C25K

I got a new app for my phone last week:  C25K Pro.  It was the free paid app of the day in the Amazon Android app store, which by the way I love for providing me with several great apps that I wouldn't have tried if I'd had to pay for them.  The app follows the couch to 5K training program and promises me that if I follow it I'll be running a 5K in 9 weeks.  After a major struggle with my willpower yesterday morning I got out of bed and did the first workout.  It didn't seem too intimidating at the beginning - a 20 minute workout alternating 60 seconds of jogging with 90 seconds of walking.  How hard can that be?  Of course if I'd done the math I would have realized the 20 minutes didn't include the 5 minute warm up or the 5 minute cool down.  Not that it would have been a deal breaker but I should have been more mentally prepared for 30 minutes of physical activity.

I think it went pretty well for a first workout.  My running shoes are a little old and worn out, and so are my legs.  I was walking/running laps around my gravel driveway which probably isn't the best idea but if I have to drive somewhere to work out then I won't do it.  I was a little sore and tired at the end but that was to be expected.

Today is my day off between workouts.  That's a good thing, because I can barely walk.  I'm kind of curious to see how tomorrow morning will go.  I'll be battling my willpower AND my sore legs.  I think I'll need the additional motivation of my sister-in-law's wellness program (http://icanchangeclub.blogspot.com/).  Thank you Katrina for giving my that extra little push!

September Skirt

Who thought I wouldn't get a skirt done this month?  Besides me?  Honestly this whole skirt project is not as fun as I thought it would be, probably because most months I procrastinate and have to cram the whole project in at the end of the month.  I even took the whole summer off so I shouldn't be complaining now.  Even though it's been challenging at times I'm still working on ideas for next year's projects.  (Hint:  I probably won't be making skirts.)  Here's what 2 hours of effort got me on the last day of the month:

No I didn't make the shirt, only the skirt, but the skirt looked really boring without it.  It actually is kind of boring - dark gray knit with an elastic waist - but I needed something fast (since it's the 30th and all) and something that will pack well and be comfortable to wear all day.

Just for the sake of giving out too much information I'll tell you that the mirror behind the dress form is angled not so you can see the back of the skirt, because obviously you can't, but so my disaster of a sewing room is not reflected in the mirror.  I took some "before" pictures of the room a couple weeks ago which I planned on posting, thinking that would shame me into cleaning things up a little.  It was pretty bad though, so maybe I'll post some pictures after it's all clean and pretty.  Don't hold your breath waiting for that to happen!

How much do I love my daughter?

I love her enough to make this for her:

 

Ashley picked out the pattern and fabric. My "only" job was to put it all together. That didn't sound too hard a couple months ago. And it wouldn't have been if the wool fabric weren't so think and bulky, and if there had been a lining pattern, and if the girl at the fabric store hadn't given me the wrong interfacing, and if I hadn't had to come up with something to line the collar with that wouldn't make Ashley's neck itch. 

It all came together pretty well, considering the obstacles, until it was time for the buttons and buttonholes. The coat has 19 buttons. The fabric store doesn't stock more than eight at a time. It took me three trips to get all the buttons. But the worst was yet to come!

My sewing machine has a really nice automatic buttonhole function. I made a couple test buttonholes on a scrap of fabric and they looked awesome! Then I made one on the coat. Not even close to awesome. I ripped it out and made another one. Now ripping out buttonholes is not fun to say the least. It probably took about 15 minutes to take out all those tiny little stitches. Things really went downhill from there. I won't go into great agonizing detail, but in order to get 8 less-than-awesome-but-better-than-hideous buttonholes I ended up ripping out at least 8 unusable ones. There was a point when I actually considered having the coat held shut only with the belt.

This morning I sewed the last button on the last sleeve. It's finished. Parts of the process were even fun. I got to use my handy-dandy new buttonhole cutter (which is really just a sharp chisel). I learned some new things, like if you're going to use an awl to pull the staples connecting the buttons to the card they come on, you should keep your fingers out of the way; and those clear bandaids that come in the variety pack from Costco are waterproof and use some sort of superglue-type adhesive; and it's not a good idea to use rubbing alcohol to try to get that adhesive off your finger when you have an open wound.

I have never been so glad to finish a project. Now with only a couple days left in September I need to start working on a skirt.

Ticket to Ride

For anyone who has not played "Ticket to Ride" it's a really fun board game where you have to get your train from one city to another.  Sometimes the way you want to go is blocked and you have to find another route.  Sometimes the long detours turn out for the best because you get more points or because they include another route you need.  Sometimes you just can't find the cards you need to progress and the whole things seems hopeless.  I don't really want to explain the details of the whole game, I only want to say it's very appropriate that I learned how to play the game this month when I already had trains on my mind.

For about the past year I've envisioned my life as a train going full speed down a track toward a cliff, the cliff being the time when my kids leave for college.  I couldn't turn away because of course the train was stuck on the track.  (And I don't think a derailment would be good under any circumstances!)  The faster the end of August approached, the closer I got to the cliff.  I wasn't scared, but I was curious about how the whole scene would play out.  Would I suddenly have a parachute and drift safely to the bottom of the mountain?  Would the train sprout wings and take off into the sky?  Well the cliff came and went, and I'm still here.  It turns out there was a sharp corner and switchbacks along the side of the mountain, and I'm still going full speed, not sure where I'm headed next but enjoying the ride.

