ewe knit too?

personal trainer work out

2011-05-04T21:04:00.000-06:00

i worked out with a personal trainer tonight. i already hurt. yikes. 3.5 miles tomorrow!

cry me a river

2011-05-03T20:39:00.000-06:00

i am tired. my runs are slow. i walk 3-4 times a run. and my legs feel like lead at the end of the run. i hate it. i want my running mojo back. i blame the elliptical. it was sooooo much easier.

reading

2010-10-13T00:54:00.002-06:00

so i've been reading a lot lately. by a lot i mean reading at least one or two books a week. sometimes three. this is impressive on one front: i have a 9 month old baby. but not impressive on a few: i am a librarian; and i take advantage of my job. i also take two 15 minute breaks a day to pump...and read books that aren't for my library. also, sometimes i stay up really really late so that i can finish a book. right now it's 12: 55 am and i'm up. to be honest its not to finish a book, but ada has this great habit of waking up at 12:35 every night. it's awesome. but back to reading.

i love it. oh yeah, and i'm not reading adult books. i'm reading young adult. they're just so easy and fun and...quick. i feel so efficient and like a fast reader. like i'm accomplishing so much every week. but the down side to all this reading is it's affecting my sleep.

i have been having the strangest dreams lately. the first one was while reading a vampire academy book. guh...teenage angst + vampires of good and bad variety = very weird dreams. i woke up from that glad ada was crying. tonight i started i am number four. about aliens on earth and them getting killed. this dream was strange in it was just the book in movie form. except my life kept getting mixed in. i didn't understand it. but i was so angry i just read about this for 45 minutes and then i was dreaming of it all over again.

i like my sleep. and i like fun dreams, not creepy vampire alien dreams. i might have to start reading fluff before i go to bed.

and ps...running going well. i do six miles sunday. last week was...blah so i'm starting over again. and i am SOOOOO ready for snow so i can bust out my xcountry skis this year. i feel the need. the need for skis. yahoodle!

uhm...day 11? only day 11?

2010-08-07T22:09:00.002-06:00

i made myself run. i told myself a short run...it was already 9. ada wasn't asleep. but i decided to do it anyways. and bob reminded me that i don't have to put ada to sleep. he can do it too. remember that anne! so i went out. i usually do 1/4 mile warm up and 1/4 cool down. but i really wanted this to be a fast run. so i did one block warm up and then ran my usual mile loop. so i ended up doing 1.5 miles. which rocked! it was starting to get dark out. the clouds were threatening. and i didn't want to do it. oh. em. gee! i totally rocked it and had my personal best time for a mile (11.52) and really really enjoyed myself. i had this fantastic voice in my head that when i slowed down they asked me why i need to slow down and it turns out i was just lazy and was...reverting to a slow pace (which i think will work to my advantage in the half hahaha) so i would pick up the pace again. i even did this up hill! anaconda is built on a hill. so i run west first (uphill) and then come back east. i live at the east end of town so i just keep running further into town. it works out and i'm happy to get the "hard" part done first. but if you look at my nike log...the second half is my slow half. oh well.

in other news, ada has been sleeping better at night. she's still waking up, but not every 15 minutes. i'm also working on her putting herself back to sleep. so i look at the clock and she has 8 minutes to cry. if she's still crying, i get up and get her now. 8 minutes because i've noticed if she's cried that long, then she's not going to sleep. usually it's less than 6 minutes. now i give myself the timer because otherwise i feel compelled to get her up. so hopefully we're getting back to sleep nation! although she wakes herself up at 6, she's been going back to sleep until 9:30 or 10. it's GREAT! yay ada!

she is also crawling which is making my days busier. but lots of fun.

i'm trying to get some booties done this weekend for bobs coworker. we'll see how that goes. and i'm working on a hat for ada. then i think i'll start her sweater...the owlet. hopefully it's ready for fall :) otherwise ellie belly will get a fall sweater. ha!

why i didn't run tonight

2010-08-05T17:54:00.003-06:00

it's rain. not snow as it appears.

caffeine? cold? dearl god i wish i knew!

2010-08-05T13:21:00.004-06:00

with all of the traveling we had been doing, ada had lost her sleep schedule. so we've been working on it. however, after a week at home, i thought she had found it again. but last night, starting at 11:30 she woke up. then at 11:15, then 12:00 then 12:47, 1:45, and 3. oh and 6, 8 and 10 am. it was rough. but i don't know what is causing this. first i thought it was just being home. but she had two awesome nights of sleep. then i thought well maybe she gets cold, so i wrap her up nice and tight. but then i was laying in bed with her, and i think it might be caffeine! yesterday i had a homemade frappuccino. and she had an awful night. and sunday i made everyone frappuccinos. and she had a similar sleep pattern. when i was in gillette, lex and i hit up starbucks...and she didn't sleep will there. so perhaps i'm testing this theory by not having a frappuccino today (and i seriously wanted one after last night!) so hopefully this is what's going on and we'll go back to regular sleep. sad day...i guess i'll have to switch to decaf :)

or maybe it's milk. its the only time i drink milk. huh. i'm stumped

day 10?

2010-08-04T23:07:00.002-06:00

day 10: 25 minutes running, 5 minute warm up, 5 minute cool down 2.45 miles with the warm up but without the cool down. 2.75 miles with cool down.

same old run, same old route. but i have a little following of two boys. they asked where i was running to two days ago. i told them the park and they were satisfied with that. today they wanted to make sure i was going to the park and which park. then they wanted to know if i came back the same way and i told them no i usually come back along the creek. did they want me to come back this way. and they asked why. i told them...i donno. but they were satisfied with that answer and said yes. so i did. and they weren't there :) but that's okay. it was an incredibly run because i didn't want to do it in the first place. but i did it. i wanted to walk and i didn't. i just kept going. that was awesome :) and i felt so good when i got back home. bob had fed ada and i went to the roof to take pictures of the roof...because it's damaged...again. then i gave ada a bath, fed her and put her to sleep where she has been blissful since. yay :) it was a good day

days 4-9

2010-08-03T12:03:00.003-06:00

day 4: july 23 1.7 miles 23 minutes
day 5: july 26, 2.2 miles, 30 minutes
day 6: july 27, 1.5 miles, 19 minutes
day 7: july 30, 2.73 miles, 36 minutes
day 8: july 31, .95 miles, 12 minutes
day 9: august 2, 2.75 miles, 35 minutes

love love love that i've been running again. the weather has been great. its nice to get out of the house. ada tried the jogging stroller, and cried the entire way. but she had like the worst day ever where she didn't nap, didn't sleep, and fell over repeatedly, AND i hurt her eye with the dog leash. it did involve a rope burn across her eyelid. sad day for everyone involved.

now despite my running not as frequently as i wanted (but still doing okay), i am so sad with my speed. i feel like i run at a walk speed. and my times show this. it just...makes my heart hurt. so i ignore it. most of the time. how do i get faster? i'm a little stressed.

in other news: 5k planned for this fall, 10k in the spring, bloomsday in the spring...and the missoula half marathon. i know i can do it!

day three

2010-07-22T23:17:00.001-06:00

day three: ran at almost 9 because ada was cranky. finally i had to go because i was getting cranky. i had every excuse lined up not to go. but i wanted to run! i wanted to get out my house and away. so i did. it was awesome to want to do it. it was same as day one. distance was about the same, time was too. but today it felt good to run and like i could have kept going. i was actually surprised when i finished the last run and it was time to walk. i thought i had one more. it was awesome. yay!

day 2

2010-07-20T21:12:00.004-06:00

day 2: my "off" day. i went to the track, warmed up for 1 lap, ran a mile, cooled down for a lap. all in all, 20 minutes. there was this dude who was really...buff (do the kids even say that any more?) and he lapped me. twice. but as i told bob, if i'm doing this to win i will never do anything. but i did it. two days in a row. yay!

i'm trying to run for three weeks in a row. but i do get one day a week to take off (i'm traveling ridiculous amounts these days). so that's my goal. i sure hope i achieve it.

run damn it run!

2010-07-19T19:52:00.001-06:00

day one: 71 degrees, 7:15 pm. week five day 1: run 5 minutes, walk 3 minutes. 2.24 miles

nice job anne

take that, sister!

2010-04-20T21:26:00.003-06:00

well i'm back to work. it's amazing how exhausted i am at the end of the day. and how little i do anymore. little blog has been neglected. but so has my ada book that i try to keep track of her life. it's been...oh i would say a good two and a half months since i wrote in it. forgive me ada.

but i have been knitting some on my lunch break. and i have been reading a TON. since i've been back to work i've read:

the unaccustomed earth
snow in july
precious
the hunger games
elephant run
catching fire
home of the brave
the postmistress

huh...it seemed like way more. but i guess not. but that's not bad considering i don't read at home. the young adult ones have been good. hunger games GREAT and i cannot wait to ready the third one. last friday i gave a book talk to an english class. sadly, this is the first book talk i've given to a full class. but it was awesome and the kids were totally into it. i think i'll ask if i can give it to another class because it was so fun.

in ada news: she has started making all sorts of noises. i love it. lots of screeching :) she has rolled to her side a couple of times, usually on accident, but she's starting to move her legs more. she is a smiler! oh gosh she loves to smile and it is the most wonderful thing in the whole wide world. i want to cuddle her all the time! she isn't a cuddler unless she is exhausted. the rest of the time she wants to face away so that she can see everything. the dogs are a constant source of visual stimuli. and holy smokes she would watch the tv all day long if i let her! she is fantastic and growing so big. to the doctor on monday for a four month check up.

in running news: there is none. st. patricks day race was awesome. dad and lele came down for it. lele did awesome and ran two miles. i ran for a mile straight then on and off for the last mile so i ran probably about a mile and a half. so i need to start again. i found my ipod arm band and my chip for my shoes so i'm ready to get back out there. the weather is perfect for it and i think i'm ready to start doing something for myself. i think i'll work back into it by going to the track for a few weeks and then start street runs. maybe i'll even work up to something impressive over the summer :) but it's now super late and i'm super tired. tomorrow: photos :)

i'll play!

2010-03-08T19:32:00.002-07:00

my typography is having self-portrait sunday. it's monday, but i'll play anyways...because a photo is better than nothing :) and i love to play games. from photobooth...my favorite computer program

one month

2010-01-24T12:53:00.002-07:00

little ada beda is a month old today. what a wild ride it's been. i love it. i love her. she's awake way more now and looking at us and looking around. she's making more noises that aren't angry screaming. we spent a week in kalispell with my parents and it was heavenly. little miss ada seemed to enjoy the time with her grandparents. it was very hard for me to leave. i could totally be one of those people who live with their parents forever. they wouldn't let me, but i would like to do it :) bob would not!

but we're having a great time and are adjusting to each other a little more each day. i love being home with ada and cuddling her. the dogs are getting used to her. they don't freak out when she cries and they don't come over and freak her out when she's on the floor. i'm just a proud little mama. life is good.

oh yeah, my jeans fit too :)

waiting

2010-01-14T18:04:00.003-07:00

i like to read other peoples blogs. i hate waiting for them to update. yet i don't. so here we go!

knitting: working on this for ada. not loving it. i think i might frog it and make my own. i don't have any hats for her that fit right now. and i would love to give her one. i'll be in kalispell this weekend, so maybe i'll stop and get some nice soft yarn for her. surprisingly in: pink :) and maybe yarn for a sweater for her too. my brother-in-law scott gave me three knitting books for christmas and there is lots i want to knit in there.

ada: she is growing so much! and...i'm sitting her listening to her fart. i laugh every time! i think it's hilarious. bob does not. i think the apple does not fall far from that tree! but she is fantastic.

winter: what winter? it's been 40 degrees so today ada and i went for a walk (three or four blocks) it was nice. ada made it about 10 feet before falling asleep. but she did great. i put her in the moby wrap with a little fleece outfit. she stayed warm and content. when we got home she slept. these short walks make me super nervous. i was pretty sure i would be able to get right back into running, but in all honesty, i don't see it happening. but we'll talk to the dr in february and see what she says. maybe there is a secret stretch to get my incision feeling perfect so i can run comfortably ;)

future plans: were going to kalispell for the weekend and that should be pretty fun. i'm looking forward to seeing my family...and getting some extra rest. i'm also scheduled for a haircut. THANK GOD! i have a mop going on and could really use a cut. something easy to deal with too. i realized today that we're going to look at a daycare tomorrow so i had better put on some real clothes and do my hair since i'll be meeting new people. i'm sort of excited :)

so i'm going to try not to turn this into the ada blog. but uhm...since i don't think anyone but family reads it, i'm sure they won't mind the updates hehehehe so here is a photo of baby ada and her aunt leah

a new year!

2009-12-31T18:56:00.002-07:00

i have a new baby. happy new year to you!

1. What did you do in 2009 that you’d never done before?

well, i gave birth, had surgery, ran an entire 5k, completed three of them as a matter of fact, and stood up for myself at work.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?  
i don't think i made any this year. and i hope to keep mine for this year. I like it :)

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?  

me,

4. Did anyone close to you die?  

nope

5. What countries did you visit?  

just the us of a

6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?

uhm...shall i say a drive to love my job again

7. What dates from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

dec. 24-ada was born, thanksgiving--another babe in the family

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?  

ada willow calhoun :)

9. What was your biggest failure?

my job--i had checked out for a while

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

nope

11. What was the best thing you bought?

huh...uhm...well...i don't know what i bought that i really love. well i did get some new baking mats :)

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?

my bobs, he has been a life saver this week :)

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?  

that would be the montana politicians who drove their boat into the side of wayfairers park. grade a idiots.

14. Where did most of your money go?

no where great: house, windows, car payment, hospital bills

15. What did you get really excited about?

ada and having my job again

16. What song will always remind you of 2009?

any stinkin' miley cyrus song i heard it so often!

17. Compared to this time last year, are you: 

– happier or sadder? Happier.
– thinner or fatter? fatter.  
– richer or poorer? despite a raise in my check, poorer!

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?  

played more, knitted more, slept in :), exercised, walked the dogs

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?  

complained, spent money, traveled to gillette to see my sister

20. How did you spend Christmas?  

in the hospital with my husband and daughter. we celebrated christmas at about 4 in the afternoon :)

21. Did you fall in love in 2009?

for sure!

22. What was your favorite TV program?  

30 rock!

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?  

nope

24. What was the best book you read?

oh gosh, there were some really good ones. twilight :)

25. What was your greatest musical discovery? 

lady gaga--nice one bob :)

26. What did you want and get?

happiness & a daughter

27. What did you want and not get?

uhm...a new car?

28. What was your favorite film of this year?

oh gosh, battle for terra?

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

i must have been at bitterroot lake. enjoying the rain this year :) i turned 28

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

ada--this is a really unfair time to be doing this survey!

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009?

anything that fit! and wishing i had shoes that fit!

32. What kept you sane?  

knitting and reading!

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

lady gaga! i just can't get enough!

