Odds and Ends

My Calling
My calling is now official, so I can announce it:  Gospel Doctrine teacher.  I'll be team teaching, every other week, which sounds GREAT.  I only have to try to be inspired every other Sunday!

Chain Link Fun!
We celebrated Labor Day by installing a new chain link fence.  Here are some pictures of Rob working on the fence as it nears completion:

Also, you can see our 2 new garden boxes.  So far they don't have dirt in them, but hopefully by the end of this year our compost will fill 1 box, and by the time Spring comes, we're hoping to have most of the 2nd box filled as well.  Cause dirt isn't actually as cheap as you'd think.

Elijah and Life
Elijah is still transitioning back to school, and I have to say that it is NOT going smoothly.  I have learned to pray and pray and pray for patience.  For self-control.  And I'm yelling less and handling him better, so that's good.  But Elijah seems to be generally unhappy with the whole of existence, and that's not good.  I keep looking at the calendar, trying to remind myself that this is still normal transitioning behavior.  Just seems like we should be past this!

Miciah's Dress
A few weeks ago Miciah's cousins were here and they were playing downstairs when Miciah asked me if I had any material she could have.  I thought she wanted it so she could do something with her amazing doll house (I should post about this doll house.  It's a good story!), so I told her that although I didn't have any fabric, there were a few dish cloths on the laundry table that she could use.

She came upstairs a while later with a dress partially sewn together.  The front is a big piece of felt, and the back is the 2 dish cloths. 

I took Miciah to RB's house so RB could help her think through how to put sleeves on.  RB chastised me for giving Miciah dish cloths to sew together, and I said, "I didn't know what she wanted it for!"  Seriously, I could have bought the girl some material!

Miciah's cousins were back this weekend, and they finished the dress:

Pretty sweet, right?  Miciah wore it to church yesterday, and got compliments on it.  Miciah said, "Some people asked me, 'Did you make that or did your Mom?'"  GREAT.  I mean, the dress is awesome, but ...

Next sewing project will involve a pattern and real material.  Believe it or not, I DO know how to sew.  I just don't regularly choose to do so. 

Coney Island
One of the perks of working for Children's is the annual Coney Island trip.  You pay $4 for parking and get lunch, drinks, and rides for free.  The kids love it, and we're The World's Best Parents for a day.

Some pictures:

We hung out with our friends who are deaf, so I got to sign all day.  It was fun to get to know them better, and to use my ASL.  My left arm was SORE the next day, though.  I wouldn't have thought that signing would stress my arm out, but I guess it makes sense.

Tank
It's been fun (and a little weird) to hang out with just Tank all day.  I arrange lots of play dates because otherwise Tank will just lay on the floor all day.  Not kidding.

One of the days we went to Parky's Farm, which is a fun place with a few farm animals, a small garden, pony rides, a playground, stuff like that.  We were sitting down and eating lunch when Tank saw a little green spider sitting near us.  "You have to make sure that spider doesn't come near us.  Cause he could climb into your water bottle, and then he'd build a spider web in there, and you'd go get a drink, and the spider web would get in your mouth and you'd be like, 'Blech.  Blech.' Like that."  Exactly.

This became funnier about half an hour later when, despite my best efforts at shooing away the spider, I found that little green spider friend hanging out inside my water bottle.

Today
Today I was supposed to meet a friend at the museum, let the kids play for a while, and come home with the 3rd book of the Hunger Games trilogy:  Mockingjay.  So I was supposed to spend the rest of my day reading that book.  Instead, though, Tank threw up, and I'm writing this blog post.  Oh well.  I guess I'll read the book of Job instead.  Hurray!