Absence

Absence of the new house in my life makes my heart grow fonder of it each time I go over there.


And, absence of the pictures I wanted to take of all those new hats I knit makes me want to distract you with a few Christmas (every time I type this word, I first type a mixture of it and my first name) pictures and a few shots of the new house. As I mentioned in my last post, I love this house. One of the reasons is all the shadows. If you ever get the chance to use my brother-in-law as your architect, jump on it. Sure, you won't have enough closet space to store all your junk. It won't matter, though. Once you toss out everything that won't fit in your new house, you will have made plenty of room for the beautiful shadows the millions of windows create on your bare walls. So, not only will you have decluttered your life, you'll have gained some breathtaking views right in your own home. Seriously. Take a look at this one, for example. This was taken as the sun set on Christmas day. My wine-making husband has an eye for this type of picture.


In the absence of any decent pictures of me postpregnancy, I give you a photo only a grandmother could love. My mom will think this is one of the most beautiful things she's ever seen. Everyone else will recognize it for what it really is: proof that no matter what contortionist-like poses assume, no amount of neck twisting will hide the double chin that has recently taken up residence on my face. That, my friends, is what nine months (plus three-and-a-half) of eating for two will get you. I'm trusting that it will go away like it did with the first two, but in the meantime... we'll take silly pictures of it in the bathroom.


I promise you that in the new house the bathroom pictures will be much classier. Yeah, I know. Classy bathroom pictures? Oxymoron - unless your bathroom looks like this. I've already warned my husband that when we finally move in, I will be found in here most of the time. I have decided that little wood section next to the tub will be my new favorite knitting spot. It just makes me so happy when I walk into this room (which I can't currently do, because the wood has been oiled). But, whaddaya know? It's still pretty from the doorway. I just get all giddy looking at it.


And, just in case you didn't believe me that there are tons of wonderful shadows in the new house (or, if you thought the wine shot above was just a fluke), I'll give you more proof. Take a gander, will ya? Is that a pretty wall, or what? And, just so you're aware, those spaces up high are done on purpose. To be honest, I'm not really a big fan of them. My husband, the carpenter here, is really big on assymetry, though. Will they stay or will they go? Only time will tell. I like the wall, though. And, hiding behind it in the future will be a little pantry for spices and whatever else I feel like putting in there.

The absence of any decent Christmas pictures has forced me to present this one instead. Have you ever thought you had taken plenty of pictures of an important event only to find out later that you had two or three? This sort of happened to us on our honeymoon. This was back before we went digital. We had a nice camera that no longer wants to function (feeling neglected since we got the digital camera?). On the roll inside its belly, we had pictures of our little wedding (a story for another day - my mom was the only person in attendance, and after a nice dinner with me and my husband, she whisked my groom back to Houston, where he needed to go to work the next day). We were touring Hurst castle when it came time to change the film. I felt something tug when I rewound the roll. When I opened the door, the film wasn't totally rewound. When the roll finally decided to come out, it was a little chewed up and had been exposed to light. We attempted to get it developed anyway, but I feared the worst. I was right to do so. There was nothing on it (I'm convinced that my mother put a hex on that film, since I was "in the family way" when she took those pictures of us). So, the beauty of that day will live forever only in my mind. Now that we have a digital picture, I don't have to worry about screwing up the roll of film anymore, which gives us little gems like this picture. Doesn't he just look like such a sweet boy? I love that. He really is, too. You can be sweet and ornery (Is that how you spell that?) at the same time. He's actually grown up a lot in the past month or so. He's now almost completely potty-trained, and the graffiti appears to be a thing of the past.


And, lastly, in the absence of any shame at all, I played around with a couple of the kids' Christmas gifts before wrapping them. This was really fun. I was all alone in the house (well, with a baby who wouldn't tell on me) when I opened the box from my brother and sister-in-law. I just couldn't help donning this little wig and head band to freak out my husband. He drove up just after I took this picture. I walked out, and while standing at a decent distance, I told him I'd been to the hair salon. For a moment, I actually had him scared. And, he should have been, because this ain't pretty. I just wonder if my sister-in-law looked this pale wearing this wig as Harry Potter for Halloween.


I'd like to have shown you a pretty picture of Lambchop #1, but she was sick and had a nasty chafing thing all over her face. Normally, it'd be just below the nose, but she had developed a fun little habit of using her sleeve to wipe sideways from her nose to her cheek. It took me a full day to figure out why one cheek was red. By the time I realized why, the chapped skin had spread over a decent portion of her face. I know that sounds really gross, but that's only because it was. A little shea butter fixed her up.

In the next couple of days, I'd like to post a couple of hat shots and tell you about things like my frogging/recycling a sweater I knit that I just don't really like the fit of. The yarn deserves better than that. I may even throw in a little New Year's resolution list. Absent that, I could share pictures of the New Year's meal, which will contain things like (vegetarians, turn your head) foie gras and capon (castrated rooster).