34. What political issue stirred you the most?  

i think i ignored political issues this year

35. Who did you miss?  

my family being near by

36. Who was the best new person you met?  

uh...it would definately becoming more acquainted with my friend sabine. she has been awesome this year and she has become a bff

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009.  

roll with the punches...and something always comes up!

38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.  

give me time on this...

cleaning, cookies, c...uhhh....

2009-12-15T19:51:00.002-07:00

right, so now that christmas is just about here i have decided to start getting stuff done. I already have two kinds of cookie dough in the freezer, and the other four cookies/candies planned (spritz, snickerdoodles, pizzelles, brownies with peppermints on top, homemade marshmallows, and truffles). I am thinking I should be able to accomplish all of these this weekend and then handed out uhm...well...that's a good point because i have to go to butte on saturday to finish up bobs stocking stuffers, and sunday i have two, yes two christmas parties to attend. But they're not until afternoon/evening so perhaps the morning. i had better make a list of all those i'm supposed to bring them to. so that will be done. also accomplished this week: my bathroom is scrubbed from top to bottom (or as scrubbed as I can get it belly and all), the living room is at least picked up, and I should run a vacuum over it this week. The baby room is pretty much assembled and picked up and organized for now. I only have three presents left to wrap. HOLY CRAP AND THREE TO MAIL. oh shoot. i best get on that. And other than that...i'm ready!

we have an amnio on monday and hopefully they'll be able to induce this little child so we may be having a christmas elf. we shall see. :)

well i'm off. i'm either going to do some knitting, or some paint my fingernails. heheh so exciting! here is a recent photo of the belly

an update

2009-11-24T20:26:00.003-07:00

well my youngest sister told me i need to update. and i do. i just hate updating without photos. so maybe i'll take really bad photos with photobooth and post them hehehe

but everything is going swell here. i am swelling up and keeping a healthy little baby in my belly. the rest of our family is shrinking, my cats have moved to kalispell (the final two make the trek tomorrow). i really am heart broken about losing two of the cats. they're my babies! but it will be really nice to be cat free for a while. and litter box free. and cat food free. so that's exciting. i'm pleased as punch about that. we have a bedroom ready for little calhoun. and i have a blanket for baby calhoun and a hat. other than that, not a lot is going on. we're waiting patiently for winter. it's cold but no snow yet.

bad photos from photobooth of the baby blanket...oh well :) i love the blanket

okay...the guilt worked

2009-09-25T20:47:00.003-06:00

well, school started. baby is still cooking. cats are annoying me. new couch arrived. baby room is painted, carpeted, and waiting for a crib that got partially cleaned tonight--more to be cleaned tomorrow and hopefully assembled. sheets purchased. quilt started. blanket being knitted. it's fall and a mere 75 degrees today. griz games have started. and a house that is all sorts of messy.

hope all is well and if you're in the area and looking for a cat, please let me know :) i have some good choices.

baby room
baby growing room :)

sigh i've come to a stand still

2009-08-14T15:32:00.002-06:00

well, i had such a successful last week, this week has been a big fat disappointment. i haven't gotten squat done. part of it is that my week has been split up into bad days. tuesday i had a dr. appointment at 2:30. so i couldn't get anything big done. i think i went recycling or something. and then thursday bob had acl surgery, so that screwed yesterday, last night, and into the weekend. i'm sleepy and just cant get squat done. i was supposed to start painting the second bedroom. not done. not even ready to be primed. heck, not even cleaned out! so that is sort of dissappointing to me. i wish i had a wand to swish the crap out and i would gladly paint the damn thing!

but good news: bob seems to be recovering slowly, but surely. so that's good news. i want him better now. mainly so i can sleep in our bed again. it would be fantastic! even though it's only been one night of the couch. but baby makes couch sleeping uncomfortable AND its difficult to get up off of. but enough complaining.

it's raining and is cool. could be worse i suppose :)

another check on my list!

2009-08-07T12:01:00.003-06:00

kitchen window (yes, the neighbors house really is 4 feet from that window)

back bedroom (baby room)

bathroom

they're here! they're here! our new windows came and i'm so excited. the windows look so good and even though it's a detail that is only noticable to bob and i, we are so thrilled that we had them done. it's amazing the difference that they made in the rooms. i need to put the curtains and shades back up so i might accomplish that this afternoon. and in the kitchen, the window seems to let in so much more light!

i was so worried when i saw the window people cut my screens because i was figuring i would just keep those screens even though they weren't real nice, but it would save me a little money. so i was heart broken to have to pay for screens--until i noticed the new windows came with screens! score! so now i just gaze out my new windows are enjoy the view of the rain and lightening.

we also picked out the color for the back bedroom. it's called vanilla bean. i had gone back and forth on colors and doing something bright or doing something neutral so i could do bright colors in accessories. but i found a picture at a store in town and i loved the colors. it's a picture of a robin in a tree with it's eggs. i've also been told to do something fun and whimsical and i was thinking gnomes or woodland creatures and i've just been...unsure. i want something that is really clean and in all honesty, will look good when we sell our house. so i'm really happy with what we have so far. we'll see how it goes :)

rain rain go away

2009-08-05T21:20:00.004-06:00

well the rain has come. this is good news because i still don't have my hoses out so at least my lawn is getting watered. but this brings potentially bad news too. our new windows were supposed to be installed tomorrow and if it's raining, they'll wait. but if it's raining, at least the temp is slightly lower and bearable. so i guess i can wait.

today was a somewhat successful day. i got a project done that's been waiting...oh two years :) i put in a programmable thermostat. i was real excited that it also controls the cooling in addition to the heat. then i realized it won't let me turn down the external heat :) i'm excited for in the winter. i can set it to be warm by the time i get home from work. that is very super exciting for me :) it's also nice because i think it will be a more accurate temperature keeper. here are some fine photos :) thanks for all of your help this week dad! at least now i don't have to put you to work when you come down this week!

a closer look :)

todays project

2009-08-04T18:43:00.003-06:00

today i got my bookshelf done! i forgot to take a before photo. but it was brown. that's all. brown and dirty and brown. now it's whitish. i'm pretty happy with it. so that's another thing off my list. i'm pretty excited. now just pick a paint color.

also accomplished: we bought new carpet! now, i'm sort of feeling like it's a silly thing to do, but our two bedrooms have brown industrial carpet. it's ugly and not nice. so we went looking for a remnant (if that didn't work out, we were going to go to lowes). but it worked out. all the remants we wanted were already sold. so we looked at the other carpets. and looked at remants again. we were going to settle when i said lets go to the other carpet store. but as we were walking away i looked at the carpets again. and found some for us. now i'm cheap. real real cheap right dad? and i found us carpet that we both LOVED! and the price: $3.49! without the sale! with the sale: $.99 a square foot!!! i am so excited. so we got that and padding and then we decided to have it installed. so for a grand total of $379, we're getting new carpet in a baby room. so we'll take it. tomorrows goal: i haven't decided yet. i'm thinking put away power tools, go to the thrift store, and the recycling center. OOOOOOOOR rest :)

whew! what a day!

2009-08-03T20:57:00.003-06:00

well, i had a very successful day! i hung up some shelves in our bedroom so bob could have one of my dressers since his got moved to the garage because it was in the new baby room. i'm very pleased with the outcome and and even more pleased with me doing it myself. now i have to come up with tomorrows new goal.

have you seen the new interweave knits? there are so many things in there that i want to make! i don't have it near me, but i really want to do the short sleeve cardigan with the cableing. i'm thinking it will be a good winter time sweater. plus...i can shrink back into it :) other than that, i'm not knitting anything right now, i am trying to figure out what to start next (or more importantly, when i get to the yarn store). hope all is well!

it's sunday

2009-08-02T09:19:00.001-06:00

it's sunday. we have a birthday party today and are working on our house. lets hope that it all works out! what are you doing?

i'm a liar!

2009-07-30T21:44:00.003-06:00

well, i took my sweater to kalispell to block and promptly forgot to block it and then left it. so there will be photos. maybe my dad will wear it and take some photos for me. that would be nice dan! other than that, i would really like some yarn to start some knitting. i wish i lived closer to camas creek! but perhaps i'll travel north this weekend to catch up on some yarn purchases and some lake time. other than that, i finished up some baby hats i started last summer which was good. which means other than the strange little doll i was working on for bob, my projects basket is empty! i'm thinking of starting a baby blanket or two and some sweaters. 'cause in case you didn't know...i'm havin a baby. so that is very exciting. that's my summer doins. tomorrow, i think some yard work and maybe some delicious dinner. here is a photo from seattle. i went to baseball games with my husband, dad, and sister. it was such a blast! i didn't want to come home!

two of my favorite people :)

suck on that!

2009-07-20T22:36:00.002-06:00

ha! the owls sweater is done! pictures to follow tomorrow. or the next day. and it needs to be blocked. but i even got it all sewn up! HA!

free fridge

2009-07-14T22:01:00.001-06:00

please please please anyone in this area...i have an older fridge that still works, just didn't have a big freezer for us, and i really don't want to see it go to the landfill....please help me by taking it. it's free and can be clean. just needs to be out by saturday. hell...i'll even bake you something if you take it!

glasses

2009-05-03T20:42:00.002-06:00

it was the weekend of glasses. what did you do?

it's raining

2009-04-27T18:30:00.002-06:00

wait, i'm a liar. it's snowing like a maniac. and i'm sitting here and i am working on a new spring scarf. so this will be short.

i had a post here that i was going to post. but i can't really air my dirty laundry in public. so i'm not going to post it. i'll figure out a way to get input and uhm...consolation?

but i'm working on a new spring scarf that is made out of corn fibers. it's really great and i'm loving it. plus it's washable and dryable. so i'm excited and i'm going to go get working on it!

lexie...update!

a little stressed

2009-04-19T22:26:00.004-06:00

my yarn came from knit picks last weekend, so i started owls yesterday. i swatched this damn sweater and i don't know what my problem is. i got gauge in stitches, but uhm...not so much in rows. so i winged it. now i'm questioning my decision to go with it. i'm worried the back decreases will be in strange spots. PLUS because i'm a tight knitter, i had to go up to a size 11 needle. that's usually not a problem, but these sweater seems a little loose. so what do i do? i'm almost the armpits, so do just keep going and see how it turns out? or should i just say screw it and frog it? i'm really uncertain. this is why i need a knitting mentor. or someone who lives with me who knows more than i do about knitting. this is the problem with being a wing-it kind of knitter...it usually works out with scarfs, but sweaters and socks is a whole different deal.

problem two...i cast off my sock on wednesday and realized that it was too tight. what kind of cast off should i do to aleviate this problem?

not pictures of either for now, but this is a photo of me and francisco. he comes home about twice a week at night and tonight he was wanting to sit with me. he is the most cuddly cat and i'm always so excited when he comes home. i've had this cat the longest so he's super special to me, even if he's dirty and smells funny.

night

proof reading

2009-04-15T16:55:00.003-06:00

i didn't knit that easter dinner. that would be really amazing. thanks dad for pointing that out to me. i'm sure there were people who thought i was a grade a knitter...wouldn't that be awesome? i could start working for magazines making photo spreads for them! or just going on the road with my incredibly realistic knitting. perhaps i should pursue this a little bit more. have a great day

a day late...but not a dollar short...let's go with $80 :)

2009-04-14T19:06:00.004-06:00

anyways, i'm not really short $80. well i spent that much on some new clothes, but its not like i lost it or something. but i digress. here is the photos i promised. i do love how they turned out. and bob does too. He thought they were really cute. they were so much fun to knit and so quick and easy!
Other than that, not a lot going on. just rain/snow which isn't unusual for this time of year...just depressing to be honest. every time i think it's time to get my bike out, it rains again. but that what happens when you live in montana. i've seen snow in every month of the year, so it's just not too suprising.

some bitching...some knitting...and some eating

2009-04-12T22:30:00.004-06:00

happy easter everyone! we had a great chill easter here. we went to breakfast at the inlaws and then dinner with our friend jason. and a delicious dinner at that! we had ham, rosemary potatoes, cranberries, rolls, grape salad, and strawberry shortcake for dinner. it really was delicious! there will be photos added tommorrow. my camera is too far away from my seat :) also on the camera are the rediculously cute bunny nuggets i made for bob for his basket. i just about died when i saw how cute they were!

the picture i have is from my photobooth. now i realize they're not very good photos--due to the bad light in the living room and my laziness to get my camera. but lets look at these images:first: note the tired look in my eyes. that is due to trying to figure out how to do short rows. i was up until 12:15 last night trying to do it. now i don't know if i'm short row retarded...or if i just need someone to show me how to do it correctly. but i have done my cast on for tow up socks (using patons sox yarn--i think) but the heal and the toe just don't look neat and tidy like it should be. maybe i'm expecting too much for myself. but i've knit one sock just about two times. it appears i can't measure my foot correctly, but i've past the heal for the second time and now i'm on to some nice boring 2x2 ribbing. this should do me good.

next: this yarn i'm not loving. its scratchy and my needles keep splitting it up.

next: i started these on my latern moon needles. now i LOVE these needles almost more than i love my bed. however i couldn't get it to not have that ladder between the needles. AND the yarn kept getting caught when i was moving it up the needle. so i switched to double pointed and my speed increased drastically. i don't know if this is the fault of the needle or the yarn. next pair i'm going to use my addi turbos and hope that works better. my fingers are all crampy from knitting too much the past two days. but i feel good about the socks.

finally: i am bitching and moaning about knitting socks. i still feel like socks are something i should LOVE to knit. but everytime i just think, god, am i not done yet? but i'm doing it so that i can learn it and know it. i really am a librarian at heart and want to know how to do things incase someone asks me. it's like if i cook something bad. most people would say, "hey that was awful! i won't ever make that again!" i however think, "hey that was awful! i wonder what i did wrong. i'll make a list and make adjustments until it tastes delicious." i need to do it so that it is perfect. these socks are the same way. maybe i should suck it up and buy some nice sock yarn and make really nice socks instead of cheap yarn so i can practice. and to be honest, the socks look good off, but then i put them on and...i just don't love them. my feet look big and puffy and the socks look all stretched and...homemade and not nice and dainty like most homemade socks do. so i don't know. i'll let you know tomorrow how they go. since i don't have work i'll take advantage of the day--with a run and some knitting. my house is clean and so it's a fun day!

things that are unstoppable

2009-04-05T10:14:00.003-06:00

my knitting
bob throwing up
my running

to expand:

i'm knitting another thorpe. i am loving it still. i'm using the same colors because i'm crossing my fingers that i have enough yarn left over. its not looking too good. and my guts are telling me that i need to rip it back and make a smaller size. but i'm getting together with friends today to knit, so i will have some difinitive answers today.

bob has the stomach flu. the problem with working at a school where the students also live is that bugs get passed around a lot. and this stomach flu is a killer bug. i'm looking forward to a healthy spring :)

and my running. it's kinda stoppable, but i did run another race this weekend. i'm really dissappointed in myself to be honest. i did walk some of it...and i should have kept running...i don't know what my deal was. i just got lazy. but there were some hills to run and since i run on a treadmill, they were challenging. but i completed it and my time was so sad. 38:24. But I guess it gives me a goal to stay under.

and it's beautiful and sunny here, maybe spring is here!

more stitches for my...friends hehehehehe

2009-03-29T19:24:00.002-06:00

okay, so i've been knitting. i love this hat. it's the thorpe. i used nashua yarn (the same as my bella mittens. i made this for my moms coworker. she had requested a hat with ear flaps and a pompom. i thought this hat would fit the bill. i added the pompom but everything was pretty much the same. well, i ended up way off gauge in length so i had to cut out a few rows. however i don't think a lot was lost. it was quick knit and i will definately be making one for myself. the only downfall, damn crochet edge. i hate to crochet and it makes me want to poke my eyes out. but i think the crochet edge turned out okay. i'm calling it good enough. by the way, sorry about the photos. i'm not really wanting to find the camera.

in other news: another 8+ inches of snow today. in case your wondering, that makes it about 30 inches in three weeks. its no gillette, but it's not too bad. luckily it melts during the week and then snows on saturday or sunday night. i'm sad because there is no bike rides yet.

whoa, did you say sassy?

