Over the Rockies and through Minneapolis...

To grandmother's house we go. The pilot knows the way to steer the plane through rain and possibly sno-ow!

We're off to the frozen north this afternoon, so Knittin' Mom will be on hiatus for the week. Note to any potential burglars who are reading this - we have a security system, nosy neighbors and a big angry dog named Killer who we've been starving all week so he'll be especially mean to anyone who breaks in. (Just in case you're like my mom, that last part was a joke - but we really do have a security system and nosy neighbors...).

I do have a few things to blog about before we leave the civilized world. First, I'm finally getting around to posting pictures of my wonderful Secret Santa gift.

Sydney loves her bear so much, she's been sleeping with it. And she never sleeps with stuffed animals! Owen loves to chew on his, but then he loves to chew on everything. There was also a tin of yummy, yummy cookies and biscotti, but those are long gone. The yarn is Knit Picks Simple Stripes in Storm (hmm, someone's been reading my wishlist) and a yummy ball of Plymouth Suri Merino. Not sure what I'm going to make with it, but I sure love to pet it!

Now I have the difficult task of deciding what knitting I'm going to bring with me to Minnesota. I have two hanks of No No Kitty yarn, which I got from kpixie before they sold out.

I was stupid and didn't check the yardage, so I only got a single hank of each thinking they would each be enough for a pair of socks. By the time I figured out that they were well short and went back to buy more, they were long gone. I'm going to try some toe-up shorty socks and see how it goes. Otherwise, Sydney's going to be getting a couple nice pairs!

I'm also making some progress on my Whitbys from Kitting On The Road.

I decided to use the Artyarns Supermerino that I had on hand for these. Unfortunately, I didn't check my yardage (again) and had to go buy another hank. You'd think I'd learn. Anyway, they're knitting up nice and fast. Love that sportweight yarn for socks! I'm hoping to finish these up on the trip.

Do you think my family will think I'm strange if I do nothing but knit socks all week?

It's time for me to get packing, but I'll leave you with two last pictures. First, my brilliant new stash organization scheme.

To deal with all my leftover balls of yarn (these are really becoming an issue now that I'm swatching a lot from single skeins), I had this flash of insight that told me to put each ball in a ziploc baggie along with the ball band. This keeps the remaining yarn relatively neat and also I can figure out what the heck it is when I dig it up six months later. Duh...

Finally, I present to you the yarn from hell.

This is Heavenly from Artful Yarns, and it is anything but. It's got a metallic component which I swear was giving me slivers when I was knitting with it yesterday. It looks really cool knit up, but it makes a swatch with the consistency of steel wool. I can't imagine actually wearing anything made out of this stuff. Perhaps it softens up a little bit when washed? I'll give it the benefit of a doubt... Anyway, I was swatching it up for a submission, but now I'm asking myself if I'd really want to knit an entire sample sweater out of this stuff if my sub got accepted! I'm going to come back to it when we get home and see if it really is the yarn, or if there was something else making my hands all itchy.

Have a great New Year everyone, and I'll see you in 2006!

Merry Xmas!

We had a great Christmas this year!



Look at all those presents. So much for teaching the kids that Christmas isn't about blatant consumerism... Regardless, it was a great time. Here is a link to our Xmas photo album:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/knittinmom/christmas_05

I got a few great goodies - first, the best one from my hubby:

Yes, it looks almost exactly like my current camera, but it has 7.1 megapixels as opposed to 3.2. That will make a huge difference when shooting close-ups of stitch patterns, for example! With more and more places taking proposals via e-mail, the quality of the pictures really matters.

Hmm, do you think my family knows I'm obsessed with knitting?

My brother-in-law & his wife gave me S'nB Nation, my parents-in-law got me the Yarn Garden gift card (yahoo!) and my darling husband got me the Denise Interchangeable set.

I also got a great little prezzy in the mail from keohinani, just 'cuz she's such a cool chick.

That is a ginormous box of chocolate-covered Macadamia nuts (1.5 lbs, to be exact), a cute little flower pin and LLSS in Bee Stripe (which I became obsessed with after she posted the cute little baby socks she made out of this yarn - I'd post a link to the post, but I can't remember when it was and Jill is waaaay too prolific for me to have time to sift through all her posts (e-mail the link to me, and I'll post it!)). Thanks, chica!

