My poor lonely blog

It has been a while since I posted. Thought about it. Then I thought some more. My knitting life has been nearly zero! Not that I don't want to knit. It just ends up being last on my list. My todo list is getting longer and longer and my knitting is still on the bottom of the list! BOO HOO So if I can't post about knitting why not post about all of the other things that have been going on in my life! What has been special?!?!? 1. I got to spend the night at Kristi/Kelsey's on Saturday night. The Easter Bunny was SOOO silly. He left a bunny trail of jelly beans for Kelsey to find. Since jelly beans is about the only candy she can eat (peanut allergy) she was very excited about this because we read the book "Too Many Jellybeans" right before bed. Her comment, "He left me too many jellybeans!" CLASSIC! 2. We went to see the musical Flat Stanley at the Civic Center a couple of weeks ago. We sent our own Flat Stanley's out for adventures. They are just now coming back with their adventures. The kids are loving it! Most of the kids did not bring back their envelope so I sent them to my family and friends. THANK YOU FAMILY AND FRIENDS YOU MADE OUR DAY! Flat Stanley is having a lot of fun. 3. My brother and his girlfriend is expecting a baby in October. We are all very excited to have another little one to love and spoil. I was trying to make a baby afghan but I could not get into it. So I did what I really wanted to do - make a baby sweater! It is out of KnitPics Comfy Honey Dew. I am using a Debbie Bliss pattern from her book Baby Knits Patterns. It is the jacket with seed stitch bands. It is a pieced project. I have never done this before so it will be interesting to see how it goes. I have almost completed the back this weekend. It is a very simple pattern and a beautiful color. 4. Classes are going well for my Master's. I enjoy learning -- I forgot how much I enjoy learning at the college level. It is all new and exciting. 5. Finding out that I get to teach 2nd grade next year. It is both exciting and frustrating all at the same time. I have a whole new curriculum to learn - exciting. Moving upstairs - frustrating. My co-worker is retiring and wants me to take all of her 20+ teaching things. Been there - done that TWICE! 6. Looking at the calendar the other day and realizing summer break will be here before I know it. Scary thought when I look at how much I have to do in the next few weeks. Testing, Teddy Bears spend the night at school, music program, field trip to the zoo, "green zone dance party", picnic, field day, Reader's Theater Plays, and I am sure that I have missed something!

Call me Crazy!

You can call me crazy - - but I love Iowa in the winter. I can complain about a lot of things but you will not usually hear me bitching about the weather. Granted, I don't like the Arctic blast that comes our way in December or January, but you can always put on more clothes.

I love the snow in February. They are wet, and sloppy and just right for playing in - - snowballs, sledding, snowmen, slick road-don't tell me I can't go somewhere - - and Avie frolicking in the wet mess.

Lately I have been thinking about my Grandma. This weekend I realized it has been 9 years ago on the 17th that she passed on. Funny how your senses can bring back memories. Someone staying at the hotel where the Knit In took place had on my Grandma's perfume. Then the snow today reminded me again. She died on a Thursday while wintering in Tempe. My family flew in from Arizona on the next day. We had a major snow storm that Thursday night and it made travel difficult. My nephew Jacob was 4 years old and had never seen snow before. He was amazed and baffled by the snow. He played....shoveling, throwing snowballs, making a snowman. Then by Tuesday the snow was melted and we were running around in sweatshirts. After that trip to Iowa, each year around Christmas my sister and her family go up north to Flagstaff, AZ to play in the snow. Funny how a trip to Iowa for a funeral could make such wonderful memories.

It's the Little Things in Life

It's the little things in life...

• the morning sun shining brightly in your window
• waking up to the sounds of birds singing
• the sweet sound of running water downhill (case in point in Iowa - the snow is melting!)
• your dog snuggling up beside you
• having one of your students profess this was the best day ever in school and it was!
• knitting with friends for a whole weekend
• having a friend tell you that yes you have to take it out
• same friends telling you it is okay to cry over the small things in life such as pulling (frogging) 8 hours of your life out and winding it back up into a ball
• starting over and knowing it is done right this time
• little pens that have toggles on them so you can clip it to your bag
• getting to wash your car because the temperature is over 32 degrees!
• having a child look at you and say they get and they do

....that bring you great pleasure.

