turn of events..

As per my May 9th entry, I distinctly said that the school in the Palisades could kiss my booty. Well. Fast forward to yesterday. I had a vm from Anastasia, my connection @ the school. I had an email from her in my inbox. When I arrived at work yesterday afternoon, there was a message there telling me to call her asap. I called her after I got all my chores done but didn't hear back from her. I called her again once I got out of work and she called me back when I got home. Are you sitting down? lol. ;) She was calling with another offer. She wanted me to know that she wasn't going to give up until I was working at her school. Here's the new offer: I would have the title of co-teacher and they were willing to give me my bottom line!!!!!!!! I immediately wanted to just say yes but knew I should wait. I told her that I wanted to just tell her yes right then and there but thought that I should think it over a bit. I'd be in the Kindergarten classroom with the awesome Kindergarten teacher that 'interviewed' me (we ended up trading ideas back and forth!) and I would sincerely be a co-teacher, I'd be responsible for teaching certain things, etc. Anastasia also mentioned that she knew that next year, there would be an opening in 2nd grade and she wants me there now, learning the ropes so that I could take that position. Anastasia has seriously been my guardian angel through all of this. She told me she kept pushing so hard for this because she believes in my teaching. It felt good to hear that particularly from Anastasia because she was an outstanding teacher. She also said that I would learn so much from the teacher I'd be working with because she is by far, the best teacher at that school and she really knows the school's philosophy.
I told her I'd get back to her the latest today because I wanted to run it by my fiance first (even though he'd say whatever I decided would be fine with him--as long as I was happy with my decision). He didn't get home til midnight last night (I even tried calling him! His phone had gone dead!!). When he got home, I told him my news, and he was grinning from ear to ear. Obviously he thought it was a good idea to take the job too. :) I called Anastasia at 7:30 this morning (!!!) to tell her that I would be accepting her offer. Though I had her repeat the offer to me. She was sooooooooooooo excited to hear that we would get to work together again. So now, the executive director is getting my contract together and training begins in the middle of August!!!!!!! I'm so, so excited about this new opportunity! I may have to stop working @ The Kelter Center during the school year though since it's a schlep from the Palisades to where I live in the early evening. I can't wait to start!!!! Thanks to everyone who's stuck by me through all this. You've been so supportive! :)
Oh yeah, before Anastasia and I hung up last night, she mentioned that if I worked there, we could have a knitting group!!!!!!! ;)

Today's fortune:

