Summer Break, Week 6

I went to Venue this last weekend. I had not been there since my initial appointment a month ago and I really wanted to check out my inventory. I tried to get Mike to go on his way home on Friday, but we apparently had a miscommunication. He asked me if I wanted him to go to Venue, I said Yes, and he didn't go. When he got home and I asked him about my inventory, he said "I didn't go because you told me not to." I told him NOT to go? Why would I actually tell Mike NOT to check out my inventory and see how well I'm doing? So we had that discussion for awhile...

On Saturday I had already planned to head up north to Edmonds, so I left a bit early to drop by Ballard. I sold 4 more hats and the felted bunny slippers. In one month I've sold 7 items! My display was noticeably bare and I am now ecstatic and in a knitting frenzy all at the same time. I hit 2 yarn stores on my way to Edmonds to stock up and I've been knitting like a mad woman.

Some of these hats are technically for my Etsy store, but since no one seems to know it exists, I may send them on to Venue.

In other news, He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named and his brother have taken up residence in our home (Which is which? Doesn't matter. It seems to be tag-team evilness). We were up very very late the other night at a Little League playoff game for the son of some college friends. Two days later and they both are still so tired they can barely manage to hold their heads up. Eric had a nap today, but the older one Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named has become increasingly more belligerent as the day goes on. We have an evening pool party tomorrow night that I'm looking forward to like a root canal, as that is going to prolong the evilness that is invading my house. Example: last night we brought a tired-to-the-point-of-hysterics-Eric to bed at 7:00. He cried for an hour because I wouldn't make him a batch of pancakes. Right then. In his room.

Ryan continues to sleep in his crawlspace. At this point there is no need to change the sheets on his bed, so it's saving me some laundry.....

Alice continues the peeing, the garden continues to grow, and I continue to do just as much work as I need to in order to maximize my reading and knitting time. It will be a small miracle if the 3 of us live to see Labor Day because I don't know how much more "quality time" I can take if Ryan and Eric continue on their paths to touch each other as much as possible, despite my constant yelling "keep your hands to yourself", while they take turns screaming because each has been touched by his brother....Everyone else in the neighborhood knows that I would like Ryan and Eric to LEAVE EACH OTHER ALONE, so I'm not sure why they're not picking up on it yet.

And we're out of beer.

I'm Just Wild About Harry....

I finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows this morning. I had been reading along for the last couple of days, picking up a couple of chapters here and there, and then I got to about the half-way mark. There was no turning back. I was completely riveted and forsook all other responsibilities until I finished. I had a playdate with Penny and her boys at my house this morning. When she arrived at 10:05, I answered the door with book in hand and said "I have 6 more pages left to go!". She read a magazine until I finished. My kitchen sink was full of dishes, the boys bedrooms were disasters, but I could not waste valuable time tidying up before the playdate. The book needed to be finished, and then discussed!

Book 7 is truly the climax of the entire Harry Potter series and it left me breathless. And so sad. I'm in mourning for the fact that the story is finally finished. I am completely in awe of what is in JK Rowling's head. The movie of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is going to be the most intense 4 hour movie!

In knitting news: I've made a few hats for my etsy store, so it feels good to start restocking. I have no idea what is going on with Venue. I'm suppose to get a check and/or inventory list once a month, but it's strange not having an idea of what I've sold. I can go in anytime, but Ballard isn't exactly on my way to anything....so I hesitate to make more until I know what has been selling. Not that I don't have Peter's gift, a sock, and Cinderella's twin to finish up. I seem to be suffering from Project ADD and would rather start another new item than finish up one of the many I have in progress.

Alice: She peed on Eric's comforter today. Sigh.....In her defense, the comforter was on the floor, practically begging to be peed upon, and the boys all played in Ryan's room, which is in the vicinity of Eric's room. So naturally she should pee in Eric's room. I give up.

