Yellow Hat!

Gary's mom wanted me to make a hat for one of her students. Yellow is the girl's favorite color. Here she is modeling the hat.

It's not pulled all the way down in this one...
Here's a close up of the flower. kind of. a little blurry.

I think its pretty cute. I would wear it, for sure!

Birthday!

G's birthday was Wednesday, Oct. 20. He's not a big birthday fan, but I insist on celebrating.

Luckilly, it was Wednesday, so I got off at noon. We all went to the Missouri Botanical Garden for a few hours.

Since he would only tell me he wanted dirt and mulch, I went ahead and got the freakin' dirt and mulch. After all, it was his birthday.

I made a cake called "sex in a pan" (really, that's what it was called!). It had a chocolate cake, caramel, chocolate chips, whipped topping and crunched up Heath bars. It was delicious. Last yeat he got a dirt cake, complete with an awesome planter, fake flowers and candy worms. So this year's was good, but didn't really compare for me. I made a delicious breakfast and his mom had made a lasagna for dinner. It was a nice day.

Flower at the Garden

This is one of my favorite kinds of flower, a Dahlia
A variation of the Dahlia. I want to try and find some roots somewhere I can plant.

This one smells good!

shadows!

We found a little mouse in the garden!

Birthday boy

Happy birthday babe! I love you!

Ravelry

So I found this awesome new (to me) site just for people who like to crochet and knit! It's so cool. It has a lot of free patterns, a "notbeeok" to stash stuff and a place to keep track of all of your works in progress, how far along they are, etc. I'm sure you can do a lot more stuff on there too, but I haven't explored it a ton.

It's www.ravelry.com.

It's cool. It's fun. I love it. Now, I have three projects started, one incredibly difficult, even though it wasn't rated too terribly bad. I'm stuck on the 5th row. I've redone it TWICE, and still can't get it right! So I started something new. Way to go, right? Maybe I'll get back to it after a small break.

I also have a half dozen or so stashed to do later. I'm just not fast enough! Maybe because I have to rip stuff out every other minute. Perhaps I should stick to nice, easy hats?

Nah.

Five Fingers

Last night, I was walking in to the hospital just as someone was walking out, and noticed them wearing these hideous monstrosities. The truth? I actually love them and think they're really cool. They're called "Five Fingers" and are supposed to simulate walking barefoot, only without all the rocks, splinters, mud and other things to step on.


This is the men's version. KSO stands for keep stuff out. they also have some where the mesh looking part is open. They have women's as well, of course.
This is what the Web site says about them:

"The typical human foot is an anatomical marvel of evolution with 26 bones, 33 joints, 20 muscles, and hundreds of sensory receptors, tendons and ligaments. Like the rest of the body, to keep our feet healthy, they need to be stimulated and exercised.

That’s why we recommend wearing FiveFingers for exercise, play, and for fun. Stimulating the muscles in your feet and lower legs will not only make you stronger and healthier, it improves your balance, agility and proprioception."

And, since Gary needs absolutely nothing, I thought about getting him some for his birthday... maybe. I'm still trying to figure out how I would measure his foot since it's not traditional sizing...

Kelly Miller Circus!

It was an incredibly busy weekend, with the pumpkin patch Saturday and the circus on Sunday. When I wrote about the circus, I wanted to take Vincent. I took him a few years ago to the St. Louis Moolah Shrine Circus, but he was a little young for it then. I thought he would be able to enjoy it this time around.

The Kelly Miller Circus is a one-ring circus. You could go on the morning of the circus and watch the animals be unloaded, take a free tour and watch the elephant, Lisa, raise the big top. It was pretty cool. Incredibly expensive, but cool.

We all rode the elephant and Vincent rode the camel as well. We figured it would be a long time before we got the opportunity again, so we siezed it. It was totally worth it.

We didn't escape the circus without cotton candy ($4), a balloon ($7) or a snow cone ($3), but managed to pass up the popcorn, peanuts, soda, candy apples, upgraded seats, etc. The act was pretty good and Vin seemed to enjoy it. The Moolah Shrine Circus was better, but it's a lot bigger, so understandale.


