While I am waiting . . . .

Monday I was not prepared for a long wait and was very frustrated having to "wait" without having something for my two hands to do. (What brought about my wait is a long story I don't want to share, I will just tell you what I am doing to cope with what would be an otherwise frustrating half hour of my life every weekday for the next two weeks).

Tuesday morning I prepared myself by getting one of my favorite "waiting" projects, more dishcloth yarn, and set to work on some new dishcloths. My friend in Chicago taught me the pattern, I played with it until I found the right size for my hand, and now I am hooked. On the dishcloths, and on knitting while I wait. (I should be sewing, cleaning off the top of my desk, or planning the year for Cub Scouts, but knitting is my favorite portable project). I feel glad that I have to "wait."

Waiting is an interesting thing to observe. I am not good at it. My impatience kicks in, and I have to DO something--so I knit. When I am surrounded by other waiters, I wonder what they are thinking while the world passes by, and I sit knitting quietly by myself. Not really by myself, because I am rarely waiting alone. Some read, some listen to Ipods, others send text messages, or just watch other waiters.

Sometimes I want to offer, "Do you want to learn to knit while you are waiting?"

Earlier this year, while stuck on a plane waiting for a storm in Chicago to pass, I did ask someone. She was the stewardess, who, because of my seat in the last row, got to sit beside me when we finally took off from Austin. She politely declined, but said it was interesting to watch because her mom used to knit, too. [Sidenote: both Nathan and I have been stranded on planes in Austin waiting to fly to Chicago this year. So fun to have so much in common, isn't it? Mine was bad weather in Chicago, his was bad weather in Austin. Different days, different flights, but we shared the same waiting experience . . . I wonder what he did while he waited?]

About this waiting situation, Caitlin said, "At least I have a toy to play with. You don't have a toy, but at least you have your knitting."
I replied, "My knitting is like a toy."

She waits with her dog, and I wait with my knitting. She's used to hearing, "Just let me finish this row."

I secretly hope that one day Caitlin will reflect on our "waiting" together and think, "My mom couldn't sit still. She always knit while she waited, in the car, at the doctor's office, at the park."

Here's the pattern for my favorite dishcloths:

Cast on 4.
Row 1: Knit 4
Row 2: *Knit 1, Increase 1, knit rest of row*
Row 2: Repeat ** until 34 stitches.
Middle Row: Knit 34
1st decrease Row: *Knit 1, Knit 2 together, Knit rest of row*
Repeat** until decreased to 4 stitches.
Bind off. Weave in ends and hit your kitchen sink.

The name of this yarn is Fiesta: we party every time we wash dishes or wipe sticky fingers. It is festive yarn to me, I feel happy every time I touch it.



How do you wait?

First Day 2009-2010 School Year

All in all, a lovely day.
Nathan skipped the early morning meeting to be here for the first day breakfast. Then, he delivered them to school.
When Diana realized they were gone, she said, "Where's Bryn?"
"At school," I replied.
She cried.

Both children are excited to be returning to a familiar school where they already have friends and know their way around. So is their mom.

I was so exhausted I took my morning nap from 9:05 a.m. until 9:25 a.m.

Five of us had CapriSuns with our lunch to celebrate the first day of school. Chicken Pot Pie with a biscuit topping was our celebration dinner.

Over Halfway

Yesterday was my 20 week mark!!! We celebrated by going out to dinner at Olive Garden. The last time we ate dinner alone together was our anniversary, so it was delightful.

My rescheduled ultrasound is Tuesday. If you talk to me on Monday, remind me.

We are waiting until the baby is born to find out the gender. We waited with the first two, and found out with last two.

In other news, today is my serger class in Austin, (can't wait!), and school starts on Monday!

Wanna be my landlord?

Yes, the house we live in is for sale as of 10 am.
Just in case you wanted to invest in property in TX.
We pay on time, don't smoke or have pets, and if you buy now, you get to rent to us until June! Thanks for looking!
There are two others in the cul de sac that are for sale as well, but if I were you, I'd pick ours.

