Hallo again!

It's been over a week since I posted!

I've been busy.
Crocheting, going places, doing things... I had to drive somewhere almost every day last week. I think I listed all of the things I had to do in my last post. They all got accomplished, and they all worked out well.
Even the orthodontist visit. Although that isn't to say it wasn't miserable and painful and all that sort of thing. And then there's the fact that I still have to have these braces for two more years. Blegh. But I'm grateful, so there.

Hey, look! It's me when I first got my braces.
(I just felt like I needed some pictures in this post.)

Our movie night was a blast. It was so fun to see Beth and Katie again. Katie's gone off to college now... But she said we should have another movie night without her, in her honor. I agree.

I like talking about my friends in my posts so that I can tag them on facebook.

It's always fun when you see yourself in someone else's blog... if they're saying nice things about you. Or at least it is for me. lol I have other friends that would probably get mentioned more if they had facebooks so that I could tag them. Like Katey.

With that random little spiel over with, I would like to say that I'm glad to be back at work. This week is preparation time. Woo hoo! I've thrown away all sorts of clutter, and got my cabinets organized and neat. I decorated my door, and got started on a bulletin board. Other than that, I have nothing accomplished. I've got some idea books lying in my room that I've been meaning to look through... Got to get a lesson plan together, you know. I'm pretty good at flying by the seat of my pants (what an odd expression - that's the first time I've used that one, too, I think), but I doubt Mrs. Nancy would appreciate that. :D

I'm looking foward to actually starting with the kids there. I've only got two days a week, and a quarter of what I earn is paying for gas money to get there and back. Lest you think I'm exaggerating, ... well, I'm not. I put gas in the van today, so I know how much it takes, and if it's not a whole fourth of what I earn, it's more. Aaaanyways, I'm obviously not working for the money. I'm working because I love to! And guess what? ....
...
guess again.

My whole class is little boys!! Is that awesome or what?! I'm so excited. I'll have 6 two year old boys. It will be scary, but fun. Mrs. Nancy has labeled my class "Caitlin and the Boys." lol

And because I don't have any pictures of them yet, here's a favorite from the beginning of last year. It's my Rhett-Monkey!! I love that kid so much. He's grown a lot since that pic. I can't wait to see how much he's grown over the summer. Maybe his mom will need me to babysit... lol

Oh, yeah, I think where I was originally going with saying that I'm only working two days a week, was to say that it leaves me free to do other stuff during the week. Like maybe pick up a few babysitting jobs. ;-) And keep my nice little shop running.

It's been running well so far. As a matter of fact,
it's actually been picking up some speed lately. I'm currently working out another trade with Miss Helen from ShereDesign. This time it's for these great little bird earrings.
Her work is so cute!

Okay, I'm done now. I'll be back again someday.
"Hallo" and "love ya!" to all my friends. Enjoy your week. :)
-Miss Caitlin
P.S. I'm reading Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis in my spare time. It's amazing good. Check it out.

I'll teach you how to bowl...

...the perfect gutterball.
I was offering lessons yesterday.
It was ironic, though - when I went to demonstrate my mind-blowing losing techniques, I got a strike. LOL

But yeah, I went bowling with a group of people from church yesterday. I haven't been since I was about 11, so I knew I wouldn't be any good. I had no idea how terribly bad I would be. A billion gutterballs in a row bad. You know, sometimes I take a certain odd, twisted sense of pride in being the worst at something. At least, when it's something of little to no importance.

It really was hilarious, though. I had a blast. I hope everyone else had as much fun as I did. Talking, laughing, and people-watching are the best of sports anyways, and I excel in those. :D

Plus, I can blame my score of 32 or whatever it was on my skirt, right? It was homecoming Sunday at church, and I decided I just wasn't going bowling afterwards. And so when I decided to at the last minute (when I knew for sure how many fun people were going to be there) I realized that people don't usually go bowling in their church clothes. I really wished for some jeans. But that's okay! Laura and I still had so much fun. Thanks to Amber for the ride there, and Matt for the ride home. And to all the crazy people who let me be my weird little self.
... Yay for my friends!

