Sew Happy

I'm in the midst of several sewing projects right now. Yesterday, I took a great class at Creative Sewing making this project:



After six hours at sewing class and about three more at home, I finished the skirt tonight. Lucy even got to stay up after bedtime for me to try it on her. And you know Lucy, ever happy to pose for the camera.


Must twirl of course!

Crossing her legs!?! I could have died...



So here's a peek at half of the outfit...I still have the shirt to do, but hopefully that will take far fewer hours...It's very artsy and there's no real rhyme or reason for how to make the "collage" effect on the shirt, so it should go quickly. And score! my husband tracked down a plain white shirt for Lucy (after Target was sold out of white ones in her size), and found one at Walmart for (drumroll...) one whole dollar! The Granimals brand is great! And my husband's even greater for running that little errand for me and coming home with such a find!

And in her royal chariot, it was off to bed she went!

My day in Math Terms

In the interest of making this post a little fun - because my day has been anything but - I'm going to tell you about the events in numbers and loose mathematical terms. I hate math almost as much as I hate having terrible days like this. So, it's fitting...

7:04am - Jason wakes up late, has overslept on a very inconvenient day, no room for error as he's briefing a colornel.

As I'm getting the kids ready for mom's morning out, jack trips on his own feet and takes a terrible fall - the worst fall he's ever had (and he's had a lot)!

one stool +


one clumsy Jack = THIS

(and seriously, this looks WAY better than when it happened. I took this after the doctor's visit when we were home, about 5 hours after the fall. I was too terrified to even think about documenting his bump when it actually happened. But like I said, imagine a large lego, or an Easter Egg works, GROWING OUT OF HIS FOREHEAD IN FRONT OF YOUR EYES!)


He hit his head SMACK head on the edge of this stool. His skin busted, blood is coming out, and I can literally see his head growing what can best be described as a rectangular large lego block. If I wasn't freaking out, I would have taken a ruler to it to determine the depth of this "goose egg." Had to be sticking out of his head at least three quarters of an inch.

I panick. Call the doctor. They say come right in, they'd see him faster than an emergency room would.

I throw them in the car (fortunately we were all dressed for the day) and speed to the doctor's office. I turn on my flashers, as I'm driving about 70 down Airport Road.

"911." What I texted Jason at his meeting.

(Oh, and this is funny - well, not really, but...we're peeling out of the driveway, and Lucy shouts, "Toby!" Yep, my stupid dog is in the neighbor's yard eating something - I don't want to know what. So, I have to slam on my breaks and get Toby in the car and take him back inside. A two or so minute time delay when I was very concerned about time! I thought about leaving him, but we were right near the driveway and I didn't want to worry about how far he'd get being out for over 4 hours)

So, FINALLY, we're back on the road to the doctor's. I should point out Jack has long since stopped crying, and Lucy is reassuring me "Jack's fine!" He's sucking away on his thumb, nodding "yes" in response to my repetitive question, "Are you okay, baby?!?!?"

2 doctors and 1 nurse await me at our pediatrician's office (I LOVE LOVE LOVE them, by the way, they are so fantastic!)

5: the number of times I told Lucy that when we got to the doctor's "I had better not hear a peep out of her, she was to sit in the chair and do whatever I told her to do. No whining or complaining!" (She behaved wonderfully, was an angel - thank you Lord!)

Nurse Theresa cleaned up Jack's head, and Dr. Scott applied some iodine and a butterfly bandage, and assured me that Jack would be just fine. Jack choose the best spot to hit his head, front of the forehead. The crazy swelling was the fluid being released from the blood vessels (Yikes!). They assured me it was fine to drop him off at MMO, which was a good thing, because I had my annual checkup with my OB scheduled in 13 minutes. (Which of course, now I'd be late for. So much for my strategy of scheduling the first appointment time with my new OB, Dr. Conrad - who is apparently WONDERFUL but you wait for the blessed event of seeing him. 'Tis true, I discovered - he is wonderful, but you DO wait- for I was at his office a full two hours and 5 minutes. Not how I want to spend my precious free time, and it caused me to miss tutoring at New Hope today, which I feel awful about. But take two kids under three years to an obgyn for an appointment?!? Can you imagine the questions Lucy would ask. No thanks!)

Okay, a few more numbers for my day:

1: kid who came for tutoring

2: number of kids who did NOT nap today. (so much for tutoring while they nap. Lucy had to stay in her room and play and Jack was confined to his crib to play for 45 minutes while I tutored.)

3: number of caffeinated drinks I've consumed today.

22: seconds it'll take before my worried parents will call about Jack after reading this post.

7: number of babysitters I've called trying to find one available to sit tomorrow night so Jason and I can have a date night. I still haven't found one. (One problem is that tomorrow night is Grissom vs. Huntsville High in baseball, and apparently, it's THE place to be for high schoolers ;-) ahh, those days!)

