day. I had my water, my warm tea, and a travel pillow, and stayed just about where I was all day, except to get more to drink, go to the bathroom, or get something to munch on. So, it was a good thing I didn't go, cause I would've been miserable the whole time.

I'm also running a low grade temp again, up to 99.5-ish F. I'm wondering if I should be worried about this at this point, but Dr Simmons said something about not getting my allergy shot come Monday if I'm still running a low grade temp. I may call them on Monday, just to check up on it, but it sounded like maybe he thought I would be on and off for the healing period. I don't know and its better to be safe than sorry, so I will probably go ahead and call him. Maybe I can get some new antibiotics, since the current batch tastes AWFUL!!! And that puts it nicely!

Adult tonsillectomy, post op day 3 (Friday)

2008-10-26T08:43:00.005-05:00

I'm a bit late on this, but so be it!

I felt wonderful on Friday. Got up, had a call from the dr's office stating that my tonsils were benign (which was a plus, because he was somewhat more concerned after he took the one side out and realized it was hard feeling). I folded some laundry, then took a nap, cause that made me fairly tired.

So, off to work I went after my little 45 minute nap. I had already knit one hat and crocheted another for some people at the hospital, plus I had a thank you card to drop off at the OR for the people that took such good care of me. I was there for about an hour and fifteen, then went by my friends work and stayed there for about forty-five minutes and by the time I got home, I was whooped. Completely. I slept for the rest of the afternoon, that's how whooped I was. And my throat HURT!! Too much talking!

I really kinda sucked to feel so well, but yet not be able to do much. Lesson for the day: Don't push yourself so hard!

Now: pic of hat I made for someone special (that isn't in my family...)

I hope he gets some use out of it!

Silly quizzes that I love so...

2008-10-26T08:43:00.001-05:00

Your result for What Your Taste in Art Says About You Test...

Simple, Progressive, and Sensual

25 Ukiyo-e, 20 Islamic, 16 Impressionist, -23 Cubist, -26 Abstract and 8 Renaissance!

Ukiyo-e (浮世絵, Ukiyo-e), "pictures of the floating world", is a genre of Japaneseand paintings produced between the 17th and the 20th centuries. it mostly featured landscapes, historic tales, theatre, and pleasure. Ukiyo is a rather impetuous urban culture that has bloomed in popularity. Although the Japanese were more strict and had many prohibitions it did not affect the rising merchant class and therefore became a floating art form that did not bind itself to the normal ideals of society.

People that chose Ukiyo-e art tend to be more simplistic yet elegant. They don't care much about new style but are comfortable in creating their own. They like the idea of living for the moment and enjoy giving and receiving pleasure. They may be more agreeable than other people and do not like to argue. They do not mind following traditions but are not afraid to move forward to experience other ideas in life. They tend to enjoy nature and the outdoors. They do not mind being more adventurous in their sexual experiences. They enjoy being popular and like being noticed. They have their own unique style of dress and of presenting themselves. They may also tend to be more business oriented or at the very least interested in money making adventures. They might make good entrepreneurs. They are progressive and adaptable.

Take What Your Taste in Art Says About You Test at HelloQuizzy

Post op day 2, adult tonsillectomy

2008-10-24T06:57:00.002-05:00

Today I became brave! Or it sure did feel that way!! I drank some warm tea, not hot!! WARM!!! and it felt pretty good, and I have one and a half cans of soup and boy did that taste great too!! My only complaint was that it had small chunks in it of mushroom, or potato and that was fairly painful to swallow, even after I chewed on it some more. And these pieces were TINY!! Not big chunks, but small ones that any other person would have just swallowed, not even bother to chew up! And boy did it hurt!! I took my narcotic pain medication after that! Next time I know, take tylenol before hand and drink cold ice water to numb it up first, then eat and let the tylenol and cold ice water afterwards help out.

I've been fairly bored and got up and showered today and took the little one to school. Then I came home and did nothing but finish up a knit hat and start and finish a crocheted hat. I hope the recipients like them, since the one is a beanie and the person may not like it and the other is a little large, but I did that so that it would fit over her wigs she wears from time to time without being too binding. I think on Friday I will go ahead and drop them off and go visit with a friend of mine as well. I should probably try to get out and about some to get prepared for monday. I've decided that it is probably a good thing that my job consists of sitting on my rear the majority of the day, or I might find myself just flat worn out! And I may just find that out anyway!

So far so good, but as someone reminded me "the worst day is day 4 or 5". Well, I seem to be defying all the odds anyway from what people were telling me, so maybe that won't happen either. We'll just wait and see!

Post op day 1: Adult tonsillectomy!

2008-10-23T06:51:00.004-05:00

Well, yesterday I was in a bit more pain than the day before. My neck was sore, stiff and painful, I had more swelling than the previous day and it didn't help that I wasn't using the ice packs or eating ice like I should've been. However, I got better in the evening, and felt much better by bedtime.

I've been able to avoid the narcotic pain medication for the most part and use tylenol instead. Granted, it's 650 mg arthritis formula (not that it makes it much different from the regular stuff, just that it's extended release and higher mg per pill), but still, it's just tylenol. I have only been using the narcotics for bedtime or for extreme pain (which I haven't really had too much of!)

I'm very sick of ice cream, and other cold foods, but what do ya do? I'm going to try warm stuff on post op day 2, such as some warm tea and soup. Anything other than ice cream, pudding, jello, etc. I'm sick of it!! And to make it worse, Alex ate pizza last night and it smelled soooo good, as did the saltine crackers he munched on later on!! Man! Does this suck!! Although, I know in my mind that I can't have this stuff cause it will cause extreme pain and possibly bleeding and I have no desire for either of those consequences.

So far I haven't had any post op bleeding and I'd like to keep it that way.

Last night, I slept really well, only waking up twice. Once to go pee the other to get more pain meds cause it woke me up. I also had some post nasal drip that didn't go over real well overnight, also. I haven't done my nasal saline rinse since Tuesday morning, so I guess I will have to do that soon. Nothing worse than chocking on post nasal drip! Good thing I'm not sleeping on just my pillow, cause I'm sure it would've caused me to cough a lot if I had been. Which brings me to the:

TIP OF THE DAY!! When they tell you to sleep with you head slightly elevated, LISTEN!! It really does help keep you from chocking on your own spit for one thing, and from coughing due to things like post nasal drip. I'm using my memory foam pillow, a small kids pillow and a thin adult pillow to help elevate my head up so that I don't choke on my own saliva. Probably a good thing, huh?

I also had a post op fever of 99.7 degrees F, at the highest. After a little research, I decided not to worry about it unless it got above 101 for more than 24 hours. It started late on the day of the surgery and lasted most of all of today. By the evening, it had worn off for the most part. No big deal! And apparently nothing to worry about, so I followed my instincts correctly, this time around.

Well, day after went fairly well, little problems. I hope this reassures some one out there that might be reading this.

The first 24 hours

2008-10-22T07:18:00.003-05:00

after my tonsillectomy went fairly well. Not too much pain, considering I've have strep throat that's hurt more than this. It's more of an annoyance really, but knowing that it will soon be over makes my day! It's the lack of real food that is killing me! Not that I would really want to eat much right now, but I am steadily getting sick of jello, pudding, ice cream, ice, and yogurt. However, tomorrow, I am going to try some warm things, like my tea that I am missing horribly! and maybe some broth type soups. No semi-real food til maybe saturday or later, depending on how my throat looks, and feels, by then.

