part 2

Hi all I'm back into the swing of things. Thank you all for your well wishes! I feel much better. I am making sure that I take all my antibiotics(if I forget then I get a little scolding from my husband) As for the rest of the story, Well Moving day went alright. The only problem was the language barrier. The movers were of course German. We pointed out what to pack and what not to pack and long story short the guy who was packing the kitchen didn't quit understand. He ended up packing ALL the food in the cupboard. All Cierra's baby food, and the dog food. Remember we are still here for a month. And because I wasn't up to par on moving day I couldn't be there to supervise. I was in one of the rooms with Cierra curled in a ball because I was so cold. All is well though. We went to the commissary the next day I was just irritated that I had to buy formula again. That stuff is not cheap!!

We are sitting on the floor right now. Leave it to my husband to forget to schedule the government furniture. Oh well we will have some on Thursday. Thank goodness we have friends who own blowup mattress's and mats so that we don't have to lay on the hardwood floor for a week.

Here are the pictures that I promised.

"Wollmeise""Deepest Purple"

"Sultan""Suzanne""Krauterbeet"

and last but not least Yarn Pirate Booty Club December shipment "Icicle"

I am in love with my new stash enhancements! To bad I can't wind them up anytime soon, the movers took my ball winder too. Damn it!

edit: I tried to post this entry days ago but blogger wouldn't let me download my pictures. Since this post we have received government furniture and I hope that it's more comfortable then it looks :) Happy New Year everybody may your new year be filled with love and all things Knitty! I probably wont be posting again until we get to Washington and set up house. I will be reading all your blogs though! Take care and talk to you all again in about a month.

Christmas, Wollmeise, ER Visit & moving part 1 (WARNING ITS LONG AND NO PICTURES!...yet)

Christmas in our house starts Christmas Eve. We lay around and watch Christmas movies and open up gifts from the relatives after dinner. Just a totally chill day. This is normally how it goes and it went this way except the fact that I had a fever from 101.2 to 103.3 during most of the day. I had started not feeling good on Thursday. My throat was starting to feel scratchy but I didn't think anything of it until Sunday when it was getting really hard to swallow and I started to get a fever that night, nothing major just a low grade fever. I thought oh well I will have a little cold during Christmas nothing major.....Right? Well Like I said Christmas Eve was chill but then Christmas Morning came. Oh my gosh I felt horrible. I pushed through breakfast and Christmas Morning present opening like a champ, if I do say so myself. At 9:30 ish we got a knock on the door. I was some beautiful Wollmeise yarn that I had order just days before. (More about these later)Around 10am that same morning our friends came over and we exchanged gifts with them. I say friends but they are more like family to us. They could tell that I wasn't feeling up to par (I wonder what gave it away, the fact that I was sprawled out on the living room couch with my sons Spongebob square pants blanket with a cold rag on my head, or the other fact that I really couldn't look at them when they came in the door.) We did our gift giving talked for a little bit and then parted ways so that we could get ready for Christmas Lunch/Dinner at 1pm. NO I DID NOT COOK, thank goodness I live on a Military Base. We went to the Dinning Facility aka Chow-Hall and ate lobster, crab legs, shrimp, turkey, mac n cheese, greens, salads and desert. They had way more there then I could remember. I forced myself to eat something, like I said I couldn't swallow. Everybody enjoyed their meals. I was glad that I didn't have to cook and clean up. All though it was a struggle getting ready and getting me out the house on time I didn't feel as bad as I had earlier that morning. My fever went down the only thing was I had a really bad headache.

