It's Been A Long Time

It has been a long time since I've posted anything on this. Well, as a little way to get you up-to-date with my life, my daughter is now six months old. We have recently been to the doctor's office for a check-up. She now weighs sixteen pounds nine ounces, and is twenty-seven inches tall. The most notable thing about that is that she went from the 50-75% to the 90% in terms of height, but she was always on the edge since birth. Next, we have job experiences... Well, I've recently applied for a job at my local library. They are hiring for a full-time job because one of their worker's is retiring. I'm really hoping I get this job, but I kind of doubt it. I think I have a low self-esteem in terms of getting a job, but really, it would seem that it is appropriate because of how hard it is to get a job lately. I still work part-time at my first job (I started when I was 16, and am now 20). As it turns out, my workplace has opened a full-time job in a different department from the one I work in. I applied for it, and hope I get this job because I would like to stay here. Well, my first choice would have to be the library job because writing and reading are important hobbies of mine. I'm not sure what I would do if I were offered both jobs. Well, I know that I would take the job at my workplace, and I will know about that job in approximately one week or more. The library job won't be decided for another month or so, and I will be disappointed if I was offered that job after I accepted the job at my workplace (if I were offered it). As far as other job opportunities, I've basically applied at every and all places that I can. I mostly don't want to take the job at my workplace because of the library job. I want the library job most out of all the jobs I applied for, but will settle on any job if I don't get the library job. Gah, it is so hard to be in this position. I'm not excited to be in an economy in which it is so hard to find a full-time job. Also, I really don't want a full-time job because I just want to stay home with my baby all day every day. It is hard to think about dropping her off with a babysitter. And I almost don't want to deal with the responsibility called for to take care of a child when it comes to babysitters and school. I have been thinking about that lately, I don't know if I am ready for her to be in school or doing anything really because I feel like I have been a little thrown into becoming a mother. But, I guess I am better off than my mother who had me at age 18, and my sister at age 19. Hmm, it would seem that I have rambled on for quite a long time. I will stop now, seeing as most of it is uninteresting. If you read all of this, thanks :) Not going to lie, though. I think when people write like this, it is most interesting, at least to me. To me it says that you are a living being with actual feelings. I always see other bloggers who have a "charisma" that they uphold in order to keep their followers. Although, that does keep readers around, it does not show me that you are grounded in reality.

Norwegian Movies About Zombies

Anyone seen "Dead Snow"?  It's a Norwegian movie about Nazi zombies and a group of people who head out to a cabin on the mountain surrounded by woods for miles and miles from each direction.  Obviously, a lot of them die (I haven't seen the entire movie, yet, so no spoilers!), or perhaps they all die.

I do have one insignificant little note.  All Norwegian movies I have seen have all had metal music playing during the opening scene.  Well, I guess I've only seen two Norwegian movies.  The other would have to be "Funny Games".  If you look it up, just so you know, there is a 2008 movie by the same name that was made in the U.S.

In the Norwegian version of the movie "Funny Games", a couple of guys take a small family hostage while they are on vacation and plays sadistic games with the family just for their own amusement.  I saw that one all the way through.  It was definitely a crazy movie.

Anyways, back to the original subject!  I'm currently watching "Dead Snow".  I had seen the first ten, fifteen minutes of the movie about a half a year ago but had to stop watching it for whatever reason.  Now, my fiance's friend, my fiance, my baby, and I are enjoying some good ole nazi zombie movie.

Aristocats and Yogurt!!

Just got up for the day an hour ago.  I have an app on my phone that I played for my baby - it's called baby learning cards animals, or something like that.  If you double tap on the picture of an animal (and they have a sound bit for that animal) then you can hear what that animal sounds like!  And it is pretty entertaining for a baby because they can hear the sounds and also look at different animals - including favorites such as cats and dogs, and also lionfish and even octopi!

I like it just for that fact.  She can see many different things in the world all from the comfort of our bed.

Aside from that, right now we are watching The Aristocats and I'm eating yogurt!  She seems to love this movie about as much as a four-month old can love something, other than me, that is, haha.  I'm kind of excited for when she realizes that I am leaving and won't be near her for a while (for work).  But then, I don't want her to be upset, I want her to always be happy, which is rather easy to accomplish.

Do you have an easy baby?  What are some of her/his quirks?  I love hearing about baby quirks!

Mechanical Turks??

Does anybody use Amazon's Mechanical Turk?  How do you like it?  Do you make any good money?  Or do you just make a couple bucks a day?

I just signed up for it, and it says I have to wait a couple of day (48 hours at most) to start working on the HIT's, as they call them.

I do have to say... I'm kind of excited to start doing them, mostly so I can keep being a stay-at-home mom, if I can make enough money, that is!  So, I've been looking at all of the HIT's and almost all of them are less than $1.00!  Literally, most of them are .01 or .02.  It will kind of suck, but I have heard of some people making enough money to rival a part-time job.  Honestly, that would be great if I could make that much money, because then all the money I would make could go toward debts and all that sort of stuff!

In the future, I would like to move to Portland with my daughter and fiance.  It's just a life goal for my fiance and I.  We want to move there to raise our daughter and any future children.  We especially want to be in a city and have plenty of opportunities to live and see things.  You see, we love going out to the library, to concerts, to eat, to museums, etc...  But where we live right now, there isn't much to do except look at the river :/

The Mississippi River, that is.  And although it is a "place to see" in the U.S., it is pretty boring.  Especially if you've lived next to it your entire life.

How about you, do you live next to anything particularly interesting to someone else, but rather boring to you?  Tell me about it in the comments!

New Project

I'm working on a new project...  It's another scarf!  I'm trying to make it a little more intricate looking, as in having a different design every once in a while.

This one, I will be using the single crochet for the most of it.

And for three rows (or four, I haven't decided, yet), I will double crochet.  These rows will be near the ends.  About seven rows of single crochet to each end.

As you can tell, I'm not that great at following a pattern.  I like to just make it up as I go along.

I have a hard time following a pattern because I can never figure out how to go in between each kind of stitch, or I find a stitch that I can't do, or I just mess it up and then never figure out how to do it in the end.  Well, I guess I just give up every time.

Do you have any suggestions for me?  Maybe a website that tells me how to crochet using a pattern??

Crochetable!

So, I decided last night around 10:00 to start crocheting a scarf...  It started out really well, and then I accidentally forgot a stitch or two (or 5,000) in a few rows along the way.  But once I realized that, I added some stitches in the rows to make it back to the approximate width it started out!

I used this yarn:

To make a scarf that looks like this:

I actually got this yarn for Christmas, it is Lion Brand Yarn.  You can check it out at LionBrand.com!


To make this scarf, I used a simple single crochet.  You can make it as wide and as long as you want.  I don't know exactly how many chains I made, probably 10 or 15 chains to start it out.

Violins and Yours Truly

This past Christmas, I got a violin from my fiance's parents.  Starting last week, I began violin lessons.  I just had another violin lesson today.

Do any of you own a violin?  How about other instruments?  Can you actually play them, or are they purely decorational?

I actually own many instruments.  I have a clarinet, trumpet, violin, cello, multiple guitars, and a keyboard.  I know how to play the clarinet with some skill (should I mention I received the highest score on a solo?).  As for the others, I can play the trumpet (barely), and the violin (barely).  What is pretty cool, is that once I learn the violin, the cello is close behind.  Just a matter of learning to put my fingers one (or two?) string over.

Is anyone else learning the violin currently, or already know how to play?  Want to share some tips??  I am always open to tips!