one thousand gifts #206-211

206. beautiful fall weather

207. the first night of Bubba's last year of Awana (our club only goes through 6th grade)

208. cheering on the Panthers as they played another good soccer game (even though Bubba’s team lost)

Bubba's the 2nd kid from the right (in the white & black)

209. a new furry friend who just showed up on CJ’s birthday—she’s a beautiful calico, very scrawny, but extremely friendly.  we haven’t seen her in the neighborhood before, so are thinking she was dropped off at the corner near our house.  if she is someone else’s cat, i hope they don’t mind that she seems to have adopted us!

"our" new kitty--Bubba named her Stacie

210. celebrating CJ’s 5^th birthday with family

the birthday boy

opening gifts

211. corn maze fun

castke themed maze with 2 scavenger hunt-type games for the kids to play

which path to take? 

cutie

we made it!

king of the hay stack in mid-jump

we're ready for the hayride

Hope you all have had a "gift" filled week too! 

multitude monday

My weekly Multitudes on Mondays post.  If you're just stopping by for the 1st time, I joined in with this post here.  (Check out the banner below for more information from the person who started it.)

116. another Etsy sale!  yay!
117. a shopping day today (Just to put this into perspective, it takes about an hour and fifteen minutes for me to get to the nearest Wal-Mart & JC Penney so shopping days like this are few and far between.  We do have some smaller local stores, but the selection is rather limited--especially for clothes.)
118. gift cards (I happened to have had one for JC Penney which I used today!)
119. a husband with a good paying job (to pay for everything above and beyond the gift card amount)
120. McDonald's (not my favorite, but BOTH boys eat the McNuggets so I always plan on it when we're down shopping)
121. finishing another Sherlock Holmes book on my Kindle. wish the free version came with graphics, but otherwise a good read.
122. new outfits for the boys
123. and one for me too
124. shoe inserts for Bubba, who has really low arches. am hoping these give him the arch support he so desperate needs!
125. some new yarn too (I needed it for work!)
126. a good run Saturday for T and Bubba--they ran a 5K for ALS.  T came in 3rd of the men in his age group and Bubba got 1st place (of the 2 boys) in his age group.

 
127. $460 in donations raised by Bubba (with a little help from his daddy)--enough to win the "prize" for his age group--a new iPod Nano!  good job kiddo! and thanks to those of you who gave!
128. a lovely lightning show Saturday night.
129. capturing some digital lightning. :)  isn't it pretty?

It's fair week this week up here and it's supposed to be in the 90s all week. UGH!  I sure hope the heat doesn't make everyone sick!

multitude monday

is it monday again already?  i just about forgot i was going to start posting again today!  here we go...
if you want to see my other multitudes on mondays posts, they began on mother's day with this post.

54. holiday weekend in Duluth with just my hubby!!!   (Thanks AGAIN to my parents for making it possible by taking the kids.)
55. yarn shops!  and getting to shop at 4 in one weekend!  WOOT!
56. a mall to shop at too!  (can you tell we live in the middle of nowhere?)
57. my new purse in a lovely shade of PINK! yes!
58. a couple new outfits too
59. new clothes for my man as well
60. finding a fun gift for hubby's dad (his early b-day/father's day gift)
61. did i mention yarn shops?  well, i should have mentioned my beautiful new yarns and needles too!
62. going out to the movies with my man--we saw Thor, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, and Kung Fu Panda 2 (in 3D).  and yes, we enjoyed them all.
63. coming home
64. hugs and kisses from my boys
65. my hubby's 45th birthday
66. getting our Bible Bee box on Friday (exciting!!!)
67. dinner with my inlaws (to celebrate their eldest son, of course)
68. the first day of summer swim lessons (today)
69. finding out there's another boy in bubba's level who's "behind" on swim lessons so he's not the only 11 year old in level 4
70. time to knit while bubba was in lessons because cj was being such a good boy
71. planting raspberry plants that were given to me (actually, we were originally getting them for my mom, but she let me have them since she already has a few plants and i didn't have any yet)
72. going for a walk with my little man, cj, to try and find monarch caterpillars (no luck this time)
73. finding tadpoles in our front ditch instead!
74. being the kind of mom who catches tadpoles--eight in all--so we can watch them grow legs

75. accidentally catching THIS while trying to get tadpoles and being thrilled even though we didn't know what it was

76. learning that it's a triops (i couldn't find any info to tell me if they are native to minnesota though)
77. going for a family walk and seeing all kinds of wild strawberry plants in blossom.  (gonna have to keep my eyes on those for berries!)
78. pizza
79. falling asleep to the sounds of a gentle rain and distant thunder
80. waking up to the sounds of birds (the one rather loud and crazy bird that has a bunch of different calls was kind of annoying at 4:30am, but otherwise it's kind of a nice way to wake up)

 
On a side note: I decided to put the tadpoles and triops in the same container.  Mr. Triops (as he's been dubbed) eats mosquito larvae and other stuff like that so I'm hoping he'll clean out any bugs from the ditch water we collected with these critters.  Hopefully he won't be hungry enough to eat the tadpoles! Not sure he'd do that, but you never know...

