25 Years of Wedded Bliss

25 years ago, I put on a fancy white dress and my boyfriend put on a fancy white tux. By the end of the day, we were married and went off to live happily ever after.

That, we have done. And we have done it well!  In the past 25 years, we had four daughters and three grandsons. We moved several times and helped each other finish college. We went through a few jobs too.  We've seen each other through illnesses and injuries and through triumphs and successes.

One thing we've always done is remain a team. Whatever comes up, we are in it together and we support each other. Sure, we have disagreements, but not about anything big. We argue over what to pack for camping, not what to plan for our future. We work on the big picture together. I guess that's why we are still married. We made a promise to be a team and get through life together and we both meant it when we said we would. And we do.

Honestly, I think I just got lucky. I know a lot of people who didn't. My husband is an awesome guy! He's fun, responsible, hilarious, dependable and respected. And he's crazy enough to put up with me all of the time. Nobody can predict the future, but we have always stuck together and one day melted into the next and here we are: celebrating our 25th anniversary.

Seems weird to say it's been 25 years. Every time we go to a wedding, I think of our wedding day. It is fresh in my mind just as if it weren't so long ago. Saying it was a quarter of a century ago really sounds odd.

To celebrate, we both said "Happy Anniversary" on facebook and we each posted an old picture. That's it. We barely even saw each other! Our anniversary landed on a Tuesday. Eh, it was just another day of the week. Tuesdays aren't for celebrations. They are a work day. It was also the day after our daughter's 5th birthday, so it was easy to overlook.

We'll have a party for our 50th anniversary. Friday, October 1st, 2038. You're all invited. Bring presents!

Princess Mulan's Matchmaker Hanfu

Made It!!!

The girls have been wishing for Princess Mulan dresses for quite some time. I finally found time to get to the fabric store and while I was there, I actually remembered to grab up some pretty blue fabric for the waist band. Really, that's what the big wait was all about. I've had the pink satin and the red trim for quite some time.

I only made one dress because my older girl is growing out of the dress up stage and she would rather wear something normal but themed. I haven't figured out what to do for her yet, but I did buy some Star Wars fabric for when I figure something out. In the meantime, only one hanfu is in order. Which works because Libby's 5th birthday was quickly approaching so the dress could be a gift. 

It only took me a couple of days to make the dress, which would equate to a couple of hours in normal person time. It's been proven many times that I am not functioning in any level of normal, sewing or otherwise. But it should be noted that it was a quick project.

I used a normal looking dress pattern, mainly for the measurements of the shoulders and sleeves and bodice width. The hanfu does not at all resemble the pattern I used, but I am growing out of a need for much of a pattern; I just need the major cutting points and then I can wing the rest of it.

I made the hanfu just like a dress in that it has a top bodice section and a bottom skirt with a zipper up the back. I'm not so sure that is the proper way but I wanted it to have some flair at the bottom and I wasn't so sure a shift or A line cut would have the same effect. Besides, the gathered waistline would be covered by the waist band so it didn't really matter. I also made the skirt ankle length (or so I thought until my kid put it on and I discovered her legs are a lot longer than they used to be!)

I cut the sleeves the right length and then added "bat wings" to the wrist. I also made the tip of the wings longer than the top of the wrist so that it resembled Mulan's long sleeve tips without going overboard. Just a bit of effect for authenticity but not enough that it would be annoying to wear.

The bodice top gave me some pause. I had to think about how to make it overlap like a robe. I ended up cutting four bodice pieces and then folding them and ironing them down the way I wanted them, trimming off the unwanted half at the diagonal and stitching the two pieces of bodice together at the waist. It has a lining of the same satin, which is why I needed four pieces. Two outer and two for lining. There is probably a hundred easier and more conservative ways to cut the bodice out, but to keep it straight in my mind, that's how I did it. I will have to practice or draw up a little pattern piece.

I used some of the leftover cheap red stuff that I used for the Captain Hook Halloween costume last year to trim the bodice and make the red waist belt. The embroidered blue piece was easy to make into a waistband. I measure the child around the middle and made a rectangle to match. I sewed the red band to the middle of the blue rectangle and added apron ties.

Now I had the pink satin underdress with the red trim on the bodice and the separate blue and red waist band. Done!

