Because

There are some very sweet and quiet moments... like when she's snuck his crib and crashed beside him.
But they have these moments when they're awake too. Their good morning greetings with hugs and kisses are precious.
This week I heard about someone expecting twins and I will admit to you there was a funny feeling in my heart. A longing, a jealousy, and an excitement for that young family. These two are a gift from God that, while no bigger or better than my 3 older singleton children, is unique in it's preciousness. There is something about two tiny little people interacting with each other and already calling each other "friend" that tugs at the heart strings.
I would wish the blessing of twins on 'most anyone!

Skirt #1

Here is the first skirt I made. As you can see, I feel oh so comfortable taking pictures of myself to share with you. I'm not sure what my hands are trying to do here....

This one was more time consuming, more of a challenge but a lot of fun to make. I made the mistake of not adding any interfacing or anything else to the waistband (which I did do to the other skirt on the lining and it made a huge difference) so my waistband did stretch as I sewed it. This is why the top of my skirt is no longer a smooth straight line. I had to take it in and the front seam was easier than the sides. Not too big a deal though, as I do have that seam there anyway. I will admit it took a while to convince my perfectionist self that it was okay...

I got from Krista, for my birthday, some spending money for a long sweater to wear over the skirt and so actually most of the skirt is covered when I wear it but the sweater is open up the front so the bands show.

I went back and added this picture for those who want to see a bit closer up what I did to the front.
I typed in how to install invisible zippers into google and was refreshed very quickly by way of an easy to follow video. It's not perfect (which of course was kind of important) but it sure went better than I remembered.
Now I'm trying to sew up some flannel jammies for Leah, Sam and Cam. They are not as great as the Oma's that sew them in my hometown but they are easy and I know the kids will wear them till they wear through the knees. Maybe I can take a picture when they're all done.

Getting back into sewing has made me so thankful for a couple of people. Most importantly, my Mom. She got me started early, brought me for lessons to Hamel's Fabrics when it was still on Mary St. and encouraged me to buy my Janome sewing maching when they went on sale after our class was through learning on them. She allowed for sewing messes in the middle of her already crowded kitchen, she let me try, make mistakes and then fixed them. She taught me the importance of sewing it good so that it would last a long time. She taught me to turn it inside out, try it on and pin it so I could go back, sew it some more and make it fit nice. She taught me the skill of making it work, figuring out the cutting of the barely enough fabric and the inventing your own way to get the look you wanted. It's why I was able to concoct the two skirts without a pattern. I'm sure I frustrated her MANY times (like interrupting her with some burning question or frustration as she tried to teach piano and organ lessons) but I can say honestly say I don't remember her being anything but encouraging.

A few months ago I finally sent a dress I made over 10 years ago to BFM. It was hard to get rid of. The fabric Mom helped me pick was gorgeous, the dress even though worn often over the years had no sign of wear, it fit so nicely. I hardly ever wore it any more because it felt like I really had owned it through too many style changes but I'm still not sure I did the right thing in getting rid of it. Leah would have loved to try it on some day, I'm sure! :)

The other person who influenced my sewing was MissVR, my home ec teacher. Too bad for me, I don't see her still being there by the time Leah gets to gr. 8. This dear lady has the patience of few other women I know. Can YOU imagine teaching 15 or 20 giggling girls at a time how to sew something presentable without going completely bonky? She's done year after year of it now and she probably deserves a big medal. I remember holes chopped into middle of fabric by careless serging, countless questions about our frustrations with the old sewing machines, and endless trips back to get the seamripper out. I remember repeated instructions about the importance of ironing and I'm sure she's the reason I turned on the iron and ironed out my pieces before I started sewing anything together.

So, there you have it, a peek into my renewed interest in sewing and the huge thanks to the two ladies who set me up.

