I have never had an experience where I genuinely needed the kindness of a stranger. Any need we've ever really had our ward family was quick to meet it. I have fantastic friends I can rely on to be there any time I need them. Today I needed help and even though there were plenty of people around none was offered. No one looked like they even wanted to offer it.
Jared had to work late today so I thought a late afternoon trip to the park would help pass the time more quickly. Melody has been begging me all week to let her ride Katie's bike (she's getting her own for her birthday) so I figured it would be good practice to let her ride the bike to the park.
We got there and there were several different families there playing like usual. The problem started when it was time to go home. Melody put on her helmet, hopped on the bike...and nothing. The chain had fallen off because a bolt had come loose. I sat there for nearly a half an hour trying to fix it while people totally ignored me. They were avoiding looking at me so I took that to mean that they didn't WANT to help, and I suppose that may have been the case. I was blown away! Jared wouldn't have hesitated to at least ask if they needed help. I would've for sure offered to drive the bike home if nothing else. But nothing. Not only nothing at the park, but nothing on the way home where several of our neighbors drove passed me! Here I am 5 months pregnant, two small children in tow trying to carry this silly bike all while ushering the small children as quickly as I could.
My parents set the example from the very beginning. They were never too busy to offer help. Jared continues that by always being available, even when he's dead tired and really doesn't want to, he's there because he knows how much it means. I think I've taken for granted the little 'society' that I live in within the church and not really noticed just how very different we are from the rest of the world. I can guarantee this has opened my eyes and I'll be looking even more for opportunities to offer service!
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Swimming and daddy daughter dates
Jared decided to start a new tradition with his girls and has started doing a 'date' with them on Saturdays. We each get a weekend, and if we have another girl he'll have a different date for every Saturday of the month lol! Last week he and Melody went to a movie and got some chinese food for lunch. Since Katie and I pretty much hate all Asian food, it's a good thing for them to do together. While they did that Katie and I got some serious shopping therapy in. She is an amazing shopper! She will go anywhere with you, which is why Jared spent his date with her today exploring Fry's. The girls have dubbed this 'the Daddy store' since there's nothing there that any one but Dad would want to look at. After they left there, however, she got kind of pouty and Jared asked her what was wrong. She told him she was 'just so fwustated' when he asked her why she said she just needed her momma. While I love that he spends one on one time with each of them my heart just melted when he told me that. She's still such a sweet baby, and I'm trying to soak up every ounce of baby left before she turns into the rotten 4 year old her sister has become!
While Jared and Katie were gone today Melody and I went swimming. I was really excited because it was supposed to be really warm and I just got a fantastic new swimsuit, so I was more than a little disappointed when we got to the pool and it was FREEZING! It was so cold it literally hurt getting into the water, and I did it as slowly as possible. Melody, however, strapped on her new princess goggles and jumped right in! Unfortunately she was so enamored with the idea of being able to see under the water she forgot to plug her nose! I nearly had to jump in and save her, thankfully she was close enough to the wall that I just pulled her out. She's been asking me for days to get her goggles. She thinks there's a lot more to see under the water than there really is. She spent most of today sitting on the stairs and sticking her face under so she could 'explore' lol! She's been such a tyrant lately that it was wonderful to have her in such a fun and happy mood!
We're still on the hunt for a house. Seven weeks and counting until we have to be out of this place, we're pretty much running on faith at this point! I've had to learn a lesson the hard way through all of this. When we started looking I had complete faith that there was a place that we were supposed to go, but as time wears on my faith is not as strong as it was at the beginning. My friend suggested I go to the temple, which I thought was a great, and obvious, idea. Then I realized my recommend had expired! It's always when you really need that spiritual renewal that something like this happens. Pretty sure I learned my lesson and it won't be happening to me again!
We have an appointment set for our 'big' ultrasound, but I'm not telling when. We'll announce it on facebook and here on the blog when we find out what we're having. At that point we'll have to get serious about names. So far the only one we've been able to agree on is Allison. I don't think that will work to well for a boy, not to mention I have a cousin named Allison. Sorry Dan, we may have to have two in the family because the name game is not one Jared and I play well together!
