Sugar Bunny Boulevard

Happy 16th Birthday Benny!

Life In Pictures

My view of the table last night after opening Monday's mail.  The mail from six days prior is hiding behind that big double-stack!  Gotta have the cordless phone, scissors, pen, paper, and Diet Coke.

The garden this morning.

Benny helping hold the entire triple-tower of squares that came over the past week - because it was falling down!  He had just come home from conditioning camp this morning so yes, his hair is wet.  You can see through the doorway into the den.... squares aren't quite taking over the entire house yet but they're about to explode out of the den!

 

Squares in the den.  Ten 20-gallon zip lock bags of squares plus boxes and bags full of afghans, hats, scarfs, cloths, seaming yarn, and all the special stuff y'all have been sending along!

And last but not least.... My Mitten Model.  Mitten made as a store sample for a class I'm teaching in September at Michaels about using DPNs.  I find it funny-strange (not really funny-funny but I do still have a little nervous giggle about it).... I find it funny-strange that I have planned and scheduled a class to make something I had never actually made before.  heh  This is my first mitten.  I'm pretty proud of it.  And Lila Pearl likes it.  :)

Does it count as a Finished Object if I never plan to make a matching one??  Hmmm.....

A Summer Thursday

Happy Thursday May 31st to you all.  Tomorrow is June.  Summer is here.  The sun is hot.  The sky is blue.  The grass is growing.  The squares are coming in droves.  It's a good happy time.  :)

This morning everyone slept in a bit.  It was a long day yesterday for the babies - no naps!  All.  Day.  Long.  I so proud of Emeline and Lila for keeping it all together without any meltdowns (major or minor!).  It was a good day.  A beautiful service for Grandy - many friends, many family members, many people who have known their family for so so long.  An old neighbor from when they lived on Gilbert Street when Jeff was a little boy.  I'm sure Jeff never expected to see her again in his lifetime.  Lots of nice people who enjoyed seeing the family and who came together to remember a man who they all had reasons to like.

After breakfast I took the babies down to the church to pick up our afghan mail and then we walked around for a bit.  It was noon time and felt hot.  People were mowing their grass and it smelled so good.  The sky was beautiful.  It feels and smells and sounds like summer all around.  Birds flit about in the trees and chatter at the squirrels.  The babies point at dogs and squirrels, laughing and making up little stories about what they're doing.

Benny mowed the grass for Miss L today.  When he got back and we had some lunch I took him down to the drivers license office at the court house.  I love getting visit a court house for a good reason.  It's a nice historic building and they are doing renos on it right now.  Benny could have gotten his student driver permit much earlier than this but he's been so busy with athletics and settling in at school home and church that the driving thing hasn't been a major priority.  Thank goodness.  So he aced the test (studied a lot with the book at home) and signed the papers and said yes, no, no, yes to the questions, and paid his money.  They print out the temporary permit like it's a cash register receipt complete with your photo!  That was pretty cool.  When we left he said "I'm gonna drive."  ha.  HA.  oh hahahahaha.  No, he did not drive.  Funny how I'm just fine with him taking the test and acing the test is great, but uhh... we'll find an empty parking lot to start in.  I know he's been driving some at his dad's but I'm not quite ready for that.  Gotta start s l o w with me.

The big kids will be going to their dad's in Texas for the summer tomorrow.  I wish they didn't have to go but I know there are good things about it.  Like I'll get a little break from being their personal chauffer (however you spell that).  Benny is at the pool now, basketball camp for him in a little while.  Katie has had a few friends over today.  Same for Suzannah.  Pizza for dinner tonight.  And then they'll be gone tomorrow. 

I have approximately one million emails to read and respond to so if I can have the self control to keep my chatting to a minimum on the blog (unsuccessful so far this time), I hope to keep things simple with Daily Square Reports for the next several posts.  I hate getting behind on stuff and since I've been keeping up with the afghan mail everything else is going downhill fast!  With the big kids going away for several weeks hopefully I can get things organized again around here.

