Happy Holidays...to be politically correct!

Okay, I'll just say it...Merry Christmas. Or umm belated Christmas? I have neglected this blog once again! This blog is more for my sanity, but I get a few visitors once in awhile. I just love the Christmas time of year. I start feeling the "bug" on Thanksgiving, and it continues right up until Christmas day! It's almost as if the anticipation for the holiday season lasts so long...and then before you know it, Christmas has come and gone in a flash! I'm sad to see it gone, but it was a wonderful Christmas!

Both Josh and I spent Christmas with our wonderful families together! Christmas is about family time, and we couldn't have asked for a better year or for better families! MY only regret is that more of my side of the family could get together! I love getting together with Josh's family, but it also makes me a bit jealous because, for the most part, they all live around the same area.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Year!!

'Tis the Season!

It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas! I put up our Christmas Tree this past weekend, and that puts me in a good mood. I got frustrated with my tree last year taking it down, and accidently broke the foot of the tree! So the tree tilts a little bit!

I also wanted to put up the picture of my first finished quilt! It's an advent calendar that I wanted to finish before the First so I can really count down the days!

Snow, Snow, go away....

That's right, it's here. I was hoping to prolong it as far as we could. We did, for a little while. But now the snow is here, and it's here with a vengence! We haven't even had time to adjust to the weather before it has dipped way below zero! In fact, in Grand Forks today, the wind chill is -22!!! Sunday, when Josh and I were leaving Sebeka, it was in the 40's! During the day on Monday, it was actually pretty nice! Until late afternoon, when the snow started falling! When I got off of work on Monday, we were in a Winter Weather Advisory!! The snow was falling as hard as the wind was blowing, and it looked like there was a blizzard outside! The temperature dropped a lot, and hasn't gotten up much higher than it was that night.

I am such a freeze baby, and don't especially like the winter time! I should just move to California, but family keeps me around! I think I may enjoy it more when I'm not a student that has to park far away at school, and must walk a few blocks in this mess to class!!

What happened to my dreams of a brown Christmas???

My Project Update

At Quilt retreat, I took a shot in the dark and began my first quilting venture! Apparently, my mom forgot to mention to me that I was starting a pretty tough project. My calendar had 25 pockets (one for each day), and 25 appliques. I have the front put together, and this weekend my mom will help me attach the back and actually do the "quilting part." I will put pictures up once it is completely finished. I honestly couldn't have done any of it without my mom's help...I wouldn't have even known where to begin. She is pretty much the reason why it looks nice, because I would've gotten impatient and given up!

I also made about 30 Christmas cards to send out. I am excited about those too...and they are all different. But they did take a lot longer to make than I had anticipated!! I would put pictures of those online, but it may ruin the surprise when everyone gets them in the mail! I will mail them out after Thanksgiving.

Update on Grad School: I had hoped to know whether or not I was accepted by Thanksgiving, but it doesn't look like that will happen. My test scores aren't even in yet! They were suppose to arrive 10-15 days after I took the test...we are on day 17...so hopefully soon!! But the Grad School also lost one of my recommendation letters (DON'T ASK--I'M CRABBY ABOUT IT!!), so that prolongs the whole process too. Once the grad school has everything together...then they have to send it to the Department to make a decision. I am hoping that they can send it over this week (may be optimistic), and have an answer by next week. Keep your fingers crossed!!

My new project...

So after years of coaxing, my mother finally talked me into learning how to "quilt." I put quilt in quotations because it's not really a quilted blanket. It's just a small project. We went to a quilt shop in Perham, MN this last weekend, and I found an advent Christmas calendar that I really liked. So we bought the pattern, and yesterday Mom sat and taught me how to do it. Right now I am cutting out appliques and ironing them onto little pockets for the calendar, so not really any sewing yet. Up until now, sewing machines have intimidated me...but I want to learn how to master it for when I have children some day! I have done a lot of hand sewing, but apparently machine sewing is a lot easier...so we will see.

I'm hoping to have enough time to finish the calendar by December 1 for obvious reason...but we will see...I have a lot of Christmas projects that I am working on! I will post pictures of the Quilt as I am progressing in my project.