Yesterday was the “Battle of the Bands” at the High School with four bands slated to play, and D’s (Thames St.) was one of them. The winner would go on to the big event to compete against all of the other bands chosen across the state. Of the four bands, Thames St., B.A.H., 30 Below and ‘no name’, Thames St. and B.A.H. were the two heavy favorites, each with fiercely loyal fans, and some similar music stylings (Thames St. and B.A.H. are all friends).

Each band took the stage, with Thames St. and B.A.H. each whipping the crowd into a frenzy during their set, garnering standing ovations after each song from the entire audience. The other two bands also sounded good, but the crowds reaction was noticelably subdued, and no standing ovations. The judges were given until today to decide, with 12 students on the panel, and one teacher as the tie breaker with the final word as to who won. As it turned out, the vote was split, right down the middle, 50/50, with 6 votes for Thames St., and 6 for B.A.H. So the teacher steps in to give her vote, and decides that since it’s a tie, well, neither of those bands win, the other band ‘30 Below’ with zero votes is the winner. Umm…..WHAT ?!?!?!?!?

When it was announced in school today, most thought it was a mistake, they’re kidding right? No, they weren’t kidding, that was the decision, neither of the two favorite bands that had tied to win were advancing to the final round. So, D’s band will just have to keep on playing, and practicing, and maybe they will decide to do this again next year. Although, if this is the way they handle the voting and judging, maybe not. If they were going to just have one single teacher make the ultimate decision, why even have  a panel of 12 student judges vote?

   These are my favorite pants on Finn, he looks so cute in them. I have another pair I made with a fun skull and crossbones print, lined in a red striped flannel for even more “Arrrrr Matey!” factor. And while I think they’re cute, fun and “piratey” on him, these are still my first pick to dress him in. Either way though, nothing says “snuggle me” like soft, flannel lined pants during the cold weather.

   Anyways, I took this pic a little over a month ago, before Finley was overly mobile. Nowadays, Finn is crawling everywhere, and into whatever he can find. He is picking up anything and everything, and putting it directly into his mouth, giving me more than one moment of panic as I try to fish one choking hazzard after another out of his mouth. Man his teeth are sharp! And I think my vacuum needs replacing since I use it everyday, and still, Finley manages to find something “tasty” to snack on when my back is turned. Finn has also decided the kitchen floor is his new favorite hangout, spending his mornings exploring, and quite content with his independence. I think he likes it because he can now get in to where everyone else always seems to be. Crawling has given him a happy freedom he has been longing for. I think as soon as he can walk, I will only ever see the back of his head as he runs from one thing to the next.

   This post is for anyone that knows about where I am referring to, or if you’re a big Guamanaic…A stealth bomber crashed at Andersen AFB on Guam, click the link below to read the news report in it’s entirety.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23302483

   The pattern….

Oh how I love it!

No, I haven’t even cut it out yet (slacker!),  but I have the fabric for two aprons all ready so that I can start right in when I find a few minutes for some sewing.

I loved the funky pink retro print so much that I am using it for one side on both of the aprons, with the paisley for the reverse side of one apron, the flour sack styled ditsy print for the other, and a solid cocoa color for the trim on both aprons.

And since I am very good at sharing (I learned in Kindergarten)  you are more than welcome to come on over to my house to make one too! (Let me know, and I can email you the yardage required).

Craig and I celebrated our anniversary/valentines day this past weekend, and thankfully my mom was brave kind enough to volunteer as a babysitter. This gave Craig and I the chance to have more than one conversation with each other that wasn’t interupted by the words “mommy!” or “daddy!” followed by numerous piercing shrieks about work, the kids, or selling the house. It was all frivolous, indulgent chatter, and I loved it. (thanks again mom, you rock!) But with life being life, I have not been able to find a minute to post this entire last week. Without going into it all, I am just trying to get some things dealt with so that I can move forward, and on to the next thing. Until then, this post was the best that I could do. Hope everyone else is doing great, and I am looking forward to catching up on all of the blogs asap!

   As we watched the news tonight, at the end of the big story on the snow storm I saw a very familiar face.  Hey!  That’s Ryan!  Yep, he was on the news.  So if you want to take a peek, he’s on about 3/4 of the way to the end of the blue bar at the bottom on the clip.  Yeah, I know, it’s a long clip, but it was a pretty bad storm out there, so they were really covering the heck out of it!  It was so crazy out on the roads today, I’m just grateful Craig was able to make it home at all.  And since I am not as cool as Melly, I didn’t embed the video, I am just adding a link to it on this post.  (I need to get myself some mad skills like Melly, she rocks the computer!)

