super fast

This just cracked me up!

We were outside , and R decided to flap her arms and run around and was saying "bwaca" "bwaca" at the top of her lungs.

I said "R, you are a really good bird!"

"No, Mommy, I being a hawk!"

Color me corrected =)

little traitor!

I am so glad you all are as excited as I am about these big ticket items! I can't wait to buy a new house...and maybe a new car, but at least this way we won't go broke furnishing a new house...plus we don't want to settle down here. I want to be closer to my family.

Also quickly, thanks for all the get well thoughts. I might try and call a dr tomorrow, I feel like this might be sinus infection instead of cold...it was pointed out to my by Judy, a wonderful quilting co-worker of mine that I sound like an 80 year old man blowing my nose and my eyes seem puffy and watery.

Eh well, Saturday I Was tired of feeling sorry for myself, tired of my clothes not fitting right, tired of being 50 pounds heavier than I was four and a half years ago (pre R) and had realised I am tired of giving myself excuses as to why I am not going out for a walk, or thinking "gee I wish I could go for a hike, but I've never gone before" so what did I do?

Went home from work

Grabbed the girls

and went for a hike!!

Helena has this great mountain in it, it's on the south west side and is considered in town, and is 100% city owned and is a huge hiking place.

This is where we had to turn around and go home. We were out for an hour and a half total, so I think that was probably 50 minutes up, 40 down? I was so proud of R, she only started whine-ing the last few minutes when we were almost to the car and she tripped on every third rock I swear!

sorry I couldn't turn the picture, I loaded it a new way (onto my computer) and didn't have the editor, but this is here where we turned around. my silly girl who says "take a picture of me" whenever I look at the camera was "too scawed" to let me take her picture, so what you don't see is her crying in it...yes, mommy took a picture and made her cry so that I could capture our first hike. Mean mommy; I know!!!

So where does this little traitor thing come into play with my hike story here? on the way up, we saw three dogs (and their owners) the second one was so nice and R got to pet it! she turnes to H (who I am wearing in my wrap facing out) and says "H, this is a doggie, say Dog-gie, hi doggie, I love you, H see the doggie?" then we walk away and what happens? H says "Do-G-EEEEEE!!!" Yes, she did! I swear! And for about a month now she's been saying "dada" and "Dad-EEEE" but no "Mama"or "mom-EEE" nope, nothing! TRAITOR! =)

my new goodies

hey there everyone....I have so much I wish I could show you, but either I can't or...well...the camera is somewhere in the mess of things I threw into two storage tubs when someone came over to fix my dryer last week. and I put them in my bedroom...and covered them up with clean laundry I need to fold....and I emptied out the bathroom. Basically I am starting spring cleaning but the girls and I are not feeling well enough that I can actually DO spring cleaning. I have their room deep cleaned, but then they got to the toys one day when I was napping (well 1/2 napping 1/2 listening to them but don't tell them I wasn't totally sleeping!)

We did get some new goodies for the house! We are waiting on that kitchen table still, we should be close to the end of out 8-12 week wait but it's killing me here! In the mean time we've been saving up for a new bedroom set and an x-box 360 for A and a Wii with the Wii Fit and Just Dance for the girls and I, and a few other things (eventually a bunk bed for the girls and dressers for each of them.) We've been setting aside our tip money which isn't a lot but every little bit adds up. We were almost to the X-Box for A, all his buddies play Halo? and something about war? and he wants to play too. For now he's been going over to friends houses after work which is fine except for the nights I wake up and panic because he's not home and it's like 3AM! (he usually gets off work at 1am so two hours of video games is not actually way out of line, it's not like he gets off at 5 or 8pm!) However, at Costco, I saw something that we had been talking about for YEARS.

I bought a Bissell Pro Heat 2X! We had just talked about getting the pro's in to steam clean our carpets and/or renting the rug Dr from Lowes, but this was a great deal and I couldn't pass it up. Since A forgot my birthday (it was 4/18 I turned 26...and nothing exciting happened) he let me bump it up the list. Since I got that and A's really wanted an area rug for under our new kitchen table, we had already looked at Target (to get prices for after his toy) and ShopKo, both were either decent price but didn't feel good and with a crawler that's a big deal for me, or were nice feel and WAY too expensive....however on our way to milk at Costco he saw it...the rug he wanted....for $99...and it's 7'1"X10'6"!!! SO soft and he picked out the pattern he wants.

So back to saving up tip money, but now that I have A on board (and he realises he'll get his toys faster if he helps me save) we might be ordering our new bedroom set before too long! Oh I love it!

