july thirty-one

This morning I checked in with the nutritionist. I only go once a week now that I'm in maintenance mode. I like this once a week check-in, it's very.... relaxed. I'm down another 1.2 lbs from last Friday, at 151.8 lbs on their scale (which is 148.8 lbs on my scale - 3 lbs discrepancy). I'd like to get down to 145 on my scale, so that's just another 3.8 lbs to go. Not that far off! This is my new goal, with no deadline.

Bonnie and I decided to run some errands this morning and then go for Harvey's hamburgers for lunch. I had a coupon for 2 free hamburgers as Harvey's is celebrating 50 years. Since my hamburger was free, I got another free hamburger with the purchase of Mackenzie's kids meal. I like Harvey's because you can get a hamburger on a whole wheat bun. This makes me happy. And their burgers are rediculously tasty. By far my fave place to get fast food burgers.

After lunch we headed to my friend D.'s to go swimming.

Mack likes his new friend C. (from one of his mom and tot classes we're in).

Rosie had a snooze while we got ready to go into the pool.

The kids enjoyed themselves. Rosie, C & Mack.

They played ball too.

Mack had a grand time.

Had so much fun it was time to take some shut eye in the boat.

We definitely hope to go swimming again this summer in D's pool.

My in-laws came for supper tonight. Jamie had ball again so he missed out on a pasta dinner. My mother-in-law made a tomato sauce base and then "spiced" it up to your liking. For me it was a clam sauce, and for my father-in-law, he had it primavera style... as some examples. It was delicious. My mother-in-law brought her homemade apple crumb, and I had a small little piece. It was so good. I haven't had something like that in a long time, it was much deserved. Plus, I didn't have much anyhow, saved the rest of what was left of the small pie for Jamie for when he gets home from ball tonight.

july thirty

This morning we hung out at home while my cleaning lady was here. I did take Sean to daycare, though a little later than usual, since he spent some time hanging out with Mack & Rosie this morning. It's so nice to see them all playing together. I'm glad that Mack has a cousin close to his age. Mack & Sean's only other cousin is 6 years old, almost 7. They also have 2 step-cousins but they are 10 and 13. Not so much close in age.

After my cleaning lady left, I took Rosie and Bonnie (my husband's cousin) to Walmart to pick up some items. She needed diapers and stuff for Rosie. She had only brought a few diapers as she could only carry so much with her to Montreal.

After Walmart I had my mom pick up Sean early from daycare (since we really didn't fit the 5 of us in my car - if I am ever to have another child, I need a bigger car), and we headed to my parents house to swim. It was a gorgeous day outside, and we had to take advantage of the weather.

The kids enjoyed soakin' up some rays, and enjoying the pool on such a warm day.

Sean even had the courage to jump off the diving board a few times. Two and a half years old and has NO FEAR of the deep end. I hope that Mackenzie will be just like his older brother and have no fear. Sean also swims to the deep end by himself, without anyone holding his hand. Very proud of him.

After swimming we went out for supper. Jamie had ball tonight, and I didn't feel like cooking.

Sean is so cute when he's silly. How appropriate, he's wearing his Mr. Silly shirt.

Tonight we finished watching Yes, Man (silly cute movie with Jim Carey) and worked on Ishbel. I'm determined to have it done soon! Need to start finishing works in progress before starting anything new.

I like how it's coming out.

Some recent stash enhancement that I got in the mail today from Webs includes 2 more skeins of Trekking Hand Art (another skein of Karibik (top left) (by accident ordered this thinking it was something else) so now I have 2 skeins in my stash from 2 different stores, but that's okay, I'll find something to use it for now that I have quite the yarddage) and a skein of Trekking Hand Art in Atlantik (top right). And I now have 2 skeins of Schoppel-Wolle Zauberball, which I think is totally awesom, in Summer (bottom left) and Cranberries (bottom right). Can't wait to find a project to knit this yarn up in. It's so soft in this cute little ball. Great yarddage too (460 yards) for a fingering weight yarn.

july twenty-nine :: 58 weeks old

Mack is 58 weeks old today.

This morning Mack and I got to his class at the synagogue 15 minutes late. It took me forever to get Sean out of the door today after letting him sleep in. What a huge mistake that was. It's not good to let him sleep in (may affect his nap at daycare) and makes him really slow in the morning.

We had a good time in class today regardless of being late. We're really enjoying these summer classes. Turns out that a mom in our Wednesday class (today) is the daughter of my Aunt's friend. Small world! I thought she looked familiar but couldn't place her. She actually asked me today if I was friends with my cousin, but I told her she was actually my cousin. (Yes, Jenn, you!) I believe her daughter is 8 months old now. What a cutie.

