What I'm Reading

I love biographies, but this is not quite a true biography.  I am reading Mary by Janis Cooke Newman.  It is a novel about Mary Todd Lincoln, the wife of Abraham Lincoln.  There are real notes in the book that are taken from her time in the insane asylum.  The rest is a novel written in first person about the whole of Mary Todd Lincoln's life.  This is a real page turner. 

Catching Up

Well, it's the busy holiday season, so of course I am behind on my posting. 

To start off, Jaalla and I went to see the Nutcracker back at the beginning of the month.  It's our annual tradition, and we had a great time as usual.



Last weekend, we had a girl's night at my house.  Sadly, Sheri is moving back to Mississippi and leaving us.  We are going to miss her so much!  Anyway, we had to have a girly and fun evening to remind her what she'll be missing.










We baked, decorated, and ate Christmas cookies.  Then we did a Chinese gift exchange, or "Dirty Santa" as the Mississippi girls called.  That just doesn't sound right to me.  Then we played Linkity.  Fun game!  Then we spent lots of time taking pics in front of the tree.



We'll still keep the girl's nights going but it just won't be the same without Sheri.

Girl's Weekend

My friend Tish came to spend the weekend with me two weekends ago (I know, sorry I am trying to catch up).  We had a blast!  We shopped, went out to eat, watched movies, and knitted.  And look what she made me!



Matching "Knit Chick" shirts!  We wore them on Saturday when we went out shopping.

Reading and Knitting

I took Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen with me on the trip.  I thought it appropriate for the area where we were traveling.  Unfortunately, I didn't do a lot of reading while on the trip, but am finishing it up now.  I have read it before and really don't mind reading it again since it is such a wonderful book.



I also finished quite a bit of knitting before we left.  I made socks for Jason, Erin, and Andrew as a thank you for letting us stay with them while we were there.

Here's Andrew's socks because baby socks are just so gosh darn cute.

United Kingdom Vacation - Part 3

While we were still in Scotland, we took a 3 hour bus trip down to Edinburgh from Aberdeen and spent two nights there in a B&B.  Edinburgh was great!  There was so much history and things to see. 

We spent a large part of one of our days at Edinburgh Castle.  It is home of the Scottish crown jewels.  This is a picture of the outside at night. 



There is a chapel inside that was built on the summit  of the castle rock in the early 12th century for Queen Margaret.  It is the oldest building in Edinburgh Castle.  Kevin wanted to shoot the cannon really bad.



The second day we did a tour of Mary King's Close.  It was a tour of abandoned houses and walkways underneath the city that have been abandoned, some since the plague hit in the 17th century.  It was extremely interesting.  Unfortunately they wouldn't let us take pictures, but if you want to know more about it, you can click on the link. 

I absolutely had to have a picture in one of their red phone booths.  In the background is St. Giles Cathedral.  John Knox was the minister there in the 16th century. 



In fact, he is buried under this very parking space.



This is the most awesome place we ate at in Edinburgh.  They made Scottish hog roast rolls and they were so delicious!  They pulled the meat off the pig that is sitting in the window of the shop.



Anyway, it was a great time and we thoroughly enjoyed our entire trip. 

United Kingdom Vacation - Part 2

We left London on a Saturday and flew to Aberdeen, Scotland.  Our friend's Jason and Erin live there with their sweet little six month old son Andrew.  We were so excited to see them and spend time with them.



Here's Kevin making Andrew laugh, or is it the other way around.  He is such a cutey!  Our friend's were great hosts and fed us very well with great Scottish food.  Needless to say, we did not go hungry. 

They took us to two castles while we were there.  The first was Dunnottar Castle which was very near to Aberdeen.  Dunnottar is the castle that William Wallace (Braveheart) famously took in 1297.  The views were breathtaking! 





The other castle they took us to was Crathes Castle.  We actually went inside this castle and saw all the beautiful rooms.  We weren't aloud to take pictures inside though.





And the foliage was just beautiful all around the castle.  Erin spotted this tree, and we just had to take lots of pictures under it.



We had such a wonderful time in Scotland.  The weather was wonderful the entire time we were there.  it was quite a bit colder than we were used to, but it was great. 

Next we travel to Edinburgh...

United Kingdom Vacation - Part 1

Okay, things have finally settled enough for me to blog about the trip.  I will be breaking this up into parts because this was an 11 day trip, so there is lots to share.

We started off with two full days in London.  We hit the ground running at 8:30 a.m. when we got off the plane.  The first sight we saw was the iconic Big Ben and Parliament.  Then we went on to Westminster Abbey and spent several hours inside.  There are 3,300 bodies buried inside.



That evening we enjoyed fish and chips at The Sherlock Holmes pub and afterwards went to see a play called The Woman in Black.  Kevin had seen it in the same theatre his senior year in high school and remembered it being pretty scary.  He was right.  It was good and scary!

