Unexpected surprises and keeping busy

Hi everyone!  The last week plus has just flown by, and its been quite full of surprises.  It started Saturday (Sweetest's Day) when my fiancee brought these into work for me...

Then I ended up with an unexpected day off all to myself on Sunday...can't remember when I had one of those!  I took my time in the stores I wanted to look around, treated myself to lunch out, and spent some time working on finishing up some knitting projects and took a nice run.  Then we had some good fortune come our way via the mail which meant our monthly expenses being lowered a bit. Unfortunately all surprises can't be good and right now I am trying to figure out how I'm going to handle a scheduling problem at work, but I'll get it figured out one way or another :cD  Life is all about give and take, ups and downs, and without fail it always works out in the end so I am trying to learn not to let myself get too overstressed.

Now I had mentioned running?  I am sooo glad to be back to running consistently again.  I may not be running far (right now I am running about 1 1/2 to 3 miles at a time), but I am losing some weight and feeling so much better.  So far I am down about 7 lbs, and just love getting out in the fall air.  How can you not like seeing this?

We even took the kids out to hike at the park.  Our goal is to hike all the trails on our county park's "healthy hikes" list by next spring.  The kids have been doing so good, I am so proud of them!!

I have been making time for projects too.  I recently finished, well almost I still need to sew the eyes on, another teddy.  The pattern has a sweater for him too which I may make yet, but for now I think he turned out pretty well.  My seaming sure has come a long way :cD

I have been making progress on my sweater.  It brings up another surprise this week.  When I made this the first time I ended up with a few errors in the lace section.  I just didn't get it.  This time, after getting into the pattern, the lace part just "clicked".  I finally got it, and it came out really well.  Yea!!  I am using Caron Simply Soft in Country Blue.  I would love to use some of the fancier yarns out there, but I just can't afford them at this point. I do like the way this yarn feels, and the color, so if all continues to go well, I'm sure I'll love the sweater.

Finally, my daughter has been asking for a fleece poncho.  She knows what fleece she wants and everything.  Well, when I was at our local Jo-Ann's the fleece she has been asking for for weeks was on sale, as well as the pattern.  So I went ahead and picked them up and hope to have it done over the weekend if I can squeeze the time in.  I think is going to be super cute ;cD

Well,  I'm off to get a run in and start my work week. Hope you all have a great day.  Warmest country wishes!!