After music class Mack & I went to the train station to pick up my husband's cousin and her daughter Rosie. They're staying with us until Sunday. Jamie's not really close with his cousin, but they're going through a rough time right now and I wanted to offer her 5 days away from "life". I showed her the house she grew up in (she was really happy about that), which was literally around the corner from my current house (2 streets away). She hasn't lived in Montreal in years though. They came back to our house, settled in, chilled while the two babies napped. I picked up Sean from daycare while my husband's cousin stayed back at my house with the 2 kids, as there is not enough room in the car for all of us. The bucket car seat which Rosie is in, barely fits in between both my boys' car seats. So if I can avoid it, I plan on NOT having all three kids in the car at the same time, except for Saturday night when we go to a friend's house about 30 minutes away for a BBQ. After Sean got home we played in the park across the street in the circle until it was dinner time.

Dinner included some fresh picked items from our garden.

After dinner the three kids took a much needed bath (after playing in the sandbox). They had a great time playing in the bath together. (Don't worry I blurred out Mack's wee wee, but this was the best shot of the 3 of them together, so I had to do some photoshopping skillz to omit his precious package without it ruining the photo - but you see nothing, so job well done, right?)

After tonight's bath it seems like my boys have the EXACT same hair... and I just love it. I love their curls. They're just gorgeous. Too bad it's not my hair...! It's Jamie's 150%. And by them having the exact same hair to the tee.... means they both need a haircut badly. It's out of control.

Sean had a good time chatting on the phone to my mom tonight. The kid loves to call people. (I better check my next phone bill to make sure there aren't any long distance charges).

After the kidlets were in bed, we watched the first hour of Yes, Man. My husband's cousin got really tired, so she went to bed, and I'm about to follow. I worked on Ishbel while watching the movie. I've now gotten to the end of Section B for the second time for the large size. I'm almost there!

july twenty-eight :: 31 months old

Sean is 31 months old today. (2 years 7 months old)

This morning we had our music class outside. I'm not big on being outside in the sun, especially when I'm not dressed to be outside in the sun (wearing black, no hat), but luckily we were able to find a spot on the parachute (what we were using to sit outside on the grass) somewhat in the shade. Thank goodness it was only for 30 minutes and we got to go inside after for the rest of the class.

Mack and his new best friend loving bubble time.

After class I dropped Mackenzie off at my parents house and then worked from about 1pm - 5pm. Work went by very fast (as it usually does) and then by the time I knew it I was picking up Sean from daycare and Mack from my parents house and back at home, feeding them dinner and listening to Sean say every letter on his spoon from the Alphabet Pasta they were eating for supper tonight. Tonight I had to feed Mack, as pasta he is not allowed to feed himself yet (unless it doesn't have sauce on it). Pasta sauce + Mack = endless mess to clean up.

Tonight I had knit night, and we started out at Starbucks but ended up at Dunn's because Starbucks doesn't carry food anymore (yes, they still have cakes and stuff but no more sandwiches, etc). Some of us come from work/have no time to eat dinner before knit night, so we were getting food wherever we were going for knit night. So we went to Dunn's instead. What I like about Dunn's is the free refills on the soda. (Diet Pepsi is what they have, but that's okay. It's kinda grown on me, and I think I'm not 100% loyal to Diet Coke anymore, though Diet Coke is still my preference over Diet Pepsi). 0 Calories, 0 sugar, I like it.

As you can see above, I've been working on my Ishbel. I've been putting in a lifeline every other row on the Wrong Side. It's super easy for me to fish one in using my Knitpicks Option needles, as there is a tiny hole in the needle that I fish my lifeline into, and it pulls it through all the stitches for me. Perfect. No effort. Saves my knitting project! I hope to have a finished Ishbel very soon! I'm so close to the end.

I got home early enough this evening that Jamie and I were able to watch Nurse Jackie & Weeds which we missed last night. They replay it on it the dish all week, so we were able to catch it tonight. I think Nurse Jackie is one of my fave new shows.

july twenty-seven

This morning one of the ladies from the Montreal Knitting Guild came and picked up the rest of the Traveling Stash bag yarn. I had put some aside from the stash bag for Charity Knitting. I had emailed the guild to ask who does charity knitting and someone answered me almost immediately. I'm glad that there will be some charity knitting out of the stash bag. I wish I had time to do more charity knitting. Maybe when my knitting time is not so precious. Some days I don't even get to knit a stitch. Hopefully when the boys are older I'll have time to do more charity knitting. It's on my list of things I want to do.

