Time Marches On

Here it is, my first post for the new year of 2008, I can't help but stop and think of the highlights of my past year, so I'm gonna remember a few and list them here.

January 2007, we rung in the new year at Channon's house with Joey home from college for a short visit, we were all crowding her for a few weeks while we were waiting for the house sales to be finalized and be able to move in. We had been with her for a few weeks already at this point, moving in with her before Christmas, we were able to enjoy the fun of a Christmas with little ones. Channon out did herself with making appetizers and snacks we enjoyed through out the evening of December 31st and we continued to enjoy them the next few days.

My husband, youngest son and I moved back into a hotel for a few days the first full week of the month and on the 9th Cal and I celebrated our 25th Anniversary, we went to dinner at Ruby Tuesday with Robbie, not the romantic 2nd honeymoon one might think the Silver Anniversary should be, but we were in a hotel, [believe me I was tired of temporary living by this point] and was so ready to be settled into a home again. On the 10th, we closed on the home we were buying and began moving the belongings we had with us as well as what we had stored at Channon's in to the house. The movers came on the 11th and 'dumped' our stuff, ugh, what a mess, I'm still am not through all those boxes out in the garage.

February and March:

I finally got to met my on line friend Peggy, we had breakfast together one week and then we went to a quilt store and lunch a few weeks later. My mother in law Martha was down for a visit in this time period, I don't remember exactly when she came, but I know she was here for her visit when I went to meet Peggy, she was here for a couple weeks while her cousins were in Florida, she had caught a ride with them, and is considering doing the same thing this year at some point.

Joey turned 19, it was the first birthday of his we weren't together, that was kind of hard for me, probably not for him, boys are so different then girls when it comes to certain things.

March found me bored to tears, not knowing anyone but Peggy, and being homesick for my old life, with my many activities I was missing, my good friends, my Bunko, Red Hats Society, and TOPS meetings. I was spending a lot of time on the computer, and working on crafts. One day, I had gone over to babysit the grand babies for Channon and she showed me her blog and her friend Sherry's blog and she sent me the link to blogger and when I went home that next day, I set up my own account. At first I attempted only a craft blog, but I slowly added other topics of interest [to Me anyway!]

April I had a lovely visit with a friend from SC who came up to VA to visit family over Easter Vacation, Paula was the Queen to one of the Red Hat Society Chapters I was a member of in SC. Her husband, Joe, Paula and I had lunch together and enjoyed catching up on what was happening in our lives.

I was busy knitting socks for soldiers at that time period too, but got bored with all that knitting in black and no designs to keep the mind active since they had to be long, plain and black.

May doesn't stand out to me for anything big to remember, except to have an eye exam and be told I have a bad enough case of "forty-eye-tis" to consider bifocals, so I got them, tried them, hate them and only wear them when I need to read, or do anything close up with my crafting, I should have saved the money and continued to wear the drug store reading glasses I already have. They are clear glass on top, since my vision is 20/20 at a distance.

June, I turned 46, scary.... Mitch turned 2 and Channon had a fun birthday party for him, we saw some folks we hadn't seen in awhile including her in laws, who we hadn't seen since Olivia was first born, so it had been over 4 years.

The sock bug had bitten me and wouldn't let go, I bought some yarn and a new book of patterns for myself for my birthday, and busily worked on that, since it was getting too hot to work on big bulky things for very long at one time. I was having trouble finishing one pair before I wanted to start the next pair, "just to see what the pattern/yarn would work up like" I think I have that tamed now, I've used up all of my self striping yarn I had bought on sale, they make great socks, but I was getting tired of knitting them, they were boring after awhile, but I got 5 pairs made out of that purchase.

In June I went on a hunt for the how toos of making the Candy Wrapper Purse, I finally found someone who explained how to make them, and I started obsessing with that new craft, I have been working on developing new styles but have grown bored with it recently.

July brought Joey home for part of the summer, he was able to bring his long time girlfriend Callie with him, it was the first time I spent much more then a few minutes at a time getting to know her, then we went camping in NY state for a week, spending part of the time with husbands family at DeRuyter lake and part of the time over in the western part of the state visiting my step mother and one of my sisters and her kids. Oh it was so hot, I was looking forward to going SOUTH of all things!! So I could get back into my home with Air Conditioning!!

I worked on an afghan for a wedding gift the rest of the month and didn't complain about the heat of the project, as long as that AC and the fan were on! August had us back in NY state for a wedding of a niece, it was a beautiful event.

August my sister and her honey came to visit us while they were on an apartment hunting trip for a move to West Virginia they were preparing for.
We celebrated Channon's 25th birthday together.

I finished my first candy wrapper purse completely, and began another one right away.
Playing with coming up with a flat bottom design, as well as MADE myself finish up several UFO's that were cluttering up my work space.

Work began on our new front porch, which was exciting to us, since it makes the house look so much more complete, even though it's not 100% finished even now, with the lattice still needing to be added.

The first weekend of September delivered a shock, when Channon's husband who was in Iraq for over a year called her 2 weeks before he was to arrive home, after much anticipation on his families part, he informs them he isn't coming home to them, he had developed a relationship with a female soldier while he was gone and didn't want to be married any longer so he could pursue his new relationship, our own personal casualty of the war in Iraq.

Good riddance BJ, unfortunately, it was a hard slap in the face, after being led all year to believe he was missing his wife and kids, only to find out he was leading a secret life. This might be the first time I say this here, but some of you already know, even though I still am angry at him for how he did it, I am glad in several ways he is not my son in law any longer, he has always been a self centered immature person who it took me a long time to learn to find anything to love about him, but what little respect I did have for him is dissolved.

Olivia turned 5 and started Kindergarten as Channon struggled to come to terms with the end of her marriage and the deceit and abandonment of her "husband" OK, enough said on that topic. Things happen for a reason and even though the way it happened still hurts, even me, the mom, that it happened we can be thankful for, because now there is a new man in Channon's life, who is already a part of the family, in a way BJ never was.

The end of September I met Gail and it was a blessing for both of us, being new to the area and both of us in need of a friend, she has been a God send to me, and someone I am truly thankful this year to have met.

The past 3 months are just too recent to really have much else to say about, Beth and Jeff and Channon, Joe and the kids came for Thanksgiving, that was good and bad at the same time, since Channy was sick the whole day and didn't get to enjoy the traditional family feast after she has spent so much time the day before cooking and preparing for it. I guess I have carried on long enough, and probably bored you to tears if you ahve read this far! So anyway, HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!! Happy Blogging in 2008!!