The lowest grade I ever got in my entire life wasn't in Physical Science or American Heritage, but rather in a Sewing 101 class at BYU. I had signed up for the class thinking it was going to be an easy "A", but instead it ended up being a GPA killing "C-" that I had to work my tail off for.
Lest you think I had a cruel teacher that was on a mission to make sure that there were no free "A"s coming from her class, I am ashamed to admit that every single one of my friends who took the class with me got the easy "A" they were looking for. My crooked seamed outfit proved to be a GPA killer and the maker of a domestic dud named Lara. I happen to know for a fact that the reason why I'm such a poor interior decorator today stems directly from my crushed confidence post-Sewing 101.
Fast forward five years from that disastrous foray into domesticity when I'd just given birth to Cami Rose. My second child. My first baby girl.
Something about the introduction of pink and frills into our home gave me the inexplicable urge to try my hand at sewing once again. Not surprisingly my stitching skills hadn't improved much in the ensuing years and it took me weeks and weeks of sewing, seam ripping, and sewing some more before I finished my first project. The buttons were uneven and the hem puckered, but how Cami (and later Emma and Ellie) loved having a dress that matched with her baby.
Over the years I've bumbled my way through a few more projects, mostly having to do with dresses with matching doll clothes...
But now it's been a few years since I've sewn at all and my younger kids don't even remember what my sewing machine looked like.
So imagine my surprise on Sunday morning when Emma, my 9-year-old daughter, randomly decided she was going to make a new dress for Ellie to wear to church that afternoon.
She set down a dress onto a folded piece of fabric, traced around it with a marker, and started cutting...
Then got a needle and thread and started stitching...
After about an hour of meticulous stitching the dress was complete....
And ready for Ellie (with the lovely fake smile) to wear to church...
Ellie was thrilled with her one-of-a-kind marker stained, raw edged fashion statement and loved telling everyone how her big sister had made it for her....
Now if I could just figure out how to get some of that developing domesticity to rub off on me.
Ever since Cami hopped on an airplane last week to spend time with the more domestic side of the Crain family (see picture below), our house has been quiet and lonely.
Now instead of listening to shrieks of delight that she passed all three of her AP exams with flying colors (AP calculus--5, AP lang--4, AP world geo--5), I get to listen to Mr. T saying, "I pity da fool..." while Glen wallows in cupcakeless misery and tries to relive his childhood by watching A-Team episodes...
And poor Ellie is so lonely without Cami around that she got a fever. It's about the fourteenth one she's had in the last couple of months (no exaggeration), but she got yet another blood test today, so at least we know it's not serious.
When I homeschooled Spence in 8th grade, my parents invited him to go on a trip to British Columbia with them. It ended up being a great trip and he loved having the opportunity to go somewhere that he likely would not have been able to go if he had been in school that year. We liked the idea of it, so when Cami got to 8th grade two years later, Glen took her on a trip to Denver.
Now we had two official 8th grade traditions--homeschooling and a special trip.
We had a few years after Cami before Emma's 8th grade year rolled around, so there was plenty of time to concoct something big and exciting for her trip. My sister, Heather, is an attorney who loves to travel, so we put her on the task of trip planning. She got excited about Emma potentially accompanying her on one of her trips and thus began Emma's exciting 8th grade trip plans!
Emma and Heather discussed at length different options for their trip, but in the end the super cheap plane tickets to TURKEY made that their winning destination. And less than two full weeks after returning from New Zealand, Emma hopped on an 11-hour flight to Istanbul!
They just returned from their trip after enjoying an exciting 10-days there and although there won't be quite as much commentary as there normally is here on the blog, since I wasn't there, but here are some pictures from their amazing journey.
Since we were a little nervous about the two of them traveling in Turkey by themselves, we convinced our brother Tim to go along and be the intimidating male presence!
Istanbul
ISTANBUL
The first stop on their journey was Istanbul where they saw amazing sites like the stunning Blue Mosque...
Blue Mosque
Blue Mosque
Blue Mosque
Here's the famous Ayasofya...
Ayasofya
And yet another shot of the Blue Mosque!
Blue Mosque, Istanbul
The spice market for a chef like Emma was a colorful and exciting place to visit….
Spice Market, Istanbul
Getting a treat wasn't as easy as she expected...
