Too hot to blog.

Holy cow, I don't think this summer is EVER going to end. (Of course, give it another six months and I will be whining about winter.) Here's what we've been up to...

• My little sister Laura came for a week-long visit, which was filled with fun, sunscreen, and pancake mix. People, I have the BEST sisters. I didn't take enough pictures, though.
• We went to the State Fair. It was the hottest day in recorded history, and we all basically died of the sweats.
  
  
  
  It took milkshakes from the Dairy Barn to restore the natural balance (and chocolateyness) of the universe.
• The kids started school on, consecutively, the two hottest days in recorded history. Porter actually began kindergarten the day after Betsy commenced second grade, so I didn't get to take an official 'first day of school' pic of them together. They are both pretty cute, though. The year is still new enough that they are actually excited about school. And Porter shocked the heck out of me at his 'kindergarten orientation' that I went to with him... his teacher asked him to write his name on a piece of paper and draw a picture of himself, and he actually did it. (This is the kid who usually throws a fit if you get him within ten feet of a crayon.)
• Then, on the hottest day in recorded history, we went to Conner Prairie. Laura and I each brought an American Girl doll in historical garb, and we had lots of fun setting them up for photos.
• I've been to the pool a LOT - we went four times in a week while Laura was visiting. I've actually gotten a tan line, something I usually avoid by deploying the SPF A Zillion.
• I'm completely earwormed with this song. Curse you, Amazon and your free MPS downloads! It's just a gateway drug!
• I've watched a lot of TV miniseries/movies this summer. I went through all of Band of Brothers again, then Lost in Austen (it wasn't good, but they managed to make Wickham really sexy), then Little Dorrit (it was so cute), plus Matt and I watched the whole Lord of the Rings trilogy (extended edition, of course).
• I wrote some fanfiction, too.
• I've been doing a lot of sewing, down in the basement to avoid the highest temperatures in recorded history, although I would do it anyway. I actually made a dress for myself: Seen here against the lovely backdrop of my shower curtain. But look at that fabric! It's all sewing notions! And it's Alexander Henry, of course.
• I'm sewing a lot of doll clothes, too. Actually,August has been a really good month for me, sales-wise. I've been selling them on both eBay (woo hoo free listing fees) and Etsy, and I think I have shipped like ten dresses this month. I made this one for a summer-themed sewing swap on American Girl Playthings, and as soon as the recipient posted pictures (her photographs are much better than mine) I had like three more people contact me and ask me to make them one. So I've been working on that.
• My little girl's hair went curly this summer. I'm not sure if it's due to the hottest summer in recorded history - we'll see if it stays that way when autumn hits - but boy is it cute. Amy's completely fixated on baby dolls, and she's also been practicing her animal noises. This video was taken when a bunch of Blinns were here for the day (watch to the end for bonus Miles!)
• It's been an exciting summer for my side of the family. One of my sisters got engaged, another one found out she's having girls (plural), my sister-in-law is having a baby pretty much any day now, and after thirty-one years Dad got the fat envelope from Kodak. As for us, we are working on getting Betsy prepared for her baptism in December, and planning our trip to Disney at the end of October. I'm sure this heat will end soon!

Home Court Advantage

We had Blinns at the house last weekend, which is always an adventure. You can tell when my family is coming to visit because I deep clean the carpets and put ALL the leaves in the table. The main attraction was my Easter Cantata, plus I really wanted Mom to see the Barbie exhibit at the Childrens' Museum before my membership runs out.

Here we are at the museum, goofing off:
Molly and Laura and I are a bunch of fruits.
And Molly with her namesake pteradactyl (in the background) and Porter doing a flip (foreground).
Mmm, steakburgers.
I don't know what it is about Molly, but she seems to be a kid magnet. Porter could not stop climbing on her (he also was using Graypa as a piece of playground equipment) and Amy warmed up to Molly before she would come near anyone else. I don't know what it is about Molly, but she is not a big fan of Blinns when they first arrive. But by the end of their visit she would go to Grammy or Graypa or Laura no problem, and I realized after she left that she had been calling them by name ("Gammy" and "Gramma," respectively).

