Something to ponder

Last Friday, I was at home just me and Danielle for the day. Jonathan was at a friend's house, Hannah and Annabeth were on a sleepover, and Mom, Sarah and David were getting the house in town ready to sell. So, it was just me and Short Stuff (my nickname for her). I had to go do some errands, so of course I had to bring her with me. Some people give me strange looks when it's just me and her, as if I'm her mother. It drove me crazy, but now I've been thinking about it differently.

When I went that afternoon to pick up Jonathan, his friend's mom and I were talking about how people give me strange looks with Danielle. I mean, they have no way of knowing that she's my sister. My body is technically capable of having a baby. Anyway, I took Jonathan home, and as I was thinking back over the conversation, something struck me. I wish more people gave me looks. 

I know that sounds strange, but it's true. My pastor gave a stat in one of his teachings a couple weeks ago that is shocking. Last year, for the first time ever, more children were born through wedlock than through marriage. 51% in 2013. I mean, that's astounding. Just think about that. More children were born through wedlock than marriage. And it struck me. I wish more people gave me looks. I wish it wasn't so socially acceptable for people to have babies outside of marriage. If I'm walking through the store, and people can't tell right away that she's my sister, not only do I want them to give me looks, I want people to come up to me and ask me what the heck is wrong with me. I mean really. How sad is it that people really don't care? That they don't take having babies through marriage seriously? That if they see a teenager walking through the store with a baby, they don't bat an eye? It's been something I've been thinking about a lot lately, and I was curious on everyone's opinions on the subject...

Awkward and Awesome

Awkward:

When you're doing your nails in the bathroom early in the morning because your mom can't stand the smell of nail polish or remover, but you forget that she has to come iron your dad's clothes, and when she walks into the bathroom she almost passes out. Oops. :)

When you go into your favorite restaurant with your dad, and while your dad is finding out what your sister (who happens to be with you) wants, your favorite cashier guy comes up and gives you a hug. That really wasn't so bad, it was finding out later in the day that he thinks you're your dad's wife. Um.......

When you're driving to McDonalds for lunch, and you're singing your new favorite song EVER. Your getting totally into the music and everything, and your sisters don't know the song, so they're looking at you like you're out of your mind. 

Having a guy from church call you Kyla. He's 15, and no matter how many times I correct him, he still calls me Kyla. I think now it's just become a nickname. What's even more awkward is when you happen to mention it to another friend in front of said person's older brother, and he starts calling you Kyla (jokingly) too. Ugh. 

When you have a lady come to you for a custom blanket to match her bedspread. There's black, a yellow, some pink, and some light blue. So you send her pics of colors, and she says that the blue has to be turquoise. So you look at the picture she sent of the bedspread, and you aren't seeing any turquoise. So you send her a Pinterest page that has all the colors from Red Heart that you can use, and have her pick out the colors, because she said there was a light turquoise and a dark turquoise, and you just aren't seeing it. So she picks out the colors, and doesn't even pick a turquoise. She picks a green, a pink, black and a yellow. 

Just wandering around the house at 5:00 in the morning because you just got out of the shower, and need to leave at 6:30, but no one else is up, and you already made quite a ruckus earlier while looking for a pair of nail clippers (our house is dangerous when it's dark!). So, you just wander around, sit on the bathroom floor, and just wait for someone to PLEASE WAKE UP!

Looking down at your toes and noticing that your nail polish is chipping. Again. But, you're too lazy to actually take it all off and redo it, so you just slap another coat on there figuring that hey, your toes are by the ground, no one'll notice that your nail polish is totally NOT smooth.

Being in the dugout for your dad's softball games. Well, that part counts under the awesome category. The awkward part is that you're the only girl in there. True, you know everyone, but still. It is kinda weird sometimes... 

Awesome:

Quiet. When you live in a family of 9, quiet is something that doesn't happen very often. When it does, you relish it.

Jamming out in the car. I love when I'm driving alone and just get to let go and sing my heart out. Thankfully the road to town is a 6 mile long, completely straight, you-never-pass-another-car road, so I really don't have to worry about getting into an accident. 