The garden: my dahlias are starting to bloom! I have brought forth life in my garden. Walter got serious with the moles in his yard last week and seems to have driven them to our yard. I would yell at him, but they are camping. As far as I'm concerned, camping is what the 2nd circle in Hell is like, so maybe he is being punished enough.

Pastoral Search Committee: our candidate preached this last weekend and it was truly a fabulous day. He received an overwhelming vote of confidence and we're just waiting for him to sign on the dotted line. It has been a long long long year of Monday night meetings, but this last weekend made it all worth it.

The Legos: Eric just got them out again. I think I may cry.

Summer Break, Week 5

Today I tried to be the cool mom. Ryan went to a birthday party at the Lego store yesterday for our friend Henry and had a fabulous time. He experienced a renewed interested in his Legos and could not wait to play with them yesterday afternoon. Ryan is not much of a Lego kid and can go for months without playing with them. So when he got all excited again I decided to help him out.

Today it is raining. Again. For the 8th day in a row. This is unprecedented for July in Seattle. We went from a horrendous heat wave to fall-like weather (only the weather is so NOT fall-like because the humidity is almost unbearable with the cloud cover. The humidity is so high right now that our living room carpet is damp. Again, need I remind you we have no air conditioning? I am determined to complain about this weather until October. Just so you know). So, being the cool mom that I am, I decided today would be Lego Day. We have Harry Potter Legos, Spiderman, Batman, and various Star Wars Legos. They are fairly complicated and Ryan does not have a lot of practice with his Legos. So I agreed to put the sets together for the boys.

And today was a great reminder of why I will never homeschool my kids. Or teach others. Ever. Ryan yelled at me because I was not working fast enough, that I couldn't find the right pieces, and that I was raking through the Lego box too loud. And I was really getting into putting the sets together and was starting to get very annoyed that the boys were getting in the way of my, I mean, our project.

This took all morning. The laundry was abandoned, the kitchen a complete disaster, the living room in desperate need of a vacuum--but I decided Housework Be Damned, We're Going To Have Lego Day! So after about 4 hours of quality Lego time, in which the 3 of us became increasingly more and more annoyed with each other, and I was starting to harbor some serious resentment that I'm only 3 chapters into Harry Potter, Ryan destroyed all of the Legos. Harry Potter's flying car crashed into everything and all of my work was in a million pieces in about 5 seconds.

THIS IS WHY MOMMY DOES NOT PLAY LEGOS! If I'm going to spend 4 hours putting these things together, I want to see my kids play with them for 4 HOURS. I am not going to spend 4 HOURS getting yelled at and criticized, only to have my work completely undone in 4 MINUTES.

I then sent Eric upstairs for a much needed nap. Put Ryan in his room for some much needed quiet time, and I settled down with a bowl of cereal and Harry. Eric appeared 30 minutes later, declaring his nap was done, with Ryan following close behind. Ryan then spend the rest of the afternoon complaining to me that I was not spending any time with him because he wanted us to read Harry Potter together. Not me read to him. He want me to read #7 while he sits next to me and silently reads #3.

First of all, I JUST SPEND ALL MORNING WITH YOU AND YOU YELLED AT ME THE ENTIRE TIME. Second, I am going to do the laundry. Remember this morning when you couldn't find any pants? I'm trying to take care of that for you. I would love nothing more than to sit and read the most anticipated book of the year, but our feet keep sticking to the kitchen floor. And we didn't eat at home yesterday. Third, you know how to read. Feel free to sit down and read. Alone. On your own. By yourself. Independently. That is something I can only dream of these days.

And now your father is home, so you can go yell at him for a while. Harry and I are going to enjoy a nice Mike's Hard together.

And thus begins Summer Break, Week 5. The magic is non stop.