(To those of you who were at church - did the choir sound good? I felt like we nailed our songs, but... when you're surrounded by altos only, it's hard to tell.)

Um... I have lots to do today. Custom orders to work on, orthodontist apptmt at 2... um... well, nothing else super pressing, but that's enough anyways.

Tomorrow is movie night!! YAY! I get to see my non-church friends! ha - that kind of makes them sound bad. I don't have many friends that aren't "church friends," and it's fun to get to hang out with them. We have the bestest of times. Can't wait!

I can, however, wait for Wednesday. Awana kick-off. Not, not, not looking forward to that. Regular old wednesday night club time, yes. Kick-off, no. And from what I've heard from more experienced leaders, I have good reason to dread. lol ... Personally, I think that club should just start. No crazy shindig stuff. Maybe extra candy or points or something since it's the first day. But then, maybe that's the killjoy in me. **evil laughter** Could just be the dislike of mass confusion and chaos. ... I think that's what it is. I'm not usually known to be a killjoy.

I think this is the first time I've ever used the word "shindig" in my blog. And I've been blogging since... let me check... 2004. A lot of you didn't even know me in 2004. ha! Ah, yes... back in the days of Live Joural and AIM, which have long since been abandoned.

So. Now that you know a little more random stuff about me, I will leave you. Do me a favor and find something to laugh about today. (Even if it's me. lol) You'll live longer. ;-)

Caitlin

My Room

This is my room!
(or part of it, anyways.)
Guess who decided to paint it green?
:D

I suppose this picture is a little misleading, though. My room isn't quite this shockingly bright. It's a much tamer apple green. Thank you, editing software. Also misleading is the lack of clutter. Just beneath where the photo leaves off are the peaks of yarn stash mountain, and clothes that haven't been put away. (my honesty really needs to just shut up sometimes.) Just to the left is the edge of my bulletin board, smothered with drawings from my little brothers and sisters, and pictures of my friends.

Speaking of pictures of my friends - see that superman picture under the purse painting?
That's my friends and I posing with the giant Superman in Metropolis. :D

This shot shows the color of the walls pretty well, but the lighting is still odd. The area around the chime by the window is pretty true to life. ... isn't my guitar pretty? It's not really dark red, though...

My own two corners of my little shared room make me very happy. If I could have any type of room I like, it would be awfully similar to what I have now, though more put-together. I would have more pictures, and they would be in a random, but orderly sort of fashion. If that makes sense. Right now my pictures are just hanging from nail-holes that were already in the wall, thanks to my brothers. :P

One idea I've been toying with for a while is making a graphic collage of my friends. I may never get around to it, but it would certainly look neat.
Like take a picture of each of my friends, and make it really different,
like these sorts of photos.
Only not as self-centered.
And I suppose in order for it to look right, I'd have to pick one style.
High contrast color, high contrast black and white, or outline/threshold style. I can't decide which is my favorite. But I'll probably never do it anyways.

But wouldn't it look cool!

In case you were wondering, this is sort of a random post sparked by Abby Clark, over on her blog. I had other things I was going to blog about today, but my response to her post sort of took over. :)
So, I'll be back tomorrow with other cool stuff!
Bye!

Of Life and Leisure

There has certainly been enough leisure time this summer. Strangely enough, it passes by so quickly that it seems I was hardly able to make good use of it. Whether or not that makes sense...

But I'm ready to get back to life full-force. It's all coming up at once, and I'm bracing myself. Not to say that in a negative way. Like when you brace yourself at the top of the first hill on your favorite roller coaster. :P

Laura started school this week. (I believe I'm going to get to do a little chauffeuring now)
This Saturday we have choir practice for our great big homecoming service at church. (I joined the choir. Hoorah! I didn't want to at first, but our new director is great. Singing is fun.)
Awana kick-off is on the 20th. I'm going to be a Sparks teacher! (5 and 6 year olds, I think. Cute!)
Preschool starts back in the beginning of September.