Ps. If you happen to see me today and smell some funny fumes, be aware that spray painting my legging flowers was a huge success. :)

skirt #2

Because I don't have pictures of #1 yet.
This skirt really was quite basic compared to the first skirt and it whipped together really quickly up until trying to hem it.

One side seam gathered, the other seam straight. Pretty basic. Except I didn't have a pattern and so I still have no idea how to cut the fabric so that the hem ends up somewhat normal.

Side seam looks cool. Excuse the hole in the nylons. Velcro runners are fantastic for getting lots of kids' shoes on fast but brutal on the nylons.
But I just can't seem to get the hem to sit right no matter how much fudging I do. I didn't actually realize it sat so crookedly until I saw these pictures. The skirt is lined and the lining is sewn to the skirt itself for a bit of that bubble look that is popular. Just not too much bubble.

But if you have any good ideas how I might still fix this let me know because I didn't get to the slip stitching yet and so I can still get in there and try to do something about it.

Or maybe, Krista, Mom, Leanne or Shelly it didn't look so bad in person?

Ps. That's almost a permanent state in my living room. I think the kids fill their arms, hide in the bedroom and as soon as I head downstairs with all the toys I've gathered off the floor, they dump the next load right back on it.

Something you may not know about me, I like to create. Particularly, I enjoy sewing.
Now, "enjoy" is a relative term as I go about sewing in a rather perfectionist style. This means that before the project is completed I usually have driven myself totally crazy and given myself a headache.

But the end result so is worth it. For someone who more often than not shops in the thrift stores, (and that is a choice, I enjoy repurposing and saving things from the dump, it's become a lifestyle for me) sewing something and wearing it brand new and usually somewhat one-of-a-kind is a grand experience. (And you know I only went to the clearance section and found material that would work - it goes hand and hand with the thrift shopping :) )

So, why am I suddenly sharing this with you? Well, I told you I enjoy creating. It's a gift from God. A talent He's blessed me with. So my hope is that by sharing these things with you, God gets the praise.

Please note, I did not say I was blessed with the gift of being creative. Truly, I am not. I need to find an idea I like and then I copy it to the best I can. I am not able to design anything interesting in the least bit.

On to project numero uno. Cute leggings. Found some plain brown leggings for the nice price of $6.


I took some scrapbooking stain and a piece of coral flimsy stuff that I chopped off a beautiful dress from Leah (that was a project in it's own, wanted the dress longer and so substituted the flimsy stuff for coral broadcloth and lots of gathers) that was just waiting to become something else useful and got this mess. Lots of brown scrapbooking stain everywhere but I now had two pieces of brown flimsy material just right for making cute flowers.

Added some elastic and the flowers and got some leggings I was pretty happy with. (The flowers still have a bit of corally look on this picture, oh well)

Then I went and washed my hands and the stain washed right off. The warning bells went off and I realized those tights + cute flowers might be a wear once experience. It seemed as though the stain might wash out the first wash.

But I didn't even have to wait that long to find out. That night I went out to go get groceries.

It was raining.

I came home and the flowers were showing their true color once again.

And you know what Steve said, "why don't you spray paint them? You spray paint everything else!"

You know, he's a real smart man. I think I'll probably try that yet. :) It beats trying to pull out the million stitches I put in to try and make those flowers stay for good.

Question for a Friday.

How come, although it doesn't fit, it really fits so well?

Ever come to your door and find a package like this?! It was such an exciting part of my day. Mail is great anyway but when you get mail like this...? A very wonderful treat!

A huge thanks to Jeane (sorry, lovely lady, but I don't know how to put the accent in) :( This fellow mother of lots of little dear children pulled my name out of a hat (or pot or something) to win a prize off her blog. I felt a little sheepish as I really didn't want her to have to break the bank on postage. I figured it would probably be worth a few jugs of milk, couple cartons of eggs and a truck load of bread loaves sending a prize into Canada but she sent it anyway and it made my day! Thanks, Jeane!!!

Pretty packaging...

