William singing Amazing Grace!

William singing Amazing Grace! William is 2 1/2 and loves to sing and dance. He has already mastered singing "Jesus Loves Me," "Sanctuary," and other kid songs! He just learned the first and last verse of "Amazing Grace." Matt and I used to sing it to him every night before bedtime and now he won't let us sing it because he wants to sing it all by himself.

About two nights ago, he was misbehaving and we had to put him in time out which is in our laundry room. Matt shut the door and about 2 minutes later he started singing "Amazing Grace" in a crying tone. Needless to say, we gave him "grace" and let him out a couple of minutes early. Boy he is only 2 1/2 and he already knows how to play you!

William is going to Preschool three mornings a week and seems to really be enjoying it. The music lady did use a jack in the box several times which caused a complete melt down by William. Lets just say he now has to sleep with a night light on and his bedroom door wide open (yes, all bc of the fear of the jack in the box). We asked the music lady not to use it for awhile since it had become such a major issue at home. She stopped using it 3 weeks ago and today I got a text from one of his teachers that said he was finally loving music day. Well of course, he now knows that the music lady won't bring the jack in the box. So I was excited that he was now enjoying music since he LOVES it at home.

Enjoy the video below of William singing "Amazing Grace."

Anyone still reading my blog???

It has been 11 months since I last wrote - wonder if anyone even checks my page anymore. Hmmm..... we will see. It's sad looking back at last year's pics and videos and realizing how much William has grown over the year. Moms - enjoy every minute of it because it goes by too fast!

Let's see - where to even begin..... I had a very busy year working. Things have slacked off a little as schools are getting out. I am offering a couple of trainings in June and July so I am staying busy throughout the summer. Luckily Matt is home so he can stay with William. I have been told I have a contract for next year (which is HUGE considering RESA was out of the state budget for awhile). I am not sure how many days I am down to work but I will take anything. I love being part-time and don't want to do anything else right now.

William has grown tremendously. He attended First United Methodist Church Preschool Tues. and Thurs. this year. He loved it and asked for his teachers every morning when he woke up. I think the interaction with other kids and adults have been so rewarding. I am so thankful we decided to put him in preschool. Next year he will go Mon., Wed., and Fri. I am amazed at his voc. He can say the complete alphabet and recognize almost all letters. He can count to 15 and knows all his colors and shapes. He loves to sing so he is constantly singing either the Blessing, the alphabet song, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Jesus Loves Me, or Old MacDonald. These are his favorite songs. He has started sleeping in his "big boy bed" off and on. He decides between the bed and crib at this point. By summer, he will be in the "big boy bed." It amazes me how much he grows and learns WEEKLY.

Matt and I are wanting a second child. We have had 3 miscarriages since I last wrote. This has been a VERY tough year for us. Who would have thought that in a year - I would not be holding a newborn but instead seeing a Specialist in Jacksonville, Fl. My heart still aches tremendously for our loss of our babies. There are ultrasound pics of 2 of the 3 on our refrigerator. I am not sure when if ever they will come down. They are our babies and I will never stop loving them even though I never got to hold them. I pray that we get pregnant again soon and we actually get to meet the little one 9 months later. I am not sure how many losses Matt and I can emotionally take. The Specialist is doing what he can to help prevent another miscarriage but he has made it clear that I am a HIGH risk and about a 50/50 chance of a miscarriage next time. Supposedly my egg quality is not so great! I can't change my egg quality so I just have to trust the Lord that he will provide us with another healthy baby in His timing.

Okay, enough of that - I am rejoicing in Julie's new baby girl Madelyn. She is precious and was born April 30th. She is TINY and precious in every way!

No major plans this summer - not going to Wisconsin like we normally do. Matt's family from Indiana is coming into town for Father's Day weekend. We are going to the beach for 4th of July and that is about it. William is taking swim lessons so that should be interesting. Matt is doing little jobs here and there to help out with the bills so he will stay busy.

I will try and post some pics! Enjoy.

Just some videos!