Ephesus
Next they took an domestic flight (which are super, super cheap) to Izmir so they could visit Ephesus…
Ephesus
Ephesus is an ancient city that over the centuries has been ruled over by the Greek, Persian, Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman empires. The temple to the goddess Artemis, four times larger than the Parthenon, is considered one of the "seven wonders of the ancient world."
The ruins were spectacular, the carvings intricate, and they were amazed at the artisanship of the ancient people who had built this great city.
AFter Ephesus, they drove to Priene, which was also a cool ancient city full of ruins…
Priene
but Priene is a little more off the beaten path and didn't get the Mediterranean cruise tour group traffic that Ephesus did...
Priene
They loved how much less crowded it was there and enjoyed exploring the beautiful ruins.
Priene
Next they drove to Pamukkale where they saw the stunning, world famous travertine hot spring terraces...
The terraces are naturally created by the calcium deposits in the hot springs and can only found a few places in the entire world.
Travertine Terraces, Pamukkale
Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone is an American example of it, but these terraces in Turkey are absolutely one-of-a-kind in the world because of their pure white color.
At the top of the travertine terraces is an ancient city called Hierapolis. In Hierapolis they swam in Cleopatra's Pool...
Cleopatra's Pool, Pamukkale, Turkey
According to legend, Cleopatra's Pool was crafted by Marc Anthony and then presented to Cleopatra as a gift. However sometime in the 7th century an earthquake toppled nearby columns into it, creating a unique blend of what are considered "healing waters" of the natural hot springs and ancient ruins all melded into a really cool one-of-a-kind place to swim all year round!
Cleopatra's Pool, Pamukkale, Turkey
Next they drove to Aphrodisias to see some more cool ruins...
Aphrodisias
Aphrodisias
Then they ended up on the shores of the Aegean Sea in Bodrum. Bodrum is a beautiful seaside town with narrow steep roads that made driving a harrowing experience.
Bodrum Castle
They didn't get to spend a whole lot of time in Bodrum before taking off to their next destination, but they all raved about the beauty of the area and the clear blue waters of the Aegean Sea!
Aegean Sea on the Bodrum Peninsula
Next they flew to Cappadocia where they stayed in a hotel cave. Because of the naturally soft rock (called tuff) that formed from ancient volcanic eruptions, people have been crafting their homes out of rock for thousands of years.
Cappadocia Region (Goreme Open Air Museum)
At sunrise they took a little hot air balloon ride….
Hot air balloon over Cappadocia
…you know….just for the purpose of seeing the most gorgeous views in the universe!
They were a tad cold after their little jaunt in the stratosphere (or maybe it was the troposphere)….
After hot air balloon ride, Cappadocia Region
After that they stayed a little more down to earth and went for a little camel ride...
Cappadocia Region (Goreme Open Air Museum)
and visited some other beautiful places in the area….
Valley of the Pigeons?? (Cappadocia Region)
…by horse drawn carriage!
Cappadocia Region
Ihlara Valley (Cappadocia Region)
The last thing they did in Cappadocia was visit the underground city, Derinkuyu, which, in a City of Ember-ish sort of way, was carved in the aforementioned soft rock to be a place of refuge for the people in Cappadocia during times of war and danger.
Underground City (Derinkuyu, Cappadocia Region)
Emma had a fantastic time on her 8th grade trip and will never look at the world through the same eyes again! It was years of education all rolled into a week-and-a-half.
Cappadocia
The only problem with the trip was that it sets a pretty high bar for Adam who is already mulling over ideas for his 8th grade trip in a couple of years. His top choice right now? Antarctica!
Thank you to all who participated in yesterday's super hard quiz! It was fun to do a little old-fashioned blogging again, especially when that meant hearing from a few more of you readers than usual. I was impressed with all of your good guesses and I felt so cool when I saw the number of comments it got! Never mind that a third of them were from the same person...I'm just going with the cool feeling.
SUPER HARD QUIZ ANSWERS:
1. Cami was nominated as lacrosse Athlete of the Week last week. True story. She is following in her older brother's footsteps and playing JV lacrosse for her high school. Although she's never played before this year, she is proving to be pretty adept at it, usually scoring a goal or two or three each game.
