Six weeks later...

I swear I need to update more often. I have blog post ideas or tidbits that occur to me and never seem to grab a minute to type them out. So what have I been up to? Well like I said in the last post, I moved. I made friends with a neighbor who turned out to be a possessive crazy stalker lady. I am now avoiding her like the plague, which includes, but is not limited to, shutting the door in her face to drive the point home that I DO NOT want to play with her NO MORE.

She is quite the scary nutball, telling me things like if I go off and find other friends and do things without her she will be sad, but she will be really pissed if I do things without her with people she knows. What? How do you argue with crazy? She is also just plain mean, encouraging her kids to be mean to/ignore mine. Bad thing is, she is two doors down. Oh well, she is moving next year. The day she is packed out, I am throwing a party!!!I can see it--next summer, when school lets out. I can do a barbecue or pizza & beer, or oooohhh a taco bar! Who cares, as long as she is gone! I will crank up music and my guests and I will do a pinata and the limbo in my front yard. Can you say FIESTA!

So I am immersing myself in programs that the area has to offer: a local knitting group, a cross stitch group and two playgroups for my baby so she can be well socialized, learn to share, and of course, catch germs. No sooner do I expose her to a passel of kids, does she get the neverending shoestring-type-snot runny nose. You know, where you wipe and wipe and it still.keeps.coming. Ugh.

I am endeavoring to do three things: One, teach the kids some sign language beyond their meager knowledge of "yes" "no" "stop" "please" and "thank you." Stephie knows the sign for "milk" and has started waving hello. I want her communications to be opened up.

Two: give my kids basic Spanish lessons. This sounds like more than it is. I am working on my old high school Spanish and I bought a nice workbook from Barnes & Noble to beef it up. I want to work on vocabulary and eventually work into some basic sentence structure. The reason for both of these languages? I want someone to practice with, and Steve isn't really into it. So I will press my kids into service.

And finally, three: I am trying to write a book. Lord knows I've enough to say, I should have gotten it down a longtime ago. It will be nonfiction and hopefully, funny.

I am *thisclose* to having unpacked all of our boxes from moving. I have a few left over in my craft room, so they're not a top priority, you know? What else has gone on? Stephie turned one, weighs about 15 pounds and is 26 inches long. She is weaned to whole milk in a cup, and it feels quite odd to have my body back. To not have to be home in the evenings in time to feed her, or to watch what foods I eat or medicines I take so they don't bother her. But it is just lovely to sleep in on weekends because Steve can give her a cup of milk.

Katie will be 8 next month and people say she looks like me. She is very into Hannah Montana, and her bathroom is H.M. She is very creative, artistic and crafty. She likes to make things and to help me cook. She loves to play with her baby sister, though sometimes she treats her like a doll. She enjoys school and playing outside.

Jon will be 12. He recently said he preferred to be called Jon, and also changed his favorite color from green to orange. He is in middle school now, and changes classes each subject. He is having a hard time adjusting. If you ask him, he says he had the worst summer ever, because his friend Zack moved away, then we moved away from our old house, where we'd lived for 2 years. He had to start a new school, and worse, *middle* school, where fitting in counts so much. And he doesn't. Changing classes is a huge thing and he has trouble with transitions. I haven't seen him so agitated, ever. There was a bit of bullying at the beginning of the school year but I think it is under control. Now he is upset at not being allowed to play with the neighbor boy because the boy's mom is the nutty possessive neighbor and she won't let her kids play with mine.

Academically both kids are doing fine. Socially, we need to branch out and make a few more friends. I also want to look for some karate or tae kwon do for them to do.

Steve is currently asleep on the couch, while I suffer from insomnia. He doesn't want to go up to bed without me, and I go stir crazy if I just get in teh bed and lay there, or watch TV all night. With all the sleep I haven't been getting, you'd think I would have organized my craft room by now, but no.

I knit. Scarves galore, with a shawl in the works, a few hats and also my first baby sweater bringing up the rear. Tonight I was trying to master the 1x1 rib. It doesnt sound like much but it was driving me bonkers. I have done rows of knit stitch as well as rows of purl stitch before, but doing them one after another in roation... My yarn is twisted like a spiral staircase. It looks SO bad. What stinks is that I hate, hate, hate purling. And I do NOT like the ribbing on the end of this scarf anyway. It has a lovely, simple lace pattern that even an idiot like me can follow, but both ends are done up in 2.5 inches of 1x1 rib. I have to slog through 2.5 inches of stupid rib to get to the pretty part, and then end off with that stupid ribbing also. Have I mentioned how much I hate it?

I was working on the rib and driving myself nuts. I got into a flow, finally, but the yarn just looks like a bag of ass so I am going to bind it off and keep it, and save it. Then after I do the damn stupid ribbing again, properly with no mistakes, I will compare the two ribbed areas and it will make the redo, and even the ribbing crap itself, worth it. Right? Right??? I hope so. OK well I logged on to blog this post as a way to take a break from the ribbing so I didn't snap my needles in half and burn my yarn. Off to try again!