Fund raising fail and fun away from home

The craft stall I did at Celebrate was a big fail. The festival is much smaller than in previous years, and I was one of three commercial stalls there, if you don't include food. I should have done the Didsbury one, but I didn't know it was on until I had booked this one. Poop. Oh well, I made about £40 if you count the hats that home edders bought when they saw me preparing. So I have about 40 hats to sell, as well as things contributed by Martine, and some crocheted chokers and hair bands. At least it was fun making them. I am much better at crocheting, and giving things away, than I am at selling them. :-)

Other than that, we have been on holiday. Well, most of us. Al and me and 3 youngest went to Penrallt, which is a magical place. The sea is so fun and healing.

Me in the caravan

The man in a wetsuit

The Babe enjoying the sand.

The Babe in a canoe. I went out in this later. :-)

The Meister in a Kayak.

The Boy spent most of his time with guitar in hand, making music in the caravan, by the fire, up a tree, or just walking about randomly in the fields. But here he is, enjoying the beach.

This was a return to a family camp that we went to for several years before the older girls' activities started taking precedence. It was so nice to be back, even without the two oldest kids. I hope we get to go back next year. But very glad we went this year, as we can't afford to go any place else this summer. It was pretty fab!

Didn't get much knitting done though. Started some socks for the Meister, and managed to crochet her a nice summer hat, but all of that sand was not condusive to knitty things. :-)

Musings and recollections on two weeks in the Midwest

So, the flying was fine, that baby was fine, even security was not as bad as aniticpated, even though they did make me take the baby's slippers off twice in St Louis. I don't think I was quite prepared for the shock of how much everything had changed. I had never been to my mother's condo and I think she has been there for over 10 years. It is quite a nice little place she has, but I didn't recognize anything really. My old school, the shopping mall, the major roads, even downtown is all different.

But it all seems to be fast food places. It is really weird, there are restaurants everywhere, and my mother drove me around town pointing out all the places she and her friends eat. I went out for lunch 6 times in two weeks, which I NEVER do, and it was getting to me a bit. Especially since the quality of the food was questionable in most places. Everything is protein, fat and carbohydrate. I had to balance it out with lots of salads made at home. :-) I can really understand why Americans are the fattest people on the planet.

I don't know how the economy can support all of these eating establishments. It was surprising, like the Osaka Sushi bar and Steak house,  or the nice cafe we went to (Garden of Eat'n) where I ordered the Greek salad, and got tinned olives and grated feta on an iceburg lettuce base. :-)

So, there were lots of high points. My mother getting to see the baby, and how happy that made her. I have little snippets of memory like Baby holding up her arms to Grandma to be picked up, and the Budweiser beer mats which were Babe's favourite toy; the little table that helped her get walking, and my mother's amusement at the bum shuffle little one does. :-) Grandma got  to be Grandma and bought things for grandkids, and show off the baby to her friends.

I did get a bit stir crazy and had to get out for a walk at Washington Park. It was beautiful weather the whole time we were there, and the autumnal colours are quite pretty. Baby and I played in the play park with some little Illinoisians, and then went for a long walk.

We visited lots of friends and family.

Uncle Bob

Aunt Edith

Edna Jayne

Cousin Libby

 Aunt Norma, Leo and Hunter

Cousins Theresa and Russ at Mac's Fire and Safety.

Abraham Lincoln

Susannah and her lovely family

They do Halloween BIG!