Family Fun Day

Today was our "family fun day" at the community water park. All four children had their first rides on a lazy river and waterslides. All three of the older children thanked us for taking them there. We'll be planning more family fun days in the future.

Heard at the Hunts

In order from oldest to youngest:

Andrew: "Dad, my pocket knife is missing and I think Diana took it. Do you know any of her hiding places?"

Bryn: "If you had to choose which place you are going to work, which one would it be?"

Bryn: "How much money does dad make in a day? 100? 1000?"

Caitlin praying: "And please bless us that wherever we move we'll still speak English."

Diana at the swimming pool on my back, "Mom, you a stroller."
Louder this time, until I acknowledge her with a reply,
"Mom, you a stroller."
"Mom, you a stroller."

Diana talking to me about hair:
"I have curlies, Dad have curlies, do you have curlies?"

Diana to Nathan just after his haircut:
"Dad, your curlies all gone?"

Enrichment Sewing Group Begins

My ward has members who work in medicine. Because of the hospital, it is a mecca for medical training, from Texas A & M Med school, to residencies, fellowships, and physicians. (Ward is our church's name for congregation). It's been great for us to have a support system of other people who understand medicine's demands, and who relate to our stresses of taking call, student loan debt, and the long road of medical training.

One lady in my ward, who happens to be a pediatrician and stay at home mom, is also a sewing genius. When she decided to start a sewing Enrichment class, I signed up early. She also has her own sewing blog and loves to talk sewing, I've already learned a lot from talking to her and seeing what is coming out of her machine every day.

"Enrichment" is the name given to women's meetings designed with the purpose of improving the woman's life: spiritually, physically, mentally, etc. I've attended classes on improving communication, cooking, financial management, knitting, chocolate dipping(very popular), parenting, how to give a haircut, and now sew to name a few. I love enrichment!

I counted 11 machines going last night, it sounded like a sweatshop. Each person who was there finished at least one pillow, so I would say it was a success!

This is last night's finished project for me: a pillow for Caitlin's bed. She and Bryn have matching quilts I got on a great sale at Target last winter. Bryn would like to sew her own pillow now, she came with me last night.


The next project is skirts, so stay tuned. In the meantime, I will be working on this cute apron pattern, Butterick 4945, View D, in black and white.

The best made plans . . . .

You know that your plans are about to change when you show up 24 hours late for your ultrasound appointment.

Grumble, grumble.

I took the paper out of my purse to check to which desk I should report and . . . . yep, my appointment was yesterday.

I checked in anyway, nearly in tears, and the worker was very kind (thankfully). All the comments "How could you come on the wrong day??!!" were only in my head. She asked to see if they could fit me in, and they couldn't, so I rescheduled for 2 more weeks.

A different woman made my appointment and politely highlighted it so I'm not a "no-show" again.

The bright side is I can come and go from the hospital freely, unlike the man we saw in the the parking lot with handcuffs on his hands and chains between his ankles, escorted by two police officers. Nathan has told me about treating patients who happen to be prisoners before, but I've not witnessed it with my own eyes until today. Interesting.

Moral: If at any time between making and keeping an appointment, you think or feel like making sure you've got the right time . . . it is not to be ignored, and you should check, ASAP.

Heard at the Hunts

Andrew: "Everybody party on the bed!"


Certainly the first bunk bed night in our household is worthy of a photo. We've had them for a little while and Nathan and the kids set them up tonight. I am nervous about the proximity of little heads to the ceiling fan . . . but we are proceeding anyway.

It will probably only be a party with 4 on St. Patrick's when we hold our traditional family sleepover. We've held a couple and missed a couple, so here's a 6 month reminder that it's coming. Andrew offered to let me have a spot on the bunk beds that evening. Now did he say top or bottom?

Here's a photo of Nathan's dorm room at the University of Michigan. He had the room to himself, but rearranged the beds into bunk beds anyway so he'd have more space.

He said, "It would have been easier to put them up with 2 people."
Somehow, he managed by himself.