This was my first ever surgery, first time for anesthesia of any sort, and I scared myself about this procedure by reading too much stuff on the internet! Never, ever, ever look up "adult tonsillectomy" online. You'll begin to wonder what the hell you were thinking about when you agreed to go ahead with this! Everyone complains about the pain and agony, which I personally have little of so far (thanks for the high pain tolerance, whoever!), and how awful their recovery was. Well, so far so good 24 hours later, except for the lack of sleep last night.

For those of you who don't take my advice to never ever look up "adult tonsillectomy" online here is my tips that I have garnered so far:

1. Ice, and a whole bag of it! Chewed up and swallowed it feels sooooooo good, plus it helps keep you hydrated. Although, I'm sure the dentist wouldn't appreciate it, I'm sure, it is just a temporary thing!

2. water to go with the ice and to help keep you hydrated. My advice, get a pitcher, fill it up and keep it in the fridge so it will be good and cold...really.

*odd-ball foot note here: The cold stuff with help keep your blood vessels nice and constricted so that you will have little, or no, post op bleeding, which is always a plus! That post op bleeding will land you in the Emergency Room and possibly back into the Operating Room to re-cauterize your throat and you start out a square one again!

3. cool to cold foods for a few days, such as those mentioned above.

4. an ice collar. sounds strange, but it helps to reduce the swelling that occurs, even on the outside of the neck. By reducing the swelling on both the inside with the cold ice, water, and foods and on the outside, I think it feels gobs better. In fact those were one of the first things I grabbed right after I got up this am.

5. rest!!!! I can't stress that enough. I also believe that is why adults have so many more complications. They try to do too much. I found that out first hand last night, and all I did was get up, dressed, got ice with a little bit of water and then sat in the car to go to my sons school for an awards ceremony. By the time I walked into the school I was already just absolutely exhausted! By the time we got through the 30 minutes of sitting and got out of there, I was ready to sleep! And I really didn't do too much!

So, take the time off work, enjoy being a bum, don't worry about the house work, showering (for the next day, at least), or doing anything that doesn't include your butt firmly planted somewhere that you can sleep at as well! Meaning, the couch or bed! Seriously! That will do more fore you than trying to do so much stuff you make yourself sick!!!

Not to mention, you probably won't be sleeping well at night either, so it's very important to get rest throughout the day! I think I slept on and off all night a total of maybe 5 hours...maybe. I'd say closer to four, but let's not go that extreme. Maybe I slept more than I thougt...

I took a full dose of pain medication (I've been taking half doses this first day) at 11:00 pm, after snoozing some on the couch, took a full glass of water with ice in it to help keep it cold throughout the night and woke up at least 5 times to go pee, a good 10 to 15 times to get a drink of water, and twice for middle of the night pain meds (the first time it was too early, so I just went back to sleep, sorta, for another 30 minutes). I went though the whole glass of water by 6 am, so I got up and got more and laid back down for another hour before getting up for the day, where I'm now sitting on my butt on the couch listening to the news while playing on the computer. Yup, taking it easy.

So there's my advice on this subject, so far. I will probably continue to blog about it for a while, as I continue to add to my diet and activity level. For now, I have knitting to do, so that's exactly what I'm going to do for now!

Lookie at what I have now!!!

2008-10-07T17:15:00.001-05:00

100_0095
Originally uploaded by mlochk22@

A little garter snake for my backyard!! Hurray!!

And before you ask: yes I warned the snake about the lawn mower. And what happens if you meet it...unlike the other snake...

see previous post about my disappointment over that...

Blog your week Thursday...

2008-10-07T16:56:00.001-05:00

as in last thursday, the 2nd of october. Yup, I suck...

Blog your week Wednesday

2008-10-01T21:15:00.002-05:00

After some technical difficulties (ie: bad screwed up camera), and missing yesterday, I got a new camera and did snap a few pics for the day! Enjoy!

Keeping our cool wrap up...

2008-09-30T07:03:00.004-05:00

While our bill went up up up and up for our electric/gas/trash/water, all in one utility bill, I had found Crunchy Chicken and her wonderful challenge. While we had already bought a programable thermostat and were using it, we could still do better and with the cost of utilities rising, that was just the rest of the push we needed to start. And while I'm environmentally minded, others here are not, so using the rising cost of utilities gave my idea the go ahead. Plus, no one here noticed the change until my son said something about 2 weeks before the END of this challenge. Just like a male! So, here's what we did:

I didn't start up the air conditioning until it was over 80 degrees in the house and then I had it set up for 4 different time schedules.

At 5am it kicked in to cool the house to a nice 78 degrees. (And for those of you saying, well, 80 is only 2 degrees more, why bother turning on the air? I have one word: HUMIDITY!!!) Then from 9am til 4pm it was set to 80 degrees (just cause we're not home doesn't mean the sweet kitties have to suffer during the hottest time of the day. From 4pm until 10pm it was set to 78 degrees again and from 10pm until 5am, it was set at a nice warm (actually comfortable) 82. We also kept all the ceiling fans going as well.

Not too bad, plus, with the cooler weather we actually had, it didn't feel bad at all. I'm not sure how we would've done had there been ALOT of the 100+degree with 80-100% humidity days. Maybe not as well, though I could be surprised about that one.

And yes, we will be participating in the Freeze challenge as well!

Carmel Apple Pie...

2008-09-30T06:57:00.002-05:00

SLAGA Fall Picnic 2008
Originally uploaded by mlochk22@

I didn't know what this was to begin with, but soon found out that one of the guys brought in a carmel apple pie. It was simply WONDERFUL!! In fact, this is what it looks like when your almost done:

yup, that good!

Blog my week: Monday

2008-09-29T22:21:00.001-05:00

Hospital Picnic 2008

2008-09-21T22:04:00.001-05:00

I wasn't there for very long, but here are the pics that I did take!

Fall is upon us...

2008-09-21T21:50:00.001-05:00

100_0053
Originally uploaded by mlochk22@

I find it somewhat ironic that my birthday just happens to be in the fall when, as I get older, I begin to contemplate the "fall" of my life. Good thing I don't think too hard about this subject, because I could seriously get depressed, considering my birthday falls just right.

Today, in fact, I turned thirty.

A whole new decade in which to learn things.

What have I learned so far?

Not to be such a bitch to those you love, because they can, and sometimes will, leave you to find their own path in their lives. And yes, that has happened to me. And I'm getting more okay about that everyday. Somedays are harder than others though.

You can't change any body, only they can change themselves. Yt another hard learned lesson, but one that worked out beautifully in the end.

Don't be a perfectionist. It only hurts you and everyone around you. If you run around "fixing" everything some else took the time and energy (and love, presumably) to do for you, don't go behind them because it's not done the way "you" want it done. Plus, it stops them from wanting to do anything for you ever again. And we won't even get into what it does to your heart and stress levels! Plus, for some of us, it stops us dead in our tracks and keeps us from doing anything at all! The best fix I've found for this is www.flylady.net : trust me, it's worth it!

Take time for you. I'm very busy in my life right now, with school, work, child, marriage, trying to keep some friendships going, etc. I still have to take time for me. So, I picked back up my embroidery, found my crochet hooks, got some yarn, picked up knitting needles and began to do stuff that I truly enjoy. Best site for those of us who are truly yarn addicted: www.ravelry.com . Best wait for a website invite, EVER!! And if you're not into that, do what you are into. It's worth it for you and for those around you.

