best. day. ever.

We had a 'short' day today because the teachers were supposed to have in-service. Admin. decided to cancel it so I've been home for at least an hour now catching up on blogs, emails, and filling up my amazon basket. lol. I hope tomorrow flies by just as quickly. Here's one of the mittens that will go with the swing jacket I finished earlier this week. I was having a bit of trouble so I frogged back and made it work. I finally took a picture of my completed swing jacket. It's up on ravelry and it's also here.

wow.

Where do I even begin?? It seems as though the last two weeks have kind of been rolled into one long crazy week. And it's still not over. I have two more days of school to get through before school is out! Here's your fill of pics of the lil bulldog. These were taken while she was in my care. Here she is helping me to go through some old letters I had from years and years ago. She was supposed to be ripping them up so we could put them in the recycling bin. I obviously asked too much of her. lol. cousin it is in the house. day 2 of being in my care..watching "Charlie and Lola" who I now love! isn't she cute??
sigh..the calm before the storm (she has yet to realize her beloved grandmother has left her alone with me to get stuff for grandpa!!).
While I was away, my first shipment of the Sundara Seasons Club arrived. Isn't it gorgeous?
Black over Fuchsia. I'm sooooooooooooo glad I selected Winter as my season of choice!
Here is what my swing jacket was looking like right before I finished it. It's now completed and I'm in the middle of working on the matching mittens. Still on the fence about dyeing it a different color. It will all depend on my brother's gf.
Winter Festival came and went. The parents loved the show. The kids had a great time too. I wanted to post some pictures but I have no way of blocking out faces so you're just going to have to imagine how cute my lil Kindergarten students looked in newsboy caps, vests, jeans, and white t's. ; )
Ooh, my first experience going ice skating! I didn't fall once. I even had a lil 5 year old take around part of the rink. :) I was starting to get the hang of it. The parents loved seeing me at the birthday party and I think I'm going to be invited to them all from now on! I can't wait. :)
I made it through parent conferences. Every parent pretty much said the same thing-our child loves school and they love you guys. We had the same thing to say to them too-they're doing well and they love it.
Work Holiday Party? Freakin' hilarious. We did a yankee swap where I guess you get the option of 'stealing' an already opened gift vs. picking something that has yet to be opened. Then there was a lightning round. We got gypped. Oh well. We began with some yucky coconut lime candles (so not a fan of the coconut!!), for a moment had "what the f*ck" which was a drinking game!, and ended the night with 3 nesting boxes, a thing of tic tacs and a disposable camera. :( Good company. Good desserts. Good fun. What more could you ask for? The hilarious part? It involves someone taking their turn during the yankee swap and unwrapping a lil vibrator!!
Still left? School Ice Skating Party and the last. day. of school!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

doesn't anyone get tired??

I am in the midst of yet another busy week. Does it ever stop?? Progress reports were due yesterday and everyone pretty much has an incomplete set. They're supposed to be mailed out and received by all parents by Monday because that is when parent conferences are scheduled. Tomorrow is our tech rehearsal for the winter festival which is Friday night. We're supposed to get an entire school of about 115 students to the theatre we'll be performing at in about 45 min plus all the staff. Are you thinking, Good luck?? At this point, my partner and I don't even know which child is riding in whose car! I can't wait for December 21st. Next week is going to be crazy as well. I have knitting to post (a soon to be finished object! and a possible new wip)..some sundara seasons yarn to show off and of course pictures of my niece to share. It's been too dark to photograph my sundara yarn so I'm hoping I can get a good shot on Saturday. It is absolutely gorgeous. 100% silk. My dad was released from the hospital Saturday morning. I haven't spoken to him since we left on Sunday but I'm assuming he's slowly recovering from the surgery. He looked good and was up and around when he was home Saturday and Sunday. I was in charge of my niece both Friday and Saturday and come Saturday, 5 o'clock, I was done seeing her face. lol. My sister announced she didn't want to have children-or at least become a single parent! She was wiped. She was my asst. She was in charge of carrying my niece when the lil monster didn't want to be with me or was getting too heavy for me and she was in charge of driving. lol. When left to decide btwn staying at home and taking care of both our dad and the lil rugrat vs. leaving the house with our mom to take our mom to run errands, she opted for the latter! And she doesn't like being in the car with our mom for very long! When we were visiting our dad at the hospital for a second time on Friday with our niece in tow (who was knocked out by the way!) she fell asleep in the hospital bed!! Um yeah. Don't go having any kids just yet, sister! ;) Okay. Must walk away from the computer now!

