Miles to Go Before I Sleep....... Miles to Go Before I......

I feel like it should be October. I don't know why. Maybe because when we got here it felt like March and if you count the seven months that we've been here it adds up to, funny enough, October.That and I've been really cold here lately. For the past month or so I have been hot and sweating inside all the time (maybe it's hot flashes...... ha ha ha). But for the past two or three days I've been freezing my nubs off. My feet and hands are SO cold and all I can think to do is knit a stocking cap for my head out of the Rowan Calmer that I have. I thought about knitting socks from it, but I can't find all of my US 2 needles. I am so freakin' cold I have goosebumps up and down my arms and I'm wearing my Tink hoodie and flannel flamingo pants. By the way if anyone ever comes across a pair of pajama pants with a flamingo print please by a pair for me in XL because I love this pair, but I have had them for about 10 years now. I keep waiting for them to fall apart, but they have yet to show any signs of wear..... still it would be nice to have a backup pair. Don't you just love it when you have that piece of clothing that you just LOVE and it is so comfortable and if it ever gets a hole or becomes unwearable you will cry and mourn as if you had just lost a close friend? I sigh and think back to my Creeds tee, flannel shirt and cordouroy pants (I found those at the thrift store for $1.95 already broken in!!!).
Still plugging away on the blouson. I may be saying that everytime I blog until my first born leaves elementary school (starting Kindergarten this year). I started a stocking cap in the Rowan Calmer. I had to frog it though because I think I want to go with a smaller gauge and it was about five or ten sts shy of actually fitting my big head. I'm going to make that Alpaca Hoodie for my hubby that I found in Knitting With Balls as well as some socks for Christmas gifts unless people just don't want them. I'm not really that keen on socks........ until I knit myself a pair and I have to say that I wear them around the house just to lounge in and keep my toes warm. They are so comfortable that I completely changed my mindset towards socks. Can't wait to get cracking on my first Buffyverse sweater. I think I've set my mind to making the pink boat mock turtle neck because it was the first one that ever caught my eye and make me think "Wow, they really wear some neat sweater's on Buffy." Whatever..... anyways the point (besides the fact that I'm a dork with too much time on my hands...... at least I'm not inventing Calculus in my spare moments) is that I have a lot of knitting to try to squeeze into between getting Lola ready for her first year of school, putting Charlie into part time daycare, possibly getting a part time job or taking some classes, and being generally more active so that these don't become the last few years of my life in which I sat around and only knit 24/7.
A lot on my plate, but it'll be more interesting and fulfilling then sittin' around!

What to do? What to do?

I was in a daze today. I literally did not know what to do with myself. I don't know if it's because of all the excitement of the past few weeks now suddenly being over or if I am in a slight state of mourning. Perhaps a little of both? I feel like this is the end of an era, but really it's not because there are two more movies that have yet to come out that will keep the Harry Potter spirit alive. That and I can read the books again any time that I want to. But there will be no more surprises and no more anticipation. I finally sat down and knitted for a little while which is something that I haven't been doing the last week or so. I tried to finish the Gryffindor scarf bag before the book was released. I did, but then frogged the flap because I knitted it in St st and it was curling too much. I now have it almost finished with just a few more rows to go and have fixed the problem by starting and ending each edge with three sts in garter so that it stays flat. Can't wait to get birthday money. I am so psyched to buy more yarn and get cracking on Christmas projects as well as my first Buffyverse sweater. I still haven't decided which one I'm going to try first, but I think it may be the Willow overlay in yellow and orange. It caught my eye the most along with the boat mock turtleneck in hot pink. I'm drawn to the color even though I rarely wear color myself.
Trying to hang on to money here in Guam is like trying to hang onto a feather in typhoon winds. It's proving to be quite difficult because everything that you would normally do is twice as much as you're used to and everything costs money. Whether you're going to a movie, or driving around the island because gas costs money and you can't really walk or bike anywhere here. You can, but you may as well jump out into the middle of the road and let them get it over and done with hitting you. Gas is creeping up to $4 a gallon and with no freeways and just stop and go traffic, a trip to the GPO (closest mall) takes about thirty minutes..... only twenty if you miss all the red lights. I need a hobby. Something more physically demanding then knitting because my legs are just itching for some serious movement. I feel like a caged animal and all I want to do is get out and run. *sigh*
I will work through it though and things will get better. Being more active will benefit and give me something fun and free to do. Being lazy is expensive.