Anyhoo, sorry it's not really an exciting post, if you even read all of it, I am impressed. To the APQ block winners this month, I have not made it to the post office, hopefully Monday or Tuesday I will have those off to you. I'd say tomorrow but it's only open from 8-12 and I work 8-4:30 =) Ahhh Montana!!

well...

friday night sew in

total bust

two sick sweeties

lots of cuddles

one very very tired mommy

and work tomorrow, ughhhh!

a few give aways

I want to make sure you are all up to date on give aways. You may notice I have been entering and talking about a lot lately. Well, A made me promise to cut WAY WAY back on the quiting spending. At least until I finish his quilt. Well, since his is a little ways down the line here (and he wants a rather large one) I am getting my fabric fix via give aways! I have only bought the Village Green BOTM and one kit that I got at 50% off + free shipping....seriously can't argue with that! Especially when it's been something I have been drooling over for about a year now. As soon as it comes in I will take a picture!

I realise it'll be a while before I get to it, but I'm so excited anyways.

In the meantime, I Have A Notion (IHAN) is having their 30 day birthday celebration. I know I mentioned it before but we are close to the end here! you can still enter ALL the give aways. I decided to pick and choose which ones I'd actually get some use out of instead of entering everything and then not knowing what to do with something. there are some I REALLY want to win!

The blog is here
and in case you don't win what you can't now live without, here's IHAN's shop


Secondly, you may not know this, but ever since I spent ages hunting down L'Amour by Sandy Gervais (and ended up getting it for my BIRTHDAY!) I have become a fan of her work. I keep looking at lines of Moda and saying "oh, I have to have that, who is it by?" and about 85% of the time it's Sandy Gervais! her latest line, Frolic is on my list, if I ever get the green light to buy again (yeah I am holding my breath too!) I stumbled upon this post though! a cute little kit featuring her line, and an ADORABLE pattern if I do say so myself! I entered and wanted to pass on the info to you. While I considered not telling anyone, word will get out anyways!

in the next day or two I have more funny girl stories for you!

tottaly random night time stories for you

hey, thanks for all the comments...I have 6 months of secrets but I promise I will post more pictures and tell you EVERYTHING as soon as I get the green light!

I've had a few interesting nights, and I thought you might get a kick out of them! I am laughing about it all now. You might not really care, you don't have to read on, but I am cracking up over here just thinking about them. Here you go:

First up, two nights ago (so Friday night!) R must have taken a nap before I got home. I could not get that girl to bed. Mind you she's sleeping in my bed again but usually falls asleep before I go to bed and we've been fighting a lot less. She's in my room for right now because H has been falling asleep between 8 and 8:30 every night and R has been climbing into her crib to play with her. Sweet, something I love, but at the same time H needs her sleep!! And mommy doesn't want to put H down multiple times a night. So H down in crib, R plays in my room with her Lego's, or dolls, or something until she's tired enough for sleep and falls asleep. Usually about 9:30-10ish.

Anyhoo, R wasn't going down. Finally about 11pm I give in. I have to be at work at 8, I was up at 4am already so this is me up for 19 hours and just pooped! I put in Shrek and we are cuddling in bed and I fall asleep. 3AM I hear a SCREAM from H. I feel something next to me in my bed think "oh good R is asleep too, I will get out smoothly so she doesn't wake up." I go get H, make her bottle, come sit in my chair here, check Facebook, and doze a little but not much. I put H down and get myself a really cold glass of water from the kitchen. So there I am, in my Superman Jamie bottoms (that I shrunk by accident and are mine now but were A's), just finished my glass of water, put it in the sink, about to turn and go to bed (the light above the stove is the only thing on) and my kitchen/laundry room door opens (silently) and R says "Hi Mommy!" like its nothing and I SCREAM "BAHHHHHHHH!!!"

R ran into my room and buried herself under the pillows on my bed. We talked about it, she wanted to build the shelf I bought myself, she shouldn't have done that at night night time, and not without mommy or daddy, but mommy is sorry for screaming, mommy was scared!"

Then Last night I had a wild dream I just can't get over!!!

There I was at work (in what turned out to be my dream but I thought I was really working) normal day and someone comes up to me and says "do you realise a truck ran over someone in your parking lot?" Um...no, so I go to the side door, phone in hand and call 9-1-1, an older model grey/red truck ran over a 20 something male in jeans and a red t-shirt...or it looks red! "Sir, help is on it's way, please stay with us here! I said thinking of the Incident Report Form I would have to fill out and how to get all the witnesses statements too. Ughhh!

Then the young man gets up and starts RUNNING! "I'm sorry I got your daughter pregnant!" she shouts over his shoulder. The driver gets out and grabs a shot gun from his truck and goes running after him....I dial 9-1-1 again "um, there is a man with a shotgun chasing after the guy who was under the truck...we need help downtown NOW!"

la-tee-dah about 5 minutes latter a bunch of 20-30 something guys comes along and reach into the now abandoned truck. Put they pull these huge gun things that you load a tennis ball into the shooting part and light this torch thing on top and when you shoot the tennis ball releases and catches fire and then you have a burning really fast moving tennis ball. So I call 9-1-1 AGAIN "I need you here NOW! here's what's happening...." so I lock the door and tell everyone to stay inside. I stand by the door waiting for officers to arrive trying to notice everything so I can ID people. I look out and see one of my co-workers look around, grab a gun, light his torch thingie and join in. Iwas thinking "DUDE!!! get inside!" but when I yell at him he accidentally pulls the trigger and a fiery tennis ball comes flying at me. It's moving FAST and lands in my neck, on my left side.

