Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Decorating for Christmas

Well, we're putting up stuff now, but here are some pics from the process. We really do have a lot of Christmas decorations. This was really before everything was out. But, since we didn't host anything, we never really finished making it look nice and it stayed messy. Oh well.   





Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Soccer party




Gracie had her soccer party at Mazzio's a few weeks ago. We were the only parents (I think) who didn't bring gifts for all the girls. It was nice. There was some pressure to play again. Not sure we're going to be able to do that.

Monday, December 5, 2011

Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving was busy, then not. I had a conference for school on the Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday before in Dallas, so I was there. Then I came back Saturday night and Scott, Grace and I went back up to visit his parents Sunday. It was a nice trip, but a lot of time in the car. We listened to Snuff by Terry Pratchett, which was good. We came home Tuesday. Grace went with my mom Thursday to visit her aunt, so we were alone for Thanksgiving day. I worked for about 6 hours at school, then we went to a friend's house, which was nice. I got sick, which sucked. It's the first time in a long time that I've had sinus/allergy crud and I had it bad. I went to a movie Friday and did some mystery shops, then spent a lot of time in bed. It was nice. My sewing machine is finally back in session, so I was able to use it, but didn't really. Gracie had a good time with mawmaw, but we were ready for school to start back.      

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Update

I really am not good at updating this thing during the school year. I'm tired. The tadpole is sucking the life out of me. Not really. Some days I feel great. Other times I feel like lying in bed with the heating pad all day. We had our first bout of cold weather here and we're about to have another. Cold for here is pretty mild for most folks, but we're not used to it.
The tadpole is good. I went to the doctor last week and he was pleased. I've gained 3 lbs. The heartbeat was good. The height of the fundus was good. So I posted it on facebook. We're going back on Jan. 3 to see the ultrasound. Can't wait! Boy? Girl? We don't really care. A boy would be different. A girl would be easier - materials wise because we saved a lot of stuff from Gracie. We're just grateful either way - but we are going to find out. We have to plan!    

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Soccer season

It's almost over. 2 more practices and one more game. It's time consuming and Gracie isn't all that good at it. It's just starting to get cold here. Saturday was our 1st and only early morning game and it was after a cold front had come through. It was miserable. Miserable for us and miserable for them. Gracie loves the social aspect of playing with her friends on the sidelines. I don't think we're going to play again. It's just too much away from home. And with a new baby - probably too much.

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Scarecrow festival

My hometown has a botanical garden-type area called Shangri-la. My mother is a member and she and Gracie go a lot. This was my first time to go. Gracie loved that she got to show me around. We went because it was their annual Scarecrow Festival. Gracie wanted her picture taken with all of the scarecrows, but we managed to get just the highlights.   



 

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Halloween

Thank goodness for dance recital costumes. Hers were so cute last year that we reused them for Halloween costumes this year. We were busy all weekend. It seems like we're always busy all weekend. It was fun. We got lots of candy, which I'm not supposed to eat, but man did I eat the hell out of it. I got away with it for a while, but it started making me sick, so I had to stop. Glorious days, though. 
She was Tinkerbell for the trunk or treat at my mother's church.

She was a zebra for school and on Halloween night.

She was a ladybug for Sunday activities.
Thank goodness for dance recital costumes. Hers were so cute last year that we reused them for Halloween costumes this year. We were busy all weekend. It seems like we're always busy all weekend.

Monday, November 7, 2011

Scrapbook goodies

My mother's church was doing a silent auction and she bid on a basket of scrapbooking goodies for Gracie and me. I'm a little intimidated by it. There's stamps and stickers and some really nice things. Too nice for me and Gracie to be messing about with. Of course, that doesn't stop her. Gracie played with the glitter glue and the roll on glue and the stamps and stamp pads.   


