Finding Little Wendy P

Through some ridiculous timing (CHRISTMAS WEEK, hello!?! what was I thinking) I decided to join a website to connect with people locally that are mommy friends so we could easily make plans with the kids and what not. What I found was that many people from my home town on there as well. Don decided to join as well and has had a blast looking up people from college and has found some folks from his old college paper days... thrilling for him.

On Friday night I decided to just simply (I thought) scan in some photos from high school days and put them up to share with the couple of people from marching band days who I'd been talking to. Well!... you'd have thought I turned on a light in a closet full of cockroaches! People came out of the woodwork! And I mean that in the BEST possible way. LOL I have just spend a RIDICULOUS amount of time on this computer talking and reconnecting with some very old friends, looking at their childrens' faces and reading their stories. They touch me in a way that only the stories from my street, my school, my class can.

What it makes me realize is that when I decided to escape the days of high school by moving away and choosing not to stay in touch, I was leaving a huge chunk of myself behind. I'll tell you what... I went to school with some pretty fabulous people. I tried pretty hard to be someone else for the entirety of my 20s. Thankfully I woke up somewhere around the age of 30 and re-found Wendy. And now that I've rediscovered these old friends and this little girl is shining through to me in these pictures, perhaps I can just build a bridge over all that darkness that was my 20s. Because the last ten years has been fabulous too!

I'm sorry and the standard excuses...

It seems like I can blog for a few months then I run out of juice. I think life just builds up and things get piled up and blogging just gets lost in the pile. Christmas stacked up fast for me this year with a really huge PTO project that I co-chaired just before the regular shuffle of things began to click off the list. But looking back, it seems like November serving up some unwelcome medical issues is what might have thrown me off track.

Anyway. I'll try again. I'll play catch up for the holidays and post some photos via the slide show method: here is Christmas 2008 for our family.

Of course the big family news is that we have a TEENAGER!!! Mary Grace turned 13 over the weekend. Ahhh! SHOCKING to me, because this mama feels like she should be 3, not 13. She is blossoming (she dislikes that word) into such a lovely young lady. She is so much like me (she'd probably dislike hearing that one too) it's scary. VERY into the 80s look, which thrills me to no end. Rock on, sistah! Here she is sporting her electric yellow shirt and finger nails with crimped hair. Of course she was wearing a pair of Chuck Taylor hightops to boot!



Overall it was a fantastic holiday. Lots of family time between visits with both sides, some dinners out with Don's parents, visits from the Alabama troops and a nice long two week stay for Mary Grace. And two weeks out of school for Andrew and Abi. We are truly blessed. We spent two weeks with people that we love dearly. Our family.

It's funny... the word family means something different now than it did to me growing up. But, it's still just as precious and just as wonderful. Family now means the people that we are kin to, the families that we have married in to, the families our loved ones have married in to, the friends we have made in this area and their precious ones... and even online friends who have supported me for 7 years now since my pregnancy with Andrew. And they are the ones who make me who I am and get me out of bed each day. I love my family. Blended, shaken and stirred as it may be. I love my family.

Somebody Turned 6 Today!

Blowing Out The Candles
Originally uploaded by wenjomatic.

It's hard to even say it out loud. Andrew is 6.

Andrew had a lovely Ocean Animals party over the weekend with our closest friends and family. The weather, after sweating the predicted cold temps for a week or more, turned out just lovely... super sunny and 62. I couldn't have asked for a better fall day.

The kids all played so well and got along great, even though many of them had never met. Birthday parties are interesting as your child gets older. We have kindergarten friends now, plus the preschool friends from the last few years... all mixed in with playgroup friends we've known for as long as 6 years. But kids are still just kids... willing to play with anyone who will grab a hand. I was lovely.

Today we're sending in special snacks to school, spider cookies, as they are studying spiders this week. And a goodie of chocolate popcorn with spider rings inside. Andrew loved helping make them!

Ahhh, my boy is 6 now. That seems SO old to me. He's the same age Mary Grace was, when he was born. Time truly flies.

Blue Ribbon Nutkins

Blue Ribbon Nutkins
Originally uploaded by wenjomatic.

The Manheim Community Farm Show was this week so I entered some of my knitting into the "Fancy Work" section. That name always cracks me up. My Nutkin socks won a 1st place Blue Ribbon in the socks/booties exhibition. Abi's Little Sister Dress won a 2nd place Red Ribbon in the children's clothing exhibition.

Andrew entered his coloring page in the farm coloring display and won a participant ribbon. He's so proud!!

Garden Picked Clean

Garden Picked Clean
Originally uploaded by wenjomatic.

By me!!

Warm weather is coming to an end and our first Freeze Warning has just been issued for tonight. I went out this morning and picked the last of the things that might be bothered by the cold. There are still tons of green tomatoes on the vines, but we are about tomatoed-out at this point. I'll either fry up these green ones or see if they will turn, on the counter top, on their own.

New LYS = Lancaster Yarn Shop = *LOVE*

ShiBui Detail
Originally uploaded by wenjomatic.

The newest and most exciting yarn shop in our area opened last night, for First Friday, in downtown Lancaster, PA. Lancaster Yarn Shop

To celebrate, and to feed my addiction, I broke the sock yarn diet rule for one day. And oh, how happy I am.

It was very hard to choose... she's already stocking several lines of yarn and some local goodies. But I've been eyeing this chocolate/aqua combination, dubbed "chocqua" by cauchy09 for a long time.

This is going to make my Socktober Fest goals VERY difficult to meet. I think I'd better tuck it away for a while.

SocktoberFest Challenge

SocktoberFest Challenge
Originally uploaded by wenjomatic.I currently have 3 unfinished pairs of socks on the needles, in various stages. My personal goal for Socktober Fest: Finish these socks!

Don's Socks
Edelweiss
Firey SuperMerino Socks