Shop Open!

With some wonderful encouragement from my husband I have finally gotten some of my handspun together and posted for sale in my Etsy shop. I have called the shop Grape Sheep and hopefully I will be able to sell some of my homemade yarns there. Eventually I'd like to post some of my bears as well - but I have to make a few first. So even if you are not interested in buying, please check it out and let me know what you think! I have a link on my sidebar ---> so give it a go!

Time flies

I can't believe it's been a whole week since I posted. This week (and weekend) went by really fast.

Craft stuff:
I have been spinning on my Turkish some more and last I posted I had 2 completed hanks. As of this morning I have 3 complete hanks and another cop of singles almost done. Before I go to bed tonight I hope to have finished plying and setting this yarn (hopefully it will be the last hank - I am enjoying the spinning but I am really ready to start knitting with it).
I also finished the body of one of my teddy bears and now I have to stuff it and call my friend to come and pick it up.

Food stuff: We tried a new recipe this week (on Wednesday) - Brian made butter chicken wich is an indian dish made with onions, tomato sauce, diced tomato, a bit of cream, roast chicken and some spices (those are just the basics) all together in a sauce and served over basmati rice.
On Thurday Andrew and Eldon came over and Andrew cooked - he had some left over smoked Turkey and made us enchilada's it was quite good.
On Friday Brian made hollandaise sauce and we had eggs benedict with crab instead of ham - it was fabulous. Totally worth the time to make the sauce from scratch and shell the crab. The kids did not have any crab (shellfish, young kids, yada yada) but they seemed to enjoy it also.

Family stuff:
On Friday Jacob went with Julie and Ron for his weekly Grandpa Day. Normally it's on Thursdays but Julie had Friday off and wanted to spend some time with him too. They also had Eve (Jake's cousin) so the kids got to play together. Fridays are the start of Brian's weekend as well (damn economy...4 day weeks for quite a while, but he still has a job thank god and he gets to spend more time with the kids). So we puttered around the house until after Abby woke up from her nap and headed to Red Robin for lunch (gift certificate from Christmas - it only cost us like 10 bucks out of pocket). Then we thought it would be fun to take Abby to the 'baby animal playground' at the mall. So we wandered in there and let her run around. This place is really great for the smaller toddlers out there. All soft and cushy but still firm enough to climb on. Then we wandered into Victoria Secret and I ended up buying a new bra. I am so happy I did - I forgot how comfortable VS bras are (they damn well better be for 40+ bucks a pop). Then Brian went and picked up the tabs for his truck and we met at the grocery store to pick up stuff for dinner.
On Saturday we woke up and were hanging around the bedroom with the kids and Brian asked what I wanted to do for the day. I said, "I don't know, it looks like a really nice day, let's do something with the kids, like NW Trek or something." After a few minutes in his office (at the computer I assume) he came in and said "ok, let's go. They open at 9:30, lets try to leave the house by 9" I am thinking 'awesome!!!' So I got the kids ready to go and then I made a quick breakfast of scrambled eggs and cheese with some english muffins. 20 minutes later we were there. Now I had never been to NW Trek so I didn't really know what it was going to be like and I had a ton of fun. First we saw a golden eagle, and through the trees we saw the bald eagle on our way to the tram station. While waiting for the tram Jake kinda freaked out and decided he didn't want to go because "the moose has big eyes" (which I thought was weird because he has never seen a moose before). We told him that he would get to see a squirrel if he went on the 'bus-train' After we started seeing animals he started to get less afraid and more excited when he realized they couldn't hurt him. Let's see we saw: Moose, Bison, Elk, Mountain Goats, Big Horned Sheep, Deer, Swans, Geese and Duck. I may be missing some but I think that is most of it. We got really lucky - because these animals are basically free-roaming in a natural habitat they are not always close enough to the road to see...Brian said he has been on the tram and only seen 1 or 2 things. The tour lasts a full hour and by the time we were done Abby was asleep and Jake was starting to get a little cranky. We plopped them in the stroller and went to see the animals in 'exibits.' The first one we saw was the black bear - at wich point I dropped the camera, breaking it - so that is why no pics (the brand new one we got for Christmas).*
I was surprised that the animals were not behind glass, or even a fence. You stood in the covered viewing area and looked into the fenced habitats. I have only been that close to a bear once in my life, and last time it was NOT FUN - we were just getting out of the car at my Grandpa's house in Glacier National Park. Needless to stay we all got back in the car and waited until Grandpa fired the gun a few times (not at the bear - we were in a park) and it went away. Also a black bear now that I think about it. Anyway the ony thing between you and the bears is a ditch and a single line of electric fence on their side of the ditch. After the black bear was the grizzly bears. Large and impressive - reminds me of an old joke: "how do you know if you are being chased by a black bear or a grizzly bear? - The black bear will climb the tree - the grizzly bear will knock it over" (ba-dum-cha!)
After the bears we say gray wolf, red fox, and coyotes - they were RIGHT there only yards away. it was really neat. Then there were the bobcat, cougar and lynx. Holy crap those cougar were HUGE! there were two of them and for obvious reasons the viewing area was elevated much higher and the 'ditch' was actually a rather wide, deep moat (cougars can jumb 20 feet vertical). I am fairly certain there was no way they could jump that high from floating in the water.
From there we saw the smaller wetland animals - raccoon, rover otter, beaver, wolverine, porcupine, skunk, badger, and fisher (I had never heard of nor seen a fisher before - really cute little things). Then we saw the barn owls, horned owls and snowy owl and headed to lunch. The cafe had a lodge type setting - the booths were wood and it had high open rafters and a nice large fire place with a fire blazing. It was great - we picked the booth closest to the fire and had a darned good lunch before heading back to the van. Jake fell asleep before we were out of the park driveway. We got home and put the kids down for naps (I had one too - all that walkng made me tired).
So that was our weekend so far. It was a ton of fun...now I have to go do laundry and pack some bags because the kids and I are headed up to Orcas for the week tomorrow.

