Like A Kid On Christmas...

..or maybe Christmas Eve, but definitely the kid part. My company handed out Christmas bonuses today. Mister and I had previously discussed my Christmas gifts...or really, the lack there of. Not that it's a surprise to many married women, the Mister does not do very well with Christmas. He only has to buy gifts for me from a very specific, typed list. He often takes the list into a store, snags a store helper, points, grunts and pays. If he gets something on sale, that becomes part of my gift as well. I'm quite the proud bargain shopper. So where was I going with this...so the bonus check was handed out and we'd discussed if it were above a certain amount then I would get the one thing I've been coveting for years. I'm preparing to be the proud owner of this. I've even figured out a way to get it online, despite being a freak of America family that does not have a credit card. Hello gift card!! I've already joined a yahoo group to try and get a jump start on tips and tricks. I am determined to produce a blanket for Peanut with it.

This arrived in a newsletter in my mail box. I think my soon to be born nephew, Joshua will need one. He'll be joining big brother, Justin in February. I think I'd like to try it in a washable yarn, though. I'm so excited we live so close to my brother & sister-in-law now. I'm definitely looking forward to snuggling that little man. I missed out on so much with Justin, but we also had a Peanut the same age to snuggle too.

I used my allowance from a few weeks ago to buy Sandy Miner's new book. It has some fabulous patterns in it. I love Sandy's simple designs. They're sized preemie to adult. The money goes to a good cause. It came autographed with a customized thank you note, bookmark and tea. You don't get such a warm & fuzzy feeling from an Amazon shipment.

Santa is bringing Peanut a Big Girl Bed (aka twin). Who knew BGBs (aka Big Girl Bed) would be so expensive. One mattress shop guy explained that there are only two factories that make the foam used in mattresses and one of them was wiped out by Katrina. A few months ago, we could have bought a fabulous set with our budget...now it'll just get us the very basic set. We can't have the princess on a cheap mattress, so we'll be increasing the budget. Aunt Jack has already spent lots of money on the required Dora The Explorer bedding and matching hot pink, tie-dyed sheets. We're trying to convince Peanut that BGs don't use pacis in BGBs and she should leave her pacis out with Santa's snack so he can give them to babies to use them. She just gets paci when she goes to bed in her crib at home. She doesn't use it at daycare and doesn't get it during the day just because. We've always been pretty strict on the usage of the paci. Now we just need to take the final step and cut ties to it all together.

Mister attended his first swank party with me last night. He did pretty well despite being made to wear "preppy" clothes. They had a chocolate fountain that we made friends with. We got there a little late for dinner but I did sneak a potato martini before visiting the fountain. It was my kind of party. You would have thought someone had yelled "fire!" by the way people ran for the coat room after the end of the raffle. The Admin staff work really hard to plan this event and they can't be bothered to stay longer than to hear the higher ups speeches and who won the flat screen tv.

Have I mentioned how amazing our neighbors are? Peanut goes over there for daycare M-F while we're at work. She loves it. We've seen an amazing difference in her since the change. My Aunt had planned on having a slumber party with Peanut while we were at my company party. Mother Nature had another idea. The massive amounts of snow scared her off and we had to call in for back up. Enter the neighbors! There was no hesitation in the offer to keep Peanut for us. When I called to check on them, I couldn't believe my ears when I heard "I really hope you don't mind but I gave her a bath". Um, mind? You must have me confused with someone else. In talking with her today, they invited us over for their New Year's get together.

