Tea Kettle Explosion

My teakettle exploded! Really!  Isn't that just bizarre?  It must be because I googled and googled and could not find another incident like this. Mishaps and accidents, sure, but bomb-like explosions? No.

I use my tea kettle almost daily. I like to have a hot drink before I go to bed, and I often use it for hot water for oatmeal, soup, and other instant convenient foods.  Or just to bump up a strong cup of coffee.  I use it often!  But we don't use it so often that it has had an abnormal life. It's a tea kettle for Pete's sake!

Keith bought it for me for Christmas in 2004. He got it at Sams Club and it has a lifetime guarantee.  Oddly, they don't sell them anymore.  I found the listing on Sams Club though and so I printed it. We no longer have the box nor the receipt. Really, who keeps a receipt for a tea kettle?  It's not like it would ever explode or anything!

Keith filled the tea kettle about 3/4 full and we sat in the living room watching tv waiting for the whistle. We heard a little noise; I thought it was the neighbors bumping their trash can as they took it out to the curb. A minute later we were shocked to hear a loud explosion in our kitchen! We both whipped our heads around and saw a cloud of vapor billowing in all directions.  We were very confused!

We bolted to the kitchen and found the tea kettle was in pieces all over the place and the entire kitchen was drenched in boiling water.  We picked up the pieces and mopped the ceiling and floor, gave the cupboards and counters a wipe-down and were in utter awe about the whole thing. We both took pictures with our phones of the mayhem. It was ridiculous! 

The bottom of the tea kettle is triple-ply.  The inner ply must have developed a gap allowing water to get in between the layers of the kettle bottom.  And that water must have come to a super hot boil and blew the inner ply into the kettle.  The lid blew off the kettle and with such force that it broke the very sturdy handle right off and continued to fly up and crashed into the ceiling. The whistling spout lid flew off and came apart flying all over the kitchen as well.  The handle flew too. Of course the water must have come out of the kettle in an Old Faithful sort of way.  The kettle wasn't on the stove, so the force of the explosion must have sent it into the air for a short flight too. 

Had anyone been in the kitchen, they would have been burned very badly. Boiling water was everywhere.  We were very fortunate that this accident did not occur in the daytime when the kitchen is a very busy place. If any of the kids had been burned, I wouldn't hesitate for a minute to explode in the same manner.  Really, this mama bear would have been a force to be reckoned with.  But, as it happened, no one was injured. We were lucky.

Rambling

It's been 2 weeks since Henry was born. Seems like just the other day.  He's so cute!  I just love being his Grandma.  I took the girls with me to San Diego to go see him last week and we just had a short visit. Really short, like 20 minutes.  Luckily, Henry convinced his parents to come visit and spend the night so we could all get some good quality time together. Yay! Baby snuggles!

While we were in San Diego for our short visit, we also went to Sea World.  Fun! I got us season passes so that we could go back several times. It'll be nice to have them and add another good excuse to go visit Henry. 

I weaned Libby. It was hard at first, but it's a lot better now. She's been weaned for 3 weeks.  She got the stomach flu and she was sick, so her dad told her it was because she was too big for boo-boo.  Boy, she was no longer interested!  That's all it took to motivate her.  She doesn't like to puke.  She asked him, "I'm too big? Am I three?"  He said yes.  I'm not sure he understood what she was asking.  So, she decided it must be her birthday and she is three years old now.  So be it.  We celebrated her third birthday at almost 32 months old instead of 36 months old. Mere details.  She is convinced now that she is three years old and will tell anyone who asks that indeed she is "Fwee Yeez Ode."

Since weaning, Libby has been eating a lot and trying new foods.  She's been adventurous with eating which is great.  She's really learning!  She discovered a new sensation. I told her it's called "Hunger", time for food.  She said, "Mom, why is my tummy making that noise?"  Poor girl.  I think she's allergic to dairy products though, because she is still having tummy issues and there's just no way she could have a stomach flu for 3 weeks now. Yuck. I just took dairy off her menu, we'll see if that helps. 