The next day we went for a walk in Hyde Park which is the equivalent of Central Park in New York City.  It was beautiful!  There were people riding their horses and the leaves were changing color.  I probably broke the law or something, but I got to feed a squirrel out of the palm of my hand.



For lunch we ate at the Square Pie Company.  It was delicious!!  That afternoon we spent several hours at the British Museum.  It was amazing.  Kevin was devastated because the entire lower floor was closed and it housed ancient Greece and Rome.  Regardless, we were totally wiped out when we left.  We saw the Rosetta Stone, some amazingly preserved mummies, and gorgeous statues.



That evening we ate at The Jugged Hare pub and enjoyed a variety platter of interesting items.  Our favorite was the devils on horseback.  From what I could determine, it is a prune that has been reconstituted and wrapped in bacon and baked.  I know it sounds disgusting, but it was actually quite good. 

That pretty much ended our time in London.  We regretfully did not have time to go to the Tower of London.  I REALLY wanted to see the crown jewels.  Hopefully there will be another trip in the future and we can go see more.  We agreed that we both love London. 

Next week I will begin Part 2 which takes us into Scotland...

Farewell

Kevin and I leave tomorrow for a trip to London for a few days and on to Aberdeen and Edinburgh Scotland for a week.  It will be the first vacation we have taken in a few years and I can't even tell you how much we are looking forward to it!  I will post pics when we return.

What I'm Reading

This is book number 7 in the series.  Still enjoying them thouroughly.

 

I am also reading Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis.  I started this book in high school but never finished it.  I am almost half way through it and it is a great and interesting read.

Auntie Jenn

I am going to be an Aunt!  I am so excited!  My brother Joey and his wife Kim are due in February.  And they just found out last week that it is going to be a girl!  I absolutely cannot wait.  I have already knitted two things for her, but I can't post pictures here until I have given them to her parents. 

On another note, I had the best Wal-Mart shopping experience of my life last Saturday.  I HATE going to Wal-Mart, but I feel I do not have a choice.  I love the fact that you can get everything you need there, from pantyhose to shower curtains to food, they have it all.  And no, I do not like to shop at Super Target because I do not feel they have the same variety of choices as Wal-Mart does.  I go every other Saturday, meaning I plan for two weeks worth of meals.  I do this so I do not have to go more than twice a month.  Anyway, we tried another Wal-Mart on Saturday.  It is approximately the same distance from our house as the Wal-Mart we had been shopping at; I just didn't realize it was there.  I go to Wal-Mart early on Saturday morning.  I usually go between 7:30 and 8:00 a.m.  I like to beat the crowds.  I still have to deal with very long lines because they only have two checkers open in the entire store, and unfriendly checkers who have no idea how to sack groceries.  Please do not put my raw chicken in with my grapes!  Anyway, we went to the new Wal-Mart and the the layout was better than the other one, the lines were almost non-existent since they had several checkers open, and we had the friendliest checker who KNEW how to sack groceries correctly!  It was fabulous.  I left Wal-Mart smiling which is a rare occurrence. 

On the knitting front, I have been busy.  I have finished a Christmas present which I cannot post pictures of, and I have finished a few baby things as noted above.  Here are some pictures of things I have finished for myself.



Here is a hat I finished about a month ago.  The yarn is wool and alpaca and is so incredibly soft. 



These are socks I also finished a month ago.  They are so thick and warm!  I can't wait for the weather to get cooler.

Craftiness

I was productive last weekend and made curtains for our guest bedroom and connecting guest bathroom.



They are sheer to let the light in.  The fixture on the new ceiling fan is pretty dark. 

I hope to get some major knitting accomplished this weekend when Ike blows in.  I do not intend to leave the house on Saturday. 

Yikes!

Sorry it has been so long since my last post.  Life has been busy.  Let me fill you in.

Back at the beginning of the month my friends Sheri and Gwen and I gave our friend Mayeli a baby shower.



Sheri made an adorable diaper cake and we had fondue for desert.  Good times!

Here's the little one.  Mayeli had him less than two weeks after the shower. 




A couple of weekends ago we went to San Antonio on a short mission trip.  One of Kevin's co-workers used to work at a church in the inner-city of San Antonio.  The full-time missionaries that are located there hand out free donated backpacks every year to the kids who need them.  We went down to help.  We also handed out many other things that were donated.  Here's a pic of us setting up the donations before the kids and their families came through.  Kevin is in the far back of the picture.



I think over 1,400 backpacks were given out.  It was a lot of fun.  Here's a pic of Kevin eating some really good Mexican food in San Antonio.  That was one humongous breakfast burrito!



My birthday was last week and it was great!  Here is a picture of my birthday cake that Kevin had his co-worker make for me.  Don't be deceived by the size of the picture.  It is actually a HUGE cupcake!  It was very tasty.

