The Florida Aquarium

I've been asked several times where the wedding was held. You can read all about Doug & Rachel and thier wedding plans here. The wedding was held at The Florida Aquarium in Tampa, FL on 7-7-07 ... quite a popular day for weddings. The American Idols were at the hotel they stayed at too and several members of the wedding party got pictures and some even got autographs. I apparently just missed them twice. There was also an anime convention that weekend so there were people in fun costumes all over the place. It was a very entertaining weekend to be in Tampa. We stayed at a hotel just down the road that was actually on the strip in Ybor City. It was really nice too. We've talked about going there again just for a weekend getaway sometime.

My Secret Pal!!!

I had a package slip waiting for me when I got home on sunday. I picked my package up yesterday afternoon and look at all the good stuff!

My secret pal, DeDe, lives in New York, NY. She included a Central Park themed coffee mug and some yummy tea which will definitely be put to good use. I love NYC and can't wait to get back there sometime. Brett has never been so I really want to take him there one day. Maybe DeDe can show us around!

I'm not sure what the intended use is for the polk-a-dot bag but I think it will make a great case for my dpn's. And this chocolate .... mmmmmmmm .... you can't get much better than organic dark chocolate with cherries!

And what's in the pretty pink paper?

It's yarn! And gorgeous yarn too. It's so soft I can't stop petting it and I just love the colors. I've never seen anything like it. She included enough to knit myself a tank top and included a pattern as well. I've really been wanting to knit myself a tank top and I either blogged about that and she read it or she read my mind. Either way ... thanks DeDe! I can't wait to cast on. I love the pattern too in that it's not just a simple tank top. It's got the cross over thing going on up top which I absolutely love in a tank top. And the yarn is cotton too which is great for the Florida heat.

She also sent me a the book "Yarns to Dye for" which i'm really excited about. I've already flipped through and have my eye on several things I want to try out.

I took this pic outside and then did some color adjusting to get the color of the yarn to look like it actually does. In doing that it turned the grass in the background a brownish orange, which it is not. It's still bright green but if we don't get some rain with this heat wave it may end up looking like that for real. It was 98 degrees yesterday when I went to the post office!

This adorable little dragonfly pot has some yummy patchouli cream in it. Now again I wonder, did I blog about my love of dragonflies or did she guess this as well?

So i've done a little reading of DeDe's blog and she seems really cool. We have a lot of things in common too like running, good wine, good music and of course, knitting.

More Wedding Fun Pics

Houston fell asleep on the way to the rehearsal dinner and slept for about an hour on the floor while we all ate. He woke up just in time for dessert.

This is us rehearsing for the wedding. Isn't that a beautiful backdrop for a wedding?

Bachelor/Bachelorette party fun at Gameworks.


The bride- and groom-to-be.

We met up with my mom at a nearby mall to drop the kids off and found this carousel.


Look ... she's a natural!

The wedding cake ... yum!


And finally ... the wedding. Unfortunately, only about two of our pics of the wedding turned out. Brett didn't know that I adjusted the camera settings the day before to deal with the odd lighting in the aquarium and so he did some adjusting of his own which turned out with us not having any good pics of the actual wedding. I'll have to get some from someone else. It was absolutely beautiful and just about the sweetest thing I have ever witnessed. Doug and Rachel wrote the ceremony and thier vows. It was awesome and everyone was crying.

Wedding Fun

Happy Birthday to Me!

Let's hope the next couple of weeks bring happier things than the last two.

Back Home

There are so many things I want to say about the last few days but I really don't have the time right now. I'll leave you with some pictures instead.

When it rains, it pours...

I got another one of those bad phone calls today. My Uncle Buck passed away. Technically he's Dad B.'s cousin but my brother and I were very close to him growing up. He lived just a couple hours south of us and was with us for many, many holidays and vacations. He never married or had children so we were his family. Everyone else on dad b.'s side of the family lives in Indiana. His name is John Michael but my brother and I started calling him Unlce Buck after the movie. I'll explain why when I get home and get some time to post more. We had to come back from the beach early so I could get ready to fly to Indiana for the funeral. It's 3am, we just got home and have to be up and on our way to the airport at 7:30am. I'll be back tuesday night. I'm freaking out a bit about leaving the boys. I've never been away from Brody for more than a few hours or so. Keeping my milk supply up is going to be interesting. So my dad b., my pump and I are heading to Indiana. Everyone wish Brett luck being a single dad for a few days. I'm sure he'll be fine but it's going to be interesting. It's me that i'm worried about ... but I can't not be there. He was there for many important days in my life and I just can't let myself miss this.

