Return from Geekfest

We have finally returned home...

We are back from Ohio and we are all exhausted but overall the trip went really well. Chase was as well behaved as he could have been and it looks like he just cut his first tooth today! The convention was a blast and we all played many games and ended up buying tons of stuff. What more could you want out of a vacation? I guess sleep was the only think lacking from our fun little trip. Staying up all night playing games and then getting up with a 9 month old every morning left Boris and I in pretty bad shape today.

A few things thoughts about this trip:
- I swear we are at the peak of the "massive amounts of stuff for your kid" phase. We were only gone for four days and Chase needed two suitcases and a diaper bag! It was ridiculous!
- Never vacation without back up baby watchers! Boris and I realized that it was almost more work having Chase on vacation then it would have been keeping him at home. Thankfully we had my mom, dad, and Graham who supplied amazing baby sitting services during the trip. I swear I will never travel alone.
- The crappy thing about vacation is all of the chores that you have to do when you get home.
- My tolerance for cleanliness went way down on vacation. Chase was busy crawling all over gross hotel room floors and eating off dirty tables and I couldn't have cared less. We stimulated his immune system quite a bit this weekend.
- My 9 month old son is a pre-vert. During the trip we caught him rubbing one of our cute waitress's butt while at dinner. *sigh*

Although I did have fun, it is so nice to be home...below are some pictures from the trip.


There was a vendor selling funny hats and I thought this was hilarious...



I made Graham pose for a true geek picture.



Dad and Graham played so many new games!



Here is a bad picture of all of us out to dinner.



Here is a picture of Chase playing, he loved pulling up on the rails at the convention center.

Recent Sewing Projects

I have recently been really into sewing...


Here is a wall quilt that I just finished. It was the first time that I tried applique. I was pretty happy with how it turned out but it did bunch in a few places. One of my crafting friends recommended that I make my stitches a bit bigger when I do my quilting so I will have to try that next time.




The other project that I recently completed was a tote. I don't like my fabric choice and there are a lot of things that I would do differently such as making the outside fabric a bit smaller so it doesn't bunch and using some kind of interfacing or a heavier fabric but it was good practice and I intend on making more totes in the future.

Free at Last

Free at last, free at last...


I love being on vacation, I have actually been on "mental" vacation since Monday but tomorrow is the first real day of "physical" vacation. Tomorrow Boris, Graham, my parents, and I leave for Ohio. It is Chase's first official vacation which is kind of exciting - I am nervous about the flight and all sharing a room with the baby but we'll see how it goes. All that really matters is that for the next few days I don't have to go to work. I think the start of a vacation may be one of my favorite feelings in the world.


It has been a bit hectic packing. I didn't realize how much junk a baby needs, it is really amazing! I should have gone into the baby supply business - talk about a money making industry. Every time I look at all of Chase's stuff I realize how much junk he has that he doesn't really need to survive. Oh the things a parent will do for connivence now a days.

My Rockin' New Sewing Machine

My new sewing machine should finally arrive today...

I am so excited, I just bought my first embroidery sewing machine! It is currently sitting on the FedEx truck waiting to be delivered (don't you love web tracking - what would we do without the internet). I am already salivating over all of the different projects that I will be able to do with it. The only disappointing thing is that I leave for vacation tomorrow so I won't be able to play with it much until I get back.

Also in case anyone is interested, here is a link to some of my older craft projects. It had never occured to me to have a crafting blog until I tried to sign up for a quilt swap and found out that they required one! But in the future I'll try to post all of my new crafting adventures here.

http://web.mac.com/kalikstein/Site/Creativity/Creativity.html

My Competetive Edge

I am way too competetive for my own good...

Lately Boris, Graham, and I have been playing a lot of Settlers of Catan. I love that game. It is very mean spirited but it is entirely way too much fun. It occasionally leads to hard feelings though since Boris and I both HATE losing and it is definately a smack talking type of game. The good thing is that although I don't think Graham likes losing, I don't think it makes him as crazy as it makes Boris and I. I wonder if Chase will get our competetive streaks...

All of the Settlers playing has made me very excited about the gaming convention we are going to next week. I know, we are total geeks but I think it will be great fun. I'm a little nervous about taking Chase on a plane but hopefully that will go well. I will post pictures of our geekfest once we get back.

"Big Boss Man"

I finally moved into an office at work...


Imagine that, I am finally a "big boss man" with four walls and a window that I can call my own. It is actually pretty nice having an office although it is so quiet that I am starting to think I need some music or a fountain. But you know what the best part of having an office is...I get to decorate it! I'm so excited about that.


This weekend I invested in a clock for the office and I am planning on hanging my new wall quilt. Unfortunately our company policy is that I am not allowed to hang anything on my own so I have to wait until facilities can come put everything up. I also still want to buy a lamp because the glare from the windows and over head lighting is terrible and maybe a few plants or other trinkets to put on the bookshelf.


The other interesting thing is that as it turns out I may need to invest in some candles because I swear that it kind of smells like feet in the office. Maybe my feet just smell REALLY bad and I am contaminating my own environment but I find it hard to believe that my feet smell bad enough to stink up an entire office when the door is open. Hopefully a candle will help with the situation.