Here are some videos of William. He will be 17 months old next week - hard to believe. In the second video he is singing the blessing. You probably can't interpret it but it is the one Anna Claire learned at the First Methodist Church Preschool. He even reaches out for our hands to hold when he sings it. Enjoy.

Nothing New

I realize I haven't written in awhile. I would like to say that I have SO much to share - but to be totally honest, there is not much to share. Right now I feel like I have been working a whole lot. I only work part time as a Math Consultant with SW RESA but with schools in this area about to start, we are REALLY busy. I will work 10 out of 13 days this month. Not what I call part time. Other than that, I am at home with William. He is learning so much lately. His new trick is taking his dirty diaper, putting it in the Diaper Champ, and then turning the handle. We can leave a diaper anywhere in the house and he will take it to his room and dispose of it. We are trying to teach him to pick up after himself at an early age - now if we could only get him to pick up the mess he creates around the house EVERYDAY! I can't keep the house clean before he destroys it all over again. He is definitely go go go..... ALL BOY! We are thinking about taking the pacifier away from him for good not this weekend but the next. He ONLY gets it for naps and bedtime - not around the house - but he goes for it as soon as we put him down in his crib and he cries when he can't find it. Ah..... I dread taking it away but I feel like at almost 17 months, it is time.

We had a crazy summer. I had 3.5 weeks off total. We went to my cousin's wedding and I loved seeing all the family. We then visited Matt's dad and then Nana and Pop in the mountains. We came home for four days and then went to the beach for about a week and then Wisconsin to visit Matt's family for 4 days and then I went to work a day after getting home from WI. Not much rest but I am glad we both had the time off to see everyone.

We did have to give Indy away. He snapped at Anna Claire about a month and a half ago. We don't think he meant any harm but we couldn't just assume it wouldn't happen again and the next time he wouldn't do harm so we found him a home. He is with a great family from church. He seems to be doing great there. We miss him but not having the responsibility of the dog has been nice - I won't lie. Matt is just waiting on Kitty to do something so we have to get rid of him too but I told Matt that Kitty won't. He doesn't care to much for Kitty.

Now that I have bored you - I will go. I will try to write a little more often (notice I didn't say often but a little more often). As long as I have nothing to write about - nothing has changed so we are doing good! I do still read y'all's postings so keep it up!

Jacksonville Zoo

Well we survived the zoo - but what a trip!

5:27 am - my alarm goes off - I MUST get up to get everything done to be at Mom's house by 7:30.

6:00 am - I am at the YMCA waiting to get weighed for Team Lean (I did lose 1.7 lbs this week)

6:45 am - wake up William and feed him

7:15 am - head to Mom's house

Once at Mom's house, we had to figure out how we were all going to get in the car - a total of 7 people can fit in her car and there were only 6 of us going. The problem was fitting all the car seats in. We started off having William's car seat in the back but realized that in order to have him in securely, the two chairs in front of him had to be moved all the way up, meaning mom would have had NO leg room. So we pulled out William's car seat and then put Anna Claire's back there. This worked - except now there was NO space between the middle car seats and the front seats for me to get in the back of the car. I am definitely NOT limber but I knew I could do it - and I did do it on several occassions - and yes, I am on muscle relaxers today (joking).

We finally all get in the car - Julie is driving, mom in the passenger seat, William behind Julie, Mallory behind mom, I'm behind William and Anna Claire behind Mallory - got it?

Of course with the third row up there is NO room in the back for storage so every space is being used - William's stroller is between William and Mallory and I have William's two bags, Mallory's bag, Anna Claire's bag, the DVD player and DVD bag, and my purse ALL between Anna Claire and me. Fun times!

We leave about 8:15 - running a little behind but honestly we are lucky we were all in and on the way.

The trip down there was great until about the last 30 minutes. Mallory had had enough! And William is sensitive so when Mallory started screaming - not whinning but screaming - so did William - yeah!!!! But for a 2 1/2 hour drive - 30 minutes of crying is not that bad.

We got to the zoo about 11:00 and what a beatiful day. We all had strollers - Julie pushing Mallory, Mom pushing Anna Claire, and me pushing William. Honestly it was more like Anna Claire pushing her own stroller for most of the day!