Deathly Hallows, no spoilers

It was great! There was only one death that I kind of expected, but didn't really want that occured (actually three). The rest came as par for the course of war. But there was one death that shocked me because I hadn't even contemplated it and it made me cry. My question of "what's up with the goat?" from seeing OOTP was answered (to much glee and laughter)....... and as a final note I have to say " You go Mrs. Weasley!" Chalk one up for all the mothers out there.

Must See Movies

If you need something to......... Holy Hera!!!!! My house is shaking...... Woooooo! That was a long one. Didn't really shake (at least upstairs) but it made the house sound really loud with the rumbling and the....... well rumbling. We haven't had an earthquake in a while and that was a good one. I'd say a five or six. I think it really shook the downstairs because it freaked the kids out and they were downstairs. Normally they don't even notice them.
Anyways..... good summer movies to pass the day time while I'm reading Harry Potter and you're still waiting for it to come out in your fellow bookstore (sorry I couldn't resist with the mocking). Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix....... a definite must see for the Harry Potter fan. It was a good one. BUT, I have to say that my favorite movie to date this summer is Transformers. Shia LeBouf was so cute and his dialogue kept me laughing. The action was AWESOME!!!! I can not stress that enough. AWESOME!!!!!! I left the theatre quiet because if I started talking about the movie I was going to start jumping up and down like a kid screaming to everyone about how AWESOME that movie was. I wanted to burst out of my skin, I was so psyched after seeing that movie. AWESOME!!!! Did I mention it was AWESOME!!!!!? I was an occassional watcher of the cartoon when I was a kid so a die hard fan may love it, but then again they may hate it...... being the biggest critique as well as fan. The special effects were just...... WOW, and the humor was great.
Twelve more hours for Harry Potter. They don't have any midnight madness for the bookstores here, otherwise I would only have four more hours and I'd be jumping out of my skin in excitement. As it is right now my stomach is all butterfly...er.....y. Yeah.... something like that. I have my scarf bag that I made and I'm going to carry my book home in it :-)
Still plugging away on the blouson. That 10 inches of St st is kicking my butt. Lots of sts in St st in the round. It's taking forever. I'm averaging a row or two a day. I'm ready to start something new and might make a hat out of the Rowan Calmer that I have even though it's not really my color...... I've never been one for lavender. It's official name is Tinkerbell and I think that's the only reason why it's endearing to me in any way. If I wind up not using it it'll make a great hat for Lola when we go to Tokyo....... if we get to go to Tokyo ( I really want to go to Tokyo!!!!!). I have yet to be able to save money since we have gotten here. It's really difficult, but we're not struggling. It's more about just staying at home and not going out so much, but it's hard to when it's so beautiful outside. You wind up on the other side of the island using up all your gas and having to buy lunch. We need a cooler.

