Drive by crochet projects ....

I've been subbing the past couple of weeks now that I'm a shiny new college graduate (yes, I plan on gloating a wee bit) and haven't really had the time to sit and just take a moment to say "Ahhhhhh." My evenings are full of kids and bubbles and my first attempt at Pho soup and ...and .... and..... all the things I've been missing out on.

However, in the grand tradition of being me and unable to sit and do nothing, I have found a minute or two (during Dr. Who catch-up) to crochet few little projects.

A bit of back story: you might not know this about me. I'm quite obsessed with microbiology and the history of disease. I get oddly and absolutely giddy over the prospect of studying the Black Death or perhaps growing some E. coli in a petri dish. It comes from being a history and science nerd, I suppose.

Anyway, since I spent weeks working on my lesson for the Plague in Europe, and it was all around my students' favorite, I decided to crochet a plague doctor doll as "thank you" present to the teacher I worked with at school.

Why yes, yes he is hanging out on la Guillotine replica made by a student for a project, but that's a whole other post. Ha! I didn't come up with this pattern, but it is available by NeedleNoodles. Super cute and creepy!!! For those of you kind of wondering what the heck a plague doctor is... these were the guys who walked around in slightly terrifying bird-looking masks trying to save those suffering from bubonic plague. Creeptastic!!!! 

I was also able to work with another wonderful teacher who let me take over her biology class. I'm certified for both because I can't make up my mind on a single thing, ever. So of course, nothing would do but that I continued the plushy theme and crocheted her a cute little E. coli! He's my favorite bacteria after all. 

I loved him so much I had to crochet one for myself immediately and then added in a little Rhinovirus (aka the common cold  to you non-nerds) so that he has a friend. This may become a slight addiction as the pattern by TheSoftScientist I found had several viruses and bacteria to play with. Mr. E. coli is not included in her pattern, I worked his little flagella up on my own and added it to her pattern for Tuberculosis. Icky, squishy, adorable microbiology fun!

To step out of the realm of slight gross, but no less weird.... I also crocheted this little guy as a gift for one of my very favorite kiddos. He is in love with all things Toy Story, but he didn't have a lot of the alien toys. Voila! 

Once again, due to time, I purchased a pattern, rather than worked him up on my own. I made changes as I went, but that's mostly because I can't seem to stick straight to patterns. Every time I picked this guy up, I was thinking "The ..... CLAAWWWWWWWWWWW." Hehe.

Since it's the beginning of summer, I've picked up the forever unfinished Ugly Awesome Granny 'Gahn to work on again. It's almost done crochet wise, but may take five million years to weave in ends and put together. I've tried to set a goal for myself to enter it in our state fair to see if I could actually finish it up. If you remember, I had to practically start over as I really didn't know what I was doing when I set out.

Wish me luck! Get out and enjoy the sunshine!!!

Okay. Okay. I'm back. I promise!

Well, I’ve been obviously absent for the past, oh, four months. In my own defense, I've been student teaching.

If you’ve never student taught, you have no idea. I was told when I began that I should expect 60-70 hour weeks. Pfft. That would have been easy.

My average week day:

6:15: wake up. Blindly grope my way to the coffee maker. Drink as caffeine as possible. Quickly. Stumble into shower. Steam grit and sleep from my eyes.

7:15: wake up children. Stumble to coffee maker once again. Work on hair, finding socks, signing that one homework assignment. Remind husbandy face of the day’s events and chores (because I sure didn’t have time to do them!) and rush around printing/preparing my own lesson items for the day.

7:45: kiss kids and husbandy face goodbye and rush out the door to school.

8:00-3:40 teaching. Planning hour usually spent talking with cooperating teacher and/or teaching in another classroom. Lunch hour spent with my “lunch bunch” of students who hang out everyday and inadvertently remind me why being a teenager was fun/horrible/shocking.

3:40-4:30: School ends. Get as much actual work  such as lesson planning, grading, grade entering, prep for next day, etc. as possible. Rush to pick up kiddos from day care since husband has gone to work.

4:45-5: Get home, sit for 3 blessed minutes to check email/texts/phone calls that I couldn’t answer during the day.

5-6: Do Lily’s homework with her. Keep Sage from realizing her world domination and/or destruction intentions. Hopefully have the energy to make dinner from the non-existent groceries in the house (seriously, never let your husband shop because you end up with frozen burritos, capri suns, and pretzels). If not, the pizza guy knows your order by your phone number.

6-8: Bed, bath, play time to help my children remember that I am supposed to be raising them. Ignore the piles of work still waiting to be done.

8:01-10:45: Lesson plan, write 97 page paper (which I got a 100% on, woot!) and pretend to learn Spanish.  Husband comes home. Tries not to feel ignored as I keep telling him “just a minute” when he wants to tell me about his day.

11:30-2:30: Husbandy face finally falls asleep and I get back to work. Creating lesson materials, planning, grading, updating class website (I did blog, just not here!), or reviewing material I need to teach. Occasionally just stressing out and pulling out hair while also searching TPTs for a lesson plan.

2:30 ish: (yes, that's AM) finally just give up and force myself to go to bed. Sit awake for at least half an hour contemplating all the things I didn’t get done or forgot to do.

Weekends were more of the same – just a few more hours playing with my kids and maybe mad dash rushing to the grocery store.  For those of you that think teachers have a cake job, I don’t know if we can be friends anymore. Student teaching is worse because you don’t have the materials. You’re doing all the work from scratch. Whew.

I think I might get some sleep over the summer, but since I jumped right into sub jobs and working a second job as well, it’s probably a good thing my mom bought me dark circle repair makeup. HA.

I sound like I’m complaining and let me be clear, I’m not. I absolutely loved teaching. Even when I hated it. Sometimes, the kids would irritate me with their whining or I’d be really tired and the thought of working on my feet and running from one place to the other all day seemed like too. Freaking. Much. But I did it, and I did it WELL.

And the best news of my long time absence?

I AM A COLLEGE GRADUATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!(breathe) !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have officially graduated with not one, but TWO degrees. Two bachelors degrees. Two pieces of paper I can hang on the wall and admire. Two tassels to hang from my mortar board as I walked across the stage. I’m officially a teacher and a historian. I did it. 

So now that the dust and papers have cleared, I’m back! I missed crocheting and blogging and being a mom. I am so excited to have the summer to do all of these things and make a plan for grad school. (I’m insane, I know). I received a full scholarship for graduate school and will be also working as an assistant teacher for gen-ed history courses. 

I’m excited to talk to all of you again! Thanks for waiting for me!

Hello, stranger.

Where have I been?!?!

Where are pictures of all the fabulous Christmas presents I made?!?!

Am I stepping out of the blogosphere?!?!?!

Nah. Life just keeps getting in my crafty, creative, word loving way. And it ain't over yet!!!

This is just an update to let you all know... If you are still there... that I am here in spirit at the very least. Work...school...kids...preparing for student teaching....it was either do fun projects or blog about them. Since glitter playdough, afghans, and crocheted earrings were on the menu, I had to step away from the computer.

The next few months may be quiet around here and full of student teaching rather than crochet... but just know, I love you. Yes, you. And you. I love that you are emailing me and checking on me and staying with me. I will try to keep up with the Facebook page and could absolutely use some cheering on as I start teaching Monday. Eep.

Missing you. Really. Missing my crochet hooks too. Loves!