Skype and Ice

Well, the ice storm hasn't been as bad as forecast. Everything is covered in ice, save the roads. They are slick, but not too bad. Now it is snowing... not sure if that will help much. But it looks nice.

Also, last night Shannon and I talked with Rhonda and Michelle on Skype, for free. :) Rhonda and Michelle planned on using Skype, but Shannon and I didn't have a webcam/mic that worked. So, we bought one and now we can chat with Michelle in England too!

Having Skype is easy, and I'm going to advocate having it for family members who want to see our baby but aren't in Tulsa (Mom and others). So, get yourself a webcam and a free Skype account and going the party!

January Ice Storm

So, we are going to get some ice. Luckily* the drive to work was super-clear. Traffic and all were down to a minimum. But look at what we have coming.

At 7:15 this morning...
And an hour later at 8:15 it looks like this...
So pretty much any time now we are gonna start getting some nasty winter mix. Sounds crummy.

*It not a good thing that we made it to work. We knew that would happen. Going home is going to be the problem. And our car SUCKS on ice/snow. So we'll see. Roads aren't salted (not a surprise for Tulsa) so it should be guaranteed ice b 5:30. Awesome.

Fruit Snacks

Mmm... how I love them!

Also, I wish I had more time to sew! I keep getting ideas and I have to wait to do them...by the time I'm home I'm tired/grouchy/hungry/out-of-time. Well, in about 4 months I will either have time to try or will have different excuses for not trying.

Also also, I had a dream about having an embroidery machine. I was going to do it but I needed a USB cord. While Shannon was getting it for me, I woke up. :( No dream-embroidery for me. But I am very excited to get me a machine in about 2 weeks! Woo hoo! (Mom I do plan on buying one next time I'm in Wichita).

10 gone

This week at work, we have about 10 people gone for a company cruise/presentation trip. Shannon and I are not part of that 10. But that's okay. We get a nice week at home. :)

Good news... Tara and Dan have their baby boy! Isn't that awesome! You can see a picture of the happy family here. Cool.

Also, Michelle is in England!? Crazy. She left Friday from Garden and got there safe. I hope she has a super time there! When she comes back, Jenette and I will both have babies! Crazy.

And I worked on the quilt for Chris and Jenette's baby while they worked on the nursery. They painted it a muslin color (instead of the green that was in the room) and are putting up a blue and brown paisly/victorian/fleur-de-lis type border. We only recieved a phone pic, but it looks nice so far! Shannon and I plan to have Mom come up sometime in February/March and work on the nursery then. The later we do it the better, because it requires a moving of my craft room. :( But we will rebuild it in our bedroom!

24 weeks and 3 days

I'm just past half way with the pregnancy and I'm already missing my old clothes. I have so many t-shirts that I just love! And I can't really wear them now... or at least they don't look the same.

More than that, I miss my corduroy pants. None of them fit me any more and I'm really tempted to take an old pair and turn them into maternity pants. We'll see how ambitious I feel.

In other news, teaching is going well. It's always nice to come home from the money-earning and be in a good mood with happy things to say about what I did. It's great to feel reward from your job.

Oh, I also finished my Prime Number quilt for Etsy! Now I just patiently wait for someone to buy it (please!).

Baby.

I am SO hungry. I finished a normal lunch at 2:30 (a whole sandwich with a side of tabouli) and had a snack at about 4:00 (Chips Deluxe Gripz). But I am still hungry...

Quilts!

Last night I worked on my Etsy shop quilt. I also practiced scratching my arms with the basting pins. My right arm has one about 4" long, my left only about 1" long. Neither hurt or bleed or anything drastic. But I look like I played with Hendrix for too long.

Also, last night we made another 78$ trip to JoAnn. But a good portion of it was 5 new blades for my rotary cutter. They were more expensive than we realized. But, if I can get as much use out of them as I have for the last one I owned, I'll be good for another 45 years. :)

Other outcomes from the trip: machine quilting thread and supplies for Jenette and Chris' quilt. :) Yay! If I keep working on things, I should be able to start theirs this weekend! Woo hoo!

Trash

I know it's weird to post a picture of trash. But upon seeing what was in the trash can, I decided I'd do it anyway.

Last night I taught my first class at TCC for the spring semester. I left the classroom and noticed that the trash contained "nerd waste". Two V8 bottles, V8 Fusion (not even Splash), Vitamin Water, Sams Club water, and a high lighter. Wow, students. Wow. Where is the coke and hot tamales?

(I know there is a chick-fil-a cup and a generic styrofoam cup, but the rest...)

A weekend at home

Shannon and I have been doing a lot of traveling and having a lot of visitors this past month or two. I really enjoy seeing family and friends but it's nice to be home sometimes. :)

This past weekend we were home and just did whatever sounded fun. Shannon got Final Fantasy from the Wii shop and played that almost all weekend. It was fun. He has an old guide from 1991 that he and Jenette would use to go through the game back then. So he got it out and I helped him some, since Jenette is 6 hours away. He got his characters to level 13 (I think).