D Day

Spiderman by Day, Harry Potter by Night

Seven year old Ryan has an incredibly vivid imagination. Always has. Ryan has never really expressed an interest in regular "boy" things, like balls, firetrucks, cars, dinosaurs...Ryan's interests are purely fiction. Superheroes, Charlie Brown, Looney Toones, Buzz Lightyear, Harry Potter--the more make-believe the better. He dresses up, draws elaborate comic books, talks with accents--Ryan is a born method actor.

Lately both he and Eric have revived their love of Spiderman. They each have a costume which they wear daily. I have drawings all over my house of regular Spiderman, Black Spiderman, Venom, the Green Goblin. They hang from the swingset and leap from the furniture. It's all Spiderman, all the time. Except at night. Around bedtime Ryan gets into Harry Potter mode. He has always been completely fascinated by Harry Potter. I don't even know how to pinpoint what aspect he finds so interesting. From beginning to end, the story of Harry Potter completely captivates him. He was Harry Potter for Halloween (complete with striped scarf, made by moi), he had a Harry Potter birthday party, and the July 21st square on Ryan's Harry Potter calendar states the arrival of the 7th and final book (which is coming to me, by the way. Ryan sleeps with his books and "loves" them to the point of their demise. Ryan gets paperback versions).

The boys each have an upstairs bedroom with dormers. They are great bedrooms with lots of character and angles. And the favorite part for each of them is the little crawl space in the dormer. It's the perfect little hidey-hole and Ryan has named his the Secret Lab. We put a carpet remnant on the floor for him and have allowed him to decorate any way he wants--he has drawn on the walls and has all kinds of treasures stored away in there.



Ryan is really, really excited about the release of the 7th book. So excited in fact, that he has been sleeping in his Secret Lab, just like Harry Potter has to sleep in the Cupboard Under The Stairs at the Dursley's house. My only caveat is that he must sleep with the door open so he doesn't suffocate to death.

In knitting news, I'm still plugging away at Peter's surprise birthday gift and I'm determined to finish Gordon's hat tonight. I have many baby hats to make, in my head, but I need a trip to the yarn store for some colors. I really want to replenish my Etsy store, but I think it may be another week or two. So, I'll just keep plugging away at the projects I've already started. What a novel idea!

Alice update: you're probably wondering what's up with Alice, as it's been awhile since I've talked about that passive-aggressive-geriatric-peeing-feline. Still peeing. On my bed. I bought new waterproof pads that are working great, so I don't have to completely sanitize and remake my bed every night. But Alice is still same old Alice. Mike was at the pet store buying food for her the other day and somehow he got to talking to the employee about the problem (I'm having a hard time imagining how the conversation got started. "So, I need some food for this cat we use to love, but now we hate her because for some reason she hates us and pees on our bed every day. Do you have any food that might control that problem? Or poison her?"). Apparently when some cats have a hairball problem it often feels like a bladder issue to some cats and they have the immediate urge to pee. So the pet store employee recommended this hairball stuff, which is basically petroleum jelly with cat nip in it. Alice loves it and happily licks a big blob off my finger each night. And pees on my bed the next morning.

Sigh.......

Shotgun

Washington State law mandates that all children under the age of 13 must ride in the back seat of a car (unless there is no back seat, in which case the airbag should be deactivated).

I am convinced that this is brilliantly masked as a safety issue. I think the true reason for this law is that a few members of congress got together one day and started complaining about how sick and tired they were of their kids fighting over the shotgun rule. So they made it illegal for all kids to ride in the front seat. Problem solved. "Kids, I'm sorry, but now you must all sit in the back seat. I know I know--last month it was ok, but now if you sit on the front seat you could die and we would go to jail".

Here are a few other new laws I would like to see:

--Only MOMMY is allowed to open the door when we arrive home. MOMMY must be the first one in the door. If you fight over who gets to cross the threshhold first, you might die and Mommy will go to jail.

--It is illegal for you to get into the van on the side opposite of your car seat. Everyone must enter and exit according to their assigned place. If you don't see your car seat when you open the door, go around and get in on your side. And here is a big hint: your car seat is always on the same side. Always.

