........we have the technology

........ and that isn't always a good thing. Introducing the new Birth Tracker!

That's right ladies you too could have your very own, cervical AND fetal heart tones monitor device hooked right up to your very sensitive, vascular, dilating cervix along with that pin in your unborn infants head!!!

I'm sorry, I know sarcasm isn't going to help anyone here, but this product just leaves me so incredibly flabbergasted and well, down right pissed off!! I've HAD a medicalized birth and let me tell you, it's no picnic!! I did manage to refuse the internal fetal monitor and internal pressure catheter. I did not however avoid being stuck in a bed for the duration. Being in a bed, unable to really get in any kind of effective position, or really move about to relieve a bit of pain is so detrimental to the entire process. This just adds another element of suppression, regression and FEAR.

I just keep typing and deleting, I'm too worked up STILL to post about this. And I've know about it for weeks (it seems)

*sigh* just know that I am afraid of the potential to destroy more births, more mother/infant bonding, and lead to more unnecessary c-sections.


Good night, and Good Luck

I don't wanna clean!!

Well, today is the big day. Grandma is at the hospital, waiting. No doubt being poked and prodded for her pre-op.

I'll start cleaning around noon, that's when the surgery is scheduled for. I have a lot to do though, starting with a quick shower, and the I need to just start throwing stuff away. As much as possible out of the kitchen. I saw a bug in there last night. God I detest bugs!!!! Ugh, so disgusting, makes me feel horrible all over. Like I need to scrub with bleach in scalding water. But I'll save that for what I'm cleaning. Not the bleach and scalding water, but the scrubbing. I don't need such a scrubbing, and regular shower will do ;)

I'm making myself take a break from crocheting today. The only thing I'm allowed to do is help the longies dry via the cool setting on my hair dryer. I really really need them in the mail tomorrow.

And the hat I made yesterday, oh man, I wish I was going to have a baby I could put that on. It's so stinkin cute!!! Hopefully someone at the picnic will like it and make some bids. I'll be adapting the pattern for my kids among my many queued projects. I've got about 20 things "in the wings" that I want to get done. I do have my priorities though. I need to finish my sweater, and I need to make one for Kate, her winter coat isn't going to fit this year. We've got a wool coat for her, so for the crazy cold days she'll have that to wear over whatever I make her, but in the mean time, I'm either making a pull over, a hoodie, or a button closed sweater.

*sigh* So.... today,

• shower
• empty dishwasher
• load dishwasher (wait until it's full to run it)
  
• empty all cabinets throw away stuff I don't need
• super clean kitchen
• kitchen table
• take out the trash
• kids bathroom (trash, sweep, tub, toilet, counter, sink, floor)
• put away clean laundry
  
• run the last load of laundry
• figure out where on earth to put the huge bean bags
• do something with the empty dresser that's been hanging out in the living room
  
• vacuum kids rooms

So I've got a ton of stuff to do, and that isn't all of it. I really really really want to get a ton of stuff together for the consignment sale, AND put a bunch more of our storage bins in the crawlspace. I'm so freaking sick of any kind of clutter.

I think it'd be easier if we were packing stuff and loading it on a truck to move, I'd really be able to get rid of stuff then. I wanna rent a dumpster! I don't think we'd fill it, but then I would have the excuse that "the trash can is full"

ok, enough blabing, I gotta figure out something to do between now and when the hubs gets up.

another donation

Newborn size hat found on Ravelry and the flower courtsey of midnight knitter.

I'm pretty proud of this one, it's really sweet.

For a Good Cause

Well, they're finished! Here are the longies I crocheted for the Georgia Birth Network's Anniversary/World Breastfeeding Week picnic silent auction! (whew!)




And, yet another good cause. I came across this patten on Ravelry, and decided I'm going to make a couple to donate to Goodwill, and a few other places. I urge those of you who knit or crochet to find a simple pattern like this to help out those children who may be cold this winter.

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/my-baby-mittens

In Loving Memory

The unthinkable has happened. A good friend has lost her husband.

D'Anne, we're here for you.

Found here on another friends blog.

Project Photos

The lot of them.

Right Front Panel of my jacket

Hips and Waist of the newborn/small longies

A swatch I'm making so dh and I can figure out embroidery on crocheted items.

New Projects

Well, kinda.

I'm still working on my jacket. But I've given myself until my birthday to complete it (for those who don't know, that's in October). So, I'm allowing myself to work on other things.