Don't ever follow the pack. It's too easy to get sucked into something you may not truly believe in by doing that. And that includes everything from politics to religion. I am forging my own independent path in those areas, and encouraging my son to do the same. You should too.

I'm sure there is much more that I could wax poetic about, but why bother? Everyone takes something different out of their own life experiences.

As for the pic: I love fall, it's my favorite time of the year. And I especially love the variety of pumpkins and gourds that you can get this time of the year. These pumpkins were at the Dutch Bakery Amish store in Tipton, Missouri. I love going down there whenever possible, you never know what they might have!

There's no place like home...

2008-09-19T07:06:00.001-05:00

100_5450
Originally uploaded by mlochk22@

Or at least, that's the scene that this pic reminds me of. Cutesy little mary jane styled shoes with my very first pair of completed socks! They are a bit bulky because I used sport weight yarn, not fingering, but living in this area, getting fingering weight yarn seem to be next to impossible. Not to mention, the one (cheaper) store that does sell sock yarn sells some in colors I don't like, to tell you the truth.

Of course, I had to change the pattern some cause I'm sill that way, but otherwise, it was all good. I love this pair of socks and have already started on a new pair for me when my cranky husband demanded to know where his pair was?

So...after listening to him complain, I started him a pair using the magic loop method, which I really love doing! I'm going to do that for mine and Alex's handwarmers (dashing and fetching from Knitty.com). I can get both done at once (which it really why I love the ML.

Alex made safety patrol, and since that means he has to be there somewhat earlier (we leave 10 minutes earlier than before), I have to get out of here!! I will be posting pics more frequently, because I now have a small (wonderful!) camera that I received for my birthday, so easy of pic taking has just gone up! No more big camera to drag around, I now have a pocket sized camera to take with me everywhere! Love it!!!

More to come later! And more pics of the socks on flickr.com, just click the pic to get there!

Just in case you hadn't seen these yet...

2008-09-04T20:27:00.001-05:00

100_5461
Originally uploaded by mlochk22@

This is the new "in" toy for the 5th grade set this year: Bakugan. Yet another import from Japan that my son can't live without! But that's ok, he's paying for it, not me! And really, they are kinda cool! You shoot them onto the "gate card" that have metal implanted on them, and they pop open. They shut up like big-ish marbles and open when they get onto metal. They rock!

So I have a confession...

2008-09-04T20:19:00.001-05:00

100_5453
Originally uploaded by mlochk22@

I love some of the kooky Japanese toys, and this is no exception. However, no matter how much I love it, my cats love it more, trust. And if you don't, you are welcome to see for yourself on some of my other pics!

Busy again...

2008-08-21T18:17:00.002-05:00

and too busy to blog apparently!

I have been in the midst of trying to get everything together for my next school stuff (online at www.rctc.edu for my AAS in HIT), which has been somewhat of a total and complete mess!!

I graduated, which I don't think I've blogged about either. It was wonderful yet sad at the same time. I made a lot of great friends over the last 2.5 years, and I'm really going to miss them!

Alex started back to school yesterday (5th grade, oh why doesn't the sky open up and swallow me?? I'm not ready for him to be this old!!) He got the teacher he wanted and is sitting right by one of his friends. His only downside is that his best friend is in the other 5th grade class. And yes, there really is only 2 5th grade classrooms at his school. He goes to the smallest elementary in the district, which I really like.

He's also going to try to be in the safety patrol. First he has to pass a test come Monday. Then we'll have to be at school somewhat earlier than normal. But thanks to the FlyLady, that will not be a problem!

More to come soon! I have gobs of pics and stuff to blog on!

Graduation finally here!

2008-08-04T07:14:00.003-05:00

100_5337_2
Originally uploaded by mlochk22@

I finally graduated with my Associates degree on Friday, August the 1st, 2008. It only took me almost 3 years to complete my education, and I'm glad I did, yet glad it's over at the same time.

For more pics go here.

I just realized that the slideshow doesnt have all 61 pics, only 36, so I must fix that. You can see all by clicking on the pic of me that is linked to flickr.com.

Butterflies @ Ripley's Museum in Branson MO

2008-08-01T08:37:00.001-05:00

100_4627
Originally uploaded by mlochk22@

I just had to share these. Yes, they were real...yes they are now dead and mounted for the enjoyment of the masses. I just think that they are spectacular and just had to share them with you guys. Plus, I'm behind on my blogging from being too busy, so extras to catch up!

These displays are in the hallway going to the bathroom, and some even in the womens bathroom (my dh informed me that there are a variety of pipes in the mens bathroom, not more butterflies/moths), which I did take a picture of.

I absolutely love the wings and how beautiful these things must have been in real life.

I have many more pics of these on flickr, so click and view!

Walking Stick of significance (to us anyway)

2008-08-01T08:26:00.001-05:00

100_5258
Originally uploaded by mlochk22@

We had never seen one of these walking sticks before. Mostly we see the mottled brown or gray tree colored sticks. Maybe some green ones on occasion. But a yellow one with large areas of green and red? Heck no! we ain't never seen a christmas walking stick before!!

We searched the internet but discovered that there are only 2,500 different varieties of walking sticks (with more being found as we speak...), making an exact identification somewhat difficult. Luckily, we have friends. Friends with entomology degrees...

So we got hold of our entomologist buddy, sent a pic via email and got a response back from him. Too bad my hubby deleted it, cause it had the exact scientific name on it (which I'll never remember). I do know, however, that it is the male of the species, cause the female is even larger than it and that it prefers oak leaves and grape vine. If I remember correctly (and don't quote me on this), it's one of the larger species in North America.

Enjoy the pic, more on flickr if you'd like to see them!

Slideshow of Bugs

2008-08-01T07:58:00.001-05:00

I just finished with my small (only 7 pics) slideshow of some of the different bugs we saw over our vacation. Didn't want to overwhelm anyone with the craziness ya know.

enjoy!

Hickory Horned Devil Catterpillar

2008-07-30T10:32:00.001-05:00

100_4971
Originally uploaded by mlochk22@

How beautiful is this thing? And HUGE!! I have several pictures of this in flickr, but since this one gives a good example of how large this thing is, I thought I'd use this one instead.

That is my DH's hand next to this thing. We spotted this large buggie specimen while visiting the Pea Ridge Civil War site in Arkansas during our vacation.

I'll try to get a "montage" of just this guys pics up soon, but for now, I'm just going to blog certain pics over the next couple of days so everyone can share in my vacation. I hope you like the selected pics!

Yup, I'm bored

2008-07-08T22:41:00.003-05:00

I'm playing around on blogthings.com, so thought i'd share some of the silliness!

You Are 88% Feminist

You are a total feminist. This doesn't mean you're a man hater (in fact, you may be a man).

You just think that men and women should be treated equally. It's a simple idea but somehow complicated for the world to put into action.

Are You a Feminist?

here's another one:

You Should Vote for Barack Obama

Where you and Barack Obama agree: Abortion - Education - Immigration - Taxes

Where you and Barack Obama disagree: Cuba - Global Warming - Health Care - The War in Iraq

Who Should You Vote For?

and one of my favorite ones (lol):

You're Not Exactly a Hippie...

While you're not a hippie, you've got the spirit of one.

Like most hippies, you have deep beliefs and unusual interests.

You may not buy into hippie fashions, music, or heavy drug use.

But at heart, you are a free spirit and suspicious of the status quo.

Are You a Hippie?

ok, thats it for tonight!

had to share!

