Baby Clothes!

I love my sewing class so much! Sometimes I wake up from a daydream and realize I was imagining myself sewing something on a serger, matching up seams, threading the serger (it's so cool! Air pressure threading!), etc. So crazy. My projects get "stuck in my head,' so to speak.

Anyway, now that you all officially know I am bizarre, enjoy these pictures of my adorable creations!!!!!



Every project so far! A sleeper, newborn hats and bootees, and toddler bibs. (Actually, the bibs are big enough to be smocks. lol)


Close up of the sleeper. I'm in the process of doing a pink one out of stretch terry. It's all cut out, I just have to get matching thread.


My very first projects, baby boy hat and matching bootees. You can't see it very well, but they're sitting on top of the boy's bib.


Extra credit bootees and hat, right next to the girl's bib.

Coming soon: Matching onesie and pants! (the pants are being graded, and I'm putting ribbing into the legs of the onesie.)

Adventures in Idaho!

I have explored Eastern Idaho this weekend! Friday, Gary took me to South Butte for the first time ever. It was absolutely beautiful. We saw a snake, lots of butterflies, flowers, seagulls that looked like penguins, and the first dragonflies of the season! Plus, we had a little fan club of bugs that followed us over our heads (I think they wanted some of his tootsie rolls), and a pretty dog that followed us back to the car. Then of course there was the view of the entire valley that we had from the top! It was so much fun, we ended up staying for about four hours without even realizing it. Hooray! Oh, and I played about two bars from Come Come Ye Saints on the harmonica. I think I've found my newest hobby!

On Saturday, my roommate Jenny, her sister Kayla, her cousin Josslin, and I went on a family history road trip! We drove over to Aberdeen and took pictures of her ancestor's gravesites. I also happened to find some graves that I think fit into my family somewhere! (A whole little family section with the last name Savage. Coincidence? I think not! Only PAF will tell. lol)

By Monday, only two of my roommates were still in town. Rather than going camping, we decided to go on a hike! Megan's from around here, and took us to one of her favorite trails, in Driggs, Idaho. It was be-awesome! Here are some amazing pics for you: (Megan gave me batteries, so my camera finally worked again! Tragically, they died before we got home. lol.)


Jenny, Megan, and me at the trailhead.


Halfway there!


I love these girls!

We got to the top of the trail, and decided we wanted a better view. So we climbed UP the side of a mountain. It was pretty steep though, so after lunch we had to slide down it!! It was X-treme Sledding, minus the sled! lol


Here's me trying to slow down before going over a rock... Yeah, that didn't work. I went right over it, and Jenny's convinced I even got some air. Go me! haha. Luckily I was numb.


After sliding the first half, and bracing ourselves for the longer stretch (Jenny wisely decided to navigate the rock patch on foot, rather than... posterior).


The victors! (And their dirty pants...)


On the way back, we were pumped full of energy (adrenaline?) and decided to make a little snowman while we were already numb from all of our "Butt Slaloming," as Jenny called it. Ta-da!


It was a beautiful day, our feet were muddy, and the creek looked falsely alluring. It was FREEZING, but we got clean! (Jenny and I called it quits on our who-can-stay-in-the-longest contest after about 40 seconds.)

Now we're getting ready to make popcorn and watch an old movie, so we can rest our tired bones. =]

But the most amazing news of all: I have not been sunburned ONCE this weekend, even though I've spent quite a bit of time outdoors. Ohhhhh snap. Tomorrow's agenda: hit the books. Homework time!

Therapy

I've noticed that sometimes when I help give someone else a little therapy session, I end up feeling the benefits too.


I've had the opportunity lately to befriend someone who... is hard to describe. Suffice it to say that I would have seemed justified in disliking this person, and that at first it was rather difficult not to. Well, with a few good prods from the Spirit I realized that I needed to be as nice and as gentle as I could to this person. I started realizing that their behavior should have nothing to do with mine. I still had an obligation to be the best I could be. Now, I am SO VERY grateful for those promptings. A window opened up and I got a glimpse at this person's heart. They really need someone to be gentle to them. It's a very humbling and awe-inspiring experience to be in this kind of position. Heavenly Father loves all his children so much.

Well, I was looking through some old stuff I wrote and realized something: I said that for my birthday this year I wanted to finish a short story! So, since I've been busy and have been putting my ideas on the "Later" shelf, I decided I want a little help in choosing. I have posted a survey just to the right of this post with a few of my story ideas. So please, vote!!! Or write-in with a comment. I just need a little bit of a kick in the pants to get me going. Thankfully, I have a deadline. Three weeks! Yowsers!

Fort!

Last summer, Sam and I dubbed ourselves "The Weekenders." So we were eager to start the party again this summer!

This weekend, The Weekenders built a fort! Then we made homemade pizza, Reese's cookies, and watched the Scarlet Pimpernel.