When we got home I took something for my headache and went to the couch to lay down a bit. 7pm-ish that night it started to really kick in again, the fever that is. And around 10pm my husband decided that 3 days of a fever higher then 103.0 can't be a good thing so he took me to the German Hospital. All well in good, I thought okay they will check me out give me something and send me home. Boy was I WRONG. I forgot what Country I was in. Germany is infamous for keeping Americans in their hospitals because they know that they will be paid,if you have lived in Germany as a military member you know what I mean. The nurse in the ER was nice enough that wasn't the problem, the ER was packed with sick elderly people, drunk people and who knows what other kind of problem people. The nurse took me to a room that I shared with a Homeless drunk guy. My husband stayed to only until they took my blood and did an EKG because German hospitals are strict about "visitors" After he left I laid in the bed in all my clothes and shoes and waited to fall asleep. This of course didn't happen. I wont get into all the nasty details lets just say that they halls were filled with SICK patients, one patient cussing and yelling at the nurses the whole night and my roommate was SICK too and attached to an IV so every time he had to go use the restroom to well you know he had to walk right past my head and bed. I thought that I was one tough cookie until that night. I wanted to get up out of that bed and walk my sick ass home. At around 1am the nurses came into the room and said that they were going to take me to a different floor, "thank you, there is a God" is what I though "finally some rest." They wheeled my bed into a room that I was going to be staying in. There was an elderly lady there asleep in her bed already. All I cared about is that I wasn't in that DAMN ER anymore!!!


After I got to the other room thhe night went pretty smoothly I did get some sleep. They gave me something for my fever to go down, the only down part was my roommate would wake me up with a loud grown in her sleep every once in a while but nothing like the hell that was going on around me earlier that night. The next morning I felt much better, my fever was gone and I was eating a little better. It still was hard to swallow but I could deal with it. I wanted the Dr. to check me and give me some meds so that I could get the HELL out of there. I had to go home regardless of what had happened the night before, the movers were coming to get our furniture and stuff to send back to the States. The Dr. came in after breakfast and took more blood and told me that I need to stay in the hospital at least one more day. I couldn't believe it. She claimed that they didn't know why my fever was so high and that they wanted to start me on Antibiotic injections. I argued with here and said that I couldn't stay that I was going to have to check myself out so that I could pack clothes and other necessities like yarn (I didn't tell her the yarn part...I don't think she would've understood the need for that) before the movers came the next morning. Well she was trying to convince me to stay I just laid there looking at her like "this can't possibly be happening","what a day for this crap to happen" She told me to think about it and that she would be back in a few minutes. In those few minutes the nurse came in because my roommate who was bedridden rang the nurse bell to go to the restroom. Well like I said she was bedridden. The nurse got the big Silver bed pans, more like big salad bowls, and placed them under her bottom and left the room. She did her business and let me tell you I started crying. Everything hit me all at once, I flashed back to the night before in the ER and now this lady is doing her business in the bed and it's not going quickly either and its cold outside you don't want to open the window and well you get the picture. Then in the midst of my tears my husband and baby girl come in. I really start to loose and I tell him " I'm going home, I don't give a shit what that doctor says, I am not staying here!!!" He asked "What's wrong." I said "she's taking a shit in her bed and they say I can't leave this place." He went and talk to the DR. and told her that I was going to check out. About an hour later they had discharge papers in hand and a Dr.s note saying that I had "Tonsillitis" (remember earlier they didn't know what was wrong with me)so that I could get a prescription from the American clinic.

"DUH" I could have told them that. I used to get that all the time when I was little. Like I said before they just wanted to keep me there to make money. They wanted to do Ultrasounds, draw gallons of blood and do EKGs for days. Long story short, haha, I got the hell out of there at around 1:30pm. I took it easy most of the day after I found all our passports and important documents before the movers came in the morning. More of this long drawn-out story and pictures of pretty yarn to come...

Finally a Monkey off my back!

I know I know I did it again. I am such a looser!!! Well not much going on here really. I finally finished my moms Christmas gift. She wanted a scarf and gloves so I had to oblige:) Here is the Montego Bay scarf and Picot Edge gloves. I hope that she like them. I didn't add the fringe to the scarf I didn't think that it would be practical for golfing. That's when she plans on wearing it. I knit the Scarf to 5 feet and when it was blocked it was well over 7 feet. I love the way that it looked after it was blocked. The gloves were based on the Picot edge glove pattern. It's free check it out here.

I am so glad that I got these done. I was supposed to finish them last week before Tuesday to get it to my mom by Christmas...Well that didn't happen. I sent them out this Wednesday, maybe she will get them by New Years :) The patterns were very easy. They came out with great results but the only problem was on my behalf. If you haven't noticed already I hate project monogamy!!! Hate hate hate it. I know that a lot more gets done that way but I get bored. Like my friend Sandrine says, You just knit to knit. Not really to have a FO in a couple days time. Oh well none the less I hope that she loves them and now I can get back to knitting whatever I want whenever I want :)Project Specs: Rockin Sock Club colorway in Lenore.

