lazy sunday afternoon

Mmmm Sunday

Well fire monster caught a cold or her allergies are acting up or she is teething or something. She climbed in our bed in the middle of the night snotty as all get out and kept us up half the night. So I was really tired and bleary eyed most of the morning. We had cinnamon rolls for breakfast and a giant cup of coffee for me. I wound up spending most of the morning snuggling her on the couch and watching howls moving castle. Her favorite we watch it almost daily and it is becoming a real problem (she made me call her Sophie most of last week that is a old lady in the movie..don't' ask)

anyway then all the rest of my morning until the hubby got home around 3 was cleaning. I got most things back in order after putting it on the back burner for Olympics but don't be surprised if there are pictures of mountains and mountains of laundry on tomorrows blog lol. but every one got home and my hubby had to watch hockey so we all went to our respectable corners and hid out the rest of the afternoon.

Here is how I spent my time. I worked on the Juliana while watching How To Make A American Quilt on netflix. (loved that movie since junior high lol) and curled up cozy. It was soo nice and the yarn is soo yummy and it is knitting up very well and after the rush of the last one I am really just enjoying this simple 8 row repeat especially when 4 of them are just stockinette stitch.

Here she is for her close up isn't she pretty yummy malabrigo.

The two girls curled up together on monkey butts bed and watched rescuers (my sister brought over a bunch of old vhs tapes from Calvin so it is like all new movies super exciting for them) and this is fire monster today she has on a snow white costume and as a said snotty nose and if you look close drool on her chin. Her hair is pulled up into a messy pony because I didn't want to have to unstick it from her cheek boogers she keeps spreading all over no matter how many tissues I give her or how many times I blow wipe or suck out her little nose!!! ah the joys of motherhood but on a run to Walgreen's for Vick's I found they now have moisturizing wet wipe things for the crusties that will not hurt their little noses. I will let you know if they were worth it or stick to your normal wet wipes.

Here is the oooh so big monkey butt. She is sitting in her sisters boppy snuggling her (they use it all the time still lol) if you look in the back ground her kit doll is hanging out. Unbeknownced to her fire monster plays with her all weekend when she is gone at her dads that and her Nintendo ds. She is fresh home from her dads with the bags under her eyes to prove it. She always stays up Way to late.
and last but not least here is my sweet honey watching hockey after work. He did not want me to take this and banned me from putting it on my blog but.... I do what I want. Besides this is a very Ben look. The fuzzy at the bottom of the pic is fire monster walking toward him whining and wanting some thing.

Other then that nice quiet day. While I cooked migas for dinner Ben gave fire monster a bath with Vic's bath stuff. They were a big hit. I didn't even get a picture they went soo quick. But let me tell you figured out the nutritional info later. I am going to change it to cut and bake the tortillas and 4 egg whites 1 egg and mozzarella and less of it lol. It makes the difference of 600 something calories and 30 g fat to 230 cal and 5 grams of fat lol. Geez. Anyway it was delish.

Well people my girls are in bed and I am going to hang out with the hubby and turn in early. Hopefully we get better sleep tonight we gave fire monster Vic's ,nose spray ,nose sucking,and a teny tiny bit of benadryl (her doc has her take it for allergies she is huge allergies baby). I have some knitting to do. Maybe I will even take a shower today heck who knows weirder things have happened lol. Goal for this week get back to working out and get all the stinkin laundry put away lol.

I love saturdays

This would be why...

I started the day out by making cinnamon rolls from scratch (the pioneer woman's recipe and yes it was my splurge day) I made a big batch (even though I halved her recipe It would have made 7 pie pans full if I didn't!!!) It was great but next time a bit less sugar, a different yeast and I will use maple flavoring in the frosting instead of maple syrup. Anyway they were still great and I will definitely make them again. I had one then I packed up the big cake pan of them and drug them out to my favorite local yarn store (knitters palette) to share them. I knit there while the hubby worked out and fire monster was in the daycare.

It was great relaxing and I got quiet a bit done. I also made huevos ree-os since the cinnamon rolls were quiet a long process. It was great Ben and the fire monster loved them. She ate two lol. I had one on a 1 point bagel. (had to save my calories for the roll) anyway. It was a great start to the day. We swung to my hubby's Friends for a quick visit for his birthday and now I am .home watching deadliest catch and going to work on my project.

yummm...



here is link to recipe the the cinnamon rolls

here is the up close pic

This is the Juliana I am working on. It is a free berroco pattern.

it is gorgeous but here is the crazy part in between all the lacy parts is a stitch that will be dropped and allowed to unravel all the way to the beginning leaving a ladder. I chose to add a extra stitch in between the lace portion to have the portion in between ladders be more substantial looking. I also knit like 3 or 4 swatches and let me tell you if you are off by one stitch anywhere when you go to drop that stitch it will leave a huge hole in your knitting. ban news right so I am being super careful and I am using more stitch markers then usual.

