The Firemen Come to Church

Thursday Dec 18 was a Christmas program at church for the women's group. I was singing a solo and since Kevin was out of town, I brought the girls and took them to the nursery provided.

During the dinner and before the program, one of the guys taking care of the children (they were guys because the women were all invited to the program) came to get me saying that Bryn had her hand stuck in a toy and was starting to "freak out" and needed her mother. OK. Bryn screams a lot and I thought this was par for the course.

I opened the door to the nursery and saw/heard Bryn SCREAMING with her entire ARM stuck in the middle tube of a ball toy. (We actually used to have this toy and this is an old picture I have.)

So this is what she kind of looked like.

I ran over to Bryn and saw that some of the hard molded plastic was pinching her arm, probably where they were trying to pull it apart off of her. I quickly had another adult stick their fingers in the crevice and pull it away from her. That helped, but Bryn was still obviously in pain plus "freaked out". The two men that were in charge of the nursery were trying to figure out how to dismantle the toy, and my friend Elizabeth had come with me, thank goodness. She spied the screws and sent someone in search of a tool. She sent someone else for some lotion and calmed me down quite a bit.

By this time there were 4 men huddled around the toy, Bryn and myself, some men hovering in the hallway waiting to be put to use, a friend who is a nurse, and a friend of someone else's that is a physician, all trying to get Bryn's arm free. Oh, and I am supposed to be singing but they skipped that part.

A screwdriver is found, but it is too large and is not effective. In their effort to set Bryn free, some of the men have attempted to twist the toy off her arm, and not seeing her elbow since it is also hidden in the depths of this play-thing, are almost breaking her arm. Bishop Dupree tells them to watch it and one of the guys says "We need to call 9-1-1." I think that's pretty rash, but after one more twist of Bryn's arm, I want them to do it.

Bishop Dupree sends a hallway lurker to call 9-1-1 with the instructions to tell them to send the fire department from across the street. We carry Bryn and her attachment to the foyer and sit her on my lap. She is no longer crying and has asked me if she can go to the Dr to get fixed. We tell her the fire department is coming and she seems relieved.

The truck pulls up. Three firemen come over and examine the toy and Bryn's arm. We tell them where the screws are and that we don't have the tools to take it apart. A fireman pulls out two hacksaws which sends Bryn into a fit. A more sensible fireman cuts apart sections of the toy from around her lower arm to relieve the weight and so they can see better where she is stuck. Eventually, all that is left is the ring at the top of the toy (the top pink part) around her bicep. He gently twists while Bishop holds her arm straight so it doesn't twist with the toy. The ring is slowly twisted down and off her arm like a screw. It is over.

I hold Bryn close and tearfully thank the firemen for their help. I assumed Bryn would want to go home right away, but she asks to return to nursery to "play with my sisters". I rejoin the Christmas program, where they ask me to sing now. Since Bryn is ok, I figure I should be ok too so I sing. Evidently it was great and I was calm and poised. But I was still feeling very anxious so I left the room and paced the hallway until the program was finished at which point I ate more cake.

Bryn left with two deep gouges on her arm from the pinching, and a large lump between the two which has since vanished. In her prayers she thanks the fire department for fixing her arm. Amen.

Turkey Trot

I just got pictures from my first 4k run/walk - or should I say constant shuffle. None of the pics are great, but at least the event is documented.

I really wanted to do the Turkey Trot last year and even started jogging consistently with a program in the summer. But my body was giving me attitude and I couldn't keep with it. This year, conversely, I didn't train at all, and I didn't even do any kind of my normal exercise routine up to a month beforehand. But I had committed and talked my HealthGroup buddies into doing it, so I wasn't backing down.

Saturday morning was COLD. The first snowfall came the night before. It was slippery. And windy. I had 4 layers on top, 3 on the bottom, 2 pairs of socks, Kevin's ginormous gloves, and I couldn't feel my fingers or toes. Bugger.

Then the race started and dear Rachel kept me going. We kept next to each other and really jogged the whole way. I knew she could do it so I wasn't about to stop. The last 1/2 mile was completely painful, mostly due to the freezing cold air I was sucking down that had caused a delicious cramp in my side and a hole in my chest.

My time isn't important. That I did it and felt so proud afterwards is. All the HealthGroup girls did fabulously and we are thinking of making this an annual event.

Me, Anna, Susan, and Rachel in Marion Middle School afterwards.

Me, Susan and Rachel at Rachel's house before running. Notice the snow on the roof of the car in the driveway behind us.

Hahaha

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Family Update

I haven't related anything about the family for a while. Just quilting and scrapbooking. Which I dearly love and which keep me sane and give me a much-needed creative outlook.

But I also dearly love my family so let me tell you about them. Kevin is gone this week to Colorado Springs for training with his team. He was gone for a week two weeks ago, and will be gone his final week to complete training in January. Then 2 weeks after that, the last week of January, we will be in Florida with the family for our much-anticipated Disneyworld vacation.

