Found!

I love it when I finally find something good. I don't have a lot of time for shopping and swimming suits are definitely not a favorite thing to shop for. I found this combo online at Lands End. I was not very confident in the fit so I went to Sears to try it on. Buddy Boy and Baby Girl were really quite good during the whole thing. Buddy Boy wanted me to get a blue one, but was happy enough with the blue flowers. I really like the swim short idea since I spend most of my swimming time in and out of the water at the pool or beach chasing kids and not really swimming. The top is long enough and the bottoms high enough to cover my middle, and the bottoms long enough to cover my bottom. Perfect. If I was training for a triathalon I would go for something different, but I'm not, so I didn't.

It was even on sale for the weekend. You can't beat that.

Spiritual thought

A thought from General Conference and Elder Todd Christofferson

"We need strong Christians who can persevere against hardship, who can sustain hope through tragedy, who can lift others by their example and their compassion, and who can consistently overcome temptations. We need strong Christians who can make important things happen by their faith and who can defend the truth of Jesus Christ against moral relativism and militant atheism.
What is the source of such moral and spiritual power, and how do we obtain it? The source is God. Our access to that power is through our covenants with Him. A covenant is an agreement between God and man, an accord whose terms are set by God (see Bible Dictionary, "Covenant," 651). In these divine agreements, God binds Himself to sustain, sanctify, and exalt us in return for our commitment to serve Him and keep His commandments."

This talk was the text for our RS lesson yesterday. A powerful message.

Our garden

Here it is, our fabulous garden. It consists of two tomato plants and a cucumber plant. The tomatoes are in containers and the cucumber is in the ground in a little spot where nothing else was planted. I also put some tall sunflowers in where the cucumber is. I planted them a few weeks ago and they are about 9 inches tall. I thought that it would be fun for Buddy Boy to see something growing as quickly and as tall as these will get.

The tomatoes are Beef Steak and Heartland varieties. The Heartland is a dwarf tomato plant. I like the idea of that since my garden space is pretty limited. We'll see how it turns out. I thought of trying the upside down tomato plants that I had heard of, but decided against it. Maybe next year.

Sewing

Here she is actually wearing the outfit I made. She isn't exactly the stand still sort, so you get a couple of action shots.

I have been working on a few other things in the evening lately, but I have started one of the skirts for me. I hope to finish it sometime this week. But then again I said that last week too.

Watermelon Ice

My favorite summer treat and so easy. You can get fancy, but I go for simple instead. There are similar recipes that call for kaffir lime leaves, much to complicated.

Blend one seedless watermelon. Add one can of limeade concentrate. Freeze.

It's that easy. So tasty.

notes on the new header

I love old wood that is faded and rough. I have a piece of twisted drift wood that I have carried around with me for years. One of my brothers brought it back from a Boy Scout campout if that tells you anything. One day when the light and the mood are right I'll take some pictures of it for sketches that I will probably never get around to. These pictures are in GrandDad's back yard a few summers ago. He planted some beautiful red and rust colored sunflowers. One afternoon I took a bunch of pictures. I love them. I particularly like the backlit flower and the picture where the wooden fence is sharp and the flowers themselves are blurred.

Imagination

Buddy Boys imagination is just going wild. We build imaginary castles out of pretend bricks in the back yard and go fishing in the living room. Our minivan is Thomas the train and the back and middle seats are Annie and Clarabelle. Sometimes he would rather play with his imaginary toys than his real ones.

I never had an imaginary friend, but I always thought that it sounded like fun. Well, Buddy boy has an ever expanding entourage of friends that follow him around and play with him. It started with Arthur. Then came Buster and DW, followed by Tim and Rosie and Cesil, a trio of mice. Pocoyo, Pato, Lula, and Ellie along with Pooh, Christopher Robin, and Tigger also visit on occasion. The only non-animated friends are Indiana Jones and Dr. Jones. They are Lego toys. Therea are others who make an occasional appearance including rock monsters. He refers to himself as We bacause all of his friends are included. He often looks like he has something in his hand. He is holding their hands. While he is playing I hear him saying, "Come on guys" to his friends. The friends come in the car with us and need to be buckled into their seats in the roof of the van and let out when we get where we are going. They sleep above him in an imaginary upper bunk, except for Lula, a dog, who sleeps on the floor next to him. At night they all need their blankets.

It is fun for the most part. Once I accidentally closed the car door before all of the friends got out and Buddy Boy melted down crying because they were stuck inside the car. I tried having a little chat about real vs. pretend, Mommy and Daddy are real. Pocoyo and Pato are pretend. That didn't go over well at all so now we just say that the guys need to be fast getting out of the car.

Culinary masterpiece

Spaghetti Dogs. Yup, the spaghetti goes right through the hot dog pieces. This is how it looks before it is cooked. You just put the uncooked spaghetti through the hot dog slices before cooking and the cook the pasta as usual. I saw the idea here and just had to try it. Her pictures are better, but you get the idea.

The kids LOVED it. Dad and I ate Chinese takeout.

the best toy ever

It's a buckle on a ribbon. It keeps her entertained for whole minutes at a time.

And another favorite thing, a hat AND a buckle all in one. It doesn't get much better than that.

One down... so many more to come.

Here are the results of my first sewing projects. I like it. I hope it will warm up enough soon so that she can wear it.


I asked my husband if these weren't the most adorable pants he had ever seen and he wisely agreed. (For some reason this picture posts sideways but you get the idea.)

Here is the fabric for the next round of projects. The fabric on the left is for Baby girl, the fabric on the right is for me. I'm thinking overalls and other things for Baby girl and skirts for me.