In Which I Am Crafty

My Grandma Rinehart was crafty.  She made gorgeous quilts, and also crocheted.  She crocheted doilies, doll clothes, anything she felt like really.  She tried to teach me, but to be honest, I didn't really want to learn.  When she passed away, I was the recipient of her crochet hook collection, so I decided to relearn the craft.  I went to Micheal's and bought a book entitled "Learn to Crochet in a Day" (the rhyming was great!), some additional hooks and some yarn.  Working off and on between homework and church work, I finished my first project in approximately 5 months.  It looks like a first attempt at something, but I'm just happy to have finished it:

The second project was a bit easier, pattern-wise.  I made a shawl for my Aunt to have during her chemo treatments.  It took roughly a month to complete:

Most recently, I completed a baby blanket for the soon-to-be born daughter of my pastor and his wife.  The blanket is two sided, which was an interesting concept and usually awkward at best.  It took approximately 2 months to complete, and in my opinion turned out just beautifully.

I've decided that I'm going to start making all different types of blankets to give to our future foster children.  I have been told that sometimes the kids will show up with little more than their clothes in a garbage sack.  I want kids that have been in our house to leave with something that is theirs regardless of what they come with.  I'll post pictures as I get them finished!

Hey! What Happened?!?!

So Saturday night I wrote a lovely post, complete with pictures, and it's nowhere to be found.  Darn Internets - stealing my posts!

Stay tuned for the post to be re-blogged, even the pictures!

Livin' The Good Life

It's been a while since I've really felt like life has been firing on all cylinders.  The past couple days have been just that.  We found a house that we've applied to rent - three bedrooms and plenty of space (more than 1600 square feet) total for nearly $100 less a month than we pay now, plus since there's more space, we can move the last bit of our stuff out of storage and save another $45 a month.  SCORE!

Our desire to rent a house stems from two reasons: 1) our plan to foster parent and 2) Bill's desire to live somewhere that is more conducive to community outreach.  A third bedroom means that we can foster more than one child & gender at one time. While we could foster where we are, we would only be able to have one gender since we only have one extra room.  We also realize that outreach can take place anywhere, we have found that apartment complex living does not make it easy to get to know your neighbors.  With no yards and no porches, no one is really ever outside, and casual conversations don't take place.  We will still have to be intentional about meeting people, but our new location should make those meetings a little more probable.

We're pretty excited about what our future holds, and I look forward to sharing it here!

Good News in the Busyness

Life is pretty busy. It's the last of my classes, tax time (gotta get the church giving statements finalized) and we're trying to find a new place to live so we can open our home to kids that need some love and stability in their lives.

In the midst of all this is my daily battle to make sure I'm not eating too many foods that would make my blood sugar and pressure go up. The stress alone will do that.

Needless to say, I wasn't expecting any good news when I went to the doctor yesterday. I had my routine blood work done last because every 3-6 months we have to check and see if my A1C (a three-month blood sugar average) is in line with my daily readings. The past three months have included Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years, and while I tried to behave, I may have eaten more than I should.

Then I heard the results: all important numbers are DOWN! My A1C had previously been a 6.4, and now it is a 5.9. I did find out that my glucometer is reading about twenty percent higher than it should, so numbers I thought were high are actually right in line.

I couldn't have asked for anything better to come from that visit!

A Monday For the Ages

Before I jump into Monday, a little back story.  Remember this?  It will be important in a little bit.

Yesterday was the first week of the last class of my program.  An instructor was assigned just before IWU closed for Christmas, and in usual fashion, our class rep contacted the instructor to confirm what work was to be completed for the first week of class.  He responsded that he had just had surgery and wasn't recovering as quickly as he thought so he didn't think he was going to be able to teach us.  No biggie - except IWU couldn't make any changes until after we got back from being closed, leaving less than a week for us to know who would be the facilitator.

Once we figured out who the new guy was, the class rep repeated the process - with no response to the questions posed.  So we did our best based on the information we had, and all showed up to class more than a little frustrated on several levels. At 5:55, no instructor.  At 6:00, still no instructor.  Our rep went down to the offices to find out what was going on.  At 6:30, someone got in touch with the instructor only to find that he thought the class was part of an online group, and that he only teaches online.   We all signed a piece of paper stating who was there, and left.  I was home by 7, and in bed before 10, so I wasn't complaining.

I found out this morning (Tuesday is an extension of Monday, didn't you know) that the instructor put a quiz online for us to do.  Also got an email that the powers that be were working on a solution.  The quiz was so simple that my 12 year old nephew could have done it with his knowledge and some minimal Google skills.  We got the solution to the instructor problem was to re-assign the original guy, and then we got an email from the "fake" instructor that he had sent the wrong quiz, and that the right one was now online to complete. .

But before all this drama, came the yelling.  See, when there's no instructor present, adults can air their grievances like, well children.  The lady from the aforementioned post is back to her less than 100% antics.    I don't feel like I ask for much in life, but if I'm going to be in a project team that is going to have my name attached to the final project, I don't think it's too much to see all the pieces before signing off on it.  Such was not the case, and she got into a text war with another group member over her not sending her part to the rest of the team that then ran over into the classroom (finally).

I would like the record to show that I did not instigate either argument, but that it did get to the point that she didn't have anything further to say because my points couldn't be argued really.  "I got too much on my plate already" is not a valid argument, and even worse grammar, no matter how loudly it is proclaimed.

We have seven more Mondays, unless they decide to make us start the class this coming week and tack a week on to the end of the class.  Regardless, it won't be over soon enough, if we have to deal with a person intentionally not giving 100%.

2012 - Really?

Did you thing that we'd have ever seen the year 2012?  I didn't, although I don't know why that is the case.  Apparently when I was young, I never imagined being 34.  Even still, the 2000's were supposed to bring moving sidewalks and hovercrafts - it was supposed to be a time only previously read in science fiction novels.

Instead it's pretty pedestrian.  With the exception of the major technological advances (I remember my high school starting to wire for the Internet during my senior year), life is pretty much the same. We drive cars that are  similar to ones we grew up with, we eat basically the same thing and we learn the same things - although I think kids are learning things a bit sooner.

Maybe we'll get to travel by hovercraft, maybe not.  However, we can continue to work to forward the cause of Christ and His Kingdom.  That task which was given to the disciples more than 2000 years ago still remains in effect today, hovercraft or not.

Drumroll Please!

And here are the long awaited (well, probably not) resolutions being made by me, Kristin Hand:

• Drop the last 80 pounds I want to lose by my birthday (Sept 19).
• Complete the necessary process to become an adjunct instructor for IWU's adult programs
• Complete the necessary process to become foster parents (more on this topic later)
• The perennial resolution of blogging more consistently.  I am going to aim for weekly.
• Get (and stay) current with my Waterline work.  I was handed a job that was already months behind, and have been frantically trying to get things to current.

Please feel free to ask how I'm doing!