Saturday

When I got out of bed this morning to open up all the windows in our apt and draw up the shades, I saw this rainbow and I just had to take a picture.
Fortunately, it didn't rain on our field trip yesterday. It was..interesting. It was fun but I think my next field trip will just involve my own class. No one knew who was in charge (though I didn't claim to be at all!) and the parents could see how disorganized it was! There was a corn maze (which I didn't get a picture of though I did get lost in it at the very end with one of the moms and her son. It was funny. She was more intent on finding some ears of corn to take home with us!!
For the kids there was a little jumpy house for lil ones.

 a mini maze

 and a bigger jumpy house which all 90+ children ran toward!

There were rabbits, chickens, roosters, peacocks, geese, and lots of other birds. Though I didn't get any shots of them. Is it a goose that hisses? Because one did at one of my students. It was sort of funny. He didn't do anything. He just went over to look at the thing. I asked him to back up cos I didn't want him to get attacked!
There was a haunted barn which was SUPER dark! There was a koi pond and there were snapping turtles too. Sorry for the lack of pictures. Most of the shots I have are of my students.
Monday is a teacher workday and it will begin with a breakfast at Marie Callendar's. I have a feeling this month is going to go by very quickly. The next Thursday and Friday we have off due to Veteran's Day and then a week and a half after that it's already Thanksgiving!!
I have been knitting a bit on It's Good to be a Girl.

 a close-up

It's nice mindless knitting with a teeny bit of thinking throw in when I'm doing the increase rows. I am two pattern repeats away from starting on the ruffle. As for Andrea..I don't even want to think about her. lol. I'm going to try to work on answering some letters that have been piling up!
Ooh, the mail just got here and my latest shipments of Stash Menagerie and Sock Yarnista have arrived. Here is Cornucopia

 and here is Bountiful which is definitely destined for shawl-fame.

a day off

Well, I was able to blog for 27 days straight. I didn't start blogging daily with any particular goal in mind. I just wanted to try it out. I was too exhausted (and already in bed!) last night so I thought..whatever. It isn't like anyone is waiting with bated breath for me to post! If anything I realized that I have even less people commenting or just reading what I write in general when I post so often.  I did get used to it and it was nice to just pop on and do a little write-up about my day or my thoughts on that particular day instead of waiting a week or a month in between posts.
I am officially done with my home visits. I still never got around to seeing those other two who didn't take it upon themselves to reschedule. One of the students actually made a comment about me going over to his house and I said that his parents never set up a new date for me to go and that tomorrow was the last day. It was fun but I got burnt out quickly! Maybe next time I need to spread them out a bit more and not do so many in the first week.
Knitting has been slow. I do a row or two of "It's Good to be a Girl" when I get a chance. I'm going to re-attempt the andrea shawl possibly on the weekend but I'm not quite sure. I realized it's probably better for me to try to work on answering some of my letters that have piled up in the last month or so!
I started reading another book earlier in the week and I like it much better than any of the other ones I had started. lol. It is The Red Thread by Ann Hood who also wrote The Knitting Circle. One of the characters in The Red Thread is actually a knitter too.

is it over yet?

This is in reference to anything and everything in general. The hubs and I are dealing with some medical-related issues yet again (just when you thought things had finally settled down, the government wants to screw you yet again). We are hoping to at least begin the process of resolving these issues tomorrow. We'll see how lucky we get.
The field trip is coming quickly and I still have a few people who haven't responded! I was lucky in that my teaching partner has a mom who offered to contact my drivers for me. She even created a spreadsheet that listed the responses she got from every family. I didn't know she was going to contact everyone in my class! There are a few parents who are only driving their own child which is fine but whatever. According to the spreadsheet, if all my parents who claim to be driving show up, I have spots for up to 40 children! lol. So if that's the case, I'm hoppin' in someone else's car cos I have no clue where we're going.
I worked a bit on It's Good to be a Girl and I even went down a needle size (finally!). Now it's knitting up better. I don't have to give the stitch a lil tug so that it isn't too loose. I'm in the midst of the third pattern repeat (I'm going to do 6). The yarn is SO SO soft!
Okay, off to bed.

