Sadness

Today was a sad day. There were moments of happiness that shone through the sadness, but it was still a sad day.

Mike's cousin, Matt's funeral was today. The talks and musical numbers were beautiful and moving.

There was a quote on the back of the program that makes me tear up a little everytime I see it, because it applies not only to Matt, but to our Colton who is also missed very, very much.

Don't cry because it's over.

Smile because it happened.

~Dr. Seuss

So here's to trying to get back to somewhat normal, hopefully smiling, and praying there is no more sadness for a long, long while.

I'll Try

I'll try not to complain about moldy wet boxes. I'll try not to complain about having only 16 days to pack before we move. I'll try not to complain that "life is hard and I hate working out and I'm tired and my ankle hurts".

I'll try not to complain, because it can always be worse. Case in point: My sisters-in-law, Lola and Diana, had the local sewer back up in their basements, through no fault of theirs, and dumped around 200 gallons of sewage on them. YUCK!! I don't think I could even deal with something like that! (Oh, and Lola, I know we offered to lend you our steamer when it gets here...but it says it won't come until the 18th of February!! Sorry!)

I HATE WATER!!!

I was going to start packing tonight, since I only have 16 days now until we move. I went into the storage room, thinking we had boxes in there. Nope, I put them out in the storage closet outside.

Went out to the storage closet. It was kind of dark, and the light above our parking space doesn't quite work as well as it should. I grabbed a box. It felt wet. I pulled it out. Yep. The roof had leaked during the torrential raining period last week, and not only did it leak all over anything that wasn't covered, but anything touching the back wall of the storage closet got wet. GREAT!! Thanks for telling us when we moved in to tarp our items so they don't get ruined! OH WAIT! YOU DIDN"T TELL US THAT!! UGH!! (I think I'll leave a note in there for the next tennants, so that they can be prepared and tarp their belongings. Sad thing is, we have a tarp, but didn't know we needed to cover everything up.) :(

So, instead of bringing in 1 or 2 boxes to pack up, I emptied the storage closet completely so that the boxes could dry. I am astonished at how much stuff I actually fit in that tiny closet, and there was still leftover room, but now that it's all in my kitchen....I'm wishing it could have stayed outside.

The kitchen is starting to smell like drying mold. YUCK! I'm probably going to have to throw most of the boxes away, and buy new ones. Especially the dishes boxes. Not sure I want to put clean dishes in a moldy box. Doesn't quite seem like a smart idea to me. Anyone know where they sell boxes for cheap?

Moving

Found out today that we're moving the weekend of the 14-15 of February. It's the 28th of January. Yeah, I have 2 weeks to pack everything up. Oh so fun! Also, I have to work the 14th (Valentine's day) at the floral shop. So....Mike might be moving everything himself...or hopefully with the help of my dad, my brother (and maybe a couple of cousins). Or, we might just have to move on Sunday. YIKES! Oh so fun!! :) Yeah....I'm not a little stressed or anything now. NO, not at all!

The Story of the Ever-growing Pants

See these pants? I love them. They are Levis. I bought them at Sam's Club on Christmas Eve for $18 without trying them on. yes, I guessed my size. Yes, I wore them around the house for 3 hours with the tags still on hoping that the tiny size 12's would expand so I could breathe! They did.

Well, I love these jeans. They are so comfortable, and make me feel good, which is what a good pair of jeans should do.

These jeans seem to be ever-growing and expanding. I put them on one day, and they almost fell off my butt. I have to keep pulling them up every 5 minutes because they are falling off my butt. I can't wear belts because I am belt-tarded. Being belt-tarded means that I have difficulties getting the belt to unbuckle in certain emergencies situations. (And I am so glad that when those situations arise...in Vegas... that I don't wear a belt)

So why don't I just go buy a new pair of pants? Because, if you'll look over at my weight loss tracker, I still have about 44 lbs to go. I can't keep buying new clothes everytime something falls off me. That would get expensive. (The good thing is that I have yet to take my box of don't-fit-anymore clothes to DI, and there is a really cute size 6 skirt in there that I haven't worn for 8 years...yes, 8 years. I kept it that long... and I can almost pull it up over my butt. ALMOST. Getting it to zip - now that will be a different story!)

So my question to you: How do I fix the problem of the pants falling down, without making my pants look stupid? And without having to buy a belt, because, like I mentioned before, I am belt-tarded.

Quilt Sneak Peek

I'm working on a quilt that my Great Aunt sent me. She lives in California, and has been quilting for a long time, but doesn't think she'll ever get all her tops done if she waits to hand quilt them. She sent me this really cute quilt. I've actually been a little stressed about it because I want it to be perfect. Not that I don't want all my quilts to be perfect, but you'll see what I mean when you get to the sneak preview pictures!

