Simon Says:

Ha! Bre tagged me with this random picture post.

1. Go to your pictures
2. Upload 4th picture in the 4th folder
3. Post (explain?)
4. Tag four friends



So, this picture was taken almost 2 years ago. It was *Idol Time* and Rio insisted that we watch it. Okay, we both wanted to watch it. Or maybe just me.

And you know exactly what Simon is saying, right? (in his sexy British accent)

"Let me put this into perspective: A-POLL-ing. With a capital "A". You just better hope America was watching that with the volume turned ahwff."

OR

"That was AHP-solutely, 100%, THE most Harrifying.... No, No, No."

OR

"All I'm doing is telling people who don't have a chawnce in hell that they don't have a chawnce in hell!"

OR

"My advice to you would be: if you want to pursue a career in the music business, don't."

Oh, Simon. Where have you been all my life?

Now I tag...

Amberlie, Aubrey, Brianne, Krystle, and Candace

The Kid's Brilliant!!

So this is how Rio eats cereal:



I think he's mastered the concept of the spoon...

Oh, wow. Rio is the most entertaining little person. He says and does the funniest things. The other day, my dad did something that surprised Rio, and he said, "Hey, Papa! You startled me!!" 'Startled.' From a 2-year-old. I love it. He learns so fast and has an amazing (to-the-point-of-being-scary) memory. He can even spell his name already! This really is the best time of my life--just watching him grow and learn.

Who stole the COOKIES from the cookie jar?

Tonight, Rio and I made yummy sugar cookies together for Whitney's baby shower this week. Too many cooks spoil the broth, right? When we make treats together, we end up with only about a half-batch because, between the two of us, about half the dough is gone before it actually makes it to the "cookie stage"!

As you can see, he was VERY helpful! :)

By the way, I made the apron! Got a little carried away with the rick-rack, I know--it's my first one. Maybe the next one won't look like I just had lunch with the gingerbread man...

AKA Martha Stewart

SO, remember a few posts ago when I said I was procrastinating finishing that crazy star-heart quilt??? Well......

IT'S DONE!!!

I saw the quilt hanging on the wall at a fabric shop in Payson, and asked the lady if it was too hard for a complete BEGINNER. And I explained to her that as in "BEGINNER," I meant like NO. Quilting. Experience. What. So. Ever.

Are there nuances of this word that I am unaware of?


1. I bought 25 different coordinating fat quarters, stacked them, and then cut & "shuffled" them, so they made the background, the heart, and the star. Each block is made up of 20 different pieces.

2. I sewed each block back together and then trimmed the blocks to one consistent size. Each block took me over 1/2 hour to finish!

3. After finishing all the individual blocks, I arranged them in the order I wanted them, pinned them together & sewed them into rows. I finished it off with a border. So technically, the quilt isn't completely finished, but the top layer is. Now I'm going to take it somewhere to have it quilted and bound. (I AM a beginner! Like a Martha Stewart mini-me. Maybe someday I'll be amazing like her. ....Plus a personality, minus the prison time. :)




Anyway, DO YOU SEE WHY I WAS PROCRASTINATING THIS PROJECT??? I finished it at like 2:00 this morning, and I was so elated (and delirious) that I almost posted right then, but I was seriously already a cross-eyed hunchback from sewing so long that my weekend was just a blur with the drone of a sewing machine as a soundtrack (wuh-wuh-wuh-wuh-wuh-wuh-wuh-wuh), so I decided to call it a night. Although my mom did get a pix msg at 2:00...

So I've come to realize how addicting this hobby is. Like last week, before I even finished this quilt, I was already looking for my next pattern and fabric! And it's sort of a love-hate hobby. It can get pret-ty monotonous (20 pieces/block x 25 blocks = 500!!), and for quite a while you feel like you're getting NOWHERE, but it is so fulfilling and satisfying to see what you've accomplished when it all comes together. I'm proud of me. :)

"Up to Some Devilment or Other...."

I just had such a BLAST this summer with Rio. I'm sad it's already over! I should have named him Tarzan or Mowgli. Or HUCK. He would LIVE outside if I'd let him. No baths, living off the land, survival of the fittest... What a life!

"The Widow Douglas she took me for her son, and allowed she would sivilize me; but it was rough living in the house all the time, considering how dismal regular and decent the widow was in all her ways; and so when I couldn't stand it no longer I lit out. I got into my old rags and my sugar-hogshead again, and was free and satisfied. But Tom Sawyer he hunted me up and said he was going to start a band of robbers, and I might join if I would go back to the widow and be respectable. So I went back.

The Widow she cried over me, and called me a poor lost lamb, and she called me a lot of other names, too, but she never meant no harm by it. She put me in them new clothes again, and I couldn't do nothing but sweat and sweat, and feel all cramped up. Well, then, the old thing commenced again. The widow rung a bell for supper, and you had to come to time. When you got to the table you couldn't go right to eating, but you had to wait for the widow to tuck down her head and grumble a little over the victuals, though there warn't really anything the matter with them..." (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, -Mark Twain)


Rio is ALL BOY. His favorite things in the world are trucks and bugs, animals and trackhoes, muscles and motorcycles, dirt and tools. He sure keeps me busy. I love it.

...But I can't promise I'll ever sivilize him.