Finished

Finally.

I have been working on a little sewing project for what feels like forever.

It really wasn't that difficult. In fact the pattern for New Look 6478 said it was easy.

And it was mostly. My problems were that I am really self taught unless you count the home ec class I took back in middle school a bazillion years ago.

Some took me a bit to figure out and then once I did it made total sense. I just don't like how pattern instructions are written and shown with the pictures. They really are not very clear.

This was how it looked on the hanger.

Of course it looked better on.

That elastic on the top of the back was really throwing me for a loop in the directions. That was a main once the light bulb went off it was a piece of cake.

And we have to have a model pose of course.

I think I would make this again but the tie straps that go around her neck need to be a bit longer. Plus I think it would be cute if it had something added to the neckline. It is supposed to have a little ribbon bow sewn on but I didn't have any plain pink ribbon so I may still add that. Or something.

The best part is she loves it. She loves when I make her dresses. I just need to find more time to be able to do these things since I love it too.

Unexpected Message

I decided to call my home voice mail a little while ago and this is what I heard.

You have 1 new message.

"I love you mommy. I love you too daddy."

Of course I had to call my sweet little girl and tell her that I love her too. (She is at my sister-in-laws house)

Sirens

Wow. What a night.

Or should I say morning.

My husband gets up about 2:30am to get ready for work. This morning he gets up as normal, gets dressed and lets the dog out.

I usually wake up when he does but I get to roll over and go back to sleep. Usually after a quick potty break. No exception this morning and I just fell back asleep when....

He is shaking me telling me the sirens are going off.

I say to grab Belle and we run downstairs since we all sleep upstairs in our house. On our way to the basement I grab the dog, his leash, my cell phone and keys. You never know.

Apparently, we were under a tornado warning and all the elements were there on the radar that precede a tornado. This is at 2:25 am.

The warning was set to expire at 3:15. The sirens stopped around 3:05 but we continued to watch the TV in the basement and waited until 3:15.

It was super windy and then completely quiet. Very eerie. Especially given you hear that it is always quiet and calm before the actual tornado hits.

Thank God it never produced a true tornado but it was definitely a way I don't want to wake up to again.

I needed to try to get Belle back to sleep which was hard to do since she was scared. But she finally did. Not without waking up a few times to make sure I was still around. I stayed up.

I am beyond tired. Belle has 2 hours of dance this evening and then I think we will all be crashing early.

In The Window

Let me first say I am very grateful to have a job. And it is a pretty good job too.

My problem lies in the fact that I would love to be a stay at home mom. I keep hoping as time goes by it will get easier but the fact is that it is not even a little bit easier.

My job gives me so much stress. Not because of the work itself (although there are stressful situations sometimes) but because of personal reasons. When I am on vacation or just plain off of work I am more relaxed and laid back. The way I like to be. But when I am working I always feel that I have way more to do than I have time to do it in. And most of all I hate running errands or doing housework when I just want to be playing with Belle.

And speaking of Belle she would like nothing more than for me to be home with her. Even when she has to go to school she wants me to be able to drop her off when school starts and pick her up when it is over. She would be happier to not have to get up by 6:15 every day. Especially when school starts at 8:45.

During the summer I take her 30 minutes round trip out of my way to my sister-in-laws house while I am at work. Gas prices being what they are it is a lot of extra money. Plus I work another 30 minutes away. Cha Ching.

When I drop her off every.single.day she sits in the window with a frown on her face waving bye to me. Every.Single.Day. I know she has fun with her cousins most of the time but still....

As for me... It makes me sad too.

Ideally it would be great if I was able to work from home. Sadly that is not an option for my department. GRRRR