27 August 2006

Recent projects

Well the week has gone well. My classes are off to a great start...tons of reading to do, but it will be interesting. Joseph has done well this week at Baby Gator and Elisabeth is continuing on a great course at Norton.

We had a baby shower this weekend at church and although I didn't stay (family time prempts a baby shower for someone I don't know) I did make a cute gift for the new baby. I wanted to share what I did.

I made a diaper "cake", this is such a fun easy thing to do. I was given one when Elisabeth was born, and I just think it is so cute.

Also, I made a pair of baby socks. I used this pattern, they are done in Knitpicks Dancing yarn (Swing colorway, which is no longer available, unfortunately) on US size 1 (2.25 mm) needles. The pattern is very well written and wonderfully quick to knit. Here they are next to my coffee cup for scale...so cute! Also, I placed them on top of the "cake" for gifting.

That's it for now...oh yeah, keep your eyes on the tropics, we may be bracing for a storm this week.

OK off to read some more 18th century British lit :)

21 August 2006

Weeks one and two of school...

Elisabeth had an awesome first week of school. She seems to be adapting well to the school environment. She has been exhausted when she gets home and quite a challenge with her temperment, but hopefully it will level out as we get more into this routine.

Joseph started his new preschool today, Baby Gator, on UF campus. Hopefully his day is going well, I'm sure it is :)

On Wednesday, I start my fall classes, 15 credits. I'm taking English lit (Age of Dryden and Pope), Commercial French, French Lit (Intro to Realism and Naturalism), Social Foundations of Education and German 2. A full schedule, but I think it will be very interesting. I've also picked up a ballet class on Monday evenings, it's wonderful to be back in dance, painful, but wonderful and refreshing.

So we're off to a busy start to our school year here. Elisabeth's Brownie troop starts up again next Wednesday, and so does choir for Mitch, so we will be on our full schedule next week.

These are pictures of the kids enjoying some ice cream in Orlando...I think they were taken in July.

16 August 2006

Summer is over...

Wow! These last six weeks went by fast. I was busy with 2 classes (remind me never to start a language during the summer again!), Elisabeth was having a blast at summer camp and Joseph started in pre-school. I can't believe it's finished now though. I ended up doing well in both of my classes, an A in German and a B+ in Francophone Cultures, being nice to the teacher must have paid off because there is no way I could have pulled a B+ with an 80, 80 and 68 on my first 3 tests. Anyhoo, my GPA has now risen again, from a 2.93 to a 3.07...I have finally made it back over the 3.0 mark!!!!! (I started last fall '05 with a 1.84, this is a huge jump in a year's time!)

Elisabeth had a great time at Y camp. She went horseback riding every week, swam almost every day, went canoeing every week, had fieldtrips twice a week...a full day of activities every day. I would certainly recommend the program to anyone.

Joseph is doing great in preschool...everyone loves him...and of course he is perfectly behaved at school :) He starts at Baby Gator on Monday, the preschool located on UF campus, costs much less than where he is now and has an excellent program.

I have been knitting as well. I completed my very first baby project, for my dear friend, Kirsten. She is expecting her 4th child in September. I made this sweater for her...I can't wait to see a picture of the new little on wearing it. I made it in the 12 to 18 month size so it will hopefully be useful for 2 winters, since our winters are so short here :)




Elisabeth's first days of school have been wonderful. She is doing very well and her teacher says she is great in class.

I will update more on that later...I need to take Joseph to school now and get on with my day.