Out of My Mind

It’s been a while again.  Too much stuff going on, most days I feel like I’m losing my mind.  Here’s what’s been happening in our household.

I almost hate to say it for the fear of jinxing myself, but Sebastian is doing really well in school so far.  Granted, this is about the time he started flipping out in both first and second grade, so I know we’re not out of the woods yet, but I’m feeling cautiously optimistic.  We keep heaping on the positive praise and reinforcement.  I was worried about him being separated from his best friend this year, but I think it has actually helped.  He’s making new friends.  Every day, he tells me what he and this person or that person did out at recess.  No more days where he spends recess by himself swinging on the swings because his friend is playing with somebody else and he can’t figure out how to get the social interaction going with someone else all on his own.  It seems small and silly when I type it out, but it really is a big deal for him.  It makes my heart happy to see him growing and maturing.

Seb and I are now yellow belts.  I tested this past Saturday and Seb tested the weekend before.  Holy crap, the test was hard.  Over two hours of just constantly kicking, punching, blocking, sparring, etc.  I was worried that they might have to call EMS for me, but I survived.  And there were others breathing just as hard as I was, too.  But I do need to start doing more (any) cardio to get my stamina up there. Whew.

School is frustating.  Actually, only one class is frustrating, the other two are fine.  But my Admin and Mgmt. class sucks big time.  We are six weeks into the class and we’ve had one lecture, the prof. never has things posted when she says she is going to and doesn’t offer any kindof explination as to why she’s not doing what needs to be done.  If I had signed up for an independent study, that would be fine, but that’s not how this class is supposed to be and I’m getting tired of it.  I’ll definitely be filling out the evaluation form at the end of the semester because this class is quickly getting ridiculous.

The hubby is in his last semester, is not loving his job and is stressed out to the max.  Yeah, he’s loads of fun to be around.  ‘Nuff said on that matter.

I’m still trying to crochet when I can, but haven’t had as much of an opportunity lately.  I’m sure I’ll be crocheting like a crazy lady once my semester is over mid-december in order to finish everything I want to do for Christmas.

There’s more, but I need to get  a move on with all the homework that I should have started yesterday, but was too lazy to do.  I’m really unmotivated this semester, which stinks.

I finished the blanket I was making for Lucas the other night.  I don’t even remember how many times I had to rip out stiches and start over.  It was the first time crocheting from a grid pattern.  I have to say, I much prefer having all the directions spelled out for me, instead of having to go through and count little boxes and figure everything out on my own.  But it turned out quite well in the end.

I have a baby shower coming up soon for my cousin’s wife and I think I might try and make it again, in different colors.  I also want to tweak the pattern a little bit.  I think I can improve some things.  Boy, that sounds full of myself, doesn’t it?  I was able to finish Lucas’ blanket in less than a month, but now that school is starting up again, I don’t know if I’ll have a lot of time to devote to making another blanket.  This one is actually not that hard, it’s all half-double-crochet stitches.  I guess I’ll have to wait and see what the workload is going to be like for this semester.

Now that I actually have time to do something, I’ve started a new project, a blanket for my nephew Lucas.  I’m using this pattern, but am not putting the little stars on the corners (though they are very cute!) and I am doing it in blue and white.  This is my first time trying to work from a gridded pattern like this, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it actually turns out.  If it does, I’ll post some pics when finished.  If not, well, I’m too much of a perfectionist to post pictures of some jacked-up blanket.

I knew I liked it when I crocheted the blanket for Mackenzie.  But I did a craft swap recently on my momma board and am now a complete addict.  Sebastian has aked me to please just stop doing it for a while.  There are crochet hooks, yarn, patterns, half finished projects all over the apartment.  And I have a feeling it’s only going to get worse.

Anyhoo, now that my swapee has received her gifts, I can post some pics of the projects I made.

This is a shawl that must have started, torn apart and started again at least three times.

I also made a book mark and some magnets.  My swapee’s husband is in the military, hence the patriotic theme with the magnets.

Also, I sent some of my pretzel rods dipped in caramel and chocolate and I dipped some oreos, too.  She said she’s probably going to send some of those to her husband, which I thought was pretty neat.  I don’t personally know anybody over there, so the thought that something I made is going to be sent as a treat to brighten the day of one of our troops is really cool to me.

I finally finished the blanket I’ve been working on for my new little niece Mackenzie.  It’s my first crochet project and I am pretty darn proud of myself.  I think it turned out rather well!  Here’s a pic

Now that it’s finally finished, I can start working on my projects for my swap partner at MR.  I have three things I want to make.  One will be no problem.  The second should be fairly easy.  And the third, well, we’re gonna give it a go.  Once my swappee receives her package, I’ll post some pictures of what I do.