The evidence is there

So this morning is rainy and so we are probably going to be stuck inside. I decided to sew the baby quilt strips together that I have been working on. I was ironing upstairs and sewing downstairs to get a bit of exercise (and because my ironing board is attached to the wall in my laundry room and my sewing machine lives downstairs). Anyway, I ironed, sewed, ironed, sewed...then realized...I only have 7 rows, but 8 columns. Where is the missing row???? So I search a bit, but I knew that the quilt looked "whole" this am and so the missing row would have had to come off the bottom or top, or I would have noticed. WELL, luckily I have my blog and I took a "mid-project" photo. I decided, I would take a look and determine from where the missing row had gone.

HELLO - I only made 7 rows. Now that may seem trivial, but the silly thing is a bunch of squares, so the order of nature would only seem right if the end result is a square - agreed? Oh well, I think row 8 is for another day!

Outside my window, AKA Wild Kingdom

Enjoy the picture above, because once I tell the story you might enjoy it a little less!

Tuesday morning we were all in the kitchen when Matthew said, "Hey look at that!"

This majestic bird was sitting on our deck. Initially we were wondering if it was a young bird, because it appeared to have feathers around it and we were unsure if it had hatched recently. Of course it was huge, which really should have cleared that up for us.

Anyway, we started thinking (ok Ken started thinking) that he probably was stopping on our deck to enjoy his breakfast and that he probably had gotten one of the bunnies we have seen in our neighborhood. I told Ken that was all fine, but he had to clean up the mess! During the clean up Ken decided that our hawk had gotten a bird that was protecting its nest as he found shells etc. Additionally, this explained why the small bird didn't get away.

As a child, this probably would have bothered me, but I think my kids are used to the concept that some animals eat other animals (we get Ranger Rick and they don't pull their punches on this fact). Anyway, I liked the fact that my kids still enjoyed nature despite the yuck factor. On the trip to school we talked about all the names you can give to an animal that eats other animals (carnivore, meat-eater, predator etc.) Science in the morning!

Fifth Grade Concert

Yesterday was Matthew's end of the year concert. Yes I did have one little tear thinking of how much he has grown.



Here is a snippet of one of Matthew's songs. I am glad that Ankeny Public schools doesn't take the separation of church and state thing too far. (they are singing a song about the Prophet Ezechiel! They are allowed to learn a lot about different cultures and religions - they aren't banned the way they are in some public schools) BTW Matthew is in the 2nd row, with the glasses, this was the best I could do given the limitations of my camera and the heads in front of me.



I love that Matthew is in the band. Ken and I were both in the band (although he promised to never tell the kids that he played the drums, since I hate the drums). Actually band wasn't my favorite activity, because my good friends weren't in the band, but I think it is a great way for Matthew to meet other kids. I also think it is good to learn an instrument. We now own 2 trumpets....the first one (aka: the practice trumpet) frequently got the mouth piece stuck onto it and the last time Ken tried to pry it off he broke the trumpet. It still plays, but I am not about to ask Matthew to play a trumpet with duct-tape at school and the repair would be more than the trumpet is worth - or pretty close. I bought trumpet #1 for less that it would have cost to rent it this long, so we are still ahead of the game. Trumpet #2 cost a little more, but we have established that Matthew enjoys playing the trumpet and Joel is already chomping at the bit to play it in 5th grade. We have still have paid less than 1/2 for the 2 trumpets than we would have paid for a new trumpet from the music store, and our "new" trumpet can stay at school, keeping it from being banged around back and forth to school...so it is all good! (yeah Craigslist (where I found both trumpets)

Kindergarten doesn't have a concert, so I thought it only fair to show Joel at Matthew's concert. Here he is wondering why Anna got a sucker and he didn't. (I could hardly say, "to keep her quiet".)

What's on the Wall?

A friend in Newburgh is having a baby! She watched Carolyn and Matthew overnight the night before I was scheduled to be induced to deliver Joel and throughout the day while he was being born. So of course I will forever be grateful! The least I can do is pray for her baby-to-be throughout her pregnancy and especially while making this blessed little baby a quilt.

After making several mini-eye-spy blankets as well as an eye-spy pillow and 2 baby quilts I was ready for something new! I decided to go with red - since it is gender neutral and because I LOVED the mini-quilt that I made with some of these fabrics. (scroll to the bottom of the mini-quilt link)

April VBQ (virtual quilting bee)

Another good title would be - Intimidating - yes, impossible - no.



You are going to have to take my word for it that I did what I was supposed to do for the VBQ this month. 1/2 the quilters did the blocks I did and 1/2 did "mirror" blocks. So when put all together, a Snake Charmer's quilt will result.

