I made it!!

So, you know that never ending list I thought there was no way in HELL I'd finish?  Yeah, I finished it!!!!!

Living room clean?  CHECK
Presents wrapped?  CHECK
Mom's present made?  CHECK
Quilted 3 quilts for clients?  CHECK
Bound 3 other quilts for clients?  CHECK
Quilted 2 quilts for SIL?  CHECK
Camera/Camcorder charged & ready?  CHECK

So the only things that didn't get done were the friend presents (They will be "New Year's" cards instead of Christmas cards, probably!) and I didn't quilt/bind the Christmas quilt I made....which is no big deal, because I hadn't planned on them getting done anyway. ;)

This weekend should be fun!  Christmas officially in 5 mins (but present unwrapping happens in T-5 hrs 35 mins).  Breakfast at Lola's house at 7.  Presents with Grandma & Grandpa P at 10.  Lunch & presents with Nana & Pop-pop at 1.

Sunday, church (but who really wants to go to church the day after Christmas?  Yeah, us neither....but we'll probably drag ourselves there for the first hour).

Monday, a little work, then pre-wedding party with the whole fam-damily at my mom's house in SLC.  Dinner at 5.

Tuesday, a little more work, then wedding reception for my cousin at 7:30 at her parents' house in SLC.

Anyone noticing how frequently I'll be driving from Spanish Fork to SLC?  Yeah.....not looking forward to the freeway this weekend, since it's totally ripped up and under construction, but it should be fun once we make it there!

I promise to take lots of pictures and post them!! :)


MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

Coolest App Ever

So I am totally loving having the HTC DROID Eris. It is the coolest. What I am loving the most is this free app called Reveal. I've downloaded the scriptures (Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, Pearl of Great Price, Old and New Testaments), the hymns and the primary songbook, AND a few Classics: Little Women, Jane Eyre, and a few others that I have yet to download, but would like to read (Pride and Prejudice, for example).

The best part is: they're all FREE! :)

You can't beat Free. That's why it's the best app ever.....until I find one cooler. :)

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!!!

Sunday Praises

Since it is Sunday, I thought I would share this worship-tastic video. This is one of my favorite Christian rock songs. I think the puppet is a cute idea. Enjoy!!

You know your child is awful when.....

You have to take him into the hall twice during Sacrament Meeting (when the whole congregation meets together for the 1st hour of church).

You take him to nursery and have to sneak out while he's playing with the toys, after one of the leaders tells you he'll be okay.

You then get situated in the far back corner of Sunday School at the end of the row not by the door, scriptures open trying to find where they are reading from, when another nursery leader brings your SCREAMING child in, hands him to you and says "You need to come with him until he can control himself". Did I mention he is 2, and I went with him from 18-21 months old and he didn't want me there? Now he wants me there?? Yeah....explain that one to me!

You get home and he doesn't eat his lunch, just wants a bottle (which he looks WAY too old for).

You give him the bottle and try to take him to his room for a nap, but he won't go to sleep so you lay down on the floor to show him it's okay to take a nap and end up falling asleep and are rudely awakened by an empty bottle hitting you squarely on the back of your head while your child screams "POOP!" at you because he needs a new diaper and still hasn't gone to sleep so he's super cranky, and smelly, and needs another bottle. (How's that for a run-on sentence?)

"Oh but look at what a sweet little angel he is! He can't possibly be that awful, can he?" is what you're all saying right about now as you look at this picture I took of him sleeping tonight. Just you try tending him, or making him sit still during church, and you'll hand him back to me within 5 minutes (longer than the nursery took to pass him back). We sure do love him to death though, because his cuteness makes up for it.....sometimes..... :)

What I've been busy with

Why do I feel like it has been crazy busy around here lately? Hmm...probably because it has. This feels like it will be a kind of long post, so sorry, but please keep reading because there is a really cute quilt at the bottom!

First, I had to finish the quilt for my client whose son is going on a mission. I will post pictures probably tomorrow. The quilt turned out so dang cute! Anyway, I had to quilt it on Friday. I got almost all the way done, just needed to turn it for the side borders, when I realized it was 3 PM.

Cousin Nicole's reception/dinner was at 6 PM up in Sundance, which meant that when my parents got here at 5 to babysit we had to hurry and leave them instructions and then be on our way.

So why was that such a big deal at 3? Well, because my house was a GINORMOUS mess! And we still had to iron our clothes, etc. I figured it would probably only take about an hour to turn the quilt and then quilt the borders, but Mike didn't want to push it, especially since it is a 30 minute drive to our house due to crappy construction from Payson clear up to Provo. So I took the quilt off, folded it up in my bag, and we headed home.

