Happy 9th birthday, Big Man!

I'm not going to get all sappy with this post, but here's a cute little face that we met on this day 9 long years ago after a long labor...

And here's what that little face looks like now!

What an amazing young man he's growing into.  There isn't a day that goes by that this little fella doesn't just blow my mind.  This kid has a heart the size of the ocean!

Way to go, son.  You make your dad and I so very proud.  Love you, Mom and Dad  xoxo :)

To Coddle or Not To Coddle

In a recent email, there was a comment from someone who said she basically refused to coddle her kids over every little thing they do.  I shared the comment in my local online Moms group on Facebook to see what people think about the statement.

There were, as expected, views from both ends of the spectrum.  Some sounded a little harsh but practical, while others sounded a bit too sappy for me.

Heck, I can be honest here.  I love my boys, but I'm not a coddler.  (I know that's probably not an actual word, but go with it for now.)  I've always felt my oldest child has been particularly blessed with book smarts.  He's a nerd like his momma, and I'm proud of it.  I joke with Hubby about how this is our future retirement plan in the works, so don't knock it!  LOL

But seriously though, he's always been a book worm.  My youngest boy is just now getting into books, and I'm sure that before long, he's going to be right on up there.  He started kindergarten this year and is already throwing around the word "boring" and acting like he knows everything.  (He doesn't, but he acts like he does.)  Anyway, that's sort of where we are right now.

From the mothers I spoke to, some felt that praise should be given when praise is due, and I have to agree.  If the kid puts in the effort, regardless of how well he or she actually does, then they deserve to be commended on the effort and their willingness to try.  But on the other side of it, while it's good for kids to know that their parents are always in their corner and are their "biggest cheerleaders," as one mom put it, isn't there such a thing as too much praise?

We're told not to tell our kids they're smart.  This will lead them to being big headed and feel entitled to praise regardless of if they even try or not.  I think there's some truth in that honestly.  What I don't agree with is telling Little Johnny that he did a good job when he clearly couldn't care less or didn't make the slightest effort.  At some point, certain stuff is just expected.  If your kid is expected to clear the dishes or make their bed, do they need praise for it?  Maybe at first.  I tell mine "thank you" when he remembers to do his chores without being asked, but I don't gush over it.  Should a 5 year old be praised for going to the bathroom instead of peeing his pants?  Umm, no.  He's 5, and going to the bathroom is something kids that age should be doing anyway.  Not gonna gush over that either.

And telling your child that they're the most beautiful little princess who is so awesome and smart and can never fail...well, that's just setting your kid up for a rude awakening.

News Flash:  The world isn't like that at all, people.

Keep it real.  I mean seriously, encourage your kid to do his or her best and to give it their best shot at whatever it is they want to do.  Put their minds to it, and they stand a better chance to achieve their dreams.  Don't tell them they can't, but don't blow up their egos to the point they think everything is achievable without even trying.  Don't make them believe a fairytale about being the most beautiful little person who cannot fail because YOU said so.  Life is about failure and learning from mistakes, and the world isn't going to treat your little princess like a little princess just because they are YOUR little princess.  The world couldn't care less.

It's OKAY to fail, as long as you LEARN from the mistakes and TRY AGAIN, but you don't get anywhere in life by not GETTING UP and PUSHING yourself as far as you can.  The BEST things in life aren't just handed to you...you're not ENTITLED to them...you have to EARN them.  The sooner kids learn that lesson, the sooner they can set about achieving their dreams.  That's what I want my sons to learn, when I give them praise.

And don't worry.  I'll be in their corner as they learn these things, cheering them on.

Back to School!

Well, it's official.  Both my boys are now of school age.  The oldest has been back for almost a week, and the youngest had his first day of kindergarten yesterday.  It's all rather bittersweet, but I think Hubby and I are secretly excited.

FOR THEM!  We're excited for them.  Honest!  O:-)

It's been a good summer, but the time has come to get back to the real world.  For my kids, this means bedtime has reverted back to 8 p.m.  You should have seen the looks on their faces last night, when the last remnants of daylight were still peeking in through the curtains.

"But Mom, it's not even dark outside yet!" they whined.

