Running Stitch

Well, I think the little guys’ fever finally broke around 1pm last night. He seemed to get cooler and he fell asleep (thank you!) and slept till about 6:30 this morning. Of course before that he threw up all over are bed, and cried miserably from about 10 to 11:30. Poor Mr. Moo.

In running news, I ran 3.5 this morning (stumbled is a more accurate report of my form) because I’ve started to FREAKING PANIC about my half is T-minus nine days. I’ve been sick for two weeks, and now I have got to run me eleven miles Sunday. Without, hurling or succumbing to diarrhea. Non-running diarrhea. TMI? No problem, anytime.

Holy Kitty Cats Batman! I finished the Month of Softies, three hours under the wire.

Let’s not tell the world that the bottom of that tree is stuffed with socks because we ran out of stuffing…..oops.

When I was young, I loved to climb trees. High in the Sky apple pie trees. Up, up and away from my younger siblings. I’d take the book of the moment, most often a Nancy Drew mystery, to the highest spot and read out of the reach of grubby little fingers.

Sometimes I would just lounge in the tree listening to the wind blow through the leaves, is there anything more relaxing?

I’m represented here by the monkey, she needs a little work, but then I thought that was perfect, because we all need a little work, and after all it was more about the tree for me.

The tree is a little whimsical, but then, so are my childhood memories. I used the template I made for this tree, and I really like the effect. Someone, might be getting this as a birthday present, it might not be a surprise if she is reading this!

Well Pukefest ’05 appears to be over. Poor Mr. Moo has spent most of the day staring blankly at Baby Einstein, or holding on to my leg “mama mama mama mamamamamamamamama”. He has eaten probably two whole piece of toast in the last twenty four hours.

There were some rough hours yesterday where I thought I was going to hurl as well. I’m pretty excited to have spent two of the last three weeks of my half marathon training, sick. After Mr. Moo’s next nap we are going for a walk, because I feel able to handle a walk. And Jonah die of forgotten dog disease, if we don’t go for one.

So not much happening here besides holding babies and thinking about quilts. Hopefully I’ll get to check in with more of my Blog list later today and post my entry for Month of Softies, which believe it or not, I’m done, with a day to spare. Except I’m not really done because I ran out of stuffing…so off to Joann’s when I drop off Pixie tonight.

More news from my Stitch in Time group Tuesday night. One of my fellow quilters showered me with goodies, including this doll.

I have taken about 14 hundredpictures of this doll (seriously) but she is so bright that she always has a glare. I even tried scanning her, but then she REALLYlooked weird. Anyway isn’t this a cute doll? I do not know what I did that was so deserving of all these gift, but I’m loving it!

Quilter Friend also gave me this great Block of the Month series! I’m so excited. Each of these blocks can be finished individually or sewn together in one quilt, and each pattern comes with the full Nursery Rhyme.

Humpty Dumpty is the February block, the next Mad Quilters BOM starts in July, and I think this would make a great quilt or wall hanging and you can pick and choose which blocks you want to use. This pattern is designed by Sarah Sporrer and it is all hand appliqués and embellishment. It’s “rough” appliqué, which means you don’t turn the edges under, you straight stitch around the design creating a more rustic look.

It is always nice to have these things planned out ahead of time, although it may be a challenge for the Mad Quilters, as many of us haven’t done much applique. We’ll see how it goes.

Here are the rest of the rhymes for the months.
January-Northwind doth blow
February-Humpty Dumpty
March- Baa baa Black sheep
April-Rain Rain Go Away
May -Mary Contrary
June-Hickety Pickety my Black Hen
July-Yankee Doodle
August-Bobby Shafto’s gone to Sea
September-Peter Pumpkin Eater
October-Hickory Dickory Dock
November-Blackbirds Pie
December-Christmas is coming (the goose is getting fat!)

This just in, right as I finished this post. Mr. Moo threw up SPECTACULARLY all over. After a call to the pediatrician I’ve got him bathed, drinking apple juice and you guesseder chester, watching baby Einstein. poor little guy.