hot cocoa swap

Did you hear?? There's a hot cocoa beat the winter blahs swap and sign-ups will begin December 16th. I can't wait!!! There's a contest right now where all you have to do is post about the swap and leave them a comment letting know you did. You get additional entries into the swap for every person you send over there too. So get to it!! :) I heard about it from knottykitty. :) P.S. My sister and I are driving home later this evening. I spoke with my dad earlier today during my lunch break and nearly cried afterwards. I held my composure though since I was at school. He sounded so weak and tired. :( I hope I don't bawl in front of him when we go see him tomorrow! Also, my sister and I might be having a long day of babysitting tomorrow and maybe Saturday because I volunteered our services for taking care of the lil bulldog. :D Her grandmother on her mom's side had reconstructive surgery (breast) and the lil bulldog's mommy is taking care of the salon as well as her lil brothers while her b*tch a** sister doesn't do a damn thing. Apparently her life doesn't stop just because her mother is sick. How's that for family?? I feel for my brother's gf so I offered up our services so she has one less stress. P.P.S I received the first shipment of the Seasons Sundara Yarn Club and all I can say is oh. my. It's too dark for me to get a picture but I absolutely love the colorway..and it's 100% silk!!! 1000 freakin' yards of the stuff!!! :o

smooth sailing

First of all, thank you all so very much for your prayers, good vibes, good thoughts, etc. I know that it helped. :) Well, my brother took it upon himself to give me a call to let me know that my dad's surgery went okay (since no one else bothered to call me). Wasn't that nice? Good lookin' out. :) He went to go visit our dad this morning, he was sitting up in his bed and he told my brother to go to work-yeah, sounds like he's doing okay to me! My sister and I are driving up tomorrow night so that we can visit him Friday during the day. I'm hoping to get the Christmas presents I already purchased wrapped between now and before we leave tomorrow so that I can bring them now instead of having a whole entire trunk filled with presents come Christmas.

good thoughts

If you believe in prayer or just plain old good thoughts, please send some this way as I found out last night that my dad was to go in for quintuple-bypass surgery. Thanks. :)

a day late

As promised, here's your well-deserved knitting content. :) I started the second techguy sock on dpns--I forgot to bring my circs with me so I had to purchase some emergency dpns!
I ending up frogging the accidental hat after I saw the blasted thing couldn't fit over my niece's big giant head. :o I had ordered a new baby knits book from KnitPicks (which I LOVE by the way!) and cast on for the swing coat. I may not have enough yarn (I've got one more skein of this stuff) but we'll see. I may be soliciting donations from those that might have some alluring in their stash. Here we have a plain' ol stockinette sock for my fiance. I'm using the shibui knits sock yarn and Shannon was correct..this stuff pools like a mother. :o He likes it so that's all that matters.
Oh, and here are the lil bulldog's lil footsies in the socks that do fit her. Here's a close-up of my skein of Nevermore purchased from Sarah over at Perfect Day Yarns. :)
It looks much more purpley in this shot but I think the close-up shot is a bit more accurate.
ooh! Did you all know the latest magknits is up?? Go check it out! There's a super adorable sweater for a lil one. I love the buttons on the shoulder-it's exactly what I had in mind for my niece--at least the buttons on the shoulder part.
Here's a great shot of me working (or is it hardly working?) on my progress reports on Thanksgiving Day.

I leave you with these parting shots of the little bulldog..