Eme's costume-my first one!

I thought that since I made the girls each a dress at Easter (my first attempt at 3-D sewing, quilts are flat), that didn't end up with two head holes and only one arm, that I could make Eme a Halloween costume. My hope was to spend less on the fabric than a new costume, and end up with a far superior product. Thankfully JoAnn's had their costume fabric at 50% off, and the pattern was only 99 cents, so I spent about $15 in total. Eme picked out the fabric herself, with my guidance: purple with a green and purple skirt.

After sewing two layers of tule, 180 inches, two times (1 for basting, 1 for gathering), and two layers of underskirt, 150 inches, three times (1 for basting, 2 for gathering), and then having to sew through ALL those layers to attach it to the bodice, I'm just grateful it's all over. I tried the dress on Eme this morning, and now she won't take it off! I'm doubting whether this dress will survive until next year.

Oh, and this is what Maddie was up to while I sewed all day yesterday:

School Pics, a month late

So we're a bit slow in getting these up, but here they are: the boys' school pictures! Aidan the big 4th grader, at least it's not his chipmonk smile.

Davin's first school pic, I think he was trying to not laugh.

Not to worry mom, yours will be in the mail on Monday!

Fall Break

Last week the kids had off of school for fall break, it's one of the bonuses of starting school so early, we get some extra vacation time in throughout the year. We did the usual things: play outside, hit the zoo, made amazing messes, did photo sessions for the stuffed animals, helped me clean, had a new visitor, threw a few tantrums for good measure, you know, the usual.

Eme and Maddie are "cleaning" the fire grate with wipes; this little guy decided to spend an evening on our glass door, the kids were thrilled!

Davin and Eme insisted I take pictures of their animal friends.

We also had some big news at our house: Maddie is done with the highchair! She's graduated to the booster seat, and loves it! I love that the chair no longer takes up a huge corner of my kitchen. Now I just have to get rid of the highchair, thank goodness for craigslist.

Happy Birthday to ME! Wow, I'm 33?!

Eric started prepping for my birthday early this year, under the guise of building desks for the boys' Christmas gifts, he took the boys to Home Depot more than a week ago to buy lumber (the boys knew what was going on and still kept the secret!) He spent most evenings this week either planning out his build or out working on it in the garage, including most of yesterday (it even caused a misunderstanding on my part that snowballed into a horrible day Wednesday). All the while telling me that it was for the boys' desks so he could ask my opinion about different aspects of the desks, and to show off some of his workmanship, that sneaky man. So this morning, I was amazed and surprised when Eric opened the garage door to show me my birthday gift: my unfinished desk!

I had seen a smaller, similar one at Pier 1, and then Eric had found one closer to this one at Ballard Designs (for $400 too!). So my sweet, brilliantly talented man designed and built one for me (for way less), all for my birthday. Oh, I know it's not finished yet, but Eric did as much as he could without alerting me to the fact that he wasn't working on the boys' desks. He's still got to make the final measurements for the shelves, and install them, and then put the edging on the desk top. I'll help him stain it a lovely black to match my bookshelves, and in another week or two, I'll have my very own craft desk.

The kids helped to pick out some desk supplies for me, a box and a pencil cup in black. And Eric has taught Aidan his gift wrapping secret: sticking odd shaped things to the outside of the gift prior to wrapping helps to disguise what the item is. (Hence the bouncy balls in my hand.)

I made myself a pumpkin cheesecake for my desert, yum! Sure, I could have had Eric pick one up for me at the Cheesecake Factory-it's only 1.5 miles away, but for a fraction of the cost, I made my own, and as a bonus, I got to buy a new springform pan! I did have Eric make me dinner: corned beef w/potatoes and carrots.

We ended the day with Eric's family coming over to enjoy our cheesecake. His parents got me a new bread machine (woo hoo!) and a red dress I've had my eye on. Thanks so much to everyone who came over to help celebrate with us!

Maddie had fun wearing my shoes after church.

Today's bummer

The bummer of today was that I got released from my calling as a Relief Society instructor. The funny part was that the last two lessons went together so smoothly, I had joked with Eric that it was only a matter of time before I was released. You see, each time I've taught, once I get to the point where I feel like I've finally gotten a grip on what I'm doing, I've been released within 2 weeks. Eric told the bishop about it (he's the exec sec), and bishop told him simply that it's the power of discernment. No new calling today, I'm on "vacation", as our bishop put it, for a few weeks, and then we'll see what happens.

To Bakugan or not to Bakugan, that is the question.

