Go Big or Go Home

Well it is about 3 months later than I was hoping, but the wood shed is FINALLY done.  Finished.  Logs skinned, shed built, roof roofed.  Again I say FINALLY!!!!  This has been going on since May and I am kind of a get it done in one day (or maybe a weekend, tops) even if I don't sleep and have to work in the dark kind of girl.  Unfortunately building a wood shed is quite a bit outside of my skill set so I had to go with Robbie's method of doing things which is "Don't worry, it will get done eventually."  I'm quite uncomfortable with this way of doing things but he was right.  It did get done.  Eventually.

Now when most people think of a woodshed they picture something like this:

 or even this:

We, are not most people.  This, is our wood shed:

Yes, we can park a truck (or two) in it...

The building of the wood shed was a family affair.  Luckily for Robbie, summer lasted well into October this year.  I say lucky because, as I tell all of my kids at school, sugar melts in the rain so I obviously would have been unavailable to help had the weather not cooperated as it did.  Ben was his usual helpful self, Robbie was the brains (and muscle) behind the operation and I did my best to be helpful (although I think that someone over 5'2" would have been slightly more effective at lifting plywood up to the roof).

And where was Abby, you ask?

Well, she was in charge of the camera, of course!

Now you may be wondering why we need a wood shed the size of a two car garage.  Good question.  It's because my husband is a wood stalker.  Now this is probably the first time you are hearing of this so let me explain how it works.  He sees someone cutting down a tree and pulls off the road to talk to them.  He asks what they plan to do with the wood and then offers to pick it up for free.  Most people have to pay to get rid of wood so they think this is a great deal and then continue to call him to pick up other trees.  Kind of awesome because it is free wood.  Kind of a problem because he works 90 hours a week so trying to fit in time to split and haul cords of wood usually involves me.  Anyhow, filling the wood shed should not be a problem...

There are literally piles of wood around the entire perimeter of our two and a half acre yard.  I am beginning to think that the splitter we bought this summer was money well spent. 

Not all of the wood will need to go in the woodshed.  Last weekend we took a few loads out to my parents' house.  Good thing we had Ben to help.  He loaded and stacked the entire trailer all by himself!  He even was sure to wear "extra bones" (and of course his helmet?) for the occasion.

And I'm sure you can guess what his sister was doing...

I'm thankful that the woodshed is finished and a little nervous about the 25 cords of wood that need to be chopped and stacked but I'm sure Robbie would tell me not to worry because it will get done...eventually.

They Don't Make 'Em Like They Used To

Pants.  What is up? It's no secret that I have never been someone on the cutting edge of fashion.  (Hoodie and tennis shoes?  Yes please!)  And I am having a hard time thinking that anything in the stores right now is cute (Helllloooooo!  The 80's called to remind you how ridiculous you looked then and that neon certainly isn't doing you any favors 30 years later!!!) but the pants are causing me some major issues.  I have yet to embrace the skinny jean and until recently have always been able to find something flattering but I have been on the hunt for a cute pair of jeans for quite some time and have been less than impressed.  Now, I will be the first to admit that jeans are not where I spend my money.  But I feel like I should be able to find a decent pair of jeans for fifty bucks.  I mean, I always did before 2011. My best fitting pair of jeans is from college.  Tight in all the right places but with enough room to breath and not reveal my pulse.  I don't feel like that is too much to ask.  I would still wear them everyday if I hadn't turned them into my painting pants.  Little did I know the predicament I would be in today.

The problem is the cut.  I'm what they call "short waisted".  I'm also short legged which is apparently not a good combo when you're looking for jeans.  Especially when the style is "Long & Lean".  Now I'm starting to feel like they're rubbing it in.  I got a new pair of jeans labeled "mid rise".  Really?  If they were any higher I wouldn't need a bra!  What happened to a nice comfy pair of low rise that would sit right on my hips?  Do they not make those anymore?  I feel like a granny hiking my pants up past my belly button.  Next thing you know I'm going to be tucking my shirt in!!

