Total Amazement...

This is the first year Jack tried to do gifts on his own. I have to wonder if he hadn't done them before because our spending budget was so much smaller or because he didn't care to shop. At one point, though, he gave up and decided to give certain friends a gift certificate for a favorite store of theirs. What better to give a geek than a gift card to geekdom (aka as Fry's electronics). But on the night that they were going to get together he wasn't happy with his handwriting (or the fact that he mis-spelled half the message), so he tore up the gift card holders and asked me to make something. So I sat down at my desk and CASE'd this make & take from the SU rep at CKC-Seattle last month. I used different colors and styles, but this is the basic template. Quick and fast and enjoyable! Sadly, my camera died a happy death and the camera I took THIS photo with was returned to the owner, so I have no photos of the creations, but my new camera is due in on New year's eve so keep your EYES PEELED for some new camera shots!

Laundry Confessions

I'll have to admit that until a meetup earlier this year with some fellow sewing bloggers in my area, I didn't really track which blogs I liked to follow. I randomly clicked on links that sounded interesting and left comments when the mood moved me (which wasn't that often). I'm more of a blog lurker than a comment-er. I knew that what I constantly read was quite a large list. Anina was the one who specifically commented that she used google reader to follow her blogs and that sometimes she just wiped them all clean. "Now why didn't I think of that!" I thought as I sat there. I actually had blogs in my reader, but never actually followed them using the application. Now I'm faithful to my reader as I can access it easier and faster in the reader application on my Blackberry than I can when I'm browsing each blog seperately. Not to mention how much time I save typing!

At any rate, I digress. One of the blogs I follow is that of Amy Sorenson - "The English Geek" who posted today about her Laundry Confessions. Do you have down and dirty, yet to be cleaned and claimed secrets about your Laundry habits? I mention it because I had just responded to an email from Melissa regarding our significant others and their dress habits. More specifically their habits concerning the dreaded "DRESS UP CLOTHES". Sunday best, as it used to be known. She has a holiday event coming up and the closest she could get her DH to a TUX was a suit. Whether that includes a tie is left to be seen. ;) I told her that my DH was liked that. So much of a gearhead, in fact, that he'd wipe the oil dipstick from his car on the back of his jeans. (I used to cringe so badly when I saw that) His side of the closet could be easily measure with a Yardstick with room to properly space each piece of clothing with two fingers spacing between each. Nowadays he's more of a clothes horse than I am. The only reason my side of the closet is bigger is because I have articles I refuse to give/throw away. I'm sure you're familiar with them. Those clothes from days gone by that you JUST KNOW that you'll fit back into? yeah that. sooooNOThappening, but that's a tale for another day. I'm digressing again.

Her story struck familiar chords with me. I too sort by color (and sometimes weight) of the items, but I also do it when the clothes are dry! In my house, we always seem to be on the go, so laundry tends to stick to piles. I'm recently trying to rectify that, but one of the constants has been that when those piles got too high, I'd drag the baskets into the bedroom and sort. 1 basket for stuff to be hung and/or ironed. 1 for pants, another for tops. the last was for socks and underclothes. This last basket is always the first to be done. Underclothes are easy and quick to fold....yes those socks stay put until I'm in the mood. Pants come next and then maybe I'll get around to tops. DH is in charge of hanging up, but mostly because he does a crappy job of it and I keep thinking that the longer he does it the more he'll get used to doing it properly. maybe. i'm probably delusional. You'll notice that bed linens and towels aren't mentioned huh? That's because they're the first load. they're tossed into the drier as soon as the washer stops and then folded/put away immediately. easy peasy.

oh yeah...and those socks? They're waaaaay last mostly because I keep finding DH's socks in the oddest places.

What are YOUR Laundry Confessions?

2nd Day of Christmas

I bought the Tropical Christmas set from my CTMH rep specifically to make christmas cards. But that was BEFORE I decided to do the 25 days of Christmas for my parents. Here's the 2nd card I made for them. Just so you know...I made 15 of each design and my parents got the best of each lot! The inside sentiment included a picture of me and my husband. The sentiment itself talked about how much they taught me about cherishing family and closeness with those you love.