This was an idea I had for what to do in some of the spaces. I didn't end up using it, but I thought it was really cool and wanted to share it with the world.

Okay, sneak preview picture time! These aren't all the pictures I took, but I've uploaded so many other pictures to my quilting blog that I'm tired of waiting for the internet!!

The top of the quilt: More top of the quilt views:

Toward the center of the quilt:

See why I was stressing? It seriously is the cutest quilt ever! And her stitching on the redwork is PERFECT. All the stitches are the exact same tiny length. I don't think I'll ever be that good at stitching!!


And, here's what Marshy's been doing while I work. He gets to read books ('Saur, Fruck, Elmo = dinosaurs, trucks, and elmo), drink his sippy and take a much needed nap.

Oh, and see that puppy in the picture there? Yeah, the dirty white one with the red bow that doesn't get washed as much as it should because Marshy FREAKS OUT if I take it away for more than a few minutes. Well, tonight at the mall he chucked it out of his stroller. Let's just say that the next 30 minutes were HELL until we found it in one of the foliage decorations in the mall. Funny thing was, I had been looking in trash cans for it, and I have no idea how I missed it because it was in the bush right next to the trash can I had JUST looked in. Yeah, weird. But, at least we got puppy back!! WHEW! Marshy was freaking out almost as much as I was (but only because I know he won't go to bed without puppy because he loves him so much. Mike was more of the "he needs to deal with it" mentality.)

Rain Rain Go Away

Saturday it rained.

And rained.

And rained.

And rained some more.

Marshy likes to play in puddles. We had a hard time getting him to come inside once he found this one! He was soaking wet by the time we got upstairs to our house.

Apartment Hunting

We saw an apartment in SF, and I really liked it. I filled out an application, and have been freaking out ever since. Yes, the owners know my in-laws, but that didn't neccessarily mean that we would get the apartment.

Well...I filled the app. out on Friday. Here it is Monday, and I wasn't expecting to hear anything about it for a few weeks. I got a phone call today, and it was one of the owners. She wanted to let me know that we GOT THE APARTMENT!!! HOORAY!! We move in at some point in March. I am SO EXCITED!!!! It is such a relief to not have to worry about finding a nice, inexpensive place to live. I seriously feel like a lot of stress has been removed. Now I just have to start slowly packing up stuff. Woop-dee-doo. (Have I mentioned that I HATE moving? No? Oh, well I hate moving. But living in a nice place isn't too bad.)

Hard Day

Today was a hard day. As we put on our shoes to go to work this morning, we got a phone call from Mike's mom. Mike's 35-year-old cousin, Matt, had passed away in the night. It was so unexpected. I didn't know him all that well, but I remember him making everyone laugh when we did see him. He was greatly loved, and will be greatly missed. Our love and prayers go out to his wife, Liz. The major comfort is to know that we will see him again, and that while time may seem like forever to us, it's really no longer than the blink of an eye.

BOM

Thanks to Peg at Happy in Quilting for finding these great BOM's! I have decided to try them. Now, I can't promise I'll get each one done by the end of the month....but I will try.
Side note: They are all FREE!! Seriously, check them out. But you better hurry because January is almost over!! :S Verandah Views looks like it will be pretty cute. I can't wait to start it!

The Country Calendar is so fun, so far. Progress I've made on this one: I've drawn the stitching lines in pencil on my fabric. I don't have the right colors of floss, so I have to go buy them this coming week.

This cute little basket one looks like so much fun!

The reason I've decided to do all three of these is that they don't appear to need huge amounts of fabric as of yet, so they will be fun stash busters.....I hope. I've never really been great at handwork, like stitching, so this will also be a challenge for me to improve that particular skill.

Fun New Game

Marshy discovered this really fun new game tonight. It's called "Put the laundry basket on top of you and sit there until Mom makes you go to bed." Fun, huh?!
If you look closely in the picture above, you can see his toes peeking out through the handle hole.

You can easily see his little fingers in this one, but his head is a little harder to see. It's right there above the fingers a few inches, though. He was practically bent in half! Oh to be that flexible again!

Which reminds me.... how is it possible that I can work out for 5 straight days, but the routines are getting harder instead of easier? Shouldn't they get easier the more you do them?? Seriously! Major pain tonight was what I experienced. OUCH!

