Maryland Sheep & Wool 2014

Seriously been awhile...again.

This past weekend was the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival.  Otherwise known as my yearly yarn buying extravaganza.  :)

I bought way way too much again.  I had high hopes of not getting a ton but that flew out the window as soon as I stepped foot in Miss Babs booth.


Here is my haul from the weekend

The top two are my haul from Miss Babs, then Verdant Gryphon & I FINALLY found some Wollmeise!  I couldn't believe it when I saw the sign.   I was bummed last year when I found out it was there the day after I was there.   I had no clue they'd be there this year, apparently it was someone's stash from an estate sale.  Let me say, I'd have loved to have whoever it was stash.  OMG. I couldn't imagine having that much yarn let alone that much Wollmeise!

My fiber from Loop.  My original intentions were to buy mostly fiber this year in order to make myself use my wheel I bought at a previous sheep & wool.  That didn't work out so well.

Finally two paintboxes from Fiber Optic.  The picture doesn't do these colors justice.  Just wow.

A Few of My Recent Obsessions

Things that I am currently addicted to....

• knitting ALL the things...seriously. I can not stop knitting.   I have started at least 4 projects in the past week.   In my defense I have finished two of those four things.   We won't talk about all the finished projects that still need blocked....

• Dexter.  I'm not really sure HOW I missed this show when it was on but I did.  I must have been hiding under a rock somewhere.  I do not recommend binge watching this show.  After a Dexter marathon this weekend, I went to Walmart  and for a split second I thought Dexter's FBI tail was following me when I spotted a Lincoln Crown Vic driving behind me ;)

• Reading ABOUT knitting.  Seriously, if I spent more time actually knitting I'd have a lot more stuff done this week.  I can not stay off of Ravelry. 

• Downton Abbey.  I'm so excited its time for season 4 to air in America!  I have episode 1 patiently waiting on my DVR for me.  I can't wait to have more time to actually watch it.  Of course I'm also participating in a KAL (knit a long) from Ravelry while watching this season ;) 

Knitting in the New Year

Wow.

How did it go from August to January once again?

The holiday season seems like it was here and gone no time.   Every year I swear I'm going to focus more on doing the little things and it never happens.  It seems with shopping, decorating,  still keeping up with school, sports and work it never happens. 

Now that we are finished with the rush of the holiday season, I have refocused on getting some knitting finished.   It's only the first full week of the new year and I have already finished not 1 but 2 projects!  One of them I can't post about here because its for my knitting group gift swap.   

This one however, is one I just decided to do after doing a Ravelry search for a pattern for the yarn I had.  

Its not the greatest picture, it was hard to capture the different colors in the yarn.   It was such a quick fun knit, I will absolutely be doing it again.

My main knitting goal for this year (as with last year) is to finally use up the majority of my yarn stash.  I don't have a CRAZY amount of stash yarn but I have enough that its starting to bother me.  

Football Saturday!

I was just going through posts & for some reason this didn't publish last weekend...So here you go, an update on the boys' first games of the season!


Today was both boys' first official football games!  I'm so upset but I didn't get many pictures of Coles game.   We were running a little behind &  I had to text Ryan to bring my camera.  I made sure to have him check that it had a memory card but I should have had him grab a spare.  I snapped off maybe 4 pictures & I got the dreaded message that it was full.   I did delete some but it was too hard to see the screen & see if they were ones I wanted to keep. 

 

 

 

This is really the only decent one of him.  The rest were team shots.  Cole is #47.  He's so friggin cute in his uniform :)  He is the smallest guy on the team.  I can't wait until football really clicks with him & he grows into that uniform.  I think he will be pretty unstoppable ;)

 

 

 



Logan was playing center (the guy with his hand on the ball).  He's 2nd string but he eventually made it into the game around the 3rd or 4th quarter.  He did great! No missed snaps & he kept his guy back long enough for the qb to get the ball out. 

My Boys

Monday marked the first day of school for both of my boys.   I can't believe how quickly time is flying by.  Logan will be entering the 4th grade & Cole Kindergarten. 

Where has this time gone?

