Baby Bennett is here!

Most of you have read about this on Drew's Blog already, but Eva Grace has arrived!! She's a week old today, having arrived October 10th at 12:04 pm with speed that shocked everyone. She was 8 pounds 5.8 ounces and 20 1/2 inches long.


Mom meeting Eva


Our family

Check out Drew's Blog for more photos!

Thinking Pink

No, it's not a commentary on Baby BenSpark's gender! It's Breast Cancer Awareness Month, silly!!!

This has been an important cause to me for a long time and I'm always happy to do what I can to support the cause and spread the word! So for the month of October, Sparky's View will be Thinking Pink.

And for the month of October (and always!) I'm asking you to Think Pink. Check out events in your area that support breast cancer research, read up on the latest work and news of Komen for the Cure, click daily at The Breast Cancer Site to donate mamograms to women who can't afford them. Do something this October to help the cause.

Dunder Mifflin Infinity

Our friend Maureen is applying to be a Regional Manager for Dunder Mifflin Infinity. Check out her post here: Schrute-mania and sign up to be an employee under her.

The details are vague, but it looks like this will be an online game, similar to the Apprentice online game. So check it out - and sign up to be an employee of Maureen's. She'll be the best boss you've ever had!

Drew's in Another Contest

So Drew is a finalist in another contest. This one would put him in a Super Bowl Commercial - and would send us to California for the taping.

Check out his post for details on how to vote.

Knitting

So I finally uploaded pictures of some of my projects. I have a few more photos to take and upload, but here's a start.

This was my first project. I gave it to a friend as a shower gift and am trying to finish a similar one for Baby BenSpark, but with ducky buttons.



Here is a detail of the buttons.


My next big project was for my friend's son's third birthday.


And the button detail again - buttons make the sweater most of the time!


I will add some photos of some of the hats and other things I have made soon. I am working on a blanket for Baby BenSpark at the moment and will add photos of that when I am done. Hopefully you've enjoyed my new hobby - I sure love it!

Lindsay's Bachelorette Weekend

A few weeks ago my in laws were kind enough to allow me to use the Cape house to host a bachelorette weekend for my oldest friend Lindsay. Everyone had a great time. Friday night we had Paul's Pizza (a Falmouth favorite!) and girl talked. We spent a beautiful Saturday on the beach and had a great dinner at the Casino Wharf fx, followed by drinks at the British Beer Company.

Here are a few pictures of the festivities:

Lindsay and I celebrating.


Lindsay's Escort into the Casino


All gussied up!

Drew's Soda Club Contest

Drew is running a contest on his blog. I couldn't enter because I am married to him - and we already have a soda maker, but some very talented people have entered the contest. You can check out Drew's post of the entrants and vote every day this week for your favorite.

Farewell Mr. Wizard

It's a sad day for the Children of the 80's; our beloved Science teacher, Mr. Wizard, has passed away. Mr. Wizard taught many of us the wonders of Science and made it fun and interesting.

There is a very interesting timeline of his life on his website, including the history of his first show "Watch Mr. Wizard" in the 1950's and 60's.

I never really loved science in school. I did well enough, but it didn't excite me. But Mr. Wizard always made me excited about science and showed me new ways to look at the world. I'm glad the DVD sets are available to share this brilliant teacher with future generations.

A baby game for you to play!

It's been a busy month! Sorry I haven't been around! But here is a game for you to amuse yourselves with until I can get back to posting regularly, which should be soon.

Guess Baby BenSparks' gender, height, weight and birthday. See how you compare to others who have guessed!

Big Announcement!

That's right - we have a big announcement to share. We've outgrown our college clothing!

No!!! Drew and I picked up these toddler shirts on our last visits to our respective colleges in preparation of this big announcment...

We're expecting our first child in October!

We're very excited and have been waiting to share the good news with everyone!

Now that the big news is out, I'll start posting photos of some of my knitting projects, most of which have been baby related.

Enjoy the happy news and keep an eye here for updates!

Totally Adorable

I came across this site today and just had to share it with any parents or people with kids in their lives. Totally Out of Hand makes custom jewelry out of sterling silver, or gold if you prefer, from your children's drawings. The artist, Lee Skalkos, has tons of photos on the site of her work alongside the original artwork.

