food, dates, and knitting!

Another week has managed to slip by..here's what goin' on here..
This week i decided to let the kids each pick a meal that they wanted for dinner, i only specified that i wanted to be able to cook it please...so orange chose 'fish n chips' and hero chose 'ribs or taco night'. Orange managed to get her meal the very next night because i happened to have those items on hand, but Hero didn't get her taco night until Thurs..BUT i was excited to realize that with the kids getting their food choice, they ate MORE than they would normally eat! Which is fantastic! So i plan on having the girls choose a meal each again this week and see what happens! :)

On Wednesday Mr.OHM and I finally made it out for a much needed date night! We had a fantastic dinner at Jack Astors and then had movie GC's from Christmas so went to see 'No Strings Attached'..which was pretty darn funny! We had an awesome night and came home very much refreshed and ready for the girls to come home the next day!

Last night(friday) we hit the ice rink for a family date night with a friends family! Knowing that someone else is gonna be there too is just the kick in the butt i need to GET OUT OF THE HOUSE and enjoy life and my family! We had such an awesome time! (sad note: i only had my phone for pic-taking)

and LOOK! Orange managed to 'skate'(aka shuffle) without a trainer! WOOT!
After that we all hit Starbucks for some yummy drinks and chatter! (here's Orange and her new buddy playing a well-played game of I Spy!) They were sooo cute!



This morning, that same friend and I went to the market to grab some coffee and get some knitting in...i realized this morning that i have been knitting for just under one month and i am already knitting 'in the round'!!

I am working on a pair of 'Alice Mitts'(think fingerless mitts and Alice from new moon). I am absolutely in LURVE with this wool, it's so pretty and softie! :)

I grabbed 2 dutch donuts on my out to treat Mr.OHM and myself when i got home. YUM!


And that was my week(ok..well..the highlights!)

(edited to add: i also forgot to mention the family movie night we had that i bought little popcorn boxes for the girls, and moved the coffee table out of living room so they could spread out and snuggle up with tons of blankets and pillows!(awesome!)..and also the game night where we played scattergories and orange wrote 'Guys' as her answer for 'replaceable item' starts with 'g'! what a frickin HOOT we had with that one! And she's 6! it was soooo innocent! lol)
*AND i am STILL working my way through 'House Rules' by Jodi Picoult...it's a BIG book, but so so GOOD!

knitty knitty!

so i've been bad..i've had rawther(teehee) a bad case of the winter blahs lately..i've been completely useless unless it's involved something that i was REALLLLLY interested in(my new love of knitting, going to chapters with my kids, baking! encouraging my kids love of monsters, but not scary monsters, CUTE monsters, there's a BIG difference!)...

Anywho, so on Jan 05th i went to my first knit night..i was working on a grey scarf with a knit2/purl2 pattern..here she is!(i finished it 2 days ago cause i got bored of it and moved on to less tedius projects)


For the next wednesday night i decided to work on a cute little blanket for orange's Jessie doll..it was called an acorn blanket i believe, but the girls didn't really like that and they decided the pattern looked more like a pineapple so then it was decided that it should be called the 'pineacorn' blanket..which makes me think of unicorns instantly..WEIRDO.(also to be noted about this pic is that the blanket is oddly shaped because i massacred it somewhere about halfway in and the pretty pattern continued on the BACK of the blanket...sigh..so i just decided to finish it and get on with something else..OH! and Jessie's beautiful scarf that orange begged for me to make her so she could stay warm in this brutal canadian winter..now to make her a coat or well based on my skill maybe a PONCHO! lol)(and yes, the photo is sideways..i am just too lazy to fix it)


Then before the next wednesday i threw in a whole dishcloth! I'm not a fan of the 'feeling' of this one, so i'm gonna go with something else next time, but i pretty much nailed this one without many mistakes so yay me!


And so that brings me to what i actually started this past wednesday..i started a scarf..i did about 12 rows of what was supposed to be a wonderfully pretty scarf(not like a warm winter one)..and then i ripped it out because it was not working out as pretty as the one that i had seen on a friend on the monday morning and that i had been obsessed with ever since...so i have nothing to show for wednesday but 2 empty knitting needles and a ball of pretty wool :(

Here is what i am currently working on..it's supposed to turn into a really softie pretty cowl, but right now i have dubbed it the 'scowl'..cause it's driving me bonkers! lol. I'm having problems with memorizing what to do for each line and throwing wonky stitches in here and there..purls for knits and vice versa, realizing that i was out a stitch too didn't help..I'm reallly sure that i will get the hang of it soon! (before what i am stitching will actually be visible!)


And now i will leave you with some ugly cupcakes! lol. The girls got fancy baking kit thingies for Christmas, so orange and i worked on hers Thursday, i even gave up most of the control! until she destroyed the egg and then crazy mom decided to 'help' out!(sigh)


anywho, so that's what's up..but the knitting has taken a bit of a back-burner right now as i am reading Jodi Picoult's "House Rules" for an online book club right now...must..read...faster...


edited to add: mr.OHM is feeling RAWTHER left out of this post..so i shall mention him...Mr. OHM is still here...there ya go! ;)
AND just because i am now feeling generous, here is a pic of his socks..cause i like 'em! :)

i think i'm getting the sick :(

I really should have known..I have been beyond wiped out lately..waking up in the morning, taking the girls to school, and by 9:30am NEEDING a nap.