I'd probably be burnt out on the jacket by now anyway. So, I started off by creating a bright yellow pair of shorts, made of acrylic for a baby doll. I made the socks for my grandmother (and August 3 can not get here fast enough!!! I may wait until the 4th so that we're not driving over there on a weekend, and might be able to use the pool. And a few days ago I started another diaper cover. I'm hoping I have enough wool left to make a pair of newborn/small longies. We shall see. These are for donation for World Breastfeeding Week and the 4th birthday of GBN. They're holding an auction for donations and I thought this would bring in a little money. Well, I hope it will.

I need to snap some pictures of the jacket piece and the WIP longies (WIP=work in progress for those who don't know).

I'm also working on a little 'business card' to go next to the piece for local custom orders. I've got the text I want, font, but need a picture. So...I think when I'm finished with these, if in time. I'll gather some nature and make some pretty pictures on my pretty floor (gotta use it while I've still got it) . Leaves, flowers, ect. And *then* wash and block.

In other news it's going to be stupid hot today, so I need to get started, or finished folding laundry so I can put them away, and start all over with that.

yummmmmmm

I made pulled pork for dh and I tonight. *drool* it's been cooking all afternoon/evening. We just drained the 'cooking sauce' (Williamson Bros BBQ sauce) and I shredded the pork, and dh put in some Sticky Fingers sauces.

And, I finished the back portion of my jacket!! W00T!!1!!one

The Ancient Arts...

AAMI - Ancient Art Midwifery Institute

http://www.ancientartmidwifery.com/

One day!!

So, we've got out sights on moving to outside the Charleston SC area, we just have a few obstacles in our way. Anyway, 'lay midwifery' is legal there, so after some 'baby steps' (huge baby steps) I hope to take these courses and work my way through the learning, and apprenticing and become a home birth midwife.

One day...........

...and we start back at one

your like a dream come true, two, just wanna be with you, three, ....girl it's plain to see you're the only one for me and........

oh, hey, sorry....I'll stop singing in my head.

So, yesterday I posted not only about the mess from the cable company, but about my projects. My beautiful wonderful jacket, and the amazingly comfortable, and rewarding socks. Well, they aren't MY socks, but I'll be damned if I don't end up with a pair for myself!! (I have a couple more pair to make for Christmas first)

My jacket, my wonderful Autumn Colors jacket..... well, I completed the section for the arm hole shaping yesterday, and went to mark some stitches for another step. First I was to mark these stitches off for the back of the neck, then continue on the 'right front' section. Counting.... no that's not right. I managed to 'lose' 4 stitches. I ended up having to rip back the entire arm hole shaping section.

aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

And then do it all over again! Now I'm like 1.5 inches into it again. So incredibly frustrating.

But, as I told my awesome husband. I'd rather rip it out, and redo it than have it not fit right. (and then I continued to bang my head against the wall)

The Impossible Yarn, and Progress

First things first....that damn near impossible yarn!! I had intended on using my new Addi size "H" hook to make these, but it just wasn't the right fit. So I tried several swatches, not usually getting any 'taller' than an inch, with about 5 different hooks. Finally, I decided I needed to use the Susan Bates hook I'd bought to continue my jacket. Whatever works. However, the yarn, those swatches, all 'wasted' yarn. I could not pull back any of this yarn. I might get a half row (so less than 6 inches of yarn) back. I bought 2 skeins, and I used almost all of them to make these socks. *le sigh*

BUT, here they are!!!


And modeled, they look so much better on the foot than off the foot.


And here is the jacket, I finally got the length I wanted, around 22" and have started the 'shaping the arm holes' portion. I've got to go 9" on this section, and I'm nearly there. Once the next step begins to 'take shape' I'll publish another picture.
Interesting patterns in the colors there...not sure how I feel about that. But this is nearly 2 skeins (see that little ball off to the left, yep, that's what's left of a 5 oz skein. This thing is gonna be heavy! Of course, it'll also be really warm!

So, any thoughts?

The Nightmare that is Comcast

The Nightmare That is the Cable Company...