Also, looked at an apartment in SF, and LOVED IT! Turned in an application. Hope we get it. The scary part is that they ask you how much debt you owe and what your monthly payment is. When you lump it all together like that it looks really bad. Good news, though, with Mike's nice paycheck, and my added income from quilting (and soon to be added medical transcriptionist income as soon as I finish the class in June), we have been able to make more than the minimum monthly payments (and we've been paying a lot in rent for where live). So, hopefully we'll get this place, and since the rent is a lot lower, we'll be able to pay off even more! Oh that would be so nice!! :) Fingers Crossed!!

Update

So! I've lost another 2.2 pounds! WOOHOO! Well, that was as of Monday. I weighed again today, and have lost another 0.7 pounds so far. YAY! I really can feel it, kind of. The funny thing is that I don't feel like I'm not eating as much as I did before. I'm just making healthier choices. I don't feel like I really miss anything....well, except for the Ghiradelli double chocolate brownies that come in the BIG box at Sam's Club.....

I am hoping that my will power and determination stay strong. I've started doing Power 90, from beachbody, and it is definitely a workout. It gets a little bit easier each day though, so as long as I stick with it, I'm sure I'll do well. Here's hoping for a big number at weigh-in on Monday!

Hard

School has gone from being super simple to REALLY HARD all of a sudden! It's crazy. They're throwing words that sound the same at me, like ilium and ileum (which are two completely different things). It's nuts. The closer I get to actually having to transcribe something, the scareder (yes, it's a word!) I get!! I feel like my brain is giong through a mental overload at times. Also, I find that no matter when I study, I have to eat carbs whilst studying so that my brain will continue to function. As of right now, I am out of carbs!! I am so tempted to just jump in the car and go grab a Coke somewhere, but I have been 2 weeks without any caffeine. Do you know how hard it will be to quit again if I slip up and have one now?? This is harder than when I quit caffeine because I was pregnant. And that was hard! Back then I needed my early morning TCBY cappucino milk shake with whipped cream, caramel sauce, and a cherry to start my day off right. Ooh it was so tasty! And so fattening. But ooh it was tasty!

Can't.....Give.....In.....Must.....Resist......Urges.....Don't.....Need.....Coke.....Anymore.......

ANYWAY... It's a little after midnight, and I have to take a quick study break. Fortunately for me, I decided to browse housing on craigslist, and I think I've found a good place. 2 bed, 1 1/2 bath, $650 a month. And it's close to the family and my work. According to the ad it's 1130 sq ft, which is 30 feet bigger than where we are now. That must mean extra large living areas?? (we have a 3 bedroom, 2 bath at 1100 sq ft right now) The great part is that it isn't available until mid-March, and our contract is up end of March, so that would be PERFECT! I'm going to call on it in the morning. Oh please let it be nice (or at least not a rat-hole) and still available!!

If you want a good movie....

Had the opportunity to watch several really good movies lately.

New Releases:
Pinapple Express - I have not laughed this hard in a LONG time. Of course, it's not for the weak, so be prepared. It's got Seth Rogan (Knocked Up, Superbad) ....'nough said.

Oldies:
Just watched the old 1973 BBC 4 hour version of Jane Eyre. I have not read the book, so I didn't know what to expect. I was doing some stitching during the first hour, but after hour 2 started I had to put it away because it was just too good. Yes, some parts were acted not well, and a little corny, but it's one of those romances that make your heart flutter with excitement a little. Oh, and you might need some kleenex, just in case.

Newer:
Just Like Heaven - Love this Reese Witherspoon flick. I bought it inadvertently when I belonged to Columbia House, but kept it because it looked good. It is. Watch it with some kleenex.

My Favorite EVER:
I haven't seen this one for a while, but it is back on my "saved" list on netflix. It's coming to blu-ray in March, and I couldn't be more excited! What movie is this, you wonder? Well, none other than the fabulous, spectacular 5 hour BBC/A&E version of Pride and Prejudice with Collin Firth. Yes, you've gotta love him. Oh he is the best Mr. Darcy ever. He makes you want to be Elizabeth Bennett. Don't let the length scare you, it flies by.

Action/Thriller/Drama:
Need an action fix? Eagle Eye (Shia La-what's his name from Transformers, and the guy from the Shield is the Secretary of Defense) was suprisingly good. Drama more your thing? Gone Baby Gone was also surprisingly good (Morgan Freeman, Casey Affleck). HAHA! I just went to imdb.com, and the chick from Eagle Eye is also in Gone Baby Gone! WOAH! What're the odds?