And that's not the only problem I'm having.  Since I now have to pull my pants three fourths of the way up my torso it is causing all sorts of problems.  Either it squeezes my twin skin (it's a real thing.  Google it.  Or not, if you don't want nightmares) into a muffin top or they are so baggy in the seat and legs that I look like I'm wearing Hammer pants.  Neither look is particularly attractive.

I feel like I'm a fairly average sized person but this pants issue is starting to give me a complex!  In high school, much to my father's dismay, I would cut the waist band out of my pants so that they fit where I wanted them too.  I would do that now but unfortunately, I'm about to be 33, the mother of two and a kindergarten teacher.  I feel like the window of appropriateness for that option slammed shut about a decade ago.

So I continue my quest, but in the meantime, if you notice me wearing what look like my husbands jeans, don't judge.

Costume Party

Today was the day that Ben has been waiting for for months.  Costume day.  Yep.  We are finally getting around to making the costumes that we won't need for 25 more days.  I think he felt like we were cutting it a little too close.  So this morning we got started right away.  Ben has decided that he wants to be a fisherman.  Actually, he wanted to be a jet skier...with a jet ski.  Luckily, the boy is easily peer pressured (good for now, scary for high school) and I was able to convince him that a fisherman would be a much better costume.  Mostly because I could figure out how to make it.

So I bought some fabric, traced Abby's fluffy pink vest and got to work.  I had make some adjustments so that it was more "fishing" than "5-year-old girl" and it wouldn't be a project of mine if I didn't make some cuts in places that I shouldn't (I know I know.  Measure twice cut once.)  I'm more of a cut and then measure girl which tends to cause quite a bit of anxiety but usually works out in the end.  When I'm working on a project, my Type A comes out in that I just want to get it done.  As crazy as I am about a lot of things, I am NOT a perfectionist.  It's my coping mechanism for dealing with the fact that I am not actually that good being crafty.  Most of the things I make usually look better (and are a lot easier) in my head and this was no exception.  I had a few set backs but once the vest was together, I added some pockets and wah-la.  A fisherman! 

I still have to make his hat and add some details (and by details I mean tackle) to the vest but imagine this on my oh so handsome boy with some cargo pants and a flannel shirt and big rubber boots!  (Almost) just how I pictured it!  And of course he needed a knife.  How else would he gut the fish?

Since November first (you know...ten months ago), Abby has been telling me that she wanted to be Phyllis (our long gone cat) for Halloween and then one night as I was tucking her into bed she told me that she had changed her mind and wanted to be the granny from the napping house.

I have no idea where in the world she came up with that but the kindergarten teacher in me did a triple back flip!  I had plans to make her the nightgown and hat and all of the characters to connect to the nightgown.  I bought a pattern and some fabric and called my mom for some help.  She took one look at the pattern and went to the store to find a less complicated one.  Then she came over this morning to help me put it all together.  Thank goodness she did because I would have never gotten it all done.  While I sewed Ben's vest, she cut out and pinned the nightgown so it was ready for me to put together.  I am so glad that she was here because my biggest problem with sewing is that my brain cannot figure out the math and planning that it takes to put things together.  Me and my Master's degree cannot figure out how to piece things together.  It all looks good and then I end up having to take a sleeve off because I sewed it on inside out.  (I may or may not have done that today...).  My mom definitely saved me from a few more big oooopsies today.  And she gave me a much better idea of how to make the night cap.  I would have gotten it done but her way was much more streamlined.  Thanks, Mom!  After she left and once the kids were in bed, I finished the nightgown (except for the sleeves) and I couldn't wait to see what it would look like on Abby.  So I did what any good mom would do and woke her up!

The last thing I need to do is add some elastic to puff up the shoulders (because puffy shoulders are apparently the most important part of the ensemble) and make some booties that look like slippers to go over her tennis shoes while she is trick or treating.  Oh, and I have to make a wakeful flea, a slumbering mouse, a snoozing cat, a dozing dog and a dreaming child to make it authentic.  (If you're confused, you'll have to read the story!)

Thanks to my mom for a fun day that surely would have been a lot more frustrating if she were not here.  I'm happy to have what I'm hoping to be the major parts of the costumes behind me.  And now, my October weekends can be spent doing the things I love like going to pumpkin patches and celebrating my birthday!!