ornery and ugh

Yep, that's how I'm feeling right now - ornery and ugh.  With a bit of sourpuss thrown in for good measure.  See, I start a new out-of-the-house job tomorrow and I'm downright cranky about it.  Despite moving every 1.6 years for the last six years, I do actually prefer stability and routine.  I wish I could say that I'm one of those women who love to meet new people, and join neighborhood clubs, and think a new job is a great opportunity for growth, whathaveyou.  I'm not.  I don't like change.  Never have.

So I'm DVRing my beloved "Revenge" premiere and going to bed early, and hope that I make it through the day without writing my resignation letter in my head.*

*To clarify, I don't always assume the worse.  I really don't.  But I've never had a job where I didn't spend the entire first month deciding on how to quit.  It takes me a good month to learn a new job and the people and the company, and that first month is excruciatingly hard.  And some jobs that I have hated the most early on have been the ones I ended up loving the most (like the public defender gig).  It's just that I know it's coming and I can't/won't change my attitude about it, so I'm predicting ornery and ugh overrule growth and acceptance tomorrow.  That's all I'm saying.

dancing in the rain

I remember when life was like this. I remember when my sister and I would splash in rain puddles, throw our pink ruffled umbrellas to the ground and walk in the rain until we were soaked to the bone.  We were young, but not so young that I can't recall how it felt.

It's been raining here all week.  And instead of making Britton cranky or ornery, she's taken it all in stride.  She tells me, "If it's stormy, we can't play outside because we could get hurt.  But it's ok if it rains because the flowers and birds love the rain."  I can't argue with that logic.  Yesterday afternoon I opened the garage door so we could scurry in quickly from the car, but Britton would have none of that.  She kept venturing back out into the rain, shrieking, laughing, then hightailing it back to the shelter of the garage.  Again and again.

back from disney world!

Britton, Memaw, and PawPaw left last Wednesday for Disney World!  The hub and I followed on Thursday morning, but almost didn't make it.  Let me explain - our flight was set for 7:30 am.  We set our alarms for 4:00 am but it seems that I turned mine off in my sleep.  The hub woke up at 6:05 am yelling that we were going to miss our flight!  We got out of the driveway at 6:12 am (a personal best!) and made it to the airport one minute before the cut-off for checking our bags.  We were the last people on the plane, but we settled into the flight, relieved the hubs remembered his Dallas-traffic driving skills!

Here we are waiting on the bus to take us to Magic Kingdom...

The carousel!  One of Britton's favorite rides.  This was the first trip where Britton had real preferences about rides, and everything we rode we had to get back into line to ride again (sometimes up to 4 times in a row if the lines were decent!)

The tea cups - Memaw and PawPaw took this one on, because I get vertigo easily and the hubs gets sick on the tea cups.  We sat this one out!

The Winnie the Pooh ride.  Britton did NOT like this ride because part of it was in the dark.  She got through it, and we promised her we wouldn't go on it ever again unless she wanted to.  She didn't!

We kept park visits to under four hours, because the heat, humidity, crowds, and miles of walking just wore all of us out.  Every day on the bus ride back to the hotel, Britton fell asleep anyways!

Friday morning, bright and early, we hit the Dumbo ride four times in a row!  This is Britton's favorite ride, hands down.

We even managed to catch a parade (and a pineapple popsicle).

On Friday night we went to dinner at the Kona Cafe in the Polynesian Hotel.  The monorail runs right by the Polynesian, so while waiting for our reservation, we took Britton on a monorail ride around the park.  She wore her new Snow White dress, and just soaked up the compliments!

The Snow White dress came out for our trip to EPCOT Saturday morning too!  An adorable shot of Memaw and Britton on the bus.  Memaw understands Britton's need to be a princess, and Britton loved having her Memaw and PawPaw with her.  Disney World is truly a family trip.

After Britton, Memaw, and PawPaw went to the aquarium while the hubs and I went on Soarin' (our favorite ride), we all went over to Magic Kingdom.  We spotted Sleeping Beauty doing pictures, but the line was cut off before we could get over there.  I asked the handler where we could find the other princesses, and she pointed us over to the Theater.  Jackpot!

