Cupido Cowl

Yes, the obsession has gotten the better of me.  I finished another cowl.  I think the pattern on this one might be my favorite, but if I made it again I would make it longer.  I gave it to Kathy tonight and she loved it.  :)  She told me that I should make more and she would sell them at her school!  haha.  Maybe that's a thought... feed my obsession and get paid.  ;)  I did finally get some yarn for myself to make one, so we will see how that goes!  I am still debating on which pattern I'm going to try.



JVG

Collision

As I blogged about before I was in a bit of a funk but was feeling much better about things after our visit to the east side.  Then, the next day (Monday) I was right back into the poo house.  The day gets long when Gaetan has meetings and presentations spread throughout the day and the kids decide that they're going to push every single of my buttons.  I had finally had enough and despite that it wasn't the warmest out we went outside to play.  Our neighbor Chase got home sometime during that and they were having a blast together... which was great.  They needed to blow off some energy and I needed them to go play by themselves for awhile.  Dude really wanted to ride his bike so I told him after he got shoes and helmet on then he could.  Lucy was on the go-kart and Chase was riding his bike.  All was going well, until I thought that Dude was going a little bit fast for his own good.  As he zoomed past me I told him to slow down and be careful and not 10 seconds later I see him take a corner to fast, and take a head dive into the curb.  !!  Ah!  So I quickly run and hand Norah off to Kim and see if Dude is OK and as soon as I get there his forehead as this huge bruise and goose egg on it.  Luckily he was still conscious and was mostly saying that his hand hurt.  I was so thankful that he was wearing his helmet (he always does, but this just incident just makes me all the more happy that he was) and we all went inside.  Gaetan doing a presentation but I called him anyway because I knew it was at the end and told him he needed to get home because I figured that we should take him in to get looked at just in case.  So that meant that I was probably going to be late or not even go to KPhil because you never know how long it's going to take at urgent care.  Apparently everybody and their brother decided that today was a good day to get injured (probably because it was one of the last nice days out) so the waiting room was packed.  They stayed there awhile but then a nurse just came and did a quick look over and said that he should be fine but to watch for the usual symptoms.  Just in time so that I could rush over to KPhil.

The kids having fun before Dude banged himself up

Norah loving on Kim

Dude's Goose egg bruise

So, we are all a little frazzled anyway because of the accident, and we were rushing to get there and this person decided that using the turn lane wasn't something they were going to do today and came to a complete stop on Stadium which caused the car in front of us to slam on their brakes, which then we slammed on ours (on a positive note, we know our brakes are really good in Greta!) so we didn't rear end them, but almost got rear ended ourselves.  If I was a cartoon I would've had the little thunder cloud and static coming off over my head.  I was less than amused.

Luckily, we made it to rehearsal on time and the kids did a good job going to bed.  Whew.  What a day.

The older kids so excited about it!

Everybody was so good about the running around we got Froyo another day.  Norah just loved the spoon

JVG

One last fall visit at Ramona

As I mentioned before Gaetan has been tutoring a lot more than he normally does, so I have been trying to keep the kids busy  Idle kids=naughty kids.  The weather had been so delightful I thought that we would take a drive out to Ramona Park and hang out during one of his sessions before we had to go pick him up.

Last visit to the farmers market

We packed a few snacks, ate them under the pavilion and then the crazies went crazy!  Norah was so good during this time which made our visit much more enjoyable!  It was great just being outdoors and hanging out with the crazies.  A lot of swinging... and I love their imagination.  They would run to different things and call it their house, or boat and talk excitedly about the different destinations they would go.  Norah even got a chance to try sliding with the help of Big Brother.  It was a fun outing just me and the crazies.

JVG

Homemade Coffee Syrup

As it gets colder and I am getting less and less sleep I so wish I was a coffee drinker.  Alas, I am not but I do have a lot of coffee drinking friends... so if you fall into that category this one is for you!  All the different creamers and flavors that you can put in coffee is also another thing that draws me to wish I was a coffee drinker, so I found a way to make the syrups for WAY cheap.  And, this would make a fantastic Christmas present :)  I have tried peppermint so far but the possibilities are endless!

http://www.chaosserveddaily.com/2012/12/03/gift-idea-coffee-syrups/

JVG

Potato Leek Soup

Cold weather is upon us which means I will probably be trying a lot of new soup and bread recipes.  This is no different... I like potato leek soup but I have always just kind of made it up as I went, so this time I actually found a recipe by Julia Childs.  It was tasty.  I added more potatoes than the recipe called for but that was just because I was hungry... ;)  I also recommend getting a hand blender if you like a lot of soups because that is WAY easier than trying to scoop it into a blender and making a big ole mess.

http://www.thibeaultstable.com/2009/04/potato-leek-soup-and-sour-dough-french.html?m=1

JVG

Impromptu Visit

Our weekends have been a little different than our normal routine... usually Saturday is pizza and beer night with my parents but my sister and kids are staying with them, so it makes sleeping arrangements increasingly difficult... and it also adds 5 extra people into the mix!  Let's just say that it gets a little crazy up in there.  And lately I haven't been able to handle the extra motion, noise, chaos, you name it, but we have been staying home.  We tried it out once but we ended up leaving before the night was up because Norah was tired and needed to sleep, but with all the extra people, even if they were being quiet (which, let's face it, they were not) it was still pretty loud.

While we were driving home I got a text that our friends Carcara and his entire family were in MI and staying with Ratty and Gato.  They were hoping to see us at Mandinga's batizado (which we didn't go to) so we made quick plans to hang out with them at the house.  I was really needing this trip out and talking with new people so it was awesome that they had their little one and kids with them and it was just nice to catch up.

Sophia and Gaetan

The kiddos playing trains

Lucy sharing!

She was being extra sweet and giving hugs

Jugi was so fantastic at entertaining our crazies!

Papa Sunil entertaining the kids with electronics

Carcara was really tired... slept through the chaos of the game

After that visit I was in such a better mood.  I'm not sure what made all the difference but I was glad to get out of my funk.  We realized that the last time we had seen Carcara was when Lucy was just born... over two years ago!  Hoping that it's not another two years before we get to see them again.

JVG

Dude the Pike

Today Duder started another session of swim, but this one was different from before... he is in the pool solo!  He still has some floatation devices on his arms and like a belt, but the puddle jumper is gone.  Gaetan said that he did a great job with it and was actually miles ahead of the other two in his class that had taken this class before.  I'm so glad that he loves swimming and he is so very good at it!  Lucy starts her new class tomorrow, the one that Tristan was just in.  I'm excited because I think I'm going to be able to watch a few classes with him now that he's in there by himself.  :)  Proud Momma bear right here!

They were racing and Dude kicked their bundas!

JVG