I'm A Dork

Okay, all you family members out there can now leave comments. The reason you couldn't before is because it was set to allow only memebers of blogspot to do so. I had to change the setting to allow anyone to leave comments, hince the reason why doofus me took 4 months to figure that out (all the while sitting here wondering why no one was posting comments...... "Now why don't he write").
I wish I could continue the dork theme and say that I found my camera sitting out in the open on a table and that I had been looking at it everytime I passed it all this time, but no luck there. And if that were true I'd be seeing a neurologist and getting a CAT scan. I'm sure I will find it in the last place that I look..... hopefuly sometime before I give up and buy a new one.
Now I just have to figure out how to send a video to everyone via e-mail. I found some cute ones that I took using my digital camera (the one that the gnome's are holding for ransom). Watching them I realized how much my little girl has grown. There's a really funny one involving my son, his birthday cake and his fear of open flames.
I've been thinking a lot about my house and what I want to do with it and I think I'm going to be rearranging a few rooms. My hubby will finally get a room for himself. Actually it'll be a kind of everything room because the exercise equipment will be in there and I think the kids will be going in there to watch TV. Why do I even have a living room? I never use it or sit in it because it's just too open for me. Hubby says it's for when people come over, but no one ever comes over and would you really want them to? We have white couches and two toddlers so guess what, the white couches aren't really that white anymore. Speaking of which I found out today that Lola's teacher will be coming to our house before school starts. Well actually I already knew that, but I figured it was so that she could meet Lola on her turf so that she would feel more comfortable on the first day of school. Talking to the other parents though it seems that they do a thorough search of your house. What are they now, social services? That and over half of her school supply list is comprised of things that only the teacher is going to be using. Isn't that what we pay taxes for? This is a military DOD school. Shouldn't they provide all that stuff and keep their noses out of my life? I'll be darned if I let them have a tour of my upstairs. They can check out the downstairs, but that's it. No peaking in mine or my kid's rooms. In fact I'm really starting to consider home schooling. Once I buy everything on this school supply list I'll have enough to open my own school. I don't have anything to hide, but I don't like people snooping in my things, trying to find something wrong with the way I live my life and raise my children. It's bad enough that you can't even disipline your kids without wondering if someone's going to call social services on you. There's a reason why kids who only get time outs still get in trouble and a reason why most kids now a days have no respect for adults or other people....... because they don't know what consequences are. There are consequences for picking on someone bigger then you and in the real world it can get you hospitalized or killed. You have to have a healthy respect for these kinds of things. For my kids not doing what they're told gets them one swat on the leg or they get something taken away that they really like. Soon a swat on the leg will be illegal too. You shouldn't upset your kids or make them unhappy in any way is what we are generally saying and that's just crap because that's the real world. You can't do whatever you want to do and you can't have everything no matter how much you just believe in it. If you don't teach them that and prepare them so that they can fight through that and really accomplish their goals then there will be someone else out there that doesn't care about them or the law that will be more then happy to show them. And that never ends in sunshine and roses. I'll climb off my soapbox now.

If I Ever Find That Gnome.....

..... you know, the one that stole my camera...... I'm going to kick his lil' gnome butt. There are so many things that I want to take pictures of and post on this blog as well as on MySpace and it kills me everytime I post another blog and have no pictures to accompany. Especially of my knitting because you can't see some of the cool things that I'm working on. I just finished a Gryffindor scarf bag that's big enough to hold the hardcover version of any Harry Potter book. Once the book craze is gone it'll work great to carry all my things when I go to the movies. One more day for me and then I shall know all the secrets of Harry Potter..... or at least all the secrets that JK lets us know. I was looking around on Mugglenet and they promised not to post spoilers, but I found that they post the links to them as well as putting them on the site where you have to highlight them if you want to read them. That's the same as posting spoilers in my mind. I'm keeping an open mind because I won't really know anything until I get to read the book. I pre ordered it, but realized that I won't get the book until several days afterwards and I would really be pissed if some ass went walking around the day after with a tee that says something like "Hermione dies on pg 503" and then I would have to jump him and beat the crap out of him (I don't know if Hermione dies in the final book or not..... I hope not because I have hopes for her and Ron). They did that with the sixth book and it really ticked me off even though I finished reading it before leaving my house and finding the sad truth, but it made me mad for all those that hadn't gotten that far into the book yet...... like the ten year old that started crying after she read the crapsters tee. One more day and I'll be up in the bookstore buying a book that I have already bought so that someone doesn't ruin it for me. That entire day will be spent reading and I'm hoping I'll have it done in a few hours.

Breathe me

This song explains how I felt as a child and even moreso when I was 17. How I felt inside during that time..... a feeling that visits me in the night sometimes just to see if it can still make me cry.

Breathe Me by Sia

Help I have done it again
I have been here many times before
Hurt myself again today
And the worst part is there's no one else to blame
Be my friend
Hold me
Wrap me up
Unfold me
I am small and needy
Warm me up and breathe me
Ouch I have lost myself again
Lost myself and I am no where to be found
Yes I think that I might break
Lost myself again and I feel unsafe
Be my friend
Hold me
Wrap me up
Unfold me
I am small and needy
Warm me up and Breathe me


By the way...... it can.

