Long time lost

I've been gone for a long time her. I kind of let this blog die in obscurity. I actually really needed to write, but I've just been so overwhelmed that i kept putting it off. So here I am. I'm back.

So much has happened in the last year and change.
  * We moved from Maryland to California
  * Morgen started a new job
  * Tabitha started kindergarten and loves it
  * Eva has started talking
  * I am going back to school after a 5 year absence
  * We are in the process of trying to buy a house.

Its been a crazy busy year. We are still trying to get the girls into ABA therapy, while Morgen has a great job, the insurance that comes with it is awful. I'm also working on getting Eva speech therapy through the school district, because while she has started talking she is still at about an 18 month level and she is almost 3 and a half.
I decided to go back to school this summer. I'm going to Gavalin Community College and working on a triple major in Digital Media, Marketing and Computer Science. I'm really excited about this.
I don't want to say much about buying a house just yet, but we are hoping by the end of the year.

I've been running non stop for about 2 years, and now that Tabitha has started school, I think I may really start to have time to work on some of the crafty projects I have been putting off. Tabitha picked out some cute peacock fabric and wants a poofy late 50's early 60's style dress a la Betty Draper. She also needs a bunch of church dresses, and she only wants to wear skirts and dresses for ply so I'll be working on a lot of those this summer, and hopefully getting those blogged. I am really hoping this won't be the last post for a long time, but that remains to be seen.


Teresa

Long summer break

Hey ya'll! I know its been a while. We've had a long an interesting summer and I haven't had much time to myself lately. At the end of May we moved from Idaho to Maryland, leaving behind all our friends for a new journey. Its been a rough transition. Eva is taking it all in stride being only 18 months old now, but Tabitha has had a hard time. She misses her friends. I've had a rough time as well. I miss my friends. I miss having such an awesome support structure. I also really miss Rexburg. I miss the feel of it. Everyone was a member of the church, you weren't bombarded with inappropriate clothing or language everywhere you go. You didn't have to navigate the hundreds of people smoking at every exit, everywhere you go. There was also the feeling of community. Almost everyone in our complex would spend the afternoons outside chasing our kids together and helping each other out. I really miss that.
Maryland is beautiful. The trees are amazing, I love that there are little ponds everywhere. I love that there is so much historical significance to teach my kids. I love that I can take them to the smithsonian and teach and show them so many things I couldn't have back in Idaho. I have better medical care for Tabitha here. We have started the process to get Tabitha into ABA therapy and into preschool. There are so many programs that will help her that we couldn't get back in Idaho. Morgen has a great job. He just finished his training and will soon be starting actual work, which he is excited about.
I haven't had much time or a place to sew and most of my stuff is still back in Idaho in our storage unit, which is kind of a pain.
I really hope to get back to crafting, and writing soon. I pulled out a dress that I started when Tabitha was 18 months old. I will hopefully finish it soon so Eva can wear it. I have actually made a different version of this dress (its my own pattern) before and I have been wanting to write a pattern for it so you all could make one too so that is my current goal.
When we moved to Maryland from Idaho we couldn't come out first to find a place so we had to hope that we would find something good like we did when we moved to Idaho. Unfortunately it didn't work out that way. We ended up in an awful place that was dirty and starting to fall apart. We were able to move again to a much nicer place but it was a stressful move and cost all we had to make a second move.
We are trying to get settled now and will hopefully get back to our regular routine soon.

Not that this has anything to do with the post, its just a fun picture we took before leaving rexburg. 

