So we made it to Texas. The trip wasn't as bad as I had feared. :) We stopped twice to feed Anne during the first half of the trip, before we stopped at my grandparents' house. My grandfather is not doing well; he's in the final stages of Alzheimer's disease. I was glad we had the chance to stop and see them. The picture is my grandmother holding Anne. Then we came the rest of the way to Mount Pleasant. By the end, Anne had decided that she was tired of her car seat. I don't know that I blame her!

When we got here, Anne was asleep, but her cousin Rebecca was awake. She was so excited to meet Anne! When she saw her, her hands and feet just started moving. It was so funny. We're going to take pictures of them together tomorrow, so I'll post them soon.

It's time for bed, so I'll post pictures with the other grandparents tomorrow.

Smiles

She's smiling so much now! It's very fun!

Here's another photo of Anne. She's so beautiful! I did want to tell you all that her tests went well. They are almost positive that everything is perfectly fine. They still want to do an MRI, but that won't be for a while and it's just to confirm their current diagnosis - it's just some extra tissue that won't be an issue. If it doesn't ever bother Anne, she'll probably always have it. Great news! Thanks for praying.

If you want to see more pictures, go to her album at http://picasaweb.google.com/melodiebooton/Anne.

Anne Cecilia Booton has arrived!!!

Well, here she is, the one we all been waiting for, our new baby, Anne Cecilia Booton.

Anne was born on Saturday November 3, 2007 at 5:33pm. She weighed 8 pounds, and 13 ounces. She was born with a bump on her back which needs to be removed, but the doctors have to find out what it is first. It could be serious. The doctors have stated that it is most likely a cyst but they will need to check to make certain it is not pushing spinal fluid into the brain. We have an appointment for a sanogram tomorrow. Please, pray she'll be alright.

-Ben

So now I feel ready for the baby to come. My mom came and stayed for a week and worked and inspired me to work. We rearranged the furniture in my whole house, stained or painted or touched up five pieces of furniture, hung two roller blinds, put curtains on four curtains, finished recovering a chair, tiled the bathroom floor, hung tons of pictures, recovered two pillows (would have done more, but my sewing machine quit. I still haven't figured it out...). Anyway. I'm exhausted. But happy. It's always fun to have my mom here, and there's no way I would have gotten all of this done without her. So now my baby can be born. :)

The twice-annual church retreat was this weekend. And my friend Scott found this poem and posted it on his blog (Two Empty Hands: "I wear the facade of pseudo peace"). And I really liked it, so I took it. :) Anyway. I really like the last stanza.

Befriending Chaos
By Barbara Mayer, OSB
Atchison, Kansas

I hide chaos in the closets of my mind,
fearing to reveal my inner turmoil,
my lack of order, my inability to control
the frayed edges of my anxieties.
When confusion and turbulence
upset the smooth tempo of my life
I wear the facade of pseudo peace,
unaware of burgeoning new life
pushing through worn-out securities

Just as the universe evolves with both
order and turbulence, I too must embrace
the tsunamic upheavals of my life,
knowing they contain unlimited
opportunities for transformation.

I saw a bumper sticker this morning at the library: Make Abortion Unnecessary not Illegal. Now that's a bumper sticker I can get behind.

Here's my new niece! Rebecca Faye Torres. Born September 22 at about 10:15 p.m. I can't remember any of the other specifics. (I'm a horrible aunt!) Hopefully she and my baby will have lots of fun growing up together.

I'm currently reading Richard Foster's book Streams of Living Water: Celebrating the Great Traditions of Christian Faith. And of course with the baby coming soon, pretty much everything in my life says something about children, family, parenting, those sorts of things (some books say it's hormonal and there's nothing I can do about it!).

Anyway, so in the introduction of the book, he's talking about the Incarnational Tradition - the tradition that says that every part of your life is sacred; you can't separate your religious life from your secular life. Here, he's talking about Jesus' childhood and the fact that we are told very little about it.

We are given very little information about those growing-up years, but what we are given is highly suggestive. Not suggestive in the fanciful "sandbox miracles" kind of way that some have used to fill in those hidden years. No, suggestive in a much more ordinary way. But precisely because it is ordinary, it is all the more helpful to us....Most instructive of all is the simple comment of Luke after Joseph and Mary had found Jesus in the temple: "Then [Jesus] went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them" (Luke 2:51).

