A litte bit of my world in pictures

This is my stocking stuffer Larry bought me, or I should say stocking holder since it was a little too large to fit in my stocking. It's a little green house herb garden. I planted it Jan 6, and as you can see it really is growing quickly. I keep it in my kitchen window and haven't had to water it except for the initial planting. You can see a little of the condensation that builds up daily.

Here is my hat I knitted over the weekend. I knitted Larry one yesterday, but he has quickly latched on to it due to the cold weather and working outside a good portion of the day.

And here is one of my cats, Flash, enjoying a snooze on his favorite chair last night in a slightly peculiar position. Usually (like right now) you can find him curled up on the front pillow napping the day away. My other cats Matty and Milee were snoozing there yesterday morning with Matty in a comical position too, but he moved before I could get the camera.

Just wanted to share a few pictures today. Hope you are all having a great day and staying warm!

Weekend Review

Well this weekend didn't go anywhere near the original plan. Lori and I have been planning to find a weekend to get together and do some cookie baking since before Christmas. We finally narrowed it down to meeting on the 19th, and had been set on that day for a couple of weeks now. But life took over and we had to move it again. Holly was suppose to be going to her mom's this last weekend, so Larry and I started planning for him some time to work on his Jeep at his buddy's house while I was off doing my baking. Unfortunately, Holly ended up with a virus that settled in her ear along with a ton of nose drainage. So that required one of us to cancel plans. I had my heart set on getting away for some time for me especially since Larry had a weekend in East TX last weekend. But instead it had to go to Larry. I haven't mentioned what his new job is which will lead into why he got the weekend. Larry is the director of maintenance operations for the Mercantile apartment building, the Element apartment building, and as of this coming Friday, the Post Wilson apartment building (and a few other buildings that are in the holdings before they start their remodelings) all in downtown Dallas. The Mercantile and Element, are still being gutted and remodeled/built so Larry is over the construction and making sure it is right down to every outlet plate. But the Post Wilson is already up and running. His company is closing and taking over the building this Friday. So things are about to get a little hairy for him. The current staff with the Post Wilson are going with their current owners to new jobs, so Larry and the rest of the Mercantile staff will be taking over. This will also put Larry and his assistant on call every other week (they haven't hired any more maintenance staff, so they will be taking it all on until more are hired on or until they can get some temps out to give them a hand, but temps can't be on call). So due to this and the fact that the buddy who's house he was going to work at is his assistant, it was a must to let him go for the weekend.
So I was greatly disappointed, but it's what you do when you're married, right? So Sat. morning I took Holly into the doc, and while we were filling her prescription, it was time for Larry to take off to his buddy's house, he lives 60 miles away. So Holly and I picked up lunch at Target while waiting on her meds (except for easily getting run down and blowing her nose every two seconds, she seemed like she was fine, which was a true blessing). So we returned home and spent the day watching DVDs. I also knitted my own new hat over the weekend (took pictures, but not sure how to download them to the laptop). And now I'm working on one for Larry.
Larry returned Sunday morning. And I can't tell you how happy I was to see him. After a week and two weekends at home except for a couple of errands here and there and with very little adult companionship, I was dying to get out and spend some time with another adult around. Now I never got a verbal thank you for forfeiting my weekend, but I sure did gets lots of affection and spoiling once he got home. We ran a few errands before Holly was run down again, and freely looked at all I wanted. Then we went to IHOP for dinner, went home where Larry and Holly sang on the mics and I finished up my knitting.
Monday we slept in, did a few chores, and tried to decide on a movie to go see. We ended up renting some movies and ran to the grocery store to get the supplies needed for Larry to make stew.
So it started off as a bit of a disappointing and boring weekend, but turned into a super nice one with just some time to really enjoy each other and share some love.

Overdue Excitement

This announcement was actually a fabulous Christmas gift, but I wanted to make sure that it was spread verbally before I posted on it.
Congrats are sent out to one of my closest friends Lori and Erik on the pending arrival of their little "bean". Currently due July 25. I say currently 'cause it seems like as time gets closer that date always changes for most people.
The little one got its name "the bean" due to Lori's early cravings of bean burritos. I said that maybe it should be renamed "the avocado" due to its growth and her craving of avocados in addition to burritos.
Larry and I have not been blessed with our own "bean", but have been looking into the medical procedures that need to be done to have one. Those have been put on hold for the past few months due to the loss of insurance with Larry's job change, but will be picking up in February when our new insurance kicks in.
But God has blessed us with the coming of Lori and Erik's new little one. The "bean" is going to be so spoiled by his or her Uncle Larry and Auntie Toby. How excited am I you ask. I have had a baby gift purchased and set aside since a month before they were married, just 6 years ago this month!
So to my wonderful friends, I send my congrats out again!! This time without screaming my excitement in your ear ;) And a word of warning, I will be over much, much more! I love you both very much and I have no doubt that you two will be fabulous parents.

