I'm excited, this only took me 2 hours to do. It helped that I knew what I was doing and I set up a good routine of going upstairs to iron, then sewing everything that needed to be ironed, then going upstairs to iron then... well you get the idea. I can always set up the iron downstairs but here's the bottom line. If I burn the carpet upstairs, I'm the only one that knows about it.
Here is the second general square:
The measurements are still a little off but it's better. By the time I get to square #8 it should be just about perfect! right?! RIGHT?!
Here is a close up of the fabrics. I think they look awesome. This is also the other khaki color I am alternating with. The greens will be different for every square but I'm only alternating between the two khaki colors.
Since it only took me about two hours to do this one, I figure I can do one a day and be done by next week! Then I can get to the hard stuff! I'll keep you guys updated!
I realize it's been a month since my last post again, but in my defense, I'm a bad blogger. Wait... that's not what I meant to say.
So, for the last few weeks, this has been me:
I'm trying to design a quilt for my mom for Christmas. I don't think my dad reads this anymore so I think this is safe space to post this. I got done with my first square yesterday. The measurements are a little off but this is my first patchwork quilt so if it is great, then the stars have aligned but if not, then it will still be okay. I made a few calls to my friend Karen about fabric choices and measuring tips and inthe end, this is my first square: And here is a close up look at the fabric:
Like I said, the measurements ended up just a little off but it looks pretty good. I'll be switching out the tan pieces with another tan based fabric I chose and the greens will be switched out. The four corners of the quilt will have pictures of the children (there are 4 of us) with their families in the center portion of the square and the middle will have a picture of my parents together. I'll be finishing it off with a tree applique and leaves branching out between the families. It's gonna look awesome if I can just pull it off. I'm doing well considering school is pretty light this quarter and I don't think I'm going to have any issues finishing it, I'm just not sure how I want to display it. I'm thinking a frame but I can always loop it at the top and hang it instead. Not sure yet.
Monday - go to dentist for check up at 10am. Leave with 4 implanted antibiotics, a jar of prescription mouth rinse and a root canal. Tuesday - entire city is under water. literally. below is a picture of six flags from satellite. the estimated total loss is 12 billion dollars.
Wednesday - lay around the house all day in immense pain, praying for the day to come and go quickly. Thursday - get the call about Gramma passing around 7am. Realize after intense pain episode, that I shouldn't be in this much pain and decide to call doctor in the morning. Friday - go back into dentist to have root canal redone. Saturday - leave for Montgomery Sunday - viewing Monday - funeral Tuesday - start school.
I'm so sorry I haven't been able to post lately. Even now, it's 12:30am and I sooo should be sleeping. I am tired, but I've been studying for hours and so my mind is still racing and I'm not sure sleep will find me. I've had great dreams of reporting the going-ons about us, the caterpillars eating our trees, our trip to destin, and I extensively pre-wrote (in my head) an awesome bit about my wonderful husband whom I never give enough credit that I had planned on posting on his birthday. But his birthday has come and gone and I'm still drowning. I took one of my two finals today. I needed an 84 to maintain my A in the class. I got an 83.33. I couldn't have been more dissapointed and frustrated. That gives me an 89.92 in the class and I hope to God 8 hundredths of a point doesn't keep me from my 4.0 gpa that I have been working so hard for. But you know what? I can't change it now. If the instructor rounds up, great. If not, I can't worry about it. An 89 is still a really good grade in a really difficult class that I took online while trying to be a full time mom with a full time house to keep up.
Anyway, I have one more test tomorrow morning. In that class, I have a 97, so to be honest I just have to pass the darn test and I will maintain my A. Right now, I'm not even sure I can do that. But after I take AJ to his first day of school tomorrow, I'm just going to buckle down and study for a few hours and then I will take the test before I go pick him up.
Keep your fingers crossed or lift up some prayers for me today if you think about it. I'll let you guys know how it goes.
Ok so I have to say that I had the BEST birthday!! It was awesome! Dennis got up at the usual 7am with Anakin and took him downstairs so I could get that much appreciated one more hour of sleep. Then I took an inexcusably long shower. I did homework and got 100 on the subsequent quiz, ate lunch with one of my best buds and her kids (who are Anakin's best buds) and then Dennis came home at 3 so I could go get a pedicure. On the way I stopped by Target and bought myself two pairs of running shorts for $10 each (rock on!) and two long-sleeve t's each $2.50 each (double rock on!). Then I had the most amazing pedicure and shoulder massage EVA! It was pure pure pure bliss.
