IN A NUT SHELL

It's been a few weeks, so here is an update on the month of February.

Emmi was sick twice this month. The second time just happened to come the day before Valentines Day so she missed her school party, which was very sad. Then because she was just getting over her flu bug we had to cancel the cousin Valentine sleepover too.

Every year for the past four or five years I have held a party on the weekend around Valentines so that my siblings can go out with their sweethearts. It has become a tradition of sorts. For the last few years we have had all of the kids bring a white shirt and then we tie-dye them. Such a fun activity, and now days that have these cool kits you can buy that have everything you need.
The only issue we have had was that two years ago the boys somehow ended up making pink-ish shirts, so we now have to designate certain colors off limits to the boys LOL

Anyway, back to this month. With Emmi being sick we rescheduled the party for the 22, a week later. We had 8 of her cousins come and stay the night. It was a blast! I'm still finding popcorn in odd places around the house, but it was worth it.

Then this past Saturday we went car shopping. Do you know what is worse that clothing shopping????? Car shopping! Dealing with pushy salespeople, driving cars that the salesperson says are great cars in great condition and realizing that the POS car you are driving is in better condition. Sales people are the worst. I had one guy who thought that when I said, "I'm paying with cash" that it meant "she wants to finance a new car." *bash head*

Before we went out shopping I researched cars and decided on eight or so models that I wanted. My ideal car, ya know the one you have always wanted to own and drive, is a red VW Beetle, but they are too expensive for us right now. Emmi also wants a "Herbie" so at every car lot we went to she would run to the Beetles and hug them. "Please, please, please mom." *snort* My reply would be. "Sure Emmi, as long as you can go without food for the next 5 years."

So the big story of our car shopping experience is that after test driving something like a billion cars and getting stood up by some idiot in Bountiful who obviously wasn't serious about selling his car, I headed home. I'm on the freeway and hear a "wack wack wack" sound and then it felt like something came off my car. I pull over thinking I had a flat tire and see nothing wrong. I get back on the freeway only to notice that I have lost my power steering. grrrrrr

Turns out my serpentine belt broke and shredded. My brother in law replaced it, but by then I was so frustrated I just wanted to go home and go to bed. BUT, there was one more car to look at. This one was for sale by owner and not a car model I had really looked at too much. It was a little white Chevrolet Cavalier. Turns out I loved the car and it had really low mileage, so I bought it.

Yesterday I licensed and registered the car...Oh and I put a little ladybug sticker in the window. *snicker* So now I have a new-er car with a cute bug on it.

SO VERY TIRED...

...Of snow. It has been nonstop since before Christmas. I can't remember there ever being a winter like this in all my years in Utah. Each snowstorm seems to bring more and more and there isn't anywhere else to stack the stuff.

Last year I remember being worried that I wouldn't be able to handle shoveling the snow a the new house. I think I only had to shovel twice. At the time I was thinking...I can do this, no problem.

If I had only known then what was coming this year I might have bought more shovels or invested in a snowblower. Now I'm wishing I could put a snowblade on the front of my Ford car and just floor it out of the driveway each morning.

The plus side is that I have nice neighbors who have been willing to help. I've got three men who have helped, mainly with the sidewalks, but I'll take any help I can get.

So the snow isn't over with, at least according to the weather people. We got hit again last night and should get more on Friday. I'm just soooo tired of it all. I really don't want to see any more white stuff for another 9 or 10 months. I'm ready for spring to come.

So ready!

I took this picture of Emmi this morning after shoveling about 7 inches. A few weeks ago we got 12 inches and the mailbox got buried. Since then it has compressed and melted (a little) . But with the storm last night I noticed that we may have to dig the mailbox out again.

It's never ending.

GULP...KNITTING

We’ve had a lot of fun the past two nights playing with one of Emmi’s Christmas presents. Santa brought Emmi a knitting machine and so far we have made two scarves.

I’ve tried to knit by hand before and made a dog leash. I just couldn’t master going back and forth, but I could make a straight line. Hahaha Emmi wanted to learn how to knit and I am so not the person to help, so Santa stepped in and helped me out.

Here are our creations. The little one was our first attempt.
Look guys, I CAN knit.

IN WITH A...

2008 came in with a “hack”…. literally. Emmi gave me her cold just before the holiday and by New Years day it had gone to my lungs. I hate being sick, but under most instances I can push myself to work. Not this time. I was down for a week and just started feeling normal on two days ago.

The past 14 days have been weird to say the least. With me being sick, Emmi having some medical issues and all of the snow we have had here in Northern Utah, it has been far from normal. In fact, I just got caught up on laundry last night and started tackleing the messy house. I tried really hard last night, but the house still looks like crap.

It’s sad how fast things go to pot when you are sick and then when you start feeling better it takes FOREVER for things to return to normal.

With all that said, I did take the time away from cleaning this weekend and played two hours of Disney Scene It with my daughter. Try it sometime and see how fast your kids beat the pants off you. LOL

The snow has been annoying. Remember when we were kids and prayed for so much snow that they would close the schools. Now as adults we pray for less and less snow every year so we don’t have to shovel it or drive in it. Plus I have decided that it would take 4 feet of snow in Utah before they would close the schools. Our last big storm is case in point. The storm was only supposed to be a 1-2 incher and we got 12-13 at my house. Some parts of the valley got two feet and did they close anything… nope! Cause this is Utah. LOL

I remember living in Kentucky and getting what Utahns would call a “skiff” of snow and everything in the whole city shut down. It boggles the mind!