"That doesn't matter, it's still bedtime," I replied calmly.  (I wonder if parents up in the arctic circle and surrounding areas have this issue during the summer months?)

They didn't want to admit it, but they really were tired, and within 5 minutes of lights out, there wasn't a peep from their room save for their steady, sleep-induced deep breathing.

I found myself in the living room at 8:10 p.m. wondering what to do with myself.  I mean I had a whole 2 hours before I needed to think about bedtime for myself!  What to do, what to do??

So I put away the laundry I'd folded, set the coffee pot, and kicked back in the recliner with my crochet project.  It was time for some one-on-one with my DVR, baby!  You know what I mean, the shows I record to watch later because they're either too trashy or there's too much swearing to be able to watch when the kids are around.  And Hubby doesn't care for them either, so now's the time to indulge, before he gets home from work.

And then I proceeded to nod off.  :-\

I awoke about 11 p.m. and dragged myself out of the recliner and into bed, after stopping off at the bathroom along the way to brush my teeth.  (I can't stand going to bed without brushing my teeth.)

This morning, I got the boys up bright and early.  They were excited.  The oldest was going to ride the bus to school for the first time, and the youngest was going to spend the day at a friend's house because today is the phase-in day for Group B, and there's no childcare option at school until Thursday, which is just another way the school system likes to screw with your work week.

We stood at the corner of our yard and waited.  And waited.  Two other school buses went by, but the bus numbers are written so small that you can't see what they are until the bus is literally right beside you.  So I stood out there flagging down these buses, only to find the cranky old women driving them were just going to fly past us anyway with a "you're not on my route" look on their sour faces.

Huh.  Well, who pissed in your Wheaties this morning, darlin'?

A few minutes later though, our bus driver Mr. Ricky did finally show up.  It turned out he was much nicer than those other two...er..."ladies" were, and I think we're going to have smooth dealings with him.  He even said he'd pick the boys up by our mailbox in the morning!  Sweet!

On my way in to work, I thought about how most of our school bus drivers seem much older than city bus drivers, or at least the ones I've seen appear to be.  It makes me feel better knowing that our kids are being bussed to school by grandmas and grandpas.  I'd like to think they're much safer drivers than us young'uns with lead feet.  :)

Totally not talking about myself.

Tomorrow, they'll both ride the bus together.  Boy, that's gonna be interesting!  And knowing how much chatter and arguing and general ruckus goes on at my house early in the morning, I might need to bake Mr. Ricky some cookies or something after the first week, so that he doesn't "accidentally" bypass my house on the way out to school in the weeks that follow.

Fun times, fun times!

Grammatical Snob

OK, I'll admit it.  I'm a snob.  A grammatical snob.  People are going to read this and send me messages to my Inbox to attest to the fact that I've been a grammatical snob (towards them, no doubt) for a very long time.  I can't help it.  So sue me!

One place that I realize grammar (and spelling) are only suggestions loosely adhered to is the Internet.  This is one realm in which errors--and by that, I mean great, big, WHOPPING insults on the English language--are thrown about with reckless abandon and without so much as a second thought.  It's only gotten worse with the proliferation of social media.  We've all seen those memes floating around with clever, witty sayings.  Have you noticed how many of these aren't even spelled correctly or have the right form of "their," "there," or "they're" in them?

And yes, before you say anything, I still observe the Oxford comma when listing a series of three or more items because that's the way I was taught to do it.  So their.  :-P



Some of you would have picked up on that.  Others, well...



It's hard to appreciate the wittiness of these memes when the first thing through your mind (or at least my mind) is, "Idiot.  Haven't you heard of spell check?"

And what have people got against proof reading anyway?  You'd think they were either in too big of a hurry to care, or it takes way too much energy and effort to go back and re-read what you're typing.  Really, it's not that hard, people.

So why am I making such a big deal about this?  Everyone does it, right?  Everyone suddenly loses their ability to spell or properly punctuate when communicating online.  It's the NORM.  Well, I don't know about you, but I've got two young boys who will eventually be allowed to peruse the Internet and its plethora of useful information for the purpose of bettering their studies.  How on Earth are they going to be able to do that with so many errors floating about in Cyberspace?