Speaking of knitting whatever I want whenever I want, I got my Christmas present from my sister about a week ago. (This was another reason why I kept getting distracted with my moms gift) Shawna said that I could open it as soon as it came. She sent me some ShiBui Knits yarn in "Mulberry" colorway. I have started knitting with it as soon as I finished the before mentioned FO and I am designing my own pattern with it. I will show pictures of that soon. Of course it is a sock. Maybe my sister will be a test knitter for me and I can give the pattern to you all for Christmas/New Years :) We'll see.

As for the family we are all doing well. Trying to get used to everybody. It's kind of weird to have Travis back. Don't get me wrong I'd rather him be here safe at home then downrange in harms way. There is just an adjustment time. Last weekend we went on a little family get away to Edelweiss Lodge and Resort. I don't have many pictures but I did get a couple of the view from our room. It's a nice military Hotel nestled in the Bavarian Alps. We have been there quit a few times in the past 4 years and love it every time that we go. This might be the last time that I post for a little while. After Christmas sometime. They come and pick up our household goods next week. 2 days after Christmas we will be furniture-less. Then it's on the the Good ol' United States at the end of January. We will be PCSing to Washington. Can't wait to be back in the States and find a real LYS. Now my LYS is the internet. Maybe I can join a Knit night or something. Happy Holidays to Everyone. Merry Christmas and Happy Knitting. Sorry once again for the delay in posting!!!

Damn it's been a long time

Wow I can't believe what a slacker I have been. There hasn't been much news to report around here. I hope that everybody had a Wonderful Thanksgiving and at as much turkey as their pants would let them :) My family and I had a great Thanksgiving. We went to my friends house, they made the turkey and my husband made the Ham. We made homemade mac n cheese it was so good I will be posting the recipe soon. I made 2 apple pies, one with a crust on the top and one with crumble topping. Here are a few pictures. The camera is not playing tricks on you that is a GIGANTIC turkey a whopping 22lbs. Funny story about the turkey cooking....It set of the fire alarms. It was making so much juice and the pan that it was in wasn't deep enough and the juice was dripping on the burner in the oven...Talk about a lot of stinky smoke. The turkey was delicious though!

In knitting and yarn news...I received a couple of wonderful packages last week. One from the Loopy Ewe. I love that store. This was the first time that I've ordered from them but definitely not the last. They have super fast shipping and great customer survive. If you haven't checked out their page yet you should!!! I love the new wish list feature on their page.

Dream in Color Worsted weight yarn in "Cocoa Kiss" this will be for my Koolhaas hat. ShiBui Knits sock yarn in "Peacock" I can't wait to cast on socks with this lovely yarn. In the package she sent the coolest little cards to keep track of all my needles. Lord knows I could use these to organize my needle stash before I buy more.

I also received my Rockin Sock club yarn. Love this Lenore colorway. It couldn't have come at a more perfect time. My mom requested a scarf and gloves for Christmas. So I cast on for the Montego Bay scarf from Interweave Knits Summer 2007 on Wednesday of last week and I am about 50 inches in. Only about 10 more inches or so to go. She wanted a scarf that she could wear while she golfed. I am glad that I am almost done with this scarf. It's an easy mindless knit but it's starting to get old ya know me I don't like one project monogamy :) But I have a deadline. Gotta get it done!

Started decorating for Christmas. I got the tree up today while the boys were at school. I haven't decorated our tree in 6 count them 6 years. I had forgotten how small our tree was. This will be the first Christmas in 5 years that I wont be going home for the holidays. I miss you mom and dad. We decided that we were going to stay in Germany this year because we will be moving to Washington in a couple of months and we can see our family once we get back to the good Ol' US of A I can't wait!Well I know I was a slacker the past couple of weeks, I will be posting again as soon as I finish my moms scarf and cast on for here gloves (hopefully before Christmas comes!!). Happy Knitting all sorry again, and thanks for reading.