So I’ve spent the last three weeks shoveling more snow than I ever wanted to shovel. I was a nice mom though, because I piled it all into one hill so all of the neighbor kids could come injure themselves at my house. *grin*. They had fun sledding down the hill so it was worth the back pains. The sad part is that my 90 year old neighbor came over to help shovel my driveway… with his snow blower. How pathetic is that?

HERE’S TO 2008!
Is it time for spring yet?

CHRISTMAS 2007

Christmas was good to us. Emmi got a boatload of Littlest Pet Shops, which brings her count of total pets to a whopping 61. She also got a new bike. YES, she got one last year too, but geez, she grew so much that last years bike is way too small. So this year I bought her a 20 inch bike, it is a bit big for her, but I’m okay with that.

Emmi bought me a cute turtle necklace and the a joint gift from my parents. My dad took some of the gem rocks he found in N. Carolina and made them into necklaces. Mine was a beautiful green swirl Emerald. Emmi picked it out for me. My dad also gave Emmi one later in the day. I've included pictures of our necklaces and my ring below. The pictures don't do them justice, they are sooo pretty.

At my parents house I got an electric skillet. I know it’s weird but I have wanted one for YEARS and have just never bought myself one. I can’t wait for zucchini season now. I can guarantee it will be used every night from July-Oct. *Smile* My parents also gave me a Magic Bullet blender (yeah, I can throw away the piece of crap blender in my cupboard). Oh and I won’t have to use a wooden spoon to shove ice cubes down while I’m blending drinks anymore. I also got a beautiful ring from my dad. Once again from the gems he and my mom found in N. Carolina. This ring is silver with a dark pink Ruby.

So now Christmas is over, and we are approaching the end of 2007. Around this time of year most people start looking back at what the last year brought. For us the last year has been good. We’ve now spent a year in our new home. We’ve put in a yard, mostly finished the room in the basement, adopted a new pet, and painted some walls. We spend more time together making new memories and best of all we have had one more year together. 365 more days of getting to know the precious spirit the Lord has blessed me with., I really can’t believe she is almost 8. 365 more days of being able to hug the ones I love, build more bonds and start new friendships. After all, isn’t that the best gift of all?

THE DRESS

I got an itch. Ya know, one of those "I need to do _______." My sister tells me that when I get one of those I'm supposed to go lie down until the itch goes away. Once again I didn't listen to my sister.

The itch was that I thought it would be fun to make Emmi's Christmas dress. Every year she has a special holiday dress to wear to church on the Sunday before Christmas. The last two years she has been able to wear the same dress (only because I bought the thing big). *smile*

This year while shopping for fabric I saw a display at JoAnn Fabrics. It was a pretty holiday dress in gold and black. The bottom of the dress was gold with little Scotty dogs in velvet. I decided that it looked easy enough (large snort) to make.

So I took Emmi back to the store with me to let her see it and to pick the fabric. She chose blue instead of the gold, but she too liked the dress. We bought the fabric ($14 a yard) and headed home. Now I just had to make it. *smile*

The day after we bought the fabric I decided to get started. I cut out the bottom of the dress, and then while cutting out the top portion I realized that I had cut the bottom a size too small. (smile fades). I decided to push on and if the dress turned out not to fit my daughter, I was just going to have to pass it on to my niece.

I got the bottom sewn and the top sewn, but for the life of me I couldn't figure out how to gather six feet of fabric into a 14 inch waist....so I stopped for the day.

A week or so later I picked it up again and managed to gather the waist (just don't look to closely). My smile once again grew. Now it was on to the zipper. *rolls eyes*

I'll start off by saying that I HATE zippers. Hate, with a capital "H". They are soooo not easy to put in, and rarely do my zippers actually look good. But I knew going into this project that I would have to put one in the dress, so I dug the zipper out of the bag and got to work.

And presto.... the zipper went in with no problems. *Cheshire cat grin*

I call Emmi down and have her try the dress on.... and...boom... my smile fades. The fabric around her bust is too big and gapes open at the back by the zipper. So yup, you guessed it, I would have to re-due my perfect zipper.

NOOOOTTTT. So I put the project away for a few more weeks.

Yesterday morning I was feeling chipper enough to tackle the project once again. I had thought the zipper issue over and come up with a plan. I didn't really have to re due the whole zipper, maybe, just maybe I could just re due the top portion and have a little pleat halfway down her back. Then I could do a hook and eye at the top of the zipper. (I tell you, I would have done anything to keep from having to pick out a zipper.

With a smile on my face again, I got to work. I fixed the top of the zipper and put the little pleat in and tried it on my daughter. Wallah (just how do you spell that word), it worked. Yes it looked a little strange, but it worked.

Then I realized I didn't have a hook, or an eye. So I looked for Velcro... and nope, none of that either. I knew I was going to have to be creative. So I racked my brain for about an hour and came up with a plan. (play scary music here)

I went upstairs looking for a blue or black button. We searched all of Emmi's old clothes, my button collection and then went digging through my very old shirts. That is where we struck gold... or better yet, we struck blue...a dark blue button on a shirt that had to be at least 10 years old and was being used as a nightgown

Then I created a bow out of some leftover blue fabric, attached it to one side of the dress above the zipper and used the button to attach the other side. AND IT WORKED.

The only "duh" I did was that instead of attaching the button to the bow and putting a button hole in the dress (the easy way), I attached the button to the dress and then had to create a button hole on the underneath side of a very tiny bow. But either way, it worked.

And my angel wore her "Made by Mommy" dress to church today.