Decisions, decisions

Well the Kiri shawl is finish. When I say finished, I mean blocked and ready to wear, yah! I showed it off at chicks and a dude on Wednesday. I appreciate all the great compliments from my friends. That is different from Monica's response which was, "What is it for?" I will forgive her since she isn't a knitter.

With that accomplished it is on to the next lace project. I have some nice Cascade Heritage sock yarn waiting. It is in blues and purple. I am considering different patterns. While I am waiting I have another shawl in garter stitch going, this is mine take along project for when I can't concentrate on my knitting. I also have a pair of bed slippers for Robbi. I may have to pause in completing them to get to work on Monica's socks. Her birthday is in a week and a half. I may be able to have them done a week after that. Well it never hurts to set high goals.

Work is starting up, so I am getting busy with that. I had forgotten there is so much to do when you are opening a new school. I am trying to plan my classes, work with other teachers to get all the pieces in place, and this time I am also trying to start-up a newspaper and yearbook. Here is another example of high goals.

Communion

I have been thinking about communion over the last few days. I am not talking of the religious service, but the coming together of souls.

What got this started was my mother-in-law passing away last week. People started calling and bringing over food before the day was out. The breaking of bread with others is such a symbol of communion. It seems that in our most difficult times that this sharing of bread symbolizes the joining of individuals into a community.

While food is the most obvious symbol of communion others things can substitute. I am thinking of my group of knitting friends. Once a week we gather to share our passion for all things fiber. We are of such diverse backgrounds, but one common interest binds us into a community of friends. The sense of community is very strong while our differences fade in the background.

I want to celebrate the community of friends that I share this communion with. Would that this spirit could be throughout society.

This and that

I am getting excited about starting at Gateway High School. I am thinking about what I am going to do in my classes. I am also worried about getting all the planning, etc. done. I do have some time so I should just relax. It looks like I will have some very small classes, less than 20, which will be nice. I hope to have some good discussion and some good writing. I may be very spoiled by the end of the school year.

On the home front, Ron's mom is still very sick. We went to visit this weekend, and she was not doing very good. Hopefully she will continue to mend.

Will knitting six together solve the problem?

Just thinking about knitting patterns. This week I was reflecting on how the individual knitter creates her own image in her work. Even when I follow a pattern, it is more for a guide. Beyond the choices in yarn and color, I cannot resist changing things to suit what the piece is saying to me. Just as changing the type of chocolate I use in my earthquake cookies makes each batch unique, so does the changes in the patterns.

I am working on a sweater and I have already changed the garter edging on it, and I can see some other areas where there is the possibility for change. Sometimes the changes will make things interesting further along and this is where the knit six together comes in. I wouldn't recommend this solution, but it may work. We sometimes try applying this in other areas of life. Who hasn't in a moment of frustration or brilliance try a new solution. For example, my family never gets lost when traveling, we have adventures. This perspective has save many a vacation from being 'ruined.' And we have seen some vistas we wouldn't have without our adventure.

Isn't this what life is about anyway.

John Francis, thanks for the title.

Good News

It seems that good things are happening.

Jared emailed us yesterday and he is okay. The church has plans in place in case of an emergency and will get the missionaries out if needed. It was just good to hear from him. He reminded us that at Christmas he will be home and "by our side.'

Last Thursday, I accepted the job offer from Gateway School. I am jazzed about starting a new job. This week I am looking forward to completing the paperwork and learning more about what I am doing this coming year.

Good Job News

I am now a teacher at Gateway High School. Yeeeeaaaaaa!!!!!! Yesterday I had a second interview and they called today with the job offer. This is a brand new charter school in Georgetown and will be opening in August.

I swore in the past that I would not open another school, but this looks to good to pass up. I was ready to move on from teaching at the ninth grade center and this is just the opportunity. It is very energizing to know that I will really be building a new tradition. I am the only English teacher this first year, I don't know about next year. I am looking forward to developing the curriculum for English I and II. There will be a lot of responsibility, but I am up for it.

We haven't heard anything from Jared this week. I did contact the missionary department at church headquarters yesterday. They assured me that Jared was being well taken care of. Hopefully he will be able to email us next Monday. I would like to hear from him.