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=2659200

   After reading the book ’Baby Gifts’ (a few posts back), I wanted to know more abouty sewing with silk, so I looked it up. I had previoulsy believed that silk was a “dry clean only” type of fabric, reserved for only the finest of occasions, but was surprised to learn that is not always the case. According to several of the articles I read, you can  wash it yourself (with a washing machine!)  since silk fabrics typically soften when washed, but if you want your silk to stay crisp, consider dry cleaning it instead. Also, some silk fabrics actually look better when washed, as dry cleaning can sometimes cause the fabric to look dull. So maybe I will have to tackle that “Silky Quilt” project after all, it seems to be a great idea for a gift now that I know more about washing silk.  Melly, Korby, are there any awesome sales at JoAnn’s in the next week or two? I think I need to start looking for some silk….

   I am not a “card” kind of person. I hate trying to pick one out at the store, and feel dumb trying to think of the right thing to inscribe on the inside. I can’t do it. I think I’m missing some crucial “card giving” gene, it just isn’t something I do well at all. I worry and fret far too much about the card, and what it says, and how the recipient might interpret it, and then just end up with a headache over some silly little old card. Now my sister-in-law, she makes  her own cards, all by hand. They are beautifully hand crafted, all individually made with loving care, with hand written sentiments inside, each one a miniature work of art to be saved and treasured long after the special occasion has passed. And not just a handmade card every once in a great while, but one for each of us for every birthday and anniversary, every year. And believe me, these cards are not made to take up the extra time she has, because she is swamped  with her family, and school, and work….I still have no idea how she does it, but believe me, I am in total awe of her talents. (love you Debbi!)

   I just spent a good hour the other day, standing in a daze in front of the huge  card section the other day, trying to find a nice card for my friend’s birthday. I finally found one that was good enough, but frankly, not amazing, but I bought it anyways. Then I proceeded to attempt the even more difficult task of trying to think of the best message to write on the inside. So I start, get a third of the way into it, and screw it up. So of course now I feel like crying because I had spent all that time picking out the dumb card, and then went and made a total mess out of it. So I cut off that half of the card, and instead wrote a brief, and somewhat halting sentiment on the back of the what would normally have been the front of the card, stuffed it into it’s envelope, and gave it to her with the gift I had for her as well. She’s still speaking to me, so it must have been ok, but I still managed to waste more time than necessary agonizing over that dopey card all the same. There has to be an easier way. Not that I have any idea what it might be…

   The following post is free from any overly cranky moms or excessive complaining (sorry about that) , and is instead, nice and cheerful -

   So anyways…I found this really cute fabric yesterday while we were out, waiting for the agents to finish up their tour of our house with their clients.

It would be perfect for either a really funky skirt for one of my girls, or maybe an awesomely fun apron for me? I’m not sure just yet, but whatever it ends up being, I just love the fabric itself, it’s such a fun and crazy retro print.

I also stumbled across a white damask napkin, so of course I can’t wait to try my hand at making an embroidered nursing cloth (as mentioned a few posts down).  I have a few little sketches for one tumbling around in my head, so I am going to put pencil to sketch paper and try and translate them into a design, then I will take a needle to it and see what happens.

…as a follow up to that last post, we are showing the house today, to three different couples/people. I am thrilled the calls came in this morning so we have plenty of notice. The first one is at 3:30pm, second at 4:30pm and the third at 5:30pm. Which means we have to be out of the house by 3:15pm, and we can’t come back until 6:30pm. With the snowy weather, I don’t think driving throught the canyon is a very good idea today, so going to my Mom and Dad’s to wait it out isn’t an option, and neither is wandering through Wal-Mart for over three hours with 7 children, trying to kill some time (Stu, clean-up on aisles 3 through 29!).  I also don’t want to impose on anyone I know around here for that amount of time either, that is a lot of people to have in your house at once. I am trying to think positively, and I am also working on getting a pot of soup into my crock pot so we can come home to a dinner ready to eat, but I am stumped as to where to go for 3 hours. Maybe we have an indoor fun center in town, I am going to have to check on this, otherwise the kids won’t be the only ones in tears.

*update*-  the good news is that I managed to throw the soup together and into the crock pot in plenty of time. I wish I could say that everything else went as smoothly after that, but sadly it did not. I think my kids are hating life right now, and I really can’t say that I blame them. We’re all just happy to be home again, and out of the car. Since we have to go through this again on Saturday, I am looking to see if the weather is good enough to make it to my Mom’s tomorrow night and we’ll just spend the night over there. I know my kids won’t have any arguments with that idea!