Thursday, July 10, 2008, 4:35pm -

An afternoon at home with the children. My husband out of the house for a few hours. I have run laundry, dishes are running, the floor is swept and washed. Table wiped clean, and counter tops sparkling. (Still a ton of clutter everywhere, which is in the process of being taken care of, but I digress) I sit down with my laptop to attempt to reach a friend. I manage to catch her, ever so briefly on IM. I hear thunder a bit off in the distance, not so far that I'm guessing it's thunder. I know it's thunder. The little Forcast Fox in the bottom of my browser tells me that a thunderstorm is on it's way. We get a couple lines out about our current weather, and then she says "brb".
Ok, cool. I've got some e-mails to go through, so I start reading. Suddenly the lightening becomes almost constant, and the thunder is pretty close to a constant rumble, that occasionally crescendos into a roar.

I reach over and unplug my husbands laptop, and then mine. A moment later, the power flickers in unison with a lightening strike. Interesting. Never seen that before. I wish I'd been looking out the window. Lights are all still on. TV came back on (deadliest catch :D ) computers are of course fine, they were on battery. The AC stayed off though. I'll give that a few minutes before worrying. (Turns out the temp had reached the set temp, the power shut the AC off, but since the temp was what I set it at, it just didn't come back on)

The 'surfboard', the cable modem. Is still flashing at me. hmmmm.... come on, come back up. pppplllllllllleeeeeeeeaaaaaassssssssseeeeeeeee.


Nope. Alllllright fine, so I go unplug it, the router, and shut down my computer. (If I call the cable company this is what they're going to tell me to do anyway.) So I do this, then give it some time, swap out laundry, figure out what to feed the monsters, I mean children. Ok, they're eating, and I've got an egg salad sandwich in hand (ok, on a plate) and I go plug the modem back in. I get all the lights preemptively, (is that a word?) then they begin to flash one by one. Plug the router back in, and head for the computer. The 'power' light is flashing...solid.........'sent' light is flashing........solid.... 'receiving' light is flashing................................flashing ......................................flashing ..................................... flashing.


Shit.


I decide to give it time. The last time the cable tv went out, it was out until midnight. Literally, at midnight on the dot, it came back on. I'd flipped the tv on, hit Ch 62 (hey, Robot Chicken was coming on) and it was still all fuzzy at 11:59. And 12:00 surprise, there it is!!! Too bad it was a repeat that I'd seen like 6 times!!

Anyway, so I give it until midnight, I've got a couple projects 'on the hook' anyway. So I'm crocheting, and watching Con-Air and that damned light flashing. Taunting me. "You want to get on-line, you want to finish that e-mail and check your Reader...mwahahahahahaha"

Bastard.

On Friday I place my first call around 10 am to the company (no, not "The Company" I love Heroes too, but I do mean Comcast Cable). I type in my number, hit 2 for service trouble, 2 again for high speed Internet..and wait. Get a person, give her my number, name and address. (Why do they ask for your number the first time?) Tell her the background. Power flickered yesterday afternoon, cable Internet was the only thing that didn't come back up. No, the tv is fine. I've already reset everything twice. "ok, I'll send out a service tech" HOLD. Puts me on hold before I can even draw breath to speak. So I wait. Five minutes later she comes back to tell me Wednesday the 16th. Um, look, I don't even want someone to come out, I really want to know if there is a problem in my area, or if she can see anything on her end that may be wrong. Ok, yes it looks like there might be a problem. If it's not back in 1-3 hours call back.

Fine. Instead of doing that, I had another issue crop up..my grandmother was in the hospital, she'd called an ambulance, and my mom was just telling me a couple hours later. So I didn't call Comcast back on Friday evening. I did get the word around 9 that G-ma had made it home.

Saturday morning, around 10 again, I yet again call the company. "yes there is a problem in your area, it should be up around noon. Okie dokie, that's what I needed to know! 2 pm. Still nothing. (I've been resetting a couple times during the day, not bothering to shut down my computer unless I see all solid lights) I continue to wait. 4 pm, I can't wait anymore, it's been nearly 48 hours, I'm in serious withdrawal here. (ok, I'm coping just fine, but it's the principal that I'm paying for this!!!) Get a hold of another person, she tells me that my account has been/is being credited for the down time. It does appear that there is a problem in my area, and it should be back up in about an hour. Fantastic! Thank you. 6:30. Reset. Nothing. Damn it. Call them back, get another woman, who tells me that there does NOT seem to be a problem here! Huh?! My account is being credited, right? Yes. Ok, good. Reset w/ her on the phone because she shows that the Internet is up. Still shows her the same thing. She asks if I want a tech. No, I'd like to swap out the modems first. We've had one 'get fried' before, so, if that's the problem, the tech isn't going to be able to fix it, they don't carry around extra modems! So, it's now Sunday, at 11 AM, and we still have nothing. Same solid and flashing lights as before. Tomorrow as soon as I'm coherent, I'm taking the stupid thing up to the office and getting a replacement. (but I'm not digging out the plug, if I can help it. we've got a ton of things over there, and it's all very neatly done.)

