Summer

This is one crazy summer. Ivy & Collin started up swim lessons the 1st Monday after school got out.  Andrew wasn't clear from the doctor to start the first 2 week session. We took Drew in for his last appointment, and got the a-ok on everything, with only instructions of he'd know when to quit the walker, and no full blown running/training for races for 4 weeks. Drew & Tom both tried to get him off the walker before he was ready. He's just about back at 100% today--still hobbles a little. Anyway, the next 2 week session of swim, Collin, Ivy & Drew got to do lessons. I had Drew in the class with Collin & told them that he hadn't had his cast off long, so if his leg coordination was off, not to stress over it.  Drew actually ended up being moved up a class for this 3rd two week session(next week is the last session for 1 week). Drew can just about swim by himself. He just needs to get over the mentality of not holding the instructors' arm. Ivy is now out of beginners and into Intermediates. She may be moving up to what's called Swimmers since she's mastered(after about 3 weeks), breaststroke. Brent is doing a mom & me type swim class this summer also--just 3 Saturdays, 30 minutes each.

Brent turned 3. He only gained 3 lbs, and 4 inches since his last birthday--the kid doesn't like to/want to sit down to eat. He's just as disagreeable as he was at 2. You get either really sweet, or really upset/frustrated instigator. He is definitely a strong fighter--any fight or flight type situations he perceives himself to be in, you get 100% of the time fight response. I don't know what that's all about--maybe because, with the exception of Collin's being in summer school(Collin only gets 3 weeks between end of school, and summer school; and 3 weeks after summer school & start of school year), he feels displaced?  He's really not terribly interested in going potty or telling me when he has to go, unless I cut off the computer and he asks "I go pee pee for 'nother turn?" Still doesn't sleep good, because someone won't let him cry it out because somehow it makes them feel less of a parent (even though there was no problem letting the older 3 cry it out). So bedtime is often way past 11 pm most nights.

I've been trying to get myself back into a regular exercise groove, and I can now say I'm consistently back up to 5-6 days a week, 30 minutes strength and 30 minutes cardio each day--but not usually done together/back to back.

I am so looking forward to the kids all starting school at the same time, and just about same pick up time this year. It was really hard with the last month and a half of school, taking Drew after kindergarten lunch & picking up like 1.5-2 hours later.

Tom & I had our 13th anniversary on July 8th. The date/celebration was kind of a let down though--won't lie. I made some stuff for Tom, and I got nothing. I'm overwhelmed & burned out with the summer stuff, as well as some other major issues I'm dealing with or should I say haven't been dealing with. So, it was poor planning on my part and Tom's been overworked taking over a co-workers' mechanisms while he was out for 2 weeks.

Before this, he had done a 4 day youth conference(6-7 am until after 10 most of those nights..ugh) and a full week of Coast Guard active duty time(they do training for 2 weeks in the year, usually summer but this year it was 1 week in April and 1 in June).

We've had 3 new younger couples move into our ward in the past month. Looking forward to getting to know them. I'm trying so hard to branch/reach out more, including going on a double date soon with some friends of ours we've known for 9 years. It would be nice to be able to have friends to do stuff with.

Not much other news. I am getting a big haircut in a month. Not related to my starting up therapy for me in a month or so, once everything's settled in place with the kids back to school, and not related to Tom.

7 x 7 fashion remix challenge

Linking up with Audrey @ PuttingMeTogether.com

I did a first 7x7 fashion remix hosted by Audrey at PuttingMeTogether.com and Ma Nouvelle Mode. The premise is to choose 7 items of clothing (1 has to be shoes) and make 7 outfits. I've never done anything like this before.

After a lot of careful, and thoughtful consideration, along with thinking about things Audrey has mentioned in her Build A Remixable Wardrobe Series, I came up with my 7 items. Here are the items I chose:

7x7 pieces by mindy-gee

1. White skinny jeans. These are a newer purchase, within the past couple months at Kohls to replace some capris I had. that I outgrew, literally. I like the fit and opaqueness of these.