andrea is my enemy

I just spent most of the evening trying to work on the first row of the border for my andrea's shawl. First, I knitted the picked up stitches on the wrong side and didn't realize it until I had begun working on the first row of the border. I ripped back two rows, knitted them on the correct side but then when I began the first row of the border, there was a problem. I ripped back and attempted to redo the first row again but was unsuccessful so she's on a time out and I need time away. I think I need to copy the chart so that I sort of internalize it and understand it better. Not really sure why I'm having so much trouble. It could possibly be because most charts highlight the sections (in red) that are to be repeated. I stupidly just thought that all those straight lines were where the stitch marker was place. Oh well. It's Good to be a Girl is moving along though slowly. Like I said last night, I'm trying to spend more time with my books!

late sunday night

The hubs and I had quite an interesting day. I may have mentioned that one of my students had invited us to her church. Well, we finally went and it was quite the experience. In a nutshell, we most likely will not be returning to the church again. The congregation was lovely, the pastor wonderful and I enjoyed the usage of percussion to go along with the songs we were singing but the service was extremely long (we were there from 10:30 AM till at least 1:00 PM). Not to mention the unusual things that occurred towards the end of the service. Though I did tell the hubs that next Sunday, we can try another church!
Going to this new church helped me start to develop a mental list of what I wanted in my next church. I liked the familial feeling and how warm everyone was. I also like that this is a church where the congregation does stuff for the community. The church I grew up in was just barely beginning to do that when we still lived at that house. I am seeking out other places of worship because in those last few months that I was still at that house, (on the occasions that I did attend church,) the feeling that I used to have when I'd go to church was no longer there. I haven't lost faith per se but more like I couldn't believe how that woman could attend church services once a week and act as if everything was wonderful in her household when they weren't and she wasn't doing anything to rectify the situation.  So to me, she is being a hypocrite.  
We baked our zucchini bread-the hubs suggested we put less sugar than the recipe called for (wish I had snuck in at least another half cup when he wasn't looking!) and apparently the temperature at which we baked it at (the recipe said 325) was too low so it's still a bit squooshy. It's definitely not shareable with co-workers! We'll try again in about a month cos I don't think I could eat much more zucchini bread if we tried it again next weekend! I will try to take pics of our loaves tomorrow. We used this recipe.
I finally finished working on the bottom edging for my andrea's shawl and I picked up the necessary stitches to start working on the border!
Right now, I am trying to actually read some of the books I have stacked next to my bed! I picked up The Carrie Diaries and read the first chapter and thought..meh. We'll see. I'm trying to get my nose deep into Heart of the Matter which is okay but it isn't a quick read like that Tori Spelling book I read not too long ago! lol.
The hubs and I watched an interesting moving on demand. It was called Legion. It was kind of ironic that we'd watch a movie like that tonight after our experience at that church.
Okay, must get back into reading my book before it gets too late!

saturday night

We are back from dinner at our friend's house. We ate a couple hours ago but I'm hungry again. lol. Might have some popcorn. I am a bit further along on my it's good to be a girl. I've completed one pattern repeat. I'm debating on whether or not I should go down a needle size (as it is I'm on 4s). I'm going to pick up my andrea's shawl in a bit. I'm a few pattern repeats from being done with the border edging (finally!). Tomorrow we intend to bake our zucchini bread so we'll see how it turns out. It's s new recipe I'm trying out. Off to watch some tv!

friday!

IOur assembly went well. The kids did fantastic! I couldn't be any prouder than I was today. Only about 8 parents were able to attend. I wish more had been there but such is the life of a working parent, right?
Yesterday, I read my kids The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin. We are a school that doesn't celebrate most holidays (unfortunately) but this is a book I can get away with. Today I decided they would each make their own pumpkin. Here's how they came out!

If you don't know the story and you have kids, you have to read it. It's super cute and there's even a movie out. The pumpkins are hysterical. I need to do more projects like this more often!
I also managed to get a picture of the wires I had the hubs install about a month ago.

I wish he could put more in (everywhere!) but it takes too long and it's a bit costly. Though I do love the look! The children do a paper puzzle once a week so that's what I put up on the wires.
For about a week, a package has been waiting patiently at our local post office. The hubs went by there today (cos I had forgotten about it!!) to pick it up and here's what I got from the ever wonderful, Tanyia!