--All bathtub faucets should be in the very center of the bathtub, like a fountain. No more fighting over who gets to sit by the running water.

--All character based fruit snacks should be illegal.

--Floam, Silly Putty, and Playdoh should be classified as hazardous material. And if you get it on Mommy's rug, you might die and Mommy might go to jail.

--Everything should come in sets of 2. Red pencils, coloring books, Gameboys, Gameboy games, Spiderman costumes, rubber bands, pictures that Ryan draws, computers, Harry Potter wands, flashlights, battery powered bubble wands....you name it. No item that would ever appeal to a child, ever, should be a single item. It should always come as a pair. I don't care about sharing. I don't care about teaching my kids to take turns or about helping them learn to be sensitive, caring, giving adults. I WANT THEM TO STOP FIGHTING OVER THE DAMN GREEN BASKETBALL. NOW!

These are just a few of my thoughts as I begin another week of summer break with my 2, count them, 2 children.

Weekend Update

I am able to blog again, now that the temperature in my house is back to earth standard. The heat wave cometh, and now the heat wave goeth. It has dropped a good 20 degrees and we had the most fantastic thunder storm Friday morning! I am back to being my normally cranky self, rather than the raging cranky demon I become when temperatures rise to the point that my bra becomes seared to my body.


We all survived Day Camp and Ryan is quite disappointed that there is not another week of it. Eric was able to bring home all five of his Bible Buddies and got a new shirt--so he's happy. I had a very successful run as Snack Lady this year, if I do say so myself.


Mike dropped by Venue today and brought them 5 new hats. He also discovered that I've sold 2--tangible proof that at least 2 people in Seattle don't think I'm a complete loser. I believe I'll make some more! But I'm still a little stressed about my current projects vs. future projects--I'm still not done with Gordon's hat, I'm still knitting Peter's birthday gift, I have yet to replenish my Etsy store and I'm only half way done with Cinderella's twin. I need a knitting lounge in m house. Currently I knit in the living room. Our couches are quite comfortable, so it's the best place to knit. I have yarn everywhere and there are kids and husbands everywhere. The knitting is still possible, but I feel like I'm imposing on all of them and everyone is always sidestepping my projects. I'm always distracted and have to put down whatever I am doing about 75 times to draw another picture of Spiderman and his new nemesis, Venom (Eric loves Venom. He talks about him like he's a cuddly little teddy bear or his blanket. He is especially in love with Venom's snake-like tongue and his needle sharp teeth, dripping with saliva. I don't have words to express how I feel about my 4 year old's object of affection. But I'm getting pretty darn good at drawing pictures of him!). I need my own room with a super duper comfortable chair and my own tv with unlimited access to movies and dvds. And the entire collection of I Love Lucy. And then I would be a knitting machine! Mike would tell me that I will get that room all in due time--in my assisted living facility at the rest home.


Yesterday Cori and I made another trip to Flower World, the best nursery in Washington State. We were practically giddy with excitement and squealed when we arrived. I bought 6 dwarf boxwoods for the path off my deck, to frame the cobblestones and irish moss. It looks so adorable I can hardly stand it! I also bought a lily of the nile for $6.99, which was a steal, and some plant with yellow flowers.

And what will today bring? Oh, I'm sure it will be a magical day. Mike and the boys are at the computer making Spiderman comic books and I have a pile of crumbs on the kitchen floor calling my name....

Blehhhhh part II

The thermostat in my living room just hit 92 degrees. It is 6:00 in the afternoon and my living room is 92 degrees. And I have to pop 100 bags of microwave popcorn by 8:00 tomorrow morning for the Day Camp snack. I honestly think I may die.

Blehhhhhh

It is 90 degrees inside of my house right now. INSIDE OF MY HOUSE. This is all I am capable of writing before I collapse.

