Christmas Countdown

The holiday season is upon us. I love this time of year and look forward to spending time with family and friends, decorating the Christmas tree, and just generally getting into the holiday spirit. It starts with Thanksgiving and continues through until New Years. 

It's important for me to enjoy the season. I look forward to having fun and creating memories. Since John and I don't have kids, it's even more important to me that John joins in with enjoying the holidays. He doesn't always get into it as much as I do. So this year I decided to try out the Spouse Christmas Countdown, which it described over at www.thedatingdivas.com. I came across this idea through Pinterst (where else?).

John's Christmas Countdown

It took me about a month to complete. I sat down and figured out what I wanted to say every day for 25 days. I wrote reasons why I love him, reasons why I am thankful for him, things I love about him (which is different than why I love him), came up with date nights, etc. Some days are accompanied by a small gift (new gloves for when he rides his bike to work in the winter and a jar of honey because he's my honey). Date nights are just small activities, as I wanted to make sure we stop and enjoy the season with one another (putting together a puzzle, watching Christmas movies, video game night). I also included things to do for him (make him breakfast one weekend since he's usually the weekend breakfast maker). 

Michelle helped me hang everything up the morning of December 1st. It's now the 8th, and I'm pretty sure John is liking his countdown. It's nice to have something to look forward to every morning. 

Day 6 - gift day

Day 6 gift = Ask me about my t-rex t-shirt

Now I'm off to finally decorate the tree. It's been standing there naked for the past week!

Baby Shower

We had a baby shower for a coworker yesterday. It was nice, and she was truly surprised. I made baby Evan an afghan and a pair of booties. Both turned out well. 

Here is the photo evidence:

 Not a very good picture, but the afghan turned out beautifully. 

It's nice and sturdy, which I think is important for an afghan!

The sailor booties.

I've made many booties, hats, and cocoons these past few months. Currently, I'm trying to finish making slippers for my entire family. I'll be sure to post pics of those once completed.

Let's try this again...

Between no longer being in college (thus not having as much "free" time), Facebook, Pinterest, and other mind numbing, time consuming iPhone apps, blogging has not been a priority for the past few years. I'm hoping to give it another try. See how it goes.

Mostly, I'd like to have a place where I can document some of the crafty things I've created. While I enjoy crocheting, I often wish I had taken a picture of the finished project before I gifted it. And now that I'm venturing into other craft projects thanks to inspiration found on Pinterest, I'd like to document those achievements as well.

Who knows where this will go, or how long it will last.

Farm Show 2008

A few weeks ago we (John, Michelle, and I) went to the Farm Show with Chris (John's training client) and Chris's girlfriend Megan. It had been quite a few years since I've attended the Farm Show, so I was excited.

We began our afternoon by having lunch. Various sandwiches were had by all - roast beef, sausage,and pulled pork BBQ. Of course we had to have our veggies, so we headed to the batter dipped veggie stand! Michelle and I had the broccoli and cauliflower with ranch dip. To finish off our meals we all had a famous Farm Show milkshake. Yummy.

From here we walked around. . . a lot. I will not bored anyone with the details, but we saw cute fuzzy cows (black Angus), alpacas, pigs, birds, lambs, nuts, produce, a dog show, etc. Now for the pictures.

Sleeping goat. . . too cute!

I love the out of focus quality. . . it captures the harried-ness that is the Farm Show. Us humans walk around like we're animals being herded from one location to the next.

So nothing exciting. However, I have a few moments that'd I'd like to record before I forget:

• Megan saying she wore her cow shows (mistaking the zebra print on her shoes for the markings of a cow)
• Megan looking at a baby goat and apologizing for eating it for dinner (she was making veal for dinner and thought she was talking to a baby cow)
• Megan commenting on how snakes prey on rabbit eggs (confused by the Easter Bunny, perhaps?)

As you can imagine, Megan kept us laughing.

That's all for now friends. Until next time!

"My Knee Hurts!"

These were the words that so easily flowed from my sister's lips every time she didn't want to do something. . . make her bed, clean up her toys, stop jumping on the bed, etc. I can't remember how long this stage in her life lasted, at least a year, but more like two or more years. Between the ages of 4 and 7-ish, Michelle stuck to her "my knee hurts" excuse with the childlike certainty that one day our mother would say, "You know Michelle, maybe your knee really does hurt. Certainly it must hurt since you've been sticking to your story for two years!" Not the case.

Instead it became a running joke that still comes up in conversations* to this day.

Mom: Will you get me a soda while you're up?
Me: I can't. My knee hurts.

John: Hey, baby. How you doin'? ::wink wink::
Me: I can't. My knee hurts.

Thus ensues much laughter.

I know I haven't updated in almost a year, but. . . my knee hurts.



* These conversations never actually occurred. While the actors may be real, the conversations were created purely for entertainment value.

It was the best of times...

. . . it was the worst of times.

First of all, John and I are now engaged. Good times. It's nice to finally take that next step on our journey. I just can't wait until he's done with school and finds a job, and we can just get married. I'm already ready, already.

Second, on a less happy note, my brother isn't doing well. I know what your saying. She has a brother? Yes, I have two of them actually, and I also have two older sisters as well. Technically they are *half* brothers and sisters, but I don't really believe in half of anything, either you are or you aren't. And we are.

Tony has severe blockage in his heart. He's has a few heart attacks, and has basically been having a constant heart attack for a few days now. They can't do the balloon thingy (an-gee-o-plasty, say it phonetically). They can't do the open heart sugery he needs because he keeps having heart attacks. He's unoperable. And they don't know if he'll get better. And while no one will say it, we are all thinking it. We don't know if he'll make it. It's a scary thing to even write because you don't want to even think anything remotely negative. And deep down we all know he's either going to get well enough to do the surgery, or it's going to come to a life and death moment where doing the operation will be that one last chance.

I went to see Tony tonight. When mom and I first went into his room, he was sleeping. You could see him spasm from pain while he was sleeping. Once he woke up, you couldn't keep him quiet. Despite his pain, he was as talkative as ever. But you could see the pain. He's putting on a brave face, like most men do. Angie, Cindy, and Hans are all flying in tomorrow. I will be visitng again after work tomorrow.

Oh dear God, please let him pull through.

January 22, 2007

I took Mom & Tim out for dinner after work. I bought some of these yummy, melt-in-your-mouth peppermints.

January 21, 2007

I was walking downstairs and looked out the window. I thought, "It's white outside," and I kept walking. Before I got to the kitchen, I realized it was WHITE outside. So I went back for a second look. Sure enough, it was still white outside! What a mess.

January 20, 2007

A couple of days later, Milo decides to join in on the fun. He's not that into boxes; he's just afraid he's going to miss something.

January 19, 2007

I am slowly, and painstakingly, teaching myself to knit. I can't purl yet...

Crocheting is so much easier!

January 18, 2007

Zoe loves boxes.