Hey Ethne,

where's your neck?


(yes, this is what she does when we ask the above question. along with some very convincing choking/gagging noises.)

JOYOUS news!

MY CAMERA IS FIXED!!!!! MY HUSBAND IS THE GREATEST MAN ON THE FACE OF THE PLANET BECAUSE HE CAN FIX EVERYTHING!!!! Not kidding.

I don't know if you grasp the immensity of my happiness, because I never got a chance to post about how broken-hearted and completely devastated I was over the loss of my camera. But you might imagine.

It was completely my fault too--I was taking pictures of the kids on the pedestrian bridge on the tripod. Only I forgot the attachment to the camera that hooks onto the tripod, so it was just balancing up there. And then, it fell, down...down...down...to the concrete below.

I took it to the camera store yesterday and asked about getting it fixed and the guy looked at it and said they'd have to send it out and it would probably cost between 75-150 dollars. That's a no. Maybe you think I'd be excited to upgrade, and maybe I would be...someday. But that day is not today. I like MY camera, I just wanted it back. We don't have the money to fork out for a new one right now. And to be truthful, I did not think Brett could fix it. I started composing poems to post on the bloggie about how sad I was without my camera.

(This is not an actual picture of my camera because...I did not have a camera to take a picture of my camera.)

Well, tonight Brett took it apart, jiggled a few things around, got electrocuted when he accidentally touched the capacitor, found the problem and repaired it, put it back together with only one extra piece left out, and
VOILA!@@!!#%#!!~!!!! IT WORKED!!!!!!!

Brett said to me, "I better get a big, fat blog post for this." Oh indeed. Indeed. (Which is funny since he never even reads my blog, but oh well.)

So now, instead of my Sad Without a Camera poem, I give you my Happy with a Handy Husband poem. (Careful, it's not G-rated.)

My husband is the best,
He fixes EVERYTHING, that is no jest.

Be it toy or truck or john [meaning toilet],
He simply says, "Bring it on."

Handy is his middle name,
Well, actually it's J, cause Handy would be lame.

I don't know how I got so lucky
To live with him and not in Kentucky.

Forgive me if this poem is dim,
I'm off to jump in bed with him!

p.s. I need some good ideas for his 30th birthday which is coming up next month. Anyone?!!

Wednesday Reminisce

A reminisce--Kami style. But first, bad news. I dropped my camera today and it is broken. Oh the weeping and gnashing of teeth. But we'll see if my fix-anything husband can work some magic. Oh I hope.

And another quick side-note about my handsome husband--he makes me happy. A little bit earlier I was chatting with him online and I told him that I had bad news (camera) and he said "what's wrong?" and I said, "First you have to tell me how much you love me." And he said, "Well that would take all day." Then I asked him if he wanted to have a lunch/icecream date with me tomorrow sans-children and he said, "Wow!!! wouldn't I ever." It made me smile.

Okay, on to the reminisce. About 6 years ago Brett participated in the SAE Mini Baja Competition. It was his senior project, but he had also worked on the Baja team his junior year at USU. He put a lot of time and effort into it, and the race that year--his junior year--was a total flop for their team. Their car wouldn't run. They really didn't even get to race. I've never seen such a sad group of guys in my life. It was heartbreaking to see them. It was so sad for Brett that I couldn't stand it, and I made him go and buy himself a bike. I would have let him buy a truck. Anything.

So the next year, there were fewer guys on the team--just four. Brett, Drew (Brett's best friend), Travis and Rex. They worked SOOOOOO hard on their car. I kid you not it was unceasingly in their thoughts for the entire year. They had to do a lot of the work to raise the money themselves, dreamed it, designed it, built it, loved it, hated it, re-built it, tested it, worried about it, etc. etc. etc.

We wives were known as the "Baja Widows" because that is what we were. Seriously, in the last few weeks before the competition, the guys left the windows cracked in the building they worked on it in, so they could climb in after hours when they weren't officially allowed to be in there, and worked on it through the night.

There was a very sad setback in that the transmission that Brett designed and built broke a few days before the competition, so they had to use a poorer version (which didn't have reverse) but they made do.

BUT...the day of the races dawned cold and muddy--just the way we LOVE it for baja competitions!--and the car ran!!! It ran the whole thing! I cannot begin to express how MUCH fun we had that day. The WHOLE day we just felt exultant, giddy, excited, thrilled, elated. Whenever Brett and I think back on that day it just gleams as one of the most fun days of our lives.

We did not take first place, but we competed. I can't remember what place we took--38th maybe? Out of a little over a hundred. Which wasn't that great, but it's not shabby either. My mom and dad and little brothers and sister came, so my mom and dad graciously took Jethro for me most of the time, so I was free to run through the mud, help pull mud off of whichever of our boys was driving when he pulled in for a pit stop, climb up the hills for a better look, and generally enjoy the atmosphere. Anyhoo, here are some pictures (although they're pretty much in backwards order).

Our car was number 9. This is the team at the end of the day.

This is a spot where cars often flipped over. But not ours, thanks to our super-awesome suspension design. ;)I think this may be Brett driving the Maneuverability race. There was also a Rock Crawl, Hill Climb, and of course, the Endurance Race.This is the same spot that I mentioned above, where people flipped, earlier on in the Endurance race.
This is everybody lined up at the end.

