The Sound of Music

Every day we find something new to enjoy about Isabel. She loves getting into small spaces and will sniff at everything! If there is a way into a cupboard, she will find it.

She loves my new brown chairs so much that I had to cover one with a blanket to make sure it stays brown, instead of black from her hair. :)

However, she truly surprised us yesterday. We had just finished saying the blessing for our dinner when we heard musical notes from the piano...ka chink...ka chink...that quickly! Isabel had jumped up onto the piano and was unprepared for it being open. The children usually close the piano when they are finished with their practicing, but Scott, in a hurry to get to another chore, forgot. We sure had an enjoyable laugh at dinner! Isabel? It took her only a few moments to come back into the family room to watch us eat.

Small spaces!

Here I had just received a package of shoes in the mail and there she is, in the box with the shoes still in them. Oh...check out the bags I just finished. That's another story for this afternoon...

Red Purse

A few weeks ago I decided to try out a new purse pattern. My friend Eva was over and she had the pattern in a book and on the cover of the book it looked really cool. So I got everything cut out and then the pieces sat on the counter for a few days. I was actually scared to get started. This purse was totally different from any other I had ever made. It also had strange sounding instructions that were difficult for me to understand. So for a few days I just stared at the cut pieces.

FYI, the exterior fabric of the bag comes from a scarf made of 100% cotton that was given to me by my Mom. She has given me several scarves to see what I can do with them...

The strangest piece to me was the 'u' shaped piece that needed to be sewn between the two side pieces of both the outside and the lining. The exterior also got pleated, but the lining was not. That part I could figure out...no problem.

Once I finally got started, it went pretty well. That 'u' shaped thing though needed lots and lots of pins to make sure I really got it right.

Here is the final result of the exterior before I get the top sewed on.

The pattern called for just sewing in some loops to attach wood handles, and as you can see, I opted for traditional handles.

Then there was the challenge of getting the tops sewed to the base of the bag. What you don't see is that I had to pin and re-pin this three times! It was after the first pinning when I figured out that this was also when I needed to be sewing in the lining. I also learned after this purse was done to iron a little flap on the lining side of the top before any pinning and sewing is done...just a little short cut I learned in the process of the doing.

Here is the final result! This has got to be the hardest sewing project I have ever done to date and I learned a lot in the process. Already I know where I would change things. First, I would make the body of the bag bigger. Second, that 'u' shaped thing has got to be changed! Third, the entire bag does not need to be stiffened with pellon.


So with the things I have learned...I have already cut out another bag, this time a pink and green one.

Valentine's Day 2009

Before you start reading this, Steve had asked me to write about our adventures this year. So I am keeping my promise.

As for Valentine’s Days in general…I have a love/hate relationship with them. Before getting married…I hated them. They always seemed to fall on a working day, so I would be at work and many of my co-workers would get deliveries of flowers and my desk was always blank. I hated the fact that I didn’t have a “sweetheart” that would send me flowers! So I would buy myself a box of chocolates and read a romance novel.

Then I got married. I finally got the flowers and the chocolates, but there was no one to see me get them…except the children…so why was I miffed??…and still out buying myself chocolates?? (I no longer read the romance novels…a good space opera instead).

You had to know these attitudes before understanding the rest of the story!

This year, for Valentine’s Day, Steve was scheduled to be in California for a Dr. Who convention. I totally approved of his going. I even told him he had to. He has been planning this for over a year! I just didn’t connect the dots of the dates at the time that it would also include a holiday. I really didn’t care, but I still went out and bought myself some chocolate (usually my own money and bought at Sweet Indulgence). On the Tuesday before he left, (which was on Wednesday), Steve came home with some cut flowers. They were beautiful and I dutifully put them into a vase and actually kept them near the computer instead of the dining table while he was gone. I have to admit to being kind of sad that I wasn’t going to get a delivery from him on Saturday. A secret dream of mine. That was cool…I could handle it. There are more years to come…but he did remember to get me something for Valentine’s Day.

Okay…now for the fun part of the story. When Steve left on Wednesday, and I knew he was in the plane…I called his hotel and asked them what I could do to have something delivered to his room on Valentine’s Day. They didn’t have anything appropriate in the hotel itself, so I was directed to a company there in Los Angeles that makes and delivers baskets of goodies. I called them and arranged for a bag of goodies…to include some mint truffles (a honeymoon tradition that continues) to be delivered to his room. No problems. I was totally pleased with myself that I was pulling one over on my husband!