All the animals were great! We saw elephants, giraffes, snakes, leopards, panthers, monkeys, rhinos, birds, wolves, deer, ant eaters, bairds (look this one up if you want to), kangaroos, lions, etc.

Of course the highlight was the gorilla Keto. Keto was quite the character. When we got to his space - we couldn't see him. There were two other women and a man there looking for him too. They all had their faces smashed against the window looking for him. Mom goes over there too and has her face right there on the window. All of a sudden Keto does a BODY SLAM into the window. There were screams and other words used by these two women and the man. Oh yeah - mom screamed really loud too!!! Which of course made julie and I laugh but made Anna Claire cry. The zoo keeper came by and said the Keto does this all the time. He likes to scare the viewers by smashing his 800 lbs against the window. He would be over 6 ft tall if he stood straight so we are not talking about a monkey but a GORILLA. About 5 minutes later, one of the ladies was still talking about how her heart was still racing. It totally made everyone jump. It was great - Anna Claire later said her favorite animal was the large animal that scared shug. :)

The trip home was pretty good. William was fussy a little because it was dinner time and he had a very little nap. We stopped for dinner and fed him and then everyone was great from dinner to home.

Anyway, we arrived back home about 8:15 or so. Great trip - the kids did great and we had a ball. I will post pics as I get some from Julie and mom. I didn't take any.

William sleeping sitting up!

William fought his nap this morning - he FINALLY fell asleep. I went in to make sure and he was sound asleep sitting up in the corner of his bed. I wasn't about to move him and wake him up so he slept like this for 2 1/2 hours. I actually WOKE him after 2 1/2 hours hoping I would still get a good afternoon nap from him - just so you know - it is 4:45 and he has had NO afternoon nap. He will just go to bed early tonight.



Tomorrow Julie, Mallory, Anna Claire, Shug, William, and I are all going to the Jacksonville Zoo - I can only imagine what the car trip will be like :) Keep us in your prayers - ha ha!

William trying to be an elephant!

Matt reads William a book that has an elephant in it. Matt does the elephant noise with his mouth and uses his arm as the trunk of the elephant. William LOVES it!!! Matt was doing it at the dinner table tonight and William started trying to make the noise. Now if we can just get him to use his arm too. He is teething again so the last two nights have been painful for EVERYONE! This morning we were UP at 4:30 (as in playing on the floor with him because he would NOT go to bed or quit screaming) and he didn't go back to bed until 8:00 am and that was for a 45 minute nap. He then took a good hour and a half nap at 3:00 pm. Talk about being tired. I am so glad it is the weekend and we can all rest tomorrow - hopefully!

William at 11 months old!

Well William has learned A LOT this month. He is crawling everywhere, more verbal, and pulling up on everything and walking around the coffee table or sofa while holding on. He has grown so much. It is hard to believe in 3 weeks he will be 1. Where does time go? I have posted some current videos. I need to get a video of him crawling on my camera - I have it on my camcorder but it is hard to pull things off my camcorder since it is High Def. Enjoy!

William and his nebulizer!

So William has been sick since last Monday. I took him to the doctor on Tuesday and the doctor said he had a small virus which causes ulcers on his throat so he had a sore throat. We were told to use tylenol. Well, its been a week and he has a TERRIBLE cough and you can just hear the congestion. He wheezes a lot! So I went back to the doctor today. She definitely heard the wheezing and also saw that he had a minor ear infection. Fortunately we caught the ear infection in the early stage so that we can take care of it now and not when it is a full blown ear infection. So by the time we left the dr. office, we were getting medicine for his ear AND a nebulizer for his breathing. The nebulizer cost us $108!!!! I sure hope it helps his breathing. It is cute though. It is a kid one so it is a cow and the carrying case is a barn. We used it the first time and William did NOT like the idea of something blowing smoke in his face. The second time we put Praise Baby DVD in and he was so glued to the TV that he didn't mind the Nebulizer at all. (William is not allowed to watch TV until he is one - Matt says it causes ADD and ADHD - whatever - So watching Praise Baby was quite a treat!) Anyway, I think for now, Praise Baby and a Nebulizer will hopefully take care of William's wheezing. Oh the joys of being a parent!!! Never a dull moment.

