Wooden shoes are not comfortable.

I used to have a pair when I was in high school.  But that didn't stop me from asking Jerel to take us down to the Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival in Woodburn. I used to go every year but haven't been in a while.  It turns out the tulips haven't changed much in my absence, they were gorgeous!  Tulips are my favorite flower.  I love that they are so simple, and I love the way each petal tucks in behind the next one--it reminds me of when a baby is blessed and all the Priesthood holders surround the child in a circle with one shoulder tucked in front of the person next to them.  There is so much strength and power in the simplicity of that circle, and that is what tulips remind me of.

Anyway, the drive there took forever.  It was a beautiful day after lots of days of rain and the tulips were at their peak so pretty much everyone in Oregon went to see the tulips that day which made for slow traffic on those usually lonely country roads.  Isaiah fell asleep on the way there, and he is always in a strange mood when he's woken up somewhere new.  He kind of just whined and sulked but not about anything in particular.  It didn't help that it was pretty warm out--he got heightened heat sensitivity from his dad and ridiculous amounts of sweating from his mom--so he doesn't enjoy being outside as much as some kids.

Here's what I don't get:  there were signs everywhere about how you have to stay on the pathways and not trample through the flowers.  But there were also people everywhere trampling through the flowers.  Was it "Free Admission if You Can't Read Day" or something?  I get so annoyed when people ignore things like that!  I think I commented on it at least a dozen times.  There must be a hall monitor inside me somewhere just longing to get out...

Nursery Temple Trip

Last Sunday Jerel and I thought it would be a good day to take the kids out to see the temple and also to check out the new visitors center.  I had stopped in the visitors center briefly a couple of weeks ago and thought the kids might like it.  On the drive over Isaiah fell asleep, so Jerel stayed in the car with him while he napped, and Eliza and I walked around the temple.  Zay & Jerel joined us a bit later and we walked around some more, explored the visitors center, and then headed home.  It was great weather and a nice calm family activity.

Hike #1: Rood Bridge Park

Here's the before picture of our first hike of the year.  And our first hike ever, since I didn't take them the last two years.  I had no idea how they would respond to hiking so I picked a very easy trek for us at a local park.  I bought Eliza some tennis shoes for the occasion, and we did lots of prep and talking about what you wear when you go hiking, what you bring with you, whether you pick the flowers you see, etc.  Zay was pretty excited; Eliza was her normal self.  Neither of them were very big on the whole "look at the camera" idea, and I'm okay with that.  I don't want to be one of those moms who is so worried about getting the perfect picture that the actual experience you're trying to capture never really happens.  

For this hike I let Eliza walk the whole time even though most of the trail was paved.  She had lots of fun and fell lots of times.  She also wanted to be held a lot, especially when we ventured onto the unpaved part.  That got me plenty dirty because her muddy shoes would rub off all over my jeans.  I do have an old hand-me-down backpack carrier for her so I might need to try that out and see if I like it.  And if I can get her in and out of it on my own.  Lucky for me she still hasn't hit 20 pounds so I should be able to manage her on my back for a couple of miles.

Zay got kind of nervous when we were on the unpaved trail, I think because it was deeper into the "forest" and it got darker.  He is also scared of bugs, flies, etc. and there were lots of them.  But he enjoyed discovering slugs, and a crooked tree, and a red log.

This picture is in response to "Zay, go get our sister so I can take a picture of you two" which translates in his head to "Go tackle Eliza so she can't move, and make sure neither of you are facing the camera."

Here's Zay trying again to get Eliza to pose for a picture.

Flat Stanley

Cousin Isaac sent Flat Stanley to visit us.  Normally I would've devoted my life to doing something over-the-top fantastic with Stanley, but with Jerel in & out of the hospital the planning just never came together.  So I decided on the way back from Jerel's post-op checkup we'd stop by the Rose Garden and snap a few photos of Stanley with the flowers.  Luckily for Isaac, Uncle Jerel thought that idea was boring and nerdy and so he had me take Stanley to the Tillamook Cheese Factory instead.  Still nothing spectacular, but much better than boring old flowers.  

