Wow, time has really flown this past week. Today was my requisite free day. Yay. Carey wanted me to ride my new bike but I decided I wasn't ready. New bike? Yep. Three new bikes have made their way home with us in the last week and a half, all of them Raleigh's. James & Charles' are both identical, only the colors being different. James chose red and Charles chose silver & blue. They look like dirt bikes and James calls it his motorcycle. :D Charles' is a bit big for him, he can barely reach the pedals. But the only smaller bike they had was almost too small for him. I saw no reason to spend that much money on a bike he wouldn't get as much use out of. I'm still not sure about the color of mine (purple?) but Carey says it's very regal. I then had the fun of picking out a helmet (I can't believe I said that. Me, a helmet? My mother's probably laughing her ass off.) It's white with a delicate silver floral. So all in all, I'm pleased. And I insisted on a small brass bell. Carey made fun of me of course. Bleh. What does he know? Tomorrow, among other things, I'm going to see about hooking up the new bike trailer to my bike so I can start hauling the kids around.

I have had two new treasures arrive:

A small set of 83 stone blocks that are 100 years old. They all fit in a box 9.25 inches long x 7 inches wide x 1.5 inches high. Small, huh? I can't wait to use this with James although it will definitely have to be under supervision considering how old this is. I already broke one of the little blocks by accident and I was just looking at it. Thank goodness for the invention of super glue.




I also received an old needle holder. This I love. I can't fit a ton of needles in it, but it's perfect when I'm traveling and need something to keep needles part of projects in. They won't be as easy to lose then. I'm really good at that. I went to group last week planning to work on James' bag. Nope. I had succeeded in arriving without one of my needles. Figures. Yes, I know, I know. I need to make a needle roll, if only to keep my dpn's in. I have a very pretty green & blue tweed with a coordinating green duck cloth that will work for that. No, I did not buy either fabrics with that in mind, but if it will work for that, why not?




And here is a picture taken of Deedee and her new baby! Aren't the matching outfits adorable? And that orange looks great on her. She loves that doll and hasn't let it our of her sight. We had a fight just keeping it out of the tub. LOL. This is the most expensive doll I've ever bought but just seeing the look on her face was worth it. The cool thing though is that since she has always ignored her other baby's but absolutely loves this one, I took the opportunity to get rid of all the rest on Freecycle. I love that site and I'm so thankful that I found it. I just got a huge bag of Chinese prefolds for Kitty as well as two brand new ink cartridges for our printer.

I really did enjoy myself today though. I got four whole hours to myself. Wow, that's actually a long time. I spent the first hour and something wandering around the local natural food store. I picked up some lovely pork chops for tonight's dinner as well as a few other odds 'n ends. I also broke down and finally bought some jarred baby food for Kitty. I chose several jars of Earth's Best. She really enjoys their biter biscuits so I thought she would enjoy the food. I only bought a few jars to see how she likes it. Tonight, she had a barley biter biscuit, 1 oz of rice & lentils, and a little bit of banana. It all seemed to go down with quite a bit of enjoyment so perhaps I'll buy some more. I also met a woman named Netia while I was there. She has a small daughter two weeks older than Deedee. I got to talking to her when I asked her about her daughter's shoes and I learned that she is from the Isle of Mann. I really enjoyed speaking to her and I invited her daughter to Deedee's party. She gave me her address and I shall send her a formal invite soon.

I spent over an hour wandering around the Needle Nook as well. I got some more wool for James' bag. I think I have too much now but it's always better to have too much rather than not enough. And I got some awesome eyelash yarn to make a little skirt for Deedee. I got the pattern a while back and thought it would be really cute for her. The yarn I chose is a mix of greens, golds, sky blue, and copper. It will look so pretty on her and it will be great with the green fairy set she picked out for her party. It should knit up fairly quickly. So I'm hoping I'll at least get it done for her party. I'm not so sure about the darn tea set I'm doing for her. I'm having difficulty with it. I did work on James' bag while I was there. I almost got the first skulls blocked in. They are definitely recognizable as skulls now. Silly me though. I looked at my watch wrong and thought it was three when it was only two. Sigh...... I know better than having a watch face with only three hour increments marked out. Heh, heh. I discovered my mistake after I had already left and since I didn't feel like going home, I made my way to the mall.

Of course, I had forgotten today was the bridal fair and I had a heck of a time finding a parking spot. I almost gave up and went home. I enjoyed the fair. This is the first time I had ever made it to one. The winery's booth was quite nice. (Yes, some more shameless promotion. :D) I also ran into my old Mary Kay director and we had a nice chat. I made a quick visit to Ross while I was there. I love that store and it's helped us get several items that we otherwise wouldn't be able to find as easy (of afford) locally since we don't shop at Wal Mart anymore. I've gotten several really neat little items there, including a kitchen set, and a town block set that the children really enjoy. I found a couple of outfits for the girls. I really shouldn't have bought the ones that I did for Deedee. One outfit was a pretty red with ladybugs and the other set had a cute pink windbreaker. Sigh..... Red and pink with copper hair? What was I thinking? But she loves them. I also got a really nice wicker basket. It's the size of a laundry basket with a nice lining. Carey and I decided we wanted only one laundry basket (that way we can't just fill all of them up and not bother putting the stuff away). So, soon, we shall get rid of all the ugly plastic ones and have just this one pretty wicker one.

Carey said the children were well behaved today and deserved the cookies I promised them when I got home. I chose a package of heart shaped cookies at the food co op while I was there; it was a package of three, one for each of them. Carey was surprised that I had gotten one for him but really enjoyed it. I'm not sure what else I can do to make up for the surprise he gave me earlier this week; a Vermont Teddy Bear. We have been having problems lately and I was totally floored when he gave this to me. When he handed it to me, with a heart pendant around it's neck, I felt like a selfish witch for some of the problems. I know a lot of it's my fault. It's just not easy with him being gone so much with school and work. That small, beautiful bear went a long way in healing small hurts on both of our parts.

The parenting class we went to today was a complete bust. We were the only parents that showed up. Well, I shouldn't say a complete bust. We did learn some useful techniques that I'm thinking of trying with our little hooligans. We arrived home in plenty of time to have a good dinner before Carey had to leave for his game. A DnD game without it's DM? Yeah, right. LOL. It would have been nice if he'd been able to stay home though. I've been looking forward to playing The Order of the Stick game that I got for him. There's always tomorrow night though and I look forward to that.