2009-03-25T19:19:00.003-06:00

oh, well i did! i got a new hair cut and it is sassy! i love it. LUV IT!i'm starting a thorpe hat today. cross your fingers and hope it turns out okay..and i have enough yarn ;) that's all for today.

really? REALLY?

2009-03-24T19:10:00.002-06:00

ha! bet you all thought i was stoked about this. but i have to say, martha i do love your cooking. and i refrence cooking school constantly. baking...i love! but crafting...nope. not going to purchase this. however i did hear that needlework is next years book. THAT i will look forward too :)

yeah, i'm like a professional...

2009-03-23T20:30:00.002-06:00

bowler that is! actually i'm really awful at it. however i do enjoy it. i wish i had more friends that did. then i would bowl often! but until then, i will continue bowling as often as possible. which is what i did this weekend. my youngest sister, the lovely leah, turned 12 this week. and she had a birthday party--a bowling birthday. and a sleepover. but she didn't mention that! bob, sarah and i and a bunch of 6th graders. it was like i was at work, but i could swear! it wasn't bad. we had lots of fun together. we ate cake and cinnamon rolls, did each others hair and painted our nails. well, we did the first two things mentioned, the girls did the rest. and we went bowling at the new bowling alley in bigfork (i believe it's called picks). this is time number three on this blog that i will mention bad customer service (and bad mouth crazy folk to be honest). this warrents a new paragraph because the guy was such a nutter!

as mentioned, this bowling alley is new. and we got there and it was PACKED! it was really rather surprising. and my mom had made a 2 hour reservation for 2 lanes (there were 9 of us there). we figured in that amount of time two things could happen: the girls would bowl and tire themselves out OR one of them would punch another and we would have a full on tween brawl. turns out, we just had some bowling. but i digress. nice bowling alley...not even the slightest wiff of smoke. but being as it's new, it was lacking the general warning signs, "put balls back," "no smoking," and "no street shoes beyond this point." if i had been a good blogger, i would have taken photos but i forgot. we all sat down at the tables and took our shoes off and started bowling. within minutes there was this leprechan man telling us to move our street shoes off the tile (NOT anywhere near the wood lanes). so we did. we thought it was weird and he wasn't very pleasant about it. but we keep bowling because we're cool like that. Then pretty soon he was behind me again. this time telling me not to sit on the table. apparently i have a fat ass that just leaning on the table will break it along with the electronics. that's what this man informed me off. oooooookay...it's new...whatever. 10 minutes later he's back!!!
"you all only have a few more minutes left."
my mom lets him know that she had made a reservation for two hours and that we would indeed like to continue bowling. and i get ready to continue bowling. now apparently i look angry and am ready to bash his head in (this is only what i can guess) because at this point he tells me to wait to bowl my turn until this matter is settled. now what the hell? i am here to bowl...if i only have a few minutes left, i'm gonna bowl damn it! so i refrain until he and my mom have a heated discussion. turns out my mom was right, she HAD reserved the lanes for 2 hours. so we got moved. with 1/2 of a frame left (!?!?) down to the kid free section. i can only assume that's what it is because there are couches to sit on instead of tables. YES! couches! bowling alley with couches! and coffee tables between them so you can sit and chat. i think this is how all the lanes should be...who wants a stinking picnic table? that part was awesome. at this point i was so paranoid the leprachon man was going to jump out from behind me i quit bowling. he takes his job incredibly serious. and i guess if i could have a couch in my bowling alley i would too!

i got you now st. patties day run!

2009-03-16T21:20:00.004-06:00

i did it. i really did it! i ran the whole st. patricks day race...in less time than i hoped too! i am so excited. we had lots of fun this weekend. my friend renee came from helena, our friend cc came from havre, lex came from gillette and my mom and leah came from kalispell. we all stayed out at fairmont and soaked lots and relaxed after our run. the day was absolutely perfect! there was a slight bit of wind, but nothing that couldn't be dealt with. being as this was the second time i raced this course, i felt much better about it and was much more prepaired for it. i think this helped in my wanting to quit running. I had made a deal with myself to run the first two miles, and then at mile three i knew i was able to do one more mile. then as soon as i could read the clock, i kicked into high gear to finish below 35 minutes. it's not the fastest time in the world for sure, but i am so happy with it. my next race is in three weeks and should be nice. my goal is to knock off 2 minutes. this is quite the stretch because the st. patties day race is all down hill, which probably helped with my time. so even if i end up staying the same (assuming its a hilly race) i'll be okay. by the way, there were 600+ racers at this race. we were on the 8th bus to take people to starting line. i wish i had taken pictures at the starting line. it was really awesome. and i saw so many people that i enjoy in anaconda. it is such a fun race.

some of the racers :)
blarney stones for leah's birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY LELE!

And after that beautiful day for running, we got a foot of snow today. not over night, not the past two days. but from the time i went to work until 2 o'clock it snowed. and snowed. and snowed some more! it was really unbelievable and beautiful! i got home today and shoveled the walk and let the dogs play outside. they don't particularly enjoy this weather because they have to burrow through the snow to go to the bathroom. it should all melt quickly...unless more is coming. here is a nice view of it:

discombobulated

2009-03-11T22:20:00.002-06:00

that really is a fantastic word :)

but i realize that my post yesterday was rather halfassed. so i'll rewrite it :)

i went running yesterday and did 2.5 miles. I was on the easy treadmill again. our gym now has 3 of the 6 treadmills not working. as i was running i was trying to figure out how months gym memberships it would cost to buy a new treadmill. at least i would have one that would work! but for anyone who hasn't been in our house, we are heard pressed for space for a new book, let alone a treadmill (we have only one closet in the whole house!). but i really really love our house. i was bored this weekend and spent some time looking at houses in anaconda, and i finally told bob that our house is the nicest one i saw and i would rather put improvements into it then have to move into a cruddy house. not to mention the prices were outrageous for the ghettoness that some of the houses are. so...we will continue to live here for some time :) now if there are any volunteers to come down and refinish my wood floors, i would be more than willing to do a trade :)

but back to running...we have the AOH st. patricks day race this weekend. its the same one i did last year. it's 3 miles and 90% down hill. this is going to work out in my favor. unfortunately i feel a nasty cold coming and it's settling into my chest. i'm hoping and praying that i can keep it at bay until sunday. after that i really dont care. i just really want to run this race and do well. i spent some time researching last night and am picking out some more races to run. i think as long as i've got some goals i'll keep with it. then once school is out, i think i'll join a womens running group that runs here in town. that should be some excellent motivation. and i just can't wait for the sun to come out.

now that is a little more coherent. i should take more pride in my writing!

food now

2009-03-10T21:10:00.004-06:00

well, no knitting. well i started knitting a cowl last night and i've lost the yarn label but let me tell you, it's a silk/alpaca blend. I purchased it at a big sale at camas creek! it's awesome! i'll take photos soon and post them. hopefully it turns out because i've frogged it twice already. so we'll see what's going on.

these are the hand pies i made on sunday. they were really awesome! they're from the martha stewart baking book. i will definately make them again. also, the crust is homemade and i think i'm ready to start experimenting with pasties. i'm thinking some sort of sweet potato type thing. any suggestions?
i really need to work on my photography skills. hrmmm add that to the list.

also...ran today and only did 2.5 miles....CRAP! oh well this is the first race of the season...it can only get better right? big race this weekend :)

let there be knitting!

2009-03-08T13:16:00.005-06:00

they're done! i have finally finished my bella's mittens. this was the second time i've knit them. i have to say, it's not my finest knitting. there are some mistakes, but nothing that i really want to go back and reknit. plus i had frogged them three times already. so one is two stitches smaller. and the other one is slightly longer. it's pretty hilarious. but they look good and the only person that will notice is me. so it's nothing that i'm going to worry about. here they are. we finally have some sunshine so i took some photos outside.

i was also working on a scarf for my mom. she had started this and didn't like it. also, so wanted a scarf that you was flat but wasn't a garter stitch. i tried to teach her how to do a ribbing but she just had me do it. so its just a 1 x 1 ribbing. nothing too exciting. it's long and skinny like she wanted. so that's checked off.

i also have another birdie hat to make for leah. i need to make it a little bit bigger than mine still...so i've been meditating on that.

and finally...a picture from last weekend. lex was here (she claims she'll update her blog) and we went skiing and did some swimming. it really was lots of fun. and she'll be here this week too. YAY :) oi vey...it's taking fooooooreeeeeeeeeeeeverrrrrrrrrrrrrr to load photos. so the photo of skiing is just going to have to wait. hopefully the other photos will post...soon

it's another day

2009-03-06T22:19:00.002-07:00

yesterday i went running. it was really great. i got in 2.68 miles on the treadmill. the easy one. but i ran a lot faster than i usually do. for longer. now a lot faster isn't like track speed. but i felt really great when i got it done. so i'm really excited to run tomorrow. and i've added another runner to the race. sarah will be joining us and it will be awesome. we'll have lots of fun. the race is next weekend, and i'll start planning for the next one.

my bellas mittens are all done except weaving in the ends. i'm really thrilled about that. and now i'm sitting on what to do next. i'm thinking that I want to make o.w.l.s. i started the february lady sweater and really didn't live it the three times i've done it. but i have enough yarn to make it. so i'm thinking i'll just wait a while and think it over. and i should reswatch it. but back to owls. i LOVE this pattern, but i don't know if it's the best fit for me. but it's just so cute! i'm thinking i'll make it in knitpicks so that it's really affordable. but should i wait since spring is right around the corner?

anyways, that's all for now. when i'm at work, i think of all these really great things to post about for the blog, then i log on, and have forgotten it all! twitter perhaps? thoughts to ponder!

yay yay yay!

2009-03-05T17:29:00.004-07:00

me trying to figure out the computer while on the phone with lele
it's here! my new macbook is here! it's like a little bit of heaven in my lap. the bad thing...instead of running i'm playing on it...

strange thing...i can catch someones wireless connection. but no fears, i'll get ours up and running sometime soon so that i'm on ours. plus then i can go to any room in our house! hehehe

there will be more later. should be cool.

things to check off...

2009-02-24T18:44:00.002-07:00

little big planet. i beat it last night. this is the second video game i've beat. now, i usually only play games i can pick up and set down whenever i want. but this one, ohhhhh this one was great! i loved it. but i was sad that i didn't get some big huge production when i beat it. oh well. i enjoyed it and will keep playing all the little games and trying to collect more items.

the true meaning of smekday. i finished this one up today and it was so good. really funny and fun to read. i love books like that. today i went to the library and got some books and am looking forward to reading those.
running. because that's what i'm going to go do. i'm thinking of posting all my runs online so you all can see how i'm doing. i don't know if you're aware, but i want to run 12 races this year and then make a quilt out of the shirts. it's a strange reason to run...but whatever works right? also, i'm starting to work out again in the morning with my friend. this is going to be rough because i've been having a REALLY hard time getting up at 7...and getting up at 5 is going to be really rough. BUT knowing someone is waiting for me is good. plus i'll be able to start getting to school on time. and my little dogs will hopefully be getting walks again since i'll have spare time in the morning.

that's all on my to be checked off list.

other good things: i ordered a new computer. this was a rash decision, but the price was right and i've been wanting a lap top so we can turn our small room into a guest room without having to sleep wall to wall to desk. so this will be exciting. AND ITS A MAC! this is really nice because i prefer macs...so i'm going back to my roots. i am thinking i probably should have bought a new sofa instead...but that's life right? i had a great list of things to post...but i don't remember any of them now.

i'm in a reading mood lately, so thats why there isn't much knitting going on. i did rip out bella and am to the thumb on the left. so hopefully i'll just sit down and get them done real soon. i bought yarn for a february lady sweater, but have worked on knitting it a couple of times so i'm debating about using the yarn for something else...or just biting the bullet and trying again.

anyways...i'm off to run!

good day sunshine!

2009-02-18T19:10:00.003-07:00

cross country skiing...it was -7...can't even tell :)

running update: monday 2.6 miles in 30 minutes. wednesday 2.5 miles in 30 minutes. need to get up to 3.1 miles by march...and hopefully improve that slow ass time. f.

reading update: sweet god all mighty it is taking me forever to read the true meaning of smekday. but it is incredibly enjoyable and pretty hilarious. it's the bright spot in my working day. love it.

work update: to the bastard who created science fairs...let me send you all of the students who are needing help with excel spreadsheets...on the day its due. then i'm going to send you the other 200 students who also need help. but left their data at home!!! god all mighty do they think i can create a graph from thin air. damn my abilities...because it turns out i can! it's sweet! on the plus side...i have made it into multiple students acknowledgement pages...at least they remember that i do help them...and somewhere in my heart i do love them. just not all the time!

knitting update: well...it appears i am suffering from half-assdom. now it would be great if my ass did shrink down to half it's size. but it turns out that i can only do something half way. i thought i had photos of half finished projects. but i don't. so here is sarah's mittens that she made. she's the best knitting student ever! i'm still working on the stupid bella's mittens. they're so fast...except when you don't use the right size needles so you have to start again...then you lose a cable stitch somewhere...AND you don't have a row counter. oh well :) i'm thinking of making something quick and fun...like my dinner which is getting cold. i'm having a baked potato and carrots and hummus (my new favorite food).

it's too late for this!