Sunday, November 6, 2011

Crafty update

Well the sewing machine is out of commission right now. Hopefully I'll get that in the shop this week. But I have been crafty. I got some really cute variegated yarn at goodwill and finally started making scarves. They turned out so well. They're skinny, but that's ok. I used this pattern from PlanetJune. The first time I made it, I did exactly what the pattern said, and I thought it was too short. So that one was for Gracie. I made another one longer and thicker for her teacher. Then I used another type of yarn and made it thicker. Instead of a foundation chain and a single crochet over it, I did 5 layers of single crochet then went around with the scallops. The purple ones are for Gracie and Miss May. The other ones are for friends. I made one for my nephew too. I ran out of the variegated yarn, so I used bits of yarn I had that was of similar colors to the varigated yarn and faked it. It turned out well, but was messy while I was making it. 
My faked varigated yarn
close up of the faking

The real variegated yarn.


Pretty purple for Gracie and her teacher and others. 

Monday, October 24, 2011

What a difference a heartbeat makes

We heard the heartbeat and everything just melted away. All the stress, the uncertainty, the angst about everything - gone. It's there and it's real and God willing, in May we'll have another beautiful baby to enjoy.
It's unexpected but not unwelcome. I had my surgery at my age so that I could get pregnant again. We had several years of not getting pregnant, then we had to wait 18 months - so no guarantees. We weren't expecting it so soon, either. But here it is. No period since August. Crazy dreams, sore boobs, cranky, hungry. I haven't gained any weight, but boy have I been eating. I had to find a new doctor because I'm considered high risk because of the surgery and God led me to a good practice with people who have had patients with gastric bypass before. So we're waiting. Next month there will probably be another heartbeat. In 2 visits we'll start the ultrasounds. We're still cautious and optimistic. And happy! Gracie knows; our parents know; some friends know. How to announce? When to announce? Facebook? I thought that once Gracie knew everyone would know, but she's been keeping it under her hat. We'll see. So we're praying about the baby's health. We're praying about the money thing, because God knows we need some more of that.

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Parent-teacher conference

We had Gracie's first p-t conference. It went well. We had concerns about her behavior - she never has any comments on her behavior chart, and we wanted to make sure she was being good in class. But her teacher said she knows when to be quiet and when she can talk. She said she obviously loves school, which she does. Another concern we had was that she was bored in class because she had covered this same curriculum in pre-school. But her teacher said that she doesn't finish early and takes her time. We forget that she has a summer birthday and is younger than the rest of her peer group. She needs that time to develop more fine-motor skills, like writing her name, etc. She counted to 59 without messing up. Her only S- was for writing her name, which she does pretty well now. We got a math program for the computer that they're going to start soon. So overall, good. We're proud of her for doing so well!  

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Bedtime Prayers

I read a prompt tonight at midweek asking about who taught you to pray. I think most of us just pick it up as we go along, but I've made an effort to pray with Gracie at bedtimes. At first I taught her a simple prayer "Dear Jesus, be with  . . . .. . . and be with me. I love you, Jesus, Amen." She repeated it after me until she got it down, then she said it. Then she wanted me to repeat after her, which I didn't want to do, so I prayed silently while she prayed out loud. Then she wanted to know what I was praying about, which was her, so she made me pray out loud. So I laid hands on her and prayed out loud,"Dear Lord, Thank you so much for this wonderful blessing you've given to us. Please help Scott and I be the best parents we can for her. Be with her this week at school. Help her to be humble and strong. Lead her to be your servant. Be with her teacher and friends at school. Be with her future spouse and his parents. Help them to raise him to be a wonderful, Godly man for her. Be with her future teachers and help her to have a great week." Of course, she loves that. Now she prays for me in a similar fashion. She'll latch onto me and ask God to be with her "wonderful, wonderful, mommy." And she's really ad-libbing some good stuff in there. Such a sweet girl. Then we pray about her daddy and whoever else is on her list.

