Summer Sanity

This summer has not been a good one for me. For several reasons I won't bore you with, I am very ready for it to be over with and a distant memory. The fall can not get here quick enough! Part of the problem has been that I have not been able to "turn off" the noise around me. I am very much a multi-tasker, and so even if I'm doing something relaxing, I'm always thinking about other things in the back of my mind thus negating any relaxing I might be attempting.

For some time now, Garet has really encouraged me to take some breaks. It all sounded fine and good as he said it, but I struggled with finding the time...always claiming I was too "busy".

All that changed a few weeks ago. I randomly signed up for this sewing group at my church - it is something I always wanted to do, but time always seemed to be my enemy. What I have experienced has been so much more than learning how to sew! Because I don't know anything about sewing, I have to concentrate really hard, which means I don't think about the million things on my list of things to do. Plus, the ladies in the group are fabulous and their conversation is just as sweet.

As promised, we did pillowcase dresses this week. They turned out SO cute! Although, I put it on Kara and she somehow managed to untie the double knots, so I'm going to have to figure out how to keep the dress on her before she wears it in public. My mind is already thinking of all the variations I can do with this pattern (there I go again with the "noise", sigh).

One of those days

It has been one of those mornings where everyone is just a little off. I think these pictures explain a little of our day. We really need to get out of the house!

"Luckily" (ha!), we have Kara's 9 month pictures tonight (praying she won't flip out this time!). My brain is no longer functioning, so I've resorted to taking pictures of clothes for Levi & Kara and sending them to Garet to let him choose what they should wear:

If you happen to see this before 4 PM CST, let me know your vote - I need help! Although, with my luck, this will hit your readers at 4:01. I'll post the results tonight or tomorrow. Speaking of, if you've been reading this through a reader, I recently changed up my site - I needed something a little more cheery!

PS: Garet is home (you have no idea how glad I am) - I survived again....now I won't have to resort to getting Levi to feed Kara:

Hmmm...I've never seen that before

These are not the words that you want to hear by the doctor when you take your daughter to her well baby visit. Thankfully, it is nothing major (we hope).

"Baby Koko" turned 9 months old today and at her check-up, I told the doctor about her first tooth. He then looks in and says the title to this post. Turns out, her first tooth is not one of the bottom two. It is the one just to the left of the bottom two. Blame it on Kara being the second child, but I hadn't realized it at all, but it was very clear when he showed it to me. So, in typical Kara fashion, she's doing things just a little differently - her way. Anyone else ever heard of this before?

I know that you aren't supposed to compare your kids, but I do it all the time - it's too hard not to. So, I decided to take a look back at Levi at 9 months and Kara today.

Here they both are at 9 months (Levi: 7/11/06 and Kara:7/22/08):

Boy I wish Kara had some of the hair Levi has - we are going broke over his haircut bill since we have to go so often! Amazingly, they were exactly the same height at 9 months: 28.5 inches. Levi had the bigger head at 46.5 cm versus Kara's 44.5 cm head. But, here's the BIG difference...Levi weighed 18 lbs, 14 oz and Kara only weighs 17 lbs, 3 oz. They were a whole pound and 11 oz different!

While Kara is still a lightweight at 20% weight and 80% height, the doctor said that since she has maintained that big of a spread her whole life that he isn't going to worry about it even though it was under 5% for the ratio chart he showed me. Speaking of, LOVED the new technology at our pediatricians new office. For all of you with the same doctors that haven't been, you are in for a treat!

It's official, I can really sew

I know all of you have been on pins and needles (pun intended) after my post last week, so I wanted to show you what we conquered tonight. I may not be an expert (OK, far, far away from being an expert), but I did do this:

Can you believe it? Our little group made these purses out of kitchen towels AND we did it in about 2 hours. Either I have an amazing ability to learn quickly or we have a very good teacher, Carey. I'm thinking the latter too.

Next week we are doing pillowcase dresses - I can't wait. I've got to go shopping for fabric! So many decisions!

Pure Joy

I had the kids by myself tonight and for some crazy reason I decided to take them to Costco for a little shopping and to eat pizza. They don't have high chairs, so the new and mobile Kara was a little hard to contain in the cart while we ate. If I hadn't lost my mind by that point, we headed over to the children's fountain downtown. I had been wanting to take Levi for awhile now and the weather was PERFECT tonight. The fountain was a hit and it was so fun to watch Levi run, jump and laugh through the water. It made me want to be a kid again!

Trying to keep warm:

Kara wanted to play too, but the jets were just a little too powerful:

Fun Weekend...OK, so last weekend - I'm that behind

It's sad when I don't get a chance to update what we did LAST weekend until Thursday Night! I am so ready to get the school year started and get back into a weekly routine. I'm much more productive then.

Anyway, Friday Night, we took advantage of my parents pool. They have a nice area around the pool, so we made a picnic out of it. Levi is venturing out into the "big pool" a bit without floats - He's getting so big! Kara was totally ordering Levi around the kiddie pool as to where she wanted to be pushed...and she is only 8.5 Months - it's going to be some fun times with her. I also love the picture of Garet kissing her and the one of Kara with her "mowhawk".
Levi stayed over at Mom & Dad's and then I met Mom & Levi at the Botanical Gardens for the Dinosaur Exhibit Saturday Morning. I never know what might freak Levi out these days, but these big dinosaurs didn't bother him:

The Butterfly House with Grandma:

Exploring the Sunflower Maze:

Getting soaked in the Children's Garden...Lovely:

Saturday Night we had our Life Group over for a MUCH needed party. I once again sharpened up my "culinary skills" and served half-baked brownies to my Life Group. Sigh. At least they keep coming back! I didn't get my camera out until the end, but I had to capture this picture of Levi and the Boyachek kids watching a movie:

Nothing exciting planned this weekend, so we'll just live off the memories of last weekend!

Something for the fridge

Most everyday last year, Levi brought home a drawing, painting, sculpture, you name it, from school. As any good parent does, we placed a large number of them on the fridge. There were some Levi was more proud of than others and he made sure we knew it. This summer, our fridge has lacked the color that it has during the school year because I haven't exactly been "that mom" this summer that does all those crafty things with her kids.

While Levi may not have anything on the fridge, I made something last night that I am so incredibly proud of and I really want to put a big magnet on it...seriously! This summer, we are having Connection Groups (based on interests) at our church (one guess as to what Garet is leading) and one of the ones I signed up for was the sewing group. Thanks to my mom upgrading her sewing machine a couple of years ago, I have been the proud owner of a "sewing machine that has not seen light since I received it" - No longer! Last night, I dusted it off and lugged it up to church for some Sewing 101.

Our first project was to make this handy little square to help us know every stitch that we can do on our machines. Since I literally knew NOTHING about a sewing machine, I also learned how to do everything from turning it on, to threading all those things, to actually sewing two pieces of fabric together - it was a beautiful thing.

I'm looking forward to meeting with these great ladies this summer. We have a cute little handbag and pillowcase dresses on tap. I can't wait to see how they turn out and share with all of you. If you want to join us, let me know! Wish me luck!

She just won't stop!

Kara is trying to fit as many developmental milestones into one week as she can. Over the last 7 days, she has gotten her first tooth, pushed herself up from lying down to seated, pulled up to her knees, started crawling, pulled up to standing, ate her first puff and drank out of a sippy cup. The girl is unstoppable right now. If she starts walking tomorrow, I'm going to be worried. If only she was as motivated to gain weight...I'm thinking the 9 month check-up next week might not be good.

Could you imagine if we developed at this pace as adults? What would we be capable of? (Peter, I know you are dying to answer this one!)