this is how i feel sometimes

collecting

I washed a load of denim items the other day. While removing stuff from the dryer, I found the leaves in a pocket and the stick at the bottom of the dryer.

For a while a certain little someone used to collect rocks in her pocket and I had to carefully check pockets or else we'd have some stone washed laundry. Apparently she's moved on to more organic matter. 

what do you do

when your mama makes you a totally cool library tote?

Well, you go to the library, of course. Even if you don't really need to because you haven't read all the books you checked out the last time. Especially if a book your mom requested is now available.

Sunday the girls and I tortured Greg, Grandma, and Papa by making them go to Joann's with us to pick out fabric for library totes. You see, if we are going to be using our library card more than the debit card (new personal goal of mine), then you need to do with with style and ease. Those plastic bags the library sometimes has available are 1) ugly, 2) bad for the environment (I care most of the time.), and 3) flimsy for kids to deal with.

Heather's bag has sparkly butterflies and stripes.

Stephanie's bag has Barbie prints. Greg helped her pick out the fabrics for her bag.

Each bag has pockets inside and I made each of them little library card holders - like business card holders.

This would be the reason why dishes did not get done at our house yesterday or much of today. Cuz any reason is a good enough reason!

turn, turn, turn

Through the great bloggy world I have discovered something  that I can no longer live without! 

What is that? You're asking yourself that question right this very minute, aren't you? It's called a quick turn and is simply amazing. 

Previously, when sewing any king of tie, strap, or long piece of something that needed to be turned right side out I would spend forever manipulating the fabric to get that baby right side out. The skinnier the tie, the worse it was. Then I read about the quick turn and had to try it for myself. 

I have to tell you, the angels sang and I was moved to near tears the first time I used it. I was thrilled about how easy it is to turn a tie. 

Here's how to use it (because I know you are on the edge of your seat and can barely contain yourself):

You need the tie/strap that is sewn with right sides together, the appropriate fitting blue tube and corresponding dowel. Push the blue tube into the fabric tube.

Use the dowel to push the fabric into the tube. Keep pushing and bunching the fabric up the tube until it starts to come out the other end.

Keep pushing. The dowel starts to come out the other end of the tube. Grab it and move the blue tube along, moving opposite of the dowel.

Ta da! Your fabric tube has been turned right side out with no tears and minimal effort. Iron the fabric and  you're on you're way to the next step of the project. 

This gadget was about $10 and worth every penny. In the time and frustration that it has already saved me, it has paid for itself. So if you sew, run right out and get yourself one. You can thank me later. Be sure to show me the project you made. 

I'll show you the final pictures of the project that needed a green strap soon. It was for Heather. As soon as I finish Stephanie's I'll post both. 

Oh! You get bonus points if the title of the post made you sing this song in your head. 

best meal ever

I have just had the best plastic meal ever from Burgundy Barns. This is apparently the new eatery in town where Heather works as a cook/server. The ice tea was sweet just the way I like it. The salad and pizza where divine.

a view from the inside

Grandma Smith worked for Channel 8 for many years (twenty something, I think) before she retired. She was in charge of traffic ~ which means making sure commercials are paid for and get placed in just the right spots. From what I hear, she was the best! The news studios were just redone a couple of months ago, getting ready for all the new HD transition. So, while we are on track break, Grandma offered to arrange a tour for us. 

The day started off well. I had to go to a class so I took the kids to Grandma & Papa's. Danny was kind enough to drop the kids off at my class location afterward so we could jet over to the studio in time. It was going to be close timing, but frantic driving was not going to be necessary. That is, until I missed the turn to the street the studio is on. That was the last turn off before the road I was on becomes an arterial thingy and there's no turn off for about 2  - 3 miles. There was some cussing. No problem, I'll just make a u-turn and redo. Until I saw the wreck on the other side of the arterial. That wouldn't do. I called Greg to see if he knew a short cut. He didn't. So I thought I'd make this little loop on streets I knew. I'd be five or ten minutes late. No worries. I just might get some ugly looks from others waiting for the tour. Are you kidding me? Apparently the martians has landed in the middle of the street and everyone was gawking at them and taking tours of the space ship because it took me half an hour to get to the studio! I called Grandma Smith at the time when we were supposed to arrive - no answer. At one point I informed the kids that this field trip might have to be rescheduled. Tears ensued ~ theirs and almost mine. I'm pretty sure my blood pressure was outrageous at this point. Through a series of phone calls I got the message that she'd wait until we got there, not to worry. 