2008-07-08T22:24:00.001-05:00

You Are 46% Evil

You are evil, but you haven't yet mastered the dark side.

Fear not though - you are on your way to world domination.

How Evil Are You?

Nanners?

2008-07-07T21:12:00.001-05:00

100_4516
Originally uploaded by mlochk22@

Nanner peppers? Oh, they are soooo wonderful!! We picked off enough banana peppers to pickle 2 small jars of them. We are so pleased to be seeing the fruit of our labors. Hopefully the pickling is good, I used a fairly basic recipe.

It was just water, white vinegar, sea salt, fresh dill, and fresh garlic with the banana peppers. Here's hoping it turns out alright in about 3 to 4 weeks.

You should see the rest of our stuff that is now starting to come up like crazy, right when we are getting ready to leave for vacation! I did tell Sherri, Alex's step-mom who comes to look after the cats, that she could pick some if she wanted and they were ready. So hopefully any veggies won't get wasted while we're gone.

We also planted some new stuff. Our peas didn't do well so we ripped them out and our onions became waterlogged so they were gone too. We decided to plant some other stuff instead.

We've now added squash, romaine lettuce, and watermelon. Here's hoping it does well. On another note however:

Can any one id this plant??!!? We thought it was a cucumber plant, but it is now very readily apparent that it is NOT, but we don't know what it is!! This really is an accidental planting! Now just for comparisons sake, here is a pic of the cucumbers:

Yeesh, now what else could we possibly have grow in our garden. No cabbage, cause I don't want to cabbage patch kids, dammit!!

New clothes...

2008-07-06T10:57:00.003-05:00

but only cause my hubby is TERRIFIED of me making any of my own. Silly man! But, hey, who am I to complain, I got new clothes outta the deal.

The pics suck, but they do look very nice IRL, including the plaid pants, which just isn't my normal style. But Mike picked them out and liked them immensely, and I really do have to say, I think I like it too.

Join in for the fun!

2008-06-29T15:41:00.000-05:00

Red Velvet Cake Balls, thanks to Bakerella!!

2008-06-29T13:53:00.001-05:00

Red Velvet Cake Balls, thanks to Bakerella!!
Originally uploaded by mlochk22@

I made these for a picnic with mikes dads side of the family, and just wanted to share all the pics I remembered to take, which wasn't many! They went very quickly and I didn't bring home a single one, either!! I was actually grateful for that, as I've been trying to avoid processed sugars and really didn't want to bring them home, as I would have to eat the rest of them!

Don't they look yummy? Mmmmm....must make some more soon!

c'mon and join the fun!!

2008-06-29T11:50:00.002-05:00

come see me here!!

This is really kinda fun!!

Marching Kazoos?

2008-06-29T10:23:00.001-05:00

100_4350
Originally uploaded by mlochk22@

Last weekend was the annual Kingdom Days/Street Fair stuff, and this is one of many parade pics that I have. I just picked this one cause it is too funny. The Futon Family Health Associates have some of the most uptight docs in town, so I'm glad to see at least someone there has a sense of humour!! How's that for hilarious? And yes, they really did march and play a kazoo. It was wonderful...maybe next year I'll ask to join in, just for the fun of it!

King Crab Goodness

2008-06-29T10:16:00.001-05:00

King Crab Goodness
Originally uploaded by mlochk22@

Doesn't this look good?? My in-laws provided us with some of their king crab leg bounty (what they splurged on with their "economic stimulus") and we chowed down for fathers day on these big boys. They were FABULOUS!!

Go ahead and drool...just clean it up afterwards!

Garden pics, latest and greatest!

2008-06-27T18:07:00.001-05:00

Garden pics, latest and greatest!
Originally uploaded by mlochk22@

Here are some pics, finally of all our hard work. As you can see, we have lots of cool stuff coming up, and some stuff that isn't doing as well as we had hoped. But that's okay. You learn from your mistakes, and this picture taking frenzy of mine will also be a good tool for us to use this winter when we're planning out where everything will go and how we should plant the row, etc. All the stuff Mike is looking forward to working on this winter. Me, I just want to plant some unusual looking veggies, like thumbalina carrots or white carrots or asparagus green beans, there's just so many cool ones to plant!

Well, enjoy the pics! More to come soon!

Our accidental plantings

2008-06-11T21:51:00.001-05:00

100_4117
Originally uploaded by mlochk22@

We had no intention of planting these cucumbers where they are, they just wound up there! It actually happened due to a combination of too much rain, washing the seeds out of the furrows and my hubby re-tilling the walkways in order to get out more of the damn weeds.

So, when he took the weeds to fill in an indention in our back yard, what did we find a couple weeks later? Well, yup, cucumber sprouts!! Where they didn't really belong. However, I'm not transplanting the little sob-ing things, so we are just weeding them and put rocks around the area so we don't oopsie and mow them down!

Click on the pick to see all of our garden pics, updated just about weekly!! LOL!! I know, I'm obsessed! And Mike is even worse!

And I so need a banner for my backyard gardening efforts to add to this thing, not that I'd know how to do that...

Newest statuary in Jeff City

2008-06-11T21:33:00.001-05:00

100_4158
Originally uploaded by mlochk22@

Here's one of my favorite pics from the new Lewis and Clark Memorial that was just finally completed not too long ago. Click on the pic to see more from there.

HOLY COW!!

2008-06-08T18:06:00.001-05:00

100_4043
Originally uploaded by mlochk22@

I actually get dressed up from time to time. What a miracle!!

Actually, it was our 6th anniversary, so dressing somewhat nice was definitely in order!

Poor Snakey...

2008-05-27T22:55:00.001-05:00

100_3985
Originally uploaded by mlochk22@

I really really really wanted a snake in my backyard, mainly because I've had a horrible mole problem since last year, when my other garden snake disappeared.

Too bad they hide so well in the grass, otherwise this one might not have become food for the lawnmower. Which was REALLY sad, considering we are only able to mow about once every 2-3 weeks because of the excessive rain we've had here. At least the plants are doing well with all this rain, even if the rest of us are tired of being drippy!!

On another note, I'm learning how to knit, so don't be surprised if a dishcloth/washcloth is made for you as I'm learning my new hobby.

And no, I haven't forgotten about learning how to machine sew. It's just been put on the back burner until I can find some cloth that I really like...

lookie at what im working on..

2008-05-26T23:07:00.000-05:00

Flowers from the backyard

2008-05-20T21:44:00.001-05:00

100_3987
Originally uploaded by mlochk22@

While I have a million things I could be blogging about, like whats up in my life, mikes life, alex's life, etc. I'd rather just stop and smell the flowers and enjoy their beauty.

I hope you can enjoy the beauty too.

After 15 long years...

2008-05-13T20:42:00.001-05:00

tattoo
Originally uploaded by mlochk22@

I finally got my old tattoo covered up!! A few people can totally understand why I'm so darned happy about this, since they have seen my old one!

Just chalk up my old one as "youth's mistake", since I was 14 and thought I knew it all! LOL!! About a year after I had that done, I wished it were something else!! So, I guess, "after 14 long years" might be a more appropriate title!

If you look closely, you can still see the other tattoo (it scarred, so look for the scarring) underneath the new one. I'll have to take a pic of it once it is healed over (this pic was taken the same day it was done) and see if you can still see the scarring from the other one.

I had this done at Fat Tobe's in Osage Beach (at The Lake) by Kent, who did a fabulous job. I can't even begin to express how grateful I am that this skilled man worked there and was able to do such a great job.

