Happy New Year and other happenings... (NEW PICS ADDED!)

The kids are due back in school tomorrow ( Thursday January 5th) and not a day to soon for my liking! Love my kids, but almost 3 weeks for a winter break!, really! Someone, which I guess will be me, has to talk to the school board about this. I'll let you know the when, whys and what's about that conversation when it happens.

Christmas went off in grand style and all the kids got what they wanted from Santa. Even the pups seemed satisfied with their Liver flavored rawhide chews and toys. Little did we know at the time that these incredibly tasty chews smelled of old ashtrays when wet and the pups breath smelled the same! Each time I caught a whiff of pup breath the image of the dogs playing poker around the table and smoking popped into my mind.

The New Year arrived without incident. David woke me up to watch the fireworks display that the Adaman Club sets up each year on the peak. This year was really beautiful with the clear starry skies as its backdrop. Then off to bed I went with visions of our up coming New Year meal dancing in my head. (Just what was I going to add to the menu of Ham/Turkey and Black Eyed Pea's?) Ultimately we had the aforementioned with a beautiful salad and potatoes to round it out. Quite yummy if I do say so.

I've been working steadily on my knitting and spinning. Still have a long way to go on most of it, but I'm immensely enjoying my drop spindle spinning. I love watching and manipulating a bit of roving into yarn. Quite literally something that is totally usable after I'm done spinning it into the "weight" of yarn that I want. No, I've not knit anything as yet with the finished hanks that I do have. I'm in the process of determining just how much yardage I actually have of each fibre that I've spun. (In this picture you see 2 drop spindles and hand painted roving. This is an interesting story! I received the second drop spindle as a Christmas gift. The other spindle and roving are gift from the designer who made this spindles and roving. Somehow she missed our order and when she did find it she included these other items as an apology. So about $60 worth of apologizing there.

Quite a few months ago my lower oven up and quit heating. Then we were hit with the washing machine not draining on all the settings, leaving me just one setting that did work properly. From there our kitchen freezer decided to separate itself from the fridge and quit freezing. It would cool but not freeze. Which of course meant that our ice maker didn't work as well. So for Christmas I asked David to fix all my appliances. He, himself, fixed my oven. He fixed my washer. Now I'm waiting for the fridge to get fixed. We think the thermostat has broken. From what we understand its an easy fix, just done in close quarters. So we'll see. I hope to have my fridge producing ice cubes and my freezer working again in the next couple of weeks.

Over the Christmas break David had all the kids in for check ups, eye exams, etc. So we now have a new wearer of eye glasses in the house, Jolie. (Check back! I have to catch her to get a picture of her in her new glasses!) She is just a little excited about her new glasses. Olivia also got a new pair of glasses as did Kristina. Parker and Hunter are the only ones in the house not needing some form of eye wear for the moment. Of course there is always next year and those two do have their hopes up.

Cisco is growing, or is now grown, and is just delightful! He has chewed the lower corners of our coffee table almost flat on two corners. He has peed, with delight I might add, on David's side of the bed just before trying to settle down next to me on the other side of the bed. He chases Jake with his mouth open ready to clamp down on Jake's back legs in an attempt to "herd" Jake in whatever direction he sees fit to "herd" him. He scours the yard for deer poop to dine on, on occasion. He growls, ever so softly, under his breath when you pick him up, most of the time and at other times he goes limp in your arms. Then we have the delight in his body language when you get home and he lavishes attention on you and can't wait to give you all kinds of pup kisses. He loves to play fetch with his favorite quacking duck and will bring it to you without hesitation for you to launch the duck in any direction. He loves to have you love on him while he snuggles next to you on the couch and encourages this behavior. You can see the "job well done" look on his face when you get it right. Actually most of the above bad behavior is almost a thing of the past being pure puppy behavior. We're now enjoying a truly delightful little guy who loves us and we love him. David is his favorite people and when "dad" isn't around I seem to be a acceptable alternative.