I learned something the first week of Kevin's traveling. I love him. A lot. And I missed him. A lot. And it surprised me. A lot. (The love part wasn't surprising, the missing part was.) The last time he was gone for 3 days to Las Vegas I totally had a great time and appreciated the break. This time, I completely stopped living until he returned. I never turned off the tv before midnight watching such fantastic fare as "The First 48" and "Parking Wars" and "What Not to Wear". (I'm serious - all fantastic.) I showered about twice that week, and ate lots of cookies. I also lost 2 pounds. And I didn't clean anything.

This week I'm faring better. I showered yesterday morning and turned the tv off at 10:30 last night. I have been keeping up with dishes and laundry. I finished Christmas shopping this morning and will help the girls assemble their teacher's gifts Thursday night. I can live without him (for a while) after all!

Alaina has been doing very well in school. Kevin and I were gratified to learn that her ADD medication has been helping immensely. According to the Linn-Mar testing system, Alaina jumped 18 points in reading from the beginning to end of 2nd grade; the expected increase is 4-6 points. Her teacher noted that something great must have happened in 2nd grade - that's when she started taking medicine. Kevin was particularly relieved that the cost of the medicine is worth it. Alaina had still been quite difficult after school ("combative" is usually the word I use to describe it - screaming, throwing, crying, completely unreasonable in every way) so we adjusted her dosage and her negative behavior stopped. She is now able to think and concentrate for longer periods of time. And what has given me much joy is that she reads for pleasure for HOURS at a time. It is a delight to see.

Claire loves Kindergarten and has many friends in her class. She makes a point to say "goodbye" and "hello" to every classmate she sees - boys as well as girls. She brings home pictures from many other girls, saying that they exchange drawings during center time. However, she did have a dear friend move away last month and though she has occupied herself with other things, she is sad and talks about her every day. "What do you think Texas is like?" "Why did her dad have to find another job?" "When are we going to Texas to visit?" "Maybe I'll dream about her tonight." etc. Poor thing.

Bryn is full of life and cannot be repressed. She is finally making it through the entire Sacrament Meeting (1hr + 15 minutes) at church without having to be be removed. She loves her Nursery teachers and is especially gifted at learning new songs. I'll have to post a video of her newest song - it's completely darling.

Hmmm, this kind of reads like a Christmas letter. Maybe I'll just email my blog address to everyone instead of sending out letters this year. :)

#18 for Nov

Well I certainly didn't make a layout per day. I have been sick on and off and am now back on. But I think 18 layouts in one month, although not 30, has made a big dent in the pictures I took for 2008.

This is a table runner I made for Aunt Debbie for Thanksgiving. She always hosts (has for about 20 years) so it was kind of a thank you. I used a bit of my Moda jelly-roll fabrics and at first I was concerned that it was too dark but after it was put together I liked it. The pattern is really easy and comes together very quickly.

#17 on Nov 18

I was going to re-do this one but I decided I can live with it.

#15 & #16 on Nov 18

Boy, I am just not getting caught up. Another quick-change page for 2 girls.

#13 & #14 on Nov 16

A 2-page spread. These were hard - I wanted simple & elegant. Too plain or hit the mark?

Revision to #12

I like this better. It seems the yellow overlay on the photo brings both sides together.

#12 on Nov 14

A pretty simple one. Sometimes a picture comes along that you just want to showcase and not play with too much. Alaina took this picture of Claire one Sunday afternoon when they were playing with the camera.

Kevin and I are going to the Nauvoo temple tomorrow. Yea!

#11 on Nov 14

I almost finished this yesterday - just a few tweaks this morning. Hopefully I can do another page today, but I have a busy day cleaning underneath the stove (yuck!) and inside the oven (double yuck!). Our heating element burned out yesterday (which was pretty scary, with the loud pop and sparks and a few flames,) so I need to clean it today before the replacement comes. Fun.

#10 on Nov 12

I'm catching up!

#9 Page on Nov 12

This one took a bit more time. I extracted Alaina from the background of the photo, then on the two framed photos I erased the background to 65% Opacity.

I have decided to encourage my scrapbook mood and make a page every day this month. I'm already behind because it's the 11th and I've only made 8 pages so far this month, and that might be a bad idea to start a project when you're already behind, but I'll try it. Here's 2 more.

3 More

I knocked out a few more scrapbook pages. I am much faster picking out paper for themed layouts, like the Halloween ones. I have too much stuff to sort through and it's harder making a decision for layouts like the one of Bryn's Preschool, below. Notice the duplication of the school picture layouts. No use re-inventing the wheel! Just re-color the paper and picture frame to suit each girl and call it good! (Although I don't know if anyone will print them. Photo places are extremely strict regarding copyrighted material. I'm not sure the place I've used in the past to print scrapbook layouts looks at each one with such high volume. I'll have to try. When I get more layouts printed. I'm due for that. I'm probably up to 100s again in the backlog.)

Halloween Scrapbook Pages

My friend Carrie B inspired me to do some more scrapbook pages when she showed me her Halloween pages. Way to stay current! So here are mine I made today plus one more. I really like Alaina Sewing & the Costume page, not sure about the Carving Pumpkins. Click on the image for larger preview.

