Anna Woerner

Leap Day!

2012-02-29T18:37:00.001-08:00

It's not every day you get to blog on the 29th of February, so I wanted to write up a quick post!

Look what I did today!

There's a color filter on the left picture; they're actually the color depicted on the right.

When I was pregnant with Hannah Grace, I saw the pants on the left on a clearance rack at Target. They were a 2T, but I thought for $1.25, they'd be worth hanging on to for a couple of years. Fast forward to today. I tried the pants on Hannah Grace, and while they fit in in the waist, they were too long in the length. I thought about just hemming them, but when I considered the coming warm weather and the fact we're having a boy in a couple of months (thus 2T girl pants would be useless after this summer), I decided to cut them at the knee, serge the ends, fold up, and sew! Voila! Shorts!

fun outside and meal planning

2012-02-24T11:46:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was such a beautiful day that Hannah Grace and I were outside close to two hours (total). Add in her three hour nap and an hour long grocery shopping trip, and I have a fairly easy going day.

At one point, she ran inside and busted through the door on this riding toy, crazy girl.

She does candid best. What a smile.

I'm happy to say that I'm almost at the end of week two of meal planning (aka, eating all dinners and most breakfasts/lunches at home), and I bought enough food yesterday to get us through the middle of next week. Some of the things on our menu are/have been: baked homemade chicken nuggets (YUM), chicken Alfredo lasagna, beef tacos, and slow cooker BBQ chicken (we eat a lot of chicken). I tend to cook meals that are inexpensive, require very little preparation, and are tasty. I think the chicken Alfredo lasagna is the most expensive meal I make, so I don't cook it very often, but oh my goodness, it is delicious! The homemade baked chicken nuggets are my most recent discovery. I had them for the first time for lunch at a friends house a few weeks ago and knew I wanted to make them. We had them for dinner early last week, and we'll be having them again next week. Super easy and super tasty!

We're having leftovers tonight (from last night's chicken pillows), and my house is clean, so I get to spend the remainder of Hannah Grace's nap relaxing and reading!

On buying baby/toddler clothing.

2012-02-22T12:04:00.000-08:00

As I was browsing a couple of mommy's blogs I like to read, I noticed that one of them hosted a special link up that allowed you to share where you bought your kid's clothes. That was a couple of months ago, so while I'm not officially participating in the link up, I thought it would be fun to share where I buy Hannah Grace (and her soon-to-be-born-brother's) clothes.

There really isn't anything special about where I buy these clothes. Target and Kohl's are usually my number one go-to stores when I'm buying the basics: shirts, shorts, pants, leggings, and skirts. From these two stores I can get each of these items in the $6-$8 range. I like to check Old Navy out for any special sales or clearance deals, but I find a lot of their clothes to be overpriced for what it is (except during their kid/baby sale that happens every February and August).

When I'm in Murfreesboro, I like to make a trip to Carter's, Osh Kosh, and Gymboree. I think of these three stores, Osh Kosh is my favorite, but all three have cute and affordable clothing. When they have a sale (which is almost all the time), their prices tend to be similar to Old Navy's, but I prefer the quality and look to the clothing from these three stores over Old Navy's (which is funny, considering how much I love Old Navy for myself).

The first thing I do when shopping for Hannah Grace (and now her brother)? Go straight to the clearance racks. Just this morning I snagged this Carter's brand, two-piece fleece outfit for $4.98 from Kohl's. I willingly pay $5 for baby pants, so getting both items for $5 is a steal.

Carter's (the actual store) usually has great clearance racks, too. You can almost always catch a great clearance sale when a new season is nearing and they're trying to clear out the old season's clothes. Late last summer I bought Hannah Grace several items off the clearance rack, with an additional 30% taken off at the register. This can make for some really inexpensive clothing for your child!

I think the most surprising place I like to buy clothes from is Sam's. Right now they have a large selection of infant (3mo-24mo size) sun suits, rompers, and dresses that are Carter's brand for just $5.95. What makes this even better is going to Kohl's and seeing the exact same things being sold for $8.99. Hannah Grace has the dress below (purchased from Sam's, not Kohl's), and several weeks ago I bought her a really nice, lined Osh Kosh brand raincoat for $18. That's about as expensive as I pay for her clothes, but considering a raincoat (that isn't lined) from Target is $12, I thought it was worth the extra money for the quality and lining.

When I'm shopping for Hannah Grace, I like to keep things inexpensive. The most I will pay for a shirt or bottoms (whether it's a skirt, leggings, shorts, or jeans) is $10, but I rarely even pay that. I think the most expensive shirt I bought for her during the winter was $9 and pants were $8. I'll pay up to $20 for a jacket/coat (her heavy-ish pea coat from Old Navy was $14 and the Osh Kosh raincoat was $18); the pea coat has been worn since October and the rain coat is light enough to wear even during summer rain showers, so I am definitely getting my money's worth. I would spend as much as $15 on a dress, but I have yet to spend even that much thanks to Target's awesome clearance rack. Late last summer I bought three dresses (for this upcoming spring) for less than $10 total. And my mom likes to buy her dresses, so that helps :)

With the coming of a second child (and a boy at that), I'm realizing how easily the cost of clothes will add up. That's why I do my best to stick to the clearance racks, my budget, and even consignment shops (when I'm in Murfreesboro-- we don't have any good ones near my house). I also have to remind myself that Hannah Grace doesn't have to have every cute shirts and pair of leggings out there, even if they are only $5. I'm finding that it's kind of fun to take what she has and make new outfits out of one or two new clothing items. For example, she has grown out of two of her three pairs of jeans. Instead of buying a new pair of jeans, I bought a pair of jean shorts and will layer leggings she already has under them while it's still cold. Then when it gets warm, we'll nix the leggings, and she'll have shorts to wear! Then I'll buy her a couple of pairs of jeans to wear all next fall and winter.

I'm not sure if this was beneficial to anyone reading it, but if any of you are like me, you like to read about this kind of stuff. Hopefully it was at least a little enjoyable!

21 months (almost)

2012-02-16T12:32:00.000-08:00

It's been awhile (I just checked. . . six months) since I've done a post on Hannah Grace's developments and passed milestones, so I thought it was way past time to do another one!

First off, this is Hannah Grace one year ago (February 2011) at nine months old.

And six month later at fifteen months old.

And two days ago, a few days shy of 21 months, eating her Valentine's Day cupcake.

As far as her appearance goes, Hannah Grace's face has gradually thinned out from a chubby baby face into a more mature toddler face. Her hair is at her shoulders now and long enough for pigtails or a ponytail. I've decided not to cut her bangs, mainly because I love how her hair looks as it is and don't want to change it!

She hasn't been weighed since November, when she was 24 pounds, but I'm guessing she hasn't gained much weight since then. She might be right around 25 pounds now. I'm pretty sure she was 33 inches in November, but I can tell she's grown some since then.

Clothing sizes are sporadic. If you were to look in her closet and through her drawers right now you would see shirt sizes than range from 24 months to 3T. I've learned that brand has everything to do with what size she wears. If it's Carter's, Osh Kosh, Old Navy (usually) or Gymboree, the sizes are spot on with her age. However, Target's Circo and Just One You run small (for her, at least), which is why I've bought 3T sizes in those brands. Pant sizes are a little more consistent, as she fits fairly well into 24 month (although she has a pair of brown khakis from Osh Kosh that are still an inch and a half too long, even at the 24 month size). She has finally outgrown one pair of 18 month jeans (in the waist, at least) and one pair of 12-18 month jeans (in the length). She currently wears a size 6 in shoes (with a little bit of room to grow).

Talking. I sat down a few days ago and jotted down the words that she has in her vocabulary and came up with 30. These are words that she says fairly clearly, with the exception of a couple, which I'm about to mention. Her words for "bath" and "banana" are the same (baaaaaa!), but she points (or goes) to which ever she wants. I'm happy to say that she has finally figured out that John and I go by different names (as opposed to both of us being 'daddy'), and she has been calling me 'mommy' for a few weeks now. Whew.

I'm not sure where she lies along the "average" line with the number of words she says, but I'm not worried about it. Two months ago she was saying about 10 words, so there is definite progress. And she understands MUCH more than she speaks. It's amazing what I can tell her to do (pick this up, throw that away, bring me a diaper, sit/stand/lay, etc) and she respond properly.

There's been a whole lot of disciplining going on (in various methods), which can be frustrating, especially when we've been working on several things for a couple of months (i.e. coming straight to me when I call her, even when she's right there in the room). For the most part, though, she's receptive to our discipline, and it's nice to watch her grow from stubbornness (refusing to say "please") into compliance (saying "please" when we ask her to). Sometimes she'll even say "thank you". . . "da-dooo!".

Some of Hannah Grace's favorite things are Curious George (both of her stuffed George dolls, the show, and books), jumping on her trampoline to music, the Princess and the Pop Star Veggie Tales video, dancing while John plays the guitar, reading with me, rough housing with John, helping me cook, going outside (HURRY UP WARM WEATHER!!!!), helping with laundry, wearing shoes, and taking care of her baby dolls.

Her favorite foods are pasta, ANYthing with cheese, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, most fruit, and yogurt with granola. Keep in mind these are her favorites; her actual diet consists of more than these things.

She drinks milk and juice throughout the day from her sippy cups, but she loves to drink out of big cups, so we give her water in those. That way if she spills it on the carpet, it won't show up.

Hannah Grace takes one nap a day, going down at 1:00 and waking anywhere between 3:00 and 4:00. Bedtime is around 8:15, and she will sleep until 7:00-8:00 in the morning.

Whew. . . I think I covered everything. She's definitely growing and changing every day, and I'm loving watching her develop. The next few months are going to be fun (I hope!).

Valentine's

2012-02-14T11:56:00.000-08:00

It has been said by me many times that John and I don't really celebrate Valentine's. At most we'll use the holiday as an excuse to go out to eat, but presents, cards, and candy are not exchanged, and they haven't been since we've been together.

Wait, I lied. On our first married Valentine's Day, John gave me a gift card to Old Navy. And I gave him a card with. . . something. But I think that's it.

However, I feel a little differently about celebrating the holiday with kids. Valentine's can be really fun, and there are lots of cute activities to do with children surrounding the holiday. As a kid I made heart collages from construction paper, received small (but fun) presents from my parents, and I ate a lot of yummy treats at school parties.

Now that Hannah Grace is old enough to "help" in the kitchen, I thought it would be fun to make up some of those Valentine themed Pillsbury cupcakes. She helped me put the ingredients in a bowl and stir them together. Once the cupcakes were finished, I let them cool, put Hannah Grace down for a nap, and iced/sprinkled them.

One of these will be a much enjoyed after nap snack for her!

here i am.

2012-02-07T14:35:00.000-08:00

I started to say that since the last time I blogged, some very exciting things (or rather, thing) happened, but the proper wording would be we announced a very exciting thing (via Facebook and Twitter).

