Weekend Update

Ryan-- Ryan is fine. After 3 days of being sick, Ryan is now back to Ryan. 7 year old, I-only-talk-in-silly-voices, bouncing-through-the-house-like-Tigger, aggravate-his-little-brother Ryan. I am about to become Rabbit and tell him to stop that infernal bouncing, but he is in such a good mood...

Eric--Never got sick. Wearing his Spiderman costume today. Over his pajamas. Never saw that one coming.

Mike--Never got sick. Continues to obsessively-compulsively clean his office while failing to notice the coffee grounds he spilled all over the kitchen floor this morning.

Alice--Sick in the head. Continues to pee on my bed and the boys blankets. Should be paid millions to advertise the Whirlpool Duet Washer and it's miraculous sanitizing feature, both for its cleaning properties as well as durability. I told Mike last night that I HAVE HAD IT. I'M DONE. WE MUST TAKE ACTION. Mike: what do you mean? Me: I'm so done dealing with her. Mike: what do you mean? Me: how do YOU feel about it? Mike: what do you mean? Me: HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE FACT THAT SHE CONTINUES TO PEE ALL OVER OUR BED AND ON THE BOYS BLANKETS??!! WHAT DO YOU THINK WE SHOULD DO? Mike: I don't know. what do you mean? put her to sleep? let's try that home vet again. Me: you mean the one who would not come to our house?
And that is where the conversation continues to hang, in the air over the couch in the living room...

Me--Never got sick. Am preparing for tomorrow's garage sale at Cori's house. Mason is still in the hospital and I have tried several times to explain to Cori that this garage sale is NOT something she needs to worry about. We can reschedule. It's really ok. Cori is a very very scheduled person. The garage sale is on her calendar, so we're doing the garage sale.

That means today I'm bringing the kids to her house, to play with Lauren, while Cori's husband Mark and I finish preparing for the garage sale. And tomorrow Mark and I will be doing this garage sale together. Which just makes both of us laugh. So he and I will drink coffee all morning, then switch to beer when the sun goes over the yardarm.

The Knitting--I seem to have a severe case of knitting ADD combined with some bad ju-ju. And to top it off, Mike has put me on yarn-buying restriction. He actually wants me to knit from my various stashes rather than buying new yarn. I can't talk to him when he's being this unreasonable.

After finishing the Minnie Mouse booties, I moved on to a pair of T-strap booties with a heart on the front. I pulled out an old skein of yarn, which was apparently not the right weight, and made a bootie to fit me. So I need to take it apart and use smaller needles, but I'm too annoyed right now. I then moved on to the ducky flipper slippers. Going along great until I came to the realization that I'm about to run out of yarn. I then decided to pick up Peter's birthday gift. I got through the mistake I made and was feeling pretty smug about my progress until I made another mistake. Involving rulers and counting and numbers and knowing your left from right and all that trivial stuff. I am also making a felted pumpkin which is not nearly as fun as I thought it would be, still working on that completely delightful birthday cake, Cinderella continues to lie in dismembered parts in a basket, and I have more hats for Venue to make. A good trip to the yarn store often sets me right again, so really I blame Mike for all of this.

I just went to the kitchen for more coffee and found Eric's underwear on the kitchen floor. It appears I need to divert my attention away from my computer and on to the carbon based life-forms in the house.

Queen for a day

Everybody Loves Mike

Today my goal is to wash everything Ryan has touched. Lots of laundry and 3 bathrooms. The fact that all of this needed to be cleaned anyway is beside the point. Vomit forces cleaning to the top of the list.

In order to do the laundry I needed to put away the clean laundry, located in baskets all over my house. This also raised the issue of the suitcase in our bedroom. Do you remember that episode of Everybody Loves Raymond where Ray and Debra fought over who was to put away a suitcase from their trip? This suitcase has been sitting in our bedroom since last Thursday night. And like Ray and Debra, we have been taking clean clothes from the suitcase all week. We have not had one discussion about this suitcase. Not one word has been said. We have both passive-aggressively (clearly a trait we learned from Alice) been taking what we have needed from the suitcase and stepping around it. A few days ago I realized that one of my bras was missing. It took me a while to realize that it was in the suitcase.

Today I put the suitcase away. I cleaned it out and put it away. Mike when you come home today you will notice that I GOT IT. To quote Debra, I GOT IT. I did not fill the suitcase with cheese, like Ray did (that would have just forced me to clean out a suitcase full of cheese. I don't think Mike would ever know there was cheese in the suitcase). I did not rant and rave about how I have to put every single other thing away in this house. No, let's all just remember that I GOT IT.

But Mike has his good points as well. He went to Venue for me today to bring in some new hats and take inventory. Sounds like I've sold an additional 5 or 6 hats! I was all set to send those Minnie Mouse booties too, but Penny saw them in yesterday's post and is currently on her way over to pick them up. Oh well--I guess I'll have to make more! Right after I finish making some baby duck feet booties! Hee hee hee hee hee....

I haven't gotten sick yet, but I still hold out hope. I'm still within the vomiting incubation period. It's always good to have a goal.

Adding Insult To Injury

Our power went out for 5 hours today. Today. The day Ryan was too sick to go anywhere. Today. The day he was allowed to watch as much tv as he wanted because it is all he is capable of. Today. Of all days.

I would do some breathing exercises, but if they didn't work for me during childbirth, they're not going to work now.

And Now, We Wait...

