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!

Before and After

Here's our recliner, which has been around forever:
I got it from my grandparents when they were downsizing, so probably 2004 or 2005. My grandmother says she's actually had it reupholstered TWICE. I had bought fabric to do same, only then the economy collapsed, and I couldn't justify spending $3-400 on something that wasn't food, diapers, or health insurance. But, I did have the fabric (which was a steal at $5 a yard) so I finally decided to try my hand at sewing a slipcover.

To wit:
I actually... sort of hate it. The pattern I used was badly drafted, and nothing fits the way it's supposed to, and it looks all bunchy and homesewn, and the only way to keep it together is with a bunch of upholstery pins which like to pop out and prevent a safety hazard. BUT. At least it matches the rest of our furniture now.

I got a lot of other stuff finished last week, too. Like Betsy's Halloween costume, which is very sparkly and girl-tastic. I also made some random doll clothes (my current obsession, I must admit) and an apron for Betsy that I cut out in, I think, 2007. I made matching mother-daughter aprons for us and since I had so much leftover fabric, I also cut one out for her in a larger size, since she grows and whatnot. The interesting thing was, something that used to take me days to sew is now completed in mere hours. Yay competence!

I should be cleaning my house before my in-laws arrive on Thursday, but I'm blogging instead. I'm also dealing with a houseful of sickies... not fun. I was rather miserable last week but all I have now is a lingering tickle in my throat, which is more of a nuisance than anything else. But poor Betsy is home from school today. On Friday morning she threw up on the bus and had to come home. I'm hoping she'll be all better tomorrow, since it's a short school week as it is. And Amy had a fever yesterday: we actually had to leave church early, but not until the Primary program was done, which was AWESOME and I was so proud of all the kids and not just mine.

But, it's not all bad around here. Look what we saw this morning:

No, that house isn't on fire. It's a RAINBOW.

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!)

Spring: Broken.

So, the kids are on spring break this week. And it is freezing. It actually snowed yesterday (apparently the universe doesn't realize that if I wanted snow in April, I never woulda left Rochester) and it's supposed to be in the thirties and forties all week. Nevertheless, we are determined to make the best of it. My goal is to do something fun every day. Yesterday, for example, we went to the pet store (and cleaned the basement. Fun! Yay!); we also have trips planned to the zoo, the Children's Museum (for the first time since before Amy was born), the library, and Chick-Fil-A. Yes, Chick-Fil-A counts as 'fun.' Their food is delicious and they have an awesome play area.

Speaking of things that are broken, I went to Wal Mart yesterday and one of the things that I picked up was a replacement copy of The Princess Bride. Can anyone guess what happened to the original? If you guessed 'The kids broke it' you're dead on. Anyway, I got the brand new disk home and, guess what? That one doesn't work either. I was kind of bummed because now how am I going to know who is and isn't left-handed? So, I'll have to make yet another trip to Wal-Mart (which actually is a big deal because I usually only go there once a month or so) but it will totally be worth it to have The Princess Bride again.

Another thing that seems to be broken: I can't figure out why my blog posts are not showing the date. I keep going in to edit the template and it says that the date is already being displayed. Must be something broken in the new template... any suggestions? I am so not a computer genius.

Well, Merry Christmas already!

So, we got out of work early today, because the roads were bad. The thinking behind that was, if you leave before rush hour, you'll be less likely to get in an accident, right? So I went slipping and sliding across the parking lot to my car, chiseled the ice off of it, and set out at a snail's pace for home. It wasn't even snowing, it was freezing rain, which is almost worse because you have no traction, and all the caution in the world won't help you when there is no traction. People all over were getting into accidents... which is exactly what I did, not five minutes after I left work. That's right, I got into a car accident two days before Christmas.

So, that was awesome.

Fortunately, no one was hurt. The other driver's car was still driveable (is that even a word? drive-able?) but mine wasn't, so it's sitting in a parking lot waiting for an available tow truck. Fortunately, my co-worker was taking a different route home from work so he drove by not two minutes after it happened (and he was driving a borrowed van instead of his usual sportscar - really, a series of fortuitous concidences) so he was able to help me get part of the way home. And lucky for me, the people at our insurance company are wonderful and manage to be uplifting and helpful even though they must be dealing with billions of car accidents right now. (Liberty Mutual. I highly recommend - every time we've dealt with them, they've been great.) And the lady who was watching my kids was very understanding about having to look after them for an extra three hours or so while I slowly made my way home. When I did talk to the police dispatcher later, I learned that there had been something like eight hundred car accidents in Indianapolis today, and that's not even counting the interstates. And I guess it's a little bonus that I won't be working tomorrow, which I was scheduled to but, um, didn't want to because it's Christmas Eve.