I have two choices here, I could leave the ball in and keep it where it is in case they can save me, or rip it out so I don't burn to death. mind you I am terrified of fire...so you can see what I chose to do. I tried to take my apron off and put it in my neck with pressure but everything was like moving in molasses. I thought of the Incident Report, then I thought, "my girls. I wish I could touch them one more time" I let myself imagine stroking their faces, playing with their hair...

...and that's where I woke up!

In order to fall back asleep I had to problem solve what I would do instead of stand by the door. I'd move everyone into the back room, barricade the swinging door, and keep us all together until help arrived.

But I really want to know where that dream came from, surely not Shrek! and I only watched The Nanny before that.

lets see what tonight brings!

easter

Easter was fun this year. R had a blast with it, and H was too young to care either way. I have gobs of pictures of the day but I will just share the best one.
I know it looks like a lot of candy, but really the girls got a lot of clothes in their baskets. H even got two pairs of shoes! most the eggs had $0.30 in them for savings! when we were all done and sitting down watching Monsters vs. Aliens I asked R "How cool was that?" "cool, but next time, more eggs!" well alrighty then! note to self, see if stores have eggs on sale right now!

I got something really exciting in the mail yesterday!
unfortunately I can't tell you a thing about it, but you can see the letter is on "Quiltmaker" letterhead!! (no I don't design...I am not that good....yet!)

Lastly, here's an early birthday present from my aunt:

OK,so I already had the pattern, I love crazy old ladies! and she bought the 1/3 yards at one store and we went to two others, plus the three in my town and couldn't find more so she bought the jelly rolls online. the two mugs are from work and are super close to matching the fabrics so I couldn't resist!!

Too bad she said I had to finish and mail back her quilt before I could start this one. I just have to quilt the border, trim and put the binding on now.

too young to go

There was another tragic accident to hit our town this weekend. It was the first weekend of Spring Break and five high school students died in a single car crash outside of town. You can read the article here. I think the saddest part of the whole thing is what one student said at the end of the article. She said “We’ve been through it, so we know how to help each other through it." (regarding wishing school was in session.)

I wrote this post two years ago about more local deaths, I know a lot more have happened between now and then. In fact, last year in late spring/early summer two boys were killed by a third downtown in a shooting. I think earlier in the year there was a car crash, if not then the year before a few youngsters died in a crash. The teens in this town have been to too many funerals, they know too much loss. The parents in this town have seen too many youngsters die, either their own, friend's children, or their children's friends. It's heartbreaking.

I don't know any of the family's, I might know the teens. They probably have come into my work. I try to connect to everyone who walks through the door, but if you do it more than once in a while I form a better connection. The best I can do at the moment is to play with my children (R's reading and told me "leave me 'lone!" and H is sleeping at the moment). To teach them to wear their seat belts, no exceptions! When they are older, make sure they learn to drive well, don't let them have passengers or be a passenger with a car that has more than one or two people. I'd rather fork over gas money for my child to drive by themselves than for them to get into a car with a rowdy group!

I know I can't protect my girls from everything, there's a lot of bad luck, decisions, people, etc out there but I can teach them to be responsible. I can love them. And I can keep the lines of communication open. My heart breaks for those family's, for the youth of our town, for those young lives lost and unable to live up to the potential they had. I do strongly believe that people are called Home when it is their time but it's so hard to believe that all five of those youngsters were done doing their life's purpose.

Go hug those who you can, tell the people you love that they mean something to you, and...I don't know, do whatever it is you can to help protect our youth! Every time something like this happens I am blown away!

more phd's crossed off the list!

I have crossed off a few more projects from my Projects Half Done list. You might have noticed I wrote "DONE" by a couple of them a bit ago, I just wanted to wait to have a big post about them. All I had to do was bindings on all of these.

First up is the wall hanging I made for Pat Sloan/Moda Bake Shops challenge "Gobble Gobble" All you had to do was make the top, somehow use those hourglass shapes and that top center pumpkin in any size. I made my hourglasses with various backgrounds and every one has a pumpkin print in it, then I found a few pumpkin patterns, made a few up, and came up with this:
I am planning on giving it to my brother's girlfriend (and him but in the horrible event that they break up, for the record, it's hers! Can you tell I like her?) I plan to make a few wall hangings and send them to her and eventually get her a curtain rod and clips to hang and rotate them about.

This is a small cuddle/car seat quilt I made from the ABC panel (it's a little dated but was given to me from someones stash). I was going to give it to a friend of mine but experimented with quilting...I used black thread and traced around the letters, not so easy on my basic pfaff. I am instead going to donate it to Katie's Comforters with a note saying it's use would be either for a child to cuddle with or perhaps for a younger sibling who is a little jealous. I think it's too small for an infant but they can decide that or not. If you want to join the guild, that blog has some information about it. My mom helped the lady get it going and come up with some of the basics of how to get a guild for Children's' Hospital going (if you don't remember my connection and passion for it, read here).

