The comforts of home

I have been thinking of home a lot lately. I miss everyone, I even miss my job, what does that say?! It's not that things are bad here, just that I have been missing home. Recently someone I cared about passed away and I never realized how much it means to be able to go to a funeral and say goodbye. He will be missed. So, if you know me, I can't just sit around and think about it, I need to do something. Busy hands are happy hands. Well, it's hard here because there is only so much cleaning I can do, and I can't just go and visit with family and friends, sure I am on the phone a lot, but it's not the same. When you can't just jump in the car and go see someone it is a difficult feeling. Well, yesterday I was cleaning and rearranging and found that I remembered to bring some of the things I paint. I have always taken comfort in painting. I am no artist, but I really enjoy painting things like Christmas decorations. Here is the one I have been doing the last 2 days:



I can't decide if I am done or not. Should I paint some of the bricks a different color? Or should I leave it as it is? I don't know. All I know is that I am glad I remembered this comfort off home. Sometimes I wish life was as easy as this:

Now that's the life. All curled up on a blanket. His biggest concern is getting treats. He is a really big comfort to me, too. Yes, he still likes to drive me crazy (he is male!) but he can also make me laugh so hard it brings me to tears.

I have heard a lot about the weather back home, and I wonder what it will be like to have Christmas with no snow. As long as I can remember I have wanted to have a winter with no snow, but now that it is becoming a reality, it seems really weird. I know at home we are so excited when it is in the 60's at night, but here it really is kinda chilly at night. We have had to bring out the blankets a few times. However, 100 is still hot, no matter where I am. We are looking at upper 90's and low 100's until next week. When it is that hot during the day and then goes down to the 60's at night it is actually chilly. This whole experience has been different than I expected, but it's not all bad. After all, we still have little lizards in our tree!