The only things I have made with my hands

So, many moons ago I posted pictures of my first quilt here. Since then I have made 1 and 8/9ths of a quilt and I thought I would regale you with them now.

This elephant quilt is Jojo's.



I started it back when we had decided her name was going to Lucinda Maxine Lewis. That is why it is monogrammed L M L on the back. Obviously, we did not name her that, but what is sewn is sewn. Kind of like when I dedicated my thesis to Sophia R Lewis, but I named my daughter Sophia Jane. Oh well.



For the record, we almost named Jojo, Lucinda Hero Lewis as well. What stopped us was the actual mythological story of the girl Hero, which is not very inspiring. Even Shakespeare's Hero was a bit of a sissy.

Here is the quilt I am almost done with now. I had planned to be done with it by the end of Nablopomo, but I forgot how much teaching University of Spleenex sucks the soul out of you. Still, I have seven months to finish it, so I should finish it in time for mini-me #3.



Here is a close up of the monkey.



I'm super proud of this one, and I'll tell you why--I designed the whole thing AND it's entirely hand quilted. What this means is that I am a genius.

Happy Nablopomo everyone!

The Day Boy and the Night Girl

When I was in high school I read this charming fairy tale and promptly forgot the name of it. It was about an evil witch scientist who performs a terrible experiment where she essentially kidnaps two babies and raises one in darkness and one in light. Eventually the two, a boy and girl, meet and have to defeat the witch, helping each other overcome their fears of darkness or light. It's just a cool story and I've thought a lot about it since then. I was reading a book last night that quoted that story! So I looked it up. The story is called "The Day Boy and the Night Girl" and it was written by the pastor George MacDonald in the late 1800s. You can listen to it online here. I couldn't find a nice online copy to read, though I found a lot of comments by people saying there is one. Anyway, it turns out he's written other stories that I really liked as a kid, like "The Princess and the Goblin."

It was kind of cool.

NABLOPOMO is going so slow this year...

Seriously, it's killing me.

Here's some fun news. My friend Diana Smith (who is awesome by the way), told me about a poetry contest on Goodreads, so I submitted and I got honorable mention. So I thought I would honorably mention that to you all. Here is the poem (I wrote it soon after Chris and I were married):


Elegy for my husband not yet dead, or even ill

After I paint the house black,
not just the walls,
but the screen door, the refrigerator and the toilet seat.

After I throw your finches out the third floor window,
put the gold fish and bowl in the freezer,
and ask the mortuary to bury Rufus the kitten with you.

After I have poured rubbing alcohol into the soil of the houseplants
raked 15 pounds of salt into our vegetable garden, and the neighbor's yard
maybe after that, I will be able to forget this Thursday morning

the white kitchen curtains
the blueberry bagels growing cold on the table
your lemon-blue eyes smiling at me over orange juice.

First Advent

We celebrated our first advent tonight. That means we had a lot of goodies out and invited some friends to come over and celebrate with us. In retrospect, we think we may have jumped the gun. First Advent may be next Sunday. Oh well. It was fun, and since this is the last of four days Chris has off until December 16th, it might have been the only chance we have to celebrate with him.

So I just looked it up and today is the first Sunday of advent so, we did it right. Ah, the wonders of Google. Anyway I have nothing to say except it was a lovely evening. We had cinnamon rolls, cookies, pineapple, shrimp,chips and guacamole, Brie and crackers, juice, and cocoa. We played Settlers of Catan and the kids did not go crazy.

Hooray for the Christmas Season!

Guest Post by the Husband

Anna remembered that she hadn't posted yet today, so I told her that I would write one for her. I didn't have anything in mind, so I think I will cover my last year quickly and then write a little bit about how things are going now.
Sep-Nov 2010 was Basic Training. Horrible stuff. I don't recommend it unless you need to deflate your ego or lose lots of weight.
Nov-Mar 2011 was Officer Candidate School. Meh. It was better but I was glad to live with Anna again when it was over.
Mar-July 2011 THE BEST. The Armor School hadn't opened on Fort Benning yet so I was sent to be a temporary staff officer at OCS. I took a lot (A LOT) of naps and read a lot of books. WHen I wasn't doing that I was watching TV or planning how to go home early.
July-Nov 2011 THE WORST. Becoming Armor Branch qualified at the Basic Officer Leadership Course (Armor BOLC). Long days and late nights writing operations orders and giving presentations.

Now I am in a course called the Army Reconnaissance Course. I am learning how to do recon and surveillance work and how to train others how to do it on a tight budget. It is the only really useful school I have gone to yet. The Department of Defense is undergoing some huge cuts (projected 1 Trillion dollars in the next 10 years) and we are going to have to learn to do more with less.
We just finished a field exercise where we conducted day and night land navigation for four days, eight hours of sleep total, carrying everything you would need except for water (supplied once every 24 hours). It was fantastic training and only required three 5 gallon water jugs and a couple of radios.
But I am excited to be done with training and move out to Germany.

Additionally:
1)I am finally reading the Lord of the Rings. I have been meaning to start it since 2001.
2)I recently splurged and bought myself a pack of Toaster Struedel but realized when I got home that we haven't had a toaster for about a year now. I am trying to think of other ways to cook them.
3)I have been watching this video a lot lately. Dubstep+robot dancing= chris/soapy/jojo dance parties.

Chris got his Stetson

Chris got his Stetson today. As you can see, it is pretty sweet. You can tell he likes it because I can NEVER get him to pose for a picture and I got him outside (where anyone could have seen him). He's also been wearing it around the house all day. I think it's awesome.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!