Horror:
Looking for a horror flick? You won't find one recommended here because I HATE scary movies! Seriously, I couldn't sleep for a week after watching When a Stranger Calls (the remake). Same with Disturbia (Shia La-what's his face again) and Darkness (Anna Paquin). Yeah, scary movies = bad.

Family:
Seeing as how the only family movies I ever get to watch are Toy Story (1&2), Cars, Dinosaur, or Incredibles......not really going to recommend any of those because I am SICK OF THEM! Sure do wish Marsh would move on to something different...like Flushed Away, or Sleeping Beauty, or even Shrek!

Other random flicks I like:
Mean Girls (Lindsay Lohan, Rachel McAdams)
Legally Blonde (Reese Witherspoon)
The Notebook - seriously, who doesn't love this one?
Akeelah and the Bee
Anne of Green Gables
Anne of Avonlea (I think it's called Anne of Green Gables chapter 2 or something like that, but they have Megan Followes, and it's amazingly close to the books)
practically anything with Denzel Washington or Morgan Freeman:
Bone Collector (denzel)
Bucket List (morgan)
Deja vu (denzel)
Kiss the Girls, and Along Came a Spider (morgan)
Death at a Funeral - one of the funniest British flicks we've ever seen. But, again, not for the weak. Frank Oz doesn't just do kid stuff anymore!
Persuasion (the 2007 Masterpiece version)
Mansfield Park (the 1999 version with Francis O'Connor)
Little Miss Sunshine

Okay...I'm getting carried away now. This post was NOT supposed to be this long! Oh well, now you know some of my favorite movies. Most of them can be watched by just about anyone. (A few of them require censorship.)

Catching up

I feel like I have been neglecting my blog again! SORRY! It has been so hectic. Wednesday Mike was supposed to fly in on a 12:30 flight from Denver. It got cancelled at 11. They put him on standby at 2 PM, 3:40 PM, and booked him a flight at 5:05 PM. Yeah, there went my whole day. He made it on the 3:40 flight, luckily, so he didn't get home too late. Not like the flight from Denver is very long. Maybe an hour....as opposed the the 8 hour drive out there.

While I waited for Mike to tell me which flight he'd be on, I ran up to the SLC to purchase some needed supplies for my business. I knew I had a couple of quilts that needed kind of a teal/turquoise color, but I couldn't remember how dark the fabrics were. I took a wild guess and bought a medium tone. Turns out it was the PERFECT color for a set of bumper pads and baby quilt I am doing for a client. LUCKY!

After the trip to the supplier, I stopped by my parents' house to wait for Mike's call (I was late picking him up, because his plane landed 30 minutes early! STUPID!). They have been converting their home from regular power to solar power. It has been quite the ordeal. They had to have several trees removed from their front yard (1 because it was rotting inside out and was splitting in 2 and would have fallen on the house. YIKES!). They had a new roof put in, and were without any heat for about a week while they installed a new solar-friendly, energy effecient heating system. They replaced 32 of the 34 windows, upgraded the wiring system, and installed a whole bunch of mini skylights. When I went over they already had the water heater solar panels up, but the regular panels (the other 50 or something crazy like that) hadn't arrived yet. CRAZY! Fortunately for my mom, things are getting a little less hectic now that the workers are done ripping out windows and molding, and reroofing, etc.

These next few pictures I took the other day at work. Marsh was so tired.
Now that he sleeps in a big boy bed with a big boy pillow, he always has to have a pillow to take a nap. He has a little baby pillow at the shop, so I wrapped my UTES sweatshirt around it to make it bigger for him. He loved it, and now always wants to use my sweater as a pillow. Great!
I got a couple of quilts done this week, despite the wasted day on Wednesday. This one turned out super cute. I wasn't sure about it at first, but when it was finished I liked it. Funny how that is. Some of my best, and favorite, work has started out with me not liking it at all. Hmm. I also did a baby girl quilt and a baby boy quilt.

I won't be working on Monday. It's a holiday. I'm taking it off. Also, I can't promise to get a lot done on Tuesday. It's the inauguration. I will be celebrating. :D Seriously, though, I will try really hard to get a lot done on Tuesday after the celebrating is over....maybe. :D

Hmph!

I'm trying to log in to my email. It happens to be a hotmail account. It won't let me log in!! This is the error I get:


The Windows Live Network is unavailable from this site for one of the following reasons:
This site may be experiencing a problem
The site may not be a member of the Windows Live Network
You can:
You can sign in or sign up at other sites on the Windows Live Network, or try again later at this site.

I've been trying back later every minute for the past 15. Will someone over at Hotmail fix the problem so I can check my stinking email?!?!?!

