Belt Testing

When S had her gymnastics showcase, J was scheduled to have her orange belt testing at the same time about 20 minutes away. It couldn't happen. Today was the makeup test.

When I first got there I thought this makeup test was great...not near as many people, easier to see...

Then he said testing would last about 2 1/2 hours. I know it hasn't lasted that long in the past...he would say that the kids had already passed the testing and that 'gathering' was to show their parents what they could do. Not so today.

The short version of the story is about 2 hours of karate style calisthenics, repetitive kicks and punches - 50 reps on each for orange belts - and then forms and board busting. We were also there for the grueling sparring that the brown belt candidates went through. Watching people who have been working out for 2 hours get pummeled was not that fun...

Here's my gold belt girl doing her testing and my new orange belt with her karate master - he told me he was so proud of her.

You decide...

She's over 17...she either deserves the crown or she deserves not to have to wear it...

Yardwork

After a couple of years of drought and very low lake levels most are enjoying the rainy spring we are having. Lakes are returning to their full pool and lawns are green again.

But really...enough is enough...it has rained A LOT lately and often weekends...getting dry time when one is off work so that yards can get mowed has just not happened. Add to that a backyard that is 'au natural' and there are areas that are very much resembling the South American rain forest.

Monday afternoon I declared we were going to do 30 minutes of yardwork...I called for long sleeves and long pants and here we have the results...In S's defense, I did not say anything about hairpieces.

Motor Mouth

Let’s see…in a period of 6 days S lost a toenail, graduated from PreK, had a gymnastics showcase and lost her first tooth.

Today we’ll talk about J. One of the things I have been doing with the kids is whenever I send an email about an accomplishment or a ‘kids say the darnedest things’ incident I save it in a file for them to see when they get older. Such was not the case from the beginning, though, so this particular story can’t be cut and pasted I have to retype it…

When J was quite young (9-10 months?) and we were grocery shopping, she was sitting in the toddler seat part of the cart and wanted to hold the groceries. I gave her the havarti dill cheese to hold (cheese type I know, child’s age-not so much). She held that cheese and babbled at it non-stop for the rest of the shopping trip. She was so animated in her chatter that at one point a man walking by said, “I don’t know what it did, but it is never going to do it again.” I told people then, that I had a feeling I was going to have a very verbal child.

She is very articulate, social, inquisitive and there is never any reticence in discussing any topic at pretty much any opportunity. One of her teachers has nicknamed her motor mouth…so, no surprise she has gotten talked to more than once about talking. She has come home a few times lately complaining that no matter how many people are talking, it is always J that gets in trouble. WELL…in addition to the standard parent line of “If you are quiet when you are supposed to be…” I have pointed out to her that she has a very loud, strong voice and perhaps that is why people hear her talking easiest – she insists that she IS whispering very quietly.

Last night she came bounding out after school saying, “oh and mom, bad news. I can’t have field day…I got in trouble for talking…but C and H and G and T were talking and I was the only one that got in trouble…” More discussion about how come only she got in trouble, when it happened, why she shouldn’t have been talking (and I’m thinking – “well, I am NOT volunteering for that field day if you aren’t going to be there!!!!” )

We left school and were on to S’s last gymnastics class. J and one other big sister were allowed to participate…dive rolls, tumble track, through the raised hula hoop rolls, vaults….all around fun for all involved. Well, almost all fun…there was that issue of standing in line waiting your turn and there was J chattering away with the other big sister. From the other end of the room I couldn’t hear a thing but what I saw explained it all…other big sister was standing still looking at J and talking. J was chattering away smiles ear to ear, hands gesturing, bouncing from one foot to the other, head bobbing…I have more than solved the mystery of why she is always the one caught…

Today's lesson to J - it is just as important for your body to whisper as your voice.

Note: J's teacher was out for the 'barred from field day' incident and she intervened...J got field day and below we see her after a hard workout...

