Last day of vacation

Tomorrow it's back to school. I'm kind of looking forward to it, how sad is that???

This break, I've been out to lunch every single day except Christmas day, out to dinner almost as often, and a few breakfasts, too. A little bit home cooking will be nice, now who can I get to cook... Monday and Tuesday nights I have meetings so I won't be home, meaning the earliest I can cook is Wednesday unless I come to my senses and figure out some other way to get fed.

I also need to read my knitting patterns a little closer, I'm in the middle of a real cute top-down shrug. The pattern says you only need one skein of yarn and it's very basic, increase at the shoulders until it reaches under your arms, then go on and finish up the body. I didn't read the fact that the prototype was for someone with a 30 inch bust. It must be a child, I don't think even fashion models have a 30 inch bust. What the heck. I'm now on my third skein of yarn, but I still like the concept and think it will be nice. But still, 30 inches, come on.

Took all the Christmas decorations down today and began to get Eric's bedroom ready to become a guest/dollhouse room. Eric moved out a year and a month ago. He left lots of stuff around and whenever we asked him if he was going to take it, he always said he has no room (hmmm, and we do?) He came over today, not by choice, to get out the last of his stuff, he threw out a bag of papers, when we went to put it in the trash, Dave noticed that he thew out a couple of years worth of pay stubs with his Social Security number on them along with old checks and a payment book for his last car. Now Dave is shredding all of Eric's trash ... after taking three large bags of clothes and shoes to the Goodwill. The last of his stuff will go up in our attic.

Here's a picture of this year's Christmas Tree and Village, I liked the way it turned out but like it better now that it's not taking up space. I like the bookcase/cubby in the living room, now it has my Lenox, I didn't know how much I had. Dave said he will be getting the furniture reupholstered as soon as one car leaves the shop. Soon, I hope since he's been booking work into 2010 already ~ great news for our personal economy bad news for getting things done around the house.

No voice

Woke up this morning without a voice, didn't even know I was getting a cold. Some might think this is a blessing.

Sometime ago, I caught the dollhouse fever when Dave gave me a kit for my birthday. Alan and I built it, it was all painted, electrified and wallpapered when I took it to Ewing Dollhouses for instillation of the lights. Anyway, don't you know, it was there when the shopping center burned down and everything was gone. I started another one two summers ago, but haven't worked on it in a while (I think Rutgers put a stop to this hobby and I just never got back at it)

Luckily my kitchen was not in the old house during the fire and I still have it. That's a dime in front of the stove, just for size. The 'fridge and stove are both lighted, how cool is that???

This Christmas, Dave bought me a new house all finished! The bug has bitten again, yesterday Sue and I went to the Dollhouse Factory in Lebanon and I got a few things for my new house. Between what I have here and what I bought, I need to finish the other one so I can put the stuff somewhere.

Dollhouse furniture and accessories are as expensive as those for the real house, so it takes a while to get them decorated. Half the fun is making things, I think its a frustrated decorators dream, now I have something to keep me off the streets at night :)

On the knitting front, I've been in a hat mode lately, everyone got a hat for Christmas, here are Eric and Maia modeling theirs.

Starting Over in 09

It's a new year and a new start to this blog. I am so in awe of my friends who blog so often, I'm addicted to reading the news in their lives and sometimes I think that there is nothing going on in my life worth reading.

So anyway, my resolution is to keep this more up to date. Ha, we'll see.

Catching up...

Eric and Maia are engaged and we are planning a July 3, 2010 wedding. Seems like it is far away but there is going to be a lot to do in the next year and a half. The wedding will be taking place at our house, we have the room for sure, at this point it looks like they are aiming at a good party for about 250 family/friends. We're all going to a food tasting Jan. 13th, no doubt there will be lots more on this. One day I'll tell about the engagement, its a great story.

Tony and Sue (my brother and sister-in-law) are separated. Not a surprise, I guess, but still - I don't want to take sides but it's hard not to see where each is coming from.

I finished training for Womenspace and have been out already, it will be interesting to see how that goes in the future, we were told it takes about 2 hours to go to a domestic violence call but I've quickly learned the legal system doesn't move that fast :)

In trying to blog more, I will stop now and add another soon ~ maybe even today!

R = Random

Really not much to say so some random thoughts ~ in autum Orange

Right about now, you may notice that the stores have finally caught up with my decorating style and are combining holiday styles. They are so yesterday, I had an Easter bunny candle in my china closet every Thanksgiving for years ~ Christmas towels in the kitchen in July ~ a Halloween spider web in the foyer in May. Now they decide to have lawn furniture on sale with Halloween decorations and Christmas ornaments. Sheesh.