Pink nail polish. True, it and red are the only colors I'm allowed to wear, but still. Pink is one of my favorite colors, so it works well. Thank goodness Mom didn't say I was only allowed to wear orange. :D 

Cactus. I know that may sound strange, but in the particular part of Arizona we live it, it's too cold for cactus to grow. The only thing we have here is weeds and a 

lot of mesquite trees. I love going to the city and getting to see saguaro and prickly pear. It really does have a beauty all of its own. 

Getting to talk to some more people at the 4-H meeting last night. Last month the lady in charge had to leave early, so no one could stay around and chat. Last night we actually got to meet some people, and it was really nice. Not awesome: learning that there's a mandatory demonstration for every member to show something from their projects. Playing music in front of people, not a big deal. Talking in front of people, big deal. Besides, for my age group it's a minimum of 5 minutes. HOW am I gonna talk about the crochet project for a minimum of 5 minutes? What exactly is there to talk about?

Big thick headbands. I've been loving them lately. Actually, part of it is covering up the fact that my highlights are growing out, but still....

Peanut butter concrete mixers from Culvers. Need I say more?

Cuddling up to watch a good movie. Add popcorn and warm soft blankets.... Perfection.

The anticipation of my trip! I leave 3 weeks from today. The other day my aunt was trying to get me to pack. I was trying to explain that if I packed now I wouldn't have all that stuff for 3 weeks, but she tried to convince me anyway. :)

Going to a skating rink on Valentine's Day. Hannah and Jonathan's orthodontist hold a party there every year. We went with friends, and it was so awesome. It sure beats staying at home by myself feeling lonely on Valentine's Day. :)

The fact that my business Instagram account is growing! I've been getting new followers, people that I don't know, which is awesome. I love when people comment and tell me what they think of my blankets. :) I'm actually hosting a giveaway right now on there to celebrate my 3 year Etsy anniversary! Yay!

And there you have it, my awkward and awesome! I just threw in a bunch of random pictures, because I recently discovered that Blogger changed their app. Yay! Before if I tried to post picture I couldn't put any text after them. But as you can see, they fixed it! Yay! And I can upload them directly from my camera roll on my iPad. No more laptops! :) Sorry some of the pictures are blurry.  The ones taken with my iPad aren't as good quality as the ones with my phone. 

15 things you probably didn't know about me

1. I pretty much stay in my pajamas all day long. If I don't have to go anywhere, I just stay in my pajamas, which normally consist of yoga or sweat pants, or something of the sort, and just a regular shirt. I figure since they're my most comfortable clothes, and since I'm not going anywhere, so no one's going to see me, I might as well keep wearing them. And hey, the less laundry to do the better! :)

2. I am pretty creative, but my ideas rarely come to life. I'm just so busy that I don't have time to work on new ideas. I'm really hoping that this year I'll be able to learn to take some time for myself to work on new ideas, instead of working on orders all.the.time.

3. I'm really not that great at coming up with color combinations. I can do 2 or. 3, maybe even 4 colors, but beyond that I'm lost. I go to my mom all the time to get ideas for colors.

4. I am such a sucker for candy. I can pretty much go without chips, soda, muffins, cake, sometimes even ice cream... Stuff like that. But it seems like pretty much every time I come out of the store I have some candy with me. It's terrible! I've been learning to leave my money AT HOME. If I know in my head that I don't have any money with me, I don't have any problems with wanting sweets, but if I have my money with me, even if I tell myself that it's not good for me, I most of the time end up getting something. :(

5. I am a major list maker. It's mostly pertaining to my business, but I do in other areas too. I have lists of what blankets I have to make, as well as when they need to be shipped, if they're a different size, and any other notes. I also have lists for every single one of my blankets. What I mean is that I'll write out the rows, like this.

Row 1 white
Row 2 white
Row 3 pink
Row 4 pink

Like that. I do that for all the rows on all of my blankets. Not because I can't count the rows or I don't know what color comes next, but because it's just fun for me to mark them off.

6. I'm short. I'm only 5' 3, and that's about as tall as I'm gonna get. My dad is 5' 10, and I'm just a little bit taller than my mom. So far Jonathan is a couple inches taller than me, and it drives me crazy having my little brother be taller than me. Oh well, I don't mind now as much as I did when he was first taller than me.

