Life Marches On

Started work: got new glasses.  This was a huge deal for me.  I haven't worn glasses on a regular basis (ie hardly ever) since middle school.  Thankfully Optimeyes is way above awesome and helped me pick out an amazing pair.

Started work: have to wear a hard hat.  Having long hair was getting to be more of a hassle than I wanted.  I waffled so much about cutting it, but then I saw a hair cut I loved so I manned up and committed to cutting it.

I ended up doing highlights too to brighten up the color a bit.  I think it turned out fantastically, and with about 15 minutes of effort in the morning it doesn't look much different than this:

I got bangs cut for the first time in ages too and I'm currently love/hating them.  When they're down Steve thinks I look like velma from scooby doo.  Not sure if that's good or not but I've always loved velma!

Our Year In Review

As we get ready to leap into the new year, I thought it would be fun to look at some highlights from 2011, because it was a lovely albeit busy twelve months.

January

Ringing in the new year in Greece

February

We got Christmas presents in the mail!

I made valentine's decorations for our Saudi apartment

March

My first trip (of many) to the dentist in Jeddah!

April

Steve's Garden

Traveling to Italy

May

Our one year anniversary

Our trip to Sri Lanka

June

Getting our flight home scheduled

July

Independence Day in Saudi Arabia

Steve's Jeddah driving adventure

Inspiration for home

August

Giving away our stuff

Celebrating small pleasures of life in the US

September

Moving into our new apartment

Labor Day trip to Illinois!

Making grape juice

October

Homemade applesauce

And apple butter

November

Starting my first quilt

Thanksgiving at home

December

Stanley comes home!

Pretty christmas cookies

my favorite ornaments of the year

Analog Clocks and Cheap Ice Cream

It dawned on me as Algebra was sitting, staring at the analog clock on the wall, that she's likely never seen one before.  For almost a year, we lived with only a few digital clocks, and it was a huge irritation.  I love clocks and to easily be able to tell what time it is.  Thankfully, we've now got a backwards clock, a throwback to the good old college days when we had one hanging in our dorm room.

We've been positively busy since we got home, and it has been awesome.  It's so nice and cool, one day I even wore long sleeves outside for most of the day!  We've mostly unpacked in our temporary living space, and Algebra has settled in nicely, although the other family cats don't seem to have any affection towards her.

Some of the weeks grand but simple joys have included

Visiting the local farmer's market and making peach cobbler from our finds
Finally seeing HP 7 part deux (totally worth the wait)
Visiting the local ice cream shop for a butterfinger clipper (fulfilling my need for traditional ice cream and a butterfinger bar)
Cleaning like a madwoman and visiting goodwill twice in the same day
Replacing a microwave and a dishwasher for my parents (all Steve there)
Kool-Aid!

I'm still amazed on a daily basis how easy and cheap most things are here.  A trip to goodwill took 10 minutes, a trip to the store for cough drops took 5 minutes and less than $2, ice cream wasn't $8 for one liter!  Life is so much easier to enjoy when all of the small aspects of life aren't a hassle.  On the other hand, there are so many tasty junk snacks that are now so easy and cheap to get!

We're driving up for an afternoon baseball game today, and then a week of who knows what, but hopefully some crafting!