Sewing, part deux

Here are the dresses, finally finished (almost--I still need to put a hook & eye at the tops in back). I think they're cute, but as always, I think they "look homemade." I've never made dresses in matching fabric before, so I also think they're a little "matchy-matchy." But at least they're done, and now I can move on to my next 50 projects.

Bleep

I like sewing, right? So why am I so ticked off right now?

Because, even though I made multiple perfect practice button holes on some test fabric, the top buttonhole on Sarah's dress has not worked three times now. I'm starting to worry about the integrity of the fabric, but I put it away for now. I still have to hem it, and it's too big around, but I can't change that.

Because I wasn't paying attention when I laid out the bodic pieces for Lauren's dress this afternoon and I cut the bodice front right down the center. I don't have enough fabric to cut the front out again, so now I get to go to the fabric store again and try to get a new piece. I am not looking forward to that.

Pictures are Tuesday, did I mention that?

16 days 0 days since Lauren's last accident.

You know, like the signs they have at construction sites?

Although she still frequently wets the bed at night, she hasn't had a daytime accident since November 3rd.

Hey, she needed a bath and hair washing anyway . . .

Scientists say cold noses reduce ability to fight virus attacks

Interesting, but short of a balaclava, how do I keep their noses warm?

http://www.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/11/14/cold.chill/index.html

"If they become chilled, this causes a pronounced constriction of the blood vessels in the nose and shuts off the warm blood that supplies the white cells that fight infection. The reduced defences in the nose allow the virus to get stronger and common cold symptoms develop."

Edited to add: I guess a balaclava really wouldn't cut it, since it doesn't cover the nose, as I thought. "Ski mask" probably would have been better, but I don't think they would wear that, either, so I'm back where I started.

Well, that's cleared up

Last night, around quarter after 10, the phone rang, and the caller ID said, "Nevada." Um, I don't know anyone in Nevada, so I didn't answer it. But I checked the voicemail a few minutes later, and apparently, I do know someone in Nevada. It was my brother. My brother that no one has heard from in weeks. When my sister-in-law got a really good job offer in Las Vegas, they couldn't turn it down, so they moved. I told him that I understood that every bit of money they had needed to go to keeping the family afloat, but that I was still pissed that he hadn't let anyone know. He accepts that, and is sincerely sorry. I'm sad that they live so far away now, but glad they're ok.

Dude, are you mad at ME?!?

Remember this? When I said, "eventually, we got to an ER," what I didn't say is that we went to an urgent care facility first, waited for half an hour, and then when we finally got up to fill out the paperwork, someone came out and said that the X-ray machine was broken, and that since it was a head injury, she'd probably need a CAT scan, anyway (which they don't have), so we should head down to the ER a couple miles away. I was pissed, especially at having to wait for nothing, but left. Happily, the ER was great, and everything was fine.

Today, when I checked voicemail this afternoon, I had a call from the doc in charge at the Urgent Care facility first, wanting to know why I'd left without getting Sarah checked out. I called him back and explained what had happened. He talked about how she should have been checked out there first, and then done an official transfer. If something had happened to her on the way to the ER, the UC facility would have been liable. He said that he wanted to make sure his staff knew that what happened shouldn't have happened, and wanted to know if I remembered who had told me about the X-ray, what that person looked like, etc. Well, I didn't remember; I barely remembered what time we'd been in.

So then he got this tone in his voice, and said that they rarely do CAT scans on children anymore unless a concussion is indicated, and got all snotty. You know, I appreciate that your staff screwed up, and you want to make sure it doesn't happen again. But don't take it out on me.

Doing a little better

I've been really crabby all week. No suprise there, I know. But I talked to my mom last night, and at least now I know the plan. She's going to take some meds, then start chemo probably on Monday, and have three or four courses of that. Then the double mastectomy probably in January, then more chemo. Sounds horrible, but she's in good spirits. I asked her if she'd get medical marijuana, and get to be a big ol' pothead, but she laughed and said no. I'll probably go down there sometime in January to help out. I really want to thank everyone for all the good wishes--it really does make a difference.

I think I'm going to crawl into a hole

Or maybe crawl into bed. My grandfather died this morning. I am totally at a loss.

Edited to add: Apparently, the pictures I took back in June are the last ones of him.

Trick or Treat!

Happy Halloween! We had a good time - the rain held off, except for a drop or two, and it wasn't too cold. I can't believe how nice it's been the past three years on Halloween--we've really lucked out.

We went to our neighbor's house first, and since the three girls play together often, we all went around the neighborhood together. We only stayed out for about an hour, but they still got plenty of candy, of course.

