Secret of the Stole III

I joined this KAL, like I have the time! I am excited about it, I heard great things about the designer and I am looking forward to it. I bought some cashemere/wool blend lace weight from Colourmart, one of the sponsors of the KAL. It is a lovely color they call kiwi, a light green/yellow.

Too much time on my hands.........

A friend from Facebook sent me this videohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V94shlqPlSI
They must have a lot of time on their hands to figure this out! Funny though. Hope you enjoy!

Current Knitting Progress......

I have been doing quite a bit of knitting this past week. I have 3 different things that I have been working a little here & there on.

First is the socks I started way back.........

The pattern is Belle epoque from 2 at a time socks, I'm using Lorna's Laces. I am almost done as you can see, how long it will take to finish?

Next, is the Slow-Bee Mystery KAL II. I just finished clue 1. I forgot to take some photos when I was taking the current ones, so none today....

Lastly, is the Slow-Bee Mystery KAL 1. I am up to clue 5, design 1. It is beginning to take a long time to do each row. I think the design is very nice, it will be huge when it's completed.

Summer is here finally in New York, so we have been going to the park down the street almost daily.......... The girls enjoy it and it makes the day go by without fighting & carrrying on.

Have a great day!

Is it summer yet???

We have had so much rain lately I can't say for sure if it is summer or not! Today it is cloudy but it has not rained yet, I say yet because we are going to have rain at some point today. My garden is getting sick of it too, the leaves on most of my plants are yellow, which means too much water. The twins are driving me nuts since we cannot get outside for any length of time, we can't go far from the house either since we have had some "pop-up" thunder storms.
I have been knitting every night after the girls go to bed. I am still working on the Slow-Bee mystery shawl, I'm up to clue 4. I have 4 more rows of it and I can start on the next one, I am 3 clues behind, not bad.
Slow-bee 2 started last Friday also, I have done the cast on, and started clue 1, but not much on that. I am using a terra cotta colored 100% silk yarn, from Colourmart, they wound it up to 4-ply for me and it's working really nice. I will post a couple photos of each when I get more done of the 2.

Slow-Bee Mystery KAL........

I joined this KAL way back when I was in school, thinking I would have the time to do it..........I just finished clue 1 last night. We are up to clue4, new clues come out on Fridays, so I am waaay behind. But, I figure since I just started knitting lace with this project, I am not doing too bad. It's just finding the time to do it, without interuption.

Here are some photos...........

Tragedy.....

I found out on Friday night at work, that a friend I have known for about 20 years, lost her 20 year old son. He was in a motorcycle crash, he died while in surgery- he was 20 years old, or young which ever you choose. He was too young. He was one of 6 children, a good boy, handsome & bright with a future. I am so sorry for Laura, she is a great person who did not deserve this. She has had so much greif in her life, she was married to a man who turned out to be a drug addict, he stole her life savings & had to raise those 6 kids alone. Her life should be better, she is a wonderful person who is always there for others.
I am going with her on Tuesday to pick out a headstone for Dom's grave.
Please say a prayer for Laura & her family that she can find peace in such a sad time.
http://www.legacy.com/TimesUnion-Albany/Obituaries.asp?Page=SearchResults

A Day to Relax

Sorry I have not been able to write here in a while, things are busy, but today I am just relaxing. My MIL has the twins, she is actually keeping them for 2 days, I can't get over it. They are almost 3 1/2 and she has only taken them one other time, I had to go pick them up because they would not stay, that was about a year ago. According to Grammie, they are having a good time and asked to stay again, so being the wonderful DIL I am, I am letting her. I miss them terrible, both DH & I were bored last night. It was so quiet & strange without them.
I got my grades from school and did OK. I ended up with a 3.49 GPA, not bad for a 40 year old mother with toddler twins, huh? I am happy. Now I just have to wait until the fall of 2009 to go for the final 2 years of nursing school.

We had a nice weekend here in New York, nice weather and just a nice relaxing time. The girls enjoyed going out to a friends, we had a picnic and then a fire after dark. We watched the stars and listened to all the night noises, crickets & those little peeper bugs.

We went to the Memorial Day parade on Monday, it is one of the few remaining parades in our area that has its parade on Monday, instead of Saturday like most others. They hold a nice ceremony honoring our soldiers & others who have passed, at the cemetary where my parents are buried. My friend was at the parade with her twins and they went to the cemetary afterwards with us. I miss my parents on these days and wish they could see how beautiful their grandchildren are, spend time with them & enjoy them. My parents were wonderful people, great parents and wonderful grandparents to my sisters children. They both loved kids and nothing was more important to them. I try to be the same way with my kids, I had good role models.
Today I am going to work on my shawl. I am doing the Slow-Bee Mystery KAL, and though we are up to clue 3, I am still on the first one. I had a problem & frogged it after completing the first clue, it was not lining up right. I ordered some yarn for the Slow-Bee 2 which is starting in a few weeks.

