Jo Knits!

Orange!

Orange is one of my favorite colors, yesterday in an attempt to make me smile, Carl bought me an orange toothbrush. LOL! Sometimes, it's the little things that can make someone happy. I was pretty down and still feeling guilty over the skating show. Since I care too much about other people's opinion I was afraid the skating club coaches would just hate us for not making the show. Carl suggested we go for a bicycle ride, it was a gorgeous day and the fresh air sure made my spirits happier. Went shopping but as usual when I feel like spending, I found nothing for myself. Like we used to do last summer, we went grocery shopping at the produce market with our bicycles. Fruits and veggies always seem less heavy when you bring them back on a bike instead of walking home.

Why is Jo talking about veggies this morning!? Mainly to try out fill up this post of any non-sense I can before sharing the BIG news!!! What is that BIG! news that you are dying to know now? teehee!

Ok, ok the suspence is killing ya I know. Last night we got a call asking if Zoe would like to enter the Montreal Games with her own 1 minute long skating number. Zoe's very first skating competition!!! (These games are a very local version of the Olympic Games where 5000 kids compete in several different sports, it's a surprise that they want to include Zoe to represent our skating club.) I asked her: "Zoe, want to be in a competition?"; my daughter's eyes light up, she started giggling and saying yes with her head. She didn't know if she had to cry and/or laugh but one thing is sure is that she is dang happy! ;) So we ended our evening by watching the World's cup skating competition on tv. Of course, now my mom is teasing me that our skating club DOES reconize Zoe's talent after all and that maybe she will stay skating with them again next year.

All I can say is WOW! Back to knitting Zoe's sweater, maybe I can finish it by Easter.

hugs, thanks for the comforting words over the past few days.

blue

Jo's blue. Still feeling very guilty about the kids not going to the skating show but I know it's for the best, they aren't even thinking about it anymore and are both looking forward to going to skate with us tomorrow.

Today we are off to visit the little easter farm at the local mall, then draw at the Bunny's booth. After we are going to a 2nd hand store to spend using my 30% off coupon. Hopefully I will find something to buy or else my coupon won't be valid anymore.

Still I am blue, nothing in all my knitting projects seem to move nor is anything fun anymore. I have so many works in progress and still I don't feel passionate about any one. No new projects either as I don't know what to knit next, maybe it's time to start summer knitting for the kids but yet again, no particular patterns are interesting me today. UGH! Just one of those days. Sigh... then tuesday is back to work and the craziness starts all over again. Ick!

my heart aches.

I have said this before but I can't deny it. Zoe, my 4 year old daughter is MY hero. Today was a very hard day for me emotionally, she suggested I go out for a walk with her and grandma. Once we were out she said the fresh air would do good to me. On our way home she asked if my saddeness was gone, well of course it did. It's just one of those moments were your brain registers how the children you have are perfect for you. Lucas got some new boxers today and we can only see how much our little guy has grown too. He is doing great at potty learning, all in just one week. His incentive is to go see a movie, Zoe's motivation at that time was to go swim at the public pool.

Yesterday was the kids skating show practice, both Carl and I were volunteers, him with Zoe's group and me with the toddler group Lucas is in. Fifteen little kids to dress up and tie skates on, luckily two more parents stayed to help, that was still 5 pairs of skates to tie on and 2 costumes to put on each kid. Then one hour to wait until it was time for them to hop on the ice. Oye! Lucas was the only trouble free boy and then all the girls were happily sitting colouring to pass time. He was trying to help by telling the other very active boys to sit down. He wasn't taking this craziness too well, he was calm and eager to skate. Once the kids got on the ice they practiced both their numbers twice, then Zoe's group did the same. When that was finally done and with all the wait in between, we had to take costumes off, dress back each kid in their original clothes and send them off to their parents. I was exhausted! For many reasons the kids did not perform at their skating show tonight nor will they tomorrow. Safety issues and conflicts have made it that we decided that our children would not benefit from being stressed out over a 20 minute time on the ice over a two hour period (that is combining both numbers for each kid).