A whole world is carried in that unadorned observation that Jesus was "obedient to them." Jesus grew up under the tutelage of his parents, Joseph and Mary. And while Joseph is not heard from again, we can be confident that Jesus learned the carpentry trade from him and worked in that trade until he began his public rabbinic ministry at roughly the age of thirty.

We would do well to ponder those years Jesus spent as a carpenter working in what we today would call a blue-collar job. Where do you imagine Jesus learned to walk in perfect harmony with his heavenly Father? Where do you suppose he learned to "give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you" (Matt. 5:42)? Where do you imagine he came to experience such a life of single-minded devotion to God that he knew that "no one can serve two masters" (Matt. 6:24)? Where, I ask you, did he learn such a deep, intimate life of prayer that he could confidently teach us, "Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened" (Matt. 7:7)? Where do you think he learned to live out the words, "In everything do to others as you would have them do to you" (Matt. 7:12)? Where did he learn all these things and so much more? I will tell you where. He learned them in his carpentry work and at home with his parents and his brothers and sisters. Jesus did not all of a sudden one day start spouting nice sayings about God. No, when he began his public ministry, he was speaking out of a life that had been tested and tried. He had proven the teachings to be true over and over again as he sawed wood and assemble chairs and built cabinets.

And while I know that Foster is not saying that Joseph and Mary taught Jesus all he knew about God (he was divine, too, after all) I thought it was such an interesting take on how important parenting is. If they were that important in the life of the Son of God, how much more important are today's parents in the lives of our children?

Why is it that when you are in a hurry you get stopped by every stop light, but when you have plenty of time, you sail right through? This morning I was 10 minutes early to work because I only got stopped by one light, but last week, driving the exact same route, to my midwife appointment, I didn't leave quite early enough and ended up late because I got had to stop at every light!

So a short synopsis of the time since I blogged:

Seth, my brother, moved to Oklahoma City. Seems like he's having a good time and adjusting well. We're very excited for him.

I moved the living room furniture. I love moving furniture! I probably shouldn't have done it by myself, but I wanted it done before Ben got back. It like it, but it still needs a little tweaking. I bought material to cover pillows for the couch, and redo the antique rocker and the dining room chairs, and I'm very excited about it! I'm going to start on part of that tonight.

Ben got back Sept 6. It's soooo nice to have him home. He's back in school, so he's extra busy, so we haven't done anything really cool, but it's great.

My aunt and uncle came and stayed with us for 3 days last week. They're missionaries, so we don't get to see them very often, so it was nice to visit with them. And my dad had meetings in KC last week, so he was with us all week. That was good, too. My mom didn't come as planned since we thought my sister would have her baby.

Speaking of which, my sister had a little girl, Rebecca, on Saturday night! Very exciting. They went home from the hospital today and are doing very well.

The weather cooled off today! It definitely feels like fall which is great! And just the anticipation of that was enough to make me want to bake on Sunday! So I made this great pumpkin pie cake. Here's the recipe. It was pretty easy and everyone loved it.

And I used the word proclivity in a normal conversation today. Without trying - it just came out. I had to stop the conversation and comment on it, it was so much fun. I love using big words. :)

And I think that pretty much gets you caught up. At least on the short version. Happy Fall!

This is a picture of Quito from Panecillo (the top of that hill).

So I know I'm delinquent in posting pictures from Ben. and he's only sent me a few. But here are two that are really nice. This is a picture of Panecillo (the angel statue at the top of the hill) from the school that he's attending.

I've gotten to Mount Pleasant. The trip on Sunday was fairly uneventful except for the guy the last 15 minutes that decided to go 15 UNDER the speed limit in an area where I couldn't pass him. It made me so mad! But I got here. Mom and I have been sewing baby slings. We've finished three and started another. It's kind of fun. My last one was shaping out to be a disaster (we made several stupid mistakes) but now it just looks creative and special. My mom is so imaginative! :) And yesterday was Dad's birthday, so we're having the whole family over for dinner.

