More hats!

I have finished a few more hats. They are so cute! I think once I get over ten or maybe more like twenty hats, I will starts trying to figure out where to give these hats away to. Hopefully someone will want them.

Here is a picture of the latest hats:






It is crazy to me how the same pattern can give such different looking hats with just a couple of changes. I think I will add a little bow to the pink and white hat.






Yeah. That is cute.

The other night I started working on a slightly harder hat that will hopefully be super cute. I haven't finished that yet. Just a little more left on that one.

On a personal note, I think I have the best husband in the world. Last night I came home to find our wreath on our door and all of my Christmas candles out! He knew I was kind of in a funk about Christmas, so he did it to try to cheer me up. :)

Then he took me out for drinks, dinner and to see Burlesque which I am pretty sure was the last movie he ever wanted to see. Definite husband points earned for that gut. :)

And since today is the Civil War game, I will end by saying...

GO BEAVERS!!

Love, Mrs. Janney




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First Hat DONE!!

The Little Hat Project is under way!! I finished my first hat last night!! I am so excited. It probably isn't the best hat ever. It could be much prettier I think, but for a first attempt I think it is pretty good.

The hat looks SO TINY! The pattern I used for it says it can fit a newborn, but I don't know that I would really be able to tell. I need a newborn to try this out on. Nobody I know has a newborn right now! I am pretty sure everyone and their dog is pregnant, but no new babies right now. Braxton is too big now to use his head.

I don't know if I will have time to make another hat tonight, but I am hoping to whip some out this weekend. :)

YAY!

Love, Mrs. Janney

Project Name and Christmas Spirit

I have gotten some awesome response regarding my name project. One of my aunts wants to make some hats too! Another of my friends is thinking of bringing her knitting needles out of retirement to try some as well. I think this is great! I am so excited about this, I am feverishly trying to finish my other couple of projects so I can get to work on some hats. :)



I think I have a name for the project...



The Little Hat Project



It's not a giant leap obviously, but I thought it was cute. I have no idea if this name is already used by someone, so if it is, I apologize. And I'm just using the name for purposes of this blog, not like a business or anything. I did a Google search really quick and nothing popped up, so hopefully I am good. :)



Phil and I are out of some essential home items (i.e. contact solution, soap, etc.) so we are headed to the Keizer Station Target tonight to replenish some supplies. Since Michael's just HAPPENS to be right next to it, we will then be heading over there so I can get my supplies for the HATS!!! I am so excited.



I feel like this project has come at just the right time for me. I will explain...



When Phil and I got married, we were pretty sure we were going to split up where we went on the holidays pretty well: Thanksgiving with his family and Christmas at home. This made the most sense because when we eventually have a family, we will not be uprooting our children on Christmas. So we figured, we might as well start this now that we are married.



In August, Phil's dad had a HUGE medical emergency (I think that is the best way to describe). Long story short, we found out through a catastrophic health event (internal bleeding) that he had Liver Cancer. When this whole thing happened, I put Phil on a plane and sent him back to be with his family for a week. I have zero regrets about this. If it were my dad, I would have been on the first available flight.



During this time, Phil found out that his dad really didn't like this idea. He likes his Christmas Eve traditions and everything. Me, being such a Daddy's Girl, I decided that we should go back to Virginia for Christmas this year. Phil's dad will get his traditions and his family can just be together after a kind of bumpy and stressful few months. Aren't I just an awesome wife?



I knew this would creat a kind of challenge for me this year. Ah... the joys of marriage and compromise. :) But Phil is totally worth it. But between the test and getting sick and travelling for Thanksgiving, we haven't been working out much and I am just wiped out. It is kind of taking away from my Christmas Spirit. I just don't have the energy or desire to really Christmas shop or decorate the house for Christmas. Last year we went all out. But this year, our first married Christmas, and I don't want to do anything. I haven't even gotten the Christmas candles out.



Anyway, I am just so thankful for this project. I think it is going to help keep my spirits up while I struggle with a little bit of a funk. I need to get back to working out because I know that will help. And I need to get this project started.



So... here are my hopes for the day:



- Finish reading about reinforced masonry (this is a work item and I know everyone is jealous of this one)



- Go the to gym. I would like to run a few miles tonight. Get the lungs workings.



- Go to Target



- Get The Little Hat Project supplies



- Finish current crocheting project





Wish me Luck!



Love, Mrs. Janney

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

I am here. I promise.

So this last month has gone by SO SLOWLY and I apologize to all 2 of you that actually read my blog. :) But pretty much talk to any of my friends and they will attest to the fact taht I have been BUSY and with only one thing... STUDYING.

PE test. Basically the most important test of my career and I qualified to take it this October. If I pass, I will be a licensed engineer. If I don't pass, I can take it again next year. Not a big deal, but who wants to take the same test multiple times. So I have been hitting the books. Don't believe me? The picture below says it all I think.

This is my main reference manual for the test, all tabbed up and ready to go. The test is next friday. I figure about 4 more days of studying and then rest up the brain. After next week, I can focus on something else than studying. I literally have done NOTHING but study for the last 3 weeks and before that, it consumed my mind constantly and my weekends.

The thought of being able to do things that I want to do and need to do again almost makes me giddy. Phil can finally stop having to do everything around the house (thank goodness for him though). If it weren't for my wonderful husband, I would have been eating soup for the last 3 weeks, wearing dirty clothes, have a totally messy house and super stressed. He's kept me clean, sane, clothed, and as calm as he can. He's a catch. :)

I will leave you with a picture of my life right now... or at least my life for the next week.

Love, Mrs. Janney