Not the Usual Christmas

I hope each and everyone had a wonderful Christmas with family and friends. My Christmas was different than in the years past. We were not able to have Christmas with my brothers and their families this year. Work schedules and the short time my son had at home prevented the usual time with my side of the family. I always look forward to seeing my brothers, my sisters-in-law and my nieces and nephews at Christmas, since they live either out of state or out of the country. Not seeing them did leave me feeling as though Christmas was not complete this year.
However, my husband's family lives in town, so we were able to have Christmas with them.

My husband, son and I did do our usual Christmas morning traditions - eat a huge breakfast and later in the day go to the movies. This year's movie was Charlie Wilson's War. We have been doing this for as long as I can remember.

Needless to say, the best part of my Christmas was being with my husband and son. I miss our son so much. He has completed 1 1/2 years of his 4 years residency in Philadelphia, but it feels like he has been there longer. When he was at Vanderbilt, we were able to visit him more frequently. Now it is so much harder. Too far away to jump in the car and go. I've got to stop writing about him...my eyes are tearing up. I thank the Lord every day for blessing us with such a wonderful son.

I did my usual baking for Christmas. Here is a sampling of some of the goodies:


Cookies: Raspberry Swirls, Cinnamon Cookies, Red Velvet Truffles, Oreo Truffles, Pralines, Spiced Pecans, Coconut Cookies, Peanut Butter Cookies, Double Chocolate Chips, Apple Cinnamon Scones. - Yummy!

One of My Favorite Cities on the Eastern Coast

If you have never visited this southern coastal city, you should. Here are a couple of street scenes. Can you guess where it is?

It is one of the most beautiful cities during every season of the year.

Have you guessed yet? It is Charleston, SC.

This past week, I attended a conference on Blue Ribbon schools. When my principal asked me to attend, I jumped at the opportunity. The conference was in Charleston, but I stayed on the Isle of Palms.

This quaint little island is wonderful in the late fall. I think my husband and I were among about ten people staying at the hotel. This was the beach view from our room.

And this is what my husband did while I attended the conference.

At night, this is what we did together.

Yep, we ate the most wonderful food. This is flounder fron Hyman's in Charleston. Normally, you have to wait in a long line to eat here in the evenings. It was the middle of the week when we ate here, so our wait time was about 5 minutes. I am ashamed to say I ate the WHOLE plate of flounder. Yes, I was about to popped, but the streets of Charleston are a great way to walk off a meal such as this.
Now I am home, back at school and counting down the days until we are out for Christmas break. Oh, yeah... I am still in the knitting groove. Later I'll post some pictures of some baby gifts I have knitted for a dear friend who is waiting on a phone call any day. They are adopting a little one. The birth mother is due in about a week.

Back in the Crafting Groove

I finally feel like I am back to a routine of knitting and/or sewing in the evenings. Look what I have done so far:



I knitted this bag over Thanksgiving and am ready to felt this:

Of course, this doesn't show how the bag is suppose to look. It is a cute, little bag with a flap. I'll post a picture as soon as I get around to felting.
I also have knitted some more dish cloths. Love these things. So easy.

Colors of Fall

Every year my husband comments that our maple tree in the front yard is never very colorful. This morning when I went outside to get the morning paper, I noticed that over night (not really over night- although it seemed like overnight) our tree had a bright smile - it is turning yellow. Nice...love the colors of fall.

How about these colors of fall?

U-G-L-Y you ain't got no alibi...these caramel apples are ugly, but, they were soooo good! My husband and I decided we wanted to make some homemade caramel apples. His job was to unwrapped the caramel candies. Tough job, but someone has to do it. After dipping in caramel and coating the apples with nuts, toffee bits and chocolate, the caramel began to drift southward. Ugh. But a quick trip to the refrigerator prevented a total loss. Needless to say, each one of these babies were consumed with no complaints.

I purchased the Note Taker pattern from Pink Chalk Studio this summer and finally got around to trying it out. I love this fabric - the flowers and colors. Inside I tried to bring out some of the colors from the front cover.

It was an easier project than I thought it would be. This would make a nice gift to colleagues at school.

Doubly Nice

It has been awhile since I have made anything and it has been a year since I started this project. So it is doubly nice to have finished this quilted table runner. Just in time for Thanksgiving.



It also nice to see some progress being made on our fireplace. This is what the fireplace looked like for 20 years:


Behind the fireplace screen is a wood stove. We are tired of this eyesore. So after a few days of tugging and creating a mess, this is what it looks like now:

What's next for the fireplace? I share in a few weeks.

Where Does The Time Go?

I can't believe I haven't posted in nearly a month. I also can't believe I haven't made anything either. So what have I been up to? I have been exploring the exciting world of Web 2.0 tools for educators. I have been trying to see how tools such as Voice Thread, Wikispaces for Teachers, Trailfire, and del.icio.us can be used in the classroom as well as participating in the K12 Online Conference. If you would like to see how Voice Thread works, visit my school blog. I photographed some art created by 8th graders, then had the students talk about their work. Check it out and leave a comment. The students would love it.

First and Ten, Wind It Again!

As I live and breath, I never thought I would see such a sight as this....
Can you tell what they are doing? What about here?
If it is still hard to tell, the two male Gamecock fans are helping a female Gamecock fan untangle and wind up a ball of yarn as they were tailgating. I loved it and had to say something to them. The 2 guys justed rolled their eyes and continued working on the yarn as she and I discussed knitting.