Ben is doing well. He really likes his tutor. He's learning a lot, but not always getting his homework done. He loves the cool weather! He had a bit of altitude sickness when he first got there, but he's doing better now. He's taken lots of pictures; so when he sends them to me then I'll post some. He was supposed to go to an art museum on Monday, but it rained, so they didn't go. I hope he goes later. And I love technology. I don't know how I'd do it otherwise. We've e-mailed or chatted or talked every day he's been gone. Yesterday we figured out how to do the webcam/microphone Skype call. It's great.

This weekend is a family reunion. We leave on Thursday.

Ben's off to Ecuador. He'll get there about 9 tonight. His flight from Miami was an hour late taking off because they found out that someone had checked a bag in but had not boarded the plane. Ben said he saw the firetrucks and HazMat truck out there before the pilot told them what was up. Fun stuff. Oh, and we overslept our alarm clocks this morning. Good grief. It's a good thing that he was completely packed by the time we went to bed. We never would have made it otherwise! But we got there in plenty of time. Thank goodness (for once) that Kansas City is a small airport. Speaking of not so small airports, he got to ride the train at DFW and thought that was pretty cool. After walking for almost 30 minutes from arrival gate to departure gate in Miami, he thinks they should invest in a similar system! :) And today was busy for me, so that is good! Now I get to go home and clean up the mess that is left from packing for a month away. oh joy.......

Well, we no longer own a cat. We delivered our cat to Ben's sister's mother-in-law last Thursday night. So she's now an outside cat. It was a little sad. After Ben gets back from Ecuador in September, we'll get a little dog. That will make Ben feel better, I think.

G. K. Chesterton

"How can it be a large career to tell other people's children about arithmetic and a small career to tell one's own children about the universe? How can it be broad to be the same thing to everyone and narrow to be everything to someone?"

Thanks to Sarah for that quote!

Peaches!

So the best thing about this summer is the peaches and apricots. I've always liked them, but I absolutely cannot get enough! I can eat three a day! Which is sad since they don't usually fit in my grocery budget. Every time I'd pass them in the market, I'd breathe in the wonderful scent, then sigh. So it made my day today when I got the grocery ads and found out they're on sale this week. :) Ben laughed at me. But like I always say, if you can't get joy out of the little things in life, you'll spend most of your life depressed. I like my way best!

We're back from our trip to Illinois. Steph's wedding was beautiful. I think she ended up happy with everything which is the most you can ask from a bride. :) I only made one fairly noticeable mistake on all the music, which is the most I can ask of me! :) I was too busy doing things to take pictures, so Ben took all of what we got. And I've been too tired since we got back to even think about looking at them. Maybe tomorrow I'll look through them and post some.

Good news! We worked at how to rearrange the bedrooms to include baby things and I think it won't be as hard as I originally thought! It was actually pretty fun. Ben measured everything and we made a 2-d scale model of the bedrooms with furniture so that we could move everything around and "experience" different ways without actually moving furniture. So much more fun than the online version. I get so tired of doing things on the computer. Feeling something with my fingers is so much better. :)

It's a girl!

Not much to say besides that. :) We're excited. I dreamed last night I was having a girl. (for whatever that's worth.) I, of course, went out immediately and got some cute sleepers. And an adorable little jean jacket! :) I could go on and on, but I'll spare you.

I'm halfway though my pregnancy! Unbelievable. Ben heard the heartbeat through my belly last week.

Race Across America

My brother is on the team of a man who is doing the Race Across America. www.raceacrossamerica.org Tom Seabourne is the guy riding. They started in Oceanside, California, on Sunday and will end in Atlantic City, New Jersey. He's in twentieth place right now. Very cool! Won't it be amazing for him to see so much of the country?

So my whole family came for Memorial Day. Dad, Mom, sister and her husband, and my younger brother. So Ben and I had to clean out the garage for someone to sleep down there. Straightening it up was less work than we anticipated, but cleaning it was a lot of work! It's just very dirty! The last guy that lived there did a lot of woodworking and there was sawdust everywhere. But its done now. Ben built another shelf. He just really likes woodworking. :)

And now my dad is here for two weeks doing doctoral work at NTS. It's been kinda nice. We've never spent just a lot of time alone, so it's been fun.

