January, the Slow Month?

So, things calmed down a bit in Etsy land after Christmas. But I'm still selling about 2 items every 3 days, so plenty to do.

But an update on life outside of Etsy!

We spent Christmas in Garden, with a short Wichita Christmas on Christmas Eve morning. Keagan looked adorable in the dresses Mom bought her.



She and Cassidy had a swell time playing with boxes,



with corn, and with other random things,


including each other.


They even had a "sleep over" with Aunt Michelle.



We spent New Years in Wichita.


We watched K-State sadly lose the Pinstripe Bowl on the 30th (that was a crummy games, the refs sucked as did the field) with Andy, then we went to Cirque Du Soleil on New Years Eve. That was pretty neat. Not as good at Trans Siberian, but fun.


We partied with sick babies over New Years and just had a nice time with family.


Keagan has two bottom teeth, one cut before Christmas, the other about 3 days after Christmas. It's hard to see them though, that tongue likes to get in the way.

Sweet!! I've got an embroidery machine!!

You may recall that for Christmas, Mom and Shannon combined forces to get me an embroidery machine. We did some browsing/learning and made a decision a month later (last Saturday).

Welcome to my table Brother PE-750D!


How cool is this! I have 3 machines!! You can't see the serger very well, but it's back there!


Of course I had to make something.


And what better something than Snotiva.

Dude, I'm gonna have so much fun with this bad boy. I'm probably going to get Embird so we can make whatever files we want for embroidery. :) Sweet!

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.

News

Today Jenette and Chris should find out whether they are having a boy or a girl. :) I'm excited. Then in about 2 months Jayme can tell us too!

Christmas was good. We spent some great time with Rhonda, Michelle, Jenette, Chris, Gary, Dave, Grandma Fuller, Steve, Margo, Adam, Morgan, Brooke, Judah, Tate, Caleb, Jaxon, Boaz, Tara, Dan, Bobbie, Jeff, Brendan, Trevor, Macy, Grant, Marsha, and Kevin (that's a lot of people, and by next Christmas the list will have at least 3 more names). We played games, ate good food, went to church, opened gifts, drove home, saw my mom, saw Newgen and Andrea. All sorts of goodness!

The only part of the drive home that was hard was in Oklahoma. Yes, KS has basically no snow, but OK had a good deal. The construction on I-35 sucked. The only partly plowed the road so we went 40 through the construction and still slid a bit. Then in Tulsa it was even worse! Again only part of the roads were cleared, the rest were icy and lumpy. Shannon drove well and we got to our house only to fail at driving up our driveway into the garage. So, at 2am Shannon shoveled and salted the whole driveway while I slowly unpacked the car parked on the street. Then he drove it in and we went to bed. Guess what was clear the next morning... our driveway.

Geepers! If they would plow and salt they wouldn't have the problems. Or even just plow. Or even just salt! But no. We don't have those luxuries here. If you recall, this was an issue last year as well... post 1 or post 2 or post 3

Christmas in Garden City

Shannon and I are spending this Christmas in Garden City. We left work early on Tuesday (which was 1.5 days before we planned too) because of probable bad weather on the drive. Luckily, we missed basically all of it. Shannon said there was only one slick spot near Garden. The rest of the drive was pretty good. There was some freezing fog, but the roads were okay.

We will be here until Sunday. I'll post some pictures later.

Then next weekend (New Years) we will go to Wichita to spend Christmas with my mom and family. :) I'm looking forward to the two Christmas' with family. I miss them and am glad they all work together so well, pretty much all the time. It makes life easier.

In other news, we got an adorable e-card from Julia, Pickle, and Autumn. Not only is she wearing a hat I made her, but she's giving a thumbs up! How awesome!

Keeping Busy

My burn is doing better. The skin is peeling and the new stuff underneath is quite red.


There is more peeling today, but I don't have my camera with. That pic is from yesterday morning.

I also have been busy like crazy with Etsy! I have about 5 custom orders to do. I finished two last night and should be able to do two more tonight. It's pretty fun. I just with I had more in stock in my store! I'm down to pretty much nothing (save for cross-stitch patterns, people should buy those more :))

~Side note~ it looks dumb to put a smiley in parentheses, like above. I run into this a lot.