I am left feeling like I had a nice time, and I am glad I went, although I realized how much I actually like my life here in Manchester. I often complain about some aspects of city living, but I like that we can walk just about everywhere we need to, that we have some public transport, that the area we live in is ethnically diverse, and there are good shops to buy quality food, even if we can't always afford it. :-) Things are slightly more expensive here, but it is home now, and I think I finally realized that. I feel really American at heart.  I have qualities that my friends think are American, like my frankness, or lack of decorum. :-) My ideas about personal liberty, and the ideals that America was founded on, but based in a 21st C realism. America is not the land of the free for all of its ideology. I noticed huge race issues in the areas I was in; and political divisiveness since I was there for the election - and I voted!  I noticed huge class differences, but the ideology that working class midwestern Americans hold mean that they don't even know they are working class. The American dream means everybody expects to have their share of the pie eventually, but they don't control anything. Most people are just living their lives, which was nice in a personal sense, but odd in a political sense. Especially since so many of my friends are very political and all of the personal choices we make have political consequences. America is more about religion than politics, whereas the British would think religion a private thing, or even an odd thing. :-)  The Americans I met were really quite nice and chatty, and there is a lot more stopping to say hello to people, even strangers, than you ever get in Manchester. Partly, that is urban differences, and partly cultural differences.

There were nice bits and weird bits. But this is my home. It was nice to catch up with people, and to slot right in with some people, like we haven't seen each other in weeks rather than in nearly 20 years. It was nice to meet new people, and see my mother enjoy the baby. And it was nice to come home again.

I will probably post more, as I have the time, and things occur to me. But that is probably way more than enough for now.

here we go again...

So I am tired and cranky and struggling to eat healthy and stuff. I do, however, feel that I have turned a corner with my Pilates and that my back is at least getting better if not yet good. I am not sleeping well, and baby is teething a bit, although the not sleeping has more to do with me and not her.

I am making some nice crochet squares, the idea for which you can see here.  I have made some to send, now I just have to get to the post office. And I have nearly finished the poncho I am making for M with the same pattern.

Looking forward to doing little for the next couple of weeks, before life starts back up again, and gets more busy, and complicated, and expensive.

Busy June

I have spent several of the last few weeks just thinking, "I just have to get through the next few days, and then I can relax." I don't know why anybody who has kids can ever think this, but I have, and while I am not necessarily relaxing,  I am probably going to have time to eat properly today.

This is probably going to be a boring post that is only interesting to far away friends who want to keep up with what we are doing. 

End of May we had my my birthday, and S coming home from uni for the day, and C being in the finals of the Chorlton Young Musician of the Year contest. We managed a family dinner in between rehearsals and show as well. We finally found Due Fratelli in Chorlton, which is a great place to take a big family with lots of different eating habits.  The vegetarians were happy, the carnivores were happy,  and the bank was happy.

Then we we stopped off home to get a belt for the boy, so his trousers wouldn't fall off his skinny body while on stage, and went to the Blue Box Theatre so see the young perfomers. I was mightily impressed with all of them, but of course, mostly with C. He didn't know many of the others, as they had lots of school friends there to support them, and he got a nice polite applause when he took the stage. When he finished though, he got a louder, appreciative applause, especially from me and M, who whooped and yelled. 

My pressies included the following...
S got me The Princess Bride DVD, some Lowry cards, and Mr Booja Booja truffles. Al got me the gift certificate,   R got me the new Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip CD, M gave me the Bag,   there is a book of poetry on its way from my mother.

I don't know why I am going on about this birthday that was a month ago...I guess because it was a nice day, and we've had a few of those recently. During this time, we were also frantically trying to help R through her Maths GCSE. We managed to cover a lot of ground in a few weeks, but it did mean that I ignored the other kids for a bit. Actually, I think they like me to ignore them every once in a while...I don't notice how much chocolate they are buying.  And of course, the car went into the garage the  week of her exams. She had 4 exams in one week, and now they are all over, and we are waiting for August 24th.

Then we had to get S home from uni. Drove down to visit Martine and co so we could break down the journey with the baby. Which didn't really work all that wellas a journey break, but it was a nice excuse to go visiting. :-) Got up on the Sat to go get S, and arrived an hour later than we had planned, in spite of leaving 20 minutes earlier than we had planned. R and S managed to get things shoved into the car...and I am still wondering how she had so much STUFF!?!