2. Striped pencil skirt. (exact sold out, but these are similar) Got this from Old Navy last year, in their Tall size, so it wouldn't ride up too high when I sit.  I knew in the 7 days of this challenge that I had at least 2 days where I had church functions,  where I had to be dressed up. I thought a skirt might be more versatile instead of a dress, since I had to make 7 different outfits.

3. Blue printed blouse. This was a recent find at Kohl's on clearance. They are now sold out of the long sleeved and short sleeved version. I have a hard time finding prints I like, but I liked the color and the small diamond print.

4. Polka dot chambray shirt. Similar I got this from Old Navy last year, and it is a workhorse for me. The weather has been typical "June gloom" where it's chilly in the morning, warms up late afternoon, and cooled down again by dinner. I knew I had to have at least 1 layering piece. I wanted to do 2 long sleeve layering pieces, but then the weather decided to warm up a bit.

5. Mint v-neck tee. Got on sale at Old Navy. Thought I'd try out the mint green trend that's going on.

6. Bird graphic tee. This was from Old Navy. It sold out online faster than you could blink. There must have been a couple returns, so when this came back on the website, I snatched it up fast. It's 1 size big for me, so it's been washed in the washer(against directions, since I know what happens to rayon in the wash) to shrink it down that size.

7. Cognac t-strap wedges. (also comes in other colors) These are from Target. I figured wedges would be the way to go, as I had casual and dressier outfits to accommodate. I will disclose though, that I bought Dr. Scholl's for Her High Heel inserts (also at Target, I found mine at the grocery store) to take pressure off the balls of my feet and have arch support.

Here are the outfits I came up with.  I apologize for no real photos. I've started potty-training the almost 3 year old and he messed with the computer (his reward for going potty in the toilet was a 3 minute computer game), and I've seen a lot of blue screens and computer restarts. More than I care to number.  So, I decided to bust out the Polyvore. Click on the images to see all 7 pieces I chose, as well as all 7 outfits. I could've gotten more than the 7 outfits, if I had used the skirt more but I only had 2 outfits that required skirts this past week.

7x7 Remix Challenge by mindy-gee on polyvore.com

1. White skinny jeans + polka dot chambray shirt + wedges 2. White skinny jeans + blue printed blouse + wedges 3. White skinny jeans + mint v-neck tee + polka dot chambray shirt + wedges 4. Striped pencil skirt + bird graphic tee + polka dot chambray shirt + wedges 5. Striped pencil skirt + polka dot chambray shirt + wedges 6. White skinny jeans + bird graphic tee + polka dot chambray shirt + wedges 7. White skinny jeans + mint v-neck tee + wedges

Update on Drew

We went back on May 23rd to get Drew a new cast. Their office likes to switch casts every couple weeks so it doesn't get too dirty. He had an X-ray done and was starting to grow some new bone back. He chose green as his new cast color. The visit took awhile(way longer than expected), so the boys had I think 3-4 lollipops each.

Next visit was this past Thursday, June 6th. We had been told at the previous visit that there may be a slight chance of the cast coming off, if enough bone had grown back but told not to get our hopes up too high. They took his cast off, so they could X-ray his leg better. It's nice they have the X-ray capability in their office. We brought the portable DVD player this visit to ensure not a boatload of lollipops, and so the downtime for waiting wouldn't be too bad. I was quite surprised the cast came off and stayed off. I actually had to come home instead of straight to school, since I didn't bring a second shoe for Drew to wear.

His leg that had the cast has atrophied quite a bit--most noticeably in  calf. The left has almost no muscle and the right calf has so much muscle from compensation, it's solid. He's still got limitations on him, but his leg speed is slowly coming back.

Thursday, we tried a little walking around the neighborhood, to get him up and walking and see where his stamina was. We did less than 1/4 of 1 lap around the neighborhood in 30 minutes. Friday, he walked the whole 1 lap in 45 minutes. Yesterday was 40 minutes, and tonight was 26 minutes. As reference, it usually takes us 10-15 minutes for walking 1 lap, depending on how fast we go. So we are closer everyday.

