Where did the summer go?

Oh yeah…I was finishing grad school, graduating and frantically searching for a job.  Found one!  I am now teaching first grade at a school about 20 minutes from the house.  I am up to my eyeballs in lesson plans and behavior issues, but I think it will straighten itself out within the next couple of months.  The Animals have settled back into the school routine and are already looking forward to a visit with Nana over the Thanksgiving break.  The Professor is teaching three classes, two at the University and one at a local college.  Yep…things are back to normal (but with an extra paycheck and health insurance)!

How to make the gods laugh

Do you want to know how to make the gods laugh?  Have a plan.  It doesn’t have to be an elaborate one.  Something simple will do.  I know because I made the gods laugh.  Rolling on the floor, snorting milk through the nose kind of laughter.  Remember I mentioned taking Friday off?  The Animals had dentist appointments and I was going to send them off to school and then hang out at home and knit and clean the house for a couple of hours before picking them up from school.  After the dentist appointments, we were going to have lunch out and then run a few errands.  Nice Friday with kids.  That WAS the plan.  Instead, the Little Animal woke up with a high fever (103) and a bad cough.  We all stayed home (the Professor went off to work) and waited for the doctor’s office to open so we could make an appointment.  Took Little Animal to the doctor and then Bigger Animal to the dentist.  Then of course it was running around to pick up the prescription (which, by the way, the pharmacy screwed up our insurance) and then supplies to keep Little Animal happy.  I have been nurse, driver, chef and entertainer (i.e., MOM) for Little Animal this weekend.

Want to make the gods laugh?  Have a plan.

Oh yeahhhhh, baby!

There are few things that get me more excited than a good dessert.  I don’t just have one sweet tooth, but a whole set!  I’m not overly picky about my dessert, but it better be loaded with calories and sugar.  My point…I have found a contest about dessert.  Check out Devon’s contest!  Hot pictures of amazing desserts!  (‘Scuse me while I wipe the drool off the key board!)  Tell her I sent ya!

As I live and breathe…

And so I do…sometimes!  Every now and again I feel the need to stop and take a day off.  Well, I’m a gonna do it …kinda…sorta…maybe…NOT

I scheduled dentist appointments for the kids this Friday and I am taking the day off.  To take them to their appointment, which of course is not REALLY taking a day off.  BUT I will not go back to school and neither will the kids.  We will have lunch together, run a few errands, and hang out, just like when we homeschooled.

BTW – There’s a neat contest happening.  NH Knitting Mama is having a PMS contest (Promote My Shop).  Check it out and tell her I sent you.

You say it’s your birthday…It’s my birthday too

Happy birthday to me. I am thirty-three. I feel kinda silly. Happy birthday to me!

Mom called at 6:30 this morning (so glad she didn’t forget). Heard from my brother in Germany on Sunday and my other brother (in Louisiana) this morning. Got a card from Dad, Mom, and Me-maw. Julie (my cooperating teacher) gave me a card and a candle and the kids in the class signed a birthday card for me and wished my “Happy Birthday.” My little animal gave me a turtle (cause I’m all about that) Webkins (cause she’s all about that) and made me open it last night. Not a bad day since it started off like total crap. Little Animal was in a mood this morning and, needless to say, she and I butted heads. Not sure who won or what good it did us since we both went to school pissy! Tonight we are going out to eat (nothing fancy) and then we have an SCA business meeting. Mom and Bo (her partner/friend) are coming in to town on Friday and we will do some shopping (for teacher clothes) and drive up to the mountains and visit some of the pottery places up there. I can’t wait for them to get here! I haven’t seen either of them since Dustin (brother in Germany) graduated from flight school (in Alabama) last August. I don’t think the kids have seen them since last February when they came up for their annual Tour de Georgia. I have 20 minutes before everyone gets home (Julie sent me home early) and I am going to K.N.I.T!

There will be hell to pay!