Yarn for SP10

We were asked to blog about three yarns that we would like to try so here they are:

1. Malabrigo in Olive (left), Red Mahogany (center) or Marron Oscuro (right). I bought some for my secret pal but have never tried it myself. It was so soft and beautiful that I almost couldn't let it go.

2. Lorna's Laces Shephard Sock in the Gold Hill colorway. I've heard lots of great stuff about this sock yarn and i've seen some great colorways online. Would like to try it out sometime.

3. Cherry Tree Hill either Supersock (100% superwash merino) or their new Sockittome (80% merino/20% nylon) in color Java. I soooo heart this colorway! Isn't it gorgeous?

Do you see a trend here? Yep, I like dark earthy colors.

Look ... It's a Squirrel!!!

http://dishclothcorner.blogspot.com/2006_05_04_archive.html

Sad

http://alfiberdreams.blogspot.com/2007/06/dont-drink-and-drive.html

Hand Dyed Yarn Swap

As if I don't have enough to do as it is, I have organized a hand dyed yarn swap. If you are interested you can check out the blog here: www.thehanddyedyarnswap.blogspot.com. Round one will be hand dyed sock yarn. Details and sign-up info can be found on the blog. We've added a pretty good list of links to yarn dyeing tutorials if you have never done it before or if you want to learn a new technique.

Day 2 of 11 ... still going strong

So yesterday while I was running it felt like the seam of my sock was rubbing on my toe. I stopped a few times and adjusted my sock, thinking it just needed to shift a little. About three miles into my journey I just couldn't take it anymore so I decided to take my socks off. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the problem had nothing to do with my sock but was, in fact, due to my shoe coming apart from the inside. You should see the nasty blister on my toe today. Anyway, after Yoga last night I went to the mall and bought a new pair of running shoes. And let me just tell you ... there's nothing like running in a new pair of running shoes that fit just right. I bought yet another pair of New Balance running shoes. They come in extra wide widths which I need for my very flat, very wide feet. I informed Brett when I got home that he had just bought me a pair of running shoes for my birthday. :) He said he would have to take the diamond ring back then and I just had to laugh.
Brett had a city council meeting to go to tonight so the boys and I went to the gym. They did really well in the childwatch. The woman watching the kiddos tonight told me that they were both very well behaved. That's my boys! :) I did some ab work and ran on the treadmill. I walked for a half mile to get good and warmed up and then I ran for two miles straight without stopping! Yay! Go me! I haven't been able to do that in a long time. I uesd to run a lot but I got away from it for quite a while. I'm really enjoying getting back into it. It feels great to exert myself like that and to sweat out all those toxins. Speaking of sweating, I thought I would sweat less today b/c I was on a treadmill in the a/c ... didn't happen. I am one sweat-producing machine when I run! (i know, yummy)
I've found the key for me is a good long walking warm up and good music on my mp3 player. I spent a while today loading more of our cds onto the computer so I could put a new playlist on my mp3 player and make some cd's for our beach trip and for my sectret pal. So glad I took the time to do that. I was getting sick of all the songs I had on there before. I'm in more of a rock phase now so my new playlist has Candlebox, Sister Hazel, Black Crowes, Live, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Evanescence, Linkin Park, Seether, Lenny Kravitz (of course), Daughtry, and a handful of fun pop/dance songs like Pussy Cat Dolls, Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera. New shoes and new music and I was rockin' and runnin'. Good stuff man, good stuff.
I think the thing i'm diggin' about getting into running again (besides the obvious health benefits) is the personal challenge. How far can I go this time? I'm going through a phase of seeking out new challenges in life. Can you tell? But mostly, i'm just tired of carrying this extra weight around and not feeling good about myself. I am losing weight though so i'm on the right track!
In knitting news, I finished the headwrap I was working on and it turned out quite nicely. Let's see if I can find the picture I took... well it looks like you're gonna have to wait. I didn't realize my memory stick wasn't in the camera when I took the pic so it's on the camera's internal memory and I don't see the usb cable for the camera. I'm sure it's around here somewhere but i'll find it later. Right now i'm going to bed.
On a blender note ... i've discovered my favorite juice so far and it is sooooo yummy. I use four ounces of water, one tomato, eight baby carrots, one stalk of celery, about five or six red grapes and some ice cubes. Use the "whole juice" cycle on the fancy dancy blender and you've got yourself a glass of yummy goodness.