It's not just that, but there's also the use of acronyms.  All.  The.  Freaking.  Time.  I'm even seeing "LOL" in work-related emails these days.  Granted, I use this, too, but in an informal setting.  I do have standards, you know.

Acronyms appear now for every dad-gum thing you can think of.  It took me forever to figure out that "SMH" meant "shaking my head."  Really.  Do I need to know that when you're talking about something, you are further illustrating your disapproval by SMH-ing at me?

WTF??

The first time you ask your child how his day was, and he responds to your question with "IDK, JAD," you'll know what I'm talking about.  That hasn't happened for me yet, but believe me, it's coming!

SMH.  (LOL!)

Yeah, so it seems things are moving on in a different direction.  The hallmark of the 2010's is this new lingo we have developed to communicate more efficiently and with slang that is really, truly making me feel past my prime.  I'm in my mid-30s, and already I feel left behind.  Way, way behind.  It's getting so bad that there are whole websites dedicated to deciphering this new language because some of us old fogies really don't know what you young-uns are talking about!

(Alright, feeling the generation gap right about now.  Hmm!)

In case you missed it, here's an example of the cra-cra slang we're hearing today, as illustrated in this fine commercial by Sprint, featuring James Earl Jones and Malcolm McDowell.

What the hell did they just say??  Totes my WHAT??  What is that?!!

I'm sure there are some of you out there who jumped onto Google after watching that the first time, just because you were curious about what in the hell conversation went on here that you somehow missed, not because you didn't hear them, but because you didn't have a f***ing clue what they just said.  Go on, admit it.

[Raising her hand]  Yep, that was me.

I know I'm fighting a losing battle here.  I re-post things on Facebook that poke fun at grammar and those of us who still actually use it by choice.  The truth is, this isn't going away.  I get that there's a time and place for everything, and the Cyber World has its own set of rules.  Grammar, sadly enough, just isn't one of them.

[Sigh!]

I'm taking my youngest boy in for his kindergarten screening this afternoon.  I'm sure he'll do just fine, but I can't help wondering how different things are going to be by the time he's in high school.  My entering 4th grader is on the verge of finding out a whole new set of vocabulary (can you tell I'm thrilled?), but like the rest of us, as our parents once did with us, we learn to adapt.

It's just so much fun learning to adapt to the way youngsters talk today...

...NOT!!

Family Vacation: Blessing and Curse!

I have to say I do enjoy getting away every once in a while.  This year, we took the kids to Greers Ferry Lake at Fairfield Bay in Arkansas for a week.

Trust me, every time I told someone we were going on vacation to Arkansas, they'd look at me funny and say, "Arkansas?  What's in Arkansas??"

Exactly, my friend.

Well, I won't downplay it too much.  The lake was very pretty, and we had just enough stuff in the vicinity of the resort to keep us occupied, while allowing for some much needed time to just veg and decompress.  Little Rock isn't too far from Fairfield Bay, so if we really wanted to get crazy, we could drive down and be there in less than 2 hours.  Hubby and I agreed we may head back there on a regular basis for family vacations.  I guess he really liked it!

But as with any family trip, it has its ups and downs.  Now that the boys are old enough to make travel a teeny bit easier (i.e. no more diapers, wipes, training pants, baby bottles, etc.), we may venture further from our home state next time.  Actually, we've already planned to go to Orlando, FL next year!  That's gonna be a barrel of laughs, I can tell.  Hmmm !

The rest of the week was filled with fishing, riding around the lake in a boat, going bowling, hiking, lots of swimming, and renting movies to watch on the rainy days.  I overlooked the resort's list of activities, which were aimed mostly at their more senior guests.  (Somehow, I didn't quite feel up to joining the Silver Sneakers crowd first thing in the morning, and neither Hubby nor myself were really feeling the Bingo or Pinochle scenes either.)  We also took an unexpected road trip down to Conway looking for a liquor store, since neither one of us thought to see if we were spending the week in a dry county.  I'll be sure to check on that next time.