After the yarn was picked up, I dropped off Sean at daycare. Then I went by to see Eugenie, as she lives really close by. She is making the Featherweight Cardigan and needed another skein of Malabrigo Lace. It's so delicious, that I want to make a Featherweight Cardigan myself. (Adding it to the other 600+ projects I want to knit!)

After visiting Eugenie, I picked up my mother and she came with me to run a bunch of errands. First stop, we went by Veronik Avery's house. She just got in the Premier issue of St-Denis Yarn Magazine, and I had a couple of special orders for it, and I wanted a copy for myself.

If you're interested in a copy of this magazine, please message me or leave a comment.
The 16 patterns in it are just simply divine.

I even got my copy autographed by Veronik herself.
I had her sign my fave pattern in the issue, which is by her!

Next stop was to my uncle's glasses shop, where I got my 2 current pairs of glasses that I wear adjusted/tightened and tried on the new "Ugly Betty" glasses that he got in stock.

Had lunch with my mom, ran some more errands, and then picked up Sean early from daycare.

I couldn't find Sean a blue watch (could have sworn I'd seen Diego blue ones at Dollarama, but now that I need one, can't find one anywhere...) but I did find this red Iron Man one from Dollarama today. I figured, for his first watch, since he destroys everything, a simple toy watch (it actually works though) from Dollarama would do the trick. I still wish I could find him a blue one... I'll have to keep hunting. I guess if I pass by a Dollarama in this city, that I haven't been in yet, I'll pop in to look to see if they have one. Dang it! But he loves his red watch. He's so proud to have one, it's adorable.

Jamie had inventory at work and then a ball game. I was on my own tonight with both kids. Mack was a pleasure to put to bed tonight, as always, but Sean threw his fit again today. He was screaming on the top of his lungs, kicking the wall between his room and Mack's room with his feet. Sometimes, he's just so stubborn and difficult. Sometimes I wonder if it's terrible two's or his father's temper...

I got nothing done tonight... and had a list of things I wanted to do. Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to do those things I wanted to get done.

july twenty-six :: 134 weeks old

Sean is 134 weeks old today.

We had a power failure this morning and Jamie tried to explain to Sean what that meant. He went around showing Sean things that normally work with electricity and showed him that they weren't working. Anyhow, I guess Sean didn't really understand because when Jamie was done explaining things, Sean asked him to just fix it with batteries. (When something doesn't work Sean automatically says "Fix batteries daddy"... it's just too cute. Not everything can be fixed with batteries. Eventually he'll get that. Thank goodness the electricity was only out for about 30 minutes this morning.

At lunch we had Mack's friend Evah's first birthday party. It was at a local play gym near our house. Sean freaked out in the parking lot again, because it's next to his daycare. He thought he was going to daycare. He does love daycare but wasn't certain what was going on because Jamie was with us.

The boys had a great time playing with all the toys.

After the party we came home, hung out, I got to knit, and we just chilled until dinner. Since my parents had something tonight, we didn't go to their house for dinner, so Jamie went and picked up pasta from our fave Italian place nearby (which has whole wheat pasta on the menu for me).

Jamie and I hung out this evening after the kids were in bed, and since we had the power failure this morning and forgot to fix the PVR (date & time) it didn't record any of the usual Sunday night stuff we watch (Big Brother, Gene Simmons Family Jewels), so we watched Entourage and then channel surfed the rest of the evening. I worked on Ishbel, and now I'm just a little further than I was before Mack ripped out the needle out of the project yesterday. I lost a handful of rows (about 4 or so I think) and now have done about 6 in total, so 2 more from where I was.

Sean asked for a watch today. A blue one in specific. So I am going to go find him a blue watch. I am pretty certain I've seen an inexpensive Diego blue watch at a store nearby, so I will go see if I can get it. Inexpensive is key, because if he's as rough with the watch as he is with sunglasses (sunglasses break within minutes of his possession) then a watch won't last very long either.

july twenty-five

This morning I hit 149 on my scale. 149!!!!!!!!

(That would be 152 on my nutritionist's scale, 3 lbs less than my goal weight!)

This morning the traveling stash bag was picked up from my house and is now on it's way to Moncton, New Brunswick via an Ottawa knitter. It was super nice of her to pick it up from my house and bring it there for me. While waiting for her to arrive, Mack pulled on the cable of my circulars while I was in the middle of working on Ishbel, and the needle flung out and there went all my stitches. I almost had a heart attack. My first real lace project, and Mack rips out the needle from my stitches. I was at row 6 of section B (the first time you do Section B for the large size). All I have to say is thank heavens I had a lifeline in. The one I had in was at row 2 of section B (I was only putting them in on wrong side rows as it was purling all the way back and much easier to put in a lifeline) which was good that I didn't have to rip back to the lifeline I had at the end of the stockinette section.

