Catching Up

While it has been a while since I've posted something on here, I can't say that too much has really changed. Other than having a little more opportunity to have a life! And it's been awesome. Between having Mark done with school and having my parents' house rented, my biggest burdens have been trying to get our own house cleaned up and organized, trying to figure out what to do with a fickle 2 1/2 year old, and trying to survive the winter that doesn't want to end. It's April - stop snowing already!!!

A few months ago, Mark and I kind of defaulted into finding ways to re-approach our lives (how to find more sources of sanity) and one of the things that came out of that was me signing up to take a community ed pottery class with a couple of my coworkers. I took wheel thrown pottery in college about a decade ago and really enjoyed it despite not being overly amazing at it so I was quite excited. And I can't even tell you what an outlet it has been for me! For so long I felt like I had lost all ability to be creative since I didn't have time or opportunity to really do much of anything I WANTED to do, and this class has given me hope that not all is lost. There's one thing I made a couple of months ago that I've been waiting for them to fire so I could bring it home, so once I get that home I'll see about taking a couple of pictures of what I've done. I think after this current class I might switch over to sewing. I've got a list of things I'd love to make so why not, right?

I've also decided to get my garden going this year. I haven't had a veggie garden since the summer before Mark and I started dating, so this is kind of a big deal for me too. Our tiny excuse of a backyard gained a few feet last year when the condo association put in some new fences, so that has only helped my cause. Since I've got less than 100 sq feet I'm using with, I've decided that I'm just going to plant things to make my own tomato sauce and salsa for canning. I did plant some peas to get things going prior to the summer gardening season, so hopefully they don't take over too much by the time I get my other stuff in. The rest of our little backyard is going to be cleaned up so Janie can have a fenced place to play so we don't have to keep chasing her all over when she's outside. So far, she's LOVED being able to dig in the dirt and plant the pea seeds. She just hates the bugs and worms.

Mark has been very helpful and supportive of all the things I've been getting myself into. Him and Janie are so cute when they play together. He's also been working in a little more time to finish putting together his own website to use when he applies for jobs this summer. It's coming along. And Janie is just getting so big!!! Man, is she a girl!!! She's all sweet and sugar one minute, and then cold and sassy the next. She's very "two going on sixteen" with her attitude, but it tends to be pretty entertaining for now.

And now for a surprise!!! What's one thing that hasn't shown up on my blog in just about forever? That's right - Pictures!!! And one of the funny things about Janie and pictures is that she'll make specific requests for them. For example, in this first one she put her little toy cars on the edge of our cabinet and turned around and said, "Take picture?" So I did.


Did I mention she was a cute little doggie for Halloween??


One night we were shopping at Target and Janie had way too much energy. She would run around like a crazy person for a few minutes and she would just stop where she was (usually in the middle of a random aisle), put her "friends" on the floor, say, "Rest!" with a deep sigh, and then flop on the floor for a minute and then do it all over again. It was hilarious!


She still has those big blue eyes.


My two favorite people. Aren't they cute together?!