What a freaking nightmare.

On the upside, I have finished the socks for my grandmother. I can only hope they fit. I'm still weaving ends in, but once I chose the correct hook for my tension, the yarn and the project...which I tried about 4 different swatches with 4 different hooks. This yarn does NOT pull out easily. So, ripping back usually got me very little, and I used nearly 2 skeins, when I should have been able to get away with 1.5 skeins. ANYWAY, they look as though I've got Cookie Monster feet (the color is a bit lighter) but oh my god. They are SO soft!!! They are SO comfortable! I can't wait to make more. I've already decided to make my MIL a pair for Christmas. Perhaps my SIL's as well. Maybe my mom, but I'm not sure she'd like them. The pattern is quick, and easy. I can crank out a sock in a day. (Juggling everything else as well, but not always to the best of my ability lol. I get kinda focused on the sock.)

I've still got my jacket 'on the hook', and the crocheting bag (for projects and what not) is awaiting more yarn. I've run out of the blue (but may have found another skein in my closet. And the brown is pretty much gone. And I've finished a babydoll soaker for a friends child. I've got 3 more of those to do, but until I can check my damned e-mail I don't know what sizes they need to be.

And that's been the last 4 days of my life in a 'nutshell' I hope you weren't bored to tears. Maybe I'll have something a bit more exciting in the coming days, though I doubt it.

Did I say 'difficult'?

How about damn near impossible!! This yarn, for these socks. Holy crap. Somewhere in that bit pictured below, I 'dropped stitches' and had a funky looking rhombus thing going on.

Tried to pull some out... broke the thread.

ARG...

so I started over.

Gifts...

So, with my newly discovered talent/craft...whatever you want to call it...I am making gifts.

I'm starting first with my grandmother, and making her a pair of socks for her birthday. My darling son, Jack, helped me choose the yarn for making these socks and then excitedly asked for a pair for him!! (:D) I told him, of course, that I would be happy to make him a pair. He wants the same yarn, however, it's very soft, and potentially slippery on hardwood floors. Grandma has carpet, so I think they'll be perfect slipper socks for her this winter! At least I hope so. Here are some previews..

Here are the first 2 or 3 rows, with my brand new Addi hook. I love this hook, it's lighter than the Boye. I haven't found a hook I refuse to reuse, so I don't know if that's saying a whole lot. As you can see this yarn has some 'eyelash' to it. This adds an extra layer of difficulty, as it can be hard to see the loop...So, a row may take me 5 minutes to complete because I have to keep searching for one or two of the loops. Makes me really concentrate on tension because the tighter it is, the harder it is to find it. (learned that on my gauge swatch)



Here are my current 'in work' projects. The sock, you can see I only have part of the ankle finished, and my jacket piece is getting big enough to pile into my lap. It's interesting to crochet on something for so long.

And check out the new hook!! It's a Susan Bates with a bamboo handle......nice :)

Here is another pic, taken Monday of the progress on the sweater...not sure I like the way the colors are working out....

So...I'm half way considering ripping back a couple inches, and where the 2nd skein starts...just starting at a different color. I don't need to duplicate the first zig-zag like patterning, but I'm not all that wild about the near straight columns.

Fun Filled Fourth...not that I'm going to talk about it

What's that alliteration? It's times like this I miss my English teachers. Well the ones I liked.

My first high school English teacher was Mrs. .. oh you've got to be kidding me... I just had her name on the tip of my tongue... shoot, it's gone now. Anyway, she was a lot of fun. We had to do "me" journals. There were some required pages, and a couple for creativity. I did another for a different teacher at the beginning of my senior year as well. In the one my freshman year, I expressed the interest in being in the Navy. No big surprise there seeing as I was in NJROTC (Naval Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps.... ROTC is in college, they throw the J in there for high school students)

Not only did I express the desire to join the Navy, but I wanted to be... wait for it.... a pilot. Not just any pilot either. Fighter pilot. Not just ANY fighter pilot. I wanted to pilot the F/A-18 Hornet. God what a beautiful machine. If I couldn't do that I wanted to be.....hahha...... I wanted to be.....teehee..........I wanted to be a JAG. Yep, a Navy Lawyer! Bwahahahahaha. Me, a lawyer. At the time it sounded like a good idea. Later in high school I decided if I was going to be a JAG, I was going Marine Corps. (you see how that panned out)

Another memorable thing in her class was the "party" we had after finishing Great Expectations. We got to dress up as a character. I believe I dressed up as Miss Haversham. It was neat, except only 2 people in the class dressed up. It was 'extra credit' not 'for a grade'. Lets just say, I was never studious and needed all the help I could get.

