What a HOT HOT HOT weekend!!! Sunday was a busy birthday party day. First party was my old sitter Kim's middle child Tana's 3rd birthday party. Molly and Seth played in the little wading pool to help stay cool while all of us adults just sat around chatting. Kim's hubby Brian hooked up a little water hose to the fan to help mist water on us. It was FABULOUS!!!! Megan spent the whole time there sleeping on a blanket in the shade. We stayed there for about 90 minutes and then scooted over to Nick's house for his oldest child Laine's 6th birthday. He had a little above-ground pool that is just 2 1/2 feet deep. Molly and Seth spent almost 6 HOURS swimming! I finally went in with Megan and it was wonderful! We stayed in about 45 minutes and she LOVED IT SO MUCH!!! Our friend John took this picture on his camera phone of Megan in the pool.



Today the kids and I went to Lake Elmo Park Reserve again and went swimming. Probably spent 2 hours just splashing around enjoying the cool water.

After that we came home and I put the kids' train set together (AGAIN!!!) They've broken that darn set apart and completely trashed every attempt I've made to set up the tracks. Today I brought out my trusty glue gun and glued every one of those darn tracks down!!! No destroying it now! Seth has been playing with it virtually non-stop since about 4pm. 5 hours of play....YAY!!!!

On the knitting..........



22" knit only 58" left!!!!! This is such an addicting pattern! I really want to get Megan's blanket finished and I'm forcing myself to just knit 4 rows of the blanket and then I get to knit more on the scarf. At this rate the scarf will probably be done by the weekend. That and the blanket!

Next up are 2 pairs of knit pants for an internet friend. Just waiting on a couple measurements. Those will FLY once I get the measurements!

Once those are done I have a list a mile long of what I want and what I NEED to knit:
--hat to match the scarf for me
--mittens for me
--hat/mittens for Seth, Molly and Megan
--scarf for Molly
--hat and scarf for Dan for hunting out of blaze orange yarn I'm having Nada and Brad dye for me. They're my favorite dyers anywhere!!!!
--this sweater for Megan. Just have to decide on the yarn!
--felted crowns for Molly and Seth


I'm going to consider this my "master list" and keep updating it in each blog entry from here on out with amount of progress I've made.

Gotta run...the kids are crazy!

Oh, the scarf is just lovely already!!! It's a 26 row repeat pattern that is repeated 19 times. Lots of cabling and shaping and loveliness! It's addicting to knit as well. I knit it until 1am last night. My hands were cramping from all the cabling and I HAD to put it away. Here it is 1 1/2 repeats into the pattern. Oh, I can't WAIT for this to be done!!!



I think I want to do something like this coronet hat, but, I think I'll do the same cabling as the scarf, but, with a wider, plain straight edge on one side. Then I'll pick up stitches for the main part of the hat. Oh, it'll be gorgeous!!! I need more yarn, yes, indeedy I do!

I have a friend coming from Eau Claire today and we plan on heading to the beach to keep cool. It's going to be about 99degrees with a heat index of 103 (at least!) The UV index is supposed to be 9 so we'll be FRIED if we don't slather on the sunscreen. It'll be great to see her! Haven't seen B.J. since 4th of July and the kids miss her as well!

I'll hopefully post pics later on scarf progress and pictures from today's adventures.

Oh, man...I have some FUN stuff on the needles right now!!! First is this blanket for Megan


close-up of the pattern


I'm about 1/2 way done with this. I just LOVE it!!!! I should be done with it this week.

Next is this scarf: double knot scarf I'm making one just like the white one. What a cool cabling!!! I'm only 12 rows into it, but, wow!!!


I'm knitting the blanket in Plymouth Encore (wool/acrylic blend) and I like it for a washable wool blend. It'll be really nice to not have to hand-wash this in the event of puke, poop, and other various bodily fluids.

The scarf is being knit out of malabrigo. YUMMY!!!!! What a fluffy cloud of love this scarf will be. FOR ME!!! This is the first thing I've knit FOR ME!!!!!

Well, gotta knit! Talk to you later!!!!

I hate money. No, I don't really hate money, I hate not having ENOUGH money. Not for frivilous things....just for bills, gas and food. I'm about as frugal as they come, but, when you don't have enough, it really bites. I haven't knit for anyone for $$ since before Megan was born, but, I HAVE to now. I can only waitress so many hours a week and there still isn't enough $$. It's not that I don't like knitting for other people, I really do!! I love to see the pictures of your little ones wearing one of my creations and see their excitement getting the package! I love that!!! I just haven't had any time since the new baby and it seems like I'm out of the "loop" of mamas on the Pin who knit for $$. I'm not one of the first people that are thought of when people need woolies. If you're reading this and need wool, LET ME KNOW!!! I can whip up a pair of shorts or pants in a few days to a week TOPS! I have tons of yummy wool here. If you know anyone looking for wool, send them my way!!!!!

FINALLY I finished those stupid purple shorties. LOVE them now that they're done. I'm not sure WHAT the problem was with me not wanting to knit them, but, it's almost as if there was bad "ju-ju" with them for some reason. THANK GOODNESS THEY'RE DONE!!!!!

I realized that Megan's now 3 months old and I had filled out NOTHING in her baby book. Not a single thing. I wrote a few things in there tonight and my goal is to spend just 5-10 minutes a day until it's caught up. Hopefully I'll find that time tomorrow.....

What else is going on here? Molly is growing like a weed! Since the beginning of the summer she's grown at least 2 inches! Just crazy how much she changes weekly. Here's my new favorite picture of her

She was just talking to a bug or something and it just makes me melt! I'm not sure exactly what it is that I love about this picture, it's just her!

We've been spending tons and tons of time outside this summer. We've been to Lake Elmo Park Reserve's man-made swimming hole and it's just the perfect place to spend a sunny day. Lots of clean sandy beach with a nice swimming area. Not too deep. In the middle it's not above Molly's armpits. We also went to my friend Kim's new house and swam in her pool. Here's a few pics from that day:



This one is my friend Kim, her son Ben, Molly, Seth and Megan:

This is where Megan spent most of her day snoozing in her little sunshade:


The kids and I went and picked blueberries last Friday. It was soooooo hot that day! Temperature was right around 99, but, the humidity was AWFUL!!! We picked for about 70 minutes and didn't even fill an entire 5-qt pail. The blueberries were soooo yummy right off the bushes! We ate blueberry pancakes, blueberry oatmeal, blueberry bread and muffins, and bowls of just blueberries. In less than 5 days Molly, Seth & I polished off every one of those blueberries. I love summer!!! Here's Molly and Seth with their buckets. Yes, Seth has pen all over his face. He was trying to draw whiskers.



We also went to the Ramsey Co. fair last Friday. It's one of the last free county fairs in the country and we had a great time! Molly and Seth rode all the different rides w/Dan. Dan's dad came and bought unlimited ride wrist-bands for the kids and Dan so they spent almost 2 hours straight going from ride to ride just having a BLAST!!! Molly and Seth both said the Ferris Wheel was their favorite. They were laughing for hours and just exhausted when we came home. Can't wait until the Minnesota State fair in just a month or so!!!

Dan & Molly

Megan and Seth

Molly must have spent 20 minutes feeding this cow. She was scared last year to do it, but, she sure loved it this year!




I think that's it for now...I probably should head to bed...I'll hopefully post more tomorrow!