And to close this manifesto...our ghost story. We've been in the house two months now. We've had some odd stuff happening. Things moving around, but I've chalked it up to my forgetfulness or lack of organization. The strangest has been the TV. Four or five different times now, I've been watching something and the channel will change to A&E. The remote is rendered useless for several minutes and then switches back to what I was originally watching. It finally happened when the whole family was in the same room watching TV the other night. After witnessing it, Mister now believes me and doesn't call me crazy. Now it can't be the neighbor's because we don't have any 3 sides of the house and the ones we do have, have satellite rather than cable. Here's the thing that has me the most convinced. We were all in the spare bedroom going over Christmas gifts. Peanut suddenly became fascinated with playing in the closet. No big deal. The light was on and we were in there. Mister began to notice that she was talking to someone. He then realized that she kept referring to someone named "Neil". She'd go in the closet and tell "Neil" to get back or hide or sit down. Mister told her to give Neil a kiss, she went over to the closet and kissed the door. Now, our Peanut is only 2. She's really not old enough for an imaginary friend just yet. She's just starting to get into pretend play with her baby or tea set. What we've found the most strange is the name "Neil". We know NO ONE with that name. I checked with the neighbors and they don't know a Neil and confirmed that there wasn't a "Neil" character on any of the shows she watches. So our question is, who is Neil? Jennifer also told of her own oddness with their puppy breaking out of his steel cage in the middle of the night. I've decided that Neil is friendly, no matter what he is. It keeps me from allowing my imagination get the best of me when I hear a bump or creak in the middle of the night.

Here comes Santa Claus...

Ahhh...Winter. It brings lovely thoughts of family filled holidays, making new cherished memories and...the flu. Yep, we've been hit. Peanut started showing signs at 11:30 Friday night. It was a downward spiral from there. Saturday morning brought a call from next door saying Mom, Dad and LittleGuy1 were having the same problems as Peanut. I started with it this morning. Peanut goes next door for daycare, so they were well enough to take her today and I get time to take care of myself. What a luxury!

In a clearing of sickness clouds, we attended Mister's Union Christmas Party. What a party they put on! While standing in line for "peetza!" I noticed a familiar face in the crowd...my roommate from my last year of college! Who would have thought? He was just as surprised to see me as I was to see him. My last year at CMU, I lived in the AKPsi house with 6 roommates....a group of guys that liked to call themselves "The Wolf Pack". Good times were had in that house. The boys definitely prepared me for life with Mister. It was great to see him and I gave him my business card. We'll see if I hear from him.
Santa made an appearance at the party. Peanut did pretty well with him last year. I was able to rescue her from his lap before total meltdown happened. See the pained look on her face? 30 seconds more and it wouldn't have been pretty.

And this was this year...She wasn't even up for giving him a chance. Still haven't decided if we'll have time to make the traditional trip up to Sommerset to see their Santa just yet.

Peanut seemed to warm up to the idea of Santa once she opened her new baby, Sarah Lynn from him. Notice the red cheeks and lack of blue, holiday themed sweatshirt. The Blonde Wonder overheats very easily. Waiting in a hallway for 25 mins with a couple hundred other people did her in. I think this was part of the Santa freakout.

To end this post...I'll include one more photo. Seems that little Miss is obsessed with Pink. We don't tend to push it on her, so I'm not sure where it comes from. Here's a photo of her in our bed earlier last week waiting for me to be ready for work and take her next door.

Pink pretties, sunglasses, angel shirt, pants, socks and shoes.

Blanche

Today I attended the memorial for my dear friend Blanche. I can't express how different the office is without her. It's still hard to believe she's gone. When I take Peanut in to see Santa at our holiday breakfast, it'll make me sad to know we won't stop to visit her.

I was pretty proud of myself. I've cried about 100 times off and on the last 10 days. Then this morning I decided that it was absolutely not what she would have wanted. So, I kept upbeat. I made it through the service with just a few tears. I waited for the crowd to clear before paying my respects to her family...the guy in front of me was crying and talking about how much he thought of her and missed her....I said hello to her daughter and just lost it. I felt so bad. It was just too much. I think a few people are going to propose the company use some of the money the employees raise during the holidays to establish a memorial scholarship. I'll be interested to see if that idea goes anywhere, though.

Mister's dad and girlfriend were in for Thanksgiving. The house was immaculate before they got here. It's still a mess and they left on Sunday. I'm tired and glad we only see them once a year. I know it's horrible...I won't go into the details of their visit.

I'm still working on the shawl for Blanche. She always called herself my work grandma so I think it's only fitting that my grandmother receive the shawl once I'm finished. I know she would have liked that. Or I could send it to her daughter. Depends on how long it takes me, I guess.