Disclaimer:  Ummm...yeah, being cooped up with two hyper kiddos on rainy days will do that to you.  This by no means is a reflection on Hubby's or my parenting skills!  We waited until the kids were in bed.  :-D

Hubby and I commented on how well the boys got along first thing in the morning.  They'd get up, fix themselves some cereal for breakfast, then quietly play on their tablets and the Game Boy.  (Yes, I still own an Atomic Purple Game Boy Color, which I bought for myself for Christmas in 1999, and the thing still works!!)  This meant we could sleep in a bit and not be forced out of bed at 6 a.m. every day while on vacation.

Have you ever noticed how kids will continue to get up at the crack of dawn on vacation?  Heck, even on weekends!  I purposefully keep them up late in the hopes that they'll sleep past sunrise.

But you know, kids can be pretty entertaining.  On the drive back home for instance, we were listening to "Juke Box Hero" on the radio.  The boys in the backseat were jamming down, air guitar and all, and suddenly our youngest blurts out, "JUICE...BOX...HEROOOO!!"

"That's not it," said his older brother.  "It's JUKE box.  It's like a kind of radio back in the day.  Like when Dad was a kid."

Hubby and I looked at each other.  If I'd been drinking something, I'd have snorted it.  Not gonna lie.

"Oh!" he said.  "JUKE...BOX...HEROOOO!!"

And everything was right with the world.  *Takes a cleansing breath*

Aren't kids fun?  :)

As with all good things though, they do eventually come to an end.  As much as I enjoyed being away for a week, ultimately, it felt great to be back in my own bed with my own pillow once again.  The soft mattress in our condo meant that I never could sleep for more than 4 hours at a time before waking up with a sore back.  The only other problem I had was with our upstairs neighbors, who walked around like heavy-footed heifers.  The thing that really got me was the idiot who thought that turning on the jacuzzi at 11:30 p.m. wasn't going to bother anyone.  Well, it bloody well woke me up, so yeah, I had a problem with it.  But we lucked out, and they left a couple of nights before we did, so we were able to enjoy the peace (and the balcony) for our last two nights without listening to them stomping around upstairs.

Needless to say, I don't miss apartment living.  :-\

When God Created Mothers

I was searching for interesting quotes on motherhood to post in my Busy Murfreesboro Moms Facebook group this morning, when I came across this excellent little piece by Erma Bombeck.  I thought it very sweet and such a testament to what women become when they take that leap into motherhood.  Here's the passage:

“When God Created Mothers"

When the Good Lord was creating mothers, He was into His sixth day of "overtime" when the angel appeared and said. "You're doing a lot of fiddling around on this one.

And God said, "Have you read the specs on this order?" She has to be completely washable, but not plastic. Have 180 moveable parts...all replaceable. Run on black coffee and leftovers. Have a lap that disappears when she stands up. A kiss that can cure anything from a broken leg to a disappointed love affair. And six pairs of hands." 

The angel shook her head slowly and said. "Six pairs of hands.... no way." 

"It's not the hands that are causing me problems," God remarked, "it's the three pairs of eyes that mothers have to have." 

"That's on the standard model?" asked the angel.

God nodded.  "One pair that sees through closed doors when she asks, 'What are you kids doing in there?' when she already knows. Another here in the back of her head that sees what she shouldn't but what she has to know, and of course the ones here in front that can look at a child when he goofs up and say. 'I understand and I love you' without so much as uttering a word." 

"God," said the angel touching his sleeve gently, "Get some rest tomorrow...." 

"I can't," said God, "I'm so close to creating something so close to myself. Already I have one who heals herself when she is sick...can feed a family of six on one pound of hamburger...and can get a nine year old to stand under a shower." 

The angel circled the model of a mother very slowly. "It's too soft," she sighed. 

"But tough!" said God excitedly. "You can imagine what this mother can do or endure." 

"Can it think?" 

"Not only can it think, but it can reason and compromise," said the Creator. 

Finally, the angel bent over and ran her finger across the cheek. "There's a leak," she pronounced. "I told You that You were trying to put too much into this model." 

"It's not a leak," said the Lord, "It's a tear." 

"What's it for?" 

"It's for joy, sadness, disappointment, pain, loneliness, and pride." 