Daily Square Report:

It's great news on the square front!  We got 40 more squares and 12 more wash cloths today!  WooHoo!  Just so you know I'm not requesting wash cloths, but there is a group called Love's Many Cloths who make and collect wash cloths (intended to be face cloths) year round just waiting for the right occasion to send out a box of cloths!  They donate a lot of cloths to homeless shelters and places like that where having a simple posession like a hand knit cloth is functional and luxurious.  I think it's a wonderful idea and I hope to make some cloths for the Love's Many Cloths group when this afghan project is over this fall.  Somehow I wonder if it will ever be over but let's just say for now it will be.  :)

40 squares tall!  Mmm... so many pretty colors!

Today's squares came from:

Kerri - Woodside, NY
Love's Many Cloths "pink angel" - Greenwood, FL
Paula - Centre, AL
Elizabeth - Birmingham, AL
Beth - Pocatello, ID
Ariel - Ontario, CA (California, not Canada - why does that always trick me?)
C - Ness City, KS

Thank you ALL!!!  I love every one of these squares!

Everybody have a great day and rest of your week and enjoy the little things that make summer nice.  XOXOXOXOX

Catching Up In Photos

We're busy.  All the time.  Not as busy as some people but still.... busy enough for us.  Having the babies adds a degree of difficulty for sure.

Mommy:  You know what I'm doing.  Knitting and spinning.  Thinking about charity stuff - doing some of it.  Easily distracted by the knitting and spinning.  Creating more new projects than I'm finishing.  More yarn coming in than coming off the needles = stash accumulation.  Imagine that.  heh  Thinking about the Estes Park Wool Market coming up in mid-June.  Oh my gosh that's not as far away as you think it is!  YAY!  This is 100g of wool I spun for the Dulaan knitting I want to do.  The more I think about it, the more I believe I should combine it with some stash yarn to make a little pullover or something.  It's hard to know what they need the most.  Of course the longer I think about it the less chance it'll become something this YEAR.

Daddy:  Working a LOT.  Trying to spend as many evenings at home as possible but of course it's never enough for us - we like having him with us.  The babies abuse him horribly - demanding that he hold them both while watching their favorite Elvis and Wiggles videos on youtube.  Emeline is often heard barking out orders like, "DADDY - PLAY!!" and gesturing toward the closet where her favorite blocks and legos are located.  Lila Pearl just screams DADDY DADDY DADDY until he picks her up.  Oh the torture. 

Benny:  Just finished up the season of Freshman Basketball.  Didn't play as much as he would like but they had a winning season and he states that he made a lot of new friends and learned a lot.  Still making awesome grades with what seems like minimal effort.  He's been planning to go out for the golf team but really hasn't played golf before.  Considering the level of competition and number of kids going out for golf, he might switch to baseball.  He's in a "woods" class this semester and brought home his first project last week:  a cutting board.  This thing is HEAVY!!!

Katie:  Making new friends at school.  Making good grades at school.  Still in full "self portrait mode" with the camera.  I'm constantly finding more and more pictures of her taken from the end of her own arm.  ha  Does an amazing job of making new friends yet maintaining her individuality and self esteem.  I like this girl a lot.  Still the manager of the 8th grade girls basketball team (was advised by the doctor not to play because of her broken arm in the fall).  Trying to learn how to budget her telephone air time wisely.

Suzannah:  Ditto pretty much everything that I said about Katie except for the cell phone because she doesn't have one yet!  Stuck in the middle between two older siblings who get to do *everything* and two babies who get to do nothing.  She went with me to the Knitting Meetup in Wichita on Saturday morning and took her own knitting.  Maybe I should be showing a picture of that - but we'll wait until she has a finished object.  She's currently brainstorming about what her next project will be (what she will think of as her first REAL project) and what kind of yarn to use.  I told her she could pick ANYTHING as her first "real" project and we'll find a pattern suitable for her experience level.  Any suggestions out there??  Like I said - she's pretty much a small version of Katie, so here's Suzannah's self portrait.

