Happiness is....

...yummy yarn. I'm knitting a stole for myself right now. I'm using Malabrigo Silky Merino. It's so nice and soft. The colors are beautiful. The color is called Amoroso. It's a red based yarn, but with deeper almost purple sections and lighter almost pink sections and a bit of an orange tint here and there as well. I need to take a picture. It's just lovely yarn and lovely colors. I want to knit this bag I've seen - I have the pattern. You felt the bag. I would love to do it in black, with a stripe that would match my Amoroso Silky Merino - I think it would be stunning. The pretty things I can possibly create by knitting really makes me happy.

I'm a wimp

Oh yeah, I'm a wimp big time. I cut myself with the bread knife last night. I couldn't look at it. I couldn't think about it. I was worried that I would need stitches. Thank heavens for my firefighter (and former EMT) husband. He took care of bandaging my wound. I was getting queasy and had to sit and put my head down, fearing I would pass out. Boomer took care of me too, coming to sit with me and stand protectively over me. This morning, he rebandaged it - and I had to squat down at one point because I started feeling woozy again. I am such a wimp.

Happiness is...

...a bunch of things this week. Being outside this weekend in the beautiful weather - I just love how Boomer soaks it up. You know the saying "happy as a pig in shit"? Well, I would like to be happy as Boomer in the sun. I got lots of hugs from A this week. There's no way to describe how wonderful it feels just to be in his arms. I started a new knitting project that I had just been itching to start. I got a new phone and I was part of the winning spelling bee team. It was a good week.
They aren't all good weeks. That's one of the reasons I started doing these Wednesday "Happiness is.." posts. I want to be happy and when I started these posts, I was in a place where I had to look for the happy things. I was determined to be happy and knew that if I looked at it, most every week I could find something that was happy.
I feel for a new friend of mine today. Today is an anniversary of a loss for her. I know how hard that is. I know that time will deaden the pain - but I also know that the sadness will always remain. Part of it is that you don't get to grieve in the same way when you lose a child before birth. It's not as real a loss to other people as it is to you. I think that makes the grieving process harder. But it is, for most of us, survivable. And you can find happiness in life again, you just have to really look for it sometimes.

A little frustration with the hubby

I gave A a list today of things that needed to get done. He seemed a little peeved - said he wasn't - but he had that kind of attitude he gets sometimes. Well - I'm peeved. I asked him to do one thing yesterday that he needed to do for me so I could send our tax paperwork to the accountant. He didn't do it. He went and had coffee with friends at one firehouse, went to visit friends at another firehouse - but couldn't put together what I needed for the taxes. And it's not something I can do - he has to do it. He's been on vacation since the end of February. There was one thing I told him early on that I wanted him to do while off - clean out his drawers. He has so many t-shirts and shorts and jeans that they don't fit in his drawers. He hasn't given any indication of doing it. Lastly, he needs to lose weight. About six weeks ago he came home from work all ready to lose weight. He had had his blood pressure taken and it was high. He was going to lose weight. Honestly, I don't see him putting a lot of effort into it. His weight is down, but he's not working out and his eating habits are not any better. I've tried every which way I can think of to encourage him to lose weight and I've just about given up. He doesn't care. He knows his weight is not healthy, but apparently being healthy and being around to live a long life with me is no incentive to lose weight and get healthy. He would rather have his beer and his Carvel and his unhealthy food than live a long life with me. It makes me want to cry. It makes me want to give up. I want him around. I want him healthy. And yes, selfishly, I want him to look fit too. I love him so much. He kisses me and I melt. It's not that he doesn't turn me on big belly and all - but I would like for him to be more fit. I would like to be able to hug and kiss him and feel the length of him - not be an belly's width away. But he doesn't care enough to lose the weight and that just makes me sad and frustrated and ready to give up on him ever losing weight.

Feeling fortunate amidst the destruction

When I drive around my town, and through the next towns to my place of work, I feel very fortunate. We lost a few shingles off the roof in Saturday's storm and got some water in the basement, but that's it. We didn't have trees crashing in our yard or through our house. No power lines down at our house or in our neighborhood. We have power. There are trees down all over the place. Huge trees just uprooted. It was some storm!

Happiness is...

....going for a walk with the Boom Doggie. He's always happier about it than me - not that I don't enjoy it - but because going for a walk makes that dog INSANELY happy. He'll run around in circles, so excited about going for a walk. Even the mere mention of a walk gets him excited. We can not say "do you want to take the dog for a walk" unless we are going to follow through. He understands what it means. Or saying "I'm going for a walk" gets him in a tizzy, thinking he's going too. So, we talk about taking him for a stroll or use our fingers to make a walking motion or some other such way of indicating walk without saying it. We've gotten to take a few walks lately, thanks to the sneak preview of spring we've been having. It's a good thing.

A week later - evidence of spring

Taken yesterday - hard to believe a week ago there was over a foot of snow here.

Friday Photos

Just some shots of the snow last Saturday. When we headed out to Maine, there was 13 inches on the ground. (The 9 in shot was earlier.)