Other than that, things are going great here. My job is working out very well. I truly enjoy it. I am not sure if I will have it next year due to major budget cuts. Hopefully I will but either way I have totally felt blessed by having it this year. I got tested for CMV (the virus Matt had over Christmas break) and my blood work showed that I have immunity for it - in other words, I have already gotten it in my lifetime so that is good. I am still trying to lose weight. I lost 4 lbs last week and I have to weigh in for Team Lean again on Wed morning so I hope I lose at least 3 lbs but right now I think I have only lost 2 more. Since Nov. I have lost 14 lbs at this point. I wish I only had a couple of more lbs to go but I have about 30 - uh..... the weight battle continues. I envy those of you that never have to worry about your weight. It is a life long battle. The good thing about trying to lose weight is that I do exercise which is great for my body. I struggle with it - I am a Terry not an Odom! :) I do my elliptical 5 times a week and I just ordered Turbo Jam. Not sure if it was worth ordering but I got it off ebay and thought it might change up my cardio a little - plus it has sculpting with it so I can tone. For those that don't know what Turbo Jam is, it is just a DVD that is like kick boxing with current fun music. We will see and I will let you know if it is worth anything. I am excited about changing it up though from the daily elliptical and walk.

Hope everyone is doing well - I will try to get out and see some of you when William gets better and can be around you. Until then.... have a great one.

William with one piece of his Nebulizer (looks like a gas mask) - To no surprise, he didn't like the head piece so we decided to use the piece that just blows in his face!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to everyone! Christmas for us this year was quite different. Matt got CMV (a virus) so William and I moved out of the house. So for the first week Matt was off of school - we were at Mom and Dad's house. Sad! We didn't spend Christmas Eve with each other and then on Christmas Day, William and I went to see Matt once William woke up. We spent a couple of hours at our house doing Christmas and then William and I left again. Because CMV is highly dangerous for pregnant women, Miriam was unable to do Christmas with us bc we didn't know if William or I had it. Miriam had not been exposed to Matt but we had. So when we did Christmas with my family, Miriam and Matt were on Skype through the computer so they were still kind of there. Uh....How sad! So no new traditions with us having William. Hopefully this will not be a tradition :)

So we got the okay for Matt to be around people again so we headed to Winder to be with his dad. Matt's brother and his family came into town this year so we were glad Matt would get to see them. He hasn't seen him in a year and a half and they had never met William. So we get there - and did Christmas that night with his family. We woke up about midnight that night to here Matt's brother vomiting in the bathroom. Ah...... we had known that Sammy (our nephew) and thrown up several times on the way down from Indiana but they thought it was car sickness. Of course, at this point, Matt and I both know that it wasn't car sickness but a virus of some sort since Mike now had it. So the next morning - we rushed to pack and got out of there as soon as possible. We couldn't risk William getting it or Matt who was still recovering from CMV. So we drove all the way to Winder and back in a little over 24 hours. uh...... Fortunately, none of us got it! We did leave in time. But Matt didn't get to see his family but a night.

So we have been in T'ville all week instead of Winder. This was a good thing because William is cutting at least 3 if not more teeth right now so he has been miserable. Which of course means we have been pulling hair out too. It has been a week of him being unhappy, crying, and just off schedule. Luckily today he has been great! I hope that means the teeth have cut and we are back to normal since Matt goes back to work tomorrow and I won't have any help.

Here is a video of William today at 10 months. He still can't crawl or wave bye bye but he can clap. He can move - somehow he gets to objects that he can't reach. So slowly he moves inch by inch while sitting. He also goes from a sitting position to the crawling position but then just rolls over. So there is progress. He loves to stand so we are working on balancing and walking too. Maybe we will just skip the crawling and go straight to the walking - who knows!