I have much more to post about, but have to either a) take the pics or b) upload the pics to my computer or c) upload the pics to flickr! LOL!!
Just wait til you see my garden and my mother's day present!! I also need to take a pic of my valentines day gift! I just find it so hard to find anything to blog about during winter, so now that the beautiful weather is here, I keep remembering things I need/want to do!

And the Answer is...

2008-05-07T20:07:00.003-05:00

I just don't know but it's getting close!! I mean, really, at what point does one stop drivng their cars and go for alternate means of transportation? And yes, folks, I'm referring to the ever rising price of gasoline. Last week Wednesday gas prices jumped up 10 cents to $3.48 and to day it jumped...get ready for this!!

17 cents!!

In one damn day!! That's just crazy!! At this point, I'm super glad that we planted a garden and that we eat mostly venison (really cheap compared) or turkey/chicken/fowl of some sort...and that I live only 1.3 miles away from work. I keep thinking about riding a bike to work, but that would be really weird to bike to work with my dress clothes packed up in a backpack.

But, what else is a person to do when filling up the car will now cost around $53 dollars? For our Subaru?? A compact?? I mean, what are other people doing? And food cost? OI!!!

Ok, there's my bitch session for now.

I think I'm going to go crochet now...it's soothing, compared to worrying about this stuff!

Day in the Life of me...inspired by Crochet by Faye blog

2008-05-05T06:38:00.007-05:00

I just got done reading the crochetbyfaye blog with her rendition of "a day in the life of me" post and since she invited her readers to do the same, I thought...well, what the heck! This is my boring day, since I don't have a lot to do on Mondays, but this will still be fun!

so...here it is!

5:15 am: First alarm goes off and I groan trying to get out of bed to shut it off. I think that maybe I should stay up since it took me 2 minutes to get up out of the bed (after working on our garden all day saturday I'm stiff and sore in lots of odd-ball places), but decide I'm too tired to get up now. I collapse back into bed.

5:45 am: Second alarm goes off. This is the get up and get up now alarm so that I don't have to be rushing around the house and still get my "me" time. Get up, painfully yet again, and stumble into the bathroom with my robe and towel. Drop those off in the bathroom and go get on of my cleaning clothes to "swish and swipe" my bathroom ala FLYlady. Realize yet again that my clock in the bedroom is off by ten minutes, so it's really only 5:35, now 5:40, when I get up. Wonder...am I ever going to get around to changing the time on my alarm. Decide no, cause I do too much in the morning to sleep and extra 10 minutes.

Jump into the nice warm shower and pray really hard that my muscles loosen up a smide, otherwise today is going to really suck as I move around. Good thing my butt stays firmly planted to my office chair the majority of the time.

6:00 am: Go into kitchen after my shower and put up last nights dishes, which I forgot to do last night. Oh well, it's not that big of a deal. Start breakfast for me. I have natural peanut butter on wheat toast, a 12 oz glass of 2% milk, and a mug of hot jasmine tea.

I also stick my head in Alex's room to inform him its about 10 or 15 after if he wants to get up now! He groans and rolls over...ah, wonder where he get that from? LOL!!

6:30 am: Go back in and get alex up now. He's got the tv on cartoon network while reading an old value tale of mine. He seems to enjoy them. But then again, he's a bookaholic just like me and he NEEDED something to read and this was the best I could do for him. Any ten year old with a post high school reading level is certifiably a bookaholic. And these particular book do challenge him, not so much in the reading department but in the thinking department. Anything that challenges your thoughts are good! Also, I stare out the back window enjoying the nice look of our garden that we worked so hard on.

7:00 am: Time for Alex to wander in for a shower while I wander off to get dressed. I really should try to lay out my clothes before hand, but this time of year you never know what the temp will be...Saturday it was 60, today, 80. Yeesh!! We'll all be sick before long.

7:11 am: Remind my DH Mike to call the tattoo place about their hours, so Thursday we can go down and get my old funky ugly ass tattoo covered up. Go and comb out my hair from the attack of the tangles, and pick out clothing for the day. A comfy pair of khakis and a shirt. I choose to wear flats because, well, the back of my thighs HURT!! Yes, I'm whining I know, but I don't think I've worked this hard since I did tae kwon do!

7:30 am: I'm dressed, Alex is dressed, Mike is passed out on the couch. He got off from work a bit ago (7 am) and now he's snoring on the couch. He wakes up and asks me if I'll take Alex to school this morning. Not a problem!! I started my laundry with the eight hour delay, so it should get done right before I get off work. I think about taking my homework with me and laugh. I'd never get a chance to work on it at work, since I'm a day behind at my job as it is! Sign Alex's friday folder and realize I only have a week to find the child a costume for his history class. He's a civil war general and of course he's outgrown the only pair of navy pants he had. I'm thinking black will work and if I can find an old jacket somewhere...decide to worry about this later! Don't have time to now!

8:00 am: show up to work, talk about our respective weekends, get water, say hi to all I meet and settle down to work for the day.

10:10 am: Get a call from the medical clinic. "Hey, do you know what the code for "difficulty concentrating" is?" Look for a while before asking the other two coders in the office. Yeah, that didn't happen, so if anyone out there knows the code for that, let us know would ya? Four of us couldn't figure that one out! You would thing out of the thousands of ICD-9 codes there would be one for "difficulty concentrating"!

10:12 am: Go the bathroom, and realize how stiff I am from sitting all morning. Think about ice cream. Specifically, Haagan Das Vanilla Honey Bee. Yummy and it uses more honey than sugar in it, so that makes it just that much better for when I'm really craving some ice cream. Check out a coworkers online store and laugh at some of the pics of him. He's so goofy. But to plug his site, it's www.crowclothingcompany.com

10:40 am: Eat a snack of wasabi peas. Yummy!! Keep coding away.

12:08 pm: Learn a new word from Dr P. Always learning stuff from him! This time it is "anergy". I'm not telling what it is, you'll have to look it up yourself. I will tell you that it is in the same code with malaise and fatigue.

12:30 pm: Eat lunch, which just happens to be the same damn thing I had for supper last night!! Grrr. Listen to Lucy tell stories about her daughters prom this weekend. She's suffering from culture shock by living in the "big Fulton" after leaving St. Louis. Poor woman, she doesn't know what to think about this town!!

1:43 pm: Post-lunch snooze time. I forgot and ate sugar at lunch. Now I just want to curl up under my desk and sleep. *YAWN*

4:00 pm: Another half an hour to go. Not caught up yet, however I did start on the stack I should have gotten finish today. *sigh* ahh well, that after lunch slump did not help AT ALL!! I can't wait to get the heck out of here. Although, I have a lot to do when I get home!

4:40 pm: Get home, go downstairs to reboot the laundry, realize I left a load in the dryer all weekend, and start another load. Go back upstairs and fold laundry. Start thawing out supper (ham steaks with carrot and asparagus) and working on homework. Listen to Mike talk about how cold it is in our 73 degree house...think he's either crazy or getting sick. Not sure which. I'm going with "crazy" for now!

6:00 pm: Start supper for real now, while still trying to do homework. Mike is keeping Alex amused for me by playing video games with him (one of the few times I'm okay with video games...). The cats think that supper is for them. It's not...but they don't understand that at all apparently!

6:40 pm: Sit down to eat supper together while modern marvels is on in the background.

7:15 pm: Back to my stinking homework. I have too much to do this week and not enough time to do it in.