Charlie is growing like crazy!  He has a mouthful of teeth, just needs some chompers in the back.  He's starting to eat table food now too. He can stand on his own, and doesn't seem like he's too far from walking.  Although, I doubt he will ever walk. I predict that he will go straight to running and never slow down. He got his first haircut and left a big pile of hair on the floor of the salon.  He is 9 months old now and the same size as his Aunt Libby.

Gracie is growing leaps and bounds too. I helped her get her shoes off after school one day and low and behold, she had a blister on her toe. I asked her if her shoes are too tight and she said she thinks so.  They were a size 11 and I replaced them with some size 13s. Lordy!  She's going to graduate from preschool in a week or so. Seems like we just started the program and she's all done  now!  I'm going to keep her in preschool for the summer just to make the transition to Kindergarten a little easier. A little structure is good for her.

My husband is out of school for the summer. Yay!  I have a ton of things for him to do at home and he can't do them if he's always working. He will teach college classes, but at least he will be home during the day to work on his list. Poor guy thought he was going to get some vacation time - haha.  No way, he's got husband duty!

We had our Disneyland outing this month. The girls wore their Jessie outfits without boots. They've both outgrown their cowgirl boots and I did go looking for more, but didn't find any in the stores. Guess they are a fall item, not a spring item.  The wore Jessie the cowgirl costumes with pink sandals.  Oh well, they were still very cute!  And we had a wonderful time in Disneyland.

I think Libby has a milk allergy.  Not my favorite kind of thought to have bouncing around  in my head, but I can't seem to shake it.  I will see if I can have her tested and find out for sure. Until then, I'm trying to justify my fears and I keep hoping I'm wrong.  I mostly give her juice to drink. It seems that juice is frowned upon by the new social rules of parenting. Ugh, really?  Lots of moms brag about how they do not give their kids juice like they are saving them from certain doom. I've heard some say it has no nutritional value and it's just empty calories.  Nothing but colored sugar water.  No, that's kool-aid and soda-pop!  This is juice, it comes from fruit.  Why is fruit good for kids and juice isn't? Makes no sense to me, so I just let people give me the stink-eye and I pour my kid another cup of juice.

We didn't get the house.  I'm still bummed out about it. We were supposed to move in April or May.  Sigh. But, it turns out that the family who lives there gets to keep their home. The dad was able to hang onto his job. I know, that is a very good thing!  But, I'm disappointed that we didn't get to move into that incredible home.  We're keeping our eyes out for something else, but I don't really have my hopes up that something will come along that we love as much. Good thing this house isn't a bad one; we do have a good place to live in a nice neighborhood and plenty of space for the whole family.  That must be why finding a new house is so hard.

I'm making a quilt on my serger.  It is turning out to be the worst quilt ever.  Very crooked. I can't seem to get my corners lined up or very many of my lines straight. I cut the squares so perfectly and promptly sewed them into irregular trapazoids.  Oh well, it'll just be my crooked quilt.

Gracie graduates soon. Her preschool class is supposed to wear orange to the graduation. Orange? There isn't anything orange in this house (except in the halloween box) and I didn't see anything orange in the store.  I did find some wild orange and yellow fabric at Walmart, so I bought a couple of yards and some solid orange too.  I'll have to make a graduation dress for her.  I'm thinking I'll make the same pattern that I made for her Little Mermaid dress, but I can't remember which pattern I used for that one. I know I altered the pattern quite a bit.  I might just grab a pattern out of my stash and get started.  She will have an orange dress for graduation!

That should be about enough rambling for now.  I keep thinking "I should blog about that!" and then I never get to the blog with my thoughts. I will try to be a better blogger over the summer, but the month of May is just too darn busy to sit down and have uninterrupted typing time.  Even a few minutes is hard to come by.  I should take my laptop and run away once in a while, but I'm afraid the poor thing couldn't handle very many outings. My laptop is in delicate condition because it's old and lived a tough life already.

Hitting the publish post button now....

Hank

Welcome, my little grandson, Henry Alan.  He's just perfect!

My daughter went to the hospital to have this baby three times, three days in a row. The third time was the charm, they finally admitted her and put her in a labor and delivery room.  Her husband called me to let me know and I scrambled to find a babysitter for my puking little girls.

