You do what ya gotta do

I obliged Chasey by opening the dryer door for him after he spotted a load of whites. He climbed right in to get just the right sock for sucking. He is still sucking socks, but he has become more picky. He will only suck on Old Navy ones. Either end will work, but only the white ones. He likes them because they are very portable and plentiful. We currently have a dozen of them littering our floors. Let me tell you it is not a good feeling to step on a wet and slimy sock.

Is it bad that I am already taking down Christmas decorations?

It is has been 4 days since I pulled out all the yuletide cheer and some of it has already been put back. I had a bunch of extra ornaments after we finished decorating the tree so I thought it would look nice to put them in this large wire basket that I have and put them on the coffee table. And I must say it did look nice, very nice. I put it on the table and 2 seconds later Chasey was screaming 'ball' and throwing them all over the house. Good thing they are of the non-shattering kind. So I decide to move my basket o' balls up onto my island. Now I have a big island, so I thought it would work to put them there. After 2 days of pushing the basket around I gave up, put the ornaments onto the tree and put the wire basket away. "Maybe next year" I tell myself.

I put out this little wooden Christmas tree/advent calendar that has 24 lights hanging on it. Every day you turn over a light. The tree even comes with wooden presents that sit underneath it. I cleverly put it on my end table far enough away from Chasey's hands...or so I thought. Between him pulling, tip toeing and pushing he has managed to get at most of the lights and the presents. After 4 days of fishing the lights out of his mouth and picking them up off the ground I put that one away too. "Maybe next year" I tell myself.



This Santa and sleigh set we inherited from Scott's parents. It is made entirely out of porcelain. I have never put it out because one, I have never had a decent place to put it and two, just breathing on it causes pieces to break off. This year I decided to be brave and put it out on my mantle far away from Chasey's little hands. I am just about to put it away. After seeing various object fly across the room out of the corner of my eye and watching the daily wrestling matches around here I am thinking that one little tremor or one ball even near this set will blow it to smithereens. Then I will have to explain to Scott's parents why the Santa they have kept in one piece all of these years has now lost his head and why his reindeer have no more antlers. I'm pretty sure that when we inherited these, we did not have 4 boys in the house. I'm also pretty sure that if Scott's parents really knew the extent of the chaos around here they would have never given them to us.

And yes you don't need to tell me that the reindeers are suppose to be pulling the sleigh, not pushing it. I am proud of myself that it only took me 4 days to realize what I had done.

May all your decorations stay in one piece and in one place! For me... maybe next year.

Cheerios and The Princess Bride

What do these 2 things have in common? Let me tell you. A few weeks ago, Taylor was searching for a book to read around the house. He is a voracious reader and it is a constant challenge to keep him supplied with new books. We had the Princess Bride sitting around our house and I told him to read that and after he was done we would rent the movie for him to watch.

After finishing the book we went to the library to check it out. A week later when we went to return it, we couldn't find the case anywhere. High and low, inside and out we looked. Where on earth did it disappear too? Scott and I even dug through our recycling bin wondering if maybe it got slipped in between some newspapers and thrown out. No luck. We finally decided to renew the movie for one more week with the hope that it would reveal itself soon. It did.

About 6 days later, Scott sat down to a bowl of Cheerios for breakfast and what do you think came falling out amongst the O's? The case. Scott's initial thought was "Hey! Cheerios is giving away DVD's!" Sadly that is not true, but we found the case. I'm going to blame Chasey on this one.

More books

Here are a few more of my books that I have completed for my class. Although these books are nothing to write home about as far as design, each one has taught me basic concepts that I can use as I get better and better.

This is a flat back book. I used some scrapbook paper that I had laying around for the covers. The spine is made with fabric. You wouldn't know it was actually hand made until you peek inside and see my stitching. This is the book that I accidentally cut and had to start all over. I am glad I did, because it turned out much better than the first.





One of the trickiest parts is sewing on the endband. That little yellow and white thing at the top. You sew it with silk thread and attach it to the book at the same time. You really need 4 hands to do this easily, but have to learn with what you've got. I am really happy with how they turned out.

Paper case binding with a rounded spine. This book is made with one piece of handmade paper (not by me) and is constructed entirely by folding. I love the feel of this book. My teacher called it a very "organic" book. I didn't really know what she was talking about until I finished it. The feel of handmade paper is fabulous - very artsy and yes organic.



Other than the rounded spine and constructing the cover I also learned how to do clasps and how to sew a different kind of endband that looks better with this style of book.

When Hollywood met Jackie Chan

Turnovers

About a week ago, Scott went over to his sister's house and came back with 3 boxes of apples. Being the kind of girl that likes pastry and being in the mood to make some - I did. My love of pastry goes back years and years. Back to the day when my mom taught me how to make the perfect crust and my brothers took great joy in harassing me. Would you like to see proof? Lookee what I dug out.




Please don't hate me because I am beautiful. I believe that is Jaron and Tyler behind me, holding a sign that says "Tiera's first pie." Jaron was kind enough to put a skull and cross bones at the bottom.

I have lost those glasses and the spiral permed hair thank goodness, but not the pie making skills. I don't know if I should laugh or cry about this, but I asked Owen who was in the picture and he immediately said "Mom." I guess I haven't changed that much.

And on a similar vein, did you know that I have a recipe blog? It's true. If you click the little recipe button at the top it will magically take you there. I only mention it because my mom stumbled upon it the other day and had no idea I had it. Then I found out that my sis-in-law didn't know either. I wish everyone had one. Just so you know...

The good and the bad

Taylor had his last football game today. It was the finals. They had won every game this season. What looked like a victory with 4 minutes left in the game turned into defeat very quickly. I am not known for my competitiveness and wasn't too broken up about it. Losing a game or two is not a bad thing. I saw one of the kids crying and then looking around noticed that about half of his team was crying and upset and the other half was trying desperately not to follow suit. It broke my heart. These little kids were really into this game and wanted to end their season 10-0.

Even though Taylor has been mourning this loss all afternoon there was one bright spot at the end of the game and it was quite a bright spot. I'm not sure who on his team knows this guy and how they got him to appear, but he did. Taylor was thrilled and went right over to him and lucky me I had my camera and snapped a picture. Something told me to bring it today.



Who is this? Harvey Unga. BYU's ever so popular starting running back. Taylor watches, reads, makes up plays and memorizes everything about this football team. If they had to loose their championship game, this definitely makes up for it. At least in Taylor's book.