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Hello. I'm here. I have not felt very 'chatty' or 'bloggy' or what have you. Stuff has happened but nothing truly earth-shattering - at least not in my little world. I did speak with my host families in Denmark recently and found out that two of my host sisters are pregnant! Exciting stuff on the other side of the pond! One sister is due with baby #2 in September (so she's very newly pregnant) and the other sister is due in June with her first. So, of course, I started on a sweater for one of the babies and have some yarn on order to make a blanket for the other baby. Still in obsessive knitting mode. I can't help it. I go through phases with my obsessions. Sometimes I just want to read, read, read. Other times I won't pick up a book for months but I want to do some major sewing projects like dresses for the girls or a quilt. There are times when I want to cross-stitch or bake or knit constantly. And rarely, like last fall, I'm in a frenzied state of wanting to accumulate and accomplish multiple projects at once. The quilt project I started last fall is all cut out and languishing in my sewing area right now. I will get back to it at some point but right now it's not calling my name - and if it doesn't call my name than I've learned it is best to let it lie or else I'll be feeling like it's a chore and end up making more mistakes than would be acceptable to my inner Virgo. So, there it sits while I sit out here knitting like a fiend. And if the mailman doesn't soon bring my new yarn I might be having a conniption because I might finish the sweater soon (well, not in the next day or two so I'm probably safe, but maybe in 3 or so days...it's small and I've already said I'm obsessive with the knitting lately, didn't I?).

This past weekend we went for a quick overnight to visit my family for the holidays. We arrived at noontime on Saturday and had a nice lunch with my mom, dad, my nephew Rob, his wife Lori, and their two girls who are 6 and 1. Yes, I am a great aunt. Long story short, my much older brother took off when he was a young'un of about 17 and came home approximately a year later with his girlfriend and a three-month-old baby. He had scraggly hair down to his butt (my brother, not the baby) and was practically skin and bones. They had tried to make their way to sunny, warm California but apparently had only gotten as far as Ohio where they camped out with her (half?) sister for a bit and eventually decided to just head on home again, I guess. Anyhoo - I have a nephew who is 10 years younger than I am and he is now a dad with two girls who are roughly the same age as my oldest and my youngest girls. He's in the Navy and had been stationed first in California and later in Virginia but now he is stationed close to home and is working as a recruiter. We are so happy to have him living close again!!

So, back to the weekend visit - on Saturday night we went over to my sister's house where she hosted a wine-tasting party. That was a lot of fun! We each brought a bottle of wine and an appropriate appetizer to go along with it and we pigged out on good food and (mostly) good wine! One of my favorites was the Fish Eye Chardonnay - and I usually despise Chardonnay wines so that was a surprise to me! Our entire family was there for the party so it was nice to hang out with everyone and share the evening.

Since the weather was supposed to be crappy on Monday we decided to make the trip a short one and left for home again on Sunday afternoon. But, not before we had a chance to meet up with S (of the infamous S&O fame, a familiar commenter if you read Vexed in the City) for breakfast. The Divine Ms. Vexed was supposed to join us but fell ill at the last moment and was sorely missed. (Next time, right K?) It was great to see S and I hope I get a chance to love on 'lil man O' the next time we are down visiting!!

Tomorrow we are back to the full-fledged "grind" of life. Rick has been home quite a bit between holidays and illness over the last month and tomorrow he heads back to work and both of the older girls will be back to school. So, we'll be back to our regularly scheduled programming and I'm really dreading it in a way. I know I'll find my groove again but it's been so out of whack of late that it's going to be a difficult transition for me. It is going to be hard to get the whip crackin' during morning prep - lately the mornings have been unstructured and relatively free of any need to get dressed before lunchtime but now I'm going to have to get R off on the bus and A and E ready to jump in the car moments later to get A to preschool on time. And one of the hardest things is going to be the 5:30am wake-up for my walks with my neighbor. I have been such a bed sloth the last couple of weeks - in such a way as has not been possible for many, many, many moons. Since well before E was born. Rick and I have enjoyed the luxury of staying in bed most mornings past 7am and a few times even past 8am! It's been such a treat and it has felt almost miraculous. The girls have shifted their wake-up schedule from 6:15ish to 7:15 or even later! So, back when they were getting up at 6:15, or even earlier, it didn't seem so bad to drag myself out of bed at 5:30 to go walking. Heck, the girls were going to drag my sorry butt out of bed soon anyway and this way I got a whole hour to do something just for me - and with the added bonus of chatting with my good friend! But now? Ack. The thought of voluntarily pulling back those covers in the cold, wee hours of the morning when I could conceivably get another hour and a half of sleep? That's gonna hurt. And it means that I need to get this sorry (and pounds heavier than last fall) butt into bed early tonight so that I can get the maximum amount of sleep before the alarm disturbs my restful slumber and yells at me to "get in gear"! E just went to bed and I think I will not be far behind...but perhaps I'll sneak in a few more rows of knitting before I head in that direction!