Way to much time with a camera

Well I am happy to say Justin has really bounced back from his asthma attack. As I type he is playing in the back yard and disobeying me.... no coat and it isn't even 60 degrees. My thought is when he gets cold he will come in....... okay when I tell him to come in and put his coat on he will come in.
I never knew just how much I liked the color red. I stood by the stove mixing and smooshing cranberrys thinking this would be a great color for wool then I looked down at a pair of red socks I had finished months ago. Yep I seem to like red.
Pisssst note from Cuddles (aka Dixie). Mum really needs to put that camera down. Now I can see whey she would take a photo of me but the next photo well she mush have lost her mind.
I know people think big dog and a dog of a certain breed and they think bad dog. Well look at this face, butter wouldn't melt in his mouth and he is one of the best dogs in the world. I would put him up against the best and he would win over hearts with his sad puppy dog eyes his doggie kisses. He truly is a member of this family just like our children and cats.....no not gerbils, gerbils are rats. When I saw Kathryn curled around Sedgwick well I thought this is truly how he is. His feelings gets hurt and he loves as much as any one would and could love. So come on people get a grip don't hate the dog educated the owners, on lookers and passer by ers.
Ian's socks the socks I didn't get to give to him on Christmas day..... no I had them done just forgot were I put them. I always mess up one way or the other. Socks and boy have been reunited and my job here is done.
The longest sweater of this year. My goodness it was a handful but now that it is done I kind of miss it.......Maybe another one for next year NOT. Glad Kathryn likes her new sweater. It really looks nice on her and I am so glad.
Any one who knows me knows I am cheep and only pay for something if I have to. I saw these kind of stitch markers and thought I can make them so I did. Going to test these stitch markers out see how they hold up. Wish me luck.

A simple thing like breathing

Guilty of what you ask of taking my sons health for granted. It started yesturday when I just wanted the school nurse to check Justin's breathing. A feeling of better to be sure than sorry loomed over me. Sure enough wheezing in both lungs. Buckle up folks it is going to be a bumpy ride I thought. I started right away with his breathing treatments and for a while I thought I had caught it in time. By the time he was going to bed I suspected he would be up that night. He had three attacks in the night and with each treatment he wasn't getting any better.

By morning I was just watching the clock tick would you get to 8:00 so I can take Justin in to see the doctor. Tick please you are taking tooooooooo long. Then like an alarm 8:00 I was off with Justin in tow.

No I won't wait he is having an asthma attach.

Smart girl behind the reception desk didn't try to jerk me around just went and got a nurse.

Okay I like the nurses at our Doctors office. They are quick and know their stuff. Breathing treatment with in 5 minutes and they try and measure his pulse oxygen level....toooooo low.

Two hours later, two treatments later, oxygen treatment and 10 games of tic tack checkers ( don't ask how may games I won because I won't tell) later and he is out of danger. He now lays on the sofa sleeping his breathing is labored but he sleeps and I can breath again.

Pictured above is Justin helping unload popcorn not even a week ago. Funny he is always the first to help. He is a joy to be around.

Never never take the simple act of breathing for granted.

Mum has had a bit of knitting time

A hat you say well not any old plain hat run of the mill hat get it from the store hat oh no this is a hat Racheal finally finished. Yippie :) :) So that we could send it off to a friend who is due any minute now. Not like we were cutting it right down to the finishing line. Okay I had the baby sweater done in like a day and it waited and waited and waited. I think the next hat Racheal crochets will be done in half the time. Why am I so sure if it.....well this was her second hat the first got a knot the size of Michigan and wouldn't come out so she had to start again with a whole lot of tears. But it is done the new mum just loves it and I am now the nice mum again :)
They look nice together well I think.
Had to replace my MP3 case. The banana one was beyond looking nice. Had a snag and some dirt just wouldn't come out.... yuck. Meet red love love love the purl and will never give up my big button stash it really came in handy see. Oh it is soooooooo soft and yummmy I could wear it all day....wait I do wear it nearly all day.

