Lost Teeth And Snow--Oh My!

I'm afraid if you're on my email list (and pretty much every one of my readers is!) all of this will be old news to you. But I'm kind of at a loss for what to blog about, and it's been over a week so I felt like I needed to put something up!

The first thing to report is that Laura lost her first tooth yesterday at school. It had only been loose since Sunday and I really didn't think she would loose it so fast! It happened during playtime in the gym, right before I arrived to pick her up. The teacher said Laura thought she broke off a different tooth and got pretty upset. There was more blood involved than I recall experiencing as a child, and added to Laura's generally dramatic nature, you probably won't be too surprised to hear that when I arrived she was coming out of the bathroom, being attended to by her teacher and the director of the school, both of whom were desperately trying to calm her down.

Once she saw me she became even more upset and it took a while to get her to settle down. I think all the attention wasn't helping either...I can tell when my daughter is actually starting to calm down but is continuing to ham it up for the attention. Sigh. Such is the life of a Mommy to a drama queen. In the end, the suggestion that we email Daddy with her big news was enough to calm her down, and she showed off her new gap to all of her classmates. We took a few pictures at home, something that proved to be much more difficult that I expected.At night Laura wasn't too sure about how she felt about the tooth fairy coming. She had lots of questions-the most important being would the tooth fairy wake her up when she lifted up her pillow. Luckily we had just had a dental appointment the day before and Laura was given a litle plastic tooth, so we used that to house the tooth. Even better news is that after raiding Laura's piggy bank, the tooth fairy was able to deliver the goods in the form of a $2 bill. The tooth fairy also left a teeny tiny little note thanking Laura for her tooth. The tooth fairy thought this was quite a bit of inspired theatrics, and sure enough, Laura loved it.

So not only did Laura wake up to money this morning, but snow too! We have about an inch of snow, but it's very icy and not that great for playing in. Surprisingly it continued to snow for several hours this morning, and the governor of the state has declared a state of emergency-apparently there is about 15 inches in the mountains! We are lucky to not have much snow, but the ice has made the roads pretty yucky, so we are staying home today. Still, I wish I could have seen all the snow plows out on the main roads-definitely not something we ever see here in our part of North Carolina!

Laura attempting a snow angel

Moxie thought licking the snow was the best idea everChecking out what the front yard had to offerMoxie blowing in the windOutside for a second round of fun. It was much colder!

Not Forgotten

I think one of the biggest fears about death is being forgotten. That all your hard work in life will vanish the moment you’re gone. I just wanted to say today that Grandpap; you’re not forgotten. I didn’t know you all that well, and didn’t see you that often, but I’ve thought about you a lot over the last year. I’ve thought about how interesting life is, how many different amazing things and completely mundane things can happen to a person, and how they all shape who you are. And then you go on to affect the people around you-your spouse, your children, your friends, even strangers.

I don’t know too much about what you were like as a father, but I know what my own father is like, and what a big part of my life he is. He molded me as a child and contributed to what I'm like as a parent, and I know he got a lot of that from you. It’s amazing and wonderful to me that a grandfather who lived across the country from me my entire life had a part in molding my own child. Not to mention that she has your chin.

You are definitely not forgotten.

Sewing News

Fair warning: this is another craft-related post, so if that's not your bag (baby), turn away now. I wanted to report that almost exactly 24 hours later, the entire quilt top of the Midwest Modern quilt is sewn together and ready to be quilted. Probably not by me though, since I'm not quite that experienced yet.

And the reason for all of the craftiness as of late? Behold:Yes, that's a new sewing machine, and the sewing enthusiasts out there probably won't bat an eye when I say that it cost $700. The rest of you however, are rolling your eyes or gasping in horror (possibly both at once). I'll defend myself by saying that I had birthday and Christmas money, it's a business expense, and I could have spent a lot more. A LOT MORE. There are some crazy expensive sewing machines out there. I also want to point out that my Kenmore that I used to use cost about $150 and I was on my third one.

