Good times and miracles

So, it didn't finish it up all exactly like the pattern, but got it all done in a short afternoon and Brent loves it. I had issues with the circles for the ends so I skipped those. What I may end up doing next time is cut out 4 circles, and sew 2 pieces with right sides together with small opening, turn right side out, stitch the opening closed and then hand-sew on to the ball.

Anyway, Drew just turned 5!

Can't believe he's going to be in kindergarten in the fall. We just  picked up his registration packet this morning. Having a birthday party with a small group of friends and some cousins on Saturday. Spent a lot of time today cleaning up for that, so in theory there will be less to do before Saturday morning. We're all cake/cupcake'd out from celebrating on Sunday, so he's decided on lemon bars. Tom's mom isn't too thrilled about the no cake, but seriously, it's our house and cake leftovers lasts like a week here. He just started up karate classes, and after a couple classes says he'd rather not go. Which is odd. I take him and he loves it. Typical 5 year old: doesn't know what he wants/likes.

Collin just switched classes at school a couple weeks ago. Can't remember off the top of my head if I mentioned that or not. His teacher went on early maternity leave, and in the meantime he was picking up some behaviors from some of the younger kids in the class. It's pretty good now. Only one incident, but with an amended IEP behavior plan I think he'll be fine.

Got a phone call about our meeting with the county last week. Kept praying & praying about it. Even had friends and family too. Well, during the meeting, after about 5 minutes into it, I got the distinct feeling like this is not going well, or how we want. Sure enough, by the end they were recommending a trial period of 3 months for the therapy company we're having problems with to get their act together, and if we were still have issues in 3 months we could switch. So, one of the first things we had talked about was swapping out staff. Almost a week goes by, and reality's setting in about it going to be a long 3 months--we were committed to documenting everything that went wrong or was questionable for our next meeting in 3 months. I still was thinking to myself, we got this in the bag. We switch staff, there is no way in heck that Collin would adjust to new staff & be able to work on his goals. So, the upper supervisor calls me and informs me that apparently we have the "popular time slot"(ie. after school) and they are understaffed(didn't say it specifically, but it's because everyone's leaving to the company we're trying to switch to) so would we be okay with either reducing hours by 2/3 and just wait for it to be filled or put in a request for a vendor change(and the county would be okay with it). So of course we say switch. I had no problem. It's exactly what we wanted in the first place. What a miracle!!!

Speaking of which, how I managed to get the kids to mostly behave themselves so I could listen to 85% of a 2 hour funeral this afternoon is beyond me. The last 30 minutes were the hardest. I brought our iPod with us to occupy mostly Collin, but also for him to work on turn taking. The battery completely dies with 30 minutes left. Thankfully, we took a few walks in the halls, since I was smart enough to sit in the foyer, and came back for some coloring with pen on scratch paper and eating Japanese rice crackers that thankfully were still in the diaper bag. For those who used to be in our stake, the service was for Kurt Weaver from Cypress 1st ward.

Another sort of miracle, if you will. I managed to somehow get my belly button infected for the first time ever in my life. How does this happen? I don't touch my belly button unless I'm washing in the shower. After a day and a half of it, I took myself to the doctor's office. I got some steriod/cream/antibiotic all rolled into one. It's too bad the doctor was right that the cream burns a lot, but it works.

In other news, we just got a new vacuum. We are having not so good luck with vacuums. We're on our 3rd in  11.5 years. Did my research, and ended up with a canister style vacuum that's rated very well for carpet & non-carpeted floor all with in our price range of not going over $300. It's got the HEPA filter Tom wanted, and the bag in it that I wanted. I really love it. I got it Monday night, and tried it out all Tuesday. Does better vacuuming than our uprights have. I can get up to wall and furniture edges with no attachments on. I can clean under 98% of our furniture without having to move the furniture. So far, only not liking the color, but I can live with it.

New Project

Awhile back, one of the kids(I've got my hunches who) decided to cut right in the center of one of the pentagon shapes in the fabric ball (that I put in my January 29th post).

Since I can't find the original online pattern I used, I came across this free one, which in my opinion, should be able to sew up faster & the shapes are easier to work with.

Here's the link I'm using to make a new fabric ball: http://www.purlbee.com/fabric-beach-balls/

Finished sewing

Baby quilt has been finished & delivered just over a week ago. I ended up switched to a creamy-yellow for the back & binding instead of the pink butterfly. I felt like the pink clashed too much. I pulled an all-nighter the night before the baby shower, and was up probably a total of 36-38 hours(total from Friday morning to Saturday night) before I finally fell asleep. Tom has advised no more projects like that.

Here are some other things I've sewn in the past couple years that are baby related.

For a niece:

Thought this was a cute iron-on from Joann's

Another iron-on from Joann's. Pronounced "Me-so cute". Thought it fitting since her parent's like take-out.

Front

I couldn't help myself with this one. I did call first before I did it to make sure I wasn't going to offend my sister.

Front

Back. You'll notice the iron-on "Does this diaper make my butt look big?" is appropriately placed over where the diaper should sit on a baby this size.

For a nephew:

He was named after the '90's tv show "Parker Lewis can't lose"

Some iron-on's I got at Joann's. This side is the front

The back. I thought the iron-on was so funny that I got 1 blue & 1 pink(above)

Iron-on from Joann's. My brother & his wife loved it.

Iron-on from Joann's

They really enjoyed this too

Big (play) size blanket, front

Put a Thomas the Train flannel on the back

For another nephew:

Made some cute fabric blocks with foam inside. I made 6 since his first name was 5 letters, middle name is 6 letters, and last name is 7 letter.  All the first name matches up with same fabric background, same for the middle & last name.

Tried to throw in a "manly" fabric on the blocks. And what's more manly than tools?

Tried out this burp cloth idea after seeing my mom do some for another sister with a cloth-diaper

For a friend:

My first time at a quilt. I pre-bought the front panel and sewed in batting & a back myself.

For a friend's baby shower:

My first try at iron-on appliques for onesies. The J was for "Jack"

For one of the kid's cousins:

For our own home:

Matching church tops for all 3 boys

Brent's newborn tie onesie

Brent's 5 day old, 4th of July tie onesie

Brent's 5 day old, 4th of July tie onesie

Fabric ball

Kimono fabric shoes

Sewing

Feeling in a crafty mood again, so I'm just going with it. Will post later this week of stuff I've made for family & friends the past couple years--mostly baby related items.

Getting ready for another baby shower soon & taking a stab at my first appliqué quilt--I made another one a couple years ago but cheated by buying something pre-made and putting batting and a backing on it. Here's what I'm working on right now:

This is what the rest of the fabric looks like(pink butterflies fabric is for the back):

The pattern was purchased here: http://www.e-patternscentral.com/detail.html?prod_id=3668&cat_id=&criteria=quilt+for+baby

The finished product will look like this(except purple instead of blue) and no ruffle:

And here's the other thing I finished up for the baby shower(a soft book of the Little Mermaid--bought a kit years ago at Joann's and never got around to finishing for Ivy, who's no longer interested in it):