?: how many glasses of wine I might drink tonight :-)

Hope YOU have had a far safer and less stressful day than me!

My Spring List!

Things I love about Spring!

1. The new blossoms of color and green on the trees!

2. The mild temperatures

3. The fact that I'm very lucky and don't suffer from allergies, so it's a joy to be outside.

4. Wearing sandals.

5. And thus, getting pedicures :-)

6. Jason's garden is starting to grow fresh herbs and vegetables we'll be able to use.

7. I get to plant annuals in our yard.

8. A summer trip is just around the corner.

9. Celebrating Lucy's birthday in April.

10. Longer daylight hours outside for taking family walks after dinner.




Things I don't like so much about Spring:

1. The mild temperatures don't last nearly long enough here in Alabama.

2. I don't have a beetle convertible to drive around in. :-(

3. Swimsuit season is just around the corner - yikes!

4. I have to start shaving my legs way more often than I do in the summer. (Seriously, you don't want to know how long I go between shavings ;-)

5. bugs

6. mowing the grass

7. mom's morning out ends in a few weeks :-(


I can't quite come up with any more reasons why I don't like Spring. So much for keeping things even at ten apiece ;-)

Here are some fun pics to go along with this post. Here are Lucy and Jack's first outings in their "First Spring" season.


Lucy was just days old here. We were home from the hospital and taking a walk in our old neighborhood on Pansy Street. This is a favorite picture of mine just to see how Toby's head is the size of her entire body. Oh, the preciousness of newborns!



This was a weekend we spent in Atlanta last Spring. We played outside at the Rec Center in my mom and dad's neighborhood. Here Jack was enjoying some time with "Papa."



Happy Spring to you! We're enjoying a beautiful day here, hope you're having a great one where you are too!

Monday Meals!

Pasta Carbonara

Check out the link (click above title), and be sure to read the second column, which gives you the stats on my very favorite pasta dish, carbonara style. Yummy? You bet... Good for you? Heck no. I could hardly believe how unhealthy the dish is.

But the left column gives you a much healthier take to try. I'm looking forward to trying this one out!

Happy Monday everyone!

Happy Easter!

1 Peter 1:3

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead..."

Happy Easter! We've had a wonderful holiday weekend. The Clicks' egg hunt on Saturday was lots of fun - the rain ended just in time, although it ended up being a bit hot for my taste.


Here, Lucy and Audrey are playing with the lambs.


and singing and dancing together. So sweet!



Despite Lucy saying that she wasn't going to be scared of the Easter Bunny this year, clearly, she was! Poor baby!



Time for the Egg Hunt! Jack caught right on ;-)





I love this one because Jack's trying to eat his egg, and Lucy's Jolly Rancher is poking out through her skin! LOL!


Typical, there was not one single decent shot of the four of us...This was as good as it got!



"Mmmmmm, chocolate!"

Easter Service was fantastic at church this morning, capped off with an amazing artist who did a very cool painting during the end of the sermon. If you saw it, you know how amazing it was! The coolest part about this painting - and I'm not sure if it's obvious from the photo-but this began as a blank, black canvas. Cash, the artist, created this by painting the "negative" so to speak. He did it in about 8 or so minutes, while John was wrapping up the sermon. It was stationed on something that allowed it to turn 360 degrees, and most of the time Cash was painting it upside down. You couldn't tell what it was until just about when the artist was done painting. It was amazing!

Getting ready for church...



My mom wasn't able to come visit us with my dad this weekend, so here, Lucy was showing her dress off for "Lady."

Isn't this a face!?!






Toby wanted to join the "family pic."

Again, not any great ones to choose from :-)

Tonight, we had our third (or maybe 4th, we can't remember :-) annual Easter dinner with some of our Huntsville friends. This year was extra special, as there were many babies brought to dinner this year! Praise God for his beautiful gift of life and the joy that only innocent babies can bring!

Choice of tables: casual or formal? ;-)

(Oh, how I would LOVE to have a dining room and table that would accommodate like, 16 people. That'd be awesome!)

See what I'm talking about with all these beautiful babies! And one baby - the newest of the bunch, Anna (not pictured), is only two weeks old, so she had to stay away from all these kiddos' germs ;-)



Lucy got to hold Drew - she loved it! And I love that face! Could eat it up!



hehe
Lord, I thank you for a beautiful Easter Weekend! Because of you, I may experience all these beautiful gifts - my loving family, loyal and loving friends, a cozy home, an awesome church home, and most of all, my amazing kids. Glory to God in the highest!

Hodgepodge

I don't have one specific thing in mind for my post today...My head is all over the place, and likely, this post will be as well.