Do Bad Things Really Come In Multiples of 3?

OK, this may be a long one.......so bear with me please!
Saturday started off as a usual day, DH was no where to be found as the twins were waking me up at 7am. They had destroyed their bedroom, clothes out of the dresser, shoes everywhere; this is a normal occurance, since DH won't put a lock on the dresser/closet.
We did our usual, had coffee and the kids ate me out of house and home. They dumped a box of cereal on the floor while I snuck off to smoke, the dog (our 30 pound pug) was consuming it as I came inside. DH was outside working on our roof, a project started long ago and yet to be completed.
The day proceeded to be a normal one until........................"hon, I shot my thumb with the nail gun.......can you get me a towel?" Yes, you can read the above line again but it will still say "hon, I shot my thumb with the nail gun.......can you get me a towel?"
To my dismay, DH did in fact shoot a nail from the nail gun into his outer thumb, right next to the bone........he of course did like any other American male would do..........he pulled it out. (yes, blood does shoot just like the cartoons show.........straight up like a fountain and pulsing like your heart beat).
He continued to work on our roof, (yes, he is a tough guy.........he had 12 staples put in his head a long time ago without (yup, without) any type of pain killer)..."just shoot them in there".
Anyhoo, about three hours later he claims he should go get this wound looked at by a medical professional. Off to the urgent care center we go. All is well until the DR. comes over and asks if he had injured this thumb before. Well, yes, he says..........same thing, nail shot with gun...........why? "Well, it looks like there is a foreign body in your hand". "Oh, yeah?" "That's right, the nails are wrapped in wire" says DH "Ok, well that is still there" "It needs to be surgically removed" says DR. So, he gets loaded up with an antibiotic and sent home since no one will do it on a Saturday and he can wait until Monday to have it done. So, DH is on the way to see a hand surgeon and see what the next step will be-remove or leave it alone. I hope it will be left alone, he is the only one who works and we don't have disability insurance (although I am checking with our home owners policy for clairification).
I had a final exam in Statistics today, no I did not have much time to study. (He drops our lowest grade, thank God)
Hope you had a great Mother's Day, I slept all day, while DH took the twins to Grammies house.

I Got An A in Microbiology!!!

I had my last lab last night and even before I got in the door I knew what organisms I had. If I haven't said already, we were given 2 test tubes with unknown microrganisms in them, we had to perform tests to identify them. If we did it on the first try, we got an A+ in lab, if not we got a B, then a C & so forth. Well, I did a quick gram stain and figured it for sure within an hour. I'm so proud of myself! There were a lot who also got an A, but when I figure that I am 40 years old, have been graduated from high school longer than most of the other students have been alive and I have 3 year old twins, I am proud!!!
I give up a lot of my time (from my girls) to study and most of the time I feel guilty for doing it. My DH puts up with dishes in the sink, piles of laundry, etc, so I can complete my degree. I am very thankful for this privilege, it is a privilege I feel because he does so much for me.
I have a few more tests to go, but this is a huge weight off of me and I can concentrate on the rest of my studies.
If you made it this far, thanks for listening!

I won a contest!

I won a contest a few weeks ago, I submitted a funny story about my twins to http://hissyknit.blogspot.com/ and I won! She was kind enough to send me 2 packages of some yarns that I have never used before. I plan on making a couple scarves for the girlies with the fuzzy yarn from Louet and have no plans for the wool.

Thanks for the lovely yarn!

In other business, I have been studying for final exams. I had one yesterday in A & PII and another on Friday. I have my last night of identifiying in Microbiology lab, I think I have it narrowed down to 2 organisms. I have a Statistics test on Friday and final on Monday. Last exam is on
Tuesday night in Microbiology........I am exhausted! Mentally and physically. There is only so much that can go into my brain and stay there.

I signed the girls up to go to preschool a few days a week during the summer, I plan on working a few days a week and will be able to sleep while they are at school. I hope this plan works, I want to have some ME time.

What a Great Day!

Even though I am extremely busy with school right now, I managed to have a wonderful day, yesterday and today! I found a few old friends via Facebook. I was encouraged to join from a friend at school, then I did a bit of searching and voila! It was nice to see what they have been doing over the time we haven't spoken. Each one has done many interesting things and was nice enough to share them with me.
I love reading other blogs and came across one where they made some homemade soft pretzels, I plan on making some with the twins when I have time. (Soon!)
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_37073,00.html


I also found a knitting forum on facebook, some neat new blogs too.
Check it out, you may find some long lost friends!

I've had enough!!!!