William's 9 month check up

William had his 9 month check up last week. He weighed 21 lbs and 7 oz (which was 66% on the curve) and 28 1/2 in. long (58% on the curve). Everything looked fine. He was a little low on iron so he has to be tested again next month for it. He was 10.6 in iron but I don't know what normal is. They just are going to watch it so I guess no immediate danger. The doctor said he was really standing well for a 9 monther and that she wouldn't be surprised if he went straight into walking - AH!!!! At this point he has no desire to crawl but we are working on it daily. He LOVES to stand with help though.

I finished my sunroom the other day. I have two more decorative pillows to pick up that are done but I haven't gotten by the place to get them. I will post pics when I get some good ones. I LOVE it and am so glad it is done. It was the last room to get done yet it opens up to the den so everyone who comes over sees it so it needed to be done.

We went and saw Nana and Pop today - they were great and William behaved for them. He seemed to enjoy all their Christmas musical things. We even had a discussion on whether one of their toys was a monkey or bear and later I picked it up and it made a noise. Nana was shocked. The noise was that of a monkey so problem solved.

Shug and Dada invited William over to spend the night last night. Matt and I were so excited about a night off. We dropped him off at 5:45. We even video taped it to mark this big night of his life. Matt and I then went to dinner with friends and before it was even completely over Mom called. William was having a FIT. A MAJOR FIT! He was throwing a tantrum. My sweet little William has learned to be mad and boy can he show it. He must have gotten that from Matt :) j.k. Mom had done EVERYTHING we told her to do. So we left our little get together and went to pick him up. So 3 hours later we were video taping the pick up. How funny. He slept the entire night and didn't even get up until 8:30 this morning. The dr. said he would be going through separation anxiety right now and we have seen it. If I just walk out of the room he melts. Ah... what to do. He plays great on his own but someone HAS to be in the room. I don't know what to do. Anyway, we will try spending the night with Shug and Dada again soon. Matt and I might be spending the night too so we can help him cope with it. Hopefully he will out grow some of this separation anxiety.

Matt and I are having about 10 people over next Monday for a Christmas dinner. It is just family (julie, josh, ac, mallory, beth, mom, dad, betty, betsy, nana, and pop). We did this last year. We have had so much fun planning dessert. Last year we did chocolate mouse with cool whip snowmen on top. Well they were supposed to be snowmen. They melted a little and were a little leany and not quite snowmen looking. We got a GREAT laugh out of it. SO this year, we are trying to do something that will work but be creative. We have some great ideas. Luckily Matt loves to cook and bake. He is more excited about it than I am. It is great that he wants to help and be creative.

Other than that - Merry Christmas if I don't get a chance to write again until then.

William is so excited about Christmas that all he can do is dance about it!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Thanksgiving

Matt and I were asked to bring a dessert to the Thanksgiving meal that mom was making. With Chelsea's help locating a GREAT website with many great ideas - Matt and I came up with what we wanted to do for dessert. We created a Turkey out of three different cakes. We served red velvet, spice, and chocolate. With many hours hard at work - we completed the cake. I think it turned out well considering we didn't know what in the world we were doing. It definitely turned out better than our snowmen dessert we tried to make for Christmas last year :)

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We spent the day looking at fabric (to redue our sunroom) and getting a Christmas tree and decorating. I really don't like decorating but I LOVE having a decorated house for Christmas. So..... with some encouragement from Matt we did decorate. Everything is done except the tree and it is in its stand ready to be decorated tomorrow. Maybe I will decorate it during the Ga/Ga Tech halftime tomorrow. Go dawgs.

Update

Well not much going on here. William has his 3rd tooth coming in. It is also on the bottom. I was told by everyone that it would be the bottom 2 then the top 2 but not with William. He will have 3 across the bottom. He still isn't crawling and doesn't act real interested in doing it but we are working on it daily. He stays quite busy though - always moving in our arms - it is so hard to give him a bottle because he doesn't want to sit still. I am afraid to see how active he will be when he can crawl/walk. Oh Boy!

