WIP

I purchased a sewing machine from a friend this summer.  She's an avid quilter and has snazzy machines.  My mother taught me to sew the last time leggings were in style, say mid to late 80s, and I haven't sewn much since.  I did sew well enough then to make simple clothing items, but like I said, it's been a while since I've sewed anything more complicated than a ruffle or a hem.

So I launched into what seemed like a pretty simple project, armed with my snazzy new-to-me machine and a free off the internet 'pattern.'  After some frustrating attempts, and swearing off free internet patterns, I finally finished my new e-reader case.  Complete with double layers of padding and a contrasting lining.

After my sewing project I decided to return to my regular craft and am knitting that sweater FFM has been asking for. Voila, one set of sweater arms, he's thrilled!  I catch him wearing them as they are in short hibernation while I knit the yoke.

Big Basement Constuction

I'm super glad we have a good basement for playing in so that when FFM constructs entire towns I can happily leave them be without worrying about a Godzilla style wipe-out.

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Aggravation

Some days things are just harder.  Those days for me always fall when Travis is far, far away on a business trip and won't be back in time to lend a helping hand.  I suppose some of it's mental, I KNOW he won't be able to help me tackle the problem or hurdle the insurmountable hill, so I HAVE to do it on my own.

The last 24 hours have thrown more challenges at me than I'm usually due and I'm feeling a bit whingy about it.  The cherry on top was a power outage this morning, on a school morning no less.  For some reason FFM and I both slept in an hour later than normal, so getting ready for school was a rush punctuated by hasty explanations of why the power had been "unplugged" to our whole neighborhood, as he put it.  Luckily even though the school's power was out they soldiered on and had class in the dark, what an adventure!

Just a sampling of the fun bits of stuff to whine about today:
The power outage did a number on our garage door, something got out of whack and our openers stopped working.  The powered one in the garage still works but the remote ones in the cars appear to need reprogramming.  Annoying feature of our new opener.

Ditto for our 'smart' sprinkler system.  Battery backup did not backup even though it was a new battery this spring.  Guess it's good to know that if we're gone and the power goes out our lawn could go over a week without water.  Can you say dead lawn?

Got some new technology yesterday, set it up, registered online, all that gibberish, and it never worked.  Spent all morning attempting to exchange it.  Finally got someone in customer service to admit it wasn't working, then do an exchange, and when they scanned my receipt it said I'd already returned it.  Ugh.  I did finally get this sorted and am hoping round two goes better.

Email notice from the jeweler:  we're very sorry, but the wedding set you dropped off with us for servicing two weeks ago is still not ready to be picked up yet, we're a bit behind and it's going to be another two weeks.  Maybe.  Might be longer.  HELLO?!  These are my rings?!  I've worn them long enough that I feel funny going without them for a few hours, let alone weeks!  Grrrr.  I'll sound old and grumpy when I say this, but whatever happened to customer service?

Our neighbor kid is supposed to be helping me out by mowing the lawn 1x per week until Travis tells him to stop.  He mowed once and hasn't been back.  I just KNOW if I go out and mow he'll show up an hour later with his mower.

There is more, oh, so much more, but no one really wants to hear someone else's complaining.  If you've made it this far you deserve a medal.  The good news is that it's all slooooowwwwwlllllyyyy getting sorted.  The best news is that the power is back on so the AC is working and it's nice and cool here in the shade!  Popsicsicles for afternoon snack anyone?

First Day of School 2011

Ah yes, tis the middle of August and school is already here.  WAIT, August 16 and the school year is starting already?  Didn't the back to school sales just start like a week ago?  Yes, we must have the earliest school start in the country, but it couldn't come soon enough for this family.  Mr. Man has been positively vibrating knowing school is just around the bend.

We walked in to his room this morning, saw a few pals from last year, heard a few sobs from new kids, and I looked down and FFM was gone.  Yup.  Pack hung up, lunch stowed, already making the rounds of new toys, new kids, new crafts, and checking in with aforementioned old pals.  No crying when I picked him up this year, he understands that he'll be back on Thursday, and next week, and on and on and on...

2011

2010

QOTD

This one is all for me, I'm posting it so that on those really difficult days I can remember it.  Don't you love it when your kid remembers to tell you this?

"Mommy, you are the best Mommy in the world."