My little big girl!  We love you.

 I kept on seeing this on WifeMomKnitter‘s Blog and in order to get myself out of the blogging slump, I decided that I will peruse this as well

1. Ooooh, I love having days off.  I did so much these couple of days than I’ve done in weeks!

2. When babysquared cries, I can’t stand it!

3. How the heck did I end up with so many yarn and not enough knitting time?

4. Thousand Islands is one of my favorite places to visit.

5. I’m not a slob, I’m not! (I’m just a pile-er!  There is a difference!!!)

6. Amish Friendship Breads, one with chocolate and one with cinnamon,  it has to  they will be good.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to chilling with babysquared, tomorrow my plans include some knitting and spinning and Sunday, I want to celebrate David’s Birthday!

I got no shame.  I totally stole this topic from WifeMomKnitter.   But I thought it was a fun topic, and figure I can give it a stab…

If you could go back in time and have a 5 minute conversation with yourself ten years ago, what would you say?

Dear 21 year old jennsquared:

I know you are young, and are enjoying life at good ole RPI.  But really, you will want to hear me out.  Who am I?  Well, I’m you, just a little more “mature”.  Oh heck, I’m the older version of you.  Let’s be real here.

• So by now, you probably already figured out all that drinking in freshman year didn’t do you any good.  It’s ok.  You really slow down after that.  It is no big deal.  You will recover from that, even though currently, you probably don’t think so.
• Few months down the road, you’ll be in shock when 9-11 happens.  It is OK.  We will get through the tough time.  And you will become United States Citizen during that tough time.  And go visit the World Trade Center now if you could, because this old self regrets it all the time that she didn’t get to see them in person.
• Take more art classes when you can.  Now I’m not talking about drawing and such, but maybe graphic design type things, something that’s a bit more creative than just plain old engineering classes.  It will help with your knitting down the road.
• Knitting?  Oh yes, you love it.  I know, it sounds like an “OLD” hobby, but really, you love it.  And all of your friends love it.  And trust me, they aren’t old either.  So my advice, you better start it now.  Maybe you’ll find the ambition to go to school to be textile engineer.
• When you take up that coop position at Lutron, don’t let youself get too involved in the drama.  It really doesn’t do you any good. 
• And really, start a blog earlier.  You love it.  It’s like a journal and you enjoy writing so much more than you can imagine.
• Believe in yourself.  Don’t doubt what you can or cannot do.  Just do it and trust your instinct.  If you think you can do it, then you can.

See, your daughter said so too.  Yup.  She’s 15 months right about now!

Love, the 31 year old jennsquared

I saw this on WifeMomKnitter‘s blog and realized that I haven’t done a meme for quite awhile…  So here is my version of A-B-Cs of me!

• A – Age: I’m newly turned 31.
• B – Bed Size: Queen!  But with the dogs, sometimes I feel like we need a king!  Definitely no room for a king though.
• C – Chore you hate: hmmm… I think it’s a toss up between mopping the floor and putting laundry away.  Although washing dishes also have a special place in my heart  too.
• D – Dogs Name: Mick (or Mickey) and Vanilla (or Nilla) - both are Great Pyrenees.  And Bruno, our beloved chow/black lab mix who passed in May 2010.
• E – Essential Start of the Day item: Glasses – I can’t see!
• F – Favourite Colour: Red.
• G – Gold or Silver: Silver or White Gold.  I don’t really like yellow gold, but my engagement is yellow gold.
• H – Height: 5 ft 2-1/4 in.  But if i wear heels, then I think I’m usually 5ft 5-1/4 in.
• I – Instruments you play:  I used to be able to play the flute and piano.  Now, not so much.  I can sing though!
• J – Job: An Engineer making helicopters for U.S. Navy.
• K – Kids: one!  My Little Lady! aka Babysquared
• L – Living Arrangements: Live on the first floor of our two-family building, with my brother in the basement.
• M – Music You Love: Sublime, Beestie Boys, 311, and lots of other alternative rock type music.
• N – Nicknames: Jenn, Jennsquared
• O – Overnight Hospital Stay: When I was little, I remember going to the children hosptial because I have too high of protein in my urine.  Then one more time because I had a very bad fever, and they gave me a needle on my butt that in my head, still is about 1″ in diameter and 6″ long with yellow fluid, supposedly that will reduce my fever.  More recently, right before my wedding in 2008, I had a appendicitis scare so they kept me overnight, and then having The Little Lady in 2009.
• P – Pet Peeve: people who say, “I seen…”, “S/he seen…”, “We seen…”  No offense but, in my own opinion, it makes one sound unintelligent.
• Q – Quote from a Movie: “IIIIIIIT’S SOOOOOO FLUUUUUFFY.”  Despical Me. or “SQUIRREL!” from UP.
• R – Right handed or Left: Right handed.
• S – Siblings: one younger brother
• T – Time you wake up: Hopefully between 6 – 7am on a week day.  On weekends usually between 7 – 8am.
• U – Underwear: bikini style
• V – Vegetables you dislike: Tomato!  Although, that’s technically a fruit.  Bean Sprouts!  Well, that’s technically a bean…  Hmmm… CARROTS!  YUCK. Unless it’s the Carrot/Tofu dumplings from Grandma, then it is YUM.
• W – Workout Style: Work out?  What is that?  Well, I do like Yoga and Pilates.  Do those count?
• X – X-Rays You’ve had: Mostly dental x-rays.  I did have one done to check to see if I just have bronchitis or pneumonia about 3 years ago.  (I only had bronchitis, thank goodness.)
• Y – Yummy Food you make: Strawberry cupcake with strawberry cream cheese frosting, Spinach and Artichoke Dip, Super Garlicky Guacamole, and Shepard’s Pie.
• Z – The best place to Visit – Hey, this is not a Z!  But Germany, hands down!  With France being the close second.  What?  Why didn’t I say Taiwan?  Well, that’s because it’s not a place to visit, it’s a place I lived.  And yeah, I would totally put that down if I didn’t live there for half of my life.  The food, is A-MAZING.