a range of emotions

When you have kids you start out thinking that your kid will be president or a Dr and all you see is endless possibility. Babies are endless possibility, they are joy, and love and passion. They are dreams come true and all you want is for their dreams to come true. All you want is for your children to be happy and fulfilled. Every parent thinks their kid is specials and gonna change the world. I've always known Tabitha was special, every time she did anything new I always thought she was the smartest kid in the world. She was the best kid ever and after waiting for her for so long she was the perfect kid. Tabitha is my sunshine, she is the light that came from darkness. She is what I waited so long for. But for the last year her light has had a cloud over it. One I had a hard time dealing with. She has had violent fits, crying outbursts, she changed from my happy sweet girl. I took her to the dr time and time again, but they just said moodiness was normal, she was fine. They blew me off time and again. But I knew something was wrong. Every day I watched her grow further and further away from us, that she was changing.
We dealt with the fits and the violent outbursts, we started pulling away from our friends. We stayed home and stopped doing play dates for fear that Tabitha would hurt someone with one of her fits. We started noticing that when someone got hurt she showed no empathy, she would say sorry and give a hug out of some sort of memorized protocol. We noticed that she wouldn't look people in the eye and when she did catch their eye she would freak out. A few months ago she was tested at preschool, and she was tested at an almost 9 year old receptive vocabulary, but she can't use it, and she gets very frustrated when she can't express herself.
There are other things that we noticed, and we tried talking to drs about, but it was just the same old song and dance from them. I finally decided to switch drs. About two weeks ago I took Tabitha to our new dr to talk about what was going on. Things had been getting worse with her for some time. I had bruises, bloody noses, and dislocated fingers to show for it. I'd had enough, I needed answers. I was tired of being afraid of my child, and afraid for her. I needed help.
I sat down with her dr and discussed my concerns and fears.I finally found someone who would listen. I finally found someone who agreed that her fits were not that of a normal 3 1/2 year old. Then he said what I feared he would say. Tabitha is on the autism spectrum. I think I knew for a while, but I had convinced myself it was something else, maybe bipolar or something like that. Something that can be "fixed" with medicine. I wasn't surprised, but I did cry when I got to the car with the girls. I had a hard time not believing it was my fault. With all the junk science, blaming mothers for having epidurals, and c-sections, and vaccinating their children. Even though I know its not my fault, I still blame myself. I think its natural for parents to think anything that happens to their kids is their fault. But while we have been waiting to meet with the therapist and get some diagnostic tests done on Tabitha, I finally stopped thinking that this was something that "happened" to Tabitha, and started realizing that there's nothing "wrong" with my daughter, her brain just works different than other kids.
For the past two weeks Morgen has been trying some tactics he learned from ABA therapy when he used to worked with a friends son who has autism. They seem to be working. Tonight we met with the therapist, he asked lots of questions and listened to our concerns. He stopped short of saying she is autistic, but said he believed she is on the spectrum. She is high functioning, and he said she seems like with the right interventions, she will be ok. We will go back next week for more evaluations, and to talk about our next steps.
I have a range of emotions going through me for the last two weeks. I'm scared, I worry that people wont be accepting of Tabitha, that she will be shunned because shes a little weird and she freaks out at things most kids would let roll off their backs. I'm happy that we are on a path to helping her. The only thing I want in this life is for my children to be happy. I will do whatever it takes to make my children happy. Now that i have some sense of how to help her, I know we will all be ok.
Over the last few weeks, we haven't told too many people about whats going on. But of the few people we have told almost all have been really supportive. They have been true friends. They have been there for me, and they have loved Tabitha and they have been a shoulder for me to cry on. I'm thankful for our friends who have helped us. I'm thankful for the friends who helped me talk through this, who have shown me what real friends are. There are a lot of emotions going though me, there are a lot of unknowns in our future, but one thing I do know, is that Tabitha is loved.

Thankful Thursday. 9 pm

Today I'm thankful for 9 pm. Tabitha is in bed at 7:45 most nights. Then I come down and nurse Eva on the couch. This is my time to spend with just her. I also get to watch something that isn't animated which is awesome. Morgen and I get to talk without hearing "mommy! Mommy! Mommy! I'm trying to talk to you!" The second we open our mouths. It's not that we don't love talking to Tabitha because we do. It's just nice to have adult conversations too. So today I'm thankful for 9 pm. Tabitha is asleep in her room. Eva is asleep on my chest and I get to lay on the couch and watch alias. Not bad at all. Oh and I get to watch morgen do a little dance to the end credit music which is awesome ;)