That thing being I am now 21 (almost 22) weeks pregnant with our second child, a boy!

I am due June 14, but since it is likely I will have a repeat C-Section, he will probably be born sometime during the first week of June.

I'm excited, one-- to be pregnant, and two-- that it's a boy. When I was growing up, my favorite doll was a boy, and I grew up with a brother and several boy cousins on my Dad's side of the family. When I found out Hannah Grace was a girl, I was a little freaked out because I hadn't been around very many little girls growing up. Don't get me wrong for a minute though; I can't tell you how many times I've thanked God for giving me a daughter first. Hannah Grace is so amazing and so gentle with babies (both real and dolls) that I know she is going to fiercely love her little brother. I'm excited to nurture their relationship and watch as it develops over time.

This pregnancy, like Hannah Grace's, has been quite uneventful, which is what I prefer. I only had a few days of nausea but never actually got sick. My labs have come back normal, the baby's heartbeat has been steady and healthy, and he has looked great during both ultrasounds. At my 20 week ultrasound almost two weeks ago, the technician was unable to look at his heart because he was laying on his stomach, so I'll have to have another one done when I go back at the end of the month.

We were in middle Tennessee last week, and my mom and I (and Hannah Grace) did some shopping for the little guy, and I found an incredible deal on a double stroller at Once Upon a Child. Since we've been back home, I've been maintaining the house, and today I finally cleared out our guest room closet so we would have a place to store the baby's things. That was quite a chore, and I'm now happily sitting on the couch while Hannah Grace naps.

I keep trying to think of anything we may need with a second child, and it's quite a short list, which is good. I'd like a nicer breast pump (the one I had with Hannah Grace was a manual one, and it hurt your hand after pumping for more than five minutes). And I want a small electric Kitchen Aid food chopper to make baby food. We bought the stroller, and we'll need clothes, but that's pretty manageable. I'm also going to be making a couple of blankets and crib sheets, instead of buying bedding. That way I can have exactly what I want without having to search all over the internet and pay an arm and a leg for something I don't really even like.

So. . . yeah! We're thankful! And looking forward to June!

Sew(ing) Related

2012-01-22T13:46:00.000-08:00

For the first time in my two and a half years of sewing, I have a dedicated area to my sewing stuff. I say 'area' and not room because I'm sharing with John's L-shaped desk. Although, as of yesterday, the long side of the L is now where my cutting mat lays, leaving the short side for his computer. Now that he has an iPad, his "home office" is the recliner, so he doesn't sit at his desk much anymore. So maybe I do have a sewing room?

Anyway, over the last two weeks, the room became a disaster, and you couldn't even see the floor due to fabric, my cutting mat, and lots of other odd and end sewing notions being scattered all over. I decided that something needed to be done and began perusing Pinterest to see if any ideas popped up.

Right now, this is my current desire for the room:

A peg board. Duh. The only size I'm able to find (at a decent price) is 24x48 inches, so while it would be large, I actually think it would look o.k. hanging above my sewing table with all my "tools" on display. This would keep my notions, rulers, cutting tools, and thread off the table and out of the way. The way I have everything organized works, but Hannah Grace is only getting taller (and more curious), and her hands are finding their way to things she shouldn't have in her possession (scissors, etc), so I want something that will get my supplies completely out of her reach.

Other than planning the re-organization of my sewing room, I've been obsessively scouring the internet for fabric for a few projects I'm planning to sew over the next few months. Not only that, I'm also (obsessively) seeking out simple, fun tutorials to help me fill out Hannah Grace's spring and summer wardrobe. When I saw this skirt, I knew that I wanted to whip up a few:

A Simple Skirt.

The tutorial for the skirt can be found here.

As with each year (since mid-2009) I'm hoping to continue to expand my sewing projects. I started off making pencil rolls in 2009, made my first set of curtains and pillows in 2010 (along with simple baby blankets), and in 2011 I ventured out with clothes for Hannah Grace, making my first pillow case dress, dress with long sleeves, and pants. I have a few ideas as to what 2012 will hold, but we'll just see what I'm able to come up with!

Today

2012-01-17T12:37:00.000-08:00

My Dad went Home six months ago today. Six months. Already? Jeeze. They are six months that have flown by, and I'm tempted to ask where the time has gone, but I won't. I know where it went, and it went fast.

Last week I was a sewing machine. Almost literally. I sewed two pillowcase dresses flawlessly, experimented with sewing a sleeveless tunic, and experimented with sewing a tunic with sleeves (without using a pattern) for Hannah Grace. I won't be adding the sleeveless tunic to Hannah Grace's wardrobe because there are just too many things wrong with it, but I'll keep the tunic with sleeves. It isn't perfect, but it's in much better shape than the tunic with sleeves. If I hadn't have had plans this morning, I would have taken pictures of Hannah Grace "modeling" everything. Maybe we'll have another warm(er) day this week and I can.

After going through some fabric last night I decided to sew through some of my larger materials and sell them off. Right now I know I'm going to make three baby blankets and sell them for $20/$25 each. I haven't set an exact amount because I need to add up the cost of the fabric by itself (which is why homemade items are more expensive than store bought-- fabric isn't cheap). But I am making them larger than a standard baby blanket (36' x 44') and I am backing them with the ever popular, super soft minky fabric, so I think people will get their money's worth.

I'm happy to say that all things Christmas (with the exception of our now ornament-less tree) have been taken down and put away. This is the first year I haven't had Christmas decorations down before the new year, but between sickness and traveling, there was no way that was happening this year. Now I'm eagerly awaiting (consistent) warm weather in the coming spring and summer. For a couple of years I despised hot weather, but now that I'm going to have an active toddler this year, I can't wait. There are so many things to do outside with kids!

Cherie

2012-01-12T17:06:00.000-08:00

Those of you who have read this blog for awhile have read about our friends Andy, Cherie, and their son Zach. I've known Andy since I met John, and Cherie and I got along right away when she began her relationship with Andy two and a half years ago. John, Hannah Grace, and I always make sure to spend time with them (along with our friends Michael and Amber) every time we come to Middle Tennessee. The six of us have formed a bond so strong that the line that used to mark the distinction between friend and family has been smeared and we don't even know the difference anymore.

On January 1st, Cherie was rushed to the ER with a sudden, severe pain in her temple. The medical staff at that hospital dismissed the pain as an odd migraine and sent her home with some painkillers.

The pain still lingered and worsened into the following evening, so Andy drove her to another hospital about 45 minutes away from their apartment in hopes of getting a (more extensive) second opinion. After waiting several hours in the ER, they were finally able to see a doctor who could tell the pain was severe enough for Cherie to be admitted to the hospital for further testing.

To make a long story short, Cherie was diagnosed with Trigeminal Neuralgia. You'll want to click on the link for more information, but basically she has severe pain on one (and sometimes both, which is rare) sides of her face. While the spasms can be triggered by several things, nobody knows what set it off in the first place. Heart breakingly enough, the squeals and loud jabbering of nine month old Zach can cause the pain to increase, so it is very difficult for her to be around him for long periods of time.

There is no guaranteed cure for Trigeminal Neuralgia, but it can be treated. Right now they (Andy, Cherie, and the doctors) are searching for the best medical treatment for her. Surgery is an option they are considering, and she will be consulting with a neurosurgeon at the end of the month.

Cherie is in a lot of pain, and while she is on medications, the lingering pain greatly affects her day to day life. John, Hannah Grace, and I have seen her twice since the diagnosis, and while she is able to talk with us, it's evident she is uncomfortable. Being a girl of such spunk, joy, passion it is really hard to watch her go through this. Cherie is as strong as anyone can be in this situation, and I admire her faith as walks this long, difficult journey.

We pray for her daily, and I am writing this in hopes of it reaching as many people as possible. If you are reading this, please, even if it's just for a second, pray for peace and healing for Cherie. All she wants to do is get better so she can take care of her son and allow Andy to resume a normal work schedule.

Coming Up to Breathe

2012-01-09T12:00:00.000-08:00

I'm still here.

Right as Hannah Grace recovered from Bronchitis, John and I both got sick with two variations of The Yuck. His was in the form of losing his voice, sore throat, coughing, and (eventually) a stuffy head. Mine was in the form of a sinus infection sent straight from Satan himself (at least that's what it felt like). It was literally as if I was constipated in my sinuses, with the pain starting with my maxillary sinus and extending to my top molars and left ear. For three nights I was awake every two hours for up to an hour because I was in so much pain. Thankfully a trip to the doctor yielded some antibiotics, and it began clearing up a couple of days later.

John, Hannah Grace, and I spent the weekend in Cincinatti, Ohio so I could be in one of my oldest friend's wedding. John and I were absolutely dreading the drive (seven hours each way) because we knew Hannah Grace would be miserable (if you've kept up with us, this blog, Facebook, or talk to us in Real Life, then you know about the issues we've had with HG in the car).

She wasn't miserable. At all. In fact, in the total fourteen hour drive, there was less than thirty minutes of crying and fussing. I can't even begin to describe just how amazing that is. I REALLY hope this is something that continues, but even if it doesn't, I'm thankful she was perfect on such a long trip.

Anyway, once we were in Cincinatti we spent our time (and by we, I mean me, the bridesmaids, and the bride) getting pampered before the big day. For the first time in years I got my hair done, for the first time since before Hannah Grace was born I got my nails done, and for the first time ever I got my make up done. I loved it all, especially since John kept Hannah Grace at the house we were staying at while I was out and about.

I LOVED the color I picked out for my nails; it's You Don't Know Jaques by OPI, and it coordinated with my dress really well:

We got home late yesterday afternoon and unloaded the car. This morning John and I agreed that if I took Hannah Grace to the grocery store early, then he would take her out on some errands he needed to run so I could have a couple of hours to clean the house. They're both back, and now Hannah Grace is napping, so I'm going to keep on cleaning (and hopefully take Christmas down, agh!).

2012

2012-01-02T11:25:00.000-08:00

I am not going to do a reflective post on 2011.

I spent the first half of the year wishing it away because we were traveling so much, and all I wanted to do was spend a couple of months at home.

I spent the last half of the year wishing it away because I wanted to get away from the worst day of my life (and worse week of my life) as quickly as possible. This event brought on more traveling than we anticipated during the last five months of 2011, but that didn't matter to me anymore. As it turns out, all the traveling we did January through May gave me more time with my dad in those five months than I had in almost two years.

Now that 2011 is gone, and 2012 is here, I can't help but feel a sense of relief. I know it sounds kind of lame to talk about a "fresh slate" when all it really is is another turn of the calendar, but when something so tragic happens in your life, it taints the entire year, and all I want to do is look at a different number.

As I've said in past posts about every new year, I don't have resolutions. Only goals. I didn't exactly meet my goals in 2011, but at the same time I feel like I exceeded them.