It feels like yesterday Logan was the one just entering school.  I remember that first year,  I was so unsure of myself at school.  It was my first time being there since I had finished 5th grade back in 1990.  I wasn't sure how to embrace the 'grown up' roll.  I've finally gotten over that feeling, sometimes now I think I should have my own parking space there ;) Or at least be collecting a paycheck ;)

Now all these years later, I find my memories of the school are being overshadowed by new memories.  I'll be working in one of the pods trying to remember which teacher was were & who was in my classes & I start listing in my head, the current teachers & students. 

I am so incredibly thankful that I am able to be involved at school, I love that I 'know' most of the kids in Logan's grade & I can't wait to be that familiar with the kids in Coles'.  I'm so grateful for the friendships that we've both made, friendships that have carried over to our many other activities. 

I'm very curious to see how Cole handles this transition into school.  I don't worry about Cole making friends, that is one thing that Cole has covered.  That boy can go ANYWHERE & have an instant friend in about 5 minutes.  I envy that part of his personality.  The things I'm worried about with Cole are his behavior (that's #1).  The thing with Cole is once he is comfortable in a situation, he can be kinda crazy.  However one thing he doesn't like is getting trouble. :)  I'm also worried about him being lost or not sure of where to go.  Now he's not going to have much chance to be roaming free through the halls of the school but once he's on his own to find his way to class, I worry.  I worry about when he's stuck on something & just wants his brother.  He told me the other day that when school work gets to hard he'll just ask his brother for help.  I think he thinks he'll be able to just march down the hall and get Logan.  With Coles personality I honestly wouldn't put it past him. 

Logan, OTH, has always marched to the beat of his own drummer.  I remember worrying constantly about him having friends.  He's not much of a social butterfly.  He has friends but mostly a core group.  He's not one to easily make friends, not at all like Cole.  I remember once asking him if kids picked on him, I believe he was in 1st grade and he was constantly talking about 4th & 5th graders on the buss.  He said "Idk, I don't care if they do, that's their problem if they don't like me, not mine."  I remember being blown away by his response.  How could my 6 year old be so friggin wise, when I at, 30 years old couldn't even begin to think that way if I felt slighted by someone?   Even this year going to look at the class lists & going over the names of the kids in his class, I asked him if he was upset that he was mostly split up from his friends.  He said "no."  I would have been devastated.  Maybe its a girl/boy thing, maybe my son just has more self confidence then me. 

I often think about each of these distinct characteristics my boys have & wonder how to make sure they don't get taken from them.  I hope that nobody ever breaks them & makes them lose this self confidence they both seem to have that I am sorely lacking.

I also hope that nothing EVER destroys this bond they have with each other.  Now, don't get me wrong the can fight & fight bad but at the end of it, they still remain the best of friends.  I don't know how Logan ever was by himself & Cole wouldn't know what to do without Logan. They share a room, not by necessity but by choice.  When we remodeled their room, we gave them both the choice of rooms and they both decided together that they wanted to stay together.   They have bunk beds but sleep in one.  They both insist that when they grow up they are living together.  Not with wives or girlfriends but they are remaining single.  They have told me they are living here, not sure where Ryan & I are going, they'll probably throw us in a nursing home for the house.  However, my mom just told me that they have laid claim to my parents house when they grow up.

 Its probably the better choice, its newer and has a pool ;)

The Boys of Fall

Football has been well underway since the end of July.   Today was a super football extravaganza day, both boys' had scrimmages against the 'rival' team. 

For Cole it was 'just' another scrimmage, I mean come on he's FIVE! ;)  He is doing OK,  football isn't coming as easy to him as most everything else does & its frustrating to him.   Though I think next year he will be a force to be reckoned with.  He just needs time to grow into those pads & helmet. 

Logan, on the other hand, this scrimmage meant more.

  He is at the Pee Wee level, this is his second year there.  Last year he was on the JV team & honestly we all went into this year assuming he would be on the JV team again.  That's one of the ways we talked him into playing this year, he loves that coach and wanted to play for him again.

This year it seemed to take longer for the team to split, no real announcement was made at practice concerning who was JV/Varsity but about last week I think, a group of them were split off to the JV side, mostly first year kids from what I could tell.  Logan, however was still with the Varsity coaches & other kids that were Varsity.  Then talk came that the Varsity coach had 6 kids on the 'bubble' between the two teams.  As far as I know no names were actually mentioned or mentioned to the kids, but we all assumed Logan was a bubble kid. 

