Getting back on my feet

The internet is working and I’m applying for jobs.  Good start to the week.  But of course I have some complaints too!  I’ll just list one:  Parent-teacher-counselor conference tomorrow morning.  duhn duhn DUHHNNNN.

My son’s first grade teacher is out of the class almost as many days as she’s in!  Apparently, she has health problems, but we have heard that she is actually out more often due to her son’s behavioral problems.  I don’t know anymore than that, but it must be bad cause of how often she has to take off.  So my son has been talking and giggling in class everyday, and no matter what we do he can’t seem to stop.  BUT, if he is appropriately redirected, he can get back on task.  She doesn’t seem to take the time to do this, but I don’t know for sure what is going on.  We have a daily contract that comes home with some notes, but I have a hard time getting this teacher to respond to email (about 50% response) and through notes I send to school (ZERO% response).  So I am dreading this conference tomorrow cause my husband and I are SO frustrated already;  we fear the aggravation we may encounter tomorrow morning.

Why is it almost April and it’s freezing outside!?  Those fools with their myth of global warming….it’s the opposite!  It’s global freezing! (This, by the way, is a legitimate argument used to oppose the existence of global warming…between those that use that argument and proponents of the “birthers” movement, my belief in Darwin and ‘survival of the fittest’ is questioned!)
Anyway, been knitting away at the sweater.  Front and back are done, now I’m working on the first sleeve.  It is a cap sleeve, so this will be my first sweater that is not raglan.  Hope it’s easy!   My amigurumi projects are kinda in limbo.  Although, octopus, the very first amysamigurumi, has real eyes!  As soon as I finished the eyes, little Sammy took it as his own.  It is now part of his pile of bed toys so it was nice knowin’ ya octopus! 

                            

The other day he went to get the turtle I made, which has been sitting on the living room end table, beheaded, for a week or so.  (See picture from former post of its huge head http://amysamigurumi.blogspot.com/2011/02/no-post-yesterday.html)  Anyway, he took it and looked at it…and turned it back, and turned it forth, and found no head…And that’s when he started yelling at me, and promptly returned the headless turtle to the end table, where he still remains. “Yelling at me” means he became very serious, looked me straight in the eye and, while gesticulating, shouted “Mommmmmmeeeee, ba duh ba do do TURTLE Mommy?” 3 or 4 times.  I had better fix that head!

Things Done, Things Not

Still having internet problems so it's been hard to keep up.  But over the past couple of weeks, I finished the bathrobe for my son and for a very first sewing project, it was definitely a success.  He loves it!

                                                

 

Of course, I haven’t been applying for jobs (and didn’t get the one that I actually did interview for).  It is hard to search for and apply for jobs when the internet keeps going down, but I can’t say I’m super motivated to be looking.  Nuff said.

Out of Touch

Would you believe I haven't had internet service at home since Friday?  I do have the smartphone, however, so no big deal right?  Yet in order to check my blog with my "blog gmail acct", which is different from my regular gmail acct, I had to add the account to my phone...and I attempted this on March 1... and of COURSE, gmail updated its smartphone services that day.  So I would need to update it on my phone, and of COURSE my phone can't do it.  Because the new google update for the phone is for something like 2.3 say, and my phone is 2.1 say, and so the new software isn't supported by my oh-so-outdated phone (I have had the phone since November!), and I cannot do it!  My phone is so annoying...they were supposed to have an update for the phone when I bought the phone, then it was delayed until the new year, and now it is March...no update from Sprint.  And to get to the point, I do not care enough to complain to Sprint, or look into a different phone....it is so low on my list of priorities and I do not have the strength for it!

Anyway, using the browser on the phone annoys me and I can hardly see it, so I didn't update anything since last week.  My legions of fans who know me well no doubt have been thinking "And here it ends....her blog experiment lasted a week!"  (Liz...you know you thought it!)  But oh no, Amy  is still unemployed so let me grace you with the details of my past week...

When last we met, I was awaiting word about a house and just had an interview.  Well, we didn't get the house.  It was not meant to be as the people who did get it make 4x as much money as we do, so we couldn't compete considering we offered full price.  So I was seriously moping for the next 24 hours, but I got over it.  Especially since we looked at some more houses and I realized that maybe there ARE other houses with pretty kitchens!  But nothing on the horizon right now.  We kinda felt like we needed to stop looking when we realized that Jamie's employer might not pay him if the government shut down next week!  No income?!  But as it turns out, his grant is funded through his employer, not the government, so even if the base on which he works doesn't allow people on since it's military, he will not be penalized for it.  Phew! 

And I have not heard anything regarding the job interview.  It has been a week and a day so it's not too long yet, but I just feel like I'm not going to be offered the position.  I guess I just can't even imagine working...I'm still having PTSD from the firing and it is seriously affecting my job motivation.  And I think my subconscious reveals that conclusion in that I have never been so "craftily" productive before.  The house is a mess, so I am purposefully failing as a "housewife", but I am succeeding as "stay-at-home mom" since my two-year old has been a delight, and I am succeeding as "crazy closet craft lady"-- I add closet because I am pretty much keeping it to myself and this blog.  If I had any entrepreneurial spirit I could have sold a product or even my services by now.  

I have still been knitting a sweater with a fervor that has basically induced arthritis (self- diagnosis, so yes, I'm just being "me", Liz)  So I had to stop that a bit and decided to start the sewing project I bought this summer when I got my very first sewing machine.  I have never sewn with a machine before, and my sewing sensei, Janice, recommended a simple pattern and approved my choice of a fleece bathrobe to make my oldest, who has wanted a bathrobe for like 2 years now.  Well, fleece is forgiving AND difficult! And what a disastrous mess...little flecks of fire red fleece are EVERYWHERE and no joke, my husband helped me vacuum myself last night. But I have traced the pattern, cut out the traced pattern, cut out the fleece, made the markings, and currently have the basic outline of a bathrobe completed!  I have sewn the pieces together, I just need to do the finishing edges and that will probably take some time...But I consider it a success already!  And it is going to be huge on him....I haven't hemmed it but it will need a lot done.  I want him to try it on, but really, if he were to try it on now, the flecks of fire red fleece will be all over his fleece jammies and then I either will have to vacuum him or send him to get fleece flecks all in his bed!  It's worse than Easter grass! 

(okay, sidenote:  I was not allowed to have Easter grass when I was a kid.  My mother didn't like that it got all over the house.  Between that and her random rule that I was not allowed to watch "Woody Woodpecker" because the noise irritated her all the way across the house, I wonder why there's still a part of me that feels like it's going to get in trouble even though I'm a grown-up!  Still, I guess you have to agree I've made progress if I'm not quivering with fear about all the red fuzzies all over the house!)

I also finally made it to church after a 3 month hiatus.  I simply could not garner the strength to go while I was working because I was beyond exhausted every evening and every weekend.  It was all too much.  So I am glad I got out to do that.  And I played my viola with the church ensemble practice session on Sunday, so more of my creative side is being fed after complete starvation for months.  And I guess it must be important for me to be doing all this crafty creative stuff because I have felt pretty satisfied, when typically I feel pretty disheveled.  

Okay, that's enough update.  Here are some pics of the robe.

By the way, love ya Liz!  : )