Sophomore year, I had a coach for the first semester of English. His name was Coach Seaman. He was pretty cool. I honestly forgot what he coached though. I remember reading Julius Caesar in his class. And *gasp* actually truly enjoyed the play. There was very little discussion, just what he had put on the test basically. And very little of the test seemed to be "understanding" the play. We were allowed to take from it what we were going to, and not what others said we should 'see'. Also I remember that during finals week, my friends and I had exempt our 2nd final of the day, and only had Coach S's to complete. Afterwards we walked up to the theater (this was in January, not spring finals, noooo...)and saw I think The Matrix. For whatever reason my brain ties seeing that in with his class. But whatever.

Junior year, oh Junior year. I got so lucky. I got to have the same teacher BOTH semesters. (will a teensy bit of string pulling to be honest. I'd been put in a math class where my previous 98 average suddenly was a 78 in the first week. Um, no, so I got my cousler to put me back in that math class, and because she had to switch periods for that, I got to ask to get in Miss Tollers class as well. Thankfully she allowed this to happen. She was so awesome! She's one of those you go back to visit after you're not in her class anymore. Hell I went to visit her after I'd been out of school, and had a kid! (only to discover she too had a child now, and was no longer teaching!!!)

Memorable things in her class, were original poetry. Something about someone special to us. I had written a poem a week ahead of time, and planned to share it. But the night before the presentation I couldn't sleep. and ended up writing a long poem about my biological father, and the lack of relationship. I took both pieces in with me, just to prove that I really had not waited until the last moment, but chose to take the 2nd one as my grade. I "moved her to tears" and recieved an A. I remember reading "Of Mice and Men" and watching "Dead Poets Society" in her class. We debated on "Into the Wild" , my first and only debate. I did pretty well. Even though I didnt finish the book ha! (sorry Miss Toller!!)

Later in the year we read The Great Gatsby, and I think I read the whole thing ;) And again we got to dress up, only this time, we had to, or we couldn't get into the classroom. I dressed up as Daisy! We got to mingle, and act like our characters, it was a lot of fun. Of course we did have a "test" and had to recite a part of our characters 'lines'. A bunch of us 'slackers' that sat in the back were trying to figure out what to do to show our appreciation of such a wonderful teacher. We finally decided the day before the last class that we would take a note from Neil Perry , Todd Anderson , Knox Overstreet, Charlie Dalton, Richard Cameron, Steven Meeks and Gerard Pitts. We started about 5 minutes before the bell rang, and we started one by one standing on top of our desks and saying "Oh Capitan! My Capitain!"

It is a great memory.

My senior year was a very difficult year for me, and not acidemicaly (though my grades tell a slightly different story). I along with my JROTC friends suffered a great loss, and I ended up suffering a depression. My grades all dropped, I think my highest grade was a high D. But I managed that high D in my British Literature class. Miss Robie. Another 'me' journal, and this time I actually learned something about myself. I learned that I had the passion and the feeling to create poetry. I learned that some songs could really capture my feelings, and define parts of my life. The semester I spent in school that year was a very informative semester.

Not to fear! While I did drop out of school, I did complete my GED just over 2 years later (hey, I was busy with a baby for a while!!) and got pretty good grades! I managed a C in math, which is a feat for me! And high B's in Lit, Grammar, History/Social Studies, and Science.

A crochet gift to myself

So, I've really been enjoying crocheting. Recently I ventured and made myself a pair of socks. they look so damn goofy off the feet, but they fit!! Yes, that is true surprise, they actually fit like they should!! I plan to make another pair for my grandmother. Her birthday is in a month. I'm excited about making her something.

I'm also excited about this! Yep, I am making that for ME! Here are some pictures of the very beginnings......


The first row and a half, I chained on Monday night

Tuesday morning before I started working on it again.
This morning before I began working, or begin as I haven't yet. I've been loading pictures all morning.