Going Home

I recently embarked on a girl trip with my friend Wendy who currently lives in Texas.  The trip was long and I had a lot of fun.  It was nice having another single person around that actually wanted to hang out with me.  The plan was to get to her house on a Thursday and then stay there for a week and head out the following Thursday for "home".  Well the weather was not cooperating with us since Arlington, Texas decided to have an ice storm right when we were supposed to leave.  Come Thursday we were so ready to leave that we decided to venture out in the ice and see if we cold make it.  Half way down the road and far enough away to feel that we could either turn around and fight the ice and be unhappy in Arlington or we could keep going and hope the ice ended soon...obviously we opted for the later.  It was slow going and we had one scary moment where the vehicle decided to slide on it's own.  I was able to keep us from going off the road into the median.  Once safely stopped we all took a moment to breathe and then I was able to get us going again.  After two days, on a road trip that should have only taken us one day, we were coming into Tucson.  I had an overwhelming feeling of I don't know what....a feeling of awe I'm home or was I dreaming, did I not move, am I back in Tucson stuck forever?  It did not hit me that it was really no longer home until Sunday when I was finished with lunch and had no where to go.  I wanted to just go home and relax or take a nap but I had no home to go to.  It was a sad reality but at the same time very freeing.  A place I called home for so long but didn't necessarily like was no longer home.  I was the visitor this time and I could go "HOME" whenever I wanted to.  I no longer lived in a place where I sat at home along 90% of the time.  A place that was still hot in the middle of February, for that matter a place that was hot 90% of the time.  A place where I felt sad and alone.  I now lived in a place with many people who told me many times while I was away that they missed me and wanted me to come back "HOME".  A place where it was still 30 degrees or below and had snow on the ground.  A place that changed me so much in the short time that I was there that everyone I saw told me that I had a glow about me, that I looked happier.

Don't get me wrong, Tucson ("home") will always be special to me.  How can a place where you grew up and met some of the closest friends a person could ever have not be special?  A place where most of my fondest memories reside.  A lot of close friends and even closer family members still live in this place I once called home.  It will always have a special place in my heart!

But my new "HOME", Mecosta, Michigan, is letting me experience seasons, new friends, and new adventures.  I feel free like I can do almost anything I want to here.  This is going to be a year of many changes and I'm looking forward to every single one of them!

I can truely say this is a trip that really taught me what "going home" really means!

Creating..

I've never been artistic.  I can't see paint and know it's going to look good on a wall.  I very rarely get inspired by something at the craft store.  But one day someone showed me how to knit and I picked it up pretty quickly.  Then I ventured into crocheting a little bit.  I had a hard time picking up how to read a crochet pattern so I decided to stick with knitting.  Then I moved to Michigan where my newfound love for knitting was put to good use.  Aubrei, my sister-in-law, asked me to crochet her a hat and diaper cover for my soon to be nephew.  I picked up my crochet needle and decided to try again and to my surprise.....I LOVED IT!  You only need one needle and it's so much faster than knitting.  I've been a crocheting fool ever since and I'm hooked on it.  Everyone has warm hats and scarfs.  I'm venturing into fingerless gloves and who knows what else.  Now I can look at a skein of yarn and get inspired to make a hat, gloves, scarf.  Even though I can follow a pattern I like finding new stitches and trying to make things on my own without a pattern.  I'm happy that I can make beautiful things for people.



I love that this....



Can become this....



Or this....




Or this!

 So this is what I fill my unemployment time with now when I'm not in service or going to "town".  After a day of being inspired to make something my hands hurt.  Sometimes when I go to bed my hands are still formed as if I had yarn and a needle still.  It's pretty funny and I'm hoping that my hands get used to it soon.

I hate that I can see every mistake I make, even when everyone tells me that I'm seeing things and the item is fine the way it is.  Every time I look at it I am bothered and 99% of the time I have to fix it.  But even with that I don't mind because the next time I pick up my needle I get a little bit better.

I'm off to do some more crocheting because I have a few items still to make before I venture off on my trip.







First Time

I have never done a blog before and saw all these great ones out there and decided I would give it a try.  I am going to write about my experiences being single.  As you can see, since this is my first post, they will be few and far between.  I recently moved to Michigan and I am settling into a routine and finding friends.  Thank goodness I'm a Jehovah's Witness and have a place to go to find good friends.  When I decided to move back to Michigan many people asked me why it's so cold there and they get snow.  Well here is your answer:

Need I say more?  I think not.  I would take this over 100 degree days any day.  So stay tuned for a more lively blog in the hopefully near future.  I have a trip coming up and I'm sure I will have some good experiences from that to blog about.