I have a new hobby

I have learned to knit! It started out as a discussion with my yoga teacher and then she had a class set up called "Knit to Relax". I knit to relax which surprisingly happens. I usually don't mind ripping things out and starting over. Other hobby projects it usually is a 20 minute decision and a bit of frustration as well as some screaming involved before I decide to redo what I've done. Sometimes I do let my mistakes stay and we are suppose to call that character. I have made scarfs, dishrags (my favorite), a sachet, and I am working on place mats. My ultimate goal is to make premies hats and give them away. I realize that I'm not really doing this knitting thing to make more crap, but I do love to do it. I guess in first grade making fun of the TV show "Sewing with Nancy" really helped though because my teacher was surprised how quickly I picked it up. I use to get a piece of string and my pencils and use to pretend to knit, and tell you how to do it. Apparently it was funny because my friend always asked me to do it. I guess I got some sort of muscle memory from it because my arm knew what to do even if the stitch was a foreign concept.

The best part of this experience is Frankie my little 4 year old friend. First time he saw me doing it. He said, "Annie whatca doin'?" "I'm knitting" "May I watch you do that?" "Sure Frankie." He sat right next to me on the couch and watched until he got ornery because he was getting his toenails clipped because it was sitting still, and had to go to bed. The next time I was working on a cable stitch. "Annie whatca doin'?" "I'm learning to knit a cable so I can make a hat for you. Let me hurry so you can see what it is that will be on your hat." "Okay. You don't have to hurry." About fifteen minutes later "Annie, Are you done making my hat yet? Dad, did you know Annie is hurrying to make a hat for me?" "Frankie, I'm not making your hat yet. I have to learn how to make a cable first." "Oh." Then it was time for Frankie to go to bed and he told his dad that he couldn't go to bed because Annie wasn't done making his hat. It makes me laugh every time I think of it.

Second Visitors--kinda

I did many things in February, but I was so busy I couldn't post in a timely manner. Some of the things would not be fun to post as well such as going to a new dentist and finding out that I have three cavities and a tooth died, so you have to get a root canal. Much pain, and drug induced sleep got me through that, but also left me little time to write poorly written sentences.

The best thing that happened this month was Daniel's Birthday. It was such a great year that I insisted that he celebrate it for two weeks. First we started off with a small gathering on his actually birthday on the super bowl. I think the kids were more excited to blow out the candles and have cupcakes than Daniel was.

(picture to follow)
The next weekend we had a party (which totally would have been in my house, but I invited too many people. I just invited myself to my friends house to host this party), it was Thai cooking theme party. We cooked everything that we made in Thailand. It was great to gather people around.

First Visitors

My dinner went great! I can't believe I pulled it off. The best part was that I had a 5 course Italian meal and all of it tasted great and turned out! I was so excited about presentation and keeping it warm that I didn't take any pictures until dessert. I have to say that my guests had a good time any enjoyed the dinner. One point for me and over coming my hermit tendency!

Last Decade Review

I am totally stealing great ideas and smashing them together because they got me thinking about things. I saw Jody’s post in pictures for decade of review and wanted to do it as well, but I thought of the bad things that I lost, but gained a great deal. I decided to write it up like my sister-in-law’s awesome Christmas card. That way I am totally not copying both people. However I just cited my source, so I guess I’m not plagiarizing. It is a schizophrenic, but I guess that is how my mind works.

Oh No		Oh Yeah
I lost a German relative .		I gained a German relative.
I didn’t get accepted to the University I wanted.		I graduated both Dixie College and the University of Utah.
I wished I had better grades in high school.		I graduated from high school.
I had some of the worst roommates ever.		I had the greatest flat mates in the world.
I got dumped on New Year’s day by my boyfriend .		I found a new boyfriend a year later.
I couldn’t find a job as an editor.		I found a job as a flight attendant.
I had to leave Utah.		I fulfilled my lifelong dream to live in one of the original thirteen colonies.
I lost my best friend to Maryland.		I got to visit Maryland, and Washington DC.
I had my purse stolen with my passport in it in England.		I lived in England; visit Scotland, Ireland, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands while I lived there.
My dog, Cody, died.		I got my cat, Dos.
I had to get married in seven months.		I got married!!!
I was poor the first year of marriage with no TV.		I found Doctor Who on Netflix.
I started out with four nieces and nephews.		I gained 17 nieces and nephews.
I had no friends in Atlanta.		I got at least two couple friends. Any had my best friends visit me.
I could barely bake.		I learned to cook!
It took four days to get home from Thailand.		I have visited three continents including countries such as Japan, Thailand, Canada, Mexico, Germany, Czech Republic, and Hungary.
I visit Podunk America on a regular basis.		Des Moines is awesome, and I randomly drop in on my sister in law and friends.

New Year Resolution

I decided that maybe I should slightly update this thing. I seem to have a problem keeping up with it or my life is so boring that there really is nothing worth keeping up with. However with the new year I thought maybe I should have some sort of resolution. Maybe it will make my life more interesting. Okay really it's because my friend Jody does it and she picks the craziest and yet useful resolutions. I've never met anyone who actually works on their resolutions past January, and has fun doing it. I learned to drive stick (not very well, but I did learn) from her as one of my resolutions and now have the unforgettable image in my head of staling on 13th East and 9th South and cars coming at me while I'm in the intersection. Last year I didn't have any resolutions with was pretty sad. So I started to think of one in October...

I have decided to be more hospitable. I am terrible at this. I hate inviting people into my space and when they are there I just pretend they are not. This causes me to ignore them and be really rude. I know I am really good at inviting my self to other people's houses. I decided to try this hospitable thing after meeting two complete strangers (one while I was on a trip and they invited me to their house where they fed me and let me swim and play with their dog) that made me feel like I was a very close friend and I thought this was great. This also was followed by me having a panic attack trying to let the FedEx man into my home. I realize that unless you werea childhood friend I never invited any of my friends over to my house. My two best friends in college didn't know where I lived until I was getting married or they were, and even then they didn't get to go in the house. To rectify this I have decided to throw a dinner party at my house once a month. I am suppose to invite people I don't know so well, so if you don't get invited don't take it personally. Daniel has gotten use to my hermit ways and told me he is a little bothered that I would invite people home because he was getting use to the quiet. I told him he will just have to deal with it.

My first victims are Daniel's co-worker and wife who already like me and seem to be able to find no fault with me, so I figured if I warn them of my rude behavior they should be okay with it. Maybe I could become natural at this instead of stiff and slightly ignorey. I should have a photo to boast of this exploit soon.