Thursday, January 14, 2010

It's been a while....

.... but I have great excuses!!! First (and foremost), I've been sick since the beginning of December. It started out with a sore throat, grew into congestion, almost disappeared until an airplane ride, more congestion, another airplane ride, and then a cough that sounded like my esophagus was going to be visible at any moment. I'm almost over the cough now (thankfully), as well as the associated fatigue that goes along with being sick (and hacking up one's lungs). Work was about all I could handle, and I didn't feel much like being on the computer when I wasn't working, nor did I feel like thinking. I'm getting a little better with the thinking part now, so here I am. :-)

One of the downsides of being sick is that I haven't been to Curves in about 4 weeks. Now that my cough is almost gone, I'm planning on heading back this coming Monday. I haven't been weighing myself, but I must not have gained all my 40 pounds back over the holidays because my clothes still fit and people are telling me how good I look. Now I'm feeling pressure, though, knowing that people are noticing (and "watching"), if you know what I mean. I can't fail! AUUUGHHHH!!! But failing is what I do best! ;-)

We went to Minnesota for a week over Christmas, and in spite of my being sick and Bill's Mom also being under the weather, we had a good time. This was my first Helgeson Christmas, and it was an adventure. :-) No, really, it wasn't bad at all. A little chaotic, but chaos is sometimes fun to watch. Christmas we went over to Bill's sister's house and about 25 of us gathered to sing carols, hear the Christmas story from the Bible, and of course, eat and open presents! We were about 11 people short of the typical number as the blizzards kept some away. Next time we go maybe the weather will be more cooperative to the west. Speaking of weather, it was WONDERFUL! It wasn't so cold that I thought I was going to die (I'm so acclimated to the Northwest) - in the 20s most of the time we were there. That's a heat wave for December in MN! :-) We had some snow but it didn't hold back the seasoned MN drivers that we rode with. It was pretty, especially knowing we could stay inside most of the time an d just watch the snow fall.

I've been bitten by the crochet bug recently, making things from shawls to ponchos to reusable coffee cup sleeves for those Starbucks trips and for our church that serves coffee and tea before the service (in a different size cup than Starbucks, I might add). I haven't been too inspired to create any more jewelry this new year, but I'm hoping that the better I feel, the more creative I'll get. I also may find my crochet niche and list some crocheted items on Etsy, but I don't think I've found it yet. The coffee cup sleeves are great, but I haven't made one that I've been happy enough with to sell yet (plus I don't have the right size cup to measure yet). My gauge is ALWAYS off on crochet things... must be the goofy way I crochet. ;-) I see these tutorials on YouTube and I see how the rest of the world crochets.... how did I get such a freaky technique? Oh, well. It works for me. Except for the gauge thing. But that's why there are other size hooks. ;-)

Bill and I have been attending a new (to us) church since late November or early December. We're going to their membership class next weekend and have signed up for a growth group together, so we're getting more and more involved. They have a Sunday evening service, too, so that frees us up to visit Bill's "home" church once a month or so in the morning and not miss anything at the new church since we can go in the evening. So far we really like the pastor - the messages are down-to-earth, relevant, and Bible-based. Just what we were looking for. Hopefully one of these days we'll learn the worship songs that they play - they do some obscure ones that you rarely hear on the radio and some things that they've written themselves, so it's hard to get traction if you want to sing along. But there have been a couple that I've known or been able to follow along a little bit... just not as much as I'm used to.

Well, I think that about sums up the last month. Hopefully I'll have something exciting to blog about one of these days. Until then, you get to hear about my mundane life. ;-)

Blessings,
Kristin

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