This is also for K (B's girlfriend). It's tree #3. Can you tell how easy and much I love this pattern? It's quilt as you go and if you want it you can find it here. It's easy, quilt as you go, and so easy to embellish. I might make K give it back to me for a little bit if I find buttons of presents like I saw once and said "oh I should get those" but didn't want to spend more than I brought in cash so passed up.

This last one is for my friend K (hmm...good peoples names start with K...among other letters). She and I had children within weeks of each other...her oldest was born after my R, she had a stillborn around the same time my angel who I miscarried in 07 would have been born, her youngest was born just before my H, and she's now pregnant...don't worry I am not joining her on this one....I am thinking one more in like 3-5 years if we are more stable then we are at the moment, or I am happy with these two beauties. Anywho, I made quilts for her two boys (have not finished one but the other is in a box ready to go) so I wanted to make HER one too.

That's a total of 7 down, 3 to go! I am almost done with the quilting on Aunt J's quilt, but ran out of thread (notice a trend here? I think I need to start buying more than I think I will need) and my local stores don't carry the brand she bought for me to use, so she and my Aunt MA had to go out to MA's stores and mailed it to me....more on what ELSE they sent me next time!!

some give aways for you to enter

super fast before I go to bed tonight (R is still playing quietly in bed so I am waiting on her really and playing around online so I don't fall asleep on the couch....again) there are some amazing give aways out there that I just couldn't NOT tell you about.

First up:
http://greenfairyquilts.blogspot.com/2010/03/giveaway.html

Secondly:
http://ihaveanotion.blogspot.com/
they are having a MONTH of giveaways so pick and choose what you are interested in, or enter them all. Each give away is posted on it's own day, but the chances are all open until the end! how sweet is that?

I guess I am going to work on my counted cross stitch while waiting for R to fall asleep. Nothing to bind at the moment, nothing ready to hand applique....and I can't use the sewing machine since it's along the same wall she is sleeping behind. I need to finish those FB sig swap blocks. I have 50/100 DONE, then 25 1/2 way done, and 25 yet to sew. Thanks for the advice on the tool, I am going to keep my eyes open for it!!

March's Friday Night Sew In

I didn't get everything I wanted to done, but have to call it a night anyways. I work at 8 tomorrow and I ran out of my favorite neutral thread. In addition to that, H isn't feeling well, R is asking for attention....I did have about an hour after they went to bed finally. I did manage to fold a little laundry (all the girls stuff) before bed time. Eh....

So here's what I got to tonight for my Friday Night Sew In.:
This is H's Dora quilt to sort of match R's. I can't wait to get them both quilted and show you them in all their glory. This is an over sized toddler quilt, and R's is an over sized twin.Here are some blocks ready for cutting (but got too tired to cut) for next months APQ swap....I still haven't decided if I am going to keep the "twins" or not...I am leaning towards not.
These are the Facebook Friends Signature Swap blocks (and their left-overs) that I got to sewing before I ran out of thread...25 complete, 25 half way there and:

25 cut and marked (except for those top five light leafy batiks) and 25 cut. I need to finish marking tomorrow when I have more patience and then sew them up. I don't think it will take too long once things are marked. The line down the back to get triangles is my least favorite part!

How did the night go for you all?

Don't forget tomorrow (sat) is National Quilting Day!!

no news

nothing to report here, just wanted to say hi.

We bought a kitchen table last weekend. It will be about 5-7 more weeks until we have it, enough time to get the house ready and everything. I am so glad we made the purchase even though my heart was beating out of my chest writing the check. we actually got a really good deal on it, 25% off and we got the table (butterfly pub height) and four chairs, and will get 2 more latter. We also found a bedroom set that we LOVE (OK I LOVE LOVE LOVE! and A likes a lot) that we are saving up tip money for. We are going to wait for another sale once we get the money saved up and hopefully get the most bang for our buck. I need to go back to the store and write down what all we want and how much it is, and then hopefully save that much up and use whats left for some new sheets and maybe fabric for a quilt?

Friday is the Friday Night Sew In! I wasn't able to find a sitter so hopefully I can send R to daycare during the day for a little bit and clean and clean and clean (or maybe just one of those) and she can get worn out so she goes down early, maybe H will go down nicely too! I know I am dreaming here but hey, what else can I do? I am still looking for a sitter for Sat so I can go to Mass without the kid and out to dinner with a friend after, but that's not looking promising either. I like sharing my faith and traditions with the girls, but man is it challenging by myself there. It's also been a long time since I've been to a meal without the kids! I could use some girlfriend time!!

That's about all she wrote for the day, check back this weekend for my Friday and Saturday adventures. Nothing cute to even show you! How Sad!! Eh next time!

lots and lots of pictures

Any guesses who's feeling better? Hint, it's not the under four foot club in my house. Thank you Zicam. We have "Boogie Wipes" for the girls, if you have a chance go look them up, they are available in the baby aisle at Walgreen's for sure. they are like damp saline infused tissues so that lovely coat of crusties you (and more applicably kids) get is so easy to clean off and helps it last longer between wipes/blows AND they are moist so no tears/dry noses. Both girls mind them about as much if not a touch less than regular tissues! SWEET!!!