Thanks hon!! Believe it or not, everything has survived. I think I'm finally coming down with something (after all the diseases I've been exposed to in the last couple of weeks!) so I'm not exactly in the mood for some candy (which is a shocker!!).
I also managed to snap a couple of shots of It's Good to be a Girl (thus far)

and the bottom edging for Andrea's Shawl.

Both are slow goings (can you tell?). I was finally able to print up the patterns for It's Good to be a Girl and Daybreak so I'll probably cast on for Daybreak this weekend!
I have two home visits tomorrow, our school is hosting a PT Cruiser car show and a Halloween event (not sure if I'm going to swing by), and then the hubs and I are off to my co-worker's house for dinner! I just hope I don't get any sicker!

new obsession

Don't Forget The Lyrics is our current obsession. The hubs used to watch Jeopardy religiously (till we moved into that house where we had to watch Entertainment Tonight and whatever comes after it instead). So our new tradition is Don't Forget The Lyrics. I used to love it when Wayne Brady was the host. It's okay with Mark McGrath. I like that the newer episodes actually feature more current music. Like we just saw an episode where Gaga was one of the options and Katy Perry (not that I'm a fan..).
I was SO tired by the end of the school day today. The 1st and 2nd grade teacher who I chat with every now and again asked if I was tired so I must look it as tired as I feel.
One of the perks at my school (aside from the occasional surprise baked goody), is that we have parents who either work in produce or have their own farms so every week we get some sort of veggies. Mostly it's been fresh zucchini. Today, it was fresh zucchini and some acorn squash.

I had never seen acorn squash until today. The hubs either. So I brought home a couple for him to experiment on this weekend (hopefully!). So stay tuned. :) We've gotta use up the zucchinis we picked up a couple weeks ago too. I just found a zucchini bread recipe that sounds good so we'll try that out this weekend too!

sweet valley high!

I'm so excited. As if I don't already have enough books to read by my bed (the hubs just picked up The Carrie Diaries for me from the library cos I had it on hold) but it was just announced that Sweet Valley High Confidential is going to be out sometime next year. I can't wait to read what Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield have been up to. I grew up reading about them and was super happy when UPN developed a tv show based on the books! Apparently a movie is possibly in the works too! lol.
Aside from that momentary teeny bopper moment, I'm still tired. I have three more home visits this week and I plan to attempt to get the printer working at school after my home visits. I have a bunch of stuff I want to print up for my leaves unit and of course I've got those two patterns waiting. :) I'm still slowly chugging along on the border for my andrea's shawl and the beginning stitches for It's good to be a girl. The sun is only out when I'm at school. By the time I get home, the clouds have already rolled in. We'll see how the weekend goes in regards to pictures!

slow week

The printer at school doesn't work. I tried to print up both daybreak and it's good to be a girl but neither one of the computers I tried worked!! We don't have any ink here at home and won't for a while and I'm itching to get to knitting. I cast on for it's good to be a girl late last night and worked a little bit on it today during my lunch break. I decided I should do a little bit of relaxing during my lunch break instead of devoting most of it to getting stuff done.
I had two more home visits today. I have a few more this week and then I just have two scheduled for next week. I still have two students who haven't scheduled anything with me. Oh well. I'm not going to chase after them.
We have our assembly this Friday and I think we might actually do all right. Next week, we have our first field trip of the year.
Okay, off to knit (just a teeny bit!) and then off to bed.

annoyed

 I may not be a parent, but I've been working with children long enough to know what works and what doesn't work along with what shouldn't be done. Like, you don't FORCE  a kid to write her name and then tell her that if she doesn't do it, she's gonna have to write it TEN more times (the kid is FOUR). And just because a kid can't remember what flavor ice cream she had at about 12 pm in the afternoon, doesn't mean you give her the third degree and call her LAZY. She isn't lazy. And if you keep telling her she is, she WILL be. Kids need choices. They don't need to be threatened and made to cry. They are TIRED at 8 o'clock at night especially when they have been sick. EVERYONE should be made to take parenting classes-even people who aren't parents that deal with children.

