Hello? Is there anybody out there

Dear readers who are left after my long hiatus,

I am very sorry for the long silence. Life has gotten the best of me the last few weeks. Work has consumed much of my life which is odd because when I first became gainfully employed as a college graduate, I vowed never to work long hours and to keep time at home strictly my own. Oh, how things have changed, especially when you enjoy (for the most part) your job, work for a company who does good (for the most), you feel as if you are making a difference in the lives of people (generally for the good), and you have probably the best boss ever (I sincerely mean this). So what are long days? Nine to ten hours in the office, plus an additional two to four at home on weekdays and working a few hours on weekends and holidays. Other than a brief three hour time period while traveling, I have not knitted Since August 20. There is an upside to all this working, my family really misses me (and the job I do at home, you should see how much laundry has piled up).

To add insult to injury, a bout of bronchitis hit me and stayed relatively mild, until Little Clover's birthday when my body had enough and forced me to rest and stop working. This meant though that I missed my baby's birthday since laying woefully on a sofa with a high degree fever hardly constitutes "being involved." The bronchitis was bad enough for me to let my mother-in-law clean my house, to which I am very grateful!

Now, this is the part where the blog begins to sound like a country western song, oddly appropriate seeing as I am from Tennessee. Spot, our wonderful family yellow lab was discovered to be infected with heartworm and had to stay in the doggie hospital for a couple of nights while getting treatment. We were all very worried about our poor Spot and a few tears were shed. I was especially worried about the state he would be in when we picked him. Let me tell you that if I ever have to undergo treatment involve toxic chemicals being forced into my body, I hope I leave the treatment with as much joy and energy as Spot did. He's home and doing great.

In case you may be wondering if anything good happened while the blog was silent, there was sunshine in Clover Fields the past couple of weeks. For starters, we took some time out to celebrate my birthday with beer, bbq, and baseball.

From Irish Clover

I got some tickets for our local baseball team from work and some friends and family gathered for a small little celebration. It was grand.

Then, there was Little Clover's birthday. He's getting old now. This is his last year in single digits and I must admit I'm heartbreaken about it. He's a different kid this year. He is confident and decisive and collective. He has a grasp on life and has seized it with zest and joy. He's laugh is richer with the experience of his last eight years. He is blossoming into his own person and has begun challenging me with logic and arguments. I love it! He brings me to task when he disagree and he is armed with facts. You can sometimes find us both on Google researching our positions on very important matters of contention such as the ages of the Jonas Brothers. He loves his school and teacher and there is no hint of the math anxiety that was once present. In fact, he claims he is a math whiz, and he is right. He is become him and it is an amazing thing to watch. I told him that since I was miserably missing from his birthday this week, we would make September and entire celebration to him, so watch for the fun. Thanks to all those who have stuck with me. I appreciate you more than you can know. Oh, and I promise, there will be knitting.