Frac keeps watch
*****Original Post****

Mr. Moo and I slept in until 8:15 this morning, our whirlwind of activity over the past few days finally caught up with us. It was everything I thought it could be.

The woodstove is fixed, we have heat again. Life is good.

Speaking of good, Quilt group last night was Great! The Stitch in Time group have been together for about twenty years and they are hilarious. Last night’s project was ‘self portraits’. We were told to bring five contrasting fabrics and scissors to cut fusible with (you don’t want to get that stuff on your good scissors).

We started out by drawing a self portrait on paper, and then we traced it on to fiv different pieces of fusible. There was quite a bit of moaning about this part, because as I pointed out, I am traditional quilter because you use squares and triangles and I can’t draw. As the leader pointed it out “we’re thinking outside the box” . I am always amazed how different people are, and at how I never have my camera with me when I need it. The self portraits were amazing, creative and beautiful. I wish I had more than mine to show you.

The next step was to iron the fusible to the fabric, then you cut out each piece, hair, neck, face, background, shoulders. Then you moved them around so that you had one of each color together in a square.

Very Andy Warhol. But very easy. In fact several of us thought it would be a good kid project. This is what mine looked like in about an hour, the idea is to go home and embellish them with faces and satin stitch around the edges to keep the fusible in place.

Since we each made five, and four is a logical wall hanging. I suggested that we all put our extra self portrait together in a Stitch in Time Quilt “guess who” quilt to display at our local guilds Quilt Show that is held every two years. The group thought it was a great idea, and guess who is in charge…yeah, can’t keep my mouth shut ever…can I?

Lots more news from Stitch in Time group, but I’ve got puke to clean up, so it will have to wait.

Which is the number of miles I was supposed to run today, but not the actual number (3.5) These are my new favorite peeps. Not only do they taste a little like chocolate, they are super fresh. Maybe we should pack more things in chocolate to keep them fresh. Maybe I have found my niche! My idea! The one that will make me millions! Chocolate sandwich bags, Chocolate Tupperware! It could work. Maybe. In the artic.

Minor catastrophe at our house. Upon arriving home from our multi-dog walk I found that the house was full of smoke. “Yahoo!” I thought to myself “our house in on fire! We can rebuild! (if I’m quoted in a legal document than I never said that!)” But no such luck. Our house was not on fire.

Upon further inspection I found that instead our woodstove’s stovepipe was leaking …smoke. This is nice because the Woodstove is the only source of heat we have, and it is WET WET WET here, rain predicted for the rest of the week. And it is cold.

Great! I love a challenge bring it on! So, I called Woodstove Installers of choice, and surmised the situation was a) something is in the stovepipe *ewwwww* or b) we burned wet wood and there is a creosote build up. I did not suggest c) you guys installed it wrong. Because it is cold, and the woodstove is cooling down, and I’m not sure that the warm smokyhouse is worth it, oh, and I want them to get out here and fix it!

Plus secretly I’m petrified that Mr. Moo will die of smoke inhalation in his crib. I yi yi yi! (in fact I’m just going to take this opportunity to run upstairs and make sure he is breathing…and maybe open a window~okay I’m back, he’s fine. His little nose is pushed into his bumper so that if he suffocates it is his fault not mine! *phew* JUST KIDDING! I opened a window just in case). So the Woodstove Installers of choice can come out tomorrow, if it’s not raining.

I guess I’ll just put extra clothes on Mr. Moo and we’ll rough it. And if that gets bad, we can always go to Grandma’s.

Of course we have a metal roof. Which is three stories off the ground. So no one every wants to come fix our roof or do anything that involves being on our roof (like cleaning out the stovepipe) because wet, metal roof seems synonymous with really, fast, fall to certain death. So The Man and I are thinking, next roof, metal? Not so much.

Did I mention that it was raining, supposed to rain all week. And it is chilly. And our Woodstove is broken. Yeah. Woohoo.

I’m going to go drown my misery in working on my Month of Softies entry. Why bother you say? Because I STILL HAVE THREE DAYS DAG NABBIT! THAT’S WHY!!

