The Usge

(Disclaimer: He only wears the headphones when his old roommate is playing online)

The husband and I spent a lovely Saturday doing the usge, knitting and playing XBOX, he does one while I do the other. I'll let you figure out who does what. You would think this would get old or that we would try to spice it up a bit but nope, we are happy doing this day in and day out.......now don't get me wrong, this isn't all we do, but mostly what we do. The end of the day did consist of a rousing game of walleyball (said sarcastically since I had to stop early for my aching tummy) followed by a movie, Paranormal Activity. Only half of us did that since the other half is a pansy........Dom. So you see, we do have lives, it's just that we like to relax and that's how we do it.

Plus, I just got this amazing yarn! It's baby alpaca, which happens to feel like heaven in a skein. I am making a cowl for my mom and it's just so much more fun knitting with nice yarn. I ran out so I have to go back to the yarn shop on Monday, boo-hoo. My list of supplies is growing quite rapidly since I have more time to look up patterns that I want to knit. I blame Dom for this since I wanted to go today to get more but unfortunately he has developed an aversion to yarn shops, scarred by years of his mother dragging him and his brother to them, apparently against their will. Lesson learned, get a baby sitter when you have little boys and feminine hobby shopping to do. Well, I think it's time to get back to the needles, said while my husband just assassinated the enemy. :)

Questions

The other night I was at my knitting group and we were all sitting down eating dinner together. Well, one of the girls in the group is 13 and in 8th grade, she is our youngest member, and the other women in my group asked her a very simple, traditional question for a child of that age, "So, how was school?" I seriously stopped what I was doing because I was taken back about 6 years to when I was the age where my parents asked me that question. It has been so long! I started laughing because I didn't expect to feel all nostalgic about a question like this but there you have it.

Ciara, the 13 year old, is special. She likes to talk and so she went on and on about her day but usually when parents ask this question you hear the traditional answer, "Fine." This got me thinking about when I am a parent of a child who's in school. I don't want to hear the traditional answer. I want Dom and I to ask deeper, more interesting questions about their day so that we hear something more than just, "Fine." They don't have to be serious, "How many kids did you catch picking their noses today?" would work but I think that if you want a serious answer than you need to be specific. "How was school?" is so broad. Something more like, "What was the most interesting thing you learned today?" or "Which new math fact interested you the most?" That last one is because I'm a math nerd. I LOVE math but it's been a while so the intimacy has faded a bit. I want them to have a passion for learning and I think by asking them more about the specifics they learned and even allowing them to teach me can aid in that.

So here's to being a creative parent when the time comes and not hearing one word answers. :)

Too busy to stop being lazy

That's right ladies and gentlemen, I am still in my pajamas. I was taking Scramble out on his afternoon walk and I strolled around my apartment building wearing this little number:


I'm wearing pink, polka-dot, fleece pajama pants, with a bright red Awana shirt to match. I always hope that I don't run into anyone when I do this but it never fails, the second I come outside the whole neighborhood decided it's time to go to the store or sit out on their patios or just pop their heads out of their caves to inspect and I never let them down. I'm writing like this is some special occurrence when actually this happens quite often, really, I should blog about when I actually do leave the apartment in normal clothing before 5pm.

Anyway, I sort of have an excuse this time. I have been super busy this morning with work. Data entry, booking flights for co-workers and getting back to people who wrote me yesterday. So you see, none of these things required me getting ready for the day and all of them together did not allow me to even try. So, now that it's pushing 4pm I think that I shall change and freshen up, after all, I am about to leave the apartment again and I am hoping to shock the neighbors with a second dazzling appearance.

Happy Scram = Happy Candice

Yesterday my husband asked if I wanted to go for a walk and said we could take a Scram. I am always up for going on walks with him but when he says we can bring the baby Scram then I am raring to go. He didn't tell us where we were going and ended up taking us on this dirt trail that follows the train tracks behind our apartment building. We were able to keep Scramble off his leash the whole time.

We walked about a mile down while watching Scram tumble through the bushes and wrestle in the sand. He would run ahead and then circle around to check in with us, whilst spraying us with his slobber and some dirt. He was such a happy camper and that made me so very happy. I guess it's the small things in life that really bring you joy but I just can't get enough of a happy Scramble. :)