As for 2012, my largest goal is to develop a structured routine for meal plans and cleaning the house. I've said this before: meal planning isn't my problem. Sticking to the meal plan is where the issue lies, and I want to improve on that (big time) by the end of the year. And while cleaning the house isn't hard for me, I often find myself with more to clean in a day than I'd like. What I've learned in almost four years of being a housewife is that it is much easier to clean your house when you spend 20 minutes each day (if that) tidying every room. Considering that most rooms don't even take that long (except maybe the kitchen), I could have our entire house tidied in an hour. The most difficult part about that, however, is having a toddler un-tidying everything you've cleaned, especially in her room and the living room. I've come to grips with that and am o.k. picking up after her several times a day. My next step is developing some sort of schedule that will help me maintain the deep cleaning that goes on around here (toilets, floors, etc.)

I also want to find (or create) more creative meals for Hannah Grace, ESPECIALLY her lunches. If anyone has any ideas/links/recipes/ANYthing, feel free to share!

two for two.

2011-12-28T10:53:00.000-08:00

Hannah Grace woke up December 23 with a dry cough and runny nose. This eventually turned into a congested cough and super runny nose, accompanied by a fever. She woke up from a three hour nap yesterday evening completely miserable, and John and I decided to take her to a nearby Urgent Care clinic. After a chest X-ray to check for pneumonia, a catheter to check for a UTI (sounds odd, but we had reasons for wanting to check), a thumb prick to check her white blood cell count (and one other thing, but it slipped my mind), and a throat and ear examination (to check for an ear infection and strep), we finally were that everything looked fine, with the exception of the X-Ray, which showed some Bronchitis. We were given a Rx for an antibiotic and were able to leave.

The catheter was the most traumatic thing for her. I think the worst part about having a sick child so young is not being able to explain what's actually happening. John and I both had to hold her down while the nurse inserted the catheter and collected the urine, and although Hannah Grace screamed the entire time, the whole ordeal lasted maybe 90 seconds. She also hates having her ears and mouth looked at, so those (short) examinations required both John and I to hold her still. John went with her to have the X-Ray done and said he would have been traumatized if he were Hannah Grace. Apparently they had to wrap her arms around something (to get a good shot for the X-Ray), and then John had to hold her arms still. They were at the very end of a hall from where I was, and I could still hear her crying. The thumb prick upset her for a moment, but she calmed down as the lab guy took her blood (this was a process unlike any I've had done, and it was much easier to do with a toddler).

She woke up at 8:00 this morning still coughing and with some pretty gross snot/boogers caked on her face. Other than that, she seemed to be feeling a little better. I gave her a little medicine, and she perked up even more. For days she hasn't been interested in eating, but she finally ate about half a bowl of oatmeal for lunch. We've been able to keep her drinking milk and juice fairly consistently, so I haven't been worried about her becoming dehydrated. She is napping now, which is good. In the days leading up to her getting sick she napped terribly (if at all) and fought going to bed at night. I was so confused why she was suddenly having so many issues with sleeping, but I think the illness was slowly setting in.

We're going to lay low at least through tomorrow, and then I'm hoping to get out to the grocery store. We have no food in our house, and spending an hour at Wal-Mart yesterday was the last thing I wanted to do (even if I could have grocery shopped by myself).

John and I were laughing last night because Hannah Grace is now two for two with getting sick at Christmas. Last year she threw up on Christmas Eve for a couple of hours after eating Gerber puffs. She hadn't been able to eat rice cereal or oatmeal because the grains made her throw up. We had hoped she would be able to handle the puffs (which are rice based), but she couldn't. And then this year she got to deal with Bronchitis (although, I'm happy to say that on Christmas Day she was actually feeling pretty good). Here's hoping next year she'll get to celebrate Christmas sans sickness!

Christmas presents

2011-12-20T11:08:00.000-08:00

With Christmas just a few days away, I thought it would be fun to share what Hannah Grace will be getting this year.

If you've been reading long enough (or know us well enough), you'll remember that last year, just three weeks before Christmas, John found out his position with AT&T would be no more by the end of the year. It was a (long) two weeks before we found out we would be leaving Knoxville and moving across the state for a new position. During those two weeks, we decided we wouldn't buy presents for each other or anyone else, except for a couple of things for Hannah Grace (we literally spent $40 on her gifts). We didn't know if John would have a job at the end of the year, so presents were the absolute last thing on our mind.

This year is different: John's job is really good, we've paid off some debt, and that has allowed us to have a bit more fun with gifts. John got a guitar and gave me Lightroom 3 last month, and I began brainstorming about what to give Hannah Grace this year. John and I are fairly adamant about not having many electronic toys. The key word there is many. We're not completely against them, but we'd rather she have things that really allow her to use her imagination. I think we did a good job with what we picked out:

Mega Bloks. These are like giant Legos, so they'll be easy to Hannah Grace to both grip and build. This particular bag is normally $21 at Target, but thanks to Black Friday and a $3 off coupon, I snagged it for $7. I also found a deal through Wal-Mart's website that had a tub of 100 Mega Bloks in the primary colors for $10, so I got those, too. John wasn't wild about buying a second set because he's afraid he'll trip over them, but I assured him they wouldn't scatter. Much.

Elmo house shoes! A cute $5 stocking stuffer than Hannah Grace will love!

Veggies Tales DVDs. I think I paid $4 for It's a Meaningful Life, $2 for King George and the Ducky, and $5 for Princess and the Pop Star. We've actually been watching It's a Meaningful Life, but the other two will be opened at Christmas. I don't mind Hannah Grace watching TV in moderation, but I really hate all the commercials kids are exposed to, so I'm starting to build a (small) DVD collection for her.

Leap Frog Shapes and Sharing Picnic Basket. I really had no rhyme or reason to buying this; I just thought it was really cute and Hannah Grace liked it when I let her play with it in the store. My sister in law gave her a cooking pot with veggies that was the same idea as this picnic basket for HG's birthday in May, and she loves it, so I knew she would enjoy this. I got it off Amazon for $15 on Black Friday, which is $5 cheaper than it sells for in stores, so it was a pretty good deal.

Farm activity cube. This is an all wooden activity cube that a friend of mine bought for his son a couple of months ago at Costco. John and I had seen these before and liked them but felt Hannah Grace wasn't old enough for one until now. So, I messaged my friend and asked if he would pick one up for Hannah Grace (we don't have a Costco where we live), drop it off at my in-laws, and then have me send him a check for the cost. He obliged, and now Hannah Grace is going to open it on Christmas! This was $50, which is isn't bad considering how sturdy it is (and that Amazon was selling this same one for a little over $70!). I love it because it is straight up wood and will last a long time. The pictures on the different puzzles and figurines are eye catching, especially for a toddler, and I know Hannah Grace will love it.

I don't know what my mom is getting Hannah Grace, but John's parents bought her a mini trampoline, and it arrived several days ago. She loves sitting and "jumping" on it (her feet never actually leave the surface of the trampoline); I know it's only a matter of time before she's REALLY jumping, and then I'll be putting it outside, ha.

new phone

2011-12-14T10:24:00.000-08:00

After two years of having an iPhone, I've made the switch to an Android phone, LG's Nitro. The ONLY reason I made that decision was blatant curiosity. AT&T and phone manufacturers have been sending John various Android devices over the last year and a half, and I decided I wanted to try one out for awhile. I still LOVE the iPhone and would recommend it as anyone's first smart phone (at least on AT&T's network). Android phones are not as user friendly as the iPhone, but according to John, they are more capable. I'm not even sure what that means, nor do I think I will truly benefit from these 'capabilities', but I guess someone would.

I'm not gonna lie: I hated this phone the first night I had it (two nights ago). It is much more difficult to navigate than the iPhone, typing on the touch screen is different, and it was just hard to figure out (but that goes back to the whole user friendly thing). John sat down and showed me a few different things about the phone, and I warmed up to it a little. This is my second full day to have the phone, and while I still can't find anything about it I prefer over the iPhone (other than the super pretty screen and 8 mega pixel camera), I like it much more than I did Monday night. I also like how large the screen is, but that's truly a personal preference, since many people prefer a smaller screen.

Now I'm just hoping Android app creators hurry up with an Instagram app! That was my favorite app on the iPhone!

The Quilt.

2011-12-10T11:45:00.000-08:00

I started the quilt the first week of June. By the second week I had cut solid squares into strips, sewn them into patchwork blocks, sewn the patchwork and solid blocks into rows, and sewn the rows together to create the quilt top. Sometime around the third week of June I had purchased batting and decided on my back piece and sandwiched the layers together, using about 100 quilting pins to hold the whole thing together. Then I began quilting by machine, and it was a process. So much of a process that after just a couple of rows, I decided to take a short break from the quilt and work on something much less cumbersome, so I think I made a couple of dresses for Hannah Grace.

Then I lost Dad, and that lead to quite a bit of unplanned traveling to and from middle Tennessee over the next couple of months, and then there were small projects that caught my eye that I worked on, and then from mid-October to about two weeks ago I just didn't feel like sewing. This happens from time to time, and I usually wind up focusing more on photography, which is what happened. Well, that and I put quite a bit of effort into cleaning and organizing our house.

I finally pulled the quilt from under a pile of fabric Thanksgiving weekend, and it sat on my sewing chair for a few days before I finally decided to finish it. This consisted of finishing the actual quilting via my machine and binding, which I expected to be a nightmare. As it turned out, the quilting was my biggest frustration, and the binding was quite easy.

But I finished it.

And I love it:

For the quilt top I used a layer cake by Moda in the Breakfast at Tiffany's theme. I used this tutorial to make the quilt, following each step exactly. The only thing I did differently was the material for the back of the quilt. Rather than using the snuggly fabric Moda suggested, I decided to use the flat sheet from the first set of bed sheets John and I had. The matching fitted sheet had gotten a hole in it, so the flat sheet was just folded up in our linen closet. Because it is a (real, we've learned fake ones exist) 1,000 thread count sheet, it is much softer than most of the bed sheets out there. Instead of buying or making a separate binding for the quilt, I went the (much) easier route and left about two inches of the bed sheet around the outside of the quilt, and I folded it twice, pinned all the way around, and sewed it. My mom gave me that idea; easy peasy.

This is a great quilt for someone to make to has zero experience in quilting. Not only is it smaller than a full size quilt (this is more like an individual throw), but the directions in the above tutorial are very simple. I definitely want to make another one in the future; I just hope it doesn't take six months!

2011-12-05T11:45:00.000-08:00

I can't believe Thanksgiving weekend was just last weekend. Since my mom left last Sunday, we've had two more sets of visitors in the last week: John's mom from Wednesday to Thursday and Andy, Cherie, and Zach from Friday afternoon through yesterday afternoon. Both of those visits were fun, and now that we're going to have some normalcy for the next few weeks, I'm not sure what to do with myself.