Miles came over for a short visit one night, too (driven by Uncle Monkey, but only because Miles' legs are too short to reach the gas pedals). It's always a hoot when Miles comes over because he is fascinated by our toys (possibly because we have 90 times more at our house) and he was VERY appreciative of the cupcake I gave him.

The Easter Cantata was on Sunday night, and I was very pleased with how it went off. We seemed to be having some trouble with the microphones, so I played extra loud on my flute. My family was sitting in the way-back (we had to open up the overflow and the gym) and they said they could hear me just fine. I had a great time preparing for & participating in a major choral work for the first time in years and hope to do it again sometime. Also, my girls wore their new dresses and I forgot to take any pictures! D'oh!

I don't know if you noticed, but there's a little thing called 'March Madness' going on. I went to this little-known Midwestern university called Butler, and they are pretty good at getting the ball through the hoop. Now, while I totally forgot to fill out a bracket this year, if I'd remembered I would have put Butler into the Sweet Sixteen. It's something they've done a few times over the last few years (the first time ever was when Betsy was a baby) and it's largely considered to be a pretty darn good finish for a tiny school with an enrollment of less than 4,000. Of course, the Final Four is being hosted in Indy this year (as it is every couple of years... we really like basketball around here) but I didn't necessarily think Butler would end up playing at home. Sure, it would be nice, but kind of a stretch. On the other hand, I do think Stevens' Bulldogs are the best they've ever been. So anyway, just in case you have been living in a cave or something for the last few days...

Butler is in the Final Four!

Now, how much I actually watched the games varied a lot. The Murray State game actually had me pretty worried. It's hard to watch when I have any kind of expectations. I also had to be careful not to scream and yell too much so I wouldn't kill my voice for the Easter Cantata. At this point, I don't mind if they lose their next game... I feel like Butler making the Final Four is like a Big Ten school winning the whole thing. And I am definitely a winner anytime I don't have to explain to people where I went to college.

The media coverage has been really interesting, too. I've been having a fun time playing 'Sports Media Cliche' Bingo.' You get points anytime a writer uses the term 'Cinderella,' 'historic Hinkle Fieldhouse,' refers to the movie Hoosiers or describes Brad Stevens as 'baby-faced' or 'youthful.' The free space in the center of the board is 'The Butler Did It' or any variation thereof, because that one's just obvious. Actually, one article I read described Butler as 'blue-collar,' which really perplexed me... Butler is a lot of things (expensive; good at basketball) but blue-collar is most definitely not one of them.

Much as I would have loved to, I will not be watching any of the games in person. I would have had to pawn my firstborn for tickets, and I'm kind of attached (especially since she just lost one of her top front teeth and is now 33% adorabler). I am going to try to go down on Friday and watch a practice session at Lucas Oil Field, though. And you'd better believe I will be screaming myself hoarse come Saturday night.

T-Day Wrap-Up

Since Thanksgiving was a week ago, and I've now officially divested my fridge of anything that could be considered a 'leftover,' maybe I should actually write about it.

We had, as you can see, a houseful of Blinns. My parents drove out on Tuesday night, arriving in time to watch that night's episode of NCIS (I thought it was
just okay but I enjoyed the shoulder holster and the Real Genius reference), and left on Friday morning. It was a whirlwind trip, but we still had time to go on Steak 'n' Shake - we went on Wednesday night since my mom and I were full on sick of cooking at that point - and even squeeze in a visit to Hancock Fabrics. Matt and my kids and my dad and sisters went down to the Childrens' Museum on Wednesday and Mom and I stayed home to cook and bake and generally mess up the kitchen. (I also found the time to list a bunch of stuff on eBay - I've finally figured out how to use that site so I've been clearing out some of the piles of stuff I've accumulated in my basement over the years. The fact that I get money for it is just a nice little bonus.) Also, I discovered that the Guacamole Steakburger is the fall-apartiest steakburger ever, but it's delicious, as is the Peppermint Chocolate Chip Shake.

Mike and Many and Miles came up on Thursday morning while Matt was at Turkey Bowl, and there were plenty of cinnamon rolls to go around. We pretty much feasted from one end of the day to the other, what with crackers and cheese and sausage and veggies and deviled eggs and then the feast really began. The turkey was done around 4:00, which was perfect timing - if it had finished before the Packers/Lions game was over, I don't think anyone would have touched it. My personal big accomplishment was making yeast rolls from scratch for the first time ever ( with only a little help from my mom) (okay, and some assistance from Molly) and they were really, really good. A little pie to round the whole meal out and some Christmas music while cleaning up the dishes, and I'd have to call it an enormously successful holiday.