*camera fixed now...no worries

Sweet Sleep

I am looking forward to getting a decent nights sleep again soon. Brian finally decided he was ready to get a new mattress - Ok he was tired of hearing me complain about ours...he says there is nothing wrong with it...I disagree since I there are two rather large divots where we sleep that can be seen just by looking at it (and this is with 3inches of mattress topper and a made bed). He also doesn't seem to notice the ridge in the center of the bed between our two divots. There is also the 'uphill side' which is the edge of the mattress since those springs are reinforced they did not wear down like the center ones...I HATE sleeping on a slope of any kind. Now keep in mind I have not been actively whining or complaining...he asks me how I slept, I say not well, he asks why and I tell him it's the mattress. If he doesn't ask why, I don't tell him. But anyway I am very happy that come Friday night I won't be sleeping in a huge divot. I am also very happy that since it was on sale and we decided not to have it delivered (for 50 bucks! really? most places deliver free of charge when you spend that kind of money) and we only bought the mattress, not the set, it only cost us 200 bucks out of pocket with many thanks to Brian's mom and step dad as they gifted us with some Visa gift cards for Christmas.

Are You Lurking?

For those of you out there that read my blog...tell me! I know of several people that read like Alexis, Luneray and Lana. However....I have been told by a little birdie that there are family members of mine out there that complain about the lengthy times between new photos of my darling family...I didn't even know you were reading! I don't know if you don't tell me! Soooo...leave me a comment or something (for those that don't know how at the end of an entry is the word 'comments' just click on it and you can leave me a message - just keep in mind the messages are public so don't go talkin' like a sailor k?).

Speaking of family members, lately my daughter has been reminding me a lot of my Aunt Patty...It appears that she is a 'multi-sneezer' I don't think she has sneezed only once since she has been on the planet. Plus she is cute, so you know, there is another similarity.

