Table Runner

For Easter I made a table runner for my Nana but in the rush to finish it I really screwed up the binding. So I cut it away & re-did it. I'm so glad that I did because I love how it turned out. It's always a good thing when table runners lay FLAT on the table.I also really liked the pattern & plan to put in on the "Someday I'll" list.
The only thing I didn't like is that I planned for it to be longer. It looks great & Nana loved it so I'm happy!

How can I work....

Payton & I went to the mall so that she can play indoors & wear herself out. When we went to go get gas at Huntington & Baldwin & looked north & this is what I saw. The fire was just west of Baldwin. Yep last night it started up a again.Below is the very from my dad's office window. I suspect that he has been distracted all day today but the view of the fire.
Again amazing zoom! I spotted this flare up.
Within minutes the first helicopter came.
These guys are so good!
Yeah success!
And one more time for good measure!

I also spotted another flare up & when I zoomed in to take a look I spotted a fire engine. It's small & you can't really see it but it is directly to the left of the flames (about 1 1/4 inch). I spotted this on my 'way out' so I ended up staying for about 10 to 15 minutes longer, they were able to stomp out that flare up too. Firefighters are just so good!!!
SO needless to say I was distracted for a while & by the time that we finally left it was past Payton's bedtime. So do you think that she enjoyed herself as much as I did? She ended up sleeping for 3 HOURS! WooHoo!
So sweet! She is such a good girl!!!
5973

Now called the Sierra Madre Fire...

Yeah this is quite unnerving but let me give you a little perspective...Yeah my camera has some major zooming capability! This was taken from my parents backyard.
This plane was awesome. It was able to drop fire retardant 4 different times. There was also a spotted plane that these guys would follow in. It was very impressive.
Donald of coarse is always in the thick of things. On Saturday when this started Donald was up Monrovia Canyon (which is about 1/2 to 1 mile East of where it started) in the mountains with the scouts. We knew it was close but weren't sure how close. We finally heard from him about 4pm. They were evacuated & left about 5 hours before it was scheduled to end.

I also learned something knew. These helicopters are Black Hawks that have been modified. Interesting.
I'm not sure about the red one but definitely the yellow one is.



Just some cool shots that I thought I'd share.

Smoke on the horizon...

My youngest sister & I were working on a project yesterday & all of a sudden dad comes running in from the back yard. My dad never runs, unless one of his kids or grandkids is in trouble. So I said "Dad it looks like you are in a rush" & he said "OH YEAH!". Odd since he never really runs or rushes ANYWHERE I follow him out. And this is what we saw. Never a good thing to see.

Within 10 minutes the helicopters came. There is a dam about 1 1/2 blocks over & that's where the helicopters fill up. The picture does not do it justice as to how close they actually are. We were talking to a neighbor & they said that at one point she counted 5 helicopters.

We decided to go up to Ranch Top, for those who are familiar with the neighborhood, & watch the helicopters come in & load up with water.
It was suppose to be contained by 4 or 5pm but the pictures below were taken about 6pm.
Back in 1995 the mountains above my parents house burned. It was very scary. People were up on top of the houses with wood-shake (sp) roofs & were wetting them down so that the hot embers wouldn't catch their houses on fire. We were smoked out for almost 2 days & could smell it in the house for weeks afterwards. So this is bringing back memories that were not to pleasant & I just hope it doesn't go clear across the mountain scape.


About this time is when we started to smell the smoke & that's not a good thing because it means that the wind is blowing in our direction.

Since it is hard to get a night pictures I took a video.

For those of you familiar with SoCal fires... notice anything strange? About the helicopters? Yeah they are still flying! Usually at dusk they stop NO MATER WHAT! But they kept on going at least 1 hour after the sun was down & it was dark. We were very impressed with the system they had going on. Check out the video below. As one came in the next was taking off. Very efficient.

I called mom this morning & apparently they are being smoked out (no wind!). So I'm keeping Payton out of nursery. She said that the helicopters were already going & since we have more work to do on Kristin's project I hope that Payton will be able to sleep. The good thing is that they aren't going directly over my parents house but they will be basically circling their house all day. I'll post more later!
5938

Park...

So before you watch the video I have something to admit. "I'm a bad mom!" This trip to the park was the first in... a lot of months. Hopefully this explains Payton's crazy laugh in the video.

Also she is so much bigger & more independent than the last time we were here so she loves climbing the stairs & sliding down the slides all by herself.

She is getting SO BIG!
My favorite part about her being on the slides is that her hair becomes alive with static!
5910

One Smart Cookie!

Donald has been a full time student at Cal State LA for about 1 1/2 years. He has been very motivated to graduate to the point of taking 20 to 22 units each semester. The first semester he took on that load I said as long as you are getting good grades you can take as many classes as you want. I just didn't want him to waste his time & have to take a class over again. He's made such good grades that the heavy class load has been no problem at all!

