I HATE killing roaches.

I used to think that I hated roaches. I was wrong. What I hate more is killing roaches. If I know one is running around, I can ignore it...pretend it's not there. But when I have to kill it...and then clean it up...oh, my stomach turns...it's nasty...HATE. I just had to kill one. It made the mistake of crawling on my child's clean laundry. I beat it to a pulp. With my shoe. I've found that my sandal is the best for the job because it doesn't have grooves in the bottom. It's much easier to clean that way. Anyway...back to beating a roach to a pulp. Yeah, so I beat the roach to a pulp. The problem with that, though, is that it left a nasty mess on my carpet. So now I'm off to clean it up with the Resolve that's been soaking in. I know you wanted to know.

So...what do you hate?

the fourth...er...third

On July 3rd, there was a concert and fireworks at the stadium in W.R. Our festivities are never on the 4th because the Air Force Reserve Band plays every year...and they are always booked somewhere else on the 4th. Anyway, this year, Matt wasn't able to go because he was sick. The kids and I met up with my parents. Since it was so packed (Lonestar was playing), we decided to find a seat outside of the stadium. And I'm so glad we did. Things got really behind and the fireworks (that were supposed to be around 9:30) didn't start until almost 11:00. If we had been in the stadium, the kids wouldn't have lasted. As it was, they had plenty of room to run and play (this means the very important option of freedom). Plus, the music wasn't so loud that you couldn't hear anything...like it would have been inside. I didn't take too many pictures (I didn't even take "my" camera), but here are a couple.

Grandma and Caroline were all dressed up in their patriotic wear!


This helicopter (which you can see was very close to us) took off directly over our heads. It was really cool. Plus...the pilot waved at us as they flew over. This is one of those things that just doesn't happen every day.

being tagged

So...way back in April, I was tagged...twice. I just never got around to posting. The two that I received were different, but I figure that answering this one will cover them both. So, here goes...

Four jobs I've had:
1. Receptionist at an Accounting Firm
2. Food Fixer / Table Cleaner / Wait Staff Helper at a Mexican Restaurant
3. Project Manager (co-op) for Relocation of Business Offices
4. Assistant Project Manager for a Small Construction Company

Four movies I've watched more than once:
1. ET
2. Mary Poppins
3. The Princess Bride
4. Star Wars (all three original episodes)

Four places I've lived:
1. Warner Robins
2. Bonaire
3. Atlanta - Ga Tech
4. Atlanta - Other

Four TV Shows I watch:
1. Lost
2. Survivor
3. So You Think You Can Dance
4. NCIS

Four places I've been:
1. New Zealand
2. Scotland
3. Malta
4. Poland

Four people who email me regularly:
1. Matt
2. that's it...I take too long to respond
3.
4.

Four of my favorite foods:
1. Quizno's Mesquite Chicken Sandwich
2. Longhorn's Ribeye
3. a good Chicken Parmesan with Spaghetti
4. Chocolate Chip Cookies (at least recently)

Four places I would like to visit:
1. Italy
2. Israel
3. Poland (again)
4. Northwest US States

Four things I'm looking forward to in the coming year:
1. Nathan starting school (but nervous as well)
2. Caroline talking (I think)
3. Nathan playing soccer
4. going to the mountains


I'm not tagging anybody. If I can't get around to answering for three months, then I certainly ought not ask anybody else to do it!

b&a - master bathroom

The last "major" project left after the shed was master bathroom. It is only a half bath, but it had some ugly stuff! The bottom half of the walls were covered in a lovely gold squiggly board. The sink had the same gold design to match. In addition, it was plastic. Yep...that's right...a plastic sink. We removed all of that as well as the very dated and very NOT pretty light. Some drywall work had to be done and the walls were painted. A new vanity, sink, and faucet were installed my by handy husband. He also put up a new light and added and outlet. In addition, he made me a frame out of molding to put on the medicine cabinet mirror. The bathroom isn't gorgeous or anything, but at least it isn't ugly anymore! Oh yeah...and we replaced the existing vinyl with vinyl that matches the other bathroom.

a boy towel

I never put up pictures of Nathan's completed towel. Here are a couple:

dining room wall

Here is the wall of our dining room. Well, that's what we call it anyway. It's really an eat-in kitchen. But that's beside the point. The point is...this wall never quite felt right to me. Beside the fact that one of the frames never got a picture, it just felt empty. Cold. I wasn't sure what to do about it.


A couple months ago, I spotted a mirror at Hobby Lobby that I liked. It was on sale, but was still a little more than I wanted to pay (I'm cheap). So, I passed. Well...recently I was in the store again and wondered through that section. To my delight, the mirror was still there and had been marked down. Yay! Now it felt like a deal! I was still a little hesitant because I didn't think that Matt would like it. However, I bought it anyway. And I knew just where it needed to go...in the dining room.


