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!

I just printed my boarding passes online, so I guess there’s no turning back!  (Not that I’d want to anyway.)  I’m flying home to Erie, PA tomorrow!  I’m excited.

I’m also nervous — just about the flying part.  Up till yesterday, I was excited — picking out books and knitting projects to take with me to pass the time on the plane and during the layover in Detroit.  But now that I have boarding passes in-hand, the nervousness has hit and my stomach is in knots.  This will only be my second time flying, and though I did just fine the first time, it still freaks me out.  The only reason I’m flying at all is because I felt like I needed to go home for a little while, and Nick wasn’t able to come so I didn’t want to drive the 11+ hours alone.  Anywhere else though?  Forget it.  My need to go home just outweighed my dislike of flying.

I packed most of my things last night.  I’m flying Northwest and they allow for one checked bag for free, plus your carry on.  I’m just taking one suitcase, and even with a good amount of clothing packed, there’s still lots of room in case I do any shopping while I’m home.  Of course, I packed lots of yarn and knitting things in both my carry on and my checked luggage (I might need more knitting to do on the flight home, ya know!).  I think I packed enough yarn and patterns to knit 3 or 4 pairs of socks, which is highly unlikely — if I get through 2 pair, I’ll be surprised — but knitting is the one thing that calms my nerves.  Those security people at the airport better not try and take my knitting needles away or I’ll be a wreck… (I did pack a book in case, though.)

Anyway, tomorrow night I’ll be having dinner at my parents’ house.  My mom is making stuffed shells.  My mother- and father-in-law, and my grandparents will all be there.  It should be nice.  After spending the better part of the day in airports, I’m not entirely sure how coherent I’ll be, but I’m sure they’ll understand.  Oh!  And I’ll get to see my good old Kodi-dogger too.

I’m going to make an effort to take lots of pictures.  I’m just packing my little point-and-shoot camera, not my fancy dSLR.  But I’ll try to take enough pictures with family and friends so that I can post a nice little photo album of the trip in the photo gallery when I get back.

Wish me luck and think good thoughts for my flights tomorrow, please!  (No turbulence! *fingers crossed*)  See ya’ll soon!

I’m feeling quite domestic (ha ha).  Last night, I made my first attempt at making home made jam…

My mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother have always been talented when it came to canning things and making jellies and jams.  I grew up watching them make it, but till now I’d never had any interest in trying it myself.

I discovered wild blackberries growing in the field next to our apartment.  The bushes were just loaded with berries, and over the last week they’ve ripened from bright red to a rich, dark purplish-black.

I had no idea how to go about making these berries into jam.  I knew I needed to get jars, and some sort of “stuff” (Sure-Jell fruit pectin, it turns out) to make it thicken.  Thank goodness for the Internet, and mom’s phone number on speed-dial!

I made a small batch — eight half-pints worth — and it actually appears to have set up  properly!  I’m hoping to get a chance to make homemade biscuits this weekend because there are few things tastier than warm biscuits with sweet, fresh jam on them.  Mmmm!

Now I’m thinking about making some blackberry pie, if I can collect enough berries.  I’m also thinking about trying to get some strawberries to make jam with too!

For anyone who was wondering, my first experience teaching a knitting class went very well.  The picture (click to enlarge) is the baby socks I designed for the class, and I taught the students how to knit them two at a time (simultaneously) on two circular needles.

I was supposed to have four gals in my class, but only two made it.  (The other ones had family and health-related problems and couldn’t make the first class.)  My two students did very, very well and are both finishing up their socks.

Pat (the owner of my local yarn shop) already booked me to teach this class again.  She said that the girls who missed the first class want to take it, and she thinks there will be others also.  I’m also teaching other sock knitting classes, a shawl/wrap class, and a free workshop/Q&A session on using Ravelry.com (a popular knitting-related website).  So now I’m teaching classes almost every Monday evening and two classes (one in the morning, one in the afternoon) on Saturdays!

I almost feel guilty getting paid to do this.  I even told Pat as much.  I really enjoy knitting, and I enjoy helping people learn to knit.  It’s getting paid to do something I really love.  And even if I weren’t teaching, I’d probably be at the knit shop for sit-’n-knit anyway, so I might as well be helping out!

I’ve really met so many wonderful friends through the knit shop.  I don’t think I’d have ever gotten over my homesickness without them.  They’ve become my “Tennessee-family”.

Speaking of homesickness, I’m going home next month!  Actually, I’ll be leaving a month from today - on August 8th.  I’ll be flying from Nashville to Detroit, then into Erie.  Nick has to work, so I’ll be flying home by myself.  Hopefully we’ll be able to make another trip in the autumn so he can go too.

I’ll be spending the week visiting with family.  My grandparents have both recently had some health problems, and I just felt like I really need to be home right now with them.  Unfortunately, I can’t stay, but at least I can visit for a while and spend as much time as possible with them.

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!