2009-02-12T22:06:00.003-07:00

its 10:06 montana time and i'm up making valentines for my advisory class. by making valentines i mean i'm making snickerdoodles for them because i couldn't think of anything better. last year i made really cute valentines that looked like fortune cookies. but this year, i just don't have it in me. and they're a rather ungreatful class, so i don't want to waste too much time on it/them. i will also start bobs tomorrow. hehe nothing like waiting until the last minute. but i think he'll like it. i love valentines day. unfortunately, i'm really bad at sending them...so to all my family <3 to you! the rest of you, i'll see this weekend, so ignore that ;)

today i went to butte and went to walmart. it's crazy. i hate it. i'm reminded of why i don't shop there anymore. plus it's hard when you're shopping for someone else and you aren't sure what exactly they want. but i winged it and got candy for the carnation sale and some candy for chocolate bingo tomorrow. it should be fun and exciting!

now i know this is a knitting blog. but i haven't been knitting. But i did find my camera. so this weekend i'll take some photos and do some posting.

take that lexie!

and here is a picture of crackers all cuddled up with my sackboy :)

it continues...

2009-02-11T15:46:00.003-07:00

my crabbiness just won't end! but i'll post to you today anyways.

i started reading the true meaning of smekday which is really hilarious! i'm really digging it.

i'm going to my friends house for dinner tonight. i haven't been home for dinner yet this week. i have weeks like this, where i won't be home at all, then i'll have weeks where i'm home constantly. it's strange. but i enjoy that.

how sad is it that craftzine isn't going to publish on paper anymore? i love that magazine. its where i get all my ideas. plus it helped me reduce my coffee runs completely! i love that cold press coffee. it did spoil me :)

that's all for now. two posts...doing good. :)

things that piss me off...

2009-02-10T16:50:00.002-07:00

a bulleted list because i'm pissed off

stupid girls
stupid girls on my treadmills
stupid girls and one man on my treadmill when i go there right after school to make sure i get my run in today because today is a big run day to prepare for the st. patricks day race
having to use an elliptical machine in exchange for a treadmill run
my job when students think that i love to be cranky and mean
my dogs nails that scratch me because they need to be clipped
my filthy house that has my piles all over
my inability to 1. throw things away and 2 put things away.
me being cranky
losing my row counter. to the cats. or dogs. BRING IT BACK CATS OR DOGS!
being hungry but not having anything to satisfy my hunger
baby carrots that look like fingers

now that that's off my chest! oh wait, one more

me not being able to say no

anyways. here is my links i promised. and also, i seem to have lost my camera. i know, i'm shocked too. it must be in one of my giant piles of shit that's laying from one end of the house to the other. i read an article about people bartering things with the economy being bad. no it wasn't an article, it was oprah. oops. anyways, i'm willing to barter something in exchange for someone to come and help me clean up my crap and organize. any takers?

back to knitting. links. here we go. and i'm not going to stick ravelry links in there because some don't love it. i do. i'm late to it. but i love it. it's great.

thorpe--i'm thinking the adults and baby versions
lady february sweater...still
and the beautiful bella mittens

thats all for now. take that lexie!

and dad...new killers album...awesome. track 7 sounds just like the talking heads to me :)

it's on like donkey kong!

2009-02-10T08:50:00.003-07:00

it's on lexie brundin of http://brundinblog.blogspot.com/! you better be afraid, very afraid. I'm ready to kick your blogs butt!

so my sister seems to think that she is far superior than I am in the blog updating business. well i'm here to show her that she is living in a dream world. so fans, I'm back!!! they might not all be knitting posts. but they will be excellent posts that lexies blog can only dream of! so bring it!

on the knittng front: sack boy, another pair of bellas mittens, a baby hat...and thoughts of thorpes for me, babies, and other people who deserve them (not lexies blog). Links to come tonight...yep that's right. two posts in one day. take that!

on the reading front: not a whole lot. just some young adult from the library. I did read The Juvie Three and What I Saw and How I Lied. I loved the first one, liked the second one, and it's the national book award winner. It got good about half way through, but wasn't phenominal.

but i'll be back tonight. sleep with one eye open http://brundinblog.blogspot.com/

DEPRESSING!

2009-01-02T18:14:00.006-07:00

well i made it to kalispell to go on my knitting retreat that starts in...45 minutes. but due to the 20+ new inches of snow that this town got last night, we just didn't think it would be safe to travel. i had a generous offer for a ride, but i unfortunately don't call the valley my home, so on sunday i would have had a 6 hour drive to make. which would be okay if i had monday off. but i get a little nervous with this much snow and all that driving. so i had to cancel. i am soooooo sad because i was really looking forward to it! but here are some beautiful photos from the storm and all that jazz. again, i promise pictures of hand knit things soon.

yes, it really is up to my thighs (though this is the snowblower blowoff)

that glow is the consumer center north of town.

the sauna and the foot+ snow on the roof

west of our house. you can see the snow falling. it's just barely avoiding us right now

dan dan the snow blower man. this really is up to his thigh. the swings were below the snow. i swung on one and my butt was a draggin'

and rain in anaconda. stupid anaconda!

it's like working out...

2008-12-29T10:24:00.002-07:00

i was doing so good! multiple posts in one month! oh well. hope everyone had a fantastic christmas. I had an AWESOME christmas. i got new shoes, winter boots (that aren't kid sized!), cross country skis, and a gift certificate to camas creek in kalispell (over half-way spent, fyi). with all those great gifts, why would i buy myself one? okay, because I really wanted to go on the winter knitting retreat put on by camas creek. I am so excited! 2 days, three classes, at a cross country ski area. it's perfect! so i'll let you know how that goes!

so my little sister came with me to spend some time down in beautiful anaconda. so far we've gone bowling. when we had left kalispell it was a winter wonderland. lots and lots and lots of beautiful new snow. by the time we got to anaconda it was 34 degrees and what snow we had was melting. talk about a feeling of defeat. by the way, there were two brand new pairs of cross country skis and a brand new snowboard in the back. talk about depressing! so we went bowling last night. and this morning we're...going skiing because we're sitting on 8 new inches of snow!!! how exciting! so leah and i will take advantage of it and hit the hill (half day because we are worried we'll be too tired with a full day, we can go again :)) then tomorrow, cross country skiing, and then i think a trip to beautiful fairmont hot springs. it is going to FUN!!! hopefully i'll have some pictures with my beautiful christmas knits and some new things i've started for myself :)

why did it take me so long to figure it out?

2008-11-20T17:09:00.001-07:00

I finished the Twilight series. So seriously good. like crack. i don't even know what to read next because they were so incredibly good that everything else will pale in comparison. and i finished the last one last night. it was good. but let's think about this for a minute. each book was at least 500 pages long. The last book was over 700 pages. that is a lot of reading. now at the same time i have a large amount of knitting that MUST GET DONE. so i have been torn for the past two weeks. do i want to knit or do i want to read? what to do? well i sat down to do some knitting. i have to watch tv when i knit. i just need that background noise to keep me somewhat focused. otherwise i just get bored. but at 6:30 the tv was turned off and i was going to read. but i still wanted to knit. bob said he wouldn't turn the pages for me (i thought that was rather rotten). but i opened my book to see if i could read and knit at the same time. OH MY GOD! it was the best knitting and reading breakthrough of my life. forget learning to cable or the first time i cast on. i can read and knit at the same time! my life has gotten exponetially better. i'm satisfied now. :)

so i'm working on a blanket and need to start my christmas list. i'm looking for a sweet toupee pattern, does anyone know one? thanks :)

what have you done this week?

2008-11-10T22:02:00.005-07:00

Bulleted list for me because that's how busy i've been!

Reading completed this week

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah
The Cay by Theodore Taylor
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
and to be honest, I think there was one more in there

All of them were so good! But twilight was superb. so superb in fact, that i went to my library (that i'm the librarian of) on sunday night to get the next book. but it was checked out. so i did what any librarian would do...i ordered it! hahahaha anyways, the next two should be here on wednesday. A long way gone was for book club number one, and it was depressing, but a good story. The Cay is for book club number 3 (!) I had a group of girls who wanted to start a book club and they opted for that book. They meet every two weeks and are really a fantastic addition to my day : )

But wait! There is more! I also knitted this week. A lot!

These are bootie pair number one finished like 7 days ago. They are for a brand new baby and are waiting patiently to be put in the mail. Unfortunately, I cant find a good card to go with them.

These are booties number two almost finished...they need buttons. These are for a friend who is having her second grandbaby this december. I have one more pair to make for her. And a white pair to make for a coworker who wants them for her grandbabies baptism. Then another pair for Camas Creek Yarn :) Those need to be done by Thanksgiving and I'll drop them off.

This is my sister's scarf that I made for her. She has been waiting for this since July (though not needed until a month ago). I didn't knit this all this week, but I did finish it. So I am counting it.

And finally this scarf from here. I used...uhm...some sort of big yarn :) it was brown sheep i think. i started friday night, finished saturday. a fun easy knit. it's okay. i'm giving it to a special person. ehehehe what am i kidding, she doesn't know how to use the internet. it's for my mom.

So that's my week. It's been great. I start a book fair tomorrow. Cross your fingers it all goes well. I am terribly stressed about it. but super excited too. And happy birthday lex! here is your gratuitous bad blog photo :) miss you.

i'm also getting my haircut on wednesday. think i need it???

happy halloween

2008-10-31T18:43:00.002-06:00

i am still alive. i do still knit. and read. it's been hectic here. this is the first weekend i will have been home for the whole thing since before school started in august. i'm pretty thrilled to be honest. we're having a quiet halloween here with scary movies and handing out candy. we live in an area of town with hundreds of children, but i bet we won't see more than 25 trick or treat-ers. they all go to the other end of town where it's not so creepy and people give out BIG candy bars. i don't blame the kids or the parents either. but it means we'll have a ton of extra candy again. but i'll use it in my library as prizes.

i have been knitting a ton. i'm working on a scarf for my sister using sublime yarn. it really is beautiful but i think it's going to shed a ton. i'm also working on some baby gifts. i made a sweater last weekend and it turned out perfect. of course i forgot to take a photo. so maybe mom will send me a picture when baby is born. i'm also working on some beautiful booties that i LOVE (pattern on the right hand side). i'm going one color because i realized that one of the two yarns i planned on using was a little too girly and these are for a boy. so i'll hope and pray that there is a girl baby somewhere in my knitting future. also, i have cast on for the ladies february sweater three times now and haven't been happy with it yet. after reading over at ravelry some suggestions, i'm ready to tackle it again with better plans. i would much rather have a sweater that i made and LOVE and am satisfied with, than one that is just okay, so i will keep casting on until i cast on right!

dad...this post is for you :) and i will try to get back to blogging more. i have exciting news about my library and great things i'm trying to do this year so i am really thrilled about that. and knitting has me feeling really good...when i sit down and knit i am constantly amazed at what i am able to accomplish. i feel like i am quite successful at it...makes me think i should be doing something with knitting for a living :)

it was going to be mean...

2008-06-16T23:05:00.002-06:00

the trip to seattle is going well. we've done lots, seen lots, and eaten lots. tonight we went to the game to watch the mariners lose. again. you would think that i would be able to see someone win. but we had fun seats above the bullpen. until we decided to sneak downstairs. now they must go to the senior citizen center to get people to volunteer to check tickets and we had an eagle eye senior watching the seats we decided to sit in. she told us we couldn't sit in the back row...we had to go back and sit in section 184. so we just stood. well that eagle eyed senior finally at 9 let us sit down and watch the rest of the game. so here is to you eagle eyed senior!!!

more to follow!

blogging from afar...

2008-06-14T13:10:00.002-06:00

currently in kalispell...about to go to seattle for three or four baseball games. we'll have fun.

even better news. i've been knitting.

even better news than that: I went to a camera store (Shout out to the camera store in kalispell uhm....photo video plus i believe) and they have a charger for my camera. therefore...photos of seattle while i'm in seattle. AND knitting photos soon.

by the way, i'm out of school for summer. yes!

gasp i think i was kicked out

2008-06-04T17:18:00.004-06:00

so apparently my procrastinating got me kicked out of the knitting ring i'm in. that really is a sad day for me. dang it anne...get your knitting shit together!
****whew! i wasn't kicked out, it's now defunct! thank god i'm not such a failure. i'll have to find another blog to join.
well, i'll have to do some investigating when i'm not feeling so hard on myself. i have two days left of school...with only 3 hours of actual educational time left. which sounds really awesome...if i hadn't deleted 75% of my fiction collection. so i have to enter that all in. i have lovely girls who are helping me and i think they're doing a pretty good job. one even said she wouldn't mind being a librarian...except you have to be quiet. she struggles with that. so do i. :)

knitting, i do still knit. i actually have some baby hats i'm trying to work on because i have 5 friends having 6 babies within like...4 weeks of each other. but again...no photos because i don't have the camera charger. my dad said he would buy me one if i worked for him. but apparently i didn't work hard enough. dad? yah? huh?

what do you have planned for summer? i have baseball with my dad and sister, sister time, laying tile at my sisters house, working, swimming, and kayaking with my mom. oh and camping around anaconda and yellowstone. hopefully that all will work out. i haven't found a buyer for my kidney though so i can afford gas. ehehehe just kidding, i can't sell my kindey, that would get me into all sorts of legal problems. and health issues too. so i do exhist and i'm going to try to post more regularly now that summer is here.

books, blogs, and back gammon

2008-03-27T22:09:00.003-06:00

i read like 20 blogs most days. i do this by venturing up into my favorites. scrolling to knitting, then to blogs and then reading each one. sometimes i open two browsers so that i can have one loading while i'm reading another blog. i do that when i'm in a hurry. today i took a new route. don't worry it's not rss or rrs or whatever it is. (although one of my library professors would have a heart attack because she loves it, or suggests it at least). today i went from the bottom of my list up. it sort of weirded me out because i didn't know which blog was coming next. have you noticed that blogs have tastes? like some...they're strong knitting and i like that about them. some are just a hint of knitting mixed in with life (that's mine). some are familiar...because i know the people. and some i read because i'm addicted. i'm not particularly fond of the writing style or what the person has to say, but i feel like i need to know what that person is doing. like looking in windows at night really. and i love those blogs too because there is something that i do enjoy and it keeps me coming back for more. but anyways, i went backwards today so i wasn't prepared for what was going to come next. do you do that? it was rather refreshing.

tonight: i had bookclub number one. book club number one is the first one i belonged to. they are my first anaconda friends and it's been really wonderful. we were supposed to read angry housewives eating bonbons. i didn't read it because, of course, i forgot i had book club this week. i belong to a second book club that i started this year. it's rather intense because i feel like i'm reading one book for bookclub (the sooner meeting) and then i rush through the second so i can be prepared. this usually works out because the meetings are two weeks apart. but i have noticed that my reading has decreased because i'm feeling rather...forced to read. i keep buying books to read, but i can't make it through them. really, it's a pity. so i'm down to two books a month + whatever book i'm reading at school to keep up to date in my library (mainly so i can find some kid that NEEDS to read that book). it's like a came of matching. find the book that matches the kid. some kids have lots of matches...some don't. it's great.

my husband loves to play backgammon. i've never played it. lex, remember the board at the north fork that we tried to play with...but it turns out we didn't know how to play so instead we made designs with dominos? i'm thinking i should learn to play it, but often when bob teaches me a game i get frustrated and it's added to the list of games we can't play. such as canasta, phase ten, and monopoly. too bad, so sad.

if there is some amazing chance that someone out there reading this is a librarian who blogs with their students, i would love it if you would contact me about doing it. i'm thinking of starting a blog of book reviews because students are WAY better at convincing each other to read books than i am. so i thought that would be awesome! or if you know someone. :) night!

spring is in the air...

