Today I was released from my calling as Primary President.  Although I feel a great weight lifted off my shoulders, and I am excited to have a little more free time, I will really miss Primary.  I've been in Primary for the last 12 years.  It will be interesting to see what I get to do next.

I think I have forgotten how to sit still for more than a few minutes, so it will be interesting to sit through Sunday School and Relief Society!  I'm looking forward to it, though.

Melissa was a little sad.  I've been in a primary presidency since she was born.  She has never been to primary without me.  Neither has Megan, but she doesn't really understand that I won't be in Primary anymore.  I think she'll notice next week when I'm not there.

So, for all of my friends out there who are still in primary:  Enjoy the ride.  It's over too quickly!  (It sure doesn't seem quick when there's so much work to do, though!)

Which is more stressful:

A.  Planning and carrying out a primary program

B.  Hosting your first Thanksgiving dinner

C.  A root canal

The Primary Program is over! I can relax! I feel so free!

We fit 146 kids and 20 teachers on the stand and on risers in front of the stand. The kids were reverent--unbelievably reverent! (Okay--except the Sunbeams--but, they're three and four. They did their best!) They went up to the pulpit at the right times to say their parts. Only two kids were gone, and they found subs for their parts. They remembered the words to the songs and actually sang (well, most of them, anyway).  The meeting only went over five minutes--a miracle, since we didn't even get to start the program until 11:40. 

It was awesome.  I have never been involved in a program that went so well. 

We did have one mishap that was a first for me . . . A little boy sitting right at the front got too excited and bumped his chin on the edge of the wall that goes around the stand.  He bit his lip, and it started to bleed.  Poor kid.  He was in tears, but our good Bishop pulled him onto his lap, got him a kleenex, and comforted him until he felt better.  It was really sweet.

It's over!!!  Hooray!!!

Heidi's Myth #1:  I don't need to iron the fabric first.  I'll iron it when I'm done.

Fact:  If I don't iron my clothes, am I really going to iron a craft?  Nope.  Sure hope the fabric isn't too wrinkled to start with!

Heidi's Myth #2:  I'll let the kids help me with this project.  They'll love it.

Fact:  I'm too picky!  I always end up doing it myself.  I start out with good intentions, but I rarely end up letting the kids do much.  I'm such a bad mom that way.

Heidi's Myth #3:  It's important to estimate high when buying fabric.  I don't want to run out.

Fact:  I always buy about triple what I need.  My mind just isn't good at fabric math.

Now . . . on to my Halloween decor . . . home made.  (With Halloween a week away, it's about time I finished these projects!)

It seems that every home I've visited this October has been completely decked out for Fall or Halloween.  When I lived in an apartment, I felt like I had a lot of decorations, but now that I'm in a house, they look pretty wimpy.  I have this problem that I never buy things because I think I can make them myself.  So, this year, I've been looking for projects that will add a lot of color, are simple, and will take up a lot of space.  I haven't found a lot, but I did find these two cute ideas.

Studio 5, a Utah program, highlights blogs.  They had the creator of Tatortots and Jello on their show giving a tutorial for these cute pillows:  Click here for the blog tutorial, and here to see the live tutorial on Studio 5.

I didn't have time to make pillows, but I liked the pennant idea.  Here's my take on the project:  (Note my sad attempt at adding to the Fall decor with vases of leaves we picked up on a Fall hike.)








The pennants are made of canvas (duck cloth), and they are decorated with paint, buttons, ribbon, and ric rak--all attached with liquid stitch.  I did sew the ribbon across the top, but that could be done "no sew," too.  Immediately after cutting the canvas, I put an anti-fray liquid on the edges.  Voila--no sewing!

Grandma Nielson's leftover baby white ric rak saved my project.  I have a few of her old sewing things, and I love to find treasures--just when I need them!  This project was originally only orange, black, and yellow.  When I went to sew the ribbon across the top, I had to add some white quickly to make it blend. 

Um, and yes, I bought way too much fabric!  I will definitely need to make some more decorations for next year!