Well guys long day I am exhausted and I really want to get some sleep my weekend is over now because the hubby works Sunday mornings and I will have to get up with the fire monster (not even monkey butt is here to help me out and grab her a muffin lol. ) So I am off to get some well needed beauty rest and dream of the cinnamon rolls me and fire monster will split for breakfast lol. Have a great weekend guys.

Hanami

Because I can't wait for tonight...

Here it is fresh off the blocking wires and draped in numerous places in my house. It is beautiful and I love it. It does my dear Friend justice I am very happy to say. The bead work is way more beautiful in person.

two posts in one

fish killer on the lose!!!

this is very different and not to be confused with the killer fish in Orlando (technically that was a huge mammal that lives in water) but anyway...this my Friends is the picture of a calculated killer. If you look closely you can see that the murder she committed this day is eating her alive!!! She killed in cold blood (because I think fish are cold blooded right) our two lovely family goldfish lily and Rocco who had lived a house hold record of 6 months!!!

Beneath this icy exterior lays the heart of a killer people you can't say I didn't warn you.

These here are the crime scene photos r.i.p. Rocco and lily rest assured that the monster who did this to you will be prosecuted to the full extent of her mom!!!

some body give this lady a gold medal dang it

So I did it...it is fully beaded, beautiful and is soaked and is blocking as we speak a full 24 hours ahead of schedule. I did it I feel like Lindsy Vonn crying at the finish line on her back!!! Injury's dirty house ,dirty children,and dead gold fish be damned I remembered all my training and I pushed until I got that gold darn it!!! It is soo beautiful I can't wait to take it to knit group tomorrow and show the ladies at my lys. I am too excited.

I think I needed a good day of closure I sat around feeling like I didn't know what to do this morning. I felt so bad about my Friend and his mom, not to mentions the whole goldfish and evil baby debacle yesterday. So I sat around in some leggings and a long dress (very crazy earth mother knitter lol if anyone remembers me talking about her) and knit my but off and finished not only my gorgeous hanami but the entire season of Harper's island. It was a very fulfilling day and my heart still sorta hurts for my friend and I am trying to put the fish out of my mind.

Well love you guys but gotta rest for my new project...Juliana out of malabrigo yummmm,

--aimeepowers

:.(

A very sad day

I had a rough rough day today. I got a call from one of my favorite people in the whole world today and he let me know his mom passed away. I am very heart broken. This was a family I was a part of for a while. His mom always told me I was as close as they had to family. My friend doesn't know his dad and has no other family to speak of (he has one brother around my age and they don't even really talk) So I can't even imagine what my friend is going through. At least when I lost my dad my mother was still alive to take care of things.

I would really like to get back there but after looking at school schedules, work schedules, tires and finances I am realizing it probably isn't gong to happen. I just want to go give my friend a big hug and help him get things done. So my hubby was gone by the time I got the news. I sat there and tried to figure out things and knit and watched Harper's island.

Then....fire monster set in. The little demon jumped on the counter I asked her to get down and was proceeding to the kitchen to bust her little butt when she opened the fish food I warned "not to even think about it" she grabbed a spoonful of fish food and threw it in the tank!!!!! I freaked. I yelled for monkey butt and then started to try to fix this. I had to clean and clean to get all the fish food out of the tank. I put the fish in a cup with some of the tanks water. I tried to be as careful as I could with the little guys. I was bawling and throwin things sitting on the floor crying in full melt down mode with fish tank rocks and fish water everywhere and a huge mess. I called my hubby at work freaking out. I was just angry, heartbroken.

I went to check on the beast and she was sucking on the paints full of watercolors and had it all over her face. I started to clean again and she came in and tried eating cat food I shooed her off and finished the clean up (we are just waiting for the fish to die completely so that we can flush them at this point) and started dinner. I made mac and cheese from cook this not that (I needed comfort food) I made two batches I added jalapenos and ham to one and left the other plain. But while the cheese sauce was cooking evea dumped the ham and jalapenos I had chopped all over the floor. So while trying to stir the bachmel sauce I had to chop the rest of the ham lunch meat up and more jalapenos!!!

I fed her put her in her bed with warnings of taking precious things from her and putting a door knob thing on the inside of her door. I am now going to sit here for a bit with my little life saver of a monkey butt who was soo great today snuggle her a bit longer and watch ree drummond on fox today (she made Cinnamon rolls) and then she will have to go to bed and I am going to climb into the tub for the rest of the night (hours and hours if I can help it) and watch some more Harper's island. and when my hubby gets home he is going to have to flush a few fish and tomorrow we will go get more.

