I DID IT!! I DID IT!!!

Well, hopefully 3 times a charm!!!!!! Honestly! I could be well on my way to a Phd. by now had I chosen the right field to begin with! Life is like that I guess! Sometimes you just never know how life is going to unfold!

GLORIOUS ME!

Your Birth Month is September

Tolerant and inspirational, you are wise beyond your years. You are universally sympathetic and a great humanitarian. Your soul reflects: Devotion, light, and love Your gemstone: Sapphire Your flower: Morning Glory Your colors: Brown and deep blue

What Does Your Birth Month Mean?

C & J SQUARE

Here is my third square for the C&J afghan. I hate how all the sides roll when you work in sockinette stitch but you get the idea right???? I hate to block it now as I still have a long way to go b4 I can stitch it all up. I am working on the 4th square but I think there is a mistake in the pattern. I have reworked 3/4 of the square for the third time now and I keep getting a mistake. I have just started it for the 4th time and I'll have to watch where I keep getting an error to see if I can rework it correctly.


In other news, I have finally started working! It is not the work that I thought I'd be doing however. I thought I'd be a SPED Teacher Assistant for that is what I have been taking classes for these last couple of years. However, I have decided to be a Substitute Teacher for the time being, instead. My 1st assignment was a Kindergarten class; how fun was that??!!!!! My 2nd assignment was in Paige's school teaching the opposite 5th grade class!! Now that was really a lot of fun! Such a great age group! And Paige came into my class for Social Studies! She was all embarrased at first but she transitioned well!!! And of course I just loved that I had her as one of my students! I really enjoy working with the older kids. Younger children are a lot of fun too but they require a huge amount of 1:1 attention and lots and lots of structure. When you are only in a classroom for one day, it is hard to set up structure and routine with someone they don't know.

Lastly, I will be officially graduating on Friday, 5/19!!!! I am really looking forward to it as I have never attended my own graduation and this is the third time I will be graduating from college!!! I got my cap and gown and all of my Phi Theta Kappa regalia to wear so I am going to look very scholarly! Will post pics of the big event when it happens!

APRIL SHOWERS.......

Bring May flowers!!!!! Aren't these a refreshing change from the winter browns?? The yellow and the fuschia are Gerbera Daisy's, the purple are Pansy's and I can't remember what the pink bunch is! LOL! Jim and the kids planted these along with some Impatien's and a "Pink" Pussy willow tree! The willow hasn't bloomed yet but I am dying to see them! I am used to only seeing grey pussy willow's so the pink are going to be nice! The weather was perfect for outdoor activities and slowly but surely, summer is coming along with all the yard work! I supervise the whole thing as I am good at that!

WHO NEEDS IT?

As you may remember, I HATE excercise with a capital "P"(as in passion). I can't stand the idea of giving up precious little time in my day to make my muscles scream and my sweat pour. But alas, all good things must come to an end so this morning, against my better judgement, I went to the gym that I joined recently. I signed Shane out of school so he could accompany me and give me the quicky power tour on the equipment. Yes, I know, they actually have people who get paid to do just this but I wanted someone with me that wouldn't guffaw at my awkwardness. Anywho, Shane was only too happy to oblige as you can well imagine. Such a perfect son! How have I managed to be so lucky??? We enter the gym and it hits me like a cement wall......the smell of "b o", mixed with bad, bad excercise breath topped with a minty sterilized aroma. UGH! What in the hell was I thinking????? I won't bore you with the real gory details but I did manage to walk a mile on the treadmill AND reach my target heart rate, I biked it a 1/2 mile and then "gazelled" it another 1/2 mile in between working on my ever present pudge in the front and sizeable thighs. WHEW! Are you all exhausted yet???????? I sure as hell am. My legs are all rubbery and my arms are just dangling in the breeze. I WILL say that it felt good to realize I'm not in as bad a shape as I thought I was and it DID feel pretty darn good to stretch the stiffness out of my muscles. However, when I started showing off for my son, I practically ended up riding tandem on the neighboring gazelle as I couldn't stop the stupid thing and I thought, "oh god, here it is; I'm either gonna' die or fly" because I couldn't get the stupid thing to slow down and I was sure that my legs and my upper 1/2 were definately going to split off into 2 different directions. I managed to stay with it until dear son came and rescued me. (Sorry honey, you poor thing, you just can't take your old mom anywhere can you??) Ofcourse I crawled out of there like I had just been beaten to a pulp and at the moment, I have no intention of returning any time soon for more physical punishment. I think I'll just sit back an knit while snacking. Pasa the dove bars and chips please!

SHEARING THE DOG

So, you've heard of shearing the sheep??? Well, this is shearing the dog. Twice a year, all dogs in this household are wrestled with on shearing day. This is Tessa with the Stitch. That's me, with the buzzer! As you can see, we do not use the traditional method of setting her on a nice table while she happily sits to be shaved. She has to be finagled with in every direction to get the job done and it takes 2 of us to accomplish this. Meanwhile, she is growling, and snapping and biting us every chance she gets. Yes, we do the shearing ourselves because no one wants to groom her; she bites! She hates to be shorn, hates to be bathed, hates to be combed or brushed, hates to have her nails clipped etc. She also fights me (literally) for the heating pad but that is another story. There is enough hair sheared off to knit sweaters for a small country but I am saving all of this divine hair to send to VIP Fibers so that I can have my very own doggie sweater!