1st day of Christmas

Suffice it to say that I know for certain that my family doesn't read my blog...At least not my parents. Recently, on Ali Edwards blog, she asked what tradition we had for the holidays. I'm sad to say that after ten years of marriage, we don't have any. In fact, I shocked my husband this year by saying I just wanted to spend Christmas day at home with him. The caveat being that we had to spend it together. Watching TV, playing games...whatever. As long as we spent it together.

The neat part though, is that one commenter responded that the tradition she had is that she would mail her mother in law a card for every day in December with a small memory and/or picture. I decided to do this with my parents. It's been a hard year and I think this would be a nice thing for them to receive. This is the first card I'm sending. It's actually "batch one" of the cards I'm sending this year. I'm having fun crafting them.


Inside the card I wrote about how thankful I am to have parents as caring as they are throughout my life.

Dad's mom is the oldest person in my family that I can remember as a child. I know that Mom's grandma was alive, but with Dad being in the Army, I've only seen pictures. Dad's mom was known by many names. Born Dora Kawahinepo'aimoku Kahilihiwa in Kalapana during 1925, and when I knew her? She was vivacious and had a strong thirst for life. Enough so that between her first two husbands, she had a total of 13 children. Most people would think that's alot, but she was one of TWENTY FIVE! That Duggar family on the TLC Channel have nothing on MY family! She was known to others as Dora, Auntie Po'ai, Gramma, Ma, Tutu Dora, but to me she was always just Tutu.

Her Hawaiian name, Kawahinepo'aimoku means "The woman who travels". Between her three husbands, and all her kids she travelled quite a bit. Unlike many native Hawaiians, she was all over the place! She'd braved the cold hills of Alaska, marched in Washington DC, and caught some rays in California. I remember once, she joined my parents and sisters and I on a coastal trip that took us from Va Beach all the way up to Boston and back. This same trip she taught my siblings and I how to play blackjack. How many people can say they learned blackjack at the age of 6? My baby sister, Ivory can. We played for pennies and in one hand she declared "I want to bet it all!". Now as adults, we'd laugh and titter over how cute that is, but she hit blackjack!

If you asked me what the strongest memory I had of her was, there isn't just one. It's a look though. She'd look up at you (or over) and her head would be all the way back with the barest hint of a smile on her face. It was most likely because she needed to see through her bifocal to see you, but I like to think it's because she never had anything to hide. She was straight forward, LOVED to joke around, but never had much of a memory. One of the biggest jokes in the family was that she'd call out to you.... But she'd name everyone else first! Secret, Ivory, Skippy, ahhh Donna, Joyce, Samuel, Nena! gahh fannit you! You wouldn't correct her, despite knowing who she was talking to because it was funny. You'd stand their laughing while she ran the gamut of names and she'd be laughing right there with you!

"Take da F" was one of her more popular phrases. Most people wouldn't understand what that meant. To this day, my husband Jack doesn't. But to family? Stay home! Don't go to work (or school as applicable) and stay home and enjoy life. Tutu Dora was definitely one who liked to enjoy life.

Parent Talk Today

I found this fascinating quote today:

When you're addressing your holiday cards this year, send one (or more!) to a recovering American soldier at Walter Reed Army Hospital.Parent Talk Today, Nov 2008

You should read the whole article.

My Nephew has too many brains....

pickchaz 035
Originally uploaded by shexcpoolgawdess

I'm beginning to think that my sister should look into private school scholarships. Makana comes home every quarter with one of these Academic Excellence awards. His rewards from Uncle Jack & Auntie Ana will start getting expensive soon....either that or his school is too lax.... I'm willing to bet that he's just to SMART for his own good. Last year we promised him that every quarter he gets one of these, to tell us and we'd get him a surprise. Last time we gave him a PS2 game. Now I gotta go figure out what we're going to do for this one because he's got report cards coming up as well as his birthday AND christmas. Talk about raking it in!

The other week when we took him to the pumpkin patch, Jack explained negative number math to him and he caught on REAL fast even though he wasn't learning it in school and we weren't showing him on paper.