When we got there we found out the tour had started already, but Grandma Smith would just take us around and we'd meet up with them later. So, Grandpa Smith, the kids, and I got the personal tour. We met people Grandma used to work with. We saw sales offices. We saw the master control. The lady running the teleprompter computer was very nice and explained a lot to the kids. I tell you what, you cannot have ADD and work in that room. Holy cow. There was a lot going on in there.

Then we got to go in the studio ~ while they were filming the news! This is where we met up with the tour lady and the other two visitors. I asked if it was alright to take pictures if I turned my flash off. I just meant of what was going on. 

The guide misunderstood what I meant, I think, because at the next break she ushered the kids up to see Charlotte. During a previous break when we first came in Charlotte turned to all of us and greeted us very warmly. She was wonderful to the kids. Later we saw her in the hallway, with her daughter who is around the kids' age, and she was very chatty with the kids.

Here we are watching the newscast. You can see the green screen for the weather in the background. There were two green screens in the studio.

Here Tedd is doing the weather. You can the the monitor over to the right that shows what he's pointing to. I think this amazed the kids the most. It's kinda funny to watch him point to nothing. It must take a lot of eye-hand coordination to do that.

We watched the news for a while, then went around the offices some more. Then went back in the studio. A different set of newscasters were on for the 5:00 news. The kids were getting restless standing there the whole time, so they sat on part of the set that wasn't being used.

Paula was also very lovely to the kids. She was very impressed to hear that the kids watch the news all the time and know exactly who she is. 

After the 5:00 news the kids got to check out the weather computers with Tedd. He was very patient and explained some very cool stuff to them. 

We had a wonderful time on the tour. Being late turned out to be a better deal than if we had been on time. We got a much longer tour since it was Grandma guided and got to meet more people and see more things probably. Grandma was very excited to introduce her great-grandchildren to everyone. I mentioned this to the kids and Heather asked if we should be late to stuff all the time. I told her that being late doesn't always work out well at all.

Thanks Grandma & Grandpa Smith for a wonderful field trip. We loved it!

lunch with alaska folk

Greg's aunt, Esther, was in town from Alaska this past weekend so we met her for lunch with Grandma & Grandpa Smith. The usuals, Danny & Paulette, were there as well as the almost usuals, Wendy & Chris. We don't get to see Esther and Randy as much as we'd like, what with them living almost a country away!

Esther & Grandma Smith

Grandpa Smith

Papa & his girls! These girls are so adorable I could just bite them. Oh, wait, sometimes I do bite their cheeks! How can I resist? I just cannot believe how big they are getting. 

Wendy has been craving tootsie pops & Stephanie had one. She was sharing a little bit with Wendy when Wendy bit off the tootsie part. Shocked, Stephanie was trying to get her to get it out of her mouth. Wendy kept telling her that she wasn't allowed to have it anyway (sticky ~ not appliance friendly) so she was doing Stephanie a favor. 

It would appear that Wendy is craving all things "stick related." In addition to tootsie pops, she has a burning need to have orange creamsicles daily ~ more than one.

all day

I just spent ALL DAY working on a project that I cannot tell you about just yet. I probably could, but just my luck the person this project is for may read this blog (though I doubt it) and then the cat would be out of the bag. Family ~ sorry, nothing for you. I can tell you it involved sewing. I can tell you that I ripped seams out ~ more than once ~ in order to get it just right. That's big because I hate ripping seams, much less multiple times. As soon as the coast is clear I will let you see the picture of my project because I'm pretty proud of this one. 

Just so we're clear, no dishes got done today.  But we did manage to eat a home cooked meal at 6:00! I know. Shocking.

don't wash that pan!

