Happy New Year! A brief update

Well hello there and Happy New Year!  I should probably apologize for my prolonged absence but I'm not going to.  I have done it before and promised to do better and have never lived up to that promise so I don't see the point.  I have missed telling you all about things though if that is any consolation.

Now the question is where to start?  Do I back clear up to Fall Retreat and give you the promised blow by blow?  I don't think so.  I doubt you are still interested at this point.  I should at least mention Adam and Marcia's wedding though.   It was a beautiful wedding and the weather couldn't have been more perfect.  The fall color was at it's peak when we were there and it was gorgeous!  Our flights were uneventful if a bit crowded which kept us from sitting with each other.  We all shed a lot of emotional tears that weekend.  Except for the bride.  She managed against all odds to keep a stiff upper lip as she didn't want to ruin her makeup!  They had a beautiful first dance together to the Kip Moore song Hey Pretty Girl and everyone had a wonderful time at the reception, so much so that it was extended for an extra hour.  I enjoyed seeing my kids and their friends all grown up and having a great time together.  It's rare to see and it did this mom's heart good although it is a bit bittersweet as I know it will be a long while if ever before I see it again.
Adam and Marcia honeymooned in Mexico and had a wonderful time just hanging out at the hotel pool.  Married life is agreeing with the 2 of them and they are as happy as a mom could hope for.   The following 3 pics are courtesy of Jennifer Gulley Photography.

Aside from the wedding there really hasn't been a whole lot going on.  Abby and Joe are still dating and having a good time together.  Abby said just the other day that they have been dating for 9 months now. That shocked me a bit as I didn't think it had been that long.  They took a trip to Purdue and took in a football game this fall and not too long ago they traveled to St. Louis for a Penguins hockey game.  Abby is a huge Penguins fan.  I don't get it, she's the girliest girl ever and she loves hockey.  She's currently trying to arrange a trip to someplace warm.  Think she'd mind if I tag along?  Warm sounds good right now!

New Year's Eve 2013

Amy has had the busiest and most stressful semester of college yet.  In addition to working at the ball park this fall, she was working in 2 different research labs, carrying a full load of classes at college, and working on everything involved in applying for graduate school.  And lets not forget she was chosen to present her poster at some big psychology conference in Nashville in November that she had to be prepared for.  It was a lot to handle and I received many panicked phone calls from her over the course of the last few months.  She was sure she wasn't going to get everything done and if she did it wasn't going to be good enough.  Something was going to have to give and she thought it would be her grades.  I did not believe that would be the case though and I was correct.  She earned the best grades ever although I am not sure how they could be better than ever before since her gpa was already 3.9999....her presentation went very well and she has already been offered 2 interviews for grad school.   I was hoping this semester would be a calmer one but then I remembered we have to get through the interviews and then wait to see if she gets any actual offers.  Then and only then will things be less stressful unless of course she isn't offered a spot at Lincoln.  Then my personal stress level will be off the charts!  Note:  As I am adding pictures I realize I do not have anything recent of Amy.  My bad.  I will have to remedy that next time she is home.  If I can catch her when she isn't becoming one with the couch like she did all xmas break.

Christmas was okay this year.  I won't say great as Adam and Marcia were not able to be here this year and when you compare it to last year which was awesome, this year was just...there.  It was good but nothing special.  This year the kids and I gave Dan an aquarium.  He has had a little 5 gal. one at work and he dotes on those guppies of his so I thought he would enjoy having one here at the house.  I was right in thinking he would love it.  But he's having a little problem...can you see what I'm talking about?

Rootbeer colored water is not a normal condition. Apparently his piece of driftwood is releasing tannins into the water and until he can get it cleared up he can't put any fish in it. (that stuffed fish is as close as he has to fish in this aquarium)  So he keeps replacing the water.  By now I think we could have filled up an entire swimming pool.   I keep telling him to remove the darn thing and soak it in a bucket but that would be too easy!  He was also advised to boil it for an hour but we don't have a pot large enough to do that so I suggested we put it in the cooler and poor boiling water over it and let it soak.  Nope.  Silly man just keeps changing the water.  Someday he will have fish in his aquarium, but I don't know when that day will be!

I've been doing some stitching here and there.  I stitched and framed Nimble Netty from Jeanette Douglas.

I've worked on Tuscan Rose

before:

after:

and several other pieces I don't have pictures of right now so I will save them for next time.

I've also worked on the retreat piece but I can't show you that one until May.

And before this morphs into a novel I'm going to call it done and get it posted.  No promises on when I will post again since I will be working on retreat stuff from now until May but I will see what I can do.  Until that happens you all take care and keep on stitching!

Julie