So a couple of weeks ago we found out that Donald made the Dean's List. The school was having an Honors Convocation ceremony so we decided to go. I'm not sure what we were thinking because we didn't think it was that big of a deal. Maybe it was the way in which we were notified, by letter & the fact that when he RSVP'd that the person had no clue what was going on. Before arriving we thought it was going to be a little ceremony & that it wouldn't be a big deal. Well we were wrong!There were a ton of people there! The opening ceremony was long, just over an hour (with another one to follow) & the convocation speaker, who got right into speaking about how California is a state that doesn't care about education & it's time for CHANGE & be an agent of CHANGE, is this a political rally or an Honors Ceremony, wait I'm confused. Please enter & be seated, indoctrination will begin shortly! (And it didn't help that when he was being announced Barack's name was mentioned at least 2 times so maybe I was already a little annoyed & just waiting for the Vote Obama portion of his speech) I was glad to see that I wasn't the only one applauding after EVERY pause, com'mon people how long do you want to be sitting up in the bleachers without seat backs.... also I wasn't the only one not standing after each 'straight from Barack's campaign' statement. Sorry for the tangent! ReFocusing.... I have a smart hubby!
After the so-called Honor's ceremony they had another quick one where they received their certificates. There was a speaker there too & was nothing like the first. It was really good & I'm glad that the night was able to end on that note because I was just a little perturbed after the first speaker.

So the other thing that we didn't realize was what it meant to be on the Dean's List. 'Students named to the Dean's List are undergraduates who earn a grade point average of 3.4 or higher in 12 or more units of traditionally graded course work in one quarter & who rant in the upper 5 percent of students in academic achievement in their college' (College of Business & Economics). Wow upper 5%! I am so proud of him. He has been getting all A's & B's (mostly A's) since we've moved out to California. I didn't know I married such a smarty pants!

I love you Donald & thank you for being such a hard worker!

Waking up happy

Lately Payton has been waking up happy. Before lately this didn't always happen. I have been putting her down asleep in her toddler bed. When she wakes up she comes out with a huge smile on her face. She is so proud of herself for getting herself out of bed when she wakes up.

This particular day she woke up still a little groggy & cute as ever. All the curls on her right side were all against her head...And on the other side was this amazing curl! I can't get over her curls. I have curly hair (but not like Payton), Donald's hair is wavy & Donald's moms hair is curly too. But these perfect ringlet curls are just mind boggling.
And NO PEOPLE I do not curl or perm her hair. What products do I use? Water & detangler. I've been wearing my hair curly lately so that I get less questions about her hair but still it's like the whole 'how old is your son?' (whose wearing a pink shirt & a skirt) sometimes people just don't think.
5879

It's just as good...

It's just as good as being outside, right? Payton loves to ride her Pooh car in the hallway. In the picture above I asked her to turn around.
I thought that she was getting up to turn the Pooh car around but that wasn't what she thought I meant.
Yes she did what I asked but even she is looking at me like I'm really loosing it.

The last RSV shot....

Yes we have hit a mile marker, maybe not a big one to you but to Payton & I it's huge. For the first 2 years of life children with HLHS have to get shots for RSV during cold & flu season. Payton has been very brave but it is really hard because she recognizes the building, waiting room & is really good up until she sees 'The Nurse' & looses it in a total meltdown. Because of her weight she has to get 2 shots, but at least she gets them at the same time. I hold her, she straddles me & I lean forward so she can't muscle her way out (she off balance & can't get the leverage) & with a nurse on each side it's over quick. I grab my bag & we head out to the main lobby. It doesn't take her long at all to settle down but the hardest part is that she remembers what happened. Lately she has liked to explain what happened.

It makes me tear up when I see her face at the point when her hand goes up to her forehead. And even through it all she still is sweet enough to humor me & smile! I know it's kind of a scary smile but I had to include it anyway. So precious! Maybe it's one of those 'only a mother' moments...
The rest of the day she would 'tell' me about what happened. By the end of the day she was waving Bye Bye to her owey & it was a distant memory.

Look at that cute Peanut butter & jelly faced smile!
5689

Conference Weekend... Time to finish things up!

I seem to work in spurts when it comes to my crafting. I finished quilting Casey's blanket last week & just had the binding to do. I have tried using the sewing machine to finish it off but it has come out messy so far. I made a table runner for my Grandma & did the binding with my machine & now I have to cut it off & try again (yes it was that bad!).

So what better time to work on the hand sewing part but during conference. I also find that I can remember more if I am doing something else at the same time (no that is not an excuse, it's strange but true!). While finishing it up Ryan decided that what I was doing was really interesting & decided to help.First I showed him that the end was sharp. After that he stopped grabbing at the needle & was very careful.
He was very good & very determined. Above he was pushing the needle thru & was very close to getting his & my hands stuck.
He really didn't require much help from me at all, I was there to make sure he didn't become a permanent part of the blanket.
Now that is a look of accomplishment if there ever was one.
It was really fun showing him & I can't wait till Payton shows interest in something that I'm doing to want to learn. Right now she just likes to be bossy & pull me around to 'enjoy' whatever she's doing! That's just as good... right?
Here is the end result & I love it! I layed it down on the floor & told Ryan "look at all the bugs on Casey's blanket!" He came running over & eyes scanning the whole thing. He was VERY disappointed to find that the bugs were the pattern on the blanket (in the green).
Here's the back.
Below is Casey, the happy recipient. Ryan asked me where his was. I told him that this was Casey's birthday blanket & that when Ryan's birthday comes he'll have a birthday blanket too. I'm not sure if he was trying to explain that Casey's birthday wasn't coming up or if his would be soon & he needed one quickly, but either way there was no misinterpreting that he was ready for his blanket. I've got a couple more that I want to finish before starting his but how could I not reward him for being such a big helper while sewing the binding. His wish is my command.
5569