Feeling Better

First of all, I would like to thank all of you that read my blog and listen to me complain.

Second, I'm sure you're all dying to know what I did last night. Did I say screw dinner and knit for an hour. Did I the chocolate covered pomegranate and knit. Or did I say screw knitting and eat.

And the winner was..........

I did both.   I warmed up the ramen, watched the Big Bang theory, and knit one row.

So, today I'm making up for yesterday.

I've had 2 cups of coffee from the new Keurig.  I'm sitting on the couch in my quiet house, watching Mr. Selfridge, and you guessed it, knitting.   There are 2 very full baskets of laundry that need to be folded.   It will happen.  And hubby needs work clothes washed.  That too, will happen.  But for the next hour, I'm going to enjoy the peace and quiet I didn't get yesterday.

Tata!

Mother's Day, Schmother's Day.

There's to much shit going on in my house to even call this mother's day.   All my mom friends on Facebook are going on about all the great things they did today or had done for them.   I was up and out of bed before 8:00 to take the dog out (Ed took him out before me, but put him back in the kennel, so he was whining and baking to get out).  Why was I, Mom, woman for whom this day Hallmark created, up before 8 a.m.? Because darling husband has yet another sinus infection.  He's had it for 7 days.  Yes an entire week and he finally decides today that he should call the doctor tomorrow.

Now, I can't make this entire post a bitchy poor me pitty post.  There's been tons going on around here.   We've torn of the shaky porch of doom,  gotten a dog, and demolished our kitchen to cinder block and studs.  I don't even want to get into how sucky pulling up 12 gazillion layers of floor is.  Cabinets have been ordered and will arrive on Tuesday.   Appliances will arrive on Thursday as will the durock, drywall, floor tile, and back splash tile.

 Back to bitching.  Up before 8:00 a.m.  Got fantastic gifts, still haven't had any coffee yet. Went tile shopping (at my request, a request I almost regret) with the aforementioned darling husband, who is now being pathetic on the couch next to me instead of in bed where I told him to go an hour ago.  I have yet to eat dinner.  I haven't knit a stitch all day and I need to walk the dog in 45 minutes so I can get to bed before 1 a.m. for the first time in 3 days.   Do I: a) say I have enough leftover baby weight that I can afford to skip dinner tonight and knit. b) heat up the ridiculously yummy leftover authentic ramen I had for dinner last night and actually have a mother's day in the books without me knitting.  or c) finish the bag of dark chocolate covered pomegranate that hubby gave me and try to knit.

 Stay tuned.   I'll post kitchen pictures and  the answer to my "to knit or not to knit" quandary tomorrow.

Happy Birthday Bear!

First and foremost, Happy Earth Day!  But even more important,  HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY BEAR!  He turns 9 today.

Well the weekend has come and gone. The boys are back in school today and Ruger did fantastic.  We walked the boys to school this morning, we encountered another dog, and Ruger did great. He is also warming up to Bear. I have pictures at the bottom of the post. I honestly believe that he was meant to be with us, he belongs with our family and I cannot begin to thank my friend Karin.  If it hasn't been for her, Ruger wouldn't have adopted us.

 On another note,  Joe graduates 6th grade this year.   All the parents were asked to write a note to their 6th grader for the memory book they will all get.   I thought long and hard about it, and this is what I came up with:


Joseph,

From the day you were born we knew you'd go far in life.   You are very intelligent, compassionate, and extremely musically gifted.  You are an amazing young man and we can't wait to see what path you follow in life.   Whatever you decide to do, remember to use your mind, follow your heart, keep your friends close, and always remember your family will always be there for you.

Love,
Mom, Dad, Deaglan, Padric, and Gunga

I think that sounds good.   Joe is very musically gifted.  He has an audition on May 11th at the Merit school of Music for their Conservatory program for the trombone.  

And my Bear.   I cannot believe how smart he is!  He's pulling almost straight A's.  I would say all A's because I don't count gym, music, and art.  He's a voracious reader.   Give it to him and he'll read it.

Last but definitely not least, my Monster. What can I say?  He's a very smart, active 6 year old.   Emphasis on active!

Check back soon for the latest news.

Finally, pics of the birthday boy!

We got a dog....... Or did the dog get us?

My friend Karin is a dog trainer.  She's fantastic but that's not the story.   She has 2 Malinois (a.k.a at least in my small circle of friends, melon walk, thank you speech to text).  This breed of dog is a high energy working dog.   I'm talking police and military working dogs.  Not very good in the pet department.   Then there's Ruger.  Don't get me wrong he's very driven but as far as working dogs go, I've been told, his drive isn't fantastic.  Ruger was a rescue.   I'm not kidding, he was rescued from gun point.  The "man" (I use that term loosely, keep reading and you'll understand) thought he'd be this bad ass dog because he's the same breed SEAL team 6 used to catch Bin Laden.  The guy didn't want to put the time and energy into training Ruger and left a very half trained working dog with his mother.   Neither of them had any experience with a working dog.   My guess is the guy couldn't figure out if was him not the dog and made up some B.S. story about the dog biting his mother's hand.  Who but the way, miraculously, had no bite marks on either of her hands when the dog was picked up the day after the "incident".  When Karin got to the house the dog had been abused and was literally at gun point! 

