Sewing again

I finished a sewing project: pajama bottoms and matching tops for Andrew and Edward. I've been enjoying my sewing class and learning a lot about what the sewing machine can do. With the right tools, you can sew just about anything. For example, there are special feet that can do gathering or pleating. The boys are really excited about their pajamas.

Visitor

We had a visitor last week; Kirk's nephew Derek stopped by while here on a choir concert tour. Here is a photo to prove it (we rarely get any family visiting us). It turned out that one of my cousins was in the same choir, but he didn't remember that we lived here or didn't have a phone number to call us, so we didn't get to see him.

9 months

Lucy turned nine months old last week, but I haven't had a minute to mention that with everyone being sick. Here are two photos to show how she has grown: now and as a newborn. Yes, that is Kirk's Sunday shoe next to her. She likes to chew on it, if she gets a chance.




After Lucy nurses, she will often look around the room for Kirk and say "a-da," or last night, "Dad," as in "Where is my Daddy?"

10 years

Today marks the 10th anniversary of when Kirk and I were first introduced to each other via email. I started putting all the email we wrote to each other in a readable format, but haven't printed it out. I've only done the first month and a half of messages and have more than 100 pages. The messages include gems such as the following:

March 3

>Have you read any of Daniel Pinkwater's books? Lizard Music? The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death? ...

>>Eliza, you're really, really, really scaring me. Daniel Pinkwater was one of my favorite authors when I was a teenager. Absolute favorite. Just to prove I'm not lying: Fat Men from Outer Space.

And another March 3 letter

>Freddy the Pig books (there is _no way_ you read Freddy the Pig)

>>You lost that bet. :-) ... I was actually just talking about Freddy the Pig books with my sister ... last week and she said she never could stand them.

Despite everything, or maybe because of it, we managed to get married two years later and celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary last month.

Two good things

1. Yesterday was the first time since August that I hadn't done at least one extra load of boys' laundry during the week. Usually I do all the clothes laundry on Monday and the towels/bedding on Friday. But with potty training and everything, I usually did a few extra loads of boys' clothes during the week. Of course, by the end of the week Edward was reduced to wearing his Halloween costume for pajamas and Andrew had to wear shorts when it was only 30 degrees outside, but we made it!

2. I read all 377 pages of Kirk's book manuscript today. (I skipped reading the Appendices and the Bibliography--I already edited those a few months ago.)  After correcting a few typos and things, he should be able to send it back to the editor for another review. Nothing else got done around the house, though, and the boys got to watch cartoons for three hours. At least they only watch DVDs about once a month. I guess this was their chance for the month. I felt better about the TV watching because I had them play outside and exercise for at least an hour beforehand, and they also read a book filled with photographs from the Hubble telescope.

The "boss"

Andrew informed me that he was the "boss" of the family. When I questioned that statement, he decided to modify that and say that he and Edward boss Mommy and Daddy, Mommy and Daddy boss Andrew and Edward, Lucy is the boss of Mommy, Daddy, Andrew, and Edward, and "that's what you do in a family."

This is completely unrelated, but probably one of the reasons Kirk and I got married was because neither of us has ever seen, or will likely ever see, a Superbowl game.