Fun and Games

Here we are in our child-free weekend, and although I miss the chilluns, Mr. EG and I have been having some fun. Yesterday we stopped at Dave and Buster's on the way home and played air hockey, billiards (I'm an expert at slop ball), and raced each other in a race car game. It was something we haven't done in a while, and a nice change.

Today after church we stopped for the first time at Bubba's Q restaurant, owned by former Cleveland Brown Al "Bubba" Baker. Supposedly it is the only restaurant in the country to sell de-boned baby back ribs, which were good but not quite to my taste. My husband, a football fan of That Evil Town to the East, might not have liked some of the wall decor, which included autographed jerseys from Bernie Kosar and Brian Sipe. The football theme was carried throughout, down to the menus, which felt like a football on the outside and were colored orange or brown.

Today I'm hoping to get some sewing and house cleaning done with only Mr. EG under foot. :) I'm glad we're getting the kids back tomorrow. They're probably having a fantastic time at the water park.

Warning: first two links have sound.

Positive Notes

Yesterday was the last night of Mom/Kid Ballet. Even though we only took it once a week, I noticed my stamina was a lot better at the end of the course than the beginning. Now to keep that up! It was a nice experience for Wildchild and I. She loved being able to show her mom how to do something!

We seem to have pinned down the source of Mr. EG's somnolence. His sleep study showed he does not have sleep apnea, so the doctor targeted his meds next, and his asthma medication seems to have been the culprit. He is slowly returning to normal life. :)

We will be getting rid of our daughters for the weekend. :) They are going to a waterpark with their aunt and uncle on Sunday; we're dropping them off on Saturday and getting them back on Monday, since the family lives an hour and a half away. They should have lots of fun.

We Found Our Thrill

On Tuesday we went blueberry picking with the Presbytera and some of her family, and another homeschooling mom in the area. It was a great opportunity for the girls to get some of the fruit they love, at a good price, and a fun experience picking. Fortunately, the day was not overly hot or humid, and we picked quite a few pounds of berries. Wildchild has already made one batch of blueberry muffins, and the girls want to make blueberry smoothees. Many of the blueberries need to put in the freezer still. It was a very pleasant way to spend the day

Irish Experience

We needed to get out of the house today, so we went to the local, and annual, Irish Cultural Festival. Mr. Evil Genius bought all three of his girls some jewelry, I got to see some handsome Irish men ;), and we got to hear some Irish music and see some Irish dancing. The Scientist knew one of the Irish dancers from a sleepover party given by one of her good friends, also an Irish dancer. The two girls hung out for a while, in between performances by the girl's dance school. I bet none of you, even those who live in Ohio, have ever seen an Irish dance performed to "Hang On Sloopy." It electrified the crowd. O-H-I-O!

Debbie's Contest

My friend Debbie is having a contest and giving away some nice things if you are a quilter, or even just a sewer. I've been wanting one of those Clover mini-irons for ages; they're supposed to be great for sewing doll clothes. And the little containers are just too cute!

Dance Dance Revolution

You know what? I like ballet. Our second class was today, and once again, it was a work-out. I've never gotten into aerobics, or lying on the floor waving my legs around, but exercising by way of dance is fun. I wish I could have taken dance lessons when I was young, although I was intrigued by tap then. Perhaps Wildchild and I can continue practicing ballet together after the classes are over.

Celebrity Sighting

While Mr. Evil Genius and I were shopping in our local Target tonight, we saw Indians pitcher Paul Byrd! I did say hi to him. Saved the squee for when we were out of the store. :) And I just mentioned something about his HGH usage today. (lopsided grin)

CU at CP

Yesterday the family met up at Cedar Point with my sister-in-law and her husband, to celebrate my birthday, which is today. I'm starting a new decade, and it is not my thirties! We (most of us) rode lots of rides and all ate good food, which we brought from home. Mr. Evil Genius did most of the cooking! Fortunately, although we had scattered showers, the rain came around mealtime both times, so we ate lunch and dinner at our covered table and waited out the rain. We ended up having a very good time.

Here's a picture of the cake. My husband told the girl what to write on it.

Here's the Scientist and Wildchild with local celebrities. :)

Alas

Tonight was the first Mom/Kid ballet class with Wildchild and I have discovered two things. I am old. And out of shape. After that class I was Ready.To.Drop. I don't know how Wildchild does it. She went swimming this afternoon, had a tap dancing class in the early evening, we had dinner, then ballet. And then she put her tap shoes on and was showing her sister her new tap moves when we got home! But it looks so easy when Wildchild does it!

Deja Vu

The Rebellious Pastor's Wife tagged me for this one. It's similar to one I did not that long ago, but I'm always up for a meme, so I'll play along.