Or not, as the case may be. SOMEONE got me sick and, although I can’t figure out the real culprit, I know it was one of the little 9 year old darlings in the room in which I spend 8 (yes…I said 8 ) hours of my day – not getting paid, mind you. I refuse this scratchy throat, headache, and feeling that my head is overstuffed with cotton. It feels like there is no room for my brain…I did have one at some point…maybe one of the kids took it. And yes, I am on meds. Just over-the-counter crap that really isn’t doing a damn bit of good.

On top of feeling like something the cat drug in, I have to write a lesson plan…DONE. I also have to teach tomorrow while being observed by my advisor. I’m going to be a nervous wreck (unless I’m heavily medicated) and rush right through everything, leaving 45 minutes of the hour I’m supposed to teach with nothing to do.

Upwards and onwards! I have finished my fingerless gloves. Every time I put them on, the Professor tells me I need to be standing around a fire in a trash barrel (OUCH! Maybe I should share my cold ) I have almost finished my Blah Buddy. This thing is taking way too long! I am such a slow poke knitter. I am still working on the one row scarf for Morgan and have started a practice sock from the book that Alice sent me. I’ll post pics as I finish more.

BTW – Thanks Cass for getting that stupid song stuck in my head!

I got my package! I got my package!

I feel like a little kid at Christmas whenever I get a package in the mail!  Yesterday I got a big, wonderful, even great smelling package from my Cocoa Swap secret pal Alice.  You just don’t know how happy I am!  Here’s what she sent me…

Alice sent me a wonderful letter explaining each item and why she included it.

There is a wonderful knitting bag…perfect for storing my bigger skeins of yarn, a wonderful blue turtle full of lavender (my favorite scent in the world) grown in Alice’s garden, beautiful self-striping yarn with a spool of reinforcing yarn for my socks, size 3 needles (which I did not have and desperately needed), four stitch markers made by Alice (each is unique and BEAUTIFUL), a zippered bag for containing all those loose things that I am forever hunting in the bottom of my bag, a wonderful book on socks (I love the Philosopher’s House Socks!…and the Sunrise Socks…and the Tibetan Socks), Ghirardelli hot cocoa (I am SO spoiled), and the ever essential bag of M&Ms!

I received this on a rather crazy day and was flat out exhausted.  I had taught all day, was home for an hour baking a kingcake and getting things together for Girl Scouts, rushed to GS to help bake bread for the Spread the Bread project, dashed out of there with Morgan and a friend to pick up another friend, then headed straight home to greet two other 9 year olds for Morgan’s birthday sleepover.  (She turned 9 on Wednesday…Bryce turned 13 Monday the 14th.)  I was dead tired and plenty irritable because of it.  Then I looked over by my desk and there sat a large box.  I think I squealed (and I don’t really DO squealing).  It just may the day better knowing that someone took their precious time to put something together just for me, with my likes in mind.  THANK YOU SO MUCH, ALICE!

444 for Cass

Cass just posted her 444th post and she’s having a contest. WOOHOO! She’s got some great prizes…and you get to pick.  Cass is HI-larious and always willing to share what’s going on in her life! She got me hooked on reading blogs (nasty wench) and now I even have this little one of my own.  Give her a smooch from me and tell her I sent ya!

New Topic Question from Cocoa Swap

Now that we’re in the thick of ‘Winter’… has your knitting changed to match the season? Are you moving on from dishcloths, and tank tops to afghans, hats and mittens? Has your yarn changed from silk or cotton to wool, superwash or heavier cottons?

Don’t think I’ve changed my knitting to match the season.  I like knitting in the round, so I often knit hats.  I have recently knitted bath mittens in organic cotton, but those were Christmas gifts.  I think everything else I have knitted as been in wool or wool-blend.  One of my WIP is a pair of stockings in a wool-silk blend.

Contests I have found…

Mari is giving away yarn at mariknits

Insankitty is having a “totally random” contest

Bubbleknits has a contest too