September

My little mycologists.  They ran off to explore when we stopped halfway up the mountain (Aster needed to eat to help pop her ears).  When I saw their collection I broke their curious hearts and told them we weren't taking unknown fungi home.  The result?  I have 20 pictures to help identify them.  I call that science class.

Gauge is such a cute hiker!  The grass was often over his head, but he just plowed on, following his sisters everywhere.

Ahhh.  And here's the reason we went further up the mountain than our usual haunts:

Wild raspberries grow wild along all the creeks at the top of the mountain.  Unfortunately everyone in our valley go berry hunting.  So our handfuls were a bountiful harvest.

Cairn braved the brambles with me and scraped her arms a bit.

Aster slept through most of her first hike.

Gauge just walked in and captioned this one: "There's me walking in the grass and i have blonde hair and blue eyes"

September...  I turned 32.  Next year I need a bigger cake so we can see more than just candle glow.

Gauge is the cutest big brother... even when its frustrating.  He gets right up in her face and stays there saying, "Hi Aster" the whole time.  Or he'll walk up to me and try to pry Aster from me so he can have a turn.

I had once promised myself not to take naked baby pictures because mine was put on display in the entry way when I was 12.  But they spent the last end of the summer digging this "pool" and were so excited to swim in the rain water it captured.  I didn't know until I went to snap the picture that he had tried to get into his swim suit, failed, and went to play in his birthday suit.

They set up a table and chairs in the field to eat second breakfast.  They were just moving in on the cherry tomatoes when we had to clear out quickly for the tractor that came to plow up the wild tomatillo plants in front of the cotton.

No Pictures Came...

My camera is officially worthy of the children taking pictures.  For some reason they're the only ones who don't mind a black, burned-out-pixel area in the dead center of every picture.  That being said, they love taking horrible pictures and I don't have to pay for anything to be developed.  I also don't have to put any of those pictures on the computer...  which is to say you're not likely to see them.  Ever.

Broken camera is a bit sad.  The Christmas pictures were all abysmal... so unless you were lucky enough to watch them open their presents in front of the web-cam, you'll never see how excited they were to open the gifts.

And the video we tried to take of us dancing silly, trying to stay awake on New Year's Eve is thankfully blemished enough to never make it online.  By the way, Grant is the only one of us that could actually stay up till midnight.  I was the first to pass out... at 9 pm.

After trying to upload and photo-shop those events I gave up on the camera.  And with no pictures I gave up on blogging, but there's just so much happening that I want to share with ya'll to keep you in touch with us!

So from the youngest:

Grarrie Fish:

In case you haven't heard, we're expecting again!  This is super exciting timing because Melissa is due in June, Blair is due in July and I'm due in August.  Melissa and Blair are both having girls.  We don't know yet and we might not find out (I'm open to hearing arguments for both sides), but that appointment is within the next few weeks so we should make that decision soon.  True to our family tradition we asked a close friend to name the fetus.  Jenny Sullivan combined Grant with Carrie and the idea of it swimming around in me (Jenny started out as my swimming partner in college). 

Gauge:

His vocabulary is growing in all the perfectly boy ways.  His most frequent words are, "truck" (anything with wheels and a motor) "bum" and "poop."  He discovered the word "gunk" and laughed whenever it was said for a whole night.  And his boy sense of humor has evolved as far as it ever will:  he smelled a fart, said "Poop" and laughed, then repeated it for everyone.

But his sisters do influence him.  He occasionally brings hair clips, tiaras or girly hats to get put on his head for dress up time.  And frequently he walks around the house in my shoes, purse and holding a baby doll calling himself "Mommy."

Cerise:

We started the school year with her actively refusing to learn letters... even with silly arts and crafts.  So I dropped it.  Part of homeschooling (even in the preschool years) for us is to teach the children what they want to learn/ are ready to learn when they are ready for it.  Well, so long ABC's for Cerise.  She has declared herself ready to read.  So we're starting with the Sam Early Readers (which we found we like more than any of the others... including Bob Books).  She can read Book 1... which tells a story with only the words "I see Sam."  

