To move away from more controversial topics, here is my most recent finished project. A camera strap cover for Molly. I will probably alter this pattern one day. It's just a little bit too wide; but needs to be to accommodate the lens cap pocket -- something that I think I will definitely need. At any rate, I loved this fabric when I saw it over a year ago, and I'm so glad I finally found something for it !
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Apparently, my last post may have offended some of my friends and family. That was not my intent. I may not have explained myself very well. It is not that I have anything against women working. (There are many jobs and professions that I think are extremely well suited for women. There are others, though, that I think are best for men. And there are many of those "male" jobs that I think a "specific" women can perform just fine, and vice versa.) I do not ever hang up on anyone, regardless of their gender, or their annoyingly way of making sure they get their three rebuttals. I merely have had many experiences which have made me want to hang up and call back to get a different customer service person (and, this is not exclusively for women customer service reps; I've had plenty of experiences with men as well). I just happen to have an affinity for talking to male reps as opposed to female. Having said that, if I do end up talking to...
For a few years now I've come to the conclusion that I am sexist. A least, I think that's the correct term. I think that our society would be greatly benefited if women, as a whole, returned back to their original place in society instead of trying to infiltrate the places where men are. Case in point: I have not interacted with a business woman who has been as competent as a man in the same position. I have not interacted with a woman in a business setting who was able to get straight to the point and do what I, as the client, wanted. These are things that, in my experience, men have been able to do. I think it comes down to the difference between men and women. Men compartmentalize, and women see things as a whole. While the way that women think works in some jobs, there are other professions in which I think it is a huge hindrance. I have not had any positive experiences with a female real estate agent. In fact, the times when ...
Thanks to our tax return, I've made some new friends recently. The above picture is my new friend, Kaladin. My dad introduced us when he and his wife, Laurie, came for a visit in March. And, Kaladin has been such an enormous help to me! It has been wonderful knowing that he's always there for me, and I don't necessarily have to worry about sharing him (although, I do sometimes, I'm not that selfish). I think I love that no one in my family understands Kaladin as much as I do. It makes it so convenient to get my work done. This is my friend, Margaret. But, I call her Meg. She is a workhorse! And yet, she can make some of the prettiest things. I just love her to death! Originally she was at a store when I first saw her, but the store wanted me to pay way more than I wanted, just to be her friend! Then, I met a friend from Craig's List who introduced me to Meg for a fraction of what the store wanted. I said, "...
A couple weeks ago, Andrew's teacher "placed an order" for some reusable sandwich bags and wraps for a baby shower for another teacher at the school. I had no idea how much of a hit they would be! She said that all of the teachers loved them and were interested in buying some. Andrew's teacher said that if I wanted to put together a flier, she would pass it around. Well, I didn't get that flier finished before my children went to school yesterday, but I did get their teacher gifts finished ... just in the nick of time, too, as it was their last day. One of the teachers Eliza gave the sandwich bags to was ecstatic ... she must have been at the baby shower. Andrew's teacher was convinced that I could start up my own business just by selling these bags to the teachers at their school .... maybe one day. I'm still not sure I really want to do it ... I enjoy my freedom too much.
Just a quick post to say that I feel like I completely wasted one of my Audible.com credits. I started listening to American Wife last night, and had to turn it off after the first 40 minutes or so. There was just so much sex in it that I was completely disgusted. At first it was teenage girls talking about "doing it," but then there was a scene and I was frantically trying to tap fast forward on my phone while ripping my ear buds out of my ears. Ew. And, I thought about it and realized that I don't want to listen to a book and keep my fingers near the fast forward all the time "just in case." I decided it wasn't worth it to know how the story progressed or ended. So, so disappointed. Also, don't worry, I won't be turning my blog into a "book review only" blog. Tomorrow I have something different to show you all ... and yet, it's still the same.
I recently just finished listening to Delirium by Lauren Oliver. This was quite similar to Matched by Ally Condie. This is a story about a girl who has grown up in a dystopia in which they are taught to fear love. They are taught from their youth that feeling love leads to the disease they call "delirium," and eventually death. When a person turns 18, they are given the "cure" to love. The main character of the story, Lena, turns 18 in just under one hundred days. She has been counting down to the day of her operation since she was little. But along the way, she meets an unlikely friend who teaches her that there cannot be happiness without pain, likewise, it is not living if there is no love. I liked this book well enough. There is some swearing in it, which I think was distracting for me. I liked the characters and their development ... the two main characters seemed rounded out and their back stories definitely accoun...
