It's a ...

I had my ultrasound today (19 weeks) and everything went great. I found out we are having another little boy. Very exciting! The little guy was very active during the ultrasound and at one point the technician said something about "jumping jacks." It was pretty funny. He's measuring right on target and everything seemed good. The big challenge now will be choosing his name. I like to use family names and since this will be the fifth little boy on my side of the family and the third on Brian's side of the family, it will be even more challenging to come up with a good name that hasn't been used. But I think I'm up to the challenge.

As to those who are waiting for Part 2 of the Christmas recap, it is delayed because I was having issues uploading pictures to Blogger tonight. It may have to wait until we return from Virginia around the 7th. Sorry! Hope you all have a wonderful New Year's! We'll be spending the day driving to Virginia. Off to enjoy a quiet New Year's Eve with my honey. Have a good one!

Christmas Photo Recap: Part 1--the tree

First, I wanted to let everyone know that Little Man and I are both doing much better now. He only threw up on Friday night and has been doing pretty well ever since. We're still limiting his diet so hopefully his stomach will remain strong as we start reintroducing less bland foods.

I started choosing Christmas pictures to share and realized I had way too many to squish into one post so I'm doing this in installments. Here's the first part. These are all photos related to our Christmas tree. Yes, we're one of those families that get a real tree. I grew up with white pine, but we decided to branch out this year and ended up with a Balsam Fir. I really liked it.

Little Man helps Brian set up the tree stand.
A nice employee at this nursery took our family photo. Unfortunately, we did not end up buying a tree here. They were way too expensive. But don't we look like a nice little tree-hunting family?
We didn't get one at this nursery either, but look at the cool "tree" of animals they had? Little Man thought this was very cool. Much, much cooler than the Santa who was walking around. Santa was treated like a pariah.
Little Man at Home Depot where we ended up getting our tree. It was very inexpensive and turned out to be quite lovely in my opinion.
Our tree decorated.
Little Man enjoys playing with my nativity and his nativity that were set up under the tree. He just loves his farm animals these days.

My Worst Nightmare

Little Man started throwing up last night..while I was at a wake (a friend's mom passed away). Poor Brian was home alone while Little Man threw up in 4 different rooms in the house in about 10 minutes. I arrived home just in time to help clean up the 7th round of throw up. Poor Little Man was looking so pitiful. On a happy note, he made it threw the rest of the night without more throwing up. Oh, I hope he gets healthy soon. Brian said he was just so confused every time he threw up.

I thought it was the post-Christmas blues (a rambling Christmas post)

I thought I had a case of the post-Christmas blues, but it ended up being the stomach flu instead. Fun! fun! But I'm all recovered now, well mostly, just a bit drained.

Christmas itself was strange this year because it was my first spent here in Ohio with Brian's part of our family. His family gatherings are a lot quieter than mine as my family has a lot more little ones. Anyway, it was still nice although very different.

Being unemployed and watching our funds depleting more quickly than we would like put a slight damper on the holidays. There's something innately wrong about discussing the possibility of having to move on Christmas Eve or looking for new job postings on Christmas day. Oh well. Such is life.

We leave on January 1st to head to Virginia to have a belated celebration with my family. So the post-Christmas letdown was only a partial one as there is still some celebrating to do. I did go ahead and undecorate the tree--much to Little Man's disappointment. The rest of the decorations will wait until we return from Virginia. Little Man had a wonderful time this Christmas and I promise some pics of his precious self shortly.

The other big news to come is that I have my ultrasound scheduled on the 31st and we will hopefully find out if our next little one is a boy or a girl. I can't wait!

Happy Holidays

( Yes, I know this one is a little late. Sorry!)

(It's almost here!)

May all your holidays, whichever you celebrate, be lovely and filled with family, love and laughter.

7 Weird Things About Me

Lydee tagged me to share 7 Weird Things about myself. So here goes. I'm sure there are more than 7 things, but I will just list the first 7 that come to mind.

1. I treat my dogs as if they are human. Some people think this is weird. I let them kiss me on the mouth and sleep in my bed (under the covers). Some people think that is really weird.

2. I'm a hypochondriac who's somewhat afraid of doctors. So this means that I constantly think I'm dying of some strange disease, but I don't do anything about it. As I'm not really dying, it generally works out okay in the end.

3. Maybe I'm not so much of a hypochondriac as an extreme worrier. I once went to bed with my clothes on because my husband was really late getting home from a meeting and I didn't want to be in my pajamas when the police came to the door to tell me he was dead. Can we say drama? It is my middle name.

