of the kids enjoying their new back yard. 

under my house and it is stinking up my kitchen.

David just put drywall putty all over the bottom of the cabinet under my stove to help keep the stink out.


Not much more to be said, I'm afraid; other than we both are going to be jumping for joy when we sell this place! The space between the bottom of the house and the ground is too narrow to maneuver around easily, so retrieving the decomposing whatever-it-is might be an impossibility. Yay.....

Onto a more productive note: I dyed a hank of yarn for my dad today.


It's going to be knit into a pair of socks, eventually...

For those of you who don't know (and it won't be surprising if it's a lot of you, since I don't really write about it here), I knit as a hobby and dye yarn to sell in my etsy shop. You can read more about my knitting and dyeing exploits on the blog I share with my sis.

Oh yeah, Happy New Year, by the way!

Here is another opportunity for me to share with you what a wonderful husband I have!

This past Friday David spent most of the day working on the house. I can't believe how much he was able to get done in one day!

I have been pestering him for about a month now, and he has put up with it pretty well, for a new kitchen faucet. Our old, not so pretty, not so functioning faucet

has been leaking for at least half a year. You couldn't turn the nozzle without water spraying everywhere, and you had to have the handle just right or water would spray everywhere. Lots of water everywhere.

My great and wonderful sport of a Dad has replaced a certain part in this faucet almost every time he's been here to visit, with the exception of the last two times (I think he'd finally given in, either that or he just didn't have the time). So this new faucet is for both me and him....and for David. This way he doesn't have to hear me say, "I'm really getting sick of walking on water!" Or, "Look at that puddle coming out of the cabinets". Or, "You're going to have to replace the cabinets as well as the faucet if this doesn't get fixed soon!".

Isn't she a beauty?!!

And look! She even came with her own little soap pump on the side!

So, he got a new faucet installed, aaannndd he also installed a new light over the kitchen sink.


And, he put up new sliding doors on our linen closet in the hallway. We were using a curtain rod and curtains to cover it up, so David had to frame the doorway, install the railings for the slides and get the doors together, plus put up trim. I really can't believe he was able to achieve all of this in one day. He can be so determined!

David has had this piece of wood outside drying for a while, hoping he could use it up above our fireplace. He got the whole rig up a few weeks ago, and I finally went out to look for some decorations. It's not finished yet, but it's a good start!

When my Farmor passed away, and my Uncles thought they would not be able to find condos in time to keep most of the things they had collected here in the US, David "inherited" a windsurfing kit from my Uncle Les. He used the surfboard and sail all of one time, I think, before losing one of the fins. (The exact fin that my Uncle Les warned "Do not lose that fin, without it you cannot do anything.") Since moving to South Carolina the board and sail have sat unused in one of our sheds, unfortunately, due to the lack of water nearby and a lack of time on David's part. However, when the "great blizzard" hit this past week, David was struck with inspiration. He found a new use for his surfboard. Here it is!


So Uncle Les, now you can see it is being put to good use!

This is a dresser set I fell head over heels instantaneously in love with at the flea market. Lucia was kind enough to buy it for me as a Christmas present (thank you, Lucia!!!), and David has gotten started on refinishing it for me. I can't wait to see what it looks like all cleaned up!!

My brakes have needed replacing for a while now. A LONG while. They have gotten so bad that I refused to drive my van anywhere, nor let anyone else drive. So, David sat down to replace our rotor and brake pads on one side. Let me just tell you folks, my husband is WONDERFUL!!! Everyday I am amazed at how he can just set his mind to doing something and do it! He tackled that wheel in no time, well, with the exception of having to go back to the auto parts store to get a bigger rotor than the one originally purchased. Just amazing; I'm the one who taught him how to change his oil, and now he has graduated to changing brake pads and rotors. Sniff, sniff, I am so proud!

Thanks to Luke, my brother-in-law, who helped him along with a few obstacles David had!

David decided to build a swing set for Emmaline this weekend. He had previously hung the swing her Mormor and Morfar had given to her for Christmas up on a tree branch. Unfortunately, it was hard to get her little seat to swing evenly, so he bought the lumber Friday evening on his way home from work. David had it finished by Saturday morning. More and more I am becoming impressed at how handy, imaginative and creative my husband can be. I hope one day Emmaline is just as proud to have him as her father as I am to have him for a husband!

Here is Emmaline's first time in a swimming pool. I must warn you before you play this: the video is VERY LOUD!!!

So this is the mostly finished product! David's dining room table! He made it by hand from construction lumber, and all together he said it cost $70 to make. I am so proud of my crafty hubby!! He put a piece of plywood in the center, which he thought was going to be better camouflaged by the stain he chose. He was really disappointed that it kind of stuck out like a sore thumb, so I covered it with this handy dandy thingamabobber that I think Les and Eva got for us? I am not sure.

OK, so it's not perfect, but I thought I did a pretty good job making this cake from scratch. David said he wanted a Black Forest cake for his birthday, so I had to rush out and buy the ingredients. I was a very bad wife and forgot that his birthday was coming up so soon. He forgave me enough to eat some of my cake, though, so I guess I'm not in too much trouble.

On another note, I got to talk to my parents really for the first time since Emmaline was born. I got to talk to my mom on the phone the weekend after Emmaline was born, but the phone cut out after only a minute or two of talking. It was so nice to hear their voices and talk to them! Mom even sang a lullaby to Emmaline who was stirring in her sleep, starting to wake up. She went right back to sleep just as soon as she heard my mom's voice. I just broke down crying; it made me so happy yet so terribly sad to hear my mom speaking to Emmaline. It just broke my heart that my parents aren't here to hold her and cuddle her as I know they are anxious to do. I miss them so much, and I miss them on behalf of Emmaline. I struggled the rest of the day with a mild case of depression, yet I was elated to have been able to speak with them!