I Don't love Dogs.....

I really really don't love dogs or cats or little furry anythings. 
Why?
Waaaayyyy too many reason s to list.  really.



Last year, Garth's parents called to say they were going to serve a mission for our church in Taipei, Taiwan. 

The first thought that popped into my head was "we could take Penny"

What?  Where did that come from?  A dog.... in MY house?  For a whole year and a half?  Crazy.

I do believe my Mother-in-law was a little apprehensive about leaving her baby with her non pet loving daughter-in-law.  Her other one loves dogs.

I believe Penny and I have done pretty well so far.  She thinks I love her and I do like her a lot.  She is cute.

Little Penny is turning 7 soon if not already.  I think she was born in March.
She is a Trained Therapy Dog and really very well behaved. 

We've had her for 10 months now.  In those 10 months, she's learned to go potty outside. Yay!  She was used to potty papers at her house.  My in-laws live at the Running Running Y Ranch in Klamath Falls, Oregon.  Penny could be eaten by any number of bigger than her things.

She's taken over one of our family room chairs.

If there is a blanket on the couch she's gonna test it out.

She sleeps on Jensen's bed

Every morning she does this hoping for tummy rubs.  She usually gets them.

She believes all legs are for getting comfy on

We made her a bed for Christmas

This is her real Mom and Dad

We try to send pictures and videos to them often. 

I know My Mother-in-law Ellen misses Penny terribly.  They will be home in October and Penny will take up her usual position on Ellen's shoulders as she sits and reads by the window.

I might miss her.

A BIG change (for me) and a peek at my sewing room

About 20-ish years ago......

Rotary cutters and self healing cutting Mats were the things I drooled most over at the fabric store.  Garth was attending BYU and I was working and making about $6.00 an hour.  In other words, we didn't have a lot of moola so it was a pretty big deal when I purchased my first green cutting mat.  I wish I could remember what it cost way back then.  I can remember bringing it home and just staring at it with joy and anticipation.  I also had my new rotary cutter.  My very sharp new rotary cutter.

Over the years, I used and used and used them.  I made school clothes for Garth and most of my dresses and tops.  When our boys came along, I made them church clothes, play clothes, toys and big stuffed bear bean bag chairs. 

So, earlier this week there was a major tragedy...  I cut right through my faithful old green cutting mat!  I'd used some of the marking so many times over the years that they were hard to see.  The markings stopped "self healing" and were slowly just being cutt away over time.

Kinda hard to see but I cut right through on the left side there....

It now has a new home under my sewing machine.

I HAD to replace it so I went to Joann Fabrics armed with my 50% off coupon.  I stood there and thought and thought about which one to buy.  The ol Green Olfa mats were a whopping almost $60.00 so $30.00 with the coupon (yes, I can do some simple math!).  I looked at the Fiskars brand and it was about $10.00 less, double sided and already on sale so I could use my coupon on fabric.  So, feeling a bit odd, I got the Fiskars one.

Here is my new baby...

Beautiful.

I was a bit hesitant to make that first cut.  Kinda like putting a hole in your brand new house to hang a picture. 

I managed.

Ok, enough about that BIG change!






Here is a small peek into my sewing room....

My Baby.  See that pink paper over there on the left?  Those are my patterns that I designed.  Yes, me!

A work in progress...

I love the window and natural light!

A "bit" of my fabric stash

Some bags waiting to be photographed and listed on Etsy

a few more

The wall behind my sewing machine needs to be re-organized again.

Bag hardware and other things easy to grab as needed

I almost didn't add this one because it looks so messy.  Just ignore the poor turkey sitting sadly on top of my box of ribbing (t-shirt necks, etc.)  Off to the side there in rolls is my supply of oil cloth.   My awesome t.v. and roku box are there so I can watch netflix movies instead of Judge Judy all day.  Oh, and my zipper supply too.



bags in progress.

Well, There you have it.  A small peek into my almost favorite place to be in our house.  I feel a bit exposed.

I hope you are still awake!

Happy Valentine's Day!

This was taken November 2006

xoxo

How did I get soooo Lucky?

How did I get such smarty pants kids? 

I used to cringe and want to hide when my report card came. 

Not our boys.  We sit down on the couch, open it together and go over everything. 

I LOVE it and I love them.

Gordon's Report card:

click on the pic if you want to see the details better and enjoy the cell phone quality....

Jensen's report card:

Once again,  I'm a lucky girl.

What? Did you say something to me?

I've been a tiny bit distracted lately.

This is why

I've wanted one of these for a while now. My friend got one for Christmas and seeing her excitement, made me want one even more. I told myself when I sold 4 more picture frames, I'd do it.

I did a LOT of research before I decided to buy a Kindle. I looked at all the internet posts comparing the Kindle to the Nook and Sony reader and a few others. I was very interested in the eBook checkout system at our local library but found out you have to wait quite a while for them. Really? The library eBooks are a format that doesn't comply with Kindle but does with all the others I was looking at. I won't bore you with everything I learned. Ultimately, I went with the Kindle and so far, I'm not sorry I did.

Once I had my new little friend home, I knew I needed to make it nice and cozy. I needed to make it nice and safe so I could throw it into my purse. Also, as slim and lovely as it is, I wanted more to hang onto. I looked and looked for ideas on the internet and found several. I'm pretty good at looking at something and making it better for me.

