Quilt

My sister, Alison was in town at the end of May - beginning of June, and she made a super cute baby blanket for her little girl due in October. I thought it looked like a fun summer project - so I dragged my other sister, Anne, out to go fabric shopping with me. I originally went looking for fabric that would be unisex for whatever our first baby ends up being..... whenever that happens. But none of the fabric at the store really struck me, except for the "Americana" stuff - so that's what I bought. Not really babish, but I like it. And so the cutting and sewing began!

I spent approximately 6-8 hours cutting (I kind of stopped keeping track), but had my mom's rotary cutter to do it, so it wasn't as bad as having to do it all by hand with scissors. Then I spent a few hours getting the pieces stacked up perfectly and pin it right (the front, the back, and the middle). But once that was done, it really didn't take long to sew it all up. Then came the couple of hours cutting the seams.

This is by far the most painful part - literally.

I remember my other sister, Sarah (wow... they are all mentioned in this post), making me a fleece throw with the cut edges back in high school. She complained after doing the cutting that the side of her thumb was numb for days afterward. I understand more fully what she meant now. The side of my thumb is still numb and tingly if I press it - and I finished cutting about 2 days ago.

All in all I'd say it took me 18ish hours to make - I dunno, I didn't do it all at once (sorry for leaving the floor a mess with it all laid out in order for a few days, Brett).

So that was my summer project, and it's only mid-July... Good thing I have extra scraps and a desire to make tossable bean bags for school... and maybe a table runner...

Camping

So - we wanted to go camping. Unfortunately, our schedules are rather hectic when you figure in work at the hospital (I'm back in the lab and Brett's still on 7th) and Brett's school assignments. We never seem to have time to do all the fun things we want to do together. And so... our first camping-in-the-backyard event transpired.

First, we had to eat hot dogs cooked over a low fire.... We have highly tuned rustic skills as you can tell. Brett ate an entire avacado - which I was jealous of (they look soooo good, but I'm allergic - lame!). The Garden Salsa Sun Chips were another highlight of the meal. After our "well balanced dinner" we scooped cake batter ice cream into waffle cones and enjoyed a lovely desert.

After a tasty campish dinner - we decided to utilize the camping facility's Wi Fi to continue our Survivor viewing (if they can call that surviving being on a deserted island, then we can call this camping). We've been quite busy of late, hence the need to watch Survivor which we haven't finished yet - so don't ruin it! (We're in the middle of the Heroes vs. Villans) After getting the computer all set up and ready to go outside (this site has some awesome utility hook-ups) we discovered that CBS took off the full episodes! How lame is that! Still don't ruin it.

Since we couldn't watch Survivor (and because we wanted to anyway), we called the camp directors to come play a game of "Ladder Ball" with us. I won't say who won, that just wouldn't be sporting.

Finally we set up camp, which consisted of an inflatable mattress blown up with an electric pump on the trampoline, a few blankets under the sheets, and a few blankets over the sheets, plus some pillows. Upon finding that I kept rolling towards Brett (we like our sleeping space), we decided to take the bed off the trampoline and set up on the top-of-the-hill site next to the trampoline which luckily hadn't been claimed by any other campers. Since we're both allergic to the outdoors, we both took half a benedryl and spent the night sleeping under the stars. At about 5:30 in the morning, we opted for the indoor facility to avoid the sprinklers which were scheduled to start that morning.

I still smell like bug spray, so despite what the rest of you might say, I definitely feel like I've been out camping.

Last Day

So it's my last day at school this year. It hasn't really hit me yet...

It's been a pretty great year really. The first few weeks were absolutely crazy, and I've learned a lot about what I want to do differently next year. I'm going to be better organized and have things ready to go WAY earlier. I'm going to get desks instead of the big tables I had this year which took up too much space. I'm going to be better and getting those kids (9th graders particularly), under my thumb at the beginning of the year, and I'm going to keep on them as the year progresses. I found that either I got more lax or they got more comfortable being annoying by the end of the year. Next year I'm going to be much better at the discipline game.

I'm going to stress out about things less - if we have 5 min. of nothing at the end of the lesson it's not the end of the world. If something doesn't work out like I thought it would I'm

How do you say "late" in Spanish?

Okay, okay, so this post is seriously almost a year old.  Well, the subject of the post is.  Katie and I have done a bit of collaborative journal writing (same journal, same document, same time) on Google Docs. We decided long after the event, that we should journal about our Mexico trip last year.  We just finished.  The following PDF is the end-product.

I understand that by clicking on the following link, I will be redirected to a non-blogger document, which contains far too much information about a trip that I don't care enough about.  By opening it, I understand that Brett and Katie are in fact not compelling me to read the whole thing, or even part of it, because it's long.  Really long.  

Mexico Trip, August 2009.  Yep.  That's 2009.

This post has been provided out of a realization that we don't post enough.  So there. 

My Guaranteed Weight-Loss Program

NOTE: WHEN READING THIS POST, ASSUME YOUR MOST ANNOYING, QUICK-TALKING, ADVERTISING VOICE... you know the one I'm talking about.


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BEFORE:                                                       AFTER:

  

That's right... she lost those hard-to-lose couple of pounds in a matter of   minutes!!!

If you're looking for a weight-loss program that requires you to sit back and get a head massage in order to lose the weight, then this is the best option on the market. With economic times like these, you can't afford to waste your time and money on exercise machines, diet pills, or celery...

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Something

I'm going to post something today... that much I have decided. What to post about is yet to be determined....

Fudge Jumbles

I got lonely last Sunday and decided to make some fudge jumbles to keep me company while Brett was working. They have become long lasting companions as they have joined the ranks of adipose cells in my torso. At least they'll be sticking around for a long time - I will never be lonely again. In case any of you want a long-term relationship with something that you eat, here's the recipe:

Fudge Jumbles
Crust Layer:
      Cream together:
             1 C. margarine or butter
             2 C. brown sugar
             2 eggs
             2 tsp vanilla
      Add: (I put them right in, but mixing the dry ingredients together first might make it more homogeneous in the end).
             2 1/2 C. flour
             3 C. quick oats
             1 tsp salt
             1 tsp baking powder
Chocolate layer - make in a separate bowl
      Over low heat melt (or on low power in the microwave):
            12 oz. chocolate chips
              2 Tbs butter (I'm tempted to leave out the butter, because it seems to make the chocolate go all gritty... I'll let you know how that goes the next time I try it).
      Add and mix well:
            1 (14oz) can sweetened condensed milk
            1/4 tsp salt
            1 tsp vanilla
Pat the 2/3 of the oatmeal mixture into the bottom of a 9x13 greased pan. Pour on the chocolate mixture. Top with little globs of the remaining oatmeal stuff. Bake 25 min. at 350°. 

I think that these are best served after a few hours of solidifying and cooling with a glass of milk, but warm and gooey works too (the glass of milk element remains the same despite the temperature at consumption).