While John's mom was here, I was able to make quite a bit of progress on the quilt I started back in June. So much progress, in fact, that by the time she left the only thing I had to do was bind it. AND, by some act of God I was able to pin the binding in place and sew it down while Hannah Grace was awake last Thursday afternoon. SO. THE QUILT IS FINISHED! I haven't taken any pictures of it yet, but I will have a post dedicated to that soon.

I have one more larger project I started earlier this year that I'm also hoping to finish by mid-January. It, too, is a quilt-like project that is a picnic blanket. Obviously that won't be used in this cold weather, but I'd like to have it ready and at hand once the warm weather returns.

Other than sewing, I've been finishing up the Christmas-izing of our house, wrapping Hannah Grace's presents, and getting the overall state of our house in a consistent organized and clean state. A couple of weeks ago John shampooed our carpets and I scrubbed our kitchen tile. Since then we have been super motivated to maintain the cleanliness of the floors (especially now that we know what not maintaining them can do), so I've been mopping and vacuuming very regularly (I'd already been vacuuming regularly, thanks to HG, but not so much with mopping-- mostly because all I had was a Swiffer, and those don't work well on my kitchen floor). It's amazing how doing basic chores can really make your house look so much better.

John is off today, so we've been lazing around. We grabbed lunch at Arby's earlier, and when Hannah Grace wakes up from her nap we're going to Sam's. Such a wild life, I know :p

Thanksgiving Weekend Overview

2011-11-28T13:14:00.000-08:00

I think the worst thing about John's job is that we can never travel for Thanksgiving. Last year we stayed in Knoxville and my parents drove over for the weekend, and the year before that we stayed in Florida and had dinner with some of John's extended family. This year we decided at the last minute we wanted to just stay home to avoid the stress of packing, driving, and hopping between both families in a 36 hour time period. We had told my mom she was welcome to come over, and the morning of Thanksgiving, she did just that, arriving here at 11:00.

Because it was just the three of us, we made plans to eat at Cracker Barrel after Hannah Grace woke up from her nap. Well, she woke up and we got to Cracker Barrel at about 2:30 only to be told there was a 90 minute wait. We were already hungry (and there was NO WAY I was going to have an 18 month old Hannah Grace hang out in the store part of the restaurant for that long-- too many breakables). So we drove until we found the next open restaurant, Ruby Tuesday. I really have no idea why they were open-- they didn't have any sort of Thanksgiving special, so Mom, John, and I got burgers and their salad bar. Far from traditional, but everything was really good.

We went back home, hung out, and Mom and I deliberated over going to Target's midnight opening. We decided we would go, but Mom needed to take a nap beforehand so she could would be energized for the late night shopping adventure. Originally I didn't want to leave the house until 11:30. However, upon seeing friends' in other parts of the state Facebook statuses about the crazy lines (at 10:00), I got my mom up and said we needed to leave at 10:30 or so. We made it out by 10:45 and got to Target at 11:00. The line was already long, and we decided to just wait in the car until they opened. Then we decided to just go to Wal-Mart to see what that was like-- it was INSANE. Because they started many of their deals at 10pm, the lines were ridiculous and people were EV.ER.Y.WHERE.

So we left the madness.

And went to Target, which, believe it or not, wasn't so bad. We walked up to the store right as they were letting people in, and Mom and I trekked to the end of the (very) long line. The doors opened at midnight, and it was 12:15 before we got inside. Once we were in, I bolted for the toy section, and was able to grab a set of mega bloks for Hannah Grace. They are about $20 (even on Amazon), but Target had them for $10, and I had a $3 off coupon, so I only had to pay $7. And yes, that was the only reason I wanted to go to Target at midnight and wait for an hour to check out. BUT I got her a couple of other things really inexpensively, and I had a good time just hanging out with Mom.

After an hour of shopping, we realized how long the line was (it started in the very back and weaved in and out of the aisles alone the perimeter of the store). Despite the long line (and probably 300 people waiting), it actually moved fairly quickly. I was so surprised at how organized everything was-- definitely better than how Wal-Mart ran their ship!

We got home at 2:30 and pretty much went straight to bed. Hannah Grace woke up at 6:30 (after sleeping in until 8:00 for two weeks straight, go figure), so she, Mom, and I went to Lifeway for their 7:00 opening. I got Hannah Grace a couple of Veggies Tales DVDs super cheap! They had a pretty good sale on a lot of other stuff, but I wound up just sticking with the DVDs. We were in line for awhile here, and once we left we just came home and let Hannah Grace take a nap. We were SO tired.

On Saturday we spent some of the day shopping-- I wanted to take advantage of some deals Ulta had going on, and we wound up at Kohl's and bought some Christmas decorations. We had made reservations with Cracker Barrel for their Thanksgiving to-go dinner, so we picked that up for dinner! It was unbelievable how much food they gave us for $50-- turkey, dressing, sweet potatoes, corn bread, biscuits, gravy, and three sides (we had macaroni, green beans, and mashed potatoes). YUM-O!

Mom left Sunday morning as we were leaving for church, and once we got home from church, I got to take a nice, long nap! Shopping is exhausting! ;)

another.

2011-11-23T10:14:00.000-08:00

After yesterday's post, I took another photo and did a little work on it. I turned this blown out, overexposed photo of Hannah Grace. . .

And turned it into this. Lovely.

I'm sure the photo in this and my previous post could be even more improved, but I'm satisfied with what I've done so far!

Lightroom Novice

2011-11-22T11:38:00.000-08:00

I received Lightroom 3 in the mail yesterday and upon installation almost immediately closed my laptop. This software is no joke, and I'm in major need of an instruction manual, so I'm going to be ordering the Kindle version of this book shortly:

I eventually reopened my laptop and decided to do some clicking around Lightroom just to see what all it held.

It holds a lot. There's a reason I'm getting that book.

Anyway, I finally decided to pull up a picture and try to do some tweaking, and, without really watching what I was doing, I turned this straight out of the camera shot of Hannah Grace. . .

Into this!

One thing I can definitely say about Lightroom is that it really lets you do exactly what you want to a photo (even if you aren't paying attention to what you're actually doing. Ahem). I'm definitely looking forward to working with this software more!

Ho, ho, ha.

2011-11-16T18:29:00.000-08:00

This morning, I was going through the updates on my Facebook news feed when I saw that one of the photography pages posted a deal from Adorama; they were selling Adobe's Lightroom 3 for $150. Given that this is a $300 software that rarely goes for under $250 on sale, I knew this was a steal. Knowing I wouldn't be taking advantage of the deal, but knowing John also appreciates a good deal, I sent him a text: Lightroom 3 for $150. Dang.

A week or so ago John announced that he knew exactly what he was getting me for Christmas. According to him, it was something I've mentioned several times, therefore he knew that it was something I really wanted.

I, for the life of me, could not think of anything (within a reasonable price) that I had mentioned to him that I would like, so I spent the next few days trying to figure out what it could possibly be.

Imagine my surprise when he called me four hours after I texted him, greeting me with, "How did you know??" "Know what?" I asked. "What I was getting you for Christmas," he responded. "I don't know what you're getting me for Christmas," I answered, puzzled.

"But you texted me about it earlier," he said.

Lightroom 3. He was going to use the Amazon rewards points he accrues through work to pay for a chunk of Lightroom 3 for my Christmas present. However, because I had found it for $150 on Adorama, and because he was going to have to use all his points and still pay $100 out of pocket, he told me to go ahead and order the software, so I'm getting my Christmas present early!

I'm excited, especially since I used a 30 day trial of Lightroom 3 a couple of months ago. It's very different from Photoshop Elements, but it will be a great tool in perfecting the exposure of so many of my pictures.

Oh, and here's the kicker: You know how I said it rarely goes below $250 on sale? Yeah, pretty sure Amazon is also selling it (at least today) for $150!

Do any if you guys have anything in particular on your Christmas lists this year?

two weeks, whoops.

2011-11-11T09:08:00.000-08:00

After my last post, I began prepping for a week long trip that ultimately took us across the state of Tennessee and back. We spent the day before Halloween through the Wednesday after with my mom, which was nice. John helped her get a great deal on a computer, she treated us to several meals, and we did a little shopping at The Avenue. We spent part of Wednesday at John's parents going through some boxes that have been there for two and a half years. I happily found several books I'd couldn't find, and John went through a bunch of baseball/football/basketball cards to see if they were worth anything. He didn't really have any luck, ha.

On Thursday we drove to Knoxville and stayed with a lady John used to work with and her new husband. We had a lot of fun just lounging around their house, talking, and doing a whole lot of nothing. We met up with our friends D.C. and Suz several times, and on Saturday night, John, Hannah Grace, and I went to the UT-MTSU game. Considering everything, Hannah Grace did pretty good, but I think we'll be getting a babysitter the next time we go to a game (whenever that is). We spent so much time making sure she wasn't going to fall off a bleacher or drink some stranger's coke that neither of us got to watch much of the game until she fell asleep at the beginning of the fourth quarter. Oh well, it was still a fun time!

We got back last Sunday, and it has taken me all week to get our house back in order! I was sick yesterday (nothing major, I just felt super weak and tired-- almost flu-like, but I'm better today!), and Hannah Grace managed to terrorize the house in the 13 hours she was awake, ha.

Now I have floors to clean and laundry (like, ten loads) to fold. Anyone wanna come help? Bueller?

Hannah Grace, the little mommy

2011-10-27T10:26:00.000-07:00

I'm not trying to be that parent, but I am blown away at how well Hannah Grace observes my mothering and then plays it out in her own little world. This morning I was taking a few pictures of her, when I realized she was mothering her own doll:

Doll in her left hand, she picks up a pillow with her right to use as a mattress.

After placing the 'mattress' on the 'bed', she lays her doll on top and grabs a blanket.

Covering the doll. . .

Just right.

I pray with Hannah Grace before bedtime, and sometimes I check on her before she falls asleep. I'm guessing this is what she's mimicking.

Looking over her shoulder. . .

Rock. . .

and rock. . . .

and rock to sleep.

Obviously I can't rock Hannah Grace's crib, but I do sometimes sit in the glider in her room and rock her then, so maybe that's what she's thinking? Either way, I thought it was adorable.

I apologize for the blurriness and up closeness of some of the photos. My telephoto lens happened to be what was on my camera, so 75mm was the farthest I could get from Hannah Grace.