We had a bit of an off night last night, so I didn't get a picture of Holly and her hat, but here is that one of the tree I promised some months back. Aren't the colors just fabulous?!

Today Holly is home from school. Starting yesterday morning she had some pain in the lymph node on her left side of her neck. It was slightly swollen at dinner time last night, and at about 4:30am, she came in crying she was in so much pain. It had swollen over night. So I went ahead and kept her home since she didn't sleep well and was misierable with the pain. Nothing else is bothering her, so I'm sure it's just a new reaction due to allergies. She gets allergies so severely and with getting older I think this is just a new symptom. And with the drastic weather change, it probably brought something in to stir it up. So she is resting loading up on water to flush it out, and keeping warm rags on the spot to sooth it and take some of the swelling out.

Guess I won'be getting my chores done today either (yesterday was filled with interuptions that left me behind). Oh well.

not normal yet

Well things haven't really settled in yet, so I've been putting off writing on my blog. But last night before I went to sleep, I was reading my Jan. Redbook to hurry and finish it so I can read my Feb. one that came in the mail yesterday. And there were some articles in there that inspired me to get back into it again. I haven't gotten back on here mainly because the home computer is not up and running right now. We have only my husband's laptop in commission right now, and I'm not fond of typing on it. I always bump the little mouse pad with my palm and hit the caps lock button most of the time when I'm reaching for the "a".
I went back to subbing last week, but am off this week. And Kristi was right, the middle school students really are the best to work with. I have horrible memories of middle school, so I never expected them to be so well behaved. I have been sticking with mostly half days, which makes sure I'm home in plenty of time before Holly gets home. This helps to keep the stress down especially if I take a high school job (they really are a bit hard to handle since school boards are so scared of them now and let them do ANYTHING they want). And it is something for me to get out of the house and feel productive with, without making it a struggle or feel stressful to keep the house chores kept up like I like.
This last weekend Larry went to East TX in hopes of a possible sale off of Craig's list on some items him and his brother had listed. Holly and I stayed behind. We had a party for my friend Kristi's daughter Megan's 1st birthday. It was a fabulous party. And if Larry and I are ever blessed with a baby, I am putting her in charge of his/her's first birthday party.
On Sunday, I was relaxing watching my DVDs of Gilmore Girls and working with my kniffty knitters. (I keep trying to learn to knit on my own, but I have fumble fingers and stay too busy lately to spend a number of hours getting good enough where I can lay it down without loosing my place). Holly suddenly had the urge to work on one too, and asked to knit on my project. Well I don't like to share my knitting except for finished products. I also didn't want to share my yarn due to Holly's history of no patience with working with the knitters, and instead of calmly working she knits for a few minutes and then ties the yarn in knots. Since she had some allowance coming, I payed her and we ran up to Walmart to buy her some yarn that she could use on one of my knitter looms. She was so excited that she choose a yarn that was priced where she could buy her own knitting hook too. We went home and I started her on the loom for a hat for her. She took over once I got her started, and then sat for a number of hours straight knitting away. She has never had that much patience for anything for that long except a movie/TV. She made a whole hat that evening!! I was so proud of her I've been bragging to everyone. She was able to wear it to school the next day, and just as Larry had thought (he's super proud too) many of her peers want her to now make them one. :) I haven't had the chance to take a picture of it, but that is priority tonight and I will post it tomorrow.
OK more another day.

As soon as...

things get back to normal next week, I will sit down and write a long post.
Hope everyone is having a great New Year's so far!!

woowoo

Today I have the attention span of a...see it's so short I can't even focus long enough to think of what animal/object I have an attention span like.

So I was going to jump on the ban wagon and write a blog about our family beliefs on Santa, but I can't focus on that today.

Also I was going to post a picture of the tree in our front yard, but I keep forgetting to load it on the computer. So hopefully I can do that tomorrow. It is a gorgeous flaming red and orange color. Living in the city most of my life, I haven't gotten to enjoy many trees with the colors of fall. It's also a fairly rare sight in Texas. By the time you notice any with such gorgeous colors, they only last about two days before all the leaves fall off. These colors are the reason fall is my favorite time of year. They are so short in lasting, they are a true treat.

OK so the attention pan is going I should go.