It’s a Milestone…

...or rather a ‘smilestone’. Adding to the big week of graduation and gymnastics showcase, S has lost her first tooth. Yesterday was the big day on the ride home and she excitedly told J as soon as we picked her up from school. In a good big sister moment, J babbled on all about what to expect next, how to eat as new teeth come in…and how the tooth fairy brings a gift AND a dollar for the first tooth…good thing J was there to give her the lowdown because I would only have thought to tell her about the gift…I hadn’t remembered J got a dollar along with the gift.

S woke this morning and excitedly found a gift (and a dollar)…a kit to make her own flavored lip balms…and she loves her lipsticks and glosses! I wonder how many people got to hear about that today…and I wonder how many recent PreK grads will be telling their parents all about the tooth fairy bringing a gift for a first tooth. Not unlike when we first learned of that grand tradition when J’s BFF F told her about it in first grade and then my lucky kids got blessed with the Puerto Rican (?) Tooth Fairy visit for their first tooth…

Present Yourself!

It has been a very busy week for S. After graduation on Thursday night she then had a Saturday morning gymnastics showcase. She is the youngest in her Level 1 gymnastics class and has struggled with a few things...basically whatever requires momentum. She is best at the beam as that is where s-l-o-w works to her benefit. She also enjoyed the 'present yourself' step that comes before and after everything.

The competitive groups are very small to keep positive reinforcement at a maximum. Everyone got a medal and S managed to get first on beam. She was 2nd on vault and 3rd on floor. J says she was second on uneven parallel bars and S said she was third. (I think 2nd but then, I was busy taking pictures...) I'll have to get that clarified.

Photo rules were you could take what you wanted but couldn't leave your seat...a very good rule and an interesting vantage point.

Beam....

Floor is S's weakest...J's advice to me: Take the photo right before she does her backward straddle roll and it will look like she is going to (be able to) do it.

We went with a 'present yourself'.

Fabric Update

Here is my chart – as of May 17:

Fabric usage goal – 66.66
Fabric Added This Week – .33 yards (inner border shortage)
Fabric Added May 2009 to Date – 2.83 yards
Fabric Used This Week – 9.25 yards

Fabric Used May 2009 to Date – 19.75 yards
Net Usage - 16.92

Left on goal - 49.74

I can already tell there are too many lines in the recap as presented before...so I pared it down a bit or in the words of American Idol, I am taking it and making it my own.

I have also realized that 66 yards is a lot to get through. Thank goodness for UFOs and pillowcases...I know I can hit that goal with pillowcases....

This weekend's completion - a queen size quilt top. Pattern is Keyhole and the fabric is mostly Paisley Party. Here is a shot of the borders...

The Graduate

Tonight was the big moment...S graduated from PreK. The kids worked so hard (and the teachers even harder) on a really nice program with 7 or 8 songs/skits. They had props, movement around the stage, showing off their phonics knowledge...a lovely slide show recapping the year. All around it was a great show.

Then came the big moment of the kids in their caps and gowns getting diplomas. I had the camcorder so J took the photos. We have several not good at all but I think she did the actual graduation shot very well!

AND to make this a perfect S moment...right after graduation when I got up to the stage the first words out of my little graduate's mouth..."Sky had the same dress on as me". (adding insult to injury as she had wanted to wear one of her halter dresses and I insisted on a different one).

Here are a few pictures...

In the moment... (J took this photo)

After the ceremony...

Here we have the sisters - each mugging in their own way. No, S is not taller than J (yet) - J just launched into the shot from the side and is somewhat crouched.

Stats and progress…

First let me say, a home computer failing can really put a glitch in daily photo posting to a blog and I was much better at keeping up on my blog when the possibility of the photo a day was still looming…now that I have admitted I will never pull that off, I easily let the blogging slip too.

Today’s topic is quilting and my fabric obsession…I have too much fabric in my stash…I love too many different fabrics…I can’t possibly sew all the quilts that I plan for…but still I try.

On one of my e-quilting groups we freely use the term STABLE (that is Stash Accumulated Beyond Life Expectancy). I truly hope that I am not there yet, but in the interest of making sure I can say that next year, it is time to start watching that stash shrink instead of grow.