A whole load of goodies. Note cards, bath goodness....

and some really hot tea!Ps. If you ever want some well written serious thoughts on life or other times a good laugh, head over to Jeane's spot on the web. You'll probably leave feeling like you really aren't busy at all. It's where I go when I need to remember there are mom's who are still much busier than me.

Again, thanks, Jeane, I don't think mail day's ever been too much better!

You think Cara would vote yes for bunk beds? That's Cody's crib and he's sleeping IN it.

This is what I did today with my sweet cousin Brenda. We made about 400 of these delicious stroopwaffles and have the burns, greasy faces and smelly clothes to prove it! I did make that appear very appetizing, didn't I? But if you could taste one or two of these... you would know all the work and grime was really, really worth it.

Thanks, Brenda, that's what I would call a good day's work in good company!

And while we worked hard these two were actually very well behaved. I tried to sneak this through the kitchen window but I think they were aware of my presence.

And today

Those same naughty babies took advantage of the minutes I was downstairs concentrating on a sewing project to go upstairs and clean the bathroom for me.

Kind, doncha think?

'Cept they used face cloths dunked in toilet water.

And between their clothes and the floor there was a lot of water about.

So it's a toss up. Do I keep my eyes locked on them 12-13ish/7 (as opposed to 24/7 - they rarely nap anymore and don't often do 12 hour nights but at least there's generally 11 peaceful hours per every 24 period ) and avoid these scenarios or do I just do my projects and allow them to provide the kinds of stories you all so seem to enjoy at my expense? :)

I think I'll continue as is. Glad to oblige. :)

Ps. Don't feel as though you should apologize for laughing. Know I'm laughing with you. I probably won't post the stories of the moments that have me in tears.

GRRR!

The last couple of days the twins are spreading their wings a little bit and pushing the buttons as only 2 year olds can.

For example. Tuesday I put them down for a nap but they vetoed that idea and decided being naughty was more appropriate. Suddenly Cody came out of their room, starked naked but for his socks, carrying his diaper chanting, "dirty diaper, dirty diaper." As you can well imagine my heart sank. As only twins can, the problem was compounded when Cara came out similar state, identical chant.

After creeping into their room and after daring to uncover my eyes I discovered the only mess they made was in emptying a couple bags of pullups into the crib. Now I fully realize that once considering the options of mess available to two dirty, diaperless babies, emptying bags of pullups is really quite harmless. But, it still made me mad. 1) because I don't need extra work to do 2) because the pullups were cheap and two different sizes and cheap pullups no longer have the size stamped onto them and I now had to sort this pile out.

Please note, these pictures were not taken Tuesday. They were taken last week when the twins did something very similar but with some important differences. 1) they also emptied a full package of wipes on the pile. 2) they didn't remove their diapers but instead took the nap. Even though one of them didn't make it back into her bed before crashing.

Back to this Tuesday... I deposited them in the bathroom and gave them a ardent speech on the do's and don'ts of getting put down for a nap. They were wailing away and doing their best to avoid making eye contact when Cara put her arm about Cody's naked shoulders and pulled him close as though to say, "come here, buddy, it's just you and me when Mama's this mad."

And then we skip ahead to this morning. About 15 minutes before I wanted to leave for Bible study. I was taking a quick gander online for some bunk beds when suddenly Sam and Cam came running, "Mama, come quick, the babies did something very bad! They made a big mess!" I was picturing toothpaste all over the bathroom but that's not what I found.

Oh no!

They pointed me in the direction of our room.

And there on the bed I found this mess.

Three packages of pudding, two butterscotch and one chocolate. That there is one big mess. I didn't have time to clean it up right away because I get out of the house and I'm still working up the desire to tackle it at 1:40. (You thought I was finally posting again because I had some extra time to spare this afternoon, didn't you ?!)

If you have time you may want to click on that last picture and observe the mountains of pudding powder.

