Doo Doo and Dorodango

I don't really have anything KNITTING to report, although there are a few half-done and half started projects floating around the house. I read a post at My Little Mochi about dorodangos, a children's craft in Japan, and decided it would be a fun thing to do with the kiddos. While all of them made one and had a lot of fun, they lost interest after the first couple of dirt rubbings and abandoned them to go play on the swing set. I finished mine, but didn't do as many layers of fine dirt as suggested before buffing, and got a few cracks after it had completely dried. This was made with plain old Alaska dirt, scooped up from underneath the swing set. I have seen some really cool ones made from various "special" kinds of dirt, but am pretty happy with my little brown dorodango.



(This picture was taken at 11pm, Whoo Hoo for Alaska summers!)


The Plumber came home this weekend, and we have been tackling various home improvement projects, though it seems we are creating more than we are finishing. A quick trip to Home Depot for a new toilet seat turned into this



We didn't plan on remodeling this bathroom before selling the house, but were just going to paint it. After that little jaunt to the home improvement store, we are putting in a new floor, a new vanity, new faucet,new floor trim, AND a new toilet seat. We got started at 11pm doing the demo work, and finished at 12:30. Somehow we have to get all of this done before The Plumber leaves on Monday. With a Memorial Day barbeque and a trip to gather mushrooms an hour and half away thrown into the mix. (Anyone want to guess who will be finishing this project later this week?) Right as we were finishing and cleaning up tonight, The Plumber dropped a wrench. Down the toilet drain. He got ticked, threw a few things, said a few choice words, and stomped off to find a flashlight. I stood staring down the hole, wondering how the heck we were going to get it out. It wasn't even visible.
I went and grabbed a knitting needle and poked around, but couldn't even feel it down there.
I made a ball of tape, stuck it on the end of the knitting needle, and poked around, trying to drag it closer to the opening. Still couldn't even feel it.
I grabbed a stitch holder, bent it into a U shape, and taped it to the end of the knitting needle, trying to scoop it out. STILL can't even feel it, it's so far down there.
As I stopped to think, I listened to The Plumber banging around downstairs, looking for a flashlight that one of the kids probably stashed somewhere, never to be found again. I looked at The Hole, and realized that if we couldn't get it out, we would have to rip into the floor and possible the downstairs wall, making a small weekend project into a HUGE nightmare.
The Hole stared at me, taunting me. I looked at it's diameter, thought about the size of The Plumber's man hands, and then looked at my girly ones.
If we had any hope of getting this wrench out, it was going to be up to me. I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and SHOVED MY HAND INTO THE TOILET DRAIN.
I felt nothing.

I shoved deeper, gagging and holding my breath. By now I was up to my elbow in the drain,and realized that this was going to be an extremely embarassing 911 call if I got stuck there. I felt lots of goo on the way down, and tried to think about it that way.

"It's GOO. Just GOO. Poop? NO! Don't think about it! Goo! It's just generic run of the mill Goo!"

As my arm reached the limits of how far it would go down The Hole, I felt it. My fingertips touched gooey metal. But I couldn't grab it, and I was afraid of pushing it down farther. I extracted myself from The Hole, and grabbed the stitch holder, holding it in my hand as I went in for a second try. I reached the wrench, slipped the stitch holder forward, and pulled back.
Clink!
I reached in again, and there it was. I pulled the disgusting GOO covered wrench out of the hole, stared at it for a second and then flung it into the trashcan.
And then I started screaming.

AAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have washed my hands 10 times, and I still feel dirty. And not just germy dirty, but the violated kind of dirty. As if someone just walked up to me and grabbed my boob or something. Putting your hand down the toilet drain just seems so gross and WRONG.

On the plus side, I have earned some MAJOR respect from The Plumber. Even plumbers gag at the thought of putting their hands down THE HOLE.

A quick meme

I've been tagged by Alaska Stick Girl to do the 8 Things about you meme.

