Was it the Rally Monkey?

Nope-just Curious George, although he looks like he's holding the Rally Monkey. Should we tell him that the Sox won, sorry Angels Fans. Curious stopped by storytime time today and my youngest thought that was great.



If he's that big imagine the size of the Man in the Yellow Hat. Have a great Halloween weekend.

This time, it's ok to lie about it.

I hate giving gifts. Actually not giving gifts but picking them out. I just made it through both of my kid's birthdays. This was extremely painful. After asking my youngest how his birthday went he responded with "I thought I'd get more presents". Christmas looms in my future and I'm beginning to get a nervous stomach. The website Christmas.com counts the months, days, hours, minutes, and seconds until Christmas day. It's going to be here before I'm ready, it always sneaks up on me. My husband's birthday is November 13th. I thought of the perfect gift and ordered half of it online September 23rd. This was going to be the easiest birthday shopping ever. That joy lasted about a week. I've been working on it since then. Today I went to a local store to try to finish the gift. It's still not exactly what I wanted it to look(it has to be perfect) and what I wanted to pay for it(how many days do I have to work to pay for it!@?). Love of my life, if after you receive your gift and don't like it please lie to me and say it's exactly what you wanted. Thank you in advance.

It's beautiful.

I started a crochet shawl project back in April after taking a class at the local library. Of course that project was ripped out because I didn't like the way it was turning out. Soon after I came accross a pattern I thought would be perfect for this same yarn-microspun by Lion Brand. Well, 6 months later I have completed my largest(measured by amount of yarn used) project.

The pattern can be found here.
I never follow any pattern exactly but I like how it turned out. This yarn is very soft and you want to wrap yourself in it. I predict this shawl will be well worn.
Have a great weekend.

Why doesn't this yarn want to cooperate?

Sometimes while creating objects with crochet, my yarn rebels against me. I was working on squares for a new "bright colors" afghan the local crochet group is coordinating. The first 2 squares cooperated lovely as seen below.

And then there was a third who obviously does not want to become part of this effort. After 2 rip outs, soon to be a 3rd I still can't get it to look right.
Wait, this is supposed to be my relaxing time and square #3 you are causing stress. I will figure out what to do with you later and oh yes you will be a square and a good square at that. Are you reading this bright colored acrylic yarn?

An Optomistic Loser?

Yep, that's me. Since I turned 18, everytime a lottery jackpot hits record high payouts(for me that's anything over $100 million) I buy a ticket. With the announcement that Saturday's Powerball is $290 million that only meant one thing-road trip!


My husband will have to hear my plans for what to do first after I win the money as he has for the last 15 years. Ah, I can't wait to buy the RV and hit the road. I know I'm going to win this time.

Happy 4th Birthday!

Happy 4th Birthday!!

Tuesday was another birthday celebration in our house. He had a great day that started with a trip to the bookstore cafe. After school we went bowling for his first time and we all had fun.

We were lost.

Yesterday 4 kids and I were lost for 3 hours in a field of corn. Yes we chose to do this and paid admission. Our annual trip(this is actually only our 3rd year) to the Jonamac corn maze was fantastic.
This is the halfway point where we voted(4 to 1) to finish the rest of the maze. Bribes of soda and M & M's worked great.


We also picked up a wagon to haul the 4 year olds the rest of the way.
We were happy to finally find our way out and can't wait to get lost again next year.

More Football=More completed squares

The NIU game was on ESPN2 last night. Each NIU touchdown was followed by fireworks which was a pretty cool surround sound feature as the stadium is only about a mile away. It finally feels like fall here with 40 degree temperatures today after yesterday's temp of 90. I think the Basset and I will take a stroll to the Farmer's market this afternoon to check out the apple products. Hot apple cider is so good.

Monday Night Football.

The Packers haven't had an 0-4 record for 17 years. As an Illinois resident my team-Da Bears have a better record (1-2) than the Packers. We don't have a favorite team in our house so we bet on things like-how many interceptions Farve will throw tonight? There is another benefit to Football season. I'm able to gain some much needed crochet time while the game is on. Last night I completed 2 squares for Michaels Warm Up America project.


My local Michaels store currently has a collection box at the entrance for donated squares. At the end of October they are holding a joining party to pull them together to make afghans for needy individuals and families. Seems like a great way to use up some of this extra super saver yarn from my last afghan for charity endeavor.

Happy 9th Birthday!

Happy 9th Birthday!




We celebrated my oldest son's birthday yesterday and he had a great time. We went to a local diner for breakfast and enjoyed hanging out at home. Saturday was a very exciting but exhausting day at the amusement park. Here he is with the "moon" cake. I think he really liked his birthday weekend and wasn't quite ready to begin this week.

Are you sure it's October?

We spent yesterday at Six Flags Great America and it was fabulous! The weather was sunny and 80 degrees. My oldest(today he is 9) went on every roller coaster at least once. Even my youngest(3) went on The Demon which has 2 loops and a corkscrew.