I am behind!

Wow! It is so hard to believe that it is already November 1st, and I didnt post for over a month!
Things are moving along with the kitchen...it seems as though that has been our major focus for so long that everything is gauged on where we are with that or where we will be with it. I am looking forward to it being completed and then enjoying it. it is already my favorite room to just sit in and look around. I will be over-the-moon happy when there is no more dust and dirt to clean up from the work. I already have a table and chairs picked out for the 'breakfast nook' and the bar stools as well. I am looking forward to all the work just being done.
I finally finished my clapotis and it is beautiful! I just love it. I went with Kristie to the NY Sheep and Wool show and got a lot of compliments on it. I also stated and completed a card for my niece. i am making a matching one for her sister. I hope to have them done for Christmas. I am also working on a scarf and hat for Britt for Christmas...and i would like to get a hat made for each of the other two girls and one for Chuck.
Good news from Kristie and her family, they got the one year extension on their Visas to stay in the states. I know they are very glad of that, and so am i. Good news from Amber as her and Eric are moving back to the Poconos....finally!
i guess thats it for news, it sure doesnt seem like much when its all typed out! LOL
Trick or treat was fun with the two youngest, Shannon and her two girls and her friend and his daughter as well. We ran into some people we knew and Amber eventually caught up with us too...
Now its preperations for Thanksgiving and getting ready for hubbys family to come. With the new kitchen it should be wonderful...I hope!!!!
Well I am off to clean a little, do some laundry and then maybe sit and knit awhile before hubby and I go out for an evening alone without the kids.
TTFN

More Kitchen Work!

Today the kitchen is getting some much needed drywall! All the holes and missing sections are going in, to get things ready for the cabinets. This weekend the bar will get finished, and then we have to stone face it. Then we can paint, install the new cabinets, and put the appliances back in (with the exception of the fridge...I get a new one of those), then the flooring is installed, and my favorite part, the decorating!
I have to pick out my small bar sink for the bar area...that will get done this weekend as well!
It is really coming along well and a lot faster than I tought it would!
I will try and get some pictures up this weekend if I can find the cord to download to the computer.
Later!

Brain Droppings!

I am very excited! A few of my friends and I will be going to the Billy Currington concert in one week...YEAH US!
I'm checking into the Trace Atkins concert which is coming up in December...have to figure out some dates before I can commit to that!
Scouts started yesterday, with the usual chaos that ensues with the first meeting of the year...and my final year as a Brownie leader. Love working with the older girls, they have a ton more energy that you could even imagine!
The kitchen is coming along, at a nice little pace right now...hopefully I will be able to host the Thanksgiving dinner this year...wouldnt that be nice...okay maybe not a whole lot of fun...but kinda neat anyway!
School is back in full swing...YEAH ME! Its just taking a little time getting used to the new bus schedules and some of the small changes that go with a new school building and new bus runs.
Got a lot to do, as always...so I'm off to do laundry in the newly finished laundry room and with the new washer and dryer!

School Began today

Today school started today and I did a happy dance.

I hope that the kids enjoy today as much as I will...now maybe I can get some things done and actually make progress.

I have been dealing with a sick husband, its only a little summer cold...but I would rather have all 4 of the kids sick than him.

I picked up my lighting for above the new island and started to lay some flooring in the laundry room, so its not turning out the way I thought and its not as easy as I thought....but it will be good enough to slop laundry on it.

I am finally getting the office caught up, since I have help.

I am hoping that today Kristie and I will get a chance to go to the yarn store...tomorrow her mom shows up!

I am going to relish the quiet...well as quiet as you can get with two guys on the roof putting on new shingles, and an electrician working in the kitchen....and hubby home and coughing on everyone!

Another day...

