Goal Trackers

Monday, January 12, 2009

New Year's Resolution

More Wine Please!!


updates with pictures coming soon

Monday, December 15, 2008

Holiday stuff

The first snow of the season!! Doesn't it look pretty.Last Friday evening it snowed and this is what my yard looked like Saturday morning :)

1st snow


On Tuesday, Frisco's Christmas gift was delivered. What is it with cats and cardboard boxes? He just has to check it out.


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Frisco is getting a bathroom upgrade for his Christmas present. :)


Frisco's Christmas Gift


Wednesday night was my knitting groups 2nd annual Cookie Swap! We each had to bring 7 dozen cookies because there was suppose to be something like 35 people there. I have no idea if 35 people were there or not, but it was a good time and I came home with some great cookies. I have been so good too! I haven't eatten any of the cookies yet! I'm being a tad lazy this year, since I'm not going to be here for Christmas. I'm taking most of these cookies home to NY with me so that Mom doesn't have to bake. She's having the family over for Christmas dinner so that will be enought cooking for her. I will also pack a small tin of cookies to take with me to Chicago for Mr. X. Oh, I baked Triple Chewy Chocolate Cookies, and can I just say OMG they are rich! I got the recipe of a friend of mine who loves to bake. I can only eat one cookie and I have to have a HUGE glass of ice cold milk to wash it down.

OH! I finished my cardigan just in time to wear to the party!!

Moss Bark Short Sleeve Cardigan

Cookie Swap 2008

I also received my Winter Wonderland Swap package this week from my pal in Las Vegas! Check out the cool things she sent me!! I love the snowman ornament. It won't be in the tree this year because I'm not putting up a tree since I won't be here over the holidays. I know, depressing. Never really feels like Christmas to me without a tree, but if I'm not going to be here to enjoy it then why bother?? Anyhoo, check out that yarn! That color it sooooooo me!! Thank you Alexis!!

Winter Wonderland Package

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Christmas Classics!



A new twist on an old classic!

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Just Precious

Pictures from Thanksgiving! Unfortuntely, I don't have too many because the batteries died in my camera, but my sister was nice enough to send me the ones her DH took. Because Maya was only a week old, she wasn't able to leave the house, so we dropped in on the new Mommy and Daddy about once a day. Maya mostly slept and when she woke up, she was fed to get her weight back up. While I was there Friday afternoon I got to feed and burp her. I don't think Nonni or Grandpa's even had the chance to feed her yet :) Luckily she had just been changed before I got there! *hee-hee* Maya's a little peanut. I think she is the smallest baby I've ever heald.

Proud Zia

Since no one knew if it was going to be a boy or a girl I held off on my knitting. Once Maya was born I had a field day looking for patterns and yarn for all the little goodies to knit for her. First up is the Just Ducky hat and booties. My cousin Cesidio, who was also asked to be Maya's Godfather, was appauled by this outfit... "My goddaughter is NOT going to wear a duck on her head!" but the rest of my family out voted him - including the Mommy & Daddy *hee-hee* Right now the hat and booties are a tad to big for her.

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Pattern: Just Ducky from P2Designs
Yarn: Knitpicks Swish DK & KnitPicks Merino Style
Needles: Lantern Moon DPN
Modifications: None

I also had to knit her first sweater! Complete with tag and all :) I had bought those tags years ago and I can't remember from where. The tag reads "Made with Tender, Loving Care by Dorothy" I found them again as I was rummaging through my stash to find yarn for this project. I need to remember to pack one to put on Baby M's sweater next time I go up there. This shrug was knit up in just a few hours!

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Pattern: Baby Shrug from Debbie Bliss' Simply Baby
Yarn: Berroco Lullaby
Needles: KnitPicks, size 8, 16"
Modifications: None

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Yenta or Shadchan?

No, I'm not Jewish, but apparently my assistant, R, must have been in her former life. She is contently asking me this or that about my love life and if I'm not giving her answers, which I hardly do because I don't really know her all that well, she's trying to get the information out of my assistant, who I've worked with for the last seven years. Much to this woman's chagrin, Carleen doesn't tell her anything. Carleen and I find it humorous that she will ask us each about the other, but will hardly ever directly asks us those question. It drives Carleen absolutely batty!