I Don't Think Teaching Kids About The Love Of God Should Feel So Much Like Hell

This is Day Camp week at church. Day Camp is an age-old tradition at our church. Everyone participates in Day Camp--we have 150 volunteers and over 300 kids. There is singing, crafts, a bible lesson, snacks, everyone gets a t-shirt and a topical take-home thing each day.....and of course the overriding theme of the love of Jesus. Each year a significant portion of the kids give their hearts to Jesus and it is truly what makes Day Camp so special.

I hate Day Camp. Don't get me wrong--I think it is wonderful that one of the biggest outreaches of our church is Day Camp. There are kids who hear about Jesus for the first time at Day Camp. Our new pastoral candidate, who will be preaching on July 22nd, first gave his heart to Jesus at Day Camp about 35 years ago. It is an extremely well-run program and the volunteers put their hearts and souls into it each year. And I hate it. It is practically blasphemous to say that, but I do.

First of all, Day Camp is hot. Remember how I bitched and moaned about the weather in my last post? Well, it's here. It's over 90 today. I literally have sweat dripping down the front of my shirt as I write this. Our church is a 50 year old building with no air conditioning. And we have 450 people running around when it's 90 degrees.

Next, Day Camp sucks the life out of you. This year I am Snack Lady. In past years I volunteered with actual kids and for me that is always a mistake. Kids make me crazy. I'm not a "kid" person. Of course I love my kids and I love my friends' kids and kids do cute things and all that. But I need some distance. I could never ever ever ever be a full time preschool or elementary school teacher. I would be fired for all of the yelling. By me. So this year I am coordinating all of the snacks for the kids. It is a job which suits me just fine and I'm actually enjoying myself--I am around the kids and can see my own kids throughout the morning, but I'm not directly involved with the kids. But I am exhausted. I'm too tired to make dinner or clean anything. The laundry is piling up, my bathrooms are becoming bio-hazards, my family is hungry...did I mention that it hit 90 today? And I have no air conditioning? And somehow I have to get this together because I'm hosting our bookgroup on Friday. And I'm not finished with the book....

Day Camp sucks the life out of the kids. Yesterday my kids were basket cases when we got home. Eric is too young for afternoon electives, so we're camped out at Cori's house each day for two hours because it's too far for me to drive back and forth that much. By the time we went back to pick Ryan up from his electives, he was in tears. Apparently Basketball did not go as he expected and he cried for an hour and a half. And because I was giving Ryan so much attention, Eric decided to join in. At one point they had some hullabaloo over who gets to open the door first and that just ramped them up more. I had two kids crying hysterically all afternoon. And then they watched tv.

I have to wear the same shirt every day. At Day Camp, everyone is color coded by tshirt. It's a great idea and for the most part, really works. All of the volunteers have the same color shirt, and we have to wear them every day. Did I mention it's in the 90's today?

The parents. Every parent must relay their child's particular issue to the appropriate adult volunteer. I'm being hypocritical here, because I did the same thing this morning in talking to the basketball helpers to make sure Ryan has a better day. As Snack Lady, I am privy to each and every food allergy we have congregated in our establishment. Don't freak out--I'm NOT making light of true food allergies. But seriously, if your child is so deathly allergic to nuts (we are a nut free building), wheat, eggs, dairy, red dye #2, corn, chocolate (I've heard it all....), then your child should bring his own snack. Because if I were to buy the nut free, wheat free, egg free, dairy free food to make all of you happy, I would be serving your children rocks. One child today was allowed to have the licorice rope, but only from the licorice container, not one that had come into contact with the pretzels. PREZTELS! WHO IS ALLERGIC TO PRETZELS?!.

Eric. Eric is done with Day Camp. We still have three more days to go, but since he could barely handle his two-day-a-week preschool, a week long Day Camp is not sitting well with him. Am I going to turn him off to the love of Jesus forever because at the age of 4 I forced him to attend Day Camp against his will and scarred him for life?

Again, don't get me wrong. Day Camp has many many absolutely wonderful qualities that should never change. But next year I would like to see it held in October. When we are out of town.