Here are a few photos:
Well, here's one photo. I forgot that I forgot to charge my camera from the pumpkin patch, so I had to use my mom's. I'll have to grab hers for some more pics to upload later.

Pumpkin Patch

At work I wrote a story about a pumpkin patch in town--Golden Valley Pumpkin Patch See?

http://emissourian.com/more_news/business_news/article_0d211d8a-c28b-11df-830b-001cc4c002e0.html

When I wrote it, I knew it would be a fun place to take my family, and it definitely was. There was a ton to do, from gigantic slides, to a petting zoo, delicious snacks, pony rides, a hayride, corn bin, crafts and of course, pumpkins. Pumpkins are out, or you can go into the patch, which is literally right there.

I went with my friend Heidi, her daughter Paige, one of her friends, my friend Toni and her baby Marsellus, my nephew Jules, Vincent and Gary. We spent hours there doing everything and had a great time. Here are a few photos.

Gary and I

Best Friends

Look at these cuties!
First Pony Ride
Pumpkins!
Vin and I

Baby Hat!

I made hats for both Vincent and Gary, but wanted to get a picture of them wearing them before I added it on here.

I decided to switch it up for my niece Rue. Here is her completed hat. It's the first one I've made of its kind. Also my first flower.

What do you think? Bear-O was my kind model, since the baby hasn't received the hat yet.

Note: Bear-O is also wearing a Santa hat under mine, which you can see through on part of the top. So ignore that.

Train Goes Through Washington

The Union Pacific Railroad's "Challenger" No. 3985, the world's largest operating steam locomotive stopped in town Wednesday, Oct. 6. Luckilly, it was my afternoon shift at work, so I got to go with my family to see it.

The train weighs over a million pounds. It's been equipped with GPS and can be tracked online, although we haven't gotten that in to it.

Vin really liked the train, but thought we were going to ride it. It was more than an hour late, so he had a hard time waiting for it, but it was worth it. It may be a long time before we see a steam engine again.

Strut Your Mutt

Strut Your Mutt is a fundraiser for the Franklin County Humace Society, which is why I didn't mind (my mom) paying the $15 it cost for Vincent and his dog Lexi to go. The event featured many doggie services, as well as games like limbo, bobbing for hot dogs, and musical place mats. There was also contests, like biggest dog, smallest dog, best trick and fastest eater.

While our dog is definitely not the fastest eater, (she had barely started when another dog had finished eating its peanut butter off a spoon), she did win second place in the costume contest! The first place winners were twin lab puppies in bikinis. If there weren't two I really don't think they would have won, but they were pretty cute. Dang twins!

As a prize, Lexi was awarded a bag of dog treats and a dog christmas ornament. Vincent was thrilled. We heard there was going to be a contest and spent a long time the evening before looking for a costume for Lexi. Vincent piced out a banana split, but our dog has a pretty small head, so the banana hat didn't really fit. So most of the time she was just an ice cream.

There were some costumes I liked better, but Lexi is Vincent's dog and I wanted him to pick. He loves his dog so much and was so happy to win. I didn't really get any good pictures, but I did find one decent one. There were a ton of dogs and kids and people... just too much to worry about the camera.

Vin with his dog Lexi. She makes him so happy :D

Here Vincent is feeding Lexi peanut butter during the fastest eater contest.

This event was Saturday, Sept. 18, so I'm a little behind in posting. Sorry.

See?

I told you that hat and blanket I made would look cuter with a baby in them!

Here is Marsellus at the hospital. He was born Sunday, Sept. 26, in the evening sometime.

He was 9 lb. 7 oz. and 22 inches long. That's a big boy! His dad only weighed 1 lb. 8 oz, for comparasion. Not sure about momma's birth weight. He's super cute.

Marsellus Joshua Parham

Here's another shot of the cutie pie.Baby and momma less than 24 hours after meeting.Baby and dada.Me and Marsellus. Hat's a lil big.Marsellus gets a kiss from Vincent! aww. Congrats to my friends Toni and Curt Parham, as well as Jules, the big brother. Love you guys!