Dancing Queen

No idea where she gets the dance moves from, but she definitely makes it work. The outfit was a Christmas gift and right now, a bride is just as good as a Princess in Peanut's book.

Distracting You With Cuteness

I'm plugging along on holiday gifts. I'm feeling really good about where I am. Peanut's teachers are each getting a pair of Fetching gloves. Her lone male teacher may receive a hat or a more manly pair of fingerless gloves. Jury's still out on that one. Peanut has made many requests that her baby receive some sort of knit clothing soon as well. Well, "requests" wouldn't exactly describe how she's asking...demands is more like it. Each time she sees me knitting, she'll stop me to ask if that's for her or her baby? Because in her mind, there are only these two options.

We put our cool new tree up. She loved it. I let her put on whatever she wanted and did not move anything. We have large gaping holes and other branches that hold five ornaments each. She loves it and it's her tree, too.

My friend, Jennifer was given a grocery bag full of dress up stuff. She passed it along to Peanut. Here she is in her Princess Costume glory complete with accessories.

This is her "cha cha" outfit. That's a flapper dress with hat..and a pink holster and bunched up skirt to compliment the ensemble.

We visited Santa at her school...

There were no tears...no deep frowns...I think we've turned the corner on our Santa fears. I caught her hugging his leg as he was trying to leave. Her liking him and understanding his role in our Christmas celebration means that he's also become a major bargaining tool. The look on her face was priceless when I let it slip I had his phone number and could call him if he needed an update on whether she's been naughty or nice.

Let's say she had a "naughty" day on Wednesday when she and her buddy TP'd the girls bathroom at school. I know those huge rolls of TP are tempting...and it's something I would have loved to have done at 4...it was hard not to smile when her teacher told me.

Lions and Tigers and Bears...Oh my!

Peanut attended her first play on Saturday. We went to see the Howell Community theater's production of The Wizard of Oz. It was wonderful! Peanut had a lot of questions as the stage play does stray from the movie a bit and she had a hard time wrapping her head around the fact that we were in the same room as Glenda and The Wicked Witch of the West. She insisted on wearing her "Good Witch" dress instead of her kind-of-looks-like-Dorothy sundress. I'm glad she did. There was a sea of Dorothys and just one Glenda. And from the number of pairs we saw on Saturday, Target must have a hard time keeping red sparkly shoes in stock. We watched Return to Oz once we got home. That's 2 hours of my life I'll never have back. Horrible movie. I kept trying to persuade Peanut to abandon it and watch something else, but she stuck it out until the end. I made the mistake of putting it on and then going to put laundry away...when I cam back, Dorothy was on a table hooked up and ready to receive electric shock therapy. Evidently, her stories of Oz weren't all that well received by Aunt Em and Uncle Henry when she came back. I asked Peanut what was going on and she said she wasn't quite sure and insisted on watching the movie. I sat down with her to oversee the rest of it. Dorothy lucks out because a storm comes in before they can fire up the equipment and she escapes to Oz with a chicken....and that's all I'll say about that. Don't waste your time, though.

We visited the Knitting Den on Saturday to take advantage of their 25% off sale. I've received 3 emails and a phone call about this sale...so we went. I still hate the store. No one ever greets you and it's almost like they act like it's a privilege they let you in to buy things. I hate the way it's layed out and it's insanely impossible to get to everything if there are people sitting around the table in the middle of the store. I'm thinking that's going to be my last visit there. There are too many other good shops within 20 mins of the house that I want to spend my money at.

I finished the crazy pink eyelash scarf for Peanut. Photos coming soon. I'm making my way across the back of Haiku for her...I can't wait to see how this turns out.

Pouty Princess, FOs and 7 Things

Here's the pouty princess from Halloween. That's a genuine Sleeping Beauty dress, crown & wand from the Disney store. The crown she got for her birthday. The wand was a Chicago souvenir and Aunt Peanut, who spoils her rotten, got her the dress. Similar to The Blue Dress from last year, the kid would wear it 24/7 if I let her. This was the first year she "got" trick or treating. I've never seen the kid move so fast or run for so long in her entire life. It was pretty comical and she went the distance going the whole 2 hours without a complaint.

It's a little blurry, but it's my favorite picture of the night. This was taken just as we were wrapping up for the night. The kid wound up with an insane amount of candy. About 1/3 of it wound up at my office. We still have 2 gallon size ziplocs full at home. She's limited to 1 piece a day. We're set for a while.

I finished up some projects..

I finished a baby sweater for a coworker. It's Little Lamb sweater from Precious Layettes to Knit. It's done in red LB Cotton-Ease with lady bug buttons. It was very well received.

The sweater wasn't finished in time for her work shower, so she got these little guys then. They're Baby Eyelet socks made out of left over tofutsies. I hate the yarn. Enough that I don't care if I misspell it or not. It splits and bunches and I'll never, ever buy it again.