Here is a picture of the front of my wall quilt. I hope to finish it up this weekend but we'll see. I'm really happy with how it turned it out, although I had to ditch the beads because they made the quilt look a bit busy.

Growing Up Too Fast

My son is definitely growing up way too fast...

Chase has done the most amazing things recently. In the last two weeks he has learned to wave bye, crawl, pull up, feed himself, drink out of a sippy cup, and take steps if you hold his hands. I am shocked at how fast this wave of new activity has come. I figured that things would be much more gradual. It is hard because on one hand it is so exciting and I can't wait for the next new thing but on the other hand it makes me sad because time is going by so fast. Pretty soon Chase will be a toddler and won't be a baby anymore. I don't think I am ready to give up having a "baby".

Here are some recent pictures of kiddo.

Quilting Quilting Oh What Fun!

I have been bitten by the crafting bug yet again...


I just can't help myself. I go through phases where I have the burning desire to craft, draw, sew, and do other domestic / artistic type activities. My current project was inspired by my neighbor who is an amazing seamstress and does quilt swaps. The swap that she does is for a small wall hanging size quilt. Hearing about the swap made me want to try one out but I had already missed the deadline for signing up. After a bit of thought I decided that I don't really need a swap to make a really cool wall quilt so I went ahead and started one. I am about 70% finished with the top of the quilt. I am trying some new techniques such as applique and beading. We'll see how it turns out. I will post pictures when it is finished. I am REALLY excited about this quilt - it is very modern and fun.


My other hobby lately has been reading. I had taken a break from reading but I just discovered that a new book from one of my favorite series is out. For all the fantasy readers out there you have to read the Kushiel series it is amazing! I hope this book is as exciting as the previous ones. I am also getting ready to start Barefoot which is a book that a couple of friends and I selected to read as a group. We wanted to start a book club but we couldn't think of enough people so we settled on just reading the same book for now... maybe in the future we will actually get an entire club together.


I just wish that I had more time to pursue my interests but life is always so busy...

Landscaping

We are officially no longer white trash...

Boris and I had been growing a weed bed at the corner of our yard and the weeds were becoming amazing large in size. They were almost up to my waist! So today Boris and Graham did the amazing task of pulling out all of the weeds,
cleaning up the bed, planting new bushes, and putting in mulch. It looks like it was professionally done and I am no longer ashamed of our front yard. We even had a neighbor that lives across the street come and examine the new bushes. He seemed very happy - I'm sure he was thinking "about bleeping time the neighbors cleaned up their bleeping yard."


I think I want to get some kind of flower bed decoration now (which makes me feel very domestic). Perhaps some kind of wire / glass globe like thing or some kind of cool statue of sorts. I may even get a few flower planters and put them out with the bushes so that it appears like we have a garden (but without the hassle of weeding).

In other news - a quick health update - I am very excited that my results came back negative so I can rule out MS. I still feel like crap and my temperature has reached triple digits this week but at least it isn't MS!!!! YAY!!!

When the Bad Times Roll

I feel really lucky to have so many good friends...


Yesterday I had yet another health disaster. My vision started doing some rather strange things - I felt like I was looking down a long tube and the edges of my vision were all hazy and blurry. I called my doctor and considering all of the other symptoms that I have been having she is concerned that I may have MS. So I am currently terrified that I have some terrible chronic illness. I have an MRI scheduled for tomorrow morning so hopefully I will know more on Friday.


All that being said, I do think that this experience has made me realize just how many friends and family I have in my life that really care and worry about me. It has actually made me feel really good to have so many people offer support or show concern. For being the introvert that I am, I have some how managed to collect a massive amount of really close friends. I definitely consider it a blessing because there have been other times in my life when I haven't been in this situation. Granted friendship takes a lot of time and effort from both parties so I like to think that I have earned my large set of amazing relationships but maybe it is just good luck or good Karma.


My advice for the day - call or email a friend today just to tell them how much you care about them - it's a good thing to do once in awhile...

Trouble - Here we come!

Chase, my adorable 8 month old boy, finally started crawling today! He has been rocking on all fours and scooting about for awhile now but today was the first day he did an official crawl. He only made it a few feet but he did it multiple times so I think it counts. We'll see what he can do tomorrow when he isn't as tired. I am so excited!!!




This opens a whole new world of trouble for us. Pretty soon he is going to be opening drawers and cabinets and pulling up on things. We have already started to childproof, which involved attempted purchases / installations of 4 or 5 baby gates before we found the correct one, many drawer clips, not all of which have been installed and a few of which don't work due to installation error, and door locks, which work amazingly well. I'm sure all of this effort won't keep Chase out of everything and he will still manage to get into trouble or bonk his head on a few sharp corners but I guess that comes with childhood.


I'll be curious to see what the toddler age does to my perfect well behaved baby, who up to this point has only cried for more then 15 minutes 4 times in his life (I'm sure you don't believe me but I swear he is really that good). Tonight he insisted on being rocked to sleep (which we never do) so I hope we aren't leaving our angel child phase and moving into a devil child phase but only time will tell.


I guess the question of the day is - Do perfect babies make perfect toddlers or are Boris and I in for a world of hurt?