I am still waiting on my Secret Santa gift, which I hope comes today. Apparently the lady at the post office told Santa there was no need to overnight the package to get it here in time for Xmas, and Santa ill-advisedly took her advice. I spent most of yesterday stalking the mailman, until I realized that it was a PO holiday.

Today the Knit Net sweater goes in the mail. Yay! I'll let you all know as soon as the issue is up. I can't wait to see how it looks when they photograph it. I'm also mailing out some submissions to IK and working up some more swatches for the Lace Style book that Interweave Press is putting out next year. I'm having the best time with these swatches - I heart lace!!!

And finally, another adorable picture of the boy. This is from before Christmas, but I didn't get a chance to post it. He just looks so grown up (and so little at the same time) when he's standing up like that...

Gearing up for my favorite day of the year...

Merry Christmas, everyone! Or happy holidays, if you're not Yuletide-inclined. This time tomorrow, we will be tearing into our gifts and eating homemade sourdough pancakes. I made a pledge not to go too crazy this year, but of course I did. Sydney already has a gazillion toys, and Owen has every kind of baby toy known to man passed down from Sydney, but somehow I managed to fill up a couple of carts at Target with new stuff for them.

Now I need to wrap it all... I can't wait until Sydney is old enough to actually help (right now she "helps" by taking pieces of tape and sticking them all over the house. Owen then "helps" by crawling around and eating any that are within reach, then scaring his father and I out of our wits by choking and gagging - that tape is really hard to see when it's in the back of a baby's mouth! I swear, these kids will be the death of me...).

Check out this awesome link for a little kid and/or grownup winter fun!

It's my own freaking fault I'm sleep deprived...

It's 6:24 am. The rest of the house is asleep right now. Where am I? Sitting at the computer. So I guess I can't feel too sorry for myself, since I do have opportunities to sleep that I don't use. It's going to be one of those days...

Owen woke up for his regular 5 am snack. I noticed he was getting a little bit damp around the edges of his diaper cover, but I decided that I would just let him cook a little bit longer since I didn't want to wake him up to change him. Sometimes he's okay, and sometimes he's not - I had about a 50/50 chance. I put him down and try to go back to sleep. As I'm starting to drift off, an ugly thought rears its head and jolts me awake. "Did Bill remember to put the trash out last night? I bet he didn't... I don't remember him doing it... Hmm. Sometimes he does manage to do things around here without me knowing... The trash can is really full. We'll never make it another week. Maybe I'll just go downstairs and take a peek." Down the stairs I go, to be greeted by an empty driveway. Bummer.

Okay, do I go wake him up and ask him if he remembered to take the trash out? No, I'm already awake. The boy is fed and probably won't wake up again for awhile. I'm just going to do it. Up the stairs to dig around in the dark for my sweatpants. Back down to dig around the pile of coats on the couch for my jacket. A quick trip around the downstairs to find my shoes, which are always in the last place that I look (this time they were by the front door with the rest of the shoes - how did that happen?). Outside to take three trips to the curb (one with the trash can, two with the recycling). It's actually a beautiful morning. The cold snap that we've been having ended right after the snow, and it's probably nearly 50 degrees out with no wind. I look around, wishing I could take a walk or something. But no, I should probably go try to get some more sleep.

After chugging a bottle of water (we had pizza last night from a local place that makes amazing but extremely salty pizza), I crawl back into bed. Oh, wait, I may as well check Owen since I'm already awake. If he decides to wake up early, better that he do it now instead of right after I've fallen into my deep sleep cycle. Of course the entire front of his sleeper is soaking wet. So, I extract him from his wet pjs and rediaper him as timidly as I can. Amazingly, he doesn't wake up. I crawl back into bed (again). Of course, now I'm wide awake.