Anyhoo, getting back to the Shadchan part. *For those of you that do not know, yenta is the Yiddish word for busybody and shadchan is the Yiddish word for matchmaker - if I am incorrect in my translation please correct me!*

So, a few weeks ago, my team (minus Carleen because she was out that day) and I were sitting down eating lunch and just chit-chatting away. Another co-worker, Ms. P, comes in to shoot the shit with us and she wanted to show us pictures of her son. Her SINGLE son *you see where this is going yet?* This co-worker is a little Italian woman that is tickled pink to have another Italian to talk to at work.

The light bulb went off in R's head and she ask "Is you son single?" Of course he is. Then, before I really know how it happened P was telling me all about her son. I just wanted to crawl into a hole and disappear. Oh, did I mention the fact that he's teaching English over in Korea! He's not even in the states! Yeah, just what I need. Luckily, just as I think P was trying to actually get a firm answer out of me of if I was truly interested, my cellphone rang. *saved by the bell, literally* The humorous part of that was that it was Mr. X calling.

The next day, I was telling Carleen the story and I don't think she could believe it all, but when Ms. P came by for her morning coffee and referred to me as her "future-daughter-in-law" I thought Carleen's eyes were going to pop out of her head when she looked at me. I had to leave the back office.

I think Carleen must have said something to R because it was never mentioned again, until today when Ms. P asked me what I was doing over winter break because he son might be coming home for Christmas. ACK!

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Winners and more

OK, first let me post the winners to the contest. I let Frisco dig into the bag and which ever piece of paper came out was the winner. Unfortunately, when I went to go take pictures of this the batteries died *ugh* So now I have to write myself a note and stop at the store on the way home to pick up batteries so I can take pictures of my new niece this weekend!! I'm heading to NY tonight, so this will probably be my last post till I get back.

Getting back to Frisco... It probably wasn't the best idea to let him pick, but since I don't have any kids at home to use as prize drawers I had to improvise. As he was playing around in the bag TWO pieces of paper fell out, so there are two winners. Congrats to Kati Mae and Heather! I have contacted you both and awaiting your response :)

In knitting news - I had finished the Baby Bolero for Baby M a while ago, but I haven't posted about it till now. I would have waited till I got a picture of Baby M wearing, but I still haven't received a picture of her wearing the dress or the hat. So, I'm not going to hold my breath on this one either. I'm very pleased with how this came out and I'm stash searching for more DK yarn to make an even smaller on for Maya.

Neck-down Childrens Bolero
Pattern: Children's Neck Down Bolero from Knitting Pure and Simple
Yarn: Wullernstudio DK Merino (1.5 skeins) specially dyed for this project
Needles: Knit Picks Options, size 6
Modifications: I went down in yarn weight and needle size to make a smaller sweater since Baby M is wearing size 18 months. Beatrix Potter button

I have also start to really buckle in on my holiday knittings. I cranked out 2 gifts this weekend. First up is the Impressionist Cowl for my younger sister. She will also be getting some baby things - obviously. The pattern was easily memorized and knit up in a day! I want to make a second on with just the top pattern and leaving off the waves at the bottom. I like the colorway of the yarn too!

Impressionist Cowl
Pattern: Impressionist Cowl (Ravlink)
Yarn: Reynolds Harvest Tweed (1.5 skeins)
Needles: Knit Picks, size 10
Modifications: none

Nexy up is the Birthday Cowl for Zia Franca. This was an easily memorized pattern as well and knit up in a day and a half. This yarn is super soft! I have a few more skeins in my stash in other colors, so I may be making a few more of these :)

Birthday Cowl
Pattern: Birthday Cowl (Ravlink)
Yarn: Frog Tree Merino (1 skeins)
Needles: Knit Picks, size 8
Modifications: none

Sunday, November 23, 2008

The new happy family :) I still can't believe my baby sister just had a baby!

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Isn't she precious! I know, I'm slightly prejudice toward her. She's my niece :)

Maya Grace Fortier

My sister just looks so serene in this picture.

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I can't believe she found her thumb already! Isn't that too cute!

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I can't wait to go home for Thanksgiving and hold her!

I want one *sigh*

Friday, November 21, 2008

Contest!!

In honor of my achieveing National Board Certification I think a contest is in order!!

Leave a comment about a teacher who affected you positively and if you are a teacher you can choose that or to leave a funny teaching story :)

Mention the contest and your blog - let me know that in your post as well, and you will be entered into the number pot 2X!!

Contest will close at 8pm on Sunday :)

I PASSED!!!!!

For those of you who remember my struggles with the National Board Certification process for teachers that I was trucking through the last two years - my journey has ended!!!