Sickness

The plague seems to have invaded my house again. I'm totally sick. Eva is sick. Morgen is sick. And Tabitha, well Tabitha is trying her best to convince me she isn't sick. She doesn't want to miss story time and preschool tomorrow. We shall see. But today, she spent the day crying over nothing, or curled up on my lap while we zoned infront of the tv.
I had a total crappy mom day where I let her watch wonder pets and eat dry cereal all day. I then made hotdogs for dinner. Just hotdogs. No buns. No vegetables. No salad. Yea. I'm awesome like that. Tabitha asked for more chex with her hotdog. Sure why not.
Then about an hour and a half before bedtime I lost it. Tabitha had hit me in the stomach with some grabbing toy and I had had enough. He had been trying to force me to play some game as I was trying desperately not to puke all over the living room. I told her to go to timeout. In the span of 5 minutes, Tabitha refused to go to timeout, lost all three of her stories, hit me again and got taken to her room. I got her ready for bed and she passed out. That is how I know she's sick. An hour before bed she was out cold with no fight. Although she woke up at 9:30 (my bad, I went to check on her an accidentally woke her) and she started asking to come to my bed( nope once you get your own bed there is no coming back to mine). We got her back to bed, but I think we will be containing the plague here in our own home tomorrow rather than preschool and story time.
But at least some of us are cute when we're sick. ( I mean Eva, because its definitely not me!)

Halloween Stripe Dress a Tutorial

Hey Guys! I recently participated in Kids Clothing Week Challenge over at Elise Marley. I love this challenge because a bulk of Tabitha's clothes for the season get sewn during this time. This time I focused on dresses because that seems to be all Tabitha wants to wear these days. So I oblige and made her some fun dresses, one of which I'm sharing here today.
I Love Halloween, I love the halloween fabric more! haha. I love the bright colors and fanciful prints, Halloween fabric is probably my second favorite fabric (right behind Christmas Fabric.) I am part of a fat quarter exchange that some women in my ward do and I LOVE it! Yay new fabric to play with every month! The fabric for September was Halloween theme and I was so excited to get it. SUPER CUTE Prints! I decided I wanted to use all of them to somehow make something for both girls. I had some Super Cute Halloween fabric in my stash so I knew I could make it work.
So I started with Tabitha's dress. I give to you The Halloween Stipe Dress. This is a fairly easy dress, but feel free to ask any questions you may have and I'll do my best to answer them.

Using the Basic Top Tutorial cut your bodice piece a few inches from the arm pit depending on how long you want the bodice. For a 4t I did 1 1/2 inches. 

Cut 1 piece of thin elastic to be 3 inches long. 

Cut 2 of your bodice pieces from your main fabric and 2 from your lining. Cut one of each on the fold and one of each not on the fold. 

pin elastic to back at opening on one side in a loop with the loop facing the arm holes. 

Sew the elastic to the bodice piece. 

Lay fabric right sides together and sew shoulder seams together and press. 

Repeat for lining. 

Place lining and main fabric right sides together. Sew all the way around leaving the bottom open, making sure you get the elastic from the back sewn over. 

Press seams. 

Using your bodice pattern trace the curve of the armhole from the bottom to where it begins to curve again. Straighten your sleeve out to a point. Length of sleeve for a 4t is 5 inches. Measure your child to decide how long you want it, remember it will have a cuff on the end to make it about an inch and a half longer. 

 The cuff is 2 inches tall by however wide your sleeve pattern is. 

Cut two sleeves with the top of the sleeve pattern on the fold. 

Cut two cuffs. Fold the fabric hog style then again hamburger style. So you have two folds. one on the top and one on the side. Place your cuff pattern in the corner and cut. It will give you two cuffs doubled in length and width. 

Fold your cuff in half hot dog style and press.

Pin your cuff to the bottom of the sleeve right sides together and sew. Press the cuff flat. 

Pin the sleeve to the armhole opening right sides together and sew sleeve to bodice . 

Repeat on other side. 

Fold sleeve in half with right sides together. Starting at the bottom of the bodice sew up the bodice and down the sleeve closing the bodice side and sleeve. 

Now you have your bodice, its time for the skirt. 

I had 5 fat quarters and I cut them into strips that were 2 inches wide (roughly). 

Then sew the strips together till they form a large piece of fabric. 

Fold the skirt fabric in half long way, right sides together,  and sew the two ends together making a tube. 

Gather the skirt and fit it to the bodice. 

Place the top of the skirt upside down and right sides together with the bottom of the bodice and pin them together. 

Sew the skirt to the bodice. 

Depending on how long you want the dress fold the hem up and iron then fold it up and iorn it again and sew. I did 1 inch each fold. 

Sew on a button to the back and your done. 

Tabitha loves her Halloween dress (but is getting sick of taking pictures for me and I had to bribe her with pez.) I hope you enjoy it too! 

