Family, Books and Crochet...Oh My!

Thursday, January 1, 2015

Family and Our Christmas Tree

One of the best things of the holiday season this year was...

the arrival of my nephew, Dakota, his wife, Rose, and...

my great-niece, Little Miss E, from Texas. Dakota is in the military and has recently arrived home from Afghanistan. Rose and Little Miss E spent the summer with us, then moved to Texas when Dakota got back. I've missed them all immensely.

Small T and Little Miss E missed each other a lot and I swear, they were up to no good, as you can tell by this photo. At the time this was taken, we had our tree up, but not decorated, and Little Miss E wanted Small T to help her put the ornaments on. So that's what they did.

Small T, as usual, insisted on being the one to put the angel on the top of the tree. She had to have some help though, in the form of a chair, to reach it.

Little Miss E loved putting the ornaments on, and by the time she was done, every ornament (except the balls) we owned was on the tree. I think it looks great!

Christmas Decorations

I wasn't much for decorating this year for Christmas, but my family stepped in and did a fabulous job!

Big Daddy took care of the outside, as usual. He added the trees (on the left) this year. They are 3 metal trees in varying sizes that Small T picked up (for free) from a former employer that was getting rid of them. He added the lights and came up with a super decoration for the yard.

Small T used her florist skills and made 3 arrangements for the table. I was amazed at what she was able to do with 3 wire baskets and some poinsettia groupings that she bought and cut apart.

She decided to take the arrangements off the table and add them to the mantle instead. She bought the snowman wall hanging for $20 (a steal) and decorated the mantle to her liking. I think she did a good job of it.

Other than stringing a few strands of snowman, Tinkerbell, and purple fairy lights through the rest of the house, this was all the decorating we did, other than the tree, which I'll show in a later post.

Fun Times

I bet you're wondering if I had any fun during these past 16 weeks. Well...here's what I did that could be considered fun, possibly.

Small T broke her foot at the same time I broke my arm. It was lovely. Just lovely. Two of us sporting some extra "gear" for a while.

Once she healed up, she was back on the softball field for her final year of play, as she's a senior. I drove to every single game, even if I only made 5 minutes of it. Once in a while, I got there just in time to see them walking across the field to shake hands, and I had missed the whole game. At least I tried! This year, she played two positions...short stop...

and center field. I love this photo of her "at ready" for a potential hit to her area.

I watched her at bat...

and stealing bases.

Big Daddy and I ordered her letter jacket and presented it to her. It was hugely expensive simply because she had so much stuff to be sewn on. The back is completely covered with patches and medals.

We celebrated Big Daddy's 54th birthday. I felt so bad because he had to make his own cake. (I'm a bad wife sometimes. Oops.)

But with the help of a neighbor, he woke up to a surprise on the front porch (after I had left for college). I gave him two kittens to keep him company while I was at school.

We aren't "cat" people, but the kids enjoyed them too. We ended up having to find them a good home though, because it turned out that we are ALL allergic to cats. It took a month to get everyone well again. But it's the thought that counted, right?

The beginning of October saw the Pecan Festival arrive again. Small T and her best friend, Trev, were inseparable, as usual. Here they are in the Nutty Parade, representing the senior class.

Here they are again in the big parade, driving a big tractor.

November brought the birth of my newest great-niece. I was extremely lucky in that I got to hold her asap after birth.

Isn't she such a sweetie? She has very big hands and feet, with long fingers and toes.

She's just precious. Her name is Zaylie. Her mom is Z, my niece, Zanna.

I attended the school play. I cannot for the life of me remember the name of it though. Small T played a southern belle.

My nephew, Awan, was the hillbilly maintenance man.

Big C turned 20! Where has the time gone???

I went in for a trim, a wax, and a hot oil treatment. Sometimes, you just need some time at the salon.

Small T's vehicle was the subject of a hit-and-run.

Small T started clinicals in Health Occupations class (she's in the middle).

Big Daddy and I attended Meet The Wildcats at school. This is the opener for the varsity basketball season. The four kids in this photo are the seniors participating in the basketball season. From the left, it's Chey, Royce, Small T, and Don'Neal.

I've attended a few home basketball games. This is the cheer squad this year.

Here's another photo. Small T is 2nd from the right. She's the cheer captain.

That's been all the "fun" I've basically had during the past 16 weeks. My life was mostly homework with once a week housework thrown in. :/ It was busy, but I made it.

My First Semester

Here's a summary of my first semester back in college (after a 27 year break).

Two weeks into the 16 week semester, I tripped and fell, TWICE, in the exact same spot. I stubbed my toe. Crazy, right? The second time...

I broke my arm. Yeah. I still can't believe it. The cast went from my fingers to my arm pit. Not very handy when you're taking mostly computer classes (with a LOT of typing) and needing to drive a 90 mile round trip every day.

As for the driving, I hired a chauffeur...Medium J. He was a huge help to me and a good sport as he would sit for 8 (boring) hours waiting on me to finish for the day so we could travel back home.

It was also a time of great trial when it came to "getting ready" in the morning. I had to dress up for my classes and my job at college. You see, I got an office job there to help pay for driving expenses. I utilized Small T's skills with makeup and hair to the utmost during this time. I'm so glad she was still around and not off to college herself.

I applied for, and received, a scholarship for non-traditional students. Yay! The lovely lady in the photo with me is my scholarship sponsor.

Then it came time for FINALS. It was SCARY. I think it was the "unknown" aspect of what I would be facing, that scared me the most.

In Presentation Skills with MS PowerPoint, you had to pass a pre-test with a score of 700 to take the final. I passed the pretest with an 825 and the final with a 944. At the beginning of the semester, this class was the one I was most worried about.

After all the finals were over, this is what my grade report looked like. I worked really hard for all those A's!

I think I also lost my mind a bit too. This is what I looked like on the last day of finals. lol I think I was just trying to hold it all together at that point.

Because I was tired....just tired. I love this photo.

And I felt like celebrating because I made it through those first 16 weeks!

And celebrate, we did! Big Daddy surprised us with a cake. We will overlook his spelling and say how good the cake tasted! It was a butter cake with butter cream frosting. Yum!

And now it was vacation time. Four whole weeks of it. After a couple of days though, the boredom set in. *sigh* I have 11 more days of vacation left and then it's back to school.

I hope you enjoyed my little presentation on the first semester of college. I wonder what the second semester will bring?

Happy New Year

Happy New Year Everyone! I hope 2015 brings you much happiness, good health, and riches galore!

I can't believe it's been 4 months since my last post. Since returning to college in August, my life has taken a new direction. I have learned that sometimes I relish change, and other times, I dig my fit in and avoid it at all costs. When it comes to my blog, I'm still very uncertain about any potential changes but I have been doing a lot of thinking about where I want to take it. At this point, it will remain the same and I will try to post regularly once I return to classes on the 12th.