Yay for the weekend and the sunshine!!

What a beautiful weekend!!! It is so great to finally see the sun again. I was excited about the first big snow that we got. It was pretty and we had fun on our air mattress, but I didn't need all of those extra dark cloudy days of flurries, ice and slush!! It's amazing what a little sunshine does for your mood and attitude, too. This has been a much needed nice and gorgeous weekend!!

The work week was pretty stressful. I already knew it was going to be a long week, because I had to work Monday and that is usually my day off. I know, I know, I'm such a spoiled baby complaining about having to actually work a 5 day work week. It's hard when you aren't used to it though! :) On top of the long week, we have major changes in our hygiene department. I won't go into boring details...that's for another blog...but it has changed my whole routine and schedule. So, needless to say, the other hygienist and I are about to pull our hair out!! I know that it will all settle down and be okay eventually, but right now it's pretty crazy! Anyhow, I pretty much danced my way out of the office when 1:00 rolled around on Friday.

The weekend was great, but pretty busy. Friday night Brad and I just hung out at home. I passed out on the couch at 8:30 and didn't get up until 8:30 Saturday morning. Yeah, I would say I was pretty tired.

Saturday morning we met with some friends of ours who are getting ready to open their chiropractic physician's office in Murfreesboro. Brad has been helping them get their accounts set up and that kind of thing, and while we were there, they officially asked him to be the accountant for the practice after he finishes his CPA. We were so excited!! I think it's great that he is starting to build potential clients before he even completes the full exam!! Go Brad go!! :)

Then we headed up to White House so that my co-worker's husband could help Brad install a new window motor in his truck. The poor thing was at the drive thru at lunch on Friday and the window wouldn't roll back up. They did get it fixed though. When they were done, the four of us went to the movies and saw Shutter Island. We all loved it!! It wasn't a scary movie, just suspenseful. I won't give out any details, but I would recommend it if you like that kind of movie!

And today, I went to the library and got five books. I actually ran out of books to read here at home, and that doesn't happen very often. I picked authors that I haven't read before, so hopefully I will find something that I like!! From there I went shopping and stopped and got Brad some Dippin' Dots on the way home. He has been studying all day, and I thought that would give him a good excuse to take a break. He has been studying so hard for months!! He sits for the second section of the CPA exam on Friday. He should find out the results from the first and second sections in March. After that, he has two sections to go, and he will probably complete those sometime this summer. I will be so glad when he is done with all of it. I know he will be glad too!!! Anyway, we took a walk around the block while we ate Dippin' Dots and now he's back to studying and I'm washing clothes and watching the Olympics, which I love by the way. USA all the way!! One more day left of my weekend, and you better believe I'm going to enjoy every second of it!! ;)

Baby Lilly is Here!!

A big congrats to our friends Mike and Adrian Wilson!! Their sweet baby girl Erica Lillian came into the world around 4:00 this morning. She weighed 7 lbs 14 oz and was 20 3/4 inches long. So glad to hear that Adrian and Lilly are doing great...and that Mike didn't pass out. :) I guess this means baby shopping for me...Yay! We are so excited for them and can't wait to meet Ms. Lilly!!!!

Confessions of a Bookworm

Sure, I will admit it. I am a HUGE bookworm!! I absolutely love to dive into a great book. In my dream house, I would have a big library and I would slide along the rows on a wooden ladder singing at the top of my lungs like Belle does in Beauty and the Beast...I know, a little extreme, but I just might do it!!
As much I love to go off into my own little world with interesting characters and a great story, I just don't have much time to do it anymore. Between work and the daily routine of life, my poor books are neglected more often than not. However, today was my day off, all of the laundry was done, the house was sparkly clean from the weekend, and I had no errands to run, so I planned a day of reading. And that's exactly what I did!!!
I started reading The Shack by William P. Young yesterday, and I finished it today. I didn't know alot about the book when I bought it, but I had heard great reviews, so I thought I would give it a shot. I'm so glad that I did. I don't want to ruin the story, but it is about tragedy, family, hope, love and God. I have never read another book like it. I found myself relating to the main character multiple times throughout the book. I could relate to his heartache, his anger, his doubt and his worry...maybe not in the same instance as him, but I could relate to it, and I think alot of other people can too. I found that it was very thought-provoking. It really made me stop, look inside and do a little soul searching. The Shack is a great example and explanation of God's grace, love, mercy and healing hands!! I would recommend this book to everyone, and I hope that anyone who reads it feels as hopeful and joyful as I did when I closed the back cover!
I find it amazing that God puts things in front of us just when we need it the most. And with somewhat of a challenging week ahead of me, this was just the reminder I needed that God is with us through all of our challenges, big and small!!

Knitting 101

Last month a co-worker and I decided to take a Knitting 101 class at the local Joann's. Pam had received a knitting basket as a gift, and that is what sparked her interest in learning to knit. She invited me to go along, and I agreed even though I had never even seen a knitting needle before, say nothing about holding one or using one. I'll usually try anything once and it sounded kind of fun, so off we went! We were there for over two hours learning to cast on, create a knit stitch and bind off. I really think we caught on pretty fast, and we had a great teacher who was very patient...thank goodness!! :)
During our class, I created 6 or 7 rows of 23 knit stitches. My intentions were to take my project home and continue to make a very basic scarf. I told myself that no matter how much I messed up, I was going to keep going until I had a whole scarf. I was really excited about this new craft that I had learned, so the next few days I did alot of knitting. As I continued, I started to notice holes here and there where I had apparently lost or slipped a stitch, but I just kept going. "Oh, I will just call this my first project. Even if it turns out horribly, I will learn from it and laugh about it later" I thought to myself. So I kept on going and going. I didn't knit for about a week or so, then one day I picked up my needles that held the beginnings of a poor holey scarf and I started on my knitting journey once again. This time I noticed that it was taking me a really long time to complete a row, much longer than it had taken me before. As I thought about it, I stretched out the part of the scarf that I had completed so far and noticed that it had taken on a very odd shape. My "scarf" looked as though it was getting wider with every row of stitches. I knew that I had started out with only 23 stitches, and as I counted the row of stitches that I had just completed, I burst into laughter. Somehow, I ended up with 37 stitches on the last row. How in the world I added on 14 stitches somewhere between my first row and last row, I will probably never know. At this point I decided it was probably best to bind off and start all over with a new project. After I finally got Brad to stop laughing at my finely made scarfy thingy, he so sweetly informed me that I had done a great job and that we can just use it as a potholder. It was definitely a learning experience, and we got a great laugh out of it!! As of today, I have new yarn and new needles, so hopefully my next "scarf" will turn out better than what you see below!! Ha! :)