Over the weekend

With family in town, things were busy!

Friday night Sarah and Mom came up to visit for a while. We got to sit and talk while the kiddos were getting ready for bed. It was nice to catch up, and definitely nice to see Sarah. I haven't seen her since Tim and I got married.

Tim and I also got the wood for our bed Friday afternoon. We've been having trouble with our backs during the day that seemed to be stemming from the bed at night. We could both lie on our backs on our respective sides of the bed and roll towards each other by the end of the night. It caused a few "arguments" about who was the greater bed hog! It didn't just curve from side to side, but also top to bottom which curved our backs in a crazy way because we are both stomach sleepers. So, we made a quick frame that would make Dad proud to replace the dilapidated box springs that only cost us $37 for a few 2x6 boards and some OSB. It was put together in under an hour, and OH MY it feels wonderful! I've slept so much better since we put it in two nights ago!

Saturday was non-stop, too. Tim wend to the DMV to renew the tags on the Nissan; I got to play Star Wars: Force Unleashed while he was gone. :) We went to Peyton's baptism at 3pm where I got to play the first song, and then we went to a dual adult baptism at 5pm where I led the music and sang a solo for the special musical number. I was SO nervous. I keep hoping that I'll get over it, but I never seem to. Both baptisms were awesome, and I'm so happy that the three of them made their choice to join the church.

We went to China City Buffet after the baptisms and met my parents there for an early mother's day/ way early father's day dinner. Mmmm, tasty Chinese food! We didn't know it because no one called my phone, but Tim's family had called his phone (left at home) to invite us to the Olive Garden for dinner at the same time. It's OK, we'll have dinner down there sometime later, but I think it would have been nice to spend that time with his family as well. We ended up getting the kiddos in bed when we got home and spent the next hour putting the new bed frame together. We also watched The Tourist until the wee hours of the morning (awesome movie BTW, it had me guessing until the end!).

We got to sleep in a little on Sunday morning, but not much. I got up and straightened my hair before we left for baby Matthew's blessing at Steve and Hannah's ward. He was so cute dressed in a little white suit! Squee!!! I was so proud to see Tim go up there to participate in Matthew's blessing. He's come so far since I met him almost five years ago. Tim and I were chuckling to ourselves as we tried to sing the hymns during sacrament. They... Were... So... Slow... I couldn't keep up. Just wow. But I was impressed with the members doing ASL. I don't know how they do it, but kudos for the effort!

I had my first taste of Thai food at their house for the luncheon afterwards. It was pretty tasty and toasty, but I've decided that curry doesn't agree with me at all. I paid for it later. I did get to hold Matthew and ogle and coo over him for a while. It makes me happy. It also worries Tim a little. Every time I get to hold a wee one, it rehashes our conversation about having one of our own. It would cost a lot of money, however, if we were to try, and then we'd have to worry about having more than just one. For now, I'm happy with our three. We got to talk to Chris and Lori for a while towards the end as well. If we can get the clearance anytime soon, maybe we can get everyone back out this way for our sealing when it happens.

Sunday evening we had home-made pizza rolls for dinner at our house with Tim's parents while we watched TRON: Legacy. I liked the movie, but I loved the music. :) The pizza rolls were made with a double batch of pizza dough cut into 16 parts and rolled, filled with 9 slices of pepperoni and a little mozzarella cheese, then rolled up and baked for 20 minutes in a 350 degree oven. We used spaghetti sauce to dip them in. Tasty!

Finally before I close, an update on the cross stitch project... because the branches are a full cross stitch and not a half like the moon colors are, they take a little longer, AND I haven't had time in the last two days to do much on it, but here is the progress pic. I'm on the last color of the branches and doing the outline on them as I go.

BEFOREAFTER

Over the weekend

We had some rain this weekend. In other areas of the country, this storm produced a record number of hurricanes. Here, however, we got hail and plenty of rain. The back yard turned into soup, we had a stream flowing along side the house, and the bridge flooded. We received so much rain so fast, that it almost backed up into the basement. Tim and I spent two hours in the pouring rain digging up landscaping rocks (sorry, Dad) to dam up in front of the basement door so that it wouldn't flood with Cindy and the boys down there. We even had to go so far as dig down the path to the social circle because it was holding up the flow of water (sorry again, Dad). We've decided that to fix the drainage issue, we're going to dig down even further and run some culverts along the bottom of the ditch. Then put the path back over top of it. That way the path will still be there without hindering the torrent. As for the basement door, we're going to bring the level of the walkway there up a few inches and slope it away from the house to encourage drainage without collecting water at the door. We were seriously within 1/2 inch of pouring in.

For the first time in the 2.5 years we've lived in the house, I saw flood damage to the road at the bridge.It actually lifted sheets of asphalt 3/4" thick and the size of my desk and just slid it off of the road and onto the shoulder. I've never seen it do that before.On another note... how about creation instead destruction? I started a new project. Cindy has been cross stitching words as part of a project she's working on for Christmas (I think), and it renewed my interest in counted cross stitch. My unfortunate curse is that I'll start a project and work on it for a while, get bored with it because I don't see any progress, and put it down for weeks (or months) before I pick it up again. Sometimes it's because the project (i.e. the quilt) isn't portable so I can't take it on trips like I can with knitting.