If you aren't impressed by my blocks - you should be! I am a straight line sew-er, so when I saw that we had to do curves I panicked a bit. Luckily, I had a week to just let the packet set, while I finished preparing for Carolyn's First Communion. By the time I started the blocks, I was ready for the challenge. I did a practice block with my own fabric - which was a GREAT idea. I helped me to figure out how to keep the puckers at bay, which was my biggest fear. I used MANY MANY pins, even below where I was sewing to keep the fabric nice and straight and smooth. My buddy SS told me that when she did a circle once, she put in many little snips on the edge of the seam to help it lay flat, so I did this as well. I am not sure if it was my snips or something else, but the blocks are pucker free!

I would have never tried this on my own, but now that I have I don't think I will be such a curve-a-phobe in my sewing.

These blocks are going out in the mail tomorrow - not risking anything happening to them. I am very happy to have project completion on this one! Glad I didn't have to hire a quilting expert to help me finish these (yes the thought crossed my mind).

Second Grade Sing

The second grade students at Carolyn's school had their musical program today. Carolyn welcomed everyone to the big event. (This picture was "staged" at the end, since I couldn't get a good picture during her actual speaking part, because the 2nd graders were standing in a big circle to start their first song.)



Here is a quick video of Carolyn singing my favorite song of the night. (It is about gardening :) Note her ending gesture - the nail bite (she was a bit nervous).


Carolyn did a great job, as did the sibs....all were quiet and attentive - it might be a first!

Pick your cliche

I am going with All's Well that Ends Well. But you could also choose, You catch more flies with honey than vinegar (that one is courtesy of my husband, who was very nice to the man who originally built us the wrong size bed. I also like Today's Crisis is Tomorrow's Punchline...that works here too.

The nice man who came to fix the error that he had his employee install did a good job and appeared to me to be someone who is just doing his best to run his own business and raise a family. He actually owns a matress that is somewhere between a twin and a full size and didn't realize it wasn't a standard full. This was the first time anyone asked for a full mattress under the twin. After I knew he actually was coming to fix the bed before Carolyn's big day and all our company arrived, I realized that I needed to give him a break. He brought us an entirely new lower bunk and when he left I was pleased.....that's enough for me. Now the girls have room to play in their room...yeah!

Carolyn's First Communion

I think Carolyn had a very wonderful First Communion. The Mass was centered on the First Communicants and their special day. I especially enjoyed when the kids sang their song (We come today to break this bread). Of course asking Carolyn to sing is literally like "preaching to the choir", so she really did a nice job. She brought up the water during the presentation of the Gifts, so that was lovely to see as well.



The Priest and Bishop asked that we not take pictures during the Mass, but luckily we have a parishioner who set up a wonderful photo-op. for the kids the week before the ceremony. She took 5 great shots and her prices were not much more than you pay to print the pictures, so of course I bought every one she took. I don't have those back yet, but am so glad to have had them taken. It was interesting, because it wasn't like in Indiana where everyone came to get their pictures taken in the large group and so I think many people missed out on a wonderful opportunity, since the photographer did such a nice job.



Carolyn's special day was attended by both sets of grandparents, her Aunt Mary and friend Gary, her Aunt Colleen, cousins Nicole and Laura. We didn't get a great family picture because we were staring into the sun, so I won't even post one, since we look rather goofy.



Here is the nice bunch of kids who were in Carolyn's Religious Education class this year. I was able to teach with 2 other super ladies and I think everyone had a good experience. We were able to offer the kids different perspectives and there wasn't a huge pressure to teach if Anna was sick, since the other ladies were there. I also was invited to attend "On a Journey" faith formation that was facilitated by one of my co-teachers. I often find when I volunteer to help at church or school, I get so much more back than I ever need to sacrifice.

Dress rehersal

Matthew is going to summer camp this year. WHOA. Not sure that I am ready for him to be gone for a week. A few weeks ago Ken and Matthew started talking about a regular camp out with his Boy Scout troop. Ken wouldn't be staying overnight, but Matthew would - 2 NIGHTS. I wasn't too thrilled about the idea, but Matthew was really excited about the idea and Ken thought he would be fine. (Ken has many wonderful Boy Scout memories of course.)