2008-03-26T20:12:00.002-06:00

ooooh hellooooooo! spring has sprung which means...spring cleaning time! wooohoo! so i've been busy doing one little spring cleaning bit at a time. this will come as no surprise to my parents because they know i'm a terrible cleaner. when i was little and i shared a room with my lovely sister we would have to clean our terribly messy room. and lex would get her side done and i would still be looking at the filthy sock i had picked up an hour an a half ago. i would still be deciding whether it was just covered with cat hair and i could shake it off and put it in the sock drawer, or if it really had been worn two and a half months ago and i should clean it. so i would start crying about how i can't clean and i'm overwhelmed and in two and a half minutes lex would have cleaned it all. this worked well into my adult life until it was time for us to get married. turns out, i still need her to come and clean my house. lex, are you here yet? but i digress. i've been working on it and am rather proud of myself. now if someone walked into my house, they wouldn't really think of it as clean, but i know that to me i'm making a difference.

also since i have last checked in, i have achieved a goal of mine, and that is to run a 5k. i'm going to preface this with a story about my 1st grade teacher, mrs. a. mrs.a, if you're out there reading this, this was in 1987 in whitefish mt and i was the short, thick girl. now, in first grade we were out on the track running the mile (i still don't think 6 year olds should be made to run the mile) and after we finished we were walking back to the school (muldown school--i'm giving lots of hints as to who i am incase mrs. a is reading :) ) and as i was huffing and puffing because i had to walk a lot of the mile mrs. a looked at me and said, "anne, why can't you be more like your aunt lexie?" well, my aunt was phenominal runner, ran in college and set lots of records. and i just kind of looked at her thinking, "uhm....because i'm not her" so this is for you mrs. a! i may not be a big track runner, but damn it i finished the race and i'm proud! so i ran in the st. patricks day race here in anaconda with my sister lex who has been training with me (but apart from me) and my mom and baby sister came down to join us. they walked it with my husband and everyone finished. i'm terribly proud of everyone. next year dad, you're joining us! but the best part of the race...it ends at a bar. where they proudly serve green beer to the race participants...at like 11:15 in the morning. it was great. so now lex and i will find races every few months to meet up and run together. we're cool like that.

also, i have been knitting a most kick ass project. however it can't be shown because a reader of this blog will be the recipient. funny thought though...only like 8 people read this blog, so they're all thinking its them! hehehehe

so that's my life in a nut shell. camera charger: still broken. weather: changing slowly to spring. family: all good. and possibly big changes next year. woohoo!

uhm...if my dad didn't read this, it would have swearing

2008-02-25T19:05:00.002-07:00

so. i'm a big fat failure. i don't remember if i let you in on my little new years resolution. it's what i call "low pressure" as in, do it if you can, if not, don't worry! it's to cook one new thing a week this year. so i should have 52 new recipes...if i hadn't of skipped a few weeks, and if i hadn't screwed up some recipes. now don't get me wrong, the chili turned out awesome. and i owe it to me. really, i do. the original recipe, boring and awful! so i experimented and it turned out great. not once, but twice! i even made it for my dad and mom and my mom and dad have mad cooking skills (dad not so much in the chili department though). and they both thought it was great! me too. i was amazed. cumin and tomato sauce need to be added. note to self: try blending the nasty onions into the sauce next time. and the other successes include a roast chicken which was so good i didn't mind eating it for the next three days. i'm thinking i should switch to roast turkey breast though because i really only like the white meat. also a success the most amazing brownies with peanut butter icing. holy moly were they good. and also (i forgot) my pulled pork sandwiches on sweet potato biscuits. i did also make the white bbq sauce that was supposed to go on them...that was a failure. which brings me to the whole point of this.

i failed twice this week at two new recipes. number one: salsa. now, how can you go wrong with salsa. it all begins with being afraid to chop things small. i can't chop my onions and tomatoes small enough. but don't worry, i come up with a really really great idea. i'll just blend it! i don't like the chunks in salsa anyways! yeah, well it looks like green cat throw up. green you're thinking...but i thought you made salsa. yes, well apparently when you blend up three jalapeno chilis it will greatly influence the color. and the heat. that is some really really hot salsa. but it's okay tasting. tomorrow i'm going to mix some into my hamburger meat and see what i come up with. should be good. you would think after that i would be done with failing this week. but i'm an overachiever (or would i be an underachiever?) and i thought i would try to make porkchops. porkchops and cassaroles are dishes to me that anyone can make. it's such an...american food that i thought if you were born in america you could cook it. well, i can cook them, just not well. i dredge them in egg, then breadcrumbs then flour. i think the flour was my mistake. and then i put them in a pan with some olive oil. now let me also add i bought the thin cut ones (seriously, i haven't found a recipe that calls for these. someone help me out with that). and i started cooking. i thought it shouldn't take very long so i went to flip them after like four minutes. well wouldn't you know that all the olive oil was gone and after i flipped the chops, they started to smoke...and set off my smoke alarm. which truely did surprise me because i only seem to do that when my inlaws are around (they must wonder why dear husband married me). so i thought to myself what should i do? and i knew i couldn't add more oil to the pan because you never add cold oil to a hot pan (thanks food network). so i got another pan. perfect. and this time i put in LOTS of olive oil. well, that fried the hell out of them and they finished cooking in record time. i ate them anyways because i was starving. they were okay. but bland. SALT! that's what i need to add. good to know. so they weren't a complete failure. but not really great.

so i need suggestions on what i did wrong. or if you have an awesome pork chop recipe (especially one calling for thin ones) please let me know. and i'll try it! hell, if i ate the ones tonight, it can only get better!

and finally. when the recipe says medium high, what does that mean? i assume it means halfway between medium and high. yellow-orange is the color half way between yellow and orange, so it only make sense to me.

knitting funk: still in full gear. another 7 inches of snow fell today. no end in sight.

for next time: lactose intolerant? or just some sort of virus?

february 7, 2008

2008-02-07T18:08:00.000-07:00

this is for my sister who asks me why i never blog anymore. the short answer: i broke my camera charger and i can't take photos until my cheapness goes away for a few minutes and i buy a new one. and since knitting is sort of not fun without all the photos, it's hard for me to blog.

BUT i have been knitting and i will describe. my favorite knit piece in my absence would be the fingerless gloves that i made my dear husband. because this is the first thing i've ever knit for him. first. thing. ever. after five years! i have friends that i've knit for who haven't been my friends for five years! i have knit for coworks that i've only known a few months and i've knit them something. so he was due. and i tell you, they're beautiful (well, minus the strange purple hue, i swear they were grey!) but the pattern is dashing and i loved it. it's the first time i've done a thumb this way and it totally rocked my socks off! i think all mittens from now on will go this way. it seemed to help me not get that obnoxious hole in the side, so that was an awesome learning experience! the yarn i used was a hemp/wool combo. not at all what the pattern called for or suggested, but they turned out just perfect anyways. i'm a bad knitter: i pick the yarn i want and then the pattern and i make the pattern work, even if it shouldn't. because i live so far from yarn stores or anything, i usually just wing patterns with what i've got.

speaking of yarn stores, my friend melanie cross opened up camas creek yarns in kalispell. B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L!!! it has to be the most incredibly yarn store i've ever been in. like...let me die here wonderful! please stop in and visit her. you won't be able to leave empty handed. and you might go back three times in one day and buy something each time. and not because you forgot something but because you love it so much you don't want to go back home. it's really spectacular--i can't say enough about it!

other than that not a lot is up here. we've had wacky weather. as noted in november, part of our roof blew off due to high winds. well today we've had a blizzard dropping 12 inches since 8 this morning and winds well over 40 miles an hour. you could see a block and a half and that was it. so we've been sticking close to home for the most part and enjoying quietness and the wonderfulness of LOST on dvd. no commercials, no writers strike, and no waiting for a week for the next episode. it's awesome :)

happy les? when do you leave?

there is time...

2007-11-18T15:35:00.000-07:00

i think blogging is a lot like exercising for me...i sort of need to force myself to do it. so today i am while my dear husband is napping, it's nice and quiet in my house. my litter boxes are clean, my house is...not too messy, and it's snowing. i LOVE the snow. LOVE LOVE LOVE it. I miss the days of when Montana got lots and lots of it. a few inches here and there does not satisfy my needs. sometimes i think of moving to alaska because they still get snow. plus i like the thought of moving. the first photo is out my front window. this is my daily view and the reason i wanted this house. well a reason...and not the view...but the corner windows. it makes my day and is the perfect place for our christmas tree. and the third...that's crackers in the snow. he's just so darn cute!

i have been not super busy, but it seems like always on the move. last weekend i went to gillette to visit lexie for her birthday. it was a big surprise and let me tell you, i almost pushed the car so we could get there faster. i was so excited! we had so much fun! our friend john drove me down and friday night we got there and hung out and chatted. we also played "scene it." it's way more difficult than we thought it would be. then on saturday we went down town to do some shopping, lex opened her gifts, we had a nice lunch prepaired by her husband and then the festivities began! it was a mustache party. here's lex with her mustache! we played battle of the sexes--glad to report the girls won both games, we had delicious dinner--steak, asparagas, blue cheese mashed potatoes, bread, and birthday cake from dairy queen. it really is our favorite! then sunday we layed around, went and got frozen custard as is customary, and got back on the road. it really was perfect! thanks les and nick!

i HAVE been knitting. but i gave almost all of it to lexie for her birthday! she got a pair of mittens and two hats. guess who forgot to take photos. but lex said she would send some to me. if not, i'll take some when i'm there for thanksgiving. i'm working on another pair of mittens for me, a pair for a cousins daughter, and now i'm ready to start christmas knitting! oh and i have an order for three pairs of mittens for christmas...better get started on those soon!

but lest you think i'm making knitting up, here is some yarn i've purchased in the past...WEEK! the two white skeins are buffalo that i got in gillette. i can't believe how soft and wonderful it is! the grey also came from gillette, and i think it will be a hat...or cabled scarf. the multicolored yarn is for a scarf for me. and all the other...for christmas presents...hrmmm...strange acrylic...what could it be??? who knows!

so that is the short of it. i have a knitting date tonight and am still deciding what to be knitting. we shall see i suppose!

we're alive!

2007-11-14T20:14:00.000-07:00

okay this is a very strange random post, but i will most more this week about my knitting (lets just say 5 mittens and two hats in like 8 days...wow!) but more impressively is the storm we survived. we've heard between 70 and 90 a mile hour winds. that's impressive considering we're at 5000+ feet nestled in the rocky mountains. trees were blown over, power was out for 6 hours, ice was frozen, roofs blown off, and our shingling blew off our roof. now this is quite fine by me because behind my house is a 40 foot tree that could easily have fallen on our roof like the 30+ trees that fell down. but i will post more later. these funny photos are for my dad who is the best dad in the world because he's going to come down and help me fix it. thanks dad!

and...lexie's birthday photos too. fun times in gillette

(dad, the last photo is the piece of roofing that blew over on its self. i folded it back but it cracked in places. the other photos are my patch job...i am no quilter that's for sure!)

twice in one month!

2007-10-09T18:05:00.000-06:00

here are the photos i promised. still no sign of the camera charger.

in other news...my new dyson vacuum came today. dang i love it alread. i want to vacuum everything.

also, one mitten is almost finished. yay me :)
this the path through washoe park. we were riding bikes. if you look real hard you can see bob riding ahead of me.
our gaggle of cats. sorry about all of the laundry :) it looks like fatty gus is trying to squash aggie. perhaps she is.
this is philipsburg. and that nice shiny building with the hose in front is for rent. i think my yarn shop needs to go there. it's beautiful. and there is a park next to it :)
there's bob riding ahead of me. yes. i took photos while biking. it was exhilerating! but i couldn't let bob see me do it!
i LOVE the colors of this goose. i think everything needs to be dark grey with yellow orange and white. like my house. grey house. yellow orange door and white trim. ready dad?

oh my gosh!

2007-10-07T19:46:00.000-06:00

well i hadn't realized it has been so long since i've posted. i knew it was a while, but i hadn't realized over a month! thanks for reminding me lexie!

since i can't find my camera battery charger, i can't post any new knitting photos. but let me tell you, i was flying along with my sitcom cardigan. and i had up to the arm pits done, and i started working on sleeve number one. i had done all of my increases and it didn't look right. it's about five inches to short. so what should i do all you accomplished knitters out there? should i just knit without increasing for those five inches? should i rip it back (boohoo)? can the sleeve be salvedged? it put me into a funk. a serious serious funk. so i quit knitting for a while.

then last week i went to MBI training. i found with school training stuff, there is a lot of down time, and i need to make a baby hat, so i brought the first inch of one with me. it's my usual baby hat with a jolly roger knit into it (is that so unusual? i'm young and somewhat hip, but i got a lot of weird looks when i showed people). so in all the down time...i finished it my first day of training. it turned out okay, but i'm not happy with my color work, so i'm going to reknit it. darn it, i should have picked up yarn today in butte.

so with my confidence back, i went to the scrap booking store on friday to just look at yarn. you know how looking turns to buying. i said i wasn't going to buy some sock yarn. why make mittens with sock yarn anne? you have enough problems knitting two things that are the same, why exasterbate it with two small gauge projects? but i did. i bought myself some pretty yarn that has found it's way into 1/2 of a mitten. i am incredibly picky about my mittens. they can't be too big and flop around. so when i realized my thumb was way too big i bit the bullet and ripped backwards and made my thumb smaller. and i'm really happy with how it is progressing. it's giving me the confidence to work on lexies mittens. see lex, i haven't forgotten, i just want them to be perfect for you!

in other news, my cousin lisa nominated me to be a Rockin' Girl Blogger. which totally blew my mind :) now i'm not sure if i'm supposed to nominate anyone or how it goes (i should read into this), but i will admit that i am a total lurker with blogs. i have twenty or so that i read everyday but have only left like three comments on peoples blogs (for those of you who comment on mine, thank you so much, i will try to overcome my shyness and comment on yours too! i really do appreciate it!). so that is so very awesome! but there are some blogs that i just love to read...like...LOVE and i don't know if it would be weird if i just nominated them without ever once letting them know i read it.

in other news: fall has come and i want to take some pictures of beautiful anaconda (it's the one time it really is a beautiful place), but no camera. also last friday, first snow in town, but it's been about 1000 feet higher for a few weeks now. also the husband and i went to they might be giants concert in missoula and had an awesome time! last year we saw the rolling stones, this year it was much smaller but a great concert. there were probably 400 people there and by the end we were...15 feet from the stage. there was no security fence or anything. it was great fun.

in kitty news. they have been accepted by the other cats. even anti-social gus loves them. she's become a mama cat and takes good care of them. but...they have been horribly sick with the "pintler pet illness." apparently it's quite common for the shelter kittens to get this disease where the cats sneeze and get gunky eyeballs. so for three weeks they've been on antibiotics. it really is horrible. but they've quit sneezing blood and seem to be a little better. if any of you are vets or married to them, please see if you can find out more. i'm trying to pick a new vet for the kitties because this vet didn't even give me the name of the disease. now i know i could have asked, but the vet doesn't have very good bedside manners and i don't feel comfortable asking him questions.

it's taking too long to upload pictures, so i'll post them tomorrow.

and GO RED SOX! ahhhh yes, life is good :)

no weiners...

