Friends

I wanted to dedicate a post to all my great friends.  I wish I had a picture of all of them to put here.  Over the years I have been very blessed with lots of great people in my life.  Right now I'm so very thankful for my knitting friends.  They are great shoulders when one needs a shoulder, they don't judge when one is having a rather difficult day, and they always make me laugh and help me to laugh at myself. 

And a shout out to one of my oldest friends here in Des Moines, Ms. Tallulah.  She is about the only person who tells it to me as it is and not as I want to hear it and although I may not always love it, in the end it is appreciated!

So thank you to all my great friends!

If you judge people, you have no time to love them." - Mother Teresa

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.   -Marcel Proust

Never explain - your friends do not need it and your enemies will not believe you anyway.
Elbert Hubbard

Time flies....

Dan and I celebrated our one year anniversary on the 20th of November.  We had a really nice time.  We went to the playhouse to see Duck Hunter Shoots Angel by Mitch Albom.  It was really funny and a really nice thing to do.  We also went to the first restaurant we ever ate at which was Pagliai's in Johnston.  We originally met at GoodSons martini and panini bar in Beaverdale.  Then we topped off the night with jazz music down at the Des Moines Social Club.

All in all a really great night to celebrate our first year together.

Of course he has all the pictures on his phone so I don't have any to post right now, but will when I get one.

UNI Homecoming Weekend

Dan and I went to Cedar Falls for UNI's Homecoming game a few weeks ago.  Dan and all his friends from his dorm at college stay in touch and get together periodically.  So, I got to meet all of them.  We had a great time.  We decided to take Friday off and relax and go up to Waterloo and hang out for the day.  We wandered around downtown Cedar Falls.  I got to go into Crazy Girl yarn shop.  I got a skein of purple and gold for some socks later, much later.  After that we went to a museum in Waterloo and then met my folks for dinner at the Hickory House.  The ribs were delicious and I recommend the baked potato if you ever make it there.

The next day we met up with the college friends had lunch, did the book store thing, and wandered around campus before the game. Below is a picture we took while wandering the campus.

After watching UNI win the game we went back and hung out with the friends and kids until only the child-less people were left.  We then ended up back in downtown Cedar Falls where we enjoyed some adult beverages and some really good music, of course I cannot remember the name of the band.

All in all a great weekend!!  Much needed after the craziness of marching band season.

Blog is back

Okay so I was putting too much pressure on myself to commit to this blog and add things and make sure it made sense and over-evaulating the whole thing.  I'm putting this back up with no expectations for myself.  I will post when I can and hopefully it will become a diary of sorts for me and I hope my friends will enjoy keeping up with me here too.   Until the next post have a great day!

Family...

Last weekend was all about family.  Dan's brother and nephew were in town so we spent a lot of time with them.  Playing Wii, going to the playground, and hanging out.  It was also my niece's 8th birthday.  I can hardly believe she is 8.  I ran a marathon the day after she was born.  My brother-in-law worked nights so I spent a lot of hours with my sister and niece that first year, such wonderful memories!!

This weekend I'm taking her to the Secretariat movie if everything goes well.  She loves horses as much as I did at her age.  She is one of the sweetest and most caring little girls you will meet, I am biased though.

I also finished my monkey socks a couple of weeks ago.  Been avoiding grafting the toe, for some reason I just can't get the hang of it so it looks nice.  Thinking about trying this technique, http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEwinter08/FEATgraft.php.  Or trying toe up socks.

I also put a deck on my house this summer.  My neighbor came over while I was mowing last week to tell me how much he likes it.  I have landscaped some since this pictures was taken.   This is how it looked before and after.

Blessings

Today I'm feeling sentimental so I thought I would list out all of the blessings in my life, not in any particular order of course:

• My health
• Great friends that are always there when I need them and who laugh and cry with me and even do dramatic re-enactments to humor me
• Family (yes even the "dead to me sister")
• A good job, I even like it most days
• My awesome sweet kitty
• A supportive, fun boyfriend
• A house to call my own
• Hobbies I can spend hours on
• My bike
• Freedom

I could go on and on, but I'll stop there.  I'm absolutely loving this weather.  I hope you are having a fantastic day!!

10 Months

Yesterday was 10 months of dating the same person for me.  Dan and I get along really well, we have had a lot of fun together over the past 10 months.  Bicycling trip to Missouri and Jazz festival, RAGBRAI, next month we are going to the UNI Homecoming game, and all the stuff in between.  We've had some downs, every relationship does but this is the first time I have felt committed to changing my perspective and compromising.  Not compromising to the point that either one of us feels we are giving up something we believe in but compromising to the point that both are happy with the outcome.  Many people have learned this already, it has taken me some time.  I have learned a lot in the process.  And I'm hoping that things continue moving forward.  Only time will tell.   I'm trying to take it one day at a time and enjoy the process.

I'm lucky in that I have a lot of friends with healthy relationships.  It is so refreshing to be around couples who truly enjoy each other and do so after many years together.  I did not have that growing up.  For so long I really doubted it could really happen.  I'm glad I was wrong! 

RAGBRAI 2010

KATY Trail Missouri

Home from Missouri Trip

And added today:

I came home to these sitting on my table, what a wonderful suprise!