My $700 bought me 534 stitches which works out to only $1.31 per stitch. Quite a bargain if you ask me. Maybe not such a bargain though since I'll probably only ever use about 3 of those stitches. Still, I can't get over the fact that there is a little computer that helps select your stitch, that it sews some of the nicest, neatest little stitches I have ever seen, and how quiet it is compared to my old one. I've gotten so much sewing done in the last few days. I finally finished up the backing to this quilt, which I started in January 2005, if I remember correctly. It's been shipped off to be quilted. The Midwest Modern quilt was started in December 2008 and is now done and ready to be quilted. See below for the picture which you'll think is the same picture from yesterday, but isn't.So I'm not sure if I have my new machine to thank for all of my current motivation and project finishing, but I suppose I'll give it some of the credit. Next up: about 50 other half done projects and many, many new ones.

Midwest Modern, The Quilt

Remember the fabric I got for my birthday in 2008? Well it's mostly turned into a quilt! Can you believe it that in just a little over a year I actually got most of it done? Me neither! It turns out that when you actually sit down and sew for more than 5 minutes at a time, you can get some real work done. A good chunk of the work was actually done in the last week, so I'm hoping if I keep up this pace I may get several old projects finished this year, and maybe even a few new ones!

I don't know if you can tell in this picture, but it's not completely sewn together yet-it's all in big sections ready to be finished tomorrow when it's not midnight and I'm not so tired. But most of the work is done and I'm so happy, because this was the weirdest quilt I've ever worked on. I will never, ever use this pattern again! There wasn't really one piece that was similar to any of the others, which made cutting the fabric nearly impossible, and keeping track of everything was a disaster. Most of it was strewn all over my couch for the last few months, so being able to sit on the couch again is an accomplishment in itself.I really have no idea what I'll do with this quilt once it's done. When I started it, I envisioned it as a more grown up quilt for Laura's bed. Now I'm not so sure. It definitely doesn't say "Laura" to me. Any suggestions?

Sew Laura, Sew!

Laura and I celebrated Christmas this year in California, with our families. It was a wonderful trip, one that I should probably write about, but at a later date. Right now I wanted to share pictures of Laura with one of her new toys.
One day, well before her birthday, Laura and I were at Joann's where she spotted a sewing machine "just for little girls!" It was small, partly pink, and extremely cheap looking, and she just had to have it. It cost a mere $24 and I could have bought it for her right then and there, but she told me that she was going to put it on her birthday list. I was all for that plan, thinking that delayed gratification was something good for her to learn about. I went back later, under cover of darkness, and snatched it right up. I hid it in the garage and completely forgot about it. Seriously. In fact I so totally forgot about it that a few weeks after her birthday, when Laura saw a bag in the garage and asked me what was in it, I had to open the bag to find out (and then quickly snap the bag closed while squeaking out "nothing!" to my very curious daughter).

In the end, the sewing machine was under the tree as a gift from Santa. Laura opened it and was thrilled and told me later that it was just what she always wanted. We finally took it out of the box a few days ago, put in the necessary batteries, and fired it up. She has to use her hand to work the pedal since her legs aren't long enough, and it is loud and I'm fairly certain it will break any day now, but she loves it. Loves it. And I love seeing how happy she is, and that she, the wild and crazy child who jumped three feet in the air today over the mention of a juice box, can sit calmly and sew. She has big plans for a blanket for her babies, but right now is content to just sew in a straight line on the fabric that Santa also provided. Her complete and utter satisfaction with her new toy, along with the shock and surprise of getting just what she wanted was pretty much the best part of my Christmas this year. How DID Santa know to get it for her?

This is my favorite picture. Look how serious she is!

New Year Fashionista

You all know that I really don't care how Laura dresses herself, as long as she's seasonally appropriate, but I have to admit that I did a double take this morning when she walked in to show off her outfit. She chose her legwarmers, dress shoes, and running socks, along with a dress, necklace, and headband. Her smile told me that she was just so proud of herself, so I told her that she looked beautiful. After accepting my compliments, she pranced off to check herself out in my full length mirror.

I heard a gasp and a "whoa!" and I cringed, thinking that she was about to come to the realization that she looked ridiculous. Instead, I heard these words: "I really DO look beautiful!!"
The picture doesn't really do the outfit justice, but I'm sure you can tell from her pose just how beautiful and confident she felt.