life enhancement

We're back! It was a short trip but lots of fun. My dad is doing all right (thanks for all the well wishes, ladies!). He seemed okay and wasn't really complaining of anything--but that incision. Yowch! He's got a 3 inch long cut down his neck (where they had to do surgery).
My lil niece is quite the sleeper. She slept in until at least 10 Friday morning (when I had been up since about 8!).
Here she is, upon waking up. lol. I gifted her with her very own raz-berry teether. :) Yay! She finally figured out what to do with the teether!And here she is trying to climb me. ;)Well, my little niece got to come with my fiance and I on our yarn crawl!!!!!!! My brother was gonna go to the movies to go see Pirates-I didn't want to see Pirates and I already had other plans. There was talk of them two going to Pirates and my fiance and I bringing my niece to see Shrek 3 with us. Um, no. SO, we go to bring her on the yarn crawl!!
Here I am trying to get a pic of my niece and I in the backseat of the car because I wanted to remember her first yarn crawl.We first had to have lunch which took like over two hours just to get her fed and my fiance and I fed! Here she is--wearing the nine-patch bib I made for her and I think at this point, she was taking an eating break so I could eat! Apparently, apples aren't her favorite. She made this face everytime I gave her a spoon of apples so I had to get a pic of this face!! And here she is, already pooped! Well, she woke up. lol. Little stinker! But she didn't get too cranky in the car, believe it or not. Thank goodness for sirius satellite radio because we just listened to the Kids Stuff/Radio Disney station the whole car ride and she loved it! It was funny watching her reactions to the music!
Here she is at our first stop, The Golden Fleece in Santa Cruz. Here she is, feeling the yarn. lol. It was so cute watching her lil fingers open up to touch the yarn. It seemed as though she wasn't sure if she could or not because she would open her fingers up so slowly! We didn't buy anything there--and it took us forever just to get there. The store was okay. I wasn't all that impressed. They were nice but nothing really caught my eye.
Asleep again. Our next stop was The Yarn Place in Capitola, CA. Since we had gotten off to a late start, I was willing to forego one of the three shops I wanted to go to. I was actually going to knock off this one. I'm so glad I didn't. We had to call my sister to have her find out the hours for this shop and Monarch Knitting. Monarch was a shorter drive from my house so I was glad to hear that it was open on Saturday. Plus, it was going to close at 5:30 and there was no way we were gonna make it there before closing.
My niece was asleep for most of the time I spent at The Yarn Place so my fiance stayed in the car with her. The shop was really cute. The owner had her own newborn baby and a changing room in the back (I was soooo tempted to ask if I could use it to change my niece!!). I felt like I needed to make a purchase here since we had schlepped so far (with a baby in tow) to get there! My fiance came to the door and I told him I needed him to come in to help me pick out some yarn and that they had some hempathy there. He was all over seeing the hempathy! My niece eventually woke up in the shop because there was this little Asian woman talking in such a LOUD tone!! Poor baby. She was fine though..I took her out of her carrier and we explored the shop together (and that's when I learned she needed to be changed! Hence the desire to use the changing table!). Here's what we bought:The Noro is for a fake isle hat for my fiance. The tofutsies is his too for a pair of socks. He picked out the hempathy too (that was the only one of that shade!) and the lang jawoll I picked out for myself. :) That was the end of our yarn crawl.
The next morning, my fiance and I went to Monarch Knitting and Quilts on our own and we absolutely loved that shop. It was big and there was soooooooooo much to choose from! Here's what we got:
Pretty much everything was picked out by my fiance except for the rowan denim. I've never seen that in any of the shops I've been to here in LA so I had to grab a few skeins. My fiance was quite impressed with their selection. He asked for a market bag so I'm going to use the hempathy for one for him. He also couldn't let go of the Euroflax! Lol. It was cute. We picked up some buttons as well.He picked out the paddington and the polar bear ones and I picked out the fish bowl. :)
I finished the hat I had started for her but obviously her head is too big for it! Oh well. Her onesie is hilarious though--it says 'future valedictorian'.
And here's one of the last shots of her from yesterday morning--reaching for a banana!
Well, we decided to take highway 1 home so here are some pics from some of the stops we made. It was a suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuper long drive but the view and the sights, absolutely gorgeous. Our first stop--in the Carmel Highlands I believe.
Check out the waves!
Look at the pretty water!
This is in Morro Bay--a big rock. :)
We stopped in Cambria for lunch--cute lil town and they had a needlepoint shop (that had yarn!) but it was closed on Sundays. Oh well.
During the drive, I had casted on for wicked but somehow it was twisted and I didn't own up to its twistedness until I had already finished the collar. Sigh..I think I'm going to put it aside and maybe cast on for the market bag or a burp cloth! Thermal isn't finished. I didn't even touch her! Maybe this week should I be able to start and complete both sleeves! I owe many emails and am soooooooo behind on blogs so bear with me! Hope everyone had a nice relaxing holiday weekend!
Today's fortune:

Adam Sandler...and a sleeveless (plus collarless) thermal!

I saw Adam Sandler last night!! My sister and I were on our way home from the grocery store when I saw Adam Sandler (in a car) turn the corner onto the street we were on. He was most likely coming out of the Sony lot. In the three years that I've lived near Sony Studios, this is the first time ever that I've actually seen anyone! My sister slowed down so that she could see him for herself. It's our first "star" sighting. lol.
Okay, onto knitting news...here's my thermal so far. :) Can you believe I've come this far?? I finished the buttonhole band and the button band and I have to pick up stitches for the collar--I think that part is going to be a big pain in the you know what! I might switch to working on the sleeves. Picking up the stitches is a pain--plus I don't know how many I should be picking up! :P Today's fortune:I'll be going home to see the folks and my niece for a couple of days--dad just got out of surgery and I'm feeling the need to be close to family. While up north, I plan on visiting the golden fleece, monarch knitting & quilts and the yarn place. :) Knottykitty, what have you done to me!! lol Hope everyone has a nice holiday weekend!

