One of those days.....

Believe me I'm franticly knitting... today.

Lama Milk?

Yesterday morning Hunter got up remembering that we had run out of milk the night before and just positive that there was no more milk, he stated that he was certain that they'd have to eat "dry cereal or something else". So as he busied himself organizing the kids cabinet in the kitchen, I went into the garage fridge and brought out a gallon of milk that we had purchased the previous night. Fortunately for me Hunter didn't see this. So I walked back into the kitchen barely missing his head with the gallon and plopped the gallon on the counter top as I fixed 4 bowls of cereal. Eventually he looked up and recognized the milk container, but made the comment that he didn't know what kind of milk this was because the label on the container was different. Me, being my usual self, jumped at the chance to totally blow the kid away. *Hey I just couldn't resist.* So I quickly filled in that Dad had, had to go to a different store for our milk last night and all he could find was Lama Milk! Lama Milk? came the startled reply. Yep! Lama Milk, so you'll have to let me know if you like it or not. To my amazement Hunter and Parker gobbled up the cereal with a unusual amount of gusto and lots of yummy noises following each bite. At the end of their breakfast they just raved about the new Lama Milk. Eventually Olivia and Jolie came upstairs and the boys couldn't wait to tell them

about our new milk. Olivia barely tolerates milk in her cereal and never has been a fan of the drink. Both girls sat down and once again raves and yummy noises floated into the family room from the breakfast room. They too, raved about the milk, Olivia included! (Wow! I think I have hit on something here.) So last night we went out for Taco's at our favorite local Taquería and on the way home Olivia brought up the wonderful Lama Milk that we have, and how much she really likes it. To quote: "Its so much sweeter than our other milk!" So the picture is of all the kids with Lama Milk Mustaches. Don't know if you can see them, but they're there. You, too, might just look for Lama Milk in your local grocery store the next time your shopping... I hear its really good!

Strange, Fini, Big Weed! and more...

Birds! Remember Alfred Hitchcocks, "The Birds", or Edgar Allen Poe's, "The Raven"? Well we've had a bit of both of those of late. A couple of mornings ago I was sitting in the family room early when I heard a rapping.......... tapping at the................. window. Almost had ya! Got up and found 3 of these guys out on the deck taking turns knocking at the window. They have come back daily and quietly done their tapping until they get tired or something else gets their attention. At which point they fly off until the next morning. We're now anxious to see how long they will keep this up. FYI - we think they are a clutch as they appear young and their reflections really do quite fascinate them.

Finished!, with 1. Have already started the next and expect it to move quickly. We'll see. Have lots of other stuff to do.....like laundry *yuk!*, bathrooms *yuk*, etc. *yuk, yuk!*

I love it! when my children bring me BIG WEEDS! I know, i know. They are showing me how they think of me often and with affection. I love them all, too!

I was able to catch them before they "blew" the "flower!" in the house!

What's this?

Father's Day rituals, Resemblences, Tomato plant, Handwork and more...

Father's Day. Nothing like getting mobbed first thing in the a.m. with gifts and hugs.

Wish it happened everyday....
A Father's Day tradition but I'm the one benefiting from it. Thank you guys for all your hard work. The truck looks great! Check out the different colored bandanna's. We have Baby Blue, Green, Dark Purple and Lite Purple. Our wearer of Red (Jolie) wasn't up for participating as she had partied the previous night at a Birthday Sleep over and was a bit hung over due to lack of sleep.

Jessica and Josh.

Resemblances.

Well I'll let the pics do the talking. Half a continent away these two girls picked guys that really do favor each other without knowing it. wow. I wonder if their personalities are similar? I do know that they both love to cook.

Kaitlyn and Ivan.

Max checking out what this green thing is that we brought into HIS! territory... He finally decided that since it was edible......... IT can stay.

We went to the Farmer's Market Saturday a.m. and found this wonderful buy. 1 gallon "Sunny Tomato" plant with almost ripe cherry tomatoes for $4. The kids are already placing dibs on the various tomatoes for future snack times.

My "NUTKIN" sock at a different angle so that the pattern is easily seen. I was beginning to get frustrated with the pics not showing the pattern. You know I think this pattern is aptly named as I'm getting a bit nutty about it. I know of some other "nutty" individuals who might benefit from owning this particular pattern of sock. So if in the future you receive a pair from me........ Well........... I do love you.

My latest creation and Hunter was kind enough to model it for me. It is a delightful little bag that is plenty large enough to put a bottle of wine, small loaf of bread, cheese and some grapes in to go to a favorite picnic area, park, beach or mountain trail for some quiet time and just to enjoy the company. It has a drawstring top closeur and the handle I made at an angle to help distribute the weight (when fully packed) better. Its my own creation I don't have a pattern for it. I suspect that I'll need to figure it out though as I can see many uses for this style in many sizes.

Dinner for two............. only.

Since this doesn't happen.......... ever........., I felt it was picture worthy. If for no other reason than it will probably never happen again in my lifetime.

Barbecue Chicken quarters, Caesar Salad, and Sourdough Bread with a Glass of white wine for me and H2O for David.

It was good.....
This is how Kristina would spend every afternoon if given the choice. Just showered, head wrapped in towel, curled up on couch covered with holey afghan, reading a book. She can stay in this particular fashion for hours if left alone to just peruse the favorite book of the day. BUT! she doesn't like anyone knowing this.

Happy Father's Day

1 year ago....

Still miss her a lot...

Make a Splash, clouds, and more...

Well the "Make A Splash" has started at our house! "Make A Splash" is sponsored by the library and with every 15 minutes that the kids read they get to mark off a splash drop on the form and at the end when all 24 splash marks are colored in they receive a prize. They also get bonus marks for each hour of reading completed and the chance to win a special bonus prize. So of course with this competitive bunch the stack of books came home, the timer came out and the reading commenced.