Hopefully I'll get some more pictures taken soon. I used to take a majority of them with my phone, but the camera doesn't work very well all of a sudden so I have to work on remembering to keep the camera with me. We're going to the zoo with Melody and Katie's preschool groups on the 20th so I should get a few good ones there! *fingers crossed*
While Jared and Katie were gone today Melody and I went swimming. I was really excited because it was supposed to be really warm and I just got a fantastic new swimsuit, so I was more than a little disappointed when we got to the pool and it was FREEZING! It was so cold it literally hurt getting into the water, and I did it as slowly as possible. Melody, however, strapped on her new princess goggles and jumped right in! Unfortunately she was so enamored with the idea of being able to see under the water she forgot to plug her nose! I nearly had to jump in and save her, thankfully she was close enough to the wall that I just pulled her out. She's been asking me for days to get her goggles. She thinks there's a lot more to see under the water than there really is. She spent most of today sitting on the stairs and sticking her face under so she could 'explore' lol! She's been such a tyrant lately that it was wonderful to have her in such a fun and happy mood!
We're still on the hunt for a house. Seven weeks and counting until we have to be out of this place, we're pretty much running on faith at this point! I've had to learn a lesson the hard way through all of this. When we started looking I had complete faith that there was a place that we were supposed to go, but as time wears on my faith is not as strong as it was at the beginning. My friend suggested I go to the temple, which I thought was a great, and obvious, idea. Then I realized my recommend had expired! It's always when you really need that spiritual renewal that something like this happens. Pretty sure I learned my lesson and it won't be happening to me again!
We have an appointment set for our 'big' ultrasound, but I'm not telling when. We'll announce it on facebook and here on the blog when we find out what we're having. At that point we'll have to get serious about names. So far the only one we've been able to agree on is Allison. I don't think that will work to well for a boy, not to mention I have a cousin named Allison. Sorry Dan, we may have to have two in the family because the name game is not one Jared and I play well together!
Hopefully I'll get some more pictures taken soon. I used to take a majority of them with my phone, but the camera doesn't work very well all of a sudden so I have to work on remembering to keep the camera with me. We're going to the zoo with Melody and Katie's preschool groups on the 20th so I should get a few good ones there! *fingers crossed*
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Random Pictures
I have a bunch of random pictures in my camera that I thought the Grandparents would enjoy seeing, so here you go.
Valentines. She put them all together and then wrote 'love Melody' on all of them by herself. She was so proud!
We found these silly stick on princess nails in the Target dollar bin. They were WAY too big, but the girls had a good time playing grown up with them! Melody managed to keep them on almost all day.
Melody LOVES to play with the magnifying glass. She's always 'investigating' things. I found some super cute ones to go in their Easter baskets so they can quit kidnapping mine!
Now that the weather is nice they spend a lot of their time down stairs playing or out on the porch. I can't wait until we have a house and they can just play in the yard!
Valentines. She put them all together and then wrote 'love Melody' on all of them by herself. She was so proud!
We found these silly stick on princess nails in the Target dollar bin. They were WAY too big, but the girls had a good time playing grown up with them! Melody managed to keep them on almost all day.
Melody LOVES to play with the magnifying glass. She's always 'investigating' things. I found some super cute ones to go in their Easter baskets so they can quit kidnapping mine!
Now that the weather is nice they spend a lot of their time down stairs playing or out on the porch. I can't wait until we have a house and they can just play in the yard!
Fun with fabric
I saw this idea while blog hopping the other day and knew I had to try it with my girls. I cut a big letter out of card board, then I gave them the scrap basket and a bowl of mod podge and let them go to town.
