"I'm bleeding! I'm bleeding!"

Aren't they handsome! My boys are so amazing, all 4 of them! Chris just transferred to 79th and Cicero in Burbank, so he is much closer to home and can spend more time with us, Joe is growing up so fast, Deg can finally read and Padric is full of piss and vinegar.


Santa gave Joe a guitar for Christmas and we finally got around to getting him lessons. He's had 2 lessons so far and he's doing well.

So what's with the title of this installment? Last Tuesday, Joe was supposed to be getting ready for his second guitar lesson, but I sent him downstairs to keep Deg, Ricky, and the 2 kids I babysit out of my hair. At about 5:30 Joe comes running upstairs hollering "I'm bleeding! I'm bleeding!" So I say "Oh holy hell, Joe, what did you do now?" I've been getting conflicting stories from Deg and Joe but the end result is the same..... Joe's face hit the concrete floor in the basement and he bit through his top lip. So we're standing at the sink and I've got him holding a cool wet paper towel on it so to slow the bleeding so I can asses the damage. Chris happened to get home right before it happened so he and i checked Joe out and decided to take him to the ER. So while we were sitting in the waiting room Chris called Joe's guitar teacher and let him know we wouldn't be able to make it to the lesson. After 2 and a half hours in the ER, some lidocaine and 3 stitches, this is what Joe looked like....
And this was the next day..... This was Saturday.... And today (Monday) we went to the doctor's office and had them removed... He's gonna have a little scar and I told him that "Chicks dig scars, you'll understand when you get older"

Back to the guitar lessons... So Wednesday Jerry, Joe's teacher, called to check on him and see if we wanted to make up Tuesday's lesson on Thursday. I told him yes and thanks. So while Chris was tuning the guitar one of the strings broke. I called a shop on 111th in Worth called Player's Guitars to get the string replaced. Mike was really helpful. I walked in with Joe's 30" (which is about 3/4 the size of a regular guitar) and there were 2 older gentlemen in the shop. They both oozed blues if you know what I mean, looking at them made me think of Muddy Waters and Buddy Guy. One of them looked at me and said "What's that, a ukulele?" I laughed and said "It's my son's guitar, he's 8." Mike took it out of the bag and started to replace the broken string. The same guy looked at the guitar and asked if I had a picture of him playing it, so I took out my phone and showed this picture He and his friend both chuckled and he said "Get out! Look at that Cat play!"

Sunday we went to China Town for dim sum at Three Happiness with some friends and their kids and then we went to Home Depot to buy a new faucet for the kitchen sink. Isn't it pretty? It's a Moen, I really like it! I helped Chris put it in.

New Year, New Blog

OK, so it's not really a new blog, I've just decided the change a few things. I have decided that I'm not going to warn you if there is knitting content. It's my blog and I am very proud of the projects I complete and I am excited about them when I finish them, so I'm going to make sure you all see them.

So let's start with the Christmas goodies. The boys and I put together a gingerbread house. Well I put it together and they got to decorate it. It turned out kinda cute.




At Stitch n Bitch we had a gift swap. I made out pretty good with a fabulous skein of sock yarn. And at the Christmas party for work I got two more skeins of really nice sock yarn. It's really awesome that my co-workers know me so well.





The boys got LOTS of LEGOs for Christmas and they couldn't be happpier! Deaglan got a scooter from Santa, Padric got a toy helicoper, and Joseph got..... a guitar. He loves learning to play. Here he is with my sister's beau, Shane.

Shane agreed to help Joe learn how to play.


After Christmas we decided to go to the Museum of Science and industry, aka: the Choo Choo Museum, Padric's favorite place. He only looks tiny inside the big tractor wheel.



In case you didn't already know I'm a volunteer there. I man microscopy Science Connection Carts. I get to teach kids (young and old) about microscopes. It's pretty cool. My spot is past the Whispering Gallery in the Imaging Lab. I volunteer 2 Sundays a month.


Nana and Papa gave the boys some awesome Lego sets and a fill a box at the Lego store. They crammed those things! Here's the "boat" Chris made for Padric out of the Legos they filled the box with.


I didn't go with them to the Lego store. Nope I went on a Knitting Fieldtrip to Marengo, Illinois to the most magical place in the world (so far), The Fold! It's a yarn shop. I bought the most beautiful light grey yarn for a sweater I'll be knitting for my sister and a skein of Mountain Colors sock yarn for myself, because you can't have enough sock yarn (4 skeins since the middle of December...... that'll make 3 pairs of socks, I'll have toasty toes!) Since I have the minivan we drove my car for the field trip. Well I had to do something with all the car seats. I think it's the new Honda Family concept car.

I just sent this scarf to the Middle East to a friend in the military. That's Shane again, he's such a sport to model it for me!

And I am currently working on a scarf for a friend of mine. I love the colors. He asked that it be striped, unfortunately for me he's picky and wanted the stripes lenghtwise. It will be gorgeous when I'm finished. I might have to keep it though!



Ricky (Padric) loves building with his legos. He built 6 "puppies". Pretty good for a 3 year old. He then proceeded to line them up and jump them Evil Kenevil style.

And last night the Sullivan's rented out the outdoor ice rink here in Evergreen Park and had the whole clan out for a night on the ice. I stayed home with Ricky while Chris took Joe and Deg. Chris didn't get the whole action shot but, I'm sure you can figure out what happened next.



Lastly, I just needed to show you all how big the boys are getting. Joe is big enough to wash dishes by himself, and Deg and Ricky, well they're just getting big.



I hope I haven't bored you all to tears, and I hope this finds you all well.