Harper's Quilt

Just finished working on a quilt for my cousin's new baby, Harper.

It was a super quick quilt, and I love all the colors.  Meriahna and Sydney helped me pick them out, and by pick them out I mean they pointed to a million different fabrics and I kept saying no until they pointed to the ones I wanted.

If you know of a new baby who's being born or one that's already made an appearance and you need a gift, I'd love to make you a beautiful baby quilt to send his or her way!

Books I La La Loved This Summer

Being back at my parents' house has a lot of perks, like having an air hockey table and a ping pong table right outside my bedroom door.  But along with that, I also have access to Mitchell's bookshelf.  Mitchell devours books, and we usually have pretty similar tastes, so I've been enjoying this perk greatly lately.

Here's some that I recommend (and I realize these are like national best sellers, and you're probably thinking, gee thanks Rachel for recommending these books that I already know everything about):

Really exciting and interesting dystopic sci-fi book that I couldn't put down.  My friend Jane just finished reading it too, so I'm happy to jump on her bandwagon and promote it.

So I know this book was all hot when the movie came out, but I definitely recommend going past this one and reading the entire Olympians series, five books.  I love the characters and how I get to learn about Greek mythology without even knowing that I'm learning.  Very sneaky.

And along the same lines, Rick Riordan's new book The Lost Hero from his new series The Heroes of Olympus is even better than all the Percy Jackson books.  The characters are a bit more complex than some of the characters in his other books even though there's a lot of overlap.

And ps. I'm glad that all my dear East Coast people survived the hurricane.  One of my students even commented on my facebook that it reminded her of  Life As We Knew It , a book she read in my class about the moon getting too close to earth and causing all these horrible problems.  Ah literature. 

Baby Hutson Update

As we are nearing the end of Baby Hutson's first trimester in the world, I thought an update was overdue.  The baby is currently the size of a lime, though worth much more than these great limes that only cost $0.25 at Wal-Mart yesterday.

And according to thebump.com, the baby has a 1:1 ratio between its head and body...attractive.  Slightly more attractive is the fact that it no longer has webbed feet and hands but cute little fingers and toes.  Apparently the hair follicles are starting to form too.  And I have read that the more heartburn you have, the hairier your baby will be.  I am prepared for a very hairy baby.

On the same trip to Wal-Mart that I pictured above, a random man came up to me and asked, "Are you ready?"  

I said, "Me?"

"Yeah, are you ready?"

"For what?"

Rubbing his belly creepily, "The baby."

"Ummm I have awhile to go."

At least he didn't touch my belly.  Can't wait for that.

Mondays

Rachel: So how was school?

Meriahna: Good.

Rachel: Did you hear the thunder storm?

Meriahna: Yes! All I could think was, "I hope Rachel's ok! I hope Rachel's ok!"

Rachel: That is so sweet.

Sydney: All I could think was how people needed to stop freaking out.  It's just a rain storm.

It's Friday!

A Friday trip to Peach Wave after the first week of school was over.

After Sydney did her signature "I'm insane, and I love fro yo!" smile, everyone decided to imitate her.

Fridays are even better when covered in $0.39 per ounce toppings.

A Note on Sydney's Bedroom Door

Apparently cleanliness is extremely important to this first grader.  At least she asked me how to spell "clean."

Butterfly Festival

Trying to suck the last few ounces out of summer that we could, last Friday we went to the butterfly festival at Powell Gardens.

The girls got to see all kinds of rare butterflies, and they also got to hold some monarchs.  Meriahna had them crawling all over her, but Sydney, the fearless one who went off the high dive at age four, was too afraid to hold a butterfly.  She would stick out her finger and then pull it back in fear at the monstrous, horrendous, scary . . . butterfly.

 Something a little less scary was getting to paint flowerpots.  They even gave us a flower to put in them to take home.  I am happy to report that the flowers are still alive.

Speaking of Sydney being fearless, she was at my parents' house a few nights ago and asked Johnny if he could show her the basement.  He took her down there, and she looked inquisitively at him and asked, "Where is the storage room?"  He showed her the dark and scary storage room, and she stormed in, walking all around, wanting to know where the light was.  Johnny said he didn't even want to go in the storage room because it was dark and scary . . . yet apparently not as scary as a butterfly.



More Conversations with Sydney

Sydney: You look like the kind of person who would sneak into somebody's house and steal her barrette. 

Rachel: Ok?

Long Pause

Sydney: My friend has a barrette just like the one in your hair.

__________________________________________

Sydney: How old are you?

Rachel: Twenty-Four

Sydney: That's good for your age.

High School

Remember this kid?

And this one?

Well they're going to high school a week from tomorrow . . . and they're going to drive themselves there.

A Conversation with Sydney

Sydney: Your face looks different.

Rachel: Good different or bad different?

Long Pause

Sydney: In the middle.

Rachel: What is different about it?

Sydney: The picture of you in my room has a lot more freckles. 

When Sydney was really little, she used to ask me what all the spots on my face were.  I told her they were freckles.  She responded, "Pickles?!"  I told her no, "Freckles."  She responded, "Popsicles?!"  At least we know what they are at this point.

We Have A Heartbeat!

Johnny and I went to the doctor today and got to see a beautiful little heartbeat!  If you can't tell, because I certainly couldn't, the baby's head is on the right side, and the body is on the left.  You can kind of make out the little arms and legs sticking up above the body.  The baby was wiggling around and waving at us with its nubs when we were looking at it.

And apparently the original date was wrong, so we are now looking at March 11 as the due date.  The same birthday as this little munchkin.

I hope our peanut is every bit as FABULOUS and SPARKLY as this peanut, SillyBandz and all.

Got to Kansas City on a Friday

Well we made it.  I flew on Friday straight into wedding luncheons and dinners for my cousin Melody's wedding.  Johnny drove 17 hours from his National Guard posting in Maryland to Kansas City just in time for the wedding on Saturday night.  I just cleaned out the car because I learned like a hillbilly driving around with all of Johnny's army gear and cans of tuna rolling around.

Johnny started his new job, and I started year number 5 with the Adams.  When I woke Meriahna up yesterday morning, she groggily looked at me and mumbled, "Give me a hug...give me a hug...give me a hug." It's good to be back.