Yarn!!!

I just won an eBay Auction for 10 balls of Tangerine color Rowan Calmer yarn. The total price with shipping came out to under 7 dollars per ball. This is a yarn that retails for 11 to 13 dollars a yard. I am going to make a really cute summer top out of it. All of the knitting blogs that I have been stalking seem to love this yarn, so I am really excited about working with it. This will be my most ambitious knitting project to date, but I think it will be really good. I actually like working cables...I know, I'm weird.

In other news, I have daffodils blooming in my front yard. They make me happy every time I see them. I am hoping to plant some flowers soon. I am just waiting until it quits freezing at night so that I can put out the seeds. I bought delphinium, lupine, phlox, and sweet william. I think it will be really pretty when they are all up and blooming. Our house definitely needs the curb appeal.

New Recording Setup pt. 2

I think I may have found the magic combination for recording. I turned off Chris's computer and moved the mike closer to my mouth. I also put the mike on a "pillow" of bubble wrap because we have a pier and beam foundation and the mike was picking up vibrations from cars passing our house. This may mean that I will rerecord the first 9 chapters of Agnes Grey because I want them to have a consistent sound quality.

New recording setup

Today I figured out that I need to change my recording setup and/or my editing method. For the first time ever, I listened to a book for which I had read a chapter. After listening to the other sections, especially the ones by Katie Gibboney, my recording didn't sound too great. It had some background noise still and the sound seemed muffled. I am going to experiment with moving the mike and turning off Chris's computer while I record ( If I can...) I may also post asking for help on how to improve my editing method so that my sound quality is better. I really do want to create quality recordings.

Early out for the Students

Today we had an early out of sorts. The students all got to leave at 2 pm. (And no we did not make all of the classes shorter so that all of the classes could meet... we just skipped study hall and cut off 7th period in the middle. Which means that once again I have lost my 8th period class.) Notice that I say that the STUDENTS got to leave at 2. The teachers had a massive meeting for TAKS training. The English Language Arts TAKS Test is in two weeks so we had to go over the new procedures for the test administrators. All of the rest of the tests are in April.

In other news, meaning Librivox, I am making progress on my solo project, Agnes Grey. Three orphaned sections opened up in Les Miserables and I claimed them and have them turned in. I also claimed the last chapter of Edison, His Life and Inventions by Thomas Cummerford Martin and Frank Lewis Dyer. This is a very interesting biography of a very interesting person and I wanted to see it finished, so that I can listen to it.

Chris calls me an orphan snatcher, because I watch the orphans thread very closely and snatch them up. I like recording orphans, because I want to see books finished and sometimes those orphans are for projects that I had wanted to work on and couldn't because it was full...and now it's not. The orphans also give me some flexability. I don't sign up for a lot of chapters at one time because my recording time is so limited (Friday nights and early Saturday and Sunday), but if a chapter is still orphaned close to the weekend I will take it and there is not a long commitment.

A Day Off

I took this last Wednesday off because I really needed a day to myself when I could get some stuff done and relax. The week before had been really stressful and I had had to work the last two Saturdays, so I hadn't even had my weekends. As I hadn't taken a single day off since the beginning of the school year, I don't feel guilty at all. I was able to finally get my massage that I had had to reschedule twice due to a UIL practice meet and a meeting after school. I bought embroidery thread so that I could start working on embroidering the blocks of the graduation quilt that I am making for my little brother. I got some recording for Librivox done; a chapter of Rinkitink in Oz and a chapter of Agnes Grey. They still need to be edited. I also embroidered 4 designs for the quilt. It was a wonderful day! It was so nice having to only go to school for two days at a time!

These are pictures of Chris and me and Emma Rose that my sister-in-law, Emerald Lemmons, took for us at Christmas. She is amazing. All of the pictures she takes are beautiful.

This one is at the Jacob's Dream at ACU.



This is our Emma Rose. Isn't she adorable?


Here is all three of us together at home.

Can you tell I've been busy?

I can't believe that it has been over a year since I have posted. I will try to do better about that this year. ... We'll see...

O.K., What has happened in the last year since I posted.

1) I graduated.

2) I got a job teaching Algebra 1 and Math Models and other Math Labs at Cisco High School.

3) We got a cat. Emma Rose makes our lives very interesting.

4) We bought a house. Chris and I and Emma now live in a very nice 4 bedroom, 2 bath house. It is sooo nice having a real house and not having to deal with landlords and loud neighbors fighting every night outside beneath your window. I

5) We bought a new car after Chris's car imploded. As he puts it: his car got in a wreck with itself. The engine block became loose and shook around under the hood while he was driving, thus tearing up everything underneath the hood. I now drive a Toyota Corolla while he drives my old Concorde because the Corolla gets ten more miles to the gallon. That makes a difference when you are putting 500 miles + on your car each week.

6) I found and joined Librivox.org. Librivox is a site run by volunteers that creates free public domain audiobooks by having volunteers read chapters of public domain books. I am totally addicted. I listen to audiobooks frequently due to my long (1 hour both ways) commute. And recording chapters gives me a sense of accomplishment. Something is done! Also, I love the feeling that I am contributing to other people being exposed to literature. As most of my friends know, I love books. If you ask for books for Christmas/Birthdays, you will get books. Chris and I claim that we are single-handedly keeping the Books-A-Million in business.
I am currently working on a number of collaborative projects , where various volunteers read one or two chapters (or more ) chapters each. I am also doing a solo project of Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte. This means that I am the only one recording on this project. I am hoping to have it finished by the end of May.
When I figure out how to do it, I will keep a list here of the projects that I have contributed to.

7) I got a wonderful, brand new, embroidery sewing machine for Christmas! I have been wanting a new machine for years and years now. As the maiden project on the new machine, I made personalized Christmas stockings for Chris and myself and for my brother and sister in-law and their dog. I am currently working on a graduation quilt for my brother, who is graduating from High School in May. I am doing the quilt in this school colors; Red and Blue. To honor all of the sports that he participates in, I am embroidering soccer, basketball, cross-country, and track designs on the quilt along with his name and best times. I am very excited. I have not done a full-size quilt before and this should be a lot of fun. ( I hope so, because I have four more siblings who need graduation quilts after him...)

I think that pretty much gets me caught up.