My mother gave me a couple counted cross stitch kits that I showed Cindy last week while we were discussing cross stitch. She took one look at this one and said that her husband would love this one... so I decided to do it for them for Christmas.So I started working on it on 4/11/11. One week later, this is the progress I've made...I've decided to work 1/2 at a time, so I started in the middle with the black on the eagle, then moved to the moon to his left with a second color. You can see at the top that I've started in with a third color and filling in more of the moon with the darker gray. Unlike the last cross stitch I did, this one is going a lot faster because it has about 10 fewer colors and they're not tiny bits here and there with a stitch or two in places spread out so far that it takes forever. Another thing I like about this project is that it is on black Aida cloth so the moon really comes out of the fabric. :) More progress on this in a week!

One Down

I've been caking the night away for the last 2 nights in preparation for this weekend, but while things have been baking, I've been trying to finish the afghans I started as part of the Bernat Mystery Crochet-along. I finished one of them last night. Now all I have to do is sew the last one together and put the edging on both of them.

I've also gotten to the half way point on the baby blanket I'm knitting for S&H (no, not shipping and handling). So far it measures 36 x 20 inches. It's funny how something like this will attract attention. I've been sitting in the foyer of the church building on Tuesday nights while Audie is at Scouts, knitting away, and people will stop and watch. Some just watch, others ask what I'm doing it for, what is that extra needle for, or how it is done. I knit in church, too, though not so much to pass the time but to focus on the talks. I know it sounds counter intuitive, but Mom and I are the same way. Repetitive work with our hands helps us listen. I don't know why. Just KOOKY, I guess.

101 posts!

I forgot to mention yesterday that I'd passed the 100-post mark. I suppose that should be cause for celebration (at least it is for TV shows), but I can never be sure.

Yesterday I crocheted the first clue of the Bernat Mystery Crochet-Along. I love this yarn. It's not much thicker than the Red Heart super saver yarn I usually use, but when I wash the finished afghan it will be very soft. Here are the printed directions for the first square (crochet x2), the yarn I used (Contrast A for me is Natural), the hook, and the completed squares. I ran through the tutorial they had on the blog to check my gauge just in case. Turns out I'm spot on.The 4" x 4" swatch to test my gauge only took 10 minutes, and I took it out once I'd verified everything so that I could reuse the yarn (I don't like to waste). The squares themselves only took about 30 minutes each to complete and measure 8" x 8". I can't wait to compare squares with others that are doing this project with me. Mom said she'd printed out the pattern, but hadn't started yet. She did say that she was going to use regular yarn so it should be interesting to see what hers looks like. On Sunday, JaNae and I are going to see if any of the RS sisters would like to "crochet-along" with us. I think it would be a fun activity that we could do as a group, and it would be an opportunity for less experienced crocheters to learn something new. It seems kind of anti-climactic to wait a week to only do 2 squares and only spend an hour on them. I suppose that as the difficulty is increase in later squares that it will take a little longer. In the mean time I can finish the throw pillow covers I've been working on. I only have 6 more inches to knit on this one, then I can put them all together. I also have Tim's quilt to finish (I'm abot 1/3 done), and we as a family have the boys' dressers to complete. I need to take pictures of that progress...

Oh, and we're baking cookies tonight for the sisters I visit teach (and some to keep home). Looks like the kiddos and I will have a busy evening.

I'm awake, I promise...

I finally did it. I woke up at 4:30 and walked for 30 minutes for the first time this week. It felt good to get back on the treadmill.

... wow did I just say that???

I tried watching some streaming video through Net.flix, but the Internet spazzed out. I ended up watching part of the 2-part Warehouse.13 instead. Love that show. :) I know... geek.

Getting across town yesterday was, uh how you say? fun. Note the sarcasm. I must have hit every red light through town, and I was stopped by the train a mile from my parents' house to get Dougie. I had to call the school to let them know that I was running late and ask them to tell the bus driver. Luckily he lives a quarter mile from the bus stop.

The kiddos did an awesome job taking care of things when they got home - putting away their shoes, emptying their lunch boxes, and starting their homework. I've decided that instead of reading our scriptures before bed, we're going to read them after homework is done, and they can do activities and play games afterwards.

Speaking of activities, these are the recent wee nifties we've created using the hamas beads. The princess and fairy godmother are Chloie's the aquatic life belong to Dougie, and the car and trophy are Audie's. They sit down with their board and pattern, I pick out the beads by color they need, and they put them on the board. I get to do the ironing.

You know what, I'm giddy with excitement about this Saturday. In 48 hours I get to go INSIDE!!! I think I might do a little happy dance! :) Every time I think about it I start grinning from ear to ear. Was it like this for everyone else?