Sneaky peeky!

I don't have time to do a proper write-up of our trip (sadly, the laundry ISN'T going to wash itself. Ask me how I know) but I thought I'd share a few shots. I actually wish I had taken more photos, but I was busy trying not to DIE FROM THE HEAT. Hey Kev, thanks for choosing to get married in August! But seriously though, we had a pretty good time. It wasn't totally uneventful, though. I'll tell the full story later on. Here you go!

Blast from the past

Way back when I was in college, I had this brilliant idea that I should draw a set of paper dolls for my younger sisters. (I'm pretty sure it was 1999 because I remember working on them while reclining on Jean's pappasan couch.) We always had a thing for paper dolls when we were kids and I thought it would make a nifty - not to mention cheap - Christmas gift for Emily and Catherine. I ordered one of the Patterns from the Past catalogs off the internet (yes, the internet existed in 1999) and faithfully sketched as many of the historical dresses as I could, then copied them onto cardstock and colored them. I worked as a phone operator for Butler then so it was a good way to kill downtime in between calls. And while I can't draw to save my life, I can copy decently, so I was pretty pleased with how they turned out.

I always intended to keep the original drawings so that I could maybe make up another set for any future daughters I might have (and Betsy was born only three years later so that was oddly prescient) but somehow, in the five times I've moved in the last ten years, they got lost. I was pretty bummed about that because there is no way I'm investing that kind of time and energy all over again. Lucky for me, my sister Catherine decided to come for a visit, and even luckier, she brought the paper dolls with her! I figured they'd been long ago destroyed but every dress I remembered drawing was there.

I remember working particularly hard on this Civil War-era ballgown: all that ruching was crazy-difficult, not to mention all the roses. I think it turned out pretty awesome, if I do say so myself.

Notice that what I'm not showing you is any of Cath's work. See, she's an art major and next to hers, my stuff looks like it was drawn by a blind monkey, or perhaps a drunk toddler. So, let's keep my ego intact and move on to the next subject.

Something I'm actually pretty skilled at is making dresses, which Cath thought would be a lark to do when she came out here. So I let her paw through my stash of vintage patterns and she found this beauty:

Which is one of the ones I swiped from my mom in the first place, so it's kind of funny that it will end up back in Rochester eventually. Anyway, after checking to make sure that all the pieces were present (they were), we headed out to JoAnn's to score some fabric. Now, JoAnn's is much maligned by serious sewers, but I've always found lots of neat-o fabric, within my price range, and the employees are for the most part helpful (the older ladies at the cutting counter love to chat about dresses). Anyway, I had a couple of coupons and Catherine couldn't decide between two different fabrics (both of which were around $3/yard). Because I am evil, I convinced her to go ahead and get both, and make up the dress in both views.

We used my awesome new rhymes-with-merger to overcast the edges of each piece, to prevent ravelling, and then stitched it up on the conventional sewing machine. I helped with some things and gave as many pointers as I could from my vast three years of sewing experience. Like, it's important to press the seams. And understitch facings. I still had her do as most of the work, though, because they're her dresses (also I am lazy). I didn't even touch the zippers. Mom will have to help with that when Cath gets back to Rochester!

Anyway, speaking of sewing, here's what I've been up to:

The pattern was yet another freebie-by-way-of Mom; the fabric is actually a vintage sheet (really!) that I picked up for $3 at a church sale (the tag - which I kept - says 'Inger McCabe Elliot for Martex', 1976. Does that ring any bells for anyone?); and the buttons came in a huge bag of vintage goodies that I got for like two bucks at the Goodwill. So the whole dress cost me almost nothing. Which is good, because I'm not totally enamored of how it came out.