Do you know how hard it is to find a babysitter for a couple of pukers?  It wasn't happening and my husband was at work. He had to work at Saturday school and babysit the hundreds of middle schoolers in Saturday detention. Those darn kids! He was getting off work at noon, but he called at 12:40 and said he was just getting on the freeway and traffic was terrible. Ugh.

He got home at 1:20 and I hit the road at 1:40 and left him home with the sick little girls. Off I went to San Diego so I could pace the hallway or lobby and wait for word that baby Henry was born.  I was hoping I could see him an hour or two after he was born and see my girl on her first day of being a new mommy.  If not, well, she would at least know I was there if she needed any extra moral support. Her husband was there of course and she hired a doula (paid for by the Navy since her husband was deployed (but now he's back)).

I arrived at the hospital at 2:40. Traffic was easy! I managed to get in the gate at the Naval Hospital and found the parking structure. Then I had to find the right building and floor. That wasn't as easy. I walked all over the place! I finally found it and was directed to her room.  And then I got really nervous. I didn't want to just barge in!  I went and found a nurse to go in and check with Katie and Andrew and see if I could go in, ask if the baby was born already, and just give me a quick idea of what I was walking into.

All was well. Katie and Andrew were happy I came and they wanted me to come in. She was contracting but no baby yet. It was 3pm and they both looked great for being up all night and dealing with early labor for 2 days. Too great. My first thought was that this was going to take all night and maybe another day. She's just looking too wonderful.

She wanted me to stay, but I hid in the corner when the nurse was working on her and adjusting the baby's monitors and such.  I told Katie and Andrew to just let me know when she wanted me to step out because I want to respect their family experience and not be in the way or whatever.  All I got from Katie was a plea to stay and Andrew agreed.  Ok, then. I'll stay as long as they can stand having me in the room.  Andrew was alone with her mostly since the nurse was running from patient to patient, and the doctor and others would only show up at the last minute. The doula wasn't there and I didn't want to stir up anything so I didn't ask where she was. Best to just leave that story for later.

Poor Andrew had been rubbing Katie's back for hours on end. I took over and we took turns. Henry was "sunny side up" and giving Katie horrible back pain. He finally twirled around and gave her back a bit of relief. Andrew and I took turns wiping off her forehead with a damp washcloth, and telling her to breathe. She was really having big contractions so the nurse checked and said it was almost time for him to be born.  Really? Already? Wow!

The doctor and a few more nurses came in and we all welcomed Henry into the world together. Katie did such a good job of having her first baby without any pain medications at all!  Andrew was the proudest daddy I've ever seen aside from my own husband when our girls were born. The doctor and the nurses were full of praises for Katie for having a nearly 9 lb baby without an epidural.

I have to say, being present during a birth of a baby was an amazing experience. I've been present at 5 births before but never as a bystander.  The first one, I was the baby and I don't remember it.  The next four, I was the mama and I only remember bits and pieces thanks to the natural amnesia that helps a mother decide to have another one. This was a very special experience for me as well and I'm thrilled that Andrew and Katie shared their experience with me. Such a joy to be one of the first to say "Welcome to the world, Henry". 

Henry weighed 8 pounds 15 ounces and he was 20.5 inches long. He was born at 5:30pm.

After an hour, the nurse had Katie get up to use the bathroom which was about three steps away.  Katie took two steps and fainted. The nurse caught her and Andrew sprinted across the room and they sandwiched her to hold her upright so she didn't fall to the floor. The baby's nurse ran over to help so I stayed by Henry (why I thought he would roll off of his little table I don't know, he's not big enough to roll yet but I stayed by him to make sure and let the professionals tend to Katie). They moved as a group closer to the wall and the nurse reached in a cabinet and grabbed some smelling salts. As soon as she waved them under Katie's nose she came right to. She didn't know what happened and then she just kept apologizing. 

