Sunday, February 8

My mom loves to create. As a child I held a bittersweet feelings toward her handmade creations. Secretly, I was in awe that she could sit down at the sewing machine or crochet and in less that an hour have a finished garment in her hand. On the other hand, I dreaded wearing label-less clothes to school and funnily enough thought of them as "common", for lack of a better word (I know, I was a little snot). As an adult though, I have a longing for things handmade. I pressured Grandma Beth into making one more "chicken blanket" nudging her with guilt that my baby just couldn't come into the world without the same blanket we had as children. I cajoled my mom into crocheting dresses and hats, costumes and booties for both my little ones. My mother-in-law even got us a handmade bed set for a wedding gift. Each of these, I cherish. In my mind's eye, handmade is synonymous with quality and genuineness, talent and love, and I want my children to be literally and figuratively wrapped in all these qualities. 

I was only too happy then when my mom volunteered to make Kennedy's baby blessing dress. She made Claire's as well and I wouldn't have had it any other way. The dress was lovely and suited Kennedy and her budding self perfectly. The morning of the blessing as I dressed Kennedy in her handmade gown I couldn't wait to hear her trailormade blessing. And indeed, there was nothing "common" about it. Dave and the men in the circle held my "uncommon" baby and blessed her with the ability to:

remember

lead righteously during stress and trial

build her own character

learn and understand

have a positive attitude in times of tribulation

feel and give hope, happiness and peace

know Jesus Christ

be healthy and strong

help others know the Savior

Simplify

For weeks I have been stressing about getting Miss K's birth announcments out. I updated my address book early in preparation. I surfed websites for announcments that would highlight my wee one best. I enlisted an amazing friend/photographer, Lillie, to take pix of Miss K. I picked my favorite three picture for the card (I just couldn't widdle it down any further). I then narrowed down the birth announcement cards to just three. And then I ran out of steam. Completely out of steam.

For over a week now I have been trying to get up the energy to get the announcements out and the idea of even buying stamps was just too much. I tried to guilt myself into motion. I did birth announcements for C so I have to do them for K, but then I remembered that C's master copy is still in a box, not enshrined in the elaborate first year photo album I envisioned. I then had a bad conscience over the fact that I may have missed alerting someone over the birth of my little peanut, but then reminded myself that I phoned, texted, emailed, blogged or FBed everyone I know about K's birth. I can't think of even one person who may not know about K or may not have seen her already (Oops, I just thought of one, I'll give her a call tomorrow). Then I rationalized that in these strained economic times it just seems excessive to send birth announcements. Finally, I decided I had had enough with my waffling and determined to put my energy into getting my photo wall up instead.

Without further ado, here are the best of my baby and her big sis too. I am truly sad that Miss K won't be gracing your refrigerator, but glad that I don't have to hold back these adorable pix anymore.

Identity Theft?

The other day I got a call from Dave's debit card company stating that they wanted to insure there had not been a case of identity theft as there had been some suspicious purchases with his card. I volunteered to go over his most recent purchases with them to identify any malfeasance. Purchase #1, Winchell's doughnuts. Check, Dave's breakfast. Purchase #2, sundry items at the gas station. Check, Dave's Diet Pepsi and dinner. Purchase #3, evening at the motocross track. Check, Dave's exercise for the day. Nothing too suspicious, just a day in the life of Dave post the end of the Relief Society bringing in meals. I confirmed the purchases and then started to envision the debit card company's idea of the would-be thief with the suspicious purchases.

Something like this.

Instead of this, my uber cute husband.

I think it is time to start taking care of my man again. Any quick and easy recipes you can suggest?