A Great Start ... Day 1 of 11

Houston had his last swimming lesson this morning after which we went running ... well it was more of a walk-run-walk-run but i kept my heart rate up. The boys rode in the double stroller, of course. Brody even managed to sneak a nap in. Would have been able to run a bit more but my shoes were hurting my pinky toe. Gonna have to do something about that real soon. After the run/walk in which I made it just under four miles in an hour ... we went to the pool at the Y for some swimming fun. Every morning during Houston's swimming lesson I have to fight Brody to keep him out of the pool. He keeps trying to crawl in and fusses at me while doing the sign for swim. I told them today that I would take them swimming so off we went. It was a lot of fun and the boys loved it too. I love to swim and really should go more often. Houston is a little fish with his water wings on. He kept throwing a ball out into the middle of the pool and then swimming out to get it all the while saying "swim mama, i swim mama" and then he would stop and float and say "float mama, i float mama". Too cute, I tell ya! He is so proud of himself .. just a smiling from ear to ear. And then he wanted to swim some without his water wings so we practiced some real swimming too. That kid is fearless. He jumps right off the steps and under he goes but he kicks his way back up to me. I'm so excited about this. I think he'll be swimming without his water wings by the end of the summer.

Late Night Ramblings...

I've now received two of my three sets of stitch markers for this round of the exchange. I found a lovely set from Lia in the mailbox yesterday. Aren't they pretty?

I haven't been blogging much lately. I've been crafting like mad, working on some things for my secret pal's final package as well as sewing some clothes for myself. I'm getting fed up with not being able to find clothes that fit me right because of my baby belly that seems to want to stick around forever so I decided I would just have to make my own. I've done a lot of work cleaning and organizing my craft room and I now have a great place to work. I've done a lot of yarn dyeing and quite a bit of knitting lately. Also sewed myself a pair of shorts. Plan to sew myself a skirt tomorrow night after yoga. Here's some yarn I dyed for my secret pal. Her favorite color yarn is blue. This pictures makes the yarn look extremely bright for some reason. It's definitely a bright blue but it's not quite as neon-ish as this picture makes it look.

The boys are doing good. Houston is enjoying his swimming lessons and he's talking better every day. Brody is picking up baby signs amazingly fast. He now does milk, eat, change, swim and all done. He's still not walking though. He's been so close for so long but he just doesn't have the confidence yet. Oh well ... he'll do it when he's ready.

I had a really great weekend and this week is turning out to be pretty good as well. Saturday morning I got my haircut and then we took the boys to the pool. After that Brett kept the boys and I went to Gainesville to have my bridesmaid dress altered and to find silver shoes to go with it. It was so nice to go shopping without the kids. My trip to the mall was very successful. Got shoes I love in the first place I looked ... and they were on sale. Got good news about my dress alterations. I actually went back to Gainesville tonight and picked it up. They took it in a slight bit more than I would have liked but I can still zip it up. Might just have to step it up a notch and try to sweat off another pound between now and the wedding. Hmmm ... wonder how much I could lose if I really tried hard in the next eleven days. After the mall I stopped by Joann's and got lost in there for about two hours. Pretty much everything in the store was on sale and I got some great deals. Got some great fabric ($10/yd for $2/yd), a pasta machine ($30 for $9.99) to help with my polymer clay project, a pattern for my shorts and skirt, some cotton yarn (also on sale) for a dress i'm knitting for my cousin's baby and some more to make myself some face scrubby cloth things, a knitting magazine, and some soap making supplies. I could have stayed in there for another hour at least but the store was closing so I had to go. Then on Sunday I took the kids to my friend Joy's house for her daughter Layla's 3rd birthday party. I really enjoyed it. Joy made some amazing food, as usual for her and she gave me the most awesome early birthday present. (Dude ... I just realized as I typed that ... that i'm going to be 31 next week ... WHAT?) She gave me a stainless steel water bottle. I've had my eye on those and had planned to get one eventually. There are issues with plastic leaching into your water from plastic bottles. I've been meaning to blog about this topic .. maybe i'll remember to do that soon. So anyway ... I was super excited that she gave me this wonderfully thoughtful gift. It is awesome and i've been drinking a lot of water out of it already. It's amazing how much better water tastes when you drink it out of stainless steel instead of plastic.