They laid her back down and the room filled up with doctors and nurses, some hauling equipment on wheels.  They put stickers all over her and did an EKG all the time she was apologizing and denying that anything was wrong with her. She said she faints sometimes but its not a big deal. I felt so bad that I didn't think of her fainting spells, I totally forgot! Plus, the same thing happened to me with two of my babies and one was Katie. How can I forget that and just let them let her up to walk?

The EKG came out ok, guess she wasn't having a heart problem. Her blood pressure was fine. They drew blood to check for other things and they brought her some brownies and juice to bump up her sugar.  She earned herself an extended stay at the hospital too. Two nights instead of one for the girl who faints!

She is just fine now and should go home today. Here are pictures of Henry. I took a few and hoped I would get some good ones. Got home and found out that I took 169 photos!  Haha! Off to a good start in my new job as Henry's Grandma!

Here is what you've been waiting for:  Hank!

Update - 2011 Resolutions

Way way back in the distant past, January, I made some promises to myself.  Here is an update of where I stand on these.  Honestly, I had forgotten what I resolved to do this year and had to look it up.

Happy New Year - 2011 Resolutions

Hmmm... what sort of empty promises shall I make to myself this year?  Lose weight? Get in shape?  Not buy any more strollers?  Oh, who knows!

I sold a stroller and bought a stroller.  But the one I bought was for Katie!  I am down to three strollers now, a double, a full single and a jogger. I sold the umbrella.

I think I'll stick to resolutions that I can actually see through to the end.  Therefore....

I resolve in a conservative manner thus leaving room for chaos and craziness...

1. Read 12 books this year. 
I've read five!  And it's May, so that's not too bad considering I rarely have time and when I do, I fall asleep.

2.  Do more sewing and get my serger fixed (or me, one of us isn't doing it right).  I'd like to end 2011 with my current PHDs (projects half done) all finished! 
I got my serger fixed and I have been sewing more. I rearranged my sewing area just yesterday. One of these days I'll find the perfect way to set it up. I think I've moved it a hundred times in this house.

3. Get my kids to school on time (most of the time).
So far, we aren't doing too bad.

4. Potty train and wean Libby, yes, folks, I promise to quit breastfeeding after nearly 5 years
She is mostly potty trained! She still wets when she is asleep, and has an accident once in a while. But for the most part she is trained. I sneak a diaper on her at night; hopefully we can give that up soon. That would be so nice to quit buying diapers.  Making no progress on weaning.

5. Get my money's worth out of our Disneyland and Zoo passes (meaning lots of fun!).  Might even get a SeaWorld pass this year!
We went to Disneyland 4 times so far in 2011. We didn't get to the zoo before our passes expired in Feb. But I didn't renew them. So far, no Seaworld pass. I don't know when I thought I would have time for that.

6. Send my 2011 Christmas cards out before Christmas.
I still have time! I should start addressing envelopes soon.

7. Do something with all of my photos and videos.  Print them, back them up, put them on dvd, make photo books, I don't know, but something!
I backed them up to the server, need to back up the server now. Hmm.

8. Keep blogging.  I would like to archive my Momathon blog since I kept it up for three years, and I'll have to keep this one alive. Often times, I just blog mentally and never get around to actually posting.
Still mental blogging. Are you still reading my mind?

9. I will try not to destroy or lose any of my electronic devices.  You heard that right!  Cell phone, bluetooth, camera, laptop.... I wish you all the best of health and happiness in the new year. And may you all stay out of the crevices of the furniture and survive the year! Good Luck.
The laptop is dying, slowly, but it is going to go.  The phone is in great shape! Bluetooth was lost but then found it in plain sight in the van, haha. Camera nearly took a plunge into the ocean last week. Thank goodness my hubby gave me a lanyard for my neck! So far, the electronics are all doing well, despite the dangerous life they lead with me.

10.  I can't think of anything else.  Nine resolutions is more than enough anyway.  We'll see if I can keep one or two of them.  Happy New Year, Everyone!

Mommy Hat Parade

Happy Mother's Day!

I celebrated with my 5 yr old at her preschool on Friday.  The school had a long program for the moms and it was a lot of fun.