Last night i had a couple friends over and we chattered away for FIVE hours, yup couldn't believe it was after midnight when we'd decided to call it a night! But, i was chilled and found myself laying awake until about 3:30am, i was just generally uncomfortable and the sleep was just not coming..

And now, well now it's 3:00pm..i am still in my oldnavy jingle jammies(lol) and my slippers, i have a couple candles lit(so comforting), and i've been sipping juice and tea and soup like crazy(in my awesome new Tazo Zen mug from Starbucks!) hoping that this bleh feeling, nasty headache, and mild sinus pain will just up and back off!

I'm really just hoping that sometime soon we can catch a bit of a break here!! bleh.

Out of my Shell

I'll start by saying that it's been a LONG time. We've been following each others blogs and chatting online in bits n pieces here and there for somewhere around 3 years, at least that was what we came up with when we FINALLY met on Wednesday night! N reminded me that she remembered me homeschooling and back when i was with my husband, which floored me, WOW had it really been THAT long?! And I only came out of my shell to meet her now?! We live in the same city for cryin out loud! And i have had good luck with meeting people online(just ask mr.orangeheromama!)

Ok, before this turns into a weird 'how much i love N' blog entry...WELL let me pointform just a couple of my loves(her love of handmade-you should see her creativity!, gnomes!, teacups!, knit socks!, etc etc)...anywho let me show you what N helped me to do on Wednesday..

I AM KNITTING!!!! wootie woot! and not just the plain ol' garter stitches that i could do prior. This scarf has purling in it! I just needed a bit of direction and a push! (side note: i wish i could have shown you some of the amazing projects that were coming to life in that big room of knitting women..WOW..and there were the sweetest of little knit monsters and monkeys there too! I was in heaven i tell ya!!)
Here is a shot of the scarf later that night just before bed(it appears small but that is about 10 inches long)..

It's getting there! I am so excited to finish it! It's so softie and wonderful. I am gonna wear this sucker with PRIDE!
And N, have no fear i will definitely be back next wednesday, and maybe this time we can grab that coffee after! :)

blah blah..resolutions..blah

There have been quite a few rough nights here lately..i've been sleeping very poorly, and it hasn't been pretty. I've had a bit of a 1/3 life crisis and i've freaked out/panicked/cried/been downright gloomy and irritable. I did a pretty decent job of hiding my insanity too since most of it came at night when the kids and man were snoring peacefully. Someone had asked the very question that's been troubling me on an online forum that i frequent.."do you have a purpose in life?". It floored me. Apparently i am not the only one that is suffering with this right now. Because honestly i really have no idea what mine is. I feel pathetic and it sucks. I am 31 years old, i have no post secondary education, I have a VERY empty resume, I am lacking in the close friends dept, etc etc..I'm sorry this post seems to have turned into a bloody pity party but these are things on my mind and i just need to get them out. I think quite often about the reason that i was let go from my job of a measly 2 months..personality conflict. I just don't seem to know who i am or where the heck i am going. I have a great guy and 2 wonderful girls, i know for that alone i am very lucky, i get up in the morning because of them.
So i know it's so cliche, it's a New Year and blah blah, but i HAVE to make some resolutions here, I need to try and fix me and FAST! Mr Man and i talked when i lost the job, and he agreed that i should take some time and sort myself out(my deadline was finding a job by July 1st), but things happened, the holiday season started rapidly approaching and things slide...so here it is now a New Year, there is now just under 6 mo to the deadline and i need to put it out there and get myself accountable.

So..
Here is what i will be doing:

1) i've said it a lot, but i will sort out how to MEAL PLAN and DO IT. I realized the other day that we have a BIG BIG problem with eating out..thai alone seems to be a weekly occurence at $16! scary?!

2) i am starting to feel anger towards our house..I am a 'sahm' right now and can't seem to KEEP THE HOUSE IN ORDER, and my kids are in school fulltime and then there is the time spent with their dad too...really?! what the heck?! which leads to #3..

3) TIME MANAGEMENT...something a friend pointed out to me..purpose/priorities/what do i do with my bloody time?! I need to take a good look at exactly how much time i have on my hands and learn to spend it wisely.

4) BUDGET!! I always went running screaming in the other direction when this word was said..but now seeing as how mr man got into a car accident yesterday and we are suddenly VERY worried that we will have a written off car and a small cheque handed over to buy a new(to us) car...i realize that hrm..maybe i shouldn't balk at that word anymore..Thankfully mr man is very good with money and budgeting and all that so i think that i will have a good teacher and learn quickly.

5) care about myself again. I had to start caring about myself when my marriage tanked and i found myself thrown back into the dating pool...then of course things start to slide when you find someone..and then i found a job and found that i liked dressing nicely, i liked to accessorize, i dusted off my hair straightener, etc...but then i lost it and i was miserable and holiday chaos started in, and stress and munchies and well i am a right yucky looking mess right now! lol. It's really not a good feeling to be embarassed of yourself/appearance..and i'm starting to get anxiety about picking my kids up from school, or running into people i know, or meeting people unexpectedly that mr man works with(like today! grr). Care mama CARE!

6) write the damn resume that is giving me panic attacks and making me sweaty and ill just thinking about it...

Ok. i think that i need to stop writing now..there is more that i want to say/scream/express but well quite frankly i am embarrassed and ashamed and i'm about 'this close' to just hitting delete...