I finally made it back to PA in enough time for Florida to have a hurrican hit there (its been all week).
I was very glad to get home, and back into my life. Saturday I had to be out of bed early to go to a Girl Scout expo-type thing in Harrisburg (2 hours south of me) and I really enjoyed going and hanging out with the girl-friends. Sunday was intended to be a day of relaxation, but we ended up going to a family picnic which ended up being really great!
The week has been busy with getting the office work caught up, running the girls to different events, and trying to get my scouting year under control!
It seems as though we either came home sick, or managed to get sick when we got home...I havent been myself and the girls have developed some upset tummies and all that goes with that.
I went with hubby to pick out flooring and molding and doors for the new bathroom and laundry room, hopefully that will be done soon.
Nothing got done while I was away in the renovation process....and I knew that it probably wouldnt! But it is taking way too long to get some of this stuff done!
I received some lovely yarny-goodness this week from my friend Featherhead on Ravelry in the Yarn It Forward. I am looking for a lovely pattern to use this alpaca boucle on! I am going to love working with this I just know it!
I went to another card class this week and fell in love with the one card we made. Gail always picks out interesting and neat things for us to make. I got the new cataloge and cant wait to take a few moments to go through it and find some neat projects!
Anyway, i am slowly getting back to normal around here and suprisingly there are only 11 more days until school starts!!! I am so thrilled!

Leaving on a jet plane

Well in a few short hours I will be flying to Florida with Cheyenne and Brianna to visit their grandparents. I would love to be able to say that I am looking forward to it, but I'm not. It is ungodly hot in Florida at this time of year. And we will be staying with my hsbands parents. The girls seem really excited about going, especially flying in a big plane. I will put on my big girl pants and deal with the whole thing.
Hopefully when I get back I will have at least one finished project, two if I am super industriouse.
I am all packed, including some crochet and knitting to take on the plane and I even bought plastic and wood needles. (Byt the way, the plastic ones are horrible) I bought a new book to read and am taking an old one along to finish while I am at the pool.
See you when i return!

Its August 1st

OMG! I can hardly believe that it is August already!
That's just 33 days until school starts. Thats the good news! The bad news is that I have to make a trip to my in-laws in Florida with my two littlest ones! UGH! Hubby promised them that they woudl go and the airlines are so strict right now that I have to be the one to take them, and i am not looking forward to it! I hate that they keep their house like an oven, and I will have to depend on them to get anywhere. I will be leaving on the 7th and coming home on the 15th....that is 8 days of my life I will never get back! I plan on knitting and crocheting while I am there, maybe a couple of pairs of socks will get finished, god knows there is nothing else to do there for me...especially when it is HOT, HOT, HOT! I don't know if there are any yarn stores nearby their house, but I will find out before I go. In the mean time I will need to figure out when i am taking the kids clothes shopping for school, and when the heck I will have time to do laundry before I go....i will have to start packing earlier in the week as I am helping out at VBS at our church. I am probably going to have the wrath of God on my head when I tell the director that I won't be there on the last day. Well it is only 33 more days until school starts, and who knows...maybe some work will get done on the kitchen while I am gone!

Just another day!

My house is a wreck! With the remodeling going on it is like a war zone in the kitchen...actually from the entry of the house all the way through it is kinda like a war zone!

The downstairs bathroom is in-operable until they finish whatever it is they need to finish (what a pain to have to run upstairs all the time to wee!), I have cut down on the coffee intake during the day, cause I am just too lazy to hike upstairs all the time! LOL

Jenn and Carl were here for a visit...I miss them like crazy! We had a nice dinner out and the visit seemed just too short!

The business keeps me hoping like a rabbit! Its good, yet I get nothing else done....in comes the gift from hubby! He hired me a cleaning lady!! She is here right now...and cleaning the upstairs of the house. She is going to do what she can with the downstairs a.k.a the war zone...but the kids rooms and the bathrooms upstairs needed her! There are not enough hours in the day to be tied to this desk (and I am) and still have a life....so cleaning lady #4 is getting a trial run....hopefully, she can make the cut! The last one I had didnt clean anymore than I did....she only used a swiffer to mop the floors and stuffed the girls stuff in their closet...the cleaning lady before that was unreliable and the one before that stole stuff from my house!!!! Fingers and toes are crossed on this one!

The knitting is coming....oh alright its still baffeling me! I tried to cast on two socks at a time, and made it around a couple of times, but put the darn needles down and got lost! I did borrow a couple of books from Kristie to see if i could make something simpler...found a lovely shawl that I would like to make! Maybe she can help me figure that one out! LOL But i think I started with something more than my really beginner skills could handle, so I may need to back up a little and start again!

I just finished reading a really funny book...Crazy aunt Purl's Drunk, Divorced and Covered in Cat Hair....that is a great read....even if you don't knit (or crochet!) I really enjoyed it!

