Who Needs A Fork? (216/365)

Breakfast of Champions (215/365)

Yes that's avacado on her plate. This was her first time eating at the
table, and she did pretty well. She's SO ready to be a big girl, but
I'm not ready to let my baby go!

Sick (214/365)

I swear I have the crappiest immune system of anyone that I know. Put
me in a room full of people for a few hours and I'm guaranteed to be
ill with something the next day.

Feverish.
Migraine.
Stomachache.
Eyes hurt.

The worst part? Having no A/C for a good chunk of the day because our
power was mysteriously out. Who the heck knows what's going on with
me, but I've slept as much as I could today, entertained children from
the couch, and my wonderful husband cooked dinner so I didn't have to.

Thanks, Matt.
Now I'm off to bed. Nite.

Happy Shower Day! (213/365)

Today was Mary's (in the purple) bridal shower. Please to enjoy a few
pics taken w/ Ann's camera, since I forgot mine at home. The shower
was great fun and the food was SO incredible, especially the Costco
cake (I already plan on having one for Alice's bday this year, they
are just that good and affordable). My skirt held up (yay!), and I got
compliments on it, though I still want to take the waistband off and
do that part over again. We'll see.

During the shower, Tori, JJ, Ryan, Cindy, and Erinn showed up at Mom
and Dad's house to pick up the girls. I hear that after a few minutes
Alice was super surprised and happy to see everyone. They must have
had a great time at the zoo because Iz and Alice were zonked when they
were returned to us. I can't wait to hear all about it tomorrow.

Matt and I took advantage of the fact that we didn't have kids to
watch and we went to the movies. We did on fact end up seeing
Inception again. After three times I think I'm finally satisfied with
my interpretation. Maybe now I can stop thinking about this movie - I
haven't stopped analyzing it since we saw it the last time we were in
Jville! Clearly I highly recommend this movie. It was certainly nice
to have a date night with Matt to end the day. Thanks for obsconding
with my kids, guys!

While I was Busy Getting My Poor Gums Lasered (212/365)

Daddy and the dental staff did a pretty good job keeping the girls entertained. Good thing too as we ended up being there for quite a while! Turns out I probably got something stuck under my gum (curse you pancakes and popcorn night!) and it has caused me some problems. They numbed me up, cleaned it up, and just for good measure, whipped out a laser and shoved it under my gum to help promote cell repair. This dentist office is SO different from the one I frequented before we got married, and I have to say that I love them. Cross your fingers that it worked as they never found a source for my misery. I really don't want to have that done again.

Well That's One Use for a Laundry Basket (211/365)

Full weekend ahead.

Shopping, sorting through junk (hopefully), dentist, bridal shower,
and the girls are going to the zoo with some special people (and we've
not yet told them). Maybe Matt and I can sneak off for a 2nd and 3rd
viewing of Inception while the girls are gone. We'll see. Either way
we're going to be busy and I'd better get to bed!

Next weekend, J'ville for my driving test and hopefully the waterpark
one last time before summer is over.

Night all!

I Love Summertime Dinners (210/365)

To me there is nothing better than grilled brats with onions, corn on
the cob, and cucumber. It's a meal I could eat at least once a week -
and I do during the summer. Thankfully for me my whole family loves it
too because they'd have to eat it anyway even if they hated it.

It's actually one of the only meals I make that both girls tend to
scarf down without protest ("Mommy, can we have some wurst for dinner?
We can? YESSSSSSSSS!"). Tonight, however Izzy was not up for it.

Granted she hasn't been eating well a lot lately, but she also has had
several teeth that are on the cusp of breaking through for weeks now.
Some we refer to as gum teeth because they look like teeth already,
but her gums are just still barely covering them.

So that's been making her upset, but today it was more than just her
teeth and I'm afraid she may be sick with something. She woke up after
about a half hour from her nap today burning up with a 101.7*F temp,
and that's with meds (for her teeth) in her system. So we snuggled, I
gave her some Tylenol, and she went back to bed until dinnertime.

She didn't eat much, the theme for the day, but her fever had come
down some and Matt did get her to drink (and apparantly she likes
cocoa-puffs cereal. Hey after trying to get her to eat all day long,
offering her dinner, then cereal with sweet potatoes, and having her
eat very little, I'm thankful she finally ate SOMETHING!). I'm happy
to report that she's sleeping and, knock on wood, without insident.

Hopefully tomorrow she'll feel better!

Please enjoy some pics of the girlies from today (look, it's Izzy's
first hair clip!), and a look at the good eats we had for dinner
tonight. Mmmmm!