4. I hate to wear shoes. If I'm inside I'm either barefoot or in just socks. If it's summer time, I'm often barefoot outside. If I wear slip-off shoes, I am constantly slipping them off. Not so good when you're at work. I went barefoot a lot my freshman year of college (except to eat because that is gross), but then I stepped on a piece of glass that got embedded in my heel. Then I wore shoes more, but now I'm back to my on-needs-basis-only policy with shoe wearing. My husband is the opposite--he always has shoes on.

5. I get really attached to practical strangers in my life. Somehow I feel really close to people I barely know. I once saw our UPS man at my doctor's office--it was down the street from where I worked and thus on the same UPS route. I got all excited and eagerly greeted the UPS man as if he was a long lost friend. He thought this was very weird.

6. Sewing patterns scare me. I feel like I'm a pretty intelligent person. I know how to use a sewing machine. I have successfully made valances, a roman shade, pillows and a few other odds and ends. I have successfully followed a number of knitting patterns. But if I see a sewing pattern, I get really scared. I've tried using them before and immediately get overwhelmed and abandon the project. Or just continue sans pattern and make something similar, but not quite right.

7. I'm more comfortable sharing my intimate feelings with complete strangers than people I know. Now that there are a few people I know in real life who read this blog, I edit more of what I say on it. Right now life is pretty sucky with Brian being out of work and yet I haven't blogged about it because I don't want those people to know what my life is really like. Why must life always be happy and great? What's wrong with the reality of my life right now? Somehow it embarrasses me if I'm not happy. I know. I'm weird.

No, I didn't drop off the face of the earth

Sorry it's been so long since I blogged. Life has just been extra busy with the holidays. We had a small get-together on the 15th which was huge fun, but time consuming despite my direct attempts to make it less time consuming. I'm almost done with my 120 or so Christmas cards that I send out. My Christmas shopping (what little I did on our jobless budget) is done and presents are wrapped. I only have a few more Christmas gifts to make. Then I'll actually have time (and hopefully motivation) to blog again. Thanks for your patience. I've been tagged to share 7 Weird Things about myself so that will be coming soon. Now...to narrow it down to 7. Hmmm... Have a happy holiday season and I'll catch up with you all soon.

Crafts and Christmas

Hey everyone! Hope you all are doing well. Even though it's Tuesday, I'm not in the mood to do a Top Ten Tuesday so I thought I would just talk about what I've been up to recently. Despite my lack of blogging, I have been doing some fun things I'd like to share.

First, I made another set of hats for Reed, Mary and Madeline. I used this simple free pattern and a combination of Caron Simply Soft in White and Paton's Beehive Baby in blue/pink/lavender. Both yarns were leftover partials that I had in my stash. Go, stash-busting! This hat uses very little yarn so I could make a ton more if I wanted--but I don't! I've not been much in the knitting mood recently. Oh well.

The hats with my hand for scale.

They fit better a month or so ago when I made the sample hat for sizing. They're just growing too fast for me to keep up!

Second, I've made a few Christmas ornaments for my mom. I make her one of these for each of her grandchildren. These are in honor of the triplets. I still need to add their names and birthdays to the ornaments. These beaded ornaments were my initial crafting love and I still really enjoy making them.

Top view of the ornaments.

Side view of the ornaments.

Third, I decorated a stocking for Little Man. He's really into farm animals or "baa," "moo," and "neigh". He likes pigs and chickens, too. So I decided to decorate his stocking accordingly.

Little Man's farm animal stocking. Baa! Moo! Neigh!

I did these stockings for Brian and I a few years ago. I love coming up with the fun details like the beer-drinking snowman on Brian's.

I still love how these stockings turned out.

My favorite part of Brian's.

Fourth, I've been decorating for Christmas. It's the only holiday I decorate for and I love pulling out all the decorations each year. They are so full of memories that it makes me happy. Can't wait to do the tree this weekend.

My nativity. Unbreakable--so Little Man can touch it and move the animals around without fear.

Baby Santa who I inherited from my grandmother and who stays out all year round.

Our mantel.

A Santa that Brian's dad painted. Isn't he amazing?

My newest Christmas decoration bought last year. They're salt and pepper shakers. Alligators in Christmas clothes! She's wearing high heels!

Anyway, that's me for now. Hope you are all having a lovely start to your holiday season. Sending much love and cheer your way!