Wednesday night we had to go to a class so we didn't get to do a dinner celebration but instead I asked a few friends and our "family" here in town to meet at Johnny's Pizza for Thursday night trivia night with Kelly from Bustin Heads. Here's the thing--Kelly is hilarious. He makes it so fun. And even though I consider Trivia a make-you-feel-stupid game, we had a blast. The stars aligned AGAIN and the last question happened to be something we knew and no one else did. So we ended up winning the whole thing! This is awesome because there are regulars that do Kelly's trivia every week and so it's hard to even place at these things. We kind of just got lucky. But, to spend our winnings, we will be heading over to Johnny's again this Thursday. And who knows, maybe we'll take em again since my mom will be with us!!
My future postings will include: spider man reward chart for Anakin (I need a new approach) and the caterpillars eating my front yard... yes the whole yard.
Hello, Everyone. This is Rachael. Rachael the Volcano.
Per Wikipedia: A volcano is an opening, or rupture, in a planet's surface* or crust, which allows hot magma**, ash and gases to escape from below the surface.*** *planet = me **hot magma = me screaming and crying like that of a young, immature child ***below the surface = where I bottle all my emotions till one small thing can make my entire being rupture.
I had a break down yesterday. A full-on embarrassed-other-people-were-in-the-car break down. And by other people I mean poor Danielle and Anakin. Because I more or less took it out on my poor baby because he would not stop crying and not stop screaming and not stop arguing with me over nothing and at that moment I just couldn't take it anymore. I made Dennis pull over on the side of the road and let me out. I was totally okay with walking the 1.5 miles home if it meant a little peace and quiet for more than two minutes. But when Dennis got home with Anakin, he sent Danielle to come get me and after a moment of pride, I eventually got in her car. I mean, it was hot outside. And I was wearing a skirt. And flip flops. And I'm stupid and shouldn't have been walking anyway. So yeah, I got in the car.
How do you describe this feeling? It feels like drowning. I used to hear people say that and I would just think they were being overly dramatic. And that was a selfish, naive perspective. That's a perspective you have when the most difficult decision you make in a day is where to eat lunch. I had no idea what it meant in life to have so much expected of you by so many people and to think in one moment -- in one single moment -- I. can't. do. this. Your chest is tight and your head is spinning and you're gasping for air. You feel the walls around you closing in and each task that seems impossible is hanging like a yolk on the napes of your shoulders, tearing in on the skin and you hold your hands up desperately to break through the darkness that is eminently falling all around you. You are drowning. And in that moment, that moment when you know you can't possibly take one more thing, you hear this faint voice, somewhere outside the chaos ask "Hey sweetie, what's for dinner?" And any strength you had that was holding anything together dies. Your fear and struggle and little-bit-of-courage turns into fury and anger and horror. You slash at everything around you, making you sink only deeper into the water till the darkness takes over and you can't do anything but let it sink in. When you finally come to, everything is broken. Now instead of holding things together, you're picking up the pieces.
Maybe it's not that bad. But that's how it feels. I'd like to say when it's over I feel better. Like a shooken-up bottle of soda that finally gets the release it so desperately needs. Sure, now there's soda fizz all over the floor but I bet that darn bottle feels like it just got a huge load off it's shoulders. But the truth is, when it's all over, I just feel defeated. Like this stupid world got the best of me. That the pressure of being a mom and student and wife (and a good one of all of those things all at the same time) beat me out today. I feel like a failure. I feel like I just ran in a race I didn't even finish. I guess breaking down, to me, feels like giving up.
So today, a little bruised, and still with the sour taste of disgust in the back of my throat, I'm picking up the pieces and trying to start again.
For those of you that read regularly, this is what happens when I actually talk about how I'm feeling. Usually when I feel like writing crap like this, I don't write at all. But today I did. So it's out there now.
It's been almost a month so it's time I posted something. We're coming up on the end of the quarter at school and I'm holding weakly onto a 4.0. I'm not sure it's going to make it through finals but gash darnit I'm gonna give it my all. My Anatomy & Physiology grade is creeping lower and lower but I'm just going to keep plugging away and hope I can save it from B-dom.
I whole heartedly don't have anything else to post about at the moment. School has been an all consuming beast that has taken over every moment of my life whether it be free or otherwise. So, I'll hit you guys up again soon.
