Jerel's New Career

First we looked at about 8 million different crib bedding sets online but none of those were quite what Jerel was looking for. Then I bought a pattern to make a set and told Jerel he could pick the fabric. Then Jerel didn't want to go to the Evil Store (his name for JoAnn Fabrics). Then I went to JoAnn's and took pictures of red fabrics. Then Jerel wanted green fabric. Then I got cranky. Then Jerel said none of the fabrics were right because he wanted something "whimsical." "What do you mean by 'whimsical'?" "I don't know."

Then Jerel found a crib set online that he liked, except it was sage and tan and he wanted red now. Then he said "Aren't those just appliqued on there? Couldn't you make that?" He gets points for knowing what an applique is, especially since until a few years ago I didn't know it wasn't pronounced "a-pleek." Then I was reminded of last Christmas when Jerel commented that me making 16 pairs of pajamas didn't seem like that much work to him...well, it wasn't that much work for him!

As I was leaving to go get the red fabric Jerel said "So what shade of green fabric are you thinking of getting?" and I glared at him and he said "Oh ya, we said we were getting red."

Anyway, after a solid 10 hours of work the valance is done. It has 6 squares. To finish the bumper, crib skirt, and quilt I only have to put together 24 more...

What can I say--we are multi-talented around here: I can do your taxes and make you an exquisite doily, and Jerel can tell you how much to pay an engineer working in Thailand and design your nursery set!

In other news, I start training my replacement at work tomorrow. I'm planning on him being a really fast learner so I can stop working in another 2 weeks, but my boss wants me to stay on as long as I can. We'll see

Our 1,096-Day Anniversary

Yesterday was the big day--we've been married 1,096 days now! Or three years, for those of you who prefer working with smaller numbers. And no, I'm not bad at math, it's (365 X 3) + 1 because last year was a leap year.

As usual this presented a problem with me trying to figure out what I could get for Jerel. Not that it is all about things, but I suppose that is my "love language" if you buy into that school of thought. I asked him what he wanted and he responded with a cheesy, eye-rolling "Just knowing we've been married for four years is all I ask." Tone of voice aside, it could've been considered sweet--even romantic--except that his math was off and it's only actually been three years. So since I couldn't give him what he asked for until NEXT year when it actually HAS been four years, I was left on my own. In the end he got nothing. Not for lack of trying or spending, just for lack of speedy shipping services. He really likes America's Test Kitchen so I got him a couple of their cookbooks and some magazine subscriptions.

I suggested that he get me one of those chairs that's motorized to lift you to a standing position because it's getting harder and harder for me to get up these days. Instead he got me a great pair of white gold hoop earrings. They have two hoops, a smaller one inside a bigger one, on each earring and I think it goes well with how I now have two chins. He also got me some Shel Silverstein poetry books to read to Charlie. I have one that I've had for years. So long that I used to read it to my niece as a baby, and she's twelve now. Anyway, I love that they are silly and have a fun pointless quality to them. Kind of like me? Hm.

For dinner he took me to a restaurant of my choice. We generally--wait, not generally, strictly--rotate among Pizza Hut, Red Robin, and Olive Garden. This time since it was a special occasion I was got to choose anywhere I wanted. But since I am now living in the elderly lifestyle I went with Olive Garden . . . because it is close by and meant I could still get to bed early. Like at 8 o'clock. I'm cool like that, what can I say? We had a good time though. I tried a new dish, and Jerel pored over the menu intently before choosing the same thing he always gets. During dinner I asked Jerel, "What has been your favorite part of the past three years we've spent together" because I know he LOVES deep conversation like that and he quickly responded "Not having to answer questions like that."

Anyway, I'm a lucky girl to have him and soon (when I'm no longer pregnant and cranky) he'll remember how lucky he is to have me!

Let there be Light

When Jerel and I first got together, there was definitely electricity between us, but lately it's started to fade . . . It started about 3 months ago when I decided to do some rewiring of our electrical outlets and ended last week with us having no electricity at all in our upstairs. My first room was the nusery. Jerel had it painted with white trim, so obviously our outlets needed to be changed from ugly, non-matching off-white to beautiful new matching white-white. Jerel thought the whole project was completely unnecessary, but that's because he's a boy and doesn't know about the importance of matching--he will even wear a black belt with brown shoes! Anyway, I did the first outlet and it worked great so then I did the rest of the outlets in the room and then nothing worked. I called my brother-in-law Jeff and he gave me some things to try but nothing worked. So then I did what any pregnant woman would do--I gave up and dramatically threw myself on the bed in tears. When Jerel got back from running errands he tightened up some of the wires and then everything worked.

Well, I wasn't about to be outdone by a boy, so next I did our office/sewing room and everything went perfectly! I also replaced our bathroom outlets from regular outlets to the kind that stop working if you drop your blowdryer in a sink full of water. By this point it was clear I was pretty much an electrical genius. After that things got tricky. See, we have several three-way lightswitches (one light that's controlled by two different switches) as well as some outlets that are controlled by a light switch. This is where my expertise started to get fuzzy. This is also why it turned into a 3-month project. I'd try it and it wouldn't work. So I'd ask our maintenance guy at work the next day, then wait a week for my frustration to fade, then try it again. Then it wouldn't work again and I'd ask the guys at Home Depot and they would treat me like a little kid who doesn't know anything about anything and then I'd try again.

