part 2...

fire monster on the beach looking tiny as ever
fire monster on rocks looking even more tiny

Shelby and Dylon hanging out.

one of may beautiful falls we hiked to..

another ...

another...

look at this glowing little goddess of mine :)

here is where we hiked 5 miles up a mountain and the view at the top before we had to hike down.

some really cool stuff we saw

one last look at the beach before we headed back home. It was such a great weekend for everyone and I am very proud that we all did it together and what that means for all the great kids involved esp my little monkey butt.

green smoothie

So here is a example of my green smoothie that I have been drinking for my green smoothie challenge. It is a cup of spinach a cup of watermelon and kiwi. Some times some other things like today it had some strawberries and raspberries oranges watermelon and spinach what ever and some ice and water.

You blend it up and there you have it

It turns out something like this. I have been drinking two of these a day for 4 days now. I use my little magic bullet guy because it is convenient and easier to clean then my other one. I am still working out like crazy I went to the gym and did bosu this morning. It is a 45 minute class but it kicks your butt big time. I love the Tuesday teacher :) I also ran yesterday 2min walk 2 run this week I am feeling good about it. I do a mile around the neighborhood.

My knitting is going really slow I just get the feeling that these aren't what they should be. I have been reading the girls Percy Jackson and the lightning thief. So far I have been loving it. There was a chapter where 3 witches knit the socks of death lol Have to love that right. But I need to try to force the little fire monster to get ready for bed. She has been in rare form and making me extra crazy. Well I hope everyone is well I am off to watch biggest loser :)P

autism 5K

Saturday was the day me and my whole family were entering and either walking or running the autism 5k. Mostly we were doing it to show our support for our beloved Calvin but there are many many people we were thinking of too have been effected by this. One out of every one hundred kids is diagnosed with autism and every 15 seconds a child is being diagnosed with it. But yet it isn't covered by insurance. My nephews family and tons and tons of children out there can't get any sort of therapy or support of any kind. The bill to make it insurable was denied by 5 votes this year!!! Isn't that absolutely heart breaking. But I did the math and between what my brother in law raised and what we donated to enter the race it was over 350$ so there is a bit more to help the cause at least. Next year I bet we can triple that we just weren't thinking this year. :)

This is us before the race. (clockwise from top left) my sisters Angela and Melissa then ,Lane Megan, Larry ,Shelby (monkey butt) ,Evea (firemonster) and Calvin.

In the other one we didn't have Lawna she is our sister we took under our wing (kind of by force it is like a boarder line head lock really lol) she is in the blue jacket

For part of the race in the beginning Calvin and Shelby were holding hands and running it was very cute



but eventually they lost focus got tired shelby started to complain and Calvin got distracted by every thing lol he had to ask every dog that went by its name. but the two big kids walked the whole 3 miles. Larry and Lawna ran ahead of us. Big Lar as we all call him started running this year. He is doing sooo great he ran the 5 k in just over 30 minutes and Lawna was not too long after him. We all walked with the kids and the stroller and came in absolutely dead last lol. Poor Shelby had to go # 2 for the whole last mile she sprinted up to a out house that was probably a good 10 yards from the finish line we all waited out for her and she came out crying there was no toilet paper and she walked bold legged across the finish line with us and went to find another out house with toilet paper lol. By the time we got to the end all the food and prizes were gone (apparently they think all kids with autism are fast no one told them how easily distracted they are lol) So we had one bag of chips and headed out

We all went to lunch went home and BBQ and played some badminton. :) It was great it was wonderful my family is amazing I love that 90 % of us made it (Ben got forced into mandatory over time and my dumb brother was "car shopping") So yeah it was good stuff I am proud of every one My heart swelled and tears came to my eye many times that day. I am one of the luckiest people in the world when I am surrounded by my family.

