The Decemberists

So a week ago I was sitting in the St. Louis airport waiting on a flight to get back to OKC. Gotta love flying stand-by.

We saw The Decemberists on Sunday night at The Palace, with Blind Pilot. I was very impressed with Blind Pilot, they were easy to listen to and laid back, kinda like I should be sitting on a beach somewhere kinda music. I need to get their album and listen to it some more.

The Decemberists were awesome! They played The Hazards of Love album from beginning to end in the first set. Such a good album. I love that their music tells stories, though the last song The Hazards of Love 4, keeps me sad at the end, wishing that William and Margaret got to live happily ever after. The Rake Song was great placed in the middle of the album as well. After the intermission, they played some of my favorites, July! July!, O Valencia, and covered a Heart song that showed how great the to women that sang on the album were.

St. Louis was fun, our first anniversary trip. It's been 13 years, finally we went somewhere. Stayed at the swamky Moonrise Hotel. Very nice! We ate at a restaurant called Pi, not spelled pi, the symbol for pi. Great thin crust pizza and flirtini. The rooftop bar at the hotel had a very nice view of downtown St. Louis. We ate at Blueberry Hill before the concert, they had some great spicy shrimp that we had for an appetiser but the Jerk Chicken Sandwich wasn't that great.

I almost injured myself walking to the concert. I ended up scraping off a few layers of my big toenail on my right foot and needing a band-aid stop at the hotel before the concert. Good think I had flip-flops on!

All in all, a great trip. I am ready for the next album!

More on Knitting

So I am very excited about my new hobby. It has been two and a half weeks since I officially became a knitter. I have knitted four washcloths, two scarfs and have started a third, and have plans for the two after that.

I purchased "Stitch and Bitch", a book about knitting and have taught myself a second stitch. The first scarf for Camy, was just the basic garter stitch that we learned in the class, for Carson's I taught myself how to purl, and her scarf looks completely different from her sister's. On the one that I am making for myself, unless I decide to give it away, I am using the two stitches I know and I am making a ribbed scarf!

The kiddos are very excited about their new scarfs, Carson wore hers again to school today, even though it's going to be about 80 degrees today. I think that she is making a fashion statement more than keeping her little neck warm. I showed the scarfs to my sisters and they seem to not get it. My 3-year-old niece Hannah, was very excited about them. I have plans to make her a purple one now.

I figure after I master the squares and rectangles it'll be time to move on to other shapes. I think this is something I could be doing for a long time to come.

Knitting...

So I officially have a new hobby. Last Monday night my girls and their Girl Scout troop went to L&b Yarn Co. for a knitting lesson. Since it was my idea, I got to go, and I got the chance to learn how to knit, again.

I learned last summer at my company picnic, but with the move to the new house and everything I put my scarf down that I had been working on and hadn't picked it back up. The class was learning how to make a washcloth.

It has been a week and I am officially a pro. I made four washcloths last week (the picture is my first one), and I took my girls back on Saturday to pick out yarn for scarfs that I am going to make them. Yes, I know it's much too warm for scarfs, but they are very excited about them, and I am very excited about being able to create something that they will love.

Carson has decided that she loves knitting and wants to take the little camp they offer this summer. Cameron decided that she hates it. We'll see, maybe she'll want to in the future if I keep at it.

Mother's Day

So in two days, it'll be Mother's Day again. Not my favorite holiday of the year, but don't get me wrong, I do enjoy how excited my girls get about the day. It's nice to have someone that will think and plan how they can have their dad bring you breakfast in bed, as a surprise, that one day of the year.

Not only is it Mother's Day in two days, but today, May 8Th is the anniversary of my own mother's death. It's been 28 years since my mother died of breast cancer. Ironically, she was 28 when she died. This time of the year serves as a reminder of what I lost and missed out on for the majority of my life.

On this bittersweet holiday for me I'll remember that I have two girls that love me and love that they can show that love, and I'll try not to dwell on the fact that I don't remember my last Mother's Day with my own mom.

Shopping

Every woman needs a friend they can shop with. Quite often I find myself shopping by myself but yesterday I realized that shopping with a friend is so much better. It was so nice to have someone that convinced me to try on things that I never would have picked out for myself. It was especially nice considering all the bargains we found!

So go shop and take a friend, unless you don't really have money to spend!

Jaw Surgery...

So I am sitting at the hospital with my twin sister, Karen. She had jaw surgery yesterday afternoon. She has had problems with her teeth all her life and since she never got braces as a kid she has spend the last few years trying to correct them all.

She has had braces for a few years but she still needed the surgery to fix some other problems. The surgery was only supposed to take four hours and it took almost six. Once they got in there they realized that her jaw was very delicate and they had to be very careful. When she was done she missed her seizure medicine because she was still asleep.

She did have a seizure last night, and since they didn't want her to be alone, I am here giving my brother-in-law a break to go home and get some sleep.

She is going to look really different I think. She is very swollen right now but I can already tell that she is not going to look like the sister I've known for the last almost 35 years. She will be off work for three weeks because she won't be able to drive, and she won't be able to eat real food for four. Talk about a crash diet!

She appears to be in some pain, and luckily they gave her some liquid pain meds and she is asleep now. So for me it's daytime television for a few hours!

Friendship Bracelets...

Last night I volunteered at my daughter's Girl Scout meeting, and got to help our troop make friendship bracelets. It's been quite a while since my last friendship bracelet, but it brought back fond memories.

Let me just say that it is difficult getting eight and nine year old girls to pay attention long enough to teach them the technique, but they all seemed to catch on with more or less help.

If you'd like to relive some childhood memories, here's a link to make your own.
http://www.makingfriends.com/jewelry/macrame.htm

The design on this link is a little different than the ones we made last night but it looks like it would be a good project as well.