Brett waving hello.

Drew. I love this picture. :)

Pit stop.

The Baja Widows, and Jethro (held by Jessica).

The team.

This is when we drove the car some other day. I even drove it, though I much preferred riding in it with someone else driving.

Jethro. :)

Sigh. The end.

flower pin pictures of Hazel

So I made this fabric flower pin to go on Hazel's brown dress so she doesn't always have to be a little Puritan girl when she wears it, but Brett said it looks clownish, which was sad. But Hazel likes it. Oh, and I made the headband too and I thought Hazel looked cute. So I took lots of pictures.
I read on another blog somewhere about how mothers have to post a million pictures of their children because of how different they think each facial expression is-and they can't narrow it down, when other people looking at them are thinking why in the world do they have to post so many of the same exact thing? Hee hee, I think I am guilty of that one! Oh well, there are more I could have posted...

And this was today at the park.

Look what I saw while trudging through the woods...

an adorable little gnome baby!!
Isn't he sweet?

Or maybe he's a chocolate kiss. A chocolate kiss is very sweet too.

I mentioned a while earlier that I was doing a crafty swap--well, this is what my swapper, Kristi, made for me! I had seen other little hats like it in her Etsy store, and I couldn't not have one for Tell. She had told me that she had mailed her package, and I was waiting and waiting and waiting, and FINALLY on Saturday it came and I ripped it open and put the hat and diaper cover on Talmage right away and Brett and I and the other kids all laughed and laughed and thought he looked sooooooooo adorable. And funny. And cute. And roly-poly. :)Doesn't it make you laugh too?
So here's the link for Kristi's Etsy shop-- you should definitely take a look around--she's got some awesome stuff!

Ridiculously long post

1. They took the stop sign out of the intersection before my house and put it in the other direction. I thought that was cool when I noticed that I no longer have to stop.

2. I was asked to say a little blurb in Relief Society yesterday, and spent some time talking in leading up to my point, and then never actually said my point. Oops. I hope it was at least somewhat implied.

3. It was a beautiful day on Saturday. Brett worked on his motorcycle and then we all worked in the garden digging and turning over the dirt.

4. Brett can dig and turn up dirt about 4 times faster than I can.

5. But I always knew he was buffer than me.

6. Which reminds me, after volleyball last Tuesday I arm wrestled a friend, and I have NEVER stayed in the exact same position for so long in my life. Seriously we did not move an inch one way or the other in about 6 minutes. It was intense. I called a draw. Afterwards my arm felt like there was a weight hanging on it. It was awesome.

7. And yes, on Sat. Brett took me for a quick ride around the block. Ahh, nothing better than a nice ride behind a good-looking guy on his motorsickle.

8. Jethro has graduated from the beeper at bedtime and hasn't been wet for a long time now. And so Hazel started wearing it and has been staying dry since about the second night. Sweet. So there, all you nay-sayers (Polly).

9. Just kidding, I actually completely believe you about having to grow out of bedwetting, it's just that I think Jethro was getting to that age and needed an extra push, and I think Hazel could have already been dry but she was just too lazy to go to the bathroom when she needed to in the morning (hence only actually being wet the first 2 nights).

10. For his prize, Jethro will get to go to an indoor race-car track. He's pretty excited (as you might imagine).

11.Hazel's prize will be... well, I'll leave that for a surprise.

12. On Saturday I looked up garage sales in the paper (online) (yes, it's garage sale season again!) and out of the few that were listed, one said it had a sewing machine. So I drove out, looked it over, offered a substantially lower price than she was asking and got it!

13. I got home, Brett came home from school and saw it and got after me (but not seriously), called it a piece of junk because it's new and plastic instead of old and metal and immediately tried it out.

14. It only sewed in reverse.

15. So he took it apart, looked around a bit, figured out what was wrong, readjusted something, and put it back together. It sewed forward!

16. Having a mechanical genius for a husband really proves handy sometimes.

17. Favorite quote of the week: "I really dislike DTR's, but sometimes they're necessary." --Blake J Bell Ha ha!

18. (DTR stands for Defining the Relationship)

19. See, there's this girl. She's 25 (same age as me), has reddish hair, and her name is Jenny (which is my mother-in-law's name). There're some serious signs going on.

20. We went to an Eagle Court of Honor last night for a kid we know, and Jethro watched the cermony in fascination. We asked him if he wanted to get an Eagle, and he said yes. Then Brett asked him how come, and he said, "So I can go to war." Ummmm? Seriously, sometmes I really fail to see the connections.

21. The second measure in the second line of the hymn 'For the Strength of the Hills' is impossible to play on an organ. I mean, I can play the top hand. I can play the bottom hand. I can play the foot pedals. But not together. Oh well, Brett said I didn't do too bad, and I even warned him of it beforehand so he was listening for it. I like that song though.