I think it's interesting doing things like this with both of them because they never quite react the way I had thought they would. Sometimes Melody leads and Katie watches her to see what to do, but today it was the other was around. Katie went after it with all kinds of enthusiasm. Melody, being my ocd child, had a hard time with the randomness of this project and wasn't quite sure what to do. Then there was the glue. I didn't realize it would cause so many problems! Melody usually LOVES getting her hands dirty. She's always digging into different things with different textures and rubbing it all over her hands and arms, so naturally I thought she'd love using her hands to put the glue on. Boy was I wrong! It took about two minutes for her to be annoyed with the stickiness and she wanted to be done with the whole project. Katie on the other hand put her entire hand in the glue and started smearing it all over! This is the same child I couldn't convince to stick her hand inside the pumpkin. I love seeing how their little personalities develop and change as they get older. Just when you think you know something about your child they hit a new 'phase'!
Melody was annoyed that she couldn't find pieces big enough to cover the whole M. She's very specific about how she does things and if she can't do it that way it totally throws her.
The idea was for me to get some sewing done while they worked, but that totally didn't happen!
As soon as they're dried and hung up I'll take another pic. I think they turned out great and the girls had a good time working on them!
I think it's interesting doing things like this with both of them because they never quite react the way I had thought they would. Sometimes Melody leads and Katie watches her to see what to do, but today it was the other was around. Katie went after it with all kinds of enthusiasm. Melody, being my ocd child, had a hard time with the randomness of this project and wasn't quite sure what to do. Then there was the glue. I didn't realize it would cause so many problems! Melody usually LOVES getting her hands dirty. She's always digging into different things with different textures and rubbing it all over her hands and arms, so naturally I thought she'd love using her hands to put the glue on. Boy was I wrong! It took about two minutes for her to be annoyed with the stickiness and she wanted to be done with the whole project. Katie on the other hand put her entire hand in the glue and started smearing it all over! This is the same child I couldn't convince to stick her hand inside the pumpkin. I love seeing how their little personalities develop and change as they get older. Just when you think you know something about your child they hit a new 'phase'!
As soon as they're dried and hung up I'll take another pic. I think they turned out great and the girls had a good time working on them!
Thursday, March 10, 2011
catching the craft bug
Because I was pretty much absent January and most of February not much crafting/sewing got done. Not only do I have a huge catch up list, but I also have a few new projects bouncing around in my head just begging to be let out. I've pretty much spent this entire week creating something or other so I thought I would post some pics.
First is a blanket I have been working on since November. It didn't take me that long to finish it because it was hard, it was just time consuming. I'm sort of an instant gratification kind of girl. If it's going to take more than two or three sittings to get something done I probably won't do it. However, this blanket is for a really good friend. We've known each other forever. So it was kind of important to me to make this blanket special.
Next are the St Patricks Day shirts I made for the girls. Melody's preschool group had a St Patricks Day party this last week so I figured since I failed so completely with Valentines Day this was my chance for redemption. 15 minutes with my Silhouette, 2 bottles of fabric paint, and 2 $5 tee shirts and wah-lah! I think they turned out super cute! Definitely see more freezer paper stenciling in my future. In case your interested I used this tutorial for the how to and picked my SIL's brain for the rest of the info. Thanks again Alexis!
Please excuse the dirtiness! I tried to get pics while they were actually wearing them, but was terribly unsuccessful. I decided that I better do it now before I forgot. I love the little shamrock on the back the most I think. I love little details where you don't really expect them.
Next is something I hadn't planned, but a friend wanted to make them and decided to make it a girls night out. So much fun crafting with other people, I really miss having my mom around for times like that! We're going to do these for our ward craft night next month. I'm so excited to see what everyone comes up with. Sorry it's so fuzzy, it's a cell phone pic. Too tired to go take another one.
Finally the Easter dresses! I have been bouncing back and forth for weeks trying to decide if I was going to make them or buy them. I found a lot that I loved and could've easily bought, but I really wanted to make them. My mom made our Easter dresses nearly every year and I've actually kept a few because I loved them that much! I don't know if my girls will love them enough to wear, but I couldn't stand the idea of getting rid of them. So today I finally bit the bullet and bought fabric. JoAnns has a bazillion coupons right now, so I couldn't have done it at a better time. I bought everything at 40-50% off.