Then we headed off to visit P, a great friend who I had lost touch with. I just realized we didn't get any photos!? How did I manage that? But it was great to see her and her family, and that is it, we are back in touch, so more reasons to travel down south to see people.

But it was a long day. First driving from Moreton to Bristol, then Bristol to Nailsea, then Nailsea to Manchester, via the A449 as the M6 was closed. Lots of stops for the baby, and coffees and kidneys, and to look at a map because my two intelligent, lovely daughters are useless map readers! Too late do I find this gap in their education.  Finally got home about half past midnight, and then had to spend a while driving around trying to find a parking place.

This is how we got through the day!

We did manage to get the car unloaded the next day in time for me to take C and M to go take part in the Manchester Day Parade! They had a fab time, and came home with screen printed Tshirts from a workshop they had done during half term - and sunburn. :-)

M gave her Tshirt to S. It has a lion on it, which you can't see cuz the cute babe is in the way.

And here is C's Tshirt...

This is him on his new (to him)  bike, which he got for his birthday and which he was ridden every day since! His birthday was lovely. Lots of boys, and lots of food, and some Magic Cards and DVDs.

 

So this post has been in my 'to do' list since 23 June and it is now 29th June, so I think I will just post it, and worry about all the other things I was going to say later. I lost my train of thought anyway, if there ever was one!

The boy has talent

The boy has been drumming a lot. I must get around to sorting out some private lessons for him...in the meant time, he does African drumming with Manchester Music Service twice a week and seems to be pretty bloody good. So one of his teachers suggested he try out for the Chorlton young Musician of the Year. He did, and got through to the semi finals, which were last night. And now he is through to the finals, which will be in May. And while he did really well, and I heard lots of people talking about how good he was ... he was the only percussionist in a competition where somebody is chosen from each instrumental group. :-)

Bobbins is Here!

Bobbins! Check it out!
And I am so motivated that I am finally getting to work on this, which I cast on about 2 weeks ago. But now I have officially started....well 2 rows of 2x2 ribbing, and even then I have had to back track  twice as I keep getting distracted. Baby is looking too cute, and the Boy has a new microphone plugged into his amp.  Must ignore cuteness and beatboxing attempts and get to work. Maybe I'll just have a nice bath first....

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! Not getting much done on the computer as I usually have a baby on my knee, over my shoulder, hanging from a breast. She has been asleep for half an hour, and there are no teenagers awake on FB or MSN so I thought I would catch up. I nearly got a few things uploaded onto Ravelry, and now she is waking up. But I wanted to post something quickly, so there is proof that I am still here.

Nests and whatnot

Just in case you are wondering, it is possible to experience empty nest syndrome, while you are 36+ weeks pregnant. S headed off to university yesterday, very excited, and with a huge smile on her face. :-)) I am glad she is so looking forward to it. It makes me remember how exciting it all was for me, and I am genuinely happy to see her looking forward to this new stage in her life.

Still, M and I sat and cried for a bit. And even though I don't FEEL sad about it, I do keep crying a bit. I imagine the hormones are playing a bit part in this, but all the little things that make me think of S, like shopping at Unicorn, frying up some potatoes and onions, Marmite on bagels, just bring tears to my eyes. Funny how all of those things are food. :-) Then again, there is always the West Wing DVDs as well. The last night she was home, neither of us could sleep. We were up at 4am watching a couple of episodes of West Wing series 4. Game on!

M wants to get started straight away on taking over S's old bedroom, which looks very forlorn and sad. Apparently we need pink paint...and lots of dusters!

I also have a few things I still want to do before the baby comes. Must finish study, tidy living room and keep kids toys out of it, and sew together a couple of baby jumpers. I would like to do the washing of the baby clothes this week as well. I have ordered some nappies from The Nappy Lady, and look forward to getting them, and seeing if I remember how to fold nappies! Must use some teddies to practise on.