I'm suppose to be filing right now...can you hear the joy in my voice about that! I could probably do it all in about one afternoon, but I try and keep stuff like that for when Chuck is in the office, so I look busy! LOL
Well its almost lunch time, and I feel like I am starving, so I am going to go make something to eat...I think I will go with my organic yogurt and some flax seed...that would be the healthy option, or some toaster waffles with butter and syrup, the unhealthy option!

Jen is coming for a visit~

Tomorrow Jen and Carl and the kids come for a visit! I can hardly wait to see them all, I miss them so much. I don't know what exactly we are going to do, or even what time they are getting here, but I can't wait to see them!

So I am trying to learn to knit. I am not being very sucessful at it though. I keep thinking I should be able to wrap my tiny little brain around it, because I can crochet and while they are different they are a lot alike. Well not so easy for my brain...I think starting with socks is a little too hard, so I may try something else, not sure what yet, maybe a shawl.

I am working on a cami tank top that I love the look of, it is curling up as I do it, so hopefully blocking it will help. I have tons of pictures to post...but haven't done it yet! I need to figure out the camera on my phone cause it doesnt want to work properly! Since we shut off Britts ability to text pictures and such I believe they shut all of them off. So I can't send the pictures I have on my phone to my email. I am also crocheting a couple of pairs of different socks...cause I need something mindless to do in the evening.

The kitchen is moving right along. I'm waiting on theplumber to finish and then I can go get m washer and dryer and start to do laundry on the main floor of the house. I'm also attempting to move all my craft stuff upstairs into my closet, that may mean that I need to clean some things out of the closet that I have been holding on to for a long time. I may need to get rid of more clothing that I don't wear...and I hate doing that.

I am reading two books right now...The Friday Night Knitting Club, its really good, and if they make that into a movie I will go see it for sure. I'm also reading Hooked on Murder its pretty good! I have one upstairs in my bedroom for when I can't sleep the other in the office for down time. I recently finished the Nora Roberts series called The Garden Trilogy. They were pretty darn good!

I will attempt to put some more pictures in my flicker account, if i can get them all moved to where I want them.

ahh the heat and humidity which is summer

Well I must say that the humidity is horrible...but the plus is that it should be gone by tomorrow sometime.
I have been working on my dear flower beds...weeding, and planting. Is it really called weeding if you have let the weeds go until they are 4 feet tall, and its already July until you start? Maybe it should be called something else...like, extreme weeding!
The kitchen is not doing a whole lot right now, we did buy a cabinet (for 10 bucks I might add) for the bathroom. We now have a portable air conditioner (there is nothing portable about it) in the office so that i don't die in the heat...its downright chilly now! We purchased lumber to stud out the walls for the bathroom and laundry room. I'm waiting on hubby to start that along with the plumbing. It is going slow, but it is going!
I am crocheting socks...athletic short socks. I started with a jacket which I'm in a quandary about, so I have shelved that for now in favor of whipping out a few socks. I also have a pattern I want to make for a tank top...I gotta go get yarn for that.
I am so addicted to podcast and Raverly. I have been listening to pod casts while I work in the flower beds, and while I work in the office. Is there an intervention for this?
I'm also reading blogs, and just having fun with reading about things others are doing.
So...my goal is to finish some flower beds tonight and listen to some pod casts! See you all again soon.

The new kitchen has been started!

Wow, i never thought I would see this happen! Last weekend I finally managed to get hubby motivated enough to close in the former dinning room for the office, now there is a door on it, and we can keep the kids out when its business hours. During the week we had drywall going up and a door and sanding and spakling. This weekend we have the sub floor going in (we have to raise the sunken living room floor to meet the floor in the rest of the kitchen. Hopefully during the week we will manage to get some electrical and plumbing run and then the walls for the bathroom and laundry room can go up! I am finally getting closer to that new kitchen that I so desperately want! I will take some pictures and post them. That is if i get the chance, cause I am helping where I can as well!

Another day in paradise!