Guess Who Is Coming Home? :)

Yep, my son, the doctor is arriving Wednesday. We haven't seen him since April and you can bet his dad and I are jazzed. All summer we wanted to go to Philadelphia to see him but it didn't happen. His rotations were such that he never had more than one day off every week.

I finally got around to making me a fall bag. I have been undecisive as to what I wanted to make. I knew I wanted it to be brown and I wanted to use some fat quarters I had on hand. So after several nights of visiting blogs to get ideas and a couple of hours of playing around yesterday and today after school, this is what I made.
Aren't the yoyos cute?

Apple for the Teacher

Every teacher needs a cozie for their apple. Don't you agree? Came across this cute apple cozie while surfing etsy shops. Check out JacqulineKnits for other cute fruit cozies/jackets.

Now For a Commercial Break

For several months I have been following the creation of a new business website. Rose Petal Betty Bath Co is finally up and running. Check out her soaps, bath salts, and hand lotions. I ordered some as soon as she opened. The package arrived today. I am loving the White Tea and Ginger lotion and soap. Even my husband who is not a big fan of smelly stuff liked the smell of the soap. I suspect he just might be sneaking some in the shower soon. The lotion is going to school with me tomorrow.

Being Crafty and Psyched

It has been a whirlwind since returning from our trip and then immediately starting school. Haven't done much with my knitting or sewing except for this baby bib. I made it for a neighbor who wanted to give it to a friend. The pattern called for two colors but I played around with using several colors and was very pleased with how it turned out.

I also have made a belt out of yoyos. I saw a belt like this selling in a gift store for $22 and thought how cheap it would be to make one. The store owner said she has sold many of them. Boy, is someone making a killing on a few scraps of fabric? Naturally, I examined the belt closely and then proceeded to make one myself. 25 one inch yoyos and some cording = a cute belt.




I am the webmaster at my school and since I have had such a great time blogging at home, I approached our principal about placing a link to a blog for our school. I have submitted two entries so far. It has been fun reading the comments from students, parents and teachers about different items on the blog.

This picture makes it looks as though there isn't a tree in sight. Quite the contrary. Our new building is a fairly large facility. When students change classes, the halls are no longer crowded as it was in the old building and we are all in the same building. We had 10 portables at the old school. We now have 6 new science labs where before we had to share one lab. The four halls in this building are in the shape of an X. From the center of the school to the end of one hall and back is one tenth of a mile. Whew! On the first day of school, I logged 4 miles on my pedometer. I could go on and on but....Can you tell I'm psyched about our new school?

Schools in Honduras

Being a teacher, one of the things I wanted to do while I was visiting family in Santa Rosa de Copan was to visit my niece's school. She is a 9th grader at an all girls' Catholic school which is considered a private school. This is what I learned:

The school year runs from February to December.

High school is only three years.

Students have very few textbooks. The teachers provide whatever materials they can find or have on hand. Students take many, many notes. When I visited her school, she was in her science class. I asked her about labs and any hands-on type of activities they did in class, Sadly, they do not have many labs due to lack of materials. I also learned that the university in this town also has major issues with the lack of science materials. University chemistry students protested one day while we were there. I wondered if it did any good. The response I got was no.

Students do not change classes. The teachers are the ones that go to different rooms.

Public high school run in shifts. Some students attend in the morning while others attend in the late afternoon.

All students wear uniforms - white shirts and blue pants/skirts. Even students in the middle of nowhere. I saw children walking everywhere we went with these uniforms on.

When school is dismissed, vendors selling candy, soft drinks, etc. are waiting outside the schools.



Tonight we had 6th grade orientation at my school. We have moved into a new building with all the technology a teacher could ever dream of. We are so blessed to have such a wonderful environment to teach our students. I could not help but think about my niece in Honduras and the contrast between these two worlds. We take so much for granted in the US. If only those Honduras students could have the same experiences.

Language Barrier and The Beauty of Honduras

Instead of trying to share everything about our trip in one entry, I'll divide and conquer. ....

After arriving in San Pedro Sula we began our 2 1/2 hour ride to Santa Rosa de Copan. My brother stopped for a moment for us to take a "bano" break - aka bathroom break. (I know I am botching the spelling due to my lack of understanding in Spanish and my lack of not knowing how to write the things you put on top of some Spanish words. Sorry if I am and I hope I don't offend anyone.) This station looked very similar to stations in the US. However, I soon learned this station was an exception to the rule. Let's just say, there wasn't another station that I saw with inviting facilities. As I entered the bathroom, a woman mopping the floor smiled and provided me with my first experience in trying to communicate. It was apparent she had something important to tell me by her jestures and words. After a few seconds of trial and error, I determined from her jestures that I was to take some paper towels into the stall with me. ( I later learned that in many Latin American countries, you don't flush the paper. We won't go there at this point.)

While we were taking this break from our ride, I noticed these huge yellow flowers. As it turns out these are called yellow mandevilla, also known as yellow dipladenia. I know we have these flowers in the US but I have never seen such huge blooms. As the week passed, I also noticed that many of the plants we call "house plants" are plants that grow wild and huge.

Pothos aka philodendron with at least 5 inch leaves.

Air plants growing in trees and on electric lines.

Mother in law's tongue growing naturally along a bank in towns and in the mountains.

Banana trees and coffee plants everywhere

Ceiba tree, the Mayan Tree of Life. That is my niece standing in the trunk to show how huge these trees are.

Honduras is a beautiful country.