Yes, dear people! The decision has been made, and I am, indeed, going back to work. I suppose my last post on the topic was rather seemed like I was against going back to work. This is not the case. Really, I was just sort of thinking aloud (perhaps a little dramatically?). Anyways, I'm really excited! I'm certainly not going to become rich teaching preschool a couple days a week, but I'm doing it because I love it. We were in a parking lot somewhere yesterday when I saw some little kids at daycare playing outside. It made me so ready to be back!

This has the potential to grow to be a very long post. Hang on.

Yesterday we went thrift store shopping. Fun stuff. For me, anyways. All the little people may as well have been hanging by their toes, they were in such agony. I got two pairs of really nice, brand new jeans. And a little green fondue pot. Which, I admit, is a little pointless. Especially as it's missing it's base. But it's SO cute!! All vintagey, with the different colors on the ends of all the little sticks... lol
Check out the other kitchenware I'm longing for:

Wouldn't these little bowls just be perfect for some beef stew or something?
And then for dessert, you could put a great big brownie (mixed in one of these bowls) in the bottom of these, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, and some caramel sauce that you warmed in this little yellow pot.

And, then there's just the coolest set of Pyrex I've ever seen.
( Oh, the amazing quantities and vast color palettes of Pyrex and Melmac! Oh, how I could just go on and on with the hyperlinks!)

But, you know, perhaps once I'm old and sensible, I would regret owning such fabulous dishes. I would think to myself, "oh, you odd self. Whatever for did you want green and yellow and orange kitchenware?!"

But perhaps not.

I certainly thing my ramble about kitchen stuffs is quite long enough, so let us diversify.

Yesterday, during our travels, I busied myself with reading. My dear Katey left a book at our house, and I carried it with me in case we should stop by. I decided to do a little skimming, and before I knew it I was chapters deep. So now, I highly recommend Not a Tame Lion - The Spiritual Legacy of C.S. Lewis. I'm not a huge-mongous Lewis fanatic, but I do enjoy his work, and I think he was definitely someone to be admired. This books was a great introduction to the man himself, and his... well, spiritual legacy. Certainly more interesting a read than I usually expect to find under the category of "biography." Something in my mind has caused that word to become near synonomous with "boring." Boring it was not. It was full of quotes that made me eager to read the next on my library-list : Mere Christianity. One of such quotes was this,

" Friendship is born at the moment when one man says to another,
"What! You too? I thought no one but myself..." "

I've experienced that number of times! Such wonderful friends have I.
Speaking of friends, I wish a happy 15th year to my dear friend, Alicia.

I like baloney sandwiches and ice skating.

So! Where was I going with this post? ... Sorry, derailed train of thought. ... Um...
Well, I know I was supposed to write about the Prayer Advance. But I thinkI'll pass for now. Perhaps I'll get around to it, perhaps I shan't. Laura wrote an excellent post including thoughts from all of the sessions. Great stuff, you should check it out.

I seem to have completely lost my thought flow here, and this epistle is of sufficient length now anyhow.

I bid you all a happy week!
<3 Caitlin

Update!

So. It's obviously time for an update.
Bullet style!

• Concerning the Extraction of my Wisdom Teeth: Recovery is nearly over. I'm still a little sore, but painkillers and ice packs are no longer needed. And my precious little face never became disfigured. LOL Yay!
• Concerning the Prayer Advance: Amazing. As usual. I have to say, I went with a sort of "I think I'm doing pretty good this year. God doesn't have too much to work on this time..." attitude. Man, it's amazing how blind and prideful we silly humans can be. If you ask God to show you where you need help, he has no misgivings about granting your request. The great thing is, after He shows you how horrible you really are, He's right there to help you fix it. :) (I think this topic is worthy of a whole post, so... perhaps I'll work on that later)
  
• Concerning Etsy: I got my cute little bird ring while I was out of town! and the buttons I ordered! And I'm working on another custom order. Things are going well!
  
• Concerning Birthdays: HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME! I'm 19. The last year of being a teenager. My, how time flies. Only old people are supposed to say that, but it's true. It's definitely strange how time goes faster as you get older.
  
• Concerning Other Random Things: I need to redo my toenails... And I think I'm missing an important bullet.
  

Happy August the Fifth to everyone!