We all know about my love and devotion to doing dishes, right? NOT! I have a great tip to avoid washing the cookie sheet when making frozen fries in the oven.

Tear off a piece of foil long enough to fold over the ends of the cookie sheet. Crumple it up to create peaks & valleys. Put it on the cookie sheet folding the ends over to make it stay.

Place the french fries on the foil for baking. They will not stick to the foil, but will rest on the peaks of the foil. Bake. Salt. Eat. Yummy!

For clean up, roll the foil up being careful not to spill the salt on the cookie sheet & toss the foil. No washing the pan. 

Please disregard my pan that has seen better days. I've had it a long time.

misunderstood

After the dentist appointment on Monday we went to Joann's (yes, I torture my kids with this store frequently). As we were standing in line to get fabric cut Stephanie said, "Mommy, I really need to sit." My head snapped around to look at her more squarely because I was just certain she had just busted out with, "Mommy, I really need to shit" right there were everyone could hear her. And since when is this child allowed to say that word? After a 30 second stare down and processing time I realized that she was having difficulty with her new guard and had not uttered profanity at all. I busted up laughing. I laughed so hard that they demanded to know what I was laughing about. I had to whisper into both kids' ears. Then we were all a hysterical riot right there in the fabric cutting line.

it seems we once again have an abundance of saliva

No, Stephanie is not puckering up to give you a great big smooch. Monday we had a trip to the dentist to get the next installment in the appliance saga.

Stephanie now sports a stylish occlusal guard in the season's newest color ~ clear. 

Last January when Stephanie got her palate expander (not too bad) and lip bumper (sheer torture) her bite was expanded to make room for her upcoming permanent teeth. All in good time too because there would not have been enough room for those grown up front choppers at all! Well, the palate expander left her with a squarish bite. The occlusal guard will now force her bite into a more rounded and natural shape. So you can imagine that it's not too comfortable right now. For two weeks she has to wear it 24 hours a day, except while eating & brushing. After that I think it's at least 12 hours a day. I think it must be hard to sleep in because when I woke her up this morning it was out of her mouth. Either it fell out or she took it out in the middle of the night.

Before her appointment yesterday, I prepared her for the dentist taking impressions. I was mistaken. Impressions would have given an exact copy of her mouth as it is. What good would that do? Yeah, I didn't think this one all the way through. Instead they took measurements of her mouth (painless) and tried on several guards to see which was the right fit for her (again painless). What she cried about was when they put the weird spreader in her mouth that pull the lips back in a very unnatural fashion so the dentist could take photos of the progress of her mouth.

The upside to all this? Well, a pretty curvature of her bite in the long run, of course.

The downside? Some soreness. Keeping track of an appliance when she's eating. And, oh yeah, once more she has an abundance of spit going on in there.  

stop waiting for it to be perfect

Some of the wall areas in our house have been bare for, well, forever.  At first, I didn't want to hang stuff until we painted. Well, we painted years ago. Then I was waiting for the perfect...the perfect what? For this area near the front door I wanted to find a little cabinet. I didn't think I should hang stuff because I wasn't sure how tall the cabinet would be. I found a wonderful little cabinet in an ad for a magazine. I found some cabinets that would do while shopping for other furniture, but they were so expensive. Why can't it cost something like $20-30! That's totally in my budget. Can't you work with me here?

I decided that I do have some perfect stuff. I should just hang it instead of waiting since it looks like this chair will be here for an extended amount of time. This is my favorite chair that is now the wrong color. That's another story.

The grouping by the door bothers Greg because it is not all the same height. If he had it his way each item would hang gallery-style, in a line, marching across the wall. I informed him that I did get out the tape measure and the entire grouping is centered in the space.  

Greg told me that I hung these pictures too low. They're not. They will connect nicely with the chair I have that needs to be refinished & painted that will go under the light switch. I also told him that they should be hung at eye level (the right one is at my eye level - uh, roughly). He scoffed at that statement and asked me whose eye level. Well, not the giant's eye level, mister. 