Clearance bin sock yarn. I will have to admit I just picked up this yarn because it was 3 bucks and my budget is really tight. I thought hum colors are nice I can live with them. Then I knit them up and wow do I like them or what. I have a couple balls more of cheep sock yarn and I sure hope they come out as nice as these.
Okay you can't see just how nice this green is and you can't feel how yummmm it is and it's way to nice to be put on a boys feet but well they are going on Ian's feet once I knit them up into a nice nice pair of socks. Now the reason they are, half because I was asked really nicely by my wonderful husband (hey he asked really really nicely even poured me a glass of wine as he asked and I don't think it was the wine who said I would be happy to knit up a pair of socks for the nose picker boy who yells at me) the other half is when the boys goes out walking in the woods for a boy scout merit badge he wears a whole in his socks and I can't keep getting him new socks. The money fountain has just dried up. So I will have a pair of socks on my needles by the end of the week. Really need knitting to stash in my purse so I don't have to wait and deal with rude people.
Oh Lindsay I ripped out the neck....... don't hate me I didn't like it. I saved the sweater and love how I reknit it way higher. I love love love the real wool but it isn't holding up the way I want so I think I will be knitting up a cheepo sweater that will wear like iron as my winter work horse sweater. Any idea's ladies, for patterns feel free I'm plum out of ideas. I really could wear this sweater all day everyday if it would hold up better. About to cry yes I feel a tear.....stop laughing ladies not funny making fun of you dear old mum and don't think I can't hear it. ;)
We have our pumpkin for the season. Just went out and got it 3 bucks so I broke down and bought it. I think it will be a lovely jack o lantern this year. Justin has big plans for this pumpkin and the way he is saying it well I'm a little frightened. Still have no idea what they are going to be for Halloween not even a inkling.

Oh I thought I would send you some of our weather. It is getting colder here and I'm really loving it. Just wanted to share it with y'all. Can you say sweater weather.

Procrastination, thy name is Facebook

Sorry i've been away for so long......school caught up with me. I meant to blog last weekend, but as seems to be a weekendly occurance, the internet was down for the entire weekend. Alas, I committed to writing the following week. Unfortunately, as there is no post before now, it was to no avail. I do not really have an excuse for this, only that I seemed to have become desperately lazy for that one week. I had no major papers to write, no tests that week so I decided to take a week to relax since I was recovering from a nasty cold that lingered for almost a week. I don't normally have anything on Wednesdays, save Student Association meetings every other week and 1-on-1 meetings with Ed Reilly where we talk about any problems that have arisen on our floors, and other random things. It was our off week for SA, all I had was my 1-on-1 at 2:30 that ended up being mostly about how Ed's new cat was coming along. Ah! Now there's some news.
Ed Reilly became the new director of Residence Life last year, and for almost a year he has been scouring shelters for the perfect cat for his apartment. Success came two Saturdays ago when he, another RA, Amanda and I went down to the animal shelter in the hopes we would find a new cat for him. Unfortunately, he was not successful, and I left truly wishing that I was allowed to have a cat in the dorms. There was this gorgeous, white with tan, dark brown and black patches. Sort of looked like my first cat, but with much more white. Maybe that was why I was drawn to her. Or maybe it was that she was very shy, an obviously abused cat, and I have a soft spot for those ever since we had our cat Roland. She was in a little cubby in a room that had all kittens, though she was almost and adult cat. The only part of her you could see was her tail hanging out the side. Her eyes could melt even the coldest of hearts. She flinched when I gently stroked her tail, and coaxed her out. She finally did come out but ran to the corner and cowered. It took several minutes to get her to come out, but when she did she was quite friendly, if a little shy. She was only comfortable with me, and thoroughly enjoyed the attention if I do say so myself. I fell in love. I wanted to take her home so bad. It was not to be though, and Ed did not find one that he liked, so for a last resort we went over to the SPCA at the mall. Success!!! There were several kittens that had been just dropped off because they had been with a foster mother since the were found by the side of the road. So Ed found little Leota, the newest addition to the residence hall. It is quite nice to walk back from the PVR and see little Leota in the window, curiously looking at all those walking by. And from what I've heard, she is a right and proper kitten, always energetic and teething. But most of all playful!
Wow, tangent. But that needed to be updated. Thursday it turned out that all my classes were canceled and so I took another mental health day. But I couldn't shake the feeling that I should have been doing something. Friday rolled around and sure enough, I had a Bio Lab practical coming up on Monday! That's what I forgot. Okay, so I have the weekend to memorize bones, muscles, the anatomy of the heart, how to tell male skeletons from female skeletons and how different cells look under the microscope. I'm sunk. And thats not just my pessimism, our professor told us that we were screwed. Encouraging, right???? Okay, I'll lock myself in the library for the weekend and have no life. I can live with that. Oh, shoot I have a Statistics test on Tuesday that I also have to study for. Okay, maybe an all nighter. Catherine's coming to visit this weekend???? Snap! Catherine is one of my best friends who graduated last year and is now in graduate school at George Mason University in Washington DC. So of course I will have to go out with her while she's here. Ok, socialize with Catherine, and then squeeze in as much studying as possible and deal with the consequences later. However I vowed to spend more time in the library to be more productive in the future.
Monday came around, stressed about the practical, took it. Wasn't too bad. Today started off on a high when I got back a paper with a big fat A on the top of it! Granted, its political science, not all that hard, but hey! I'll take what I can get. Then today took a nose dive. I was so prepared for my stats test. I put a solid 6 hours of preparing last night for it. I knew the material backwards and forwards after reworking the homework questions. I sat down in front of the computer for my test, open excel and plug in the numbers in formulas just like in the homework. Well, I must have done something wrong, because I kept getting answers from Excel that I KNEW weren't right. I was the third to last person to hand in their test after I sat there for so long trying to figure out what I was doing wrong. To no avail. 1 hour and 15 minutes later I handed him my test frustrated, gave him a death glare and walked out. All the questions are answered, and thats the best I can say. That is one test I'm not looking forward to getting back! But no matter, off to the library to fulfill my promise myself: to be more productive. This is where the blog title plays a role. I sat down at the computer in the library prepared to do my political science homework when I decide to check facebook. Then, the little chat pops up and Katie wants to know if I want to talk. We had started to talk this morning before class because she was on duty the night before and a stupid, immature incident happened that she was upset about. Hmmmmm, homework.............or girl talk with Katie and Amanda????? Which do you think I chose ;)
And with that you are up to speed on my life that seemed slow, but turned out to be really really busy still.