Today I tried bathing both kids with me...that was not as bad as I thought it would be. Jake did as he always does and just sits in the bottom of the shower and plays with his toys and allows me to shampoo and soap him as long as I let him keep playing. It seems to work for us and he is starting to 'help' with the washing of his hair and tummy now too. Abby sat in a bath chair under a wash cloth (because that was enough to keep her covered she is so little) and was pretty content and even snoozed a bit while I soaped myself and Jake. Got her washed and then wrapped in a towel in the bouncy chair so I could dry me and Jake...It actually worked out pretty well. We'll see how it goes as she gets bigger...of course I don't plan on letting them bathe with me every day, it was simply the most time efficient today.

Harder than I thought was figuring out how to go to the store with both of them in tow...now that was a new adventure. When Jake was tiny I just plopped him, car seat and all on the 'kid seat' of the shopping cart. Now that he sits in the seat I didn't know what to do with Abby since I couldn't put her seat in the cart. I ended up putting her on in the baby sling (I love, love, love my sling it is an 'ultimate baby wrap') and letting Jake sit in his usual spot in the cart. It worked out pretty well and we were only there for a few essentials like diapers so it wasn't too long of an outing (which was good because by the time we had gotten out of the house it was past nap time for Jake).

We stopped at McDonald's on the way home and I tried the McRib because I thought I remembered it being good...it was not. at. all. In fact I would have to describe it as downright gross. The sauce was ok (just their standard bbq) the bun was actually good. The 'meat' had a weird flavor and an indescribable texture that I will never again experience if I can avoid it at all. This must be why they don't keep it on the menu...they bring it back when people have forgotten how awful it is and then it stays long enough for people to try it again (presumably only once) and then it disappears from the menu again for a few years. Yet another reason to avoid this place alltogether.

Nice Weekend

Not much new here lately. We are getting into a routine and settling into life with Abby around and loving every minute of it (even the minutes that I am awake at 3:30 in the morning because I know she is only going to be this little for a minute and I am trying to enjoy every second of it. With Jake too but knowing that unless there is an accident somewhere along the lines, Abby is my last baby and I really want to take it all in as much as I can).
Friday Abby and I went to knit night and got to see the ladies. I brought my knitting but didn't end up even taking it out of the bag. It was nice to get out of the house for a little bit though.
Yesterday was a full day for our little family. We got up and went to breakfast and then headed to the mall to buy Brian some new clothes. First we looked for shoes since the only ones he wears currently are Doc Martin boots (these are the only shoes I have known him to wear in the last ten years except for occasionally he'll wear Converse or golf shoes). No luck at Sears so we headed to JC Penny - no luck there either. Then we trekked down to Payless and actually found some that not only did he like, but they had in his size. On top of that they cost about half of what a similar shoe would at the other joints. By this time Jake was toast and wwwaaayyy past nap time and though Abby was asleep my boobs were about to explode so I know she had to be getting hungry. I LOVE the sling I had her in and I was able to hook her up and nurse her while we walked back to the other end of the mall. Back to Sears we went and found him 3 pairs of pants, 3 shirts, some socks and a new belt. So he is all decked out. We hit Jack in the Box on the way home and got lunch and a couple of smoothies - I gotta tell ya'll Jack in the Box makes one of the best smoothies I have ever had.
Today is our lazy day for football. Jake and I will take a walk this afternoon and maybe kick the soccer ball in the yard but mostly it's a lazy day for hanging out in jammies (course we are dressed but still that is the 'feeling' of the day). Brian even got Jake out of bed this morning (which he does for me most mornings) but he kept him in the living room so Abby and I could sleep a little longer wich was a very nice treat for me.
Well, the Hawks are on so I am going to go drop some yummy cocounut shrimp into the FryDaddy and watch my boys toss the ball around the field.