Aylmer

After spending a few days in TO, I went to Aylmer to hang out until Michael came to pick me up. He dropped me off on one trip and went all the way back to Winnipeg and picked me up on his next rounder.

Again, I'm lousy with using my camera.

I dragged Grandma to a yarn shop in St Thomas called the Little Red Mitten. It was amazing. I bought some really cool yarn with possum in it. Wonderfully soft green sock yarn!

Aunt Betty and Grandma and I also spent a day hanging out, including a walk in the park.

Grandma & Grandpa.

More family shots.

craftiness in the new year

My friend Colleen told me about this little project, a case for my earbud headphones, so I sat down and made a couple. It's great!

Back when I did that trip to Calgary last year, I purchased this orange yarn. Michael was so hesitant to let me knit him socks, but he finally let me and fell in love with his first pair (made back in 2009 from yarn he picked out while we were in Germany). He fell in love enough to request that his next pair be burnt orange.

Here they are! That little patterning that you see is from the Yarn Harlot. She called them Earl Grey. I had a small design error (the stitch pattern was supposed to run all the way up the leg, but I had prego brain and messed it up), but Michael was fine with them the way they were, so I left them (otherwise I would've had to frog almost an entire sock). He calls them his Barbed Wire socks. I'm sure the Yarn Harlot would get a little chuckle out of that.

TO

One of the perks of trucking is getting to travel for free. I was able to see my cousin Anna who was in Toronto (she lives in Switzerland) while she was there, along with my other cousin and my Aunt & Uncle.

Of course my picture taking was limited, but here's the few that I took.

Supper at Fresh. Awesome.

Manicures. Fun!

Coldstones for dessert (to undo any good we did our bodies by eating at Fresh).

Baby Blanket

I've decided to turn my passion for knitting into a tradition and knit a blankie for each of our kids.   

Little Schultzie's blanket is being knit while we truck, so in keeping with that, I hunted for a yarn shop somewhere along the way in our travels that we could get there in the truck (so it had to be close to the interstate), and we found one in Janesville, WI, The Dragonfly Yarn Shop.

It took less than two weeks to knit! Amazing what all that driving time and DK yarn held double can do to help a project cruise along. It's Leafy Baby Blanket, which Michael and I picked out. He also helped me pick out the yarn. I wanted to find something gender neutral, it was between this yarn (Madeline Tosh merino DK in 'magnolia leaf') and some other delightful squishy yarn that was aqua, blues and a little bit of purple. I'm glad Michael talked me into this one because I think it's absolutely amazing.

Here's the finished product, all blocked and ready for snuggling!

a new chapter

Michael has a new job. I can't go into huge details about it, but I can tell you that he's driving truck for the first 3-6 months as preparation for a job that I think he was made for and is going to enjoy so much.

It's exciting and strange all at the same time. Neither of us ever thought we would do this again when we sold our equipment back in 2006. Hauling a tanker is a new experience too.

We're making the most of it and getting in some travelling to places that we want to go (either to visit people we know, or places we've never been).

We did a few loads to Regina, where Michael just dropped me off in Austin to visit with his mom and sister. Which was really nice. I got to enjoy some cuddles with my nephew.

I think I could've sat there like this all day.

Little Schultzie is on the way!

Here's a pic of me the day before we discovered I was pregnant:

I was so excited to tell my family, but we held onto our news for another 6 & 10 weeks, so we could have some fun making the announcement in our family's Christmas presents.

I made these:

Here's what's on them:

This year each member of our immediate family got a little present from us. Inside was one of these little bibs with the appropriate title for that family member. Michael's Dad got a special one.

  

It took Michael's family a while to catch on, since my sister in law was due to have her baby the week after we celebrated Christmas with them. But as you can see, when the lights went on they were excited.

In BC, we repeated this same procedure, though I don't have any pictures of it. The great grand parents got little onsies.

So much fun! We're looking forward to meeting 'little Schultzie' this summer!

Manning Park

We rounded up some friends and went cross country skiing for the day. It was tons of fun and hard work.

Did I mention it was also stunningly beautiful?

Happy New Year!

BC Christmas

Friesen Gathering

Christmas with my siblings

The Loewen Gathering

our christmas

It's a crappy picture, but it shows off our new 'when we go home for Christmas' Christmas tree (I don't bother setting up all our decorations the year we head to BC).

Our new stockings:

I made these, and I was so eager to get them done that I completely overlooked sewing any kind of loop on them so we could hang them. That's why they're sandwiched under a book. haha.

I wish we had more pics (and ones where my hair didn't look so awful), but we don't. Michael's gifts to me this year left me speechless. That box is a personal cutter thing that can do many cool things! The shelves are ones that I've wanted since visiting my cousin Debbie back in 2010 over Easter. In November Michael and I were at Ikea in Minneapolis and I wanted to get them, and he said we couldn't. It was almost a really terrible fight, but I finally accepted the fact that I wasn't getting them this time around either. Meanwhile, he'd been sneaky and had our friends buy them for us (do you know how bummed I was when they bought the exact shelves that I had been wanting?), and then he wrapped them up and gave them to me for Christmas. Well done, Michael, well done!