Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Allie is 17! Whoa, I remember 17. I started college at 17. 17 was aunt Rachel's favorite year.

Allie's birthday was fun. She just wanted money and to go shopping. We complied. We also surprised her with not one, but two, pair of her favorite cheap sandals from Hawaii. Sandy Hewlett picked them up for me. Allie was thrilled. She also got a dress that she had picked out at JC Penney.

We gave her some cash. We went to dinner at Sammy's in Provo. It's a burger, shake place with awesome stuff. Very unique menu items. Kamiko was to meet us, but was busy with a test, so we took his food to go and dropped it at his apartment.

With Allie's cash, we girls headed to Salt Lake on the Saturday before Allie's birthday. We went to Gateway and City Creek Malls. While out, we stopped at Cheesecake Factory for a couple of treats. We had a good time and Allie didn't even spend all of her money. She is saving some to buy a nice camera. She also had some leftover that she spent later at University Mall. The girls love to shop. They are bargain hunters, though. They have too many clothes, but got good deals on them.

I can't believe she's 17. That's when things are really fun. She's got the hang of driving and is about to be a Senior, the king of the school. She's a great girl. I love spending time with her. She's hard-working, extremely creative and Melia's best friend. She is strong in the gospel and has her own way of expressing herself and loving others. I couldn't ask for more.

the main present...clever presentation, huh?

Allie and Mel at Sammy's

Say "Cheesecake"!

birthday cake...ahhhh...red velvet!

Allie and Mel enjoying the cake

Allie in her birthday dress and Mel (after church)

Sundays

Church is at 9:00 am now. I don't particularly like getting up early, but it's working out ok. Our typical Sunday seems to go as follows:

I don't know when Keenan gets up and goes to meetings

7:40 my alarm goes off and I hit snooze
7:45 snooze again (my primary lesson is already done, so no need to hurry)
7:50 get up and get dressed
8:15 find out Allie is getting ready, but Melia's alarm didn't go off (that's a big mystery)
8:50 leave for church

9:00 to noon church

noon come home and eat lunch

1:00 naps
5:00 or so dinner

sometime later...work with Allie on ACT and with Melia on Personal Progress
Hang out and stay up late because we all took naps


P.S. We do have family time and go over our weekly calendar, even though the girls think it's a big fat waste of time.

Sundays are a nice, relaxing day when we spend time together and I try to wrangle the girls into playing a game with me.

Couldn't resist getting some pics of a typical Sunday evening.
Mel curled up, texting someone (probably Kobi Watkins)

Reading "A Girl Named Zippy" while Allie worked on Latin

Three Colors of Thread in One Day

Sewing and totally enjoying it!

Black thread: Allie got asked to prom a couple of weeks ago. It was late at night and we stayed up even later, looking at patterns online, thinking of what to create. She tried on a purple and black short dress we had purchased on mega clearance sometime ago and suggested we remove the skirt and replace with a long skirt. So, we were off to the bed, then to the fabric store during store hours. We got black satin for the skirt and black chiffon for over the skirt and for a bodice, since the original dress is strapless. Yesterday we dived in and trial after trial, pinning and picking out, we got the skirt attached. It looks awesome. I immediately texted my friends a picture with the caption "I'm freaking awesome." We now need to add to the bodice with chiffon to make a jewel-neckline, sleeveless top. Then we hem when she finds shoes. No one will have a dress like it. It was a fun afternoon with my Allie.

After a few hours of work, we see real progress!

Beginning stages
Gold thread: Went last week to the "expired food store" with some co-workers. It's a trippy place that sells items reclaimed from trucks and trains. They have everything from tools and furnace filters to yogurt and soda. They have fabric there and I bought fabric to make 3 skirts. I finished a gold knit long skirt yesterday. I had tried it out on Sunday and figured out what I was doing quite quickly and it needed some tweaking, which I completed on Monday. I like it. Maria asked if it makes me look short, to which I responded: "I'm short anyway, so I don't care." While I was sewing, Kim Rose Cassetti called and we reminisced about high school, when I sewed most of my clothes and would give her homemade items. She would always look at it and comment that there was no tag. No tag on my skirts still...and I'm 46 years old. :)
Do I look short?
White thread: I also bought chambray at the expired food store to make a skirt. I did that yesterday while the girls were at school, before we worked on Allie's dress. It's cute. I told Mel you'd think I bought it at the store. She said except that it's too long. I said that I bought it at a store with clothes for garments. It will be a fun addition for spring...WHICH STARTS TOMORROW! With the white thread I also sewed tabs on mine and Keenan's new towels in our bathroom. I prefer hooks in bathrooms and it's much easier to make sure towels stay hung up if they have hooks on them.

To bed around 10:30 after fixing a skirt, making a skirt and designing and attaching a skirt to a bodice for prom. A great day.