Top Ten Tuesday: Thankful Edition

Hey everyone. I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving. We spent ours with my family in Virginia and had a blast. Little Man LOVED hanging out with his cousins and Mooma and Papa. I loved seeing my family and FINALLY meeting the triplets. They are adorable. We ate well (including my first Haley-made pumpkin pies) and played well (lots of time with cousins including a visit to the Natural Bridge Zoo). Anyway, I am very thankful for everything this Thanksgiving. So, of course, I wanted to do a related Top Ten Tuesday topic. To help narrow it down a little because there is SO much to be thankful for...this week's Top Ten Tuesday Topic is

Top Ten People I Am Thankful For

10. My internet friends (You are there for me even though I've never met most of you in person. Thanks for your kind comments and words of encouragement. Of course, I thought of Julie when eating that pumpkin pie)

9. My extended family (Even though you're all crazy, I love you all so much!)

8. My in-laws, not just my mother- and father-in-law, but the whole Lottig/Marlowe clan. (But especially my mother-in-law and father-in-law: You who took such good care of my girls while we were in Virginia and who take such good care of us when we're in town.)

7. Old friends, you know who you are. (You are always there when I need you. We may not see each other very often anymore, but I know you will always be there for me.)

6. My nephews and nieces (You are some of the coolest little people I have ever met. You enrich my life every time I'm with you. I feel so blessed that you are all so healthy and happy.)

5. My sister and my brother (Despite the picking or maybe because of it, you will always be two of my favorite people.)

4. My parents (You are always so good to me. You made this trip another wonderful, wonderful week. You always make me feel so loved.)

3. My new baby due in May (Oh the ways you will change my life.)

2. My Little Man (Can't imagine my life without you.)

1. My husband (Honey, where do I even start? You are the greatest.)

My Babies

I promised some Little Man eye candy. I only have a few pics because he's currently sick with a high fever virus and isn't feeling very photogenic. His fever is down from 102 to 100 and he seems to be on the mend. (Fingers crossed). I'm listening to his happy snoring as we speak. Anyway, here are a few pics of Little Man and one of my baby girls.

Little Man showing off his out of control, I-need-a-haircut hair.

Close-up of Little Man's great hair.

Little Man supervises Brian as he rakes the leaves.

My girls, Zoe and Pauli, curled up asleep on the sofa.

Top Ten Tuesday: Love Edition

First of all, thank you for all your kind words in regards to my pregnancy. I am feeling so very blessed (and a bit less nauseated.) Life is good.

I've been debating different ideas for Top Ten Tuesday topics, but was just inspired by a phone call from a good friend. I just found out he's engaged. He was engaged once before, but it didn't work out. Now he's found a wonderful person who really appreciates him and he's found someone he truly adores and respects. It's so exciting to hear about two people who are truly happy together. They're both a little older. She's been married before. He's been engaged. But now, at the right time, they've found the right people and they are truly happy. This friend is a truly wonderful person and I'm so happy that he is happy.

Anyway, my friend has inspired this week's Top Ten Tuesday topic:

Top Ten Things I Believe About Love

10. There is someone out there for everyone.

9. Often you find love when you stop looking for it.

8. Often you find love where you least expect it.

7. When the time is right, you will find the person you are meant to be with.

6. We have to love the wrong people in order to be in the right place when the right person comes along.

5. The "wrong ones" just help you appreciate the "right one."

4. If you love someone, you will treat them with respect even during a fight.

3. Love at first sight doesn't exist; you can't truly LOVE someone until you truly know them.

2. Love grows stronger over time.

1. Love isn't easy, but it is truly worth the work.

Hope you are all having a love-filled week. Sorry for another picture-less post. I promise some Little Man eye candy soon. Have a good one!

A Little Hearbeat

Today I heard the little pitter-pat of my newest baby's heartbeat. I'm 11 weeks pregnant. I've been extremely sick (thus my total lack of blogging/knitting/etc.). However, today made it all worth it. I'm having another baby. I hope he or she is as wonderful as my Little Man. It's hard to imagine. I am so very blessed.

Top Ten Tuesday: Late Night Edition

Somehow it's Tuesday again already. For various reasons, I have had a lot of restless, awake-a-lot nights. As I've been lying in bed, I've been spending a lot of time thinking and sometimes I even use my extra time to have little conversations with God about life and what not. Most recently, I've been talking to him a lot about Little Man and about my nephews and nieces. I have such high hopes for them all despite the crazy world we live in. So this week's Top Ten Tuesday topic is



Top Ten Things I Hope for My Children (I hope to have at least one more.)



