CHICAGO!!! Part 1

Trip to Chicago post! (finally)
The trip was awesome! I saw some cool things on my drive there...

Model of Chokia Mounds.

And stopped in Springfield while I waited on my cousin (she's really my dad's cousin so like my second cousin?) to get done with her meetings and work...

Found the Capitol!

Beautiful inside.

Still gorgeous!

President Lincoln's last law office?

There is an old capitol too!

Also beautiful inside

One of my favorite pictures from the trip. Taken through my sunglasses. :)

After spending the night we took off towards Chicago! We went straight to the field museum so I could see the lions from Tsavo. When I was younger we used to watch the movie The Ghost and the Darkness a lot and they always mentioned that the lions were on display in the Field Museum in Chicago. Since then I have always wanted to see these lions. The movie is misleading about what the lions look like. Lions from the Tsavo region actually do not get manes and the movie shows the lions mounted standing up at the end of the movie but in reality those had to have been just other random lions. As you can see, they are not standing.

Man eaters of Tsavo.

It was also interesting that these guys were kinda small. Then, if you read the sign you find out that they were larger in real life. Patterson (the guy who shot them) had them made into rugs and later sold the skins and skulls to the Field Museum for $5,000. When they mounted them they had to shrink them a little so they could get rid of the bad edges and such. The skins were not in the best of shape either... then you realize these lions were shot in 1898. That was over 100 years ago! Then, after putting it all into perspective, they are in GREAT shape!

Other things to see at the museum... (We did not even see half of the museum!)

Giant part of a mosaic found when doing road construction...

Lots of jewels and gems.

TONS of fossils. These are just one kind.

Dinosaurs from every time period!

LUCY!!! Oldest hominid skeleton... not sure how they got what she looked like from these pieces...

Sue! The most complete T-Rex found yet. (Found in SD)

And then we left the museum! I may have taken a lot of pictures and this is not nearly all of them...

Amphitheater at Millennium Park

Inside Macy's (turn your head to the left)

One of the draw bridges looking through the others too.

Dinner.

The notorious Cloud Gate

Day one DONE.
(more to come after lunch)

St. Pat's Outfits

It has been almost two months since I finished the jackets and vests for my bf and his roomie so here is the post that I have been promising.

I am not sure how it all began, but somewhere in a conversation it was mentioned how cool it would be to have a green suit jacket to wear for St. Pat's. Me, being crafty, piped up with "If you buy the stuff I can make them." So, a jacket pattern was ordered (hard to find for men by the way) and a trip to the fabric store was in order. There were no awesome green colors in the normal suit jacket fabrics so they picked out a green corduroy instead. There were also vests to be made so a more St. Patty's kind of fabric was chosen for that.

Apparently I have since lost the pictures of when I took over the boys' dining room table to make these creations, but it happened. I also had a few words to say about various parts of the project. The first being the interfacing.

I HATE INTERFACING! I guess I got the wrong stuff or something but for the life of me I could not get it to stick to the corduroy!!! It was the kind that you have to use a wet cloth over when you iron and steam it to the fabric pretty much. If I would have known when I bought it (should have read directions) then I would have gotten different stuff. In the end it was only but on the extremely necessary pieces and I also ran out.

The other frustrating thing... sleeves. They never go on right or easy and it is just a pain. I do not like them and told the bf if he wanted me to make him more jackets he was going to have to rock the sleeveless look.

One sleeve on!

So, I get to putting the lining in the roomie's jacket and realize that the way the pattern says to sew the collar gets you really ugly corners on the collar. After some googling I realized to do it a better way would mean ripping most of the jacket apart and so I fought with it and made it work. But the bf's jacket was assembled a little differently and looked WAY better. Well, to me anyway... anyone just glancing probably would not be able to tell. I also hate how the pockets are just fabric with lining on them sewed to the outside of the jacket. It looks horrible and the lining shows if you look closely. I was disappointed that the pockets were not on the inside and if I make another one I will put them inside no matter what.