Here's some fabric I won from Amy/Park City Girl's weekly give away a few weeks ago. I know it'll be a children's quilt, but what it will look like, that has yet to be determined. These are all FQ's!

Here's Feb's Calender Quilt block. Pinks and reds, surprise surprise!

The start of March, I have been using this as a leaders/enders and sewing the strips together every few days. Not bad!

I am a part of the APQ block swap that Ann and others started for all of us who were devoted AllPeopleQuilt.com bloggers and readers but when they made some changes, we no longer had out home base for blogs. We are all trying to stay connected (and I realise like 85% of you are those friends I am talking about) but the place that was just a fountain of ideas, inspiration, assistance, and friendship is gone! Anyways we are (mostly) all doing a block swap, and this months recipients are myself, and Katie. Here are the first two blocks, we each are getting one. Here are the other two, we each again will get one of these. I am half tempted to keep the "twins" every time to myself and make a big quilt with them, but we will see what transpires next month. we are to send two blocks to each recipient each month.

I am involved in another swap too, this months theme is "Home" my persons color preference was green, and I struggled to come up with a block idea that would fit the color, the theme, and the size requirements without too much math (10 " unfinished!) so I made a log cabin (home). Some of my fondest memories from childhood were at a family friends' cabin on Lake Cushman on the Olympic Peninsula/in the Washington State Rain Forest (not to be confused with the TROPICAL RAIN FORESTS like A thought I meant!) I don't know if was a log cabin, but I remember the warmth, the lack of worries and distractions. I had things to explore, adventures to have, books to read, those loop pot holders to make. I remember the cabin was always warm even when it was cool, never chilly even if it was outside but never overwhelmingly stuffy even if it was humid as a hat outside. I hope she likes the block. I hope it's "home" enough.

This is the block I received! This block is called "hearth and home" and I was very very VERY tempted to steal the idea and send it on in different colors.

This is what I have been working on when I can't sew for one reason or another, maybe one of the girls is asleep in the living room (exhausted from all that playing I make them do both together and separately) or R is not quite down and if I were to make any noise she'd come investigate. I once chose one hobby because I was into everything! Quilting is what my heart said I would love the most, but counted cross stitch keeps popping up, even though I am working on hand bindings and hand applique. Oh Well! While I was putting the binding on one of my quilts, R decided she needed to do some sewing. She got to pick a scrap from my scrap bag, and some thread, of course she chose orange and orange so you can't see what her "sewing" looks like but it's a good attempt for three. I want to somehow keep this, its too sweet to toss. I am thinking of somehow mounting and framing, but you really can't SEE what she did. Any ideas?

And lastly, look what H has been working on even though she doesn't feel too good!

Take care everyone, and I will try to share some girl stories and more pics of them with you soon!

country song

I have so much I want to share with you, the great things about R, the new things H has been doing, latest sewing's, some surprises etc but I am tired and have been fighting off that cold that a few of you have mentioned having. I made A pull out the bed from the couch and I have all sorts of pillows and blankets on there to snuggle under. I think I am going to go put on life time or Oxygen and veg. Someone has R for the afternoon, she'll be back in about 2 hours, H is taking a nap, A is dropping off rent (out of town by about 40 minutes down a long dirt road) so I have time to clean, cook, sew, read, or nap. Hmmmmmm.

I feel like my life could be a really pathetic country song right now:
my cars running but making funny sounds
my dryer wont realise the doors shut so it wont run
I keep running out of hot water whenever I go to take a shower (and can only blame A for this one!)
the dishes wont unload themselves and are piling up in the kitchen
my key battery died (what DID people with small children do before keyless entry?)
all I want to do is clean and sew
all I can do is veg
and the Earth keeps shaking and breaking my heart!

actually most of it is more comical than really sad, but still, add a whinny guitar and a fiddle and you've got yourself a country song.

post with pics and stories and projects to come I promise!! Maybe tomorrow, I have tomorrow off!!

Preview of Teen Years with R!

Last night was one of those nights I really wish my man didn't work at night. I could have used a tag team partner! R went down early and I thought she was down for the night, but nope, up at 9 and she kept waking her sister up until 11:30 when I finally gave up and put on Beauty and the Beast in my bedroom and prayed that would be enough to settle R down and she'd fall asleep to it. For the record she did not, but I did, and the house is now covered in sprinkles for A's birthday cake, toys (as usual) and diapers of every size that had been lined up to be a magical pathway from my bedroom to the laundry room.

She's a night owl

I am not

nor am I a morning person

and I do need a nap

so basically I am a sleeper!

H is more like me that way, she is sleeping through the night, and has been since I went back to work, she takes good naps, she goes down at a decent hour (about 9 and gets up somewhere between 8:30 and 10) she sometimes gets up at 6 something to eat and falls back asleep but that's only if she was too tired to eat her whole bottle before bed.

seriously, wrong child up at night!!