Now that it's up, I feel so much better! Really. When I look at that wall, things feel friendly...homey...not empty. It makes me smile. I like when something that simple can bring a smile!

a couple aprons

June is a month with several family birthdays. As you may have noticed, I am kinda on a crafty kick. So, I made a couple aprons for a couple sister-in-laws. The first two pictures belong to one apron. I forgot to take pictures of the second, but I found the recipient to be a great model! The reverse of hers is also the same green fabric as is found on the first one.




This pattern came from Sew Liberated (formerly Montessori by Hand) and the pattern can be found here.

Nathan's curtains

In May, we finally got Nathan some new curtains. When we first moved into the house, he had the curtains that were already hanging in the room. Then, I decided to try to dye them red because we had planned to get red curtains. Well, not only did the process tear holes in the fragile fabric, but it left the curtains pink. The pink I could have fixed, but the holes were just too much. Well, eventually, we replaced the pink curtains with the beige ones (seen below) that originally hung in the living room. The reason that this process took so long is that Nathan really liked the traverse rod. He liked being able to open and close the curtains himself. So, we were trying to find some curtains that were pinch pleat for the traverse rod. They also had to have a white backing because we do not have blinds. In addition, they needed to look masculine (which is rare in pinch pleated curtains). Oh yeah...and we didn't want to spend an arm and a leg. We found some that we decided would work back in the fall, but we kept waiting for them to go on sale. Well, they finally did...in May. So, Nathan finally has some curtains (drapes) that go in his room. Oh yeah, we decided to go with blue when we checked out the red version and the blue version of this fabric. The blue just seemed to work better.

a late birthday present

Although it was a month late, this present finally made it to its intended recipient last week. This was an interesting project. It was a quick one, though, which is how I like them. I am finding that I am not very good at picking out fabric or figuring out where to put each fabric. It takes me forever! In this case, I bought several fabrics that were sold together so that they would all coordinate. That at least cut down on one of my difficult steps. The other took a little time, but I think that the finished product turned out looking nice.



This pattern comes from Pink Chalk Studio and you can buy it here.

b&a - the shed/workshop

When we bought our house, there were two existing sheds in the backyard. We had plans for one to be storage and the other to become a work shed. Matt had a vision of a very manly workshop-type space. Well, he was finally able to start working on it Memorial Day weekend.

As you can see in this picture, there had been leaks on in several spots that left the walls and ceilings moldy. This was obviously not part of a nice workshop. So, the first step in fixing things up was to replace all of the moldy boards.



The front side walls were covered in a lovely paneling. Most of those pieces were also moldy, so they were all replaced to match. Once Matt got all the moldy boards off, he figure that he also needed to replace a few sections of the floor and just a couple 2x4 frame pieces. In addition, he rewired the whole thing - adding outlets and replacing the single incandescent fixture with two nice florescent ones.



Since the floor had some new boards, we decided to paint the whole things so that it would all match. The shed/shop is not perfect, but it certainly is much nicer and more usable now. Matt has his man-place. He also has plans to add an air conditioner in the future. :)

I'm back

Hello all out there in blogland! Sorry I haven't been around in a while. I plan to get back on the horse this week, though. So be on the lookout for things here and over at the kids' blog.

more on the towel and a link

Elizabeth asked for a little more info on the hooded towels that I made. So, just as a reminder, I mostly followed the tutorial over at the Microbes of Unusual Sizes blog. I started to just make a few notes about my changes, but it was sounding confusing to me. So...I'm just going to list out my changes to her steps. What I have written may be completely confusing. If so, let me know. I think this would be much clearer if I just wrote my own tutorial. However, I would need to make another towel so that I could have pictures at every step.

1. Measure 10.5 or 11 inches instead of 10 inches. I wasn't so sure about my ability to finish the inside edge of the hood, so I wanted to allow a little extra room. Plus, I was making my hood curved. I don't think it makes much difference either way.

5. I used a zigzag stitch about 1/2 inch from the edge. After thinking about it, I think it would be just fine to do it closer as she suggests. I was just nervous about this edge finishing thing - I had never tried it. After I when down the entire length, I found something round and created a curve at the top edge (again with the zigzag stitch) and then cut off the extra fabric.


6. I finished the edge with a very close zigzag stitch. It didn't look quite like hers, but looks pretty good.

7. & 8. I aligned the middle of my hood and towel, but I attached the hood on the outside of the towel so that the hood binding was on top of the towel binding. If you look at her finished product, you can see that the way she attached it caused the towel to turn in funny and have a seam on the inside where the kid is. I think you can tell in this picture and the one following how I lined it up (you may want to click on them and look at the larger pictures). It causes the towel to hang straight and there is no seam to bother the kid.