While looking at the pillow idea, I came across this idea at Tatertots and Jello, too.  I decided I could make it out of paper instead of fabric.



I think the paper turned out great, and it was really easy, but there is one drawback to paper.  The orange layer is three layers of cardstock thick.  Cardstock just doesn't bend like fabric.  It has a more stiff look, but I still like it.  I sewed the ribbon to the cardstock, but I think you could do the whole project "no sew" if you wanted.  If anyone wants to try this, let me know, and I'll send you my template for the pennants and the yellow and orange pieces.

Steve started hiking in Birch Hollow (with about 12 rappels), moved on to Orderville Slot Canyon, and finally hiked through the Narrows in Zion's National Park.










The hike took about 8 hours and covered 12 miles.  A great day!

(The Fall leaves pictures are in Orderville Canyon.)  Hike date was Saturday, October 9th.

Materials:  Around $130.

Labor:  Free
Spending the day with my husband and getting the garage organized at the same time:  PRICELESS!!!





Thanks, Honey.  You did an awesome job!

(I wish I had a before picture.  Just trust me--It was a big mess!)

Have you ever noticed how often children teach us little "life lessons?"  It seems that my kids are always teaching me important little things. 

For example, last night, I learned that it is not very smart to leave Lacie and Megan alone to finish their soup while I run upstairs to print something for a meeting.  When I came back downstairs, Lacie was dripping in soup up to her elbows.  (She had poured her water in the bowl, and was "washing" her arms.)

Thanks, Lacie.  Now I know, and I won't make that mistake again.

And later that night, Megan taught me that I should never leave my earrings in the girls' bathroom.  I found one earring in her bed, and she confessed that the other fell in the toilet--and she flushed it (presumably to destroy the evidence).

Thanks, Megan.  I'll be more careful next time.
  

As Megan got into bed this evening, she said, "Mommy, will you take care of these bananas in my bed, please?"

What?  "Why are there bananas in your bed?" I asked.

"Oh, because I was juggling in bed."

Juggling.  Of course.  That makes perfect sense.  (That does explain the banana I found on the floor behind her headboard.)


I wondered where all of the bananas went.

Apparently, we are raising a future circus performer.

Here's Melissa during one of the few peaceful moments when she was sleeping instead of moaning in pain.

We still don't know what caused her to have classic symptoms of appendicitis.  (The doctor was as surprised as we were when her tests came back negative.)  We're just glad that after a long and painful 24-hours, she's finally feeling better.

We went to the ER this morning about 4:30, and didn't leave until around 2!  When we left, we had no diagnosis and Melissa was still in terrible pain.  She's pretty resilient, though.  8 hours later, and she's all perked up and looking like herself again.

Just a couple memories from today:

If you've ever had to drink contrast for a CAT scan or GI test, you can probably relate to this.  After drinking one sip shy of her fifth cup of contrast (you drink one cup every fifteen minutes until you have finished five cups), Melissa threw it all up.  Fortunately, they didn't make her start over, and she managed to keep enough in her system to take the test.

We had to promise Melissa we'd take her to Claire's to get some earrings in order to get her to drink the disgusting contrast drink.  We could tell when her pain medication was working, because she would ask if we could go to Claire's on the way home from the hospital.  In fact, even when she was moaning in pain all the way home, she was still sad that she couldn't go to Claire's.  I could just see her being pushed through the mall in Lacie's stroller, wearing nothing but a hospital gown.  (She had to wear one home because her clothes didn't survive the contrast incident.)

She had to go back for another blood test this evening, and returned home grinning--clutching a shopping bag.  She got to go to Claire's after all--in her pajamas.  I think after the day (and night) she had--she deserved it!

We're glad she's feeling better.

Tonight, while we were reading the scriptures as a family, it was Megan's turn to "read" first.  She can't read yet, so she just repeats what Steve or I read.  While Steve was trying to find his place, she impatiently said, "And it came to pass . . ."  Steve laughed and read the first line of the verse, which began, "And it came to pass."

Megan rarely seems to be listening to anything.  At least now I know that she has been paying enough attention to realize that 70% of the verses in the scriptures begin with those famous lines.