Notice how his right leg(on this left in the pic) has more muscle in the calf?

This freckle used to be 1/4-1/2 of this size pre-cast. May have to check it out.

Taken tonight. He is still putting more weight/leaning towards his right when he walks. I also noticed that his left foot is in the habit of toes angled out when he walks.

Excitement in the Gee home, part 2: ER

So, apparently we don't juggle enough and must need some new challenges/experiences. Let me preface by stating that Drew has been going to soccer class on Tuesdays, and Ivy has gymnastics class right after. Fortunately, they both take place in the same general vicinity at a community center. It was supposed to be that Tom was going to take them to class, but it didn't work out like that the first couple classes because of work stuff. Well, April 30th, it was finally Tom's turn and he was home in time. He suggested to both Drew & Ivy that they should ride their bikes to class (Ivy is training for a race that takes place on the 18th). So, they biked. Tom was in front of Ivy, and Ivy in front of Drew. Apparently, there was a bench Ivy saw and swerved around. Drew didn't see it in time, and crashed into it with his left leg. They got to soccer class okay, but Drew sat it out.

After Ivy's class was over, I offered to pick them up, but they biked home albeit very slowly. Tom left for Scouts(his Tuesday calling). Drew was left in his bed to rest, and ended up having an accident because it hurt his foot too much to put down to walk the few feet to the bathroom across the hall. After 5 hours, his left leg was still hurting, so after Tom was back from Scouts, Drew & I high-tailed it over to the ER. After a couple hours, they x-rayed his foot and found nothing and were about to send us on our way, when I insisted he have a splint or something. We got a splint and some Motrin.  Poor guy. It was 3 hours past bedtime by the time that the splint and Motrin from the ER finally happened. Why they never x-rayed his leg there, I'll never know. Unfortunately, it was after 11 when we finally got the foot x-rayed and it slipped my mind.

Next day was Field trip day for kindergarten. Of course. That's how things happen--right before something big, like a field trip or school pictures. Drew desperately wanted to go, so he rode in our car since I was chaperoning 3 other kids with another mom(we got the most mellow of the class), and I wasn't allowed on the bus because their liability insurance won't let Brent ride the bus. Drew had a mostly good time. Of course, he did have to go to the bathroom when we were the furthest away from a bathroom--the way it always works with kids--a side note, I'm not sure why the zoo didn't build a bathroom, one on each end of the zoo for this exact reason. After lunch, we went to ride the train. This is the same train that I rode on in Santa's Village up in the Big Bear mountain area growing up. So, it was pretty cool Drew got to ride it too. I had to carry Drew since there was no room for the stroller in the serpentine. We had to wait for 3 train rides before it was finally our turn. Instead of sliding Drew all the way in, I had him by the side door, and when I got in, I accidentally bumped his leg causing him a lot of pain. He sat on my lap for awhile on the train. His pain medication was wearing off around the same time too, so that didn't help. After the train, we made a bathroom stop, and told the teacher we were headed home for medicine. His teacher has been great throughout our whole ordeal.

We had a follow-up visit at the pediatrician's office on Friday, May 3rd. He made Drew do some mobility tests and noticed Drew was still sore around his calf and we were sent for x-rays on his leg just to make sure that there were no fractures or anything. I had also mentioned, Drew was rather reluctant for bearing weight on that leg. After an hour of waiting(wasn't too bad--Drew found a Frances book in the kid waiting room), we got x-rays and sure enough I saw a gray line across the tibia. They were nice to give us a copy and then called the doctor right away with x-rays(the two buildings were like 1/2 a block away from each other). The doctor called me and said nothing weight-bearing on the leg and that we could call the office for our referral to a pediatric orthopedist after lunch to get a cast.

The red circle is around the fracture on his tibia(almost horizontal gray line on the x-ray).

The first number they gave me, also in the same hospital block as pediatrician's office, said they had no appointments available for 2 weeks!! Drew's doctor wanted a cast on ASAP, not 2 weeks later. I called the pediatrician's office and had them change the authorization. We found a place that wasn't too far of a drive, maybe 15 minutes away, and could see him Tuesday morning, the 7th. He got a cast on, and picked blue.