Do you ever get into the state where you're exhausted but you just can't shut yourself down and go to sleep? I seem to live in that state perpetually. I've always had trouble sleeping. I do my best worrying in the middle of the night. I've solved major political problems, deciphered centuries-old mysteries of science and discovered the meaning of life, all at 2 am. Of course, when I wake up in the morning, I realize that the things that were so incredibly brilliant in the middle of the night make absolutely no sense in the light of day... It's not exactly 2 am, but it's not really light out yet. I figure this post will split the difference and land somewhere between nonsensical and normal.

Should I wake Bill up so he can go get me some coffee?

I know that I only drink decaf, but it has a little caffeine in it and a serious placebo effect on me.

Last night Bill and I tried to watch the movie Closer. It got such rave reviews, and the reviewers all talked about the snappy dialogue. We turned it off halfway through. I just don't have the patience I used to for watching people treat each other badly. Usually the Clive Owen eye candy would make up for it, but his character was just so creepy. And I've lost any good feelings I had about Jude Law after the whole nanny affair. "Such a cliche." (If anyone can figure out what movie that quote is from, I'll send you some hand-made stitch markers because you will totally be my hero!)

All right, I hear the boy waking up, so you're saved from further incoherent rambling. Happy holidays, everyone!

More fun with the changing table...

I finally got the shots I really wanted to get for yesterday's post... The next one will be of him standing up there without holding on!






He's trying hard! He has gotten to be an expert crawler and puller-upper in just the last week or so. The bad thing is that now that he knows how to do these things, he wants to do them instead of sleeping. He is finally napping this afternoon, but he hardly slept at all yesterday and was down for all of 20 minutes this morning. Not enough for a growing boy! I'll think I've gotten him totally asleep, but the second that I put him down, he'll roll over and start trying to crawl up whatever is closest. Aaaarrgh!

Fun at Lint

Last night was (sadly) my final sweater design class with the fabulous Leigh Radford at Lint. I of course had to take full advantage of my 10% student discount and get some more swatching yarn.


I have several projects in mind for these beauties (none of which you will see until they're published - wink wink!).

I also had to be a big dork and ask Leigh to sign my Alterknits. Isn't she sweet?


BTW - she is a thrower. Yeah, throwers! I signed up for another class with her - a short workshop on how to get published, which is in January.

Speaking of classes, the Yarn Garden has their new class list up and (drum roll here...) they have some classes for experienced knitters. Bill is probably going to kill me when he finds this out, but I signed up for all three of them. They are all on different types of ethnic knitting - Ethnic Textured Stitch Patterns, Pacific NW Indian Sweaters and Ethnic Color Stitch Patterns. They are going to be taught by Joan Schrouder, a designer from Eugene who also teaches at Stitches, among other things (so you know it's going to be good). Yippee!

And finally, some pics of the boy having fun on his changing table. So far he hasn't launched himself off, but it's bound to happen one of these days. Isn't he a little devil?

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Starting yesterday afternoon and lasting through most of the evening, we got snow. This is about a once-a-year occurrence here, and everything pretty much comes to a screeching halt. Sydney's school is closed today, which is kind of sad because winter break starts on Thursday. Oh, well. It will be fun to go outside and play in the snow before it all melts! Unfortunately, it's already getting pretty wet and slushy.

Here is poor Bill dealing with a frozen car this morning:


And now that I've got my camera back, I'm getting a little picture happy. Here is our tree (which has now been cleared of ornaments to a height of about 3-1/2 feet):


And the stockings, hung by the fireplace (poor Owen doesn't have his yet, since I've been waaaaay too busy knitting to do any cross-stitch).

Oh, wait, maybe I should knit a stocking for Owen? But then it wouldn't match, which might not be that big of a deal since Sydney's stocking is black and technically doesn't match either... Good thing I have a whole 'nother year to figure it out.

Finally, the pics you've all been waiting for with held breath...the felted clogs!




I am now absolutely dying to make my own pair, but I have too much other knitting that I feel like I should be doing. Like my sweater class sweater (the last class is tonight, and I'm nowhere near being done - I'm not even to the sleeves yet!), and more swatches... They're so quick, though, that I might just try to whip them up over the holiday. They sure would be nice to have in MN.

Stay warm, everyone!

All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth!