One Year Mark

Silly me, I forgot to celebrate my 1 year mark. It was last week. On the 8th. People said I wouldn't make it this long. People were wrong. I'm going strong still, and I have 2 blogs I keep up!! :)

Thanks to all of you who read my blog(s). I really appreciate your readership. Even if you're a lurker, I know you're there! And don't be afraid to say something. I don't bite...unless I'm really hungry from my diet. But as of right now, you don't have anything to worry about. haha ;)

WOOHOO!

I never thought this day would come. I was totally surprised. I like to see on Feedjit where people are arriving from, and how they are leaving. It shows a lot of people find me by searching for Busty LaRue on google. Hmm....didn't think that one through in the beginning, did I? haha



Well, just for kicks and giggles I thought I'd do a search for myself and see how many pages in I was. Oh, yeah, not pages. Page 1. And not at the bottom of the page, either, like I expected, but the VERY FIRST RESULT!!!! WOOHOO!!!



Sorry, not to toot my own horn or anything, but that is quite an accomplishment. :D

100 Things

Okay, So I saw this idea on several different peoples' blogs, and thought I'd do it too. It's kind of fun. So anyway, here it is:

100 Things!
100 Things: Copy this and bold the things you have done:

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Totally copied a post from someone else's blog to your own?

(sadly I thought I had done more of these...hmm...I guess I'll have to work on that)

Business Trip

Mike had to drive one of these

to Denver for work.

He is coming home on one of these.Marsh and I get to pick him up at the airport

tomorrow at 2 PM.
Needless to say, I won't be going in to work.

CAUGHT!

We put Marshy to bed at 9:15 tonight. I was sitting at the computer reading my facebook page when I heard a *click!* I looked down the hall. A tiny little boy came trotting out of his room, being extra quiet and sneaky with a big smile on his face, thinking he had gotten away with it. Then he saw me staring at him. He froze. He stood there for about a minute until his daddy said "GO TO BED!"

He is now in bed. Hopefully he will stay there. Oh, and it's 9:45 now, and we can't give him melatonin because he had a half yesterday.

One Project a Month Progress

Remember I joined this challenge? Well, here is my project for January. I am so glad it is finally done. I bought this fabric to use in a quilt, which ended up going to my cousin Andrea when her baby girl was born, just before Christmas. I had so much excess of backing fabric after the quilt was trimmed down, I seriously wonder what the pattern author was thinking! haha

I think it turned out okay. I am calling it Busty's Bag ver. 1.0. You can see closer photos and more details here. There are a few things I'm not happy with, so I will be changing them at a later date. The cool thing about this is that it is totally machine washable, and if I don't like it as a gym bag I can make it a diaper bag and use the ties on the side for holding a rolled up blankie or something.

There will be a pattern available, eventually, once I hammer out some of the kinks in the pattern.

I'm Sorry

I feel like I have neglected my blog lately. It's because I feel like I have been so busy, and trying so hard to be focused on this new healthy lifestyle, that I really haven't gotten anything else done.

The biggest change for me, besides eating 200-300 calories ever 2 hours, is having to do dishes daily. We used to not use this many dishes! Now I feel like I am going through dish detergent faster than ever before. A few weeks ago I remember thinking, while looking at apartments, "I guess we really don't have to have a dishwasher. We have a dish drainer. It won't be a big deal." But now I am singing a different tune! I don't care, we are having a dishwasher!! :)

I finished the Mystery Quilt...well, except for the binding. I didn't get it bound in time to watch the instructional video online, so I have to wait for the DVD to arrive at my house. At first I wasn't really a big fan of the design, but it is growing on me. My machine decided to go all stupid and so there are a bunch of weird knot-like things on the back of this quilt. They wouldn't have been noticeable if I had used a navy blue fabric, but since I backed it in cream, this is now officially a wall hanging! This works out, because it really is too small to use as anything but a wall hanging, and it matches our room so nicely, I think I'll put it above our bed. :)

I also did a couple of quilts for clients last week (here and here). I wanted to get more than just 2 done (I have a 3rd almost finished on the machine right now), but like I said, the machine went all stupid. I think it's time to take it in again. I took it in in August, so I guess it's been about 6 months. I hate taking it in. My little car is so small that I can't take Marsh and the machine in it at the same time! It's also a royal pain in the butt to get the machine off the table, but it's worth it if I can get it all working right again.

Marshy has croup, so we stayed home from church today. He got it from his cousin's kids, who got it from their cousin. Unlucky for everyone was that noone knew the kids had croup before they played with each other! We went to nursery last week, not knowing (I thought he just had a boogery nose, mostly from crying hysterically because I made him go to nursery!). I hope none of the other kids got sick! I'm not sure if he had it at that point, but if your kid goes to nursery and was there last week, and is now sick, I really am sorry! I had no idea!!!

