Philippines Revisited

To mark the 1 Year Anniversary of my trip to the Philippines here's a post of some of the photos.

I had such a good time during my month there.

So many lovely memories - such great girlfriends and roomates.

A lovely country - friendly people.  

A terrific second honeymoon spot.

A place to revisit (hopefully) in the future.

Catching up

Abi, Alex, Riley, Beth

To start off I found this picture this morning and it made me smile.  I miss Alex and Beth a lot - and wish they didn't leave me here in Milwaukee all by myself.  This was taken Thanksgiving weekend when we stopped at Alex's house in St. Paul.

Next, have you ever seen a more un-smiley lion?  Kyle refused to smile for any pictures - not sure why.  He insisted on dressing up while I was visiting with Amy the other day.  It was a well needed visit with my local Wisconsin friends Amy and Katie.  Katie's little boy, Jonah, didn't stand still for 2 seconds, much less for a photo, so this is the only one from the day.

Lastly I wanted to showcase my lovely new flowers.  These beauties were on sale at Target for $2.50.  They were just ugly bulbs and they have really taken off - this is only 2 weeks of growing!

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In anticipation of the vacation coming up I'm trying to plan ahead for what knitting to take a long.  You may be surprised to learn that I have not bought ONE SINGLE SKEIN of yarn this month (or this year, in fact!).  Bry probably thinks this is a good thing.

1. Mom's Mittens: Seen above - these are from the new book I got for Christmas - Knitting New Mittens and Gloves by Robin Melanson.  These are my progress photos:

I'm making it with some Wisconsin grown Alpaca that I bought from an ICU nurse where I work.  She raises alpacas on her farm. Windy Meadows is the name of their farm.  This yarn is amazingly soft and I love the natural colors.  The contrasting color will be natural off white from another of their alpacas.

2. Sweater.  This is my second Bergere de France undertaking.  I'm using ShiBui Knits that I bought at Knit Purl in Portland.  Loving their yarn and the color way.  The pattern looks terrific and the pooling (the way the colors group together) is turning out better than I could have hoped.

3.  Another hat.  This is the Jared Flood pattern Habitat and I'm using Jared Flood's yarn Shelter in nice purple color.  I really want to buy some more of this yarn to make some mittens out of.  Bry has the same hat in grey and I steal it to wear it all the time.

I may take some other projects along too - we'll see.  I'm not sure how well knitting is going to go with sand and sun though...... so I'll be bringing some new books along too.  Check out the countdown on the side - we're getting close!

Birthday

Boy, old birthdays can really stink.

Yesterday was my 27th birthday.

I started it off at work - where I had to stay 2 hours later than usual.  Normally, this doesn't bother me but I had plans that day and getting off of work at 4 am wasn't supposed to be part of them.  I came home and had a beer before going to bed.

No one set an alarm.  No one woke me up.  I got out of bed at 10:00 - an hour later than planned, and awoke to a snowstorm.  Said snowstorm kept me from meeting up with my good friends who live about an hour north of Milwaukee.  One of them is now trapped with an ice cream birthday cake in her freezer, poor thing.  The other one is trapped with a croupy one year old (who started the whole day off on the wrong foot by getting sick and I'm not sure he didn't plan and orchestrate the rest of the disaster that was my birthday - lucky you're cute, Andrew).

So I stayed home.  With my mom.  First birthday that I've seen my mom in 9 years.  She is NOT invited next year.  We spent the day glued to the couch, watching chick flicks, crying, knitting/crocheting (ask her what she got done in 4 hours.....) crying, eating crappy soup out of a can, crying, eating a slice of cheesecake, and waiting for Bry to get home (late because of the snow).

At long last my knight in shining armor came, bearing gifts.  How sad is it that the first clothing items my husband has bought for me were sweatpants and a hoodie - just so I would stop wearing men's size XL or XXL sweatpants and sweatshirts!?  I warned him that the revealing nature of the form fitted sweatpants may be too much for him.......  Actually they are very cute and very very comfortable and I will be happy to make the switch to female sized clothing once again.

Hubby Magnifique then took me out to a new Mexican restaurant that was within walking distance of our apartment.  It was very good - and the house 'ritas were exceptional.  We both got a little drunk so it's a good thing we walked.  The walk in the snow was actually very pretty- but with the way my day had gone I couldn't be sure I wasn't going to slip/trip/fall and break something.  I didn't.  So we came home, chatted (drunkenly) with some birthday well wishers and called it a day.  And a year.  I'm officially quitting 2011 and you can meet me at 2012.  I'll be the one with the better luck.

Happy 2012.  353 days early.

Finally Back

I'm finally back to work in the Emergency Department. It's been a few months - months of call (yuck) and doing a lot of inpatient things that don't really interest me. Much much better now. I especially like to work the evening shifts - I get "me time" at home during the day and still work at night. This weekend I'll get to spend my days with Bry and my mom who is coming for a visit.

Another big change this week is getting back on the Weight Watchers Wagon. I had really enjoyed this program last summer but got away from it while I was busy with residency. Now that I'm in a more settled scheduled (and a New Year) it's been nice to get my diet back under control. If you've never tried it before they recently re-did the program. There's a lot more focus on eating fruits and vegetables - in relatively unlimited quantities. For me it's almost like a game - fitting in what I want to eat with what I should eat - and limiting portions. The best motivation? Just 1 month until we head for Cancun. We'll be staying at the Gran Caribe Real in Cancun (see below).

As for knitting, I've been making progress on some hats and another sweater. I'll try to post some pictures soon. First I'm going to finish watching Season 3 of Bones with Emily and then head to work. Have a good weekend!

Knitting

Here is some knitting.  I've been knitting a lot lately - hadn't felt like knitting for awhile so it feels good to get back into it.  This first outfit is one from Bergere de France no 156 Booklet that my mom bought for me. After we found out we lost the baby I couldn't bear to not finish it.  It turned out so well and it was actually pretty quick to finish.  The whole booklet is really cute and I can't wait to knit more -already started the next one!

Heide and I hit up the Target after Christmas sales and I found a ton of these cute little ceramic bird ornaments.  Even though we took down the big tree I thought it might be fun to keep a little tree up with the birds on it.  I'm going to go to Target again today or tomorrow to look for more.

This is the new knitting book that I got for Christmas.  I also got two new circular Addi Turbo needles for hat making.  Emily picked them all out - now I've got tons of mittens to choose from.  But the pair pictured below will be the first.....

This is the  yarn winder that I "inherited" from Great Grandma Platz and Great Aunt June (Nunnie).  I have really enjoyed being able to wind my yarn skeins without knots and hassle.  On it currently is some amazing baby alpaca that I bought from and ICU nurse where I work.  I may have to get back to here to buy some more.....

So now I've been busy relaxing.  I love the ED schedule - you work some days, then get some off, then work some evening shifts, it's wonderful!