Minnie Mouse
Hee hee hee hee hee hee.....!

I was pretty proud of myself. I've been making some plans this week in an attempt to keep us all alive during this last week of summer break. Ryan has a playdate with a school friend on Friday and today I was going to drop the kids off at my sister's house while I visited a Cori and her son Mason at Children's Hospital. The boys love to play with their cousins and I really wanted to visit Cori and Mason, so this was a win-win. Mason and his sister Lauren are good friends and my boys really love playing with them. Mason is 4 1/2 and has Downs Syndrome. And like many kids with Downs, he has several medical complications that have put him into the hospital many times over his short little life. Mason is very susceptible to lung infections and even the slightest cold can instantly turn into pneumonia. Mason became very sick on Friday and has been in the hospital ever since. And that means Cori has been in the hospital. It's not actually pneumonia this time, but he is having a very difficult time breathing and does not seem to be making any noticeable improvements, which is a little scary. So, I was going to spend the morning with Cori at the hospital.

And then Ryan greeted me this morning by telling me he had to throw up. Which he did about two hours later. After much crying, screaming, and gnashing of teeth. Ryan has a mortal fear of throwing up, like his mother. Ryan would pay good money to never throw up again. Like his mother. When Ryan was about 5 he asked Mike and I about the glasses of wine we were having with our dinner. We explained it was a grown-up drink and too much can make you sick. Can it make you throw up?! Why yes it can. The look on his face was priceless. This may be the only talk we will ever need to have with Ryan about drinking. When the time comes I plan to tell him that smoking, drugs, hitting his brother, tattoos, wearing pants that are so baggy the waistband is around your knees, and premarital sex also lead to throwing up.

Now that the actual vomiting is over and done with, the fun can begin. I will sit in fear for the next 36-48 hours, waiting to see if I get sick. It's one thing if my kids are sick. But now this is all about me. I can make myself feel queasy just thinking about the possibility of getting sick. Everytime this happens, or if my kids have been exposed to someone who has thrown up, or even if someone I know has been throwing up, I need to call Cori, who is a pediatric nurse, and have her remind me of vomiting germ incubation periods. She is rarely reassuring.

And I don't know what to do with Eric. As the person with the vomit, the tv belongs to Ryan today. Eric is not too pleased with this arrangement. He would like to be sick to and even snuggled up on the couch with his blanket and pillow and asked me to bring him things. Problem is, he is fine and is going to end up driving me crazy since we can't go anywhere and I've completely run out of ways to entertain perfectly healthy kids in my home. If both of them were sick, I could spend the day sitting on the couch, pretending to be at their beck and call, while secretly delighting the the fact that I could knit all day. I'm still trying to get away with that, but Eric seems to see right through that ploy.

I did finish those Minnie Mouse booties. Don't they just make you squeal?!

I have to go now and spray lysol on my kids.

Summer Break, Last Week

Birthday Cake
I have no business starting this project.
But I absolutely
cannot resist. The yarn is
wonderful and I LOVE
the new Skacel addi turbo
lace needles I'm using. The whole
thing is like butter in my hands.

This is the last week of summer break. School starts in one week and one day. And I truly will be surprised if we make it until then because I believe this last week will do me in. I know I say that every week but this time I mean it. I am tired of my same 3 pairs of shorts and my collection of t-shirts. I am tired of flies in my house because we open the back door 3493 times a day. And I am tired of trying to entertain two children who can no longer be entertained.

We have no plans this week. Through a series of mishaps and other unfortunate scheduling changes, we have no plans. This is going to be the longest week of my life. The only thing that saved my childrens' lives today was the fact that Eric, who is utterly exhausted, actually fell asleep during nap time and Emily-the-neighborgirl came over looking for Ryan. I sent them to her house. I had spent the morning saying the same 2 things over and over again: 1. "All Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle play is for outside". and 2. "I am on the phone!" The fact I was on the phone completely alluded them this morning. As in, they would each come to me and carry on detailed conversations with me, while I was talking on the phone, about the snack they want. Or they would start to play the piano. Or turn into Ninja Turtles. Again. And I may host a giant Spiderman book burning if they don't stop fighting over those damn books. We have about 17 of them--how can they each want the exact same one at the same time, every single solitary time? Did I mention school starts next Tuesday?

In the meantime, I've been folding laundry (that I washed 3 days ago) and knitting things I should not be knitting. I made a rather large mistake in Peter's birthday gift. Nothing difficult. Just incredibly annoying and completely avoidable had I chosen to read the directions. So I should really get on that. But that knit birthday cake was calling me. Loud. I just had to try it. It is a complete joy to knit and I am now in real trouble since the last thing I needed to do was begin another project.

Minnie Mouse Bootie
This bootie will have a
red knit bow on top
and a knit ankle strap.
It's so cute, it just
about kills me.

And then yesterday, just to see how it would go, I decided to make a set of booties from the new book I picked up at Knit/Purl last week. Oh. My. Word. Completely adorable. So great. Now I'm working on 2 projects that I should not have started. But I can't help myself. The sheer adorableness of both of these projects is like a drug. A really yummy drug. The booties are so precious, I was actually amazed that I was able to produce it with my own two hands. I don't often stare in wonder at something I have knit, but I did that with the booties. Serious drug. They even make me giggle a little. Of course, I'm shipping any and all booties I make right off to Venue!

I believe these knitting projects may be what gets me through this week. That, and beer.