For the pattern I kinda morphed two different ones together. I wasn't entirely sure how it would turn out so I decided to raid my stash and make a mock up. Better to waste the unwanted fabric than the expensive, oh so pretty fabric. Thankfully it seems to be working out ok. I've only got the bodice finished, but really, that's so huge for me. I've never lined a dress and I've never had to put in a sleeve, so this is definitely a victory in my book. Tomorrow I'm going to finish the skirt and it may even turn out well enough to be worn! Another victory :) I'm so excited to get these made! The pattern reminds me of a pouffy party dress I once saw in an American Girl book. And it has sleeves! Those are hard to come by on clothes down here, thus why I make a lot of the kids clothes
Melody went with me to chose fabric while Katelynn was at preschool. She declared that half the store was perfect for her dress, but I did a little guiding and she ended up with the pink with white daisies. Then we decided on the yellow with butterflies for Katie. Katie had told me before that she wanted her dress to be yellow or blue. I love that they are so little and yet have such strong opinions on what they wear! I won't even go into some of the outfits Melody puts together. Let's just say that Jared frequently tries to bribe her to change, but she'll have none of it. She knows what she likes, and if he doesn't like it too bad lol!
First is a blanket I have been working on since November. It didn't take me that long to finish it because it was hard, it was just time consuming. I'm sort of an instant gratification kind of girl. If it's going to take more than two or three sittings to get something done I probably won't do it. However, this blanket is for a really good friend. We've known each other forever. So it was kind of important to me to make this blanket special.
Next are the St Patricks Day shirts I made for the girls. Melody's preschool group had a St Patricks Day party this last week so I figured since I failed so completely with Valentines Day this was my chance for redemption. 15 minutes with my Silhouette, 2 bottles of fabric paint, and 2 $5 tee shirts and wah-lah! I think they turned out super cute! Definitely see more freezer paper stenciling in my future. In case your interested I used this tutorial for the how to and picked my SIL's brain for the rest of the info. Thanks again Alexis!
Next is something I hadn't planned, but a friend wanted to make them and decided to make it a girls night out. So much fun crafting with other people, I really miss having my mom around for times like that! We're going to do these for our ward craft night next month. I'm so excited to see what everyone comes up with. Sorry it's so fuzzy, it's a cell phone pic. Too tired to go take another one.
Finally the Easter dresses! I have been bouncing back and forth for weeks trying to decide if I was going to make them or buy them. I found a lot that I loved and could've easily bought, but I really wanted to make them. My mom made our Easter dresses nearly every year and I've actually kept a few because I loved them that much! I don't know if my girls will love them enough to wear, but I couldn't stand the idea of getting rid of them. So today I finally bit the bullet and bought fabric. JoAnns has a bazillion coupons right now, so I couldn't have done it at a better time. I bought everything at 40-50% off.
For the pattern I kinda morphed two different ones together. I wasn't entirely sure how it would turn out so I decided to raid my stash and make a mock up. Better to waste the unwanted fabric than the expensive, oh so pretty fabric. Thankfully it seems to be working out ok. I've only got the bodice finished, but really, that's so huge for me. I've never lined a dress and I've never had to put in a sleeve, so this is definitely a victory in my book. Tomorrow I'm going to finish the skirt and it may even turn out well enough to be worn! Another victory :) I'm so excited to get these made! The pattern reminds me of a pouffy party dress I once saw in an American Girl book. And it has sleeves! Those are hard to come by on clothes down here, thus why I make a lot of the kids clothes
Melody went with me to chose fabric while Katelynn was at preschool. She declared that half the store was perfect for her dress, but I did a little guiding and she ended up with the pink with white daisies. Then we decided on the yellow with butterflies for Katie. Katie had told me before that she wanted her dress to be yellow or blue. I love that they are so little and yet have such strong opinions on what they wear! I won't even go into some of the outfits Melody puts together. Let's just say that Jared frequently tries to bribe her to change, but she'll have none of it. She knows what she likes, and if he doesn't like it too bad lol!
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