I have no clue where I am ww points wise. I have one row of lace left to do then I am done with the chart for the day. I took some pics quick to show the progress. As I looked at them on the computer I can't help but think that there isn't a better stole to be knitting right now. The story behind this is the holes are supposed to be like cherry blossom petals being blown away on the wind. That some things beautiful is blown away in one big gust. I think that that is very very fitting for today because a beautiful loving person was just blown out of my life.

I think this stole will always remind me of Betty now. I will think of her every time I wear it. Well maybe tomorrow will be a better day.

Last minute push

progress..

So I haven't blogged since the dad in law and step mom came to visit. It was fairly brief and we went out to eat so I didn't have to play the happy hostess which was super wonderful because they invited the sister in law to eat out with us. If it would have been at my house I would have been way more strained to try to be a nice hostess. I just ate my dinner tried to be the bigger person and just take one for the team.

As a reward for my efforts the hubby (who was super proud of me for not being my self) put the girls to bed and fought the long fight while I took a nice long ( and I mean like hour and a half long) bubble bath while I watched dead like me on the lap top. (it makes me so happy to put it some where I can see it and climb in and relax)

Here is a picture I missed from family dinner and thought it was too darn cute not to put up. Me and the hubby of coarse :)

But since then I have been working furiously to catch up on my hanami. I have a few days left in the knit Olympics. I was 4 charts behind as of yesterday and I told my hubby not to count on me getting anything done. This was emergency time I had to push and catch up. So I neglected my chores (for the most part anyway some things must be done like feeding the children and what not)

By the end of the night I had a band aid wrapped around the top of my left index finger I wrap the yarn around when I knit ( the yarn was starting to cut my finger I had knit soo much soo long) and I only had a half a chart to make up. I am now on the chart I should be on today and only have half of it left. I will be totally caught up as of tomorrow. I took a break to blog because I have a splitting headache. I watched new in town and time travelers wife this afternoon while I caught up. I had such a stinkin head ache I had to take a break though. I will cook dinner and then get back at it. :)

Here is a very up close picture I took today to show you some of the lace and beading starting

Here is a look at the full thing so far..

and this shot I was trying to show off the beads if you look really hard you can see them shining in the light. I am going too cook dinner and get some things done around here since I only have a few hours work left..give or take and hope my headache is cleared up with the Advil and soda break :) I am still on points and doing well. I have not worked out yet this week everything is taking back burner until I am entirely caught up :)

Hope every one is having a lovely day.

Family dinner

Family Dinner

So this is what it looks like when we pull up to family dinner at my sisters house. I had to take this picture I think it is too funny that in Minnesota we have to dig out our mail boxes. Lol Sadly if has been forever since we have had any snowand it is still that bad.

Right away when I arrived my sister Melissa,her kids Lane,Megan(we call her mean we drop the g) and I ran some errands.(went to the book stores the beauty supply and the grocery store).

We got back home and start cooking while my brother in law and hubby ran to mcd's to get some fillet of fish's (this time of year it is a huge obsession for my hubby it has nothing to do with lent he is just cheap and loves fillet of fish's lol) so there went 11 points for me :( and we got back to cooking. This is a picture of my nephew Lane.


I made Norwegian coffee (my sister wanted to try it) and that helped give our grease laden body's some energy to keep cooking. This would be my sister Melissa enjoying her cup.

Me and my sisters are in the kitchen all day cooking and laughing and screwing around while the boys watch nfl network down stairs. The kids come and go and run wild. My niece Megan is a constant annoyance... I mean fixture in the kitchen. This is her sporting her new pink hair she got at alta earlier. :)

This is the guys area. Our adopted sister Lawna is being greeted by my sisters dogs (zoey the grey monster and Andy the big fat sausage of a lab) My sister is sitting by my brother in law who's birthday it was (happy bday Larry) and our adopted elderly man Sidney is in the red and black. He comes over and eats and listens to us women in the kitchen and tells us that "he has never met any women with dirtier minds" and tells our husbands they wouldn't believe the stuff we talk about. But he was a military man and I am pretty darn sure he is over exaggerating.

Here is when us women retire back to the kitchen. My sister is starting the margaritas. (hey don't judge us ..if you had to deal with 16 people in this house you would need a cocktail or two to get through to lol)

Here is mean back under toe lol

Then this here would be a picture of fire monster when her afternoon tired time hits her. She is throwing a fit and crying since she was kicked out of the bathroom where she goes to eat all the lip gloss and chap sticks.

So we bribed her with candy and sugar and sent her down to sit on her dads lap.

Here is when every one is dishing up. It was enchiladas burritos and rice and all sorts of delish stuff. There is Sidney snatching (I am sure a well deserving mean) All the others have cleared out already.