We got a note home saying that the moms had to wear a decorated hat; oh dear, what am I going to do for that?  I had a very busy week and really didn't have much time to think about it. I did look at sun hats at Walmart, but they were so floppy. And $8 for a hat I will wear for an hour. Eh.

I decided to get a piece of posterboard for 99 cents and make my own hat. I'll bet lots of moms will have home made hats.

At midnight on Thursday, I cut the posterboard into a big brim and folded some grocery sack brown paper around for the hat part. Glue and tape and there was the hat structure. I had to cover up the ugly brown grocery sack, so I used the generic leaking diapers that I bought for Charlie. Those diapers were great for cleaning up spills, but not great for diapering Charlie. They leaked like crazy!  I ended up using them as cleaning rags, that's how bad they were.  I had two left, and so I wrapped them around the top part of the hat. Perfect!  I glued on some of Henry's baby shower decorations too.

To the brim, I glued on little photos of all my girls, Charlie and the dog. I even stuck a picture of Kaelyn on it.  The photos looked good.  I decided it wasn't flashy enough, so I glued on a glitter border and tied a fabric scrap around it. Looking better.

It won't stay on my big head. Ugh.  I took inspiration from Mary Poppins and added a tie on sash.  I just used a fabric scrap.  Since I had the tie, I stuck on some baby shoes to the ends to finish it off.  There, the world's corniest Mother's Day hat!

Morning came and Gracie was super excited to see my hat.  She loved it! But she thought it needed more pink and stuck a wad of gift wrap on top. The gift tissue looked pretty good so I added another piece and fluffed it up. I suddenly realized it was huge.  Too late now, we gotta go!

Since it was a special day, I donned a sundress. I never do that!  I put on my white sundress, decided it was just too white.  So I put on a yellow maternity sundress, no, the white one fit better.  Back into the white dress, ok, it'll be fine.

I loaded up the kids and the hat and off we went! First stop, gymnastics.  I met my friend there. She and her little girl were kind enough to accompany Libby during gymnastics class and babysit her for a while afterward so that I could attend the preschool thing.  I was putting Libby's carseat in her car when she said to me, "Did you know that your dress isn't zipped?"

Isn't that the perfect way to dress for a Mothers Day event? In an unzipped dress? How embarrassing! I am so glad I had to drop Libby off first! We all walked into gymnastics together and we were the only ones there.  Leave it to me to go on the wrong day. Wait, it was Friday at 9:30. That should be right. The teacher came in and said we were just too early. Class didn't start for another 5 minutes. Ok, then. Gracie and I left for her school.

First we went to the school chapel where the pastor lead the kids and moms in some children's church songs. Then the teachers read a story and put on a skit to illustrate the story. That was cute and the kids sure enjoyed it. Everyone was excused to the classrooms to make craft projects. We were to go into each classroom and make three or four different things.

Gracie and I made a "Helping Hand Bouquet" and a teapot necklace.  They were both time consuming with the cutting and gluing and beading, so I helped Gracie and felt guilty for helping her since I don't like it when she brings home art projects that the teacher obviously made.

Then it was time for the Mommy Hat Parade.  All of the children went outside and sat down, judges were put in place and the moms lined up.  We were paraded around the playground and told to bend down to allow the seated judges to view the hat and do a dance for the judges.  A dance?  Oh my.  I swooshed my arms up and down. There were some nice hats, most of them hand decorated with photos and flowers and such. I really liked their ideas and wished I had thought of this and that. Some of them looked slapped together and some looked like they spent a week or more on the project.

The judges handed out prizes for Most Creative, Most Outrageous, Promises Top Model, and Silliest. I won Most Outrageous!  I got a laminated award certificate and a Starbucks gift card. Gracie was thrilled to pieces!

After the hat parade and the awards, we were herded indoors for a luncheon. I was starving! The buffet table had quite a spread: chips, little coldcut sandwiches, cold spaghetti salad, jello and cookies. It was awful! Yuck! Thank goodness for the cookies. My friend showed up with her daughter and Libby, so we took this opportunity to leave our picked over lunches and head out.  We had to move the carseat back to my van. Libby and Nora each grabbed a cookie, Gracie grabbed two more and off we went. A successful and very fun Mother's Day morning! 