8:45 pm: Still working on homework, but it's about time to pull it in cause if I look at this stuff much longer I might just puke!

9:00 pm: Get Alex going on getting ready for bed. Go and tuck him in and talk for about 10 minutes or so. Mike's on floor sore, stiff and freezing. Literally shaking with the chills. Get his temp, he's at 100.9, although I think he did it under his arm pit, so add a degree to that. Tell him to take some benadryl for his sinus headache, which is probably a sinus infection (he doesn't drink enough water to keep the snot moving), but forget to tell him to take tylenol or something for his fever. By now its

10:00 pm: Turn on the news, like I could get away from it. Mike's got a journalism degree, so therefore he loves all things newswise. Groan...not my thing. LOL!! Tired of hearing about the body they found and about the accident that killed a lady form town. Just ready for bed.

10:40 pm: Bed time!! Mike is already out cold and I'm ready to be that way myself. I put on my Burt's Bees lip balm (original) and some Burt's miracle salve on my hands, lean over sleeping beauty to turn off the light and go to bed. I use my regular meditation to fall asleep, even though I don't mean to...

11:50 pm: OUCH!! I just got smacked in the face by a very heavy, very *ewwww* sweaty arm. Mike's not sleeping well and is tossing and turning, and apparently breaking his fever, cause he is really, really, really sweaty!! GROSS!! Ah well, such is life and besides, he's slept next to me when I've been sick like that. I get him to roll over back onto his side of the bed, I roll back over and go back to sleep, grateful that it is not even midnight yet.

*Overall*

My basic day by day activities. Pretty boring, eh? Hmm, just a tad bit I suppose. I hope it was somewhat amusing for you guys! Just be grateful I left out the other boring household activities like washing dishes, picking up the house and putting stuff away, etc. Hotspot fire drills ya know! Gotta keep the shiny sink! Work, work, work!!

Backyard Gardening Spring 2008

2008-05-04T10:47:00.001-05:00

Backyard Gardening Spring 2008
Originally uploaded by mlochk22@

Here's what we've been up to this weekend!

We busted soil and asses in order to have our own gardening space in our backyard. The prices of food just keeps going up and up and personally, I'm just tired of paying so much for good, healthy foods.

So, we planted some things that we will have to freeze, can, pickle, or whatever later on this year, but that is what weekends are for! Especially Saturdays and Sundays.

We've worried that they might not do well, but we'll keeping hoping and reading and such that this will work out! If it does, I'm looking forward to fresh beans and lettuce and such to eat whenever I want. Also, no chemicals if I can help it, so then they'll be even better!!

More discussion about this as time goes by. Here's hoping that next week this time or a few days after we will have some new little sprouts from the seeds we planted! Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Frog catchin'

2008-05-03T09:01:00.001-05:00

100_3821
Originally uploaded by mlochk22@

Some group or another has put face on the trees around the walking trail here. I just found them to be too cute and made the family go back a few days after discovering them so that I could take pictures of all of them.

Well, THAT didn't happen!! My cameras battery DIED!! So there are about 20 more faces that I didn't get to take!! So, I guess at some point I'll go either by myself, or maybe with the other goobers in my house to get pictures of the rest.

That being said, I did manage to get a picture of one of my favorites. When Alex and I found this one, I laughed out loud at the absurdness of it all. Where else would you find a tree face EATING a frog?!?! LOL!!

Wait til you see the pics of what we've been up to this weekend. Last weekend we repotted my houseplants (see previous entry...) and this weekend, well...I guess you'll see!! LOL! Be on the look out for pics later on, probably tomorrow or sometime next week!

On other sides of my life, I am working on household helpers on my crocheting, such as reusable swiffer covers so that I can mop with it (and it works well, since I used it last week and it was so very damn easy!!) and some "sponges", pics of which I still have to take and share :) .

On another aspect of life, work is good...we've had our hours cut down some, but I'm alright as far as that goes, as at this time I'm gaining more PTO time than I'm having to burn. Whatever, I'm doing better than lots of others at the hospital are since I never really use my time.

And the last bit, school will be done in about 9 more weeks and graduation will be in August. I'm looking for a tiara (albeit, a small one) to put on under my cap as a great laugh for all of us! After this long, we all deserve to be "queens of the day!" and the tiara would be a great way to remind everyone of that fact!! LOL! I can't wait to see everyones reactions! And the pics will be great! And if I could find them in bulk for cheap, I'd buy them for all the girls to wear! Hmmm, better get to looking...

Also, while I'm thinking about it, I didn't like baking soda only...too much of a pain and it caused me to break out. I found a powder that works well, but I'm not sure how much safer it is than deodorant. The recycling thing here at the house is going good too. I'm still finding that I throw some things away that could be recycled, especially if I'm in the bathroom, such as toilet paper rolls or the plastic packaging the toilet paper comes in...but it's getting better. Our trash has went form two or three bags per week, to one with major recycling to be put out every week.

Now if I just had a compost pile for the food scraps...Hey hun, I know you'll be reading this later...so, you want to start making me one? I know you can find a good tutorial online somewhere with some research! How bout that for a mothers day or anniversary present? Or for graduation? LOL! But seriously, that and a sewing machine would make my domestic life loverly...

Mama Aloe

2008-04-29T11:49:00.001-05:00

100_3842
Originally uploaded by mlochk22@

I just really wanted to share what we've been up to the last little bit and here's a picture of what we've been doing!

Repotting the big ol mama aloe plant and doing other various such repottings of our other plants.

And no, you can't have this for burns...we have some babys for that purpose!!

A Newb bearing gifts...

2008-04-14T07:01:00.001-05:00

I joined this group not too long ago (like a week or so, really...) and really like the idea of how this works! Plus, it gives me extra motivation! I love working on small things, mainly for the "instant gratification" that goes along with them! So, here is one of my small projects for sharing! And don't worry, I have more to share as later!

This rabbit I made for my son, Alex, for Easter. I used the "Best Bunny" pattern from Lion Brand Yarn. I just think it's sooo cute. I also made another one for a coworker and her daughter but didn't have time to get a picture of it before I had to give it to her.

This was also my first attempt at amigurumi and I think I really like it! In fact, I have a monkey to make for my little one now and will gladly share that too whenever I get done with it!

*cross posted on: http://crochetalong.wordpress.com/

rainbow brite

2008-04-10T17:06:00.001-05:00

rainbow brite
Originally uploaded by mlochk22@

From my ravelry page:

Pattern from http://www.rheatheylia.com/index.php?page=patterns&id=0

I must have pulled this thing apart 5 or 6 times before getting it right. I wasn’t that it was difficult, but that I was sidetracked during the making of the hat, while at MOGA.

I had to frog it because I realized that I had done fpdc on dc that didn’t need them, then I realized I hadn’t been doing the join right, then I somehow or another got an extra five stitches on the hat once I got to the 75 stitches…yeah right, try eighty!! GRRRRR!!

Ah, well, once I got home it went really quickly and I was able to finish it two days after getting home and having to frog it once again…lesson for the weekend was: don’t try to do crochet while at a function with lots of other people who want your undivided attention.

There are a couple of things I will change when or if I use this pattern for myself:

1: I’d change the hook size to an I or max a J, not the K hook that is on the pattern. It turned out way too big using that, so large, in fact, that I couldn’t even put all of the brim round on there…i only put 2 of the four fpdc/bpdc rounds.