I did some crafting (mostly sewing) and cleaning. I worked on the quilt for my Etsy shop. You can read about that on my shop's blog. I sewed together some plushies that I've had embroidered and stuffed 2 of them. I put eyes on the ninja I finished last week.


I didn't finish these booties this weekend, but they are the first thing I've made for our little girl. :) I used left-over yarn from the blanked I made Laura in 2008 . You can get the pattern from Saartje's Knits. She has a link on the right side bar.


I also fixed some pants and shirts of ours that had been sitting in a pile needing some loving for a while. Now, both Shannon and I have another pair of pants and another shirt.

Also, Chris and Jenette got me their colors! They are going to do brown with some light blue and a little bit of light pink. :) This means I can go buy more fabric!

Colors and Quilts

When my niece Nikki was born 3.4 years ago, I made my sister a quilt for the baby. Now, I am not an avid quilt maker, but I do know how it's done. I mean, I took a whole 3 hour class on quilt making back at the Garden City Community College in 2000 or 2001. :)

Now that it's time for my sister-in-law to her her first baby, I plan to make her a quilt. I know exactly what I'm going to do for it, the size, pattern, all of it except the colors and fabric. I have been pestering Jenette and Chris for about 1.5 months. I think I'm getting close. The deal is, JoAnn is having a 1$ off each yard of quilting fabric sale that ends Saturday. I'd like to take advantage of that sale. So, I may be pestering them again today. Or just picking colors myself like I did for Nikki and Jayme in 2006.

But for my own baby, things are opposite what they are for new niece. I know the colors and fabric, but don't have a design and size planned. I have some general ideas (concerning dinosaurs), but I still have a lot of planning to do. We plan to use tan, sage, and lavender in the baby's room. We bought fabric last week (you can see it here).

Either way, I'm excited to make new baby quilts for my niece and my daughter!

Christmas in Wichita

This past weekend, Shannon and I ventured north to Wichita to spend a New Years/Christmas weekend with my family. Besides Charles being sick the whole time (no fun) and not taking part in festivities, it was a good weekend.

We got in Thursday evening, bought some snacks for New Years Eve and ate none of them. :) By the time we got back and ate dinner, it was about midnight. So our snacky things were used over the weekend instead of all in one night.

Friday morning we did Christmas at Mom's. Charles was sick, so just Jayme and Nikki came over. Maria and Mom were also there. It was a fun time. Jayme got some cool maternity clothing and a full size key board so she can practice piano at her place. Nikki got 3 Candy Land games (it's a good game I guess) and some other fun stuff. Oh, Shannon and I found her a kids Chiefs jersey for 4.50$ (instead of 60+$). Sweet.


Maria got some expensive make up, a beaded jewlery making set, and groovy netbook. Shannon got a fun Nerf gun and a miter saw. I got a bunch of maternity clothes and an embroidery machine. Yes that is right, Mom and Shannon are buying me an embroidery machine!! Holy cow. I cried. I tried not to, but really, just let it out. I was so excited and just kept thinking, geez these are expensive. I can't believe they are going to buy me one!

So Saturday we went around to sewing machine stores, learning about and looking at embroidery machines. It comes down to this, we are going to look some more. Unless we want to spend over 2000$ to get a mid-line one, we need to look more. There is a cheap (just under 1000$) Singer Futura 350 with some software, but that gets a lot of bad reviews. The similar (possibly just repackaged) Viking h-class 500E is about 1200$, but if it's just a Futura, we don't want it. Then there are the Brother 700's. They are embroidery only and look like they could work. But Janome MemoryCraft 350E looks like it's worth looking at too. People seem to love it and it looks like it has features I'd like.

Here is what we want:

• Ability to embroider in largest hoop possible. Perferable greater than 4.5 by 6 inches.
• Ability to hook up to computer, and not through a propriety card reader. So, either USB to computer or memory stick (a normal one).
• Ability to make my own designs. I don't plan to take a premade teddy bear and embroidery it. I want to make my own math/stat designs for embroidery.
• To buy it from a shop that has a trade-in policy where I can trade it in for full value within the first year and possible upgrade my machinery. This gives me the ability to start "small" and work my way up if needed.
• Price, the cheaper the better.
  

Here's what I don't care about:

• Color screen. Really, not worth the money to me at all.
• Propriety card. I actually do care. I don't want it.
• Stored designs. I don't plan to use a stored Mickey Mouse character. I'm not against Mickey, but if I want it, I will be able to get it whenever I need it (see 3rd bullet above).

So, if you have any advice, I'd take it! I'm SO EXCITED! I plan to embroider so many things. I already have a mental list and I have no machine to do it on. :)


But on to the rest of my weekend. Saturday we saw Maria off to Manhattan for work. Shannon hung out with Andy and Rusty. Mom and I chilled at her place. Then Sunday, Shannon went to see Avatar with Andy and Rusty. Mom and I chilled some more, packed up the car, and chatted. Shannon and I headed out early (like 3:15) because of potential crummy roads in OK. Turns out they were alright. The only thing crummy was my tummy. But hey, I'll live with a crummy tummy while I build a baby in there.