Solutions

I finally found a solution to my issue of not being able to do the corners of a wrapped binding. For my quilt, I really fudged it, but I knew for my placemats I couldn't do that, so I've been trying to find a solution. I asked a friend at school and she gave me a very complicated way to do it, but of all places, I found the solution in a quilting book I picked up at the library. I was reading it at the beach and flipped to the back and there it was.   After I already ruined the fourth of a set. Those will be a decoration for myself, but I have started on the gifts and of course, my sewing machine isn't working. I'm going to replace the needle and get new thread and see how it works. The thread is breaking at the top, then breaking at the bobbin. My mom came over and futzed with it, but it's still not working. It would be more efficient to hand-sew at this point, but I'm not patient enough for that. I am hand quilting around the leaves and hand sewing the corners (which look great - yah), but hand sewing the whole binding? I will if I have to, but machines are so nice and convenient for those long, tedious jobs. Again, it's not like it's a quilt; they're relatively small, but still. Machines.        
These are the ones I ruined. Pretty though!

This is not the good way. This is one way I tried that ruined the project. Do not try this at home. :( The good way is more of a foldover, then trim, then fold the sides in. Easy to wrap my 2-D brain around. 


Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Giveaway wins

I won this package from Sarah, all the way from England. She is a self-described flosstitute and fabric floozy. Her blog is http://craftymoo-sarah.blogspot.com/
Here is the whole kit and caboodle - minus the chocolate bar that is in the freezer. 


Close up of a buffalo? pencil and key chain, a handmade, handwoven tweed card from the Outer Hebrides?, some Harris tweed handmade in the Western Isles by Violet and some gingham ribbon.

Some hand dyed fabric - Silkweaver Rock Quarry 28 ct Lugana and 28 ct Jobelan, some Lavendar Castile Soap, a stitch-n-mark bookmark and some Western isles notecards. So generous!






















I also won Meljean Brook's new book called Demon Marked. I read her Guardian series and this is the next one. It's not the absolute one everyone is waiting for, but I can't wait to read and see how the plot progresses.  

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Overdue finishes and starts

This is totally cute and complicated and 3 pages long. Not going to be finished  this year,for sure. I told myself that I can start something new when I finish the first page. I'm further along than this right now. It will be really great, though.  

Completely pitiful. This is the only Christmas thing I've started and finished. 

Monday, September 26, 2011

More from church

In SS we talked more about the lessons. From Matthew 21:23-32 There was the parable where the father asked the first son to work and he said he wouldn't, but he ended up doing it; then the father asked the second son, who said he would, but ended up not doing it. I think I got something different from this. Jesus seemed to say later that the prostitutes and sinners were the like the second son and would get into heaven because they professed, even if they still sinned; and the religious leaders were like the first son, who did the good works without the faith. I didn't understand what Pastor was getting at during the discussion, but when we came back to it later on, he brought up James - good works without faith are dead. I kind of see this in my own life as well. I say no a lot as my first response when people ask me to do something, and sometimes I end up being able to do it because my schedule opens up or something else, where if I believed that God wanted me to accomplish this thing, I would accept on faith that God would make it easy for me to do.
In Matthew 3:1-2 and Luke 3:7-18, the people were asking John about the way to righteouness - if it wasn't enough that they were descendants of Abraham, that we go to the right church or that we have been Lutheran all of our lives - what was enough and it's repentance - like to the people in Ezekiel. Turn away from your stiff necked attitude, stop blaming others and take responsibility for your actions - turn away from your path of sin and toward God and His path. We need to humble ourselves before men like Christ humbled Himself on our behalf.
Another part later in Ezekiel 18:21 talks about the mercy of God - if a wicked man turns away, he will live. But also - if a righteous man turns wicked, he will die - his good deeds won't be remembered - like the first son -
Back to Matthew - is it easier to correct the "no" and still go do it or the "yes" and don't follow through? Pastor brought up sins of commission vs. sins of omission.
Then he brought in Philippians 2:1-18 - and those of us with a concordance Bible realized that it took almost as much space for the concordance to explain what Paul means as it took for the book itself. Oh Paul and those Lutheran theologians. But your relationships can't work if your relationship with Christ is messed up. Someone brought up that relationships were like shoe laces, for them to work, you have to keep tying them together.