Also a fun fact: the doll Hannah Grace is playing with is actually one of my old Cabbage Patch baby dolls that my mom bought me when I was three!

e-i-e-i-o

2011-10-24T14:46:00.000-07:00

Yesterday our Sunday school class went to a corn maze/farm with kid's activities. John and I have gone to these before, but this was our first as parents, and I've gotta say, they're way more fun when you have a child old enough to participate. Hannah Grace slept the first half hour or so we were there, but we spent a good chunk of that time waiting on everyone, collecting money (for the group discount), and going through a makeshift farm that let you plant seeds and pick cotton. Once Hannah Grace woke up, we took her to see the animals, let her run around a hay-filled barn loft, play in a corn box (same idea as a sand box, but with corn kernels), and go down a giant slide (at least twenty feet, if not longer) several times. We also went through the corn maze and went on a "hayride". I put it in quotations because the trailer we were on didn't actually have any hay on it; oh well. Somehow all of that took three hours, and we decided to leave because both Hannah Grace and I were getting tired. After we got home, John put Hannah Grace down and she fell asleep almost immediately. After tinkering on my laptop for a few minutes, I decided to lay down, too (at this time it was almost 5pm), and didn't wake up for two hours! Hannah Grace had to be woken up, and I was afraid she wouldn't sleep very well that night. Thankfully after dinner (we definitely went out), she only stayed up until 9:15 and then slept until 7:15! Usually she sleeps eleven hours, but I was expecting much worse since she took a two hour nap right before bedtime.

And can you believe that despite such a fun, photographable day, I FORGOT my camera! Not only that, I also left my phone in the car, so I didn't have anything to document our activities! Lesson learned, always remember the camera!

Hannah Grace and Shoes

2011-10-18T14:48:00.000-07:00

I don't know how it happened, but at seventeen months (today!), Hannah Grace already loves shoes. She will often bring John or I just one shoe for us to put on her, and she'll wear it half the day, even with her other foot bare. Earlier today I carried her into her room for a quick diaper change, and the drawer where I keep her shoes was open. She noticed her collection (for the record, she has four pairs: one black dress, one brown dress-- both purchased at a consignment store, and the two I'm about to talk about), and I knew she wanted to wear a pair.

Once I finished changing her diaper, I pulled the following shoes out of the drawer and put them on Hannah Grace's feet:

These are Hannah Grace's fall/winter/until she grows out of them everyday shoe. They also happened to match the outfit she was wearing earlier (not that it mattered, especially since we weren't going anywhere). I strapped them on her feet, and Hannah Grace began happily trotting about in them. I walked in our office for a moment, turned around, and Hannah Grace had these shoes in her hands:

She wanted me to take off the pretty, pink, somewhat pricey PedPed's, and replace them with these.

I'd bought these shoes on clearance at Kohl's late last summer because Hannah Grace was quickly growing out of her Crocs, and since the weather wasn't cooling, she still needed a sandal. They were $6 at Kohl's (yay, clearance!), so that was enough to look past the slight boy-ish look of the sandal. And as it turned out, paired with a skirt (or really anything in Hannah Grace's closet), these look quite nice as a girl-ish sandal.

ANYway, the point of this post is that my seventeen month old daughter already has an opinion about shoes.

Although, she has so much pink in her wardrobe, I don't blame her for wanting something different!

lens talk.

2011-10-14T10:37:00.000-07:00

. . . In other words, this will bore most of you.

It appears that, after almost two years and hundreds (if not a couple thousand) pictures, my Canon 50mm 1.8 lens is biting the dust. Considering it's made of plastic (except the actual lens part) and only cost a hundred bucks, two years is a decent life span.

When I began researching prime lenses, the 50mm 1.8 came highly recommended by several photographers, especially as a beginner's lens. It was inexpensive enough not to regret the purchase if you wound up not using the lens very often, but the pictures it took were quite good. Many of the reviews I read also stressed that this lens was not a long term lens; it would ultimately stop working (or at least stop working properly). The reviews said if you were a serious photographer wanting a more serious prime lens (at this focal length), then you could step up to the 50mm 1.4, which is a couple hundred dollars more, but the quality is much better. In other words, more metal parts. Being my first 'real' lens (and not knowing how well I would like it), I opted for the 1.8 and received it as a Christmas present in 2009.

Canon 50mm 1.8

It has been a great lens, especially in low light and for taking portraits of Hannah Grace. However, over the last month or so I've noticed the auto-focus slowing way down. Like, to the point of making me think it's in focus and then not actually allowing the camera to take the picture. I then tried to focus manually, and that didn't work. And this morning it wouldn't even work for awhile, so I know it's just about shot.

Which means, I need a new one. O.k. I don't need it, but I use it all the time, so it would be nice to have a replacement. Only this time I think I'll upgrade to the 1.4. Of course, this is all happening in my head and likely not going to be a reality for awhile (since we have to you know, live off the money John makes). One of these days.

Canon 50mm 1.4

on food.

2011-10-12T14:55:00.000-07:00

I'm learning that meal planning does not come easy to me. It's not that I can't plan a weeks worth of meals; I just can't plan a weeks worth of meals for a month. Every time I go to the grocery store and buy two weeks worth of food, a large portion of it doesn't get eaten because we either wind up going out of town, have guests visiting (which somehow always leads to eating out), or John works crazy shifts that results in him grabbing dinner out and leaving me with no desire to cook for one.

Honestly, I think I just need to be more disciplined. And really pay attention to the calendar to make sure I don't buy food for days when we won't be here or when I know we'll be eating out.

But then, on the rare occasion a weeks worth of meals does work out, I always, always, always forget something and have to go back to the store two more times that week.

So along with being disciplined and paying attention to our calendar, I need to be one heck of a list maker.

I also thought I'd use this post to share two recipes I tried out this week: Cheeseburger Macaroni and Crispy Shrimp Pasta. I ran across the shrimp pasta recipe some time ago and thought I'd give it a try this week. As I was scanning the ingredients, I noticed a blurb at the bottom for the Cheeseburger Macaroni. Since I'm not a big fan of using Hamburger Helper, I thought this homemade twist on a box dinner sounded yummy!

I tried the Cheeseburger Macaroni first, and it did not disappoint, which was surprising considering how few ingredients it needs!

I increased the amount of noodles and cheese a little so we could save the extra for another meal. Other than being super tasty, my favorite things about this meal is how easy it is to make and it makes for a super cheap meal! This will definitely be showing up at dinner again!

I cooked the Crispy Shrimp Pasta last night, and it, too, was quite tasty!

This was the first time I cooked with raw shrimp, but it was super easy! Like the Cheeseburger Macaroni, this pasta did not call for very many ingredients, and I had almost everything in my refrigerator or pantry, so this was also an inexpensive meal!

I pinned both of these pastas on the 'Rumbly in My Tumbly' board on Pinterest, if anyone is interested in using them in the future!

(more) catching up

2011-10-10T10:51:00.000-07:00

-Hannah Grace was sick Tuesday and Wednesday of last week, and I on Thursday and Friday. Nothing major, just a small bug, but it was enough to leave me utterly exhausted by Friday night.

-Drove to my Mom's on Friday night, had breakfast with John's brother Stephen and his wife Laura Saturday morning (and we did a little discount store shopping), then drove back to my Mom's house for the rest of the afternoon. That evening we all went to my aunt and uncle's house for a bonfire/weenie roast/chili. I hadn't been to one in several years, so I was happy John was willing to make the drive just for this event (we actually didn't know we'd be seeing Stephen and Laura until the day before). After we finished eating, my uncle had a trailer with small hay bales hooked up to his truck, and he took us all on a hayride! We managed to drop Hannah Grace's pacifier right before we got on the trailer, but she actually did really good without it. Once we got back from the ride, John, Hannah Grace, and I had to drive back to Jackson so John could be at church early to play drums. That was fun to watch, especially since his playing on Sunday mornings doesn't happen very often.

. . . well, I guess y'all are caught up, because today is Monday, and all I've done is organize Hannah Grace's winter dresses, go to Wal-Mart, and eat lunch with John. My posts should be more consistent this week!

catching up

2011-10-02T18:50:00.000-07:00

Two major things have happened with Hannah Grace over the last two weeks:

1. She has been consistently sleeping all night and waking up around 7:15. I realize most nine month old babies have mastered this, but Hannah Grace held tight to her 5AM 'bottle'. I'm not much of an advocate of crying-it-out, so I never tried to force her off this feeding. This was mostly because she would down the formula in a few minutes and immediately fall back asleep, so it wasn't like she would drink half and then want to play. I believe she truly was hungry. Anyway, I'm happy to say that she has been sleeping through that feeding, and I am waking up feeling much more refreshed!

2. Speaking of formula, Hannah Grace is FINALLY on whole milk. Again, this is something most twelve to thirteen month olds have accomplished, but Hannah Grace did not like the taste of milk for such a long time. I started and stopped the 'weaning' process several times, but it never went anywhere. Finally last week I bought a half gallon of milk and began mixing (half and half) with the formula. From there I gradually decreased the amount of formula until a few mornings ago, and I gave her straight milk. She drank it right up and hasn't been on formula since!

As for me, I've begun to freeze a few meals, including breakfast burritos, calzones, and white bean chicken chili. While I originally planned on these (well, the chili and calzones) to serve as dinners on nights I didn't feel like cooking, I may use them for my lunches, too. I don't know why I ever thought freezing meals was so difficult-- it really isn't!

We've had a nice weekend. I needed to run a few errands yesterday and asked John if he wanted to join me. He said yes, and we made plans to just have a quick lunch at Sam's before we picked up a few items. However once we got to the Sam's parking lot, he asked if I'd rather go to Cheddar's. Yes. Yes I would. It was nearing noon, and Hannah Grace hadn't had a nap yet, so I was a little nervous she would be really fussy, but she did great! I think letting her just sit with us in the booth (rather than put her in a high chair) made her much happier, and I don't really blame her. Those chairs don't appear to be very comfortable. Anyway, our lunch was delicious-- John had a huge chicken tender plate, and I had grilled Cajun catfish, served with steamed broccoli and mashed potatoes. Hannah Grace just ate off our plates :) We both got water, so after a tip we paid right at $20, which was great, considering John still had food leftover!

After Sam's we went to Big Lots where I got a few cleaning products, and then we came home. We watched MTSU play their homecoming game and just had a nice quiet evening. Today was similarly laid back-- church, lunch, Titans game, cleaning, John mowed, and a simple dinner.

yarn wreaths

2011-09-29T10:32:00.000-07:00

The past two years I have not decorated for fall. I did not like the house we were living in last year, and when you don't like your own house, it's hard to find motivation to decorate it. Two years ago we were in Florida; 80 degree weather and palm trees didn't allot much motivation for fall decor either.

But now I love our house (our home, rather), the leaves are beginning to change colors and fall, and the temperatures are slowly (but surely) lowering. I pulled out my fall decor, placing some wire-y pumpkins I bought last year (clearance, baby!) on our table, dressing our television cabinet with garland, and placing an artificial pumpkin on our mantel. However, I couldn't find my wreath. Things tend to get lost in moves, so I didn't look too hard for it, figuring I would just buy another at Jo-Ann or Hobby Lobby.

A few nights ago I was on Pinterest and saw several yarn wreaths. I thought they were super cute, and made my own a couple of days ago!