2007-08-31T22:04:00.000-06:00

well, i had no takers on my contest. so grey kitty is called rory. this is embarassing, but i don't know if it's a boy or a girl. so i figured rory would work. it's kind of fitting. he/she has this roar when meowing. i was thinking that nutters would be a really great name too, but i think rory just fits.

so i figure i should talk about knitting. like i said, i knit the cabled scarf in the one skein book. i tried to work on cables at the beginning of summer, and then this weekend it clicked. in my head i knew what needed to be done to make a cable, and voila, a new scarf! i really like the scarf, but i have to say, i'm not really fond of the yarn. i used blue sky alpaca. i've had this yarn for over two years and another skein for three! the reason i hadn't knit it was because i didn't like how loose it knit up. and if i tried using smaller needles, it just ended up getting knotted up. plus, the yarn breaks and it gets too fuzzy. but it's sooooo luxurious that i just love it :) i'm thinking of making the assemetrical hat next. this photo is a pretty crappy photo of the scarf, but it gives you an idea. i need to block it and weave in the ends. i'm thinking of giving it to a friend. she is one of those people who is always so nice and warm towards me. she's a knitter and i think she would love it as well.

next in line is the sitcom sweater. i'm buying the yarn for it tomorrow in missoula. i love making sweaters, but i'm too cheap to buy the yarn. this sweater shouldn't be too expensive though so I'm looking forward to starting it. it will be a good addition to my sweater shelves. i want to keep knitting lots and lots of sweaters, but i have so many it's hard to justify more. but i'm sure i'll keep going. i need to take a knitting class to learn more about the technical stuff...increases and decreases, just so i can start learning to adjust the sweaters to fit me perfectly.

other news...i got a new job. instead of being the elementary school librarian i am the junior high library. it should be a really great job. the staff in my building is really amazing...they're always trying to improve things! i think it will be a much better fit than the old building. dear husband also started a new job a few weeks ago working as a high school teacher in a school for emotionally disturbed children (i don't think that's what i'm supposed to say, but its a school for...very difficult children). he's really starting to enjoy it and is loving using his degree now. it's a good thing to be doing.

on tap for the weekend: back home for another wedding, a griz game, and hopefully some kayaking. hmmmm how can i steal them and bring them down here?

oh...also needed to add to my last list: second anniversary for dear hustband and i. yay for us!

contest...

2007-08-30T07:39:00.000-06:00

well...tomorrow is the last day for the contest...any takers? grey kitty has yet to be named. although we are leaning towards rory.

dad...don't tell mom

2007-08-27T16:10:00.000-06:00

so i know it's been longer than two weeks. sorry scott. life gets away from me. plus, i'll be damned if i can knit. this post will be horribly short and not very well written because i have to get this done before my dear husband gets home and needs the computer.

what i've been up to:

lexies wedding--fun

starting school--not fun

knitting a scarf--fun

so the scarf i knit is from one skein. now it may not look like much...that damn alpaca that i used the wrong sized needles on. but...it is my first ever cableing. i am so proud of myself that i wandered around for two days showing it to my husband. i can't wait to knit more things with cables! i need to block the scarf and weave in the ends, but hopefully it will turn out nice.

cleaning the house--not fun

going to movies--fun

playing with my dog--fun

renee's wedding shower--fun

playing with me...two new kittens--super fun.

we got two new kittens last night. we were thinking of getting one, but at the shelter there were two kittens that we couldn't decide between. and wouldn't you know it, they were buy one get one free! so bob got one. his is the black one with a white mustache (called the great mustachio) and mine is the grey one. he doesn't have a name right now, so uhm...lets have a contest! if we pick your name, i'll send you an old shoe! no....i'll send a nice little package with...yarn and chocolate and maybe a few other goodies. if you don't like yarn...then i'll keep the yarn and i'll send you something instead! so help a girl out here with the naming of her kitten! as a reminder we have: francisco the white cat, gus the fugly cat, the great mustachio the black and white cat, and crackers the dog. :)

this is from a fire that started out by our house. it stayed under 10 acres.

anyways here are some photos of my life for the past three weeks (i hate to be so super selective, so perhaps i'll post them all on my flickr account and you can go look at everything!)
this is the 50th anniversary of mooses saloon. it was so much fun!

(more tomorrow)

it's august, already

2007-08-05T23:03:00.000-06:00

i can't believe that it's august. it seems like summer just started. it's been real, real hot here. so i haven't been knitting much. but thank goodness my great cousin lisa sent me the needle i needed, so the hat is coming along. thanks lisa! that's about all.

it's fire season here in montana. so every conversation revolves around the smoke, where the fires are, and who is getting evacuated. i'm getting ready to leave to kalispell for two weeks, and the fastest route is closed due to a fire. they're getting ready to evacuate the town of seeley lake. so instead i'll be going through missoula on i-90 and highway 93. i-90 has been closed on and off due to a fire, so i'm crossing my fingers that i'll make it. my parents lake place is smack in the middle of two fires, so last weekend we spent the time in a smokey haze.

but i'm off. i'll be in kalispell for two weeks. one week working for my mom and another week spending time with my family. it's my mom's business (mooses saloon) 50th anniversary party and my little sisters wedding. so we have family coming from all over, some i haven't seen in 10 years, so i'm super excited. i'll be back with pictures and all that fun stuff.

failure...

2007-07-12T22:40:00.000-06:00

i've been wrestling with knitting decisions. still. still no idea what to knit. maybe i'm one of those winter only knitting people. i donno. i like small projects. yet i LOVED making my sweater. it really was wonderfully gratifying and amazing. i didn't get bored. i was excited! but something i keep trying to make myself knit is socks. damn i hate those things. and it makes me feel like a knitting failure. i talked about it with my moms friend who is opening a yarn store (i'm going to plug this store to no end so that it succeeds!), and she too doesn't like to knit socks. i really think it's the whole attaching thing heel and the side together. i can't get it pretty enough. okay and i can never get a really good fit. but it drives me crazy! i look at all these blogs with people finishing socks day and night. really, come on folks! knit something big and ugly damn it! i sure do. so i'm sitting on like six skeins of sock yarn (i love to buy it, hate to knit it) and just think "i'm a knitting failure!" i kind of feel the same way about mittens too. they irritate me, thumbs...always too big. i want a nice secure thumb. and not too floppy of a top. i donno...

now...i'm not knitting. i'm embroidering. kind of enjoyable. it's different. i'm working on a dishcloth for me. it's really hilarious actually. i'll take photos tomorrow and then post them sometime. ehehehe i lie. sometime it will get done :)

anyways. i was laying i bed last night and realized i forgot to put my links in. so here is the hat. and here is the wedding gift.

enjoy the hot hot summer days!

procrastination...

2007-07-11T08:44:00.000-06:00

i know that i promised pictures. and i had every intent on doing so...but then i went to kalispell. twice. well..the first one is the one that matters because i didn't upload my pictures. and then we had a great storm and i took really wonderful photographs. holy moly was i glad to have really amazing photos (sometimes i amaze myself). we came home and the night before we were supposed to go back I went to print out some of them for my mom with our new printer. damn how i should have read the directions! well...apparently you're supposed to use an adapter when you put my memory card in the printer. and it got stuck. for an hour. i finally used some tape and a butter knife to get it out, only to find out i had scratched the memory card and lost all of the pictures. pictures of the storm. pictures of las vegas. last snowstorm pictures. really really important photos. so i am still so sick over it, i haven't even put in my new memory card (i did however by the damn adapter too, which might make my digital picture frame work better).

also, i am incredibly discouraged. i'm knitting this. and i've been working on it for...oh four weeks now and have three inches done. why is it taking so long? well cotton and my needles aren't being really friendly. it's a really tight gaige and it keeps getting stuck on the end of the needle. really slowing me down truthfully, so i don't even want to look at it. i went to buy some addi turbos, but the stupid yarn store in kalispell didn't have the right size (they might have, but the owner is so snotty that i didn't want to give them ANY money). so it's on standstill. i also did knit this for my sister. it was nice and quick and fun to do. and really hilarious at her bridal shower. it made my day. so in short, i don't know what to knit right now. i'm thinking of working on some baby hats just because they're quick to do, don't take much thought and certainly don't heat me up. but we'll see. i'm itching to do a sweater again.

a friends mother of mine is starting a yarn store in kalispell (it's enough to have me move home, she even offered me a job). she was showing me what she ordered and some of her knitting. she makes the most amazingly beautifuly sweaters. amazing. so i'm thinking of starting one soon. she gives me the guts to do it. so we shall see.

hopefully i will get some knitting done and will be able to face my camera again for pictures. i'm thinking of giving a digital tour of anaconda. really is a strange little town. so we'll see.

It's been a long time comin'

2007-06-25T20:47:00.000-06:00

done lately:
gillette, wy/ rapid city/ deadwood
vegas
internship at Hearst Free Library
jaywalker socks
cotton summer hat
The Talented Clementine
The Bell Jar
Hattie Big Sky
summer
new job at the junior high
talk of moving away

my dear sister reminds me that i haven't updated often. so here is a quick update. she told me she likes to just read it, she doesn't care if it isn't knitting related (okay, she would prefer it if it wasn't). but i have been knitting. i'm just too lazy to take pictures. i need/want to make a little cover for my sisters wedding. her colors are blue and brown so i wanted to make a little brown shrug or even a shawl (but i don't know about that yet). i haven't found any good easy patterns yet, so i'm still debating. we shall see i guess. but i will post lots of pictures tomorrow with what i have been up to, i promise.

WHERE IS MY CELL PHONE CHARGER????

2007-05-24T21:16:00.000-06:00

so i bought myself a graduation present (yes, two a's and a b and i'm now graduated--with the exception of my internship) the new envy phone. and i'll be damned if i can charge it because i lost the stupid charger! and did i mention that we don't have a land line here at my house. and my husband is out of town. and my phone is dead? AND i can't check the messages from my school phone because it's a long distance call? i'll tell you i'm pissed. so if you have seen it mom, dad, leah, please let me know and send it asap so i can call you and thank you.

on to less depressing things...

the school year is almost over. 9 more days. i am pleased as punch! i may have the option of moving to a different school or even a classroom (please god let this happen!). i've found that this option gives me a much calmer piece of mind and i don't have my students nearly as much. yes, some teachers hate students at this time of year, and i am one of them. i adore each and every one of them on an individual basis, and i would probably bring home two if pressed. however when you get 25 of them into a room in the spring and it's snowing (yep, 8 inches) something goes wrong with them and they get crazy. which makes me crazy. and we yell and scream and throw things. okay not that bad, but it could be!

but the really great news...i finished rusted root in time for Montana Tech's graduation. i think my sister was a little embarrassed, but mostly proud. i can't tell you how many compliments...the best being little johns: "oh! i thought you bought it at a cute little store. i didn't know you could make clothes." thanks john, you warm the cockles of my heart. however, there is no photo yet. they're on my sisters camera, or moms, or soon to be brother in laws. so someday soon.

in the mean while, i've been working on some swatches from uhm...a book that i can't remember the title of. you know, the one with a bunch of stitches---Stitchanary...or something like that. and i'm lazy and i hate to swatch, so instead of making swatches that can't be used...i'm making dish clothes. so that's my life, i will really start posting soon, i'm in a knitting funk right now. this weekend i'm thinking of painting my kitchen cabinets, but i should do some knitting with some photos. until then!

p.s. how great is the new draft autosave? no more lost posts for me!

p.p.s. k lex, i wrote a blog entry. now you have to post pictures of your house with your stuff in it. can i come visit/live with you soon?

if you could only see me now...

2007-05-01T20:28:00.000-06:00

oi i know! i know! but i only have one and a half more weeks before I am a real true librarian. which means i am gearing up for finals. i've had one hell of a semester that makes me want to quit and become a gas station attendant. if you want particulars, e-mail me. i can't say too much--it is a public forum ;)

anyways since i've been gone:

MLA (montana library confrence for those of you who don't know) really great, did some good networking with other librarians and even made a few friends. however, i have realized that perhaps my calling isn't school librarian, but public librarian. so that is to be considered this summer when i do my library practicum at the hearst free library. yay!

end of school: enough said. as mentioned i will be finishing up my classwork FOR GOOD!

beautiful weather: that's right, it's been beautiful here and we've bbqed twice (and for a later post, the wonderfulness of grilling vegetables)

with the beautiful weather, cleaning the yard: i don't know how the snow melts and then three days later my lawn is 8 inches high. now don't worry, not all of my lawn, just the front. i don't have lawn in the back, just dead sod. thanks ARCO (photos later because really, it's hillarious).

and the husband and brother in law took out a big (almost) dead lilac tree. thumbs up scott!

here's a photo. my husband didn't want his picture associated with this, so this is my brother in law.

and finally...

RUSTED ROOT! look at me. doing a sweater. with lace. i'm so proud of myself and cannot wait to sit down and get it done!

until next time (probably after i finish my classwork. yay!)

sigh

2007-04-12T22:10:00.000-06:00

oh blog, i've not forgotten you. it's quite the opposite. you're always on my mind, sitting there neglected, feeling unloved, and wishing to spend some quality time with yours truly. but it doesn't seem to be! the class work that is never ending. and isn't it ironic that last week we were studying blogs and i spend hours reading library blogs, but couldn't be bothered to update you? and it gets worse! there is more classwork to start this weekend making it 11 credits in 3 months with a full time job. it's no wonder you're lonely, blog!

it's so sad that i have knitting news that should be posted--jaywalking socks that aren't turning out, a rusted root sweater that leaves me near tears, but i just don't have the energy to post pictures! and there's housework that needs to be shown to the world, and general grumblings that need to be pacified by well meaning commentators. don't worry blog, in two weeks the classwork will be done, leaving me hours of uninterrupted knitting and blogging time.

i promise in the next week to update you with great pictures, and wonderful stories, and even some new knitting. until then, be happy with knowing you're in my thoughts!

lost and gone forever...

