Take the Good with the Bad

Brian did NOT get the job he interviewed for on Friday. But on a happy note, they were impressed with him and are passing on his information to anther person for another job opening in the company. So something good may still come of it. Feeling calmer just knowing for now. Thanks for the kind and supportive comments.

We're heading to Virginia tomorrow to spend some time with my family. My brother's triplets are getting baptized this weekend and Brian and I are Madeline's godparents. It ought to be fun. Have a good weekend!

I'm freaking out

I'm freaking out. My husband has now been unemployed for 19 weeks. I know that because I was 4 weeks pregnant at the time and now I am 23 weeks. We've gotten so low on funds that we had to borrow money from family. So now not only do we have no savings, but we are now in debt. Brian had an interview on Friday, but we still haven't heard anything back about it. The waiting is killing us both. I've invested so much mental energy in deciding that this job is "the one" that I don't know if I can handle it if it doesn't work out. I have about 4 months to go until this next little guy arrives. That's not a lot of time to get a job, most likely sell our house and relocate to a whole new place. That's not a lot of time to get a new OB/GYN, new pediatrician, new veterinarian, get to know a new town and make new friends for myself and for John. That's just not a lot of time. Except that it is a lot of time to be unemployed. A lot of time that we could just be getting further in debt. I don't even want to think about that. I'm just freaking out. I'm a mess. My house is a mess. I can't stay focused long enough to do anything productive like cleaning or working on a new workbook or even deciding on a new knitting project. I'm not sleeping well at night because I'm worrying about our finances and this new baby (who is still very active and thus I know is currently doing just fine). I'm worrying about John and how he's going to adjust to a new big boy bed and a baby brother and possibly a new house and a new town that's away from all his friends and his grandparents and his favorite uncle. I'm worrying about how I'm going to handle life with two children and no family close by and maybe not very many friends and a husband who's possibly working long hours or night shift or traveling. I'm worrying about being in a place where we don't know anyone when this baby is born. Who will take care of John when I go to the hospital? Will I have to go have this baby by myself? It's the unknowns that are killing me. I just want to know what the future holds for us. Where will we be? What job will Brian be doing? Will I need to go back to work and put my boys into daycare? Will they be okay with that? Will I? I'm tired. I'm so tired of putting on a brave front, of telling everyone that we're fine, of being positive. I'm so tired of being tired and stressed out. In the depths of my heart I know everything will work out okay in the long run, but, honestly, right now I'm just freaking out.

I Knit, I Promise, I Still Knit (just not as much as I would like)

So I finally finished Little Man's sweater. I started it back in September! It should NOT have taken me so long, but between the pregnancy tiredness, the pregnancy nausea and general life crap, it took me FOREVER to knit. Part of the problem was that I have been barely knitting at all these days. Part of the problem was that I was kind of making up the pattern. I wanted to make John (yes, that's his name. I'm tired of calling him Little Man all the time) a Placket-Neck Pullover from Last Minute Knitted Gifts, but none of the affordable yarns I liked fit the gauge. So I decided to make a Wonderful Wallaby with a placket neck and no pocket. So I winged the pattern using info from both the Wonderful Wallaby and the Placket-Neck Pullover. Because I was not feeling fearless, the merging of two quickknits turned into one not-very-quick knit. Oh well. The finished sweater is made from Caron's Simply Soft Tweed. It only took a little over 2 skeins. The overall size turned out perfectly. I measured one of John's shirts to help decide length up to armpit and length of sleeves. This worked great. The problem I have with the "finished" sweater is the neck. It's just too wide. I think I needed to do more decreases in the sleeve stitches. The front and back of the neck is a fine width, but the sleeve portions (the sides) of the neck are much too wide. The sweater looks OK over a collared shirt, but is still a bit funky in the neck fit. I think I might do a little froggin and try to add some extra decreases on the sleeve stitches near the neck and see if that helps. Does anyone have any other suggestions? Anyway, despite my not 100% satisfaction, I am excited to maybe be finished with this project. I've since started on a new baby bonnet to give as a gift. I needed to 1)follow a simple pattern, 2)try something new and 3)do a short project that used stash yarn. Anyway, more on that when it is finished. Without further ado, here is John in his finished (maybe) Placket-Neck, Pocketless Wallaby.

Caught in midspeech.
In this picture, you can see how the too wide neck makes the sweater dip in the back.
I got these cute buttons at JoAnn's.
Can you tell how wide the sides of the neck are?
Not a good pic of the sweater, but doesn't John look adorable.
Bonus shot of Zoe and Pauli watching us go out to play in the snow.
My little guy in the snow. Even though I've knit him a ton of hats, he insists on wearing this one that I bought myself before I started knitting. Oh well.