So. We need a new washing machine (the bearings are shot or something, so the drum comes loose and the spin cycle rattles like World War 3) but that's going to go ahead and wait until after the estimate comes in. And truly, I don't think it's going to be that bad, but then I thought that about the Taurus in 2004 and it turned out to be a total loss. Which is NOT REALLY what we need this year. Mainly, I just need it to hurry up and be 2009 already.

waaaaah

Betsy started school last week, and thank you so much for rubbing it in. Why don't you give me a nice paper cut and pour some lemon juice on it? GO AWAY, WE'RE CLOSED.

But seriously though, she does really seem to be enjoying it. This week they learned about snakes (they have a snake in their classroom. On purpose.) and made the old lady who swallowed a fly. Also, I found out that Porter will probably be able to have the same preschool teacher that Betsy had (and adored) last year. Yeah, like my kids need to be any smarter.

One month

Yep, my due date is one month from today. Which means it's anyone's guess how long I actually have left to be pregnant. Betsy was 6 days late and Porter was 19 days early (the funny thing is, they weighed almost exactly the same) so I guess Cutie Pie is some sort of tiebreaker. I'd really like to have an April Fool's Day baby but I think it's sheer optimism to think that, and she will probably have to be blasted out of me with Pitocin like the other two were.

I've officially reached the point where I am SO SICK of being pregnant. I am tired of needing 4 pillows and a Benadryl to get even a little sleep at night. I'm tired of always having Visible Belly Panel because my shirts aren't long enough to cover the elastic waist of my maternity jeans. (I wish it was spring already and then I'd wear dresses all the time. "Why don't you just wear dresses all the time now?" Maternity pantyhose, that's why.) I'm tired of huffing and puffing like an obscene caller every time I climb the stairs. I'd say I'm tired of not being able to see my feet, but that's actually a blessing in disguise as I secretly think feet are really gross. But, I have a semi-permanent sore spot in the middle of my back (I thought it's supposed to be the lower back that gets sore at the end? Whatever, I am so weird) so I am always begging my long-suffering husband for massages. Also, I'm feeling really nauseated and gross right now and I'd better not be getting the stomach flu or anything like that. I never get sick so wouldn't it be just like me to have my twice-a-decade illness while I am hugely pregnant?

Anyway, I suppose that's enough of a pity party to ask any of you to tolerate. Next post, I promise, I will write about the baby's name and how we chose it. Okay, how I chose it...

Sick Sunday

So, we are all a family of sickies today, we've got kind of a yucky cough thing going on. Also, I'm worried that Porter might have an ear infection, since Matt says he was holding his ear the other night. I hope he doesn't. Our COBRA enrollment isn't done yet so we simultaneously do and do not have health insurance right now, like Schrodinger's cat. Meow!

Anyway, I think that at least Porter, if not both of the kids, will be missing church today. Matt has to go because he teaches Sunday school. (Matt: "Do you want to sub for my class tomorrow?" Me: "Tell you what, we'll just switch our teaching assignments for the week." Surprisingly enough, he didn't go for it.) I feel bad that Porter has to miss nursery, which is the highlight of his week. But I don't want him hacking all over the other kids, either.

Porter woke up about an hour after I put him down last night, and he was sobbing hysterically. He couldn't tell me what was wrong, which is unusual for Porter (he's the kid who goes, "Waaah! I cwying." so he's usually pretty open about that sort of thing). I comforted him as best I could, and then I got Matt to bring in the baby Tylenol. Well, when Matt showed up, Porter mumbled something about Daddy and an alligator, then laid down and went back to sleep. We think he may have had a scary dream about Daddy being eaten by an alligator! Weird, huh? If so, it's probably inspired by this and this, and the fact that he's not feeling well. Don't you always have the freakiest dreams when you're sick? I know I do.

I'll probably take a nap while Matt's at church. I've been even tireder than usual lately, since I've developed the Stuffy Nose of Pregnancy and I wake up constantly in the middle of the night because I can't breathe. Isn't that special? I actually had the same problem when I was pregnant with Porter, only in that case taking Benadryl actually helped. I've figured out that I can only sleep for 5 or 6 hours at a stretch, but I can always get a nap in later. That actually works pretty well since it's more or less what I've been doing all year for seminary, but it does get complicated on the weekends. I just can't wait to have this baby, even though I will still be waking up in the night after she's born.