2: I will pay attention to my pattern. Repeat after me: I will pay attention to my pattern!

3: I will pay attention to my tension…really! While you can’t tell when wearing it, you can tell when it’s sitting. I’ll do much better next time.

Overall, I love the pattern, and got good feedback on it from the person that I made it for…sortof. I was asked by someone else to make it for nursegirl and he was THRILLED! Which, in turn, makes me happy!

lace cap

2008-04-10T17:03:00.001-05:00

lace cap
Originally uploaded by mlochk22@

Another pic of this hat...don't I look serious? LOL!!

I just so love this cap...I think I'm going to have to make me one!

lace cap

2008-04-10T17:01:00.001-05:00

lace cap
Originally uploaded by mlochk22@

I just absolutely love this patter! it's from interweave knits and is a crochet cap. I just think it's soooo pretty!

I just hope that the person I made it for likes it as well!

wow have i been busy...

2008-04-07T21:44:00.003-05:00

we had a great time at MOGA this weekend...lots of beautiful sunshine (much needed!!), good friends (old and new) and lots of FUN!!

I'll just tell ya to go to flickr and put in MOGA 2008 to find my personal pics of the event!

I've been busy working on thishat for a frined of a friend who has cancer. It's being made in these colors in limelight, lemonaide, blue mint, and watermelon. It is bright and cheerful!

Unfortunately, I screwed up the crocheting on it, so I've frogged it about 5 times and am now almost done with it! YEAH!! I need to have it out by Wednesday if possible.

Anyway, must get back to work and will post a pic of it when done!

And I need to post other pics too...or try to find it on flickr under crochet...LOL!

Fingerless Mitts, as promised....finally!!

2008-03-31T22:08:00.001-05:00

Craftyness
Originally uploaded by mlochk22@

I just had to show you this! I was finally able to get my blog to work with my flickr account, so I'm just absolutely thrilled!

Anyway, here is my wonderful pic of my fingerless mitts based off of a pattern I found (and then discovered was on ravelry.com - wOoT!!) located at:

http://creativeyarn.blogspot.com/

This lady is INCREDIBLE!! And I love so many of her creations!

Anyway, that's it for right now...back to school work I go!

Time out for me...

2008-03-25T19:31:00.002-05:00

my computer crapped out, so I won't be posting as much as I attempt to...don't worry about me though! I will be back soon!

Gonna try this...

2008-03-23T15:40:00.000-05:00

and hope it works...

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

I so have to share this pic!!

2008-03-23T14:50:00.003-05:00

I think this would be perfect for mike and i as our gc.com name is arthur and trillian! What do you think?

Check it out here!

P.S. If I can ever get my blog settings set up on flickr, I'll stop using links...wish me luck, cause I've tried about 6 times now to get it set up and still haven't managed it...

Anybody have any ideas?

Thanks in advance!

On Ravelry...

2008-03-22T11:30:00.003-05:00

I am a very pleased member of Ravelry and I just love that site! I have so many wonderful things to look at and to learn more about and to, of course, make! I'm all sorts of smilie about that!

I've posted up some new projects on there and now need to figure out how to get them linked to this blog, so, I guess I'm going to try to get that figured out.

I've also got an account on Flickr (which I've been resisting...but that is what ravelry is linked to, so....ya know...) where the pics of my projects and other personal pics are at but couldn't get the link between this and flickr to work...maybe I can figure out how to get pics by themselves of something...more work for me I guess!

Also, as soon as I get the pics taken of my slippers I will post up the design as well!

Broken promises, yet again!

2008-03-17T20:51:00.002-05:00

I meant to take pictures of my slipper that I made, along with the pattern, but forgot/didn't get around to taking the pics...I have lots of things like that, actually...I'm going to work hard on getting that done soon...I even have a flickr account now also, along with my picasa to make things a little easier...I really miss my tabblo, but they don't have plug-in for iPhoto, so I'm not using it anymore!

Anyway, to change the subject...

did ya know I'm a green kinda gal, and not just because it's St Patty's day? I use only vinegar, baking soda, water, lemon, borax, and a smidge of soap to clean with? Or that I brush my teeth with just a 3 to 1 mix of baking soda and salt? That I'm concerned about the ingredients in our products?

Well, on that note, did ya know that there may be a link between breast cancer and deodorant and makeup? Hmmm...well, I don't wear makeup, but once in a great while, so that doesn't worry me too much...but, the deodorant part does!! Well, skip ahead to me reading thru the "living green" book I received for free a while ago and there is mention of using baking soda as a deodorant!

Do wha?!? So, I look it up online and there is lots about this out there! So, that is my experiment...how well does baking soda work as a deodorant? So far so good, but it's only been two days. I'll let ya know more later!

guess what?

2008-03-15T11:30:00.001-05:00

Wow...time does fly...

2008-03-14T15:33:00.002-05:00

I seem to say that alot on here, but it never fails to amaze me at how much time just zooms by me!!

I'm enjoying my new job doing medical coding...it's kinda fun, learning all the new stuff.

I've been very busy working on my new project, which I finally decided upon!!

I went with the "betty" shrug from berroco, I'm really enjoying my crocheting at this point. I've also still been working on my cloth napkins (the pretty ones!) but I think I'm going to try to find some old remnant fabrics/old napkins, for everyday use that I an put some pretties on soon. I'll have to post up pics soon of what I have gotten done...but it's not much!

I also have my version of mary jane slippers that I finished last weekend and I'll have to post up pics and instuctions (both here and at ravelry!)

anyway, enough for now!!

What a beautiful day!!

2008-03-02T17:17:00.002-06:00

And I spent the vast majority of it in the house working on some crochet stuff...

Not that I minded, trust me!! I now have an absolutely adorable pair of fingerless mittens based off of this pattern by CreativeYarn. I crocheted it in Caron Simply Soft Plum Wine, so it is really girly! So outside the norm for me! But then agian so is all my other crafting things lately!

I'm now working on a matching scarflette, based off of the pattern used for the mitts, photos coming soon!! As well as a pattern.

I figured it must be a wonderful day today, because we had two groups of visitors to our home cache today, very unusual! But nice! Happy caching to those who got out today to do so! We probably would've went out yesterday caching some, except that mike had a stomach bug that just wasn't doing him any favors, so we stayed at home.

I think I'm officially frogging this one for good...

2008-03-01T18:19:00.003-06:00

and it hasn't even gotten off the ground completely yet! To make a long story, well, long, let me explain the story of this one...

I found this beautiful pattern on lion brand yarn's website called "The Curtain Call Shrug", even though it looks more like a boloro to me...

So, I figured out the gauge for my knifty knitter (long loom, blue) and go everything worked out on how long to make the knit/purl ribbing, and how many rows for it and how many rows for the knit only section, etc. etc. I put a lot of hard work into converting this pattern for the knifty knitter, now! And now, I think I want to frog it for a beautiful crochet one I just happened to run across...isn't it beautiful?

But then again, it seems like such a happy, spring-y type of shrug/bolero, I almost hate the thought of making it with my dark sage worsted weight caron simply soft yarn, but yet if I buy any more yarn, my DH might kill me!! So...to frog or not to frog...

let's just wait and see!

I've been busy!!

2008-02-29T17:12:00.004-06:00

Very very busy! I've been sewing and kniffty knitting my little soul away!!

And I have pics (finally) uploaded!! Amazing, isn't it? Yup Yup, sure is!!

So, here's the first batch of stuff!!