We went to the reception, which we thought we would be way super early, but ended up going well past the reception location and had to turn around, so we were right on time. Dinner was lovely, and Nicole and Adam looked wonderful and wonderfully happy. Congratulations, you two! Everything was so beautiful! We left around 7:30 and got home shortly after 8 PM. My parents left, and munchkin was still awake. Ugh! We wrestled him to bed about 9, only to have him wake up and want to cuddle with me on the couch while watching Baby Einstein's Baby Neptune at 12:30. I fell asleep. When I woke up, I made him go to bed. He didn't want to, but I made him.

Saturday I hurried and trimmed the quilt down, made the binding from the leftover backing fabric, and went back to the shop to finish quilting the borders for the mission quilt. Oh it is so cute I can't wait to show you!! We went home, and I attached the binding. Mike was scuba diving in Sand Hollow for Scuba Ted's annual pumpkin carving contest. He didn't get back until around 7 PM, and he had left well before 7 that morning! So Marshy and Ihad a lot of fun playing. I turned on one of my favorite cd's and played it through the tv. He loved dancing to the music (Edward and Bella cd....it's the greatest!) I'm sure the downstairs neighbors enjoyed the thumping and jumping from him, but that's their problem!

At 5 he went down for a nap, and I got him up at 7:30 so we could go to Mike's parents' house to watch UFC. It was okay. The title fight ended kinda crappy. I was disappointed. I almost could've stayed home and not fought munchkin, but left him sleeping. Oh well.

Today I finished binding the quilt. We woke up super late, so we kind of missed church. Mike and Marshy were so tired! Although, it really was my fault, because I was the one who should've gotten everyone up, but I too wanted to sleep longer. My bad! Anyway, we had a fun family day, and played video games, watched movies, and played with Marshy's toys. It was fun.

I also realized that there are now officially less than 60 days until Christmas! OMG! I am totally screwed! I bought the cutest quilt kit from Gracie Lou's back when they opened, and thought about giving it to my Grandma M. for Christmas. It's her birthday and Christmas, so we wanted to do a big GINORMOUS personal gift for her this year instead of the usual flowers, to mix things up a bit.

This is what the quilt will look like, only in way better colors, and even more GINORMOUS:

The pattern is called Jacks be Quick. I found the picture and the pattern for sale here at this site. The kit I bought came with everything I need, pattern included, except the almost 8 yards of backing fabric. HOLY COW! 8 YARDS!!!!!!!!!!!! I think I'm going to die! I'm also unsure of whether the binding fabric was included. Hmm, guess I should look into that, huh? haha

Anyway, I started working on the blocks yesterday while Marshy was taking his nap. I figured that there wer 80 blocks, and 20 blocks to a color set, so if I got 20 blocks done a day, then that would only be 4 days! Then I could piece the blocks 1 day, and sew the 2 borders on another day, and it would be ready to quilt....as soon as I buy the 8 YARDS of backing fabric! Wahoo!

Then I had another crazy idea. Yeah, you know me. Full of craziness! Well, I suggested, and Mike liked the idea so I'm holding him to it so I can buy fabric!...that we make a quilt for my Grandma H. for Christmas too. And possibly make something fun for my parents and my brother. Our reasoning: it's easier to make something than shop for people. Especially my brother. We gave him a gift card to Hollister for his birthday, because we didn't know what he wanted. Sorry, bro! Also, it is a little more personal to make something from the heart than to just go out and buy a gift card (like to Sears...haha. Right Angel?) or some other kind of dumb gift that the person may/may not like.

The quilt I think I'll make for Grandma H. is called Rainbow Rhythm, and can be found in McCall's AMerica Makes FAST Quilts September 2008 issue. I just bought it. It's great. And it uses mostly fat quarters! YAY!

Anyway, I sure could use some suggestions for my family's gifts. My bro is 21 and really likes WOW (world of warcraft....blech!) My parents are big into gardening, and remodeling, and stuff like that. My mom teaches 6th grade, and my dad does something involving HVAC and solar power....not quite sure exactly there. Can you see why they're hard to shop for?

Well, thanks for reading my super-long post. I'll try to avoid them in the future. Or at least for the rest of the week!

A: It's like sitting in the Astrodome while a hurricane passes over

Q: What is "sitting next to Marshy during church"?

I swear, no matter how tired that child is, he is a non-stop tornado/hurricane/Holy Terror during church. Seriously.

He sits on the bench and "reads" the hymn book.

Then he hops down to the floor to play with the book holder.

Then he's back up on the bench, reaching over the back to steal the row behind us's hymn book.