Speaking of being pregnant, I had my baby shower yesterday and it was lovely. (I took my camera with me but forgot to take any pictures. No worries, one of the hostesses was snapping away the whole time.) We had this whole Pampering Spa thing going on: there were massages, English tea and scones, a Mary Kay lady came in and we soaked our feet and did Satin Hands, the whole nine yards. I felt really, really loved and I think that everyone had a great time. And I am going to have one seriously well dressed baby. The most pregnant of the pregnant ladies in our ward is about to pop any day now, so the showers are done and the baby boom can begin!

Badum-pum-pum.

We went down to the Children's Museum today for their Christmas exhibit. Also, dinosaurs. We actually went last week but had to leave early because of a poop incident. (Note to self: keep spare diapers in the van at ALL times.) Since I don't have seminary this week (HOORAY) we decided we might as well just go again. The kids had a really good time and Porter helpfully pointed out all of the stop signs between here and 30th & Meridian.

In the car I discovered that one of the local high school radio stations was playing Christmas music all day. (There's actually another station that's been playing holiday music since October, but it's mostly the cheesy stuff that I can't stand. I haven't decided which is worse, "Do They Know It's Christmas" or "Wonderful Christmastime.") Anyway, they played the Muppets version of 12 Days of Christmas, which got the kids (okay, me) all excited. Now, it's not like I haven't listened to the album eleventy-jillion times since the day after Thanksgiving. But still, hearing it on the radio was like running into an old friend unexpectedly. And, it's always nice to know that there are other people who love that album too. The kids love trying to identify the Muppet voices and I like to wail along, "FIVE... GOOOO-OOOLD... RIIIIINGS!" And, don't ask me why "Badum-pum-pum" is legitimate song-writing while "Parum-pum-pum-pum" is not acceptable. (Yes, I have inherited my father's bias against 'The Little Drummer Boy.' Dad, can you explain in exactly seventeen syllables why that is a horrible song?)

When I'm not listening to the radio in the car, I play my CD of the Messiah. Porter really likes the 'ayayooya' part.

I'm still baking cookies like a madwoman. Someone on an NCIS site posted the recipe for those cookies Laura Nielsen always made - the ones with the stripe of jam down the middle. I picked up some raspberry jam today (seedless, because that's the only way Matt will eat it; I prefer it with seeds) and I'm going to make some tonight, hopefully. I also made spinach dip today for Matt's work party and I started truffles, although I probably won't finish those until tomorrow. There's a lot of chilling involved, which is probably a metaphor for something.

I'm having issues with my maternity pants lately. I don't like the ones with the old-school belly pocket in the front, because my shirts aren't long enough to cover it and I think visible belly pouch is a huge faux pas. But, the ones with the elastic all the way around the waist keep falling off my hips (what, they aren't BIG ENOUGH TO HOLD UP MY PANTS??!!) and I'm always hiking them up. I'm starting to feel like Matt Foley. And I wanna live in a van down by the river.

Annual Fudge Rant

I like to think of myself as a relatively accomplished person. I've had scrapbook layouts published, I taught myself how to sew, I can make ten different varieties of Christmas cookies without even batting an eye. And yet there is one goal that continues to elude my squatty-thumbed grasp.

Fudge.

I've been trying for years to duplicate my mom's Christmas fudge. It's not even a top secret recipe or anything; it's right there on the back of the jar of marshmallow fluff, the one with the insulting name of Never Fail Fudge. And I have failed it many, many times. It's boiled over or burned or failed to set and slithered off the counter top like something from a bad science fiction movie, in search of the plutonium it so desperately needs for survival. It's only in the last year or two that I've even produced something edible and even then, while the flavor is acceptable, the texture is way off.

Fudge is supposed to be smooth and melty, yielding slightly to the pressure of sticky fingers as you go for your fifth piece. Mine is coming out grainy and stiff, and it comes apart in big shaggy flakes when I try to cut it into bite-sized pieces. The most recent batch (this year's second) is the closest I've ever come: it's pretty smooth, but it still went all crumbly on the cutting board. (Matt doesn't mind. He throws the shards into his hot chocolate.)