I was pretty pleased with how fast these came together. If I can keep doing 3 in an hour or so, maybe I should start doing more!

Halloween

We just had the best trick-or-treating weather EVER!! I don't know what the actual temperature was, but suffice it to say there were NO Coats, NO Mittens, and even NO Jackets!! We were out for 1-1/2 hours and were still comfortable when we got home at 7:45pm. Everyone in the neighborhood was out and there were huge groups of children as far as the eye could see. I got really nostaglic remembering my childhood and just felt wonderful about it all. We won't have another one like this for quite a while, I'm sure.

The girls:

The pumpkins:

Nativity

I have been very busy with finishing up all the signs for The Nativity but they are all printed and on display. For those of you in town, we would love to see you there!

Large sign in our church building foyer (click on image to see it larger):

Invitation cards:

Flyers to be put up at area corporations:

Click here to see the website which has a more readable music schedule.

Reid's Quilt

Here's my new nephew Reid's quilt. I made an exact duplicate for a friend's baby shower and had so much fun with it I made a second one. The quilt shop employee picked out the matieral, which is why it works so well. I haven't mastered that aspect of quilting yet. Or of photographing them. I have to figure out a way to hang them up to take pictures so they are more or less rectangular, instead of laying them out on the floor, standing on a chair and trying to get them to look like they're not completely wonky. Anyone have any ideas?

the middle sashes were quilted with a cable,

I quilted the border with this which was fun:

I Spy

Bryn asked for a hard boiled egg for a snack.

I went to the refrigerator to get her a hard boiled egg.

She said "Let's play I Spy. I'll be first and you'll be second. I Spy someone getting a hard boiled egg from the refrigerator. Who is it?"

I said "I don't know? Who is it?"

She said "You! You are getting a hard boiled egg from the refrigerator! It's you, Mommy!"

Her I Spy games are not very hard to guess but they sure are funny.

Pumpkin Quilt & Alaina's Pillowcase

I have finally finished the Thimbleberries Pumpkin Quilt! I had the top finished since last year but missed the season so I put it away for a while. Then I wanted to get this machine quilting thing down pat before I quilted it. Then I realized I needed to quilt it with stipples, something I had never done before. But with Halloween looming, I buckled down and figured it out to finish, and I love the result! I also love stippling! Quilting this really was quite fun. I also have a table runner with the same fabric and pattern. The top is finished and it is basted, but quilting will have to wait until late next week. I have a baby quilt to finish first.

Here is the quilt hanging up:

This is a closeup of the stippling:

Here is a closeup of the border quilting from the back. I used brown thread for the border and it can't be seen at all on the front, which I guess happens and is ok. But when my quilting turns out nicely it would be nice for it show up a bit. I might do the table runner border with dark gold.

Alaina had a talent night on Wednesday for her church activity. Because I wasn't sure she would be comfortable performing anything, (more on that below) I helped her sew a pillowcase with a tres easy pattern I got a few years ago in Young Women. I pinned everything for her, but she sewed every stitch. She did a great job: was patient, methodical, and paid attention to her seam allowance. Because the fabric was yellow which is Bryn's favorite color, she gave it to Bryn afterwards. I had already made custom pillowcases for Alaina and Claire a few years ago so Bryn was thrilled to have one, and made by her sister for her was even better.

Well, we also worked on Alaina's 10-step blocking karate form for the talent night. We practiced it, talked about performing it, suggested Kevin or I do it with her, etc. But when she got home from school Wednesday, she flew into a tantrum.

"It's tonight? I don't want to do it!! No!! Nooooooooooooooo!" Well, what would any rational parent do in this situation? Probably something along the lines of "Ok. You don't have to." But I knew that most, if not all, the other girls would be performing something, and that if she did not she would feel left out and cry about it later. So Kevin and I gently pushed her, pointing out that fact. More crying. Lots of wailing. We bribed her with a treat afterwards. Nothing. I even started crying, too. Why? Because I am easily frustrated and Alaina frustrates me easily. (Am I forgetting that she is 8? Probably.) So Alaina was crying, I was crying, and in retrospect I should have acted like a normal parent. Someday I might be a normal parent. So after an hour or so of "Please will you do it? You love karate and are going to start classes again soon. You are so talented. Don't you want to share your talents?" and various levels of anger directed towards us, we left for church with the pillowcase.

After two children had performed their talent, Alaina leaned over to Kevin and said she wanted to do the form. They got up, she was cuter than anything in the world, and she was beaming afterwards. It is very difficult for her to do things out of her comfort zone. She is extremely timid. I am so proud of her. And once again, I was right.

Our new church building Open House is finally over. For my new calling as Stake Public Affairs Media Assistant, I was in charge of all signage. It was quite an undertaking. All the displays had people in charge of those ("display leads") and they were in charge of getting me the information to put into a poster. Then there were "Key Messages Signs" that were put around the building to explain the different rooms and what happened there.

These were the displays:

These were the Key Messages Signs:

So now that this is over, I can finally clean my house and a few other million things that need to be done. The next big event I'm involved in is the Nativity so we will be gearing up for that soon.