We really like this orthopedic doctor, Dr. Kelly. His staff is just okay. We also got a prescription for a pediatric walker, as the doctor and I both felt crutches have a high learning curve, Drew's a small guy, and so nobody accidentally (or intentionally) gets hit with a crutch. On our way out, the office asked if we wanted to see if insurance would pay for it. I said sure, since I know most places don't carry them, and could otherwise cost us upwards of around $100.

So, I called back around 4 pm to the doctor's office, seeing how they were doing on finding anything out anything from insurance. "Oh, we don't do that until Wednesdays." I was fuming, and told them they needed to send Stat/Urgent on the request form because Drew had no other mode of getting around, besides me holding his hands and hopping him along(which quite hurt my hands), carrying him(I did this on the 1st for part of his field trip), or using Brent's stroller which I'm sure he's past the weight and height limit on. Well, wouldn't you know it? First thing the next day, I get a call saying insurance will pay. Well, the number they told me to call didn't carry pediatric walkers, nor could they order one--they only dealt with prosthetics.  Ugh. You have got to be kidding me. I call the orthopedic office back and tell them find another place. 

This is around 11:30. Noon comes, and one of our friends that moved a few miles away called and said her family owned a medical supply store and she would have them deliver after 3 pm. I call the orthopedic office back and tell them to switch the provider of the walker to our friends' family's company. At 3:30, the doctor office calls back saying no to this place and give us another number. 4 pm rolls around, and the friend's family's company says that they can't work with our insurance for payment. I call the new place--apparently insurance is only contracted with 1 other place besides the prosthetics place--and they don't have the authorization fax. I call the doctor's office. They claimed they faxed it, I have them fax it again. I call 20 minutes later to check on the walker. After a lot of waiting, I was told that I would get a call back right away after they verified things with insurance and to make sure they had a walker the right height. Well, another 20 minutes later it was almost 5:00 and I called back, anxious, and was asked if we wanted the walker that night or the next day. I said that night since I planned to take Drew to school on Thursday, with or without a walker. We had it by 7:40--which was pretty impressive, in my opinion. It's just too bad it took so many hours out of my day to make sure things moved along for a 6 year old!!

Here's a cute video I took of Drew trying it out, with appropriate Popeye theme song music in the background--compliments of Netflix on the Wii.

Drew has now been in school since Thursday of  last week. I was there all day Thursday with him, and Friday he was on his own. He's on a modified school schedule, going after lunch ends so he doesn't have to sit out morning & lunch recesses, and safety issues(he'd have to go in a different way than all the other kids and some of the early kindergartners are rather large and clumsy and bump into the teacher frequently and have some aggressive issues--we don't want more injuries). He's been able to keep up with homework & classwork. Earlier this week, they rearranged the class so it's easier for Drew to get around. I think most of the pain is gone or at least tolerable with the walker. He is fiercely independent at school and doesn't like the other kids helping him.

My mom sent him a game for our Mobigo that we've had 2 or 3 years now, I picked him up a board game and a wipe off activity kit from Target, and today two of the kids in his class (who are cousins to each other, and live in our neighborhood) dropped off a bucket of goodies this afternoon for him. For now, I'm keeping him in the stroller for morning drop-off of Ivy & Collin, due to parking issues and trying to get them there fast. Drew moves fast in the walker when he wants, but he can still tire out quickly. Next week, we go in to get the cast change. The orthopedist only likes the first one on for 2 weeks, and the second for 4 weeks. I've got Drew excited for color change, and to find if they have any glow in the dark.

Here's a picture of Drew getting to hold one of the class butterflies after school yesterday.

