conversations with invisible pigs and sheep

Had a checkup today, which is good, since I’ve spent the last four days coughing up a lung or two. My bloodwork showed that I’ve been sick before this (duh!). So later I walked out of Target with over $130 in prescriptions and a Halloween costume for Colin. Actually two costumes, because I couldn’t decide. He glommed onto a pug puppy costume, but it’s full-body furry thing, and it’s supposed to be warm on Friday. The other is a dinosaur which is just a top and hood.

I’ve got Jim’s costume halfway done, so I’ll have to push through and finish soon.

Jim had the day off after the race, and had earlier decided he wanted to “go to the city”. We played tourist on Wednesday…

We had an ambitious plan. Patco train into the city (adding at least a half hour to the trip, but money-saving, and a bonus for Colin). Liberty Bell and then Independence Hall. In between these we had to stop and get tickets for the Independence Hall tour. The boys got Junior Park Ranger badges, and we got souveniors for the family. And before the tour we got pretzels. I wanted to get a bunch from a real pretzel store, but there weren’t any to be found in the area, so we got them from a cart. Still goooood, though.

The boys were decent for the tour, which lasted about 45 minutes. After, we had pizza at the Bourse and then started our walking tour. Chinatown, the Domino (and other toy) sculptures, and Love Park. We missed the Phillies rally, but saw everyone leaving it. Walked by my old office (a Jim request), stopped at Walgreens to see if we could print some of our pictures (we couldn’t) and ended up getting Wall-E toothbrushes to keep the boys entertained for the rest of the day. Until Jim tried to clean some brick (UGG!) with his.

Then Mommy’s part of the trip — yarn store! On the way, we walked through Rittenhouse Square. Colin had fallen asleep in the stroller. There was a bunch of guys, street musicians, with bongos, and trumpet, etc., and a young kid was dancing. Well, Jim went up and joined him (fear of strangers, not!). It was the best part of the day. Jim had such a great time, and the other guy got a kick out of him. Very, very cute.

Colin stayed asleep through the yarn store. Got stuff that I’d been wanting for a while but needed to see/touch, and got supplies for school presents.

Lastly was the train ride home again, back in time for dinner.!

First stop, the Liberty Bell

Next, Independence Hall

Colin enjoys his pretzel

William Penn (City Hall)

Jim at Love Park (fountain water dyed red for the Phillies)

Jim in Rittenhouse Square

Just got the list of ALL the retailers that the fundraising company sells — they have just opened up this list to us, instead of just the select 100 or so that have been available.

Here’s the whole list. (PDF file)

Here’s the order form. (Excel file)

EDIT: I fixed the link for the Excel file (it was missing the XLS extension).

or sweat shop? I started the boys’ Halloween costumes today, hoping that they’ll be mostly done by the end of the weekend. Dad took the boys out, so I have relative peace to get this done. Jim’s is cut out, Colin’s is half cut. That’s the part I hate the most.

Both costumes are using the same basic jumpsuit pattern — for Jim’s, I’m adding ears, tails and stripes to make him Pikachu, and for Colin’s, I’m adding spots and a little tail, and using two colors of blue so he’ll be Piplup.

Jim and Mom:

Lone Pumpkin:

Our haul:

Prickly:

Jim:

I’m guessing that over the weekend, Don fed Colin some of his (Don’s) snack cheese. Because Colin went to the fridge asking for “cheese, cheese”, but he didn’t want string cheese. I pulled out one of the cheese wedges, and he went nuts. So I made him little cracker and cheese sandwiches, which he is happily munching away on, while he hums, a sure sign that he REALLY likes what he’s eating.

It seems that I’ve caught Don’s cold. After pushing myself on Friday to mow the lawn, and Saturday to rake and seed the back and side yards (then go pumpkin picking with Jim), I collapsed in a heap on the couch Sunday morning. I even threw in the towel and took Don’s daytime cold medicine. Last night I took a Benadryl so I could sleep, and it’s still keeping the stuffiness away.

Colin and I made some paper pumpkins and a ghost with which to decorate the windows and inside the house. (Well, he drew with the glue stick, and I made the pumpkins, etc.

Now it’s time to rest and relax.

Well, it seemed like it up to today. I started making warm hats for the boys. This pumpkin hat pattern has been in my files since Jim was Colin’s age, and the leaf part always seemed daunting. Then I thought Jim would be too old for it. I even had the yarn for it. But Colin is the perfect age, and in the end, it took me less than a week to finish. I need easy knits for sitting at karate. So next up is a striped hat for Jim. I picked up coats for him and Colin over the summer, and Jim’s is orange with blue and white trim, so a blue hat with white stripes it is. And Colin will probably get green with blue stripes.

I actually have a lot of knitting projects “open” right now, including a shawl I’m hoping to finish by the end of the month for our church auction, and Nana’s Christmas present.

Otherwise, dad is sick, I’m finally not sick, and Colin seems to be getting sick again. Jim is currently medication-free, and doing excellently.

I’m trying to figure out when I’m going to get to work on their halloween costumes.