Isaiah's favorite part of the cheese factory is this orange van they have near the entrance.  He loves to sit in there and pretend he's driving.  He drives all over the place--the library, church, the playground, etc.  It wasn't very crowded when we got there so he had a long turn.  After we toured the factory I told him he could have one more turn.  He asked for a long turn, so I told him he could drive until the next person wanted a turn (it was more crowded by then).  He must've been wearing his lucky socks because not a soul walked through the doors for 35 more minutes.  It was a family and the mom told her son, "You'll have to wait until that little boy has finished his turn" and I told the mom "His turn has been a half-hour long already.  Thank you so much for coming!" so I dragged Isaiah off (literally kicking and screaming) and we headed home.  

And here, just for fun, is a picture of Eliza.  I love how blue her eyes are.

Easter 2012

We started the day with a really tired little girl!  I was upstairs and noticed she'd gotten pretty quiet; when I went to check on her she was asleep halfway up the stairs.  She's so cute when she's all tuckered out!

The Easter Bunny visited the kids a little early this year while Grandma A was visiting.  We missed the ward egg hunt because I had another commitment. So on Easter the bunny came back and hid some eggs for the kids in the backyard.  It's tricky to hide two dozen eggs in a yard that is only about 8'x10'...okay, probably a bit bigger, but not much.  Luckily it turns out that finding eggs, even eggs out in the wide open space, is tricky for small toddlers so it all worked out.  

This year both kids had baskets I made for them out of paper sacks (Pinterest will be part of all of our holidays from now on).  Eliza was really sick and not very interested in looking for eggs, so Isaiah found some and shared with her, which was really sweet to watch.  Zay really enjoyed looking for the eggs and was so excited that they all had chocolate in them--he checked each one to make sure.  

182nd Annual M&M Sorting Day

Thanks in part to my new Pinterest addiction I found some great ideas for entertaining Isaiah during General Conference while still keeping him a tiny bit focused on the prophets.  I saw several different versions of this idea and then tweaked it to what would work for us.

First I got out a muffin tin and a big bag of M&M's.  Then I made sure Eliza was asleep because I'm sure she would've destroyed this project....Anyway, I dumped the M&M's into a few empty spots of the muffin tin and had Isaiah start sorting.  The sorting lasted about 45 minutes, and he was quiet and focused the whole time (on the chocolate), and he didn't even eat any!

Once all the M&M's were sorted we got 6 paper cupcake liners and put one next to each color of M&M.  Then each of us selected a word to write on a cupcake liner.  I played it safe and chose "Amen" because I knew that would be used at least once per talk, prayer, etc.

Once we had it all set up we started playing the game.  The idea was to listen for one of the six words we'd selected and if you heard the word you got to eat an M&M from the associated muffin tin. This was where it got a bit too tricky for Isaiah.  We helped him a few times, and grandma helped him lots of times (because she loves chocolate).  He did end up hearing some of the words sometimes, but as with most things I plan for my children, they never enjoy it in the way that I want them to for as long as I want them to.  But that's okay.  Zay did some listening, we all did some chocolate eating, and it was kind of fun.

I was thinking it would be fun (when the kids are older) to let them each pick a word or two but they can only eat an M&M if they hear their word, not the word their sibling heard.  Or maybe only the first person to hear the word could eat an M&M.  And, the math nerd in me would like to keep track of how many times each word was said and then make a graph in Excel.  After several conferences I'd have a much better idea of which words are most popular, thus increasing the number of M&M's I'd get to eat... 

I had also printed out a conference packet designed for nursery-aged children for him to use and (again) he didn't use it as intended but he did look at all the pictures and when a general authority spoke we'd try to find his picture in the packet.  He thought it was fun to watch church on TV.

Sidenote:  Isaiah calls our church the Red Church.  The building G&GA attend is the Yellow Church.  The seminary building I take a friend to is called the Tiny Church.  So today I was reading to them from the BofM illustrated book thingy about Joseph Smith.  I told them that Joseph said a prayer because he didn't know which church he should go to, and I asked Zay if he knew what that meant, and he said "Like he didn't know if he should choose the Red Church or the Yellow Church?"  Yes, something like that.