On another note, I have been perusing through many versions of daybreak (and I managed to reconnect with an old friend from grad school by faving her shawl!). I think I know which yarn I am going to use. The first pic is one of the colors I'm thinking of using for my daybreak.

The other color that I am now about to wind is definitely going to be the second color for daybreak.

I had earmarked another color but it was too light. I went through all the possibilities (at least three times now!) and this one is the one! Gosh, I wish I could cast on for it right now but I still have my gratitude journal to write in and I should be going to bed soon.
It's Good to be a Girl is going to be knit in the one below from PDY. :)

Okay, I am off to label my film canisters for my smell & tell experiment tomorrow!

first carved pumpkin

The monkey wanted to carve her pumpkins last night. Everyone was exhausted but the hubs took it upon himself to help her carve her first ever pumpkin. It was cute.

There are a couple more pics that I'm missing..maybe I'll have them by tomorrow? The guy in scrubs with the monkey was our weekend guest, the hubs' cousin/best man from our wedding. He has the rest of the pics.
I thought the hubs was sick again (fever and throwing up) but it turns out he just had some bad rice milk. Whew.
I cast on for my andrea's shawl (finally) and now am contemplating casting on for It's Good To Be A Girl soon.

pumpkin patch

Well, we only made it to the pumpkin patch. We missed the Mayan thing. We ended up just walking all around Monterey. So here are some pics from the pumpkin patch.

We went on a tractor-driven hayride.

Here's what we saw!

 pumpkins and a haystack in the distance

 a cardboard cutout of a farm worker (it was the only one I could get a shot of!)

 strawberries!

 flowers

 pumpkins

 and more pumpkins!

Then we went to go pick out some pumpkins for ourselves.

 Here's the monkey riding in the cart we managed to grab from someone.

And here's the haystack the monkey and I climbed up on and danced! lol.

After the pumpkin patch we drove to Monterey and hung around Cannery Row.

 The beach.

 If you look closely, you can see seals laying on the rocks. I had to do a double take before I realized they were seals!

 Little "olives" that we saw along the 1.

They're actually little hermit crabs. I tried to pick one up and it was stuck. lol.

We are home now and everyone is exhausted.  Lighting is still horrible but I've been having you wait forever so here's what I was able to take just now. Excuse the washed out look of my cowl. We've had very few sunny days here so it's getting harder and harder to get decent pictures of my projects!

 Purpley mush

Ta-da!

hello weekend!

Must start working on goldie again! I could've worn her today (had she been finished!) and she would've done a much better job completing my outfit. She is on hiatus because even if I get through 2 pattern repeats, not much headway is made on her. Maybe I'll cast on for my andrea's shawl now? I'm not sure about my yarn selection for the hub's balaclava. It sheds a bit. I've only knit a couple of rows-maybe I'll knit a bit more just to see if I like it better.
Tomorrow, we're having a family day and we're all going to the Farm for hayrides, pumpkin races, and to visit the pumpkin patch and then we're off to the college for a Mayan cultural festival. We also have a guest coming for a visit. The hubs is finally starting to feel better. Though my kids are going through another sickness. Now it's just a fever that won't go away. I had six kids out today and one of them decided to stop by to say hi so we'll see if any of the kids who have yet to catch the sickness are out next week!
Our assembly is at the end of next week. I hope it goes well. The rehearsals are getting better but they're not singing it like I want them to. Beggars can't be choosers, right? At least most of them remember their lines!!
I will try to post pictures this weekend amid all the upcoming chaos..

knitting in the dark

Since belle's ascot is mostly garter stitch, I can knit while watching tv without the lights on (which is how I prefer to watch tv anyway!). The knitting is all done now. All that is left is the three needle bind off!
Here's what I remembered while working on belle's ascot. Garter stitch is not my friend. I don't like how it looks.  I don't like how it makes my fingers and wrist feel afterwards! I will try to stay away from any garter stitch projects in the near future.
Still no pictures because it's nighttime and I'm already in bed. I had one home visit today and scored some delicious strawberries. By the time we got back home, the sun had been hidden by a bunch of dark clouds. The sun comes out while I'm inside the school and then hides once we go outside. Oh well.

