Sorry if you get this twice (I also posted on Facebook)

One of my former students is a singer and competing in a  Southern NJ talent competition in the under 18 category. I think she has an amazing voice and a chance to win.

Please take a minute and go vote for her (or if you like one of the others that's ok too..I wont hold that against you)

You can vote on her page here:



Thanks!!!

This post has been percolating in my head for a few days now as I decompressed and came off the "Court High" :o)

Mudthaw was awesome, even though I though my head was going to explode from trying to keep it all a secret from  tonypatriquin   . Keeping secrets is not something we do :o) It's hard to get a vigil prepared and set up when your living with the person and have two toddlers to work around. Thankfully we have a tremendous group of friends that did a huge amount of work to make the day special for Adam and myself. Adam's knighting was everything I had hoped it would be and my elevation to Baroness was a shock I was not ready for. Darius, as always, made sure there was laughter and tears. I have know him for 17 years now and yet he can still shock me :oP
(  I have sent out my thank you's by email, so I won't re-post them here. Instead I will share with you some of my favorite photos. )

Right now I'm listening to Emma and Caleb play on the slide in the living room.

E "Hi Kay! What doing?"
C "Hi Mmm I go"
E "Oh wow wha happen?"
C "I owie"

Both giggle

The interaction between the two of them is incredible. The other morning after getting them dressed Caleb went and sat down next to Emma on the floor and said "Hi Mmmm!" Emma replies "Hi Kay!" then there is some babbling back and forth after which they look at each other and giggle :o)

Caleb's energy is boundless (as some of you saw at 12th night on Saturday) and I sometimes wish he would play a little more independently. As it is now he will play for a few min by himself or with Emma and then demands that I play too. I'm trying to extend the independent play time by a little each week but he is fighting it hard. Right now Caleb is into peoples names and will go through the whole list of people he knows and match them to photos I have.

Emma is a word machine. She can speak in sentences up to five words though sometimes its hard to understand what she is saying unless your tuned to her frequency. She likes to sit and read book after book either by herself or having you read to her and there are many books where she will fill in words if you pause. Emma is also into counting but not always in sequence :o) "1, 2, 3, 8, 9, 10!!!!"

The house is shaping up nicely. Most of the boxes are unpacked and there is art up on the walls. The garage has become an indoor play ground for the winter and early spring. All of the kids yard toys and bikes are inside. Though even with a space heater it has been a little too cold out there...so yesterday I brought the slide and little basketball hoop into the house and we played for quite awhile. It's very funny how full of static they get while playing on the slide!

I have an orchid ready to bloom...it currently has six buds and there might be more. Plus I got my seed order, 90% heirloom seeds this year and I'm planning the raised beds for the backyard. Going to do a combo of square-foot and lasagna gardening. I'm looking at making 3 or 4  4x4 beds that are 12 inches deep. My citrus trees are doing ok...though the move and a case of scale is stressing them a little.

Me...I'm doing well too :o) I'm back to exercising a few times a week and am getting into a routine for housework. I am doing a little knitting here and there but no spinning has gotten done at all which makes me a bit sad. I'm going to bring some to Birka so that my fingers don't forget what to do :o)

Speaking of Birka... The kids will be staying with Adams parents Friday and Saturday, we will pick them up on Sunday midday. So those of you that were looking for a toddler fix will have to wait until Mudthaw..sorry :o(

Mudthaw is getting close. I know there are a few of you that talked about staying here with us (Hugh, Red, Nicola, Svava, Mark, Nicollette and her student...)
If anyone else wants to stay here there is plenty of room and we will be opening up the hosue for a post revel since we will not be attending the feast. The site is a little over 23 miles north of our house.

And now some photos!!!

( Photos behind cut )

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I went over to the condo today to check the mail box. The post office has been lax in forwarding all of our mail and I'm still catching up with changing addresses.

As I pull up to the house I see a small fuzzy black lump in the road.

Macy was hit by a car right in front of the condo and is dead. It must have happened not too long before I pulled up in front of the condo because she was still warm.

I feel awful. She was still in the neighborhood maybe looking to get back into the condo.

I have her here at the house and Adam and I will bury her in the back yard. I think I will have my mom make a small marker out of slate.

A. I'm on Facebook now. It's interesting to catch up with old friends...though I find I'm looking for people who are not on there and wondering what they are up to.

B. New Userpic....it's our porch bear covered with snow. This was taken at our condo February 2007, just before the kids were born.

C. I found a pile of deer poo in the back yard this week. Have not seen any yet, but my neighbor says she saw a buck a few weeks back.

