Nolan “has finished” His Quilt

Technically this was NOT my UFO. Nolan saw the Abstract theme fabric when we were in Oregon. He was around 11 (He’s 26 now). He haaaaaad to have that fabric. He promised if I would buy it for him he would make the quilt! With supervision he did use the rotary cutter and then sewed one block and some of the units for other blocks. After that everything ended up in my collection for about 15 years. Finally because I’m trying to clean out and clean up, I pulled it out and finished it. I actually finished the binding within 5 minutes of the binding of Snowmen A to Zzzz. I couldn’t decide which to finish first and Jesse suggested I do both at the same time. So I alternated between them one needle of thread then switch to the other. I know, I do strange things to entertain myself. Now that the quilt is finished, Nolan is taking credit for the great job he did.

Anyway, it is Maple Island Quilts’ BQ pattern. I had been looking for an excuse to buy the quilting design Vortex II from House of Creations. So I did get something out of it besides a little more storage space.

Homework

Four more days of school until Christmas Break.  The boys are feeling a little apprehensive because this is the fist time they officially have final exams in every class.  I’m not worried, they do extremely well on regular tests, and I’m sure they will do fine.  Because finals start on Friday this is “dead week” and they have very little homework.  However, Jesse had one last project due tomorrow for Geography.  Project — do I hear other parents groaning?  That really isn’t fair, most of the time they take care of their projects with little or no help.  But this one involved cooking so of course I got to be involved.  Each student chose a country and had the opportunity to make food from that location.  (I’m convinced all these cooking assignments are a way for the teachers to get free meals.)   Jesse earned  first choice of countries because he was able to answer the question, “What is the capital of Belarus?”  Thankfully he chose Italy.  I can work with that!

I make no guarantees on the authenticity of our food since I’ve never been to Italy, but we made homemade pasta and homemade marinara sauce.  This is the recipe we used for the pasta.  We didn’t have to roll it out by hand since I pulled a pasta machine from the recesses of my cupboards (I used it once before many years ago.)

No official pasta drying rack in the house (according to some research a broom stick between two chairs will work).  We improvised — how about a clothes drying rack?

The marinara sauce was pretty simple — olive oil, lots of garlic, tomatoes, basil, oregano, salt and pepper.  I’m not sure how he is going to heat everything at school, but we finished the assignment.  Jesse said it was more fun than he expected (he would much prefer an assignment from a book rather than a project).  Maybe we’ll use that pasta machine again in the near future — I’m on the hunt for a good gluten-free pasta recipe.

Oh, incase you didn’t know, the capital of Belarus is Minsk.

Jesse Gets to Drive

Jesse is 14, but he got to drive for the first time today.   Doesn’t sound that exciting does it?  But how many teenagers drive for the first time in a car that is over 100 years old.

Nolan had his chance as well.

Something seems a little unfair here.  My dad has had (and restored) antique cards since I was way younger than Nolan and Jesse and today was the first time I ever drove one.  Guy also got in on the fun.

For those that would like the specifics, this is a 1909 Reo.  It is a one cylinder car and my dad’s latest toy.

My 2010 Graduate

Tonight Jesse graduated from the 8th grade.  The plan was to have dinner and graduation outside, but the wind had been blowing about 30 mph with gusts up to 50 mph so everything moved indoors.  Once everything was moved in, the wind died down to a more acceptable level.  Oh well, he got his diploma anyway.

Here he is with his teacher getting that milestone piece of paper.

He did very well academically this year.  I haven’t seen the final report card, but I’m pretty sure it has straight A’s for the year.

Jesse is a Smart or Wise … (fill in the blank).  After he got his diploma he asked, “How many times do I have to go through this?”  We started naming off graduations and told him 3 or 4 times.  His response, “Well, I already did it one other time for kindergarten, but I got stickers then.”  Mrs. Miller was quick to grant his wish and gave him a sticker.

Then it was off to cut the cake.  But first a photo-op with the two graduates.

Jesse and Michele played the Cratchits in the Christmas play and Michele has given Jesse a hard time ever since.  She calls him her husband and darling regularly.  Jesse’s typical response is “Bleck!”  She tried to get a more cozy picture with him and this is the result.

I mentioned Jesse was a Smart A** and I found the perfect card.  I couldn’t pass it up even though I don’t usually run around calling people that name.  The gift will late until later, but here he is with the card.  — Notice the sticker is still on his hand.

The 7th -9th graders are spending the night at Mrs. Miller’s.  She is a brave woman.  There is junk food galore and I doubt my boys will get much sleep, but they will have fun and I will sleep.

I’m proud of you Jesse — keep up the good work.

Happy Birthday Jesse

The 7th and 8th graders at church and I have been studying the fundamental beliefs of the Seventh-day Adventist church each week in Sabbath School.  Last week we studied baptism and I asked the students if any of them were interested in being baptized.  All my regular attenders indicated that they were interested.  I contacted the pastor and let him know.  There was already a baptism scheduled for today and he asked if any of them were wanted to be included.  It worked out perfectly, because it is Jesse’s birthday and he liked the idea of that being the day he was also baptized.

Today on his 14th birthday, Jesse publically committed his life to Jesus.  It was indeed a high day in both his life and in the lives of his parents.

Congratulations and Happy Birthday Jesse.  May you continue to grow in your walk with your Saviour.

