Dress make over.

So I have been cleaning out me and Isaac's closets as I do periodically. I got stumped when I got to this black and white dress. It's very cute, especially with this little short sleeved black cardigan. It fits me pretty well. But I don't think it is particularly flattering. I am short and chubby and anyhing that hits me lower than the bottom of my knee caps makes me look like a tree stump. The dress was about to be tossed into the "give away" pile when I decided to see if I could salvage it.

Here is the before picture (please excuse my workout clothes which I was in too big a rush to change out of). Also, I had to rope Isaac into snapping the pics for me, so excuse the wiggly photography. I think you get the idea though. Tea length hem = not doing much for me. However, Regina Spektor pounding in my ears is always a good thing.

I figured out about where I wanted the skirt to hit me and marked it with a marker. Then I attempted to pin everything below that point up. I ran into some trouble here, because the skirt is flarey, not straight (like a pencil skirt) and there was too much at the bottom when I went to pin it up. Also, I noticed the skirt material had some stretch to it and wasn't sure if I should stretch the fabric as I was sewing or let it fall flat.

So I called up my childhood best friend and seamstress extraordinaire Kathleen. She gave me a lot of advice and also offered to come over this weekend to walk me through it.

Let the record state that I ignored nearly all of her advice and forged on myself to do the project here and now when I was on a roll with it.

And, I think it turned out okay.

Not as flawless as if she would have done it, of course

But it is definitely acceptable.

At any rate. Here's how a non-sewer like me managed to finish this project. I took a ruler and using my original marks measured more marks all around the skirt that were 5.5 inches from the bottom like the mark I made. I just drew them right on with permanent marker. I'm sure you are supposed to use, like, chalk or some kind of sewing crayon. Then I just took my fabric shears and connected all the lines. It wasn't too hard because the flowers sort of formed little rows and I just had to cut across the top of one row.

Then I decided to hem it on the sewing machine. (Note: Kathleen recommended handsewing first.) I just flipped it over so the raw edge was lined up with the left side of the presser foot and the right side was lined up with the folded edge threw a few pins on and got started. I really did line it up better than the picture shows. It's hard to juggle everything plus the camera.

After I sewed the whole way around I tried it on again and I think it is much cuter now that I've lost 5.5 inches from the bottom. Don't you agree?

Don't worry, when I wear the dress for real I will actually

a)zip it up

b) brush my hair

Despite doing things the cheater's way, I'm chalking this one up as a success!

show me what I'm looking for

• I just finished twenty mins of jump rope in the driveway. It's the only cardio I can do here. After Isaac's in bed I take the jump rope out. I can't do it for very long but it sure gets my heart pumping and makes me feel like at least I haven't spent my whole day being a lazy bum.
• I'm also relearning all the old jump rope tricks I used to be able to do, like skipping, crossies and swinging it around twice in one jump.
• What I really need to do is give in and get a gym membership again. There are so many that just opened around I want to take the time to compare all the costs and I just haven't taken the time to do that.
• Speaking of excercise, how about my one sneaker just vanished? I have waited almost a month hoping it will turn up and it just hasn't. I changed out of my sneakers in the parking lot by the river trail and I think one of them must have fallen out of the car or something. I need to call Nike and see if I can purchase just one shoe, because it was a brand new pair. Only me....
• I had a dentist appointment today for a filling. It hurts like hell and I still can't chew on that side. The dentist said it could be sore for possibly the next month.
• Just finished another Jodi Piccoult book House Rules. I was 207th the waiting list at the library when I saw it on a shelf at my mom's house. I am a big fan of her books generally and this book is set around a character with Asperberger's, so I was into it at first. But my overall thought was just meh. It was extremely repetitive (at least 1/3 was descriptions over and over of charactertics of aspbergers) and the ending didn't make sense. Definitely did not compare to My Sister's Keeper or 19 Minutes.
• My next book is:

• So I'll let you know how that one is.

• I've been doing more reading in my room at night since I can't watch TV. Why not, you ask? Because the cats have chewed through both of the cords I use to sync/charge my ipod and then recently Cody chewed through the cable cord, so no more TV in my room. It's ridiculous. Good thing they are ridiculously cute.