Life Begins In A Garden

It has been hot in Seattle. Anyone reading this who is not from the Northwest is going to start laughing at me, but for me, it has been HOT. July and August in Seattle are notoriously hot. It has been in the high 80's this week and, rumor has it, it is suppose to be in the high 90's this coming week. I dread the hot weather. And while 90's is something that we only get for 2-3 weeks a year, it is 2-3 weeks too long for me. I HATE the hot weather. HATE IT. I am a true Northwesterner and love a good 65 degree cloudy day. Fall is my favorite time of year and I can get pretty excited about winter too. Summer? Hate the hot weather with a passion (now, for those of you non-Northwesterners who are still laughing at me, please remember that the average Seattle-ite does not have home air conditioning or a pool. NOW how much do you like the hot weather?).

But I have been able to find one redeeming quality of summer--my garden. I am not a gardener. We lived in this house for about 7 years and I pulled waist-high weeks and dreamed of some day having something attractive to gaze upon in my back yard. And then about 3 years ago I decided to go for it. We dug up shrubs, brought in new dirt, and I went plant shopping. I did all kinds of plant shopping. I went to the local mecca, Flower World, I bought plants through catalogs, I went to local plant sales, I even purchased from ebay--I have been spending the last 3 years filling my garden beds. I've even started dividing my own plants, sharing with others, and I've been filling my blank spots with gifts from other gardeners. This spring I was given the gift of extra dinnerplate dahlias bulbs, bearded irises, lily of the valley, and centerbury bells from a couple of friends from church. Can I tell you how excited I am that my dahlias are growing?! Actually growing! And for the second year in a row, I am actually growing sunflowers from seeds I stuck in the ground. I feel like a proud parent.

Now again, I truly don't consider myself a gardener. 10 years from now if most of what I have planted is still living, then I will accept that title. But for right now, I consider myself extremely lucky. I stand in awe each day that I see something that I planted with my two hands still living. And growing. And blooming. I am out in my garden nearly every single day--I know all of my plants and I track their daily progress in wonder. In the summer when it feels like I live near the surface of the sun, I water each day and can literally see my plants grow and bloom throughout the day. The mixture of water and hot sun and the affects they have on the plants amaze me.

Have I made mistakes? Absolutely! Do I experiment? Of course! I realized a few years ago that I was afraid to garden because I wanted it to be so perfect and was afraid of failure. Once I let that go and allowed myself the freedom to make mistakes, it instantly became fun. Now, I move plants all the time. Doesn't work there? No problem! I'll pluck it out of the ground and stick it somewhere else! I have a little game of musical plants going all the time.

I've also tried to mark my plants. I think it's fun to see the labels in the garden, and it's also good during the dormant season, so I don't accidentally dig up my precious chocolate cosmos. Nice copper plant markers are very expensive and that has been a source of frustration for me, as the cheaper, plastic markers break. Then last month I learned of a very fun solution from Garden Gate Magazine, (a gift from my very dear friend and fellow gardener-in-crime, Heidi)--using a special paint marker that is weather proof, I have made markers out of the 45895687 river rocks I have all around my house.

I have also learned a few valuable lessons along the way:

1. Slugs are evil and a part of God's curse upon Man. So are moles. And deer. And weeds. The only solution for any of these maladies is cement.

2. I actually prefer chicken manure to steer manure or bark. Who knew?

3. Newspapers make great weed barrier in the winter. We stopped getting the paper a few months ago because we weren't reading it. I'm tempted to renew our subscription just for the garden.

4. Despite what Leah told me, using Flickr to import my photos is no better than getting them from my harddrive. They look terrible on my blog either way.

5. Everytime my mother sees my black hollyhocks she tells me that they grow black hollyhocks at Thomas Jefferson's home, Monticello. Every. Time.