I shortened the sleeves quite a bit, because elbow-length sleeves drive me batty. I should have lengthened the bodice; that high-waisted sixties look actually doesn’t work so great on a five-foot-seven gal like me. Also, I had a really hard time matching the print because it wasn’t actually a straight horizontal stripe; the bands of pattern undulate up and down like waves of grain or a field of flowers. Still, the colors make me happy (and the buttons match so perfectly I can only assume the universe intended it that way) and for a really cheap dress, it’s not so bad. I love that the sheet it was made from is that no-iron percale (basically a poly-cotton blend) so I can wear it right straight out of the laundry, which is a huge bonus for a lazy pants like myself. I wore it the other day with a white cardigan sweater ($3 at Goodwill and it’s J. Crew) and I think that helped the style a lot, so maybe I will just save it for cooler weather.

Cath and I have been having a fine time. In addition to sewing not one but two dresses, we've been to the art museum (one never realizes just how much nudity there is in art until one pays attention); traumatized my children with the movie Spirited Away; been thrift-store-shopping (Cath didn't find anything but I scored some sweet red peep-toe pumps); saw Easy Virtue (swoon); visited Mike and Mandy's new place (Miles is a fine little host); and made our contribution to the unfortunately neglected literary sub-genre of overwrought Victorian melodrama. Fun times.

I've also been papercrafting:

Next project (after Catherine goes home, which mercifully isn't for a few days yet): a set of NCIS-themed notecards. Should be interesting!

Home again

We went to Rochester (for the first time in almost 3 years) over the weekend to see my brother get married. Which he did, and Rob looked quite handsome in his dress blues, although I'm not sure how he's legally allowed to get married considering that I'm pretty sure he's technically still four years old. Laura was a lovely and gracious bride and the weather was perfect. The most important thing, however, is that Betsy basically set the standard for flower girls everywhere with her serious and diligent fulfillment of the role. I could have died of the cuteness when she came up the aisle... she very carefully and reventially laid down exactly nineteen flower petals on the aisle runner. And she was basically insanely cute in her white dress (we were inspired by the line "Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes" although the sash ended up being crepe) and long curly hair (she sat still like a little pro while Emily curled it) and MAKEUP. Just a touch, but enough to make her feel special.

Now is the time when I normally would post pictures to quantify my claims of extreme cuteness. Funny story, that. I got home last night, went to get my camera out of my purse, and it WASN'T THERE. I'm hoping I left it behind at my parents' house and not at one of the places we stopped on the way home, because then I can get it back. I can replace the camera, of course, but not the 100+ pictures I took over the weekend. (Particularly hard to re-create is the shot of my grandpa Bob, my brother Rob, and my son Porter Robert. Because of course Rob is going to be in Germany for the next THREE YEARS.) I'm just sick about this and am praying for its safe return.

After the wedding was over we took our kids, along with Kevin and Celeste, out to see some of the Church sites. We went to the Joseph Smith farm, the Sacred Grove, and the Hill Cumorah. Also had some really delicious fries in a greasy-spoon in Palmyra. Emily gave Betsy an ADORABLE hair cut so that I don't have to deal with her long, unmanageable hair anymore. Oh, and I came away with a huge stack of vintage patterns that I can't wait to sew, courtesy of a lady at my mom's church. So, it was a quick trip but a pretty enjoyable one.

Fortunately, I had dumped the memory card the weekend before we left. Which means that I can at least share this with you:

(Did you spot Betsy? She's right there on the end of the front row... the bangs are a dead giveaway!)

See?

I told you I'd update for real, and here it is. In no particular order, here's a handy bullet-pointed list of what I've been up to lately. Oh, and with no photos because Blogger is evil.

