Yay for Quilting!

Pretty excited about this!! If your looking to get a start in quilting this looks like a good place to start. :)

Quilts

Some may disagree, but I don't consider myself crafty or very creative. I am very much a left brain thinker (practical, logical, to the point). However, in the last couple of years I have come to really enjoy making quilts. I LOVE fabric and I would have a lot more of it if the budget allowed. I also love that there is structure and order to quilting and for the most part you just have to be able to cut straight lines and sew straight lines. The rules never really change and you can fudge a little here and there if you need to. Unlike clothes that have to fit someone when you're done and if they don't then you've wasted a lot of time and resources. Quilts just make sense to me.

Sadly about a year ago I put a stop to all sewing. Curtis was at that age where I couldn't sew in the room next to him without waking him up and there was no way he would leave me alone to sew when he was awake. So all projects got shut up in the cupboard not to be seen for quite some time.

A few months ago I was going through a bit of a rough spot of knowing who I am and what makes me me. A good friend of mine, who knows of my love of quilts, asked me what I was working on. I told her my sad tale of not being able to do much sewing as of late, but she saw my face light up when I talked about quilts and what I had been working on. She opened my eyes to one way I could find myself again. What a lifesaver she is. We discussed many other things that night, but I even noticed how different I felt when I started talking about fabric and quilts that I could be working on. Soon after that late night I got out my sewing machine and put a quilt top together in about an hour. It was so much fun and rewarding!

Another friend then shared a pattern for a pinwheel quilt that looked a bit challenging, but doable. While it was more tedious than I usually have the patience for I am so proud of how it turned out.

Here's a portion of the top. I'll share better/more pictures once it's quilted and bound.

I am grateful for other quilting friends who have helped me along the way and reminded me that a finished quilt top should never just be shoved in a cupboard! I am also grateful to have some sort of creative outlet and for those who encourage me to use it.

Happy Halloween!!

Curtis Turns 2!

Technically he's not 2 until Wed, but we celebrated early so that the family could join us. We started the day by freezing corn. Curtis really enjoyed helping the corn "swim" but he enjoyed eating it more!
Later in the day family came over to take part in the festivities.

Travis informed me that Curtis needed a tractor cake for his birthday so here you have it. Pretty well done if I do say so myself!

Curtis enjoyed all his gifts and was more interested in playing with each on then opening another. :)

He loved his tractor birthday cake but was a bit confused when we sang to him. He put forth great effort to blow out his candles and was successful with Daddy's help.

It was a great day and I really can't believe that he's 2! Time has flown and I can't imagine life without him. He is such a bright and happy kid. He is also opinionated and stubborn, but I wouldn't change a thing. :)

Pictures!

Curtis is such a ham. Here are a few pictures of what he has been up to.

Why eat your yogurt when you can smear it all over the table

Curtis's new favorite activity (thank you Aunt Joanne for your genius idea). I give him measuring cups with water and let him play on a baking sheet. He loves it!

Corn on the cob was a hit this summer

There are no words (feel free to suggest your own caption)

Feeling a Bit Better

I feel like I should post something a bit more positive and not have that last post be the star of my blog for the next month or two.

I've chippered up a bit and have gotten some stuff done. I did a minor overhaul on the closet in my sewing room to make room for the new baby. I also de-cluttered the room a bit. Now it has on the essentials in it and is more or less ready for a baby. I also did a bit of cleaning in Curtis's room. I finally put all of the baby toys away in a box and then did an overhaul on his dresser. Out with 18m clothes and in with 2T/24m. He hasn't quite outgrown all of his 18m clothes, but I'm tired of looking at them. He's been in them for quite a while. I am very excited for some of the very cute clothes that he now has in his dresser to wear. I'm also glad that he has a nice variety that will take him from summer into fall and winter.

I have also managed to get some of the downstairs picked up, apricot-pineapple jam made, cooked up a loaf of zucchini bread and rescued my onions from bind weed. Thank goodness tomorrow is the Day of Rest and I don't have to feel guilty about taking a nap and not being productive. :)

A Bit of Self Pity

This may not be the best place for this, but I need an outlet and like to type.

I just feel out of sorts and don't know why and don't like it. This isn't a new thing, it's come and gone for several months now. I feel out of touch with friends and just don't know what to do with myself. I've lost motivation to do things or just feel so overwhelmed but all that I could be doing that I do nothing. I hate sitting around staring at my house and all that needs to be done but not wanting to do anything about it. Really I'm just not a home body, but have no place to go to escape. I should probably be a better mom and play more directly with Curtis, but he does such a good job of playing by himself that I just let him be.

