This One Is All About Me

This one is all about me. July 30th is my birthday. And I’m 32. Joe says I’m old. He forgets he’s only two months younger than me. So to celebrate myself here are 32 things you may or may not know about me.

1. I’m the youngest of 8 kids–5 sisters, 2 brothers. The baby. The “spoiled” one. The cutest one!

2. I’m a natural redhead. But with each passing year I feel less and less red and more and more brown. And I have a white streak above my left temple. I think it’s kinda cool.

3. Most of my birthdays growing up were spent camping. I remember one year we were in Yellowstone for my birthday. I thought I was so cool.

4. I grew up in a mortuary. My dad was a mortician.

5. When I turned 5 I got black cowgirl boots. I remember going to see my dad at work and showing him my boots.

6. I love to read. My three favorite authors are Helen Fielding, Sophie Kinsella, and Marian Keyes. They make me laugh, they make me cry.

7. My earliest memory has to be when I was about three-years-old. My best friend from birth to 1st grade, David, was at my house. My mom was doing the laundry and I remember being at the top of the stairs and yelling “Mom!” and then David did it too. I got mad at him and told him she was my mom, not his.

8. Basically, I just love music in general. I like many genres and couldn’t just pinpoint a favorite. Although, I’m really wishing I could see the Spice Girls reunion. Seriously.

9. I love TV. The Amazing Race, So You Think You Can Dance, Grey’s Anatomy, B Original, Uncommon Threads… I could go on.

10. I am a big goofball as well. I guess I should admit my boys get a lot of their goofiness from me–but not all of it, Joe. Like the time I was imitating Lord of the Dance while wearing my Docs and gave myself a good ol’ bruise from kicking myself in the ankle.

11. I love magazines. I always have to stop by the magazine rack in the store. There are so many cool things to see and learn from magazines. And they are all glossy and slick. Ahhh…..

12. I burst into song a lot. It’s wearing off on my kids. I love it when I hear them singing to themselves.

13. Sometimes I wish I were born a few years earlier so I could have remembered more of living in the 80s. Seriously. I’m an 80s child.

14. Two weeks before my youngest was born I went to an Erasure concert. Yeah, big old pregnant lady at the concert. I must say, though, that it was the absolutely coolest concert I’ve ever been to.

15. I’m a shy girl at heart. Only these last few years have I shed a lot of my shyness. I’m still pretty quiet, though. I don’t like talking on the phone that much, but I will talk to my mom and my sisters for more than a few minutes. Probably because I miss them so much.

16. When I was younger I wanted to grow up to be either a fashion designer or a TV announcer.

17. My high school mascot was a Red Devil. Oh yeah. We were so cool.

18. My first job was working at a Little Caesar’s pizza with my best friend Khris. Those were the days.

19. I turned 19 in Prague. I hope to return one day. It’s the most beautiful place in the world.

20. I got married when I was 20 (almost 21). Looking back it seems so young! But we were in love and so far so good. It’s been an amazing 11 years with Joe.

21. I’ve done a bit of travelling. I’ve been to most of the western U.S. I’ve also been to Mexico (just TJ), Canada, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary, Germany (well, just the airport in Munich), Hong Kong (airport there too), Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and Japan (and just the airport in Tokyo as well).

22. I’m a night owl. I stay up late then try to sleep in. But it’s hard to sleep in with two little boys. When Sai’s school starts in September I’m going to have a hard time! Maybe I’ll start taking naps with Jay.

23. My favorite color is blue. I like just about every shade of it.

24. I grew up with the sound of my mom’s sewing machine. I got my sewing machine 6 years ago. But I didn’t really use it until I moved to Oregon. I’ve been into sewing a lot this past year.

25. I like doing laundry. I love the smell of fresh hot clothes out of the dryer.

26. I had my first child, Sai, when I was 26. I was plagued by infertility so I feel really blessed to have him and Jay in my life.

27. I cannot sleep unless all drawers, cupboards and closets are closed. There is a story behind this one. Maybe one day when I have nothing else to write about I’ll share.

28. I have recurring dreams (nightmares?) about needing to use a toilet and not being able to find one that is clean, unoccupied, has a door, etc. Needless to say, I have issues with public restrooms. And I usually have wake up and run to the bathroom.

29. I had my second child, Jay, when I was 29. When in high school I vowed to be done having children by the time I was 30. Guess what, I’m pretty sure I’m done!

30. I moved to Oregon shortly after turning 30. Big scary move for me. But it has been really good for me.

31. I really like to cook. I’m not so keen on the cleaning up part.

32. I’m not very tidy. I’m definitely not a neat freak, but I’m not super messy. I just have a pile on the end of the counter, and a pile of my sewing stuff by the table, and a pile of clothes on the cedar chest in my room.

Whew! That was harder than I thought it would be. So there you go. A little bit more about me.

I Think I’ve Worked the Kinks Out…

Jay woke me up at 4:30 yesterday morning. I couldn’t fall back asleep for a while because I was thinking of making bags and sewing. I just wanted to SEW! But I fell back asleep and later in the morning I took the kids to a party with Sai’s old pre-k class. When we finally got home around 1:30 in the afternoon I pulled out the sewing machine.