PS: that lab practical????? He emailed the grades Monday night. 98%!!!!!!!!!!! Boo ya Mr. "you're all screwed for the lab practical on Monday." I showed you! :)

Road Trip!!!!

I can safely say with finality that Hanson is one of the best bands out there.  As it was Columbus Day weekend and both me and my friend Katie are HUGE Hanson fans, we traveled out to her house in Southwick, Massachusetts for the weekend because there were two concerts in her vicinity.  However way before I can talk about the concerts Friday and Saturday night I must update you on the events that led up to this concert. (Mostly what caused us to be so sleep deprived that day!)
On Thursday night Residence Council subsidized tickets to go see Lion King at Shea's Theatre in downtown Buffalo.  Even though I had seen it once before at Shea's, $20 for a ticket couldn't be beat.  And it was amazing!!!!!  We got back to the dorms around 10pm that night so it was perfect.  I would do my stats homework that was due Friday night at midnight (since I would be at a concert, I didn't want to risk it!!!!)  Instead, Ed Reilly, our building director and our boss as RA's was hungry, so a group of us did our usual late night run to Denny's.  That pushed my arrival time at the dorms back to 1am, with stats homework left to be done.  That was finished at 3am, and I had yet to pack.  Quickly shoving clothes and other essentials and completing other tasks that needed to be done before I left (aka, tidying up my room!) I exhaustively climbed in bed at 4am, expecting a good solid 4 hours of sleep before I had to get up to be on the road by 9.  Low and behold that did not happen.  Much to everyone in Marguerite Hall's dismay, the fire alarm went off at precisely 6:06am (total sleep for me: 2 hrs!) and rallied us all outside in the parking lot, putting us all in a very grumpy mood.  However the night/morning could still be salvaged!  Normal fire alarms entail: we all evacuate, the fire department comes, clears the building and then we all file back in, usually only taking up about a half hour, putting us at 6:30, plenty of time to go back to sleep and get up in an hour and a half!  It did not.  We passed 6:30, and after doing head counts of our floors both outside and then when we got in the gym, everyone was growing very grumpy!! 7:00 rolled around and Katie and I were getting worried that we might miss our planned departure time.  Finally at 7:35 we were allowed back inside the building for a total time out of the building of 1 1/2 hours, with still to find out what happened.  Once inside, the residents who were able to take the elevator came across the very potent odor of burning metal in the elevator and above the 7th floor.  Thus the problem.  A mechanical error in the elevator resulting in the upper building filling with smoke and me coughing half a lung out when I finally got back to my room. 