WARNING: Cheesy self-portrait taken in the bathroom mirror posted below. I never take the time to straighten my hair but I love it this way. That's one of the reasons i'm growing it long again. The weight of my hair when it's long pulls the kinks out of it. Thought i'd take a picture to capture the moment of Celena with her hair actually done since I know you all see it so rarely.

Here's Houston swimming with his teacher Bridgette. She's been really great and has an amazing amount of patience to manage three two-year-olds in a pool at the same time. Brody loves to watch and keeps trying to crawl into the pool. It's a constant struggle to keep that boy from the edge of the pool while his brother swims. He crawls to the edge and turns around so he can back himself right into the pool. I doubt he would do it anymore if he found out what happens when mama actually lets him go over the edge. Hee hee ... but I wouldn't do that to my little munchkin.

Your Career Personality: Independent, Insightful, and Ingenious

Your Ideal Careers: Architect Artist Business strategist College professor Computer programmer Mathematician Neurologist Philosopher Photographer Video game developer

The Quick and Dirty Career Test

You Have Good Karma

In general, you like to do the right thing when it comes to others. Your caring personality really shines through. Sure, you have your moments of weakness - and occasionally act out. But, all in all, you're karma is good... even with those few dark spots.

How's Your Karma?

Your Life is 56% Green

Your life is pretty green - and you know a lot about how to live an eco friendly life. So congratulate yourself for being good to the earth. And maybe think about implementing some of the ideas from this quiz!

How Green Is Your Life?

Stitch Marker Exchange, part 2

I enjoyed the stitch marker exchange so much last time around that I decided to do it again. I was a little behind in getting my markers out this week but I finally got them finished and they are on their way. (stomach virus set me back a bit) One set is going to Robyn in Canada, another to Jessica in Alabama and the third is going to Jessica in New Jersey. I'm not saying which is going where, just in case they see this post. Want to keep up a little bit of a surprise. I think the top set is my favorite. I just love the color of the glass beads and the little butterflies are too cute. I'm a big fan of butterflies though so i'm a bit biased. I think I might make myself a pair of earrings like those. Would be cute, no? And for the non-knitters wondering why one bead is different on the top two sets, it's so when you are knitting in the round using more than one stitch marker you can keep track of where the beginning of each round is.

So far I have received one of my three sets. I got these "oh so cute" stitch markers from Kimberly. I still can't get over the cuteness of this little penguin. He makes me happy every time I look at him. I still can't grasp how she made this little guy. He's so perfect. If I had two I would probably turn them into earrings just so I could wear them around. :)

I think he needs a name ... but what shall it be? Any suggestions? This little guy is truly bringing out the child in me. Tee hee.

Cancer Strikes Again

I'm so upset, I don't even know where to begin. This will probably turn into a rambling mess but I need to get it out. I got one of those phone calls last night. One of those calls from a family members that asks first if you are sitting down. My heart sank. I knew before he even told me ... I just knew that damn disease had struck again. "Who is it this time?", I thought to myself. My uncle, who is also my godfather ... the uncle I probably spent the most time with growing up out of all of my uncles (and I have a LOT of uncles) because he was also my dad's best friend (this gets confusing ... he's my bio dad's brother and my other dad's best friend) ... was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer. I feel like i'm in the twilight zone. When you haven't been through this before you don't know what lies ahead. Patsy, Brett's mom, was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer. I've been playing that whole scene over in my head. Watching Brett get the phone call. Seeing him cry. Feeling helpless. Feeling mad. Crying but wanting to scream. Trying to do everything you can to help but knowing that nothing is going to save her. Watching her deteriorate. Thinking of all the things she will miss. Knowing that she will never be here to see Brett and I have kids. Seeing another family torn apart by this terrible disease.

So here I sit, thinking of my aunt and uncle and my cousins ... knowing what lies ahead of them. Feeling helpless once again and overwhelmingly sad. What do I say to comfort them when I know what hell lies ahead of them? I'm sad for Ashley and Brian, that their dad will never see them get married or have kids or even graduate college .... for they are still so young. I'm sad for my Aunt Gail, that she will be left without her partner. I'm sad for Erika, that her son will lose his grandfather so early in life and that she will lose her father. I'm sad for my grandmother, because you just aren't supposed to outlive your children.

