In honor of my 200th post (!), here are 100 things about me. I would've done 200, but that's a lotta things to come up with! Just read it twice instead. :)
1. I am left handed. extremely.
2. My husband says the whole kitchen is set up backwards.
3. I can write backwards without having to think about it.
4. I weigh 10 pounds less than what my driver’s license says.
5. I’m 1” shorter than it says too.
6. I don’t really care for chocolate.
7. Potato chips, on the other hand …
8. Popcorn too.
9. I also love popsicles.
10. and ice cream (though I need to take it easy with all that milk).
11. I prefer pie over cake, but with NO ice cream (they need to stay separate).
12. Milk is for baby cows, not people. It's nasty stuff!
13. My favorite beverage is lemonade or orange juice.
14. My favorite cocktail would have to be a fuzzy navel or
Framboise beer.
15. I could eat mexican food every day!
16. I could probably eat italian just about every day too.
17. Thai food is awful.
18. I don't drink coffee.
19. I make it almost every day for my sweetie, and love the smell.
20. I like grinding the beans too.
21. But it tastes like shit.
22. Hot chocolate is my coffee (yeah, I know about #6, but this is different).
23. My favorite color is purple, followed closely by red.
24. I don't like blue much, but people say it looks good on me.
25. I LOVE LOVE LOVE shoes.
26. really love shoes.
27. a lot.
28. Impractical ones are the best. :)
29. I love shoe shopping as much as fabric shopping.
30. Otherwise, I don't like to shop.
31. One of my fantasies is to never have to go to the grocery store.
32. I like comic books.
33. I'll go see any movie based off of a comic book.
34. I rarely watch television.
35. However, Caleb has gotten me hooked on
American Idol this season.
36. Maybe I should say it's
Blake that has gotten me hooked.
37. I like techno, euro-pop, dance, and electronica music.
38. Can't stand country music.
39. or Nascar.
40. I swam on the boys Varsity swim team in high school.
41. There weren't enough girls to make a swim team.
42. So we swam on the boys team.
43. I worked as a lifeguard in highschool.
44. I also worked as a swimming instructor.
45. I prefered teaching to guarding.
46. It's funny, because I hated swimming lessons as a child.
47. I used to hide from my mom so I wouldn't have to go.
48. Then she'd find me and I'd go kicking and screaming.
49. Now I force my own children to go to swimming lessons.
50. They actually like them, however.
51. I didn't learn how to ride a bike until I was 8.
52. I flunked my first try at a driver's license.
53. I got it when I was 17.
54. I still don't like to drive much.
55. I don't like to go fast.
56. David says I drive like an old lady.
57. I had purple hair last summer.
58. I loved it.
59. I can't sleep with the bedroom door closed.
60. My closet door has to be closed, however.
61. I like the blinds open too.
62. I'm severely nearsighted.
63. I can't see the shampoo bottle in the shower, or the clock on the nightstand.
64. I'm chicken to get lasik surgery.
65. I like how I look with glasses.
66. I want some glasses with rhinestones.
67. I used to have cheetah cat eye glasses.
68. My father was a cardio-thoracic surgeon.
69. I've watched open-heart surgery for real.
70. More than once.
71. It's simply amazing.
72. I almost fainted the time I watched when I was pregnant.
73. My second child was accidentally born at home.
74. on the front staircase.
75. My husband and my mom 'caught' him.
76. Hey, at least he wasn't born in the car!
77. Can you imagine having to clean that up?
78. We made it to the hospital with #3.
79. Had about an hour to spare. :)
80. The resident didn't believe my husband when he told her she better hurry up.
81. He told her (at 9:15 am) that the baby would be born by 10 am.
82. She looked at him like he had 3 heads.
83. Connor was born at 9:48 am.
84. Our doctor made it on time.
85. The older boys were with us too.
86. They got to meet their brother minutes after he was born.
87. That's pretty cool.
88. I'd say strawberries are my favorite fruit.
89. Mangoes, peaches, and pineapples are very close seconds.
90. I pick about 20# of strawberries each summer.
91. I put up strawberry jam every summer -- at least 40 jars.
92. Peach-strawberry jam is my favorite.
93. I love scalding hot showers.
94. I take a shower everyday.
95. But I only wash my hair once or twice a week.
96. I have one aunt, one uncle, and three cousins.
97. They don't speak english.
98. I'm fluent enough in spanish that I can converse with them.
99. It's hard, though, and after a while I get a headache.
100. I can't crochet.
David shows Stu his mad grilling skillz. 
We had mexican: fajitas, beans and rice, salsa, margaritas. Connor fell asleep while eating.
Look Beth, you made it on the blog! ;)
I got cocky and was teasing Caleb that he forgot to pie me. Unfortunately, my MOTHER remedied that error and got me!
My mom shows Connor how to pick strawberries. (as an aside -- I made that sundress for myself over 17 years ago. It's held up really well. Good quality fabric -- rayon in this case -- is worth every penny)
We all had to sample the strawberries as we picked. :) I think I took home about 17 pounds of berries. We also picked sugar snap peas, and I bought some balloon flowers, hollyhocks, and a roma tomato. On the way home we stopped for some custard at Culver's. Yum yum!