Anyway, after several months, last Saturday everything finally worked! It was fabulous having the electricity back! But it didn't last. I got up Sunday morning and things were still working, but an hour later when Jerel got up we were back to having no power. Ugh! At this point Jerel took over the project. After several phone calls to his cousin Jason (during which Jerel didn't mention even once that it was all my fault, which I thought was nice) Jerel discovered that one of the outlets had shorted out (which I don't think could've been my fault, right?) and after he replaced that one we were back in business. Whew!

I know this is way too long of a post for such a silly story, but it has been a long, traumatic couple of months around here. Also, I thought I should let everyone know that if you need any electrical work done I'd be glad to help...just make sure you are wiling to go at least 3 months without electricity and won't mind not having any electricity when it's all done!

The Warmest Baby Ever

I thought that since our baby is going to be born in the middle of the summer heat we should make sure to have LOTS of blankets on hand...Anyway, I think I'm done making blankets now except for the one I have to make to match the crib set. That involves Jerel going to JoAnn's to help pick fabric so it may be a while yet.

We had a doctor appointment last night. In normal people your stomach grows about 1cm per week. In abnormal people like me it grows 2 cm per week--yep, since my last appointment 3 weeks ago I've added 6 centimeters. No wonder I'm growing out of my maternity clothes! The doctor even said that with how big I'm measuring at this point they wouldn't try to stop labor if it started--even though I'm only 33.5 weeks. {Jerel's note: What the doctor acutally said was that after the next appointment in two weeks, at that point if labor started they wouldn't try to stop it. Just let him finish developing.} (Amanda's rebuttal note: Jerel obviously doesn't have a very good remembery because I'm certain the doctor said it would be a great idea for me to have the baby immediately.) That is great news for me, now all I have to do is figure out how to get labor started! Jerel, of course, is still delusional and thinks we should just let the baby come when he's ready. That's a silly plan! Sadly, though, the doctor said it would be at least a month before he would even consider inducing me. And I think he mostly only offered that to get me to stop whining. In reality I'll probably be pregnant forever.

Anyway, that's all the exciting news around here. Thursday we're going on a Walking Tour at the hospital (but I think it should be called a Waddling Tour) to see where everything is. Maybe Charlie will be so excited to see things that he'll decide to come on out right then?

I hate to toot my own horn but . . . TOOT TOOT!

I'm basically the coolest Primary teacher that ever existed...This is my third year with my class & I must say I really like them! I also spoil them. I want to make sure that no matter how great their next Primary teacher is, I will still be the coolest one ever. So I take them out on their birthdays and they think it's so amazing. This one's Natalie and she's turning 6 tomorrow. She selected Shari's as the best place to go for your birthday, so that's what we did. She spent the whole time saying "Sister Atkinson, I love you." "Sister Atkinson, you are the best teacher ever...well, Mrs Hansen my kindergarten teacher is the best too" and "Sister Atkinson, next year on my birthday let's go to Burger King" and things like that.

They brought her a piece of pie with a candle in it but she told me she couldn't blow it out until I sang Happy Birthday, otherwise her wish wouldn't come true. I tried to distract her from that silly idea by asking if her birthday wishes usually come true. She said that no, last year she wished for a unicorn, and it still hadn't happened. So then I sang Happy Birthday to her and she wished that could be a Rock Star when she grows up. Probably more likely than the unicorn.

Anyway, I better go supervise Jerel. A piece of our siding randomly fell off this evening. I think Jerel willed it to happen because we were just 15 minutes into an infant care video and they were on the topic of nursing newborns and I think to him just about anything would be better than that! So he's up on the roof and I've realized my fear of heights is not just a fear of ME being up high, but really of ANYONE being up high!

Why I don't post very often

Mostly because nothing all that exciting happens. I could write about the quilts I make, but who wants to read about that? Maybe to liven things up I could occasionally throw in an update on the doily I'm working on.

Anyway, this quilt you do have to hear about because I started I think 4 years ago and finally finished it last week. I made so many mistakes following the pattern that I think it pretty much qualifies as an original design at this point. But I do love the way it highlights my inability to select colors that go well together...In fact, the other day I was working on a different blanket, one for the baby, and Jerel said "Hey, that brown actually goes with that blue!" I always think things will look good together, but it rarely pans out that way.

In my defense, one reason this quilt doesn't have any color scheme to it is because I wanted to use lots of fabrics from old projects, clothes, etc. For example: You know how moms of preschoolers sometimes make their kids wear matching dresses to church, especially on Easter? Somehow my mom missed out on that and always regretted it, so when we were teenagers she made us matching dresses for Easter one year. Except of course they weren't done in time for Easter, so instead on some random Sunday me, Tab, Theresa, Mom, & Elise (Tab's daughter) all come into church wearing matching dresses. And of course since mom was the organist we always had to sit in the front row. Ya, it wasn't embarrassing at all...anyway, so I cut up that dress and put it into the quilt. It also has some extra fabric from my wedding dress, a shirt of Jerel's that I cut up (which I may have neglected to mention to him), and some other important fabrics. So even though it's not nearly as cool as the quilts my mother-in-law makes, it's meaningful to me.

Jerel is mostly a good sport at learning about quilts. Sometimes, though, he doesn't cooperate. The triangles around the border are called Prairie Points and Jerel thought that was a silly name because they have nothing to do with prairies and prairies aren't pointy anyway, so he renamed them Pennsylvania Rows instead...Because that makes SO much sense...

Anyway, now that you know the history of the quilt and I've even explained Prairie Points, I think it's become clear why I don't post very often.