Not much...

I don't have much to share, but I wanted to check in with the blogging world to assure you all that I'm alive and well and enjoying my visit with my sister very much and will post more about it, perhaps, once she flies away home : (. 

So I guess in the meantime it's your turn to share! 

Question of the weekend:

What up with your weekend? (answer in comments)

Rainy days...sweeping the Sun away...on my way...

What is happening these days?  I was just over at my sister-in-law's blog and she was having the same problem.  What to post?  While I feel that she must have TONS to post (being pregnant with twins and moving next weekend and working full time at a daycare) I feel like I have absolutely nothing.  Then again, it might go both ways and she may feel that I am the one with lots to post (being the one living in "sunny" California and planning a trip to San Francisco today/tomorrow and living life on the "edge").  But all my days for the last 5 weeks have been pretty much the same:

-  wake up whenever my body naturally wakes up
-  get ready for the day...try to have this step finished by 12 noon
-  have lunch whenever I get hungry
-  read/crochet/quilt/explore the World Wide Web - pretty much do whatever I feel like all afternoon
-  make supper
-  eat supper
-  clean up supper
-  more reading/tv/crocheting/quilting/whatever I feel like all evening
-  go to bed

Don't get me wrong...it has been a VERY relaxing routine and I've been enjoying it quite a bit.  But 5 weeks of this does get to be a bit much.  And it produces very little to actually blog about.  (Hence all the pictures of my latest projects)

So I mentioned that we're going to San Francisco today.  That's exciting.  My sister is flying in to Sacramento this evening and then we're going to drive to San Francisco where we got a cheap hotel (priceline = $50 a night).  Little did I know that the parking at the hotel is $35 though!!!  I'm used to hotel parking being free!  Then again, I've never stayed in San Francisco overnight.  (Now that I think of it, the parking at the hotel in LA earlier in December also was not free, though it wasn't $35 either)  So we'll head to San Francisco and spend the night and spend tomorrow seeing the sights.  It's supposed to rain (we've been having SO much rain lately - I feel like I'm in BC, not California) so we might end up just buying trolley passes and seeing the city from inside the trolley.  That could be fun too, I guess.  And then we'll drive home because we're only a couple hours from San Fran.  I'm looking forward to this trip, but not as much as I'm looking forward to seeing my sister!  We haven't been together for...9 months?  10 months?  It's been a while.  It should be grand.

Let's see...what else?  Nope.  I can't think of anything.  Is it worth posting, even when there's nothing to really post about?  Let me know, because I sometimes wonder about that.  : )

Have a good couple days!  See ya when I see ya!

Yosemite

Nathan and I went out to Yosemite with a couple of friends on Friday.  It was good, except for these roads driving in:

Winding roads along the side of the mountain + extreme elevation changes = sick me.
*sigh* I bought some motion sickness drugs when we got where we were going and took some before we left to come back.  I think they helped...I didn't get sick on the way back at least!

It was beautiful though:

Do you see the waterfall in the background?  Here's a better shot of it:

Apparently the waterfalls are at their fullest in a couple months when the spring runoff happens.  Makes sense.

We saw some other waterfalls too...they were beautiful as well.  Nathan is an amazing nature photographer.  I will admit, though, I was not always as patient as I should have been when he would park with the camera for 10-15 minutes in one spot...

Then again, he would get shots like this:

And I wouldn't.

We also climbed on some rocks right up to a waterfall:

I like climbing on rocks.  I think my low center of gravity and balance really help me.  In this picture I have something in each of my hands, so I had to catch myself with my other foot.  It worked.  I didn't fall once.  So I guess that book that I mentioned a while ago where I was warned about my lifespan being shorter because I am short doesn't apply to death due to rock-climbing (or any balance-related activity).  Take that, tall people.

Here is a picture of me and Nathan:

Looking pretty good for almost 5 years of marriage, eh?

This is one of the shots that we were climbing on the rocks to get:

Oh yeah, and we saw snow:

It was very grainy snow, not at all like the soft fluffy snow that you get on the prairies.  Here it was just packed ice.  It made me sad that this is all the snow some kids get to experience in their lives. 

And last but not least, something completely unrelated to our Yosemite trip:

 

This is my latest creation that is going to my Etsy site.  I couldn't get the colors to look true to themselves in the photo (boo on artificial lighting), but hopefully you can picture a real brown and a cute pink, cause that's how it really is.  I'll have to get a better picture next time it's sunny outside, but that might be a while.  It's supposed to be rainy at least until the weekend.

Guess who's...

an official Californian driver?!