9. I would recommend pinning the hood and the towel together in several places if you want it perfectly aligned. I didn't. They're all slightly off center, but it doesn't bother me too much. Anyway, I used a small but tight zigzag stitch on top of the binding. The only problem I had was with the very edge where the end binding (either pink or blue in the pictures) was on top of the towel binding (white). It was a little thick for my sewing machine so I hand sewed that part down on Caroline's towel. However, on Nathan's I forced the thickness into my sewing machine and stitched it down separately from the long line.


11. I added the letters to the bottom in a coordinating terry fabric. Again, I used a zigzag stitch (larger) around the edge and then trimmed up the stray strings.






Elizabeth also asked for the instructions for the crayon roll. I found them over at Skip To My Lou. I pretty much followed it exactly except that I didn't use the ric rac - not for a boy! I also didn't use interfacing since I used denim.

flowers - day 4

flowers - day 3

(ok...so this is mostly bugs...but those are flowers at the bottom)

flowers - day 2

flowers - day 1

an interesting site

I found this website today and found it very interesting. It gives a pretty full rundown of a child's development at different ages. Now, I'm not saying whether it's right or not, but I'm generally a PBS fan, so I would basically trust it. At any rate, take a look and see what you think.

instructions

The instructions for the tea wallet can be found at this forum on a site called crafster.

And the instructions for the basics of the towel can be found here at the microbes of unusual sizes blog.

I attached the hood a little differently on my towel. I also didn't use the ribbon since I picked out a striped towel. I did, however, add the initial just to make it a little more personalized.

Go ahead...try your hand at one of these! (and let me know how it goes)

goin' shootin'

For a while now, Matt has been asking me to go with him to learn how to shoot. Yes, a gun...or two...or more. He originally asked me to go to a shooting range, but I didn't want to be learning with a bunch of other people watching. I told him that I would rather go out somewhere in the middle of nowhere where it's ok to shoot. I didn't really want to go, though. However, I finally agreed to go this weekend. (We went to some land one of our Sunday school friend's family owns, down in the country.)

Before I start telling you about all of this, let me tell you that I have no idea about the "right" terminology for all this stuff. So, I'll just type what I want and then let Matt put his "right" terminology in parentheses.

Matt borrowed a couple guns for us to use if we wanted. We started off shooting a 22 (.22 caliber) pistol. He wanted to start with it because it would kick less than the handgun that he (we) own. After being educated about the gun and how to use it and how to load it and such, Matt shot the first round (I can't think of a better word for this, since "round" makes it sound like just one shot. I guess I'll just leave it). Then, I loaded up the magazine and shot a round. Here is a picture of my VERY FIRST two shots. I was proud, so we took some pictures. (I have read a lot of comments from people whose wives shoot better than them. I was not surprised that Jennifer did well.)


And here is me actually shooting. You can see Matt's homemade target stand and printed off the internet target over there on the right.


I did pretty good if I do say so myself! (She did very well, indeed.) I was actually impressed that I did as well as I did for my first time ever shooting a "real" gun. (I don't think a b.b. gun counts as "real".) Here's the target with my entire first round.


Then, we went through a lesson on the 40 whatever (.40 caliber) gun that we own. It definitely feels different in your hand then the 22. It looks different, too. I told Matt that it looks like Robogun. Anyway, it also kicks more than the 22 and is much louder. (But she wasn't scared or wimpy about it. She even shot once without ear protection in order to know how loud it really is -- since if you ever need a gun, you won't have ear muffs on.) (ha ha ha...he said "muffs") Here's a lovely picture of me shooting this gun.


And here's the target from my first two rounds. The ones that are circled are from my first round. Well, actually, the two that are furthest to the right that have x's through them were Matt's. The other holes are my second round. I was impressed that I was able to significantly correct from the first set to the next. At any rate, if I ever had a reason to protect myself with this gun, at least I feel like I could be effective. Of course, I sure hope that I am NEVER in a situation like that.


Matt wanted to do some shooting with the shotgun and maybe a rifle as well, but we needed to get back. We shot up several more targets, though, as well as a Dr. Pepper can. :) (Next time we can take things that explode when shot, like potatoes!) Even though I didn't really want to go originally, I did have a good time. Fun even.

things made

Back in March, I made a couple tea wallets for Lisa's birthday. I forgot to take a picture of the second one, but here are some pictures of the first one. (I like this one better anyway.) I like this kind of project...short. I love being able to start and finish a project in one sitting.




In April, I made a couple hooded towels. I originally planned to just make one for Sara Grace's birthday. Once I picked out the towels to use, I decided that I couldn't pass up making one for Caroline as well (she really needed it, too, since she's outgrowing her baby towels). So, here are a couple pictures of the one for Sara Grace and a couple pictures of Caroline using hers.