8 Things About Me

1. I have no idea where I will be living in the next few months.

2. I HATE celery. With a passion.

3. Both of my pinkies are crooked. It runs in my family, and several of my children have crooked pinkies, too.

4. I REALLY want to get a tattoo, and have wanted to for years. But I can't decide what I want or where I want it, so I still don't have one.

5. I find sweaty contruction workers very HOT. I'll take a cute sweaty guy wearing paint stained pants and swinging a hammer any day over a GQ groomed and polished kind of guy. (He's gotta have all of his teeth though, and no mullet)

6. I watch 24 almost every night. The Plumber and I had never watched it up until a few months ago, and started with Season 1. I'm on Season 5 now, and don't know what I'm going to do when I run out of seasons!

7. I've given birth 4 times, and 3 of those were under water without any anesthesia. I wouldn't do it any other way. It's fabulous!

8. I have a black thumb. I would love to garden, or grow vegetables, but anything green I touch dies. I helped my father plant a garden when I was young, and the cucumbers turned out round. ROUND! Like an apple. We didn't eat them.

I'm supposed to tag 8 other bloggers, but almost everyone has already done this one, so if you haven't done it, TAG!

Do Plumbers Wear Sweaters?

The Plumber is still in Fairbanks, and I am getting along as best as I can being a single mother for the time being. I realized that this may be the only time that I could knit a sweater for him as a surprise, as most of my knitting time is done next to him on the couch. So I've started a sweater with Summer Tweed. I just finished the back tonight. (Apologies for the craptacular pictures)





I'm planning on giving it to him for Father's Day, but honestly, I don't even know if he will like it or wear it. He's not really a sweater kind of guy. I figure I can wear it as a big comfy sweater if he doesn't want it. He came home last weekend and is coming home this weekend, and as much as I enjoy him being here, I need as much knitting time as I can get!

Taking care of all the kiddos by myself can be exhausting, especially while trying to get this house ready to go on the market. My children are so good at messes, they could make one in an empty room!



But then I look at them like this

And it's all worth it.

We have no idea where we will be moving when we sell the house. There is a possibility that The Plumber will be able to transfer to a town close by, but just a possibility. And then, we aren't sure how long the work would last there. Or, we could move to Fairbanks, and have the job open up here and wish we had gone with it. But we need to be in a house before winter comes, because moving in -30 weather on icy roads doesn't sound like fun to me. The info that The Plumber hears changes every other day, so everything is up in the air right now. I'm trying to have faith, God has taken care of us so far, and I know everything will be just as it should be in the end. But in case things get hard, the city of Fairbanks has put up a handy dandy sign to aid those under stress in their future decisions.

Beaded Yellow Tang

The name of this project sounds so dirty! This is from a kit I bought at one of the yarn stores in Fairbanks. It took about 3 days, and is knit on 000s, with very fine thread. I love his tiny little fins!





They had some other kits with seahorses, clownfish, and starfish that I want to pick up next time Im up there. After all the teeny tiny knitting, I'm ready for some big fat needles!

Downtown Fairbanks

Unwearable But Oh So Fabulous

We went walking around downtown Fairbanks today, and stopped into a little coffee shop when I spotted these in the front window. No information was posted about the artist(s), reason for creation, reason why they were in a coffeeshop, etc. but they impressed me so much I knew I had to post them here.

The first was an awesome "fur" coat made from unstuffed (disemboweled?) teddy bears. From far away you couldn't tell what it was made of, and it was kind of a shock as you walked closer and realized what it was.



The second is a wonderful dress made of wasp nest material and birch bark. This one was so beautiful, the details were amazing. Pictures cannot do this dress justice. I can't imagine how difficult it was to work with these hard materials and make them behave and look like fabric.

I made it!