Finished Knitting

I actually have finished something.  Actually a couple of somethings.  I was just waiting on some photography help from Tish.

First, here are my newest pair of multi-color socks.



And this is my completed sweater.  The pattern is actually from the book Stitch 'N #itch: The Knitter's Handbook and the pattern "Peppermint Twist" is by Becky Delgado.  I didn't use any of the multi-color stripes like she did.  I just loved the basic sweater pattern.  It turned out to be a great fit!  I am pleased.

Weekend Fun

I drove to Tyler last weekend to see Tish and attend a wedding.  I also got the opportunity to have dinner with my brother and his wife.  It was a great weekend!

We dolled ourselves up all Saturday afternoon to attend the wedding.  



We had to hop on to the getaway vehicle and have our picture taken.



I love weddings!

What I am reading...

The Boys: The Story of 732 Young Concentration Camp Survivors by Martin Gilbert is the testimonies of youth who survived the holocaust.  Each chapter moves through their lives starting with before the war, moving into the ghettos, the work camps, and all the way to where they are today.



The second book I am reading is My Life in France by Julia Child and Alex Prude'Homme.  Excellent book if you love food, Julia Child, and dream of France.  This book makes me smile a lot.  

Scooter

We welcomed home a new family member over the weekend.  Say hi to Scooter.

 

Scooter is part Catahoula and we're not quite sure what the other part is.  He's around 9 months old, so he is a BIG puppy.  He's a sweetheart.  He loves everybody.  We had to leave him on Sunday for 3 1/2 hours to go to church and he did fine. Nothing was torn up in the house. Normally Kevin will be taking him to work everyday with him, but yesterday Kevin had training, so we had to leave him at the house for 9 hours. This is what I came home to.

Yes, that is my yarn. I keep that yarn basket over by the couch. It actually was latched closed, but he didn't care. I had two finished pairs of socks in there and two finished sleeves from a sweater I have been working on for several months (knit on size 2 needles so it is taking me forever). Thankfully he did not tear up any of my knitting! He tangled all the balls of yarn really good though. It took me two hours last night to get it all untangled. He ripped up my new bible study book on David by Beth Moore. It was a really nice hardback too. He tore the cover off my bible and shredded it, but he didn't tear a single page of the bible. Thank the Lord! We really did know better than to leave a puppy alone for that amount of time, but we really didn't have another alternative than to leave him outside and we don't know if he is a digger yet (we have some pretty big holes under our fence already).  Anyway, lesson learned.  I think we will be going shopping soon for some REALLY big bones for him to chew on if we have to be gone longer than a few hours.  

Here's another cute picture of him trying to get a stick through the door.

The other day I was pulling out of my driveway to leave for work and what did I see?



A duck in our front yard!  There is a golf course with a pond up the road from our house.  I guess he decided to take a walk around the neighborhood.  The very next day I saw this little guy on our deck.



I am a fan of amphibians, and I really wanted to hold him.  But the last several times I have picked up a toad he decided to wet my hand.  I remember my dad used to tell me that I could get warts from them doing that.  I learned pretty quickly that that wasn't true.  I just never could resist picking them up.

The Big Move

FINALLY, we have moved!  This is what we were doing two weekends ago:



We, with the help of great friends, moved the entire rest of the house into the home we've been waiting to occupy since last October.   I enjoy unpacking for the reason that I get to organize everything and put it where it needs to go.  This is what we did last weekend:



We cleaned the other house to get it ready for our new tenant.  Yes, we are now "Slum Lords" as Kevin would say.  It truly was an answer to prayer after the house was not selling in this terrible market.  We are very excited and feel really good about the whole thing.  

Tish came by the other day and brought me a house warming gift.



Isn't it great!!!  She did a great job!  We hung it up in our foyer right before you enter the living room.  

Right now we are trying to get accustomed to more space.  Sometimes I lose Kevin in the house; whereas before we could each be at one end of the house and still talk to each other. 

Another Pair

These are socks I made from Favorite Socks: 25 Timeless Designs from Interweave.  I love the camo colors of this yarn.  It stinks though that I have many many months before I can actually wear them.

 We went to another Ranger's game last week.  Free tickets and dollar hot dog night!  Yeah!  This is what I worked on during the game to keep my mind off how cold I was.  It was pretty chilly after the sun went down.



Socks are great knitting for sporting events.  Oh, and the Ranger's won.

This past weekend we went to The Dump in Dallas.  Great resale furniture store!  For the most part, it was really nice furniture.  Of course we did not buy anything, but we did spend a while looking at their vast selection of rugs.  



Here is Kevin modeling our favorite rug.  It was a little over $2000, which really wasn't bad for the size and quality.  It's a little big.  Don't think we could fit it in our house, but it sure was beautiful.