Also if the kids want to keep on taking figure skating lessons we will be joining another club next fall. I don't care if a skating club does things in a way for 28 years, if the safety of my children is in jeopardy I will make sure to protect them. As a rule we have always thought the kids to wear a helmet when on their bicycles, rollerskates and iceskates. I will not bend the rule for cuteness factor, safety is number one in our family especially when it comes to head injuries. Lucas almost had a concussion in fall '02, I will do my best to never have a child go through that again. Having the kids miss their skating show was harder on my than on them but I saw my boy lost on the ice last night. He was stressed out and had no idea what was going on, his big sister was in a similar position. I guess my kids just aren't ready to be under spotlights yet 'cause those lights were hurting their eyes. ;)

So in all of this it is my kids that took care of me. When I was afraid I was making them miss out of their little skating fame, they thought me that the show wasn't the most important part but that skating in safety was. That said we are planning to go skate with them soon. I am very proud that my kids, even though small, respected my decision as a parent. Sadly I will never have pictures of them in their costumes though, Lucas was a yellow duckly and a powder blue Ken and Zoe had a number with Star Wars and The Flinstones theme songs.

That's how our weekend has been going, Zoe has been hinting about ballet or gymnastics lessons. Oh and they shall include her little brother too. I just love how she looks out for him even if they annoy each other at times. ;)

hugs,
p/s: I miss knitting!

Spring!

It snowed all weekend, yet spring is here and we can feel it in the air. I ended up working yesterday at the store Carl was at. They were missing people and thought of me right away. It was a fun little 2,5 hours of my time and the kids with my mom came to join us. We had both kids hair cut at a new kiddy salon. Wish I had brough my digicam as the salon is all water inspired, there's a beautiful aquarium right in the middle too. Lucas did great at having his hair washed and buzz cut. Zoe just loves going in to get her hair cut so she was pleased to see her favorite hairdresser.

In a complete other subject, I am starting to look into laptops. With work having us stay away from home for weeks at a time in the next few moths, I'd love to splurge and get a laptop. I've been looking at all the models and prices offered. I'm leaning towards a Mac laptop but would install Virtual PC on it too. Mac is simply for curiosity's sake, I never worked on a Mac computer before. Also well.... they don't make viruses for Mac. LOL! This laptop would be mostly used to blog, email and chat with friends while away from home. It'll make us save on long distances by chatting with my mom. Any experts out there have some pointers for me to check for?

I haven't started any new knitting project, as I am waiting for the mail to bring me a sock knitting book. My Regia yarn is ready and waiting for the pattern that shall bring me back to knitting some socks. hen I can knit to work while traveling in the truck.

Have a good week!

skating rant

Quilling, also called paper filigree, as if I needed another new hobby. It's tempting me though! My mom came home from her crafting class and showed off a little flower creation she did, of course I wanted to make one too and now. LOL! I'm such a kid. ;) So I go to the crafting store, look at every kit available pick one I like, see a celtic knot pattern for embossing and pick up the tools for it too. Held everything for the hour we were in the store and then, decided that I wasn't sure I would actually do anything with all of this and left everything there. Got home talked with my mom more about quilling and looked up online, then it hit me, of course I want to try quilling. Why, oh why, did I leave the kit in the store? Ack!

Last night was one of the last skating lessons the kids had before their big show. Now knowing that I paid for the kids to actually take lessons, paid for their skating club clothes and obviously bought them skates. Can't I get a reduction on the 9$ per show tickets they are selling? Ok, I guess not, so I will volunteer the 3 days to get to be with my kids instead of leaving them 3 hours 3 days in a row without much supervision. One parent is helping out 2 days and still has to pay 9$ to see his daughter skate, I think that's just sad that he doesn't get a little rebate for helping out though. So Carl and I will help out dress into costumes about 20 kids each. I will be helping in the toddler group (so I can be with Lucas) and Carl will help out Zoe's group. I'm hoping that when our kids skate we can at least see them on the ice and not have to stay in the back of the rink. I don't think it's ok to have to bring my 3 and 4 year old kids to the rink one hour before the show and just leave them there for 3 hours when they only skate 2 numbers in the whole recital. They won't even get to see the bigger kids skate. Apparently it's so they don't loose concentration for their own numbers and oh they've been doing shows for 15 years and know the kids aren't interested in watching others skate, they just care about themselves. WHAT!?!? Now if this show wasn't so important to Zoe, they wouldn't even go to the representations. HA! Instead they will go but I am not paying to see them, which is very sad in a way. After every single skating lesson this year we stayed 30 minutes more just to watch the teens skate. Zoe loves seeing their costumes and see them jump and all. Even Lucas has been asking to stay later to see the others skate. I can't believe the kids don't even get to see their coaches skate in the nice costumes and everything. Anyway, rants over but it makes me so mad. They haven't learned anything in the past month and still the coaches don't seem to know what they are doing exactly for the kid numbers. Makes me so not want to register them at the same club next year, sadly it is the closest rink to us. Still....

