Milestones.

Milestone #1
I am now 35.

I could mull over all that means in the bigger picture of my life, but I think I'll report on my cool haul instead. Thanks guys for making me feel pretty special. And yes! there was a carrot cake.

This is how my friend Lisa decided I should be honored with a gift.

I wore this shirt to the 4th of July parade in Friendswood, Texas. (Hey, the shirt was red. That was my way of being festive.) The parade included said town's high school marching band (actually marching and playing in the heat), the cheerleaders cheering and jumping and whatnot, the drill team "marched" on their hands for a walking handstand (!!!) and then came the football team lumped onto the back of a trailer towed behind a pickup truck... so inspiring. But I digress.

Lisa also bought me a really cheap camera. And I mean that in the nicest way. She recently got a fancy LOMO with a fisheye lens and named it Milla. How lovely. I'm calling mine the 4square camera. It looks like total fun. I'll report on its outcome after a run to Target for processing.

My beloved sister-in-law gave me a cookbook that NONE of you will want to be served a dish from. It's called from Snout to Tail. It makes for good reading though. It wasn't so long ago that we were vegetarian...

Sinda also offered a fabulous book for inspiration. Right up my alley. As was the beautiful stationary - that I should really put to good use for some thank you notes, don't ya'll think?

My mother gave me things for gardening. Unfortunately, all of her gardening knowledge did not pass down to me by osmosis. All I know is that I like the plants that look purty. Now I'm learning how to keep them alive when I plant more.

S, after much prodding and hint dropping, produced an alarm clock. Previous clocks either died, weren't viewable in the middle of the night or were somehow inexplicably put away in a drawer by N. So. My fancy clock will tell me the time, the weather, the day of the week, the date, the temperature inside, and the temperature outside. it will also wake me up, illuminate its info with a pleasing blue light AND AND AND it will display the time and temperature on any surface in the room! The first night we had the display pointed up on the ceiling right over the bed, but it was a little big brother up there, blinking at us, expectantly. We would wake up and peek if it was still on. J, by the way, can take the batteries out of the clock faster than you can say "What are you... oh! wait! stop. oh. not again."
It's spanky. Although also a little disconcerting that I know that it is still 90.2 degrees outside at 10:oo.

S also surprised me with camp chairs. Last year it was the grill, this year the chairs. My guess is that next year, I'm gettin' me a cooler. Or a new tent. Or a kayak. :-) Thanks honey.


Milestone #2
J can now walk.

He took a few baby steps (ha ha, how often do you get to say that and mean it?) on Father's day. During our stay in Houston, he humored us with his new favorite party trick: take a step. take another step. pause, then WHOMP! fall face down, belly-flop style onto the dog's bed. then roll over giggling hysterically. repeat.

On the 4th of July, he walked across my parent's living room like he'd been doing it for months. Like 10 steps! Now he's clumping around the house at home - chimp-style with his arms up in the air.

Milestone #3
I'm learning something new.

At the gentle prodding of friends, I've signed up for a sewing class with a lovely lady. She teaches 4 of us in a well-appointed studio behind her house. It is full of wonderful treasures for the eyes - things she makes, things she collects and all of the goodies to put together the things she makes. Maybe it was the well-organized bins calling out their exciting contents (silk ribbon, vintage buttons, unfinished flowers, embrodery thread...) that brought a glimmer to my eye. Last Saturday I schlepped my 2 sewing machines to class. (it should surprise no one that the family that has like 17 cameras, 5 bins of yarn, multiple copies of Risk & Perquacky should also have TWO sewing machines.) She helped me decide which one I should learn on and which one I should let go of. Sadly she was guiding me towards keeping both.

About an hour and a half into the class, I'm getting a little antsy, nervous, looking at the time. I realize that this is the first time in how long? I've had 3.5 hours to focus on ONE THING. UNinterrupted. It was a strange feeling. And then I relaxed and had a really good time finishing up my square-bottomed drawstring bag. Next week a pillow and then last class, I'm making me a skirt! whoo-hoo!