Right out of the funny pages ~ or what the heck was I thinking??? We ordered new (as opposed to old, I guess) hardwood floors for our bedroom, living room and dining room. Sounded like a good plan until after they came and measured and we OK'd the purchase, then figured out that we have to completely empty three overstuffed rooms (translate 25 years worth of junk) on the same day so the installers can do their job. If we're going to change the floors, why not change the paint...the living room has a wallpaper border so that has to be scraped...if we're refreshing the walls and floor it stands to reason that the furniture is looking dated... trip to the showrooms and I still like my living room set, just not the fabric so pick new upholstery material...that means the curtains no longer will work...and so on it goes. Luckily we have one extra bedroom that right now has all the ''little stuff" (that means what I can move) pushed in there. Any idea how many clothes you can fit into a walk in closet? Even the built in ~ as in built on site ~ shelves/cubbies have to go along with the hanging rods since they are attached to both the floor and the wall. I should be embarrassed, but I have enough shoes to shod the third world, and every morning they all look like what I wore the day before, thus the need for more shoes, or clothes to match those I have, and so the saga continues.

Really having fun at work this year, who'da thunk that high school was the place to be. I love the kids and having two libraries is a little different but having a partner at one school is great, he's a good guy and then being alone at the other is a nice balance. Here's a shot of my little library as seen from the door, its so cozy, once the sofa arrives there is going to be a nice little reading area for the kids, too.

Retirement - thanks to my great new job, I'm not too worried about retiring in the near future, makes the news easier to watch, but my heart goes out to those who are in financial danger due to falling investments, not to those who are overextended.

Reality check - I'm about at the halfway point in my 80 hour training to be a volunteer for victims of domestic abuse/sexual assault and the statistics are mind numbing. Coming from a home without violence and being married to a pretty laid back guy I had no idea of what others are living with. I'm so glad that maybe I can help someone in need, but more thankful that I've had no personal experience in this. Amazing to learn that dv/sa is so prevalent, especially to learn that it's an under reported crime and that economics has nothing to do with the crime. One of the statistics in my text book is that those in high stress, high level careers are just as likely to be abusers as those who are in the lowest levels. Something to do with the stress of the workplace.

Real good time was had by all who attended Knitters Day Out last month, held at Central Pennsylvania College just outside of Harrisburg. Dave drove out and played golf while I knitted the day away learning all new neat things. We had a pleasant dinner with an old school friend who lives near Harrisburg and introduced us to Texas Roadhouse. A great place for casual food. I had the country fried steak, mouth watering.

Read enough? Though so, until next time, closing with a picture of the 'girls' in bed.

Q = quite a lot to say, as usual

Quite a lot has happened in this past week or so I can't think of a lot of Q's to use so I'll forgo it just this once

Moving to the high schools from middle school is one of the best things I've done, what a difference a few years makes! The kids are self-sufficient and the staff has a whole different attitude, they are no less caring for sure, but are more into making the kids independent learners rather than chasing after them as was done in middle school. As example, a kid leaves a book and papers behind in the library, in middle school we'd find the kid and return his/her belongings. In high school, the teacher takes the stuff and holds it until the next time the kid is in class or the kid comes to the teacher to find their own stuff. Little things like that make such a difference in giving the kids an opportunity to become responsible adults.

Since I'm once again building a library, I went to Donor's Choose to write a grant for chairs for the kids to sit in while reading. The library has tables and chairs similar to those in a classroom, but no soft seating to draw in readers. We found out that the first obstacle in getting usage out of the libraries is making them look appealing to the kids. Thank you, Rutgers! Pictures of the library will be up soon.

One of my good friends runs in lots of different charity events, taking her lead, this weekend, Dave and I are going to be in our first ever charity walk - not run - for the Heart Association we are going to be with a group from St. Francis Hospital. When they called for a donation we decided that participating and donating would be the way to do it. It should be fun.

Quitting for now, at least I got in a couple of today's letter :)

P = for perfect day!

Perfect day in the library! Today was the first official day for librarians and my first official day in the high school. I have a great partner, Greg is very knowledgeable and easy to get along with, it's going to be a great working relationship and I can't wait to see what we accomplish in the library.

Purple is the color of my new phone, I had a Razor but the battery was no longer holding a charge for more than two or three hours. The cost of a new battery versus the cost of a new phone was a no~brainer. It's cute. And I should be able to find it in my purse, maybe.

O is not for Oprah

O is our sponsor tonight

Olympics are ending tonight. as I watch the closing ceremonies, it seems that the press has really shortchanged some of the athletes. Seems we missed so many different events that the press deemed not interesting enough for the masses...not sure what the attraction to beach volleyball was but I wish that we had more glimpses into other sports


Only a few hours left and its off to school for the new year. Can't wait! Update tomorrow or maybe the next day or . . .