We also took our Christmas decorations out of the attic last night. We put a few up around the house, but mostly just opened a lot of boxes. :) About 40% of the houses in our neighborhood have Christmas lights up already. We are not one of them, but hopefully can help soon. On our cul-de-sac of 5 houses, everyone but us has lights up!

I gots one!

I enjoy sewing. I've made quite a few things for myself and for others over the years. One of the main drawbacks is having to try things on. For me, its just a pain. I make a change, then have to put the piece on. Then take it off, make a change, and so on and so on.

For others, its even more of a pain because they aren't me, they don't live in my house, let alone my town most of the time, and they aren't always there at the times I want them to try things on.

Solution: Dress form. However they aren't free. Unless you get one for Christmas!


Rhonda gave it to me for Christmas! It's purple even! The dress form used to be Grandma Fullers and Rhonda's sister Marsha had it and I guess wasn't using it. Well, they are letting me use it! Sweet!

So now when I make Rhonda's dress I can use the dress form to help! Sweet!

The Second Half of Christmas

In Tulsa's Whole Foods, we met up with Chris and Jenette. We bought some foods and began to celebrate Christmas Eve and day again. We made lots of yummy food and played some games and did more gifting! It was rather fun.


On Saturday, we ate at Casa Bonita in Tulsa! Crazy! It's not as big as the one in Denver, but it's done in the same fashion. It was groovy. I would really like to go there with Nikki, Jay. So, we need to get on planning a trip. Like I said, we played games. We played Ticket to Ride twice over the weekend (pictured below) and Formula De once. Both good games. Although TtR is a really good game.


Sunday was hockey, a ref vs. player fight (including hockey stick to the head accompanied by blood, I'm making it sound a lot less big-of-a-deal than it was), Boomer-Q, hanging with Rhonda and Michelle (because Nette and Chris had to head home), and some poor Bronco football.

Theif

Michelle stole my title.


Merry Christmas it was, twice! Shannon and I headed up to Wichita on Tuesday after a quick 1 hour side trip back to the house to get the gifts for our moms that had been left by the front door by the delivery man.

When we finally made it to Wichita, we did a bit of shopping and went to bed. Shannon and I started off our Christmas Eve by getting lost in Wichita trying to find Old Town and eventually meeting Andy 1/2 an hour late for lunch at Hana Cafe. Then, later on that day, Mom decided she would get all nauseous and make her daughters cook. So Maria, Shannon, and I made some crab sauce with pasta, Caesar salad, mussels, and shrimp scampi. There were 10 adults and 2 toddlers for dinner. It was a good time and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, except for Mom. She didn't eat and kinda didn't have a good time.

We then slept and eventually got up on Christmas morning for some breakfast and gifting. Nikki is adorable.

We had some more good food. This time, Jayme and Charles made it.


Shannon and I bought ourselves Ticket to Ride: Marklin edition. That game is very good. We played twice at Mom's. Carcassone was also played and a poor black meeple was fed to and partly eaten by Atari. I tried to save him.


Friday we ate breakfast at Charles & Jayme's place then met up with Rhonda & Michelle for lunch with my mom. After that, we said good bye to Mom and drove down to Tulsa. But this post has enough pictures for now. I'll post about Christmas #2 laters.

Chocolate Gifts

I decorated my cubicle with a little Snotvia tree. Aw.

Merry Christmas!

Cash-4

I know, she's just too cute. Well done, Jay. Well done.


Garden Ridge is an awesome store. Last week Shannon and I went and spent a bit of money. Everything but the pine cones were 50% off! So even though we spent a bit, it was half off! Plus, we spend that much on fireworks every year and those are only used once.


I just thought this sign was funny. We saw it on our way to work last week.

The Third Christmas

Christmas and New Years in Wichita with my mom, sister, and niece was fun. Nicole is getting big. She is learning to say more and that is really useful. She's adorable.


We had Christmas on Saturday with some delicious gnocci and wine sauce. Jayme did a really good job on the sauce. And it's always good to each gnocci! We opened gifts and then just chilled. Mom got me a stand mixer. A really cool one. I love it and can't wait until I have a kitchen that I can use it in!We even to got to spend some time with Andy. Shannon and he watched a few bowl games and played Wii inbetween. The girls watched home movies upstairs. That was a blast. And mom and Jay, make sure you keep up the work and finish all the tapes.

New Years was good too. We made a bunch of dips. Crab dip, turkey salad (not really a dip), hummus, queso, and salsa verde. Mmm....mmm....We made a bunch of noise at midnight, then cleaned up and went to sleep.

