Ugly quilt

My mind would roll the phrase "I can't believe I'm actually doing this" over and over on a continuous loop whilst I pieced and quilted this thing. If there was no reason to finish this quilt, I wouldn't have even put the blocks together. And the 500+ one inch squares in the sashing took forever. I was so glad to see it raffled off. I'm sorry if you like it, but this was just not my style. I like most quilts, but I couldn't stomach this one. What a lot of work and money for something I don't like. What a waste! All those hours I'll never get back. Sometimes finishing a project just isn't worth it.

Self portrait

I tried taking pictures of myself. It was almost getting to the point where the camera was making fun of me. Double chin, eyes half closed (and I was taking the picture - go figure!), a leering grin (didn't even know I could do that), squinting, too big a smile, etc. etc. Anyway, this is me in my new hair. It suits me, and some people don't even seem to realize I had it cut. Which is a good thing. Sorry it took so long (you can't say I didn't try!).

Happy Heart Day

Yes, yes, love in the air. It is the late, great, Saint Valentine's Day. Children were sent off to schools everywhere with shameless Disney marketing in their backpacks to give to classmates. Roses are at a ridiculous price and waistlines are widening with an overindulgence of chocolately aphrodisiac. Me, I'm not really the gushy, gooey, sentimental type. But I certainly don't mind being told how awesome I am, so this holiday, while certainly commercialized (and really, which holiday isn't!), is OK in my books. Bring on the love, people!

Note: I don't mean that you have to tell me how awesome I am. Just one person, and I think he knows who he is.

p.s. Happy Valentine's Day!

A February Birthday

Today is Caleb's birthday. Already eight years old. Where did the time go? It seems like just yesterday that he had turned one and refused to let me feed him - had to do it all himself. At one! And the word no sent him into a torrent of tears. He felt so sorry, or so guilty, or so sad to disappoint. Always sensitive to those around him, trying to make them feel happy or good about themselves (well, maybe not always, brothers can be fairly annoying). He could swing a golf club like a seasoned pro at one and a half, and his first word was ball. Not mom, not dad, but ball.

We aren't having the party today, but Thursday due to a lack of planning on my part. What with two hockey tournaments and quilts to get ready for each of them, plus trophies to organize and a demanding three-year-old to accommodate, the invitations didn't get done. Then I tried phoning everyone, but most people had their numbers unlisted. Caleb seems OK with it, though. When Luke gets home tonight, we'll give him his present - a road hockey net and two games for his Nintendo 64.

One other thing, Caleb doesn't want a cake for his birthday party. He wants apple pie. Don't know how that'll go over with his friends, but I love it for being so unique! He is definitely his own little person.

Hair today, gone tomorrow

This is me on Saturday afternoon...

and me on Saturday evening.

Another new baby

Mark and Faith have given me a new nephew to gloat about! Judah Stephen Jason was born on January 26 at 5:00 pm, three weeks before his due date. Unfortunately, his lungs haven't developed enough for him to breathe on his own, so he is in the hospital and hooked up to every kind of tube imaginable. The birth mom is doing OK, but Mark and Faith are rather stressed. They live in Calgary and the baby is in Red Deer - one and a half hours drive away. Please pray for little Judah as you go about your business today. He is already so precious to us, and we haven't even met him yet!

Funeral woes

This is son #2. Ethan. This picture reminds me of a story my brother told of his son Micah covered in flour. On one hand, Micah is a little chocolate colored boy trying to go white, and on the other hand mine is a little vanilla colored boy trying to go brown. Oh, the irony!

As you may have guessed, this photo was taken a good five years ago. I managed to get my scanner working for me and not against me, so I've started putting old pictures onto the computer. I wanted a baby picture of Ethan because of the story that follows. As a disclaimer, I want to remind you that this took place when Ethan was a baby and my memory may not recall details exactly as they happened. Anyone who got an email from me after the "incident" may have a slightly different version, and if you have an issue with me, well, you know where I live.

First, I need to set the scene for this tale. We had traveled to Manitoba for a funeral of Luke's uncle. Caleb was two and Ethan was one or so (there goes my memory already!). Luke's uncle was a man who was well known in his community, so the funeral was held in a big hall with those wood stacking chairs brought in. Being family, we were near the front and anxiously waiting for the service to begin. Ethan was still taking a bottle and I had the dried formula in his diaper bag. I reached into the bag for a toy and, wouldn't you know it, the canister lid had fallen off somehow and filled the diaper bag with a thick coat of white powder. With much rolling of eyes and gnashing of teeth, I made my way to the bathroom in the back corner of the hall, Ethan in tow, so that I could clean out the bag and change a diaper at the same time. I strode purposefully but on tiptoe (high heels + gym floor + quiet somber funeral = bad) into the bathroom and set the bag down on the counter. I put Ethan on the floor to walk around. It's hard for those little ones to sit for too long and I thought any energy he expended would be a positive influence on the rest of the service. I emptied the bag and had put the toys in the sink to wash them when I heard a "sploosh" in the background. Not exactly comforting in a public washroom with a baby on the prowl. I whirled and faced a closed stall door. Locked. With the E-machine (that's Ethan, for the uninitiated) still inside. What could he possibly have thrown in the toilet, how much did it cost, and how the heck will I get it out, I wondered to myself. Taking off my shoes, I got down on the floor and crawled under the door in my best black skirt. Ethan was there grinning at his mommy who was playing such a fun game. I know I unlocked the door, but as to whether I retrieved the toy from the bowels of the toilet, I can't remember. I must have blocked that part from my mind. Suffice it to say that I was feeling slightly flustered.

Ethan wandered out of the stall and was sternly forbidden to go anywhere near any of the others, though he did try once or twice. Thankfully, there was a radiator in the room that managed to hold his attention. Unfortunately, it had a full-length mirror precariously perched on top. As I turned back to the now white diaper bag, Ethan reached the aforementioned mirror and proceeded to touch it. I later learned that the crash had been heard throughout the hall. (I just want to interject a note here - what kind of idiot places a mirror on top of a rounded radiator without attaching it whatsoever to the wall? Can anybody tell me?) Speechless and shocked, I quickly grabbed the little troublemaker off the floor and set him on the counter. Being brought up the way I was, I started the clean-up almost immediately. I left Ethan on the counter (I know, not a good idea, but really, was the floor any safer?) and picked up the larger pieces. And the medium pieces. And the small pieces. By hand. With no broom, no vacuum, no help. The tiny shards that I couldn't pick up, I swept up with a damp paper towel. Thank goodness Ethan was happy in the sink. It took me quite a while to get it all under control. I was not impressed.

After all was said and done, I finally got around to that diaper bag. I cleaned it all up to the best of my ability, got it organized, and repacked. I picked up Ethan who was still in the sink, and felt ... something. Something squishy. Oozing out of his pants and onto my arm. Without a change table in sight. I placed him back in the sink, washed myself, and got around to stripping him. The only clothes I had brought to change him into were still fairly dusty from the spilled formula powder, not to mention the diapers. When all was said and done, my baby was clean and dressed and smelled like powdered milk. I exited the bathroom just in time to hear the last song being sung and the last prayer being prayed.

Favorite Blogs - Part 1

Long before I became a blogger, I was a blog reader. It all started with the last Canadian election and I was looking for something on the computer to educate myself on the issues. I stumbled across a number of blogs dedicated to just that. I eventually found my way to a number of other blogs that were pretty cool and I just want to share some of them with you. Maybe you'll get a kick out of them too.

Internet Monk is a blog I have read for approximately a year. The Internet Monk is a man who teaches at a Bible boarding school in the States. He has a very interesting look at Christianity, one which I must say reflects a lot of my own personal views. He is very informed about a number of issues in the Evangelical Christian way of life and is not scared of putting forth his own view. I quite admire the guy! For a nonconfrontational person, seeing someone go all out is nothing short of amazing. Anyway, I hope you check it out for yourself.

Next post will be funny. I promise! And possibly have pictures. So stay tuned.

He's three

No, he's not rockin' out to some good tunes. While we both enjoy a little headbanging to a great song, we don't do the hand signs. This is just his way of telling people how old he is. And actually it is easier to do than the normal way people sign three. Try it, if you dare!

The other day at the supper table, we had this conversation;

"Mommy, I have a headache."

"Where?"

"Here," as he points to his stomach.

"Oh," I say, "...a tummyache."

"No, a headache."

"Actually, a headache in your tummy is a tummyache," I counter.

"No it's not, mommy. It's the flu."

Another snow day

It's not actually snowing outside and the wind has calmed down, but buses were shut down again so my cuties got to stay home for the second day in a row. They are outside playing in the fritzing cold - nothing I could say would dissuade them. They were bound and determined to shovel something. I don't know what it is about shovels, but my boys love, love, love them. We had to buy new ones for them this year because their old ones broke from hard usage.

Here are the boys inside their quinsey (??) that Luke helped them build on his days off. You make a big pile of snow and let it sit overnight, then shovel out the inside the next day. Voila, a quinsey. I was all for making an igloo, but due to his vastly superior snow building knowledge and the fact that he would do most of the work, Luke's plans won out. I have to admit, it was a lot less work than piling big blocks of snow, and seems sturdier. By the way, that girl is the daughter of the people who bought our Tahoe, and she was just beautiful. Those kids played together for a good hour and Caleb and Ethan were entranced.

Mindstorms Autofabrik

OK, I know my brothers will all appreciate this.

A little snow

Yep, it's officially a blizzard. All school buses are canceled and even though the boys don't ride the bus, they get to stay home. It was so bad last night that I finally realized that all the stories of people freezing to death because they became disoriented between their house and barn were possibly true. I opened up my front door this morning and this is what I found. And that is in the sheltered part of the house. I can't even imagine what the driveway must be like. Good thing I went and got my groceries yesterday!

In the meantime, I have been working like a madwoman on my next quilt. I have some grand idea that it might be done for a raffle for Caleb's or Ethan's hockey tournament. That said, I have an inner voice telling me that this is an impossible scheme doomed to failure. We'll see, I guess. I've finished seven blocks with five to go. Then they need to be joined together with mini pieced sashes. Then sandwiched and quilted. Oy vey!

Winter wonderland

Yes, this is another tobogganing hill. Only this time, Luke and I refrained and let the kids have their fun. Titus has been going down the hill by himself and tends to get more than the usual amount of snow in his face, which makes for a lot of drama. Of course, Caleb and Ethan are consumed with hitting all the jumps and getting the most air. The strategies they come up with! Christmas holidays combined with loads of snow have made sledding a part of our daily lives. If it isn't at the hill, it is on the piles of snow in front of our house. The boys are sure making up for last year when conditions weren't quite as perfect! I even drove a snowmobile for the first time since before I got married.

Christmas was a lot of fun! The two older boys got remote control trucks that are still only when the batteries need recharging. Titus seems thrilled with his semi and loader. I got Luke a Home Theater subscription and I got (drum roll, everybody) ... an Ipod! I've spent the last four days fooling around with it, loading on my music and podcasts and sermons (don't laugh). It's the perfect gift. I am not one who likes housework, as my husband can attest to, but a distraction sure makes the work go fast. This is probably a gift for both of us, come to think of it. What a sneaky man!

Christmastime

Well, we here at the Willms' household have actually managed to get some decorating done. It ain't all pretty, and it looks a little bit like someone puked up Christmas decorations on our tree, but they are there. The reason things are so random is that the tree has had some mishaps. In a creative mommy moment, I decided the boys would love to put candy canes on the tree. And I was right! Except that putting things on the tree means putting them on every branch, including the top ones. Now, when a seven-year-old stands on a chair and stretches up and reaches out, gravity inevitably kicks in and takes matters into its own hands. As a result, the tree fell onto our TV. Then mommy tried to put it up and managed to throw it against the window. Sometime after that it decided to commit suicide and fell over in a totally new direction while we were all reading a book. Sigh.

Some other Christmasy goodness in our house is the obligatory gingerbread house. So far, no little candies have gone missing. The piano has gone festive and the banners are beribboned. Yet another thing is the Advent calendar. Last, but not least, are elf shoes - a new tradition for this season. A combination of a Coke box, hockey tape, and socks that will set you apart from all others during the holidays. Wear them to the family gathering, the office party, and, of course, the neighborhood carolling. Comfortable and versatile, these shoes could be yours for the low price of a couple candy canes. Buy now, they are going fast!

Finally!

I have finally finished a monster quilt that took me, dare I say, three years from start to finish. It was one of those block of the month things, and every time I received a block, I set it aside. Two Christmases ago I pieced it all together and then was sick of looking at it. It waited in my unfinished quilt pile until last year when I managed to sandwich it together. I had finally started on the actual quilting when we moved and it got put on the backburner again. Then I got mad at it because it wasn't going the way I wanted it to. I finished it only because I really needed my sewing machine for other things and it was taking up to much room. So here it is. And am I ever glad it is finished. Now on to the next three year project...

And the hubby of the year award goes to...

Last weekend we went to Edmonton for Luke's Christmas present. Poor guy had to ride in the back of the 'burb because of his tailbone. We went and inflicted more pain on him for the ride home - Lasik eye surgery. Yep, he can now see unassisted by glasses or contacts of any kind. The only problem is that fluorescent lights are now this superman's kryptonite. Want to rob his wallet? Put him under the fluorescent. Need to torture him for Christmas present information? Fluorescent lights are your best bet. Have to tell him that the kids broke his projector TV? Fluorescent, fluorescent, fluorescent!

As a result of the surgery, his sleeping schedule got all messed up. Monday morning rolled around and he was up at the ungodly hour of 3 a.m. Around 7:30 a.m. I groggily rolled out of bed to a household of organization. Children were clothed and fed, lunches were made, and everyone was smiling. Not our usual morning. The boys actually had about an hour of playtime before Caleb and Ethan had to go to school! I was told to go back to bed, and being the submissive and dutiful wife that I am, I did. After a lovely sleep-in, I was treated to breakfast in bed. Of course, the day didn't end there. Supper was wings and fries - which are Luke's specialties. Now, if there is one thing I like, it's a man who knows his way around a kitchen. And mine does. Can't you tell from the kids' faces?

I'm sorry, ladies, but this guy is all mine. I don't know how I landed him or what I've done to deserve such treatment, but I sure am grateful. Not every day is like this one was, but I always know I am loved and appreciated. Not much more that a woman needs!

The new niece!

Well, well, well. There is a new little baby in the family and I couldn't be more thrilled! Nyola was born December 9, one day before her due date (why, oh why, didn't that ever happen to me?). 7 lbs and a few ounces (3 I think, but don't quote me!). We heard direct from the proud papa this morning, but Luke talked to him so I didn't get any of the interesting details - all you women out there know what I mean! All I can say is congratulations, Dan and Jocelyne. I am so happy for you!

Christmas baking

I don't really know what we were thinking. Between us, Heather and I have five, I repeat, five boys. And yet we felt up to the challenge of tackling a boat load of Christmas baking. It didn't start off that badly at all. The sugar cookies were a snap. Three kids outside and two inside made for a pleasant morning. There was no whining from the kids and no whining from Heather and I. It was fun.

We had lunch and then started on the pepper nuts. They were fun - make little snakes out of the dough and then chop them up. With both of us working at it, it didn't even take too long. I only got in trouble once from Kyle (Heather's youngest). Little mister Kyle really liked the pepper nuts. I tried taking them away and he looked at me and said, "Carmen! No!" with attitude only a two year old can give.

The final cookie of the day were spritz cookies. I was so excited to use my cookie press for the first time. As you may notice from the picture above, my cookie press wasn't exactly successful. After much frustration, Heather finally got her cookie press out. By this time, neither of us were feeling that optimistic and for good reason. Apparantly good ol' Martha (Stewart, that is) had steered us wrong in the flour department. We finally ended up pressing it into pans and cooking as is. The best thing, though, about baking with your best friend is that instead of slamming cupboard doors and sniping at the kids like I would at home by myself, we laughed our heads off over the whole fiasco. I sure am glad I moved close to home again.

A new nephew/niece

There's a baby on the way! Dan and Jocelyne are about to have a baby and I am so excited. Now that my babies are no longer babies, I miss the cuddling and the kissing and the milk breath and the flailing limbs and ... can you tell I love newborns? My most precious memories are of holding a sleeping 1 week old baby in my arms and just looking down at his beautiful face as he sleeps. I can't wait for Dan and Joce to have that same experience.

While we were visiting them just before the September long weekend, Joce had mentioned to me that she would like to have a Curious George quilt for the baby when he/she comes. We discussed it a little and I told her if she could find some fabric, I was the girl for her. As it turned out, as soon as I got home I got sooo excited about this little project that I went looking for fabric myself. Boy, was it ever scarce! Ebay became my best friend for the next couple days. I found a Curious George fabric book kit and a meter of Curious George zoo fabric. Then it sat whilst I waited for inspiration. That never came. I think this is the part where procastination comes in to the picture, Lindy!

Anyway, I decided simplest was best, especially for a baby and went with some beautifully bright colors to go with George and his zoo friends. Here's the finished project. Hope they like it as much as I do!

A Birthday Boy

Ethan. The E-meister. Ethaniel. The E-machine. Eth. My boy with the big eyes and bigger smile and the mind that is never satisfied until he knows just about everything there is to know. As a baby, he would destroy toy after toy - not for the sake of destroying but to figure out how it worked. He had curly hair until I cut it for the first time. He was always getting Caleb into trouble. The word "no" had no apparant meaning and spanking was useless because he had no nerve endings on his butt. He actually liked the taste of the soap we scrubbed his mouth with when he lied. My Ethan. The birthday boy. I will now be out $100 of popcorn and beer money!

We had the party the day after his birthday due to a scheduling conflict with hockey. We soon found out that first-graders have a ton of energy - especially after pop and cake! Ethan invited eight kids and seven of them came plus one party crasher. We had big plans to go sledding on the hill by the school but it was too cold, so the kids all came to our house. I never plan any games - maybe if I did the hyper level would have gone down a level. I always think that if I had been in school all day I wouldn't want to be micromanaged the minute I got out. We had tacos for supper, and boy did that go over big! There were kids who managed thirds and even fourths. Luke and I were amazed. Who knew? I will never underestimate the capacity of a child's stomach again. As it turned out I had bought just enough stuff - this from a woman who regularly overestimates food quantities and has a fridge full at the end of a meal.

I think Ethan had a good day. It's hard being the birthday boy and expecting to get your way the entire day and not having your parents cooperate. I actually remember that same feeling as a kid!