It's Finally Finished! (209/365)

It's most definitely not perfect, and it's taking all that I have in
me not to take the seam ripper to the waistband and start over with
the gathers, but I think it will do for my first big project. My
gathers aren't pretty, I didn't hold them down when sewing so they
walked to the end a bit (that I HAD to fix), but it was a good
learning experience. Next time I might use even less fabric width wise
as it comes out to a lot of fabric and a lot of poof with my
measurements, but it does the job and I will proudly wear it to the
shower on Sunday!

Headache Central (208/365)

Not only do I have one from hell, at the moment, but today has also
been filled with one headache after another.

- The dress I ordered for Mary's wedding is too big despite my own
body measurements being slightly larger than the size I bought. It's
also not as sort as the website depicted it. Not sure what I'm going
to do with it yet.

- My new swimming suit is too big in the bust. I wish clothing
designers would realize that not all full figured women have size DDD
boobs! Now I have to go buy some inserts and hope it will suffice.

- I am stumped on the waistband of my skirt. I'm sure I'm over
complicating things, but I can't seem to get it right. I took 12
inches off the width today in hopes that it won't be quite as poofy as
it was turning out to be (and per a reccomendation on the blog I got
the pattern from. I'll either need to attach it with a really wide zig-
zag so it will stretch up over my hips, or this sucker will just have
to go on over my head. OR I'm just really missing something. Needless
to say I've made great friends with the seam ripper today.

- My actual headache was caused by my three year old headache's
inability to do a thing I told her to do today. Please pray that once
preschool starts in nearly a month that it'll be her saving grace. If
not I may just ship her to Grandma on a one-way ticket.

Sewing, Sewing, Sewing (207/365)

Bet you're tired of hearing about it, eh?

I haven't started my project that started it all, but I have a good
reason. Mary's bridal shower is on Sunday and I decided that the
fabric I bought around 7 years ago (look familiar, Jess?) needed to be
made into a skirt finally! And I should have enough to make something
else too. I found a super easy tutorial online for the skirt and I'm
about half way finished at the moment. I'm about to start the gathers so wish me luck, I'm goign to need it!!!!

Be Proud of Me (206/365)

I drove around the Villa Park area for a few hours today (thanks Mom
and Dad for watching the girls), then after our weekly visit and
dinner I DROVE ALL THE WAY HOME. If you know me, you know how huge
this is. I'm pretty proud of myself for just doing it already.

And here are some pics of the girls from today.

Things I Learned Today (205/365)

- That 15 month old babies can be wide awake at 4am and be happy as
clam until 8am.

- That no matter how much I want to deny it, Alice does come by her
current attitude honestly.

- That Kathy and I will show up to a family function wearing nearly
the exact same outfit again in the future.

- That Izzy is quite possibly at the cutest age, EVER.

- That Alice will have no problem making friends in preschool.

- That we'll have to beat the boys off of her with a stick.

- That I'm related to my most favorite people in the whole world.

- That Matt can sleep like he's been sedated with heavy drugs when he
wants to.

I Think it Turned Out Pretty Swell (204/365)

What do you think? I've already washed up some more fabric and I may
just whip up a few more tomorrow.

Just When I Think I Know What She's Going to Be (203/365)

She throws a curveball at me. I've been jokingly so sure that she's going to be a chef due to her obsession with everything kitchen, but lately she's been really into drawing. She spent a good chunk of today just like this "drawing" (I say that because 9 times out of 10 she doesn't actually make a mark on the paper, for various reasons). Now if I could just get her to understand that there are books she can draw in and books she can't.

Sewing update - still haven't cut my pattern for the dress yet, but that's ok. I've been watching tutorials and reading online about issues I've run into with the skirt (and issues I know I'll run into with the dress) and I feel much more confident. I learned how to hem the skirt so I was able to do that and add the ribbon trim tonight to finish it! I can't believe it's finished and it actually looks good (if you don't look at the bobbin thread tangle up at the waistband)! I bet you can guess what tomorrow's post is going to be.

So I Don't Have Much Done (202/365)

And I'm falling behind, but I'll catch up! I'd rather have some
sewing practice before I jump into the dress. The tutorials, pics, and
flickr threads will still be there when I'm ready for it, so I'm not
too worried. After the issues I had last night, I may just sew another
skirt before I start the dress.

The skirt is incredibly easy and I plan on making loads of them for
Alice in the future, but I've got to iron out the kinks first. I'm
struggling with finishing the bottom edge (you're supposed to bind
with ribbon) because I didn't square it up before I started sewing, so
I may just end up hemming it, if I can figure out how to do that, that
is! :)

So anyway, here's the almost finished product. It fits Alice perfectly
and I'm so proud I didn't screw up the casing for the elastic (just
don't look too close, mmkay?). All in all a good experience so far!