Pleasant Surprises

My daughters were born 11 months apart. No, we didn't plan that. Actually, we thought we had it all planned out. The Lord had been very gracious... when we decided to start a family, about 1 month later I was pregnant. When we decided to add another child, again.... done. I was blessed with easy pregnancies and healthy, big babies. My son was 2-1/2 when my daughter was born (the "knitting" daughter). We had a boy and a girl, and we were done.

Of course, the Lord new so much better than we. He planned our family, not us, and he knew we needed another daughter. When daughter #1 was about eight weeks old, I recognized those tell-tale signs. Lets just say, breast-feeding is not reliable birth control, actual birth control is not reliable birth control - God is birth control! That was a shocker. Not only were we not even considering more children, but come on.... 8 weeks! I hadn't even had time to have the margarita I had been craving through the entire last pregnancy yet! Not to mention lost any baby weight. We'd say, "Guess who's pregnant?", and everyone would guess my sister, any number of friends.... but no, that would be me again. Breed like rabbits, we do. Fertile Myrtle... I've heard them all. Less than a year later the nurses in the hospital are saying, "Weren't you just here?"

Now, of course, we can't imagine life without "the Pud." (rhymes with wood). Not not her real name... she is the child who always decided what her nicknames would be. "Call me squeakers." And we did, for about two years. Don't know where she got it. Then, she decided she wanted to be called "Lilly." That transformed into "lilly-pud". To this day, 16 years later, I still call her Lilly and her daddy still calls her Pud. More than her real name.

Some blog we'll go into life that first year, with a 3-1/2 year old boy, not quite potty trained, an 11-month-old who can't yet walk, and a newborn.... born by C-section (my first), at more than 10 lbs. Let your minds wander a bit through that one!

So, of course, when people find out they're only 11 months apart (most people first assume they're twins), they mention something about her being a mistake. We've always made it clear to her that she was NOT a mistake, God knew we needed her. We always tell her she was a pleasant surprise!

These are another pleasant surprise:

I really love them. I wasn't sure how the joints would be, if they would be smooth enough, or if they would come unscrewed, but I haven't had a bit of trouble. Of course, aluminum needles are my favorites anyway... I like the feel of them. And the click-clack sound reminds me of when I was a kid, listening to my mom knit. I love having any size I want, whenever I want it. Since we don't have a LYS here in town, I don't want to be slowed down by not having the right size needle. I'm a happy camper with my Needlemasters.

These were my mom's needles, she gave them to Kaity when she learned to knit. See, all aluminum, all the pretty colors. Yeah, bamboo are okay, but I guess I'm a simple girl. I'll go for the aluminum.

Well, I guess that's not completely true.... If I could get a complete set of Addi Turbos for the same price - now that'd be a pleasant surprise!