6. Dividing irises really does help them bloom.

7. Bee balm looks a lot like a weed in the early spring. Oops.

8. It really is easier to pull weeds without gloves.

So, when I'm not knitting (I have 3 new hats done for Venue) or reading, or sanitizing the sheets or Mike's pillow because that was the only part of our bed not covered by a protective sheet last yesterday when apparently we breathed too loudly for Alice's delicate sensibilities, then I'm out in the garden, imagining the birdhouses, containers, and arbors I can buy after I've made my first million with Venue.

I Rock!

First of all, I went yarn shopping the other night and bought some long overdue items--Peter's birthday gift, more cupcake materials, etc... I also splurged on a couple of things (try lifesize handknit birthday cake, with swirly frosting! And special lace needles to help me with the bobbles...I COULD NOT leave the store without all of the materials. When I will actually find the time to make this, I have no idea). My total came to $102, which was a bit hard to swallow. As I was about to fork it all over, I remembered that I had some Purl 1 dollars that the store had not sent me yet. Sure enough, I had $50 in points waiting for me!! I got everything for $52. That is one reason I rock.

Today I had my appointment with Venue. I dropped the kids off at my sister's house, and had almost an hour to make my way from North Seattle to Ballard--a 20 minute drive. Good thing I had the entire hour. I got off at the wrong exit, which really was not the wrong exit, but just poor judgement on my part. I got off at the 65th street exit, which is at Green Lake, a 3 mile lake in the middle of the city. And you have to drive around it, obviously, so the streets don't make much sense in that part of town. But not to worry since I grew up there. So I knew exactly where I was and got on the right street, heading in the exact opposite direction of Ballard. And since there are many deadend streets in the Green Lake area, turning around and heading in the correct direction was a bit of a challenge. Ok, so I don't rock when I can't find my way around my hometown, in an area where I spent most of my childhood summers. But there was no one there to see that, so it doesn't count.

I met with the owner of Venue and her assistant and showed them all of my Etsy inventory, including Cinderella They loved the hats and took them all. Seriously. They depleted my inventory! One hat they thought would do better in the fall, but they were willing to put it in their backstock. I decided to take it back home to have something left for Etsy. They then told me I should really make more. They didn't think I had nearly enough. Wow. And then they had the conversation about Cinderella:

Diane: I don't know...

Lovely assistant: It's adorable! Let's take it!

Diane: We don't have any dolls.

Lovely assistant: We could have dolls...

Diane: Ok fine, let's see what happens.

Me: Hee hee hee hee hee hee hee

Driving back up to North Seattle I called Mike to tell him how I ROCK, and mentioned that they want more. Mike told me, actually said the words, out loud, in English "you should stop by the yarn store and get some more supplies". He has never uttered those words in his life. He has never uttered anything close to those words in his life. So I drove like a bat out of hell to the nearest yarn shop to stock up.

And now, I worry. How will I ever find the time to make 162 more hats? I still have Gordon's hat to finish (it actually was finished, but when I tried it on, it didn't cover my ears, and I'm thinking that on bike rides up Mt. Rainier, his ears should be covered. So, I'm altering it a bit), and Peter's birthday party is in mid August. I also have about 52 books to read. That I want to read. That I want to be reading at the same time because I can't make up my mind. Except for our bookclub book. I have not even cracked the spine on that book and bookclub is in 10 days. But no pressure there... And I want to replenish my Etsy store, so I need to make hats for both Venue and Etsy. But which do I make first? And after I bring Venue more hats, what if no one buys them? Ever? I have made 3 trips to the yarn store in the last few days and about $80 of it is hat/cupcake money. What if I've just wasted $80? Can my family eat? Have I just made a complete fool of myself thinking that the general public, wandering aimlessly around Ballard, will stumble upon Venue and spy my baby hats and exclaim with sheer joy "that is EXACTLY what I have been looking for!"

Ah yes, my bliss is short lived. But it usually is. I don't have time to be happy and excited when I have so much work to do!