The pieces on her site are so cute and different that you can't help but fall in love with them. I can't imagine how special it would be to get a piece of your child's artwork sculpted in silver!

Happy Easter!!

Happy Easter!

We are enjoying a very relaxing Easter weekend in NH with my parents. It's been wonderful to enjoy the company of family on this holiday weekend. I hope that everyone has an enjoyable celebration with their loved ones!!

Thursday Night TV - She Said

So here we are again with the She Said. To see the He Said, check out Drew's entertainment blog.

The Office was great last night. And we got an extra 15 minutes - I was in heaven!!! I can't believe that Dwight saved the day!! What a great bit of irony - the one person who makes Jim crazy is the one who saved him!

And I can't believe how clueless Michael is sometimes - he knows NOTHING about negotiation. It's hard to imagine that anyone can be that clueless. But Michael comes around to remind us every Thursday.

SCRUBS was a good epsiode, too. I was really sad that Laverne had to leave, but they did a great job with the story. Sometimes it's hard for a comedy to do something serious like the death of a cast member without seeming too flip about it or totally killing the vibe of the show and being too serious. This episode was well written with just the right amount of humor and drama. Hopefully Jordan won't kill Dr. Cox for forgetting to tell the rest of the hospital staff about the baby!

LOST - She Said

So Drew decided that we would do a He Said/She Said about LOST. And informed me of this decision by posting to his entertainment blog. Thanks, hon!

So, my take on LOST. Last night was a little less exciting than the last few episodes. But I did love the scenes with Hurley and Sawyer. It was so great that Hurley conned the con-man. Even if it was a little cheesy.

I have no deep theories on the smoke monster, I'll leave those to Drew. I'm not sure if I trust Juliette or not. I can't imagine that she can do a lot of harm on her own, but stranger things have happened on the island.

The one thought that did enter my mind was that Juliette knows the code to the electric fences - maybe they'll move all the Losties up to the Others camp and take it over. Then there will be a huge battle scene when the Others return and find their camp taken over. That's my one little theory/daydream about the show.

So that's my She Said. I hope it wasn't too boring for you!

Tagged twice!

I've been bad about updating, please forgive me.

So it appears I've been tagged twice. So here goes:

First I was tagged by Christine:

List five things you are obsessed with, then tag five people to do the same. I'm not sure I'm really obsessed with anything, but here are my five biggest passions (besides Drew, which is a bit cliche to use as a line item).
So here goes, in no particular order…
1. Folk music
2. Cats
3. Reading and Writing
4. Knitting
5. Cooking

Then I was tagged by Drew:

This time it's a musical theme.
About the MEME: I need to pick 7 CD’s or music tracks that I am listening to right now. 5 from CD player at home and two from the car. I listen to CDs at work more than home, so we'll do work and car.

1. Essentials - Ellis Paul
2. Big Dream Boulevard - Antje Duvekot
3. Side Streets Live - Christopher Williams
4. Live in Michigan - Don White
5. Jake Armerding - Jake Armerding
6. American Jukebox Fables - Ellis Paul
7. Hope & Other Casualites - Mark Erelli


People get mad when I tag them... and I have no one left to tag, so just enjoy my responses and chec out some of the artists I'm listening to. The're pretty cool.

Did someone say makeup?

Almost a year ago I started using new makeup. Little did I know that my world would never be the same!

I had been eyeing the commercials for Bare Escentuals Mineral Makeup for a while and found out that my mom had some, so I decided to give it a shot and I really loved it! It looks natural, not like I'm wearing a ton of makeup, even though I need good coverage because I was not blessed with the best skin.

Then I discovered that QVC has kits that they sell and both my wonderful husband and our credit card began weeping. Honestly though I think that the kits are a great way to gather some staples and some new/fun items at a bit of a discount versus buying each item individually. I just got a new kit this weekend; it was part of an automatic delivery set I bought in September. It was fun to play with some new things while we were snowed in on Friday night and Saturday morning!

Drew was kind enough to offer to let me set up a Bare Escentuals discussion section in the forum that he set up for his blog. So if you're interested in BE or love it and want to talk about ideas or have questions, stop on by the forums. We don't bite!

