Down Time December 24, 2006
The first semester of my doc program is officially over! It has been an intense experience that has made me appreciate having down time! We drove down to Alabama yesterday and have been enjoying visiting everyone here. It is always weird to do Christmas away from home, but its nice to be with my dad’s side of the family since we can’t be with him.
I finally had a chance to meet my cousin’s daughter for the first time. She is almost a year old and Jered has had a blast playing with her. Oscar is also with us, so the whole troupe is here, except Sarah. I think my Aunt Pat is planning on having a Christmas party tomorrow evening and I’m fairly sure that is when all the gifts will be unwrapped. It will be weird to do it all on Christmas Eve, but we are going with the flow. I can’t wait to give Jered his presents!
I did a little knitting today, a lot of relaxing and made a few obligatory trips to *al-*art, one of the few things to “do” in town. Tomorrow the baby is being christened at 9:30 so we have a long day ahead of us!
Hope all is well for everyone. Have a happy holiday!
Bad Day November 17, 2006
Today was one of those days I’d rather just forget all together. It started out with a parent-teacher conference that I attended with my mom and brother and ended with a come to Buddha talk about how slacking off in school is not okay. To make a long story short, things did not go well and we are sending my brother home (he has been living with us since Tuesday). We tried to implement some structure, but at this point the only thing I’m left wondering is, is this our place?
Bread and Books October 17, 2006
I’m on fall break right now and enjoying the down time. I have a lit review due next week as well as another position paper, so I’ve tried to get as much done as possible with the “free” time. So far, i have a lit review. I thought this was going to be a short project, but I was wrong. Just plain wrong. I spent all yesterday writing up my list of articles. Today I synthesized. Sticking to the word limit has been difficult. My brain is aching. I have 12 pages complete and I need to go in and add my reference page before I set it aside for a while. I am pretty sure that I am done, but I’m going to set it aside until this Sunday, read it again and see how I feel. I have no obligations today, other than to go get my eyebrows waxed (yipeee!) and maybe do a little more reading and paper outlining. I love it.
This weekend we realized that we had a little wiggle room in the pocketbook and went on a shopping spree. Saturday we met our friends at the Williamsburg farmer’s market where much squash and eggplant was purchased. We went out for coffee at Aroma’s, headed over to said friends’ house for lunch, over to Sal’s for dinner and then home. It was quite a relaxing day, and the weather was perfect. It was cooler out and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.
Sunday Jered and I woke up late, spent the morning in PJs and then headed out for that shopping spree I told you about earlier. Jered got a remote control tank. I got a new cutting board and a bread machine. I made a loaf of bread on Sunday and just baked another this morning. It’s so easy and it makes the house smell delicious.
I’m off to write up that reference page and have some bread and butter.
Quick Week October 14, 2006
This week has gone by very quickly. I turned in my second paper (hopefully I will do better on this one than on the last!), realized that I have another paper due for that class in two weeks as well as a pretty substantial lit review that I need to have done by the 24th. This weekend is our “fall break,” which essentially means we have an extended weekend. I’m using the two days off to get caught up on school work, maybe even a little laundry.
Weekend plans have yet to be solidified. Yesterday we talked about possibly going up to IKEA on Saturday, but today we decided to keep things more low key so instead we are going to the Williamsburg Farmer’s Market tomorrow and possibly to an apple orchard too. I’m also hoping to do a little knitting on the saffron cables afghan, but we’ll see if that actually happens. I’ve been a little distracted lately and knitting cables is almost too involved for me right now. I have made progress on the blue socks I started on our trip to Kansas and Wisconsin this summer, but that is my “school” knitting so I am going to try to save that for class. Tomorrow I’m planning on taking pictures of current knitting projects, farmer’s market goodness and the new bag Jered bought me for my laptop.
Switching to WordPress October 4, 2006
Jered has convinced me to switch over to Word Press. This is very new to me, so I thought I’d do something new in this post to mark the occasion.
I made peanut butter chocolate chip cookies this morning, here’s the recipe:
2 1/4 c all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
(combine these three ingredients in a small bowl, mix well)
1/2 c. butter (1 stick) softened
1/2 c. creamy natural peanut butter
3/4 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. granulated sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 eggs
1/2 c. mini chocolate chips
Preheat Oven to 375 degrees F. Cream butter, peanut butter, sugars, and vanilla extract until creamy and completely combined. Add one egg at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition. Slowly stir in the flour mixture spoon by spoon (a stand mixer works well for this). Add chocolate chips, stir until combined.
Form dough into little balls, press gently onto cookie sheet lined with a Silpat mat, or on a baking stone. Place cookies 1 inch apart. Bake for 9-11 minutes or until golden brown and not gooey in the middle. Cool on wire racks or eat immediately. Make a lot of cookies (probably 40?)