Excitement in the Gee home, part 1: Birthday

One of my sisters, Alisa, flew down from northern California with her 4 month old to come visit us for my birthday. My brother-in-law stayed home with their 2 year old. It was some much needed sister/girly-bonding time. We squeezed as much as we could into a 2 1/2 day trip, revolving around kids' school, Collin's therapy & baseball game, and a nursing baby's schedule. Wish it could've been longer, but I think we both enjoyed ourselves and we'll take what we can get. The kids all fell in love with cousin Declan, whose baby blanket is almost done but didn't get worked on while they were here. Brent especially said unprompted "Declan's so cute," about 50+ times per day and that's no exaggeration.

Here are some pictures from their visit. Thanks for visiting Ali! It was an awesome present.

Pinterest Challenge: Pin #5

Pin #5: Car pocket & track.

3/27: Starting this today.

4/5: Just kidding, I'm starting today.


This is the inspiration photo:

Directions I will be using are found at: http://homemadebyjill.blogspot.com/2009/12/cozy-car-caddy-tutorial.html  There are variations of the directions at: http://www.allmylittlegems.com/2009/09/car-cozie-tutorial-and-etsy-re.html

Thank goodness I started cleaning off my sewing table from leftover race car quilt materials. I had only looked in my designated fabric box and was stuck what to use. I found these two fabrics that I had gotten as backup for quilt backing but didn't end up using. Thankfully they are from the same fabric line & coordinate beautifully.

What I've decided to do is to do iron-on appliques for the numbers on the car pockets instead of using fabric paint. I'll be honest, it's mostly a time issue. I don't feel like waiting for 3 separate layers of fabric paint to dry. A quick note on that: reverse image the numbers so they're not backwards when they're right side up. I had to re-draw my numbers but luckily caught it before I ironed the Wonder Under to the fabric.

I ended up recycling leftover red fabric for the car, black fabric for the wheels & numbers, and brown fabric for the road. I had them all leftover from the race car track quilt.

The directions from Homemade by Jill calls for belting/webbing strap fabric. Luckily I had that leftover from a project from years ago. I did have to fold the webbing in half and sew it down flat since the stuff I had was 2" wide and covered more of the car than I wanted.

On the 2 fabrics, I did use fusible interfacing to make it more stiff/heavier (as the 2nd tutorial suggests) than the cotton fabric it is since my original directions were saying duck-cloth and denim--which I don't have either handy and I could resist these fabrics when I saw them. The one with cars will be my inside fabric. The striped one will be for the outside(that the car gets appliqued on) as well as my pocket material. This way I don't have to go the fabric store for anything except some darker yellow flannel or cotton. The yellow I have is too pale.

Things needed:

1 piece of fabric 17" x 10" for the inside fabric(+ fusible interfacing if it's not a heavier fabric)
1 piece of fabric 17" x 10" for the outside fabric(+ fusible interfacing if it's not a heavier fabric)
1 piece of fabric 17" x 6" for the pocket fabric
1 piece of fabric 17" x 3" for the road fabric
Decorative piping(optional--I just used two 1" x 17" pieces I had leftover of the red fabric)
Scrap of yellow fabric for the dashes on the road (1" x 5" is plenty)
Printed off car, wheels and number templates from Homemade by Jill website you need them backwards so the iron-ons are right side up.
Wonder Under for iron-ons (car, wheels, numbers, and road dashes)
6" belting material, ~1" wide. Strapworks.com is a good source I've used in the past.
1" x 1" sticky back velcro --I chose Velcro because it's easier for a 2 year old than tying a ribbon.

Fabric, as well as all the iron on appliques cut out

6" of 1" wide belting material--a quick trick so the ends don't fray is use a disposable pie pan, put the pie pan directly onto a stove burner. Turn the stove on, and lightly press the ends of the the belting in the pie pan. It takes less than a minute each end. Smells bad, but gets the job done without having to fold the edges over.

I had briefly debated on whether to use the brown or use black instead for the road, but chose brown since I like the way it looked better.

Okay. So after a quick trip to our local fabric store, I picked up a yellow that is more appropriately saturated.

