Dogs on Thursday

I've read that some people blog about their dogs on Thursdays. I'm
not sure if that's a group they belong to, or just a fun trendy thing.

On Thursday of this week, we planned on bringing Levi, our sheltie to
the park to meet up with two other shelties to play, and take some
photos.
Well, it started to rain before we were about to get out the door,
and I know that most other people in our area don't bother taking
their dogs out in the rain.
I don't mind taking my dog out for a shower, and neither does he,
because it usually means he gets a nice brushing afterwards.
But I'm not into taking my 3 month old baby out in the rain.

The next night though, we went out hoping the other dog owners would
figure a rain date meant the next night, same time. But wouldn't you
know it... not a dog in sight. Perhaps the ground was still too
mushy for their paws or something. We started to head back home, and
we came across these two wonderful dogs and their nice owner. She
had a gorgeous newfoundlander, and a daschound (spelling on that
one?). She also has a bulldog at home, but takes him separately for
walks as he pulls on the lead quite strongly.

If you see in the picture below, the newfoundland dog is SITTING
beside the stroller. Sitting. His head is easily as tall as my
stroller.
Then he was given permission to say hi to my baby girl. I noticed
her looking at him, and I think he may remind her of her cow,
'Cuddles the Cow' that we have at home.
She likes to grab on to Cuddle's ear, or his foot, and shove it in
her mouth - she's teething now, so I did go out and get her some
teething toys to save the poor cow. Don't worry, it's a baby safe
cow. All the eyes and nose parts that you see are embroidered
thread, there are no choking parts.

Do you see the resemblance of the two? From baby Emma's perspective,
you can see that they are both larger than she is (or the cow was, at
first), and they both are adorable, they're both similar in color
markings, and they are both soooo fluffy! Trust me, I got to pet
this dog and he is just as soft as the cow. Of course, only the cow
smells like lavender, but we won't count that against the dog.

So we let the dog come in for a closer look. I was really trying to
see how her expression would be to him; if she would think he was
her cow, or if she would notice he was different. He licked her, so
she obviously wasn't counting on that. It was so funny!

We tried to get a shot of all 3 dogs sitting at the same time, but
the little one was a bit antsy. Do you see how the large dog lying
down is as tall as my dog sitting tall?
Such a sweet dog! He has the nicest temperament! My dog pranced
home, happy to have met up with a dog after all.

Love Letters

Do you like to write little love notes to your sweetie?  I just found this great page for fresh love letter ideas on a button over on Knitting the Night Away's blog.

I like to write little things for my hubby, but it's some time since I've done anything that fancy.  I usually just send him faxes to his work in different fonts, with inside jokes or comments that he can read into but hopefully not too obvious that the other staff don't notice.  I've tried leaving notes on the computer desktop, but it's too cluttered to be noticed.  I've also written him notes on our whiteboard at home - that's hit and miss, depending on how tired he is from work.  I've discovered, thanks to a friend of mine for making it obvious to me, that I have to put the note write smack on the door at his eye level for him to see as he's coming in from work.  She suggested stringing it to the doorway like a spiderweb - I'm sure that would work, but I'll save that one for another time.  

Mystery Knit Along

 

           .........................................................................Tonya is celebrating her Blogoversary with a Blog Candy Contest!  Check it out!  There's a few days left and she will ship anywhere for the winner!

If you look carefully at the third photo, you'll see that my baby has just learned to make bubbles with her mouth!

Yesterday I signed up for a Knit Along Group at Rachel's Knitting Room.

I went to pick out some cotton yarn for this month's mystery Knit along.  Usually they do dishcloths, but this month they have decided to try something different.  Most of the cotton yarn at this particular store were only in 50 gram skeins - too small for this project, as I needed about 500 yards worth, not to mention they didn't have enough matching dye lots.  I managed to find some 100 gram balls of yarn by Lion Brand called Cotton Ease, and found 3 skeins with the right dye lot.