About 5pm last night, I got the official email that said scores were being released mid-morning on Friday, November 21, 2008. "CRAP! That's tomorrow" is what ran through my mind when I read that.

Got to work this morning and realized I had forgotten to bring my candidate ID number! *FUCK* I can't check my scored without that!! I rummaged my office to find old copies of the entries because I knew the ID number was all over those entries. Thankfully, I found it.

Went to the site and of course, tried to log in at 7:15 this morning. *Well, that could be mid-morning somewhere!*

I then contact my two girlfriends who also went through the process to see how they were holding up.

Every time I walked by my computer, I tried to log in. Till at 9 AM when I got it! I dropped down in my chair and said a little pray and hit button. First thing I saw:

"Congratulations!
You are a National Board Certified Teacher®!"

I screamed! I have no idea what the rest of the letter said, hell I still haven't even bothered to look at what score I got - I PASSED!!! And that was all that mattered to me :)

*continues to do the happy dance around my office*

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

It's a Girl!!

Maya Grace
Born Wednesday, November 19, 2008 and weighing in at 6 lbs. 11 oz. She entered this world in 20 minutes flat!

World - meet Baby Maya

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The New Daddy

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The proud Grandmas

Proud Grandmas

The proud Grandpa (I was told my father cried the minute he laid eyes on her)

Proud Grandpa

I cannot wait to hold her in my arms.

Monday, November 17, 2008

Saturday, November 8, 2008

Back from Chicago!

I am back from Chicago, and missing them both so very much already. I was able to visit with Baby M several times while I was out there. She was a hoot to watch and play with! She took a few minutes to warm up to the crazy lady that was in Daddy's house, but a few short smiles later and she warmed up to me. She is such a happy, playful baby! And he is so good with her. I mean, do you know of any man that would stick a baby bottle nipple on his forehead just to get a laugh out of his child? (third picture in the top row)

Mr. X & Baby M


This was her first Halloween so Mr. X carved a pumpkin that she had picked out the weekend before when he took her to a pumpkin patch. She was so curious about the jack-o-lantern. It was so cute watching her be curious about it. When she was getting excited she would lean on the pumpkin and wiggle back and forth on her toes.

She seems to have this thing for climbing up and down the stairs. She just finds them so entertaining, though she nearly gave me a heart attack because there were several times she tried to climb down the stairs instead of crawling down backwards! I thought she was going to go tumbling head first. She's also learned to clap so all you have to do is smile and start clapping and she returns the favor. Anyhoo, I could go on and on about how cute she is.

There was a point in the weekend where I thought things might go a little more along the lines that I am hoping. In all the time that we've been together Mr. X had never cuddled up to me in his sleep. It's usually the other way around, but Friday night he reached for me and pulled me closer to him while he was sleeping. It was so out of the ordinary that it startled me awake. I thought this was a good sign, so I just snuggled closer and went back to sleep. Saturday morning we did some talking and well that thought was blown clear out of the water. I would have thought that things would have gotten a little better after all this time. *God sure is having a good laugh at my expense*

Saturday we did a little shopping. I dragged him kicking and screaming to a yarn shop. OK, so he wasn't really kicking and screaming. Actually he was pretty good and he picked out a skein of Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino in a pretty fuschia color for Baby M. Now I just need to find a pretty hat pattern for it. Afterwards we went to Michaels to find a box of Precious Hands. We went looking for this on my last visit, but they were all sold out. I had made two of these for my older sister - one for each niece. I think it's a neat way to rememeber just how small the cherubs were, especially when they start driving you nuts asking for the car or sneaking out of the house *grin* That reminds me, I need to pick up another one for when my baby sister has her little one :)



After Micheals we swung by Joann's to see if I could find a button for the Neckdown Bolero jacket I was knitting for Baby M. I didn't find one. I found these four and I cannot decide which one I like best. I think I'm leaning toward the Beatrix Potter ones. What do you think?

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Speaking of the bolero, I did not get to finish it on my trip. Turns out I had more fun playing with Baby M :) I did get to try it on her when I was at this point:

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Just a tad bigger then she is now, but she should still be able to wear it. I managed to finish one whole sleeve before I left. I did, however, manage to finish this hat for Baby M before I left. Of course, Mr. X just had to try it on - oh I so wish I had my camera out when he did! He looked like such a Dork! *laugh*

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The highlight of my whole weekend was right here:

Me & Baby M

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Back

I'm back, just waiting on some pictures, hopefully, then I'll post an update :)