A Tense Time

What do you do when your child is in a foreign country were there is political unrest? You pray a lot.

There has been a coup in Honduras and we have heard nothing from Jared. I am not panicking, but I am worried. Jared has to use an internet cafe to email home. There has been a curfew imposed and that has probably affected his ability to email us. If the situation becomes truly dangerous, he will be pulled out. The church is in constant contact with the leadership in the country to monitor the situation.

Several things have been happening on the international front and in the country there have been protest. I am sure that the missionaries have been pulled from proselyting. Jon checked an the State Department has not issue a warning.

It is interesting, yesterday Jon was panicking while I was calm. I had been a little panicked, when there was the earthquake. Maybe because with this there is warning, with a natural disaster there is none.

The Sweet Feel of Yarn

Yesterday Suna and I went to Hill Country Weavers for some yarn therapy. I was exchanging a skein of Jitterbug and just browsing. You can never just browse. I found two yarns I just had to have. So in addition to a gorgieous electric blue and black Jitterbug, I have two skeins of Berroco Seduce and a skein of Dream in Color Starry. HCW had been trying to get the Starry for a year and Suna and I happened to come in on the day they stocked it. I will post pictures later.

This and that

Sally Fields and I now have more in common than being short and cute. Boniva, yes, my doctor said I need to build my bones. Now on to exercise and calcium.

This is the summer of socks. Short and sweet, I am knitting socks for many of my family for Christmas. What, I already started on Christmas? I am usually the one shopping the weekend after Thanksgiving. I don't go out on the Friday though - re: first paragraph. I could be easily stomped.

Jared said that the family pictures are better than the package he received from us. Considering the package had an extra pair of glasses and new boots, that is pretty good. He knows how to warm a mother's heart.

Knowing when to quit

This morning I started working on my Aeolian shawl again, when I realized that I was not having fun. Was it still a technical challenge? Yes. Did I want the shawl enough to stick it out? No. You just need to know sometimes when you just need to leave something behind.

Pixie Dust has been put away, possible permanently. Do I feel guilty, no. Will it never make another appearance? I don't know. All I know is I am not in love with it enough to stick it out.

I knit to relax and enjoy myself. I have other projects that I want to do right now. I am going to be working on the projects that truly appeal to me and are relaxing. For me right now, it is smaller projects. This is my summer to relax and recharge and if it is the summer of socks, well my feet will be stylishly clad this winter.

Pixie dust bit the dust again. I have taken the pattern back almost to the beginning and am starting over. This is frustrating, but will be worth it in the end. This is my mantra at the moment. I feel like the little red train - I think I can, I think I can...

Earthquake Cookies

I have had several request for the earthquake cookie recipe. Well here it is:

Earthquake Cookies

1/2 c. oil
4 oz. baking chocolate
2 c. sugar
4 eggs
2 t. vanilla
2 c. flour
2 t. salt
2 t. baking powder
1 c. powdered sugar

Melt chocolate. Mix chocolate, oil, and sugar. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well each time.
Add vanilla. Mix flour, salt, and baking powder into chocolate mixture. Chill for several hours. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Drop dough by teaspoonful into powdered sugar. Roll into ball and place on parchment paper lined cookie sheet. Cook for 10-12 minutes. Do not overcook. These cookies should be soft and chewy.

Enjoy!

Projects

I keep adding to my projects. I am now doing an altar cloth for the church. That has moved to the front of list. The aeolian shawl has moved down to number two. Of course, I have a simple pair of socks to warm-up with or if I need a break.

The altar cloth is crocheted and so it is totally different. I haven't crocheted in so long, but it is coming back. I am starting with the center motifs. After I do 24 of them, I will go beck and finish them, connecting the motifs at the same time. I want to finish this in the next week or two, so I will be sending lots of time everyday. I will keep you posted.

Job interview

My interview for a new teaching position went really well. It seems that I have the right qualifications and qualities. I answered some of the questions before they were asked. I think that the interviewer was impressed that I am already familiar with the new TEKS. We also talked about some instructional units that I have planned.

I brought up my desire to sponsor a newspaper and yearbook and that excited her. They had been talking about doing a newsletter and thinking that a newspaper would be in the future. I think I impressed them with my experience in the AP program and in GT.