yay for hd

I forget how wonderful it is to have hd on our tv. It is wonderful because some channels will air things at the East Coast time which helps to free up my evening!
Our first day of Enrichment was awesome. Each teacher gets an older student to serve as their helper. My helper is awesome. I absolutely LOVE her! She claims to know a lot about leaves and says that she knows most of the names of the trees the leaves belong to. We went on a walk collecting leaves. The kids loved it. There is this pond that I always drive by on my way to work. This morning, I thought maybe we could walk there (because there are trees and lots of leaves!). So my goal is for us to get to walk there. It's a bit far but it'll be SO fun. My helper said that there are crabs there even! How that is possible, I don't know.
It was a long day though. I think focusing two hours of teaching one particular topic is tiring. Then to transition into Math, goodness gracious I don't know what we were thinking. My kids were wacky.
One of the other teachers is doing trees and on our way back from our leaf walk, we saw her and her kids checking out the trees so I thought maybe we could go together to the pond. So we're gonna see. My director is excited about the possibility of collaboration.
I came home early to tend to my sick husband (who threw up again this morning..) and he wasn't home! I had forgotten he had class in the late afternoon. Oh well. So I got to be home alone and I did a whole bunch of nothing. I talked to my best friend though for about two hours and just got off the phone with her.
I'm up to the second half of my belle's ascot and will probably try to finish the garter stitch part tonight! So maybe I'll have pictures to post tomorrow but that depends on what time I get home from my one and only home visit.

is it november yet?

Teehee. These home visits are really killing me. I didn't even have any today-the one that was scheduled, they forgot which was fine because the hubs and I had a few things to take care of that were rather pressing. Everything should be all taken care of by tomorrow though. He is still sick. In fact, it's like a mack truck hit the poor guy. He definitely has what the kids had. I managed to schedule one of my non-English speaking visits for next week. So I have three that need to be rescheduled. One person asked if we could do it November 1st. Home visits are only conducted during the month of October so I said no. Find a date in October.
Today was a fairly wonderful day of school! I've created the four corners. I have four boys who cannot sit together when we're on the rug (or even when we're doing work at our tables). SO, each boy has a designated box on the rug (our rug has rectangles and squares). The other kids want their own box. I told them only these four have their own spots. lol. One of the four spends a lot of time sitting at the table when we're doing whole group stuff but I realized today that he got to stay with the class the entire day. I called his mom a couple hours ago to let her know he had an amazing day. I hope he keeps it up.
Tomorrow is our first day of "Enrichment." I have to figure out what exactly I'm going to teach on the first day. My topic is leaves and come November 18th (or something like it), we need to have some sort of finished product to present to the whole school and along with that, we have a feast!
Pictures maybe tomorrow. We're having inspection tomorrow so I had to pull stuff out of our porch because we're only supposed to have patio furniture there. SO since I was cleaning, I didn't have time to snap a shot of purpley mush or or of my belle's ascot.

another long day

The hubs is sick. It's possible he caught whatever it was/is that is going around my classroom (fever and vomit). Poor guy. He stayed home from school today and spent most of the day in bed. His sore throat went away but he still doesn't feel too good.
While he was sleeping last night, I watched Nursery University which was both eye-opening and interesting. I also watched one of the Justice League movies. Since when do they say 'a**' in a cartoon??
I finished sewing the buttons on my purple mush while watching Nursery University. And then upon it's finish, I cast on for my husband's balaclava and for belle's ascot. I'm actually about halfway done with the right side of the scarf. It's a super fast knit. I'm trying to get all these fast knits out of my system (as well as the dying to knit projects!) and maybe then I can re-focus on goldie.
I had two fun home visits today. At the first one, I got to have a light saber battle and play this game. At the second one, my student has an enormous backyard so not only did I get to wander around the garden but I also got to go down the slide! She loved it.
I should be in bed but I got hooked on the current Days of Our Lives storyline. lol!!

a day of finishing, and a day of new beginnings

I cast off for my baby crocagator late last night.

Here is a close-up of the detail:

I really like it. I wish that it was longer but I'll get over it. It is currently soaking in the sink so I'll try to have some modeled shots during the week.
I cast off for my kitty hat a few moments ago.