So that when the big things come up I can handle them a little better....

And through it all, I will have my knitting sitting by my side waiting for me to pick up and work on it some more. Knitting will always be one of my favorite creative past times.

I have gone wireless - watchout world.

First the laptop, then the wireless router. A few technology snags but with a little time and patience or a checkbook - it will get figured out! What more could a person ask for??? A wireless printer! That is next on my list of must have technology.

This is all so new and exciting! I can't wait to try something new. M focus this month has to be school things. I have been looking for some new ideas for 100th day of school, Valentine's Day (AKA Clifford's birthday), Dr. Seuss' birthday and I have to turn in my Educational Portfolio at the end of this month. I want to do something different than the normal 3 ring notebook which is norm for my school. I am going electronic. I have downloaded most of my information into a PowerPoint presentation. We will see how it goes. Worse case - he hates it and I print it all out, put in the 3 ring notebook like the norm.

I lost over 4 hours last night and all I was doing was looking up "school stuff" and "knitting stuff" --- only planned on being online for a hour or so and then go to bed early get a good nights rest and be ready for the 100th day of school. I don't know how long I was online...I got lost in all that information. Seriously I didn't know where time went but when I looked up from all that information it was nearly

My knitting is still sitting next to me - begging to be worked on...The Einstein is not getting its fair share of time...my Valentine's deadline will be here before you know it! My lovely sock sits next to my sweater looking small and neglected. I can't wait until this weekend to spend with my knitting friends and just KNIT!

I have not shared my school days on this blog but I have to shout out how much I loved school today! I went to school exhausted from the night of Internet overdose but I came home feeling excited about the day. It was 100th day of school. The kids absolutely loved the day. They went home so excited and full of love for math and school. I LIVE FOR DAYS LIKE TODAY! I came home exhausted, a migraine headache...overwhelmed by the amount of work I have to do yet excited for my next favorite day of teaching - Dr. Seuss' birthday - March 2nd. Today was all about math, March 2nd is all about reading. The confidence they have about their ability and the excitement for tomorrow is intoxicating.

Next blog - pictures - less words - something new and different - maybe something about actually knitting! HA HA

Ever So Slowly

Well I use to think I was up with the times...until the "times" started moving so quickly! I refuse to consider myself "middle-aged" but each year I get closer and closer to those years. This is very true when it comes to my knowledge of technology. I only know what I know. I have not spent much time moving up with the times! Soon I am going to be one "those people"....the people that only know what they need to know for their job or their newest toy...the ones who say that back in the day it was just easier to.... Last weekend I finally joined the ever so overcrowded world of laptop owners. I have been pining away for years but could not justify the spending of money. I have a perfectly good desktop sitting at home...with a very hard chair...so not to sit there too long. All I have to do now is take the time and figure all this stuff out! Vista Office System, new features within Word, Outlook and PowerPoint, downloading pictures....a wireless router...how to print...and new software I learned about at school this week that will make teaching super cool and fun....and I no longer have any excuses on why my raverly page is not completed! When I left Drake University I felt very confident in my computer skills. In fact within the school system I felt even more confident because Drake was ahead of the school system. I helped all of those who needed it. Those were the Mac years and the beginning of the PC years. Then years of keeping the same operating system both at school and home did not force me to update my skills. Now I know just enough to be dangerous. Well if I do this...then this should happened...why won't it let me do this if I can do that...It can take me forever just trying to make sure it is centered just the way I want it or I find a clip art to match my newsletter. I am hoping to start my Master's in Teaching degree in a couple of weeks. I have a lot to learn. If nothing else...just a new computer. I am very excited by the whole process. I have been saying for last couple of years that I wanted to learn something different within education and technology and now I can do both at the same time! My Master's will be a work in progress...ever so slowly to not overwhelm me while teaching. But oh so exciting! Here I go ever so slowly...expanding my learning in both education and technology just like back in the day when I took a knitting class. Excited, nervous, ready...I can't wait for it to begin. Now if they make me hold my pencil a certain way I might have through it across the room like I wanted to with my knitting needle. (As for the Einstein coat...it too is going ever so slowly...I am just about ready to work on the button holes on the bottom of the coat...next comes the front. I can't wait to just sit and knit.)

