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. :)

Nishnabotna!

The high point of every trip to see Ben's family's (the traveling part, not the whole trip - this is NOT an insult!) is passing the Nishnabotna River. It's one of the most fun words I've ever heard of! Go ahead - say it out loud. LOL Doesn't it just make you smile?! I was even asleep on the way home yesterday and Ben woke me up to see the sign. I just love it. It makes me happy! Nishnabotna! Nishnabotna! Nishnabotna!

Cake Decorating

I've recently rediscovered the fun of cake decorating. Mom used to decorate cakes for our birthdays and things like that. So that's how I learned. But I hadn't done it for years. Anyway, I decided to make one for a friend's birthday last month. Then a friend last week said she liked decorated cakes. So I made one for her birthday. It was the first time I'd tried the lace pattern. I thought it turned out nice. It was fun! I'm excited to start doing it again.

Monday catch up

So, this last week was busy! Ben was sick the beginning of the week (and even he admits that he's a bad sick person :) ), so I had to take care of him. Then the church retreat was this weekend. Pretty hectic beforehand, but it turned out really good. The speaker talked about the Sermon on the Mount. Said things differently than usual. Lot of people attended. It was a great weekend. But thinking back on it, one of the nicest things about the retreat was going early (cause I did the food) with Ben and sitting outside with him. We don't get away very often by ourselves. It was great. And we actually are getting away this week. A friend gave me a gift certificate to a bed and breakfast for helping in her wedding, so Ben and I are going to Fort Scott, KS, this Thursday. The place is an old Victorian house. Supposed to be very cool. And the downtown is antique-y. And there's a museum/historical site about the fort. We thought that sounded fun. Then on Friday, we head up to Lincoln to see Ben's family and go to the wedding of a high school friend. Which just reminded me that I have to get a wedding present! yikes! better go! stuff to do!