Whether 'tis nobler to let my son make his own from bits of construction paper and glue (he's up to 6 now), or cave in and let him buy some with his allowance money. That is my dilema.



Aidan has gotten so desperate for a Bakugan that he's begun making his own out of bits of construction paper-and very proud of himself too. What's worse, now Davin is making them too. On the one hand I'm totally proud of the imagination, creativity, and talent required to make one's own ball morphing creature. And on the other hand, I just think: "how sad, those poor boys whose mom won't let them spend their hard earned money on whatever they want, they have to go and make their own toys."


I'm torn, Aidan is at the upper age of these things, and I'm not sure that I want him to invest his money in a toy that he may outgrow by next year. I loathe my children outgrowing their toys in under a year-it has happened before, and I feel bad about craigslist-ing and DI-ing perfectly good toys that didn't get some magical quota of playtime in before my children decided to be done with them (Original Imaginext, GeoTrax-LOTS, a Pirate play ship, Shake-n-Go racetrack and cars, Planet Heroes, etc.) But at the same time, all of his friend have these magnetic ball morphing monster things complete with metal playing cards that allow for the ball to morph into a thing.


All I want is to instill in my children an understanding of worth and value: will their purchases last, is it worth the time and effort it took to save their allowances for something special? I just want them to appreciate what they have, and not toss something aside just because some fad has passed.


But the worst/best part of the whole thing is that Aidan hasn't been begging for these Bakugan toys, he's mentioned them here and there, and I've said: "um, probably not". So he's just gone ahead, without complaint or anything, and made his own. But I guess that says something, doesn't it? That he's quite content to make his own, and not beg me for one. So I guess we'll just wait and see, if he's still asking for them by Christmas, than maybe we'll start a collection, and if not, well, then we've dodged another fad bullet.

Vignettes of Wisdom, and my own musings on them

I, like everyone else, has heard numerous bits of wisdom and advise over the years (I know I received TONS in YW alone). But, really, only a small handful have really touched me enough to remember and use on a regular basis. I just thought I'd share a few of them, and some of there actual applications as well.

A successful marriage means falling in love with the same person over and over again.

From my Grandma and Grandpa Seguine, and it's true. I love Eric so differently now than I did 11 years ago. My most recent reason to love him is how he handled last weekend with me being down for the count with a stomach bug. He sat on the couch in the living room to ensure that the kids voices didn't drift upstairs to disturb my staccato-ed sleeping, but also so he could hear me and come to my aid each time I needed it.

Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.

From my Grandpa Munt. For some reason my husband feels that it counts in laundry too. He gets his dirty clothes on top of the laundry hamper, or next to it, and his suit pants always seem to make it on to the shelf next to the hangars in the closet. But it is better than when he used my quilt rack as a haberdasher...

A soft answer turneth away wrath...

From my Great-Grandma Hoffman, and Proverbs. I've used this one so much, and yet not nearly as often as I should. It has come in handy with children as well as adults, it is amazing how more in control of myself I can remain when I remain calm and not fight back. There is definitely a spirit there helping, when I chose not to lose it. (this one goes hand in hand with my mom's "contention is inevitable, but fighting is a choice.")

Oh well, no one will notice.
Okay, this one isn't quite right. My favorite adaptation corrects this to:

Oh well, everyone will notice, but no one will care.

Which is true, everyone can/does notice the imperfections, but who really cares? This one has been crucial to me as a parent raising small children, things get spilled on me constantly, they get dirty quickly, we leave the house with Eme's hair uncombed regularly, they've thrown fits in the store. I know everyone has seen the chaos, so I have often had to remind myself with Oh well, and move on. It has also been important when it comes to quilting. Sometime I've found a BIG mistake at a time that it is no longer possible to use the seam ripper. At times like those, first I cry, and then I move on, and hope that no one will notice it, or if they do, won't care.

And lastly, I have taken a page from my Grandma Seguine. When she and Grandpa would get upset with each other, Grandpa would retreat to his workshop to tinker, and Grandma would go bake cookies. She did this for 2 reasons: 1. cookies required the baker to hand cream the butter-a great way to get out frustration; and 2. because when we perform small acts of service, we remember why we love them.

So, I bake cookies for my kids, a lot...even more over the summer.

I have used this story so many times in my relief society lessons, that a friend of mine is now dieing to try my cookies because I must have perfected them by now. Perfect? Not quite, but I do know the exact right butter/shortening ratio to use depending on the temp outside. My other secret is to only bake half the dough at a time and then freeze the rest for later, when we're happy too.