If I only had a brain

Have you ever told yourself several times that you needed to NOT FORGET something, and then forgotten it?

I did that today. I was going to finish the NYD Mystery Quilt 2009. It is on the machine, just waiting for me. Of course, the one thing I needed to finish it was my 6 1/2 by 24 inch ruler. I told myself countless times: "Now, on the next trip out to the car I need to grab the camera, the diaper bag, our waters, and the ruler." Do you think I remembered? Sure! I remembered the camera, the diaper bag, and the waters. Totally forgot the ruler.

So, now I am a day behind schedule in my quilting. I figure if I can hurry and finish the mystery quilt, that I can maybe get 2 more done. Possibly 3. That would be nice.

To chart my progress, I only worked out for 1 hour today instead of 2. I think I might have strained my right knee a little, so I'm going to have to take it easy. :( I was doing so well, too! Maybe I can take some time in the middle of the day to go run on the track or something.

We almost bought an elliptical today. It was on sale at GNC.com. Really pretty cheap, actually. I was on my way to grab the credit card when I realized: "Where in the heck am I going to stick this thing once it gets here??" We're moving in a few months, to an unknown location, and probably won't have as much room as we do here. (Which reminds me, if anyone knows of a nice, cheap place with at least 2 bedrooms in the area between Payson and Provo, please let me know! We would like to move out the end of February if at all possible, and would need at least a 6 month lease...preferably a 12 month lease.) Instead of the elliptical, I think we'll save our money and buy a nice steam cleaner for cleaning the kitchens and bathrooms.

Today in a nutshell

Marshy woke up at 4 AM. Wanted to watch "Buzz". We watched Toy Story 2....twice. He fell asleep at some point during the 2nd showing, because he was out when I woke up!

It snowed. ALL DAY. UGH! I hate when it snows. Had to dig my car out. Well, not completely out, but I will tomorrow I bet. It's still snowing!

Went grocery shopping at the Sunflower Market. Bought a lot of healthy foods. Went to Sam's Club. Spent more than we expected to on food and other items.

Marshy fell asleep during the shopping trip. Came home, had sushi for lunch. Marshy ate 1/4 of a quesadilla. That is better than ever before! He never eats real food. YAY!

Took an unplanned, brief nap on Marshy's floor, in the doorway, half in the room half in the hall. Was rudely awakened by someone laughing because apparently it's fun to stand on mommy's legs and wiggle back and forth between the bones and the muscles. Yeah, painful.

Cooked a healthy dinner. Put a tired, worn out Marshy to bed at 7. Marshy didn't get out of bed like normal. He went right to sleep. YAY! Worked out for 2 hours for the second consecutive day (my goal: 2 hours a day for the first 2 weeks and increasing from there).

Am now going to study and hopefully finish the chapter on endocrine disorders, respiratory disorders, and maybe coronary disorders.

Going to work tomorrow to finish the NYD Mystery Quilt 2009. Hopefully it will turn out well. :)

The Weigh In, and another CHALLENGE!

We had the initial weigh-in tonight. Yeah, it was fun, but sad at the same time. We discovered that we all look different but weigh roughly the same. We also gave out funny pirate names on our board so no one would know who was who. I'm gonna just tell everyone that I am Pirate Delores the Staggering Drunk. Yup. That's me. Apparently I'm a drinker. Hoping to kick the habit with this whole weight loss thing. Maybe I'll lose that beer belly. It's about time too. You know it's time to lose weight when your silhoutte no longer has large bumps, flatness, and legs, but 3 blending bumps that almost look like 1. Yeah, it's a sad day. I went home and worked out for almost 2 hours. I feel a lot better now.

I also joined this awesome challenge:

I have a link to it in my sidebar, too, and hopefully will be able to post pictures of my progress each month. The idea is to finish 1 project, whether new or old, each month. This one will be so good for me because I have so many projects sitting around in bags, either started or waiting to be started. This is just what I needed to get my butt into gear!

Sewing Room

Remember that picture of my sewing room? Well, you will be glad to know that posting my mess online for everyone to see has sure motivated me to get my butt busy cleaning it. I sorted through a lot of stuff tonight, actually. It is on its way to looking like a decent room now. Or at least a half a room, as the other half is devoted to storage. Maybe I will even be able to play the piano again, once it is cleaned off. Apparently my cool keyboard has turned into a handy dandy project holder. So, here's my report of my progress, and I'm hoping to have it all cleaned up by tomorrow.

