Lately Honor has taken to dragging his cars everywhere. First he was keeping them in an old wipe box, and then my mom gave him a lime green bag to keep them in. The bag goes everywhere. He had quite the broken heart the other night when his daddy didn’t let him sleep with Every. Single. Car. He. Owns. He’s even taken to stashing some in his pillow case, on the off chance we don’t find them.

Really this is a good thing. We bought him most of these cars a year ago in hopes that we could find some sort of toy he’d play with. He sure plays with them now. Plus I told Jim to look on the bright side, at least he’s not wanting to sleep with Edens baby any more.

So yesterday I taught my knitting class. I think it went pretty well. I had six students with varying degrees of expertise. A few of them didn’t know know to cast on. One didn’t realize that when you knit in the round, that you just keep going ’round and ’round, so she kept turning her work. Luckily we caught it after a few rows. One was an experienced grandma who was just enjoying spending her day at the yarn store. She left early because her thumb was going numb.

The class was two hours long. I think my biggest mistake was thinking that we’d finish the hat in two hours (even though I can finish one in one hour.) I have to go back on Saturday to show a few of them how to decrease and switch to DPN’s. The only person who totally finished her hat was a 10 year old girl. She was great, and amazing, I just told her what to do and she whipped it out. Isn’t that funny?

I had a really great time teaching, it’s really fun to hang out at the yarn store, being surrounded by so much yarn. Ahhhhh. Eden was so impressed that I was the teacher. She keeps asking me, “is there a school in the yarn store? And a desk?” I’m enjoying these moment’s while I can still impress my children, I know it won’t last.

Today I am 24 years old. 24 seems like it will be a really good age, old enough to be taken seriously, young enough to shop in the Juniors section without being laughed out of the store. It’s gotta be a good year.

I’ve got a busy day planned today. First my sweet husband is taking me to lunch at the Nepali restaurant. I love this place and Jim hates it, so it really is love. Then I am going to walk over the the new salon on Main St. that my friend Sarah told me about yesterday. (You saved my life Sarah.) If it seems cool and the stylists have great hair, I’m going to make an appointment. Deep breaths.

Then I will head to the office where I will quickly print out invoices and do some bookkeeping. Next I will go to the yarn store(!) where I will teach my very first knitting class. I’m very excited about this. It’s the Colinette Point 5 hat. After my knitting class, Jim, the kids, my sister and I will all head to my moms house. She’s making me homemade tamales, margaritas, and ice cream cake. Oh, yum.

I’m off to start my busy day.

I’ve always had the worst experience with my hair. It all culminated when I was pregnant with Honor and Jim suggested that I go to a lady who was in his business referral group. So here I was, 8 months pregnant, with the worst hair cut of my life. I know that it’s shocking that I’d freak out, but I did, so much so that Jim had to yell at me to stop because he was worried that I’d freak myself into premature labor.

I guess it was a good thing in disguise, because it led me to the best stylist in the entire world. She gave me some temporary extensions and was able to eventually work me into a great cut. You can imagine my distress when I found out that she MOVED AWAY. It was quite possibly the saddest thing in the entire world.

So now here I am, it’s been over 9 months since my last cut and I need one, desperately. And I’m scared to death to get one. Thinking about it, I keep fighting off mini panic attacks. I know that I want it to look like this or this but how will I get it? Where will I go? What will they do to my hair? I’m so scared.

Today is the second day of my official birthday week. (Thursday is my actual birthday.) I think every year since we’ve been married I’ve managed to stretch my birthday into a whole week, so last year, Jim decided to go with it. Every morning of my birthday week, I would wake up to a present to open. He set himself quite the dangerous precedent.

But he’s doing great this year. Yesterday I got a really cool necklace made out of huge wooden beads kukui nuts.

Today, in his normal tradition, I got the ugliest sweater in Old Navy so I can return it. Jim is convinced that I love to return things. I don’t know where he’d get that idea? So he always buys me something to return.

Don’t you agree that he’s the best husband in the world?

Monday
Potato soup with bacon

Tuesday
Hamburgers and fresh green beans from my mom’s garden

Wednesday
Sandwiches

Thursday
My 24th birthday
My mom’s making homemade chicken tamales, margaritas and ice cream cake

Weekend
Spaghetti and meatballs
Pasta Salad
Pizza

This weekend our good friend Josh got married in Farminton, New Mexico. He had our company DJ the wedding, so we traveled, with our friends Brooke and Brian, 4.5 hours through some very scary mountain passes, some topping 12,000+ ft, to attend the wedding. (Note, I did not take the photo of red mountain.)

I have to say, that I’m not terrible impressed with Farmington, and it’s surrounding towns. Although, Aztec had this very interesting for sale sign.

But we really enjoyed Durango, where our good friend Isaac is now a police officer. Most importantly, downtown Durango, picture perfect for a little mountain town, had a Starbucks. Brooke was so excited when she saw it, that she elicited some very strange looks from the bikers on the street. Perhaps the saddest part of the trip was finding out that the yarn store was closed on Sunday. What kind of yarn store closes on Sunday? Sad. Sad. But we did enjoy a very large pizza before heading home.

Honor has been cracking me up so much lately with his word combinations. Once in awhile he’ll bust out a word that just makes me pause for a second, like tattoo (that’s what I get for letting him watch Miami Ink.) He’s been very quick to let me know if he doesn’t want something, “No want.” And very quick to let me know if he wants to be held, “Hold it.” He came to me the other day holding a raw egg (yes the boy can reach the counter now) saying, “Cook it. Egg. Cook it. Egg.”

But the best part of this talking stage is teaching him to say “I love you.” Even when you tell them to say it, there’s something about it that melts your heart.
So I tell Honor, say “I”
Honor: “I”
me: “love”
Honor: “you”

It’s just the sweetest thing. So now he tells me, “I you.”

And the best part, Eden is always asking me to “say the words”. So I scoop her up and we say the words together, and then Honor wants to say the words. Yep, I did good, my kids are asking to tell me they love me.

This great little neck warmer at craftster.

A very cool shrug-y type sweater from the brand new issue of knitty.

This bolero, with some major modifications, like shorten the back and lose the sleeves, voila! one up on the sold out Urban Outfitters vest.

And check out this oh, so cool knitting cafe in NYC. I’m wishing I was there.

Monday night I went through every article of clothing we own, including every article of clothing the kids have ever worn. A friend of a friend’s dad is driving a big load to a church in Louisiana. I’m so grateful for the opportunity to give. At first Eden was a little disturbed by the fact that I was giving away all our clothes. “You’re giving away my dresses!” I was a little worried about how I was going to teach her compassion. It was difficult to explain to her what’s been going on in the other side of the country, but I think she finally understood that other little girls over there don’t have any dresses at all, let alone a bed to sleep in.

I explained to her that I wasn’t giving away any of her clothes that still fit, just ones that she doesn’t wear anymore – she seemed to be relieved by this. But I told her that she can give away something that she still wears if she wants. She decided to donate her blue butterfly shirt – totally on her own – and went and got it out of her drawer. She wanted to go with me to give it to the little girls who don’t have anything anymore. It’s moments like these when your heart swells with such pride, that you don’t even know what to say.

This is why we parent, to teach our kids compassion and grace, to care for others who have nothing. We have the responsibility to train them to be good people, it’s nice to see that we can be successful.

PS: Everyone MUST read this email written by a woman who volunteered in Austin, Texas with the evacuees.