my current wip's for all to see

Contest #6 for my sp10 group is to show a pic of all of our current wip's and to discuss them. So here goes. :) This lil thing would be the beginnings of my second widdershin. I started working on these socks in the beginning of November. They aren't finished because I've been lazy. I just haven't been in the mood! The mood has finally been peaked at least a lil bit (possibly out of guilt since they're my oldest wip right now!!!) so maybe they'll get done before say...oh, September. ;)
And here we have my traveling vines scarf which never seems to end. lol. As I was photographing it earlier, I noticed that the last bits of knitting that I've done on it (say, the last....5 inches or so!) doesn't even match the rest of the pattern that has been created!!! It's probably time to end this one already. Plus I keep having to rip back on it when I do work on it. This one has been around only since March so she's relatively young. I haven't finished her yet because I don't know what length would be a good length. Now that my sanity is starting to leave me, I think it's about time to finish this one and move on!
Look, it's thermal! :) Remember I said, I wouldn't post a pic until the back was done? Well, by some miracle, I finished the back late Thursday night (without even really realizing it! I've moved onto shaping the first armhole!!!! There's my sleeve that I started too. :) This one will be done soon because I've become inspired. :)
This is for my sp. It is pretty much done. It's an eye pillow. All I need to do is fill it with lavendar and rice/flax and then seam it shut. Can we say lazy? lol. I haven't decided if I'm going to use an old pantyhose or go digging for some cheesecloth in the garage. That's why it isn't finished.
Lastly, we have a little hat. Since my brother requested hats, socks, or maybe a sweater for this munchkin. I actually finished it. I started it last Sunday and finished it in a couple of hours. Then I showed it to my sister and she said it would be way too little for her big ol' head. So, I'm going to add a few more rows before I start doing the decreases. So these are all my current wip's.

yarn to make you drool..

I finally got around to taking pics of my most recent yarn purchases. And no, Deb, we don't need to have a talk when you get to SoCal next month, I promise!! ;)This is the Anne of Green Gables colorway that I purchased from White Oak Studio. a close-up.I absolutely love, love, love this colorway! I couldn't stop taking pictures of it!Next we have the blood orange colorway purchased from See Jayne Knit Yarns. Jayne is awesome. Somehow along the way the skein pictured above sort of lost its way to me and didn't show up for a couple of weeks. Jayne was awesome enough to dye up another skein and send it to me along with some stitchmarkers! The lost skein arrived last Saturday (if I remember correctly)and this skein arrived a few days later. Thanks again, Jayne. ;) I got this stuff from kaleidoscope. These are so my colors!I haven't made any new yarn purchases--this is it for now. Oh, and it's all sock yarn in case you ere wondering. Etsy has become my new addiction. I even found some bead sellers there but have yet to make any purchases. Today, I spent my morning purchasing patterns. :o Here's what I got: the Diamond Fantasy shawl/scarf, the spring things shawl and drive thru. Who knows when they'll get knit but now I don't have to sit there looking @ the saved link anymore. So in a way, I was cleaning out my computer and not just my wallet!

fortune of the day

My Knit List

Okay. hakucho, had this up on her blog and I've seen this on nearly everyone's blog that I read but I've been too lazy to do one of my own so here I am--procrastinating doing work and blogging instead. ;) Here are the directions: Bold for things you’ve done, italics for things you plan to do one day, and normal for things you’re not planning on doing. I think this is a good inventory of my knitting skills and thought perhaps others might want to give it a try to see exactly where they stand. My knit List: American/English knitting (as opposed to continental) Bobbles Button holes Cable stitch patterns (incl. Aran) Continental knitting Domino knitting (modular knitting) Double Knitting Drop stitch patterns Entrelac Fair Isle knitting Freeform knitting Fulling/felting Garter stitch Garterlac I-cord Intarsia Kitchener BO Knitting with circular needles Knitting with DPNs Knitting and purling backwards Knitting smocking (what is this??) Knitting small tubular items on two circulars Knitting a circular item using the Magic Loop (soon!!) Lace patterns Long Tail CO Moebius band knitting Norwegian knitting Provisional CO Short rows Slip Stitch patterns Steeks Stockinette stitch Swatching Textured knitting Swiss Darning or duplicate stitch Thrummed knitting Tubular CO Twisted stitch patterns Two end knitting Knitting with alpaca Knitting with bamboo yarn Knitting with banana fiber yarn Knitting with beads Knitting with camel yarn Knitting with cashmere Knitting with cotton Knitting with dog/cat hair Knitting with linen Knitting with metal wire Knitting with soy yarn Knitting with your own handspun yarn Knitting with someone else’s handspun yarn Knitting with self-patterning/self-striping/variegating yarn Knitting with silk Knitting with synthetic yarn Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn Knitting with wool Afghan/Blanket Baby items Cuffs/fingerless mitts/arm warmers Gloves Hat Hair accessories Household items (dishcloths, washcloths, towels, tea cozies…) Jewelry Mittens: Cuff-up Mittens: Tip-down Pillows Purses/bags Rug Shawl Scarf shrug/bolero/poncho slippers Socks: top-down Socks: toe-up Stuffed toys Sweater Toy/doll clothing Charity knitting Graffiti knitting (knitting items on, or to be left on the street) Knitting art Knitting for pets Knitting for preemies Knitting items for a wedding Knitting a gift Holiday related knitting Designing knitted garments Dyeing yarn with plant colors Dyeing yarn with acid dyes Dyeing yarn with kool-ade and other food colorings Participating in a KAL Publishing a knitting book Knitting to make money Knitting for a living Knitting a pattern from an online knitting magazine Knitting on a loom Machine knitting Olympic knitting Resizing patterns Spinning on a drop spindle Spinning with a spinning wheel Teaching a male how to knit Teaching knitting classes Writing a pattern Knitting in public