Owen got his (and my) Christmas wish last night - Bill flipped up his upper lip, and lo and behold, two little front teeth nubs have finally popped through! Hallelujah!!! We didn't think it was ever going to happen. He was being particularly hard on me, waking up every HOUR on Friday night to nurse. Last night, however, he was on a fantastic, wonderful three-hours-between-feedings schedule. Now, I know there are some who would say that's absolutely pathetic for an eight-month-old, but I am overjoyed. I've completely given up on Owen ever being like his sister, who slept through the night at six weeks and by eight months was sleeping 11-12 hours straight at night. I can't even imagine that now. And we thought we were sleep-deprived with her... The big benefit of Owen's wakefulness is that I haven't gotten a visit from good old Aunt Flo in nearly a year and a half. I'm telling myself it's worth the trade-off. Of course, even when I am allowed to sleep, I can't always do it. Everyone in the house is asleep right now, but here I am! I've got to take advantage of the peace and quiet when I can...

In other Christmas news, the felted clogs are done! Yahoo! I felted them yesterday, and they turned out absolutely lovely. I can't wait to make a pair for myself. I still can't find the @*#@&$ camera, so no pics. My BIL is dropping his off later so I can take some submission pics (and pics of the Knit Net sweater before I mail it off), so I'll get some then. I just can't imagine where that stupid thing might be!

Yesterday was the most productive day we've had in a long time. We were on fire, I tell you! I got the clogs finished and felted, put together two submission packages to get mailed off on Monday, went to the post office and braved a 45-minute line in order to get two Xmas packages mailed off, went to Target for some last-minute gifts and wrapping supplies, got our tree (which Sydney has since been decorating with anything she can find around the house - tape dispensers, toys, pens, socks...), and watched Christmas Vacation, one of the half-dozen Xmas movies we watch every year. Last night, we bundled the kids in the car and drove down to Peacock Lane, a bizarro little street in SE Portland where it's written into the homeowner covenants that they must display Christmas lights. It's quite the party down there, and we had to wait for 45 minutes in a long line of cars in order to get our holiday spirit satisfied. It was fun, but sadly Sydney fell asleep in her car seat long before we got our turn in the lane of lights. I tried to wake her up once we got there, but when she falls asleep, she's like a corpse. We might try to take her back on a weeknight when it's (hopefully) less crowded.

All right - time to make some coffee and tackle this office desk. We've decided to clear out everything but my knitting stuff so that we can take the home office deduction on our taxes. Bill got all of his junk out of here a couple weeks ago, but it's still utter chaos in here. I can't blame him anymore, so it's time for me to get organized. Maybe I'll find my camera somewhere in all this mess!

I have the best SP ever!!!

My SP e-mailed me earlier this week to let me know that my final package was in the mail and would be arriving shortly. She'd already gotten me two great books and the Fiber Trends felted clog pattern, so I wasn't expecting anything too big.

Well, last night I got a big box in the mail from Knit Picks. I hadn't ordered anything lately that I could remember, but since it takes so long to get here, I figured it had just slipped my mind. I was busily knitting on the felted clogs, so I kind of ignored it.

Then, I took a closer look at the label and noticed it was UPS 3-day shipping. I always opt for the free shipping (which is the OPPOSITE of 3-day...), so the wheels began to turn. I was surprised because it was such a big box. Of course, my camera is still on hiatus, so I don't have any pictures. But, I opened it and my reaction was such that my husband called from the living room "Did you just gasp?" And I had. This is what was inside...


Yes, that is the entire Knit Picks Palette Sampler. Does that not ROCK?!? I couldn't believe it.

Thank you to my awesome secret pal, Knitting Nyxxie. You made my day, week, month... Now I'm going to have to decide what lovely stranded colorwork piece I'm going to knit with all this luscious yarn! Hmm... Suggestions, anyone?

Help me!

Why is it that I'm incredibly busy all day long and yet never seem to get anything done? Even on the days when Owen naps most of the afternoon and Sydney is glued to the electronic babysitter. I don't get it. Perhaps it's because I'm obsessed with swatching right now? I can't get enough of it! It's crazy.

