I have been knitting

It may seem like the construction and kids took over this blog and it did briefly but I have been knitting between loads of laundry. I have finished the clapotis. Lorna's Laces Lion and Lamb in the Safari colorway. I used 3 skeins by eliminating one increase and one decrease section of the pattern. I love how it turned out with an animal print color mix. I can tell this is going to be one of my new favorites.

Made M a pr. of purple socks out of Jitterbug yarn.

Started and finished (but not blocked) my sister-in-laws Christmas present. It is made from Handmaiden Sea Silk in the rose garden colorway. Beautiful yarn and pattern but will be better when blocked. The weather has been so gloomy lately so the color quality of the picture is poor, sorry.

I can post a picture because I know she doesn't read here.

I am still working on the MS3 and hoping to get it done for a Christmas present. No pictures because this person does read the blog. I have two socks on progress, one for Z and one for A. I am motivated to get them done so I can make another pair for myself. I love knitting for the kids but I also love putting on the socks when completed and their feet are too small for me to do try-ons.

I started a dark red sweater for myself for Christmas but I am not sure I am going to keep going with it. I am right on for gauge, making the size my bust calls for but I have this haunting feeling that it is going to be too tight and not look good one me. Part of this may be the pattern I have chosen. I love the look but will it look as good on a size 14 waist as it does on the model? I have not had good much with making sweaters for myself. I usually look like a balloon in them...making a big body look even bigger. I admit that I have only made 3 sweaters so far but I have been less than pleased with all of them. I want to keep trying though. I know the style that would look good on me but can't find a pattern for it. I guess I need to design it myself....

So there has been a lot of knitting going on in this house.

Mondays and Thursdays are laundry days.

I ask the kids to bring down the laundry from their rooms. K, my oldest, comes up laughing to herself..."Mom, Your laundry room exploded." The pile is 1/2 way up my washer and to the door.

I had all the laundry caught up on Monday.

Construction is complete

Well almost. We have a few (two notebook pages) of minor things to touch up or finish. Here are some pictures:

First a "before" picture. This was my little kitchen and behind me was my small dining room. We couldn't all sit down at once to eat. So aside from summer when we ate outside on the picnic tables each night, the last 18 months we have eaten in shifts. We fed the kids first and then Vince and I would sit down when there was room for us at the table.

This is my new Large kitchen. It has chip board counter tops and bar right now. The granite will be installed next week. Purple you say? Yes! Purple. Love, love, love it.

My new dining room table that my dad made for us. It was hard to get it all in the picture. It is 4 ft. x 12 ft. long. We can seat 16 around it and he built it in two pieces so we can separate it in the middle and seat 4 more for a total of 20 people. There is a bench he also made in the back to seat the "little butts". Yup, more purple in the curtains on a dark yellow wall.

My new pantries and desk area. See the gas fireplace in the kitchen? I am always cold so it feels cozy to turn it on in the morning while the kids are eating breakfast and getting ready for school. There are 8 bar stools that will allow seating at the bar (when it is installed next week.) Spiced pumpkin color on the wall.

New family room downstairs. Vince and I have a running joke. I got bright colors upstairs for my kitchen and he chose brown tan and tan for his room. He still says his room is better because what you can't see in this picture is the new flat screen hanging on the wall.

We love our new space.

Homecoming suit

Filip got a new suit for the Homecoming dance.
He makes this suit look good.


The GQ pose:

He had multiple girls fighting for his invitation to the dance. We aren't telling his girlfriend back in Slovakia about that.

Bad Blogger

I haven't posted in a while...I have been a little preoccupied with ceramic tile, wood floors, window sizes, types of doors, kitchen cabinets...you get the picture. In the last three weeks my beautiful backyard has gone from this:

to this:

to this:

We are adding a two story addition that will be a new dining room on top and family room on the bottom. My current kitchen/dining room will be a glorious big, new kitchen. But in the mean time...they took out my kitchen on Monday. No sink, dishwasher, stove or microwave. The refrigerator remains plugged in by an extension cord. We do have a gas grill. Meal times are a little interesting right now.

We moved the picnic tables into the garage and we are temporarily using it to eat in. Does anyone else have a Harley in their dining room?

New family member

I am very behind in posting this (since he has been here almost a month already) but we are now a family of 11...at least for the next 10 months. Filip came to live with us from Slovakia for a year. He is going to the local high school and trying really hard to make the hockey team. Other than living in Canada for a few years I know almost nothing about hockey but we are ready to learn. I think it has something to do with KNOWING someone on the ice that makes it more interesting.

Vince gave him a ride on the bike. We told him to look mean:

That's why he isn't smiling. It is a big change for him to go from having one brother in Slovakia to having 8 sibs in the US but all is going better than expected.
He isn't smiling here either. He isn't a fan of horses and didn't want his picture taken with one. We are enjoying pushing him out of his comfort zone. But really he does smile a lot... just not for the camera. It must be a Slovakian thing.

Last One's First Day

Can you hear that? It is silence. My youngest is at his first day of school. He is afternoon only Kindergarten. This morning took FOREVER! He knew he would go to school after lunch so starting at 9:30 he asked me every 10 minutes if it was lunch time yet. This was his face when it was time to go to the bus stop:


The bus was on time but we were a few minutes early. He kept asking when the bus was coming:

At last...