 

They seem to be getting along well enough, but it's only been a few hours. 

multitudes on mondays

continuing my multitudes on mondays that i began last week...

20. a good chiropractor to adjust my neck and back when it's out bad like it was when i woke up thursday
21. feeling less pain in my neck today--it's much better than it's been the past few days
22. my Kindle--i love having so many good books available at my fingertips!
23. free books (for said Kindle)
24. time to knit a new project (testing for another item to sell)
25. an 11 yo who learned how to mow the lawn with this

26. getting some more brushed cleared in the backyard too

27. my parents who came and helped us work on the yard  (Thanks again, Mom and Dad!)
28. the promise of warmer weather for this week
29. sunshine
30. time Sunday afternoon to just read and read and read
31. my first sunburn of the year--on my upper arm--that I got while sitting outside on mom and dad's deck reading my book on my Kindle
32. watching Tangled (for the first time) with Mom and my boys and LOVED it!
33. grateful for Plugged In from FOTF to give reviews of movies so we know if one is okay to watch or not
34. finishing the book i'd been reading this morning
35. sleeping in on a Monday morning--just 'cuz.
36. homeschooling and the flexibility it provides us!
37. a gift from Sonlight curriculum in the mailbox Saturday!  we just love our new 2-in-1 book by Kathryn Otoshi!  Thank you, Sarita and John Holzmann for blessing us with this book!

mother's day memories

1. waking up to my two sweet boys wishing me a "happy mother's day!"
2. a hand-made card from bubba
3. breakfast in bed
4. my hubby and sons sitting on the bed and visiting with me while i ate my breakfast
5. visiting with my own mother in the afternoon
6. getting a mother/daughter photo--neither of us likes having our picture taken!

 7. a yummy dessert

8. going out to a movie with my mom and my eldest son (dad tagged along too)
9. hubby having time to visit with his mom too (cj tagged along with his daddy)
10. hand-picked "flowers" from my four-year-old
11. finding that even dandelions can be beautiful!

 

12. playtime outside since the weather was nice

13. bicycle "races"

14. taking tons of pictures with my hubby's camera
15. talking over some new knitting/crochet design ideas with my mom and getting her input
16. a little time to read
17. a little time to knit
18. realizing i am so very blessed to have my mom live relatively close by
19. feeling blessed to be a mom to two wonderfully crazy and amazingly loving boys

note:  i've been enjoying reading my sil's multitude mondays posts so much that with this post i am jumping in and plan to continue with my own.  so watch for more monday posts like this.  and if you're interested in learning more about multitude mondays click HERE.

Happy Easter!

He is risen!  

He is risen indeed!

For our family, Easter is a time to celebrate.
We celebrate our resurrected Lord Jesus. 
We celebrate the Life He alone gives us.
And to celebrate, we spend time together with loved ones.

This year, we celebrated today (Saturday) with T's family.  Tomorrow, Easter Sunday, we'll celebrate with my parents.  Tomorrow afternoon, Bubba and I will also participate in a special celebration dance.  Up to Faith has organized a "global" dance event--groups and individuals around the world are doing this same dance on Easter Sunday.  We'll record our efforts and send our edited video to Up to Faith who will in turn re-edit ALL the videos they receive together into one!  Wow!  I will try and post a link to the final video once it's available.

1 backyard + 169 plastic eggs + 11 kiddos = a slightly chaotic bit of fun!

 

All the eggs were found. Including the special EMPTY one--a reminder that Jesus' tomb was empty!

He is risen!

He is risen indeed! 

thirteen

lucky or no, thirteen is how many years i've been married to my best friend.  and yes, after 13 years, we're still the best of friends!  i love love love my man and am so very thankful the Lord gave me such a wonderful husband! 

happy anniversary to my sweetheart!  i ♥ u!