D. Most of the Christmas cards have gone out. I ran out of cards and change of address announcements so I needed to get more. Plus I needed some Hannukkah cards.

E. We have entered the "MINE!" phase of toddler-hood. Emma has decided that it is a good word and she likes the sound of it :oP Caleb very much enjoys saying goodby to the poo in the toilet, loudly and often.

F. Went to the Ped. last week and the kids had a checkup and shots. 4 shots each. Emma did really well but Caleb was a tough one. I was glad to have Adam with me to help.  The stats:

Emma: Head 47.5cm 75%
              Weight 25lb 3oz 50%
              Height 31 3/4 in  30%

Caleb: Head 49cm  80%
             Weight 32 1/2lb 95% (less than I thought he was)
             Height 34in 75%

Of course as soon as the doctor came into the room both of them stopped talking and we had to assure him that they indeed spoke and they used real words that we understood :o)

G. The tree is up (all 9ft of it) and about 1/4 decorated. Emma thinks it's "Pwee" which is the highest praise in this house!

A few photos for you. I have been playing with close face shots and expressions.







I call this one the Darius Face :o)

Today my inlaws came to watch the kids and help around the house (this is a regular Tuesday visit). They got here just as I had put the kids down for a morning nap. Neither of the Beans ate much in the way of breakfast and the runs were still there in both of them but there was no more vomit...which I am truly thankful for!

After talking with the IL's for a bit my MIL told me that I looked tired and asked if I wanted to lay down for a nap....so I did :o) I slept for 4 hours!!! I guess I was more tired than I thought.

Lots of stuff got done today with the help of my IL's:

Laundry almost done
front door weather strip put on
one set of sturdy shelves put up in garage
mouse traps acquired
handrail put up for kids (this is way cool)
TP holder fixed
couch covers washed and put back on...vomit free
rest of leaves put in compost pile
kids got lots of grandparent time

Tonight I got to knit a little on a sweater I have been trying to make for the kids.....well at least I started it :o)

My goal for the rest of the week:

Clean desk some more
Work on planting/gardening area in garage
finish putting SCA stuff away in garage
pull out garb for Saturday
Mail out an Etsy order
Install new stair gate at the top of Basement #1 steps
Hang the last set of curtains on the first floor
Install curtain rods in kids room
Buy 3 magnetic curtain rods (2 for basement 1 for kids room)
FInd a curtain that will block the light coming into the kids room from the door to the balcony
Put together a bag of stuff that needs to go to my parents when they come next week
Drop off recycled plastic bags at the supermarket
hang tool holders in garage
bring kids yard toys into garage for winter
lay out garden space with black plastic and stakes to kill off grass
assemble small greenhouse in garage
caulk master bathroom tub
pay bills
hang some art


hmmmmm...that's a long list :o)

Today was ok up until this afternoon.

Homeowners insurance is double what I budgeted for

Caleb developed the runs and vomited all over me and the couch

The washer hurled the large container of liquid soap onto the floor last night while we slept and about 1/2 of it emptied onto the floor in a gooey mess

The slop sink in the basement keeps clogging up

The combined electric/gas bill came and gave me a bit of a heart attack

The squirrels are eating all the bird food...but they are kinda cute romping all over the back lawn

I would very much like to hang a bat house in the woods behind our house so that come spring we have some natural form of bug control but the houses are expensive and I don't have the time to make one

I'm a little grumpy from all this

It's funny how for about a month I was frantic to find enough boxes.....now I have to get rid of them all!


Things at the new house are progressing:

Plants are set in the garage for the winter
compost pile is built and being filled
the new gutters are up
kids have nice spaces to play
we now have a 9ft pre-lit Christmas tree for the house
my desk area is slowly coming together
lots more curtains are up
we have numbers on the mailbox
I pruned some trees on the property


Things that need working on:

Clearing out the garage enough so that the kids have space to play in bad weather
linen closet shelves need to go up
I need to get my flower bulbs in the ground this week
paintings and photos need to go up on the walls
the steamer trunk we will be using for storage in the Portico room needs cleaning and new leather parts
I need to start putting up the Christmas decorations
I would like a few more shelves in the coat closet and living room closet
need to begin planning landscaping for spring

And here are some photos of the property and kids :o)

Sunday was our second annual apple picking trip with the kids. Adam and I have been going for years and years to a farm called Windy Brow up in the NJ Skylands. It's a beautiful little place and has a good selection of apples. Last year Chris, Kirsten and then 3 month old Gabe joined us for the first time. This year all three kids were mobile and gnawing on apples! We brought home several small pumpkins, pounds and pounds and pounds of apples and a blue Hubbard pumpkin.