PottyCover Disposable toilet seat cover review

Do you have a kid? Do you hate carrying around the little potty seat so that they don't touch the actual toilet seat? We have a little tinkerbell folding potty seat and that thing is gross. I mean really you put it on a gross public toilet then put it in its little bag when your done. I usually bring mine home and clean it in the tub but still its pretty gross if you think about it. But in Idaho most public restrooms don't have toilet seat covers, so its ether that or holding your kid over the potty and yelling "don't touch the potty!" over and over again. That is until I tried PottyCovers.

These things are great! They cover the whole potty so you don't have to worry about them touching anything, they are super small so they fit right into your bag and you can just throw them out when your done. I still carry our little tinkerbell one in the car, but sometimes I don't want to haul that nasty thing around with me and PottyCovers are awesome for that.

PottyCover covers not just the toilet seat like traditional toilet seat covers, but it also covers the sides and front to keep little hands and legs from touching any germs. They are made of a non-woven fabric covered in a layer of plastic to create a water proof barrier between your child and the toilet. PottyCovers come in individual wrapped easy to open baggies so its easy to keep one or two in your purse or diaper bag. Tabitha loves them and I now keep one in my diaper bag at all times. These things are great and I totally recommend you get some. Whats even better? You can use these with your little traveling potty seat so you don't have to hold your child on the potty while using this and your child has maximum comfort and protection against germs. Potty Covers come in a 6 pack for $5.99 which makes them about a $1 a piece. While it may seem a little overpriced, if you live somewhere like Rexburg where almost no stores or restaurants have toilet seat covers, these come in really handy.

While I don't have any pictures of this in uses, because I don't want to put pictures of my daughter on the potty online, and I'm sure some places would have problems with me posting public restrooms online, believe me when I say these work just as advertized. The only thing I would say is that they are thinner than they look in the pictures and on the packaging but they work just as good as you would expect them too so thinner really isn't a problem for me.

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Summer Blog Challenge hardest challenge

Today's topic is the hardest challenge I've been faced with. It may sound lame, but really my hardest/biggest challenge is being able to get my sewing or crafting done with two kids. I used to have so much more time, but Tabitha has been going through a very needy stage lately and Eva is only 5 months old. Not to mention how often my machine breaks down, I still have a dress and some car bags that I owe people that haven't been finished. My goal for this weekend is to get them done. No matter what. I also need to move my sewing machine back upstairs. Its been in the kitchen for a while because I had to keep taking it in, but now that it is working I need it upstairs to get my work done and with my back problems I can't bring it up myself. I really think that it all comes down to time management. Its not really something I had a problem with before, but now with two kids, I have to be so much better about how I manage my time. I also need to multi task better. =)

Summer blog Challenge day 23-25

Summer blog challenge

Sorry I got behind again! So here are days 23-25

Day 23 favorite blog post you've written before this challenge. Probably my pretty in Pink Lace Dress tutorial. I love that dress and it was my first tutorial to be featured on Craft Gossip. 

Day 24 Favorite eco-friendl thing you do. We try to be pretty eco friendly. we have a brita filter and take reusable bottles with us, we recycle anything we can. I like to re use loathing items to turn them into something else, usually clothes for Tabitha, but I've also repurposed some of my own clothes for my self since i've lost weight. I turned a way too big top into a maternity shirt and turned my favorite jeans that got a hole in the thigh into a jean skirt. But the thing I do most often that is eco friendly is cloth diapering. I'm amazed at how much garbage we produced by using disposables on Tabitha and besides saving money, cloth diapers don't sit in landfills for 100's of years. And besides who can resist those cute fluffy butts! =)

Day 25 Ideal day of Me time

Ha whats that? Even on Saturday which is supposed to me my "me day" where I can get my sewing and blog stuff done that didn't get done during the week, i still have to have Eva with me (Morgen does take Tabitha, but she usually stands at the bottom of the stairs yelling at me most of the day until I give up and come down), and I usually end up getting half my list done if that because Eva is going through a very needy stage and I think about to cut a tooth. 

But if I could have a whole day to myself with out having to do cleaning or taking care of kids, I would turn on some silly trashy tv show like damsons creek or one tree hill (darn netflix doesn't have the last season and I want to finish it!) Or something cheesy and creepy like the original Dark Shadows (I watched that while nursing today and I'm hooked although netflix only has a small fraction of the series, they start when barnabis collins returns and then only have 160 of the 2000 something episodes.) I would watch my shows, and sew all day. Stoping to eat dryers all fruit bars, drink newmans own lemonaid. and snack on mike and ikes. 