The most memorable part of the night was when we went to a house with a person sitting outside. The person was dressed up as a witch or scarecrow or something, and sitting very still. Sarah & Sammy hung back--they could tell something was up. Lauren didn't even seem to notice and walked right past him/her. When the person moved, she kind of did a double take ("Wow, that's a real person!") but then asked for candy right away. It never even occurred to her to be scared. We went to another house that was intentionally scary, that the two big girls wouldn't go near--that person was walking around, and wearing a very scary mask, but again, nothing was going to keep Lauren from the candy.

It Never Fails

When I go out shopping with little or no money, I find so many things I want. When I go out with money burning a hole in my pocket, I find nothing. This is doubly so if I'm shopping for myself.

I was going to make these dresses for the girls for Christmas, until I realized that the skirts are taffeta, which is dry clean only.

So even though I love the pattern, it's not going to happen (a bonus is that I don't have to make piping, which I have a feeling would be a pain). I'm frustrated that there aren't more moderately fancy winter dress patterns out there.

For now, I'm making the dresses for which I already have patterns and fabric, and looking for holiday sweaters. For Christmas, I might use the same pattern I did last year, but different fabric and no collar. I don't know yet, but I'm a little frustrated.

Happily, I found out that My Photographer now gets your pictures back to you the same day, instead of having to wait three weeks! I was so happy about that, but I was a little overwhelmed to realize that I have almost a month to find something for the kids to wear, instead of barely two weeks!

Kinda Tired

When I got home from grocery shopping this morning, all set to make Calico Beans for the church potluck and Pecan Tartlets for the Baking Contest (because I didn't have time to make my Torte, even though I think it's more impressive), and Jeff mentioned that Sarah had fallen a little earlier, and hit her head.

We didn't think anything of it until she started throwing up. Eventually she and I made it to the ER and she got a CT scan (was terrified at the thought of an X-ray) and was pronounced ok. At home, Jeff made the beans, which came out yummy as always. The tartlets never got started - oh well! - and Sarah is asleep right now. I think I might go take a nap, too.

Spoke too soon

Remember this? Yeah, well. Not so much.

As it turns out, my mom does have some variety of inflammatory breast cancer. She meets with the oncologist next Wednesday (which infuriates me that she didn't see him/her the same damn day, but has to wait a fucking week), and they'll give her the course of action, but a double mastectomy is a given. Before they can do that, though, she has to have chemo to reduce the size of her breasts, so that they have enough skin left to cover things up. They also have to see if it's metastasized.

I've spent a lot of the past day and a half swearing and crying. My mom, however, is in very good spirits. She is very comfortable leaving it up to God (though of course she's getting treatment), and has joked about finally being able to wear cute little bras, and getting a blue & yellow striped mohawk wig. She feels that she's going to come through fine. I should mention that she's been cancer free for over nine years.

I'm also incredibly pissed off and frustrated at my brother, who has apparently dropped off the face of the earth. He doesn't really have a relationship with my mom, and she's said that I shouldn't feel obligated to tell him about this, but it's making me even crazier that I can't get ahold of him.

Picture of the day

I'm running to get ready for work this morning, but couldn't resist putting up this picture from yesterday. Feel free to suggest a caption!

Extravagant

I went in to get my hair cut & colored yesterday morning. I had to miss my last haircut, so I just skipped it altogether. "Mistake. Big mistake. Huge." (a cookie for the first person to get that quote)

Also, I think I've been watching too much What Not to Wear, because I got a sudden urge for color. I've had blonde highlights before, but I've also been auburn, which looks nice, and highlights cost too dang much.

I got there about 10 minutes late (I hate having to get cash for the tip - I live for the debit card!), and since there was another woman coming in, two other people than my regular stylist put the goop on my hair. As long as Danielle (regular stylist for 8 1/2 years now) gave them the color formula, I didn't care who put it on me.

As for that color, I wanted a change, but nothing too drastic, so we went with a red/brown mix. Sadly, I realized that I couldn't get my hair to Lauren's color without serious work.

After they get it all on my hair (with a pause to mix some more, because nobody ever seems to get just how much hair I have), they washed it and I sat with some magazines to try to figure out a cut. When my hair gets too long and unruly, I get utterly sick of it and say, "Shave it all off for all I care. Just fix it so it doesn't drive me crazy anymore." Eventually, I came up with two choices. A longer cut, still down to around my shoulders, that flips up on the ends (it took me a long time to deal with the flippiness of my hair, though it is considered stylish now), or a considerably shorter 'do. I've had very short hair before, and like it, but longer hair gives me more options, and is easier to deal with, except for time involved in getting it dry. Besides, I can always go shorter later if I feel like it.

