Swaps and such

Well, a while back I decided that I would only participate in one swap at a time, to keep costs and time commitments down. The idea was: no swap until the previous swap was knitted, boxed, and sent away. I broke my rule. I did the Hogwarts Sock Swap 2 back in September/October, and neither one of us finished our socks on time. Life just does what it wants, without our permission. So I finished those socks and decided that even though the swap wasn't complete I could go ahead and do another. I did a prayer sock swap on Ravelry. That went better. My partner sent my socks right on time. They are beautiful! They are a little too long, but I'll just wear them around here. I was a couple of weeks behind on mine, but the girl I sent to (in Belgium!!) was very understanding. The plan was working fine, until a girl I know invited me to join A Few Of My Favorite Things over on ravelry. Then I noticed SecretPal 12 was up. So, I'm signed up for 2 at the same time. Neither one requires knitting a complete project; they are more putting nice packages together. And, AFOMFT is only a month and a $15 commitment so it will be done soon. The other is over 3 months. So anyway, there will only be a little overlap by the time signups for sp12 are done. Rationalization or reality avoidance: you decide.

fevers, socks, and cooking

We went to Pittsburgh earlier this month. It was a pretty nice visit. Unfortunately, hokieboy came down with something. We got to the Burgh Thursday evening and Friday morning he was burning up. He didn't whine or cry or anything; he just sat there, and didn't want to eat or drink. We went to Erie for Mother's Day (which is a whole other story) and he swam at the hotel for a long while, but he went to bed really early. Around 4 in the morning, he wakes us up saying he's hungry and he wants something to eat. Well, of course there is nothing. I didn't have any snacks in the hotel room. So I go out looking for a vending machine. Nothing near the front desk. I find the elevator and there is a soda machine and an ice machine. I take the elevator down one flight and pray there is a snack machine. Oh, hallelujah! So I buy pretzels and poptarts and cookies, all in the hopes that my little furnace will eat something! (This ordeal has taken at least 10 minutes of me wandering around barefoot in my pjs at 4 something in the morning in a hotel.) I make it back to my room and find that hokieboy has managed to wake his hokiesister, who is now thinking it's morning, even though she has only been asleep for 4 1/2 hours. I get him to come into the bathroom so hokiehubby can turn the lights out and convince the little girl to sleep. I offer up my goods. This is what my almost 4 yo says to me:

"No, thanks, I'm good. Daddy got me this." He shows me the cup of Sprite in his hands.

Happy Mother's Day to me. And thanks for wandering around at 4 something in the morning looking for food.

We made it home safely and unremarkably. Then, on Sunday evening, just under a week after hokieboy got over his fever, hokiegirl wakes up in the middle of the night burning up. Joy.

The worst part of sick children is that I can't go anywhere. I don't want to expose anyone else's little darlings if my own are contagious. So, we canceled our plans with friends. I need to see a chiropractor, but I can't make the appointment without someone to watch my kids. All my nearby people have kids. But it's all good because the chiropractor is open late and my mom is coming over tomorrow to watch the kids for me.

Knitting: I'm almost done with clue 3 on MS3. I really enjoy it while I'm doing it, but it doesn't grow very fast. I'm also making wee tiny prayer socks for my MOPS group's last meeting. This was inspired by the prayer sock swap I was doing on ravelry. Nothing else to say about that, as my laptop died with the pictures on it and my camera battery is dead so no new pictures. I got my ravelry order: a fuschia tshirt, a Bob pin, and a cute little cotton fiber bag.

Pampered Chef: all the paperwork is done and I am a consultant! My kit should be in soon! Know anyone who would like to host a show? There are incentives for hosts of shows that I close within my first 30 days!

Waking up to new adventures

Mystery Stole 3 is out of hibernation! I picked it up again after some encouragement from Jess <pixieroseknits.blogspot.com>. I'm liking it much more as I'm 2/3 of the way through clue 2. I can actually read my lace and I'm able to follow the chart much better. I finished my sock swap and sent them off last week. I'm feeling pretty good about knitting right now. I do need to decide what I'm taking to Pittsburgh with me Thursday. I doubt I'll get much done on MS3 simply because when I'm visiting with people is not the best time for lace. So I'll need to cast o some socks. I have some beautiful yarn just waiting for me in my stash. (Stash sounds so wordly: my stash is like 4 skeins.)

I have a new venture beginning very soon. I'm going to be a Pampered Chef Consultant! Yay! I've been thinking for some time about doing something to earn play money for this family. Maybe this way I won't feel so bad for taking the kids out to eat. Anyway, if anyone needs a consultant, I'm here! I should be ready to go later this month and I'm looking for people to host parties. I get a bonus if I turn in 4 parties within my first 30 days. So exciting! I hosted a party yesterday and have my first 2 parties booked already! I need 2 more before June 15th. Pampered Chef also does wedding showers. I can't wait to see how that goes!