Oh yeah I forgot one more thing...back in October I won a Halloween contest on Sock-a-holic's blog. She sent me the most wonderful goodies and yarn. I just received it last Monday when I got all my other goodies. It was sitting in my CMR since October 22nd. I check my mail almost everyday and they told me that I didn't have any packages. Guess they need to look harder next time. Oh well better late then never right?! She send me some of her fantastic LoveSticks self stripping yarn, a cute little key chain a duck dressed like a mummy for Halloween, and some beautiful post cards with pictures of her yarn. Check out her shop here. Talk to you all later

This weeks happenings

Well it's almost been a week. Goodness how time flies. I do have a FO that went kind of wrong. On Sunday I decided that I needed a break from socks, what was I thinking? I looked in my stash and found some Knitpicks bare. I went to the commissary to buy some kool aid. I picked ups 10 packs of Black Cherry. Dyed it up and it turned out more like Strawberries n' Cream. The color grew on me and I figured that once I knit it up and I still wasn't completely happy with it I could always redye it right? So I cast on for the Koolhaas hat from Interweaves Holiday magazine. Love the pattern but something when wrong. I don't have free Circular US size 8 so I didn't try it on as I was knitting. Finished the hat this morning tried it on and it's WAY to short. I like my hats to come over my ears and this one just hit the top. I should have done about 2 more repeats of the pattern. Oh well lesson learned. It fits my 5 year old sons head but it's way to girly for him. Since I now have a girl in the familynow, I put it on her head. She still has plenty of room to grow but I think that she is going to be the lucky recipient of this hand knit hat. I will be buying some yarn for my hat soon.

As for the Killer Drunken bees socks. This is what happened. A trip to the frog pond. Oh well, guess that I will be knitting plain ol' socks with this one maybe for the boys.And did I mentioned that I am so glad that my hubby's home. He surprised me the other day with these...ain't he sweet!

Well that's about all. I did get my haircut and colored yesterday. Maybe I can get Travis to take a picture so that you can all see. :) Happy Knitting and thanks for reading.

The COOLEST THING!! (Caution lots of pictures!!)

Hi all- The COOLEST THING happened to me the other day!!! I go to school everyday to pick up D'Andre and everyday I notice this lady with her two little boys. They are always wearing these beautiful hand knit hats. On Wednesday of last week this lady wore a beautiful Entrelac scarf. I saw her scarf and thought to myself "She must be a knitter"Then I looked at her a little more closely and she looked really familiar to me but I couldn't place where I had known her from. On Thursday she was wearing a "my so called scarf" and her boys were both wearing beautiful hats. I decided to get up the nerve and ask her were she got the yarn that the boys hats were made of and she said that she spun it herself. Then she asked me "Are you..." and I finished her sentence and Said "Punky Purls on Ravelry?" She said "Yeah, I thought that might be you but I wasn't sure."

What a small world. I love Ravelry and Blogland. You meet so many cool people online with the same interests as you. As most of you know I live in Germany on a military Post I never in a million years would have thought that I would run into someone I chat with on the Internet who lives on the same post right around the corner from me and our kids go to the same school. How crazy and cool is that? Come to find out She has an Etsy shop. And has the most beautiful hand dyed and Hand spun yarn for sale. Go and check it out. Here's her Blog too.

I told my husband about what had happened and that she had a shop and he said "that's cool at least you will save money on shipping!" To funny.

In other news, the kids, Travis and I had a great Halloween. The boys both dressed up as Power Rangers and Cierra was a Giraffe. Here are some pictures.

I also got may Yarn Pirate Booty Club Yarn in the mail on Halloween. What a great treat!! I started knitting it up yesterday. Here are some pictures.

Colorway: Killer Bees
Pattern: Drunken Bees

My Name for this Project: Killer Drunken Bees. (To frog or not to frog? that is the question)

I also sent out my Knitter's coffee swap partner all her coffee and goodies yesterday. Hopefully she will enjoy all her stuff. It's all things German. with the exception of one of the yarns and one of the coffee's. Kim, it's on it's way.