I think I’ve worked out the kinks in the changing pad. Here is the newest. And don’t you just LOVE this fabric? My sister sent it to me. It’s some Michael Miller. The first picture is the finished bag. The second picture is the changing pad partially open. The third picture is the detail on the pocket.

I used the fusible fleece again. However, I sewed it right sides together and flipped it, then zig-zagged around the edges. I think I’ll use batting from now on instead of the fleece.

I also put together some diaper cases with box corners. I think they turned out really cute, but no pictures.

Gosh, Those Kids!

My five-year-old is quite the character. Yesterday he picked up a 3X5 card that I had doodled on while I was sitting at the computer. I had drawn a few flowers. He then took the card and “wrote” lots of things on it. He wrote his name, a heart, and his brother’s name (backwards: y a J) and told me that it said “Sai and Jay love mom.” Ahhh… Later in the afternoon he got mad at me. He took this card and put and X through his name and said that he didn’t love me any more. It’s kind of hard to read because he filled in the “a”s and the heart. But look how cute the kid is.

And Jay. Man. He suddenly thinks he needs a nap every day. I try to get him to take it right after lunch be he wants to wait until 2 or 3 in the afternoon. Or, like yesterday, at 5 so I had to wake him up. I’m OK with the naps. I would like it if it were earlier because now he doesn’t want to go to sleep at bedtime. Just when I thought we had conquered our bed time battles this happens. The little turkey!

I got the quilt top put together this afternoon. Now I have to decide if I want to try and hand quilt it myself or send it to my sister. Decisions!

Baby Blanket Progress

Yesterday I started work on the baby blanket for my friend. I had actually cut all the fabric months ago but hadn’t started working on it beyond that. Yesterday I got all 32 blocks assembled.

I think they turned out pretty cute. There is one block (top right) that has a spot where four corners meet and I pretty much nailed it on all of them! I laid it all out in rows and have it ready to finish putting together. The white things on the block are sticky notes saying block name (A1, A2, etc) so I wouldn’t lose the placement when I picked it up off the floor.

Today I plan to put all the rows together. (I hope I can nail all the four corners happening when I put the rows together!!) I measured out my fabric last night (my sister Tracy gave me this set of fabric about a year ago) and realized that I have enough for back and binding, but not enough to add a little border. But it will still be cute! I’m trying to decide if I want to send this to Utah to have my sister Carrie quilt it up on her big quilting machine, or if I want to try and do it by hand. If I do it then it’ll be cheaper. But not necessarily done quickly or cutely.

The pattern is called Crazy Eights and it’s from Bits ‘n Pieces.

(Fellow WordPress users: Do you have this problem? I get my post all done and it looks good, then I post it and it has mysteriously made whole paragraphs links. To what they supposedly link to I don’t check. So I go back and fix it, everything looks nice again, post it, then it has a different paragraph linking off to something else. GRRRR!!!)

New Bag, Attempt 2

So it’s done. Finally. Love the colors and the fabric. But I will never try to construct a bag the same way again! I’ve had so many issues with this bag that I’ve never had before. It took two attempts (and lots of seam ripping) to get the straps right. And two attempts on the lining but the lining still has issues. But I don’t care. It’s done. Unfortunately it’s a day late for the contest, but oh well.

The picture isn’t the greatest. I had already transferred my wallet, diaper case, notebook, etc., that I keep in my purse into this bag. So it’s kind of lumpy looking.

Now I’m on to the baby blanket for my friend. And then after that who knows! There’s always more bags to make. And I still haven’t tried the sewing apron pattern I bought almost a month ago. I think my sewing mojo is back. But I just can’t spend the whole day sewing.

What do you think of my new header? My niece Tiffany took the picture and edited it. If you live near Las Vegas call her. She does great work. I’ve got all these great pictures that she took and I just need to get some prints so I can hang them on my walls.

3 Months

The past three months have been quite an adventure for my little family. Life has really thrown us some crazy stuff that we’ve tried to deal with.

It started three months ago tomorrow when Joe had a heart attack. And two months ago today he had double bypass surgery. Joe’s been out of work for three months. And it’s been hard. While he was recovering from his surgery there was so much that he couldn’t do, like pick up the kids, mow the lawn, drive, etc. He was so limited so I really couldn’t get a job to bring in money because he physically couldn’t take care of the kids.

Let me tell you, three months without income is not fun. Not good. Not easy. We had some savings, which is all gone now. We had help from our families (THANK YOU!!!). We had offers of help from friends, but I just couldn’t bring myself to take money from them (Thank you Mindy, Serena & Dan! Your offers really have touched me.). And we had help from our church, which was the hardest help to accept.

And then four days before Joe was to go back to work he was laid off. (As if we hadn’t had enough blows to us all ready!!) He spent two weeks exhausting his contacts, on the phone, driving to job sites in the hopes of getting a job with someone. Today was his first day back working. It’s a relief.