• I don't have to much to write about. My days are filled with a few hours of incredibly easy work, catchy up on odds and ends, and doing whatever I can to maintain my tan. It's a tough life, but I think I deserve it, as hard as I work during the school year.

"We need society, and we need solitude also, as we need summer and winter, day and night, exercise and rest." -- Philip Gilbert Hamerton

another one..

Literally out of no where... "MOM! I don't want to go to church for a whole week and learn about Jesus!!!" "Um... ok... you don't have to." I finally figured out he was talking about Vacation Bible School. I don't even know how he knows about it, but apparently he is terrified I will send him. Made me chuckle...

Isaac-isms

These are all from today: "Mom can we stop on the way home from church and get a cool drink?" "No hunny, we don't do the drive through on Sundays." "DON'T YOU LOVE ME!?!" "Mom, the Holy Ghost is talking to me." "Oh, what's he--" "SHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! The Holy Ghost speaks very quietly!!!!" **After two minutes of silence** "He says, keep the commandments."

What I'm Up To

Life is good... seriously.... I freakin LOVE summer vacation. Crossing things off the to-do list Kind of mundane but now I finally have time to cross things that have been lingering on the to-do list forever. Things like seeing the doctor about the excema patch I've had on my eyelid for like six months. It's great to get my life a little more organized. Also some fun things too. Isaac and I took a trip down to the beach which was lovely. Hopefully we can squeeze in at least a few more day trips there, plus our big trip as a family in August. Summer School Easy breezy. The kids aren't too bad, the day goes fast, and I like to think they are having fun. I'm putting a lot of effort into trying to make it exciting and not just worksheets and flashcards all day. The kids who were such pickles during the year aren't a part of summer school, so that helps as well. I just turned in my time sheet yesterday and can't wait for my next paycheck with the extra cash. Maybe then I can finally afford get some paint up on the remaining walls. Walking My friend Kim and I are on a big walking kick. I figure, if I'm only working 8 hours a week, there is no reason why I can't get serious about excercising this summer. We have been walking along the River Trail. The past two days we did about 4.6 miles. Yesterday, due to the heat wave we are in the middle of, I totally tried to bail. I mean, I figure the fact that it is literally 105 degrees outside should be reason enough to skip. She insisted we still go and we were about a half a mile into our walk when it began to POUR with crazy lightning and wind. I seriously felt as if I were drowning! The crazy part was the amount of steam that was coming up off the sidewalks. It's that hot here. When it was all said and done our fronts were 100% soaked but our backs and bottoms were nearly dry. This was useful since we had to get back in the car and drive home. Anyways, afterwards I saw that power had gone out all over the place, it had hailed in many places near the city, trees were down all over and that some people had suffered property damage. Sheesh. Wedding Season So I went to this lovely bridal shower for my friend from Pitt Nicole. She was my randomly assigned freshman year roommate and we ended up living together all throughout college. She is from Lancaster, which is where my parents live now. Anyways, my friends (also girls I lived with at various points) showed up and it was the first time I had seen them since the Pitt days over seven (!!!!!!) years ago. Let me see if I can wrestle up a before picture.

Here was the picture we took at El Serrano:

It's wierd cause on the one hand college doesn't seem that long ago but on the other hand I have a five year old. Unreal. Oh and while we were there Nicole gave her bridesmaids their dresses. It is the EXACT same dress in the exact same color as my bridesmaids dress for my sister's wedding. It's a good thing I saw them because it had sort of been my plan to wear the dress to Nicole's wedding (it's more like a party dress). How awkward would that have been to be wearing the same dress as all of the bridal party????

Anyways, that's all for now. How is summer treating you?

Affirmation of the Week

"Where I am right now is perfect".

Common - Finding Forever

Why are you so petrified of silence? Here, can you handle this...

