All you ever think about is SOCKS

So, the good news is that the soccer sitch is all straightened out. Rebecca was moved to a new team. They practice every other Tuesday, the soccer clinics are every other Wednesday (opposite weeks from the regular practice) and pretravel is every Thursday. So she'll never have more than two practices in a week. Phew. She's at a clinic right now, and dh said she was having a good time when he left. Unfortunately, Ben has a practice today too and there's been a lot of yo-yoing between practice locations. Lucky for me, DH decided to stay home and take care of all that for me, yay! And the reason he's being so accomodating? Well yeah, he loves me and all, but also because I have a class tonight at my local yarn shop to learn how to knit socks! SOCKS, can you believe it? I'm a regular Laura Ingalls Wilder over here. I finished a couple of headbands that didn't really come out all that well, and I just finished another one that I think is much better. It's going to have a cute little knitted flower with leaves on it in Rebecca's favorite colors. That one is blocking as we speak and then I need to put it all together. So I'll be back later with some photos of me and all my socks appeal.

Grr

I just have to vent. Rebecca is a pretty darn good soccer player...she really came into her own last season and was one of three top players on the team. Okay, I don't like to brag but she really was the star of the team. And she loves it. This year she has the opportunity to join the pretravel team, which will then be the travel team next year and play a lot more games outside the community. She wants to do it, I want her to do it, and it will be great to help her to continue improving. The problem is, in order to be on pretravel you must also be on a regular team. And her new regular team coach has scheduled his practices at the same time as the pretravel practice. Who does that? Do they not communicate with each other in this organization? Isn't it beneficial to you to have a girl on your team who is so into soccer that she wants to do pretravel? Why make it so hard on her? I emailed the regular coach asking him if it was possible to change the practice day, but he said no. He suggests I take Rebecca to travel practice (which begins at 4:30), pull her from that practice early, then drive across town to his practice (which begins at 5:00) for a little while. In addition to this insane Thursday, she's supposed to be at the "supplemental" training being held every Wednesday. And she's supposed to do homework...when? I emailed the pretravel coach explaining the situation and asking if it's possible for her to be changed to a different regular team that practices on a different day. Which then means she'll have three soccer practices a week. Ugh. But it's better than dragging her and her poor brother all over creation every Thursday, then having her melt down from exhaustion that night. Okay, I feel somewhat better for venting, but these people better get their acts together and figure out what they want from these girls.

Check me...

I didn't forget how to digiscrap after all. I did this one up while dd was getting her shower tonight. It looks simple, but the photo was pretty blurry and the colors were off by a mile, so I actually did a lot of touchup work there before ever scrapping it. Now I'm off to work on my ear-warmer/headband that I'm knitting.

Here are my latest stats on the Ravelry waiting list. Sigh. * You signed up on September 13, 2007 * You are #32736 on the list. * 17017 people are ahead of you in line. * 1870 people are behind you in line. * 44% of the list has been invited so far Now, I grant you, it's moving fast. But at this rate it'll be 2011 before I get on. I wonder if they're anywhere close to just opening the thing up to everyone? In the meantime I'm just knitting away on ds's scarf and only have about 5 more inches to go to finish. I'm going to make myself an ear-warmer/headband next for those chilly morning walks with the dog. I'm taking a sock class this Wednesday, and I hope to start a sweater for real very soon. Mom is bringing me some of her old knitting supplies when she comes in October, so I hesitate to buy circular needles knowing she's going to give me some. Digi scrapping is suffering badly with my new knitting obsession. I really need to put out a few more projects for my CTs before the month is up!

A new knitting experience

Are you a knitter? Have you heard about Ravelry? It's a new online community for knitters, but it's so much more than forums. When everyone enters their stash info and project photos, it becomes a huge resource for finding patterns, projects, and yarns. It will also be a place to connect with other knitters, whether through common location, common projects, or common personalities. I know, I sound like an expert but the fact is that I haven't even been allowed in yet! Right now it's in beta, and they've got a long waiting list of people who want to join. They don't want to overwhelm themselves as they work out the bugs, so they're only allowing a few hundred new people in a day. Here's my latest stats: * You signed up on September 13, 2007 * You are #32736 on the list. * 18418 people are ahead of you in line. * 1133 people are behind you in line. * 41% of the list has been invited so far Yeah. So, for all intents and purposes all I can do is wait for the bugs to be worked out so they can finally open it up with no waiting. Because otherwise it'll take a YEAR! I'm excited to jump in...I only have five yarns and three finished projects, so I don't have as much work uploading as others do.

"Mommy, today is a perfect day."

Believe it or not, that came from the mouth of my never-satisfied 8yo daughter today. I think she was talking about the weather though, and not my ability to entertain. The kids are off today and tomorrow, so we went out and bought new calendars (I can't live without my More Time Moms calendar every year) and a birthday present for DH, who will have his birthday next Wednesday. He never reads my blog, so I can safely share with you that I bought him a new iPod. His is seriously old and decrepit. As usual, I had to stop in to Sephora and pick up a few little goodies from Philosophy. This is why I don't go to the mall very often. I got Hope in a Jar and The Present. Good schtuff. Happy new year to my Jewish friends and family!