Maybe there's hope that she's listening to everything else we say, too.


(This picture was not staged by me.  She actually chose to pose that way!  I'm afraid I've seen her looking like that way too often lately.)

When Lacie walks out of a room with her hands like this, it's time to worry.

Questions that immediately come to mind:  "What's she eating?" or "What has she smeared all over her face?"

Luckily, this time, she was only trying to hide the fact that she'd been playing in my closet.  Good thing she covered her mouth.  She distracted me from the shoes . . . for about 2.3 seconds.

I have reasons for my strict rules about nail polish.  Perhaps some of you might remember this Flashback Friday post? 

Last night, the girls all wanted their nails painted, but we ran out of time.  I told them if they hurried and got ready for school (including doing their morning jobs), I would paint their nails if their was extra time.  They worked hard and earned the right to polish.

Here's where I did something stupid.  I broke my rules.  Instead of sitting on floor in the bathroom and painting their nails while they sat on a stool--with all nail polish bottles on the floor (that's the important part), we went into the kitchen.  The girls sat in a chair while I painted--with the nail polish bottles on the table--high above my hard stone tile floor.

You can guess where this is going, right?

Of course, Lacie had to look at the bottles while her sisters were getting painted.  Of course, she dropped the darkest color, and it shattered all over the kitchen floor--splashing deep brownish purple all over the tile, grout, two kitchen chairs, and her own legs.

So, now it's ten minutes before school starts.  Do I save the floor and make the girls late for school, or hurry and take the girls to school?  Of course----I save the floor!  Thank goodness for an almost completely full bottle of non-acetone nail polish remover.  As I hurried to clean up, I knocked it over and dumped most of it over the kitchen table!  Ahhhhh!  Anyone else become extremely clumsy when they are in a hurry?

The girls made it to school.  Megan got there with a minute to spare.  Melissa rode her bike.  I think she was probably a few minutes late.

Fortunately, besides some pink-tinted grout, here's all that remains of the nail polish:


Lesson learned.  Don't break your own rules!!!

Below is my previous solution for dress-up clothes.  In theory, the girls could clean up very quickly by dumping all the dress-up clothes inside.  Easy.  (All you moms are shaking your heads because you can see the problem already, right?)


In order to find what they want, they have to dump the whole thing on the floor.  Sure, they'll throw everything in the bucket when I tell them to (well, Lacie is another story . . . ), but the clothes are all over the place all day.  I tried putting it in the playroom.  I tried putting it in Melissa's closet.  I tried putting it in Megan and Lacie's room.  Same problem.  Same mess.

My idea for a better solution was to hang a bar in the corner for hanging clothes.  I even had a two-dollar towel bar bent  into a half circle at Lowes to hang in the corner.  I really didn't like the idea of putting something permanent on the wall, though.  (I'm glad I didn't do it.  It would never have held enough clothes.)

By accident, I found a rolling clothes cart at Walmart for a good deal.  It was just what I needed!  I left off the wheels, and lowered the hanging bar as far as possible.  The result:  PERFECT!!!


. . . but, I had no place to put all the extra junk that goes along with dress-up clothes.  Here's what I made today:


It was so easy!  I used a hanger from a baby gift (that has been hanging--literally--around in the girls' closet for years).  All I did was add a new bow and sew on one-yard lengths of ribbon.  I glued ribbon on clothes pins and glued and stitched them to the ribbon.  Easy, peasy.  (This was my project while I watched General Conference today.)

Here's a close-up shot.

I think I will add a velcro picture hanger to the back of the hanger so that it will hang straight--even with all the stuff clipped to it.

So, here's the final dress-up corner in the playroom.  I love it!


The ribbon hanger would also work for organizing girls' clip-on hair bows.  Just leave off the clothes pins and let your girls clip on their accessories!

*10/3/10  This morning, I went into the playroom to look for something, and found that metal holding the ribbons had come apart from the hanger.  I was able to fix it, but if you want to do this project, make sure you choose a strong hanger.