Then he's back on the floor, crawling under the benches.

Then he's looking for his bottle and puppy.

Then he's sitting on Mike's lap with his bottle and puppy.

Then he's smacking Grandpa in the head.

Then he's trying to eat Fruit Loops.

Then he's back on the floor playing with the hymn books.

Then he's crawling under the benches.

Then he's back on Mike's lap.

Then the meeting is over. FINALLY!

And that is why, according to Granpa P, sitting next to Marshy is like sitting in the Astrodome while a hurricane passes over.

Complaining, complaining, complaining!

My aunt, uncle, and 3 cousins came over to visit today. The two youngest are about 2 1/2, so just a little older than Marshy-marsh. My other cousin is my age, and has recently returned from a mission and is moving back here to go to school. They came over just after 6 PM tonight. Marshy had just woken up from his nap, and we were picking up the living room. They only stayed for about half an hour, but it was really fun to see them.

Shortly after they left, like within minutes, there was a knock at our door. I opened it and there stood a woman. I knew immediately she lived downstairs. UGH! Not again!!

ME: hi
HER: hi, umm I'm your downstairs neighbor, and when your child runs it is really loud for us.
ME: well we've actually just had company over.
HER: oh. well it's just that it's like 24/7
MIKE (who was sitting on the couch doing some work): what do you mean 24/7?
ME: yeah, we've been gone all week except at night, so I don't know what you're hearing, but it hasn't been us.
HER: well it's just that it is all the time, and it's really loud and when you do your laundry late at night it really is loud for us too so if you could keep it down. I mean, I don't want to be a bother, but it is really loud.

We closed the door after a few more exchanges. I turned to Mike and asked "When are we supposed to do laundry if we aren't home during the day?" Mike was fuming. Not just because they come up and knock on our door, but because for the last few days they have been pounding on their ceiling at us. At like 11 AM or 2 PM or weird times like that. It's not like we are staying up late stomping around, or even stomping around on purpose. We have a 1 year old who likes to "dance" which involves jumping up and down erratically (but we don't let him do it after 9 PM. We are considerate). We also just go about our daily activities and they start pounding. The pounding isn't like with a broom either. They actually go to the trouble of getting on a chair and pounding with their fists. We know this because the pounding is really close together, consistent with rapid arm movement. DUMB!

We have decided that next time they come up we're going to be not as nice as we have been the last few times. For her to say that we are noisy 24/7 is ridiculous because we really aren't home all that much, especially this last week. We've been chilling at Grandma and Grandpa's! The other stupid thing is for them to say today that we were extra loud, when really we had all been napping until around 6 and they came up at like 6:45.

Now I want to have a big giant family party at my house with all of Lola's kids and everyone else! Wouldn't that be great and teach them to not complain?! HAHAHAHA You think I'm joking, but I am totally serious.

On a happier note, Mike's parents reported on their mission today. It was a really great meeting. All of the kids wore their cool new African clothes that they got. The men either wore their shirts or their ties, and most of us women wore our dresses. Everyone looked so dang cute! One of these days we'll have to get everyone together in our African garb and take a family picture. I might even have to take Marshy-marsh back to the Penney's studio from he....ck to get his picture taken in it. He looked so cute! I wish I had taken pictures. But maybe I can get him to wear it again tomorrow for a few minutes so I can take one.

Sadly Released

Mike and I were released from our church callings yesterday. I am not so disappointed to be calling-less for the time being. Maybe I'll actually get to go to Sunday school and Relief Society after spending 3 years involved in primary, and waiting for Marshy to get into Nursery (which, consequently still does not have a new nursery leader, so I ended up having to stay in there the whole time instead of going to class yesterday!).

Mike was involved with the Venture Scouting. When they called him to be the assistant they asked him if he was willing to give at least a ten year commitment. He said he was. They knew we were going to be moving shortly, but that we were building within the ward boundaries and would still be attending the ward. Well, he is now released, and the guy they put in instead plays arena football or something like that. ALSO, they waited until the leaders and scouts were done with Scuba classes to release Mike and put this new guy in.....not really the smartest thing because now they have a leader who won't be able to Scuba dive with them. Dumb!

Mike is really sad to be released. This was his favorite calling. He got to hang out with his brother, Scott, and do all sorts of fun things. I on the other hand, am kind of happy. I felt like I had too much to do, and not enough time.....maybe it's the over-active 1 year old I have running around my house.

I was in the Cub Scouts, and honestly maybe only went to 3 or 4 den meetings in the short time that I was in there. Den meetings were easier, when I remembered to go. I was Lola's assistant, and Lola, I'm sorry I wasn't there very much!