… and many more to go!

Roses for our anniversary

Nick and I had a very quiet anniversary celebration.  It was nice, though.  He surprised me with a bouquet of pink roses when I got home from work.  (Please excuse the crummy cell-phone picture of them; I assure you, they were beautiful despite what the picture might show.)  We exchanged paper-themed gifts.  I got him a nice card and a (paper) giftcard.  (Well, and a stuffed monkey–but obviously that wasn’t paper. It was just too cute to resist.)  He got me a business card holder, post-it’s, printer paper (ha ha), and a gorgeous calendar and stationary set with art-deco type artwork on it.

We had dinner at Prime 108, which is a fantastic restaurant in downtown Nashville located inside Union Station.  Our friend Alan is a chef there, so we always know the food will be great.  It was no disappointment on our anniversary either, and we were floored when Alan came out to check on us at the end of the meal and wished us a happy anniversary from he and his wife Erica and took care of our bill for us.  I actually teared up.  We’re blessed with the most amazing friends.

We also got lots of beautiful cards and gifts from family.  I need to gather them all up and tuck them in a scrapbook when I have some time.

… and things are, as always, busy!  Nick flew back to Erie on Thursday for a visit.  I dropped him off around 5:30 a.m. at the airport.  He made it back to Erie safe and sound and he’s going backpacking with his father for the weekend.  I hope they have good weather and lots of fun.

Gracie sits on my lap while I knit.

I stayed home with the dog and cat this trip.  It’s my first time being “alone” since we moved to Nashville, and it feels sort of strange.  I don’t mind it, but it’s just different.  Thankfully I have the pets to keep me company so the house isn’t completely empty and silent.

I’ve been busy working on soaps.  I have quite a few melt and pour (”M&P”) type soaps made up, and this weekend I’m going to attempt making my first cold-process soaps.  That means getting out the lye–yipes!  No worries, though, I’m taking LOTS of cautions (goggles, gloves, long-sleeves, etc.).  No lye burns for me, thanks.  If you want to read more about what I’m doing with my soap making, check my soap blog.

Melanie at the Parthenon

Oh!  We had company last week too.  My best friend Melanie, who was the maid of honor in our wedding, came to visit for the weekend!  We did a little sight-seeing while she was here and I taught her to knit!  We hung out at the knit shop quite a bit and she got to meet all my friends there.  We also went out for Thai food and Melanie and Nick rode go-carts afterward.  We had a pretty fun visit.  Nick and I are trying to coax she and Chrissy to move down here, but they’re not going for it.  (Bah-humbug!)

Anyway, I think that’s all the news for now.  Hopefully when Nick gets back from his trip, he’ll have some photos or something to post here.  I keep trying to get him to post–we’ll see if it works!

As you’ve probably guessed, I’m back from my trip home to Pennsylvania now.  The week still wasn’t long enough, but it never really is.  I’ll post some more photos later, but here are a couple of my favorites from my visit:

I got to see so many of my friends and family members while I was home.  It was really great.  In particular, I got to spend a lot of time with my grandparents, which was the real reason for my trip — I just felt like I needed to see them.

As I’m typing this, my mom is on her way here to Nashville.  She left (driving) this morning and should be here around 9:30 p.m. tonight!  I’m so excited.  It made it much easier to say goodbye last weekend, knowing that she’d be here this week!  We’re going to the AQS quilt show tomorrow at the Opryland Hotel.  I’m also thinking if she’s interested that I might bring her in to my work and into the capitol building and stuff.  I think she might like that.

Next weekend Nick’s parents will be staying with us, and the weekend after that my friend Melanie may be flying in to stay with us too… so we have a steady stream of loved ones visiting over the next week, which is great.  The house isn’t exactly as orderly and neat as I’d like it to be for company, but oh well, they’re family.  They may as well know now that I’m no June Cleaver.  ;)  (Though I do try.)

Hopefully I’ll get my butt in gear and get some new pictures posted soon.  Really.  I promise!

We have good work-related news!

Nick was promoted at work!  He’s now running the install-bay and in charge of car electronics.  He also earned his MECP Advanced certification and is currently studying for his Master certification as well.

As for me… I’ve been asked by my local yarn shop to start teaching some knitting classes!  I’m really excited about that.  I’m teaching a class on how to knit two socks at the same time on two circular needles.  I wrote up a pattern for a pair of plain baby socks to do for that class.  Then I’m also teaching a class on knitting a pair of simple lace adult-size socks.  The sock in the picture is the sock we’ll be doing in that class.  It’s the “Monkey” pattern designed by Cookie A.

My first class is next Monday night.  I’m nervous and excited!

Nick and I decided to go check out the Tennessee Renaissance Festival this past Sunday.  You can see some pictures that I took in the gallery here.  Unfortunately, after a run out to the car to put away our umbrella and drop off some things, I left my camera there.  So I didn’t get to take as many photos as I’d like.

We watched the joust and the live chess tournament.  We also got to tour Castle Gwynn.  We ate lots of great food — giant turkey legs, roasted German pecans — yum!  And I got to buy a pretty sterling silver Celtic knot ring to remember our fun day.

Not a lot going on these days, but I thought I’d give ya’ll an update anyway.

Nick has been busy working, as always.  He’s been lucky lately and has had a lot fewer late-nights, which is very nice.  He’s also recently gotten really interested in playing pool — he’s been looking up all sorts of tips and tricks on the Internet.  He and his buddies from work go out on Sunday nights to play and he usually does pretty well, I guess!

Work has been keeping me busy as well.  This is an especially busy time of year for me (January through late-May or June).  I’m looking forward to summertime and hopefully getting to use some of the comp-time I’ve racked to do some traveling.  I’m hoping maybe we can make it out to Gatlinburg this year.  I think Nick would enjoy it and I haven’t been out there since I was a kid.

We also recently managed to get tickets to go see Eddie Izzard here in Nashville at the Ryman Auditorium on June 20th.  We’re both ridiculously excited.  If you haven’t seen him before, go rent a copy of “Dressed to Kill” which was an HBO stand-up special he did a few years ago.  He is hilarious.  We have all his DVDs that have been released in the US and have watched them over and over, so I can’t believe we’re actually going to get the opportunity to see him live!

Anyway, I guess that’s all the news (see, I told ya there’s not much going on - haha).