Ok, time to turn off my weird imagination.  Really, my life hasn't changed that much in the last couple weeks.  Sure, the house is a little quieter and I have to buy fewer groceries and do fewer loads of laundry, but I'm still so busy that I often feel overwhelmed with all I have to do.  I keep close enough tabs on my kids to know they're doing well.  I keep making lists of things I want to do whenever I have some free time.  I'm still trying to figure out what I want to be now that I'm technically not a full-time mom, but mostly I'm busy thinking about the paperwork piled on my desk, the floor that needs mopped, the emails I have to send and the bills I have to pay.  I don't have much time to worry about the future, I just need to take care of today.

The Last Road Trip

I guess this really wasn't the last road trip we'll ever take with our kids (I hope!) but it's the last one for quite awhile.  Unless you count the one next month when we load up the car with all their important belongings and then leave them (belongings and kids) behind at BYU.  I don't think that one counts. 

There is so much to see in California and I can't believe we haven't made more of an effort to see it all.  We decided to drive through the redwoods since we've never taken the kids there before.  As it turns out, all our kids really look forward to in the car is sleeping, listening to music, texting friends, and getting to wherever we're going.  So much for enjoying the journey!  

I was really excited to see this because I remember it from when my grandparents took me to California when I was young.  (Around 8 years old, maybe?)

The car really did fit through the tree but the picture is on my phone and I'm too lazy to transfer it to my computer.  Although if Google+ would play a little nicer with my blog I could get some other pictures on here.

After the Redwoods, we ate dinner at the Samoa Cookhouse in Eureka, spent the night in Crescent City, then drove to I-5 to continue our journey.  

Portland was great.  It was a little rainy, which surprisingly hardly ever happens when I'm there, but it was so nice to have cool wet weather in July.  We enjoyed the sales-tax-free shopping, and enjoyed even more the dinner with my brother and his girlfriend who we don't see often enough.

The next day we did more shopping in Portland, stopped at Multnomah falls, then drove to Pendleton to buy some wool fabric at the Pendleton Woolen Mills.  Ashley found some wool she liked and it was all on sale for $7 a yard so now I have tons of wool and a long list of projects.  At least I won't run out of things to sew any time soon!  If I get her coats done in the near future I'll post pictures.  Hopefully I can get at least one of them done before she leaves.  

Our next stop was Walla Walla.  We had a great time with my parents.  We went to the Sweet Onion Festival, saw Hairspray at the Fort Walla Walla Amphitheater, ate fresh raspberries to our hearts content, celebrated my grandma's birthday, and had the world's best milkshakes from the Ice Burg.  What more could you want from a vacation?  

The drive home was more direct and less eventful.  Our only side trip was to Voodoo Doughnuts in Eugene.  If you've ever craved donuts covered in cocoa puffs or grape tang, that's the place to go.  We came home to warmer weather, work, projects, lists, and the final countdown to college.  The kids have some fun things planned in the upcoming weeks but I think I just get to spend the time worrying about all the things I wish I'd taught them.

June Skirt

Just kidding, there's no skirt!  I decided a couple weeks ago not to do one this month but I haven't had time to explain why.  June has been a crazy busy month, pretty much like every other month.  There was graduation, then Dance Festival, then the Dance Festival cast party.  Not that I had a lot to do with any of these, but I had to worry about them because that's what I do.  The day of the cast party, when I was hours away from being able to relax a little, the camp director for our upcoming stake girls camp (as in 2 weeks away) had emergency back surgery.  She has an assistant, and I became kind of the assistant-assistant.  That was kind of stressful because I don't know a lot about organizing girls camp, but my plan was to spend a lot of time during our family vacation the next week making phone calls and sending emails to make sure everything was under control.  Oh what a family vacation that was!  Thirty one people, two beach houses, nine cases of stomach flu, limited cell service and no internet.  Not the best vacation I've ever had, but certainly one I'll never forget!  Now we're home and I have a week to get ready for camp as well as take care of some pressing work matters before I leave again.  I think I need about 4 of me to get everything done.

All that craziness is not why I didn't make a skirt, it's just why I didn't explain earlier.  The real reason is that my kids are leaving for college in two months and I want to enjoy every minute I have with them.  I'm going to take a "summer vacation", not from sewing but from self-imposed deadlines, so I can have the flexibility to do whatever I want this summer and enjoy this time to the fullest.

Graduation

Well it's official, both my kids graduated from high school on June 3.  I'm no longer a mother of school-age kids.  Some people have asked me how I feel about it, and that's really kind of like asking someone on their birthday how they feel about being a year older.  Today feels pretty much the same as yesterday, or last week, or last month.  The change has come gradually and it's not like their graduation was unexpected or anything.

I went to their school last week to pick up their diplomas.  Wouldn't you know they forgot to do it on the day they weren't working.  I guess it's the last time I'll respond to the request to drive to the school because they forgot their homework, lunch, diploma, etc.  I saw one of their teachers who said he'd miss seeing me around the school.  It actually didn't feel like my last time at the school.  It was a little startling to hear him say that.  Of course I've spent less time at the school as the kids have gotten older so I guess I never really thought about it.  The school and I didn't suddenly end our relationship, we've just gradually drifted apart.

The past 11 days since graduation haven't been that much different than the 11 days before that.  Graduation came and went, spring came, summer came, I've worked, I've played, I've laughed, I've cried.  There have been endings and beginnings, and there will be more.  Yesterday I read an article that expressed a lot of what I feel, not so much about graduation and my kids moving on, but about how life moves along and we change and grow through our experiences, never to be the same as we were the day before.  It's beautifully written and well worth the few minutes it takes to read. Warning:  grab a handful of tissues first.