No, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth, at least not yet!

Well, I'm sure that many of you gave up on me months ago, but I really am still here. There are many times that I've had things to write about or wanted to say and I just didn't get it done. No excuses.

So in an attempt to catch you up a little, or for those of you new to this to give you a little background...

The fall season here was glorious once it finally arrived, but I can't say as much for the winter. Though it's been cold - I'm enjoying that - we've had almost no snow. A couple weeks ago it did snow for several hours and I got to enjoy it driving to and from the church and walking into and out of choir rehearsal - mostly everyone thought I was crazy, but it energized me! Yes, I truly think I'm an Eskimo at heart!

The holidays were good, though the were spent, once again, far away from my parents. I went on a week's vacation by myself to the Jersey shore for the week of Thanksgiving. I spent the weekend before with my Sara & Dan (cousin and her husband) in the Philly area and got to see Aunt Karen & Uncle Barry as well. Then for the holiday itself I drove up to visit family from my Mom's side, Sandy & Frank, Kathy & Garrett and Matt and his girlfriend. It was a very nice day and I enjoyed it tremendously.
Christmas week I spent with Aunt Mavis & Uncle DeVon. Grandpa came down for a couple days and Matthew & Melissa and Jeremy & Emily were all there for most of Christmas day itself. We enjoyed the food, doing puzzles and playing some games. It was nice to be able to spend more than just a weekend up there, which is all I usually get.

Part of my absence from here has been the busyness that I have gained from now being back to church and very actively involved in choir, my Sunday School class and serving on a Food Team through the Ladies Ministry. I've made many new friends as we've been bowling, to a hockey game, many meals, serving widows by doing yard work, making a meal for a local shelter and on our fall retreat and so much more. I can't tell you how much more content I am to be back into a church that really feels like home. I wish I'd forced myself to do it sooner. If you are one of those on the edges, searching or just out of the habit of being involved in a local church, I strongly encourage you to just jump in! You'll not regret it!

My job on the other hand is still something I really want to change. We did finish, this month, the 2 1/2 years worth of backlog that we had to enter into the imaging system and the boxes have all been hauled off by the Shred-It folks! There have been some challenges with personnel things and we are still working through them. However, I have been able to get back to some of the other smaller projects that I had been putting off due to overload with the backlog files. The overall gist is still that I run an electronic filing department and it is repetitious, tedious and boring. I really long for returning to executive assistant or office manager type work where it is always different and quite often fast-paced.

My creative side has kept busy as well. I made Christmas wreath ornaments from canning jar lids and buttons this year. I also made a baby shower gift (for a couple here at the office) of buttons on a picture frame that really turned out sweet. I have finished two other baby afghans plus a shawl and another full size afghan. The one I'm currenly working on will probably be finished within 2 weeks or less. This past weekend I made two bedroom decorative pillows for a friend and have one more to finish. I've not done my scrapbooking, but I'm hoping to get back to it sooner than later. My stuff has been packed away because I've had people over quite a number of times in the last couple months (including New Year's Eve), and it's either packed away and sitting on the floor in my hobby room (which is a small bedroom that also contains my sewing maching, my computer, one entire wall of bookshelves, a wardrobe full of fabric and a 4-drawer file cabinet) or out on the kitchen table. I do miss it, but I enjoy it more when I have someone to work with and chat with while I'm working. I will also be narrowing down some of my stash in a couple months because Mom and Dad will take back most of their tools once they are here so that may make it more manageable, we'll see.

As always, I'm continually reading. I kept track last year of the books that I finished and intend on doing the same this year. I believe I read over 60 last year. This year I'm off to a good start as I've already finished 3. I'm currently reading The Maltese Falcon as my main book, though those of you who know me well know that I'm never reading just one book at a time. I'm also reading one that has four stories in it called Chesapeake, and am ready to start The Forsyte Saga off of the classics list that our family keeps and reads from. I also need to take a trip to the library soon to pick up some audio books for the car or projects around the house.

Well I suppose that's enough of a shock (for being back) and to absorb (from such a long absence) for now. My intentions are to be writing more frequently, so if you haven't written me off, please give me a second chance! If you have questions or even topics you wonder my opinion on, please feel free for leave me a comment and I'll see what I can do.

God bless you!