What was I doing ten years ago?

Ten years ago I was fairly early on in my pregnancy with Wildchild. Sometime during that summer was when we had the 100-year-flood that left several feet of water in our basement and turned our street into a river. There were kids floating in a raft in the cul-de-sac directly across from our house, seriously. I'm still bitter about losing a big box of books from college that was too heavy to go on our shelves, and probably would have been on a lower shelf so I would have lost it anyway. We didn't have any trouble with that basement before or after.

That summer was also when I had an earache so bad I could barely eat or sleep, so I got Tylenol-with-codeine and then was miserably ill because I'm allergic to codeine and didn't know it. I think having a little Scientist running around, and expecting Wildchild, were the main redeeming things about that time.


What are five things on my to-do list for tomorrow?

Do laundry so I have something nice to wear to Cedar Point on Saturday.
Keep getting our school books area cleaned up so we are ready for school in August.
Exercising. I've been using the treadmill in the exercise room of our complex. I do better with that than just walking.
Continue going through paper and bills. Fun.
Knit, sew, embroider. Might just sew a new top instead of doing laundry. :)


Snacks I enjoy

Ice cream, especially uber-chocolatey flavors, potato chips, red Delicious apples, cereal, bread and butter


Things I would do if I were a billionaire

Buy a nice house in the country, but not too far out.
Buy the Scientist a horse. Maybe build a stable on our land.
Buy a summer place on Lake Erie, preferably on the long strip of land by Cedar Point.
Go to Germany, to visit family and friends. Plus it would be a great way for the girls to pick up German.
Go to Italy. Check out the major cities and the little valley where my husband's people come from.
Pay for all the repair work and maintenance on our church that needs done


Places I have lived

Bay Village, Ohio
Willoughby, Ohio
Dublin, Ohio
Grove City, Ohio
Sheffield Village, Ohio
Avon, Ohio


Jobs I have had

Secretarial assistant in The President's and Dean's Office for almost four years when I was in college.
Did proofreading, worked on catalogs and did copy work at various times for my father's ad agency. Went from the days of the big old typesetting machine (which I didn't use) and photostat machine to doing everything on the computer using Adobe Page Maker.
At a clothing store when I was home from college. Does anyone remember id?
As a Department Manager at a department store.
Computer programmer for the Department of Defense. Used a dinosaur language, COBOL.
Homeschool teacher.

Again, I'm not going to tag anybody, for the same reasons I listed last time.

I Miss My Husband

Over the past several months, my husband has had various health problems. First it was muscle problems in his back, which necessitated physical therapy. Then we discovered he needed more thyroid medication. However, that hasn't helped much with his general tiredness. When he's not at work, he sleeps a good bit of the time, and when he is at work, he requires lots of caffeine to keep him going. He had a sleep study done this week, which we hope will yield results that could lead to help with his tiredness. I feel badly for wishing my husband was available to do more around the house and to have fun and do things with. What if he was seriously ill or disabled? Still, I do miss really having my husband around, instead of asleep.

I hope everyone had a nice holiday yesterday. We spent the day with my in-laws and had a good time. We even got home in time to catch some local fireworks, although we enjoyed a fine display of (illegal) pyrotechnics for a good bit of our drive through Cleveland. My sister-in-law is pregnant, so I need to find lots of easy knitting patterns for baby items. :) We got to see the first "pictures" of my little nephew-or-niece-to-be yesterday.

Speaking of babies, Blonde Liz, who recently had a C-section, reminds us of one of the things to be thankful for in living in this country, which is the excellent health care. I also had a C-section, and I realized at the time, and have at intervals thereafter, that my Wildchild and I could have died under other circumstances. We also came close to losing Wildchild when she had a bad case of croup. At least, I believe so since they brought the crash cart in. It is indeed a blessing to live in a country where lives can be saved through good medical care. I hope we don't go to nationalized health care! However, Liz makes me feel woefully deficient in the catechesis of my children. I did sing Christmas carols to the Scientist, since she was born on Dec. 21st.

A Bit of This, A Bit of That

Does anyone else listen to WTAM 1100 in the early morning? Apparently a Cuyahoga County school teacher was on with Bill Wills this morning and made an idiot of herself, whining about how little she got paid and talking politics when it was not supposed to be the topic. Guess who she's voting for. I'm glad I homeschool, yet again. I half-slept through her time on air and only started waking up when callers started calling in complaining how stupid she came off.

During the torrential downpour tonight, there was a young male employee at the Outback restaurant we had dinner at, escorting patrons to their cars under an umbrella. Wasn't that nice?

I sewed up a shirt today for the Scientist out of the camo fabric I bought, and started on a pair of shorts for Wildchild. I'm getting back into sewing, but also getting back into my familiar feeling of being overwhelmed with all the projects I need/want to do. Just have to take it my usual two-three projects at a time, lol.