It’s going to take us quite a long while, probably years, to get back to how we used to be. It’s going to be tough, it’s going to be tight, it’s going to be stressful. But look where we are now. We’ve kinda made it. Whew!

———————————————-

Just finished HP 7. I liked it until the epilogue. And since I’ve spent a bit of time reading over the weekend, I haven’t been sewing. So the bag is not done yet. And I’ve got to hurry up and do it so I can start on my next project. My friend April is having a baby girl in early October. But she’s having a baby shower in one month. ONE MONTH! I’ve got her baby blanket cut out. But not put together. I don’t know if I’ll get it done in time to send to my sister Carrie to be quilted. So I might have to hand quilt it.  I’m tired just thinking about it. And now that the cool spell is over and we are back to the heat I’m just not sure I want to be sewing. I’ll leave you with a picture of the quilt top I made while visiting family in Utah. It’s a bit crazy. If it were less crazy I’d quilt this up and give to April. But I don’t think it’s her style.

New Bag, Attempt 1

So I finally had the sewing bug. I wanted to make me a new bag and I wanted to use these awesome Michael Miller fat quarters. Since they were fat quarters I had to try and make something that would utilize them pretty well.

This turned out NOTHING like I pictured. So frustrating. The potential is there. But the strap is the issue. I wanted it wide because the strap is also the sides. But it is too wide and too stiff.

So today I spent more than two hours–TWO HOURS–ripping out the seams. What a pain in the bahookie! This is what I have to show for it.

So hopefully tomorrow I’ll get back to it and make it look good.

Sewing Weather

The weather today is my favorite type of weather! Perfect for sewing. It started raining last night and we had a light drizzle all night and through the morning. It’s nice and cool and perfect. And it’s especially good because I forgot to water the lawn last night so I don’t have to worry about that. Unfortunately, though, Joe washed the truck yesterday. So it’s staying in the garage as long as we can handle not going anywhere.

So the weather is supposed to be cool for the next few days. YAY!!! Maybe I’ll get a few things done on my crafting check list and I’ll feel rejuvenated.

In other news, my little guy, Jay, is so growing up! He turned two last month. And we’ve finallygot him to give up his bottle. I’ve been concerned that he’s not getting enough to drink so I try to offer him water and milk to keep him hydrated. He only gets his pacifier at night. But he does have at least one “fier” crying fit a day. I have to stay firm and tell him no. After about a month I’ll try and go completely fier free. And he’s finallysleeping good! We lay him down for bed all by himself. If he’s really tired he’ll stay in bed. If not, he’ll get up once or twice and we have to take him back. He’s been sleeping till about 4 or 5 in the morning all by himself!! Which means that I’m finally getting some quality sleep myself in my own bed. Ahhh…

So Not Crafty

I’ve been so not crafty lately. My sewing mojo must be off! It’s been a frustrating few weeks here. I think I’ve been trying to avoid issues and I’ve spent a lot of time reading just to not think about reality around here. I didn’t even go to the Sisters outdoor quilt show yesterday! I’d actually kinda forgotten about it until Joe mentioned it Friday night. But I didn’t want to go alone and I don’t really know anyone from around here who is into quilting.

My goal for this week is to MAKE SOMETHING! Either a new bag for me (if I hurry I can submit it to Sew, Mama, Sew!) or to make another changing pad/diaper case.

It’s been hot here. Ick. But it cools off at night so we’ve been spending our evening sitting on the deck vegging out. It’s nice. They boys run around kicking soccer balls, I sit and read, and Joe sits and tries talking to me while I read. Last night Jay was being our little exhibitionist. He wanted his shirt off because he spilled water on it. Then he wanted his shorts off. Next thing I knew he took off his diaper. Then his sandals. He was completely naked running around the backyard giggling.

Today Sai gave a talk in Primary at church. He is so good. No nerves or anything. He just gets up there and says what I tell him to say. He’s just getting so big!!!

Other

I read this in Glamour magazine last night:

“Seven percent of marriages in the U.S. today (4 million) are interracial or interethnic, compared with less than 2 percent in 1970. Study by Stanford University Sociologist Michael Rosenfeld.”

It has just stuck with me. Mostly because Joe and I are an “interracial or interethnic” couple. It’s something that I really don’t think about until someone points it out to me or asks what Joe’s ethnicity is. Should it really matter? No.

And that leads to those stupid ethnicity questions on questionnaires. Most recently when I signed Sai up for Kindergarten. They noticed his middle name, which is “ethnic”, and wanted to mark Hispanic on the questionaire. But I wouldn’t really say he is Hispanic. He’s got me, one seriously white girl, for a mom. When I first met Joe he called himself a Filipxican (Filipino-Mexican) but he’s also part Caucasian. So what does that make our kids? I told the lady at school that if they had to mark anything to mark other. Should it really matter? No. But for them I guess they get special consideration for having non-white kids in the school.

Then I’m totally hypocritical and wonder if people think our kids match Joe and me. When I’m out alone with the kids do people assume that they are white kids? When the boys are out with Joe do people think they are brown kids? I shouldn’t let it bother me but it does because there are people out there who are cruel about things such as this.

Anyway. Just something on my mind.