Even though everyone else is on day 12, I'm going to try it anyway.  Hoping to catch up to the rest of the group, but not putting too much pressure on myself.  I've unravelled a couple times so far - no major mistakes, it just looks sloppy.  I think my being rusty has led to my knitting not being as consistent with the tension as I thought it would be.  It was mostly too tight, so it would barely slide across the needle.  So I don't have a photo yet of any progress to show you, but here's a couple of the color I chose.  Of course, I had to get my little princess to be in the photo, too, you know.  My computer doesn't take the clearest of photos... if you're not completely still, it blurs a bit.

Today, I also went out to do some Easter candy shopping for the boys.  Unfortunately for me, they were aware of it when I brought in the bags and so of course they now have the exciting temptation of finding it where I've stashed it away until I can hide it for our easter egg hunt.  I managed to hint to them that I won't hide easter candy in messy rooms... let's hope that motivates them to tidy their room real good by then.  It's not too bad right now, but I don't want to step on any of the legos on their floor.

My mother and I went out to Sheridan Nursery today to look at the spring plants - it was a nice 'pick me up' after a rough week.  I bought her some Shamrock plants for her birthday, and a planter with various bulbs - mostly tulips and crocuses.  Yellow and Purple they were, so we also choose some beautiful matching pansies to plant in our planters along with the tulips.  I'll take photos of them tomorrow.  I was hoping to transplant them today, but got sidetracked with other things... oops!  I left them all out on my front porch!  I sure hope it doesn't get too cold out during the night!  I'd better go bring them in the house.

I think I'm like the mouse in that children's book, If You Give a Mouse a Muffin, or was it a pancake?  I have a few of those books...

... if you let Jenn go to Michaels, she'll buy some yarn.  When she buys the yarn, she'll see how pretty the colour is.  It will remind her of one of baby Emma's new jammies.  The jammies are a pinky/fusia colour similar to that.  Then she will look for something for Emma... she will spot a pink sand bucket - a little young for playing in sand, but it's so cute!  The pink bucket will remind Jenn of easter egg hunts, so Jenn will want to get easter eggs to put in the bucket.  Jenn goes to another store to buy eggs and chocolate... but get's sidetracked with all the other things in the store...  etc.  and eventually makes her way back home. 

No wondery DH doesn't care to go shopping with me!  I had only plans to go to one store today, but found I had made my way to about 5 of them.  At least I was in good company!

TGIF

After what has been for us a very tiring and emotional week, we have decided to celebrate by baking cookies and getting out the balloons.  I'm declaring today to be a STRESS-FREE day, and my home will be a no-stress-allowed zone.  Only minimal homework required today.  My boys and I are making balloon animals together.  

DS5 calls his Super Dog.

DS12 calls his the White Knight Helmet.

I also made a pink panther one, but it broke before we could snap it's photo.  Don't worry, you didn't miss out - just picture the dog in pink.  Most of my balloons look like a version of the dog.  I can fool most of the children into thinking that it's any four legged animal.  We have fun inventing different things and figuring out if they turn out the way we expected.  I made a flower once, turned it upside down and the kids thought it was a sword.

Getting back into it

My mother has just moved back into town, after having lived up North in the country for several years.  We are so thrilled!  Before she moved away, we used to see each other all the time - usually every weekend.  And we'd chat on the phone regularly, but when she moved away long distance charges meant less phone calls, and the harsh winter weather up North meant less visits.

So it's especially exciting to me that she is here to meet her new grandaughter, and spend time with us again.  

When I went to her place for a little visit yesterday, I noticed there was a knitting pattern book with a picture of a delicate baby sweater on the front.  Two feelings at once came over me; one was excitement that she might be picking up her needles again.  I think it's been at least 10 years since she has knitted or chocheted anything.  Second, I got that feeling you get when you find out what your surprise was before you are supposed to know.  Even though it's for baby Emma, I just felt so sentimental that she might be getting a sweater hand made by her gramma.  