As the week wore on, we were all getting anxious, Logan, wouldn't really admit it but I think he was hoping to make the Varsity team.  The coach had made the announcement that after this weekends scrimmage, he would make his cut & if you were told to get your Varsity jersey you were on the team. 

We had seen a marked difference in him so far this year, Logan isn't exactly the greatest, most coordinated athlete.  He acts like he doesn't care & has no real LOVE for any sport though he does admit to liking football and always has.   This year he's been different, he's been doing things I've never seen before from him.  He CARES about something, he's trying. 

So today came, I was a nervous wreck the whole day.  My stomach was in knots every time he'd take the field.  Amazing things were happening, he was actually TACKLING the kid with the ball!!  I couldn't believe it!!  And it was even the kid on the OTHER team with the ball ;)  (just kidding, he's not THAT bad that he'd actually tackle his own QB or RB)

The end of the game came, the coach called the kids to the sideline.  I thought I would puke....

The kids were dismissed & Logan calmly walked up the ramp & said, "come on, mom"   I couldn't read his face, I didn't want to just ask him, I didn't know what to do.  Then he turned the corner & said, "come on, we have to go up here."

The uniform room....

He actually friggin got it!!  I didn't know what to say or do.  I was waiting up there with him & I just needed/wanted someone to tell me YES, he is on Varsity!  I was still a wreck when Logan walked up to the coach for his uniform, thinking that he was gonna say "oh, wait, no you are on JV." 

Now please don't misunderstand, I'd have been perfectly happy on JV & believe me there maybe posts as the season wears on complaining about Varsity, I'm sure there will ;)  You just haven't seen Logan this past week, I can't stress enough how he's been trying.  I just can't.  I can't tell you how much he NEEDED this. 

Excuse the crappy picture/goofy looks.  Everyone was a little loop from spending roughly 7 hours at the football field today. 

After he got his uniform & I'm still unsure what all just happened, he heads down the steps.  The JV team was waiting to come up & get their stuff & I hear this convo, "Hey, (our last name) how'd you make Varsity? I thought you were coming down to JV?" said in an extremely snotty tone.  Logan didn't answer the kid, if he did it was just a 'dunno' and kept walking. 

As soon as I heard this I headed down & the kid shut his mouth & at that point wasn't sure who it was.  Logan later told me who it was.

  Of course at the time I'm biting my tongue not saying a word because everything I WANT to say isn't something an adult should say to a kid, but I couldn't come up with anything adult like to say.  I wanted to say 'jealous much?' Or the one that took me until about an hour ago to think of, "what position do you play"  (pretty sure its center), then say "oh, well you do KNOW if he was on JV, he'd have your spot." 

Yeah, probably neither one is the most appropriate. 


I just wish I had the strength Logan does.  All these hours later & it still pisses me off.  I asked Logan later if it bothered him and he said no, that kids an idiot.

I just hope he can use that, use the shitty things people may say to him, to make him better.

 He may have earned his spot on the team but now he needs to earn his spot on the field.

End of Summer Recap

Hello out there! 


Things are CRAZY here.

We've had a pretty good, busy spring/summer.

The boys were both playing baseball.  Cole was also playing soccer and working on his ice hockey skills,  he played for a beginner team and  is now signed up for the next level up for the fall.

Football is in full swing for both boys.

Its hard to believe school will be starting in a few weeks, I'm not ready.    It seems like the summer has just begun but its now coming to an end. 

I would like to still be sitting here....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The boys & I went to the beach the beginning of July with my mil for the first time.  It was a blast, the boys loved it like I knew they would.   They are already looking forward to going back next year but taking Dad along.  He's not a big beach fan, so that should be fun. :)

 

 

 

I did the Color Run in Philadelphia on my birthday with one of my oldest friends.  It was a super fun time, though it would have been better if I didn't come down with a stomach bug the day before.  Luckily by the day of the run I didn't feel so bad anymore or so tired.   I can't wait to (hopefully) do it next year.