Cut, cut, cut. Haul out the hairdryer. "How does the color look?" "It's great, very rich looking." Once it's all done, I look at it. Huh. It looks almost the same color as it was when I walked in. We go outside to get some natural light. There, I can see the red undertones, but really, it still just looks brown. "You know, I was really looking for the red to 'pop' a little more." Thinking: I'm not spending $$ for color to not see any difference!

We head back in, and Danielle decides to use a demi permanent color, true red, the most intense demi color they have. She tells me that my hair just didn't pick up the red before, so we're not going to mess around. They mix this up, and the same two people apply it, again needing to mix more. What, you guys didn't learn earlier?

After they wash it out, again with the blowdryer. This time, I can tell it's red, but it's a pretty dark red. I like it. After four hours (I'm so glad Grammy came over to babysit instead of someone I had to pay!), I was done.

Later, Jeff & I were talking about the charm (a gingerbread cookie) I want for my bracelet . It's pricey (almost $100), and I said, "Maybe that should be a Christmas present instead of a birthday present. My hair can be my birthday present!" He looked suprised. "How much was your hair?" "Heh, more than the charm." He was suprised, so I broke it down. $30 for the cut, $50 for the color, and $13 each for a bottle of shampoo & conditioner, $20 for the tip. The product is the truly extravagant part, I think. I generally go for the cheapest stuff around, and it doesn't make a bit of difference to my hair. But when chemicals are involved, I splurge a little and go for the good stuff. But still, eeek at that much for two bottles! So I spent more than a week's worth of groceries in a few hours, just on myself! That's an odd feeling - I'm generally very frugal.

Making Lemonade

The bright spots of the cancellation of the class I was supposed to start today:

• Since the class I'm getting instead will only be two days a week, I won't have to pay for any babysitting.
• Since I can pick up an extra class over two Saturdays, I won't be losing much money (the total is almost the same amount, just over five weeks instead of three).
• On the days I do work, I'll be home by 1:30 instead of 4:30, so it'll be lots easier to do schoolwork and whatever else is going on around here.

Cross your fingers

Overheard yesterday at my house:
Mom: There's a hockey game tonight - do you guys want to go?
Sarah & Lauren (jumping in the air): Yeah! Hockey!
Mom: OK, Lauren, if you want to go, you have to poop on the potty first.
Lauren: (runs to bathroom)

Eventually, a few hours later, after multiple potty breaks and a few false positive reports, we had results! Yes! So this morning, Lauren got to watch TV after breakfast and will get to sing with the choir at church. And last night, she got to cheer at the hockey game (minor league) and eat popcorn and a hot dog--the real reason for her excitement, I think.

The whole night, we kept telling her that now she could use the potty all the time and wouldn't go in her pants anymore, because she's such a big girl. Oh, how I hope . . .

I knew it was coming

I knew 80's fashion would eventually reappear. Cringe. I mean, I really bring the whole big hair look, but I'm not looking forward to shiny fabric and linebacker shoulder pads.

(seen at http://gofugyourself.typepad.com/)

The Plan

The plan for today:

Call work and get the mistake with my check worked out. Part of it is my fault for not checking the contracts more closely before I signed them. If they don't want me to cash this check and make up the difference, but wait for a new one, I will sweetly offer to go and pick up a new check TODAY. No, I don't want to wait for three days, thanks.

Work on Lauren's Halloween costume. That is, start Lauren's Halloween costume.

Continue to look for the mask to Sarah's costume, which I found out was lost on Friday. I'm still pissed off about that.

Read The Strong Willed Child. Lauren's potty training is still not moving forward; to make a crude and obvious pun, she just doesn't give a shit. Even though I've told her that only big girls get to sing in the choir at church and have sleepovers, and she wants those things, she obviously doesn't want them enough. Last night, I started "only big girls get desserts." If I don't see some progress soon, I'm going to be ready for "only big girls get to watch TV." Jeff suggested that one a while ago, but I thought it too severe. HA!

Scale Mount Laundry, and try to get it down to a foothill.

Wow, that was a good movie

Crash.

See it.

One of the user comments on the www.imdb.com site reads, "in one absolutely brilliant moment I was literally sobbing at the expectation of horror unfolding, only to be cathartically released in a most unexpected way." That is exactly the way I felt.

And I can't say any more, because I have to get ready for work tomorrow, which includes getting everything ready for the babysitter.

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You are dependable, popular, and observant. Deep and thoughtful, you are prone to moodiness. In fact, your emotions tend to influence everything you do. You are unique, creative, and expressive. You don't mind waving your freak flag every once and a while. And lucky for you, most people find your weird ways charming!

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