Thursday, December 24, 2009

What Christmas is All About



Each year I try to think of ways to really focus on what Christmas is all about- celebrating the birth of Jesus, the savior of the world.  This year Little Britches was asked to play Jesus in the live nativity at our church.  As I handed her to a youth from our church, a girl of about 13 or 14, I was so acutely aware that she is more like Mary than I am.  She held "Jesus" so tenderly and looked into her eyes.  "Jesus" looked a little wide-eyed with wonder and made a perfect picture, but soon "Jesus" began to cry because she had been up two hours and her bedtime was approaching.  Mary tried to sooth "Jesus" but it didn't work that well.  She looked at me with a question in her eyes.  I wonder if the real Mary did the same.  When Jesus cried did she know what to do?  Did she look to the livestock in the stable with a question in her eyes?  Was she scared?  Could she even now comprehend that she had given birth to GOD'S SON?  Could she comprehend that she was going to be raising her savior?  I know, as a mom, there are many things I don't understand about raising Little Britches to be all God's created her to be, but tonight I saw her for what she truly is- a gift, just as Jesus was a gift to the world, Little Britches is a gift to me.  I want to hold her, cherish her, and love her, like Mary did Jesus.  But the difference is I am holding a gift and she held THE GIFT- the gift the world needed, hoped for, watched for, waited for, prayed for, and now had.  Gifts are funny though,  they can be right in front of you, but until you take it and cherish it, it really doesn't mean anything to you.  May you cherish all the gifts in your life today, but especially the gift of Christ, born on Christmas Day.

Merry Christmas!

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Babysitting

Also, in the craziness that was last week, I had a babysitting gig.  Our community grieved the loss of a sweet child.  While my heart was broken, I did not know the family well, so I helped out by watching a friend's kiddo while they went.  At first both babies were sleeping, so I had to do something quiet- Christmas cards.  Then my friend's kiddo woke up.  We played and had a fabulous photo shoot.  Then Little Britches woke up and we all played.  The only tricky part was them both being hungry at the same time.  Luckily Daddy came home just in the nick of time.


Oh I do love playing at your house!


What is this crazy thing? 


Yummm, something I can chew on!

Yes! I had a delightful time, I think I will come again!

Food

Last week was crazy around our house. Little Britches' great grandfather passed away and we had services on Monday and Tuesday.  Then on Thursday my sister came in to see us, and by Sunday we had made an overnight trip to Katy and back.  In the mist of all that craziness we started Little Britches on some solid food.  She started with a little rice cereal.  Here are the results.

The first bite


Well it was good enough to want some more


It got rave reviews

This week we are on to bananas.  I will try to grab a picture of that today.  The first day we just dug right in because after dinner time was bath time, so we didn't even bother with a bib, but we have started using one now- just in case you were wondering. 

Teeth

As you may or may not have read here Little Britches has been a bit fussy lately, which is VERY unusual.  She usually rolls with the punches.  In fact I really try to be careful about not taking advantange of her good nature and easy going personality.  Well, come to find out, the reason for the new fussiness might be teeth!  If you carefully lift up Little Britches top lip you can see four white spots under her gums.  She does not like this exercise and therefore I was not able to get a picture of it, but maybe later when Daddy gets home.  I hope she is feeling better for Christmas, but the good news is, if she is not, she won't remember it anyway.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Project 320

I am participating in Project 320.  Read about it here.   More to come.  I don't have time right now.  I am off to take Little Britches' dad to the surgery center to have his gall bladder removed. 

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Making a List, Checking it twice

December is here! Yeah!  I love Decmember in Texas.  I love to drive around and look at lights, go for walks in the crisp air, drink hot chocolate in front of the tree, and spend time with family and friends.

I am always thinking of ways to make the holiday more meaningful, less consumer driven.  I confess I have not found the perfect balance yet, but I am working on it.  This website has got me thinking about it more and more. And so has this one. 

One side of my family draws names and then all the rest of the money we would spend on eachother we give to those who truly need.  In the past we have donated to Heifer International, Samaritan's Purse, and others. 