I had taken another shot with my looking but I look so tired, I didn't want to post the pic! lol. It is next for blocking. Still not sure if the placement of the ears is good enough but it'll have to do!
After I finish blogging, I'm going to sew on my buttons for purpley mush. I have wound my yarn for a belle ascot and I think I finally know what two yarns I'm going to wind for my andrea's shawl. I also think I'm going to cast on for that balacava the hubs has been wanting. I'm going to use some recycled black yarn that I have from a shawl a parent gave me years ago. I was too scared to reuse the stuff for another shawl in case I ran out of yarn! It's super soft--maybe too soft but I guess we'll just have to see.
I still have to lesson plan for the week! I have spent the day catching up on blogs and emails and looking through patterns to see what I'd like to cast on for next! 

crafty saturday

Well, I had one home visit today and spent the afternoon playing! lol. It was fun. I think we played for about an hour and then I spent the next half hour just talking with his folks. Then off the hubs and I went to pick up some groceries. I learned that it isn't just this town that is small but the school as well. They shared with me that the husband's ex's kid goes to our school AND this kid was in the same class as their older child. Can you imagine?? So they shared my horror.
Before leaving for the home visit, I did some work on my crocagator. I regret doing 5 repeats of the pattern but oh well. Next time (should there be one!) I will only do 3 or 4 pattern repeats. I worked on it after dinner and managed to finish it while we were watching 'The Bounty Hunter.' It is WAY short. I have to tie it in a knot it's that short. Oh well. It's still cute and now the hubs wants one as well. Pictures will be up tomorrow. I'm going to block it to see if it will grow a teeny bit.
I also worked on putting in my ears for my kitty hat. I had to move them a couple of times but I think I'm happy with my current ear placement. I still have the second set of ears to knit up and then I can take pictures! I want to cast on for some new projects (poor goldie..) so we'll see what I end up casting on for! 

enough

Well, I survived my last two back to back home visits for the week. Yay!!!!!!! I was fed at the first home. (lol!). And am still stuffed. The mom made crepes filled with ground beef and bell peppers, Spanish rice, and the dad came by with some dessert (sweet potatoes and marshmallows). The mom also made a special drink for us which was delish (and she said it tastes even better with vodka or tequila!! I also got a plate to take with me for the hubs not to mention possible future invites to BBQ's because this family has them at least three times a month!!
At the second house, I learned that the mom knows my ex bf. (NOW do you understand how SMALL this freakin' town is??). I asked her to please not mention to him that I am her daughter's Kindergarten teacher! He's her buddy apparently and she always talks crap to him. She went so far as to share that he hasn't dated anyone seriously after me (like I care!) and then she asked about my husband!! 
We are watching "Imagine That" only because parts of it are filmed near where I used to teach (just the park scenes!) back in LA.
Tomorrow I get to sleep in and then I have one home visit in the afternoon. I can't wait to be all done with all the visits because it really does strengthen the relationship between myself and my students' parents.
We rehearsed today for our assembly that is coming up on the 22nd. Each grade level is responsible for presenting something every Friday morning. We are going to be doing 'Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?' We've been rehearsing and they're okay but today, we changed things. We are going to sing it instead of just say it and it was horrible. I hope they get better!!
I've been reading a bit of Heart of the Matter. It's slow goings because I'm SO exhausted by the time I get to sit and read. :P I don't think I'll have too much time to read this weekend since I want to plan for our first Enrichment day which is next Wednesday.  Ack. I just remembered I have to email one of the teachers about Enrichment. So I am off!

these home visits are killing me.

