It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like....

It's been a busy week here at Casa Pam. First and foremost was the beginning of school, and of course, the obligatory pictures that accompany such an auspicious occasion. This is the first year that Z is going to school, so it was doubly exciting here.

Z waiting at the bus stop:

I think he was nervous about going, but he refused to tell me so. So far he's happy about going. He likes riding the school bus and he got to buy lunch at school once last week. That was a very big deal to him. He has heard about his brother buying lunch at school and he has always wanted to do that, too. I think that was the most exciting part of his week, actually.

M at the bus stop:

This is my "baby's" last year in the elementary school. Next year it's on to the middle school. Yikes! When did he get old enough for that? He, too, is liking school so far, at least as much as a kid his age actually likes school, but that's another story. M has always been lucky when it comes to teachers, and this year is no exception. I have heard nothing but good things about his teacher so I am looking forward to a great school year with both of my boys.

Now that the school year has begun, I find myself home along all day with no one here but Tiger the Wonder Kitty. What am I going to do with myself? Well, first thing is I started walking. As soon as the kids get on that bus, I grab my iPod and head off for about a mile. I want to gradually go farther than that, but I figure it's a pretty good start.

Then, of course, there is always stitching? I bet you thought I was going to say cleaning, right? Well, I get to that when I have the time. But I can get so much stitching done when there is no one here to interrupt me! And as you can probably tell from the title of my post, Christmas stitching has been the in thing this past week. I managed to finish three ornaments, and start a fourth:

These are by Blue Ribbon Designs and are called Green Letter Ornaments and Red Letter Ornaments. Each one has, I think, twelve different ornaments so there is alot to choose from. I think I bought enough fabric at Lazy Daisy to do twelve of these and I'm kind of picking and choosing as I go along. There is one in the red designs that says "Love" and I think I may do that one for my BIL/future SIL as this Christmas will be there first married one.

This one is by Plum Pudding Needleworks:

There are three designs in this leaflet. This adorable sheep, a snowman, and a gingerbread man.

I just love this little guy: He is one of the gingerbread men from LHN's "Gingerbread Trio". I thought he would make a great ornament, and he was so fast to stitch up!

To be honest, I am having more fun stitching up these ornaments that I thought I would. They go so fast that I never have time to get bored of them. I'm sure eventually I will tired of Christmas in September, but the fact that I started them at all makes me so happy because it' a start on my gift list. I usually make something for the religion teacher, and I'll make one for my sister that I'm visiting in Texas the day after Christmas. Now I can join an ornament exchange or two. My organization skills are starting to frighten me!

That is pretty much all of the exciting news to be heard from my end of the world. We're off the bus stop in 15 minutes, so I need to get my shoes on and find my keys and get ready to start my day of solitude.