7. I can't sew. Like at all. I've tried, but I fail miserably at it. My grandma has helped me make a couple of dresses before, but that's it. Actually, scratch that. My grandma pretty much made the dresses for me while I watched. Yeah. I'm pretty terrible. Once I was making something and actually got the needle through my finger. And we're talking sewing machine, not hand sewing. Ouch. Thankfully it was on the edge of my finger, and it didn't hurt too badly. I didn't have to go to the emergency room or anything like that.

8. I am a person of pattern. I don't really like change that much, and most of the time change scares me. I'm pretty happy doing the same things every day, although sometimes I do get an itching for change. Not a major, massive change, but some change.

9. People who look at me would probably think I'm an introvert, but I'm not. I am a very social person, and love people. My problem is that I really don't have any friends at church (it seems like every time I get one they either move away or just stop talking to me), and as of right now church is our only major social outlet. 4-H has started, but so far we haven't signed up for anything. So basically, I have no one to talk to at church, and sit alone by myself a lot. Therefore, people probably think I'm an introvert.

10. I like to read, but most of the time I just don't have time, so I listen to a lot of audiobooks. I have a couple of apps on my iPad that I use, and I listen to audiobooks quite frequently while I'm working on blankets.

11. I hate classical music with a passion. I know, it's strange since I play violin and piano and all, but I truly do hate classical music. I like playing it on my violin, (piano I normally just play chords for songs) but I can not stand just listening to it.

12. My Dad makes fun of me constantly, because I go to McDonalds for lunch a lot. The only thing is, I never get a burger, I always, ALWAYS get their Bacon Ranch Salads. And Dad loves to make fun of me for going to McDonalds and getting "rabbit food". Dad is not into the whole eating healthy thing at all.

13. I love bright colors. I tend to use a lot of pastels for my shop, simply because in my opinion they're more baby-like, but bright colors are what makes me happy.

14. I am so awkward on the phone. I just never have a reason to talk to anyone (I text, not talk), so when I do talk on the phone, it's just do weird. You'd think I'd never talked to anyone on the phone in my life. :D I've had to talk to customers on the phone twice before (once because it was a large order, and once because the lady lived near me and I was working out dropping it off to her), and I hated both times. I am perfectly fine with email thank-you-very-much.

15. I love mysteries. Mystery books, mystery movies, mystery tv shows... If it's a mystery, especially a Christian mystery, I'm all over it.

And there you have it! 15 random things you probably didn't know about me! :)

No, I didn't die....

I'm still here. I decided it was time to write a new post NOW after a conversation I had this morning..

Me: "I really like the dresses you posted on your blog."

Friend: "Thanks. I started following your blog."

Me: "Oh really? Cool. I don't post very often though. *sheepish grin*"

Friend: "Yeah, I think your last post was like October of 2012."


Um.....

So apparently it's time I do a new post. I mean, I know I'm bad at this whole blogging thing, but I didn't think I was that bad.....

Actually, my main problem is not writing out the posts; I write posts all the time that never get published. My problem is pictures. I have so many I want to post, but it's such a pain to get the pictures onto the laptop because it's SO slow. I can do it on my phone, but if I do that, it won't let me put any text after the pictures. So basically if I do that I have to do all the talking first, and then end all the posts with the pictures. And I'm not that big of a fan of that idea. I'll have to spend some time tomorrow working on getting pictures on here.

Danielle is a year old now! I can't believe it. Her birthday was January 17th. I love her more than words can describe. She not only walks, she runs around like nobody's business. If you tickle her she laughs. If you ask her for a kiss she'll lean her head in so you can kiss it. She eats real food all the time now, and hopefully it won't be long before she's off formula. I have a million and one pictures of her, and like I said before, I'll have to work tomorrow on getting them on the laptop and posting them.

So I found out about a month ago that in March I get to go to Las Vegas! Me, my grandma and my great-great aunt are going to Las Vegas for 6 days for the Pac-12 basketball tournament right before March Madness. I'm so excited!!!! I haven't really been anywhere since our California trip in 2011, so it'll be nice to be out of Arizona. Normally my great aunt and cousin go with Nana and Aunt Suzie, but they couldn't make it this year, so I get to go instead! Like I said, we'll be gone 6 days. I think we leave Tuesday the 11th or 12th and come back that Sunday. Again, I'm so excited! Hannah says that since I'll be coming back right before her 13th birthday (the 26th), that I'll have to get her a birthday present while I'm there. And she hasn't let me forget it either. :D Oh, have I mentioned that I'm excited?!?!?!?