Here he is sitting at the table with us women listening to our filth and being offended when Lawna made some comment about a old folks home lol. If only I had my camera out for the expression on his face then lol.
This is Andy the pig waiting in the wings. He hides under the table like a crocodile hides under the water and you turn your head for one minute and *snatch* you just hear a snap of his massive crocodile jaws and your food is gone. I always say if you chew with your mouth open at my sisters house your food is gone.lol

Here is my other sister Angela getting her from the National Guard. She had a rough longer then usual day. She was very happy to see food left which isn't always the case when you are late for family dinner.


This is my nephew Calvin. He is less then a year younger then monkey butt. He stays a night at our house probably once a month and him and fire monster fight like cats and dogs. They have a very love hate relationship she loves him and he hates her so she (being my grandmother reincarnated tries to beat him into loving her lol) We are on the tail end of getting him diagnosed. He is mildly autistic and a huge part of all of our hearts and life.

This is big lar and lane. Big lar is helping clean up (even though he shouldn't have this week) normally the boys clean since we cook. And my nephew lane is talking to him about history.

This is us ladies sitting stuffed at the table chatting after dinner. (notice mean in the back ground) This was the last pic I could get of my sister Angela she threatened to give me a bloody nose like she did a girl in drill that day. She says Sean white looks like he could be her little sister and I think that is way too true and hilariously

Judging by the look on Melissa face in this picture it is probably do to something stupid my brother or his family did.

So there ends family dinner we packed up the fire monster (monkey butt is at her dads) and drove half hour home. Unloaded and went to bed. It takes days for my tummy to get back to normal after all the junk I eat lol. I love family dinner it is loud and crazy and sometimes there is even fights but My family (my sisters esp) are soo great and I love that my kids are so close with thier cousins) It is a great comforting thing. I love it so much and on the weeks we skip even though it is nice to have a break and it is peaceful I miss my family.

I was very nervous to step on the scale today. I lost one pound this week lol. No surprise since I didn't work out pretty much at all. Well I need to get ready for my dad in laws visit. Have a good day ladies.

norwedgian coffee

Norwegian coffee Saturday

So today was the day for testing out my new peculator by making Norwegian coffee. Here is how it goes:

you start with this here one egg some coffee (you can use a regular soup pot but I like to use a peculator)
fill the peculator pot with water mine was filled to 9c mark


use a tiny bit more coffee then you would in your average coffee pot (i usually would use 2T i used 3T) break the egg open and mix into grounds also throw in the shell and use the back side of spoon to mash us very well then add a splash of cold water (few T spoons)

pour it into the basket in pot and close her all back up
(I have found that if you spray some non-stick spray in the basket before pouring it in the clean up is easier and I dont think it affects the taste at all)




This is my kitchen on a typical thurs. or sat. morning (my hubbys weekend days) I am making pancakes ( a few chocolate chip ones thrown into the fire monsters I am hoping it will sweeten her up a bit lol) and I have turkey bacon (yeah I know turkey bacon sucks but you would be surprised what you can make seem good after watching what you eat for almost two months now)

Here is the fire monster pancake (I let her eat on my daisy plate)
As for the coffee you let it perk until you see that the color in the little bubble in the top is a nice dark golden color. It will be lighter then your typical coffee but far darker then tea. I strain mine through my reusable coffee filter as i pour it into our cups (it isn't a must but I am anal like that) And there you have it a very smooth delish cup of coffee. Dunkin dark is awesome with out but there is a chemical reaction that the acidity in the coffee bonds with the egg and shell and makes it smoother and easier on your tummy.

It is a great great weekend treat for sure. This is how the hubbys looks he takes his black

I take a splenda and a splash of sugar free fat free hazelnut cream (I know it looks like more then a splash but the coffee is actually very clear and golden more then it looks in the hubbys cup it is because the egg helps filter it better.) it is very yummy. And just to set the record straight I took it off to early the first time and it looked more like tea put it back on it was perfect and then poured me and the hubby a cup and went to pour the rest into our insulated coffee pot to keep it warm and spilled my cup so had to make a whole nother pot since i waisted two out of 4 cups worth of coffee (not to mention a nice big mess)


Here is my breakfast I have two smallish pancakes made with the heart smart Bisquick and some turkey bacon. By the way I find the best way to make crappy turkey bacon the most like real bacon is to lightly grease a glass baking dish with canola oil and then bake it in there til looks like that nice and crisp. (meh it works)

Here is the end product. Well I am off to grab another cup of coffee before my hubby gets to it and then lay around for a while knitting and watching tv before i have to get up and go to my sisters for family dinner. We are all making Mexican for her hubbys b-day. My red haired sis will be at guard til later this afternoon (national guard) so it will mostly be me and my other sis cooking. I hear the hubby and fire monster practicing singing happy bday to uncle Larry while she is in the tub how cute is that lol.

Tomorrows post a family dinner chronicled...