Drawing by Katie forshadowing our weekend!

While most residents were able to go back to sleep Katie and I had no such luck.  We showered, packed up and headed out at 9 as planned.  6 1/2 hours later (see picture drawn very well by Katie on the way to cedar point) we arrived at her house to be greeted by a large, adorable basset hound named Forest who was very happy to see Katie home.  But still, no rest for the weary.  We had dinner of home made pasta fa joule (delicious!) got ready and then drove an hour to North Hampton to the Calvin theatre for the concert!!!!! It was amazing, once we got past the droll opener.  However I must say my favorite moment out of concert #1 was at the end when Taylor brought a little girl up on stage to dance with them. And i've already found a video someone uploaded :) 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGrtgugeiYY&feature=related
However after the concert is why I now know that Hanson is the best band around.  If you wait outside their bus after the show, they will come out and sign autographs and take photos!!!!  This is where I get angry at Hanson fans.  I met Isaac Hanson, and talked to him which was AWESOME!!!!  But by the time he got to me and Katie he wasn't taking photos anymore because the fans before us were being a little too over the top :(  But I did meet him, and there was always Saturday right??? (note there is no huge picture of me and Isaac and that will give you a clue to what comes next).
Saturday's concert carried us 2 hours from Katie's house, to a club near Yale.  We had no idea about that part, but it was neat.  This concert was even better, if that's possible.  Kind of weird, but 2nd favorite moment was when they forgot the lyrics to "Kiss me when you come home."  Zac saves them, but its hilarious!!!  And again, I have video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFF7hAIVMN4.  But the first favorite moment from this concert was when they played me and Katie's favorite song "Man From Milwaukee"  as the last song.  Amazing!  But I had yet to meet them!  We stood by their bus yet again only to be disappointed.  Seems that Taylor was coming down with a cold so they all wanted to play it easy so they could stay healthy.  Though I'm upset I didn't get my photo with Isaac, I admire them for not cancelling the concert when Taylor was feeling a little under the weather and they are still one of the best bands around. 

Back on track

Hi Everyone! My hectic life has taken a break (actually my life is still hectic and this is called procrastinating studying for my Political Science test haha) and a little birdy ( a post from mum on faceboook) reminded me that we have this little blog going on that we were all going to post now and then on. So here we are.

Soooooo so so much has happened since the beginning of the semester. I will try to recount it all, but forgive me if I fail. The biggest trip that sticks out in my mind is our school's sponsored trip to Cedar Point. Residence Council rented a nice coach bus that we all piled onto bright and early at 8am (stop laughing Lindsay, real college students find it hard to get out of bed at 8am) on September 10th. We made the four hour journey to Ohio where about 30 stiff and sore college students piled off the bus and ate lunch. Then the fun began. 10 hours of riding rides to your heart's content. It was an overcast day, but it was to our advantage because the longest we ever had to wait was about a half hour because a ride broke down. Every other ride was wait 15 minutes,pick your ride buddies, then hop on and enjoy! It was an awesome day. Surprisingly every rollercoaster that our group went on, I went right along with them, though by the end of the day my stomach was a little twisted up! At 10pm we piled onto the bus, all tired and sore from our day of fun. However little did we know that the fun had only begun! After falling asleep to Psycho (bad idea!), we hit some lovely road construction. So began our final rollercoaster ride. Needless to say, it is an interesting sensation to be asleep, hit a huge pothole on a bus and wake up as you are in midair! By the end of the bus ride we were tired, sore and frustrated. The groans were audible every time we left our seats and our sleep was disrupted. 2:30am arrived and so did our bus in front of the dorms. I don't think many of us were fully awake as we gathered our belongings, trudged up the stairs and into the building, into the elevators, then to our rooms to collapse on our beds. I think I can probably say that most of us were asleep before our heads hit the pillows. But we dreamt of thrilling rollercoasters and a day of fun, friends and excitement.

Then there is the late night taco bell and dennys runs at 11pm with the RA staff. I must say that they are needed. While my waistline does not particularly care for the extra meal, my limited social life likes to go out with the staff and get away from all the incidents filling the RA life. However in college its ultimately about finding free meals. Last Thursday I was invited to the scholarship dinner because apparently I can carry on intelligent conversation ;) and they needed such students so it wouldn't be populated by just adults. Free food??? Yes, I will most definitely attend!!! Additionally it was a chance to dress up from the everyday jeans and t-shirt of a college student. And today was the President's Round Table. It is a chance for heads of clubs and committee chairs to meet up and say what they are doing for the year. As co-chair for the yearbook, I was of course obligated to partake in this free lunch. And what would a DYC event be without a raffle???? I won under armour shorts. Overall a good day I would say.