10. I hope they will be financially responsible.



9. I hope they will have a good work ethic.



8. I hope they will find a career that they are passionate about and truly enjoy.



7. I hope they will enjoy nature, books, time with their family, music and crafts.



6. I hope they will be more athletic than me or at least not as scared to try.



5. I hope they will find true love.



4. I hope they will grow up to be confident in themselves.



3. I hope they will grow up to be both caring and kind.



2. I hope they will always treat others with respect.



1. I hope they will always know how very loved they are.



Hope you are all having a great week. Happy Fall! If you're a parent or just love a good blog post, you must read Julie's latest. She touches my heart everytime.

The Adventures of Little Man

It's been a fun week with my little man. First, we got to go to the zoo with one of our friends who has a zoo membership. We spent most of our time in the rainforest and Little Man had tons of fun checking out the animals.

Crocodile and turtles
Monkeys

Orangutan

Up Close and Personal

Then we had Halloween where Little Man wore his sheep or "Baa" costume as he likes to call it. Since we were outside, he finally decided that it was okay to keep his hood on. I knitted the sweater (a modified Wallaby made from Homespun with ears and a tail). The ears and tail were inspired by this softie pattern from Fuzzy Mitten. My sister sewed the fleece pants.

Little Man enjoyed handing out candy to all the big kids on the street.

Today I tried to get Little Man to put Halloween stickers on a card for my mom as a thank you gift for the fun Halloween books she sent him. He decided it would be more fun to put most of them on his arm. It was really adorable. He was SO proud of himself.Anyway, I hope you all had a great and fun holiday if you celebrate Halloween. Otherwise, I hope you're just having a great week. Happy candy eating, everyone!

Not a lot of knitting, but some good reading

I've been back in reading mode recently and have read three decent books in a row. It's been a while since that's happened. Mainly because I get my books from the library when I'm with Little Man who is either pulling everything in reach off the shelves or ready to get back to the children's section. So I'm usually just grabbing random books based on their cover or title without even glancing at the description. Doesn't always work out so well. But recently, we've been having some good luck. Anyway, three enjoyable books--so I thought I'd take a moment and write a quick blurb about each.

The first was Babyville by Jane Green. I was a little sad when I realized it was set in London because sometimes all the British lingo annoys me, but it didn't end up bothering me at all in this one. Despite the title, this book is a lot more about women, mainly single women, than about babies. I found it entertaining and relate-able. It was a bit unrealistic at times, but I enjoy suspending disbelief and enjoying a little extra happiness. It's definitely a "fluff" book which I was in the mood for so very enjoyable.

The second book I read was The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. This one was definitely not fluff. It's a memoir. Let me tell you, Jeannette Walls had a very interesting, but not a very easy life. A little disturbing at times, but very well written. The chapters are pretty short and they make you want to just keep reading and reading and reading.

The third book was more fluff--The Cubicle Next Door by Siri L. Mitchell. It's about a blogger. It's the first book I've ever read about a blogger. She's a bit of an oddball, but somehow that made me relate to her even more (well, because I'm a bit of a strange one myself). The guy in the novel is a military guy and even though he doesn't fit the description, I kept picturing him as The Rock. Irrelevant, but somehow it humored me throughout the novel. Anyway, a great little fluffy romance with some food for thought built in for good measure. Very nice read. Again, I couldn't put it down because I'm sucker for romance and I wanted a happy ending.

Anyway, I'm always looking for a good book so if anyone has any suggestions, please pass them on. Happy day, everyone! Hope it's a good one.

I do still knit

I've been a bit of a slacker knitter and blogger recently, but wanted to share one of my recent knits. I wanted to knit little pumpkin hats for my newest nephew and nieces since they are too small for costumes this Halloween. Anyway, I have yet to meet them so I wasn't sure exactly what size to make the hats. So I made up my own preemie pumpkin hat pattern, made three of them and mailed them off to Virginia without taking a picture--oops!

But I just got these pics from my sister-in-law, Shelley.

I think I may have made the hats a touch too small, but they look pretty cute anyway.

Reed, Mary and Madeline

I think they really like them.

Happy almost Halloween, everyone!