I Have a Chauffeur!

He has had his permit for about a week and here is Nolan driving us home from school.

He wasn’t in a hurry to get his permit and crazy as it sounds I was putting pressure on for him to take the test and get driving.  I have my reasons.  So 4 months from his 16th birthday he finally took the test.  He is doing pretty well.  The trip home from school takes him about 25 minutes (Mom is more of a lead foot) with a fair amount of traffic.  I did figure out all but two turns on the route home are right turns before I offered to let him take the wheel.  We’ve only had one exciting incident so far.  When he is really comfortable, I can sew or embroider while he drives. 🙂

Spirit Week Day 1

Yesterday kicked off Spirit Week at school with Favorite Book day.  I reminded the boys Sunday night, but did they plan anything?  Oh, no.  Apparently, they take after their mamma and are last minute boys.  At breakfast I was throwing out ideas to Jesse, and he finally decided his math book was his favorite book.  So I wrote math problems all over his shirt with a wash out marker.

When I spotted Nolan he had already taken care of his outfit.  The book he dressed as was The Geeks Guide to World Domination.  He pointed out he was actually dressed more as a nerd than a geek.  Sorry, the difference is lost on me.  Here is a picture of the two of them at school.

Nolan really hammed it up and he took first prize for the day.

I don’t have to be at school until 11am.  I was also last minute, but one of the ideas I threw out for Jesse sparked a plan.  As soon as they left for school I ran down to the basement and about 40 minutes later I had this.

Yep, I went as a cook book.  Apron, towel over the waistband, cooking utensils hanging off the apron, neckerchief and chef’s hat.  No, cook books are not my favorite books, but it was an easy thing to dress up as and people got it.

Today is candy day.  Again they were last minute.  Nolan is a Hershey Kiss with a tinfoil kiss shaped hat, and Jesse is a Milky Way.  He is wearing all black and I punched circles with a hole punch from stickers and covered him with them.  I will be going as the Jolly Rancher :-).

Birthday Stop Motion

My Mother-in-law’s birthday was today.  For some reason Guy likes to get chicken stuff for her.  We bought chicken napkin rings and saved them until she came for her birthday.  In the mean time Guy “commissioned” Nolan to create a stop motion video using the napkin rings.  This is what he came up with.

Chickens for Grandma (finished).wmv

I’m trying to load the videos on my Webshots account. Which I can do, but can’t embed here. You will need to click the link above. Or I added a Vpod widget on my side bar (you won’t be able to see it if you are reading this from a blog reader). From there the video can be watched right here on this page. It is only a few seconds long.

Don’t Tell Jesse

The heat broke today and we are having a very pleasant day.  Which means even though the boys are being typical teens (is there such a thing) and sleeping in we still managed to go on a bike ride.  (OK, I admit it, I’ve been staying up too late and managed to sleep in until after 8 this morning.) 

Jesse was lobbying for a 3-6 mile ride, but Nolan had a book come in at the library and wanted to ride there.  Jesse does not have good memories of a similar ride last summer.  I told them we would ride that direction and see how it went.  We made it all the way to the library and Nolan picked up the second James Bond book. 

A new little shop opened in the library shopping center called Squeak.  We had spotted it the last time we were at the library, but didn’t know if it was open.  It is a soda shop.  I have to assume it is along the same lines as a drug store soda shop in the 50s — I’m not old enough to know for sure.  We went in to check it out.  I believe they said there were 57 flavors of soda, there were little vials to smell before you buy.  The also offered candy by the pound, ice cream, shakes, malts, floats, grilled cheese and coffee.  I’m sure there was more.  It appears to be an independent store and I hope they do well.  The next time I go to the library, I’ll try to get a picture to add to this post.  For those of you that are local and are reading this — they are in the shopping center at the corner of Rockrimmon and Vindicator.

(edited to add picture)(another edit — I found this video that shows the inside of the shop)

We took an alternate route home.  Good thing because the last mile getting to the library is a fairly steep downgrade and I don’t want to go back up it or hear Jesse whine.  We figured out where the bike path connects to the road and came home that way.  Let’s not tell Jesse, but the trip was about 12-1/2 miles.  That is the longest ride he has done this summer and he did pretty well!  Way better than he was doing last summer.

Our afternoon storm clouds are rolling in so we made it just in time.  I’m off to see how much quilting I can get in before I shut down as a precaution against lightening strikes.

Enough Already

The boys have been out of school for five weeks, but I wouldn’t even know they were home most of the time.  They have been glued to the computer.  I’ve been talking to them about self regulating, but it didn’t seem to sink in.  Finally enough was enough.  Guy booted them off the computers this evening and they now have certain hours they cannot use any screens — computers, TV, ipod, DS etc. 

Jesse pulled out the dominos and I thought he was pretty creative when I saw this sitting on the table.

I guessed a piano, but was immediately corrected.  It is a keyboard.  The amount of his creativity came into serious question when he said he needed a blue shirt for the cat.  The question then was where had he seen this.  His response, “If I could use a computer, I could show you.”  Nice try kid.

It turns out there is a YouTube video that has been used frequently at the end of “fail” videos.  He modeled his little scene after that.  It is a real cat and keyboard in the video, so I still give him points for creativity.  Here’s the video.  I am amazed by what they find hilarious, but they are boys.