Can you see the stairway in the mirror? Well, after this had been hanging for about a day Greg thanked me for hanging the mirror at his eye level so every time he comes down the stairs he thinks someone is in the house. Someone his same height and build. This guy would be hard to take if he had to, he said.

I'm tired of waiting for everything to be perfect. It never will be, so I am trying to embrace what is just good. No need for perfection all the time. I hung an empty frame this weekend too. I needed a mat for a photo. When I was buying mats, the store was out of that size. I haven't been to the frame store since. I thought I found the right size at the craft store. Nope. Wrong size. Since I was in the hanging mode, I just hung the frame anyway. It's imperfection will drive me to fix the problem sooner than a blank wall would. We hope, anyway.

If we had good china, I'd be getting that out for dinner tonight!

here comes the sun

I painted this yesterday:

It's quite different from the kinds of things I usually paint. I've had the idea in my head for a while and I just had to get it out. I've been wanting to branch out and try my hand at some different things. Most of the stuff I paint is folk art. I'd like to try to paint some more on canvas. We'll see where this goes. It can't go too far right now, though because I need to get started on painting stuff for a craft show in the fall. I'm determined to finally get my act together enough to be in one.

I'm going to list this on Etsy.

when i should be listening in church

I'm sitting in church this morning and I look over in the general direction of Greg's mom (Greg is between us). Her hands catch my eye. The house lights were off mostly, so I had to do a double take because surely I did not see what I just saw! Oh my! My eyes were not fooling me. I saw this:

So I said to Greg, "Why are your mom's nails green with a shamrock & it's not March?" He leans over and asks her and she says, "Boston Celtics." Huh? Ok, whatever. Last time I checked we didn't live in Boston. After church she tells me that that's Danny's favorite basketball team and they're in the playoffs. He asked her to paint her nails this way. Celtics? What happened to the Bears? Oh yeah, that's football. I've known Danny for a lot of years now and really had no idea he had Celtic love. Just goes to show you can still learn new things about people.

No, Greg, I will not paint my nails orange with the number 20 no matter how much you beg.

cousins

Papa brought Gianna over to play today. Tomorrow, Gianna is moving to San Diego with her mommy. The girls really love to be with Gianna. They take very good care of her like little mommies when they are around her. She is almost three and really talks a lot now. She calls both of the kids Stephanie-Heather.  

It was a very nice morning, so the kids played outside for a little while. Actually, nice means nothing to these kids. They'd be out there even if it was 145 degrees! At one point they were fighting over who got to push her, sit by her, breathe the same air as her, etc. They share toys quite well, but have trouble sharing a cousin. Gianna is oblivious to all this and just flits from one activity to another with two older cousins vying for her attention.

So Heather was pretty mad that she had to sit by herself here on this swing (she got her cousin-partner later on).

Oh! Happy now that she got to spin with Gianna. Ok, well, maybe I had to intervene on this one and tell Stephanie to bugger off.

If Gianna (and the adults) would let them, the kids would carry her around 24/7. Sometimes she is like a little doll to them. If only she would cooperate and let them carry her, stroller her, dress her, feed her....

Still on a bowling high from yesterday, they set up a mini game on the patio. That didn't really work out well because every time the pins were set, Gianna quickly took a ball and knocked them over at close range. Taking turns it not in her game plan.

After a while we came in to play and then had lunch. Gianna loves our assortment of dress up shoes. 

Taking a picture of Gianna is quite a feat! Once you get the camera aimed and ready, then push the button and wait for the shutter to engage, she usually has her head down or has turned around. This happens even when she doesn't really realize you are taking her picture. I have tons of pictures of the top or back of her head! She doesn't pose too well these days either. I had to bribe her with a sucker. Then she gave her cheesiest smile for one picture only. Wouldn't you know it, that was the picture that Stephanie and Heather weren't ready for. Getting her to take another resulted in behavior like this picture. I finally gave up!

Gianna's supposed to be in town for one week a month to visit her daddy. We will get to see her about as often as we used to, but somehow it won't be the same as when she lives here.