I think I'm far too heavily invested into this project to give it up now. And it's slightly a matter of pride: I have a degree in chemistry, I should be able to handle fudge, right? I think that the problem is coming in when I add the chocolate chips to the butter-sugar-evaporated milk mixture. I've noticed that it tends to coagulate into a grainy lump, making it hard to incorporate with only the residual heat in the pan and the residual strength in my arm after stirring nonstop for about 20 minutes. (And I have no idea how my mom managed to make 2 or 3 double batches a night... the only thing I can figure is that by then, Mom had plenty of teenage helpers to aid with the stirring.)

On the other hand... I can not for the life of me find a 9x9 pan as called for by the recipe. I can only come up with 8x8 or smaller. So perhaps it's a conspiracy after all...

um

Did I seriously just go two weeks without updating my blog? Whoops. I hope you all don't hate me now.


Not a ton going on here, right now. The baby moves a lot, particularly when I'm laying in bed. I find it amusing now but ask me again in four more months when I can't sleep because someone's playing tetherball with my internal organs.

I had another layout picked by Scrapbook Trends - this time for an idea book about embellishments. It was one of my favorite layouts - part of my SOY entry - so I'm really glad I'll get to see it in print. And after a long dry spell, I seem to be getting a lot of publications.

Porter somehow knows all of the letters of the alphabet (upper case, at least). I've never actually tried to teach him that stuff so I don't know how he knows it - must be from TV, I guess.

I did some sewing this week: made matching Santa aprons for Betsy and me. Here's Betsy modeling hers - mine is the same only bigger and not worn by as cute of a person.
This was pretty intense on NCIS last week. Could not believe that they didn't mention it at all in this week's episode. Also, am I the only one who's incredibly nervous about the writers' strike? I don't know how long I can go without my fix.

I hate our telephone. The battery dies if you try and talk for more than 30 seconds. And I cannot figure out the deal with the paragraph breaks on Blogger. Either I get huge breaks or everything is all smooshed together. I'm tired of trying to figure it out.

I think that's everything. See? Not exciting. Next week will be, though.

Thinking cold thoughts

It is about a million degrees today. Unfortunately it's supposed to get up to a billion by the end of the week, and we are going to the State Fair on Friday. Oh well, it will be good practice for the hot Orlando weather, I guess. In the meantime I am trying just to move as little as possible, except to go to swimming. (But you'd better believe we're going to drive to the pool in our air-conditioned van.)

Betsy likes to play hide-and-seek with me while Porter is napping. Unfortunately, she is not exactly the world's greatest hider. I'll count to 10 and do that whole "oh no, where could Betsy be hiding?" routine and her little voice pipes up, "I in here, Mama!" Plus she tends to use the same 3 hiding spots over and over. But it's always fun when she finds me - she always bursts out laughing.

Betsy put on a pair of my shoes this morning - these awesome 6" wedges that were 75% off at Target - and I told her she looked like a mama. She said, "No, a kid with shoes." Well. Okay then.

Oh, for pete's sake.

It is snowing.

I can't think of a witty title for this post.

I just realized it's been more than a week since my last post. Geez, where does the time go? Let's see... NCIS was a repeat this week, Betsy is still pooping in diapers, and I still haven't finished the baby doll coat. (I'm having to hand sew all that *&^$%& bias tape, which is a particularly grueling and thankless task.) I did go to Joann's yesterday and pick up some Halloween print fabric for 99 cents a yard. I'm going to sew some treat bags for the kids, since they'll fit more easily into storage than the old school plastic pumpkins. (Not that I don't love the pumpkins, mind you.) I'll need to get those done before Trunk or Treat tomorrow night, but I think they'll be easy. I'm using a 12x12 square of chipboard as a pattern... quick and easy, I hope.

I also went to Old Navy yesterday. I got this really cute pair of black crocheted espadrilles for, you guessed it, 97 cents.

On Saturday, I'm heading up to Fort Wayne for Croptoberfest, a massive all-day crop at Luv2Scrapbook. I've been haunting their message board for almost two years, but I've never been there before. Of course, most of my MB buddies won't be there, since they all went to the Anniversary Crop in May, which was shortly before Porter stopped nursing, the little ingrate. But still, I think it will be wicked fun, and I hope to get a lot done on my Hall of Fame entry. As of now I have all of my assignment pages planned, EXCEPT for the 'Original technique' one, though I'm guessing I'm not alone on that, lol! Anyway, I'm staying overnight at a friend's house in Fort Wayne, which will be my first time away from the kids since... hmmm... Time Out for Women, back when I was (barely) pregnant with Porter. (Speaking of which, TOFW will be in Indy in September /07! Way cool!) And as much as I love the little boogers, I really can't wait to get away from them fro a little while.