My little Maryanne loves to talk. She can talk and talk and talk until the sun goes down. We just got back from Andrew's reader's theater performance at the school. Thankfully, his group performed first. Maryanne talked through the entire thing. "Look, I found a star!" "Pink!" "There's a doggy." "He's looking at me. He's looking at me! Look, he's gone!" "Hey, that's mine. Oh." "Blue!" "I'm the Mommy and you're the baby." On and on, she talked. I had to leave early because she was so loud we had a hard time hearing the students read their lines. Of which, Andrew was the best! I don't say that because I'm biased. Well, okay, maybe I'm a little biased, but every parent has a right to be biased, right? Anyway, he was the best because he was so into his character. The play was "Spiderella." Andrew was the Cicada Prince. And, when he read ...
Last night I finished Graceling by Kristen Cashore. I actually listened to it. I do more listening to books than reading nowadays. After all, I have 12-16 loads of laundry a week, 2 loads of dishes a day, a huge house to clean, homework with four children, piano lessons (which has included waiting outside the school in the car for an hour before school gets out to make sure we get there on time), and well, I think you get the idea. It’s more conducive to my lifestyle right now to listen to books while doing other things. And, in fact, sometimes I want to listen to the book so it actually motivates me to get up and make my “housework” more enjoyable. This audiobook really bugged me. Not the book itself, but the recording. It was a live cast recording. So, there was a narrator, and a cast of characters. It took me a while to used to hearing the different voices, but I never liked the little music clips that came on when the characters we...
It's Adam's turn to clean the kitchen this week. Inevitably that means unloading the dishwasher. Check out his efficiency! I can just hear the wheels in his brain going .... "Let's see. Open all the doors. Pull out all the drawers. Take everything out of the dishwasher and put away. Do a spin kick to push the drawers in. And hit those doors closed. Done and Done!" He literally spun and kicked the drawers in, it was quite hilarious. So glad I have such a unique child.
I just read a post on one of my favorite crafts/sewing blogs that was a list of recommended reading for the summer. About half of the books I've read, and loved, so I figure that I will probably like the other books listed. Then, I started to read all the recommendations from the comments and compiled a long list of books to read this summer. This list has around 70 or so books in it ... some of them are listed just as a series title, so really the list is probably around 80 books. After typing up the list, I decided to put the list on here and cross them off as I read them ... maybe do a little review of them. I happen to go through books pretty quickly. Usually, I'll read the assigned book for book club within the first week or two of the month and then wait until I get the next one. So, while I wait, I can pull a book off of this list. If you have any other suggestions ... please comment and add to it ... I can never have too many books to re...
Tonight was Eliza's first performance in a musical. She was one of the lucky few who was given a speaking/singing part. And, she did a fantastic job! It was a rendition of Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew, but with a little country-western spin on it. So, it was called: The Taming of Katy Lou. Eliza's character was originally called "Stinky Pete," but because of the lack of boys in the cast, a lot of the boys' parts were given to girls. Eliza played up the country accent really well too. This girl was made for the stage. She had overly dramatic expressions, used her whole body to show emotions, and had the best projection of the whole cast. All, from her tiny self. It was so wonderful to watch her perform tonight ... and do it all on her own! She knows for sure she's found something she loves and wants to continue to do for years and years.
Within the last month I threw out my back, causing a string of visits to the chiropractor. Now, in Minnesota, the same thing happened and I went to a chiropractor who didn't have regular massage therapy sessions scheduled for his clients before their adjustments. The most I got was a few minutes lying on a heated massage table with rollers going up and down my backside. My chiropractor here firmly believes that his clients get better adjustments if they first get a massage ... from a massage therapist. In fact, the receptionist tries to schedule each patient with the same massage therapist. I have been into the chiropractor a total of 12 times. I saw one massage therapist ... the one with seniority ... on my second visit because for one reason or another I didn't get one on my first visit. Then, I was switched to the newer massage therapist because of scheduling conflicts; and I've been seeing that massage therapist since. Until today. Today I w...