It's day four in a row of home visits (at least two scheduled from 4 pm on) and I'm wiped.  Don't get me wrong, I love going to my students' homes but I hadn't realized how tiring it was to go after a long day at school and then to come home and have MORE work to do.  At my last school, we did home visits before the school year began so tiredness wasn't a factor. Apparently, it's not supposed to be a time to talk about academics which I don't really but if we're supposed to find out a parents' hopes and dreams for their child, academics are going to be a topic of conversation. (We just got an email). Do you know what my conversations consist of with the parents? My background, how the child is adjusting to school, their background, and then it's just a basic back and forth normal conversation.  The first house I went to asked if I liked Mexican food which for someone that knows me well is a preposterous thing to ask me. I grew up in a predominantly Mexican neighborhood, all my friends were Mexican growing up, and my husband is Mexican. So for me not to like Mexican food would be a very bad thing! She fixed a plate of food for me and even made me fresh tortillas. Oh how I wished that I didn't have another house to visit after that one but I did and I ended up running late!! I more than made up for the lateness though because I ended up staying at the last house for an hour and a half!
'Private Practice' is on and I just finished cutting and stapling the "My Ff Books" that I plan to have my students work on tomorrow. I'm behind on blogs and emails and I don't have time to read or knit anymore but on the flip side, I'm establishing stronger bonds with my students and their parents.
Since I don't get my usual downtime anymore (between the hours of 4 and 7 pm), I've been staying up late to get a teeny bit of knitting in and or a teeny bit of reading. I looked in the mirror today and finally saw how tired I look by the end of the day after two home visits. Oy. The upside? Next week, Monday is my only day when I have two home visits back to back. I'll be able to reclaim my life again!

kids say the funniest things

I had two home visits today and currently, they have been my two favorite ones. Now, all the other teachers schedule the home visits to be at most 30 minutes. After three days of doing home visits, I haven't been able to get out the door in less than an hour. I don't mind it though. I like getting to talk with the parents because we can't have those conversations at the end of the school day or even before school starts and today, the girls I went to visit were the ones not letting me leave. The last one kept trying to feed me. She wanted to give me chips and salsa..then it was cereal. She did a dance for me and sang me a song and told me some gossip about their neighbor. It was cute. I could've stayed all night. She offered to let me sleep on their couch!
The first one I had this afternoon has the coolest mom. I just recently got to talk to her more because when school started, she was very pregnant so she'd come pick up her daughter and just go. She had the baby maybe about 4-6 weeks ago? And for the first couple of weeks, her daughter was staying with her grandparents.  It's been just recently that I get to see her on a daily basis and chat.  Her daughter is SO lucky to have her as her mother. Finally someone with some sense. :) After three days of home visits, the trend seems to be that my single moms all mostly live back at home. I guess it's what happens around these parts.
I have two more scheduled for tomorrow and another two on Friday and one of my Friday appointments is going to feed me dinner! By the end of the weekend, I'll have visited at least 11 of my students--leaving only 13 more to go. I have three that haven't scheduled anything with me yet. Two of them do not have English speaking parents though so the hubs is supposed to call for me to schedule when we are going to visit.
Okay, back to work (and back to watching Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel).

a good day at school (mostly)

I had two students out today and it was absolute heaven. One, I actually wished that he'd be absent (and it came true!!!!!!!!). The other one is in Disneyland. It was a pretty low-key day. It was weird. I hadn't realized how much time and effort those two particular kids take up. I had two home visits today in my old 'hood. I'm learning that parents will come from wherever in this town to send their child to my school! Yesterday I learned from the family I went to see that the older son was in a class of THIRTY-EIGHT children when he was in Kindergarten. The mother pulled him out after a couple of weeks. Can you imagine??? At one of my visits today, the boy was going to what I thought was a really good school in town and then transferred out to my school. The mom said he'd get homework all the time (like a packet plus sight words to practice).  I also learned that at that school Kindergarten is only from 8:30 to about 11:30 AM and that's it. Our Kindergarten is all day. So then it dawned on me that the other school probably gave homework because they weren't full day. The mom said that made sense. I've got two more tomorrow and hope that no one flakes. It's nice to get to visit my students at their homes but the adults think that it's supposed to be about them when really it's all about the child. Oh well.
I started reading The Curse of the Good Girl yesterday. I've only read through the introduction and so far so good. Unfortunately, Heart of the Matter arrived for me at the library so the hubs picked it up for me while I was doing my home visits. I say unfortunately because I probably will have to stop reading the aforementioned book because there might be a waiting list for the Heart book. We'll see. I'll try to read them simultaneously but you all know how that goes.
Okay, off to finish watching Glee! If you've noticed I'm attempting to blog everyday to see how long I can last. lol. Oh, I knit a row on my crocagator and the 1st/2nd grade teacher now wants me to teach her and my teaching assistant saw it on my desk and said "You're good!" :)