Ben and I took a picnic today. I just wanted to leave the house. He just wanted peace and quiet. So we ended up at Loose Park. Ate our picnic in the shade and then just laid there. There was a nice breeze. It was great. And we found out there's a spray park at Loose Park! Isn't that cool? There were quite a few kids there today. Ben loves water and thought it looked like fun. I told Ben, once we have our baby, no one will look at him weird for going to places like that. But for this summer, he'll have to borrow a kid or two. :) He might just do it. Side note: I really hope our kids aren't as scared of water as I am. It's kind of annoying.

I really love fireflies! I can see tons from my back deck.

Okay, I'm determined not to make all my posts as long as that one just a little bit ago. So I'll go!

Okay, I know I said I'd write more often. But this week is the Trinity All-church Retreat. It's great fun, but a lot of work to plan. So I've been swamped with that this week. But it's been a good week. I think I'm getting over the first trimester slump. I've had more energy. Well, it could just be adrenaline, but I'm saying it's that I've got more energy. Cause that's more optimistic! :)

Happy Spring

So it's been way too long since I've posted, I realize. And unfortunately I can't really blame being too busy. Parties, showers, and the like, but I lost two piano students. Well, it doesn't really equal out, but anyway. I've almost completed a crocheted tote bag. Very cute. I just have to finish the other handle and line it with fabric (the hardest part since I procrastinate anything having to do with sewing!). Tamara's baby girl was baptized yesterday and wore the hat I crocheted her. It was beautiful. (I'm going to make one for my baby too, I'm just waiting to find out whether it's a girl or boy). Went to Kristine's graduation party on Saturday. Now that both she and Set are finished with school, it will be easier to schedule things to do with them. That sounds nice. We're going to try to take some kind of trip this summer before the baby. Camping probably. They found one place but it involved hiking 5 miles in and another 5 miles out. I told them I probably wasn't up for that! :) Ben and I have started talking about how to redo the rooms upstairs and clean the basement. I'm not much for fully decorated themed nurseries. So most people will probably think I'm scarring the poor child for life. Oh well. I'm thinking a mural of a city skyline on the wall. Doesn't that sound cool? Black shadow buildings on maybe a medium grey wall? With pictures of cities around the room? I think it sounds very cool. We'll see. I'm not much of a painter.... I planted a bunch of flowers to sit in pots on our back deck. I love to look at them when we sit outside. Ben and I are going to teach a Sunday School class on marriage at our church for eight weeks in May, June and July. We're very excited. Not because we have so much wisdom to impart, but just to get people started talking about marriages. In our culture people will talk about their sex lives but are leery about talking about problems in their marriages. I know, we were one of them. Anyway, we're thinking it will be a great step for our church. Prairie Home Companion is coming to Kansas City!!!! We're so excited to go! It's in June at Starlight, the outdoor theater. Today I finished reading "Shostakovich and Stalin: The Extraordinary Relationship Between the Great Composer and the Brutal Dictator." Fascinating! I know that I like music and history and when you put them together for me it's a must read. But still. The book was fascinating. I learned so much about the Russian people as a whole and Stalin. (okay, about Shostakovich, too!) It was so interesting to read the banter that Shostakovich and Stalin had. This author seemed to think that Shostakovich was one of the only people that was actually a match for Stalin. Not that he could have really won anything - Stalin would have just had him killed. But several times Shostakovich anticipated Stalin's move and did the thing that kept him just enough in Stalin's favor that he and his family were saved. But I loved reading about how he kind of "got the last word" through his music. Several times he would write a piece that exposed Stalin as a brutal dictator, but managed to hide it enough or pass it off as something else (like being about WW2) that he was praised instead of killed. Very sad, though, to read about the oppression and terror that they constantly lived with under Stalin. A lesser man would have given up. I can't find the quote in the book, but I think it was Khachaturian (a contemporary Russian composer) that said something like this about him, In spite of the controlling regime, Shostakovich managed to compose epic and progressive music; we (the rest of the Russian composers) wrote songs. That is why he is a genius and we are merely talented. I thought that was interesting. okay. Enough for now. Happy Spring!

We're having a baby!

So if you didn't know, now you do! And here's a picture. This is a profile of him (his head's on the left). I always said I wouldn't be one of those prego's that made friends look at pictures of "objects" that were supposed to be babies but didn't really look like it. But I can't help it. So here you go. And I know all first parents feel like this, but it was pretty neat. It definitely helped Ben "feel" pregnant since he can't feel the baby yet. We're pretty excited. Okay, I'll stop now. :) (Ben bet me yesterday that I couldn't go 5 minutes without talking about something baby related. I won!)

