Little Crafts

Here is an overview of some of my favorite crafts from this and the previous years!

Fabrics:

Floral coasters for my sister & Lila

Animal coasters for Cassie (vet-to-be!) & David's wedding

Rail-fence quilt while in progress for Emily's baby shower

My first finished quilt! Very exciting :)

Shoulder bag

Cards

32 Hour Weeks

Highlight of this week is now working 32 (four-day) weeks instead of 40. This is a permanent change worked out very kindly with my boss and now I will have a little more time to regain sanity.

I've spent the first two days off working on a new quilt. It is using a Pickety Sticks quilt design that I borrowed from Staci. Staci and I also had a little venture out to the quilting guild meeting last night, but not before having some delicious tortellini and trying one of their homemade Moscow Mules. The ones we made at Christmas failed miserabley to compare to how they make theirs (read: I actually liked these ones!)

Life Changes

So many things have happened this year.

Started with returning from Sikorsky in May. Jeremy and I took a wonderful trip to Kaua'i, and hoping to return when the time allows; it was beautiful and warm and super relaxing. The fresh coconut was awesome, as well as the sand, the views, the massive amounts of water, and lack of people.

We were offered a job and relocation, with no increase in pay, and it was definitely rejected by the entire office. It was most excellent!

Jeremy and I decided to buy a house, I couldn't be on the mortgage though as I already 'owned' a house in Great Falls, so that was a bit unfortunate-but still my house too, right!

Also have an adorable fluffy black cat named Trix. We were able to adopt her free from a family we bought some other items, such as a display case, washer & dryer set, and extra fridge.

We got our house in November (14th?); so nice to move in and get out of the squish with Codi's condo.

New job started one week after I left CDI; I know work with MSU as part of the Web Communications, directly under Jake-a good friend of Jeremy's. He will be officiating the wedding.

Luis made it into med school and now they are all having to relocate to Colorado, but hopefully they will all enjoy it there. Adrian and Luisito are growing up very quickly. Luisito is doing well with his autism, starting school early and learning songs.

Daddy has been selling off his houses in Great Falls; Mommy is doing well. Grandma and Grandpa had to put their dachshund, Maggie, down this week. It is very hard for them and she will be missed. (Hopefully now playing up in doggy heaven with Cody :)) They have also decided to put their home up for sale and try to move to Great Falls, I am hoping the best for them!

I did choir this year, and it was great fun. We had a ton of Christmas shows and some other random shows and contest in Spokane. The ladies are great, though I had to take a leave as I was feeling just overwhelmed from it all. I also took class fall and spring, programming classes and a business class.

Jeremy has been working at Bridger Photonics; it pays the bills, but not his ideal job. We will be getting married on September 18th. I am very excited! We got the dresses picked out (David's Bridal 8567), tuxes, colors, hair, photos, save the dates, invitations are almost done, etc :) Pretty exciting! Can't wait for the pictures!

Connecticut Month Eight

Well Heck, it has been a long and enjoyable time out here. Excited to be finally going home!

Through my time here I have officially gone to:
Pennsylvania: Philadelphia, Harrisburg, Hershey, Lancaster
Maryland: Baltimore (Inner-Harbor)
Delaware: Ocean City
Washington DC
Virginia: To turn back to DC
New York: NYC, Poughkeepsie
New Jersey: Old Tappan & surrounding cities, New Jersey Shoreline
Rhode Island: Newport, Westerly
Maine: Portland, Kennebunk
New Hampshire: State Liquor Store
Massachusetts: Boston, Newton
Vermont: Waterbury, Queeche, Montpelier
Connecticut: Milford, Hartford, Mystic, New Haven, Trumbull, Ansonia, Derby, Bridgeport

Connecticut grocery stores: Shaw's, IGA, Stop N Shop, Shop Rite

Connecticut snow and rain becomes a strange smooth crunchy surface!

Dead trees give way to the enormous amount of shops and malls hiding behind them.


Also, CDI is considering a permanent relocation to West Palm Beach FL, without raise but "possibly" a relocation bonus. Will be soon to figure out what I'm doing in life. Kudos!

Connecticut Week Three

After returning from my trip to Pennsylvania, I noticed an actual Wal-Mart near Derby (off of 34). I really like 34, everytime I hit that road, I feel right at home.

So this weekend, I had a few more hours that needed to get incorporated into my work week, so I figured I'd head to Wal-Mart and then I went to work. I didn't get too much from Wal-Mart but did buy a nice pair of shoes from a nearby shoe store.