Today is day 3 of my green smoothie challenge (1 liter a day for 14 days) I have had one bad one (romaine lettuce watermelon strawberry's and honeydew (too slimy) one good one watermelon honeydew and spinach. I will let you know how today's is.

a nice rainy morning

So it was another rainy morning here in twin cities MN. I got up busted my hump to get everyone fed dressed and to the YMCA by 9:15 for the bosu class that me and my girlfriend were supposed to take (she didn't make it!!!) I made it through although I sweat so bad I actually saw it dripping off me and onto the ground (icky!!! I know)

As me and the girls dashed out the door to head for home it really started to pour. We grabbed a snack and did chores. I love love love a sparkling kitchen on a rainy day.

Take note of the cute new tea pot I got from monkey butt for mothers day ( isn't she sweet she made her dad go out to buy it on their visit this last weekend) It matches my canisters very cute

Now that I got monkey butt off to kindergarten this is what the rest of the house is doing. Notice how she is rubbing her ear which is what she does when she gets tired. I am pretty sure I am going to make her help me clean her messy room later this afternoon but she can enjoy a rainy day for now.

Even this guy is in hiding lol...

As for me I am going to do a bit of the same and maybe work on these things and maybe a little deadliest catch.

and if it ever stops raining I am going to drag my two ladies out on a walk / run to gear up for the autism 5 k on Saturday that my whole family is walking :) have a good day guys.

firemonsters tiny toast

So some times last fall we were at the park and I had knit monkey butt some wrist warmers and I was really wishing I had made holes for the thumbs so that she could play and still have her fingers to grip ladders and swings and what not but I also wanted them to be leg warmers should the mood strike her. So I improvised these in fire monsters size from left over sock yarn..

the sock yarn is regia and it isn't the softest but it is very durable and too stinkin cute the resist

She is 2t right now
Here they are as leg warmers.

So the patterns is simple as pie.

with size 1 needles co 40 st join in the round and knit 2x2 ribbing (k2,p2) for 6 rounds then knit until are desired length from thumb ( I did hers so them can be used as full sleeves) Then do I one row button hole I bo 5 stitches for her tiny fingers you may need to do one more. Then knit two rows even and 6 more rows of 2x2 ribbing and do a sewn bo. They are simple and very cute and practical. They work for boys or girls too. :)

and that is that

This is the sock yarn I am going to use to knit monkey butts teachers gift for the end of the year she chose fan and feather socks. :)

darning socks

So the other day I saw the most brilliant post on darning socks. I had to make one of my own. I love my hand knit socks and so does my hubby and I can't seem to make my self part with them so I have always patched them and done things to make them last better but this was very smart.

So since I am a bit crazy I have all my left overs from socks kept in baggies and stored for just this sort of emergency (either that or they are made into socks for monkey butt and fire monster)


So here are the hubbies favorite malabrigo socks that have sprung another hole from being worn so many times. I stuck a light bulb inside

threaded the needle with some left over yarn and worked into the strong part of the sock and went back and forth very close together.
ps there was only one word spell checker had to fix this post wooohooo

then went the other direction weaving in and out.


then diaganol because there was still gaps. And it patched the hole up. This one isn't the pretties out of many holes I did that day but it works and my hubby has his favorite socks back :)

here is another large hole he wore into them I cut the unhealthy part and then picked up stitches knit a patch and grafted it all togather that is smoother and prettier but it what ever works right. All that matters is they are still wearable :) Well have a good weekend guys

cinco de mayo

So I made these lovely socks just in time for mothers day. They are made from the lovely knit picks yarn that was gifted to me for my birthday from the lovely Lynn.

They are very girlie and soft and lacy

I really enjoyed the pattern once I got it correct the one I was following didn't have the purl stitches and it kept throwing me off but I do love it now.

So there you have them the fan and feather socks. I spent the beginning of my cinco de mayo finishing them. After I went to the gym and took two zumba classes in a row. Zumba is Latin dancing (salsa, Miranda and such) and belly dancing. Then once that two hours was up I went out for some el toro with the family. :) well I am off to the gym to take my fitness yoga class then go grab a new phone mine has officially died. :( Next post will be on repairing (darning) holes in socks. That is how I spent the afternoon and evening yesterday.