Summer blog Challenge Days 20-22

 I've gotten a few days behind on my summer blog challenge posts so I'm just gonna cram them all together. Its been pretty hectic around here lately, but I'm hopeful that I can get back to blogging and sewing soon.
Day 20 was to post a picture of me when I was younger.

I'm second from the left on the bottom row. This was from when I used to dance, I think I was 14 or 15 here.
And thanks to my childhood friend Gina for posting these on FB so I have the next two pictures of us playing dress up

Day 21: Most recent words of wisdom that stuck with me. Probably that being a mom isn't easy, but its the most rewarding job in the world. I've been having a rough time with Tabitha lately. She is really jealous of Evangeline and has been acting out because of it. But in the midst of her fits and peeing on my floor, there are still those wonderful times when she hugs me and tells me she loves me, and the times when she wants to hug and kiss Eva, or help me with whatever I'm doing. I know the hard times will eventually fade, and I will remember the laughs, the kisses, the jokes, the hugs, how much she loves her sister and what a good person she is. She has an amazingly big heart. She is so sweet and so loving, the other stuff she'll grow out of, but I know she will always be an amazing, sweet, funny girl who I will always be proud of. 

 

 

Day 22:  When I was little there were a ton of things I wanted to be: a teacher, a pediatric cardiologist, a ballet dancer, a writer, a photographer, a baker, but the most important was to be a mom. I always wanted to be a stay at home mom. I got my degree in History (which makes me qualified to say "would you like fries with that" and live in a cardboard box) because I love history. since I was already married while I was in college and I knew that we planned for me to stay home with the kids one we had them, I thought it was important for me to get a degree in something I loved. I still plan to go back to school and get a masters some day, but for now, I'm loving being home with my girls. I'm their first teacher, their boo boo kisser, their dance teacher, their story teller, their photographer, and their baker, all those dreams I had did come true, just in a different way than you would expect. I have everything I ever wanted in life, and I'm so very lucky. 

 

 

Summer blog challenge Day 19

Something you're proud of from the last few days.


Last friday when I went ot pick Tabitha up from preschool I had just got her in the car when she said she had to go potty. So I got both girls out and we ran to her classroom to use the potty. So the first thing I'm proud of is that Tabitha can finally tell us she has to go potty and hold it log enough to get there. That is a big accomplishment and something we have been working on for a long time. But the even bigger thing was while I was helping her in the bathroom her teacher heard her say "thank you" and told me she was so impressed by how polite Tabitha is. She said Tabitha always says please and Thank you and that Tabitha is over all a very nice and polite kid. That made me so happy. I've been instilling manners and being polite since before she could talk. Please and Thank you were two of the first signs I taught her and as soon as she could say mama I started teaching her to say please and thank you along with the sign language. While she may be a terror at home some times, its good to know that she uses the manners I have taught her when she is away from me. 

Summer blog challenge day 15

post a picture that you took that you are proud of.

I have 2. One of each of the girls.

I love both of these pictures, and actually both of them I got a phone call from Walgreens when I sent them to be printed telling me they thought I was printing professional pictures. 

Seamingly smitten double ruffle halter for girls pattern review

I was given the opportunity to test the double ruffle halter dress for girls pattern for Seamingly Smitten. And Oh my Goodness! Its so cute! This pattern is really easy to follow. There are no pattern pieces to cut out and it is written more like a tutorial. All the pieces of the dress are different size rectangles which means its so easy to make and put together. I got to make a 3t size for Tabitha and she loves her dress. I made it for St. Patricks day and she wants to wear it every day! Thats definitely a sign of a good design.

 I let Tabitha pick out the fabric for the dress, she really loved those shamrocks!

The back is definitely my favorite part. You can either have it tie at the neck or add a button hole in the back of the dress and have the ribbon ties come through that hole and tie. I love the versatility. I plan on making a shorter tunic length one with leggings too. This is definitely going to be one of my go to i need a quick dress patterns from now on. 

If you want to check out seamingly smitten and all her adorable creations check her blog Seamingly smitten>here , her etsy shop Seamingly smitten>here, and her Facebook page Seamingly smitten>here.