2007-03-25T21:15:00.000-06:00

no i'm not. i'm just insanely busy. since the last update: st. patty's day (huge here in butte/anaconda) my sister came to visit from wyoming and we had great fun on the green day. we spent most of it in the sunshine watching people and drinking beer. well i didn't, i was the dd/sherpa (who knew i needed such a big purse?) here are some of my fave pictures from the day.
(i don't know who this dude is, but look at all the people behind him! it was crazy!)

also, since it was little sister's birthday some cupcakes in her honor. they could have been the most delicious cupcakes i've ever baked. mmmm

and! a new bike for me! my wonderful husband bought it for me. and i must say it is the most beautiful bike in the world. and it's such a nice ride. so smooth and nice. we've only got to ride once this week though and today was really crappy weather, so soon i'll get to take it out. i can't wait to be done with my classes so i can spend some real quality time with the new bike.

and finally knitting. yes, i've broken down and started some socks. i'm a bad sock knitter. i suffer from sss really bad, and i just lose interest. but i've started a pair of jaywalkers. i do love them. i'm enjoying the pattern and the knitting of socks. i want to keep knitting them all night long, but I know i need to sleep so i can get up extra early and write my lesson plans. but i am enjoying the knit and the yarn, it's from knitpicks, but i can't remember anything about it, and i've lost my ball band. also i purchased the yarn for my rusted root sweater and i hope to get started on that. a new friend came over today and I taught her how to knit today and i think we'll get together this weekend. i'm so excited :) anyways, until next time!

they say it's your birthday...

2007-03-16T17:00:00.000-06:00

today, my little sister turns 10. the big 10! i can't believe it! happy birthday littlest sister! wish you were here to share the hubbub of st. patties day in my corner of the universe.

(in our house, the girls like to do eachother's makeup...with crayola markers. leah did mine and my hair for me. thanks leah. [it didn't wash off])

the BEST week(end) ever!

2007-03-04T19:25:00.000-07:00

well i must say, if it wasn't the best weekend ever! first, i am a prize winner! for the first time in my blog reading history. yay for me! over at the ol' funfur hat project, i won the clover leaf lace mitts pattern from knitspot. so exciting! i am looking forward to knitting them.

also, i did eight loads of laundry yesterday, folded 8 loads of laundry, and put away 8 loads of laundry. i thought i had to buy new socks, turns out, i just needed to find all the socks in the dirty clothes piles!

and if that wasn't enough, i cleaned dog nose smudges off the window. and cleaned the screen door window (better to spy on my neighbors that way). it's crazy. it was so nice today in anaconda i hung out with the front door open letting in light, and it was like there was no window there! so that was also really great.

then i went to the cashore marionettes at the historic washoe theatre. it was amazing. you should have been there! there was a horse marionette with like 20 strings, an elephant with nearly 40 strings, a woman with a baby (and the baby was a seperate puppet! the puppeteer did two at one time, and had the woman lay the baby down in a cradle--mind blowing!). i went by myself and there is something so nice about doing stuff like that by yourself. bob came home and asked if i went by myself and i said yes and he told me i was much braver than he. but i have no problem with doing stuff like that by myself--you're in the dark, you couldn't talk to anyone anyways--so no big deal. it reminded me of living in portland. i spent a lot of time wondering around by myself and i like that feeling. it's very nice :)

then today my old roommates rachel and alex came to visit me. it was so nice to see rachel, i haven't seen her since she moved and it's been like two years! hi rachel! so they brought over bagels and scones that were delicious and we hung out and caught up. it was really enjoyable.

i also washed my car, finished a book, and wrote three units to teach! now, i'm sure you're asking, "But Anne, how did you manage to get all this stuff done? And why were you so ambitious?" The answer is simple--I am avoiding. i'm avoid work, i'm avoid school, i'm just avoiding all those agravating things in my life (also avoiding a knitting project for a very special girl which makes me feel sort of bad). I am so overwhelmed with my coursework for this semester that i just sit and stare at my $400 worth of books and wonder, "why did i do this to me?" and now...this huge long blog...avoiding my homework still. it's 7:38 and i have a 100 point project due tomorrow and i haven't finished the reading for it yet. anyone know if montana has any sort of guidelines for spending budgets in the library? yeah, me either! so i'm off to do some reading and hopefully accomplish something tonight.

ohhh! and in knitting...i broke down, bought the rusted root pattern, realized i have a skein of the yarn in my basket and am ready to start practicing that lace repeat! yay!!!

(mt. haggin x-country ski area)

workin' so hard...

2007-02-28T18:58:00.000-07:00

so i have been knitting. last weekend i started a shawl, promptly realized i wouldn't have enough yarn for it, frogged it and started a scarf. it was love at first k2tog. really. i didn't hate one minute of it. i wanted to knit on forever! i enjoyed the yarn (pattons wool/soy blend stuff--i'm too lazy to get up and find it), i enjoyed the pattern (from my pattern a day calander i got for $4 at the end of january), i just loved it. i took it with me to meet my sisters future inlaws. i took it with me when my sister tried on wedding dresses. i would have taken it into the shower with me if i hadn't known it would felt up. i am pleased. i am in love. and i am proud. i spent like 10 minutes trying to get more photos. you're just going to have to live with this one picture of my baby.

did i mention i have never done a pattern like this. like with holes and yarn overs? almost like a lace pattern (i think, i haven't ventured there yet). this is some seriously proud knitting. then i forgot to wear it to school today to show it off. oh well, there is always tomorrow! with this new found confidence in my ability, i think i am ready to conquor rusted root. i feel that it is in my bones to knit it. i know that i can do the beautiful leaves. i just don't know about cotton yet. i'm a little scared. but i think it might be time for a challenge that doesn't involve library knowledge. bring it on.

also, i got crafty with a pair of jeans. look ma, i actually finished it in a timely fashion! i started this last week as well. you know the drill...old jeans, cut, seam rip, add in some modesty panels, and sew it together. it's my first attempt at using a sewing machine since i was in the 7th grade. i did pretty good i think. i found the directions all over the net and just sort of winged it. life is good

I'm famous!

2007-02-26T19:52:00.000-07:00

eh...so i am alive! and i've been knitting, but i have way more exciting new. you all need to go look at the montana standard webpage. it's the butte newspaper. and this article was on the front page today. YEAH!!! the front page! i almost died. but i'll post pictures of the knitting this week. i can't right now because i've got a rocking library chat to attend and then more homework! yay for school!

Happy Birthday!

2007-02-15T21:19:00.000-07:00

Here's my dad. he's the number one dad. he comes to anaconda and paints and repairs and does anything i ask him. i love him.

Well, today my dad had a birthday. and i didn't send a card. so here dad:

Happy birthday!!!

what's better than a birthday wish on annes blog?

:)

sleepsfortheweak

2007-02-07T20:41:00.000-07:00

once, my younger sister was complaining about being tired. so i replied "sleepsfortheweak" and lex looked at me and said "what?" and i said "sleepsfortheweak" and lexie said "WHAT?" and i looked at her and made eye contact and said "sleep. is. for. the. weak." and lex said "oh! i thought you were making words up. now it's this big joke for us and i tell her that on occassion just to laugh. there really is no point in all that, but dang did we laugh. almost as hard as when we realized we were singing some ac/dc lyrics wrong. but that is a whole nother story!

well. i knit and knit and knit and knit and i don't get anywhere. why? because i'm an idiot. i knit and i drop a stitch. i knit and put it away and three stitches fall of the needle. and because it's funfur, i can't find the dropped stitches and so i unravel the whole stupid thing and start again. i swear, what am i going to do with myself. plus with school and work and life, guh, i'm just lazy. but on the other hand...i do antisipate a change in direction...a new pattern for lexies mittens ala knitpicks. so this week i'll get my poop in a scoop and put in an order.

sorry about the lack of posts. i hate to dissappoint my huge audience (hi dad!) hehehehe oi i crack myself up ps i'm sorry i can't spell!

ahahahha

2007-01-28T11:25:00.000-07:00

whew, just posted this to the wrong blog. but here is how my week ended:

bad hair cut for crackers

i'll fill in more later.

Added later:

It was a great weekend. Friday after school I went cross country skiing with some teachers in my building/district. it was a blast! the weather was perfect and the snow was great. and it wasn't nearly as hard as i thought it would be. going uphill seemed sort of backwards to me since i'm a down hill skier, but even that wasn't bad. i know i got a workout but it was really just great fun! i took some photos but not many (i was trying to keep up with the front of the pack!)

oh my gosh though, going down hill in cross country skis is so hard! but so much fun. it was like learning to ski all over again. and i didn't fall once! after skiing we came home and my dad was in butte, so we went to butte to visit him and do some shopping. we came home and emptied out our bathroom because my dad was going to help me paint it on saturday! yay dad!

here's the final project. now, you may not know what it looked like before, but it had weird beige/khaki colored walls. so we painted the ceiling white and the walls this...well...we aren't sure what color it is. we started out with a spring green which was way too bright in our small bathroom. then i went to the store to by other paint and it ended up being torquios it was awful. so i went back to the paint store and we added some green and black and we ended up with this color. i really really dig it. dear husband hated it at first but now he is starting to like it. he told me he gets to pick a new shower curtain and it's going to be a transformer one (i hope he is just kidding!) but i love it, it's like a new bathroom but not nearly as much money! so thanks dad, you're the best!

THEN! on sunday i slept in til like 10, watched tv till 10:30 and cleaned my house. we had some friends come over for dinner tonight and it was such a blast. it's hard to find people to spend time with in anaconda. it's a very close knit (ehhhh--that's the closest to knitting content we're going to get today) community that it's hard to make friends if you aren't from here. so we had adena and scott come over. they're a really fantastic couple. they're quite worldly (adena is from new zealand) so it is nice to have other things to talk about. so it was a nice evening. i made cashew chicken and ice cream sundaes. oh, and roasted asparagus with seasame seeds. it was pretty delicious.

so all in all it was a busy weekend but lots of fun. now its time to study

yeah...

2007-01-25T20:38:00.000-07:00

i started my library classes this week. i only have three more (all done this semester) and then i'm done. well, then i have an internship at the public library. but no more classes no more books, no more teachers dirty looks! :) bad words coming from a teacher hehehe. so my knitting will slow down considerably. i really hate online courses. and the university of montana's online portal thing (the program you use to take online courses) is really difficult to understand. plus! i was working on homework tonight and realized i don't have one of my text books. so i had to order it from amazone and i'm praying it gets here by monday because the homework is due! i don't think it should be my fault since the university bookstore was out and that's who we should be able to order it from. so hopefully it will be here!

in other news, i have been knitting. i'm working on the funfur hats still. i have one done (grrrrr i need to get my rear in gear! but in my defense, i had two done, and i frogged them because they weren't the right size and i had dropped a couple of stitches and it was driving me nuts! so i frogged them and now i have two done. so i'm off to work on those and watch some tv since i can't do my homework (boooooo too bad!)

ask me about my knitting!

2007-01-08T19:58:00.000-07:00

despite my inability to make up my mind about what to knit, i kept myself rather busy this weekend. i completed two, count them two, hats and one half of a pair of mittens. the mittens are late christmas gifts for my sister. and the hats, they were just out of boredom. the pattern was here. i had some yarn in my small stash that i didn't really like (why do i feel the need to buy yarn in colors i'm not fond of?). so i figured knitting a hat with it couldn't be worse than just having it in a ball. so i got to work. turns out, i wasn't too fond of it knit up. but i had to finish? why? well of course i started it thursday night and promised to to a coworker for their daughters birthday on friday. so i sat down and i got to work. let me show you. just too flat and big and floppy. so i had to reknit it. and i did. that's right folks. during the anaconda/hamilton girls basketball game, i knit. and i knit hard. and i came home and knit. and i changed the pattern and decreased 6 stitches every other round rather than every round. and i did the band in a size smaller needle then called for. and i finished the damn thing. i found two of the cutest buttons that were silver and had square holes. and i even wove in all the ends that night. it was amazing knitting for me. and sunday afternoon i gifted it. without taking a pictures. alas. it was a cute hat. so what do i do? i cast on for some mittens. why not? it's sunday morning. the house is picked up (notice i did not say clean, just picked up). i don't have a really stellar mitten pattern. so i ended up with this point mitten. i like my mittens to have nice rounded tops, not pointy. anyone with a pattern that fits that description i would be soooooo greatful to. so i have one mitten without a thumb done. i'm pleased.

and also. i was reading over here about this. so i decided i would start knitting up some charity hats. well, i haven't bought the yarn because my car has been in the shop since last tuesday (it's fixed, it's beautiful, and i'm thrilled!). so tomorrow i'm going to return my overdue library book. hit up the possible yarn here in town, and then head to butte to get some fun fur to get knitting. dang i wish i could knit at work! so that's my story and i'm sticking too it!

it's a new day...

2007-01-03T21:23:00.000-07:00

well school was rockin today. who would of thought? i really enjoyed it. i think being with the kids reminded me why i am a teacher. i absolutely love it when the kids make me laugh (and they do it a lot). i just am feeling insecure about what i do for these kids. but enough about that.

for christmas from my inlaws we got to buy a chair for our living room (we do have other seating, we just really wanted this particular chair). we ended up over estimating the cost of the chair so we had money left over. my wonderful husband let me buy a new pea coat that i had been eyeing for a while. and we STILL had money left over! so we broke down and we bought an automatic cat litter box. such an indulgence, but totally worth it. i love it! although the noise it makes is rather obnoxious, but it's a small price to pay for a clean litter box. i just love it. but the best part is totally the dogs reaction. if he hears the cat box clean (even if he is dead asleep anywhere in our house), he jumps up and runs to watch it. it's hilarious! i think he is envious of the cats. i just have to scoop his poop with a plastic bag. but anyways, i could just go on and on about the benifits of my great cat box...

now to knit or not to knit. let me explain my dilema. in about 15 days, i start my online courses to finish up my library endorsement. i'm a little nervous because damn do i hate online courses. and these just suck. i learn a ton from my teacher (i've had the same teacher for like 5 classes), she's awesome. but i just hate all the work. so i won't be able to knit much. which leaves me with this dilema. i don't know what i want to knit right now. i, unlike it appears to be the rest of blogland, do not have a stash. i have some oddball yarn, but like one or two or half a skeins worth. i do however have about 8 balls of sock yarn (i've produced 1 pair of socks in my knitting time). so, do i break down and buy new yarn for a sweater ( i really really want to make a sweater) even though i wouldn't be able to buy anything else for the month (pb & j it is), or do i knit some socks (small knitting makes me nervous---my mittens are making me ill). or...do i just search through the stash and make another hat (which i do need)? i tell you i don't know what to do. also, i have three beautiful skeins of blue sky alpaca (two baby blue and one white), any suggestions on what to do with it? it has been calling my name...

so that's my problem. i have knitters block. yeah...

duh...i forgot a picture to make the post interesting! these are our wonderful pets: francisco, gus, and crackers. they're great

it's a new year...