I like that we give to organizations, but I still like to give meaningful gifts when we are gift giving.  One way I feel like I can do this is to give gift that are based on shared experiences and loves.  With this in mind, I gave my sister a photo session with Mayzie.  I hired a friend of mine who is a photographer, Crysta, to take pictures of Aunt Brooke and Little Britches.  I will choose one or two to frame up for Brooke for Christmas.  My sister loves photography, loves Little Britches, and loves any special time she gets with Little Britches since my sister lives out of town.  I think the photo shoot went great!  I was even able to sneek in a few family pictures so I could order some for our Christmas cards.  Here is just one of the pictures Crysta took.    


Doesn't she do a wonderful job?  I need to work out a deal with her to Little Britches' yearly pictures at her current prices because one day EVERYONE is going to discover how talented she is and I will not be able to afford her! 

I plan on sewing some gifts and buying some others, but no matter the gift my goal is to keep my family and myself focused on the true meaning of this advent season.  That is a tall order in our culture, but I am willing to give it a try.

 I better get going.  It's December already! 

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Thankful for...

Here are 10 things I am thankful for, in no particular order:

My relationship with Jesus
My husband
My daughter
My extended family- both sides
My friends
Bible Study with other women
My health
My urge to be creative, even if I am not good at it
Being able to stay home with our daughter
Paper- think where we would be without it!




Thanksgiving

I trust you had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends. 

We had a great time and Little Britches was quite the trooper.  We went to my parents house Wednesday night and spent the night.  We enjoyed the company of my mom, dad, sister, and grandmother.  We ate some great burgers and debated about how often my mom and her twin sister needed to be spanked when they were growing up.  The debate ended in a phone call to the twin sister.  And anytime the twins agree on something you've automatically lost the argument, so it was agreed that they did get spanked often, though they  may not have needed every spanking they got. 

Thursday morning we ate pumpkin bread, sausage balls, and fruit.  We hung out around the house and let Little Britches do some playing.


After all that playing she was worn out and took a little nap with her Bella.



Little Britches has two dogs at her house, but she had never seen the likes of Emily, my parent's great dane.  Emily had some stiches on her side she kept chewing on so she had to wear a shirt on Thanksgiving Day.  She was pretty much embarrassed about that situation.



Next we had a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving lunch.  My family doesn't do turkey and dressing at Thanksgiving.  We have it at Christmas, so for Thanksgiving we have whatever we want.  This year we had steak, salmon, fruit salad, squash casaroll, mac and cheese, homemade rolls, pecan pie, and pumpkin pie. YUMMY! 

After lunch we just hung out and enjoyed eachother's company while watching the dog show on TV. 


 





When it was time to say good bye we had to be granted permission to leave by the reindeer that was guarding the door. 


She said it was okay to go, so we changed Little Britches into her UT cheerleading outfit and headed to my in-laws for more eating and some football watching. 

All day Little Britches only really got about an hour and a half worth of napping in.  When a cousin came to my in laws to meet her around 6pm she was exhausted and hungry.  I thought for sure she would just cry, but she let the cousin hold her, take pictures with her, and love on her.  Little Britches even gave a little smile, but boy was she tired! 

I am so thankful for all the gifts God has given me and I had fun celelbrating God's goodness with family.

Friday, November 27, 2009

Pillows

Okay, so as I said in this post my latest sewing project was a pillows covers for my aunt.  She sent me one pillow and the material.  The pillow was a 22 x 22 feather pillow, so I made three 22 x 22 envelope style pillow covers.  But to my dismay when I tried them on the pillows they had wings.  It seems that feather pillows sort of slump towards the middle and don't really fill out the corners of a pillow cover.  My solution was to custom fit each cover to the given pillow.  I think they turned out pretty well.  I am shipping them off tomorrow, so we shall see. 


Here is the pillow with wings...that just won't do!



I turned the pillow cover wrong-side out and pinned the extra, so I would know how much to take off.



I took the pillow to my sewing table and pinned the envelope closed so that it wouldn't slip during sewing.



I then took a ruler and drew a line with a pencil right above the pins I placed in the pillow.  I worked with the "I can always take off more if I need to" philosophy.






Now I sew on the line that I drew.



Now the pillow looks better, not perfect, but much better.  I will go back in a work on it a bit more.



When I am all done I trim my seam allowances (the material that hangs off pas the seam) to 1/4 inch.



