Father’s Day 2009

It goes without saying, I’m sure, that Father’s Day is not my favorite holiday. It was better this year; mainly because we had a fun distraction. We went to my in-laws’ house, which I wasn’t really wanting to do, but oh well. After picking Luke up from his dad’s at 3, we headed over.  It was a sunny day and they have a pool, so Luke was thrilled. I brought Hawaiian Garden and spent my time stitching, and of course it’s always nice to have a meal you don’t have to plan or prepare.

My in-laws’ best friends, who live just down the street, came over with their 8 week old puppy, which was the big highlight of the day. Luke was beside himself. He was completely enamored and followed the puppy around the entire time. He even got out of the pool for quite awhile to play with the puppy. Eventually he went back in the pool, at which point the puppy kept coming up to him. It was so adorable:

And, shortly after this next picture…

…the puppy ended up in the pool. We don’t have a picture of that, though. Luke was thrilled beyond words to “save the puppy”. He was asked if the puppy tried to swim but I don’t think the puppy had a chance since Luke had him out of the pool so quickly.

It’s in the very beginning thought stages now, but we’re toying with the idea of adding a puppy to the mix after the baby is born. Luke wants one SO badly, and it might not be a bad time for it when I’ll be home for a little while. But, we’re only just thinking about it; a dog is a lot of responsibility and we want to be sure we are willing and able to handle it before we take that on. We definitely will wait until we’re in a bigger house, at the very least. It was sure fun to play with a cute puppy for an afternoon, though.

Been Awhile, again…

Well, I guess I’ve really gotten remiss about updating my blog.  Life has been pretty busy lately! I didn’t want to say anything here until most people I know already “knew”, but tomorrow I will be 11 weeks pregnant. I’m due January 7th, 2010 and I’m still scared to death after the miscarriage last December. We had the first ultrasound last week and all is well so far. I don’t think I’ll be able to relax until there’s actually a baby at the end of it all, though!

I never posted about our trip to London, although I’ve had pictures up on flickr for awhile; they can be seen here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jillejones/sets/72157619123455459/ We were only there for five nights which is really not enough time to do everything, but it was better than nothing! We went to Westminster Abbey, the Tower of London, Bath, Stonehenge, Oxford, British Museum, and walked all over the city. It was a good trip except practically everyone smokes there which is disgusting. At least they can’t smoke inside restaurants or pubs anymore; that certainly made it a little more tolerable. Here are just a couple of pictures from the trip:

Westminster Abbey:

Tower of London:

We visited “Platform 9 3/4″ at King’s Cross Station and went to the Bird and Baby where Tolkein and C.S. Lewis used to hang back in the day.  There are pictures of those on the flickr page also.

Since we’ve been home I’ve mostly been trying to stay awake and not puke. Good times. We made some alts in lotro for their kinship contest and got them to level 31, and I’ve been doing some stitching too. Hopefully I’ll make some decent stitching progress soon so I can post some more pictures. I’ll try not to let another month go by without posting again, honest…

Hello, and goodbye!

It’s been almost another month, again, since I last blogged. Life has been pretty busy and I have managed to do some stitching…shocking I know. I finally finished part 3 of Chatelaine’s Hawaiian Garden, so I have a picture to share!

I also have exciting news…I get on a plane tomorrow to spend 5 nights in London! I’ve never been there (aside from a 4 hour layover in college when I went to Paris, but that hardly counts). Luke is going to be with his dad in North Carolina so it seemed like a good opportunity to take a vacation. I’ll have a lot of pictures to share when I get back, and I plan to do a lot of stitching on the plane.

Been A While

Wow, I can’t believe I haven’t written anything in a month. I guess there just isn’t all that much going on. Our main characters in lotro reached 60 the other night, but there’s still a lot to do and that’s really monopolizing my free time still. I did manage to get some stitching done over Easter and I have some progress on a new start, “From Sea to Shining Sea” to share, but I haven’t taken a picture of it. I’ve also been working on Hawaiian Garden and I’m almost finished with the third volcano. I’ll take some pictures soon.