So, here is the cell phone holder that I made. I made this for the cell phone I finally broke down and got! I'm not much of a cell phone fan myself, so really didn't care if I had one or not. And now that I got one for cheap (pay as you go one for 10 bucks) I'm not about to go spending a bunch of money on a holder for it! But yet, I don't want the screen to get scratched up (my dh went and removed the "protective plastic covering" from the screen, which I always leave on...) so this was an "invention" of necessity.

I have since decided that I hate the big nose-like button that I crocheted, and I think I'm going to replace it with a larger real button. I'll see what I can find at our local podunk Wally Fart's. Probably nothing nice, that's for sure!

I made it with Bernat Haven (don't remember the exact type and I don't think they make it anymore either) in orange and yellow. I used the blue round loom made it wide enough for my cell phone and long enough to fold over just like I wanted it to before knitting off of the loom.

Then I crocheted the edges together to make the pouch. I single crocheted the little "clasp" piece and Viola! it is done!!

Or something like that!!

Enjoy!

How pretty...

2008-02-23T12:31:00.002-06:00

while reading my weekly blogs (I have lots of them I just love to read) I came across this website, thanks to enchanted crafts.

I thought, oh how neat, gotta try it!

So, here's mine!

Click here to create your own painting.

I think it looks like me!

Now you go try!

Here's the deal...

2008-02-22T22:16:00.004-06:00

I am so planning on a day at home tomorrow, so pics will be forthcoming of the other projects I have done in the last few weeks, as well as some other stuff.

I'm also buying myself some stuff from Sublime Stitching cause it is just what I wanted to do with my napkins that I STILL haven't worked on yet!! I know, bad me, but that's another one of those things that I'm going to work on tomorrow too, if all goes well!!

Here's to hope!

OK, so I lied...

2008-02-20T06:26:00.002-06:00

I do have photos of one other project that I didn't show off yet!! Holy cow! What on earth was I thinking! LOL! Anyway, heres a pic of my project that I made using the provo craft site for a baby blanket. This was also given to my coworker who had a baby this last December. It went along with the the little fuzzy hat that I gave them also.

If you couldn't guess, it was made on my blue long loom from knifty knitter/provo craft. It's all one piece made from carron soft brand in soft pink (obviously it was made for a girl) using all pegs and making 100 rows. (without joining together, ie: flat panel, not in the round) It turned out so good!! I just loved it!

Here's some closer up pics of the border, which was crocheted in the shell pattern, I think...it was also on the pattern from knifty knitter.

This one is really close up!

I was pretty darn proud of this thing...and by now I'm hooked!

I have so many things I've made and need to take pics of, I'll try to get to that this weekend...maybe! LOL!

Wow, yet again time flies...

2008-02-19T21:51:00.003-06:00

especially when you're busy! I've still got the pictures just waiting to be TAKEN still of projects I have worked on. My shawl, my quickie (and kinda ugly, but WARM!) shrug, Alex's blanket, my little cell phone cozy (since I decided to join the cell phone crazy world, you have no idea how much I dislike the damn things!), and who knows what all else that I have yet to take pics of!

I guess I need to do that soon as well as get my act together and get some other projects (like my napkins) done as well.

And to top it all off, my hubby agreed to do some scrapbook pages for a geocaching friend (or something) and we all know I'll be the one doing that! I don't really mind tho...gives me a reason to blow off some other thing or another! LOL!

Let's see, what else is up?

We went to see Body Worlds 3 in St Louis this last weekend, stayed at the Drury Inn next to Union Station, ate at Maggie O'Briens (god do I love that place...) and had fun swimming in the pool while laughing at the nasty weather! Totally worth the "splurge" for the fun the three of us had!

I can't think of anything else going on right now, really, so I guess I'll just leave you with a pretty pic!

I just have to agree with Apartment Therapy (pic courtesy of...AT of course!) that this is one romantic look! And yup, I've always dreamed of having that in my house as well!

Here's the link!

Let's post some more stuff I've made on the KK

2008-02-10T09:49:00.000-06:00

Why not? I have gobs of small stuff that I've made this winter and I know others would appreciate seeing them and how I made them. I still have to take pics of three things that I've made (a shawl, a shrug, and a lapghan) before I can post about them, tho!!

I'll show you my DH's scarf and hat set that I made, or maybe my scarf and hat set....hmmmm. Decisions decisions.

Lets do mine first since I made it first, shall we?

Here's a pic of my hat that I made using the lion brand homespun yarn ( I oh so love that type of yarn, let me tell you!! It's so wonderful to feel!)

It was made on the yellow long loom (I didn't have any of the round looms yet) using just the typical e wrap (can you tell that these are my beginner knits?). I didn't pull up the bottom to make a brim, I just left it to roll (which I like better anyway) and then closed it off using the "beanie" method from the provo hints/tips/projects book that I bought. It was the simplest damn thing to do anyway! How hard is it to sting thread through all of the loops and pull tight and tie it off? It just worked!

I realized as I was looking through my pics that I don't have one of my scarf at all, so there is another pic I must take!

In lieu of that, here's a cute pic of my hat being posed with one of my pitty pats!

More stuff to blog about, that I should've done long ago...

2008-02-08T20:09:00.000-06:00

Here's another one of my little projects that I worked on over this winter.

There wasn't much to this hat, to tell you the truth. It was made with the same pink yarn as the scarf that I made with the added bonus of "fun fur" in soft pink also. I made it on the pink long loom, using the simple e wrap on all pegs all the way around. I have NO clue, whatsoever, how many rows it was, but it fit the baby perfectly well.

I made this one for one of my coworkers who was having her second baby girl, Brooklynn. I hope she gets a little bit of use out of it.

More kk stuff!!

2008-02-07T17:13:00.001-06:00

Here's one pic of the scarf I made this winter, before Christmas, for our adopt-a-family little girl (about 7-ish) through our local Serve center at work. I REALLY REALLY love this scarf! Like you just wouldn't even believe!!

I made this scarf on the small pink long loom from provo craft using the figure eight for the very first row and what provo craft calls the "fashion stitch" for the rest of the scarf. I didn't count rows on this one. Instead, I just borrowed my 10 year old son from time to time to check the length of the scarf. As you can imagine, my camo loving boy didn't like the pink fuzzy scarf. I figured that once it was long enough for my 4'10" son, it would surely fit even a large little girl. The stitches were also similar to the previous scarf I showed (the one for my son) so that it would be warm when needed and cool when running around all crazy!

I just hope that the little girl who received it loved it. I was, and still am, afraid that she is a major tomboy and using a scarf like that one just would NOT do for her. I suppose I'll never know!

Wow, another week gone!

2008-01-25T18:25:00.001-06:00

I just can't believe it's been that long already!!

I guess I need to share some news around here, don't I? I have been busy knifty knitting my sons blanket, which I just realized today, I have sewn together some of the panels on wrong and now need to fix. Grrrr....but ah well, what can ya do?

I think I'll add a pic here of one thing I have gotten completed on my kk for you guys to view, finally!!

I made this scarf for alex to use, it's worsted weight yarn, very soft, in a darker green to match up with his camo coat (he's a boy and camo is soooooo popular, ya know!!

It was made with the pink long loom using all pegs with only one strand of the yarn, in order to keep it light while running and playing, but its long enough he can wrap it a few times to make it warmer, depending on the circumstances. I used the "figure eight" wrap on all rows. It was really fun and now I think I'm hooked (excuse the pun...)

More to follow soon, I promise!