Mother's Day Questionnaire

My adorable little 5 yr old had to answer questions for her Mother's Day projects.  I have to share!  Her answers show that she knows me well.

My Mommy is a Chef. I love it when she makes "spaghetti".
- yesterday she told me she likes spaghetti but not the noodles, the sauce or the meat. And this is her answer? That made me laugh!

My mommy is a Magician. She can always find lost things. Once she found "a little doll".
- Once?  Child, I've found more little dolls in little hidden places than you can count!

My Mommy is a Princess because she "is nice!
- Oh, thank goodness! I like this answer!  I can't believe her response wasn't "because she treats me like a  servant".

My Mommy is a Chauffeur. She drives me to "the park and to Child's Play."
 - among other places, this is true. Child's Play is an indoor playground.

My Mommy is a Nurse. She makes me feel better when she "puts the tv on for me so I can watch cartoons."
- Cartoons make me feel better too.

My Mommy's eyes are the color "maybe it's brown,maybe".
- nope, my eyes are blue.

My Mommy's hair is the color"brown and black".
- Thank you! Thank you! Thank you for not saying gray!!!

My Mommy is as pretty as " a heart".
- I hope she means that in a Valentine sort of way rather than a medical sort of way.

My Mommy's favorite thing to eat is "salad".
- I do love salad.

When my Mommy grows up, she wants to be a "Just a Mom".
- True. I want to be a mommy forever! And a Grandma!  And an English teacher. I'm still working on that one.

My favorite thing to do with my Mommy is "sit and watch cartoons on the old couch".
- Really? That is your favorite thing? Not going to Disneyland or the zoo or the park or making crafts or any of the other hundreds of things we do? Your favorite thing is vegging out on the old couch? I didn't realize you were so easily entertained.  hmm, this could make my life easier!

I love to make my Mommy laugh by "Saying Oxnard"
- When I read this I nearly fell off my chair because I burst out laughing! It's true! She thinks "Oxnard" is the funniest word ever and she's got the delivery to make it true.

What my Mommy loves most is "Me".
- Yes, You. And your three sisters and your daddy.  And your Grandmas and your nephews.  All of you are what I love the most!

My Mommy is good at so many things, but I think she is best at "Seeing the Easter Bunny."
- What?  Hmm, I didn't realize I was so talented at that. I figured you would respond with "sitting on the old couch".

My Mommy is so smart she even knows how to "Do rhyming games".
- We sure do have lots of fun rhyming while we drive!

My Mommy's favorite thing to do in her extra time is "Go to the Mommy place for Mommies only".
- I do enjoy going out with the other mommies, but I wouldn't go so far as to say it is my favorite thing to do. Far from it! My favorite thing to do is spend my days with you!

I can show my Mommy how much I love her by "saying I love you".
- Awwww! I love you too!

*P.S. I sure wish your preschool teacher knew that the word "Mommy" is not capitalized unless it is at the beginning of a sentence or used as a name. Oy.

Road Rage - Jogger Style

Yesterday it was 100o outside and way too hot to play at the park.  Lexie suggested we load up the runts and go to the beach.  Great idea!  So, we did.

The traffic was easy and there were plenty of parking spaces on the street, so we decided to try our luck and see if we could park on the lower street right by the beach instead of having to walk down the pier.  The lower street is a skinny two-way street with a sidewalk on the beach side, and then the sand, of course.  Speed limit is 15.

I was tootling along at 15 mph and the sidewalk had a few people on it, a guy on a goofy looking bike was in the oncoming lane and a guy was jogging in my lane coming toward us.  I didn't give him a second thought because 1. he looked agile enough to move out of my lane and onto the sidewalk like the other pedestrians  2.  he was an adult and I assumed had the brains of one and 3. I'm going really slow and he has plenty of time to get out of my way.

But, that's not how it went.  He must have thought I should move over into the oncoming lane (nobody was coming so I suppose I could have, but the goofy bike guy was in that lane).  I kept going at top-speed, 15.  And the guy didn't move over.  Instead he fist-punched my side mirror on the passenger side!  Yeah, he did!