I got my inspiration by this wreath, but instead of making my flowers from felt, I just used some basic cotton fabric. I used this tutorial to make the flowers (I just made the ones for the wreath larger).

What I love about this wreath (besides how pretty it is and how simple it was to put together), is that it was SUPER cheap to make! For this specific wreath, I re-purposed some yarn that was on it's way to being a hat (free), bought s styrofoam wreath from Wal-Mart for $4.50, and got 1/8 yard of three fabrics at .62 cents per color. I made my mom one too, except I bought a new skein of yarn, but even then I paid right at $10!

I also wrapped the wreath holder in burlap. I thought it looked better than shiny metal (even it it is brown).

I will definitely be making a Christmas wreath, and I wouldn't be surprised if I have one for spring, Hannah Grace's birthday, July 4th. . . the options are endless!

homemade dress love

2011-09-23T11:52:00.000-07:00

A couple of months ago, I wrote this post, detailing some of the projects that were in my future sewing queue. This little smock style dress was one of those projects, and I'm happy to say that I not only have one of these sweet, simple dresses sewn, but two, both in very different styles. Take a look,

Isn't that adorable? After I sewed the first dress, I knew I wanted a second, but I couldn't find the 'right' patterned fabric for what I wanted. Then I ran across the blog of the person who designed the pattern for this dress, and she suggested using one fabric for the sleeves and one fabric for the body. I loved that idea and came up with this,

These dresses are absolutely adorable on Hannah Grace. Not only are they cute and easy to sew, they can also be worn in pretty much any temperature (except, perhaps, for those awful sweltering mid-July temps). Cotton is light enough to be worn in warm weather, and once the cool air hits, I'll just pair the dresses with leggings or tights!

15 months

2011-09-13T13:58:00.000-07:00

In all of the visiting that has been going on, I forgot to do an update on Hannah Grace. I've actually done a really bad job of blogging about her milestones, but I am pretty good at writing them on a calendar and in her actual photo album (that I'm hoping to finish by the end of the year), so I don't feel too bad.

Hannah Grace is 15 months (almost 16 months!), weighs about 23 pounds and is about 31 inches tall. Compared to several of my friends babies her age, she's a little small, especially in height. Although, that really does not come as a surprise considering John's height (5'6'').
She has been walking for almost six months (GEEZE!) and she climbs EVERYTHING.

She still will eat pretty much anything we put in front of her, especially fresh fruit, cheese, green beans, and pasta.

She is SO observant. Maybe all babies her age are, but recently Hannah Grace has started "helping" me unload the dishwasher. While I unload plates and bowls, she will take all the utensils (one or two at a time, except for sharp knives) and put them in the utensil drawer! I still have to organize them afterwards, but I'm glad she's learning. She also knows that dirty diapers go in the diaper pail and likes to put them in there. When I'm putting her clean clothes away, she will often help me do that too (and then pull the clothes back out, so we're still working on that one).

While she jabbers non stop when she's awake, she has a very small vocabulary. She says 'dada', 'mama', 'uh oh', and her own variation of 'dog'. I tried to teach her to say 'food' earlier, and she made the 'fffff' sound. She seems to understand words better than she speaks, because when we say 'bye' or 'hi', she'll usually wave. And when I say 'bath', she goes straight to the tub and waits for me to turn the water on and put her in.

She loves shoes. This is a fairly recent development, but John and I have noticed her bringing one of us a shoe and standing there with it until we put it on her foot. One day she walked around the house half the day with just one shoe on. Silly girl.

Speaking of shoes, a size 5 fits her perfectly, but I have two size 6's for her to wear this fall/winter. Her feet grow quickly, so I prefer to just let her wear larger shoes. They have yet to mess with her ability to walk well.

She wears mostly 18 month clothing right now, but everything I'm buying for fall and winter is 24 months, with the exception of a few 2T shirts.

She now has eight teeth, enough hair for pigtales, SUPER blue eyes, and strawberry blonde hair.

She would rather be worn in the Ergo than sitting in a stroller for a prolonged amount of time.

Her bedtime is right around 8:30, and she usually sleeps until 7:15.

She likes to watch the first half hour of Sesame Street, Blues Clues, and Clifford.

She LOVES dolls and already acts like a little mommy. She kisses, pats, and carries them around the house throughout the day. It's seriously cute.

I think that's about it. She's about the greatest little thing out there.

visiting friends

2011-09-12T15:28:00.000-07:00

Our friends Michael and Amber visited us over the weekend! They live in Middle Tennessee, so while we usually see them when we're over there, it was nice to have them in our home, where our attention wasn't divided between them and everyone else we visit when we're in town.

They arrived Friday night, and we just hung out and talked until bedtime. Saturday morning we loaded up in John's car and had breakfast Chick Fil A, where we sat outside so Hannah Grace could play. Once we finished eating, we headed to Essex, where I got a few Aveeno products (baby lotion, baby wash, and a facial moisturizer) for less than $10! We left Essex and came back to the house to drop Michael and John off, and I was able to get Hannah Grace down for a nap, so Amber and I went back out to do a little more shopping.

We went to Old Navy, and while I had considered getting myself a couple of things, I wound up a few things for Hannah Grace instead. She needs some long sleeved (preferably solid colored) shirts to wear with all those pants I made her, so I bought her two of those (one brown and one pink striped) for $5/each. I also bought her this jacket:

Isn't this adorable? And the best part is that I only paid $14! It was on sale for $20 (down from $34.50), and I had a 30% off coupon for one item. I couldn't even buy the fabric and buttons for $14 to make her a jacket (which I had considered doing), so I snagged this up! Because Hannah Grace wasn't with me, I had to debate between the 18-24 month size and a 2T. I finally decided on the 18-24 month, mostly because she can still fit into a couple of 6-12 month clothes from Old Navy. I tried it on her, and while it's a teeny bit large, that's fine because she'll be able to wear it all the way through the winter! This jacket is SO cute on her!

After Amber and I left Old Navy, we went to JoAnn, but I don't think either of us bought anything (that's a first for me, ha), and we went to Sonic to take advantage of happy hour. When we got back, Hannah Grace was STILL asleep, and we all just hung out and watched college football.

We had an early dinner at Abbay's, because John wanted to watch MTSU's game against Georgia Tech. Neither Amber or I were too interested in the game, so we (this time with Hannah Grace) went back out, this time to Target where we welcomed Fall (early) with our first Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks! With the first sip I was immediately taken back to my first couple of years of college, sitting in the old Starbucks by Stones River Mall. Remember that guys? We had some seriously great memories there.

We walked around Target for about an hour, just talking and looking at the pretty (albeit unnecessary things) Target has on its shelves. Amber bought a shirt with Mickey Mouse shirt to wear on her and Michael's nearing trip to Disney World, and I picked up some Easy Mac. Because it makes for an easy lunch for Hannah Grace, that's why.

We went to church Sunday, grabbed fried chicken (that was WAY greasy), and watched the Titans game. Sort of. I sat down at my sewing machine fully intending on quickly hemming the sleeves of Hannah Grace's shirts I bought at Old Navy, but I soon learned that something was wrong with the machine needle. It kept hitting the presser foot and consequently broke, so I replaced it. Long story short, I didn't think it was actually fixed, until I realized there was one tiny thing I wasn't doing correctly, and I eventually "fixed" it. A whole day later. Ahem.

Anyway, once again Amber and I weren't too interested in the game, Hannah Grace was asleep, and I was in desperate need of a haircut, so off we went. I basically had a bunch of it chopped off and layered. So it's short (for me), but I like it a lot. After I had my hair lopped off, we made two trips to FedEx Office (which apparently took over Kinkos) to have a pattern printed off, got back to the house, and they packed up and left! Short trip, but definitely fun.

I just realized I left out our late, Saturday night game of Mille Bornes. For those of you who like a fun non-board game, you may enjoy this one! We usually wind up playing a few games of Phase 10 when we hang out with Michael and Amber, but this was definitely a fun alternative.

Surprise!

2011-09-06T14:24:00.000-07:00

My mom showed up at our front door, unannounced, Thursday afternoon.

Hannah Grace and I had just returned from her 15 month check up, and she was down for a nap. I was sitting in the living room, eating Zaxby's and texting Mom, assuming she was in Murfreesboro. To make a long(ish) story short, she said she was going to Wal-Mart. A few minutes went by, and she said she would just go later. Then, 'Maybe we can go together'. At that point, I heard a knock on the door and knew she was on the other side! I was so happy to see her!

We had a great, LONG weekend. Hannah Grace got a few new goodies, including this awesome lookout tree house. We found it at Essex at a much cheaper price, which made it that more appealing. It was super easy to assemble, and Hannah Grace loves it. I'm glad, because now she has something to play on when it's way too cold to go outside. Mom also bought me a diaper bag I've had my eye on for months. The bag retails for $64, and I found it for $15! Essex is amazing!

We also went to the mall (my first time going since we moved here almost eight months ago-- it's barely ten minutes from my house, ha!), and got a couple of winter stuff for Hannah Grace on clearance at Gymboree. We moseyed on over to Target, where Mom helped me out with my wardrobe by buying me some new jeans, an open front sweater, and a shirt to wear under it.

Shopping isn't all we did, though! We spent quite some time completely cleaning out the garage (Hallelujah, praise Jesus!), storing stuff in the huge attic space I didn't know we had, and cleaning out my van. Between a toddler and a zillion trips back and fourth between here and Middle Tennessee, my van was a disaster.

We also sewed! Mom made me super cute red fleece jacket, and I made two crib sheets for Hannah Grace's bed!

And we grocery shopped! And cooked! And set up a kiddie pool that may not ever get used with this cold weather coming, but hey-- we'll have it for next year! And Mom bought us a hose pipe! And she ran off a cat with a broom!

It was a great visit!

Pants!

2011-08-31T08:35:00.000-07:00

In this post, I gave a sneak peak of what I have been working on for Hannah Grace. I'm pleased to say that I am almost finished with all of her pants (there is one more pair that needs to have the length altered). But here they are, homemade pants!

I love all of the pants, but this is probably my favorite pair, mostly because I love the fabric so much. The chunky hem on the bottom (inspired by this tutorial) gives the pants more of a 'trouser' look, but I can let it out once Hannah Grace gets taller, allowing her to wear these pants longer.

You may need to click on the photo to get a better look of the print on these pants. I bought this flannel fabric several months ago, knowing I wanted to make pants out of it for Hannah Grace to wear during the fall and winter. It is hard to tell, but I added a ruffle at the bottom. Several days ago I was in Target, and they had a pink shirt with a little dog on the front that looked exactly like the dogs on these pants, so I bought it, knowing they would definitely be worn together!

Simple, green linen-look pants. More than anything I liked the feel of this material and knew they would make a cute, basic pant. They are way too long and will need to be hemmed, but otherwise, I really like them!