Tick Tock, Tick Tock

Just one more week and the Harry Potter book will be out. I'm really excited to see how everything ends. My friend brought me a whole bag full of sweaters from Airman's Attic. It's a store here where you're allowed to take thirty items for free. With the winter clothes you can take as many as you want which is great when you run out of yarn and have no money. I just have to figure out how to deconstruct the sweaters without losing too much of the yarn. I've never done it before, but it's probably just like constructing..... only backwards (wait while I state something even more obvious). I finally got my cable back on and am as bored as ever because there is nothing on and I've gotten used to not watching all the crap. I never realized how much mindless dribble is on TV until I had to go a few months without it. There are a few shows worth watching and I always like HGTV and the Food Network....... probably because so and so didn't sleep with howdawhat's girl, who also slept with so and so's ex, who is hot for and almost kissed whodidoodle last week while drunk at the megawitch's annual party of all the cool kids to which lame-o-nerdicous wasn't invited. Yeah, that's probably why.
I can't wait for the hubby to get home. I'm so ready to get out and do something on my own......... I mean with my hubby. No not really. I mean on my own. I can't wait to get out to a movie or the beach without having to hold my kids by the back of their shirts so they're not running in the aisles or worrying about them drowning. I'll be able to relax at the beach and sleep in the sun and get burned all over my body..... just the front. Ah, good times...... good times.

MAGIC

My skin has finally returned to semi normal...... something I had been afraid to post because if I say something it's likely to find it amusing to go haywire again. Either it's back to normal or I have just moved past caring which is a huge possibility at this point. I'm just very over it and ready to move onto things that are fun. Itching.... not fun, hence my wanting to move on. Everything else is back in order and I only have one more bill to have everything complete and back on track. Then it'll just be a matter of getting the Saab repaired and back on the road for the hubby to drive and all will be 100%. Better than because we didn't have two cars before.
I was feeling very Harry Potterish today and pulled out some old yarn that I used to make my sister a very long (VERY LONG) Gryffindor scarf two Christmases ago and decided to make a skinny Gryffindor scarf for my kids to wear to the movie. It has since been frogged and turned into a bag that is designed like the scarves from movies 3 and 4 and is big enough to hold a hardback version of any Harry Potter book. I wish I could find my camera and take pictures. Oh, God bless the day I find my camera because my blog will be so much more colorful. I would take the pics with the camera attached to the laptop, but that requires holding the laptop at weird angles and taking about a hundred pictures before getting one that's lined up right and lighted well enough to see that it's more then just a blob of fabric. I did it a few times, but tire of it very quickly. If only I had my camera...... all the sights you would see. I was out driving the other day, pining for my camera. I really don't know where it could have disappeared to. I think gnomes stole it. They would have had to because it truly did vanish into thin air. On the vanishing camera trick I have everyone from Penn and Teller to David Blaine beat! Although Penn and Teller could tell me how I did the trick and therefore reveal where my camera now lay.
Still making my Christmas list. It seems to grow as I think of more and more people that I don't want to leave out of the handmade knits circle. Alas I will have to trim the list because I do not knit that fast nor do I have that kind of time to devote. It would take me every hour of everyday and I would have to knit fast enough to set the wool on fire. I'm keeping to little projects that only take a few days and hopefully I will get done for everyone who made my first list and maybe for a few more who made my second, much longer list. We shall see.
Oh, I almost forgot...... Tuesday I went to the GPO (local mall) and they had Christmas decorations outside. At first I thought maybe I had joined the ranks of Rip Van Winkle and had slept longer then I thought because it's hard to tell here in the season of perpetual summer. Later that night I took the kids to a movie at the GPO and when we came outside it was snowing. I really thought I had lost my mind at that point. All those nights of wishful thinking since we got here had finally cracked my brain. It was like being in a dream. It was dark outside and they had lights up and you could see the snow drifting past the lights and accumulating on the ground. Then I had a second of fear where I thought maybe hell had finally frozen over and I was never going to read the last Harry Potter book because the world was about to end. Just a second though. Then I realized that it was the same "snow" they had in the mall during Christmas. It was foam...... which I must say makes a very realistic snow. It was very magical. The kids and I then went to the bookstore and tried a few things off their new menus where everything is named after something from a Harry Potter book. We had the Polyjuice Potion and Mrs Weasley's Berry Trifle. The Potion was a bit too sweet, but I can't wait to have another trifle and try the Gryffindor Latte.