The road is supposed to go in the middle of the top half of the inner fabric. Pin in place. I folded the fabric in half so I could center it. Next, I got a piece of the Wonder Under and ironed on to the back of my yellow fabric(more than I knew I needed). Then cut the pieces down to 1" long by 1/4" wide. I pulled off the back paper with tweezers. They are spaced about an inch apart on the road. I did an applique/satin type stitch around them. On my machine, it's the regular zigzag stitch but adjusted so stitch length was 1.0 and stitch width was 3.0. This goes through the road fabric, and the inner fabric. After I sewed around the dashes, I sewed the edges of the road the same so the edges wouldn't fray.

Next step is to iron the pocket fabric in half, with the folded edge up and the raw edge against the raw edge of the bottom of the inner fabric. I used 1/4" seam.  At this point, I ironed on the numbers(I drew light lines 2.75" apart and centered the numbers). The numbers also got applique/satin stitched. Just remember to have the fabric flipped so you are not sewing onto the inner fabric(otherwise the pockets won't work).

After the numbers are appliqued, sew on the lines that are 2.75" apart. I used a triple-straight stitch since they will be getting a lot of use.

If you are making your decorative piping, fold both 1" x 17" pieces of red fabric in half and put the raw edge against the top & bottom edges of the outer fabric as shown below. Sew a 1/8" or 1/4" seam to connect.

Pull the Wonder Under paper off the wheels & car. Center in the bottom half of the outer fabric--but also fold in thirds since that's where the front and back edges of the car will end up going. Iron on the car and then the wheels on top. Applique stitch around.

Sew the piece of sticky back Velcro to one end of the belting/webbing material. I used the fuzzy side here, and used the triple straight stitch in a X shape to hold it on.

(Not shown) Line up the belting material so it hits the center of the bottom half  of the outer fabric. With 1/4" to 1/2" over the right edge, sew the belting material on so the Velcro side is face up (otherwise you will have to take out stitches & redo it at the end because it wouldn't be facing the right way). Put the rough part of the sticky back Velcro onto the middle of the car. Triple straight stitch and X shape.

Put the outer and inner fabrics right sides together and pin. Sew 1/4" seam all around. Leave a 3" opening (mine was at the top). Clip corners & turn right side out.

Iron the unsewn 3" down & sew 1/8" topstitch around the whole car carrier

Fold the carrier in half and then sew down that folded line.

Car carrier is now complete! To fold: fold along the stitched line in the center. Then fold in thirds, starting with the side opposite as the belting is sticking out of.  An easy reference point for where the thirds are, is the front & back of the car.

For not being interested in my telling him about it, he sure changed his tune fast!

Got his stamp of approval.

What it looks like folded & stuffed with 6 cars.

Pinterest Challenge Grand Finale Post

4/6 update: Link added for pin #5.

Here are the 6 pins I chose to work on.

I'll be putting up a link for each individual post, but for readers from the Pinterest Challenge link-up, I'll just be putting the final outcome pictures in this post. I'm 4.8 out of 6, which is not bad since I only ended up working on stuff for 3 of the 6 weeks of the challenge. Life happens, what can I say?

Pin #1: Ninja gingerbread men.

Pin #2: Racecar track quilt--post 1 & post 2. So, this is how far I am--sewing the front & back layers together, trim the excess backing & batting & bind it. It didn't really help that this week the kids have been on Spring Break and I was playing Sheriff. I've also been distracted since Tom's old roommate's wife passed away on Sunday. Even though we didn't make it to the out-of-state funeral, it's been on my mind a lot this week. 

I'm gonna keep plugging along and get this finished hopefully by this time next week. Will post it to the linkup when I'm done.

Binding will be the same as this backing fabric.

Pin #3: DIY oatmeal packets.

Pin #4: DIY foot treatment for dry/callused skin on feet.

Pin #5: Car pocket & track. This one didn't happen at all. I have to go to the fabric store this afternoon. Planning on whipping this out this weekend though and will post it to the link up when it's done. 4/6: This is done now, and link added.

Pin # 6:  Funny pirate onesie. Finished and shipped to one of my brothers. His wife will be having their 3rd child on Monday.

Click the Pinterest Challenge button to see how everyone else did.