And buttons... picking buttons took like an hour! but they were perfect buttons for the project. Some Celtic style ones for the vests and some with crests on them for the jackets. A different crest for each jacket.

But finally I finished two jackets just in time. They were awesome and by the end I thought a nice fitted jacket for me would look cute... if someone else made it! So, here's some pictures of the final products. Some are of my bf's which is larger than the roomie's jacket.

bf showing his off with the roomie's in the back.

Showing off the jacket and vest.

Ready to drive to his parent's house to show off.

In the end I was pretty impressed with myself and very proud. Here's what the oldest sis had to say about the vests on my facebook page...

"I saw the suit jacket you made, you need to work on sewing closer to the edge of the pocket (tracing paper laid over the top so it doesn't get sucked up in your presser foot helps, then wet the paper and pull it off/out from the stitches). Also squarer corners on the collar, snip and use a large crochet needle or knitting needle to push it square.
Otherwise you did a good job."

I like how my sister gets her compliment skills from our mom... And although I did not know about the tracing paper part, I did do the corner trick but the corduroy is just thick enough it would not form perfect points.

Week 15: Fish Oil

Alright so we are just going to skip week 14... I am finally back on track and ready to get back in my good habits. Let me just say eating a giant cookie with ice cream and then pancakes with syrup while in Chicago has been letting me know how bad of an idea it was. My stomach has been so upset since I got back almost a week ago. Finally my tummy is starting to get back to normal.

This week I am adding a fish oil supplement to my vitamins. Hopefully this will help with the finger swelling and overall soreness after working a long shift. I have a few more posts I need to get done, but I also have a busy day today. So, instead it is off to work on my garden that will not be nearly as big as I thought since I will be gone half of the summer for sure to Hawaii to teach and then depending on the situation when I get back, I will be moving or staying till August. Either way I have to get out of my sister's house and out of this town.

Tonight is date/picnic night with the bf too so I gotta get my list done quickly.

Halfway through Spring Break!

Well, I am halfway through Spring Break. Everyone tells me that I do not get a spring break anymore since I am no longer a student but guess what... I went to school to be a teacher, I forever get spring breaks! And summer breaks, and holiday/winter breaks, and Thanksgiving Break. Currently I am substituting and the schools in town are out so I have a spring break. Yes, I still have two nights of work on the side but so.

The first Spring Break Trip to the bf's parent's house went well. We took the long route down there so we could stop and see his grandma in the hospital. She had some surgery last week and we wanted to at least say hi. She is doing well and came home before we had to head back to town. Tuesday was spent outside burning the web worm things out of his mom's fruit trees and then sitting around until after dinner when we decided to go for a ride in the woods. They have a little side by side 4-wheeler kind of thing and so the bf and I crawled in the back while his parents gave me a tour of some of their land, their creek, the old swimming hole where his mom used to swim as a kid, and a few other things we saw along the way. Since I started dating him last fall every trip to his parent's house was either rainy or too cold, or both, so it was nice to be able to get out and do something. I got some pretty pictures and hope to post one soon.

As far as my resolutions... I stuck to enjoying the small stuff! The processed sugar thing went out the window. I tried to limit the sweets, but I would feel rude to not eat all the amazing stuff she makes. Also, it is hard to go to someone's house and make them change what they cook just for me. I would cook and bring my own food, but that would really hurt her feelings probably. I did good until about dinner on Tuesday. She made a spaghetti salad which is mainly some sort of Italian dressing on cooked spaghetti noodles with veggies in it. Sounds weird, but it is good. But, to go with that, she had made some bar-b-que pork I think it was. Well, there was no getting a piece without sauce all over it. the sauce was sweet and honestly, I feel I have had better sauce but I think it only comes from the fact that it was so sweet. Then came dessert...