(I'm covering part of it so everyone out there in blogger-land doesn't see all my important "stuff")

That's me!
I took my driver's test in early November (and passed with flying colors) but there was some confusion with me not having a Social Security Number so it took two whole months for me to get my actual photo ID.  But now I have it!  Whoo-hoo!  Yay for a less confusing identity!

And speaking of cars...you know that feeling if getting into your car after it's been sitting in the sun for a while and it's hot and stuffy and you have to let the heat out before you get in?

Yup.

California.

Today.

Beautiful.

What am I doing these days?

I run from one activity to another like a 3 year old with a high on sugar life.  Among my latest are:
-  reading "The Gospel According to Lost" by Chris Seay
-  reading " Paul's Idea of Community" by Banks (and writing a paper on it for class - I finished this one yesterday!)
-  making my first actual "quilted" baby quilt - this I also finished yesterday
-  cleaning all the loose threads off my first rag quilt - this one gives me blisters, so I haven't picked it up for a few days
-  crocheting a scarf for my Etsy shop - would only take an hour or less to finish, but it's kinda nice knowing that there is a project sitting there in case I get bored with something else
-  thinking about a pattern for my next baby quilt - any ideas?

I guess while I'm making a random list of mostly projects, I'll share a few pictures of the latest.  Yesterday was a warm, sunny day, so I took advantage of the natural light and got pictures of everything.

A toque that I have listed over at my Etsy shop:

Scarf that's going to my Etsy shop just as soon as I finish it:

Baby quilt from the fabric I showed you here.  It's not perfect or professional, but I'd say it's pretty good.  Hand-stitching the binding was BY FAR the most time-consuming part of the entire project.  But I enjoyed it all. : )

And last but not least, a flanel, double-layer receiving blanket.  I found this fabric at Walmart in their sale basket (end of the roll) and loved it.  So I picked it up and later found that I actually had some navy blue flannel on hand from another project that would work perfectly for the back.  It took a bit of piecing (added white flannel strips to two sides of the back) to make it all fit together because it was made from all scraps, but I really love it.  I haven't been able to decide if I'll sell it or keep it in my stash for future gifts or (perhaps) personal use?

I picked a pomegranate today.

PoSt SoMeThInG...aNyThInG!

Don't you sometimes just want to post but have absolutely nothing to write about?  Yup.  I thought so.  I guess I'll just share random thoughts.  Those can end up being entertaining (not to mention, enlightening), right?  Let's see...

-  I started doing homework again today after almost a month off.  I was just not feeling like this was the right time to become a full time student again, so I put the books aside and re-evaluated what I was thinking.  I ended up deciding that I would go through with the whole application thing and then take whatever courses caught my eye.  So I won't be actually trying to complete any sort of degree while I'm here, but I feel so much more peace about this decision.  And this way I'll have some seminary credits sitting around in case I ever get around to finishing my BA and decide that I would like a Masters degree.  How is the homework going, you ask?  Well...how do I put this?  There are a few other things that I would rather be doing right now...

-  I wrote a bunch of letters yesterday.  It always takes me so long to actually get myself to sit down and write a personal letter.  I LOVE getting them though, so I can't expect any to come if I don't write them myself every once in a while.  So naturally, when I picked up the mail later that day, I expected our mailbox to be full of mail.  If I write some, I should receive some, right?  I DID end up getting a book in the mail that was part of a Christmas gift, though.  That was exciting.

-  Right now I'm babysitting our friends' daughter.  She's NAPPING so I'm sitting here at their place, with my laptop and homework reading, hoping that she won't wake up too soon so I can actually get some homework done.  But then again, if you remember my comment from earlier, obviously I would rather be having fun with an 8 month old than reading about Paul's idea of community!

-  It's raining outside...well, misting/sprinkling really.  It's been so foggy lately that we haven't really seen the sun for a couple weeks.  I thought California was supposed to be sunny all year round!  Apparently not.  It is foggy and cloudy and today it's raining.  We are in the middle of a drought, near a desert, though, so even when it rains, it doesn't get you too wet and doesn't last that long, so I really can't complain.  And it has been around 7 degrees during the day, so I really can't complain about that either. : )

-  I am working on a scarf for my Etsy shop...also almost finished binding a baby quilt that I plan to list.  Fun stuff.  Thing is, it takes money to make things, so the beginning has been unfortunately slow...