Also, hoping to finish the NYD Mystery Quilt 2009 tomorrow. We'll see what happens at work, but I really want to get it done!

Working on Goals

I started re-organizing my sewing stuff. It had nothing to do with the fact that the sewing/storage room looked like something exploded in there. It had nothing to do with the fact that the landlady needs to take pictures of the apartment so she can list it for sale.

I started with my fabric drawers. I have a HUGE plastic 3 drawer chest that I have been keeping my fabric stash in. Yeah, it had exploded some time ago and fabric was laying everywhere: in grocery bags, in piles on the floor, on top of the chest....everywhere.

I sorted through all of the fabric. I threw away any scrap that could not be used to make a small square. It made me sad. It was a huge pile of fabric. But, it was never going to get used, just thrown out eventually, so it was a good thing. This is what I ended up with:

3 neatly organized drawers. All sorted by color. All of the scraps of the same pattern put together.
Drawer 1: red, yellow, pink, orange

Drawer 2: white, black, brown, cream

Drawer 3: blue, green, purple

Now this is what I will be tackling next. Yes, it is the rest of the explosion. I know it looks bad, but hopefully it shouldn't take too long to straighten out! *fingers crossed*

And then we have this little corner. This is actually my dining area, and my dining table (yes it's a card table). Yeah, it is a lot neater than a few weeks ago. But it could be neater still. Hopefully I'll finish a few of the projects that are sitting there, waiting. And maybe I'll find the cord for that printer that's sitting there on the table. Yeah, it doesn't have a cable, so I don't know if it works or not. Do you think DI will take it without the cable? Hmmm....it was a really good printer, hardly used at all. Maybe I'll just buy the cable.

The spending continues....

So the spending spree continues! With Monday, weigh in for family biggest loser, Mike and I decided to get some gear. We purchased dumbbells online (they are the ones that have the weight from 5-50 lbs without having more than one pair of dumbbells). Unfortunately, they won't get here until like next month :(

We went to Shopko to pick up some melatonin for our crazy hyper "can't go to sleep even though I haven't had a nap all day and it's quarter to midnight" child. While we were there, we checked out the workout equipment. This is what we bought: the iron gym, and the ball set. I went to Target later and bought the 2 lb weights, and all the excercise clothes.

The clothes were all on sale! It was awesome. Everything matches, too, except for the orange sports bra. But when it's only $4 and your size and the last one, you kind of have to get it. I couldn't wait until Tuesday to start (Monday is the weigh in), so I pulled out all of my work out DVDs and started watching them to see which ones I wanted to do first.

Then I pulled out the Wii Fit. OH! You should have seen the dust on that puppy! WOAH! It was gross. Apparently, I have only used it 4 times since we got it the night it came out (it came out in time for Mother's Day, I believe....yeah, sad). Well, I hopped right on that thing and played around for about 30 minutes. It was sure fun!

Mike put together the pullup bar. It's nice, because it doesn't drill into the door frame, since we're renting and all. Yeah, I can't do a pullup to save my life. Not even if I cheat and start on a chair. SAD! I thought I had pretty decent upper body strength. After all, I do have a 36 lb kid I carry around.

Hopefully this is not all for naught. I would really like to lose the weight soon. I realized today that I weigh around what I weighed when I was 8 months pregnant (I was working 50+ hours at a retail mall store, and didn't hardly ever get to sit down. I really didn't gain a whole lot when I was preggo, but still...). And I'm not pregnant. It really made me quite motivated to totally dedicate myself to this challenge. I am going to do it! I AM!

I spent WAAAY too much money, but it sure was fun!

Gracie Lou's was having a sale. I went in. I don't really need fabric. I found some that I loved. I bought. I went back to work. I couldn't stop thinking about some of the fabric I left behind. I went back. I bought. None of the stuff I bought was on sale. I spent way too much money, and bought way too much fabric. Mike will probably freak when he finds out. Shhhhh! But here they are. Can you see why I couldn't leave them behind??
half yards of art gallery

fat quarters of art gallery

Recipe for Friendship and Candy Kisses charm packs. Oh I can make some cute decorations with these for my kitchen!!

more art gallery fat quarters.

See? I told you! I couldn't leave them behind!! I left one set of art gallery fat quarters behind, and it is still haunting me. I should have bought them. They've probably found another home by now, though. As long as it's happy, I guess. :)

The "Froggin' Saur" Bankdie

Remember I bought some fabric because Marsh cried and screamed and yelled words that sounded like we swear like sailors at our house? Yeah, well I hurried and finished his bankdie.
I used the Super Simple pattern. Here is the frog block. Oh how he loves it.