Speaking of which, I also have two knitting projects going, a garter ridge scarf and a dishcloth. Is that typical for knitters, or just knitters with ADD? :) And do you have a yarn stash? If you do, how do you keep track of which yarn is what? I'm seeing the same patterns appear in my knitting career as are already apparent in my sewing. Not surprising, I suppose.

This Blog Meme Brought to You by the Number Five

Having been tagged by jau, I now proceed to answer. :)

The rules:
1. Post the rules at the beginning.
2. Answer the questions only about yourself.
3. At the end of the post, tag five people and post their names, then go to their blogs and leave them a comment so they know they’ve been tagged. Ask them to read the sender's blog.
4. Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.

What Were You Doing Five Years Ago?
In June 2003, we were still recovering as a family from my husband being out of work for eight months in 2002. Or at least, out of a job in computers, which paid much better than waiting tables. I don't remember much of anything else. We hadn't started homeschooling our daughters, although Wildchild was only four, anyway. Not much about me, but I wasn't doing much besides housekeeping and maybe sewing at this time.

What Are Five Things on Your To-Do List for Today?
1. Dishes, dishes, dishes
2. Embroidering a dish towel I've been working on (and putting off) forever, for Lutheran Hen for the blog contest I had up here ages ago.
3. Laundry, laundry, laundry
4. Walking. I've gotten out of the habit of exercising since it got so hot; I have to get back to it. I'd love to lose some weight, but it probably won't come off without exercise.
5. Knitting: starting on a dish cloth pattern.

What Are Five Snacks You Enjoy?
1. Ice cream, especially uber-chocolatey flavors (see number four above)
2. Potato chips (ditto)
3. Red Delicious apples
4. Cereal
5. Bread and butter

What Are Five Things You Would Do If You Were a Billionaire?
1. Buy a nice house in the country, but not too far out.
2. Buy the Scientist a horse. Maybe build a stable on our land.
3. Buy a summer place on Lake Erie, preferably on the long strip of land by Cedar Point.
4. Go to Germany, to visit family and friends. Plus it would be a great way for the girls to pick up German.
5. Go to Italy. Check out the major cities and the little valley where my husband's people come from. I bet the Scientist could probably read Italian some after a couple of years of Latin, and I noticed the same thing after seven years of Spanish.

What Are Five of Your Bad Habits?
1. Losing things, especially in the sewing room. By that, I mean not putting things where they belong and then having to look for them when they get buried by other stuff.
2. Procrastination. Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow.
3. Not eating properly.
4. Thinking poorly about myself. Putting myself down.
5. Not establishing boundaries, mainly with family.

What Are Five Places Where You Have Lived?
1. Bay Village, Ohio
2. Willoughby, Ohio
3. Dublin, Ohio
4. Grove City, Ohio
5. Sheffield Village, Ohio
Yes, I've lived all my life in Ohio. It has its pros and cons, like anything else.

What Are Five Jobs You've Had?
1. Secretarial assistant in The President's and Dean's Office for almost four years when I was in college.
2. At a clothing store when I was home from college.
3. As a Department Manager at a department store.
4. Computer programmer for the Department of Defense. Used a dinosaur language, COBOL.
5. Homeschool teacher.

Since a lot of bloggers I know don't like memes, and since something similar is already making the rounds among other blogs I read, I'm going to break The Rules and not tag anybody. If you want to play along, feel free.

Trying to Shop With ADD

The Scientist needed new riding boots; she has a lesson tomorrow morning and can't ride without boots. So the girls and I jumped into the car to head about 45 minutes south where the tack store is. Fortunately, we hadn't gotten as far as the next exit on the freeway when I looked down at the Scientist's feet and realized she needed to be wearing socks to try on boots. We got off at the next exit, and stopped at McDonald's to grab a quick lunch, since the Scientist won a $15 MickeyD's gift card at a party. The girls went in themselves; Wildchild didn't think to order her hamburger plain and the Scientist accidentally bought unneeded extra fries.

So home we go. The Scientist found socks, even though one had a hole, and we headed out again. Alas, the girls were talking and bickering in the car and I just switched into auto-pilot mode and went right past the exit we were supposed to get off at. Oops. So, turn around and head back, and *finally* we made it to the tack store. Which went well, except we had no real ideas about the kind of boot to get for the Scientist. We ended up with low boots, since the Scientist rides in jeans, not breeches, and lace-up boots, since a zipper broke on the Scientist's last pair. At least the ride home was uneventful, except for more talking and bickering by the girls. They're gone now, checking on neighbors' pets that they're pet-sitting, so I have quiet at last!

