Pox and More

I was talking to my mom last night about how both my boys are sick right now, so Joel would have to wear a mask in the delivery room, and we were reminded of my mom's worst delivery experience because of all of us being sick.  I'm the oldest of 5 and when my mom had Daniel (the youngest) all four of us had the chicken pox.

My youngest sister Christina had it the worst.  She was 2 1/2 years old and had them all in her diaper.  She cried when my mom left to deliver Daniel.  Of course my mom felt terrible, like she was abandoning her.  It was a Sunday, and my mom's friend Leona Cook came over to watch us while she was in the hospital.  My dad had a brand new job, so he couldn't take any personal leave, so he had to just drop my mom off with the new baby with 4 kids sick with the chicken pox at home.  He would come back on his lunch breaks to try to help, but it was pretty bad.  Technically, none of us were supposed to go near my mom or the baby, but we lived in this tiny apartment in Student Housing at Penn State-Harrisburg (the apartments have since been condemned and abolished for asbestos).  It was absolutely miserable.  My Grandma couldn't fly out until a week later- my poor mom.  I think it made the decision of no more children a lot easier after that experience. 

PS- To this day Daniel has never had Chicken Pox.

Triple Irish Chain

I'm so excited that I got the quilt top done and even got it layered.  Joel's working in the Emergency Room this month and has had some crazy night shifts, so I've been able to work on this after putting Nathan to bed.  There may even be some hope of getting this done before the baby comes.  We'll see.

Resolution Revamp

Back in January Joel and I came up with our 2011 Resolutions, and believe it or not, we're already a quarter the way through the year. 

(Picture of President Thomas S. Monson taken from ldsmediatalk.com)

Twice a year my church holds a world-wide conference via satellite, tv, radio and internet where the Prophet, his 12 apostles and other general authorities speak to us.  They are always my two favorite weekends of the year, because I always walk away inspired, wanting to improve my life.  So, it was a happy coincidence that our quarterly review of our goals occurred on the same weekend as General Conference.

I think posting our goals up on our bathroom mirror did wonders because this is the first time I've actually been doing a good job with my New Year's resolutions.  There was one category that Joel and I both need to work on, but for the most part I'm really happy with our progress.  How are your resolutions going?  Do you still remember them? :)

Organization Complete...For This Project Anyway

I realize that I'm the only one that cares, but I'm thrilled that I completely organized all of my choral music.  This project has been hanging over my head for a couple of years now, so it's nice to have the database done.  I finally went with filing by voice part, genre and then song title (alphabetically).  It's funny that it doesn't look like that much once it's all been nicely organized.

Now all I have to do is get some shelving for these guys and I can cross off another long-term project that I have put off long-term. :)

Music Database

1 box, 4 weeks, 9 binders, and several bags later I have 713 songs in my choral database (not including duplicates & ones I got rid of).  Phew.

Next step is to get them organized by genre within voice part and find a way to store them so that I can find them when I need them.  I'm hoping this doesn't take as long as going through them, because I don't have another month to spend on this project.
Unfortunately, during the process I found other vocal and piano music that I need to go through as well, but that's going to have to wait for a while.  I'm focusing on the choral music for now.

Motivation Needed

With the baby only a couple weeks away everything is just.....slower.  So Amy's One Thing; One Week Challenge came at the perfect time.  I have one last quilt I would like to get done before she comes.  It's for my best friend from college.

This is my little guy at her apartment when we visited her in Kansas City last summer.  (Holy Cow he's grown a lot since then).  If you'll notice- in the background she's got zebra print chairs.  That's right.  Brit's got some of the coolest modern and eclectic accessories, so I wanted to make a quilt that fit her style.

I went with the red, white and black combo with a little zebra print of my own. The pattern is a little twist on a classic- it's a Triple Irish Chain.

My goal was to get all of the squares cut out- happily, I got going and even got one of the blocks done.  What do you think?  Fun, huh.  I'm hoping to get the quilt top done by the end of the week.  Wish me luck.

 

Garage Sale Season Has Officially Begun

It was only in the 30s, but I had a couple of friends that had researched out some garage sales, so I went along for the ride this morning.  We hit a bunch of duds and were starting to get a little discouraged until the very last one, and it was worth the wait.  It was an Estate Sale.  The family was selling everything from their mother's home.  This woman was a decorator, world traveler and also ran a daycare in her basement, so there were so many incredible things in this home. 

My mom served a mission in Japan many moons ago, and when we were little she had all kinds of really cool things from Japan.  Well, many moves and 5 children later most of her stuff has been ruined or pretty damaged, so I was really excited to come across a couple of Japanese dolls.  I called my mom right away to tell her about it.  This is the one I got for her.  I love the royal blue kimono. 

I also found a couple of great deals on books and toys for Nathan that will probably end up being birthday gifts.  My friends found crazy deals on plants, pictures, shelving and other toys. 

I love when you find an amazing garage sale.   It was a fun little morning.

Les Mis Love

The 25th Anniversary concert of Les Miserables was on TV this past week, and it was fabulous.  Les Miserables is arguably one of the greatest musicals of all-time.  You simply can't beat the plot.  Victor Hugo's a genious.  Joel and I sometimes argue and try to rank musicals.  Les Mis was the first "professional" musical I ever saw and after all these years it's still my favorite musical.

This anniversary version is great with one little irritation- they cast a Jonas Brother as Marius.  I seriously don't know what they were thinking- there wasn't anyone else in the entire theater world that could do it?  Everyone sounds outstanding and then there's Mr. Jonas.  He doesn't have any core in his voice and his acting is non-existent.  He's supposed to be in love and he looks constipated.  Don't get me wrong- he's in tune and if he were in a community version of the musical you would think he's great, but when you're singing with the best he sticks out like a sore thumb.  Everyone else is singing/acting circles around him- you almost feel embarrassed for him.

Despite the Jonas debacle, the rest of it is amazing and reminds me of why I love this musical so much.  If you haven't seen it yet it's replaying a bunch of times on PBS.  Look it up- it's worth the listen.  They even bring back original cast members for the finale.