On the way out of the meet-and-greet with Cinderella, Belle, and Rapunzel, with a quick stop in the gift shop for a Belle dress, we met Memaw and PawPaw.  PawPaw spotted the elusive Snow White, and we bolted over to the line so Britton could meet her!  We were told Snow White was leaving in 5 minutes, but I spotted Memaw buttering up Snow White's handler and we made the cut!

It's so funny, because we talk about how the princesses never break character.  They always use the correct mannerisms and accents.  But Memaw and PawPaw reported that Snow White handed Britton her Winnie (the one she chews on) and broke character for a minute when she felt that cold slimey Winnie and winced!

Bye Bye Disney!  See you next year!

red and tan triangle quilt

I saw this quilt on a quilting blog a year ago and just loved it (check it out Cluck Cluck Sew).  The only problem was, the quilt was supposed to use up red scraps.  And I didn't have any.  If my fabric stash is void of any color, it's red.  But why let logistics stop me?  I just bought as many red fabrics as I could!

Admittedly, this quilt became a pain very fast.  The process was easy, but tedious.  I pulled the blocks out last week, and when I started sewing them together, none of the points were matching up.  Plus, I was not prepared for how big the quilt was, which made quilting it cumbersome.  

Adding to the problems, I used a polyester batting to make the quilt lighter.  I had no idea that my spray baste wouldn't hold the batting to the layers, so as I was quilting it, the backing started slipping around. 

But as luck would have it, I ended up loving it!  The batting, even though it wouldn't cooperate, makes the quilt soft and light.  The quilt is just waiting for a rainy afternoon nap!

where's the party?

The hubs' 34th birthday was Saturday!  I got him a WVU flag he's had his eye on, and maybe even a better gift - the morning off of daddy duty to go shooting.  The hubs belongs to a gun club about 45 minutes north of our house, and this was the first chance he had to get away and really try out his new gun.  I think that excited him more than the flag!

After he got home from shooting, we had hamburgers on the grill for dinner and cake for dessert.  Because it was just the three of us celebrating, I got a small cake to avoid tons of leftovers.  Today, I don't know what I was thinking because I would give my right pinky finger to get another piece of that cake!

Britton helped me shop for plates and candles, which explains the sparkly glittery pink "5" candle on her plate.  No matter that she's not 5, she wanted that candle!  

The hubs and I were talking that night about adult birthdays.  It seems so unfair that after 21, nobody gets excited about your birthday anymore.  Sure, you can throw a party or jet away on a trip, but as an adult you can do that any time.  We put so much into children's birthday parties these days, it's a wonder we don't give ourselves the same treatment.  

I too turn 34 this year, and I admit that it's a hard birthday to get excited about.  I remember talking to my dad before I turned 25, and he told me that 26 was his hardest birthday.  He said that in turning 26, it was the downward spiral to 30.  A few days before I turned 26, I was in an Eat 'N Park taking a survey for a free Smiley cookie.  The age boxes went 18-25, 26-34, 35-44, etc.  It was then that it hit me that I would soon be in the box of "26 through 34."  I cried my eyes out in that booth!  Luckily, Eat 'N Park is not a nice restaurant by any stretch, so no one noticed.

So, as the hubs turns 34, I think we should celebrate that he's still in the "26 through 34" box!  Because, admittedly, next year's not going to be easy for either of us!

just stay in bed

Ever since Britton moved into a bed, her beautiful, enviable, consistent sleeping has gone out the window.  At first it was just a couple nights, here and there, where she'd get up and be put back to bed once for the night.  Then we moved into the hotel here, and it was all shot to shoot.  Some nights she screamed, running out of her room and refusing to even consider going to bed.  Other nights it would take ten tries to get her to stay in bed, each try including more outlandish behavior on our parts than the try before.  We went to such extremes - making Sadie sleep with her, rubbing Britton's back for twenty minutes, letting her take some books and a flashlight to bed - that we became downright superstitious.

We knew that with the hotel being a temporary situation, we couldn't really institute major changes.  We kept her routine the same - bath, books, bed - but other than that we just made it through.  There were nights Britton got up at 2:00 a.m., wide awake and wanting to play, and nothing could get her back to sleep. 