I need to find my spark/vest for life. I need to find joy in motherhood and being a stay at home mom. Maybe I need to quite whining and just do something about it.

Growing Up Too Fast

He loves to play with mom and dad's shoes.

My little boy is getting so big! And not just in size. He is really becoming a little person. He loves to talk (and talk and talk) and has a decent vocabulary. Some of his favorite words are tractor, silo, motorcycle, helicopter, farm, juice, dance, show and car. He loves to play with all things boy, tractors, cars, tools, you name it and he's all over it. He loves to ride bikes outside with the neighbor kids. He's also smart. Sometimes too smart for my liking. Not too long ago Travis had some boxes of mason jars in the front room. While Travis and I were still eating dinner Curtis carefully took all of the jars (~15) of the boxes and stood them on the floor. Then he took them one by one (sometimes he tried to pick up an armful but realized that wouldn't work) and lined them up along the window edge. He'd make sure to push them close together so that they would all fit. When he filled up the little window ledge he moved on to the bigger one. I was really amazed by it all. He was pretty proud of himself and so was I. One of his favorite things to do at his grandma and grandpa Edwards house is to line up cars and and drive them on their window ledge.

His favorite summer activity is swinging! He absolutely loves to swing. I think that if he could live on one he would. Yesterday he spent the day with his aunt Joanne and cousins while I was at work. Shelby reported to me that she pushed him and pushed him until she was hot and tired. But whenever she stopped he would whine and say, "be be" (his version of swing) and then she would be a sweet cousin and push him some more.

All in all Curtis is super cute and I just love him to death and can't believe that he'll be two in just a few short months. Man, how time flies!

Zoo Boise

A friend had the wonderful idea of getting together and going to the zoo today! It was great! Curtis loved getting to see the animals and it was good to spend time with friends. Curtis got a bit sleepy about half way through, but he still enjoyed seeing the lions and monkeys.

"Let's get this show on the road and see some animals!"

Curtis thought the Kamodo Dragon was pretty cool.

Riding this little tiger was the highlight of his day!

This is a Mane Wolf from South America. It looked some crazy hybrid fox.

Curtis and his friends. Don't they all look thrilled! ;)

Curtis and his friend Donovan in half an egg.

The whole gang!

Spring

Life around here is much like spring. Sometimes the sun shines, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it's gloomy and sometimes it's windy. We have our good times and bad, but overall the sun is shining. :)

Curtis is growing every day. He learns new words all the time and sometimes I even understand him. His best word these days is cookie. He is always asking for cookies. Too ba

d I'm a mean old mom and won't let him have a cookie at every meal. He is also obsessed with trains and fixing things. He has enjoyed helping Travis fix his lawnmower the last few weekends. He'll pick up a wrench and pretend he's loosening bolts and whatnot. He also enjoys playing with the kids next door that range in age from 2 - 6.

Here's Curtis sporting some of my warm, fuzzy socks as leg warmers.

On a not so happy note my best friend is moving in a few weeks. Granted she is only moving 30 mins away I'm not a happy camper. I know that this is best for her and her family, but I have been separated from a best friend before and I know that it sucks. I've already shed some tears and will probably shed some more. I love her to death and am going to miss being able to drop in on her when I get bored at home.

The school year is winding down which really just means that our crazy summer is about to begin. Travis will be gone for 3 weeks in June and then we're going to McCall for a week!

Family Bike Ride!

We sold the treadmill today and bought a bike trailer!! Since Travis bought me a bike for my birthday we've been wanting to get a trailer for Curtis. And here it is! We got the last one at Costco today and thankfully the weather was great so that we could took it out for the inaugural ride.

Curtis all safe and sound in his trailer. :)

I took Curtis for a ride around the neighborhood.

Travis hooked Curtis up to his bike and took him for a spin!

A Softer Side

Becoming a mom has definitely softened my heart. I have never been a crier and have been proud of that. But since being a mom I find that tears come more often than I would like for seemingly silly reasons. But when I find that one the reasons is when Curtis is having a rough time and I can't do anything about it and at times have inflicted the problem, it really makes me sad.

Take the last couple of weeks for example. Curtis and I went on an 8 day vacation without Travis. I was excited to go see my mom and for Curtis to get to spend time with his grandma. But Curtis LOVES his dad. He likes me, but his dad is his #1. So we had a couple of rough nights and I felt bad that Curtis didn't get to have his regular schedule or get to see his dad. Then we got home and a few days later Travis left for Twin Falls with the FFA for 4 days. Again, poor little Curtis is without his dad and there is nothing that I can do about it. I can see that he misses him and I try not to mention "Daddy" so as to not make it worse.

