I will oblige.
But it may get long and full of nonsense. So beware. And pace yourself.
My parents were visiting over the weekend and on Monday we took a little road trip to Rensselear to Greene's Amish furniture and the big antique store. Zach had picked up a few little fliers and was filling them out on the way home. He asked how to spell our street name. My dad was sitting next to him but didn't really hear the name so well. (Actually, who knows what he heard. He doesn't pay attention much.) He was spelling something and when he was done Zach said, "Grandpa is stupid!"
Did your mom ever correct your grammar as a child? I recall being corrected every now and again (read: always). Like when you answer the phone with, this is her. This is SHE! And so it goes. Well, my mom said something to Zach about such and such, do it quiet. And I said, you mean quietly? And she stared at me an evil-excuse-me-are-you-kidding-me look. And I laughed and laughed because it was funny and she laughed, too. And I continued to learn her in the correct grammar of action words. Let me tell you about LY (lee). LY likes action and doing things. Run quickLY. Close the door softLY. Walk slowLY. And now I've done learned you all as well.
In January Eli fell in the snow and instead of helping him up, I took pictures of him. Because it was funny.
Zach tested in January and is now a black recommended belt. In three more test cycles (generally 2 months each cycle) he can test for his black belt.
I made these pjs for the boys. Eli generally has this "dude, seriously?" look on his face whenever Zach is doing something weird.
I've been spending some spare time making a few little items for Slightly Askew. I love leather and have no problem killing animals for my fashionable pleasure. Honestly, I would wear head to toe zebra if it was socially acceptable. But ostrich, snake, and stingray are good, too.
During the rest of my spare time I clean. Real cleaning. Like crazy cleaning because you never know where someone may look when checking out your house when you're not there. I absolutely love my house looking like this. I only wish I had the attention span to keep it like this for always. I took lots of fantastically clean pictures for the house for sale blog.
And, what else? I was shampooing the carpets in the above bedroom the other day. It was night, the kids in bed, J at work. J calls me and asks if the doors are all locked. Well, make sure they are. What's your problem? Well, if you have the vacuum going and are in the bedroom you won't hear anybody coming in. Uuuhhh...? So, to ease his anxious mind, I pulled out my 9mm (from above safe) and stuck it in my pants. I don't know why, where would you put it? Then I continued about my shampooing/vacuuming business.
I took this picture the other day when we were out driving in the boonies looking at houses.
And I took this picture some other time.
Let me think what else... I made these really great molten lava cakes and they were wonderful. And they are so fast and easy you can make them quickly after the kids are in bed before watching your 9:00 show. And today I made this cake for a little dinner get together. It tasted nothing of Dr. Pepper, yet, it was still very good. While making it, Zach claimed he would not like it because of the soda. (What a smart little boy I have calling it soda and not pop. I have done well.) But later tonight he told me it was the best cake I ever made.
Eli was enjoying going down the slide on his tummy.
Here's my dad and my boys. It was such a nice day out that we went outside to play. My dad carved little wooden animals for Zach to paint. He cut his finger while doing so, but that's expected when my dad handles sharp objects. J and I have decided we will paint this swing. I just don't know what color yet. Maybe red or just white. And the wood parts of the fence in the back there have received a nice new coat of paint. Don't you feel better about that?
Don't mind Zach's odd ensemble. He's 6 you know. Here he's showing off two of his little wood animals.
My dad is actually very talented in wood carving. Here is what he made me the past two Christmases.
Well, I suppose that's about all for now. Did you actually finally make it to the end of my long-winded ramblings? Perhaps you had to come back later to finish after a nap. I often have that effect on myself.
So, maybe you heard from a friend who heard it from a friend who heard it from another we were selling our house and moving to Indianapolis. Since talk is cheap when the story is good and the tales grow taller on down the line, I'll set it straight. We are getting our house ready to sell and will be showing it to a two couples sometime next week after we get a few things done. If those don't pan out, we will continue to fix up the house and put it on the market by March.
Jason's company is waiting to here back from investors to see if they will invest. If they do, we'll take it on the run baby, to Indianapolis. If they don't, we'll wait and see. Jason may continue as is with the company or he may start looking for a new job. He has several prospects in Indianapolis and maybe Vegas. The great thing about Jason's business is that it has given him lots of contacts in the medical IT field that he wouldn't have a problem getting a new job.
If by chance we don't sell the house for a long time (but I'm telling you, that I don't think it's true, and even if it is keep this in mind), we'll stay here until it does. Jason can commute to Indy a couple times a week. If we have to, we'll keep it as a rental but only if we're under the gun and have to take it on the run. I'm not worried, not too stressed about it.
**Do you know off the top of your head what song and artist has been featured here? The first person to tell me without looking it up wins. Wins something grand. Like coming and cleaning behind my fridge.