We figured that once we got into the house, everything would settle down.  And for the most part, it has.  But like any smart child, Britton has learned to push the boundaries and test us just often enough to keep us on our toes, but not so often that we're strapping her into her bed.  And don't think that idea hasn't hit me at 2:00 a.m.

Most nights the hubs gives Britton her bath, I read her stories, then she brushes her teeth and goes potty.  She tells the hubs goodnight and gives him kisses and hugs, then I put her down to bed.  It has now progressed into me rubbing her back while singing horribly off-key and downright made-up lullabies.  After about five minutes, I tell her good night and leave.  Then I stand outside her room because within a minute she's back up.  Usually it's with the excuse of wanting a book or a stuffed animal, but it's at that point that I turn from "patient loving mom" into "curt no-crap mom."  There are no sweet whispers of having good dreams; she is made to get into bed on her own and go to sleep.  Threats of taking away her Cinderella doll or putting a baby gate in her doorway have worked so far.  Most nights, that's where it ends and I'll take it because it's not all that bad.  

But last night, oh boy.  Britton was up from midnight until 5:45 am, wanting only the hubs.  He reported later to me that all she wanted to do was talk, and that she was so sweet about it he let her.  Turns out, she spewed a stream of consciousness story to him about her school and friends and anything and everything in her life until he drifted off on the couch.  This is how I found them this morning...

And I hope I'll look back at this picture and remember it sweetly, as my little girl and her daddy fast asleep on the couch, and not my little demon child who needs to learn to JUST STAY IN BED.

how we do disney

First trip to Disney - September 2010

Since the hubs and I have been together, we've been to Disney World A LOT.  Memaw and PawPaw used to live in Florida, so every time we went to see them, we went to Disney World.  I would estimate that the hubs has been to Disney World hundreds of times in his life.  Here are some tips that we have learned, tried and true...

1.  Stay on the park.  I've had people tell me that it's so much cheaper to stay off the park.  Is it really?  If you stay off the park, you have to pay for parking every day, which can run about $20 a day.  You also have no "home base" and will feel obligated to stay on the park all day because of the hassle of getting to parking and driving off the park.  If you stay on the park, you can run back to your room mid-day for a rest and lunch, and easily return later.  Plus, if you stay on the park each of the parks has extra hours at night.  For instance, the day we get there, Epcot is open until midnight for people staying on the park - bonus!  And everything we buy we can have sent back to our room for no extra charge.  Beats dragging around (and losing) shopping bags!

2.  Pick the right hotel for you.  Better yet, stay near the park you plan on visiting the most.  For us, that's Magic Kingdom, hands down.  From the Wilderness Lodge, we can take a boat five minutes to the entrance of Magic Kingdom.  From Caribbean Beach we have a ten minute bus ride.  If you stay at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, it will take you no less than 45 minutes by bus to get to Magic Kingdom.  

3.  Clear off a credit card before you go.  Kids are going to be surrounded by STUFF.  And worse yet, they recognize it all!  Britton loves all things Disney Princesses, so I know the princess dresses will be a big draw for her.  Many times I have witnessed a parent screaming at a kid that he can't have this or that, and such behavior ruins it for everyone.  I don't buy Britton everything she sees, and I employ distraction techniques to get her attention away from all the toys, but I do give in and buy her some stuffed animals and tee shirts while there.  If you just accept that you will spend more than you think you will, it makes life easier on everyone.

4.  Bring reinforcements.  We always go to Disney World with Memaw and PawPaw.  Disney World lends itself to a family vacation, and why not include everyone?  They want to be with Britton while she's meeting Mickey Mouse and riding the carousel, and not just see our pictures later.  Plus, since they've been to Disney World more than anyone I know, they don't mind staying with Britton in the hotel at night so the hubs and I can go back to the parks and ride the roller coasters.  

5.  Choose your visit time wisely.  Everyone knows how crowded Disney World is over Spring Break, but did you also know it's just as crowded the week between Christmas and New Years?  We go every September, on the assumption that most school-aged children aren't taking vacations in the first month of school.  Of course, we also realize that Disney World is never going to be empty unless we rent the whole park for ourselves!  So, being realistic that the parks will always be busy helps.