Top Ten Tuesday: Remembering Edition

As many of you remember, September 11, 2001 was a Tuesday and September 11th fell on a Tuesday again this year. Oblivious to it, I totally ignored it on the actual anniversary. In fact, it seems all of the blogs I read ignored it this year except this one which happens to be written by an Australian. Interesting, huh? Or maybe sad is a better word? I don't know. I felt kind of bad about it. To be honest, I don't really think about September 11th much. Luckily for me, I didn't really know anyone who died that day. One student I graduated from college with died in NYC. I knew him by name and face, but I didn't REALLY know him. Unfortunately, many many many people were not as lucky as me. They lost their lives on September 11th. They lost their dads, their moms, their sons, their daughters, their brothers and sisters, their husbands or wives. They lost their friends. I can't imagine. Truly, I can't imagine. Anyway, this is a little belated, but it's a topic I was thinking about during my hiatus back in September and I was thinking about it again today so I thought, "why not?". Today's Top Ten Tuesday topic is

Top Ten Things I Remember About September 11, 2001

10. I was at work. I was a Director of Education at a Sylvan Learning Center at the time.

9. It was a busy day because we were all supposed to leave the next day to go to Baltimore for the Sylvan annual conference (the first time for most of us to attend.) We were excited because we wanted to go to the Cheesecake Factory while we were there.

8. My co-worker's husband called and told her she had to listen to the radio because a plane had run into a building in New York. I remember thinking, "Who does this man think he is telling his wife what she HAS to do?".

7. At first, they weren't sure what was going on. There was talk that it was just a small plane that does tours of that area of New York.

6. Then the second plane hit and everyone was freaking out. We didn't have a tv, but everyone kept watching it on the internet.

5. I couldn't take it all in so I just went back to work. I pretended it wasn't happening. I just went on making lesson plans and getting materials ready for instruction that night.

4. My in-laws and husband kept calling because they were worried about me flying the next day. Needless to say this fear was unfounded as all flights were canceled.

3. At one point, there was a suspicious plane coming towards Cleveland. More panic. The plane rerouted and later crashed. It was United 93.

2. Somewhere in all this chaos, the Pentagon was hit. I remember being worried because although I knew some people in NYC, I knew a LOT in the DC area. Everyone wondered when the horrible chaos was going to stop.

1. We decided to stay open for instruction that night (even though a lot of students canceled) because we wanted to keep some sort of normalcy in the lives of our students. Which is ironic because at the time it seemed like life would never be normal again.

But here it is, 6 years later, and life seems very normal. So normal that most of us rarely think about September 11th and all that happened that day. Most of us don't think about all those innocent people who died or who lost loved ones. I admit, I'm usually one of those people. But I'm trying to be better. So just a little post to remember all of those lives so personally affected that day. My heart goes out to you all.

Good News

Thanks, everyone, for your thoughts and prayers. Reed is coming home from the hospital tomorrow. It did end up being viral meningitis. As far as I know, all is now well. Just wanted to pass on the good news.

Prayer Request

Hey everyone. Just a quick request for prayers if you have a few extra moments. Reed (my almost three week-old nephew) is in the hospital. The bad news--it's meningitis. The good news--they think it's viral which is apparently the good kind. Anyway, if you have a moment, please pray for Reed and his family (John and Shelley, big brother Joe, and sisters Mary and Madeline).

Reed, Mary and Madeline

Top Ten Tuesday: Excuses Edition

I can't seem to get anything done these days. So this week's Top Ten Tuesday topic is

Top Ten Reasons I'm Not __________ ing
(Fill in the blank with any verb and it's probably true.)

10. I'm tired.

9. The Indians are in the play-offs.

8. The Indians are actually playing well (for the most part) and thus I'm even more tempted to stay up.

7. Brian is still unemployed.

6. Brian's been "working" from home (unpaid, but still working a lot) and has been on the phone and the computer a lot.

5. Little Man has been waking up early.

4. Little Man has been taking short naps.

3. Little Man has strep.

2. I might have strep.

1. Did I mention I'm tired?

The only thing I have been able to keep up with (sort of) is this, started by Erin of Pepperknit. See my pictures here if you want. Hope you all are doing well. Happy living life to its fullest! I'll be catching up soon.

Little Man: Park Edition

Little Man has not had a good week. His sleep schedule has been all wonky. He's been waking up really early (sometime between 5 and 6AM) each morning, then passing out in the car before lunch, and then taking a maximum of an hour long afternoon nap. So then he's exhausted and wants to go to bed early and then gets up early, etc. Not fun for me or him! But today he seems to finally be back on track. Let's see. He's about to hit the one hour mark for his nap. Hopefully he'll sleep for at least two. Anyway, for some Friday fun I'm posting some pictures from the park about a week ago. I've been meaning to share, but hadn't slowed down with the no napping/early rising that's been going on. Hope you enjoy Little Man and his park antics.

That was one big hill he climbed. I was so proud! Hope you all have a great weekend. Happy knitting and otherwise relaxing!