In My Own Backyard

Today, I checked out a lovely (and large) quilting and yarn store, and a little yarn store, right across a parking lot from each other and practically right in my own backyard. Never knew they were there before! I've only taken up knitting this year, though, and although I've been sewing for years, I've only done a very little bit of quilting. I've developed an interest in doing more quilting recently. I have the fabric and pillow form I need to make a log cabin pillow, and I have fabric to start on quilts for my daughters' beds. I think for the daughters' quilts I will just make simple, large squares, so the prints on the fabric don't get lost in little pieces. I keep wanting to take pictures of the fabric. If someone tells me they want to see it, it might motivate me. :)

In addition to the sewing I *want* to do, the girls and I really need some summer clothes, and I do most of our clothes sewing around here, too. It may not be cheaper than Wal-Mart or Target, but I think the clothes wear longer, and it's not that much more than the stuff at Target, if you get good deals on fabric. Plus, I reuse a lot of my patterns. Of course, I have managed to collect a large number of patterns. :)

Projects and Stuff

I've finally got a picture of a six-gore skirt I made awhile ago that I wanted to put up a picture of. The fabric was in my stash so long (eek!) that I forget exactly what it's made of, but it has a nice linen-y texture to it. It looks similar to some fabric Kate posted a while back.

I made it using Stretch-and-Sew 481. I hadn't used the pattern before, despite it's easy-to-makeness, but it made up into a great skirt.

I want to make another skirt in white using some fabric I just bought in Amish country, but who knows when I'll get to it. I'll be busy with projects for a while.

For example, I bought this camo knit fabric in pink and browns for the Scientist, who had expressed a wish for a shirt in such fabric. I got it at Zinck's in Berlin, which, despite what the link says, is now located in one giant outlet store. Mr. EG took a few pics for me, but I need to get them on my computer. Let me just say that it's a giant warehouse of a place, with row upon row of all kinds of fabric.

Lastly, I did not make these potholders, but I bought them in Amish country because I liked them so much. My kitchen is decorated (a little) with pansies, and I hadn't any Christmas kitchen linens before I bought these two potholders.

I'm frustrated, because Photobucket crashes my browser every time I try to upload video of Wildchild's dance recital, and when I tried to email *one* video to a friend, the software told me it was too big. I don't quite understand, since it's only one minute long. Maybe there's something I can do, but in the meantime let me just say it went well and Wildchild had a great time.

Beautiful View

Here are a couple of views of Amish country from the room at our hotel.


I tried to upload video from Wildchild's dance rehearsal to Photobucket but it kept crashing my browser, so it is not to be for now. Tomorrow is the big recital!

Glad to Be Home

After two very full days, and a drive through heavy rain, we are home again, and glad to be here. Husband and I had a very good time out in the country. I loved shopping for fabric and yarn, and I'll take some pictures of my "loot" to share over the next couple of days.

Our daughters had a good time with their aunt and uncle, and their aunt took them to a few museums that I can add to their homeschool list. :)

I'm tired, but very happy after the good time we had. I think Husband and I really needed the time away, and it was nice to make some more memories together.

Catching Up... Again

Mr. Evil Genius and I have been busy packing up boxes and printing out shipping labels and making runs to the post office. Which fortunately is very close to our house. It's a good thing I accepted international bidders, as many of my eBay bidders are from other countries: Italy, Sweden, England, Norway and as far away as New South Wales, Australia. My items mailed "in country" also seemed to be going about as far away from Ohio as possible: Texas, Florida and California.

Mr. Evil Genius and I are also preparing for a little trip together to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary. We leave on Wednesday and will be back late on Friday, and the girls will be staying with my sister-in-law and her husband. I'm trying to get some more clothes sewn up for the girls and I. I've finally managed to get back seriously into my sewing room, after my bad time in the winter. Right now, I'm working on a swim suit for Wildchild. I hate sewing swim suits, as I have a hard time sewing the elastic so the tension is even all the way around, and my machine has difficulty at times getting over the seam bumps and the elastic bumps where the elastic was sewed together. I want to take a picture or two of my latest creations, but the camera lens needs cleaned, and we can't find any "proper" cleaning cloths here at home that won't scratch the lens. Oh, the little things that get in our way sometimes.

I'm hoping the camera will be ready by the time Mr. Evil Genius and I leave; we're going to Amish country, by the way. Ohio has a large population of Amish, and I love the countryside and the shopping. I'm very much looking forward to the trip.

She Can Dance If She Wants To

Wildchild had dance class in costume this afternoon for her dance recital on June 15. Not sure what her dance instructor was thinking when she planned it for Father's Day. Anyway, Wildchild will be dancing twice, once for her ballet class and once for her jazz class.