We’ve been busy with little league; I know Luke loves it so we’ll keep it up but it sure does take up a LOT of time. Aside from that we’re just doing the usual stuff. I had a particularly unpleasant day when the thermostat at work went out (we think it’s because the hvac guys were doing some modifications for the new chem lab, but naturally, it happens on the hottest day of the year to date). I’m getting ready to go to work in a few minutes so I’m trying to find the lightest warm weather clothes that fit so I don’t swelter again. They better have it fixed today!

Well, I know this isn’t terribly exciting. But, I’m still here and busy with the usual stuff. I’ll try to get some stitching done so I’ll have pictures to share soon!

Japanese Garden Progress

Well, I admit I haven’t been stitching all that much since I’ve been playing lotro. However, my loremaster is level 51 now, and I have an alt. It’s been a good distraction from reality, but has seriously infringed on my stitching time. When I have been stitching though I’ve been working on Chatelaine’s “Japanese Garden”. Here’s my progress on that:

It’s getting there, slowly. I’m working on the second over 1 crane now. I even worked on it at little league practice.

I have some other photos to share, of Luke’s pinewood derby car, mismatch day, and ice skating with the Cub Scouts. I haven’t uploaded them yet though and have to run. Next time I guess!

Lots of Catching Up to Do

Wow, it’s been a month now since I updated my blog, hasn’t it? Well it hasn’t been the easiest month ever (though probably not the worst month ever either). A few days after I last wrote was the 2 year anniversary of my dad’s death. It isn’t any easier after two years. Well, we were on our way back from skiing at Mammoth (where we got 3 feet of fresh snow, yeah) so at least I was tired and distracted. The trip to Mammoth was great. I didn’t manage to get any skiing pictures though. It snowed the whole time and was pretty wet snow, so my camera stayed safely inside its case where it couldn’t get wet. Luke and I went down our first black diamond run ever (and lived!) and did a ton of different blue runs. I am no longer confined to chair lifts that have a green run down…I feel like it’s a whole new world!

I haven’t been doing much stitching this past month except what I’ve managed to accomplish in the car (which accounts for most of it!) or at Luke’s basketball practices. We’ve been playing lotro fanatically; it’s ridiculously fun and has been a much-needed escape while I wait through the post-miscarriage hell. I’ve found that stitching doesn’t distract my mind enough, and it’s something I’ve really needed to do lately.

I did get some more stitching done this past week, though, while we were on a trip to Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon. We went to Meteor Crater:

Petrified Forest/Painted Desert National Park:

Sunset Crater:

Wupatki Ruins:

And, finally, the Grand Canyon!

I’ve been to the Grand Canyon before, ten years ago in fact. I dragged my best friend out there and made her camp for two days and hike down Bright Angel Trail to Indian Gardens, 9.2 miles round trip. It was a wonderful trip and I was really excited to go back. I wasn’t fully prepared for how vastly different a place it is in the winter. We had 4 inches of snow there Monday night, which followed a large storm that had already dropped a lot of snow. I really wanted to hike down Bright Angel again, which meant we needed crampons since most of the trail was covered with snow and ice. Fortunately we managed to find some small enough for Luke too:

Ready to hit the trail:

The trail looked like this most of the way:

Luke loved the icicles:

It was beautiful with the snow everywhere:

The rest of the pictures from the trip are here:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/jillejones/sets/72157614115938578/

We only made it down to the 3 mile resthouse, so including the treck to and from the hotel it was 6.5 miles total. Much slower going than my previous trip; it’s a little harder with all that snow and ice. It was a wonderful experience though; so much different from the heat and vast crowds in the summer. I can’t wait to go back during the winter again, planning ahead more to do a longer hike.

I stitched a lot on Chatelaine’s “Japanese Garden” but haven’t taken an updated picture yet. I’ll save that for another post so I’ll have something left to write about.

Still Here

Thanks for all the hugs and condolences. Thankfully the doctor said everything is “fine” and there’s no reason we have to wait to try again. So, better luck next time I guess! I’m trying really hard to be upbeat but sometimes it’s hard, like lunch today when I saw two pregnant women. Ugh. It’s just harder some days than others.