I know you're all tired of hearing about what a bad blogger I've been, but just to give you an example, I opened up Bloglines today to find that I have 333 unread posts. I adore blogging and reading everybody's blogs and commenting, but it's such a colossal time sucker! I tend to do everything in cycles, so I was obsessed with blogging for awhile, and now I'm obsessed with swatching. It will come full circle one of these days, and I'll be back to blogging and be avoiding swatching at all costs.

I am going to take a little break from being crazy swatch lady for a little while and concentrate on getting those *#$&(*@ felted clogs done. That is my one goal for this weekend (along with getting the Knit Net pattern written up, and getting swatches for three different pubs written up and mailed off...). Ha! We still have to get our Christmas tree, and I've got a bit of shopping to do as well. One thing that Bill's family has taught me, though, is that it's okay (and even pretty fun) to go shopping on Christmas Eve day. It will be a little different now that we're all in Portland in our own houses, but it was sort of a tradition when we'd visit them in Eugene to all go to the mall on Christmas Eve day and run around shopping for each other all afternoon. We'd go to all these great lengths to avoid letting anyone else see the bags from the stores we'd gone to.

This year I've done all of my shopping (so far) on the internet. I got Bill the best present ever, which he's never going to guess. I originally thought of giving him a video iPod, after we watched the most recent episode of The Office, but he guessed that that was what I was getting him so I had to resort to something else. I'd link it here so the rest of you could see it and have a little chuckle, but right now I don't trust him not to click the link. He's dying to find out what it is. Sydney, the lucky girl, is getting a wooden Thomas train set that the whole family is chipping in for. They are ridiculously expensive, but I'm hoping it will keep her occupied for hours and will be passed on to her brother when he gets old enough. It will probably be worth the investment, and it will sure beat a gazillion little plastic toys that she'll play with for five minutes and then toss aside. Love that short attention span.

In a recent about-face, I've decided that I don't want another kid. Two seems to be plenty right now. I reserve the right to change my mind again, but right now I'm just tired of being a full-time servant and jungle gym. I want my life back! There are two big reasons for this change of opinion that have just dawned on me in the past week or so (don't ask my why it's taken this long - sleep deprivation, maybe?). The first is private school tuition. Back when I was obsessed with having three or four kids, we hadn't yet discovered how wonderful Sydney's school is. I really, really, REALLY want her to go there through 8th grade (and Owen as well). We can probably swing sending two kids to private school, but not three. The second is the strengthening desire to want my life and my body back! Sydney has really started to grow into a little girl. This is something that has really come about in the past couple months (really since she started preschool), and it's so fun to watch her start to use her imagination, make conceptual leaps and apply knowledge. It gives me an idea of what it will be like when both the kids have stopped being like puppies and started being more like little people. When we take her places, she can really enjoy them now. Once Owen is at that point, too, we'll actually be able to do things that WE enjoy rather than building a block tower and knocking it down 20,000 times in one afternoon. We'll see what happens, but that vision of having grown-up, independent children and no babies is like a mirage in the desert - it's oh so tantalizing!

All right, it's time to get sketching. Got to get those subs out so they don't get lost in the holiday mail rush! Actually, I think I'm going to go knit some clog and watch the Apprentice finale. I was rooting for Randall, but he's kind of lost it lately. I think Rebecca might actually take it. Or, I should say, have taken it, since it's already happened. Don't spoil it for me!

Whew!

The Knit Net sweater is knitted and blocking. Yay! Now I just have to seam it up, knit the neckband and type up the pattern. Okay, so I still have a lot left to do. But getting that puppy blocking was such a huge relief! Now I can do some swatching for all the other calls for designs that seem to be coming out lately. I went to the Yarn Garden the other night to get some swatching yarn, and boy was it fun. It was great to wander around the store without a specific project in mind and pick up a ball here, a ball there... It's a totally different way to shop! It's nice to not have to make a huge commitment to a single yarn.