-  Does it seem to anyone else like pregnancies go in spurts?  It seemed like there was a huge amount of pregnant women that I knew back in 2007/2008.  And now there seems to be another swell (no pun intended) for 2010.  I counted the other night and there are 12 women I know who are either pregnant or who have had babies in the past week.  And most of those babies are due in June and July.  Wow.  Is it that alot of those 2007/2008 babies are going to be older siblings, that the timing between kids is the main factor?  I guess that could make sense.  But alot of the babies are firsts for the parents.  So I have no idea why they all group together like that.  Weird.  Must be some kind of conspiracy...

-  Nathan has started blogging again!  He wanted to get in on book reviewing, like I'm doing, so he has resurrected his old officehourthoughts.blogspot.com.  You can find him on my sidebar as "A Short Step Down From Thought Provoking."

Well, I really have no idea where to go with this post from here.  As always, I am open to post suggestions or random questions in my comments.

Have a good week!

Cookie-making

I decided to make peanut butter cookies today.  I made 36.  And then I got sick of making individual cookies.  I seem to remember not having the patience for individual cookies ever since I was little and helping my mom make cookies.  I usually overcome my boredom and end up making serving-size morsels of goodness.  But every once in a while at least half the batch of dough ends up on one pan, baked into one HUGE cookie.  I like to call them "cookie-squares".  Why not, right?

Hahaha...I love it!!!

Tastes of Canada

Today was an exciting mail day for me!  I was sitting there quilting, minding my own business, when Nathan came in and told me that he was going to open up his prized bag of Ruffles All Dressed chips that he got for Christmas from his parents. (they don't have such chips in the States)

Here he is enjoying his chips:

I took that interruption as a good excuse to get up from my sewing machine and go get the mail.  As I walked to our box, I was preparing myself, as I do every day, for empty nothingness in our box.  But I got a WONDERFUL surprise!!!  It was not only a good mail day, it was a great mail day!

Let me show you:

I joined a book review club over Christmas week and requested my first book.  And it arrived today!  This seems like a great deal.  I request a book.  Once I get the book, I read it and post a 200 word review on my blog, on a review site of my choice, and on the original site (I think).  Once I've done that, I can request another book!  And the best part...it's FREE!  I'll always take free books...especially if all I have to do is write 200 words.  No problems here!

(I think I'll be posting the reviews over at another blog that I set up especially for books that I've been reading...you can find it HERE)

And the second exciting mail item:

That, my dear friends, is a CARAMILK BAR!!!  From Canada!  My amazing, sweet sister-in-law and brother-in-law sent it to us in our Christmas card!  I'd been craving a Caramilk bar, even going so far as to say that it was all I wanted for Christmas (alongside a baby, of course).

Well, back to my quilting I go!

Date night!

Last night was date night at the McCorkindale house!  I always love date night.  It doesn't happen nearly often enough...

Mmm...

I picked out some fabrics today.  I'm going to start a quilt today.  It's going to be fun. 

(I just had to share the excitement!)

Time for another list!

I like lists.  I like crossing items off of lists.  I like writing lists.  Everything in life just seems more organized with lists.  So today I will be making a list of all the different types of lists that I've made!

-  shopping list (duh)
-  to-do list (another given)
-  list of books I want to read
-  list of books that I've read
-  list of things I'd like to make
-  menu items for easy supper ideas
-  Christmas gift suggestions
-  qualities I'd like in a husband (who hasn't made one of these sometime in their high school career?!)
-  girls names that I like
-  boy names that I like
-  all the clothing items that I have (and consequently what I still need)
-  Christmas card/letter list (though there hasn't been a Christmas letter for two years now)
-  list of instructions of how to make something
-  things I'm angry about list (for theraputic reasons only! haha)
-  things I'm thankful for
-  friends I have (good one to do when feeling lonely: it always surprises me how many people I consider friends)
-  boys I'd date (another one from high school!)
-  who, of our high school friends, will get married (first to last) - I believe Mike won that one...and we totally called it

Come to think of it, back in high school my friends and I made TONS of lists!  We had pages and pages of lists about everything under the sun.  I wonder where those lists are now.  I'm not sure that I have any...no wait!  I do!  I totally have a whole binder somewhere that's stuffed with notes from high school!  I'm going to have to find that when we move back to Canada and open all our boxes again.  Sweet.

Life is dangerous...

 

I was looking through this book that we picked up off of a free books table a couple months ago and found something very interesting.  I quote:

"A lack of height can cut your life, well, short."

See, people?  I KNEW that being short isn't all the blessing it's cracked up to be!  Apparently taller people earn more money, are more respected, and actually live longer than shorter people.

So there you have it.  Tall people, rejoice.  You, apparently, are the chosen ones. : )

Late nights...

