Michigan!

A few weeks ago, I got the opportunity to visit my friend Beth in Michigan. I got there Thursday night, just in time for a major snow storm to hit the area! The ride home from the airport was a bit of a white-knuckle trip, but the snow day on Friday was superb!

Here are some pictures from my trip. One of Beth's friends has new puppies, so we got to go see the tiny Golden Retrievers. So cute!

Playoffs!

For the past four years, I've been playing fantasy football with some of my friends. For those who have never played, fantasy football involves creating your "dream team" from the roster of available NFL players and competing against others in your league. If the players you choose do well in a particular game (in real life), you get points for your fantasy team. I've had a blast over the past four years, but I've always fallen a little short of the playoffs.


Until now.

For the first time, my team has made the playoffs! Yea!

(And yes, my team name is "Your Momma's Revenge.")

Sewing Up Love

It's official. The camera cord appears to be kaput. Sigh. Oh well, at least the camera still works. I'll get a replacement cord soon enough and be up and running again. In the meantime, it's the camera phone to the rescue!

Since I started sewing (you know, a month or two ago), I've had a particular project in mind. There are several things I'm interested in making, but one project in particular that served as the major motivation to get moving. I won't go into details here (I'll save that for another post), but the project involves making some quilt-block letters. I found patterns that I liked, but I thought I better get a little practice first. So, I made smaller versions of some of the letters.



I started with the "L" (with the help on one of my friends) and then proceeded to make the "O" as well. Since I like to have a "purpose" for my crafts, I decided to make my letters into something useful.

Ta-da!!!


My love pillow.

It's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm pretty pleased with it. Not bad for my first real sewing project since 7th grade home ec!

Now, what should I make next?

Checking In

Happy Thanksgiving (even if it is a few days late)! Over the much-needed holiday, I managed to finish my first sewing project. Yea! Unfortunately, I am having problems transferring my pictures to the computer. SO...stay tuned!

"Thanksgiving dinners take eighteen hours to prepare. They are consumed in twelve minutes. Half-times take twelve minutes. This is not coincidence." --Erma Bombeck

E-L-O-N, Elon, Elon, Elon!

I grew up in a family of serious NC State fans. From the day I was born, I knew my blood ran Wolfpack red. It always has, and it always will.

But, unlike the rest of my family, I'm not an NC State alum. My college adventure took me to a different place -- the luscious grounds of Elon.

As a Fightin' Christian/Phoenix fan, we didn't always have a whole lot to cheer for. Not that our team wasn't decent, but we just didn't quite have the hype of the larger ESPN Game Day type schools. For the first year or two of my college career, going to Elon football games included a trip to the local high school for use of their field.

Over the past decade (decade?!?), however, the Elon football program has been steadily building and growing. Elon now has it's own football stadium and is preparing for one of the biggest games in Elon history -- playing Appalachian State for the Southern Conference championship.

Go Elon!

Check out the "Redemption" video here: Video

Fall already?

A couple of weeks ago as I was driving home from work, I suddenly realized that the trees had changed colors. Then, we saw more beautiful trees as we drove through the WV mountains on our way to Pittsburgh this past weekend.

Halloween came and went while we were occupied at the nursing home in PA. Now, we're talking about Thanksgiving and Christmas.

When did that happen?

Progress

Sew Much Fun?

I've blogged before about the old sewing machine lurking in my guest room closet. The machine is a hand-me-down from my mother-in-law and has been sitting in said closet for many months.... While my lofty dreams of creativity sparked the acquisition of the machine in the first place, my fear of the unknown kept it in hiding.

Until now.

About a month or so ago, a bit of furniture reorganization opened up a corner of our home office. It suddenly occurred to me that that corner would be the perfect place for a craft table. A short trip to Craigslist later, I now have a craft table and a place to actually put the sewing machine.

Now for the real test. Can I figure out how to use it? It would appear that the jury is still out on that question. I mean, I've used a sewing machine before. I was in Girl Scouts, and I took home ec. and tech theatre....how hard could it be? Famous last words. It took a couple of Google searches and a visit to my friend Erica just to get the bobbin threaded.

I'd love to be able to show you the impressive fruits of my labor...but if you're expecting that, you're just going to have to wait longer. So far, this is all I've got.

Impressive, huh?

No worries. I'll keep at it. My grandmother, aunt, and cousin are all excellent seamstresses...some of that's got to be genetic, right? Right?!?