Let’s end on a positive note though. Today I am wearing jeans I haven’t been able to sit down in (because yes I’ve pulled them over my rear just so I could say I could get into them, and snap them) since before Mr. Moo’s arrival. Ahhhhh.

And the sun just came out…..

Training log, week of:March 21st-27th
Monday – five miles
Tuesday- sick
Wednesday -sick
Thursday-sick
Friday -lazy
Saturday-eight miles
Sunday -stretch and strength

total mileage 14miles

When I awoke this morning the rain was so loud on the tin roof that I thought we must be in the path of an oncoming freighter. When I looked out the windows I wondered how the rain could make that much noise since it was raining sideways and the great Northwest Pines, were bowing so low they look like they were trying to dust off their feet. And I thought to myself “self, nine miles this morning, I don’t think so”.

So I had some breakfast and a soda and took the advice of the Rains Gods and quilted instead. Around noon the weather had calmed down to a constant drizzle, minus the wind and the runner in me, got the better of the quilter. I arranged for Ama and Poppa to watch the little shnooker for me. Because the mother in me outvoted the runner on taking the tyke on a cold, wet nine miler.

The Weather gods were cruel and around the seven mile mark I was running in concrete boots and I was beat. Lucky for me Ama and Poppa came looking for me, (I had estimated my nine miler to take me 1:45ish, since my eight miler took me 1:32 do you think it was the soda?) and I jumped in the truck because I was done. Done, Done, put a fork in me done.

Only eight miles and in 1:37 (five minutes longer than last 8 miler) I couldn’t get below eleven minute miles and around mile five I slumped into 13 minute miles. I have to admit though that some recent posts kept me going, include this one from Diana.

So I’d like to give a big shout out to my Running Blog Family. You rock. And in reality I’m pretty happy with today because I haven’t run since Monday. Only two weeks till the Whidbye Half!

Today’s run made me think of a very rainy day in Hawaii a few years back and very wet wait at the bus stop.
Here is a picture of Mad Quilter Mel. (on the left, I’m in the middle, nice huh?)It is my most favorite picture of mel (that can be posted on the internet). Here we are on a bus in Hawaii (1/03) with a very strange man. He liked us because we were singing show tunes. Well, I was singing show tunes, mostly to keep from having to talk to him or give him money. This bus ride went on and on and on. Their was a lot of singing. It was a very. Long. Ride.

Look how supportive Mel is of this plan! Uh. Yeah.

Mel lives in Chicago, it is very sad because we miss her very much at our quilting bees, and when I say we, I mean my sister misses her very much. She was always there to keep me in line. SOME BODY HAS TOO! I’ve been know to demote my sister to baking cookies because her stitches were crooked or dump her underwear out in the foyer to help her repack it RIGHT! Okay, these maybe extreme instances but it is important to give Mel full credit as someone who can tactfully re-direct me into the proper place. “Brit, back away from the suitcase”

Some days, I could really use Mel. And I miss her all days.

Lazy Daze –this mini vacation from running is really nice. I’ve been sleeping in until 7:30 (unheard of on training days) The baby is going down around 7:30-8pm and sleeping all night. We are a well rested bunch here! Maybe too well rested. I think I better get out and run today, I’m thinking four miler, although my throat is still scratchy, but we have to do something befoe jumping into a nine miler this weekend!

So with The Man out of the picture away there is a dilemma. What to eat. His parents are away too, so they won’t feed me. I have a confession: I can’t cook (shhhhhh!) Okay, I can cook, I just don’t like too. Well it’s not that I don’t like too. But it scares me. The man always says that left to my own devices I would just eat popcorn and bread.

Okay that may be true.

The daily phone call or email home from The Man entitled “what’s for dinner” has been known to send me into a tailspin. What does he mean? Does he mean “why can’ t you be more like my mom (or dad) and cook dinner for me? “ does he mean “*sigh* have you even thought about what we are eating for dinner or do I have to subsist on beer and cheerios, AGAIN?” or does he mean “Should I even bother asking or should I just go to the drive through on my way home.” Usually of course he means, “what’s for dinner?”.