All packed up and ready to send.


Next project?  Matching dresses for Little Britches and one of her friends!


Tuesday, November 24, 2009

First Annual Run with EMU 10K


Family Picture on Race Day!

Look at those cute race shirts and race day onesies!


Last Saturday Little Britches, Little Britches' Daddy, and I ran in the First Annual Run with the EMU.  It was a lot of fun.  What is the First Annual Run with the EMU you ask?  Check here to find out. 

So it was unofficial race with t-shirts and prizes!  How great is that?  After the nearly disastrous half marathon the week before I was not sure how I would do.  I had to walk with Little Britches because she is not big enough to be jostled about in our jog stroller since it doesn't recline at all.  I had a friend who was going to come and walk along with us, but she did not end up making it to the race, so Little Britches and I set out to walk alone.  Now, I usually walk this trail with Elisabeth and her cutie pie daughter, and I did not realize how much having someone to talk to substantially decreases your perceived time and distance.  It seemed like it took Little Britches and I FOREVER to walk around the trail's loop once.  When we had done just over one lap we got lapped by the first two runners- Little Britches' Daddy (along with our two dogs) and our friend Chris!  Way to go guys!  Imagine my surprise when I turned the corner and saw Little Britches' Daddy standing there waiting on us.  He took Little Britches and I took the fast dog and we traded.  He walked and I ran.  I thought I would catch back up to him in a lap and a half, but it took two laps.  We passed Little Britches off to a friend and ran the last lap together with our two dogs.  It was fun to run and finish together.  All in all we finished our 10K in one hour and nine minutes.  That is just over an eleven minute mile.  Not bad for having walked over 1.5 miles of it. 

Now the question is do I sign up for the Zooma Half Marathon?  I think my friend Elisabeth is going to do it too- maybe!  I like doing races with friends, so I think I am ready for the challenge.  I have heard the course is hilly, so I need to stop avoiding the big hill in our neighborhood.  I am looking forward to starting my training right after Thanksgiving! 

The Winner!

Thank you to all four of you who participated in sharing your holiday traditions with me.  I really enjoyed reading all of them and visualizing you enjoying each of those times with your family. 

I love traditions.  One of my favorite Christmas traditions is putting up the tree and then sitting in a quiet house with the tree all lit up and drinking a big mug of hot chocolate while talking with someone I love.  So in honor of this tradition the winner will be receiving some delicious homemade hot chocolate mix to enjoy while staring at the tree.

Here is the official prize results overseen by the Moore Accounting Agency. (haha!)

The entries:




The offical folding of the papers:

The offical bag to be drawn out of:

The offical shake:

The offical drawing:

And the winner is:


Congrats EMU.  I will contact you to deliver your prize!


Thursday, November 19, 2009

Holiday Traditions (prize to be awarded)

Okay, so I thought maybe if I gave you the freedom to express yourself a little more it might be better than posting a new poll!

Post a comment telling me what your favorite holiday tradition is AND why.  I will take comments until Monday night, then I will radomly select a commenter to win the materials to recreate one of my favorite holiday traditions, but I can't tell you what it is yet.  It is a surprise! 

Start commenting!

Pumpkin Poll

Okay, so my pumpkin poll closed a few days ago and I wanted to comment on the results.  Four people voted.  (We will have to work on increasing our participation)  Fifty percent of you, who voted liked pumpkin rolls, Twenty Five percent liked pumpkin bread, and Twenty Five percent like pumpkin spice latte.  I personally like pumpkin bread over pumpkin rolls, but pumpkin flavor over-all is yummy! 

A day in the sun

Today Little Britches and I met our friend Elisabeth and Bop for our weekly walk.  Last time we met them I noticed the sun was in Little Britches' eyes.  I noted that I might need to get her a hat.  Before I could find a hat I liked our friend Jackie got Little Britches some stylin' sunglasses.  Problem Solved!  She wore them for part of the walk and then at some point took them off.  She looked super cute, don't you think?