And the saur blog, because the leaves look like Kota's leaves.

And here it is all quilted up. I did a totally random and sporadic zig-zag in green thread. I had to hurry and do it, because Marsh kept trying to steal it from me, even though it was pinned on. In fact, he had both the top and the backing fabric wrapped around him at one point. The white is really really dirty, so I'll have to wash it once it is bound, before Marsh and Kota can play with it.

I really think it is so funny how much he loves that dinosaur. We love Kota too, that's why we got it for him.....and at a steal of a price, too!

He won't even ride Kota unless bankdie is on him. It's cute. Hopefully I can get this bound and washed tomorrow so he can start playing with it on Monday.

A sweet Moment

New Year's Day was a lazy day for us. We stayed home, and didn't do much. I camped out on the couch, content to bind quilts that needed binding. Of course, Marsh had another idea. He wanted to sit and snuggle. He never wants to sit and snuggle, so of course I stopped what I was doing to snuggle with him.

Mystery Quilt finished

I finished the mystery quilt top just in time! Tomorrow I get to buy the backing fabric and quilt it. I was afraid I wasn't going to finish in time, because halfway through the day Marsh and I had to run to Joann's for some interfacing (not for this quilt, for a t-shirt quilt for my little brother). While we were there, Marsh saw a stack of fat quarters and grabbed them. On one of them were frogs (which when he says it does not sound like frog) and on another piece were leaves that reminded him of Kota's leaves. He kept yelling "Saur! Saur! [frog]! [frog]!" So I bought the fabric for him. He wants Kota to have a "bankdie" too, so now I am making him a super simple quilt out of these fat quarters. It will be cute. Pictures tomorrow (hopefully). Anyway......

The picture makes the orange look really harsh, but it's really not that bright. It looks more like a rusty orange. I am not sure what is up with Mike's camera, but it is being weird.
This picture I took with my camera. See? Not as harsh an orange. Not sure what color I want to back it in. I'm thinking either a tan or a navy blue. What are your thoughts? The binding will be the navy blue, too.

And, while you're thinking about what color I should back this in....go take a look at this super cute quilt I did for a client!

Christmas Pictures

Christmas morning pictures. I know, they're about a week late, but I have still been so busy! It's nuts how crazy the holidays get!!

When we woke Marsh up, he wasn't too happy about it. We had put Kota and the tool sets away in the other room until he opened up his other presents. His first one was the Hungry Caterpillar quilt. He was so excited. As soon as he opened a little corner he started yelling "Bankdie! Bankdie!" Then he opened Elmo Live! and it was the same thing "Elmo! Elmo!" Then we got out the tools and Kota.

Of course, he was a little scared of Kota at first.....

(Had to put in this blurry, messy hair pic. It was too dang cute!)

...Marsh had to check out everything about Kota. His tail moves, ya know, and that kind of freaked him out a little.

Then he had to check out his cool new tool bench.

Eventually he warmed up to Kota. Now we have to take Kota out of his room in order for him to go to bed. Kota is like a member of the family now. He is a pet that you never have to feed or clean up after. It's quite nice. :) Of course, Elmo is a big hit with him, too. He loves to sleep with Elmo, although I can't imagine why. He isn't the cuddliest of toys!

Breakfast at Lola's house. It was so yummy. Have you ever seen an entire room full of adults stop talking and sit quietly and listen to a toy? No?! Well then you need to get ya'all an Elmo live! I have never heard a family party so quiet! It was the funniest thing ever! And, several people, adults, wanted an Elmo for themselves after seeing how stinkin' cute he is!

We braved the massive blizzard and made it, safely, to Grandma and Grandpa H's for Christmas brunch with the family. Aunt, Uncle and cousins, and Grandma and Grandpa M were all in attendance. It was fun. Of course, G-ma H owns an organ, and Marsh has made it is sole purpose in life when he visits to push all the buttons and change all of her settings!

The H grandparents gave him a bag of Mega Bloks. He loves them. He made a tower immediately out of blocks. Now they are scattered all over the house. Just when you think you've picked them all up for the fifth time that day, there he goes getting them out again!

Christmas was so fun, and all the gifts were great hits with Marshy. In previous years we have kind of struck out with good gifts, but oddly enough this year (when he is at the weird age of 2, where everything is either too old or too baby for him) we did really good. I actually think most of the toys he got were 3+, but he is quite big for his age, and smart enough to know not to put the big plastic nail into his mouth! haha