She's also taken to writing messages the same way Cairn does.  It goes something like this: "Mom how do you spell I love you?"  And then I dictate one word, one letter at a time, often stopping to describe the letter or show her what it looks like on a different sheet of paper.  Keep in mind though, she's new to this so the letters in a word are usually clumped together, but not in line usually and the words are almost never in the left to right succession.  Still, we're rather impressed by her.

Cairn:

She is a Daisy Girl Scout.  And it's cookie season.  And I"m the Troop Leader and Cookie Manager...  Which is to say she's making new friends (and experiencing the drama of intertwining friendships among girls) and I'm hoping I can regain my sanity in a week when all of the cookies are (hopefully) sold and the cookie money is (hopefully) deposited.

One of her goals for the school year was to learn how to tell time.  We encouraged her with this by promising her a watch when she could tell time on both out analog and digital clocks.  She got her watch last night.  So today I was told the time every few minutes.

A while ago Cairn got fed up with learning to read.  About the same time a friend loaned us some Bob Books and she practically got belligerent about it.  So we laid off reading for a while.  Then we came across Baron's Get Ready, Get Set, Read! Series at another friend's house.  She loved the few they had from the library.  So we went out on a limb and ordered the first set.  And she's in love with reading again!  If you catch her with one nearby she'll offer to read it for you.  I like them because they have cute, developed stories, nice colored illustrations and a combination of phonics and sight words.  Cairn is not a phonics learner.  She memorizes the story then learns the words as she reads it over and over and over again.  

Grant:

Do you really want to read about us adults?  He works all day.  I work all day.  We've become sort of boring and this post has become sort of long.  I'll fill you in on us later.

Etsy Later

First, a word from Cairn
cairn
Back to me now… (I know you can’t tell but that word took a good minute as she found each letter by herself)
So this post is all about what I want to do for my etsy shop… but first a quick explanation for why I can’t yet.  And here it is: Why I can’t jump up and make the items I want to right a way: $.  Did you catch that?  In case you didn’t, here it is again: $.  Still didn’t quite see?  I’ll make it bigger for you so you don’t need to put on your glasses:  $  Yeah… we’re a bit poor right now.  Everything I’m making now I have to do with supplies I already have, or ones that don’t cost much at all.  So I’ve got my eco-friendly rag bags and kid’s aprons and even a few number sorters by the time this posts (I only have a few more beads to sew on at this point), but these are only to start me out.
I want to grow into making more educational toys (number sorters, alphabet matching games, color sorters), toys that promote creative play (door frame puppet theater, personalized town mats), and party supplies (invites, decorations, favors and games to follow a theme all in one package).  I can see all of these being capable of growing with us.  I have a bazillion other ideas of things to make too… but I don’t think etsy would be the right place to sell them so I’ll just have to hold off making them.
Unfortunately I have to start somewhere less ideal and work my way up… it’s so hard to rein myself in!

Etsy now

So, for anyone who’s been thinking I do nothing but preschool, let me show you some of the stuff… products I have on my etsy shop.
But first, let me warn you that these are only placeholders/ starting objects and not representative of where I want to be… but that’s for the discussion after this brief show and tell (next post).
Children’s adjustable apron:

This is from random fabric that I had on hand… this particular one has cute lines of piggies splashing in mud.
There are three buttons at the neck strap to allow the apron to grow with the kids.



Rag Bags/ Hanging Storage Bags:
These are a simple creation I made first to hold all of our rags.  So, we don’t buy paper towels or napkins for our household.  Any and all messes are cleaned with rags (many of which are now recycled t-shirts).  It hangs on our oven door handle where even Cerise can reach in (yes even she is expected to clean up her own spills… with help)

The pattern started as a pear shaped pincushion that I exploded and added a handle to.  I think it only took three bad turns before I had a working model and now they’re really easy to sew together so I’m uber-satisfied with how it turned out.
I must say, when it’s hanging there it brings to mind a favorite muppet of mine with round eyes and a big gaping mouth ‘yip yip yip.’