• Mom, Dad, and the little girls were here last weekend because Mike was graduating from law school (INSERT LAWYER JOKE HERE) down in Bloomington and I guess they thought it would be a lark to see us as well. Whatever.
• We took the girls down to the Childrens Museum on Saturday and had a great time. Betsy got to meet Barbie because they will be opening a Barbie exhibit soon (and by "soon" I mean seven months from now) in honor of the doll's 5oth. Amy got to ride on the carousel and I could have DIED from the cuteness. This is one of those times when the whole Blogger-is-evil thing gets kind of inconvenient, because pictures would have been nice.
• And oh yes, there was Steak 'n' Shake. Guess what? The Frisco Melt is STILL delicious.
• We went to three different Goodwill stores in one day. Mom got some awesome old records (as in really old, pre-vinyl, I think you have to use a pterodactyl's beak to play them) and we saw the single most interesting set of living room furniture I have EVER seen. Oh, how I wish I'd taken a picture. And it sort of led to my developing an alter ego but the less said about THAT, the better.
• I cooked a lot of stuff in the Crock Pot. It seems to be the easiest way of doing stuff for a crown and my mom LOVES the Moroccan Chicken. But on Sunday Matt made a grilled pork tenderloin and that was delicious too.
• Betsy's flower girl dress is done! Mom did the invisible zipper for me because I am NOT GOOD at zippers. I also used her serger for some parts because the serger fairy just keeps missing my house. Maybe I need to leave a tooth under my pillow, or something. AND I learned how to use the blindhem on my machine so guess who won't be hemming by hand anymore?
• Porter and his Graypa are like best friends forever now. After my family went home Porter just sat forlornly on the swing with no one to push him. *sniffle*
• It's official: I want a Wii.
• It was fun to have Mom here for Mothers Day. I made her a mini chipboard album/brag book with pictures of all the grandkids. She acted like she liked it even though I know she secretly hates it. Porter gave me a potted flower and Betsy painted a picture for me in her kindergarten class (and KEPT IT A SECRET which is pretty impressive in itself). I got chocolate at church and a Hobby Lobby gift card from a husband who knows me all too well. (So far I've used it for some Stickles and a magnetic pincushion. I can only use one 40% coupon at a time and my legendary cheapness is not suspended even when it's a gift.)
• Mom and I went antiquing, something I've been dying to do for the longest time. While she was drooling over the Fire King dishes and gingham aprons, I found a book I've been hunting for ages: The Little Brown Jug At Kildare, by forgotten Hoosier author Meredith Nicholson. I read a bunch of his books while I was in college (they had a whole shelf at the Butler library) and that one was my favorite. It's a really nice edition with a full color front and it only set me back ten bucks... probably because the dealer didn't realize that it was written by an Indiana native.
• Amy learned how to say hi. Her first word! While we were out she was keeping up a stream of HI HI HI HI HI HI to everyone around us, which was really cute. She can also say Bye Bye and wave her hand, which is darling. And she walks. WHICH IS NOT FAIR.

Back home again

I really had to hit the ground running - I was gone Sunday through Wednesday and then I worked Thursday and Friday. Now I have a little bit of time to re-group but I also have to prepare a talk and a Sunday school lesson tomorrow (and catch up on groceries and laundry). It was fifty-one degrees in Alabama on Wednesday and minus eleven in Indiana on Thursday. Hmm, maybe I should have stayed.

I took a lot of pictures, mainly because I am the one person in the family who can be reliably counted on not to cry. (I'm not a horrible person, I swear. Even onions don't usually make me weep.) Grandaddy's funeral was really nice. I would describe it as more sad-bittersweet than sad-tragic, and when you really think about it, we should all be so lucky to be remembered like that. Emily, Catherine, Laura and I sang 'Amazing Grace' (reprised from Grandma's funeral three years ago - I think Mom just really likes to hear us sing) and we had some time to rehearse it in the hotel the night before, so I felt like we were able to do the song justice. Grandaddy was retired Navy, so he had the whole military funeral, which was neat. This is my favorite shot:

After they folded the flag they presented it to his widow (it's a long-ish story; she's not actually our grandmother, but they were married for 34 years and we all like her a lot) but later she gave it to Mom, which I thought was a really nice gesture. After the funeral we went back to the house (which is maybe a 3 minute drive from the cemetery and funeral home) and talked with all the family and friends. Grandaddy's church had sent a lot of food - fried okra, sweet potato pie, probably the most delicious cornbread I've ever put in my face-hole - and the Autaga County sheriff brought a ham. I had a really nice time chatting with my relatives before Emily and I had to hit the road again.

Here we are all in our fancy clothes:

Seven out of the eight grandkids were there (all except for Rob, who just got to Germany. Because he's in the Army. Grandaddy was okay with that; he was just relieved Rob's not a jarhead.) and two of the great-grandbabies. I just brought Amy, while Matt and the kids stayed home. It was really hard for Amy to absorb that much love and attention, because like all of my offspring, she's pretty shy and retiring. Although I'm a little concerned because I left home with a three-toothed (or tridentate - ha, I knew all that Latin would come in handy someday) baby but I returned home with a quadrident. So I think she might have been switched out of the hotel or something while I was sleeping.