Now, the good part of the story.   Our part.  Karin come over on St. Patrick's Day and asked if we wanted to meet him.   Well he peed on the floor, he was scared, and I fell in love.  A month later, Karin had to rehab him a little, and he's home.   He and Joe are almost inseparable.  I don't know who adopted who, but every boy needs a dog and every Melon Walk needs 3.  The cats don't know what to think yet but, I think Seamus is coming around.  Dublin has at least been seen when Ruger is out on a walk or in his crate for the night.   Yes, he gets caged for the night and when we're not home.  Why?  Because I love my furniture and like my cats.   Wait.  Switch that.   

Day one: Huge Success! 

Keep scrolling for pics.  The last one is Seamus, just because. 

Mobile Test.

This posting is a test to see how well I can blog mobile. So there will be random pictures and I'm also testing to see how well the speech to text feature works so I can talk my blogs to you. 

now for some random photos.

this is a sock monkey. He used to be young. But then according to Padric, he got old and fat.

okay so once I add the pictures it automatically centers my text. And unless I complete a sentence and add a period it doesn't like to capitalize the first letter of the first word of what I speak. It also doesn't like to use the word period. 

time for another cute picture.

Oooo scratch that. How about a video of Seamus playing fetch!

well, that's not going to happen I think it might be too long but I will keep playing with it.

time to post office and see if it is a success or a failure. thank you for taking part in my little experiment.

Long Overdue!

OK.  I know I've been slacking in the blog department.  OK! OK! slacking is being too generous.  I dropped off the face of the earth.  I have to say that it's not just my fault.  My yahoo account was virused, so I stopped using it, then when I tried to blog here on blogger I couldn't link the two accounts and it just seemed like way too much work and I said "eh, fuck it".  I realized that I've been depriving all of my family the joy of laughing at *with* me as I try to raise these kids of mine.

It's been so long since I've blogged that I'm not going to catch anyone up.  If I know you, you know what kind of shenanigans the boys have been up to. If I don't know you, my boys are 11, 9, and 7.  Do I really need to explain?

There's been a lot going on with my knitting.  I've been posting most of that on Facebook and I've updated all my projects and stash on Ravelry as well.  I'm considering starting a blog for my knitting but I think Facebook and Ravelry will suffice for now.

Chris and I have decided to renovate the kitchen.  Yes, I will be blogging that.  I will make sure to post pictures of the before, after and everything in between.  We've ordered appliances, picked cabinets and counter tops.  We have a color palate but haven't decided on the flooring, back splash, or paint.  Then as if that wasn't enough chaos in our little house, we're getting a dog.

Yes, you heard me right, we're getting a dog.  If you've looked at my profile pic, you can see my buddy, Seamus.  He's 1 of 2 cats we have.  Both were rescues.  Dublin is a very handsome long hair that we have lovingly renamed "fuzzy death".  He hates me.  No, I mean it.  Every morning when I come downstairs he looks at me as if to say "why are you still breathing my air?"  He is Ed's cat.  He follows that man around from the time he gets home from work until he goes to bed at night.  Seamus (the one in my pic) is my cat.  He plays fetch.  No, really, he plays fetch.  I will post video soon.  He has a puppy kong.  If you throw it, he will fetch it, bring it back, and if he really likes you, he will drop it in your hand or lap.

But, I digress.  We are getting a dog.  He is an almost 2 year old Belgian Shepherd, also known as a Malinois.  They are good working dogs.  The only reason we are bringing him into the house, well besides the fact that I love him, is I have a friend who is a professional dog trainer and is going to work with us to keep him trained.  This breed is high energy and doesn't usually do well in a "pet" home.  Meaning, they don't like to just hang around the house and do nothing all day.  Don't get me wrong, he will hang out, but he will be much happier getting me off my fat ass and out for a walk or for some training work.  And yes, I will post pics of him when he comes home tomorrow night.  The boys don't know so, Shhhhhhhh! don't tell.

I do solemnly swear that I am up to no good...... oh wait that's how to open the Marauder's Map.  What I mean to say is that I promise to keep posting here.

"How do I love thee......" Yeah Right!

If you remember or have the time to go back and read my post from February of 2009 you will recall that I had a short list of the "gifts" my husband has given me over the years for our anniversary.  Well, he loves me so much that he decided to start celebrating our 10th anniversary about 2 months early.  Yes, folks in keeping with tradition, he gave me the gift that makes me give back.  But, this year he was a little lost as to what to give me so he re gifted from a few years back, thinking I wouldn't remember he'd already given me a broken turn signal arm for the civic. 

Well, enough about how much my husband loves me.  Seriously, it was an accident and I just have to bust his chops about it.

The boys are doing very well!  Joe is amassing quite a collection of guitars and enjoys playing very much.  Deg is loving first grade and loves his teacher.  Ricky loves playing with his friends at preschool and is growing up way too fast. 

I started working the overnight stock shift at the Target in Oak Lawn for the holiday season and hope that they keep me on after the holidays are over.  I am still working as a CPR Instructor and Chris is still working at Verizon.  He is now at the 79th and Cicero location (right next to Mabenka's in the old Pearl Vision building,for those of you that are local).

I hope this finds you all well and I promise to post some pictures and write a proper post within the next month.