While there I also had frozen fruit salad from sometime when she last made fruit salad. Unless she added sugar I think I was ok on that. Once there was a tiny sliver of chocolate cake that sounded delicious... until I realized it was a store bought cake. They are never as good as they sound. Tuesday after our ride through the woods and helping get his grandma settled I had some ice cream. I ate cookies and cream ice cream. I figured if I was going to cheat I was going to get both ice cream and oreos! Then Wednesday we stopped in one of the towns on our way home and ate at an asian buffet for lunch with his parents. I figured that I had cheated over the visit, the sauce on my beef and broccoli was sweet for sure, my stomach was already upset and going to be that way, I might as well have a small bowl of ice cream with a small piece of cake. And I was right... my tummy is still upset somewhat from the sugar and such.

I did better there with taking out my contacts than I have been doing at home in the last week. Hopefully that will help me get back on track with that and I suck down water like a fish now!

Today's plan is to get laundry going and get most of the way packed for my trip to Chicago! I am driving to Springfield, Illinois tomorrow to meet up with my dad's cousin and then she is taking me the rest of the way to the city on Saturday. I have a job interview up there to possibly go back to Hawaii for the fall. Right now it is looking like I will get to go back to Hawaii for the month of June to teach so I will probably not take a job there in the fall if I am offered one. I do still want to keep my options open though. The cost of getting everything there again and then leaving the bf and my dog who I really miss and need to take care of just is making going over there for good look so bad. Plus, I would be a little less in debt if I do not try to move there with everything...

Week 13: Enjoy the little things

Alright, I will admit, this week's resolution is a little bit of a joke. I need a resolution and am running out of things that would actually be possible for this week. It is the whole "do not set yourself up for failure" kind of thing. This week is spring break and it is jam packed with stuff. Not really, but it feels that way. I worked Sunday after cleaning my room and doing laundry. Then, we had a game night with my sister and her bf. Today began with waking up and getting a few things accomplished then quickly packing clothes up for the first trip this week. My bf and I are going to see his grandma in the hospital and then going on to his parent's house for the next two nights. When I get back it will be straight to work for two nights and then off to Illinois where I will be continuing on to Chicago for the weekend!

But, on my way to my bf's apartment today I decided to ride my bike. My bike is a curious thing. Earlier in the fall my bf and I decided we wanted to go for a bike ride. Neither of us owning a bike began a search for bikes. Craigslist had some for more than we were looking for, so did the local online classifieds. Then, we heard about a thrift store in a near by town which typically have some bikes that just need some fixing. So we both found bikes there. He got a red mountain bike which needed new tires and some oil on the chain. Mine on the other hand is  a thing of beauty! It is a faded lime green Murrary 10 speed road bike with half the handle bars green and the other half yellow! It needed new tires, new brakes (complete with cables and handles) and some new gear cables. I decided a $10 bike was worth it.

Well, after spending $30 on new tires and tubes I used a free Amazon gift card that I got from MyPoints and bought a new set of brakes. They are "BMX" brakes, but I put them on anyway and put the handles up on top of the ram's horn kind of handle bars. I do not have new handle bar tape yet so the old brake handles are still on there for now too. Today I rode it for the first time! The bike stayed together and the brakes work! But, next I need to work on the new gear shift cables... I need more than the one gear it is stuck in now.

And, a quick soapbox moment... When exactly do we decide it is ok to feed our kids junk? Baby food is bought because it is few ingredients. Gerber did a whole campaign on tracking where the veggies come from in each jar. They make special baby snacks that are healthier and have less preservatives in them. Parents do not (or should not anyway) allow babies and toddlers to have soda, especially with caffeine. So, when do we decide it is ok to stop all the healthy eating and start feeding them pizza, McDonald's, candy, drink soda, drink coffee, etc? Not saying you let kids drink coffee, but when did you decide that much caffeine was ok for yourself?
This came about when I was babysitting on time and they have a toddler they feed the Gerber meals too because they are easy, quick, and balanced. I understand, it makes sense. But when does the change happen to when it is ok to just eat junk food and not cook or fix meals that are balanced for yourself and the rest of your family? When do you say "OK, enough healthy for you!"?

Alright, off to get more stuff done.

