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 :)

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.

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.

We survived week one!

So it's Saturday...we have completed our first week with everyone in an activity all day long. I have two classes this summer semester, German and Francophone cultures. Elisabeth is in summer camp at the YMCA and Joseph is enrolled at O2B Kids preschool.

I am loving my German class...it is really fun to be learning another language...It has been so long since I have been in a first year language course, it is refreshing and I'm gleaning lots of ideas. Of course this is a little different in that this is a 6-week semester, so each day is like 2 days and Tuesday and Thursday we have a 2 1/2 hours class!

Francophone cultures is ok, I find the material interesting, le petit Maghreb (Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco), however the way the professor is teaching the class is less than desirable. She is giving us the material for the first part of the course, in the way of 3 movies, and then we will have a test. The second part of the course, as she puts it, will be built by the students; we have to bring in information from articles, etc... She will pull test topics from the discussions we have in class. I have no clear idea of what exactly I'm supposed to learn in this class, except to understand what le Maghreb is, this bothers me. German, I know, we will go through chapter 6, a clear goal...not so for Francophone cultures. Also, the prof is very detail oriented.

Elisabeth is having a blast in camp. She made a new friend on her first day. Alisha and Elisabeth seem to do everything together. Alisha braids her hair, Elisabeth shares her snacks...they are quite cute :) Elisabeth went horseback riding on Thursday...all by herself on her own horse...no adult leading the horse (I think they were in a fenced in path, but she was guiding the horse by herself) I am so proud of her :) She has also gone canoeing this week and they went to see the new Cars movie.

Joseph has had a good time at O2B also. He is so cute when I pick him up, he tells me everything they did during the day and what they ate for lunch and snack...very verbal little man. They were supposed to have a water day yesterday (sprinkelers and baby pools, I think) but it was rained out...next week maybe. He still clings on for dear life when I pick him up, but Mitch says he is fine at drop off.

So our week went well...the kids are happy...I am overwhelmed with information...it's going to be a good end to the summer :)

By the way BIG, BIG, BIG CONGRATULATIONS to Ben for passing your BAC and earning your Diploma...

I AM SO PROUD OF YOU!!!!!!!

Happy July 4th!

Wishing everyone a safe and happy Fourth!

Summer A finished!!

Well, tonight was the last class of my summer course on curriculum. All in all it was a really enjoyable course. The only downside is that I really have no idea what final grade I'll receive, we turned in our one writing assignment today and the only other grades we will receive are for annotated citatations that were due each week and a group presentation we did tonight.

So now I have a week and a half off until summer b starts. I will be enjoying this week with the kids. Elisabeth said in response to my class ending...good now we can go swimming because you don't have homework to do in the morning :) We cleaned and set up our pool this past weekend and it has been nice to use it this week. The kids are getting to be much better in the water.

I finally finished knitting my cardigan that I started right before our California trip, now it just needs buttons, I may go to Jo-anns this weekend and see what I can find. I will post pictures of my most recent knitting projects sometime this week.

Later :)

Oh my...I've become a very bad blogger

I knew I hadn't posted in a while...but I didn't realize it had been this long...Sorry Carole :)

So life is moving along. I finished my spring semester with 5 A's...including an A from Mme. Cailler...never thought that would happen. I'm in the middle of Summer A, my first summer semester, only 1 class for this 6 weeks, Elementary and Secondary Curriculum...it has been a good class, 2 evenings a week, primarily discussion, choice of take home long answer final or 2000 word research paper. In July, for Summer B, I will be in class every morning, taking German and Francophone Cultures.

We have Elisabeth signed up for Summer Adventure camp through the YMCA, starting in July. She should have a lot of fun. We will sign Joseph up for Swim & Gym camp at the Y. Elisabeth will be a Norton Elementary in the fall, 3rd grade, with me having to take 15 credits in fall and spring there was no way possible to continue homeschooling them. Very hard for me but she will be fine.

We had a wonderful vacation in California. We drove through the mountains around LA and stopped by Malibu Beach, went to the San Diego Zoo (which was fabulous!), Visited Balboa Park in San Diego and went to the Children's Science Center there, and went to Legoland. The whole time we were there the temperature never got above 75 degrees and it never rained...it was perfect, except for the fog/smog that was around every day.

We took so many pictures, about 400, that I can only put a small sampling here.

Well, we are off to a great start to Hurricane season 2006. Tropical Depression #1 in currently gaining strength in the Caribbean...forcast to be Tropical Storm Alberto by this evening and head straight toward us. But this would actually be the best case scenario...we need the rain so desperately that this rain would be welcome.

Well I'm off to work on knitting my cardigan.