I picked up the latest copy of Knit It. I'm making the green baby cardigan (made with VelvetSpun) for my good friend Jennifer's baby, Allyson. Jenn peeks in on this blog from time to time, so I'm not going to say anymore about it.

That's about it. I'm going to go put on some jammies and have a bowl of ice cream.

Sad today

The dear woman that I talked about in my last post passed away early this morning. Luckily, I was home with a sick Peanut when I got the news. I've been a mess. I can't even begin to tell you how wonderful she was. Such a classy, classy lady.

Tiny Dancer

I finished the felted ballet slippers. The photos don't really show how much they shrunk. You might think I was well prepared by showing the before photo on a tray with one of Peanut's magnetic numbers for a size reference. I was prepared for the before...but not the after.

Here's the after...I couldn't remember what I'd used for the size reference and grabbed one of the magnets off the fridge. Silly momma...the numbers are larger than the letters. You get the idea. I really liked this little project and will definitely be making them again. These were made with Cascade 220, but I don't recall the color. It's a darker purple than what's showing, though. The Mister was even impressed!


I'm nearly finished with the CMU sweater. I started on a new project today, though. I need another project like a hole in the head, but this one's important. There's a woman that I work with that I just think the world of. She was the first person to go out of her way to come to talk with me when I started at my job 6+ years ago. She's always referred to herself as my "work grandmother". She's had a rough road the last few years. Her son was in a major accident and is now unable to live alone. She doesn't have any other family in the area. On Monday, she started having chest pains and complained to her boss. They called 911 and rushed her to the hospital and then airlifted to a major medical center in the area. They've found that she has two tears in her aorta. She's in for a long road of recovery, but things are looking up. I found a whole mess of old lion brand chenille sensations yarn in the stash. I think it was passed on by my aunt as some of it's crocheted. I've started working on a shawl for her. I'm hoping it'll work up quickly doubled using US13 needles.

In Peanut news, one of her daily reports had the following note on it from daycare TALKED A LOT TODAY!! It's been a verbal explosion! Her new thing is to pick up one of our old landline phones and pretend to talk to someone. This morning she picked it up and said "Hello!! Ummm...question? TALK!!" Some of the words she throws at us are hysterical. She's really becoming such a big girl. I keep wondering where my teeny baby peanut is. Mister and I discussed the possibility of more kids in the future. Right now it wouldn't be smart for our family, but we're not saying we'll never have anymore. The most important factor is my health. I have to get that in check before we can even discuss getting pregnant. We'd like to have kids a few years apart, so I still have some time. Even if we only have Peanut, that's a blessing and we're grateful for the blond wonder in our lives.

Of Mice and Men....

Ah, the joys of country living...field mice. We found signs of them in the undersink kitchen cabinet when we moved in. I bought some of those nice, new dCon traps that offer to trap them without harming them. They've been set for 2 weeks with a smidge of peanut butter to lure them in. Yeah..we caught one. It then proceeded to chew it's way out of the trap and exit the cabinet. It left behind a trail of shredded red and black plastic. Well, I can't have mice running rampant no matter how cute they are. We have resorted to the archaic wood plank/metal spring mouse trap. I feel horrible about them, but I'd feel worse about Peanut encountering one or their calling cards. I can't have that on my watch. Pepper has gone into stalker cat mode and is doing her part as well.

Speaking of Pepper, I have great news. Since moving into the house we have not had a single accident. I guess she hated the apartment as much as we did. She's a totally different cat. I'm so glad we kept her. She's also becoming more like a dog everyday. It's so fun to watch her.

