I still have not recovered from the trauma of the last time I saw snow. BUT…………
Hazel Mae.
Luca Andres.
Knitting scarves for kids before handmade scarves become uncool: priceless
New snow shovel: $9.95
You’re probably sick of my play-by-play snow updates, but here it is anyway: snow is now melting so quickly that the ditches along the road and hundreds of tiny streams are bubbling and splashing through the woods and between the boulders at a slight deafening roar… the sound of water running through the woods. Mmm, mmm. Water is now actually flowing through our gutters and not just the downspouts, because the former are no longer full of ice. We lost the last of the roof-ice at about 11:30 last night – a bunch from a dormer window onto the front porch roof created such a quake that everything on the opposite side of the house fell and bounced down the deck stairs, coming to a halt on the driveway. I thought a massive tree had fallen on the house. Mikey was sure that every gutter had been ripped from the eaves at once. Just ice! Ice that we no longer have to worry about serving as a gateway to death’s door every time we dart from the house and out of the danger-zone. I dare say that by this time next week we might actually be able to use our driveway. And this was hiding underneath all along:
This is the first day in Hazel’s walking-life that she has really gotten to play outside. We don’t have a clear yard, still, but it’s such a remote, quiet place that we spent an hour and a half walking up and down the gravel roads and roaming around in the driveway(path). She clearly has a fierce, instant love for the outdoors. She could barely contain her excitement over all of the things to touch, the mud, the sounds, the sticks, the rocks, the breeze in her hair. She cried and cried and cried when we came in the house and promptly fell fast asleep under a lightweight blanket with a spring breeze swirling through the screen and around the room – it’s a whole new life, really. How do children lose this love for nature? I hope she never does. Mikey’s mom got me this last year – it’s time to dive in!
People thought 17 floors was high up: our neighbors don’t have a backyard, they have a cliff.
Listening: nothing at all
(I am) Reading: The Poisonwood Bible
(Hazel is) Reading: The Shape of Me and Other Stuff
Working on: blanket; custom jewels; things things things
I hesitate to post this for fear of bringing on more snow, but I think… I think… it’s over. Now, I’m not forgetting the year that we got hit with a massive, incapacitating blizzard in March, but that melted off (and flooded everything) quickly because… it was March. These blizzards we’ve had over the past two months are still hanging around to the tune of a little bit less than two feet of snow and a driveway that we still can’t use for anything other than walking, but I am hopeful. Ice is sliding off of the roof in avalanche-like quantities. Our friend Big Damn Snow Bank On The Ramp has died an ugly death. Water is pouring through the gutters. The road is totally clear. There are 54-degree days in the forecast.
That big one is the size of my leg.
Darla and Trevor were home for a few days this week and said they’ve never seen this much snow up here in 20 years, which was a huge comfort and made us feel less INSANE. They asked how we weathered the cabin fever, and all I could think to reply was “well, we’re still married.” I really have felt like that… that if we were still friends by the time winter ended I would be satisfied.
While they were here we spent a few days with Mikey’s mom so they could have the run of their own house, so Mikey could still get some school work done (Kelly and the kids were here too – full, noisy house), and so Jan could spend some time with Hazel, who has barely seen her grandmas and grandpas any more than when we lived in Canada since we’ve been stuck up on this hill so much since we moved here. It felt strange to be in civilization again. Hazel needs new sneakers for running around outside (!)… so I just went out shopping (didn’t find anything). I went to the craft store and forgot something so I just… went back the next day. Amazing.
I feel like I can breathe again. I have motivation again. I finally started five Christmas presents that I had given IOUs for… I just didn’t have the time with the move and holidays immediately after so I let myself off the hook instead of spontaneously combusting from the stress, and then when I did have the time after Christmas I was stuck in the house all the time and there was no sunshine and the thought of making five of the same, very time consuming thing made me panic a little. So… they will be March presents.
I also finally finished those pajama pants before we left for the ‘burg. Some bib-to-be-fabric that never made it, a goodwill-ed pillowcase, and an old brown tshirt of Mikey’s:
Hazel is napping. The sun is out. The house is clean. Mikey is gone. I don’t even know what to do with myself. Edit all those Etsy photos I took last week, I suppose.
Oh yeah, I ripped out this scarf. I got about a third of the way in and realized I can make the cables look way better now that I know how to do it. Plus… it has served its purpose – knitting scarves makes snow go away. Now that I see the yarn made into something I rather think it would make a very nice tiny sweater. Anyone have faith that I could actually learn how to knit a sweater? I’m not so sure.
Listening: drip, drip, drip
(I am) Reading: The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (yep, I’ve now swaptree-ed almost everything she’s written)
(Hazel is) Reading: Welcome Spring (thanks Grandma & Gabe’s!)
Working on: Christmas presents for 2009 AND 2010 – only in my crafting universe does this happen; not giving up on the blue & gold blanket being done this winter; some custom necklaces
RIP, blog entries back to November. I probably won’t miss you.
So there was some kind of catastrophe with the servers that our websites are on this weekend and nothing from the past few months could be restored. This doesn’t concern me too much – I tried to fix the links that had been added/deleted in that time, and at some point I will add the little “what I’m listening to” box back into the sidebar. Mikey lost a whole bunch of stuff, and his email and all of his band pages are on those servers, too. Oops. If I cared about eternally preserving these entries I would write them in a notebook, not put them on the interwebs.
Anyway, not a lot happened in my absence. I made some new things and listed them for sale in my shop. Some necklaces a few days ago (the housewife is my favorite) and some more fun plastic earrings this afternoon (more beads in the mail today!):
I’ve also been making lots of stuff for Danielle’s show and trying to figure out how to display what. Maggie made TEN bags and fifty cards and is getting those in the mail, which I can’t WAIT to see. I’ll be way more confident with MAGGIE’S goods on my table! I’ve been getting stuff from Etsy-ers left and right, and Etsy as a whole is sending me some promotional stuff from their press team. So far the people coming the furthest to this show are from Wisconsin and South Carolina. Not FROM those places… they’re WV boys… you know what I mean. I’m really excited / sad / nervous / excited / sad / nervous.
It snowed a whole bunch and Paisley LOVES it. Photos under the cut of frozen campus (I forget which one… they all run together. I know it’s not Mikey’s) and of her playing. I found a remote corner with big drifts and no people/streets so I could take off her leash and let her run. At first she freaked out and pressed herself against my legs, scared of her new freedom and the weird fluffy white stuff. Then she RAN… it was the most adorable clumsiness I have ever witnessed. She kept falling and grunting and rolling and flailing around. By the time we got home she was soaked and shivering and still wanting more.
What else. My tonsils are swollen. I probably shouldn’t have them… this happens every year. I’ve watched six episodes of season two of LOST in the past few days, and finally caught last Wednesday’s episode online just before they removed it from the site for copyright infringement. It’s on at seven again this week, and sometimes I have to work until seven or after. I think this means that I will finally have to learn how to program a vcr to tape something for me. I’ve never in my life had something worth taping. I need to talk to someone on the phone. Last night I called Meggan & Angie, who weren’t home, my parents’ house, which was busy, and Jess, who was out somewhere (but Dustin was watching Lost - I’m so proud!). I gave up and watched Lost, too.
I got most of our taxes done today and Mikey has to do his fafsa tonight. Bills are paid, letters are waiting to be mailed out, the floor is swept. I love getting things DONE. I hate my JOB. It keeps me from getting things DONE.
The dog and the laundry still need washed. Eh.
Ok, photos. Then eating cereal and then boiling old vinyl records. Nothing good, I promise.