Julie and I are playing in an informal tennis tournament this weekend. We are so excited. We signed up to play doubles together but not enough 4.0 players signed up so they are splitting us up and putting us with other people so they can put us in the 3.5 bracket. I don't think Julie and I are quite 4.0 players anyway but it is sad we can't play with each other - that would be the first time in a tournament since High School. Oh well, next time. If any of you hear of a tournament near this area (Macon or south of it) let me know - I want to play more!!!! I know Macon has some and I need to know when - Miriam and Cal tell me so I can come up and play! Anyway, hopefully we will get paired with people that are decent and one of us can still win.

Other than that - nothing going on. Hope all is well with everyone. Happy Thanksgiving!

Here is me with the two people I am named after!

Nothing New

Many of you have asked me if I am blogging anymore - yes when there is something new to blog about. I have been working a lot in the last two weeks (3 days a week) and staying busy. I actually only have to work 3 days this month so that is GREAT! William is growing so fast! I will post some updated pics soon. He is not crawling or moving yet. He has started saying MaMa but he doesn't know what that means. I am now playing tennis weekly and I love playing. I won my match this morning so I am very excited. And that is about it..... boring I know but at least you now realize why I haven't blogged. I promise - as soon as something new or exciting happens in my life - I will blog about it.

Rainbows

So Matt and I were just enjoying his fall break. We took turns getting up with William while the other one slept. It was so peaceful and restful. I was cleaning the house while Matt worked in the yard. We had a list of things that needed to get done this week. So there I am being the ideal housewife doing laundry when all of a sudden a BIG load of clothes were put in the dryer and it wouldn't turn on. That is right, nothing would turn on! Uh....... The good thing was that we knew that it had not been working right for awhile now so we had told Matt's dad that we needed a new one. (Matt's dad works at Lowes and gets discounts on scratched or damaged items - for a dryer that is going to sit in a utility room, looks don't matter) Well about a month ago, Mr. Casper called us and had us a GREAT dryer for a CHEAP price. ) So the blessing is that we already had a new dryer - but it was in Athens. So, within about one hour, we had packed and were off. While on the way to Athens, it was raining with the sun out so we were looking for rainbows. We saw a double rainbow that was glowing it was so bright. It was beautiful. I have attached some pics and a video. Anyway, we went to Mr. Casper's last night - today we are in the mts visiting Nana and Pop and tomorrow we go back to Mr. Caspers. So it has become a fun trip and we are getting to visit a lot of family. For the list of things to be done in T'ville, it will remain undone until maybe Thanksgiving break :)

Blackout

Sat we had 8 trees cut down and a ton of branches that were above our roof. Our inspector over 2 years ago told us that we needed to get them cut and we haven't done it. Then good ole Fay came along and after seeing all the trees down at Mom and Dad's house, Matt and I decided we better take care of it. They did a great job and I love that my backyard is more open! We might even get daring enough to plant a garden back there next year. I hated some of the trees and it was a delight to see them go. The whole process was fun to watch and William loved watching all the stuff going on outside. He is SO alert.



Well, Georgia unfortunately lost on Sat. I cannot even talk about it because it makes me so mad that we allowed them to score 31 points in the first half. Ah.... Anyway, William was in his black and proud of it. I have included captions to let you know what he was thinking!

Go Dawgs! I love the blackout!

Yeah - I get to watch it at Shug and Dada's house!

Grrrrrrrr. I'm not scared of Alabama!

Ew.... I hope I never have to watch that game again!

Finally updating!

It is hard to believe that it has been a month since I have posted. Sorry for the delay. It seems like my days are going by so quickly and I don't have time to sit down and right. I don't know where to begin since SO much has happened over the last month.

To start off, Julie and I DID finish our vests. They are reversible. Julie and I chose one fabric that was the same so we could be identical if we ever needed to be. I will just have to remember where I put the vest when the time comes. :) Here are a few pics of us in them. The class was a blast - now if I could only remember how to bobbin my thread???? Aren't the vests great????

Here we are wearing the same side to be identical twins!
We reversed them and now we are no longer identical!

Reversible Vests!