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Riding so I can Run


My husband found a bike trainer on craigslist for a "I just could not pass it up" price. So we brought it home and I road it. Riding is good for runners for all sorts of reasons, but yesterday it was good for me as a runner because it meant that I didn't have to pound the pavement. This was a plus because I have two toe nails that are bruised and falling off from the half marathon. (I will spare you the picture of those). Using the bike trainer is also a great option for exercising with Little Britches is taking a nap. That is IF she will take a long enough nap. Today she went down for what I thought would be at least a two hour nap, so I checked my email, was going to grab a quick nap, and then workout. Little Britches only slept 50 minutes, so no nap and no workout. Oh well there will be other naps. Tomorrow Little Britches meet our friends for a walk. That should be fun. And Saturday- Run with EMU! (Or walk with EMU)
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Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Race Day Photos

http://www.asiorders.com/view_user_event.asp?EVENTID=46211&BIB=12741&S=230&PWD=

Here are the photos of me from race day. I am a little disappointed that the photo of me with my metal at the end is not there or in the "lost and found" section because it is the one I bought from last year and thought I would get that same photo every year. Oh well.

Monday, November 16, 2009

The Race



It is the morning after the race.  I can move my body without too much trouble, so that is a good sign. I did finish the race, which was the goal. I knew there was NO WAY I could match or beat my 1:56 time from last year, but I was hoping for a 2:15. Turns out that was a lofty hope. I finished in 2:39, but I did finish. I think anytime you are in a race you do better if you have a strategy. My strategy was to run during 2 songs on the ipod and walk during 1 song. This is a strategy I use when I first building mileage during training. I had been comfortably doing this for 6-8 miles in training, but had never made my 10-12 mile long runs. Our Saturday/Sundays just seemed to fill up. But at the end of an 8 mile run/walk I felt good and had maintained a 10 minute per mile pace, so I thought shooting for around an eleven minute mile would work out just fine. My strategy had its merits, but there were some things I didn't foresee. One is that running with 30,000 people, even in a wave start situation is crowded. I started with the 10 minute per mile people, but I started out running. I actually run a bit faster than 10 minute miles so I was having to dodge around everyone and work the crowd. Once my two songs had past I would make my way over to the outside and walk for one song, but when it was time to run again I would have to work the crowd all over again. This prevented me from every really settling into a solid rhythm of running. I really count on my rhythm when I get tired. It is like being on auto pilot. You just go. I also didn't foresee that it was going to be so humid. While it is often humid in Austin during training, I don't usually choose those days to do 13.1 miles. My upper arms are scabby from where they rubbed on my shirt. I picked up Vaseline from the aid stations twice, but it was just so humid! At the 6.5 mile mark I decided to walk to mile 7 and forget the song strategy. When I got to mile 7 and tried to start running again it was harder, but I made myself do it. I ran one song and then walked one song. I did that twice and then just decided at mile 9 to walk the rest of it. Four miles, how hard could that be? I walk all the time and find it much easier than running. Well it was hard. I did push myself to walk fast. I kept thinking, "Do your best. If your best is walking, walk your best." My feet hurt, my hips hurt, my neck hurt, my shoulders hurt...it just hurt. When I got to mile 11 I thought I would try to run again. Two miles is the loop I do in our neighborhood without ANY trouble and on a pretty regular basis. I took two steps and my knees almost gave out while my hips and feet screamed in pain even more. Hmm...guess I won't be running the last two miles. I wanted to quit, I wanted it to be over, I wanted to be better than what I was, but here I was walking...walking...walking...I come close to the finish line shoot I thought I would give it one more try. Everyone runs across the finish line even if they walked the whole race. I took a few tentative steps and my body seemed to hold up, so I kept going. As I passed the sign that said 13 I felt my left calf muscle cramp and the ligaments ball up. "Oh no! It is not worth it to injure myself. I still want to work up to more miles. I want to get back to being that runner I was." I ran a little more tenderly because now I was near the finish line and to start walking would have meant getting run over by those behind me. I finally crossed the finish line and cried. I had made it. Not the way I wanted to, but I had made it. Too bad Cameron and I had a designated meeting place that was another 1/2 a mile away from where I stood! As I reflect on yesterday's race I realize that every "race" we run in life requires a strategy, but we also must never trust in the strategy alone. We must know when to let go of the plan and do something else. That is hard for me. I like plans. I like strategies, but more than anything I like finishing the races God has given me to run. Yesterday I saw a lot of room for growth as a runner and as a person. 