I love spring. I can't think of anything I don't like about it. The warmer weather. the thunderstorms. the flowers. the wildflowers. I even like the weeds. I passed a church today with a yard full of dandelions. They just look so happy. If they didn't end up looking so much like weeds after the flowers were gone, I'd plant them in my yard just to make me happy in the spring. :)

I love almost all L.M.Montgomery books. This week, I've reread Mistress Pat and came across a quote I loved. "It was going to be a dear quiet evening, such as she loved best, with every one and everything at Silver Bush (her home) happy. Pat loved to see things and people happy; and she herself had the gift, than which there is none more enviable, of finding great pleasure in little things." I love that. great pleasure in little things. We should all be more like that.

Happy Birthday, Ben!

Ben turned 30 today! He's not quite sure how to feel about it. :) He has to work 10 hours today which bummed him out, but we're going to have some friends over tomorrow for a "party." And he wants decorated birthday cake this year! It will be the first one I've ever made for him. He's always wanted some other dessert. I have leftover orange and purple and red icing (each from a different decorating project), so it's too bad none of them are masculine. I guess I'll just have to add blue icing to my stack of leftovers in the fridge. :)

Tulips

Tulips are coming! Ben discovered that my tulips are coming up already. They still have a ways to go before they bloom, but they're green! yay!

Yay for Spring!

It's spring! at least for this week. :) and I'm so happy! I was sick all last week, so it's perfect for the weather to be beautiful just when I'm feeling better. It feels like God did it just for me. :) Ben had to go to the orthodontist this morning, so we did that then went to Shawnee Mission Park. It was pretty windy, but other than that it was great. We walked along the lake edge and then walked up a trail through the [still rather dead-looking] woods. It will feel more like spring when there are flowers out, the grass is green, and buds are on the trees. But Easter is in a month and by then it will be perfect. Which just seems perfect to me. I've always thought it was a little odd to have Easter when it still feels like winter. Enough rambling for today. Gotta go. A friend's coming over to watch Heroes tonight. yay! After I've been sick, I love feeling like I have energy to do everything! It's such a fresh feeling. It makes me realize that when I complain that I'm busy and tired, maybe I'm just complaining. :)

Okay, since last blog...
Ben and I renovated the spare room closet. It's great! And it didn't really take much longer than we thought it would. We pretty much finished it in one day - Saturday. But the aftermath (the cleaning up and rearranging) took most of the day Monday. I did find time to go to the thrift store for their half off sale, though. I found lots of maternity clothes for my sister Julie. Did I mention she is pregnant? Not too many things for me (except 2 new purses - which if you know me - I don't need! I just have a fetish. :)) Mom found about 5 pairs of pants. She's always so lucky!
My mom and brother came on Monday for a denominational conference. It was from Monday night through Wednesday night. The seminars we went to were great. Ben and I are really excited about starting a marriage ministry at Trinity. And the weather was great! in the 60s all three days.
Thursday I was so tired! I slept late and went to bed early. :) And between those two things I had tea with Tamara. That was nice. I didn't have time to do that the week before.
Friday I substitute taught a special ed class. It wasn't that hard. There were a lot fewer of them, so I got to spend more time with each one which is nice since at heart I am a one-on-one kind of teacher.
And today I am sick. Ben's flu finally caught up with me. Must have been the 4 days of too little sleep. Oh well. I'm just glad it waited till after my family left. Unless I'm remarkably better tomorrow, though, I'll miss church. which would be the first time I've missed church cause I'm sick since we moved to KC - 6 years ago. Not a bad track record.
Okay, gotta go back to bed. The medicine's wearing off....