• I feel (somewhat) bad complaining again, but...
• Isaac's dad needs to hurry up and get back in the country and let me get out of this freakin house on a Friday night.
• Cause this he-takes-Isaac-for-literally-one-hour-in-June thing isn't working for me.
• I guess I shouldn't really complain. I have had several of my friends and (of course) my mom offer to take Isaac for me. But it's not about that.
• I don't want him with a sitter.
• I want him with his other parent.
• Anyways, I could go off on that tangent forever.
• In case I haven't told you, Isaac's dad is in South Africa for the World Cup. My coworker pointed out that I bring up the fact that he is there all the time. But seriously I have serious envy. (Did my using the "serious" twice in one sentence drive home the seriousness of the situation? Because it is serious. Seriously.)
• Anyways, he is off shirking parental responsibilities and galavanting around South Africa on his uncle's dime and I am stuck here on a Friday night scrubbing orange juice stains out of the hallway carpet.
• Wow... welcome to my life. Good thing I keep a blog to make myself feel fascinating.
• So I got a summer report for a new kindergartener in the fall.
• (I am writing IEPs for extra cash this summer. And because I can rock an IEP if I do say so myself and would rather have them show up written correctly in the first place than show up on my desk with a big post-it on it in the fall that says "Lisa, this needs to be done ASAP"... but anyways...)
• The report always lists a students strengths and weaknesses.
• This report lists (among other things) being strong willed as a weakness.
• Now, I have worked with PLENTY of strong willed kids with autism over the past seven years and I totally get how that can lead to behavior problems or otherwise thwart a teacher's best teaching efforts.
• But, as someone who is terrifically stubborn myself, I like to think that strong will could also be a strength.
• Anyways, now I'm just babbling.
• I woke up this morning around seven to Isaac crawling in bed next to me.
• We both woke up again around nine which was HEAVENLY.
• Since yesterday I was wide eyed and bushy tailed at seven am.
• I don't care what some people say about co-sleeping.
• I love (occasionally) waking up to a little sleeping face snuggling up to me.
• So school is out for summer. I'm working 8 hours a week of summer school and writing the occasional IEP so I am keeping somewhat busy.
• I need to keep my days structured and busy or I start to lose my mind.
• As much as I get stressed out by being spread too thin during the school year I go too insane when there is no school work and it's just me sitting inside these four walls all day.
• I've said it before and I will say it again, I could never be a stay at home housewife.
• Not that I would want to work 40 (plus) hours a week if I didn't have to.
• But nothing but children's TV and laundry and dishes makes my brain feel as though it is turning into mush.
• I think I would go into a serious depression.
• Anyways, to celebrate summer Isaac and I trekked out to Ocean City yesterday and had a great time.
• More than once he said "This was such a great day mom!".
• And it really was.
• It's fun now that he is old enough to travel longer distances without a lot of drama. I'm trying to think of some other day trips for us to hit this summer.
• My bridesmaid dress is officially in. I need to go pick up my frothy canary number and probably have it altered.

That's all I got for now... good night!

mommyhood

This post was amazing!

Pretty cool

As of 3:30 today

I'm officially out of school for the summer!!!! WAHOO!

as seen in Newsweek...