Some recent layouts

I've been pretty busy with layouts lately, and fortunate that I can combine my CT responsibilities by using Susan's kits and Darcy's fonts on the same layouts. So since I know my family sometimes pokes their noses in here, I want to share a few I've done recently.

I got the job!

The job of class mom, that is, for my son's class. I'm working with another mom so that's good...shared responsibility is much better. In honor of the occasion I pulled out my homemade planner from last fall and rechristened it with freshly printed to-do lists and blank calendar pages. I just typed "bland" calendar pages, which I'm sure they will be even when they are no longer blank. In other news, I hate the new puppy. Okay, hate is a strong word, but I discovered the meaning of "blind rage" today after the darn thing stole a freshly baked loaf of bread off the counter and cootified it, then peed on the floor three times while I was trying to make dinner. This after I conscientiously cleaned the entire first floor of my house today, paying special attention to the floors after the abuse they've taken this past month. He's got one more day to shape up before I start looking up "dog meat" recipes on the internet. On the knitting front, I completed DD's Gryffindor scarf. It literally swallows her whole but she loves it. I've begun a hat for DS, and I've knitted the ear flaps, the main body of the hat, and the beginning of the decreases for the crown. It has a matching scarf too. I decided to start with the hat, though, because I'd had enough scarf for a while and wanted the challenge of something a bit more difficult. I'm knitting it on straight needles, so it will need to be stitched up when I'm done, plus some fun little cords added to the ear flaps. Short school week this week due to Rosh Hashanah, and DS already has a playdate with the little girl who sits next to him in school. I found out from her mom tonight that it's a mutual admiration society over there...she talks about him at home as much as he talke about her. So cute. Tomorrow's to do list: Vacuum and dust upstairs Vacuum stairs Clean kids' bath Fold a mountain of laundry Knit

Sigh

I'm just so fed up with the online communities lately. Really, the only places I enjoy being anymore are Oscraps and Sweet Shoppe. At Oscraps everyone is really friendly, and I love the challenges and shopping at SSD. I still love my friends at NDISB, but so many designers there are leaving or taking breaks (how can I complain...I did the same thing) and it feels like things are just changing there. DST is becoming too much advertising. I don't feel "in" enough to join MSA, and I don't think I even want to. The digital smack blog makes me feel slightly nauseated every time I visit, even though I don't post (anon or otherwise). And just in general I can't figure out why on earth I want to post my private life and moments for anyone to see. What kind of satisfaction am I even getting from that? I have CT responsibilities up through December, and after that I may just decide to step back from the internet even more than I have now. Just the fact that I feel the need to post THIS seems idiotic to me. Oh well, I know Pam will read it and slap me upside my foolish head.

The last day of summer

Okay, I'll be honest. I'm so excited for school to be back in session, I could dance. But we've got plenty to keep us busy today. First, we sharpened all the pencils and labeled all the new supplies. Discovered that I forgot a pack of markers for the boy. Oh well, we have to go to the grocery store to pick up stuff to make their lunches this week anyway, so I'll get some then. But before that we're going to have lunch at Friendly's, their favorite restaurant. The love the ice cream they get for dessert with the kids' meals. Rebecca invariably gets the double cheeseburger (plain) with fries and a triple scoop sundae for dessert. Her dessert is bigger than mine!! She got herself a sweet tooth, that's for sure. After lunch and shopping, we'll come home and spend the rest of the day in the pool...last day to do that too! Right now I have to print out some photos the teachers requested they bring to school on the first day. Have a wonderful day!

Super crazy busy

So things have been nuts around here, which is why I haven't updated in a while. But I do have some fun stuff to share, so here you go. First, I was accepted to Susan Bartolini's creative team, so I am now a Sous Chef for Scrap Kitchen Designs! Yay! Second, Darcy Baldwin invited me to guest on her CT this month! Yay! Third, I won the monthly mega kit layout challenge at Oscraps, so I get $15 to Vicki Stegall's store, yay!!! And lest ye think that good things only come in threes, I discovered that one of my layouts is featured on the Multi Photo Layout Blog by Tenika! Yay again! I'm really excited about each of these wonderful surprises! The dog is good, still very nippy and wants to be on the couch. But he sleeps all night and is pretty consistent with toileting outside, so I can't complain too much. We went to the beach for our last hooraw today. Tomorrow friends and family will be here for a barbecue. The past few days have been spent cleaning up the house, which I thought was a disaster area but which cleaned up relatively quickly. And Wednesday school starts. I may weep from joy. That's all for now. Gotta get the kids out of the bath and rinse away all the sand that is inevitably in the bottom. (Of the tub.)