A New Challenge

As many of my friends know, I don't knit big or complicated projects. Sure I have knitted a couple of the Cottage Corner sweaters for my cousin's children and a log cabin afghan for myself. But other than that it has been a sock here, a hat or scarf there. Nothing big time. Back in the day when the Knit Wit was my favorite hangout spot in DM. I bought 16 skeins of Lambspride pink. It was the first time I bought more than 5 skeins of anything! I was determined to make my first article of clothing for myself besides a scarfs and hats. Well that was two years ago. Oh I started the Einstein Coat in the The Knit Stitch Inspiration and Instruction by Sally Melville. I knitted up 8 skeins of yarn then it went into the closet - deep, deep into the closet. So a couple of weeks ago I was cleaning this very deep closet (really not so deep) and found the beloved Einstein Coat. I looked and looked at it. Where to start? Why did I stop - was it because it was getting to be warm out and I did not want all of the Lampspride in my lap or was there a mistake? Knowing me, there was a mistake - I tend to abandon projects when I don't know how to fix them. The only problem with this one is that it is much bigger and more time consuming than the smaller projects. I started at one end - of course the wrong end - when I was having to work really hard at picking the right piece of yarn, I knew something was amuck. I know from smaller projects that pulling out a couple of hours of work is hard enough but this was painful...until I turned it around, and started on the other end. This was the first time I had to unravel a project with a bind off. I pulled and pulled, and whined and winded....and then I looked at the pile of the yarn and decided it was for the best...a fresh start. What if I abandoned the project because of major error on my part (most likely) and continued to knit - got slowly to the end and then figured out it was wrong. So I continued, with a smile on my face. I decided to make a new challenge for this project. You can't let 16 skeins of pink lambspride sit in a closet. I decided this time it might be good to make a photocopy of the pattern, journal as I go, take pictures and finish it in time to wear it on Valentine's Day! So I found my project for the knit-along. Let's see where my progress is in a couple of weeks!

I am woman hear me roar!

I have spent the last 5 days working on my smallest bedroom. It is my "craft room" otherwise known as my room that I hang out in during the winter time. It is a small room but it manages to store my stuff and allow me to hang out upstairs and not be in a bedroom setting. My upstairs is at least 10 degrees warmer than downstairs. You have to love old homes mine is very charming - aka needs a lot of work. I hope by next winter to have a new boiler and water heater so I won't have to live upstairs in the winter unless I want to. I wanted the room to be terracotta but it turned out a little more orange than terracotta. It has been a labor of love but I am painting all of the trim white and not the same color as the walls. This is the last room to be painted in house. I thought it was time to start over - ha ha - I won't be picking up a paint brush anytime soon! Every room in this house has taken at least 2 gallons of paint just for the walls! And the trim is always in need of a touch up. But it is MINE and I get to paint it any color I want - even if it Valley High School orange - after 10 years of schooling in West Des Moines I thought I would never like the color orange again, but I do! Not only have I enjoyed doing my own painting/work but I have learned a few new skills. Over break I have replaced my deadbolt, my plug ins in my craft room, and a light switch. As it turns out all you need to do is know how to use a screwdriver and how to turn off the power. Who knew? I do now. It makes me feel very powerful - watch out I might have to move onto power tools next! It is amazing what I have kept over the years. But as long as it has a home that is all that is important! When I painted the bookshelf and dresser black I thought I would throw things away - HA I just neatly piled them and put them right back where I had them! I guess once a pack rat always a pack rat! Now if I could only get all of my school crap so organized! I plan on adding to my raverly account soon. Life would be so much easier with a laptop...hint hint mom and dad! Tomorrow school starts and routines will restart thank god...I need to go to bed early, get up early, eat on a schedule and hopefully start exercising again. I have missed out hanging out with my knitting friends. It is time to commit to this wonderful group of friends again. They inspire me!

I'm Back!

I finally found my username and password -- so as Jack Nicholason said in the Shining - IM BACK! This is one of my New Year's Resolutions. So you will be hearing from me again soon.