Well I managed to survive the first week of summer vacation, and I only had to have one melt down!!!
Finally the work has started (if not slowly) on the remodeling of the kitchen and opening it up to the formal living room....to all be one large kitchen! I'm trying to be patient but it doesn't always work so well for me. I am not very patient!
I am attempting to re-organize the office while they are closing it in...and that will be a very slow process, but in a few days it will be done and I can concentrate on other things. I just want the office to be more efficient so that things can be found easier and put away when they are around. There has just been too much stuff in this office that isn't needed. A lot of the stuff will find new homes in some kind of storage. I really hope to get everything more efficient in the near future.
I finally got the latest installment by Janet Evonavich and the Stephanie Plum series! It was a really good read too. Now i am anxious for the next installment in the Joanne Fluke Hanna Swenson series. I am also busy crocheting socks for Christmas. If you don't want to know what your getting for Christmas you should forget you read the last line.
Two kids are off to friends houses today, one has a friend over and the other is at work, so its pretty quiet around here...and that's a good thing.
I managed to get nothing done over the weekend...what else is new! I ran around with hubby and kids to different things and of course everyone in this house thinks weekends are for veggin' out! So nothing worth much got done. Its alright I am working towards the goal of 2018 and a clean house!
I'm off to work, its the thing I do to support my tequila habit and crafting habit!

My Last Day of Freedom for the Summer

ok so I can be a bit of a drama queen on that...but it is the last day of school and I am currently scurrying around the house attempting to get done everything I haven't done during the last school year. The hallway still isnt finished being painted (I started that two summers ago), and I didn't get the house cleaned and organized like I thought I would. The kitchen hasn't been remodeled (as if that is going to happen anytime soon); but I have learned to crochet socks, and I have purchased some higher end yarn and I am actually working on a pair of socks right now, that I am really proud of...I will attempt to post of picture of them when I figure out how you do that exactly. I have also managed to get my end of the year stuff done for Girl Scouts, well...except for the financial report...and I did manage to have a great time all school year running around with Kristie to Boarders, Target, the grocery store, Five Guys Burgers and Fries and the Chinese buffet. I even managed to learn about the yarn store with her, and I have extended my knowledge on podcasts, and blogs...I even managed to join a few swap groups and Ravelry!!! Now thats something to crow about!!!At the start of the school year I was going to join the local gym and work out....ok so that didnt happen, I still do think about it though! Usually when I think about starting to excersise, I just lay down have a cupcake and wait for the moment to pass...so far that has been working for me!
I also read the complete series of Janet Evonovich's Stephanie Plum mysteries and the entire series of Joanne Fluke's Hanna Swensen mysteries.
I took a few classes this spring in card making and made some really neat things other than cards. So in the view point of some folks I didn't get a whole lot accomplished, but in my mind I guess I think I did.
I even managed to squeeze in making a new friend...her name is Flora...a delightful addition to my life as a friend and fellow redkneck! She rocks! She can get my kids to listen to me with a look...how cool is that...and she can swill margaritas with me at the local resteraunt and she even likes yarn crafts and country music...sorry Kristie...I think she passes the test for the new best friend!!
I have had the chance to be something other than mother and wife for a few hours each week, and gosh don't we all need that. Sometimes that can bog you down and make you feel like you are always doing for others when what you really need to do is take a minute or two for yourself.The house will eventually be clean, I figure by 2018 I will be able to claim back the house (thats when my youngest is finally going to be 18) and I can stop worrying about things like a mountain of laundry and running kids to activities. Hey, thats a goal to shoot for...a clean house in 2018!Well I have wasted about as much time as I dare before the little monsters....uhhmmmm I mean the little angels make theri way in the door. I expect that they will all be anxiouse for lunch out today as we are celebrating the middle daughters birthday....here I come Five Guys Burgers and Fries!!! In case you missed that they really have great burgers and fries!!! Ok I am off to do a load of laundry and clean a toilet......UGH! Oh and of course text back and forth with my NBFF about our plans for the evening!

podcasts and not being tech savy!

I am tech savy, I will be the first to admit that!!! Recently my friend Kristie turned me on to podcasts for crochet and knitting....but i don't seem to be able to get them on my MP3 player...which is not an ipod....but I am working on it. I am also trying to figure out how to do what i need to in blogging, and getting everything set up to read the way i want it to, but I am diligently working on it. So i will keep on trying and eventually get everything running smoothly....yeah right, somewhere between the 4 kids, 1 husband, and office to run, a house to clean and volunteering with my scouts...............hahahaha

the first

Wow! Never thought I would be doing a blog!!! What has this world come to when they allow me to have one of my very own! Well I guess its part and pacel of life as we know it today! So if you have nothing better to do, see what someone who has no reason to, thinks about the world and other stuff!