The Giving Flower

Hey, we all need a little instant gratification, right? Well, if you call knitting for over 2 weeks on a pair of socks to get them done, then you can call my newest FO a touch of instant knitting gratification. Here I would like to introduce you to the newest member of my sock drawer, my monkeys:

pattern: monkey socks by cookie A.
yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy, color Lipstick Lava gifted to me by Fluffy Knitter Deb

I started these a few days before my trip to Frankfurt with the swim team so I would have a small project to take with me. I really liked knitting the pattern and for some reason it knit up really fast. Well, for me that was really fast. This yarn is scrumptous and makes the most wonderful socks ever. The color is a bit deeper than in the pictures but I couldn’t quite get it right in these pictures.  I don’t know that I’ll be taking them off any time soon. Yum. Thanks, Deb for the gorgeous yarn for these!!! Now to get back to my must have cardigan.

Oh gosh, where do I start? These past two weeks have been a bit of chaos.

First I’m so happy to say that our swim meet went really well and my elementary kids took second for both the boys and girls. Our high school also did well with third so we were all happy and proud on our trip back home. I tried to recover for the lost weekend all last week and somehow didn’t manage it too well.

On Tuesday night at around 8 my neighbor came over to tell me that a water pipe, fresh water pipe, had burst in our basement and our two storage areas were under a bit of water. I waited until the plumber came at midnight and the water was turned off before I could go to bed, visions of swimming Christmas decorations were all I could think of. The pipe was fixed and on Friday morning I had a key to another storage area where I could temporarily move my things to try and inspect the damage. Luckily, it wasn’t too bad and I’m now able to walk into our storage area without a problem and the floors should be drying nicely. Although this was the last thing I needed right now, it was probably a very good thing-I now know the amount of baby things I have to sell. I had been so reluctant to get rid of my baby stuff-I didn’t really want to think that we were done with babies but now with work and the house I’ve let that one go. Definitely, 2 is enough. Anyone interested in a baby carriage, jogger, travel bed, car seat and lots and lots of toys and clothes?

Speaking of little people, yesterday Alexander had his first Jiu-Jitsu belt test and I think we were more nervous than he was. He was so calm and collected, I was amazed.

The house is coming along and today we have our appointment to finalize the basement. It looks like we’re going to have to put an addition layer to keep out water. This is not what we had planned nor calculated for. We’ll see how it goes.

Oh and there has been knitting going on but because I’ve not been home much to get more pictures, I’ll show you last weeks picture of the monkey socks I’ve started with the yarn Fluffy Knitter Deb sent me. I had heard so much about this pattern that I just needed to try it.

I’ve since finished the first sock and last night managed to get to the heel on the second one. I love this yarn and the colorway is gorgeous. I have to admit, this is not my favorite pattern to look at but it sure is fun and easy to knit.

I think the kids said it the best with this colorful message:

I think that’s to be my motto for a while. I’m trying to keep up with so many things but somehow it’s not all that easy.

First of all I would like to thank you all for your kind words of support about losing Opa last week. It was so sad to see him die and I took it really hard. I’m also very worried about Oma and how she’ll manage, but this is life and no matter how hard it is, we all seem to spring back in the end.

Last week Alexander had his third week of Easter vacation while my school started again so he had to tag along with me for the week. Fortunately I told one of my 3 directors that he would be coming and she was ok with it, especially after I told her it was either that or I stay home for the week, but she hadn’t told anyone else. In the middle of the week another director came to me and asked why a child was hanging around in the teachers’ room. He was very understanding once I told him my story so I think it should be fine for a bit. Life must go on. I just want to say thank you to you all!!!

I’m also trying to get back into running. I took a bit of a break over Christmas while the streets were so icy and very unwillingly I managed to fall out of practice and found it hard to get back in. During our Easter vacation I dusted off my running shoes and I’ve been back out there hitting the Tiergarten trying to get my thighs back into shape ever since. I’m up to 10k on the weekends and 6.5k twice during the week. The fact that the days are getting lighter and the weather is better for the kids to ride bikes alongside me makes it all that much easier. I’ve signed up for the AVON 10K Frauenlauf at the end May and I would love to run a good race. My long term goal is the half marathon in September. I hope to get there. We’ll see.

My Must Have House Cardigan is cruising along much faster than I wanted but that’s ok too. I can see a second one of these in my near future but then there might also be a pair of House socks coming, we’ll see. The fronts are done.

The sleeves are getting there too.

I love this sweater!

House news: The lot is ever so close to being all ours and then the building can begin. Tomorrow we meet one of the basement people on the lot at 8 am to talk things through. I can’t wait. The kitchen has been picked out and signed for. You can see a very rough computer picture of it on our building blog. It’s in both English and German and if you head over there, leave us a comment, it’s been fun updating it with the newest house info.

I’m off to get ready for yet another busy week full of doctor and dentist appointments along with therapy, piano and judo lessons, not to mention work and getting ready for a swim competition in Frankfurt next weekend. I dearly hope the sun comes out this week so we can get to the playground, I live for my knitting time with my buddy Nicole .