We went to Turkey Run in September when everything was still green. I carried Eli up a couple ladders, around rocks, and through muddy terrain. We had lots of fun and the boys did great. If you want an extra good work-out then carry an extra 25 pounds on your back. You'll love the burn.
The boys have been playing in the rain lately. And I have no rules against it, so off they went. (Disclaimer: I am not much for matchy-matchy clothes. But I liked these flame shirts so I got them each one with no intent of having them wear them at the same time. And they aren't exact--Eli's says "TURBO" but Zach's doesn't. But Zach likes to match Eli sometimes. So, whatever.)
My little niece turned 2. Since she is so adorable I had to share. She had an "Olivia the Pig" party. And yes, my sister made that outfit for her. My sister loves anything pigs; she raised (and then sold to slaughter) four pigs in high school. It makes me wonder if the piggy party was for Paige, or my sister.
We went to the Covered Bridge Festival last week. Well, not really the festival because Eli was sick on Saturday. We went after church on Sunday and the festival part was over. So we drove around and saw a few bridges and cool trees and other such cool stuff. We saw two Amish horse-and-buggies on the road. I'd like to go for a horse-and-buggy ride sometime. Seriously. I wish we had gotten pictures of them.
The West Union Bridge isn't open to cars anymore. It's over 300 feet long and kind of rickety. It looks like it's about to keel over. We got out and walked through it.
The view from inside the bridge.
I love how old and grainy this picture looks.
The sun was shining through the trees and it was awesome. Well, not more awesome than mile after mile of dry, dusty, Nevada desert. It's awesome if you like that whole "driving on windy, back roads through tunnels of ancient trees, whose leaves are submitting to Autumn by changing from green to shades of golden yellow, orange, red, pink, and purple, and all is well in your world, if not for just a moment, as you feel all of God's glory right out in the open for everyone to see." Then I guess Indiana may be better than dry desert. If you like that sort of thing.
I know you'll all been on the edge of your seats dying for part 2 of my remakes. This one took me forever to finish; I think I started in May. I'm sure I took out 100 seams I sewed to correct mistakes before getting something I was happy with.
So first of all, let me tell you what I started out with. I went to Goodwill, looking for something I could turn into a skirt. (Goodwill because if you're going to tear something apart, with the possibility of ruining it, paying only $4 is the way to go.) I found a fantastic pair of men's pants. Let me tell you--they were huge. Not just huge, but ginormous. The waste was a 44 and I'm kicking myself that I didn't take the inseam measurement. They were so long that I couldn't really get all of them in the picture. They were very close to the length of the door they were hanging on. When I held them up to my head, they were almost as tall as I am. I can only guess that these pants were made for a man whose waist was almost 5'7. Then how tall would that make this man? 7 feet? Yeah. I said they were ginormous.
This is what I could fit into the picture.
The other thing about these pants was they were linen. Navy with a white pin stripe. Now, I don't know about the kind of men you know, but I have yet to know any that wear linen pants. I think linen pants are reserved for pimpin' black men (and by pimpin' I mean down-like that, you got it goin' on kind) or white men who wear polyester shirts, white sports coats, Sperry Topsiders with no socks, and straw hats. I can only imagine that the man who wore these pants had to duck while walking through doorways and had to drive a Ford Expedition and still had to have the front seat custom made to sit a few feet back than normal because his legs wouldn't fit in any other car. If you see this man wondering the streets of Lafayette, please let me know. I'd love to meet him.
Ok, so back to my point. I decided these pants would be my new skirt. These were very high-end pants and the details were very impressive: the waist band, lining (yeah, they were lined even), and interior piping. I can only imaging the classy 'Massive and Huge' store ('Big and Tall' doesn't quite cut it for these pants) at which they were purchased. I really wanted to leave as much of the original details and integrity of the workmanship that went into these. This was easier said then done.I started by taking apart seams. I took the pant legs apart, began to take the waistband off, cut out the lining, and cut out the panels that had the front and back pockets. Since I had so much fabric to work with, I didn't need the pockets and didn't want them. I did keep the original zipper because of it's quality.
Taking pant part off the waistband. Detail in the waistband.
Pants coming apart and lining removed.
I cut the bottom half of the pants off and sewed in more panels to create a full skirt. It was hard to figure out how wide to make the skirt so I had to try it on a lot, all pinned up, trying to get the size right. I also started to work on adding the pleats. Trying to make the pleats evenly spread was difficult as well. Once I got the pleats right I sewed it back into the waist band.
Pinning pleats together. Pinning back to the waistband to work on the fit.
Finally, several months later, I ended up with this.
This is the inside view of the original waistband still intact. Well, half of it anyway.
So there you go. Now go ahead and get back on the edge of your seat as you wait for part 3. If there is a part 3, that is. So suspenseful, I know.