And just to include one more picture that I like – here’s a shot to show the color scheme of one of the bags:

Utah…culture?

As beautiful as Utah is, I can’t live there for a very simple reason: I don’t like Mormons.  Or more accurately, I don’t like the culture that springs up when there are a lot of them crammed into a small place.  Individually they’re ok, like crickets or one man with a flaming torch and pitch fork, but together… strange things happen and the individuals become… dangerous.
I know that many in Utah will read the following and say “That’s just Salt Lake,” but please understand that to an outsider it’s all Salt Lake or has the huge potential of becoming it.

Driving back and forth we saw a lot of interesting billboards that seemed to show how Mormons can affect local culture.  I didn’t snap any photos of them and tried to find some online that are at least close enough, so here they are:

Cute… but evil twists on good ideals.

I included this last one because it’s part of a campaign to fight the most… wrong bill boards we saw ( a hot model next to the inscription ‘Make your inner beauty jealous.’ for laser treatments, A tattooed lady with a paper bag over her head ‘Pretend like it never happened’ for tattoo removal).  A few years ago there was a study that found Salt Lake to be the most vain in the US determined by the number of plastic surgeries and surgeons per population.

Any ways, back to me (because this is all about me and my reasons to not live there, remember?).  A logical person might respond to my decision to stay away with arguments of it being in only some areas, or there being a lot of good people there, or it shouldn’t be a problem for me.  And I can agree with the first two… but that third one is the sticker.

I, like many others I know, have the bad habit of comparing my perceived weaknesses with others’ strengths, and judging (tsk tsk on me) others by the standards I think they should measure up to.  Away from the masses of Mormons I’m able to give a lot of credit to a lot of people and the judging is easier for me to keep in check.  Away from the masses I compare myself less.  Don’t read that there aren’t perfect people for me to feel little next to!  I get to know the people that seem so perfect and instead of becoming unreachable the are my friends and examples.

The Cost of Dry

Over the summer I went to Texas to visit my family.  We were there for three weeks.  Grant was in and out but primarily not living at home as he finished his internship in Florence.  We looked forward to a low electric bill… and didn’t get it.  I asked… accused Grant of leaving something on while he was gone and he denied anything.  So whatever, we paid the bill that was about $15 more than usual and $20 more than last year.
Fast forward to last month.  I’ve been digging through my fabric, organizing, and prewashing much of it to prep it for making things for my (soon to have things posted… as soon as I photograph them) Etsy shop.  To push everything through I went ahead and dried it all in the dryer instead of our little collapsing rack in the hallway.  It was about 3 loads all together.  It’s been cooling down so we’ve been turning the swamp cooler off and just have fans on (by cooling off I mean its mid 90’s in the day and drops to the high 70’s at night).  There was nothing new or unusual about the dryer running…  And we saw the same pattern: the bill was just under $10 more than the prior month and just over $15 more than last year. 
I now feel great for taking the extra time to hang my laundry!  If I’m saving our family $20 a month… probably more since we go through a lot more than three loads a month with the cloth diapers alone, then its worth every second of it and I hope we stay in a dry climate so I can continue.

Etsy Bitsy Carrie

I've been plowing ahead preparing to open my own etsy shop.  Since I can't get much work done with the girls... or Grant around I'm going to bed a bit earlier to wake up and work.

I've been altering templates and patterns to make my own patterns for storage bags.  Ours hangs over the oven handle and holds all of our rags (that we use in lieu of paper towels... in other words for every mess conceivable!), but it can also hang from a knob or handle.  My un-pretty prototypes will end out holding stuff in our rooms as a bit of unobtrusive storage in our itty apartment.

Another project in the works is improving on the bean bag tic tac toe that a lot of friends and family got for Christmas last year.  I'm sorry.  It's a lot cuter now...

I've also had to pull out all of my fabric I've acquired and wash (some had been given me from a smoking household, others hadn't been pre-washed), iron, fold, organize... I spent every spare minute yesterday ironing and I still have a large pile.  But wow! I didn't realize all of what I had... And most of it is usable for the projects I have planned.  When I got most of this I thought "I'm not likely to use this, but it may come in handy one day."  What a blessing!