I was so frustrated this morning I couldn't get my stitches back on from my lifeline. Never try to do something like that while pissed off. I do not recommend it.

I had some deliveries to do in the city today, so I met Kadi for coffee/lunch after I was done at the café that is directly under her apartment. It's called 92°. Very neat place. So neat that they had tables that you could draw on with chalk. That certainly kept Sean entertained for the most part while we were there. It was nice to catch up with Kadi as well.

On our way home, when we got to a certain street near our house, which was where we had gone by last night on our way to dinner with my in-laws, Sean asked "Mommy, where's the lady collecting money?" At first I had no idea what on earth he was talking about, but then I remembered that yesterday on our way to dinner there was a lady in the middle of the street (a busy street too) with a cardboard sign asking for money. She knocked on my car and Sean started asking all these questions. I told him that she has no job or house and is asking for money for food (and what I was thinking in my head was that it would probably go to drugs and alcohol but anyhow...) and tonight, when driving past that same intersection, he asked where the lady collecting the money was. It's odd the things that kids remember....

Before going home we made a 2 hour pit stop at my parents house. My dad has all the car washing equipment and I decided it was time for an interior cleaning of my car. I vacuumed goldfish crumbs out of every nook and cranny in my car. It was unbelievable the amount of kid mess there was in the backseat. Ah, but boy does it feel good to have a clean car. I know in a matter of no time, my car will be kid messy again... it's only to expect. Sean was a very good car cleaning helper.

We're starting to finally have more zucchinis from the garden.

So tonight, we had fresh grilled zucchini with dinner. Yum!

Before Sean went to bed this evening, he insisted he try on my shoes. Oh, I swear... this kid is obsessed with my shoes. I really hope it's nothing to worry about!

Tonight I picked up the rest of the stitches from my lifeline and everything is back to normal now. Jamie has ball tonight, so I basically plopped myself in front of the tv, and picked up those stitches. I was determined to do it, and I had a clearer mind this evening. As I said earlier in my post, I don't recommend working on something when frustrated. It just makes things worse.

july twenty-four

This morning I hit 150 lbs on my scale and 153 lbs on the scale at my nutritionist's office when I went to go weigh in today. Today I officially start maintenance, the last phase in my weight loss program. It means that I will maintain my weight (or even lose a few more if my metabolism is working in full gear). It means I can cheat on the weekend and know how to lose any gained weight from said cheating during the week before cheating again on the weekend.

This morning a sleepy Mackenzie and I did some errands. I somehow managed to transfer him safely to the stroller without waking up. Sometimes this works, and sometimes it doesn't. Today, thank fully it did! I had to fight with some pretty aggressive people in the parking lot at the mall for a parking spot. Gosh, some people are just animals.

I took Mackie out for lunch, nothing fancy, I was craving a subway sandwich. I can get him soup there, which he likes. Once he's a little older I'll be able to get him sandwiches, but not yet. I checked out the magazine shop next door to the restaurant and picked up two UK knitting magazines that I like to read. The usual place I get them from didn't have them in stock.

Jenn came over while Mack took an afternoon nap to look through the traveling stash bag. She made away with some stuff from there. Hope she gets some good use out of that stuff!

I picked up Sean after she left, and my in-laws came for supper tonight. We went out for dinner to one of my fave local Italian places that has whole wheat pasta on the menu. After dinner I checked out the book market, a second hand book shop next door to the restaurant, to see if they had any chick lit. I ended up getting 4 books, as they had a promotion of buy 3 get one free. Upon getting back to the car, Sean decided that he refused to get into the car unless I changed his diaper. He had gone to the bathroom and didn't want to sit in it. So, I changed him on top of the trunk of the car. Have you ever had to do this? I didn't know where else to change him. I didn't even care if people saw me doing this. What other choice did I have? I'd rather on top of the trunk lid than on the floor (even though I had my changing pad on me...!)

I got my4.5 skeins of black Burly Spun in the mail from a Ravelry Destash. I picked this bulky weight up for the Cozy Bolero. I can't wait to finish some projects to start that one.

I also decided that I want to make the Featherweight Cardigan. Though, I cannot decide which color to make it in. Sapphire Green Malabrigo Lace (above) or Jewel Blue (below). The pattern requ

Loving my new body, I cannot believe that I fit into a JUNIOR MEDIUM top!
Isn't this top adorable??

Off to go work on Ishbel.