My first attempt

The front

The inside

Folded backward and hooked to itself with the velcro

The pockets on the oposite side.  I guess for a tablet or something.

This one is just a little thick.  I put two layers of very heavy interfacing in there.

I carried it around in this for several days but then got excited about making some little tweaks and making one with fabric that makes my skirt fly up.

My second attempt

The outside with a smaller flap and only one layer of heavy interfacing inside.  Also made the corners a little pointy-er

The inside with more reinforced corners

No change in the pockets

Folded back

Another shot of it folded back

I LOVE the colors of this one. It makes me happy just to look at it. You might want to know how I reach those buttons and the on/off switch there at the bottom right side. Well, the corner slips off easily and still stays put! I think I'm in love.

Here is the question though....

Should I make them and try to sell them? I could make them for iPad and Nook and any of the others. There are a ton of them out there on the internet.

I don't know.

How much would you pay for one of these babies?



The Slob Husband

A few nights ago, I was sitting at my sewing machine with the TV. on. I was really enjoying myself when Garth came into my area of the office/sewing room.


Let me explain.


We have two bedrooms at the front of our house that measure 10x19 feet. Long and skinny. The boys share one and Garth and I share the other. Just inside the door of the office there are three desks. One cool roll top desk that is a bit dusty. One computer desk. And another long dresser desk-ish combo. On top of that is a shelf unit. These desks are positioned so that you can't see the back half of the room. There, in the back half, is my little oasis. My fabric is there. My sewing machine is there. My awesome TV. is there. The window is there. My candy stash is gone for good I’m afraid. Someday I'll post pictures of the room.


So, back to my original ramblings....
I was sitting there having a great time when Garth walked into my area. He proceeded to tell me that he thinks our roles are reversed. I'm the slob husband. He went on to explain... My half of the garage is spilling onto his half of the garage in a huge/bad way (still haven't organized myself after the Christmas rush). I never put my hair dryer and sometimes make up back in the drawer. I have a pile of laundry on our bedroom floor.... I believe he said a few other things but I might have tuned him out.


I really was planning on working on the garage the next day. Really. I was. I didn't try to explain this. I knew I would sound a bit pathetic.


The next day, after the boys left for school, I headed to the garage with two sweatshirts and a jacket on. While I was freezing my patootie off in the Garage I had a lot of time to think.


I took my phone out of my pocket and without pausing the music, sent a text to my turtle dove. I thanked him for having a smile on his face as he called me a slob husband.


I’m a lucky girl.

A New Year and a Black Belt Test from last year...

Here we are starting a new year.  I'm going to try to update this blog thing more often this year. 

I'm starting with an event that took place way back in November.  November 20th to be exact. 

It all started 4 years ago on the first day of school.  Gordon was 9 and in 4th Grade.  Jensen was almost 6 and in 1st grade.  We kept trying to get Gordon to participate in a sport.  He played T ball when he was in Kindergarten/1st grade but said he didn't want to keep doing it.  He said he'd like to try martial arts or something like that.

Okay....

This is Gordon at his very first test.  He earned a yellow stripe on his belt.  Jensen wasn't quite ready to test yet but earned his just 3 months later.

There is a test about every 3 months so if you are ready and you've been invited to test you can earn your next belt. 

Here is the order:
White
Yellow Stripe
Yellow
Green Stripe
Green  
(Jensen announced at this point that Kyuki-do just wan't his thing.  He is now taking piano lessons)
Blue Stripe
Blue
Brown Stripe
Brown
Red Stripe
Red
Black Stripe
Black

Gordon waited a year after earning his black stripe to test for Black.  For one thing, he didn't think he was ready and the Grand Master only comes once or twice a year for Black Belt tests.

We had to make a "Black Belt" book.  It is more or less a scrapbook of his journey to his Black Belt test.  He wrote an essay and we put in several pictures of our family activities and his Kyuki-do pictures.  Fun, but a little stressful to put together. 

4 people were testing.  Two 13 year old boys, one 17 year old girl and a 50 year old man.  Of course, Gordon was the tallest one.

During the test, Gordon had to perform some "forms" that include sometimes more than 35 moves.  He had to perform them as the testers asked.  He had to fight or sparr 3 against 1 and did very well.  I think this is the most nervous I've ever seen Gordon.  It was a little hard to see him under so much pressure at one time.  He did handle it and himself very well.  I'm one proud Mom!  Because he is so tall he often gets put up against grown men.  I swear, no matter how big my baby gets, I'll NEVER get used to seeing grown men kick and punch my son!

At the end of the test all of the students line up and they call your name one at a time.  You run behind everyone and around to the Grand Master and your instructor.  For the regular color belts you shake hands with everyone, accept your new belt then go to the side/behind everyone and put your new belt on with the help of a higher rank.  For the Black Belts, you stand in front of one of the Masters and remove your current belt.  The Grand Master then puts your new Black Belt on and gives a few words of advice and then gives you a hug.  The advice most given?  *insert heavy Korean accent here... "You clean room!  You respect your Parents!  You no drink!  You no smoke!

Now, everyone there has to call Gordon "Mr. Walker" - He loves that part!

After 4 years of 3 nights a week, he is finishing this month then taking some much deserved time off to work on earning his Eagle Scout rank.

My Parents, Grandma and Grandpa Beck were able to attend.  It was so brave of them to sit there through a 3+ hour test!