Finally...I'm back!!

Okay, so I've taken a MUCH longer blogging break than I'd intended.  But life has been so hectic these past three weeks - something had to be cut out of my time, and that something was the blog!  However...I am back now, and quite recovered from the busy-ness of the holidays, the start-up of the New Year (finally back in the swing of things)...and finally, more importantly, it appears I've recovered from strep throat completely.  Woot!

I've always wanted to say that.  Now I feel better.

So what's happened in the past month?  Ummm...I had my 35th birthday, just three days before Christmas...and no, I don't feel any different.  I don't even feel much older, though my body is disagreeing with me.  Are weird eye twitches normal for the 35th year?   Achy knees?  Pounds that refuse to go away?  Temperamental hips?  I blame my sweet babies for the pounds and hips...too much stitching  and reading for the twitchy eyes...and maybe my new boots for the knees.

Oh but they are SWEET boots!  I must get a photo up for you to see.

I don't know what Christmas gift I am enjoying most...my brown knee-high high-heeled boots, or the DVDs of Downton Abbey.  Hmmm...it's a toss-up.  The boots make me feel tall and skinny, so they might win.  But Downton Abbey....ahhhh...am I the only geek in Arizona who loves this show?  I can find no other girlfriends who even know about it.  Am I also the only one who does NOT have cable TV and therefore watches lots of PBS?

Anyway, I had a great birthday -- my in-laws were in town, and they spoiled me.  Well, Mom did -- she took me shopping!!  Clothes shopping.  I needed some new threads so badly - and not the needlework kind.  ;)

And my husband REALLY spoiled me!

This is me holding up my gift card to the Gadabout Spa!!  There's enough for me to get a manicure, pedicure and massage if I want.  But I am not into massages, so I think I'll get TWO manicures and pedicures.  Sweet!  The gift card even came with a pair of flip flops and a tote bag.  

We went to Chili's for my birthday dinner - my favorite, hands-down.  Chips and salsa, baby!  Even with strep throat.  I took Tylenol and drank lots of iced water.

See the gorgeous purple scarf?  My mother-in-law gave that to me.  And see the gorgeous man?  He's the one who gave me the sweet boots and Downton Abbey DVDs.  Yes he really loves me.  He bought me a chick flick.  A six-hour chick flick.  And he even puts the boys to bed on Sunday nights so I can watch the new season of DA. 

And I got some finishes in before the end of 2011!

Cross-stitching finishes:

The Angels Sang by Little House Needleworks

I finished it like a flat ornament, though it's too big for an ornament - it will hang on the wall.

This is My Joy, also by Little House Needleworks - I haven't "finished" it yet, but the stitching is done!

I've already had some 2012 cross-stitch finishes...but I'll post those another time.  This post is getting rather long!

And I finally finished reading David Copperfield.  Sigh.  I love that book.  (Remember that I'm a nerd!)  I won't give the ending away, just in case there is another person out there who has NOT seen any of the movie adaptations and really doesn't know how it ends (just like I was until New Year's Eve).  But suffice it to say, I was satisfied.  I love how Dickens weaves several threads of a story line together, keeps them all running separately for half the book, shows the reader how they're all interwoven throughout the last half, and at the end, wraps it all up neatly.  Magnificent!  Just like Little Dorrit and Bleak House.  

I am deciding whether or not I will start A Tale of Two Cities.  I freely admit that I've started it twice, and stopped twice.  I cannot get through the first chapter.  Which is weird - I would think that a book that is about both England and the French Revolution would be interesting to me.  And yet...there I am.  Putting it back on the shelf.

It feels great to be back in the blogging world!  (Thanks Eileen for the encouragement!)

Now I need to locate my children.  Well, I know where they are (bedroom)...I just am not sure what they're doing.  It's the quietness that I find alarming!!