He is more and more interesting every day. His skills at building legos are becoming so much better. He build the ship without anyone's help. I think it's a first for him. He had a Pirates of the Caribbean ice cream cake. (There is still some left, unbelievably.) He has also decided that rollerblading is the best thing ever. He's been going out and doing this almost every day. He wants to be a speed skater.
Happy Birthday, Wiz. Enjoy your last year as a single digit!
or Pancake Day, if you are so inclined. Our parish's youth group does this as a fund raiser. After everyone who can eat pancakes is full, we have the No-Talent Show. This year, the little kids sang (no picture) and the older kids did the Spam sketch from Monty Python and played when "The Saints Go Marching In".
Game Boy decided at the last minute to play "Spiderpig" on his trumpet. The Collar played his dulcimer.
Jokes were told, and everyone had fun.
Next up is Wiz's 9th birthday, which was yesterday. I have sewed some pants for the boys and have been generally busy. Everything's copacetic.
Wiz has a surgical date. He'll be having his surgery on March 9 and will be in the hospital for about 5 days (hopefully).
I'm not going to write much about his surgery here. I've set up a caring bridge page for him, and most substantial updates will be through there. I'll be tweeting (which will update facebook too) short notes.
Valentine's isn't my favorite holiday most years, and this year it's even more so. I'm not feeling all that celebratory this year. Last week was really busy, Friday's the Wiz's birthday and we're still in waiting mode. The boys received chocolate from G&G, and all three of the males in my life gave me chocolate. I made them meatloaf. (See above picture--they thought it was funny.)
But I do love secret pal sorts of things, and Valentine's is a great excuse for one of those. My secret pal was sent gifts in those bags that I made last week (yarn, cocoa and candy, natch!), and yesterday I came home from my meeting in Spokane to a package from my spoiler, Sandykins.
She sent me two knitted gifts: an illusion heart washcloth made of the softest yarnsoap in a knitted cover that will felt as I use the soap (the soap smells really nice, too).Of course, it's a knitty swap, so there will always be unknitted yarn too. Sandykins sent me a stranded mitten kit from Sweden (the instructions are in 4 languages, none of them English. However, one is German, so I have a chance to translate it. ) in grey and white. I love knitting mittens and socks. Almost everyone needs them, and they are pretty fast. This pair will be beautiful when I am finished.
Thanks again, Sandykins! I haven't sampled the chocolate, but it is hidden from the horde. It made my weekend.
Yesterday afternoon, Game Boy's school called. We were invited to come to the Academic Awards assembly at 8:15 because Game Boy was receiving one of the three 7th grade awards (there are three per grade for Respect, Responsibility, and Doing the Right Thing). Of course we went. He earned the award for Doing the Right Thing, because he doesn't get into trouble, he's on time, does his work, and tries to include everyone. He's quite pleased, and we are really proud of him. The Jazz Band also played. He got to play his solo again, but the highlight was playing Ozzie Osbourne's "Crazy Train". It was really funny to hear a middle school band playing that. They were pretty good, though. Once The Collar gets his video up, I'll try and embed it here.
to a surgical date. (Wiz and I are trying to have fun with the whole situation. Like the button?)
Wiz and I went over the mountains and through our meager snow (Washington isn't going to be pretty this summer. Snow pack is where we get our water in the summer.) to Seattle for his pre-op visit. It went well--we cracked up his neurosurgeon several times. He especially likes the button. The neurosurgeon(s) want to consult with Wiz's hematologist, but we are scheduling surgery. He's been having some symptoms. We always stop at the rest area past Yakima. We couldn't *quite* see Ranier, but we did have some good views. It was really warm on the trip over. I like the snowy mountains with the desert views. There's a sign on the highway between the Tri-Cities and Yakima that says it's a Washington Greenway. It has never been green when I've gone through. See the foreground? That is pretty much everything we see from Ellensburg to Walla Walla.
Seattle was pretty when we arrived (today it was chilly and wet just like the rest of the state) so I took a few pictures from our cousins' porch. They have a view of the Space Needle (Wiz is still obsessed) and the sunset was amazing yesterday.
Spring is definitely on its way. There were flowers blooming in Seattle (a few in our area too--but it's just crocuses here.)
The Collar has a new hobby: he's knotting a prayer rope. He has been working on this for a few days. It's a pretty complicated knot. He wants to make 100 knots--currently he is at 57.
I've been knitting a few things. I finished one of the carry around and knit while waiting socks for the Collar. The colors spiral around the leg and foot. I've started a second sock, and it appears that it will be similar spirals.
I've started another pair of mittens. See? I've also been sewing bags again. These ones are sort of lined and aren't drawstring at all, but I like the way they look. They'll work well as small project protectors.And finally, a gratuitous picture of the boys. Wiz had quarters, and spent them on mustaches out of a quarter machine. Game Boy seems to like his way too much.
All in all, it was a quiet but busy weekend. I made things, and did laundry, and we watched the Superbowl. Game Boy watched all of it except for the half time show (he wanted to know why the bad singers were on) and Wiz is thrilled because football is over until fall. He doesn't like to watch football.
This week will be busy. On Tuesday, Wiz and I head up to Seattle for his pre-op appointment. After that, I have a meeting in Spokane. The blog is kind of dull right now--I'm working and Wiz has had a lot of medical things going on. With all of the dull weather (grey is so not my color), we haven't had any real adventures. Maybe as spring shows up, we'll be out and about more.
And a correction: the fabric for the curtains is from India, not Ethiopia. The theme of the room will be places the Collar's family have been/lived, which is still not early American garage sale. Ha!
He is more and more interesting every day. 
His skills at building legos are becoming so much better. He build the ship without anyone's help. I think it's a first for him.
He had a Pirates of the Caribbean ice cream cake. (There is still some left, unbelievably.)
He has also decided that rollerblading is the best thing ever. He's been going out and doing this almost every day. He wants to be a speed skater.
or Pancake Day, if you are so inclined.
The Collar played his dulcimer.
an illusion heart washcloth made of the softest yarn
soap in a knitted cover that will felt as I use the soap (the soap smells really nice, too).
Of course, it's a knitty swap, so there will always be unknitted yarn too. Sandykins sent me a stranded mitten kit from Sweden (the instructions are in 4 languages, none of them English. However, one is German, so I have a chance to translate it. ) in grey and white. I love knitting mittens and socks. Almost everyone needs them, and they are pretty fast. This pair will be beautiful when I am finished.
to a surgical date. (Wiz and I are trying to have fun with the whole situation. Like the button?)
I like the snowy mountains with the desert views. There's a sign on the highway between the Tri-Cities and Yakima that says it's a Washington Greenway. It has never been green when I've gone through. See the foreground? That is pretty much everything we see from Ellensburg to Walla Walla.
(Wiz is still obsessed) and the sunset was amazing yesterday.
I've been knitting a few things. I finished one of the carry around and knit while waiting socks for the Collar. The colors spiral around the leg and foot. I've started a second sock, and it appears that it will be similar spirals. 
And finally, a gratuitous picture of the boys. Wiz had quarters, and spent them on mustaches out of a quarter machine. Game Boy seems to like his way too much.