Matthew did go and had a great time. Ken took Joel and Anna out to the campgrounds for a quick visit on Saturday and brought the scouts 'smore ingredients. Ken picked him up Sunday morning and they met me in the church parking lot. Matthew was filthy and wearing very "non-church" clothes that were very dirty, but the last Mass started in 10 minutes. I thought he would be coming home in his scout shirt that had only been worn "to" camp and not "at" camp, but it was dirty too. We had to settle for the only clean things in his pack, still not church clothes, but at least clean....lesson learned for next time. Matthew had to go into the men's room and scrub the dirt (and 'smores) off his face. He had a great time, earning his award that allows him to use a pocket knife at scouting events, starting fires and playing capture the flag. (hmmmm let's see he played with knives (and saws/hatchets etc) and fire....I think I would have been REALLY scared if I had know the camp-out agenda)

In retrospect, I think this was camp-out was a great idea, to prep us both for the week he will be gone to scout camp!

The only reason I look happy.....

is because the picture on my blog is an old picture of me and not one taken 10 minutes ago.

Ok - so we bought the girls bunk beds....full size bottom and twin top. I went to a going away party tonight and when I came home the "installers" were still here building the bed. I guess the contractor had put the bed together before putting it in the truck to deliver and they had to take the entire bed apart to get it up the stairs.

So finally the bed is done a bit before 10, and we already put the kids to sleep in other places. Anna is still not asleep as I type because of all the excitement. This is not why I am unhappy....that feeling is because Ken just measured slot the guy built for the double bed (which is coming off Matthew's bed tomorrow when we get him a new one...since he is past the bed wetting stage and Anna hasn't even left night-time pull-ups). Joel is actually sleeping in Matthew's bed as Matthew is at his first Boy Scout camp out.....I digress....a full mattress will not fit in the slot built for the bed. The bed builder's measurements were off by 4 inches.

I certainly thought "wow, the double bed won't take up that much more room than the twin, so glad we decided to do the bigger bed", but I DID NOT THINK, "gosh maybe this guy doesn't know the size of a full size bed and build our bed wrong". BECAUSE WHO DOES THAT? We paid in cash, so you can imagine how high on this guy's list we will be. But I do promise that I am going to do everything in my power to get this fixed (ok mostly Ken's power) -TOMORROW if possible.

You know what really makes me mad....my in-laws are visiting tomorrow and Carolyn's First Communion is next week. I have a million things to do and don't function optimally under situations like this. Do I have time for this? NOOOOOOOO. I am so mad now, I am shot for the night and have a toddler who won't go to bed well until we have everything settled, plus probably a few days....and Ken is in Atlanta next week.

So if I look happy to you, it is only because you can't see me!

March - Virtual Quilting Bee

Mt quilting buddy SS just posted her block of the month, which reminded me that I never did.



I will admit, I had a bit less fun on this one than the month's past, because we were given a pattern to follow. We were supposed to add embelishments, but I have a bit of difficulty with this. Where does an embelishment cross the line into gaudy? Anyway, I placed a trim around the middle box (hard to see in the picture, but it gave the square a bit of depth) and back-stitched the antena.

I went to mail the block during the last few days in March only to find a VERY SMALL spot on one block. I tried to get it out, but no luck. Of course it had to be the antena block that I needed to replace and I also had the challenge of re-aligning the trim on the center block, since it looked so nice on the first try! It isn't as easy as you would think to replace one block since the squares were put together in 3 rows in the beginning! I think doing the repair took longer than making the original block!

(This is actually a picture of the block before I had to replace the antena, but they looked almost identical....the finish product just didn't have the spot. It is funny that the spot occured, because I did the block right away, after getting the fabric and then had it in my office (away from little hands) the entire time...I guess it will forever be a mystery.

Easter Sunday 2010

Here is our lovely (although hard to photograph simultaneously) family



I decided to divide and conquer - here are the boys!


I couldn't even get a good picture of just the girls, especially because I wanted to highlight the dresses they wore. If I tell you they are home-made will you be impressed? Ok - I only did the hem, but their Aunt D. made these dresses as "mock-ups" for their wedding attire. (Aunt D's daughter is getting married in May and Carolyn is a jr. bridesmaid and Anna the flower-girl.) The actual dresses are to be made in silk! (Aunt Debbie is really a wonderful seamstress - when she brought us the dresses to try, she thought I could "finish them up".) I humbly suggested that she help me finish them up on Grandma's sewing machine. I did do the hems - Easter morning of course! For the "real" dresses, Carolyn's will be a bit longer, but just knee length.



We had a nice, laid-back Easter. Our parish is under re-construction, so we had services at the High-school gym. It still was very lovely. The priest joked that someone threatened to turn the timer on the score board when he started his sermon. The kids enjoyed hunting eggs, but the only dying that was done occurred immediately before consumption when the kids wrote or drew on the eggs that were supposed to be dyed. (Note to self, next year boil more eggs.)

In like a Lion and out like a Lamb

March 2nd - 13 degrees (month low temp)




March 31st - 79 degrees (month high temp)