A New Project

A few years ago, Joanna taught me how to crochet. I had started an afghan and took it to England with me, but never really worked on it (I have no idea why. To this day I can't seem to remember what I did in England that occupied so much of my time). I kind of forgot about crocheting through grad school and wedding planning.

My mom actually suggested I take it up again for a take back east for Thanksgiving. She thought it would give me something to do and keep me calm (she was totally right). So I took back enough yarn to work on a couple of projects. I got back into crocheting pretty quickly and finished a scarf in a couple of days, so we went and bought some more yarn. On the way home, I started and finished a scarf for my dad and started a scarf for my sister, both in OSU Black and Orange for the Civil War Game this weekend. GO BEAVS!

In talking with my mom about how much I liked crocheting, she mentioned a women at our church who crochets hats for preemie babies and donates them to hospitals. I LOVED this idea! What an awesome way to use a skill!! Let's be honest, I only need so many scarves and afghans so I just though this was such a great idea. A way for me to crochet, get the calming affect and create something for someone in need.

So I found some easy free crochet patterns online yesterday. I am so excited to get this project going. I have a couple of other crocheting projects I would like to do before I get going on the hats, but I am so motivated to get those done so I can get started. I stayed up and basically worked on finishing the scarves for my dad and sister until 11 last night. My husband is so awesome, he knows how excited I am for this project that he even cooked dinner and cleaned it up so that I could keep working. I am hoping to finish my other projects by this weekend so I can get started! I will keep everyone (all 4 of you) updated on my progress. Now I will just have to think of a cute name for my project. :)

Love, Mrs. Janney

This Week

Last night was the first night Phil and I have been back to the gym in over a month. I am so glad that we went, but it was definitely not a pleasant experience. We were going to go running and then I was going to go to Group Power. I got a phone call from Phil's mom during my run (more on that later) and we left after that. But the run was NOT fun. Stupid asthma! I hate it. I was only able to run a mile, then I walked, and then ran another mile and then walked. That was it!! Only 2 miles. :( Bummer. Oh well... you have to start somewhere I guess. I WILL get myself back to where I was, better even.

So... the rest of this week has a LOT to look forward to.

Tonight: Gym again. I am hoping it goes better than last night.

Thursday:

Friday: Hang out with grad school friends.

Saturday:

HARRY POTTER date night with RIKKIE!!! Some yummy salad and pasta and then HARRY POTTER!!!!

Sunday: White Christmas Night.

Every year before Thanksgiving, my family gets together, has pizza and watches White Christmas together. We used to do it the night before Thanksgiving, but being married causes compromises. I have been gone for Thanksgiving and so my family has been kind enough to move the tradition so I can be there. There is singing, lively debate over whether the choreography costumes are purple or black, and sadness over how people don't just break out into choreographed song and dance in real life.

And I get to see these guys:

I think it could be a very good weekend. :)

Love, Mrs. Janney

A Very Determined Bear...

I am still around. The last few weeks have been, not hard, but not the easiest either. One of those situations where things aren't super wrong but things aren't great either. I took the PE Exam and I thought that after that, I was going to be able to get all kinds of stuff done; all the stuff I had put off doing while I was busy studying.



But it wasn't like that.



I was wiped out from the test. I didn't know what to do with myself because I constantly felt like I should be studying or doing something. Relaxing was really hard. And then I got sick. Not contagious, take you out of work sick, but just crummy feeling, cranky, antibiotic sick. And man... the antibiotics and stress really just took everything out of me. I didn't feel like myself at all. I was SUPER down, cried constantly and couldn't really get myself to do much of anything except go to work.



But this weekend... everything changed. I don't know what happened. I went to the Dad's Weekend Game at OSU (bad game, let's not talk about it) and when I got home, I suddenly had the energy and the motivation to do something. It was a complete switch from how I had been feeling! By the time Phil got home, I was madly working away in our office. Our office has been our dumping ground for stuff since we moved in over a year ago. Mail, Christmas gifts, leftover wedding stuff, wedding gifts... it was a MESS! We have been meaning to clean it up so that we can use it but we just haven't gotten around to it yet. Saturday night, I got around to it. And we finished it! In basically 1 night!! I was so excited.



So Sunday, I redid the linen closet and Phil and I moved some things around in our bedroom. Laundry got going and we got a good portion of it done. And then I started working on the wedding Thank Yous, which I had been putting off. All of a sudden, I was determined. I had to finish those this week. Last night, Phil and I FINISHED THEM!!!



Oh man... such a relief to have that stuff done. Those things have been on my list to get done for such a long time. I can't believe I got them done! I feel so much better! Tonight we are going to attempt going back to the gym. I have been trying to get myself to go for like a month and just haven't been able to do it, but I feel like I can now.



After the PE Exam, I came home to find this card and some flowers from my husband:








I have had it up in my office for the last few weeks and have been staring at it. I didn't feel very determined at all. Turns out, my husband knows me very well... I am a Very Determined Bear.



Love, Mrs. Janney