I think life is back to normal - AJ had scouts Monday night, Tuesday night, Thursday night and Saturday. I don't think I got anything done at home this week! I finished up this little tissue cover last weekend, and didn't even get a chance to get a picture posted.

I picked up chew toys for the dogs last weekend - one large one for Jasper and a smaller one for Koori. Needless to say - they switched. Koori ended up eating both of them I am sure, but she looked so funny running around with the large one in her mouth.

I did finally "get around to" scanning a couple of pictures - one of Ralph and I at the Bank's Christmas party, and the other is Alli's school picture. I have no idea how they got her laughing!

Yesterday was a non-productive day for around the house, but I got a couple of projects finished that I had started! I finished the last few rounds of a doily, and I finally finished a bookmark! The bookmark has been started for probably a couple of years, I just needed to "finish" it with the bird, flowers, etc. I don't know why I never finished it before, but I still have one more base done - I will probably wait until someone "needs" a bookmark, and then finish it up too!

AJ had the neighbor kid Alan (Dallas' older brother) spend the night Saturday night, and when I got home from church, had David (Alli's daycare provider's son) over as well! Alan stayed most of the day, and David spent the night. I have had a house full of boys all weekend! (and it has been fun! - loud, but fun!) Today is a holiday for both my work and the kids school, so they will keep each other entertained! I need to go in to work for a few minutes today, so I will have the boys babysit for me too. That ought to be fun!

I finished another doily! Not too bad! This one is supposed to have ribbons woven around the outside pineapples, but I think I like it better without them. I put a couple in (in the second picture), just to see. It is about 20 inches across - done in white thread.

I also managed to get the Christmas stuff put away in the attic, get the house vacuumed (especially where the tree and Christmas stuff had been), straighten up the garage where things were "piled" more than normal, get AJ to clean out the pool - which meant he also had to fix the monster, and all sorts of things done around the house! Yesterday was a very productive day! (I don't think today will be nearly as productive though!

I've been bad! I haven't posted in a long time! Sorry - I got busy! I did finish up a doily, but even that doesn't seem to be what I have been busy with (or I would have more doilies done!) - I just have been sleeping in in the morning and haven't gotten up in time to type! This doily is about 23 inches across - done in a size 20 thread.

I had company last weekend! Unexpected, but not unwanted or unappreciated! My sister and family came in Friday night and stayed through Sunday morning. That ate up most of my weekend! This is a three-day weekend, so I might be able to catch up a little bit. I still have my Christmas tree up! I took all the decorations off, but the tree is still standing (artificial tree). It looks like AJ and I will be the ones putting it away, so that is on my agenda today. It will be nice to have everything "back to normal". I have boxes of decorations stacked up as well - so it is time!

Here is a bookmark I was thinking of making for Valentines Day - it is pretty quick to make, but I am still looking around at patterns. I better make a decision soon, or I won't have time to make many!

Well, AJ is now 15! He didn't have the best birthday ever though - poor guy! It was the first day back to school after Winter Break, and, he was planning on having about 3 boys spend the weekend with us for his birthday, but....when he finally saw them at school, none of them could come this weekend. He was so bummed. He wasn't very excited at all - and since he already had his birthday present from us (the rip-stick) there wasn't anything exciting at home either! I did fix his favorite dinner - shrimp with cocktail sauce for appetizers and scampi and steak for dinner. That helped a little bit, but he is still a bit down about his birthday! He couldn't even use his rip-stick, as he had a hair cut right after school, and it was dark and rainy by the time he got home. Poor guy!

Well, I've been lagging! I noticed that my last post was 12/31! I had good intentions to post this weekend, but Mother Nature had different plans. We lost power Friday morning, and did not get it back until Sunday night at 5:45. (We were lucky - I just spoke with my sister, and she won't even have an estimate of when she will get power until Wednesday!) We did manage to borrow a generator, so we were able to have heat and - even better - a TV for Pokemon! (You try to explain to Alli that the power is out - she just thinks you are being mean and won't turn on the TV for her!) We lost power because a power pole snapped at the base from the wind - we had gusts of up to 82 MPH at the Airport (and we live less than a mile away!) We have great neighbors around here though - everyone seemed to be doing okay. Ralph got some good pictures for me, and talked to everyone in the neighborhood while he was at it. We did loose out cherry tree - but it wasn't much of a loss - most of it was dead, which is probably why it snapped!






I did get the chance to finish up a new doily (crocheting by candlelight!) This one is about 22 1/2 inches across.