Thursday, October 29, 2009

Can I have a drink?

I need some courage to tackle the quilting part of the challenge quilt. I can only give teasers of what the quilt looks like, because I know at least one quilt guild member reads my blog. :)

I will say it's hand dyed fabrics with black. Never get tired of that combination.


Here's where the real trouble is, plunging in to do the quilting. I even tried warming up on a piece of scrap, but I was nervous after adjusting the tension.

On the last quilt, I got my courage after drinking some hot chocolate laced with some mint alcohol. It was just what I needed to suck up and get over the "ack! What if it goes wrong?!" feeling. Can't do that this time, at 10 weeks pregnant. :P

Oh yeah, it's due Monday! Yikes...

Leah

Thursday, October 22, 2009

The Real Reason

The real reason why I've been pretty scarce lately... is because I'm pregnant. :)

I got a positive exactly a month ago. No, the above picture isn't it, I took another one this morning for the blog. ;)

Truthfully, I was just expecting to miscarry again. I've already had two, neither made it to 5 weeks. So when 6 weeks rolled around, I knew I had to tell Chris. I had light spotting, so I was kinda worried to tell him. Looks like it's sticking this time!

Just after 7 weeks, I told my parents. I bought canvas bags from Walmart and used acrylic paint and stencils to decorate it for my parents. My mom said it was her favorite gift for her birthday. :D

It was kinda funny watching her open it. I didn't let her until all my siblings were there, including my grease-covered brother. He was working on a vehicle.

So Mom starts to open it, "grand..." and then it hit her! Then she read the whole thing and Dad was grinning really big. He's been the #1 advocate for procreating, but I kept telling him it was improper for my parents to be grandparents before they're 50! ;) I couldn't have possibly timed that any better.

We also told Chris's parents 4 days later. They got a similar bag... but didn't quite get it. It's because my husband's brother's wife is expecting a baby late February and thought I got it for Kenya's baby. Nope, not quite.

Some nitty gritty details... I'm due May 27th. Actually, I want to say that I'm doomed on May 27th. :P That's graduation day at the high school. Typically Chris is gone all day, maybe I'll see him for a few hours in the afternoon. That day is also the day Chris's baby sister is graduating. I'm sure you can imagine that my in-laws and all the immediate family will be attending. AND it's also gonna be a full moon that night! Doomed, I tell you. :)

I'm 9 weeks today, 31 to go! I've been blessed to get my mom's morning sickness genes and haven't thrown up at all. I'm extra tired and super fickle when it comes to food. I've lost 7 pounds so far, but my waist gained 2 inches. Today was pretty rough for whatever reason, but yesterday I was able to get more food in me than normal. Never know what it's gonna be like.

Chris and I have decided to go with a midwife. The main reason is because we've been watching Kenya get jerked around by this town's medical establishment. I've grown up with good medical care, I have an idea what doctors should be able to provide. All we've seen is Kenya being sent from one place to another with nobody actually dealing with her problems. The doctors kept saying one thing, then "oops! We're wrong, you don't have that." Then they finally gave her a prescription that nobody carries and would have be special ordered. Matt and Kenya gave up and finally opted to just drive 1.5 hours to Tucson.

We've already met the midwife, she's just 3 miles from where we live. I really like her! :) When I walked into her living room, I noticed a tattered quilt on the couch, a sewing machine in a cabinet by the window and a cradle on a stand by a wall. She spent well over an hour talking about herself, how she deals with situations, answering our questions. I left feeling so much better about my choice. I truly do feel like I'll get the proper care I need, and not get jerked around like Kenya did.

And there you have it! The real reason why I haven't been too friendly with my sewing machine, even though I have a major deadline coming up - the challenge quilt! :P I can do it... I can do it... I can do it...

Leah

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

The weekend

Last Friday we drove to Phoenix, so we could fly to California for my mom's birthday. We decided to take my car, so I prepared it as best as I could. Had an oil change, fluids checked, and my tires checked last Tuesday. I found out that I needed a new battery (mine was the original, 9 years old), and took care of that on Thursday.

I also took my car to the gas station and double checked the tire pressure, because the folks tend to under inflate it. I like to keep it at 4PSI below the max, they put it at 8. Also, for the very first time in 5 years of owning my car, I filled up the spare tire. Good thing too! It was at 15PSI and needed to be at 40PSI. All this attention to the tires, just because my sister said her boyfriend checks his tires monthly AND his spare. I had no idea you're supposed to stay on top of your spare.

About 120 miles from home, we had a blow out. Chris handled it absolutely fantastically. He didn't touch his brakes, he didn't swerve, he safely pulled over and there were no other cars involved, despite going almost 80 miles in the fast lane.

I was more shocked seeing the tire itself than the impact of feeling like we hit something and then started bumping forward. We immediately started to tackle changing it. I was scared I would miss the plane and not be able to see my parents. A highway patrol truck pulled over, and his presence was really encouraging. It took 45 minutes to change the tire, and then we were feeling rushed to cover the 70 miles left, yet dare not speed in case another tire felt like blowing. I pretty much had to hold back tears the entire trip, I just couldn't believe that I actually managed to fill up the spare tire in time. We would have completely missed the plane if we were stuck with a tire at 15PSI.

Thankfully we made it to the airport in time! We parked my car in the terminal and checked in. We'd deal with my car when we got back from our 3 day weekend. The plane was late for once, and we were actually happy about that! :) That gave us time to grab a bite before takeoff.

I had a great weekend with my parents, and my mom really liked her gifts of a personalized cloth bag and 2 yards of brown batik fabric. We did some clothes shopping for my mom, had the birthday dinner with my parents, siblings, and sister's boyfriend (she's pretty serious about him!).

I was able to glean information and ideas from my dad and brother over what to do about my tires. I put on new tires when I bought my car, 30,000 miles ago. They supposedly came with an 80,000 warranty. I felt gypped! Yet it turns out half of the problem may be due to the age of my tires, as they're over 5 years old. Rubber starts to fall apart, especially in the hotter states. After my blow out, I saw at least 3 more cars pulled over to deal with their tires, in an hour's time. It wasn't really hot that day, not even 90 degrees. And I'm pretty sure the tire that blew out was not the one I drove over a nail 2 years ago.

We decided to start from scratch and replace all the tires. I had a 9 year old spare, 1 repaired tire and one blow out. It took $997. Ouch! I truly feel like I managed to magically pull up a thousand dollars out of thin air, as Costco only takes cash or American Express, which I don't have. And you know from my previous post, I cleaned out the surplus to pay off the student loan.

We still need to deal with the rim, as it's damaged; and also have a professional look at my shocks and suspension system. I'm afraid that WILL have to go on the credit card, but hopefully I'll have it paid in full again around Thanksgiving. I don't give a hoot about the cosmetic damage. We'll get an estimate on the repair cost, but it's very far on the back burner to deal with.

In the end... I'm glad it went as well as it did, I've seen so many ugly blow outs traveling throughout Arizona. Rollovers, other cars involved, completely scorched vehicles, and even shutting down the interstate a time or two.

Leah

Saturday, October 03, 2009

Rough Week

It's been a bumpy week. Started off with Chris getting the flu - and I'm willing to put money down that it was the swine flu. It matches what I felt in late July, except he didn't get bronchitis. I also picked up a cold this week... we're tons of fun here. ;)

So in the interest of keeping all my fingers intact, I haven't been near the sewing machine or rotary cutter. But I did get some good news: a second student loan paid off.

Just one more to go!! It won't happen until next year at least, unless I manage to catch one of the mystical financial fairy godmothers. Haven't seen any lately. ;)

Leah