The Great Big Wonderful Moselle

Crazy, I know, but driving 16 hours round trip can be a bit expensive. This year we had planned for the girls and I to travel down for a week over Thanksgiving, but after Grandaddy's funeral jaunt our Moselle bound funds were up. Thankfully we worked it out and came down the week after Thanksgiving. Our trip that was supposed to last 7 days turned out to last 20... it was hard to leave and the trip back seemed so daunting. Mom and Dad were gracious enough to rearrange their renovating schedule and put some of the rooms back together for us to stay :). The whole visit turned out much easier than I had bargained for, and I was able to finish Mom's crochet order while I was down there.


Mimi and Papa had some great ideas for entertaining the girls while the weather was dreary. Here are some reindeer cookies that turned out quite tasty :).

 There was always outside entertainment too :).

  Mimi made some awesome play-dough!

Nashville traffic is insane.

I am soooo behind in updating this for my lurkers back in Mississippi and in going through pictures taken. I can't seem to condense pictures of particular moments down to one or two, so the last few months will come through in several belated posts.

This past mid-November my grandfather died. Although not completely unexpected, suffering through so many ailments and diseases, he had teetered at the brink for so long that his death still came as a surprise. He is missed every day, but I know for him passing on to heaven must have been a huge relief.

Travelling back to Mississippi with the girls for the funeral was not easy, but thankfully due to Andy and Mandy, much smoother than I had expected. Aly is a first rate traveller, with a brief lapse in vomiting due to heat and evil Nashville traffic. Lorelei is two and even treated the ride much better than I could have imagined.

Being together with family, visiting with members I hadn't seen in a few years was a highlight in a sad time. Grandaddy's great-grandchildren are all female, which made the meal after amusing. 

Of course it would be Aly clapping and throwing her arms up.

Getting the toddler and Lorelei in on the fun

And now the solo is taken by L

Hailee is so awesome.

The trip was fast, traveling two days and staying one, so we enjoyed every moment spent together.

Trick or Treat!

Aly, Lorelei, and I both just finished our first Halloween trick-or-treating. As far as my memory serves, I've never been. They were both old enough to go last year, but Mandy's wedding trumped that :). This year I probably went a bit overboard since it was the first time for the three of us :).

Aly was the Princess from the Princess and the Pea. I ordered her dress from minimooh and handmade the rest of her outfit. She had a gold thread tiara, a peapod with three sweet peas (we named them Peony, Daisy, and Peter), and carried a pillowcase to keep the theme. The pillowcase was a badddd idea. For makeup we princessified her, with this inspiration. At the last minute I made up a wrister pattern so her hands wouldn't be cold whilst out begging for candy.

Lorelei wasn't old enough to understand/care when I asked her what she wanted to be for Halloween, so she was stuck in a mass market butterfly costume. I did make her a bit unique by adding some fairy makeup :).

I was the only adult brave enough to wear a costume. Enter Brain Slug headband, from Futurama.

We went up and down Delaney's neighborhood. At first Aly and Lorelei were appropriately cowed by the prospect of door-to-door candy delivery, all for the price of a three word question. Eventually, as the wonder wore off and the exuberant generosity of the neighbors played its part, the greedy monster in them came to the fore. At one point Aly started asking specifically for chocolate, and Lorelei would steadily take candy package after candy package and deposit them in her basket.

Although we had a lot of fun, this sort of event really brings to mind how much we miss Matt and how much he is missing. We've been here over a month now with Matt only visiting three days out of that. Keep us in mind as we go through this job application process AGAIN this year, as Game Stop does not seem to want to transfer him.

Harry Potter

Since the first part of the last Harry Potter-made-into-movie will be here in just 20 days (squee!), this seemed apropos :). I DARE you not to be interested by the trailer.

Which Hogwarts house will you be sorted into?

Discouraged

I'm feeling very discouraged right now. Every hope we've had the past few months has gone awry, with this morning's just the latest in a long line.