There were just a couple of problems. I forgot the red upper skirt and the waist band slid straight down that satin covered kid. It wouldn't stay up.

I added a piece of gathered red to the bottom of the blue waist band and that fixed that issue. Then I tacked the waist band to the dress in the back, front and under the arms to keep it from sliding down. We don't need to spend all day yanking the waist piece up over and over again. Now, it's done!

Princess Mulan's pink hanfu was an awesome birthday gift for my little birthday girl! We hauled it around all day at Disneyland on her big day, but it was too hot to wear satin. Also, Mulan wasn't "home" when we went to the Princess Fantasy Faire. In the evening when it cooled down, she put her hanfu on over her clothes in lieu of a jacket.  It was so cute!  We sure heard a lot of compliments in the couple of hours that she wore it and her little friend instructed me to make one for her and her sister.

Happy Birthday to my little princess!

*** UPDATE ***
11/8/2013

My little Mulan met the real Mulan at Disneyland. Mulan saw her and gasped with excitement! She was like a little princess on Christmas morning when she saw Libby in her Mulan hanfu! Very exciting! Here are the princess twins together:

The Redondo Twirly Skirt -or- Spin till you are Dangerously Dizzy

This skirt is dangerous!  Dangerous if you can't handle being dizzy, that is. I cannot; therefore, I will not wear one. I will not spin and twirl.  My daughter will. She's five; she can do that.

The first time I saw this skirt, an adorable little girl in my daughter's kindergarten class was wearing it. The next time I saw her, she had another one on. Then another. Her mom sews!  I got to know her mom a bit, but I forgot what she said her name was. That's ok, I just call her "The Redondo Mom" because of the skirt. Well, I don't call her that, I just refer to her silently in my mind as the Redondo Mom. Pretty sure she wouldn't answer me if I actually called her that out loud. Yeah, that might not be so cool.

That was 2 years ago. I've been thinking about that skirt ever since. It's that stinking cute! 

Recently, Redondo mom shared the pattern with me. I was so excited! Like, Christmas morning (after coffee) excited! I traced the pattern, all sizes, then traced another one for a friend of mine who has two little twirly girls, and returned the pattern unharmed by my crazy children.  They'd find it and spill something on it for sure.

The skirt consists of three pieces. One is a rectangle, I totally understand that one. It's the waistband. The other two pieces are completely confusing.

I've been sewing for 21 years now. I've seen so many patterns and could most of the time put them together. This one had me completely baffled. The two skirt pieces look like partial snail shells. I held them and tried to figure out how on earth they make a skirt, and how they fit together, which way is up, which end goes where... yeah, I don't know.

I followed the instructions very carefully. Rechecking every time I put things together. It never made sense. I put the curves together even thought it felt like I was making mistakes. They didn't look like they wanted to line up. But, that's what it said to do.

First, I made five swirls, then put those curly panels together and you'll never guess what! It totally made the cute little skirt! Perfect!!! I'm not sure how that happened when it felt so weird. I really need to practice sewing things that have no straight lines. This was a step out of my comfort zone. Which made it especially satisfying!

Then I tried out the pattern on the largest size pattern. It was so sweet! But it turned out too long for my little spinner. Hmmmm....  Let's try again.

I now knew which end was up, so I shortened that end. I also cut the pieces a wee bit skinnier and made one more for six panels. Then I cut two types of fabric for the panels so they could alternate. Of course, I cut a couple of pieces backwards and had to recut them. I'm learning.  I sewed them together and next thing you know, skirt #2 was done!  Score! It looked a lot better than the first. In fact, it looked good enough to wear.  We gave it to a little girl for her birthday.

Then, I made a third. This is fun!  Skirt #3 turned out just  as good as the second one and I love it! More than that, the girls love it!  The largest size fits my smallest girl, so I'm going to have to figure out how to expand the pattern for my bigger girl. She likes to twirl too.

The skirt doesn't take long to sew. Maybe an hour or two at the most. Of course, it takes me longer because I have to keep three kids from taking all my pins out of my pin cushions, cutting up my fabric scraps, running hotwheels under my sewing table (over the pedals) and keeping the Barbies from climbing all over my ironing board. Slows down the sewing a bit.

I cannot wait to make more Redondo skirts! Thank you, Redondo Mom! or whatever your name is.