What to do when the clock is ticking later and later and your body is nowhere near ready for sleep?  Our schedule has taken a beating since classes ended in early December.  While there were classes, we tried to be in bed by 11 or 12 and slept until 7:30 on class days, and about 8:30 on other days.  We had a pretty regular routine. 

And then winter break hit.

*dun, dun, dunnnnnn*

We've been staying up later, and as a result, sleeping in later, and therefore staying up even later, and sleeping EVEN later.  Not good, people.  My body has NO idea what to do with itself. 

The other morning I decided that I was going to start getting myself back on track and got out of bed at 7:30am.  Nice work, right?  Well, I started reading my book on the couch...in my pajamas...wrapped in a blanket.  And then I napped until noon.  Of course I couldn't sleep that night until 2am.  Arg.

Well, last night I was suddenly crazy tired at 9pm.  I was so excited, but tried not to let my excitement wake me up.  I put on my pajamas, crawled into bed with my book, and ended up shutting off my light at 9:46pm.  Impressive, right?  And the most impressive part is yet to come.  I slept 13 hours straight, waking up at 11am.  So guess what?  Now it's 11:18pm and I'm not tired in the least.  So should I go to bed and lay there in the dark, frustrated because I can't sleep, for two more hours?  Or should I scout the internet for interesting quilt patterns, crochet projects, and fun blogs?  I'll go for the latter.  Though reading my C.S. Lewis book would probably put me to sleep much more effectively.

Before I go, I'll answer my mother-in-law's question (and probably a few others had the same question): "What's an etsy seller? I don't understand. Could you please teach me about it?"  Absolutely.

An Etsy seller is someone who sells things on Etsy.  But I've heard that you should never give a definition of something using the same word that is in the original term in question.  So next I'll answer what Etsy is.

Etsy is "Your place to buy & sell all things handmade."  - Etsy.  It is an online group of "shops" where people from anywhere, really, list things that they have made and people can see these things and buy them directly from the maker.  The maker then is responsible for shipping the handmade item to the buyer.  I call it the Ebay of the craft world.  I'm sure it is not really very much like Ebay...but it kind of gives you an idea of what it's like. 

So being an Etsy seller, I have my own "shop" where I can list things that I have made and sell them to people around the world!  Pretty fun, I'd say.  So far some things that I've thought of making and selling on my site are:

-  afghans (crocheted blankets)
-  crocheted hats/toques/beanies
-  quilts?
-  scarves (also crocheted)
-  anything else that I find to crochet or sew
-  perhaps one day I'll try to sell some photography...but for now I like to keep my camera skills mostly to myself : )

So that's that.  Well, I think I'll head offline and see if C.S. Lewis has any interesting things to teach me. (I'm reading The Great Divorce, which is quite good, as are all things Lewis that I've read.)

Etsy

It's official...I'm an Etsy seller.  I just need to personalize it and add items.  But after four hours of trying to think of a name and setting up an account, my head is hurting and I'm done for one day.  Feel free to check out my shop in the next couple days and hopefully I'll get some stuff up soon!

UniquelyMeDesign (uniquelymedesign.etsy.com)

If anyone out there is an Etsy seller, PLEASE give advice/how to.  I have no idea how to:
-  add a banner (to personalize the shop)
-  sell items
-  ship items (from the States)

HELP!  email me or facebook me or comment any advice you have!

Busy Bee...

I've been crocheting more than ever since moving down here...it helps that I taught a few friends here how to crochet (at their request) and now it's the thing to do when we get together.  So far I've made an afghan, a shawl, a cowl, a baby toque/mitten set, and the following is what I've made in the last few weeks:

Old Man slippers for Nathan...he loves them!

 A basket to hold a few of my balls of yarn.

 

Two baby hats...for nobody in particular, but they're fun to make and SO cute!

And my biggest project since moving down here...a hammock.  I had no pattern, so I have yet to see if it will actually hold bodyweight.  I think it'll probably hold me, but I'm not so confident when it comes to anyone else!

(Sorry about the quality of the pictures...I took them last night after sundown and it's really hard - impossible? - to get good lighting inside at night.  I did want to give you an idea of what I've been making these days though!)

Going Green

I'm going to share some more of our winter with you in picture form.  I was just outside taking pictures so you can all be assured that I took these pictures TODAY.  It's just so beautiful.  Don't take this as bragging...just think of it as a nice taste of spring in the midst of cold, Canadian winter days. : )

 Some cool leaves that remind me of Paraguay every time I walk by them

April showers bring May flowers...unless you're in California.  Then it's December showers bringing January flowers.

A shot of the admin building with the palm trees that I thought would amaze me in the middle of winter.  Little did I know that they would become commonplace and I would simply forget that it is the middle of winter!