Ages ago, Amby tagged me with a meme. I've never been tagged before and quickly did the 7 things list. And then it sat in my My Documents until today. Sorry, Amby. Thanks for tagging me!

So, here are the rules.

1. Link to your tagger and post rules

2. Share 7 facts about yourself, some random and some weird

3. Tag 7 people at the end of post and list their names

4. Let them know they were tagged by a comment on their blog

1. I am the youngest, oldest, middle and only child for my family. Between my mom & dad, I'm the only. For my mom, I'm the oldest. For my dad, I'm the youngest biologically but when you factor in my steps, I'm in the middle. I believe I have traits from all of the birth orders because of this.

2. When playing cards, I cannot touch my cards until the final card has been dealt or flipped over, depending on the game. If I do, then it completely ruins the hand for me.

3. While I have an extensive ice cube tray collection, I tend to drink my beverages without ice and don't mind them warm or room temperature. (IKEA has some really great silicone ones with different shapes)

4. I hate Seinfeld. Hate it with a passion. The music from the show instantly puts me in a bad mood. One of my roommates in college was obsessed with it and now I work with guys that watch it nightly and then enjoy discussing it at length every morning.

5. I went to college to be a radio producer or an accountant. CMU had a great hands on program for radio at the time and they had a nationally accredited Accounting program as well. I took 2 BCA classes before my prof distributed typical salary ranges for the field...I switched to business. After taking an accounting class, I knew that was not my calling and went with a General business Major. One of my fraternity (AKPsi) advisers bluntly told me to pick something or quit school. Management Information Systems was the major with the shortest list of required classes, so I went with that. So, I have a BSBA with an MIS major.

6. I am Irish on both sides, so that's what I claim to be. My mother's maiden name and my maiden name are very, very common names in Ireland.

7. Knicknames that I've had are: Janetteski, MammaJ, Mudslide, Jaynet, J, JoanJett

As for the tagging part...well, if 7 of you still read this after my sporadic postings the last year or so, please consider yourself tagged.

And I shall name her Sparky...

My father and step-mother were avid bowlers. My dad worked afternoons and bowled on at least 2 leagues a week. Sunday nights with them were usually spent at an alley somewhere begging for quarters to play the video games. Bowling on a league seemed like such a cool, adult thing to do. The idea of joining a mixed league was tossed around in the last few years, but unforeseen circumstances never made it a reality...until this year.

Some friends and I formed a team and blindly joined a league that bowls every other weekend. We are not good, but we have a fabulous time! That's the whole point. To get out, meet new people and have a good time.

I've never had my own bowling ball. It always seemed so extravagant considering I rarely bowled and I wasn't any good. With joining the league, it's obvious I will not get any better using a house ball. I've been struggling with whether or not to buy one. Again, it seems like such a frivolous thing. I got shoes on sale a couple of years ago. They made sense because you pay $3.50 each time to rent them. Paying $9.99 for the pair I have means that they've already paid for themselves and then some.

On Tuesday, Peanut had to visit the pediatrician. I was a little freaked out about the why (and finding out later, justifiably so). We stopped to get gas on the way home and when I put the pump back into the holster, I noticed someone had dropped their credit card. It was raining...and to take it into the station, I'd have to pull Peanut out of the car and it'd be a pain. But then I thought, if that was my credit card I'd want someone to turn it in for me...so I did just that. When we got home, I found a check in the mail from our previous cable company telling me I had overpaid them. Huh? How did that happen? The amount of the check was just enough to cover a new ball.....

So I picked out Sparky. She'll come home with us on Thursday. I'll test her out on Friday. On Saturday, she'll be tweaked (if needed) and then used for league night. This photo really doesn't do her justice. She seems to twinkle like the night sky. Hopefully she can help my 93 average.

There has been a lot of knitting and photos of it, but they're trapped in the camera. I finished a pair of baby eyelet socks that were gifted to a coworker. I'm also working on a red baby sweater. I finished the first of the BFF socks and I'm nearing the end of the toe increases on the second. For some reason, lace seems to keep coming up. I'm wondering if I might be ready for a real like project soon. Maybe that'll be a 2008 thing. I would still like to get a little cardigan knit up for Peanut. I also picked up a few skeins of an awful fun fur at the Dollar Store to make into a princess worthy scarf for her.

We hit Zoo Boo last weekend....it was fun, but not really worth the money. If you have little kids that would tire easily from traditional trick or treating, then it's definitely worth it. A gaggle of kids aged 3 - 6 made quick work of the 13 stops and stingy candy amounts. I'm glad we did it, but I don't know that we'll do it again.

Oh! And I've been on Ravelry for a while now...I'm jbknits over there too. Might as well stay consistent, right?

