One of My Favorite Summer Time Activities

When I was younger, one of my favorite activities in the summer was going water skiing. Every year, when I would go visit my Dad in Iowa, we would drive 7 ½ hours up to Long Lake, Wisconsin to stay for a week or two. It was a very gorgeous place, right on the lake. In one cabin, we had me, my dad, my step-mom, and my brother. My step-grandpa stayed in the other cabin. He was the one with the boat.

The cabins could definitely have used some freshening up and maybe a time warp out of the 60’s (could have been 70’s, I am too young to know which decade). Some of the curtains in the cabin we stayed in were pink with white polka dots and pink bobbles on the ends. And that was just one of the rooms! There was no main theme to any of the cabins, unless you would consider a particular decade a theme, but I loved it! There was something about living right on the lake that was very calming and peaceful. Whenever I got upset (which I did A LOT being a teenager and all), I would go sit on the dock and just listen to the lake. I loved being on the water, in the water, or having anything to do with the water.

When I learned how to ski, I didn’t want to do anything else. Of course, learning was the hard part, but that was helped along with the promise of a chocolate malt from Max’s (best food ever!) if we made it up and around in a small circle. I believe we also were rewarded with a chocolate malt if we made it up on one ski and around in a small circle. I love to learn new things, and I love learning them even more when I get rewarded for having done so.

The first few times trying to get up was difficult, but I had a good teacher and I
think I got up and stayed up within fifteen tries, maybe even ten. My brother had a harder time, but once we both learned, we became avid skiers and rarely wanted to stop.

Our whole family loved to ski and one time all five of use skied behind Jonsie’s big boat, loving named Big Bertha. I believe we had every customer at Max’s outside watching us when we were trying to get up and cheering us on when we finally went around the lake.

I hope one day when I have kids, I can find a lake to take them to every summer and hopefully they will want to learn how to ski.

Ice Cream Swap

I received my swap package from my partner in the Ice Cream Swap today! The first thing I noticed was how heavy the package was. When I opened it, I was greated by a wonderfully soft knitted hat that screams Mint Chocolate Chip.


Inside, I found a plethora of goodies.


Many, many different types of chocolate and candy. Milk Duds, mint truffle chocolate bar, 3 Musketeers Mint bar, Mint Hot Chocolate mix and a package of sweettarts.


There is a cool wax potpourri burner thing (on the left of the picture). My partner got me Melon scented wax (my favorite scent!) and tea lights to go with it. I will have to take a bath tonight and use the wax burner along with my new Ice Cream Bubbles.


I also received two cool containers that I am assuming were hand made by my partner. One says "stitch markers" and the other says "needle case." Inside the needle case were, of course, needles and a pair of scissors. Inside the stitch marker case were two different types of rulers. I definitely needed these (how did you know?). No more measuring for garments using string and a ruler!!


There was also a package of green tea with mint, some mints, a journal, and two postcards.
Also, a thimble that says Reno on it and some cute little ice cream cone buttons.


I also got three skeins of cotton yarn(Sugar and Cream and Peaches and Cream) in greens and browns.


On top of all this, I opened the letter that also arrived from my partner today and found a coupon for a FREE pint of Ben and Jerry's ice cream.


Thank you so much amandaleigh!!!

My Shawl Swap Package!

I also received a wonderful package from my partner in the Shawl/Stole Swap on ravelry yesterday!



My partner sent me two very pretty (and soft) skeins of Fiddlesticks Knitting Zephyr Wool-Silk yarn in the colorway Juniper. It is a very pretty blue-green and I can't wait to make my new shawl out of it. The shawl pattern that she chose for me is Juno Regina from Knitty. It is very pretty and I can't wait to start.





She also sent me a copy of the pattern, some nice almond milk hand cream and a pumice stone.



Thank you so much Tasha!!

Yay! Swap Package! (Picture Heavy!)

I received my first package from my secret swap partner yesterday! It was very nicely wrapped in pink and green paper. Unfortunately I don't have pictures of that because my camera didn't have batteries and I was too impatient to wait until I got some more. Inside I found many many wonderful things!


There was two packages of chocolate, Choxie truffle chocolates and a dark chocolate mix from Ghirardelli (Mmmmm.... they have already been sampled my Spenser and myself).


There was also some alba body cream in Kukui nut scent! It smells delicious.


My partner also included some goodies from Race for the Cure. A very pretty head scarf in pink, and some keychains that represent different sizes of tumors found in the breast.




Also, some gummy bears (partially snacked upon by me), a very cute card and a super cool bag for my knitting notions.




The bag is made out of recycled bottles. How cool is that?

And, saving the best for last, a wonderful skein of C*Eye*Ber fiber sock yarn in the Lily Pad colorway. 435 yds of Superwash merino and nylon. It is very soft and very pretty!





Thank you Secret Partner, whoever you may be!! I have to say that you have spoiled me rotten!!

So You Think You Can Dance?

Oh My goodness! Why didn't I fall in love with this show earlier? I have totally loved Tabitha and Napoleon. I love their Katie and Josh routine the first week :http://youtube.com/watch?v=c_GRUm3-0jU&feature=related. This week, I am also totally in love with their routine they did for Chelsea and Mark :http://youtube.com/watch?v=ovjAuBuepVA. So far I have watched it about four times. Shhhhh..... Yes, I am one of those crazy people who can listen to a song an infinite amount of times in a row before I get tired of it (and I LOVED this song!)

DON'T TOUCH MY STOMACH!!

Okay, so yesterday I got an inside look at what it is going to be like when I am pregnant in the future (far future). My boss was telling me what I needed to do to get ready for us opening when all of a sudden, she stops talking, stares at my stomach and then slowly reaches over and pats/rubs it! WTF?? All I could say was "No", as in, "No, I'm not pregnant." The word pregnant never actually was said by either of us, but I knew what she was referring to when she patted my stomach. Who does that??



I have heard many ladies complain about how people would always touch their stomachs when they were pregnant which is something I completely don't understand at all. Why do people suddenly think that since you are growing a child in your stomach, it is okay to go ahead and touch you? They wouldn't think it was okay to come and touch your stomach normally, so why when you have a child in there? But then, for someone to reach out and touch your stomach when they don't even know if you are pregnant, that is even worse. Why would you do that?



Oh yeah, then when I told her "No, I'm not pregnant." She says, "Oh, just relaxing for summer then?" What? Did she just call me fat? I will be glad when I do not have her as a boss any more. But I will be sad to be leaving the beautiful new science building!

Some WIP's

These are my "Socks of Science." I am making them for Senor for father's day.

Now, you may be asking yourself why these are a work in progress and why they are called socks of science. Well, I still have to add "socks of science" on one foot and a microscope on the other. They are called "Socks of Science" because a while back Senor began adding of science to the end of anything. Now his students have taken to it and many gifts he receive have the infamous "of science" on them. So, now he will have some socks to go along with it.

These socks are going to be knee highs. They are made with Knit Picks Felici yarn in the colorway Gelato. So far, they are one of my favorite pairs of socks. My other favorite pair was the monkey socks I made for Kat. Pictures will come for those after I give them to her!

This yarn is SO soft!! I can't wait to wear them.

Hopefully you all have a nice week! Well, are having a nice week!