It really is such a special thing to receive hand made gifts.  I think that's why I got so excited when I would participate in those knitting swaps online, but I haven't done one for awhile, as the last one I was in I ended up getting it in the mail late and it was such an embarrassment!  I had put my outgoing package in the mailbox with decent time, only I didn't realize that ground mail going overseas too at least 3 times longer than air mail, and I should have sent out my parcel during the first week of the swap and not later on.  But, you learn from these things.  

Once I do a few projects so I'm not too rusty anymore, then I'll be quite anxious to get involved in another swap.  Maybe something simple like a dishcloth swap to get me started.  My husband thought I was nuts sending things to people I had never met, but when you get a package in the mail, it feels just like Christmas or birthdays!  I loved the anticipation, but most of all I liked meeting new people and making new friends.  Now that I'm back online more often as I'm finally starting to get a wee bit more sleep through the night, I'm curious to check all your blogs to see what I've been missing.

By the way, if you have an 'easy' pattern for some fetchings that I can make with some gorgeous dark blue alpaca yarn, please send me the link!

Our New Arrival

We didn't know if we were having a boy or a girl, so all we had were boy hand-me-downs.  Rob and the boys decided to pick up a couple of girl outfits on the way to the hospital when Emma was born.  In these photos, you can see she is wearing her brother's baby football sleeper.  This was rather fitting, as she was born just before Superbowl Sunday.  The word FOOTBALL is written across the behind.

I love this one!  This is Daddy and Emma, snuggling on the couch.  Anytime he holds her, she almost always cuddles up like that right away and falls asleep on his shoulder or chest.  I think it's adorable.

Above is big brother Evan holding his new little sister.  He is so proud!  He's also very curious, always asking how she's doing, if she's awake yet, and being a good little helper bringing me her receiving blankets or picking out what sleeper she will wear next.

The photo below is Rob holding Emma, and she is wearing one of her first girly sleepers that my friend bought for her.  She's also wearing the knitted newborn cap that the hospital gave her.  Most of the baby caps for newborns are too tight on her head, 

as she was born at 10 lbs, 7.5 oz.

False alarm

My husband, who has been known to sleep through fire alarms, is so anxious that he has become a light sleeper over the last few weeks. This is very rare for him.

Now being almost at my due date, I find it quite difficult to turn over in my sleep. I feel very much like a beached whale, and have to make quite an effort to turn from my right to my left side. This time, when I woke up and decided to turn over, I noticed that there was another obstacle in my way; I had my husband to one side of me, and someone else on the other side. Apparently, my 5 year old boy had woken during the night and decided come sleep in our bed. I was sandwiched. Not wanting to wake either one up, I tried my best to turn over in this confined little space. We really do have a large enough bed, so I don't know why I would be squished... anyways...

I had made so much grunting or groaning noises trying to turn over, that I had woken up my husband. He said, "Is it time?"
Of course, I was out of breath from all the effort and panted out to him that no, I wasn't in labour. I was just turning over.

Funny thing is, I don't recall having such a difficult time turning over when I was pregnant with our other children. I remember feeling big, but not necessarily beached.

5 days left... Anytime now!

Long time no see? Sorry 'bout that. Here I am!

So what's new? I see that my blogger friends have lots of things going on. Anyone get the winter blahs yet? Hopefully not.

I saw the doctor today, and he says anytime now! The baby's head has dropped down, and he says I migh just have the baby before our next scheduled visit that is one week away. I'm so excited! For the last couple of weeks, he kept jokingly saying that he thought this one would be a late baby like our last one. He thought it would wait until beginning of February to be born. But today's visit was a pleasant surprise - I thought he would say the same thing. I told him that I have a bit of extra energy this week compared to last week, and I was told not to do too much with it, or I may get too tired out for labour. My doula said the same thing.