Well, one aspect of selling things online is photography.  I'm definitely not so awesome at this.  So I pulled out all of these clips I made with the idea of gifting/ selling when the opportunity arose.  I spent yesterday morning taking a hundred pictures (an inconceivably large amount for me) of these flower clips in as creative and descriptive ways as I could think of.  Then this morning was editing and deleting...and deleting until I have what I consider a presentable lot.

I'm so excited!  As soon as I have actual working perfect patterns made for a few of my products I'll actually open the shop... I can't wait!  That way I know I can crank out a few things regularly while I develop more.

Drowning in my Thoughts

I sat down to write about Cairn's preschool, but I just don't know where to start.  That and my mind has just been swimming with all sorts of other things.

Like trying to license and sell my princess manners game that I developed last year to help with Cairn and Rebekah.  That game turned out to be Cairn's favorite of all the games we have, and everyone who's play tested it has enjoyed it too!  Now I'd really like to get it out.  Well, you can't just approach game companies with great toys and games.  You have to come with professional recommendations.  And it costs money to get game brokers to evaluate your game... and then they get a cut of your profits.  There is another way around that.  To get an already successful game creator to sponsor your game (or tell you its horrible and convince you to drop the idea altogether).  This will give you discounts with their agent or they potentially have the power to go directly to the game makers.  We have a friend of a friend who professionally invents games, such as Gold Mine.  (Which is really fun and you should all go buy it after reading my rambling post)  Our friends said they'd get me in contact with their friends and then life happened.... you know: a wedding, a trip to Texas, Grant's school starting, Cairn's school starting, their school starting, baptisms....  And we've only seen each other coming and going or kid swapping for baby sitting so we can go and come some more.

Or like another game I've been working on that follows the Wheel of Time books.  Well, its a long and complex series and it's hard to prevent the game from becoming too long and complex.  So I've been trying to work out the kinks and get it to play smoothly.  Unfortunately I have no idea how it ends...  The series isn't complete yet and I don't know how to defeat the Dark One and reseal him into his prison!  Do you know how difficult it is to work on a game that doesn't know how to win?!  As it stands now my game is a weird compilation of Arkham Horror, Shadows over Camelot and the ever classic Risk. 

Another item on my mind is work for Grant.  The Strattons are moving to Utah next week.  For good.  I know they tried to move away to California and it didn't last, but this time it will because Patti won't let it not. Well that leaves us a major metropolitan area away from my mom's family in Phoenix but otherwise a two day drive away from family.  As much as we love Tucson, that's not ideal.  The Law School has lead Grant to some out of state internships to apply to, but not many.  Why would Texans come to an Arizona school to recruit new lawyers when they have nine law schools in their own territory?  So if we want to live anywhere but Arizona we need to do most of the leg work.  And the we does include me since Grant in trying to not overbook himself again did. I've been giving myself a quick course in legal job searches (if any one has any leads for jobs in Texas or Utah (though it's my last choice of places to live) or any of the states in between please let us know!).  Grant is interested in any sort of law and is willing to study for any Bar... but only one...

Oh and then there's the idea that I've been playing with of starting an Etsy shop. This would mean actually making all of the things that I've been thinking of instead of just thinking about it.  I have most of the materials and time that I would need to start... but... That's where I always stop is the but.  Really the only 'but' I have is a slight fear that I'd got through the effort of starting and making and not succeed, or that I would only sell enough to break even and we don't have the money for me to fail.   Today I read one of my companion's posts and she wrote this:

    

A great friend told me tonight that if fear and money are the only two things

standing between us and a goal, that we shouldn't let them hold us back 

because we will almost always regret it. I feel like there 

are many instances of this in my life. 

And that made my mind twinge with guilt.  So for the time being I'm full go on preparing to open my own shop.... regardless of my 'buts.'

Now, I think that's enough swimming for now.  If I keep going around much more in my thoughts we'll likely all drown in them.