25 Random Things About Me January 31, 2009

This is going around Facebook, and I absolutely love reading the lists of people I know. Here is my list:

1. I love to read.
2. I would nap every day if I could.
3. I had my tonsils and wisdom teeth removed within two months of my 30th birthday.
4. I’ve never had a broken anything (beyond heart) or stitches (except for during labor but those don’t count).
5. I used to regularly fall out of my office chair in Rochester because I’m so damn clumsy.
6. I’m a grammar and editing whore…Mr. Turk would be so proud!
7. I cried like a baby when I was 32 and a cap came off my tooth at work. My friend Jakki knew not to laugh and immediately called the dentist for me.
8. I’ve had two cavities in my life.
9. Intolerant people piss me off…really, how does a gay couple’s marriage threaten me or my marriage?
10. I miss my best friend from high school.
11. I would drink a cup of coffee and eat a generous slice of apple pie every morning for breakfast if I could.
12. I nearly moved to Italy with my son for a Roman dentist I was in love with.
13. I absolutely love being a mom, but sometimes I wonder why God let me be a mother when I miserably fail at it sometimes.
14. Even though my brother Jay hasn’t spoken to me in at least 15 years, I brag about his accomplishments whenever I can to anyone who will listen…YES he is an animator for The Simpsons.
15. If I could teach English, History or Business at a community college tomorrow, I would stay up all night long making lesson plans.
16. I love to cook for guests and my family, but can’t make gravy to save my life.
17. I would take a homemade ugly birthday cake any day over a purchased store bought one.
18. I am so proud that I earned two college degrees, started a career, bought a house and had a son all without a man. (Well, a man was involved for the latter but only briefly.)
19. I only completed my master’s degree because a family member showed up every single Monday night for two years to watch my son so I could go to school. They all came to my graduation ceremony too.
20. I am always surprised when my husband tells me I’m beautiful.
21. I was on speed dial with the principal my son’s kinder year.
22. My husband and I don’t share money. Absolutely none.
23. You couldn’t pay me to stay home and take care of my kids all day long. God didn’t build me that way.
24. When Jack wanted to know how babies came out and how babies got in, I told him.
25. I would be happy listening solely to National Public Radio and never listening to music.

I would add one more that I was surprised I didn’t before.

26. I love my step-parents and think of them as bonus parents not as people married to my parents.

We are in the Loop January 29, 2009

The modem is in the craft room, so tonight Jack saw it and noticed that it was from Qwest. The conversation that ensued follows:

J:  What is that for?

Mom: For the internet.

J: ARE WE IN THE LOOP????? WE are IN the loop!

Mom laughed and poked her finger with a stick pin because she was pinning fabric.

Seriously, how does he know all these commercials?

We were in the sewing room because Jack has taken up sewing lately. He has finished two projects, one project each night. His grandmas will be so proud! The first project he wanted to make was a bag which is good because, if there is one thing I can sew, it is bags. He picked out the fabric from the stash, and we designed as we went along.

I thought that it would be really hard for him to sew through his finger, but honestly thought it was a distinct possibility because he is as clumsy as his mother.

He is such a perfectionist which, in general, makes for a very good sewer. He selected a detail stitch for the edge and a straight stitch for the seams. The detail stitch can be seen on the picture next to the finished product.

He threaded cord through the bag and attached a cord lock with my help. It turned out GREAT!! He filled it with candy, and we’ll deliver it to his cousin Ty this weekend.

Tonight he wanted to sew again, and since his cousin Riley was in the hospital overnight to get some tests for his migraines (he is 6), we decided that making him a bed buddy was a good idea. What is a bed buddy you ask? Well, we didn’t know either until Grandma Babs came over last weekend and told us.

A bed buddy is a bag filled with rice or dried beans and sewn shut. Bed buddies can be microwaved for 30 seconds to get warm and are perfect for little boys (and girls) to fall asleep snuggled with. As it turned out, I had one made out of my dad’s sock when I was pregnant because my midwife recommended it for back pain. I think I like Jack’s version better.

Jack selected his fabric, then considered an R applique. I have always wanted to applique, but haven’t tried it yet. Given the fabric was flannel, it was a must for this project if the R was going on. I cut the R and Jack did the rest! I am very impressed at how well he did…he took his time and was very precise.

Because homemade sewing articles from our house also come with tags most of the time, we made Jack a tag too! I didn’t think of it until tonight, so we didn’t get one on the bag. Unfortunately, we don’t have a microwave, so we couldn’t test it out.

Troy got Stratego for Christmas, and we got to play last night. I remember playing my step dad all the time when I was a kid. Troy is really good at it and has some good strategies. I am always amazed at ALL the things he keeps track of in his head like complicated rules, detailed plot points, random musings, everything! He does really, really well in school as well, so I don’t know how the heck he has so much room for all that stuff in his brain!

Oh what fun! January 19, 2009

What a busy weekend we had.

We started with teching in the Pinewood Derby car Friday night. It was running really well and fast, so Jack and Aaron felt confident for the morning’s race.

Unfortunately, Saturday morning everything that could go wrong went wrong. The derby race was supposed to last between 1.5 and 2 hours, but 3.5 hours later we left. It was very painful for everyone, and I think it was really unfortunate for the boys because no one could hardly tell what was going on. Additionally, it seemed as if Jack’s car had been dropped over the night and was running horribly. It was a huge downer for all, but sometimes that is just how they go. Jack and Aaron had a good time working on the car, and Jack has a great looking car as a result.