On the way home from the doctor's, I stopped off at Walmart to get some shelves for the basement. I've been spending much time down there sorting junk: give away, throw away, put away. My husband would prefer for me to throw it all away... but I can't do that. I have one shelving unit dedicated just to my yarn stash. I didn't know I had built up that much - it makes me feel a little bit accomplished that I am actually building up a decent stash. And yarn is a naturally good insulator, so that's the added side benefit to having a yarn stash in the winter. Then I have the kids' toys; all the extra ones that we don't use on a regular basis or that I don't want to throw away just incase we want to play with them some time. Then there's the craft supplies... I had no idea that I had so much until I tried to organize them all into one place. Wow.

Then there's the question of hand-me-down clothes for the boys. Do I keep the older boys clothes for our younger son, even though there is 6 years between them? Or do we donate them to let someone else use them and save the space?

I'm not sure if I ever posted a photo of the rainbow scarf I crocheted for my sister last winter... I mailed it out to her, and the staff at the postal outlet goofed up on the address so it got returned to me. By the time she finally got it, spring had almost arrived. I saw her wearing it this winter, and it looks so great on her! She mentioned how she would love to have a funky coloured hat to go with it, so I picked up some more Bernat Rainow yarn and crocheted a hat for her. I finished it this week, so I'm going to mail it out to her using express post or registered mail.

I'm posting a couple photos of the hat so you can see the colours, and a belly shot so you can see how big I'm getting.

23rd Week, with sniffles to boot

So, I am now 23 weeks along!

According to the online pregnancy calendar I've been checking out, here are this week's stats for our baby's development:

Baby's crown to rump length is 21 cm or 8.3 inches.
Baby weighs about 500-600 grams or 1.1-1.3 pounds
Baby's lungs will be developing.
Alveoli are forming.
Baby develops a hand grip reflex and startle reflex.

Apparently last week the baby has grown it's eyebrows and eyelashes! My husband thought that was cute, although baby won't be opening his/her eyes to bat those lashes at us for a few more weeks; I think it's about 26 weeks when baby's eyes are developed enough to open them.

We go see our family doctor Friday morning to find out the results of the ultrasound that I went to on Saturday. My husband finally got to see the baby, but for less than one minute. The technician was in such a fowl mood - we went to a different ultrasound clinic this time, but we were running a few minutes late so I can't say it was all her fault. I called to say we'd be about 8 or 9 minutes late as we were unfamiliar with the area, and started by going the wrong direction. The receptionist was very nice on the phone and said it would be fine. When we got there, the technician rushed through our entire appointment. I can understand, as my being late may delay the rest of the appointments, making her late for her breaks, lunch, etc. I'll do my best to make certain for next time we arrive super early, but this was supposed to be my last obstetrical ultrasound. Any other ones I get will be for the kidney only, so I'll have to bring along some chocolates to treat them if I want to sneak a peek at the baby.

When she was done all of the routine checking, she called for my husband to come in the room, gave him a very quick glance at the baby's head, back, tummy, and arms, and printed off some rushed pictures of these shots. She was pressing so hard on the little wand device that we ended up getting what looked like a skeletal head shot rather than a baby with facial features, but my husband isn't complaining. He's just happy that he finally got to see the baby. I was just hoping he would get enough time to see the baby kick, or waive, or something. The baby did at least open and close his/her mouth, so he was thrilled to see that. You know, I get to feel all these cute little movements, which are still barely felt from the outside; I got to see the baby do summersaults, turns, and kicks for my previous ultrasounds when he was not able to be in the room with me. So I just wanted more for him to be involved in or excited about.

