it's only finger-lengths that I see

Last weekend, I managed to sneak home for a long weekend to meet and hang out with the new nieces. We had a ton of fun!

Playing with Play-Doh (yes, I look completely insane. I know.)

Essie, making monkey faces in the car. One of my favorite pics from the weekend.

Chloe is apparently following in the musical footsteps of the fam

Essie is all about the hat!

Getting some lovin' from Mommy

We had a fantastic time. My only complaint was that the weekend was so short! Even so, I also managed to make a super-quick trip to Knoxville to see Sonya and her new little one:

Sonya & Daniel Isaac

where the deer and the rattlesnake play

I'm off to the homeland, back to the beautiful bluegrass state to meet the most beautiful little girls in the universe. And also a pretty darn cute little newborn boy, too. In my excitement, I'm wishing for copless roads and a wonderful weekend for you all. Cheers!

I scare children. Apparently.

Since yesterday evening was such a nice evening to be outside, I took my *project* outside with me for awhile and sat in the yard and let the poochie play for a bit. The two most adorable neighbor kids in the world live next to me, and for awhile they were in their back yard as well, with another kid from somewhere on the block. Betwixt the random screams of "Look, BIRD POOP!" and the sound of young children sliding off the roof of their little playhouse, I suddenly heard the neighbor girl, the eldest of the three, explaining to their friend as they all peeped through the fence: "That's little Cheetoh! It's just a little puppy. Here, Cheetoh! Come here!" Chico sniffed their fingers for about two seconds before sauntering away in his aloof little way. They stared through the chain-link fence for about two more seconds, then went back to sliding off the roof.

These kids are both fascinated with and terrified by me, although I can't really figure out why for either. Any time I'm outside and they're somewhere nearby, they grin shyly at me until I make eye contact with them and smile - then they run away and hide behind something. The next second they think I'm not looking, they creep back up and stare at me, watching very intently whatever I'm doing, whether it be working in the flower beds or mowing or reading a book in the sun. Or crocheting, apparently. Part of this I'm sure has to do with their age - I would guess the boy to be about 3-4ish, the girl maybe 5-6. Sometimes the girl, in her little blond pigtails, manages to offer up a quick wave before getting embarrassed. Last night was the first time I've really seen them since the brutal winter, so maybe sometime soon I'll be able to draw them out of their shells a little without scaring them (or their parents, of whom I've met only their mom, once, for a 5-minute conversation).

Any ideas how to pull this off?

(You know, other than dressing up in a dinosaur suit and singing children's songs.)
(Although I'm pretty sure that would REALLY scare their parents.)
(And me.)

wait for me, it won't be long

They're coming home, TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's all.



...I'll see you at home.

oh, deerie me

My friend, Chef Ryan, is now AWARD-WINNING Chef Ryan. You can check out the deets here. There's even a picture of him and everything! (#5) And if you are ever ever ever in the area, you should visit the restaurant where he's head chef. Because his food is AWESOME. And you will eat until you almost die from eating.

Congrats, my friend.

there's just one thing that's getting in the way

I know, I know, I disappeared again. I won't regale you with stories of computer issues and crazy work schedules, because I'm sure no one really cares about all that anyway. I'm here now.

So I'm pretty sure most of you who read this already know about what's going on with my family, but I'll say it anyway... My brother and his wife are right now in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, getting ready to bring my two new beautiful nieces home!! Here's one pic - if you want to see more, you can go to their blog (or my facebook):

I'm working on a craft project for the girls, but I won't post it here until it's done and the gift has been given. Although I have to give mad props to Andrea for sending me on the right path to find the pattern, which is pretty much just awesome. Since I've spent a lot of time crocheting like mad, I haven't had much time to read lately. For some reason it's taking me forever to get through Jesse Stuart's Taps for Private Tussie, probably b/c I don't pic up the book very often with everything else going on. I'm also reading Voyage of the Dawn Treader on the side, but I'm sure you can imagine how that's going as well. I mostly picked it up b/c it was something easy to throw in my purse on my way to the dentist's office to get my root canal. Yes, boys and girls, while the last month has been relatively uneventful for me personally, the eventful things have been not so much on the fun side of things.

Overall, I'm mostly thrilled that we got out of the crazy cold month of January. Friday night was actually pretty warm, so I decided at the last minute to go run around downtown for a bit. I bought some adorable fleece sweatshirts for the girls at the Disney store, had a bird poop in my eye, got hit on by a homeless guy, and crocheted for 2+ hours on the train. It was a pretty productive trip.

Okay, that's all for now. Maybe I'll be better and post again soonish?! Here's hoping.