Latest Sewing Projects

Our camera is still in the shop but we broke out the video camera to try to take some still photos. It's not the best and the coloring is off but it's better then nothing! I've been a busy bee in my sewing room lately. Here are a few of my latest creations. There are a ton of photos so it might take a couple minutes to load them all!

The baby collection:

30 flannel wipes


20 diaper inserts

6 fitted diapers (2 prefitted diapers not in photo)



1 Reversible Mei Tai

Addie's Christmas Gifts (completed so far):
Bitty babys' PJs



Twirly Dress


Flaired Fleece Hoodie

Christmas Gifts for "Other" Kids:
Hand Puppet Set

Fleece Blanket

I'm currently working on fleece diaper covers, diaper pail liners, wet bag for diapers (diaper bag use), more Christmas presents for Addie, and Christmas stockings.

Week 32

We are at week 32 of the pregnancy now. It's hard to believe that we will be welcoming home our new baby girl in less then 2 months! The time has flown by so fast. I've been working hard to try to get more stuff ready before the baby gets here. Just today I sewed 10 diaper inserts for the cloth diapers. I've also ordered diaper covers and am looking into who has the best price for the newborn sized prefolds I was going to try. With Michael's help we hung a wall organizer thing on the wall by the changing table. I've started to fill it with diapers and wipes. Things are coming together and I'm sure by the time she gets here we will have everything ready. I just find it amazing how prepared I was with Addie and now I'm so busy with Addie that I've put off getting ready for the second child.

Addie had her Big Sister class at the hospital on Sunday. She was so excited about going to the class. Well, we got there and she asked if the baby was leaving mommy's tummy then. We had to break her heart. I'm still not sure where that thought came from but it was there. She enjoyed the class and hopefully will be a little bit more prepared to see us in the hospital and also life at home with a newborn. The most interesting part of the night was when we where walking through the lobby of the hospital to leave Addie asked Michael if we would have to pay the hospital for Margaret. Wow! Only Michael and I's child when be thinking about how much this will cost us :) Michael nicely said us we will have to pay the hospital and then asked her which chair she liked because we are helping to pay for those nice brand new chairs.

Monday I had a baby appointment. Everything went well. Heart beat was strong, right amount of weight gain, and belly not as big as "normal" but the doctor thinks that is because I'm tall so I have more space to spread it out vertically. Thank goodness for that! My poor back could not handle any more stress.

If only all things went this well.

I've gotten more than a few frustrated phone calls over the past couple weeks about a certain non-functioning internet connection. Its been just so-so since moving in, and earlier this year it was so unbearable that we called AT&T out to inspect. There were some issues on their end, but by the time they were done, we had a great connection at the Network Interface Device. But by the time the signal got in the house and to the modem it was depleted by more than half. The technician informed us that lots of people with our era of house had DSL problems. Ug.

Well, I'm pleased to report that as of 2pm today we have all new Cat 5e wiring from the NID to the new terminal block to the phone jack in the office. 80 ft of beautiful twisted pairs. It really wasn't hard, it just takes a few tools and a little know-how. I'm still a little surprised that it all worked the first time - no tweaking, no adjustments. And I did it all. I know, crazy.

And no, the camera isn't back yet, but our video camera will take still pictures. No flash, low res, but none the less, pictures.


The old terminal block - no, it wasn't this creepy in person, but with no flash, I had to use the night-sight mode.


Some tools of the trade - on the far right is the new terminal block.


Aren't they beautiful?


The updated NID


The new terminal block wired ...


... and bridged. Crazy what those two little wires can do.

Looking back, its a wonder we ever had a DSL connection. There was nothing wrong with the setup for voice usage. But nothing was up to spec as far as data standards go. I know, weird for the mid-1960's.

A 4-year old's point-of-view

About a year ago, Addie became not only fascinated with cameras, but with using our digital camera. It was after a couple rounds of "let me take a picture" that we started looking into cameras for kids. No need to wonder where birthday money went. And that was money well spent. Addie loves to take pictures with it and so do her friends. They may not come out that great, but its always interesting to see what she or her friends has chosen to commit to photo.


Addie and Rylee (Rachel's daughter)


"Ok, now you take a picture of me"


Princess Monopoly with 'Baby Addie'


Momma, multitasking.


Seemingly, her two favorite subjects...


... her room and her toys.

Lastly, an update on our camera: According to Fuji's friendly customer service rep, we should get our camera back in 2-3 weeks. I know. I'm hoping that this is just a canned answer that they tell everybody irregardless of the actual repair time, and that we'll see it sooner than that. Mad Mushroom was our favorite pizza place in college. The same guy was always taking delivery orders and said it would be there in 45 minutes. Somehow, without fail, you would have pizza in-hand in more like 10-15 minutes.

Fingers crossed.

Update

I can't believe that a week has almost went by since I last posted! Time is flying... As you know we did not get any Halloween photos, but my parents did! So here are three photos my mom took of Addie at the airport all dressed up for trick or treating.
A lot has happened in the last week. Addie had her first music class last Thursday. She loved it and keeps asking when she gets to go again. The class is made up of mostly home schooled families and they meet at my neighbor's house. The lady who is teaching the class also does kindermusik and music therapy. Along with the "normal" age appropriate learning she also is teaching them how to read music. I was very surprised how fast Addie picked it up. In fact, Sunday at Mass she was busy reading the music notes!

Saturday we spent the day outside working in the garden and yard. We did everything from cut back the blackberry bushes, take down the deer fence, dig up potatoes, put stuff for the winter to racking leaves. Addie and one of her friends spend the day playing outside while we worked. They had a blast playing in the leaves and helping Michael spot the potatoes. You would have thought that they where digging for lost treasure. They also kept busy "saving worms" by covering them up with dirt when ever one got unearthed in the garden. Unfortunately after a great day of work my back was back out of place again. The chiropractor worked on it Monday but it's still not right. Hopefully tomorrow morning he will get it fixed.

I've been busy sewing up a storm. I'll try to post photos soon but for now I'll just give you the list of things. I've made 10 fleece scarves with a fallish embroidery pattern on them, a Mei Tai baby carrier, a fleece pullover for me, 2 sets of 5 hand puppets, and a huge stack of diapers! My back might be out but the one thing I can still do is sew. I have several other sewing projects for this week. Mainly Addie's Christmas presents. She is going to be gone visiting grandparents so it will be my one chance to sew without her helping me.

So many pictures

...where to begin? According to Flickr, we have over 3,900 photos uploaded. This may be tougher than I thought.

From the 2005-02-12 photo set:


I've always loved this one.



Something about this dress always turned Addie into a wild woman.


Teasing the dogs

A messege from Lah Family Tech Support

It looks like our camera is down for the count. We are sending it off today to FujiFilm to get an estimate on repairs. We may be camera-less for a few weeks until we get this sorted out. Until then, posts will be sans new photos. To help pass the time, we'll periodically post some of our old favorites.

Thanks for your patience. (This isn't easy on Emily either)