The trip up to Fairbanks wasn't so bad, it took about 8 hrs and the baby did pretty good up until the last hour. One of our main problems was finding places to eat and use the bathroom. When in between Anchorage and Fairbanks, you are IN THE BOONIES. No fast food restaurants, just a random shack every 40-50 miles or so that says something like " Bob's Restaurant" or "Betty Sue's Rest Stop". If The Plumber had been with me, I wouldn't have been quite so nervous to stop, but by myself, I don't want to walk into one of these places with all 4 kids and be met by Bubba the local crack dealer and his friends. (Don't get me wrong, some of those places were probably run by very nice people, I just didn't want to investigate by myself) Bathroom stops were a problem, too. There are several rest stops along the way, but they were all locked. We were desperate so I said, "Well, just walk into the woods behind the building and we'll go there". (I had packed a roll of toilet paper, being an Alaskan and all) When we got back there... well, let's just say that MANY other people had had the same problem as us, and it appeared that a large amount of them were suffering from bizarre gastrointestinal issues. *shiver*
The Plumber had to work today, so we spent the day exploring. Which to me, means finding all of the local yarn stores. I had to bribe the kiddos with treats to keep them occupied, but I will have to say that I am VERY pleased with the yarn stores here. That issue alone has made me feel alot better about living here! As we were driving around, I noticed that most of the local real estate looks something like this.


Some are a little bit better, some a lot worse, but definitely more "rustic" than I would like. I'm going to have to decide which is more important to me, space vs. classiness/moderness, especially with the our price range. We may have to buy something we don't exactly like the look of, and change it as time and budget allows.
I thought you all might get a kick out of this sign at the Denny's we attempted to eat lunch at today.



3 out of 4 of my children were crying 5 minutes after we walked in (they don't handle change well, and this trip has worn them out) so I scooped them up, got in the car and went to the Burger King drive thru. Much better.


My best news of the day is that I won an ipod in a contest over at Suburban Turmoil! I never win anything, so this has totally made my day.

I'll post more pics from Fairbanks tomorrow.

I am recovering from the shock of this whole "we're moving to Fairbanks" thing, I'm at the point now where I just want to be done with all of this moving stuff and be there. Two of my favorite comments people have said to me when finding out we are moving there are, "Its the best place in the world in the summer, but the winters are pure hell!" and "-60 sounds bad, but really, you can't tell the difference once it gets below -20." Well, thanks. That makes me feel so much better.
The Plumber is already there working, and I will be here until I get all the repairs done on the house and sell it. That means 24 hrs a day, 7 day a week, full time mommy duty. I am running around like crazy, painting,cooking, homeschooling,and putting up trim all over the place. But after the kids go to bed, that is MY knitting time. I plunk down on the couch, pop in a Netflix, and off I go! I recently finished this cardigan from a free Lion Brand pattern. It is made of the new Cotton Ease, which is the only Lion Brand yarn that I will touch. It is fabulous though, and the colors are beautiful; I hope they expand on the amount of colors they offer. I have another one of these on the needles for Sweet Pea, in pink, green, and cream.



I had been working on the Puff Sleeve Cardigan from Fitted Knits, but after having to rip out the sleeves 3 times, it's sitting in time-out right now. The ripping was not a fault of the pattern, just me not reading it through and making stupid mistakes.

I had grand plans of all of the healthy meals I was going to cook while The Plumber (a very much meat and potatoes kind of guy) was gone, but it hasn't really been happening. After a long day of fixing up the house and taking care of kiddos, I have been grabbing the quick and easy stuff. Here is one of my kids' favorites that I found in a magazine a few years back.



Octopus Hot Dogs

Cut the hot dogs two inches down, making two vertical slits on each side. Throw into boiling water until the "legs" curl up. Make some ramen noodles, add seasoning packet, drain, and add some green food coloring. Don't forget the mustard eyes! Afer letting the kids ooh and ahh, throw a few apple slice on the plate so you don't feel quite so bad about feeding them this festival of pure carbohydrates, preservatives, and food coloring. Yum!

We are driving up to visit The Plumber this weekend, I am estimating it will take us about 8 hours. This is the first long car trip my kids have ever been on, and I'm a little scared. I have packed enough activities, snacks, music, and toys to keep them busy for days, so we'll see. I'll try to post from Fairbanks with a few pictures. Have a great weekend!