As I have said in previous posts, we are on the hot run for the end of the semester at school. Since I am taking courses that I will need for nursing school, we have to finish certain chapters. (Sorry, Mrs So & So I never read about the urinary system.......)(-not acceptabe!)
We had a test on the Digestive, and Metabolism, including the Kreb's cycle and glycolosis........not fun and definately not easy to learn. I think I did ok.
I was going to take some photos of my tulips in bloom, but with the rain here I don't think that will happen.
MIL called and told us DH's uncle got his stimulus check already! I can't wait for ours! Stimulate the economy and don't pay bills with it, that's what someone said the government is saying. How 'bout pay those bills before I stimulate the ecomony by becoming below-poverty level! What gall, give us back "our" money, then tell us how to use it! Gotta love it!
I entered a contest last week at hissyknit, her Twilight zone moments crack me up. Well, she sent an email telling me I won! I never won anything in my whole 40 years! I could cry!
Hope to post some tulip photos from my yard this week.

Busy, busy, busy!

That's what my life has been for the last two weeks!! It is getting towards the end of the spring semester and the proffessors must have spring fever! I have had 5 or 6 tests in the last 2 weeks, 3 in A & P II, 3 in Microbiology and 1 in Statistics, ok that is 7.
Tonight in micro. lab we have to identify 2 unknown bacteria by doing testing and stains. It counts for 40% of our total grade in the class, yes, it's a big deal. I have been doing a little research as to how to go about doing it the best way. I want to get an A on this so I'm going into it well prepared.
The girls and I went to the Earth Day celebration that was on campus, they had a band and other things, it was fun. They love music, and loved the idea of seeing where the actual music came from, besides the radio!
Of course knitting has been null this week. I am going to do the Mystery Shawl KAL, it starts in a few weeks. I have to order some yarn for it yet, I want to use a cashemere/silk blend in a cobweb weight for it. The instructions call for lace weight, but I want this fiber and it comes in the lighter weight, I'm sure it will be just fine.
The weather has finally cleared up here in the northeast, it has been nice all week, chance of rain though for the weekend.

Bad news/good news

Well, I found out that my application was not accepted for the fall term. Unfortunately, it was based on the fact that one of my references came back late. So, other applicants were taken over me, fair enough right? Anyway, I was told that if someone decided not to go to school this fall, I would be called, if not then it's the fall of 2009! What can you do? I guess I can't do anything at this point except for wait and see what happens. I don't have much hope for this fall, there are waiting lists at most colleges for nursing programs.
In other business-the weather here still is rotten, 70 degrees on Saturday (forecast was for rain all day) no rain or wind, Sunday was cold & windy, today will be 50-55 degrees with wind! I can't get over the fact that we have not had a real nice day in spring yet.
I am almost done with my socks, about time you say....................remember my three tests last week? I got an 86 in A & P II lecture, and an 94 on my Statistics test, won't know the A & P II lab result until Wednesday.
I wish there was a way for me to continue learning for nursing, online classes or something.......just so I could be prepared.
I'm hoping for a better week this week, keep your fingers crossed for me please!

Still waiting..........

What is the worst thing you could do to someone who hates waiting? Tell them they only have to wait one more day, when it isn't true! I am waiting for the school to send acceptance/denial letters which they said were sent on Friday and Monday. It takes 1-2 days for mail to come from where it was mailed. I still have nothing in my hand!!! Hopefully it will come today, otherwise I may have to break into the post office and hunt it down tonight after class. The suspense is literally killing me!
In other business, my exam went well on Monday, what I studied was exactly what was on the test. It was just a matter of getting the stuff out of my head and in the right order.
We had a practical exam in A & P II lab on Wednesday, that went well also. It was 24 questions that we had to identify parts of the digestive and respiratory system, then 26 questions about the chemical part of digestion and respiration. I think I did well.
My Statistics test went well also, that was on Wednesday afternoon. The proffessor is wonderful, he goes over what will be on the test and then the next class we have the test. Straight forward and he lets us bring a sheet with the formulas on it. Nice.
Everyone here is suffering from allergies. My nose is killing me, it feels like someone poked me inside it, ouch! My poor daughters both are congested and running at the same time, they lay down to sleep at night and can't breathe.
Knitting has been put off by my busy life this week. Tonight I have a quiz on the Innate Immune System in Microbiology, then lecture for 3 hours on the Adaptive Immune System............zzzzzzzzzzzzz

How can I sweat so badly when it's freezing out???????????