Here were my stats:
Distance HALF MAR


Clock Time 3:02:22

Chip Time 2:39:41

Overall Place 11788 / 20021

Gender Place 6377 / 12585

Division Place 1237 / 2238

Age Grade 41.3%

Pace 12:11

Ttlrace 20021

Ttldiv 2238

Ttlsex 12585

5 Km 30:58

6 1 Mi 1:06:20

15 Km 1:45:58

Saturday, November 14, 2009

What are you holding on to?

Yesterday was a beautiful day so Little Britches and I spent some time outside.  We go in the front yard because the back yard is the dogs' domain with toys and other things strewn about.  I am sure the neighbors think I am just out showing off our cute baby girl, and they may be partially right.  As we were outside enjoying the cool breeze Little Britches kept grasping at things.  First she grasped at the grass. 

Why do babies do so much grasping?  What are they looking for? What do they experience?   Did the grass feel cool or wet?  Did it tickle or poke?  It didn't seem to be what she wanted, so next she grasped onto her toy links.

And how was this?  Exciting? Stimulating?  Better than the grass?  I don't know, but it must not have been what she wanted either, because last of all she grasped me.
How did my hand feel?  Warm? comforting? strong?  Is that what she needed?  Who knows what she felt, but I know God gave me a picture of me.  So often I grasp for the things of this world.  Some of them "natural", some of them bright and promising, but in the end I only need to grasp for the hand of my Father, who holds me up and makes me not only feel secure, but know security, love, joy, peace, and contentment.  May you always grasp for the one that can offer what you most need.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Rock N Roll

On Sunday my husband and I will "run" the Rock N Roll half marathon for the second time in San Antonio, TX.  Last year I was 6 weeks pregnant and ran it in under 1 hour and 57 minutes.   I am not NEARLY as trained up as I was last year or as I need to be, but I am going to do it anyway.  This week I ran 3 miles in 28 minutes and 2 miles in 17 minutes and 45 seconds.  That is not the only running I have done, but it speaks to how under prepared I am. Tomorrow I am going to walk 6.2 miles with a friend and on Sunday if worse comes to worst I will walk double that amount and still cross the finish line.  That is my goal- to cross the finish line.  I am going to be hopeful and say I would like to do that by the time 2 hours and 10 minutes has past.  That would be a 10 minute pace, but I am not going over react if it takes more time than that because, well, I haven't put in the work to do well, so what do I expect?  Oh, yeah, I already said- to finish!

A Shower of Baby Gifts

*Note there are a ton of links in this post, just roll over the lines and you will find them.  Happy Hunting!

Okay, a few weeks ago when I said Little Britches got a new burp cloth, I lied.  I ended up saving that for a baby gift I delivered tonight.  I wasn't planning on delivering it tonight, but my husband came home and was so excited about the finished products that he wanted to hurry and deliver them.  While that was a sweet compliment, it caused me to not be able to take a few quick pictures before the items left the house, but that is okay because, we didn't know it, but the baby is coming tomorrow!  So, sorry, I will just have to create word pictures for you. 
First of all I had lots of the material and ribbon I made the burp cloth out of left, so I decided to make a theme gift since the family includes a UT alumni.  After the burp cloth I made a longhorn rattle.  I took the outline of a longhorn and traced it onto the material.  I then cut it out and sewed it together with the right sides facing each other.  I was sure to leave a bit of the seam open so I could turn the longhorn right-side out.  After I turned it right-side out I stuffed it with stuffing and included a few jingle bells.  I put a loop on the top of the stuffed longhorn as I closed up the seam so it could hang from an infant gym or carseat handle.  Imagine this logo only in the pink material, puffy, and with a ribbon loop on the top. 
Next up was a onesie dress  made with the pink material for the skirt and the pink polka dot ribbon as the waist band.  It is the best onesie dress I have made yet!  Soon I will be able to whip one up in no time.  
No dress is complete without a hair (or head) accessory! So, naturally, I made a bow out of material and attached it to some ribbon.  I sewed a small piece of elastic between the ends of the ribbon to give it some stretch.  
I still had a small square of the pink material left and plenty of the ribbon, so I made a 7" x 7" loopy blanket.  I did not follow a certain tutorial, but this is the basic idea.   
I liked the way the gift set turned out.  I think it is fun to give what you make! 