This is what 4 looks like...

Peanut and The Monkees share the same birthday. I always forget to ask what time they were born.

The celebration of 4 started with a party at Peanut's dad's house and they visited Build A Bear. She came home with a pretty new pink bear. It has been given the honor of residing in her bed without her shoes.

The party continued when she got home with the party with my immediate family. I think she was happy with the Princess cake by way of Costco.

Tuesday, was her actual birthday. She took cupcakes & frosting to school to have a snack that they could decorate first. I picked her up early to go have dinner at Big Boy with Gram and Aunt Peanut. Big Boy is her new favorite restaurant for some reason. She chose to have hotcakes with apples & whipped cream for dinner. It was her birthday and she was allowed to choose to have whatever she wanted. That's the point of birthday dinners, right? That was followed up with a giant chocolate ice cream and carmel sauce sundae. Before she slipped into a sugar coma, we headed to Chuck E Cheese for a couple of hours.

40 hrs later, we were on a train headed for Chicago. This was a trip I'd been planning for seven months with one of my best friends from CMU. Her little guy turned 4 on 9/30, so it was a birthday present to both of them. We headed to Shedd Aquarium on Friday. She was most excited about the dolphins and beluga whales. She fell asleep on the city bus on the way back to the hotel and I had a really hard time waking her. I'd say she definitely enjoyed the aquarium.

On Saturday, we visited the Children's Museum on Navy Pier. What an awesome place! We had the best time there. We spent the afternoon on Navy Pier and finished up the day on the Magnificent Mile. I thought she would faint from the Princess display at the Disney store. Here she is modeling her new jammies and dolls from the day.

Peanut's other big birthday gift was a Leapster. The kid loves this thing more than I could have imagined. She's pretty good about only playing it for 30 mins or so at a time.

The last year has been tough on us both and I think we've weathered it well. She's recently snapped out of a phase where I affectionately referred to her as "The Devil". I was worried it was never going to end, but it did and I am so thankful for the sweet little girl that has emerged. While I'm sad that she's growing up so quick, I'm excited for the little person she's becoming. I can't wait to see what other adventures are in store for us, but I'm thrilled to have her to share them with.

Yeah for September!!

I am thrilled to say we’re settling in fabulously into the new apartment. Peanut loves it and actually cries when we go back to visit our old neighbors because she thinks we’re going back to the house. Each time we pull into the apartment complex she chirps “Yeah! New Apartment!!” from the back seat. She and I put up some of the wall stickers we bought earlier this summer to decorate her room. They are super cute and have made a big difference. We’ve found that the balcony is the perfect place for blowing bubbles.

As much as I’ve talked about the how wonderful my dear former neighbors are, it’s been really hard to not talk about the bad things. Not about the neighbors, but people involved with the house. It’s taken a great deal of self control to not say things that would enflame the situation. There’s a lot of biting my tongue going on and my tongue is nearly bitten off. I have never, in my life met a more rude, mean spirited person. With the information I found today, I can now add greedy. I don’t know how I’m surprised by this considering I found out recently that she took the neighbor kids to court for playing in the street. She lost and now has a PPO in place that she cannot even drive down specific areas of the neighborhood. I know that I have scored major brownie points by being the better person and not sinking to her level, but I hope the Good Lord realizes the amount of strength it’s taken to do this. No wonder I’m getting 10 spi on the sock I’m knitting.

I cast on for a scarf for Aunt Peanut. She was promised a lace scarf nearly two years ago. I even bought some beautiful Elann Peruvian Baby Cashmere in this eggplant color. It’s like butter. I cast on for Branching Out, but doing the repeat twice over for double width. Monday night, I pulled it out. I hated it. I grabbed a new ball and cast on for Wendy’s Flickering Flames Scarf. I don’t know if I’ve made a mistake or I just need to learn to trust the pattern…but I’m not far enough along with it to pass judgment yet. I’m hoping to have this done in time to give it to her for her birthday in October.

I’ve also been working on a mini afghan for BFF’s mom. She collects dolls and has a smaller sized chair that one of them sits in. She wanted a mini throw to drape on the back. I’m doing a feather and fan pattern with some acrylic baby yarn in a cream color. As soon as I can find the book I got the pattern from to get the ending rows, I’ll be done with it. I think she’s going to love it.

What I’m most excited about right now is bowling. A group of us have formed a team and signed up for a league at the local bowling alley. It’s every other Saturday and Peanut’s Dad has been kind enough to switch his visits to correspond with my bowling nights. I’ve always wanted to do a bowling league and I think it’s going to be a blast. I’m hoping Santa will bring me my own ball for Christmas!

Thanks for hanging in there with me, even through the photo-less posts. Photos will return soon, I promise. I have a good idea as to where the camera and the cable for it are. Now I just need to find the time to put them together with the computer.