Random Thought and Rhetorical Question
Where did all the space go...
This past weekend I garage-saled with Jenn. Selling, not buying. It was fabulous to get rid of stuff and make a little money. For the last week, I've been walking around the house grabbing things that I just don't want any more or we don't use or hasn't be touched in forever. I have the bug. I was thinking that my house was pretty organized. Now, I walk around thinking that everything I see needs to be gone through and sorted out and put into the garage sale pile. It was almost five years ago we moved into this house. I can remember after unloading the truck and seperating boxes into the correct rooms. I worked on the kitchen first. I unpacked boxes and kept thinking about all the space I had. Entire cabinets with nothing in them. Other cabinets only half full. I thought how would I ever need this much space, how could I possibly fill up all these cabinets. Today, we went to Sam's club. We got the same food we usually get and then we came home and I started pilling and craming and fitting things in. And then I remembered those move-in thoughts. That's it! I've had it! I'm going through the kitchen one cabinet at a time and getting rid of stuff we never use and moving to the basement the things I only use during the holidays! An hour later, I have two cabinets down and seven more to go. How did I get all this crap!?! And where did all my 'extra' space go!?! I want it back!!!

Wait a minute... homework isn't fun!
Yesterday I picked Cecelia up from school and she proudly announced she had homework! Just like mommy does sometimes! We had a great conversation about what homework is and why we have it. I explained it's school work that we don't have time to do at school so we take it home to finish. And isn't learning fun and I'm so proud of her for doing good at school and what ever else I could think of to plug this idea. She talks with Aidan about when she gets home she can't play until she's done with her homework and she's explaining to him that he's too little for homework. Then we get a home and Cecelia sets herself up at the dinning room table and shows me her homework. She has ten three-letter spelling words that she has to write out three times each (Thanks Scott). I explain to write her name at the top of the page and then how to space out the words and set her on her way. She writes one word and then rewrites it for a second time and then starts stalling and thinking about it... and then... she proclaims homework isn't any fun. I about died laughing. I had to walk away so I wasn't crying in front of her because I was laughing so hard. Priceless moments...
Yesterday and today I've been working on this baby quilt. I had started it awhile back but then I was putting it together different and didn't like how it was turning out and stopped and had to leave it alone for awhile. I've come back to it with a different idea and now I have the top all done and I'm loving it! It measures about 34" x 44". I have triangles cut for the corners but I'm kind of thinking that I like the corners cut off the way they are now. Maybe I'll leave them off. Anyway, I'm off to go digging in my stash to see what fun fabric I can find to use for the back! Tell me what you think!

Toothday!

Even in our house of sickness...
(Aidan's been on the couch all day after coughing all night. This means that Mark and I didn't get any sleep either and are still feeling crappy. Isla is coughing a little and Cecelia is doing much better.)
Isla has sprouted her first tooth. It's one of the front bottom ones. I'm so excited. She did it with out freaking out or crying all the time or drooling all over everything. It's beautiful! Although it does mean we've lost that awesome toothless grin. This really is the only time in her life she'll be able to pull the look off and I'll miss it. None-the-less, I'm so very proud!

Busy Days
Isla had her first go at feeding herself little bits of bananas. She was very pleased with the idea and got a bath afterward. Isla also got her 6 month check up last week. She's measuring in at 27.5 inches and 18 lbs 6 oz. 90-95% for both. Still growing like a weed!

This was taken the other day. Aidan was watching Cookie Monster eat the letter of the day cookie and Isla watched too because Aidan started to laugh at it. Then they were both laughing at Cookie Monster. What a good moment.

I was taking a picture of Cecelia on her first day as a 1st grader and Aidan decided to join in and be goofy.


Here's my big girl! Too bad she only made it to two days of school this week. She ended up catching something and spent the day today looking rather pathetic and sad on the couch napping on and off all day long. How awful!

Dawn of a New Era...
I have the couch done! I'm pretty impressed with myself. All it took was $200 in fabric, 25 hours (maybe 30) of blood and sweat, and a very sore thumb (from pulling staples).

look at that detail... I am AWESOME. And NO, I do not want to come to any of your houses and redo your couches (or chairs, or anything else).