But as the baby grows stronger, he'll be able to feel the kicking more from the outside. Well, more punching or elbowing than kicking, unless the baby changes position. One thing we did find out at the ultrasound was that our baby is in a breech position at the moment, which can change any time. So we aren't worrying about that, but being aware of it. With our first boy, he moved all the time, all over the place, and was always kicking in different spots. That was a lot of fun trying to guess what part was kicking or poking. With our second, he was always in the same place - quite content with where he was, but we could never figure out till he was born wether the poke was coming from a foot, knee, elbow, or fist.

I first thought the baby might be in breech when I noticed there would be pressure on my bladder, even after it was emptied. I could feel what I thought were little kicks, but they would be always kicking very low - never anywhere else, just right down low. The kicking may change spots, but it's almost always below the belt. This week I started getting pokes above the belly button, which seems to be an elbow based on the head being at the top. Just in case the baby decides not to turn, I've bookmarked a website on how to turn breech babies, as I really don't like the idea of a C section. Did you know there are about 17 ways to turn a breech baby? I had no idea! But none of these really apply till thirty-something weeks along. There'd be no point turning baby now, as he/she can just turn right back. My mother delivered my older sister breech, so I can't wait to ask her to tell me all about it.

News on the kidney stone: it was measured and I was told it is "about 9 mm" in size, but have to wait to hear from the doctor officially. I'm happy to hear that, because even one millemeter smaller is good. If I can get it smaller than 7 mm, I can possibly pass it, with much pain. But the smaller, the better. Keep drinking that lemon juice!

I'll try later to upload some of the ultrasound photos for everyone to see.

Conversations with 4 year olds

My adorable 4 year old son comes up to me and says out of the blue, "Step Mothers are evil."

I respond, "No they're not. I have a step mother."

His eyes are now wide open in surprise, "You DO?"

After taking some time to consider this fact, he then asks, "Does she give you hugs?"

"Yes."

"Really?"

"Yep."

...thinking some more, then I see that look on his face and know another question is coming...

"Does she try to kill you?"

I did not see that one coming. Trying to keep a serious look on my face, I let him know that she never tried to kill me. He looked so stunned by this. He mulled it over, and decided that maybe not all step mothers were evil.

I'm glad we took care of that... now off to find out what big brother let him watch while I was out today!

Getting excited!

Less than 24 hours till I go for my ultrasound! My husband is finally going to see the baby! He's missed the last ones, not all his fault. For the first one, he had to work and I went with a friend. For the next one, he came with me. We were arriving a few minutes late, so he dropped me off in front of the building and went to park the car. When he came in, he went to the office on his left instead of down the hall and to the right; he ended up in a lab waiting room and waited patiently. When he asked when he can come in to see the baby, they told him he was in the wrong office! He quickly went down the hall, and found the ultrasound lab. The receptionist told him to sit down, and they'd call him. She didn't realize that they'd already just called his name twice! Poor thing! So when I came out, he looked so let down.

The next ultrasound was really just for my kidney, and not for the baby at all, but I asked the technician if we could sneak a peek since we have all that goopy gel on me, anyways. I was not far enough along to feel kicking yet, so it would make me feel releived to know that the baby is doing alright. She was not in the best of moods, but allowed me to see the baby. When I told her that my husband was in the hall and had not yet seen the baby, she said, "That's ok. He'll catch the next one when you do your routine 20 week ultrasound" and wouldn't budge on that. So I got to see what looked like the baby sucking it's thumb, which made me very happy. When I came back out in the waiting room after it was done, my husband looked at me and said, "You've got to be kidding!" He missed it again! He was not pleased with this at all.

So at our next prenatal, I told the doctor about this, and he said I didn't really need a 20 week ultrasound as I've had plenty! But... since he knew Rob missed them all, he was nice enough to schedule me for one last baby ultrasound (we had to go for another kidney one, anyway, so why not?). So I told Rob this was his last chance to see the baby before it's birth day. He scheduled around it so he can be there with me.

