Miscellaneous Monday

Today is my little bro Ryan's birthday. Happy birthday, bro, even though you never read my blog. :) I always am a little in awe when he has a birthday and he, my sister and I are all one age apart. Today Ryan turns 33, Rachel is 34 and I am 35. Mom, you were nuts! (Oh, and by the way, we are numbers four, five and six of eight kids.) Anyway, we don't get to see Ryan and his cute girls nearly enough because they live in sunny St. George -- so hopefully it's a sunny day for a great birthday.

Today I'm attempting to make 30 freezer meals in time for Austin's arrival. I was referred to a great book (thanks Liz!) called Dinner is Ready that has realistic recipes and looks like it won't be too hard. Maybe I should wait to say that AFTER I'm done preparing all the meals. :) Anyway, it will be interesting to see how they turn out and if we really like them. I'm not big on most left-overs, so I'm hoping they don't taste like them. But if they tasted that way I doubt I would be hearing how great this book is. I'll let you know.

I'm also fearful that Austin will come this week. Not that I want to stay pregnant or anything, and not that I feel like he's not ready -- but Hilary is out of town. What's up with that? She's our on-call videographer. But today she left for California and won't be back until Sunday. So once again, I guess we'll see what happens. You know how it is with babies -- no idea when they're coming! If Austin came the exact same time as Shayla, that would be this Wednesday (which is Paul's birthday). If he came the same time as Zachary, I'd have another month. Crazy. But my doctors are very cautious with my gestational diabetes history and age (gasp -- so old!) that they actually don't even want me to make it to 40 weeks. So if I haven't gone into labor by 39 weeks we'll get to some induction.

My knitting is coming along great. Good thing I'm doing an easy hat. :) I started with a pattern from a book, but the baby hat was definitely too big, even though my gauge was pretty much right on. I ended the hat shorter than the pattern called for because I had enough practice and didn't figure I'd waste any more time. I just didn't expect it to be this big:


Here's the funniest thing about this hat: I used some old yarn I had bought long ago -- maybe 10 years. I had always meant to crochet a blanket out of it and actually started one, but I never got around to finishing it. So, I pulled it out so I wouldn't have to buy new yarn to learn to knit. One day as I was knitting I looked down and couldn't believe it:

Yes, the yarn is exactly the same as the maternity sweater I was wearing! I don't remember where I got either one, but it was funny to realize. The kids got quite a kick out of it.

So, since the first one was so big I did it 2/3 as big for the next one. I also changed the ribbing since I didn't like how it was on the first one. So basically at this point I was turning to my own pattern. Turns out that made it very small, and perfect for Shayla's American Girl doll:


So, on the next one I decided I'd make it bigger, but I played around with how I reduced it since I was no longer following a pattern. I don't like how the shape turned out, but it's getting closer:

I'm still fine-tuning exactly how I want this little guy's hat to turn out, but I'm also running out of time. Needless to say, when I post pictures of him in a cute little hat, you all better appreciate its cuteness (as well as Austin's! :).