William - wow has he grown. He weighed 18lbs at his 6 month check up. He is such a happy baby. God truly has blessed Matt and I. He is eating baby food now which he LOVES. He LOVES bananas and doesn't care too much for the green beans but I make him eat them anyway. We had a terrible night the other night (screaming a lot which is unlike him) and we gave him gas medicine, tylenol, and then orajel not knowing what was going on. To our great amazement, he had a tooth break through the skin! He is such a big boy now. He is rolling over AND sits up pretty well. It is amazing how much he learns everyday. He is quite an observer and so he doesn't miss a beat. I have attached a couple of pics so you can see how much he has grown - enjoy.

Yes, I still put my hands on my head when I get tired!

Sitting like a big boy!

Sitting in a restaurant high chair for the first time - I was with Nana and Pop!

Do I look cool or what?

Sewing Classes

Okay - Julie and I decided to take sewing classes from Niler. We thought this would be a great time to learn how to use our machines and read a pattern so maybe we can sew somethings on our own. Julie and I are both fortunate enough to have gotten sewing machines from family. Julie got Mema's sewing machine and I got Matt's mom's sewing machine. We knew they were old but Niler called them antique. So..... our first class was quite an experience. To start the class off, Niler asks us to turn our machines on. Well, Julie and I couldn't find our on/off switch so Niler came over and said "You don't have one - your machines are just on when you plug them in." Okay. So then she showed everyone where their light switch was on the machine. Once again, our machines' lights were already on. Oh...... we don't have a switch - the light comes on automatically when we plug the machine on. As she does an introduction to the machines, everyone is finding the different parts on their machine. At SEVERAL points she just looked at Julie and I and said - don't worry about looking, your machine doesn't have one! Julie and I just kept laughing. Finally it was time to thread the machine. As everyone is following Niler's instructions - Julie and I got more and more lost bc our machines of course were not like everyone else's. Finally Niler pulled up a chair between us and started trying to read our manuals (that were decaying :). Good news, Niler got both our machines up and working. So Julie and I sat back and just sighed a relief. (the $75 dollars for the class was not refundable) Anyway, Julie and I would look at each other and just laugh as we were practicing our sewing on scrap pieces of material. Julie's pedal to her sewing machine is like a button so we kept getting tickeled because she was having a hard time keeping it pressed. Her whole foot had to come off the ground to push it. Luckily mine was a typical sewing pedal. We then learned how to reverse to finish a stitch. My reverse button is not a lever like everyone else but a button. I have to push it in and hold it in to reverse. This button takes both hands to press so I am sewing without guiding the material. Julie, on the other hand, was given a homework assignment - read her manual and FIND her reverse button (not even Niler could find it). At this point Julie and I are about to wet our pants with laughter. So as we try to keep composed, Niler tells us that instead of picking out a pattern on our own (Julie and I had already gotten excited over picking a pattern but not any more) she was going to give us a pattern and the whole class was going to do the same thing. As Julie and I are listening, she then goes on about how we are making vests. VESTS????? Did I hear that right? Why would I make a vest? When would I wear it? Trying to keep from laughing out loud - she goes on to say that it will be reversible and that one side should be nice so we can wear it to church! Church???? We would be lucky if it even looks like a vest when we finish - much less would I wear a vest to church. At this point, I am praying Julie doesn't look at me. We are both laughing quietly and I can see her shoulders shaking with laughter. If she had turned and looked at me we would have both lost it! I am sure I would have wet my pants! I am laughing so hard right now thinking about it that I am crying. Matt just asked me what I was doing that was so funny. Oh you just had to be there. So on our way out, Niler said she enjoyed a challenge and was looking forward to working with our antique machines. She also gave us extra scraps of material for extra practice. Whew.... we made it through our first class.





So with great excitement, Julie and I went and got our fabric on Tuesday. We went straight for the sale rack and we will never wear these vests again. We definitely found some material that we thought would be funny (tacky) but decided to go with something not so bad so we don't offend Niler.





We go back on Monday and start on our vests. I will be sure to take a picture of us wearing our $75 vests when we finish. I can't wait to Monday and the joy it will bring me.

Other people's machines - Aren't they nice?

Julie's machine on the left and mine on the right - don't they look nice?

My machine!

William and his Command Center

We put together William's "Command Center" this week. He loves it. Thanks Chelsea for the great gift!