I'm getting really excited! I can't wait to see all the wiggling and kicking!
I feel kicking every night, around 9:30 pm, but you know how cool it is to actually see your baby squirming around inside.
I'm also curious to see what position the baby is in. I think by the way it's kicking into my bladder, it must be feet down. Now and then I get a nudge in my lower left side, but usually all the kicking is straight down!

Today I also opened up my knitting trunk, and found a dishcloth that had been started. I'm thinking it must be the Optomist Prime one my son asked me to make for him, so I'm going to find the pattern and see how rusty I am at it.

I also baked 3 batches of muffins this morning... baking, blogging, knitting... anything but cleaning up the house today! I don't know how it got this messy last night, but I'm procrastinating. I'll bet it will only take about 10 minutes to pick up, but I'm just in a doddling mood today. Perhaps I will see if my 12 year old wants to make some extra chore money today?

That little something extra

Wondering what that little something extra is?
Nope, it's not twins - though my husband was routing for that. My uterus was a little large at first, so they sent me for an ultrasound to double check the date and number of babies in there... just one baby, due January 27th, 2009.

I noticed toward the end of my first trimester that I was having some back pain, and it would come and go. One weekend it was getting pretty intolerable, and I took some Tylenol. By the evening, it came on suddenly and felt like I was getting stabbed in the back! The pain was spreading right around my side, and was really starting to frighten me, as it wasn't just my back. I didn't think it was premature labour, had never felt anything like this before! My 4 year old son said, "Is the baby coming out?" which I was surprised to hear, because I don't recall telling him what labour was supposed to be like. I told him the baby wasn't ready to be born yet, and my husband got on the phone with the on-call service. They quickly called an ambulance after putting me on the phone briefly. They said that they didn't want to risk something happening to the baby on the way if my husband were to take me to the hospital in his car (he of course made it there before the ambulance).
I was not allowed to take any more Tylenol in the waiting room, nor given anything else for the pain, nor was I or my unborn baby checked on again (aside from the initial triage nurse on arrival) until it was my turn - the next morning at 7:00 am. Thankfully, I prayed through the pain most of the night and was able to pass out at around 3:00am when the pain went away.

As the pain was not there when the doctor finally came to check me out, all he could say was, "It's probably kidney stones." And had me go for a kidney ultrasound to confirm... It was in fact, a kidney stone, measuring over 1 centimeter in size. For my American friends, that's almost half an inch.

I was told this is too large to pass - your average painful kidney stone can pass at 2 or 3 mm in size. I've read about one pregnant woman who actually delivered her baby,and at the same time also delivered/passed a 7 mm stone! Aside from that, I haven't heard about any pregnant women with stones this large. It was suggested I go for a procedure called Lithotripsy to have it removed. The urologist said there was only a 1-10% chance that I would go into labour. At my stage of gestation, this would mean a miscarriage, which is not something I'm willing to risk. So we have opted to wait until at least 37 weeks to have this procedure, if the doctor insists I go through with it. If I am able to drink lots and lots of water and keep the stone inactive until after labour, that would be best. I've had to cancel my midwife service, as the doctors feel I should be cared for by an obstetrician as I'll have to be monitored more closely and am no longer 'low-risk', although I'm not 'high-risk' either. So I've been interviewing doulas, so I can have someone else with me for the birth at the hospital to help ease some of this tension and let me relax a little. I don't want to worry about 'what if' scenarios, or any other complications that this kidney stone might arise, so a doula will help me to concentrate on the most important thing - the baby.

I've missed you all!

I can't believe my blog has actually passed 1000 hits, and I missed it!
I wanted to make a big deal of it, have a contest... you know. I guess I'll have to do it at 2000.

Finally the morning sickness has gone! I'm now in my second trimester, and I feel great! I have my energy back, and lots to tell you about!

First, I want to give a shout out to all my blogger friends and say how much I've missed reading all your posts! I have a lot to catch up on! I had felt soo drained during my first trimester, that I didn't actually do any blogging or reading up on anyone. In fact, that queasy feeling I had was so strong that every time I picked up a pair of needles to start knitting, I would feel dizzy. Just the thought of those needles click, click, clicking made me feel oozy. So I haven't knitted a single thing all this tme!

