A wonderful trip...

So I'm back on campus after an amazing trip to Missouri. I flew into Kansas City on Tuesday evening and was met by Mark and Alex. (My flight got delayed for engine problems, and we had to get a new plane, so I got in around 11:30 pm rather than the projected 9:30 pm arrival time.) We drove to Gallatin, where Alex gave me her room for the duration of my stay. Do you know how good a comfortable bed feels after sleeping on a dorm room bed for three months? It was great.

On Wednesday I hung out with Alex and CJ all day, watching TV, playing Wii, and playing board games. Then we got up early Thursday morning and headed to Grandma and Grandpa's house for Thanksgiving dinner. Everyone was so surprised and happy to see me, and it was so great to see everyone. The food was awesome, too. We stayed there all day and then Alex and I headed home with Lisa.

We got up super early on Friday morning to go Black Friday shopping. We hit Walmart first, which was crazy packed. We ran into Aunt Penny, Cody, and Michelle there, which was kind of funny. I bought a new winter coat, since I don't wear the huge one I have. It was $15, but it's actually an outer coat and an inner coat (and the inner one is reversible) so you can wear it in pretty much any weather. We stayed in Columbia shopping all morning, and when we finally got back to Lisa's house we all took naps.

Friday night, we headed over to Tina's house for game night. I took this picture outside of Lisa's house.

It was an incredible sunset. Especially when I haven't seen a sunset in over three months. Here at school, the sun goes down behind the mountains, which is pretty, but doesn't really light up the sky with gorgeous colors.

At Tina's house, we had a ton of fun. We played games and talked and laughed and took pictures.

I met this sweet little girl. She's Brian's sister's daughter, and she was too cute.

(Can you believe how big Jacob is? I think he was still a toddler last time I saw him.)

And then Lisa with a halo. (I was pretending she was an angel. It did take a lot of imagination.)

On Saturday we got up and got ready to head back to Gallatin.

On the way, we picked up Madison, Tisha's gorgeous baby girl.

We also stopped by Andy and Michelle's house for another family get together/Thanksgiving dinner, with more great food. Then I said goodbye to everyone and we got on the road to Gallatin. Saturday night we played games, went out and ate fajitas for dinner, and took pictures of Madison.

(The face she makes for Lisa.)

(The face she makes for me.) :)

I think Madison looks a lot like Travis, but in this picture I think she looks a little like Grandma, lol.

This morning, Lisa, Madison, and I got up really early and headed for the airport. I had an uneventful flight home and am now back in my dorm room, not wanting to go to class tomorrow morning. Oh well. Only three weeks until I come home for Christmas! The craft fair is this weekend, so I'll be very busy this week.

I really want to thank everyone who made my trip to Missouri both possible and amazing, especially Aunt Lisa. I love you!

A crocheted cheeseburger?

With the craft fair coming up so soon (only 13 days!) I really need to step up the crocheting. One reason I haven't been blogging so much lately is because I've been doing so much crafting. I did take a little break from craft fair stuff to work on some crocheted food that I'm trading to another crafter for some christmas gifts. First, a bowl of blackberries...
A bowl of strawberries...

A bowl of eggs...

A bowl of chicken nuggets...

A plump, juicy hot dog...

And the coolest part, in my opinion, a cheeseburger...

And here are all the pieces of the burger...

I still have some craft fair stuff to show you, though. These snowmen just make me smile. Their faces are so sweet!

A cool jellyfish...

I've actually made several jellyfish, but most of them look more like this guy with curly tentacles.

I created this little toad pattern in the dark while analyzing a movie in class one day, and I didn't know how he would really look, but I like it! His fat little belly is so cute.

Two colorful fish...

And a reindeer ornament. (See the yarn hanger?) I've done a snowman ornament, too.

So you see, I have been busy! I start a new class on Monday, a sociology class titled Inequality. I'm not super excited, but there really weren't any classes that excited me to choose from. With the budget cuts here on campus, many of the more fun classes or classes in smaller departments have been cancelled. So if I wanted to take a biology class, I would have lots of options, but if I wanted to take a Southwest Studies class, I only have one choice. (I thought about taking that class, but I've had the professor before and I didn't really like her.) Hopefully this class will turn out better than I'm expecting, though.

New hair...

Tell me what you think because I still haven't gotten used to it!

(But don't you just love my posed picture fake smile?)

Back to writing patterns...

I hope everyone had a fantastic Halloween! I know I did...there was a Halloween video dance party in the student center here on campus with free pizza and candy and two djs, karaoke, and five gazillion people all dressed up in crazy costumes. I saw at least 7 people dressed up as swine flu. :)

In addition to the Halloween festivities, this weekend I continued crocheting. I get bored with making the same things over and over, though, so I decided to create a couple new patterns. This dinosaur is a little bit of a remake of last year's dino, just improved (I think) and a little smaller. I was smart and wrote down the all the steps of the pattern as I went along, so I can make him and the other two again and again, exactly the same! I'm contemplating bright blue spots, what do you think?

He just looks like he's missing something...

Even though he is happy! (I wasn't sure how the pattern would turn out, so I didn't waste any of my safety eyes, I just used yarn. It doesn't look as good, but it's cheaper!)

I also whipped up this cute little butterfly. I think I want antennae, I'm just not quite sure how I want to do that.

And then this guy. He's my favorite. Maybe my favorite EVER. I just adore his sweet little face. He's the cutest thing I've seen/made in a long time.

Don't you think he's adorable?

And his cute little upturned tail...so sweet!

Ok, I'll admit it, I'm a little bit obsessed with him. (Do any of my brilliant nieces or nephews want to name him? I don't name everything, but he deserves one.) I almost want to keep him and not sell him. I'm already imagining all the different color combos I could make.

And lastly, the box is getting more full! I keep all my completed creations stuffed in this box. (Yes, there are some things in there that I haven't shown you all, like three little birds, six eggs/chicks, two lambs, two koalas, and more. I just can't update the blog every time I make something, or I would be posting every day. We wouldn't want that, now would we?)

Wish me luck this evening and tomorrow...I'm writing my first paper for this class, a 5-pager. Plus my professor is an English professor when he's not teaching Westerns and other film studies classes, so it needs to be a very well-written paper. Ugh. :)