Tiff Crochets

I’m heading off to Austin, Texas, this weekend for Camp Crochet, a CGOA sponsered event for Texas members of the CGOA.  Pictures coming on Sunday!!!

What to do in the last fifteen minutes of my workday?  Sneak in visits to my favorite blogs of course. :)

 I found this at Vera’s - How Many of Me

HowManyOfMe.com

There is: 1 person with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

According to the results:

• Tiffany is the 215th most popular name (statistically speaking)
• there are 292,469 other Tiffanys in the U.S.
• only 1,440 other people have the name of Roots (I only know about 10)

Darn it.  Twelve more minutes left of work.  I start my pre-internship training in fourteen days.  I have my textbooks and I’ve thought about getting a head start on reading.  I’ve been forcing myself to stay away from the teaching supply stores because the last thing I need to do is start collecting things for my future classroom.  I do have a valid excuse to stock up on History Channel videos though, right???  Every history teacher needs a good supply. :)

 Seven minutes left.  Great - my house is in the 5+” rainfall expectancy area for tonight.  The rain better hold off until after 9:00 pm because my satellite messes up and I’ve got four shows scheduled to tape tonight.  I’ve discovered that I only watch TV on Wednesday and Thursday nights.  Every other night, I watch taped episodes of Dirty Jobs and Mythbusters. 

Woohoo! Time to go. Until next time..

 This past weekend, Andy was able to visit on his last free day (they’re back on a seven day work week starting yesterday [Monday]).  We drove to the outskirts of the Houston metro area to Dewberry Farm to take our chances in the Corn Maze, pick wildflowers, and just spend a nice family day outside. 

Okay, maybe I was too young when I first saw Children of the Corn, but driving by rows and rows of corn still freaks me out.  Walking through a corn maze that can take up to five hours to complete?  I was okay for the first five minutes and then, I kept hearing things (Okay - it was the trailer with the hay ride, kids laughing on the pillow bounce thing, but still — there were voices in the corn!!)  We made it out safely only because Maddie gave up on walking and rode on Andy’s shoulders for the ride out.  She clued us in to the best paths out to safety. 

This is Laura thinking about how much fun it would be to jump off the four foot high hay mountain.

This is Laura thinking that jumping doesn’t sound as nearly as nice as sliding down semi-gracefully.  She ended up jumping down, but watching her contemplate her options was fun. :)

Aha!  A finished project!  I always feel like I write more about these great little crochet projects that I’m in the middle of instead of showing the finished item.  I finish most things for the girls while they’re in bed at night so by the time I nab them to model for me the next day, they resemble escaped mental patients more than children. (It’s the hair - I don’t know what they do in the playroom in the evenings, but they come out with the craziest hair that I’ve ever seen.)

The shrug -

The back -

I used Lion Brand Jiffy in Pastel Pink, and a size ”J” crochet hook. I used a pattern stitch from the Crochet Stitch Bible and put a simple single crochet border around the arms and body.  Once I devoted time to working on it, it went really fast.  I plan on making at least a few more in different colors for her to go with different outfits. 

Thirteen Random Quotes from American History That I’ve Learned This Week (courtesy of Don’t Know Much About History by Kenneth C. Davis, which I chose to read as a little beginning refresher as I prepare for my TExES content exam in Grades 8-12 History)

1.  “These are the times that try men’s souls.  The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will shrink from the service of his country….Tyranny, like Hell, is not easily conquered.” - Thomas Paine, The Crisis (p. 83)

2.  “If you come to Ebbets Field today, you won’t have any trouble recognizing me.  My number’s forty-two.” - Jackie Robinson (p. 402)

3.  “So first of all let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.” - Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s first inaugural address (p. 350)

4.  “Carefully considered, they appear truly to form another world, and therefore we have, not without reason, called it the New World.  Not one of all the ancients had any knowledge of it, and the things which have been lately ascertained by us transcend all their ideas.”- Amerigo Vespucci (p. 15)

5.  “The world is quiet today, Mr. President.”  - Colin Powell to Ronald Reagan on his last day in office. (p. 531)

6.  “Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really guaged your cruelty or your recklessness….Have you no decency, sir, at long last?  Have you left no sense of decency?”  - Joseph N. Welch to Senator Joseph McCarthy, 1954 (p. 410)

7.  “Unjust laws exist: shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once?” - Henry David Thoreau from “Civil Disobedience” (p. 193)

8.  “Thus the particular phraseology of the constitution of the United States confirms and strengthens the principle, supposed to be essential to all written constitutions, that a law repugnant to the constitution is void…” - Marbury v. Madison (p. 144)

9.  “When I think of the millions who have suffered in all the wicked wars of the past, I am shaken with the anguish of a great impatience.  I want to fling myself against all brute powers that destroy the life, and break the spirit of man.” - Helen Keller to Eugene V. Debs, 1919 (p. 318)

10.  “It is logical that the United States should do whatever it is able to do to assist in the return of normal economic health in the world, without which there can be no political stability and no assured peace.  Our policy is directed not against any country or doctrine but against hunger, poverty, desperation, and chaos.” - Secretary of State George C. Marshall, 1947 (p. 401)

11.  “The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge natural to party dissention [sic], which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself frightful despotism.” - George Washington’s farewell address (p. 139)

12.  “I did it.  I just went.  My mind just went.  And I wasn’t the only one that did it.  A lot of other people did it.  I just killed….I didn’t know I had it in me.” - Vernado Simpson describing My Lai, 1968 (p. 487)

13.  “If you had a country which was very valuable, which had always belonged to your people….and men of another race came to take it away by force, what would your people do? Would they fight?” - Chief Gall, leader of the Hunkpapa Sioux at Little Bighorn (p. 256)

Thirteen Things to do at the Texas State Fair

(plus a few that I can’t wait to see next year)

1.  Corny Dog - I’ve heard that the corn dog was invented at the Texas State Fair.  Not sure if it’s true, but it was the best tasting corn dog that I’ve ever eaten.

2.  Creative Arts Building, Part 1- How could I pass up this year’s creative entries?  There were amazing pieces of art and I loved how much effort went into displaying the items into different themes and color categories (i.e.  red & green Christmas items together).

3.  Creative Arts Building, Part 2 - Celebrity (local to the area) chef cooking demonstrations - yum! 

4.  Children’s Barnyard - Sheep, goats, and emus oh my!

5.  Freebies/Samples - I’m particularly fond of the samples handed out at the Burts Bees tent. 

6.  Ferris Wheel - It’s reportedly the largest ferris wheel in the western hemisphere

7.  Cotton Bowl - If we had timed it better, I could be there this weekend for the UT/OU game.  Go ‘Horns!

8.  Arts & Crafts Pavilion - the mother-in-law was tired and the husband just ignored my pleas. lol

9.  Concerts - I know I saw them just a month ago, but I would love to see Cross Canadian Ragweed again.  (there are other good bands scheduled too)

10.  Chevrolet Test Drive - you can test drive every car in the Chevy line up.  Again, under different circumstances I would have test drove a car

11.  Fried Coca Cola - No, I didn’t try this, but I was tempted.

12.  Little Hands on the Farm  - This was so much fun for the girls!  They were able to find out about the different activities on a farm. 

13.  Food - I have never seen so much variety of food!  I didn’t get to try anything other than a corn dog, but there is next year…..