My next project is a paying gig.  My aunt has commissioned me to sew three pillow covers for her.  It will not be hard, but I am procrastinating because I want to get it just right.  I DO need to start the process though.  And when I do I will be sure to take pictures- promise.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Survey Says...

Take the pumpkin poll I just posted on the right hand side. 

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Giggly Girl!

Our Little Britches is a total gem! She smiles and often squeals with delight when you tickle her or kiss her neck, but before today her true laugh has eluded us. We've caught a glimpse of it every now and then like when we are playing on the bed or when the dog does something funny. On those occasions she would let out a "ha, ha". That's it! Two ha's put together. I wasn't even really sure those were real laughs, so I hadn't recorded any of them in her baby book, but today's date will go down in Little Britches history as the day she first laughed and laughed and laughed some more.




We had friends come over for dinner. They arrived not too long after Little Britches had gone down for a nap. The extra commotion woke our sleeping princess, but she was in a good mood. It was early enough in the afternoon to give us time to walk to the park that is about a mile away, so we set off on our field trip. About half way to the park Little Britches started to cry in her stroller, which she rarely does. I didn't know if she was still a little tired from her shortened nap or if she was hungry, since it had been just about 3 hours since she ate. Daddy carried her the rest of the way to the park and that seemed like it was what she needed. Our friends have a one year old daughter who started to swing. We put Little Britches in her own swing and she started to cry. She is not normally so fussy, so I knew we were dealing with tiredness and hunger. These were certainly not the circumstances that I thought would lead to her first laugh. I finally sat down in a swing to just have something to do while I talked. Daddy handed Little Britches to me and she started to gnaw on my wrist. I started making hints and starting towards home, but to no avail. The husband of the couple that was visiting with us sat down in the swing next to me and started to swing. When he wanted to slow himself down he let his feet drag through the pebbles below the swing set. Little Britches let out a BIG giggle! I didn't believe it at first, but every time our friend would drag his feet through the pebble Little Britches would laugh and laugh and laugh. Well, Little Britches's Daddy would not be left out, so he started to swing while dragging his feet through the pebbles, too. The more he dragged his feet, the more she laughed.



It was a sweet, contagious, wonderful, joyful laugh. I hope I hear it many more times in the coming days, but each time I hear it I hope it reminds me that even less than ideal circumstances can render sweet moments that I will treasure forever, if I am on the lookout for them.



Thank you Giggly Girl for that sweet laugh today!

Thank you God for the abundance of blessings that you continue to pour out in my life!



(Here is a picture of us swinging just prior to the giggly moment.)

 

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Dressing our little Jacket

Well, better late than never. As promised Here are some resources that helped me as I made Little Britches's outfit for homecoming. First of all I started out with the dress. I have made several of these and I really like that they have the onesie under them so that they don't ride up. I looked at several tutorials and pictures.  Then I kind of used a little from each of them to make our dress. Check out the tutorials and pictures here,  here, and here.   There is some very cute stuff out there!

Then the outfit just did not seem complete without a head adorment so I took this tutorial and made a flower.  I attached that flower to a ribbon.  To get the ribbon to stay on her head, intead of just making it the size of Little Britches's head I made it a smidge smaller and added a short length of elastic as the connector.  I didn't use this tutorial, but it is the basic idea. 

Now that Little Britches was all decked out I needed to cover her feet since this was an event outside in October.  I didn't want to have to be picking up kicked-off socks all day so I decided to make her some shoes after looking at this shoe tutorial.  I friend asked me if the shoes were reversible.  The ones I made were not, but I had remembered seeing this tutorial that gave instructions for a reversible version.

All in all I think the outfit turned out pretty cute.  None of it was too hard and I just did it during several nap times over the week. 

Currently I am starting work on Christmas gifts.  If you have never gone to sew mama sew and looked at their handmade holidays blog posts, you should.  They are full of great ideas. 

Monday, October 26, 2009

Lessons from Homecoming

Well we did travel back to my alma mater for Homecoming this weekend. We also spent the day with Little Britches's G.G. (Great Grandma). All in all it was a fun trip. There are a few things I learned from Homecoming.