He (and his mom) are pretty good with the subtle hints though ( I think I’ve gotten a cook book for every single holiday for the last seven years. Some of which I’ve opened. (that’s how I know who they’re from, my mother-in-law always writes endearing messages in the front of every book she gives, she’s a librarian…what can you do?) But I digress, Again…..weird.

Last night, as I sat looking at Mr. Moo realizing that we could not eat popcorn for the next four nights, I had an epiphany…I would cook! And I would not be afraid! And I would probably feel pretty good about it.

So I made chicken ala king on freshly baked bread (I can do somethings without fear)for me, and oatmeal for The Buddy. He ate all of his oatmeal and half of my chicken ala king. It was amazing. It was fantastic. It was. Dinner.

Too bad The Man missed it. It could happen again. Probably.

So my Mail carrier just honked at me. Not in that “hey sexxxxxyy laaaady way either. (which would have been totally inappropriate, but I would have understood..because Hey, I’m hot.)

But rather in that, I’m fat, and lazy and you have more than two (it’s actually 23) steps in front of your house and if you want your package you better come down and get it, way.

What happen to the hot, mail carriers that walk around town and are in shape and have a waist? Those guys can go ahead and honk at me….cuz you know. I’m hot.

Raise your hand if you think my mail carrier may suck. Just a little.

And yes, I went down (and back up) the 23 steps to retrieve Mr. Moo’s Easter gift from Uncle Frito. Because a Moo Mom had got to do, for her little Moo.

p.s. I am not a cow. I’m hot!

So why am I not in Seattle? Because last night in our flurry to pack we suddenly remembered the three dogs, four cats, multiple dustbunnies< and various fish that we are responsible for. Uh, yeah. We can’t both leave for four days without someone to feed the animals. (DOH!)

So I’m still home, which is fine, because frankly last night all I wanted to do was cry and watch movies in bed. Which worked out because that was all Mr. Moo wanted to do to. We were both in bed by 8pm and were probably asleep soon after. I woke up around 7am to a baby serenade, *warble warble warble*. And believe it or not I feel 80% cured! And by the screaming and the clear colored snot (green snot bad/clear snot better) that is now leaking from the baby’s nose he feels better too.

And, Look what I finished yesterday! The top of the Polarbear quilt, and with only two weeks to quilt it. It could totally happen. Really.

I struggled deciding whether or not to put another border on this quilt. I’m not super happy with how it turned out but I am super happy that it is done. The interesting thing about project I think is that sometimes you have it in your mind how they are going to look and they just don’t turn out that way. This is one of those, but I’m happy because today while Mr. Moo is napping (please, Great Quilting Deity, let him take another three hour nap today) I will be quilting.

Although after that great gift box from Sunni yesterday I have a million ideas floating around in my head, including my Month of Softies entry, (hello end of the month again! How does that happen?)

Okay, off to feed the Menagerie. Happy snot free, head clear day!

I know it will come as a shock to many of you (not) but I haven’t mailed my Easter Cards yet. *hangs head in shame* It’s true. All those relatives who haven’t gotten birthday gift thank yous yet, aren’t getting Easter Cards on time either. Uh, yeah. Bad Mommy Award…I know, I know

But when we took Daddy his lunch today we stopped by the post office and look what the post office brought us from Sunni!

This box of delectable goodies and a cute basket and Yahoo a felt bunny! Hurray for felt bunnies! Doesn’t Sunni do marvelous work? Not pictured here is the coconut chocolate egg I inhaled (every cold needs some chocolate) moments after opening the box. Sunni also sent me some very crafty notecards, perfect for aforementioned thank you notes yet to be written! Good thinking, now I’m inspired to sit down and get some of those thank yous done!

And finally this little guy, who I didn’t notice as first (see in the original picture he is tucked on the left hand side there yeah, duh Brittany, I just reread this post…I mean the right hand side *rolls eyes at self*).

It’s a Giraffe! Thanks Sunni!