2006-12-31T19:34:00.000-07:00

holy moly do the holidays just suck the life out of me! i have finally recovered from my cold which is really nice. i was worried i would go back to work still sick. but i have recovered nicely. although i am still not ready to go back to work. i am a librarian in a k-5 school. i thought this would be like the best job in the whole wide world for me. boy was i wrong. don't get me wrong. i love books. i need to work in a bookstore to help me save money buying them. and i really do love the students. but i am the worst librarian ever. math teachers have guides to teach them, social studies teachers have social studies books. librarians have...nothing! i have no idea what i'm doing (if you're one of my students parents, don't worry, i'm doing the best i can!) it's just aweful. even after a year and a half i am just horrified at my lack of understanding of a library curriculum. so to make a long story short, i don't want to go back to work. i'm having a really really hard time dealing with knowing i have to go back. and to make matters worse, my best friend (also my sister) moved from me this week. she's down to gillette to work in a coal mine doing hydrology stuff (i don't exactly know what). so i'm really sad about that. i have to stop typing about it so i can stop crying.

so before lexie moved this week, we got pedicures (seriously, the best indulgence ever!), we went out to the bar one last time, we slept in our butte house one last time, and we went sledding down broadway. for any of you buttians out there, you'll know it's the best street in butte to sled. we had gotten really great snow that night and decided it would be best to sled in the street. and by sled i mean we used a saucer and an old water ski with grip tape on it. it was fantastic! we made some chicken curry. and last but not least, we hit discovery one last time. they had gotten 15 (YES! 15 inches of snow two nights before) so we headed up for what can only be described as a dream ski day. we got to the bottom of the hill and the temp was hovering around 6 below. but by the end of the day, it was 20 degrees. there wasn't a cloud in the sky, and the conditions were great. the back side--not even groomed yet. yep, 15 inches of fresh powder. and moguls too (which i am terrible at. i'm embarrassed for myself). but it was great. the pictures don't even do it justice. and yes, the sky really was this blue! the last picture is my ski pole. i stopped to take a picture of lex, and i stuck my pole in, yes, it did sink the 15 inches to the base :)

christmas was great. i got everything i wanted and more--stitchinary, new needles, gilmore girls on dvd (the first three seasons), some new boots, a new pi(e) plate, socks, cooking mama (a nintendo DS game) and some other really fun things. it was nice.

and not to forget the knitting. i sat down and knit another hat. i finished it today and felted it this afternoon. it's not as cute as the first, but it is still cute. now i just need to find a perfect pin for it.
prefelted: post felted:

happy new year to everyone. may it be fun, pleasant, and everything you hoped :)

merry christmas

2006-12-25T18:28:00.000-07:00

have a merry merry christmas!

christmas time is here...

2006-12-23T20:51:00.000-07:00

well, i was out galavanting to my parents house for the past three days. bob and i got to go "home" for a few days with my family. wednesday night we got in at 8, had dinner and exchanged presents. the pears were a hit. as was the giant school photo of myself (oh gosh, who doesn't love giving their little sister a huge framed photo?) we laughed pretty hard at that. then thursday we did some shopping, and just hanging out. baby sisters christmas pagent was thursday night, so we went to that. it's very different going to a cathlic school program instead of a public school. for those of you not from montana, it is a rare child who doesn't go to public school. up until a few years ago only a few students in the flathead area attended private school, so thursday was different. especially since our family doesn't attend church. but it was a very wonderful program and a lot of fun. then we had a late dinner of okay food at a new restaraunt in kalispell. friday was spent baking, running pizza to school for a christmas party, and in the evening a wonderful cocktail party with friends from high school. my sister and i are close in age, and in the past five years have become friends with each others high school friends, so now we get to go to shindigs together. a friend came home from venezuela, another from great falls, hawaii, and some friends i haven't see in two or three years. we were up late laughing and eating cookings. it was really wonderful! today we got up early, hit costco and then drove home. i promptly unpacked and fell asleep for three hours. it was excellent.

tomorrow pictures from the last week and other great stuff!

oooooh, and my 6 weird things.
1. i read the last page of a magazine first.
2. my favorite page in a book is the copyright page. especially when they include the font and how the illustrations were created!
3. i worry that when i cook for other people, i am not following health codes well enough and people will know.
4. i feel people look at me oddly with painted fingernails.
5. i rarely remembre what a book is about, even if i just finished it.
6. i don't hug people often because i'm worried they'll be uncomfortable--when really i am the uncomfortable one :)

mom, close your eyes

2006-12-18T21:36:00.000-07:00

ohhhhhhhhhhh christmas knitting-DONE!!!! AND I'M SO EXCITED! rarely do i knit things that i really truely love how they turned out. okay i can't think of one. but this years christmas presents are so superb!!! far better than last years huge poinsetta pins. ahhhhhhh i am so excited. i have to share!

don't mind the mess. 5 knitted pears from interweave knits! i do have three more to felt that i made this weekend. i love them. i have students asking me to make pears for them! and teachers asking me if i can make all fruit. so my thinking process is on. and if that wasn't enough...check this out!

more felting. i love this hat. it's from here i love it so much, i'm giving it away.(added later after erased post, sorry to get your hopes up, but i'm not randomly giving it away. that's right, it's for my one skein secret pal. ha! i had to knit something i felt comfortable giving way, much better than those pesky fingerless gloves) and i'm going to make one for me. in red. to go with my new pea coat. that's blue.
seriously. so excited!

yeah, the mittens, i still haven't gotten my needle, so no mittens for lexie, just a top secret present.

other than that, it's been a really exciting week. we got a new chair for our living room (photo's tomorrow), we got an automatic cat box (jury is still out on that), and i'm healthy again! life is good. my school has its christmas program on wednesday, and then it's up to kalispell to see my family. ohhhh and my sister got engaged this weekend. way to go nick and lexie! so we get to celebrate that! i had my cooking exchange with teachers tonight and we had a lot of fun. i'm too full though. and the cookies are brilliant, life is good. our house is all ready for st. nick!

ps, i love that recover post button. i swear i erase every damn post before i get it done.

when it rains, it pours

2006-12-12T18:12:00.000-07:00

so my husband has a degree in english. you would think that if i married an english major, i would be better with grammar, spelling, and other language things. but i'm not. i was rereading my posts from the past few weeks and man are there a lot of typos in it. so i'm sorry, but i try my best. perhaps it's just a problem with being me.

so the damage to my car is worth $2100. woohoo, it's really great. but the parts are on order so hopefully i'll get it fixed soon.

anyways onto knitting and other crafting content.

so my felted pears are knitted and partially sewn. so after book club tonight i'll stuff them and sew them up and start the felting process. it says that they need to be washed 8 times. that seems some what crazy to me. so i'm going to give it a try with just a couple of times.

the mittens: still on a stand still due to the fact that i lost a stupid needle. idiot...

did i tell you about the gumdrop wreath? the stupid gumdrops keep falling out. so i need to do some amending with that. so no pictures yet. and we put our tree up on sunday. it looks really nice actually. i love it. so we're almost ready for the holiday. did i mention i need to buy presents still? oh well.

and in other news, i worked on some record bowls. i have this friend whose grandmother recently died, so she keeps giving me records, i really want to perfect this art, so i worked on it tonight. is it a totally lame gift to give to my book club friends? i hope not, because i'm going to! but i want to come up with a way to make slightly more regular bowls. i know i should just embrace the varied nature of the art, but i'm slightly anal, and i want them to be perfect. i'm also thinking of spray painting a few of them. so any suggestions would be really great. it sort of stresses me out. and i only have about 300 records to practice on eheheheh

i feel bad that my blog is horrible ramblings, but this is honestly the way i think in my head. it's like one big run on sentence! but i try to break it up on here with some pictures. but let me know if you want the content or make up of this blog to go in a different direction. i'm open to recommendations!

right, so i had some pictures to add and i spent the time doing it, but they never uploaded, so instead this is a pictureless entry written like three days ago. i have some really cute finished projects that i'll post pictures of when i'm feeling better. i think strep has finally made it to our house and now i have been sidelined by it.

alas...

2006-12-07T22:34:00.000-07:00

right, so in the grand scheme of things, this is not the worst thing in the world that could happen:

but it did. it was a hit and run. i was waiting to go see the clumsy lovers and sometime while i was at my house, someone came around the corner and slid right into my car. and slid right away. so i don't know who did it or anything. it's rather depressing. this car has some bad carma. i think it's because i was complaining too much about work. so i've tried to adapt a positive attitude. so my car will go to the body shop this week and we'll get an estimate for it.

knitting is going grand. might be going to the griz game tomorrow. but we'll see. i had to order size 6 needles...again because i lost one. i'm so bad at that. but it's time to floss and brush my teeth and sleep. it's friday! half day tomorrow because i get to go hang out with the other librarians and see what is up with them. yay!

sunday, fun sunday

2006-12-03T21:18:00.000-07:00

like i said, i love sundays! today my sister came from butte. we had such a wonderful time making christmas goodies. we made peppermint bark, chocolate covered pretzels drizzled with white chocolate, truffles of three varieties (okay only one, but rolled in three different things!) and a horribly botched attempt at meringue. we boxed them up into different boxes and delivered them. here, let's look at a photo montage:

these are the chocolate covered pretzels we made, sans white chocolate.

this is lex and i while dipping chocolate

the finished bark:

the botched meringue (over cooked, tasteless, icky!):

and my new black hair:

knitting tomorrow. or the cute candy wreath. something needs to get one!so i have had to edit this post like three times to get the photos right, so hopefully everything is better now.

since i've been gone...

2006-12-01T22:41:00.000-07:00

new snow. eight inches. in the valley. 14ish in the mountains. SKI TIME!

blue ribbon ceramony. my school won a really great NATIONAL award. one of three hundred in the nation (considering there is 160,000ish schools---pretty cool!)

thanksgiving at my parents house. nice and relaxing. only gained 1.2 pounds. shopped. knitted. gave my mom her birthday present. first pair of knitted mittens (i forgot to take pictures, but i will!) hung out with the sisters.

started a new crafty project---gum drop wreath. yay so cute! found here

decorated for christmas. we got our tree permit today. i'm one of those freaky people who is compelled to go out and cut down your own tree. there is something about the stress of finding a perfect tree, fighting with your significant other, and fearing the tree is going to blow off the roof of your car. i love it. so this weekend i think we'll go out and cut down a tree. hehehe i'm so excited. you know you're not supposed to cut down trees over 12 feet tall? who knew?

and...that could be all. oh i've made a huge dent in the christmas projects. okay so i haven't gotten any done. shit. i need to get on that. ehehehehe

here is my favorite road in the world: I-15 moose creek (once, on my way to my parents house, i saw a dead moose here. someone had hit it!)

whew, blogging is lots of work!

2006-11-14T21:52:00.001-07:00

bad stuff: finished most of a mitten only to realize that i need to rip it back because it's for man hands. not woman hands like needed. then realized i don't have the correct needles. so the wonderful husband picked some up in missoula yesterday. have finished cuff.

good stuff: have cuff finished on mitten one. lookin good. not liking the yarn though. might be for me rather than sister. three. yes three finished projects. all cute as a button baby hats. example a:

whats that? you can't tell what that image is? oh here, let me help you.

in other news: cat griz weekend. go griz. we shall be attending with our entourage. okay so we're just meeting people there. it should be good clean fun had by all.

i do love to knit

2006-11-07T21:38:00.000-07:00

right, so i was totally going to post pictures of my three (yes three!) finished projects, but my camera is in the car and i'm simply too lazy to go and get it. so i'll save them for tomorrow. but i'll tell you something...they're too dang cute! i had a fifth grade student beg me to make one for his neice. hehehe he'll pay me $20 to do it too :) so look forward to the cuteness!

so i've come up with my partial christmas list:
1. one pair of mittens for someone who already knows he/she is getting them ;)
2. many cute little felted pears from the holiday interweave knits (too lazy to link to them)
3. two stockings--maybe more if i'm super good(not to be confused with stalkings!) from previously mentioned magazine
4. one pair of slippers knit from ugly acrylic yarn for my father in law (to replace his old ones--yeah i know i should use nice yarn, but he just loves the old ones!)
5. and for fun...the cute mittens and stockings from holiday interweave. too dang cute to pass up for our christmas tree!

now that list isn't too unmanageable is it? the two stockings is rather ambitius--and they're only for us, so those can wait i guess. but the other knitting, i'm feeling good about. okay so i'm a little nervous about the mittens (fingerless gloves, but a little bit more?) and i think that should be good. no handmade gifts for mother in law, she's made it clear she doesn't like them. and husband, i don't know what he would like knit. maybe a rockin pirate hat. anywho. i need to go assemble our bed again (sheet cleaning day) and i think i shall retire to bed.

i am alive!

2006-11-02T20:48:00.000-07:00

not only am i alive. but i've been knitting. what's that? a hat and a half in two days? anne are you sick? yeah! i'm a knitter again! so i have to make three baby hats for lovely husbands friends who are popping out babies like i eat little snickers. it's crazy. so i have three hats that need to be knit. well i am to the decrease in hat number two but i was too enthralled with mean girls (oh do i love that movie!) so i have to rip part of it back and start again on decreases (multiples of eight who does that? i can't count to 8 and watch mean girls at the same time!) so without further ado here is hat number one.

that's gus. she doesn't like the hat.

so the halloween day was awesome. lots of candy from the kids. and some trick or treaters. have you ever heard of the term mummers? thats what old people call trick or treaters here. weird. but i dressed up as max from where the wild things are and i'll post pictures as soon as i get them.

and heres a picture of our pumpkins on halloween. the ones from the store because our other pumpkins got stolen! i couldn't believe it either. but happy november. and we're finally back into double digits in temperature. YAY!

it's begining to look a lot like...i don't knit anymore

2006-10-24T17:41:00.000-06:00

yes, i haven't picked up the needles in a week. i guess when you don't have cable you have to knit to avoid the really crappy shows. then you get cable and wholy moly you have more crap that you don't want to knit to! i think i'm just too busy flipping between channels. so no knitting. on the other front (the back?)

my rad uncle came to visit. he's so fun. almost as much fun as his kids. hey his kids! come visit us! we're lots of fun. so that's really great. and goll dang it! i had a knitted gift that i totally should have posted because it's the cutest dang pineapple hat i've ever seen! so i've been hanging with him.

also. holiday knits anyone? how great are the stockings/purse/hats/pears? i seriously want to knit them all (i will okay? i do too still knit!) yes thats right. tomorrow i'm buying yarn and making the lovely husband and i stockings because i bought really ugly ones last year. so the husband wants the jester one and i'm going for the snow man. i'm so excited (nervous giggle inserted here)!

so i have yoga tonight and i'll hit that up. and the husband is busy at work working overtime. and then i'll come home and i think i'll yarn shop. woohoo. aaaaaaand maybe start a scarf with some blue sky alpaca because i love it and my poor poor pal deserves it.

so i'll finish the tacos and catch you on the flip side!