The Fall of Jerel

WARNING:  THIS POST CONTAINS GRAPHIC PHOTOS WHICH MAY BE UNSETTLING FOR SOME OF OUR READERS.  READER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.  On the other hand, those very same photos may be gruesomely irresistible to others.  Like me.  It's like back when we had cable and I would watch the health channel and they'd show video of surgeries and other gross things.  I was simultaneously repulsed and attracted, I watched peeking through the fingers that were covering my eyes.  That's how I feel about Jerel's stitches.  Definitely disgusting, but I can't stop staring.

At one of his post-op appointments I asked the doctor how bad his break was on a scale of 1-10.  I never would've imagined a broken arm would mean 2 surgeries and a week in the hospital!  She said it was at least an 8, maybe a 9.  She had seen a worse one where the guy was shot and the bullet went right through the elbow joint itself, but Jerel's was pretty impressive.  (Especially for being self-inflicted, I mean the bullet wound guy had help getting hurt!)  Anyway, she said basically that his was the kind of injury you could show at a national conference to a room full of orthopedic surgeons and everyone would wince and gasp....So here's to you, Jerel, way to go above and beyond!  

After the second surgery they put a splint on for about a week, then a week after that the stitches came out.  We're concerned because he doesn't have much movement coming back.  He can move his hand fine and he can move his whole arm up and down, but he can't bend it at the elbow (there are two titanium plates & 16 screws holding him together, all of which are expected to be permanent) nor can he rotate his hand at the wrist.  The doctors mentioned that if at the 3-month follow up he hasn't regained enough movement then they will probably want to do another surgery.  There is a part of one bone that they pieced back together, but they may decide to replace it with fake bone instead.

So that's the latest (at least that I can think of).  He's back at work, back to cooking (although he can't open lids by himself), but not back to wrestling on the floor with the kids.  He has managed some diaper changes but Eliza kicks too much and his arm is still very sensitive to being bumped.  He wears a sling when he's out an about (work, church, etc.) mostly just so that people will be aware he's injured and hopefully be careful not to run into him.

Don't worry, we'll keep you posted!

Arms don't seem that complicated to me

Once I got the kids settled for the night I realized I couldn't sleep (which is never a problem for me.)  The surgery was expected to take 2-4 hours and they had instructions to call me when they were finished.  They called around 10 to tell me they were just about finished and would call me again once they were done.  I finally fell asleep and woke up around 1 in the morning.  I just knew they had called and I'd slept right through the phone.  Jeez, what kind of wife does that?!  So I called them and they said they hadn't called yet because they weren't finished yet.  Apparently they were done at one point and then decided the screws they'd used were too long so they redid the whole thing.  It ended up being a 6+ hour surgery.  I don't get why it takes so long--my last surgery was a 30-minute C-section and I produced an entire human being; Jerel took 6 hours and all he came out of it with was a non-functioning arm.

Both of our families were very concerned and anxious to help.  Jerel insisted we would be fine and told his dad not to send his mom up.  They'd told us probably 3 days in the hospital and I guess Jerel thinks more of me than I do because he thought I could handle that no problem...So I took my sister up on her offer to come down and help.  She arrived the next day and was so helpful to have here.  She watched the kids, mowed the yard, did the dishes, laundry, diapers, etc.  It also made it so much easier to visit Jerel at the hospital.  The kids would beg to see him but then get bored after about 30 seconds, so then I would end up taking them for walks and I wouldn't get to see Jerel either.  So it was nice to have someone to help.  Theresa brought her baby with her and her husband & my mom took care of her 3 other kids.

This is a picture of Eliza when Jerel got home.  She was so happy to see him!  Zay was too, but he was very nervous about Jerel's arm and didn't really know what to do.  He's had a hard time since then with worrying that when Dad leaves he's going to be gone for a long time again.  Anytime I take Jerel for a post-op checkup, Zay asks if I'm going to leave daddy at the hospital again.  He likes to review the plan for the day over and over so he can hear again that it includes daddy coming back home.