2. Spencer was caught in the middle of an almost-melee when he was sitting
between two people who started screaming and cursing at each other in
the middle of watching "The Lucky One" at the movie theater. I know it sounds far-fetched, but this one is 100% true. Spencer went to "The Lucky One" with a friend of the feminine persuasion, but since neither one of them drive yet, Glen and I decided to go along with them. We sat on the other end of the theater giving them their space and witnessed as a very large man seated next to Spencer started loudly arguing with a sketchy looking guy sitting behind them. It was a loud, tense, profanity-laced argument that seemed heading towards physicality, but thankfully the very-loud-arguers backed off before any fists were thrown. I should note that Glen was poised and ready to make a mad-dash to rescue Spence and his friend should a fight have ensued.
3. Grandma Sandy is in process of teaching Emma how to knit. YES! Although technically I can crochet, sew, and cross-stitch, I can not knit, nor am I very good at crocheting, sewing, or cross-stitching. Thank goodness for Grandma Sandy (Glen's mom) to come help bestow some domestic skills on my girls!
4. Glen and I went for a much needed six-mile run. It felt awesome. FALSE! Although we did go out for a six-mile-run (something that would have been a piece of cake a few months ago)....this time it did NOT feel great. I was slow. I had to walk a lot. And I was still sore afterward. Good job to ALEX and KRISTINA who guessed correctly! ALEX is a fellow runner and a great friend who correctly suspected that I haven't been running very much lately. When she's not acing my quizzes, I feel it's also worth mentioning that ALEX is also a superb cook and a super-organized mom that inspires me to be a better mom in many ways. KRISTINA is my sister, who although she lives on the opposite end of the country, still keeps in nearly daily contact. Just so you know, in addition to being a good super hard quiz guesser, KRISTINA is also the absolute queen of birthday cards. She's single-handedly arranged for nearly half of the 100+ birthday cards Spencer has received thus far. My brother MATT probably thinks I should mention him as well, but since he cheated by guessing multiple times under different aliases, I'm only mentioning him as a super hard quiz cheater who made my day by jacking up the numbers of comments on that post!
5. I actually beat Glen and his mom in an uber-competitive game of Scrabble. TRUE, TRUE, TRUE and it's definitely not because I got lucky, it's because I rock at playing Scrabble (and maybe got a little lucky)!
6. Ellie randomly decided to make a ginormous "I Love You" banner for her 1st grade teacher. True and I can only imagine that it made her teacher's day.
7. Emma and Cami were on a 9-mile hike with the young women from church
when a storm blew in, so they spent the last 3 miles running through the
pouring, blustery rain. This one was also a little hard to believe, but 100% true. The young women are training for a 22-mile walk to the temple in June, so they go on weekly group training walks. This week's walk was twice around a lake, which meant that there were no shortcuts to get back to the cars when the storm blew in quickly. Although some of the girls were a little freaked out, thankfully other than getting soaked everyone got back home safe and sound. A few of you noted that Emma is only 11 and not officially a YW yet, but because their young women leaders decided to include any girls who would be 12 this year, she is also able to participate. Emma is thrilled with the opportunity to hang out with the older girls on such a challenging adventure!
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UPDATE:
Spencer went to the clinic this morning. All his counts were low, but recovering nicely ( ANC was 580, platelets 115, and hemoglobin 10.5). This means his immune system is still suppressed and needs to stay away from sick people, but that he's high enough to eat fast food again. :)
Everything is on target for him to be readmitted for his bone marrow biopsy, spinal tap, and 4th (and last) round of chemo on May 1st.
We're getting in a good system with administering all of his medications, but man oh man am I tired!!!!
Watch tomorrow for an update on Spencer's birthday cards, including the coolest card ever and a breakdown of which states have sent the most cards.
The picture in today's post has nothing whatsoever to do with the written content. It is included merely because I am a visual person and I don't want perfectly good pictures to go to waste. :)
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"Sadness,
disappointment, and severe challenge are events in life, not life
itself. . . . Be a cork. When submerged in a problem, fight to be free
to bob up to serve again with happiness."Richard G. Scott
(I can't remember who sent me this quote, but thank you to whomever it was.)
Welcome to our family blog where you can find the latest on our family and read all about Spencer's battle with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (subtype M5). He was diagnosed in January 2012 and has been in remission about 13 years now. Every day he is in remission is a gift to us.
In amongst the leukemia updates you'll find a random conglomeration of humorous, boring, goofy, and inspiring tales (with photos of course) from the adventure of our life with five kids. An adventure that we're taking ...a day at a time.
Posts About Our Son's Experience with Cancer (AML)