"You are a genius," said the angel. 

Somberly, God said, "I didn't put it there.”

― Erma Bombeck, When God Created Mothers

Moving On Up!

I looked at my calendar and figured youngest has only got 6 weeks--actually a little less--left at the daycare.  SIX WEEKS!!!  And then we're moving him to the after-school program at the elementary school.

Wow.  There are going to be some teachers not too happy about that.

Six weeks.  My youngest, my baby boy, my little man, is going to be at the big kid school, same as his brother.  I officially will be done with daycare forever.  Is this really happening??

A moment later, another thought crosses my mind.  I'm getting a raise.  That's right, a raise.  I'm getting to keep $135 each week just for making this switch.  This is big!  This is HUGE!  This beats the raises I've had at my job for the past TWO YEARS!!  (Hard to NOT beat $0, I know, but go with me on this.)

I'm not saying I'm not going to be sad seeing my little man join the ranks of school-aged children.  I still tickle his little feet to wake him up in the mornings.  (To be honest, I still tickle his big brother's feet in the mornings, and he's getting ready to move up to 4th grade!  CRAZY!  I know, right?!!)

Right now, I'm just trying to brace myself for this change.  I'm not the kind of momma who gets sappy about this sort of thing (not a lot anyway), but it's still going to take some getting used to.  The time does fly.  Another mother waiting at the bus stop yesterday was telling me her son's about to be 23, but she'd do it all over again if she could.  The only thing different is she'd have made more time to just enjoy his childhood.

That's something I hear over and over.  We're so busy, and even though it's not the new year, I can still resolve to slow down and enjoy my sons while they're still little and living at home.

Smell the roses, girlfriend.  Slow down, and smell the roses.

@-->-->------------------    @-->-->------------------    @-->-->------------------

Are We Expecting Too Much From Our Kids?

I sent an email to Zeke's teacher this morning.  Nothing serious, I just wanted to see how things were going behavior-wise, since she'd called me last week on account of him being too physical when goofing off with his buddies.  I said he was telling me he hadn't had any strikes yet this week.  (She gives them strikes for everything from talking out of turn to not listening to breathing wrong...sorry, that last one was a bit of an exaggeration, but not by much!)  He's also been, to my knowledge, staying on top of his homework.

The email I got in return was stoic, curt, and very matter-of-fact.  This is her style.  I'm still trying to give her the benefit of the doubt because she's quite personable face-to-face, but her written communication leaves a LOT to be desired.

She basically told me that homework needs to be signed AND discussed on a nightly basis.  Judging from my email, it sounded to her that I've not seen this or been doing this, and it concerned her.

My gut instinct here was to call her up and cuss her out.  Take THAT for criticizing my parenting skills, MADAM!!

But I didn't.  Probably wouldn't reflect well on my kids either.  Besides, some would probably view that as overreacting.  *sigh!*

I'd like to point out here that I, personally, don't get more than a couple of hours with my kids each night before it's time for them to go to bed.  This includes time for scouts, sports practices, and various other events that tend to pop up on occasion.

In other words, we DO have a life outside of school!

And shouldn't much of this be covered during school hours anyway??

It seems that, across the board and not just in America, there's been a shift in the role of parents when it comes to a public education.  I honestly don't remember my parents ever asking to see my homework.  I know I needed some help late at night when project deadlines were only hours away, and my dad would drive me over to the 24-hour Kinko's at 1 a.m. to get my US History report copied and bound, ready to turn in at 7:30 later that morning.  (My dad is awesome, by the way.)  :)  But they didn't have to sign stuff every day, let alone DISCUSS why exactly does 2 + 2 = 4?

Life is very different now for my 8 year old than it was when I was 8.  It's sad, but true.

There have been times I've had to put pressure on him to get his work done.  We've threatened to pull him from sports, if he's not willing to keep up with his homework.  And truthfully, there have been times I fully understood his frustrations, but I still had to keep up my end of the deal as a parent and make him do what he needed to do.  It doesn't always feel good either, arguing with your kid about why he shouldn't make a mountain out of a mole hill.

The other night, we were both so frustrated at each other that I told him to forget it and just get himself ready for bed.