Aidan was sharing some cheese with Isla while hanging out and watching mommy demolish the couch.

We went to Carrie's (Clay Carrie for those of you who know the difference) house to play outside the other day and this was Aidan after maybe 20 minutes. In the future, when they ask me if there were signs he was going to be in trouble, I'm going to conveniently forget this picture exists.

Isla was very excited Carrie had a baby pool just her size!

We also hit Indy last weekend for the Children's Museum. For those of you who have never been there, you are seriously missing out. Not the best pictures but they wouldn't let us take any of the Egyptian stuff. Super cool and now we're members! So if anyone gets the bug to go, I'm all in! Plus we can get two extra people in free...

He's not smiling because he was busy making sound effect noises.

Aidan's cheesin' it pretty big in this one. He LOVES that plane and has the same one for his guys.



Other things on the list...
I have a TON of quilting to get in the next three weeks before fall semester starts back up and starts kicking my ass. As for today though, I spent the day organizing. I know what you're thinking... how could there possibly be anything else to organize in my house but that's where you'd be wrong. There's always something else to organize. Today, I went through Cecelia's clothes. I made her try things on. Talked about what she could wear to school and what she couldn't. I pulled out a bunch of my bins in the attic space and put things that had gotten tossed in there in their rightful place. It's beautiful once again! I also labeled three new bins and organized all Cecelia's old shoes that are being saved for Miss Isla. I realize several of you are currently laughing at my illness right now. I'm good with it because tonight when I lay my head down to sleep, my attic will be beautiful and yours will not! Nah-na-nah-na-nah-nah!!!

Lots to Discuss...
First and foremost, we have lost a cherished member from Mark's side. Grandpa Ballentine, known to the rest of the world as John William Ballentine, died early Saturday July 25th 2009. He was born February 11, 1923. Married Mayme in May of 1946 (wow!) and had four sons with lots of grandbabies running around. I learned he was a staff sargent in the Army in WWII, loved to play with his ham radios, and played a mean guitar. However, this is how I've always seen him.

He was soft spoken and sweet and always had this great smile on his face. By far one of the cutest grandpas ever.
Here are some photos from grandma and grandpa's house after the funeral. And yes some are taken by Aidan, of course.





On to happier news....
John has bought a house!!!
It's very cute inside and just the right size for him. I think he's still in a little shock but what a day!


The latest baby blanket finished. I wanted to try something a little new. I started with the idea of hotair balloons. I cut out three different sizes and then laid them out on white. I changed my mind about which white fabric I used. I ended up using one with little circles that overlapped. It made me think of bubbles and that was better than flowers for the sky.

Then I decided to put batting behind the balloons so they'd be puffy looking. Plus you can see the circles on the background fabric in this shot. I then attached the balloons the the fabric using matching thread for each one and sandwiched the front, back, and batting together for the quilting. I went with a couple random clouds and then quilted a rippling copy of the clouds out across the background but not on the balloons. Lastly, I went back and attached baskets to the balloons and put on the binding. I LOVE how it turned out!!!

Here's the backing fabric. It's such a pretty color and super soft too.

Here's a cloud.

The whole thing. Sorry this picture is turned. Still, I LOVE it!!!

This balloons quilt is for Angela and her sweet baby girl who's due in October. They've settled on the name Lola! Awesome name! I can't think of a more fitting name for Ang's baby or a better baby to get my balloon quilt. I hope Lola loves it as much as me! Here's a picture of Angela's shower. There were five babies there and they just happened to all be girls! How funny!

This is just a strange add-on that I noticed. While finishing the balloon quilt, I was sitting on the floor and noticed that some of the random thread that ends up on the floor spelled out AMY or ANY. I'm not sure which one but it's in cursive and that's a better A than I can make. I thought that was weird enough to make the blog. It was about an inch long.

The next project... I'm redoing the couch... More to come!