So, back to the issue of tears. Curtis had such a hard time going to bed last night. So much so that I rocked him to sleep. He never gets such a luxury. But I just felt bad that his dad hadn't been there to put him to bed for the last few nights. So after getting him to bed I got ready to watch the I rented. I have no idea what I was thinking when I got it. It was about this couple who dies when their daughter is a year old and their dysfunctional friends have to take over raising her. It turned out to be a good movie, but it got to me. I guess it pulled at my heart strings to think of Curtis Boy to permanently without his dad. That would really be a terrible thing and I am blessed that Travis is around most of the time.

Fortunately for Curtis and me Travis will be home this afternoon and Curtis can be a happy boy again!

Visiting the Past

About a year ago my loving uncle pointed out to me that I have an uncalled for hatred of Southern Utah. I thought about it for a minute and agreed with him. I lived in S. UT for 7 years and for the most part have very negative thoughts and feelings about it. Now, it really wasn't all that bad. I do have some great memories with some great people but all in all, it is definitely not my favorite place in the world. As a result I have not been back in 7 years and Travis has never met any of my dad's family that lives there.

Over the past few months I have been thinking about my issues with S. UT and have decided that the town itself really isn't so bad and I really don't have that many terrible memories. So when my uncle invited us to go to St. George for spring break I wasn't repulsed by the idea and was more intrigued. I was curious to see how much things had grown and changed and thought it would be nice to see some family and friends. So I agreed to go. Oh, and did I mention that my mom was going to be there visiting my brother! (Travis needed to stay home and recover from his crazy month.)

So here I am in St. George and I can't believe, well, I can, how much things have changed. It's not just a backwoods little city. They have just about every major chain store and restaurant that you would find in any big city. And there are way more houses here than there were 7+ year ago. In a way it makes me sad. I feel like St George has lost is quaintess. I have to say the same for Hurricane. (I went to middle school there and 2.5 years of high school.) It's not just little old Hurricane. :( I think I now understand how Travis feels about how Kuna has changed for the last 15 years.

In some ways it's good to be "home" (although I will never claim to be from Ut.). It was mostly familiar and there were many fun times had. :) It was good to see my aunts and uncle. I still don't like the red dirt. I still have to go visit my old house. Well, it's my grandma's house, but it's where I lived for 7 years. I'm nervous about walking through the front door. My grandma had a hard time keeping it clean the last few years of her life and she had pets that lived inside. But, I'm told that my aunts have worked hard at getting the place cleaned up.

I've never been good at expressing my feelings in writing. I'm good at telling facts, but I have a hard time opening up. It's good to be here and there are definitely things that I miss about living here. There are people that I miss and I sometimes wish that I could go back to my crazy days as a high school student. Those were some fun times. :) But alas, I'm all grown up and will just have to make new memories and share the old ones with my family and friends so I don't forget them.

Happy Birthday!

Happy 33rd B-day Buddy!!

This is what happens when I turn my back while letting Curtis stir the cake batter.

Poor Little Monkey

Curtis burned his hand pretty badly the other day on the glass front of a gas fireplace. It blistered pretty quickly and he just cried and cried. However, once we got home I applied some burn gel and gave him some Motrin. Within an hour or so he was pretty much back to normal. Later in the afternoon he accidentally popped his blister, for which I was grateful, and he didn't even cry. In the days since he has been using the hand and it seems to be healing nicely. We've been keeping a glove on his hand in order to keep the neosporin and band-aid on it. In addition to the big blister at the base of his fingers there are also some little ones on his finger tips. :(

The beginning of the big blister. It actually got bigger before Curtis popped it. (Friday morning)

The healing blister (Monday morning)

Mom Moment

I had total mom moment this morning. But let's start with last night. I got hit with a bit of a stomach bug late yesterday afternoon and didn't feel well at all last night. And since it always seems to be that when I have a rough night Curtis wants to get up early the next day he was jabbering at 7 this morning. (I know it's not early, but he usually gets up at 8). Travis went to go rock him back to sleep when I hear him say that I'm not the only one who is sick. Yep, Curtis puked in his bed and then slept in it! The front of his pj's was soaked and the had regurgitated mac and cheese stuck in his ear like a big ear plug. Gross, I know. I also learned that he doesn't chew his raisins b/c they came back up in the form of grapes. Thankfully Curtis loves baths and was happy to get in the tub. Although, he didn't enjoy getting all of the crusty nastiness scrubbed off his face. Lucky for me I felt better this morning and was able to get Curtis cleaned up and washed his bedding. I know it's a bit gross, but I felt that it was worthy of sharing. :)

Wow, It's Been a Month!