I have posted photos from Apple Picking here :o)


Oh! And these are for theresat who gifted Emma with a lovely sweater. Hand spun, dyed AND knit!!!! This is one talented lady :o) It's a perfect weight for the fall and she can almost put it on all by herself.

Cleaning out the basement:



5 gallon bucket (3/4 full) of flower drying silica. Used to dry my bridal bouquet.

Tile mastic....lots of it

Today was new house cleaning day. The house has been occupied by the son of a nephews cousin sons brother....of the former owner up until Friday when he had to clear all of his stuff out. I don't think they gave him much warning that the place was sold and that he would need to clear out. There was some trash, personal belongings, and small odds and ends (including 3 cans of bread crumbs???) that needed to be cleared out.

Our wonderful friends Kirsten, Chris, Anthony, Judy, Matt, Malcolm, Mindy, and my parents all helped us clean the house from top to bottom, windows inside and out, floor to ceiling so that it was dust free and smelling like home :o) It rocked!!!!

We were able to get two trailer loads of stuff into the house and my dad changed all of the locks. All in all a really productive day.

Oh...and Friday night I broke one of the toes on my right foot by dropping a really heavy object on it while packing. It is purple and was clicking when I tried to move it last night....not good :o( But I was able to tape it up and keep moving all day.

Emma and Caleb seem to be doing fine with all the craziness. Except Caleb kept saying "Go home?" throughout the day.

Macy is still missing, however, I have acquired the attentions of a VERY large raccoon who likes my back porch very very much :o{

So tomorrow at 11:00am Adam and I will be closing on the house.

NOW I'M EXCITED!!!!!


Saturday a small team of our friends and family will be descending upon our new house to help us make it our own.....and to clean the heck out of it :oP  We will be preparing to move in on October 11th/12th.

Thank you all for your help, support, mojo and for putting up with my nuttiness over the past few weeks.

The kids are doing really well despite large chunks of their environment being packed into boxes. I have packed some things I am now missing but nothing I can't live without :o)

Lot's of stuff being recycled, "gifted" to other people, tossed, and donated. I don't think I have anything we borrowed from anyone.....but if we do you will get it back in January!

I just had to share this with all of my fabric geek friends.

There is a new site called Spoonflower where you can upload images and they will print them on fabric for you. It's in Beta now and I just got a Beta test invite. Right now they are only printing on a cotton fabric and in limited sizes with (I think) a 3 yard minimum.

This would be a great service for having a whole cloth quilt printed up or having scanned family photos printed on fabric. I know that the photo thing is something you can do with your computer but I bet the price of ink and your time fiddling with everything might be worth having someone else do it.

Just for fun I uploaded a copy of my arms and it tiled it across a 42 inch piece of fabric using a shield that is about 5 inches across the top. Might be cool to mock up my arms and Adam's and create a ground cloth for the kids play area or use the printed fabric to make a cover for the EZ-UP.

Neat-O

I have called and left details at the township shelter and they said they would call if she turned up. I also posted a lost ad on the central NJ Craig's list. Tomorrow I'm going to put up signs in the neighborhood. I even broke down and knocked on the door of the neighborhood crazy cat lady...she's crazy but will keep an eye out on her daily walks.


Thanks for all the ideas and support. I really miss her and I'm worried. Hazel, our older cat seems upset too. Either he is following me around the house or hiding in our bedroom.

Really only knitters would understand :o)


And BATS!!!!!

One of our cats, Macy, slipped out the back door sometime on Sunday and we have not seen her since. By the looks of the back door screen she tried to get back in but we did not hear her and she has not come back. She is big and fluffy and I'm afraid she is caught somewhere and can't get out, not to mention it rained last night.

I am almost to the point of putting lost cat signs up around the neighborhood.

I would very much like to know which one of you gave me this lovely illness.....

The vomiting started last night as did other *discomforts* and has not stopped. As long as I don't eat anything I'm fine (fine meaning that I don't have to live in the bathroom listening to E&C yell "MA!" over the baby gate at the top of their little lungs)

The problem is that I'm really hungry, growly tummy hungry, but nothing is staying in or down :o(

I'm going to go pack and sip some tea while the kids are sleeping. They went down later than normal this afternoon but should be getting up very soon.

The kids are down for a nap....well Caleb is sleeping at least.

Emma is talking to her Llama or her toes or both.

Right now I hear:

"Ma?"
"Daaaaaaaaa?"
"Hello?"
"Hi!"
"How er yooooo?"
"I doh noooo."
"Bye!"
"Gbye Gbye Gby!!!"

She is having a telephone conversation....yes , yes she is.