6.  Don't try to plan too much.  We run the same schedule every visit - park in the morning, then lunch, then back to the hotel room in the afternoon for pool time or rest.  After dinner, we might all go back to the park together for the parade and a few rides.  But we leave it open enough, that if Britton wants to ride "It's a Small World" 4 times in a row, that's ok.  Rushing to do every single ride and every single park will make everyone miserable.  By going once a year, we know that if we can't do a certain ride or park, there's always next year.  Taking the pressure off means everyone has more fun.  Plus, it allows for discoveries - new ornaments at the Christmas Shop or the incredible carbonated Slurpee drinks in Tomorrowland - some things you might miss if you're running from one ride to the next.

"free time"

I am currently unemployed.  And it is fantastic!  I was starting to become very disheartened by my work-from-home oil and gas title attorney position.  I love writing title opinions, and working from home was so convenient.  But I started to miss being a part of the office, and having real conversations with people, other than Britton's daycare teachers!  

So, I interviewed for a new position at the end of July, and was offered the job the next day.  I'm going to be a landman for an international oil and gas company.  I accepted, and presumed that I would be starting soon.  I went ahead and quit my attorney position, but since it was an independent contractor job, I didn't have to give notice.  We went ahead and parted ways, very amicably.  As luck would have it, I'm still getting paid on my last job, and will for months to come as they catch up with what I'm owed.  So I get to hang out until my first day of my new job on October 1st!  

I've spent time finishing the ridiculous amount of unpacking we've had, and I registered my car, and all those moving chores I hate.  And I've been busier than ever, not even having a chance to sit down and veg in front of the television or take a nap - both of which I need to do, because come October 1st I won't get to do either unless I'm sick!  Here's what I've been up to:

1.  Babysitting the baby birds.  Can you see their little faces in the middle of the picture below?  I check on them every day to make sure their mom is taking care of them.  And I leave birdseed for her, in case she's tired from plucking worms from the neighbor's yard.

2.  Mass cooking.  In less than five weeks, I will have a new nephew!  And someone has to stock Jessica's freezer with easy meals.  I remember how mind-numbing those first weeks are, but it will be even harder for Jessica because she has three other kids who want to be fed dinner.  Making the dinners now gives them time to get frozen solid, so they will survive the cooler ride to her house when she has the baby.

3.  Quilting!  I had no idea how much I really missed it while we were in the hotel.  I have so many unfinished projects, that I need to take advantage of this time off and get them finished.  This is the backing for my latest project, a quilt I started last year that never got past having the blocks completed.  Ever priced four yards for backing?  A double sheet from Wal-Mart is a better bargain!

4.  Christmas project gifts.  I am not making any quilts for Christmas presents this year because everyone got one last year!  But I am making some other gifts, including stockings that involve cross-stitching.  Beside my recliner is a stocking, which holds my cross-stitching and every night I get just a little finished.  I figure if I start my handmade gifts now, I won't feel so overwhelmed when it gets closer to Christmas.

i am in love with a sewing machine

I have been working on a baby girl quilt for a friend of Jessica, and I was all set this week to free motion quilt it. Well, one frustrating hour and three broken needles later, I was cursing at my sewing machine like a sailor. I even scared Sadie enough with my yelling that she went upstairs to get away from me! Later the same day I was telling the hubs how frustrating my machine had become, and how it just wasn't capable of quilting well anymore. In all likelihood, I've just worn the thing out.

 So, imagine my surprise, when that afternoon after work he came home with a Janome 3160 QDC!  He had stopped by the sewing machine store to find out the best machine for quilting (preferably one that would stop turning me into a raging asshat) and the owner recommended the Janome 3160 QDC. 
I'm always apprehensive about learning a new technology, so needless to say I was scared that it would be too much machine for me. It is computerized and has 60 different stitches!

 After Britton went to bed, I took my new machine down to the basement to try it out. You know how when something is easier than what you had before, you don't know what to think? Like getting DSL after having dial-up internet. You think, "What's the catch? Was my previous method really so hard?" 

Turns out it was! This machine is a dream! It took less than 10 minutes to get it set up, and I had that quilt sewn and bound today in less than an hour. I kept waiting for the bobbin to get tangled up, or a needle to break, or the tension to go screwy, and the problems never happened.