Also I wanted to Thank you all for the messages on the Post about my Husband being home. I have been slacking on the email front but I wanted to let you know that we both appreciate your comments and Well wishes.

Happy Knitting Everybody! Off to go enjoy a nice cup of Chocolate Truffle Coffee.

Happy Halloween!!

Hi all I just wanted to stop by and say "Happy Halloween" There hasn't been any knitting in my house since my husband got home on Sunday night. But I did get an awsome package in the mail today. I can only show you part of it though. The other half of this package is for someone who has probably been reading my blog lately.

Well like I said earlier my Hubby is home. Thank God. 15 months is a really long time. Now he is home for good.....well at least until the next deployment. Here are some pictures of his homecoming.

Here is a cake that I baked him. He wanted yellow cake with chocolate frosting. I tried to squeeze all the special events that he missed during the past year on one cake. Haha looks funny but tasted great!!! It says Happy B-day x2, Valentine's, Anniversary, Merry x-mas and #1 DAD for father's day. ON the side is says "Welcome Home" with 2 yellow ribbons and Love you. He got a kick out of it.

Next, Here is a sign that I painted on a cheap plastic shower curtain.Here is Cierra waiting for her daddy to come. Her bib says "I'm the present that my daddy gave my mommy when he came home for R&R" haha well at least he came home long enough to give me her! Here are the boys in their shirts. The say "I am here to pick up my daddy"

And here we all are finally reunited. Ah...not the best picture but at least we are all together again. I will probably pick up my knitting again in a couple days. Hope that everybody is doing well. Happy Knitting and don't eat too much candy!!!

Knitters Coffee Swap 3 Questions...

I'm in. My first swap and I am so excited. Here are the answers to my questions for my buddy Kim.
QUESTIONS
1. Whole bean or ground? Both
2. Fully-loaded or decaf?Both
3. Regular or flavored? I like them both
4. How do you drink your coffee?Hot
5. Favorite coffee ever?German coffee that I get here called Kronung by Jacobs.
6. Are you fussy about your coffee or will any old bean do? Any bean will do
7. Favorite treats to have with your coffee? pastry's and yarn
8. Anything else about your coffee preferences?No I'm pretty open to try anything
9. Yarn/fiber you love? Sock yarn
10. Yarn/fiber you hate? I don't spin so any kind of fiber, I wouldn't know what to do with it :)
11. What's on your needles? Socks Socks and more Socks :)
12. Favorite colors? Blues, Pinks, Greens
13. Allergies?No
14. Anything you really love, really don't like, or just need to get off your chest? I will be happy to receive anything I am really easy to please

And also I wanted to thank everyone for the well wishes. I am feeling much much better and really getting excited about Travis coming home. He should be here sometime this weekend (hopefully) if things don't change again.
Happy Knitting all. I will post pictures in a couple of days.

Goodie Goodie "Ghost Dots"

Today was a GREAT mail day!! I got my Yarntini sock yarn in the mail today. "Appletini" and "Merlot" I ordered them last week along with a della Q project bag and Twisted Flower sock pattern by Cookie A, from Yarn4socks. The shipment was supper fast!!! I will definitely be ordering from them again! I also got my "Good to be Girl" stitch markers aren't the darling. Little watermelons and a Bird, nest and Egg stitch marker and an extra little goodie "Ghost Dots". To cute. I also order the Interweave Knits Holiday Gifts magazine. There are some really cool projects in this book. Especially the "Koolhaas Hat" (for me) and the "classic teddy bear" that I will be knitting for Cierra. If you haven't picked yours up yet I suggest that you do. Great project ideas in there! That's all I've got. Not much knitting. I am still feeling a bit under the weather today. I finally took my butt to the Dr. today after 5 days of feeling sick to my stomach. The Dr. said that I didn't have a virus but that my stomach problems have been caused by stress. He gave me something to help with the nausea and cramping. I guess raising 3 kids for 15 months by myself is finally taking a toll on my body. I don't know how single moms do this all the time. Thank goodness Travis should be home for good in about a week. So much to do around the house to get ready for Travis to come home so I don't know if I will be getting much knitting time. So if you check back and I haven't updated for awhile I apologize in advance. Until next time...Happy Knitting.