Busy, Busy

My workload for my job increased a lot this week, and I feel like I’ve been running around in circles the last few days. We’re also trying to spruce up the house, getting it ready to sell in a few months, so that’s been on my mind, too. But, I still feel victorious because somehow: 1) we still have clean clothes to wear, 2) the house is not a total disaster area, and 3) I have not (yet) lost it. I should also add to that list that we’ll be eating good this weekend. I’m finally going to try making Pioneer Woman’s Pistachio Cake (recipe is here). I’ve been drooling over it ever since I first saw it. I’m bringing it to an event this weekend, or at least I’m hoping to bring it, assuming that there are more than just crumbs left after we sample it. Have a great weekend!

What a difference a day makes

Yesterday was a bad day at work for me. I was traveling out of town on business, and I got hopelessly lost, among a list of other disasters. I realized that I hit an all-time low when I yelled at my GPS, “You idiot! You don’t know what you’re talking about!” The poor GPS is too dumb to know that I wanted to throw it out the window, and she kept giving her calm (but inaccurate) directions. But today is a new day, and thankfully, it has been a great day. The fact that it’s Friday and the start of a 3-day weekend certainly helps. Happy Friday!

Happy Valentine's Day

We're celebrating Valentine's Day with what has become our annual tradition: exchanging homemade cards. Corny? Yes. Priceless? Also yes.

Also, Husband has the pictured cupcake in his lunch today, which would probably be romantic, if it wasn't a leftover from a breakfast we hosted this weekend for friends.

We also had a little "date afternoon" this weekend, and we saw the movie Just Go With It. It was a funny, cute movie.

However you celebrate, I hope you have a happy Valentine's Day!

They're here!

My day just got 4 times happier.

Homemade Kindle Cover

I have been looking everywhere for a simple cover for my Kindle. It all started when we went out of town, and I was terrified that my Kindle was going to get scratched in my purse. I ended up putting it in a Ziploc bag, which sort of worked, but wasn’t ideal. I’ve looked online and in stores, and the prices for the covers seemed outrageous. I could practically buy a new Kindle for what they are charging. Somehow, for no real good reason, I decided that I could make my own. I’ve been wanting to try to get into sewing anyway, so I figured that this would be a good experiment. I have to preface all of this by saying that I am not crafty at all. In fact, the worst grade I ever got in school was a C in Art Class in 6th grade. (No, I’m not bitter at all, thank you for asking.) So really, I had no good reason to think that I could make anything that resembled a Kindle cover, but I dove right in before I could talk myself out of it. I ended up looking through some drawers and found these pretty placements. I hardly ever use them, but I love the colors. Here is the placement with the (naked!) Kindle: I ended up folding the placement a few times to make the fabric thicker and to give it more support. Then I just used a simple stitch by hand on the side and on the bottom. (And no, I did not take step-by-step pictures because I had no idea that I would actually succeed in making it.) Now, ta-da, here is the final product: The stitching definitely looks amateur-ish, but I finally have my Kindle cover. I might end up putting a decorative button or ribbon on the top, but we’ll see. I think I may have used up my year’s (or decade's) supply of craftiness already.

So Cold

With the extreme cold weather we’ve had recently, you’d never know that I once grew up in a place where snow was a normal, regular occurrence. This week I’ve complained to everyone that will listen: It’s cold! I’m freezing! This is crazy! I might freeze to death! I can’t help but thinking of my beloved childhood dog. A family member, who lived in the South, found this cute, stray dog. I begged my parents for us to adopt her. Eventually, much to my mother’s chagrin, this cute dog came to live with us up North. The dog seemed to acclimate well to her new home, until the first snow. This dog was clearly a Southern dog. The first time she went outside in the snow, she turned right around to go back in the house. She hated the snow. In fact, she disliked it so much that she actually went on a bathroom strike. We didn’t fully understand her bathroom situation until a week later when our dog went for a ride in the backseat of my mother’s luxury car and the dog had an unfortunate “incident.” Oh, and it just so happens that my mom had volunteered to give the mayor of our town a ride that day. He was actually the first to discover what happened with our dog, by asking my mom, “Oh geez, what’s that smell?” as soon as got in the passenger side of the car. In short, it was a mortifying event for my mother and the source of much laughter for the rest of us. Regardless, I’m feeling a little bit like our Southern dog. I just don’t want to go outside, which has been a perfect excuse to read some books, drink hot tea, and clean the house. (Thankfully, unlike our dog, I am not on a bathroom strike.) I hope all of you stay warm!

New Group

At our last duty station, on a whim, I joined a women’s book group through our church, and I absolutely loved it. I was by far the youngest one in the group (most of the women were my mother’s age, and some were closer to my grandmother’s age), but I felt like I fit in anyway and I learned so much from those ladies. I often think of that group and what a wonderful experience it was. I’ve been dying to join a women’s book group or bible study since we got here, but it had never worked out. All of the groups that I had heard about met during the day, when I work. I made a casual comment to my friend about wanting to join an evening group, and sure enough, she called a couple weeks later letting me know about a new group that was starting up. I went to my first meeting this week, and it was wonderful! The ladies are closer to my age, and surprisingly, a lot of them are military spouses as well. I initially thought that I wouldn’t know anyone in the group, but it just so happens that 2 of the ladies I had met before through a mutual friend. I never anticipated that I’d find a group like this here before we moved, so it has been a nice surprise. I’m liking 2011 already.