Snowy Updates

No pictures on this entry, kids. Today was the start of my off week, and I have fully taken advantage of the day by doing pretty much nothing! My last off week I went in for 3 days of overtime so today I spent all day listening to The Frames, knitting more of Jon's scarf and, and yes...I did play a little Guitar Hero. It's addicting, what can I say?

Two nights ago at work it snowed all day and even though the city did not get much snow, my work is up on "the benches" at a higher altitude and I came out to about 8 inches on my car. Of course all I had that day was a cool whip container lid in my car to scrape the car with, but the freeway was not too bad and that made it worth it. We didn't get quite as much here at the house, nevertheless, everything is covered in snow and gorgeous.

Work has been a bit crazy - they processed well over 30,000 specimens in December which is typically their "slow" month, but I think everyone is realizing that there isn't going to be a "slow" time anymore. Our department of about 60 people processed about 23000 "excepts" or issues with specimens in addition to weathering a major computer system overhaul/switch over Christmas week. They're trying to overhaul our procedures a bit to help us get caught up which means things are constantly in flux and changing daily. But I still really enjoy my job and the people and it keeps me from being bored.

A few new bands I'm currently hooked on are The Frames as mentioned above, Okkervil River, Shearwater, MGMT, and all the old bands I love and am rediscovering as Jon transfers music from my old hard drive to this computer.

More Knitting

Here is a photo of the finished hats and sweater sans buttons. Can you tell which is the HUGE hat and which is the more normal sized hat?

The next picture is just a little tree picture since it nice to have a house to decorate this year.

Lastly, Jon's sister was kind enough to email me a photo of her son with the finished sweater on. I finished it just in time for Christmas and forgot to take a final photo.

As you can tell, the next picture is my current project. Mittens! I want to work my way up to the gorgeous Nordic mittens you see with the beautiful intricate patterns, but for now I'm working on making sure there is a hole for your hand and a place for your thumb. They are not as difficult as I had imagined, I just have to get used to knitting small circumferences on the double pointed needles.

I am not sure what I will do after the knitting. I've been flirting with the idea of an afghan, a cardigan or sweater of some sort for Jon, hats with ear flaps, or maybe some double knitting/Fair Isle experiments...I have seen some really
beautiful little girl sweaters...but I think I want to really try and experiment with learning some knew knitting techniques so it may be learning to cable or fair isle/double knitting....

I also want to try and get some Elizabeth Zimmerman knitting books from the library...

If you are my family reading this, have no fear. The next entry is about the visit and there are plenty of photos for you to check out!

Le Hotel West

While I still can't believe another year has gone by, Le Hotel West rang in the New Year with a full house.

My entire family, including 2 parents, 1 little sister, a second sister and boyfriend, and third sister, husband and baby - all managed to fit into my house for a week. Here are some of the photos from our adventures and escapades.

Spencer, the new baby, managed to steal most of the camera time and was quite generous with smiles and laughter.



Spencer seemed to hit it off right away with Oma and Opa, both of whom were smitten with their first grandbaby. Opa always seemed to be able to get a smile out of Spencer - we are all convinced that his bald head must somehow make Spencer laugh.





































Oma knows that it's never to early to start reading and she knows just the right books to start with.
No Aunts here. Malia and Marissa both decided to be Tanta Malia and Tanta Marissa. I've insisted on just being plain old Megan.











LET'S ALL BE VERY VERY SURPRISED OR EXCITED ABOUT SOMETHING BUT WE DONT KNOW WHAT!!!!!!















This is what a baby looks like when he is going to be walking around outside in Winter, and be taken on the Trax, and to the mall, and be taken to the Planetarium, and to Costa Vida, and to Temple Square...









The Flipse Family on Mars! We feel right at home. We are kind of weird to begin with.


Dad was voted best weatherman in the family after everyone took their turn on tv.

The last photo is of Malia enjoying "Newtons Daydream" - kinetic art or something like that - which is also at the planetarium and my favorite exhibit they have there.








Thanks to Mom for cooking a LOT of food and making sure we put on some poundage. I do not have a picture of the fridge or freezer but I can say that mine have never looked that full nor will they anytime in the near future.

We had a good time seeing everyone and hope you Flipse's out there had a good holiday stay too!

To quote Malia, May everyone's 2009 be "the best 2009 anyone has ever had ever!"