1. First and foremost I am old or at least older.

I went to a small school where the students had professors from more than one class and would often be invited to their houses for get togethers and such. When I started school I made a special connection with one of the professor's daughters. She was 6 the year I started school. She is now TWENTY! I don't feel THAT much older than when I left college, but obviously I am.



2. No matter how much time has past there are still places that cause the mind and heart to reflect.

I spent 4 wonderful years at Howard Payne University. I had great roommates, classmates, and teammates. I did things I never thought I would or could do. I learned things I never thought I would or could learn. I was pushed, challenged, loved, and encouraged. All those things came flooding back to me as I was on campus this weekend. And when my husband asked where the nearest restroom was I remembered exactly where they were! Some things you never forget!



3. Grandmas can spot cute babies from a mile away.

While at times I felt old(er) and a bit out of touch, I was thankful for my new phase in life. Being a mommy gives you lots to talk about with others, especially grandmas. I was holding Little Britches while we watched the parade go by and every grandma that past us stopped to say hi and say how cute Little Britches was. All day as we walked around and saw people ladies would come over and start telling me about their grandkids. I listened and loved it, knowing my parents were probably out In public somewhere doing the same thing to some other mom. Of course part of the reason Little Britches might have gotten so much attention was because she was dressed so cute as you can tell from the picture. I will blog about how I made her outfit soon.




4. God has blessed us more than we could have ever dreamed possible.

This picture was taken as we sat on the very same bench that my husband proposed to me on more than 8 years ago. I could never have imagined then what I would have now- a life full of blessings beyond measure. My cup truly overflows with goodness. There will always be a part of me that feels at "home" when I go to Howard Payne. I did so much growing up there, but now I realize that I am still growing and in other 10 years (I graduated in '99) I will feel even older, but will most likely feel even more blessed.



5. Traveling with a baby is work.

I don't really think this needs much explaining. :)

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Boo!

Yesterday I put Little Britches's Halloween onesie on her.  It was cute, but it just needed a little something.  I had bought some tulle in hopes of making her a cute little lady bug costume before Bella got her the cute poodle outfit.  I decided the black tulle would be perfect as a quick tutu to go with the Halloween onesie.  So I took the tulle and used my rotary cutter to cut it into long strips about 2 ish inches wide.  I then cut those strips in half so they wouldn't be so long.  I wanted a short tutu.  I then tied those strips onto a black grosgrain ribbon and then tied the ribbon around Little Britches's waist.  Oh so cute! 
Here's the proof:

Kyle o Meter 5K

This Sunday I ran in a local 5K.  It was a part of the Kyle Fair.  Lots of friends from church also  ran in it.  I wanted to place in my age group, but I knew that meant I couldn't do any walking, and my running hasn't come without a little walking lately unless I am on the treadmill.  My problem is I have not logged enough miles since the birth of Little Britches to be able to feel my pace yet.  I start out way too fast.  I used to not do this.  So I started out at what I felt like was a good pace.  There were no mile markers, so I couldn't really judge.  I held that pace all the way to the turn around at the cattle gate.  (I did mention this was a local race, right?)  On the way back though I started to give way mentally and started to fatigue a little physicially.  There were some rolling hills on the way back that tempted me to walk, no taunted me to walk and I gave in.  I did finish the race in 29:30, which is about a 9:30 pace.  This is the pace I would like to do the 1/2 marathon in November.  I must log some more miles before I can reach this goal, but I am on my way.  Here are the results in case you want to size up the competition for next year.  See you out there!

Hook Em and Burp Em

Well I have been a busy bee.  Last week I sewed Little Britches an entire outfit- dress, headband, shoes, and a matching burb cloth.  The outfit's colors are blue and gold, otherwise known as yellow, in honor of my alma mater's homecoming this weekend.  I will take pictures this weekend and let you see my handy work.  Before I started that project however I made a burp cloth for game days at home.  You see, my alma mater is a small school whose football games are not televised or even reported on the news, so we cheer for the local university's team that has an excellent football team.  We needed that special burp cloth for those times when game-day snacks just got to be a little too much. ;)  Here are some pictures of Little Britches on game day and her new burp cloth: