The Test Dress

I decided to "test" the pattern with dollar fabric for Madison's faire/Halloween costume before cutting the good fabric. I'm really glad I did, as the dress and sleeves are ridiculously long; 6-8 inches! I'll just cut the pattern down for the "real" dress. I'm a little worried since after this picture, I couldn't get the dress off Maddie fast enough. Hmmmm, I hope she wants to wear the real thing!
All that's missing from her costume is the headpiece, front laces down the dress, and little arm band to pouf out the top of the sleeves. [I'll add picture with those later]

I Have A Second Grader!

It's official -- school started on Monday and Corben is now in the second grade. He was very excited to go and see who he might know in his class as well as get to know his teacher. He's also been loving homework so for - easy 'get-to-know-you' pages; we'll see if that changes when the real work starts coming home. ;]

The Dog Lady Revisited

No - I don't have any more animals in our family than the normal five (counting two kiddos ;) but I did play dog rescuer this week - seems to be my lot this year. One dog wandered into our front yard and I caught her and posted signs right after dinner; thankfully the owners were looking and picked her up after one sign was posted. The other instance happened on our bike ride (apparently that's best time for things to happen lately) and there were two labs wandering the streets. They had tags, but the number was wrong. I went to the address and no one was home, so I grabbed the truck and drove them home put them in the backyard. I'm just glad that we didn't have any canine sleepovers, although Lexi would have LOVED it!

In other news, I've been spending spare moments at my sewing machine. I'm making Halloween costumes/Renaissance Faire period clothing (when I post the finished product, it will become clear why I started early :0 ) This project is quite ambitious -- let's just say, GROMMETS!

Right Place, Right Time

How lucky can one boy be? A few weeks ago on one of our morning bike rides, we stopped to watch the heavy tractors and earth movers working in the field by our house. We finished our ride, and went back to watch a little longer. A big earth mover was just turning the corner and the driver stopped and waved for Corben to come sit next to him in the little "passenger seat" and go for a ride. I hesitated, while Corben took off running and jumped right in. He rode for about 15 minutes while the tractor moved tons of dirt making the new street. I didn't have a camera with me, so we took these pictures a couple hours later.

Don't You Wish

...that sometimes you could just have superpowers for a few minutes? This morning while we were out for our daily bike ride with Lexi we decided to take a different route -- as we were turning the corner, I heard a car alarm going off. There is a lot of new construction in our area and thought perhaps it was a builder or worker. All of a sudden a man on a bicycle comes ripping around the corner and down the street towards me holding something in his arm, kind of hunched over. To me it looked very suspicious [if you know me at all, I'm always wary of "suspicious" characters and ready to take them with a heeeyaaah, and an elbow jab to the gut, and then stomp on his foot....] so I made sure to stare really hard at him. I just got that "something isn't right about that" feeling and kept watching him. I had turned my bike around and was on the corner as he went by. I was so close to saying something, but didn't want to stereotype or accuse unjustifiably. I started up the street to where the car alarm had gone off, and saw a truck parked in a driveway with the passenger door wide open. The alarm had stopped and I didn't see anyone -- a lady came out a moment later and realized she had been robbed. That man had shimmied the window down and stolen her purse! She was really upset and couldn't even call 911, so I called for her and she hopped in a truck with her husband to try and follow the guy. No luck -- the police came and I told him what I had seen -- down to what he was wearing [I did stare hard!] Hopefully they will catch the guy, there were good handprints on the window....who knows! I really DETEST people who steal from others!!!

So the superpowers? I would have used my elastigirl arms and grabbed the bike while the guy flew over the handlebars smashing his face on the asphalt (oh yeah) and then wrapped his bike around him while we waited for law enforcement. Oh if only................

Four Letter Words, Gardens, In a "Jam," and Disney Withdrawals

I have a favorite four letter word, and although it ranks up there with "love" and "kids" it just happens to be another one....I know what you're thinking, and no, how could you think that??! It's

**FREE**

I was returning a book to a friend last Sunday after church and happened upon a pile of plastic on the curb. I couldn't resist checking it out and although it was dirty, wet (nice big thunderstorm), a temporary ant residence, I tossed it in the truck and brought it home. A little water, some scrubbing, ant removal and voila:
It isn't perfect, and a dog had a little chew party on a couple corners, but hey I didn't pay a cent for it and Madison has a ball in it!

My garden is flourishing -- here is a picture of the "first fruits" of the garden...
Since then I've had bowls of cherry tomatoes, green beans, cucumbers and squash. We're loving it!

We also found ourselves in different kind of garden - a blueberry farm. One morning I saw a blurb in the paper about picking your own berries at a farm nearby and went that day with friends. We went back again a week later and picked twice as many -- how can you resist when they are so delicious and only $0.98 a pound??













I was in a "jam" this week as well. It just so happens that our Bishop and his wife have many fruit trees in their yard and needed some help using all the fruit. We went and picked and came home with two kinds of pears, figs, apples and plums. I already made some raspberry fig jam and will be making plum jam too.
As far as Disney withdrawals -- the picture speaks for itself. She wears it daily! 8:]