This afternoon I'm thankful I didn't find ants on a sugar high crawling all over our bed when I got home at lunch. I'm thankful the whole business wasn't much worse. They could have really been wanting pudding and added water to the mess.

Just Heard

Cam is standing in front of a full length mirror. Among the discussions going on I heard,
"you go this way, I'll go that way!"

Inside a Special though Busy Week

"Happy burfday, Didder."

"Happy burfday, Toad."
That's what happens when you shorten your son's name to Codes.

This is me. And my baby sister. And my 3 babies. And yes, I do know that tomorrow two of them will turn two but for now they shall remain my babies. End of discussion.

Back to the subject on hand. This is us. We are in Gramma's van. We packed ourselves inside of it last Thursday at lunch and headed out for Alberta. One of our cousins was getting married there and Shelly wanted to be there for the wedding. So, us O's decided to go along as far as Calgary and surprise Opa and Nana.

It worked. Marvelously! They were not expecting strangers on their doorstep at 11:00 that night. :) :)

Some details. The kids were great! The weather and scenery stunning. The trip wonderful. Only one time in the dark we found Cody had snuck out of his car seat and was just playing on the back bench. I'm sorry to include such a nice picture of Shelly but she already told me I don't get the picture of us with the Kernels bag so I have to get her this way. :)
Friday morning Shelly and I went to a mall nearby and checked out some normal and some swanky stores. Somehow I felt extremely conspicious walking through some of these stores with my Sears bag. :) This is also where the Kernel part of the story comes in. I just about did the Heimlich on my sis on the shiny 2 day old floor of the mall in front of one of those swanky stores. Her advice? Never try to swallow a piece of double crunch popcorn whole. It hurts and it's embarassing. But once we were certain she was breathing and her eyes stopped watering we started to laugh and we laughed till her eyes were watering all over again.

In the meanwhile those 3 babies of mine were back at the ranch with Opa and Nana. (hey, it's was nicer to write ranch than zoo. Plus there IS lots of horseing around with my gang around)

Later on we went outside to play in the best leaves ever.

The leaves were dry and were so fun to pile up, jump into and throw around.

I'm gonna get you Mom!

Don't be surprised if one day you see us mowing our lawn with a reel similar to this one. Cam thought a quiet lawnmower was the best thing!

They were tired but not so tired that there wasn't some fooling around before finally collapsing in sleep. Cara started out with all her blankets in the white crib.

Thursday while driving Aunty Wilma called to make sure I knew I was very welcome to come for the wedding. I thought it over and knew I would enjoy it and asked Nana if she was willing to have the kids for the day. Little did she know, before agreeing, that I wouldn't be back until 10:00 that night.

I left at 8:30 for a gorgeous 2 hour drive south with some royal treatment via candies & gas from my special father in law.

Me and my poor photography skills (and the fact that I was just hanging the camera out the window while going 110km) don't do justice to the beauty of that morning.

I had to take a picture of this for my boys. Eight combines in a row, not actually roaring down the field at the moment but a really neat sight just the same.

I arrived in plenty of time to see this beautiful couple get married in a special ceremony. They were so in love and their foundation is God. What a blessed start! I was so thankful to have had the opportunity to be there. My sentimentality antennae were doing 360's. After all it was a wedding on an amazingly beautiful day, Ryan didn't see Alisa until he saw her come down the aisle (just like our wedding), Ryan's Dad was the pastor (just like our wedding) and I was together with my Alberta family. But really, it was still going to get better.

I didn't know Alisa's husband Ryan at all. In fact I even had to check the spelling of their last name when I wrote the card. That was about to change, we were going to end up with some common ground yet.

Alisa is a truly beautiful woman, inside and out.

And this is Ryan's dad, Pastor Vanderkooy. I have to keep things in order though.

After much hemming and hawing I phoned Mom and asked her if she minded if I stayed longer than planned. In essence I was asking her to add feeding supper, giving baths and tucking 3 kids into bed to the day's list of jobs. She lovingly told me to stay and I'm so glad she did. I did. All of it.