Music lessons still continue as usual. Voice is going really, really well, which I'm so thankful for. I had such a hard time for such a long time, and more than once I wanted to give up. I think after my voice recital last September, when I screwed up SO badly on my song, I think something clicked. Things just started making sense, and I guess... I don't know... I had a new resolve. I've been working extra hard at it, and it's finally making sense. I still have a hard time with quite a bit of it, but it's getting better.

Violin is going well. I did special music for church 2 weeks ago, and that went so well. I was a little nervous, but that was before. Once I got up there and started playing, I just got totally lost in the song, and forgot anyone was there. I actually think that was the best performance I've ever had, thank the Lord. Right now I'm working on another long song. This one's a lot harder than the one I did in that it's got a lot of double notes, which are so hard for me. In the 4 years that I've been playing violin, I've taught myself to only play one string. If you're hitting 2 strings, it's bad. So this song is killing me because I have to hit 2 string constantly, and it's really hard for me. I'm gonna have to train myself to do it, which isn't easy. Oh well, it'll come.

My business has been CRAZY since the new year. I think since the beginning of the year I've had almost 100 sales. Now, not all of them are blankets, quite a few have been patterns, but still. God has blessed me greatly with it. I have a couple of really cool orders right now. One is for a queen size blanket! This lady ordered a queen size for her, and then a regular size matching one for the baby. I haven't gotten to work on it too much lately, but right now I've got a couple days between due dates, so I can work on it a little before I get back to work on other orders. I have until the end of the month, which is good. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to get it done. If not she said it's ok, because she still has other blankets to use for the baby until it's done.

I also have a different kind of order. This one is for a blanket that isn't mine. I had a lady contact me, asking me to make this blanket she'd seen on Etsy. She found the pattern, but the seller wouldn't actually make one for her, so she asked me to. I think it's going to be fun, but it's going to take awhile. This blanket has 700 motifs. Yes, that's right. 700. The good thing is that they're small, and that I can crochet them together as I go, instead of having to sew them all together at the end. That'll make things easier.

I was going to make a blanket for the fair this year, but I just don't think it's going to happen. It was the cutest blanket, with alternating bobble squares and squares that have owls on them. I'm not into the owl trend that's going on right now, but this was just SO cute. I chose aqua, turquoise, light pink, bright pink, amethyst and lavender for my colors. I'm still planning on finishing it, but with how busy I've been, I just don't think I'll be able to get it done by the time I need to (March 8th or something). Besides, I needed to learn a new stitch for the owls anyway, and I just wasn't sure I could do it in time. Oh well. Maybe I'll make it for the Cochise county fair in September instead....

On the way home today Dad and I were watching/listening (I was watching, he was listening) to a debate between Ken Ham and Bill Nye. I think it's still going on right now, but I'm not watching it anymore. It was certainly interesting to listen to. They both had 30 minute presentations, and now I think they're debating. It was interesting to listen to Bill Nye (the evolutionist obviously). He made a comment about one of Ken Ham's statements, and I don't remember exactly what it was, but he was like "I need more" or "That doesn't cut it" or something like that. And I was thinking "Yeah, and your explanation that an explosion randomly happened in space millions of years ago that made EVERYTHING doesn't cut it for me either." Seriously. I just don't see how so many people can see the obvious proof for a Creator everywhere they look, and yet they just don't believe. There's this formation on the way into town called Texas Canyon. It's one of the most beautiful places I've ever been to. I got some pictures off the internet to show you.

 

 

Isn't it absolutely beautiful? I drive past this (If you take into consideration there and back) 6 times a week, and truthfully, after a year of living here, plus all the time before we moved here, sometimes I lose sight of just how amazing this really is. But sometimes I just sit back and look at it, and I think "Wow, God. This truly is amazing." I think I miss God's handiwork way too often. And it's just shocking to me how so many people look at this, and say that 'random chance' made our world. It's something I will truly never understand...

 

Alright, I've got work to do on blankets, so I'd better go now. Tomorrow I hope to redo my 103 in 2013 (obviously making it 104 in 2014), so look out for that! It took me forever to come up with 103 things... Now I've got to come up with 104!!! Holy cow. By the time I'm like 25 I'd have 220 things. Yeah, I don't think that's gonna work........