But this all did make me think of the teen years to come. Mine were horrible. Oh man was I moody, heck I still am without enough sleep. Just ask A (who for the record is still asleep at 11am and probably will have to be preyed out of bed at 2 so he makes it to work on time!) what a raving b word I can become if I am overtired/stressed/or have not had any down time. And the drive to work doesn't count buddy! unless I take the scenic route, but that's hard to do with only 12 blocks between here and there! But I am in for a rough ride to come I think.

Why do I believe this?

1) R is a night owl and NOT a morning person. She wakes up and wants to be left alone, so she either reads or watches a "show" and needs you to not bug her but be available when she decides she needs something from food, to water, to cuddles, but don't ask if she wants something or you'll get the wrath of her!

2) Back talking. Lordy she's got it down!!

Exhibit A: "R, do you need to change your diaper?" (because of course she'd rather change her own than go on the potty *eye roll*) "No, you go change your diaper!"

Exhibit B: "R, you need to get dressed" "where we going?" "no where, we just need to wear clothes on our bodies" "I no get dress 'less we go to the park" "its too cold/rainy/snowy to go to the park, but lets get dressed" "go to store?" "no" "then I no get dressed."this is why shes only wearing her pull up in most the pics I have of her

Exhibit C: "R, go put your toys in your room please"/"go clean up your mess" "No! You do it!!"

Exhibit D: (my personal favorite) "You need to change your attitude missy" *little foot stomp, finger pointing at me shaking as she talks* "No, you change your add-it-ude" *hands on hips*

Do you know how hard it is to not just laugh at her?

3) She needs "coffee" or at least thinks she does. At least once a day she tells me "Um, I need my coffee" and when I come home from work "you bring me (or sometimes us if shes in the same room as A) coffee?"

4) She's obsessed with Target

5) when we go shopping it's always "oh, I like Dis!" "oh! I like this one!" (thank goodness we don't have to bring much home with us yet shes just appreciating it all but still!)

I am sure there's a million more ways shes like a mini teen. These are just examples from the past 24 hours. She has a ton of sweetness in her too but I wanted to capture this so when I look back in 10 or so years I can say "yup, saw that one coming!"

I have two. girls. who will be teens. Oh man!

*update, its now 12:05AM! and R just informed me broom in hand that it was time to clean the kitchen. GO TO BED CHILD!*

my sew-in night!!

How many of you participated in the Friday Night Sew In? I did! I kept forgetting to try to find a sitter for R and/or H, so I didn't get nearly as much as I wanted to done, but oh well! Here is what I did do:

I made the borders for H's Dora quilt. It's going to coordinate but not match R's. These are 6" finished squares as random as I could make it, and no two fabrics are touching in the finished project. Her quilt has theoretically no two Dora fabrics touching, and has three fabrics, but there are about 4 spots where two fabrics match next to each other. More random though right?

I also made my blocks for Rachel's modern siggy block swap. Anyone else doing that one too? I thought I had a pen to sign them with but I must have either lost it or used it all up and tossed it. Bummer. I still have my Facebook Friends Signature Block Swap to make, I planned to do both but was so sick of it when I was done with these I decided to set the other one aside for a week or so and do them latter.

I made the bindings for the other/last two Christmas tree quilts that I meant to have done by Christmas. Ooops! Hehe I am just ahead of the game for next year! Now why is it that I was so intimidated by binding that I bought that stuff from Wrights? I still use it when I wasn't convienance, but I seriously wouldn't have thought to make my own a year ago!.

I made three of the nine patch blocks for A's Simpson's quilt. Believe it or not the bottom middle block is light blue and the one on the right side is bright yellow, silly lighting and camera! Oh well! I have something like 36 blocks cut out of the Simpson's fabric and will be alternating those with these nine-patches. I think it will be cool! (or hot since I am making it with flannel that he picked out!)

I got caught up on my Calender Quilt, up through last night, I have some strips cut for the rest of the month but couldn't pick any more out.

And that's where I decided to call it a night at 10:30. I got started at about 4 when R was watching Beauty and the Beast and H was taking a nap! Too bad R kept waking H up all evening and wouldn't go to bed until 9:45!!! The two glasses of wine I had were not helping either!

This is what was left at the end of the night that I didn't get to. At least I didn't run out of things to do with a ton of motivation still.

I ended my night reading New Moon. I checked it out from the library and am enjoying it a touch more than book one, but still not totally sold on it. I am almost half way through. What I am enjoying is how easy the books are to read and how I can quickly check into and out of that world. some books I am spending time problem solving and other books I have to work my way into it and then when I am interrupted I have a hard time pulling myself out.