2nd day off and I'm loving it, still two days off until I go back to work. I've been sleeping so much, hopefully next week I will be in top shape. Next weekend is the big skating show and will need all the energy I have to deal with 20 toddlers for three hours. LOL!

hugs,

Just woke up from a 12,5 hours of sleep! Yesterday went to bed before 6:30pm. I wanted to rest while supper was being made (obviously not by me!) but never woke up to eat and slept like a baby. I still feel a tad tired but so good too. 12 full hours of sleep in a row!!!

I can't believe so many love my new pink bag, isn't it great? LOL! I will take more pictures of it today to show you more details.

We are off to go eat pancakes and go shop at my favorite 2nd hand store with a 30% off coupon! Woohoo!!! If I'm lucky we might stop at the crafting store too. teehee! I have 4 days off and I will enjoy them fully! :)

Wishing you all a great weekend.

My new bag!

Ever since I started knitting, I, like most knitters, have been on the search of the perfect knitting bag for when I'm out and about. Well this little pink (oooooh! so girly!!!) bag is perfect, it has 6 zippers, yes, included that huge chunky one. LOL! I've been carying around my celtic cap in one of the side pockets and still have plenty of room in the main pocket for all my other 'stuff' I carry along. At the kids skating lesson, I noticed a mom with this bag, I just HAD to get one and we asked her where she got it from. On friday with the rain beating on us we spent most of the afternoon in Chinatown and I got my new bag. I'm hoping next time we go I can find a beautiful chinese print pj for Zoe. She would look so beautiful in one and she'd just love it. Since I won't be home on her birthday I am starting to pick up a few things so that on her birthday she will get plenty of little gifts to open up even if mommy and daddy are far from home.

Looking at that picture, I can't believe how much Zoe has grown in the past few months, she is more beautiful by the minute. In just a few months she will attend kindergarden and we will live a new kind of schedule. One didacted by school schedules, we never had rigid schedules at home, kids have always gone to bed later than others but they do get up later too. It will be such a change for everyone when once the end of august rolls in.

Here's a bad picture of my 1st tatting ring. LOL! I tried last night and it was pretty simple to understand, unfortunately lack of time is making me have to wait until another night to try more tatting. It's fun though and hopefully I'll be able to show off little fishies pretty soon! :)

Only 2 more days to my week then FOUR days off!!! They will be enjoyed fully, everyone keeps on telling me how tired I look. We started our week today and I felt exhausted at the end of the day. I need rest and can't wait to have a few days off in a row. I may be anemic again 'cause I have no energy for anything. Guess it's time to try out some vitamins.

Slowly working on Zoe's sweater, on down to knitting the 1st front and then knitting the 2nd sleeve and front. Soon it will be done, then I promised her we'd go shopping for buttons. She couldn't be more excited about it! LOL!

Ice tea

Ice tea makes me happy. Homemade ice tea is the best, we started making some last weekend and it's starting to becoming our little weekend treat. Nothing fancy, just hot tea cooled and pour over ice with slices of lemon and sugar. Hey, little things make me happy.

When I think about work and the kids, I can not start understanding how others do it. How do you cope, how do you find the energy at the end of the day to still smile and play with the kids. The job is starting to set in and I am having difficulty getting all the rest I need. Sure the 4:30am waking up doesn't help and poor diet, lack of water in the day isn't doing me good either. I feel exhausted yet have trouble going to sleep early enough to really benefit from my sleep. I keep eating junk food at work as it is readily available when needed. There's a McDonald's in every Walmart store we work in, which is where we work 3 times a week. Though we try not to eat there often, the other eating placdes are just other fast food restaurants. Making a lunch would be frugal yet time consuming (sure I whine for no reason I know!) but I don't have the energy to take time to make lunch for the next day. Since we never know if we will have access to a microwave, sandwiches are the way to go. Anyone else think those are boring? LOL! Maybe it's the fact that I make them boring. ;)

Anyway, I just learned that I should get a raise within the month, yay! Now get this, Carl is suppose to get a raise 3 times mine.... How am I suppose to feel about this!? It's not like I work 1/3 as hard as he does. Actually I find it harder than he does to work but that's just me. So it hurts to see that he gets much more than me and we work just the same. Last night we worked at a grocery store and I counted the fridge aisle containing the milk and eggs. Then we hit the freezer door, after about the 9th door my hands were starting to shake from the cold. I tell ya, it's not all glamour to inventory stores. ;)

So I bring an end to today's ramblings, to have posted this or not doesn't change much but since I am really bored I typed this out to make good use of about 3 minutes. ;)

hugs,

Celtic cap is done!