Just a few pic's of some of our clouds for this evening. I wish the camera picked up the colors better.

Can you see the moon off to the right? I really enjoyed watching the clouds go by this evening while we were outside reading, knitting, etc. Just really pretty.

Started another sock yesterday. Nutkin. This sock has a cuff and having never done a cuff before, I ended up becoming very frustrated with trying to knit the pattern as instructed. I guess its my left handedness that ultimately is my downfall with some patterns. So I always have to come up with an alternative. This is my solution. Without going into a long discussion about this, I had to pick up and knit 64 previously knitted stitches together with the 13th row. That's not quite as easy as it may sound.

So today I have moved right along and this is the ankle that I have done. I know that you can't see the pattern really well. Its the angle that I'm taking the picture at, I'm sure. Tomorrow I'll try some different angles and we'll see what works best. But the color is Eggplant and the yarn is Malabrigo (Merino Wool- yummy!). This pattern is just so quick, once you get past the cuff ;-), and I'm anxious to get the sock completed by perhaps this weekend. We'll see. Of course, I then have the second one to knit....

Knitting Quickie! Well..... and the dog.

Finally finished this little wrap. Again a fun, no thinking pattern. I love doing these types on occasion.


My newest model acquistion, Jolie! She couldn't wait to model this bag. We all love this addition to the knitting finishings. Can't wait to take it to the Farmers Markets and Knitting meetings.

Kristina always has to check out the inside of everything. This bag just seems to never end in what its possibly capable of holding... I've got to make this bag again!

Remember the Peruvian Socks? They're done! I had so much fun with this pattern that I can actually see myself doing another pair at some later date. Anyone who knows me, knows that once I do a pattern, I'm done. I'll never to that pattern again. Imagine finding myself pulled to do two of my recently completed patterns again! I'm still amazed....




Can we say.............relaxed.

48*! I can't believe it!

Its about 8 a.m. and this is what we have to look forward to for the day. Our high is supposed to be 54*. Now someone remind me...... It is... June, right?
Parker is supposed to be attending a Birthday Swim party today. I don't think there is going to be any swimming, now. Our temps for the next few days are supposed to be in the 50's and 60's. To bad I don't have the camping stuff together now! This would be great weather for that...

Spending the night out, nails/screws, camping and more...

Yep! Those are my kids and Yep! they are packed for a night out. They all spent the night at Madison and Cainin's house last Saturday. Kaitlyn slept over at Izzy's house and tried as we did we couldn't off load Kristina. She refused to leave the house and looked forward to watching TV/Movies all evening. Anyway... what a treat for us! David and I went to a favorite Taquaria and marveled at our first night with only 1 child in the house. Everyone had a good time and we're looking forward to having Madison and Cainin come for a sleep over again at our house.
Finally finished my first shawl. This was so easy and fun to do. Almost was able to work on it without looking at the pattern or the shawl!
Kristina was kind enough to model the shawl for me. It looks really cute on her...

My first flat tire. It was a screw that got me (see the screw?!) and thankfully the tire went flat in the garage and not out on the road somewhere. Now the flat is fixed and we have a mini air compressor that works off of a cigarette lighter that is now carried in the saddlebag!

Went out this a.m. for a girl get together and we talked about the camping adventure that I'm trying to pull together. The excitement concerning this outing is growing among the families involved and the idea of having a group camp out is apparently appealing. So the fire is lit and now I have put together a list of needed items and e-mail it out to everyone involved or anyone who has said that they might have items we can borrow. I hope to keep the ball rolling and have our first camp out sometime in the next month. We'll see!

Addendum to Last Day of School....

Yes, Olivia is wearing p.j.'s. Her class got to do that for the last day of school and bring games to share for the day. I think they had a good time.

My ever smiley Jolie!

Hunter and all of his stuff to be gone through, sitting in the seat. Wow! Who knew Kindergartener's had so much.....

What do you know! Just my luck to catch a picture of Parker and his elusive "girlfriend"! Yes, that's Heidi. They have been an item for over half a year and walked to the car and bus every day together. Finally the word came down to me, about a month ago, that she let Parker give her a kiss on the cheek! I'm going to have to keep an eye on these two!

Ice Cream man arrives on the last day of school to help with the celebrations. Now to pick what they all want...

Here is one of the completed socks. I just realized that I hadn't taken any pictures of the completed sock for me to post on my Ravelry account. So here you go. I just love them. The pattern has moved so quickly and what I thought would be a difficult item to knit has turned into a delightful adventure. I hope I come across more patterns like this in the future.

End of school year, start of school and more...

Hunter knows how this family starts the summers! Each year we have someone start off with some injury..... this one landed on his face.

Well with the end of the school year came lots of stuff from the school to home. At some point I have to weed through all of it and find a place for some and get rid of the rest without tears and tantrums. I think last year it took me almos 4 months to finally get through it all. Hopefully this year I'll be able to get it done in a few days. We'll see.
Kaitlyn graduated. This has been a year. But with her graduating from high school she has also started the new life of being a college student at Pikes Peak Community College (PPCC). She has enrolled and hopefully will be able to complete the 15 hours required by the Navy to join this fall. Time will tell. I talked to Mr. Tanski, the principal of Academy On-line, when we picked up Kaitlyn's diploma about the situation of being a "tier 2 school" and where it has gone so far. It quickly reached the state level when initially we tried to get her into the Navy some months back. It has now reached the Secretary of Defense. It's nice to hear that the state of Colorado is following up on this. I hope resolutions are made in a timely manner for others who are following us.

First day of college....

for both of these guys.

Kristina finished her freshman year and is already excited about her Sophmore schedule.

My brood is growing up.