Darling Diana

These are some photos that were on N's camera of Diana in Wyoming on our first fishing adventure. They just might be the favorite July photos. She also decided to start talking up a storm in WY and is now speaking in many complete sentences. When we met up with Nathan at the airport in Austin, she held his hand in the car for the first 10 minutes without letting go. A day of two after he got home, he asked, "So when did Diana start talking?" Sweet, sweet girl.

A week's worth

Last year we checked out a fun book called What the World Eats. (photographed by Peter Menzel ; written by Faith D'Aluisio).

The published describes it this way: "A photographic collection exploring what the world eats featuring portraits of thirty families from twenty-four countries surrounded by a week's worth of food."

It was great! Food and diet are generally interesting to me and I enjoyed flipping pages to compare diets around the world, along with the major health problems people in those countries faced, which were also listed. I learned that in other places in the world people die from unsafe drinking water--while here in the US it is heart disease and diabetes. It would be interesting to take a photo like that of our family and what we eat in a week . . . but first I'd have to figure out exactly what we did eat in a week. The most striking was the family from Africa (can't remember which country) that had 4-5 large bags of grain in front of them and were sitting outside their tent. If your library has it, it is recommended reading from me. Let me know what you think.

Anyway, this isn't our typical weekly diet, but it is our typical week's worth of laundry. Of course a few things are different, Nathan normally has 5-6 button up shirts instead of 2, but this is a pretty average week for our laundry. I begin after breakfast and finish somewhere close to dinner time--it is usually 5-6 loads . . . can't remember today's exact count. I wash ALL the laundry on Monday because I like saying it is DONE, (even though that only lasts a few minutes) and then I usually wash another 2-3 loads at other times during the week--towels, sheets, and kitchen laundry, as well as the item that has to be done so I can wear it.

I like doing the wash on Monday because it is the day I generally stay home for "Weekend Recovery" and avoid needing to shop. I love the Wrinkle Guard feature on my dryer that will keep spinning the laundry every few minutes up to 2 hours, because it seems like the next load is always ready to come out when it is meal time or I am headed out the door, or something else inconvenient sneaks becomes more urgent than taking out the next load.

I wash 98% of the laundry in our house, but I only put mine and Diana's away, and she is in training. The kids frequently help with moving laundry from one place to another as well, and have enjoyed living in a one level house for laundry duty. Many weeks I designate a "Laundry Helper" whose job it will remain throughout the entire day, but often I do not. I usually listen to a general conference talk or two while sorting and folding. One of my favorite family home evenings a long time ago was teaching Andrew and Bryn how to match socks. Even Caitlin "folds" her own socks, she was frustrated at me last week for not doing it her way.

My favorite solution for stains is OxiClean. It works really well on our typical stains, and has only ruined only one item of clothing because it was too harsh. (Actually I think my letting it soak TOO long was the real reason). I use liquid All and Tide--it depends on how dirty the load is. Tide is for dirtier loads. I also use mostly cold water since it is less expensive and works just as well for most things, but I do use warm or hot on loads that are more heavily soiled. My machine has a cycle called "Whitest Whites" that really does make them brighter than when they went in. My fabric softener is Target brand dryer sheets.

For most of you, this is more information than you want, but if I'm not around on a Monday, someone in my family might need this information! Washing laundry is one of my favorite household chores. I guess it's because of the visible evidence you've done something with your time and mostly the machine does all the work. My aunt wrote a memoir of my Grandma Parks titled, "My Mother, the Laundry Guru" so I guess it runs in the blood. My mom also likes doing laundry and Monday was always her day, as well.

The saddest laundry time in my life was our first year in Chicago when our dryer didn't work. We hung everything somewhere in our apartment until it was dry. It was a long, cold, wet winter. That period ended when Keith, my brother in law, fixed it with a 4 inch piece of wire in about 30 seconds.

The happiest laundry time in my life has been the past year--since my parents gave us our new washer and dryer, and my kids have grown to be such great laundry help. They make my Mondays a little brighter! Happy laundry to you.

Weather forecast this week, August 4-8th

Just for the record:
T 102
W 100
TH 102
F 100
SA 100
SU 100

Each night it cools off to somewhere between 76-79 degrees, but I couldn't memorize those numbers as quickly.