Anyway, Jerel got out of the hospital on Tuesday (the fall was on Saturday) and Theresa headed back home Wednesday evening.  By then Jerel realized I was in over my head and he was in a lot of pain, plus the arm was in a splint so he wasn't very functional, so he gave in and had his mom come up.  I think he likes to be independent, and I'm sure we could've managed it on our own, but it sure was wonderful to have help.

Trudy was so much help too even though she had a really bad cold.  She played with the kids and let them drool all over her iPad (they both love it) and helped with the housework and diapers and all of that.  We were especially glad we asked her to come because the day she arrived Jerel ended up back in the hospital for a second surgery.  He had a fever and some other symptoms that made the doctors nervous he could have infection in the bone (since it was an open fracture the bone was exposed to air (ie germs).  So I got him settled in the pre-op waiting area and then headed to the airport to get Trudy.

Jerel had a Priesthood blessing the night before the second surgery in which he was told that there would be no infection in the arm, and it turns out that is just what the surgery revealed.  They took samples to see if anything would grow, cleaned it all up again, and stitched him back together.  Nothing grew, which sort of means the second surgery was a waste, except I feel like when it comes to a good solid diaper-changing arm you don't want to take any chances, so I'm glad they did it.

We're so thankful for Theresa coming to help, for my mom & Josh helping with her kids so she could come, for Trudy giving up her Spring Break to come help, for the friends who stepped in to watch our kids, those who brought flowers, etc.  We're blessed to have such a strong support system.

This'll be a fun little family activity...

It was one of those rare times when the kids were playing by themselves and I was sitting at the computer in my jammies doing some taxes.  Usually I only get taxes done if Jerel's watching them, but he had gone to help some people in the ward move.  A while later I got a call from a friend in the ward, "Hey Mandy, how are you?"  "Good!  How about you?" "Well, I'm not really sure why I'm the one who got this job, but I'm supposed to call to tell you that Jerel fell out of one of the moving trucks and broke his arm."  [My thoughts:  1.  It's probably not really broken.  2.  Why on earth was he hanging out of a truck while it was moving? {I found out later it was not a vehicle in motion, rather a truck used to move things.  Wrong kind of "moving truck".}.  3.  I was actually getting some taxes done, but I guess we'll go see if he's okay.]  My friend gave me her husband's number since he was actually with Jerel, and I called him and he let me talk to Jerel, who basically said "I'm sure it's broken, it's just a matter of in how many places."  [He's always so dramatic...]  I said "Do you think maybe you should go see a doctor?"  Jerel, "Yes, I need you to come get me and take me to the ER."  Me "Okay, see you in a bit."  

So I ran around and got dressed, packed a diaper bag, told Isaiah to grab a book to read, and off we went. I thought it would be a fun little family activity--we'd go get daddy, take him to the doctor, watch him get a cast, and probably stop for ice cream on the way home.

It didn't really go that way at all.

I got to the house where Jerel was helping them move.  Jerel was sitting under an umbrella in the front yard with a blanket tied around him to hold his arm still.  So I sauntered on over and asked if he wanted a ride somewhere.  (By the way, the rest of everybody there just kept on moving things, which I thought was hilarious....boys are so different from girls!)  One of the guys helped him get up and into the car, and as Jerel was wincing as I buckled his seat belt, the guys were saying I probably didn't need to worry about a seatbelt in a situation like this.  But I told them a broken arm was bad enough, I didn't want a broken neck on top of it and continued to snap him in...yep, I'm a seat belt/car seat nazi.  