Connor had a little bit of a rash, so I was letting him go either nakey, or just in a diaper with no cover. First he started telling me right when he was wet, and would take his diaper off. Then he started telling me that he had to go "pee toilet!", and run in the bathroom. He stayed dry through the night. He even stayed dry on our 7 hour drive to Iowa on Memorial Day weekend (both ways!). 
My One Hot Skirt review is up at Sew, Mama, Sew! There are lots of detail pictures, including how I bound the bottom of this skirt, and how I prickstitch my facings down. After you go look, read all the other reviews -- it's Skirt Month in May, just in time for summer!
I know I've been quiet, but I have been sewing! I made and reviewed a skirt for the Sew, Mama, Sew! blog. Here is the first one, and the review, with oodles of pictures should be up on Monday. (It's the One Hot Skirt from Betsy Ross Patterns) I'll let you know, along with pictures of the second skirt.
I really like how this one turned out (goes great with my skirt, no? ~G~). This fabric is some type of poly knit that I bought at The Cutting Table a few years ago. It has less stretch than the rayon knit from Canvasbacks, pictured in the previous post. It feels great on my skin, and shouldn't be too hot to wear, especially on overcast cool days like today. This pattern is a definite winner and will be a staple top. I'll probably make some with a straight hem also.
Tomorrow is my monthly pattern club meeting, and we'll be discussing Jalie patterns. Yesterday I made up 2449, the crossover top. I started with a size T, and did a small FBA (1"). Instead of stitching the newly created dart, I just eased it in. I constructed the whole thing, except for the hems, on the serger. I've never done that before, and boy was it fast!
Happy Birthday Caleb! I woke him up this morning with a pie in his face. I don't remember how that tradition (the pie in the face sometime on your birthday) got started, but it's pretty fun. After a birthday breakfast of bacon and pancakes, and opening one present (his new t-shirt) he's off to school. We made his birthday cake last night (raspberry), and I'll be bringing it to school for a treat this afternoon. 
Tonight we'll have his birthday dinner (pork roast, mashed potatoes, gravy -- he always wants the same thing), more cake, and more presents. We'll finish the evening with me telling him his birth story, which inevitably leads to me telling all the boys all their birth stories.
I had a busy weekend filled with working! Peter and Julie came up so that I could pin and alter a bridesmaid dress. They had also hoped to watch Caleb's soccer game, but that got canceled about an hour beforehand, due to a flooded field. David started cleaning up the yard, raking up dead leaves, picking up branches, general cleaning up. He put all the yard waste into neat piles, and I started filling lawn bags. TWELVE packed bags later, we have this. I've made it about 1/3 of the way around the yard. Yesterday, after I filled the twelfth bag, I decided to take a break from that, and replenish the firewood. 
I split and stacked a lot! Caleb and Calvin helped me a little bit, but mostly it was me. I was worried I might be quite sore today (with wielding an ax and sledgehammer, not to mention all the hauling), but I'm not! I guess that means I must be in pretty good condition. :) Caleb had another soccer game in the afternoon, and we ended our weekend as usual, watching Nature at 8, then bed. 
We still have a few daffodils blooming. I like these ones with the orange centers.
We saw giraffes. I didn't know this, but they can go for a week without a drink!
We spent a lot of time watching this little guy. It was moving around, and we were hoping to see it change color. (it didn't, as it stayed on the leaves)
It was cool to see the green tree python baby. We read Verdi quite often, so to see a real one was neat. The mama (I think? an adult one) was hanging out on a branch in the habitat too. 
Here is the first of at least 4 summer skirts I have planned. I used New Look 6596 , which I made last summer. I've admired Beki's various skirts that she made using the Favorite Things pattern, but didn't want to pay $10 for a new pattern, so I just whacked my pattern into gores. :) I made this a 6 gore skirt, and added 2.5 inches to the length of the original pattern. I flat felled all the seams (because I ran out of black serger thread), and lined it in ambiance. This particular skirt will be quite versatile, as it looks good with my boots, my wedge heels, and some black sandals I have. 
After lunch, Caleb wanted to carry Pabi home. He can carry his 33 pound baby bro up 2 flights of stairs; carrying his cousin in the bjorn is a piece of cake!
We went to the Notebaert Nature Museum (where Peter and Julie had their wedding reception), and played for a while. 
We spent some time in the butterfly haven. It was hot and humid in here!
We managed to get some pretty good cousin pictures -- no easy feat with my wiggly Connor. Julie got some good pictures also, which you can see here. 
Calvin (and Caleb) tried out a bed of nails. Connor was going to, but changed his mind.
They also played with a bunch of robot stuff. I think here they are controlling a dinosaur. There was also a cool robotic elephant. The aquarium is really neat, with a petting pool and various fresh and saltwater tanks. Some of the tanks go under the floor, so it's like you are walking on the fish, and it took some coaxing to get Connor to walk on them! 