I am wanting to get back to it, so I'm trying to think of what's the first thing I should knit? Will I remember how to read patterns? Will I have forgotten any of the new techniques I was learning???

Obviously, I'll have to keep it to something simple like a dishcloth.

I'm also going to try and scan my baby ultrasound photo to show you all! This pregnancy has a little something extra thrown into to it, so stay tuned for the next post (I'll be working on that tonight) and you can find out what it is!

The irony of it all

This is the weirdest thing. You know how we just had that amazing Spring Fling Coffee Swap? Remember that fantastic package I got in the mail from Lizet, with all those delicious flavours of coffee? If you don't, scroll down a couple posts and check out the photos - she totally spoiled me. Well, when it arrived, I noticed our coffee maker was missing. I think I had donated it for one of those donation programs that comes around asking for your things so they can sell them and donate the funds to charities. So I went shopping for a new coffee maker. I was determined to buy one that was made in America, or from somewhere with fair trade practices. At all the deparment stores I've been to, as well as houseware stores, not one of them was made anywhere but China. As I have been learning about BPA's leeching through plastic, especially when heated, I felt it was important to get one where that would not be the case. As it turns out, most coffee makers have plastic coated baskets or water compartments, and do not label them as per the type of plastic. So the only place I could find a coffee maker that labeled it's parts was actually made in Canada sold at.... Tim Horton's! I think that's kinda funny. I brought it home and couldn't believe how great it worked. My coffee tastes so good! Now for the weird part...

After a few days of enjoying coffee in the morning in my new coffee maker, I brewed up a pot and as I was pouring it into my new Spring mug, I couldn't do it. I couldn't drink the coffee. Something about the smell, which I usually love, was really bothering me. Next day, same thing. I couldn't bring myself to drink a single sip of it. I still make coffee for guests and watch them enjoy their cup, but I can't have any. What a shame, to get such nice coffee, and to now have a sudden aversion for coffee. This has been going on for over a week now, and I've had to force myself to get to bed at a decent hour every night because I know the next morning I can't rely on coffee. Same thing with tea - I can only bring myself to drink cold water. In fact, this aversion to good smelling foods and beverages seems to be aflicting me with many of my normally favourite dinners. I'm having quite a hard time cooking dinner and figuring out what I'll be able to eat. I'm getting so bored of crackers!!! You know what else I find strange? I can't have the same thing twice. If I enjoy a particular meal and have no aversions to it, then try to duplicate that dish later (hours or days) then I just can't stomach it. What the heck? I find this to be so annoying! This of course does not apply to cold sandwiches or subs. I seem to be able to eat them fine, in small proportions.

Other news in swaps: I still haven't registered for the summer dishcloth exchange. I feel so guilty about sending out my package late to Helen, by partner for the Coffee Swap. I was sick and ended up sending it out late, but it was still sent out by mid-May. I can't beleive it hasn't arrived there yet! I can't figure out why the mail is going so slowly, but I emailed her and offered to send out a new package by RUSH mail if she'd like. So even though I'd like to do another dishcloth exchange, I'm a little hesitant at signing up right now. I want to make sure my partner gets her package and that she's happy with it.

Knitting news: I haven't picked up my needles for about 2 weeks. I'm not sure if anyone goes through a knitting lull? I just need to find the right pattern or something. I have a few WIP's and I'm just not motivated to finish them right now. I also just realized that my nephews are reaching the ages of 6 months and 9 months, and I have yet to knit them some baby clothes! I have to fix that before they quickly grow out of baby clothes. I'll check ravelry this weekend for some cute baby patterns.