I can't find the stupid camera anywhere, so I can't show you a picture of what I got, but I'll try my best to describe. First, a nice utilitarian ball of Sirdar Snuggly. It's acrylic & nylon, which I didn't realize when I picked it up, but it's very nice and soft (and machine washable and dryable). Not your typical nasty acrylic. Next, a nice little hank of Classic Elite Premiere. This is a luscious cotton/tencel blend that is ridiculously soft. It will be interesting to see how this compares to the Blue Sky Alpacas cotton. Then I snagged a skein of Brown Sheep Wildfoote. It's a little rough in the skein, but I bet it will wash up great (like Knit Picks Essential). Then a ball of Filatura Di Crossa Zarina merino which caught my eye because of its very cool texture, which I can't really figure out how to describe. It's kind of springy and spiraly. And a ball of Tahki Willow, 66% linen & 34% cotton, and SWTC Phoenix, 100% soy silk ribbon.

The last two balls are my very favorite. The first is Crystal Palace Kid Merino which is a lace-weight mohair blend. It's a great colorway with rich reds, pinks and greens. Finally, I splurged on an $18 ball of Anny Blatt angora. I can't imagine being able to afford an entire sweater of that stuff, but it sure is luxurious. It is sooooo soft, I want to just carry my little swatch around with me and rub my cheek with it. This is the first ball I cracked into when I got home. I really like yarn!

Yup, I'm a follower...

I'm loving these Frappr map thingies, and finally broke down and got one for myself. Please add yourself to my little map!



Yes, this is becoming a very boring blog with no pictures and no interesting reading. Please bear with me, y'all! It's tough blogging and designing, because everything I'm knitting is top secret. It's kind of a bummer. Hopefully I will be able to start linking to my published works soon.

In the meantime, know I'm knitting my little fingers off for the Knit Net sweater, which will be debuting in February. Unfortunately, you won't be able to see it without a Knit Net subscription, which is $12/year. And it doesn't look like you can buy access to individual issues... Hopefully I will be published in a print mag soon, and you'll be able to just go buy the issue (or check it out at the library).

Just for you, Mom, here's a little udpate on the kiddos (sorry, no pics!). Owen is over his ear infection, but he's incredibly crabby so we're waiting for those top teeth to pop through. In the meantime, he's driving us absolutely crazy. Sydney was never that bothered by her teeth, so we got spoiled. I can't imagine what it's going to be like when Owen is working on his molars... Who needs sleep, anyway?

Sydney and I took a class at The Children's Gym last night. It's kind of an early gymnastics training center for kids under 6, and we had an absolute blast. Sydney jumped on the trampoline, walked the high balance beam a couple of times (I was very impressed with this, since she doesn't like heights - just like her mom), and swung from the rings and the uneven parallel bars. Bill is skeptical about this whole thing, since he's anti-gymnastics in general (he says that any sport where athletes train so hard they delay puberty is not a sport for our darling daughter). But the class before ours was the 4-6 year-olds, and they were not at all advanced. So I don't think he has anything to worry about (plus there's the added fact that Sydney is a little klutz and won't be winning any awards for her gracefulness anytime soon). It was a great class for her because she's in that stage where everything is all about the physicality - she's always running, jumping and throwing things. And it wore her out. She fell asleep in the car on the way home and slept all night! Yay!

Can't blog - knitting...

I'm afraid I'm going to be a little bit quiet this month. I have the happy situation of having too much work-related knitting to do! I realized how quickly the end of December is going to be upon us, and the Knit Net sweater will need to be in the mail soon in order to beat the holiday mail rush. There are also several calls for submissions that need to be swatched for and written up. And of course the felted clogs need to be finished. I have one brown one and one pink one knitted up...that's not going to do anyone a whole lot of good, now, is it?

Plus the children seem to be in a never-ending cycle of illnesses. Owen came down with a fever again on Sunday night. Took him to the doctor yesterday, and his ear infection is all better but it looks like he's getting another cold. Aaaaaah! That's what I get for sending my daughter to preschool.

Time for some shameless self-promotion...

Keohinani started a little contest, which I managed to get organized enough to enter at the last minute. It's called "You Know You Knit Too Much When..." Everyone lists a bunch of reasons why they should be voted the person who knits too much. Well, I don't have a SINGLE SOLITARY VOTE yet! So get over there and vote for me! I am contestant #16. Yup, #16! Anyone can vote, but you can only vote once. Bill, you need to at least give me one sympathy vote! I already voted, so I can't even vote for myself! I will be crushed if I don't get any. Okay, not really, but you should go check out the contest and vote for the person you think has the best list of reasons. There are some very funny entries on there! Also, be patient - blogpoll seems to be a little slow...