Finally a finished project, it has been a very long time since I finished something. The celtic cap is wonderful, now I wonder if I could knit it in cotton too and have the kids wear hats for the beginning of the spring! teehee!

I think I will take a tiny break of knitting since I don't have the time to knit nor do I know what to start next, I should maybe work on Zoe's easy peasy sweater though. It's all garter stitch so goes pretty well, it just seems to take a long time to knit that project.

I want to try out a new hobby though, that's why I am not inspired to knit much. This morning I have done quite some research on tatting. Why tatting!? Who knows, I just saw something making a bookmark and thought it looked really neat. I have thought about it in the past but didn't go ahead with it. My mom is pretty sure I'd like to do this as it is small and has some precision to it. She just sees me doing tatting, so hopefully my 1st few tries will go smoothly. LOL! I have seen some variegated threads and I think seeing the colors change as I work it will be fun. :)

A new day!

Thank you for the nice comments about my new design. I've seen it a few weeks ago but had to learn how to install it to show it off, it still has a few quirks to fix but for now it'll do. I am always surprise to receive comments from people I admire, it's so nice to really know that people are reading and enjoying the blog.

I fianlly got a chance to buy and read the latest Interweave Knits issue. What a disappointment to see that I did not get the special online code for subscribers only like others. I believe the mags sold in the States had the special code but I guess those sold in Canada didn't. The interview with Debbie Bliss was an interesting read, I usually don't really enjoy her but I liked her story so maybe I'll start liking her designs. LOL! Will I knit anything from this issue!? Most likely not, the no-sweat pants are fun but I don't see myself knitting for hours on end to make pants that will feel too hot to weird in just a few weeks. Also the articles on different ways to knit didn't captivated me as much as I had expected it too. Maybe because I had just learn how to use the norwegian purl on Bagatell's blog just last week.

On the other hand, I splurged and bought the Stitch 'n Bitch book, wooohoo! I love it, my mom even said it is the only book one should have in their knitting library. It's really complete and a lot of fun to read. There are a few patterns, I'd love to start on right away, one particular one is the backpack. Knowing myself I would probably have a graph of Elmo instead of a monkey or rabbit though! LOL! Or I was thinking, finding a way to write Jo Knits! in the front or some chinese symbol. Anyway, I simply want to try my needles at knitting a backpack.

Who hasn't been to MagKnits yet!? I am happy to see more free patterns offered to us broke knitters! LOL! The Sprout pattern is really cute, I can see both kids wearing the tassel top hat. Sophie would be a great bag to Zoe to hold all her little thingies she 'needs' when going shopping! LOL! I like the handle detail that is all twisted.

The decreases on my celtip cap have started!!! There's still snow on the ground, there's still hope that I will get to wear it this year! LOL!

hugs,

hat pic!

Just showing off my progres on the hat I am knitting. Hopefully there will still be snow left by the time I am done with it! ;)

Wishing you all a fun and safe weekend, we're working in a supermarket tonight and have the next 2 days off.

still alive!

Don't worry, I'm still alive. Been working too many hours, not knitting enough though. Will have a new template up this weekend to celebrate the upcoming spring season. I need to catch up with everyone's blog.

Here's what happened this week:
- Carl's birthday
- rented movie Mambo Italiano
- kids skating lesson
- Carl is now in charge of his own section at work aka he got a walkie too
- pick up for work at 4:45am makes me grumpy
- ate in Chinatown with friends from work, learned that it's impolite not to order something to drink with your meal
- bought myself a new bag with 6 zippers on it. LOL!
- bought new walkie talkies for us to bring to work (at least our's won't be broken AND we'll get use for them at home too)
- leanred how to install a template in MT
- had to bench my team leader at work aka he made too many errors, had to go home
- I LOVE my job! :)

hugs,