My Kid, The Writer

Translation for those of you who don't read seven year old handwriting:  I had a good summer. I went to South Dakota. I split my chin again. I got five stitches. My mom broke her foot. I helped a lot. (doing chores) My dog, Sandy died. 

There is only one statement in this entire essay that is a stretch of truth. The rest of it is completely true! Guess which one is a bit of a  stretch.....  Yup. The first line. "I had a good summer."  Really? That was a good one? That was the worst summer this family has ever had!

I can only recall one other summer that sucked as bad as this one did. It was 1981 when I was 15; my older sister went away to boot camp and left me home to do all the chores and babysitting. Once I realized how much she did to help out the family and how lazy I was by comparison, my summer was doomed. I was no longer getting away with anything. Darn the luck!  Plus, it was the 80s and my world revolved around my hair, which was never awesome enough to satisfy my egocentric adolescent attitude.  In retrospect, that summer wasn't as bad as this one. The summer of 2013 wins the worst award.

I can't believe my daughter split her chin open again and had to get stitches again. Isn't that one of those once in a lifetime things? Twice is just not fair. When it happened, she was in South Dakota on her vacation with daddy. Just her and daddy, no mama there to comfort her and give her hugs. Her dad handled it just fine, in fact, he was great!  But still... ouch!

The poor kid had to pitch in and do chores every day. She learned how to do dishes, load and run the dishwasher, and put them away. She took out the trash. She vacuumed and swept (although sweeping wasn't her best talent). She helped with laundry. She put groceries away after carrying them in from the car.  And she even helped change the littler kids pajamas, shoes, and diapers. She helped the littler kids get into and out of the car and assisted with the seat belts, and she learned how to start the car to get the AC going too. She stepped up because she had to. I was broken all summer and couldn't do much except get in the way.

Our dog of 12 years died this summer too. It's been an adjustment for all of the kids to be without her; they've never known life without the dog.

Poor Gracie, she really did have a bad summer. We all did.

Marriage and Dating

My husband called me from work on Friday afternoon, after 5:00 when he should have been on his way home already.  

Fridays generally go like this: He is happy to finish his long week at school and he is home by 4:30pm -or- he is happy to finish his long week at school and he comes home at 8pm. If he doesn't rush out of there and head straight home then I know he went out to have a bite to eat and a beer with his teacher friends. More Fridays than not, he chooses to go out with his friends. I get jealous. I've had a long week too and I don't have the option of stopping on my way home for some grown up conversation in a grown up only restaurant where they serve grown up food and nobody throws it on the floor. 

Anyway, it was Friday again and he called. 

Husband, "Do you want to go out on a date tonight?"
Me, "No. Well, not with you. I will with someone else though."
Husband, "What? Why?"
Me, "Because I don't want to try to find a babysitter. I'll have to date someone else so you can watch the kids."
Husband, "oh, ok. Actually, the date isn't with me anyway. Lora and Mirna want you to go out with them after I get home."
Me, "Awesome!"

We've come to a point in our marriage where we can only date other people.  Now, what should I wear?

Was lots of fun! My friend drives a BMW and she put the top down. So nice on a hot Cali night! 

We tried to figure out a place to go, ended up choosing a winery restaurant in Old Town, parked and went to the place across the street from the one we chose. Talk about indecisive!

 It was great, we did a wine tasting, bought a bottle, ate dinner and sat on the patio listening to live music. 

 

Had a ton of fun. I really enjoyed it and it was nothing like my husband would have done, so I extra enjoyed it because I always go places that he likes and he never goes places that I like (for restaurants).

An ankle comparison: Broken vs Sprained

Unfortunately, I can compare a broken ankle to a sprained ankle.

Broken Left Ankle:

Sprained Right Ankle:

*Same feet, two months apart, different cameras, strangely different colored skin tone, but whatever.

They look the same as far as the swollen deformity goes. But the difference lies in the PAIN!  Lefty hurt a million times worse than Righty; although, for a moment, I wasn't sure if Righty was broken or not, but then the moment passed and I knew that one was ok. Sprain pain is not nearly as intense as breaking a bone pain. But, sprain pain isn't any cup of tea niether.

I could not put the tiniest bit of pressure on my foot when I broke my left ankle a couple of months ago. But the other day when I sprained my ankle, I was able to get up and limp along on it. That's when I really knew it wasn't broken. 