I found this little chart on a group of quilters’ blogs and decided to throw it out here – these are her numbers not mine:

Fabric usage goal --100 yards-- 115.47 to go (going the wrong direction)

Fabric Added This Week - 11 yards (gift)

Fabric Added Year to Date - 58.75 yards

Fabric Used This Week -6.99 yards (or -4.01 cumulative)

Fabric Used Year to Date - 32.08 yards

Fabric Used this month - (11.77) yards

Net year to date: (15.47) yards (increase)

Notice that the originator of the charts does not indicate a ‘yardage on hand’ , that is because a real quilter has no idea how much fabric they have…and measuring it would mean finding all the places in your home where pieces of fabric have been stashed, unfolding, measuring, refolding,…you probably should organize while you are at it…too many sewing hours lost-lol.

In my normal OCD mode, I have to wonder about how the 'used' measuring is done. If you use a 2 yard cut then 2 yards disappears…but scraps are generated so do they reduce the amount used….and if you use scraps then how do you accurately take that measurement…what about those UFOs (unfinished object) do you take credit for them?

LOL- Nothing like good analysis on a ‘supposed to be helpful’ tool to paralyze one and render the tool useless…If I use a 2 yard piece and have less that ¼ yard left the whole 2 yards will disappear. Otherwise subtract the yardage left. Scrappy quilts will be ‘high level’ (read not obsessively) calculated to account for scraps used. UFOs will be stash until they are done and then calculated as yardage in project.

I’ll be going from the first of May so will make my goal 8/12 of the 100 yards (66 2/3) for the year out of my stash…that allows me to take the superhero quilt I just finished for J and the pillowcases I made for myself and S out of the totals – all finished a week ago.

I purchased yardage for the back of J’s quilt so that is the ‘added’ this week. Honestly it is the super wide (108”) so it really should count for more than just 2 1/2 but in the interest of staying in the spirit of the challenge and not OCD-ish...

Here is my chart – as of May2:

Fabric usage goal – 66.66

Fabric Added This Week – 2.5 yards (back for a quilt)

Fabric Added May 2009 to Date – 2.5 yards

Fabric Used This Week – 10.5 yards
Fabric Used this month – 10.5 yards
Fabric Used May 2009 to Date – 10.5 yards

Net year to date: 10.5 yards

Below we have the recently completed top for Js bed and up top is the done-done (quilted and bound) project from the Hoffman Bali-Pop.

Our first sports injury...

J takes karate and has since she was 5. She also plays basketball with a passion and I believe she was 3 when that started. She is one of those kids that wants to climb on things and turn everything into a playground, so you knew sooner or later it had to happen. S got a sports injury. Yes, that’s right, S got injured.


Now, like most kids, mine get out their magnifying glasses and if they detect a tiny spot of blood they are whining and need a bandaid-if I am around…So no one was more surprised than me a few weeks ago after gymnastics. Miss Beverly had a few minutes waiting for her private lesson to come in and called S over to work on her cartwheel. “What happened to your toe?” she asked. There it was - S had a bloody big toe…must have slid under something as she was practicing. We put a bandaid on it and went forward.


I left the bandaid on the next day and told them at PreK that S had a legitimate injury and should she complain about her toe they might want to check it out.


As is likely with toe bandaids, it fell off when socks were coming off and S announced, “Look I can pick this (the nail) right up and look under it!” EWWWWWWWWWW….I couldn’t even bear to watch that toe fungus commercial where the animated creature pulled up a toenail. I can’t get excited about the live show. (That said, I could take care of the cat when he ripped his whole claw out in an accident and the shiny white bone was showing – it is just the nails…)


As weeks have gone by it is obvious there has been a severe compromise to the toenail. I can see where the new nail is coming in and where the old nail ends and will come off…However about 10 % of the old nail remains attached…and not the bottom 10% where I could carefully trim away as it grew – it’s the 10% closest to the next toe. So, like a wiggly tooth this nail is hanging there waiting to catch on something and cause a blood curdling scream (the only kind S emits)…I am hoping it is not at her first competition next week.


Note: I couldn’t subject anyone to a real photo and don’t even google toe injury images! Here are toes of happier days…