OK, let's see here..........big A & P II exam today=getting up at 3am to study=lots of coffee & a headache
This exam (25% of final grade) is on the Immune system, Lymphatic system and the Respiratory system. How we take our immune system for granted, trust me it does a ton of work, every second of every day, it works to protect us. It is a very complicated process, I won't get into it. (you're welcome!) I am pretty set with the respiratory & lymphatic system, so my focus is on the immune system. My mind is spinning..............
Wish me luck today, pray to whatever you believe in at about 9 this morning & I'll be forever greatful!
As I was taking a break from my studies, I came across this http://www.grumperina.com/knitblog/
what an honor! She is taking it very humbly, is that a word? What an honor though, she is worthy of it to say the least! Lorna's Lace's should have a complete colorway with others who make the knitting world a better place, maybe adding some designers and others and naming a colorway for them to. It could be like a limited edition line of yarns..............hmmmmmmmmmmmm
Off to study, I'll post later about the difficulty of the exam.

Yippeeeee!

Constant studying has paid off! I had an exam in my A & P II class on Wednesday and during lecture the professor gave us our tests back..........I got a 109! I can't believe it! We have an exam in lecture part of the class on Monday, dealing with the Lymphatic, Immune and Respiratory systems, not fun-tons of studying.

Waiting...................

I've always disliked waiting, currently I am waiting............. One thing I'm waiting for is SPRING- the other is my letter from the nursing school I applied to. So, I am a stressed person this week.

The photo is of an unknown bird.....I can't tell you what it is. Only that there are 3 or 4 swimming in the creek behind our house and DH took this to find out what kind of bird it was.

This has been an interesting week in New York state, to say the least! Tuesday we had an absolutely glorious day, it was 64 degrees! The girls went outside without a coat for the first time in what seems like forever. The air was so nice and fresh, we were out most of the day. Tuesday night I have Microbiology class from 6-9pm, I leave the house at 5pm so I can have time to study before class because we have a quiz every week on the material from the week before, since we had spring break & no class last week I needed extra time to remember it. Anyway, when we got out of class at 9pm, it was about 25 degrees and it was pouring rain! In addition to that it was windy, the kind of wind that blows my gas-guzzleing (sp) SUV as I'm driving.

Wednesday, we had more of the wind and cold, it never got over 40 degrees. It felt like 20 with the gusty wind, blechh! Today it is forecast to be 50-55 degrees, windy but sunny. Tommorrow it will snow, if the trend continues..........

I'm still waiting to hear about nursing school, not patiently either. I check the mail daily as soon as we pull in the driveway, I don't even get the kids out of their carseats until I check it. Bad mommy, I know. But I was told at the school that letters go out sometime in April, and it's the third day! I have been praying that I do get accepted. I want to help out my DH financially with a decent job. He has been the only worker since the girls were born, with the price of daycare here in NY, it made no sense for me to work. He pays for my tuition and for daycare, the later is the real expense. Most of the mothers at the daycare get a scholarship, which pays for the cost of daycare, but it is based on income. DH makes too much money. So, we have to pay $230 per week for them to go, 6 hours on 3 days and 2 hours on 2 days, that's about 22 hours per week. Not cheap! But I feel you get what you pay for and I won't skimp on care for my loves!

I have a test in A&P II on Monday. It covers only 3 chapters, Immunity, Lymphatic system, and Respiratory system. I hope to do well, since the last test I only got a 73. The proffessor has been fairly nice this semester, she was the instructor for A&P I which I took in the fall.
Between the A&P II, and the Microbiology classes, I can't decide which is harder. I am happy I took an "easy A" class this semester. I take Statistics, which because I am good at math and formulas, is very easy for me.

No knitting for me this week as of yet. I hope to get going on the heel of my socks this week, I want to get them done by next week.

Late Easter Pictures

I just uploaded these to my computer and figured I would put a few on here. These are of the twins and my sister and I. The weather here did not agree with their spring dresses, alas the heavy coats. They had fun with the Easter egg hunt that Aunt Colleen had and could not finish before eating some chocolate! Aunt Colleen fed them chocolate at a very early age, it's all her fault they love candy!

Back to Business on Monday!

Well, my spring break is officailly over today. I'll be glad to get back to school, I'm getting closer to my goal of entering nursing school. April is the month they will send letters to applicants to tell us if we are accepted or not for the fall of 2008.

My fingers are crossed. My grades are ok, although I got a C+ in my Microbiology class for mid-term. The proffessor said to ignore it because I was not able to take the mid-term exam (sick kids) it was not used for the calculation, a big fat zero was used in place of the 78 I got on the exam.

I have been knitting some socks from "2 at a Time Socks" with some Lorna's Lace yarn in a colorway I can't remember right now. The pattern is Belle Epoque, I think the colorway is Somerset. It's a fairly easy mock cable pattern with a repeat of 8 rows. I'm not happy with the Knit Picks needles though, they have a kink in the join on one side, I have to contact them regarding this. I have like 5 other pairs and have not had trouble with any others. I still have to figure out this blogging thing, as far as photo upload and placement, so bear with me as I learn!