@#$%&!

Arrggh, it’s been a bad week!

On Monday both of my kids woke up with fevers and coughing, so I stayed home with them. I went to work on Tuesday, and then on Tuesday night, a bad snow storm blew in, so Bethany’s school and Dominic’s daycare were closed, and I had to stay home with them again. I went back to work on Thursday, and had a mountain of work waiting for me from the time I missed.

On top of that, I got a request from my daughter’s special education math teacher for a meeting on March 14th, about “concerns about Bethany’s progress”. Bethany sees her twice a week, and even with that, and me helping Bethany with her homework every night, she’s still failing math. I don’t know what more I can do, other than to hire a private tutor, which I can’t afford. I also finally got an appointment for my son for his testicle problem, and am worried about him potentially needing surgery. Too much stress all at once. At least things are going great for my husband at his job - he does maintenance work for a tool and die making plant, and just got promoted to a higher grade level, which translates to a $1 an hour raise. I was very happy to hear that, as we can definitely use the extra money.

Anyway, I got a much needed lift when I came home from work today and opened this swap package from my February Crochetoholic’s Swap Blog partner:

The whole package was truly so thoughtfully and wonderfully put together!I love, love, love everything!

This is what Joann sent:

5 skeins of Lily Sugar N' Cream yarn in beautiful pink shades (did I mention that pink is my absolute favorite color?!).

A pair of pink knitting needles and two crochet hooks.

A beautiful hand knitted dishcloth.Two packets of pink (!) hot chocolate, (which I so need to buy more of to send to my best friend in Texas, who is also crazy about pink, and whose birthday is coming up next month).

A bag of dark chocolate raspberry Hershey's Kisses, which is great, because besides loving dark chocolate, I also happen to love raspberry with chocolate (how did Joann know?!).

A great crochet book, "Hooked on Crochet" and two crochet pattern books, including one with pansy kitchen items to crochet, which is fantastic, because pansies are my all-time favorite flower!

Two patterns for cute heart crochet "fridgie" magnets.

A bag of light-up mini rubber ducks (to match my rubber duck themed bathroom!) that my kids have already claimed, and an adorable rubber duck soap.

A pack of note cards with my name printed on them!

The package just came at a really great time.

I do have some crochet projects to show too. I finished up my daughter’s “Soldier” hat last weekend:

I used Caron Simply Soft Shadows in “Mardi Grey” for the main color and Simply Soft Brites in “Watermelon” for the trim and flower. The trim and flower were my own addition. The pattern was easy to follow and worked up quickly, but it bothered me that the book doesn’t list the finished circumference for the hats. I ended up having to keep having Bethany try on the hat until I was sure it was big enough. Bethany was happy with the hat, and is going to wear it to school when they have their “Crazy Hat Day” in the spring. I found the Simply Soft Shadows on Knitting-Warehouse.com. I love that website! They have a great selection of yarn, great prices, flat rate $5.99 UPS shipping on any size order, and I always get my orders within 2 business days after placing them.

These other three hats I made are donations for the Ships Project and a local cancer support center here in the Cleveland area, The Gathering Place. I used Simply Soft Shadows in “Soft Merino” for the first one, and Red Heart Soft in “Teal” and “Guacamole” for the other two.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot – I got my shoes for my sister’s wedding!

Shauna said she doesn’t care what kind of shoes the bridesmaids wear, as long as they’re silver, so we got to pick out our own shoes. I love these because the heel isn’t too high (I can’t walk in anything too high), and they have an ankle strap (I have a hard time walking in backless shoes). I bought them from Endless.com. I ordered them on Tuesday and got them on Wednesday, and, the shipping was completely free – how awesome is that? Add that to no sales tax, and the shoes being on sale for $10 off, and woohoo! My older sister Desiree, whose 10 year old daughter Alexis is also a junior bridesmaid, and whose 3 year old daughter Kaitlyn is the flower girl, bought some silver shoes and purses for Bethany and Alexis.

Now I just need to buy a purse for myself, and figure out what kind of bra I can wear under my dress, with it being a halter top and backless. I’m probably going to have to end up buying a convertible bra, which will most likely amount to a whole day of discomfort, but well what can I do.