I Feel Ready to Go Back to School

I got my WOMBAT results. For those not in the know WOMBAT is a test on your knowledge on all things having to do with Harry Potter. On JK Rowling's official website she posts these tests every once and while. There have been three total. I missed the first two and was wondering how you play until I saw a post saying that the DO NOT DISTURB sign on the secret door was off and the third test was available to take if you could figure out how to open the door. I did and took the test which is the last and the hardest of all of them. You literally have to have read and know the subtle things about Harry Potter's world because they asked things that weren't in the book but you should be able to figure them out by just knowing how things work in Harry Potter's world. I must know it pretty good because I got an Exceeds Expectations on my results, something that surprised me because I really felt like I had no clue. What made this test even harder is that you could lose points for getting something wrong so I must have gotten most if not all of my answers right. I don't know what the highest grade is, but I'm guessing outstanding if they use the same grading scale as for the OWLS in Harry Potter. I'm such a dork and I know it.
I'm thinking I should have everyone send me money for this birthday since shipping anything is going to cost. At least with money it's only regular postage. That and I keep thinking about all the knitting supplies that I want to get along with some new clothes and shoes. My flip flops are coming apart and I've had my eye on this cute pair of sandals (very important to have in a warm climate). I thought about having people order the knitting stuff that I want, but I'm not even 100% sure about what project I want to start right now. There are so many that I'm anxious to cast on. Not to mention the whole Buffyverse set that I'm eager to get some yarn for and start reconstructing. I have come to the realization that the Buffyverse sweater reconstruction is going to take up years of my life because a sweater isn't cheap and while I did contemplate making them only big enough for my kids to fit into (use them as my models) it doesn't really help those adult knitters out there who maybe grew up watching Buffy like myself and would enjoy having one of those sweaters to fit themselves. I decided to make them big enough to fit an average sized woman and all that yarn can get pricey. I'm going to have to work it one at a time and slowly too because I've never done something this ambitious before, but I would feel like a chump if I give it up and back out. I can go with cheapy yarn and maybe I'll be able to eek out more then a couple every year along with everything else that I want to knit.
Currently I am knitting the short sleeve blouson from page 52 of the VOGUEknitting knit.1 summer 2007 Green Issue. It's a top down knit which I must say is a first and a pleasant experience for me. I was able to get to the waistband and bind off, finish the sleeves and then try on to see if it needed any adjustments. I found that I needed to add a few more rows in St st before decreasing for the empire waist, to allow for my larger then the norm bust. That's nice because knitting from the bottom up would have meant that I would have had to finish the entire shirt before trying it on and finding that my boobs did't fit into it. That would have ticked me off as I frogged over half of it to fix the problem. This way I only had to frog ten rows and I'm well on my way again. Sweet.
I bought the book Knitting with Balls by Michael del Vecchio and I'm excited to finally have some really nice gift ideas for men. It would be great if I could get my hubby to knit, but he's expressed no interest and that's fine, but still you dream. Maybe my son will want to learn. Either way I have some great patterns that I'm dying to knit. The Fisherman's Watchcap and Scarf Set would be a great Christmas gift as well as the Hiking Boot Socks and the Aran Laptop Cover. My brother-in-law requested wool socks once and I feel guilty because I never made them for him but these Hiking Socks would be an easy and quick knit on size 8 needles. Perfect for when he goes skiing. There's also a Hooded Alpaca Parka that I'm all set to knit for hubby, although I must confess that I'm sure I'm knitting it more for myself because I plan on stealing and using said Parka for me. Maybe I'll just make it for me and knit him the Argyle vest or the Aran Pullover. I wonder if he would like Knee Length Coat, but I'm guessing he wouldn't and I should probably stick to something simple and classic. I'm in the process of finding yarns to substitute since I'm unsure of how my skin would like alpaca (especially with everything here lately). I have plenty time to decide since I nor my hubby will need any sweaters anytime soon unless we decide to go to Tokyo in the winter. Which is a possibility. If I can get our passports. And save enough money. And get hotel reservations at the military hotel in Tokyo. And take a class in Japanese. And save enough money. And......... save enough money. Money is key. *sigh* So many things that I want to do....... if only I had a million dollars. Think of all the yarn I could buy with that! Actually I would buy a house in SC and a semi newer car for my hubby and then the rest could be split three ways between my kids: Charlie, Lola and yarn.