 

A little "hidden" playground that is all fenced and hedged in...so fun!

The trees are showing signs of all the seasons.  We have trees that are still green as ever, some that are beautifully red and yellow, some that are completely bare, and yet others that are already budding!

 

 Our little friend, Mr. Squirrel.  I'm pretty sure he has a name that someone in the court gave him.  But I can't seem to remember.  All the squirrels have been scurrying around since September preparing for winter.  Hmm...remind me again when "winter" is due to arrive?

 

fog.

One of the hardest things about infertility, for me, has been the overarching feeling of being suffocated under a thick blanket of fog.  Throughout much of the last few years that we've been struggling with our infertility, it has been hard to see much past it.  There have been moments, even month-long stretches, of breaks in the clouds where a few things in the periphery are in focus, and these have been wonderful.  But the time spent under the blanket has been exhausting.

In the fog of infertility, everything seems to hurt a little bit more.  Everything seems to take a little bit more energy.  Seeing truth seems to take a little bit more straining.  Relationships seem to take a little bit more intentionality.  Life is just different than it was before the fog.

This past year has been one of great steps forward.  I spent much of the year feeling quite optimistic about our hope to grow our family.  There were a couple months when I felt the best I'd felt about growing our family since before we started trying and I (foolishly) assumed that I'd moved safely past the worst of it.  But then there have been a few months that have been the hardest months since early on and, in some ways, these months have been THE hardest ones yet.

I've been re-reading, upon Nathan's suggestion, Pete Greig's book, "God on Mute."  The title pretty much sums up what the book is about.  What are we supposed to do/think/believe/hope when God seems to be on mute?  When there seem to be no answers to our prayers?  Admittedly, there have seemed to be no answers coming from heaven regarding our longed-for children.  It has been quite the spiritual struggle, in addition to our physical struggle, to bear children.  But God has been doing some pretty amazing things in my heart, especially over these past couple weeks...

I am feeling hope again.

I am seeing the light again.

I am excited for 2010, whether it brings an expansion to our family or not (and believe me, this is a big step!).

I found a poem and a verse in this book that I'd love to share.  I've been thinking about them alot lately.  The verse is Romans 5:3-5 (the Message):

 ^3-5There's more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we're hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we're never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary—we can't round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit! 

And the poem:


first
there is
     prayer
and where there is prayer
there may be
     miracles
but where miracles may not be
there are
     questions
and where there are questions
there may be
     silence
but silence may be
more than
     absence
silence
may be presence
     muted
silence
may be nothing but
     something
to explore
defy accuse
     engage
and
this is
     prayer
and where there is prayer
there may yet be
     miracles. . .

(Greig, Pete; God on Mute; p.29)

Oh the places you'll go

The year Nathan and I got married was a year of many changes.  2005.  We started the year as unmarried students.  We ended the year as married adults living in a new town, new province, both with new jobs, new church, new friends, new car, new EVERYTHING.  Neither of us had ever lived on our own before.  At one point in the year we looked at one of those "stress charts" that rates different changes in life with a point value so that you can calculate how "stressful" your life has been.  We joked that the only thing that would have made our life more stressful that year would be if we had an unplanned pregnancy.

It's amazing how much can change in just one short year.

2009 hasn't had as many changes as 2005, but it's been close.  We started this year not sure where in the world (literally) we would be this Christmas.  Last Christmas, we were still "technically" employed at the church.  We weren't sure if we would be working at the church after our leave or if we would stay put but continue with our jobs/school or if we would be moving away.  We decided mid-January that a move was the right thing, so we formally resigned from the church and put our house on the market.  Within the next 9 months, we quit our jobs, applied and were accepted into seminary, moved our stuff into storage in Saskatchewan, found a temporary home for our Lennox, moved to California, and sold our house.  And now, almost one year since making that decision to move, we are settled in our apartment, have one semester finished, and are feeling at home again.  Wow.  It's so interesting to look back sometimes, isn't it?  It's amazing how quickly things some things can change.

Now the interesting thing will be finding out where we will be at this time next year and, even more exciting than that, the year after that once we are finished school!  Could be anywhere!

Empty Arms...

Infertility stuff has been really hard lately (as you may or may not have picked up from recent posts).  There has been alot to process and work through.  I don't have much to share right now.  But please take a minute to go to the link and watch the video.  Consider it the words that I couldn't put to our situation myself...because it expresses where we are right now perfectly (minus what it says about treatments).

Empty Arms

It will be a tough Christmas this year...if we'd gotten pregnant right away, our little baby would be turning 3...