I stopped and hopped out, ran around to the passenger side to see the damage and the guy starts yelling at me!  He was mad at me?  He punches my mini-van full of mini-people and he's mad at me?  What?  Then I thought, "Oh God, what if he punches me now?"  I quickly ran back around and hopped in the van.   He seemed to be fine and the van was fine, Mr. Raging Fists turned around and jogged away still yelling. 

He knocked the mirror right out of the mirror  holder and the whole unit was folded in to the door.  They do fold in, its a pretty common feature on big vehicles, but it takes a good solid push to fold it in. The mirror was hanging by the wires that allow me to adjust it with the button on my dash. That goodness or it would have fallen to the street and broke.

We did get lucky and got to park right there at the edge of the beach.  I popped the mirror back together and it's good as new.  Lexie was shaken a bit because it was all on her side of the van.  I was just hoping the crazy jogger didn't jog back and see our parked vehicle unattended.  It was fine when we got back to it.

Next time I see a jogger in my lane who has plenty of room to move over into the pedestrian space, I will not assume that he will. Lesson learned. Silly me.

My Beautiful Daughter

All of my daughters are unbelievably beautiful! And they are mine!  Not sure how our gene pool combined in such wonderful ways, but the girls are all healthy, smart and gorgeous.

My oldest daughter is 22 years old and 38 weeks pregnant. She's beautiful!

If you ask my littlest daughter what her big sister is like, she will answer in her best Ponyo imitation, "She's big and beautiful!"

It's hard to believe that not so long ago she was my cute baby and she looked like this:

Spongebob Twirly Skirts

I whipped up two cute ruffled skirts for the girls yesterday.  I can't believe I got them done in one day! That is amazing for me.  I went from finding a cute skirt tutorial online, to picking fabric out of my stash, to cutting, serging and by the end of the day, the girls were twirling around in their new skirts!  What a day!  I'm sure it would only take an hour for a person who has no interruptions, but I expected it to take a few days at least.

The skirts are two-layers.  There is an upper skirt (Spongebob fabric) and an underskirt (solid yellow).  They are sewn together with an elastic waistband, which I managed to sew on upside down on one of the skirts. Oops.  I like that they are two layers, but I'm not thrilled with the waistbands.  I think they are too bunchy and I will have to topstitch them later.  Next time I make the skirts, I will shorten the width of the waistband so that when the elastic pulls it together, it isn't so bunchy.  "Bunchy" is a technical term. It is!

I tried to topstitch the waistbands to flatten them out a bit, but my sewing machine is being rebellious!  It was sewing some really wonky lines of straight stitches that were anything but straight. Eh, I'll deal with that later. I made the skirts on the serger only! That is kind of cool!

The photos on the blog where I found the instructions to make the pattern and the skirt are much better.  I don't know if those skirts were made of a fabric that lays down better or if my sewing skills just need some work (I'm rusty, I admit it), but my skirts didn't turn out with the same "hang" to them as the skirts on the instructions.  I also cannot see the waistbands on the instructions, I may have done that wrong.

Me? Measure wrong?  Hard to imagine, but it could have happened with the waistbands.  I measured wrong on the ruffles and took me hours to figure out why my ruffles were so much shorter than the width of the skirts.  The ruffles need to be longer in order to ruffle!  The instructions say "For a ruffle take the length of the bottom skirt portion and multiply by 1.5. Divide by 2, and measuring on fold, the width that you just came up with."  Well, I had the lower skirt folded since I just cut it on the fold, and did the math from there, which means I divided by 2 before I even started to figure out how long the ruffle should be. Whoops.  It was an easy fix, I just cut more ruffle but each skirt has two more ruffle seams than it should. I decided not to tell the girls.

While I'm not totally thrilled with the skirts yet, I do love the pattern and I think I'll be making a few more before I give up on it.  Next time I'll shorten up the waistband width, and double the width on my ruffle pattern piece that is only half of what it should be.

I think the girls need shirts too.  Another project perhaps?