So sorry for not updating lately. I just never seem to get around to it. That's the story of my life with journal writing. Maybe if I felt more eloquent with words I'd update more, but maybe not.

Anyhow, we are all alive and well. :) Curtis learns something new everyday! He's about 16.5 months old now and walks 95% of the time. If he's in a hurry he will crawl b/c it's faster than walking. Thankfully he is not running!...yet. He jabbers all of the time. He loves saying the same thing over and over. Most of the time it sounds like puppy or daddy, but yesterday it sounded like mommy! Yeah!! He has said dad for months, but couldn't bother saying mom. Curtis loves his dad! It's bad news if Curtis knows that Travis is leaving and not taking him with him. Curtis cries and cries. He eventually gets over it if you distract him, but he would much rather be with his dad. He is doing great with his signing. I should do more with him, but I don't. Most of his signs come from his cheek, but his sign for help is the best! He does the sign to get a trucker to honk. Yep, and he does it with such vigor. The sign for help has been a LIFE SAVER! It has cut down on 90% of his screaming!! Now he signs for help instead of screaming. :)

His other fun thing lately is to be the center of attention and to be a goof ball. He loves to put on a show for people. He scrunches up his face and makes this cheesy grin and does a fake laugh. It's super funny and so everyone laughs and he laughs back thinking he's something special. It's a crackup.

I just had my 26th birthday and I got to celebrate all week! Cake with family, dinner with friends, dinner with Travis and Curtis, a cake from Travis and a bike!! Travis is so good to me. :) I also went cross country skiing for the first time. It was my first time on skis ever and boy was it an adventure. A friend invited me and a few other friends on a ski weekend. It was good bonding, but let me just say that skiing is a full body workout and you should not learn to ski on hills, even little ones. I have never fallen down so much in my life and have never been so sore. I'm pretty sure that I used/injured every muscle in my body. Despite all of the falling, I would be willing to try it again. It was a good time with friends. :)

Travis is working away. He has a birthday at the end of the month and is just trucking along. School, FFA, scouts, farming and family keep him pretty busy.

Well, that's the latest on us. Hopefully I will update again soon and share some video, or at least pictures of the little monkey.

Mt. Everest

The inevitable has happened. Curtis has conquered Mount Everest. Now what is his Mount Everest? It would be the toy storage bins that came down from his room a few months ago. We bout them at IKEA before he was born and they have been up in his room since. But since he never plays in his room and most of his toys are downstairs I decided to bring the storage bin downstairs to store all of his toys. I knew at the time that eventually our little climber would be big enough to climb on it. I was hoping it wouldn't be so soon.

The other day I was in the kitchen making dinner when I hear Curtis laughing. I look up and this is what I see:

Let me tell you. He was pretty proud of himself. Look at that big cheesy grin! I on the other hand was not so happy. Shortly after taking this picture he knocked the wooden animals off the ledge and broke the wheels off. No amount of disciple would keep him off of his new found mountain.

Since this first incident I have removed everything from the ledge. I have also given up trying to keep him off of it. He just loves it and nothing will keep him off. In fact this morning after he was done eating his breakfast he crawled over and climbed up on the second step. And there he stayed for quite some time. It was nice to not have him underfoot while I cleaned up the kitchen and made muffins.

I do love this boy and love his ambition and drive and hope that it will take him great places in life.

Update

I realized the other day that it has been a while since I posted anything. Mostly it's because life has been the same old, same old. But hey, I'd rather have that then a super crazy life. So here's just a little update.

New years eve was spent having a murder mystery lunch with friends. That was fun. I turned out to be the murder, kind of. It was really my twin sister! Crazy. We then had a quiet evening at home playing games with Travis's aunt and uncle. I love playing games with them! I was a stick in the mud and turned in about 11pm.

Curtis is teething big time! He has one molar and working on a second and has a new tooth on the bottom in front. The poor kid had the first molar come through without any motrin b/c I didn't know he was teething. I felt bad when I saw it. However, the new tooth explained the runny nose, coughing, and having a hard time sleeping the whole week before.

Oh, I guess some other big news is that I have started working as a Jewelry consultant. I know it may seem odd to those of you who know me and know that I'm not much of a jewelry person, but it's pretty fun. I get to have girls night out and talk fashion. I get to give away free jewelry to my hostesses and show their friends how to jazz up their wardrobe. :)

Travis is working hard teaching, advising FFA and working as the scout master.

Well, there is your update of us. Nothing too exciting, but nothing too upsetting either. :)