My First Quilt-Along

Sew Mama Sew is focusing the entire month of April on Quilting. I am in Heaven. Part of the month is a quilt along with a new mini quilt tutorial each Monday. I have always wanted to make some mini quilts as well as participate in a quilt along so this was perfect.

The examples are all done in black and white with chartreuse mixed in. I loved this idea so I pulled out all of my black and white and then decided to add pink. There are 4 mini quilts in total. I think these will make an adorable wall hanging (maybe even strung from a clothes line) when they are done. This is the first project I have done in a long time with out specifically making it with someone in mind. Maybe it will turn out as a gift, maybe it will end up on my etsy shop, who knows.

Here is block one!! I am really happy with the way it turned out. Stay tuned for more mini quilts to come.

This is the front.

This is the back.

How Short Our Memory (sports not general conference)

Butler came so close last night and all I read about today is the condescension by the national news writers.  "What a movement for small schools and midmajors all around."  "Butler may have taken us to a new era of college basketball."  The Bulldogs brought excitement back to the NCAA tournament."  What a crock! 

I was rooting for Butler like everybody else in the country, but this talk of changing landscapes is just ludicrous.  All year we've been hearing how this is a weak year in college basketball.  Had Duke lost yesterday it would have been 7 NCAA championship games for kryzwhateverhisnameis, and the one in 2010.  I'm not mocking Butler at all because I think they are every bit as good as all the teams they beat and some that they didn't beat.  I bet you didn't know that Butler has won 26 or more games in each of the last 4 seasons.  Entering the tournament this year Butler was 26-4 and had won their last 17 games.  They were playing as good or better than any team in the nation and they got a 5 seed.  A 5 seed! That means the powers that be had them as the 21st to 25th best team in the nation.  

There will be no change in the national landscape.  The big money schools will stay the big money schools (thank you BCS).  Butler may crack the top 25 at the start of the season next year, but only after spending 5 years showing that it deserves to be there.  That's the way it is for college sports.  If you play in the big boy leagues they rank you based on the potential of the 7th graders that have committed to play for your school.  If you play in a midmajor conference you have to build a program for 4+ years and make the final four and even then you are still a cinderella team.

This will all be forgotten before the first ball hits the hardcourt next year.  If I remember correctly another midmajor school made it to the championship game in 1998.  One midmajor school actually won the championship in 1990 after having been in the final four 2 years previous to that and going back the following year.

One reporter even had the gall to ask Gordon Hayword in the postgame conference whether the glorious run to this point will outlive the pain of defeat, Hayward said no.

"For me [the strongest memory] is going to be the loss," Hayward said. "Hate losing."

Can you imagine that question being asked to any of the Duke players had the final shot dropped? 

Maybe they should reseed the tournament now, just for fun.  I bet Butler gets a 4 seed, though Michigan State will move up to a 2 for sure.  At least this isn't football where the opinions of condescending press members actually matter.  Only a few more months and I can start bashing the BCS again.

The Book

As children my siblings and I all had our books.  As I recall my book was blue, my older siblings' books were black with red binding much like the one shown below.  I don't remember the color of Becca's book, but I believe Mark's was red and of course Doug had the supersize blue book.  I'm not sure why he had a big book, but I'm sure I've teased him it about it.  We kept them in my Dad's desk and pulled them out on occasion to record purchases, allowances or payments from something or other.  These books were of course ledger books and each of us was responsible for keeping track of how much money we had deposited in the bank of mom and dad.

Early on most of the money in the book came from a weekly allowance that my parents would give to me.  This was not a large allowance by any means, but it was constant.  My parents didn't believe in making an allowance stipulatory on our acts, rather it was a tool to teach financial management.  During this time most of the money going out was spent at the C-Store at the top of the street for candy.  Though oftentimes the bank of mom and dad gave me quite a guilt trip for the frivolous spending of my money. to their credit they never did say no to my withdrawals.  

As I got older I would deposit lawn mowing money into my book.  This consisted of mowing the lawn and rather than having dad or mom pay me any money I would just record it in my book.  The biggest deposit each year came around my birthday when I would endorse my birthday check from grandma and hand it over to mom so I could record it in my book. On a few occasions my sum of money would get to a level that I would transfer a portion of it to the bank where I would earn interest.  I credit the book, for better or worse, for making me the tightwad that I am today.  

I didn't learn much of investing from my book, that spark came from an investment in Peter Lynch's Magellan fund at Fidelity Investments given by my grandparents to all their grandchildren.  There's nothing like a mutual fund earning upwards of 20% a year to pique one's interest in investing.  That's a story for another day (or another blog).

This brings us to yesterday.  Melissa decided that she was going to clean out the garden/shrub/trash area in the front area (she found a beer bottle in the area that has been there at least 2 years, but probably a lot more).  In doing so she found the best way to clean up the landscaping pebbles was to pick them up one by one, put them in a bucket and take them around back to the kids play area.  She had the wonderful idea to pay the kids 1 penny for each rock they put in the bucket.  Jessi and Spencer made $4 each yesterday.

Melissa and I don't carry cash.  We have $200 in ones and fives that we have had for the past 5 years in a ziplock bag for emergencies, but otherwise we just don't carry cash.  In order to pay Jessi and Spencer their $8 it would cost us $20 because once it is out of the bank it is as good as gone.  So in an effort to save ourselves the extra $12 we decided this was a perfect time to institute the ledger books (something we had planned to do when Spencer started 2nd grade).  

Ledger books aren't quite as prevalent nowadays as they were 25 years ago so after searching various stores we ended up back at Wal-Mart and bought 6 ledger books for $5 each (so much for that $12 savings).  It's not that we couldn't afford more books later, but I'm not sure you will even be able to buy ledger books at Wal-Mart in 5 more years and they run $20-$40 a piece at Staples.

The point of this whole story is that we bought 6 books which means Melissa has finally relented in her fight for 5 children, and I get to continue my search for a Yukon or Tahoe.

March Madness

Come one come all, no money just pride (not much of that either).



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Utes rule

He's Back, I'm Done, She's Almost One and The Sun

Jacob had CME last week in Syracuse New York. He said the seminars were pretty good, he was able to swing by Palmyra and attend the temple, and got to ride in 5 different airplanes. So all in all I would say it was a pretty good trip. My favorite part of it is that he is back! I know the kids are pretty happy to have him back as well. Not just because they missed him but because when mommy doesn't get a break for several days she tends to get a little short on patience. It is amazing how getting to deal with one less argument just saves my sanity. I love tag team parenting.

While Jacob was in Syracuse I took advantage of the evenings alone and painted my sewing room. Thanks Mom and Becca for help with the color choices. I love how it turned out. Now I have a new project to make some new curtains to match the new paint colors.

Although this is only one room it carries great significance. Why you ask? Because it reperesents the last room in my house that needs to be painted. Yippee Skippee!! I have now painted every wall, every trim, every ceiling, and every door in my house. (Okay, so I never painted the closet in my room and am debating whether to leave it white or paint it. I am pretty sure I will paint it, but for this post the decision is to leave it white so that I can say I am done!)

Kamryn turns 1 next Sunday. This really came up on me fast. I am sure I will post more about all her growth and such in a week but I just thought I would throw this out there.

And last but certainly not least, I can see the Sun again. The weather has been so nice the last few days. It is supposed to be in the 50's all week and I am so excited. I packed away all of the snow clothes, and pulled out the jackets. We are going to will Spring here!!