Now let’s see how WordPress works!
Foot in Mouth Disease September 26, 2006
I haven’t updated this in almost a month so I thought I would do a little post about all the goings on since I last posted. I also can’t remember if I ever posted pictures about the finished Adamas shawl from way back in July, so here’s a pic just in case. School is up and running and boy let me tell ya, it is kicking my butt! I have never read so much dense material in my life! I have been having a hard time concentrating for long periods of time and I also find my mind wandering a lot more than it normally does, but I am making use of some note taking strategies I’ve found online that have helped me to make sense of all the reading in a more synthesized way.
I am thinking the lack of concentration is something that will get better with time, at least I really really hope so. I have also noticed that my brain-talk filter is g.o.n.e. I have said more seriously stupid things in the last two months than I can remember. Like tonight, talking about taking a quiz online I just rambled and rambled and rambled on about how I hate taking quizzes online because I don’t trust myself and blah blah blah, probably came off as totally wacko, what I meant to imply was that I don’t like the format of taking assessments at home because I study and study and study some more and wait to take the quiz/test until the last minute and end up knowing that I could have gotten it done and over with earlier because I was just overpreparing. Why can I come up with what I mean to say after the fact, but when I am talking it comes out so disjointed and weird? I am definitely not feeling like myself!
Jered and I went on a bike ride with our friends Kristi and Casey on Sunday. It was really nice to get out on the bikes and ride, the weather was a little warm but not too bad. Saturday we went to a Gin Blossoms concert which was interesting. The band sounds just like they do on the radio, but the band members were all a little less cool than I remembered them being in 9th grade! Overall the concert was good, it felt pretty short, but they had awesome kettle corn at one of the booths that made up for that 
I took some pictures of the Saffron Cables afghan that I started as well as the new lace project I started a while back and the socks that I am knitting at school, but alas, I can’t find the cable to connect the camera to the computer, so no pictures today. Since I never keep my promises about posting pictures I won’t promise to post them and we’ll see what happens later this week.
Long Weekend September 4, 2006
Had a nice long weekend and got to really relax with Jered for a while. My mom and brother went to Tennessee for the long weekend which was really nice for them (they got to get away from the house, paperwork etc.) and really nice for us (we got to have a little time for us). As odd as it is to say that it was nice to have a break, it seems almost mean to think it, it really has been nice having some down time for just the two of us. I have needed it more than I knew.
We had a very inspired weekend. We decided to rearrange some furniture in the house and make use of one of the rooms that was basically just sitting empty. We decided to move our office stuff into our downstairs “library,” but instead of making it a traditional office, we’ve done it starbucks style and made it very loungy and multi-purpose. We bought a HUGE solid oak table for next to nothing at a local discount furniture store. Then we moved some of our organizational stuff and bookshelves from upstairs into the downstairs room and set up a nice, clean and organized space around this great new table. If we do have the big family that we want one day, we will all be able to fit around this table, it comfortably sits 8-10! Right now we have two chairs set up and little banker lamps on each side. I will take pictures soon. We also bought a printer this weekend, which we have been needing. Jered tried to network it wirelessly but it didn’t work because we are on Macs and the print server we bought only networks postscript printers, which ours is not. But that doesn’t really matter because we have an awesome printer that copies, scans, faxes and prints pictures (it even does it from negatives!).
I worked a little on the Afghan I started from the latest version of Interweave. It’s been fun doing a project with cables because I haven’t done one in a long long time.
Tomorrow its back to work and school for both Jered and me. We’ve got a semi-busy week ahead of us, but it has helped to have a restful and relaxing weekend at home together.
Sorrow August 18, 2006
This picture sums things up.
My mom is spending the night tonight and my brother is over at a family friends’ house. We are making sense of things slowly but surely. It’s good to have the support of family and friends. It has made all the difference.
Today we were out and about getting things done related to paperwork and “business” stuff until 9:30 pm. It was a long day.
I’m off to bed early, and hoping to get a little more work done tomorrow but also to do some yard work and maybe go on a bike ride.
Support August 17, 2006
Thanks to everyone who has been there for us through the last week. My dad’s funeral was Tuesday. He got full military honors at the cemetary and it was a beautiful ceremony. We had family come into town starting last weekend including Jered’s parents and Uncle. Everyone has gone home now, so its the first day that without tons of people around, which feels very weird. We are sorting out paperwork and all of the “business” that goes along with the death of a family member. It is so weird.
I’m actually feeling quite a bit better. I have my moments, but things are starting to get back to a state closer to normal.
I really appreciate all of the support and comfort you all have extended to me and my family. It has helped a lot!