Grandaddy

He was 76. He will be missed.

The New Year

We rang in 2009 in fine fashion, with family members (and a free turkey from work). Catherine took the bus out from Philadelphia, where she goes to art school. I hadn't seen her since 2006, so that was fun. Emily drove up from Ft. Campbell (where they will shortly be leaving, so we had better enjoy the proximity while it lasts) with Gavin and a fetus. And Mike and Mandy came up from Bloomington with Miles and a Wii, both of which were played with to the enjoyment of all. (I threw a strike on my first ever roll of Wii bowling, and promptly quit while I was ahead. Also, I stink at Mario Cart.)

Since all the cousins were together, we decided to line them up against the wall and shoot them.
With cameras, I mean.

Anyway, it was the first time Em, Cath and I had all been together since Emily's wedding, over two years ago, and we had WAAAY too much fun. We threw an air mattress on the floor and basically had a big slumber party (as much as that's possible when one woman is nursing a baby, and another is hugely pregnant) and did facials and talked about shoes and whatnot. Granted, the three of us shared a bedroom until I was 16 or so, and it wasn't nearly this much fun.

Anyway, in some not so good news, my Grandaddy is pretty sick with pneumonia, so we're hoping that turns out well. But in really great news, my brother's girlfriend Celeste is now no longer my brother's girlfriend, she is now his fiancee because Kevin asked her to marry him and she said yes.

Back from Texas

Okay, okay, so we actually got back on Sunday night. I am just updating now because I am busy all the time. I HATE BEING BUSY ALL THE TIME. But I got a lot of good pictures and I'd like to share. So here they are in no particular order (because Blogger makes it really hard to put my pictures in the order I want them in).

This is pretty representative of what we paid for gas most of our trip. The lowest we saw was $1.35 in Rolla, MO and the high was $1.85 in Dallas. (This was in Illinois. The funny thing was that if I'd walked inside the gas station and bought a quart of oil, that would have been a blend that I tested and approved. Okay, so it's not THAT funny.)
Amy and her cousin Kage. She's actually going to abandon me and go live in Utah so that she can see her buddy Kage every day.

My niece Anahi... I totally wanted to steal her. Those eyes, that curly hair... couldn't you just die?

On Thanksgiving night the girls went out and saw Twilight. Mark took a picture and the shutter on the camera didn't open all the way. But I think it's kind of appropriate, don't you? The movie was cute but I am really looking forward to #2. Team Jacob!

Everything is bigger in Texas... even the spiders. *full body shudder* Jessie found this hairy spawn of Satan out by the mailbox. So if I ever move to Texas, don't try to send me anything by mail, because I will never set foot within 50 feet of my box

The fireworks. SERIOUSLY. Nobody lost any fingers, though.

Carolyn (Jenny's mom) got these canvas teepees and put them in the yard, and each kid got to paint a section. What a neat idea.

We had dinner at the Yacktmans' house - that's my husband's brother's wife's parents. (We actually know them pretty well, since they used to live in Chicago; they were at our wedding, even.) Plus, two of Jenny's brothers married sisters and so pretty much their whole family came too. I think the final count stood at 46, although I don't remember if that includes babies or not. Believe it or not, there was actually food left over.

Betsy and her cousin Shardae bonded over Barbies.

Sophie licked the frosting knife clean. And then stuck it right back in the can. Man, I wish I was six and could get away with stuff like that.

This is what the frosting was used for: to glue these little beauties together. We are so making these next year.

The paintball warriors! Wednesday featured a massive paintball war between the Lynns and the Yacktmans. The Lynns lost. Oh well, we're still awesome.

Sohpie loved pushing Amy in the swing. Don't you love Sophie's long, strawberry-blond hair? The last time we saw her she was two and didn't have that.

Matt finally got to play some tennis with his brother Mark. I love this shot because Matt looks really cool and Mark looks like a dork. I married the good brother, people.

We stopped in Springfield, MO to pick up fireworks for Mark. The store actually wasn't nearly as redneck as I thought it would be.

None of us had ever been to Missouri before, even though it's only two states away. My kids really liked the big upside-down letter U.