A+ for Mommy!

Marley's school is very big on rewarding good behavior. They have a whole rewards program, where the kids earn coupons and can redeem them for various little prizes. She was pretty happy that as of the 2nd week of school she had already earned 7 coupons. Although she couldn't really tell me what for.

The other night she told me that she had been called down to the office that day at school. I of course thought the worse. I guess it was a testament to her usually good behavior that she never even entertained the thought that she could be in trouble. When I asked what she thought she had been called down for, she said that she thought she was getting out early. Imagine the poor kid’s disappointment when she was given this:

Mommy got her own award! It's laminated and everything! Apparently my anal-ness in filling out forms means I had filled out her emergency cards “neatly and completely” enough to warrant my own award. Of course as soon as I saw it my (ridiculous) competitive streak kicked in and I grilled her on how many other parents got one. Apparently she wasn’t really paying attention, but she did know that she was the only kid in her class that was called down to the office. So I was at least the best parent in her class (or the whole school, as I like to believe). Maybe this makes up a little bit for the pigsty that she usually lives in? Maybe my real talent is filling out forms - not housework. A much more useful trait, if I do say so myself.

Anyhow...after thinking about it a little, I realized that this was a pretty strange award. First of all, we were asked to fill out the cards and send them back. This warranted an award? Doing what we were asked? Of course, I did it neatly, but this brings us to the second point. These cards are what the school uses when they need to get in touch with you when there’s something wrong with your child. Isn’t it in our best interest to fill them out as neatly and completely as possible? It’s kind of amazing that you would be recognized for doing something required and in the best interest of your child. And pretty scary that if they’re recognizing someone for doing this, it must mean some parents aren’t doing it – or at least aren’t doing it well.

But hey, an award’s an award, and Marley was pretty proud of me. I guess at 7 years old you still can be proud of your parents – not just embarrassed. Although I think she may be a little embarrassed about the state of our house...she told me the other day we needed a maid. Which I promptly agreed with!

First Day of School - Take Two

As my mother pointed out, I started the last post by saying how cute Marley was on the first day of school and then forgot to put the picture in. In my defense - I actually tried to put the picture in a number of times, but my computer kept kicking me off the 'net and wanting me to try dial up every time I uploaded the picture (no clue why). So I eventually gave up. For some reason pictures of (somewhat boring) knitting were acceptable, just not 7 year olds. So I'll try again..isn't she cute?


Tonight was her first soccer practice. Unfortunately she's a couple of years behind the other girls, having never played before. And as Toby says, overcoming my "non-sport" genes is a tall order for her. She wasn't too happy out there, really having no clue what was going on, but hopefully it'll get better as the season progresses.

In much more interesting news, she finally learned to knit on Saturday! She's always wanted to, and we tried before, but I'm really not a great kid-knitting teacher. But somehow it all finally clicked and we have this:

Not bad, huh? I realized part way through that I might be teaching her some bad habits. Every row or two she asks me to count to see how many rows she has done. It must be something in the genes. I will say this about loose knitting - you definitely get done with a scarf much faster!

In grownup knitting news...I've deep-sixed the ugly orange scarf. I finally realized that destashing doesn't have to mean actually using up your old stuff. Getting rid of it is just fine. As I've said before...life is too short to knit crap!

I am weak

I broke my no-buy today. It was Marley's first day of second grade. Isn't she cute? Anyways, I decided to take the whole day off, since I like to be there when she gets out on the first day. Once we dealt with the free-for-all at school that was the beginning of the day, I had until 2:30 to myself! This doesn't happen too often.

So I decided to go to Webs, since I'm looking for a new organizer for my knitpicks interchangeable needles. I love the needles themselves, but the case is awful. After searching a little bit, I decided to check out stick sacks, which the website said Webs carried. Of course they didn't, but when I was there I was sucked into this scarf (sorry Mom, it's a Ravelry link and probably won't work for you.) So I bought the pattern and the yarn (Jojoland Melody) and it was a disaster. All the hexagon's are made from the outside in either on dpn's or magic loop. I tried both and both were awful. I had some suspicions reading the pattern before I bought it, but the store sample sucked me in. That seems to happen alot. So now I have MORE yarn I need to deal with in my use-up-my-stash frenzy. It's really a gorgeous fingering weight superwash merino, but without any nylon in it I'm scared to try socks. I've always wanted to make a fingering weight clapotis, so we'll see...

Speaking of destashing, I've started another Ribs & Ruffles scarf in some pretty hideous Adhoc Salsa yarn which I originally bought to make Marley a beach sweater, but she outgrew the one I was making before I finished it. I can't decide if it's kind of nice or just awful. If nothing else, it's awfully bright:
I also started a new pair of socks for Marley. I'm using some knitpicks yarn I got for myself originally, but didn't really like (in fact this yarn caused my original knitting hiatus last year). Hopefully I'll be able to overcome this in a kid size pair:


Here are my finished Franklin socks, for posterity's sake:

And the pumpkin hat I made for the pedicurist my mom and I go to:

I think that's it for now...unless I start something else new...