4.18.1998

i've put off posting this today because i'm bummed that my man had to leave today.  i'm not talking about the normal go-to-work leave here.  i'm talking about the my-hubby-has-to-go-to-the-cities-7-hours-away-and-won't-be-home-until-thursday-and-i-have-to-spend-my-anniversary-alone-with-the-kiddos kind of leave.  it stinks--at least we think so.  you can take my word on that.  but he had to go for some work-related classes or workshops or whatever they are.  so i understand.  really.  i do.  in my head i do.  but not so much in my heart which tells me he should be here spending our special day with me! 

so what did i do all day?  let's see.  i spent the morning here at my computer.  mostly just doing some perfectioKnits-related stuff and Facebook. and dripping on occasion.  after lunch, i decided to distract myself a bit and did a little baking.  had to use up my nearly black bananas before they weren't usable, so i baked a batch of banana "muffins" for cj who doesn't care for cherries.  {just used the same recipe and baked in muffin cups!}   and then a double batch of my mom's banana-cherry bread.  yum!  the house smells wonderful!  i just wish i hadn't bumped the top of my arm on the edge of the oven as i was reaching in for the bread pans.  yowch!  that hurt.  still does a little.  i used an ice pack to cool it down and it doesn't look like it's going to blister.  still not really sure how that happened.  i'm usually VERY careful when baking!

after my baking, i turned the computer back on and did some more perfectioKnits-related business {found some buttons that i think will be perfect for some of my items. good price.  ordered 2 kinds in lots of 100.  so excited that they're coming from the UK!}

we finally decided on ramen noodles for tonight's dinner. 
[yes, mom, we'll manage.  i even have chicken thawing in the fridge for tomorrow.]
and now i'm back on here writing this while the boys are deciding which movie we're going to watch.  i think they've decided...so it's time for me to go!

sticky buns! yum!

i'm just lovin' my new kitchenaid mixer!  i finally had time friday to make these...

it's one of my all-time favorite recipes--sticky buns.  but without a stand mixer, it was a lot harder to mix up the dough.  my hand mixer just couldn't quite do it properly.  that's why i hadn't made these since before cj was born!  i'm so glad to have the right tool for the job now!  only problem is yummy baked goods like these aren't good for people who are trying to lose weight and not gain more. 

they sure were delicious though!

a few photos

random photos from the past couple of weeks.

wind turbine in ND

Minnkota Power Plant Tour

black bear eating plants in a ditch
(we saw it Sunday on our way over to visit my parents) 

Labor Day at a local Corn Maze!  FUN!

frog catching fun

hole in one of my hand-knit socks. (i fixed it last night)

summer fun

i realize i haven't posted in a while.  not for lack of things to say, but rather lack of time to say them! 

i've been planning a really nice post about our trip out west.  only, i haven't had time (or energy) to go thru the bazillion photos we took to find the few really great ones i'd want to share here.  so, bear with me as i take my time and i WILL post about it...someday.  hopefully sooner than later!

top that off with it being Fair Week here this week which means eating lots of junk foods, rides for the boys, and checking out all the animals and other things that folks have entered.  i've been telling myself for years "next year i'm gonna enter something i've knitted."  and yet again, it's fair time and i don't have anything to enter.  seems like all my projects lately have been either gifts or things that i want to use right away--so MAYBE NEXT YEAR!  we'll see!

here's a couple photos of the boys at the fair

bubba and his best buddy, ty on the tilt-a-whirl

that's right...ty's dad took the big boys on the ferris wheel. 
they're in the blue carriage at the top!

cj enjoying the rides

another fun ride for cj

oh yeah...one more thing.  T ran his first 5K of the summer on the 17th.  placed 2nd of the guys in his age range.  {it wasn't a PR, but it was better than he'd expected since he hadn't been able to train on our trip like he would've liked!}

here he is just about to cross the finish line:

T--the runner in red

it's been a good summer so far.  hard to believe it's already july 22.  and yes, we're still doing a little schoolwork here and there when we can!

so much to say

I've been thinking about a lot of things I want(ed) to write on my blog, but haven't published any new posts in a while. Although there's a lot I want to say, I'm just not finding enough time to write it all down here. Maybe someday I'll get to it.

But not this day. For now, I think I'll just show you all a scrapbook page I made about a week or so ago.

And write more some other time.

only a couple more days

of Olympic {and thus, my Ravelympic} coverage.

here's a quick update.

cj's darkside cowl

Medals were awarded:


Most recent project completed is a pair of fingerless mitts for my mom.

Pattern: Fetching by Cheryl Niamath
Yarn: Cascade 220 wool in Navy #8393
Needles: US8 Bamboo dpns
Started: 2.23.2010
Finished: 2.26.2010
Medals:

I liked how this pair turned out even better than the 1st pair I made last week. Made one pattern change. I didn't go with the picot edge at the top of the mitt. Rather, I used a normal bind off...just doing so in pattern instead. I think I may have to redo the top edge of my brown mitts this way also so it doesn't roll back anymore.