Warning: this is a rambling blog. It's just what came out when I was typing. :) If you know me well, you'll think I'm right there talking to you. Otherwise, welcome to the spastic mind of Melodie. :)

Okay, I'm still here. Finished a very cute baby hat last week. Now I'm working on a baby blanket for the same baby. When I've finished it, I'll take a picture for you guys. I think it's my favorite blanket yet. This may be my favorite Valentine's Day, too. Ben and I will actually be able to celebrate on an actual holiday. Since I quit my job (we'll celebrate in the morning cause he's still working the holiday). It's great. It's what normal people do. I got a great surprise this morning when my college roommate called me. We talked for an hour. It was very nice to catch up with her. And one of my friends here is going to collaborate with me and do the once-a-month cooking thing. two weeks for her, two weeks for me. We're very excited! We've both really wanted to try it. So we'll do one set and see how we like it. I think we're going to cook next Monday since she'll be off for President's Day. I love the idea of just having to take something out of the freezer and cook it. I'm thinking it may be one of those things that sounds like a great idea but turns out to be much different than the picture in your mind. But we'll see. Cause it sounds like it will be great. And we're going to get 2-4 inches of snow tonight. It's about time for warmer weather, ya know? :) Tulips are out in the stores. I love tulips, but it means that it's supposed to be getting warmer!

I had a great weekend! Started out by going to the Nelson Atkins Art Museum Friday night for their Chinese New Year celebration with two girlfriends. It was great! There was a dance performance by a San Francisco Chinese dance troupe. Then we listened to a Chinese musical group and watched the "Lion Dance." It was great.
Then Saturday I baked a marvelous mixed berry pie to take to a friends house for dinner. We had lots of fun. I also baked dinner and dessert for friends of mine that just had a baby. I cooked all day! Which of course was great, since I love to cook.
Then Sunday after church instead of watching the Super Bowl, I watched girly movies and read a cookbook (The 1896 Boston Cooking School Cookbook - fascinating! I was really surprised by house much still applies today and how much I actually learned.) and crocheted. I started this really pretty, frilly baby hat. It's my first thing to do with a really small hook. It's not as hard as I thought it would be. It just goes really slowly since the stitches are really small. Tonight I'm going to teach two girlfriends how to make the winter hats I've been making. And watch Heroes. It will be my first time, but they're both very into the show.

I just found out that my college piano professor died last Thanksgiving Day. This picture is of us the night of my senior recital. John Rosfeld was probably the most influential professor I had. It got me to thinking. Last week I got a survey from my college and one of the questions it asked was why I picked a Christian university and if it was worth the cost. People like Professor Rosfeld made it worth it. I sat a lot of hours with him during my four years in college. And while I was just supposed to learn how to better play the piano, you learn a lot more than that when you spend 200+ hours with a person. He was a good man. When bad things happened to him, he rose above them and responded in a quintessentially Christian manner. During lessons, he would often speak about his faith and how church was done. He thought a lot about what it meant to be a Christian church musician (and it didn't mean playing a lot of music!). He was a quiet unassuming man. So many musicians are performers. He wasn't. He was a teacher, a composer, a philosopher. It was a blessing in my life to sit under him. He inspired and taught me to be a better Christian, not just a better pianist. Rest in peace, John Rosfeld.

Still more hats!

So this is my favorite hat so far. Isn't the fuzzy brim the best?! Very soon, I hope to have some obsession besides crocheted hats to talk about! On another note, Jane Eyre was on Masterpiece Theatre last night. Brilliant! I have to read it again.

Hats, Hats, Hats

So I know I said I was done with hats. I wanted to be finished with hats. I tried to make a dishcloth, but I got bored before I finished. I guess I'm just not finished with hats. I made another this morning - a black one with a blue furry rim. It's adorable.

Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!

So I'm officially a really bad blogger! It's been 2 months! yikes!

Ben and I had a great holiday season. Went to Lincoln to see his family before Christmas. Went to Texas to see my family after New Years. Had a great time both places. I spent most of December finishing a sweater I crocheted my mother for Christmas. Hardest thing I've made yet! But it turned out wonderfully! I was very happy with it. But now I'm taking a break from hard things! I made a scarf, and now I'm on a hat craze. I've made 4. They're so fast and easy! And they're a great way to finish up yarn left over from other projects.

Because of Ben's job, we've spent several Christmases by ourselves, but I think maybe this was the best one. First we had some friends over for a formal Christmas lunch. Then I had a party for "orphans." It turns out that quite a few of our friends couldn't go home to family this year either. So I had a party! We watched Christmas movies, did crafts, and ate lots of food. It was great fun!

And now it's been sleeting and snowing for 3 days. So I'm home crocheting hats. I'm moving on to dishcloths tonight. I've decided. I'm done with hats. And hopefully I'm done with being such a blogger slouch. :)