I had to yell at him to turn for the camera:

I missed the face but caught the hand. I doubt he was looking at me anyway. His thoughts are all on school.

Loopy Goes Biker

Loopy (from the Loopy Ewe: http://www.theloopyewe.com/) was a special guest on our bike trip. Here are a few pictures from his camera:

Loopy was very excited for his first trip to Sturgis. Here he is posing in front of a welcome sign.

He learned very quickly that you never, NEVER sit on someone's bike. Not even to pose for a cool picture.

He decided it was better to look from a distance.

It was hot and he wanted to sit down and have a cold one but, they ID everyone and Loopy left his wallet on the bike. Bummer.

After a day in Sturgis he packed up and headed to Dillon Colorado. From Dillon Loopy took in the mountains. His first stop was the Hoosier pass.

Loopy loved the mountain views.

He rode the cog train up to Pike's Peak.

And was impressed by the view of Colorado Springs from the top.

Always the tourist he needed a shot by the dated sign at the top of the peak.

He rode with us up Hwy 125 to Rand, CO. Loopy couldn't decide if this was a cabin made into a garage or a garage made into a cabin.

Loopy can't get enough of the mountain shots.

Don't worry. Loopy didn't get into trouble. He was just chatting with the local law.

A trip up to Loveland pass and back through the Eisenhower tunnel and Loopy was ready to head back to Minnesota.

He didn't stay long though. He was here one day to unpack and do laundry and he was off again. This time he traveled to the Iowa State Fair. The Bruxvoort brothers hold a family reunion and he thought it would be fun to camp at the fair for a night. He met lots of fun people and had amazing food. The Bruxvoort's are know for their good food.

Loopy traveled 3800 miles in 10 days. But he isn't done yet. Next week he will go with Karen, Vince and their 9 kids down to Omaha, NE to a State Park for 4 days. He can't wait to post more pictures when he gets back.

Finally home!

It has been while since I have been home and longer since I have posted here. We left August 2nd for our 8 day trip on the motorcycle. We decided to trailer the bikes rather than ride them out so we could maximize our riding time. Our first stop was at our friend's "cabin" in the Black Hills. This was like no cabin I have ever stayed at! The place was so beautiful complete with a view of Mount Rushmore out the kitchen window. Here we are relaxing on the deck and grilling steaks:

The next day we rode an hour to Sturgis. It was Pre-Sturgis weekend so a few of the attractions weren't open yet but there were plenty of vendors and we got our shopping done. The crowds wouldn't come in for a day or two yet so parking and moving around were quite easy:

Saturday we loaded up the trailer and drove most of the day to Dillon, Colorado. Dillon would be our central point in which we would ride in 4 different directions the next 4 days. It was around 4:00 pm when we got to the hotel and we unloaded the bikes:

Sunday morning we started out with sunshine and went to an outdoor amphitheatre for a community church service. We couldn't help but be awe struck and worship when surrounded by this??:

We took off to tour Breckenridge but got rained on shortly after arriving and had to make it a short day:

The dark clouds rolled in and we got poured on as we were heading back to the hotel. As we headed into Dillon we thought it had snowed! Everything was covered in white. It wasn't snow. It was hail! We were glad we missed the hail, it would have hurt on the bike.

When we were heading back on the Dillon Dam Road we rounded a corner and a car was flashing it's lights at us. We slowed down and came around the next bend and rocks had slid off the mountain. Vince was leading so he was weaving through the rocks and we heard a large crack. Right in front of us a large rock rolled across both lanes and crashed against the guard rail. It missed our front tire by only a few feet. If it would have hit us, we would have laid the bike down causing damage to the bike or worse - injury to us. We stopped and took pictures and later went back to get the rock:

It is now in my flower garden.

It rained again Tuesday so we took the cars and went to Pikes Peak on the cog train:

At the top Vince went out on the cliff to have a better view (He is the orange jacket):

I stayed firmly on the solid ground:

Wednesday was very rainy and cold (again) but we did get out a few hours on the bike. When it got really wet we went back and walked around Breckenridge in the rain and shopped for souvenirs.

Thursday we finally had sun. It was cool but promised to get warmer as the day progressed. We found highway 125 and had a beautiful ride though the bull moose the locals said was living there was hiding from us. We stopped in Rand, CO and had fun with the local shop owner before turning around and heading to the Rocky Mountain National Park.

It was such a nice day we didn't stop for any meals. We got snacks while filling up with gas and kept riding. We ended up in Loveland pass and went through the Eisenhower tunnel on the way back to the hotel. We biked 9.5 hours that day. I was a little (a LOT) saddle sore by the end of the day:

Hwy 125:

Thursday morning we left Dillon at 4:30 am and drove all day (minus and hour for breakfast and 1/2 hour for dinner) and got home at 1:10 am Friday morning. If my calculations are right that is 19.5 hours in the car with the time change. Way, way WAY too long.

Friday we picked up the kids, picked up our exchange student, Filip, and unpacked. Saturday I took the 3 oldest girls and drove down to Iowa for the State Fair. The first Saturday of the fair is my family reunion. My dad has 5 brothers and 4 of them camp at the fair. We have cousins all over and it is the one time of the year that we get together:

In past years we have had 45-50. This year there were 38. (7 of the missing were mine!) There were 3 new babies to pass around. It was very hot but we had a great time. Being with family is always a special time.