First was the hope that we'd be able to sell conventionally, but the Realtor's honest market appraisal ruined that. Next was Matt's friend Patrick, who wanted to buy our house, being denied mortgage approval until he could sell his current residence. Now we thought we had finally found a good home for Darcy, a home that would assuredly take wonderful care of Darcy, with kids just the right age to really bond with him... and that hope has been crushed as well. Worse this time, since we were just two days away from the new owner picking him up.

Maybe all these hopes, all these potential saviors for a particular part of our present situation (I can't even feel excitement over my alliteration), are just signs that we're not following the path that we should be. I can't help but think of how everything came together for Wes and Carole to move, as if God had blessed their move.

I don't know what to do. I just want to go back to bed until the creditors come and take the house away.

I know that we could have it much worse, that we've been blessed in how much we've had our family and friends help us thus far, and that we at least have a place to go. Two really, with my parents offer as well. With that understanding I've resigned myself to many things, albeit not always quietly. This is my end, though.

Soon

Life around here's been a-changin'. We now have less than a month before we move to Knoxville to start over. Boxes are being packed, every room is a shell; dismantled piece by piece.

Part of me is terrified; terrified that our life won't change enough, will change too much, that we are making a bad decision. I've always ignored that terrified little voice when I've had a chance to visit or move somewhere new, maybe because I've not had that many chances to do so. Now that I have lives to consider beyond mine, are we making the wrong decision?

San Jose, Costa Rica

Backstage at Carnegie Hall, NYC

Annnnnd then the excitement takes over. Living closer (too close for them, probably ;)) to all of Matt's immediate family, closer to my sister and her husband, close to a part of the country that I've always wanted to live... well, that takes most of my concern away. I'm still left with a teensy bit of guilt for taking my parents' grandchildren so far away from them, but even that can't temper all of my hope and excitement.

I've been trying to not get my hopes up, not expect anything, and just focus on the present in terms of moving. Nonetheless, I have no doubt that some of my depression and worries will alleviate with our new locale.It will be so nice to get move on, work towards a stress free point where we can start reaching for our ideas and dreams again.  Matt has been super excited too; he has missed living close to his family. Aly asks nearly every day when we're moving to "Ten'see."

Aly's Birthday

Here is another group of photos I never published. As Matt got fired right after Aly's birthday, our plans to take her and her cousin Hailee to  NOLA's Children's Museum were canceled. Mom graciously took up the reins, and threw a small birthday party for her at their house. Here are the pictures, in no particular order :).

****Sidebar: Someone needs to give me photography lessons, stat. These are just pitiful.*****

February 20

Cake!

Princess Aly and her ladies in waiting

Pretty Pretty Princess ;)

April being attacked at all sides

Yeah, this is a bad picture. But I love the angle and the look on Aly's face

For Lorelei, cake is srs bsns

Our Happiness

A draft I found that I never published. The pictures kept getting all wonky. I think everyone's seen these pictures anyway on Facebook, but here they are again for your viewing pleasure.


Jan.28.2010

A Horse of a Different Color

This year I did something supremely selfish; I spent a bit of my birthday money actually on myself. I'm not being sarcastic or insincere, I truly feel guilty for it. After six months with us getting by on the grace of God and family with no tunneled light, spending money that doesn't cover a basic need  is very frivolous. But what's done is done, and I am trying to just enjoy my purchase :).

My gift was 3 felting kits. After seeing some gorgeous needle felted and wet felted art on Etsy, as well as loving the fulled look of something I've crochet, I was itching to try my hand on it. There is an element of sculpting with felt that can't be done with crochet, or at least takes much more in depth analysis of the stitch mechanics to do so. Needle felting intrigues me more with its wool + needle = felt. Crazy.

Sam the Sophisticated Skeleton by Papermoongallery

My first project was a bunny magnet from Etsy's Hifiberkits. I made him into a red, widow's peak-less Bunnicula from James Howe's series.

 Roving

Pictures

I realized that we haven't been taking pictures of the girls lately, too much caught up in the 'what if's' to remember the present. All the pictures that have been taken the past few months have been to advertise things I've made. These aren't the greatest pictures, but oh well. They're still cute :).

July 10