You Make My Day!

Thank you, Lydee, for being so kind as to give me my first blog award!

Lydee gave me the "You Make My Day" Award and now I have these instructions to follow:

Instructions: "Give the award to 10 people whose blogs bring you happiness and inspiration and make you feel happy about blogland. Let them know by posting a comment on their blog so they can pass it on. Beware you may get the award several times."


So after some delay, here are the blogs that I pass this award onto:

Julie at Fricknits
Lydee at Thoughts of a Sometimes Stay at Home Mom
Sophanne at beckyknitstoo
Kristin at A Few Things to Say...
Suzanne at Yarnhog
Nova at Novamade
Cheryl at yarnbee
Anny at Annypurls
Carol at An Island Girl/Knitting Nanna
Debra at Winding the Skein

Thank you all for sharing your lives with me! There are so many lovely blogs out there. If only I had more time to explore them all. For more great blogs, please see "Where I Get My Fix" in the righthand margin of my blog.

Top Ten Tuesday: Lessons from Little Man Edition

It's been FOREVER since I've done a Top Ten Tuesday and I'm determined to do one today despite the fact that I'm exhausted from a night of swimming class with a very clingy little man, behind on my Sylvan work because of a weekend of poor sleep and a killer cold, and hungry for a huge bowl of ice cream (don't worry I'll indulge in that one shortly). I thought about doing one on the general status of life at the moment (something like Top Ten Things Keeping Me Awake at Night), but that seemed a bit too heavy for my exhausted mental state so I decided to take an idea that's been floating around my head and make it into a Top Ten Tuesday topic. I haven't written it out yet, but I in my head this one makes a great simple picture book. Anyway, this week's Top Ten Tuesday topic is...

Top Ten Lessons Little Man Has Learned About Dogs

10. Dogs don't like hats.

9. Dogs don't like hugs.

8. Dogs don't like blankets on their heads.

7. Dogs don't like to play with battery-operated trains or cars.

6. Dogs don't like to be "drums."

5. Sleeping dogs are best left alone.

4. Dogs will not only give lots of kisses (licks), but they will also take kisses (especially when a "kiss" is a gentle resting of your head on their back).

3. Dogs will travel from another floor of the house to lick a freshly-exited highchair.

2. Dogs will stare at the floor beneath a highchair as long as the chair is inhabited.

1. Dogs bark a LOT, but are generally good to have around.

Thanks to Zoe and Pauli for being our two patient and loving dogs. Hope you all are doing well these days. Life here is somewhat stressful, but also good. Brian has a job interview on Friday so please keep us in your thoughts and prayers. Will keep you all posted on new developments.

And another thing that's been FOREVER in coming, knitting content in the near future. It's true, I've actually done a little knitting.

Virginia Reel

We went to Virginia for a belated Christmas celebration from January 1st through January 8th. It was strange to not have been there for the actual Christmas, but this belated visit was great fun and actually much more relaxing. We had lots of time hanging out with my parents, my sister and her family and my brother and his family. Little Man LOVED hanging out with his cousins. There are tons of cute photos, but I'm limited on time and energy so I'm just including photos of my brother's triplets and two movies. The first movie is of Little Man's cousins, Michael, Joe and Lizzie, dancing to a Santa on a motorcycle someone gave my dad. The second movie is my little guy dancing to an Elmo Christmas movie. I've never tried doing movies on blogger before so I hope these work. They are both pretty adorable.

Madeline

Mary

Reed (yawning)

I hope these pictures and movies bring smiles to your face. Sophanne just reminded me that it's been forever since a Top Ten Tuesday post. Maybe I'll do a Top Ten Thursday post this week. Until then, I hope you all are doing well.

Christmas Photo Recap: Part 2--Crafts, Cookies and Christmas presents

Sorry for the delay. Here's Part 2 of the Christmas Photo Recap. Hope you enjoy it even though we're well into January now. Hope 2008 is treating you all well.

Some beaded ornaments I made in past years.

More beaded ornaments I made.

At a Christmas party for Little Man and his friends. Can we say "Chaos"?

Some little stuffed animals I made for the triplets, Mary, Reed and Madeline.

Little Man helps Brian cut out some sugar cookies.

Little Man enjoys his new kitchen from Santa.

Little Man opens his first present (from Grandma and Grandpa). He just tore right in.

This was a present from a good friend in Texas. He loves tearing around the house pulling it along.

Little Man got a toothbrush and toothpaste in his stocking. He insisted on using them immediately.

We finally got around to decorate the Christmas cookies a few days after Christmas. Doesn't he look like he's having fun?