Spinning a Good Yarn

Remember this?
Yes, that is me on March 26, 2009. That was my 40th birthday. I celebrated with my family including, but no limited to, Mom, Sara, and Matt. They went on the wild chase to get this yarn that Travis had bought me. Isn't it pretty? Well, NOW LOOK AT IT!!

Ok, so it isn't so pretty on me, but the sweater is just beautiful. The camera picked up the different dye lots a lot more that you can actually tell. It also has some weird striping that isn't actually on the sweater. I am so happy with it. And, even more amazing is that it is done already. I never thought that would happen!! I'm half way through with the socks that match. Yep, that means one sock is done. it will be quite a set. I have two hanks of yard left and am considering a beret. Too much? Here is another view of the sweater without a body distorting its beautiful lines.

Here is a close up of the colors and buttons. I love it!! I worked on sewing all the pieces together at the yarn shop so Kathe could show me how and the ladies loved it; they liked it better than the one in the book. I really like the colors. It will go nice with the dark purple pants I got from Old Navy!!

To finish up the knitting news, here is half of Morgan's project. Half again means one sock. This one is supposed to be heel-less and toe-less. It is a yoga/dance sock. Morgan participates in neither of those activities, but she wanted to make them anyway. It is a good project to do before doing real socks. She is doing a great job with her knitting.

That is all I have today. Thanks for reading.

Something, Anything!!

I guess it is time for me to post something. I'm going to take a page from my sister's blog and do ten things. That will help me focus and (hopefully) refrain from rambling.

1. Maddie was cast as an Oompah Loompah in the school's play, "Willy Wonka" that will premier next April.

2. Rozzie had a fever for a day last week. Now she is reporting that the girl she works with at the front desk has swine flu. We'll see. Rozzie has recovered just fine. I'm not an alarmist. It never helps anything.

3. Morgan loves her marching program and it has improved dramatically in the last month. She is the tuba section leader and loves the power that accompanies that title. There is no power in the title.

4. I am reading "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" and am liking the vocabulary and style.

5. I finished knitting the sweater I started in April and it is almost all sewed together! Just one more side seam and then the buttons. I'm so surprised. I thought it would take so much longer.

6. Travis is busy maintaining his fantasy baseball and football teams.

7. Maddie will be in her last Primary Program tomorrow.

8. I have good classes this year; they do their work and are concerned students.

9. I had and ant infestation in my classroom and Terro did the job and millions of ants were seduced with the sweet elixir.

10. It is much too hot for it to be the end of September.

A Few Days of R&R

The last post announced our 20th Anniversary. For a little celebration, we took a western Caribbean cruise for 5 nights. It was such a nice time!! We liked having the time alone, but at the same time, we wished we had our kids along. There are so many things they would like to see. We also would like to have friends along. So, we hope to go again in 2 years and if you want to come, let me know and we'll keep you posted!!

So here we are on the first night at sunset. It was just beautiful out there! I love being out on the ocean. It is so peaceful. On 2 occasions, the captain got on the loudspeaker and announced dolphins and so I went to look. They looked like they were having such fun out there "performing" for us!
Our 2nd day on the boat was a day at sea. I spent time at the pool. Travis and I both had books to read. That night was the formal night, so we got dressed up for dinner. I really liked the furniture on the ship. This little sofa was unique. A picture of our boat docked in Grand Cayman. It is Royal Caribbean's Enchantment of the Seas. I was happy to go to Grand Cayman. In my senior year of high school, some friends invited me to go to GC for spring break but my mother, in her great wisdom that I didn't understand then but see so vividly now, said "no." I was excited to have a chance to go there and I was not disappointed. It was a lot quieter than the other Caribbean islands we have visited.

The beach was nice a quiet. We rented a scooter and went to 7-mile beach. We had no trouble finding a spot. No naked people either. Here are my tootsies enjoying the sand.

We liked the Guy Harvey store. His artwork is very popular. Mostly we see it on tshirts which are very popular here. I got Travis a t-shirt and he wore it at home and the girls immediately made note of dad's Guy Harvey shirt. I got a book of his artwork that he did for "Old Man and the Sea" which I am teaching at school. I plan to make copies and having the kids color them to decorate my room. We also ate at the Guy Harvey restaurant.

I took a lot of pictures of the water because it is so unnaturally blue! I plan to do a digital scrapbook and want to use the water pictures as background papers. Anyway, I spend most of the time on the boat marveling at the water.

After leaving Grand Cayman, the boat had "Caribbean Night" with a midnight buffet. We were not impressed with their fried plantains, but the food art was amazing.

Next day was our stop in Cozumel. We actually purchased an excursion to see the Mayan ruins at Tulum. We got off the boat and got on a ferry and rode 45 minutes to the mainland where we got on a bus for an hour. I was nervous about going that far away from the boat, and taking a Mexican bus, and what about the food they would serve us. But I kept telling myself that Royal Caribbean would not sponsor this excursion unless it was on the up and up. It was really nice. I was pleasantly surprised. The food was great. The beach was beautiful. The ruins were fabulous. I have been to a few places that boast iguanas but I have never seen one. Tulum was teaming with them!! I was thrilled.

This picture is nice because not only do you get a beautiful picture of me, but you also get the temple in the background and the ocean!! The whole place was so interesting. A bunch of the workers at the site were wearing BYU hats and had names like "Mosiah" and one guy told us his name was "Luis" but his middle name was "Abinadi." So that was fun. We spent that day with a couple we met from Alpine, UT. We met them because both Travis and Randy were wearing BYU shirts and BYU had just beaten Oklahoma.

Here is another shot of us with the temple.

I thought this was funny.

This is just a nice picture of us on the boat in the central atrium. This part of the boat is new. Apparently, they cut the boat in half and added this middle section. Sounds impossible to me!

So that is basically our trip. I love sitting at the pool, reading my book. I got some knitting done as we listened to music in the evenings. It was so relaxing. We had a 5 hour drive home and found the house clean and the girls happy. It was great to be back with them and they had lots of questions for us and adventures of their own to report.

Stay Tuned!

Travis and I celebrated our 20th anniversary this past week!! Yay for us. Now, we are headed out on a cruise in the Caribbean for 5 nights. We will visit Grand Cayman and Cozumel. We are super excited. So, no pictures for now.

The weeks of school have been busy and I haven't been leaving school until 4:30 each day. There is so much to do at this point. Once I get back, I'll have some catch up and then it will even out. I promise!

Big football game tonight down at Clay High School. Fleming Island beat them 31-21 which was nice. I have 2 football players in my classes this year and it is fun to go watch them.

So, stay tuned and we'll be back!