Is it sad that I cleaned the windows of the house for the first time… in FOUR years? Now every time I walk by I’m shocked by how clean they are, it’s like the difference between wearing glasses and not.

And now I have a bathroom to clean…

Eden: “Hey, why did you put your flower sheets on, where are your blue sheets?”
Me: “I changed them because the blue sheets were dirty.”
Eden: “‘Cause Daddy peed on the blue sheets?”

Me: “Eden tell Grammy what happens when little kids go into the liquor store.”
Eden: “They go to jail.”
Me: “And what happens in jail.”
Eden: “They get knocked up.”
I very quickly add, “She means LOCKED up.”

Upon realizing that the kids are very quiet, Jim goes to investigate. He finds both of them sitting side by side on their bedroom floor. “What are you doing?”
Eden: “We’re watching Cinderella, it’s just pretend.”

We picked up our car from the shop yesterday. It was really sad to give Jim’s dad’s van back to him. As much as I resist the idea of driving around a minivan (I’m only 24! I should be driving some cool European hatch back.), it is SO nice for taking the kids around town. Like a night and day difference between a minivan and our little Honda Civic.

But we gave the van back and picked up the Honda. And we got very good news! It didn’t end up being the clutch, it was the axle after all. We saved $450.00. Thank God. My dad was relieved too, cause he was starting to doubt his diagnostic abilities. I’m just relieved that all my hard work at the yarn store this month isn’t going to go towards the stupid car.

Tonight Jim and I are going to celebrate our 6th anniversary (which is actually Sunday.) My friend Melissa was so sweet to offer to take the kids for us all night tonight. I can’t believe that it’s been six years. But in some ways, I can’t really remember my life before being married. I was really young when I decided to get married, not even 18 years old, but I knew then that it was the right decision. I’ve spent the last six years knowing that my 17 year old self knew what she was doing. I can only see God’s hand on my life, and I am more grateful than words can say.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the judgement we pass on each other. When it comes down to it, we are all deeply flawed. I guess I don’t understand the part of human nature that prompts us to point out those flaws in each other. I think it becomes even harder when parenting choices come into question. I know a lot of us go into parenting totally naive. We think that things should be a certain way and judge all the others who do it differently.

I know personally, I went into parenting with very strong views about staying home (ala Dr. Laura). How I regret the judgement I passed on moms needing to work. I think many times we judge what we don’t understand. And I think that once I entered the situation where I needed to work the few hours that I do, more for my mental health than my financial health, I began to understand why some moms work. Honestly, I can’t count the words I’ve eaten.

I still believe that there are absolutes, there are rights and wrongs, but I think many times, we make our view of “absolutes” too broad. I think that unless you see someone crossing that absolute line, that we should have more faith in our fellow parents ability to do their job their own way. This doesn’t mean that I don’t hold standards, I hold many of them. But I guess I’m trying to get to the point where I think long and hard before holding anyone but myself up to those standards.

I can’t remember the last time Eden slept through the whole night. She rarely gets up needing to go to the bathroom, but she always says she’s scared. As she gets bigger, it gets harder and harder to actually get any sleep if she’s in bed with us, so we usually make her go back to her bed. The other night she climbed into, or I should say onto, our bed and when I told her to go back she threw a big fit. She said that she was scared of the Elephant on her wall. She was really freaking out about it.

So, in a moment of tired desperation I asked her, “Do you want to sleep on the couch?” And she thought that was the greatest thing ever. Now all she wants to do is sleep on the couch. I’m not sure how to keep her in her bed, but at least she says that she’s not scared of the elephant anymore.

Interweave knits has a new more “youthful” knitting magazine out. My guess is that it’s in competition with Knit.1. I like it better than Knit.1, I think, because it features more than just Lion Brand yarn.

Here are a few things I’m thinking of making (pardon the poor photo quality.)

I think this sweater is really great, minus the pom poms. Can you imagine what kind of gunk would be floating around in those? Just give them one minute with Honor and we’d have to call in the biohazard team. (I really need to get myself my own personal biohazard team, don’t ya think?)

The description of this one was a strapless vest. I might be able to pull it off with a button up shirt underneath and a jacket over.

And this is my favorite. I’m making a model for the yarn shop, and then I’m sure one for me too.

Being at the yarn shop all the time is hard because there are SO many things I want to make and not enough time in the day. sigh…

The weather has turned instantly cold here. Although knowing Colorado, it will be back up into the 70’s again before winter officially sets in. It’s really hard to choose a favorite part of fall. I love the leaves changing. There’s just something about it that just changes the whole entire atmosphere. And the cooler weather is such a relief, but I think the reason I love it so much is that it means snuggles with my babies during cold mornings.

Fall also means some fun things coming up. Our anniversary is this coming Sunday and Fiesta Blevinza is the following Saturday. Wow how quickly that has come. And it’s very exciting because Elaine will be flying in for the Fiesta in a week and a half! The realization of this just hit me last night and I realized, I’ve got lots to do! So I sat down today and mapped out everything I’ve got to accomplish for the party.

Now I just have to figure out something free and childless we can do to celebrate our anniversary.

I’ve sat here for an hour trying to think of something to write. I guess I’m suffering some sort of block. Life is progressing as usual around here. Hopefully the car will be fixed soon, turns out it was the clutch. Ouch.

We’ve got a busy weekend planned, I’ve got two knitting classes and Jim is playing a show with his band. I’ll have more interesting things to post next week, I promise.

Yesterday was my first afternoon working at the yarn store. How great is that job? It’s nice to be doing something I love.

And speaking of yarn, check out this really, really great yarn that my friend Cherokee made. I just can’t stop petting it.

You should go check out her etsy page. And if you have not yet seen Etsy, you should definitely check it out, it’s like ebay for all things handmade. Very cool.

So Saturday, Jim flew to Reno to play the guitar for a church service. Our old pastor is planting a new church there. I was scheduled to teach two knitting classes so my Aunt came to our house to watch the kids for me. I was running a little late so, instead of driving across town to the office, I headed to a nearby copy shop to print out my lesson plans. (OH, the joy of not having a printer at home. There are four or five printers at the office, but none at home. Go figure.)

So the street that the copy shop is on is a two way street for one block and then turns into a one way street heading south. So there’s this short section of street between where it’s two way and one way that you’re not supposed to turn north onto, but… yeah, I did it anyway. That exact moment is when my car decided to break. So here I am, in the middle of the street going the wrong way and my car won’t go. All I could think was, of all times for my car to break, it has to be when I’m BREAKING THE LAW.

So I hopped out and started trying to push it. Luckily two people also stopped their vehicles and helped me push it backwards. And luckily, I was only 6 blocks from my house. So I gathered up my very fab new knitting bag Joelene made me, my laptop, and my purse and started walking as fast as I could in heels. My aunt let me borrow her car and I arrived to my class on time. And because I’ve got the best computer evar (iBook G4) I was able to print to the printer at the yarn store.

Sunday, my dad came and helped me tow the car home, and determined that it was the transaxle that broke. Today, he and Jim are going to tow it to the shop to get it fixed.

On a side note, my classes went great. I just love being at the yarn store, where I have unlimited opportunity to fondle the yarn.