"I'm not finished yet!" he said.

"I don't care.  If it's gonna take you that long to do something simple, then you may as well sleep on it and try again in the morning."

"I'm not dumb!"

[Pause...]

I'm not sure where that came from.  I hadn't said anything about him being dumb.  In fact, he's made the principal's list and honor roll both first and second quarter this year, so CLEARLY he's not dumb!  But I had to wonder if the pressure was getting to him.

Anyway, I've rabbited on long enough about this.  Writing must be therapeutic somehow because I'm not nearly as hot under the collar as I was when I first started.  Good thing, too.  I think I'm going to ponder on this a bit and see if there's some way to reach a compromise between my time and the teacher's.  Our common goal is to help the kids do well--I'm just not sure it needs to happen quite this fast or with such intensity.  Kids need time to be, well, kids!

Thoughts?

The Year of the Horse

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!!!

Today marks the start of the year of the Horse.  MY year.  It's going to be a GREAT year - I can feel it already!

Being that half my heritage goes back to China, I feel it important for me to pay homage to this part of my background and be proud of my diverse family ties.

Did I mention this is MY year??  :)

We talked a little about CNY at our last cub scout pack meeting.  The boys don't really know much about it, and I wasn't sure how cool the parents would be by my introducing a culture different from their own.  Most probably wouldn't have an issue with it, but you never know.  So I just touched on it and had them play Chopstick Relay for their game (which they LOVED).

Anyway, the horse is said to be energetic, charismatic, highly captivating, and thrives on attention.  I think I'd have to refer to my elemental Earth Horse to see more of myself in the description, as I don't really think of myself as being one that thrives on attention.  LOL Taken from a Chinese astrology website:

"Earth Horses will work to meet their goals, no matter how long it takes. They’ve got the ability to view situations from all perspectives and this ability is especially useful when it comes to making decisions. They’re very adaptable and they’re funny too."

That sounds about right, I think.  :)

I Love Lucy!

I'd been waiting for this show for WEEKS!  Hubby decided to buy me tickets to this showing of "I Love Lucy Live at TPAC" for my Christmas present, and I was STOKED!!  You have no idea how hard it is to get this man to the theater.  When he first brought it up, I thought he must not have been feeling well, but then I realized the boy was serious!

I have to mention here the look of utter betrayal on our 8 year old's face when I told him what we were going to see.  "What, without ME??" he asked in disbelief.  Yeah, buddy!  [Insert evil laugh here.]  Turns out he actually likes to watch Lucy as well, thanks to YouTube.

(Yes, I'm working on schooling my boys in a little culture besides Ninjago and the Power Rangers.)

So...Sunday was the big day.  The kids were at my parents' house from the night before, and Hubby and I would be able to enjoy the show in Nashville without being parents for a few hours.  Sweet!

The crowd was, inevitably, mostly older than we were.  But you have to understand how much I loved watching this show when I was younger.  One year, my brother even brought me back a mug from his travels with the famous "chocolate factory" scene on it.  I still use it to this day.  :)

Anyway, the cast of the show we went to see did a splendid job.  Not only did they look the part, but most of the time, if you closed your eyes, you'd swear Fred, Ethel, Lucy, and Ricky really were on stage in front of you!  It was amazing to see such craft in action.

The performance is centered around the taping of two episodes of "I Love Lucy."  You, as the guest, are part of the studio audience at Desilu in Hollywood, California.  Not only did we get to see the taping of the shows, but we also sat through some pretty cheesy live commercials for all kinds of products, including Brylcreem and Alka Seltzer, complete with jingle singers.  A lot of people in the audience could probably remember when those commercials were on back in the 1950's, but that was definitely way before my time!

Still, by the end of it all, it was a very enjoyable performance.  We later stopped by a hole-in-the-wall sushi place on Union Street called Sam's (the proprietor wasn't very pleasant, but the food was actually really good), then later headed to Bar Louis in Murfreesboro for a quiet one while we waited for the grandparents and little children to come home.