22. Talmage learned how to eat!!! At his last check-up, he was only about 8th percentile for height and weight, while his one before that he was at 60th percentile. So the doctor said she wanted to check him again in a month since that was a pretty big jump down. So I've been trying to get him to eat cereal and baby food but he would NOT do it. It was seriously force-feeding and really not fun. Then all of the sudden, CLICK--he suddenly opened up his mouth, kept the food in, swallowed it, and begged for more! Exciting stuff. I don't think he's going to have a problem gaining weight.

23. I found that it is very embarrassing when you are reading a book to your husband and you get to the mushy kissing parts. Things like "This time it was more and and different than the last. More tender and yet stronger, less timid, like he was staking a claim on my heart," really don't come out quite the way they sound in your head when you're reading, when your husband is laughing at you. Kinda like in the Princess Bride when the little boy wants his grandpa to skip all the kissing parts. :)

24. Yesterday on the way home from church I was singing a little bit from the closing hymn, and after I sang, "The iron rod," Brett broke in "really hurts when you get whacked with it.' Then we both looked at each other, and Brett said, "That could be a Jack Rasmussen song," and I was like, "yup."

25. Brett stopped every pretense of just applying for jobs that seem fairly interesting and places that we'd sortof like to be. Now he's applying to everything that says anything to the effect of 'engineer' and 'medical devices.'

26. I just hope we go elsewhere. Yesterday in Relief Society a sister was asked to tell a little about herself, and she said she came here in 1950 and thought they'd go back West after graduate school, and me and two other ladies sitting by each other all looked at each other and were like, "Please don't let that be me!!!!"

27. I think this is by far the highest number I've ever gotten to. Maybe I should try to go one number higher every time I do a numbered post.

28. It would be cool.

29. I could go on,

30. and on

31. and on... ;)

So cool

So, I talked to my brother,

on the today, and he said that he had watched the movie

and that he liked it. And he said that

reminded him of which made me SOOOO excited because I really thought the very same thing, and I almost wrote about it when I mentioned that movie earlier, but thought that everyone would just think it was just me. But now I know that it's not.

Now all he needs is a(hat, horse, and bullwhip).

Sick Friday

No fun today. This morning I woke up with my throat SOOOOOOOO sore. Jethro had said the previous two mornings that he had a sore throat, but I sent him off to school anyway and he didn't mention it the rest of the day. But since MY throat was killing, I took him out of school to the doctor where they took a swab and found he did, in fact, have strep throat. Now he says his throat hardly hurts at all, but I told the doc that my throat is very sore too. So he wrote a prescription for me as well. And I love Meijer because they give amoxycillin for free! Gimme those pills!!

Then, when we were IN Meijer, Ethne started crying and crying and crying and saying that her ear hurt. (Why--WHY couldn't you have given any indication of that while we were still AT the doctor's?) So we got home and heaven smiled on us because Brett was home. He NEVER comes home during the day. So it was a miracle to me because I felt soooooooo sick. So he turned around and took Ethne back to the doc and now we're all on antibiotics. What a day. Goodnight.

Sweet little Puritan girl

I'm not sure why I made a Puritan girl outfit...but I'll try to explain.

(Doesn't Hazel look EXACTLY like Jethro when she does that cheese-for-the-camera-no-top-lip smile?!)

See, FIRST I found this tutorial of a Reversible Folkloric Felt Bonnet--I do not remember how, and I thought, oh that is really cute and it will take all of five minutes to make, and then I can take some pictures of Ethne looking like a little story-book girl in the woods. Then I continued thinking, wouldn't it be cute with a little apron to match--after all, ALL little girls in storybooks have aprons.

But then I got to thinking that I didn't really have a dress for Ethne to put the apron on over, so I figured--hey how hard can it be to whip up a really simple dress? And that my friends, is never a good thought. Actually, it really wasn't that hard. I already had a pattern (Simplicity 4647) and I just put it together minus EVERYTHING not absolutely necessary. No slip, no ribbon, no sash, nada. It would have actually come together really fast except for the untimely death of my sewing machine (sob sob). I was left with only the bottom hem and half of the zipper to finish.
I took it to Kami's house, finished the dress, and then borrowed a sewing machine from a friend on Tuesday night and finished making the reversible folkloric felt bonnet (which was actually probably harder than the dress because I had to monkey with the pattern a bit to make it fit, but it did turn out pretty cute) and the apron. Oh, and I think I already mentioned how the dress did not fit Ethne at all, but was a perfect-I-couldn't-have-done-it-any-better-if-I-had-tried fit for Hazel. I think I would have picked a different color if I had known the dress was going to be for Hazel and not Ethne. Hence--a cute little Puritan/storybook girl. And that is how sewing is folks. Addicting.

I may have more pictures of this outfit later. Then I can show you the other side of the apron (it's reversible too).

unrelated items

Rub a dub dub, three men in a tub.

St. Patty's day outfits.

Unfortunately, I've made Ethne do crazy faces so often that now it's all I can get.Doesn't Ethne look like a little {crazy} leprechaun?

Brett brought Talmage into me at about 7:00 this morning so I could feed him. Then I laid down and he was playing around, trying to eat me, snuggling with me, being so cute and happy. What a wonderful kid. :) Just love him.Somebody woke up happy from his nap!

Getting ready for summer.