The school will start next year with only four core teachers, so I would be the English teacher. That would be interesting, exciting and scary. They will be using a lot of technology and that would be great. I would even have a good quality video camera so I could have students create documentaries, etc.

This would be a great opportunity.

Tonight a big storm passed through. There was an incredible amount of lightning. At one point Ron thought he heard a tornado and we got ready to go into the closet for safety. Luckily no tornado. Moriahs lights are out, so she has the worst of family members.

San Antonio

Today, I went to San Antonio with a friend from church. Sister Alozie and I had a nice drive through the hill country and then attended a session at the San Antonio temple.

When we were driving through Austin, Sis. Alozie was a bit worried about if we were on the right road. As we went on she began to enjoy the ride. I go through the hill country instead of down IH35. The traffic is not as bad and the scenery is much nicer.

After I got back, I went to knitting at Bluebonnet. Everyone who is participating in the Aeolian shawl KAL were showing off their projects. It is amazing how different each shawl is according to the yarn and the beads that were chosen. Even if you have the same yarn, just the difference in choise of beads gives a diferent effect. I am really liking how my Pixie Dust shawl is turning out.

Pixie Dust

I was working on the aeolian shawl and it occured to me, that the beads looked like pixie dust across the light pink shawl. With the light pink yarn and the shimmery beads it has a magical look. The shawl is now christened "Pixie Dust." I just feel rather fanciful.

I just read Jared's weekly email and he said they are still having tremors. It hasn't been to bad with no damage to his apartment. I am happy that he is able to experience living in a foreign country, but there are still some parts that scare me. I just have the faith that everything will be fine.

Frustration

For over a year now I have been looking for a video of a documentary "The Joy of Lex." It is about words and language and appeared on one of the Discovery networks. I have had absolutely no luck. Each time I do a search nothing of use comes up.

This wouldn't be so frustrating, but this would be an ideal video to use in my English classes. Entertaining and fun to watch, the documentary would introduce students to the study of language and how interesting it is. If I had known that there was not going to be a dvd, I would have taped it.

All I can say is arghhhhhh!

Less frustrating is having a new computer to work on. It is just great to have more memory and features that my 10 year old laptop just didn't have. I am enjoying playing on the computer and learning all the things I can do with it. It will be great when I want to show pictures and videos in the classroom on the infocus. This last year, it was a bear trying to show anything to my classes.

New Toy

I have a new toy. It is a gateway netbook. It looks like my notebook had a baby. The neat thing is that it will do all the things I need it to and is way more portable than my notebook. The notebook was ten years old and showing its age.

The netbook has three usb ports, a built in camera, and a media card reader. I can take the memory card out of my camera and insert it into the slot to download the pictures. Maybe I will be better about doing this. I have a lot that I need to post to flicker and with this new computer I should be hard at work on it.

I was able to see the new Star Trek movie courtesy of my son-in-law, JJ. It pays to have someone who has a part-time job at a movie theater. Of course, we may have gotten in gratis, but then spent $23 at the concession stand.

The movie was a blast. I'm a trekkie from was back and was blown away. It was great to see Spock's struggle between his human and vulcan backgrounds. I always suspected that Kirk was a juvenile delinquent. The special effects were awesome.

If you haven't seen the movie go see it.

On a more serious note, I had a few anxious hours this week. I woke to the news Thursday that there had been an earthquake in Honduras. Since Jared is there I was just a little worried. As the day went on I found out the earthquake was off the coast and caused relatively little damage. Jared is about 80 miles from where the epicenter was.

I haven't heard from him yet, but I will on Monday and will post any news. We know he is okay, he took money out of his account on Friday.

Co-dependent

When you go yarn shopping with knitting friends expect to be surprised. Dawn and I went to Yarnorama in Paige yesterday for yarn shopping and came home with spindles and roving. Yes, I have moved on to spinning, well at least practicing spinning. It is fun to take a fluff of fiber and turn it into yarn.

In addition to buying a drop spindle, I bought silk handkerchiefs (fibers to spin) and a merino/silk blend. Dawn did the same. We split the merino/silk, so we each have two colors. It was a great show and tell at Chicks. I am hoping to get some spinning done today. I will post some pictures later today.