This is two of my aunties. They play a duet and have done so for many family functions over the years. Auntie Helen didn't get any warning. She was told about it approximately 15 minutes before she sat behind the piano. Rumor has it that it doesn't really matter. They say she's so good she can sit at the piano backwards and blindfolded and still perform masterfully. I don't know if the rumor's so true but we laughed pretty hard at the aunt and uncles table about the whole matter!

And you know what? Perfection didn't matter in this case. For me, it was so great to be part of it all.

At the same time there was rumor that my Alberta family was going to sing a hymn that has also been part of our family functions for years. I couldn't leave for the drive home yet. Sentimentality demanded I be a part of that. And then came the annoucement of the family power points. What better way to learn about this new cousin of mine I thought? I'm so glad I stayed. I saw pictures of Alisa and Ryan as babies and kids and a couple. Neat. But the icing on the cake? I found out more about Ryan's Dad.

You see, for as long as I've known Steve my sentimentality has dictated that I missed out a bit on not knowing Steve as a young person. Of not being a part of his first 17 years. I know that's the case for many and I know it's really not a huge deal but that's how I think. Blame it on that sentimentality. So, things Steve shared with me about his younger years, like his time in grade school were things I soaked in. They were important to me. Fast forward to Ryan & Alisa's wedding.

As Pastor Vanderkooy's power point flashed by a few hints jumped out. He sat on the toilet to play guitar while his kids sat in the bath (sorry to Pastor if he ever finds out I blogged this!), he was a teacher in grades 5 & 7, he taught in Chatham, Ontario and by now I was just itching to ask him a question. So I did.

"Pastor, which school did you teach at in Chatham?" I could hardly believe it. Here, at an Alberta wedding that I almost didn't come to and a reception I nearly didn't stay for, I met a Nova Scotian pastor who once had been my husband's grade 5 teacher in Ontario. And he wasn't just any old teacher. He was one of the teachers who had made enough impression on Steve that he had told me about his grade 5 teacher who took a guitar into class and taught the kids songs. Songs that Steve sang for me when they came to mind. Songs that Steve sang to his own kids when we came across a Bible verse that rang the song bell.

Awh, my sentimentality feelers were swooning! It just topped off my special day like the proverbial whipping cream with the cherry on top.

I drove home in the dark, under the most amazing starry sky and sang praises to the Almighty, all knowing God who has every detail under His control, at the top of my lungs.

Sunday one of the sermons Dad preached was about Jesus saying "I am the light...." it was a blessing to be reminded of what that says about Jesus, what it says to those who know Him as Savior and what it means for those who don't know Him. The second sermon was "I am the door...." Mind boggling simple truths.

We were able to have a cozy fire outside.

Then before we left in the morning the kids beseiged Dad in his study.

They got a good look at the shepherd carrying a sheep across his shoulders.

Shelly got a picture of us all and we all hopped back in the van.

Shelly was driving when all of a sudden she yelled, "where's.. Cody?!" He had disappeared from her rear view mirror range. It was much easier to observe all the construction slowing traffic down from his new vantage point.

We had to stop for the typical road trip business.

Books helped pass the time. Once upside up, next time through upside down!

The patches of "fire" were actually spots of deciduous trees. Again my poor photography skills didn't do justice.

I'm glad Cody was well versed and even more glad we didn't need to test his newly aquired knowledge. We almost did. One lady unfortunately hit a huge rock that sent her directly to riding on her rim. We had almost pulled in front of her. And actually all morning I've been wrestling with the, "why her and not us?" Really, she took that rock for us. I've decided for now that I can only be very thankful God spared us from that near disaster.

So, in a nutshell, a huge dinasour sized nut shell, that was the road trip I made with my sister and my 3 babies. Thanks for sticking with me to the end. For enduring all that estrogen. :)