I am excited to try the new stitches! How cute for borders, especially those flower and star motifs.

I don't know if you can see it here or not, but my stitches are so much cleaner and tighter now.  And a sneak peek of my current baby girl quilt project!

The hubs gets a high-five on this gift because I am in love with this sewing machine!  I don't get surprised often, so it was fun to have him completely floor me.  And it was funny hearing him tell me about all the features, and how it would work with my quilting.  He even had the terminology down pat!

the finishing touches: more decorating nonsense

I've lost almost all motivation on changes to this house.  After painting six rooms, hanging 12 curtains, and moving boxes to one floor just to move them to another floor, I'm kaput.  The formal living room looks like a storage closet, but it's just going to have to wait.  In fact, anything else that can/should/will be done will only get accomplished if I hire someone to do it.

But did this defeatist attitude stop me on changing the front door on this humid Saturday morning?  No sir!  Granted, I was on no sleep because Britton decided sleeping was overrated from midnight until about 4:00 am.  But I bucked up and got to changing because man, this door needs CHANGES.

Gold lock, kick plate, lights?  Check.  Muddy raisin plum colored door?  Double check.  Sad Sadie dog peeking out of the left-side window at me taking photos?  Checkity-check-check.

The AFTER!  The paint is "Heirloom Red" by Valspar, the lock is Schlage in rubbed oil bronze, and the kickplate is also rubbed oil bronze.  I've always wanted a red front door!  The door knocker did not get replaced yet because in attempting to get it on the door, I didn't notice that the screw was too long.  The drill whirled the door knocker around, chipping a dent out of the door and scratching the paint.  So I bought some rubbed oil bronze spray paint to paint the old door knocker, and it's currently drying on the kitchen island.

The new outdoor lights are in the garage, waiting on an electrician to install them.  We need to put a ceiling fan in Britton's room because her room is just so still that it feels hot, so I figured if I was going to pay an electrician to come out for that, might as well hit him up for the outdoor lights too.  Speaking of Britton's room...

Remember when I said that I accidentally threw away her wooden name letters?  I tracked down replacements, and they were going to be ridiculously expensive.  I blame pregnancy nesting for needing $9 each letters to begin with!  So I got an inspiration out of nowhere to do a bunting.  I already had the fabric, ric rac, and interfacing, so it cost me nothing!  

And I had been spying on this tree at Target, but hadn't gotten it yet.  When I went to visit Jessica, she had the same tree in Emily's room.  It was so cute in person that I was sold!  It was so easy to put up, unlike the one we had in Britton's room in Texas.

And we also replaced Britton's crappy wobbly bookcase with a smaller bookcase from the same manufacturer as the kitchen bookcases.  This one does not lean three inches off the wall like the other, so I'm already impressed!

As far as Britton's room goes, we're finished.  DONE.  Well, other than the ceiling fan.  But I'm not putting it in, so it doesn't count!

37 months old

Britton is now three years old, plus one month!  But I still write "37 months" because it's easier.  We've been in the new house for three weeks now, and Britton is adjusting well.  Unfortunately, her daycare friends have been sharing information about monsters recently, so Britton has found that she needs to wake us up multiple times per night to tell us about the monsters.  It's a process, I know, but I'm losing patience with being woken up like she's a newborn.  Hopefully, her issues will subside soon!

Britton is now in size 4/5 clothing, and weighs 40 pounds.  She's 40 inches tall too, so the doctor said she's in all the normal ranges for development.  Britton has now discovered dressing up, and so I got her this Alice in Wonderland costume and she loves it.  

She is also turning into a social butterfly and wants to play with all of our neighbors.  We have a great ten-year-old girl next door who enjoys playing with Britton, but Britton is still a little young to go running off with the older kids.  So we play in the driveway, riding bikes and drawing with chalk, and of course playing on the swingset.

Likes:  reading books, playing with Sadie, going to daycare, discovering her old baby toys, riding her bike, Nutrigrain bars

Dislikes:  "monsters" in her bedroom, baths without color fizzies, yogurt, being made to come inside for dinner or bed