I think next time I might try to get together with a girlfriend and/or send the kids away! One of my friends wants to get together to sew sometime I just need to get a weekend day off and have A or a friend watch R with or without H (since she's still at an easy portable adaptable age)

I hope you all had a good Friday night and Sat day even if you didn't spend it at the sew in!

three phd now DONE

I did a little blog house keeping today. I think I have everyone from All People Quilt here but correct me if I am wrong. I need to go back and read more than the most recent post on many of them, and make sure I am following those on blogger! I also crossed off (so to speak) a few projects from my 6 month challenge!! Hooray!!

I was headed to the post office with two of my winners goodies, and my block lotto blocks, but it was my last stop after Ash Wednesday Mass, and grocery shopping with the family, but somehow R had a little accident in her pants so we just left the store, A paid for everything and we went home. I don't understand what happened because shes still in pull ups, but whatever! I think she must have had a wedgie or something and leaked out one side. Poor girl! I have tomorrow off!

I don't have pics of what I am sending, I sort of want it to be a surprise, I hope the people who get them show the goodies off, but I will tell you a touch about them! Ruth is getting a table runner pattern and a charm pack to start her off with it. Vanessa, I need to get her two half yards of fabric one dark one light to make a table runner I have a cute patten to (I just can't find anything that is perfect ya know? so let me know if theres something calling your name!). I have some beads, and thread, and a few random swatches of fabric for Therica. And lastly for Ann, I have some floral fat quarters.

So here are my finished projects: My Christmas Tree quilt, Binding DONE! YAHOO!!! Not perfect but whatever!

My cousin's Tree quilt, binding DONE! I have my Rudolph quilt in my car, so you have to live without a pic, just know it's done too and I will post a pic of it when I get it!

I am working on my ABC's quilt, I ran out of binding, so add that to the list for JoAnns tomorrow! I wish A had left me R's car seat before he went to work, but I might as well wait until tomorrow and see if I can go all by myself.

I need to get some solid white for my modern siggy swap with p.s.i quilt, here are the two fabrics I have for it. This first one is vivid and charming and wonderful, but is it modern enough?

This second one, I feel is modern enough, but does it pop enough or is it too muted? I could totally use this for something else, but if that first ones too retro/hippy than I have no problem using this second one.

p.s. there's a giveaway over here!

randomness!

I have another post about memories I want to keep from this past long weekend at Nana's funeral and with my family, memories about Nana herself, things I want to treasure but the words just don't seem to do it justice. I am going to leave that post unedited, unpublished, and ready for me to come back to at some point. I want to share more for myself and to tell the girls about her but I am going to have to sit on it and come back to it a few times before it's ready to share. Let me just say she was a wonderful woman!

I took the girls to Mass today. Oh man was that a challenge. R was getting tired, H was fussy and I couldn't figure out why, I was fighting off the beginnings of a migraine, but this was the first time in ages I've been free to go be it because I was at work or A was at work when we only had one running car (YAY FOR HAVING BOTH CARS BACK IN WORKING ORDER!) and I usually came up with enough excuses in the event that I could make it that I figured I'd go today or I'd keep putting it off. There has been a huge part of myself that's been missing-my spiritual side has been lacking and ignored. It was nice to go again.

When we got home, I figured out why H was fussing so much! I had changed her right before leaving for mass and usually she doesn't need a change often. About half way through the services I heard her grunting working on a poop. No biggie, except R had been trying to run in the church so I decided to wait until either after Mass or when we got home to change her. Ended up being when we got home, and when I did, I wiped her poopie bottom and found lots of little irritated bleeding spots. Poor girl!! She didn't have a twinkle of diaper rash before we left or I would not have let her sit in that for a while, but she had a fairly loose poop so owwie. Right now she's diaper less and of course she went tinkle just when I set her down to get a towel for her to play on! oh well! We were going to have pros come in and clean our carpets when we got our tax refund anyways!

R did something that every child I have heard of has done, and scared me to death! Yesterday we were cuddling in my bed watching Cinderella, and I dozed off a touch right before the "Cinderelly Cinderelly night and day it's Cinderelly" song and woke up shortly after it. She wasn't in bed with me! I went to check on her and make sure she was OK, there was very little noise in the house, just H's sweet snoring. R wasn't in her room, she wasn't in the bathroom, she wasn't in the living room, she wasn't in the kitchen, or the laundry room, or on the stairs to the neighbors floor, she wasn't in the front nor the backyard, the garage, the church parking lot with her bike, the park two blocks away! I called A in near hysterics! He had just gotten to work so he came back home and he and I were looking everywhere for her, calling her name as loud as we could without going into panicked voices... He got the idea to double check the girls room, H was still sleeping, and he looked into R's bed, and started laughing! "She's in her bed" "No she's not! I looked there! I am not stupid!" "yes she is! look under her pillow." She was in her bed, under the covers, with the pillow over her head, and about 5 r 6 of her stuffed animals and a few books in bed with her. All you could see was her knee! She NEVER sleeps in her own bed, and she NEVER puts herself down! If every parent I know hadn't been through something similar I'd feel like a fool!