Christmas Part 2

While in GC, we didn't take many pictures. We had a great time with extended family. Christmas was fun at Rhonda's. Then we headed to Grandma Fuller's for lunch and family. There was ham loaf, rumors of undercooked ham loaf, doodle bears, Wii, dog piles and more!


The kids are all getting so big. It's fun to talk to them and watch them play. The next day we went to Bobbie and Jeff's for some chili and some more games. There were many games to be had in Garden, on the Wii and off.

We left of Friday and headed to Wichita for one last Christmas celebration with my mom and sister this time. Oh, I almost forgot!! For the Christmas Eve service, Shannon wore his black suit from Rhonda and Dave's wedding. He hasn't worn it in a while so, we checked to make sure it still fit.

It did.

Christmas 07 Number 1

Colorado was our first stop for Christmas fun this year. We decided to go there first because last year the weather was too bad to travel that far so we didn't go. You may recall some ice and power-outs.


Well, we did some shopping at Centerra (above), Estes Park, and Boulder. We ate a lot of gelato. We had it from about 4 different places. Well, maybe only 3. But still, it was a lot of gelato and it was all good. :)


Saturday, our last day in Colorado, we had a big ol' family get together at Linda's. There were a lot of people. Me and Shannon, Jenette, and Chris, Michelle, Gary, Linda, Grandma and Grandpa Dick, Randy, Nancy, Wes, Jennifer, Suzanne, Emily, Amy, and Jonathan, Lindee, Terry, Katrina, Adam, and Dakota, Jerry and Cindy, and some of Linda's neighbors stopped by. So, 25-ish. Plus there were 4 dogs, Shadow (a German Sheppard), Libby (a terrier), Major (a beagle), and Jake (a poodle?). Not all of them are pictured above. But Major is below and he is a very cute and smart little puppy!!


This video is of Dakota playing Wii boxing with Emily. I don't know if Cody actually won.

It was busy. But fun.

LED Lights Rock (bottom brewery)

We went to Centerra last night with Gary and Michelle. They had decorated for Christmas by putting white LED lights on all their deciduous trees and sweet dark blue LED lights on all their evergreens (not pictured). It was so so so cool looking. It was also very cold. And Michelle got an orange Broncos jersey of Champ Bailey. (He's going to the Pro-Bowl!)

MSE

While walking around K-mart for the once-a-year Christmas trip, I happened to notice this box that gave me a smile.

In statistics, MSE (or mean squared error) is a common estimate of the population variance. It's not really all that special or all that funny. But it made me smile a little so I took a pic.

This November.

Shannon and I have started to make our Christmas cards. It's fun. I am really looking forward to the holidays this year. Things should go well. Not only do I not have school for a few days, but I will get to eat good foods, and see lots of family! That is what I'm looking forward to the most.

Oh, we also bought ornaments for our Christmas tree. We got lucky and mostly all Christmas decor was on sale, 50% off, at Hobby Lobby today. We went for stuff for the cards, and wound up saving 20$ on ornaments! Sweet. My mom bought us some neat purple LED lights. So we bought cool black ornaments to go with them.

Yay holidays!

And then they sneezed.

After Wichita, we went to good ol' GC. Shannon and the boys Wii'ed it up. It was pretty fun to watch them play. Its always fun to watch people play for the first time.


Before we opened gifts, the kids sang us a song and posed for some pictures. From left to right we have, Brooke, Macy, Tate, Morgan, Brendan, Trevor, Cortez, Adam, Jevon. Macy, Brendan, and Trevor are siblings, then the other 6 are Steve and Margo's children. They are all quite fun to watch and talk to.


Christmas at Rhondas was pretty fun too. Shannon and I got pirate cards. See?


Thursday was the Texas Bowl, K-State versus Rutgers. We went to Andy's to watch it (he has NFL Network). K-State started out okay, then totally sucked it up. We lost. But an interesting note is I have some family friends who went to Rutgers in NJ.

Oh, the black outs. We had approximately 13 too many hours of no power in Garden. It was officially declared a disaster area (not just Garden, but most of that part of KS). Garden didn't have it as bad as other areas either I don't think. Despite that we did have over 1/2 inch of ice on everything. Then some snow to seal it in. It was pretty, but sucky at the same time.