Drove through rainstorm

http://instagr.am/p/LN19SKyA1R/

Are you on instagram? I’m @firrantello

Pink lemonade from @heatherturpintine’s recipe!

http://instagr.am/p/LL8uHxyA49/

Are you on instagram? I’m @firrantello

Thankful

Today I am thankful for phone calls from Alex, that his hip is not fractured, and that we have a new timeline, even if we are uncertain about it.

Week in the Life

I decided to participate in Week in the Life this year. I’ve admired it before and never participated. I decided this was the right time to do it. I bought a binder, some baseball protector pages and a set of 4×6 protector pages. My layout design was to use one of each daily: the 4×6 as a header & text (I recorded text using the Daily Sheets here) and then a page of wallet-sized prints through the day.  I used a mix of photos from my phone and from my Kodak EasyShare M1063. I actually ran this Saturday to Saturday, so I have 8 days.

Thoughts: I enjoyed doing it. It’s a little harder than Project 365.  I could tell I started burning out on it after a few days, my photo numbers went way down, as they did any time I worked a double or worked at Grind.

Below are the results.

Early morning musings

6:40 seems to be the choice of time for my body to wake me up without the alarm these days.
woke up thinking about how I sleep. On my left side when I’m in bed alone. On my right when alex is here.
Thinking about early Sunday mornings with Kara in high school. Usually slept in my back then. also realized from that, I sleep with the other person in bed to my right usually.

It’s going so-so.

I find myself going through a lot of the motions, but totally avoiding some other things. I’ve watched movies while he’s been gone, but I have’t put a blanket back on the couch or pulled the pillow back down. I haven’t laid on the couch to watch movies because it will be too hard to wake up alone and not have him to put me in bed. So I’ve only slept in bed. I actually haven’t cried since Tuesday, but I think today might be is the day. I’m scared of being alone tomorrow. I haven’t had a whole day alone yet. And Sundays were always our day together. I’m hoping so badly for a phone call & knowing there probably won’t be one. It just hurts. And it absoloutely is all the little things.

Uugh

I wrote this last night, but set to publish today for privacy. If you know us IRL or follow me on twitter, you probably knew, but details details.

Alex had his last night at home before Basic with me last night.

Tonight we’re in Charlotte, waiting to process tomorrow morning at MEPS.

I am pretty much a wreck & doing my damndest to hold it in. I am thankful to the lovely folks at the Center City Hampton Inn for working with me this afternoon so I could stay here tonight.

I have held it together over the strangest things and not broken down when I expected I would. But then I’m bursting into tears over small weird things. Alex noted earlier it’s been weepy, but I’ve only broken down into full on sobbing once this morning.

He’s gone to check himself in now.

Mom may come up to see him swear in officially with me tomorrow. It seems childish in one way that I’m clinging on to every second I can with him, but I keep reminding myself at the same time that it’s obviously what I need to make myself feel beter about the next 8.5 weeks.

We made the hard decision earlier than when he calls with the address, I will not pick up because he only has about a minute & I will let it go to voicemail because I will need to listen to the message a few times to make sure I have the address right. This is a super hard choice for me but the only logical one there really is: my cell has bad reception at both of my workplaces & with the crunch time, I may not be able to get to a good cell spot in time. But I know I’ll want to hear his voice so badly.

Part of this, you have to realize, is since we’ve been together ( 8.5 years), the longest we’ve gone without talking is about a week, when he was at Philmont. So not seeing each other for 2 months & not talking for long stretches… is going to be really hard.

WIP: Art of Chocolate

Art of Chocolate is a local fundraiser for Options, Inc. a domestic violence shelter in my county. I’m donating a project for the Art of Chocolate this year. AoC is an auction. I’ve wanted to attend the last 2 years and mostly by chance this year, the application for artists came across my desk at work. I decided that there was absolutely no reason why I couldn’t participate.  So I emailed the coordinator, bought yarn, and started. I’m doing a pair of gloves (just a bit modified) and when I realized I’d bought a skein of yarn more than I needed, I cast on for a purse as well to go with it. These mostly just need ends woven in and buttons now. The clutch purse is maybe 1/4 done. It’s a TON of cabling, so it doesn’t make for great TV knitting.

Gloves waiting for buttons

& with flash

 

beginnings of the clutch

 

more clutch

FO: Sherry’s Scarf

Blocking on the floor. The cast off edge is just a smidge too tight, but it fits her well. Hope she enjoys it!

Aw, Saturday…

My Saturday plan included sleeping in. Alex’s alarm went off, then he decided to play music loud while waiting for the tea to boil. Meaning I’m now wide awake. On the day I wanted to sleep in.

However, I am glad he’s here to do that. I’m gonna miss seeing him every day…