All in all, a wonderful date night.  Or day.  Whatever.  :)

Crocheting a Baby Dress

I've been trying to widen my crocheting horizons lately.  Scarves, hats, and blankets are nice, but they don't really need you to pay attention to the gauge much.  My friend Elena is having a baby girl in March, and she's having a baby shower next weekend.  Soooooo, I figured I'd try something different.  I made her this cute little pink dress using a free pattern I'd found on Ravelry.

The original dress was a bumble bee design, yellow and black stripes with a large white flower on the chest.  I decided to go with the solid pink and improvised small daisies to go along the waist.  I even found some cute daisy buttons to use on the back!

The dress is larger than what I was originally going for.  The pattern said to use crochet thread and a size E hook.  I used baby yarn and a size F hook (couldn't do it with size E on this yarn), and I think it's more of 6-9 month size instead of the original 0-3 month the pattern was making.  Still, it'll give her something to grow into and can hopefully use as a tunic when she gets a little bigger.

I shared the post on The Crochet Crowd's page on Facebook.  From my post alone, as of right now, there are 95 likes and 482 shares!  Then TCC featured it on their page, too (sort of like winning the lottery in terms of crochet fame), and last I looked, there were 3,960 likes and 2 shares, as well as 140 comments and requests for the pattern.  WOAH!  It seems the dress is a big hit!

Unfortunately, Elena also happens to follow TCC on Facebook, so she saw the post.  GAH!  Well, I told her she wasn't supposed to see that post and to just act surprised when she opens my gift at the shower.  Geez.  LOL!  I can't wait to see it on Caisley though.  It might be a year from now, but I'll add it to my Crochet By Nabela page whenever I get a picture.

Can't wait!  :)

In the mean time, I've got some hats and scarves to make for the boys.  They seem to have outgrown the ones I made them last year, so they picked out some new, soft yarn and want me to make them aviator hats.  I'll give it a go.

I want to try and make clothing, too.  If I do, I'm probably going to bite the bullet and fork out the dough for the fancier yarn these patterns seem to call for.  I think the drape and final look and feel of the project will be worth it.

Oh, one more item I recently finished was Hubby's Harley Davidson throw...

Yeah, this one took some time.  I made the background using black yarn with the simple afghan stitch.  Then I took a picture I found, added a grid to it using Photoshop, and cross stitched the pattern on top.  The flames, I have to say, took the most time to do, but the final look is quite convincing, I think.  I had to do much of the work on the bus in order to keep Hubby from seeing it, and many people asked me about it and made comments.  A few were interested in buying it, but truthfully, they probably wouldn't pay enough to make it worth my while, not with all the hours of work I put into this baby.

I still have yet to put the black flannel backing on it to cover the work in the back.  Right now, Hubby is scared to use it for fear of getting it dirty or snagging the threads.  I assured him that he at least needed to keep it on the back of his chair so that *I* could look at it!  LOL  I'm glad he liked it though.

Well, more on my crochet work later.  I need to find something challenging to work on for the spring.  Maybe clothing for the boys?

Pinterest, here I come!  :)

Going to the Dentist

Hubby took the boys for their semi-annual checkups the other day.  Zeke is doing well, just a spot between two teeth that's showing signs of thinning enamel (huh?), so he needs to work on his flossing.  Gabe, however, has to have two cavities filled, one of which was from a spot they'd been watching for the past year.


I feel terrible.  :-\


To get the fillings done, we're going to have to put him through conscious sedation, after which I'm not even allowed to be in the room with him when they do the actual fillings!!  The instructions said that children tend to behave better when their parents aren't in the room, and that's probably true, but I hate the thought of not being able to be there with him.


So apparently, I'm supposed to supervise brushing and flossing until the boys are at least 10 years old.  That's news to me.  I thought that by the age of 8, they were quite capable of handling this simple task on their own, but I guess I was wrong.


WAY wrong!


Due to currently having the sniffles, I'm going to have to schedule Gabe's dental work for a few weeks from now, as they won't do the sedation if he's showing signs of nasal congestion or being ill at all.  Considering the time of year and the fact that he's in daycare all day every day, I'm not sure that's going to work, but okay.  We'll do what we can.


On the plus side, Gabe's making an effort to avoid eating candy.  We could spin this into something positive after all, me thinks!