And lastly we talked about the difference between contributions and giving sacrificially. Chickens contribute to breakfast; pigs sacrifice for breakfast. It's easy to give money once or twice for a cause; it's harder to cook a few meals or help someone around their house or drive them around. More food for thought.    

   

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Productive Saturday

So are these kids going to be like, "hey pretzels, cool," or "bitch where's my cookie?" 

Yesterday was pretty productive for me. We had soccer, then we went to a family birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese, then I came home and cooked. I made stuff for Scott, stuff for me. I baked those soft pretzels for Gracie's snack day at school, made naan. Then I quit. I was childless but no one was available to play, so I watched all 3 volumes of Life of Mammals and graded papers. Beavers are amazing. It's good to be alone sometimes, right.    

Church

Again with the not updating! Lazy, tired and not much to add.
I went to church today alone after a 2 week hiatus. Scott is miserably sick and Gracie was with mom, so I was flying solo. Amazing how much I could pay attention and take notes!
The sermon today was over Ezekiel 18, where the Israelites were in Babylon and feeling self-pity and blaming their ancestors for their predicament. They quoted the proverb about how the fathers eat the sour grapes and the sons have their teeth set on edge. Their ancestors sinned against God and they are punished for it. God told them not to use that proverb. That He had a solution for them - to repent and turn away from their ways and He would create a new heart and a new spirit in them. He will give us a new heart and a new spirit. We have new opportunities to change. It went along with the children's message as well. If you keep running into the same obstacle, change your way of moving, turn away from that path. The Israelites were wanting to blame their ancestors, blame God - anyone but themselves - Jesus took the blame on the cross, so that renewed, strengthened by God's power, we are able to turn from our path.
There's more - I'll write it later. Naptime!    

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Gracie's nightmares

1st nightmare - Mawmaw took away her to-go cup and she woke up crying.

2nd nightmare - Something about cake at my birthday party.

Such a hoot! There are certainly worse things she could be dreaming and nightmaring about. Lucky us and lucky gal!

Friday, September 16, 2011

A few days at the beach

When we were little, my family and my cousins, aunts and uncles all rented a beach cabin each summer and spent the weekend. It was a very fun, special time. Last year, we went to spread my uncle's ashes and agreed to do it again this year. It was a really nice time. Some people could only come Friday night and some only Saturday, so we all had some time together and came in shifts. It was fun. It's nice to see our babies play together.
  
Me and tired Gracie. I'm so cold natured that I have to wear a jacket at the beach!

My cousin's baby. She's a mess! She was so tired when we were playing at the beach. She was sandy and unhappy so I was feeding her grapes and popcorn. The next day I was feeding her grapes and cheeze-its, and she went to get the popcorn from someone's bag for me to feed to her. Such personality!  


Cranky Brado! 


Me and cranky Bailey

Mimi and Brady


Thursday, September 15, 2011

Update

I haven't had much to update. We're getting into our school schedule. Gracie seems to love kindergarten. She talks about all of her friends. She likes soccer. We're doing that 2x a week. We're doing Mid-week church one night and dance another night. We're trying to go to the Friday night football games, which are fun. Last weekend, she wouldn't let me leave in the 3rd quarter because she had found a friend to play with. She was a cutie!
School for me is going really well, knock on wood. These are the kids and these are the parents that spoil us for every other year. I tell them to do something and they do it. Today was a dream and it was a lab day. Hopefully tomorrow will be just as good.  

Soccer day

Gracie's first soccer game was Saturday. It was a busy day for us. Soccer, then we joined the rest of our extended family at Crystal Beach. But soccer first. I think Gracie had fun. She ran with the girls after the ball. But again, not so great at it. There is at least one girl on their team who knows how to go after the ball, and she scored the goals. But boy was Gracie cute! They took pictures and she hammed it up for the camera.  Such a doll! Mawmaw and Pawpaw made a special trip back from the beach to watch her in her first game. That meant a lot to her.