Well…Saturday arrives and in the early afternoon I get a call from Steve and he has me go looking in a secret spot for come Sees candy that he hid (YUM), but he didn’t mention anything about any delivery to him. Hmmm…what is going on? After we chatted a bit, hung up…I got to thinking that maybe it didn’t happen? So I called Fanciful again and asked about the delivery…they said that everything went out and nothing came back on the trucks. Oh well…I can’t call Steve and ask him anything…it would totally destroy any surprise that this was supposed to be. So I went to bed.

Sunday morning I get a call from him. The night before, when he was leaving his room to head to yet another event with the convention, he noticed that the message light was lit on his phone. So he called for it and the operator told him it was a written one that he had to collect down at the desk. Why couldn’t he just have voice mail like all other messages? Oh well, it would have to wait until after this last event. It was midnight when he finally got to the desk, and they couldn’t find the message! Everyone looked and it was not to be found! But yet, they remembered seeing it there. So he heads to his room a bit dejected and upset that things are messed up, only to find that my Valentine gift was finally delivered to his room! After midnight…who knew that things could get that crazy!

The sweet part is that he brought home most of the goodies and I got to share in them.

School Projects

When your child leaves a project to the last minute and expects you to make things fine, it can be a major pain.

To start with, a few weeks ago I noticed on Scott’s teacher’s web site calendar, that his mini-book was due for presentation on the 9th of March. I looked up at the calendar (it was the 18th of February) and realized that he had only two weeks or so to completely get this done. When he got home from school that day, I asked him what book he picked out this time (this is his 3rd mini-book). He looked up at the sky and just mumbled a few words and after some specific questions he finally responded that none of the books in Mr. Brown’s library were interesting to him. I then had Scott look at the calendar and let him know that from the fiasco of the last mini-book, he had promised me that all the reading, the writing, and the artwork, was to be done one week before the presentation. That would give him a full week at school to get everything scanned in and the power point ready. That meant that he had to get all this done in only 10 days…and he hasn’t even picked out a book!

Ok…so this Mom sent him upstairs to look at some books in her bedroom. I didn’t think any of them were appropriate, but I wanted him to be the one to decide that. These are books that the children no longer read, but I as a mother was not ready to depart with.

Anyway, he did come down and verified that they were not the right kind of books to review. Instead, we headed up to my library, which is a sitting room off the master bedroom, also being used as Steve’s office. Two of the walls in there are lined with shelves and full of books. Some of those books I have collected over the years are juvenile books. We sat down and went through them. Both he and I vetoed the Little House on the Prairie books. He vetoed all the Star Trek and Star Wars books I had.

We finally got it down to two books, read the synopsis on the backs and he chose Fog Magic. It had only ten chapters and for him that was totally doable.

The process of making a mini-book is that he is to read a chapter, then write a couple of sentences about that chapter…read the next chapter, write some more sentences and so on until the book is finished. Then he is to draw some pictures, one for each chapter and a picture for the book cover he creates. Next he comes up with some questions about the book that he presents to the class when he is doing his presentation. He then gives a prize of some sort to the student that correctly answers his questions.

Well, after some cajoling and begging and threatening to keep his DS for forever, the work finally got done as scheduled, one week before presentation. (He surprised me by wanting to type all his sentences into the computer directly instead of writing on paper first and did it quite well...I didn't know he was typing that well!) I sent him to school on March 1st with strict instructions to get everything scanned in and onto his flash drive (we don’t have a scanner here at home). He comes home on Monday stating that he got the power point stuff all set up and the first picture scanned, but there wasn’t enough time to finish up all the other pictures. And he also came up with 4 of his required 5 questions. That was pretty good, so I didn’t complain about that. Then on Tuesday, he comes home and tells me that he still didn’t get to do any scanning. I’m still not worried as there are still 3 days left of the week. Wednesday, he comes home and said that he had had a substitute, so no time at the scanner at all! Thursday was a field trip day (I had it on my calendar as a completely different day), so that day was lost too! Now I’m panicking! Friday, I was at the school in the morning doing Bank Day hoping to see Mr. Brown…but no…another substitute. I asked Lori, the school secretary, to please notify the substitute that Scott needed time on the scanner to finish his mini-book. Scott got home, no scanning. Me? I’m ticked! All this hard work we went through to get everything ready a whole week in advance and still not done!