Today's Plans = foiled

Well, last night before I went to bed I was dead set on getting that garden into planting condition. I even thought about it before I fell asleep and decided to try to just work the ground myself and save the $50 on the tiller. Which, that decision is still to be determined... Well, last night it rained and the boyfriend thought I was a little crazy, but I live with crazy weather and sometimes it will dry up enough over night to not be a problem.

Not the case when it is raining all morning too. :( Does not look like I will be working in the garden today. Instead I think I will be trying to get better (I am in the draining from the head stage!) and planning/pricing my compost bin. I found ideal lumber last night and it is cheap! If I really get board I could work on it under the back deck. The back deck is covered so under it does not really get that wet. It is also a good thing that we mowed the back yard grass really quick yesterday. It was getting really tall and my sis was going to do it today.

Oh, and for those of you who own a home, this is a really cool idea! I think I will do it when I have a place I could actually set it up at. It is a self-watering garden setup using the water that drains from your AC unit inside. I rarely see our AC hose drain any water, it is hard to believe that it could put out so much that is just running down the drain! I bet you could even do it with container gardening and such. The hardest part might be finding the pump they use.

And that surprise I was making for the bf and his roomie... done in time for St. Pat's. Only, I did not get any pictures... fail.

Week 12...

So, I am going to break my New Year's Resolution a little bit. More like I am going to bend the rules. I am horribly sick and just not feeling up to doing anything. But, this week and next (Spring Break) is going to be spent focused on getting better and getting my garden ready.

I am taking over the garden at my sister's house and making it my own. Today I dug out the trees that began to grow. See, it needed taking over. Tomorrow's plan is to finish digging up the 1/3 of the edging and then go rent a tiller. Hopefully I will be able to get it tilled tomorrow and that will make me happy. This way when I get back from Chicago at the end of spring break I can work on planting some more plants. Originally I logged on here to check out my list of hopeful plants to go in my garden to see what else I need to get and when I should plant them. I am starting some inside and others are going to be planted from seed right outside. Cheap garden is the theme!

This week...

It is already Monday and I do not have a resolution for this week. :( I am also not sure what I am going to be able to do besides sleep... a lot.

I am officially sick. I have all the same symptoms and problems I get every time I fall behind on sleep. I think my vitamins were helping to hold it off as long as they could, but after a week of substituting, and 4 days of being up late due to others partying and then hanging out with friends, I have fallen ill. I figured out in my second year of college why I would get horribly sick with the same thing every so often. I would get hit with this every year in the winter and then typically again in the spring. Everyone thought this is how my body was reacting to whatever was going around at the time. The only problem is I realized a pattern to every time. First my ears bother me, then my throat hurts, then my sinuses fill completely, then they drain, then my chest is filled from the draining, then I hack it up and I am over it. Same thing every time. My mom took me in to the doctor a few times for it finally and they thought I had mono. After all, according to the Mayo Clinic's website, I have  7 out of 11 symptoms and if I ever got fevers in my life I would probably have 8. I would get a blood test done and they would come back with no signs of mono, just some virus that is passing through.

After being horribly sick a few times in college with the same thing I began to realize it came after having a lack of sleep. The sooner I forced myself to sleep a lot, the faster the sickness would pass. Then, I tried to just sleep and could actually hold it off all together. If I sleep my needed 8-9 hours a night on a regular basis I am just fine and really do not get anything that is being passed around even. But, a couple nights of less than 8-9 hours and I am sick with what I have now.

Let me just say this has been a source of a lot of frustration and sadness. What college kid cannot go out with friends every weekend because they get sick if they do? Who in college does not want to pull an all-nighter for something at some time but cannot because they know if they do, they will miss a few days of classes to sleep off the sickness that comes later. I always, and still now, have to be the party pooper who goes to bed instead of staying up with everyone. It frustrates me to no end! This is why I want to have the food sensitivity test done. I want to know if there is something I am eating that causes me to need this much sleep. Is there something I can do to be able to do 4 nights of 5 hours of sleep and not feel like my head is being crushed and my throat is peeling off?