Lounge pants, made from a super cute knit fabric. Originally these pants did not have elastic in the legs, but I thought they looked too messy as full length pants, so I added the elastic and now they look great!

I used several different tutorials, one pattern, my mom’s advice, and my own imagination to make these pants. The biggest issue I had was not making the crotch large enough (I figured out the problem on the last pair of pants I made, but they are not pictured), so they are a tad snug when Hannah Grace sits, but that hasn’t been a problem yet.

I also made the pants (except for the lounge pants, of course) a little longer than Hannah Grace’s current size, because I want her to be able to wear them through the winter. Hopefully she’ll be able to, and if she can’t, then I’ll just make some more pants!

So I can give credit, the tutorials I either used or drew inspiration from were from Sewing in No Mans Land and Prudent Baby. The pattern I used was Burda Easy 9650 (although I did not pay $10 for this pattern!).

HP's TouchPad

2011-08-26T08:50:00.000-07:00

I rarely talk about electronics, but the recent news of HP completely revamping their company and selling off their PC line (as well as discontinuing their just-released tablet and smart phone line) has had me pouring into HP-related news over the last week.

Being a fan of HP (this post is actually being typed on my still-fairly-brand-new HP laptop), I was saddened by this news. Then we learned that HP and other retailers all over the country were drastically dropping the price of their seven week old tablet, the HP TouchPad, to a mere $99 for the 16GB. The TouchPad I harassed John about for two weeks straight after HP announced they were releasing a tablet back in May. The TouchPad that had been $400 (and we were seriously considering buying it at that price).

And there it was on Office Depot's website for a hundred bucks. However, once we tried to add it to our cart, the words 'Sold Out Online' popped up, and we knew this little commodity would be going quickly.

To make a long story short, I scoured the internet until I learned that HP would not allow Best Buy to return the TouchPads, meaning Best Buy would have to sell them at the $99 price and take a loss. There were over 200,000 TouchPads in Best Buy's inventory, but they were still listed at $399 on their website Saturday night. And then, at the refresh of the page, the words 'No longer available' popped up. Too tired to do look further in to it, I decided to just go to sleep and see if I had any luck the next morning.

Hannah Grace woke up at 7:20 Sunday morning. Before I got her out of the pack n play, I Googled the TouchPad for the latest news on the product. The first article that popped up confirmed that Best Buy would be selling TouchPad in stores at the $99 price beginning that morning. Not wanting to deal with crowds in an Atlanta Best Buy, I decided to take one more shot at Best Buy's online store. There it was, in stock for $99. I shook an in-deep-sleep John and told him, to which is groggily responded, ‘Get it’. I didn’t want to take the time to set up my laptop, so with one bar of 3G service in our hotel room, I successfully ordered the TouchPad via my iPhone.

I was a little nervous for a couple of days, because I knew Barns and Noble had to cancel several online orders because they ran out of stock while people were placing orders online before the inventory had been updated. But I received a shipment confirmation on Tuesday and my TouchPad arrived yesterday!

Despite what so many naysayers have said, the TouchPad IS a great tablet with an awesome operating system. I spent some time browsing apps last night, and while it won’t ever have the selection of apps the iPad has, the apps that are available are great.

From what I’ve read, the TouchPad is officially sold out everywhere, except for what HP still has in their warehouses. Those TouchPads have not been listed on HP’s website, but you can give them your e-mail and they will alert you when they are available. Just have a credit card handy, because these things are going fast!

In fact, not only are the TouchPads going fast, the accessories (i.e. charging docks, cases, etc) are almost completely sold out too! John and I spent WAY too much time last night searching the internet for a decently priced case and charging station, but gave up because it was starting to get frustrating. When you pay $99 for a tablet, you really don’t have any desire to shell out $50 on a case. I’m sure we’ll find them at a discounted price in the next couple of weeks.

What about you guys? Are there any tablets out there that have caught your eye? I’ve also played with a friend’s iPad, and while it’s pretty cool, I still love my TouchPad!

on the road again

2011-08-25T08:30:00.000-07:00

I apologize for my absence. John, Hannah Grace, and I spent last weekend and the first part of this week with family. Once we got home I prioritized getting the house back together before moving on to anything else, so blogging sat on the back burner for a few days.

But we are back, the house is clean, and meals are (sort of) planned.

John and I (and HG) took my mom to Atlanta last weekend to have a fun little getaway-shopping trip. This was mostly for my mom and I, as John doesn't find shopping all that enjoyable, but I was (and still am) thankful he was willing to drive us there so we could have some fun. Our hotel was in Buckhead, which is a rather fancy-schmancy area just north of downtown Atlanta. This is actually where John has come to do some trainings for AT&T (including the time when Hannah Grace and I got to tag along back in May), so we were fairly familiar with the area.

We arrived Friday afternoon, unloaded the car, and explored the hotel room before grabbing dinner at Chipotle. I'm using the word hotel "room" loosely because it was literally the size of the townhome we lived in when we first got married. When we first walked in were were surprised to see that the "room" was actually two stories. Each floor had it's own bed and bathroom, and there was a sleeper sofa. There was also a full size kitchen with nicer appliances than mine! The reason we had such an elaborate "room" is because John is a Marriott Rewards Gold member, so he is eligible for a free upgrade to the nicest room (even if he originally reseved the most basic room available) if he calls the morning we are to check in to see if it's available. This is definitely a perk of him traveling with AT&T.

We spent most of Saturday shopping at IKEA, buying little odds and ends, including this throw Mom found and bought me:

We rested for awhile at the hotel once we got back from IKEA, and then I took Mom to Lenox Square, a gargantuan mall in Buckhead. We looked around Anthropologie (didn't find anything this time), Gymboree, Pottery Barn Kids (where I saw a lampshade I can totally make for HG's room), and American Eagle. There was a little hat shop set up in the middle of the mall, and Mom and I each found hats we liked, so we bought them. By this time we were getting tired, so we decided to leave, drive thru at Chick Fil A, and take dinner back to the hotel where John was watching the Titans play.

We left Atlanta Sunday morning, let Hannah Grace play at my mom's house for a little while, and then got back in the car and headed to John's parents for a couple of days. We actually spent much of Sunday afternoon with Andy, Cherie, and baby Zach. Our friends Michael and Amber then met up with all of us for dinner at Qdoba (my first time eating there), and that was fun.

Hannah Grace was up early Monday morning, and we had no plans for the day. We hung out at John's parent's for a little while before grabbing lunch at Chick Fil A and then meeting up with his mom at Sam's so she could add me to their account, allowing me to have my own Sam's card! After Sam's we headed back to Andy and Cherie's, where we went swimming! This was our third try at getting Hannah Grace in the water (other than bath time), and while she wasn't a huge fan of it, she did much better than the previous tries. She loves baths, and I know it's just the size of the pool that scares her. I do not doubt she will grow out of this fear, so next summer should be filled with lots of water time!

a different kind of therapy

2011-08-17T12:16:00.000-07:00

Today marks one month since Dad went Home.

Over the last month I've talked to Mom at least every other day on the phone. And the days we don't talk, we text. A lot.

(A lot as in I realized yesterday that I've sent her over 400 picture messages in the last month. Thank goodness for unlimited messaging packages!)

I've sewn two pairs of pants and a dress for Hannah Grace.

I started a new blog and read a book.

We've hosted three sets of visitors and made a short trip to visit my mom.

I had lunch with a friend, went to the Jo-Ann Grand Opening with another, and met up with them along with the other ladies from Sunday School (and their kids) at Chick Fil A to fellowship with one another.

I remember when my cousin, Daniel, died ten years ago, I was devastated. When my Uncle Bobby Died, I was heart broken. There were several acquaintances throughout high school who died and left me feeling scared and depressed.

With the passing of my dad, simply continuing on with life has been the best therapy. And I know that is exactly how he would want it. My dad was an avid reader of my blog and always enjoyed reading my Facebook statuses to see what I was doing with my day. He took such an interest in my life, and I know that he was truly happy with where I am now, and for that I'm thankful. I loved him so much.

I still love him.

sneak peek

2011-08-13T19:23:00.000-07:00

Ta-da!

I've been spending a lot of my time sewing little things for Hannah Grace, and these pants were the first of my projects. I saw this adorable cat fabric on my first trip to Jo-Ann (I won't tell you just how many times I've been in that store in the two weeks they've been open, but it's ridiculous), and loved it. My mom made a pair of flannel pants for Hannah Grace last winter using a cat printed material, and they were so cute on her, see?

I'm not much of a cat person, but kitty cat material is just too sweet to pass up! In fact, I have another kitty printed fabric waiting to be made into matching pants for Hannah Grace and Emilee!

I'm thisclose to finishing my first 'real' dress (i.e. not a pillowcase dress) for Hannah Grace and am super pleased with how it's turning out. I'll definitely be sharing that (and the other pair of pants I've sewn) in a couple of days1

Even MORE visitors. . . and a visit

2011-08-11T08:12:00.000-07:00

After our friends Brandy, Doug, and Will left last Friday, I had until the following evening to (re)prepare our house for our third set of visitors in a week! Our friends D.C. and Suzanne who live near Knoxville were visiting for the first time since we moved to Jackson! This was also the first time we had seen them since we left Knoxville in January, so they got to see a completely different Hannah Grace!

They arrived Saturday evening and we promptly grabbed dinner at Abbay's. The food was yummy (as usual), and Hannah Grace was able to burn some energy by walking around the restaurant and 'talking' to the employees. Once we came back home I dressed HG in her pajamas, put her to bed, and the rest of us enjoyed a quiet, lazy evening playing Words With Friends with each other and chatting.

Sunday morning we woke up, went to church, came home for lunch (Hannah Grace caught a short nap during this time), and headed back out to the flea market! John, HG, and I went to this flea market last month but didn't take any cash so we weren't able to buy anything. We wanted to come back for the August market, and we definitely brought enough cash for some goodies this time!

I knew I wanted to buy Hannah Grace a few hair bows from the flea market, because they cost so much less than they do in a department store. I picked out four bows from one vendor at $1 a piece and then picked out two more (larger) bows from another vendors at $3 a piece. My next non-sewing project is to make a simple hair bow holder to put in her room; I think I can get everything I need for about eight dollars.

We also bought some homemade blackberry jam, homemade white chipotle BBQ sauce (should be yummy with chicken), and a bar of goats milk soap with a white tea and ginger scent.

After leaving the flea market, we went to Essex for a quick trip, and came back home to hang out for awhile before dinner. I think we tried to get Hannah Grace to take another nap, but she was too wound up. A couple of hours later we went to Red Robin for dinner, where I had a delicious bacon-avocado-yum-o-burger. I don't know where avocados have been all my life, but I'm glad they decided to show up now.