So, early Monday morning, I had Scott with me and we camped at the door to the classroom waiting for Mr. Brown before school started. We had half an hour to get the last pictures scanned and into his power point presentation. It took a little longer that I liked, but before I left the classroom, Scott’s presentation was DONE!

He came home from school totally pleased and said that he got more compliments than usual!

There is another mini-book assignment for next month, so Scott has been told that he has to pick out his book this week! We may even spend some time at the library picking one out!

Now…if only we also didn’t have to contend with teaching Stephanie how to make time lines for her projects either! She came to me last Thursday and asked me to look on line in Family Access to see if I could see when her current project was due…tomorrow! Well, short story here…it wasn’t turned in on time, but she had to spend all her spare time this weekend working on it…and even then it wasn’t very good…but she turned in what she had on Monday…

And you wonder why Mom went on STRIKE on Friday!

Root Canal

Yes...I am getting a root canal done today, at Dr. Martin's in Duvall. That's where Dr. Magelsen referred me due to a curve in my roots. It seems that I need a dentist that specializes in doing microscopic dentistry. Joy.

When the assistant called yesterday to confirm the appointment, she asked how I was doing. I told her I was fine as long as I was taking drugs every 8 hours. “What? What? You’re taking drugs?” Incredulity in her voice! “What drugs are you taking?” So I told her I was taking the drugs recommended by both her and Dr. Magelsen…namely 2 ibuprofen and 1 vicodin, as they work together to stop pain. The relief in her voice when she determined that I wasn’t taking something stupid was evident! Then she asked me that if I needed to take them so often, did I want to come in if there was a cancellation? Now, if she had asked me this earlier in the week, I would have tried to work myself in…as it was, with only one day to consider this option, I decided that my schedule was just fine as it was. I had enough of the drugs to last at least two more days…so I was fine.

Let me tell you…taking just the vicodin does NOTHING! But when you combine it with the ibuprofen…wow! It truly makes a difference!

Now…tooth pain and its subsequent root canal are not the only things happening in our lives…but I am not going to take up all my time writing about them unless you ask me to. So here is a list to choose from:

· Stephanie’s infected toe not healing and my taking her to Children’s hospital (it’s a long story that I will probably give the tale when it’s finally over)
· Steve going to Los Angeles, California for a “Dr. Who” convention
· Scott getting Hives
· Not knowing if Steve will have a job next week
· My own inability to find a job
· Eva came over to sew
· Stephanie Ganger and I went to Deseret Industries and found a full “work” wardrobe
· Primary issues (please don’t ask about this one…it can be very confusing even to me…at times)
· Scott finishing his art assignments from school (this is an on-going subject)
· Surviving Valentine’s Day
· Cutting out material for making up several bags…gift bag size
· Working in the yard and trimming the trees in the back…you can now truly walk the path!
· Getting a new rake from Dad (Thanks Dad!)
· Having my brother Doug and his family…and Mom and Dad…over for dinner one night.
· Stephanie starting Young Women…a program at church that started when she turned 12
· Determined to work out at the YMCA 4 days a week
· Cutting out a bag from scarves with a new and complicated pattern…and actually learning new skills in the making of it (this will be an entry all of its own, but wanted to mention it here too as it took me all day to get the thing done!)
· Scrapbooking at a friend’s house
· Baking cookies to give as gifts for birthdays
· Scott’s Cub Scout stuff…he is a Bear now!
· Watching the Super Bowl and cheering on the Pittsburg Steelers, only because we have two of the “Terrible Towels” and could use them to cheer them on
· Getting a cortisone shot in my heel to make the “plantar fascitis” go away (it worked!)
· Reading lots of books from the library
· Making a bag big enough to hold both my calendar and my journal…they each have their own pocket and a pocket for the pencils…I never use ink in my calendar!

Okay…that’s enough…let me know if you want to know the “whole” story of any of the above…