No photos today: I have lost my camera's memory card, and the 'spare' one. Hope to find it soon, as I really want to take photos of the baby rabbit that is hiding under my front porch where the garden gives it shelter. It's sooo cute! A little Peter Cottontail!

Chunky Monkey Hand pampering swap

I got my package!
It was such a warm sunny day, we were outdoors almost the whole day.  The perfect ending to a perfect day was to find a package for me in the mail box.  It was from Dianna in B.C. who is my partner in the Chunky Monkey hand pampering swap on Ravelry.  Chunky Monkey is a group we are both in for those of us who love to knit with chunky yarn.  I have discovered that almost every member in that group is both younger than me, and is a far superior knitter (from what I can tell).  But they are a lively bunch, and seem to have a lot of fun there.  I like a fun bunch of people.

So, I couldn't wait to get home to open my package.  This time, I was able to open it all by myself - without anyone trying to steal my new treasures.  Why is that?  The boys were both outside in the sand box, pretending to be Sandman from the movie Spiderman 3.  This means burying themselves as much as possible, including sand in the hair, then quickly standing up and proclaiming, "I AM SANDMAN!!!" and watching all the sand and dust fly off.  They stayed out there for an hour doing this!  :)  
You should have seen all the sand in my carpet, not to mention all the sand on the bathroom floor during bath time.

So while my boys were occupied in the sand, I happily opened my package, wondering if my partner had gotten hers yet and if she'd like everything. When I'm in a swap,  I always wonder if my partner will like what I've sent.  So far, my packages have been well received.  I guess it's good that there are questionaires so you can't go too wrong in getting what people ask for, right?  But I'm sure there are people out there who don't like what they've gotten, and I'd hate to be the sender of a bad swap package.  I wasn't too thrilled when I got a 4 out of 5 rating on a recent Swap-bot event.  But of course, there was no real questionaire to go by, so I'll let it go.  Can't please everyone.  As it turns out, my partner did get her package, and blogged all about it before I had logged in to Ravelry to see if she had gotten it.  I'm so glad she liked it!  She even took photos for her blog!

I love being spoiled.  I have been spoiled in every swap I've been in so far, and this was no exception - completely spoiled!  First, there's the gorgeous spring fetchings that I'm wearing right now.  Such a beautiful pattern on them!  I have no idea how to describe them, or what the pattern might be called, but I love them!  If that were the only thing in the package, I'd be happy enough.  But there was more;  Clover bamboo circular knitting needles, in size 15/10mm.  How awesome is that?  And as I was thinking to myself, "I wonder what I will knit with these?  I can't wait to find out"... out comes a ball of yarn.  Not just any yarn, but Alpaca wool by Sirdar Peru.  I've never even touched Alpaca wool before, so this was wonderful!  I kept squishing it in my hands, feeling it next to my cheek, looking at the gorgeous dark blue shade.  Welcome to my stash!  2 skeins of it, whatever shall I do?  :)
Then there's the hand lotions - Dove night cream, Time & Again lavender therapy cream (perfect size for my purse, and smells lovely!), and 3 bottles of luxurious lotions by Got2b in2spa:  silk works, smoothie, and hand shake. Each one is different from the next, so I will have lots to choose from!  I was given cute little souvenirs from Prince Rupert, like a moose key chain and a crab key chain (that was hand made with beads - so cute).  The funniest thing of all was the moose droppings that came in a brown paper bag.  I looked at it and laughed.  Then I opened up the bag (it said they were chocolate rosebuds) and took out the plastic wrapper containing warm, squishy, melted brown stuff.  I had to laugh!  The parcel was in the end compartment of the super box all day, with the sun beating down on the metal to warm it up.  So it very much resembled what I imagine fresh hot moose droppings would look like, not like rosebuds.  This was hilarious!  It has now cooled down to a solid brick of chocolate.  Every one in my family thought it was a priceless moment.  Too funny!



So that's all for now!  I'm going to Ravelry later today to see what patterns I can find for my new bamboo circs!