With that, I will close. There have been many more exciting events, but it will require a much longer post. I will leave you with crafting news. And is there big news!!!! I will save that for the end though. First off I was asked to do a scarf for a former professor going to a football game. He bought the yarn, and I was happy to make it. There was even enough yarn for two!!!

I am also in the process of making a black and white variegated sweater for our cashier at the cafeteria, Evelyn. She is awesome. By the second week of school she will know most everyone's name, and always say hi. She knows what is going on in everyone's life, and is like our surrogate mum. In the newspaper last semester in an article what to do before leaving DYC number 55 was "Meet Evelyn in the PVR." Don't get me wrong, all the staff are really friendly and caring, but Evelyn is loved by all. It brightens up your day to swipe in and she's there saying "Hi honey, how're you doin' today? My, I just love that/those (insert article of clothing/accessory) you're wearing today." We all love Evelyn. So when she saw this sweater that I made for another friend for her birthday and wanted one, how could I say no? She bought the yarn she wanted, so I am now in the process of making it.

Now onto the big crafter news. Drum Roll please......................I have a sewing machine!!!!!!! My good friend Erin got a newer, fancy dancy one last year, so guess who got her old one????? This girl! I am so excited!

With that, I will sign off. Good study habits are calling so I think I will study before watching Whose Line is it Anyways, which is quickly becoming a nightly routine (Now that I know when it is on). Then its bedtime for this girl in the hopes that I will not be woken up by a jack hammer like this morning. Alas, another story for another time!

Knitting yes I had time to knit but it was on the run ;)

Fed up yep me fed up with patterns that should be given away for free and some clever person decides to charge, how much well I have seen prices range from a couple bucks all the way up to 20.00. Not one to keep my mouth shut even when I know I should I just happened to say "I like the pattern but no way would I pay for it." Should have shut my mouth and kept knitting. Well that lead me to think I do knit a lot of items from a photo and I don't pay for patterns I can knit. Just how much do I knit that is posted for free? Should I keep track of what I knit? Yes I know that is what we have Ravelry for but I don't up date my finished items near as much as I should.

So what is that blob up top, well a shawl I have come up with out of my own brain that and a lace book for the lace work. I fell in love with the arrow pattern and thought it would look great on the bottom of a shawl. Funny things happen when my brain starts to work I cast on before I really know it. So if this pattern works out well I'll post it and it will be FREE.
I had forgotten this red sock yarn in my stash and when I was just looking to see what I had in my stash.....well it just happened to pop into my hand and I had to knit it up. Oh it is a dream. Now I didn't use the size 3 needles it asked for. Way to big and loose. I knit this up on size 2 and now the sock fits like a dream. Now that I'm nearly done with the first sock I feel the itch to start the second sock. This project is going in my purse so just in case I need emergency knitting I'm covered.
Okay mum go get your coat on lets go and get the girls. I know you miss them and Christmas is tooooooooo long to wait. Coming yet? Okay I miss them but if they ask I'll blame it all on you.

So Dixie thinks I need a little help with my knitting. Always willing to lend a paw for knitting.

Am I a cat person or a dog person meaning witch one would I prefer to be with. Having grown up with dog, my mothers spoiled little meanies and my dads strays I have to say I really don't know. Most days a cat curled up on my lap, knitting in my hands and the house silent makes me smile. From time to time our mutt of a dog sleeping and yes snoring on my feet can also make me smile. So am I a dog person or a cat person I would have to say both even if it isn't an option. Now if I could only get the cats and dogs to live together in harmony. So my life isn't perfect but smiling more than frowning seems to help.

Fall.... it is really fall, what happened to the summer? Did I blink and miss it? Bugger. Both Kathryn and Lindsay have returned home and left leaving me once again to knit alone. So how many days till Christmas break? Too many to count. It seems both girls are back in their dorms and moving along smoothly in their school lives. Funny thing happens when you raise kids to grow up think for themselves and become independent.... they go off think for themselves and have become independent. I wonder if the schools are ready for them? Time will only tell.