today's fortune

Now, I purposely took this picture of this fortune with my thermal to get my own behind crackin' again on it and it seems to have worked! Plus, June gloom being around helps too--I just might get to wear it if I keep working on it. I'm still plugging along on the back. Once the back is done, I'll post a pic. I need to work on the sleeve I started too.
I got through my model lesson yesterday and it went okay. I thought it was okay-the head of the school and the asst. head thought that I did a good job. They were impressed with how I handled the kids--talk about wound up!! I only had six kids for the model lesson and only TWO adults--talk about a dream model lesson audience. :) Plus, I only had a half hour! The head of school said she'd be in touch and I told her I hoped it would be good news. So fingers crossed (yet again!!).

a sock!

I almost forgot. I finally finished my first widdershin. lol.
I worked on it on Mother's Day. I need to redo the cuff though because it's a bit too tight!! I didn't do a good job of binding off loosely. I had every intention of starting the second sock on Mother's Day in honor of Liz's Sock In A Day Challenge but that didn't happen. :( I didn't sign up for it but told her I'd be cheering from the sidelines. lol.

sick day

I called in sick today. I woke up feeling like I'd just get worse if I went in so I called out. I slept in and I think that did me a lot of good. My email is acting funny though so if I owe you an email, I don't know when I'll be able to get back to you. What's weird is I was able to email back some people but not others! :( I filled out a help form with gmail so we'll see. It just might be that one particular person I can't email. Weird, now I can't even read my emails!!! So currently, I hate gmail. lol.
Today is the last day for the contest in my sp10 group. I've been waiting all this time to post because I was hoping someone would be home (while I was actually knitting!) to get a pic of me knitting where I knit but alas, no one was home!!!!!! And when they were home, either the lighting was bad or I was already asleep. So you're just going to have to see where I knit.My knitting couch looks much neater in this pic than it does currently!! It's a bit of a mess right now and it's a wonder that there's even room for me to sit on it still. I started a couple of projects over the weekend and they've taken over the knitting portion of my couch. Usually, I have the tv on while I'm knitting on my couch. And I'm either actually watching what's on or I'm just listening to it. A lot of the times, I'll have the tv on MTV Tr3s and I'll listen/watch music videos. I like watching Indie 101. :) I can not knit when shows like Grey's Anatomy or Gilmore Girls is on because I know I'll miss something on the shows!
Now remember these? I've finally finished them--pretty much all by myself and I have to tell you that these cookies had the absolute best fortunes so I'm going to try to share one each day. :) Here's today's fortune:

I've been tagged!

Toni tagged me and I'm wondering why on her version its 8 random facts instead of 7. I've been thinking about my responses all weekend!!

Here’s how to play…

1. Each player starts with 8 random facts/habits about themselves 2. People who are tagged write a blog post about their own 8 random things and post these rules 3. At the end of your blog you need to tag 8 people and post their names 4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment and tell them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

My 8 things…

1. I don't like mayonnaise or mustard on anything--the smell alone (particularly of mayonnaise) makes me want to throw up. I don't know why though. 2. I was the Spelling Bee Champion of my school district when I was in the 5th grade. lol. I can't remember the word I won on though. 3. I would rather vacuum the whole house than have to mop which is why my main chore is to vacuum and my sister's is to mop! 4. I don't like skirts that go too far below my knee--I'm already short--the last thing I need is to look shorter! 5. The first concert I ever went to see was Oasis. I went with an ex-bf and we actually sat in the stands--it was like we were watching a musical. 6. I have flat feet! :( And learned of this a couple years ago when my feet (specifically my right ankle!) started hurting from wearing flip flops almost religiously. Now I can't wear flip flops for very long. 7. I have been to (I think!) 3 Warped Tour concerts but haven't been to one in the last two years. 8. I began working in Education teaching preschool--which I did for three years before deciding to go back to school. Goodness, now who to tag...some of you have already been tagged so I'm only going to tag a few of you that may have been missed--deb, sarah, ar, jeanne, and ren.

:)

To all you mothers out there, I hope you all have a wonderful Mother's Day!