Let's see. First off, I want to post a link to this blog I've been following. I'm so inspired by this woman. Her writing is excellent - a joy to read. Her kids are adorable. But best of all, she has an amazing, Godly attitude toward every challenge and reward she encounters. I love her outlook, and when I'm sour and feeling sorry for myself, I read her blog, and the day's post always has an uncanny way being just what I need to hear to get myself back on track. I can't even remember how I came across her blog - it was through one of my friends' blogs I follow. Click here for "Lots of Scotts."

Jack has been particularly heart-warming and squeezeably cute this week. Perhaps it's the new crop of spring and summer clothes that have him looking so much older. And the fact that he's added a new word to his very small speakable vocabulary - "truck" - also adds to the heart tugs. And when he's in his baseball cap, particularly when it's turned backward, it's a new level of "cute!" His new passion is waving at cars on the road. We were at Bruggers last night, enjoying a lovely evening, and even lovelier ice cream, and he had a blast waving to the cars driving by.

Lucy is all about two birthday parties coming up: Audrey's (this Saturday) and hers (in several Saturdays). She loved delivering her invitations, and she seeks confirmation daily about how she's going to be able to wear her "princess dress" to her party. "Yes, Lucy, you can wear your princess dress." Why does she think I'd object!?! :-) She even wore it last night to get ice cream ;-)

My dad is in town this weekend visiting with us. It's nice to have family around, and the kids absolutely love it! My mom is busy at home doing school work and shopping at the Mart - picking out adorable things for the kids, no doubt. We've got an Easter Egg Hunt to go to today, but the weather is just horrible right now - downpour - so I hope it will let up soon.

Our turkey is thawing in the refrigerator...it's massive, a 22 pounder. We're hosting Easter Dinner here this year, and Jason has taken responsibility for all things related to the turkey. His recipe he chose: "beer-basted turkey" How appropriate! :-) I'm so grateful of his willingness to take charge, and take responsibility off of my plate. Even when it's just cooking a turkey, I'm grateful he's an involved and attentive husband. Love you!

I'm very much looking forward to Easter Service tomorrow. I'm in a new and changing place in my walk with the Lord. It's great. I look forward to tomorrow's special worship and what it represents!

Happy Easter Weekend to everyone!

Rag Quilt, for myself finally! ;-)

I LOVE making rag quilts! The first time I ever made one was when I took the "Rail Fence Rag Quit" class at Creative Sewing in south Huntsville. The class took place at a perfect time for me - one month prior to Lucy's 1st birthday - so, voila! I had a birthday project in mind.





The quilt turned out beautifully, and I loved working with the soft, colorful flannel materials. It's a time consuming project, but not difficult. Although she didn't get much use out of it at one year old, now she's at a great age for using it to snuggle up and watch tv with, and it looks great folded at the foot of her bed.

This one is funny because Lucy and Jack were in the middle of quite an argument here: Lucy was mad because Jack was touching the quilt and she was trying to cover her babies, and Jack was mad that Lucy was screaming at him. So he kept hitting the quilt, which aggravated her even more! LOL! I love the scowls on their faces!



The second time I ever made a rag quilt, I made one for a college friend as a wedding gift. I loved the quilt so much when it was completed, I knew I'd have to eventually make one for myself. Unfortunately, that friendship went quite sour not long after her wedding, and I'm somewhat irritated that I spent so much time and energy on that wedding gift, and I have no idea if she even uses it or likes it anymore since things fizzled between us. I wish I could ask for it back! ;-)

(And if you're wondering what happened, it wasn't any big conflict or fight - nothing like that - I just brought something to attention that I felt was going on, and she didn't like it, and she made it clear she wanted the friendship to end. So it did. And it was definitely for the best!)

But, the point was that I really wanted to make one for my family...a huge, cozy quilt that we can all snuggle under. So, I planned the quilt a few weeks ago, figured out how much material I'll need (LOTS!), and today I took my tutoring money to the store and bought my materials. I looked high and low for affordable flannel fabric, but Sirs selection was dismal, Hancock had a better supply, but they were mostly licensed Disney prints, and online places didn't have enough prints I liked to create 6 color families with two patterns per family.

So, I paid a premium today for my material (the quilt will be the size of a queen comforter when finished. Room for two adults to have plenty, and if I ever wanted to make it a bedspread, it would be an option ;-), and I'm ready to get started! I can't wait.

Here's what the fabric looks like:




These are my color families for red, orange, and blue/striped...






creams, blues, and greens


I think my favorites are the green paisley and the orange fabrics. They feel so soft, I can NOT wait to cuddle up with this blanket! Will keep you posted on the progress!

And for Lucy's third bday, which is right around the corner, I'm taking a "patchwork quilt and graphic tee" class next Wednesday to make her birthday outfit! ;-) Looks very fun!