I'll keep you posted!

"I catnap now and then, but I think while I nap, so

it's not a waste of time." -- Martha Stewart

Team Jeanine

This past Saturday, a handful of us from work participated in the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk in Raleigh. We walked to support Jeanine, the sister-in-law of one of our co-workers. Jeanine was diagnosed with breast cancer several months ago and is currently battling through chemo treatments.



We had a lot of fun, and Team Jeanine raised several thousand dollars for breat cancer research. Go team!

The Return of Stormy

Tonight's the night you've all been waiting for -- Stormy's back in action! Click here to see Stormy's Best of 09.

Yea for Stormy!

(Oh yeah...and there might be a hockey game tonight too! :-) Go Canes!)

It Seems Like Just Yesterday...

This past weekend, Dave and I went to a local park to celebrate my niece's 5th birthday. I can't believe that she's already 5 years old! It seems like just yesterday that we were huddled into a hospital room, welcoming her to the world.
Since then, Makayla has changed so much. She has grown from our "Baby Mak" into a sweet, smart, and energetic 5-year-old who has started home school kindergarten and gymnastics and loves princesses, ponies, and most anything pink (I'm so proud!).



Happy birthday, Mak!

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

You've got to hand it to Dave. With steadfast determination, he sticks to his teams...no matter what. Case in point, the Pittsburgh Pirates have recently made history by (nearly) completing their 17th consecutive losing season. Although they had some good runs in the '90s, the Pirates haven't won a World Series since the year Dave was born.



Nevertheless, Dave is still a big fan, and a night at the ballpark is always fun. During our Labor Day weekend trip to Pittsburgh, we caught the Saturday night game with our friends Mike & Matt. The Pirates actually played a decent game. Unfortunately, the marvel that is Albert Pujols swooped down in the 10th inning to hit one out of the park, and the Cardinals won the game. Oh well, we still had a good time!

The Fun Committee Strikes Again

Yikes! Where does the time go? Dave and I have just returned from a long weekend trek to Pittsburgh, and I have pictures to share from our night at the Pirates game....but those will have to wait until I have time to unload the pics from my camera.

In the meantime, here are some pictures from my company's fun committee-sponsored bowling trip a few weeks ago. We've gone bowling a few times, and it always ends up being one of my favorite outings. There's nothing like an afternoon off of work and the spirit of competition to bring out the more outgoing side of people. While I was disappointed that I didn't bowl quite as well as I do on wii bowling, I did manage to break 100 on my final game (which may not be much, but for me, that's pretty good!)!



Even Pearce went bowling. He was excited to meet up with his buddy Smoochacha at the bowling alley.

Anatomy of a Diaper Cake

As part of our decor for Erica's baby shower, I thought it would be fun to make a diaper cake. I had seen several before, but I had never made my own. After checking out a handful of Web sites and talking to some people who had experience with diaper cake making, I set out to give it a shot. Making the cake was fun and easier than I thought it would be. In the end, I was very pleased with how it turned out.

Step 1: Gather materials.


Step 2: Assemble the base. I ended up using a (wrapped up) pizza pan for the base and a canister of wipes for the core. I've also heard of using a large baby bottle in the center.


Step 3: Roll diapers and start placing them around the core. I secured the rolled diapers with rubber bands in the hopes that the diapers can be preserved for later use.


Step 4: Repeat step 3 until the cake takes shape. I had originally planned on creating a 2-tier cake, but once I got those layers in place, the third tier seemed to fit perfectly.


Step 5: Adorn with ribbon. This was actually one of the hardest parts of putting together the cake. Let's just say that the glue gun came in handy!


Step 6: Ribbon #2 for a little extra pop.


Step 7: Ta-da! The finished product.

The Baby Train

I am a firm believer that every bride- and mother-to-be should have a shower and the opportunity to be lavished with well wishes and gifts. (It's not very often in a girl's life that she gets to play princess, so I feel that we should make the most out of every opportunity!)

Not long after Dave and I joined our new small group at church, we discovered that our leaders were pregnant. (I'm not sure exactly when it happened, but I seem to have transitioned from having lots of friends who are getting married to having lots of friends who are having babies!) Let the plotting er, planning begin!

To celebrate Erica and Dan's baby-to-be, Brie and I set out to throw Erica a train-themed baby shower. We had so much fun putting it together!