Here's the list of 2010 Resolutions and progress made: Ride my bike to work at least once Definitely possible in terms of distance but I don't know if it is feasible in terms of not dying. The roads I would have to take don't have shoulders and are very busy. Plus I would have to cross a narrow bridge and the sidewalk part of it is closed. AND people in Pottstown just are not used to dealing with bikers on the road. It's not off the table though if I got up really early or posisbly over the summer. Organize office, craft, sewing and scrapbook supplies and start using the office as a functional craft space In progress. I hauled out a ton of stuff I had been hoarding, organized my filing cabinet, gave away heaps of scrapbooking stuff to my mom. The fabric and other craft stuff is organized. There is still a ways to go in there but major progress has been made. Finish painting the rest of the house No new progress to report. Make a loaf of bread from scratch. Go one week without the internet I'm counting it. --->Completed 1/15 Take at least one mural tour in Philly I'm definitely knocking this out within the next few weeks. As soon as Isaac's dad gets back from South Africa and I get a Saturday to myself. Fly a kite Still can't find anything to fix the kite. And we've had lots of good kite flying days. Scrapbook 3 pages a month No scrapbook pages done. I gave away quite a bit of my scrapbook stuff as I cleaned out the office. I just haven't felt drawn to it lately the way I used to. Work out twice a week Yeah... ummm... I haven't hit this every time. Start composting No new progress to report. Take Isaac camping Soon! Soon! Drink 8 glasses of water a day Very hit or miss. If I remember to bring my water bottle into school I do better. Otherwise it will be like, 8 at night and I will be like, "Why the heck am I so parched?" and then I will realize I have drank, like 2 glasses of water all day. Take a class on something hobby related I've gotten some girldfriends to agree to try some yoga classes with me this summer. We've tossed around the idea of Zumba as well. Make progress towards getting my elementary certification (right now I am highly qualified in elementary ed, but it is more desirable to be dually certified) No and I MUST do something to get rolling on this over the summer. Floss daily Another total and complete FAIL. I just hate flossing. No two ways around it. Read three books before I head to the beach Done! I read Anne of Green Gables, Mary Ellen Edmund's Speaks and Handle with Care by Jodi Piccoult. I also finished The Time Traveler's Wife but I started that one last year. Reading more books has me watching a lot less TV which is a great thing. Eat more homemade meals and less frozen stuff and fast food Slight improvement but still a long, long, long way to go. Grow something edible and eat it I had a basil plant growing on my window sill for this exact purpose but the cats ATE it. So back to the drawing board on this one. Write a blog post when each of these is completed will do...

look what I made

I subscribe to a ton of blogs. Single gal blogs. Crafty blogs. Single mom blogs. I kept seeing projects like this popping up all over and I thought even my undomestic self could pull it off. I bought two shirts of the same color from the 3 dollar spot in Walmart: one to wear and one to cut apart. Buy the cut apart shirt in the largest size they have. You get more fabric that way. I studied up on tutorials like the ones found here, here, here and here. I used circles for petals and just kind of tacked them on. As the one tutorial says, if you can sew on a button, you can do this project.

I had a hard time getting a picture but I think you get the idea.

(Editor's Note: I'm actually not a miserable person. I just appear to be one in this picture).

I also bought two red shirts so I can make another one. Maybe something like this or this.

just so you know

He does exist. :-D

as summer time approaches

I get to stop worrying about intense parents, IEPs that need to be completed and lesson plans that need to be written and start focusing on the more important things in life: like cheesecake! Remember my baking buddy Becky from last summer? I pretty much forced her to come over again and teach me how to make cheesecake because I honestly had no clue. I didn't even really know you had to bake them. She bought me the springform pan as a present and even brought along an already made cheesecake so I could practice taking it out of the pan and moving it onto a pretty plate. That's dedication. We used this recipe with chocolate graham crackers for the crust. I even managed to pull off the water bath method which is something I had never even heard of, let alone attempted.

The cheesecake was delicious. Perhaps there is hope for this undomestic goddess after all!

You know what?

I love my family.

Isaac is seriously the greatest kid on the planet.

Being a mother is the best job you could ever have.

Some Things I Have Learned About Being a Mom:

It's okay to be messy.

It's okay to be silly.

It's okay to say no.

You need to take back all of the times you said "My child will never act like that."

Get out of the house. Sometimes it's easier to stay in but it's better to go out.

Roll with the punches. Life rarely goes as planned.

Being a mom brings you a whole lot closer to your own mother.

Modesty/privacy get thrown out the window.

All those cheesey cliches are true. You don't know you could love someone as much as you love him. You do have to treasure it because it flies by in a blink.

waka waka

Next Wed is the last day of school. In the meantime, the lame blog posts will most likely continue. In the mean time here is a video we can't stop watching. The song is so catchy. I would say we do a pretty decent job copying her dance moves if I do say so myself especially those from the 2:58 mark. Tonight I heard Isaac singing it to himself after I put him to bed. Did I mention his dad is going to the world cup? For three weeks? He better bring us back some jerseys....

Ten On Tuesday

*10 Songs You Are Embarassed to Like*

Party in the USA - Miley Cyrus. It's catchy. I'm sorry but it is.