My cousin Julie and her family – Dan, Maggie and little Owen – came down for the weekend as well. We had a great time swimming and playing Wii at our house. Dan curls, and they brought a game with curling. Unfortunately for Dan, he got stuck on my team. Troy’s team beat us handily two times. Dan and Julie are both allergic to cats and dogs, but they medicated themselves well before coming and were able to stick it out for a good 5 hours before leaving!

Owen kept busy by taking kleenex’s out of the box and dusting which, of course, I encouraged.

Jack has a little crush on his cousin Maggie. Two years ago, they were in my cousin’s wedding together. Maggie took to being smitten, and Jack and Maggie were awfully comfortable in the chair together for much of the evening together.

Sunday morning, then, I made homemade pop tarts courtesy of Chez Pim. We used traditional pie crusts with combinations of the following: Nutella, raspberry jam, lingonberry jelly, chocolate chips and cream cheese. I would make them much smaller next time as a little goes a long way AND it is nice two have two different kinds of small pop tarts rather than one giant one.

Once I started cooking on Sunday, I didn’t stop as I had friends coming over for an appetizer dinner that night. We had crab rangoon (in an open wonton shell), sausage stars (in an open wonton shell), edamame, spinach artichoke dip and assorted crackers, and mini pizzas on whole wheat crusts (tomato, feta and basil was one combination and tomato, arugula and fresh mozzarella was the other combination). These pizza crusts are going to become a standard in my house…I made the boys taco pizzas with them before company came and then polished the other six over the evening. I couldn’t believe how easy they were to make and how yummy!

It was a really fun night and lots of good food! We started the evening drinking mexican hot chocolate spiked with Kaluha or Bailey’s Irish Cream and then switched to wine.

Jack and I both had the day of for the MLK holiday, so we slept in late and cracked open the Wii Fit. That was really fun…Jack is very good at the hula hooping portion. Much better than I am. We took the dog for a nice walk and even went up to Marshalltown to visit my friend Dini with her two baby boys. Jack really was a very good entertainer of the boys.

Addictions and Procrastinations January 13, 2009

I discovered that you can play Shaun White Snowboarding on Wii without the balance board and only the remote. That makes me a LOT better at the game! Jack and I have been playing in co-op mode most the of weekend. I’m able to do loads of crazy things that my body aches just thinking about in real life.

I promised Julia I would sew her a zippered pouch in October. I made one pouch in November, then sewed on the zipper. Then, I had to rip out the zipper and start over. I made another pouch and sewed in the zipper, then had to rip out that zipper. It has been sitting on my craft table ever since. It has been staring at me and flapping its flap at me as if to say you SUCK at sewing in zippers. As a result, I have completely avoided sewing altogther because I feel guilty sewing anything else until this overdue project is in the bag.

Well, last night I finally took my own advice (suck it up, buttercup!) and re-sewed it. It worked very well, and I did a great job (in my own humble opinion anyway). I even successfully recessed the zipper! Now, I can get it to Julia!

Here is a picture of my new lampshade positioned directly over my sewing machine. I’m going to make some beautiful curtains to accompany this. Thanks, Ikea!

It is official and I can no longer act like it didn’t happen. I’m not bloated…I’ve just added 10 lbs (at least) thanks to a variety of things which I will simply call HOLIDAYS! Yesterday, Jack and I found a new sledding hill which made me feel better about the whole thing, but I came home and drank some absolutely fabulous hot chocolate given to me as a gift from a great chocolate shop in New York. I figured if I was going to waste all the exercise, I might as well go big, so I added a shot of Kahlua to it too.

I discovered two great blogs over the weekend while trying to pick out the perfect pattern for a purse to make out of this AWESOME fabric! I can’t wait to find it, but I love it so much that the thought of cutting this makes me nervous.  I found great ideas for mother’s day gifts and great ideas for neices and god-daughter gifts for this year. All these crafting ideas in my head makes me think I am craftier than I actually am.

My Spare Time is one of the blogs you should check out. Tara Whitney Just Be You is another good blog.

Speaking of crafty, Aaron spent all weekend working on Jack’s derby car. (This picture is in the middle of the painting process.) Jack designed the car, Aaron cut and shaped the car, Jack sanded, Aaron sanded, Jack painted, Aaron painted. The big race is Saturday with the weigh in on Friday night.  Thank god we’ve got Aaron because looking at my version of a derby car would not be very pretty.

Here is a picture of one of our family christmas’s. Oh what fun!

Unintended Consequences January 8, 2009

Yes, I know it has been a long, long time since I blogged. I have been enjoying my last three weeks with family. It has been quite nice.

January is in full swing which means we’ve got the Boy Scout Pinewood Derby Race, my cousin and her family are coming down, sledding, a YW gals reunion (hopefully), me working 40 hours per week and, of course, Wii Fit to help with the post-holiday diet.

I’ve been reading Jane Eyre for a couple weeks, and I am really enjoying it. I can’t believe I was 35 before I ever picked this book up. It almost makes me a bit upset my book friends never made me read this before now!

Jane Eyre in combination with my 7:30 am work start time has put some serious crimps in my sleeping time. This morning, I feel asleep on the bus ride in (30 minutes) and woke up two stops past where I should have gotten off! The only reason I woke up was because the hydraulics on the bus were beeping. I know, I’m a loser.

I’m also teaching Monday – Thursday all day long as well which is quite tiring. I’d forgotten. Teaching basic computer skills can take a lot out of a person, but it is quite rewarding as well.

Jack got Shaun White Snowboarding for Wii last night, and it is quite cool! He is loving it and caught on to the balance board movements quite well. I only tried once so far, but let’s just say, I need some practice. It is fun to watch as well.