YEA!!!! Finished!!!

     I finally finished the "Surprise Shawl" that I was making for Aida, my friend/coworker. She hasn't seen it at all, so I am eager to see her face when I give it to her. I think it came out pretty good for my first one. The picture doesn't do it justice,for you can't see the different textures. It is also a bit bigger than intended but I wanted it to be full looking. The colors are shades of aqua (turquoise) and brown. I have included two views here.

Now I have to pick up yarn so I can start on the shrug for another friend/coworker. Once I finish that one I hope to complete my gray cardigan, sew together the pieces of my WOW! Chenille cardigan and then make the shrug for myself and/or Alison.

     Today was also a good day because the Yankees beat the Mets in the third game of their Subway Series, taking the series 2 to 1. It's always a good day when the Yankees win! As for me, I am sore as heck! On Friday I played in our annual kickball game...staff vs. 5th grade students. As always, we won (15 - 5). I told the AP that from now on we have to have anger management counselors on hand for the end of the game. You cannot believe how upset some of these kids get. Try as we might, we just can't get them to understand that the game is played FOR FUN!!! and that winning isn't what it's all about (except to them, it is!). I'd like to tell you that I caught the high fly ball that was kicked my way (way out in Center Field). However, as it was coming toward me I saw myself getting hit in the chest with it and being knocked to the ground - so of course it went uncaught by me! I did, though, manage to kick the ball a few times well enough to get onto base, and once on base another teacher kicked it so hard that I was able to run to home base. Hey....what do I know about being a great fielder...I was  a CHEERLEADER, for goodness sake!

     <Sigh> and so another week starts tomorrow, but I split my class in the AM and have a meeting, followed by the rest of the day to work on records and cleaning my classroom closet and purging files. Meetings every day, and then Friday (yea, Friday) it's off to Bimini, Bahamas, and diving for the holiday weekend. Life is good!!

Who Said He's Not a Romantic?

     This has been such a tiring week. Work is exhausting...this year we were told that there would he "less paperwork" for teachers and it now seems as if the paperwork has doubled. That's because in Broward County Schools there is the policy to CYA, because aside from the obvious need to prove what you have done with/for your students, Florida is a sue-happy state...do one thing awry and people want to sue the pants off of you. So as the school year draws to an end, there is tons of record keeping to do. On top of that, I have meetings, meetings, meetings....team meeting, staff meeting, team leader meeting, child-study meeting....this coming week I don't have ONE DAY with out meetings....2 hours on Monday, an hour Tuesday morning, all day Wednesday, an hour on Thursday; AND I have to clean out my closet and files and pack up my room. Most days I stay at school till 5 or 6 PM. It's no wonder that I am exhausted when I get home. In fact, I've been so tired, I have turned down Gerry's offers of going to the movies every night this week (except Friday...more in a bit!).

     I came home yesterday...Friday...and Ger came in 5 minutes later with a BIG bouquet of flowers. "Happy 5th Anniversary of the day we met, " he said! My goodness, I can't believe that he remembered about that date, for I had not! We actually met 5 years ago May 18th, but whose gonna be fussy about 2 days. The flowers and the sentiment came at just the right time. They made me feel so good. He's not really much of a romantic, but this gesture shows that there lurks a bit of the romantic inside him.

     Because I have been so tired I have not blogged in a long time...sorry to both of you who read this! I am almost finished with the Surprise Shawl and will post it here when done. I am then going to start on the Texture Shrug by Ramwools.com, but will not use the yarns that I ordered with it. I am making it for a friend at work who wants light pink/lavender/silver, so I have to go to my LYS to buy some yarn.

     My "new" knitting group met last Monday night and decided to meet every Tuesday night. That's wonderful for me as I was used to Tuesday nights and I am happier with the meeting every week instead of two times a month. The women in the group are so nice, with new ones joining us each week. Plus I get to buy a delicious coffee at Borders each week....with sugar free flavorings added (just can't remember the actual name of the coffee).

     So much for a relaxing morning today. I had to take Tiemann, my maltese, to the dr for his annual shots. He went last week for a checkup but had a little infection, so I had to bring him back today. We had decided to wash all three dogs today, so I took Tiemann into the sink first. He was COVERED with dead and alive fleas....yuck!! I bathed and dried him, picked off the remaining few, and put on the flea killing stuff. Then I took him to the vet and left him there for his shots, came home and washed Rusty - yup...more of the little buggers on him, but not after I got thru with him. Then we washed Cocktail. And of course, I had to vacuum, spray the couches with flea killing stuff, do lots of laundry, and I think I'm done now (thanks to Gerry who did the vacuuming.