Holy Crap!  It is amazing how time has flied, and I am sad that I haven’t had a chance to update my blog!!!!  I tried to mobile blog but for some reason, it didn’t get posted.  Instead, I just hit published just now on Little Lady’s first standing up all on her own.

So the engineer in me is pointing me to bullet style to catch you all up, so here it goes:

• November 2nd, our Little Lady turned 1!!!!  On November 7th, we had a big birthday party for her.  She received many gifts, and apparently didn’t listen to me and is still deliquent on writing those thank you cards!  Oh Kids!  So here is the general public thank you for all who came to see the Little Lady turning one, and gifting her.
• Thanksgiving this year was nice.  Dad and Sheryl came to visit for a long weekend.  We all had a nice din din that day with our traditional menu.  Our Little Lady loved all the food too!  Yes, whenever possible, we feed her whatever we eat!
• Christmas was nice and quiet.  This year, instead of David surprising me with something, I did something for him – Many of you know, our beloved Bruno has passed this past year.  I went on Etsy and bought a handmade wooden box to lay his ashes in, and I also shadowbox framed his collar and certificate.  It wasn’t as emotional as I imagined, which was a good thing.  I wouldn’t want to be known to make grown men cry!
• Still on Christmas, we went to Stew Leonards and bought a little live Christmas tree.  We finally hung up all of our Germany handmade glass ornaments.  It is gorgeous, if I do say so myself!  We are thinking the live tree will remain our Christmas tree for quite a few years, until it is too big to be indoor, then we will plant it somewhere.
• My birthday was quiet this year as well.  We ended up going to David’s best friends house and feasted on cheese and chocolate fondu.  YUM.  David tried to get me a cupcake from Sugar, but they were closed.  Oh well.  we’ll see if we can get some at a later time.
• Our Little Lady has been sick on and off.  Mostly from daycare germs.  She’s got stomach bug twice, and currently has bronchiolitis.  The poor baby is on steroids and antibiotics right now.  It was to a point that she was so congested and coughing so much that she couldn’t sleep even an hour!  I think I was ready to cry with her.  And it was definitely rough because since month and half old, she’s been a super sleeper that goes to bed at 8pm and wakes up at 6am.  So not sleeping is a really rough thing for both David and I.  We certainly experienced that!  But no fear, she’s on the mend already.  She even went back to her favorite butternut squash in regular serving size!  (She hasn’t been eating butternut squash for a week!!!!)  So this mama is very excited to see that.
• I’ve been working a lot.  Part of the reason why I haven’t been blogging.  I feel like I am missing a lot, especially seeing my other friends who are new moms that either doesn’t have to work or is taking extended leave.  They get to set up routines and their kids seem to advance so much faster than our Little Lady.  I’m not gonna lie, but I do feel like a failure in that regard.  I have to constantly remind myself that I am working so much right now, just so I can be there when she is a little older.  Better now that she doesn’t quite remember, than later when she actually does.
• Knitting front, I finished a little sweater for Miss V, Anphoe’s little cutie, and a pair of mittens for myself.  I also crochet a bunch of snowflakes but have not do the final touches on them yet.
• Sewing wise, I haven’t done too much.  I cut out the pattern for a pair of PJs in Christmas Hello Kitty flannel, but have not sewn it together yet.
• I started reading Friday Night Knitting Club, but man, it is a rough book to get through.  I find the story so flat and uninteresting, I just can’t bring myself to waste my time!  (See above note on working a lot and feel like missing out on my Little Lady – every minute count!).  So instead, I started reading The Girl with Dragon Tatoo.  That one is really interesting, but my library called me to informed me that the kindle is now available for pick up (I waited for 2 months!), so I picked up the kindle to try, and read The Apothecary’s Daughter.  Now, that’s a fast pacing book that I enjoyed.  I did a whole book review on Goodreads, so if you are interested on my thoughts, go over there to take a look.  So now that I’m done with the kindle, I’m back on The Girl with Dragon Tatoo.
• As you see from the previous post, our Little Lady is now standing up all on her own.  She can even now walk along where she is holding herself too!  And she can stand on her own very briefly, with hands up in the air!  Then she would clap and fell on her butt and giggles like no one’s business.  It is really cute, if I do say so myself.
• And as many of you live in the same state as me, you know that we had a crap ton of snow.  Actually, that probably doesn’t even begin to give you the mental picture of how much snow we got.  Since Christmas, we had 3 storms that resulted over 18″ of snow fall in 24 hours.  Two of them happened within the last two weeks!  And in between, we also got another storm that resulted at least 6″ of snow, and supposedly there will be another big one this coming Tuesday/Wednesday.  I am really not sure where we are going to put all the snow!
• We now have netflix, and I am hooked on a “new” show – Dexter.  It is a really sick, twisted show, but so damn good!  I, apparently, am slow to the party, because this show has been on for 5 seasons now!

I think that’s all the major points I can think of right now.  I’m hoping to get back on the groove of posting more often and including monthly pic of the Little Lady.  We’ll see how that goes.

Until next time!!!

Our Little Lady is growing up way too fast on us!  She stood up on Christmas, but of course this mama is way too slow to capture that.  But she is preoccupied by her new toy to sit on me!