Ho Hum, Just Another Post...

....FROM MY KITCHEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am sitting at my kitchen table. Right now. And I'm on the internet. CAN YOU EVEN BELIEVE IT?!?!? It's taken almost a year from our first attempt at setting up our wireless, and now we finally got all the necessary components together and we got the whole thing set up, and--most importantly--working. Jubilation is not enough word! This opens up so many opportunities for me. I will no longer feel like a hermit crab in my lonesome tank! If I can't find a recipe in my cookbooks, I can look online! And then I won't even have to write down the recipe (as fast as I can, on whatever scrap of paper I can find, while Anja is doing who-knows-what in the front of the house unattended) because I can just leave the computer screen up and look at it as I go! This is amazing. If I am wondering if it's too cold to go out for a walk, instead of just assuming that it is, I can look up the weather! If I'm not sure if it's going to rain, I can do the same thing! I can blog more often, because I will not have to wait until the girls are asleep, or being cared for by Martin! This is so great. Not only is this great for my social life, but also for my chances of frostbite. Tomorrow's high is only 16! Brrrr! Thanks to our newly setup wireless, I will be keeping track of the arctic air from the comfy warmth of my own kitchen, with my girlies scampering happily around me (as Greta is doing right now) and a cup of coffee that isn't icing over right here on the table. Hmmm... I wonder now if I should change the title of my blog... Rants and Ramblings from the Kitchen Table? Any suggestions will be welcomed. Oh! Another thing I can do is play my Snapfish slideshows of my Skinny albums... like when Martin and I were CC prom chaperones, and the summer we were engaged, and when we got married. I was so skinny! I can watch the slideshows while I swing my kettlebell in the evenings! THIS IS GOING TO BE SO GREAT!! Thanks, Wireless Internet, for saving my life on so many levels!

And while Martin was busy with computering tonight, and Greta has been ridiculously happy and curious about all of Anja's toys (poor baby... it's a rare thing when she gets to play with whatever she wants and not have to worry about it being snatched right out of her hands and replaced with something much less exciting and/or yummy), I have been working on Christmas presents. I am thrilled to report that I have FINISHED the knit slippers for Anja. And although they sport many a flaw, they are made with love. As she requested, they are blue, with one pink inside and one green inside. They are really cute with little straps around the ankles that button. Unfortunately, one of my button holes came out really tiny, so it's kind of difficult to get that one buttoned, but that's okay, at least they won't fall off, I guess. Always a bright side. The pattern calls for them to have little crocheted flowers on the toes, but I don't know if I'll add anything on there or not... we'll see what kind of time I have on Christmas Eve.

So, those are done, and those were my one big project. My other big project is a cat quilt for Anja, which shouldn't be too bad, especially if I do it on machine. I have all the pieces cut, and it's really not too many... it's this really cute kit that my mom bought for me one day at JoAnn's. I think Anja is going to ADORE it... the whole middle is this funny cat print fabric, and all the other fabrics are different textures. There's a furry one, a silky one, a flannel one and a homespun. The cats are regular cotton. I'm really excited to give it to her, because I can see it becoming a favorite "gaky" (blanket). She is such a cat lady!

And, oh my gosh, so incredibly OCD. She did the hair brushing thing again the other day. I swear, she'll stand on her changing table for as long as I let her, just brushing her hair over and over and over again with brush, brush, comb. She's so funny! But Martin told me tonight that when he's out deer hunting he just sits there and counts. So I guess that's where she gets it. What a couple of weirdos.

Anyway, along with finishing the slippers, I pretty much finished the second knit mouse too, which is wool and colorful and sort of felted, except one piece (the biggest one, unfortunately) didn't felt up very well, so it just looks kind of hairy. Also, while the pieces didn't felt so much as they shrank into funny shapes, this mouse appears to have legs, and kind of a squished-up nose. He is cute though, and has much more personality than the green one I made first. I'm giving these to the girls, which was not my original plan. I had planned to make one for all of our nieces and nephews, but then I realized that was ridiculous on many levels. For one thing, I don't have that kind of time. For another, when I told someone this, her response was, "do they all have cats?" and I realized that it kind of would look like I was giving them cat toys. But I think my girls will love them.

Last year for Christmas, my parents gave Anja this adorable wooden hedgehog that has three different lengthed pegs and four stacking discs, with a different number of holes in them. I'm not explaining that very well, but it doesn't matter. What matters is that Anja has never really cared about it, but Greta LOVES IT. How funny.

And a few nights ago both girls took crazy late naps, so we had this evening free with a couple of happy girls.... so we went out for ice cream! Anja had no trouble choosing her flavor--BLUUUUEE!!! And she insisted that I wear my wooly earflap hat to match hers, so we took a picture.