We got to the ER and waited for close to an hour.  We sat across the way from Jerel because anytime the kids got close to him the'd bump him and it would hurt more.  We got out the book Isaiah had brought, one he picked out himself at the library a week before, "Broken Bones."  Not kidding.  Anyway, they finally called him back and we all went back to continue our fun little adventure.  When the nurse started unwrapping the blanket from him I saw a big circle of blood on the blanket & his shirt.  So I said "Honey, I'm just going take the kids out to the waiting room for a minute."  [My thoughts:  Ahhhhhhh!  He's bleeding! That means there's a bone sticking out somewhere!  This is not going to be the fun educational experience I was aiming for!]

So I called everyone in my phone until I finally found my dear friend Stephenie.  I explained the situation and she came over immediately and got the kids for me.  She ended up keeping them for 8 hours, lots of brownie points!

I went back in and they cut off Jerel's shirt and got him ready to x-ray.  I didn't see any tree branches hanging out of him (I'm pretty sure that's what bones look like).  But there was a break in the skin that was oozing.  They x-rayed it and gave him lots of medication which did little to ease the pain.  After the doctors there looked at the x-ray they decided it was too hard for them and they sent Jerel by ambulance to a local teaching hospital.  At the time we both found this annoying because the other hospital was farther away and we just wanted it taken care of.  But in hindsight, he ended up at a much better hospital with people with a lot more experience fixing arms.

I drove to the hospital and met Jerel in the ER there.  They switched him to a different medication, which also didn't seem to help, and worked on booking the operating room.  (Jerel was not happy about needing surgery but they made it clear it wasn't optional).  I stayed with him until they took him back for surgery, I think around 7pm.  I was nervous because he's never had surgery and things can always go wrong, but I was also relieved that he'd be put under soon and have a break from the pain.  Once they took him back I headed home to get my kiddos; Jerel and I both thought the kids would do much better if we kept the kids to as normal a schedule as possible.  So I kissed him and they wheeled him off and I headed home.  To be continued.  Because this post is already WAY too long!

Double-ruffle hankie skirt

 Step 1:  Purchase 2 hankies for skirts up to size 12 months.  For sizes 18 months-2T purchase 3.  For sizes 3T-4T purchase 4.

If your hankies have a border (like those in the pictures) trim two opposite borders from each hankie.  If your hankies don’t have a border, cut a 1 1/2” strip from two opposite borders of hankies.

 Step 2:  Admire your handiwork.  This is what your hankies should look like after you’ve completed Step 1.

Step 3:  Decide how long you want your skirt to be.  For my 12-month size I did about 9-10” for the length.  If you’re not sure, measure one of the skirts hanging in your little one’s closet.

Fold one of the hankies is half and lay on table with the two printed borders lined up at the bottom.  Measure your desired length and mark with a dressmaking pencil, disappearing marker, or (if you’re disorganized like me) a washable Crayola marker from the kids’ toy box.

 Step 4:  Using a straightedge, draw a line connecting your markings from Step 3.  Then trim through both layers of the hankie along the marked line.  Note that you could easily use a rotary cutter & mat to make this faster.

 Step 5:  This is where your “eyeballing it” skills come in.  Lay your trimmed hankie from Step 4 on the table.  Then fold your other hankie in half (again with the printed trim along the bottom).  Lay this other hankie on top of the Step 4 hankie until you love the distance of the ruffles.  For mine, I wanted mainly the pink dotted border to show without much of the strawberry fabric in between.  You can have your layers as long or short as you like.

Once you have it lined up just so, pick up both hankies together and carefully turn them over.  Now the Step 4 hankie is on top.  Use the edge of the Step 4 hankie as a guide for marking your cutting line on the second hankie. 

Once you have the second hankie marked, trim along the line you’ve drawn.  Because this hankie is the shorter of the two layers, the excess you’re cutting off (to the right of the scissors) will be wider than when you trimmed the first hankie.   Again a rotary cutter could be used to simplify this step.

  Step 6:  This is what you have after completing the first 5 steps.  You should have 2 sets of 2 hankie pieces; one set will be longer than the other.  Both sets should be the same width, namely the width of the hankie minus the trim you cut off in Step 1.

You will also have the 4 strips you removed in Step 1, as well as two strips of the hankie fabric that you trimmed off (not shown in this picture).