The other difference is that when I fell and broke Lefty, I was all alone. I could cry and wince and wail all I wanted. I was free to express myself. When I fell and sprained Righty, I did it right in front of my whole family and another family. Had myself a good sized concerned crowd. I did the best I could to pretend that I didn't fall much, I was fine, nothing hurt much, and I just needed a minute and I'd get up. They weren't buying it, but I tried to sell my "I'm just fine" story.

I broke the left one killing a spider.

I injured the right one falling down one stair. I went down like an imploded stack of bricks. Or like a sinkhole opened up under a big brick building. Either way, I went down fast and hard, like bricks.

We were invited to our new friends' house. Such nice people, and they just moved to town . Keith and I went with three of our daughters and one grandson. We joked that we're an invasion, not a little visit. We stepped inside their house and said "Hi" and all of that small chatty greeting stuff. I took a few steps inside so they could shut the door and down I went. There was a step down from the entryway to the main room. I totally didn't see it!

I know it's there now. Not that they'll ever have my clumsiness over again.

There were 20 legs surrounding me all saying "Are you ok?" and lovely compassionate things like that and my husband saying "I can't believe you just did that". I know he wanted to laugh, and I wish he would have to lighten up the mood.

I sprained my ankle, hyper-extended my left wrist and got a big beautiful bruise on my right elbow. I really hit hard. Imagine what I could do with a whole flight of stairs!

School Started! Yippeeee!

I am one happy mama!  Why do they let school out for the summer anyway? Kids should be in school year round, maybe just swap out the teachers on a seasonal basis. My poor kids were bored all summer and they had to do horrible things: Chores.

Mostly Gracie did chores, Libby played with Charlie and kept them occupied and out of the way. That was a huge help! Gracie did dishes, laundry, vacuuming, taking out the trash, etc. She grew up a lot this summer.

Gracie started second grade. I remember when I was in second grade. Her school is very different from mine, but I'm sure she will have a good year. She's already off to a bad start with her attitude. She doesn't want to do any homework! This makes the homeschool portion of school more challenging. Sigh. I don't even want to think about what the future holds for this kid when she hits middle and high school and really has homework!

Because she's in Montessori school, she has the same teacher and is in the same classroom as last year. There isn't much of a change for her. I am happy about that, I remember and my friends are all talking too, of the anxiety of worrying about what teacher you would get for the next year and all of the unknowns. None of that for Gracie!  Well, some. More than half of her class was replaced by incoming students. The half that disappeared either moved or were in 3rd grade and they advanced to the upper elementary. I hope she makes some new friends, she loves having lots and lots of friends.

Libby is loving Kindergarten! Her class is full! There are 32 little students. I'm really not a fan of overcrowded classrooms. I sure hope it shrinks a bit more and I hope Libby doesn't get lost in the shuffle. The class had 41 students but they moved some of the siblings up to lower elementary to join the first grade in lower elementary. Libby is a sibling but didn't move up because she is still only 4 years old and has never had any preschool or daycare. The kids they moved up were either 6 or close to it and had preschool experience. I'm glad they left her in Kindy and I'm glad they made the decision and I didn't have to ponder what would be the best fit for her. Although, it would have been pretty cool to have both girls in the same class!

Kindergarten is off to a great start. Libby is in class with one of her little friends so she has a familiar little girl to hang with and isn't lost in a sea of strange little kids. I'm sure she would make fast friends, but it is comforting to know that she already has a little friend to start things off right. The class has already had a dentist come in and speak and they cooked a healthy snack in class on another day. Special guests and cooking in class in the first week - awesome!

The first day, I walked both girls to their classrooms and took a first day photo. The kindy class was so full of parents it was hard to squeeze into the room. But we made it in and found a little chair for Libby.  The second day, I only walked Libby to her class and helped her find her little friend. The third day, I drove through the car line and dropped them both off at the front gate. I didn't even get out! Gracie walked Libby to her class and helped her get settled in. I'm so proud of myself for sending my baby off to Kindergarten without shedding a tear or hovering too much. Yay, I'm growing up! 

So happy to have both girls in school! Poor Charlie spent a few lonely days waiting for 3:00 to go pick them up again. We'll have to find something fun to keep him busy while he has his alone time. He's not too excited about being left behind.