Emeline:  Talking Talking Talking!!!  Just finished seven weeks of swimming lessons - she loved it!  Just started seven weeks of "Nastics" - she loves it!  So far all she wants to do is run around the gym jumping but eventually the newness will wear off and maybe she'll slow down to jumping in place.  hehe  Favorite toys right now are blocks and legos and books but the biggest surprise has been how much she loves the plastic backpack full of pretend McDonald's food hat she got from Katie for Christmas.  I think this was $5 at Wal Mart and gets a LOT of play time.  She also loves to play with the backpack and.... Sorry Daddy.... gotta show this picture.  The first time she put on the backpack she headed for the front door and said she was going to school - at 8:00pm.  I took this one the other morning.  She just loves to play like she's going to school and doing homework.  heh  And it brings her Daddy to tears thinking about his little Emeline going to school.  *sniff*

Lila Pearl:  Talking Talking Talking!!!  If Emeline can say or do it, Lila Pearl wants to be saying and doing the same thing.  She's talking quite a lot and surprising us every day with new things.  She loves reading books as much as Emeline and will never be satisfied with being in the shadow of her big sister.  I've said it before.... Lila won't be ignored.  :)

A few days ago I was trying to take pictures of some glass for Jeff to list on eBay.  You cat owners think you have problems.  ha

What began as this.....

Turned into this...

And then this....

So in conclusion... Life stays interesting at the Bunny Hutch.  Still knitting and spinning and yes Adrienne.... even dyeing.  I have done a little dyeing for the shop but still need to list it... and will be doing more very soon.  VERY soon!  Just like all the charity knitting.  ha  Oh the plans I make.

Everybody have a GREAT WEEK!  :)

(Silent) Poetry Reading

From Poems by Benny for a fifth grade English class project in May 2003, age 11.

DEDICATION
This book is dedicated to my mom who has loved and taken care of me for all of my life she has taught me to love others and to always tell the truth.  When I am troubled or worried she always listens to what I have to say.  The most important thing she has taught me is to do my best and to try until I succeed.

ACROSTIC POEM
An acrostic poem is written by taking a word and using each letter in that word to begin a different line in a poem.

I LOVE YOU

In good times or bad,
Like when I'm mad,
Only you can help me to be glad!
Very kind you speak, not
Even sounding bleak.
You solve my problem!
On my bed, with my head in my hand, you always
Understand!

Benny gave me this precious book of poems for Mother's Day four years ago.  This is one of my favorites.  I'm sure you can understand why.  :)

My Little Boy Is 15

Fifteen years old.  So old am I.  So young is he.  Fifteen is hard to remember but I feel like I was a teenager so recently.  Maybe that's because I hardly feel like an adult.

When I asked if he was excited about his birthday Benny said that he didn't feel much like there was a birthday coming.  I know it's because of all the other excitement.  Moving.  New school.  Social life.  Academics.  Home.  Thinking about driver's ed.  Thinking about the responsibility of keeping a laptop with him at all times.  So much else to think about - he hasn't had much free space in his brain to anticipate this birthday.  Next year will be different.

My little boy was born on his due date, Friday, October 25, 1991, at approximately 7:30 am.  I have suspicions that it set a precidence of timeliness and general OCD for him.  He weighed 8 pounds 3 ounces.  He had perfect hair.  And perfect baby skin.  And a sweet cry.  He slept through the night at two weeks old.  He made parenthood seem like the easiest thing on earth.  Most of the time.  He made being a rookie parent as easy as a baby could.  We were living in Columbia, IL (just across the river from south county St. Louis, MO) and then moved back to Texas when he was two months old.  Really those were about the happiest two months of my life.

Now he's fifteen.  I can hardly believe it.  Happy Birthday Benny.  I'm so proud of you.  :)