Teaching

Yesterday, my lazy Sunday, I was flipping through channels because I had already watched everything that I found remotely interesting On Demand. I stumbled upon Teach: Tony Danza. I thought, 'This should be interesting." You'd think every reality show anyone could ever imagine had already been done! I thought this was going to be garbage but after watching the first episode and seeing clips of upcoming episodes during the season, it might actually be interesting. I figured it was just some publicity stunt to get him back into the public eye but he seems to really want to succeed at teaching. Administration and the kids aren't cutting him any slack. If anything it's going to be a more difficult ride for Tony Danza as a first year teacher than any other first year teacher. I tried to see if he's still teaching at the school where he did the reality series but I guess not. It was a one year experiment which I find lame. Granted he wasn't fully credentialed but it would be good to see what happened to his students who moved onto 11th grade and it would've been good to see if he improved at all in year 2.
It is a teacher work day. I thought that I would get to begin planning for our Enrichment activities which revolve around the Harvest. Instead I did a bunch of filing and the majority of my time here has been working on things that I need to get laminated later today. Of which I'm still not done. It's a whole lot of coloring for these file folder games I wanted my kids to be able to use.
It's amazing to me that we get an entire day to work in our classroom! I have never worked at a school where that happened! In fact, I asked our Director of Education what exactly were we going to do for our teacher work day and she said it was a day for teachers to work in their classrooms. I'm still in shock. No meetings are scheduled. I have grown accustomed to having a teacher workday and it being devoted solely to professional development with maybe an hour or two spent in the classroom. I packed my laptop, some letters, and of course some knitting (crocagator). It's already about 2:30 and out of the three things I just mentioned, I've only been able to get to the first one. Oh well. One must always be prepared! After laminating, I have my first home visit of the month. I hope it isn't too bad.

why do you blog?

I was thinking about this last night. One of my blogging friends just recently decided to throw in the towel. Her life is now headed a different direction and the thing that made her start blogging in the first place was no longer there. That made me think if that was going to happen to me. Yes, life has become busier and yes, I'm not as obsessed with knitting and yarn as I was when I first began blogging so my readership has waxed and waned as has my blogging in general! That doesn't mean that blogging has lost its importance in my life.
In the beginning, blogging for me was about showing off my knits and my yarn. The person behind those knits and all that yarn rarely showed her face. Now the tables have turned and the knits and the yarn are a bonus to the person that once stood behind them. As time passed and I grew older, my reason for blogging shifted. I didn't just want to share about knitting. I wanted to share a little more of the me besides the knitting. Has it been scary to share more of myself with the world? Sure. Yet there have been many times when I just needed support from friends or I just needed to vent and not have anyone judge me. That's why I blog. I like the friends I've made. Granted many have come and gone but that's life. For me blogging is a way to express myself without any judgment. So what if no one reads it.
Now tell me, why do you blog?

a change of heart

I cast on for green leaves not too long ago and I have to tell you that the cast on alone killed me. The idea of working 270 sts back and forth (in straight garter stitch mind you) was not all that exciting. So there it sat while I worked on my purpley mush and then decided to cast on for that kittyville hat. Purpley mush just needs to have the buttons sewn on

and my kittyville hat just needs some ears.

Then along came the the new knitty. It was love at first sight. I cast on for my crocagator scarf late last night and worked on it a bit after watching this week's episode of Parenthood and then a few episodes of Weeds. Yes, it's got a feather and fan vibe to it which I swore to NEVER subject myself to again but I'm working through it.

I'm still working on finding the best place to take pictures in our North facing apartment but obviously it's been tough. I set aside my crocagator though cos the hubs came home with some mail for me! :) It is Sleight of Hand from Sock Yarnista

And Illusion from Stash Menagerie. 

Both are amazingly soft and beautiful and I already know what I would like to cast on for with the sleight of hand. I'm thinking illusion will become a hat at some point!
Happy early Birthday to the monkey and to Knottykitty! Both will be celebrating their respective birthdays tomorrow. :)