Long Weekend

We had a lovely long weekend in New Hampshire visiting Drew's Aunt & Uncle. You can get all the gory details of the weekend here and here and here. I spent the weekend doing a lot of knitting. I'll get some pics of my projects and share them soon.

Tomorrow night we are going to see Christopher Williams. We are very excited!!

Tagged again

I was tagged by Drew for this grateful meme. The three things I am most grateful for.

1. My family. Which is huge and encompasses everyone related to me and my wonderful husband. Our family is always supportive and wonderful and I'm happy to have them.

2. My friends. I have a wonderful network of supportive friends who I really appreciate. Even if we don't all get to talk as much as we'd like, it's great to know they will be there if they are needed.

3. Our boys. Our cats, Oliver & Duncan, may drive me crazy sometimes, but they have been wonderful company and are always good for a hug and a snuggle when someone needs it the most. We're lucky to have such wonderful pets.

Okay, I'll tag Pink Pirate Pants. Maybe she's better at responding here than to phone calls. ;-)

New Stuff

So I'm learning more and more about blogging. Mostly things my wonderful husband tells me that I need. So I am now on FuelMyBlog and have a widget for people to vote for me, if they feel so inclined.

And now I've added Drew's Photo-a-Day widget to my page, which will show Drew's most recent photo from his Photo-a-Day project. He's an excellent photographer. You should check out his photos.

I also added a MyBlogLog widget, so you can see my recent readers (only those who are registered with MyBlogLog). Apparently I have some readers that I don't know. Pretty nifty!

I've Been Tagged!

I have been tagged by Autumn. So here goes:

Eighteen Musical Meme

Here's what you're supposed to do: Go over to popculturemadness.com, click on the decade you turned 18, find the actual year you turned 18, and copy the top songs for that year...pasting them. The ones I liked are bolded, the ones I hated are in italics, the ones I was neutral about are not formatted, and the ones I didn't know at all have question marks (???) next to them.

I don't have as many as Autumn but here it is!

One Sweet Day - Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men
Because You Loved Me - Celine Dion
Always Be My Baby - Mariah Carey
Tha Crossroads - Bone Thugs N Harmony
How Do U Want It - 2Pac featuring K-Ci and JoJo
You're Makin' Me High - Toni Braxton
Macarena (bayside boys remix) -Los Del Rio for about five minutes, then it got annoying
No Diggity - Blackstreet featuring Dr. Dre
Un-Break My Heart - Toni Braxton

Apparently I've never really been into pop/current music. And that was years before I became a folk groupie!

So I'll tag Mo and Stephen (maybe he can do his A's year since he's not 18 yet!)

Knitting?

So this winter I decided that I needed a new hobby. I read a lot, I like to do Sudoku in front of the television, but I wanted to do something else. There is a little yarn shop right around the corner from our house called Yarn It All. So one day I decided to stop in and see what the classes are all about.

The classes are really reasonably priced and run for four weeks, two hours each Tuesday night. It's nice to get to meet some other people in town, learn to knit, see what other people are working on and get a little social time.

It's great fun and I'm starting to find some cool online resources in addition to my weekly classes. I plan to start a link section about knitting, since I've found some pretty cool sites about knitting. So far one of my favorites is Lion Brand Yarn. They offer free patterns, a free newsletter and info about knitting. If you're interested in knitting, check it out.

First Photo

So this was the view out my car window on Monday on my way into work. I really liked how the snow clung to the tree branches making everything look soft and white. Who knew that hibernating trees could look so pretty?

New Blog, First Post

So I've decided to enter the world of blogging. Partially because Drew can't have a blog hosted by more than one person and use PayPerPost, so if I have something to say or share, I don't have a place to do it. And partially because Drew now has all this fun money from PayPerPost and I am a bit jealous.

In my new webspace I hope to share pictures that I've taken with the nifty new camera that Drew got me for Valentine's Day, share info I've found on one of my new hobbies, knitting, and any other new hobby or obsession that comes my way.

I hope you all enjoy it. Leave me comments, say hello - I'm new to this big, scary place called blogging.