But mostly ... i'm just pissed off. I'm pissed off that this terrible disease continues to steal life away from those I love. Why is it that we live in a society with this supposedly wonderful "western medicine" yet we still can't fix this? If early detection is the key, then when are we going to get to a point at which everyone goes in for a full body scan each year to find this stuff early? Why is it that two people I love, within four years of eachother, weren't diagnosed until they had stage four lung cancer? Why is it that it takes several months to get a diagnosis yet as soon as they find it, they bring you in the very next day to make you even more ill than you were, in hopes of slowing things down.

When is this going to stop??? I have two grandparents I've never met, an aunt that I miss dearly, a mother-in-law who is missed more than I can express ... and now an uncle that i'm going to lose as well ... all because of this thing called "cancer". And maybe the worst part of it all is that I know this is not the end of the list. It's only time before the phone rings again with bad news on the other end. It's not an "if" but a "when". And how close to home will it hit next time?

... there's been another "shift in the matrix". I'm reminded to appreciate every little thing I have and to not let the little things get to me. I'm reminded to enjoy life, because you never know when it might be stolen away from you.

It's Wednesday

Wednesday usually means yoga for me but Houston has swimming lessons this afternoon and I don't have enough energy for yoga anyway. I'm starting to get my appetite back and today is the first day i'm not nauseous. Yipee! It's been raining all day so far, which we really need, but I hope it stops for swimming lessons. We got rained out after about ten minutes yesterday.

I don't have much to blog about today so i'll leave you with some quotes from a great book i'm reading ... Financial Peace Revisited by Dave Ramsey.

From Chapter 3: The Basics (a foundation)
"You must gain control over your money or the lack of it will forever control you."

When your priorities get off track, money will take command instantly because of its active principle. I love the old adage "Measure your wealth not by the things you have, but by the things for which you would not take money."

From Chapter 4: Understand the Spiritual Aspects of Money
There are those who believe that finance is merely an exact mathematical science. That is the way it is taught in the universities. In fact, finance is an exact mathematical science -- until a human touches it. Personal finance is who you are. The personal, philosophical, and emotional problems and strengths that you have will be reflected in your use of money. If you are very disciplined, you can be a good saver of money. If you are very selfish or self-centered, you will surround yourself with expensive toys that you cannot afford.

Some Awesome Stitch Markers

Check this out. Scroll down a bit to see the great stitch markers. This woman has some talent! She also has an Etsy shop.

"Manly" Sock Yarn

My latest sock yarn. Kettle dyed rainbow style. Then hand painted to add a bit of a brown-variegated-blue-variegated pattern. Then kettle dyed again with brown to darken it up. Then kettle dyed once more to darken it up a bit more. It was still wet when we left for the river saturday morning so I wasn't sure what it was going to look like. I forgot about it when we got home because I was so sick. Got to check it out today and i'm happy to say that it turned out pretty much like I wanted it to. Some of the blue is a little brighter than I would like for it to be but I knew that was going to happen because of the dye I was using. I could add another wash of brown to it all to darken the blue part up a bit but I think I might like how it is now. I'll have to think about it for a while. Well it's time to get ready for Houston's swimming lessons. Lets just hope I can manage this without getting sick again. I still can't shake this overwhelming nauseau i've got going on.

I'm a mess ...

Ya'll ... i've had a really rough weekend. We spent the weekend at the river and saturday was really fun but about two hours after we all went to sleep on saturday night, my hell began. Apparently I either ate something bad or got some sort of stomach virus. I've been a mess since late saturday/early sunday. I was finally able to hold down a little bit of food last night around seven or so and i've had some toast today. I'm still really nauseous and my neck and back are extremely sore. Both of my ears hurt really bad too and I still haven't been able to shake the headache i've head since late saturday night either. Every time I take some pain reliever it makes me yack. We came home yesterday around five or so and about an hour or two after we got home I was on the couch with a fever and the chills. I had another really bad night of sleep last night and Brody kept waking up all night too. My neck hurts so bad that I can't get comfortable enough to sleep. And to top it all off, right after everyone (except me, of course) ate dinner yesterday Houston puked all down my back while I was holding him. That, along with the fever I had last night, is making me think it's a virus. The only good thing about all of this is that I probably lost a couple more pounds. I just hope I can get it together enough to take Houston to his swimming lessons that start today at 5:30. Anyhow ... now that i've totally grossed you all out ... i'll post some pictures from our weekend at the river.

Apparently Brody was feeling his lack of sleep from last night. I just found him on the kitchen floor like this about an hour ago. He and Houston were playing in the living room while I was sitting here on the computer and I noticed it got really quiet. I went to see what was going on and this is what I found.