Step 7:  Take 1 set of hankie pieces (same length) and lay them right sides together.  On my hankie you couldn’t really tell the right side from the wrong side, unless you looked at the hemmed edge.

Pin the short sides, right sides together, and sew side seam.  Once you’ve done this on both sides you’ll have a big tube.  I used a zig-zag stitch on mine so that I wouldn’t have to worry about the seam fraying inside. 

If your hankies are like mine, they aren’t printed very precisely; my pieces were slightly different lengths.  Because my hankie had such a big contrast for the border color, I made sure the borders were lined up when I sewed my tubes.  That  left the bottom edges uneven, but to me that was less noticeable than if the borders didn’t line up.

 Step 8:  When you’ve finished step 7, turn both hankie tubes right side out.  If you’re a good seamstress you’ll press the seam allowances to one side and iron it flat.  If you’re in a hurry you’ll skip that step; this is, after all, a playtime skirt tutorial!  Place the longer tube inside the shorter tube.  Line up the top edges and the side seams.

 Step 9:  Pin the two layers together along the top edge.  (I skipped that since I’m lazy, but it’s best if you pin it first).  Next sew two basting rows at the top edge.  If you want a super duper looking gather, sew THREE basting rows instead of two.  This allows for more control over the gathers and gives a nicer finished product.

  Step 10:  Pull the bobbin threads until the skirt is gathered such that the circumference is equal to your little one’s waist measurement plus 2-3”.  My daughter’s waist measured 18 ½”; you can see here that my skirt is 20” around.  After finishing it I wish I had left more room to make it easier to pull off and on, which is why I recommend making it a bit bigger than I did.

Step 11:  Using the strips you removed from the sides of the hankie in Step 1, create a strip the same length as the circumference of your skirt plus 1” for a seam allowance.  My strip measured 21”.  Fold the strip right sides together and sew up the side using a ½” seam allowance.  You now have a border tube that is the same circumference as your skirt top.

 Step 12:  Turn the tube you made in Step 11 wrong side out.  Place the skirt inside the tube.  Line them up so that the top (raw) edges are even.  I put the seam in my tube at the center point of the two side seams in the skirt; this will be the back of the skirt.  You could also line up the seam with one of the side seams.  Pin in place.

 Step 13:  Sew along the raw edge.  The width of the seam allowance isn’t vital.  The important part is that if you did 2 rows of basting for gathering, you want the stitches to be in between the 2 rows.  This keeps you from having big, uneven, folded over gathers.  If you did 3 basting rows you want the stitches to be between the bottom two rows.  Sew all the way around, then remove any basting stitches that are showing on the outside of the skirt.

 Step 14:  Optional.  My seams weren’t laying flat (because I didn’t press them) so at this point I pulled them flat, tucked under the portion that didn’t line up, and did a bit of top-stitching to secure the seam allowance.

 Step 15:  Now we’ll form the casing for the elastic.  Because we are folding down the hemmed edge from the border of the hankie we don’t even have to fold down, press, then fold down again.  You’ll want to fold your binding onto the inside of the skirt.  The stitching line will be as close to the hemmed edge as possible; pin it so that your stitching line will be just above the seamline from Step 13.  This way the seam on the outside of the skirt will be on the printed border rather than on the strawberry fabric.  That way the seam won’t show much, and it also won’t mess up your lovely gathers.  Once it’s all pinned up, stitch all the way around leaving a 2” opening for inserting elastic.

 See how the new stitching line shows through onto the border fabric?  That’s why you want matching thread; when the skirt’s done you won’t even see it!

Step 16:  Choose the elastic width you want.  I used 3/8” elastic, which works well for the baby crowd.  With toddlers you may prefer a strong, wider elastic.  If you do that you’ll need to adjust the width of your casing, perhaps by sewing two border strips together lengthwise to make your casing twice as wide.

Measure the elastic to the same length as your baby’s waist measurement.  Use a safety pin to guide through casing.  Overlap about ½ to 1” and stitch in place.  Sew up 2” gap in casing.  Admire the finished product!