Monday morning, we all woke up and started packing-- D.C. and Suz were heading home, and John, HG, and I were going to visit my mom for a couple of days. John and I like to time our car trips around Hannah Grace's nap time so that she sleeps most of the way, so we left around 11:15. We got to Nashville a couple of hours later and went to an Essex in Mt. Juliet. After 45 or so minutes there, we left and drove to my Mom's house.

We got to Mom's around 3:30 and spent the rest of the afternoon just hanging out and playing with Hannah Grace. Hannah Grace took a nap some time in there, and Mom cooked dinner for us. It was a really enjoyable afternoon, and I was able to show mom my serger and several of the sewing projects I had been working on.

On Tuesday, we were awake early. Mom cooked breakfast, I got started on a pair of pants for Hannah Grace, and John left for a work training. We spent the morning around the house and trying to get HG to take a nap, but she never would. We decided to just get dressed and visit Jennifer (my brother's wife) and my new, three week old niece Emilee! After about an hour we all realized we were really hungry (it was about 2:30 by now), so we went to Chick Fil A so Hannah Grace could play in the play area. These super hot temperatures haven't allowed us very many park visits, so I try to let her go to indoor play areas when possible. Once we finished eating, we all headed to Kohl's to look for some shoes for Hannah Grace and to check out the baby clearance section so Jennifer could get some stuff for next summer for Emilee. I wound up finding a pair of Keen-esque shoes for Hannah Grace for $6 (on clearance), so we got them for her. Jennifer also found some cute summer dresses for baby E. By this time John was finished with his training and was en route to the Boro. I still needed to get a couple of things from Sam's, so he stopped at Essex (can you tell we are addicted to this store?!) while he waited on us. Once everyone was finished shopping, we went to Cracker Barrel. YUM.

Soon after waking up yesterday morning, we ran an errand dealing some of Dad's stuff, had breakfast at Hardees, and headed to an AT&T store to sign Mom up for a different TV plan. We then made a Wal-Mart run, grabbed a couple of pizzas at Papa Murphy's, and headed back to Mom's to eat and let Hannah Grace nap. After eating, Mom and I did some sewing (more on that in another post). Once HG woke up, John and I packed up, said goodbye to Mom and headed home! It was a short trip (right about 48 hours), but it was good, and we really enjoyed ourselves.

Wiggle Worm!

More visitors

2011-08-06T07:08:00.000-07:00

A couple of days ago, our friend Brandy (who lives in Texas with her husband and their 19 month old son) called John and asked if they could stay overnight as they traveled from Kentucky (where she's from) back to Texas. We were happy to host them especially because we had not seen them since Brandy was 35 weeks pregnant with Will, and I was about 10 weeks pregnant with Hannah Grace.

We made plans to meet up at Chick Fil A so we could eat dinner and let the babies have fun in the play area. Watching Hannah Grace and Will interact was really cute. Judging by the picture below, I think he may be a tad smitten by her:

Once we finished eating, we let Will and Hannah Grace play some more outside so they would burn some more energy. We left about half an hour later, came back to our house, and HG and W each got a bath. Once they were asleep, John and I stayed up a little longer talking with Brandy and Doug.

We woke up around 7:00 yesterday morning and the babies had breakfast and just played around while we were in the living room. John made for a fun bouncing machine:

A little before 11:00, John left for work, and Brandy and Doug packed up their things. We decided to grab lunch at Abbay's, where Hannah Grace and Will did more exploring of the restaurant than eating their food! Thankfully the restaurant workers love children.

We finished eating, said our goodbye's, and went our separate ways. Hopefully it won't be another (almost) two years before we see them again!

Weekend Wrap

2011-08-02T13:36:00.000-07:00

Well, this weekend turned out much differently than I had anticipated. A few days prior to Friday, John requested chicken Alfredo lasagna for dinner Friday evening. This caught me off guard, because John never makes food requests, especially two days in advance. It is a yummy lasagna, though, and I was happy to make it again.

Friday morning rolled around, and we were talking about plans for the weekend. Our lawn mower was finally finished being repaired, so we decided to do some yard work on Saturday and have leftovers that night (please, don't be overwhelmed by our exciting lives).

Friday was also the day the Jo-Ann in our town FINALLY opened. When we moved here in January I was beyond excited to see one was being built, but I was not expecting to have to wait six months for it to be completed, especially after the store had been worked on for a couple of months already. Needless so say, I was excited and got there (along with fifteen or so other eager women) a few minutes before they opened the doors. Once the doors were open, I set off in search of some fabric to make the hanging book displays I mentioned in my last post. After I picked a material out, we moseyed around the store until Hannah Grace got fussy, and then we left.

The rest of the day was fairly normal: Hannah Grace took a nap, I did some laundry, wrote a blog post, made lunch, played with HG, started dinner, and got HG down for a second (late) nap.

. . . I love how easy my day looked. Trust me, they're not all like that ;)

Anyway, after Hannah Grace went down for her second nap, John called and asked what I was doing. "Um, at home. . . " I told him. He then asked if I wanted to do anything later that night, at which point I knew something was up because John never wants to do anything after he gets off a closing shift. I asked him what was going on, and he told me our friends Andy and Cherie (and baby Zach!) were on their way to our house and would be there in fifteen minutes! They live about two hours away, so this was definitely a surprise John set up.

I was excited and continued working on the lasagna. They arrived soon after and we just hung out until John got home. We had a late dinner, and then I proceeded to put Hannah Grace to bed around 8:45. Except she didn't want to go to bed yet, and I assumed it was because we had company, so I let her stay up, knowing I would put her back down at about 9:30. Once 9:30 rolled around, I tried putting her to bed again, and she cried and kept reaching for me. This is not like her at all (she is normally in bed no later than 9:00 without any fuss). Remembering she had some of my sweet tea earlier (also not a norm for her), I figured she was hyped on on caffeine, and she didn't go to bed until 10:30. What really stunk though, is that she woke up at her normal time (about 7:30) in the morning.

On Saturday Cherie and I ventured out to Target (grabbing some much needed Starbucks while we were there) and Jo-Ann. I bought a knit fabric and a linen-esque fabric to make some pants for Hannah Grace. We needed to meet the guys for lunch, so we left shortly after and ate one of our favorite restaurants here. By this time it was a good two hours past Hannah Grace's nap time, so Cherie and I headed back to the house so HG could get some sleep. Cherie wants to learn how to sew, so I asked John if he would keep Hannah Grace while Cherie and I went to Jo-Ann so I could help her pick out some fabric to make a tote bag. We found a great print (I even bought some) and headed back to our house. We hung out until the late afternoon before heading to Essex to see if they had anything. After Essex we ate dinner at a Mexican restaurant where both Hannah Grace and Zach took turns crying- ha! We kept asking our server to bring us some shredded cheese (because we knew she loved it), and it took FOREVER for him to get it out to us. After we finished eating, we came back to our house, I gave Hannah Grace a bath and put her to bed.

Sunday morning we went to church. It was the first time we had been there in three weeks, so John and I were really looking forward to seeing our friends and introducing them to Andy, Cherie, and Zach. We ate lunch at a yummy buffet, and then we headed back so Hannah Grace could take a nap. During her nap, I helped Cherie sew her tote (and I sewed my little bag!). The finished product was very simple, but super cute. By this time it was mid-afternoon and they needed to leave, so they packed up and headed out! It was definitely a great weekend!

future sewing

2011-07-29T15:26:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I signed up for Pinterest. For several days the whole concept of the site confused me, and I considered just deleting my account. I'm glad I didn't. Pinterest is chock full of ideas for just about anything, including sewing. I have been inspired by so many projects others have shared, and I'm looking forward to getting started on them.

As soon as I laid eyes on this dress, I knew it would be perfect for Hannah Grace. After purchasing the pattern, I found an adorable fabric that will look great in the form of this dress int he fabric bin at Hobby Lobby! This dress is so cute, and the pattern comes in several sizes if anyone is interested in purchasing it. You can buy a few sizes at once or an individual size (like I did), which is less expensive. The pattern is available here.

Isn't this beautiful? I love it. The bedding pictured is an Anthropologie-inspired duvet that was made for around $30. The retail price of The Real Thing cost upwards of $200. I already have a twin size down comforter (I'm wanting to make more of a throw instead of a full blown bedspread), so all I need are some jersey knit sheets. Wal-Mart has them in a really pretty shade of gray, so those will be on my next shopping list. The tutorial for this bedding can be found here.

Hannah Grace loves to "read" (and by that I mean she likes to flip turn the pages by herself and jabber about a picture). She also loves to be read to. In fact, she loves books so much that I have been brainstorming on how to turn her room into a mini children's library. These hanging book displays are perfect. Not only do they give Hannah Grace easy access to her books, they also give me the chance to eliminate the bookcase in her room, thus allowing more room. The tutorial for this hanging book display can be found here.

Okay, how cute is this? I realize that at fourteen months Hannah Grace has no concept of hopscotch, but I think this would be a perfect present some time in the future. The hopscotch mat pictured was made from hot glue, but I think I would use embroidery thread and hand sew it to make the mat a little stronger. This is such a cute idea, and if you'd like to check out the tutorial, you can here.

I also have a couple of heavy weight fabrics that I'm going to make pants and (maybe) a robe out of for Hannah Grace. Needless to say, I don't think 'boredom' will be in my vocabulary for the next couple of months!

Hello there.

2011-07-28T13:53:00.000-07:00

This August marks my ninth year as a blogger.

Nine years of my life has been documented across (now) eight blogs.

Remember Xanga? That's where it all began, and I documented my entire high school sophomore year. Right after school ended, I opened a new account with a user name that better suited my personality. From there, the summer of 2003 all the way through the end of my high school career in May 2005 were documented.

Soon after I graduated high school, Phusebox was born, so I hopped on board with the rest of my friends and begin typing my life away for the next eighteen(ish) months. My last consistent post was February 4, 2007 (the day after I met John), and my last post at all was June 4, 2007.

I took a two month hiatus from blogging before deciding to open an account with Blogger. I wrote just a few entries before stopping completely in October. At that point, John and I were engaged, and I had run in to something of a writer's block.

One month before our wedding, in February 2008, I decided to open another account with Blogger to document my life as a married woman. During that first year of marriage, I opened a secondary blog to write about the (stupidly random) fiasco's John and had together.

June 2009 found us living in Florida and I thought it would be appropriate to close both first year blogs and create a new account with Blogger to document our life in Florida.

For two years I stayed with Blogger before moving everything to Wordpress. I thought it would be a great move, but I wound up missing Blogger a lot.

By that point, my blog was sporadically updated with posts that, more often than not, lacked any meaning for me. After the recent death of my dad, I've decided I wanted to end Labors of Love and create a new blog that's just me: Anna Woerner.

I'm not changing my writing topics as much as I'm just changing the effort I put in to them.

Writing, no matter what it's about, is an art. And I want to do this art well.