My big hope for this weekend was to go to the Savin Rock fair in West Haven. It seemed pretty cool actually, Savin Rock was an old theme park. I believe now it is just a museum of what it used to be, but if it was free, it still would have been cool to see! On my course towards West Haven, I found a Texas Roadhouse (the place with the awesome rolls & honey butter!) I didn't really want to eat alone, but the waitress was very sweet so it made lunch a little nicer. After stuffing myself with BBQ, I used my google maps to find Savin Rock... but unfortunately must have missed it somewhere. I swear it was not at all where it was supposed to be! Oh well... That's why we have google and virtual vacations, right? I did get to see the shoreline of West Haven, including a fish restaurant. And all in all, had a decent weekend, just because I was able to get myself out of my place.

Connecticut Week Two

Stick to Google maps-Don't get me wrong, I love the Tomtom that Ian let me use, but my trip to Philadelphia was doing better without it. No more GPS for now... Music helps a lot better with the confusion that comes to me from driving around places I don't know.
I ended up getting some gas at Bethlehem and then when I got near Allentown, PA, I ended up being directed by Tomtom to take an access road, which was (fortunately?) not gated off. Half a mile from King of Prussia (where I was meeting up with Chris) I find myself at a tole. The lady says, "I need your ticket, dear. Your ticket..." and upon pointing to my GPS and saying it took me down some access road, she offers no sympathy (My personal opinion, life must suck working in a tole booth) and charges me $17 to pass. At this point, I'm a little irritated but am just happy to finally see Chris again after 2.5 months.

We went driving around the nearer parts of Philly, but there was a big accident (10:30 PM) on the road we wanted to take so we did a more scenic tour. The coolest part in Philadelphia at the nighttime was Boathouse Row. About 5 houses that have strings of Christmas lights outlining them, and it looks really awesome to the human eye. Pictures don't do it justice.

We then got into a backed-up interstate about 5 miles from King of Prussia, and the worst part was we both had to pee really bad, lol. So our 5 mile ride home took about 1.5 hours the whole while cringing at every small little bump and me trying to keep Chris sane enough so he wouldn't jump out of the car and pee on the meridian.

Also, my first time at Hooters- I thought the place was just rather strange, especially the socks they wear, but they had decent quesadillas.


Philadelphia- Chris went to work in the morning so I just hung out around the hotel & (yay!) got my laundry done. After he got home, we went into Philadelphia (only about 10 minutes away) and visited the Liberty Bell and the historical places around there. The LOVE statue was also very cool, made me want a shirt of it-but I didn't see any sold anywhere. I got mom a couple post cards and a deck of cards from a Liberty Bell shop.

We went to a generously sized food court, and Chris got some Thai food (with Curry). The lentil soup was pretty decent, but the curry was strange.. And I didn't want to get sick to my stomach on my vacation there; especially since I had to drive back home the next day, but I didn't end up getting sick, so I suppose I could have downed some more of that (not-so-good) curry stuff.

We then headed toward the mall; got some gummy candy, flip flops and an epilator (a.k.a. masochistic shaver). Chris gave me shit because I couldn't imagine how the flip flops would feel good and then ended up buying a pair. We ended up eating late at some restaurant in the mall, I had something fish & it was very good.

Sunday- we drove out to where Chris is staying. (I got to go to Target and buy a bunch of things I had wanted to get! Sheets, granola bars, the works... lol) The buggies are hilarious and just the way the Amish make a total living out of tourists is rather amusing as well. Ended our Sunday at the Train Station nearby and I really enjoyed it. It reminded me of when I used to go on vacations with my parents, actually. And its always awesome to walk through the cars even if they're a bit worn down.

I didn't get started driving home until about 4:30, got lost (Took the NY Thruway North instead of South) and ended up in Poughkeepsie, NY. But eventually did get home to New Haven around 9:30.

Sikorsky ice cream party on Friday-woohoo :)

Connecticut Week One

Here's to me actually remembering to bring my headphones to work. I've forgotten 3 days straight.. They make the long work days even longer, I'm sure anyone who works best with their music can definitely relate!

There's a lot of pretty sights to see here during the day time. Just a little shady at night-excuse the pun-and it is recommended you keep yourself inside then.



The people I'm staying with are very nice =) Ian and Stephanie (I'm not exactly sure how she spells her name, not to insult!) Ian showed me around town this weekend, downtown, Yale and the train station, which will definitely come in handy next weekend! Chris and I will hopefully be meeting up in NYC.

Apart from that, went to a nearby Italian grocery store today; bought some squiggly noodles! Expensive, but I just wanted to see what they looked like cooked. Isn't that silly?




Also got to try out a lot of food today; including German mineral water, strange pork meat, and flatbread & hummus. (Now I know why Jeremy said ask for water without gas! This water is rather strange; I happen to enjoy the smooth, nothingness taste of regular water!)

Didn't quite make it to the mall this weekend, but will do soon. For now, time to enjoy some watermelon!

I'll be putting in 50 hours a week at Sikorsky, hopefully-(Hopefully I am allowed to, and hopefully I can stay motivated enough to do it!)