I don’t have any pictures to share today, but I have been working on Japanese Garden pretty steadily. Well, until this past weekend when I finally broke down and got my own lotro account…I’ve been playing pretty much whenever I have free time since Saturday…I wasn’t going to do it, but I’m hooked. At least I have a long car ride to look forward to Thursday so I should get some stitching done then anyway. We’re going skiing at Mammoth, although it hasn’t snowed recently. There’s a slight chance now, so here’s hoping. That’s about it here; thanks again for the support. I really, really appreciate it.

New Year

Well, it’s a new year. Whether it turns out to be a happy one or not, well, I’m reserving judgment. I think most people who might happen upon this have already been told. Maybe not. I found out the week of Christmas that I was pregnant, only to miscarry last week at just over 5 weeks. Friends who have followed my blog for awhile know how badly I want to have another child. Now I’m in a happy marriage with a husband who wants to have kids, and this is how that endeavor begins. To say I’m disappointed is, of course, quite the understatement. One of the worst parts is that I am terrified about the next time. When I was pregnant with Luke my life was in a bad place, and it wasn’t an experience I got to enjoy so having it be a good thing that I could enjoy was something I was really excited about this time. Now I’m afraid that if I get pregnant again I’ll spend the whole time afraid of what might go wrong. Life really sucks sometimes, you know?

I took last Friday off work and pretty much wallowed for three days while Luke was at his dad’s. On the upside, I have plenty of stitching progress to show off once I take some photos.

One a separate note, yesterday was Luke’s 8th birthday. I’ll have pictures to share from that too. At some point soon here I need to make arrangements for his birthday party. I always throw it a little late so it’s more removed from Christmas. The particulars (like date, location, etc) remain to be set. I’m just not in a celebratory mood, but I imagine I’ll suck it up and figure it out shortly.

So far 2009 is not off to the best start. 2008 started very well and ended very badly…here’s hoping for a reversal in 2009.

A Very Merry Lego Death Star Christmas

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, or whatever holiday you celebrated! We sure did, with lots and lots of Legos. Luke got the Lego Death Star which he has been wanting ever since it came out. Yes, it’s beyond ridiculous…but it was a lot of fun to build. It took me, Tom and my brother Michael 9.5 hours (1.5 hours of sorting, 8 hours of non-stop building). the end result is amazing. The link with all of the pictures we took is here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jillejones/sets/72157611815472391/

And here are a couple of excerpts:

Follow the link for the rest of the pictures; it’s ridiculous.

I did manage to get a lot of stitching done the past week also. I’ve decided my goal for 2009 will be to finish Chatelaine’s “Japanese Garden” and “Hawaiian Garden” mandalas. Hawaiian is for my mom, and Japanese is for my brother and his wife. They teased me that they’ll get it in “2012″ so naturally I had to claim otherwise, and there you go. So, I guess there won’t be many new starts for me until those are done.

I haven’t worked on Japanese Garden in awhile, but I’ve been working on Hawaiian almost non-stop since my last post. Here is the current progress:

The picture is a little blurry, but you get the idea. This is a giant project!! I’ve brought my portable OTT light to my in-law’s house and have left it there, so anytime I’m there now I can pull it out and work on a Chatelaine instead of having to resort to an easier project. I *will* finish them in 2009, darn it!

Um, it’s been awhile…

Yeah, so I had intended to write a post a lot sooner. I never did get to Karen’s tag, did I? The month of December, so far, has been *insane*. I had the Yuletide concert at church the weekend of the 12th-14th, which was the same weekend as my company party. I also had adopt-a-family responsibilities, which far exceeded what I’ve done in years past. It was all good stuff, and very rewarding and important and all that, but boy am I exhausted. I finally got time to slow down, and woke up Saturday morning at 4am with the beginnings of a cold. At least it didn’t happen until after my commitments were completed! I have all of my Christmas shopping done, presents are all wrapped, and I just need to get through a couple more days of work. I think I just might survive!

I have three stitching pictures to share; the first is the “Welsh Dragon Coaster” by Textile Heritage that my brother brought back for me from his trip to England last summer:

Next are two needlepoint candies which I completed this weekend. The designer is Melissa Shirley; I finished “Green Tree White” and “Heath Bar Crunch”:

So, being sick isn’t all bad; I spent almost all day yesterday stitching. Well, when I wasn’t sleeping or blowing my nose. That brings my completed total to 19 for this year. I’m going to try and finish one more item to make it 20!