     Nothing more to add, and the Yankees/Mets game is on TV so I am off to work on the shawl and watch the Yankees win (I hope).

 

I Can't Forget Where I Come From!

I FINALLY got what I have wanted for about 10 years...a VANITY PLATE for my car. I talked about getting one and never did. This year I decided to get off my bottom and went to the DMV and ordered it. When I first wanted a VP, it was to read...4EVER27. Well, time went on and that didn't seem right. I thought of 4EVER 35, but by now that was too vain sounding. I made a list:

2DEVINE (my married name is Devine)......DEVINE1.....KNITCHIC....LUV2KNIT.....the first two were taken, the next two were too long (only 7 characters allowed, even though they give you a form with 8 spaces....what's up with that?).

 I was not able to get any of my choices so I had to come up with this one. For those of you who are NY savvvy, BX stands for Bronx ...as in The Bronx, or, as any red-blooded New Yorker would say....DA BRONX!! Having lived there for most of my life, it seemed appropriate. I always refer to myself as just a "girl from the Bronx." Doesn't it look great (and also appropriate) with my license plate frame? I feel so special now!

    I had a tiring but wonderful weekend. My cousin's stepdaughter was getting married in GA this past weekend. Although I had only met the bride once, when she was about 13, I thought it was important to go for my cousin. He is such a sweet guy, married to a really nice woman. After I accepted the invitation, I found out that we were the only family on both their sides to be attending (she is an only child, ill mother, dad deceased and cousins remote). The rest of the guests were the bride/groom's friends, groom's family and bride's father's family. I was so happy that we went. Funny how we run to attend funerals but many would not think to go to a wedding far away unless it was someone very close to us. ANYWAY.....that aside....Gerry's job kept him home so Mom and I made the drive. Since it's about 10 hrs from here in S. Fl, we drove to Ocala (Central FL), had dinner with and slept over Becca (my daughter) and Phil's house. We got an early start in the morning and got to our hotel in Roswell, GA around 3:30. After resting a bit, we went to a BBQ given by the bride/groom's friends. The area of Roswell is so beautiful, which I was happy to note as my daughter Alison and her husband Michael are going there next weekend to look for a house to buy. I am THRILLED that they are planning to move closer (that AZ, where they live now).

     Saturday the weather was picture perfect. The wedding was at noon. It was small, only about 60 people, but we had a lovely time.I can't post a pix here as I took them with my camera phone and have not learned to upload them to the internet yet <sigh>. At night we were taken to dinner by my cousins and had a really fun time. Marcia, my cousin's wife, is into knitting and so we had a good time discussing yarns, knitting sites and patterns. After dinner, Mom and I retired to our room where we got into our beds (two in the room...yea!) and watched some TV. I started on the Surprise Shawl for my friend Aida. I am 1/4 way done and it's SOOOO pretty. Can't wait to take a pix of it and post it here, too.

     Sunday we got an early start and drove back to Ocala - 5 hours - where we had dinner with Phil at the Outback, where Becca works. She was on duty but came over when she could. Then the final leg of the drive....3 1/2 more hours. Needless to say, I am REALLY tired tonight so I didn't knit a thing. But..tomorrow night is my knitting group and I'll happily work on the shawl some more. So, since it's after 11 PM, and I rise at 5:45 AM, I think I should get some sleep. Night for now!

It's All About Change

I went to the "new" knitting group last night and had such a nice time. There were only 5 of us, and we met at Borders cafe. Betsy, who knitted with my in the SnB group at the LYS, joined us. The woman who organized it is Catherine Wingate, who wrote The Sock Calendar and The Sock Journal. She is so nice, and quite a knitter. She was knitting a sweater that is covered with cables (I am certainly not there yet). One of the women, attending for the first time, recognized Betsy. Turns out that this woman, Cathy, is good friends with Betsy's adult daughter. Small world.
I am working on the gray, fuzzy sweater. I finished the back and fronts, and I am now working on the sleeves. I just hope I have enough yarn to finish, or else I am in deep _____! When I am finished I REALLY have to sew this cardigan and the chenille cardigan. Then I will start the Surprise Shawl for Aida, my coworker. Laura, a friend at work, wants a shrug, and I found the perfect pattern in Ramwools.com catalog. I think I am going to order the kit in a color of my choice, use the pattern to make a shrug for Laura, then knit the kit shrug for me (although Alison has expressed interest in it, and being a sucker for my daughter, she will probably get it). That's what mom's are for!!