Winter is officially here in the Portland area. We even got a few flakes of snow yesterday - it was very exciting (but extremely short-lived). We now have 4-5 months of steady rain and grey skies to look forward to. Yahoo!

I have way too much knitting to do. I have to finish my Knit Net sweater (the back is done, but I've forgotten how long it takes to knit an adult-sized sweater with long sleeves in worsted-weight yarn!), I have a ton of submissions to swatch for, and I still have the felted clogs to finish. Aaaah! Does anyone have a couple extra hours from their day that they can lend me until January?

And the winner is...

The Bitter Knitter! Congratulations, Lisa! Your vote of 220 came closest to the grand total of...233 complete balls of yarn in my stash! How frightening, although I'm more frightened by the fact that keohinani guessed that I had 503... Give me a few more months, and I might just get there if I don't start knitting a little bit faster. Thanks for playing, y'all!

Can you all believe it's December already? We closed on our house in Portland one year ago today, and it's the best move we've ever made. We went to Maui last Thanksgiving to celebrate with my mom. After a lovely four days of frolicking on the beach and eating belgian waffles with coconut syrup and macadamia nuts at the Maui Prince Hotel, we flew back to LA for a couple of days (it's a long story why, but basically we bought the non-refundable tickets to Hawaii before we sold our house, so we had to fly from Oregon to LA to Hawaii to LA to Oregon). Bill was still working in LA, so I had to haul my relatively pregnant self and an almost-two-year-old Sydney on the plane back to Portland by myself.

It was a relatively uneventful flight, but when we got back to the airport park-and-ride, I realized that I'd totally forgotten where I parked the car. We had about an hour to get across town to the Realtor's office to sign the papers, and of course it was raining. We still had our Subaru Outback, and I thought I spotted it from the shuttle and we hopped off. However, as I drew near, I realized with a sinking stomach that the Outback I thought was ours had an Oregon license plate (we still had our CA plates). Portland is the land of 10,000 Subarus, so there were probably a hundred cars in the parking lot that looked exactly like ours. So, I had to drag a toddler, a suitcase, a carseat and a pregnant belly across the parking lot in the rain, searching for our car. Luckily I remembered the general area where we had parked and I managed to get us to the car after about 10 minutes of walking. In this hassled state, I sped to the realtor's office and we hauled butt to the closing agent (who was around the corner).

We have a funny story (involving a dirty diaper) about closing on our house in California. Sydney was about four months old, and we brought her with us to the closing. At one point, we were trying to keep her entertained and sat her up on the realtor's desk. She used the opportunity to let fly with a tremendous explosion which echoed loudly off the surface of the desk. Fortunately, the diaper kept it contained, but it was pretty funny to see the look on the realtor's face... Well, Sydney was determined to live up to her reputation once again (and this time she was a toddler with about double capacity). We got about halfway through signing the papers when she started making the poopy face. I was hoping that it would be a small one, but she hadn't gone for a couple of days so I was trying to prepare myself for the worst. Of course I had left the diaper bag in the car, back at the realtor's office. I figured I could just sign fast and I'd clean her up when we were done. Alas, it was not to be. The diaper was helpless in the face of that onslaught - the walls were breached and we had a serious code brown situation on our hands. Fortunately, the closing agent had a four-month-old baby at home and was veeeeeery understanding. I had to haul a** through the rain, back to the car to get a clean diaper and new clothes.

After these two incidents, we were quite convinced that there was something about closing on a house that made Sydney feel the need to dirty her drawers. She accompanied my in-laws to the closing on their house, which occurred while we were in the hospital having Owen. We both warned them ahead of time to bring extra diapers and clothes, and Sydney held up her part of the bargain by doing her business as soon as they started putting pen to paper. She has a perfect record - three for three! She's out of diapers now, and we're done buying houses, but we'll have a great story to tell to her friends when she's fifteen.