Yesterday at lunch, I shirked my family secretary responsibility of running errands to visit a new yarn shop in the area. After finding the expressway exit closed and turning around twice, I finally arrived at Neighborhood Knits in Dearborn. I've been in four yarn shops in my life, this being the fifth. This is a very small store, but it was incredibly homey and welcoming. Mind you, they'd only been open 3 days but I had the place to myself for most of my visit. The owners are incredibly sweet and were interested in me, not just what I was going to buy from them. With it being a small store, they don't have an overwhelming amount of yarn. They've done a nice job of giving you a sampling of many different yarns. I bought my very first skeins of alpaca yarn. So soft! This will be a lacy scarf for gram or Aunt Jack. I also picked up the Great American Aran Afghan book, a nifty yarn guide tool and a new INOX needle. All of my INOX needles are teflon coated, this one is nickel and is supposed to rival the Addi turbo I've recently acquired. I bought it in a size 4 to hopefully use it to contribute a completed bereavement item to the Preemie Project sometime before Peanut goes to kindergarten. If you're out in the Telegraph & Ford Road area, definitely make the time to stop by. They're having their grand opening the first weekend in December.

I'm still working on the felted ballet slippers. I'm nearly finished with the second one. I'm hoping that will happen tonight, but I have a feeling it won't. Mister has class tonight, so it's just me and Peanut. My father-in-law is coming in for Thanksgiving, so we need to have things in order before then. We still have a lot of "we'll wash it once we move" laundry to do. Having to pay for it in the apartment, we kind of let things pile up. Now that pile is overtaking our master bath.

UFO's are becoming a problem in the house. I still need to wash and sew buttons to the Sunshine sweater to send out to it's gifter. The CMU sweater is in the home stretch, but it needs a hat. I'd love to do a blanket for it too. The Allison Sweater will have to been given to another little Miss as Miss Allison has outgrown it before I could finish it. There's another Allyson I know that is still teeny enough to wear it. I may need to send it her way. I have several preemie project items that are in final stages. Oh, it's a lot to think about. Once the boxes are unpacked, I'm going to refocus on my knitting. That's a promise to myself.

As life slows down...

This is the first weekend in nearly a month that I don't have an apartment to worry about. I can't tell you what a relief that is to me. Mister and his buddy ventured out and picked up our "new" furniture. My friend Lisa moved to Tucson and gave us her living room set. Now that she's a full fledged orthopedic surgeon, she can afford something quite a bit nicer for her new sprawling ranch. She also gave us the table & chairs from her basement. We now have a place to sit and eat in the kitchen. The house kind of feels complete now. The big empty spaces are gone. The boxes have been distributed to the rooms they belong to and are just waiting for someone to unpack them. All in due time. I need a small vacation first.

A couple weeks ago we visited A Stitch In Time in Howell. Very nice LYS. I think it'd be worth the trip out there from time to time. The ladies in the shop were fabulous. It was Mister and Peanut's first LYS trip. They sat down at the big ol' wooden table and hung out while I shopped. They have an awesome selection of Addi Turbos!! I broke down and bought my first one. It's fabulous! I think I'm addicted. I also picked up the Fibertrends felted ballet slipper pattern. I've seen it around online for a while and it was a impulse buy. I got home and found my new needle was just the right size for it and OH! that skein of Cascade 220 in purple was screaming to jump out of the stash. This is the first project I've started without a recipient in mind. It's also my first felted item. I have one done and am barely started on the second. I'm thinking tomorrow might offer some time for progress during the 30 loads of laundry that needs to be done.

Peanut seems to have taken another personality change in the last week. The highs are higher and the lows are lower and they are closer together. Wow. If she was an adult, I'd suggest some paxil or something. I'm sure this too will pass soon.

I did scout out the new Lyon's Den yarn shop in South Lyon. I have yet to find the opportunity to visit. Amy has paid it a visit and said some nice things. I joke with the Mister that they heard we were moving out here and that I would need a LYS. From what I've heard, it's only been open a month or so.

On a sad note, after much discussion with the Mister and a lot of thought...I've decided it would be best for everyone if I stepped down as the Preemie Project Michigan Chapter Co-coordinator. I'm not leaving the group but will now be a volunteer rather than coordinating donations and hospital stuff. It was a hard decision to make, but it would have been selfish for me to continue on when I really don't have the time to keep things in check at home and work and the MI chapter. Jan will now be taking over. She and Laura have been tremendously supportive and I can't even begin to tell them how much I've appreciated it.