I just read the first book in the Twilight series. My brothers girlfriend (I secretly hope that she becomes more) gave it to me for Christmas saying I HAD to read it! I did, and "eh" is all I have to say. now before you jump to tell me how wrong I am I have heard each book is better than the next and they are meant to build on each otter so the first is full of development and background. I get it and will keep reading, I am just saying without being told that and if I didn't appreciate that information I'd throw in the towel on the saga. I will read it all with an open mind.

Last night I finished the binding on one of the projects I had on my list to finish in the next few months! I finished the quilt for my friend's boys with Rudolph! Hooray! I also started the binding to my ABC quilt and am 1/2 done with the second side of the binding of my cousins Christmas tree quilt. I think once I get the house clean (at least the living room) I will take pictures and rock out the next few!

Speaking of finishing projects,don't forget next Friday is the Friday night Sew-In!

Lastly (since I've rambled enough!) there's an awesome give away over at crazy old ladies blog, I LOVE their patterns! I have one right now and keep looking at like 6 more that I want! check out their blog here http://crazyoldladiesquilts.blogspot.com/ and then see if you want to participate in their give away.

pics will be coming soon, I have to clean and vacuum before I show anything to you!

Goodbye Nana

Nana gave up the fight for breath last night with all her seven children around (most of whom thought she was on the mend and were there to cheer her on/up) last night. Here's a wonderful picture of her with R when she was 2 months old. I have a framed copy on our picture shelves but the glass is broken, I better go fix that soon!

She was concerned about making Hazel a new Night Before Christmas recorded book because I somehow got hers to go threw the washer! Mom reassured her the girls could share and maybe my dads parents, just pop-pop or my parents can do the recording. I know she loved the girls and it was her good friend is who H's name was inspired by (not exactly named after her). Remind me to tell you that story!

Two of my aunts, me, R and Nana, mom

I really hope I can make it to the wake and can celebrate and remember her with my family next week.

pictures of projects

I got my camera, no not the diapers. If dad had been in charge of mailing the stuff it would have been very likely, fortunately for all involved mom was the one who did it. We DID get Simon from McDonald's and he sings "da da da da da I'm lovin' it" and is rather annoying. Mom offered to take it out of the package but we have Alvan here saying "Hello Gorgeous" already, now to see if we can get Theodore! We also got a few clean diapers!

Before I get to pictures and fun stuff, my Nana is in the hospital again, I think this makes it two full weeks now. I am waiting on the latest word on her condition but last I heard they were talking about a ventilator but she was not on it as if an hour after the conversation. She went in last week for a pain pump and they think she aspirated something and that turned into full blown pneumonia. She had a bad bought with it about 5 years ago and hasn't been the same since. She is back and forth better and worse, almost every day. I know this sounds bad but I wish she would just stay bad so they can totally treat her and then get better slowly instead of trying to rush everything. This back and forth is so hard! Mom will call me tomorrow when she's with them. I am getting together a little care package with a card, candy, maybe a game, and hopefully I make it to Costco to send some pics of the girls too to cheer her and everyone around up.

Here is a cute pic of H playing with my old ferry boat toy. I can't believe Fisher Price or PlaySkool made ferry's but here's proof. R was playing with it a lot too, she'd drive my brothers old cars into it, pull them all over the house, and unload them. Poor Grandma and Grandpa (formerly known as MeMa and PePa) are probably still finding cars!

I joined a little one-one Valentines Day swap, and here's my cute little heart quiltlette. It's eh about 14X14 inches, but that's just a rough estimate. This is the project I squared up my HST's for for the first time. I am glad I did! This project had a lot of firsts for me! This was the first time I did a swap, so much fun, I might have to do more. I was able to use just things from my stash so that was really nice. I only spent money on a few FQ's to go with it and some candy from a local candy shop. Then A ate some of the box of chocolates I brought home, thankfully I had bought some Jordan Almonds there too so I sent those and HIS Resses peanut butter hearts heheh! I can get him more latter but I really wanted to show off our cute little candy shop! This was the first time I used normal fabric for the binding, I had previously used Wrights Double Fold Bias for my binding. It's what my mom taught me for my first quilt because she didn't want me to run away from the project (I made and over sized twin for my first one, the post about it is back a little ways). Lastly this was the first time I made a label! Hooray! Finally! I just appliqued it on the back and then did the quilting and stuff, so nothing too impressive. I think it's cool though. How do you guys do labels? And someday I will need to figure out those sleves to hang things.

Before I leave you for the night, here's the month of January for my Calender Quilt. It's missing three days because I don't have enough white on white or cream on cream but I left myself a little note about that so when I do get more I can sew them in. I am doing two at once to see what I like best in the end, one is 1 1/2 by 10 1/2 strips and the other is 1 1/2 by 2 1/2 (finished 1X2) The blue strip is Seattle/Washington themed fabric from a shop hop a few years back and was the day we left for Seattle, the snowmen below it, we opened presents with my parents, the tea cups from the day I went back to work after vacation, the hearts all over are the days I worked on my swap thing (OK I did it a few more days but those I did it more than other days) everything else is just random and what called to me that day.