I've been bad...

At posting. Horrendously bad.
Works been kicking my butt. December and January have always been bad, but this year felt worse than it has in years.
Family has been... complex. The good news is that this past holiday season was my nieces first Christmas and she was ADORABLE. Also, she is now 9 months old! How crazy is that??? Her 1st birthday is just around the corner!?!?!?

This was taken about a week before Christmas. I got to take the little booger for her mall Santa photo. My sister was going to skip the mall Santa photo for economic reasons, but I couldn't let that happen. EVERY child needs to have their photo taken while sitting on some strange old mans lap, right?
And here she is on Christmas morning.

I know that I'm biased, but I just want to eat her up because she is so G.D. adorable.
Anyways, this was Christmas morning on the couch and my moms with a few of the toys that Santa brought her.

And heres the little pooh-bear with her favorite auntie, me, in the midst of the chaos that is the dinner with the entire crazy bunch, I mean extended family.


Aside from fawning over my little niece, theres been other family issues. My moms health isn't so great. She's had 2 heart attacks in the past, the first at the age of 42 and the second at the age of 45. Last month ago there was reason to think she was having another. Thankfully, she wasn't. However, today we learned that her heart is functioning at only 40-45% of its capacity. I haven't spoken with her personally to find out exactly what this means, what the options are, and where to go next.


On a happier note, I went to Italy last November. I know that I mentioned this before, but I never posted any photos. These are a few of my favorites





Italy was beautiful, spectacular, and breathtaking. All at the same time. I definitely will make a point of visiting that country again in the future.

I've been doing better at keeping my travel blog up to date. I'd initially had the blog hosted on Wordpress, and while I liked Wordpress and its format and everything, I didn't like how they don't allow ads. Granted, Google AdSense doesn't pay out a whole heck of a lot, but every little bit ads up, right? Sooo, once it looked as though I was getting a fair amount of traffic I moved the blog over to Typepad. If you care to, you can now visit my travel blog here.
Bookmark it, talk about it, spread the word, whatever.

If you like the photos of Italy up there, and would like to see prints in person I will be having a show of some of my photography next month. Most of the photos will be of my travels - some of Italy, Paris, Ireland, and more exotic locales such as Forest Grove Oregon, Salt Lake City Utah, and our very own Sacramento California. Here are the details

Saturday, March 1 7pm-11pm
It's A Grind Coffee House
2731 Del Paso Road
Sacramento CA 95835

Need directions? Heres a map.

OH! And the best part? It's your chance to meet me in person. I'll be there all night. I may or may not be sneaking outside intermittently for a smoke and to top off my mochas with a wee nip of butterscotch schnapps or something of that genre, but I'll still be there. So, come! Bring a friend!

As I mentioned in my last posting, I've been working on my weight. I started at the beginning of the year and have managed to drop 15 lbs. Granted, I still haven't been to the gym, but it's a start, right?

I've been crocheting lately as well.
A few days after Christmas a close friend of mine lost her brother. I decided to give her an afghan in his honor and presented her with it about a month ago.
In addition to leaving behind his sisters, he also was the father to a 14 year old girl. My friend told me that when his daughter saw the afghan and found out what it was for, she was touched to the point of tears. What choice did I have but to make one for her as well? I finished it a couple of nights ago and should be presenting it to her tomorrow. I didn't get any photos of the afghan I made for my friend, but am hoping to grab a pic or two before I give this one to the daughter tomorrow.