Hoooooorayyyy! It's okay to be jealous.


Sam, Jenny, Stacy, & Bethany

Babysat Emma today!

Unfortunately, I forgot my camera. BUT. I remembered that I took a few pics of the last time I got to have a play date with Emma. Here they are!

Bakin' a cake!


She LOVED being allowed to stir by herself and didn't like that I kept insisting it was "Stacy's turn" every once in a while. She would get excited and stir as fast as she could, so the flour/cocoa, etc., would splash out. She would gasp, and then crack up laughing. How does she make EVERY part of life so funny? We had such a blast. And the mess wasn't too bad. =]


(Notice that the teddy bear in the background is wearing a baby hat and booties. She wanted to dress up the bear. lol.)



The plan was to use the castle mold Isabelle bequeathed me, hence the little flags for the towers. But after she helped me color them and we got them all taped up, I realized the cake was STUCK in the pan. Apparently, you can spray-grease a pan too much. Ooops, lol.

I saved the flags though, and good thing too! Today Emma and I made a "sand"castle out of oatmeal playdough, and the flags made it twice as fun. She kept pulling them out just so she could squish them in again. For anyone interested, oatmeal playdough is just 1 part water, 1 part flour, and 2 parts oatmeal. Easy peasy!

Happy Saturday! I'm going to go enjoy the BEAUTIFUL weather!

The Best Friends in Life are Free

My best friends have been 100% there for me! I hit what felt like a crisis in the past few days, and suddenly none of my friends had anything better to do than listen to me. They insisted they were free, and had nothing else going on (even though one of them dropped what she was doing and literally ran down to see if I was okay). Even my friends who are out of town have been here for me in a very real way. It's amazing!

I was given an awesome book called "Hearing the Voice of the Lord," by Gerald Lund. It's reminding me of the other priceless gifts I've received through the Atonement and the Gift of the Holy Ghost. I can't put it down! I highly recommend it. (As a bonus feature, it's hard-bound like a bunch of my favorite fiction books. I don't know why that makes a difference, but I got excited as soon as I noticed that.)

In addition, Bishop Bishop called me Sunday night and asked me to give a talk on personal revelation. Perfect, wonderful timing! I'm very excited.

EDIT: I saw this Jane Austen quote on Sam's page and decided to steal it. Here it is, every girl's problem: "Where so many hours have been spent in convincing myself that I am right, is there not some reason to fear I may be wrong?"

Puritanical Poetry & a Generous Thought

I had a really neat experience today. I am retaking a rather in-depth grammar class so that I can qualify to tutor for it (I got a B last time). Since it's only the first few weeks of class, I've been rather bored with the lessons. In contrast, the other students in the class are still struggling to remember everything their 7th grade English teacher taught.
Seventh grade seems even farther away for an older woman in our class who just came back to school. Today in class she asked for quite a few clarifications, but nothing the teacher could say was helping it click in her head. The difference between transitive and intransitive verbs didn't make sense to her, and she didn't quite grasp the idea of a direct object. The two sample sentences were "The Smiths lived in New York" and "The Smiths read the Bible." She didn't get why "Bible" was a direct object, but "in New York" wasn't.
I was watching her leave at the end of class, understanding why she didn't get it. I got the urge to just go chat with her, and to try to explain it myself. I hesitated, because she's my mom's age and I didn't want to embarrass her or anything. Suddenly, the quote popped into my head, "Never suppress a generous thought" (who was it that said that?). So I called her name, introduced myself, and... magic happened!
In trying to explain something I understood in my brain but had never articulated, she forced me come up with a much better way of explaining it. "The Bible" was being read, but "in New York" was not being lived. And, ohhh... watching it finally dawn on her was so awesome (grozny, lol). It definitely made my day. Plus, I have a new friend now, plus a little practice in tutoring. Hooray!


Okay, this post is pretty long already. HOWEVER. If you are ever looking for some good spiritual poetry, look up Anne Bradstreet and Edward Taylor. We studied them briefly in my American Lit class, and they are proof that good things did come out of the Scarlet Letter- era in history!
My favorite Bradstreet poem is currently "As Weary Pilgrim," but I couldn't find a link to it online and it's too long to post here. Just trust me... it's so good! It's about longing to be at rest with God. Love it. Edward Taylor's "Meditation 38, 1 John 2:1" is similarly wonderful.

Seriously. Look them up.

cookies and a good book

So, my awesome roommate is letting me borrow two novels that are set in Russia. I think I'm hooked on the first one! And I was seriously craving some chocolate chip cookies, so I made some. Delicious. All you need in life, folks! All you stinkin' need.

And: it's the weekend, I walked to and from the temple today, I got two extra credit sewing projects done with Becca, I don't have much homework, and we're having a fun dinner party on Sunday!

Hooray for summer!