Weekend

Just finished up a very busy weekend! Friday after work I went to an event at my brother and sister-in-law's church called Beyond Fair Trade. The event helps women in impoverished nations earn a living by selling handmade jewelry, bags, aprons, Christmas ornaments, and much more. I picked up a little owl keychain for myself and a Christmas gift for my best friend (which I'm not putting up a picture of because it's a secret).

Saturday I was at my aunt and uncle's helping my littlest cousin, Bennett, celebrate his 1st birthday. I've always been very close to my cousins and with twin uncles who are only 7 years older than me I feel like their boys are more my nephews than cousins. That only makes our bond even more special.

Today (Sunday) was a little odd for me. For the first time in a long while I missed church even though I was in town. That was because we had our annual Stewart Family Christmas Party/Reunion. My second cousin once removed (I think that's the relationship...we share a great grandparent in common but are from different generations...anyways, it's complicated), Will, sold some handmade wooden crosses to help me raise money for my trip to Romania. He ended up making $360! And some of my other relatives are coming together to help get supplies for my trip. They were able to give me some of them today. I got 13 pairs of gloves and 24 tubes of travel toothpaste! It was such a day of blessings!

Some of the gloves and toothpaste that I got.

I had really planned to work on some paperwork for my internship this weekend but it's just so hard when you have full days like the last ones have been. I'm a little sad that tomorrow is Monday. It was just starting to feel like a vacation!

P.S. Can ya'll send good thoughts/prayers for my computer. It's been running super slow lately and taking a long time to load things. I'm getting the spin-y rainbow beach ball a lot. I know this is an odd thing to ask for but I depend upon my computer A LOT. Especially because of grad school. And right now I don't have the money for an external hard drive or new computer. If this one can just hold out for a few more months then (hopefully) I will have a paying job at that point and can work towards a new laptop. This one has been faithful to me for a long time and I desperately need it to hold out just a little longer. Thanks everyone!

CPU Saga Part 2

So, Old Blue is official dead. To even retrieve the information that she has locked in her Impenetrable Fortress of Doom will cost me $1600. Yes, you read that right, $1600. When I heard this 3 people in line behind me at Best Buy gasped, the Geek Squad guy looked totally sympathetic, and I almost simultaneously threw up and began crying. When I had suppressed the urge to do both I walked out of the store with my $1600 paper weight and broke down in my car. This wouldn't be as horrible if I wasn't trying to pay for a $2000 trip to a second world country over the summer. But I will press on. I'm uploading my picture software to my work computer this afternoon (thank goodness for having administrator status) and start posting pics again. My knitting mojo has been off for a few days so I'm trying to find something to get pumped about knitting. Or I could just finish the 5 projects that are buttons and seaming away from being done. But I digress...