Mmmbop - Hanson. Same as above. This was my cellphone ring a few years ago.

I Want it That Way - Backstreet Boys - This song was a huge hit right before I left for college and it reminds me of that time. It came on the radio the other day and I totally cranked it up (and then quickly turned it down at the red light, so no one would hear me rockin out to it).

Tarzan Boy by Baltimora. It was a Listerine commercial for a while when I was a kid. It is part of an inside joke from my Pitt years.

See You Again - Miley Cyrus. I love to hate her.

About You Now - Miranda Cosgrove. Yeah the iCarly girl. I'm down with the Disney tweens.

Tubthumping - Chumba Wumba. Random 90s one hit wonder.

Pretty much any ABBA. I have tons of it that I uploaded from my dad's cd collection. I started sorting my Itunes by frequency of listening instead of alphabetically by artist because when you opened Itunes all you saw was ABBA and it looked like I was obsessed.

See what I mean? (and that's not even the half of it)

Your Love is My Drug - Ke$ha. I know. It feels wrong to like someone with as little talent as her; someone who spells her name with a dollar sign for crying out loud. To be honest: I hate her... but this song gets stuck in my head... So...freaking...catchy...

Lotsa Accapella. I have tons of it on my itunes. Sophomore year of college I dated a guy who sang in an Acapella group and he sort of got me into it. Some of it is super corny.

Not Me Monday

I am NOT completely obsessed with my bagless vacuum. I do NOT repeatedly take out the canister and examine what I have sucked up before and after each new room. I do NOT feel a huge sense of satisfaction as a dump the contents into the trash can. I did NOT skip out of church after Sacrament Meeting this week. Isaac won't go to primary without me and I couldn't bring myself to balance on a tiny sunbeam sized chair and endure Sharing Time this week. EPIC MORMON MOTHER FAIL. We have NOT each been missing one shoe for over a week now (his croc and my red sneaker). All of my closets and bedrooms are perfectly organized and important things like sneakers are never lost or misplaced. They are always in their proper place where we can find them easily. I did NOT allow Isaac to eat Honey Nut Cheerios straight from the box for pretty much every meal this weekend. This is NOT how my hair has looked since Thursday. It's clean(ish), but with no AC at work, trying to excercise regularly, doing the windows down thing instead of the AC in the car, what is the point of running a comb through it when it? Also, going along with this picture, my principal did NOT ask me if I had pink eye. Nope, just never-ending seasonal allergies, thanks! I am not blogging when I should be preparing for my work week and tidying up the house. What have you NOT been doing this week?

This is what happens...

when I clean out my fridge...

I inherited all of my parents condiments when they moved last summer.

And I was horrified today to discover how many were well beyond their expiration dates.

Next to tackle: the medicine cabinet.

Tom's House Warming

It was a perfect Saturday for a BBQ at my brother Tom's new place in Norristown. Isaac and Tom's little dog Lucy. She and Isaac LOVE each other.

Water balloon fun... Tom manning the grill. The chickens were balanced precariously on beer cans.

The whole fam on Tom's front porch. Hayley, Lucy, Dad, me, Tom, Isaac and Mom.

Thanks for being such great hosts Tom and Hayley!

I'm the devil

Here's another lovely gem from today's paper. (There are generally 2-3 comments like this a day). "It's time for people to listen up. Why are the children having so many car accidents? Because the schools did away with driver's education. Why? Because of the budget. Why is the budget so high? Because of the teachers. It's a domino effect. The teachers hold the people and school children hostage. The budget goes up so they can get their way satisfied; they cut school programs and raise taxes." Evidently I'm responsible for teenagers crashing their cars. And no one told me that as I teacher I control the budget. Funny, I thought it was the elected school board officials that approved that.... I also heard teachers were responsible for the increased price of gasoline, global warming and the broken oil pipeline... *Eye roll* It's always fun to see who has more nasty messages, teachers or "illegal" immigrants...

Seriously???

On the radio this morning the DJ pronounced "epitome" as "epee-tome". What is the world coming to??